WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:04.219 Sharing good news of great joy to all people, 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:10.699 Elation Church. This is week number four in our 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:15.119 series we've entitled, A Call to Honor. A Call 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:20.879 to Honor. Every believer is called to honor. 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:28.960 Every Christian is called to be a people of honor, 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:32.750 characterized by... honor. When people think 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.869 of Christians and those who go to church, it 00:00:35.869 --> 00:00:39.109 shouldn't be those that are hypocritical. It 00:00:39.109 --> 00:00:42.170 should be people of love and it should be people 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:46.090 of honor. It's different, right? Our society 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:53.590 is full of dishonor. So full of dishonor. We 00:00:53.590 --> 00:00:55.729 don't honor, you know, you just see it everywhere 00:00:55.729 --> 00:01:03.240 all the time. We are called to be different. 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:06.079 We're supposed to be in the world, but not of 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:10.939 the world. And we're called to honor. Honor is 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:14.159 mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. As we've 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:15.680 seen, we're going to recap a little bit. It's 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:18.500 mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. That means 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:21.420 it's important. And from now on, I hope through 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:23.280 this series that when you're reading your Bible, 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:26.159 when you see that word honor, a flag kind of 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:28.239 goes up and you start paying attention to it. 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:30.239 Like, what am I supposed to do with this information? 00:01:31.349 --> 00:01:34.329 Because a lot of times when we see the word honor, 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:38.609 it's actually calling for a response. It's not 00:01:38.609 --> 00:01:40.950 just intellectual knowledge when we read the 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:44.450 Bible. Often when we see things, they're commands 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:47.090 for us as Christians to take a hold of and to 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:50.069 respond to. To not just be hearers of the word, 00:01:50.290 --> 00:01:54.870 but to be doers of the word. Amen? In honor, 00:01:54.989 --> 00:01:58.129 we look at several different words. that the 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:01.129 Bible uses when we read our English word honor. 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:06.109 The Bible in Greek uses several different words. 00:02:06.129 --> 00:02:11.409 One of those is kavod, meaning to be heavy. The 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:14.789 word honor means to be heavy or to make weighty. 00:02:15.310 --> 00:02:19.590 Honor, it means glorify. Sometimes the same word 00:02:19.590 --> 00:02:23.699 kavod is translated glorify in your Bible. talking 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:26.919 about the weight of glory of something, of God, 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.439 of his manifested presence. And it's talking 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:35.719 about value. Value kind of needs to be our mindset 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.400 shift. When we hear the word honor and when we 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:40.319 read it in our Bible, we really need to change 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:43.479 the way we think about it. It's not just, you 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:45.840 know, this vague sort of thing. It's actually 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.740 talking about value and how we value someone 00:02:50.740 --> 00:02:55.219 or something. The verb that is used means to 00:02:55.219 --> 00:03:00.599 prize or to revere, temeo. Teme is the noun. 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:04.259 It means a value, valuable, esteem of the highest 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:09.840 degree. The adjective temeos meaning valuable, 00:03:10.139 --> 00:03:16.120 costly, honor, esteemed, beloved, precious. Kind 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:18.539 of goes against our normal understanding of honor. 00:03:18.659 --> 00:03:22.150 It kind of opens it up a little bit. And as we've 00:03:22.150 --> 00:03:25.969 seen, honor includes the ideas of worth, esteem, 00:03:25.969 --> 00:03:30.469 dignity, and price, whether used of God or of 00:03:30.469 --> 00:03:35.530 Christ or of people or of material goods. And 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:38.930 as we've seen in this study through the past 00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:41.389 three weeks, you know, honor always measures 00:03:41.389 --> 00:03:45.689 value. It always measures the value of something, 00:03:45.830 --> 00:03:50.020 and it calls for a response. And our honor, our 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:53.819 response should be proportionate and is proportionate 00:03:53.819 --> 00:03:59.620 to our perceived value of it, right? Perceived 00:03:59.620 --> 00:04:02.219 value, meaning the worth or weight or honor we 00:04:02.219 --> 00:04:08.300 willingly assign to something. So as we've learned 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:11.919 in week one, we're called to honor the things 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.300 that God honors, what God honors. And we talked 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:18.910 about honoring the word of God. How many of you 00:04:18.910 --> 00:04:22.370 know we should honor the Word of God? Amen? We've 00:04:22.370 --> 00:04:23.810 talked about that a little bit. We should honor 00:04:23.810 --> 00:04:26.889 His Word, the written Word and the spoken Word 00:04:26.889 --> 00:04:30.550 of God through the Holy Spirit. We should honor 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:35.850 it. We should honor the church. We should honor 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:40.370 the church. See, a lot of people get confused 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:42.389 when you say things like this because it's like, 00:04:42.569 --> 00:04:44.850 what do you mean by church? The church, the called 00:04:44.850 --> 00:04:50.980 out ones. Not the building. Not the elation. 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:55.620 But look to the person on your left. Look to 00:04:55.620 --> 00:05:01.079 the person on your right. The church. We are 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:05.860 the church. Amen? And we're supposed to honor 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:12.399 one another. And we are called to honor the kingdom. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.860 His rule, his eternal, God's eternal rule and 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:22.560 reign over everything. We're called to honor 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:27.300 it. We're called to value it. Too many times, 00:05:27.379 --> 00:05:36.800 we want to honor ourselves, right? Too many times, 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:43.079 the king, right? We view ourselves as the king 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:47.560 of our own kingdom. We view ourselves as the 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:50.120 king and the queen sitting on the throne of our 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:53.379 heart. And all of our value is just, you know, 00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:58.720 it's just about me. It's not the way it should 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:02.560 be for a Christian. We're called to honor the 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:05.139 kingdom, his kingdom, his rule and his reign. 