Hinderances to Spirit Filled Leadershp

Well, this is a passage you're not familiar with. As we read it earlier, it might give you a jolt, especially if you know something of Moses receiving his call from God. He is tending the flock of Jethro in the wilderness. He sees a burning bush. He walks up to that burning bush. There's a voice that says, "Moses, take off your shoes.

You're on holy ground." God calls him, speaks to him, and shortly after he tells his father-in-law, he would like to go see his relatives in Egypt, fellow Hebrews, and I'll just take this back up in verse 23, verse 24, rather, "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death." I can remember reading that several decades ago now in my youth and just being perplexed. Why would the Lord seek to put Moses to death after he has just commissioned him? That certainly would have been a hindrance. Now, I made reference to this passage one of the last times that I was preaching.

I felt there was a lot more to say and a lot more, especially in light of Brother Chris talking to us about what it means to be spirit-filled, the Holy Spirit's role in the church. I thought that perhaps Moses could teach us a little about what it means to have a hindrance in your life. Now, I grew up hearing a common evangelistic phrase. This was typically used when people were sharing the good news. You'd hear this a lot in the '80s and '90s, and perhaps you're still here today.

But people would say, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." That was probably the most common evangelistic opening that I heard growing up as a kid, that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I think the statement is true. God definitely is love. He certainly has wonderful plans. But I think Scripture says it best. If we take a look at Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10. We can write that verse down and take a look at it. If you feel led to do so this week, Ephesians 2, verse 10.

"For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance or beforehand that we should walk in him." Ephesians 2. "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him." As we were discussing this morning, God has plans. He has plans for his church to prosper his work. And when God is setting out to do something in the world, he chooses men. Now, he does not anoint programs, as we learned this morning. He does not plan or anoint plans and machinery, as he inbounds used that phrase.

"The Lord chooses men and appoints men." And I challenge you this morning to pray and ask the Lord to reveal to you what gift he gave you. And if you look at in this passage that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has prepared. The Lord has certainly plans, specific good deeds. And at this burning bush, God tells Moses the good works that he has prepared for Moses before the foundations of the world. Now, think about that for a second. Moses is now 80 years old when most people are ready to retire. God tells him, "You're just getting started.

And I have a plan that I knew of long before you did." But what might be a few hindrances? Along the way, we see Moses has great sin, and Moses has great hang ups. So I want us to look specifically at these passages and just a few key truths tonight. The first main truth I want us to see, God chooses the leader. We're going to look at the hindrances of unchosen and unloving leaders. God chooses a leader, and there could be a hindrance of unchosen or unloving leaders. And then we'll look at the second main truth that God calls the leader. Of course, the main hindrance could be uncalled and unqualified leaders. Look at the third main truth.

God quips the leader with a main hindrance of unbelief. And finally, we'll look at God confronting the leader with a hindrance of disobedient leaders. So the first main truth tonight, God chooses the leader and wants you to see that we have unchosen leaders. So main truth number one, God chooses the leader. So along Moses' path of leadership, we see grievous sin. Now we don't, I'm afraid, have time to fully explain and go through all the problems that Moses has, all of his sins, but just to name a few. Here he fails to circumcise his son, which is the main sin. He also kills a man that we will look at just briefly in Egypt.

And at the end of his life, when God tells him to speak to a rock, he struck the rock. So these are three major sins, three major grievances. But if you look at other issues in Moses' life, we see that God still uses him. God still calls him. God still chooses to use him. The first thing I want us to see under the first main truth is that God appoints a leader. God appoints a leader. At Moses' birth, his parents were godly. They refused to kill their child. You know, Moses' parents believed the word, and we know they believed the word because Scripture tells us, but also they do some things that show they have faith.

Number one, they circumcised their child on the eighth day. Now certainly if they were planning to throw their child in the river as the Pharaoh commanded, they probably would not have circumcised their child. The Scripture says they saw that he was a special child, a blessed child. So they hid him for as long as possible. When they could hide him no longer, they made a short, small raft and they coated it with pitch. I was covering that story with our youth in the Bible study. I thought, you know, they believed the story of Noah. Noah coated that raft with pitch.

