WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:04.219 Sharing good news of great joy to all people. 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:10.519 Elation Church. We're starting a new series today, 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:14.099 probably going to last a month, four weeks. But 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:19.940 the new series is a call to honor. A call to 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:29.940 honor. Now that sounds foreign to... A lot of 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:34.219 people in our society today, honor is a word 00:00:34.219 --> 00:00:37.960 that means nothing. Would you agree with me? 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:44.340 But honor is important to God. Did you know that 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:48.219 honor and variations of the word honor, talking 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:51.460 about honor, is in the Bible over 300 times? 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:57.560 When's the last time you heard a sermon on honor? 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.219 I've been preaching for a long time, and I have 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:04.659 to be honest, I've never preached a sermon on 00:01:04.659 --> 00:01:08.620 honor. I've preached a lot of sermons, but I've 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:13.340 never preached a sermon on honor. But it's important. 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:16.040 It's important to God, or it wouldn't be in the 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:19.760 Bible so many times, would it? Come on, just 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:22.799 common sense. Would God have that word in the 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.400 Bible over 300 times if it wasn't important for 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:30.879 you and for me today? No, no. The Bible is the 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:34.659 Word of God. Now we're going to start out talking 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:42.719 about a priest named Eli and his sons. I'm not 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.359 going to read the whole story, but I want to 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:47.459 tell you about it very briefly because we've 00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:51.079 got a lot of ground to cover. But in 1 Samuel, 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:55.799 we find the story of Eli, who was the priest, 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:59.700 and his sons. And then it gets to the point where 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:09.840 God says, Eli, I'm done with you and your sons. 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:20.939 Hello? He says, I'm done with y 'all. He told 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:22.639 Eli right before this verse that we're going 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.939 to read, he says, Eli. Listen, he says, you have 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:29.460 honored your sons more than you've honored me, 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:36.560 God said. Wow. As the priest, you've honored 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.000 your sons more than you've honored me. And listen, 00:02:39.139 --> 00:02:42.960 Eli's sons, they were not honoring the call of 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:49.979 God on their lives. Everybody say honor. They 00:02:49.979 --> 00:02:51.819 weren't honoring the call of God on their lives. 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:58.000 They were mishandling the sacrifices of the people. 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:01.460 They weren't following what God said they needed 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:04.659 to do and how they needed to do it. They were 00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:11.340 also taking advantage of people. And you know 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:16.680 what? Eli wouldn't correct his sons. Make sure 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:23.319 you get this. Eli didn't correct his sons. He 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.740 honored his sons, even though they were doing 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:33.699 the wrong thing. So God says to Eli, he says, 00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:36.020 look, Eli, you have honored your sons more than 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:39.340 you've honored me. And I'm going to tell you 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:43.180 something. This is God talking. In 1 Samuel 2 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:49.719 .30, God says, basically right before this, he 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:54.719 says, I'm done. with you and your sons because 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.520 Samuel is going to be anointed as the next priest 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:04.020 and prophet. God says, I will honor those who 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:12.599 honor me and I will despise those who think lightly 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:21.920 of me. Let that sink in. God says he will honor 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:27.759 people who honor him. But basically, he will 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:33.540 despise people who despise him. Now, in our English 00:04:33.540 --> 00:04:36.740 language, when we hear the word despise, most 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:39.459 of the time we think, well, despise means that, 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:42.680 you know, I despise you, and there's anger and 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:47.540 hatred involved in that. But that's not what 00:04:47.540 --> 00:04:52.160 it means. we get an English understanding of 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:55.040 the word, but that's not the, in this case, the 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.019 Hebrew understanding of the word that was translated 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:02.399 into English. So let's take a look at those. 