00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:08.220 Because as we've learned, if you don't honor 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:12.379 God's word, If you don't honor God's bride, the 00:06:12.379 --> 00:06:15.920 family of faith, if you don't honor God's kingdom, 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:22.160 you won't receive any value from it. People all 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:24.319 the time say, well, you know, I just don't understand. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:27.819 Why do I go to church, right? Why do I need to 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:32.439 go to church? I can be in my deer stand or I 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:34.459 can be in my car and experience the presence 00:06:34.459 --> 00:06:38.740 of God. While that may be true, there is value 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:46.060 in community. We are not meant, we were not created 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:55.480 to do life alone. We need each other. And we 00:06:55.480 --> 00:07:04.790 need, listen, we need to follow God. And we need 00:07:04.790 --> 00:07:07.629 what God says, because look, God can speak through 00:07:07.629 --> 00:07:18.730 someone else too. We are called to honor God, 00:07:18.889 --> 00:07:21.430 as we learned in week two. We honor God with 00:07:21.430 --> 00:07:25.449 how? Our praise and our worship, of course. We 00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:28.769 learned we honor God with our lives, our whole 00:07:28.769 --> 00:07:32.410 bodies, our breath, the spirit we talked about, 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:36.449 pneuma. We honor God with our service, the things 00:07:36.449 --> 00:07:41.829 that we do, our time, our talent, and our resources. 00:07:42.610 --> 00:07:46.850 And we honor God with our wealth, the first fruits. 00:07:47.970 --> 00:07:51.170 We give a portion of that back to him. Amen. 00:07:51.490 --> 00:07:55.769 We honor God with that increase. We give it back 00:07:55.769 --> 00:07:59.310 to him. So, and then we've seen that the lack 00:07:59.310 --> 00:08:02.110 of honor. will hinder the work of God in our 00:08:02.110 --> 00:08:05.329 lives. Because honor puts us in a position to 00:08:05.329 --> 00:08:09.069 receive everything that God has for us. And honor 00:08:09.069 --> 00:08:14.910 is always recognized and rewarded. Amen? Our 00:08:14.910 --> 00:08:20.569 main text is in 1 Samuel 2 .30. And it says this, 00:08:20.629 --> 00:08:27.970 God says to Eli, after his sons, we'll talk about 00:08:27.970 --> 00:08:31.930 this a little more later, after his sons were 00:08:31.930 --> 00:08:36.070 dishonoring the money of the temple, they were 00:08:36.070 --> 00:08:39.730 dishonoring it, they were dishonoring the women 00:08:39.730 --> 00:08:41.309 who were coming through, they were taking advantage 00:08:41.309 --> 00:08:45.149 of women. And God specifically told Eli to remove, 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:47.509 you know, you got to remove them, you got to 00:08:47.509 --> 00:08:51.129 get rid, you know, take them out. But he wouldn't 00:08:51.129 --> 00:08:57.330 do it. And God tells Eli, Here in 1 Samuel 2 00:08:57.330 --> 00:09:00.389 through 30 says, I will honor those who honor 00:09:00.389 --> 00:09:04.830 me, and I will despise those who think lightly 00:09:04.830 --> 00:09:10.190 of me. And as we've seen, your value of God is 00:09:10.190 --> 00:09:13.629 proportionate to his presence, to his work, to 00:09:13.629 --> 00:09:18.350 his power, to his influence in your life. It's 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:23.490 proportionate. And your honor of him, your value 00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:30.460 of him, is proportionate to your usefulness to 00:09:30.460 --> 00:09:35.279 him in the kingdom. If we don't honor him, we 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:38.820 are of no value. We carry no weight in the kingdom 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:41.500 of God. Now, a lot of people, when I say that, 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:44.120 you might think, well, that kind of seems unfair, 00:09:44.539 --> 00:09:47.120 because God loves everyone. And yes, he does 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:51.059 love everyone. He does love you unconditionally. 00:09:53.710 --> 00:09:58.070 But your honor, listen, this verse, I want you 00:09:58.070 --> 00:10:02.710 to see the concept of reaping and sowing. You 00:10:02.710 --> 00:10:06.870 reap what you sow. I will honor those who honor 00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:10.850 me. If we value God, listen, you will receive 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:15.950 from him. In the same way we talked about the 00:10:15.950 --> 00:10:18.750 Bible, right? If I honor it, if I value what 00:10:18.750 --> 00:10:22.629 it has to say, if I genuinely believe it, When 00:10:22.629 --> 00:10:25.909 I read it, it's more than just a book. All of 00:10:25.909 --> 00:10:29.210 a sudden, it carries weight in my life. It changes 00:10:29.210 --> 00:10:32.009 the way I operate day to day. It changes the 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:35.649 way I treat the people around me. It's no longer 00:10:35.649 --> 00:10:39.629 just words on a page if I value it. It's a good 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:42.070 example of what we're talking about here. I will 00:10:42.070 --> 00:10:44.490 honor those who honor me, and I will despise 00:10:44.490 --> 00:10:48.470 those who think lightly of me. So honor is not 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:54.620 love. But honor is a demonstration of love. It's 00:10:54.620 --> 00:10:58.460 a demonstration of love. When we're showing love 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:01.799 to God, we will honor him, right? When we're 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:04.879 showing love to other people, we honor them, 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:09.700 right? And despise here is not hate. Often we 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:11.860 look at that, we think of the word despise, we 00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:13.879 just immediately like, we see God, he's like, 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:17.340 oh, he despises those? That seems a little harsh. 00:11:18.629 --> 00:11:21.990 But despise is just the opposite of honor. So 00:11:21.990 --> 00:11:24.830 to despise means to look down on, to ignore. 00:11:24.830 --> 00:11:29.549 Our regard is worthless. Be casual about it. 00:11:30.470 --> 00:11:33.330 It's not to even, it's not to even like think 00:11:33.330 --> 00:11:35.809 about it. It's just to be casual about it. It's 00:11:35.809 --> 00:11:40.049 this whatever mentality, right? How many of you 00:11:40.049 --> 00:11:41.649 have been there? You just like, you get tired 00:11:41.649 --> 00:11:43.269 about something and you're just like, whatever. 00:11:43.649 --> 00:11:49.539 Don't even care. Couldn't care any less. And 00:11:49.539 --> 00:11:52.500 often we treat God like that sometimes. We're 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:56.679 like, we get sort of lazy. We get like, I don't, 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:00.500 you know, just whatever. Whatever. The time with 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:04.559 the family, whatever. My time in scripture, whatever. