Loyalty in Leadership
Tom Shrader explores the concept of loyalty through the lens of Israel's rebellion with the golden calf in Exodus 32. He contrasts the nation's quick abandonment of God, Moses, and their mission with Moses' faithful leadership that demonstrates loyalty to his people, to God, to his staff, and to God's law. Shrader emphasizes that true loyalty requires faithfulness to God while loving those we lead, and that leaders must maintain both truth and grace.
“God did not design you to be independent creatures, you're to be certainly not shackled with the things of this world, what we're to be dependent upon God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Studies in Leadership
Recorded: February 06, 2003
Duration: 41 min
Themes: loyalty, faithfulness, leadership, commitment, rebellion, obedience, integrity, devotion, struggling with loyalty, new to leadership, manager, parent, mentor, facing betrayal, elder, team leader
Scripture: Exodus 32, Exodus 24:7, 2 Timothy 2:4, Acts 7, Exodus 32:1, Exodus 32:6, Exodus 32:10, Exodus 32:15-20, Exodus 32:21, Exodus 32:30
Theological Themes: covenant faithfulness, biblical leadership, servant leadership, sanctification, spiritual authority, pastoral care, discipleship, stewardship
Full Transcript
We're continuing a series we've titled Studies in Leadership. The term is appropriate, and yet could be misleading, in the sense that you might think, "I don't see myself as some CEO, or I don't see myself as a sales manager. Do I need this?" The answer is yes, because we're talking about characteristics and traits that you want to see in each and every person. But as a leader, these are especially things that you need as people begin to follow you.
Your leadership may be in the office. It may be at home. It may be with a group. I know there's a group of ladies that meet here and study before our study begins. Certainly, there are people there who are involved in leadership. It may be at an informal level, and it may be very formal. You may have a card that says "I'm a leader," or whatever. But this would be helpful stuff.
Last week, we looked at an ingredient that you'd rarely think of in a leader, and yet I think it's absolutely essential: humility. Many of you called and emailed and said it was the best talk on humility you've ever heard. I'm just kidding. In my humble way, I just wanted to share that.
Defining Loyalty
Today, we're going to talk about loyalty. Here's Webster's definition: "Unwavering allegiance to a sovereign or government, to a person to whom fidelity is due, or to a cause or ideal." Unwavering allegiance to a sovereign or a government, some ruling authority, to a person to whom fidelity is due—the term that you might be familiar with would be fiduciary relationship—or to a cause or to an ideal. It's a commitment.
When we're talking, in our sense, we're talking about a very deep word. I would say, I'll give you a different aspect of that word. One that I might be equally comfortable with is faithfulness. Loyal. Faithful. To a sovereign—when I hear that, I think of the sovereign God. I think of faithfulness, a commitment to Him.
Who knows how this stuff works out, but somebody the other day was talking about a guy, and he said, "He's a very committed Christian." I said, "Is there any other kind? Here's Bob. Meet Bob. He's an uncommitted Christian." That doesn't make sense to me. What I think we have—and this is just now I'm venting—I think what we have are a lot of cultural Christians. We have a lot of people identify themselves as Christians, but aren't at all. That would be my sense. But when we add "committed," or "he's a strong Christian," I think, "Wow, he bench presses like 340." No, that's our way of saying it. I don't know that there are many of the others. What we're talking about are committed. We're talking about faithful. We're talking about loyal.
The Case Study: Israel in the Wilderness
We're going to use our case study. If you have your Bibles, you're welcome to open them there. Exodus chapter 32. This is the point at which the nation of Israel has been through some traumatic experiences. There's a story 3,500 years or so old. In a matter of—let's figure it out—February, March, April, so in about three and a half months, the nation of Israel goes from Exodus out of Egypt into a point where Moses is coming to them with the Ten Commandments, and they have rejected Moses in the process. It's a fascinating story.
You know the story. You might not understand the scope of this. You have in your mind the nation of Israel moves out of Egypt. You've seen The Ten Commandments, or you've seen something where you see that depicted. What you need to understand is the size of the nation when they moved was just at two million people. That's a really important thing to remember. We're trying to move—Susan and me have five people helping us, and we're struggling to get it done. You're moving two million people.