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:09.279 The word honor in this Bible verse is the word 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:18.839 kavod. Y 'all see it? See, you're speaking Hebrew 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:24.540 now. About as good as I spoke French is about 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:28.060 as good as I speak Hebrew. But that word honor, 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:32.620 here's what it means. It means to be heavy. It 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:38.000 means to make weighty. It means to honor. It 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:45.879 means to glorify. And it means to value. That's 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:50.879 what the word means. To make heavy, to make weighty. 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:56.120 to honor, to glorify, to value. Now, there's 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.160 sometimes this word kavod in the Old Testament. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:05.540 Sometimes it's translated glory. Sometimes it's 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:15.259 translated honor. The reason why the word exists 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:19.279 To be heavy, to make weighty, for us to understand 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:21.759 that. Because when we talk about the glory of 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:25.540 God, we're talking about the manifested presence 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.540 of God, and we're talking about the weightiness 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:33.480 or the heaviness of that. And we can see through 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:36.319 Scripture and through experiences, sometimes, 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:40.180 you know, the manifested presence of God can 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:49.860 be felt. bad heaviness, but a good heaviness. 00:06:53.660 --> 00:06:56.819 And I'm going to say, you can experience the 00:06:56.819 --> 00:07:01.500 glory of God. It's not something that's just 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:05.540 Old Testament. It's not available to us today. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.459 But to be heavy, and it came from, it came from 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:17.540 doing business because the cultures then, they 00:07:17.540 --> 00:07:19.839 didn't have coins and things like that. There 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:22.379 weren't things. There wasn't paper money and 00:07:22.379 --> 00:07:27.300 things like that. So think of a balance scale. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:30.560 If you're young, you may not have ever seen a 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:38.040 balance scale. But it's a post with a bar and 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:41.939 two... holders on each side, two plates hanging 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:46.519 on each side. And the value of something would 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:51.720 be determined to be this much silver or this 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:57.019 much gold. So the person running the business 00:07:57.019 --> 00:08:00.399 had to have a scale and they had to have correct 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:04.279 weights to set on the scale and then you've got 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:07.379 to keep putting gold or silver on this side to 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:10.399 be able to purchase that item. Everybody say 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:18.279 value. Weight. So that's where this thought comes 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:26.579 from. Now, honor means a perceived value or worth. 00:08:27.379 --> 00:08:31.660 The value, weight, or honor, listen, willingly 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:37.990 assigned to something. So you had to willingly 00:08:37.990 --> 00:08:40.470 agree to the price to be able to purchase the 00:08:40.470 --> 00:08:45.169 item. So you willingly, every time you purchase 00:08:45.169 --> 00:08:48.289 something, we don't go through this thought process, 00:08:48.409 --> 00:08:51.610 but we willingly think that what we are purchasing 00:08:51.610 --> 00:08:56.490 is worth the price that we're paying for. Are 00:08:56.490 --> 00:08:59.990 you with me? If we don't think that, then we're 00:08:59.990 --> 00:09:04.409 going to be in trouble in our personal finances. 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:08.049 if we just have no concern over the cost of anything 00:09:08.049 --> 00:09:13.509 ever. But honor is willingly assigned to something. 