Honoring God

When you get up in the mornings, assuming you get up, you have a list of things that you are planning on doing or needing to face, needing to deal with, and all of that.

No matter who you are, there's some kind of plans and thoughts and ideas.

So when you get up in the morning, what is the most important outlook that you can have upon the day?

And again, you're going to have responsibilities of one nature type or another to deal with.

But what is the most important view and approach you can have with that day that now you get up, that day is stretching in front of you, what is the most important use you can put that day to?

What should the prime focus be as you go into that day with the doings and dealings of that day?

I can tell you in two words, and the two words serve as the title, honoring God.

That should be the central emphasis that each day is lived with.

You get up, you're drawing breath, you're going forth into that day, and the central emphasis that you should live with throughout that day is honoring God.

That should be the guiding light throughout the day.

It should be the guiding principle that overarches all your thinking and doing.

And then at the end of that day, when you're getting ready for bed, just ask yourself this question.

Have I pleased God today? Have I served Him? Have I honored Him in the way that I have done things?

Let's take those two words, honoring God. What does that mean?

Now, obviously, most of us here, for the most part, I would say we're veterans, and we understand that, don't we?

What if God were to bless us with growth, and we had five new people, ten new people, twenty new people, we doubled the congregation over X number of years, whatever.

But what if somebody came in new, and they were basic to it, the truth and all?

And obviously, they would understand certain things about honoring God, but they were to hear the phrase, the term, honoring God.

And what if they looked at you and said, well, what does that mean? How do I really honor God? What does it mean to really honor Him?

How do I go about it? What is it that I do to honor Him? Well, ask this question.

Does God live life a certain way? Does He think a certain way? Does He live a certain way? Does He operate a certain way?

People today talk about worshiping God, honoring God. The greatest honor to God, the greatest worship of God, is to copy that way.

For you and I, personally, to copy that way, to put your mind and your body to that way.

Notice with me 1 Corinthians 6. When Paul was used of God to raise up a congregation in Corinth, Corinth was Sin City of Greece.

It wasn't the only sin city of Greece, but Corinth was a sin city, a major sin city of the ancient world.

And sure, there were some Jewish converts, yes, but the majority of the church that was raised up and grew came to be Gentile converts brought into the church and made part of the Eclaecia.

And so the culture, the society that they were called out of, you think it in Corinth, you can find it.

You pursue it, it's there. They were surrounded. And, of course, you look at the list of what Paul says, such were some of you, but you've turned your back on that. You've repented. You've been cleansed.

But you think about that congregation of God's people there. You think about the city they had to live in.

You think about Corinth, the sin city. And in these letters he wrote to them.

You look at 1 Corinthians 6 and verses 19 and 20. And he says to them in this letter, What? Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God?

And then he reminds them of something that sometimes, well, it's not that we really forget it.

It just fades in the back of our mind sometimes, maybe for the moment, maybe for more of an extended period of time. But you're not your own. You, who are in Christ, you're not your own anymore. Because, verse 20, you are bought with a price. Of course, the price of the blood of Jesus Christ. You're bought with a price. Since you're not your own, Corinthian converts, which applies to us just the same. Since you're not your own, because you're bought with a price, therefore it's your reasonable service. This is what's expected. You glorify God in your body and in your spirit, or that is your mind, which by the way, he says to them, he's saying, by the way, which are God's. If you're not your own and you're bought with a price, your body, your mind, they belong to God. So, use that to glorify God. And we think, what does it mean to glorify? Well, again, to honor. Simply means to use them in the way and for the purpose for which they were designed. And you think about that. How do you glorify God with your mind and body? How do you honor Him with it? Simply by putting your mind and your body to use in the way and for the purpose for which they were designed. It means to do it God's way. It's as simple to do it God's way, not the natural carnal human way. And let's give a clear illustration, a very clear illustration right here in Corinthians. Okay, we just read verses 19 and 20, what He is reminding them of. Now, why is He reminding them of that? Because, and again, I'll use this to make a clear illustration of how you can honor and glorify God with your mind and body or fail to do so. I'll juxtapose one thing against something else. We will go to another set of scripture that we can put against this because if you back up to verse 13, same chapter, verse 13, meets for the belly and the belly for meets but God shall destroy both it and them. Now, the body, He says, is not for fornication. See, He's leading up to what He says in verses 19 and 20 because they're not their own. They've been bought with a price. They've come out of a society around them that caters to every kind of sin and many of them have been caught up in those things.

