Followership, Part 2

Well, last week, as we began reading locally in the book of Joshua, I was talking about the concept of being a follower. And Joshua was quite a follower for Moses of 40 years, of course a follower of God as well. And we drew attention to the fact that we are all followers. As we live in the world that we live in today, and we see things happening like we see in the last few weeks around us, it becomes more important for us to be very close followers of God and to adhere to what He said and to yield ourselves to Him and to trust in Him more fully and rely on Him more completely than we have in the past.

Because as we progress toward the time that Jesus Christ returns, that will be very important to us. Christ told all of us, follow Me is what He said. And so, in our role for eternity, not just in this lifetime, but for eternity, we're going to be in the role of follower. There will never come a time that we are the supreme being in the universe. There will never be a time that we are greater than Jesus Christ. We will always be followers. No matter what we do today, no matter what position God puts us in tomorrow, we will be in the role of follower.

We will be in the role of leader as well. And so, it's important for us to know what the concept, as we discussed last week, about being a good leader is. And so, many of them mirror a good follower because, as we talked about some of the things last week, we learned to be a good leader, we have to be a good follower. And if we haven't mastered that, we will never be able to lead the way that God wants us to.

Last week, you'll recall, I began, I had three points that I took from some of the business articles and business magazines and some of the college curriculum on organizational behavior that's available on the Internet. I didn't make the points up myself, but as I read through those points and as I have over the last decade or so when I've been involved in some of those things, it's always struck me that those points of followership mirror the Bible perfectly and that whatever we might do in our areas of employment, we would also do in church to follow God, but on a spiritual basis.

So I want to complete or continue with that today and complete it with a few more points for you to consider. But let me rehash first the three points that we went over last week. We said to be a good follower, you have to know your role, you have to understand it, and you have to embrace it. You know, no one wants a follower who really hates the role he's in.

It becomes obvious in the workplace, it becomes obvious in church if someone hates the role they're in or thinks that they should be in some other role. So good followers have to understand, they have to embrace the role, they have to know what their role is. And we as Christians need to understand that when God puts us into those roles, he puts us into positions he does because he wants us to learn. We can never lose sight of the fact that God is preparing us, training us for what he wants us to do for eternity, and we must let him do it.

He knows what our weaknesses are, he knows what our strengths are, and we shouldn't second-guess him and we shouldn't ever be in the position. We think, I don't need this, I don't need that. If God asks us to do it, even if we think of his far below what we should be doing, we just need to learn to do it and realize God is giving us that for a reason. So good followers know what their role is, they understand it, and they embrace it. We'll talk a little later about doing it well. Number two, we said, followers are obedient.

That wasn't a biblical word, that came right out of the Harvard Journal on Business Management. They are obedient. They acknowledge it's not a politically correct word to use obedient, but you know, in the church we know obedience is something we do. Followers are obedient. We talked about how sometimes, even when God gives us something to do, we have to pay close attention to it. It may not seem like the logical thing to do.

We might think, oh, that's not the way to do that. It would be so much better if we went this way. And we talked about Joshua. We talked about the Battle of Jericho. We talked about the walls falling down. And remember, we said that, you know, not one of us would have come up with the strategy of marching around the city for six days once, marching around the city seven times on the seventh day, and then shouting. So if Joshua or the people had said, that is just a silly idea.

What we need to do is take all our strength. We need to just barricade. We need to siege. We need to do whatever we do to conquer the city. They would have never conquered it. They had to follow God implicitly. And when they did, God gave them the victory. So it is for us. We follow God implicitly. We may not understand everything that happens in our lives. We may not understand why of everything we do, but we learn to do it.

And as we learn to do it, we understand God's way. And we understand Him more. And we understand that when we follow Him, He will be there. He will deliver the victory. He will sustain. He will provide. He will see us through whatever befalls us, as I often say, between now and the return of Jesus Christ. But we have to learn to obey. And the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey.

And we very, very much just the necessity to have God's Holy Spirit as we march forward. And number three, we said that good followers communicate. They talk with their leaders. They don't sit back and stay separate. Good followers aren't just men. They're not the ones who just...

You know, good leaders don't want people who just say... Have someone around them just say, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. They want to hear ideas. They want to hear what people think. They want questions. They want people to understand. Just like we talked about in point one. They want people to understand the role. They want them to embrace it. They want the team to work together. They want people to follow God. And that's what we must do.

