Dear Friends,
Each year I put on a suit and join together with other pastors from my church’s district to participate in a ritual that has gone on for centuries. The ritual of ordination. Each year I listen to a sermon from our General Superintendent charging the newly ordained to the task before them, and reminding each of us who have sat in their place to the enormity of the call we have accepted.
In Joshua 1:6-9, Joshua is receiving his ordination challenge from God. As Joshua takes on the mantel of leadership from Moses three times God says to him to “be strong and courageous.” The first time Joshua is exhorted because the task he is about to embark on is one that is not his own. It is God’s task and plan. Therefore it is God who will see it through to completion.
A second time God says to Joshua “be strong and courageous.” This time with the added words, “Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” (vs. 7).
Why would God bring up lifestyle, the rules, and following the law when Joshua is on the verge of his greatest moment? I believe for three reasons: Money, sex, and power. In nearly every instance of a leader’s failure one or a combination of these three is at its root.
As successes began to occur under him, Joshua would stumble. He let the power he was experiencing go to his head and failed to consult with God. (Joshua 9)
David, King of Israel, would be enticed by the site of another man’s wife. It would cost the man and a child their lives and David’s kingdom would forever be divided. (2 Samuel 11-12)
Hezekiah would show envoys from Babylon all of the treasures in his palace. He was so proud of his wealth he failed to see the destruction his arrogance would bring. (Isaiah 39)
These are only a few examples out of the Bible. Many more could be collected together from the beginnings of history right up to the headlines in today’s news.
What about each of us who lead? None of us are immune to the temptations which come to us from the trio of money, sex, and power. Are we “careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” or are we leaving ourselves exposed to destruction?
Blessings,
Pastor Stephen