WEBVTT - André Butler - Oct 10 - 1:00 pm 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.440 And all right, today we're concluding a series we've been 0:00:02.460 --> 0:00:05.819 studying for a while called, Why Isn't This Working? Has 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:11.350 anybody enjoyed this series? Has it helped anybody? Of course, 0:00:11.410 --> 0:00:13.490 in this series, we've been talking about the fact that 0:00:13.550 --> 0:00:16.850 so many have been doing what they think is right, 0:00:16.930 --> 0:00:19.050 but not seeing the results that they want. And the 0:00:19.110 --> 0:00:23.130 reason might just be because we have been taught the 0:00:23.210 --> 0:00:26.580 wrong things, though. We've not recognized that there are different 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.440 rules that have produced the results we want, and those 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.229 are the rules of the kingdom of God. Of course, 0:00:33.340 --> 0:00:35.850 over throughout this series, we've learned a few things. We've 0:00:35.870 --> 0:00:37.190 learned that we need to bend the knee to the 0:00:37.229 --> 0:00:40.290 king of kings, Jesus, and do things his way to 0:00:40.370 --> 0:00:44.729 come to him like a child, like we're somebody that 0:00:44.810 --> 0:00:47.769 he loves and wants in his presence. We've learned to 0:00:47.830 --> 0:00:51.520 trust the process. Anybody still trust in the process? toward 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:56.020 experiencing what God wants to experience, to forgive but not forgive. Ultimately, 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.700 what we were talking about there was learning forgiveness, but 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.510 also understanding the process that you need to go through 0:01:04.930 --> 0:01:08.869 for that relationship to be fully restored. And then last week, 0:01:08.910 --> 0:01:10.530 we talked about the fact that you need to get 0:01:10.569 --> 0:01:14.130 in alignment with your assignment and talked about how that's 0:01:14.190 --> 0:01:17.590 a key to experiencing the life that you want. The 0:01:17.630 --> 0:01:20.929 title of today's message is The Way Up is Down. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:28.220 The way up is actually down. If you're looking at 0:01:28.260 --> 0:01:30.860 your life and you're thinking, man, I should be further 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:36.310 along than this. You're thinking, hey, I'm gifted. I work hard. 0:01:36.390 --> 0:01:42.750 I love God. But something seems to be holding me back. Well, 0:01:42.770 --> 0:01:47.090 that's something just may not be a lack of talent. 0:01:47.130 --> 0:01:50.390 It may not be a lack of opportunity. It might 0:01:50.610 --> 0:01:55.560 actually be how you are handling those he's already put 0:01:55.620 --> 0:01:59.600 in your life. So I want to start in 1 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.900 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30 and help you see 0:02:01.940 --> 0:02:05.360 what I'm talking about. And of course, in 1 Samuel, 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.829 God is speaking to Eli, the priest, and he's unhappy 0:02:08.850 --> 0:02:14.049 with Eli because he has allowed his sons, who are 0:02:14.150 --> 0:02:19.810 also priests, to steal from the offering. That's one way 0:02:19.830 --> 0:02:23.580 of saying it. To sleep with Eli. the women that 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.400 were coming to worship. And although he had said some 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.889 things to them, he didn't actually do anything about it. 0:02:31.930 --> 0:02:34.030 And God said to him in the verse before this, 0:02:34.510 --> 0:02:38.690 that you're honoring your sons ahead of me. So you 0:02:38.710 --> 0:02:40.970 get to verse 30 and it says, therefore the Lord, 0:02:41.030 --> 0:02:44.639 the God of Israel says, I promised that your branch 0:02:44.700 --> 0:02:47.339 of the tribe of Levi would always be my priest, 0:02:48.500 --> 0:02:55.570 but I will honor those who who honor me, and 0:02:55.630 --> 0:03:00.990 I will despise those who think lightly of me. So 0:03:01.010 --> 0:03:03.610 God is saying, man, I said that your line would 0:03:03.650 --> 0:03:07.740 be preached forever, but forget that. From now on, I'm 