And I have to imagine Moses' parents sitting around saying, "If God kept Noah because they trusted him and they entrusted their lives in an ark and coated it with pitch, then we'll do the same thing." I believe they believed the word. I believe they were people of faith, people of the word. And Moses was clearly chosen. He was not just appointed. But God's appointed leader made mistakes. He made mistakes. Moses' parents' prayers were answered and Moses' little ark floated right up to Pharaoh's daughter.

Now Pharaoh's daughter would have likely gone to the river to participate in the worship of their fertility God, as also we've been learning on Wednesday nights. The Egyptians had several gods, but they worshipped among other things. A god who they believed was in control of an Nile River. And so when we see Pharaoh's daughter bathing ceremonially, it could very well be that she had a desire for children and that she was praying to the deity. And up floats a little baby and a basket. You would have seen that she would have taken this as an answer to prayer from her deity. We know this to be a false god.

But God controls all these false gods and was actually on a mission to conquer and destroy these false gods. The plagues correlate to all of the false gods of Egypt. But we also see that God's appointed leader not only made mistakes, but he had a love for God's people. As Moses grew, one day you know the story. He was walking at about the age of 40 in Egypt, he saw an Egyptian mistreating one of the Hebrews. So he struck this man and killed him. He buried the body, but when he found out that this was made known, he fled. Now he clearly did the wrong thing because later on God would take care of his own enemies.

He took matters in his own hands. But I think what this shows is that he loved God's people. Even though he did the wrong thing, he certainly had in his heart a love and a zeal for his own people. So when we are evaluating leaders in our church, perhaps there will come a day, if we are praying for a day, when we are praying over people who have become elders, if you ever find yourself in a position to evaluate testimonies of would-be leaders, we must always see if there are any hindrances in their life. Can they articulate a time in their life when they were converted? Can they articulate that their supreme love is the church?

And I have to believe that even godly leaders can tell you of their mistakes. Even in their mistakes, you can find that they are perhaps falling in the right direction, doing the wrong thing but trying to do the right thing. I can think of times like Moses where I made mistakes in doing the right thing the wrong way. At times I was a little too callous in sharing the gospel or a little insensitive. But here is the blessed truth. God did not put Moses off and set him off to the side because of his mistakes, because of his past sins, or because of his weaknesses.

And if we can see Moses as being very useful, none of us should say that God can't use us. And that's tremendously encouraging. The second main truth that I want us to see is that God not only chooses a leader but God calls a leader. The hindrances that we'll look at are uncalled and unqualified leaders. So I made reference of Moses at the burning bush and from this point in his life, there was no going back. When God called him into the ministry, if you so will, there was no turning back from this. His whole life would be marked by this call.

I have my entire life watched people enter vocational ministry without being able to articulate a clear, biblical call into ministry. I have seen people choose vocational ministry because of the salaries. I have seen them sort of assimilate into church positions. I have seen people articulate a desire to get back into the ministry because of their own resources, none of which being biblical. If you ever find yourself listening to a testimony in the ministry, it will not be marked by pragmatism if it is biblical. A biblical call into the ministry will be marked by a series, God progressively leading a person.

God's moving them away from an old path. They start to almost have a healthy obsession for God's deepest interest, which is the church. I don't know about you, but I've known people who are genuinely called, and they seem to be almost obsessed, if I can use that word, with the church. I hope that you pick this up when you listen to Brother Chris speaking. I think he is probably, to me, one of the quintessential examples of this. I can say this because he's not here, but I prayed with him. His heart really does believe for God's church in a way that is convicting to most of us.

I think that if we can see this as the most tragic downfall in ministry today in leaders, the greatest hindrance to spirit-filled usefulness is not being called, followed up or in conjunction with that would be not being qualified. Perhaps there were people who were called, but because of sin, something has disqualified them. I will read out of 1 Timothy the qualifications of elders in the church. I'll just read this quickly. "This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

For an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace to a snare of the devil.

We must constantly be on the lookout for those who do not look like biblical leaders." So we see God choosing Moses, we see God calling Moses, in spite of his failures, in spite of his hang-ups. The third main truth tonight is that God equips the leader. The main hindrance here is unbelief. Now Moses proceeds within himself, and quite accurately so, a great weakness. He gives God a list of five reasons why he can't complete this job. Perhaps God's made a mistake. Now the more a person is in ministry, I think the more of their own shortcomings they see. I think family life would also reveal your greatest weaknesses.

