Honor Culture: Honor Up

all right welcome to the block online it's so good to see you thank you so much for joining us my name is pastor steven uh here pastor of the block ministry young adults here at new orleans louisiana we're currently in the middle of a series called honor culture i just want to tell you this week as i've been preparing as i've been thinking about the things that we've been talking about i've just been stirred in my spirit and courage believing that the things that we're talking about it's a it's a rhema word which means it's a very specific word for a very specific moment and the things that we're talking about right now are for right now uh and this is september of 2020 we're in the in the middle about to be into an election season in a couple months but i believe no matter when you're watching this or when you're looking at this the practical application of these principles have the capacity to greatly influence your life and i don't want to re-go over everything we've already talked about but i do want to just give a very short recap so you can be caught up as we continue with this so just want to let you know from the get-go god is a rewarder god desires to reward his children but our reward as we see in scripture is contingent upon our stewardship of honor and we've been talking about the different layers of authority that god has instilled that we're called to honor and last week specifically we talked about civil authority we talked about civil authority we're talking about all the way from the president down to civil leaders police officers uh governors elected officials um we read in last week in romans 13 that all authority is from god but not all authority is godly i want to encourage you man if you didn't watch last week go back listen to last week and watch it so you can be caught up and encouraged with this we also said this uh to resist delegated authority is to resist god's authority why is that because romans 13 tells us this that all authority has been delegated by god and so we can we can live our lives knowing that the authority over us god didn't make a mistake he knew what he was doing and so it's our responsibility to honor those that authority uh honor them in our heart honor them in our lives and we're going to talk a little bit more about that as we continue today now here's the thing people hate talking about authority they hate uh talking about how we need to honor people who are over us in some way shape or form and the reason why is because so many of us we've had some sort of negative experience hurtful experience with an authority figure in our lives now last week we talked about civil authority like i talked about but today we're going to talk and move into an area that i think is the most practical the most relevant uh the most hands-on you can apply this today as soon as we're finished uh levels of authority as we talk about two very specific levels we're gonna be talking about social authority and we're gonna be talking about uh authority in the home which is parents uh mothers and fathers so let's go ahead and jump right into honoring social leaders i wanna read you a pass of scripture first timothy chapter six verse one this is what it says let as many bond servants i don't want to stop right there because a lot of people get hung up on words and like whoa what is a bond servant was a bond servant in scripture uh paul said i'm a bond servant of christ it's someone who willingly comes up under the authority of another individual so when we say this word bond servant i want you to think of the different positions like uh employees students athletes and team members okay so that's what we're talking about and so so let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters now who's your master uh if you're a student if you are an employee if you are a team member who is your who's your your master in this sense of the word well that would apply to bosses teachers coaches and team leaders and so what does it say it says let let all those people many bond servants count their own masters worthy of honor so that the name of god and his doctrine may not be blasphemed let me read this passage of scripture in another translation first timothy chapter six verse one let all who are under the yoke as bond servants esteem their own personal masters worthy of honor and fully fullest respect so that the name of god and the teaching about him may not be brought into disrepute and blaspheme so paul said this paul said if we don't give full respect to our bosses our masters in this sense of the word which is our our teachers our team leaders and our bosses said that god and his teaching will be blasphemed now there's two words in this passage of scripture i want to pull out there's a word disrepute and blasphemy what does that mean well disrepute means this the state of being held in low esteem by people and blasphemy means to treat god or sacred sacred things disrespectfully so this is what he's saying he's saying if you don't honor that very authority that is over you in the level that you interact with daily so your boss your teacher team leaders all these people it says and what will happen is that um they're gonna they're gonna look at your life and they're gonna connect that to the god that you say that you serve and they're not going to value god they're not gonna have a high esteem for him and they're gonna actually treat him disrespectfully because of how you interacted with their authority you know i wanna let you know that how you work uh how you go to school and interact with your teachers it can greatly impact how someone receives the gospel or maybe it can impact them in a negative way and they can be it can be hindered the way that they could potentially receive it why because of the way that you interact in a very practical level with the authority that god has placed over you so you're let me tell you something you are preaching the gospel by the way that you live your life if you say well pastor i'm you know i'm watching you on youtube i'm listening to you here and there you're preaching the gospel no no no no we're all preaching the gospel with our lives more than we are with the thing the things that we we are saying people will listen to you quickly when your life honors uh levels up and is honorable in a social setting i was thinking about very practically when i was um in high school i didn't know the lord i attended church but just because you go to church doesn't mean you're a christian i wasn't a christian i thought i was but i remember my first uh my freshman year in high school i got like 30 demerits in the first three weeks of school which is insane some people go all throughout high school at this high school they didn't