Honor's Reward

You may be seated. Today I'm gonna open up with the words of the Apostle John. He actually was in his 90s when he penned these words. That is absolutely amazing. You know, he started following Jesus when he was a teenager. He was a heart of God person, right? I said last night, you are forever 21, this church. That's where the store got the idea. They heard about Heart of God, they came, they said, oh, we're gonna name a store and call it Forever 21. Because for years I've been coming here and you're 21. Seriously, I asked Pastor Howell, what's the average age of the church? 21.7, I'm like, how do you stay there for 10 years? He says, we have to work very hard to do that. But anyway, John is in his 90s when he pens these words. And you know what happens when somebody gets to be that age? They're very, very careful with what they write. And I've noticed that when people get to be that age and they have walked in the faith for years faithfully, they can say a whole lot in a few words. And do you know two entire books have come out of this one verse? So look at this verse, 2 John 1.8. John says, look to yourselves, everybody shout, myself. So you can see immediately this message is not for the person sitting next to you, it is for you. That we do not lose those things we work for. That's a pretty sobering statement right there.

But, everybody say but, that we may receive a full reward. Now everybody shout reward. How many of you know God is a rewarder? I mean, come on, you know, you watch the way he introduces himself to Abraham in the Bible, it's amazing. He appears to this guy, he falls over and he gets him up and he says, Abraham, I am your shield, you're exceeding great reward. What a way to introduce yourself to somebody when you are God. If your neighbor says, I'm your reward, big deal. If God says, I'm your reward, that's pretty significant, right? Okay, but the thing that got my attention here is the fact that John just doesn't say reward. He says specifically, full reward. So one day I'm reading this verse and all of a sudden, it just, the light goes on and I go, wait a minute, for him to specifically say full reward means what? That means there is a partial reward scenario and there is a no reward scenario. Isn't it interesting that John doesn't write and say, hey, live in a way that you're gonna get a partial reward. Why doesn't he write that? Because listen, God, God wants you to receive the full reward. Can I say the more I become a father, the more I realize because you wanna see your children be rewarded, right? But as a wise father, you know what I've learned? You don't reward your children

unless they've earned it or deserve it. Now don't get me wrong, salvation is free. You can never earn it or deserve it. But there is things beyond salvation and it's called rewards from heaven. That's what we're gonna talk about today. Are you with me? And so of course, John here is speaking about the judgment seat of Christ. That's where we will be rewarded for how we lived as believers. That's why you wanna live well as a believer. But Proverbs, the book of Proverbs tells us that godliness has the reward of the life that now is and is to come. Actually, Ephesians says that. Or excuse me, I'm off again. First Timothy says that, right? That godliness has the reward of this life and the life to come. And Proverbs says that the righteous will be rewarded on the earth. So one day I'm thinking, okay, I get it on the eternity part, but I don't get it on the earth part. Does that make sense? Here's this apostle in his 90s, heavy words, and he's saying, live in a way that you will get a full reward on this earth. So it puzzled me and I started praying about it

and I thought, okay, where do you see a picture of the will of God on the earth? You see it in the life and ministry of Jesus. And what I did is I started meditating on the gospels in the light of this scripture. And what happened was I started seeing people in the ministry of Jesus that received full rewards from heaven. I saw others that received partial rewards and still I saw others who got nothing. And all of a sudden I am now starting to see a thread running through all these different scenarios and that thread is what I'm gonna share with you today. So in order to do so, let me go through some of the situations here with Jesus's ministry. Let me start out first with Mark chapter six. In Mark six, we got Jesus and he is coming to a city that is actually looking for the Messiah. They are anticipating his coming. They know it's the season of his coming. He comes to this city and look what we read here in the fifth verse. Now he could. do no mighty work there Except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them Now you have to understand in other cities. He's opening up the eyes of the blind It's causing deaf people to hear causing crippled people to walk But he comes to this city and just a few headaches are getting healed in his ministry maybe a bad back a minor case of arthritis But not near the miracles that were happening in the other cities But as I was reading this verse one morning the words he could do no mighty work

Jumped up off the page, and I went whoa whoa whoa? The Bible doesn't say he wouldn't do any mighty work. I can handle that that deals with his will the Bible says he couldn't Do any mighty work? Now the Amplified makes it so clear the Amplified says he was not able Man when I saw this that morning, I pushed my Bible back. I said hold it Jesus you're the Son of God Yet you come to a city and you're restrained How many of you know we got to understand what would restrain Jesus because if we understand what restrains Jesus we understand what restrains us So I started praying I said God you got to show me Why was he not able Why was he restrained and I found the answer in the previous two verses The people said is this not the carpenter the son of Mary the brother of James Joseph Judas and Simon are they are not his sisters Here with us, so they were offended at him But Jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor Everyone say honor Say it again except in his own country among his own relatives and In his own house So the whole situation here what's restraining them is the fact that they withheld honor from him Now this word honor is an amazing word I have done extensive study I've talked to Greek speaking fluent ministers. I've read every concordance. I can get my hands on about this word It's the Greek word to me now you we would say time but it's pronounced by a Greek person to me The literal definition of this word is a valuing so when you speak of honor to a Greek person They will think of something that is valuable something that is weighty something that is precious, right? Something like gold Right, how many of you know, you don't put gold in a drunk drawer. Do you have drunk drawers? We do Lisa and I do that's not good. Right? Yeah, I have this one drawer in my room. It's my junk drawer Anything I don't want to take the time to figure out if I want to keep it or throw it away I just throw it in a junk drawer You don't put gold in your junk drawer you put in a place of value

