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Now, my sermon for this morning, what I'll be preaching on, and the main subject here, my sermon title is called Loyalty. Loyalty. I'm preaching on the subject of loyalty and the importance of just being loyal. Now, when you read the Bible, you're not going to find the word loyalty in there. You're going to find a different word, and the word that the Bible uses is faithful. So when you find the word faithful, again, depending on the context of everything, there's always slightly different meanings, but if you look up the definition of loyalty, you're going to see it's faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness, to whatever, right? So that's what the word is, but I want to teach on this subject. There's many reasons to preach this sermon, and there's many aspects and parts of our life where we need to be loyal. So we're going to go through. I've got multiple points, you know, being first and foremost, being loyal to God, right? That is at the top. That is, of course, that should be unwavering. That should never change. That's one of those things that you always remain loyal unto God no matter what, right? And that sits at the top, and if there's ever any conflict of loyalty, it never is where you're going to cross God. You stay loyal to God at all times. So as we go through other areas of our life where we should be remaining loyal to people, to family, to friends, to church, right, depending on all that, it's all going to be dependent on that maintaining the loyalty to God first and foremost. So just keep that in mind, right, because we're going to be talking about maintaining loyalty to other people other than God, which is very important, and we're going to have this. I'm going to prove and I'm going to show you how important it is, and, I mean, it probably shouldn't need to be said, but it seems like it does these days, having loyalty. I mean, think about even just a very carnal example, because this is, it goes a little bit, it touches on, you know, the meaning of loyalty, and I was kind of thinking about this as I was thinking about the subject, thinking about the sermon. One of the things that's easy for people to recognize loyalty is with sports, right? There's a lot of sports teams and they have fans and fans who will stay loyal, but it's such a carnal thing. It's such a vain thing. It doesn't really matter. It's hard to get excited about people being loyal to a sports team, right? And most people, it's kind of like you end up just being loyal to a sports team because maybe that's where you were from, right? Or you pick some arbitrary reason to follow some team and you say, yeah, I'm going to follow this team. And then people move and it'd be like, okay, well now I live here and I'm going to follow this team, you know, and that's not, like, that's not a good picture of loyalty. We're just kind of bouncing around and just choosing whoever, or this is the winning team, right? It's funny how many times sports teams just, they gain all these fans when they start winning, right? And then all of a sudden, everybody's a Yankees fan or everybody's, you know, it's because they win and they're not staying loyal to whoever, you know, for whatever reason. Now, again, those are kind of silly things, like just being loyal to, and I think it made more sense way back in the day where you might have, you know, when sports kind of were first originating, you have people from different cities and towns and it's like, hey, these are our people. This is our kindred and we're going to go compete against this other city. And they're like literally people from your place competing against other people. You could have a little bit more sense of like being loyal to, to your own neighbors, to your friends, to all the people that, you know, when you're going, you know, so in those smaller areas, that's kind of how these things build to the point now though, where it's just like, everything's just free agency and you got people moving all over the place and no one's really from there anyway. So now it's just like, and you've got people that's changing all the time and it's kind of like, who cares? It's hard to even have any type of loyalty because where the, where the real loyalty lies, it's, you know, the sense that you could get from having loyalty is going to come from having those close relationships with people, whether it be family or friends, right? So the concept of being loyal to say a team makes sense when you're on that small scale and you kind of have a community, but then when you get beyond that and to get to the point where it is now, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Now I want to start with just, you know, we started in Exodus chapter 34, which of course goes over the 10 commandments and, you know, this is after the, the first set of stones were broken, right? And then God recreates the 10 commandments and gives them to Moses again. And there's one of the commandments here about worshiping God. Look at, look at Exodus 34, we'll start reading again in verse number 11. The Bible says, Observe thou that which I command thee this day, behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. Now, he's given this warning before they go into the land, but what happens? They make a covenant with some of the people, the inhabitants of the land, right? And it is a snare unto them. But God is warning them here and telling them what to do and he's saying, you know, don't make a promise with them, don't make a covenant, don't join a league with them. Because what happens is when you make a covenant, that's one way of establishing loyalty, right? I mean, you're making a promise to someone, now you got to stay true and faithful to that promise, to that covenant. So now you need to remain loyal to making that promise, to opening up your word and keeping your word on something you're going to do. So God is warning them, hey look, I don't want you making a covenant, any type of covenants with these people here, because then you're going to have to start showing loyalty to them, to these wicked heathen people that are going to be cast out from before you. He says, let there be a snare for you, verse 13, he says, but ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. So he's warning them, hey, you're going to start making these covenants and joining up with these people, and before you know it, you're going to start worshiping their gods. And in the Ten Commandments, one of the top commandments, God's saying the top commandment at the beginning, he's saying, you're not supposed to worship any other god but me, why? Because God is jealous. He wants you loyal to him and him alone. We need to have no other gods before God. God is supreme. That's why I started saying at the beginning, the top loyalty, the top faithfulness needs to go to the Lord. He commands it, he deserves it, all honor and glory goes unto him, and we should be doing nothing and making sure in our life that we're not doing things and making covenants and making promises that's going to keep us from being able to keep the Lord in that number one spot. And this goes beyond just setting up some false idol, because