Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. We're starting a new series today,
probably going to last a month, four weeks. But
the new series is a call to honor. A call to
honor. Now that sounds foreign to... A lot of
people in our society today, honor is a word
that means nothing. Would you agree with me?
But honor is important to God. Did you know that
honor and variations of the word honor, talking
about honor, is in the Bible over 300 times?
When's the last time you heard a sermon on honor?
I've been preaching for a long time, and I have
to be honest, I've never preached a sermon on
honor. I've preached a lot of sermons, but I've
never preached a sermon on honor. But it's important.
It's important to God, or it wouldn't be in the
Bible so many times, would it? Come on, just
common sense. Would God have that word in the
Bible over 300 times if it wasn't important for
you and for me today? No, no. The Bible is the
Word of God. Now we're going to start out talking
about a priest named Eli and his sons. I'm not
going to read the whole story, but I want to
tell you about it very briefly because we've
got a lot of ground to cover. But in 1 Samuel,
we find the story of Eli, who was the priest,
and his sons. And then it gets to the point where
God says, Eli, I'm done with you and your sons.
Hello? He says, I'm done with y 'all. He told
Eli right before this verse that we're going
to read, he says, Eli. Listen, he says, you have
honored your sons more than you've honored me,
God said. Wow. As the priest, you've honored
your sons more than you've honored me. And listen,
Eli's sons, they were not honoring the call of
God on their lives. Everybody say honor. They
weren't honoring the call of God on their lives.
They were mishandling the sacrifices of the people.
They weren't following what God said they needed
to do and how they needed to do it. They were
also taking advantage of people. And you know
what? Eli wouldn't correct his sons. Make sure
you get this. Eli didn't correct his sons. He
honored his sons, even though they were doing
the wrong thing. So God says to Eli, he says,
look, Eli, you have honored your sons more than
you've honored me. And I'm going to tell you
something. This is God talking. In 1 Samuel 2
.30, God says, basically right before this, he
says, I'm done. with you and your sons because
Samuel is going to be anointed as the next priest
and prophet. God says, I will honor those who
honor me and I will despise those who think lightly
of me. Let that sink in. God says he will honor
people who honor him. But basically, he will
despise people who despise him. Now, in our English
language, when we hear the word despise, most
of the time we think, well, despise means that,
you know, I despise you, and there's anger and
hatred involved in that. But that's not what
it means. we get an English understanding of
the word, but that's not the, in this case, the
Hebrew understanding of the word that was translated
into English. So let's take a look at those.
The word honor in this Bible verse is the word
kavod. Y 'all see it? See, you're speaking Hebrew
now. About as good as I spoke French is about
as good as I speak Hebrew. But that word honor,
here's what it means. It means to be heavy. It
means to make weighty. It means to honor. It
means to glorify. And it means to value. That's
what the word means. To make heavy, to make weighty.
to honor, to glorify, to value. Now, there's
sometimes this word kavod in the Old Testament.
Sometimes it's translated glory. Sometimes it's
translated honor. The reason why the word exists
To be heavy, to make weighty, for us to understand
that. Because when we talk about the glory of
God, we're talking about the manifested presence
of God, and we're talking about the weightiness
or the heaviness of that. And we can see through
Scripture and through experiences, sometimes,
you know, the manifested presence of God can
be felt. bad heaviness, but a good heaviness.
And I'm going to say, you can experience the
glory of God. It's not something that's just
Old Testament. It's not available to us today.
But to be heavy, and it came from, it came from
doing business because the cultures then, they
didn't have coins and things like that. There
weren't things. There wasn't paper money and
things like that. So think of a balance scale.
If you're young, you may not have ever seen a
balance scale. But it's a post with a bar and
two... holders on each side, two plates hanging
on each side. And the value of something would
be determined to be this much silver or this
much gold. So the person running the business
had to have a scale and they had to have correct
weights to set on the scale and then you've got
to keep putting gold or silver on this side to
be able to purchase that item. Everybody say
value. Weight. So that's where this thought comes
from. Now, honor means a perceived value or worth.
