Effective Leadership

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

LEVITICUS 10:1 2

The story is told about a lion...and this lion was very proud of his leadership over the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure all the other animals knew he was the king of the jungle. He was so confident that he by passed the smaller animals and went straight to the bear.

"Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion asked. The bear replied, "Why, you are, of course." And the lion gave a mighty roar of approval. Next he asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, O mighty lion."

Next on the list was the elephant. The lion faced the elephant and asked the question: "Who is the king of the jungle?" The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk...whirled him around in the air 5 or 6 times...and slammed him into a tree.

Then he pounded him onto the ground several times...dunked him under water in a nearby lake...and finally threw him up on the shore. The lion beaten, bruised, and battered struggled to his feet. He looked at the elephant through sad, bloodied eyes and said, "Look, just because you don't know the answer is no reason to get mean about it!"

At the close of the service today we are going to be installing the newly elected officers of the church and Sunday school. They are going to be assuming positions of leadership...and we want each of you to know who they are...but also I want to look today at the responsibilities that go along with leadership.

But I want to stress very strongly that aside from certain specific responsibilities that various offices in the church require...each and every one of us are required to be followers...in one way or another we all fall under the leadership of someone else. And the degree to which we can follow will have a tremendous impact on how effective we will be as leaders. (REPEAT)

Every Christian has certain responsibilities...and to live the Christian life we have to fall under the leadership of Christ because He is the head of our church. And we are all subject to Him, whether we are elected leaders...or members...or just occasional attenders. We all fall under the leadership of Christ. If we can't faithfully follow Him...then we'll never be able to lead others in the church in any kind of positive way.

And Christian leadership is really not limited to some position in a church. Most of you are parents...and that very definitely makes you a leader in your home. There are many responsibilities that are given to you simply because you are a Christian parent...entrusted with the spiritual welfare of your family.

So as we look to the Scriptures today there should be no one that is exempt from the message of God's Word. Being a Christian brings more benefits and joys than I could ever touch on in one sermon...but it also carries with it great responsibility. How we handle that responsibility will determine our faithfulness to the One we claim to love and serve.

This morning I want to look to Leviticus 10, which I believe will help us to see the importance of following God in obedience to His commands...in whatever capacity you may find yourself. I spoke on this passage before, a couple years ago, but today I want to look at it from a different perspective.

Before we read our main text, I recognize that Leviticus is one of those books that if you just sat down to read it, it would probably be, to most people, one of the most boring books of the Bible....because it has a lot of detailed instruction about the rules and regulations and the sacrifices....and it seems like a lot of repetition.

For this sacrifice you do this...and for the next you do this...and so on. There are a lot of minute details involved. And it is something that is foreign to us because the sacrificial system has long ago been done away with.

But the purpose of the book is very, very important to understand. The reason these priests were given such detailed instructions about the care of God's tabernacle and His people..."His church" so to speak....was so that they could be sure of God's continued presence with them.

The whole purpose of this book was to give them the guidelines that would establish them as a chosen people...a holy nation...to make them distinctive, different from everyone else. This would set them apart as representatives of the true and living God.

You see, God had approached them and established a covenant relationship. He made promises to them...and He said, "If you'll just do certain things...if you'll just obey me, then I'll take care of you. I'll see that all your needs are met...both physical and spiritual...everything you'll ever need will be taken care of.