The Leader Our Time Demands

The Burden of a Message for Difficult Times

Okay, well, I had a lot on my heart, a lot on my mind coming here. So when you're a young preacher, you're begging God what to say. And then when you become an old preacher, you're begging God what not to say.

And I'm getting up there in years. But I did wanna minister a message to you tonight called Leaders a Time Like This Demands. Leaders a Time Like This Demands. How many know we're living in pretty daunting and dangerous and deceptive times, amen?

And honestly, our future is in jeopardy. No question about it. Our sins have reached heaven.

Our faith has reached heaven.

God's clear judgment is upon the land. And so what do we do? What do we do? How do we respond to this challenge? And I just wanna share from the scriptures, just some biblical truths, some biblical principles, some presuppositions as you were.

I'm with apology, I gotta say presupposition. Just to kind of lay out the case, Leaders a Time Like This Demands. You know, I have been in this battle since the fall of 1988. And the fact that I'm still in the battle is a testimony of God's saving power.

A lot of people who started out as preachers, started in this battle, started well, and they ended very, very bad. And, you know, obviously you wanna start well and you wanna end well for your Lord. And, cause he's worthy of that, amen?

But I can remember times when I was like majorly discouraged, depressed. I don't know what a nervous breakdown is, but I will tell you there were times in this battle where my physical functions cease.

The pain I was experiencing internally was so strong that I couldn't even utter words. I couldn't formulate a prayer to even pray to God. That's how intense this battle, this dark night of the soul gotten sometimes where I literally could not sleep for days on end.

I couldn't eat, I couldn't go to the bathroom. I mean, my physical functions ceased operating. It was that intense. And it's happened about four or five times through the years that I've been reduced to that state.

And so there were times obviously when I finally, you know, got my functions back, you know, like Lord, you know, whoa, you know, this is intense. And there were times that where God would take me to the scriptures and he would just show me some things to encourage my heart.

Y 'all remember Jeremiah, right? You know, the weeping prophet. I mean, no, there was times that he got tired. In fact, there was times where he said, that's it. I don't like the dungeon ministry. So I'm not gonna speak in the name of the Lord anymore.

I don't know if you've been there or not, but I surely have. And, you know, that was the time when God said, Jeremiah, you cannot shut up. If you shut up, I'm gonna be fire in your bones. I'll burn you, buddy.

No, you have a calling. You have a ministry. You have a duty before me in this nation and you need to be faithful, son. And it was during that time that God said, God gave Jeremiah pretty incredible promise.

Now I'm paraphrasing it, but basically God was telling Jeremiah, if you're faithful to me now, son,.

If you're faithful with this unpopular message that nobody wants to hear,.

The king doesn't wanna hear it, the princes don't wanna hear it, the prophets don't wanna hear it, the priests don't wanna hear it,.

Nobody wants to hear it.

Do you get it, Jeremiah?

Nobody cares.

Yeah, and you can write it and they can burn it.

And you can write it again,.

But understand, son, they don't care. But I still want you to be faithful to hammer this message out. And what Jeremiah received from the Lord was this precious promise. He was basically telling Jeremiah, when the day comes that I watch over the word to perform it through your lips, he said, in that day, your enemies will entreat you well.

See, right now, we're somewhat marginalized, especially churches that take God and the Bible serious. We are marginalized, not just in the American culture, in the American church herself. We're marginalized, why?

Because we believe a very popular message in heaven, but a very unpopular message here on earth. And so what is a leader a time like this demands? A leader, a time like this demands is one who will stay faithful to the unpopular message.

Because if we're faithful now,.

And as we're seeing, we're gonna,.

Brothers and sisters, you gotta understand,.

We're gonna be sludging through.

Some very daunting times in the days ahead. I don't know how intense this is gonna get, but it can get pretty bad. And I know how far this is gonna go. But God told Jeremiah, sort of when the stuff hits the fan, in that day, your enemies will entreat you well.

In other words, you will be in a position of leadership.

Why?

Because you were faithful back here. It's like Daniel. You know, everybody, you know, we talk about Daniel and the lion's den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and we see these brave, you know, soldiers of the Lord, these righteous warriors who would not compromise.

That didn't start, you know, minutes before the big event. That started when they were young. They made commitments to the Lord, and it was staying faithful to those commitments to the Lord when the test came, when the trying time came, they were prepared.