get maybe five or 10 minutes i got 30 demerits in the first three weeks of school the next demerit i got i would have a saturday school where i would be suspended and i remember people i'll never forget this a friend of mine came up to me and they found out that i went to church and they go dude you you go to church and in that moment i was like yeah why they're like oh man i would have never thought and it didn't really hit me at the time i guess because i wasn't a real christian because it didn't affect my spirit because the spirit holy spirit wasn't living in me but i never forget that because i did surrender my life to the lord my senior year in high school and i remember that moment i remember that moment being like you know what i told people i was serving jesus but the way that i lived my life and my interactions specifically with authority with my teachers and how i was dishonorable and disrespectful to them put a bad taste in my friend's mouth about the gospel and about church and if they would have been invited to to church when i was a freshman sophomore they wouldn't have come i did invite him and they didn't show up but when i gave my life to the lord when i was a senior in high school that one of the most the first areas that really transformed i think in a very real way when i went to school was my interaction with the authority with my teachers i was obedient i turned in my assignments on time in fact i got called into my guidance counselor's office because they said why are you acting differently uh you used to be like this but now you're like this they took notice that there was a difference in the honor and respect that i paid to them and to the authority around me so much so that's crazy look guys i've been out of house high school for a number of years i'm not going to tell you why because i'm not old i don't want you to do the math it's not a big deal i was preaching here at celebration on a sunday morning and one of my teachers from high school walked in here while i was preaching i saw her walk in the back room and i saw her look at me and she saw me she sat down she listened to the message and we had a conversation after and i thought she was she was one of those uh teachers who i interacted with in a very honorable way after i gave my life to the lord and i'll never forget thinking you know what if i was disrespectful if i was rude my actions could have potentially hindered what she was hearing from the word of god that day so let me tell you something how we honor our social leaders is great is very important greatly impacts uh the message and ministry that we could have with them through the gospel of jesus christ uh there's a right way to handle our bosses let me read you titus chapter two verse nine through ten it says this tell bond servants to be submissive to their masters um to be pleasing give satisfaction in every way warn them not to talk back or contradict not to steal by taking things of small value but to prove themselves truly loyal and entirely reliable and faithful throughout so that in everything they may be an ornament and do credit to the teaching which is from and above god our savior now in that one passage of scripture i read there are nine commandments as it pertains to you as an individual in your interaction with authority i'll give them to you real quick it says to be submitted to your bosses to be pleasing to give them satisfaction not to talk back not to contradict not to steal prove yourself loyal prove yourself reliable prove yourself entirely faithful now let me give you a clarifying statement here there is a difference between obedience and submission we talked about last week but you gotta get this this is so important obedience is outward submission is inward obedience is action submission is attitude and what we see here is that the bible teaches unconditional let me say it again it teaches unconditional submission to authority which which means that that that your attitude should always be honoring to authority no matter who it is or what they're doing however the bible does not teach it does not teach unconditional obedience to authority there's one reason there's one way that the bible says this is when you don't obey authority and that's when your authority tells you to do something that's contrary to the word of god that means we're talking about stealing lying sexual immorality all these things that's where the line is drawn you can still honor that position in your heart but when it comes to obedience if it's called to do something exact contrary to the word of god the line is drawn on the same say no we're not going to do this we're not going to cross that line last week we talked about daniel 3 read daniel 3 in his interaction with authority nebuchadnezzar right told him to bow down to worship an idol that he made after himself but daniel ashart meshach and amir they said no we're not going to do that but listen to this when they encountered the king nebuchadnezzar in that interaction after they defied him and said we're not going to be obedient to this because we're obedient to the word of god do you know how they addressed him they said your majesty your majesty they didn't say nah dawg you tripping like get out of here you don't know we're living at a higher standard no they didn't say all that they said your majesty we hear what you said but we are going to choose to live according to the word of god not according to this and i want to encourage you to read daniel chapter 3 to see uh the the great miracle that took place through the obedience through them honoring but then also more importantly honoring the word of god first peter 2 18 says this servants be submitted to your masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the harsh now that word there is servants and so people may be thrown off by that it says wait it's talking to a different of people different time well here's the deal there's there's difference between servants and slaves and and peter is right and he's saying you as christians we're called to be be servants and what does that mean well a servant does the maximum that the potential they they do everything that they can a servant is someone who who looks for opportunities someone who acts and doesn't just sit around so you need to be proactive in the way that you honor the social leaders that have been placed over your life and here's the thing here's the catch we need to be very practical in honoring the ones that are harsh towards us because that's where the reward really comes in when we start honoring that authority that we don't agree with that that authority that's really hard for us to come under that's where the reward really kicks in i'm gonna read it to you first peter 2 19-25 it says for