In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a genuine fear of God and the accountability that comes with being a teacher of the Word. He shares his personal struggle of getting caught up in various tasks that took away from his time for prayer and studying the Bible, causing the people to suffer. The speaker also discusses the demands placed on him as a pastor of a large church and the need to prioritize his time and delegate responsibilities to others. He references the story of Moses and Jethro in Exodus 18 to illustrate the importance of appointing capable individuals to help with the workload.

The children of Israel are moving now through the wilderness, and they took their journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Zin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. So they have been actually journeying now for about forty-five days, and the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. Now this is really a very unfortunate accusation, it's an untrue accusation, but people can sometimes be so cruel. And now they're hungry, and when people are hungry, sometimes they'll say, you know, when a man gets hungry, sometimes they become like a bear. You just want to feed them before you talk to them really. And these people were hungry, and so they said, it would have been better off for us to have died back in Egypt by those flesh pots with a full stomach, full of bread, than out here in this wilderness to starve to death. Why did we ever listen to you guys? And you know, they so quickly forgot the misery and the bondage, the cruel bondage of Egypt. It is oftentimes like this when a person, after coming out of the bondage of sin and out of his experiences in the world, many times as we look back at them, they seem to be now more glamorous than they were when we were in them. We forget the emptiness. We forget the cruel bondage that we experienced. We forget what it was as far as the pain and the hurt and the suffering. And all we remember is the full stomach. And so, as they are remembering their experience in Egypt, all they're remembering was the plus side of it, the full stomach as we sat by the flesh pots. And they were saying, hey, we would be better off if we were back there and we died there by the plague of God, by the plagues that God were bringing. The Lord had slain us with the Egyptians. We'd have been better off than being here and dying of hunger. Then said the Lord to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or not. So God says, all right, I'll give them bread from heaven, but we'll prove to see if they're going to walk in my law or not. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Moses and Aaron said it to the children of Israel that evening, Then you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning then shall you see the glory of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord. What are we that ye murmur against us? Now, they were murmuring to Moses and Aaron, but Moses and Aaron said, hey man, you're not really murmuring against us, you're murmuring against God. It's God that has brought you to this place, not we. And your murmurings are against God. I think that this is something that we need to take into account when we're prone to complain about our lot in life. Who is it that has brought me here? Any complaining that I do is in reality complaining against God. For God is the one who has brought me to these circumstances. God is the one who has placed me here, unless I've been disobedient to him. But my complaints are really against the Lord, and that's a very serious thing, to be complaining against God. So Moses says, I refuse to accept your complaints, you're not murmuring against me, you're murmuring against the Lord. And Moses said, this shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, for that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. So he's emphasizing that point to them. Your murmuring about your situation is actually, when you get down to the bottom line, you're murmuring against God. So Moses spake unto Aaron, saying to the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings. And so it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Now this must have been quite an awesome sight. The cloud had been leading them. And suddenly, in this cloud, the glory of the Lord appeared. Now it doesn't declare how and in what manner the glory of the Lord appeared. But it was no doubt an awesome kind of a display or demonstration, where God just demonstrated his glory there in the cloud. Now one of these days very soon, God's going to demonstrate his glory in the clouds again, as Jesus comes with clouds and gray glory. Demonstrating his glory in the clouds. But there God demonstrated his glory unto the children of Israel. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. I shall speak unto them, saying, At evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass that evening that quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host, and that would be the host of Israel. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna, for they knew not what it was. Manna actually means, what is it? So they saw this little round seed-like thing on the ground, and they said, What is it? Because they didn't know what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. Now this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, and Omer, and we don't know how much that was, for every man, according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did measure it out with an Omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it until the morning. In other words, eat it all up. Don't leave any overnight. Don't try to keep it overnight. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was angry with them. People just don't listen. And Moses said, Now look, don't leave any over until the morning. Just, you know, get rid of it. Whatever's left at night, get rid of it. And some of them tried to save some, so they wouldn't have to go out early in the morning and gather it, and it got wormy and stunk, and so Moses naturally... God said, Hey, I'll prove them to see if they'll hearken to my commandments. They're failing the test miserably. They gathered it every morning, and every man according to his eating. When the sun was waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord has said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today, and seethe that which you will seethe, and that which remain over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And so, on the sixth day, they could keep it overnight, and it wouldn't breed worms and stink, because the next day was to be the Sabbath. Now, it is interesting that here the Sabbath was established and practiced before the law was given. So already, the idea of six and one, six days of labor, a day of rest, had been established in their national life, and this is before God established the law with Israel, in which He said, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now, we'll get into that when we get into the 20th chapter. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the Sabbath day. Now, they would bake this, they would grind it like a grain into a flour, and they would bake it into bread, or they would boil it sometimes, and eat it like a cereal. And I would imagine, just like in Central America, where they've learned to make so many different dishes with the rice, that these inventive women, no doubt, learned to spice this stuff up different ways, and make a lot of interesting kind of dishes out of this manna, this little seed kind of a thing that God put on the ground for them every morning. And they laid up till the morning, and as Moses had commanded, and they did not stink, neither was there any worms in it. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is the Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you shall not find it in the field. For six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather it, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide every man of his place on the seventh day. Now, actually, the Sabbath day was a day of rest, and really God is saying here, let every man just stay in his bed. Now we, you know, somehow got the concept, well, you know, the day that is holy unto the Lord is the day we all go to church, and we gather and worship God in the church. In reality, the Sabbath day wasn't so much a worship day as it was a rest day. It was a day for just total rest and relaxation, just a change of pace, giving the body a chance to more or less recover. Now the Lord said, Six days shalt thou labor and do thy work. The seventh day is a day of rest. God said, I have given you the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. God made it for man to give the body a chance to just sort of recuperate. And the idea was just stay in bed, rest, do nothing. It wasn't really get up and go to Sabbath school or go to synagogue or whatever. It was just stay in bed and rest on the Sabbath day. I don't know, but that wouldn't be a good idea. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof, Manna. And it was like a corander seed, white. The taste of it was like wafers that were made with honey. So little honey biscuit kind of things. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded. Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot and put an omer full of the manna in it and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. And so this pot of manna was preserved so that in years to come, the people could see the manna, the food that God provided in the wilderness for their fathers. And when the tabernacle was built, the mercy seat, this pot of manna, was inside of this little box, the mercy seat, along with Aaron's rod that budded. And the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna for forty years until they came to a land inhabited. They did eat manna until they came to the borders of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephaph. And whatever that is, we don't know. But that's what it is. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Zin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord. And they pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? Why do you tempt the Lord? Now, their murmuring and their complaining was really classified by Moses as a tempting of God. We are warned in the New Testament concerning the failure of the children of Israel because they were guilty of tempting God and proving Him, murmuring against Him. And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? Why have you brought us out of Egypt to kill us with thirst? Moses cried unto the Lord saying, What am I going to do with these people? They are ready to kill me. Poor Moses, I tell you. The position of leadership is not an easy position. And Moses didn't have an easy task at all. And here the people now ready to stone him. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod where you smote the river. Take it in your hand and go. And behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, which means temptation. And Meribah, because of the chiding or the striving of the children of Israel because they tempted the Lord saying, Is the Lord among us or not? And so, first of all, it was their hunger. Now, God has promised to provide all of our needs according to His riches in glory. And having led them out, God would have provided in taking care of them. Their first complaint was that of their hunger. The second was that of water. These are two necessities, food and drink, especially in a wilderness area. So, I think that it is important to notice that though Moses was really upset with the people, there is no indication that God was upset with them. For their needs were natural needs. Now, the way they were going about, the accusations that they were making were extreme and wrong. And yet, the need was a natural need. God recognized that. And God does not show any displeasure with the people so much as He does show with... as Moses actually shows to the people. But God now tells Moses, take the rod and strike the rock and water will come forth. Now, in the New Testament, we are told that these things are all figures. It doesn't mean that it's mythology. It's actual history. But they all have a spiritual counterpart. And we are told by Paul that that rock was Christ. Now, you remember Jesus on the last day, the great day of the feast, cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. This was the feast of tabernacles in which they were celebrating how God preserved their fathers through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And a part of the preservation was the providing of the water out of the rock. So during the feast of tabernacles, the priest would go down to the pool of Siloam with these large water jugs and they would fill them with water and they would come back up to the steps where several hundred thousand Jews would be gathered in the great Temple Mount area. And in front of all of the people as they were singing the Hallel Psalms, the priest would pour the water out on the pavement there of the Temple Mount. And that was to remind them how that God gave water to their fathers out of the rock in the wilderness. This was just sort of weaved in to the celebration of tabernacles, the booths where they had to make their little booths again to remind them how their fathers lived out in the wilderness for 40 years. And so this pouring out of water ceremony was a reminder of the water out of the rock, this experience. Now Jesus, even as He took the Passover and applied it to Himself personally and said, this bread is My body broken for you, this cup is My blood shed for the remission of your sins. Now here at the feast of tabernacles, on the last day, the great day of the feast, they would not go down and get the water. They didn't pour it out. They'd do it for the seven days of the feast. The eighth day, the great day, they wouldn't do it. Which was symbolic of the fact that we are now in the land that God promised to our fathers we don't need the miraculous water out of the rock. And on that day, as the people were gathered, the great assembly of people there on the Temple Mount, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. And he who drinks of the water that I give out of his innermost being, there will flow rivers of living water. So Paul tells us that Jesus is the rock. He is the rock from which the living waters flow. In that land where water was such a premium and thirst is almost constant, the idea of Christ as the water of life is probably much more significant than it is to us here where you just go turn a spigot on and get a drink whenever you're thirsty. There, you really had to think about water. You had to be constantly thinking about water. Wherever you go, you'd have to think about, well, where will I get my water? Your water supply was an important thing. And so Jesus, the fountain of living waters, and so the final invitation of Revelation is him that is a thirst, let him come and drink of the water of life freely. Partake of Christ. So Christ is the rock. The fulfillment of this feast of the tabernacle, the rock from which the water flows, the water of life, by which we might have life. Now, this is why when later on the people came to Moses again and they were thirsty, and Moses went in before the Lord and said, God, I can't stand it. These people are complaining again. And God said, that's alright. Moses, go out and speak to the rock and water will come forth. And Moses went out and he was angry with the people. And he said, must I smite this rock again and give you water? And he smote the rock with his rod. And water came forth. But God called Moses in and said, Moses, that was a bad mistake. I told you to speak to the rock. And you disobeyed me. You misrepresented me before those people. And because of that, Moses, you can't go in to the promised land. Oh, God, please, I'm sorry. Please let me go in. Don't talk to me anymore about it, Moses. It's the way it's gotta be. Why? Because now the symbolism is broken. You see, the rock was smitten. And from the smitten rock comes life. From Jesus being smitten, there comes forth life to you. But once the rock has been smitten, it never needs to be smitten again. He died once and for all. So that we need not to smite the rock to get the water. All we need to do is by faith ask. Speak to the rock and water will come forth. So we are not in the position of smiting the rock. That has already happened. Christ was smitten and the water of life came forth. Now all that is necessary is just speak. Ask and you shall receive the water of life freely. And so the whole scene here, as God was setting the thing up. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Riphidim. Now Amalek was the grandson of Esau who was of the fleshly seed and represents the flesh. So in scripture Amalek is always a type of the flesh. The flesh life. The fleshly seed. There is a spiritual seed. There is a fleshly seed. There is a spiritual side of my nature. There is a fleshly side of my nature. And the spirit and the flesh are in conflict. A constant warfare. My spirit lusting against my flesh. My flesh against the spirit. These two are contrary. And every child of God knows what it is to have a conflict with his flesh. Now Amalek is a type of the flesh. And here are God's people. The spiritual seed is coming in to take the land, but the flesh is the first thing that moves in the way to stop them and to hinder them from going in and taking and possessing that which God has promised to give to them. One of the biggest barriers to our receiving the full promises of God for our lives is our flesh. The flesh is always warring against the spirit. And our flesh would keep us from entering into the fullness of God's promises and into the fullness of God's blessings. Amalek came out to meet them. The picture of the flesh. And fought with them. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him and he fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy. And so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on the stone and Aaron and Hur held up his hands. The one on the one side, the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Joshua, of course, is the name Jesus in Greek which means Jehovah is salvation. And so, God's salvation. Joshua was sent to fight against them. Was put over the servants of God and fought against Amalek, the picture of the flesh and they prevailed. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book. So, Moses was already writing the events that were transpiring and later on was to write and to compile these first five books of the Old Testament. And so, the compiling of the book no doubt was already in progress at this time. God told him to write this in the book as a memorial and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Now, have you met an Amalek lately? A Malachite? No, God's wiped him out. He said he would. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. The Lord has become our banner. For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. The Lord has sworn that you're going to have a battle with your flesh from generation to generation. And so it is true. You remember later on in the history, God gave a command that is difficult for many people to understand and because of this, many of the critics have faulted the Bible and faulted God. At the time when Saul was king of Israel, God ordered Saul through Samuel to go down and to utterly slay the Amaleks. Remember that? Utterly slay them. Don't even leave an animal alive. Slay all the men, women, and children and every animal. Wipe them out completely. And as I say, people have great difficulty in understanding this particular command of God. But when we realize that Amalek represents the flesh, what God is saying is that you can't make any truce with your flesh. God has no remedy for your flesh. God's only answer for your flesh is crucifixion. Put it to death. You, by the Spirit, mortify the deeds of your flesh. God didn't want him to make any truce. God didn't want him to leave anything of the flesh. Utterly destroy it. Wipe it out completely. That was the command of God unto Saul. Now Saul failed to obey God and God was angry with Saul and God said, because you have rejected God from ruling over you, you've refused to obey God, thus God has rejected you from being king over Israel. And it was as a result of this that Saul was dethroned. Rejected by God. His failure of complete obedience in totally wiping out the flesh. Amalek. Now later on in the Jewish history, we come across another man who was of the tribe or of the people of Amalek. Because Saul failed to wipe them out completely, Amalek came close to wiping out the children of God. It was the time when Esther was queen and her uncle, Mordecai, refused to bow to this wicked Haman and so Haman was so angered by this man's refusal to bow to him that he went to the king to sign a decree that on a particular day, every Jew in all the kingdom should be destroyed. You remember the story of Haman? Haman was an Amalek. He was of Amalek. Because Saul failed to totally destroy the flesh, the flesh came back and almost destroyed the people of God. For the king signed the decree and the day was appointed when all of the people from Israel were to be slain in all of the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. So, Amalek, whenever you read of it in the scripture, is always a type of the flesh, the flesh life. As I say, God doesn't have any reformation programs which we're always trying to reform our flesh. God has no reformation programs. He has only one edict for the flesh, that's crucify it. I am crucified with Christ. That's God's only solution for your flesh. You try to pamper it, you try to nurture it, you try to keep alive the best part of it. You say, oh well, you know, I just keep the best part of my flesh for God. Like Saul, you know, Lord, I saved the best for you, I want to make a sacrifice. To obey is better than to sacrifice and hearken is better than the fat of rams. So, make no covenant with him. God said there's going to be warfare with Amalek from generation to generation. Now, when Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses and father-in-law, but the same Hebrew word could be translated brother-in-law, for we remember earlier he was called Ruel. The father-in-law of Moses was called Ruel. And so, it could be that this is Jethro, another name for Ruel, or it could be that Jethro is actually Moses' wife's brother. But he was a priest of Midian. And as I say, the word father-in-law could also be translated brother-in-law from the Hebrew. He heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back. Now, you remember when Moses was coming out with his wife Zipporah, when God first called Moses to go deliver the children of Israel? And Moses was heading down towards Egypt and the Lord met Moses and almost killed him. And so, Zipporah knew what was going on. She quickly circumcised their boy and she actually accused Moses of being a bloody man and so forth. Evidently, at that point, it wasn't a pleasant scene. I mean, it was quite a tiff between them. And evidently, Moses just sent her back to her dad. You go back to your dad. I'm heading on down to do my work in Egypt. And so, Zipporah, his wife, didn't accompany him nor his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. But now, as he has come back into the area of Midian, Jethro comes out and brings his wife and his two sons, Zipporah, Moses' wife, and the two sons, which the name of one was Gershom and the other was Eliezer. Gershom meaning a stranger and Eliezer is the God is my help. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where they encamped at the Mount of God. And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee and thy wife and her two sons with her. And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and he bowed to him and kissed him and they asked each other how everything was going and they came into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake and all the travail that had come upon them by the way and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all of the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. That is where the Egyptians were so proud God was greater than they were and their gods. And Jethro, and God is greater, remember God said that he was bringing the attacks against the gods of Egypt. So Jehovah is greater than all the gods, that is the gods of Egypt. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. And Aaron came and the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God and it came to pass on the next day that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from the morning till evening. So now Jethro built a altar and he offered a sacrifice, a burnt offering to God. Now he was a priest but he wasn't of the children of Israel. And so other people knew God and worshipped God who were not the children of Israel in those days. Jethro being one of them and he was a priest of God. Now the next day the people came into Moses with their problems and from morning to evening they brought their cases to Moses for him to determine and for him to decide. And that guy borrowed my shovel and he didn't bring it back or he broke the handle. And so Moses would say, okay, you get him a new handle or fix the handle. And all day long Moses was interfacing with these people, giving judgment to them and so forth. And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people he said, what is this that you do to the people? Why do you sit alone? And all the people stand by thee from morning till evening. And Moses said unto his father, imagine there were 600,000 adults, males and so they were a big crowd. Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. And when they have a matter they come to me and I judge between one and another. And I do make them know the statutes of God and His laws. And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, that's not good. You're going to wear yourself out, Moses. Both you and the people that are with you for this thing is too heavy for you. You're not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel and God will be with you. Be thou for the people to Godward that you may bring the causes unto God. And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. And place over them such to be the rulers over the thousands, over the hundreds, and over the tens. So, he's saying, hey Moses, hey, you're going to kill yourself, man. You know, trying to keep up that heavy schedule. You can't do it. And so, it isn't right that you just wear yourself out doing this. So, you need to get other men to help you with this. Now, you teach the people the ordinances and statutes of God. But, pick out men over the thousands and over the hundreds and over the tens and let them bring their cases to these men. Let them do the judgment. You teach them what the judgments and statutes of God are. And let them handle these matters. And then, in the areas where they can't handle them, Moses more or less became the Supreme Court so that every case wasn't brought to Moses but just those that could not be handled by those men under him. Quite often, when you have a person of Moses' caliber and strong leadership that he becomes overburdened with things that actually don't always pertain to just the leadership. It's possible for you to find yourself so engaged in little non-essential things that you really don't have time to do the essentials. Now, life has to be made up of priorities. We must determine what is most important. And then we've got to do the most important things. It's easy to find yourself majoring in the minors and spending so much time in minor issues of no count that you really don't have the energy and the strength for the major things. I believe that Satan likes to wear people out on piddling little things. Sometimes I get involved in a project and I enjoy doing mechanical things. I enjoy working on mechanical things. But I have found there is a, I think they call it Murphy's Law, if anything can go wrong, it will. And sometimes, you know, you're just tightening a bolt and you think, well, I'll give it just a little bit more. You know, I want to make it good and snug. And you snap the thing. You know, you can waste all kinds of time trying to get a stud out that you've snapped off in a block. And you find yourself working for an hour and a half just because you wanted to give it an extra little tug and cinch it down. And I think of all that wasted time just for the sake of a cinch down. Oh, hell. You know, and you find yourself sometimes involved in things. And thus, you've got to lay out your time, your priorities, and what is really and truly important. And lay out your priorities so that you're not spending all of your time in issues where someone else could just as easily