SPEAKER_00: Okay, we are continuing on in this series of messages called the prophetic anthology.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not here, I'll bring you up to speak quickly.
SPEAKER_00: The last 12 books of the Old Testament are called the Minor Prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's the book of Hosea through the book of Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: And minor doesn't mean that they're less significant.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the content of the books, the point and the message of the books are every bit as profound and important as any other book in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They're just called the minor prophets because they're concise short books.
SPEAKER_00: When you study them together, which is how they're designed to be studied, you see six themes that emerge, and that's what we've been spending our time on the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for us to kind of come back to the foundation of the conversation, which is understanding in the Bible what the role of the prophet is.
SPEAKER_00: So the role of the prophet in the Bible is to have an appropriate disruption to the status quo.
SPEAKER_00: All right, there's people who are disruptive for the sake of being disruptive.
SPEAKER_00: They're, you know, being antisocial or antagonistic.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some people are instigators and they just like to do chaos because they think chaos is fun.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what prophets are doing.
SPEAKER_00: Prophets are ultimately seeing how human cultures, human beings, have a tendency sometimes to get sort of lost in the losing the plot, lost in the sauce, however you want to say it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they are calling out the status quo, calling people back to the heart of God, and so it's an appropriate disruption.
SPEAKER_00: What we've said the whole time is of course we're gonna need that.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you are the most sincere person and you mean well, all of us get on track from time to time, and I think every humble, mature, wise person would admit that sometimes the lesson I least want to hear is the lesson I most need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes God will use voices, prophets, which may be someone who you don't want to hear from, delivering a message you don't want to hear but need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: So we've been challenging ourselves to say, look, do we have the integrity?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have the humility?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have the discipline to evaluate the content of the message and not shoot the messenger?
SPEAKER_00: Or not to allow our feelings of defensiveness to shut off our minds and our hearts to what God might be trying to say to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's where we've been the last several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We talked through these different themes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we talked about idolatry, we talked about predatory economics, we talked about religious hypocrisy, we talked about shallow worship, and this week we're talking about bad leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Bad leadership is defined today as power that feeds on people instead of serving them.
SPEAKER_00: Power that feeds on people instead of serving them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I feel like I need to issue a lightweight apology for preaching on bad leadership on Father's Day.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Um my wife preached Mother's Day, and it was the most encouraging message ever.
SPEAKER_00: And here I am on Father's Day saying, turn to the book of bad leadership.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna, it's funny, my dad actually called me last night around bedtime, and he said, Do you got a word tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: You got a word?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, there's only one way to find out, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh he said, What are you preaching on?
SPEAKER_00: I said, bad leadership.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, on Father's Day?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, bro, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's he's like, that's pretty bold.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he said, I don't know if you're trying to send me a message or what, son.
SPEAKER_00: I get it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, no, no, that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so just to be clear, uh, this isn't a beatdown on fathers, and it was kind of a coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: It happened to kind of fall in the series, so it's kind of funny, but uh not really.
SPEAKER_00: Anyways, um, but that is what we're gonna talk about, and we're gonna define it again, really how the the the minor prophets define it, which are leaders who feed on people instead of serving them.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 1 says, What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Israel, the city of violence and crime?
SPEAKER_00: Again, this this would have been a little shocking to the recipient, which by the way is a common tactic of the prophets was to use shocking provocative language, because sometimes it takes a little bit of a shock to shock your system and to wake you up.
SPEAKER_00: And so he uses the language that you're polluted and you're violent and in the place that they would have considered the holy city.
SPEAKER_00: It said, no one can tell it anything.
SPEAKER_00: It refuses all correction, it does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God.
SPEAKER_00: Its leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims.
SPEAKER_00: The judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey.
SPEAKER_00: Its prophets are arrogant liars seeking their own gain.
SPEAKER_00: Its priests defile the temple by disobeying God's instructions.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of overlap in the themes.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you talk about predatory economics or you talk about religious hypocrisy, what you see is a call out of the power structure of their culture and their society.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a call-out of the government leaders, it's a call out of the marketplace leaders, it's a call out of the uh judicial leaders, it's a call out of even the leaders of the temple and the religious institutions that they have, and calling them uh from away from, again, the folly that they had fallen into.
