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Good day everyone, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. I welcome you to this week’s edition of Leaderview™ . I hope your week has been great? We bless God for that. We will continue the Leadership Trip to Genesis™ today. I am sure you were blessed last week when we had a short break looking at The Power of Execution. Today we will continue with the Trip, and we will continue from where we stopped. We are continuing this week from the book of Genesis 38, I will be reading a few verses there. But there is a case study there that we must all learn from. I am sure many of us who are Christians have read this before. But for those who have read it and those who haven’t read it before, as the Lord helps us this morning, we will learn a leadership lesson there that is very important if we do not want God to terminate our influence and authority in any where He has set us.
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LEADERSHIP ERROR IN JUDGMENT: HOW EMERGING LEADERS SHORT-CIRCUIT THEIR AUTHORITY
Today we want to look at Leadership Error in Judgment. We want to discover How Emerging Leaders Short-circuit Their Authority and Influence in any organisation. Now our focus is emerging leaders today. Men and women starting their influence and organization, men and women God has a plan for. They believe in a great future and bright future for themselves and they are willing to take the first few steps to getting there. They are the focus today and I want us to see how leadership error in judgment could become a factor in short-circuiting the authority and influence of such emerging leader. In the book of Genesis 38 from verse 1, I want to begin from there so that we can pick a few lessons from there. The Bible says:
“It came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her and went in to her. 3 So she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. 4 She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. 5 And she conceived yet again and bore a son, and called his name Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him.
6 Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. 8 And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the heir would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; therefore He killed him also.”
We will pause here and we might possibly stop here as well for this broadcast. Our focus is the Leadership Error In Judgment. If we look at this Scripture now, from verse 1 to verse 10 that we stopped, it began with a decision, a judgment made by Judah to take a wife from the Canaanite, a woman called Hirah. Now, after getting married to her, she gave birth to the first son, Er and then He was later killed by God because he was found to be wicked by God. The next born child was Onan who was made to marry the wife of Er his elder brother whose name was Tamar. Because he was made to marry his brother’s wife, he knew, according to that Scripture, that whatever child that comes from that union is going to belong to his elder brother who was dead.
So, because he did not want to raise an heir to his brother who was dead, knowing full well that getting married to this woman, whatever happens in their union, the glory is not going to be for him, he decided to do something, and I don’t want us to miss that word “he decided.” It means it was a product of his decision, his thoughts, a judgment he made which was not correct. Now he decided that each time he works or attempt to work with the woman in the house as husband and wife; the produce of his union or work would not remain. Why? What was required for productivity and increase was omitted deliberately by him. The Bible says in verse 9 that “But Onan knew that the heir would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother.”
Now, so that we will know that this was not a decision that God took likely, the Bible says in verse 10 “And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; therefore He killed him also.” The focus on the “Thing.” The question is: What is it that you are doing now that is displeasing God? Are you doing something, no matter how small, that you think God might not be interested in but the thing is displeasing to Him. You see, what you do that you called a thing which is displeasing God, if you do not stop doing it, you are going to eventually short-circuit your own authority and influence over the people.
What happens when you short-circuit? When I was going through a Cambridge dictionary, I found short-circuit to mean “a bad electrical connection that causes the current to flow in the wrong direction often having the effect of stopping the power supply.” Now, the current is supposed to flow through a line and then the negative also flowing through another line. But when you have the positive and the negative connected to the same thing or themselves, what happens is that the current begins to flow through a wrong path and then there is a stoppage of power supply. There is a stoppage of authority and there is a stoppage of influence.
Now, note this. If Onan had made a different decision, if he had decided that even though the glory and the heir are not going to be his; yet he committed himself to the service and work which has been giving unto him, and produce an heir for his brother, even though the name is not going to be his, the name of the organization is not going to be his or named after him, but yet he still goes ahead to produce a result, and command an influence or produced an outcome irrespective of who takes the credit, if he had come up with that kind of thinking, Onan wouldn’t have been killed, but his authority and influence would have remained.
How many men and women have began the good work, how many people have started great things, registering great organizations, starting great partnerships and businesses, being in charge of great organizations, great responsibilities, great projects, but due to wrong judgment while being there; their tenure were shortened simply by their errors in judgment. Now if we want to take lessons from what happens in Nigeria for instance, we are in a season when ministerial lists had been released, Senate screening the ministers and then confirming them. Now if you check very carefully, out of the 43 people that were nominated as ministers in Nigeria; only about 17 or so were returning. So, the other ones not returning have their tenures as it were shortened, perhaps due to the errors in their judgment when they had the chance.