You know, we talked about talking to God. Certainly that's something that we have to do without communication with God. The relationship with Him ends. If we're not praying, if we're not Bible-studying, if we're not meditating, if we're not doing what He says and even communicating with each other, we are losing part of what He says to do.

Good followers communicate. Good followers ask questions. Good followers have ideas. But good followers also know when the answer is no. Just like God tells us no in so many things, but we learn to accept it and move on and know that He knows what's best.

As I was preparing and updating some of this for this week, I was looking back over some of those articles, and I noticed that the U.S. Navy also had something about good followers, because if anything in the military, you have to be a good follower or you can find yourself in trouble real quick.

And they had a whole section on it, and many of the points that we've talked about and will talk about are on their website. But they had this to say about communication. It said that U.S. Navy's study on good followership found that outstanding ships were those staffed by followers who supported the leader but also took initiative and did not avoid raising issues or concerns.

Now, you would think of the Army or the Navy, if anywhere, it would be like, just do it and don't talk back and don't have any kind of feedback. But they realized even there, the best result was when leaders and followers communicated and followers were not afraid to raise an issue.

And I hope that's the case in God's Church everywhere, that you're not afraid to ask questions. And as I mentioned yesterday in my letter, sometimes when communication stops, I'm learning more and more, there's a problem. There's a problem. Don't let communication stop. If you have questions, if you have concerns, if you've got anything you want to talk about, pick up the phone. Don't hide from God. Don't hide from His Church. Don't hide and stop the communication, because when the communication stops, the relationship stops. And you never want to be in a state where you've lost your relationship with God.

So those are the first three points that we talked about. Let's talk about number four here. And number four is one that I found in every single article and every single website I looked at. Every single one. And you know, in church, we often talk about this point as well, and I was, I guess, in a way, surprised. But when you work in the workplace, you know that this is important, and boy, in the church, is it important as well.

Good followers are humble. Good followers are humble. Harvard says it. The magazine, Inc. INC. says it. Bass Company says it. University of Missouri says it. Good followers are humbles. Humble. Reading just a couple of their comments. Great followers don't make things about them. They are humble. They try to shine the light on the leader. That's kind of a noble concept. Another one wrote, when we are truly humble, we are selfless. We don't need or seek validation. In fact, we validate others rather than vying for position, status, or accolades. Furthermore, humility makes us teachable, a key characteristic of both good followers and good leaders. I could give a whole sermon.

Probably two or three sermons on humility. There are so many examples in the Bible, from the beginning of the Bible to the very end of the Bible, it talks about humility. Christ talked about humility. There is no one who was more humble than Jesus Christ. And I should point out, there was not a better follower ever than Jesus Christ. He perfectly followed God. Here he was the Son of God, born as flesh. And through his life, he followed God. He never took matters into his own hands. He followed what God said implicitly. Even saying, the words that you give me, Father, are the ones that I'm going to speak. And he said that he's an example for us.

And if he was such a good follower, he would expect us to be a good follower of God as well. You know, Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 11. He said, Follow me as I follow Christ. We have to know what God wants. We have to know the direction that God is leading us in. And we have to be sure to follow him and follow what he has put us on this earth to do and what he has put us on this earth to learn and to develop into. Now, I guess if there was one sin, I guess, or one shortcoming in people that has led to so many problems in life, it would be the sin of pride.

It began with Satan. If Jesus Christ was the perfect follower, Satan was the perfect or the worst follower, I guess, of all time. Here he was following God, or supposed to be, and he led his own ideas. He led his own inflated view of self. Get in the way, and he became just a mockery of what he should have been. Pride can be the undoing of any of us, and we are all susceptible to it, every single one of us. Pride can manifest itself in various ways. With some people, you can see it immediately. Other people, it's kind of there, and their ideas, and they'll keep it a little bit more hidden.

But pride can undo any of us, and I dare say, if we were going to look back and see the people who no longer walk with God, no longer are followers of the way of life they've been called to, pride probably had a hand in every single one of them. Because at some point they thought they knew more than God. They knew more than the Bible. They knew more than what they had. They somehow thought they were above the law. They could compromise and get away with this, and because they were doing all these other things, God would be okay with it.