I don't think that anyone here and in our culture, there are some people out there that do this, there's other religions, especially in other cultures, but generally speaking, in American culture, the typical idolatry that's mentioned in the scripture of setting up, carving out wood and stone and overlaying it with gold and kind of setting up an image and worshiping that image is not that common here today. Now there's many forms of idolatry, but specifically that one we're going to be bowing down to some other god, that's not as common today. But this concept of still keeping the Lord number one and understanding that the Lord is a jealous God and that he wants to be the object of your devotion, and he wants to be made number one in your life and not going after anything else or any other god, that god could be money. That idol, that object, some other god that people are living for and working and just dedicating their life to could be anything. And we need to make sure that we're keeping the Lord, because look, God's a jealous God, he wants you to serve him and he wants you not to make, and think about it, when you start making covenants and making promises, make sure that those covenants and those promises aren't going to be ones that are going to keep you away from having God number one in your life. Making covenants is a way to establish loyalty, but be careful, because hey, God's a jealous God. And he uses that word going a whoring after other gods, because we're supposed to be like married to God, right, in the same way that you make a covenant in saying, in marriage, when two people get married, that you're going to stay with that person till death do you part and you're going to remain faithful and true to that one person. The relationship that we have with God is supposed to be one where we're getting married in a sense and not going after anyone else, we're going to keep ourselves holy to the Lord. Now obviously, I'm not referring to salvation when I'm talking about having that mindset of staying married to God, so don't confuse the two, if there's anyone here that's not saved, understand, the Bible says being saved is very simple, all you have to do is put your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, he paid for all your sins, it's a free gift that God's offering unto you. It's not conditional on the sense of, well, I'm only going to save you if you promise to be faithful to me and do all this stuff and make me the Lord of your life, that's lordship salvation and that's a false gospel. Because that requires you to do work, that requires you to do work, basically good deeds, works, obedience to the law. The Bible says, you know, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should bow. Our good works, that's not how we receive a free gift. The Bible says, therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in this sight. We don't have to keep the law in order to be saved and be justified, we're justified through the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So when I'm talking about having this relationship with God and what God's expecting of us, he is expecting that of us, he's commanding that of us, but it's not for our soul to be saved from hell. Just want to make sure that that's very clear from the beginning, because I'm speaking to Christians here, I'm speaking to believers. You're already saved, you're already believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what God expects of you and this is what God commands of us. The law is still the law, the law is still in effect as it were that we should be obeying the law in order to please God and to show respect unto God and honor God and say, hey, we're listening to you God, you made good laws for us. It's in the Ten Commandments, he's saying, look, don't have any other gods before me because I'm a jealous God. You want God angry with you? Then start doing things that's going to come between you and God and serving him. So that's why he uses that phrase, you know, going whoring, in terms of if you went to Joshua 24, going a whoring after other gods, it's like you're committing adultery when you start going after some other god instead of keeping God number one in your life and giving your attention and devotion to him. It's like you're being, like sleeping around, that's where the word infidelity comes from when people aren't faithful. It's called infidelity. And another word for faithful could be loyal, you're not remaining loyal. The wife that goes and cheats on her husband isn't being very loyal to her husband, and vice versa, obviously. You're in Joshua chapter 24, you know, making covenants, as I mentioned before, is one way to establish loyalty because you're kind of making a vow, you're making a promise. We see the famous passage, Joshua 24, look at verse number 14, the Bible says, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. God wants you serving him sincerely, God wants you serving him in truth, it's got to be real, he wants you to actually want to serve him and to obey him and everything else and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. There's a time for all of us to establish our loyalty and you need to choose, choose this day if you haven't chosen already, say choose, I'm going to choose to serve the Lord. I'm going to serve, hey, me and my house, I don't know about you all, I don't know what anyone else is going to do, but I know that me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Turn if you would to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter number 5. Acts chapter 5, we're going to see just real quickly here in scripture that this is supreme. Look at verse number 27, the Bible reads, and when they had brought them and they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. They're saying, look, our obedience, our loyalty remains with God. So whether you're going to tell us or you're going to beat us or imprison us or stone us or kill us, whatever it is that you're saying you're going to do, look, my loyalty is to God. I'm not going to stop doing what he told me to do. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into that burning fiery furnace. You had a man telling you, no, you've got to bow down and worship this image. And they say, no, I've got a God that said I'm going to have no other gods before him. And I'm not going to bow down and worship any graven image. They say, I'm not going to obey you, O man, Nebuchadnezzar. I'm not going to obey you. I'm going to obey God. I ought to obey God rather than men. And true loyalty gets tested and comes in when you've got someone trying to change or shake your loyalty, shake your faithfulness, and make you do something that would show that you're not really loyal. It's easy to make statements. It's easy to make vows. It's easy to get up and to make a marriage vow. It's easy to just say words. But you need to stay, you know, staying faithful and staying loyal gets tested and gets proven once you get someone trying to change your mind or get you to have a different loyalty. And that comes in many forms, right? It could be when it comes to obeying God, like we saw in Exodus 34, where you're saying, hey, the inhabitants of