00:09:13.590 --> 00:09:16.669 Value is willingly assigned to something. It's 00:09:16.669 --> 00:09:22.950 our perceived value or worth. Now, to despise, 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:28.529 when God says, I will despise those who think 00:09:28.529 --> 00:09:33.389 lightly of me, He's basically saying, I will 00:09:33.389 --> 00:09:38.309 despise those who despise me. Because in the 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:42.730 text, despise is opposite of weight, opposite 00:09:42.730 --> 00:09:47.169 of honor, opposite of value. I want you to see 00:09:47.169 --> 00:09:51.529 that word that way. To despise means to look 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:54.850 down on with disrespect, not with respect, but 00:09:54.850 --> 00:09:59.129 disrespect, or to regard something as worthless. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.580 That's what despise means. Now, we talked about 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:14.159 Eli's sons. You know, God had a call on that 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:21.500 family line to be priests for God. And there 00:10:21.500 --> 00:10:25.740 was a lot of responsibility. The calling of God 00:10:25.740 --> 00:10:30.379 comes with responsibility. It doesn't mean that... 00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:33.549 Everybody else has no responsibility, but comes 00:10:33.549 --> 00:10:36.950 with greater responsibility. And you know what? 00:10:37.009 --> 00:10:41.929 Eli's sons, they didn't care. They didn't care. 00:10:43.250 --> 00:10:50.110 So God removed that call. He says, I'm done with 00:10:50.110 --> 00:10:59.409 you. And he placed that call on Samuel. I'm going 00:10:59.409 --> 00:11:02.610 to say generally, not with everybody, not with 00:11:02.610 --> 00:11:04.970 everybody in this room, maybe no one in this 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:09.330 room, but generally in our society, there's a 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:16.610 lack of honor. The Bible talks about some things, 00:11:16.710 --> 00:11:18.110 and we're going to look at some things today. 00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:21.190 And it's not going to be an exhaustive study. 00:11:21.289 --> 00:11:23.450 It's not going to cover everything. We're going 00:11:23.450 --> 00:11:25.950 to look at some very important things that is 00:11:25.950 --> 00:11:31.679 important for you and I. to honor. But just so 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.700 we can wrap our minds around a lack of honor, 00:11:34.820 --> 00:11:41.759 you know, a lot of times in the home today, there's 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:46.620 a lack of honor. A lack of honor between spouses, 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:51.440 a lack of honor between children and their parents. 00:11:51.500 --> 00:11:52.960 That's going to be something that we talk about 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.909 one week. The Bible, I mean, one of the Ten Commandments 00:11:56.909 --> 00:12:02.250 is honor your parents. And then there's a promise. 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:05.409 If you'll do that, if you will honor, if you 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:09.350 will hold them valuable with respect, you know 00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:13.230 what? You'll wind up living longer. That's God's 00:12:13.230 --> 00:12:19.509 promise. But we see a lack of honor in the family 00:12:19.509 --> 00:12:22.769 structure. We see a lack of honor in schools. 00:12:26.350 --> 00:12:28.409 It's just way different than it used to be when 00:12:28.409 --> 00:12:33.549 I was a kid. There's a lack of honor. We have 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:36.070 a friend who's a school teacher in New York, 00:12:36.129 --> 00:12:39.570 and she and her husband visit here at Elation 00:12:39.570 --> 00:12:42.610 Church. We've been friends for over 20 years 00:12:42.610 --> 00:12:45.590 with them, and they visit on a regular basis. 00:12:45.669 --> 00:12:47.850 But let me tell you something that happened to 00:12:47.850 --> 00:12:53.009 her. One day when she was teaching, One of the 00:12:53.009 --> 00:12:56.429 students got mad at her and threw a desk at her 00:12:56.429 --> 00:13:03.190 and hit her with a desk. And I want to ask you 00:13:03.190 --> 00:13:09.350 a question. Guess who got in trouble? She got 00:13:09.350 --> 00:13:15.389 in trouble. She asked the student for his homework. 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:18.610 He didn't do his homework, so he got mad at her 00:13:18.610 --> 00:13:23.500 and threw the desk at her. I mean, she was bruised 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:28.879 and hurt. But she got reprimanded by the school 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:32.700 system and her principal. And here's why she 00:13:32.700 --> 00:13:37.059 got reprimanded. Because she asked the student 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:41.779 where his homework was. She asked for his homework 00:13:41.779 --> 00:13:46.039 in front of the other students. So she got reprimanded 00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:54.139 for embarrassing him. Hello? None of that would 00:13:54.139 --> 00:14:00.220 ever happen when I was in school. Because when 00:14:00.220 --> 00:14:06.500 I was in school, if you showed dishonor towards 00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:10.639 a teacher, I know a bunch of you aren't as young 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:16.019 as I am, and I wasn't a person to dishonor people 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:17.820 a whole lot, but I remember there was a time 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:21.419 when I did some dishonor. And I remember putting 00:14:21.419 --> 00:14:33.419 my hands on the desk, And the coach had a paddle 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:39.500 that he had drilled holes in. Does anybody know 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:44.879 what I'm talking about? I had to put my hands 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:50.940 on the desk and lean over, tighten it up. And 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:56.379 my dishonor cost me something. As I slid on my 00:14:56.379 --> 00:15:05.009 stomach across his desk. I'm not saying that 00:15:05.009 --> 00:15:11.169 that needs to happen to that level. But God does 00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:17.129 say if we spare the rod, we will spoil the child. 