The Loss of Honor and Respect

We live in a world that if we step back and think about it, we see so many things that are wrong with it. We live in a world that, by comparison to even five and ten, fifteen years ago, we live in a world that is marked with violence. It's rare anymore that you would turn on the news in the evening and not see a random shooting, someone just at work or in a mall or something where someone has some issue and they just decide they're going to open fire on someone without any regard for that person's life. It's almost becoming a commonplace thing and we just kind of get used to it. Now it's almost just like it just rolls right off of our shoulders. It's just something we expect. We live in a world where language has just absolutely deteriorated that if you're out and about with people at work, people just in everyday life, you listen to some of the teens and what goes on in school and every other word is a word that you wouldn't dare say in front of your parents when you were growing up.

It happens in our entertainment, too, because we listen to movies and we listen to songs that have that stuff and replete and the more we listen to it, the more it just becomes dull in our mind and just becomes something that we might just accept and it doesn't have the effect on us anymore than it used to.

We live in a world of corruption in just about every level that you can have. We can see in government the corruption that's there. Every once in a while you hear about congressmen and governors and other people in public office that are getting convicted or at least tried for the corruption that they've done as they look at the things of something for themselves.

Of course, it's rampant in business, too. You hear about that on an on-stop basis. It's just kind of part of life in America.

We could talk about sexual immorality and where the country is today. I don't know that any one of us could have foreseen 10 or 15 years ago the way the sexual immorality has played out in America today and the things that are tolerated that we're told to accept and that we just have to kind of admit as part of society.

We look all around us and we just see a society that is falling apart farther and farther away from the standards of the Bible, farther and farther even from the standards that the world had 15, 20, 30 years ago.

We see a society in decline. There's another area that we can see.

I should mention that all those things that I just talked about, they're all in our movies. They're all in our entertainment. Every time you watch a movie, you see it played out. Every time you watch a TV show, you see something that you know is against the Bible.

But it all goes to just kind of dull our senses. Now, we just kind of accept it, and maybe some of our young people even sometimes listen to some of the arguments and think, oh, that's not so bad after all.

Well, it is bad, after all. In God's eyes, our society is nowhere. Nowhere close to what he expects it to be and nowhere close to what he expects you and I to be.

There's one more area, one more area that I've noticed over the last few years, marks our society as well, and our culture and our entertainment and our news media and our everyday life.

And maybe we've gotten very callous to that as well, or maybe not, or think, no, that's not as bad as the rest of us, not as bad as violence, not as bad as corrupt language, not as bad as sexual immorality.

In God's eyes, it's just as bad. Let's look at a story here, back in 2 Kings. That's a story that we could tell today.

Actually, by today's standards, this story looks like it would be kind of innocuous, something that we would look at and say, well, that's not so bad.

Compared to what we hear on the news today, compared to what we might see around us, this isn't such a bad thing at all.

This is the time when Elijah had just been taken away by God, God took him someplace, and Elijah has become the prophet in Israel. And as he's become the prophet in Israel, God validated who he was by performing some miracles through him, when separating the water when he threw his cloak down. In verse 19, we find another one that God performs here. In verse 19 of 2 Kings 2, it says, Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees, but the water is bad, and the crown barren.

Well, I'm in a nice city, but it doesn't have water and it can't grow anything there.

And he said, Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. And he went out to the source of the water, and cast into the salt there, and he said, Thus says the eternal, I have healed this water. From it there shall be no more death or barrenness.

So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha, which he spoke.

Only God could heal that land. God healed it.

And God validated who Elisha was, and that he was working through him.

But then in the next verse, we find something that happens in relation to this.

It says, Then he went up from there to Bethel. And Bethel in those days was a city that had departed from God.

It had become a place where idols were worshipped and other gods were being worshipped. It was no longer a city of God. They had departed from him.

And as Elisha was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you bald-head! Go up, you bald-head!

Now, you know, we've got, you know, youths.

And now I think in the Old King James Version it says, Little Children, is the way it's translated there.

And that's an unfortunate translation, because the Hebrew word that is appropriately, or more appropriately translated, use there, can be anyone from ages 3 up to 20.

Anyone, anyone until they became an adult.

So, you know, this is a group of people who comes out, and here's Elisha, a man of God.

The word is going out about him. Elijah has gone away. The story's going out.

God carried him away in a chariot.

