The Kind of Leader God can Use

Since 2015, It is estimated that there are about 1500 books published each year with with the word leadership in the title. That averages out to about 4 a day. The world is insatiably curious about what makes a great leader. While there may be no shortage of advice on how to become a great leader, we consistently see men whose competence don't match their character rise to the pinnacle of success only to see them lose their footing and tumble in disgrace. Even within the church, in the past few years, we've seen more mega pastors fail than succeed and the collateral damage of their disgrace has left a black eye on the face of Jesus to the world.

So what is the greatest ingredient to being a great leader for the long haul?

In the contrast of the fall of Saul and the subsequent anointing of David as King of Israel, we witness the pattern of destruction and subsequent ascent to the throne and with that transition we find some clues about becoming the kind of leader God can use reminding us again of the words of Joshua which read.

"This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth but you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it for then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do." - Joshua 1:8

Leadership guru Michael Hyatt once wrote, "if you want to be a great leader, you must first become a great followers..I would likewise contend that history’s worst leaders never learned to follow. As a result, they became tyrants, making the lives of their own followers miserable."

As we will soon see, obedience is everything in the life of a leader.

Highlight:

I Samuel 15 & 16

Explain:

1 Samuel 15 & 16 display for us the transition between King Saul and the yet future King, a young boy named David. The events surrounding Saul’s being deposed as king are both tragic and unnecessary. It did not have to go down that way, has Saul listened and obeyed the Lord, he would not have come to such a tragic end. Samuel comes to Saul and commands him to attack the Amalekites. He did this because the Lord remembered the evil deeds of the Amalekites in Exodus 17. As the children of Israel are proceeding tot he promised land under Moses, the Amalekites attacked them. Aaron and Our held up Moses arms in this famous battle leading to Israel’s victory but the Lord never forgot the evil that the Amalekites performed against Israel that day.

It is for this reason that Samuel commands Saul to attack Amalek to avenge the attack of Exodus 17. Samuel called for total destruction of the people and yet rather than destroying them completely Saul keeps the best of the spoils for himself including the king, the sheep and oxen of the land, but he destroys everything else.

By the time Samuel gets to Saul, God has already told Samuel of Saul’s actions and he hears the bleating of the sheep behind Saul’s greetings. For this disobedience Saul loses the kingdom. This is the latest in a series of bad choices and presumptuous actions not the least of which was the erection of a statue to Himself upon returning home with victory.

When Samuel informs Saul of his demise, Saul begs for forgiveness in the hopes that the Lord will renege on his decision to remove him as king but to no avail. In the wake of these events, God commands Samuel to anoint a new king, a young boy who was the polar opposite of Saul. The youngest son of Jesse, a boy named David is t be the new king. To our surprise the next paragraph finds the young boy summoned to the palace as a musician to play for the king. The young boy musical ability pleases Saul who is often tormented by the guilt of his past mistakes and the evil spirits that have brooded upon the palace. The end of the chapter finds the shepherd boy promoted to armor bearer and with that the scene is set for the most famous underdog story of all time, the young boy is about to face the champion of Gath.

Apply:

1. Partial obedience is disobedience (15:9). Saul’s partial obedience in the mind of God was disobedience. Whenever we choose to partially obey God, we need to recognize that God sees it as being disobedient. There is no sliding scale of obedience. Either you obey God completely or you don’t obey Him at all.

2. Success leads to presumption leads to arrogance (15:12). If we aren’t careful our success will lead to presumption. Saul experiences victory against Amalek and in the wake of that victory, he begins to become presumptuous believing the lie that God won’t mind if he takes some of the spoils. Saul should have remembered the lesson the children of Israel learned at the hands of Ai. We can’t be so presumptuous as to believe that God didn’t mean what He said about total obedience. That presumption will eventually lead to arrogance. Paul is so proud of his victory, that he comes home virtually ignoring his own disobedience and instead building a monument to Himself. This is how presumption breeds arrogance and we become blinded to our own disobedience. When we experience victory in one area of our lives we don’t need to be so prideful in our progress that we are blinded to our own disobedience. When we find ourselves growing in our faith and knowledge of God’s word, we must be careful not to be blinded to small areas of disobedience in the process of building monuments to our own growth.

3. Your disobedience will always tell on you (15:13-14). We have to be careful of this because our disobedience will always tell on us. The sheep in the background told on Saul and our disobedience will always eventually tell on us as well.

4. Even his confession is rooted in lies (15:24-25). When we are called into account for our disobedience we should never justify it with our own lies. Making excuses for our sin is as old as Adam and Eve and God hates it just as much today. Saul blames the people for taking the king and the animals, but it was just as much him as it was them. When we are corrected or held accountable for sin in our lives, we need to resist justifying it and instead own it and ask forgiveness of it.

5. God is at once eternal and unchanging (15:29). We learn something very important about God in these verses. God is forever the same. He doesn’t change. He hasn’t changed His mind about disobedience today in our lives either. He still hates it and He will still punish it.

6. Don’t trust the eye test (16:7). Even though Saul looked the part, he wasn’t cut out to be a the leader Israel needed. When he finally was removed, God raised up a leader who was after His own heart. We must remember that even though a man may look like a leader what matters is what is in his heart not on the outside. A godly leader is one whose heart is hidden with God, regardless of what others may think of Him. This is all the more reason to seek the mind of God on raising up leaders. We can’t just pick them arbitrarily based on a beauty contest.

7. Be faithful where you are and God will promote you (16:18). God is the One who promoted David. He didn’t angle for being king, didn’t campaign for promotion, he was faithful doing and being what He was supposed to be and at just the right time God promoted him.

Respond:

Jesus, help me to live a life of integrity and submission removed of the arrogance and presumption that deposed Saul as King. Help me to cultivate inwardly the man you want me to be for You see the heart and not the external. When I am corrected, help me to resist making excuses and own my sin in true repentance and help me to be the kind of leader that You can bless in Your own time because I am living faithfully.