0:03:07.750 --> 0:03:11.900 going to honor those that honor me, and I'm going 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.100 to despise those that despise me. Well, you can see 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.920 that this honor issue is a big issue with God. 0:03:21.630 --> 0:03:23.470 In fact, if you look up the word honor here, 0:03:23.570 --> 0:03:30.250 it means to make weighty, heavy, or substantial. So to 0:03:30.410 --> 0:03:36.660 honor somebody is really to regard someone as weighty, as significant, 0:03:37.180 --> 0:03:42.220 as important, as worthy of respect. When I honor you, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:48.750 I see your value and I treat you accordingly. You know, 0:03:48.790 --> 0:03:52.650 imagine you're hosting an important dinner and someone you deeply 0:03:52.730 --> 0:03:57.160 respect is coming. Well, you don't just, you know, allow 0:03:57.180 --> 0:03:59.260 everybody to eat all the food and then kind of say, well, 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.900 you know, hopefully there's something left for them. You don't 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:03.820 just let everybody take a seat and say, well, hopefully 0:04:03.860 --> 0:04:07.760 there's a seat left for them. No, actually, you reserve 0:04:07.780 --> 0:04:14.160 their place first. You prepare their food first. And ultimately, 0:04:14.210 --> 0:04:18.479 what God wants is for you to honor him. First, 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.559 he's asking some of us, what place do I have 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.440 in your life? What was happening with Eli was that 0:04:24.500 --> 0:04:28.960 his sons were first ahead of God. He's treated his 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:34.200 sons as weightier or more important than God was. And 0:04:34.260 --> 0:04:36.599 it led to a really negative result for them. They 0:04:36.660 --> 0:04:40.160 all lost their lives. So once again, notice what Jesus says. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:51.250 I will honor those who honor me. God's saying, honor me. 0:04:52.410 --> 0:04:56.990 I want you to regard me as weighty, significant, important, 0:04:57.630 --> 0:05:03.270 worthy of respect. Look at Malachi chapter 1. Somebody say, 0:05:03.310 --> 0:05:10.310 the way up is down. Malachi 1 verse 6. It says, 0:05:10.410 --> 0:05:16.990 a son honoreth his father and a servant his master. 0:05:18.089 --> 0:05:22.200 If I then be a father, where is mine honor? 0:05:22.940 --> 0:05:26.230 There it is again. God's talking about the fact that 0:05:26.870 --> 0:05:31.180 we should be honoring him. In fact, we could go 0:05:31.220 --> 0:05:34.140 on to the New Testament and we'll find numerous scriptures 0:05:34.180 --> 0:05:37.839 that talk about honoring the Father, honoring the Son. Even 0:05:37.860 --> 0:05:41.200 in the book of Revelation, you'll find the angels and 0:05:41.260 --> 0:05:44.390 people saying to God, you're worthy of honor. I mean, 0:05:44.410 --> 0:05:48.950 this honor thing is really important to God. God wants 0:05:49.050 --> 0:05:55.490 us to honor Him. God wants us to not dishonor Him. 0:05:58.140 --> 0:06:02.169 And God wants honor from our hearts as well as 0:06:02.270 --> 0:06:06.930 our lives. I won't take you there for time's sake, 0:06:06.990 --> 0:06:09.430 but one of the ways we honor God is by 0:06:09.450 --> 0:06:12.229 doing what we just finished doing. The Bible talks about 0:06:12.270 --> 0:06:14.289 give God the glory, do his name. If you look 0:06:14.310 --> 0:06:17.210 at the word glory, it means honor. And it's talking 0:06:17.230 --> 0:06:21.310 about praise. There's multiple scriptures that talk about honoring God 0:06:21.589 --> 0:06:25.300 through praising him. God, you're amazing. God, you're great. God, 0:06:25.330 --> 0:06:28.260 you're holy. What am I doing? I'm saying, God, man, 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.240 you are weighty. You're significant. You're important. There's no one 0:06:32.300 --> 0:06:36.200 like you. God likes that. And actually, the Bible talks 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.900 about how you can honor him with your lips and praise. 