Think of the logistics of this. I don't know much about warfare, but I do know that the communication line and supply lines were a key part of that. An army can't go very far if it doesn't have fuel. Horses aren't going to be worth much to you if they haven't eaten. So the supply side of this whole thing—well, they get out and now they're in the desert.
God's Miraculous Provision
What we see here in this movement, it's not about Moses and leadership. We can talk about that. But it's about God's provision. Day one, they leave. Pharaoh has a change of heart, sends the army after them. The Red Sea parts. Israel moves through. The army comes in, and they're all drowned and killed. It's a beautiful picture of God's work. That happens.
Now they're wandering in the desert. They're out of water. They need water. They tap a rock. Boom, water comes out. They need food, and literally food from heaven every day. They're attacked by their enemies, the Amalekites. Virtually defenseless, they wipe out the Amalekites. They see God work time and time and time and time and time again.
Yet in three and a half months, they're saying, "We're out of here." They've said things like in Exodus 24, "We'll do everything the Lord has said." Exodus 24:7, "Everything the Lord has said, we will do. Everything the Lord has said, we will obey." About 60 days later, they say, "Come on, Aaron, make us gods who will go before us. We don't even know what happened to Moses."
The Human Tendency Toward Disloyalty
When I read that, here's how I tend to react: How stupid are these people? You just saw the guy tap the rock, and out the water comes. Again and again and again, you saw the Red Sea come and drown your enemies. The Amalekites get killed in this process. You need food. God provides it. What is it you need to see? How stupid are you?
Then I think and say, "No more stupid than most of the people I know who have seen all those things, plus an empty tomb. Plus they've seen God change their lives. Plus they've seen life come from death." Yet they wander away, and they begin to worry and fret. Loyalty—that's what we're talking about.
There's a confidence that comes with that. If I said to you—and I've always wanted to do this, and we're not going to do it, but it would be fun—list your five biggest sins. Then we'll talk about them. It would be a really interesting list, I think. But I'll bet one of them that would not make many lists, and yet it's probably one that most people struggle with, is worry. It's a sin to worry. It's a sin to be afraid.
I'm not talking about a reflex. If you're walking along and somebody scares you, that's natural. This moving has got all sorts of things going on. If you remember, in the house, I said there wasn't anything I cared about except that one area where they marked the days and the height of the kids as they were growing up. Somebody in one of the studies heard that, came over, and cut that piece of drywall out. They're taking it over and putting it in the new house right at the same height. That'll be great. The rest of this thing, as long as we can keep it moving until Valentine's Day, they can blow the house up. I don't care, because I don't own it after the 13th.
As I'm moving this, I'm thinking of little stories. Haley went through this phase when she must have been about seven or eight, where there were two things that she did that were really annoying. One, she was into jumping out and scaring you. Then she would go through this phase where she'd repeat everything you say. So I'd be in bed at night, just kind of almost asleep, and she would have hidden in the closet. She'd jump out and go "Ah!" I would jump. I'd say, "Haley, knock it off." She'd say, "Haley, knock it off." I'd say, "I mean, stop it right now." "I mean, stop it right now." I thought she was going to kill me with this.
So one day, I hear Haley coming. She's over at Shannon's—that's a girl across the street. I thought, you know what? I'm going to cure this. So I crouched down. You come around our living room into the family room, and there's an area that's kind of like a desk, but we've never used it as a desk. I'm crouched down in there where the chair would be. I hear the door open and I hear Haley kind of humming. So I hear the footsteps getting closer. At the perfect moment, I just leap out: "Ah!" Well, it's Shannon. Haley's pretty cool, and Haley's just sitting back. She kind of surveys and goes, "Now, that's very funny, Dad. That's very funny. That's a good one."