Family life, ministry especially, shows a person their own weaknesses. And so leaders will become aware of their shortcomings, and I would even say that this could be a blessing. Is actually tremendously useful for you to know what your greatest weaknesses are. I heard someone say on the somewhere radio that in every job interview they ask you a question, "What is your greatest weakness?" Your greatest weakness. And then the person said, "I don't know anyone who tells the truth in that." We are in the job of knowing our weaknesses, but we're not always in the job of telling our greatest weaknesses.

But God's leaders know their greatest weaknesses. And I say it could be an asset, because it can make you humble, and especially if you start to see God giving victory in these areas. It could be a tremendously useful testimony for a person to share, "This was a great weakness. This is how God addressed these weaknesses in my life." But what we see is Moses getting a list. Now, Warren Wiersby does a fantastic job. He gives these five complaints and sort of repackages them. I like how he does this. The first, if you'd like to go back and study this, this is Exodus chapter 3, verse 11.

Wiersby says, "The first complaint is, 'God, I'm a nobody.'" I'll read the verse. "But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?'" Wiersby says that what Moses thought of himself really was an important. Now think of this. God, the God of the universe who created the entire world, who is called the Hebrew people, who are called Abraham. He made for himself a special nation. They were imprisoned.

He comes and tells Moses, "I'm going to use you to bring your own people out." And Moses says, "I'm nobody." Just to repeat what Wiersby says, what Moses thought of himself really wasn't important. The second objection Moses gives, this is in verse 13 of chapter 3, "I don't know your name." I don't know your name. I'll read the verse. This is in verse 13. "Then Moses says to God, 'If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, 'What is his name? What shall I say to them?'" So here Moses actually doubts God's power to overthrow Pharaoh. He's saying, "I go to the Israelites.

They won't believe me, and I won't even know what name to tell them." He doubles down on this with number 3, "The elders won't believe me." Chapter 4, verse 4, I'll read that. "Then Moses answered, 'But behold, they will not believe me nor listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.'" Here Moses actually doubts that they will believe. Therefore he's admitting his own disbelief. Verse 4, he says he's not an effective speaker. He says, "I am not a fluent speaker." I'll read chapter 4, verse 10.

"But Moses said to the Lord, 'Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow with speech and of tongue.' Then the Lord said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth?'" Here it is as if Moses is saying, "You've got the wrong person for the job," and even tells the Lord such for number 5. He says, "Somebody else can do it better." Chapter 4, verse 13, he says, "But he said, 'Oh my Lord, please send someone else.'" Verse 14, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levi? I know that he can speak well.

Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.'" Now these five complaints that Moses brings before the Lord were far more significant to Moses than they were to God. Did God not know that Moses had these concerns? His omniscience. He would have known these would have been problems. The truth of the matter is they were a much bigger deal to Moses than they were to God. In fact, God actually uses the weakest of us because he says that, "My power is made perfect in your weakness." God actually chooses people because they're weak.

I think that sometimes God chose people throughout history who were the most unlikely candidates. The last main truth, number four. I guess before I move on, let me say one thing about the main, the primary hindrance here is unbelief. If we get too hung up on our own hang-ups, the truth of the matter is we're doubting God's ability. We're doubting God's ability to use us. I wanted to share a quick story that I can remember. Probably 2011, I was coming to Noah. This was when all the people used to sit on the right-hand side. Brother Chris used to preach right here.

He used to say, "I won't get behind the pulpit until we have people on both sides." Back in 2011, I was leading worship. Truthfully I had spent more time, what I did with Brother Ben and Brother Brent, singing harmony, singing back up. I really had not become accustomed to singing by myself. We were recording things and listening. Truthfully, I didn't like how I sounded all the time. Truthfully, I got a little self-conscious and I got a little self-absorbed. I'll never forget we were passing Miss Joanne's house in the curb. I really wasn't looking forward to playing that day. I voiced this, it was sort of all in myself actually.

