Amen. Please remain standing and turn your Bible together with me. If you are using the church Bible, you will find our text for tonight, Exodus 18, verse 1 to 27, on page 75 of the Pew Bible. I'm going to read the entire chapter, so if you are able, it's a long chapter, only 27 verses, but it looks long. So if you are able, please stand together with me. If you can't, feel free to sit. I'll read it in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in foreign land. And the name of the other, Eliezer, for he said, the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness. where he was encamped at the mountain of God. When he sent word to Moses, I, your father-in-law, Jethro, I am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering. and sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law. The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another. And I make them know the statutes of God and His laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, What are you doing is not good. You and the people with you all certainly wear yourselves out. For the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. I will give you advice. And God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times, every great matter they shall bring to you. But any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times, and hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. Amen, let's pray. Gracious and heavenly Father, as your servant Moses did, Lord, as we now sit under the preaching of your word, help each and every one of us to heed your counsel, receive heavenly counsel and guidance, from you through the preaching of your word. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Since the Israelites left Egypt and arrived in the wilderness of Sinai, two months after the Lord delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians, The one thing that we have been observing and witnessing so far is God's provision for His people. The fact that God is the God of provision. Starting from their deliverance, it was God's provision, which included the 10 plagues, the partition of the Red Sea into two parts, the provision of water, the provision of manna. And tonight, still a provision, but a different kind of provision. Not water, not drink, not food to eat, but a spiritual provision that God's people at the time needed and God's people today need. the provision of insight, the provision of wisdom in spiritual leadership. Now from the get-go, I want to encourage all of you not to dismiss tonight's message saying, this is for pastors, this is for preachers, this is for spiritual leaders. It's not for me. I want to encourage all of you to remember that each and every one of you, you have a part to play in the work of God's kingdom. God has given you a gift, in a sense, to become a spiritual guide, a spiritual leader and encouragement to your fellow believer in Christ's church. So in a sense, it is for all of us. So I want to encourage all of you not to dismiss this message thinking that this is only for spiritual leaders. We all are spiritual leaders in every place of service where the Lord has placed us. When we come before our God in a spirit of submission, God always moves to provide us insight, revelation, so that we can move in the right direction and accomplish the things which are pleasing to Him. And we really don't know whom God will use as a means to counsel us. But He always uses godly people, men and women, to counsel us to do what is right and for God's glory. In our text tonight, we see the Lord God using Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, a priest from Midian. Jethro came from Abraham's offspring line, but not from Sarah. After Sarah died, Abraham married to Keturah. And her son Midian, was born from Keturah, and Jethro comes from that line. So he was not really a Jew, but he was a priest in Midian who worshiped the true God. Some people, they get confused in thinking that Jethro was a pagan. He was not a pagan. You will see from our text tonight that he worshiped the God of Israel. And God used Jethro to give counsel to Moses about leadership, spiritual leadership among God's people. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. came to Moses to the wilderness. Moses, the leader and the teacher of the Israelites, to give him guidance as to how he should lead the people in submission to God and in righteousness. In his counsel to Moses, Jethro taught Moses three ways through which a spiritual leader of God's children would succeed in his leadership. Now keep these three in your mind. The first one was prayer, the second one was teaching, and the third one was delegation. Prayer, teaching, delegation. A priest from Midian giving counsel to Moses, the great teacher of Israel, leading millions of Israelites But God sent him to counsel the leader, to counsel the teacher, Moses. I'm sure you have heard people, when they talk about Jethro's counsel to Moses, many say the one thing that Jethro taught Moses to do in his leadership was delegation. And that's true. Jethro advised, he counseled Moses to delegate able men in Israel to share the burden together with him. He told him, Moses, you cannot do this work alone. What you're doing is wrong. You need help. You need to delegate. So yes, delegation, yes. But it was not only delegation, brothers and sisters in Christ. Delegation was the third. It comes using His counsel as the third element of His counsel. The first was prayer. The second was teaching. After you pray to God, seek wisdom from God, After you teach the people, train men, and then you delegate. You don't delegate people without praying to God and without training them, teaching them. He gave him these three vital elements as counsel. The first one was prayer. Now, before we see the counsel to pray, I want us to consider a couple of things for our learning, for our instruction tonight. First, God's timely provision of counsel and guidance. Have you realized that when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came to Mothis, when The family