Do you see that other definitions of this word are to appreciate to esteem to favorably regard to respect? Now what I have learned in all my years of reading the Bible Sometimes you can understand better what a word is by looking at what it is. Not The antonym of honor is dishonor. It is the Greek word. Ah to me, which simply means this To treat as common Okay. Now now this really tells us a lot So to dishonor someone is to treat him as ordinary or common Does that help you understand the word honor See, so now honor you attach what great value weight to it. See what I'm saying Okay To not show respect to not value in some of the major Greek dictionaries that I studied I Discovered that honor and this is amazing. You really need to hear this Honor can be displayed in word in action even in thought But now listen all true honor originates from the heart This is why Jesus says in Isaiah 29 13 these people they draw near to me with their mouths they honor me with their lips But their hearts they have removed far from me their reverence towards me is taught by the precepts of men what she what God is saying through the prophet is My people have the actions of honor the words of honor the songs of honor, but they don't have true honor because true honor Originates from the heart and is an outflow of the reverential fear of the Lord So what's happening here is Jesus comes to his hometown Now now now listen And he gets up on the Sabbath the whole city is in this synagogue Okay And he goes over and he grabs the scroll of Isaiah and he opens it up and he says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me for he's anointed me to heal, right? And everybody in that place knew that scripture, right?

So nothing's out of the ordinary until he closes the scroll and he drops a bomb on them by saying this day is the scripture fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, I am the Messiah. Now, when he says that the dads and the moms are looking at each other going, what? He went to school with my daughter, Sally. He built a table and chairs in my kitchen. So what are they doing? They're withholding honor. He's just the neighborhood boy. You know what's interesting? They knew from the same prophet Isaiah that Isaiah wrote this, for unto us a child is born, a son is given, the government will rest upon his shoulders and of his kingdom, there'll be no end. So they know that Messiah is gonna come as a warring, conquering king that's gonna deliver them from Roman oppression and rule. That's the way they read that scripture. But when Jesus came as somebody who made their furniture and now he's got a bunch of prostitutes following him and he grew up down the street, they withheld honor from him. Do you know what that tells me? That many times God will send you what you need in a package you don't want. See, it's easy to honor somebody you perceive to be great but they perceived him to be the neighborhood boy.

They withheld honor. What was the result? A few bad backs got healed, a minor case of arthritis but no blind eyes were open in Nazareth. All because they withheld honor from Jesus. And it all dealt with the way they perceived him. You tracking with me? If you go to Luke's gospel, the fifth chapter, you've got a bunch of actually leaders in a room. It's actually a pretty big room because there's a couple hundred of them. And the Bible says, because the Bible says there's a multitude of them. So it had to be at least a couple hundred. And Jesus is teaching these guys. And the Bible says, as he taught them, the power of the Lord was there to heal them. Everybody say them. Them. Who is them? The teachers and the preachers, the leaders. Now, how many of you know God never wastes anything? Him. So if the power of the Lord's there to heal them, that means at least somebody needed to get, one person needed to get healed. And to be honest with you, when you're in a room of 300 people, there's usually a half a dozen or a dozen people that need to get healed.

But you know what's interesting? None of them got healed, even though the power of the Lord was there to heal them. It wasn't until some men couldn't get in the building because it was so packed out. They let, they broke open the roof, let down a paralytic on ropes. And the Bible said, when Jesus saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven you. Now, when Jesus says, man, your sins are forgiven you, the teachers and the preachers just think this. So I want to make it really clear. They're not looking at each other going, Ralph, can you believe this? No, Fred, this is, this is unbelievable. No, no, no, no. They just think this. Who is this that can forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins. And you know what the Bible says? When Jesus knew their thoughts, he said to them, what's just easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk so that you know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He looks at the paralytic and says, get up and walk. Guy gets up and walks out. And you know what the Bible says? All those teachers and preachers, all those leaders were greatly amazed.

