Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] In the, in the prayer time, there was really this reverence for, for God's kingdom.
[00:00:12] And Pete preached or spoke about the Psalm 145, that it's an enduring kingdom that has dominion forever and ever.
[00:00:25] And what, what Sean brought up as well is very in line with, with what I'm preaching about, about how our posture and, and submission, actually, when we do that, when we go low and are humble and submitted to the ways and the kingdom of God, that we actually lift him, lift him high.
[00:00:50] And we've been on a bit of a journey from, from Easter, Pete preached about sonship and just how we find our identity, a new identity, there's transformation. And then last week he spoke about the, the family structure and just how there's submission and the flow of the authority in the kingdom.
[00:01:16] So we saw in that, that as a husband would submit himself to Christ, that there's a flow of Christ's authority, who has all authority, been given all authority by the Father.
[00:01:29] Now, as the husband, he submits himself, or a man submits himself to Christ, there's an authority that flows to him. And as a wife submits herself to the order of Christ, the structure that God has placed within the family, which is a wife, to submit to her husband, that there's a grace, a protection that starts to flow in that.
[00:01:53] And then finally he ended off with Ephesians 6, verses 1 to 3.
[00:01:59] And it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
[00:02:05] Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment, with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.
[00:02:15] And we see that for children there's this concept of honour, that as parents, we are to teach our children this concept of honour and to obey that if they can obey in the family structure, if they can honour within the family structure, that as they grow, they'll start to learn this concept or this key that God is trying to create.
[00:02:42] For as they grow and go into the world, that this concept or this key of honour is so important for children that they don't rebel against authority because all authority comes from God.
[00:02:57] So I want to look at the broader concept of honour and submission and how this brings reward of the kingdom into our lives.
[00:03:07] So throughout Scripture, we see that honour and submission, where honour and submission are present, blessing, protection, inheritance and authority of the kingdom begin to flow.
[00:03:22] So before we go into that, we need to understand that when we talk about submission in the Bible, it's not about oppression in as much as it's actually alignment so when God says submission, he's just saying align, align yourself with my flow. This is my principle, this is my kingdom, this is my structure. And as I ask you to submit, there's a flow that you'll enter into.
[00:03:52] So let's look at the definition of honor. And it's a Greek word in the, in the Bible that says spelled like time.
[00:04:03] And it means weighty value, price and respect, like we would value gold. So it's a weighty value that we place on something.
[00:04:15] And so honor is to recognize something's value.
[00:04:18] And then the definition of dishonor is the complete opposite. And it's atime a meaning without. And then tim honor value or worth.
[00:04:31] And it's treating something as common.
[00:04:34] Atme means disgrace or shame.
[00:04:38] To treat with contempt.
[00:04:40] So that's to treat someone or something as worthless, Worthless.
[00:04:45] And this is where we get the saying familiarity breeds contempt. When we become familiar with something, maybe we've got lots of money, we don't actually value the worth of money. Or we around somebody, even though they're in authority, we can live in their house and we can become familiar with them. And the value or honor that is due to that person we can start to see as common.
[00:05:15] And this breeds contempt or worthlessness.
[00:05:19] So honor is to value esteem, treat with respect and submission, and dishonour is to treat with contempt something as worthless or valueless.
[00:05:34] And in Matthew 15:8 we note that honor, true honor, is a heart posture.
[00:05:43] So Jesus says this. He says, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips. They speak as if he's worthy, but their heart is far from me.
[00:05:59] So true honour is not merely words or outward actions. It is a posture of our heart.
[00:06:09] So now, before we go into the reward of honor, I'd like to actually give an example of dishonour.
[00:06:18] And in this we can go to mark 6, verses 1 to 5.
[00:06:26] And this is when Jesus, he goes to his hometown, Nazareth. And actually just before this, we see that Jesus is going and he raises Jairus daughter from the dead. So there's miracles, there's power that he's walking in, there's anointing that he's walking in. And there's a lady who touches just the hem of his garment, and her infirmity that she's been carrying for 12 years is gone like this.
[00:06:56] So there is absolute power. So God is coming, Jesus is coming with the anointing, the mandate and the authority of the kingdom. And he's coming to his hometown, Nazareth.
[00:07:07] And it says this Then he went out from there and came to his own country. And his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath had come, he began to preach in the synagogue. And many hearing him were astonished, saying, where did this man get these things?