this is commendable if because of conscious towards god one endures grief suffering wrongly for what credit is it to you if when you're beaten for your faults you take it patiently but when you do good and suffer if you take it patiently this is commendable before god verse 21 for this for to this you were called so many people like i don't pastor i don't know what my calling is what is my calling i'm gonna tell you what your calling is your calling is specifically it says here it says to handle unfair treatment honorably it's to honor the lord no matter what situation you're in but specifically the situations where the authority is maybe there's some tension there maybe it's really difficult and challenging because if if you display honor there then you are going to be a light in the darkness and god is going to do something really incredible in that situation and circumstances he may not do it in that moment but i guarantee you just wait god keeps his promise he is faithful and vengeance is belongs to him but that honor that reward you get that's up to you you handle that situation with care and make sure you're applying practically the scriptures to your life it says here in colossians 3 23 whatever you do work at it with all of your heart as working for the lord not for human master since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the lord's reward it is the lord you are serving i love that the bible says this hey look you think you're servant this guy or this lady who's being dishonorable guess what you're not serving him or her you are serving the lord you have you and i we have to have a perspective change on our lives don't stop looking at the posi at the person and look at the position and understand that that position has been put in place by god so when you dishonor the person you dishonor the position you dishonor god but similarly you honor the person on a position you honor god so here's what i want to encourage you uh to do i want to encourage you to choose a social leader in your life choose someone that you're interacting with daily uh or every couple days or weekly and what i want you to do is i want you to write them a note and email text them and tell them how valuable they are to you i would honestly i would encourage you to do that with someone that you're having a really hard time honoring and i want i challenge you watch what god is going to do now the second level that i want to talk about today very quickly is the home the home and honestly i think this is the most challenging thing to talk about for so many people it's not government it's not social it's parents because i know this honor begins in the home and because so many of us we've had some challenging relationship dynamics with our parents it has greatly impacted our relationship dynamics with all other authority which has hindered us from from in doing this honor principle and getting reaping the rewards that comes with it let me tell you what the bible says ephesians 6 2-3 honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may have long life on earth now i want you to hear this okay this is important he says first first commandment with a promise and there's it's twofold there's two parts of this promise the first promise is that it may go well with you which means that you're going to be successful in life and the second part is that you will have long lived long on the earth so you're going to have long life he says look if you honor your parents that there's a promise attached to that you're going to be successful and that you will have a long life now here's what you got to know this isn't a suggestion this isn't a recommendation this is a commandment from god that you and i we honor our moms and our dads and here's what i know we live in a society that has trained us from a very young age consciously or subconsciously to dishonor our parents and i'll tell you how i know this i've got three boys one who's four and he's watching cartoons i never forget it was saturday morning we go downstairs we start watching cartoons he puts on his favorite cartoon and typically i'm in the kitchen or i'm doing some stuff i'm working on some things but say let me just sit down and let's watch this cartoon together have some some father-son time and i was appalled at the conversations that were taking place in this cartoon and they weren't you wouldn't even notice them if you weren't thinking about it but the way that these individuals and these children this cartoon were talking about their parents and their authority it it blew my mind uh for example they would make a joke and call their parents losers right or they would they would say things like you shut up or they would go behind their back and not be obedient just very discreetly um and i remember thinking satan is very tricky he'll do anything he can to steal your blessing from you even if he uses cartoons or some form of media to manipulate you into thinking that it's okay to dishonor your mom and your dad our son was walking around and he was calling me and his mom a loser for the next couple weeks and i was wondering where did he get that and i remembered he got it from this very subtle thing that he was watching you know the enemy's tricky we got to make sure that we're watching what make sure we know what we're watching what we're putting into our ears what we're seeing with our eyes we're putting into our mind because those things will eventually come out so our society at a very young age is teaching us hey you don't have to honor your parents especially if you don't think that they're right or especially if they don't give you what you want or if they've done something to quote destroy your life you don't have to honor them by any means but you know what the bible says something very different than that in fact the bible says this in deuteronomy cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother let me say it again cursed is anyone i don't know about you but if you have a decision to choose between death and life blessings and curses i want to choose life i want to choose blessings but what scripture's telling us is that how you interact with your mom and dad you're choosing blessings or you're choosing curses it says in leviticus 19 every one of you shall revere his mother mother and his father what is revere revere simply means this it means to regard someone with admiration and deep respect and here's the thing we've been talking about these principles of honor these principles overflow in every single area of authority that you interact with whether it's government social home pastoral your peers you honor them it's an honor principle that applies to every single section here and so you need to have a high regard for your parents you need