handle them. Now, this came up in the early church. They began to lay upon the apostles all of the decision-making processes. And the church had a welfare program. And they were distributing to the widows in the church. And those widows that had a Grecian cultural background felt that the widows who had a Jewish cultural background were getting a better deal. They were getting favoritism when they were doling out the church's welfare program. So they came to the apostles and said, that's not fair! The Grecians aren't getting the same deal as the Hebrews. And they wanted the apostles to move in and to do something. They said, hey, let's appoint men who are full of the Holy Ghost, of good report and wisdom and so forth, that they might take care of the waiting on of tables because it isn't right for us to leave the Word of God and prayer to wait on tables. But I think of how many ministers have been forced to leave the Word of God and prayer in order to wait on tables. Demands are being made upon the ministers that really a minister shouldn't have to fulfill. As a young minister in a small church, you'd be amazed the things that people ask you to do. Can you come over and pick me up and take me to the store? You become a taxi cab. And you find yourself a handyman. And you find yourself doing all kinds of things that really don't pertain to the true ministry of the Word of God and prayer. In fact, I oftentimes found myself so involved in doing these other things that I didn't have time for the Word of God and prayer, and thus the people suffered. Now with a church this large, you can imagine the demands that are made upon our time. How many times people call and say, well, they'll only speak to Chuck. They don't want to speak to anybody else. They've been watching him on TV, and if he'll come and talk to them, I know they'll get saved. Well, here's a guy that's dying and he needs to have the Lord. And you get hundreds of these calls. And if we tried to go around and to minister to everyone who called for us, we would never have time for the Word of God and prayer. We don't have enough time for it now. So you've got to establish priorities. You've got to do just what is truly the most important thing that God has called you to do. Now, God has called men to various ministries within the body. And God has anointed some men for the ministries of counseling. And has anointed others for the ministry of helps. And has anointed others for the ministry of governments. And it's a blessed church that has the various ministries functioning within the church so that all of the demands aren't placed upon one person to do everything. And Moses finally said, hey man, you're going to kill yourself. Not even taking time out to rest. All day long these people are standing here. You don't have time to really wait upon God. And so he offered a solution to Moses. Now, the interesting thing to me is the qualifications that they required of the men. First of all, men that fear God. Men of truth. And men who hate covetousness. Hey, if you can get men like that, you can allow them to do almost anything. Men who first of all have a real fear of God or a reverence of God. You know, there are some people, I'm sure from their actions, they don't even reverence God. They don't even consider God at all. I think of some of these evangelists and all, like this Reverend Ike. There has to be no fear of God in that man. No fear of the judgment. The big hype that he puts on, you have to realize that the guy has no fear of God. Or else he could never do the things he's doing. And this isn't just true of him, but it's true of many, many men who are involved in ministries. If you really look at their lives, it's just one big hype. And you have to realize, hey, these people, what they lack is a real fear of God. To realize that someday they're going to have to stand before God and give an account for these things. Boy, I'll tell you, that is something that really weighs upon me. The Bible says, be not many masters, knowing you're going to receive the greater condemnation. So being a teacher of the Word of God puts you in a very precarious position because someday you're going to have to answer to God for your teaching. That's why I do my best to just stick to the Word of God. And when the Word of God speaks on an issue, I'll speak on it. When the Word of God is silent, I try to be silent. I don't want to say more than what the Word of God actually says. Because the teachers are going to be in greater condemnation. But there are some who have no fear of God because they're saying all kinds of wild, weird things that are even contrary to the Word of God. And so you just know they really don't fear God. They don't have the fear of judgment in their hearts. Secondly, they were men of truth. And thirdly, hating covetousness. Men who had really no ambitions for themselves, hating covetousness. And these were the men who were chosen. And let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter that they shall bring to you, but every small matter, they shall judge so it is easier for you. And they shall bear the burden with you. And if you shall do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all of these people shall also go to their place in peace. So, God commands you to do it. And so Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did as he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all of Israel and made them heads over the people, rulers over the thousands, rulers over the hundreds, fifties, and over the tens. And they judged the people at all seasons, the hard causes they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went his way to his own land. And so evidently Moses' wife and children stayed with him at this point his father returned home. Father-in-law.