CHOOSE TO BE A “SPIRITUAL” LEADER
Jesus taught that the world’s idea of leadership is lording it over others. When the average person gains a title the normal inclination of the heart is to boss those under him or her as if they were servants to their whims.
Jesus, in contrast, said “Not so with you…” Whoever wants to be great must be your servant. The higher the appointment of leadership the greater the responsibility to serve for the person who follows Jesus.
Ed and Kathy are called “deacons” today. To some of you that may seem like a promotion. In Christ’s reality it puts them at your disposal, at your service, at your feet as it were. A deacon is a servant and a leader in serving.
Just because we give someone the title “deacon” does not mean that they now know how to serve. Ed and Kathy were chosen to officially serve because they demonstrated a giftedness in serving, but they still need to learn to serve.
Joshua 24 is a text that contains a call to serve, not just as a deacon but as a leader of your home. Whether you hold the title of deacon or father or mother in your home, you have to choose to be a leader in that role. Let’s look at some of the choices a servant leader needs to make.
1. Choose to fear the LORD
When Joshua and Israel had conquered the Promised Land and achieved their first goal as a nation, Joshua was an old man. As a way of saying farewell to Israel he gave them one last charge.
He recounted all the things the LORD had done for them: how God had called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be their patriarchs; how God called Moses to lead them out of slavery; how God saved them from the Egyptians when they crossed the Red Sea; and how God gave them the land they now lived in.
Then Joshua said this, “Now fear the LORD…” (14). “Fear” is a confusing word to our ears, especially in relation to our relationship with God. But Joshua uses it in response to recounting the great works of God.
As we look upon the wonderful things God has done for us, specifically Christ on the cross, our response can only be a holy, reverent and submissive fear. It is, in different terms, worship. Fear is putting God’s priorities before our own. Fearing God is worshiping God.
2. Choose to serve the LORD
Joshua continued, he said, “…and serve him with all faithfulness.”
“Serve” comes from the same root as “worship.” So worship leads to serving. If we choose to worship the LORD in spirit and in truth then the natural outcome will be our desire to serve the LORD.
Someone asked Pastor Ray Pritchard for advice with a spiritual struggle. Very simply, this person lived like a Christian on Sunday and a “worldling” on Monday to Saturday. He was frustrated with living a double life. “My Christian life is dull and dry,” he said. Pritchard replied, “You didn’t get where you are overnight, and you won’t get out of this mess overnight. You must begin each day by choosing to serve the Lord, and then you must follow up that decision with a hundred small choices in the right direction. That’s really what serving the Lord means. If it doesn’t involve the nitty-gritty choices you make every day, then you’re still trying to straddle the fence.”
If you are not serving God, you are serving someone else. Elijah challenged the people at Mount Carmel, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kgs 18:21). Choosing to serve God is choosing to be on the Lord’s side.
3. Choose to eliminate distractions
Actually, what Joshua said was, “Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.”
The gods beyond the River and in Egypt could be characterized as material gods that gave power and prestige. The gods of the Amorites were gods of fertility and sexual pleasure. These were real threats to the Israelites since the first idols had influenced them for hundreds of years. The second sets of idols were a peer-pressure-sort of influence. So Joshua could be saying, put away the old ungodly habits and don’t let the new fads suck you in. Put them so far away from you that they will have no power over you. Don’t hide them in a closet. Anything you hide in a closet is bound to be found by your children and they will think it is okay to use that idol
Perhaps distraction is too light a term. But I think that what Joshua would call an idol is what we call distractions from our one calling.
An idol is really anything that is loved or feared more than God. It can involve the worship of a person, an image, object or idea. The things that take our attention are not always evil in nature. They can be so basic: gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and television and internet and facebook and sports and shopping and exercise and so on…all of them can be deadly substitutes for God. The human heart is an idol factory – it is always finding things to worship or obsess over.
The home is the foundation of worship for the family. As the example is set in the home, so the family worships at church. No wonder that Paul wrote Timothy about deacons saying, “A deacon must…manage his children and his household well” (1 Tim 3:12).
The word “manage” bothered me a bit, so I studied it briefly and came to the following conclusion. Manage means to rule or preside over the home. But in the context of being Christlike what does this mean? How did Christ rule? Jesus came to serve not to be served, and that is how he led. In Ephesians 5 men are told to love their wives like Christ loved the church. How did he do that? By dying for her. Therefore, leaders in the home are willing to die, both physically and metaphorically, for their families.
4. Choose God regardless of others
Whether you are a deacon or a parent or the head of your house, choose God regardless of the current trend or fad. Joshua told the people of Israel, “Choose today whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
In the vernacular of our day, he said, “I don’t care what you do, my family is going to serve the LORD.”
The people responded saying, “We too will serve him…”
Joshua said, “You are not able to serve the LORD.” He is a jealous God and you won’t be able to stick with him. You will go after idols.
They said, “No! We’ll be good.”
Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves…” Your words stand as a testimony against you if you show by your actions that you choose otherwise.
Ed and Kathy have today confessed that they will serve the LORD in their home first and then in the Church.
What we need in every home connected to KEMC is the same dedication to serve the LORD. You need to be a high priest in your home. Women can be spiritual leaders in the home as much as men. However, if the ladies set the tone, sometimes men don’t follow. The whole family is blessed when both men and women decide to make worship and service of the LORD a hallmark of the home.
So, who will stand and make that commitment today? As for me and my house we will serve the LORD. Who will be a deacon in the home? Who will lead worship in the home? Will you stand regardless of what others think or do?
AMEN
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