Exodus 18 Explained

well good morning everybody it's thursday thankful to be with you and thankful for you being part of this uh daily devotion as we make our way through god's word today we are in exodus 18 and as always i hope you've already read the chapter and written in your journal or notebook what god said to your heart what you learned and what he's asking you to do through this chapter i want to share with you some of my thoughts and and and they center around the issue of delegation you'll remember moses was settling disputes among the people and in chapter 18 verse 13 it says it came about the next day that moses sat to judge the people and the people stood about moses from morning until the evening and his father-in-law jethro had just shown up for a visit watches this and asked him what's going on what are you doing and moses explains to him that the people bring their disputes to him their disagreements and he settles all of them he's kind of like an arbiter or the judge and it was really too much for one man to do so in verse 17 moses father-in-law said to him the thing that you're doing is not good i mean that's just what everybody wants to hear from their mother-in-law or father-in-law isn't it you're messing up don't do it that way but anyway that's what jethro told moses in verse 18 he says you will surely wear out both yourself and these people who are with you for the task is too heavy for you you cannot do it alone and actually jethro was correct moses is too much it's too much for you it's too much for the people you're going to get exhausted and they're going to get frustrated and exhausted by having to wait on you and it takes so long to get everything done and so jethro offers a suggestion about moses identifying certain men training them and then putting them in charge so that they could settle most of the disputes and the only ones that came to moses were the more severe ones that needed his uh his discretion and so moses uh did that and then down in verse 22 as uh he and jethro are having this conversation and this is part of what i was just saying uh in verse 22 jeffrey said to him let them these men you train judge the people at all times let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you but every minor dispute they themselves will judge and so it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you so that you're not having to do all this alone verse 23 for if you do this thing and god so commands you if god if you sense god telling you to do what i'm suggesting you do then you will be able to endure you won't burn out you'll last but here's what really caught my attention the end of verse 23 and all these people also will go to their place in peace why were the people then able to go to their place in peace well in part you could say because the disputes were settled yes but it was also because things got done more efficiently they got done quicker you know when when someone doesn't know how to delegate and they become a log jam they they they become a clog in the system and things slow down things come to a standstill things don't get done people get frustrated people get angry i think about businesses or department stores and so on where the cashier or the salesman that i'm actually working with has the ability to make a decision and not always have to jump through a thousand hoops to talk to this supervisor who talks to that supervisor who talks to another supervisor before decision can be made that's frustrating for the customer and i hate those kind of companies those kind of stores and so delegation is not simply a matter of giving people responsibility it's also giving them authority but preceding that is selecting the right people and then training them so that they know the kind of decisions you want them to make that's a big part of leadership something i had to learn took a lot of time to really understand that and not just the need for delegation a lot of people know the need for but they're not comfortable doing it or they don't know how to do it they don't empower they don't train don't set expectations boundaries all of that and some people just are afraid to do it because they want to hold on to everything they want to they want to hold the control they want to have responsibility they want won't have a sense of you know importance and so they don't delegate but in the business world and leadership at an institution you got to learn how to do that but here's one more thing that's also important in the family as we raise our kids we need to over time delegate certain responsibilities and authority to our children so that they learn how to function before they become adults you can't treat a middle school student the same way you do an elementary student you can't treat a high school student the same way you do a middle school student you can't treat a college student the same way you do a middle school student as a parent you have to increase their responsibility also increase their authority for making decisions and and and in doing that having already prepared them trained them knowing that every now and then they're going to mess up but learning to let others help is important so this delegation matters but it's also so you don't wear out so so you can focus on the things that are more important for you to do the things that maybe you the you are the only one that can do because uh that matters as well in life and family and in leadership and and some of it is just a willingness to let other people help some people struggle to let others help so let other people help and help let them help you carry the load it's also how you develop how you develop people how you develop leaders how you develop children how you help them become um well-rounded adults and and probably in my life as i said that's a skill i had to learn it's what i'm still learning and what i hope to get even better at in the days ahead if you struggle with that connect with somebody who's good at it don't make excuses because it's one of the most important skills you can develop in life whether it's in your family relationships in your career a place where you volunteer even if you're a volunteer in church ministry you need to be developing other ministry leaders and you can't develop other ministry leaders if you hold tightly to everything so it's a skill that all of us need to learn that's that's what i wanted to share with you from exodus 18. tomorrow will be in chapter 19 moses and the people arrive at mount sinai the mount of god and i hope you're also getting ready to worship jesus on sunday by praying and inviting people to come and worship with you remember here at first baptist three services on sunday morning 8 30 contemporary service 9 45 traditional service and 10 30 contemporary service tell people about it don't keep it a secret hey god bless you and i'll see you tomorrow

Channel: First Baptist Church of Rock Hill

Views: 195

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Exodus Explaind, Exodus 18 Explained, Exodus, Bible, Church, Steve Hogg

Id: SXB71BF__rw

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021