Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 13

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
Rely on God’s Wisdom
Lesson Transcription

Let me bring us back again to the, the subject at hand today, credibility. Credibility is key to the effectiveness of any leader. We asked the question, but are you credible? And the question behind that is, do you have character? Which again, we've said is somewhat of a nebulous, neutral word, but we're looking really at the issue of moral excellence.   

So does a leader have character? And what we're going to move to now is to talk about a second key component. And that is, does a leader have wisdom? Now, sometimes this, again, is a subject that gets overlooked, but the reality is, I think we'd all agree. We want a leader who is discerning, who is someone who is, I could use the word sagacious, someone who exercises sound judgment.   

We believe that wisdom matters to just about anyone. And when we think about common assumptions, I think one common assumption is, yeah, it does matter. Who wants to be known as dimwitted or hapless? But interesting thing is, again, when we look at a lot of leaders today, we find it is not such a prevalent, description.   

In fact, Lance Morrow, some time ago wrote this, this article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "You're Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity." That actually, when we look at a lot of leadership today, you can say there is a certain amount of idiocy going on, which tells us what, it tells us that there isn't the discipline of wisdom that's being developed.   

It's not to be confused with saying, oh, we're lacking intellect or lacking information. We're, we're, we're stuffed with information. We can have lots of people with working PhDs.   

But what does it matter? If there's not wisdom? What does it matter? If you can, say, I know the word horse in 25 languages, but you don't know how to ride a horse, this is what wisdom is about. It's about learning, actually, how to live things out. So we have a lot of idiocy, or if I could, quote Plantinga here in his book, not the way it's supposed to be, he describes actually, what we are living with.   

It's a lot of “jack assery,” leaders who have certain autonomous assumptions, who do really stupid things. Though let's face it, leaders want to be perceived as shrewd, as discerning. But what we all need to realize is that it is not, automatic.   

So we make assumptions about wisdom. We assume that we want to be wise, Though not many leaders are wise. We assume, here's a second assumption, that wisdom comes by experience.   

That, as we age, we become wiser. It's just a, a fair assumption. Maybe some do develop wisdom, over time, but, but some don't. I mean, I, if I could, frankly put it this way, some of the most idiotic people I've met are older people.   

So it's not necessarily about experience. Most of leaders, however, assume it comes with age. And there are these proverbial sayings that tell us these things that have come with age shut mouths, catch no flies. Well, that's a proverbial saying that's come with age. Meaning, if you keep your mouth shut, it'll be a lot safer. Or a large chair does not make a king, or too many cooks spoil the broth.   

Or if you take big paces, you leave large spaces. These are common sense. These come with learning. These come with life experience. But the point I'm making is, is that while we can learn a lot by just experience, we learn not to touch a hot stove. We become somewhat wise in some of the things we do, because life teaches us this nonetheless.   

The point here is that age is no guarantee. I'm reminded in Job, chapter 32, where, listening to all of the speeches given to Job, there is the voice that speaks up and says, well, I'm younger than all of you, but obviously your age doesn't reveal a lot of wisdom. It is interesting.   

Here's an article I read in July entitled, our, gerontocracy, is All Age and No Wisdom. It, it is an article saying, we've got all these older leaders today, and we do have a lot of old leaders. But as the article goes on to point out, it's not necessarily true that they are wise. In fact, it goes on to say, we have older politicians, but we have no elder statement.   

It's, again, a statement about wisdom. It's also assume that wisdom will come. It's a common assumption with, a careful search. And that's true. Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age and wisdom, hopefully comes with the search.   

But there again, there's no guarantee because we may be searching in all of the wrong places. Wisdom does demand a search, an active exploration, of reaching beyond ourselves. But where are we looking for wisdom? Some might go to the Himalayas, looking for a guide to give wisdom, or ancient philosophers who have their wisdom.   

