In one of the more memorable Peanuts cartoons, Linus and Lucy are discussing an appropriate way to show appreciation for Charlie Brown, their baseball manager. Linus says, “I’ve been thinking. Charlie brown has really been a dedicated baseball manager. He’s devoted his whole life to the team. We should give him a testimonial dinner.”
“Is he that deserving?” Lucy responds. “How about a testimonial snack?”
Obviously, Linus and Lucy have different opinions of Charlie Brown. Linus thinks he’s really great. Lucy, not so much.
But that raises a question I’d like us to consider tonight / this morning as we get ready to celebrate Father’s Day: What makes a man truly great? What makes a husband or father truly worthy of high honor? Dads, what makes you truly wonderful in your family’s eyes?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 11, Exodus 11, where the Bible identifies a truly great man. Exodus 11, and verse 3. Look at it – the 2nd part of that verse. Moses himself was highly regarded – literally, Moses was very great – in Egypt [regarded so] by Pharaoh’s officials AND by the people. (NIV)
The high and the mighty saw Moses as a great man, but so did the weak and the lowly people, as well. Moses was great in everyone’s eyes, but what made him so?
Well, just flip over a few pages to Exodus 14, Exodus 14, and look at verse 31 where Moses has just led the Israelites through the Red Sea.
Exodus 14:31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him AND in Moses his servant. (NIV)
The people put their trust in God, to be sure. But they also put their trust in Moses, and that’s exactly what God wanted. God wanted everyone to trust in the leader He had appointed to lead His people.
Flip over a few more pages to Exodus 19, Exodus 19, where God is talking to Moses right before He reveals Himself to the rest of the people with fire and smoke on Mount Sinai.
Exodus 19:9 The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” (NIV)
God wanted the people to put their trust in Moses! Now, that word “trust” comes from the Hebrew word, Amen, the same word we use at the end of our prayers. Do you know, when you attach the word “Amen” to your prayers, you are saying, “Let it be true” or “Let it be sure.” In the verb form it means “to confirm” or “to verify” something. And when it is used of people, it means they are firm and true; they are trustworthy and reliable; they are dependable.
Well, let me tell you: That’s what made Moses great. Moses was true. Moses was trustworthy. Moses was a man of integrity. And that’s what makes you and me truly great today. If we want to be truly great in the eyes of the powerful, if we want to be truly great in the eyes of regular people, if we want to be truly great in our own family’s eyes, then like Moses, we must…
BE HONEST MEN.
We must be men of integrity. We must be firm and true, trustworthy and reliable. That means we don’t make promises we cannot keep. And we keep the promises we do make even to our own hurt.
On March 2, 1857, a group of people in Janesville, Wisconsin, started the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. A couple of years later, in 1859, the fledgling company moved to Milwaukee and soon experienced its first two death claims. A passenger train, traveling from Janesville to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, derailed, killing 14 people, two of whom were policy owners. The losses amounted to $3,500, but Northwestern Mutual had only $2,000 on hand. So company President Samuel Daggett and Treasurer Charles Nash personally borrowed the money they needed to pay the claims immediately.
Legally, they could have simply defaulted on the payments, but they decided to do the right thing. They both agreed that they would rather see the company fail than neglect their obligation to those who trusted them to keep their word. (The Origins of Doing the Right Thing, northwesternmutual.com; as reported on www.PreachingToday.com)
These were truly great men, because they kept their word even if it meant losing their company. They were trustworthy, dependable, men of integrity.
Ted Engstrom put it this way: “When you promised to be faithful to your mate, integrity says you’ll stay with that person no matter what – for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. If you promised the Lord that you would give Him the glory, integrity means you keep on doing that whether you’re reduced to nothing or exalted to the highest pinnacle on earth. If you promised a friend that you would return a call, integrity means you return it. If you promised your child that you would spend Saturday together, integrity means you keep that appointment. A promise is a holy thing, whether made to a chairman of the board – or to a child.”
