Good evening. I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel. Those of you here live with us and those who are watching online, Facebook, YouTube, all those different avenues that we've been blessed with to use.

If you're able to, would you stand and join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather this evening. Lord, to worship in song and to study your word.

We thank you for what you're doing to young people, the middle-aged and the older. You're just doing a work, Lord. We're living in times that seem chaotic. But behind the scenes, you know exactly what's happening and you're in control. And so we just come to you tonight and we just ask that you would bless our time as we worship and as we study. We lift our hearts to you.

We raise our voices to you, Lord, in song now.

In the scripture there in John with some of the boys, and he says, Jesus, as he said, is the forerunner.

I must decrease and he must increase, you see. He was prepared.

You may be seated if I didn't say this.

Jared comes up to you. You'd give us hearts to hear, to perceive, and ears to hear, and eyes to see. Teach us tonight to live as believers in you.

Amen. All right, good evening. Glad you're here. Good to see you all. I'm not Pastor Ryan. My name's Jared. If this is your first night here, come back next week or come back Sunday and you'll have Pastor Ryan. So glad to be here with you this evening. This month is Pastor Appreciation Month. And in honor of our pastors and leaders, I wanted to take a little time and share with you

what the Lord has taught me about leadership. What the Lord has taught me about the life of Moses. I have seven lessons that the Lord has revealed to me about leadership, and these are by no means exhaustive, and they're no in particular order. So I'm sure any other pastor or biblical scholar out there could probably drum up 50 lessons on the life of Moses and even write a book or two about it, but these are just the ones that the Lord revealed to me, and I want to share these with you.

So with that, let's get started. If you have your Bibles, open them up to Exodus chapter 3.

Crack your knuckles, get your fingers loose. We're going to do a little bit of Bible Olympics tonight. I'm sure that probably doesn't hurt Rick's feelings. Get back there.

Okay, Exodus chapter 3, starting in verse 1. It says, Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness. Then came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within the bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire, but was not consumed.

So Moses thought, I must go and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn't the bush burning up? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, Moses, Moses, here I am, he answered. Do not come close. Or he said, take your sandals off your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he continued. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. And the Lord said, I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. And I know about their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians. And to. Bring them from the land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. The Israelites cry for help has come to me. And I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

So in these first 10 verses of Exodus 3, we see where God meets with Moses in the account of the burning bush. But did you notice what he said there in verse 10? He said, therefore, go. I am sending you. I think it's important to identify what are biblical leaders. Biblical leaders are ones who are called by God or sent by God to complete a mission or a task.

And in this case, it was Moses. And at this particular point, it was Moses. point in Moses's life. He had kind of fallen from grace in the eyes of the world. He was no longer part of the Egyptian ruling class, if you will. He had pretty well fallen to the lowest part of life. He was a shepherd. But yet, God chose to call Moses. And I do think it's interesting to

point out here, too, that God didn't call somebody who was already in power. He called the lowest of the low. He called just an average, everyday guy. Moses, at this point in his life, was a shepherd. So, now that we've identified what a biblical leader is, let's identify who are biblical leaders. Biblical leaders are not just pastors. I think sometimes we have it in our heads that

biblical leaders are just pastors. Well, that's not true. If you're hearing this, this room tonight and you're a father, I got news for you. You're a biblical leader. You are called to be the biblical leader of your home. If you're here tonight and you're a mother, you're also a biblical leader. You're called to be the leader of your children. And in some cases, you moms are

raising your families all by yourself, and you are the biblical leader of your home. If you're here tonight and you're a believer, you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you claim to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I've got news for you. You're a biblical leader. Your job is to lead others to Jesus, to point them to Jesus. I'm not a natural leader. It's not something that comes

naturally to me. It wasn't something that was instilled in me as a young man, and I've never been great at it. But when I became a husband and a father, my role in life changed more drastically. than I really could have imagined. I began to, you know, slowly, mind you, take on that role of a biblical leader in my home. Growing up, I didn't exactly have that biblical leadership

modeled in my home. So when I did become a husband and a father, the Lord had to teach me how to be those things. The Lord had to teach me how to be the biblical leader of my home. Now, you know, we pray all the time together as a family, and we spend time reading and talking about God's Word. You know, it's great. When I became a husband and a father, God's calling on my life was to be the biblical

