Leadership Crumbs

Just grab our bibles, and to grab our bibles and

turn to Exodus chapter eighteen. Exodus eighteen. If you don't

have a Bible with you, just raise your hand. We're

passing those out right now. If you need a bulletin,

just raise your hand or a pen or anything like that.

Just catch the eye of one of our ushers and

keep your hands up and we'll find you and we'll

get you what you need. Might take a second, but

we'll find you. In turn to Exodus chapter eighteen. This

is a good time for me to remind you also

to please fill out a connection card. You can scan

the QR code on the bulletin or on the seatback,

and we just ask that everybody fill out a connection card.

That's not just for guests, although if you are a guest,

we'd love to have your contact information. We'll follow up

with you, love to connect with you, but also for

members too. It's an important pastoral tool that we know

that you are here by name. That's very very important

for our shepherding. And you can leave a prayer request.

We have a whole team of men and women who

who will be praying with you and for you through

the week. For those prayer requests. Exodus chapter eighteen. It's

a lot to it. So I'm gonta preach fast. You

listen fast, and then we're going to have the Lord's

Supper at the conclusion of our service this morning. So

Exodus eighteen. Exodus is written.

Early on.

In the life of the people of God to help

them understand themselves, and especially to understand God and his work.

His work and his word is foundational. Exodus is foundational

to the people of God understanding how God works. And

I think it's actually foundational for us in ways that

we often lose sight of, and in this particular pathsage,

I think is something that we need.

To come to.

I know I do over and over again and be

reminded about how God works among his people. And so

I'm going to read this passage for us, this whole

chapter I'm going to dive in. So Exodus eighteen, if everybody's.

There, I will read aloud. You can read along.

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's father in law, heard.

Of all that God had.

Done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the

Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro Moses's

father in law had taken Zipporah, Moses's wife, after he

had sent her home along with her two sons. The

name of one was Gersham, for he had said, I

have been a sojourner in a foreign land. And the

name of the other Eliezer, for he said, the God

of my father was my help and delivered me from

the sort of Pharaoh. Jethro, Moses's father in law, came

with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness.

Where he was encamped at the Mountain of God.

And he said, and when he sent word to Moses saying, I,

your father in law, Jethro am coming to you with

your wife and her two sons with her. And Moses

went out to meet his father in law and bowed

down and kissed him, and they asked each other of

their welfare, and went into the tent. And then Moses

told his father in law all the Lord had done

to Pharaoh unto the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the

hardships that had come upon them in the way, and

how the Lord had delivered them. Jethro rejoiced for all

the good that the Lord had done to Israel in

that he had delivered them out of the hand of

the Egyptians. And Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who

has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,

out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the

people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I

know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because

in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro,

Moses's father in law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices

to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of

Israel to eat bread with Moses's father in law before God.

The next day, h Moses sat to judge the people,

and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.

When Moses' father in law saw all that he was

doing for the people, he said, what is this that

you are doing for the people? Why do you sit

alone and all the people stand.

Around you from morning until evening?

And Moses said to his father in law, because the

people come to me to inquire of God. And when

they have a dispute, they come to me, and I

decide between one person and another. I make them know

the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father in

law said to him, what you're doing is not good.

You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out,

for the thing is too heavy for you. You're not

able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. I

will give you advice, and God be with you. You

shall represent the people before God and bring their cases

to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes

and the laws, make them know the way in which

they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look

for able men from all the people, men who fear God,

who are trustworthy and hate a bribe. And place such

men over the chief over the people, as chiefs of thousands,

of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them

judge the people at all times. Every great matter they

shall bring to you, but in any small matter they

shall decide themselves, so it will be easier.

For you, and they will bear the burden with you.

And if you do this, God will direct you, and

you will be able to endure, and all this people

will go to their place in peace. So Moses listened

to the voice of his father in law and did

all that he had said, Moses chose able men out

of all Israel, and made them heads over people, chiefs

of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties of tens, and they

judge the people at all times. Any heard case they

brought to Moses, any small matter, they decided themselves. And

then Moses let his father in law depart, and he

went away to his own country.

