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and give us attentiveness as we listen. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we are in Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. Look down at your Bibles at verse number one. It says, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinkin' saver. So doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. What I want to preach on tonight is Aaron's little folly, Aaron's little folly. And of course, the person I'm referring to is Aaron the high priest, which is the brother of Moses. And we're gonna do a study on the life of Aaron tonight and some of the mistakes that he made throughout his life. But more often than not, I'm actually gonna talk about the good things that he's done and the things, the good attributes that he had, the good characteristics that he had and what we can learn from them. Now, we think about that, we think about Aaron, he often gets a bad rap and for valid reasons, right? I mean, he made a lot of mistakes. He was a bad leader. We'll talk about that tonight. But if you do an overview of his life, he actually did more good than bad. And he actually had a lot of good qualities, a lot of good characteristics, things that we as pastors, for example, can learn from, things that employees could learn from and things that I believe are good qualities that any Christian should try to adopt in their personal life. And I want to talk about, initially, I want to talk about the strengths of Aaron. What are some of the good things that he did that we can learn from and that the children of Israel really benefited from as well? Now, go to Exodus chapter four, we'll come back to Ecclesiastes 10 at the end of the sermon, but I want you to go to Exodus chapter four, if you would, and we're going to hit on some of his strengths tonight. And what are some of the things that he did that really benefited the children of Israel? Applications to our personal life, whether you're a leader at your job or in your home, or even if you're planning to be a pastor one day, these are things that you can learn from the life of Aaron. Now, first and foremost, I want to point out that Aaron was a great speaker, okay? He was a great speaker. And what I mean by that is that he had a great mouth that was able to communicate God's word. You see, when we think about the exploits that Moses and Aaron did, a lot of that credit goes to who? To Moses. But in reality, even though Moses was eloquent, he was learned and he had wisdom and he was great in his ability to talk, he chose not to. He wanted to undermine the gifts that God gave him because he didn't want the responsibility. Whereas, you know, he's making excuses and then you have Aaron coming, God said, hey, this man can talk, this man can speak, he's going to be your mouthpiece, he's going to be your prophet, he's going to be the one to proclaim the word of the Lord. Look at Exodus chapter four and verse number 10, it says, and Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent. Well, that's a lie. We see that later on in the book of Acts that he was, he was mighty in words and in deeds. Neither heretofore nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or the deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? So what is he saying? You're telling me that you can't speak, you're telling me that you're slow of speech, but I'm the one who gave you your mouth, I know that you're basically lying about that, right? Especially what he's saying. Who's the one who makes the dumb and the deaf and the seeing and the blind? Have not I the Lord? He's saying, look, if that was a weakness of yours, I would have already known that. So it's a foolish thing for Moses to try to point that out and try to fool God, right? Like I can't talk, it's like what are you talking about? I gifted you with the ability to talk. He says, verse 12, now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. He's like, remove all the excuses. Just go say what I tell you to say, preach what I tell you to preach and I'm gonna be with you. Verse 13, and he said, oh my Lord, send me, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron thy Levi, thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shall speak unto him and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth and thou shall be to him instead of God. He's basically saying, okay, if you wanna run from the responsibility of preaching God's word and communicating my counsel to my people, that's fine. I will relinquish that responsibility to your brother because he can speak well as well, okay. Now here's the interesting thing. I do believe to a certain extent that Aaron was probably a better speaker than Moses. Okay, and the reason I believe that is because when Moses came to his brethren and tried to teach them that he was there to deliver them, they didn't accept that. It wasn't until Aaron went and communicated that same message that they actually adhered to Aaron. They actually listened to him. Now why is that? Is it because the messages were different? No, really, I think what it was is that Aaron was just able to communicate that message just a little better. And what's the principle that we can learn there? You know, it's not what you say, it's often how you say it, right? You know, it's not what you say, often it's just how you say it. It's how you communicate it, it's how you deliver it. And that's a principle that we can learn all across the board when it comes to ministry just in general, right? You know, the Bible tells us a word fitly spoken, how sweet it is in due season, right? The Bible talks about how words fitly spoken are like apples of gold and pictures of silver. God wants us to communicate his word in such a way that we put the cookie on the bottom shelf, but we deliver it with kindness, with compassion, with power. Here's the thing, all of us believe the same doctrine, but you would admit just as much as I would admit that there's certain people that just don't communicate that same doctrine as clearly, and often they offend other people, right? You know, we can both go out there and preach the gospel, but you know what, if you're out there being abrasive and rude and unkind, you know, that recipient of the gospel is probably not gonna be open to the gospel because of the way you're communicating that. So that's important that we learn how to communicate with people, that we have people skills, right? Skip down to verse 28, it says, And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed, the Bible says. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and they had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped, the Bible says. So it wasn't until Aaron came on the scene and communicated that same message in a different way that the people actually adhered to the message that God had for his people. And look, let me say this, is that this is a very good quality for us as Christians to have. You know, we spend our entire life, our entire ministry is based on what we say, right? It's based on communicating God's word. Even if you're never gonna be a pastor, you know, if you are a faithful laborer of the Lord, you're gonna spend your life winning people to Christ. Not by your lifestyle evangelism, but by opening your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. Now look, folks, I'm not saying that the power of God is not important because it very much is, but that coupled with your ability to communicate the Bible is very much important as well. And in fact, the Bible specifically tells us that we need to grow in our utterance, that's referring to our speech, our communication. Turn to 1 Corinthians, excuse me, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter eight, 2 Corinthians chapter number eight. A good quality of Aaron was that he was a great speaker. Now think about this, often when we think about the Old Testament and Pharaoh and Egypt, it's often, we often think about Moses versus Pharaoh. Moses rebuking Pharaoh, but really, it was Aaron rebuking Pharaoh. Go back and read it. You often see that Moses is communicating with Pharaoh, but for the most part, it's Aaron who's the one who's rebuking Pharaoh. It's Aaron who's telling him, let my people go. It's Aaron who's preaching the word of God. This guy has boldness, he's eloquent, he is able to go up and preach the word of God and rebuke and reprove the evil workers of darkness, to reprove them, to correct them. I mean, he's doing a great work with his mouth. It's showing that he's a good communicator. Now look what it says, I'm gonna read to you from 1 Corinthians one, verse four. It says, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians eight, verse seven. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, look what it says, and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. So what does God expect of his people? To abound in love, in knowledge, also in utterance. It should be that the older you are as a Christian, I don't mean by age, I mean by how long you've been serving God, you should become better at communicating God's word. Now why is that? Well, because you've been reading God's word. You've been hearing God's word. You've been memorizing God's word. You've been preaching God's word. And as the years go by, you become a better communicator of God's word. You're able to take the truths of God's word and put them on the bottom shelf for people to understand. You know, people often wonder like, man, how do I go soul-winding? How can I become a great preacher of the gospel? Well, you learn by doing. And you get better as the years go by if you remain consistent in it. Why is that? Well, because soul-winding is one of those ministries that you're not really prepared for because the recipient of the person who's listening to you, they're not scripted in what they're gonna say. It's not like you can expect what they're gonna say. Sometimes they hit you from left field with some crazy stuff, right? Sometimes they just kinda like drop a bomb on you and you have to be able to think on your feet and be able to communicate the word of God well to be ready to give an answer to every man. So the longer you go out soul-winding, the longer you're preaching the word of God, the better you get at it. And it should be that way. It shouldn't be that you've been here for two years and you're still like struggling how to preach the gospel. You like, you don't know how. What you're lacking is not the gift of utterance. What you're lacking is the abounding in utterance. And the way you abound in utterance is by being consistent in preaching the gospel. And look folks, that's why it's important that we disciple one another, amen? Look, I encourage you that if you read something in your Bible, something that's changed your life, go tell someone about it. Because the best way to learn that biblical truth is by telling others about it. You wanna be able to communicate that. Now, so much the more for the person who's trained to be a pastor, okay? Because if you think about it, one of the qualifications to be a pastor is what? To be apt to teach. So yeah, you know what? If they desire the office of a bishop, that's great. But you know what? One of the qualifications, you gotta be apt to teach. You have to be able to communicate God's word and obviously that entails having the knowledge of God's word, but to be able to teach it as well. Because of the fact that in a church setting, you have different levels of spiritual groups. You have the babes in Christ and you have those who have matured in the Lord and you have to be able to communicate the word of God where you feed both, you understand? But you can't do that if you're not apt to teach. And look, there's people out there, there's pastors who are well-meaning, who know the word of God, but you know what? They cannot teach a lick of doctrine. That's because they don't have the utterance to do so. Maybe they're just boring or maybe they just don't take the word of God serious or maybe they just go down deep and come up dry, you know, whatever it is. But you know what? The Bible specifically tells us that we need to be apt to teach. And I don't believe that's only referring to having the knowledge of God's word. I believe it's being able to communicate it and deliver it well. And let me say this is that I've said this before and I'll say it again, that if you're gonna be sent out of our church, you need to be a dynamic preacher. That's one of my qualifications. You have to be able to preach the word of God dynamically because that is the flavor of preaching that we have at our church. And that's the kind of flavor that I wanna send out as well, amen? Not boring preachers, not