Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 23, and we're going to be looking at a long list of heroes who made this same declaration in the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 23, beginning at verse 8. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. Josheb Bashebeth, a Takmanite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Esnite because he had killed 800 men at one time. And after him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated. He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand stuck to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to plunder. And after him was Shammah, the son of Agi the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines, but he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory. Then three of the 30 chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam and the troop of Philistines and camped in the Valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David said with longing, Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. And he said, far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things were done by the three mighty men. Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of another three. He lifted his spear against 300 men, killed them, and won a name among these three. Was he not the most honored of three? Therefore, he became their captain. However, he did not attain to the first three. Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. These things Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, did and won a name among three mighty men. He was more honored than the 30, but he did not attain to the first three, and David appointed him over his guard. Father, we thank you for your word, and we pray that as we look into it, that your Holy Spirit would stir the word within our hearts, sanctify us, cause us to reach out to you and to expect great things from you, to attempt great things for you. But we thank you as well for the positions that you have put each of us in. Help us not to envy that which is not part of your calling, and yet to strive for that which is a part of our calling, that we would keep pressing toward the upward call that we have in Christ Jesus. We love you, we commit this time of continued worship and pray for your blessing in Jesus' name, amen. In his 1968 book, None of These Diseases, which is really a path-breaking book on the application of the Bible to health issues, S.I. McMillan talked about a young woman who had made an application to go to college, but her heart sank as she started filling out the application because she came to this question that asked, are you a leader? And she thought, well, that kind of disqualifies me because I'm definitely not a leader. But she wanted to be honest. She put down, no, I'm not a leader. And to her surprise, she received this letter from the college. Dear applicant, A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We're accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower. It was kind of a tongue-in-cheek poke at the 1,452 people who put down, they thought, well, I've got to be a leader. I'm going to put down I'm a leader, even though probably many of them were not. And MacMillan's point in using that was that many people feel pressured to be leaders when God has not actually called them to be leaders. And I'm starting the sermon out this way, in this introduction, because This could be a real discouraging thing for some people they they they hear sermon after sermon But all of these exploits and all of these amazing things that people do and they think man I'm, just little old me and I can't do a lot of those things, but they feel pressured to try to do that well, let me assure you that God did not write about David so that all of you aspire to be the head of a state, right? That would be a ridiculous expectation To try to be exactly like David now, there's a lot of things we can imitate in David's life but in the same way God did not include this list of what sometimes seems to be almost miraculously enabled hero leaders so that all of you would aspire to be exactly like that. That's a sure recipe for discouragement in your life. This chapter actually doesn't even list all of the 400 valiant men that were a part of David's army. It only lists 36 of the leaders of that army. And here's the point. Where would those leaders be without the followers? They would be nowhere. They wouldn't be able to get anywhere. And while there are characteristics of these leaders that we can imitate, and I'm going to be pointing those out this morning, I want to be clear that God does not expect every one of you to be a David or a Benaiah or a Joseph. But God does want you to value the leaders that he has put in place. He does want you to recognize the need for such leaders and to gladly take your various roles as followers of imperfect leaders. And that's the third caution that I want to give during this introduction, that every one of these men were imperfect leaders and yet David valued them and God valued them very much as well. We've already seen that David was not a perfect leader, nor was Joab or Abishai or any of the others. And that's actually the whole point of this chiasm. Remember how the whole chapters 21 through 24 is structured as a chiasm. The whole point of the structure is to point out that every one of us needs God's grace. We need the gospel. And that God uses imperfect people like all of the people listed in these chapters to advance His kingdom by that gospel. Now granted