A Call To Honor: Honor What God Honors

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. We're starting a new series today,

probably going to last a month, four weeks. But

the new series is a call to honor. A call to

honor. Now that sounds foreign to... A lot of

people in our society today, honor is a word

that means nothing. Would you agree with me?

But honor is important to God. Did you know that

honor and variations of the word honor, talking

about honor, is in the Bible over 300 times?

When's the last time you heard a sermon on honor?

I've been preaching for a long time, and I have

to be honest, I've never preached a sermon on

honor. I've preached a lot of sermons, but I've

never preached a sermon on honor. But it's important.

It's important to God, or it wouldn't be in the

Bible so many times, would it? Come on, just

common sense. Would God have that word in the

Bible over 300 times if it wasn't important for

you and for me today? No, no. The Bible is the

Word of God. Now we're going to start out talking

about a priest named Eli and his sons. I'm not

going to read the whole story, but I want to

tell you about it very briefly because we've

got a lot of ground to cover. But in 1 Samuel,

we find the story of Eli, who was the priest,

and his sons. And then it gets to the point where

God says, Eli, I'm done with you and your sons.

Hello? He says, I'm done with y 'all. He told

Eli right before this verse that we're going

to read, he says, Eli. Listen, he says, you have

honored your sons more than you've honored me,

God said. Wow. As the priest, you've honored

your sons more than you've honored me. And listen,

Eli's sons, they were not honoring the call of

God on their lives. Everybody say honor. They

weren't honoring the call of God on their lives.

They were mishandling the sacrifices of the people.

They weren't following what God said they needed

to do and how they needed to do it. They were

also taking advantage of people. And you know

what? Eli wouldn't correct his sons. Make sure

you get this. Eli didn't correct his sons. He

honored his sons, even though they were doing

the wrong thing. So God says to Eli, he says,

look, Eli, you have honored your sons more than

you've honored me. And I'm going to tell you

something. This is God talking. In 1 Samuel 2

.30, God says, basically right before this, he

says, I'm done. with you and your sons because

Samuel is going to be anointed as the next priest

and prophet. God says, I will honor those who

honor me and I will despise those who think lightly

of me. Let that sink in. God says he will honor

people who honor him. But basically, he will

despise people who despise him. Now, in our English

language, when we hear the word despise, most

of the time we think, well, despise means that,

you know, I despise you, and there's anger and

hatred involved in that. But that's not what

it means. we get an English understanding of

the word, but that's not the, in this case, the

Hebrew understanding of the word that was translated

into English. So let's take a look at those.

The word honor in this Bible verse is the word

kavod. Y 'all see it? See, you're speaking Hebrew

now. About as good as I spoke French is about

as good as I speak Hebrew. But that word honor,

here's what it means. It means to be heavy. It

means to make weighty. It means to honor. It

means to glorify. And it means to value. That's

what the word means. To make heavy, to make weighty.

to honor, to glorify, to value. Now, there's

sometimes this word kavod in the Old Testament.

Sometimes it's translated glory. Sometimes it's

translated honor. The reason why the word exists

To be heavy, to make weighty, for us to understand

that. Because when we talk about the glory of

God, we're talking about the manifested presence

of God, and we're talking about the weightiness

or the heaviness of that. And we can see through

Scripture and through experiences, sometimes,

you know, the manifested presence of God can

be felt. bad heaviness, but a good heaviness.

And I'm going to say, you can experience the

glory of God. It's not something that's just

Old Testament. It's not available to us today.

But to be heavy, and it came from, it came from

doing business because the cultures then, they

didn't have coins and things like that. There

weren't things. There wasn't paper money and

things like that. So think of a balance scale.

If you're young, you may not have ever seen a

balance scale. But it's a post with a bar and

two... holders on each side, two plates hanging

on each side. And the value of something would

be determined to be this much silver or this

much gold. So the person running the business

had to have a scale and they had to have correct

weights to set on the scale and then you've got

to keep putting gold or silver on this side to

be able to purchase that item. Everybody say

value. Weight. So that's where this thought comes

from. Now, honor means a perceived value or worth.