I mean, even their religion, you know, the temples with the temple prostitutes and all, not to mention all the other stuff that was rampant around them. He says the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God is both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His own power. Verse 15, know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ? You're part of the members of Christ's body. And shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. Should I okay that kind of activity? No! What? Don't you know that He which is joined to a harlot is one body. For two said He shall be one flesh, but He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body, but He that commits fornication sins against His own body. Now He says that and then says what He does in verses 19 and 20 to remind them. So what He is doing is telling them, you know, that life you came out of, the things you did like the fornications and the harlotry and the horemongering and all of that kind of stuff, all of that. That is a total dishonoring of God. That is a total wrong way. You can't do that anymore. You've been called out of that. You've turned you back on that. Don't go back into it because you don't own yourself. You can't use your body and your mind. You cannot have that kind of thinking and use your mind that way anymore. Not only is there no honoring of God, it's a total dishonoring of His purpose and design for your mind and body. Now I said we would juxtapose something against that. Hebrews 13, 4, Paul writing to the Jerusalem church and the sister congregations of Judea, same body, same mind that belongs to God. He says marriage is honorable in all. This is Hebrews 13 and verse 4, and the bed undefiled. There's no mistaking what He's saying. Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. The thinking and the body used within that moral, legal realm is not a dishonor to God. It honors God in marriage because it's in accordance to His design and purpose. But, and that word but, we could kick it back to 1 Corinthians 6 if we wanted to, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. So here we have a clear illustration where the bed of fornication, etc., all of that is condemned, but marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. It's an honoring sexual relationship versus a dishonoring one. Makes a clear case. When one takes to heart 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, they were not wrong, were bought with a price and we should glorify God in mind and body and honors God that way. He becomes and is what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 21. He becomes and is a vessel unto honor. Sanctified, set apart, and meat are fitting for the master's use. So in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 21, Paul says, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel or an instrument unto honor, sanctified and meat for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. Set yourself. Nobody can do it for us.

We each have to do this ourselves. Set yourself to honor God throughout the day by how you use your time and energies, by how you operate your life, by what you think and do, by how you think and do, by the uses you put your mind and body to. Living in an honorable or honoring way, and I'll interject this, we hear a lot of talk in our day and time about worshiping God. Well, I worship God this way, and so and so worships God that way, and they worship God this way and that way and every which way. Living in a way that honors God and the things of God, frankly, is the greatest form of worship that you can give God. It glorifies Him. Look at Matthew 5 and verse 16. Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, as it has been called, Matthew 5, 6 and 7. And if you read closely, it shows that He left the multitudes, went up apart from the multitudes, and His disciples followed Him, and He sat down not with the multitudes. It's not the way they pictured on TV and in the movies. He went up from the multitudes, sat down in a separate place apart, private place apart, with His disciples, and He is giving them, His disciples, this discourse in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. And so in verse 16, He tells His disciples, He says, "...let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Let your light so shine." Now, we've got light in here and you've heard the analysis done before. We have these bulbs and all. The bulbs themselves don't produce any light.

Now, they're instruments, and if they get defective, if one of them blows out, there's energy going to that area, but the instrument that utilizes that energy for the light to give light, it doesn't work anymore. It has to be replaced. But these light bulbs, they don't have light in and of themselves. They're designed to take the energy that flows to them and create light through the bulb the way it's made. It won't get real technical with it. No need to. So if you let your light so shine before men, where does that light come from? John 1.4 tells us. This is the section talking about the Word, the Logos, who was with God and was God. And in verse 4 it says, "...in him was life." Just like energy flowing to these light bulbs. "...in him was life." Energy, life, power. And notice, just like that energy is transformed into light to light this room, and the life was the light of men. The light that we're to let shine forth through us comes from the life of Christ in us. Your light that shines is the life you receive from God through Christ. So doesn't it make sense that honoring God starts with going to Him for the life that is the light in us that shines forth to others that reflects the glories of God?

