Honor & Power

We're starting a new series that we're calling uncommon unity.

All right, the word community, I thought about just calling it community, but the word community is a compound word, common unity.

And yet the reality is how do how do communities function?

Often there is not a lot of unity in communities.

And so how do we do the uncommon thing, which is to find unity?

Um, I want you to start with this thought.

You know, as a follower of Jesus, you're a part of another community.

You're part of the kingdom of God, you're part of the body of Christ, which means that obviously we have our world and our government and and the country we live in, but we also are citizens.

Even more than that, we would say like this you're in the world, but you're not of the world.

We really are citizens of another kingdom.

And within that kingdom, we have some of the same elements that you would see in the world, but it functions or should function.

It should function differently within the body of Christ.

And the intent of that is that we would have community internally, the way that it's designed by God on earth as it is in heaven, and so that we would function that way and that it would affect this community, but that this community would spill out into the world around us and have an impact that way.

And so we're going to look at what are those elements, how do they work, and how should they work.

And then we really do need to measure ourselves against that standard and allow ourselves to be calibrated to that sort of thinking and behavior.

By the way, when I say thinking and behavior, I do want to want us to draw attention to the fact that really there is a link between what I believe and how I behave.

Okay, so if you were to look at your behaviors and you were to go five Y's deep into your behaviors, dig down, down, down, down, you would find a belief.

I believe something, and that's why I'm behaving that way.

If you want to change a behavior, you gotta have the discipline to not just jump on the behavior, but to dig down for the belief.

Because even if you can change a behavior for a little bit, you won't sustain behavioral change long term with the same belief system and thought processes that you've had.

You got to find out where the glitch is, you've got to find out where the problem is, and so that I can uproot that, get my belief right, and then my behaviors will change and sustain.

Um, I say that because I want to look at a certain part of our belief.

I want to I want to start with this thought.

The way you treat other people tells you a lot about what you believe about God.

The way you treat people, if you just looked at all of your behaviors, and I looked at all of mine, and how I treat people, and I would dig deep into that, it would tell me something about what I actually believe about God.

I said this a few weeks ago, uh, but I'm gonna say it again.

You know you're making God into your image, into your, you're making, you're trying to make God into your image when he happens to hate all the same people you do.

If you think about that now, if you go, if you hate somebody, what does that tell you about your theology?

What does that tell you?

Because you would, if you were being honest, you probably would say, Yeah, I think God hates them too.

No, you would.

I mean, you would.

You'd be like, no, there's something about them, about how they think, how they behave, what they're about, they're evil, they're this, they're that.

So God hates them as well.

You would you would do that.

I I was working on this message with my my cousin, and we were we just started taking this concept and just getting real vulnerable ourselves, like applying it to ourselves, and we're like looking at our behaviors we don't like.

And so he went first.

He was like, he goes, Yeah, he goes, sometimes I'm not very nice to my wife.

Sometimes I mistreat my wife, sometimes I'm not kind to my wife.

And he goes, Oh, what is that telling me about God?

What is that telling me about what I believe about God?

And so then I started, I was like, you know, I sometimes I do the same thing.

Sometimes I pop off, or I say things I shouldn't say, or I raise my voice, or I do something, you know, that's not kind, it's not honoring, it's not good.

And so why would I do that?

So we start digging, and this is the conclusion I came to.

I think here's the mistake I make when it comes to my wife.

I think God is a God of justice.

And so I'm triggered when I feel like she does something that's not just or that's not good.

She shouldn't have said that, she shouldn't have done that.

So now the scales of justice have been tipped in her favor.

So now I'm down here.

So now I feel justified to pop off.

Now I feel justified to try to get these scales back up here because what I said, maybe it was harsh or it was unkind or was too blunt or whatever.

And and in so doing, uh, what all I'm doing is like it's kind of deserved because this injustice, now I'm trying to bring it back to here.

But this is why Paul says in in Romans 12, I think verse 17, he says, Don't take revenge, don't return evil for evil.

He says, Leave revenge in the hands of God.

Why?

Because through my lens, my angry hurt lens, I feel like it's here.

And so then I start raising my voice or I start talking in some kind of way, trying to do this.

But when you are angry and you're unhinged and you're you're you're you've got been on the business end of the injustice, and now you're coming here.

How do I know in my humanity when we're even?

And in my revenge, I might keep going until I wake up the next morning.

I'm like, dang, I think it now went like this.

