Well, if you turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 1, we are going to be spending more time in these first nine verses because they introduce principles that underscore important themes in the rest of the book. Joshua 1, verses 1 through 9. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Amen. Father, we desire to prosper in the path that you send us on. We desire to press into the upward calling that you have given to us, and each one has unique gifts and unique callings, and I pray that as we dig into your Word that you would minister as your Holy Spirit only can to each unique need in this congregation. Father, fill us with Your Spirit. It's apart from Your Spirit strengthening us, giving us Your courage, Your strength. We cannot do the things that You have called us to do. And so, empower us, Father, by Your grace and wash away any fear and any negative things that would hinder us in our walk. We bless You. It is our privilege to continue to worship You as we interact with Your Word. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, last week we looked at seven inescapable concepts that are embedded into verses one through nine. And it's my opinion that until the church once again embraces those concepts, we are not going to take the land. We're going to be like the first generation of Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. That first generation did not embrace those concepts. Second generation did, and they were blessed by the Lord. And it's my prayer that God would send reformation to the church of Jesus Christ. So that was last week. Today we're going to back up and go phrase by phrase through the passage and look at some of the leadership principles that are exemplified in Joshua's life. Now, next to Moses and David, I think that Joshua is one of the most remarkable leaders in the entire Old Testament. His name occurs 205 times. It is Yehoshua. Salvation, you know, from the Lord. It's Yehoshua. It's translated, interestingly, as Yesus in the Greek Septuagint as well as in the New Testament. And Joshua stands as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who even now is taking the conquest of Canaan, so to speak, through the sword of the Word. It's the Great Commission. And the Hebrews applies it to that. And so on many levels, Joshua is a remarkable leader. And as we go through the book, we're going to be seeing many other leadership lessons that will pop up here and there. But God is embedded right into the introduction of this book, 14 absolutely essential principles of leadership. And we're going to look at eight today. And we'll finish them up on the next time. Now, why is it even important to go over these? Well, a lot of pastors, a lot of other Christian leaders have been taken out by the enemy over the past 40 years. And as I have looked over these and grieved over these leaders who have fallen, I have seen one or more of these 14 principles absent from their lives. And I'm preaching through these, not only so that you can recognize leaders and pray for them, but so that you can grow in your own leadership. It's my opinion, everybody leads in some way. You may not be in formal leadership, but everybody leads in some way. It may be a child leading another child into mischief, right? Or it could be a child leading other children into praying. But I do believe all of us are involved in some kind of leadership, and so we can appropriate these lessons to ourselves. Now, the first principle is a fairly basic one, and that is that a leader should seek an upward mentor. And this is true even after a person succeeds in getting into an official office or position of leadership. We should never stop learning from others. Verse 1 says, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant. Now Joshua spent a lot of time in the previous 40 years learning from Moses the ropes of leadership by being involved in leadership issues. And it makes sense because it's leaders who build leaders. Teachers can help, but teachers do not produce leaders. Teachers produce teachers. Like produces like. And so a leader builder is imparting his life and his values and his methods into a new person. Now, it's not done like a factory. It's not McDonald's producing a whole bunch of identical hamburgers. Because every leader is going to be very unique in their giftings and in their callings, but there is going to be some sameness that is going to be passed on. Leaders are developed by transference of your life into the life of the emerging leader, obviously with a sensitivity to what God is calling that leader to do, and what God is providentially bringing into that leader's life. So Paul said, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ, 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1. Following a person's example involves being around that person. Okay, it's not like a teacher where you're just sitting passively in the audience. Leadership development involves being around them. So it says in Mark 3.14 that Jesus appointed the twelve, designating them apostles, that they might be with Him. Why did they need to be with Him? Why did they have to follow Jesus around and live with Him, so to speak? And the answer is that it wasn't just academics. He had to show them a lot of the ministry. And they would imitate Him in that ministry. They watched him, they imitated. How does an evangelist learn how to be an evangelist? Well, it's by hanging around and watching and imitating and practicing with another evangelist. It's one of the reasons why Michael and Bill and others make opportunities for any of you to go downtown with them or other places and just kind of learn the ropes, get easily introduced into sharing your faith with other peoples. If leadership could be learned from books, there would be many more leaders