Culture of Honor | Jeff Turner-Heyes

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Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

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Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Pastor Brody.

It's so good to be here at KTC this morning.

I just want to start things a little bit differently this morning.

So if I could get everybody to stand up with me for a second.

And I just want to start this morning by honoring your pastors.

You know, Pastor Brody and Natalie are some amazing leaders.

You guys are blessed.

You guys have an incredible gift here on the front row.

And I just want to take time to honor them, guys, because you know what?

They don't need our applause, but we need to applaud them.

Because when we honor and when we applaud our pastor, we realign our hearts with what we need.

And you know what?

We need to have their back.

We need to pray for them and we need to support them.

So we just honor you guys so much this morning.

Awesome.

Well, like I said, it's so good to be here.

You know, this is a home away from home for Amy and I.

It's actually where we met, it's where we got married, and then yes, I did drag her to Alberta.

Um, we're actually as well expecting our first child this coming April.

So we're so excited for that.

You know what?

God has just been moving amazing on our lives.

But this morning I want to talk to you about something that I'm super passionate about.

This is something that God has put on my heart, and something that you know what I just tried to live every single day by, and that's honor.

And that's a culture that you guys have here.

And I just want to dive into about kind of what honor is and and how that lifestyle and that culture of honor is walked out.

So if we go just to the first scripture there, that's 1 Corinthians 7, 23, and it says that you were bought with a price, so do not become bondservants of men.

And as I was praying and asking God about how to approach this honor topic and how to kind of walk this out, I was asking God, because there's so many different ways that we can talk about honor, because honor is so skewed, and there's different avenues we can go.

But I found this verse, and if we look at it, it says you are bought with a price.

And that word in the Greek is actually the same as the word honor.

It's the word to me.

And when we break it down, that actually means honor adds value.

Right?

When we walk out of culture and a lifestyle of honor, we were all bought with a price.

That means that God added value to each one of us.

That God honored us first by adding value to our lives, saying that we were worthy enough that Christ came and died for our sins.

And so let's let's pray and then we'll dive fully into this.

So, God, I just thank you so much this morning for the opportunity to be here.

God, I just honor this house.

I ask that you would use me and speak through me, God.

I just submit my words to you, and I ask that, God, that hearts would be softened and open, and that the soil would be good this morning to receive the word in Jesus' name.

So we're gonna jump right into Mark 6, verses 1 to 6 in the ESV, and it says, He went away from there and came to his hometown.

Mark 6:1–6

Now say hometown with me, hometown.

Awesome.

And his disciples followed him, and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?

What is the wisdom given to him?

How are such mighty works done by his hands?

Is this not the carpenter?

Now catch that.

Is this not the carpenter?

Right?

The son of Mary and the brother of James?

Like, isn't this Mary and Joe's son?

Like, we know this guy.

The brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon.

And are not his sisters here with us?

So they're catching this air of familiarity.

So Jesus has come to his hometown.

He's trying to teach, he's trying to impart the word.

He's coming, because you know what is exciting when you go to your hometown and you've got something to share, right?

And he's coming here and suddenly he's met by these questions.

And the tone of those questions isn't amazement, it's not awe, it's not anything, it's doubt.

Right?

Like, who is this man?

Like, where is he getting these great things from?

Like that that's just the carpenter.

Like, I bought a table from him, it was kind of well made.

Ikea would have been better, but you know.

Like Mary and Joseph, there's this air of familiarity that's just coming through, and they're not able to accept that something from Jesus.

And they actually took offense on him.

So these are the people in his hometown that should be the most loving, the proudest, the most supportive of Jesus walking in, because they've seen and they've heard of all these miracles, and yet they're offended that he would come in and act like he was greater than them.

When in reality God had bestowed a gift on him and he had something that they needed.

And so then Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, and among his relatives and in his own household, and he could do no mighty work there.

So Jesus was actually limited by the dishonor and the familiarity in his own hometown.

Except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them, and he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went about among the villages teaching.

So here's the thing, guys, familiarity is the most dangerous thing to a culture of honor.

It's actually the killer of a culture of honor.

How many people love sneakers in the house?

Right?

I'm a huge sneaker guy, I know my man Michael is.

And the thing is when you go and you buy that new pair of sneakers or that new iPhone or a new car, you treat it so well at the beginning because it has such value and such worth to you.

Right?

But three, four months goes by, and suddenly, you know, you're walking and you get some mud, and you're like, oh, you know, I don't really need to clean those.

True confessions, my wife got me a pair of shoes last year for Christmas.

