 Welcome Portage, good to see you, good to be worshiping with you, my name is John, campus pastor here at Richland, also one of the teaching pastors, and I'm honored to be with you today, pastor Lee Senses greetings, he's ministering at a church in North Carolina where it's probably sunny and godly and things that I'm just kidding, we're glad to be in Michigan. Hey, I've got the handheld mic today because I told the production team that you guys might be shouting me down today and I might have to be louder than normal, so they equip me with this, and production, sound guys, graphics, there's some of the people who don't normally get recognized unless something goes wrong, you know what I mean, like the sound goes off, the mic doesn't work or something, we all do our neck crane to see who doesn't love Jesus back there, but the truth is they do an amazing job, they're part of the worship experience, the life, so turn around, let's give some honor, Jojo, David, Sean Downs, our camera operators, we love you, we love you, we honor you, super grateful for you, so hey, we're in the second week of a series and as the video rolling showed, it's on the book of Malachi, so if you brought your Bibles you can turn to Malachi, it's the last book in the Old Testament, it's right before Matthew and right after Hezekiah or something like that, I don't know, I'm just kidding, and Pastor Lee, if you didn't listen to last week's message, you need to go back to it, he really did a fabulous job as he always does, sort of highlighting what's happening contextually with God and with God's people during the book of Malachi, so I'm not going to take a lot of time on that, but the synopsis of that is this, is that God's people are in a period of transition, a period of waiting, and it's 400 years between Malachi and the book of Matthew, and during that time, as they're waiting, as they know about the promises of God, but they've yet to see the fruition of the promises of God, the Bible says that the people's hearts begin to turn cold, they become disconnected with God, literally they lose their first love, and this book of Malachi is a dialogue between God and His people, and he's literally, through the prophet Malachi, drawing them back, reminding them of his goodness and of his faithfulness, so the whole book starts out with, I have loved you, with an everlasting love, and then they ask, well how have you loved me, that's what God's saying, and he tells them, and he begins to unfold the goodness and the faithfulness that he's showing them, I want to pick up in verse 6 of chapter 1 of Malachi, it'll come on the screen if you don't have your Bible, and God again is speaking to the people, and he says this, a son honors his father and a servant is master, if then I am a father, where is my honor, and if I am a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts to you, oh priest, who despised my name, but you say how have we despised your name, by offering polluted food upon my altar, but you say how have we polluted you, by saying that the Lord's table may be despised, when you offer blind animals and sacrifices, that not evil, and when you offer those that are lame or those that are sick, is that not evil, and what God is talking about here is that the people's worship had begun to become hollow, they were just going through the motions, they weren't honoring God with their best, with their first fruits, with their flocks and herds, they were bringing the sick, the lame, okay God we'll give you this, and Pastor Lee is next week going to talk specifically about worship, about what that means for us as followers of Jesus, but today I want to just hone in, I want to kind of set the stage for that by talking about honor, verse six says, God says to his people, son honors his father and a servant is master, if then I am a father where is my honor, everybody say honor, honor, it's a word we know, it's a word we sing a lot about, it's a word we use with judges and magistrates, your honor, but I feel like we sometimes may be confused about what that word means biblically, like what, who are we supposed to honor, when are we supposed to honor, do we always have to honor, and those are some of the questions I want to talk about today because honor is extremely important to God, the thread of honor is all throughout scripture, and we'll look at some of that today, and I'm going to go through a lot of scripture, so I'll have you turn some places, others just write down or follow on the screen if you don't have time, but I'm thinking about honor, and I've been on several mission trips overseas, and I usually try to do a little bit of research about okay, like what cultural things are happening there that may be different than here, so that we don't have a dishonoring situation, so I've never been to Korea, I have some friends who are Korean, but one of the things they do there to show honor is they'll do like a little bow, not like a whole bend over bow, but sort of like a lowering yourself and that's a sign of showing honor to someone else, and one of the things you wouldn't do if you were in Korea is you wouldn't kick your feet up on the coffee table if you were at someone's house because showing your feet or the soles of your feet is considered dishonoring, they're dirty from traveling and things like that, so those are some of the cultural ways that you show honor there, I went to South Africa in 2007 on a mission trip, and one of the things we learned is that when you're shaking someone's hand, you actually extend your hand, but then you grab your elbow with your other hand, so you shake hands like that as a sign of honor, and so we practiced that, and then there were some words and phrases you didn't want to use there that are okay here, and one of our member was the word fanny