Integrity – it’s what makes a man truly great! So if that’s what you want, if you want to be truly great, then be a man of integrity; be an honest man. 2nd, if you want to be truly great…)
BE A HUMBLE MAN.
Be unassuming and unpretentious, and don’t wear your greatness on your sleeve. You see, truly great people don’t have to advertise it. They just simply do what God has called them to do.
That’s the way Moses was. Turn with me to the next book in your Bibles, the book of Numbers 12, Numbers 12: Here, Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, challenge Moses’ leadership.
Numbers 12:1-2 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this. (NIV)
The Lord heard their jealous, critical remarks. They wanted people to know that they too were worthy of respect just as much, or even more so, than Moses. Aaron and Miriam wanted some of the spotlight for themselves, but not Moses.
Numbers 12:3 Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. (NIV)
That word for “humble” is often used of poor people in the Old Testament, people who were totally dependent. And that’s how Moses presented himself. He didn’t flaunt his position with fancy clothes & big speeches. He didn’t advertise his greatness. He just simply did what God told him to do. In fact, Moses didn’t even want the position when God first called him to lead His people. Moses was “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.”
He lived his life in absolute dependence upon God without flaunting his achievements, and that’s what we must do if we want to be truly great. Don’t tell people how great you are. Just serve. Just do what you know God wants you to do. Just be humble, living your life in absolute dependence upon God.
Sir Edmund Hillary was no doubt one of the greatest mountain climbers of all time; but beyond that, he was just a great man. 1n 1953, Hillary conquered Mount Everest and was knighted in that same year. In 1985, he was made New Zealand's highest commissioner to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh; and in 1995 he received the British realm's highest award, the Order of the Garter (which can only be held by 24 people at any one time).
Yet despite Hilary's achievements and awards, he remained a humble man. On one of his many trips back to the Himalayas, he was spotted by a group of tourist climbers. They begged for a photo with the great man, and Hillary obliged. They handed him an ice pick so he would look the part and set up for the photograph. Just then another climber passed the group and, not recognizing the man at the center, strode up to Hillary saying, “Excuse me, that's not how you hold an ice pick. Let me show you.”
Everyone stood around in amazed silence as Hillary thanked the man, let him adjust the pick, and happily went on with the photograph. (John Dickson, Humilitas, Zondervan, 2011, pp. 70-71; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s true greatness, my friends. Hillary didn’t need to flaunt his achievements. In fact, his greatness was enhanced by his humility. On the other hand, the arrogant presumption of that other climber diminished him. It made him look stupid despite his knowledge and skills.
President Theodore Roosevelt was famous for his words, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He, of course, was talking about the need for the United States to have a strong military, which would carry more weight than verbal threats or voices of protest in the world. People listen to the man with a big stick over the one who just has a loud voice. In 1901, Roosevelt himself explained what he meant. He said, “If a man continually blusters, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.” (The American Pageant, ninth edition, eds. Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, D.C. Heath, 1991, pp. 656-58; www.PreachingToday. com)
Do you know? That could be said of any of us who have put our trust in Christ. We, who are living in daily dependence upon Christ, we don’t need to bluster as if our own self-confidence could win the day. Whether we’re trying to make a point, respond to criticism, or just sharing a reason for the hope within, we can do so humbly and with a quiet confidence, for “back of the softness” lays the strength and power of God within. (Mark Gali, managing editor of Christianity Today; www.PreachingToday.com)
In other words, speak softly; because, behind the scenes, God carries a big stick for all of us.
My dear friends, if you want to be truly great, just be honest; be humble. But more than anything else, if you want to achieve true greatness…
BE HEAVEN’S MAN.
Get close to God. In fact, become a friend of God Himself. That’s what Moses did. You’re in Numbers 12. Look at verse 4.