in the world than there are. Leadership training requires hands-on involvement in their lives. And I bring this up because mentorship is an absolutely essential leadership principle. A lot of people don't realize that. Once they get into a leadership position, they stop meeting with an upward mentor. They think that they have arrived. But without upward mentorship, we rob ourselves and we stagnate. We really do. Even after Moses died, and there really wasn't any upward mentor that could mentor Joshua, he learned from, and they mutually encouraged each other, Joshua and Caleb. We call that horizontal mentorship. But it's good for all of us to seek upward mentors, horizontal mentors between equals and downward mentorship relationships with those who are just learning the ropes. Even at age 67, I am still seeking upward mentors who can force me to grow in different areas of my life. And so let me give you some tips on how you can gain maximum benefit from these relationships. First, be open to constructive criticism. We'll see later that one of the principles of leadership is humility, and pride is really exposed when you are critiqued over things that you really thought you were doing fairly good. But be teachable, be open to constructive criticism, and you will grow, you will benefit. Leaders are constantly self-correcting, but they are also open to the correction of other people. I love our consistory, which is composed of our elders and deacons, and we meet once a month, generally speaking. Every once in a while, we skip a month, but we meet together to exhort one another, encourage each other to grow in our leadership abilities. Right now, we're going through the lead book. That's one kind of peer mentorship. Second, don't expect to be perfect before you become a mentor. You parents are mentors of your children, right? But don't expect to be perfect before you become a mentor or expect other people to be perfect. Those you mentor are going to be asking you questions that you don't know the answer to and it's gonna force you to grow as well. None of us has arrived, which means that we should have a growth mindset our whole lives rather than an I've arrived mindset. It's clear from chapter 5 that Joshua still needed to grow more. God taught him an extremely important lesson in chapter 5, and in later chapters we'll see other areas where he continued to grow. If leaders develop a culture where appearing to be perfect is essential, Wow, there's not going to be a lot of growth that takes place. Third, be honest and transparent. If you read the accounts where Joshua is being discussed, and it's mainly in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you will see Joshua learning from the mistakes of Moses and learning from the humble transparency of Moses. Scripture portrays Moses as being the most humble man upon the face of the earth at that time. And yet it portrays him also as being the greatest leader at that time. But it was his humility that enabled him to be open and transparent and honest. And this encouraged Joshua to be open, honest and transparent with others. I think it's a beautiful part of his leadership in this book. Fourth, respect the time of those mentoring you. Though Moses did train a few people in leadership, he couldn't devote the same amount of time to all of the people that he was mentoring. It was just he would not have had enough hours in the day to do that. And this is why leaders are built a few at a time. If Christ, the perfect man, could only mentor 12 people, that's how many He picked to surround Himself with, that's probably the maximum that any of us are going to be able to mentor. However, it is important to note that even there Jesus spent far more time with Peter, James, and John than he did with the twelve. And this enabled Jesus to tailor his leadership training to the needs of each individual. And I say this, again, to illustrate this principle, respect the time of those mentoring you. Moses mentored a few, Joshua mentored a few, but we'll see later in this book that there were many who embraced that culture of mentorship. They didn't hog all of Joshua's time. By the way, that started all the way back in Exodus 18, where there was a maximum of 10 men that each mentor would take on. That was the ideal. We don't have the ideal in this church. Elders really should ideally have about 10 families that they're working with. We got a lot more than that, so pray for us. But that's the ideal. Fifth, show gratitude and appreciation and honor to those who mentor you, even if there are areas that they're messed up on. Most of us are not going to have the opportunity to be mentored by somebody as phenomenal as Moses was. We live in a time when upward mentors are scarce, and so sometimes you have to seek them out informally. I've been mentored by men, some of whom were not even ordained, and some of whom were not even reformed, because I was always seeking somebody who had areas where they were way, way better than I was in. And so a lot of these pastors or others who were not pastors, they were very intimidated. They said, I can't mentor you, Phil. And so I just quit using the word mentorship. OK, I just said, hey, can I meet with you once a month and we'll just talk and I'll ask you some questions. And they said, sure, that's OK. And so that's how I was able to do it with them. But I didn't allow my doctrinal disagreements to hinder my learning things about administration spiritual warfare, prayer, mercy ministries, or other things. And I showed appreciation to these people, even though there were many areas of disagreement. But I think all of us need upward mentors. The person could change from year to year, but seek one out each year to force yourself to grow. Joshua would not have been where he was in this book without the