the land, they're going to start convincing you, hey, start serving these gods. Right? Look at the way we serve God. Hey, we know there's only one God, but look at how we serve God. This is how we do it. And we make these offerings. And we make these sacrifices. Don't go a whoring after those other gods. Look, you worship the Lord your God. Or it could come in another fashion, like it did in the Book of Acts, through threats. Right? No, you're going to do this, or we're going to beat you up. We're going to put you in prison. Right? No. We ought to obey God rather than men. And that's an obeying God. And there's many other ways where people will come and try to test your loyalty or faithfulness to the Lord. But we need to maintain that loyalty and keep God as number one, and not let anything come in between that anything. Now there's more loyalty in life that is also important. Not as important as your loyalty to God, but very close. It's your second level of remaining loyal, and I would say being loyal to your family. Now obviously if there's a conflict within your family where you're not going to be loyal to God, hey, you stay loyal to God. But outside of that, we ought to be loyal to our families. Think about a marriage. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Like I said, it's easy to make the wedding vow. Those are words coming out of your mouth. Anyone can say words. But they ought to mean something to you when you make a vow, when you make a covenant. You're forming a loyalty there. You're forming faithfulness by stating, hey, I am going to keep myself only unto you. You belong to me. I belong to you. We're going to stay together. We're not going to split this apart. We're going to stay with this forever. And I'm going to remain faithful. I'm going to remain loyal. I'm going to do my duty. You're going to do your duty. And this is a promise that we're making. People make promises like that all the time, but if you're going to remain truly loyal, you actually have to keep that promise. And there's going to be people who are going to come and try to test that loyalty. You're going to have the wicked, adulterous woman trying to come and persuade men to commit adultery with them. Right? But look, you've got to stay loyal. You've got to stay faithful. You've got to stay loyal to your wife in good times and in bad. You've got to maintain loyalty. Don't go whoring around. You stay loyal. You stay faithful. Loyalty is a great virtue, and you're going to have people trying to persuade you and try to sour your mind, especially those people, those adulterous and adulterers that are going to come and try to spoil your mind, whether it be, God forbid, at church or on the workplace or anywhere else, anywhere out in public, you have these old friends and start to poison your mind against your spouse and praise you and flatter you to test your faithfulness. You need to stay pure. You need to stay loyal to your spouse because you made that covenant and you created that loyalty. You need to stick with it. Look at Matthew 19, verse number three. The Bible reads, the Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him and saying unto Him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Look at the Pharisees, as far as Jesus, hey, is it lawful for, look at what he said, for every cause? Can we just put away our wife for every cause? What a stupid question. And this shows you how much the Pharisees don't know the Bible at all. Verse four says, and He answered and said unto them, have ye not read? See, Jesus told them it's a stupid question. Haven't you read? I mean, this is already answered in the scripture. Haven't you read? That he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. That word twain means two, right? You're not two individuals anymore. When you get married, when you get married, you don't have two people anymore. You have one. And maybe this will help you to remain loyal, remain faithful as you can have that mindset instead of thinking, me, me, me, it's us, it's, you know, it's we, we, we, we, as one person. When a man and a woman are joined together, and what Jesus said, what therefore God hath joined together, let that man put asunder. When you get married before God and you say your vows before God, you become married and God joins you together. And that's why the woman takes, and I preach this before, takes the name of the man, because you need one name, because you're one person, you're one flesh. You are no longer two individuals, now you're one. And that's the way you need to treat your marriage, and that's the loyalty you need to have, that if you're going to be disloyal to your spouse, it's like you're disloyal to yourself. And there'll be plenty of people that are going to try to come in between that. And here's some advice, especially for younger people that are getting married or just got married or thinking about getting married, when you get married, don't let anyone come in between you and your spouse. This happens all the time, because as soon as that first fight happens, you know, the tendency for young people getting married is going to be to go back and talk to their family about it. Now hopefully a godly family will encourage the person having that problem, hey, you need to work this out, you're your husband and wife now, you need, you know. But oftentimes what happens is you've got families going, oh, you can't let him treat you like that, or oh, man, she's just, you know, and getting on their son's or their daughter's side, because they don't understand this concept of loyalty and understanding, hey, those two are no longer two, they're one. And anything you're saying and doing to pit a husband against a wife and a wife against a husband is wicked and wrong, and it's just going to cause them to be no longer loyal to their spouse. So when you get married, you need to keep that, because you're going to have these outside influences. There's going to be people, whether it be family or friends, telling you, oh, man, you Dump that guy, dump that woman, because that's the mindset of the culture today anyways, because there's no sanctity in marriage, it's not sanctified, it's not holy, it's not set apart going, no, we don't defile this. When you make that covenant, you don't defile that. When you speak a covenant or an oath before God, you keep that oath, you keep that vow. These things ought to be holy. Loyalty is critical, it's critical in your marriage. It's critical in your walk with God, staying loyal. These days, people I think don't even understand the meaning of the word loyalty. You've got men and women just getting divorced left and right, not staying loyal, and look, loyalty doesn't really mean anything when everything's going great. When there are no tests, when there is no opposition, when there's nothing coming up to ever maybe possibly cause division or challenge that loyalty, it's just completely unknown. The loyalty kicks in is when those hard times do come. That's when you have to remain, that is what loyalty is all about. When the hard times come up that might cause you to go astray, you're going to say, no, I'm going to stay loyal. It's the right thing to do. Loyal to family, now that's