The Honour Key

Good morning Gateway.

How you doing?

Oh, sorry, sorry, how you are?

I'm from Australia, so uh if you don't understand me, that's okay.

That's okay.

We speak English in Australia too, you know.

Um it's a great joy to be in this church.

What a great church! And it's in Dallas, and I'm a Cowboys fan.

So you know that I'm a real man of faith.

Because praise the Lord.

But the best is yet to come.

We agree with that in Jesus' name.

If it can work for Seattle, it can work anywhere.

So it's a great joy to be here, and I want to thank you for um releasing your pastor to Australia.

Uh his impact in the globe is incredible.

Um, but in the in the nation of Australia, it's been absolutely amazing.

Um we were at conference last year, and he he preached this sermon um on uh God's favorite um thing, and he and he talked about worship, and he then handed me the mic after it finished, and for the next 90 minutes we worshiped.

It was absolutely incredible.

People weeping, uh getting touched powerfully by God, and so because he brought the spirit that's on this house, it was amazing what God did.

So thank you for uh releasing him.

And also, Pastor Tom was there, and he did an amazing job with our business people, and so we are so blessed to have great friends in Dallas, Texas.

Praise God, glory to God, there it is.

Yo, uh one time I was traveling on a plane and uh it was in America, and this lady said the hostess says, Do you want a water uh what do you want?

And I said, Can I have a water?

And she said, Sorry.

I said, Can I have a water?

She said, sorry.

I said, Oh, sorry.

Can I have a water?

She goes, Why didn't you see so?

And uh so if you don't understand me, I pray for the gift of interpretation.

Um it's one of the gifts of the spirit that you would receive that today.

You know, um brought up in church all my life, never really wanted to be a preacher, wanted to be a rock star.

That's why I created Plant Shaker's music.

Um and uh, you know, my grandfather got saved at the end of the Welsh Revival.

He was a coal miner, and there was a preacher preaching, and as the preacher was on the pulpit, uh behind the pulpit preaching, he he felt the Lord speak to him about going to a young man who was 17 years of age in the back row, and in the middle of his sermon he stopped preaching and he honored the Lord, and he he went and met my grandfather at 17 years of age, and he said, Young man, do you know Jesus?

And my grandfather said no.

He said, Does your family know Jesus?

My grandfather said no.

He said, Would you like to know Jesus?

My grandfather said yes.

And so he gave his life to Jesus, and that was the start of the kingdom of God being established in our family line.

Now I'm third generation preacher, and uh my dad in Australia is amazing.

This he he part he passed at the largest church in Australia, and um and then uh Hillsong uh grew and that became the largest church, and um my dad took a movement of 80 uh churches to 1200 churches, and at the age of 65, he decided not to retire, he decided to refire because young is all got to do with a mindset, not a birth certificate.

And so he started a political party called Family First, and he became a senator at 65 years of age in Australia, and actually was able to stop some legislation that would actually be detrimental detrimental to where the state was going.

And so that's my legacy, that's the heritage that I come from.

And you know, I I begin to think about how all this happens, how all this works.

You know, Jesus, when he came, he talked about the kingdom of God.

You know, everything you see, Jesus, he goes, the kingdom of God is like, you know, you hear a lot of people talk about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is, you know, like a mustard seed.

The kingdom of God, everything I do, Jesus says I do on behalf of my father.

Uh and Jesus was all about the kingdom, he came to bring the kingdom.

So I begin to think about a kingdom.

What is a kingdom?

It's a king's domain, it's the way a king operates.

So the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, God wants to bring to earth because he brought Jesus to demonstrate how to bring that.

And so his plan is to bring heaven to earth.

What is that plan?

The way God operates, he wants what's operating in heaven to happen on earth.

That's why he said, when you pray, what you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.

In Luke 11, when you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven.

Notice it doesn't start with our problem here on earth.

Because I've discovered when you start praying from your problem's point of view instead of your father's point of view, you don't come in faith.

So this kingdom that Jesus brought was amazing.

You know what the Bible says?

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, you know, and freely as you receive, freely give.

And so this kingdom in operation, so I'm beginning to think, okay, God wants to bring heaven to earth, so what does that look like?