pack, as cool as that is here in America, apparently you don't say that in South Africa, so there's these things that that would be dishonoring to them, and we look at America, and again I don't want to be pessimistic, but I don't think there's much argument in the fact that we are becoming in many ways a nation that is without honor, we have allowed dishonor, not just to, it's always existed, but if in my opinion when we look at our culture today in America, dishonoring is actually becoming more normal and more acceptable than actually showing honor, if you look at pundits on tv talking heads, news, comedians, twitter accounts, activists, bringing people down, dishonoring people, actually will help you become more popular in many circles in America today, will actually help build your platform, and so dishonor has become so rampant that we don't even really recognize it, it doesn't even really attract our attention, and way too often even as Christians we're okay with it in our lives and in our culture, so I want to talk about honor and what God says about honor and who God says that we're required or we're supposed to honor, so I'm going to give you a couple definitions, I said we don't always know exactly what it means, but this is the Greek word for honor, so when you read honor in your New Testament that is the word timay, it's spelled t-i-m-e but it's pronounced timay, and it means this, to value or to highly esteem, to treat as precious, weighty or valuable, so to honor something is to treat it as precious, as valuable, to honor it, to esteem it, that word weighty is actually a word that they use when they measured money, shekels were the monetary form in the first century and they were these coins, and the heavier, the weightier they were, the more you had, the more honor, the more that it did for you, and so that's the idea behind the weightiness of honor, and then to dishonor that word is atimos, and it simply means to disdain, to treat as common or ordinary, so to dishonor something is to look at it and say okay yeah whatever, it's common, that's ordinary, kind of roll your eyes, yeah I know that, I've been there, done that, seen that before, that's dishonoring something, whereas honoring is bringing value or elevating it to a place of honor, so for example when I was a young man, I think it was 10 for a season, I was hardcore collecting Tops football cards, anybody remember Tops football cards, three of us, okay yes, a few of us, I love them, I went to the upper deck in Grand Rapids, it was in the Elger Heights area, and I would use any money that I had from my paper route, I was a very pragmatic hard working lad, I'll let you know that, and I would buy these cards, so I had all of the 80s icons, a Jerry Rice, Joe Montanio, Howie Long of the Raiders, and I just loved these football cards, but an opportunity came where I had a Barry Sanders card, and I had an opportunity to go to the Silver Dome with a friend and meet some of the Lions, and Barry Sanders signed my card, and he looked at me and said you look like someone who's going to be a great preacher, so no he didn't say any of that, but he did sign it, and he gave it back to me, and I was like that card was everything to me, like I liked all of my cards, but some of them, if the corners got frayed, no big deal, if they were an offensive lineman, I might put them in my spokes of my bike, so it sounded like a motorcycle, you know, but this one it got its own separate sleeve, I put it high on my dresser, I prayed to it, no I didn't do that, I didn't, but I loved it, and I honored it, and it had value, it was no longer common, it was no longer ordinary, it was something of weight and of value to me, and that's what honor does, and honor is a big deal to God, and so I want to, in the few minutes that we have, go through five people groups that God calls us to honor, five situations, five ways that God calls us to honor, so let's just pray and ask the Lord to bless this time, Father in the name of Jesus, you promised us that your word when it was spoken would not return void, but it would accomplish all that you sent it to do, so I asked the Holy Spirit of God to illuminate the word of God in every single heart that Lord, we would have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts and spirits to receive whatever you're saying to us, we silence the voice of the enemy, we silence distractions, we put our focus and our eyes and our minds on you alone in Jesus' name, everyone said, amen. All right, who does the Bible say that we're supposed to honor? First and foremost, we're called to honor God, nice, nice, A minus for all of you, fruit snacks on your way out, okay yes, we honor God, first and foremost, and we get that, at least we should, because God is separate from us, the Bible says God is holy, God is greater than we are, there is nothing common and nothing ordinary about God, look what it says in Revelation chapter four, which if you read is a picture of heaven, John the Apostle is having a vision of what heaven looks like on the island of Patmoson, verse nine of Revelation 4, John says this, and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders would fall down before him who was seated on the throne and they would worship him who lives forever and ever and they would cast their crowns before the throne saying worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created in heaven right now, 24 hours a day for all of eternity, God is being honored and worshiped and revered, and as children of God that is our cry, that is our mantra, that is our responsibility is to honor God in everything that we do, to never get familiar with God, to never have it be oh yeah okay whatever, I've seen that, read that, done that, been to church, but to always let the awe and wonder of God