You see, every time you have an opportunity to do something, it must be taking seriously as a moment for you to elongate or to shorten your influence in that place. If you are made the husband of a woman, or the wife of a man, you must know that it is a responsibility, and whether you remain a husband or a wife for a long time; is going to be dependent on how God judges your decisions. Does He judge your decisions right or does He judge them wrong? If you perpetually make wrong judgments in your marriage, then you cannot expect yourself to remain in that marriage. What happens when a man or a woman is killed at the prime of his or her years? You don’t want to be cut off simply because of errors in your judgments? I am sure you want to remain, you want to have fruits in your labor and enjoy them. If that is your desire, then your judgment must be correct.
I want us to learn a lesson from the book of Luke, we have started from the book of Genesis today, but I want us to conclude by looking at the book of Luke 13:6-9.
“He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ””
Now, if you read this very carefully, you will notice that when a tree is planted, there is an expectation. A tree is expected to bear fruits and do everything within its power to produce fruits so that its owners would benefit from it. And I am sure you know that trees don’t benefit from their own fruits. What a tree produces is for the good of the one who planted it. So, if a tree tells itself why should it labour to produce fruits when it won’t be the one to benefit from it? What do you think will happen to that tree? It will simply be cut down. Look at what the Scriptures says: “Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ Now, why should your leadership use up the organization, use up the resources of the organization?
Why should your marriage use up the resources when there is no fruit, when you as a man is not producing fruit in that marriage; when you as the woman is not producing fruit in that marriage? Why should it remain? Why should the owner of your business or your company or your organization leave you in that position even though you haven’t produced anything significant in the last three years or so that you have been there? Why should you not be sacked? These are questions that we must answer. Don’t forget that our focus is leadership error in judgment. It is primarily error in judgment made by leaders.
While anyone could make error in judgment, it becomes very serious for leaders not to make errors in judgment. If you take for instance a vehicle that has only the leader getting involved in an accident, now the loss is less compared to a commercial bus filled with people, about 18, then getting involved in accident. Now the loss is large. The more the potential loss, then the more critical the owners of the vehicle; the more critical the society will be of the driver who has the responsibility to keep and to safeguard the lives of the passengers of the vehicle.
Now, the essence of this statement is that the more people would be impacted with the produce of your judgment, then the more prone you could be to a fierce judgment from the Lord. It is therefore important for you as a leader to be careful on how you make your decisions. Onan said to himself, if I produce a child, the child won’t be mine. So, since he does not want to lose out on any ground, he remained to become unfruitful. He came up with such thinking, and Bible says God killed him. God removed him, He sacked him. He stopped being influential, he stopped being an authority. While he was there, everyone was looking up to him as the one who has the authority and the capacity to reproduce the influence of Judah. But since he made error in his judgment as the one with authority, he became a leader whose influence and authority do not last.
I am sure you want your own influence to last. I don’t want to have a temporary influence or authority. I want to continue to influence and affect lives on a longer term. If I must ensure this, if this must become my reality, then I must be careful not to make errors in my judgment. The little things that I believe that I am doing, I must do them with the right judgment. I want you to note that while you are the leader, you are not your own God. There is God who rules in the affairs of men who has both the capacity and authority to judge every act and every thought of men. Why do you do what you do? What do you do in your organizations?
These things are the things that will determine the tenure of your influence and authority in that same organization. Thank you for the gift of your time, and I am sure that you have picked one thing. I am also sure that your leadership will not be a short term leadership, your influence will not be a short term one too, and I am sure you will not short-circuit your own authority as well due to your own errors in judgment, due to omissions in your judgment. I believe that you are ready and willing to be guided by the Spirit of God so that whatever you do in every circumstance is what God is pleased with.
Don’t forget the Bible says “And the thing which he did displeases the Lord and God killed him” I am sure what you will be doing henceforth will no longer be displeasing to God, I am sure you will be making wise decisions in making new friends, taking new opportunities and making wise decisions and God will be pleased with you. Remember what God said about Jesus: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” God is able to be pleased with you, your decisions are able to be pleasing to God if only they are products of wise and good judgments.
Thank you for the gift of your time, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. I hope to connect with you again on Leaderview™. If you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel: Centre for New Dimension Leadership, please do and don’t forget as well to click on the notification bell so that each time will release videos like this, you will be the first to get notified. Thank you for the gift of your time and I hope to connect with you again next week on this same program and channel, Centre for New Dimension Leadership.
God bless you!
Source: Centre for New Dimension Leadership