How does that happen?

What does heaven look like?

What's heaven like?

You know, heaven is a place of incredible joy.

Heaven is a place where there's no lack, heaven is a place where that people are walking free in their health.

Heaven is a place of worship 24-7.

Heaven isn't a quiet place, by the way.

You know, the devils try to quieten the church down.

Just be quiet.

Have your nice little services, just be quiet.

Because, you know, what does a church represent?

It represents what their dad looks like.

So I reckon church should be the biggest party on the planet.

I I reckon church would be the place of more life than anywhere, better than uh uh better than an uh an MBA game.

Better than a party.

Church would be the most exciting place.

You know, people have put reverence into being quiet.

But if you look at heaven, it's not a quiet place, and it's the most holy place there is.

Around the throne, they're they're they're shouting, holy, holy, holy.

You see, uh God, God made your body to worship.

So you're a person.

You go, gee, they're really smart in Australia.

Person.

The name per the word person is a Latin term, it comes from a Latin phrase in its son, is the back end of person.

So sun means sound or sonic.

That's where you get the word sonic from.

Son, sound.

So you're a sound.

The word per means what flows through.

So our lives are the sounds that flow through our lives.

So Jesus was the personification of the Father, He was the amplifier of the Father on earth.

He brought the sound of heaven through his life.

That's what the church is supposed to be.

It's supposed to be the sound of heaven on earth.

When people at work are uh dishonoring the boss, what sound are you bringing?

The sound of heaven is generosity, the sound of heaven is looking after the needs of the community.

The sound of heaven is bringing breakthrough and joy and peace even in dark times.

Psalm 23.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, mind you, it doesn't say, though I camp in the valley of the shadow of death.

No, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil.

And then it goes on.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, as I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

See, God wants his sound to be on this earth, even in dark times.

So this kingdom that Jesus talked about.

I love Jesus, he was so cool.

Jesus wrecked every funeral there ever was.

He just did things that were so unpredictable.

Spat in mud, put it in a blind guy's eye, and says, Can you see?

Think about that logically.

Well, if I I can see and someone put mud in my eye, I couldn't see.

And then he he he turned water into wine and and he he saw incredible miracles.

He's just walking along, and it'd be like a modern-day rock star.

People just wanting to touch him, and he's walking along.

And a lady who'd been for 12 years pushed out of the society, pushed out of community, says, if only I can just touch the hem of his garment, then I'll be made well.

And she pushes through the crowd, and Jesus has all these people around him, and he says, Who touched me?

Amazing.

Walks on water, credible.

Jesus wasn't boring.

Some people say Christianity is boring.

No, yes, some Christians are.

Christianity should be the most exciting lifestyle there is on the planet.

Where we see miracles and break with this kingdom that has no limit, that has no end.

Every kingdom has a key.

There are keys to unlock heaven.

So I begin to go on this journey and look at the life of Jesus and look that okay, what's the key of the kingdom?

There is different keys, but what's the key?

You know, is it love?

You know, God is love.

Yes, he is love, and that's one of the keys to love the community.

But the the deal is if if if love is one way, then nothing will happen.

See, the Bible says John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, to whoever believes in him shall not perish, but who has everlasting life.

To whoever believes.

So someone has to believe that he loves to receive that love.

See, Jesus died for the whole world, but the whole world hasn't come to know him.

So God is love.

Do you think Jesus, when he went to his hometown, would have loved his hometown?

He would have known all the problems in his hometown.

Jesus starts doing some miracles.

I love the first miracle Jesus does.

Turns water into wine, and his mother comes to him before he's about to do it, and she's he says, she says, Jesus, hey Jesus, they've run out of wine.

There's some shame here.

Can you do something about it?

And he says this amazing statement that I would never use today to my own mother.

He says, Woman, my time has not yet come.

You imagine my mother coming to me one day and she's saying, Russell, the bedroom is untidy, could you clean it?

And I turn to her and say, Woman, my time has not yet come.

She would be ministering to me for days.

My mum was a woman of the word.

We had scripture all over the house.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

When I was naughty, she'd write, children obey the Lord, obey your parents in the Lord, for it is good.

And she'd even put scripture in the bathroom.

