Strong And Able Men And Women

Message preached at the Leadership Training AIC FIRE CAMP/ MAY 8-11, 2019

VENUE: SHILOH REVIVAL CHURCH, HYDERABAD

Preached by Sis Bala Samson

(Co-leader of the Church, Preacher, Teacher, Principal & Writer)

THEME: STRONG & ABLE MEN/WOMEN FOR GOD!

Jethro Counsels Moses

Exodus 18:21 "Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.

Introduction:

I share here the message that I preached in our ‘Leadership training camp’ held in May, 8-11, 2019, titled AIC – ‘ABIDE IN CHRIST’ CAMP. The predominant aim of the camp is to train people with zeal in leadership skills. Please be blessed with the materials that took me approximately six months to pray and prepare. Beginning of this year while I was praying for the theme for the camp, the above scripture captivated my attention and I was 100% sure that God wanted me to preach on this scripture; however, besides this anchor scripture, I will be breaking the message into various segments so that the people get it deep into their hearts.

Allow me to break the above scripture into four parts, and I will be further elaborating and talking on each of them as separate titles, which are very profound qualities for a leader :

• able men

• who fear God,

• men of truth,

• those who hate dishonest gain;

Further Jethro said, “and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands,

of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.”

ABOUT WORKERS/LABORERS: Besides our Church ministry, we are also running a regular English medium 100 percent free school, ABIDE SCHOOL and free hostel for the poor in Hyderabad with children from various backgrounds studying and staying in our school. We offer free lunch for the students and hence in order to keep the school functioning we need a horde of WORKERS: teachers, cook, cleaners, security, assistants, office staff, helpers etc., without them we come to a standstill. I do understand from experience the need for loyal, good, committed and hardworking LABORERS . Children ministry can exhaust you immensely and zap your energy, hence good workers are like boon for the ministry.

Useful tool for God

2 Chronicles 2:2 “So Solomon assigned 70,000 men to carry loads and 80,000 men to quarry stone in the mountains and 3,600 to supervise them.”

Solomon after he received wisdom, knowledge, riches, wealth and honor, he immediately gets down to work, to build a house for the name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself. The gifts that we receive from God is not for self glory but it was given to glorify God, hence look what Solomon does: Solomon assigned “70,000 men to carry loads and 80,000 men to quarry stone in the mountains and 3,600 to supervise them.” My eyes went to the 3600 men that he appointed as leaders to look after the other workers, did you see that? The first job that Solomon did was to appoint workers, God helped him from all sides, though. It was my passion to train people and watch them go and be a blessing for others. I remember a young girl who came to work during her holidays in our school, she thought it would be fun but never realized that I was a tough boss. She was made to come on time to school, be serious with her teaching, be strict with the students, keep her mobile away during working hours and many such things. Besides, she got to also hear the Gospel during the assembly and came to know about Jesus, when she left, she said, “I got good training here while working in your school.” Glory to Jesus!

While I was reading the book of Philippians, I found every chapter from the book to be a treasure and it was kind of instruction manual for what I was preparing for the camp. Every word came bouncing out of the book and spoke to me, so I started reading the book every day during my Bible reading time, by May, I had completed the book around 75 times. I was quoting Philippians even in my bed, such was my passion for the book. The four chapters from the book of Philippians amazingly touched the people at the camp, and I hope to spread the same fire on you too. My mom 79 years old now, attended the four days camp and sat through the entire day that included the afternoon session also in the midst of this hot summer in Hyderabad; it’s just not my mom alone there were other elderly people who attended the camp too but my mom was the senior most. Whenever I looked at her sitting in the chair and attending the camp, my heart melted, on the last day she looked totally depleted and exhausted, we got worried but she recouped. Now the story is not over, the next day she travelled 14 hours to go to her city, a couple of days later when I called her she said that she was getting ready to preach from the book of Philippians at the prayer cell conducted in her house. Glory to Jesus! Fire spreads!