[00:07:26] And what wisdom is this, that which is given him? And such mighty works are performed by his hands. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Jose? So you see the worth, the value that they're crediting him. Is he not just that simple tradesman? Is he not just that carpenter, that commoner, his aunt, his sisters among us here, we all the same here.
[00:07:53] So who is this man?
[00:07:55] And it says that they were offended by him. And this offense is because what he was preaching was. He was preaching that the Spirit of God is upon me. He was preaching in the synagogue. He was saying, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach good tidings. And so he was basically pointing out that he was the Messiah.
[00:08:21] But everybody that had gone to synagogue for years and years and heard this prophetic message of this Messiah that's coming, they were expecting this great king that would overthrow Rome. That's what they were looking for. So the expectation that they were looking for was this great man, not a carpenter. And that's why they're saying, isn't this just the carpenter?
[00:08:46] But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.
[00:08:57] Now, he could do no mighty work there, because they except he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
[00:09:09] So verse 5. I've looked at it in other versions as well. So there it says, he could do no mighty work there, the ESV says, and he could do no mighty work there, except he laid hands. Then Amplified says, and he could do. He could not do a miracle there at all, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people, the NLT says, and because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on. On a few sick people.
[00:09:46] And so we see that these people who didn't place a value or a reverence on Jesus completely stopped the flow of the kingdom.
[00:09:56] Their posture of dishonour towards him without valuing him, completely stopped the flow of the kingdom into that territory.
[00:10:13] So now I'd like to look at a couple of examples of honor and the reward that we receive in that.
[00:10:19] So let's go to Matthew 8, verses 6 to 10, and we learn about the Centurion.
[00:10:27] And he comes to Jesus and he says, lord, my servant is laying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Now understand, the centurion is a captain of a hundred men.
[00:10:50] He has authority of Rome, over a hundred men. And he is coming to a carpenter and he is saying, I am not worthy of having you under my roof. I don't submit to your kingdom, I recognize your works, I see your works and I understand something.
[00:11:09] And so he saw the value in Jesus and he said, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed, for I also am a man under authority. So he recognized that Jesus is under some form of authority. And he's saying, I also am am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go. And he goes, and to another come. And he comes, and to my servant do this. And he does it.
[00:11:41] When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And we need to understand, we're talking about John the Baptist was in Israel, we're talking about the mother of Jesus, Mary in Israel. But Jesus is saying, assuredly, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.
[00:12:11] And so the centurion, he didn't see a carpenter, he saw a man doing works that was backed by an authority of a kingdom.
[00:12:23] And what he's saying is that when I say to one of my soldiers, go, I'm under submission to my commanding officer who is backed by Rome. And so when I speak, I'm backed by the kingdom of Rome. And he's saying, I recognize that you are a man under authority because you carry authority. You just say the word and my servant will be healed.
[00:12:49] And we see that the posture of this centurion in valuing and truly honouring Jesus, he got a full reward and his servant was healed.
[00:13:00] Another example we can look at is in the book of Ruth.
[00:13:07] Ruth 1, verses 15 to 16.
[00:13:10] And this is Ruth.
[00:13:13] We understand that they were outside of where Israel was living at the time and her husband has just died.
[00:13:22] And it says, and she said, this is Naomi. And she said, look, your sister in law has gone back to her people and her gods return after your sister in law.
[00:13:33] But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following you.
[00:13:40] Following after you, for wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.
[00:13:46] Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
[00:13:50] And we see the submission honouring our father and mother. We see the reward that flows in this is that she honoured Naomi and she respected her. She listened to everything that she said. Naomi is the one who said, go and approach Boaz. And she listened to that. And in that we see a full reward. There was redemption, there was covenant. She came into covenant and her whole inheritance from being lost was completely restored. And so we see this posture of honor and how the kingdom can flow through it.
[00:14:29] The next example is with Abraham and Melchizedek. And in Genesis 14, verses 18 to 20, and this we see that Abraham has just gone to rescue Lot from the four kings that have overthrown Sodom and Gomorrah. And obviously he's got the whole loot of war.
[00:14:53] And now he's coming out from this place.
[00:14:56] And it says, then Melchizedek, King of Salem, bought out bread and wine.
[00:15:03] He was the priest of God Most High. And. And he blessed Abraham, blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of God most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
[00:15:20] And Abraham gave him a tithe of all. Now, this is before the priesthood. This is before any law. He gave him a tithe of all the spoils of war.