preachers that just kinda share the message of God's word. I want you to be able to preach the word of God with zeal, with passion, with utterance, with boldness, spirit-filled communication and to be able to just be a good speaker, okay? Now look, obviously I prefer a Christian who has knowledge and no utterance, you understand, rather than someone who has all utterance but no knowledge. Because honestly, I've seen pastors in the old IFP who are all utterance but no knowledge of God's word. I'm thinking of one right now, Phil Kidd is one of them where he was just a very entertaining preacher. How many know who Phil Kidd is? The guy's just entertaining to listen to because the guy's a nut. But the guy's not even saved though. He's very entertaining to listen to and in fact, I remember he used to come to our old church we were the only church this side of the Mississippi who would invite him to come preach at our church. I'm serious, right? We're the only ones. And he would come and he would say some crazy stuff and he was very entertaining. But you know what? When you go back and actually compare the notes to the Bible, it's like this guy doesn't even know what he's talking about. He has no idea what he's talking about. In fact, I remember he preached a sermon one time at our old church and it was called When Jesus Charged His Disciples. And I remember he took that phrase and basically preached this entire message on how God charges us. And what he was referring to is like energizes us. Like a battery is charged and it's just like charging means like he commanded them. He literally based the entire sermon on like batteries being charged and how we're supposed to be charged and excited and all these. It's like no, that means he commanded them. Great speaker. Great orator. But no knowledge. Okay, it was foolishness and folly. Look, we should have both. Why not? We should have the knowledge but also the ability to preach and speak and the word of God and to keep people's attention. And you know what? Aaron is a great example of this. He was a great speaker. I mean, he's preaching before kings, Pharaoh. You know, he's telling them it like it is. He's leading God's people. I mean, he is there as the mouthpiece of Moses to preach the counsel of God. And it's not bad to be eloquent if you think about it. You know, Apollos, the Bible says that he was an eloquent man. That's what the Bible literally says about him in Acts chapter 18. He was an eloquent man. But you know what? He just needed a little refining. And Aquila and Priscilla came, they showed him the way of the Lord more perfectly and then he mightily convinced the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. So they added knowledge to his eloquent speech and it made for a great sermon. And it made for a powerhouse of a Christian who was able to go out and sow in and preach the word of God and communicate clearly and do a great work. So Aaron was that type of a person. Look at Exodus chapter seven, if you would. Exodus chapter seven. It says in verse number one of Exodus chapter seven, and the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shall speak all that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land. Now think about this, we're all like Aaron if you think about it. Because we are the mouthpiece of God. God is not gonna come down here and speak to individuals on this earth. I don't care what the Pentecostals say. He's not gonna come down and preach the word of God. He's not even gonna use an angel to do it. Who does he use? Human vessels. And these human vessels better know what they're talking about. We are the mouthpiece of God. We are God's spokesman. We are his prophets. And that's not a job that we should take lightly. Hey, I encourage you to practice with your spouse solely. And a great way ladies to be able to communicate God's word is by teaching God's word to your children. Or ladies, you know, if you're not married, teaching God's word to your siblings. Taking what you learn out of God's word and communicating it unto children, that's like the best, one of the best training that you can get right there. Because with a child, you do have to put the cookie on the bottom shelf with them. You have to explain it in such a practical way that a child will understand it, you understand? And so, you know, this is a strength, was a strength of Aaron, was his ability to speak, and it should be a strength that we should desire. And again, I'm not saying, you know, it's more important than having the power of God in your life, you need both, okay? We need both. Now, you're in Exodus chapter seven. So number one, what were one of his strengths? Number one is that he was a great speaker. Number two is that he facilitated the work of God. We often forget that the majority of the miracles done in Egypt were actually done by Aaron. He was the one that had the rod. He was the one that was sending the plagues. Yeah, Moses did some of them, but the majority of them were done by Aaron. Now, here's the great thing about Aaron. He didn't really seek credit, right? Do you hear him saying, hey Moses, make sure, you know, you put in the Bible that I'm the one, you know, kind of did those things and, you know, give credit where credit's due, honor where honor's due. He was actually more concerned with just doing the work. Look at Exodus seven, seven. It says that Moses was four score years old and Aaron four score and three years old when they spake unto Pharaoh. By the way, this shows you that Aaron is humble. Why? Because who's the leader? The older or the younger brother? The younger brother's older, I mean the leader. So Aaron is the older brother, Moses is the younger one, and Aaron is following Moses. That shows humility, right? He's not like, hey, I'm the big brother here. Let me be the leader. I wanna be the guy in the limelight, in the spotlight. He's just like, let's just follow Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, when Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, show a miracle for you, then thou shall say unto Aaron, take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men of the sorcerers, now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments, for they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. So Aaron comes, he throws down his rod, it becomes a serpent. The magicians, Janus