They were greatly amazed, but none of them got healed, even though the power of the Lord was originally there to heal them. So they got no reward from heaven because they dishonored Jesus just in their thinking. If you go to Matthew eight, you've got a officer of the Roman army. He's a centurion. He comes to Jesus. Jesus is walking between towns and the man looks at him and says, sir, my servant is dreadfully tormented with sickness. Would you please heal him? Jesus looks at the officer of the Roman army and says, I'll come. I'm going to heal your servant. The officer immediately says, no, no, no, no, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. Now, wait a minute, I'm not worthy. This is the conqueror speaking to the conquered. Rome had conquered Israel. This is an officer of the Roman army speaking to a Jewish carpenter. Do you see the honor he shows Jesus? And then he gives the reason behind his honor. He says, because I also listen to the word also am a man under authority. And because I'm under authority, I have authority. So I say to this soldier, go and he goes, I say one word to that soldier, he does it. And the Bible says when Jesus heard this. He marveled because you know what the soldier said. He said, because it's that way with me, I know all you have to do is say one word and that demon's got to leave my servant. Just like I say one word and my soldiers obey me.

And when Jesus heard this, he marveled. Now, when Jesus marvels, it gets my attention. Think about it. God marveled. OK, and Jesus looks at the crowd and says, I have not found this much faith in all of Israel. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you hear what he just said? Jesus just said, I found more faith in this Roman officer than John the Baptist. He found John the Baptist in Israel or my mother, Mary or the twelve. Now, I'm a man of faith and you are people of faith here, and I know the Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, I'd be willing to bet, and I would win this bet. That this Roman officer heard far less scriptures than John the Baptist, yet he had more faith than John the Baptist. Why? Because of his understanding of honor and authority. His servant was instantly healed and he received a full reward. And he received a full reward. Because he showed Jesus great honor from his heart. I could go on and on and on. I could talk to you about the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus basically called her a dog. I'm so glad she wasn't American. She would have said, you call me a dog? Oh, I get it. The cameras aren't here. The crowds aren't here. You're alone in this house. You call me a dog. I come to you pleading for my daughter's life. What kind of minister are you? I'm out of here. He called her a dog. She was begging for him to heal her daughter. And the Bible says he didn't even answer her.

So I want you to get a picture of this. She's on her knees. She's on her knees. She's begging Jesus, please heal my daughter. And he looks at her and he says, it's not right to give the children's bread to little dogs. Calls her a dog. She looked at him and said, yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. So she honored him. Now, Jesus never dishonored anyone. But it appeared that way. But he wasn't. He knew how to draw faith out of people. Think about that. If a leader doesn't speak to you the way you want it be spoken to, maybe God is trying to use him or her to pull something out of you. He's he smiles and says, oh, woman, your faith is so great. And that moment, that hour, her daughter was healed. Because she honored him, even when it appeared he dishonored her. So you'll see this all through the Gospels, right? So you come all the way to one week before Jesus is crucified. And Jesus makes the most amazing statement in Luke's Gospel. The 13th chapter, the 35th verse. He says, I tell you, you will not see me, Jesus, again, until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, I'm going away. I will be crucified next week. You will not see me, Jesus Christ, again, until you say to the one I send you, blessed is he or she who comes in the name of the Lord.

In other words, I'm going away. And you're not going to see me, Jesus, again, until you honor the one I sent you. Until you honor the one I send you in my name. Why? Because he says this over and over again in the Gospels. Here's one example, John 13, 20. He who receives, and I'm going to replace the word with receives with honors, because they're one in the same. He who honors whomever I send honors me. Me is Jesus here. And he who honors me, Jesus, honors the Father who sent me. And God gives us the spiritual law, 1 Samuel 2, 31. One, God says, those who honor me, I will honor them. Those who lightly esteem me, God said, I will lightly esteem them. How do you lightly esteem God? By lightly esteeming the person that Jesus sends us, we lightly esteem the Father. Excuse me, we lightly esteem Jesus. By lightly esteeming Jesus, we lightly esteem the Father. And the Father says, I'll lightly esteem you. It's not a great idea when you need a prayer answer. You see this all over the Gospels. This is towards the end of his ministry. Let's go to the beginning of his ministry, Matthew 10. Jesus says, he who honors you honors me. He who honors me honors him who sent me. Are you seeing this? He who receives, let's replace the word receives with honors.