rekindle and reignite passion and zeal for the presence of God, God is worthy of honor and I want to show you if you have your Bible turned to Mark chapter 6, what happens when you're in an environment where God isn't honored? Obviously we're free will people and we can choose to honor God or not honor God and in this situation, let me give you a little context for Mark 6, Jesus is in the middle of a teaching tour where he's going to all the different cities and villages in the nation of Israel and he's preaching and teaching in the synagogues and then miraculous signs and wonders are following his teachings, he was just in Capernaum, the Bible says all of the sick in the city were brought to him and he healed every single one of them. Blind eyes were being opened, somebody couldn't see Jesus spit in the dirt and made mud and put that in his eyes and then was like can you see now? I don't know if Jesus is like joking or what but but then he rinsed it off and he could see deaf ears, demon possessed people being restored all around Jesus, miracles are happening but then he enters his hometown Nazareth not where he was born that's Bethlehem but this is where Jesus grew up and that's where we pick it up in Mark 6 and it says Jesus went away from there and he came to his hometown 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? How is this wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? So they're hearing Jesus, Jesus' reputation has preceded him into his hometown of the miracles and they're just astounded but then something interesting happens they begin to dishonor Jesus, they dishonor God look what it says they start to be offended and verse 3 says is this not the carpenter the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon are not his sisters here with us and they took offense at him they looked at Jesus they may have been initially kind of odd and wonder at his words that he spoke but then they started to say wait a minute I know who that is that's Jesus he's that kid that none of us like because he never got in trouble and he did everything right and aren't his brothers here right now and isn't he he was a carp didn't he make your kitchen table I mean who is this guy how does he think he's he's different or whatever better than us and they began to dishonor Jesus they saw him as normal ordinary common and then look what happens it says in Jesus said to them verse 4 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 works there except they laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them and he marveled at their unbelief I don't know all of the theological implications of this but the bible doesn't say Jesus wouldn't do mighty works like he got mad at them and was like fine you want to dishonor me whatever it says he could not do mighty works because of the dishonoring that had taken place prior to his arrival prior to his wanting to move in the miraculous so in every other town where people are being set free and healed these people literally blocked the presence and access of god into their lives because they refused to honor Jesus for who he was and I want to submit to you that in our culture of dishonor our culture of dragging people's names through the muds our culture of of always you know kind of bomb throwing on twitter or facebook at at every person we disagree with we are literally blocking the ability of god to do the mighty works that he wants to do in our lives and our cities and in our homes because we're not honoring god he could do no mighty works wanted to but honor is one of the keys that unlocks the blessing and favor and power of god so first and foremost we want to honor god I think most of us get that the rest of them uh and you're already quiet and the rest of them are harder but we'll just press on in faith you're ready number two god says we're to honor our family the most common phrase used with honor in scripture is this honor your father and your mother and I got a big amen from the parents come on that's what it says it's in the top 10 it's an actual one of the 10 commandments honor your father and your mother fission six says it this way it says honor your father mother that it may be well with you and you may live long in the land so I tell my children do you want to live a long time kids do you want to see 13 okay wait honor your mother and your father and then the verse goes on and says in fathers do not exasperate or do not provoke your children unto wrath so there's something that's supposed to be in the household that demonstrates honor so that our children walk in honor as we walk in honor and it's very important to god you can read in Exodus some of the laws that took place if there was dishonor in a home and it was pretty intense I'll put it that way and so honor and obviously god has to look at our nation our generations today and see the dysfunction and the dishonor and the way that so many households have a lack of honor and really a spirit of dishonor and and it has to break his heart because he is a father with a family and listen I'm not up here saying that when I walk in the door after work my children all gather around me and bow and say how can we serve you oh masterful father I understand but we as parents have to create an environment where we do not allow dishonor to run wild we do not allow dishonor to be a thing in our homes we we teach our children how to honor and we treat our children with honor so that they can grow up and honor us so that they can honor their mother and father and this is this is important because I was in youth ministry a long time and I worked with many teenagers over 10 years and one young lady in particular I'm reminded of had a rough a rough upbringing and her dad left their family when she was very young and left with another woman abandoned