# Are you loyal to the Lord

Key Passage: Exodus 20:1-3
Date: June 7, 2024

Exodus chapter number 20, if you would please. Exodus chapter number 20 in your Bibles tonight.

I’m looking out seeing Brother Glenn play over there. I appreciate him playing faithfully all these years. He’s brought in that new guitar, new to us. And he’s got those red socks on too tonight. I think he’s styling tonight. I tell you what, I had to tie this morning too. That’s all right. I appreciate Brother Glenn. What a blessing he is.

And some of our folk, what a testimony you are. Your loved ones are in heaven, and you’re still faithful to the Lord. I appreciate it. It’s a testimony to me. I’m honored. You’re a great example to us all. What a blessing that is.

Exodus chapter number 20. I just felt like the Lord wanted us to go back. This is the first of the Ten Commandments. In 2019, we went through all Ten Commandments in a Sunday morning series. It felt like the Lord wants to focus a little bit tonight on the first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter number 20. Would you please stand as we read God’s word together, Exodus 20? We’ll start in verse number one.

Of God’s word. The Bible there says, “And God speck all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Did you notice that God’s is lower case ‘g’?

Now shall have no other gods. And then notice, would you please, before me. In some places this is repeated. The next verse will mention that God’s a jealous God. Actually, one of the names of God is jealous. He’s a jealous God. He has a right to be jealous, by the way.

And just for a while, let’s just believe the Lord would have us focus on this phrase, title, I guess you will be: How loyal are you to God? God puts a high price on loyalty. We lack loyalty in our day and time. How loyal are you to God?

And just for a little while, I believe the Lord will have us focus on that.

You can only have one God in your life. One God at one time, that is. You see the word God just means supreme one. You can only have one God at one time. Would I allow other things to become before God? They become my God. That’s why it says, “Thou shalt not have any other gods before me.”

Sometimes the children of Israel would very easily veer off to the other gods of the nations around them. That’s why God said, “I want you utterly kill them. Just take it away.” That way you’re not tempted when you get into the promised land. But they didn’t always do that. And many times they would go to false gods.

We sometimes read that first commandment and we think of statues of wood or stone. And that’s true in some countries, even in our day and time. It’s true in America sometimes. But, if you will, it’s simply: Who or what is the supreme thing in your life? Who is the God? Is God always the God in your life? What trumps everything else?

I’m learning, and I see it sometimes. I was teasing Brother Marlin for service about those grandbabies. They had the grandbabies over yesterday at the house, or maybe Friday night, and they spent the night, and they just enjoyed it. I’m learning if we’re not careful, grandbabies will trump a whole lot of things, and I’m not saying that’s wrong. But if they trump everything, something’s not right.

What trumps everything in your life? Who trumps everything in your life? What has control in your life? Put it just this way, I mentioned already: How loyal are you to God?

The children of Israel would often veer off when other people were around them. In fact, he mentions another place. Let me just read it for you, Deuteronomy 6:14: “You should not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you.” This may be a good scenario. You ever see someone—they’re a good friend to you, they’re loyal to you, if you will—unless someone else comes around? When a certain person comes around, you know they’re going to veer over there, and unfortunately, they’re going to shoot at you. You ever see that happen? And you’re like, “Man, I know what’s going to happen. They’re a pretty good friend unless so-and-so comes around, and then everything changes.” Does God feel like that about me? God said, “Man, they’re loyal to me. They’re good to me. They obey me. They want to follow me unless money comes around.”

And that is a common problem. It is so much of a problem, God has addressed that very directly. He’ll know the verses. Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and Mammon.”

Did you notice that scenario? Two scenarios will happen when money comes around. Two things you want to happen: either you’ll hate the one and love the other, or—that’s one scenario—or you’ll hold to the one and despise the other, not quite as strong. I’ve seen it, and I don’t know everything about what’s going on in somebody’s heart, but you’ve seen it sometimes. It seems like that they’re loyal to the Lord, and they just want to serve God, and money is the necessary thing they deal with. But that’s not the big thing.

