A brief background
To begin our series I want to begin with a brief background.
In Genesis 12 God made a promise to a man named Abraham that his descendants would multiply and become a mighty nation. Through this nation all the families of the earth would be blessed. To fulfill this promise, God raised up Moses and sent him to Egypt to deliver Abraham's descendants from Egyptian slavery. At this time they had been in Egyptian bondage 400 years. After their deliverance, Moses was to lead them to Canaan-land, drive out the Canaanites, and possess the land. In this land God would shape the descendants of Abraham into the mighty nation He had promised, the nation of Israel.
As a nation, Israel's purpose were twofold:
1 to be a light to the gentiles; that is, to be a nation of people God could reveal Himself
through to the rest of the world. As Israel walked in covenant relationship with God, the
nations would gloriously see God by seeing how He wondrously worked in and
through the lives of His people.
2 to birth the savior of the world; that is, Israel would be the nation the savior of the world
would be birthed, blessing all the families of the earth with the gift of salvation. We know
that savior to be Christ Jesus, the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the
world.
Following Moses journey into the book of Numbers, we see in chapter 14 the first generation of Israelites who came out of Egypt disqualified themselves from possessing Canaan-land. They saw the impossibilities that stood before them, feared and fell into unbelief. Because of their unwillingness to believe God, they wandered 40 years in the wilderness until that first generation had died in the desert. The only two people of that first generation who did not die in the wilderness was Joshua and Caleb. God spared them because they believed God and wanted to go in and possess the land.
When the time finally arrived for the second generation to go in and possess Canaan-land, Moses died. It was then God commissioned Joshua to lead the people into their inheritance by driving out the Canaanites and dividing the land between the twelve tribes of Israel.
SO NOW LET'S BEGIN OUR SERIES ON THE LIFE & MINISTRY OF JOSHUA
I would like to begin with a question: How did God prepare Joshua to become Moses successor? How did God train Joshua for his position of leadership? In answering this question there are a variety of things we could talk about, but I just want to mention two.
Anointed places Exodus 33:9, 11 And it came to pass, as Moses entered the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to a friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
In this we see Joshua was a young man who was drawn to the presence of the Lord. That sacred moment when the glory of God's presence descended into the tabernacle, which was nothing more than a large tent, Joshua's heart was drawn to God's presence.
This tent represents 'anointed places.' It represents those places where God's presence is lingering, and God's Spirit is moving. Joshua had a hunger to be in those places where his life could be touched and changed by the presence of God.
When I was a teacher at Summit International School of Ministry, I would often tell the students, "If Joshua were here today, he would have a hunger to be in anointed classrooms, sitting under anointed teaching. He would have a desire to be in chapel services where the Spirit of God is moving. Every opportunity he had, he would be in the altars, hungry to be touched and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Joshua hungered after anointed places.
I believe more than anything else, people who love God and desire to grow in their relationship with God desire leaders whose lives are marked by the presence of God. They desire leaders who have been shaped and fashioned in anointed places by the power of God's presence.
Training Places Joshua 1:1 Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the servant of Moses...
I love the title God gives to Joshua: Joshua, the servant of Moses. You can sense the honor in God's personal description of Joshua. In this we see that Joshua faithfully served and ministered to Moses. He had set his heart to assist Moses anyway that he could.
Anytime we set our hearts to serve leadership, we are in a place of training.
It is worth noting, the first thing God began to do to prepare Joshua for his future calling was to train him to be a servant.
Here is a good place to talk about servanthood. First of all, what is a servant? It is not the work that you do that makes you a servant, it is the heart behind the work. You can be in "fulltime ministry" and still not possess a servant's heart. So then, what is a servant? A servant is someone who walks close to God's heart and in this intimate relationship they begin to see people like God sees people. They begin to value people like God values people. Walking close to God's heart, they truly begin to see that people are God's most precious possession, created in the image of God, for God. Something then comes into the heart that says, "I want to live my life for the benefit of others. I want my life to be poured out for others." In the true sense of the word, this is who a servant is.
Like Joshua, if we are called into a leadership role, this is what makes our leadership transformational. Listen, leaders change lives. If there is one word that defined the disciples as they followed Christ, it is the word transformed. More than anything else, leaders transforms people.
It is the love and tenderness in the leader's heart that transforms lives.
One of my favorite verses in the bible is Psalm 18:35 Your gentleness, O God, has made me great. God's strength to make great men and women of God is in HIs gentleness. God's power to make men and women mighty in battle is in His tenderness.
As I mentioned before, when I was 18 years old I joined the United States Army. I remember that from the very moment I stepped off the bus there was a screaming drill Sargent in my face. For 8 weeks he was constantly there. Later I learned the reason why drill Sargent's yell all the time is not because they enjoy scaring to death green recruits. There is actually a reason for their madness. I am not going to go into all the reasons why. The point I am making is that I can't help but wonder at how different God's ways are from man's ways. When God wants to raise up mighty men and women of battle He doesn't use screaming drill Sargent's. His strength to fashion great soldiers in the army of the Lord is in His gentleness. This is one quality that every leader after God's heart possesses.
I always like to tell my students, you can measure someone's revelation of grace by the gentleness in their life. Grace makes gentle people. But never mistake gentleness for weakness. God's strength to make mighty men and women of battle is in His tenderness.
Now there is one more thing I would like to say about the servant's heart.
What bestows honor and gives value to whatever position or title you hold in the ministry is the servant's heart. Jesus told us when we get to heaven we are not going to hear God say, Well done, thou good and faithful Pastor. Well done, thou good and faithful missionary. Well done, thou good and faithful Sunday school teacher. No, He will not say any of those things.
He will say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. It is the servant's heart that gives our titles and positions their honor and value.
So, I guess the question now becomes, who are you serving? Who are you walking close beside, faithfully assisting? Your Pastor? Your Sunday school teacher? Who? Before you can become a great leader, you first must become a great servant.
Comments
Post a Comment