And so you have this group of young people who come out and insolently say to Elisha, Go up, you go up! Elisha, you go up! You bald-head!

Now, whether Elisha was bald because he was naturally bald, or had his head shaved because he was a prophet, in any way it was a huge sign of disrespect to someone that God had put in charge, or put place there as a prophet who had already shown that God worked through him by the things that he did, by the miracles that God performed through him.

Now, we read that, and they think, well, you know what? That happens today.

Our world is replete with people who will say anything to anyone in authority.

Not just people of God, but any president, any boss, anyone at all.

We live in a world. We live in a world where mockery, we live in a world where insults, we live in a world where talking down about people or just showing disrespect has become almost a national, a sign of our national identity.

Just as often as we see mall shootings and school shootings and all these other shootings, how many times do we see people who just simply disrespect authority?

What happens in the end? Usually they end up shocked.

There's a whole sort of, you know, thing that goes on with the news, talking about everything that goes on.

We see it in newscasts, but never ever does the news say if people would just show respect, if they would just have a sense of honor.

Instead, what we see in America is a whole sense, a whole loss of honor, a whole loss of respect.

It's no longer something that defines us.

When I was growing up to say something to an adult, any adult, in any kind of demeaning manner, would have met with the fiercest, the fiercest of of reprimand from my parents.

Today, it's just a matter of fact. You go to the store and you see children who pretty much demand to their parents what they're going to have, throw temper tantrums whenever they don't get what they want, may even talk down to them, and parents are told, you know, that's just kind of their acting out, that's just kind of what they do, just let them feel their way.

Now, we can talk about that at the family level because we see the family level disintegrating because of the lack of respect.

But what about on the national level? You know, we live in an era, especially the last two or three years, of the very top levels of our land.

We see name-calling. We see people who are denigrating each other's characters, even descending to the point where we talk about physical characteristics of each other, and whatever we can do, whatever we can do to bring someone down, that's what we do. That's become commonplace.

Among Democrats, among Republicans, among those in power, among those out of power, in newscasters, our media, we see it played out, and our entertainment takes it to a hilt. Whole careers have been built recently out of making fun of other people.

We saw it in one late-night show back decades ago when they began poking fun at presidents that were in power at that time.

And at that time, it was a little bit irreverent. People would listen to it and think, whoa, that's taking it to a new level.

It's gone to a level that no one could have ever seen happening in the world today.

And if we're not watching what we're doing, and if our young people, you young people, aren't watching, we can develop that same attitude of disrespect and lose the sense of honor that we should have.

Because let me tell you, when a society is about to fall, there are certain things that mark it, and you can see it in the Bible.

There's violence that occurs, there's sexual immorality that occurs, there's corruption that occurs, and there is a lack of honor and respect that absolutely disappears from the landscape.

You can see a society in decline when you see those three things, or those four things, and we'll see them here in the Bible.

Today, America is like that, and if we don't watch out, if we don't watch out, we can have those same attitudes develop or descend onto us.

We can see our reasoning in our minds, and our tolerance, if I can use that word, go up to a level that it shouldn't be. It should strike us when we hear things and when we see things.

We should sigh and mourn, as it says in Ezekiel, for the things that are going on in this land.

Not laugh at it, not take pleasure in it, not record it to watch later and take delight in what someone is saying about someone else, because that simply is not of God, and it should never be among God's people.

God shows that here in 2 Kings. We see these young people showing enormous disrespect to Elisha, saying to him whether to get out of here Elisha or go up, hey, if you got so much, you go up.

You go up like Elijah did. Get on out of here, Elisha, you bald-head.

Look what God, look what His reprimand or what His response to that is.

In verse 24 it says, Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord.

Now, again, that's a tough translation.

When you look up the Hebrew, pronouncing a curse on them isn't something that you would typically see someone do.

What the translation means is he pronounced them vile.

He turned around to them, and he may have wagged his finger at them and said, you guys are out of line. You are evil. What you've said is evil. And he renounced them for what they did appropriately.

Call them for what they are. They were out of line, and he did that.

God responded.

And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of those youths.

So here we have a gang of young people, whether they're 18, 19, 20, 17, 16, whatever they are.

Here they are coming out of a society that has gone the way of the pagans.

They have sent it into sexual immorality. They're worshipping other gods. They've departed from God.

And here they are making these pronouncements against Elisha.

And God says, you should honor. You should honor.