leader of my home. Proverbs 22.6 tells us to raise up our children in the way that they should go, and they won't depart from it. And as a husband, you know, Ephesians 25 tells us that, you know, husbands to love your wives as Christ loved the church, and he gave himself up for her. So, lesson one, a biblical leader is one who is called by God. Lesson two, a biblical leader gives the people God's Word. Flip over to Exodus 24, verse 7,

and we'll actually kind of, we'll jump around towards the end of Exodus a little bit, and then we'll jump all the way back towards the beginning at the end of the message here tonight. Exodus 24, verse 7. It says, In this scripture here, it tells us that Moses took the covenant scroll, and he read it aloud to the Israelites. In other places throughout the Bible, you'll often see the phrase, the Lord said to so-and-so. You insert the prophet's name here, you know.

The Lord said to so-and-so, Israel, usually, and he gives them a message to give to them. And that was the prophet's job. Their job was to give out the message that God gave them, to give out God's Word. You know, as a biblical leader, it is our job to give out God's Word. Now, some of you may say, I'm not a preacher. I'm not a pastor. I don't know how to give out God's Word.

You know, that's okay. You don't have to know. Just read it aloud. Read it to them. Just read it to them. You know, as a family, we'll sit down, my wife and kids and I, we'll sit down. We'll read through a section of scripture. We're working our way through 2 Samuel right now. And then sometimes there's, I don't have a lot to say about it. I don't have a lot of

spiritual application. But you know what happens? The Spirit moves anyway, in spite of me. The Spirit moves, and we end up having some great discussions about God's Word after we're done. The kids ask, great, can you read it to them? And I say, I don't have a lot to say about it. Sometimes they ask such good questions. Sometimes they ask such good questions. I don't have the

answers to them, and I have to go find them. You know, I have to go to the Word or go look through commentary to help find the answers to explain some of their questions. Guys, you don't have to be biblical scholars to give out God's Word. I'm convinced that just reading the Word of God to people can often do more than some of the most powerful preachers out there.

It can often do more than some of those powerful sermons out there. Do you understand? I follow a guy on social media. His name is Amir Sarfati, and he has a channel called Behold Israel. He's an Israeli Christian. He lives in Israel. And every so often, I'll get notifications on Spotify where he does nothing but read God's Word. It's called public reading of Scripture.

That's it. He reads God's Word to the people. He lets God's Word do its work in the people's lives. My favorite Scripture in all the Bible is the Bible. It's the Bible of the Lord. It's the Bible of the people. The Bible is actually Isaiah 55, verse 10 and 11. It says, For as the rain and snow fall down from heaven and water the earth, so my word goes forth from my

mouth and does not return to me void, but accomplishes the purpose for which I've sent it. It's my favorite verse in the entire Bible. And I'm here to tell you that God's Word is powerful, and it needs to be given out. Hebrews 4.12 tells us that the Word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword. It's able to divide down to the marrow, to divide right from wrong.

Understand, you know, in a world today where a lot of folks don't know what right and wrong is, that's where God's Word comes in. It does know what right and wrong is.

God's Word is powerful, and it needs to be given out. Leaders, that's our job. We're called to make disciples, and we do that by giving out God's Word and letting it do its mighty work in our lives. Lesson three. A biblical leader trains up people underneath him. If you flip over to Exodus 18, just a couple pages to your left, we'll start in verse 13. And it says,

The next day Moses sat down to judge the people, and they stood around Moses from morning until evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them, he asked, What is this thing? you're doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge while all the people stand around you from morning until evening? Moses replied to his father-in-law, because the people

come to me to inquire of God. Whenever they have a dispute, it comes to me and I make a decision between one man and another. I teach them God's statutes and laws. What you're doing is not good, Moses' father-in-law said to him. You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you because the task is too heavy for you. You can't do it alone.

Now listen to me. Sorry. Now listen to me. I will give you some advice and God be with you. You be the one to represent the people before God and bring their cases to him. Instruct them about the statutes and laws and teach them the way to live and what to do. But you should select from all the people, able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place them over the people as officials of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