And so now I'm coming back trying to apologize and trying to make promises, and I probably I'll never do that again.

I'll never say that again, I'll never go there again.

Okay, and so he says, hey, in fact, don't even don't even try, don't even start going there because you and your humanity don't even have a necessarily a correct view of justice.

Trust God with that, let him bring it there.

Okay, so so what how we treat people has a huge, huge indicator as to what we actually believe about God.

What I want to do is, oh, by the way, here's a verse for you.

First John 4 20.

Someone says, I love God but hates a fellow believer.

That person is a liar, for if we don't love the people we can see, how do we love a God whom we cannot see?

That that that's really um stating what I just said about it's showing us what we believe about God.

God does not, as Eugene Peterson says, God doesn't make private, secret salvation deals with people.

He he's he's he's saving you, but he's putting you in a community, and so we're a lot of this is very indicative of what we truly believe about God.

Um I want to talk about two things as it relates to the community of the body of Christ and then the community as a whole, and we want to talk about two things.

Uh honor, honor and power, the relationship between honor and power.

I want I want to start first with honor, okay?

What is honor?

Um, if you were to look, uh we'll look at some scriptures here, but really honoring is two things.

It's to uh uh to connect and to elevate, to connect to, to elevate.

So if you go to um uh Exodus, the book of Exodus, where it gives the Ten Commandments, and it says, uh honor your father and mother.

Remember that one?

Honor your father and mother.

Though the the Hebrew word there for honor is actually a weight word.

It's like be connected and share each other's weight, bear each other's burdens.

So we know that when you're a child, your parents bear your burden.

You're helpless and and um uh vulnerable, and and your parents provide everything you need and all of that.

And eventually, uh if if you have a long life, eventually your parents get to where then they need someone to bear their burden, help them get from point A to point B, help to be, you know, provided assistance and help, and sometimes they're completely vulnerable.

So he's talking about honor, and in other words, stay connected to.

Think about the story of the prodigal son that Jesus makes up, right?

He talks about a dishonorable son.

And that son does what?

He detaches from his family, disconnects.

He's got a good, good, good father.

But his good father, he does a dishonorable thing.

He goes to his father and says, first of all, he attacks him and says, I want half your stuff.

So he goes into his life's work and his life savings and takes half of it.

So I'm gonna cripple your business.

But on top of that, I, you know, you're gonna die eventually, and I don't feel like waiting for you to die before I get to take half your stuff, so I'm gonna do that now.

It's just dishonorable, because the opposite of honor, right?

The opposite of elevating would be to attack, to drag someone down.

So he goes to drag his father's business down, drag um his father down as a father, and then to detach from him and to go to a faraway land, right?

That's that's the dishonorable son.

So connecting to is one thing, but then elevating, exalting.

Um, it says in uh Romans 12 and 10 love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other, exalting each other.

And to be honest with you, this goes contrary to human nature in most environments that we're in.

Most environments we're in maybe gives a little lip service to it, but for the most part, when somebody gets too high, we want to drag them down.

We want to pull them down.

We don't, I mean, we want people to succeed a little bit, but not too much.

Not too much more than us.

I mean, we we we don't want them to lose, we don't want them to lose.

We just want to win more than them.

And if they start winning too much, we're gonna pull them down.

That's human nature.

He said, you know, your your environment, our environment as the body of Christ, should be a little uncomfortable to people that are used to that.

These people are lifting each other up a little too much.

They're building each other up a little too much.

Like they they take delight in honoring one another, in elevating each other.

Um, James 4 10 says, Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

He will lift you up in honor, he will exalt you.

This is what we do in worship is we honor God.

All right, so so it would be very normal in a corporate worship setting for a worship leader to get up and say, Hey, let's all stand up on our feet and let's honor God.

Let's exalt his name.

We'd hear something like that, right?

Let's lift up the name of Jesus.

Well, why are we doing that?

Are we doing it because Jesus is up in heaven going, you know, I'm feeling kind of insecure.

I need some words of affirmation.

You know, I just need somebody to build me up.

No, what we're doing is we're giving honor where honor is due.

We're lifting up his name.

When I was a kid, I grew up in church.

My dad was a pastor, and we had Sunday night church, which we have here too, 5 p.m., by the way, 5 p.m.

Uh, we have here.

But in the church I grew up in, some of you will, this will resonate with you because if you've been in church a long time, okay, and especially a smaller church, you'll remember this.