Amazing Nikes, they were for the gym, all this stuff.

Haven't hit the gym once, they're my everyday shoes.

But that's familiarity, right?

I'm saving them, they've got worth.

I need something, but suddenly they just became too familiar in my closet.

Right?

The thing is, when we become familiar with things, we lessen their value.

So it's not like the value of anything has changed, but my perception has changed of it, right?

So familiarity is the killer of a culture of honor.

And the thing is, honor is a key culture.

When we begin to honor each other, we begin to value each other and begin to actually see what God sees in each of us, we add value to each other and we're able to unlock things from each other.

Because you know what?

If I get too familiar with you and I'm not seeing you for who God says you are and the gifting God has on your life, I'm not going to receive from you.

Because you're just going to be a little bit too familiar from me.

Right?

And there's people in this house and in my life that I can take for granted because I just get too familiar and they start to lose their value.

There's people like Trisha in the house.

Who loves Trisha?

Right?

I love Trisha.

The thing is, Trisha has walked through some things in this house, guys.

She's been here a long time.

She's gone through some heartache, she's gone through some growth, she's done a lot here, guys.

And then she she moved away, she went into an internship, grew, came back, and brought what she had learned.

But too easy, we could be like, oh, that's Trisha, guys.

Like, we don't need to listen to her.

Like, we all know her.

She can be a little, right?

But guys, this is Trisha Brewer.

This is somebody who has been faithful in the house through a lot of things, and this isn't somebody we take for granted.

This is somebody who went away, came back with more, and added value to this house.

And then you have people like Krista and Loan who have been here for 37 years.

I found out this morning.

I've got to apologize because I put you on the spot this morning.

But guys, they're still serving in this house.

And it's been 37 years.

If you don't think that's adding value and finding value in the house, then I don't know what is because you know what?

They're still here, they're still faithful, and they're still adding value.

And then you guys, you have amazing pastors who literally, before they were given that title, had their hands, and I guarantee you, every ministry in this church, whether it was kids, women, youth, young adults, Bible school, janitor work, whatever it is, their hands have been there.

And they're still planted here, and they weren't after a title.

They saw the value of the house.

We can't become too familiar because what happens when I become familiar and they become just Brody and Natalie is when my life is in shambles, I don't need Brody and Natalie.

I need Pastor Brody and Natalie.

You know what?

When I'm sick in the hospital, I don't need Brody coming and hanging out and bringing me a coffee.

I need my pastor that day.

I need my pastor to come and pray for me.

When my life is in shambles and my marriage is falling apart, I don't just need people showing up in my house.

I need my pastors at my house praying with me, walking me through life.

When hell comes and knocks at your doorstep, you need your pastors on your side, not just your friends, not just the people you're familiar with.

Because the reality is, guys, for about two years I've walked through it, my wife and I.

We've been through miscarriages, we've been through health issues, we've been through a lot of things.

And I needed pastors through those things.

Friends were amazing, family was good because they were close, but I needed pastors through that.

And if I had become too familiar, there are things that I would not have been able to walk through with just friends that I needed pastors for.

So, guys, don't lessen the value of the people around you because it's not just your pastors.

Each one of us are leaders, and each one of us has something to offer, and each one of us needs to recognize value on our own lives and value on the lives around us so that we can receive from each other.

Because honor is going to start unlocking things, like it's a key culture.

And when you begin to honor, we start to unlock things from each other.

And the other thing is honoring is a filtering culture.

You know, sometimes in the natural, we need some glasses to correct our vision, to bring things back into focus, and that's what honor does when we're walking out a lifestyle in a culture of honor, is honor brings my vision into correction and says, you know what?

There's value there.

Right?

It's gonna filter out entitlement, it's gonna change the way I think, it's gonna filter everything that comes through my mind and actually say, hey, like, you know what, that's not that's not just Trisha, that's Trisha, man.

Like, Trisha has been here.

Or you know what, that that's not just the worship team.

Like, that's our worship team, man.

Like, they put hours and hours of effort into bringing us into the presence of God, and we start to add value and we start to change the way we think, and it starts becoming about purpose over preference.

Because the thing is, when I'm so focused on me and I'm not honoring and adding value, I'm self-seeking.

Right?

I'm worried about what I like, what I prefer, right?

The kind of style I want my preacher to preach, right?

Why isn't he telling more jokes?

Why isn't he doing these things?

But when I live out that lifestyle of honor, it becomes about purpose over preference.

And it goes from wrong questions to right questions.