They should judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you every important case, but judge every minor case themselves. And in this way, you will lighten your load and they will bear it with you. If you do this and God so directs you, you will be able to endure and all these people will be able to go home satisfied. And Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. So Moses chose able men from

all Israel and made them leaders over the people as officials of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They judged the people at all times, the hard cases they would bring to Moses, but every minor case they would judge themselves. Then Moses said goodbye to his father-in-law and he journeyed to his own land. Here in this section of scripture, we see an account of Moses judging the people from morning until evening. At this time, the total population of Israel kind of varies. Some scholars estimate

it to be around three quarters of a million, others estimate it all the way up to between like five or six million people. And Moses was judge of them all. His father-in-law, Joseph, was the judge of them all. He was the judge of them all. He was the judge of them all. Jethro comes and says, you're trying to do it all and you can't. The load is too heavy. Now, I can kind of identify with Moses here a little bit. And I think we as men can all identify

with Moses here on some level in this instance. More often than not, you know, we would rather try to do everything ourselves. And in Moses' case, he was trying to judge all of Israel by himself. And God used his father-in-law, Jethro, to come to him and he'd tell him, you can't do it by yourself. You can't do it by yourself. You'll wear yourself out. And you'll wear the people out. The load is too heavy for one man to carry.

And that's why God brought Jethro along, to help Moses, to train up people underneath him. A few years ago, I was at a pastor's conference. And the last session of this conference actually dealt with this very subject. And it, it wasn't a subject that, that we'd really given a lot of thought to. But it caused us to sit down and go, are we training up the next generation?

Are we training up the people underneath us? I don't know if y'all realize this, guys, but the pastor, you know, as tough as he is, you know, he can't do it all. You know, he needs help too. We, we all need help in some form or fashion, right? You know, thus we as leaders need to be training up the next generation underneath us. And we need to be training up the next generation.

And we need to be training up the next generation. And we need to be training up the next generation. Not just to help the, the pastors and leaders, but because they will eventually become the pastor or leader or, you know, you name it. Now I've gotten to the point in my own life where, you know, I'm busy enough through the warmer months, you know, that it's sometimes difficult to get my own lawn mowed. And so what I started doing this summer was teaching my two oldest kids

to, to help mow the lawn. And scariest thing ever, I'm telling you, uh, oh my goodness. Um, as hard as it is to let them operate that machinery and mow my lawn. And even though they couldn't mow a straight line to save their life, they, I had to let them do it. Otherwise I'd be doing it, you know, all my life. They'll, and they'll grow up never knowing how to do these things. And if we as leaders don't train up the

next generation underneath this, we're going to get burned out. We're going to get burned out and they will grow up. Not knowing what to do when the time comes for them to step into a leadership role, whether that be a pastor or father or mother or husband or wife or Sunday school teacher, you name it. I mean, if we don't train up the next generation, they're not going to know.

We, we must be training up that next generation. We can't ignore it. Lesson four, a biblical leader represents the people, for God. If you flip over back a few pages to your right to Exodus 28, we'll start in, start in verse nine. It says, take, this is God talking. This is, um, God giving instructions to, um, Moses and Aaron here. And it says, take two onyx stones and engrave on them, the names

of Israel's sons, six of their names on the first stone and the remaining six on the, second stone in the order of their birth. Engrave the two stones with the names of Israel's sons as a gem cutter engraves a seal. Mount them surrounded with gold filigree settings. Fasten both stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the Israelites. Pay attention here.

Aaron will carry the names on his two shoulders before the Lord as a reminder. Fashion gold filigree settings and two chains of pure gold, and you will make them a symbol of God. In this particular instance, we learned a lesson, not necessarily from Moses, but from Aaron, um, his brother, Aaron would be appointed high priest. Uh, and every, every high priest after him would come from, from the line of Aaron would be one of his sons, uh, at least up until Jesus.

Um, in this section of scripture, Moses is told to engrave the names of the tribes of Israel, Israel on two onyx stones and make them into, into shoulder pieces for the priestly garments. The idea here, uh, being that the high priest would bear the names of the people he represents on his shoulders before God, he would represent the people before God. He would intercede before God on their behalf. And the burden of this task will be on him. And symbolically the shoulders

are actually a place of burden. I don't know if you knew that or not, but the, the shoulders, actually, actually a, uh, a symbolic place of burden. Thus the names of the 12 tribes of Israel would be on his shoulders. They would be his responsibility to bring the needs of the people before God and to pray and intercede for them on their behalf. He, he was an advocate for them.

And to be honest with you, I mean, this lesson kind of hit me, uh, it hit me a little bit hard. You know, as the leader of my home, I had to, I had to sit there and ask myself, am I advocating on behalf of my family to God? You know, am I praying for them? I, am I, am I interceding for them? Am I advocating for them, for their needs before the creator? And if I'm being honest, the answer was no. I think we as men have a tendency, um,

to lean on our own efforts to provide for and take care of and teach and raise our families, which isn't always a bad thing, but I think we need to understand who truly provides for and takes care of and teaches us, and that's God. God is the one who provides for my family, not I.