Fear not, for I'm with thee.

That was just for my brother after we'd come in, right?

We had this stick with scripture on it.

Spare the rod, spoil the child.

On the other side, we need thee every hour.

Woman, my time has not yet come.

But as I looked at the life of Jesus and I and I looked at what's the key to unlocking this heaven, he was talking about this kingdom, I've come to the realization love is a part of it, is a key, a part of it.

But Jesus in his hometown loved his hometown, but they he could not do a mighty work because they did not honor him.

So honor must be a key to unlock heaven.

In fact, you cannot get saved if you don't honor.

If you don't honor what Jesus did upon the cross, you don't receive faith.

Honor is the key to walk into the room of faith.

What does the word honor mean?

The word honor comes from where they used to weigh the shekels, the they used to get the money that and they weigh them.

It wasn't like paper, it was coins, and they'd weigh them.

And the heavier that the shekels were, the more value they had, the more weight they had.

So what honor means comes out of that term.

So what honor means is what you put weight to or what you value.

And what happens many times is we we value style instead of valuing the God in people, we look at the external instead of the internal.

Imagine if I gave you a key that would release heaven to your earth, to see family, finances, friendships blessed, a life full of miracles, healings, and breakthroughs, to see generational blessing, to receive and release heavenly inheritance, to have the key for every need and situation in life.

This key of honor is amazing because it's the currency of heaven.

What is a currency?

A currency is a medium of exchange.

So if you go shopping, and you know, men and women shop differently.

You know, my wife says to me, Let's go shopping, I think marathon.

You know, remember one time she's like, let's go get some jeans.

I'm like, oh no.

Any smart shop owner should create television space, a lounge space, some drinks, and some food for all the men.

I just think that'd be a great business right there.

And all the men are clapping, and all the women are saying, Stop that in Jesus' name.

Well, you know, but to buy something, you need a currency to exchange it.

If I go into a shop and I say, hey, I like that jacket and I don't exchange it for currency, and I walk out, I get arrested.

Sometimes we come to God and we don't come with honor and we don't come with faith, and we wonder why we're not bringing heaven to earth.

We come and ask, but we don't believe.

So honor is this key, it's the culture of the kingdom.

What is a kingdom?

It's a king's domain, the way the king operates.

You see, honor gets quoted a lot in our society, and and most times it's quoted from a hierarchical point of view, and it's like it's from the point of view you've got to honor your parents, and I believe in honoring your parents because a house that doesn't honor their parents is a house that's in dishonor and there's no order in the house.

So I believe in honoring parents.

We've got to honor our leaders.

I believe in honoring leaders.

I believe in that.

I believe that's what we should do.

Uh I believe in honoring our teachers, and I believe in honoring those who God has put over us because honor isn't earned, it's actually appointed.

We think you know you have to earn, no respect you earn, honor is appointed.

The Bible says that those who God has put over authority in your life has been appointed by him.

To esteem, to merit, to have weight to, to value.

So I believe in honoring people who who are above you, who are your leaders.

I believe in that.

But many times we've looked at honor through a hierarchical point of view, but God doesn't look at honor through a hierarchy.

Because if you look at through that view, honor must start with the kid or the child or the or the employee.

But actually, honor starts with the leader, the father, the boss.

I see people say, Well, I want to have a culture of honor in my workplace.

Well, boss, you'd start it.

Because where did honor start?

Did it start with the son or did it start with the father?

It started with the father by sending his son because he valued you and I so much.

He says, I value you so much that I'm gonna bankrupt heaven and send the most precious thing that I have, my son, to die upon the cross for you.

He says, I value your life that I'm gonna give you what is precious to me and to take away your sin.

So he sends his son to die upon the cross.

Where did Honor start?

It started with the father.

Look at the prodigal son story.

Son comes to his dad and says, Hey dad, I want my inheritance, and he gives him his inheritance.

He goes off and wastes his inheritance, and the father, but the Bible says he's waiting every day for the son.

And the Bible says that the son comes to his senses, and he comes back and he thinks, even the servants have a better life than I'm having at my father's house than I'm having here.

So he comes away home and the father runs and embraces him.

You never hear the father say, You wicked, naughty son.