I think of the book, Socrates Express, one of my favorite books about philosophers in which, the writer is on this journey, on this train, and he's stopping all over the world at various points to innocence, try to get in the skin of ancient philosophers to listen to their wisdom. There's some wisdom to be found there. There's a certain amount of wisdom, that is found in self-help books that seem to be more and more prevalent.   

But the problem is that in these, their, these examples, much of this wisdom is largely superficial. It only goes so far because much of this is wisdom looking within ourselves and not beyond wisdom that flows from self-love as one put, it runs into self-interest. We were searching in the wrong places, is the point I'm making.   

We have to find a better wisdom. And that's where we come back here to these common and assumptions, To a needful better place when it comes to wisdom for really to, to be honest with this subject of wisdom, and think about wisdom.   

If we truly want to be wise, we have to again, go back to theology, because it's, when we look at God and God's revelation of wisdom, I don't think it's an overstatement to say we finally have found true wisdom. So true wisdom, let's make some key points. True wisdom, first of all, starts with a, a wisdom that comes ultimately from God himself.   

Even the proverbial statements in Proverbs that can seem sometimes domestic, on the surface, guard your tongue, be diligent. Don't get into conflicts that are not your own. Nonetheless, behind these is a deep and a profound theology that drives, draws us back to God, God who undergirds.   

Then all of these points, the wisdom of God is often misunderstood. Even what is perceived as the fool, as the foolishness of God, however, is wiser than the wisest of men. So what I want to say here is that for to understand wisdom, we have to go back to the source whose God, who is, the essence of wisdom, a wisdom that transcends this world, a wisdom that transcends our personal experiences.   

Read proverbs and one discovers a vastness to wisdom that actually cannot even be captured in the Word. We turn to Proverbs one as an example. And at the introduction of wisdom in Proverbs one, you may remember, he starts this way. Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, for attaining wisdom and discipline for understanding words of insight, for acquiring a discipline and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair for giving prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the young.   

Well, what do we find that the writer is doing there? He's giving us the purpose for this book of wisdom, but he's more than doing that.   

He's using a number of words, starting with this word, Which can also be translated skill. He's in the book of Proverbs. He's giving us a skillset, if you will, and under this overarching term are words more specifically like prudence, understanding, discernment, knowledge.   

He's telling us, again, the, the point of God's vastness. That is, that even if you take the word wisdom itself, it can't grasp the subject. It's too big. That's why I believe the writer, and, and in Proverbs, chapter one has to use a number of terms. Someone defined it as, or describes it as stereo metric.   

It's just a number of sounds to try to get to this common point, wisdom. The point is, is beyond the reach of the simple, it's too far, too any of us to grasp. So how does one describe this wisdom? I go back to A.W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of God who talks about God and His wisdom. And I love this statement because I think it really gets to the heart of what I'm seeking to say here.   

When Christian theology declares that God is wise, it means vastly more than it says or can't say, for tries to make a comparative, weak word bear an incomprehensible plenitude of meaning that threatens to tear it apart and crush it under the sheer weight of the idea.   

Th this is, I sense Tozer, when he is going through these attributes of God comes to wisdom and goes, it, it's, how can I even use the word wisdom? It, the, the word can't bear up who God is a God who's none other than wise in everything He does that the point is compare divine wisdom with human wisdom. And you see, you're talking really about two vastly different subjects, that there is a brightness to God's wisdom, there, because there is a moral dimension to God's wisdom.   

That includes righteousness, justice, and equity. So you read, for example, the Book of Proverbs, and you see almost in a synonymous way, sometimes the writer is talking about wisdom. And, and what comes out is the word righteousness, or the word equity is to say that wisdom from a divine standpoint, looking at it theologically, has this moral dimension to it.   

When God sent his son Jesus, he came as the personification of wisdom, as if to say, do you want to understand what wisdom is, what a wise life is? Well, that's Jesus, who, the word describes as one with hidden in him, hidden all the treasures of wisdom.   