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:08.759 It'll be there when I get to it. It's kind of 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.799 the last thing of the day. We put everything 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:15.139 off and then if I have enough time, I'll read 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:18.379 my Bible or I'll pray. I'll spend time with God. 00:12:19.850 --> 00:12:25.129 You know, often that's the low thing, the last 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:29.149 thing that we do, right? We put it off because 00:12:29.149 --> 00:12:34.309 our time is more important. You know, we got 00:12:34.309 --> 00:12:40.830 things. We got more important things. Don't frown 00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:44.169 at me when I'm just talking. We're just having 00:12:44.169 --> 00:12:49.129 a conversation. It's okay. Often that's the least 00:12:49.129 --> 00:12:52.769 thing, but we need to value it. We need to esteem 00:12:52.769 --> 00:12:58.590 it. I will honor those who honor me. I will despise 00:12:58.590 --> 00:13:01.929 those who think lightly of me. In week three, 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:04.389 we talked about how we are called to honor other 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:07.350 people, called to other people in our demonstrations 00:13:07.350 --> 00:13:10.250 of honor. We went through this like four or five 00:13:10.250 --> 00:13:13.830 times last week. But how we demonstrate honor, 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:16.830 huh? We're doing it again. It's going to come 00:13:16.830 --> 00:13:23.049 up a few more times until we get it. Amen? To 00:13:23.049 --> 00:13:26.990 demonstrate honor, we have to speak highly of 00:13:26.990 --> 00:13:37.950 other people. Let that sink in. Yeah. We kept 00:13:37.950 --> 00:13:40.190 saying that last week, and all throughout the 00:13:40.190 --> 00:13:42.750 week, I was just like, oh, man, messed up again. 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:47.179 Speak highly of it. You know, it's so hard to 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:50.220 do, but you get in like a habit, almost like 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:52.659 an addiction of speaking bad about the people 00:13:52.659 --> 00:13:56.700 around you. Right? Start speaking bad. You know, 00:13:56.700 --> 00:13:58.960 it's just little phrases that we don't even really 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:01.399 process, but we get into a habit of just being 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:07.700 like, oh, well, that just, you know. Right? We 00:14:07.700 --> 00:14:11.539 do it. It's important that we demonstrate honor 00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:14.220 to other people, and we do that by speaking highly. 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:18.799 of everyone, not just the people that we like. 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:31.620 Show generosity towards. Show generosity towards 00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:34.419 is a demonstration of honoring the people around 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:37.519 us. We should be a people who are generous, characterized 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:40.779 by our generosity towards those around us and 00:14:40.779 --> 00:14:44.360 who are in our circle. Amen. High respect of. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:50.019 We should be respectful of everyone. Amen? And 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:52.759 we demonstrate honor by submitting ourselves 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:57.019 to authority. We're going to talk a little bit 00:14:57.019 --> 00:15:00.580 more about what that means today. The word submit 00:15:00.580 --> 00:15:06.179 don't always carry the greatest happy warm fuzzies. 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:13.529 But it means to place yourself under. A lot of 00:15:13.529 --> 00:15:16.809 times we want to be above everyone else, right? 00:15:17.570 --> 00:15:21.269 And often we just want to be above God. We act 00:15:21.269 --> 00:15:24.350 like our minds and our will and our... We always 00:15:24.350 --> 00:15:26.690 put those things way above what God says in His 00:15:26.690 --> 00:15:30.909 Word. We're supposed to submit to His authority, 00:15:31.169 --> 00:15:35.970 to His way, to His will, to His kingdom. Submit 00:15:35.970 --> 00:15:37.830 ourselves. We're not supposed to be the highest 00:15:37.830 --> 00:15:40.570 person in our world. The world does not revolve 00:15:40.570 --> 00:15:43.460 around you in case you didn't know. Just wanted 00:15:43.460 --> 00:15:45.940 to remind you today that the world does not revolve 00:15:45.940 --> 00:15:51.000 around you. Your life is much more important 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:57.240 than you realize and much more valuable to the 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:00.340 kingdom of God than you're operating in today. 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:09.039 I want to kind of move now into where we're going 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.250 today. I know that was a long recap, but it kind 00:16:12.250 --> 00:16:15.129 of gets us ready and prepares us to what we're 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:19.190 about to talk about. So Romans 13, 7 says this, 00:16:19.269 --> 00:16:23.409 give to everyone, meaning be generous towards, 00:16:23.669 --> 00:16:29.049 give to everyone what you owe them. What is owed 00:16:29.049 --> 00:16:35.289 to them? Give to just those that you like. Give 00:16:35.289 --> 00:16:39.659 to those that you think are worthy of it. No, 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:43.299 it's what is owed to them. I want you to see 00:16:43.299 --> 00:16:47.360 that. Give to everyone what you owe them. If 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:51.320 you owe taxes, pay taxes. I don't want anybody 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:53.480 at a lay church not to pay your taxes. Don't 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:57.379 do that. It's not okay. It's not cool. If you 00:16:57.379 --> 00:17:00.860 owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue. 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:05.680 If respect, then respect. If honor, then honor. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:11.140 It's very straightforward, very simple. Give 00:17:11.140 --> 00:17:14.039 to everyone what you owe them. If you owe them 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:18.099 honor, we should honor them. Simple enough, right? 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:23.160 So who do we owe respect and honor to? That's 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:25.819 our question. Who do we owe respect and honor 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:30.279 to? Well, of course, we owe honor to God. We 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:36.720 owe it to him. It is what is due unto him. We 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:41.160 owe honor to God. And we owe honor. to all God 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:47.359 -given authority. We owe honor to all God -given 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:52.240 authority. Some of these verses, so we owe, get 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:56.619 this, we owe double honor. It's an interesting 00:17:56.619 --> 00:18:02.279 concept. We owe double honor to elders that teach 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:08.880 the word. 1 Timothy 5, 17. It says this, let 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:13.359 the elders who, listen, rule well be counted 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:19.319 worthy of double honor, especially those who 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:27.319 labor in the word and doctrine. Double honor 00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:33.220 is owed if you can have honor and then you have 00:18:33.220 --> 00:18:38.990 special honor. You have... extra honor so that 00:18:38.990 --> 00:18:41.410 tells us here that there's an honor that is owed 00:18:41.410 --> 00:18:47.210 to everyone but then to some there is extra honor 00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:52.210 owed okay to the elders that teach the word who 00:18:52.210 --> 00:19:01.150 it's conditional here who rule well who rule 00:19:01.150 --> 00:19:04.789 well so double honor is to elders who rule well 00:19:04.789 --> 00:19:13.990 who are worthy of it, okay? Husbands owe honor 00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:20.009 to their wives. They owe honor to their wives, 00:19:20.289 --> 00:19:26.410 to value them, to esteem them, to set them up 00:19:26.410 --> 00:19:33.190 on a pedestal, right? Everybody say, amen, oh 00:19:33.190 --> 00:19:38.569 me, oh my, something, come on. Come on. Wives 00:19:38.569 --> 00:19:44.470 owe honor to their husbands. Oh, honor to their 00:19:44.470 --> 00:19:47.230 husbands. And how do we demonstrate that honor? 