My dad went on Sunday night, he'd get up before he did his message, he'd be like, you know, I got a word for you guys, but before we do, would anybody like to testify about come on, anybody know what I'm talking about?

Anybody here like to testify to the goodness of the Lord?

Okay, and so then sister so-and-so or brother so-and-so would be like, I got one for you.

And they stand up, and here's how they would open every time giving honor to God.

First of all, giving honor to God, and then they would start to tell a story that would both connect and elevate God.

I was going through this, I had a dark night, he was there in the dark night, and then he was there in the morning.

I was going through this broken relationship.

I had my heart broken.

I I was in need.

I didn't I needed provision, and here's how God provided.

What are they doing?

Verbally lifting him up, they're giving him credit, they're giving him glory, they're putting him in his rightful place.

And so that's a way to give honor.

Well, how would we dishonor God?

We would dishonor God by disconnecting from God.

I'm I'm I'm angry with God, I'm ignoring God.

We're like the prodigal.

The fact that you take time out of your day to focus on God and connect with him is giving him honor.

The fact that you took time out of your week, you could have slept in today, you could have not come here.

You came to the house of God, came to his house, sat at his table, and I connected with him.

This is helpful, by the way, because when the music fires up and whatever, what are we supposed to do?

You know, we're gonna sit here and look, what are we doing?

First of all, I'm connecting to God.

And you're free to do that however you want.

It might be in quiet, it may be being demonstrative, uh, you know, being being effusive in your your worship, or it might be connecting quietly in your mind.

But what you're doing is you're connecting to God.

You're going, Lord, I don't want there to be any distance.

Think of the songs.

I was listening to one on the way into church today was I need thee, oh, I need thee every hour.

What am I doing?

I'm drawing near.

Draw me close to you, Lord.

Never let me go.

Okay, so so we're we're drawing near to him, we're connecting with him, and then we're elevating and glorifying.

On the other side of that, if I want to dishonor God, I would cut him out of my life.

I wouldn't think about him, I wouldn't talk about him, I wouldn't elevate him, or I might go one worse and try to pull him down and drag him down.

I might speak terrible of him.

I might I might try to you know throw things out that would that would bring dishonor or harm, okay, to God, which ultimately we know we're little beings, we can't do it, but this is what's happening in my heart, in my community, right?

Okay, so so honor.

Let's talk about now power.

If you look in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll see a reoccurring conversation among the disciples.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna look at it in a few places, but we're actually gonna start in in Luke 9.

In Luke 9, um here's how it goes.

It says in verse 46, the disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest.

Okay, which of them was the greatest.

Five different places in the Gospels, the disciples are having an argument or some sort of conversation around greatness and which of them was the greatest.

What is this?

Well, what's greatness?

Well, we're gonna see the way they see it versus the way Jesus sees it.

Verse 47 says Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side.

Understanding context in that day, children children had little to no value in their world.

So uh, to be frank, in our world, children have huge value.

You know, people I've had people tell me, hey Greg, we love you and we love this church, but if our kids don't like it, we're gone.

All right, oh, okay, all right, sounds good.

I didn't get a vote when I was a kid, but that's fine.

I mean it.

My parents go, Greg, you know, how do you feel about church today?

Uh anyway, let me get off of that.

Verse 47, Jesus knew their thoughts.

He brings a little child who they had devalued, verse 48.

Then he said to them, anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me.

And anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my father who sent me.

And whoever is least among you is the greatest.

Jesus is trying to put a DNA stamp on these men.

Why?

Because they were powerful and they were going to be powerful, they were going to be more powerful.

He's going to take these powerful men who were going to be sent on a global mission, and he was going to fill them with the power of the Holy Spirit.

You're already powerful, you're about to be more powerful.

Now you've got to get your mindset right.

And so he said, You got to think like this.

You you've got to, he goes, if you you gotta think like a child, okay, you you you've got to embrace me like this.

Now look at this, and this is a little provocative, frankly.

In in Matthew 18, he he says this.

Uh oh well, 18 and 1 says, About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

So this is another one of their convos about greatness.

Verse 4 Jesus said, Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Now look at this, verse 5.

Anyone who welcomes a child like this on my behalf is welcoming me, but if you cause, I want you to feel, I want you to feel the weight of this, what Jesus says.

Picture you got this little child who has no value, you have these big, strong, powerful men stand there, and Jesus says, if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

That's a bit traumatic.

That's intense.

No, that's in that's so intense, it's hard to preach.

Because Jesus is saying to them, if you take your power and you use it to violate the vulnerable, it'd be better if you weren't here.