mentorship of Moses in the previous books. Next lesson of leadership I see hinted at in verse 1 is that a leader should be patient with God's timing. Now, if you are called to formal leadership, God has probably already put within you these deep longings to be involved in ministries, be involved in things that God's not opening up for you to be able to do yet. And you're going to have to trust God's timing on this. You're eager to get involved, and God sometimes forces us to trust His timing. For example, God anointed and called David to be king many years before he was actually able to be king, and David just learned to be patient and to grow during the times, take the opportunities to grow and learn during that waiting period. Well, the same was true of Joshua. Verse 1 says that Joshua entered into this longed-for stage of his ministry, quote, after the death of Moses. That's a long time of waiting. There's a lot of history that's involved in that phrase. The first time that the name of Joshua comes up is in Exodus chapter 17, where Joshua was assigned the duty of leading the armies of Israel against the Amalekites. Now, up until that point, Joshua had never had any experience with fighting. Apparently, Moses had learned how to fight in warfare tactics as an adopted son of Pharaoh, at least that's what Josephus says. But there's no evidence that Joshua had had any experience. But Moses saw some leadership potential in Joshua, and he involves him in various types of things. But God knows Joshua's got a lot more things to learn before he's going to be entrusted with taking the conquest. of the land of Canaan. He would learn leadership skills, warfare skills, intimacy with God in the tent of meeting, how to handle leadership backlash. There was a lot of that. Character skills. There's so many other skills that took him through the tough times. And many of the painful lessons, we're not going to get into, but the painful lessons that Joshua learned over the previous 40 years are lessons that we have to learn as well. And we wonder why God is not putting us into the ministry that we long for. You see, 40 years before, Joshua and Caleb were eager. They were ready to take the conquest of Canaan, but God was not ready for that. And Joshua did not lose patience or stop working. He was just faithful where God had placed him. And by the way, I always say when I'm mentoring people, I'm not the leader developer. God. Moses was not the leader developer. God was the one who was training Joshua, and Moses was just taking advantage of the providential opportunities that God was bringing in and getting on board with what God was doing in Joshua. Okay, lesson number three that I see hinted at in verse one is that a leader must learn how to worship, how to wait upon the Lord, hear from the Lord through his word. Now, Joshua had been doing this ever since Exodus chapter 33, when Moses introduced him to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And it was the place where Moses and and Joshua grew in their communion with God. And by the way, Exodus 33 says that Joshua stayed at the tent much longer than Moses did. Moses had responsibilities he had to go to, and it says Joshua stayed there many hours, communing with God, hearing from Him. Well, verse 1 here says, It came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua. The words, it came to pass, show that this didn't happen immediately. And Donald Campbell's commentary spells out the implication. He says, Joshua may have felt a sense of loneliness and waited expectantly near the Jordan River to hear the voice of God. He was not disappointed. When God's servants take time to listen, He always communicates. In the present age, He usually speaks through His written word, but in the Old Testament, He spoke in dreams by night and visions by day through the high priest and occasionally in an audible voice. In whatever way God communicated with Joshua, the message came through clearly. Now, it's amazing to me how many Christians are uncomfortable with quietness and waiting upon the Lord. They feel driven to be doing something or listening to something. If they're waiting before the Lord, it just drives them crazy. It's like there's something tugging at their heart. There's so many things that they've got to get done that they don't have time to wait for the Lord. Well, we have it all backwards when we do that. If the branches on the vine in John chapter 15 can do nothing of any significance without Christ, and that's what he says, then why do we launch into our leadership activities without Christ? We are shortchanging our leadership activities. Waiting on God is an absolute necessity. And the busier we are, the more we need to wait on Christ. Gary and I keep harping on this, people get tired of it, but we keep harping on it because people forget about it. And there's an author, I've tried to track down who this author is, I haven't been able to find it, but wrote a poem illustrating the importance of knocking, seeking, and asking. The poem says, I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray. Problems just tumbled around me, and heavier came each task. Why doesn't God help me, I wondered. He answered, you didn't ask. I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, but you didn't seek. I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the door. God gently and lovingly chided, my child, you didn't knock. I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray. Isaiah 40 verse 13 says, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Now, I recognize leaders are incredibly busy, and I have this temptation all of the time to rush into the busyness of the day because I don't have enough time. There should never be a schedule that is so busy, we're too busy to take time for the Lord. Christian leadership