I rejoice in being one of the young men that looks like he’ll be moving here real soon, graduated in college. He said this before, and he said, “You know, just the job thing—I just, of course I want something to pay my bills—but that’s not a big thing in life. I want to find a church where I can get involved and serve the Lord.” I love that attitude. It’s like, “The Lord, I’m in love with the Lord. And this money thing, sometimes I despise it, but it’s necessary.” Or it can be the flip of that. I’m chasing that money, that dollar. I’m trying to get ahead and just get—I don’t want to be poor like everybody else type mentality, you know. Sometimes they just despise it: “Oh man, I got to go to church, I got to tithe, I don’t have time to do all these things,” chase the knowledge, and they kind of despise the Lord.

But what trumps? Does anything trump when money comes around? Does the Lord say, “Well, I thought they were loyal to me. Boy, they sure change when money comes around”? Sometimes…

Sometimes the Lord doesn’t let money come around in our life because he knows we’re going to bear all. Money’s not the root of all evil; the love of money is the root of all evil. It was a good day when I understood there’s a whole lot of people that don’t have a dime in their pocket, but they got a whole lot of love of money in their heart. And sometimes they don’t have a dime in their pocket because they do have a lot of love of money in their heart. And God sometimes says, “You know what? They’re loyal to me. They’re my servant. They make me God.” But wow, when money comes around…

Years ago, before we were here, a little about buying and selling cars and whatnot. It was always interesting, you know how it goes. You sign the back of that title, and you put the amount of money you bought or sold it for, and they got paid taxes on it. Or if you’re buying, you got to pay taxes on it. It’s always interesting. That Christian, good people, but they’re like, “Hey, would you not put the amount on there?” You’re going to say, “Why not?” I mean, they paid $5,000. They want to put on there $4,000 or whatever because they don’t have to pay as much taxes, but not honest. It’s kind of like when money comes around, are you still loyal to the Lord in your honesty? Am I loyal to the Lord? Have I said, “Hey, no matter what, the Lord’s verse”?

It’s amazing. Sometimes people are just so loyal to the Lord until that green dollar bill comes around. Whoa, everything changes. Am I loyal to the Lord? Am I loyal to the Lord when their own crowd comes around? I mean, when certain people come around and they just get me in this mood or this mindset, are all my—as the old crowd used to say, you’ve heard the scruples? Anybody heard of scruples? How many have you heard of that from the older crowds? Well, the majority of you know your scruples. Are your scruples out the window because that crowd is around? And your loyalty to the Lord really is out the window? That’s what the Lord said: “Look, I don’t want you to make anything or anyone else the God of your life.” Is there sometimes a crowd that comes around and you don’t want to be noted as a Christian around me? You just kind of hold back a little bit, thinking, “Oh, it may hurt my standing in this crowd.” You’re not loyal. That crowd comes around to the Lord.

You know the term “ungodly”? The Bible used that term ungodly. It’s just an absence of God, if you will.

It’s very interesting about the grace of God in Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness…” Isn’t it interesting? The grace of God doesn’t teach me to live loose and immoral. It teaches me to deny ungodliness. If it’s the absence of God, you deny that. But I’ve got to leave God outside; I don’t want to go inside. Now, I want to be loyal to the Lord. Everywhere I go, everything’s going on, I’m going to be loyal to the Lord. Let me just ask: Are you loyal to the Lord even when music comes around? Is God still God in my life no matter who or what? Maybe when my tongue gets a little loose. Yeah, the Bible says my Christianity, my religion is in vain unless I bridle my tongue. And how many times our Christianity goes out the window when our tongue gets loose? And if you hear, God says, “You know, they’re loyal to me besides their tongue; it becomes their God.”

How loyal am I to the Lord? Am I loyal to the Lord in the area of clothes, music, pithing, bitterness? You ever think about it? I think about it sometimes. But just like maybe when you said, “Well, that person’s loyal to me. They’re a good friend, they’re kind, and they’re loving until so-and-so comes around.” You know how that bothers you? Anybody here who doesn’t want to say, doesn’t that bother you? No, shake it—yeah, yeah, sure.

Now, wait a second. Imagine how the Lord feels when I’m not loyal to him. We’re made in his image and his likeness. Just imagine how God feels: “Boy, they’re just not loyal to me, and they allow other things to come before me.” See how loyal you are to my God?