The Sin of Worry
I'm not talking about jumping and being afraid when somebody jumps out at you. That's natural. I'm talking about when you stop and you think about it for a while, and you're still worried. Because what you're saying there is, "God, I don't believe You." He says, "I'm never going to leave you or forsake you. I'm not going to test you beyond that which you can endure." But these people have waffled. They've left.
Let's work our way through the outline. We'll move pretty quickly through here. We're going to look at the nation of Israel and the loyalty that they had or the lack thereof. Then we'll look at a little situation where we talk about God and this idea of what He sees in loyalty. Then we're going to talk about Moses.
The Nation of Israel's Abandonment of Loyalty
Nation of Israel—this should be on your outline. Letter A: the nation of Israel abandons their loyalty to their law. They had heard, they knew, they had rules and regulations. The people saw that Moses was gone so long. We're in Exodus 32:1. Moses was gone so long from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron, and they said, "Aaron, come and make us gods who will go before us." Literally, he means go before us—make gods that we can follow. That's what he's saying.
In a short period of time, they've abandoned what they knew. They had known a lot. They knew the law of God, and when God gives us this law, at least in this case in the Old Testament, He's saying follow it. The first one is: "I'm the Lord your God, and I am a jealous God."
When we think of the attributes of God, many of you who might be new to this study or you've been around for a while but never really been much into the Word or much around a Bible teaching church, you hear about the love of God and maybe the wrath of God. But you rarely hear about God being a jealous God. When we think of jealousy, we couch it in our terms. In other words, when I think of jealousy, I think of me.
When Susan and I were dating—I want to say we were dating, but I think I was more dating than she was—she was dating this other guy. He was, I never met him, but he was a loser, you could tell. There's a couple of ways you could tell. Number one, he graduated from Notre Dame. I just don't like—that's just me. If you're here and you're a big Notre Dame fan, we'll work through this, but I'm not big on that.
I was teaching a men's conference—this is a great story—up in the mountains. I'm teaching and talking about humility. I don't know how, it's just stupid, I'm just talking along about Notre Dame, and I got carried away. I said, "Just the arrogance about it. There's nothing that depicts this better than Digger Phelps." He's the old basketball coach. I'm launching off on Digger Phelps. I said, "You know, I remember when Digger was talking about it. This is the perfect example. Freshmen weren't eligible, and they were just becoming eligible. Digger said, 'I'm so concerned about these young men, the rigors of academics, and the rigors of athletics.'" I said, "You know, it just makes me sick."
Abe Lemons, who was a crusty old man at the time, his comment to that was: "Yeah, I remember when I was crawling on my belly, I was 18 years old at Iwo Jima, thinking, 'Boy, I'm glad I don't have the rigors of athletics and academics to contend with.'"
I tell this story. I finish the night, this guy comes up—older guy—and I can't really see him. He gets up, he's got on a Notre Dame shirt, and he says, "My name is Leonard Phelps, I'm Digger's dad." I said, "Well, it's the first night, so we use a lot of hyperbole and stuff, just to relate to people." He said, "No, no, I understood what you were saying, you were very clear, and I just wanted you to know I'm here, and you obviously know my son. I just figured you'd want to meet me." So he walked away, and I'm saying, "Oh man."
The guy who's running the retreat, I said, "This guy came up to me, he says he's Digger's dad." All of a sudden, I see this guy coming back up, and he said, "I'm not Digger's dad, but I hope I taught you a lesson, you punk." So I said, "Yeah, you did, you confirmed what I thought about you jerky Notre Dame people."
The Destructive Power of Jealousy
When I think of jealousy, I am completely off base. I never have been, I would never be if I was in it again—I've never been good at male-female relationships. I didn't understand them, I'm too insecure at all the things. But when I'm dating, I did exactly what you shouldn't do. I said to Susan one night, "You got to pick, it's either him or me, I can't handle this." She said, "Are you sure you want to go through this?" I said, "I don't know, maybe when I'm sober, I'll think differently. I don't know, I'm so screwed up, I don't know."
It was that—I was so jealous of a guy that I knew, who's probably a very nice guy. That's what they did. God's a jealous God, and they just turned their back on Him.
