Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: Are you dishonoring him or unhonoring him by just not honoring him? You're just leaving something out. It's not working. And he feels the same way around you that he did around his hometown crowd that thought, well, this guy just got nothing. If it ever dawns on us that God himself moves in and lives in you, that's got to change your life.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going to take the next few minutes to share some great words of hope and insight for you. And in today's broken world, that is something everyone is desperate to hear. Richard shares unapologetically the truth of the Bible in a way that's clear, relational, and uplifting. So thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you. And when you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you. richard ellis .com. But right now, let's go ahead and get things off and running with today talk.

Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Do the Honors. There are certain people that we honor. For instance, if I looked around the room today, scoured the crowd, looked here and went, all of a sudden, boom, there's somebody I know prestigious or well-known or respected person, then I might stop the whole proceeding and say, oh, we're really honored today to have so and so, and I don't want to embarrass that person, but would you please stand? And oh my gosh, and if you knew who they were, we'd clap or do something and somehow trying to do something respectful or honor that person.

We've all been a situation where that's happened. So here's how this works. Every time we gather, we have the promise of an honored guest. And from time to time, people will say, well, I came in the back door and something kind of hit me and I began to cry or I couldn't explain what was going on or I sensed something was going like something's going on like you would if you were in a venue and someone walked in, someone respected, someone that you could honor. At some point, you're going to have to figure out that if you are a Christian, first of all, God himself has honored you with the promise of his presence in you and through you forever.

In this body, as long as you're here and for eternity, you'll be with him. That is a big deal. And if you're not a Christian and you come into a gathering like this and you go, I don't know what this is, I don't get it, I don't have whatever this is, but you are surrounded by and aware of a presence that is not a physical person sitting here, but you know that we are not alone, that somebody else, bigger, more awesome, all knowing, all powerful, has honored us with his presence. It is amazing how that when we choose to honor him, he chooses to honor us.

As a Christian, I have the promise that he will never leave me or forsake me, but I can dishonor him even though he's stuck living in me. It is a whole lot easier when I honor him with my words, my thoughts, the meditations of my heart, the scripture describes it as, when I honor him with all of that, then it is so much easier for him to honor me or to honor you in a manifest way. Now, I'm going to read you a ton of verses, and as usual, I'm going to start left and go right.

Before we read any of them, let me read you this definition. Honor, honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's belief and actions, a source of credit or distinction, high respect as for worth, merit, or rank. Such respect manifested. So it's not just to have it, but it's manifested. High public esteem, fame, glory, the privilege of being associated with or receiving a favor from a respected person, group, organization, etc. To hold in honor or high respect, to revere, to treat with honor, to confer honor or distinction upon. And one of the definitions is literally this, to worship the supreme being, to show a courteous regard for in commerce to accept or pay a draft, a check, something along those lines.

So go to Exodus 20. In Exodus 20 verse 12, one of the first places this thing of honor is mentioned in the scriptures. It's part of the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Literally, the length of your life can be tied to honoring your parents. And the Hebrew word here for honor, it kind of means to be heavy. So there's a sense of make weighty. There's something. And for me to even speak of these things, it is a very it's a weighty thing.

It's a very intense thing. So he talks about here honor, this respect thing. You say, well, but I don't like my mom and dad. Let me tell you something. That has nothing to do with anything. You can find ways to honor and respect someone. Go to Psalms 8. Psalm 8:3. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor.

And the word used for honor here is magnificence, ornamental or splendor, beauty, comeliness, excellence, glorious glory, goodly honor, majesty. He has crowned us with that glory and honor. Psalm 91. Psalm 91:14. Now look at what the psalmist says about how God is interacting with him. He says, because he has set his love upon me. Now this is God saying about us on this side. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him with long life. I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. There is a connection. You cannot dishonor God and in turn really be dishonoring yourself and expect God to honor you in some way. But when you honor him, he honors you. Proverbs 3:9. And this could be a whole another message, but let's just throw it in here. Proverbs 3:9 says this, honor the Lord with your possessions, okay? Now this does not say anything about 10% or anything. The first statement is, honor the Lord with your possessions.

It's not even talking about giving anything yet. Do we honor him with what we possess, the things that we own? Is there anything that you own or that I own that dishonors God? Have you ever asked that question? Just say, Lord, whatever I got, if there's anything I got to let go of to honor you, I'll do it. So keep reading. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. What does it say? You say, well, you're preaching about money.

It's just a couple of verses I'm reading here. If you have trouble in general honoring God, you're going to have trouble honoring with your money. It's just a given. But if you show up and say, God, first thing off the top, before the government gets it, the health, you know, gets it, anybody else gets it, here's the first fruits. You get the first. What does that say to him? You love him, you honor him, you trust him. You know that everything you have came from him in the first place, so you're just giving it back.