00:15:18.929 --> 00:15:22.450 It's a Bible verse. We have to deal with it. 00:15:24.370 --> 00:15:29.529 What about disrespect in public? Lack of honor 00:15:29.529 --> 00:15:34.470 in public? Do you notice it? There's a lot of 00:15:34.470 --> 00:15:36.190 people who don't care about anybody but themselves. 00:15:40.129 --> 00:15:44.289 So it doesn't matter the way they talk when they're 00:15:44.289 --> 00:15:49.110 around other people. They have no concern for 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:52.110 that whatsoever, what kind of language they use 00:15:52.110 --> 00:15:57.009 in just their casual talk. And, you know, I see 00:15:57.009 --> 00:15:59.169 it in front of parents with young children, and 00:15:59.169 --> 00:16:01.929 then I... There's people walking beside them 00:16:01.929 --> 00:16:05.750 and saying things that, I mean, now I guess they're 00:16:05.750 --> 00:16:08.490 common on TV, but it's showing a lack of honor 00:16:08.490 --> 00:16:12.330 and a lack of respect for yourself and everybody 00:16:12.330 --> 00:16:20.950 else around you. Don't get mad at me. Because 00:16:20.950 --> 00:16:22.690 Jeffrey and I were talking about it, and Jeffrey 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:27.210 said, you know what, Dad? I can't really blame. 00:16:28.909 --> 00:16:34.730 The people that I know who don't show any honor, 00:16:34.870 --> 00:16:39.149 because I don't believe they were ever taught 00:16:39.149 --> 00:16:43.970 about honor. I don't believe anybody's ever modeled 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:52.590 honor for them, talked about honor. All this 00:16:52.590 --> 00:16:56.090 that we see where, you know, there's so much 00:16:56.090 --> 00:17:00.730 dishonor. In society, over authority and over 00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:07.210 law, there's a lack of honor. Lack of honor. 00:17:08.930 --> 00:17:12.490 And I'll just be honest with you. I mean, I don't 00:17:12.490 --> 00:17:14.390 know where you grew up or what you were taught, 00:17:14.549 --> 00:17:19.829 but I was taught, if I talked to an adult, that 00:17:19.829 --> 00:17:24.960 I always said, yes, sir, or yes, ma 'am. Now 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:26.799 that may be foreign to you, because I found out 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.019 that that's foreign to a lot of people. To use 00:17:30.019 --> 00:17:34.680 the words sir and ma 'am out of respect. Right? 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:40.640 I mean, even as an adult, talking to people older 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:42.720 than me, I mean, I would always say yes sir, 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:46.299 yes ma 'am, no sir, no ma 'am. And I've had people 00:17:46.299 --> 00:17:51.680 look at me like I was a freak. People that I 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.279 was honoring. They looked at me like I was a 00:17:55.279 --> 00:18:00.839 freak because I said, yes, ma 'am. Ma 'am? Why 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:02.400 are you calling me ma 'am? I mean, they just 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.359 didn't grow up that way, so they had no idea. 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:10.019 We're going to talk about this. We're going to 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:12.039 talk about honoring authority. We're going to 00:18:12.039 --> 00:18:14.740 talk about, listen, the Bible says that we're 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:18.900 supposed to honor everyone. So let's just get 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:21.960 that out there. And that's going to be one of 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:24.049 the weeks we're going to. Talk about honoring 00:18:24.049 --> 00:18:28.849 people. Because we're supposed to value everybody. 00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:34.569 Whether we know them, whether we're in relationship 00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:38.049 with them or not, we're supposed to value everybody. 00:18:39.089 --> 00:18:45.369 We're supposed to honor everybody. Okay? So, 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:49.109 don't get twisted up and say, well, you know 00:18:49.109 --> 00:18:52.130 what? I want to hear all this because the preacher 00:18:52.130 --> 00:18:53.829 is just trying to get everybody to honor him. 00:18:55.450 --> 00:19:03.009 I wouldn't put that past some preachers. Anyway, 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:08.009 I'm not going to call any names. We're supposed 00:19:08.009 --> 00:19:13.009 to honor everyone. And honor must be taught. 