No More Excuses! Spiritual Leadership is Needed Now

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

Spiritual leadership is needed in our world today as the efforts of evil continue to grow. Will you, the child of God, step up to fulfill your role?

Introduction

In my sermon – Transformation Not Conformation, I stated that today’s evil must be confronted, and it can only be successfully confronted by the light of God.  Today, I share that spiritual leadership is needed in confronting today’s evil.  To be clear, that leadership does not fall only on pastors and preachers.  As Paul said, the burden isn’t just for one to bear, but all must join in equally.  Yet, how many of us are willing to step up and lead the way?

Abdicating Spiritual Leadership

If you have watched, listened to, or read my sermons over the years, you will notice that I preach about certain subjects often.  One of those subjects is about Christian leadership – how believers conduct themselves.  The reason why I often preach about this subject is because Christians ought to be leading the way, setting the example of love and grace that is badly needed in today’s world.

Sadly, many have abdicated their role of spiritual leadership, and it has fallen into a vacuum.  In that vacuum, the fool has taken on the role of leading others spiritually.  To be clear, when I say “the fool”, I am speaking in a spiritual manner of one whose way is absent of the godliness that is from God.

There is a great danger when the spiritually foolish are at the helm.  The danger is that the path of the fool is a path whose end is destruction (Prov. 1:32; 14:12).  Proverbs 13:20 tells us that the companion of fools will also be destroyed.  This concerns me greatly today because many are following the spiritual leadership of spiritual fools.

The Call to Lead the Way

So, the spiritually transformed must take the lead, and have been called on to lead in the way of Christ.

After His resurrection, Jesus, with all authority given to Him, called on His disciples to go unto all people ministering the good news (Matt. 28:19-20).  Jesus commissioned all of His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Jesus authorized all of His disciples to teach others to observe all that He commanded.  Jesus commanded that we love the Lord wholeheartedly, and also to love our neighbors as well.

In our role as spiritual leaders, we are stewards (representatives) of the Lord.  Therefore, we ought to love all people, especially the poor, the less fortunate, and the stranger (foreigner).  Jesus said that it’s easy for us to love those who love us, but then He commanded that we love those who despise us, use us, and persecute us.

In our role as spiritual leaders, we are to be lights of the world.  Christians are to be as a city that sits on a hill whose light cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14).  Jesus said to His followers, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16).”

Our role as spiritual leaders is a role that calls on us to lead those who are still bound in the chains of sin to the liberty that can only be found in Christ.  Yet, the question that still remains and must be answered by us is whether or not we will fulfill our calling to be spiritual leaders.

Making Excuses to God

Unfortunately, many choose to do as Moses after his initial call from God – we choose to make excuses.

The excuses of Moses

In Exodus 3:10, you will see that the Lord called on Moses to go before Pharaoh so that he may lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.  As we all know, the children of Israel were living in the bondage of Egypt.  So, much like our calling, Moses was being called to lead Israel to the liberty that was promised to them by God.

Scripture shows us, repeatedly, that Moses responded to his commission from God by making excuses.  I want you to pay close attention to all of the excuses that Moses made to the Lord.

In Exodus 3:11, Moses said to the Lord, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”  Moses’ thought here was one asking the question as to why God would choose to use him.  How many of us ask the Lord, ‘Why did you choose to use me?  Who am I?’  You see, Moses didn’t think himself worthy of such an assignment.

Then, in Exodus 4:1, still making excuses, you will see that Moses said to the Lord, “Suppose [the children of Israel] will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”  How many of us have thought this same thing when it comes to leading spiritually?

In Exodus 4:10, Moses, making another excuse, said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”  Moses’ excuse this time around was that he wasn’t a good speaker.  Moses told the Lord that he had a speech impediment, being a stutterer.

When he ran out of excuses, in Exodus 4:13, we’ll see Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”  In other words, Moses plainly told God to send somebody else to do the job, not me.  Some suggest that Moses didn’t want to go back to Egypt to face the crime he had committed in Egypt.  While that may be the truth, the point is clear that Moses did not want the job and came up with excuse after excuse.