I start my day with a cup of coffee. Does that surprise anybody?

Don't think so. I have my first cup of coffee with God. I don't think God minds. I don't think God minds that the very... God knows that I like coffee. He knows that I enjoy coffee. He knows that coffee is part of my routine. And of course, there's nothing wrong with coffee, and especially if it's not overdone. For most people, it's a very positive tool. It really does serve a good, supportive purpose. And I don't think God minds me having my first cup of coffee with Him. I can't think of anybody better to have my first cup with. Now, next to God, I would think of my wife, of course, but I have my first cup of coffee with God. I get my cup of coffee, and I go to a private place, and I'll thank God for my life. I'll thank Him from the day that is stretching in front of me.

I'll thank Him from my eyesight. I've been even more aware of the preciousness of my eyesight, because I did some measure of damage to it with high blood pressure back in January, and it still hasn't thoroughly cleared up. It's better. And I have had it checked, and they didn't find anything to really any chronic damage. I just know something happened to it, and it's not totally cleared up.

But I thank Him for my eyesight, and for my energies, and my health, and my hearing.

And I thank Him, as I look forward into that day, I thank Him for this particular unit, this particular measure of time and energy that I have before me to use. And please, Father, bless me.

Bless me to use it in a way that honors You, and honors Your name, and promotes Your things.

Bless me to use it in a way that honors You in the things that are Yours. And there is a focus on honor. And that focus, you think about it, what's called the Lord's Prayer is really a prayer outline. It's Matthew 6. We're familiar with it. I'm not going to turn back there. But how does Christ start off the Lord's Prayer, as it's called, and it's really a prayer outline. He starts it off, and we all know how He starts it off when He was teaching His disciples, the first and foremost emphasis is, hallowed be Your name. That's where it starts. Hallowed be Your name.

The word hallowed there is the Greek word hajiazo, h-a-g-i-a-z-o, simple word. It's in Strong's. It's number 37 in Strong's, exhaustive. And all it means is to make holy, that is to purify or concentrate, concentrate, pardon me, to venerate, to hallow, to be holy, to sanctify.

That's what our words are thinking, and our doings, and our actions should do, but sadly don't in far too many cases. Am I alone in getting so tired of hearing, O-M-G, O-my, and I won't say the rest? Am I the only one that gets so tired of hearing? No, I know I'm not.

That's why I say it the way I'm being, you know, rhetorical. I listen to, quote, good people who, you know, let's say try to live the best they know how, in some cases. Other cases, they really aren't as genuine as they need to be, obviously, for those who don't know even. But I hear people who claim to be Christian, I even hear preachers sometimes tell evangelists and others, I've heard them say, oh my, and you know what the rest of it is. And I hear people take the name Jesus Christ.

How many times when somebody gets startled, surprised, somebody almost hits them at an intersection, whatever it may be, or they get upset with something, and the words Jesus Christ come out of their mouth as an explosive expletive. Or somebody gets put out and they say, oh brother, oh, and they'll say Jesus Christ in that vein. Both of those, OMG and Jesus Christ like that, there is no consecration in it, there is no honoring, there's no veneration, there's no respect.

That simply is taking God's name in vain. And so when Christ said, hallowed be your name, this is how you pray. You have an emphasis on honoring God's name, and there's no emphasis in honoring God's name on it. And I just frankly get tired of hearing it around me. Revelation 4, verse 11. John given to see, to know, and told to write. And of course, talks about in verse 10, the 24 elders falling down before him that sat on the throne and worshiping him that lives forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne, which shows their submission, and recognizing where their power comes from. That's why they cast their thrones, their crowns before the throne, that is. It shows that they recognize where their power comes from, and that they're going to submit their power to a use that honors God. And verse 11, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created. And then chapter 7, it's interesting, verse 11, chapter 7, it says, All the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne, these angels, on their faces and worshiped God, saying, and this is what they were saying, Amen, blessed in glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto you know, Webster's gets what it is, high respect, sense of what is right or do. If you looked in the Old Testament and we had things that were incorporated into the Old Cup, but they didn't originate in it, like the laws, and when they old-ish'd, the commandments-sh, they're eternal. But in the Old Testament, you cursed or blasphemed God's name, you could act ill. We can be very thankful that there is an ultimate death down the way, but we know that the present steps and stages of the world is the very commandment. You shall have no other gods before. Can you, out of the number one position, put him secondary and keep God second? I mean, we won't put him third or fourth or fifth. We'll make him second. I'm going to put this whatever first. Can we ever put something and relegate the best and be honoring God? No. This is why the very first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. Extremely important. And then, the third commandment says, we're not to take his name in vain. Let's ask ourselves a question. Why does God so emphasize giving honor and glory first and foremost to him? Why is that so important? I mean, can he live given since he's God? Why does he, to us, emphasize so strongly through his word, through Christ and all, giving honor and glory first and foremost to him? It is a necessity. It's not optional.