Four Abandonments: The Israelites' Complete Betrayal
First of all, they abandoned what He taught. Secondly, they'd abandoned their loyalty to Moses. "As for this fellow Moses, who brought us up from Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. He's gone, he's on Sinai." Aaron answered and said, "Take off your gold earrings that your wives, your sons, your daughters are wearing, and give them to me." So all the people took off all their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
There's two points. Number one, this is a TV evangelist's dream right here—everybody's giving them all the gold. "Give me your gold." The other thing is kind of practical, a little encouragement here: "Take off the earrings that your wives, your sons are wearing," so don't worry about it guys, relax, they'll be okay.
But they'd abandoned, just like that, they sold Moses down the river. Here's the third point: their loyalty to God. They said, "We want you to take this gold and cast the image of a calf." Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt." Aaron sees this, and he built an altar in front of the calf, and he said, "Tomorrow we're going to worship this." They abandoned God like this.
Let me say it again: how much do these people need to see? Rather than beat them up, I used to be in a study with a guy, small group, we were studying the life of David. David would see God work, and then he'd do a stupid thing, and then he'd see God work, and then he'd be bad again, and then he'd see God work. One of the guys said, "How dumb is David?" I said, "I think about as dumb as all of us, because we all see it. Why would any of us abandon Him? He's proven Himself faithful."
Abandoning Their Divine Mission
Lastly here, they abandoned their mission. They were set apart by God, they were told how to dress, they were told how to eat, what to eat, how to harvest their fields. God's intent for the nation of Israel was that they would be distinctive, that they would worship the one true God, the jealous God.
Exodus 32:6 says, "So the next day the people rose early, sacrificed burnt offerings, presented fellowship offerings, and afterwards they sat down and ate and became indulgent." I make just a side point here: that is God's design for you as well. God has saved you, and He saved you for a reason, and you too are to be a distinct people. I'm going to talk about that more later.
God's Response to Broken Loyalty
Here's the two points: God looks at this issue of loyalty, He sees it absent in His people. Then the Lord God said to Moses, "You better go back down there, because the people who you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them. They've made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They bow down to the idol, and they've said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.' I've seen these people," the Lord said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people."
It's the same phrase that Stephen uses in Acts chapter 7, when he is being stoned—not getting stoned, being stoned—and he looks at the Jews. He says, "You are a stiff-necked people, you are rebellious, you're trying to act independently of what God has to say." Very, very important.
Designed for Dependence, Not Independence
We talk about it regularly, and I think it's really on my mind a lot, and that is: God did not design you to be independent creatures. You're to be certainly not shackled with the things of this world. Second Timothy 2:4: "No soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life." We're to be independent of the bondage of this world. What we're to be is dependent upon God, and God's very clear.
Again, in this move, I've lost two things: I've lost the telephone in this move—I have no idea where the telephone is—and I have no idea where my glasses are. I can only assume they're in a box. I just hope it's a box that we save, and that we open one day. I've got no clue about the telephone. I spent an hour last night looking for the telephone.
I remember one day, I'm sitting there, I'm trying to find the remote. I'm turning on TV, and I want to watch something, and there's this lady on TV, and she's interviewing a guy. I'm thinking, "Where's the remote, where is it?" She's talking to this couple, and I said, "Where—I got to find this thing."
Moses Faces a Test of Loyalty
I want you to catch this illustration I witnessed recently. I was watching television, and a woman was being interviewed about her unusual relationship. The interviewer asked, "How did you two meet?" I was initially annoyed, thinking "Who cares? Where's the remote?" But then the woman said, "We met while we were dating the same woman." I thought, "Oh, I don't need the remote—I'm about to get an illustration. God knows what He's doing."
The interviewer pressed further: "You were dating the same person?" The woman explained, "Yes, I was dating her and we were kind of in love, and he was dating her too. But then we married each other." When asked why they would marry under those circumstances, the woman gave a telling response: "This is our primary relationship." The interviewer was smart enough to follow up: "Well, if this is your primary relationship, then there are secondary and tertiary level relationships."