0:06:39.190 --> 0:06:41.050 But when you do that, make sure your heart's in it. 0:06:41.990 --> 0:06:45.210 Because honor is not something that you just do. You 0:06:45.250 --> 0:06:47.830 don't just go through the motions. It's supposed to come 0:06:47.890 --> 0:06:50.330 from your heart. But not only does it come from 0:06:50.350 --> 0:06:52.250 your heart, but it also comes from how you live 0:06:52.290 --> 0:06:54.930 your life. Look at Proverbs chapter 3. Y'all just looking 0:06:54.950 --> 0:07:00.349 at me this morning. Y'all with me? All right. Think 0:07:00.390 --> 0:07:02.240 about it. If you're sitting in a restaurant and suddenly 0:07:02.250 --> 0:07:08.440 LeBron James walks through the door, conversations stop. People start looking. 0:07:09.580 --> 0:07:13.890 Phones start coming out. Why? Why? Because he carries weight 0:07:14.570 --> 0:07:18.630 with those people. How much weight does God's presence carry 0:07:18.650 --> 0:07:25.500 with you? Sometimes in church, those of us that have 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:30.760 been around for a while can be guilty of becoming 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.660 a little too familiar with the presence of God. You know, 0:07:35.700 --> 0:07:38.360 it's just, oh yeah, well, you know, we're praising God, 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.340 worshiping God, presence of God is here, you know, the 0:07:40.380 --> 0:07:44.120 anointing is going forth when the minister's preaching and, you know, ho-hum. 0:07:44.620 --> 0:07:50.380 It's the presence of God. God has come down to 0:07:50.460 --> 0:07:57.290 meet with us right here. God. And God is speaking 0:07:57.390 --> 0:08:00.570 to us, and God is moving in our lives. And 0:08:01.210 --> 0:08:03.090 one of the ways you know when you start taking 0:08:03.150 --> 0:08:05.710 it for granted is when you stop coming for praise 0:08:05.750 --> 0:08:09.300 and worship. when you stop coming to church, when you 0:08:09.310 --> 0:08:12.480 stop praying in the morning. Because, see, back in Bible days, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.980 they couldn't just get into the presence of God. That 0:08:16.020 --> 0:08:19.660 was not a normal thing, right? You know, usually only 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.560 the priest could even go into the holy place, right? 0:08:23.620 --> 0:08:25.550 And only the high priest could go into the most 0:08:25.610 --> 0:08:28.370 holy place where the presence of God was. They had 0:08:28.450 --> 0:08:30.670 moments where God would sit on a mountain or other 0:08:30.710 --> 0:08:33.290 things would happen, but that was a rarity. Any of 0:08:33.490 --> 0:08:36.350 us at any time can have God's presence in our life. 0:08:37.250 --> 0:08:39.890 At any time. We literally can just spend a few 0:08:39.910 --> 0:08:42.500 minutes praising God and he shows up. We literally can 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.490 come to church and we know God's going to show up. 0:08:44.740 --> 0:08:47.160 But sometimes we've taken that lightly. And that's the other 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.460 half of this scripture. God says, I will honor those 0:08:49.500 --> 0:08:53.740 that honor me, but those that disesteem me. They take 0:08:53.780 --> 0:08:57.120 something that is valuable and they treat it like it's nothing. 0:08:57.140 --> 0:09:02.190 He says, I'm going to treat you lightly as well. See, 0:09:02.210 --> 0:09:04.370 the way God works is that, you know, the ball 0:09:04.429 --> 0:09:09.010 is in your court. If you do what you're supposed 0:09:09.050 --> 0:09:12.230 to do, then God will step in and honor you. 0:09:13.190 --> 0:09:16.170 He'll do great things for you. If you decide to 0:09:16.190 --> 0:09:18.790 not do what you're supposed to do, even though God 0:09:18.830 --> 0:09:22.230 has made everything available to you, you'll live life without it. 0:09:22.270 --> 0:09:25.710 Life won't work. It reminds me of James 4.8. You know, 0:09:25.730 --> 0:09:28.370 the first Sunday we had of FX Church, I preached 0:09:28.429 --> 0:09:30.730 on that. It's when you come close to God that 0:09:30.770 --> 0:09:34.190 God comes close to you. You know, you're as close 0:09:34.230 --> 0:09:37.100 to God as you choose to be. If you're not 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.020 as close to God as you used to be, he 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.900 didn't move, you did. Right? It's an issue of what 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.400 you're doing, and this is how it is with this 0:09:44.460 --> 0:09:49.820 honor issue. If you honor him, then he's going to 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.050 honor you. If you disesteem him, disesteem the things that 0:09:54.170 --> 0:09:57.790 matter to him, then he's going to disesteem you. You 0:09:57.830 --> 0:10:00.550 treat him lightly, his things lightly, and he treat you 0:10:00.610 --> 0:10:08.220 and your things lightly. Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. It reads, 0:10:08.420 --> 0:10:15.640 honor the Lord with your possessions. Somebody say honor. And 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:20.140 with the first fruits of all your increase. So shall 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.510 your barns be filled with plenty and your vats will 0:10:23.630 --> 0:10:28.630 overflow with new wine. He's promising here that ultimately your 0:10:28.790 --> 0:10:35.189 provision and your production will be blessed. You'll be successful. 0:10:35.650 --> 0:10:39.540 But the key here once again is honor. Now the 0:10:39.580 --> 0:10:43.280 word honor here in this particular opening of scripture, he's 0:10:43.300 --> 0:10:47.360 talking about our giving. And he's saying here to honor 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.120 the Lord with our possessions, honor him with the first 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.209 fruits of all of our increase. He's talking about the tithe. Now, 0:10:55.230 --> 0:10:57.410 some will argue first fruits and tithes aren't the same. 0:10:57.670 --> 0:11:00.189 But if you look at Deuteronomy 26 and other places, 0:11:00.230 --> 0:11:04.010 you can see that God used those terms interchangeably. The 0:11:04.130 --> 0:11:07.500 first fruits is not just the tithe in terms of 0:11:07.500 --> 0:11:12.500 10 percent. It's really the first 10% of what comes 0:11:12.540 --> 0:11:15.660 into your hands. So sometimes people ask me, Pastor, should 0:11:15.700 --> 0:11:19.260 I tithe off the gross or off the net? Well, 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.060 just because the government robs you doesn't mean you're supposed 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.800 to rob God. Right? God's supposed to get the first 10%, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.030 not what's left over after the government's put their hands 0:11:29.090 --> 0:11:33.870 in your pocket. Right? He's supposed to get the tithe first. 0:11:35.170 --> 0:11:40.930 That's a matter of honor. So Okay, I've got some 0:11:40.990 --> 0:11:44.330 money up here. I wish I could say this was real, 0:11:44.390 --> 0:11:46.130 but you know what? We're going to pretend like it's real. 0:11:46.790 --> 0:11:49.449 I got $ 1, 000, right? So let's just say you were 0:11:49.470 --> 0:11:52.929 paid $ 1, 000 on Friday. So what do you do? You 0:11:52.950 --> 0:11:56.699 pay the mortgage, you know. We know it's more than $ 1, 000, 0:11:56.020 --> 0:11:59.500 but okay. You pay the car note, right? You pay 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.679 the groceries. You pay the insurance. Then you do your entertainment. 0:12:05.059 --> 0:12:07.219 And then you say, here, God, here's what's left. I'm 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.750 going to give this to you. Is that honor? Honor 0:12:10.770 --> 0:12:15.540 doesn't give the leftovers. Honor makes you a priority, right? 0:12:16.050 --> 0:12:18.410 But that's what we do sometimes. And then we say, well, 0:12:18.590 --> 0:12:21.050 you know, how come I'm struggling financially? And Haggai God 0:12:21.070 --> 0:12:24.270 said to them, you know, you're eating, but you're not full. 0:12:24.330 --> 0:12:29.050 You're drinking, but you're still thirsty. You have bags, but 0:12:29.370 --> 0:12:31.500 it's like, you know, there's a hole in your bag. Why? 0:12:31.740 --> 0:12:35.660 Because you're dishonoring me. You're putting me last instead of 0:12:35.700 --> 0:12:37.960 putting me first. You're doing what Eli did. He put 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.660 his sons ahead of me. You're putting your financial desires 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.640 and needs ahead of me. And I'm saying, honor me 0:12:45.900 --> 0:12:50.510 first and then I will honor you. Right. So God 0:12:50.570 --> 0:12:52.510 is saying, all right, you got a thousand dollars here. 