It is a necessity realized by Lucifer taking glory and honor unto himself and leading astray one-third of the angels. Think about it. There was a time when God created the angels, and they were all angels, and they were all serving him and showing honor to him, and life was revolving around the right way. And then, a great archangel, Lucifer, personally self-corrupted himself and used his tremendous talents and abilities to pull, to persuade, to convince, however he did it, one-third of the angels, to take God in their minds, set him off with the throne, put Lucifer in his place. One-third of the angels started doing the bidding of Lucifer, not God. One-third of the angels started looking to him first and foremost. One-third of the angels started honoring Lucifer, not God the Father. And by so doing, they generated tremendous chaos and confusion and misery in the universe that is still extant and will be cleaned up fully someday, but certainly most shows up in the world around us that we have to live in. Those who truly honor God will be loyal to him, and thankfully two-thirds of the angels did stay loyal to him. They would not let God be removed from his rightful place. And see, the third of the angels, with Lucifer being their head, the havoc they wrecked and the misery they caused, and the misery they're still causing, especially in the affairs of humans, the miseries they're still causing, is all because, in one sense, if you simplify it according to what we're looking at today, they quit honoring God. They dishonored him and chose a different way and a different leader. See, God wants to bless us.

He does want to honor us and bless us. And there's a scripture back in 1 Samuel 2 verse 30.

It's kind of an equation or formula. 1 Samuel 2, Eli, 98 years old, roughly, in his 90s, had two sons.

And those two sons, priests, didn't honor God. You know the account. But God, through Samuel, told Eli. Verse 30. 1 Samuel 2 verse 30. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel says, quoting God now, Samuel's telling Eli this, I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever. You know, that was what I would like to have done. That was the plan. But things have to change, and the problems. But now, the Lord says, be it far from me. Look at this, if you want to call it a formula, if you want to call it an equation, for them that honor me, I will honor.

Honor me so that I may honor you. Them that honor me, I will honor. And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. There is a certain reciprocal thing there, a certain law of reciprocity that God applies. Now, there are those who don't truly honor God, and sometimes God, just in His pure mercy, will do things for them because He's a very merciful God. But as a way of life, He does not honor those who do not honor Him. If one doesn't care what God thinks, God isn't going to care what they think. If one sees no reason to honor God, God sees no reason to honor them. He might again show mercy due to somebody else who loves them that is honoring God. Many times, God intervenes for people in mercy, not for that person per se necessarily, not that He doesn't love them, but He doesn't honor them because they're dishonoring Him. But somebody who loves them is honoring Him, and He intervenes in mercy for those who are honoring Him.

The main thrust of this is not that God is asking us to honor Him for His sake. God could live with or without our honor. That's not the reason He's asking us to honor Him. He's asking it for our sakes so that He may honor and bless us. Very simple. You honor God, He honors you.

