Loyalty. Have you thought about this word loyalty recently? Who is loyal to you and to whom are you loyal? And what I want to talk about today as we sort of unpack this idea of loyalty is, are we loyal to Jesus? Are we loyal to our Heavenly Father? I'll bet you have not thought about that in those terms. Being loyal to Jesus, being loyal to your Heavenly Father. And I think if we will appropriate that perspective into our lives, it'll change the way we live. So loyalty, that's what we're gonna talk about today. Hi, I'm Sam Hunter, this is 721 Live, the media arm of 721 Ministries. I'm glad that you're with us. Thank you for joining us today. Before we get started, would you hit that subscription button? If you'll hit subscribe, you'll get these videos, these podcasts, as soon as they come out. So take a moment and hit that subscribe button. Loyalty. What we've been doing for the last week, this week, and next week is looking at words, and last week's word was guarantee, and how these words would affect the way we live. Last week was guarantee, and the idea was do you take your Heavenly Father's statements, do you take everything you read in the Scriptures, both Older Testament and New Testament, the red ink from Jesus, the letters that we read in the Newer Testament, the things we see in the Older Testament as guarantees. Because if you would take, and I believe that they are all guarantees. We talked about the difference between a promise and a guarantee. A promise seems to be something we intend to do, we plan to do, but we might not. But a guarantee certainly feels more solid and something we can count on. So imagine you're in a ditch. Life is upside down. There's a situation you find yourself in that's scary, or it causes you great anxiety and worry, and you don't know how to work it out, how to fix it. If you could sit back and say, you know, Jesus guaranteed me that he'll bring good out of this. He guaranteed me that he's aware of what's going on, that he's perfectly present, he's perfectly powerful, and he's perfectly loving. He guaranteed me those things. Imagine how that would shift your level of anxiety if you could actually live with these guarantees. It'll take practice, but we're ready to put these things into practice. You see, there is a God He has spoken, we know what he said, now it's up to us to put it into practice. And it will take practice to learn to appropriate guarantee into your life. This week we'll talk about loyalty, next week we'll talk about partnership. The idea that most of us think that we're sort of in a, like a boss, God is our boss and we're the employees, or maybe he's the master and we're the servants, but that is not the way your Heavenly Father intended our lives to be. He wants to be in partnership with us. Imagine that we'll talk about that next week loyalty For the longest time at 721 we have talked about but it's a we think we ought to substitute trust for faith They mean the similar the same thing maybe but trust just has more traction So when we think about these three words that we see so often in scripture that we hear at weddings and first Corinthians 13 13 faith hope and love Well, I think trust has more traction than faith. Hope in the biblical meaning means confident expectation. Not hope, not I hope it will, not wishful thinking, confident expectation. So we replace hope with that, we replace faith with trust. We do not replace love with loyalty, we add loyalty. Love and loyalty. It just seems to fill it out, love and loyalty. You see, I was talking with my rabbi friend Yossi down in Charleston, and we were talking about this term, and I was saying that trust, I think, is a better word than faith. He said, you know, the Hebrew word emunah, emunah, really, yes, it's translated as faith, but a better, more full translation is faithfulness, reliability, and then that third word, loyalty. And I couldn't get that out of my mind, loyalty. And recently I found myself in a situation where it was something I felt like the Lord had asked me to do, and I didn't want to do it. I did not want to do it. And I'll tell you more about that next week. I did not want to do it. But as I was pondering this idea of loyalty, I said, I will do it out of loyalty to him, what he has done for me. One of the things in my prayers that I often say is, you know, everything you've done for me, all the gifts in my life, all the blessings you've given me, you've looked after me, you've taken care of me, you've taken care of my children, you've paved the way for my life. Yes, I made my own mistakes and you let me make some of them and others you bailed me out of, but I cannot earn it, but I can return it. I cannot earn everything you've done for me, but I can return it. and returning it is part of that whole idea of being loyal. So let's think about that for a moment. Let me just ask you a question, what, now think about this, what engenders loyalty in someone? What causes someone to be loyal to someone else? Well, I asked that question in the men's groups around the state and I got various answers, all good answers. Commitment to someone, a history with someone where they do what they say they're gonna do, trustworthiness, Various things, love and relationships. I thought all those were good, but then I said, well, okay, I think love carries with it loyalty. If someone loves you, but they're not loyal, that's not really the kind of love that anyone would want to have. Then I also thought about gratitude. Gratitude engenders loyalty. Someone comes to your aid. Someone comes to help you out in a situation that's a problem for you. They come and they bail you out, they help you out, they stand by your side. And the more dire the situation, the greater the gratitude, and one would hope, the greater the loyalty. And then, imagine you're in such a dire situation that someone has to come rescue you. Rescue you. Now if you're not loyal to someone after they've rescued you from a really bad situation, I don't know what's going on in your heart. So