And these bears come out. It wasn't Elisha who brought them out. It was God who brought them out.

And he said, no way, young people. Learn a lesson. Now, it doesn't say he killed 42. They were mauled.

And I would hope those young people from that day forward learned a lesson about respect, whatever authority it is.

Because they had a lesson that would do us all well to learn.

But God expects that we would be people of honor, people of respect.

Just as he respects us. Just as he respects us. Let's go back to Genesis. Genesis 6.

In the pre-flood society, we know the verses in chapter 6 about Noah and what the world was like before God flooded it and wiped all of life except Noah and his family off of it.

In Genesis 6, and verse 6, it says, It says, He looked around and he thought, there's just nothing here that I can hang my head on. Nothing worthy in this society. And the Lord was sorry that it had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. And so he said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air. For I'm sorry that I've made them.

Isn't that a sad thing? That God would look down on mankind who he spent so much time creating and say, You know what? I'm sorry I've created these people. Look what they do. But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. Verse 11, So God looked upon the earth and indeed it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way in the earth. It just got worse and worse and worse over the somewhat 1500 years until the time of the flood mankind just got farther and farther away from God. They always topped the corruption. They always topped the violence. They always topped the sexual immorality. They always topped the insults. They always went to a new low, just like we see our society going.

The same way the Sodom Gomorrah went when you look and see what happened to them as well. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh, verse 13, has come before me. For the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And then he commissions Noah build this ark.

Build the ark, and for a hundred years, Noah built that ark. Out in the middle of nowhere, not on a lake. And as he built that ark, with the rest of the world looking at him, people jeered, people made fun.

People belittled him. What are you thinking, Noah? And you can just hear it. Year after year, Noah is working on building this ark. Year after year, the rains don't come. Year after year, people are like scoffing and mocking. Noah, you've lost your mind, Noah. Just join us. Come on, the rains aren't going to come. They're not. There's not even a cloud in the sky. To Noah's credit, he never became like them. He didn't listen to them.

He stayed above the fray. He trusted in God, put his faith in him, and he kept building that ark. And the rains did come. Several years later, and even seven days after Noah was locked into the ark, when he went in and closed up, it was seven days before those rains came. And you can hear the people outside jeering and mocking, making fun, and who knows what they were saying. They were having a heyday.

Some of the TV shows would have loved to have Noah in their day. They could have had all sorts of plunder to talk about. But God did destroy that society. Over in Jude, right before the book of Revelation, you find about another society that God consumed, burned up in fire.

Jude describes it here. Peter also describes it in 2 Peter 2. He says almost the same words that Jude records here about another land that is notable for the depravity that it became. And what happened to it? Jude. One chapter in Jude, verse 6. It says, The angels who didn't keep their proper domain, those who departed from God, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh.

And if you read the account of Genesis 19, it was a violent city, too. Given the violence, when the people came to Lot's house to get those men who had visited them, they were all about violence. Lot? They finally turned on Lot. Lot, if you don't give them to us, we'll kill you. And God's angels stepped in and interrupted or intervened in that situation. Having given them over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, they are set forth as an example, suffering the avengeance of eternal fire.

Now, here are some of the marks of that society. Likewise, these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. That's what God says. They go after strange flesh, they reject authority, they speak evil of dignitaries. I think when you look at the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, you see that God is serious about how we treat each other, how we speak of each other, the type of things that we see as entertainment, and that we need to be aware of what's going on around us as we see a society that falls farther and further away from Him and taking the same course that other civilizations have.

In verse 9, He draws the contracts. These people, they're having a heyday. They're just doing everything. There is no honor. There is no respect. It has been totally lost in the society. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, he dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but simply said, the Lord rebuke you.

Much the same that Elisha did. The Lord rebuke you. What you're saying is vile. What you're saying is evil. If there is anyone that could be spoken of, certainly Michael, and a human sort of speaking, could spend days talking about Satan and what he did. He simply said, the Lord rebuke you, because God's not about condescending remarks. He's not about character assassination. He's not about making fun of other people at any expense or for any person or for any purpose. It's happened over and over in society.

You can read through the Bible. You can find other examples as well. It happened in Christ time. Here's Jesus Christ, a man who did nothing but good when he was on earth. He healed everyone that was coming to him. He spoke. He respected authority. He lived within the confines of Jewish law, obeyed all the laws. When they arrested him, what did they do?

