Date Preached _________
Where Preached _________
Moses the Prince of Leadership
The Art of Delegation
Exodus 18:13-24
Lisa’s Brother Greg and his wife Tammie have 6 children and one on the way or is it 7 children and one on the way. I don’t remember. But I have to stop and wonder how people manage large families? Today we get stressed out with one or two. How do they make it with so many? Greg and Tammie make it by using the secret of delegation. Their older kids help with the younger ones. It is amazing to watch their family in action. Everyone has a job to do, from the youngest ones to the oldest, even if it is just putting the plates on the table for dinner or taking out the trash. The secret is that everyone helps Mom and Dad and everyone has a job to do.
Delegation is a wonderful thing and as we continue to grow, delegation is going to be a necessity. I have been in churches where the minister has had to do everything, from preaching and teaching to leading the choir, cleaning the bathrooms, mowing the yard and on and on. Delegation is important to the growth of the church because it gets more and more people involved in the ministry. That is why it is so important that we continue to have and add ministry teams. You have heard the saying many hands make light work. Well, if any place that this statement is true is in the church. That is why we need every member involved in a ministry of some kind.
Now, many of you are leaders in companies and other aspects of this community and at the beginning you may be involved in most every aspect of the work, but if you don’t learn to recruit and train others you are going to get burned out in the process. Boyle’s law says, “If uncontrolled, work always flows to the most competent person until he submerges.” That’s why in this final sermon on Moses, the prince of leadership, we are going to talk about delegating responsibility.
This principle of delegation is encouraged throughout the Bible. In Acts, the Apostles delegated work to 7 deacons so they cold focus more on the spiritual matters of the church. In Ephesians 4 God appointed some to be church leaders. 1 Timothy 5 says that a leader should be able to mange his own household well so he can manage the church. 2 Timothy 2:2 says that Timothy was to entrust to others what he had learned so they could teach others.
All through the Bible we are told to delegate so they will learn to be responsible too. That’s what Moses had to learn when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. Finally they were free and if you didn’t know the story then you would expect it to say and they went to the land of promise and lived happily ever after but that’s not what happened. Moses had all kinds of problems that tried his patience. He had administrative duties and judicial duties and an endless line of people who had so many petty problems. The burden became intolerable and he was on the verge of burnout but God taught Moses what to do through his father-in-law Jethro. So I want us to look at Moses’ frustration, his instructions from Jethro and then draw some conclusions that I hope will be helpful.
Let’s begin with Moses’ frustration. The source is found in Exodus 18:13: “The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.” He was trying to counsel all of the Israelite people personally from dawn to dusk everyday. Remember these people were used to being slaves and being told what to do but now they had freedom but they needed Moses advice on everything. Moses was very busy. Somebody said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, then he’ll just keep you busy.” Moses was so busy that he was stressed out. In Numbers 11:11 Moses says, “God what have I done so bad that you have given me the burden of all these people?”
Now Moses made a common mistake. He mistook busyness for accomplishment. He mistook activity for success. We think busyness is a status symbol. We think the more successful we are the busier we should be. Reggie McNeil says this to preachers, “Success can kill you just as problems can. The management of members and church work can leave a minister spiritually bankrupt.” But I think you can put your occupation in there and say the same thing. Psychologist speak of encore mentality, always having to top your self next year which means you have to work harder and longer and it often leads to burnout. Prolonged over commitment can say to the world success is great but it can lead to dire consequences in the individual. It can detract from your personality; cause you to be irritable and inefficient at your job. But most of all it can endanger your personal relationships, your marriages, your parenting and your friendships. You can be out to save the world but at the expense of your family.
Over commitment can also threaten your health. Nelson Price in his book gives a list of diseases that can be caused by emotional stress, asthma, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, ulcers, colon cancer, and headaches. Golfer’s elbow is not listed in that chapter, but it is listed in a chapter for highly spiritual people. Over commitment and busyness can cause so many problems. John Stroman wrote, “A life out of balance is like a tire out of balance, they both wear out quickly.
Moses’ Father-in-law came to him and offered him some advice. Look at verse 14: When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, "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?" Jethro asked Moses 2 very relevant questions that leaders ought to ask themselves frequently. The first has to with priorities, what is this that you are doing? What are you ultimately trying to accomplish? I heard about a son who told his father, “Dad, we are spending too much time on building drill bits. It raised a lot of eye brows because that’s what the company did. The son said, we need to be spending more time on making better holes and they are now one of the leaders in laser drilling. Moses’ primary calling was not counseling but it was to get these people to the Promised Land.
The second question had to do with personnel. Moses why are you doing this alone? You have lots of people who can help you. In verse 15 Moses answers: Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Moses says, if you want a job done well, you have to do it yourself. Moses was saying, “I’m indispensable. It’s a lie of Satan that many believe. Somebody said, “It’s amazing how indispensable I am when I ask for a vacation but how insignificant I am.” What happened to Moses happens to leaders at every level. They try to do it all. One historian says that Jimmy Carter was so detailed oriented at first that when he took office he was involved in scheduling people who would play tennis on the White House courts. A leader who doesn’t delegate not only can bog himself down but the entire organization.
So Jethro gave Moses some suggestions that we all need to heed. Look at verse 17: Moses’ father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. First he said, “Moses, you need to be the people’s representative before God and bring your disputes to him. Your priority is to have a right relationship with God. you spend time with God because being a leader is not just giving advice, it’s who you are on the inside. You have to have strength of character and integrity and Moses, you are in this for the long haul. Let me ask you this when was the last time you read the Bible and you weren’t in a hurry? When was the last time you got a worship tape and just sat back and worshipped? When was the last time you came to church and you left your cell phone or your pager in the car? Jesus accomplished more in three years than anybody but He would draw away from people to be with His Heavenly Father. Number one priority is to have a right relationship with God.