00:19:48.410 --> 00:19:53.470 Right? We speak highly of. Be careful what you 00:19:53.470 --> 00:20:01.069 say about your significant other. You're going 00:20:01.069 --> 00:20:03.930 to. You're going to be really upset at me later 00:20:03.930 --> 00:20:05.589 today. You're just going to be like, oh man, 00:20:05.730 --> 00:20:07.369 I said that again. I shouldn't have said that. 00:20:08.690 --> 00:20:11.609 Supposed to honor those, speak highly of, show 00:20:11.609 --> 00:20:15.710 generosity towards, respect towards, value. We 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:19.789 should esteem, right? Wives honor their husbands. 00:20:19.910 --> 00:20:24.150 Husbands honor their wives in 1 Peter 3, 1 through 00:20:24.150 --> 00:20:28.170 7. I encourage all husbands and wives to read 00:20:28.170 --> 00:20:33.140 this today. And then, Get this, in Hebrews 13, 00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:37.039 4, it says that we, meaning the believers, we 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:47.480 owe honor to marriage. We owe honor to the sanctity 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:54.759 of marriage. I just want to let that sink in. 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:58.039 If you want to read it, go ahead. Open up your 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:02.039 Bibles, turn there. Read it. We owe honor to 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:05.000 marriage. Our society does not honor marriage. 00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:08.599 And most people in the church do not honor marriage. 00:21:14.140 --> 00:21:16.880 What does it mean to owe honor to marriage? We 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:28.019 should value marriage. Should esteem it. I'm 00:21:28.019 --> 00:21:32.440 going to move on. Children owe honor to their 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:37.779 parents. Amen. Say it again for the people in 00:21:37.779 --> 00:21:40.940 the back. Children owe honor to their parents. 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:48.259 Deuteronomy 5 .16. It's given in the Ten Commandments, 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:51.819 and it's the only commandment with promise, with 00:21:51.819 --> 00:21:54.460 a promise connected to it. Specifically, it says 00:21:54.460 --> 00:21:58.519 that children who honor their parents, what, 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:04.900 they will live a long, and satisfying life. Ain't 00:22:04.900 --> 00:22:08.700 that a promise? Honor your parents. You'll live 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:12.059 a long and satisfying life. And as we learned, 00:22:12.099 --> 00:22:16.220 honor should be modeled in the home. Meaning 00:22:16.220 --> 00:22:18.900 that it should be genuinely displayed by the 00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:22.119 husbands and wives towards one another. And it 00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:28.039 is called, listen, this is how honor is supposed 00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:34.690 to be. It's supposed to be caught by the children 00:22:34.690 --> 00:22:39.509 from the honor displayed in the home between 00:22:39.509 --> 00:22:44.730 the husband and the wife. But the problem is 00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:48.069 our society has, you know, the home is so broken. 00:22:48.789 --> 00:22:50.910 Many people grow up and they, you know, they 00:22:50.910 --> 00:22:52.589 never know their real parents or they never, 00:22:52.670 --> 00:22:55.029 you know, it's like their father left when they 00:22:55.029 --> 00:22:56.690 were real little, something like that. It's like... 00:22:57.099 --> 00:22:59.279 But it should be genuinely displayed in the home, 00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:03.619 and that's why we need to, as the church, as 00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:10.480 the family, is the ideal family of faith. What 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:13.019 you're missing at home, you should be getting 00:23:13.019 --> 00:23:19.940 here in this community. And so that's why we're 00:23:19.940 --> 00:23:22.900 in this study, a call to honor, because so many 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:25.819 people want to force honor, but that's not the 00:23:25.819 --> 00:23:30.319 way it works. That's manipulation. No one can 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:37.519 force you to honor them. That's fear. It's not 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:40.940 how the people of God should operate. You don't 00:23:40.940 --> 00:23:43.359 force people to honor. You don't, well, I'm your 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:51.920 elder. You need to honor me extra. Come on. I 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:56.170 had a guy one time. I was... I was praying. We 00:23:56.170 --> 00:23:58.930 were doing like a middle school camp, and I think 00:23:58.930 --> 00:24:00.849 it was North Carolina or something like that. 00:24:00.890 --> 00:24:03.549 It doesn't matter. And we were in a circle praying. 00:24:03.690 --> 00:24:06.450 These three kids had just gotten saved, and we 00:24:06.450 --> 00:24:09.049 were praying. He asked me to pray for them. And 00:24:09.049 --> 00:24:11.809 I had a hat on because we were doing children's 00:24:11.809 --> 00:24:18.890 ministry, and I wore like a dog costume. I wore 00:24:18.890 --> 00:24:20.890 a dog costume. I would do anything. Right. We 00:24:20.890 --> 00:24:23.109 just did anything that we could to tell people 00:24:23.109 --> 00:24:25.619 about Jesus. no matter if it was the most ridiculous, 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:28.619 absurd thing, like put on a dog costume, and 00:24:28.619 --> 00:24:30.880 we'd just tell people about Jesus, traveled the 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:33.980 country for many years. And I remember I was 00:24:33.980 --> 00:24:36.119 wearing a hat because I was just sweaty. I looked 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:38.740 like a wet rat, you know? You know when you look 00:24:38.740 --> 00:24:41.319 like a wet rat? It's just nasty, and I'm sweaty. 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:43.019 I've just been going all day. We've been jumping 00:24:43.019 --> 00:24:46.400 around being crazy. And I remember this guy specifically, 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:50.289 we're praying now. He's the one who asked me 00:24:50.289 --> 00:24:53.910 to pray, and he reached over and grabbed, I was 00:24:53.910 --> 00:24:56.589 wearing a hat, he reached over, during the middle 00:24:56.589 --> 00:24:59.309 of my prayer, reaches over and grabs the hat 00:24:59.309 --> 00:25:05.829 off my head and throws it into the woods. And 00:25:05.829 --> 00:25:10.549 he's the one who said, I wasn't honoring God. 00:25:10.769 --> 00:25:13.569 I got a lecture at the end of it saying, I wasn't 00:25:13.569 --> 00:25:19.079 honoring God by wearing a hat. Well, I was praying 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:22.319 to God. What were you doing? You were upset about 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:25.700 my hat and the way I looked and all these things. 00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:30.920 God didn't care. He heard me. He heard my prayer. 