He who honors a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's what? Everybody shout it. No, no, no, shout it. What's the first scripture we read? See that you receive a full reward. OK, keep reading. And he who honors a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's what? Oh, my goodness. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water honors them. In the name of a disciple assuredly I say to you, he should by no means lose his what? What is Jesus talking about here? He's talking about the three levels of human beings you'll ever come in contact with. Every human being you ever meet falls under one of these three categories. What are the three categories? Our leaders, OK? Our peers. When he said righteous man, he's talking about our peers. That's most of the people we meet. And then what is he talking about when he says little ones? Those are the people who are entrusted to our care. Honoring each of these three levels of human beings that you meet will bring a certain reward from heaven. Why? Because Jesus said, you've done it

to the least of these my brothers, you've done it to me. And what you've done to me, you've done to the Father. And the Father shall do to you. So what, wow. So what are, let's talk. Let's talk about these three levels, all right? First of all, he says prophet. Everybody say prophet. Now, I'm not going to take the time to do this. I do this in the book Undercover. But you can easily span this word prophet, because he's specifically talking about church authority here, you can span it out to the other three areas of authority that God's placed over each of our lives. Does anybody remember last night the four areas of delegated authority God's put over each of our lives? Right, civil. What's that? That's your prime minister, your parliament, right down to the policeman on the street, right? Family authority, the husband's the head of the home, the wife is to obey her husband, children are, excuse me, wife is to submit to the husband, children are to obey their parents. Social authorities, that's our bosses, teachers, and coaches. Bible talks about that, I'll show you, all right? And then the final one, which Jesus specifically referred to when he said prophet, is church authority. OK?

Remember I made a statement last night, some of you weren't here. I have found Westerners are some of the hardest people on the earth to communicate the things of God to, and it's very simple. We are a people trying to understand kingdom principles with a democratic mindset. The kingdom of God is not a democracy, it is a kingdom. It has rank, order, and authority. If you try to relate with God with a democratic mindset, you will not connect with God. You'll be on two different playing fields. He's actually a real king, and there is rank, order, and authority in his kingdom. This is why a man who has no covenant, you've got to remember, Gentiles had no covenant with God. This is why a man with no covenant with God can receive a full reward from heaven because of his understanding of authority. Are you seeing that? There are sins in the Bible that really fall under two categories, sins against God's holiness and sins against his authority. I find in the Bible the sins against his authority are more severely judged than sins even against his holiness. Saul disobeys God's authority. He loses his kingdom. David commits adultery. He doesn't lose his kingdom.

Noah gets drunk, falling down drunk and laying naked. His son merely criticizes his dad, sins against authority, and he's cursed. And Noah's bragged about in Hebrews 11. Now, don't get me wrong. You don't ever want to do either sin. There are consequences for both, okay? So don't ever take that as a license. But what I am saying is I find in the scripture it very interesting that sins against the authority of God are more severely judged than even sins against His holiness. This is why we don't get certain things from the word of God because we have a democratic mindset. If I don't like it, I'm gonna protest. I'm gonna complain. You just lost your reward from heaven. Getting this? All right, so let's talk about civil authority because I need to make sure I get through this, all right? All right, so what does the Bible say about civil authorities? I read this last night for rulers. Civil authorities are not to be feared by those who do good but by those who do evil because they are God's servants. Yeah, did you see what I just read? God's servants. Who's God's servants? Civil authorities.

Working for your own good. Several years ago, I was in the gym in Colorado Springs working out, right? And there's a guy and a girl working out next to me and I mean, man, they're in shape. And I'm like beefing it up a little watching them, right? And I get to talking to this guy and girl and I found out he's a policeman in Colorado Springs. She's a policewoman. Well, I immediately, when I found that out, said, man, the respect that I have for both of you in my heart is enormous because the Bible says you're God's servants. Policeman went, dude, seriously? I said, yeah, seriously. He said, God calls me one of his servants? I said, yeah, it's in Romans 13. He said, I'm tattooing that right on my back. Two weeks later, he's in the gym, right? He pulls up his T-shirt, there's Romans 13 tattooed right on his back. I said, man, he got that one. I hope he's saved. All right, that is why you pay taxes. That is also why you pay taxes because the authorities are working for God. Whoa, when they fulfill their duties. What does that mean the next time you're 10 kilometers over the speed limit and you see red and blue lights flashing

in your rear view mirror? Don't bind the devil. He's not working for the devil, he's working for God. That's when you pray for mercy. Pay them what you owe them, pay them your personal and property taxes. Now watch this, and show respect and honor for all the nice ones. Is that what it says? Is that what it said? No, it says for all of them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it. Are you telling me we're supposed to show respect and honor to a mean, cruel, dishonest policeman or authority? Well, let's let the Bible interpret the Bible. First Kings 2, 17, or excuse me, First Peter 2, 17 says, fear God, honor the king. Do you know what Peter is saying? How can you say you fear God who you do not see when you can't respect the person these places authority on that you do see? Whoa. Think about that one. Now, do you know who the historic king is that Peter's actually writing about right here? His name was Herod Agrippa I. Who was King Herod Agrippa I? He was the king of Judea, now listen, who was murdering Christians in cold blood because it was furthering his political agenda.