This is the word of the Lord.

I had a friend, as a conversation I probably had

fifteen years ago. This friend of mine was doing really

good stuff. He was doing good things, and who's working

hard at these good things. But in the midst of

it all, as much as he was accomplishing and the

good that he was doing, he was very discouraged. He

was pretty beaten down. Actually, when I talked to him,

and he said, Josh, it's like this, we had this.

It's like.

I'm in this group of people and I'm the only

one who knows how to bake a cake, and the

people keep coming, and I can only bake cake as

fast as I can bake cake, and there's more of

them than there are of me, and there's more of

them every.

Day, and I can't keep up.

And what I'm left with is crumbs, and that's all

they get. I feel like the only thing they're getting

from me.

Is crumbs.

Good guy, good guy as you could ever meet, doing

the best kind of things they ever feel like my

friend as a leader, maybe as a maybe as a

small group leader, if you lead a small group, or

or in any kind of ministry or any kind of

leadership at all, as a person who just is looking

to do good for people and disciple people and mentor

people and lead and care for just caring for people

real quick, it can feel like you're left with crumbs.

All they get is crumbs. Or maybe you know.

What it's like on the other side, and you're like,

I'm looking for some help. I'm looking for some even guidance,

and I feel like all I can get is crumbs.

Maybe you're here this morning and you're not even a

Christian and saying, I are you know the kind of

thing you're talking about.

Even though I'm not a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm.

Already picking up this dynamic and I know what this is,

I know what this feels like. If that's you, I

would just say, if you'll listen, I think you might

pick off on some of the extraordinary ways, extraordinary ways

that God helps, but also some of the ordinary ways

that God helps even in just this kind of situation.

Because this story is about leadership crumbs, and it does

not start, it does not start with a discouraged person.

And actually, we could say this story is kind of

like four scenes. I think this story kind of breaks

down pretty nicely into four scenes scenes and it starts

see one full of blessing, and we could even say impressing.

We'll call scene one blessing and impressing. Here's what I mean.

Here's how the camera opens. Jethro, Moses's father in law.

The scripture says, like over and over again, kind of

hammering away at that. Jethro, Moses's father in law, is

hearing things, right, That's what verse says. Verse one says,

Jethro is hearing how God is providing and helping Moses.

Now, Jethro is the priest of Midian.

We don't know a lot about what that means, but

I think it's safe to say that then Jethro is.

A spiritual guy.

He's a religious guy, and he is probably not a

believer in the Living God, the God of Israel.

But he's hearing things.

And so Jethro shows up with Moses's wife and sons.

He's been, he's had them for safe keeping for a

little while, and now he's bringing them to Moses. And

he shows up, and you can just see through in

verses two through six, like even Moses's kids are named

in such a way as to say, God has been

helping me through my hardships. His first his first kid's name.

Is wandering right hardship, and.

His second kid's name is God helps. Already, you see

the pattern hardship help. And I'm sure there's a sweet

reunion with Moses and his wife and his kids. But

the camera stays on Jethro, right, That's how scripture has

it tracking Jethro. Why maybe it's because we're about to

see how this priest of Midian responds to the true

God and the way God helps. Or maybe it's because

we're about to see how Jethro becomes an instrument in

God's hand for help. But the scripture has the camera

tracking Jethro. Jethro and Moses meet up, and they start

to catch up, says in verse seven. They ask about

each other's welfare. Hey, Moses, been a while, I know Jethro,

we should talk.

They go into the tent and he tells Jethro.

Verse eight says, all the Lord has done all the hardships,

and how the.

Lord helped them. Hardship help, hardship help.

Man.

We were stuck in Egypt, but God helped through planks.

Man. We were up against the Red Sea and God helped.

He split the sea.

Man. We were hungry and God helped. He sent manna.