You can probably go back, and the people you know see, somewhere along the line, they just thought they didn't need the Bible. They didn't need the truth. Or they were above it. Or they could look back and they could find things with something or something written or whatever, and take themselves right out of the truth. But Jesus Christ called us to be humble, and He was the perfect example of humility. Let's go back to 1 Peter 5. We'll talk about Christ in a minute, but let's see what Peter wrote about it, because he does have some admissions, or the Bible is full of admissions about this point if we are going to be good followers that God has called us to be.

1 Peter 5, verse 6 says, Therefore humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your care on him, for he cares for you. Humble yourself before him. Do what he wants you to do. Let him be the one to exalt you. Don't exalt yourself. Christ gives parables on that, and He gives us admonitions on that. Let Him lead you.

Let Him perfect you. Let Him weed out from you the problems that He knows that each of us have, and get us ready for what He wants us to do. Over in Micah 6. Over in Micah 6. A memory verse and a verse of Jesus Christ pretty much repeated as He upbraided the Pharisees in the New Testament in Matthew 23, a group of people who were not at all humble.

Micah 6, verse 8 says, He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. To walk humbly with Him. Follow Him humbly. No matter how long you've been in the church, no matter where, what position you may think you're in, walk humbly with Him.

Over in Matthew 18. Matthew 18. The Scripture that we read not too long ago, when we had the blessing of little children, but something we should always bear in mind with us, because Christ has quite a command for us, if you will, or quite an admonition for us, in this incident where He's talking about little children or approaching them. In verse 2 of Matthew 18, it says, Jesus called the little child to Him, and said to them in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted, and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

It's quite a statement. Well, we sit and think about it, unless we become as little children. Now, we talk about this at least annually, what little children become like. And little children don't take matters, if they do take matters into their own hands, they get punished. But little children follow what their parents say. Little children trust their parents. Little children don't rise up and say, I'm going to do this instead of this. And, of course, if they do, they learn that they need to follow. Verse 4, Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

You know, we can look at Jesus Christ. He never bragged about what he was doing. You don't see any occasion in the Bible where he has a group of people, and he tells them that he's the Son of God. He's there to save them, if you will, by giving his life. He tells the disciples that. It went right over their head when he told them that he would be giving his life for them and be raised three days later. You don't see that in the great leaders of the Bible. You don't see David, you know, as he was king, beating his chest and telling people how great he was. You don't see that with Moses, as he led the people out of Egypt under God's direction.

He knew he was following God and what he was doing. He wasn't doing of his own power, of his own might. He knew it was God who was leading him. And when we remember it's God who works in us, when we remember it's God who helps us, God who helps us to change and make the changes in our lives, it keeps us humble. It's when we start thinking that we are doing these things and that God really needs us, then we can walk into some problems. And Joshua never did that as well.

We see Joshua as a humble man, and God kept him humble in some cases. Let's look back at Numbers 11. Numbers 11, we have an incident before he was the leader of Israel. Before he was the leader of Israel, Numbers 11, verse 28, he followed Moses for 40 years. Part of humility is patience.

He waited for God to put him in a position. He didn't take it upon himself to do that. Back in Numbers 11, we have an interesting little comment by Joshua, and he learns what things are about. Let me see. Verse 28. In verse 26, we have a couple of people who are prophesying in the camp. And it says in verse 26, The Spirit rested on them. And there's a reason that God let this happen. Let's just read through it.

They were among those listed but who had not gone out to the tabernacle, yet they prophesied in the camp. Verse 27. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, L, Dad, and me, Dad, are prophesying in the camp.

Moses, they're taking your place. Moses, look what they're doing. Did you give them permission to do this? Yet it says that the Spirit was on them. So Joshua, Joshua, Jericho fame, and the day the Son stood still fame. Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, Moses, forbid these guys. Who are they to take your place? You're supposed to be the one prophesying. A noble thing, kind of, that Joshua was saying.

Moses, who told these guys they could do these things. And then we see something about Moses because he could have said, Yeah, who are they? I didn't send them out to do these things. You're right, Joshua, thank you for telling me about them. But Moses had a different approach. Moses said to him, Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that God would put His Spirit upon them, or all of them.

If God chooses to do something, Joshua, I'm not going to limit God. It's not about me, it's about what God does. And if He chooses to have other people do this, it's okay with me. Moses could have taken just the opposite approach, and we would have all agreed with him. We would have probably done, Yeah, who are these people? Why are they doing that? But he listened to what they had to say. He could sense the Spirit of God there, and he wasn't trying to protect himself or his position.