They mocked him, threw things at him, tried to put words in his mouth. When the Romans saw what the Jews were doing, the Jews, you should have known better, because they knew, they thought, they would say they knew the word of God. Even in the Old Testament, it's there. You know, honor, respect, hold people in high esteem. They did it, and the Romans joined in. When the man is suffering, they put a crown of thorn on it. They mocked him, they took his clothes, cast lots for him.

Evil, terrible things that would do that if it happened to us, and if we've been in situations where we've been denigrated or made fun of, you know it hurts. The old saying that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me, simply isn't true, is it? Words really can't hurt. Words really can't hurt. And today, there's a lot of words that are said that we may listen to, that we may chuckle at, but it is, but it is not of God, and that's something we should take pleasure in.

Let's turn back to Proverbs. Proverbs 30, verse 17. God makes some clear and pretty direct pronouncements about some of these things in the Bible that should get our attention. In Proverbs 30, verse 17, he says this. He says, The eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it. Well, that's pretty graphic, isn't it? Now, I remember hearing that verse when I was growing up. I would think about being somewhere and a raven coming plucking my eye out.

God is getting our attention. It's like this is not tolerated. It's not going to be tolerated in the kingdom. And in a society that has made a heyday or a pastime out of mockery, we should not be people. Be people that would go that way or lean in that direction or allow it to become part of our character, part of our entertainment. Maybe part of the way we discuss things. You know, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he had to remind them about the way of life that he had called them to.

So he gave them the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. It wasn't the first time the Ten Commandments were there. The law of God has been in place with mankind from before the foundation of the earth. God planned it that way. But Israel had lost its way, and God had to remind them of how they were going to live now that they were his people and they had accepted him as their God. And so he reminds us as well.

And in those commandments, if you'll be turning back to Exodus 20, you remember when Jesus Christ was asked, what is the great commandment of the law? He said, the great commandment of the law is, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And so we know that the Ten Commandments, the first four, kind of define our vertical relationship with God.

This is how we worship God. This is how we honor him. This is what we do. When we accept him as God, here's what we need to do with him. And then the last six define kind of our horizontal relationship. How we get along with one another. Because God is interested very much in our relationship with him. But he's also very interested in our relationship and how we get along with one another. And there's a founding place, and there's a place, a foundational place, where how we get along with one another, is described. Here in Exodus 20, let's just review for a second here what God says, because in the first and then the fifth commandment, he says this, in verse 1, God spoke these words saying, verse 2, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me.

If I'm your God, honor me as God. No other God besides me.

That's his first one. What he's saying is, honor me as God. The one who can provide everything, the one who can see you through everything, the one who has made you promises, the one who can act on those promises, the one who will be, the one who you have committed to and believed, no other gods besides me.

And every time we choose, as you heard in the sermonette, to obey God rather than go to the soccer game or continue in the soccer game, or do what we want to do, or what's more convenient for us, or what's more comfortable for us, or what we want to do, and any reasoning or idea we have, when we choose God, then he's honored. No other God except him.

And he goes on and defines, you know what? I'm your God. I don't want you using my name in vain just casually, like we also see in the world around us, that, you know, for many of us and those in school, I would think it's just as a common day thing. It's like, you know, people say it, just every other word sometimes.

It should never be something that we could, we would do. We should be very cognizant of how we treat God's name, how we wear it in the way that we behave, but also how we speak it. Because God says, my name is reverence. When you speak my name, do it in reverence and do it in honor. Not casually, just not everyday conversation, not something that's trodden underfoot. Don't make me common is what God says, part of honoring him. And every time we hold our tongue and don't use his name or Jesus Christ's name or any euphemism on that, every time we do that, we honor him when we make ourselves not do it. I may have misspoke on that. Every time we don't do that, when it seems to just come naturally flow, every time we don't do that, we honor him. He says, don't make any other idols. Don't bow down before them. Don't look to them. Trust in me.

Today we don't have little stone idols we bow down to, but there are an awfully lot of idols that we have talked about that can be in our lives, things that we would look at and trust in before we trust in God. Every time we trust in God more and put him first than those other idols we may look at, or those other things that we may put our trust in first, we honor him.

And every time we keep the Sabbath day, and every time we obey his command to be where he says on the Sabbath day, in a holy convocation before him, even when we're tired, even when it's more convenient not to, even when we would rather be someplace else, we honor him by being here.