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:19.609 Honor has got to be taught. So that's why we're 00:19:19.609 --> 00:19:23.869 teaching on it. We believe honor needs to be 00:19:23.869 --> 00:19:27.410 taught in every household to every child. Honor's 00:19:27.410 --> 00:19:30.490 got to be taught or people aren't going to have 00:19:30.490 --> 00:19:33.130 any honor unless they know about it and know 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:36.829 the importance of it. Now in the Greek, in the 00:19:36.829 --> 00:19:39.089 New Testament, we're looking at three words very 00:19:39.089 --> 00:19:44.190 quickly. We're defining three words. Timao, that's 00:19:44.190 --> 00:19:47.839 the verb. Because honor is a verb, honor is a 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:53.039 noun, honor is an adjective for all you English 00:19:53.039 --> 00:20:00.000 teachers. So to honor is to prize or to revere 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:05.420 is a definition. To honor the noun is to may. 00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:12.740 It means a value or valuable. Something is esteemed 00:20:12.740 --> 00:20:17.319 in the highest degree. and as an adjective, tea 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:23.259 meals, is valuable, costly, honored, esteemed, 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:29.119 beloved, or precious. Honor includes the ideas 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:33.619 of worth, esteem, dignity, and price, whether 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:37.799 we use it in the context of God, of Jesus, of 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:44.089 people, or things. And here's what I want you 00:20:44.089 --> 00:20:49.710 to get. The term always measures value. And when 00:20:49.710 --> 00:20:56.349 the value is measured, it calls for a response 00:20:56.349 --> 00:21:01.509 proportionate to that value. I'm going to say 00:21:01.509 --> 00:21:07.769 that again. The term honor always is measuring 00:21:07.769 --> 00:21:12.930 the value of something. Because I didn't fully 00:21:12.930 --> 00:21:15.910 understand what honor meant until I started studying. 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:21.970 But honor always has to do with value. It measures 00:21:21.970 --> 00:21:25.269 the value. But it's more than just measuring 00:21:25.269 --> 00:21:30.430 the value. It's calling for a response proportionate 00:21:30.430 --> 00:21:35.710 to that value. Some of you looking like you lost. 00:21:43.049 --> 00:21:48.789 If something is deemed honorable, it's calling 00:21:48.789 --> 00:21:54.990 for a response to be honored. If we need to honor 00:21:54.990 --> 00:21:59.529 our teachers, it's calling for a response, right? 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:06.769 If our teachers are honorable, then it's calling 00:22:06.769 --> 00:22:08.930 for our response. Are we going to honor them 00:22:08.930 --> 00:22:12.690 or are we not going to honor them? Honor is always 00:22:12.690 --> 00:22:17.369 calling for a response. And that's why I started 00:22:17.369 --> 00:22:21.809 out with honor as this sermon series, but then 00:22:21.809 --> 00:22:24.450 I changed it, made Jeffrey redo the art, and 00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:26.490 I said I'm not just going to call it honor, I'm 00:22:26.490 --> 00:22:29.210 going to call it a call to honor, because when 00:22:29.210 --> 00:22:31.769 we find out that things are honorable, then it's 00:22:31.769 --> 00:22:33.509 up to us whether we're going to honor them or 00:22:33.509 --> 00:22:39.309 not. There's a call to everyone, not just us 00:22:39.309 --> 00:22:42.730 in the room. Now, how do we demonstrate honor? 00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:48.250 Every single one of these doesn't apply to every 00:22:48.250 --> 00:22:51.829 single context, but they apply across the board. 00:22:52.289 --> 00:22:57.329 When you honor someone or something, you speak 00:22:57.329 --> 00:23:06.650 highly of it. Let that sit in. You speak highly 00:23:06.650 --> 00:23:11.660 of it. So it's easy to tell if you don't honor 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:14.240 something, if you're not speaking highly of it, 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:19.339 you're not honoring it. You're not placing any 00:23:19.339 --> 00:23:25.339 value on it. If your words aren't high praise 00:23:25.339 --> 00:23:30.599 of it, if that makes sense. To demonstrate honor, 00:23:30.740 --> 00:23:37.200 you act in generosity towards it. If you ever 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.740 wonder why people brought an apple to the teacher 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:47.119 at school, you act in generosity towards it. 00:23:48.180 --> 00:23:53.859 You have a high respect of it. You submit to 00:23:53.859 --> 00:23:58.940 the authority of it if you honor it. So let's 00:23:58.940 --> 00:24:01.779 take a look at the negative side of this. If 00:24:01.779 --> 00:24:05.990 you refuse to submit to... an authority, then 00:24:05.990 --> 00:24:09.049 that means you are dishonoring. If you don't 00:24:09.049 --> 00:24:11.410 have a high respect, then you're dishonoring. 00:24:11.470 --> 00:24:14.190 If you don't act with generosity towards, then 00:24:14.190 --> 00:24:17.130 you're dishonoring or thinking lightly of it. 00:24:18.529 --> 00:24:22.490 If you're not speaking highly, then that's dishonor 00:24:22.490 --> 00:24:29.029 or disdain. Today, we're going to talk about 00:24:29.029 --> 00:24:32.210 three quick things. Look to the person beside 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:35.059 you and tell them, listen fast. Got to listen 00:24:35.059 --> 00:24:42.940 fast. Write down listen fast. Just going to talk 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:45.220 about three things that God honors, obviously. 00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:53.380 And we're going to talk about us honoring what 00:24:53.380 --> 00:24:58.019 God honors. Is that fair enough? If God honors 00:24:58.019 --> 00:25:02.440 it, is it worth our honor too? Thank you for 00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:06.619 your response. We need to honor the Word of God. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:12.799 You can say another amen right there. We need 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:17.079 to honor the Word of God. We need to value it. 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:26.500 We need to treasure it. The Word of God. We need 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:34.640 to treasure it. We need to honor it. I've always 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:37.940 wondered about this parable or this teaching. 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:44.759 Matthew 7, 6. Maybe you've said, what? Before. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:50.559 When Jesus said, look, don't give what is holy 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:55.680 to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before a swine, 00:25:55.859 --> 00:26:01.299 lest they trample them under their feet and turn 00:26:01.299 --> 00:26:05.490 and tear you in pieces. Has anybody ever, when 00:26:05.490 --> 00:26:12.349 you read that, has anybody ever went, huh? I 00:26:12.349 --> 00:26:20.589 mean, why are we looking at this? Well, here's 00:26:20.589 --> 00:26:26.210 why. Dogs do not have the ability to distinguish 00:26:26.210 --> 00:26:32.000 between a comic book or the Bible, do they? They 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:33.960 don't have the capacity to even distinguish between 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:38.480 the two. If your dog is wanting to chew up a 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:42.480 book, and there's a comic book and a Bible on 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:45.519 the coffee table, it don't care which one it 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:49.559 chews up. It's just mad because you left it too 00:26:49.559 --> 00:26:52.920 long. And it's going to destroy something. It's 00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:54.619 either going to be a roll of toilet paper out 00:26:54.619 --> 00:26:56.579 of the bathroom, but if you lock the bathroom 00:26:56.579 --> 00:26:59.839 door, it's going to go after that comic book 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:01.759 or that Bible and it could care less which one 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:04.079 it was. It just wants to shred up a bunch of 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:12.960 paper and throw it all over the house. So a dog 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:21.460 has no honor for a Bible. It's impossible, right? 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:28.509 What about a pig? A pig doesn't have the ability 00:27:28.509 --> 00:27:32.369 to distinguish between just a rock that you pick 00:27:32.369 --> 00:27:39.430 up on the ground or a pearl. It don't care. It's 00:27:39.430 --> 00:27:43.609 all just rocks to the pig. I mean, it could be 00:27:43.609 --> 00:27:49.150 a $5 ,000 pearl, but a pig don't care. A pig's 00:27:49.150 --> 00:27:53.390 not going to honor the value. Everybody say value. 00:27:54.390 --> 00:28:04.859 The value. Of that pearl, pig doesn't care. I 00:28:04.859 --> 00:28:09.400 want you to really get this. When we don't honor 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:14.539 something as valuable, we will not receive any 00:28:14.539 --> 00:28:23.740 value from it. When we don't honor something 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:28.299 as valuable, We will not receive anything from 00:28:28.299 --> 00:28:35.079 it. So if you don't honor the word of God, if 00:28:35.079 --> 00:28:39.599 you don't highly esteem it, if you don't hold 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:44.000 it as being valuable, you know what? You can 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.720 read it all day long and you're never going to 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:51.839 get anything out of it. There are people who 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:57.140 teach doctorate level theology classes in universities 00:28:57.140 --> 00:29:04.539 who are atheists. And they teach the Bible. And 00:29:04.539 --> 00:29:07.960 they teach the history of the Bible. They've 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:09.640 been there for years and years and years and 00:29:09.640 --> 00:29:11.920 years, but they don't honor it as God's Word. 00:29:13.059 --> 00:29:15.640 They just look at it just like any other book 00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:21.400 in the library. When you don't honor it, you 00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.240 won't receive any value from it. And listen. 00:29:26.179 --> 00:29:28.339 If you read the Bible and you say, I'm just not 00:29:28.339 --> 00:29:35.299 getting anything out of it. It's just not. You 00:29:35.299 --> 00:29:36.920 know, people tell me to read the Bible. People 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:41.079 give me a Bible and I read it. But I don't see 00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:45.640 any power or any life. They talk about all this 00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:51.240 stuff, but I don't see any of it. There's something 00:29:51.240 --> 00:29:55.470 else. You know. Because if you're around here, 00:29:55.549 --> 00:29:57.769 you hear me talking about putting your words 00:29:57.769 --> 00:30:03.210 in agreement with the Word of God, right? Well, 00:30:03.250 --> 00:30:05.289 guess what? You can put your words in agreement 00:30:05.289 --> 00:30:07.009 with the Word of God, but if you don't value 00:30:07.009 --> 00:30:12.029 it, you're not going to see it make an impact 00:30:12.029 --> 00:30:15.569 in your life if you don't highly esteem the Word 00:30:15.569 --> 00:30:21.789 of God. So we need to honor the Word. We need 00:30:21.789 --> 00:30:24.480 to honor the Word. Here's something else we need 00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:30.160 to honor. We need to honor the church. Now listen. 