The value, weight, or honor, listen, willingly
assigned to something. So you had to willingly
agree to the price to be able to purchase the
item. So you willingly, every time you purchase
something, we don't go through this thought process,
but we willingly think that what we are purchasing
is worth the price that we're paying for. Are
you with me? If we don't think that, then we're
going to be in trouble in our personal finances.
if we just have no concern over the cost of anything
ever. But honor is willingly assigned to something.
Value is willingly assigned to something. It's
our perceived value or worth. Now, to despise,
when God says, I will despise those who think
lightly of me, He's basically saying, I will
despise those who despise me. Because in the
text, despise is opposite of weight, opposite
of honor, opposite of value. I want you to see
that word that way. To despise means to look
down on with disrespect, not with respect, but
disrespect, or to regard something as worthless.
That's what despise means. Now, we talked about
Eli's sons. You know, God had a call on that
family line to be priests for God. And there
was a lot of responsibility. The calling of God
comes with responsibility. It doesn't mean that...
Everybody else has no responsibility, but comes
with greater responsibility. And you know what?
Eli's sons, they didn't care. They didn't care.
So God removed that call. He says, I'm done with
you. And he placed that call on Samuel. I'm going
to say generally, not with everybody, not with
everybody in this room, maybe no one in this
room, but generally in our society, there's a
lack of honor. The Bible talks about some things,
and we're going to look at some things today.
And it's not going to be an exhaustive study.
It's not going to cover everything. We're going
to look at some very important things that is
important for you and I. to honor. But just so
we can wrap our minds around a lack of honor,
you know, a lot of times in the home today, there's
a lack of honor. A lack of honor between spouses,
a lack of honor between children and their parents.
That's going to be something that we talk about
one week. The Bible, I mean, one of the Ten Commandments
is honor your parents. And then there's a promise.
If you'll do that, if you will honor, if you
will hold them valuable with respect, you know
what? You'll wind up living longer. That's God's
promise. But we see a lack of honor in the family
structure. We see a lack of honor in schools.
It's just way different than it used to be when
I was a kid. There's a lack of honor. We have
a friend who's a school teacher in New York,
and she and her husband visit here at Elation
Church. We've been friends for over 20 years
with them, and they visit on a regular basis.
But let me tell you something that happened to
her. One day when she was teaching, One of the
students got mad at her and threw a desk at her
and hit her with a desk. And I want to ask you
a question. Guess who got in trouble? She got
in trouble. She asked the student for his homework.
He didn't do his homework, so he got mad at her
and threw the desk at her. I mean, she was bruised
and hurt. But she got reprimanded by the school
system and her principal. And here's why she
got reprimanded. Because she asked the student
where his homework was. She asked for his homework
in front of the other students. So she got reprimanded
for embarrassing him. Hello? None of that would
ever happen when I was in school. Because when
I was in school, if you showed dishonor towards
a teacher, I know a bunch of you aren't as young
as I am, and I wasn't a person to dishonor people
a whole lot, but I remember there was a time
when I did some dishonor. And I remember putting
my hands on the desk, And the coach had a paddle
that he had drilled holes in. Does anybody know
what I'm talking about? I had to put my hands
on the desk and lean over, tighten it up. And
my dishonor cost me something. As I slid on my
stomach across his desk. I'm not saying that
that needs to happen to that level. But God does
say if we spare the rod, we will spoil the child.
It's a Bible verse. We have to deal with it.
What about disrespect in public? Lack of honor
in public? Do you notice it? There's a lot of
people who don't care about anybody but themselves.
So it doesn't matter the way they talk when they're
around other people. They have no concern for
that whatsoever, what kind of language they use
in just their casual talk. And, you know, I see
it in front of parents with young children, and
then I... There's people walking beside them
and saying things that, I mean, now I guess they're
common on TV, but it's showing a lack of honor
and a lack of respect for yourself and everybody
else around you. Don't get mad at me. Because
Jeffrey and I were talking about it, and Jeffrey
said, you know what, Dad? I can't really blame.