The value, weight, or honor, listen, willingly

assigned to something. So you had to willingly

agree to the price to be able to purchase the

item. So you willingly, every time you purchase

something, we don't go through this thought process,

but we willingly think that what we are purchasing

is worth the price that we're paying for. Are

you with me? If we don't think that, then we're

going to be in trouble in our personal finances.

if we just have no concern over the cost of anything

ever. But honor is willingly assigned to something.

Value is willingly assigned to something. It's

our perceived value or worth. Now, to despise,

when God says, I will despise those who think

lightly of me, He's basically saying, I will

despise those who despise me. Because in the

text, despise is opposite of weight, opposite

of honor, opposite of value. I want you to see

that word that way. To despise means to look

down on with disrespect, not with respect, but

disrespect, or to regard something as worthless.

That's what despise means. Now, we talked about

Eli's sons. You know, God had a call on that

family line to be priests for God. And there

was a lot of responsibility. The calling of God

comes with responsibility. It doesn't mean that...

Everybody else has no responsibility, but comes

with greater responsibility. And you know what?

Eli's sons, they didn't care. They didn't care.

So God removed that call. He says, I'm done with

you. And he placed that call on Samuel. I'm going

to say generally, not with everybody, not with

everybody in this room, maybe no one in this

room, but generally in our society, there's a

lack of honor. The Bible talks about some things,

and we're going to look at some things today.

And it's not going to be an exhaustive study.

It's not going to cover everything. We're going

to look at some very important things that is

important for you and I. to honor. But just so

we can wrap our minds around a lack of honor,

you know, a lot of times in the home today, there's

a lack of honor. A lack of honor between spouses,

a lack of honor between children and their parents.

That's going to be something that we talk about

one week. The Bible, I mean, one of the Ten Commandments

is honor your parents. And then there's a promise.

If you'll do that, if you will honor, if you

will hold them valuable with respect, you know

what? You'll wind up living longer. That's God's

promise. But we see a lack of honor in the family

structure. We see a lack of honor in schools.

It's just way different than it used to be when

I was a kid. There's a lack of honor. We have

a friend who's a school teacher in New York,

and she and her husband visit here at Elation

Church. We've been friends for over 20 years

with them, and they visit on a regular basis.

But let me tell you something that happened to

her. One day when she was teaching, One of the

students got mad at her and threw a desk at her

and hit her with a desk. And I want to ask you

a question. Guess who got in trouble? She got

in trouble. She asked the student for his homework.

He didn't do his homework, so he got mad at her

and threw the desk at her. I mean, she was bruised

and hurt. But she got reprimanded by the school

system and her principal. And here's why she

got reprimanded. Because she asked the student

where his homework was. She asked for his homework

in front of the other students. So she got reprimanded

for embarrassing him. Hello? None of that would

ever happen when I was in school. Because when

I was in school, if you showed dishonor towards

a teacher, I know a bunch of you aren't as young

as I am, and I wasn't a person to dishonor people

a whole lot, but I remember there was a time

when I did some dishonor. And I remember putting

my hands on the desk, And the coach had a paddle

that he had drilled holes in. Does anybody know

what I'm talking about? I had to put my hands

on the desk and lean over, tighten it up. And

my dishonor cost me something. As I slid on my

stomach across his desk. I'm not saying that

that needs to happen to that level. But God does

say if we spare the rod, we will spoil the child.

It's a Bible verse. We have to deal with it.

What about disrespect in public? Lack of honor

in public? Do you notice it? There's a lot of

people who don't care about anybody but themselves.

So it doesn't matter the way they talk when they're

around other people. They have no concern for

that whatsoever, what kind of language they use

in just their casual talk. And, you know, I see

it in front of parents with young children, and

then I... There's people walking beside them

and saying things that, I mean, now I guess they're

common on TV, but it's showing a lack of honor

and a lack of respect for yourself and everybody

else around you. Don't get mad at me. Because

Jeffrey and I were talking about it, and Jeffrey

said, you know what, Dad? I can't really blame.