What does the father do?

He says, Welcome, son, and the son says, I'm not worthy.

See, again, the son then comes into a mindset and saying, Hey, I honor you, Dad.

You are the father of this house, so I only honor you, I come under you, I value you, I value this house.

He came in repentance, he came with honor, but the father never pointed his finger at the son.

What did he do?

He said, Get me a ring, and he gets him a ring.

What does a ring signify?

It signifies authority.

He says, I'm gonna honor you, son, even though you don't deserve it, I'm gonna honor you because honor starts with the father.

And so he gives him a ring and he says, Give him a robe and give him sandals, and he says, Get the fatted calf.

I have a thought about the fatted calf.

Notice he doesn't say, get the calf.

I reckon the day that the son left, the father says, Get a calf ready.

Because I'm waiting for him to come home.

I'm I'm ready.

I get it ready, make sure.

I I got a friend of mine, he he's he's an Italian, he likes food.

He has uh and a ministry for hospitality, and every year he puts on this conference, and all we do is eat.

We have some sermons, but mostly it's eating.

And I remember we were eating this lamb, and any vegans here, sorry about this, but we are in Texas.

Um and uh we started we're eating this lamb, and I said, This lamb is amazing.

He goes, Let me tell you about the lamb.

I'm well, tell me about the lamb.

He said, Last year at the last conference, we got this lamb and we hand fed it and we got it all prepared for this meal.

And he got this lamb ready, and it was the best lamb I've ever eaten.

I felt actually sorry for the lamb while I was eating him.

Um but what did he do?

He got it prepared.

Why?

Because he honored us.

The father said, get the fatted calf.

I reckon he was getting it ready for the son, because honor always starts from the head, but then you see what honor isn't.

I see people talk about honor and they they go, Well, I honored them, but they didn't honor me back.

That's not honor, that's manipulation.

You're giving something to get something, that's not honor.

Honor doesn't look for anything in return.

Husband.

Honor your wife.

Well, she didn't do this for me, so I'm leaving the marriage.

No, that's not honor.

You're doing something to get something.

Wife, honor the husband, children honor the parents.

Where there is a place where there's honor in the house, there's peace in the house.

Generational blessing comes when there's honor.

You look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There's Abraham, and and and God says to Abraham, hey Abraham, see the stars in the sky, that's her inheritance.

And Abraham goes, Awesome.

My wife's pretty old, and so am I.

But what do they do?

They honor God by becoming intimate, and they eventually produce Isaac, one son of the promise.

It wasn't Of billions of stars, it was one son.

What did Isaac do?

He honored the promise that was on Abraham and produced two sons of the promise.

What did Jacob do?

He honored the promise that was on Isaac, who honored the promise that was on Abraham and produced 12 sons of the promise.

Now what does the Bible say?

We are of the seed of Abraham and his blessing rests on us.

Now there's billions and billions of children of the promise.

What kept it going generationally?

The honoring of what God had said to Abraham.

I'm third generation preacher.

A preacher honored God by going and sharing with to my grandpa.

My grandfather.

My grandfather then felt called of God to go to India as a missionary from Wales.

My grandma, who got saved in a meeting by a guy called Smith Wheelsworth, gets on fire for God.

She at the age of 22 hops on a boat, called by God to India, single young lady, single young Worshipman, and they meet in one in India and they fall in love.

They get married, and they're there for five years, and they got a passioning, burning desire to win India.

And so there they are, and and my they have one person who gets saved in five years, not great growth.

What kept them going through the dark times is they valued what God said.

Noah for 120 years preached and no one got saved.

No one joined his boat, no one hopped on the Royal Caribbean Noah.

But what kept Noah going?

Honoring what God said.

Valuing what God said over what man says, what situations say.

I say now, you know, Noah would never get invited to our churches to preach because he just had a family church.

He wouldn't invite to my conference.

I'd go, what do you ever build?

An ark?

Well, great.

But now, if we look in hindsight, Noah's the second greatest leader of all time.

You go, how do you get that?

Well, Jesus is the greatest because he saved our soul.

But Noah is the second greatest because without Noah, there's no one to save.

What kept him going?

What kept my grandparents going?