I like to be loyal. I’m not always there. I like to be there. By the way, nobody is always perfectly loyal to the Lord. If we were, we wouldn’t need Jesus. We’re all needing him. But, man, no other God’s before me. Now, women, tonight, if God’s not God in every area of my life, he’s not really my God, because God is supreme. And the first commandment, really, if we get that right, we’ve pretty much got all the rest tackled. Tonight will be a good night. I don’t think it would be long, but tonight be a good night. Let’s just say, “Hey, let’s just give him every area of our lives tonight.”

I want you to be God in every area. Sometimes I’ll go out in the morning—I don’t do it as safely as I ought to—but sometimes I’ll go out in the morning, you know, go out back. Dixie has her shock collar on her. She can only go so far. When I come out and take that shock collar off, oh, she’s ready to go. We take that shock collar off, and she’s ready to go. She usually will go out that back field over there where a tether was set up, you know. We’ll walk that way, and she’ll veer to the left and cross over the ditch to check the neighbor’s yard out first, in that field over there where y’all played football at, some of you. The other day, after the rain, that ditch was full. She went across the ditch, and she said, “Man, there’s water right there.” She got about halfway across. She said, “Uh, I ain’t going.” She came back and then tried it again. She got three-quarters of the way across, and she still turned back. I said, “You’re almost there.”

She’ll just take off. I’ll go out in the fields and just try to spend some time with the Lord, not as often as I should, but sometimes when I’m coming back, I’ll cross over 100 acres I’m usually out in, and then I’ll cross over just a little tree line. Then I walk along with the horses. There are some horses that live behind us; we know each other.

I used to walk for a while, just back and forth in a certain section of the horse field where nobody can see. One of the horses knows what I’m doing. He went and stood right in the middle of my path, an old stubborn horse. I got a stick and chased him off. “This is my territory right here,” you know. But I’ll come back to the horse field, and somewhere, as I was coming through that horse field, the house comes in view. I don’t do it as often as I should, I’m sure.

Sometimes I see that house and I say, “Thank you, Lord, for that house. Lord, that’s yours, not mine. I want to give you that house; it’s yours.” Then I walk up and I’ll see the truck up there, that white truck, and I say, “Lord, the truck is yours.” And that car there, that’s your car.

When the kids were home, I said, “Hey, Lord, my son—I love my son—but, Lord, he’s yours.” Boy, I love my daughter, and she’s yours. He gave me the best wife in all the world, Lord, and I’m so grateful for it, but she’s yours. I go through my life: Lord, my reputation’s yours. Lord, my health is yours. The millions of dollars we have in the bank, it’s yours, Lord. My clothes are yours, Lord. This lawn is yours, Lord. That shed over there is yours. That chicken coop in the back is yours. The lawnmowers are yours. I just try to go through my life: all of it is yours.

Friend, that’s what I’m saying. I want to be God in every area of your life. Nothing is before God. You don’t allow anything to make you disloyal to the Lord. That’s what he’s saying. It would be a good night, a good night just to say, “Lord, I want you to be truly God.”

Andrew Murray asked another preacher who had trained many preachers for the ministry, “What is the great need of the churches and its servants in our day and time?” This was years ago, but I think it’s true today. That’s what he said: “Absolute surrender to God is the one thing. If they are sound on that one point, they will make it. If they’re backward and shy, they can be taught and trained, and God will grow them. But if they do not have absolute surrender, they’ll quit and change.”

Just complete surrender. It’s always the need amongst God’s people. Just someone says, “Lord, I want you to be the God. I don’t want anything to be before you.” It’s like we get a check, and we write on there who it’s written to—write it to the Lord. And in the amount column over there, you just say “everything.” You got it all. In the bottom, you sign your name to it: “Lord, I want you to have it all.”

I want you to be God, you’re supreme. Everything I have, I just want you to have: all my dreams, all my desires, all my influence, all everything. I want you to have it all. My reputation—it’s all yours. Nobody comes before God. Make him supreme.

A missionary was preaching, and God was blessing him; God was using him. He was preaching away, and a Native American years ago—they say it’s a true story—heard him. God was just burning in his heart as that missionary preached up there. The Native American came up, brought his blanket, and said, “Me give blanket to the Lord.” He went back and sat down, so the missionary just kept preaching.