loyalty is engendered by relationship, yes. Trustworthiness, yes. Gratitude, love, gratitude for what someone has done for you. So think for a moment about who is loyal to you. And to whom are you loyal and why? Think about it. Is there someone in your life that you know is loyal to you? You know you can count on them. You know they'll do anything in the world for you. Is there someone that you feel that same way about? One of the men was telling us about his son when he was born. He was premature. He almost died twice. the NICU doctor that stayed with his son through the night, saved his life. He ran into him recently at a wedding and he introduced him as this is the doctor who saved my son's life 12, 15 years ago. So I said to my friend Jeff, Would you do anything in the world for that doctor? He said, I would do anything for him. I said, if he called you in the middle of the night and he's in Florida, broken down, he needs for you to get in a car and drive to Florida, bail him out, would you go? He said, I'd drop everything I'm doing and go. Because he's loyal, because of the immense gratitude he has for that doctor saving his son. Now, you may start to pick up where I'm going with this. Do you feel that way about Jesus? Do you feel that way about your Heavenly Father? Who is loyal to you, and to whom are you loyal? My wife, Dina, had a very difficult time in her life, and she felt like she was being ostracized by many people at her church, without going into the details. It was an extraordinarily, extremely difficult time, and one girl, one friend, Stuck by her side called her almost daily prayed for her prayed with her sent her biblical passages Scripture that would support her and encourage her and to this day Dina would do anything for that girl that woman anything who are you loyal to my my grandfather Papa and worked for J.E. Serena, a large, huge engineering company here in Greenville, South Carolina, all his life. But he grew up in the neighborhood with Charlie Daniels, who had Daniel Construction, which is now Fleur Construction, which was one of the largest in the nation. And Mr. Daniels used to try to get my grandfather to come work for him. Come on, we grew up together. Come work with me. And I remember my father saying that Papa would say to Charlie Daniels, no, Mr. Serene has been loyal to us. He's kept us busy. He's kept us on the payroll. When times were thin, when times were difficult, I wouldn't leave him. I'm loyal to him. Where do we see that kind of loyalty in the world today? And I think the answer is we don't. Businesses are no longer loyal to their employees. Employees are surely not loyal to their businesses. Even in sports now, with the name, image, likeness, players are no longer normal and loyal. In most cases, they're not loyal to their team. They'll jump ship in a second to get more money. Coaches will leave in a second. They'll swear they're never leaving that university, and the next thing you know, they've taken the job a day later. There's not much loyalty in this world, but when someone steps up for you and you're full of gratitude, you would hopefully live with loyalty. Think about the word devoted to as well as loyalty. Are you devoted to anyone and does loyalty come along with that? You see, there was a time in my life when I was undergoing an extraordinary amount of pressure, and it was difficult, and there were a lot of rumors flying around about me, and people were running my name in the ground. I was going through a divorce. And it was terrible, the rumors I was hearing. It was just absolutely awful. I couldn't believe it. Some of the things that were being said were so bad. And I was down, I was depressed, I was beaten up. This is 30 years ago. And a couple of my friends said, you know, so-and-so said this about you, but I thought, you know, I don't have a dog in that fight, so I just kind of stayed out of it. I mean, that was so deflating. But then one friend of mine, Bob Graham, said to me, Sam, I was talking with my neighbor in Sumter, my hometown, and she was carrying on about Sam and all the things she'd heard about Sam. And Bob said, I stepped in and I said, Sam Hunter's my friend. I'm on his side in this. And those things aren't true. He stood up for me in one of the most difficult times in my life. Now, a few years later, now Bob's daughter is Down syndrome. She's my goddaughter, Lucy. A few years later, Bob and I were chatting. He said, Sam, would you move to Columbia? Would you consider moving to Columbia? I said, no, there's no way I'm ever moving to Columbia. Why do you ask, Bob? And he said, well, Susan, his wife, and I are working on our estate planning. And if something were to happen to both of us at the same time, we would want you to take care of Lucy. But not if you wouldn't move to Columbia, because at her age, she needs things to be steady and normal, and you'd have to move to Columbia. And I said, Bob, I'll move to Columbia tomorrow. After what you did for me in my weakest, most down moment, I'll move to Columbia tomorrow for you. Loyal. So let's just pause for a moment and think about how that would change your life if you were loyal to Jesus, if you were loyal to your Heavenly Father. You find yourself in a situation, a temptation, you know, temptations can go both ways. You're tempted to not do what you know you should do, or you hear the Lord asking you to do, or you're tempted to do something that you know you should not do. You know that. And does your mind go to thinking, you know what, I cannot earn what he's done for me, but I can return it. I will do this out of loyalty. And let me just ask another question while I'm thinking about that. Can you be loyal, and I'm gonna use that Hebrew word, emunah, can you be loyal in that sense, faithful, reliability, loyalty, out of obligation? Can you be in that sense of loyalty out of obligation to someone? And the answer is no. The answer is not that kind of loyalty, not the loyalty we're thinking about. That's a got to life versus a get to