In the Fifth Commandment, verse 11, the very first word is a key to all human relationships.

Honor. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

That's the very first commandment, and those ones that Jesus Christ said the second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And God starts that off with the word honor. Now, the word honor in Hebrew is an interesting word. It really has to do with weight.

And so it may be more appropriately, I mean honor is a very good word, but it means give weight to that person.

Give weight to them. Give weight to your mother and father, children. It starts there. We don't learn honor when we're teenagers. We don't learn honor when we're adults. We learn honor when we're growing up. And God says as part of the foundational, of your foundational training of your children, you teach them honor. You teach them respect of you, mom and dad, and along with it, the authority that goes along with it.

When we look around the world to us today, what has happened to honor and respect in the home? It's disappeared. It's disappeared. We see the effects of it all over the news almost every single night. We see it in the schools where mom and dad can't tell you what to do. You decide what to do. There is a person just like them. And we have a society that wars against honoring mother and father. That includes obedience, okay?

Obedience when we're children.

But honor and respect later on, giving weight to those people, giving weight to the ones who brought us up, and teaching them in all areas to do that.

You know where there's broken relationships? Broken relationships between parent and child, husband and wife, friends, church members.

I dare say that at the base of all of it is there is a loss of honor and respect and holding each other in high esteem. That somewhere along the road we have an elevator ourself above them. It's our way. They don't know what they're doing. And I want my way over everything else because a part of honor is humility.

Jesus Christ honored all of us by giving his life for us.

He humbled himself to come to earth.

When we honor and esteem each other and hold each other in the respect that God wants us to have, it's a hum that takes humility. It takes humility.

In the New Testament it's there. Paul said in Philippians 2-3, let each esteem the other more highly than himself.

When we do that, we have respect for that other person. We don't look down on them. We're not prone to make fun of them or mock them or whatever.

They may not understand the things that we do, but we realize they're a work of God's hands.

They're a work of God's hands and he created us all.

In Psalm 8, David asks, What is man that you're mindful of him?

What is man that you're mindful of him? Look at us! When David would look around, we might ask, in a society we live in, in a world that we live in, what is man that you're mindful of him?

Why are you so patient with him? With us.

And it says, You've made him a little lower than angels, but you've crowned him with glory and honor.

There's a purpose that God has in mind that he wants every single man and woman to have, but they have to come to the way of life that God has called us to as well.

Well, let's go back to Deuteronomy 21.

You know, if we keep it on children for a time, and how important it is to God, how important it is to God that we teach our children honor and respect, and it begins with mom and dad, but it extends outward to grandparents and teachers and people in the neighborhood and policemen and governors and presidents and everyone else that may be an authority figure in their life, God has something, again, one of those shocking verses in today's society that he says about a child who won't do that and to a family that is having this issue where they're just simply the loss of honor and the loss of respect has disappeared. Deuteronomy 21, verse 18, If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they've chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. And all of the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

That was what he told Israel. That was the law of the land. Now, we would never do that today. That's not the law of the land today or the law of the church. And I'm not advocating that by any way, shape, or form. But look how serious God said this is to him. If you see this in your house, and if that won't happen, then you know what?

Put that child away. Put that child away. And why does he do it? Was John just like, you know, hey, my tolerance with him is over? No. It was that others will not see that example and follow the same way. Don't tolerate that. Don't let that happen in there, because if this one does it, and they see this one, this person sees this person doing it, someone else is going to do it, and pretty soon we have a society that's in free fall.

That's what he says. Don't do it because you're mad at him. Don't do it because God's mad at him. Do it. Do it so you shall put away the evil from among you. In today's society, we don't put the evil away from among us. All too often, we welcome it right into our homes. The disrespect, the dishonor. We might laugh at the comedy shows and the comedians who are making millions off of disrespect and honor.

And our children, and our young people, and even ourselves may look at that and say, ha ha, what's the harm in it? There's harm in it. I think God shows he does not expect his people to be that way, that we would be people who respect and who honor, and have that marked as part of our identity, no matter how far down the totem pole, the society may go with some of the things that they do.

We don't descend along with them. We stay at the level that God expects us to be. So God makes it pretty clear in his word about what honor is and what it is that he expects of us. Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs 24. Again, I won't turn to all the verses today, but you can do a study on honor in the Bible and see that it's there in the Old Testament, there in the New Testament.