Or as Matthew 12 puts it, he was the one who came wiser than a Solomon. So what God does for us is he, he in a sense says to us, my will is that you be wise, and what does that mean? So God has given us through his revelation, many descriptions of wisdom, but he does more than that. He says, let me give you a living example of what it means to be wise.   

That's why in the world today, that fails to be wise, that tends to be idiotic. It's because A, it's overlooking the son of God and his wisdom. And B, is not paying attention to the wisdom God has revealed in scripture. And what we discover is that a wisdom that transcends us, a wisdom that that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job for that matter underscores, begins with the fear of God.   

That that's the essential start point. What plana refers to as the dreadful, the dreadful love of God. This is what sets the wisdom of God apart from the wisdom of man. In part, it's because in its very essence, it's the fear of God, which it is a, is not so easy to define it itself. The fear of God's stance, nonetheless, as this stance is this central thread.   

You can't read wisdom, literature, and scripture without seeing that at its heart. It always goes back to this job as an example, at the very, in the, almost the very middle of the book, job chapter 28 describes wisdom as the search that goes deeper and deeper into the deepest parts. As he, I think metaphorically describes the search ends, ends up at the end of the search with the fear of God.   

Or think about it this way, in Proverbs, he begins with the fear of God. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Chapter one, verse seven. So Proverbs, the fear of God is placed as the start point job right in the middle of the book, comes to the end of the search and takes us to the fear of God. And then think of Ecclesiastes member in chapter 12, at the end of it all, he says.   

And so the conclusion of all the matter, in fact, he literally says the whole of man, interesting phrase, the whole of man is what is to fear God. So when God is teaching us about wisdom, he is saying, you can't understand wisdom without the fear of God. It's the first, it's the controlling principle of understanding.   

It's a compass from which, a wise leader, guides his life, the fear of God. Proverbs 15:33 puts it, the fear of God is what trains us, for wisdom. So who's a wise person? God would say, here's what reflects a wise leader. How can you tell if a leader is wise? Tell me if this person fears God.   

And, and that is I would say, has this deep, profound reverence for God. Who in every decision he or she makes, has this profound sense of I am doing something that that should reflect the fact that, that I want this to honor God. I want this to show my reverence for God. It is as I mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12, the very essence of wisdom.   

It's the whole of man. It is the most important of all realities. It, it is, as one writer put it, and this is a profound statement in itself. The fear of God is the soul of godliness, the soul of godliness, and, the central distinguishing mark of wisdom. There is no wisdom for leading apart from the fear of God.   

Without it, we degrade proverbs to simply self-centered promises. So again, what you're hearing me say in almost every subject I've discussed is that we always go back to the center. We always go back to the reference point. And, and, and wisdom again is taking us back to the reference point.   

What we find in scripture is that God's wisdom is essential to leadership. It, it, it is at the core. We see this in Jesus and his followers and preparing them for leadership. Jesus warned them. You remember, he said, to be wise as serpents and generalist doves, my observation in a lot of ministries is we've got the generalist doves part down, but we've forgotten the first part.   

Leaders, need to be, Jesus says, to be shrewd of snakes. In fact, in Luke 16 verse verse eight, in which Jesus is describing the, this clever man who is in a sense cooking the books and going out and changing things, not that Jesus is affirming crookedness, but he steps back in Luke 16, a to say, the, for those in the world are wiser than the children of light to make the statement, I believe that, there's something of shrewdness we need to learn.   

And we, we might, we might say, well, I, I think I've got that down. And I would say, now, actually, this is going to sound very critical, and, and it is. But sometimes when I have in the past listened to Christian radio and listened to the commercials, I've stopped and thought to myself, they must think we're idiots.   

Because in fact, they do. Some of the most gullible people I have met on earth are Christians. When I think Jesus would say, no, you should be the wisest on earth. You should be shrewd of snakes. You should be wiser than this person who cooks the books. You're smarter than that. This is the place of wisdom. And I think God would say to leaders, that should be the hallmark of your leadership.   