life. I gotta do it versus I get to do it. So when you're loyal, when you think in terms of being loyal to Jesus for what he's done for you, to your heavenly father for what he's meant to you, that'll shift the way you live. And I want you to think about that. I want you to learn practice, put that into practice, appropriate that into your lives, that I wanna be loyal to Jesus for what he's done for me. And I wanna throw out this little caveat, I guess. If you don't feel any loyalty to Jesus, then perhaps he hasn't done anything for you. Perhaps he hasn't rescued you. You see, back in June of 1995, I was a nice man. I loved my daughter. I loved my mother, my father, my sisters. I would take care of them. I'd do anything for anybody. I'd help little old ladies cross the street. But I was totally focused on Sam and the temporal with no eternal perspective. And if the Lord had not come in and saved me, turned my life around, if Jesus hadn't stepped in and said, enough of that, I'm taking over now. We're gonna live the rest of your life in partnership. I would have modeled for my daughter and those I love a different kind of man that I would want to model I Would have presented a model of them or someone who was nice and kind and all but was focused on the temporal and not the eternal but he saved me so when I thank him for saving me I I will say thank you for saving me from hell, because I was headed there on a fast track, but also thank you for saving my children, my daughter, my loved ones from the man that I was. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful that he did that. He also rescued me. He didn't just come in to my aid and change my life. He rescued me from a sure fast track trip to hell. He rescued me, so I'm grateful to him. Now I wanna take a moment and think about a couple of biblical stories about gratitude and the loyalty that came from that. So I wanna put up on the screen these words, gratitude, love, loyalty, and then the idea of is your gratitude, is your love, is your loyalty, is it theological or is it personal? That's what I want you to think. Is it theological or is it personal? Let's go to a story about King Saul. Now here's what has happened with King Saul. He's been killed. He's gone into battle against the Philistines. They've killed Saul and his three sons. They stripped their bodies. They cut off their heads, gruesome stuff, nailed their bodies up to the wall, and made a big parade about it. Now what happens next when the people of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul? All their valiant men marched through the night to Beth-shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan and went to Jabesh. Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh and they fasted for seven days. That's a SEAL Team Six mission. That's going into the deepest, darkest, dangerous, behind enemy lines, and not to save someone, not to bring them back out alive, but to bring their body back out alive. Bring their body back out. What kind of loyalty is that? And why did these men behave in that way? Why were they willing to do that? Well, we have to back up to 1 Samuel 11, and I'm just gonna read a couple of verses so you can get an idea as to why they did that, why they would take on this SEAL Team Six incredibly dangerous mission for Saul's body, not his life. Let me read to you from 1 Samuel 11. Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead. That's the town we're talking about. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, make a treaty with us and we will be subject to you. But Nahash, the Ammonite replied, I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all of Israel. That ain't much of a treaty if you ask me. Yes, I'll make a treaty, I won't kill you all, but I'll gouge out your right eyes. Now imagine that you're in that situation and you are overwhelmed, you're over, man, you cannot stand up against this king from the Ammonites. You cannot, you're in incredibly dire situation. Saul hears about it. Saul gathers all of Israel and comes to their aid to rescue them. A few years later, out of loyalty to him, they would take on that mission. That's a great biblical story, isn't it? They were loyal because of their gratitude, which probably engendered their love. Now let's take another story about that same time. Saul's son, Jonathan, and King David, before he's king. Jonathan, if you know your old Bible stories, Jonathan the son of Saul was so devoted to David. He loved him. He was loyal to him. He even went against his father's plans. He almost got killed by his father. He loved David. Now he did not, he wasn't loyal to David because of gratitude. He was loyal to David because of love. The men of Jabesh-Gilead, they were loyal out of gratitude, which I'm sure engendered love. Jonathan was out of love for David. If you keep reading in David's story, you read about his fighting men. He had a group of men that were, they were the SEAL Team Six of the day, and they would do anything for David. Why? Why were they so loyal to David? Well, hold that thought, and let's add to that the disciples. Let's go to the New Testament, the disciples. You know, they scattered. They abandoned Jesus. They had no loyalty to Jesus when he was arrested in the garden. but after his resurrection, after the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, indwell them. For the rest of their lives, they were loyal to Jesus. In the face of certain death, in the face of torture, Peter and John stood in front of the Sanhedrin, the same crowd that had crucified and put him on the cross, and they said, you'll have to kill us. We're not gonna stop talking about Jesus. What was it about Jesus that engendered that kind of loyalty? Or you may think they were grateful to him, but grateful for what? Well, I would say he never gave up on them. And after they had given up on him and scattered and left him alone, He brought them back. He rescued them from the shame and the defeat that they had lived through, the embarrassment, the