Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The camera guys don't want me moving much. I'm gonna move this so I can run around a little bit.
[00:00:06] Hey, if you've got a Bible, we're in Exodus chapter 18 as we continue our journey through the Book of Exodus. Incredible. Have Levi's family and friends here, man.
[00:00:17] So awesome. Just even thinking through this text and what we're gonna look at, I think just hearing Levi's testimony of salvation ought to cause us to worship that. There's something about when we hear of salvation, that it produces worship in us. And we're actually going to see that in Exodus chapter 18 this morning. So thank you for sharing that, Jordan. Brittany, it's awesome when your kids walk in that, right? And so it's so cool to see a church community of all the people that are serving back there in the kids area that are teaching God's word, that are modeling what it looks like to follow after Jesus in our student ministry.
[00:00:53] They're fixing to go to camp. Our kids are fixing to go to camp.
[00:00:57] Everybody's gonna be gone this next week.
[00:00:59] And so just an awesome opportunity for us as a church to pray for this exact thing that God would move in the hearts and minds of our kids, that they would get to see that modeled as God offers salvation to them, as he offers salvation to all who would come to him and confess that he is Lord, then he offers salvation for that. And so awesome. Thank you for that this morning.
[00:01:25] Hey, when we jump into Exodus 18, I think it's helpful for us to just remember where this story is. What is God doing in the book of Exodus, Genesis? God is laying out creation. And he's. He's made some promises to a man named Abraham which are going to then carry through the rest of the Scripture. And we're going to see God keep His promises. And so we're seeing in the Book of Exodus how God is keeping some of those promises to a specific man named Abraham, who He promises he will make into a nation, a people for his own pleasure, his own people. But then he gives this promise that he's gonna bring them into a land of their own possession. He's going to make them a blessing to the nations, and he's gonna multiply this very small little family into a nation. And so there's so three promises that he makes. And so in the Book of Exodus, what we see is God's keeping those promises and how that's being fulfilled. But the other thing that we see in the Book of Exodus is that God is showing who he is.
[00:02:28] He's demonstrating the God that he is to his people.
[00:02:33] He's showing off his character. And so we've seen who he is. We've seen his compassion for his people, that he's heard their cries and he has responded. We've seen his patience with Pharaoh over and over, that God is a patient God.
[00:02:51] We've seen his patience with even his people as they grumble and complain after he has just provided or saved them.
[00:02:59] We see his power in the book of Exodus, that God has has demonstrated that there is no equal to him. That he is powerful. He's powerful over creation, that he tells bugs and wind and weather what to do and it obeys his voice.
[00:03:18] That he's powerful to accomplish his plans and his purposes.
[00:03:24] We've seen that he's faithful, that he will keep his promise and he will do what he says he will do.
[00:03:34] Today, what we're gonna get a glimpse of is that God is a God of order. He's not a God of chaos, but he is a God of order. And so he's going to instruct his people on how to live in order. That they might be a people who would reflect his character, that they would demonstrate his character to a watching world. And so we're gonna see this in Exodus, chapter 18.
[00:04:00] One of the things when you think of this word character, it's what I tell a lot of people as they're dating. I'm like, look for their character.
[00:04:09] That's a word that I think maybe we don't talk enough about nowadays. That your character isn't controlled by circumstances. Your character is what you do, no matter the circumst who you are, that you can change the circumstances. And a person of character will produce the same results despite the circumstances, because it's who they are. It's just what bubbles out almost. It's what comes out when the sponge gets squeezed. It's just who you are. And so we see the character of God. And the interesting thing is that God made a promise to Abraham and he said, I want to use you as my people to demonstrate to the world my character.
[00:04:57] Listen, this is so cool because we get to the New Testament and God says the same thing to followers of Jesus. He says, I want to use you to demonstrate to the world my character, that I want you to be my sounding board. I want you to be my beacon of light which shines forth my character into every neighborhood, into every family home, into every coffee pot conversation.
[00:05:26] I want you to be my character that people would see you and they would go that's the character of God.
[00:05:33] That's what we're gonna see in Exodus 18 is that God wants us to be a people who reflect his character. And in order to do that, he show. He shows us. He tells us how to order ourselves to accomplish that. Would you pray with me this morning, Lord? What an incredible calling to be a people that would reflect your character to a watching world.
[00:06:07] And, Lord, it's so daunting, Lord, we know that we will fail over and over and over at that. And yet you've called us to it.