and Jambres come, they throw down their rods, they become serpents, but look what it says, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. That's awesome. And it's like, oh yeah, you wanna see Aaron just ate those little snakes, and he's just like, what rods were you talking about? I don't see any rods. This is Aaron, which is pretty cool. You know, I like that phrase, Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Look at verse 19, skip down to verse 19. So if you think about it, Aaron is a pretty awesome character in the Old Testament. Very bold, doing a great work, he's preaching God's word, he's convincing people, he's rebuking Pharaoh. This guy's awesome. Look at verse 19, the Lord's speaking to Moses, saying to Aaron, take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded, and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, and the sight of Pharaoh, and the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood. Aaron is doing a great work. And he's not concerned about who's getting the credit. God is commanding Moses, Moses is commanding Aaron, Aaron's doing the work, and he's just glad that it's being done. This is a great quality to have here, folks. Okay, which leads me to my next point. Go to Exodus chapter 17. You see, Aaron was a great speaker. Aaron facilitated the work, and you know what, let me say this, is that he was a great second man to Moses. He was a servant. And I will say this, is that every pastor, every boss, every leader needs a great second man to assist him. And it's not a position, an inferior position. This is a great position to have, okay? And this is exactly what we see Aaron doing here, because he's helping Moses facilitate the work so the work can be done, but he's also supporting Moses as well, okay? Let's look at an example of this in Exodus 17, verse eight. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and Rephidim. 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 mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. It came to pass when Aaron, excuse me, Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. So if you can picture this, there's a war going on. Joshua's the one who's leading the troops, and really it's based upon whether Moses puts his arms up or down. As long as he keeps them up, you know, the fight continues and Israel's winning. The moment he decides to put his arms down, it's like throwing in a towel, and Amalek begins to conquer Israel. So look at verse 12. But Moses' hands were heavy. What does that mean? He was tired. He's a normal man. You know, he's putting his arms up. I mean, this is a war that's probably continuing for hours on end, if you think about it, okay? So he's heavy, and he's tired. His muscles are fatigued. And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the one on the other, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So what do we see? Aaron and Hur recognize our leader is fatigued. He's tired. We want to assist him so that what? So Moses can get the glory? No, so that Israel could win. Because everything rises and falls on leadership. So what they do is they grab a stone, the rock, which is Jesus Christ, right? He sits upon that rock, and what do Aaron and Hur do? They hold up his arms so that the battle can continue, and they can become victorious in the war. Verse 13 says, and Joshua disconfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. So what happens? They win. Now, is Aaron wanting the credit, the honor? No, he's just glad that they won. Now, this is important because, like I mentioned, every pastor, every boss, every leader needs a secondhand man. And look, I'm thankful I have secondhand men in this church. I'm thankful for the men in this church that assist me, that help me. Why, you said so you can get the glory? No, so the work can continue. I mean, I would consider the team leaders in our church to be my secondhand men. These are the extensions of the pastor in order to facilitate the work of God. And they help me to grow the church. They help me, they assist me to grow it, to take care of the people, to train them. And you know what? Not a single one of them ever comes up to me and says, hey, can you give me credit every once in a while, please? You know, can you give me a shout out, like behind the pulpit every once in a while? Can you just honor me behind the pulpit? No, why? Because that's not what they're in it for. They're not in it to get credit. They're not in it to be honored. They're not in it so the spotlight can be on them. They just want the work to get done as well. And thank God for that. You know, they kinda hold up my arms when I grow weary. And I will say this, you know, earlier this year, my family and I, we went through a very difficult trial. Maybe some of you don't even know about it. But we went through a very, very difficult trial, probably the worst trial that we've ever experienced in our entire marriage, you know? Our marriage was not on the rocks or anything like that, you know? We were just going through a difficult time. My wife was very ill earlier this year. And I'll be honest with you, my arms, they were weary. I'm used to firing on all four cylinders at our church and just like vision and working and let's just get things done and missing strips and all these things. It's like I had to like slow, I had to downshift. And I felt like, man, my arms were weary. And you know what happened? I had men in this church who held up my arms during that time. And I was thankful for them. I remember these men coming up to me and saying, Pastor, you take time off, you do whatever you have to do. Everything's gonna be okay here. We'll take care of everything. And it's not like, yeah, now it's time for me to be the leader up in here. I'm gonna take over now. This is my chance to shine. No, they're like, we're gonna make sure this thing runs like a well old machine. And thank God for that. I praise God for that, okay? Second men are needed in a church. They're needed in a company. Folks, hey, men, if you wanna be promoted at your job, be the second man. Be your boss's second man. Be there to hold him up and to assist him to help him. And you know what? You will be promoted, okay? By the way, Aaron was promoted, was he not? What did he become? The high priest. One of the most lofty positions in the Old Testament was the fact