complete flame out. And think about Peter. Peter had denied and Peter had been the worst of the worst. And Jesus sought him out the very first day of resurrection to restore him, to rescue him. These stories that we see, they give us an understanding of this loyalty that we see in scripture. And again, do you feel that way towards Jesus? Do you feel that way towards your heavenly father? Loyal. In Older Testament, New Testament. Let's think about Paul for a minute, the Apostle Paul. I hope you like Paul. He gets a bad rap sometimes. He was an incredible, wonderful man, but he traveled close to 10,000 miles on foot. He was flogged five times. If you saw The Passion, Jesus saw him getting flogged. That happened to Paul five times. He was beaten with rods three times, pretty much the same thing as being flogged. He was stoned almost to death once. He was shipwrecked three times. He was in constant danger. He was about killed many other times. He kept going. And why? Well, if we look at 2 Corinthians 5, we'll see what he has to say about it. For Christ's love compels us. because we are convinced that he died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. Now here's where I want to point something out to you. Paul says he died for us. His love compels us. He died for all. That sounds a little on the theological side. Jesus died on the cross so that anyone could put their trust in him, trust and surrender to him, and be saved and go to heaven. That sounds like a 30,000 foot, not particularly personal statement. Paul says, the love of Christ compels us because he died for all. What was it? that compelled him to live the life he lived for the rest of his life and to end up being beheaded. Paul, what drove him? And I think it was more than this theological idea that Jesus died for all, that the love of Christ compels us. I think it was personal. It was personal to Paul. Let's see what he says in Galatians 2 20 because I think this is the answer as to what drove him I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Paul says he loved me. This isn't about a 30,000-foot level. This isn't about theology. He loved me. He gave himself for me. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but it's Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I now live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's personal. And the loyalty that The undaunted, unfairless loyalty that Paul exhibited for the rest of his life, just like Peter, just like John, just like the other disciples, it was personal. So when I brought up the story earlier about my friend Jeff, whose son almost died in the NICU in the doctor's, that was personal for him. When my friend Bob Graham stepped up and supported me, it was personal. And I'll never forget it. Is it personal for you? That is my real question. Is it personal for you? Because if it's not, then I think you'll have a hard time understanding loyalty. Perhaps you just haven't thought about it. That'd be on the bright side, that you just hadn't thought about it, but now you can think about what he's done for you, how he rescued you. And think back to when he did that and the changes that he's made in your life and the times he has come to your aid. Is it personal for you? If you have no connection with what I'm talking about, you may want to sit back and say, has he actually rescued me or am I still running the show in my life? Even though I go to church and I try to be a good Christian person, whatever that means, it's not personal. Make it personal. And you could go to Romans 8, and you could read all the passages about how he will never forsake us. He will be with us always. He will bring good out of every situation, that there is nothing, Paul says, the Holy Spirit through Paul, nothing that'll ever separate us from the love of God. You could go to 1 Corinthians 6, where it says, you were bought at a price. You're not your own. He paid a price for you. And perhaps that would engender more loyalty in you. But for me, you see, it's personal because of what he did for me. And I'll show you this on the screen, the passage as we close this up. that my children, my wife know that I want on my gravestone, on my mark, or whatever you wanna call it. It's 1 Timothy, starts at verse 12, but I'm gonna put it up here on the screen. But this is Sam's life. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, trustworthy, appointing me to his service. So that's from me right now. He gave me, he gives me strength. He considered me trustworthy. He actually let me work for him. Verse 13, even though I was once, and yes I was, a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, yes I was, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. The next passage, and it goes on. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst, Paul says, and so does Sam, but for this very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. That's my passage. That's my life passage because that is Sam's life. He didn't give up on me. He rescued me. He stayed with me. He never turned his back on me, even though he should have. He has showered grace. He has showered love. He has showered faith on me, and I want to return it. I cannot earn it. I never could have earned it, but I want to return it. I want to live out of loyalty. So when I find myself, this is just a paradigm shift for me, when I find myself tempted to do something I shouldn't, say, look at, whatever, or tempted to not do what I know he wants me to do, I'm now stepping back and saying, well, what would loyalty look like? What would it look like in this situation if I acted out of loyalty to him? It changes everything. It's no longer a got-to. It's not an obligation. I get to. I get to return it. I get to live it back towards Him. And that is what I hope you will take from this. I want to be loyal. Yes, love. But I want to be loyal to Jesus. I want to be loyal to my Heavenly Father. And you know why? Because there is more. There's so much more. You know it. Come follow Jesus and find it.