That it, it's the best leaders, the most credible leaders I find, are those who are shrewd when it comes to strategic thinking, shrewd when it comes to long, long-term planning, a shrewd when it comes to the implementation of goals. But too often leaders, are seen as naive, as simplistic as gullible, and they underestimate that it's wisdom that wins the day.   

As Ecclesiastes 9:18 puts it, God's wisdom, tells us it is essential to leadership for a number of reasons. And let me just mention a few here. So let's call this, let's call this wisdom's essentiality.   

That is, why does a leader need to be wise? Why is it so important? So let me give you a few reasons.   

The first is that wisdom gets a leader in touch with reality. Someone has said that, that wisdom is a reality based phenomena, and that's true. It's wisdom that that gets us back in touch with what is real. It, helps us to align with life as it is.   

It helps us to question ventures that promise, to be a pot of gold. It guards us against idealistic and unrealistic goals. It in, in fact, I've found this with, number of people that I've pastored over the years who have come to me seeking the will of God. And they want to know. So, how do I know if this is the will of God? Should it be based upon my feelings?   

And of course, it can't be in contradiction with the word of God, but I find myself often asking this question because I believe it's a very centering question, and that is telling me this is it wise. So you're trying to decide between this and this. So tell me which, which way, seems to characterize wisdom. Because wisdom brings us back to, to reality. A fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.   

That’s what foolishness is. Wisdom helps us to see ash things as they really are. Proverbs 1412. There's a way that seems to be right to a man, but it's end is the way of death. See, a lot of things seem right. It's wisdom that brings us back to what is honest, to what is real. It helps us. Wisdom helps us to come to grips with our limitations. It helps us to reject our illusions of grandeur.   

It helps us, to know that things aren't as essential, or I should say, we aren't as essential as we sometimes imagine. It's God who secures. It's God who directs the paths that whatever we think we control is an illusion. We lead as Ecclesiastes four tells us only for a time.   

Ecclesiastes four. I love this passage in verses 13 to 16, because he describes this transition of one leader to the next, and helps us to see that this illusion of power, we only have it for a short time. The crowds, may turn to us, and, and they may celebrate us, but they quickly turn on us, that there's a certain reality to us. Age has its way egoism, as Proverbs tells us, this is the reality.   

It's a precursor to shame. Egoism is a precursor to embarrassment to collapse. Proverbs 16:18. So, what does, what does wisdom do? It centers a leader. It helps a leader to get in touch with what is actual out there. It helps us to get in step with a certain order. That whatever a man sows, he reaps, that dishonest gains do not lead to long-term profits.   

So Proverbs, wisdom, what does it help us to do in terms of its essentiality? It helps us to get in step with reality. It helps us secondly, to get in step with God's rhythms. That's what wisdom does.   

Wisdom helps us to get in a certain sequence with God. It helps us to recognize, again, this intrinsic connection between act and consequence. It gives us the ability to have the right word for the right moment, knows when to speak, knows when to be still. There's a rhythm to the seasons, a rhythm to tides.   

There's a rhythm to life. And what Proverbs and their other wisdom books teach us is how to get in step and be in rhythm and not out of step. Second, thirdly, should say here. It, it gives us the competence to handle both failure and success. Proverbs warns in Proverbs 27 that perhaps one of the greatest tests of a leader is not what happens in failure, but what he does with success.   

So Proverbs gives me a guide. It helps me to get in step with, with God, and how he wants me to handle these things. It helps me to value the necessity of, and here's the fourth one of collaboration.   

Because all through the Wisdom books, it talks about the importance of, of receiving wise counsel, of working with those, beyond myself. Proverbs warns us against, against separating oneself. It's a mark of, it's a mark of folly. Proverbs 18, one, that, it is impossible to lead, with only my own wisdom.   

Leaders, will take wrong forks in the road without the collaboration of other people. Proverbs warns us to not be islands to figure out leadership on our own. What Proverbs, what wisdom does is it, it, it warns me of the necessity, of, of not relying on myself, but of moving to get the help and collaboration of others.   