The people that I know who don't show any honor,
because I don't believe they were ever taught
about honor. I don't believe anybody's ever modeled
honor for them, talked about honor. All this
that we see where, you know, there's so much
dishonor. In society, over authority and over
law, there's a lack of honor. Lack of honor.
And I'll just be honest with you. I mean, I don't
know where you grew up or what you were taught,
but I was taught, if I talked to an adult, that
I always said, yes, sir, or yes, ma 'am. Now
that may be foreign to you, because I found out
that that's foreign to a lot of people. To use
the words sir and ma 'am out of respect. Right?
I mean, even as an adult, talking to people older
than me, I mean, I would always say yes sir,
yes ma 'am, no sir, no ma 'am. And I've had people
look at me like I was a freak. People that I
was honoring. They looked at me like I was a
freak because I said, yes, ma 'am. Ma 'am? Why
are you calling me ma 'am? I mean, they just
didn't grow up that way, so they had no idea.
We're going to talk about this. We're going to
talk about honoring authority. We're going to
talk about, listen, the Bible says that we're
supposed to honor everyone. So let's just get
that out there. And that's going to be one of
the weeks we're going to. Talk about honoring
people. Because we're supposed to value everybody.
Whether we know them, whether we're in relationship
with them or not, we're supposed to value everybody.
We're supposed to honor everybody. Okay? So,
don't get twisted up and say, well, you know
what? I want to hear all this because the preacher
is just trying to get everybody to honor him.
I wouldn't put that past some preachers. Anyway,
I'm not going to call any names. We're supposed
to honor everyone. And honor must be taught.
Honor has got to be taught. So that's why we're
teaching on it. We believe honor needs to be
taught in every household to every child. Honor's
got to be taught or people aren't going to have
any honor unless they know about it and know
the importance of it. Now in the Greek, in the
New Testament, we're looking at three words very
quickly. We're defining three words. Timao, that's
the verb. Because honor is a verb, honor is a
noun, honor is an adjective for all you English
teachers. So to honor is to prize or to revere
is a definition. To honor the noun is to may.
It means a value or valuable. Something is esteemed
in the highest degree. and as an adjective, tea
meals, is valuable, costly, honored, esteemed,
beloved, or precious. Honor includes the ideas
of worth, esteem, dignity, and price, whether
we use it in the context of God, of Jesus, of
people, or things. And here's what I want you
to get. The term always measures value. And when
the value is measured, it calls for a response
proportionate to that value. I'm going to say
that again. The term honor always is measuring
the value of something. Because I didn't fully
understand what honor meant until I started studying.
But honor always has to do with value. It measures
the value. But it's more than just measuring
the value. It's calling for a response proportionate
to that value. Some of you looking like you lost.
If something is deemed honorable, it's calling
for a response to be honored. If we need to honor
our teachers, it's calling for a response, right?
If our teachers are honorable, then it's calling
for our response. Are we going to honor them
or are we not going to honor them? Honor is always
calling for a response. And that's why I started
out with honor as this sermon series, but then
I changed it, made Jeffrey redo the art, and
I said I'm not just going to call it honor, I'm
going to call it a call to honor, because when
we find out that things are honorable, then it's
up to us whether we're going to honor them or
not. There's a call to everyone, not just us
in the room. Now, how do we demonstrate honor?
Every single one of these doesn't apply to every
single context, but they apply across the board.
When you honor someone or something, you speak
highly of it. Let that sit in. You speak highly
of it. So it's easy to tell if you don't honor
something, if you're not speaking highly of it,
you're not honoring it. You're not placing any
value on it. If your words aren't high praise
of it, if that makes sense. To demonstrate honor,
you act in generosity towards it. If you ever
wonder why people brought an apple to the teacher
at school, you act in generosity towards it.
You have a high respect of it. You submit to
the authority of it if you honor it. So let's
take a look at the negative side of this. If
you refuse to submit to... an authority, then
that means you are dishonoring. If you don't
have a high respect, then you're dishonoring.
If you don't act with generosity towards, then
you're dishonoring or thinking lightly of it.