[00:15:32] And we see that sometimes when we've been given a breakthrough or victory, God actually presents an opportunity to honour him.
[00:15:44] And we see in this that as Abraham submitted to who he recognized was the man of God, the priest of God, he submits and gives a tithe of all. There's a covenant blessing that falls over the whole lineage of, of Abraham, which we learn we have all come into.
[00:16:02] And there was a priestly anointing that flowed because he submitted to a priest. Melchizedek was a priest, and we know that Levi was a priest. And so all the tithes then went to Levi. In the Old Testament.
[00:16:17] And there is a concept of honoring when we go through victories, when we see there's a victory, we are to look for a way to honor God. We need to honor and respect God. And we read about this in Proverbs 3, verses 9 and 10. It says, Honour the Lord with your possessions. And I'm not just talking about victories and possessions, but this is an example. Honour the Lord, value him with your possessions and with the first fruits of your increase, so that your barns may be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow.
[00:16:56] And so we see these examples of the centurion, Ruth and Abraham, and that honour and submission creates alignment with heaven and that there is a reward for those who honor.
[00:17:15] Now I want to take a look at God's household.
[00:17:19] And just as there's order in a family structure, we read in God's word that there is order in the household of God.
[00:17:28] And let's just establish that we are in the household first. So Ephesians 2:19 says, now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. So we are all members of the household of God. And it says fellow citizens. So this means we've got identity just as we've got a passport. We are fellow citizens of the household of God. And as a citizen we need to recognize that we backed by the kingdom. There's a huge authority, blessing, protection that comes over your citizens. If you go and unfairly arrest an American citizen in this country and torture him in jail, you'll have, he will have the whole backing of America and Trump will throw some bombs.
[00:18:31] So I just want to look at this, the structure.
[00:18:36] In 1 Corinthians 4, verses 14 and 17, we see that just as God has placed fathers in the household to have authority over the children and the wife, we see that in his household it says this, I do not write these things to you. This is Paul to shame you. But as my beloved children, I warn you. For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers.
[00:19:09] For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. So the gospel is the new creation. We're born again into a new household, a new family structure.
[00:19:21] Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. This is a father of the house saying, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord. And we recognize this, that in the household of God we should be looking for those who have the anointing of God, the authority of God to actually direct us. Being faithful sons and daughters in the household of God, asking them, where am I going astray? How can I position myself better for the works of God? This is how we are faithful.
[00:19:58] And we see this, that Timothy, who is beloved and a faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ and teach everything as I teach everywhere and in every church. So Paul's going around the place, but he's raised up a son who knows his ways, that he's now instructed to go into other churches.
[00:20:24] And just as we read this morning in the qualification for overseers, 1 Timothy 3, 4, 5 says, this should be one who rules his own household well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And so God appoints faithful men to lead his house and family structure.
[00:21:02] And so this is what the Bible says about our posture in the church.
[00:21:07] In Hebrews 13:17, it says, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, not for oppression, but for alignment.
[00:21:17] For they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that will be unprofitable for you. Or you could say, there's no reward in that. There's no reward in not being submissive to the authority structure that God has placed in his house. They didn't get there by choice, they got there by recognition.
[00:21:43] And it's God who appoints authority in his household.
[00:21:48] In 1 Timothy 5, 17, it says, Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And so we will see. There are certain men who have given up their lives for the sake of the Gospel, and they're not out there in the marketplace earning a living. They've actually committed their whole lives to the Word and the preaching and the counseling and everything that God is calling them to do in his house. And so, and it goes on further to say that you should not muzzle an ox while he treads the grain. So while these guys are working among us, we count them worthy of double honor. We even reward them financially, knowing that they don't have the ability to to go out into the marketplace to go and work they working in the household of God. And so look for those men who have given themselves completely to this, and those men are worthy of double honor.
[00:22:55] So now that we've looked at leaders, I'd like to look at how the principle of honour extends to every believer within the body of Christ.
[00:23:04] And in Matthew 10, verses 40 and 41, it says, he who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.
[00:23:18] So as I receive you, and I understand that Christ is in you, I receive Christ, and whoever receives Christ receives the one who sent him. Now we know that the Father has given Christ all authority. So there's a flow that as we recognize each and every believer and the Christ in them, and as we receive Christ in them, we Receive the one who sent, and so the full authority and backing of Christ. And it goes on and says, he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.