with your spouse, you're one flesh, you're on the same team. You're supposed to be together on everything. Obviously, there's going to be some frictions and stuff because we're human and we've got our own faults and flesh that we have to deal with, but that's the mindset that you need to maintain because in God's eyes, you're one. But not just spouses, but also children, siblings, parents, your family, you ought to be faithful to your family. Stay loyal to your family. The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 5, Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 16 says, honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Honoring your parents, your father and your mother. That commandment doesn't come with a caveat, only if they're good to you. Honor thy father and thy mother. And there's other places, I'm not going to get that, I mean that could be an entire sermon of itself just on this one commandment, but your parents are the ones that raised you, they're the ones that fed you, they're the ones that nourished you and brought you up in this world and you know what, maybe you didn't have a lot, maybe things weren't right or weren't all the best, but you know what, you made it to adulthood or you made it to where you're at today, you know, thank God for those parents and be happy with what you have and what you've been blessed with and you know what, you're supposed to honor your father and your mother and that means to take care of them, especially when they get older. You know, when it's time for them to have their needs met, you need to be there to take care of them because when you had your needs that needed to be met when you were young, when you were an infant, when you were a baby, they took care of you. Kids be loyal to your family, you know, obviously adults, but also kids. Be loyal to your parents and your siblings. We got a lot of kids now growing up in a fundamental church. I don't have that experience, I didn't grow up in a fundamental Baptist church, right? And it's a little bit different, so it's supposed to be a little bit different for my kids than it was for me. And kids are going to be, could potentially be ostracized by other kids. You know, you make friends. Kids, listen in the back. Pay attention. Kids make friends all over the place. You could be making friends that don't go to fundamental Baptist churches, right? And they might be making fun of you or making fun of your parents or especially my kids, you know, oh I saw your dad on the news, right? He's on TV and stuff. And here's the thing, that pressure is going to be there to want to cause you to stray away from your parents. Oh, I don't want to be associated with them. Look, don't, stay loyal to your family. They love you. Your parents love you. Stay loyal to them. Stick up for them. Stick up for your siblings, kids. When you're in a group of kids and you got that peer pressure and some bully in the group wants to ostracize your brother or your sister, they want to make fun of them and cast them out and say, oh no, no, we'll just play together. That's kind of how some of the cool kids act. Oh, I want to be their friend. And then they make fun of other kids. Look, who cares about that other person? Stick up for your siblings. Show loyalty to your family. Don't be bullied around. Don't let them pressure you. And you know what? If you say, oh, but they're my friend, they're not a very good friend if they're going to be saying bad things about your own family. You need to have loyalty within your family. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5. You know, especially men need to be loyal to their family and taking care of them. And it's a shame, it's a shame on the men of the family when you've got your own family members just out there on welfare and out there just not being cared for because you aren't looking out for them. Look, the Bible teaches this. That the children aren't supposed to lay out for the parents, but the parents for the children. That you're supposed to look out for your family. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse number 3. The Bible says, honor widows that are widows indeed. And this is about the church taking care of widows, right? If you have this widow woman or this widow man, you know, what about widow women primarily, right? Widow women because the woman is supposed to be cared for by the man. So when a man dies and is no longer able to provide for his family because he's dead, right? That widow ought to be able to be cared for by people. Now, if she's young enough, the Bible says, hey, get married. Just get remarried and you'll be cared for. But a lot of, you know, once you get older and the Bible is talking about 60 years old being age where, you know, you're not expected to get remarried again necessarily, you know, you've been with a husband for a long time, you don't need to get remarried to be cared for. But then that's where the church steps in and says, okay, we're going to take care of you. But here's the thing, it's not just automatically you're a widow, you get, you know, the church is going to take care of you. Look at what the Bible says here, verse 4, but if any widow have children or nephews, if you already have a family still, now look, if you've been married and you've got no family, no children, okay, yeah, the church is going to care for you because that's the church's job. But you know what, if you've got children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God. Hey, stay loyal to your family, you know, mom, dad died, you take care of your mom. Or uncle, aunt, I mean these are nephews, right? Take care of them. It's your responsibility, your close family members. You take care of them. Don't put that burden on someone else, that's a God-ordained burden on you. The Bible says in verse 5, now she that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, and these things give in charge that they may be blameless. Look at verse number 8, but if any provide not for his own and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. I brought up the word infidel before, it's someone who's not faithful. And in this context, an infidel would be someone who's not faithful to God, right? And it says they're worse than an infidel. They're worse than someone who doesn't have faith in God. If you aren't providing for your own, and specially those of your own house, if you're not providing for them, you know, that's really, really low, according to scripture. You need to be loyal to them, and honor them, and take care of them, because they're your family. God puts importance on the family. And again, it's not necessarily saying, oh, well, if they're unsaved, then you don't have to take care of them. Look, they're your family. They're your blood. You take care of them. So, one, we need to be loyal to God. Two, we need to be loyal to our family. Children, adults, husbands, wives, stay loyal. Keep your family tight and intact. You want to have a strong family, don't you? If you're going to rely on anyone, that's like your first, obviously God is first, but here on this earth, earthly speaking, you know, we ought to be able to rely on our family in our times of need, our own flesh and blood. We ought to be there for them. How about being loyal to church, being loyal to the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth? Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. I say be loyal to church, but being loyal to church is also being loyal to God, but we're talking about the man aspect here. How about being loyal to your pastor and being loyal to your other church members, to your brethren in Christ? Don't be ashamed of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be faithful. Be loyal. Look at verse number 1, 1 Corinthians 11, the Bible reads, be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. This is the apostle Paul speaking. There's nothing wrong, excuse me, with being a follower of a man, of a man of God especially. He's commanding them, hey, be followers of me. Now obviously that goes only to the extent that he's following Christ because that authority is supreme, so you can't just be like, oh, I'm following this man and he's just bringing you into idolatry and all kinds of just nonsense, but you know what? As with everything, if you're going to follow a person, I think this is implied here, just knowing that nobody is perfect, that no human being is perfect, there's going to be points of disagreement within a church. There's going to be areas where you might think that the pastor is wrong, that the preacher is wrong, but unless it's some very serious grievous thing and you know the fruit of the church, you're a part of the church, you're being loyal, stay loyal, stay faithful. Don't nitpick everything. Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Look at verse 2, now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, that ye are praising you because ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. He's delivering the word of God to people who say, you know what, thanks for remembering me and these ordinances I'm delivering to you. I praise you for that. Be followers of me. You know what? We ought to stay loyal to the man of God who's preaching the word of God, who's delivering the ordinances of God to you, and is doing so faithfully. Look, you make a mistake in one area, you think they're wrong in one area, it's not just like, oh, well, forget this then, and throw up your hands, and I'm just going to go somewhere else. Well, I'm just going to go do this. You have no loyalty. You have no sense of loyalty. I mean, what does that mean to you? It's funny, because people will attack you too, people will always be, that's how churches get split. And the more our church grows, be aware of this, everyone here, the more our church grows, the more we're doing, the more work we're accomplishing, the more souls are being saved. We're still in a young state of the church, but we are growing. We're continuing to increase. We're continuing to reach more people. As that continues, you better be sure that people are going to come in and they're going to try to speak evil about me, they may try to speak evil about you, and try to cause divisions. It's going to happen. We need to stay loyal. I've had it happen, I've had people try to spoil my relationships with some of my pastor friends, and they come in and they'll send these emails and text messages and stuff, and oh, do you know this, or they call you on the phone? You know who does that? A rat. A snake. Some evil, wicked people that are just trying to sow discord. But you know what, I know what loyalty is, and I know who my friends are. And unless they get to some weird, blasphemous point, right, where I have to just be like, look, you are not following Christ at all anymore, then I'm going to stay loyal to them. It doesn't mean I have to agree with every single thing that they say, or every single decision that they make, or every single stand that they take, but I'm going to be their friends and I'm going to remain loyal to them. I'm not just going to turn my back on them. You know what, I expect the same out of you. And not because, oh, I don't want to have my feelings hurt, or it's my own, I'm worried about my own emotions. It's because of what the Bible teaches. I mean, we see the apostle Paul saying, look, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. You've got someone here to be an example. You've got someone here teaching you the things of God and the ordinances and delivering them to you. And then he goes on to clarify, verse number three, he says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. So he establishes the authority right there. He says, look, be a follower of me, but, you know, the head of every man is Christ. He's still the authority, but you know what, while I'm following Christ, follow me. Be faithful, be loyal. And he establishes already back, you go back to chapter one, you know, not getting overboard with following man. Right, we need to show loyalty, we need to be faithful, but don't let that get to some weird sycophantic state of exalting a man like to the status of being godlike or something, right, and just becoming idolatrous or just so enamored with one person or one personality that like, I could only listen to you and no one else, and I could, you know, or whatever, and just, you know, that's weird. And watch out for the isms or the ites, right, like Calvinist. Look, I don't want to be named after a man. That's why Christian is appropriate, because that's after Christ. I mean, he's the head, Jesus is the head, that's clear. But you know what, people are prone to this too, where the loyalty can just go a little bit overboard to where, to the point of ridiculousness, right. Now look, you can stay loyal to people and be very faithful without going overboard. I mean, I'm trying to think of a good example of like, just every little thing, or if someone just says anything in disagreement, you have to stop and go, no, no, no, don't you know that, you know, and just running to the defense over every small little infraction or something like that. You know what I'm saying? Hopefully I'm being clear. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 10. This is the warning from the Apostle Paul. He says, look, because this causes divisions, when you start exalting men too much, and just a follower of a man too much, it can actually start to cause divisions amongst brethren. The Bible says in verse number 10 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, and I am of Paulus, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? So he's rebuking him. Even if people were saying, well, you know, I'm of Paul. Don't be like that. Look, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, which is, you know, Simon Peter, they're all disciples of God. They're all serving the Lord. Now, they're all a little bit different. And they might have some variation of their understanding of the word of God. But you don't need to be so hung up on just saying, well, I'm a, I'm a Bersonite, and I'm an Andersonite, and I'm a Humanizite, right? Seriously. I mean, Christ is the one who is crucified for you. And men are just preachers of Christ. Now, that being said, obviously we don't want to take things overboard, but you know what? Stay loyal to your pastor. You know, people who are going to other churches, stay