[00:06:18] And so we trust that you would provide your spirit to us in order to accomplish what you've called us to, Lord. Would you help us to feel the conviction of your spirit in places in our life that need to be corrected or brought into the light that we need to confess and repent of? But Lord, would you give us confidence to walk boldly in the areas where you have called us to be your light and your beacon, Lord, that we wouldn't pull back in fear, we wouldn't pull back in shame, but that we would walk in the confidence of what you have done in us and through us. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:06:58] This text breaks down into two sections. Let's look at this first section first. It's going to be through 1 through 12. And. And again, this picks up in a story. And so we get a little jump back into somewhere where we've kind of left early on. So when Moses was going to Pharaoh, then Moses sent his wife and two sons back to her hometown. Now I get this.
[00:07:23] I married a girl from Texas, and so she loves to go back to Texas. She thinks that Texas is the greatest state that ever existed. They think that Texas is greater than any other state. And so she's going back. When she goes back home, it's like, ah, I'm home.
[00:07:42] But I always say, but you're coming back, right?
[00:07:45] Right? Like, but you gotta come back. And so here we see Jethro, the father in law says, here go Moses. I'm bringing her back to you. And so this is where we pick up in the story, Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses, father in law. He heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel and his people, how the Lord had brought ISRA out of Egypt. That's a huge summary statement, right? The last that he has seen and heard is that Moses has sent his wife and children back to his homeland because he says, things are about to get wild in Egypt.
[00:08:19] I'm about to confront the Most powerful man in this known world, and say, let these people go. And so he sends his wife and kids back. And now Jethro has heard that God has rescued Israel and Moses from Egypt. He's heard all that God has done.
[00:08:41] Verse 2.
[00:08:42] So now, Jethro Moses, father in law, it says. That's a lot. Moses, father in law. Moses, father in law. One of the reasons why, possibly, is that Jethro, throughout the rest of your Pentateuch, your Old Testament, the first five books, he actually goes by four different names. And so I think some of this is so that we know that this is Jethro, Moses, father in law. So 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, Gershom, for he had said, he will be a sojourner in the 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. So Jethro Moses, father in law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where they encamped at the Mountain of God.
[00:09:29] And when he sent word to Moses, I, your father in law, Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her. Moses went out and he met his father in law. And he bowed down and he kissed him. And they asked each other their welfare and they went into the tent.
[00:09:46] Now look at what happens here. 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.
[00:10:05] And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel and that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
[00:10:14] Catch this. This is the response. So 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 Egypt.
[00:10:27] 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 the bread with Moses. Moses, father in law before God.
[00:10:50] What do we see here? The main point of this is that God's salvation produces worship among the nations, that God's salvation produces worship among the nations. That Jethro is not of the people of Israel. He is actually a Midianite priest.
[00:11:08] So he's of Midian. This is a splinter of earlier people in the book of Genesis. And so he is not of the people of Israel. He is not a descendant of Abraham.
[00:11:19] He would be what's called a Gentile or the nations. So he's outside of this covenant promise to God's people. And yet because of what God has done for his covenant people, this Gentile, this Midianite priest has heard that who has then come and asked questions of that Moses then begins to tell him, verse 8. He told his father in law all that the Lord had done.
[00:11:48] He didn't just tell him the highlights. He told him all the stuff, even the hardships. He goes, and we've even experienced hardships in this, that following Jesus doesn't just make your path easy.
[00:12:04] No, there's been hardship among this.
[00:12:06] And yet God has provided and God has delivered that he told him the story of salvation.
[00:12:14] The response to this then in verse 10 and 11 is we see that Jethro then worships that this Gentile, this non believer. Then many commentators would say that this is a place where we see somewhere in this that Jethro becomes a believer because he's now offering worship to the one true God with a proclamation that now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.
[00:12:43] That from a story of salvation, of what God has done, others have heard and believed.
[00:12:52] And there's a pretty incredible template right there that this actual picture of Jethro coming to faith anticipates the promise that was given to Abraham that through Israel the nations would believe.
[00:13:13] It's actually what we see fulfilled in the book of Revelation that that there are people from every tribe and tongue and nation gathered at the throne saying he is the Lord worthy is the Lamb, that Jesus is worthy of worship because he has saved, because he is greater than all gods.
[00:13:37] It's the template that we get to see carried out in the New Testament that through a story of salvation, others might believe.
[00:13:45] Maybe if I could just tell you a little bit of my story.
