Kerry Shook - Honoring Others
In this series, we're looking at the "Power of Honor," because honor's the key that unlocks the blessings of God in our lives while dishonor blocks the blessings that God really wants to give each and every one of us. And it all starts, of course, by honoring God, by giving him first place in your life. But honor is also a foundational value that builds strong families and healthy relationships. You see, we honor God by treating each other with value. Now, honor's also an essential glue that holds societies together, but dishonor slowly tears apart the fabric of a society and weakens nations. Unfortunately, today, we live in what has quickly become a culture of dishonor.
Instead of treating each other with honor, we treat each other with anger. Instead of treating each other with respect, we treat each other with rudeness. I mean, rudeness is on the rise, isn't it? Common courtesy's not so common anymore. Look what the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 17: "Show proper respect to everyone". So honoring others means treating everyone with value and respect. Now, focus on the word "everyone". The Bible says we're to treat everyone with honor, everyone: your friends, your spouse, your kids, that jerk that's impossible to get along with at the office, your mother-in-law, unbelievers, everybody. We're to treat everyone with value and respect.
But how in the world do you do that? How do you treat someone with respect that's acting disrespectful? How do you treat someone who's so annoying and selfish with value and respect? How do you do that when some people make it really hard and it feels impossible? Well, fortunately, God's Word tells us how, and it also tells us when we treat everyone with honor, it unlocks the blessings of God in our lives and in our relationships. This is a message that our culture needs desperately. This is a message that we need desperately, because we forget this so many times, how we're to treat everyone with honor.
So I want you to stand in honor of God's Word and let's look at the book of Titus chapter 3. The apostle Paul wrote this book to Titus, one of the leaders of the church and you'll see why.
"Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be big-hearted and courteous. Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient; we were misled by others and became slaves to many evil pleasures and wicked desires. Our lives were full of resentment and envy. We hated others and they hated us. But when the time came for the kindness and love of God our Savior to appear, then he saved us, not because we were good enough to be saved but because of his kindness and pity, by washing away our sins and giving us the new joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us with wonderful fullness, and all because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did so that he could declare us good in God's eyes, all because of his great kindness; and now we can share in the wealth of the eternal life he gives us, and we are eagerly looking forward to receiving it. These things I have told you are all true. Insist on them so that Christians will be careful to do good deeds all the time, for this is not only right, but it brings results".
You can be seated. This passage tells us that treating everyone with honor is not only the right thing to do and God commands it, but it also produces results and opens the door for blessings in your own life. The apostle Paul starts out the passage by telling Titus, a leader of the church, to remind your people. Remind the church, and the only way you're gonna be able to treat everyone with respect and value is to remember some things about God and to remember some things about you that we quickly forget. We have to be reminded of this all the time. I need to be reminded of this all the time, because naturally we just fall into disrespecting people that seem disrespectful, or people that are annoying, people that hurt us, people who are difficult to get along with.
And so, I wanna remind you of some things and I'm reminding myself when I remind you. First, we need to remember that God created everyone, so don't look down on anyone. God created everyone so we don't look down on anyone. In Psalm 8:5 it says: "Yet, you God made them inferior only to yourself. You crown them with glory and honor". The Bible says people are the crown of creation. Even the people that are hardest to love. Even the people who act in the most disrespectful ways. God has created them with honor. Because we're all created by God, we all deserve respect. Now we tend to be respectful to people that we consider more important than us in social status, and we don't give respect to those that we think are below us in social status. But God says be respectful to everyone, whether they're a billionaire or a beggar on the street. God made us all.
Have you ever felt invisible? I mean, maybe you're at a gathering, someone's talking to you but you can tell that they're looking past you. They're not listening to what you're saying. They're looking past you to see if there's anyone else more important in the room, and you feel totally invisible. I think we've all experienced that at times, and we probably have all done that to someone at times. Well, I want you to know that God never treats us that way. He's holding the whole universe together, and yet he's never too busy for you. You may be invisible to others, but not to God. Nothing about you escapes his notice. He sees and cares about everything in your life. And Jesus gives us a really sobering warning if we only treat people that we think are important with respect.