that he became the high priest. And his sons, okay? Now go to Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter number two. Look, Joshua wasn't looking for the credit either. And he's out there fighting. Everyone played their role. Joshua is fighting Amalek, he's on the front lines. Moses is making sure that he's leading the people. Aaron and her are holding up. Everyone has a role. And their position and ministry, and you know what, not a single one of them wanted the credit. They just wanna make sure that the job gets done. But folks, there's a lot of people who aren't like that. There's people out there who, man, they want a pat on the back, they want you to thank them, they want you to recognize them, and they serve God with the motive of being a man pleaser. They want people to see them, do their good works. They wanna make sure that you thank them. And there's nothing wrong with thanking people for doing a good job, but some people only do the job in order to be thanked, in order to be recognized. You understand? That's not the way it should be. We should look at the war just in general. And see, what do we have to do as a team to make sure that this goes forward, okay? Now, who Aaron reminds me of, the New Testament version would be Timothy. Timothy was Paul's second man, right? He assisted Paul, he facilitated the work of God, he preached great sermons. I mean, this guy did a great work. Look at Philippians chapter two and verse number 19. It says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send to Mothius shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. So what's the insinuation there, that Timothy doesn't care for his own things, he cares for the things of Jesus Christ. That's why he's sending Timothy to do the work there. Says in verse 32, but ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the Father, he hath served with me in the gospel. So he had a reputation of serving, right? Now, I will say this is that, hey, pastor's in the making. You better be a second man before you're the first man. In fact, in order to be the first man, you have to be a second man at one point or another, because you gotta learn how to follow before you learn how to lead. Fact, I'm the pastor here, but you know what? For years, at my old church, I was my pastor's second man. I did whatever he wanted me to do, even if it was throwing out the trash, you know, giving him a ride to the airport, doing whatever he asked me to do, I did. It wasn't like, well, pastor, take me to the airport, I'm one of your preacher boys. I'll preach for you, but to do that, I mean, come on now, this is a preacher boy here. I'm a pastor in the making, wrong. That would be a wrong attitude to have. A servant is just like, what can I do to alleviate, you know, the pressures of a pastor so much more to help you to do what you need to do? I served my pastor for years on end, and I did what he asked me to do, and I did it out of love because I did love my pastor. But I also did it because I learned that we as God's men should be servants. Folks, Jesus Christ came to minister, not even to be ministered unto. And if Jesus Christ can do that and have that type of attitude, how much more should we have that attitude, okay? So we see that Aaron had that attitude. He held up the arms of Moses. He was his second man. He didn't seek credit. He didn't seek his own glory. He just sought for the work to get done. And let me just say this is that you reap what you sow. Okay, you know, if you wanna be a great leader one day and be a great pastor and have loyal men, you have to yourself be loyal, right? If you want people to be loyal to you, you have to be able to display that loyalty as well. Okay, and that's a sermon in and of itself. Go to Exodus 24, if you would. Exodus 24. My desire is that our church would produce many pastors, many pastors to start many churches. I wanna be able to send out the cream of the crop from our church. You know, I would love for them to stay here, but you know what? Let's get more work done and send them out. Go start churches, amen? But in order to do that, we have to produce servants first. In order to produce great leaders, we need to produce great servants first. Because a person who's a great servant has the right type of motive. You know, they're not becoming a pastor because they want the limelight, they're doing it because they love people, they love to serve. Look at Exodus 24, verse 14. He said unto the elders, tarry ye here for us until we come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and her are with you. If any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them. Did you get that? So he's saying, look, Moses has his responsibilities, Aaron and her, they're fit, they know the word of God, they can make judgments. If anybody has a matter, they can go to those guys. Aaron and her can take care of them. And you know what? I'm glad we have men in our church who can do the same. And I would hope that we would produce more men like that. That you know what, not every matter has to come to me. Now the big matters bring them to me, the approvals bring them to me, but small matters, you guys can deal with those on your own. I prefer that. I prefer men with wisdom and prudence and knowledge and maturity, that when conflicts arise, they say, you know what, let's not bring this to the pastor because of the fact that we can handle this, we can reconcile this, we can take care of this, we don't need to bring the higher ups for this situation. Now if it gets out of hand, then obviously we have to, but you know what, we can handle it. But it requires wisdom, it requires maturity, it requires a man like Aaron, who knew the word of God, they had the maturity to be able to deal with those issues. Go to number 17 if you would, number 17. As I mentioned, he was promoted to be the high priest. And look, he was faithful and little, therefore he's gonna be faithful and much. And he is somewhat of a figure of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is our high priest, okay? So he was promoted to that position there. Now what else do we know about Aaron? We know that he was known by his fruits. Look, we know a lot of negative stuff about Aaron, but for the most part, these are great qualities to have. These are things that we should emulate, we should practice and adopt to our