Why do we make excuses about our calling

Don’t many of us make the same excuses to the Lord?  Pastors and preachers are bad about trying to run from their calling.  God got to me when I got ready to lift my legs to run, and made me put my leg back down.  Why do we make excuses when it comes to our role of spiritual leadership?

Some of us will try to blame our age, saying we’re either too young or too old.  Yet, God will use you to be a spiritual leader regardless of how young or how old you are.  Samuel and David were called at very young ages.  Abraham and Moses were still spiritual leaders at very old ages.

Many of us are too ashamed to minister today; we want to keep our faith on the down low – keeping it hush and quiet.  Yet, I must warn you today:  Don’t be ashamed of the lord.  Jesus said, “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory (Luke 9:26).”

Don’t ever deny your faith!  Don’t ever deny the one in whom you believe!  You certainly wouldn’t want to hear Christ deny knowing you, especially not on the day you stand before God.

Being so fearful is what leads so many of us to feel inadequate and think so little of ourselves.  Some of us, like Moses, will say, ‘I’m not well-versed.  I am not a good speaker.  I may mess up and make a mistake.  I am not knowledgeable enough to lead.’  We have all of these excuses, believing we’re not perfect for the job, and God should send someone else!

Who Will God Use

I feel it necessary to ask all of you:  Do you think God desires “perfect people” to lead others?  If you feel He does, let me ask you another question:  Who, aside from Christ, did God call that was a perfect person?

Nobody is perfect

As I referenced a few moments ago, Moses committed a crime in Egypt.  In Exodus 2:11-12, we’re told that Moses killed an Egyptian whom he saw beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.  Not only did Moses kill the man, he hid his body, and then he fled to Midian.  Moses was far from being a “perfect person”, but God called on him to lead his people to the Promised Land!

David, known as the man after God’s own heart, was also not a “perfect person”.  David shed much blood in his life, being a warrior for Israel (1 Chr. 22:8).  On top of that, when he was king of Israel, David committed his great sin.  David slept with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and then he had Uriah put on the front lines to be killed in battle just to try to cover up his sin (2 Sam. 11-12).  

Yet, in all that David had done, God made an everlasting covenant with him.  Yes, the Lord rebuked and chastised David for his transgressions, but God remained with him and used him.

Peter, the one whom Christ said He’d establish his church, was also far from being a perfect person.  On the night in which Jesus was arrested, Peter drew his sword and struck Malchus’ ear.  For him to have struck Malchus’ ear with a sword meant that people had swung his sword at Malchus’ head (John 18:10).  Then, on top of that, Peter was ashamed to know Christ, denying Him three times as Jesus was ‘standing trial’.

With all that said, the Lord remained with Peter, showing him mercy and forgiving him at the breakfast by the sea (John 21:15-19).  Peter helped to establish the church after receiving the Holy Spirit.

Paul, another great man of the faith, was very far from being perfect, as he often admitted in his own writing.  Before his conversion, Paul persecuted the church, having believers arrested and even killed (Acts 22:20; Gal. 1:13-17).  Yet, the Lord called on him and used him to minister to worldly people.

I reference all of these examples so that you may understand that nobody God used yesterday was perfect, and nobody the Lord uses today is perfect.  Certainly, don’t you look at us pastors and preachers, and put us on a pedestal because we’re not perfect.  As Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).”

God uses the imperfect

I want you to understand that God can’t/won’t use the person who thinks themselves to be perfect.  The reason why God can’t/won’t use such a  person because the perfect person won’t come to Him.  Take, for example, the rich young ruler, who believed he had kept all the law, but he turned from Christ the moment Christ gave him the instruction to love the poor (Luke 18:18-23).