So, let's come down to roadblocks. What's the biggest impediment that gets in the way of honoring God? What is the biggest thing, impediment, roadblock, barrier that gets in the way of honoring God? It's the honoring of self. That gets in the way more than anything else because it comes so natural. It just comes automatic, and honoring oneself brings cursings, not blessings. If you look at Proverbs 12 and verse 9, verse 9, He that is despised and has a servant is better than He that Notice, unters Himself and goes hungry, unters Himself and lacks bread. Have you ever known somebody who couldn't keep a job because they were constantly letting their pride and ego get in the way? I don't have to take that. Who does He think is? Just because He signs my paycheck. Well, that was the dirtiest job on the job. I'm not going to do that. That's beneath. I told Angela's father, of course, he's been deceased a long time now, but I told her father when I married her that I would take care of her if I had to dig ditches. And I meant it. And he reminded me that years later, he said he had a ditch to dig. No, I'm kidding about that. But he reminded me, he said, I remember what you said, that you would take care of her if you had to dig ditches. And I would.

And if I had to dig ditches now, there is no job as long as it's legal and moral that's beneath me doing. But not everybody thinks that way, do they? I have known men who had a wife and kids who needed food, clothing, and shelter. And if they didn't like something the boss man said to them, they'd walk off the job and quit.

And then there's no food on the table. There's no heat in the house. I've dealt with that with people. And so I read these Proverbs and there are faces and names and dates and living examples that come to mind. He that honors himself and lacks bread, honoring self, pride, ego, can cause all kinds of losses. Sometimes, you know, it's not just food, clothing, and shelter. It's loss of relationships. Daniel 4 and verse 30, very familiar account of honoring oneself. In Daniel 4 and verse 30, Good old king Nebuchadnezzar, breaking into the thought, King Neb, Daniel 4, verse 30, the king spoke and he said, and you can just feel the mood he was in.

Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? Just reeking with it. Now keep your finger here. I'm coming back. Probably should have told you to keep your finger in Proverbs. But I'm going to Proverbs 25 and verse 27.

It says, It is not good to eat much honey. Now, honey's a pure food and it's great, but even a good thing can be overdone. So it's just saying use balance. He says, So for men to search their own glory is not good. It's not good for men to search their own glory. And in chapter 27 and verse 2, chapter 27 and verse 2, let another man praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips.

Several years ago now, there was a movie, an action movie, and actors don't usually have a chance to win best actor, male actors, if they star in an action movie because the action carries the movie. Russell Crowe starred in it, and some of you have seen it. Maybe, most of you, possibly all of us, but gladiator. Gladiator with Russell Crowe, just like it sounds, gladiator in the arena. Maximus Russell Crowe, a Roman general, very successful, friends of the Caesar, the emperor, acquaintance with emperor's jealous son.

And the jealous son kills his father in order to have the throne. And Maximus is outlawed and taken to be executed, and he escapes the execution. I'll just put it that way. But, the emperor thinks he's dead, and Maximus winds up enslaved and winds up, eventually, in the Roman arena in Rome. And in the first, of course, the one who killed his own father to be emperor, to be Caesar, doesn't know Maximus is still alive.

And in the very first gladiatorial contest in the arena, Maximus and his group are basically unbelievably successful. The crowd can't believe it. The emperor can't believe it. So he takes his Praetorian guard after the end of the bout and goes down into the arena with his guards surrounding him. And he talks to Maximus, but Maximus has the helmet on, and he doesn't know it's Maximus. And after there's a little bit of exchange, Maximus turns his back to walk away.

And how dare you turn your back on me? Pulls him up short again and commands him to take his helmet off. Well, when Maximus lifts his helmet, and comatose realize this is Maximus, the one I sentenced to die, he shot.

For a moment there, you can't really believe that it's him, but he's got his Praetorian guard around him, and he baits him. He baits him. He wants him to attack him. He can be killed, you know, the Praetorian guard to kill him if he makes a move towards comatose. But Maximus stands there, very cool, very collected, and comatose baits him. He tells him what all they did to his wife, and did to his son.

And Maximus just looks at him and just simply says, looks him right in the eye, and says, the time of you honoring yourself will soon be at an end. And he turns, and he walks away, back to the sails. Very powerful moment, and there's so many times in a setting or a scene, real life or the movies, where something is so true.

You know, the time of honoring oneself does have an end to it. And those who walk in the humility to honor God and do it his way, they have the future. And all will be given opportunity to quit honoring their ways. And some of the classic examples where God's intervened, even with somebody who is not Eclaecia, not called at this time, like Nebuchadnezzar here, back in Daniel 4 and verse 30, "...is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom of the might..." You know, he might have been walking with somebody he might not have.

