This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to this look
this week at Psalm 41 to 45, day one. So we're going to be looking at Psalm 41
today. Psalm 41 is a Psalm about the true nature of leadership, what it means to
be a godly leader.

And we're going to look at three things in this Psalm about being a godly leader.
Let me just say at the beginning that we're all leaders in some way. You may be
a leader in your family, you may be a leader in your church, you may be a leader
in business, you may be a leader in a relationship.

There's always someone who's looking at us. So more than you realize, you are a
leader. And this is about how you and I can be godly leaders.

Three truths, number one in this Psalm, godly leaders care for the weak. Godly
leaders are those who, they use their influence to stand up for those who have
no influence. It's a different kind of leadership than world leadership, which
is all about me and myself and maybe gaining power, maybe getting more material
things in my bank account.

No, godly leaders care for the weak. Psalm 41 is clear about God's blessing for
those who, the phrase is have regard for the weak. That means you consider the
weak.

You take the time to notice and do something about the weak. Let me read for you
verses one to three of this Psalm. Blessed is he who has regard for the weak.

The Lord delivers him in time of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve
his life. He will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of
his foes.

The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of
illness. So look at all the blessings out of having regard for the weak. It's a
reminder here that the way that I treat others is the way that I will see
results in my own life.

If I want to be delivered from trouble, I gotta help other people to be delivered
from trouble. If I want to be, want to be protected, I have to protect the weak.
If I want material blessing, I have to care about those who do not have material
blessing.

If I don't want to be surrendered to my enemies, I have to care about the
vulnerable. That's what this Psalm tells us again and again and again. So if you
want to be a true leader, a godly leader, you have to care about the poor.

You have to care about the weak. You have to care about those who are ignored.
You don't just care about those who seem like they can advance your agenda as a
leader.

You realize that part of your agenda as a leader, as a godly leader, is to care
about those no one else cares about. And not only does God say we're supposed to
do that, he says there are many blessings that come into our lives as leaders as
we do that. Godly leaders care for the weak.

Second truth in this Psalm is the truth that godly leaders struggle with
rejection. You didn't want to hear this today. It's not the blessing part, but
it's the truth part from God.

Leadership means some people don't like you. It's naive to think otherwise
because the direction you're leading is not the direction they want to go. So
even if they might like you in terms of a personality, they don't like you
because you represent to them a direction they don't want to go.

In fact, godly leadership means even sometimes those who are closest to you will
turn against you because they're focused on themselves or they're focused on
their agenda, not on the direction that God might want to take you or the church
or your family or your business. Look, just look in this Psalm honestly at some
of what you will face as a leader. First, you will face malice against you.

In verse five, my enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name
perish? Well, that's pretty negative, but if you're a leader, that's one of the
things that you're going to face. People have malice against you.

They don't like you because you represent something they don't want to do. And
out of that malice will come a second thing, slander. In verse six, whenever one
comes to see me, he speaks falsely while his heart gathers slander.

And then he goes out and he spreads it abroad. When people fight against the
direction you're going as a leader, they make it personal. They don't just fight
against the thing that you're saying to do, they fight against you because it's
a much more effective tactic to try to take down what you're trying to do as a
leader.

So there'll be slander. In verse seven, one of the ways that slander is
expressed is in whispers against you. Verse seven says, all my enemies whisper
together against me.

You ever have this feeling, everyone's talking about you and no one's telling
you that they're talking about you? You know, you walk into a room and boom, it
gets silent really quick and you wonder, what were they talking about before I
walked in? Well, if it got silent, they were probably talking about you.

Your enemies whisper against you. It's very uncomfortable to feel like other
people are talking about you, not to your face, behind your back. In fact, what
happens when you're a leader?

Sometimes people even imagine the worst for you. Last part of verse seven and
verse eight, they imagine the worst for me saying, a vile disease will beset
him. He'll never get up from the place where he lies.

Why would people even think these kinds of things? But they do. This is part of
the nature of leadership is because they are so intent on their agenda rather
than your agenda, that they begin to hope something bad would happen to you.

A vile disease will beset him. They imagine the worst. And then in the worst of
all, sometimes the truth of the matter is even close friends will betray you.

In verse nine, even my close friend whom I trusted, who shared my bread has
lifted up his heel against me. Now you might recognize as I read that, that this
is a prophecy. We're told in the New Testament that this is a prophecy of what
would happen to Jesus.