loyal to your pastor. Stay loyal to that man of God. You can believe what you want in your heart, of course. Everyone. I mean, we all do, right? You have your faith. It's personal between you and God. But even when, and especially when, maybe your pastor believes something a little bit different, but you know, hey, that's still a good man of God, they're still serving the Lord, they're still splitting souls, you know, like, look, they're obviously still serving Christ. Stay faithful. Stay loyal. Why do you feel the need, people feel the need to just nitpick and, oh, no, I'm going to go here, and then run and get counsel from other pastors and other people and, oh, you know, they're doing, look, why don't you just shut up and stay loyal and just deal with it? I'll tell you why. The reason why is because of ignorance and pride. Both. People who are just maybe real, spiritually, just children, and they just don't know any better, and there's real carnal, you know, which I believe is how the Church of Corinth was. They were just real carnal Christians there. A lot of them just didn't have very good understanding, maybe. That's my opinion on that. That's kind of the way that I read 1 Corinthians. I mean, there's so many problems there already that they were carnal Christians. And it's just probably because they just never really grew. But the other reason is because of pride. Pride blinds people. And when you feel like someone slighted you and you don't know this and you don't know that, you know, those are the people that I often see are the ones that now start to cause problems and just have all these issues and, look, just stay faithful. Just stay faithful. Stay loyal. How about staying loyal to your friends? Turn, if you go to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 18. And we're looking at a lot of different scripture here, and I'm applying them specifically. Obviously, the ones that go to God are devoted to being faithful to God. But when it comes to being faithful to man, all these other scriptures we're turning to, many of them can be, you know, have crossover. You can apply them to your family, you can apply them to church, you know, whatever, all these different things. So there's definitely going to be that teaching there of having that right loyalty. Being loyal to friends. Because honestly that's what I think friends are. I mean, if you're not loyal to a friend, can you even call yourself a friend? Right? I mean, how can you be a friend when you're not loyal to someone? That's like what friendship is. Like, I'm there for you, right? It's something that's, yes, it's below, you know, a marriage covenant, but it's still, I mean, that friendship is, that ought to be a bond, that ought to be like having a covenant or an oath. When you say that you're someone's friend, like, I'm going to stay faithful to you. I'm going to be there for you. I'm going to be loyal. Proverbs 18, look at verse number 24, the Bible says, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. Hey, you show yourself, do you have friends? Show yourself friendly to those friends. You show yourself friendly. How do you show yourself friendly? You help out. You do things, if you have friends, then you need to be doing things for your friends. Show yourself friendly. And there is a friend, look at this, that sticketh closer than a brother. That's called a good friend. Now, how is it that they're going to stick closer than a brother? It's because they're loyal. It's because they're there for you. It's because they're faithful, reliable, dependable. That's how a friend that can stick closer than a brother. Because even though you may not be flesh and blood, you can still be there for them like you are their brother, and especially if you're a brother in Christ, then you are a brother. You know, this is a church family, and we ought to be there. And you know what, I thank God, and I'm not preaching this because I just think there's some big problem, but it's an important doctrine to understand of being loyal, and being loyal where you're at, being loyal to God, being loyal to your church, being loyal to family and friends, because of just the total lack and disregard of loyalty in general in our culture. It's important. But it's also very heartwarming to see how loyal people have been in our church. And that's the way it ought to be, and I want to keep it that way. And beware of the people who are going to try to drive a wedge in what we have right now. Because right now, from my vantage point, we are doing awesome as a church. And I think we're primed to really start taking off, because we have such good unity within our church. Because we have so many good people here that care about each other, that care about the Lord. I can see it. It's evident. It's not just in word. It's in deed and in truth, because they see it. That's how I know it's true. That's why I'm so excited, because I can see people helping each other out. It actually happens, the self-sacrifice. Amen. I'm excited about this. I'm so excited about that. I hope you are, too. And I hope you see that and recognize that for what it is. Because that means that God is going to be using us. When you have that self-sacrificial love and you have that charity for other people, and we have a great group of believers here, this church is bound to grow. We're bound to reach more and do more for the Lord. We have to maintain that loyalty. Watch out for the sowing of discord. Look at Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27, verse number 5. The Bible says, Open rebuke is better than secret love. Another aspect of loyalty, and this might test your own loyalty, the Bible says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Part of caring about people and being faithful to people, you know, sometimes the truth hurts, and that might come across as a wound. So just be aware of that within the church when people say things to you. Or how about this? If you know, hey, Pastor Burtis is preaching a sermon and it's going to hit me or affect me, and you think that I know and I'm directing this at you, I'm your friend. I'm your friend. And when I preach sermons, if I'm yelling and screaming and throwing a fit up here, okay, I'm still your friend, and it's to help. And if you don't, that's the motivation. That is the motivation. I do not try, you know, I don't come up here to try to shame people and call them luck. You have to do something really, really bad and divisive and just horrible for me to start calling people out by like, you don't have to worry about me calling people out by name unless you're like an infiltrator or someone of that ilk, okay, or causing so much disruption in a church that we have to excommunicate somebody or like a 1 Corinthians 5 thing. That's the only way that that's going to happen. But if you're hearing sermon, and like I said, I've said this many times, most of the time I don't even, I'm not even like thinking about anyone individually. You may think I am, but I'm not. But even if I do, because I'm not going to lie, sometimes there are things that I see and I'm thinking, you know what, I need to preach a sermon on this. It's not because I want you to just feel bad or hurt you or insult you. It's because I'm your friend and I want to just show you what the Bible says about an issue, about a subject. And I don't want to hold anything back. And I don't want to have a fake love, right? The Bible says that the kisses of an enemy are due. If I was up here just preaching kisses all the time, right? I really wouldn't be your friend, and like if I just pray like, hey, when praise is due, amen. And I love praising the church and praising individuals when you do a good job and when things are going great like we just did. I mean, hey, I see a great unity here. That's awesome. But I'm also going to preach on the things that aren't that great. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. Open rebuke is better than secret love. If I just love you severely and I never rebuke and I never say anything, you know, what good is that going to do for you? It's not going to help you out at all. The kisses of an enemy, though, are deceitful. Watch out for that, too, because that's tied in with the flatterer. The flatterer is the one who's going to lay it on thick. They're going to give you the kisses. They're going to give you all the praise. And they don't really mean it in their heart. But they just want to tell you things that you want to hear. My job is to tell you what you need to hear. And that's where the true faithfulness is. That's where the true loyalty is. That's where the true friendship is. And, look, you should know this by now. I'm here for you. Church members, I'm here for you. And I know that you're there for each other. And I hope you're there for me, too. Loyalty is only proven when tested. Go, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11, verse 13 is a verse that, like many verses, can easily be twisted out of context. And what happens is people will think of ways you could twist something out of context and then dismiss the verse altogether. But it's like, we can't dismiss the verse. It's in the Bible. We don't understand what it's saying. And I'll explain myself in just a minute. Let's read the verse here. Proverbs 11, verse 13, the Bible says, a tale bearer reveals his secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. Now, some people might say, oh, so you're just going to sweep everything under the rug? So when there's this major sin, you're just going to sweep it under the rug and not, you know. No. That's not what this is talking about. This isn't saying someone's caught in adultery. We're just going to sweep it under the rug. You've got some church leadership embezzling money and doing fraud. Oh, we're just going to conceal the matter. That's not what this is talking about. But just because you could think about those types of situations doesn't mean that this verse doesn't have a meaning to it. The meaning is, you know, it says a tale bearer reveals his secrets. So a tale bearer is someone who's just telling stories. And it doesn't mean that they have to be false. That could be very true. They're revealing secrets. So if someone confides in you, maybe they have some sin. Maybe they have some problem. Maybe there's something they're struggling with. Maybe they're doing something wrong. The tale bearer's going to go and reveal those secrets and just spread it abroad and just start talking to people about it. It says, but he that is, you know what, they're not loyal. They're not a real friend. People are just going to be going around and gossiping and being a tale bearer. They're not your friend. And if that's you, you're not faithful. You're not very loyal at all. And you're going to find yourself without friends. Because if you have friends, you need to show yourself friendly. And when you're friendly, you're going to be faithful and loyal to that person. He has a faithful spirit to conceal the matter. Hey, look, everyone doesn't need to know about this. People don't need to know about this. They're going to conceal the matter. Because there's many things in this life that might be embarrassing or shameful, but it doesn't just need to be public knowledge. And when you care about someone, you love someone, you're going to be faithful to that person. So you know what? People don't need to know about this. Now if someone's a pedophile, everyone needs to know about that. When there's wickedness going on, that's extreme wickedness, like we could see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, then everyone's going to need to know about that. But not, you know, the majority of the time, it's not that. Yet people just feel this need to go and be a talebearer and start revealing these secrets instead of just concealing the matter. Because, you know what, that's what a faithful spirit does. Just look. Keep it to yourself. Be loyal. Turn to Psalm 101. There's a warning about not being loyal, not being faithful. Psalm 101, verse number 5. The Bible reads, Who so privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. So privily means like privately, where you're secretly going around and slandering your neighbor. Well, you're not very loyal and faithful to your neighbor. You definitely don't love him. You're going around slandering him. But the Bible says, him will I cut off. Cut that person off. Him that has a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Why would we be around people like that? Verse 6. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land. God's looking on the faithful of the land. He wants those that are loyal, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. And that's the positive verse. But then look at verses 7 and 8. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. The positive thing is about being faithful, about being loyal. And all the rest of these is being wicked. Now, I'm going to cut it off here. I had a lot more in my notes because there's, in scripture, I think one of the best examples of someone who is faithful, and I'll just summarize all the script. We're not going to turn all the scripture. The best example I could think of someone being faithful outside of Jesus Christ, right, obviously outside of Jesus Christ, outside of God, okay, is David. David was very faithful. Now, he had his mistakes. Don't get me wrong. He said, David, he committed adultery. I would say he was faithful. Of course, he was unfaithful in that regard. Yes, he was. No doubt about it. No question. I mean, obviously. The reason why I say David, though, is because he had one. He remained faithful to God. You know, the Bible says that he was a man after God's own heart, and that even when he sinned, you know, he repented, he came back to God. He, you know, he made his course remaining faithful to the Lord and finishing very faithful. He also was faithful to man. He wouldn't lift up his sword against God's anointed. He recognized Saul as being a God-anointed king. He recognized that leadership. He already knew that he was going to be the next leader, but he said, you know what, I'm not going to raise my hand because it's God's anointed right there. Hey, when God wants him out of the picture, he'll get him out of the picture, but I'm not going to get involved. I'm not going to overstep. I know that I'm the next king, but you know what, I'm just going to let God do his thing. He's God's anointed. How can I bring my hand against him? He was still being faithful. He was faithful to the king Saul over and over again, even when Saul wasn't being very faithful to him, right? So in spite of being treated poorly, he still did what was good. That proves the faithfulness. That proves the loyalty. I'll read this one verse for you because this just shows that David was well known as being someone who was faithful unto the king right when he was ready to flee as the king's going to destroy him. And he goes and he gets Goliath's sword, right? And that was where Ahimelech the priest was there when David came, and he's looking for some provision for his men and everything else. And when King Saul shows up, I'm just going to read 1 Samuel 22, 14 for you. Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thine house? David is known as something. Hey, he's an honorable guy. Everybody had respect for them. Everyone looked up to him. I mean, who's more honorable than him? Because the king is like, hey, oh, did you inquire of the Lord for David? Are you helping him out? He's his enemy. And he's like, if I help David out at all, who's more honorable than David in your own house than him? I mean, there's no one else. He supports you. He's there for you. He's fought for you. David had that reputation. And you know what? He was faithful to Jonathan, too, Saul's son. Even though, and here's the thing. When a king, especially in these days, when there's a king, there's going to be a change in leadership from one king to another. Because kings, the line is through that line, through the descendants. The descendant of the king is going to be the next king, one of his descendants. So there's these people in line for the throne are going to be direct descendants. But in this case, now, God is changing the kingdom from Saul's leadership to David's, which they are not, you know, Saul's of the house of Benjamin. David's of the tribe of Judah. I mean, they're not related at all in that regard. They're not of the same house. They're not of the same lineage. So the threat to the throne comes from who would have been the next king, which would have been Jonathan. As Saul's son, he was primed to be the next king of Israel by going through that lineage succession. But because God ordained David, right, David was going to be king. So what kings would do if there was any threat to the throne is they're going to kill him. They're going to wipe him out because we don't need to deal with this threat. We don't need the people being divided. And some people go, no, we're still going to follow the house of Saul. We're still going to do, you know, that's how they would normally deal with it. They made it wrong. It doesn't matter. That's how they had dealt with it. I mean, that's just how things were done. But because David was faithful to Jonathan, they made a covenant. And I was going to show you all the scripture. They made a covenant together. They made an oath, a promise. And David was loyal to that promise. Now, Jonathan ended up dying in battle, but David wasn't worried about, even though he was going to be king, he wasn't worried about, oh, no, the people are going to be divided and going after Jonathan. He made a covenant with him. He made an oath to him because he loved Jonathan. He was his friend. You're not going to do anything wrong to you. And he promised that even with Jonathan's children, you know, he's going to respect that. So after the battle, after Jonathan's dead, this proves his faithfulness because, hey, Jonathan wouldn't have known any different. They were the only two that knew the oath. It's not like it was made public. They made an oath or covenant between themselves. He remained true and faithful to that because with Mephibosheth, he honored him and said, OK, well, you're Jonathan's son. You survived. Great. You're going to eat food in my house. I'm going to restore unto you because as becoming the king, he accumulated all the wealth of Saul. He took over everything. He took over his household. It all belonged to him. He said, you know what? You're going to have all the stuff of your house, all the stuff that Saul had, all his property. I'm giving that to you because by virtue of him becoming king, it belonged to him. And now he's saying, you know, I'm giving this to you. You're going to have all that. And beyond that, your servants are going to still serve you, and you're going to sit with me in my house, and I'm going to take care of you because he honored that oath. He was loyal. He was faithful. And that's proven just by the band of men that he had, too, by the way, the men that were willing to risk their lives to go get him a drink of water. Yes, he was a good leader, but the reason why people were so faithful to him is because he was faithful. He was a leader of righteousness, and he was faithful to the people he was supposed to be faithful to. He was faithful to them. And when you can be faithful to others, that's going to allow, there's going to be a lot more reason. You know, one, you're giving a good example for everybody, but usually you attract other people than that, hey, yeah, I'm going to be your friend because I can see that you're a good friend, and you can make other good friends. And David had people who followed him, and they were faithful. And his mighty men? No one else has their followers listed in the scripture like David's mighty men were. That's just some recognition and some honor right there that God gives to David's mighty men. That's pretty cool just in and of itself. They were good followers. They were loyal. They were faithful. And they were faithful to the end too. It wasn't just in word. It wasn't for advantage. It wasn't for their own gain. It's because they knew the meaning of the word loyalty. We need to remain loyal. Loyal to God first and foremost, always, always. Anyone challenges that, we're loyal to God. Loyal to your spouse. Don't let anyone challenge that. If anyone tries to come along and challenge that, you say loyal to your spouse. Say loyal to your family. Care for them. Provide for them. Be there for them. Physical, yes, and spiritual. Be loyal to your family. Be there for them. Be loyal to your church. Be loyal to your pastor. Be loyal to these people. Be a true friend. Show yourself friendly. You know what? God's eyes are on the faithful of the land. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for this great teaching. Dear Lord, I pray that you would please help us to exalt the virtue of being loyal, especially to you. Lord, you deserve all of our attention and focus and love. And God, I pray that you would please help us to be people of character and of integrity and that we can actually, you know, especially when things might get rough or when things are challenged and even when there's threats of harm or any type of bad things happening to us, dear Lord, but that we would still remain faithful and true. And Lord, we love you because you first loved us. We know that you're faithful and true to us. Help us to be a good example of Christ by living a life where we can be faithful and true unto others. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.