[00:13:51] Grew up in church, but there was once a time when I questioned whether following Jesus and the sacrifice it would take was actually worth it.
[00:14:02] I remember riding home in the back of our van and thinking, is this worth.
[00:14:09] Seems like a lot of sacrifice compared to the things of this world that the world looks like a lot of fun. It looks like it's got a lot of riches and wealth and things that sparkle.
[00:14:22] Is it really worth it?
[00:14:24] That There was a time in my life when I questioned and doubted, is it real?
[00:14:29] Is it worth it?
[00:14:31] And yet God met me graciously, patiently, through His Word, through His people that would come alongside me and say, let me tell you the truth.
[00:14:46] That God's Holy Spirit, as I just began to read His Word and say, is it even true?
[00:14:52] Then His Spirit just confirmed over and over that His Word is trustworthy and true and that the world will lie to you.
[00:15:06] The Lord met me graciously, patiently, and now I have confidence that I can base my life off of what God's Word says, because he's met me and paid the debt that I couldn't pay on my own, because he provided the salvation that I couldn't save myself.
[00:15:26] And so now I can live my life in confidence, not in doubt or fear or confusion, but in confidence on what he's done. I wonder, do you have a story like that where God met you and provided salvation for you and changed your life?
[00:15:47] As we tell that story, there's a watching world that goes, I see what God did.
[00:15:54] If he did it for you, he can do it for me.
[00:15:58] And they believe salvation produces worship among the nations. It's actually the story that as you look at the globe and how the gospel has moved around the globe, how the gospel still continues to move, it's through the transformation of lives that God provided salvation. And as people tell that story that Jesus provides that salvation, people believe Israel told the story of how God rescued them from Egypt.
[00:16:31] We tell the story of how Jesus rescued us from sin, death, and the grave. That's a story worth telling.
[00:16:37] The second thing that I want us to see in this text actually comes in the second part that as we see Jethro now becoming professing faith that the Lord is greater than all gods, then he moves into this place where he begins to observe what's happening. We get this in verse 13 through the end of the chapter, it says this. The next day, they come out of the tent. They come out of that worship time. The next day, Moses sat and he judged the people. And the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.
[00:17:09] So we get this picture that.
[00:17:10] That now Moses has this tent and the people are camped around. Remember, we've got like 2 million to 4 million people in the wilderness. And so you just know that stuff comes up, right? Like, we're about to go to family camp, a family reunion. We're gonna put like 17 of us in one cabin up in Oklahoma, and there's gonna be issues. Come, right? We've got a lot of kids. And so the kids are constantly coming. Like, they come and they bring things that say, it's not fair this happened. They need to pay me or they need to do this, or they need to get in trouble. And that's exactly what we see here, that Moses is sitting there and the people keep coming to him. And the people are standing around Moses morning till evening. Moses, father in law, saw all that he was doing for the people. And he said, what is this that you are doing for the people? He's like, this looks like chaos.
[00:18:05] Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?
[00:18:12] Moses said to his father in law, because the people come to me to inquire of God.
[00:18:18] And when they have a 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.
[00:18:28] So Moses, in sincerity, trying to be obedient to what God's called him to and the position God has put him in. Obviously, Moses is a leader of the people, and he's trying to be obedient. And people are coming to him as this intercessor between God and them, to tell them God's will and God's ways. And so Moses is trying to do that faithfully.
[00:18:51] And yet his father in law looks at this and he says, verse 17, Moses, what you are doing is not good. And this is really important phrasing right here. I think it's intentional because it ought to reflect the antithesis of what we see repeated over and over and over in Genesis that God created. And he said, it is good that he created order. And he said, it's good night and day, order, structure to our days, that he creates things. And it's very good.
[00:19:27] And here we see that Jethro looks at what Moses is doing and he goes, this is not good.
[00:19:35] This is the antithesis of what you should be doing. This is the opposite of what God would design.
[00:19:43] This is not within the structure that he would provide. Verse 18. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for this is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. I love one pastor that I enjoy listening to. He says that faithfulness is not measured by exhaustion.
[00:20:03] I love that.
[00:20:05] If I could just tell you that as a parent, if I could tell you that just as a business owner, as an employee, as a student, faithfulness is not measured by exhaustion. You don't just need to work and work and work. You can be faithful and rest.
[00:20:24] He says, this is not good and you will wear yourselves out. And then of what benefit will it be?