He might have just been talking to himself, but he is full of his own honor, the honor of my majesty.

"...while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from you." If you look at verse 29, it says, "...at the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon." Why does it say at the end of twelve months? Because a year before, he had been warned about this. He had been warned about it. And I guess it just faded to the back of his mind, and he forgot it or ignored it. In verse 32, here he comes, a year later, "...they shall drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, they should make you to eat grass as oxen." God actually changed his digestive tract enough he could graze on grass and live on it. Can you imagine, can you picture Nebuchadnezzar beating on his chest all this personal honor he feels, and then he's out there on hands and knees moving along with the cattle, the sheep, whatever, munching grass, "...for seven years, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to him so ever he will." And the same hour, that very same hour, was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair, hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

He was quite a sight. Can you imagine visiting emissaries coming and saying, where's the king? Well, look out in the pasture. Is that a human being down on his all fours, grazing? That's Nebuchadnezzar? Why, he looks like he's got claws instead of fingers because of his fingernails so long. And look how long his hair is. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised, and I honored him. I honored him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom is from generation to generation. From the highest to the lowest, from the greatest to the smallest, all eventually have to learn to honor God instead of themselves. And notice when Nebuchadnezzar, when he honored God instead of himself, God honored him by restoring his sanity and his kingdom. Look around us today. Look at society. Look at the culture. What is reflected? Do we see, do we truly see an honoring of God around us? We see less and less of it all the time. And again, the biggest impediment to honoring God is honoring ourselves.

We have a society and a culture that more and more is honoring itself and not interested in honoring anything above and beyond self. I mean, look at the fruits. The fruits are there, the sex and the violence, the depravity, the degeneracy, the broken minds, the broken bodies, broken hearts, broken homes. We're paying a huge price for people honoring themselves instead of God. And if you want to do just a little brief Bible study sometime, read Romans 1, verses 18 through 32. Because in Romans 1, verses 18 through 32, it lays out what happens when people choose to honor themselves and not honor God. I think of Jay Leno several years ago, you know, there's been that movement to get God out of the Pledge of Allegiance. And Jay Leno made the statement one night in his comedy routine. He said, you know, he said, folks, with all the hurricanes and the tornadoes and the storms and the troubles and the on and on, he said, I'm not sure it's a good time to get God out of the Pledge of Allegiance. 2012, this summer, six years ago already, but in 2012, presidential election, Carolinas National Democratic Convention, with all the delegates there, I saw it with my own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. The chairman up at the lectern with the gavel. The issue was putting God in the platform as they plank in the platform to have God included officially in their platform. They took a verbal vote. I, you know, the guesses to put God in, nay or no, to keep him out. He took the vote. It was obvious. You know, he had it raised. He was prepared to gavel it in. And when he took the vote, those who didn't want God as part of their platform were more and louder than the ones who did. And he froze. He didn't know what to do, because he knew if God's not part of the platform, it's going to cost us votes.

So this lady came out from behind, those of you who saw it, remember, this lady came out from behind the curtains, walked over to him. He kind of sidestepped just a little. She whispered something in his ear. He did the vote again. Now the noes were even more and louder, and he went ahead and gaveled God into the platform. I thought to myself, 2012, for the first time, the biggest political party, where the greatest number of votes is, the delegates that represent that, for the first time, I have heard, and God was booed, I have heard God booed. Things are changing, and as the current grows stronger around us, it will be more of a challenge to stand firm and fast where we must stand. You know, there was a song that came out several years ago, and I don't remember if she was the author of it or not. She sang it. I don't remember the name of it right off, but, you know, Sweet Little Montana morphed out of Sweet Little Montana into lewd Miley Cyrus. That tends to happen to him like Britney Spears and others. And she, at the MTV Music Awards, she did this song, and I might go into some detail later, but more than I will right now, but one of the lyrics is, It's your body, we can do like what we like. It's your body, we can do what we like. Well, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and 20 says, It's not. We can't just do what we like. And I realize you say, Well, okay, that's if you're in Christ. Well, if you're not in Christ and you're doing those things Paul said, don't do it, you're still dishonoring God. It's just that we come to a recognition that we want to honor God and we want to do what is right. For instance, notice Acts 17, 28. When Paul went to Mars Hill to Acropolis, he wasn't talking to Daclicia. He wasn't talking to the church there.