When Judas, his close friend whom he trusted, who shared bread with him at the
Lord's Supper or at the Last Supper before the Lord's Supper, eventually lifted
up his heel against him, tried to stamp him out. Jesus was perfect and yet he
was misunderstood, yet he was betrayed. So how could we as leaders who are
imperfect think we're not going to face the same thing?

So in light of this, why in the world would anyone get involved in true servant,
godly leadership? For the reward. For the reward of what happens in people's
hearts and lives.

For the reward of life change. For the reward of the blessing that God wants to
give into your life. The reward of false leadership is personal power and
wealth.

It's selfish reward. The reward of true leadership is much greater. It's changed
lives and it's the blessing of God, the reward of God in your life.

So that's a third truth about godly leaders. Godly leaders look to God for the
reward. If you're looking to this world for the reward, you're not going to be a
godly leader.

If you're looking to other people for the reward, you might start out to be a
godly leader, but you're not going to get the reward that you want and you're going to
stop. If you want to continue to be a godly leader, you look to God for the
reward. There's these refreshing words in verse 10.

The psalmist begins verse 10 by saying, "But you, O Lord. " He's talked about
all these others who have all these agendas against the leader. "But you, O
Lord.

" And then in verses 11 and 10, 11, and 12, he says, "But you, O Lord, have
mercy on me. "Raise me up that I may repay them. "I know that you are pleased
with me, "for my enemy does not triumph over me.

"In my integrity, you uphold me "and you set me in your presence forever. " The
Bible, it's absolutely filled with promises about how God will reward humble and
faithful leadership. Four of them are in these few verses that we just read.

How does God reward you? Well, one, God will have mercy on you. God's
forgiveness is a reward.

Out of that forgiveness, we lead. Out of the reward of his forgiveness. If all
he ever did was forgive me of all the sins that I've ever committed so that I
could spend an eternity with him forgiven, that would be more than enough of a
reward out of which I could lead.

God will have mercy on you. And he'll have mercy on you in the moments when
leadership is tough, when leadership is difficult, when it seems like everybody
is against you. God will show up with his mercy, his tender mercy in that
moment.

Second reward is God is pleased with you. If you live your life to please
others, you're never going to please everybody all the time. You most of the time
won't please anybody.

But to recognize that God is pleased with you, that is the reward that's above
all of them. We think about in a moment, eternal rewards. We think about even
the material rewards that might come into our lives in terms of seeing progress
being made for God's kingdom on this planet.

But to know that God is pleased with what you are doing, that you're doing
exactly what he wants you to do in that moment. In many ways, there is no
greater reward than that. Third reward in these verses is God will uphold you in
your integrity.

There are many times when it feels like you have integrity and you're slammed
down for it. You have integrity and you're misunderstood for it. You have
integrity and you end up losing because of it.

Well, the end of the story isn't here yet. And I want to say to you as a godly
leader, God in the end will uphold you in your integrity. It is coming.

It may be coming in the months to come, it may be coming in the years to come,
it may be coming in eternity, but God promises that he will uphold you. And then
the final reward that's talked about in these verses, God will welcome you into
his eternal presence. If you're living your life for this planet, for this
earth, you're not going to be a godly leader.

Let's just admit it. 'Cause the rewards that we're truly looking for aren't here
on this planet. They are in eternity.

It's only as you start to live for eternity, to live your life forward towards
all that God has for us there that you're able to make the sacrifices and take
the criticism that goes along with being a leader. But there is a reward, an
eternal reward that we're looking forward to. And that motivates me, that can
motivate you every day to be the leader that God wants you to be in your family,
in your church, in your business, in your school, wherever God has you leading.

Let me pray together for us right now as leaders. I want to pray for you today.
And Lord, I pray for each of us as we lead out in what God you called for us to
do.

It may be that we're leading one, it may be that we're leading millions, but
God, you called us to lead. And we want to be godly leaders. We don't want to lead
based on our selfishness.

And we don't want to shrink back from leading based on the criticism and the
struggles of leadership. Instead, we choose to look to the reward today. Refresh
us in that.

As you remind us, God, that you are with us, that you are pleased with us, that
you'll uphold us, that one day you're going to welcome us with a well-done, my good
and faithful servant into your eternal presence. That's what we praise you for
today. In your name, Jesus, we pray, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk about what do you do when your soul is downcast?