is not the same as the world's leadership. We will be seeing every facet of our leadership needs to start by grace and continue by grace. Now, the fourth lesson is that God requires all leadership to flow from service and that all leaders need to have a servant's heart. Now, this, too, is somewhat backwards to the world's way of thinking. To qualify before God for more leadership God puts us through more servanthood, of Christ's servanthood. Verse 1 calls Moses the servant of the Lord and calls Joshua the servant of Moses, and so Joshua was a servant's servant. And all of this demonstrates that a leader's leader of Joshua's caliber needs to be a servant's servant. He has to prove himself that way. Years ago, I had an Air Force fighter pilot tell me, wow, Phil, this is so, so contrary to what he and his fellow pilots were trained to think. Self-confidence, one-upmanship, bragging rights. I mean, those are the ways that you get advanced, he said. But Joshua was quite different. He was small enough in his own eyes that God was able to elevate him. God can't trust a self-serving man with leadership. He can't. And people think, but I have so much to offer. I can't wait. And I tell people, you know, Jesus had so much to offer, but he waited for 30 years before he went into the ministry. He worked as a carpenter, which didn't get a whole lot of recognition. Yeah, I'm sure he did good carpentry work and people wanted his his work, but it didn't offer a whole lot. of recognition. He had an enormous amount to offer, but he learned service first. And we might think, wow, what a waste of time. What a waste of talent. Let's put this young man, Jesus, into the spotlight. Isn't that what we do with politicians who become Christians and, you know, movie stars and other celebrities? Yeah, sadly, we put them into the spotlight. We make heroes out of them. It's not God's way of doing things. And they think, but why not Jesus? You know, people will be fascinated with his brilliance. We could stage debates between 12 year old Jesus and the brightest atheists of the world. This would be awesome. And no, God's ways are not our ways. Jesus, the perfect man, learned humble service before he was exalted as king. He was not too big to be involved in manual labor. I think many pastors and elders enter into their office prematurely. There was a reason why 30 years of age was the minimum age that was given for priests in the Old Testament before they entered into the ministry. Now, they served before that, but they were prepared with servants, a ministry that would develop a servant's heart. Many times it was menial kinds of chores. I think probably the best preparation that I had for the pastorate was not seminary. The best preparation I had for the pastorate was two years working in the nursing home, which involved me and wiping dirty bottoms and bathing people and brushing their teeth and ambulating them, sometimes getting kicked and bitten by people who were not quite in their right mind. But those two years were some of the best preparation of my heart for ministry. It was wonderful. So we need to ask ourselves, are we willing to wash feet as Jesus did, or are we simply seeking positions of recognition and influence? James says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Look at the kind of people that 1 Corinthians 1 says God delights in using for His kingdom. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the five sermons that were preached at this past presbytery earlier in May, go online and listen to them. They were five different preachers preaching on five different words in the beatitude, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I think you'll be blessed. Really encouraging, and they speak to this issue. The fifth lesson keeps us from going to the opposite extreme and refusing to lead because of past failures. It also helps us to hold past successes in their proper focus. The past should not chain us down. Joshua was a forward-looking man. Verse 2 says, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Joshua knew that Moses was dead. Why did God have to remind Joshua of this fact? Well, on the surface, you could just say, well, it's just time to go into the land of Canaan. And that's true. But perhaps there was more. Perhaps it was to remind Joshua that he needed to put behind him his past and to step into God's calling. Looking at the past can be a useful tool or it can be a dangerous enemy, depending upon how we look at the past. And that's true whether the past is good or whether it's bad. Looking at past failures too much can predispose us to thinking we're always going to be like that. We're always going to be failure. I don't know how many people I've run across who were chained and immobilized by some huge, and it was a huge, past failure. And they can't move on, sometimes because of embarrassment, or sometimes it's just they feel like their life is characterized by that past failure. On the other hand, I have met the occasional person who does nothing in their older years except to revel in all of the things that God has done through them in the past. Their past successes are not motivating them to conquer new territory. They become an excuse for inactivity. And Paul recognized the potential pitfalls of both of those problems. His past hugely pained him. Because after all, he had persecuted the church and even killed many believers. That would be a reputation that would be extremely hard to live down. How embarrassing would that be? And he might think, nobody's going to receive me. I've killed some of these people's relatives. I can't go into this ministry. But he refused to allow his past failures to chain him down, nor was he chained by past successes, though he could have been. Later, God sent a trial to buffet him because he was prone to pride in past accomplishments. Pride is something that shrivels your ability to trust God for more. Let me repeat that. Pride is something that shrivels your ability to trust God for more. And Paul's remedy was exactly the same as God's remedy for Joshua. Past is dead, move on. Here's how Paul worded it. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. So he says, if you're mature, you're going to always be looking for more opportunities to serve the Lord and to honor the Lord, no matter how old you are. We don't know how old Joshua was here. We do know that Caleb was age 78 in this chapter, and Joshua was probably right around the same age. But no matter how old you are, you need to keep pressing into new ways of serving the Lord. If you're forward looking rather than chained to the past, God will use you. The sixth lesson is that a leader should be a man with a God-given vision and purpose and be able to share that vision with others. Now, Joshua's vision for the rest of his life is encapsulated in just a few words in verse 2. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them. take the land which I have given to them." He later shares that vision in verse 11 saying, within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess. So possess the land which God has given you to possess. Very concise vision. Has God placed a burden on your heart that you can encapsulate into a very short vision statement? And let me give you five reasons why this is a good thing, why having a short vision statement to drive you is good. You don't need to write these down if you don't want, you can just listen. But it gives us, first of all, a laser focus that enables us and motivates us to fight to fit that vision into our daily schedule. And the busier you get, the more you have to fight to get things into your schedule. Second, it holds us accountable for acting consistent with that vision. If you keep reminding yourself of that God-given vision, it will hold you accountable. Third, it helps us to organize those that we're leading around that vision rather than being scattered and haphazard. Fourth, it helps to provide direction and energy. If you aim at nothing, what's the expression? You will hit it. You will hit nothing, right? Fifth, it forms a compass for decision-making when the pressure is on. And it's very useful, I think, to actually write down and memorize your vision statement. Let me give you some examples of vision statements that have driven people to do stuff. For Steve Jobs at Apple Computer, it was start a revolution in the way the average person processes information. For Fred Smith at Federal Express, it was a vision of truly reliable mail service, and later it became the world on time. What drove Nehemiah to build a wall? What drove Moses to take Israel to the promised land? What drove David and Solomon was to build a temple. Now, was that the only thing they did? No. There were all kinds of things that they did, but that vision was a driving force in their lives that energized them. Now, the shortest version of my vision statement that has driven me for the past 40 years is to be used by God to bring His biblical blueprints to every area of life that I'm given time to do. And I pray that I'm given many more years to do that. But that vision drives me. It makes my emphasis a little bit different than some other pastors would be. But hey, all of our gifts and callings and visions are going to be different, right? So what is the vision God has placed upon your heart? Seventh lesson is that a leader must lead by example and be a man of action who can help others to take action. Let's read verses two and three again. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses from, and then he goes on, okay? Leaders don't just tell others what to do. Obviously, there's some of that that happens, but Joshua led by example. He himself had to arise, go, and make his feet tread upon the land because he was going to be expecting his people, his followers to do that. Leaders must embody the values that they expect from those that they lead. Leaders are in the limelight, and everybody's dissecting everything that they do, how they dress, you know, how they handle conflict, how they talk. And Joshua would need his men to be courageous to fight, and so God tells him to be courageous. Makes sense, right? If he was timid, that timidity is going to rub off on his soldiers. Joshua is going to need men who are fearless in following the Lord into the thick of the battle. And so God calls Joshua to be fearless and not to turn to the right hand or the left hand. And we'll see next time why that takes courage to not go to the right hand or the left hand of his law. And the point is, God was calling Joshua to model certain things or to lead by example. And I'll hasten to say that not all leaders must take the same actions. Just as there is division of labor and different giftings among the people, there's division of labor and different giftings among the leadership of the people. God has gifted each one of the elders and deacons in this church in different ways, quite different ways, and we value those differences. But all of us are called to lead by example. And we'll certainly see that in the book of Joshua. If you aren't a soldier. OK, there's going to be some things in here I'm not going to emphasize. I would emphasize if I was teaching to the military. Actually, if you read Stonewall Jackson, he loved Joshua. He studied Joshua. He taught Joshua in the War College. There are a lot of things in there that he was imitating Joshua on. You're going to be different if you're leading a family. It's still going to be the same principle that you're going to apply. You will need to exemplify the kind of things you want your children to grow in. When you blow it and say