The woman's response was remarkable. She said—and I had to write this phrase down—"We are heterosexually monogamous. In other words, if I'm going to be with a guy, I'm going to be with him. If he's going to be with a woman, he's going to be with me. But if he wants to be with other guys, and I want to be with other women, that's okay."
I mention this only because this mindset is stirring up again. There are now eighty-six clerics and pastors who have signed a petition advocating not just gay rights, but endorsing this as a legitimate lifestyle. But it isn't, in God's mind. We can't just abandon what we don't like.
God's Judgment and Moses' Choice
God looked at these people and judged them because there was no faithfulness. They were stiff-necked and rebellious. They essentially said, "God, we know what You want, but we want what we want. We know better." When God looked at Moses, however, He saw faithfulness present in Moses. It was absent in the people but present in Moses.
God says this in Exodus 32:10: "Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." This statement is subtle—I don't even know if you caught it. I certainly didn't until I spent some time thinking about it. What God is doing is saying, "I'm going to wipe this out and start over. Just like Abraham was the key guy, now you're going to be the key guy. We're going to start again. You'll be the father of this nation."
Moses Demonstrates Loyalty to His People
When we look at Moses, here's what we see: Moses is loyal to his people, faithful to his people. If you and I are in positions of leadership or authority, if we have somebody following us—whatever that looks like or at whatever level—it's important for us to be loyal and faithful to the people.
Moses had found favor in God's sight. Remember, God said, "Let my anger burn." But Moses responded: "Oh Lord, why should Your anger burn against these people You brought out of Egypt with Your great power and Your mighty hand? God, remember what You did. Remember the grace You've shown them. Turn from Your fierce anger and relent and do not bring disaster on Your people." And the Lord relented and didn't bring disaster on them.
Moses is a leader who benefits his people. If you're a leader, you need to be in love with your people.
The Shepherd's Heart in Leadership
There's a term we use in leadership within the church: shepherd. This has great imagery. When you think of a sheep, it's deliberately picked out by the Lord, I think—this picture of a shepherd and his sheep. When you think of a sheep, a sheep is basically a defenseless, vulnerable, innocent, and frankly not very bright animal. The shepherd doesn't beat the sheep.
You've heard Jesus when He's teaching say, "My sheep hear My voice." Frequently, shepherds would take the sheep out to graze during the day, then bring them back to the outskirts of the city at night. They'd have walled pens about waist-high with one gate—"Enter through the narrow gate"—and you'd have four or five herds all mixed together. The shepherd would go to his pen and call out, "Here you go, boys. I want my sheep over here." Literally, his sheep would recognize his voice and come to him.
The charge to the shepherd is huge. You as a leader have enormous responsibility. You have the care and welfare of the people you're leading, and you're not there to abuse them—you're there to nurture them. You're there to develop them.
Leadership Through Love, Not Manipulation
When I hear a sales manager say, "Here's how I motivate my salespeople: I just get them in debt, get them in debt, get them in debt, then they're going to work harder," I think, "Why would you do that to somebody in your care?" Your job is to develop them—not just as salespeople, but as people. A loving thing to do is nurture them. You motivate them by letting them see that you love them.
I remember working in an office where we had a boss who left and we got a new guy. For whatever reason, he wanted to talk to me, so he said, "I just want to share with you my leadership style." I said, "Alright." He said, "I believe that you keep people off guard, off balance. You don't let them know where they stand with you. Give a little, take a little, move them around. I think that's how you lead. You motivate them that way. They never really know—they come in the door and don't really know where they stand."
I said, "Really?" He asked, "What do you think of that?" I said, "Well, the rap on the last guy was that we didn't think he loved us enough. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out."
That's exactly the opposite of what you should do. You know what you're going to create, whether it's a child or an employee? You're going to create a schizophrenic, confused person. If you walk in and when the manager walks in, you don't know if he's going to be Attila the Hun or if he's going to be roses and love songs, you're going to be messed up. You've got to love the people.
