Join us as we dive into the life of Joshua and discover six key characteristics of his leadership that led to God's people possessing the Promised Land. If you apply these same qualities to your life and business just watch what God will do!
Enjoy.
Join us as we dive into the life of Joshua and discover six key characteristics of his leadership that led to God's people possessing the Promised Land. If you apply these same qualities to your life and business just watch what God will do!
Enjoy.
So today we're talking about the six signs of a good leader and we're gonna pull this out of the book of Joshua, chapter eight. So we are talking to faith-filled entrepreneurs and, as such, we always tell our entrepreneurial friends listen, you gotta get in the Bible every single day. You know, the Bible is the absolute best business manual there is. It's the only book you can read where the author is present with you. Yeah, and remember that author God is your business partner. He's the majority owner. He simply made you managing partner, so do a good job. Now you need to listen to him. So we want to look at leadership and six signs that we learned from Joshua and what he did when he led the children of Israel into the promised land for the second victory and we're going to dive into that in a second. But leadership, what is leadership, david? How do we define it? Is the ability, the ability to create an appetite and others. Where do we get that? From Proverbs, chapter 22, verse six. When we were kids, our dad, we would always see him praying and reading the Bible, and he was even jogging. I remember that. And so in Proverbs, chapter 22, verse six, it says train up a child in the way you should go, and when he is old he won't depart from it. Now, the Hebrew word for train up many of you have heard us say this before it means to touch the palate of, or to cultivate a taste for.
Speaker 1:So in the ancient times, hebrew mothers and midwives they didn't have Gerber, baby food or any of those things, and so, as the as their infants would be weaned, they would need to give them food, but they couldn't give them solid food. So they would take a carrot or a celery or whatever, and they would chewed up very fine into a softer morsel and then take a little piece of it out, put it on the tip of their tongue and they would touch the palate of their infant and that would engage the salivary glands, which would then allow that child to be nourished by that food. That's the word that Solomon used in Proverbs 22 six. In other words, touch the palate of your children. So when we were kids our dad touched our palate. We would see him reading the Bible, then we would listen to him do an interview, or we would watch him speak to people or even preach from the stage, while he was never on stage preach from his little music stand at the local YMCA to 65 people, but anyway, but. But we saw that that was what it took, and so he was touching our palate with a desire for the word of God.
Speaker 1:And so we have to ask ourselves as leaders, we are appetite creators. The question is what kind of appetites are you creating in those that follow you it's humbling when you think about that with your kids, but the same is true with your employees, the same is true with your vendors, and and as a faith field entrepreneur, your leadership doesn't just extend to your employees. It extends to your customers and your clients and the vendors and the people that you buy from, the people that you interact with on a daily basis. That's where your leadership extends to. Therefore, we need to be seriously proactive about the type of leaders that we want to be. That's what brings us to the book of Joshua. So now let me give you a little bit of a back story, because you're going to like this and we're going to see six things that Joshua did that revealed that he was a good leader, and we can apply these, these six things, into our own lives and into our businesses today.
Speaker 1:So God told the Israelites to march up and take the promised land. Okay, now remember, it was their land 450 years prior, when God had told Abram hey, you leave the place where you are and go to this land that I will show you. And so Abraham, he ended up doing that, and so he finds himself in Canaan and, of course, as we know, he doesn't stay there. He ends up having Isaac, and Isaac has Jacob, and Jacob has 12 sons, and they end up going to about 70 people and they ultimately end up in Egypt for 400 plus years in slavery. Okay, so they in Egypt. They end up two million plus, and it was time for Moses to lead them back into the land that was theirs, their original land grant.