You know, without God, I don't have a job. Without Him, you know, I don't necessarily have my next heartbeat. I'm not promised that. Without God, I wouldn't be here. Therefore, I need to be pleading with God. I need to be pleading with Him and interceding on behalf of my family before God. You know, as a pastor or minister, you know, if you're here, if that's

your role, you know, or whatever your leadership role is, that's the same question. Are you representing your flock, your people, your family before God? Are we taking their needs to God and interceding before them? Or before God on their behalf? And if the answer is no, you know, there's really no better time to start. Going back to Scripture real quick, if you flip forward to Exodus 32, and we'll hang out

there for a hot minute. Exodus 32, and it says in verse 11, but Moses interceded with the Lord, his God. Moses interceded. On Israel's behalf, when God was ready to destroy Israel for bowing down to an idol and breaking the very first commandment. They hadn't had the Ten Commandments but a few days maybe. And it didn't take them long to break it. And God was ready to destroy the entire nation. But here in verse 11,

it says, you know, Moses interceded with the Lord, his God on their behalf. Which leads me to my next point. A biblical leader must call out sin. In that same section of Scripture, Exodus 32, after Moses interceded with God on behalf of Israel and he saved their lives, Moses went down from Mount Sinai and he had some stern words for Aaron. If you look at verse 21, it says, then Moses asked Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have led them

into such a grave sin? He called Aaron out just straight up. He called Aaron on the carpet. He said, what did these people do to you that you would lead them into such grave sin? When Moses had been up on Mount Sinai for roughly 40-ish days, Israel had pretty much kind of given up on Moses for dead and thought, well, we might as well go back and, you know, do what we

used to do, which was sacrifice. And he said, well, we might as well go back and, you know, do what we used to do, which was sacrifice. And he said, well, we might as well go back and, you know, do what we used to do, which was sacrifice to idols. And to give you a little bit of background here, if you remember up to this point, up to the point of Israel leaving Egypt, they had been enslaved for 400 years in Egypt. And many of them probably had no clue who Jacob was, you know, let alone who

God was. In Egypt, they worshiped fake gods. And one particular god was in the image of a calf or a cow. Therefore, when Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they automatically assumed that Moses was dead and God had pretty well given up on him. So they decided to go back to what they knew. They decided to go back to their old ways, to their old life, which was worshiping a fake god in the image of a cow.

And in all honesty, too, I'm convinced that if Moses hadn't come back down, they probably would have just straight up turned around and hightailed it back to Egypt, to what they knew, to what was familiar to them. But the point in all of it is this, you know, Moses came down and he called out the sin of the people. And he also called out the sin of the individual, the sin of the person. He called out Israel's sins and he called out Aaron's sin. Understand, we must have our sin called out.

Popular and as uncomfortable as it is, it's got to happen.

I don't know if anybody knows who Joel Osteen is. If you do, you know, I mean, he's famous or infamous, depending on how you view him, for saying he doesn't necessarily call out sin because people already know what they did wrong. No, they don't. They don't know what they did wrong. They don't know what they did wrong and therefore they know what they did wrong. They don't know what they did wrong. They don't know what they did wrong.

They don't need to have their sin called out. If nobody ever called out what I did wrong in my life, I'd be doing everything wrong. I'd be doing everything the wrong way. If nobody, think about this, if nobody came alongside me and said, here's what you did wrong and here's how you do it right, I'd do everything wrong. I'd be a lost, sinful, broken wretch of a man.

We as biblical leaders must call out sin as unpopular as it is. It must be done, and pay attention here, it must be done in love. It must be done in love. You can't be out there yelling at these people, telling them what they did. You need to tell them what they did wrong, but do it in love, you know? Don't be yelling at them. You're never going to get your

message across. They're going to shut down. Be direct with them, but do it in love, you know? When I was teaching youth a few years ago, we came out of the church and we were like, a section of scripture that dealt with biblical marriage. And we looked at it and we kind of compared it to what marriage looks like now in the world. And clearly, they're kind of a night

and day difference, right? As unpopular as it was, I called out homosexual marriage is wrong. And I'm probably going to get canceled for it because I'm being broadcast on the internet, but I called out homosexual marriage is wrong in any other type of marriage other than God's definition.