Moses Was Also Loyal to His God
Here's the second thing: Moses was loyal to his God. Moses didn't gloss over the sins
of his people. It wasn't that Moses didn't recognize the sins of his people. He was loyal to his God. Moses didn't bring down those commandments and suddenly entrust this law on them because he knew they were rebellious.
Exodus chapter 32 verses 15 to 20 tell us that story. Moses comes down, sees that they're worshiping this false God. He takes these tablets, he breaks these tablets, and we're told he grounds it into powder, scatters it in the water, and makes the Israelites drink it. He's loyal to his God. He's not going to compromise the word. And that's the balancing act. He's not going to compromise the word. He's not going to compromise the truth. He's faithful to his God as yet he loves his people.
Moses' Loyalty to His Staff
I'll tell you another thing about old Moses. He was loyal to his staff. If you're in business, this is huge stuff right here. He said to Aaron, now if you've got the story, am I doing a decent job of communicating this to you? He's gone. Aaron got the calf, got the thing going. Aaron happens to be Moses' brother.
Moses goes to him, Exodus 32 verse 21, and he said, "Aaron, what did these people do to you that led you to such a great sin?" In other words, he's saying, "Aaron, I know you. I can't imagine. Did they kidnap your kids? Put little bamboo shoots under your fingernails? They tie you up and beat you? They must have done something, because I know the kind of guy you are. You wouldn't do that, would you, Aaron?" Hear that kind of faithfulness? Kind of loyalty? Interesting.
Look at Aaron's response. "Don't be angry with me, O Lord," Aaron answered. "You know these people are prone to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him.' So I told him, whoever has jewelry, take it off." And they gave him the jewelry, "and I threw it in the fire, and out came a calf. I didn't do anything. I didn't even know what to do. They were there, and I was just..."
The Creative Nature of Sin
Isn't that the way? You can take a guy who's about the biggest stiff in the world, who's never had a creative thought in his life, and when it comes to sin, he's Walt Disney all of a sudden. He's the most creative, thoughtful... and you know what? You don't just get that when you graduate from college. You're born that way. You're born a little sinner.
I was telling these stories at one point, and a guy came up to me who was taking care of his granddaughter. He kind of left her alone and was doing some stuff and came back, and she had taken cookies, broken the cookies up, she had stuff all over, broken a few things, knocked some things over, and he sat her down. He said, "Now honey, did you do that?" And she said, "No, Barney did it." Barney came right out of that TV apparently, and Barney broke all of these things. See, that's the way you are.
You come back, and you see this. You're coming down that mountain, and you see them out there, and they're worshiping this idol, and you begin to take the inventory, and you see that there's a festival scheduled, and a time for worshiping this false God, and you're looking around, and Aaron's the next in the chain of command. Aren't you going to get a hold of Aaron, and aren't you going to just kick his little can as far, and as fast, and as hard as you can? Look where he starts. No, they must have done something.
Gentle Leadership When People Err
There is something, I think, about gentle, sensitive leadership, especially when people err. They make mistakes. How do you handle that? I'll give you a little tip here. I think it depends on how the other person responds. If they're broken over this, and they're hurt over this, they've already got the lesson. They've already figured it out. If they're coming in saying, "You know what, we really messed this thing up. This is really mistaken on our part. We're really wrong here. This will never happen again." Sitting them down and yelling at them doesn't help.
Moses is also loyal to his mission. He saw the people were running wild, and Aaron had led them out of control, so they became a laughingstock to their enemies. See, remember we said earlier, God had had them dress differently, harvest things differently, eat differently, dietary law. They were designed to be different, and now they're acting just like everybody else.
Being Different from the World
This is a key point. You are supposed to be different than the rest of your world. There's supposed to be something unique about you. Let me ask you, and I'm not going to, I can't answer this. I ask you to answer it in your own life. Is there any possibility that you've become a laughingstock at the office? You go around with your Bible and maybe invite people to hear, or you invite them somewhere for Christmas or for Easter. You're playing some worship music when they get in your car, but you're screwing everybody in business just like they are. You're cheating just like they do, and they're laughing at you.