Finally, wisdom, trains me to be a leader of discipline, because wisdom itself is a discipline. It is this. In Proverbs, I find leaders are marked by, a certain careful judgment, a certain restraint.   

The antithesis of, of a wise leader is one who's driven by impulse, by insatiable appetites. The wise are the leaders who stay in their lanes, who work within the boundary lines, who keep their desires and proper order, and proportion will hold their temper in check, who set boundaries, steer clear of sexual temptations, who know that the alternative, or I should say the results of all of this is death.   

And these all reflect numerous proverbs all the way through the book. So discipline is critical for, misjudgment can ruin a lifetime of leadership. Ecclesiastes 10 verse one.   

So therefore, a good leader takes the admonition, sincerely carefully to keep your eyes forward, your gaze fixed directly before you, Proverbs four 15 through 16. Don't turn to the right or the left. It's, it's a way of saying, if you want to be a wise leader, keep focused. Keep your eye on the goal where your aim is. And because we're all going to be as leaders tempted to go to the right or to the left, there's going to be things that will distract us.   

I've found anyway that Proverbs and wisdom literature itself helps keep me centered. It tells me that, not only it begins with the fear of God, that it's essential to my leadership, that it is gained by a careful search. The point is, is that wisdom theology tells us doesn't come with age.   

It's not automatic. It actually is this divine partnership, a partnership in which we are implore. Proverbs chapter two, for example, to cry out for wisdom to search. As for hidden treasure, it's telling us that if you want to be wise, it's a daily discipline. It's a rigorous discipline. I like to use the word, I like to use the word penetration.   

That is, wisdom I, I have found in my life. I is something that that goes with a wok, if you will. And a reflection, for example, to take the book of Proverbs. It's never intended by the nature of the language to be read straight through. It'd be like listening to a series of one-liners, but rather it's a book that invites us to, and this has been a discipline of mind for about 40 years, is to daily just take and walk and reflect and think about what, the proverbs is saying.   

A gentle answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15, one, but a harsh word stirs up anger. And in this moment, then God says, okay, ponder as you're walking and reflect, what does that mean? So looking in your own interior, in your own leadership, how often do you have a propensity to be harsh with your words?   

Have you noticed the result? It only stirs up anger, but think about gentle words and the power that they have. See, that's, that's the rigor, that's the discipline. That's something that has to be tenacious. That one has to stay with, it has to be a priority. And it guards us from the characteristics of folly.   

I sat down recently and I made a list of some of the, the marks of folly, especially in leadership. Here are 10, foolish leaders, which is part of Foley's aim is to make us gullible, and witless. Here's the second mindlessness, lacking sound judgment.   

Here's the third. A distraction, a lack of focus. Here's a fourth. A tendency to be impulsive and indulgent to be led by my appetites. Here's a fifth to be. And isn't this true today? To be on serious, to be obsessed with entertainment seems that we mark the, the preference for a leader with this question.   

But can he entertain? This can often be foolishness. To be self-absorbed is a sixth characteristic to be as we'll talk in the next lecture, to be just plain, incompetent and stupid. Eighth, to be obstinate, boorish in one's behavior.   

Ninth, to be morally obtuse and tend to be ill tempered. And these, this list here represents, a number of proverbs for each one of them. That in, in the point I'm making here is a description of folly. And many of these are what describe the leaders of our age. Hence, I go back to Lance Merle's, article in the Wall Street Journal.   

So how do we become wise? We, we reflect. It becomes a discipline. We, over time, we pray, we hope that it begins to shape our leadership. Because let's face it, what we really want is to be leaders with character. But character in itself is not enough. We, we need to be men and women of solid character to lead people.   

But our people also hunger for the fact that, that we're wise, that we're discerning. And it's interesting that it, it too is a gift from God. That there are some, I have found who, who seem to be gifted with wisdom. I think of some who have served on my boards that when we sometimes would wrestle with decisions, I'd step back and I'd go, I remember his name was John as one leader, to say, John, what, what do you think?   