Proverbs 24. Verse 21. My son, Solomon writes, fear the Lord. That's the first commandment. Fear the Lord and the King. And the King. Fear them both. Honor them both. First commandment. Fifth commandment. Vertical relationship. Horizontal relationship. Fear them both. If we turn back to Exodus 22. Exodus 22 and verse 28. Now, we're going to go back to another verse, right? After he gives Israel the Ten Commandments, he says, verse 28, You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.

Neither. Don't revile me, but watch your words about others that you are dealing with, whoever they may be. In this verse he doesn't say king. We see people in Israel who rejected other figures. Over in the New Testament, we see even the Apostle Paul dealing with this. Let's go forward to Acts. Acts 23 and verse 1. Paul is being brought before the Council in Jerusalem because of some of the statements and the witnessing that he's been doing.

He's called before the Jewish Council, and this is what happened. In verse 1, then Paul, Looking earnestly at the Council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. In verse 2, something unexpected happens, and the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. He's out of nowhere. Seems like an innocent statement. Until this day, I've lived by God's standards.

And Ananias says, slap this guy. Now again, if that happened to us, we would probably have a reaction. Paul was human. Paul had a reaction. Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. Hmm. Human reaction. Now that's something that, you know, I mean, I've been called a lot worse than a whitewashed wall, as you probably have to, but in that day and age, it struck a chord with people.

Right? They could see, Paul, you're not honoring this man. Look at your words. God will strike you, you whitewashed wall, for you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?

And those who stood by said, Paul, do you revile? Are you disrespecting God's high priest? Paul caught himself. He realized what had gone on. But he explained himself, and Paul said, I didn't know. I didn't know, brethren, that he was the high priest.

But it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. He realized, I shouldn't have said that. I need to repent. I need to clean up my act. I need to think about the way I react. I need to watch the words that come out of my mouth, because in anger or frustration, things can come out of our mouth. That can hurt. I've been guilty of it. You've been guilty of it. All of mankind's been guilty of it.

Paul caught himself. Paul learned a lesson. When, like I said earlier, he went on to write. When he wrote to the church at Philippi, esteem each other. Esteem others more highly than yourself. He realized, I need to be humble. When I'm looking and working with someone, I can't look and get down at them.

I can't allow my temper to get away with me. I owe others the respect and the honor they need, and it doesn't just have to be my way. It needs to be taking into account the things that they need as well. In the book of Romans, Paul goes on to this. We've read these verses not too long ago, but let's recall them again. Romans 13. In fact, on your way to verse 13, let's stop in chapter 12. Chapter 12, verse 10.

You write, Speak kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to the other. Not always my way. Think about that verse. Think about how it solves some problems, heals some relationships, heals some marriages, heals some parent-child issues, if both, if both are giving honor to each other and preference to one another, and not just barking out a command. Be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. In Romans 13, he takes it even further. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.

That means president, that means governor, that means mayor, that means whoever might be in governance, your boss, your neighborhood association, whatever it is that may be in a governing authority. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. We'll keep it at a national level, for there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists, the authority resists the ordinance of God. What's God saying? Never once does He say, hey, if you agree with the policies, follow Him. Never once does He say, never once does He say, you know, if they're of your party, agree with them.

He says, whoever resists, authority resists God. Do any of us ever want to be standing before God, and say, you resisted Me? You resisted Me because look what you did. Look at the positions you took. You know, David was a man after God's own heart.

We can learn a lot of lessons from David. Honor was a part of David's life. He gave it, and he saw the effects of dishonor in his life as well. Very painful lessons of dishonor in his life. I don't need to turn there, you know these stories, but David, you'll remember, was anointed as king when he was very young. Saul was the king at that time, and God had rejected Saul from being king. And for some reason, and I think we know the reason, God didn't remove Saul from office at that point.

He let him go on for years and years and years. For some reason, when God anointed David king, He didn't install him and put him on the throne at that time, and I think we know the reason why. Because David was going to learn some lessons, and God was going to learn some things about David as well. And so those 17 years, or something like that, that David was anointed king, and Saul was king in Israel.

Do you ever read once in the Bible, where David spoke evil of Saul? Do you ever read anywhere in the Bible where David made fun of Saul? Where he mocked them? Where he said any things about him, or spoke against him to try to destroy people's opinion of Saul? One time, when he was speaking to Jonathan, you'll remember, he did say, I'm going to go away, and Jonathan, you watch this.