SPEAKER_00: And so the language that's used, again, in Zephaniah, is it uses you know the picture of a ravenous wolf who completely devours and leaves nothing behind.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh in Micah chapter three, he uses language that I'm gonna read it because it's it's it's in here, but it's kind of hard to read.
SPEAKER_00: It's he uses actually cannibalistic language to describe the attitude and action of these corrupt leaders.
SPEAKER_00: It says, uh Micah 3, 1 through 3 says, You rulers of Israel, you leaders of Israel, should you not embrace Mishpat or justice?
SPEAKER_00: You hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones, who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces, who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's kind of makes you cringe when you read it, but again, what is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: Provocative language to describe these leaders who have been given the leadership responsibility of protecting and helping that have now been the ones that actually are devouring.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the book of uh Amos, chapter 8, verses 4 and 5, it says, Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy.
SPEAKER_00: You can't wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end, so you can get back to cheating the helpless.
SPEAKER_00: So again, he's painting the picture of they're sitting at the new moon festival or they're sitting in church and the whole time just thinking, you know, I can't wait till this service is done.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait till we stop this singing, until this guy shuts up, so I can get back to exploiting the vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You measure out the grain with dishonest measures and you cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the things I found really fascinating in this study is if you take the 12 minor prophets and you stretch them out over a timeline, you see that they prophesy over a couple hundred year period.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at those 200 plus years, you find different eras.
SPEAKER_00: And in simple terms, some of the prophets are prophesying in the best of times, and some of the prophets are prophesying in the worst of times.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are prophesying during a time of tremendous economic prosperity, business is booming, cash flow is flowing, you know, things are going really well, and then some of them prophesy during the post-exilic period.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, once everything's fallen apart, they've been dragged away by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, their whole community is a pile of rubble.
SPEAKER_00: The protective walls of the city have been knocked down, the temple's been burned down and destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: So it would almost be like uh when a hurricane hits a coastal city and you see just everything's flattened.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have some prophesying at that time, and you see that reach.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting is that the same issues that they dealt with in the best of times, they dealt with in the worst of times.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at Micah chapter 6, verses 8, that he prophesies during the prosperous best of times, he says, What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly?
SPEAKER_00: Zachariah 7, verse 9, he prophesies in the worst of times, when their whole town is rubble.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what the Lord Almighty said: Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's pretty much a copy and paste.
SPEAKER_00: Two hundred years apart, one in the time of prosperity, and one in a time of desolation, and both times there was an issue of leaders exploiting people in vulnerability, which brings up a good point.
SPEAKER_00: Both good times and bad times create unique temptations for leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Leaders are human beings.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings have flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Flesh has a gravitational pull of selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to battle that.
SPEAKER_00: In good times, when the cash is flowing, the gravitational pull of greed that can grab you, will at least tempt you.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna tempt you to go, what more could I do?
SPEAKER_00: If you think back on when you think of the um the predatory economics where they, you know, the the Levant period, where you uh had the Northern Kingdom took over the King's Highway, they had access to the ancient Near Eastern toll roads, they saw an opportunity for global exports uh because of a global demand for wine and olive oil.
SPEAKER_00: And so now you have all of these leaders, if we can just get the courts and and and the marketplace and everybody working together, the government, we can make so much money.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is the subsistence farmer, we need off the land, and so they find a way to exploit, right?
SPEAKER_00: The idea of the prosperity had the seed of greed within it.
SPEAKER_00: And if leaders are not, if they don't have the character and the courage to fight and and to resist that temptation, okay, you'll have a gravitational pull of greed.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I are no different.
SPEAKER_00: When things are going good, you still have flesh, and that flesh may see an opportunity for gre and greed will begin to tempt you.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the worst of times, okay?
SPEAKER_00: When the whole city's rubble, and when you're in danger, that same flesh that's prone to greed is also prone to fear.
SPEAKER_00: When when you're in uh greed, it's in uh essentially being self-absorbed.
SPEAKER_00: When it's bad times, it's self-preservation.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, every man for himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so now the power that you might have, the position that you might have, the money that you might have, whatever it is that you have in terms of leadership leverage, instead of thinking about the community and the greater good, you forget about the community because my fear has gripped me and has caused me to only be about me.
SPEAKER_00: So what you find, and I just found it so fascinating, I'd never seen this in the text until I studied it this last time, is that you would think that in good times and bad times it would be so different, but it's really not.