0:12:52.870 --> 0:12:55.420 All I want is this. You got nine. You got 0:12:55.460 --> 0:13:00.940 ten of these. And all I want is this. Give 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:06.340 me this. I'll bless this. You'll find you have barns 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.260 filled with this. You'll find that you're producing on your 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.330 job and more will come your way. But if you 0:13:12.410 --> 0:13:15.590 honor me, if you honor me, I will honor you. 0:13:17.270 --> 0:13:19.490 So the first thing we need to do is we've 0:13:19.530 --> 0:13:23.729 got to honor God. We've got to honor him from 0:13:23.850 --> 0:13:26.890 our hearts. We've got to honor him with our lives. 0:13:27.250 --> 0:13:34.230 That means that we recognize his value. We recognize his importance. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.079 And we treat him as such. All right, let's keep going. 0:13:39.100 --> 0:13:42.270 Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Somebody say, the way up 0:13:43.429 --> 0:13:53.650 is down. Ephesians 6 verse 2. Honor. Somebody say honor. 0:13:54.380 --> 0:13:58.320 Anybody guess what we're talking about today? Honor. We don't 0:13:58.340 --> 0:14:00.860 talk about this enough nowadays. We live in a culture 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.900 that has lost honor. I mean, even in this church, 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.160 it's one of the things that I've noticed and I've 0:14:06.179 --> 0:14:08.440 been talking to some folk about is that we're not 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.439 where we should be on the honor scale. We don't 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.780 honor as much as we should. And sometimes when you 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.240 hear the word honor, you think of some old school way, 0:14:17.500 --> 0:14:19.800 you know, some traditional way of doing things. I'm not 0:14:19.870 --> 0:14:23.870 talking about that. I'm talking about in your hearts, how 0:14:23.930 --> 0:14:27.340 you talk to people, how you think about people. See, 0:14:27.350 --> 0:14:29.750 it's getting quiet in this church, but I can say this. 0:14:29.790 --> 0:14:32.670 I'm the pastor, so... I was going to be honest 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.500 with you. And so what happens is when you're dishonoring people, 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.780 God's not going to honor that. It's quiet in this church. 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:52.630 Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment 0:14:52.670 --> 0:14:56.760 with the promise. If you honor your father and mother, 0:14:56.820 --> 0:14:59.680 things will go well for you, and you will have 0:14:59.740 --> 0:15:03.350 a long life on the earth. So notice the word 0:15:03.420 --> 0:15:05.380 honor here is a different word because this is a 0:15:05.420 --> 0:15:09.570 New Testament word from the Greek, and it means to prize, 0:15:10.330 --> 0:15:18.690 to value, to revere. Prize your father, value your father, revere. 0:15:18.710 --> 0:15:23.970 There's reverence in that, your father. Prize your mother, value 0:15:24.050 --> 0:15:27.770 your mother, Reveal your mother. This is so important to 0:15:27.810 --> 0:15:31.900 God that this is the first commandment with the promise. 0:15:31.940 --> 0:15:34.180 If you were to go to Exodus chapter 20 and 0:15:34.220 --> 0:15:36.930 you were to find the 10 commandments, you find this 0:15:36.970 --> 0:15:41.230 is the first one God attaches an incentive to. which 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.270 is basically that if you honor your parents, then I'm 0:15:44.290 --> 0:15:46.430 going to make sure things go well for you. I'm 0:15:46.750 --> 0:15:48.450 going to make sure you live long on the earth. 0:15:48.750 --> 0:15:51.220 Why does God say that? Because he wants your parents 0:15:51.270 --> 0:15:54.440 to be honored by you. He wants you to get 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.320 the benefits of honoring them. And he wants you to 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.800 live a life where it's well with you. A long, 0:16:02.430 --> 0:16:06.830 prosperous life. And so this is the way to it, right? 