Then we were thirsty and God helped. He sent water

from a rock. I can't help it. You know that

this reminds me of this church. I mean, naturally, if

you've been around for a while. Hardship God helps. We're

setting up and tearing down in an elementary school. God helps,

and he gets us to a place. Covid hits, Gold's

gym stops gimming. We get to move in one thing

after the next thing. You had just been a little

here a little while. You've seen how God had responded

to every hardship. But not only that, it reminds me

of how God has responded to us in the hardship

of sin and lostness.

We like sheep, have gone astray.

We were dead in our trespasses and Yet God laid

on Christ the iniquity of us all, and saved us,

and forgave us and gave us to him himself as

a people hardship help.

Jet throw.

Hears all of this, and he puts his confidence in

the True and Living God.

You see it. Verse nine, he's rejoicing with Moses.

Man, God, God does stuff.

Verse ten, blessed be the Lord.

He finally uses the covenant name of God, and in

verse eleven he says, I know now, I know, yahweh,

the God you worship is greater than all gods. He

just responds to the testimony of Moses as God as

Moses just lays out like God did this, and he

helped this way, and he helped this way, and he

helped this way.

Listen.

I preach a lot of sermons, and I know God

uses them, But what I have seen God use over

and over and over as well is just all y'all's testimonies.

When you open up your mouth and tell of what

God has done, he helped this way and this way

and this way and this way.

God uses that. I watch that.

When I open up my mouth. Let me just challenge you.

There are some people here who are not Christians. There

are some people here who are, and I just want

to challenge you to find.

Each other and metaphorically go back to the tent, right,

just take them to your house.

You want to hear what God has done and open

up your mouth and testify.

To what God has done.

God uses that over and over and over again, just

like he does here with Jethro. And Jethro is listening

and he goes, if God has done that, I'm gonna

trust him, and he offers up Verse twelve, says burnt

offerings and sacrifices. He goes to worship the Lord, and

then Jethro hangs out with Moses and Moses's brother Aaron

and all the elders of Israel for.

The rest of the night. They have a hangout.

And there is nothing like hanging out with old people,

like good old guys who know how to tell stories,

which I am sure Jethro did. This is a hangout.

It is a scene of blessing. It's a scene of impressing.

This is a good feeling when you are celebrating God's

blessings and help, when you are seeing people trust Him

based on the testimony that you have shared. When you

are impressing your father in law.

It's a good day when.

He's genuinely impressed, not just saying something nice like oh

that's real nice, like when he's like, let's hang out.

It's a good day. It's a good night.

You know what's coming the next morning. And it's not good.

That's our next scene.

Could if you call scene one blessing and impressing, you

call scene two not good. It is not good when

your father in law goes from genuinely impressed to markedly

and vocally unimpressed. Because verse thirteen says the next day,

bleary eyed Moses is up early, doing his leadership.

Thing all day long.

Verse fourteen, his father in law sees him, and he says.

Why are you doing all this?

And Moses seems to mishear the question because he answers

this way fifteen and sixteen. Moses says to his father

in law, because when the people come to me to

inquire of God, when they have a dispute, they come

to me, and I decide between one person and another.

There's a lot of counseling and dispute resolution here. Right.

I make them know the statutes of God. There's a

lot of teaching.

And his laws.

Right, I'm praying, I'm interceding, I'm shepherding, I'm teaching. God

wants his people cared for. And this is good, Jethrow.

And Jethrow says Moses, this is not. You seem to

be answering the question why are you doing all this?

I'm asking the question why are you doing all this?

What you are doing verse seventeen, what you are doing

is not good.

And in eighteen.

He says this, you and the people with you will

certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy

for you.

You are not.

Able to do it alone. There's no coordination of the care.

There are no levels to the leadership, there are no

spans to the supervision. And there is no sharing of

the shepherding. You think you're doing good, but you're not.