The people that I know who don't show any honor,

because I don't believe they were ever taught

about honor. I don't believe anybody's ever modeled

honor for them, talked about honor. All this

that we see where, you know, there's so much

dishonor. In society, over authority and over

law, there's a lack of honor. Lack of honor.

And I'll just be honest with you. I mean, I don't

know where you grew up or what you were taught,

but I was taught, if I talked to an adult, that

I always said, yes, sir, or yes, ma 'am. Now

that may be foreign to you, because I found out

that that's foreign to a lot of people. To use

the words sir and ma 'am out of respect. Right?

I mean, even as an adult, talking to people older

than me, I mean, I would always say yes sir,

yes ma 'am, no sir, no ma 'am. And I've had people

look at me like I was a freak. People that I

was honoring. They looked at me like I was a

freak because I said, yes, ma 'am. Ma 'am? Why

are you calling me ma 'am? I mean, they just

didn't grow up that way, so they had no idea.

We're going to talk about this. We're going to

talk about honoring authority. We're going to

talk about, listen, the Bible says that we're

supposed to honor everyone. So let's just get

that out there. And that's going to be one of

the weeks we're going to. Talk about honoring

people. Because we're supposed to value everybody.

Whether we know them, whether we're in relationship

with them or not, we're supposed to value everybody.

We're supposed to honor everybody. Okay? So,

don't get twisted up and say, well, you know

what? I want to hear all this because the preacher

is just trying to get everybody to honor him.

I wouldn't put that past some preachers. Anyway,

I'm not going to call any names. We're supposed

to honor everyone. And honor must be taught.

Honor has got to be taught. So that's why we're

teaching on it. We believe honor needs to be

taught in every household to every child. Honor's

got to be taught or people aren't going to have

any honor unless they know about it and know

the importance of it. Now in the Greek, in the

New Testament, we're looking at three words very

quickly. We're defining three words. Timao, that's

the verb. Because honor is a verb, honor is a

noun, honor is an adjective for all you English

teachers. So to honor is to prize or to revere

is a definition. To honor the noun is to may.

It means a value or valuable. Something is esteemed

in the highest degree. and as an adjective, tea

meals, is valuable, costly, honored, esteemed,

beloved, or precious. Honor includes the ideas

of worth, esteem, dignity, and price, whether

we use it in the context of God, of Jesus, of

people, or things. And here's what I want you

to get. The term always measures value. And when

the value is measured, it calls for a response

proportionate to that value. I'm going to say

that again. The term honor always is measuring

the value of something. Because I didn't fully

understand what honor meant until I started studying.

But honor always has to do with value. It measures

the value. But it's more than just measuring

the value. It's calling for a response proportionate

to that value. Some of you looking like you lost.

If something is deemed honorable, it's calling

for a response to be honored. If we need to honor

our teachers, it's calling for a response, right?

If our teachers are honorable, then it's calling

for our response. Are we going to honor them

or are we not going to honor them? Honor is always

calling for a response. And that's why I started

out with honor as this sermon series, but then

I changed it, made Jeffrey redo the art, and

I said I'm not just going to call it honor, I'm

going to call it a call to honor, because when

we find out that things are honorable, then it's

up to us whether we're going to honor them or

not. There's a call to everyone, not just us

in the room. Now, how do we demonstrate honor?

Every single one of these doesn't apply to every

single context, but they apply across the board.

When you honor someone or something, you speak

highly of it. Let that sit in. You speak highly

of it. So it's easy to tell if you don't honor

something, if you're not speaking highly of it,

you're not honoring it. You're not placing any

value on it. If your words aren't high praise

of it, if that makes sense. To demonstrate honor,

you act in generosity towards it. If you ever

wonder why people brought an apple to the teacher

at school, you act in generosity towards it.

You have a high respect of it. You submit to

the authority of it if you honor it. So let's

take a look at the negative side of this. If

you refuse to submit to... an authority, then

that means you are dishonoring. If you don't

have a high respect, then you're dishonoring.

If you don't act with generosity towards, then

you're dishonoring or thinking lightly of it.