The more he murdered Christians, the more the Jewish people liked him. So he kept murdering Christians. Yet Peter writes and says honor him. Now, how in the world do you do that? It's not easy, let me tell you that. But here's how you do it. You honor his position, not his behavior. See, in America, this is what we say to a leader. You have to first earn my respect. The fear of God doesn't say that. The fear of God doesn't judge by the seeing of the eye or the hearing of the ear, it judges according to righteous judgment. The fear of God doesn't say to a leader, you have to earn my respect. The fear of the Lord says, I see the authority that is on you. Therefore, you already have my respect because I honor your position, not your behavior. Does that make sense? You're not honoring behavior, you're honoring the authority that God put on them. That's why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't look at the king Nebuchadnezzar when he set up the idol and told him to worship and go, you jerk, you think we're going to worship that? They didn't. They said, your majesty. They spoke to him with the utmost respect. Even though he was violating, wickedly, the covenant of God. You still with me?

Way back in the beginning of my ministry, I saw this play out. I went to a church, for years this church, and I'm talking years, this church did not grow. They only had 100 members. I started going at the last part of the 10 years. I remember I stopped going because new doors were opening. I was just starting ministry. Three or four years later, they invited me to come back. When I did, I couldn't believe it. The church was over 1,000 people. They had a new building. It was unreal. They had a national conference. They had national speakers. I remember saying to the pastor, man, you guys just didn't grow. What really caused growth in your church? Thinking is it going to be connect groups? What's it going to be? The pastor looked at me and said, oh, I'll tell you what happened. He said, I got so fed up hearing our congregation members complain about our city officials and our mayor that I went to the mayor in the city hall and I asked them what was their greatest need in their budget that they didn't have money for this year. It was a fireman's mask because most people die in smoke. They don't die from the flames and fires. This mask causes firemen to see through the smoke to find the victims and get them out in time to live, but it cost $25,000. They didn't have it for their budget. He went back to his church. He put up Romans 13 and he looked at his church and he said, how dare you criticize God's servants the way you talk about our city officials?

How dare you try to cut corners paying taxes to God's servants when he tells you to give them what they ask for? He said, so you know what we're doing as a church? We're going to repent. City needs a $25,000 fireman's mask. I'm going to take an offering. He had 100 people in his church. They received $25,000 from the 100 people. He makes an appointment at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon with the mayor. The mayor knew what he was doing, gathered the city council together. He went down, read out of Romans 13, you are God's servant. We respect you. Here's $25,000. He said, six months later, we did the building dedication in our new building. Every worker in the city came. A bunch of them got saved. He said, John, it was the very ticket that broke open the whole city for us. We honored the authority of God on the city. God opened up the city to our church. That is what I mean by honor's reward. You getting this? All right, let's talk about family authority. Honor your father and mother, which is the first suggestion with a promise. I'm wondering if you're going to wake up. No, it's not the first suggestion with a promise. It's the first commandment. This command actually has the reward attached to it. Number one, that it may be well with you, and number two, that you'll live long in the earth. Do you understand you have a promise, a covenant promise from heaven that you can say, cancer,

get out of my body, get out of this household. I have honored my parents, and God's word says I will live long, and I will be successful. I don't know about you, but that really makes me happy. The problem is our Western culture is filtering in all over the world and teaching children how to dishonor their parents. If you look at our sons, all four of them work with us in the ministry. They love Lisa and I, but there were certain movies when they were kids I wouldn't let them watch. Those were G-rated movies, G, put out by the big company in Los Angeles and Orlando. Why didn't I let my kids watch those movies? Because the whole movies, the kid actors in those movies talk so dishonorably to their parents, but at the end of the movie they got the reward they were after, like the dog, the monkey, the car, right? So I said, you're not watching these movies, I forbid it. I'd rather you watch movies with righteous killing in it, because that's all over the Bible. There were some people that thought Lisa and I were too extreme. I don't think so because look what Deuteronomy says. Cursed. Everybody say cursed. Now if your neighbor says you're cursed, big deal. God says you're cursed. That's a problem. Cursed is he who dishonors his father and mother and all the people shall say amen. I personally believe the Ten Commandments were put in the list of the order of importance. Why do I believe that? Because the first four deal with our relationship with God. The last six deal with our relationship with our neighbor. Jesus said the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. The second is to love your neighbors yourself. So God puts them in the order. Murder is pretty serious. It's number six on the list. Adultery is really serious. Number seven on the list.