SPEAKER_00: You had leaders having either fear or greed, causing them to exploit people that were vulnerable for their own selfish desires.
SPEAKER_00: Um Philippians 2, 3 and 4 says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
SPEAKER_00: This is in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Notice it's not saying don't have ambition.
SPEAKER_00: It's not saying don't dream big, it's not saying don't put big goals and go for it.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying don't let the ambition become selfish and don't become vain.
SPEAKER_00: It says rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking out to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with this, because some people read it, and the idea of putting others above yourselves or not looking out for your own interests could lead to a different kind of leadership mistake, which would be in the spirit of sacrifice to not make sure your own needs are met, and then eventually you're depleted and you're no good to anybody, okay, if you're if you're out of gas.
SPEAKER_00: The metaphor that is often used is when you get on an airplane, you know, and they say, hey, look, man, if this goes bad, okay, some oxygen mass are about to fall out of the ceiling.
SPEAKER_00: If that happens, make sure you put yours on before you do everybody else's, because if you can't get oxygen, you can't help anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: So secure yours first, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a good leadership lesson that if I'm not resting, if I'm not eating, if I'm not taking care of myself, my health, my mental health, physical health, then I'm really no good to anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: But you got to keep going.
SPEAKER_00: When they put that, they say put the oxygen mask on so you can help others with theirs.
SPEAKER_00: They're not saying put the oxygen mask on so you can rob the dead bodies after the crash.
SPEAKER_00: They're not saying put it on so you can be the lone survivor, me against the world, forget all you, as long as I get mine.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's very important to understand that for leaders, the moment that your own success becomes more important than serving the people that God has given you a responsibility to help, that's when leadership corruption begins.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to check ourselves, allow the Holy Spirit to check us, and to understand that both good times and bad times will create unique temptations for leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready for it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna test your character.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna test your character.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you'll find yourself more tempted than you ever wanted to admit.
SPEAKER_00: The question is: can you resist the temptation and can you be faithful to the God-given calling and responsibility that God's given you as a leader?
SPEAKER_00: The next thing I want you to get is that leadership is temporary stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: Leadership is temporary stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember a couple weeks ago when we talked about the land and how God was trying to give them the right mindset around the land, it's in Leviticus 25, 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, God says, The land is mine, you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, even though you have a deed and you own this land, please don't ever become so self-important that you think you own the land, because the land is mine.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody lived on it before you got there, and after you leave, someone else is gonna live on it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I stand right here in a spot on a stage that years before I got here, Gene Spike, Eugene Spike preached right here.
SPEAKER_00: Before I got here, he was leading the church.
SPEAKER_00: He was speaking God's word, he was pastoring the church.
SPEAKER_00: And I get to stand here for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: At some point, it's temporary, God will move me on, and there will be another person right here.
SPEAKER_00: So people had it before me, people have it after me.
SPEAKER_00: This physical spot, whatever land you own, somebody had it before you, somebody will have it after you.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, every dollar that you have didn't start with you.
SPEAKER_00: That dollar was in somebody else's pocket at some point, is now in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: And I got news for you every dollar you have right now will be in someone else's pocket at some point.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same with leadership.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not careful in the authority that you have and the power that you have, and that people respect you and you have influence, and you can say something, and people do it, and they have to do it, and you make decisions that impact other people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not careful, that power can disorient you to the place that you realize it's temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Leadership is stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: You somebody else had it before you got it, and someone will have it after you're gone.
SPEAKER_00: You've got this little bit of time, this little bit of time for such a time as this, to take that authority, to take that money, to take that position, and to do good with it, to lead in a way that's in alignment with God's word and God's values.
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that leadership is temporary stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 2, verses 20 and 21 says, Praise be to the name of God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom and power are his.
SPEAKER_00: He changes times and seasons.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: He deposes kings and raises up others.
SPEAKER_00: He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a call for every leader to remember, you just have it for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It's God who brings people in and out.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it's all yours.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and this is important to remember, not just for the leaders at the top of the food chain, okay, although it absolutely applies first to them.
SPEAKER_00: But but beyond that, wherever you have leadership, wherever you have authority, this really frankly starts in the home.