Number 2. Look at verse 20: Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. Moses don’t you counsel, you spend your time teaching others how to counsel. This meant that for a time, there might not be anyone to counsel. This meant that Moses might be accused of being distant, or too big for his britches, losing touch but the process was necessary if he was to have trained leadership. Verse 21 says: But select 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.
Here’s something that I’ve learned about successful delegation, 90% of successful delegation is not training but recruiting the right people. Get the right person with a little training and you’ll do great, but with the wrong person with a lot of training and they can do untold harm to the organization. I heard of a preacher who had picked a terrible staff. He said, I no longer believe in the 23rd Psalm. Why’s that he was asked, well, I’ve never had a staff to comfort me.
This is why we have to put the right people in jobs that they will do well at. That is why it is so important to give people jobs that they love doing because then it becomes serving God with joy and not with drudgery. When the job become hard and it is no longer fun then you are not serving out gladness. We need joyful hearts when we serve the Lord.
Verse 22 reads: 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 themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. Moses, don’t mess with the small stuff, deal with only the heavy issues. President Eisenhower told President Kennedy at his inauguration, “You’ll find no easy problems will come to the President of the United States. If they are easy, someone else will have solved it.” And that should be true of all leaders, and this delegation of authority empowers and encourages those who are serving and working with you. Verse 22b: That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. As an organization grows, the job of the leader should get easier, not harder. Now the decisions get harder because more people are impacted, there’s more pressure. Fred Smith in his book, Learning to Lead says, “People assume if I’m busier then I’m more important but I always thought if you are successful, you will have more time, not less. That’s why they called the wealthy, the leisure class. But to us a lack of time is a status symbol.” Then he wrote: “If you are somebody, then you are in control of your time.”
Now the only way to control your time is to pass on your responsibility to capable people. Then Jethro says to Moses, and now the people will go home happier. They will each be satisfied and they will get better counsel. We have so many great people doing ministry here. This is what Moses learned and I am starting to learn it as well.
I want to close this sermon today with a series of lessons that need to apply to our lives. Number 1. Effective leaders acknowledge limitations. Now that’s hard for ambitious, young people to do. You’ll say, I’m young, I’m high energy and my time will come later but it never does. And if it does, you have abused people along the way. I like the T-shirt that says, “I know 2 things for sure. 1: There is a God and 2. You are not Him.” Unless you recognize that you can’t do everything, you will soon be over extended and headed for burnout. Learn to say yes at the right times but learn to say no too. (my strong gift is the gift of helps, but it also my greatest curse)
Number 2. Effective leaders determine priorities. We often talk about spiritual priorities, God, family, job but a leader must think about his priorities as it relates to his circle of influence. What are we gifted to do? How can my time be spent most effectively? I believe in the saying, “80% of your time should be spent on 20% of your priorities.” If you have 10 priorities and you spend 10% on each, that’s not very good and each will be get short changed. For example preachers have been surveyed and asked, what is your number 1 priority?, and most all will say, preaching. But when asked what do you spend most of your time on? And 60% say administration which is usually 4th or 5th on their list of priorities. We have to ask, what is my priority?, and spend time there accordingly.
Number 3. Effective leaders train other leaders. A good manager gathers followers but a good leader gathers leaders. He train, empowers and trusts those leaders. And when you train leaders there is no limit to what can be done. Often when people refer to Rick Pitino they will also refer to all the coaches that are successful right now who once were on his staff. Under him they learned how to coach and all of basketball has benefited because of his leadership. Listen Spencer Christian, we must do the same thing here at our church. Challenging, training and recruiting leaders must be one of our high priorities.
Number 4. Effective leaders keeps his ego out of the way. This is hard to do. Moses had to decide, do I want everyone needing me? Do I want to be the Big Cheese? Or do I want to do God’s will and get these people to the Promised Land? I have to ask myself, do I want people to depend on me or do I want people to depend on Jesus Christ? I mean it is a great feeling to be needed and wanted and be appreciated but if we are to go forward, I must let others take the lead at times. We have to continually ask, why am I here? What does God want me to do? I can do nothing outside of Christ. The scriptures admonish, don’t fix your eyes on the world but fix your eyes on Jesus.
Number 5. Effective leaders accept ultimate responsibility. Jethro did not say to Moses, delegate those judgeships so you can go fishing for the next 40 years. Jethro said, you be available so they can bring the hard cases to you. a good leader struggles with a balance between trust and accountability. How much do you hold and how much do you let go? Harry Truman had a plaque that read, “The Buck Stops Here.” It’s important that a leader takes responsibility for what happens under him. he accepts blame and shares the credit.
I didn’t grow up on a farm but I have milked a cow or two in my time. I had a good friend of mine whose dad owned a dairy farm; tell me, do you know the hardest thing about milking cows? They never stay milked! And I’ll tell you something about people, they never stay led. There has to be a constant vigilance. We all need constant accountability if we are to say the course. We need encouragement and prayer and challenge. Do you know someone who did this well? Jesus. He took 12 men who were unlikely leaders but He saw something in each one of them. He trained them and then he released them to work. He set up a system of accountability and now its 2000 years later and we are the successors. He now has delegated the work to us.
Our job, our main job is to share the gospel with the world. It is our Job. Not just my job or the Ben’s job or the elder’s job but it is our job. I have my role and you have yours. And one day I’ll give an account of what God has called me to do and one day you will give an account of what God has called you to do.
Moses’ goal was to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. Our goal is to make it to the Promised Land in Heaven and take as many people with us as possible. Here’s the question, are you ready to go? Have you done your part? Have you received the Gospel? Today is another chance I sure hope you’ll come!