their family and her mom struggled with addiction so they were always in and out of foster care her mom would you know not pay the bills so they would get evicted and and there was just this massive dysfunction and so she said to me she came to our youth and said how am I supposed to honor my mother and father when I'm in a situation like this there's nothing that they're doing that's remotely honorable and that's a good question and that's what I want to ask and I want to try to explain biblically are we required to honor people who aren't honorable and here's what I want to say to you and this is what I believe respect and this is what I told this young lady respect is earned and here's what I mean by that when you look at somebody's life when you look at what they've done the decisions they've made you can say I respect that there's there's something to that and and I'll honor that but honor in and of itself isn't earned it's given respect is earned honor is given and so you can honor your parents because of the position that they're in because of the office if you will that God has given them of your parents no does it doesn't mean that everything they do is honorable it doesn't mean that you have to somehow say well this is just my lot in life and and I have to I guess honor them here's what it means here's what I told this young lady you want to know how you can honor your mother forgive her first forgive her in your heart release her of what's happened to you I'm sorry that that happened that's not God's best that's not God's will but you release her then you pray for her you pray for the spirit of God to touch her you pray for the power of God to release her from her chains from her addictions and then three you refuse to speak evil of her so easy when somebody hurts us or wrongs us to go to someone else you won't believe what they did you won't believe what this church allows you won't believe what this happened and we drag people through one of the ways you can show honor is simply by saying I am not going to dishonor them by dragging their name through the mud to other people that's one of the ways and then I told her maybe the most important thing you can do is redeem those memories for your children someday you know that that's how the enemy works is generationally you see that you see dysfunction in a home and it goes from generation to generation the enemy wants your kids to suffer there than their kids and their kids kids until somebody puts a stake in the ground and says not today devil I choose to honor I choose to forgive I choose to stand in the place of honoring even when someone isn't honorable I hope that I hope that makes sense to you I'm not saying we make a blanket statement that everything people do is okay what I'm saying is you can honor even when you disagree you can honor even when someone else isn't acting in honor what we've told ourselves in society today is oh unless you're acting honorable I don't have to honor you and until you do I can just stand back here and throw bombs at you and get mad at you on twitter and gossip about you that's not honor and so young people in here honor your father and mother refuse to speak evil ask god to help you and to grace you to be able to do that the second part of family is we're called to honor our spouse honor the person that you're married to raise your hand if you're married in here yes raise your hand if you want to be married and I'm just kidding I have to do that hey this is what the bible says in first Peter it says husbands honor your wives why so that your prayers won't be hindered that's one thing and then in Ephesians five Paul says wives submit to your husbands honor your husbands as christ as unto christ and husbands love your wives as christ loved the church and gave himself for her there is a honor code that has to be in existence among married people so if you want your marriage to be ordinary and you want your marriage to be common then go ahead and don't honor your spouse walk in dishonor because you want to know what ordinary common and normal is in the united states one out of every two marriages fail that's normal that's common so if you want to have something that's extraordinary that's supernatural then choose to honor even when maybe the person you're married to isn't being honorable I know it's hard to hear but I'm telling you if you want your husband that you know I can hear it and I have heard it and it's not just wives it's husband too but I would honor him if he'd ever done anything honorable in his whole life and that honestly I get that but that's not the point what I'm saying to you is you get into your prayer closet and you begin to confess to God and pray to God what you want to see in your husband in the secret place God I thank you that I married a man of God I thank you that your spirit is at work in him I thank you you know the plans and purposes you have for his life and I choose to honor him and I don't understand everything that's happening but God I trust you no matter what that's how you honor in the midst of a relationship that might not be easy to honor because what happens when when you're dating when you're when you're engaged why is it why is there so much less conflict because you're intentional about honoring right you make a big deal oh no no no honey here I'll get the door right oh I brought you flowers you're in a long distance relationship I'm gonna be right over it's a 17-hour drive don't worry I'll be right there I'm on my way I mean nothing's too difficult you never go too far you're talking on the phone you know for four and a half hours okay you hang up no you hang up okay I'll count to three and we'll both hang up one two three are you still there I love you we're intentional about it and then something happens we we