INTRO: In the December 31, 1989 Chicago Tribune, the editors printed their photos of the decade. One of them, by Michael Fryer, captured a grim fireman and paramedic carrying a fire victim away from the scene.
The blaze, which happened in Chicago in December 1984, at first seemed routine. But then firefighters discovered the bodies of a mother and five children huddled in the kitchen of an apartment.
Fryer said the firefighters surmised, "She could have escaped with two or three of the children but couldn’t decide whom to pick. She chose to wait with all of them for the firefighters to arrive. All of them died of smoke inhalation."
There are times when you just don’t leave those you love.
Today we are continuing our look at building relationships. We all need relationships.
We need to take a serious look at what qualities we can focus on that will help us in our relationships.
Last week we looked at the concept of serving. Jesus was in the last stages of his life. Not only was he dealing with the suffering and death that lay ahead but a close friend helped set this up.
-With all of this weighing on him, he heard his trusted disciples bickering about who was going to be the greatest.
-I personally would have gotten upset. But Jesus did something amazing. He got up, put a towel around his waist and began to wash their feet. He did something no one else was prepared to do. That is, he served.
Summary: The first pillar to healthy relationships is to have a servant’s attitude. -Serving destroys that self-centered pride that is ingrained in us. Show picture.
Healthy relationships
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Serving Loyalty
-The second pillar to healthy relationships is loyalty.
TITLE: Relationship Builders
TEXT: 2 Samuel 11:6-15
I. Background to the text.
A. David is the king of Israel. It is a time of prosperity.
1. It’s in the spring. What would people do in the spring? The men would go off to war. -The king would usually lead them but this time David stayed behind.
2.One evening he got up and was walking around on the roof of the palace and he noticed this woman who was bathing. She was very beautiful.
3.David inquired about who she was. Her name was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam (granddaughter to an adviser) and the wife of Uriah.
-This didn’t matter; he had her brought to the palace so he could fulfill his desires. She returned to her home.
B. Bathsheba sends word that she is pregnant.
1.Imagine the plotting and scheming taking place in the mind of David.
2.David orchestrates a plan, so he sends for Uriah who was off fighting for David. TS: This brings me to my first point.
II. Loyalty will cost you your comfort. Uriah arrives at the palace to see what the king wants. They talk about how the war is going.
A. The king tells Uriah to go home to be with his wife and he sends him a gift.
1.V. 9, "But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house."
-It was his personal conviction not to enjoy the pleasures of home life while the Ark of the Covenant and his fellow soldiers were away from home; others were fighting a war and risking their lives.
2.Loyalty, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is an unswerving allegiance; being faithful to a person, cause, or idea.
-The Hebrew gives the idea of a parent with arms reaching down to a child to help support or steady him (to firmly support).
Simply put, loyalty will help support you in a cause or idea.
3.David hears about Uriah not going home so he questions him and finds out that he is not going to do such a thing.
B. David encourages him to stay, to dine with the king. So David gets him drunk, hoping he would go home and spend the night with his wife.
1.Uriah does not go home, rather he goes and sleeps with the king’s servants. -David is not going to move this man. Uriah is loyal to the king and his army.
2.Even being inebriated does not affect his loyalty.
Thought: Loyalty will cost you your comfort.
Example. Jackie Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball. While breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium.
While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered.
Then shortstop "Pee Wee" Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
TS: Loyalty will not only cost you something
III. Loyalty may cost you your life.
A. Uriah returns to the battlefield with a death sentence.
1.David, not knowing what else to do, puts a letter together for Joab to put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst and then pull back so he will get killed.
-All this took place to cover up David’s sin.
2.Uriah’s hand carries this letter to Joab who does what the king orders. -Uriah is killed—the king’s plan works.
3.Bathsheba mourns for a period of time. When it is over David brings her into his palace to be his wife.
B. Contrast loyalty and disloyalty. We can see these two qualities played out in the characters of David and Uriah.
1.Uriah – a man who was loyal to a king, a nation, and a cause.
-We’ve seen him be faithful, even disregarding his own interest and pleasures. That’s loyalty. Who would not want a friend like Uriah.
2.King David – a man who was disloyal, a man who saw, who took, who killed, who lied. David’s criminal behavior would have gotten him locked up in today’s society.
Question: Who would like to have a friend like David?
Summary: Loyalty will cost you your comfort, may cost you your life, but
IV. Loyalty will be remembered.
A. David thinks it’s all OK. He’s gotten by with it until Nathan the prophet shows up and traps David in his own scheme.
1.Divine punishment was making its way into reality. -Uriah’s blood was crying out from the grave (so to speak). God brought divine discipline.
2.God’s judgment: death of this child and David’s household would be under a curse rather than a blessing.
B. Loyalty will bring honor. It will not only strengthen friendships but loyalty is highly valued.
1. Loyalty is a trait that people look for in relationships.
-There’s nothing worse than being betrayed by a friend or a loved one.
-Down through the centuries Judas is looked down on and rightfully so. His disloyalty is a shocking thing.
TS: As we look into our own lives, do we see loyalty?
C. Are we loyal, are we willing to pay the price for loyalty?
1.Of course, we’d all like friends who are loyal but are we loyal to others?
Question: Are we loyal to our friends and family?
Are we loyal to our employers, our employees? Are we loyal to our spouses?
2.A larger question: Are we loyal to God?
-Do our words show loyalty to God?
-More importantly, do our actions show we are loyal to God or are we like Judas? (When something better comes along, do we jump ship or sell him down the river to benefit ourselves?
Point: We know the pain when others are disloyal to us, but have we considered our loyalty to others, and more importantly to God?
-We all want God to be loyal to us, but are we loyal to him?
: Does our relationship with God cost us anything?
: Is our relationship with God putting to death some areas of our lives? (Something to think about.)
In Conclusion:
Loyalty—it is a relationship builder. It helps you focus on other people. Relationships are a two-way street, it can’t all go one way. Proverbs tells us in order to have friends, you must be a friend.
Question: If you’re discouraged because you don’t have many friends and you’d like more, take a look—are you a loyal friend who serves? Or are you a taker and it’s always about you (your marriage, your
family, your children, your problems)? Life hag been a one-way stree4 balled You.
