If you would, please open your Bibles to Exodus 18. Exodus chapter 18, this is God's Word. Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. After Moses had sent away his wife Sapphora, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, I've become an alien in a foreign land. And the other was named Eleazar. For he said, my father's God was my helper. He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, together with Moses' sons and wife, came to him in the desert where he was camped near the mountain of God. Jethro had sent word to him, I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons. So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, praise be to the Lord who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God. The next day, Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge while all these people stand around you from morning till evening? Moses answered him, because the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws. Moses' father-in-law replied, what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to Him. Teach them the decrees and laws and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select some capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times. But have them bring every difficult case to you, the simple cases they can decide for themselves. That will make your load lighter. because they will share it with you. If you do this, and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied. Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves. Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Well, first of all, you remember Jethro? I'm not talking about somebody who was in the Beverly Hillbillies. I'm talking about the father-in-law of Moses. When Moses first escaped from Egypt, he went to work for his father-in-law. And he worked for his father-in-law for 40 years, lived with him a long time. The man was a priest, but not, what that meant is that he knew there was a God and that he worshiped God and that he led others in the worship of God and that he offered sacrifices to God, but he really didn't have at all the kind of relationship with God that Moses would have with God. And yet, Here in this story, we see how Moses was able to benefit from the wisdom, mature counsel, of someone who didn't know the Lord as well as Moses did, but who was able to give an outsider's perspective, able to ask Moses a key question, and that is, what is this you're doing? I will never forget, right over there at the picnic pavilion, when I was in the process filling cups with ice or something, some executive task. We had a cooler sitting on top of one of the picnic tables and it was filled, I think, with ice and I was scooping out cups and putting them on the other side where they needed to go. The lid on the cooler was attached, had little straps that attached it so you don't lose the lid like some people lose lids to coolers. This one had attachment And so I was scooping and then going over the thing like this, and scooping and going over the thing like this. A friend of mine was observing this, sharp fellow, and after watching me dealing with things the way they were instead of making an improvement in the situation, he said, Jim, just a minute. And he turned the cooler around like this so that I could just go like this. Now that didn't make it a whole lot more efficient, but it was painful for my friend to watch me stupidly acting as if somehow this cooler was a fixed point in the universe and could not be changed or everything would come apart. I tend very often to see the way things are and figure, well, we can deal with that. And somebody else who has a different perspective is able to look at it and think, that's silly. Why are you doing it that way? Why don't you just make this kind of simple adjustment one time that suddenly will make everything much easier? We all sometimes need another person's perspective, another pair of eyes, somebody else to come along, take a look at what we're doing. And that's what God provided for Moses in this story. Now, look at the beginning of the chapter. It says, Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now remember, this book, Exodus, is one of the books written by Moses. Please understand, this is very important. As Moses is telling us this story, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who's getting the credit for what happened? Jethro heard of everything God had done. for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. He didn't hear of Moses' accomplishments, because they weren't Moses' accomplishments. What he heard was the testimony of what the Lord had done. Folks, if we give our testimonies properly, if we share our stories well, it's not that There won't be any of us in the story. It's that the hero of our story is God. God is the one who rescued. What I contributed to the equation of my conversion, my getting saved, was that I was lost and I needed saving. My contribution to the equation was that I was the one who needed rescue. It's not about my intelligence or my goodness or my wisdom. No, none of that. It's about God's mercy, God's grace, God's wisdom, God's patience. Be sure that as you tell your story, God's the hero, including as you tell your story to yourself. Okay? God's the hero. And after Moses had sent away his wife, Zipporah, his father-in-law, Jethro, received her and her two sons. Now, there's a little question here as to when it was that Moses had sent his wife and sons away. Some suggest that this had happened only recently. It was sort of like, well, honey, why don't you go back and tell your dad about what had happened? That would be a very favorable spin on it. I think there's also good evidence that she was not really with Moses in Egypt when he was bringing the message to Pharaoh and the plagues were going on and all that. If you'll remember, the last time I recall seeing Zipporah, she had just thrown a foreskin at Moses' feet and spoken to him very harshly. It's not