He was willing. He was willing to do that. And Joshua was upbraided a little bit. Probably Joshua was a little embarrassed, a little humiliated, as some of the commentaries say around this verse. And sometimes a little humiliation is good for all of us, because it reminds us who we are, and that this is God's work, not ours, that our lives are God's, not ours, that the training plan He has us in is God's training plan, not ours.

He'll write the script, and not us. And so Joshua learned a little bit that day, something that he carried with him as he continued on in life. Over in Joshua 9, now he is the leader of Israel, what we read of Joshua, we see that he was always communicating with God. Before every battle, he would communicate with God, seek His will, look to see what God wanted done, and Joshua would follow it implicitly.

But in one case, in Joshua 9, he didn't do that, and he paid a price. He paid a price for that. If you're following along the way, we have the things scheduled here. You would have read this yesterday. But you remember Gibeon. Gibeon, who came to Israel, they saw what was happening. They saw that Jericho had been defeated.

They knew that Israel's God was behind them. They knew that they were going to be obliterated, the city's taken from them. And so they came up with the plan that they would deceive Israel. And you remember they went to painstaking efforts to show how far away they came. They came in on saddlebacks that were worn out. They had old clothes. They had bread that was moldy, old wine skins.

The whole nine yards, so that they could come to Israel and say, Make a covenant with us. Make an agreement with us. We know how great you are. We know how great your God is. We've come this long way. And the men of Israel listened. And Joshua listened. And everything sure looked good. Everything sure looked like it was above board. They were able to answer questions. And in verse 12 here of Joshua 9, I'm sorry, verse 14, we see the men of Israel, including Joshua, as part of this.

It says, The men of Israel took some of their provisions. Key verse, they didn't ask counsel of God. They didn't ask counsel of Him. They didn't pray about it. They thought this was a no-brainer. This is something we can do. God had told them, Don't make any covenants with the people around there. You're going to drive them all out. You're going to have the whole land. You're going to take every city. Don't make any covenants with them. And they thought, It's okay to make a covenant with these people. They're from far away.

And they didn't ask God about what was going on. So, verse 15, Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of the congregations swore to them, We are in agreement with you. And it happened at the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. What an embarrassment.

What an embarrassment. Didn't ask God. Maybe you've been involved in something or think, If I had just asked God ahead of time, I would have maybe, or God would have kept me from doing this silly thing. If I had just taken the time to ask, If I had just learned to consult God in everything and take a moment before I make a statement, make an agreement, do an action, and just ask, Is this your will? You know, Paul says, Be in constant communication with Him if we go back to that point.

But being in constant communication with God means we are humble. It means we are humble. We seek Him. Israel didn't do that. The leaders of Israel at that time had to be a little humiliated at that. Down at the end of verse 18, the last sentence there of verse 18, it says, The congregation complained against the rulers. They looked at them and said, What have you done? Look what God gave us, and then you went out and you didn't even consult God.

You made an agreement with these people. They just weren't humble enough. We haven't talked much about Caleb. Caleb is the perfect example of humility. He was one of two spies who came back out of the Promised Land and said, God will give us the land. He didn't become a leader, per se, in Israel, but he stayed there and he did exactly what God wanted him to, and he supported what God was doing through it all. You don't see Caleb trying to manipulate his way into something else. He was content to do what God had him doing.

One last thing in this section. Joshua 19. Joshua 19. As you read this week, you'll read through the parts where Israel has conquered the land that God has wanted them to conquer at this time. Joshua, as God told him in chapter 1, he would divide the cities of the land among Israel.

And through chapters 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, you see that happening. And here in verse 49 of Joshua 19, an interesting thing that shows the character of Joshua. Joshua 19, verse 49. When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua, the son of Nun. The very last one. The very last one to get his inheritance. Now, Joshua could have said right at the beginning, this is what I want. This is what I want. He was the leader. God had worked through him. But he waited until all else was done. Didn't beat his chest. Didn't put his foot out. But at the very end, the very end, he received his inheritance. This is what the Matthew Henry commentary says in their comments on Joshua 19, 49. Joshua waited till all the tribes were settled before he asked any provision for himself. He was content to be unfixed till he saw them all placed. And herein is an example to all in public positions. Prefer the common welfare before private advantage.