Everybody's like, preach the word, Pastor.

Okay, okay.

That's what he said.

Now, what's Jesus showing us?

He's showing us how he feels about children, but he's also teaching us how he feels about power and the vulnerable.

So it's it's a bigger lesson than just adolescent.

We know what children are vulnerable, they physically are weaker.

They don't have the it takes a long time to have even the mental faculties to be able to think on complex things.

They're easily duped, they're easily manipulated, they can be lured with candy, they can be lured to dark, dangerous places because they're trusting.

And so so he's saying, if you are in the power position and you have someone who's vulnerable and you exploit them, I got a problem with that.

So he's talking to them about power, not just talking to them about children.

Of course, he says in Matthew 20, 28, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus was constantly trying to reinforce this in the most intense ways possible.

In in John 13, he washes the disciples' feet.

You know, feet are kind of gross, but they were more gross at that time because they walked in sandals in the streets.

The streets were dirt.

You had uh the primary vessel for transportation were animals that were leaving their waste and their dung on the road.

So you walk through, your feet are collecting dust and dung, and you come into a house, and the one who was assigned the nasty job of the foot washer is the lowest servant on the totem pole, the lowest, the rookie, the newbie.

Okay, this is what you got to do.

And so when they're arguing about greatness, Jesus throws a towel over his shoulder, gets a basin, starts washing their feet.

It was so uncomfortable.

Peter goes, No, absolutely not.

Not me, Lord.

And Jesus says, Peter, if you don't let me wash your feet, you can have no part with me.

Why?

Because, Peter, you're powerful and you're about to be more powerful.

You have to know how to do this.

So I'm trying to burn this in your brain.

I'm trying to make it stick because you're gonna need to go lead like me.

I'm gonna give you the power of the Holy Spirit, but you need to lead like Jesus.

And so Jesus is digging this into their hearts and minds.

You you would think, you would think that between the those conversations, it would be enough, except in Luke 22, they're still talking about it.

So in Luke 9, Jesus brings the child and all this and the buttons millstone.

But and look at this, Luke 22, 24 says, and they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.

And Jesus told them, In this world, the kings and the great men lord it over the people, yet they're called friends of the people.

We're gonna pick this back up, this back up in a second.

We've got to pause here in verse 25.

I want you to get this.

What he's doing is he's showing them their governmental political structure because he's saying, Hey, you there's government is is important.

You you gotta have civic institutions to be able to determine laws and and and to you know function.

Like you you gotta have that to be able to organize people.

And so he's like, but within that, it creates a culture within the culture.

And so Jesus describes it and he says, In in your world, great men lord it over the people, but they're called friends of the people.

They lord it over people, but they're called, he says, friends of the people.

Well, what's that?

Essentially, he's like, some people are really good at the political game.

You've got civic organizations, which we all have to talk about and think about because it's how we govern ourselves.

But on top of that, he said, you have the game of politics.

And within the game of politics, the game of politics isn't designed for unity, it's designed for polarization.

Right?

If I was a political strategist, I would probably take a similar approach that I would if I was making a fight for pay-per-view.

How do you get people to buy a fight for pay-per-view?

Well, you get them either really excited that they want someone to win, or you get them really excited that they want someone to lose.

Some people pay$100 to watch a fight to see someone win.

Other people will spend$100 to watch a fight just to see someone lose.

And within politics, it's the same thing.

It's it's a game, that's why we call it a political football.

A relevant issue hits, and we're gonna we're gonna Try to co-opt as much stuff as we can.

Here's your value, but if you have this value, you have to have this, this, this, this, and that value.

And I'm like, but what if I just have that one?

What if I don't have this?

Well, but it's all connected to the same thing.

It's part of a competition.

Governance, civic institutions are designed for organization and should be so that we can work and cohabitate together in unity, but then you have the politics and the game and the competition connected to it.

Jesus says to them in their language in their day, in your world, great men lord it over the people, but they've got the people thinking they're friends of the people, but they're really about lording it over people.

Then he goes and he paints a picture for them, and he says, um, he says, but among you it'll be different, verse 26.

Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.

Who's more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves?

It's like imagine this: you're in a banquet hall, expensive, expensive meal.

You've got people in nice clothes sitting at a head table, and then you've got people all dressed the same, going around serving the meal.

If you walked in, it was like, who's the greatest in here?

You'd look for the head table, who's sitting at the head of the head table.