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:33.779 But somebody was not honoring God, were they? 00:25:37.460 --> 00:25:42.460 Moving on. We owe honor. Listen, the Bible tells 00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:45.079 us that we owe honor to true widows of the church. 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:48.579 1 Timothy 5 lays out the rules and regulations 00:25:48.579 --> 00:25:52.460 for this. It's an interesting concept that we 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:55.339 owe honor to true widows, and it specifically 00:25:55.339 --> 00:25:58.599 talks about what classifies a genuine true widow. 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:03.220 Did you know that the people of God are not called 00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:08.119 to honor, to give of their generosity and time 00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:15.569 to just every widow in the whole world? Go read 00:26:15.569 --> 00:26:20.589 it. True widows of the church, of the family 00:26:20.589 --> 00:26:25.130 of faith. We're not called to just supply the 00:26:25.130 --> 00:26:29.569 whole world with our generous giving. It's okay 00:26:29.569 --> 00:26:32.970 if you do that. That's great. If God leads you 00:26:32.970 --> 00:26:36.670 to do something like that, that's great. But 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:39.329 a lot of people get this wrong. The church is 00:26:39.329 --> 00:26:41.470 supposed to honor the true widows, those who 00:26:41.470 --> 00:26:45.660 do not have family. to take care of them, those 00:26:45.660 --> 00:26:49.859 who have been abandoned in our community, in 00:26:49.859 --> 00:26:53.900 our local community. We are called to give to 00:26:53.900 --> 00:26:57.460 them, generously support them when they have 00:26:57.460 --> 00:27:00.660 no family, when they have no kids, to take care 00:27:00.660 --> 00:27:04.299 of them. Those are all conditions laid out in 00:27:04.299 --> 00:27:06.400 1 Timothy 5, but I thought it was interesting 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:09.599 to include as people with God -given authority 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:14.380 that we are called to honor. And it specifically 00:27:14.380 --> 00:27:18.019 says that true widows of the church who are worthy 00:27:18.019 --> 00:27:23.319 of respect, who are diligently seeking God, who 00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:27.539 are valuable members of the community of faith. 00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:33.359 We owe honor, listen, to all governing authorities. 00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:38.799 And this includes spiritual authority and also 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.640 human authority. Let's look at it. Romans 13 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:49.119 .1 says this, everyone must submit to governing 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:53.619 authorities. A word submit, again, I'm not going 00:27:53.619 --> 00:27:56.980 to pronounce it in Greek, but it says to subject, 00:27:57.319 --> 00:28:01.680 to subordinate, to submit, to be in under and 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:06.599 obedience. What does governing authorities mean? 00:28:06.700 --> 00:28:10.410 That word here is to surpass. to excel, to be 00:28:10.410 --> 00:28:14.789 superior, to be above or beyond. And then get 00:28:14.789 --> 00:28:18.450 this, the word here is exousia, meaning delegated 00:28:18.450 --> 00:28:21.950 authority, power, right, jurisdiction, and it 00:28:21.950 --> 00:28:24.789 refers to the authority God gives to his saints. 00:28:28.210 --> 00:28:29.970 How many of you have heard this so differently, 00:28:30.029 --> 00:28:31.549 and when you've read this, you've thought of 00:28:31.549 --> 00:28:34.950 it a lot differently? But as I studied, and you 00:28:34.950 --> 00:28:38.490 look at these words, It's specifically referring 00:28:38.490 --> 00:28:41.849 to the authority God gives to his saints, authorizing 00:28:41.849 --> 00:28:44.890 them to act to the extent they are guided by 00:28:44.890 --> 00:28:48.150 faith, his revealed word. So we're supposed to 00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:51.130 submit ourselves, again, we're supposed to submit 00:28:51.130 --> 00:28:53.670 ourselves to governing authorities. Forget this, 00:28:53.690 --> 00:28:56.950 and this makes more sense in context, talking 00:28:56.950 --> 00:28:59.630 about spiritual authorities with what comes next 00:28:59.630 --> 00:29:03.829 in the verse. For all authority comes from God. 00:29:05.710 --> 00:29:08.809 God has placed members in the body of Christ 00:29:08.809 --> 00:29:14.170 as authority figures, right? Prophets, pastors, 00:29:14.490 --> 00:29:16.809 evangelists, teachers, all these things, apostles. 00:29:17.589 --> 00:29:21.329 He's given these things. For all authority, these 00:29:21.329 --> 00:29:26.950 places come from God. And those impositions of 00:29:26.950 --> 00:29:32.309 authority have been placed there by God. Placed 00:29:32.309 --> 00:29:35.750 there by God. It's not talking about, you know, 00:29:35.809 --> 00:29:39.049 the president of the United States is placed 00:29:39.049 --> 00:29:45.029 there by God. No. It's not true. It's not placed 00:29:45.029 --> 00:29:48.049 there for God for, well, I know. I'm going to 00:29:48.049 --> 00:29:51.670 move on. This is talking about spiritual authority. 00:29:52.210 --> 00:29:56.529 But we're not off the hook. 1 Peter 2, 13 through 00:29:56.529 --> 00:30:00.910 14 says, for the Lord's sake, submit, get this, 00:30:01.009 --> 00:30:06.220 to all human authority. Different word, different 00:30:06.220 --> 00:30:10.460 Greek word here, to all human authority, whether 00:30:10.460 --> 00:30:13.839 the king is head of state or the officials he 00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:22.680 has appointed. We are to submit to all human 00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:26.640 authority. This word means creation, creature, 00:30:27.059 --> 00:30:31.200 institution, man -made institutions on the earth. 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:34.910 We're supposed to... Live in under them, not, 00:30:35.130 --> 00:30:39.430 you know. When a police officer pulls you over 00:30:39.430 --> 00:30:44.390 this afternoon. No, I'm just kidding. You need 00:30:44.390 --> 00:30:49.009 to honor them. If you want to receive a less 00:30:49.009 --> 00:30:55.849 sentence. Real talk. If you want to receive a 00:30:55.849 --> 00:30:57.930 less sentence, you need to honor them. You need 00:30:57.930 --> 00:31:02.059 to say, yes, sir. Yes, ma 'am. You need to speak 00:31:02.059 --> 00:31:03.819 plainly and don't make any sudden movements. 00:31:06.940 --> 00:31:09.400 Somebody laugh, smile or something. Come on. 00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:12.539 We need to submit to the authority of this place, 00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:14.779 the human authority that's in the world. We need 00:31:14.779 --> 00:31:17.859 to submit to them and honor them in that regard 00:31:17.859 --> 00:31:20.559 because they have authority. If you want to receive 00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:23.039 a less sentence, like I said, you better honor 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:28.579 them in that way. Dishonor. Why? We're not talking 00:31:28.579 --> 00:31:31.009 about dishonor, but... You know, dishonor. If 00:31:31.009 --> 00:31:35.130 you dishonor your boss at work this week, you'll 00:31:35.130 --> 00:31:38.950 be fired. What a novel concept. If you dishonor 00:31:38.950 --> 00:31:44.490 your boss too much, you will be fired. If you 00:31:44.490 --> 00:31:48.269 dishonor what? Come on. If you dishonor, I don't 00:31:48.269 --> 00:31:51.069 know, the person at the grocery store, instead 00:31:51.069 --> 00:31:52.930 of giving you the discount, they're going to 00:31:52.930 --> 00:31:55.630 charge you double for the same, you know, for 00:31:55.630 --> 00:31:57.349 the same apple that you could have bought down 00:31:57.349 --> 00:32:03.079 the street at Aldi for less money. We're supposed 00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:05.480 to submit ourselves to all human authority, whether 00:32:05.480 --> 00:32:07.640 the king is head of state or the officials he 00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:12.220 has appointed. Titus 3 .1 continues, remind the 00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:16.380 believers, everybody say, I'm a believer, remind 00:32:16.380 --> 00:32:19.380 the believers to submit to the government and 00:32:19.380 --> 00:32:23.099 its officers. They should be obedient, always 00:32:23.099 --> 00:32:26.660 ready to do what is good. They must not slander 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:40.019 anyone. Must not slander anyone in a position 00:32:40.019 --> 00:32:45.380 of authority in government. Come on. Just open 00:32:45.380 --> 00:32:46.779 up your Facebook right now. I'll tell you five 00:32:46.779 --> 00:32:48.480 minutes there'll be someone slandering someone 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:55.460 in authority. Come on. We're not supposed to 00:32:55.460 --> 00:32:59.359 be like that, church. We're called to be different. 