Revival Fires Baptist College

Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

I. What is ethical for a follower.

A. The ethics of the follower toward the leader.

B. The person who is under the authority to the authority figure.

II. Hebrews 13:7, “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the

word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.”

A. When it comes to church, the pastor is the ruler.

1.He is not the dictator.

2.He is not unaccountable.

3.He is the person that God has placed in charge.

4.The office he holds is where the authority is.

5.The authority is not in a personality, but in a position.

6.Whoever holds that office is the ruler.

B. Remember the ruler in prayer.

C. The man of God is the one who speaks unto you the Word of God.

D. It did not say, “Have enough faith to follow.”

1.I am to follow his faith.

2.Not talking about ignorance of the Scriptures.

3.Whenever God leads him to do something, I don’t have enough faith to do it.

4.I must follow his faith.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

E. Everything rises and falls on followship.

III. Hebrews 13:17, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch

for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief:

for that is unprofitable for you.”

A. I am supposed to obey authority.

B. Philippians 3:17-18, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk

so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and

now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: “

1.The criteria for me following him is the fact that he is following and obeying

the Bible.

a. You should never follow a heretic, just because he is in leadership.

b. I should not follow someone that is telling me to do something that is

scripturally wrong.

2.If someone is preaching the Bible sincerely, not perfect, but is trying to obey

God.

C. Submission has nothing to do with being excited.

1.Nothing to do with feelings

2.Submission has to do with me putting myself under the authority of another.

3.I willfully put myself under the authority of another.

a. A submissive wife willfully puts herself under the authority of her

husband.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

b. A person who is in submission to Christ willfully puts themselves in

submission to Christ.

D. They watch for your souls.

1.The pastor is the shepherd.

2.He is watching out for your souls.

3.When he tells you what the Bible says, you are supposed to obey him, because

everything he does as a shepherd he is doing for your protection

4.If you don’t obey him, you will get hurt.

5.If you get hurt, then he will be grieved about it and God will be grieved about

it.

IV. Hebrews 13:24, “Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy

salute you.”

A. I am to have mutual respect for all saints, not just leaders.

B. I am definitely supposed to respect the office.

V. Everything rises and falls on followship.

A. It is only half of the truth.

1.Without a leader, everything will fall.

2.Everything rises on a leader, and everything falls out without him.

B. A leader must have followers.

1.At the point God supplies a good leader, then everything rises and falls on

followship.

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 Revival Fires Baptist College

Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

C. If I am ethical as a follower, I need to be a good follower.

1.Some people think that in order to be a good follower, you must not think.

2.You don’t use your mind, or you might disagree with something they say.

3.Even when I disagree, I am not supposed to cause trouble

D. Everything rises or crumbles on followship.

E. In the garden of Eden, who was Adam and Eve’s leader

1.God.

2.God did not mess them up.

3.If everything rises and falls on leadership, it would be God’s fault that they

sinned.

4.A perfect leader can give advice, but they can still sin because of followship.

5.The problem in the Garden of Eden was not poor leadership, the problem was

poor followship.

6.They didn’t obey, submit to Him, or respect what He said.

7.Because of it, they wrecked themselves and brought sin and death unto the

entire world.

F. Noah was a good leader.

1.Noah walked with God.

2.Noah was a just man in his generation.

3.God had respect unto Noah and chose him to build the ark.

4.Noah obeyed God’s message.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

5.Noah obeyed and built the ark God told him to build.

6.The whole world perished a little over a century later.

a. He spent 120 years preaching the message.

7.If he was a good leader then why did the world perish in their sin?

a. If everything rises and falls on leadership, then Noah was a terrible

leader.

b. Noah was a good leader.

c. It was poor followship that doomed those people to Hell and destroyed

the world.

8.When God has supplied the leader, whether you remember them, obey them,

submit to them, respect to them, is up to you.

9.Unless you have good ethics, you will do all the wrong things.

10. If you determined a leader by their followers, Noah was a terrible leader.

a. If you determined by whether the followers did what the leader said,

Noah was a terrible leader.

G. Most destruction and misery that people experience is not because of poor leadership,

but good leadership and poor followship.

1.Good advice and no application.

2.Bible preaching and no respect for the Word of God.

3.Someone tells us what they think we ought to do, and we think we know

better.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

4.It is a breach of ethics.

H. Wherever I am in the chain of command, I need to respect the authority that God has

placed over me.

I. Moses was a good leader.

1.Numbers 14:2, “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and

against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that

we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this

wilderness!”

2.Moses was not perfect

a. He hit the rock instead of speaking to it.

b. He did not operate by principle, he operated by his emotions.

c. He was angry and smote the rock.

d. He did not honor God before the people.

e. He was not able to go over into Canaan.

3.He had trouble with his people all throughout the wilderness.