He goes, Exactly.

That's how it functions in your world.

He said, Who's greater?

The one who sits, the one who serves.

He goes, the one who sits at the table, of course, but not here, exclamation point.

For I'm among you as one who serves.

Any of you walk on water?

Didn't think so.

I did, and I serve.

Any of you change the molecular structure of water to make it wine?

I'm not saying make water better water.

I'm talking about making water wine.

Any of you done that?

Huh?

No?

I did.

And I'm among you as one who serves.

Any of you take five loaves and two fish and make 5,000 fish sandwiches?

No, no, none of you?

I did, and I'm one who serves.

Why is Jesus saying this?

Not so he can self-promote.

This isn't about him thumping his chest.

This is about him putting a DNA stamp on people that he wanted to be powerful.

I want you to be powerful, but I want you to be powerful the right way.

Be powerful in an honorable way.

And so so he's he's he's reinforcing this.

I'm among you as one who serves.

Okay, so what should be different about our community?

Okay, what should be different about our community?

Our community should be different for a few reasons.

The first is our leader is Jesus.

So our leader is perfect.

We have the ultimate leader who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom.

Who emptied himself of his divine rights.

Okay, for our for our sake.

And be because he is our leader, he's at the top.

Number one, we have to live with an awareness of that.

Because if we're not careful, we start forgetting that we think if you're the most powerful person in your environment, you think you're the most powerful.

As a follower of Jesus, it doesn't matter if you have the highest rank in any organization, whether it's the institution of your family, your business, or your community or your country, no matter how high your rank is, you always know you're outranked.

I always know I'm outranked.

I'm outranked.

I'm a follower first.

I'm subject to Jesus.

I submit to Jesus.

I honor Jesus.

I exalt him.

I lift him up.

I'm under him.

I'm under him in my home, in the community, in the organization, everywhere.

I'm under him.

So our leader is perfect.

But then from there, our ethos and our philosophy of leadership is totally shaped by Jesus.

Look at this in Philippians 2, 3 through 9.

Look at this.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

This is the Apostle Paul.

Notice he said he doesn't say anything bad about ambition.

He says selfish ambition.

Paul is about as ambitious as they get.

Spreading the gospel to new communities along the Mediterranean rim, life on the line every time he went out.

This guy was trying to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Global movement.

So there's nothing wrong with ambition.

He says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, trying to impress everybody.

He said, rather in humility, value others above yourselves.

Not looking out for your own interest, but each of you to the interest of others.

You should go out of your way and work really hard to see through someone else's lens.

You should work really hard, go out of your way to understand other people's community and where they live and what they do and what they do for a living and what their work is actually like.

If you're in a powerful place and a job, you should try to learn as much as you can about the people underneath you and what they do and what their day looks like and what their pressure feels like and whether the more that you you know that, then you can serve them better.

So don't just look out for your own interest, look for the interest of others.

He's teaching us how to lead under Jesus.

He says, in your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Now he describes it.

Who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross.

Verse 9, therefore God exalted him, honored him, elevated him to the highest place, and gave him the name that's above every name.

What's the big deal about honor?

Why should we honor?

I've been in cultures that would always talk about honor.

We're a culture of honor.

They hammered honor, pounded honor, and really, honestly, it was kind of gross because often it was a dishonorable leader who wanted everyone to connect and exalt and elevate them, but they didn't connect and exalt and elevate anybody else.

So I want you all to be loyal to me, but I'm not gonna be loyal to anybody, but because I've got the highest place, you should be loyal to me.

No, it starts with leader, it starts with the powerful person to lower themselves, humble themselves, and to bring others up.

Now, when you see someone doing that, you've got to lift them up.

Don't leave that powerful leader down there.

Exalt and lift them up.

Why?

Because whatever we honor, we elevate, and whatever we elevate, we duplicate.

Let me um I'm gonna venture into some dangerous water right here.

Dangerous.

There might be a bunch of room in this service next week after this conversation.

I'm gonna venture into a conversation about who's the greatest.

Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

I'm gonna pick a side.

I know.

I'm sweating right now.

It's controversial.

I'm gonna go there.

And I promise I've got a point.

Some of you are like, I don't care.

I'm gonna tell you, I probably care too much.

I I've probably given too much of my life to this conversation, frankly.

I am a sucker for LeBron MJ clickbait.

If I see it's like, who's the greatest?

I'm like, every time.

I'm like, okay.

I'm gonna synthesize the whole debate for you.