0:16:07.190 --> 0:16:10.340 The way up is down. Honor your parents and God 0:16:10.580 --> 0:16:15.080 will prosper you. Well, you know, when you talk about 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.940 honoring parents, sometimes people really struggle with that because, you know, 0:16:18.980 --> 0:16:22.120 first of all, my parents aren't so great or they 0:16:22.210 --> 0:16:26.990 weren't so great, right? And so I want you to 0:16:27.030 --> 0:16:30.370 notice that God is not talking about performance here. He's 0:16:30.410 --> 0:16:35.610 talking about position, right? You know, if a 25-year-old police 0:16:35.690 --> 0:16:39.290 officer pulled you over and you're 55, you don't say 0:16:39.310 --> 0:16:41.070 to them, you know what, I've been driving longer than 0:16:41.090 --> 0:16:45.420 you've been alive, young man. Depending on the young man, 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.880 you might find yourself standing up against a car with 0:16:48.900 --> 0:16:51.120 some cuffs on your arm. You know what I'm trying 0:16:51.140 --> 0:16:53.280 to say? Why don't you do that? Why do you 0:16:53.350 --> 0:16:57.130 treat that man hopefully with respect? Not because of the individual, 0:16:57.150 --> 0:17:00.940 but because of the position that they hold. Right? And 0:17:00.980 --> 0:17:04.840 the same thing is supposed to be true concerning your parents. 0:17:05.619 --> 0:17:08.179 That you're supposed to honor them because of the position 0:17:08.220 --> 0:17:14.780 that they hold. Pastor, you just don't know what they 0:17:14.820 --> 0:17:17.600 did to me. You know, King David is a great 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.260 example of honor. Of course, before he was king, he 0:17:21.340 --> 0:17:24.619 served King Saul, served him well. King Saul tried to 0:17:24.660 --> 0:17:27.050 kill him, tried to kill him again, then just kept 0:17:27.130 --> 0:17:30.290 on trying to kill him. Finally, King Saul is this 0:17:30.350 --> 0:17:33.889 close to killing him. His men are right outside the 0:17:33.930 --> 0:17:36.450 cave that David and his men are hiding in. King 0:17:36.490 --> 0:17:39.390 Saul steps in to use the restroom. David's men say, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.820 God has given you this opportunity. David walks up there 0:17:43.020 --> 0:17:44.940 and he just cuts off a little bit of his clothes. 0:17:46.180 --> 0:17:49.460 And then the Bible says his heart smote him. And 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.939 he said, how dare I touch God's anointed? Well, this 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.680 man had literally tried to kill him, had stolen, taken 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.110 his wife and given it to another man. had upended 0:17:59.190 --> 0:18:02.810 his life, and yet his heart was such that he 0:18:02.850 --> 0:18:06.530 still chose to honor him because of the position that 0:18:06.550 --> 0:18:09.129 he held, and that is why God chose him to 0:18:09.170 --> 0:18:14.880 be king. The way up was down. And so, yeah, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.500 we might have some people in our lives that have 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.160 done us wrong, and someone doing you wrong doesn't mean 0:18:20.180 --> 0:18:22.180 you don't say it's wrong. It doesn't mean that you 0:18:22.220 --> 0:18:25.020 endorse their behavior, but it does mean that even when 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.010 you're doing that, you find a way to do it 0:18:27.090 --> 0:18:35.870 with honor. You know, I, of course, I'm a preacher's kid, 0:18:36.609 --> 0:18:39.429 but I've also served in ministry with my parents and 0:18:39.450 --> 0:18:43.180 my parents are great people. God's used them mightily. God's 0:18:43.300 --> 0:18:45.540 used them mightily in my life. Obviously, they've been a 0:18:45.580 --> 0:18:48.500 great blessing to me. I haven't agreed with everything they've 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.939 done in my 50 years. OK, even in ministry. There 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.020 have been times where I haven't agreed. There have been 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.959 times where I felt like something was done that has 0:18:58.040 --> 0:18:59.939 harmed me in some way or another, whether I was 0:18:59.980 --> 0:19:02.350 just immature or not. But you know one thing