Right?

I start asking the wrong questions like why do we do it this way?

Not knowing that there's intention behind everything.

I start thinking, why aren't they more like dot dot dot?

Or why aren't they more like me?

Not realizing that each person here has their own gifting, their own value, their own character that I need in my life that I don't need to change to suit the way I want it.

And I start thinking things like, oh, do I really have to change?

That's a dangerous, dangerous question.

And if I'm not walking through honor and a culture and an honor of lifestyle, then I'm never gonna grow.

Because the reality is you can have growth or you can have comfort, but you can't have both.

And when you're walking in a state of honor, it's not gonna be comfortable all the time.

But you're gonna grow.

And the other thing that honor does is it's a filter for my character.

When I'm walking out that lifestyle and that culture of honor, there's three things that always come back to my heart and that always realign me in the way I need to go.

And that first thing is thankfulness.

Thankfulness in a culture of honor changes my expectation to appreciation.

Because the reality is I can throw expectations all over my life.

I can expect my wife to be and act and do a certain way.

I can expect my boss to treat me a certain way.

I can expect the the people around me.

But when I actually start valuing those things, not just having them in my life, but valuing them, it changes it.

I become appreciative of everything that my wife is.

I become appreciative of the job I have, I become appreciative of the home that I call church, and it changes that expectation to appreciation.

Because the reality is, guys, as a leader, if you're gonna follow, you are way more likely to follow somebody who appreciates you rather than somebody who's just throwing expectation on you.

Right?

Because the thing is, when you feel appreciated, you want to go that extra mile.

Right?

Oh man, they they they really noticed that I did that, right?

And it makes me want to go the extra mile.

When I feel appreciated in my marriage, I want to do something special for my wife.

When I feel appreciated at work, it makes me want to be that much better.

Right?

And then humility, guys, this is the second thing that's just always on my heart, is that honor values the relationship far more than it values being right.

Right?

When I'm adding value and when I'm walking out that culture and that lifestyle of honor, what I've realized is that you're worth way more than me being right.

Disagreements are gonna come.

It's not an if, it's a when.

And what honor says is that you and I are gonna walk through this with love and respect, right?

That I'm gonna I'm gonna value this relationship because the thing is, if if I'm too familiar and I'm not valuing you, and we come to a disagreement, that's gonna be the end.

Or I'm gonna pick up an offense and I'm not gonna be able to receive from you.

And that's a very dangerous place to live from.

But when I'm humble and I realize that you know what, this is where so much more I'm gonna walk this through with you.

Right?

I'm I'm gonna value you and this relationship, and you know what, we're not gonna sweep this under the rug, we're not just not gonna deal with it.

But the reality is that we're gonna walk through this with love and respect, and we're gonna deal with this, but we're both gonna come out better on the other side.

And we're both gonna be closer and we're both gonna grow on the other side of this.

And the last thing is excellence.

Because if I value it, I'm gonna give it my best.

Right?

In every area of my life, just like we've been talking about at work, if I value my work and I'm actually being a person of honor and walking out that culture and that lifestyle of honor, I'm gonna give it my best in my marriage.

If I don't value my marriage, I'm not gonna give it my best.

Right?

If I don't value my house, then the church isn't gonna give it my best.

Right?

The teams and the everybody here and your leaders and each one of us individually deserve each other's best.

Because that's what Christ actually deemed.

If you look at 1 Corinthians 7, 23 again, it says you were bought at a price.

Like you had value placed on you.

It's not me placing the value, it's Christ placing the value on you, saying that you actually deserve my best because you were worthy of all of Christ dying.

Right?

Like we cheapen the work of the cross when I devalue you.

Because the reality is there are gonna be people that walk through this door that need the love of Christ.

They're gonna come in broken, they're gonna come in with addictions, with broken marriages, with diseases, with all of these things.

And each and every one of those people deserve my best, because each and every one of those people need to meet Jesus that day.

And if I'm not giving my best and I'm just sloughing people off when they come in, then how?

How is that gonna happen?

How are we adding value to people if we're not giving them our best?

And the thing is, guys, when we give people our best, we're uplifting because honor is an uplifting culture, right?

Pastor Craig Rochelle says, honor is a gift given freely, it's not something we hoard, it's like it's a culture and a lifestyle that I walk out constantly because I'm not waiting to figure out if you're worthy enough of my honor.

I'm giving it to you because you are already worthy of my honor.

Romans 12 10 says, be devoted to one another in love and honor one another above yourselves.