I'm gonna bring it down to simplicity.

Jordan LeBron, who's the greatest?

It comes down to this.

People go Jordan was a winner, and he had a killer instinct.

Jordan took everything personal.

If somebody crossed him, he never forgot.

And he would bury you.

Never even went to a game seven in the finals.

Six-time NBA champion.

And if you watch the if you if you watch The Last Dance, I promise I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.

If you watch The Last Dance, the the meme is, and I took that personally.

I was listening to Barkley the other day.

Charles Barkley was talking about when they were in the Olympics, and they're like, Jordan went out and played 18 holes of golf, and then they all went and he's like, I'm gonna play another 18.

He played 36 holes of golf, and then they played that night, I think the Dominican Republic or something, and they go to start the game, and Jordan says, I'm guarding the point guard.

And they're like, Michael, that's a lot of work.

You ain't gotta do this, just guard the two guard.

He goes, No, no, the point guard talked about me in the newspaper.

I'm I'm guarding it.

And Barkley said, he guarded him like it was game seven of the finals the whole time.

The whole time he's talking to him, don't ever talk about me again.

Don't ever talk about this guy, the poor guy suffocating, okay?

And we would all go, oh yeah, Jordan, okay.

LeBron, what's the knock on LeBron?

LeBron's got unbelievable statistics.

He's okay, he's a longevity, okay, he's won his fair share of titles, but here this is what the knock would be on LeBron.

He's not a killer instinct.

LeBron's friends with everybody.

He put together a team of his buddies.

Jordan would have never done that.

He wanted to bury Malone.

He wanted to bury Barclay.

He wanted to smoke Drexler.

You know, he wanted to smoke him in front of the world.

LeBron's getting his buddies on a team.

LeBron goes around and hugs his enemies.

He goes around, he makes friends with, oh, he loves everybody.

He just broke the scoring record and he said, hey, they said, Did you know you were gonna break the scoring record?

He goes, I never thought I'd break the scoring record because I love to pass.

He's like, when I was a kid, I just love to get my teammates involved.

He's the ultimate teammate.

They made the uh the the the whatever the name of the documentary of when he was at St.

Vincent, St.

Mary.

He wouldn't do it unless they highlighted his teammates.

What you honor, you elevate.

What you elevate, you duplicate.

So here's the reality.

What do you want to elevate?

Do you want to elevate killer instinct?

Do you want to elevate, I take everything personally?

Do you want to elevate the that I cut everybody off?

Or do you want to elevate a leader that facilitates and actually tries to make their teammates better?

So if you're part of the body of Christ, LeBron's the greatest.

Every head bumpen, every head clothes.

Yeah, I said it.

I'm a child of the 90s, but I did grow up in Akron.

I did grow up in Akron.

Alright.

I gotta bring this in for a landing.

I got two action steps for you.

I got two action steps and then we're done.

Actually, we're gonna worship.

I'll invite the choir to come on out.

You guys can take the board out.

Um, two action steps for you as as we leave today.

I'm actually go ahead and stand up on your feet.

Here's the two action steps.

The first is this use your power like Jesus used his.

Use your power like Jesus used his.

You're powerful people.

You're powerful in your home, you're powerful in your community, you're powerful in your entity and your organizations.

Really evaluate.

Am I, what is my mentality?

Am I seeing myself that the more resources I have, the more influence I have, the more power I have is here to serve and to lift others up, or are you just expecting them to honor you?

Here's what I want to say to you.

If you live in an environment where it takes you doing dishonorable things to be elevated, don't do it.

Don't do it.

Romans 12 says in verse 17, don't repay evil for evil.

Leave vengeance to God.

If you have to do, if you have to dishonor yourself to be elevated, don't do it.

Leave it in God's hands.

I'm gonna play the game straight up.

I'm gonna do it the right way, I'm gonna do it God's way, and if they leave me down here, they leave me down here.

But James 4 says, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He's gonna lift you up.

So play it straight up.

Do with your power what Jesus did with his.

And the second thing is this honor the people who use their power like Jesus used his.

Honor them.

Honor them.

When you see a powerful person bringing themselves to a low place, don't leave them in the low place.

Lift them back, lift them up.

Because here's what I'm gonna say.

If we don't honor powerful people who humble themselves, if we don't honor humble people who lead like Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised when we find self promoters at the top of the heap.

This is how we operate here, and it should happen here, but it should spill out to the ends of the earth.

Let's create a new culture, amen.