Humility. You don't think the people appreciated what Joshua did and the example that he gave them in always remaining humble in the role that God gave him.

Well, let's go on to the next point. Turn with me back to Philippians 2, verse 3. I'll use Philippians, verse 2, to make a bridge to the next point, because the next point is closely related to being humble, but it bears its own discussion. Philippians 2 and verse 3. It says, But nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Be humble. Let each of you, verse 4, look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. See the bridge that was there? Be humble. Keep an attitude of service in mind. As I was looking through the journals that I talked about, another one that showed up, and every single one of them, is that good followers have an attitude of service, or they have the servant's attitude. Let me read just a couple comments from them. One says, If I can stop there for a moment. As I was reading through some of the commentaries on Joshua and Caleb, one thing, well, many things, but one thing in particular struck me about those two men. The commentary said that you can look through the Bible, and you don't find one incident, not one, where Joshua or Caleb ever complained. Isn't that an interesting thing? Now, I'm sure they did, privately. And every single one of us will murmur, will complain. We may say it to our wives. We may say it to our best friend. But they didn't do it so that it became something that defined them. They weren't out among the congregations saying, this isn't right. This shouldn't be done. They weren't overanalyzing everything God said. They weren't picking it apart. They weren't looking at His law and saying, we don't need to do this. We don't need to do that. We've been smarter to do this. They were followers, and they never complained publicly. I'm sure they did it. You and I do it, but it should never define us. And if we have the attitude of service, it will never define us that we complain or murmur. Against God, or our employer, or whoever is, it's a leader over us. If we have an issue, as it says in Matthew 18, 15, you take it to them, and you discuss it and work it out. But as I read that, I had to think about what I had read in the commentary about that, and how when we work in places. You know, you've all worked in places where there's someone who grumbles about everything going on in the company.

And it becomes really, it becomes really defocusing on what you do and what you do. Anyway, none of us should be marked by we know better and publicly, or making it define us that we complain or keep saying we know more than someone else. Another one says, seek to serve. While they may not be aware of servant leadership practices and principles, followers cheerfully serve the needs of the organization and of those with whom they work. They will assist others when necessary. They will put others first. They will recognize teammates when that affirmation is due. Again, a nice situation, right? If that happens in the workplace, that should happen in church as well. Another one, the ability to perceive with empathy allows us to learn, care, and act on the needs of others. This provides a platform for treating others not as you want to be treated, but as they want to be treated. And we just read that in Philippians 4. Christ was the greatest follower. Christ was the most humble. Christ was the greatest servant who ever lived. He had all the reasons not to be a servant, but there was nothing beneath him to do, even to the point of dying for us. He gave his entire being to serve us, lowly people who don't deserve it, but he was willing to do that as a service to us. It's called, to Mark, Mark 10. Mark 10, verse 45.

Another memory verse. Even the Son of Man, Mark 10, 45, didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. It was Christ who, on that night of Passover, it was Christ who came and knelt down as a servant to wash the disciples' feet. It stunned all of them. What? They saw who he was, and yet he was willing to do the most menial of tasks, because that's who he was. Again, as he's our example, are we willing to do whatever task God would ask us to do? Or does there come a point in time where we think, you know what? I'm beyond that. I don't have to do that anymore. What are we willing to do? What's the attitude that we have? Because good followers always retain that attitude of service. Christ, it says, I won't turn back to Philippians 2, but verses 6 and 7, you know the verses, says, He gave up being God, He took the form of a bond servant. None of us are giving up that much. What God, what Christ gave up to serve us. A man by the name of Oswald Chambers, I think that's the theologian from the 1800s, maybe the 19th century, he wrote this, he wrote this about people and the attitude of service. He said, He said, the real test of a saint is not one's willingness to preach the gospel, but one's willingness to do something like washing the disciples' feet. That is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation, but which counts as everything to God. Not all of us can do everything. Would we be willing to do what God asked us, even if it was the most menial task that we could imagine? Good followers maintain the attitude of service. They never lose it. They never lose it. Let's go back to Joshua. Joshua 24, a chapter now that you'll be reading this Friday, since we revised the schedule. Joshua 24, one of the hallmark scriptures of the book of Joshua, he maintained an attitude of service throughout his life. He never lost sight of the fact that God was leading him, that God was in charge, that God was the real commander, and he was serving under God. And in Joshua 24, as he's about to die, as he's finished the job that God gave him, he challenges Israel, and he lays it all out there for him in verses 24. In verse 15, let's pick it up in verse 14 and just read through it. As he's about to die and he talks with Israel, he says, "'Now therefore fear the LORD, serve him in sincerity and in truth. Play the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve God.' And if it seems evil to you to serve him," Joshua says, "'Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell.'" And of course, he was referring, because back in those days they had all sorts of idols, and all those idols had names. It could be Ra, it could be Molech, it could be Kamosh, it could be whatever god that was out there. And he's saying, what god are you going to serve? Are you going to go back to serving those gods that you had in your past? And we might look at that and say, how could Israel have ever gone back and served those gods? But in our day in life, we have gods too. They may not be called Molech or Kamosh, they may not be made of wooden stone, but we have all worshipped other gods in our life before God called us.