Remember? And he said, I'm not going to come to this dinner that's here at the new moon, but if your father does such and such, then you know that he wants to kill me. That wasn't really talking down about Saul. That was just making Jonathan aware of what was going on and what David saw. But you never see David. You never see David talking about Saul. In a human way, he could have gone all around saying, you know what?

I'm king. Look what Saul did. He's not. He's just kind of a lame duck. He doesn't need—we don't need to pay attention to him, boom, boom, boom. He doesn't do that at all. When God led David to be in that cave, the same cave that Saul was in, human reasoning could have said, wow, God, you delivered him into my hands. This must be where I kill Saul and I become king. A number of us might have looked at that and said, this is what's supposed to happen. David didn't do it. He resisted. He said, no. It's not for me to lay my hands on the king.

If God wants to remove Saul, God will do it. But I won't. I won't lay hands on him. Even though I know what he's done, even though I know God has rejected him, it will be God who takes him out. I won't lay my hands on him.

God said of David, he's a man after my own heart. Look how he handled those situations. Look at the respect. Look at the honor that he paid. Even though the man—David didn't agree with Saul at all. He saw what Saul was doing. He was an evil man. He was out to kill him. He still gave him the respect and the honor that he should have.

If God saw something in David, we can learn something from David. On the other hand, David felt this thing of dishonor. He had sons—sons Solomon, Absalom, to name a couple.

Absalom. Focus on him a little bit. Intelligent young man, good-looking young man, hair that women would die for, we're told. Look at Absalom. He had it all. He was the king's son. He had the wealth. He had the notoriety. He had the name. He had to be exiled from the kingdom for a while because of some stunts that he pulled.

David showed mercy to him and brought him back in. After two years, he allowed him back into his court. What did Absalom do? Was he grateful for the opportunity to be back in Israel? Was he grateful for the opportunity to be back with David? No. No. What he did was try, as it says there in 1 Samuel, he tried to steal the hearts of the men of Israel. He saw what David had and thought, I want to be king. I want what my dad has, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it.

He said he actually went to war with his dad. He actually undermined and was a traitor to his own father. No reason. David had treated him very fairly. Even if he hadn't, there wouldn't be a reason. God pronounced his judgment on Absalom. He died very young. He died very young, hanging by the hair on his head.

God says, honor and respect, and you'll have long life. And you'll have long life, and it'll go well with you. Some of the young men, and I guess young women that we see on the news today, who don't show honor and don't show respect, they end up dead, laying in a street. It's like if you had just been taught, if you had just paid attention, if you had just shown the respect that everyone should show, as it will be in the kingdom, as it should be in our homes and in our church, if everyone did that, just think of the difference the world would be, even in that one area today.

You know, David also showed honor in another area. Let's turn over to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 9. He's been king for some time at this point. And one day it says, if a thought occurs to him, and when David has a thought occur to him, he acts on it. 2 Samuel 9, verse 1. David said, Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, his king, who is trying to kill me, is there anyone still left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Anyone left? The way the world at that time was, the king and all of his family were just killed at that point, so they weren't any threat to the succeeding king. Is there anyone left that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? You know, kindness goes hand in hand with honor. If we honor or respect someone, we're kind to them.

We watch out for their needs. We don't just ignore them, forget them, walk past them. Is there anyone left that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Zeba. So when they called him to David, the king said, Are you Zeba? And he said, Act your service, sir.

Isn't there still someone in the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God? And Zeba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet. As it turns on, verse 4, you find out that he lives in the land of Lo Dibar. Lo means no, Dibar means pasture. It's not a rich land, a land of no pasture. A poor land. Not a place you would choose to live. And when V'vibesheth, that's the son that was there who was lame, and David called him to him and David said, M'vibesheth, you're going to sit at my table the rest of your life.

I will see and I will honor the memory of Saul, the memory of Jonathan in you by honoring you and you will sit at my table and in my house the rest of your life. Well, back in 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 20. It's an interesting thing for David to do. He's a man after God's own heart. He does it and he follows through with what he said. Through ups and downs, M'vibesheth did live there.