reunion took place right before the giving of the law. They're about to arrive to Mount Sinai, and God will give them the law, the Ten Commandments. Now, before this happened, God sent Jethro to counsel Moses. To pray, to train, to delegate, and then the law will be given. Our God is a God of wisdom. Our God is wise in everything that he does, in everything that he prepares for his people. He's a very wise God. Imagine Moses and the Israelites arriving to Mount Sinai, only having Moses as a leader, as a teacher, and then God would give them the law. with just one teacher, one leader. God was kind to his people. If the people were to be conformed to God's law, to observe God's commandment, there was a need for prayer, teaching, and delegation. Secondly, how family reunion is important to God. God cares about family reunion. Moses' wife and his two sons were with Jethro in Midian. Because there was a time that Moses felt that he needed to give his full attention to what he was going to do in Egypt to deliver God's people from Egypt. So he asked Jethro, his father-in-law, would you take care of my wife and my two children for one year? They came back to Moses after one year. He was without his wife, without his two sons, and now they are being reunited. God wants family to be together, husband and wife and children, until they are ready to be independent, to be self-supporting. God cares about family. That's the lesson for all of us tonight. God loves family. God cares about family reunion. Especially believers. Believers' family. To be together, to stay close, to love one another, to respect one another. To become a testimony, powerful testimony to the world. With the unity that we have in Christ Jesus. With the love that we have for one another, even as family members. I'm not saying everything will be perfect, everything will be easy. But that's God's will for us. The Lord used Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, to counsel Moses. That's the other thing that I want us to consider tonight. Think about this. A priest from Midian, counseling Moses, who was leading a nation. Moses, he was called by God to be the deliverer of his people. And Moses, listening to his father-in-law. You see the humility. You, counseling to me, my father-in-law? I'm the leader of Israel. I'm leading a nation. I talk to God. God talks to me. Who are you? My father-in-law counseling me? No, that was not Moses' attitude. Moses reminded himself, God has sent this godly man to counsel me, and no matter who he is, I'm going to listen to him. I'm going to take his counsel. Numbers 12, 13. was true. Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. See Moses' meekness. Let me ask you this. How humble are you to receive godly counsel from godly people? Are you humble like Moses? What about Jethro's respect to Moses, his son-in-law? It's amazing to see when Jethro showed up. You don't see Jethro saying to Moses, Moses, here I come with my daughter and my grandchildren. No, no, no, no, no. Here I come with your wife and your children. They belong to you. You are the head. I have been taking care of them. Now I come with your wife and with your children. Not my daughter, my grandchildren, but your wife and your children." What a respect. And then Moses saw his father-in-law. from a distance, and he runs to him. And what did he do? He bowed down and kissed his father-in-law as a gesture of respect. Man, when was the last time you bowed down before your father-in-law and kissed him? But this is about respect. This is about honor. that we give to those who are worthy of our respect, worthy of our honor. Remember, the wife whom you love, the wife whom you cherish, they brought her to you. She came from them. So what do you do as a Christian man, as a Christian husband? You respect them, you honor them. Don't take it literally and the next time you see your father-in-law, bow down and kiss him. That's not what the scripture is teaching us. That's how is Israelite respected, the in-laws. But the lesson that we should take from this is we also, as Christian men and husbands, we also need to respect our in-laws as Christians. It's a good testimony. It's God's will for us to respect them. Now, they met and they talked briefly about their well-being. They went to the tent. Once they came to the tent, brothers and sisters in Christ, the first thing Moses did was, dear father-in-law, Let me tell you about the goodness of God to Israel. That was his priority. I'm sure Moses would have asked his father-in-law, how is my wife? How are the kids? Did the kids behave when they were with you for one year? Other things that I need to be concerned with. I'm sure Moses asked those questions, but they're not recorded for us in the scripture. What is recorded for us in the scripture is Moses' testimonies to his father-in-law. The moment they came to the tent, Moses opened his mouth, And he started telling his father-in-law, let me tell you how God delivered these people, how he dealt with Pharaoh, with Egyptians, how good God has been to Israel. When your family members visits you, and you bring them inside to the house, how often do you say to them, I have many questions for you, how your wife is doing, how the children are doing, many, many questions for you. But I also want to tell you how good God has been to me, to my home church, to our ministry. Do you do that? Do you do that with your family members when they come to visit you, even when they come to counsel you? What Moses did was, my father-in-law, let me tell you who God has been for us. It's amazing. And then Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Amazing! You see, through his testimony, Moses brought Jethro to worship, to praise. And listen to what Jethro said, now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. You see, there were many false gods around them and Jethro was acknowledging the God of Israel. He's the only true God among all other false gods. He's worthy to be worshipped. And then the next thing he did was, he said to Moses, Moses, let us sacrifice to the