SPEAKER_00: To understand it's temporary and that we are stewards and it won't be forever.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the second thing that we need to remember, or the I guess this is the third thing, you are accountable to God for how you lead.
SPEAKER_00: You are accountable to God for how you lead.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Zechariah, chapter 10, verses 3, God says, My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember the series that we did about the anger of God, you remember the anthropomorphic, anthropopathic language for God's anger is hot of nose, that he gets hot in the nose, which gives imagery of heavy breathing.
SPEAKER_00: It also uh nostrils flaring, okay, is is the language that it uses.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look throughout the scripture, you see quite often God is presented as almost like quick to anger, right?
SPEAKER_00: So if you think about, if you remember back in Psalm chapter 2, it's a coronation psalm and it says, beware, be careful, kings, fear the Lord appropriately, because his anger can flare up in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you don't know how to handle that text, if you don't know what you're reading there, you could really misconstrue that as a claim that God is this sort of, you know, loose canon, that God has a hot temper and he can get his ego bruised and now he's mad.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you've ever seen that in action and you start to apply that to God, you completely miss the point.
SPEAKER_00: The intense language around God's anger flaring up or being hot of nose is almost always directed at kings and leaders and people, uh people in authority to remind them that just because you have a human system where you have no accountability doesn't mean you have no accountability.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be in a position where you've surrounded yourself with yes people, or you may be in a position where nobody's above you on the org chart to hold you accountable.
SPEAKER_00: And you may think, King, that you've gotten away with what you think you've gotten away with because nobody caught you yet and you paid off the judge or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, just because you think you've gotten away with it, don't get it twisted.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, even if no person ever knows or holds you accountable or stands up to you, Almighty God sees it, and at the end of all of it, you're accountable to him.
SPEAKER_00: So leadership is stewardship, it's temporary, and you are accountable, and you're accountable to God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where sometimes the disrupt the disruption uh that that that sometimes, whether it's disruptive voices or or conviction, if we're if we're unwise, we'll push that away instead of to receive it before it's too late.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you jump to the New Testament in 1 Timothy, um it's a great book.
SPEAKER_00: It's named after the recipient.
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of the books of the Bible are named after the author, but this one's named after the recipient.
SPEAKER_00: So it's actually written by the Apostle Paul, who's writing to Timothy, who's a young leader, and the book's kind of a leadership development.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the first chapter, Paul's like, listen, Timothy, I know you're kind of timid by nature, but he says, God's not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power and love and of a sound mind of self-discipline.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Don't let anybody talk down to you, look down to you for being younger than them.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to lead people older than you.
SPEAKER_00: And don't, don't, don't be self-conscious about being young and timid and all this.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You need you need to walk in the spirit, and he says, and be an example.
SPEAKER_00: Be an example.
SPEAKER_00: You're never too young to be an example, be an example in the way that you behave and conduct yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gets later in the book in chapter five, and he says to Timothy, Timothy, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Some of your interpretations say, lay hands on no man suddenly.
SPEAKER_00: The better translation would be, don't be too quick and anxious to appoint leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Because the reason that God is so hot in the nose about leaders, and the reason you'd want to be patient, is because the higher you go in leadership, the more collateral damage you're capable of if you devour people instead of caring for them.
SPEAKER_00: So he's telling Timothy, I know you're a young guy, and I know that you're, but let me give you an old man's wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: When you see somebody with charisma, you see somebody who's good with words, you see somebody who's a natural leader, don't be so seduced.
SPEAKER_00: By their talent, that you rush them into a leadership position.
SPEAKER_00: Because if they have the ability to gather a crowd and get everybody nodding with them, and yet they don't have the character of a shepherd, all they'll do is have a larger group of people to exploit.
SPEAKER_00: All you'll have is greater collateral damage and more to clean up later.
SPEAKER_00: You'd be better to take it slow, to be patient, to check their character.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be wowed by their charm in the interview.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be wowed by their charm and first impression.
SPEAKER_00: Some people can make good impressions.
SPEAKER_00: Watch them like a hawk.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient until you see whether how they prove themselves in the tough time or how they prove themselves in the prosperous time.
SPEAKER_00: Are they a shepherd that will care for the sheep?
SPEAKER_00: Or are they somebody that will ultimately take advantage and feed on them?
SPEAKER_00: Are they a leadership cannibal?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to watch them.