What you're doing is not good. And Moses, there are

two parts to how this goes. Number one is this,

you will crumble verse eighteen. You'll wear yourself out. I'm

seeing it already. You're up early, even after our hangout,

which was great, it was awesome. We should have done that.

Your brother is hilarious. I'm glad we hung out. And

now you're up early and you're up late. God's blessed you,

but he hasn't blessed you with more than twenty four

hours in a day or seven days.

In a week. Moses. I don't.

Even if you had more time, even if you're like

a super black belt, getting things done, got you to

do lists and your projects and all that all ironed out,

keeping track and doing weekly reviews. I've seen the line

of people. It will never end. There will always be

more needs to pray for, more counsel to give, more

troubles to shepherd, more doctrine to teach. It's too heavy

now and it's only going to get heavier. It's not good.

You will crumble.

But not only that.

Here's the second part to how this goes, Moses. Everyone

just gets crumbs. These people, the people you care about,

everyone will just get crumbs.

They're standing in line. Their needs are real.

They need more intercession, they need more counsel, they need

more shepherding, they need more teaching.

They need these things in rich supply.

And there are people in the back of the line

you're not getting to, and the ones you are getting

to you're rushing, and everyone just gets crumbs. It's like

my friend saying, I feel like I'm in this giant

group of people and I'm the only one who knows

how to bake a cake, and I can bake the

great cake, and he can even bake a big cake.

But in the end, everybody just gets crumbs. So no

matter how well he does, he's discouraged.

They're hungry. Without multiplication, leaders crumble and people get crumbs.

That's the thing.

Without multiplication, leaders crumble and people get crumbs. I've sat

with so many people who have felt this. Pastors for sure,

lay elders, small group leaders, people who are just working

hard to do the job of mentoring and discipling others,

parachurch leaders, Sunday school teachers, counselors, all of those types

I've sat with, and some of them have wept over

this situation because they feel and maybe you have felt this,

maybe you're feeling this right now. If you're a leader

in any setting, you will feel this. They feel the

weight of real needs for rich leadership, and they feel

the crumbling. But even more they feel the people that

they care about are getting crumbs.

And there's leaders that.

Are earnestly trying to do good and there are people

who are earnestly looking for good and the results are

not good.

It's a problem.

And the problem is without multiplication, leaders crumble.

And people get crumbs. It's a problem.

That'd be a great spot for an amen, because I

know you've felt this. I know you have felt this

either from the crumbling place or from the crumbs place,

or probably both. It's a problem. What's the solution. Well,

God's help is the solution. God's help is the solution.

That's scene three right. Scene one blessing and impressing. Scene

two not good. Scene three, God's help because the same

God that brought help to every hardship is bringing help again,

says in verse nineteen.

Now obey my voice. I will give you advice, and

God be with you.

And then he gives them. He gives Moses this, and

what he gives to Moses. I think jeth Throw so

much for starting with this. This just makes me like

Jethrow more. And I was already in on Jethrow. I've

got I'm holding all my Jethrow stock. Because he starts

with this, He starts with affirmation. He starts with look

look look look look look look look look look look

look you're doing good, Moses, you are doing good. You

are doing good. What you're doing is not good, but

it's good. It's not good, but it is good. You

keep it up, man, You keep up what you're doing.

You got to keep up the intercession. You got to

keep up the teaching, You got to keep up the shepherding.

Keep doing these things you get.

You gotta do it.

But you need people to help you. You things under

your care can feel like a crumbling situation, even when

you are doing good and godly things that you need.

To keep doing. You can't stop.

But verse twenty one and twenty two. But actually he

says moreover and not but but and in addition, also

with moreover, look for able men from all the people,

men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe.

Look for ablemen to help.

There's got to be some coordination to the care, some

sharing of the shepherding, some levels to the leadership, some

spans to the supervision. This you need to understand is

God's help. God will direct you, God be with you.