personal lives. And one of the things that we see here is that he wasn't a false prophet. Now unfortunately, he produced some false prophets, right? You know, his sons, unfortunately, few of his sons ended up going left and becoming reprobates, and you know, they were destroyed for offering strange fire before the Lord. But Aaron was known by his fruit. Look what the Bible says in number 17. And verse number six, it says, And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod of peace, for each prince won, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness, and it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds and bloom blossoms and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord into the children of Israel, and he looked into every man his rod, and the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not. So what do we see here is that Aaron, though he had his flaws, he was still a fruit for a person. And this shows that God chose Aaron as a vessel to bring forth this type of fruit. So he was a great guy. Now go to number 16, chapter back, go to number 16. This is actually one of my favorite character qualities of Aaron right here, is that he actually did well under pressure. He did well under pressure. And listen to me, I think this is a valuable quality for any man to have, any individual period, but just men in general. It's good to work well under pressure, okay? It's good not to buckle under pressure, amen? And you know what? Aaron, though he doesn't get a whole lot of credit, this guy knew how to keep his cool. When things got out of hand, people are dying. He kept his cool, listened to instruction, executed, and made it happen, okay? Look at number 16, verse 44, it says, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation that I may consume them as in a moment, and they fell upon their faces. So God's pretty mad with Israel. I mean, there's nothing new under the sun, right? And he's like, I'm just gonna kill everyone. I'm just gonna destroy all these people right now, I'm just fed up with these people. And he sends a plague, so if you just picture this, there's millions of people, and he's just like a wave of dead bodies just falling. I mean, the plague is spreading throughout the camp, because God has ticked, he's mad. And you know what? I mean, amen, God is righteous, he's just, these people are being wicked, and God's like, you know what, you and Aaron, you guys need to move out of the way. Because I got this wave of a plague coming, and it's just gonna kill everyone who's in the way. Okay, and what did they do? They fell upon their faces, what does that mean? They're just humbling themselves, and they're praying. Because Aaron and Moses, they love the children of Israel, they don't want people to die. You know, they want to invoke the compassion of God and the long suffering, and to appease him so that he doesn't destroy the rest of the people. He says in verse 46, and Moses said unto Aaron, take a censer, and put fire there from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them, for there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun. So he says, look, we gotta make sure that we stop this, here's the instructions, go after it. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation, behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. I mean, picture this. Moses is like, go do the atonement now. And Aaron's running through the crowd, as dead bodies are falling left and right, he's not like, well, do you really think we should do this? You know, like, oh, like now? You want me to go right now, or like in five minutes now? No, when do you, like, where is that censer? I don't know where I put it. Where is that place again, the atonement? Remind me of the Levitical law real quick, how do you work this thing again? I mean, this is pressure, people are dying. Right? People are dying. And what did he do, he received the instruction, and he's just like, bodies are just like. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And he's not distracted by it, he's trying to get the job done. Folks, it takes mental acumen to be able to just ignore the pressure while you're under pressure, and get the job done anyways. That's a pretty awesome trait there. Because, you know, he's not like, oh, my soul, I knew that person. He's just kind of putting it out of his mind, he's running through the crowd, he's like, we just need to make this atonement, and stop this before it goes any further. What did he do, he just followed the instructions. And what happened, he made the atonement, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. So he got it done, and he's just like, you know, dead people, living people, but at least we stayed the plague as much as possible. This is a great quality to have here, folks, okay? Go to 2 Corinthians chapter one. Work well under pressure. Now, I'll give you an example of this, because honestly, when I was studying this this afternoon, I was actually thinking about Marcos, okay? Because Marcos was with me at the conference, and we were under pressure throughout the entire conference. You know, with the live stream, and the setting up, and look, there's times when I'm just like, just get it done, figure it out. You know, like me, I don't like excuses, period. Don't give me any excuses, don't tell me you can't, don't tell me you don't know how to figure it out, just do it, just YouTube it, right? And he knows that. So we're there, and we had a lot of complications with the equipment, the live stream, and honestly, you know, my mind was chafed a little bit after a while, just dealing with these reprobates. And I remember, like, it was my time to preach, and I told him, I said, we're having some problems with the live stream, I said, you gotta figure it out, I'm leaving. I was like, I need this done by the time I get back, because I need to go write my sermon that I'm about to preach, like, in an hour. And I said, I'm tired right now, and I can't figure this out right now, I don't have the mental capacity to figure it out, you need to do it, and he was like, all right, I got it. And it was a big job. I came back, and he was like, it's good to go. Figured it out, you know? And I'm like, this guy works well under pressure. You are well under pressure, sir, now don't get a big head, Marcos, because he screwed up a