Stealing is super serious. It's number eight. Do you know what God puts above all three of those? Number five, dishonoring your mom and dad. Could it be that God sees dishonoring your mother and father as a more serious offense than murder, stealing and adultery? Now I'm not justifying murder, stealing or adultery. The Bible says those that practice such will not inherit the kingdom of God. You'll do jail time in two of them in America. But I do believe that God sees dishonoring your mom and father, mother and father. In his eyes, he sees that as a more serious offense than murder, stealing and adultery. So I'm not de-emphasizing the importance of murder, stealing and adultery. I am only highly heightening the importance of honoring your mother and father. You still with me? Social authorities let as many as their servants, students, employees, athletes under the yoke count their own masters. That would be your teachers, your bosses, your coaches. Worthy of some honor? All honor. Are you seeing this? All honor. I remember I was playing a golf course, right? $200 million golf course on the coast of Florida. There's no members in the golf course because it was owned by one man. It was his personal golf course. The guy who took care of the grounds had 37 people who worked for him for this guy's personal golf course. I'm looking at the mayor in New York on the putting green. One of the NFL quarterbacks was behind me. Next to me was one of the biggest reporters in America named Tom Brokaw. I mean, this is an amazing place, right? So the guy's a Christian who takes care of the grounds. And I looked up and I said, you need to treat this golf course as if Jesus owns it, not Mr. H. And he looked at me and goes, where do you get that, John?

I said, the Bible says that you are to serve your employers not as men pleasers, but as unto the Lord. He went, oh, my gosh, it does say that. He said, that totally changes my attitude in how I'm going to take care of this golf course. I said, you got it. That's what I was after. See, there's a reward. When you realize that you're not honoring the physical person of that man that is your boss, you are honoring the authority of God that is on him. Do you see the difference? That totally changes the way you're going to treat him or her. All right. The fourth one is church authority. Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. And this is a really easy one. There were heroes of mine when I was younger. And the two biggest heroes for me were T.L. Osborne and Reinhard Bunke. T.L. Osborne, Lisa and I almost went to work for he and Daisy. They're both in heaven now. But in 1987, when we almost went to work for them, they had already led 62 million people to Jesus Christ. 62 million. OK. Most of their meetings were in Africa. They would have 300,000 to 500,000 people in one meeting. Now, he told Lisa and I over and over and over and over again that in one night's meeting, they would see hundreds of deaf ears, totally deaf ears, be opened up. They would see scores of blind eyes open. They would see people that had never walked their entire life walk. I was with Reinhard Bunke having lunch with him in Frankfurt, Germany. I said, Reinhard, do you see miracles in Africa? He went crazy.

He led 22 million people to Jesus in Nigeria alone in a span of just a few years. He said, John, hundreds of deaf ears open up in one service, scores of blind eyes. But then I'd watch these two men come back to the United States. Same man, same message, same anointing. But in the United States, a few headaches get healed, a bad back, a minor case of arthritis. Why? One word. honor. I have been in these Middle Eastern and African countries sometimes it almost scares me the way they treat me. I remember I was speaking to 10,000 people in Mombasa, Kenya. I come out of the meeting, I sit down in a chair that almost looks like a throne and these three women come up bowing to me. One's got a basin, one's got a towel, one has a pitcher and I said to the leader, what are they here to do? And he said they're here to wash your hands before you eat and I said I can, I'm thinking I can wash my own hands and the Holy Spirit before I could say it said don't say that. Let them do it. I had spoken to 3,000 senior pastors from 18 nations in Africa and I'll never forget this. Person serves me dinner, they walk away, the leader says do you see who just served your dinner? I said yeah. He said that person is the head of the entire CIA of this nation and I said what? They just served my dinner? And then he looked at me and he said aren't you the man of God? And all of a sudden I thought okay we don't get it. We've confused honor with worship. Okay? Forever and ever we'll worship God our Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and nobody else but forever and ever we'll give honor to whom honors do. Forever and ever I will honor my mother and father because God loves honor. Are you seeing this? Let me just make this really clear. It really doesn't have a lot to do with the person because if you look at Eli, God said there was no forgiveness for him or his household forever. Do you know you never want God saying there's no forgiveness for you or your household forever? That is like the worst words you could ever hear out of the mouth of God. God says this about Eli. He's the pastor at Shiloh. Hannah can't have babies. She's been praying years for God to give her babies. He sees her praying and he thinks she's drunk. He accuses her

of being drunk. Can you imagine if she was American? I'm fasting and praying pouring my heart out to God and you accuse me of being a drunk woman. What kind of church is this? What kind of minister are you? But she says no my Lord. Little El gives him the utmost respect. Your maidservant's crying out for a petition. He looks at her and says go your way. May the God of Israel grant your petition. What she couldn't get for years praying for on her own, she had a baby in her arm within one year because she honored him when he dishonored her. She received her baby. Now God said there's no forgiveness for him forever. So it really didn't have anything to do with Eli. It had everything to do the way that Hannah honored the authority of God that was on him. Do you see the difference? It totally changes how you treat people that don't treat you right. Because let's let's go to the righteous person. Okay I've got to wrap this up. Okay if you go to our peers look at this Matthew 10 41. And he who honors a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. Now Jesus is talking about our peers. Now listen I'm gonna tell you a quick story because I need to wrap this. I'm doing a conference in South Florida. A man walks up to me, he's middle-aged, he's dressed nice, sharp, you can tell he's a successful businessman. He says John do you have a few minutes I'd love to share something with you. I said sure. He said I own a specialized company that makes fountains for landscaping. We make custom fountains for landscaping. And he said the largest landscaping company in South Florida owed my company a hundred and seventeen thousand dollars and they were not paying it. And he said that was a lot of money for my company. He said I was getting angrier by the day because I knew they had the money and they weren't paying us and it was straining us. He said I was bad-mouthing this guy, I was complaining about this guy to my employees, I was even complaining at home to my kids and my wife. He said then I heard you preach on honor. And he said when I heard you preach on honor the Holy Spirit dealt with me so severely. And he said I repented and I said God forgive me for the way I've spoken about that company and about that man who owns that company. He said I repented to my whole staff, I repented to my family. He