With one decision, my dad just recently went to India to dedicate the church that my grandparents started.

And as he was coming into the church, new church building, this elderly lady ran to his feet and she began to grab his feet and she wept on his feet and she began to say, beautiful feet, beautiful feet.

She was the first person ever to give her life to Jesus under my grandparents' ministry.

My grandma gets sick, she's dying with smallpox five years into her journey in India.

She says, Jesus, you haven't called me to die in India, you've called me to win India.

And she said, as she was there, she said, I only I could describe was Jesus walking into my room and grabbed me by the hand, and she said, I felt this power go through my body.

And she said, I shook for three days.

She said, after three days, I got out of my bed, I had no more smallpox, I had no marks, and for the next 20 years they served God in India.

Then they went from India and they went to Papua New Guinea, which is where I was born.

I'm a Papuan.

Albino Papuan, I'm a Papuan.

And my grandpa was part of bringing the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Then my father, as I said, became this famous preacher.

I didn't want to be a preacher because of all this history.

How could I ever be anything great?

I remember when my grandma was 87 years of age and she was dying.

They said she was in a coma and they said she's not going to make it through the night.

And we went into her room and we started singing around her bed, a song called I Can Feel the Power of Jesus All Over Me.

And my grandma, as we sing, opens her eyes and smiles.

So we stopped singing.

She goes back down and I said to my cousin, Sing again, man.

And she third time.

We say goodbye to her, I don't think she's going to be alive in the morning.

In the morning, she's sitting on the side of her bed saying, Where's my breakfast?

A few days later, my grandfather, my mother and myself are going up to my grandma's room.

And he said, It's time for grandma to go home and be with Jesus.

So we go into her room and he says, Time for you to go home.

We've fought the fight, we've kept the faith, we've served Jesus.

Then we've got generations of serving Jesus.

And so we said this prayer around her bed, and then she opens her eyes and starts saying goodbye to all the family.

Goodbye, Andrew.

Goodbye, David, goodbye, Fred.

She gets to me, Goodbye, Russell.

And I'm crying.

We cry as Evans as we cry it.

Some men don't cry, they're usually single.

I don't cry, I'm a man.

Yeah, you're single.

Women like soft hearts.

They like strong, but they like soft hearts.

So in worship, even just poke yourself in the eye and she'll see you, sir.

And you have tears running down like a spiritual man of God.

Tears running down my face.

I said, thank you, Grandma.

I'll see you in heaven.

Planet Shaker's music, which I've started, gets sung by millions of people all over the world.

Millions.

Our church is the fastest growing church in Australian history, from zero to ten thousand in ten years.

What God is doing astounds me.

I've spoken to 250,000 people in one time.

I've seen miracles like you wouldn't believe.

And I go, God, how did that happen?

When I carried my grandma's coffin, and tears are running down my face.

When I I remember the last words I said to grandma, I said, every time I do something, it's because you honor Jesus.

And I'm honoring what Jesus did in you.

And he carried the coffin and buried her in it.

See, my grandma's life is still speaking.

Because it started by a preacher honoring, valuing what God said, and went and told somebody.

A grandfather who got full with God, went to India, went to Papua New Guinea, and then a father, then a grandson, and now generations later and millions of people later, the impact has been global.

Why?

Because were anything good?

No, I was an insecure pastors kid who thought I couldn't do anything, but one day I decided to honor what God said and instead of what the devil said.

And because of that, I valued what he said.

And the impact.

And here's the deal: God's no respecter of people, He's just looking for people to value what He says and value what He does and release heaven on earth.

I'm gonna pray right now, and I'm gonna pray for a spirit of wisdom and understanding, and that we'd get this.

I want to encourage you to get the book because there's a lot more I could say on it.

But I really believe it's the key to unlock heaven.

Father, right now, I thank you for this amazing church gateway.

Thank you for the anointing that's in this place, the incredible honor that's in this place.

And Father, I pray that we would be people who honor your word.

We honor people, we honor the things that you would say.

Lord, there's generational blessing here, there's power here, there's presence here.

Father, we want to honor you.

We value what you have to say, and we respond to you.

Take our lives, use our lives to make a difference on this earth.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.