In Matthew 25, Jesus says that at the final judgment everyone who is a Christ follower, who's righteous, will come before him and he'll say, "Hey, you guys enter my perfect heaven of total fulfillment, you know. I want you to come in to my perfect heaven, because when I was hungry you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty you gave me something to that refreshed me. I was homeless and you found a place for me to stay. I needed clothes and you gave me clothes. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison, you came to visit me. And the righteous, it says, will answer, 'Lord, we don't remember that. When did we see you hungry and feed you? We were part of the hunger ministry at our church and we were always doing feedings and we had this amazing food pantry to help the needy. We did all these things but you weren't there, were you? I don't remember you being thirsty. I don't remember that. I mean, we had all these ministries where we were part of refreshing people's spirits and minds and bodies, but I didn't see you there. And when were you homeless, and we got you a place to stay and helped you get back on your feet? I don't remember that. And I was part of a homeless ministry at our church but we didn't help you. And when were you in the hospital? I mean, we used to visit the hospitals through a hospital visitation ministry at our church but I don't think we ever saw you and we certainly don't remember you being in prison. We've had this prison ministry. We'd go to prisons and visit those who were incarcerated and just encourage them, love on them, pray for them, and give them things that would make a difference, like Bibles, but you weren't in prison, Jesus.'"
But then, listen to what Jesus says to them. He says in Matthew 25:40: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me". When you serve and honor someone who can't do anything for you in return, who can't do anything for you in your network in return, you're really serving Jesus. When you treat the forgotten, the nobodies, the overlooked, and the ignored with dignity and honor, you're serving Jesus in disguise. And if you treat the least of these with disrespect, you dishonor Jesus. That's why it's so serious. And that's why we do all these ministries at Woodlands Church for the poor and the powerless, for the hurting, for the broken. Why? Because we're ministering to Jesus Christ, and how fulfilling it is.
You see, we need to remember that God created everyone, so you don't look down on anyone. Everyone you see is someone that God created and created for a purpose. They may not be living their purpose, but they were created for a purpose and God says, "They're valuable because I made them". So we need to remember that. Then we also need to remember to look deeper and see someone that Christ died for. We just look at people on the surface and we judge them, but we don't really look deeper. When we don't look deeper, we always dishonor. We don't treat people with dignity until we take a second look and when we don't look deeper, many times we dehumanize people.
That's why it's so easy to get on the social media platforms and criticize people because we don't really know them and we just go after them and it doesn't feel like it's any big deal. I read a true story about a businessman on the subway coming home from work and in this crowded subway car was a dad with three little kids, and these three little kids were just going crazy and they were running around, they were yelling, they were fighting, and just driving everybody on the subway car crazy, and the worst thing of all is the dad didn't seem to notice or, at least, he didn't care. Well, this businessman said, "I finally just took it upon myself to speak for every one of us in the subway car and I said as nicely as I could, 'Sir, your kids are disturbing everyone here. Could you just make them sit down and quiet down a little?'"
The man looked up for the first time and it was like he was kind of in a trance and he came out of it and said, "Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't even realize it. You see, we just came from the hospital where their mother just passed away and I guess they don't really know how to act right now. I don't really know what to do". The businessman said, "In an instant, my whole perspective about the man changed. All my anger turned to shame and then compassion. For the rest of the trip, the other passengers and I played with the kids, tried to help the dad as best we could".
You see, Jesus said you have to look deeper than the surface to see someone's hurt. By the way, hurt people hurt people. That person that's hurting you, that person that's coming against you in the workplace, that person who's tried to step on you to climb over you in the workplace, that person that lies about you, that person that's hurtful to others, that person that's antagonistic toward God, they hurt. Doesn't give 'em an excuse to act the way they are. But ask God to help you see the hurt because when we look deeper we'll see that they are someone that Christ died for that Christ said, "That person who's hurting you is so valuable to me that I think they're worth dying for".
