TL_38_Five_Moses_Principles_1
2,500,000 Israelites followed Moses out of Egypt into the wilderness.
“And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
“And when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did…. , he said, What is this … Why do you sit judging the people without others to help…?
“And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I teach them the statutes of God, and his laws.
“And Moses’ father-in-law said unto him. The thing that you do is not good. You will surely wear away, both you, and this people… for this thing is too heavy for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself alone.
“Do what I say, I will give you counsel, and God shall be with you: bring the causes [needs] of the people unto God.
“And teach the people God’s ordinances and laws, and show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
“In addition, choose out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
“And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every difficult matter they shall bring unto you, but every simple matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for you, and they shall bear the burden with you” (Exo 18:13-22).
Clericalism is trying to do the work God has called you to accomplish, by yourself, without the counsel or help of others. It is placing yourself OVER others instead of seeing yourself as the servant of others. “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matt 20:27; 23:11). Those who stay in the trap of Clericalism will fail to fulfill the true purpose of a church leader.
Clericalism can only be solved by using the principles of multiplying ministry utilized by Jesus and the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.
The solution to clericalism is to build a team. Invest your time and resources in the team. Let the team help you with the work God has called you to do.
You will succeed in team-building if you follow the principles given to Moses by God and his father-in-law, Jethro. Without these, Moses would have failed. without them you will fail as a church leader.
If you follow the biblical alternative to “Clericalism,” you will be effective in helping Jesus build His Church. We will examine the five principles given to Moses. In these, we will find our solution to the problem of Clericalism.
A. FIVE PRINCIPLES GIVEN TO MOSES
1. Train Others To Help
“I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee….” (Num 11:14,15).
Moses was asking God to kill him because of the problems resulting from clericalism. Clericalism was killing Moses.
It will kill you!
To help him with this problem, god was talking to Moses (Numbers 11). In Exodus 18, Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law) was also talking to Moses and saying the same thing.
When Moses listened to God and Jethro, here is what he found out.
The solution to his problem began with training others.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men… whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them…” (Num11:16).
“In addition, choose out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons: with you….” (Exo 18:21,22).
The scripture verses which follow teach us that the leadership gifts were given to the Church to train the members to do the work of the ministry.
This was the purpose of Moses’ ministry. He just didn’t know it.
The leader’s job is to train and equip the members of the church who have leadership potential.
these members would then do the work of the ministry.
“When Jesus ascended up to heaven. He gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For training and equipping the saints, so that members of the church would do the work of the ministry, and thus build up the body of Christ spiritually and numerically…” (Eph 4:10-12 pph).
a. Each One – Teach One.
Paul teaches in the above verses that the primary purpose of a church leader is to train others.
Paul explained this to young Timothy. His job as a church leader was to train others. He was to take the training he received from Paul and pass it on to other faithful men. these in turn were also to teach still other faithful men.
“And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2).
Following Paul’s principles of training others would set off a chain reaction of multiplication that would cause the gospel to be spread quickly over the whole world.
The following chart shows what would happen if you would take ONE year training him.
The second year, you and the one you trained would each train one other. If you kept this process up for thirty-three years, look what would happen.
This illustrates the Bible principle of “EACH ONE-TEACH ONE”
EACH ONE – TEACH ONE
At End Of No Of Persons Trained
Year 1 2
Year 2 4
Year 3 8
Year 4 16
Year 5 32
Year 6 64
Year 7 128
Year 8 256
Year 9 512
Year 10 1,024
Year 11 2,048
Year 12 4,096
Year 13 8,192
Year 11 16,384
Year 15 32,768
Year 16 65,536
Year 17 131,082
Year 18 262,144
Year 19 524,288
Year 20 1,048,576
Year 21 2,097.152
Year 22 4,194,304
Year 23 8,388,608
Year 24 16,777,216
Year 25 33,554,432
Year 26 67,108,864
Year 27 134,217,728
Year 28 268,435,456
Year 29 536,870,912
Year 30 1,073,741,824
Year 31 2,147,483,648
Year 32 4,294,967,296
Year 33 8,589,934,592
If each one would teach one, at the end of 33 years, more people would be trained than the population of the world. If we would do things the Bible way, we would experience biblical results.
