Exodus Chapter 18 Verses 17 – 23

• This is such good and wise counsel! Jethro sees Moses making every little decision and solving every debate and discussion…and he says, “It’s not good.”  I completely completely entirely agree.  We are, whether it’s we pastors, or we leaders or we bosses or we just people, we are not to run other peoples lives!  We have enough to deal with in our own!  And Jethro says here the true brilliance of a true leader…don’t run their lives…teach them to run their own!!  I love that!!
• And then, give them guide posts…beacons…examples…give them a place they can turn to in the moment until they learn not just the head knowledge but the empirical knowledge! (I need this in my own life!)  If the thing is heavy, be there for them…but entrust their own lives to them and before anything else…pray for them.  (v19) I love that!  And what’s the result…Jethro calls it…all this people will have peace!  That’s the goal as far as I’m concerned. Not to make little disciples of me…but that you would find peace. 
• Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” Is that your goal in the way you lead people?  It better be…to get them one on one with Jesus…to get them to peace.  If not then you are not leading in a Christ-like way…because that’s how He leads…
• And I just need to say this…thank God for “able men (and women, and young men and young women), such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” that can be trusted with the hearts and lives of others. Able, it’s interesting, that word in the Hebrew (chayil) doesn’t even have “able” in its definition.  It’s a much more complex and weighty  It literally means “army.”  A person of substance, of force, having richness and wealth in valor and efficiency.  This is a person that fights the right enemy…and makes progress (that’s the efficiency part) in their own life.  So many want to be respected and want to be thought highly of but so few set their hearts to understand truth and live for it! 
• Even the world knows this. Seven habits of highly effective people.  Number 5 is to seek to understand before being understood.  How many do that?  To do that you have to put the other person first…easy to do when you respect that person or like that person but the “able” person does that when the person is even lesser than them…  That is a person of substance, rich in virtue and that person will be  If that’s you, I want to say, truly, I thank God for you in my life.  If I’m honest…I need you.  My heart, after all my knowledge, experience, success, after all that I have in my life and all that God has given and shown me, after it all…my heart is still just a human heart…and I appreciate men and women that fight the flesh and not me…
• God says select from among the people men of truth such as fear God. Dive into the words given by God and you find that when He says “men of truth” the implication is men of stability, reliability, continuance, consistency in what is truth and what is right…men that are firm in their faithfulness.  And finally God adds, (to do all of this, or to even have a shot at being a person that is able), a person of truth...not waffling when the flesh commands…hating covetousness.
• Someone who is an enemy of one-upping I like that.  That’s what the phrase literally means in the original language.  To even have a shot of being an effective person, efficient in growth, a person of great substance, rich in virtue…you and I must set ourselves, just like the Lord did among us, as the servant of all.  If you feel that you are better than your brother or sister…and that begins to manifest itself (as it always does) in harshness of spirit and a demand for them to serve you, then the person who is able, one who fears God and is a person of truth…will hate that the moment it begins to creep in…
• That is entirely, completely, absolutely and thoroughly opposite of the under-current of the flesh (where the flesh is always pulling you) and utterly and totally opposite of the world we live in… Secular humanism teaches you’re unique, you’re special, you’re unlike any other and you need to make your mark on the world…all good things!  But if you don’t have your eyes on the Lord, those things make YOU lord…  You see, to be a person that worships God, you can’t be a person that worships you…  Truly, there are few.  God calls them “select.”
• How do you know? Look for these other qualities.  Are they there?  Do you raise your hands and love the Lord while the lights are low and the worship music is playing only to argue with your husband or your wife later in the week hurling words that would grieve the Spirit?  That’s a good indication that you’re off track.  Or do you have a heart to do great things and live a life that means something but can’t find the will to respect your boss at work or your parents at home?  You’re off track.  That’s a signal, a symptom that you’ve been worshipping you.  And the result will be inefficiency, ineffectivity (my word), you’ll miss the forest for the trees in life…you won’t discern truth and you’ll constantly find yourself fighting…but not fighting the right enemy…fighting alongside of the enemy… 
• God says find men that fight for others, select men…these should be the ones that are to judge the nation… Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous rule, the people rejoice.”  I’m so thankful for you men and women in my life…that are able, such as fear God, folks of truth that hate one-upping me and others…you remind me of the Lord.  You give me hope.  You are a beacon to me when the storm of my flesh is blinding.  You are more to me and this world then you will ever know.  You bring joy back…that’s what rejoice means in the first place…

Exodus Chapter 18 Verses 24 – 27

• Jethro wasn’t a part of the nation of Israel. He wasn’t amongst the wise men of the people, he wasn’t a father to one of the tribes…by all accounts he was an outsider…and Moses learns from him.  And in that humility and seeking of counsel (because if you aren’t looking for it, you’re not receiving it) in that, he becomes a better leader for his people.  L. Moody once said, “It is better to set a hundred men to work than to do the work of a hundred men.”  I say amen to that!  While my flesh wants the glory from men of compliment and admiration, my spirit wants to see men and women free, flushed with peace and serving and knowing God themselves!