00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:05.460 We're called to speak highly of. This is tough, 00:33:05.700 --> 00:33:10.160 but it's true. This is the word. Don't just hear 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:15.180 it. We need to do it. Come on. Should be obedient, 00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:18.599 always ready to do what is good. They must not 00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:25.799 slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Let's 00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:30.079 don't fight about it. I'm just pausing here because 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:38.130 the word is just sinking in. Let it sink. Bless 00:33:38.130 --> 00:33:45.869 you. Gesundheit. No slander. No quarreling. Look 00:33:45.869 --> 00:33:48.930 to your neighbor and say, stop it. Say, stop 00:33:48.930 --> 00:33:52.029 it. Don't do it. Instead, they should be gentle. 00:33:53.869 --> 00:33:58.930 Should be gentle. Gentleness is not weakness. 00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:15.639 Having self -control is not weakness. Not talking 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:18.139 about dancing on eggshells around everyone and 00:34:18.139 --> 00:34:22.199 everything, but you can be gentle. Do you think 00:34:22.199 --> 00:34:24.800 God, do you think Jesus was gentle in the earth 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:29.079 when he talked to people? We can be that too. 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:35.969 Our words should not be offensive. to our culture. 00:34:35.969 --> 00:34:39.909 Our culture should be attracted by it. Something 00:34:39.909 --> 00:34:43.949 different. Something not like everything else 00:34:43.949 --> 00:34:48.110 the world is offering, right? Gentle. And show 00:34:48.110 --> 00:34:57.150 true humility. Humility. Submission, right? We're 00:34:57.150 --> 00:35:00.130 humbling ourselves and under in a position, right? 00:35:00.210 --> 00:35:03.719 To everyone. That means I don't think, more highly 00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:09.619 of myself than I do the people around me. It's 00:35:09.619 --> 00:35:15.840 the key to true gentleness and key to receiving 00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:18.659 everything that God has for you in the kingdom 00:35:18.659 --> 00:35:27.340 of God is humility. I urge you, first of all, 00:35:27.340 --> 00:35:31.530 to pray for people, for all people. Ask God to 00:35:31.530 --> 00:35:33.849 help them. When's the last time that you prayed 00:35:33.849 --> 00:35:36.190 for someone other than yourself and your needs, 00:35:36.389 --> 00:35:44.889 your situation? This is intercessory prayer at 00:35:44.889 --> 00:35:48.110 work, and it's meaning that you're praying for 00:35:48.110 --> 00:35:51.150 the people around you because the people around 00:35:51.150 --> 00:36:00.070 you are above you. They matter more. Right? Ask 00:36:00.070 --> 00:36:04.230 God to help them. Intercede on their behalf and 00:36:04.230 --> 00:36:10.170 give thanks for them. It says all people. It's 00:36:10.170 --> 00:36:14.829 not just the people that we like. Pray this way 00:36:14.829 --> 00:36:22.590 for kings and for all who are in authority. Maybe 00:36:22.590 --> 00:36:25.389 instead of quarreling and complaining and fighting, 00:36:25.570 --> 00:36:30.369 maybe we should start praying. Praying for those 00:36:30.369 --> 00:36:34.909 in authority over us. Instead of talking about 00:36:34.909 --> 00:36:40.369 the corruption and everything that's wrong, being 00:36:40.369 --> 00:36:42.369 every single word, every other word out of our 00:36:42.369 --> 00:36:44.449 mouth is like, it's wrong, it's bad, it's not. 00:36:44.730 --> 00:36:55.230 Yep. Newsflash, yep. Maybe we should pray. Because 00:36:55.230 --> 00:37:00.139 if we valued the word, If we value what it's 00:37:00.139 --> 00:37:07.500 saying, we would pray. Some of us, we just need 00:37:07.500 --> 00:37:09.599 to act like the word of God is true and we need 00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:13.719 to start doing it. Because we're not honoring 00:37:13.719 --> 00:37:16.659 it. There's so many Bible, you know, there's 00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:20.320 so many Christians, people who believe in God, 00:37:20.619 --> 00:37:28.500 who are not honoring God. You can believe in 00:37:28.500 --> 00:37:34.039 God and not honor him. We need to honor those 00:37:34.039 --> 00:37:37.639 in positions over us with how? With our words, 00:37:37.780 --> 00:37:43.780 our prayer. It's what is owed to them. It's what 00:37:43.780 --> 00:37:48.340 we're called to do. What you owe them, listen, 00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:52.460 none of these things, look, what you owe them 00:37:52.460 --> 00:38:00.639 is not based on their actions. But what God's 00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:05.239 word said is owed by his children, by his followers, 00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:11.019 by the family of faith. That is what we owe to 00:38:11.019 --> 00:38:16.179 authority. In none of these instances does the 00:38:16.179 --> 00:38:18.500 instruction to give honor have anything to do 00:38:18.500 --> 00:38:25.000 with whether or not the person deserves it. God 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:27.139 did not put a condition on it. His word just 00:38:27.139 --> 00:38:34.949 says for you and I to do it. A great example 00:38:34.949 --> 00:38:38.050 of this, I can't get too lengthy here, but a 00:38:38.050 --> 00:38:40.369 great example of this is the, I like to call 00:38:40.369 --> 00:38:45.030 it the saga of David and Saul. I mean, it's just 00:38:45.030 --> 00:38:48.369 a lot when you start reading through Samuel and 00:38:48.369 --> 00:38:50.550 you start reading their interactions back and 00:38:50.550 --> 00:38:54.550 forth. But in case you're not aware, Saul was 00:38:54.550 --> 00:38:58.369 the king of Israel. The people had appointed 00:38:58.369 --> 00:39:02.349 him, and God anointed him to do great and powerful 00:39:02.349 --> 00:39:08.690 things for God's people. So he went, he was obeying 00:39:08.690 --> 00:39:12.289 God, he was serving God, and he was walking accordingly, 00:39:12.550 --> 00:39:15.170 doing the things that God had asked him to do, 00:39:15.250 --> 00:39:20.590 until one day, he was like, you know, I'm the 00:39:20.590 --> 00:39:24.130 king. You know, I know God told me to do this 00:39:24.130 --> 00:39:28.929 specific thing, but... You know, I'll do it, 00:39:28.949 --> 00:39:34.670 but I'll do it my way. Right? Because all of 00:39:34.670 --> 00:39:36.630 a sudden, when you start becoming the king of 00:39:36.630 --> 00:39:40.429 your own, you know, your own king, your own master 00:39:40.429 --> 00:39:44.690 and your own boss, right? Things start going 00:39:44.690 --> 00:39:48.530 downhill. Saul began to look at himself in a 00:39:48.530 --> 00:39:50.809 high regard and said, you know, I know better. 