If you wait to give him the back end of it, there won't be anything left to give. If you do your budget and say, well, let's see, we pay all our bills and then with the last check I'm going to write is whatever I you know, you say, well, you're talking about 10%. He may tell you to give 30%. Don't be keeping yourself at some 10% number. That's one way to get off with, you know, easy if you think that's easy. If you wait till the end, it will not be there. And then funny thing, you're without.

Proverbs 18:12. Proverbs 18:12. Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty. So you see somebody all bowed up and I'm everything and I got all that. I can name some football players right now and it doesn't matter what decade you're in, so it could be anything. And just consumed, completely consumed with themselves. And you know what? It's just a matter of time before they just self-destruct. They don't get it. Look at the flip side of it is. And before honor is humility. So you say, well, I wish God would honor me. Why don't you approach him humbly at some point?

Let that characterize your life. It not all about you. It's about him, somebody else. Proverbs 31:25. Love this passage, love this verse to women specifically who can find a virtuous woman. And down Proverbs 31:25 says this, strength and what? Strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in time to come. Literally, strength and honor are her clothing. And I think it goes back to that same word magnificence. Go to Matthew. Matthew 13, and I'll try to read faster here and we'll get through some of these. Matthew 13. The flip side of this is presented.

Let's do 54 and following. It's talking about Jesus says when he had come to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brother James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? So they were offended at him, but Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.

Now he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. And this thing of unhonored, basically is without honor, is unhonored or dishonored or despised. So you say, well, I don't know that I'm honoring God with my possessions or anything. Then here's another question. Are you dishonoring him or unhonoring him by just not honoring him? You're just leaving something out. It's not working. And he feels the same way around you that he did around his hometown crowd that thought, well, this guy just got nothing. If it ever dawns on us that God himself moves in and lives in you, that's got to change your life.

Go to another one. John chapter 5. John chapter 5, and he's just healed a guy and he did it on the Sabbath, so they're more worried about when he did it than what good he did for the guy. Let's jump in at verse 19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do, and whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel.

For as the son raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom he will. For the father judges no one, but has committed all the judgment to the son that all should honor the son just as they honor the father. Now look at this. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent me. So if you claim to be a worshiper of God, a follower of God, and then someone says, well, how are you treating Jesus? And you say, well, that didn't have anything to do with it.

If you do not honor Jesus, you have dishonored the father. So enough of I believe in you know, I know we sing about this in context, you say, well, I believe in God. The Bible says the demons in hell believe in God and tremble at his name. I want to know who's God, what God you're talking about. If it's Jesus and God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and that's your God, I'm with you. If it's just God, even if you want to throw a big G on it, I want to know which God. You cannot honor the father and leave the son out of the equation.

Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. And then go down to verse 40. He says, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another one comes in his own name, him you will receive.

How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? You do it to one to another, but what about from him? And this word here honor used is to prize, fix a evaluation upon by implication to revere, honor, value. Go to John 12. Now these are simple connected dot things. Verse 20, John 12 verse 20. Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and asked him saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip came and told Andrew and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus, but Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. In other words, you just almost despise it. You just say, you know what? I don't want anything to do with my life if it's not connected to him.

If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my father will honor. Now ask yourself another question. Have you got a death grip on your own life? You are terrified to release your own life. You don't trust God enough that if you said, okay God, you made me, you know me, you sent Jesus to die on a cross, be buried, raise from the dead to rescue me, to give me life, I'm going to yield myself, I'm going to release my life into your hands and you can do whatever you want to do with it.

Send me where you want to send me. I don't care if you take my life, I don't care. You're going to do better with it than I ever will. So here you go, take it. You say that'd be terrifying. It's more terrifying if you are death gripping your own life. You will not release and you are not living. You say, well, I go where I want to go and do what I want to do. And what is that accomplishing? How is God changing the world through your life and where do you see him honoring you because you've honored him and yielded yourself completely to him?

You say, well, I got a you know, a retirement fund and blah blah blah. You know, who cares about all that? You'll stand before God one day and give an account for what you did or did not do and whether you let him live in you the way he intended or not. You say, well, I just don't want to let go. Then you are done. You are existing. Do you know why you feel like you're existing? Because that's what you 're doing. You are existing. Read it again. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

And where I am, there my servant will be also. So where does Jesus want to go today? If you're following Jesus, you're going to end up where he is. You say, well, I don't know that I want to go there. I want to go where I want to go. I want to do what I want to do. That sounds fine, except that you're not going to end up where he's trying to take you because he needs you in certain places for certain reasons, for certain people. I don't want to lose my life. Then you'll never find it because until you lose your life for his sake, you don't find it.

But when you lose your life for his sake, all heaven breaks loose. You're going to suffer either way. The book says it's better to suffer for doing good than evil. You're going to have problems. Have them for the right reasons. Romans 2. Let me read you a few of these verses. Okay, for the sake of time, let me jump in here at verse 5. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds.