Sometimes that god we worshipped was us. Was us. We knew more. We were better. We stood taller. We were the ones who everyone should look up to. It can be a dangerous thing. And when God called us and we repented and we were baptized in the waters, we were to put all that behind us.

No longer to have that rise again, dead, buried. And all those gods, whether it's us, whether it's wealth, whether it's power, whether it's position, whether it's faith and trust in government and or man or whatever it was, all those gods are gone. No other gods except God we worship. And that's what Joshua is saying. What are you going to do?

What gods are you going to serve? The gods of the old time? Or are you going to serve the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? And he says, and he concludes, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the eternal God. We will serve as they knew him in Old Testament times. Y-H-W-H. That's the God we will serve in my house. Key word there being serve. We all need to serve God and to be yielded and committed to him. Good followers maintain an attitude of service.

Let's move on to the next point. Good followers are loyal and good followers are trustworthy. I'll read you some of the comments that were in the business journals. Keep promises and believe others will keep their promises. Trust that others intend to deliver as promised. The Bible would say, Give our brothers the benefit of the doubt. Believe until you have absolute proof that they're doing what you are also doing and following God as you follow God. Another one wrote, Be respectful. When we give respect, we earn respect.

But even more importantly, we earn the trust and loyalty of others. Together, these create cohesion and solidarity. I mentioned about Caleb and Joshua. They showed respect for God. Caleb showed respect for Joshua. He could have had an issue with it and said, It should have been me. Or I should be second in command here under Joshua.

That wasn't what God had in mind for him at that time. Only God knows why. Maybe Caleb needed to learn something. Maybe Caleb needed to learn patience and humility. But good leaders are loyal and trustworthy. Again, Christ would be the perfect epitome of that. But let's go back and look at King David as well. 1 Samuel 24. Perfect example of what this would mean. 1 Samuel 24. You know that David was anointed king 15 years before God gave him the throne, if you will. And he followed a king that was not so good.

Saul was not a good king. Saul had a lot of problems. Saul wanted to kill David. Quite a test on David to follow someone like that. What kind of a follower would he be?

And David even had to run for his life and even run to a foreign land to save his life. And here in 1 Samuel 24, in the midst of all that's going on, we see something about David that God very much appreciated. 1 Samuel 24, verse 8. David arose afterward. This is one time when David spared Saul's life. David arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, My Lord the King! And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed down.

Even to a man who didn't deserve respect, David showed him the respect. And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Indeed, David seeks your harm? David knew what his naysayers were saying. And he was asking Saul, Why do you listen to this? Why don't you come and ask me if I'm going to be loyal to you? Why do you believe that I'm seeking your harm? And here's a perfect example that I'm not seeking your harm.

Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. Can you imagine what it would be like to be King David running for your life? King David, knowing that Saul was out to kill him because he was jealous of the fact that God had anointed him king. There he is in the cave. No one would know it.

No one would probably fault David. Go ahead and kill him. You could even convince yourself that this is what God had set up. This is your opportunity, David. You kill Saul. And he had someone whispering in his ear, Kill him. Kill him, David. Do it. What are you waiting for? Obviously, this is something that is set up by God. Just do it. Maybe we found ourselves in situations. Oh, you know what? This isn't how it's been laid out for right now, but someone else says, No, no, no. Do it. Do it. Go ahead. Step out of line.

Don't do the things that God has had you do or what he has put you in. You step out of line and take matters into your own hands. David didn't listen to it. David kept loyal. He was trustworthy to God, and he knew as long as God had commissioned that for him, as long as it took he was going to follow Saul, even if it was the very day that he died.