Speaker 1:So the Israelites listen, guys have the what's the word? I'm looking at the original deed. Yeah, like it's their territory. You know what I'm saying? Like everybody's fighting over it now and I cannot. They're screaming about indigenous people. It's their land. Well, it's the Israelites land. Nothing, there is no land grant that goes back further than this. They are the indigenous.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now the Children of Israel, the Children of Israel, are coming up out of Egypt. They go into the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness and, under the command of Joshua, they take Jericho. Okay, that was their first military victory. Now, that happened miraculously. There was no strategy involved. God simply told them march around it, sing, worship, praise me and watch what I do. Boom, miracle. Now it would be very easy for the leader to sit back and say, okay, every other victory is gonna be done like this, but God's like nope, I had to do something miraculously at the beginning of the season, this new season for you guys, which was gonna be a season of battle. God had to do something miraculous and we, as leaders, are not supposed to rely on the miraculous. We're supposed to rely on faithfulness, and then God brings in the miraculous as he sees fit.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now they were in Jericho. One of the things about Jericho was God said I don't want anybody to touch the plunder, so I don't want you to take anything. Dedicated all to the Lord. Well, that's the first fruit. Yeah, so they got to the next city, which was AI. Now, this was a tiny little town, to a point where Joshua only sent 3000 troops and the next thing, you know, they got their butts smacked, joshua's heart broken. He's like wait a second. We went into the promised land. We obeyed you. We've done everything. But now here we are, we're losing a battle, and what they discovered was is there was a dude in the camp, his name was Aiken. He had stolen some plunder from Jericho, did something that he shouldn't have done, and so they had to deal with him. And once they dealt with him, then it was time to go in and take AI once and for all. Joshua eight tells us the story, and what we're gonna see here are the six things that Joshua did.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, real quick, in verse one, david read verse one of Joshua eight, all right, english standard version. And the Lord said to Joshua do not fear and do not be dismayed. Now, why would he say that? Why would he say that? Because he's about to fight. Well, it's not just he's gonna fight, it's because he was triggered.
Speaker 1:The last time God said go to AI, they did it. And what happened? They lost. Now God saying go to AI now. And Josh was like, oh, they just napped, they just beat us down. Did anybody else sin that I don't know about. The last time we had some of my troops died. It's like I don't wanna do this. Well, listen, don't allow the triggers that you experienced to keep you from walking in obedience to the Lord. The last time I talked to that person, they got so upset at me they did it whatever. Walking in obedience to the Lord, don't rely on your triggers. You can pay attention to him, but God is telling you the same thing you told Joshua don't be afraid, listen.
Speaker 1:This time, before Joshua went into AI. This time he actually brought 30,000 troops and he developed a strategy. Okay, so do you want me to read the rest of the verse, cause I only got to the first part. That's all I want. Do not fear and be dismayed. Yeah, go ahead, you can, if you want. I'm not diving into it any deeper, cause we're gonna jump into verse nine in a second. That sounds good, okay.
Speaker 1:So now, this time, joshua, he's not saying okay, god, do something miraculous, like you did in Jericho, we're gonna march around AI and expect you to bring the walls down. Nope, that's not what happened. Joshua comes up with a strategy he's going to use that defeat that they had as a decoy and they're gonna set an ambush and they're gonna flank the city. So they send out this small little smattering of troops. The people at AI are like, yeah, we're gonna take them down, right, but Joshua had flanked the city of AI with the rest of the troops, and so that's how they ultimately took the city. But now, before we talk about them taking the city, let's jump into verse nine, because they're just about to mount the attack. Okay, and this is where we find the six things that Joshua did to lead them to victory, which are six things that we can do. And then so David, verse nine All right, so Joshua sent them out and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and AI, to the west of AI.
Speaker 1:But Joshua spent that night among the people. Number one he was with his people. Number one is you need to be with your people. Don't elevate yourself to a position where you stand out from them simply because you're the leader. You know, it's interesting that Judas, when he betrayed Jesus, he told the religious leaders. He said the one that I kiss, he's the one yeah, now, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:He didn't say the one sitting up on his velvet chair? Yeah, perched up there. The one with the best clothes? The guy in the corner office? Yeah, the one sitting by himself, you know, with everybody sitting around him, right? He didn't say any of that. It was like Jesus was.
Speaker 1:It's almost like, for some reason I don't know why this just image pops in my head. It's like you know the fifties guys where they're wearing their Levi's, the white T-shirts and the worker boots. It's like he's one of them. He's like you can't even tell the difference between him and the others, because he is one of them. He's a trench digger. He's not one of those persons sitting up on his perch. Yes, so Judas says, hey, I'm gonna kiss the dude and then you'll recognize him. Yes, so that's what Joshua did.