If you're not speaking highly, then that's dishonor

or disdain. Today, we're going to talk about

three quick things. Look to the person beside

you and tell them, listen fast. Got to listen

fast. Write down listen fast. Just going to talk

about three things that God honors, obviously.

And we're going to talk about us honoring what

God honors. Is that fair enough? If God honors

it, is it worth our honor too? Thank you for

your response. We need to honor the Word of God.

You can say another amen right there. We need

to honor the Word of God. We need to value it.

We need to treasure it. The Word of God. We need

to treasure it. We need to honor it. I've always

wondered about this parable or this teaching.

Matthew 7, 6. Maybe you've said, what? Before.

When Jesus said, look, don't give what is holy

to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before a swine,

lest they trample them under their feet and turn

and tear you in pieces. Has anybody ever, when

you read that, has anybody ever went, huh? I

mean, why are we looking at this? Well, here's

why. Dogs do not have the ability to distinguish

between a comic book or the Bible, do they? They

don't have the capacity to even distinguish between

the two. If your dog is wanting to chew up a

book, and there's a comic book and a Bible on

the coffee table, it don't care which one it

chews up. It's just mad because you left it too

long. And it's going to destroy something. It's

either going to be a roll of toilet paper out

of the bathroom, but if you lock the bathroom

door, it's going to go after that comic book

or that Bible and it could care less which one

it was. It just wants to shred up a bunch of

paper and throw it all over the house. So a dog

has no honor for a Bible. It's impossible, right?

What about a pig? A pig doesn't have the ability

to distinguish between just a rock that you pick

up on the ground or a pearl. It don't care. It's

all just rocks to the pig. I mean, it could be

a $5 ,000 pearl, but a pig don't care. A pig's

not going to honor the value. Everybody say value.

The value. Of that pearl, pig doesn't care. I

want you to really get this. When we don't honor

something as valuable, we will not receive any

value from it. When we don't honor something

as valuable, We will not receive anything from

it. So if you don't honor the word of God, if

you don't highly esteem it, if you don't hold

it as being valuable, you know what? You can

read it all day long and you're never going to

get anything out of it. There are people who

teach doctorate level theology classes in universities

who are atheists. And they teach the Bible. And

they teach the history of the Bible. They've

been there for years and years and years and

years, but they don't honor it as God's Word.

They just look at it just like any other book

in the library. When you don't honor it, you

won't receive any value from it. And listen.

If you read the Bible and you say, I'm just not

getting anything out of it. It's just not. You

know, people tell me to read the Bible. People

give me a Bible and I read it. But I don't see

any power or any life. They talk about all this

stuff, but I don't see any of it. There's something

else. You know. Because if you're around here,

you hear me talking about putting your words

in agreement with the Word of God, right? Well,

guess what? You can put your words in agreement

with the Word of God, but if you don't value

it, you're not going to see it make an impact

in your life if you don't highly esteem the Word

of God. So we need to honor the Word. We need

to honor the Word. Here's something else we need

to honor. We need to honor the church. Now listen.

That word church in the New Testament is called

out once. It's a compound Greek word. It means

called out once. It doesn't mean, you know, an

organization. It doesn't mean a building. Even

though we use... The word to say that, it doesn't

even mean a meeting as far as just meetings are

concerned. It means the called out ones. But

I don't want you to ever take that to mean that

we don't need each other. That we shouldn't honor

each other. I don't want you to ever take it

to mean that. Because some people, when I say

that we're the called out ones, they say, well,

you know, that just means that I can worship

God in a deer stand just as much as I can worship

Him anywhere else. I can worship God at the lake,

in my boat. I don't ever have to go get together

with other believers. I mean, I am the church,

so wherever I am, that's the church. And some

people say, some people don't think they... have

a need to get together with other called out

ones in a family of faith. They don't value it.

They don't think that's important. Just anything

else, any other option that I got is more important

than getting together with the called out ones.

We'll need to honor. The church. Let me tell

you, well, let me tell you what happened last

week. Everybody say last week. Last week. I didn't

even know I was going to preach on honor yet.