SPEAKER_00: Talent.
SPEAKER_00: It's beyond talent.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be seduced by the talent.
SPEAKER_00: Look for the character.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says to a young Timothy, he says, don't be in a rush to appoint leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you do that and you delegate and you walk away and you entrust them in that room, if they don't have the character to match, the collateral damage is immeasurable.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, we understand what's ultimately at the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing about these prophetic books is sadly, most of these prophetic warnings are disregarded.
SPEAKER_00: Depending on how much of a threat the prophet, their disruptive word was, they would either be written off as a kook, dismissed, disregarded, or they may be attacked because it was perceived as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, probably the best example of a leader receiving a disruptive message with grace and repenting and turning, probably the best example in all of the minor prophets are the book we this is the book we looked at a few weeks ago, the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: And the crazy irony is it was a pagan king that received the word.
SPEAKER_00: All these people of the Torah, all these people of the Word of God, all these people that knew Yahweh, that worshiped Yahweh, received these words and they disregard it.
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got this guy who doesn't worship Yahweh at all.
SPEAKER_00: And Jonah goes and it says in chapter 3, Jonah says, 40 more days and then the destruction of the city if you don't turn.
SPEAKER_00: And look at this, Jonah chapter 3, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Look what this pagan king does in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself in saffcloth, and sat down in the dust.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't understand what's going on there, it's the ultimate act of contrition.
SPEAKER_00: You go from your nicest robes, you take them off, you strip yourself of your regality, and he puts on saffcloth and sits down in the dust in a humble place.
SPEAKER_00: And then he issues this proclamation to the whole community by the decree of the king and his nobles.
SPEAKER_00: But let the people and the animals be covered with saffcloth, let everyone call urgently on God.
SPEAKER_00: So fasting and prayer, and let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what happens?
SPEAKER_00: It starts with the king.
SPEAKER_00: The king receives a word that could have made him very defensive.
SPEAKER_00: This is the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Pagan receives the word, humbles himself.
SPEAKER_00: The nobles follow suit.
SPEAKER_00: It goes to the entire community.
SPEAKER_00: There's kind of an odd detail in there where it says that the animals were covered in saffcloth and everybody fasted, which is like, why would they cover the animals in saffcloth?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like they're blaming them for sin, but it was an ancient Near Eastern symbolic action that when sin permeates a community, the whole community is affected.
SPEAKER_00: Even the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Even the animals.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's an appropriate period of remorse and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance doesn't stop at remorse, it starts at remorse.
SPEAKER_00: It's an appropriate remorse.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things that are worth feeling bad about.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things worth being sad about.
SPEAKER_00: There are times that that's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get stuck in it, but we don't brush past it when it's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in this in this ancient Near Eastern sackcloth and fasting, you have the animals literally fasting.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, they have no clue why they're not eating.
SPEAKER_00: They just know they're not eating.
SPEAKER_00: So what do animals do when they haven't eaten?
SPEAKER_00: They start crying out, they start bleeding, they start moaning, they start, they say, okay, so you have now a community where violence and sin has run rampant and has caused vulnerability to be exploited.
SPEAKER_00: And now part of even the wailing of the animals, okay, for a period of time.
SPEAKER_00: And then the call to say, let's not just feel bad, let's take off the sackcloth, let's eat again, but let's, as a whole community, let's feel this and let's turn from it.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, let the violence cease, let the evil cease, let's have this be a whole community turning point.
SPEAKER_00: But who did it start with?
SPEAKER_00: It started with the king, it started with the leader, and it cascaded all the way down through the community.
SPEAKER_00: So again, the irony of this whole thing is that prophetic message after prophetic message goes forward, disruptive but needed.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time it's rejected.
SPEAKER_00: But when it's not rejected, when it starts with the leaders and it goes all the way down, whole communities can turn and change.
SPEAKER_00: I end, what's all always appropriate to end a sermon is on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, my man.
SPEAKER_00: It's about you're about to lie, you're gonna like this.
SPEAKER_00: I think I think you're gonna like it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna summarize it instead of pulling the verses up.
SPEAKER_00: But right near the crucifixion, right before Jesus goes to the cross, he has this weird thing happen.
SPEAKER_00: Two of his disciples' mom comes to Jesus, Peter, or sorry, James and John, their mother comes to him and says, Jesus, you've been doing all this kingdom talk, so I know you're the king and it's gonna be a kingdom, and you're gonna be the most powerful guy.