And I love this verse because it says, honor one another to yourselves, like be devoted to each other, guys.

Like this is a day-to-day walkout.

But when we dive into a couple of other translations, it actually says, outdo one another in honor in the ESV.

It says, give preference to one another in honor.

Right?

That's in the amplified and in the NLT, it actually says to take delight in honoring one another.

And so that's not an I have to, guys, that's an I get to.

Like I get to honor you, I get to add value to your life, I get to uplift you, I get to be a part of walking through this crazy thing that we called life with you because you know what?

God values you and honors you, and I'm here to uplift you.

It's not my job to demand honor from you, it's my job to honor you.

Right?

Like the platform, all of those things, leadership, they're not designed for a position of like honor.

Like, here you go, here's all the honor.

I'm just low here.

No, we are all deserving of honor.

Honor isn't something I wait to hand out to see if you're worthy, it's something I give because God already says you are worthy.

Like you were bought with a price, price equals honor, so honor equals value.

Right?

So I honor you because Christ has valued you, because Christ died for you.

Because Pastor Brody talked about it a couple weeks, guys.

He said, you know what?

When we catch a glimpse of what God actually thinks about people, it changes the way we treat them.

Like when I catch a glimpse of the fact that Christ actually died for you, or I catch the glimpse of the Father's love for you, it changes the way I'm gonna treat you.

Right?

When I figure out whose I am and who I am, and that's the place that all our value and all our worth and all of those things come from is knowing whose I am and who I am.

That you know what?

I was bought with a price, that I am a child of God, that God calls me all of these things, but also who am I is I'm a co-heir with Christ, that I'm no longer a slave, that I'm a son, right?

That I'm more than a conqueror of Christ.

So when we start discovering these things and reading our Bible and figuring them out about ourselves, we realize that it applies to every single person around us.

So when we catch a glimpse of whose I am and who I am, all it does is add value to the people around us because we realize that those truths are the exact same from them.

So it's an I it's not an I have to, it's an I get to.

Right?

Christ didn't have to go to the cross.

Right in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was actually in the position of power.

So one of my favorite Bible stories because the battalion came and he spoke a word, and the army actually fell to the ground, guys.

Like Christ was in control of that situation, yet he chose.

It was an I get to honor you, I get to add value to your life.

And when I think about this, I think about a story from before I was even at KCC, and I used to serve in a ministry in Ottawa, and we discovered that there was a sick uh baby, her name was Kaylee in the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital, and we were championing a lot of social justice issues, so this is something that really hit our hearts, and we discovered that this little baby, the doctors were pretty much refusing to give her treatment anymore because they were waiting for her to die so they could take her organs and give them to others.

And so there was a conference down in Toronto, and you know what?

We decided we can go to that, but the main reason we're going down to Toronto from Ottawa is to see this baby and to add some value and let this family know that there's hope because they had come to the media and said, Hey, like this is what's happening, and nobody was believing them.

And so we came down and we went to go see them at the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital, and they weren't there at the time, and so we left a note and we just said, you know what, hey guys, like we're here for you.

We want you to know that you're not alone.

We want you to know that there's some people here that believe that God can heal, believe that this outcome doesn't have to be what it is.

Let you know that, hey, like you're not alone, we're here for you.

Let us add value to your life.

And we left when we went back, and we were sitting around, we got a phone call that they were actually there and that they would love for us to come visit.

So, what started out is five people driving from Toronto, from Ottawa, sorry, to Toronto, just to go add value and pray to one family.

Turned into 25 people sitting in a cafeteria at a hospital.

And then only two of us were allowed to go up to start, and so we sent our leaders up and they met the family and they were praying for baby, and then they brought the family down to actually meet everybody, and that family was floored.

The 25 people would just come and sit in a hospital cafeteria and pray for them.

Because we're adding value to their life, like these people didn't know Jesus, right?

These people weren't calling up their church because there's a herd in a broken, broken world out there that needs us to go and add value to them.

And what ended up happening is that every single person, all 25 people, got to go up to the NICU unit of the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and pray for that little baby.

But what started to happen is we added value to one, and people caught a glimpse of hope, and they caught a glimpse of value around, and we ended up praying for every single baby and family in that Toronto Sick Kids Hospital.

Why?

Because we chose that it was an I get to, not an I have to.

Right?

Because it cost us something to go down there.

But it was an I get to add value to these people.

Because the thing is, when we understand the value of those people, like Pastor Brody was talking about, when we understand how God sees those people, it's so easy.