Numbers 12:4-8 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (NIV)
You see, God had a unique relationship with Moses. God spoke to all the other prophets in visions and dreams. But with Moses, God spoke directly, face-to-face, as one man does to another.
Now, flip back to just one more verse. Flip back one book to the book of Exodus, chapter 33, Exodus 33, where we catch another glimpse of the kind of relationship God had with Moses.
Exodus 33:7-11a Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. (NIV)
Wow! God spoke to Moses as a man speaks with his friend! Unbelievable! But that’s what made Moses truly great. He was a friend of God!
And the good news is you and I can be friends of God too! Like Moses, we can become heaven’s man (or heaven’s woman). Jesus’ death on the cross makes that possible. Our sins had separated us from God. Our disobedience put us at enmity with God, but Christ’s death on the cross took care of that enmity. It satisfied God’s wrath against our sin and made it possible for us to be his friends.
Listen to what Jesus told his followers the night before he died on the cross for all our sins. In John 15, he said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:13-15, NIV).
Now, God will never force His love upon us, because forced love is rape. No! We must, by faith, accept His love. We must, by faith, invite God into our lives, letting His love soak in and fill us on the inside until it begins to show on the outside.
Just trust Christ with your life, then you too can be God’s friend. He’ll meet with you whenever you want. And He’ll talk to you, face-to-face, just like He did with Moses.
George Eliot wrote, “Friendship is feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
That’s the kind of relationship God wants to have with each of us, one of complete acceptance, where we can say whatever we need to say, and know that God will keep on loving us no matter what.
I don’t know who penned these words, but I believe they express the heart of Jesus. Listen, as if he were speaking to each and every one of us.
“I had to write to tell you how much I love you and care for you. Yesterday, I saw you walking and laughing with your friends; I hoped that soon you’d want me to walk along with you, too. So I painted you a sunset to close your day and whispered a cool breeze to refresh you. I waited – you never called – I just kept on loving you.
“As I watched you fall asleep last night, I wanted to touch you. I spilled moonlight onto your face – trickling down your cheeks as so many tears have. You didn’t even think of Me; I wanted so much to comfort you.
“The next day, I exploded a brilliant sunrise into glorious morning for you. But you woke up late and rushed off to work – you didn’t even notice. My sky became cloudy and My tears were the rain.
“I love you. Oh, if you’d only listen. I really love you. I try to say it in the quiet of the green meadow and in the blue sky. The wind whispers My love throughout the treetops and spills it into the vibrant colors of all the flowers. I shout it to you in the thunder of the great waterfalls and compose love songs for birds to sing for you. I warm you with the clothing of My sunshine and perfume the air with nature’s sweet scent. My love for you is deeper than any ocean and greater than any need in your heart. If you’d only realize how much I care.
“My Dad sends His love. I want you to meet Him – He cares, too. Fathers are just that way. So please, call on Me soon. No matter how long it takes, I’ll wait – because I love you.”
Signed, “Your Friend, Jesus.”
Please, don’t make Him wait any longer. Invite Him into your life and let your friendship with Jesus begin today.
Then, every day, take the time to listen to Him as you read His Word. Find out what great things He wants for you to do, and with His help do them. Then, and only then, will you find true greatness just like Moses did.
Be an honest man. Be a humble man. But more important than all of that, be heaven’s man. Become God’s friend, then you will truly be a great man.
A famous actor was once the guest of honor at a great social event, where he was asked to recite favorite passages from various plays and works of literature. An old preacher happened to be there, and he asked the actor to recite the 23rd Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the old preacher would also recite the 23rd Psalm.
The actor recited the psalm perfectly, beautifully intoned with great dramatic effect. At the end, he received a lengthy applause.
The preacher’s voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room.
“What made the difference,” someone asked the actor.
The actor replied, “I know the psalm; he knows the Shepherd.” (Bible Illustrator #7/1988.24)
My dear friends, if you want power with men, then get to know the Shepherd.