entirely clear, at least not to me, when it was, but it says, after Moses had sent away his wife, Zipporah, his father-in-law, Jethro, received her and her two sons. And so now, here comes the father-in-law bringing his daughter and grandchildren back to her husband, Moses, and saying, I'm bringing you your wife and kids. Okay? It's the father-in-law acting as mediator, in my view. I think that's the best reading of the text. It's the father-in-law's acting as mediator and he's bringing the wife and children back. Now, there is an excellent reason why, apart from just marital strife, Moses might have been separated from his wife and children. And that is, he was going into a situation where God had promised to bring deliverance, but it was a life and death situation. Moses didn't have the details about how it was all going to work out. He just knew that in the end there was going to be deliverance. And he may well, as a soldier going off to the battlefield, doesn't take his wife and kids along. Sure, you can come. You know, you just don't do that when you're going into battle, that he would have left his wife and children behind. But in any case, The father-in-law is now coming with the wife and children. And we're reminded of the names of his sons. Gershom, which referred to his having become an alien on a foreign land, and then Eliezer. That was the one that was the little infant in the previous story. And Moses' father-in-law. comes to where he was camped and sent word, I'm coming. So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. It doesn't say he went out to meet his wife and kids. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they greeted each other and then went into the tent. And Moses began to tell his father-in-law about everything that he had done. Is that what it says? No. Once again, notice it's the same as in the opening paragraph. Told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. Somebody sent me a little meme the other day that says, everybody wants a miracle but nobody wants to be in a situation where they need one. Isn't that the truth? You know, we think, oh, man, I would like to see those kinds of miracles. Really? You'd like the Egyptians breathing down your neck and an uncrossable body of water in front of you? Well, no. I'd just like to, like, maybe at the beach sometime see, you know, it'd be really cool. Well, that's not when those miracles happen. Miracles happen as needed. And for the most part, you and I don't want to be in a situation where we need them, do we? We try very hard to protect ourselves from getting into those situations. But God often leads his people in such a way that they need a miracle. God often leads his people in a path where unless God intervenes, we're toast. And that doesn't mean that God's trying to scare us. As we've said many times, instead, God is doing this to teach us not to be afraid and to trust in Him and depend on Him. So he heard about all the hardships they'd met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. And Jethro was delighted to hear about, here it is again, all the good things the Lord had done. And he said, verse 10, praise be to the Lord. who rescued you and who rescued the people. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly. And so the consequence of this discussion is that it moves from testimony to worship. Having heard about what God has done to rescue his people, Jethro offers up sacrifices to God and the leaders of Israel, Aaron comes and the elders of the various tribes come and together they fellowship in an atmosphere of worship before the Lord. If our story is properly told, the consequence will be worship. People come to know the greatness of God and are moved to worship Him. That is what we should want from our lives. I'll give you another example of a fellow who wasn't doing a great job, but God still used him in this way. Jonah. Jonah gets on a boat with a bunch of people who don't know God, He's running from God at the time. But, after he gets thrown off the boat and the storm calms down, what do those former pagans do? They worship the Lord. They have not even known about the Lord until they heard from Jonah. But Jonah, telling his story, even while he was trying to get away from God, which is impossible, Jonah telling his story results in those people who had not previously known God worshiping God. Our story should lead others to worship the Lord. The next day, verse 13, Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people. And this is the part of the chapter that most folks tend to focus on. The next day, Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people and they stood around him from morning till evening. Now, what was the reason for that? Well, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people here. If you've got hundreds of thousands of people, do you think you're going to have conflicts? Well, everybody just needs to read Ken Sandy's book, The Peacemaker. Well, everybody should read Ken Sandy's book, The Peacemaker, and people ought to put it into practice. It's good, solid teaching. But if you have hundreds of thousands of people, even if they've read the book, you're going to have some people who have disagreements. You're going to have people who have difference of opinion. And so you've got people who are coming to Moses all day, every day, day after day. It's an endless stream, and they're standing in line. I went for a haircut in Wheaton, Illinois back in January, I believe, and I had to stand for two hours in the barbershop waiting my turn. The barbershop was packed. I mean packed with people. Other people would come along the sidewalk and start to come into the shop, and they'd see the crowd, and they'd say, I'll come back next week. And I waited two hours, because it's one of those things where you think, surely it won't take that long. But it just took a long time. That was worth it. That haircut lasted me a couple of months. But when these folks came to