Lord. Let us offer our burnt offerings to God to express our devotion, our commitment to Him. Everything that we have, everything that we are belongs to Him. Burnt offering was a sign of Devotion to God. Loyalty to God. You remember the burnt offering? Once it's offered, it had to be consumed completely. Nothing remains. It's a picture of, you see, giving to God everything that we have. We don't put aside anything. We give to God everything that we have and everything that we are. We offer everything that we have to God as a burnt offering. And it's a wonderful picture because we see Jethro, Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel, all of them coming together and offer the sacrifice to God, the fellowship of the saints in the wilderness, the church in the wilderness, worshiping God. expressing his devotion to the Almighty, God who delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians. And beloved, it was after that that Jethro saw Moses doing everything by himself. On the next day, Jethro said to himself, I'll go to Moses, you know, I don't have anything to do, I'll go to Moses and see how he's leading the people. And he saw Moses doing everything by himself. He didn't see him praying. I'm sure Moses was praying, but Jethro didn't see that. At least he didn't see Moses going to God, seeking wisdom, guidance, and insight from God. From morning to evening, he would attend the needs of all the Israelites. He teaches them, but also he judges over disputes among the people. And Jethro said to him, Moses, what you're doing is not good. So let me counsel you. Jethro said, hear my voice. Listen to what he told to Moses. Moses' father-in-law said to him, verse 17, what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. I will give you advice. So first, go to the Lord in prayer. Pray, Moses. Seek wisdom from God. Don't do this relying on your own strengths. Seek guidance from God. If someone comes to you, a godly man, a godly woman, and says to you, listen, my friend, you cannot do this alone. Let me counsel you. Let me give you counsel. Would you take that counsel? Proverbs 19, 20. Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future. Do you want to know how to make decisions in the future? Do you want to be wise in your decision-making? Listen to advice. Proverbs 15, 22. Without counsel, plans fall. But with many advisors, they succeed. With many advisors, they succeed. You see, you and I sometimes, we fail in planning. We fail in leadership. At home, over our children, even in the church, God forbid, we fail in our leadership of God's people because we refuse to take advice. Proverbs 11, 14, there is no guidance. Where there is no guidance, a people falls. But in abundance of counselors, there is safety. You will be safe. The end will be safety. The end will be good. You first take the matter of your leadership, what you need to do next to the Lord in prayer. In James 1, James said, if anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. King Solomon, when God asked him, Solomon, what do you want me to do for you? Ask anything that you want me to do. King Solomon didn't ask for riches. He didn't ask for power, for influence, but he asked for wisdom. He said to God, your people are too many for me to manage, govern, and they are stiff-necked. They're tough, so give me wisdom. Give me wisdom so that I would govern your people justly. So that's what Jethro advised Moses to do. Listen to what he told him. Now obey my voice, I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God in prayer. And then the next counsel was this. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. This is teaching. Pray and then teach them, train them, so that they will know the way they should go, and they would know what they must do in order to walk according to God's law. Beloved, listen to this. This is very important. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. Our faith needs to be instructed. Our faith needs to be trained. You see, the goal of spiritual leadership is that people come to know God and to glorify Him in all that they do. Faith in God is rooted in God's Word. Psalm 119 verse 18, Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Not, you know, in a vacuum, from a vacuum, from the Word of God. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. You remember what Paul told to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. He told him, All Scriptures are breathed by God, and they are profitable for teaching, instruction, righteousness, so that God's servant would become perfect in the things of the Lord. Not perfect in a sense of, you know, sinless. but equipped, ready to serve God according to his will. In Deuteronomy 18, 18-3, God told the people of Israel, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Now you might say, oh, that's the Old Testament. No, in Matthew 4, God told the devil. And all of us, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. People in the old needed the Word. People in the new, we need the Word of God, beloved. We need to be instructed. That's the only way that you and I would know God. Know His ways. Receive insight. guidance, revelation through His Word. And then listen to Jethro after prayer and teaching and instruction. In verse 21, he told him, moreover, look for able men. from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe. Place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easy for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace. So, Moses delegated people. What kind of people, what kind of men? Able, faithful. You know, you don't pick or choose from among people in the church, anyone, randomly. No, you pick those who are able to teach, those who fear God, those who are faithful. That's why the church doesn't put her hand to ordain men for gospel ministry quickly. Sometimes people say, what about so-and-so? Make him an elder. Ordain him as a deacon. What are you waiting for? The church will wait to see if that man is God-fearing man. If that man is able to teach, if that man is faithful. The church doesn't put or lay her hands on anyone hastily. That's why you see Jethro, this was from God. This voice, this counsel came to Moses through Jethro from God. It's amazing, you know, Jethro say to Moses, hear my voice. And then at the end of the chapter, you will hear Moses saying, Moses, of course, he wrote the book of Exodus. You will see him saying, and Moses heard the voice of God, not the voice of Jethro. the voice of God through Jethro. Because he did everything that Jethro told him to do. And that was what delegation, Second Timothy 2.2, Jethro and Paul are in the same mind. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will able to teach others also. The gentleman told Moses, able men who fears God, who are faithful to God. Not anyone, but those who fear God and those who are able to teach. Because the end of the goal, you see, the end of the goal of leadership is people in the church, people among, in the house of God, to know God, to glorify God. We are being fed by the Word of God. Your pastors, your elders feed you, they teach you, they instruct you. What is the goal? For you to know God. For you to fear God. For you to love God. And for you to glorify God. In Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, Listen to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4, 10-16. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. to mature manhood, to measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind and doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, were to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. Listen to this now, from whom the whole body, the whole Israel, was sent Jethro. If you do this Moses, the whole Israel will be built up. And Paul is saying, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly. making the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Every part, meaning every member of God's house, when every member functions properly, do his duty, do her duty properly, the whole building the whole house is being built up in love. That's why I told you earlier, this is not a message only for pastors, only for elders, only for deacons, but for the whole church. Because every member has a role to play in the work of God's kingdom. Where is Jesus in all this? Do we find Jesus in Exodus 18? Yes. There was no one like Jesus who was really a delegator. You remember when God, when the time came for Jesus to ascend to heaven. In whose hand did he leave the work of God's kingdom? In the hand of the apostles. Jesus told the disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, the great commission. And now I'm sending it. Go. Go in my name. Go with my authority. That's delegation. We don't see Jesus saying, well, I will go back to my father and my father and I will take care of your salvation. We'll take care of the church. No delegation. We don't trust you. There is no one who is able. There is no one who loves God. There is no one who is able to teach. No, that's not what Jesus saying. There is God's provision among you. So now I'm going to my father, but I'm delegating him. Go. But you don't go by your own authority, in your own name. But I'm sending you. I'm the one who delegating you. I'm the one who is assigning you, appointing you. To do what? preach, teach, baptize, make disciples of nations. That's it. You know, everything else that we do as a church, fellowship meal, counseling, session meeting, diagonal work, Everything that we do in the church, cleaning, playing music, everything we do in the, you know, the streaming, the media, what Doug Hewell and Tom does for the church, what Cheryl does, what David does, you know, any member does in the church. It is to enhance the Great Commission. I can't tell you how much I'm relieved every week, not thinking about the bulletin, not thinking about printing it, but sitting in my office preparing my sermons because God has provided Cheryl, Lachlan, and Dorsey, and others. I don't sit over there and do the streaming. We have delegated that to this man. You see how the church works together to be built up in love and every member does his part. That's delegation. That's how spiritual leadership succeeds in the church. So let me encourage those of you who have gifts but who haven't yet come to me or to the elders or to deacons and say, hey, I have this gift. Let me use it in the church. How can I help? That's spiritual leadership. But this is how it starts, prayer. You know, at 5 p.m. today, and this is in no way criticism, but I'm just sharing my burden with all of you as a pastor who really loves you. Only five, six people were praying this afternoon at 5 p.m. Only 12, 15, 16, maybe 20 people pray every Wednesday together. Jethro told Moses, you first pray. You first seek his face. Don't talk about growth. Don't talk about drawing new people to the church. Are you praying? Are you asking God to do that for you? Are you seeking his face? Pray. Pray. and then teach and then delegate. Beloved, if we come together and do all these things by God's grace, you will see how Redeemer will grow. Because study the book of Exodus and see what happened after this. Yeah, they struggled. Yeah, God dealt with them. But they prospered. They prospered. They flourished. There was the church in Israel. There were priests in Israel. And many came to salvation. So let us be encouraging tonight. Even the hard thing, let us take it humbly. Moses took it humbly. Moses said, yes, my father-in-law, counsel me. I need this. And that should be the attitude of me and you and everyone in Christ Church. Give me that counsel. I need it. It's good for my soul. And it's good for our soul, beloved. Let us take it and use it humbly for the good of our soul and for the good of our church. Amen. Let's pray. O gracious and heavenly Father, Lord, revive us. Revive our hearts. Revive our will. Help us to think about the work of your kingdom, to be zealous for the work and the responsibility that you have given us. Help us to pray. Help us to teach and train. and help us to delegate. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.