If you're not speaking highly, then that's dishonor
or disdain. Today, we're going to talk about
three quick things. Look to the person beside
you and tell them, listen fast. Got to listen
fast. Write down listen fast. Just going to talk
about three things that God honors, obviously.
And we're going to talk about us honoring what
God honors. Is that fair enough? If God honors
it, is it worth our honor too? Thank you for
your response. We need to honor the Word of God.
You can say another amen right there. We need
to honor the Word of God. We need to value it.
We need to treasure it. The Word of God. We need
to treasure it. We need to honor it. I've always
wondered about this parable or this teaching.
Matthew 7, 6. Maybe you've said, what? Before.
When Jesus said, look, don't give what is holy
to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before a swine,
lest they trample them under their feet and turn
and tear you in pieces. Has anybody ever, when
you read that, has anybody ever went, huh? I
mean, why are we looking at this? Well, here's
why. Dogs do not have the ability to distinguish
between a comic book or the Bible, do they? They
don't have the capacity to even distinguish between
the two. If your dog is wanting to chew up a
book, and there's a comic book and a Bible on
the coffee table, it don't care which one it
chews up. It's just mad because you left it too
long. And it's going to destroy something. It's
either going to be a roll of toilet paper out
of the bathroom, but if you lock the bathroom
door, it's going to go after that comic book
or that Bible and it could care less which one
it was. It just wants to shred up a bunch of
paper and throw it all over the house. So a dog
has no honor for a Bible. It's impossible, right?
What about a pig? A pig doesn't have the ability
to distinguish between just a rock that you pick
up on the ground or a pearl. It don't care. It's
all just rocks to the pig. I mean, it could be
a $5 ,000 pearl, but a pig don't care. A pig's
not going to honor the value. Everybody say value.
The value. Of that pearl, pig doesn't care. I
want you to really get this. When we don't honor
something as valuable, we will not receive any
value from it. When we don't honor something
as valuable, We will not receive anything from
it. So if you don't honor the word of God, if
you don't highly esteem it, if you don't hold
it as being valuable, you know what? You can
read it all day long and you're never going to
get anything out of it. There are people who
teach doctorate level theology classes in universities
who are atheists. And they teach the Bible. And
they teach the history of the Bible. They've
been there for years and years and years and
years, but they don't honor it as God's Word.
They just look at it just like any other book
in the library. When you don't honor it, you
won't receive any value from it. And listen.
If you read the Bible and you say, I'm just not
getting anything out of it. It's just not. You
know, people tell me to read the Bible. People
give me a Bible and I read it. But I don't see
any power or any life. They talk about all this
stuff, but I don't see any of it. There's something
else. You know. Because if you're around here,
you hear me talking about putting your words
in agreement with the Word of God, right? Well,
guess what? You can put your words in agreement
with the Word of God, but if you don't value
it, you're not going to see it make an impact
in your life if you don't highly esteem the Word
of God. So we need to honor the Word. We need
to honor the Word. Here's something else we need
to honor. We need to honor the church. Now listen.
That word church in the New Testament is called
out once. It's a compound Greek word. It means
called out once. It doesn't mean, you know, an
organization. It doesn't mean a building. Even
though we use... The word to say that, it doesn't
even mean a meeting as far as just meetings are
concerned. It means the called out ones. But
I don't want you to ever take that to mean that
we don't need each other. That we shouldn't honor
each other. I don't want you to ever take it
to mean that. Because some people, when I say
that we're the called out ones, they say, well,
you know, that just means that I can worship
God in a deer stand just as much as I can worship
Him anywhere else. I can worship God at the lake,
in my boat. I don't ever have to go get together
with other believers. I mean, I am the church,
so wherever I am, that's the church. And some
people say, some people don't think they... have
a need to get together with other called out
ones in a family of faith. They don't value it.
They don't think that's important. Just anything
else, any other option that I got is more important
than getting together with the called out ones.
We'll need to honor. The church. Let me tell
you, well, let me tell you what happened last
week. Everybody say last week. Last week. I didn't
even know I was going to preach on honor yet.