see Moses, it was like the Department of Motor Vehicles. It was like that barbershop in Wheaton. I mean, people are lined up and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, and there was nowhere else to go. It wasn't like, well, if I don't like this place, I can go somewhere else down the street. No, this is it. This is the place. And so these folks stood all day, and Moses is getting worn out. Can you picture if you've been waiting, and you're the next one, and Moses says, I'm sorry, you all excuse me a minute, I need to take a break. I thought he was finally gonna get to me. I went to get a haircut just the other day, by the way, about a week, week and a half ago, and went down here to Townsend. Sat there for 45 minutes waiting for my haircut, one person after another, and when I was the next one up, I cough, for the second time in 45 minutes. And the barber asked me to please leave his shop, because he was afraid he'd get what I had. I'm not saying shame on him, because if I'd been the barber and I'd heard somebody who sounded like he was dying, I would have probably asked him to leave, too. So I hold nothing against him. But it was like, I wish I'd known that when I came in here. I wouldn't have sat here for 45 minutes waiting to have my hair cut. These folks stood in line all day long. They waited, they waited, they waited, they waited, and some of them are told, you're gonna have to come back tomorrow. You know, we're out of time today. And so, day after day, this is going on, and Moses feels like this is the best he can do. You know, he's gotta deal with them one at a time, he's gotta give everybody their, have you ever had that happen at the doctor's office? You got a one o'clock appointment, and 3.30, you're still waiting to be seen? Man, that's frustrating. You wouldn't be there if you were feeling well. And if you were looking for something fun to do, you wouldn't think doctor's office. All right? But this is what was happening here. This is an old problem. And so Moses is doing what he's been doing, what seems to him the only thing to do, and his father-in-law says, What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge while all these people stand around you from morning till evening? Moses said, well, the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it's brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws. Moses' father-in-law replied, what you are doing is not good. Now, nobody likes criticism. but we all need it from time to time. And Moses' father-in-law was very straightforward. He didn't say, you might want to rethink that. He said, what you're doing is not good. There are some things that you're the only one who can do them. Those are the things you need to do. There are some other things that you're currently doing that you don't need to be doing. You need to get somebody else to do them. Been there, made that mistake, currently in the midst of it again. I guarantee you, some of the stuff I'm doing right now, I'm doing because it got handed to me. And it's like, oh, well, I need to do this. Oh, well, I need to do that, too. Oh, well, oh, OK. It's not good, I'm not really the best at juggling. And so, what do I need to do? I need to do what Moses did. I need to say, this is gonna go to you. This is gonna go to you. This is gonna go to you. Now, you know what happens in that situation? The people that I hand things to go, And so one of the things that happened here that's instructive for us is that they didn't just break it down to those who would be over thousands. They said, we're going to have some who are over thousands, we're going to have some who are over hundreds, we're going to have some who are over fifties, and some who are over ten. In other words, there were layers of hierarchy and And with that, there was the ability for people to make decisions. People were empowered to make decisions. That's needed in all our lives. Let's suppose you're a parent. If your kids can't make a decision without your permission, your kids are not going to learn to make decisions. You've got to entrust them with the ability to make decisions. Now, don't ask them what color to paint the house. But you might want, at some point, perhaps in the teen years, to let them make a decision about, oh, I don't know, nail color, or the color in their room, if it's their room, not talking about The house is over here. Sorry. But if every decision they make has to be approved by you and okayed by you and vetted by you, and it's about stuff that really doesn't matter that much, that's a problem. We've got to relinquish control as our kids get older in areas where it is not of eternal significance. And I'm sorry, but I kind of feel sometimes like my aesthetics are of eternal significance. And that's wrong of me. I don't want certain things that I don't like, but that other people might like. And I have to let it go. And I have to let it go. Now, if you're a parent, you need to relinquish increasingly, as your kids are getting older, some decisions to your kids. And if you are a kid, you need to understand that the better your decisions are in the things that are turned over to you, the more likely it is that you will be trusted to make more decisions of greater consequence, having proven your ability to make sensible decisions. Does that make sense? I remember when I was in eighth grade, and I was invited to do something that I didn't really want to do, but I was hoping my dad would say I couldn't. And that way, I could tell my friends, no, I can't, my dad won't let me. And so I came and I asked my dad, and he said, well, son, you need to pray about that and do whatever the Lord tells you. And I said, well, you don't want me to do it, do you? And he said, I really think it's better for you to pray about that and do whatever the Lord tells you. Well, I was just... really frustrated because Dad had put the decision on me. And I knew Dad didn't want me to do it. And I knew that Dad was right. But I didn't