get married and suddenly it's uh it's common it's ordinary nothing's that weighty anymore it's like yeah you know hey can you please pass the catch up what am I your slave and everything's we freak out and we go psycho all of a sudden and we start keeping track of they don't do this and they don't do that I'm telling you honor your wife honor your husband speak it over them and watch the miracles of God take place in your marriage it's so easy to go negative Bible says in Proverbs 18 death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit if you speak death if you speak worst case scenarios over your husband over your situation and you find yourself gossiping you're you're gonna have those things in your life but I'm telling you if you speak faith if you speak life if you confess the promises of God those are the things that will manifest in your situation all right so we honor God we honor family third thing is God calls us to honor those who are in authority over us God has positioned people in our lives and I use that word on purpose position them because that's where they are in our lives so I want you to think about bosses teachers coaches police officers government officials those are all people that God has put as authority figures in our lives and has called us to unequivocally honor them and I feel like again in our culture it is so easy anyone we disagree with anyone we don't see eye to eye with we instantly gravitate to the negative gravitate to the worst case and gravitate to saying I don't have to honor you and it's it's permeating our culture you look at some of the teachers the way that students and and and you look at some of these coaches I mean you see six and seven year olds in sports and their parents don't raise your hand if you're one of those parents it's just like I can't believe this and you're not playing my boy and what you're doing is you're setting up your family your children to inherit a spirit of dishonor now listen coaches aren't perfect police officers aren't perfect teachers aren't perfect and I'm not saying people shouldn't be held accountable if they make mistakes if a teacher is inapt and can't teach they should be fired but you can have honor in your heart while you're disagreeing with someone and I feel like we have taken authority and we've made it a bad word and we and we've made it a just this like neon sign of authority and it's just this terrible thing and God says no I have given authority over you look at Romans chapter 13 verses one and two and just listen to this this is Paul he's writing this in Rome and this is not from Cancun at a resort the Roman government was not like super nice to Christians at this time some of them were being impaled and and put in Nero's garden and lit on fire and listen what Paul says through the Holy Spirit let everyone be subject to the governing authorities raise your hand if you're everyone in here okay Portage raise your hand come on you're all right let everyone be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established and the authorities that do exist have been established by God consequently whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves ouch God's saying that the people that we have an authority in our government right now are not outside of the scope of God's plan and I feel like I don't know that I've ever witnessed a more divided nation politically like you're either in this camp or that camp and there is no middle ground and we believe the lie that if I disagree with you I hate you and if you think that way you're the worst and it goes all the way up to the top and I'm telling you as Christians whether you agree with who's in office or you disagree with who is in office you can still show honor to the office even if you can't honor the person and that's the difference between us as Christians and the rest of the world so I don't care what the news media is saying I don't care what the pundits are saying I don't care what you read on twitter as a Christian and follower of Christ you're called to honor those who are in authority that's that's just it and does that mean we agree with everything no that's the beauty of this country is you can just vote like don't vote for them fine next time and and and it's a cycle and a few years someone else will be president and everyone to be like no the world can be saved and everyone else would be like we're doomed that's that it's insane to me how that works and so we sing songs like I will build my life upon your love it is my firm foundation I will put my hope in you alone because your luck can never be shaken and I don't remember who said it but someone said Christians don't tell lies they sing them and so we say I will put my trust in you alone and yet all of a sudden oh my they're in power and government oh we're all dead and that's how we work listen and I'm being serious if you have more faith in a elephant or a donkey to help you than you do in the lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world you're going to be sorely disappointed I'm sorry and I'm fine with politics get involved vote exercise you're right but the end of the day we are from a different kingdom we're not of this world and so it reads Psalm 47 every single day this week the nation's wage and the nation's quake but God is on the throne and we can't become so obsessed and we can't just throw bombs and say I hate you and I hate them and this person the worst and our president listen whether you like our president you don't like our president I don't care but before you go and you drag someone's name to the mud and before you recount all of the things that they've done wrong you have better as a christian have been in your prayer closet asking God to speak to him to instill wisdom in him to save whatever God needs to