And to be honest, I lost one or two youth over that one. You know, biblical marriage is between, says it was between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, but Adam and Eve, you know? Guys, we can't shy away from the truth of God's word. We as brothers and sisters in Christ need to be calling it out. We need to be calling out the sin in each other's lives. Proverbs tells us as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

We need to be called out. We need to be called out. We need to be called out. We need to be called out. We need to be sharpening each other. And we need it now more than ever. In a day and age where everyone has their own truth, you know, they need to hear God's truth. And they need it now more than ever. And if they don't, they're never going to know any different.

You know, they'll continue to live on in sin, happy as a clam. They'll keep right on going with life. And they'll eventually die in their sin. We need to have our sin called out. Lesson six. A biblical leader seeks his presence. Flip over one page to Exodus 33. We'll start in verse 15, I think. Yeah, just verse 15. It says, If your presence does not go, Moses responded, don't make us go up from here.

Here in Exodus 33, Moses is speaking. He's back on Mount Sinai here, and he's speaking with God. And he's saying, if your presence doesn't go with us, don't make us go up from here. Moses depended so much on God. He wasn't a natural born leader when God first called him. You know, in every step of the way, Moses had to depend on God. He had to depend on God to lead him

and the people through the Red Sea and across the desert. And if you remember, God led them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. You know, what an amazing sight that God's literal presence was leading them. As a biblical leader, we must seek his presence. Guys, he is our source of strength. He is our source of life. He is our sustenance, our daily

bread. God is our direction in life. He's the one who gives us direction. Without him, we are lost sheep wandering in a wilderness. God is our direction in life. He's the one who gives us and at the mercy of the world. Without God's presence, without his direction, Israel would have in all likelihood been killed either by Egypt or the Amalekites. If you remember

early on in the Exodus, after they crossed the Red Sea, it wasn't long after that the Amalekites came and attacked them. They attacked the weakest of Israel. Without God, who are we? Without God, where are we? Without God, where are we? Without God, where are we? Without God, I'm nothing. You know, I'm lost. Therefore, we must seek to be with him. We must seek his

presence for direction in our lives. We must seek his presence for our daily sustenance, our daily bread. We must seek his presence for our strength and our peace. Because without him, I mean, it's not going to take us long to get all bent out of shape over, you know, over small things and even big things. We must seek his presence for direction in our lives. We must seek his presence

for direction in our lives. We must seek his presence for direction in our lives. We must seek his that come along in our lives. If we don't seek his presence, we'll eventually get burned out and be taken over by the world. Lesson seven, lastly and most importantly, a biblical leader must have faith. This is the most important point here. Without faith, none of the other things happen.

This is where you must start. Let's go ahead and flip back to Exodus chapter four. This is, I believe this will be the last time I have you turn anywhere. You can breathe easy here.

Let's read, let's read through verse 13. It says, then Moses answered, what if they won't believe me and will not obey me, but say, the Lord did not appear to you. The Lord asked him, what is that in your hand? A staff, he replied. Then he said, throw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground.

It became a snake. Moses ran from it, but the Lord told him, stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail. So he stretched out his hand and caught it. And it became a staff in his hand. This will take place. He continued. So they will believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. In addition, the Lord said to him,

put your hand inside your cloak. And when he took it out, his hand was diseased like snow. Then he said, put your hand back inside your cloak. And he put his hand back inside his cloak. And when he took it out again, it had again become like the rest of his skin. And if they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign. And if they don't

believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground, on the dry ground. And if they don't believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground, on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground. Moses replied to the Lord, please. Lord, I and the Lord said to him,

who made the human mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say. Verse 13, Moses said, please, please, Lord, send someone else. Let's do it. Verse 14, it says, then the Lord's anger burned against Moses. And he said, isn't Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also he is on his way to meet you. When he sees

you, his heart will rejoice. Moses comes up with all kinds of excuses as to why he can't do what God has called him to do. Verse one, he says, why don't they don't believe me? Verse 10, he says, I'm not eloquent of speech. Again, I can relate to that one. Verse 13, he's not confident. He says, please send somebody else. Moses came up with all kinds of excuses not to do what God commanded him to do,

because obeying God would have then required faith on his part. But you notice God's reaction to his last excuse there in verse 14. It says, the Lord's anger burned against Moses. Understand, guys, if we're going to please God, we have to have faith.