Speaker 1:It said Joshua was with his people. He was among his people. He didn't elevate himself and walk around with his security entourage. He was among his people. Okay, so that's the first thing. Can I say one thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the things I love about Pastor J Stewart at the Refuge Church in Charlotte is, well, it's Canapalus technically, but that's just North Charlotte, as big as that church is. You will always see him after every sermon. He goes out into the foyer and meets everybody and he wants to talk to everyone. He will literally stay there until the last person. I mean, I just love, because I have gone to a lot of large churches and you cannot get many of those pastors, and if you do, you gotta go through some security detail. Yeah, yeah, that's true, but I just love he's like one of us, it's like he's out there. I just love that. It's very refreshing to see pastors do that. J also doesn't have any cartilage in one of his knees and when he walks out there I can tell Stop, leave him alone. All right.
Speaker 1:So that's number one. He was with his people. Number two David, verse 13. All right, I gotta find it. You didn't tell me I was going to Dude. I told you you're gonna be reading. You're my Bible reader. All right, here we go. So they stationed the forces. The main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard was west of the city, but Joshua spent that night in the valley, so he went into the valley with them. That's number two. If things were gonna go bad with the people, he'd be right there with them, having a leader in the valley. It's extremely important right Now.
Speaker 1:Listen when I talk about this. What I'm talking about is empathy. See, sympathy sees a drowning person and throws him a life vest. Empathy jumps into the water with them. Suffering together draws you together. So an empathetic leader is a strong leader. So Joshua wasn't spending the night on the top of the mountain in the tent to stay away from the stuff that could happen. He was actually in the valley with them. You know, it's interesting and it really does go to being. What do real leaders do Like? A real leader is a shepherd. In the Bible we see shepherds right. They're so faithful.
Speaker 1:But I think I can make it even more personal for all of us as parents. So my wife and I, we did a cruise with our kids right after Christmas. That's some serious suffering, well, but no, it was amazing because it was one of the only times we could actually get my adult children back, and so anyway. But I was standing on the edge of the boat at the very back out in the deep water watching the boat, and I was thinking and I'm sure other people think this what would it be like if my youngest boy fell off this daggin boat? What would I do? And I thought to myself, because there was literally a big old life preserver right there and I thought, okay, well, I could. No man, there is no way. If he went off, I would literally be off right behind him, yeah, yeah. So so he's going there too, exactly cause that's what a parent like I mean. And then then I'm in the water, but at least I'm in the water with him and I'm screaming up and yelling for them to throw me a life preserver. I think I would probably try to grab the life preserver and jump off. I wouldn't just throw it at him, I would grab the life preserver and jump in the water with him. But that's really what Josh, we're seeing here with Joshua is that's what a father's heart does, yeah, that's what a mother's heart does.
Speaker 1:And so, if you really want to be a good leader, you're in the valley, yeah, and that's the sign. You know? We're talking six signs of a good leader. The first is that you're. You're among your people and you want to be among your people. You don't want to be the one that has to stand out and everybody knows he's the leader. No, no, the best leaders are reluctant leaders anyway, if somebody signs up for the job and choose somebody else. But so that's the the best leaders. And then the second is they, they, they, they choose to suffer with the people. If it's gonna be hard for you, it's gonna be hard for me. Okay, now number three, david, verse 18. I want you to read 18 a, just the first part of 18.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord said to Joshua oh, perfect, that's exactly where we're going, because the third sign of a good leader was that he listened for God. Okay, he paid attention to God's voice. Listening prayer in your business, in the organization that you run, is the best thing that you could ever do. David, I incorporated that for right from the jump. It's like God, okay, we're partnering with you and we want to hear you. So we would spend time in listening prayer and I'm just telling you the downloads that God gave us about certain clients or customers or how we could get more business, or whatever it was and then spending time in scripture. We're listening to the Lord through scripture and the Lord just spoke to us.
Speaker 1:So he listened for the foy, for the voice of God, one of our buddies, todd Foster, who was our youth pastor when we were little kids and he he's really helped Jason early on in our lives. Anyway, he just sent me a text and I sent it to my group chat and my family and and he said this he said silence is an invitation to draw Closer. God doesn't scream or shout to me, he whispers. When God appears silent or distant, he's inviting me to draw near, to sit still, move closer, lean in, stop talking, slow down, be attentive. He has something beautiful and loving to say to me yeah, that's, that's how we hear the Lord like.