[00:20:33] He continues, he says, now obey my voice and I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases back 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. He then tells them, like, okay, there is a structure. You need to do what God has called you to do.
[00:21:00] This is your role.
[00:21:02] This is your purpose. This is your task. You need to do these things. Verse 21. But moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy, who hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands of hundreds, of 50s and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times.
[00:21:27] Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide for themselves, so it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you.
[00:21:37] I love this.
[00:21:39] He provides structure.
[00:21:42] He says, hey, there's shared responsibility here that everything doesn't go to you. I think that this is one of the dangers of a godly leader. This is one of the dangers of leadership is that if you think about the people and how Moses has been set up for them, Moses, there's a danger that he might become their God.
[00:22:10] They have put him on this pedestal that what Moses says goes, that God uses Moses, that Moses has power and authority. Moses can save us. Moses is the one who has the fix for this. Moses, if I can just get to Moses, Moses can fix it.
[00:22:30] And God says, no, no, no, no.
[00:22:32] There's a Savior and his name's not Moses.
[00:22:36] There's a danger that the people might see Moses as their God.
[00:22:41] And he took on more and more and more and more.
[00:22:48] Listen, there's a danger for pastors, there's an incredible warning for pastors in this.
[00:22:53] It's one of the reasons why I love the leadership of our church that we say, hey, it's not Jared. There's a team of elders.
[00:23:04] And then in the team of elders, we also have some deacons that help us.
[00:23:09] And then within those deacons, then we also have community group leaders and co leaders that help us.
[00:23:16] And then within those even then we say, hey, befriend someone that you are administer to do the work as a faithful follower of Jesus.
[00:23:29] We have service teams and service team leaders that help us with all of this administration that it's not a single person.
[00:23:41] I love the way he says it here that he says that if you do this, it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you. The greatest load of bearing the burden of caring for one another belongs to all of us as Covenant members.
[00:23:58] That's where the burden lies, is that all of us shoulder this together so that we carry each other's burdens. And therefore, the burden is light, because it's not up to one person. Listen, I could go on and on and on and praise you guys of how y' all care for each other, the way that you love one another, when babies are born, or when sickness happens, or when death occurs in a family, or when a family's in need, or when they're going through a hard time. The way that you all rally to each other and care for one another, that oftentimes the staff and the elders, we're catching up to what you guys are doing. It's incredible.
[00:24:36] It's also one of the reasons, I think, that you see a longevity of staff here at Norris Ferry, that the pastors aren't burnt out.
[00:24:44] The average stint for a youth pastor is 18 months.
[00:24:49] They run through them because it's an incredible burden. The average stint for a senior pastor is three years. You know why? Because they get burned out.
[00:24:59] The task is too heavy, and they wear out.
[00:25:03] Therefore, they can't shepherd.
[00:25:06] And yet it's a great blessing here at Norris Ferry because of that structure, because God provides structure in order that we might order our lives to flourish.
[00:25:17] And I believe that's what we see here that I want to point out and pull a couple things out of this that look at the characteristics of these people that Jethro says he should put in place.
[00:25:32] If you look at verse 21, there's four characteristics here. I think that these are incredible characteristics that we ought to all base our life off of. The first one is this. He says, look for able men, that capable men means that competency matters.
[00:25:51] Don't put people in there that don't know what they're doing.
[00:25:55] Like that's a recipe for disaster. Well, they're really nice, but they don't know what they're doing.
[00:26:02] No, don't do that.
[00:26:03] Competency matters.
[00:26:07] Be good at your task.
[00:26:10] Be the best at what you do.
[00:26:14] If that's bagging groceries, be the best grocery bagger.
[00:26:21] Pastor a long time ago said, if that's sweeping streets, then you ought to sweep the streets in such a way that all people would see that and say, glory to God.
[00:26:33] Listen, be competent at what you do.
[00:26:36] Be the best at it competency matters.
[00:26:40] But that's not the only thing that matters.
[00:26:43] The second characteristic here, he says, choose able men from all the people, men who fear God.
[00:26:51] That to fear God means that character matters.
[00:26:56] That who you are matters.
[00:26:59] That you fear God. That you're not living for the approval of people. You don't fear people. You don't just do things because you're afraid of your boss. You don't just do things because someone's watching and you don't want to get fired. No, you fear God and therefore your character matters.
[00:27:17] I'm trustworthy. That's the third one.
[00:27:21] Who are trustworthy people. That integrity matters.
[00:27:25] That when you say what you will do, people can believe you.