lot, too, so. He made a lot of mistakes, you know, I'm just kidding. What I'm saying is this, is like, hey, that's a good quality to have, and you know what, your boss wants that, too. You know what's a good trait to have? Troubleshooting. Learn how to troubleshoot, right? And the moment just like, oh, I wasn't trained for this, then you better start learning. You better just figure it out. Oh, but there's a lion in this tree, then YouTube how to kill it. Better YouTube how to make it go away. You better YouTube how to steal meat from the lions, from those African guys who, you know, take the meat from the lions and stuff. You better just figure it out. You know, don't make excuses, make it happen. Right? And obviously, there's gonna be times when you just can't make it happen. But at least put in the considerable effort to do it. And sometimes, people just can't make it happen because they fold under the pressure, you know? Don't, you know, a good quality to have is just to ignore the pressures and just be able to make it happen. Just ignore your environment for a split second and just figure it out. To be able to quiet your mind to say, this is what needs to be done, okay? It's a valuable trait to have, and this is what Aaron did. I mean, this is a great example right here. The guy, he didn't like fall over or suck his thumb. He was like, I can't do it. He did paralysis of analysis or whatever. He was like, no, you do it, Moses. He's just like, got it. Boom, took off, did the atonement, and saved a bunch of people. Great quality, great attribute. Learn it. Go to Exodus 32, Exodus chapter 32. And look, we have a lot of men in our church who are able to do that, okay? Brother Ray, Brother Ulysses, these guys know how to troubleshoot certain things when it needs to be done. And I'm thankful that when we have service and something awry goes wrong, I don't have to do it myself. These men take the initiative to say, we got it, we'll take care of it. This is how you do it. And they kinda tell me, go do what you gotta do. That's great, okay? And it's a valuable, valuable attribute to have. All right, now let's talk about his weaknesses, okay? So we named quite a few strengths that he had, okay? About four or five strengths. These are great things. And I'm only gonna spend time on two weaknesses that he had, because really, if you read his story, he only had about two. The first one being the most glaring one, which is his weak leadership, right? And I know I had you during the Exodus 32, but for sake of time, we're not gonna read it all. Ah, let's read it, because it's fun to read. It says in verse number one, the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount. The people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them, shut up, sit down, and learn some patience. That's what he should have said. He should have been like, you shut your mouth, and I'm telling on you as soon as Moses comes. You're gonna catch a whooping as soon as the leader comes. That's what he should have done, right? But Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bringing them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them out of their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf, and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. Good night, what's wrong with you? So Moses is gone, he knows what Moses would have done. By the way, Moses is an awesome leader. This guy does not mess around. Don't mess with Moses. He's one of the meekest men that ever lived, but you know what? He brought the rod when the rod needed to be brought. And unfortunately, Aaron did not have that strong quality of leadership. He buckled and capitulated to the desires of the people. They were like, I'll make us gods. And he's like, all right, you guys got any gold? We'll figure something out, we can work together. They rose up early, verse six on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play, the committing idolatry. And the Lord sent him to Moses, go get thee down for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Skip down to verse 19, and it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and break them beneath the mount. Oh man, so he's just like breaking the commandment, he's ticked off, and he should be. I like Moses. Verse 20, and he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and he ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. Man. So he put it through this process, and he's like, every single one of you who are worshiping, go ahead and drink it. This is symbolic of the wrath of God that you're about to drink right now. Oh, you're worshiping? Take a sip. Chug it down. You love your idols so much. You love your calf so much. You love your false god so much, consume it. Meekest man though. Kinda shows you, you gotta be meek when you gotta be meek, but you gotta be angry when you gotta be angry. By the way, this is nothing compared to what God would have done. God's like, Moses, all this theatrics, I'll just plague them all and just destroy them. And Moses said unto Aaron, what did these people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not thine anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief, for they said unto me, make us gods, which shall go before us for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. And I said unto him, whosoever hath any gold, let him break it off. So they gave it me, then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. What? There's a huge chunk of information that you're leaving out here. You're trying to tell me, it's like, oops. And then it's just like, this calf came out. There's a sermon by Brother Howes, it was called, what was it, The Calf Made Me Do It or something? Or I Came Out This Calf? Or The Fire Made Me Do It? You know, it's just like, oh, you just threw the gold in there and just came out. Oh, okay, you're exempt from the punishment, then. No, what it is, Aaron, is you're just a weak leader. You should have just punished the people, sifted through these wicked individuals who wanted to worship the idols and just dealt with them right then and there. But he didn't. Verse 35. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf, which Aaron made. So his poor leadership got a bunch of people killed. He should have just rebuked them. And look, some people, they're not wicked, they're just carried about with every wind of doctrine. But if you allowed them to be carried about with every wind of doctrine, they're gonna end up being destroyed by that. That's why it's important that we rebuke people, right? That we correct people. That we tell them, you're wrong, this is stupid, this is foolish, and not try to appease them, give me your gold, let me just facilitate your wicked desires, more like rebuke them so they can repent of those wicked desires, okay? So that's one thing. Go to Numbers chapter 12. We're pretty much done. Here's the thing. Well, I'll get into that in just a bit. Look at Numbers 12. So the second weakness of Aaron, excuse me, is that he's easily persuaded. I mean, we see that, right? All the people just pressured him, and he just buckled under the pressure of the influence of the people. Look at Numbers 12, verse one, it says, and Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. They said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us, and the Lord heard it? Now, we won't read through the whole story here, but God, what does he end up doing? He ends up bringing leprosy upon who? Miriam. Upon Aaron? No, upon Miriam. Now, what does that lead us to believe? That it was probably Miriam who influenced Aaron into speaking against Moses, okay? So he's kind of like this guy who's just carried about with every wind of doctrine. And Miriam was there, he's like, look at your little brother, Moses. Prophet of the Lord, you should be the prophet. You're the older brother, you know? You think God only speaks by Moses? God can use us too, Aaron, you know? And he's just like, yeah, you're right. I never thought about that. And then he confronts Moses, and then Miriam gets leprosy, and then Aaron's the one who's pleading on her behalf that God will be merciful to Miriam. Now, what does that show us about Aaron? He's just easily persuaded. The guy is just easily persuaded, he's not set in stone, he's not one of those individuals who's just like, I'm not gonna be moved. You know, and be like, Miriam, shut up, go take a nap. You don't know what you're talking about. Moses is the man of God, you are being an idiot, you know, you're fortunate you even made it out of Egypt, Miriam. Yeah, he's our younger brother, Miriam, but you know what, God has chosen him, he's a vessel, and if you don't wanna get leprosy, you should just keep your mouth shut. Oh, you're right, Aaron, I'm sorry, yeah. But he wasn't like that, he was easily persuaded, and what happened was, because of that, because of his weak leadership, even towards his sister, his sister suffered the consequences because of that, okay? Now go to Numbers 20, Numbers chapter 20. How did Aaron die, or why did Aaron die? He died because of the fact, well, first of all, we see that he was stripped of his garments, and his garments was given unto Eleazar, his son, to be the high priest, but the reason he actually was not allowed to go into the promised land was because of the fact that he smote the rock instead of speaking unto it, right? Look what it says in verse 10, and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their beasts also, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. So what do we see here? We see that when Miriam tells him to go against the authority, you know, he just listens, but when his authority is actually going against the principles of God, he just follows him. Because when we think of the story, we often talk about Moses being the one who smites the rock, but it's Aaron as well. And what Aaron should have done is saying, hey, Moses, God says to speak unto it, not hit it. We can't hit it. We're gonna mar the symbolic nature of what God is trying to do here, because the rock is Jesus Christ, our Messiah. And if we smite it, it's gonna completely mess up that symbolic representation there. Well, what did he do? He smoted as well. So it kind of shows you that this guy can't really think for himself sometimes. He's always on the wrong side of an issue. And because of that, it cost him his life. It cost him going into the promised land, and it really cost him his reputation, which leads me to my last point. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. Now, when we did the study tonight, were there more good things than bad when it came to Aaron? Yeah. We showed about four or five good things about Aaron. Really strong attributes, really strong characteristics. How many bad things did we see about Aaron? Only two. But look, when we think about Aaron, when we talk about him, what do we focus on? The bad. Why? Look what it says in verse number one of Ecclesiastes 10. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saber. So doth a little folly, him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. So what does this tell us? Sometimes it doesn't matter how much good you do, your little folly can actually ruin your reputation. And even though Aaron had a great reputation when actually studied in detail, he did a lot of great things, had a lot of strengths. Unfortunately, his little folly overshadowed his good qualities. And that should be a lesson to us all. We need to make sure that we live a life that's above reproach. We need to make sure that we have strong leadership that we're not easily persuaded that we check ourselves because a little folly can just completely mar our reputation no matter how much good we do. May we learn that tonight from the life of Aaron, amen? Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. I'm thankful for Aaron. Aaron was a great man. He did a lot of great works and there's a lot that we can learn from him. But I guess the greatest lesson that we can learn is that his little folly really just marred his reputation because any time we think of Aaron, aside from the fact that we know that he was Moses' brother and the high priest, we often think of his folly, the little folly, which ultimately overshadowed even the best things that he did, the great exploits that he accomplished. I pray, God, that we take that to heart and may we be conscious of the actions and the decisions we make and recognize that they can often overshadow the consequences, the bad decisions we make will often overshadow even the good things that we do. And Lord, we love you so much. Help us to live lives that are honoring and glorifying to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.