And guess what? Jeffrey, you know, he's working
in social media and he's trying to invite people
to come join us for worship and invite people
to come be a part of our family of faith. So
he's always sending out things every week and
invitations. And you know what? Somebody on TikTok,
because we're kind of new still on TikTok. Somebody
on TikTok replied. This was their reply. And
all it was was just a TikTok post inviting them
to come join us here at Alation Church. And they
felt like they had to reply this. I couldn't
care any less. That's what I say. You know, I
wanted to reply, well, you know, thank you for
caring enough to comment that you didn't care.
But Jeffrey said, I probably shouldn't do that.
They said, I couldn't care any less than I care
about getting together with other people to look
into God's word, to lift up the name of Jesus.
I couldn't care any less about doing that. You
know why? There's no value. No value. No value.
And I dare say that that's a lot of people in
the communities around us. They could care less.
Because they don't see any value. They don't
see any value. I see a lot of value. I see enough
value to even be here today. I see enough value
that, you know, walked away from the highest
paycheck I've ever had in my life. Because God
called us to come down here and start this church.
That's what kind of value I see. In the Word
of God. In the church. Because we drove down
here and we saw so many people that weren't connected
to God. So many people that were not connected
to a family of faith. And we saw enough value
to say whatever it takes. Whatever it takes.
And that shouldn't just be the preacher. Shouldn't
just be the preacher. Here's how much Jesus honored
the church. Christ loved the church and still
does. He gave up his life for her to make her
holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's
word. He did this to present her, the church,
to himself. And in this case, it's not just called
out ones, it's the gathering of called out ones.
He did this to present her to himself as a glorious
church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.
Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
You couldn't honor anything anymore. You couldn't
demonstrate your honor to anything anymore than
laying down your life. Have you heard of the
Medal of Honor? Where you don't see your life
worth more than your cause? Hebrews 10, 25. And
let us not neglect our meeting together, as some
people do, but encourage one another, especially
now that the day of his return is drawing near.
God wants us to honor the church and honor his
word. Because when we neglect something and don't
acknowledge the value of something, then we don't
honor it. Honor the kingdom of God. We should
honor the kingdom of God. The rule and reign
of God. Eternal rule and reign of God. We should
honor the kingdom of God. You know, Jesus did
a lot of teaching when he was on the earth. But
you know what he talked about more than anything
else? The kingdom of God. Look it up. All those
parables, the majority of the parables, the kingdom
of God is like this, kingdom of God is like this,
kingdom of God is like this, right? We need to
honor the rule and reign of God over us, over
our homes, over our families, over our church,
over everything. We need to honor that. These
are parables that you can easily see by how you
demonstrate honor. We can see that the kingdom
of heaven should be honored. The kingdom of heaven
is like a treasure. Everybody say value. Valuable.
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that
a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement,
he hid it again and sold everything he owned.
To get enough money to buy the field. That's
how important the treasure was to him. So what
is God saying? Is he talking about a treasure
chest that we find in a field? Or is he talking
about we should value the kingdom of heaven?
The kingdom of God. We should value that in the
same way. That's what he's saying. Matthew. 13,
45, and 46, the parable continues. Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout
for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl
of great value, he sold everything he owned and
bought it. You know why? Because he valued it
the most. Oh, he had a lot of pearls because
he was a pearl merchant. But this one was unlike
anything else. We have a lot of things that we
value. Hello? Every single one of us, we have
a lot of different things that we value. But
what we value most, Should be the kingdom of
heaven. What you value the most is what you will
honor the most. You know, we've had a lot of
happy preaching times, but y 'all are all looking
very serious. I mean, we've... If today's your
first time being here, hey, it's not normally
quite this heavy. But we're talking about a heavy
subject, right? Honor is heavy. That's even the
definition of it, right? But what you value the
most is what you honor the most. And God told
Eli, you honor your kids. You value your sons
above what you value me. Honor measures value.
And calls for a response proportionate to that
value. I think next week, we're going to talk
about honoring God. Not just honoring the things
that God honors, but honoring God. We need to
value Him. We need to value what He values. This
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