00:39:52.039 --> 00:39:54.440 this doesn't make sense to me, so I'm going to 00:39:54.440 --> 00:39:56.940 do, you know, I do what God said, but I'm just 00:39:56.940 --> 00:40:01.300 going to do it my own way. Little thing. But 00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:06.219 because of that, God tells Saul he's going to 00:40:06.219 --> 00:40:10.119 remove his anointing from him in his favor. And 00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:15.139 it's all going to be removed. I will honor those 00:40:15.139 --> 00:40:20.250 who honor me. The anointing was on his life as 00:40:20.250 --> 00:40:24.650 long as he honored God with his actions, with 00:40:24.650 --> 00:40:28.650 his words. There was something special. Every 00:40:28.650 --> 00:40:32.409 battle that Saul went to fight, he won until 00:40:32.409 --> 00:40:41.349 he did not honor. If you're losing battles, check 00:40:41.349 --> 00:40:49.519 your honor. When the anointing was removed from 00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:55.179 Saul, God anointed David, little boy David. And 00:40:55.179 --> 00:41:00.719 remember, he fights Goliath. All of a sudden, 00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:03.980 he starts winning every time he stands up, because 00:41:03.980 --> 00:41:06.480 while he was honoring God when no one was looking, 00:41:06.599 --> 00:41:14.900 he had a heart after God's own heart. And Saul... 00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:18.239 It's interesting that it never really says that 00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:22.400 Saul... Saul was never told that David was going 00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:25.760 to be the next king, but we see throughout that 00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:30.159 all of a sudden that kept coming up. He kept 00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:32.760 getting jealous of David, because after David 00:41:32.760 --> 00:41:35.300 killed Goliath, he was working for him, serving 00:41:35.300 --> 00:41:38.539 him. And all of a sudden he's getting very jealous 00:41:38.539 --> 00:41:40.840 of David. The people are starting to, you know, 00:41:40.860 --> 00:41:43.670 praise David for... you know, all his mighty 00:41:43.670 --> 00:41:46.230 things, because the hand of God was on his life, 00:41:46.329 --> 00:41:53.289 the hand of blessing and favor. And long story 00:41:53.289 --> 00:41:59.690 short, Saul attempts to kill David several times. 00:41:59.730 --> 00:42:03.230 David has to leave. He gets kicked out from where 00:42:03.230 --> 00:42:06.269 he was, and he all of a sudden becomes a wanderer, 00:42:06.269 --> 00:42:10.090 hiding from the king Saul, who was trying to 00:42:10.090 --> 00:42:14.469 kill him. And David couldn't figure out why in 00:42:14.469 --> 00:42:16.989 the world, why in the world is Saul trying to 00:42:16.989 --> 00:42:19.329 attack me? I've only been good, I've only honored. 00:42:19.710 --> 00:42:21.769 You know, he's only done good things towards 00:42:21.769 --> 00:42:25.929 him, only spoke highly of him. And after many 00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:30.489 years, a lot of times, you know, people of God 00:42:30.489 --> 00:42:33.110 don't want to face any trial or tribulation. 00:42:34.250 --> 00:42:37.510 God promises to see you through. God promises 00:42:37.510 --> 00:42:42.050 for you to overcome. But there's tribulation. 00:42:54.690 --> 00:43:02.309 It says this, 1 Samuel 24. David's men, he had 00:43:02.309 --> 00:43:06.170 garnered men and like a small army, even though 00:43:06.170 --> 00:43:08.610 he had been... you know, cast out of the palace. 00:43:08.670 --> 00:43:10.889 More and more people were kind of being drawn 00:43:10.889 --> 00:43:15.469 to David. And his men, they were again trying 00:43:15.469 --> 00:43:18.829 to hide from King Saul. And then his men come 00:43:18.829 --> 00:43:20.869 to him and he's like, now's your opportunity. 00:43:20.889 --> 00:43:23.429 Because Saul had went to use the bathroom. He 00:43:23.429 --> 00:43:25.849 had went into a cave. He was kind of hidden. 00:43:25.909 --> 00:43:28.550 He was vulnerable. And his men told him here 00:43:28.550 --> 00:43:31.650 in verse 4, it says, now's your opportunity. 00:43:32.329 --> 00:43:35.050 David's men whispered to him, today the Lord 00:43:35.050 --> 00:43:37.570 is telling you, I will certainly put your enemy 00:43:37.570 --> 00:43:42.650 into your power to do with as you wish. So David 00:43:42.650 --> 00:43:45.969 crept forward, cut off a piece of him of Saul's 00:43:45.969 --> 00:43:50.730 robe. Seems so insignificant, right? He cuts 00:43:50.730 --> 00:43:54.250 off this piece of Saul's robe, but then David's 00:43:54.250 --> 00:43:56.190 conscience began bothering him because he had 00:43:56.190 --> 00:44:00.730 cut Saul's robe. It bothered him what he did. 00:44:03.400 --> 00:44:07.760 He said to his men, David said to his men, the 00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:10.639 Lord forbid that I should do this to my Lord, 00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:15.760 the King. His words are showing that he had submitted 00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:18.260 himself under someone who was trying to kill 00:44:18.260 --> 00:44:24.940 him. He says, David says, I shouldn't attack 00:44:24.940 --> 00:44:29.320 the Lord's anointed one. Now we know from the 00:44:29.320 --> 00:44:34.760 story that God's anointing had left Saul and 00:44:34.760 --> 00:44:38.300 been placed on David. But David is not aware 00:44:38.300 --> 00:44:41.360 of this at this moment. And so he's still going 00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:44.460 to honor Saul in this way, for the Lord himself 00:44:44.460 --> 00:44:49.579 has chosen him. So David restrained his men and 00:44:49.579 --> 00:44:54.119 did not let them kill Saul. After Saul had left 00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:56.860 the cave and gone his way, David came out and 00:44:56.860 --> 00:45:00.510 shouted after him, My Lord the King. And when 00:45:00.510 --> 00:45:03.230 Saul looked around, David did what? He bowed 00:45:03.230 --> 00:45:16.630 low before him. Bowed low before him. 1 Peter 00:45:16.630 --> 00:45:24.010 2 .17 tells us to respect everyone and love the 00:45:24.010 --> 00:45:28.409 family of believers. Fear God and respect the 00:45:28.409 --> 00:45:32.690 king. Can't you see that David did this, right? 00:45:33.690 --> 00:45:38.150 It was who he was. It's how he honored the position 00:45:38.150 --> 00:45:45.469 that he would once take. If David didn't honor 00:45:45.469 --> 00:45:54.010 Saul, what would have happened? Probably the 00:45:54.010 --> 00:45:58.090 same thing that happened to Saul when he didn't 00:45:58.090 --> 00:46:05.570 honor God. This word respect here is to mayo. 00:46:06.269 --> 00:46:09.550 It means to honor, to value, to revere, and to 00:46:09.550 --> 00:46:12.010 respect. So we're supposed to respect everyone. 00:46:12.329 --> 00:46:16.690 So is everyone to be honored? Everybody say yes. 00:46:18.750 --> 00:46:23.610 Hope we've established that by now. Is everyone 00:46:23.610 --> 00:46:29.630 supposed to be honored? To the same degree. Are 00:46:29.630 --> 00:46:34.300 there different levels of honor? We saw that 00:46:34.300 --> 00:46:36.539 from the double honor portion. That's a very 00:46:36.539 --> 00:46:40.039 clear example of that. But then all these God 00:46:40.039 --> 00:46:42.760 -given authorities of the home, of wives, you 00:46:42.760 --> 00:46:44.980 know, those are special honor things, right? 00:46:45.059 --> 00:46:48.159 It's not just he's telling us this because it's 00:46:48.159 --> 00:46:52.719 a special honor due or owed to them, to these 00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:55.739 things, right? So it's not to the same degree. 