I told my wife how I was feeling and she said, "Well, that's just selfish." I told this story several, several, several times because the truth of the matter is I was being selfish. I was being self-absorbed and I was being exactly like Moses. I guess that's why this encouragement kind of speaks to me because we can make too much of our own hang ups. We can get hung up on our hang ups and we can actually have a greater endurance and a greater problem which is disbelief. So if we back up to this morning's message, when the Lord saved you, the Holy Spirit gave you a gift.

He gave you something that you did not have before your conversion and that is to be used in the church. As that is being used in the church, from time to time there will be these nagging self-concerns, self-criticisms that you may find and you may say, "God can't use me because of this. God cannot use me because of that." Rest assured that has nothing to do with God's power, that is self. And I found as I began to repent of those fears, God began to give me more confidence and God began to give me more confidence in Him and less confidence in me. Well the last thing that I want us to see is that God confronts the leader.

I praise God that the Lord rebukes His leaders, the Lord corrects His leaders, God corrects His children. Verse 24, "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Him and sought to put Him to death." There has been much controversy surrounding this verse because there are many things that we would like to know that we do not know. So for instance, how did Moses know that he was about to die, was this actually an angelic visitation? Joshua met the pre-incarnate Christ with the sword, he's the leader of the armies of Israel. Did he actually come into contact with Christ? Some commentators suggest he became very sick, we really don't know.

But that's really not important. What really is important is that we believe the Bible and that Moses was about to die because God was angry. Now isn't this amazing? Moses rattles off a list of inadequacies and God says, "I'm bigger than that." What God will not tolerate is blatant disobedience. The greatest hindrance to you or to me or to anyone else is there anything, dear believer, in your life that you know is wrong and then you continue. Moses knew that he needed to circumcise his son.

Matthew Henry says this, "The sin of Moses was neglecting to circumcise his son." Now from this point on we don't know why he did not circumcise his son, he of course was circumcised. But this is what Matthew Henry suggests. There was possibly the effect of his being unequally yoked with a median life. Moses got his wife in the desert, she was the daughter of Jethro, also referred to in scripture as Rehuel. If you see in certain places Jethro, in other places Rehuel, it's not a mistake. He has two names, he's known under those two names.

But if you look at the Midianites, the Midianites were actually descendants of Abraham with one of his concubines. He was actually, in addition to Sarah, in addition to Hagar, he actually also had Keturah. And the Midianites were the descendants of Abraham and Keturah. All sorts of conjecture comes up about her personal opinion of circumcision. She may not have liked the process. Some commentators suggest that she just didn't like it and therefore Moses succumbed to his wife's opposition. If this is the case, what happens is Moses simply was not leaving his wife.

Regardless I know for a fact that leaders can be hindered by how they fail to lead at home. Even by not circumcising his son, simply because no matter what the reason, this is sin. But specifically if we're not confident enough, if we don't believe God enough, if we're not obedient enough, then this will provide a hindrance. If Moses were to have died, then God would have had to raise up someone else. And that certainly would not hinder God, but it would have hindered Moses. I want us to guard against passive leadership in our family. I'm going to ask you, as we conclude, to think for a second about what might hinder you.

First of all, my friend, if you're not saved, you will not be able to be a leader in the church. Perhaps you can assimilate and have a lot of religious busyness, religious activities. As we said this morning, some people who are unsaved are fantastic at planning activities. There are some people in our denomination. In fact, the bigger church you have, the more organization you seem to have, then the more spirit filled people think you are. But my dear friend, if you've never been converted to our Lord Jesus Christ, that's going to be a hindrance. You will not see the joy of serving and loving his church.

You will either love the church or you're going to love yourself. Perhaps you've been making excuses for how and why you can't serve the Lord, how you can't serve the Lord more in your local church. But I want to challenge you to ask the Lord to help your unbelief. We actually sang the invitation earlier, I want to ask you to, as we bow our heads in just a moment, I want to ask the Lord to show you any unbelief that has been a hindrance.

And finally, if there is any late disobedience in your life, whether it be in the terms of family or whether it is simply doing something you know is not right, I want to ask you to repent in this, and by the blood of Jesus, repent and be cleansed. In response, let's bow our heads and just reflect upon this truth from him.