4.In most cases, it is not poor leadership, but poor followship.

5.Moses was sincere and he was to the best of his ability seeking to do the will

of God.

a. God does not expect perfection with His leaders, but he expects them to

be ethical and sincerely the best we know how leading them in the way

of God.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

b. When someone is doing that, I, as the follower, have the responsibility

to be ethical with him and make the same effort to follow him as he

follows God’s leadership.

6.God does not deal with us according to our perfection, but according to the

sincerity in our heart.

a. Our effort to do the right thing.

b. God is pleased when I try my best and fail.

c. Because my heart was right in the sight of God.

VI. I need to give people the benefit of the doubt, whether they are leaders or followers.

A. When there is a question, I need to give the other the benefit of the doubt.

B. Give each other some room recognizing the flaws and weaknesses of the flesh.

C. We must be careful that we don’t expect leaders to be God.

1.We do not expect perfection, we expect sincerity.

2.We expect them to make the proper effort to do the right thing.

3.We do expect them to be godly.

4.Remember, the leader is flesh and blood too just like we are.

5.Sometimes people have a double standard.

6.Be careful that we don’t make our standard for people based on their

perfection, but on their sincerity.

a. Leaders make mistakes too.

b. Leaders fail too.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

c. Leaders sin sometimes.

d. Leaders are imperfect.

7.Just because a man is imperfect does not mean God will not use him.

a. If that were true, God wouldn’t use anybody.

b. Just because he fails does not mean that God is finished with him.

c. We must be careful that we don’t become so rigid that we can’t have

any leader that we have any respect for.

VII. When Rehoboam went to get counsel from the old men, was it good or bad counsel?

A. It was good.

B. Why did Rehoboam lose ten tribes.

C. When he had 10 tribes, he went to someone and took bad advice instead.

D. He got the right advice, he just didn’t follow through with it.

VIII. Was Jesus a good or bad leader?

A. Why was Judas Iscariot one of the 12?

B. He had a lost man for a treasurer.

1.If everything rises and falls on leadership, that was Jesus’ fault.

C. He had another disciple that cursed and swore at Him.

IX. As a follower, as long as the leader is sincerely trying to do the will of God, I am supposed to

sincerely try to follow his leadership.

X. Just because people leave does not mean you are a bad leader.

A. Jesus had many turn and walk no more with him.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

B. A split is not always the preacher’s fault.

1.Sometimes it is the case of overdriving.

C. Sometimes it is the truth of his preaching that they couldn’t stand.

1.I can’t change what the Bible says to please you.

XI. In every case we looked at, there was good leadership and poor followship and there was a

disasterous outcome.

A. My truck was made to lead.

1.My trailer was made to follow.

2.If my trailer gets in the lead, we have major problems.

3.That is not what it was made for.

4.It does not have that potential without being dangerous.

B. When those whom God has designed to follow get in the lead, they create problems.

1.It is a disaster.

2.They are dangerous.

3.They are always damaging.

XII. There is no less reward for being a good, ethical, loyal follower than for being a good leader.

A. If God designed me to follow and I am a good follower, I am no less a Christian, nor

am I less in caliber in the eyes of God because He made me a follower.

B. If I am designed to be a follower, then that is what I must be.

XIII. Salvation rises and falls on followship.

A. We can show people how to get saved.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

B. We can lead them through the plan of salvation.

C. I cannot make them receive Christ at the end.

D. I can give them the instruction, but if they don’t follow the scriptural advice I give

them, they will die and go to Hell.

E. Dr. Corle has talked to two people in the same room at the same time and one receives

Christ and one rejects Christ.

1.One was responsive and had a open heart.

a. They followed the instructions.

b. They were willing.

2.The other was unwilling, closed-hearted, and would not follow the

instructions.

3.It wasn’t a problem with the leader, it had to do with followship.

XIV. Spirit fullness rises and falls on followship.

A. If we are going to get the blessing of God, we must find someone who has followed

close.

B. The mantle will fall on someone.

1.Not talking about being the next leader in fundamentalism.

2.Talking about having the power of God fall on your life.

3.Talking about being used of God.

XV. Being a soul winner depends on me following Christ.

A. “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

B. If you follow me, I will make you a fisher of men.

C. If you are not a fisher of men, you are not following Jesus.

1.Jesus never failed on any promises.

XVI. Me getting in the position where God can bless and use me is dependent on me following

someone who is already being blessed, empowered and used by God.

A. It doesn’t matter how good a leader you are, if you don’t get any followers, you are not

going to get it to work.

XVII. Examples

A. If you have an Alexander the Great with no army that follows him and see how much

of the world he conquers.

1.Before he had an army under his administration, he had leadership ability.

2.The army did not give him his ability to command.

3.The army at his disposal gave him the ability to achieve.