Of course they were gonna do what they did. They had prepared themselves for it. You know, I think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and I, you know, this is like the American church, right? So this nation is setting up all kinds of idolatry.

I mean, you have a governor in California.

Telling Christians they can't sing to the Lord anymore. Are you kidding me?

What authority?

What power?

I remember I went to prison one time, and the prison guards tell us we couldn't sing to the Lord,.

And I just raised my hand, I said, excuse me? Do you have the power to stop the sun from rising? Do you have the power to set the sun in the evening?

Are you insane? That ain't never gonna happen. And you ain't lived until you heard amazing grace by 300 inmates resounding through the prison. And by the way, I led four prison guards to the Lord during that time in jail.

So praise the Lord.

Now, where was I?

This is what happens when you get old. You go down rabbit trails.

Point being, guys, being prepared, staying faithful in these trying, daunting times are incredibly important to our future integrity and being a position to lead. Because at some point, they're gonna connect the dots.

Hey, didn't you guys tell us like back then, like, you know, maybe we should have repented and stopped killing our babies and parading our sin like Sodom? Weren't you the guys that told us that? And we laughed at you, we scorned you, mocked you, wanted to kill you.

Were you those guys?

Yeah. Now we see.

What do we do? Where do we go? Okay.

It's like, remember with Jesus and John chapter six, right? He says that offensive message. You know, you gotta, you know, eat my body, drink my blood. And they're like, oh man, we're old, you know, we're Jews.

What are you talking about?

And you know, the Old Testament forbade that.

What are you talking about?

This is insane.

And they said that, you know, they left him and everybody walked away. And these were his disciples.

And then basically, you know, the Lord looks at the 12.

And says, there's the door.

Don't let it kick you on the way back. You know, on the way out there. And what does Peter say? Where can we go? Only you have the words of life. And that's something you got to hold on to, brothers and sisters, when the times are hard.

And we're being tried and we're being tested. You do have to come to that realization.

Where else can we go?

Only he has the words of eternal life. And so I wanna kind of build on this, brothers and sisters. I wanna give you three major building block principles. There's others, there's smaller building blocks, but I wanna at least give you three big, building blocks to establish leadership, a time like this demands.

The first one is this. God works through headship. Let's say that together. God works through headship.

Now, for some reason,.

We have forgotten this biblical principle in these days. We know it from the Bible and how we know the enemy knows this truth, that God works through headship. For instance, smite the shepherd, and what happens to the sheep?

They scatter. A father fails in his duty towards his family. What happens to that family?

Okay.

A CEO of a company embezzles funds. What happens to the shareholders? A pastor runs off with the church secretary. What happens to his family? What happens to the church? What's left in its wake? God works through headship.

And here's the thing that I really wanna communicate, and this is more towards the men than the ladies, because most of the responsibility of headship in the home, in the church, and in the community is designated towards the male of the species.

Do you remember in the, just to give you an example of how God works through headship. Remember in the book of Acts, when Paulus and Silas are in jail? They were walking along, they were ministering the gospel of the kingdom, and there was this demoniac lady, very interesting scenario there, because she had a spirit of divination, and she's actually speaking true words.

She's speaking true words.

They're going,.

These are the men that shows us the way of God and reveals God's salvation.

Could you imagine a demon telling the truth? Now, how do you discern that? How do you discern that? See, it's easy to discern deception when people say things and we look at the word of God and go, eh, that doesn't line up, get out of here.

No, no. But how do you discern a spirit that's actually speaking the true words of God?

Sort of like Balaam.

Remember Balaam? Do you understand every time that guy opened his mouth, he spoke the true words of God? Every, he even prophesied of the Messiah.

This is Balaam,.

One of the guys in the New Testament that God warns about.

Don't go the way of Balaam.

Well, this Balaam guy,.

I mean, like every time he opened his mouth, every time he stood in the pulpit, he spoke true words of God,.

But he was a false man. He was a false man. And that is so much harder to discern, brothers and sisters. And so what did Balaam do? Psst, come here, King. Listen, I can't curse what God has blessed, but I'll tell you what he can do.

If you can seduce Israel to sin against God, God himself will curse his people. Job done, give me my reward. Thank you very much. So here is a young lady filled with a spirit of divination speaking the true words of God.

And the Bible says that Paul just got simply annoyed. Enough already. Get out of her in the name of Jesus. Boom, man, riots in that city. Because all the idolaters and tradesmen, they made a living off exploiting this young lady for divination.