The pattern hasn't changed. Hardship and then help right, remember hardship,

help Egypt, plagues, red seat, split, hunger, manna thirst, rock

flows with water crumbling. Multiplication. This is God's help. So

often God's help for the care of God's people just

means multiplication of leadership in God's people. It's the pattern

we see also throughout the rest of scripture, like Act six,

if you remember Act six New Testament. The church is birthed,

the apostles are leading it. How's it going.

Well?

Blessing and impressing. People are coming to trust the Lord.

People are actually realizing what Jesus has done. It's awesome

and it's also not good because people's real needs are

getting missed, like legitimately missed, which is awful.

But it's also awesome.

To me because I'm like, there's a church being led

by the apostles and it's falling apart.

I mean kind of makes you feel like.

It's gonna be okay, and the apostles are missing it.

The apostles are missing it, And what do they say?

What do they say when they realize we are dropping

this ball?

Needs? Real needs are getting missed?

Do they say, Oh, I guess it's time for us

to become like superheroes. No, they say that Often God's

help for caring for his people is the multiplication of

leadership within his people.

And that's what they do.

They multiply leadership the needs start to be met, and

the way that that story ends is and then they

increase and multiplied. It is like my friend, they didn't

need to become superhero bakers. They just needed to start

teaching some people how to bake. See, you can't solve

leadership crumbs problems on your own, because on your own

is the problem. And look, I'm not saying that you're

like Moses, or like you're like the Apostles or any

of us are. What I'm saying is we can listen

to the same lesson that Moses listened to. That's that's

why we have small groups. That's why we have small

groups and listen. If if you aren't in small group,

you're for sure getting crumbs. You might not even know it.

You may have lived with crumbs for so long you

don't even know what like to not have crumbs is.

That's why we have small group apprentices learning to multiply

small groups. That's why we have Whenever we have counselors,

we also send with them advocates and trainees so that

we can continue to multiply leadership because the solution for

care amongst God's people is so often.

The multiplication of leadership in God's people.

That's why we're expanding and multiplying the elder team. Right,

You've got that note in your bulletin. We're assessing this

church is assessing these men as able men, not perfect men. Right,

and how the saying goes, the best of men are

men at best, but able.

God fearing.

As the qualifications in Titus one and one Timothy three, integrity,

and those who are willing to share in shepherding.

By the way, the multiplication of leadership.

Is not only God's help for care, It's also God's

help for endurance. And that what it says in verse

twenty three. If you do this, God will direct you,

and you will be able to endure. You will be

able to endure. So often God's plan for endurance is

not about strengthening, it's about multiplying.

Well, how well does this work out?

I guess that takes us to scene four Seen one,

blessing and impressing Seen two, not good, Seen three, God's

help Seen four. We'll just call it this leadership and listening.

Leadership and listening you know that whole paragraph there, verses

twenty four through twenty seven, can almost be summarized by

the first three words, what are they so Moses listened?

H You gotta love that about Moses.

He listened.

He had the humility, and he had the courage, and

he had the understanding to listen to the multiplication of

leadership as God's help for him.

And for the people. Moses listened.

And I say that almost summarizes the whole paragraph, but

it doesn't quite because if you look at that paragraph,

if you read through that carefully, you see that Moses

isn't the only person who listened. Everybody listened. Right as

you look at the verses, you see new leaders at

every level listened to the multiplication of leadership.

As God's help, and all the.

People listen by responding to that new leadership at every level,

probably with some struggle, right what you want to get

I guess that that was such a struggle because we

tend to need some things if we're going to listen

to the multipication of leadership as God's help, we tend

to need things like here are three things we tend

to need in order to listen to the multipation of

leadership as God's help. We tend to need a little humility.

Amen tend to need a little humility. Moses needed a

little humility.

He had it.

The scriptures say that Moses was a very humble man,

and in fact he seems to listen right away. The

people also needed a little humility. I imagine there was

probably more than one person said, you know, I used

to talk to Moses. Okay, so it requires a little humility.