some of these men were outwardly blameless, but they still had weaknesses as we will point out in point number two of your outline. And just as leaders should not pressure followers to be Goliath slayers, you know, and heroic leaders, followers should not have idealistic expectations of their leaders. Yes, there are standards that the scripture sets out before us leaders. But if followers were only able to follow perfect leaders, we would have precious few leaders and precious few followers over the last 6,000 years. Okay, followers can aspire to be like leaders and leaders can aspire to be like Jesus Christ But it's a growth process and even the Apostle Paul says this towards the end of his life Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. I But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And so on the issues of leadership, it is direction, not perfection. On the issues of followership, it is direction, not perfection, okay? So that's the introduction, let's dive into the text and let's see some of the characteristics that made these men mighty and made them leaders who were worth following. And the first characteristic is that every leader was a follower. And you'll see this interesting point throughout the chapter actually, but it's also hinted at in verse 8. Verse 8 says, These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. I'm going to emphasize that last phrase, whom David had. These men followed David. They were leaders who followed David. And one of the first prerequisites of a good leader is that he has learned how to follow. In his book, Cutting Edge Leadership, Ronald Riggio says, The reality is that all leaders must also follow. Even a CEO must follow the leadership of a company's board of directors. Research tells us that the best leaders are also the best followers. Effective leadership and effective followership have much in common, but understanding how to follow can make you a better follower or a better leader. Robert Kelly said much the same thing in his book on leadership. even David had to exhibit followership under Saul. He had to learn that. And he continued to learn from and to follow the advice of other leaders in 1 and 2 Samuel. And so there should be no such thing as a leader who does not know how and when to follow. The elders of this church are in mutual submission to each other. We're in submission to the elders of Presbytery, and we value followership, and we very much fear the independent spirit that we see all throughout the church in America. It is led to disaster when you see leaders who want to be leaders, but they have no humility to follow in the ways that God calls them to follow. And sometimes that means being challenged by the very people that we are leading. And we're going to talk about that a little bit this morning. Do not have the illusion that these 36 men were yes-men to David. We'll see in the next chapter that Joab actually challenged David in a very godly way over his numbering of the children of Israel. Now Joab didn't always challenge in a godly way. I think most of the time he didn't, okay? It was ungodly. But that was a very godly way to challenge David to be a better leader in that chapter and it was one of the few places where David became stubborn, proud, and pig-headed, and he resisted that and it led to absolute disaster in Israel. So let's quickly consider the kinds of followers that are out there. Arrigo outlines four kinds of followers. He describes yes-men who back the leader. And yet they still expect the leader to make all of the decisions and to provide all of the direction. They're faithful, okay, there's nothing wrong with their faithfulness, but they lack initiative. And not one of these 36 men was yes men. Now there may have been yes men amongst the other 400, we're not told, but not these 36 heroes. The second kind of follower is described by Riggio as the alienated. These are the cynics and the disgruntled who create a lot of negativity and trouble in the organization. They unnecessarily are challenging their leaders, unnecessarily challenge, and in many ways they resemble Joab and Abishai. Even Joab and Abishai are, I think, better than some of the descriptions that Riggio gives in his book there, but they bring a lot of giftedness to the table, but they also make life discouraging for the leader. So those are the alienated, maybe a better way of describing, and those are the jerks in the organization, okay? The ones that are really hard to get along with. The third kind of follower is labeled by Riggio as the pragmatic. These are the followers who are in it for themselves. And so if they don't like change, they're gonna resist. And they're gonna try to keep the status quo going. They're gonna resist any improvements. If they, on the other hand, are in this just for what they can be advanced on, they're not afraid of change, but they're gonna be backing whoever is going to best serve their own best interests. And I think both Doeg the Edomite from the past and Ahithophel would be examples of these kinds of followers. They follow only because of what is in it for them. There's no God-centeredness to their following. They're not driven by the cause. Like the others are, they're only driven by their own self-interest. The fourth group is what he calls the star followers. They represent the ideal in followership. And let me read you his description at length. Riggio says, star followers are active, positive, and work with and for the leader to achieve good outcomes, and outcomes aligned