00:46:58.039 --> 00:47:04.699 So we need to be... mindful of our honor and 00:47:04.699 --> 00:47:09.400 who we honor and how we honor. Our honor of God 00:47:09.400 --> 00:47:13.699 should far outweigh our honor of any other person, 00:47:13.760 --> 00:47:20.039 thing or ourselves. Right? Because if we show 00:47:20.039 --> 00:47:29.179 more honor to any one or thing above God, we're 00:47:29.179 --> 00:47:33.190 guilty of idolatry. Because we're placing something 00:47:33.190 --> 00:47:45.989 of this world above his word. What about those 00:47:45.989 --> 00:47:48.610 in positions of authority that openly do things 00:47:48.610 --> 00:47:56.130 that do not honor God? Sin, moral failures, neglect, 00:47:56.610 --> 00:48:05.070 abuse, church. Does not justify hate. Does not 00:48:05.070 --> 00:48:10.809 justify bitterness. Does not justify harsh words 00:48:10.809 --> 00:48:16.429 towards. Lack of basic honor that is owed to 00:48:16.429 --> 00:48:24.610 everyone. A lot of times though, especially in 00:48:24.610 --> 00:48:29.010 our culture today, we see someone in a... position 00:48:29.010 --> 00:48:32.070 or whatever, they fail, something happens, like 00:48:32.070 --> 00:48:34.030 we immediately just cut them off. We're just 00:48:34.030 --> 00:48:36.929 like, oh, we slander them. We get all upset and 00:48:36.929 --> 00:48:40.349 bothered and just, you know, throw them away. 00:48:41.730 --> 00:48:45.010 Electrocute, you know, throw them in the trash. 00:48:45.170 --> 00:48:49.670 They're completely worthless to us, right? And 00:48:49.670 --> 00:48:51.550 it can erase everything that they've ever done. 00:48:54.789 --> 00:48:59.170 Now, We'll talk about this in a little more detail, 00:48:59.269 --> 00:49:04.610 but listen, for the people of God, no matter 00:49:04.610 --> 00:49:13.769 what someone does, they deserve your honor. And 00:49:13.769 --> 00:49:20.289 if you don't think so, if you genuinely think 00:49:20.289 --> 00:49:23.599 that someone... in your life does not deserve 00:49:23.599 --> 00:49:26.440 the basic honor that is due to them. Listen, 00:49:26.659 --> 00:49:29.440 you're putting your imagination and your thoughts 00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:34.539 above God's word. You're not challenging me. 00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:38.820 I don't care. This is what the word of God says 00:49:38.820 --> 00:49:43.820 for us to do as believers. We're supposed to 00:49:43.820 --> 00:49:50.440 honor everyone. Speak highly of the people around 00:49:50.440 --> 00:49:56.230 us. not just to a select few. Show generosity 00:49:56.230 --> 00:50:04.809 towards everyone. Does not justify hate bitterness. 00:50:05.170 --> 00:50:09.690 These failures though, listen, these failures 00:50:09.690 --> 00:50:13.449 though do disqualify those in positions of authority 00:50:13.449 --> 00:50:18.250 to receive the special honor that is owed by 00:50:18.250 --> 00:50:27.599 their position. Okay? Does not, no one can force 00:50:27.599 --> 00:50:30.960 you to honor them in some special way. Like that's, 00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:33.039 we've already talked about that a little bit. 00:50:33.260 --> 00:50:36.880 When we think of Eli and his sons, right? God 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:40.119 removes his honor from them because they, why? 00:50:40.920 --> 00:50:43.800 Why was his honor removed? We've talked about 00:50:43.800 --> 00:50:47.420 this the past three weeks. Those who honor me, 00:50:47.559 --> 00:50:52.960 I will honor. You reap what you sow. God sees 00:50:52.960 --> 00:50:56.579 their dishonor towards him, and they were in 00:50:56.579 --> 00:51:01.139 a position of honor of the tribe of Levi to carry 00:51:01.139 --> 00:51:05.539 out the stuff in the temple, right? But God is 00:51:05.539 --> 00:51:08.900 like, you're not going to honor me, so I'm not 00:51:08.900 --> 00:51:13.780 going to honor you. And what happened? They get 00:51:13.780 --> 00:51:18.119 removed from their position and a lot of other 00:51:18.119 --> 00:51:24.150 bad things. Listen, these failures disqualified 00:51:24.150 --> 00:51:26.369 those in position. They should not be honored 00:51:26.369 --> 00:51:29.190 as this, you know, just because they hold some 00:51:29.190 --> 00:51:31.130 kind of position. They should not be honored 00:51:31.130 --> 00:51:34.789 in that regard. But everyone deserves honor. 00:51:35.309 --> 00:51:38.610 So honor is to always be given to everyone, but 00:51:38.610 --> 00:51:41.769 the level of honor to be given should be, listen, 00:51:41.909 --> 00:51:46.869 proportionate to God's honor of them and to their 00:51:46.869 --> 00:51:53.800 honor of God. This is how we know what honor 00:51:53.800 --> 00:52:08.039 is due above the basic. My wife, many of you 00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:11.900 know, or many of you probably don't know, her 00:52:11.900 --> 00:52:18.099 story, and her story is one that she should tell. 00:52:18.219 --> 00:52:26.440 It's her testimony, right? But there's, you know, 00:52:26.460 --> 00:52:29.519 growing up, she grew up in a very poor home. 00:52:30.840 --> 00:52:35.019 Her mother abused her to the age of like five. 00:52:35.840 --> 00:52:39.840 Her grandparents took custody of her. They were 00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:42.400 able to get custody of her, remove her of that 00:52:42.400 --> 00:52:45.019 situation, and then her mother just walked out, 00:52:45.079 --> 00:52:46.860 said, I don't want anything to do with her, you 00:52:46.860 --> 00:52:52.559 know. That's her story to tell another day. But 00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:57.320 I want you to see, like Kayla and I, we were 00:52:57.320 --> 00:53:03.059 talking about this, and there's an honor that 00:53:03.059 --> 00:53:06.119 we're supposed to give to everyone. And you know 00:53:06.119 --> 00:53:10.219 what? Kayla and I, we've been married now for 00:53:10.219 --> 00:53:15.360 eight years, and she's never once spoken unkindly 00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:25.619 of her mother. It's just who she is. She's never 00:53:25.619 --> 00:53:28.119 spoken down about her mother or her situation. 00:53:29.719 --> 00:53:33.880 And to me, that just blows my mind. And I'm not 00:53:33.880 --> 00:53:36.059 doing this to just like, you know, ooh, she's 00:53:36.059 --> 00:53:40.679 some, you know. No, when I met her, she wasn't 00:53:40.679 --> 00:53:47.679 a Christian. You know, she's never once spoken 00:53:47.679 --> 00:53:50.639 negatively of her mother to me or spoken down 00:53:50.639 --> 00:53:56.500 because she realized that there was an honor 00:53:56.500 --> 00:54:01.340 due owed to her. And she said, you know, she's 00:54:01.340 --> 00:54:04.639 my mother whether she left me or not. So I'm 00:54:04.639 --> 00:54:06.519 not going to speak unkindly towards her. I'm 00:54:06.519 --> 00:54:09.059 not going to harbor unfeelings to her, right? 00:54:09.980 --> 00:54:20.949 Because that's what God wants from me. But that 00:54:20.949 --> 00:54:25.170 does not mean that if her mother all of a sudden 00:54:25.170 --> 00:54:28.329 wanted some kind of, you know, in her life that 00:54:28.329 --> 00:54:31.349 she has to honor her in that way, you know, as 00:54:31.349 --> 00:54:33.869 her mother or give her some sort of special honor 00:54:33.869 --> 00:54:37.909 that is because, not because Caitlin's the way 00:54:37.909 --> 00:54:43.530 she feels about it, right? Not because of, you 00:54:43.530 --> 00:54:47.099 know. All the things that would want to come 00:54:47.099 --> 00:54:49.920 up and all the responses that could be given. 00:54:50.519 --> 00:54:53.940 It would be because her mother disqualified and 00:54:53.940 --> 00:54:58.059 lost that opportunity. Because she did not honor 00:54:58.059 --> 00:55:03.980 God and did not honor her position. So her position 00:55:03.980 --> 00:55:12.139 was removed. But her position in the kingdom 00:55:12.139 --> 00:55:24.920 of God. is still love, is still honorable. The 00:55:24.920 --> 00:55:37.659 honor you give, listen, the honor you give is 00:55:37.659 --> 00:55:42.909 a direct reflection of your honor of God. That's 00:55:42.909 --> 00:55:48.449 what it all boils down to. Why do you give honor? 00:55:51.250 --> 00:55:54.929 Because God does. And I want to be like him. 00:55:56.190 --> 00:55:59.909 You want to be like him. You want to honor him. 00:56:00.389 --> 00:56:03.369 And you want to honor what he honors. And if 00:56:03.369 --> 00:56:09.769 he honors someone, I need to honor them. We are 00:56:09.769 --> 00:56:15.269 called to honor God. We are called to honor what 00:56:15.269 --> 00:56:24.789 he honors. We are called to honor who he honors. 00:56:26.550 --> 00:56:30.670 And we are called to honor how he honors. To 00:56:30.670 --> 00:56:36.510 the same degree that he honors. 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