[00:27:30] We talk a lot in our home. That it's way easier to lose trust than it is to gain it.
[00:27:37] That it's a commodity which we ought to carefully steward.
[00:27:42] That the words which we say, people can believe.
[00:27:46] When you say you'll be there, be there. When you say you'll do something, do something.
[00:27:52] Are you trustworthy?
[00:27:54] The fourth thing that we see here is that those who hate a dishonest gain or who hate a bribe.
[00:28:03] What's the characteristic here? Righteousness matters.
[00:28:09] Godliness matters.
[00:28:11] It doesn't matter if you're the most capable person, but if you're not godly, you will be corrupted.
[00:28:20] Just look in the news. You can see that.
[00:28:23] Just reflect over your own life the temptation to cut corners, the temptations that face you.
[00:28:30] If you're not living righteously, God says you'll give in, which will then undermine your character.
[00:28:40] Remember the goal.
[00:28:42] That we would be a beacon to demonstrate who God is.
[00:28:47] That we would be trustworthy people, that we would be capable and competent people. That we would be people of character and that we would be people of righteousness and integrity. Listen, if we'll live our lives seeking that God will be glorified and the people will look and see and say, what made you this way?
[00:29:10] Say it's because of Jesus. He rescued me. And if he can do it for me, he can do it for you. Look at the way that this finishes. Jethro gives this advice.
[00:29:20] He tells him to let. To share this burden. Put these capable people in place in order to share this burden.
[00:29:28] That there is a structure, that some things do need to come to Moses, but not everything needs to come to Moses. And so people can handle other things. Don't micromanage them. Let them handle it. Let them do what God has called them to do. Let them work within what God has given them.
[00:29:44] And then verse 23, he says, if you do this, God will direct you and you will be able to endure.
[00:29:53] And all his people also will go their place and look at this in peace.
[00:30:00] Isn't that what you want?
[00:30:03] That there's not chaos, but there's peace. That God is a God of order in order, that there might be peace. When there is no order, everything turns to chaos. And that this is the characteristic of God that we see from creation all the way through the Scripture.
[00:30:20] That God did not create things in order to be chaos.
[00:30:23] He created things with structure and order in order that we might experience peace.
[00:30:30] Verse 24, we see the result.
[00:30:33] So Moses listened to the voice of his Father in law, and he did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all of Israel. And he made them heads over people, chiefs of thousands of hundreds of 50s and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. In any hard cases they brought to Moses. And any small matter they decided for themselves.
[00:30:53] And then Moses let his Father in law departure and he went away to his own country.
[00:30:58] That we see just a conclusion of this narrative section, that God is setting up his people in order to represent him, to live as a community of followers of Jesus.
[00:31:12] That's what we see.
[00:31:14] We jump to the New Testament. We see the same thing.
[00:31:17] Jesus establishes a shared responsibility.
[00:31:23] He then, as these disciples go out and they plant churches in these different places. Then we see all throughout these letters in Acts, chapter six, in Titus, in Timothy, we see all of these things take place that God says, put in order a leadership structure that would then help govern the people in such a way. Let me read you out of First Peter, chapter five, what this looks like.
[00:31:56] First Peter, he's giving this instruction and he says this.
[00:32:02] So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Verse 2.
[00:32:14] Shepherd, the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.
[00:32:39] That's the example from the very beginning. God has set it up that we might order our lives, that we might live in such a way that we demonstrate his character to a watching world. And when we walk according to his wisdom, we do that.
[00:32:56] Would you pray with me, Lord? Would you help us to be a people like what Jethro describes, competent people of integrity, people who fear God, people who are righteous, who don't take a bribe, that we would see the bigger vision, that those aren't ends in and of themselves, but they're a means in order for us to demonstrate to a watching world your character and your glory, in order that they might see and hear the salvation that you provide. And come, Lord, would you help us as a church to do that?
[00:33:50] But just think of all the implications of this, that within Shreveport as a city, that if we would just live according to this order and put in place godly people that would structure the way that they govern in this way, Lord, you would be glorified, I think, as a state in this way, as a nation in this way, Lord, that if we would live and function according to your wisdom, Lord, that you would be glorified.
[00:34:20] But, Lord, I know that that starts with each one of us individually.
[00:34:28] Reflecting on what you've done for us in the gospel.
[00:34:32] Dependent daily dependent on you to help us be the people that you've called us to be in order to demonstrate that picture, Lord, would you help us do that? We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