do if if you're not on your knees praying as the bible says in Romans 13 to do for our leaders you have absolutely no place to complain and that's my opinion you can't do it then if you if your heart hasn't been broken in the place of prayer and and instead we just say well there this there that there this there he did that he did that whoever it is we sound a lot more like the Pharisees than followers of Jesus when the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the temple the Pharisees started his prayer this way God I thank you that I'm not like other men adulterers extortionists or even like this tax collector no no no me no no I tithe on all of my mint I go to the and we start rallying off they're doing this this and this and I'm telling you it is much more like a Pharisee than the heart of God and we have to pray and we have to press in and we have to believe that God's still on the throne no matter what's happening and honor is less about what someone is doing and more about our hearts we can disagree and still honor make sense still like me okay good last number four number five or no I'm sorry number four spiritual authority so it's along the same lines that's a little different God has given pastors and leaders the Bible says in Ephesians 4 to equip the saints that's that's the job of the church leaders is not to do all of the work necessarily but to encourage and equip the people you to go out into the world with the love of Jesus Christ and look what it says a concerning honor in verse 17 of 1st Timothy 5 Paul says let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor and preaching and teaching Bible it's the only time the Bible mentions double honor so basically what that means is if you're going to bring your boss a dozen cookies I need two dozen cookies if you want to follow the Lord no I'm just kidding here's what here's what it means is that God has said I have established pastors teachers evangelists prophets at the five-fold ministry in order to equip the saints and there is an honor and we have a culture unfortunately even within the church that is so quick to dishonor people that may have said something or may have done something that you don't agree with or I didn't like that song or I don't like what he said and we look at other not even just in this church we look across the body of Christ oh that guy he doesn't even believe in hell and that guy bought his wife that and how can they have to live in this and we have this spirit I'm telling you it's a spirit of dishonor that comes through our lives even in the church and we're modeling that for our families we're modeling that for our children we have the pastor for lunch every day you know can you believe he did this and did that and and the Bible says honor those who are in spiritual authority over you and again that doesn't mean we're perfect I don't know if you realize that I I might be but the rest of the people up here are listen there are no perfect leaders there are no perfect churches I want to read something I'm going to paraphrase it it's in Genesis chapter 9 but it's the story of Noah raise your hand if you've heard of Noah in here okay most of us Noah built in yeah okay you guys are good build an arc and he was on it and the Bible says in chapter 9 and first this might come up behind me in a minute here but that when it's basically as soon as he got off the arc he got drunk that's what the Bible says so before you judge him you know if you were on an arc for 40 days and it was only animals in your family you'd probably start drinking too but anyway I'm just kidding I'm kidding it's what it says so we have this idea of Noah's perfect Noah's one of the greats when Noah's one of the patriarchs so the Bible says he had a field and he got intoxicated and he was laying in his tent and he was uncovered in his tent I don't know if he meant to again but this is what the Bible says and so there was some flesh that was exposed he was he was naked some flesh that was uncovered the Bible says that ham one of his sons went in he saw his dad that way saw a leader that way and he came back out and he started telling his brothers started spreading kind of gossip about Noah and he started dishonoring him and here's here's my point it doesn't matter who it is behind the pulpit doesn't matter how great you might think they are it's only a matter of time before there is going to be some flesh even in leaders spiritual leaders that's uncovered that's what I'm saying and now you guys are all looking at me super holy so whatever it's true portage no I'm just kidding some of you before you start you know judging me I talked to the parking lot attendants and some of you show your flesh before you even get in the building so don't don't come at me I'm just kidding kidding listen there there is no perfect leaders but we have to have a spirit of honor and so Noah was in that situation it says that his other sons they took a blanket and they backed up they wouldn't even look at them and they covered up his nakedness and listen to me I'm not talking about blatant sin I'm not talking about spiritual abuse I'm not saying we make excuses the Bible says in James teachers are going to be held to a higher standard but I'm saying we can't have a spirit that immediately points at something we don't like we don't agree with and dishonors other people in our lives we can't have that for our families you want to know what happened to in this situation Noah is one of the remaining people the only ones on the earth after God judged the earth and he begins at the end of his life to to call out blessings on his sons he says there's one son you're going to go into this part of the world and God's going to open these doors for you and he says to the other son God's got this plan and this purpose for your