that 0:19:02.420 --> 0:19:07.250 I will never do? Speak dishonorably to my parents. I 0:19:07.290 --> 0:19:12.710 don't care what's happened. It's just not going to happen. Okay? 0:19:13.010 --> 0:19:15.950 And I believe that that's something that maybe that's why 0:19:15.990 --> 0:19:17.680 God's been able to do some things with me now, 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.119 and I surely believe it's why he's going to do 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.359 what he's going to do in the future. There just 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:23.840 has to be a place where I'm going to honor you, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.980 not because of you, but because of me and my 0:19:27.020 --> 0:19:30.500 relationship with God. This is what he told me to do. 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:35.060 Honoring him is honoring you. Honoring you is honoring him. 0:19:38.070 --> 0:19:42.389 The Bible does teach about honoring authority as a political 0:19:42.470 --> 0:19:45.149 authority as well. In fact, I won't take you there 0:19:45.190 --> 0:19:48.950 for time's sake, but in Romans 13, the Bible talks 0:19:48.990 --> 0:19:55.230 about honoring. police officers law enforcement says they're ministers of 0:19:55.290 --> 0:19:58.270 god they don't carry the sword in vain their job 0:19:58.330 --> 0:20:01.310 is to you know deal with those who do evil 0:20:01.710 --> 0:20:03.230 so if you don't want to have a problem with 0:20:03.270 --> 0:20:07.660 them don't do evil Talks about give honor to whom 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.580 honor is due. We don't see this in our culture 0:20:11.500 --> 0:20:14.330 right now in America. We don't see this in African-American culture. 0:20:14.850 --> 0:20:17.689 We're to the place where now people are trying to 0:20:18.090 --> 0:20:21.490 harm law enforcement officers. Well, I don't agree with what 0:20:21.540 --> 0:20:26.780 they're doing. You can still handle it with honor. And 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:28.560 people lose their lives. And we say, well, you know, 0:20:28.780 --> 0:20:32.350 they killed them. No, they decided to do what the 0:20:32.380 --> 0:20:34.129 Bible said. If you're not going to do, you don't 0:20:34.150 --> 0:20:36.290 want the police to deal with you, don't do evil. 0:20:37.010 --> 0:20:38.830 If you're going to do evil, they don't carry the 0:20:38.890 --> 0:20:44.690 sword for no reason. That's black and white. That's B-I-B-L-E. Oh, see, 0:20:44.710 --> 0:20:47.219 I know people don't like this. I'm going to teach 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.379 the Bible and save some lives because it's stupid. Some 0:20:51.420 --> 0:20:53.860 of the stuff that people do, please pull you over. 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.730 You say, yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. But they racist. You 0:20:57.790 --> 0:21:01.070 still say yes, sir. Or yes, ma'am. You let God 0:21:01.130 --> 0:21:02.950 deal with them. You don't let them deal with you. 0:21:05.570 --> 0:21:11.810 We can deal with them later, but you survive. You 0:21:11.850 --> 0:21:14.930 got to have some honor. The Bible talks about honoring 0:21:14.970 --> 0:21:19.480 the king. That's our president. That's our senators. That's our governors. 0:21:20.730 --> 0:21:22.770 You know, there's going to be people you don't like. 0:21:22.790 --> 0:21:25.250 You don't like the position they hold. One minute you 0:21:25.290 --> 0:21:27.169 like them, then you find out they believe this and 0:21:27.190 --> 0:21:29.919 you don't like them. You know, whether or not we 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:32.280 honor people is dependent on whether or not we like them. 0:21:34.700 --> 0:21:39.780 My goodness. It's not. It's dependent on the position they hold. 