Speaker 1:I mean, there are many times where it's like, man, I just haven't heard the Lord. Well, it's like you know what, when I get in the car, there's a podcast going. When I get home, there's other stuff going on. You know you're on social media, you're doing all the stuff of the work, whatever it is that you've got to do, but you have to get alone so that the Lord can speak to you. That's what Oswald Chambers tells you.
Speaker 1:David, and I read Oswald Chambers every single day. At least I do. I've been doing it since Jerry Falwell told me that he did it and and. But Oswald Chambers, his whole thing is. He said, one of the best things in your Christian life is when God blesses you with silence. He said that's a sign that he's drawing you close. Okay, but because of that, you need to be a listener for God. That's the third sign of a good leader is that he listened for God.
Speaker 1:David finished the verse. Okay, I'll read the whole verse. So it's in context. Then the Lord said to Joshua Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward AI, for I will give it into your hand. Okay. Next verse. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. Boom, right there.
Speaker 1:Number four he obeyed God. He didn't just listen, he obeyed. So when you go to God in listening prayer, when you go to God and you want something or whatever, you have to be fully surrendered to obeying what he shows you and what he says to you before he speaks to you. Understanding is not what leads to you having a revelation of what God wants you to do, right, what. What gives you greater understanding is surrender, obedience, right. So you've got to be surrendered to obey before God tells you the thing that he wants you to do. That was actually all of verse 18. I cut it off in the middle and you said next verse, but that was the rest of 18. Okay, yes, that's one of you stopped. Joshua stretched out the javelin. He did exactly what God told him. He was obedient. So he listened for God. That sign 3. Sign 4 he obeyed what God told him to do. Okay, and then let's go to 5, number 5, david, verse 30 man, you gotta tell me these things. Okay, now I got it. Now it's here.
Speaker 1:At that time, joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal. Okay, just after the victory. So they, they ended up winning. They ended up defeating AI, and it was a great victory. Joshua's strategy led them and they did really well. They used that ambush and they took AI. And the very first thing that he did upon their victory is he built an altar.
Speaker 1:As A leader, he showed everybody how to worship God. He had an attitude, attitude of reverence to God, a heart of worship. See, the way that you do business should point people to God. The way you do business, the way you run your organization, should point people to God. They should say, man, I love doing business with these people. Well, I wonder what makes them tick. That's what building an altar looks like. It's. We just did a, my wife and I this is Jason. My wife and I just did a marriage intensive with Kyle and Becca Quill, and they own a really awesome HVAC company, dipping into electric, gonna be opening up plumbing as well, and they're scaling like crazy and they're doing really well. They pray every single day, like they get their leaders together and then they do these fun little meetings in the morning, that are five minute check-ins and all of this kind of stuff. But everybody there knows what they stand for. It's written on the walls that they are a God-centered company. That's what having an altar of worship looks like in your heart. It's letting people see you worship.
Speaker 1:Right now, we're not sitting here trying to do our secret acts of piety in front of people. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. That was an announcement. As for me, in my business, we will serve the Lord. That's an announcement. Okay, so that was what Joshua did Right after the victory.
Speaker 1:He builds an altar that was in front of everybody. Okay, he's public. He wasn't a private Christian or like the secret agent. We see where, even in the culture of America today, we see where secret agent Christianity has gotten us. Yeah, so I mean, so many people can come out and speak their beliefs, so many people can be talking about their beliefs, even during voting season, but then, all of a sudden, christians are supposed to park their beliefs. Well, you can't bring that to the ballot box. You don't wanna legislate morale. This is nonsense. And it's the same way in business man, you got to be vocal and let people know who you are. Build an altar and it was there for everybody. See, everybody. See, everybody can see it. Now. That's trait number five.
Speaker 1:Trait number six, and I don't wanna freak you out, david, but you're gonna have to go to verse 34. Okay, david, was all freaked out. Oh my gosh, I have to read another verse. It's just, you give me these big chunks, like I have to flip the end of my Bible and look around, just scroll, and I don't have my eyes. Use your two fingers, my eyes aren't the same as they used to be. I literally can't even see 34. I see 33, and I see 35. Where's no verse 34? No, there is a 34, but I just can't find it. I mean, I found it. You are struggling, I'm on it. Shush, here we go.