said then I drove down met with the leader of the company. He said John I didn't even know if he was a Christian or not. I just said hey I've been really and I'm wrong, okay? I have bad-mouthed you to my employees, my wife, because you haven't paid us the $117,000, you own my company, and I want you to know I'm here not to blame you, but to tell you how wrong I've been, and I'm sorry. So then the guy's like, okay. And he looks at the guy and he says, look, whatever our work was worth to you, you just send a check whenever you want it. And he said, I walked out. He said, one week later, I got a check from them for $11,000. Now remember, they owed him $117,000. He sent a $11,000 check. So see, it doesn't work. But then he looked at me and he said, two weeks later, I got the largest job my company's ever gotten before. A $2.5 million job. And he said, four weeks later, our company got a $7 million job. So you see, many times the reward doesn't come back from the person. Matter of fact, most of the time it doesn't. It comes back from other places. Jesus said, you love those that love you. You honor those who honor you.

What reward do you have? Because gang members do the same. Are you tracking with me? All right, let's go to the little ones and I'll have to close. Jesus said, whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water, honors them in the name of a disciple, assuredly I'll say, he shall by no means lose his reward. Now Jesus is talking about those who are entrusted to our care. That would be our children, if I'm a parent. That would be my wife, if I'm a husband. That would be my team members, if I'm a pastor. That would be my employees, if I'm an employer. Are you following me? You know what the Bible says? Let's just talk about husband and wife. The Bible says, husbands honor your wives as the weaker vessel. Now weaker vessel doesn't mean she's beneath you. It only means, and I mean it only means she can't bench press as much as you. Because she's an heir together in the grace of life. No woman is inferior to a man. That is a lie and don't ever listen to a minister that tells you that. And I don't have to belabor that because I know you're taught well that here, okay? But in fact, let me re-quote what Peter said.

He said, honor your wives. He says, if you don't honor husband, if you don't honor your wife, heaven won't listen to your prayers. Yeah, read it, 1 Peter 3. Heaven will not listen to your prayers. Hey John, can I pray for you? No thanks, I see the way you talk to your wife. Heaven's not listening to you. It goes down to the waiter in the restaurant. It goes to the bellman. It goes to the skycap. It goes to the ticket agent. It goes to the bus driver. When we honor, treat them as valuable, there's a reward. Let me give you one quick story because I need to close. My favorite grocery store in Colorado Springs are called Whole Foods. It's all health food. I'm a fanatically clean eater, okay? I know you probably don't understand that being 21. So, they have about 100 employees in Whole Foods. And I remember I was walking through Whole Foods one day and I was with a professional golfer. And he said to me, does everybody in the store know you? I said, yeah, probably. Now they don't know me because I'm a famous author. I don't want them to know I'm a minister or author. I don't tell them.

They know me because I talk to them. Like Richard in the meat department, I found out he liked this special cheese, but it was $30 a pound. So, I bought a half pound and I brought it to Richard and I said, hey, go have this with your wife tonight. He looked at me like, dude, are you serious? I said, yeah, man, enjoy it. One time I was, my groceries were going through and the girl's bagging my groceries. She goes, oh, that's the best. I said, do you have lunch yet? She goes, no. I ran down to the aisle and got another one. I bought it. I said, here, have it for lunch. She's like, are you kidding me? I'm looking for ways to honor. Do you see what I'm saying? This one girl, she had like five different colors hair. No kidding. She had purple, then it was bright red, and then it was fluorescent yellow, and then it was, you know, and she had like 15 piercings all over her. There was no Caucasian skin seen. Her entire body was colored tattoos. Okay, I couldn't see anything else, but everything I could see was colored tattoos, okay? And I remember I would always go to her line on purpose.