something unkind to your wife or to your child, model what humbling yourself and asking for forgiveness looks like. So, let's say that you've sinned against your wife. You said something really rude or angry or curt or whatever. Immediately stop. And in front of your kids, you need to apologize, because you sinned in front of your kids. You need to apologize in front of your kids. Say, kids, what I just said to mom was sinful. Here's what I should have said. And I want to ask forgiveness of my wife. I want to ask your forgiveness for having blown it there. And after you've been granted forgiveness, you pray, and you discuss this event. You're leading in even simple things like that, OK? So here are some tips. And we need transparency. We need openness and if modeling is going to be possible, but let me give you some tips that Will help you to lead By example rather than saying do as I say not as I do First take responsibility for your actions. Don't blame shit later on in this book. We're going to see that Joshua It really was like Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan always would say, the buck stops with me. He took responsibility. And because Joshua took responsibility, he developed a culture in which others learned to take responsibility. Second, be truthful. Demonstrate that honesty really does pay off. If people are punished for being truthful about their failures, they will eventually learn that dishonesty and covering up of their failures pays off much better than truthfulness. When leaders are not truthful about their own weaknesses, it breeds a climate of hiding. And so be truthful and vulnerable. This was another thing that Joshua modeled later in the book. Third, be courageous. Walk through the fires of crisis in a way that inspires others to take similar risks. Learn to anticipate change and adapt to it. Teach others how to do the same. The point is, courage breeds courage in others. Fourth, acknowledge your own failures. And I know I've already talked about this in another point, but I think it bears repeating just in terms of leading by example. Failure is a part of growth. And for some of the people that I mentor who are afraid of acknowledging their failures, I give them a one-page summary of an article that was written by John Maxwell called Failing Forward. It's a great article. And he says this in that article, people think failure is avoidable. It is not. Assuming failure is avoidable can immobilize you when it happens. Learn, change, and move on. In fact, he says in that article, if you have not failed, then you are not trying anything significant. And for sure, your goals are way too low. So anyway. It may seem counterproductive, but it is not. I love what one basketball coach said in an interview. He said, failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching, I've learned from making mistakes. Now that may seem counterintuitive, but if you just evaporate from your life the fear of failure, you're going to be in a better mindset to attempt great things for God that are risky. On the other hand, if you don't acknowledge your failures and help others to learn from their failures, sometimes with consequences, and have a positive attitude toward failures, it'll kill anything positive coming out of failure in the future, and that will be disastrous because it undermines growth and grace. In this book, Joshua will acknowledge his big mistakes and help everyone to learn from them. So Joshua needed to arise, go, walk with his feet, not just in conquest, but also in every area of growth. Fifth tip, be persistent. If a goal is worth pursuing, it's worth going under and over and around every obstacle that is out there. By the way, I just think John and Megan have been a marvelous example on going around and over and under every hurdle, you know, in order to make this court case successful. I think we can learn from them on this. Next tip, create solutions to problems. Don't dwell on the problems. Be the first to offer solutions to the problems and listen to other people's possible solutions. You'll develop a culture of problem solving rather than problem finding. Seventh, listen. If you want to develop a culture of listening, you've got to listen. Next, delegate to those who do things better than you. If you don't want them to micromanage and burn out, then you need to learn, oh wow, I'm preaching to myself, you need to learn to delegate really well, right? You can see this, just one point, has many different applications. Next, be willing to roll up your sleeves and show others how things are done. When we would teach our children how to clean their room or mow the yard or whatever, we would bring them with us, show them how to do it partway, then involve them side-by-side with us, then have them do it by themselves, give feedback. This is the way Jesus taught His adult disciples, right? And so teach people how to do things, then get out of their way. And last, create a positive, winning culture where people's faith is elevated, their work is seen as significant, and the long-term significance of their work is communicated. I mean, I think the people in the book of Joshua were jazzed under Joshua's positive, faith-filled leadership. He led by example as a man of action who helped others to take action. I'm just going to uncover one more principle of leadership this morning. A leader should have written goals that are measurable and that stretches faith. Verse 4 gives God's goals of what Joshua needed to conquer. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." Now that was a massive amount of territory that they needed to conquer. It would challenge his faith, it would challenge the faith of Israel. But more importantly, these goals here were measurable. They were specific enough that anybody could see whether or not the goal was met. Now, obviously, these are the macro goals that he had, and later chapters will give smaller goals and even daily goals. But Joshua modeled the idea of written goals. And I know a number of you still don't have written goals for your life. And this is something I keep harping on. We really do need to do that. Let me give you nine reasons why goals are so important. First, because of human nature, okay? If it's not planned, we tend to do what comes naturally, and Scripture says what comes naturally usually is not the best. Righteousness doesn't just happen. It's got to be planned for and worked at. To accomplish what God has called us to supernaturally accomplish requires that we set these goals before our eyes and not forget them, and writing them down helps. Second, because of the critical role of hope. God made man to be a creature who needs hope. Hope is simply the subjective counterpart of the objective goals. And where there is hope, there are always goals, whether they are stated or unstated, written or unwritten. There is always goals there. And goals are the expression of our hope. You cannot have one without the other. When we lose hope, Scripture says we lose all motivation to do anything. And in my motivation series, I demonstrated that Scripture says hope is a huge motivator. It purifies us, it brings perseverance, it gives a context of joy in the face of tribulation. So goals are important. Why? Because hope is important. When you write down goals that are God-sized, like Joshua's goals were, it not only drives you to trust God for greater things than you can accomplish, but it energizes you as you see God coming through on a daily basis in your life. Third, because we are stewards who must account for our time. This provides an objective way of reporting back to God what we have done. with the time that he has given to us. And how do you report back to God? Well, there's different ways you can do it. I use pep time, just a five minute time each day. PEP stands for prayer, evaluation of the previous day, preparation for the next day. Just a simple way of being accountable to God for your time. Fourth, because it makes us more efficient. We tend to misuse time just like we misuse money. And what may appear to be a lack of time may actually be just a poor stewardship of time. Scheduling is a tool to provide such efficiency to document where our goals and our prioritizations are at or whether we need to readjust our goals and priorities. Writing them down helps us to figure that out. Fifth, because of the need to be objective. I think we all know self-deception is a common feature of the human heart, and we have a difficult time evaluating ourselves accurately if we only use subjective criteria. Once things are written down, wow, it's hard to argue with where we're at. Sixth, because it helps with accountability, especially if you share your goals with an accountability partner. It's hard to pull the wool over someone else's eyes when everything's spelled out in black and white, so it helps us to be more honest about our time with others. Seventh, because it helps to pinpoint ways of overcoming obstacles. Now, in later chapters, Joshua's going to have to strategize ways to overcome obstacles to his goals. Eighth, because it puts us in control of our environment rather than letting our environment control us. We call this taking dominion of our time, of our space, and of our things. A person who has clearly defined goals and schedules and priorities is going to be in far more control of his environment and less likely to be tyrannized by the urgent. Ninth, because it removes the guilt of saying no to demands for your time that God has not called you to do. So when your kids are pulling at your apron strings, yeah, you've got to deal with those kids. That's part of your responsibility. But if you've got goals and priorities, it might mean that you train your kids to prioritize and to be patient rather than giving in to their, gratifying instantly their desires. Goals and schedules, prioritization that forces us to think through such issues. Now, we'll look at the rest of the 14 leadership issues in these verses next time, Lord willing, but I do want to end by pointing out these are not pull yourself up by your bootstraps principles. These are principles that keep driving us to God's wisdom, God's grace, God's help, God's intervention. If we don't approach each of these principles by God's grace, we're either going to become proud or frustrated. To anticipate one principle from next time, verses 5 and 9 talk about constantly living our lives before the presence of God and learning to derive wisdom and strength for our tasks from God. And the reason success was promised in verse 5 was not that Joshua had everything pulled together. No, it says, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. And here comes the reason. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Verse nine says much the same. Have I not commanded you be strong and of good courage? Do not be afraid nor be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And so, yes, we're commanded to do things. We're commanded to have character, to be bold. But ultimately, we can only obey God's commands for leadership by God being with us and helping us. As Augustine worded it, God enables what he commands. Joshua could not have done his calling without God's strength, nor can we. And so keep pressing into the Lord and receive from Him the strength and the wisdom that you need for growing in your leadership. Amen. Father I thank you for your word and I pray that as we learn from the life of Joshua and from the narrative and the the commands that are given in the book of Joshua That each one of us would grow in you Bless this your people we pray in Jesus name. Amen