What I've noticed is that pride in leadership usually doesn't

sound like this. It usually doesn't sound like I am

strong enough, I am capable enough, I can do this

by myself.

Pride in leadership usually sounds like this.

I should be strong enough, I should be capable enough,

I should be able to do this by myself.

And so if you're a leader, you start wishing for.

Super strength, even praying for super strength, the kind of

strength that is of on the trajectory towards m omni

omni omnipotence. I swear I've said that word before, omnipotence.

There's only one person who's omnipotent.

And yet we we sort of wish in that direction,

or or we wish that we had a super like

a magic pause button.

Right, if you're a leader, do you ever want the

magic pause button stop the world?

Not to just get off, but just so that you

can be everywhere and make all the decisions and take

all the actions and touch all the things so that

then you can hit play. In other words, you can

be everywhere. That's need presence only.

One person on any present.

Or if you're a leader, you start wishing for, even

praying for, just to be super smart. I just I

need the wisdom. I need to have all these decisions made.

I need to understand exactly what to do all the time.

I need the answers before the questions. That would be omniscience,

only one person omniscient. Listen God's ordinary plan. Like pray

for efficiency, pray for wisdom, pray for strength.

It's not wrong to pray for these things, but listen.

God's ordinary plan for your endurance is not to give

you superpowers. It's to give you co laborers. We need

a little humility and we need a little courage in

order to listen. To listen to the multiplication of leadership

is God's care for his people. We need a little

courage because you know it takes a risk. Adding leaders

is always a risk. You're gonna risk.

Some trouble if you add some leaders.

But listen, not adding leaders isn't a risk of trouble.

It's a guarantee of trouble. Just look at this. This

is this is not good.

So you don't want to do it fast, you don't

want to do it hastily. For Timothy five twenty two

says do not lay on hands, which is to say,

do not appoint leaders too quickly. But you have to

do it. It's gonna take a little courage, and it's

gonna take a little understanding. We tend to need a

little understanding to listen, right, Moses, he had to He

had to understand. He had to grasp this. The people

needed to grasp this, The other leaders needed to grasp this.

We have to grasp this. Otherwise confusion grasps us.

If we don't have a little understanding, we get confused, like, okay,

the multiplication of leaders.

Is this even biblical or is.

This some sort of like like secular business strategy. No, what,

this is God's ordinary way. We are looking for God's help,

and ultimately that's what matters most.

It's not ultimately.

About the right system for leadership. It's ultimately about following God.

Praise the Lord for that, because the apostles can't get

it right, and.

Yet as we trust him, God helps.

We can be confused, like is this even loving? Is

it loving? Is it loving? Like it must have been

hard for Moses to say, Bob, here's what I'm gonna do.

Your situation tricky, some things to teach you, some counsel

to give. Here's what I'm gonna do, Bob. I'm gonna

I'm gonna set you up with Gary. And he knows

he's been taught. He is able, he is an able man,

and he is full of integrity.

He fears God, and he can help you. Bob. This

is me loving you. This is me loving you.

Because love for people is more about actually them getting

the care anding that they need, then it is about

you being the person they're getting it from, especially when

it is the fact that they're not getting it what

they're getting his crumbs, and Christ cares about his people

actually getting the care and the shepherding that they need.

Paul puts it this way with one group of leaders

in Acts twenty, pay careful attention to care for the

Church of God, which he obtained.

With his own blood.

In other words, the call of Christ is this, if

you love me, if you honor my blood, if you

honor the sacrifice I've made.

To obtain my people.

Honor my blood by loving these people, by caring for them,

by shepherding them at whatever level is fitting, because I

died for them. And we can lean into the leaders

that God provides. Because if God has given us his

son by his blood, how will he not give us

all things? He is not going to leave us with

just crumbs. God helps. God helps, He's proven it on

the cross, He's proven it in extraordinary ways. And God

helps also in this ordinary way. The multiplication of leadership

is the ordinary way that God brings about the care

for his people and their endurance.

Amen