B. You could have the greatest choir master who ever lived, and let him stand and wave

his hands to a bunch of empty seats, see how beautiful the music is.

C. You could have one of the great football coaches and no players or those who don’t

follow his instruction and do what he tells them to do, his good coaching, his insight,

his ability, his knowledge, his leadership, will go to waste.

D. If you have a healthy vibrant mind and a body stricken with paralysis, the mind can

think great things while the body will not respond.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

E. A pastor may have a great vision to do something for the glory of God, and a body of

people who are stricken with the paralysis of sin, selfishness, and pride, because he has

no followship, there will be no great achievement.

XVIII. Everything rises and falls on followship at the point that we get a leader.

A. Everything falls without a leader.

B. When God supplies a leader, it falls into the follower’s court.

XIX. Nehemiah

A. Had a personal burden.

B. He had a vision

C. He divulged his vision to the people.

1.He exercised his leadership and shared his vision with the people.

2.He gave them a challenge.

D. The people decided to follow.

1.“Let us rise up”

XX. Success of rebuilding the wall is recorded in Nehemiah 4:6, “So built we the wall; and all the

wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.”

A. Getting the job done was not only dependent upon Nehemiah having a mind to work,

the people had a mind to work.

XXI. If anything is going to be done, we must not only have good leaders, but we must have good

followers.

A. Great things can be done with an average leader and great followers.

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 Revival Fires Baptist College

Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

1.Providing the average leader providing the average leader has the ability and

a vision for God.

2.If he has great followers, he can do great things.

XXII. Joshua 11:15, 23, “As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command

Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses. So

Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave

it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested

from war.”

A. Joshua did all that the Lord commanded Moses.

B. Joshua still did what the Lord commanded Moses after Moses was dead.

C. Joshua didn’t have to get new instructions from God that were his instructions.

D. Joshua was following the leader that he had that was following God.

E. Keep following the instructions that God gave Moses for God has not changed, He is

still the same.

XXIII. Followship comes before leadership.

A. If you want to be a good leader, you must qualify yourself by being a good follower.

XXIV. Joshua 14:8-9, 14, “Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the

people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying,

Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for

ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. Hebron therefore became the

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly

followed the LORD God of Israel.”

A. It was both Joshua and Caleb that came back with a good report when all the others

came back with a bad report.

B. You would think that Joshua and Caleb should have got dual leadership.

C. God wasn’t politically correct.

D. It was impossible for Caleb to wholly follow the Lord without submitting to Joshua’s

leadership.

E. He didn’t complain.

1.I came back to.

2.I am just as good as he is.

3.I am his equal.

F. Caleb was a smart enough man to wholly follow the Lord by following the man that

the Lord had given.

XXV. Douglas McArthur said, “Victory is a result of orders being obeyed rather than discussed.”

XXVI. Acts 27

A. Before they left harbor, Paul told them they had better not.

B. Centurion believed the master of the ship.

C. Paul was not speaking as an expert, he was speaking as the man of God.

1.Instead of getting someone who has the mind of God’s advice, we want to get

a second opinion from the expert on the subject.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

2.A good godly person surrendered to the will of God should be listened to no

matter what the shipmaster says.

3.God is not limited by statistics, nor is He bound by the wisdom of the experts.

4.He is not limited to case scenarios.

D. When the storm came and they almost perished, when Paul stepped on board and said,

“Brethren be of good cheer.”

1.He told them what the angel of God said.

2.There would be no loss of any man’s life.

3.Only the ship.

4.Told them to go ahead and eat.

E. When the ship began to break on the rocks, the normal procedure would be to kill the

prisoners before they got out and escaped.

1.The soldier that was in charge of Paul would not kill him.

2.He gained some respect for him and revered him.

F. They were going to let down the lifeboats.

1.Paul said that if they lowered and got into the lifeboats, they would mess up

what God had said.

2.They cut the lifeboats off because of Paul.

G. After the storm, they took Paul a little more seriously.

1.Many have no respect for a leader until after the storm.

2.I don’t want to wait until the storm hits to find out he was right.

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Christian Ethics

Professor: Dr. Dennis Corle

Ethics of the Follower

3.As long as he is sincerely trying to obey the Bible, and he is not in violation

of clear principle of the Scriptures, as long as he is trying to obey God, I

should try to obey his leadership.

XXVII. There is a dual responsibility in this thing of victory.

A. The leader has to his part.

B. The follower has to do his part.

XXVIII. We need to be ethical as followers.

A. It is ethical for me to do everything I can do to be a good follower of someone who is

doing everything they can do to be a good leader.

XXIX. A good leader is not a perfect leader, nor are good followers perfect followers.

A. If I am saying that if a man is not perfect, I won’t follow him, I won’t follow anyone.

B. I won’t follow myself.

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