Speaker 1:And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. Right there, boom. He read the word to his people. He elevated God's word above all and made sure that everybody else heard it. Right, specifically, he talked about the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy, chapter 28. Okay, so here he was leading we could say leading an organization but he's leading all these people. He builds this altar, which everybody knows that he has a heart of reverence to God. Then he elevates God's word and he specifically talks Deuteronomy 28. Now that's not a real popular chapter. There's significance to Deuteronomy, chapter 28.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy 28 has been read in Congress. I mean, there's the I don't want to use the word rumor, but history says that President Washington actually had the Bible opened up to Deuteronomy 28 at his inauguration, but I believe it was a passage in Psalms. But either way, deuteronomy 28 was read many times in the early founding of America because it's the blessings and the curses the blessings for obedience and the curse for disobedience. And so this is one of the reasons why we see in God, we trust. You know, on our currency, we are one nation under God is because we were doing our best as a nation to place our national. We were submitting to God and of course, as a result of that, we were able to get rid of slavery and all those other things when people started to actually act like God does care, and so we've grown a lot as a nation. The problem is is whenever we remove that and Deuteronomy 28 also doesn't just talk about the blessings, which we've been incredibly blessed in this country, but it also talks about the curses Whenever you turn your back on God. And so a lot of the stuff we're seeing in our streets today is a direct result of our abandonment. But that's what good parents do. They don't just talk about the blessings, they talk about hey. But if you go this direction, you cross these boundaries, you're gonna get this punishment right, cause you gotta teach your kids.
Speaker 1:Now, those are the six things. He was with his people, okay, so he was among his people. He was one of them. Number two he chose to suffer with his people. Number three he listened for God's voice. Number four he obeyed what he heard. God said, no matter how difficult it was. I mean, god says stretch a javelin out over the people, and then I can imagine the human side of Joshua says what's that gonna do? You know, like what does that do? Maybe he was in the back of a group whenever Moses raised his staff and they crossed the red seat, who knows? But all I know is that you do whatever God tells you to do. You obey it.
Speaker 1:And then, number five, be a worshipper. Build that altar, make sure people can see it. And then, number six, be a person of the word. When you do that, I promise you, these six signs will prove that you will be the leader God created you to be. And being a good leader means you will Create an appetite in those who follow you and the people that are around you. You will create an appetite for godliness because, at the end of the day, you can create an appetite for income. You can create an appetite for fame and all that stuff. No, you don't want to create appetites for that. You want to create appetites to be faithful, faithful with who God made them to be yep. So all right, jason, owner or loan it ready. Yeah, own it means you'll keep it. You love it, it's good. Loan it, no, no good. Yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1:Stanley cups, those Stanley mug, I mean everybody else wants to own it. I loan it because I don't believe in sitting there and holding something in my hand, like I'm not, you know, like you go to a game, I'm not gonna hold something in my hand. It's just not gonna happen. I need a bottle of water, okay, so you know now that this hate, this gets into the debate, because now the Stanley mugs or they say that the metal is starting to Jack with people kill people. I don't know if it's killing people, but it's. It's starting to mess up people, but I heard that. But the bottles? They're saying that the plastic is killing people. So now you've got plastic killing people, now metals killing everything's killing us exactly. So it's like I think we're just being like ping-pong balls. You know we're just getting batted back and forth. You can do this now. You can't do this, you know. Anyway, just do your best, I don't know. Rely on the Lord. I say loan the Stanley, I think you know. I mean, if you're a 14 year old girl Like Lundy, like she, she owns that sucker. You know. If you're a mom out there I don't know of a grown man that should be holding Stanley.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, hey, subscribe, rate and review this, send it out to some friends. Hopefully you like it. A reach out to us at, been a brothers calm and let us know, because our infamous secretary, deb, she, will make sure we get any comments that you guys want to send our way. And yeah, we don't. We don't look at any comments on social media or anything like that. So yeah, once we got nailed by HTV, we had literally thousands and thousands and thousands of those nonsense. We just turn that jump. If you are offended because you reach out to me and David and you don't hear anything, oh, that's what it is Like. How do you build a business or how do you build something and not pay attention? But that's fine. Whatever, I like to talk, not listen. You're an idiot's what you are. All right, guys. God bless, you can't wait to see you guys next week. Peace.