A Real Man Would . . . Lead
Text: Joshua 15:9-20 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Passages: Joshua 15:9-20
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Joshua 15:9-20
9 Then the boundary extends from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, and from there to the cities of Mount Ephron. Then the boundary bends around to Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim). 10 And the boundary circles west of Baalah to Mount Seir, passes along to the northern shoulder of Mount Jearim (that is, Chesalon), and goes down to Beth-shemesh and passes along by Timnah. 11 The boundary goes out to the shoulder of the hill north of Ekron, then the boundary bends around to Shikkeron and passes along to Mount Baalah and goes out to Jabneel. Then the boundary comes to an end at the sea. 12 And the west boundary was the Great Sea with its coastline. This is the boundary around the people of Judah according to their clans.
13 According to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). 14 And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. 15 And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher. 16 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as wife.” 17 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 18 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 19 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah according to their clans.
(ESV)
Since we are talking about manly men, we have to talk about probably the manliest man of scripture, Samson. Samson is the ultimate example of what we might consider a real man. He was strong. He was a conqueror. He didn’t let anyone push him around. When he felt that people wronged him, he took his revenge. Once when he lost a bet, he killed thirty to repay his debt he was a commander and a judge in Israel for about 20 years before he met Delilah.
By every earthly standard he was a great leader, a real man. He was someone that we might think we want to imitate. Yet in so many ways he was a failure as a leader. We see that in our text. Despite his great strength, the people of Judah were not willing to follow Samson. Instead, they gave him over to the Philistines.
That is the heart of our sermon today. That difference between being a great warrior and being a great leader. God has called us to leadership not to dictatorship. Leadership means service, example and Christ.
What was wrong with Samson’s form of leadership?
First, he used his gifts to serve himself rather than to serve others. God gave him his great strength for the purpose of freeing the Israelite people from the Philistines. Samson only bothered to fight the Philistines when he felt they had wronged him personally. He used his strength to get revenge for himself rather than to serve.
Romans 12:4-6 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:
Being a good leader means using the gifts God has given to us to serve one another, instead of serving ourselves
Men, God has called you to be leaders, each one of you. You are called to be leaders in the family and in the church. Some to a greater degree and others to a less degree, but each of you is called to leadership.
1 Corinthians 11:3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
In our sinfulness we often have a very skewed perspective on what being a leader means. Like Samson we tend to use our leadership to serve ourselves rather than to serve others. We have a tendency to be either overbearing, “Woman do what I tell you,” or lax and lazy in our duties, “Do whatever you want I don’t care.”
God has called us neither to be tyrants nor to laziness. He has called us to leadership, and leadership means humble service. Being a leader doesn’t mean telling others what to do, it means being the first one to do what needs to be done.
Last week we were reminded how being a real man means be Christ like in humility. Today we apply that same humility to leadership. Being a man means that God has called you to be leaders, but leaders in humility.
Because we so often fail we look to Jesus. We look to Jesus both as an example for us and for the forgiveness he offers.
Matthew 20:25-28 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 “And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– 28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus serves us by forgiving our failure in leadership. He serves us by dying for our sins. He leads by service and sets an example for us
Leadership means being an example.
Second, Samson failed as a leader because he was not a good example. His attitude was to do what he wanted when he wanted. God told him not to touch any dead thing. He ate honey from a lion carcass. God told him not to drink alcohol. He went to party it up with the philistines.
God has called you not to be commanders or generals but leaders. The key difference is right there in the word, a leader leads, a commander commands. We often act as though the terms commander and leader are synonyms. Nothing could be further from the truth. A commander gives orders. A leader sets an example. A commander uses his words. A leader uses his actions. The preschool students know what a leader is, the leader is the one in front of the line, not the one in back telling everyone what to do.
God has called you to be leaders bot not commanders
A great example of a leader is not Samson but Joshua.
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
He led by example and by putting God first in all things. Samson was one who didn’t let anyone not even God tell him what to do. Joshua was an example of following God.
Once again, we see Jesus both as an example and as the offering for our failure.
Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJ 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus is our leader. He is our Good Shepherd. What a great good shepherd he is. He didn’t send us to the front lines to fight. He himself came down from heaven and he himself was tempted greater than we are. He didn’t send us to die, he himself entered death ahead of us. Through his death he leads us through death into life. We have failed to be the leaders that we should be but Jesus has taken our place under the law. He did what we could not.
Samson was strong, stronger than any other man, physically but his strength failed him. Real strength doesn’t come from our muscles. Real strength comes from Christ.
Isaiah 40:30-31 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
God has called you to leadership. The leadership of service and example. Even when we fail to be leaders, we should Jesus our leader took our place, forgives our sins and strengthens us through is word. Amen