Of course, they take them before the authorities. The authorities beat them up, put them in stocks, throw them in prison. And while Paul and Silas are complaining, they're not having their best life now.

Is that what your Bible reads?

No.

As they were praying and singing hymns to God with their backs bloodied and raw, as they're worshiping the Lord, we know the great miracle that took place, right? God shook that prison, the doors opened up, the jailer starts freaking out.

He's ready to kill himself.

Because if anybody escapes, he's a dead man anyway. And Paul says, no, don't do it.

Everybody's here. We're okay.

And the guy comes running in and he says, do you remember what he said? What must I do to be saved? Now listen to Paul's response. He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you and what? You and your household shall be saved.

See, this is an example of God working through headship. Okay, so the promise wasn't just to the jailer. The promise, if he believed in the Lord, that this would have a profound impact upon his family.

And I'm gonna tell you, you could study this out,.

Brothers and sisters.

Like when a child comes to faith in Christ, yeah, there may be some people in the family that will also come to faith in Christ. And if the wife and the mother comes to Christ, yeah, there'll be some of the family that may follow in her footsteps.

When the man comes to Christ, like 90%, like some phenomenal high number of families follow in the faith of the footsteps of their father. Why? Because God works through headship. He works through headship.

And this is something we have forgotten, brothers and sisters. And it is jumping up and biting us pretty good. This is in the home. This is in the church. We're out of divine order and we're spinning out of control.

And man, I gotta just reveal this truth to you.

This is so, so important.

Because let's face it, most men, most Christian men are so morally compromised in this nation, they can't make a courageous stand for the Lord.

They just can't.

They're so riddled with guilt. And because of that, there's an opening that the enemy can exploit to tear up our marriages, tear up our children. And I'm gonna tell you how the divine principle works, men,.

Really, really important.

God's authority rests and works through men who take responsibility. There is no authority of God without responsibility of men. So men, when you do your duty as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a churchman in your church, as a citizen in your community, when you take responsibility and serve well your King, guess what the benefit is for others?

God's authority will rest on you and work through you. And you and your household shall be saved. Pretty important truth. So here's 1 Corinthians 16, 13. This is an amazing scripture. And I just want you to understand that God presupposes strength with men.

He presupposes that, okay? And this is literally God the Father getting into the face of men. And he says this profound statement. He says, watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. The King James version actually says, quit ye like men.

And I would look at that. I'm like, man, is the King James promoting American manhood? When the going gets tough, we quit.

You know, quit like the American man, you know?

That's not what it's saying.

When it says, quit ye like men, this is literally God saying to men, be a man, be a man. Do a man's part. Behave yourselves like men. Be strong, be brave, be courageous. And then of course he says, let all things be done with love.

So men, if we're gonna take biblical responsibility that God's authority could rest on us and through us and that he can work through us because he works through headship to bless others. Notice what he says.

He says, watch, watch. When you hear the word watch, what do you think of? Watch. Give me, I'm an interactive preacher so you can work with me, folks.

Work with me, work with me.

Watch, it says watch.

He's talking to men and he says, men, watch. Watch what? What are we talking about here? Watch the Superbowl? What are we talking about here? In the Old Testament, what did they have? What were they called?

Watchmen.

What was the duty?

What was the duty of the watchmen? Stand guard, right? Stand guard. Like what's on the horizon? Anything coming our way? Is there any danger happening here? What's going in?

What's going out, right?

Watch.

Men, be watchmen on the wall. Like pastors.

What's the state of your flock?

Pastors as elders in the cities of this land. What's coming into your community?

What's going out of your community?

Where is the enemy killing, stealing, and destroying in your community?

Watch, be aware. Know what's going on, right?

Fathers in the home. What's the state of your children?

What are they listening to?

What are they watching? Who's influencing them? Do you still have their heart, father?

Do you? Watch, be aware.

Don't fall asleep at the wheel. It's critically important stuff. So men, you gotta watch.

You gotta be vigilant.

You gotta be awake. You gotta be aware.

You know, I don't know where you grew up or where I grew up. I grew up in the mean streets of Britsport, Connecticut,.

Which means I was on red alert all the time.

Because 90 of my neighborhood was black and Puerto Rican.

And I was white and it didn't go over very well.

So I know discrimination from the other side of the tracks.

I'm just telling you right now.

And when I walk the street, you better believe, man,.