SPEAKER_00: But how about when you become powerful, you elevate one of my sons to number two, and my other son to number three, they'll sit on your right hand and your left hand.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, You don't even know what you're asking.
SPEAKER_00: They said, No, we we we do.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we we want to be the second and third most powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Are you willing to drink the cup of suffering that I'm gonna drink?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now they go, oh yes.
SPEAKER_00: But you think about you, you know what we know to sit on his right and to sit on his left.
SPEAKER_00: So are you willing to suffer?
SPEAKER_00: Because when when you hear power and you hear leadership and you hear authority and you hear resources and you hear influence and you hear leverage, you you think this is about being glorified, and you think this is about being respected, and this is about being revered.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, if you're gonna lead like me, you better be willing to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Yeah, we will, but they don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, you know, you will at some point.
SPEAKER_00: The other ten become jealous because who do you who are you trying to wedge your way into the right hand and the left hand?
SPEAKER_00: So the whole group gets in a big fight.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus calls them in.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't remember what I'm about to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Quit looking at the world.
SPEAKER_00: He said, In your world, great men lord it over the people, and they flex on the people, and they even feed on the people.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all about their image and it's all about their success.
SPEAKER_00: He says, they put themselves up and they flaunt their power to the world.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, and even some of them are so politically savvy that they're called friends of the people.
SPEAKER_00: But their motive is to feed on the people, not to serve the people.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Among you it will be different.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom, you've got to be the slave to your brother.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be the greatest in the kingdom, he would be first, would serve.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Even the Son of Man, myself, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at that text and you compare it to the bad leaders that are called out in the prophetic anthology, you see an absolute, almost perfect contrast to the leaders that are called out and to how Jesus does leadership.
SPEAKER_00: They were feeding on people and Jesus fed people.
SPEAKER_00: They were exploiting vulnerability by cranking up interest rates to keep people stuck.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and paid a debt that he did not owe.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and sacrificed himself, not feeding on the people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, look, if you want to see how God values leadership, he says, I did not come.
SPEAKER_00: I had the power to walk on water and I serve.
SPEAKER_00: I had the power to multiply the meal and I serve.
SPEAKER_00: I had the power to resurrect the dead and yet I came to serve.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, it wasn't ever about me.
SPEAKER_00: I came not to be served, not to be elevated, but to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, wherever God's given you authority, you may, I don't know where you are on the food chain.
SPEAKER_00: There may be somebody way above you, maybe you're in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe your greatest place of leadership is inside the walls of your home.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever leadership you have, I want you to remember leadership is stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: It's temporary.
SPEAKER_00: You're only going to have it for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: For such a time as this, do it really well.
SPEAKER_00: You are accountable.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you think you got away with or you think you're getting away with, you are not getting away with it.
SPEAKER_00: God sees it.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we're accountable to Him.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have an appropriate reverence for that reality.
SPEAKER_00: Do not allow the best of times to draw greed from your heart and to corrupt your character.
SPEAKER_00: Do not allow the worst of times to throw you into self-preservation and let fear grip you and go every man for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Do not forget the community that God has called you to.
SPEAKER_00: Allow your character to win out and ultimately set your example of leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Not on whoever's out there thumping their chest, but on the one who laid down his life.
SPEAKER_00: Lead like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come to you today with hearts of gratitude that in your inspired word we see both the examples of what can happen when leaders allow flesh and fear and greed to run wild.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Lord, we have an example also of leaders, especially Jesus, who teaches us what it looks like to build our entire life on the solid rock, to walk by faith and not by fear, to maybe even be the only one in the business, the only one in the neighborhood, the only one in the home that is willing to submit our fear to you and to actually love and care about others, to actually sacrifice even when some of our future realities are uncertain, but to build on the certainty of who you are and our relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray, God, that in these times you would help us to mature, to be wise, to be people of character, to be courageous, to know when to speak up, when to be quiet, Lord, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, to move forward, Lord, in obedience, whatever that means.
SPEAKER_00: And in a room like this, the action steps of obedience will be will vary tremendously.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Lord, I thank you for the way that you use your body in this world.
SPEAKER_00: So we surrender ourselves to you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said amen.