I remember sometimes he would, he would kick back, he'd stand up, he'd lean against the wall, and he'd just have this profound wisdom. What I think the wisdom literature of God is teaching us is that while it's a gift, it, it also needs to be something we acquire. That why he takes the time in chapter two to tell us that the acquisition, I, I, he, he, he says, if you will receive, there has to be a receptive heart.   

If you will cry out, there has to be a passionate desire where you practically scream for it. There has to be this diligent search as for hidden treasure to say, to say what? To say. Wisdom doesn't lie on the surface that you have to dig.   

That it is part of a profound leader's wisdom to be. In fact, Proverbs describes it is the glory of a king to search for wisdom. It is our glory to get down to the depths, to find God's wisdom. And it will have to be a, a priority. Otherwise we fall prey to folly. But here's the good news, as I mentioned, it's a partnership.   

It's a co-work, not only of us, but of God. Because if you read proverbs and wisdom literature carefully in scripture, you find that God is also pursuing us. You go to chapter nine, and God has, she's laid out her spread. She has built her temple, so to speak. She sends out her maidens and she's calling for us and crying out for us.   

So there is this, this is the great news of God's wisdom. So this wisdom, is part of this rigorous daily search that also we can, we can't find ourselves saying. And here's the great news. At the same time, wisdom is in the hunt for us. It's sort of like the story I read once of this little girl who was lost in the woods, and she was, she was crying out for her father.   

She finally got weary of the search, and she laid down and she fell asleep. And meanwhile, her father was looking for her. And as he found her, he approached her and stepping on a, on a twig, it woke her up. And when she woke up, she said, daddy, I found you. And I like that story because I think that's the wi, the wisdom pilgrimage, if you will.   

It's us on the search for wisdom every day, and it's God on the search for us. So it is, it is, it begins with the fear of God. It is necessary for effective leadership. It requires some of the greatest rigor we have. But, and I'll close with this, it is also something that if we're not careful, we can lose. Obvious example is Solomon, the wisest man, if you will, the man leaders from all over the world came to hear his wisdom.   

And yet, one kings chapter 12, he dies a foolish man, which warns me that there's no guarantee we can keep it. We can lose one's fear of God. And so there is a certain danger that comes with wisdom too, that, that it is God's gift and it comes in the search, but if you don't maintain it, if you don't stay with it, you can, you can lose it.   

Okay. I Just have a, a quick comment. I've been sitting here thinking about my own leadership as I hope everyone who's watching this lesson is thinking about their leadership asking, am I wise? Yeah. And it, you know, the verse in James came up, if any of you likes wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.   

So I'm not sure, you know, I think there probably is a gift of inordinate wisdom. I mean, but all of us can ask for it. Mm-Hmm. And all of us will be given it. Yeah. In answer to our prayers. So we can be wise leaders, but we have to ask for it. Well, it starts with that. Yeah. But I, I think what we can do is misunderstand James as if God sprinkles wisdom dust on us when we ask for it.   

The reality is, I think God says, are you serious? Do you want wisdom? You're asking for wisdom. So pro we, we sort of have James in one hand, for example, and Proverbs in the other that tells us, okay, start digging. It is a lifelong rigorous journey. I know because, by the grace of God, it's been my journey for, as I mentioned, some 40 years.   

I, it's just been one of those disciplines God has given me that I learned from another man. So I try to read for each day of the month, 31 days, 31 chapters. So today I'm reading Proverbs three, but I won't sit down and read it. That won't help me really as much as just going for a walk and reading verse by verse and meditating and reflecting.   

And after 40 years, I still feel like I'm in first grade when it comes to wisdom. It is, it is that inexhaustible. But I believe that discipline has, has served me well as a leader and, and guarded me from, my propensity and my nature to be, to be foolish. Mm-Hmm.