There's supposed to be a distinctiveness about you, and it's important for you to understand here, we're linked together. When you sin, it affects me. When I sin, it affects you. It is not at all unusual for me to sit down with somebody in a situation where I'm meeting for the first time, airplane, airport, business, dinner, whatever, and they'll say to me, "What do you do?" And I, because I got, I'm like Rockford, I got three or four cards I can use, and I don't know, but when I tell them, they'll go, "Oh, you're like Jimmy Swaggart."
Well, no, I'm not like Jimmy Swaggart. I'm not like Jim Baker. See how that sin is? We still carry the burden of Jimmy Swaggart's sin. Why? Because he became a laughingstock. Listen, if it's one thing, if you take a stand, whatever the issue is, you take a stand, and there's persecution that comes with the stand, and they may laugh...
At you for your stand. That's one thing, but when you become a laughingstock for your sin, especially hypocrisy. See, the more vocal you are, the more you're the person in the office that says, "Come on down, we're going to that lunch." The more you're the person that's got the credenza with the Bible on it, the more you're setting yourself up, and everybody's watching.
Will you understand that? Everybody's watching you, and they're hoping you mess up. They're watching you to figure out how to live, and they're hoping in their dark side you mess up. You know why? Because your presence as a holy, righteous person casts guilt on them. They can't stand to be around you. You know why? Your holiness, your purity. Those are, by the way, adjectives that are supposed to describe you. Are you holy? Are you pure? Are you righteous?
Moses Was Loyal to the Mission
Moses was loyal to this mission. He begins to single out the guys. He said, "Listen, if you're for me, come over here." And the Levites come, and he tells them, "You are blessed for this."
Moses Was Loyal to the Law
Here's the last point. Moses was loyal to that law. He understood the sin had been committed. The next day, Moses said to the people, Exodus 32:30, "You've committed a great sin, but now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."
Moses went back to the Lord and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed. They have made themselves gods of gold, but now please forgive their sin. But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written." Moses is saying, "Here, listen, God, have mercy on them. Have grace on them. And if not on them, will you have grace? Take the grace that you're bestowing on me and let it cover them." Moses says, "Let me make atonement for their sin."
What About Our Sin and Guilt?
I want to close. We're not near—I've got six, seven minutes. But I want to make sure we get this thought at the end. What he's talking about here is, how do we get rid of sin and the guilt of sin?
There was somebody here recently that came into my office, so riddled with guilt, so miserable. They come to our church, and they say, "I can't stand to come in there. There appears to be such happiness, such joy, such peace. I want that peace so much." That person started to talk and started talking about the pursuit of peace. Young person, early 20s, made $110,000 last year, spent it all, and I thought I'd be happy, and I'm more miserable than I was a year ago.
And I said, "That's very good. That's a blessing from God, because you've learned a very valuable lesson early on that you're not going to be happy with this stuff." "I want this so much." I said, "Well, that means coming to Christ in repentance and faith, because peace is not the absence of turmoil. It's the presence of God."
"I can't do that. I don't think God could forgive me. Here's what I've done," and started. I said, "Whoa, I don't need to hear all that. I don't have a collar. I don't need to hear your sins here. All I'm saying to you is, whatever they are, God's grace is bigger than your sin."
I turned that person over to one of our staff, and in the course of the meeting, the staff person said, "Can I pray for you?" And the person responded, "Don't waste your prayers."
Religion vs. Relationship
Because see, I'll tell you what that is. That's a victim of religion and natural thought, because natural thought says, "I've got to do something." All religion is man saying, "I've got to do something. I've got to go there, join here, give here, serve here," and you're under bondage.
And I'll bet you there's a whole boatload of you in here today. And you're under bondage, and you're moving out of duty, and there's no joy, and you're going through these things, you're doing these things that at least seem logical to do, maybe even biblical to do, but there's no joy in your life, because you're doing them out of duty.
No, we serve out of love, out of joy, out of a responsibility that comes with not us making atonement for our sin, but Christ making atonement for our sin.