life and then he says to him the one who dishonored him cursed is Canaan your son for the dishonor that you showed he didn't curse him it was his son it was a generational thing and I believe with all my heart it breaks the heart of God to see families operating in dishonor and modeling it it affects our children it affects our families there aren't any you're going to see some whether it's your parents your teachers your coaches you're going to see some flesh nobody's perfect but whether you choose to honor or not says way more about your heart than someone else's actions and that's all I want to leave you with today the bible says honor those in authority but the last thing is the bible says honor even those who are among you Romans 12 verse 10 says out do one another in honor showing fervent love in zeal so don't just honor people that you know can do something for you or people that you might get in trouble if you don't honor everyone in your life honor your peers your co-workers honor those who serve you when you go to pick your kids up honor the young person who took care of them for an hour and a half learn their name say thank you show honor every chance that you can because i'm telling you honor is the key that releases the mighty works that God wants to do in our lives and dishonor is the thing that keeps God from doing what he might even want to do in our lives you can't receive when you're in a spirit of dishonor we guys stand up with me want to pray for us and I kind of felt the Lord in worship um maybe prompt me to do I didn't do this in the other services but I I want to just take a moment and I just want to honor some people in my life um you know the thing about God is I don't know why some people are in the positions that they are in Bible says God appoints them God's aware of them but it doesn't always mean they're qualified you might be smarter than your boss and God might have you in a situation to say can you still honor even though you're in a place where you feel like you should be elevated you know sometimes God the Bible says in Corinthians uses the weak things to confound the wise uses the things that aren't necessarily of nobility to confound those who have royalty in their blood God uses things that normal people might not see as usable to bring glory to him which might be one of the reasons I have a microphone and I'm standing on this stage in fact it is God God doesn't always pick the obvious person I just want to encourage you with that I feel like God says if you're willing to honor no matter where you are you open the door for advancement you open the door for for God to use you and I want to just take a moment I want to honor my wife Kendra who has been with me through 18 years of thick and thin and has been my best friend my soulmate these last few years have been tougher in the transition and you have always honored me through it you're a fantastic mother a wonderful wife and I honor the gift of prophecy that's in you I honor the gift of song that's in you and I thank you for standing by me I honor pastor Lee and Jane Cummings I honor the work that they have done in this city the work that they've done in this church the tireless zeal passion and fervor of prayer that has created what is radiant church I honor them for their sacrifice and I honor them for taking a chance on someone like me I'm honored to be I'm honored to be a part of what's happening at radiant night I honor this church body those of you who get here early who give of your time and your talent and your treasure and you come and you serve and you're a part of this body and you give and and this this church was never designed to be about a couple people on a stage it's the body of Christ functioning in the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that God's given every single one of you I honor in the name of Jesus and right now I want I want us to honor the Lord to honor God I want you to just close your eyes if you're comfortable I want you to lift your hands and right now I God I honor you for who you are for reaching down and saving me I want you right now in your own voice with your own words to honor God as your savior honor God as your healer honor God as your deliverer God you're worthy of praise God you are good there's no one like you God we create arena of honor a place of praise where you are elevated where you are valued where there is weight to your presence God we honor you we crown you with many crowns angels prostrate fall bring forth the royal diadem and we crown you Jesus Lord of all God of the universe king of kings worthy are you God and I pray right now over everyone is within the sound of my voice father release the mighty works that you have for their lives release the mighty works that you have laid up for them in this place where we're honoring you bring healing into this body right now God bring restoration where there have been impossible situations and circumstances I declare the power of God released over every person in this room greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world you are the God of the impossible your arm is not too short to save where you are honored miracles and breakthroughs happen in our lives and God I honor this body and I in faith say God let your spirit bring what only you can bring healing deliverance God I speak to addiction right now in the name of Jesus those who have been bound those who have suffered through the chains of addiction I say where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom in this place God set the captives free in the name of Jesus in this place we honor you we praise you we say God where the king is let the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven in Jesus name and everyone said amen amen let's give the Lord a huge hand clap