My spidey sense was like, and I'm watching.

And I'm very much aware of danger. And you give me a hint. Just give me a hint. And I'm going nuclear. I'm going nuclear. I'm not saying to do that. I'm just telling you, when you're in dangerous situations,.

You gotta be alert.

You gotta be active.

You gotta be aware. Really, really important.

Your wife, your children, the church, the community depends on this. So what kind of leaders are we looking for today is leaders that understand that God works through headship.

You gotta understand that truth.

And if he's put you in that position,.

You need to be faithful.

Amen?

Okay, second principle.

Ready?

Judgment and Restoration of Nations

God judges and restores nations based upon leadership. You ready? God judges and restores nations based upon leadership. If you have your Bibles, turn to Isaiah chapter three. We're gonna look at some scripture here.

For Jerusalem stumbled. This is verse eight. And Judah is fallen.

Now watch this.

Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. This is a critical foundational context for one of the reasons why God will judge a nation. When our sayings and our doings are against the Lord, that is one of the primary reasons why God will judge a nation.

And now the question is, what does the judgment look like in the real world?

What does that look like?

Well, if you're watching the news today, you're gonna see a lot of what the judgment of God looks like when a nation's sayings and doings are against the Lord.

Now watch this.

To provoke the eyes of his glory. The look on their countenance. Oh my gosh, have you seen it? Oh my gosh, the smugness, the vileness. Witnesses against them. And watch this. And they declare their sin like Sodom.

They ain't hiding anymore.

They're shouting it from the rooftops, right? They do not hide it. Woe to their soul. For they have brought evil upon themselves. Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them. We got some hope.

Amen?

By the way, along those lines, to give you hope for the future. Remember in the book of Ezekiel, when God called for the slayers to come before him? Starting in God's sanctuary and going throughout the land and slaying everybody.

Do you remember the one people he told them not to touch? Not to slay? He says, you don't touch those that have my mark. And what is that mark? Those that are vexed. Those that are crying out to God because of the abominations in the land.

You don't touch that. So we don't wanna talk about the mark. You wanna get a mark?

That's a good mark.

Okay?

He says, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them. For the reward of his hands shall be given him. In other words, whatever these craven ingrates wants in this nation, they may get and then they won't be able to live with it.

They will actually rue the day. They decided to go in this direction. As for my people, now watch this. As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them. Oh, my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths.

All right, so let's unpack this brothers and sisters, okay? Now, I gave you a presupposition. God judges nations according to leadership. He also restores them and I'll get to that later. But right now we're dealing with God judging nations based upon leadership.

What sets up this judgment? A nation whose sayings and doings are against the Lord. And what is the consequence when the sayings and doings of against the Lord, when you study Isaiah chapter three, the respected elder, the honorable man, the true prophet, guess what?

Those guys are all dissed. They're marginalized, they're ignored, they're mocked, they're scorned. Have you not seen it in these days? Men pouring out their lives, begging this nation.

To come back to moral sanity and the truth, to set them free. And how are they treated in these days?

They hate us with a burning hatred.

They want us dead.

I'm gonna tell you right now, they want us dead.

I wish I can share with you my fan mail that I get on a constant basis. And God help me when one of my loved ones die because they'll stick that knife in and they'll twist it. Some of the most cruel, perverse, unbelievable demonic stuff that gets thrown at you.

This is the consequence when our sayings and doings are against the Lord. And how does it culminate? And this is so beautiful in the United States of America. We're so enlightened, we're so sophisticated.

We're the 20th century, you know, 21st century, you know, citizens of the world.

And Rusty, why don't you get with God's program here? Why don't you grow up and leave behind.

This antiquated superstition that you believe?

We're so enlightened, we're so sophisticated,.

But what is the consequences? Children will be your oppressors.

Have you seen the youth in America?

Have you seen them?

Do you see what they think, what they believe,.

And how they act? Are they honorable to the elder? Do they have any respect for anything?

In fact, I saw on Facebook, I couldn't believe it. I saw on Facebook a little old lady.

Just trying to cross the street in a walker.

I mean, seriously, she was like probably 90, 100 years old. She's a little old lady trying to cross the street.

Like back in the day, you know, kids would come behind the elderly. Can I help you cross the street?

Well, not today. Not today. The young people were blocking her way, wouldn't let her get by, was screaming at her.

I said, man, these kids, has anybody ever told you, no? Has anybody take down your pants and spank the hell out of you?