Finding Your Purpose
I just happened to have this morning—and I usually almost every Thursday do—I steal even 10 or 15 minutes, and today I didn't have many. I stopped to play cards with my mom this morning. I had a lunch or breakfast, and then I stopped my folks who are in town to play cards with my mom, and she just drilled me, which is—I've never liked her. Fifty-three years I haven't liked her. She drilled me at cards, but I had left an arbitrary time to leave just so I could go to Borders. I love to go into Borders and see what's going on.
And I was picking, I found some book on finding the meaning of life, and then there were like a whole little section there on purpose in life. Well, let me tell you your purpose in life. It's real simple. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's it. To glorify Him.
How do you glorify Him? Well, by accepting His Son Jesus Christ for who He really is. God come in the flesh, who made atonement. Let me read you Moses again. "God, I'll make atonement for their sin." You can't. You can't make atonement for your own sin.
Christ Made Atonement for Us
Christ came and died on the cross, and He died for a reason. Scripture tells us this. We wouldn't know it apart from that. I think it's a historical fact. I think virtually everybody, even secular humanists, would acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross. It's kind of a fact of history now. What the Bible tells us is that Jesus died for our sin.
See, if you come to Christ in repentance and faith, your sin is gone. The guilt is gone. There still may be ramifications in your life and consequences, but you're not guilty anymore. You're carrying around a bunch of guilt. You're carrying around a burden. He said, "Listen, if you're heavy laden, you come to Me."
And then—I've got two minutes—and then you'll find a meaning to life. God's got something for you. I don't know what it is. When I was a—and I knew this existed, but I hadn't been able to find it for years. The very first Bible I ever had, it was the one Larry gave me, right when I became a Christian. And I've never been able to find it.
God's Purpose for Your Life
Well, the night before last, I'm down in this corner cleaning out this last area, and there's this Bible. March 6th, 1980. That was the day I became a Christian. If all God wanted to do was get me to heaven, then March 6th at about 9 a.m., He would have just taken me there. If all God wanted to do is get you to heaven, and you're a Christian, then He'd take you, right? He must have something more.
I'll give you a little tip. You'll know when God's done with you. Here's how you'll know. You will assume room temperature. That's how you'll know. Until that point, God's not done with you. God has a purpose and a meaning in your life. And I don't mean in some wild mystical way. I'm talking something you can know.
Gentlemen, I just say it to you again. Those of you that fit in that demographic we talked about, I'm sure that what you'll find in Bob Shank's stuff is some very helpful time over the next three years. I read Halftime. If you read Halftime, a lot of you guys read Halftime. Great book. But you put it down, you go, okay, what do I do now? And that's where Bob picks up. All of you, God left you here for a reason. And I can tell you this, the reason's to glorify Him and to enjoy Him. There ought to be joy in your life. Doesn't mean that there isn't hardship or difficulty. You know you have that. But there's joy.
The Definition of Faithfulness
Are you a faithful person? Let me run the definition down as we close. It's an allegiance, an allegiance to a sovereign. I would say to the sovereign God, to God the Father, to His Word, His control, His righteousness, to a person, to Jesus Christ, to a cause. And that's nurturing, loving, caring for His people, the church.
Are you involved in church? This isn't church. I hope you understand that. You need to be involved in a good Bible believing church. Involved in evangelism? Here you go. Our faithfulness to a cause or an ideal, I'll tell you the ideal, is righteous, holy living that separates you and me from everyone else. Not because we're better than everyone else, but because we are the sons and daughters of the living God, and we're supposed to start to look more and more like Him every day.
That's going to change the way you live. That's going to change everything around you. Pick up right there next week.
Closing Prayer
Father, take this truth and apply it to our heart. I pray for those that are here today that are hurting, that are struggling, that are suffering, and maybe it's an economic pain or an emotional pain. God, just thank you that you love us enough to let us hurt. You love us enough to let us struggle, because we know it's in the hurt and the struggle and the pain that we really grow. God, in this world that is looking for answers, please help those of us who know you, who know your son, those of us who know this word and know where to find these answers, to take these answers to the marketplace of ideas and be your men and women in that place. Father, we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.