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.420 There is a way you should not talk about Donald 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.070 Trump if you're a Christian. There is a way you 0:21:47.109 --> 0:21:50.859 should not have talked about Joe Biden if Or Barack Obama, 0:21:51.340 --> 0:21:55.980 if you're a Christian. We do things differently. I can 0:21:56.060 --> 0:21:58.680 say I don't agree with this and I don't agree 0:21:58.740 --> 0:22:02.010 with that, but I cannot enter into dishonor and then 0:22:02.050 --> 0:22:06.470 expect God to honor me. When he said honor the king. 0:22:09.930 --> 0:22:12.270 I love y'all. Y'all know I love you, right? I 0:22:12.310 --> 0:22:14.950 want you blessed. We wonder why life isn't working. You're 0:22:15.010 --> 0:22:17.730 literally costing yourself your future because you can't keep your 0:22:17.790 --> 0:22:21.439 mouth off of people. And God sees all of it. 0:22:21.810 --> 0:22:23.909 God doesn't have this spot where he says, well, you 0:22:23.950 --> 0:22:25.550 know what? You need to be honorable and be careful 0:22:25.590 --> 0:22:28.230 of what you say, except for politics. And politics, just 0:22:28.270 --> 0:22:30.659 be as nasty as you want. I understand. They are pumped. 0:22:32.859 --> 0:22:36.280 He's not doing that. He's watching all of it. And 0:22:36.300 --> 0:22:40.480 he says, honor your parents, honor the law enforcement, honor 0:22:40.660 --> 0:22:43.670 your spiritual leadership. There is a way that you're supposed 0:22:43.690 --> 0:22:52.149 to operate with people. You treat them with honor. The 0:22:52.190 --> 0:22:56.320 Bible does say vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Right? 0:22:57.859 --> 0:23:02.919 So you leave vengeance up to him. All right, go 0:23:02.940 --> 0:23:07.220 over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'm glad we did 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:11.820 some shouting in this series. You know, that's the process. 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:15.860 God's going to move in your life. Hallelujah, because today 0:23:15.940 --> 0:23:20.200 is kind of rough. But we got to talk about 0:23:20.220 --> 0:23:24.350 it because, you know, part of What we're about and 0:23:24.830 --> 0:23:27.689 many ministries that teach the Bible are about is is 0:23:27.970 --> 0:23:31.520 I'm not interested in tickling your ears. I just don't 0:23:31.540 --> 0:23:32.800 want you to walk out of here and say, well, 0:23:32.820 --> 0:23:35.160 that was a good message. And, you know, we danced 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:36.660 and we did that and the other. And your life 0:23:36.740 --> 0:23:39.740 doesn't change. I want you to walk out of here 0:23:39.859 --> 0:23:42.360 and your life is better. You're more you're closer to 0:23:42.420 --> 0:23:44.840 like to Jesus. You're more like him and God's doing 0:23:44.859 --> 0:23:46.740 more in your life. And this is the type of 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.050 stuff that matters. If you don't learn how to walk 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:55.560 in honor. That will hold you back. That'll hold you back, 0:23:56.170 --> 0:24:00.940 naturally speaking. If we weren't even to talk about spiritual things, 0:24:01.460 --> 0:24:06.119 just dealing with people in just everyday life, being a 0:24:06.180 --> 0:24:09.060 person who does not know how to properly treat people 0:24:09.460 --> 0:24:11.670 will have an impact on how far along you get 0:24:11.710 --> 0:24:14.770 in life just naturally. But then when you factor in 0:24:14.810 --> 0:24:17.889 the spiritual side of this, And this is an issue 0:24:18.090 --> 0:24:20.690 that has an impact on how much of the anointing 0:24:20.730 --> 0:24:23.100 of God, how much the power of God can work 0:24:23.140 --> 0:24:25.540 in your life. Man, you got to get this right. 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:32.179 There's another one. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 12. 0:24:32.180 --> 0:24:37.100 Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:42.389 in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and 0:24:42.430 --> 0:24:47.070 give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted 0:24:47.150 --> 0:24:52.670 love because of their work and live peacefully with each other. 0:24:53.830 --> 0:24:56.630 Now he's talking about honoring spiritual authority. Oh, Pastor, you 0:24:56.650 --> 0:25:01.320 went too far. Are you talking about yourself? Yup. It's 0:25:01.400 --> 0:25:03.160 in the Bible. But you know what? He didn't just 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:10.050 say honor the senior pastor. Honor those In this church, 0:25:10.070 --> 0:25:12.909 we have multiple leaders who are your spiritual leaders. And 0:25:12.950 --> 0:25:16.429 sometimes I hear stuff, man. You know, when you get 0:25:16.450 --> 0:25:19.130