to honor your mom you need to honor your dad maybe they've done some things that are despicable that are wicked um and we're those things we're not validating those things by any means but what we can do is we can honor the position that they've been placed into by god you know there's this example in scripture of noah and his sons uh many of you know noah you can read about it in genesis but the flood comes and you know noah brings his family on the ark and you know the ark lands and they're starting this new life and they're planting and doing all these things this community well one night noah he has a lapse in judgment he makes a bad decision and he gets really really drunk um and what happens is he goes into his tent and he takes his clothes off and he's just laying there naked but what happens is that his son ham walks in sees him in this state remember this is noah noah is his father ham is the son he sees his father in this in this position that is just dishonorable and he has a decision to make and what he decides to do is he decides to go out and to tell everyone what noah has done and to shame his dad well noah's two other sons walk into the room his two other sons were shem and jafeth and this is what it says in genesis 9 23 then shem and jafeth took a robe held it over their shoulders backed into the tent to cover their father as they did this they looked the other way so that they would not see him naked now let me tell you what noah did was wrong but what you have is you have his sons being put in a position of choosing okay noah was wrong but three sons they each have a decision to make they had to choose honor or dishonor one of his sons chose dishonor to talk negatively about his dad but the other two sons chose honor to cover him and not to say anything the next day a curse was pronounced on ham and here's the thing it didn't just impact him it actually impacted all the generations that flowed from his life let me tell you something very very important how you are interacting with authority in your life specifically your parents is going to impact the generation that will flow from you and i don't know if you're a high schooler listening to this out if you're a college student i don't know if you're a young adult and old it doesn't really matter who you are how old you are where you live who your parents were it just doesn't matter because the authority that they have been given has been given from god and if you want to be blessed and experience these blessings you and i we have to honor our mother and our father in fact um god's list of his ten commandments he places them in the in the order of importance and what you see is the first four of the ten commandments are about god the last six are about relationships do you know what the fifth commandment was the first commandment about relationships it was about honoring your father and your mother and you know what dishonoring your parents listen to this was actually placed higher on the ten commandments than murder cheating and stealing now we're not saying those things are okay by any means they're all wrong but i want you to see something that god has placed honoring your your father and your mother higher that he's placed these things in our society that we say oh these are the worst god says no actually when you dishonor authority guys you're just you're not only destroying your life you have the potential to destroy the lives of those who are going to flow through you uh let me just leave you with this challenge tonight i don't know you know what your interaction is with your parents tonight um if you're younger and you're living at home here's my encouragement to you um honor your parents tonight turn off this message and go honor them right now what i mean go clean the kitchen go do the dishes go mow the lawn clean your room sweep mop i don't care it doesn't matter go and honor your parents if you're not living at home and your parents are your distance from your parents or you're living at college your parents in another state doesn't matter i want to challenge you to call your parents tonight and to just tell them you love them and use the words honor in there say you know what i just want to honor you for everything that you've done for me because here's what i know the key to unlocking heaven's blessings in your life here on earth are contingent on our stewardship of honor and so i know that these two these two layers of social and parents and these are challenging because they are the levels of authority that we impact that we interact with daily which is why they're so challenging but the principle is the same honor your parents honor social leaders and watch god do incredible things in your life with your character watch his blessings flow from you as you honor the authority that god's placing if you want to pray for us as we close out and i just want to i want to pray a prayer that we would god would place honor in our hearts i know it's a simple prayer but here's what i want you to do i'ma pray but i want you wherever you're listening or watching if you just close your eyes with me in this moment and you just pray that over your life i don't know the situations and circumstances that you've gone through but we're called to be ministers of reconciliation and honoring someone who has hurt you or harmed you is a part of the ministry of reconciliation and i want to encourage you to lean into what we're listening to and and to pray to fast if you need to but to apply this to your life and let's pray together tonight that god would place honor in our hearts as we honor the authority that he's placed over us god in this moment we thank you for your word we thank you that you speak to every area of our life the most practical levels of our lives our daily living god specifically um our parents and our social leaders and right now father i ask by the power of your holy spirit that every single person that is listening to these words right now that you would place honor in our hearts father that you would remove any bitterness or any anger any hatred any hurt that the enemy has stored up in our hearts you remove it in the name of jesus and right now by the power of your holy spirit you replace that with honor father because we we want to be a great witness for you in our homes in our social spheres of influence our god but most importantly god we want to honor you more than anything else father so we thank you for this very practical lesson help us to apply it in jesus name we pray amen

Channel: THE BLOC

Views: 74

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: church, celebration church, nola, bloc, worship

Id: MGIkT5x0y-E

Length: 25min 22sec (1522 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 24 2020