want to have to take a stand. I didn't want to have to tell my friends, no, I'm not going to do that because I don't think that's a good thing. Instead, Dad forced me to make the decision. And that was the first of many. If you're a kid and you're entrusted with a decision, seek the Lord and make a good decision. You will make mistakes sometimes, grown-ups do too, but seek the Lord. and seek to do what the Lord would have you to do, what would please Him. And if you are a school teacher, if you are a parent, if you are a leader of people, look for ways to apply this principle in the situation where you're in charge. Because the fact of the matter is, All of us have areas of responsibility, things that we're in charge of. I remember when I was a kid, one of the things that I was definitely in charge of was my bicycle. The chain needed to be kept clean and oiled. The tires needed air in them. I learned how to change the inner tube and the tire on my bicycle in order to keep my bike working. I learned how to make sure the gears were not getting gunk all over them, because they wouldn't work as well if they did. So I had to clean them. And as I learned to take care of that bike, it wasn't like dad didn't say, son, I want you to maintain the family car. I just had to take care of my bike. I was in elementary school, and taking care of my bike was my job. And I was out riding my bike about four or five miles from home with my parents' permission. And I was in a public park, and I saw a kid with a bike that was much newer than mine. And he was picking the bike up and slamming it down on the ground. And I said, what are you doing? And he said, I'm trashing my bike. And I said, what are you talking about? Why would you do that? And he said, because I want a new one. And my parents won't get me a new one until this one's really messed up. I don't know what happened to that kid, but I can guess. He may have gotten a new bike from his irresponsible parents, who rewarded irresponsible behavior by giving more things to their child. That's very possible, but I guarantee you this, if he continued on that path in life, it did not end well for him. Jesus says this, whoever is faithful in little will be faithful in much. Whoever is unfaithful in little will be unfaithful in much. Jesus also says if you cannot be trusted to take care of that which belongs to someone else, then you will not be trusted with that which is your own. So every single one of us, at every stage in our lives, if you're old enough to hear this message, you're old enough to have some things you're responsible to take care of. Clothing, for example. Do you take care of your clothes so that they can benefit somebody else when you outgrow them? Or do you think, I'm outgrowing this. I might as well go ahead and let it get torn up. Do you take care of your stuff? Think about it. Do you take care of the books that you've been given? When I was in second grade, we all got to use the library for the first time. And when we went to turn in our books, one little girl put hers on the teacher's desk and the teacher tried to go through to make sure she hadn't marked in the pages and so forth, which some irresponsible children do. They take crayons and things and they mark in the books. It's not okay unless it's a coloring book that belongs to you. And suddenly the teacher exclaimed, Cindy, what have you done to this book? Because Cindy had put paste between every page, right in the middle of the page. Just boom, like that, and you turn that page, and here's another glob of paste, and so all the pages were pasted together. I'll never forget it, I was horrified. How could anybody do that? Unfortunately, I imitated the teacher's vocalization, and that got me in trouble. She said, Cindy, what have you done to this book? And I went, Cindy, what have you done to this book? I got to write 50 times, I will not mock the teacher. I wasn't mocking, I was just a parrot. I was seven years old, cut me some slack, come on. But here's the thing, I still remember being horrified when I found out what Cindy had done. Not as horrified as when I found out I had to write 50 times, I will not mock the teacher, but nevertheless, all of us have stuff we're responsible for. And if we do a good job with the things we're responsible for, we can be entrusted with more. And Moses had to put that into practice by setting up a framework where people were responsible for various levels of judging. If it was a critical case, a really difficult case, still needed to come to Moses. But you know what? Most stuff isn't critical. Most decisions are really not that big. Most things are really not gonna matter a year from now. Much less five years from now. Much less 50 years from now. Much less an eternity. It just doesn't matter that much. So don't stress over the small stuff. And remember, most of it, small stuff. Okay? So, Moses listened, verse 24, to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. What kind of people were they? Verse 21, capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain. In other words, people whose decisions would not be influenced by somebody trying to pay them off. You want people who are honest, who trust the Lord and seek to do what's right. I want all of you to be that kind of people. People who are trustworthy, who fear the Lord, and who would not be subject to bribery. Got it? All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much that in your word, you instruct us not only about things that happened thousands of years ago, But you instruct us from that about how we're supposed to live today. And I pray that you would help us to put it into practice to be wise in the delegation of authority and to be responsible when authority is delegated to us. I pray, Lord God, that as we tell our story to ourselves and to others, we would remember that you're the only hero. and that you indeed do all things well. We give you praise. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.