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:35.339 That word church in the New Testament is called 00:30:35.339 --> 00:30:38.579 out once. It's a compound Greek word. It means 00:30:38.579 --> 00:30:44.279 called out once. It doesn't mean, you know, an 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:49.339 organization. It doesn't mean a building. Even 00:30:49.339 --> 00:30:52.640 though we use... The word to say that, it doesn't 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.839 even mean a meeting as far as just meetings are 00:30:56.839 --> 00:31:05.900 concerned. It means the called out ones. But 00:31:05.900 --> 00:31:08.519 I don't want you to ever take that to mean that 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:15.200 we don't need each other. That we shouldn't honor 00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:19.200 each other. I don't want you to ever take it 00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:23.000 to mean that. Because some people, when I say 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:24.900 that we're the called out ones, they say, well, 00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:26.980 you know, that just means that I can worship 00:31:26.980 --> 00:31:30.359 God in a deer stand just as much as I can worship 00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:33.420 Him anywhere else. I can worship God at the lake, 00:31:33.460 --> 00:31:38.200 in my boat. I don't ever have to go get together 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:40.660 with other believers. I mean, I am the church, 00:31:40.779 --> 00:31:44.859 so wherever I am, that's the church. And some 00:31:44.859 --> 00:31:47.180 people say, some people don't think they... have 00:31:47.180 --> 00:31:50.380 a need to get together with other called out 00:31:50.380 --> 00:31:55.799 ones in a family of faith. They don't value it. 00:31:58.059 --> 00:32:03.720 They don't think that's important. Just anything 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:07.819 else, any other option that I got is more important 00:32:07.819 --> 00:32:09.960 than getting together with the called out ones. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:18.920 We'll need to honor. The church. Let me tell 00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:22.119 you, well, let me tell you what happened last 00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:26.039 week. Everybody say last week. Last week. I didn't 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:27.519 even know I was going to preach on honor yet. 00:32:28.059 --> 00:32:31.200 And guess what? Jeffrey, you know, he's working 00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:33.420 in social media and he's trying to invite people 00:32:33.420 --> 00:32:36.099 to come join us for worship and invite people 00:32:36.099 --> 00:32:38.500 to come be a part of our family of faith. So 00:32:38.500 --> 00:32:41.000 he's always sending out things every week and 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:44.609 invitations. And you know what? Somebody on TikTok, 00:32:44.829 --> 00:32:48.450 because we're kind of new still on TikTok. Somebody 00:32:48.450 --> 00:32:52.369 on TikTok replied. This was their reply. And 00:32:52.369 --> 00:32:55.029 all it was was just a TikTok post inviting them 00:32:55.029 --> 00:32:58.009 to come join us here at Alation Church. And they 00:32:58.009 --> 00:33:01.970 felt like they had to reply this. I couldn't 00:33:01.970 --> 00:33:12.109 care any less. That's what I say. You know, I 00:33:12.109 --> 00:33:14.509 wanted to reply, well, you know, thank you for 00:33:14.509 --> 00:33:16.730 caring enough to comment that you didn't care. 00:33:17.289 --> 00:33:20.730 But Jeffrey said, I probably shouldn't do that. 00:33:22.390 --> 00:33:26.289 They said, I couldn't care any less than I care 00:33:26.289 --> 00:33:29.789 about getting together with other people to look 00:33:29.789 --> 00:33:32.109 into God's word, to lift up the name of Jesus. 00:33:32.170 --> 00:33:36.190 I couldn't care any less about doing that. You 00:33:36.190 --> 00:33:45.130 know why? There's no value. No value. No value. 00:33:47.630 --> 00:33:53.069 And I dare say that that's a lot of people in 00:33:53.069 --> 00:33:56.309 the communities around us. They could care less. 00:33:57.970 --> 00:34:04.230 Because they don't see any value. They don't 00:34:04.230 --> 00:34:17.570 see any value. I see a lot of value. I see enough 00:34:17.570 --> 00:34:28.849 value to even be here today. I see enough value 00:34:28.849 --> 00:34:35.809 that, you know, walked away from the highest 00:34:35.809 --> 00:34:42.829 paycheck I've ever had in my life. Because God 00:34:42.829 --> 00:34:45.190 called us to come down here and start this church. 00:34:47.949 --> 00:34:54.010 That's what kind of value I see. In the Word 00:34:54.010 --> 00:35:00.250 of God. In the church. Because we drove down 00:35:00.250 --> 00:35:03.469 here and we saw so many people that weren't connected 00:35:03.469 --> 00:35:07.489 to God. So many people that were not connected 00:35:07.489 --> 00:35:13.119 to a family of faith. And we saw enough value 00:35:13.119 --> 00:35:20.199 to say whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. 00:35:24.420 --> 00:35:30.980 And that shouldn't just be the preacher. Shouldn't 00:35:30.980 --> 00:35:38.320 just be the preacher. Here's how much Jesus honored 00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:43.059 the church. Christ loved the church and still 00:35:43.059 --> 00:35:48.280 does. He gave up his life for her to make her 00:35:48.280 --> 00:35:53.760 holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's 00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:58.619 word. He did this to present her, the church, 00:35:58.699 --> 00:36:02.639 to himself. And in this case, it's not just called 00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:05.800 out ones, it's the gathering of called out ones. 00:36:06.409 --> 00:36:09.869 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious 00:36:09.869 --> 00:36:15.250 church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. 