So full of themselves.

And what is the consequence? They're oppressing our nation. And women are ruling over us. And so what is God saying in his word?

Hey, people, whenever you exchange patriarchy for feminism,.

You're going deeper and deeper.

Into my curse upon this nation.

And it's just a harbinger of woe that is to come.

And all the subsequent evils that have come with it, abortion, homosexuality, gender, confusion, and the total breakdown of the family.

This is the high price we pay.

When our sayings and doings are against the Lord. And what he does is he'll set down the good men and then he'll turn you over to weak, inept, wicked, corrupt leaders. Are we not seeing that in these days?

We are. God also restores nations based upon leadership. Can anybody give me a scenario of the book of Judges? What do we see in the book of Judges? In the early part of the book of Judges, what do we see?

There's some patterns.

It's like 400 and some odd years of history in Israel, but we see some patterns in society, in the culture, okay? But basically, when God's people are walking in fidelity with him and obeying him, how many know there's not a power on this earth that could crush Israel if they were walking with God?

I mean, all the nations of the earth.

Could combine together and you don't touch the apple of my eye, ain't happening. But what are we prone to do? We're prone to get lax. We're prone to take the blessing of God.

And turn it into the curse of God, right?

We get lazy, we get forgetful, we start to indulge. We become hedonistic where pleasure is the ultimate goal. And before you know it, we're acclimating to the spirit of the age and the idols of the land, and we start going into idolatry.

We start playing the harlot, going a whoring after other gods. And before we know it, God lifts his hand and oppression comes upon us. Now, it's interesting because the book of Judges, you can basically break it down by two sayings.

From the beginning of the book.

Towards a little bit halfway point, there was a saying. And that saying was, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, can I tell you, as hard as that statement is,.

Israel had hope.

Israel had hope in that statement. Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. That means they finally got it. Oh my gosh, all this stuff has come upon us because we have done evil in the sight of the Lord.

And what would they do?

They would cry out to God. They would humble themselves.

They would repent.

They would plead with God to save them.

And guess what?

God is mighty to save.

He would answer their cry. He would come to their aid and to their help. In fact, there were times in the Old Testament, and I don't wanna screw with anybody's theology here, but I'm just telling you, it's what the Bible says.

Okay, where he said, that's it, you're done. You know, I'm no longer gonna help you. Listen, you wanna help, you just cry out to your idols, see if they'll save you, because I'm done with you. It ain't happening, no more.

Get away from me. And then he would see them suffer.

He would come to their aid.

He would rescue them.

Even when he said, I'm not doing this anymore.

Now, I don't know, again, I don't know what that means theologically,.

But I'm just telling you, that's what the Bible says.

So they cry out, but how did God answer their prayer? How did deliverance come to their nation?

He raised up judges.

He raised up champions.

He raised up leaders, amen?

And these men would, you know, lead Israel in repentance.

They would drive out the enemies.

They would break the oppression,.

And they would restore the land in peace.

And in righteousness.

And yes, that pattern continued throughout Israel's history.

But then we come to the latter part,.

Which I think is more where we are at today, because there was another saying in the book of Judges. And this is probably the most horrific part of the entire Bible. This was a horrendous time in Israel's history.

It was its most bloodiest, perverse time in Israel's history. And the statement that captured that was there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. You see the difference?

Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

We got hope.

We got hope for a nation when we understand we have done evil in the sight of the Lord. But you get to the place where there's no standard, no king, no truth to judge things by, and every man does what is right in their own eyes?

Violence, perversion, corruption. And see, if anybody saw my post today, that was part of what I was trying to share from my heart is America, we've abandoned the two sure fixed standards.

For judgment and guidance in our nation. God Almighty and His holy word, His commandment. That's the eternal fixed standard.

By men and nations are judged. But we also have our earthly temporal standard,.

Our own founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution. Now, I said in the video, these founding documents, they're not inspired by God.

They're not holy writ, they're not sacred.

But you know what?

In a fallen world, pretty good document. Pretty good. It's kept us for 250 years. Are you kidding me? Name another nation that has sustained himself without coups and military takeovers and all kinds of insanity.

You know, we had the American Revolution, we had the French Revolution.

We only had one revolution that's kept us for 250 years.

You know how many times. France.

Has to change their form of government.

Since the French Revolution? Try being a Frenchman.

You'll be changing uniforms on a daily basis.