That's someone Christ died for. That's someone Christ died for. It'll make you invite more people to church when you think about that. I wonder if they know Christ. I wonder if they know Christ. I wonder if they have experienced Christ's forgiveness or I wonder if they're right now on a road that's gonna lead to a Christless eternity, the punishment that we all deserve. I want them to come to know this God of love. You see, we also need to remember that we honor God by respecting authority. This is where it gets a little tougher. Honor God by respecting those in authority. And Titus 3, verse 1 says: "Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be big-hearted and courteous".
This is crucial to unlocking the blessings of God in your life. Learning to respect authority. If you don't learn to place yourself under earthly authorities that God allows to be over you, then you're not under God's authority. And so many young people growing up today have authority issues and it causes all kinds of pain and problems in their life, and until you get rid of your authority issues, you can't be in authority. So we should respect law enforcement, rule of law, our elected and appointed leaders. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't be held accountable. Of course, they should. But we're to respect them. "But wait a minute, Kerry, wait a minute. What if an elected leader is not acting respectable? What do I do them? I mean, they don't deserve respect".
Well, I want you to look at 1 Peter 2:17: "Show proper respect to everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor". Honor the emperor. Focus on that phrase. Respect and honor the emperor. Do you know who the emperor was at that time? Nero, the crazy, godless, evil emperor who burned Rome and blamed it on the Christians. And the early Christians, God told them, "You respect the emperor". Now, he was not respectable, but they respected the position. And they respected and obeyed the law unless it violated Scripture because God always comes before government.
But they would obey the law, they were law-abiding citizens and they would respect those in authority over them, whether they were Christians or not, or godless or not, and they would do the things that they could do to really obey the laws and then when the law would go against God, like, if you're a Christian in a sect than we're gonna persecute and kill you, they just continued to love Jesus. If it's that you're going to pray to one God when there are all these gods, then we're gonna persecute you. They would keep serving the Lord Jesus and loving the Lord Jesus. You see, when it comes to all our elected leaders, state, local, and federal, we are to respect the position.
In our country, we can vote them out of office, and Christians should do our civic duty and vote and be involved in encouraging good leaders to run for office. That is so important. Christians should be involved in every facet of life. Now look at 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2. Says: "Pray for rulers and for all who have authority so that we can have quiet and peaceful lives full of worship and respect for God. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior". Boy, this one's pretty amazing. And sometimes I don't like it very much. It says, "Pray for all the people in authority". Pray for them. Pray for everyone in authority. Pray for all our elected officials, state, local, federal. We need to pray for them. Why? And this is amazing.
So that things go well with you. First, because God commands it, and secondly, because... so things will go well with you and so, you know what? I prayed for President Bush, I prayed for President Obama, I prayed for President Trump, and I pray for President Biden. Why? 'Cause I want things to go well with me. It's a little bit selfish, but God says that's the deal, right there. God says you're to pray for them because I command it. Now, do I like all their policies? No, but I respect the position and I pray for them. I pray that God will protect 'em, watch over them, and turn them toward good policies that make a difference in people's lives and toward godly values, and God'll bless them.
And you know what? God commands me to do that, regardless of party, political position. God commands me to do that so that things will go well with me. It's a powerful thing that I learned a long time ago. Doesn't mean you agree with them. It's not about voting for them, voting against them. It's just doing what God tells us to do. So, they prayed for Nero. Isn't that crazy? So things would go well with them, that God would bless them and strengthen them. But there's a fourth thing we need to remember and it gets even harder. Sorry about this, but I'm preaching to myself. I need to be reminded of it. "Hold on to the truth but don't hate anyone". "Hold on to the truth but don't hate anyone".
Back to Titus 3:3. It says: "Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient; we were misled by others and became slaves to many evil pleasures and wicked desires. Our lives were full of resentment and envy. We hated others and they hated us". See, before you became a Christ follower, it was just natural when someone hated you, when someone did something against you, you hated them. Makes sense, right? That's just natural. But then, once Christ comes into your life, that's not the way it is anymore because he gives you the power when someone hates you to love them anyway. But we have to be reminded of this. To call upon... God, give me the power to love them because they hate me and I feel hateful toward them, but I'm gonna step out and love them.