“And there went great multitudes with him… And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Luke 14:25, Acts 5:14). This is God’s desire, for multitudes to follow Jesus.
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…” (Rev 7:9). Yes! The Lord wants multitudes saved. “The Lord…is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). He has given us principles to insure this result.
b. Fruit That Remains.
In 1959 the author was ministering in the country of Nicaragua, Central America. the question was asked an elderly and wise church leader: “How were you able to plant five hundred churches in Central America in thirty years?” In response he told the following story.
“I went to Guatemala in 1929 as a missionary. Immediately I set out to visit villages where no born-again believers could be found. I preached and healed the sick for six nights. Every night I invited the sinners to come and receive forgiveness from Jesus for their sins. Many came every night.
“I would baptize the new believers in water and go on to the next village, to repeat the process. I thought I was winning about one hundred souls to Christ every week. That is the number I was baptizing.
“I would write to my home church who supported me and tell the story of all my success. it was unbelievable! I was winning over five-thousand souls each year to Christ.
“After two years and one hundred village crusades, I decided to go back and visit all these villages a second time.
“I went to the first village and to my amazement, all my converts had become ‘reverts’ – they had all reverted back to their pagan practices and were not living their lives by the Bible. There were no church meetings and no one leading or teaching the new believers. Those I had left in charge had no continued to follow Christ.
” I went to the second and third, the fourth and fifth village. It was the same in every one. My heart was broken. What I thought had been two years of successful ministry had produced no remaining fruit.
“The words of Jesus were ringing in my ears:
“‘You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”‘ (John 15:16).
” I had no remaining fruit. What must I do? I set my heart to seek the Lord with a time of fasting and prayer. During that time the Lord spoke clearly to me. He said, ‘I have not sent you to evangelize Central America by yourself. I sent you to train others.’
” The Lord showed me two important principles. First: Train others to take leadership responsibility! Second: Work where God is working!
” I immediately set about organizing a Bible School training course of six months’ duration. about fifty students came and completed the first course.
” Shortly after that, I heard reports from the jungle areas of miracles of healing taking place. People were having visions of Jesus and as a result of the healing miracles, were being converted by the scores.
” Then I remembered. ‘Work where God is working.’ Immediately we took the trained workers to that area. A great harvest of souls resulted. The trained workers started churches in each of the villages and cared for and taught the new believers. This produced ‘remaining fruit’.
” I have followed those two principles since 1931: (1) Train others and (2) work where God is working!
” Today we have five Short-term Bible Training Institutes in which over a thousand workers have been trained. The five hundred churches are the remaining fruit of those Central American young people we trained. they went out to the places where we heard God was working. We worked with God and great fruitfulness resulted.”
By 1989 (30 years after I first met that dear missionary) that Central American church movement had grown to several thousand churches.
c. Find The Leaders.
And the LORD said unto Moses, “Gather unto me seventy men … whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them ….” (Num 11:16).
A lot of time and effort is wasted training those with no leadership gift. The Lord’s instruction was clear, “Gather seventy men… whom thou knowest to be elders [leaders]…”
How can you recognize a leader? Observe how many followers there are. If no one is following, you do not have a leader.
When you go out to the field to bring in a herd of fifty dairy cows to be milked – you only have to find the “lead cow.” If you start her toward the milking-barn, the rest will follow. so it is with leaders of people. You must find men and women others will follow, and train them.
This is what Jesus did. “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
“And when it was day, he called unto his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named Apostles. And he came down with them…” (Luke 6:12, 13,17).
Jesus spent most of His time preparing the twelve apostles to carry on His ministry. He followed this principle of training others – who would teach others also. That is the ministry of leaders – finding more leaders and training them.
Next Week
Teach the Bible