He didn't listen to others. He followed God. And he had loyalty to Saul, even though Saul didn't really deserve it. But he knew that God was in charge of his life. And he knew that God would be there, and he trusted him.

He said, Someone urged me to kill you, but my eyes spared you. And I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Good followers are loyal and trustworthy. Loyal to God, trustworthy to God, trusting that he is leading them to where he wants them to be.

And following him implicitly, and not leaning on their own understanding. Because when we begin to lean on our own understanding, as it says in Proverbs 3 verse 5, When the thing seems right to us, we know where that leads. And when we lean on our own understanding, we can do something that is very much against what God would have us do. Good followers are loyal to God, loyal to his plan, trusting him implicitly that he is preparing them for what he needs to do, and everything we go through in life is to prepare us for what he wants us to do.

Next point. Good followers are finishers.

Finishers. F-I-N-I-S-H-E-R-S. Jesus Christ was the epitome of a good follower. Jesus Christ finished what God gave him to do. It was a hard road to travel down. It had a lot of pain. It had a lot of suffering. It was a point in time when he asked God, can we find some other way to do this and accomplish the same thing? And God said, no, we will finish it the way we had it prepared before the earth ever was.

He finished what God gave him to do, and he was the greatest follower, the greatest servant, the most humble of all time. Let's look at John 4.

And he left us an example of how we follow. John 4, verse 34.

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Are we committed to finishing what God has begun in us?

Because there's many who have started along the path, but they didn't let God finish what he started in them. In John 17, the prayer that Jesus Christ prayed after he spoke to the disciples told them many things before he was going to be arrested. Things they didn't understand them, but they would understand later.

And as he prayed to God in John 17, verse 4, he said, I've glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. I finished it. Good followers finish what they have set their hand to, and what their leader has set them to do, what God has led them to be.

And in John 19, just a couple chapters over, as he was being crucified and life was about to ebb from him, in verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it's finished. It's finished. God has called us to be perfect, to become perfect. He's called us to grow in the grace and knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ. He's called us to let him write his mind, or his law, way of life, on our minds and on our hearts.

He's called us to become like him, to yield ourselves to him, and to let him prepare us for what he wants us to be, whether that's a high position in the kingdom, or as it says in the Scriptures, the door, the doorkeeper.

Whatever it is, he has started a work in us, and we started that work. When he called, we responded. We said, yes, I will follow you. We did repent. We were baptized. We did receive his Holy Spirit. We committed to him for eternity.

None of us today have finished the job that God called us to do. We're all living. As long as we live, we won't have finished. How many started down that path and didn't finish? Weren't good followers. The Apostle Paul, you know the verse back in 2 Timothy 4, verse 7.

He says, I've run the race. I've finished the task. Now there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Moses finished the job that God gave him to do. His job was to lead Israel out of Egypt, lead him to the Promised Land he did. And when his job was done, and God knew what he needed to know about Moses, he let him die.

When Joshua was given command of Israel, he was told, you will lead them over the River Jordan. You will conquer the land. You will divide the land among the children of Israel. And he did that. And when that was done, he did it. He finished the task. And God let him die.

Will we let God finish the task in us? Will we make the decision to finish what God has done? Let's look at just a couple verses here in Joshua. Joshua 11. Joshua 11 verse 15. As they're completing this phase of conquering the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, it says of this, it says, As the Eternal had commanded Moses, his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua. He passed the baton to him. This is what God said to do. The mission for you is now this. Go ahead and finish the task that God has given you to do. And so, Joshua did. He did it.

He left nothing undone of all that God had commanded Moses. He did it all. Our job is to do it all. Let God finish. It says Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. It's not of us. We have to make the choices along the way. We have to stick with it. But we have to let him complete. We have to finish the race.

Down in verse 23.

His job was done. Be a good follower. Let God lead you to the Promised Land. Let him finish in you. Make the choice that you will never give up the job, that you will never throw in the towel, that you won't let man, that you won't let event, that you won't let trial, that you won't let yourself take you away from what God has determined to finish in you. Be a good follower. Just as Jesus Christ was a good follower. Just as Moses was a good follower. Just as David was a good follower. Just as Joshua was a good follower. Follow him. Follow him and let him lead you to the Promised Land.