I'm gonna pray for them. I'm going to not let this hate hurt me. Life's too short to hold on to hate, and so I'm gonna follow you, Jesus, because you promised me blessings. And I'm gonna live in those blessings. But it's just natural. And there'll be people that hate you because you're a Christ follower. I mean, there'll be people that, you know, hate you and think you're doing awful things and hateful things, no matter what you do, no matter how much you love. In Romans 12:9 it says: "Be sure your love is true love. Hate what is sinful. Hold on to whatever's good".
Did you get that? Today in our culture, many times we honor sin. We honor that which is dishonorable. We elevate sin and say it's okay for everybody to do whatever they wanna do because it's all about you. No, it's all about God. To honor the truth, to hate sin, but not the sinner. Says, "Hate sin," but it says, "Have true love in your life". You hate sin because of what it does to people, what it does to communities, families, nations. We hate sin, but we love everyone. See, this is really important because so many times we get back in the natural world and, you know, and it's just so easy today.
When someone hates you for no reason, when someone comes against you for no reason because you're just standing on the truth and you're loving them, it's so easy to let hate build up in your heart. But it only hurts you, and it doesn't show the world that we're any different from anyone else. Now, look what Jesus said. He says, "Hey, don't worry about this. Why are you getting so worked up that a few people hate you"? In John 15:18 Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first". Jesus is saying, "I was the kindest, most loving person who ever lived and they crucified me so why are you worried that someone hates you online? I don't get it". When you hold on to the truth, there will be those who hate you.
Look what Jesus said in Matthew 5:43 through 46. It gets a little harder. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and he gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that"!
The tax collectors were the cheats and they were these government officials that were totally corrupt. But you know, they hung out with their buddies and loved their buddies, loved to hang out with their buddies and do good things with their buddies. And he's saying, "Wait a minute, you know, if", I mean, it's been said and everyone says this, that you hate your enemies and you love your friends. Still the same today. It's the philosophy of everybody, just about. You love your friends, the people who are good to you, and you hate people who are bad to you, your enemies.
But Jesus said, "I want you to know this. I want you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you". And when he said, "persecute," they persecuted Christians, imprisoned them, and killed them. It was persecution, and he's saying, "Hey, if they hate you, if they come against you, if someone that you trust stabs you in the back, you're to pray for them". Now, it doesn't mean you need to trust them again. It doesn't mean that you don't stand against 'em when they come against you, with lies, you know. Yet, but you pray for them.
I'm going, "God, how in the world? Oh, I get it. If someone hurts me, I get, I'm supposed to pray. I get it, God. Well, God, you know they hurt me, but I'm gonna do what you said. I'm gonna pray that you strike them with a bolt of lightning and turn them around. God, it's for their own good. Don't kill 'em, don't kill 'em. Put 'em in the hospital for about 2 weeks until they wake up and they see what a wonderful person I am". I mean, that's what we wanna pray.
And I remember years ago there was someone that I trusted and they hurt me and started saying lies about me and I was, like, "What? I don't even understand. I mean, I'm such a wonderful person. How could they say", it really just bothered me. And they just, "for a few days I was just filled with anger and, like, this is not right. I don't know", and it really distracted me from my purpose. It really just, you know, took away all my happiness, and finally I remembered that passage and I got down on my knees and I just said, "God, bless 'em. Bless 'em. Bless 'em. Bless 'em beyond measure". I didn't mean it that much at first, but I just obeyed. And all of a sudden, it was like a huge weight lifted and I really felt love for them and it's like I was back on purpose.
Jesus said, "Don't worry about it. Pray for them. Pray for them, for your sake. Pray for them, then you'll be like your Father in heaven, God himself, your heavenly Father". And I love how he says, "Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you"? But God will reward you if you love your enemies and pray for them. You see, what I'm talking about today is where the rubber meets the road. This is all supernatural stuff that I can't do. Naturally, I hate people who hate me. Naturally, I don't wanna pray for people who hurt me. I mean, naturally, you know, I just wanna get back at them. But God says, "I want you to live supernaturally with my power, 'cause that's the only way you're gonna make a difference in life that really lasts for eternity. It's the only way you're gonna find fulfillment".