00:36:16.630 --> 00:36:20.909 Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 00:36:24.650 --> 00:36:29.989 You couldn't honor anything anymore. You couldn't 00:36:29.989 --> 00:36:32.889 demonstrate your honor to anything anymore than 00:36:32.889 --> 00:36:36.250 laying down your life. Have you heard of the 00:36:36.250 --> 00:36:41.949 Medal of Honor? Where you don't see your life 00:36:41.949 --> 00:36:54.750 worth more than your cause? Hebrews 10, 25. And 00:36:54.750 --> 00:36:57.329 let us not neglect our meeting together, as some 00:36:57.329 --> 00:36:59.849 people do, but encourage one another, especially 00:36:59.849 --> 00:37:03.590 now that the day of his return is drawing near. 00:37:07.849 --> 00:37:13.429 God wants us to honor the church and honor his 00:37:13.429 --> 00:37:21.510 word. Because when we neglect something and don't 00:37:21.510 --> 00:37:26.070 acknowledge the value of something, then we don't 00:37:26.070 --> 00:37:31.590 honor it. Honor the kingdom of God. We should 00:37:31.590 --> 00:37:36.969 honor the kingdom of God. The rule and reign 00:37:36.969 --> 00:37:42.489 of God. Eternal rule and reign of God. We should 00:37:42.489 --> 00:37:46.429 honor the kingdom of God. You know, Jesus did 00:37:46.429 --> 00:37:50.250 a lot of teaching when he was on the earth. But 00:37:50.250 --> 00:37:51.650 you know what he talked about more than anything 00:37:51.650 --> 00:38:01.820 else? The kingdom of God. Look it up. All those 00:38:01.820 --> 00:38:03.820 parables, the majority of the parables, the kingdom 00:38:03.820 --> 00:38:05.780 of God is like this, kingdom of God is like this, 00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:09.380 kingdom of God is like this, right? We need to 00:38:09.380 --> 00:38:16.739 honor the rule and reign of God over us, over 00:38:16.739 --> 00:38:21.400 our homes, over our families, over our church, 00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:33.219 over everything. We need to honor that. These 00:38:33.219 --> 00:38:37.780 are parables that you can easily see by how you 00:38:37.780 --> 00:38:41.780 demonstrate honor. We can see that the kingdom 00:38:41.780 --> 00:38:44.599 of heaven should be honored. The kingdom of heaven 00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:48.800 is like a treasure. Everybody say value. Valuable. 00:38:49.460 --> 00:38:52.500 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that 00:38:52.500 --> 00:38:56.860 a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:02.219 he hid it again and sold everything he owned. 00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:07.900 To get enough money to buy the field. That's 00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:12.179 how important the treasure was to him. So what 00:39:12.179 --> 00:39:14.739 is God saying? Is he talking about a treasure 00:39:14.739 --> 00:39:17.400 chest that we find in a field? Or is he talking 00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:20.400 about we should value the kingdom of heaven? 00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:23.239 The kingdom of God. We should value that in the 00:39:23.239 --> 00:39:30.940 same way. That's what he's saying. Matthew. 13, 00:39:30.980 --> 00:39:34.280 45, and 46, the parable continues. Again, the 00:39:34.280 --> 00:39:36.739 kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout 00:39:36.739 --> 00:39:41.260 for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl 00:39:41.260 --> 00:39:45.300 of great value, he sold everything he owned and 00:39:45.300 --> 00:39:52.880 bought it. You know why? Because he valued it 00:39:52.880 --> 00:39:57.820 the most. Oh, he had a lot of pearls because 00:39:57.820 --> 00:40:02.920 he was a pearl merchant. But this one was unlike 00:40:02.920 --> 00:40:09.539 anything else. We have a lot of things that we 00:40:09.539 --> 00:40:17.340 value. Hello? Every single one of us, we have 00:40:17.340 --> 00:40:27.719 a lot of different things that we value. But 00:40:27.719 --> 00:40:32.000 what we value most, Should be the kingdom of 00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:39.719 heaven. What you value the most is what you will 00:40:39.719 --> 00:40:47.400 honor the most. You know, we've had a lot of 00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:49.559 happy preaching times, but y 'all are all looking 00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:54.820 very serious. I mean, we've... If today's your 00:40:54.820 --> 00:40:57.599 first time being here, hey, it's not normally 00:40:57.599 --> 00:41:01.719 quite this heavy. But we're talking about a heavy 00:41:01.719 --> 00:41:05.179 subject, right? Honor is heavy. That's even the 00:41:05.179 --> 00:41:09.239 definition of it, right? But what you value the 00:41:09.239 --> 00:41:14.400 most is what you honor the most. And God told 00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:19.960 Eli, you honor your kids. You value your sons 00:41:19.960 --> 00:41:27.079 above what you value me. Honor measures value. 00:41:28.199 --> 00:41:31.380 And calls for a response proportionate to that 00:41:31.380 --> 00:41:40.079 value. I think next week, we're going to talk 00:41:40.079 --> 00:41:43.820 about honoring God. Not just honoring the things 00:41:43.820 --> 00:41:48.980 that God honors, but honoring God. We need to 00:41:48.980 --> 00:41:55.039 value Him. We need to value what He values. 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