He was talking to philosophers. He was talking to the uncalled. But he makes a statement that umbrellas over both the called and the uncalled. You and I are part of the called. Those Paul spoke to that day were part of the uncalled. But notice what he says because we all get caught under this particular umbrella that God has created for us. Acts 17, 28. Paul says, For in him we live and move and have our being, our existence. The air we breathe, that the called breathe and the uncalled breathe, the food we eat that nourishes us, the gravity that holds us to the planet. We all benefit from these life-giving, life-sustaining systems that come from God. There is a law called the law of biogenesis. Biogenesis simply means life comes from life. What we do with our mind and our body, which God gave it to us, whether we're called or uncalled, we have our existence based on God's living laws. So God either directly or indirectly gave us our mind and our body. And of course, for those of us who have been called, we have more than ample opportunity to honor Him. Proverbs 3, verse 9. I have been known to use this verse in Holy Day offering announcements, but I have never made it exclusive, strictly exclusive, to finances by any means. It ties into finances, but it reaches beyond, far beyond just finances.

This proverb right here, chapter 3, verse 9, honor the Lord. How? With what? With your substance. And the second part where it says, and with the first fruits of all your increase, obviously that is financial. That ties into offerings and tithing and all. Yes. And with your substance can also be tied to finances, but it cannot be tied exclusively to finances because then you limit it for what it means because it is comprehensive. What is your substance? Think about it. If you honor the Lord with your substance, what is your substance? Your substance is your time. It's your energy.

It's your health. It's your body. It's your life. It's your mind. It's your hands. It's the members of your body. It's your talents. It's your gifts. It's your skills. It's your resources. And you could keep on going down the line and making a longer list. Honor the Lord with your substance.

We could just simply say, honor the Lord with your being, with your thinking, with your doings, with your actions. And sometimes it's more of a challenge to do that than other times.

I could get up in the morning, which I plan to, and have my first cup of coffee with God.

And Angela and I have talked about maybe driving down to Atlanta and seeing Jonathan and Bridget and Josiah maybe spending the night and coming back on Monday. And if circumstances don't allow for that, we will probably do it on Father's Day next weekend. Because when it comes to the configuration of your life, we have to respond according sometimes to what factors are. And sometimes there's needs that would prevent us from being able to go. But I can say this. I can get up in the morning. I can have my first cup of coffee with God, and we could get in the car. I could set my mind that I'm going to honor God and what I do and how I do it. It's a Sunday, so the traffic won't be horrendous in Atlanta. But chances are I'm going to have a challenge in that traffic honoring God in the way I think and the way I operate on the highway because it's probably going to drive a certain amount of spirituality out of me and generate a certain amount of carnality.

I just use that to illustrate that there is a challenge. And sometimes in days and events and situations will be more challenging than others are. And I think we all understand that. You know, when we keep the Sabbath day properly, we're honoring God. When we tithe our increase, we're honoring God. When we won't put certain things in our mouth for consumption that God says shouldn't go in our mouths, we're honoring God. When we put a guard on our mouths and won't let certain things come out that maybe we're sometimes carnally stimulated by buttons being pushed for it to come out and we don't, we're honoring God. And we could go right on down the list, couldn't we?

So many ways in which we have opportunity to honor God. When you get up in the morning, start out with that thought that no matter what's on your list to do that day or what you plan, tell yourself, set your mind that you're going to go into tomorrow. When you get up in the morning, set your mind that today I'm going to do whatever I can, and again it's a growth process, it's a growth arena many times, I'm going to do what I can today and the things that I have to do and deal with to honor God in my thinking, in my words, and in my actions. Start your day that way, try to start every day that way, and more and more it will become a habit. But we need to capture that view and outlook at the beginning of every day, and we need to purposely with resolve set our minds to go into each day thinking first and foremost and all that I do today I want to honor God in His ways.