[00:23:56] Now, the grace of a prophet did not just come with somebody who's just called a prophet. It's a person that God has given a grace and ordained as a prophet in the house. So as we receive a prophet and in the name of a prophet, we receive a prophet's reward. And it goes on and says, he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
[00:24:26] And it even goes on. We won't go much into the civil authorities, but we understand that all authority is appointed by God. The president, the structure, the governing authorities, the civil servants, the police.
[00:24:42] All that authority is actually God's structure. And as we submit to them as servants, God, we don't recognize the man, we recognize the position as we recognize that they are a servant of God. We receive the authority of God coming through their chair. But it comes through honour. And how many of us use words to dishonour the civil servants? How many of us dishonour the president? How many times have we dishonored with our words or slander or whatever, or rumors or gospel? Those things have to stop. It is a foothold for the enemy to gain hold of his kingdom.
[00:25:25] God's kingdom flows through honor. And so that's why it says, pray for your leaders. If you see something wrong, pray. Lord, I honor this. I honour the chair. I honor the position and pray for that man.
[00:25:43] In 1 Peter 4:10, we recognize that each one of us has been given a gift.
[00:25:51] It says, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another. Minister, offer it up as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So it's by the grace of God, the gift of God, that we receive a gift, each and every one of us. And therefore we should be looking for the gift of God in each and every one of us.
[00:26:22] And as we recognize the gift and the grace of God on people's lives, we fan it into flames.
[00:26:29] We encourage that gift in them. We say, that when you do that is absolutely amazing. I. I see Christ in you.
[00:26:36] And as we submit to that, the kingdom flows from that, from that place. So each and every one of us has a gift.
[00:26:45] And Ephesians 5:21 confirms this. It says, submitting yourselves one to another in the reverence or fear of God.
[00:26:56] So we are to recognize the value, the gift and the grace that God has placed in each and every person.
[00:27:02] And we are to submit and have reverence for that, encourage that out of the fear of God from the one who has planted it there. The one who has all authority has given that gift.
[00:27:19] In 1 Corinthians 12, 2731, it says unity and diversity in one body.
[00:27:27] Now you are the body of Christ and members individually and God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers.
[00:27:39] After that, miracles and gifts of healing helps administrations, variety of tongues.
[00:27:44] Are all prophets? Are all apostles? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
[00:27:51] Do we all have gifts of healing?
[00:27:53] And all this is spelling out is that we rely on each other.
[00:27:59] That's all that this is all coming to. It's saying that these gifts are evident in the body of Christ. But do all carry the gift of prophecy? We should desire it, but not the office of prophet.
[00:28:13] Do all have the gift of healing? No. But as we recognize it in somebody, we call that person, we honor them and say, wow, when you pray, you've got the faith that, that lifts people out of wheelchairs. We honor you. We want to learn from you.
[00:28:30] So all of this is that we actually value and honor one another.
[00:28:37] And this is what we, what we learn is that the, the position of submission and honor and valuing one another and the gifts that each one of us possess is actually where we will get the reward and the flow of the kingdom.
[00:28:54] And this is a really good time to, to bring this up because we are going into strength finders and we read in Psalm 139 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one of us has, has an individual fingerprint.
[00:29:12] And this is just shows the glory of God that each one of us can be so unique in who we are. And the strength finders actually shows this. We start to see that each one of us possess different strengths. And we did this last year and I found it so helpful to know the strengths in people and submit to the strengths, honour them for their strengths, release them in their strengths, knowing that this is a God given strength. And as we do, we get the reward of that. This is a grace, this is a strength. And we understand that your strength will cover my weakness and my strength will cover yours. And so today I want that we are looking for the God given graces within each other and that we are valuing, that we are encouraging that and that we are honoring each other.
[00:30:09] Amen.
[00:30:12] Can I pray?
[00:30:17] Lord Jesus, we just come before you and we thank you that you've given us this covenant, that you've invited us into your household, into your family. That you've restored relationship with a father who calls us his children. Thank you for the unique qualities, gifts and grace that you've given each and every one of us. I pray that you open our eyes to see the grace and the value in each one, Lord. Lord, that we truly value one another. We cannot do this alone. We need a body.
[00:30:51] And Lord, we want each and every person to feel the value and be honored for their place in the body.
[00:30:59] So, Holy Spirit, we ask that you would move in the next few weeks and months to come, Lord, that we would really establish this virtue of honor towards one another. That we would love one another, respect one another and dig out that beauty, that treasure, that grace, that gift that you've put in each one of us. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus name, amen.