The perfect person for God to use is the one who recognizes they are imperfect and flawed.  If you’re acknowledging your imperfections, you should understand God smiles at your excuses because you are more than fit to serve the role He desires you to fill.  You see, the Lord takes your flaws and turns them into testimonies to those around you who also see themselves as flawed and desire to be helped.

God’s Comfort and Assurance

When you’re feeling inadequate, God will build up your confidence so that you can lead others.  I want you to pay close attention to God’s responses to Moses’ excuses, as they will all serve as my key verses for today’s message. I want you to pay close attention because you will see how God won’t accept your excuses, but will, by all means, comfort, assure, and strengthen you.

After Moses asked, “Who am I?”, the Lord answered, saying to him, “I will certainly be with you.  And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you:  When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain (Ex. 3:12).”

So, in his inadequacy, God told Moses that you will succeed.  And again, the reason why Moses would succeed, when he thought he wouldn’t, was because God would be with him.  

As this was true for Moses in his leadership, you should understand that this stands true for you as well.  You are not alone; God is with you.  You see, God is with all of those who are of sincere faith through the inner dwelling of the Holy Spirit.  

When Moses said that the children of Israel wouldn’t believe he had been sent by the Lord, you’ll see God’s response in Exodus 4:2-5.  God had Moses cast his rod to the ground, a rod that Moses used to tend to his father-in-law’s flock.  The rod turned into a serpent, causing Moses to flee from it, but then God had Moses pick the serpent up from its tail.  Once he picked the serpent up, the serpent turned back into his rod.

God said to Moses, “That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, as appeared to you.  Moses’ rod could be used to testify to and glorify the Lord.

Through the Holy Spirit, all of God’s children, figuratively speaking, have been given a rod by God to use to testify of Him.  God has blessed all of us with gifts to use to glorify Him.  As a pastor, I admit to you that I would not be able to do all I do without the Lord!

Lastly, when Moses tried to use his speech inabilities as an excuse, God asked him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?  Then the Lord repeated, and some, “Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

I want you to understand that God is not asking you to do anything by yourself!  God is not asking you to do anything without Him.  Moses could see that God was with him and the people by seeing the pillar of cloud at day and the pillar of fire at night.

None of us will stand alone serving in our role as a spiritual leader.  Jesus told the disciples, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, dwells with you, and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans (John 14:17-18).”

When you don’t think you’ll know what to say, the Holy Spirit will lead you.  The Holy Spirit will guide you in your every action.  Again, the role of the Spirit is to guide us into all truth.  Therefore, we must continue to heed the Spirit’s word because we have the Helper and Comforter who will help and comfort us in all matters, especially in our role of leadership.

Time to Take On Our Responsibility

It’s time for us to stop abdicating our role as spiritual leaders to fools.  I say this because the spiritually foolish have led this land and the world into an incredibly dark hole.  There have been, and still are, unending religious wars.  In this dark hole that wicked and evil have dragged the world into, there is much bitterness, anger, and hatred.

For the world to get out of this dark hole, it will take light to lead us out.  God’s children have the light, and therefore, we have a responsibility to lead!  We have a responsibility to lead those bound in the chains of sin to freedom.  In other words, we have a responsibility to lead those around us away from all the bitterness and anger!

Moreover, we have a responsibility to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.  As it is said in Hebrews 10:24, we are to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.  We must exhort one another, sharpening each other, rebuking one another when we have done wrong.  Then, we have a responsibility to lift each other up, especially those who may be weaker in the faith.

We must lead, not just by quoting bible verses, but also by example, through our actions.  Nobody is going to follow a hypocrite!  Therefore, we have a responsibility to move in holiness!

What this means is that we led by example when it comes to moving by grace and with sincerity to all people at all times!  Even the nonbeliever can tell when one is not moving in a Christ-like manner.  Therefore, moving in holiness does not call on us to move us dictators!  God has not called for His children to move as oppressors!

We are to lead in a Christ-like manner!  All of us desire for things to “get better”, but for that to happen, we must set the tone!  We must live, shining the light of God through our actions so that it pierces through the darkness of today’s evil.