God was burning in that man’s heart. A little while later on, God was speaking to his heart. That man walked up, and he had his gun. He said, “Me give gun to the Lord.” He went back and sat down. The missionary kept preaching, and God was working; it was burning his heart.

After a while, he couldn’t take it any longer. The Native American stood up, walked out, and got his pony. He brought his pony down front and laid the reins down there—obedient pony—and he said, “Me give pony to the Lord.” He went back and sat down, and the preacher kept preaching. God was blessing, and it was burning his heart.

After a while, he couldn’t take it any longer. He walked up—didn’t have anything in his hands this time. He walked up and said, “Me no more to give. Me give self.” Friend, that’s what God wants. He wants the clothes you got on; he wants the keys in your pocket; he wants the wallet in your back pocket; and he wants the heart in the middle of it all. He just wants you to make him—not me, not the church—make him supreme. He wants that. He said, “Hey, first thing: I’m your God. I brought you out of bondage. I don’t want you to put any gods before me.”

It’s amazing. The world would say, “Well, that’s fanaticism,” while they’re screaming and yelling for a ballgame, or they’re giving their family, their marriage, and their kids on the altar of money. Come on now. They’re spending all their time just to get a little fit, another role of exercise. Some just devote everything to that. They’re devoting their life… There is nothing better to devote your life to than the Lord. Give it all then; you’ll never regret it.

Maybe tonight you say, “Hey, Lord, I just want to give you everything. I want to be loyal.” Here’s the thing: when you make Him God and no other God trumps Him, He’s just God. There’s peace. It’s a sweet place to be. When worry comes, I’m not letting Him be God. I battle it just like everybody else. Oh, but there’s peace when we have total surrender.

See, here’s the thing: when it’s in His hands—praise the Lord—He can take better care of that than I can. When our health, my health, is not in my hands, it’s in His hands, and I do whatever He says, but it’s in His hands. Hey, there’s peace because He is Jehovah Rapha, He’s my healer. There’s just peace when I’ve given Him everything; He’s got it all. Well, what about if my vehicle breaks down? Well, it’s not my vehicle; it’s the Lord’s vehicle. I’ll find myself not having peace, and so often it’s because I’m not letting Him be God.

You know, there’s a Hebrew term, Adonai. It’s mentioned eight times in the Bible. It means master. The word we use in the kingdom is Lord, not the all-caps word, but master. It’s like sometimes you’re using other scenarios, but it’s… Oh, when they had servants, that servant was my master. It’s when you become a servant of the Lord. In the Old Testament, hey, you had a servant; you owned him. But there was some responsibility on the part of the owner. It was your job to provide for your servants. It was your job to take care of them. The responsibility was on you to take care of your servant. Oh, friend, listen, there’s no better master to have than the Lord. The Lord takes awfully good care of his servants.

When you just completely say, “I’m selling out, I’m yours, everything I have totally, I want you to be God in my life”—friend, there’s peace. The stock market might be up and down and all cattywampus and all the rest of that, but hey, the stock market of heaven’s always good. My bank account and my job and all the rest of it doesn’t provide; God provides. I’m His servant, and I’m under His mastership. He helps, and He always takes care of His own.

It’s when He’s God, nothing before. It’s a wonderful place to be. It’s great. I’m not there always as I’d like to be, but when I’m there, I like the song: “So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds, they don’t worry me, for I’m sheltered in the arms of God.” There’s peace when you say, “I’m totally in His hands.” That only comes when you have total surrender. God said, “Look, I’m the one that brought you out of bondage in Egypt. I don’t want you to have any gods before me.” That key part is before. When I let something come before God, then that becomes the God.

It would be a great night, great night just to say, “Hey, Lord, I’m going to be loyal to you. It doesn’t matter what comes along, what crowd or what music or what prestige or whatever. Lord, I want you to know, I’m going to be a loyal servant to you no matter what.” And there’s peace because he can handle any situation. And I make Him God all the time, every area of my life.

Original File: Are You Loyal To The Lord - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday PM 4112021