Now look what the options are. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, and on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. Who would not want glory, honor, and peace? You say, well, I don't want any of that.

I'm going to keep my list. Look at your list. Are you nuts? Oh no, but I'm in control. You're crazy. Jesus, are you trying to read all this to make us feel bad? I'm trying to help read it so you see what you're doing and make a choice and feel better. Not saying you're going to be happy all the time, but get you some joy. You want God to honor your request. We go to God say, oh God, save my mother, whatever it is you're praying. I've been there on that one. I want God to honor my request.

Am I honoring his request? He simply comes along and says, look, we've talked about this before, you've read it before, another preacher said it again. This is what I'm asking you to do. Will you honor my request? Honor me by honoring my request. You say, no no, I don't want to do any of that, but I need you to do this for me. Honor my request. It's lunacy. You want God to honor you. Are you honoring him? A few more. Second Timothy 2 and jump down to verse 19. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his.

And let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. You go to your house, maybe you got China and maybe you got wooden spoons, okay? So there's all kind of stuff in different houses. Some for honor, some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder, the dishonor, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. So what should you do if anyone cleanses himself?

So how do you get clean? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So go get cleaned up. You don't even have to leave your seat wherever you are. You just say, God, enough. I want the rest of this verse. What does it say? You'll be sanctified, useful for the master, prepared for every good work. So get cleaned up. Check yourself in and say, God, search me, try me, see if there's anything going on, and then get me to the place where you'll pick me.

I honor you. So honor me, pick me, God. Use me. Even if I'm not the fanciest thing in the house, this is what I got. Clean me up and pick me, God. Use me. This won't matter at all like it'll matter one day when you drop dead or Jesus comes back and you get a big old smile from him and he goes, wow, you were listening, you got it. Good job. Come on in. I already dread a little bit the conversation because I got plenty of things to give an account for. I don't need anymore to give an account for.

I got enough. And no matter what piece of tool I am, I would like to be prepared any day, anytime that if he says, I need that, and he reaches for me and says, I'll use you. You honor me, I'll honor you. Do the honors by letting him honor you because you honor him. It's so simple. You say, well, what if something bad happens? Something bad is already happening. You're losing your life. How much worse can it get unless you lose your life forever? First Peter chapter 3. First Peter chapter 3 verse 7. Now listen, men who want to be husbands and husbands who want to be husbands.

You say, well, I'm already a husband. You may not be a very good one. Husbands likewise, talking about your wife, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered. If you're a husband and you're praying and you wonder why your prayers don't get answered, you might do a little study on first Peter 3:7. It could be tied to some very simple things, not dwelling with them with understanding, not giving honor to the wife, holding her up where she should be.

I had a woman say an extraordinary met with a couple recently, and the woman's love language was acts of service. And she said something I've never heard of even thought of. And we talked and you know, you think, well, that's taking out the trash and loading the dishwasher, all that. She said this. She said, those aren't acts of service. That's just stuff that's got to happen. That's got to be done. She said, when it's something that I can't lift or something I need out of the attic, and I ask my husband, would you do that for me?

When he does that for me, then I know he loves me because I can't do that. And so he's he's served me. I've got a curtain rod to hang in a bathroom upstairs, you know? And I've done everything else in the world. I don't like hanging curtain rods. But if I hang that curtain rod, she's going to know I'm paying attention. This is simple stuff. So if it's that way in a marriage, then God comes along and he goes, look, this isn't complicated. I've been asking you for 20 years to do this. And you go, God, you know I don't want to do that.

I'm scared. Like I get that, but you know what? We're not going anywhere till you just trust me and obey me. There's no other way this is going to work, so let go of this and let's get on with your life, which really is my life because I bought and paid for you.

Guest (Male): Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up today's talk, but first I want to share a couple thoughts with you. Let's be honest. Real life isn't about living some highlight reel for others to see. Most people have deep hurts, questions, and struggles. We get it and want to help you in any way we can. So let's keep this conversation going. Give us a call at 855-6 Richard or connect with us at our website, richard ellis .com. You can even put in your prayer request right there on the prayer wall so others can pray for you as well.

Call us at 855-6 Richard or online at richard ellis .com. And now let's get back to Richard with a final word on today's show.

Richard Ellis: Alright, Revelation 5:11. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, very interesting, every creature in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.

Maybe you can sing it. In all I do, I honor you. It's my joy to honor you in all I do.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really appreciate that you spent this time with us, but we want to keep the conversation going. So give us a call anytime at 855-6 Richard or through our website, richard ellis .com where we can stay connected with you. 855-6 Richard or richard ellis .com. Also, we have a legacy wall at the website where you can share your story of who has impacted your life or how you want to inspire others as well. Your story is important and needs to be heard. Share it today at richard ellis .com.

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