The Gift of Honour – Part 1

  18 August 2007

1. Introduction:

· Luke 10:27  -  “Love the Lord with all your heart – love your neighbor as yourself”.

· The Nature of God is LOVE – he desires to be expressed to us and through us.

· When we honour God and we honour people we are expressing love to that person.

· Honour is a gift we give to others – must be given – can’t be demanded.

· Honour is a gift given to God and to people as an expression of Love.

· 1 John 4:17  -  How we treat people measures our relationship with God.

2. The Meaning of Honour:

· Proverbs 3:9  -  “Honour the Lord with you substance and with the first fruits of all your increase”.

· Honour = 3513 = kabad = to be weighty or heavy, valuable, glory.

· Honour:

i)    To place value upon, treat as a special treasure, something precious.

ii) To give a position of respect in our life.

· Dishonour = to treat as though were vapor, little value, to despise, give no place to.

· The lower value we place on people the easier it is to treat them wrongly.

· Honour is a decision, a choice to treat people as a special treasure and give them a place in our life of respect.  It is a gift to them.

· Honour will always express itself in tangible ways e.g.:

Honour God as our source in tithing/giving – this is the outward express of inner value.

· People are honoured for:

i)    Achievement

ii)   Character

iii)  Position they hold

· Honouring someone that doesn’t deserve it is an expression of Love.

3.  People God Calls us to Honour:

· The Bible is very specific in honouring people.

a)  People in positions of Authority in our life:

· God calls us to both honour them and also to submit to them.

1)   Civil Authority:

· 1 Peter 2:17  -  “Honour all people, Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honour the king”

· 1 Peter 2:13  -  “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme”.

2)   Parents:

· Ephesians 6:2  -  “Honour your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise”.

· Ephesians 6:1  -  “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right”.

3) Employer:

· 1 Timothy 6:1-2  -  “¹Let as many as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blemished.  ²And those who has believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved.  Teach and exhort these things”.

- Count your masters worthy of all honour – do not despise them.

· Ephesians 6:5-6  -“ ⁵Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ, ⁶not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart”.

- Be obedient to those who are your masters.

4) Church:

· 1 Timothy 5:17  - “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine”.

· 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13  -  “¹²And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.  Be at peace among yourselves”.

· Hebrews 13:17  - “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.  Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you”.

     -  Obey those who rule over you and be subject to them.

b)  Other People:

      5)  Wife:

· 1 Peter 3:7  -  “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayer may not be hindered”.

- Husbands to honour their wives.

      6) Husband:

· Ephesians 5:33  -  “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband”.

· Ephesians 5:22-24  -  “²²Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church; and He is the Saviour of the body.  ²⁴Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything”.

      7) Elderly:

· Leviticus 19:32  -  “You shall rise before the gray headed and honour the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD”.

-  Stand up for the elderly and honour their presence.

      8) Widows:

· 1 Timothy 5:3-8  - “³Honour widows who are really widows. ⁴But if any widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable to God.  ⁵Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continuous in supplications and prayers night and day.  ⁶But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. ⁷And these things command, that they may be blameless.  ⁸But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”.

- Look after and support widows.

      9) Fellow Believers:

· Romans 12:10  -  ‘Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, ……”.

-  Love one another in giving honour  to one another.

      10) All Men:

· 1 Peter 2:13  -  ‘Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme”.

- Children and teens

- Unsaved people

·  God values people and instructs us to value what He values.

· When we value what He values – we Honour Him!