Romans 8.8 tells us that in our own efforts, in our own flesh, it is impossible to please God. Therefore, if we are to do anything for God, it must be done in faith and according to his word. The presence of faith in our lives is an absolute must. None of the other stuff happens without faith. Moses here in chapter four was operating out of the flesh. He was right in that on his own,

he couldn't have done those things. On his own, they wouldn't have believed him. On his own, he wouldn't have been able to get the right words out. And on his own, he never would have gone back to Egypt to bring Israel out. I firmly believe that. But in faith, he could. And he did. Imagine this. Imagine if Peter never had faith. He never would have walked on the water. Imagine if Joseph never had faith.

Think about this. Imagine if Joseph never had faith. He never would have become second in command in Egypt in order to take care of God's people, to get them to where they are today. They never would have become an entire nation. Imagine if David never had faith and he would have remained the smallest in his family. He would have remained a shepherd and he never

would have gone on to slay a giant and become king of Israel. Imagine this. Imagine if Paul never had faith. He would have remained the smallest in his family. He would have remained a You and I may not be sitting here reading God's word. Think about that. Guys, we must have faith. I'll say it again. We must have faith. Without it, it's impossible to please God.

So to kind of close this out here, we need to understand one other thing about biblical leadership. I don't think I actually put this up there, but biblical leadership will never look like worldly leadership. Worldly leadership usually seeks to exalt oneself while biblical leaders seek to humble themselves and let God exalt them. Philippians 2.3 tells us to consider others more important than ourselves.

You know, it's interesting because right now we're in a presidential election cycle and we have two candidates, each of them telling us why they're the most important and the best candidate to run this country and to run the free world. And they're all, they're both up there telling them why the other, telling us why the other candidate is the absolute worst person in the world. It's a pretty stark contrast to that of a biblical leader where the Bible tells us, you know, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. You know, being a biblical leader rather than being a biblical leader, rather than being founded in worldly values is instead founded in the word.

It's founded in faith. It's founded in humility and mercy.

Before I close here too, I want to say this, going back to the topic of faith for just a quick minute here. If you've never put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, may I encourage you, let today be the day. Let today be the day. There's no better time than now. There's no better time. And I say that with all the love and encouragement that I can muster for you.

There's no better time than now. There's no better time. Being a follower of Christ has been the best decision that I've ever made in my life. It has consequences not only on this side of eternity, but on the next side of eternity too. Again, I say that with all the love and encouragement that I can muster for you. But I also say that with a warning too. You know, with all these events that are happening in the

world, I firmly believe that we are in the end times. And there's going to come a day when Jesus comes back for his bride, the church, and takes us home. To be with him. And those who have never put their faith in Jesus, who've never trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and begin an active relationship with him, are going to be left behind. They're going to be left behind to experience the worst seven years the world has

ever seen. And I genuinely don't want that for anybody. In addition, if you come to the end of your life, and you've chosen not to follow Jesus, you're going to stand before God one day, and you're going to think to yourself, I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to follow Jesus.

You were good enough, but you're going to find yourself standing before God, and he's going to tell you, away from me, for I never knew you. You're going to be cast away into the outer darkness, away from God, for all eternity. And I don't know if you knew this or not, but you know, we were actually created as eternal beings. We were created as eternal beings. It's

just kind of a, we will live somewhere forever. It's just a matter of where your address is going to be. You know, will it be in heaven with Jesus? Or in what my father-in-law calls the smoking section? Will it be in hell with Satan and his demons, and where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth? Father, thank you for the day. God, I thank you for your word. Lord, it is sharp and powerful, Lord, and I just pray that as we leave

here tonight, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit go with us and lead us. Teach us, continue to teach us, and to minister to us, and teach us to be leaders, Lord. Teach me a leader in my home, Lord, and in my family's life, and to those around me, Lord. Teach us all to be leaders, Lord, to be godly leaders, to be biblical leaders, Lord. Ask your blessing on each

and every one of us here tonight, Lord, and for those that couldn't make it, ask your blessing on them as well. And we also want to take a moment, Lord, and lift up the Fields of Faith event that's going on tonight, Lord. Lord, ask your blessing upon that time. Lord, be with those students. Let your Holy Spirit move mightily. Lord, let some awesome things happen tonight. Let people give their lives, surrender their lives to you, Lord. Lord,

we love you, Father, and we praise you, and we thank you, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Eight o'clock on the money. You guys have a wonderful evening. Have a wonderful week. God bless you. God bless you.