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Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to our third week of Looking
Through First and Second Kings, day one of this third week. We're going to look
at chapters 12 to 14 of 1 Kings today. As we look at those chapters the next
couple days, we're going to look at a failure of leadership.

Before we look at the ministry of Elijah that comes on the scene later this
week, at the end of Solomon's reign, we see the beginning of a failure of
leadership. The truth is, there's lessons in this for all of us, because we are
all leaders in one way or another, at one time or another. It's especially true
for followers of Christ.

You're a leader in your family, you're a faith leader, you're a ministry leader,
there's some area of your life where you're leading one person or many, many
people. And in 1 Kings 12, we start to see exemplified some of the greatest
mistakes that leaders could ever make. This is something to listen to for
parents, for managers, for foremen, for Christian leaders.

Anybody who desires to lead others to Christ, there are great lessons here. When
Solomon dies, God had told him the country was going to be split up. We read
about that this last week.

And so his son, Rehoboam, is put up to be the king. Jeroboam, a leader in
Solomon's kingdom who had wanted to be the king and because of that had been
exiled into Egypt, he comes back to hear from this son who would be king. Like
if he said the right thing, then, you know, they would all follow him.

But Jeroboam's bad leadership in this moment leads Jeroboam to take 10 of the
tribes to the north and begin to lead them. And then Jeroboam's bad leadership
leads those tribes away from the Lord as well. Rehoboam and Jeroboam, two
terrible leaders.

And each of these who led their respective countries into sin, each of these
started in exactly the wrong way. Different ways, but in exactly the wrong way.
A close look at Rehoboam and Jeroboam reveals one major fault, one primary flaw
in each of their lives.

And these flaws teach us what to stay away from in leadership. They make up,
when you look at these two men, you can see in them two of the major mistakes
that leaders often make. So we're going to learn from Rehoboam today, and we're
going to learn from Jeroboam tomorrow.

What do you learn from Rehoboam? One of the biggest mistakes that leaders can
make is to listen to bad advisors. And that's what Rehoboam did.

I want to read for you verses 1 to 5, and in verse 4, there's a question that's
asked. In that question, the answer to that, the way Rehoboam's going to answer
it, upon that his entire kingdom is going to rest. Verse 1, "Rehoboam went to
Shechem for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.

When Jeroboam son of Nabat heard this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled
from King Solomon, he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and
the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him, 'Your father put
a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on
us, and we will serve you. ' Rehoboam answered, 'Go away for three days, and
then come back to me.

' So the people went away. " Now Rehoboam starts out right here. He waits for
three days so that he can ask for advice.

It is always wise to ask for advice from others if you're going to be a good
leader. When the decision is crucial, it's absolutely vital to ask for the
advice of others. When the decision is confusing, you will not make a good
decision without the advice of others.

You need more than one mind, more than one voice in it. Good leaders are always
good listeners. They've learned to listen for the opinions, the advice of
others.

That's true of parents who are good leaders of their kids, of teachers in school
or in Sunday school who are good leaders of their class, of pastors who are good
leaders of their church, of managers or CEOs who are good leaders of their
business. Good leaders are good listeners because this is so important. One of
the greatest mistakes a leader can make is to listen to bad advice.

You can do the right thing, okay, I'm going to listen, but if you listen to the
wrong advisors you're going to go the wrong direction. Now we learn here from
Rehoboam that listening to bad advice is not an accident. It's just not this
accident where you happen to run into the wrong person and they told you the
wrong thing to do and then you did the wrong thing.

There are some definite decisions in our own lives that cause us to listen to
the bad advice of others. Rehoboam ends up listening to what the young men of
the country had told him to do rather than the elders told him to do. The
elders' advice is far better.

You can see this from thousands of years away. Compare with me the advice that
you hear from the elders and the younger men in verses 7 and verse 10. Verse 7,
"The elders reply, 'If today you will be a servant to these people and serve
them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.

'" That's the reply of wisdom of the elders. Verses 10 down to verse 11, this is
the advice of the young men, "The young men who had grown up with them replied,
'Tell these people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us,
but make our yoke lighter,' tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my
father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will make it even heavier.

My father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions. '" Now you
don't have to be very brilliant to understand which advice is better. Why in the
world didn't Rehoboam see the obvious?

One clue is in verse 10, "The young men who had grown up with him. " This verse
indicates that these young men were his friends, so he went with friendship
rather than experience. It's a common mistake when it comes to accepting advice,
going with friendship instead of experience, and he went the wrong direction.

Rehoboam listened to people who would tell him what he wanted to hear. You see,
Rehoboam wanted to be the king, he wanted to be the leader, he wanted to be
looked at as the powerful one, and these elders were saying, "No, you serve them
and then they will serve you. " He didn't want to hear that.

He wanted to be somebody who was looked at as his father Solomon had been looked
at. He didn't understand that it had taken Solomon many years to get to that
place and he'd started with wisdom and service. His friend's advice seemed so
much more attractive, so much more kingly.

He could be a servant or he could be a mighty king. He was going with mighty
king. The number one mistake we make in this area of advice is we search for
someone who will agree with us rather than looking for someone who will advise
us.

Rehoboam did not listen to the people that day. He didn't listen to the elders
or what the people were saying to him. Good leaders have learned to listen, but
they've also learned to listen to the right people.

They've learned that many times their greatest advice is going to come from
listening to the people that they're going to lead. So you don't just go outside
and listen to people, you talk to the people you're leading. If you're a parent,
you talk to your kids and you learn from them.

If you're a boss, you talk to the people that are in your office, not just other
bosses of other offices and you learn from them. Don't talk to the other bosses
too, but some of the greatest advice is going to come from the very people that
you're leading. Right now you're facing some important decisions, leadership
decisions in your life or decisions about what direction you're going to take in
your career or decisions about your schooling, decisions about your faith,
decisions about a relationship.

My question is, who are you listening to? Are you allowing God to work in your
life by seeking and accepting the advice of wise and experienced Christians?
Don't fall into the trap of just listening to friends or looking for the people
who will advise you in what you want to hear.

Who are the wise and experienced people you need to talk to? Take in that
advice. It will change your life.

Rehoboam went the wrong direction this day and the kingdom was destroyed because
of that. His life was torn apart because of that. Which direction are you going
to go?

Whose advice do you need to hear? So right now, as we pray, we ask that you'd
help us to seek out, to find the right people, to listen to the right advice.
Even right now in our minds, put the name, the person we need to be talking to.

And then Lord, when that wise advice comes, even though we might fight against
it at first, help us to hear the wisdom in it. Help us to hear you in it.
Sometimes you'll give us that wise advice through your word.

And when it comes that way, Lord, I pray that we would trust you and not
ourselves. We pray it in your name. Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to learn from Jeroboam, his lessons on leadership.