with the direction and the vision of the organization. Kelly describes them as leaders in disguise. Ira Chalif also talks about these ideal followers in his book, The Courageous Follower, Standing Up To and For Our Leaders. Courageous followers do everything possible to contribute to the leader's and the organization's success but have the courage to constructively challenge the leader or the status quo if they think the direction is wrong. Importantly, the courageous follower helps prevent ethical abuses and misbehavior by the leader and others. And so the star followers are dedicated. They give their all to the cause But they're willing to stand up to a leader if what he has done is unlawful. In other words, they're only following when God allows them to follow. Just as an example David put up with a lot of nonsense in Saul's administration But there came a time when he could not be faithful to God and continued to be a follower now Jonathan was still able to be that but in David's case He was not able to be so a star follower is not a yes-man but he is still a full-hearted and loyal follower and we see both dimensions and some of the other leaders that are mentioned in this chapter and For example, the dimension of incredible loyalty to to David is illustrated in verses 13 Through 17 where we see these leaders At great risk to their lives going to get that water. They want to please David They want to make his life more comfortable and they do not expect him to be a perfect leader before they try to bless him Okay On the contrary, they submitted to David's leadership in the spirit of Hebrews 13 verse 17, which says this. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your soul as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you. So those are the kind of leaders that brought joy to David's heart. They made it easy for David to lead them. But the willingness to occasionally stand up to leadership and those same people is illustrated in 1 Kings 1, verse 8, and some other chapters. And it was because they cared about David that they stood up to him, okay? It was because of their loyalty to David that they had earned the right to challenge David when he needed to be challenged. Their followership of David was not a blind followership, but it was certainly a loyal followership. And I cannot emphasize this enough, that those who aspire to leadership must learn the humility of followership. Don't even think of being a leader if you have not learned how to follow. And Jesus modeled this for us. Remember in Luke? Chapter 2 verse 51 it says that Jesus went home and he was in submission to his parents. He was in subjection to his parents is the way some word it. He also apprenticed under his father. Now here he is the creator of the world. You know, I mean, he made the trees and he could make anything he wanted, but he's apprenticing under his stepfather, stepfather, his adoptive father, Joseph. He apprenticed under him. Yes, he learned followership so that he could be a good leader. And now let me point out that if followership and leadership are so tightly intertwined as these books indicate that it is, that it means that every one of you can lead in some way. If all of you are followers, that means you can lead in some way. You may not be able to lead like David led, but you can still lead. So. It is the women who are in subjection to their husbands. who manage their households, who lead their children and their slaves back in the days when they had slaves, their servants, who lead them the best. It is the husband who has learned how to be in submission to his parents when he is growing up, who has learned how to be in submission at work and in his church, who has the most gracious and the most compassionate kind of leadership in the home. And when our children are properly trained to submit to discipleship, they too will be leaders in righteous actions when there's enormous peer pressure to do the bad thing. Okay. So I think it's one of the huge lessons we can learn from this chapter. Good leadership has learned good followership. Every one of these men was leaders. Every one of these men was a follower. Now I want to back up a little bit and have you turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 22. and verse 2 to see what these men looked like before they were put into positions of leadership. In 1 Samuel 22, David is not even a king yet. But his leadership on the battlefield and his amazing balance of followership under King Saul brought admiration, the text says earlier, and such admiration of David that people flocked to him in droves out there in the wilderness. They just were inspired by his lifestyle. So take a look at 1 Samuel 22 and verse 2. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them, and there were about 400 men with him. Now, at first blush, you would not expect to make leaders out of people like that. And yet, God turned them into leaders. To me this indicates that the leaders in 2 Samuel chapter 23 were not bound by their past. And it would have been very easy to be bound by their past. When you face distress like they faced, it's very easy to become bitter. The Hebrew word for distress, matzok, refers to such painful circumstances that it brings anguish of spirit. That's a lot of distress, okay? It's the kind of distress that brings many people down, makes them want to quit. But it's also the kind of stuff that distinguishes true leaders, okay? These men were not overcome by their distress, but were instead overcomers. Learning to rise above the distresses is a key to surviving in leadership when the going gets tough. But some people are so chained to the past by bitterness that they are ineffective. Okay, second word, debt, nasha. is described in the TWOT dictionary as equivalent to a loan shark. And the reason they say that is because of the usage of this word. It's used in connection with snake bite. It's used in connection with debt and with wickedness. And you wrap those all up in a package. It's a kind of debt that is overwhelming. It's these people, it's the mafia putting the knuckles to you, you know, on the debts that you have. And yet, even though debt dogged them, They were overcomers. Okay, that's the point. Now you may think you don't have debt, but when I checked the national debt on Monday, and it increases by the minute, when I checked the national debt on Monday afternoon and I divided it by the latest population figures, every man, woman, and child in America owes $55,659, and that does not count the state debt or the city and county debt. That's just the national debt. Now when you when you consider everyone in your family has fifty five almost fifty six thousand dollars of debt that's been assigned to them that's enough to make you want to throw up your hands and say it's a hopeless cause there's nothing we can do for our nation. But it's also one of the kinds of things that divides between those who will be leaders and those who will not be leaders. How many times have good leaders lost everything gotten back up on their feet and tried again. Now the third word, discontented, is actually three words in the Hebrew, ishmar nefesh, and it refers to those who are hard-pressed because they've been fleeing from Saul. Now it could refer to their holy discontentment, the way things are in the nation, But one dictionary has it as outlaws, and that's the way some translate it. And that's okay, so long as you realize they're not running from the law of God, they're running from the tyrannical statutes of King Saul. But either way that you translate that, it was such a bad kind of a situation that they had to flee from the country. And it might be ordinarily something that would make a person so discouraged that they would give up. And so again, these were men who would not stay on the ground when they were knocked down by adversity. They came right back up fighting again. These providential difficulties proved their mettle. And I think that Teddy Roosevelt hit the nail on the head in his speech, The Man in the Arena. He said, it is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better, the credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. And I think that pretty much sums up the kind of character that these men developed through their tough circumstances. For sure, they were not bound by their past. Now let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 23. The third thing that characterizes the men in this chapter is that they had learned to fear the right thing. They definitely did not fear dying. That's pretty clear through the chapter. They did not fear the government's displeasure. You know, they've been running from the government. They were fighting against Saul's government. They did not fear that. They did not fear the odds that were against them. Take a look at the odds that are listed there in the second half of verse 8. Josheb, Bashabeth, the Taqbanite, chief among the captains, he was called Adino the Esnite because he had killed 800 men at one time. That is nothing short of miraculous. In fact, some people say the only way this could be true is if this man had some kind of a supernatural miraculous gifting like Samson did. You know, we talk about the gift of mercy and the gift of this. Well, they had the gift of fighting, right? Some kind of a miraculous gifting that was upon them. I kind of think of it as a Jackie Chan with some supernatural oomph that was given to his fighting. But this is really astounding even then you think Wow, even with the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit up against 800 men and he kills them kills them all Well, there's more On another occasion, according to 2 Chronicles 11 verse 11, this man single-handedly killed 300 men in battle. Now I don't think Jackie Chan could go up against 800 men in one battle and 300 men in another battle. This is something that goes beyond the normal. It's in the supernatural and it implies to me a faith in God's miraculous power. Now the next two heroes exemplify the same thing, verses 9 through 12. And after him was Eliezer the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle and the men of Israel had retreated. Now the fact that the rest of Israel had retreated shows that they knew there was danger. They had a reasonable fear from a human perspective. But there was something about Eliezer that made him fear God more than man. And when your eternal destiny is secure and you do not fear death, it gives a certain boldness in battle. I mean, okay, if I die, go to heaven. I'm just focused in on what my duty is, focused in on my task. You do the right thing even if it means your death. Now usually, such leaders inspire others to similar heroics, but the fact that they didn't follow shows that they must have thought He's just gone over the board. You know, he's one hairbreadths on the other side of crazy, right? Sometimes heroes are one hairbreadths on this side of crazy. They figured, no, it's on the other side, so they didn't join him. So starting at verse 10, he arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand stuck to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to plunder. And after him was Shama, the son of Agi, the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, offended it and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory. And I want you to notice he does not attribute this to the fact that he's some kind of a Jackie Chan amazing fighter. Now there's supernatural here. It says, so the Lord brought about a great victory. So what distinguished these men from the rest of Israel was that their faith in God somehow made them fear the right things. And let me illustrate what I'm talking about by quoting from a devotional book by Dana Key. She said, today a public school teacher is afraid to recite the Lord's Prayer or read Psalm 23 in her classroom for fear of legal repercussions. But that same teacher can tell your child where to get a condom or an abortion without your consent or knowledge and fear no legal repercussions. Now fearing the right things in circumstances like that is essential to being a godly leader. Too many pastors fear the hardships they may face if they preach the whole counsel of God or if they put a politician that's a member of their church under church discipline. They fear the consequences, and because of their fear of man, they lose their fear of God. It's a very short-term orientation. It takes long-term orientation to fear what James 3, 1 warns us teachers about. That passage says, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. That is saying that us teachers and any others in the congregation who are involved in teaching that we receive a greater judgment than those who are being taught. But it takes a long-term perspective to worry about that. Most people who are in the pulpit worry more about the immediate repercussions of what they are saying rather than fearing God and saying the same things. And so you see the Apostle Paul who you think, wow, he's an amazing guy, and yet he said he always sought to be close to God because he feared lest he be disqualified. There's another thing that distinguishes those first three leaders, this is the next point, they stood in the gap for the sake of others. So when others fled there's a gap that the enemy is pouring through and these leaders step into that gap and they stem that flood. They hold back the enemy. Eleazar led the charge into battle and he looks around to see who's following him and they're all going the other direction. And I'm convinced when he was going into battle he was probably trying to do the same thing, probably yelling for the others to be following him into the charge. I remember the movie Patriot where Benjamin Martin in the last battle there, he's picking up that flag and he's trying to wave it. Everybody's running the opposite direction and he manages to stir them up and go in the right direction. I imagine Eliezer is trying to do that, but in this case he was not successful. They did not turn around. He fought alone and the Israelites sheepishly return only after he has routed the Philistines. The last phrase of verse nine says, that they retreated, and the last phrase of verse 10 says, and the people returned after him only to plunder. They didn't return to fight, they returned after the battle was done. But the memory of what he did that day may have made his followers rise to the occasion on other battles and emulate his courage. He stood in the gap for the sake of his nation. And that pretty much covers the fifth point as well, that he did not give up even though he was standing alone. Nor did Shammah. Take a look at verses 11 through 12. It shows a man who refuses to retreat when it comes to defending God's land. And after him was Shammah the son of Agi the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory." Now in Robert Bergen's commentary he says, Shammah's willingness to die for the sake of the land may properly be understood as a defense of the Israelite faith. According to the Torah, the Lord owned the promised land and Israelites were its tenants and caretakers. Thus to defend the land was to take a stand in behalf of the Lord." Now I will admit that there do come times where if we don't retreat it's foolhardy. But there are times when a leader must lead even when people do not follow. His leadership in that case becomes a rebuke to those who don't follow and becomes an inspiration in the future to others to follow where they should follow. And let me, one person worded it this way, standing out often means standing alone. And let me just apply it in the area of family. The Bible doesn't ask husbands to force their wives to follow. That's not followership and that's not leadership, okay? The Bible never gives that as a mandate to men. It calls them to lead. Too many men substitute power for authority. They try to force things in their own strength. Authority is a channel flowing from God through the husband into the family. And so you can lead even if people don't follow. And leaders sometimes have to stand alone and just say, okay, Lord, I've done what I could. I'm standing in your authority. It's sometimes very lonely being a leader. I think of George Washington. Many thought of the Declaration of Independence as a stupid, foolhardy pact with death, that this is not a winnable battle against the Brits. At least a third of the population sympathized with Britain. A third of the population probably did not side with one side or the other. They just wanted to remain neutral. And only 4% of the population actually joined