And when we're an uplifting culture, we begin to esteem each other higher than ourselves.

We get begin to believe the best in each other.

Not the rumors, not the worst, not anything, but we believe the best.

You know, one of my favorite things that my pastor says is trust is given, mistrust is earned.

You know, right from the start, here it is.

I'm gonna believe the best in you.

You have my full trust until proven otherwise.

Why?

Because I'm gonna believe the best in you because God believes the best in you, because God adds value to you, because God honors you.

You know what?

We're gonna start carrying the load as an honoring culture.

None of us can make it through this alone.

We need community.

We need this house, and as an uplifting, honoring culture, we carry the load.

The Bible says to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.

So an honoring culture actually walks that out.

It says, you know what, I'm gonna add value to you by walking through this with you.

And I've experienced it on both sides, guys, and I can tell you on both sides it feels amazing.

Knowing that somebody's in your corner, behind you, they've got your back, but on the other side, being the back that somebody needs.

Because we need community, guys.

We need to encourage each other, we need to be quick to forgive each other, and we need to be loving each other.

Like I said before, honor means that we're gonna walk through this with love and respect.

Honor means that I'm gonna give you my best.

Honor means that I'm gonna value this relationship.

Honor means that you know what?

Like, my pastors are gonna get my best, my pastors are gonna get my bot in.

Right?

Because when you're all in in the house, is when the house actually starts to grow.

Because here's the thing, guys, Pastor Brody and Natalie can't create that culture.

It'd be incredibly weird if Pastor Brody and Natalie came up onto this pulpit and said, Hey guys, honor me.

Honor me.

It's not something they can do.

It's up to each one of us because that culture of honor isn't just gonna magically flip and start working.

It's gonna take individuals deciding that, you know what, I'm gonna honor.

I'm gonna honor my pastors, I'm gonna honor Pastor Brody and Natalie, I'm gonna honor Pastor Brian and Natalie, I'm gonna honor Pastor Micah, I'm gonna honor these people, and I'm gonna honor everybody around me because I see value in this house and I see value in them.

And you know what?

I can't receive from people until I value them.

And so that culture of honor has to be so pervasive through all of us in order for us to grow.

So this morning, if you want that, if you want to see your church grow, if you're saying, hey, Pastor, you know what, like that that honor is something I need.

Like I've had some wrong questions in my life.

I've been wondering some things.

I've been, I haven't been adding value, I've been questioning why, I've been doing all these things, I haven't been humble, I haven't been adding value to the relationships around me.

You know about my homes, my homes mess, whatever it is.

Today I just want to say you can be that person of honor.

You can be the person that starts and that's agent of change and that catalyst to say, you know what, this is gonna be a culture of honor.

The KCC, where people come to belong and to know Jesus, is gonna be a culture of honor.

It's not just gonna be lip service, but it's gonna have to start with me.

So this morning, with that's you, I just want you to put your hand up and say, you know what?

I'm gonna be that person of honor.

I'm gonna live that lifestyle of honor.

I'm gonna walk out this culture, and I'm gonna be the reason it starts here at KCC.

I'm gonna take that upon myself and say, you know what?

I'm gonna start honoring and adding value.

So, God, we just thank you so much, Father.

God, we thank you that you honored us first by adding value, God, when you bought us with a price.

Father, that you sent your son to die to show us how much we were truly worth, God.

And this morning we just commit to being that person of honor, God.

To swivel what you've already done for us, God, that you've added so much value and honor to our lives, God, that we're gonna swivel that and we're gonna begin to honor and add value to the people around us.

And with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you're sitting here thinking, hey, like, where does that value come from?

Because you know what, in my own life, I'm feeling a little bit empty today.

In my own life, I don't feel like I'm worth anything.

And you need to know, like I was talking about earlier, whose I am and who I am.

That you know what, like Christ came and paid a price that you can become a son now, and that God has called you so many things, and God has such a calling on your life, but it begins by knowing Jesus and accepting that that gift was given to you freely.

So if that's you this morning, I just want to put your want you to put your hand up on the count of three, and I want you to know that God is here to add value to your life, and there's a community and there's a home here that is so committed to making sure that you discover that value and that you belong and that you know Jesus.

So on the count of three, one, two, three.

Awesome church.

Well, with just every head bowed and every eye closed, still, let's just pray with these people and say, Father, God, I'm nothing without you.

There's value and there's things that you have for my life, and I want that this morning.

I want that relationship with you.

So wash me, cleanse me, make me brand new.

I want to live for you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

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