And guess what? Jeffrey, you know, he's working

in social media and he's trying to invite people

to come join us for worship and invite people

to come be a part of our family of faith. So

he's always sending out things every week and

invitations. And you know what? Somebody on TikTok,

because we're kind of new still on TikTok. Somebody

on TikTok replied. This was their reply. And

all it was was just a TikTok post inviting them

to come join us here at Alation Church. And they

felt like they had to reply this. I couldn't

care any less. That's what I say. You know, I

wanted to reply, well, you know, thank you for

caring enough to comment that you didn't care.

But Jeffrey said, I probably shouldn't do that.

They said, I couldn't care any less than I care

about getting together with other people to look

into God's word, to lift up the name of Jesus.

I couldn't care any less about doing that. You

know why? There's no value. No value. No value.

And I dare say that that's a lot of people in

the communities around us. They could care less.

Because they don't see any value. They don't

see any value. I see a lot of value. I see enough

value to even be here today. I see enough value

that, you know, walked away from the highest

paycheck I've ever had in my life. Because God

called us to come down here and start this church.

That's what kind of value I see. In the Word

of God. In the church. Because we drove down

here and we saw so many people that weren't connected

to God. So many people that were not connected

to a family of faith. And we saw enough value

to say whatever it takes. Whatever it takes.

And that shouldn't just be the preacher. Shouldn't

just be the preacher. Here's how much Jesus honored

the church. Christ loved the church and still

does. He gave up his life for her to make her

holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's

word. He did this to present her, the church,

to himself. And in this case, it's not just called

out ones, it's the gathering of called out ones.

He did this to present her to himself as a glorious

church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.

Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

You couldn't honor anything anymore. You couldn't

demonstrate your honor to anything anymore than

laying down your life. Have you heard of the

Medal of Honor? Where you don't see your life

worth more than your cause? Hebrews 10, 25. And

let us not neglect our meeting together, as some

people do, but encourage one another, especially

now that the day of his return is drawing near.

God wants us to honor the church and honor his

word. Because when we neglect something and don't

acknowledge the value of something, then we don't

honor it. Honor the kingdom of God. We should

honor the kingdom of God. The rule and reign

of God. Eternal rule and reign of God. We should

honor the kingdom of God. You know, Jesus did

a lot of teaching when he was on the earth. But

you know what he talked about more than anything

else? The kingdom of God. Look it up. All those

parables, the majority of the parables, the kingdom

of God is like this, kingdom of God is like this,

kingdom of God is like this, right? We need to

honor the rule and reign of God over us, over

our homes, over our families, over our church,

over everything. We need to honor that. These

are parables that you can easily see by how you

demonstrate honor. We can see that the kingdom

of heaven should be honored. The kingdom of heaven

is like a treasure. Everybody say value. Valuable.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that

a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement,

he hid it again and sold everything he owned.

To get enough money to buy the field. That's

how important the treasure was to him. So what

is God saying? Is he talking about a treasure

chest that we find in a field? Or is he talking

about we should value the kingdom of heaven?

The kingdom of God. We should value that in the

same way. That's what he's saying. Matthew. 13,

45, and 46, the parable continues. Again, the

kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout

for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl

of great value, he sold everything he owned and

bought it. You know why? Because he valued it

the most. Oh, he had a lot of pearls because

he was a pearl merchant. But this one was unlike

anything else. We have a lot of things that we

value. Hello? Every single one of us, we have

a lot of different things that we value. But

what we value most, Should be the kingdom of

heaven. What you value the most is what you will

honor the most. You know, we've had a lot of

happy preaching times, but y 'all are all looking

very serious. I mean, we've... If today's your

first time being here, hey, it's not normally

quite this heavy. But we're talking about a heavy

subject, right? Honor is heavy. That's even the

definition of it, right? But what you value the

most is what you honor the most. And God told

Eli, you honor your kids. You value your sons

above what you value me. Honor measures value.

And calls for a response proportionate to that

value. I think next week, we're going to talk

about honoring God. Not just honoring the things

that God honors, but honoring God. We need to

value Him. We need to value what He values. This

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