George Washington's The remaining patriots decided they would take their chances fighting outside of the army. So George Washington had a very lonely leadership position. But there are times when leaders have to be willing to stand alone, and I would encourage you to pray for them. Pray for your leaders. It's sometimes a tough job to be a leader. And actually, I think George Washington exemplifies all of these points that we're looking at today. Now another thing that was clear here was that loyalties were not divided. All these men, even the grouchy ones like Joab and Abishai, all of these men were fiercely loyal to David. They weren't ready to get up and leave him at the least offense. Even when they disagreed with David, they were loyal to him. You know, an entire sermon could probably be preached on verses 13 through 17 on this incredible act of loyalty and devotion. I'm not going to do that, but let me at least read these verses to you once again, beginning at verse 13. Then three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam, and the troop of Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David said with longing, Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. And he said, far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore, he would not drink it. These things were done by the three mighty men. And that was an incredibly daring trip of 25 miles through hostile territory. Why on earth would they take such risks? Well, it's because they loved David. They were willing to do anything for them. They saw his even greater sacrifices for country, and they were inspired by that. They were loyal to him, and it was a joy for them to sacrifice for David. And on David's part, knowing the risk that they had taken to their own lives in bringing this water, he did something that you might consider insulting after they've done all that and he's not going to drink it. But it was actually the exact opposite. He felt unworthy of what they had done. He felt unworthy to drink it. The men knew that he longed for that water, but David said that their sacrifice was so great that only Yahweh deserved to have it. And so he poured it out as an offering to Yahweh. There was no greater action, in my estimate, that David could have done to honor these men. So he was loyal to them. They were loyal to him. But there's another point illustrated in those same verses. David's action of pouring out the water and Shammah's action of defending the Holy Land both showed that these leaders were driven by a cause that was greater than them, greater than they were. This is not just about David. In fact, as you read through these stories, you realize each one showed by his willingness to die for the cause that the cause was greater than them. Otherwise, they wouldn't be willing to die for the cause, right? They were gripped by a cause. They were not in this for the money. They were not in this just for a job. They were gripped by a cause, and it is a cause that gives passion to leadership. It's what keeps leaders from compromise. And every time I watch Braveheart, I am stirred on this point. Men were willing to battle against all odds because they were so passionate about the liberty and the cause of Scotland that any sacrifices they made of leadership, any sacrifices of followership that they made were worth it. And I see one of the major themes of that movie as being the making of Robert the Bruce into a full leader by transitioning him from a leader with a job into a leader with a cause. At one point in the movie he had compromised and It was because of his father's advice, and he had betrayed William Wallace. And seeing the look in William Wallace's faith gave him enormous remorse. And in the famous dialogue with his father, he expresses the longing to fight for something worth fighting for. He's expressing the fact that he wishes his heart was sold out to a cause just like William Wallace's heart was sold out to a cause. He admired William Wallace's leadership and he knew he didn't have it. He did not have the kind of leadership that William Wallace had. Now his father just accused him of naive idealism, but let me read you that part of the dialogue. Robert's father says, I'm the one who's rotting, but I think your face looks graver than mine. Son, we must have alliance with England to prevail here. You achieved that. You saved your family, increased your land. In time, you will have all the power in Scotland. And Robert the Bruce said, lands, titles, men, power, nothing. Robert's father, nothing? Robert the Bruce, I have nothing. Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk fought for William Wallace. He fights for something I've never had. And I took it from him when I betrayed him. I saw it in his face on the battlefield and it's tearing me apart. Robert's father, all men betray, all lose heart. Robert the Bruce, I don't want to lose heart. I want to believe As he does i will never be on the wrong side again And it takes a while But you see robert the bruce by the end of the movie being willing to die for a cause that is bigger than he is And it's only then that he's willing to risk his life and it's only then he has some of the other characteristics that we've looked at this morning In fighting for david these men were not just fighting for another king They were fighting for what David stood for, for limited government, for liberty, for the Torah, for the glory of God, for their wives and children. They had become selfless leaders. And yet another principle that we see in these men is that they never asked their soldiers to do anything that they themselves were not willing to do. You see it in David and Josheb and Eleazar and Shammah. You even see it in Abishai. Look at verses 18 through 19. Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of another three. He lifted his spear against 300 men, killed them, and won a name among these three. Was he not the most honored of three? Therefore he became their captain. However, he did not attain to the first three." One of the great examples of this principle here I think as depicted in the movie, We Were Soldiers, directed by Ronald Wallace, starring Mel Gibson as Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore. And prior to leaving for service in Vietnam, Moore delivers a moving speech to his troops And in that speech he says, I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive, but this I swear, I'll be the first one to set foot on the field and I'll be the last to step off and I will leave no one behind that are alive. We all come home together. And Moore literally fulfills that promise. He's the first onto the battlefield. He's the first off of the battlefield. And that's leadership. True leaders don't ask their people to do anything that they are unwilling to do. They lead by example. A father who is a good leader doesn't just boss his family around, okay? He leads by example. And these leaders modeled the behavior they wanted others to manifest. Though some leaders could care less about these things, that's the kind of leader that the star followers want to follow. That's the kind of leader that the star followers are inspired by, okay? Yet another principle that's exemplified throughout this chapter is clearly stated in verses 19 and 23. that David showed his leadership by honoring those who deserve to be honored. Verse 19 says of Abishai, was he not the most honored of three? Now what's remarkable about that statement is that Abishai constantly rubbed David the wrong way. He was irritated by David many times, but tough as Abishai was to get along with, David recognized that this was a man who deserved to be honored and he honored him. He gave honor where honor was due. Now the text says that the most honored one of them all was Benaiah, that's in verses 20 through 23. Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day, and he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, so he went down to him with the staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiah did, and won a name among the three mighty. He was more honored than the 30, but he did not attain to the first three. and David appointed him over his guard. And then the honor roll just continues as the rest of the leaders are mentioned in verses 24 through 39, a list of 36 leaders. I'm not going to take the time to read all of the names, they're hard to pronounce, but you can look over those. But the point is that good leaders gladly promote leadership qualities when they see them. Good leaders gladly honor the achievements of other leaders. insecure in elevating leadership. In fact, good leaders will advance leaders who are far better than they are. And some of the leadership books that I've read have pointed out that some of the leading CEOs in America have elevated people who really are much better qualified for their job than they are. They've elevated them, and a bad leader would not have done that because he'd be insecure. He'd be thinking, boy, if I elevate these, everybody's going to recognize they're much more gifted than I am. My job is going to be in jeopardy. But you see, a good leader wants the success of the cause, not his own glory. Husbands who are good leaders are not intimidated by the fact that their wife is smarter than they are, maybe more well-read than they are, or more gifted than they are. On the contrary, they are delighted that their wife and they together have a synergy that's going to bless the family more than if they had not had a wife who was more gifted than they are. So I think you can see it really is an important quality. Now I could have focused on manliness and bravery and courage and strength and technique and fighting prowess and other characteristics that are essential for good leaders in the military. And if I was preaching to some military men, I'd probably deal with a bunch of those things. They write very big on the text here. You can see it. And if you want to have models of manliness for your boys, wow, have them read this chapter. There's testosterone written all over this chapter, okay? I've chosen not to go that direction, even though Joel probably wishes I would have. Because I wanted to focus on the principles that every one of us can imitate, either by submission and followership or by, you know, growing in our own leadership qualities. And it's my prayer that your hearts would be stirred up to be the best followers and the best leaders that God's grace can make you to be. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, we thank you for this passage and the incredible lives that have gone before us. And Father, even though we can't be a David and we can't be a Benaiah, you have made us to be exactly who you've made us to be. We want to fulfill our calling, not somebody else's, yet I pray that each one of us would learn from these characteristics and grow in the positions that you have called us to. Do bless this people and strengthen us and help us to be totally sold out to you and to your cause. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.