And, you know, I'd always figure out how can I honor her? So one day, I'm in the line. I go, man, your hair looks amazing today, because it was different every week. I said, I mean. And I said, how do you do it? I said, it's amazing. She said, what do you mean? I said, how do you keep the red from bleeding into the fluorescent yellow? And she goes, oh, let me tell you about it. And she goes into this whole thing, right? So, you know, I'm always going in her line, right? I'm targeting her. So one day her line was really busy. So I went to a different line and she closed her line down. She sent everybody away. She came walking down to my line. And she said, she's got tears. She said, my grandfather died last week. And she said, I'm gonna need to move to Denver from Colorado Springs and live with my grandmother. And now she's weeping. She said, you know what? I'm gonna miss more than anything else in this city. I said, what? She said, you, your wife and your four sons. I love you guys so much. I was able to give her books and minister to her.

See, I never order from a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant without saying, what's your name? Are you married? You know, do you have kids? How are you doing today? And I leave them big tips, big tips. Like my guy in my hotel room, I leave him $5 every day this week, right? Who's cleaning my room. You can't believe what he's doing in my room. He's like blown away that I'm leaving him $5 every day. I have fun with it. It's a blast. Showing people how valuable they are. Okay, so I get extra towels, I do. But I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't do, I don't do that to get extra towels. I do that because I want, and I know, I can tell you his name. You wanna know who's cleaned my room every day this week? Levi, that's his name. And he writes me notes every day. Sir John is the way he addresses it. I could go on and on and on and on. Life becomes fun when you honor people. Grumpy people hurt people. They have trouble honoring because they're so focused on their hurts. You need to realize you were forgiven of an unpayable debt. You should, you and I should have burned in hell forever.

That's what we deserve. What has anybody done to you worse than that? Nothing. Right? So your greatest, greatest temptation now, you know what your greatest temptation's gonna be? To go out and treat everybody nice. And that's gonna last about a week. We gotta cry out for God to put honor in our heart. And can I say this? You don't honor to get the reward. You honor because you realize God paid the greatest price in the universe to ransom that one person. That's how valuable that person is to God. I don't care how wicked they're behaving. That's the price that God paid to buy them back. That's how valuable they are to God. So what's a $5 tip? Do you see what I'm saying? Did you get something out of this today? Did you get something out of this today? You get this, you're gonna have a great life. Amen? I want you to bow your heads with me. Bow your heads. Father, in the name of Jesus, I preach what you've commanded me to preach. I just want you, I really believe it's already been happening in here.

If you're in here and you just say, John, I am not honoring, whether it's authorities, whether it's your parents, whether it's your pastors, whether it's your teachers, whether it's your peers, whether it's those that are entrusted to your care, just say, I'm not treating people valuable the way I should. And I wanna repent right now. Just slip your hand up and let me pray for you. Wow, look at all the hands. Wow! Look at about 90% of the hands that are in the air. Just pray this with me. Say, Father in heaven. Father in heaven. Forgive me. Forgive me. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. For not honoring men and women. For not honoring men and women. and children, and children. The way you honor them. The way you honor them. The way you value them. The you value them. I repent of this. I repent of this. I'm asking this today.

I'm asking this today. Put your love. Put your love. And your honor. And your honor. And your respect. And your respect. In my heart. In my heart. That I may love men and women. That I may love men and women. Value men and women. Value men and women. And honor men and women. Honor men and women. The way you honor them. The way that you honor them. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Keep your heads bowed. Put your hands down. If you're in here today, and you'd say, you know what John? I can obviously see I'm surrounded by people who have a relationship with God. I can see you have a relationship with God, and I don't. I want you to be really honest. You're sitting there going, I really, even though I'm in church, I don't have a relationship. Let me tell you something. God has been after you for a long time. Even before you were born, He knew you, and He wants a relationship with you more than you want a relationship with Him. But today you

finally come to your senses, and you're going, I want to return to Him. I want to know Him. Let me tell you, there is no way possible to have a relationship with God, no way possible, unless you give your life fully to Jesus Christ. He's the one that died and paid the price to alleviate what separated you from God, your sin. But here's the deal. He's referred to as a groom, and we're referred to as a bride. The only way you can have a relationship with God is if you give your life to Jesus the way a bride would give her life to her husband. When a woman gets married to a man, she's saying goodbye to 3.5 billion guys. She's saying, this is the one and only man I'm giving my entire heart and life to. That's the only way you can air into a relationship with God, is to give your life to Jesus Christ in that way. If that's you in here, and you'd say, John, I want to give my life to Him. I want to live for Him, not for me any longer. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand. I want to pray for you today. Just raise it up high. I want to pray that you will enter into a relationship. Yep, I see the hand. Go ahead. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Several hands are up. All right, can we pray this prayer? Just pray this with me. Every one of us. God in heaven, forgive me for living life my way, apart from you, my Creator. But today, that's all changing. This day, I give my spirit, soul, and body, everything I am, everything I have, to you, Jesus. Jesus, you are now the Lord, the supreme authority, the King of my life. Thank you for changing me, making me a brand-new person, wiping away every sin forever, so I can have a relationship with you, and I can now call God my Father. Thank you for doing this. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus' name. Amen.