David was true to his promise, as we should always be true to the promises and commitments that we make. In chapter 20 of 1 Samuel, verse 13, the incident that I referenced earlier about Jonathan and David partying at that new moon dinner where David was going to be away for three days and Jonathan was going to see if indeed Saul's intent was to kill him. Picking up in the middle of verse 13 of 1 Samuel 20, Jonathan, the first sentence there, says, What if it pleases my father to do you evil, David? Then I will report it to you and send you away that you may go in safety.

And the eternal be with you as he has been with my father. And you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I may not die, but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever. No, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

David, make this covenant with me. When God has cut off all your enemies, show kindness to my house forever. David did that. He may have forgotten for a time, but he honored his relationship with Jonathan. He could have just bypassed and thought, eh, you know what, those were words that were said. Look at all I had to go through because of Saul. But he honored that commitment.

We should be people that honor what we say. And when people hear us say something, we should be committed to that, even if it's years later when we think about it, going back and doing what God, or doing what we had said that we would do. After all, God makes us promises, and we expect him to keep them. He expects us to do the same thing.

But beyond that, let's look at Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14, verse 31. David may well have been aware of this verse. He knew the Old Testament quite well. Well, actually, no, he wouldn't have been. Solomon wrote Proverbs 14, but he knew the principle here. Proverbs 14, verse 31. He who oppresses the poor. David could have looked at Mr. Bishop and said, you know what, you're lame.

You live in an awful area of Israel. I don't know that I want you in my house. He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker. Huh. Even the poor we should show respect to. If we oppress, if we use them, if we ignore their plight, if things come to our mind and we just think, not worth our time, not worth our effort, he who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker. But he who honors God has mercy on the needy.

Honor God. Honor people. Not just the kings, not just the authorities, not just the ones who can do you good. Everyone. And when David saw Mr. Bishop, he followed that principle exactly. He honored him. He took care of his needs. He made sure that he had what he needed in honor of what he had done, in honor of the promise that he had made. It says in Numbers 30, verse 2. So we see that honoring people isn't just about kings and authority. It's something that God has beyond that.

It's taught when we're children, authority of mom and dad. But in a home that is being taught the Fifth Commandment, respect and honor is there in a land that has lost it all. And whatever is left seems to be disappearing even more quickly.

Let me give you some verses here of other places where it says the people we should honor. Mark down 1 Timothy 1-3. In it it says, Paul is instructing a young minister, Timothy, give respect to the older men, give respect to the older women, give respect to the younger women, and whatever. Respect the people. And he says in verse 3, honor widows, honor widows who are widows indeed. Honor widows who are widows indeed. You might want to go back through and read what Paul says as a widow indeed. And we might want to be cognizant of that as we live in our church family and as we live with each other, to have family members who may be widows, and see what God says. Our responsibility as we honor those widows who are indeed widows, what our responsibilities are. We honor God by the things that we do. We honor God by the way we do those things. 1 Timothy 6-1. It uses the word bondservants in Masters in 2 Timothy 6-1. You can replace that with employers and employees. That's what we call them today. It says in 1 Timothy 6-1, employees honor your employers. Give respect to your boss. Don't stand at the water cooler, don't have people over at night, and just make fun of the boss and say what an idiot he is. If he would just do things your way and whatever, life would be so much better, the business would run so much better. Respect him. Respect him. Don't denigrate him.

In Colossians 4-1, it says employers, you respect your employers too. You be fair and you be honest with them. You give them what they have earned. You don't withhold pay. We are told that in Proverbs. You respect them too. They're doing a job for you. You've made commitment to them. You make sure that you honor them by following through on that commitment and treating them well and appreciate what they've done for you.

Leviticus 19.32 says, when the gray head—this is not self-serving, this isn't gray, okay? This is unfortunately white. Leviticus 19.32 says, honor, honor the elderly. Rise when the gray head walks in. Honor the elderly. You know, we live in a society today where elderly people are just kind of pushed aside in favor of younger people.

God says, not so. Honor. You know, it's a blessing to the congregation to have older people here. It's a blessing to families to have the elderly among us, the wisdom that they have, the life experience that they can pass on to us and to our children. Young people, don't ever minimize older people. We may get slower as we get older. Words may not come as quickly as they did before. Don't ever find yourself dishonoring.

God will take it very, very seriously. You know, another example of someone who had to learn the lesson like Paul did in his incident with Ananias was Peter. He talked a little bit about Peter at Pentecost. You remember that when he was in Galatia with Paul, they were sitting down and they were having dinner with the Gentiles.

Peter had just recently learned, I can't call any man common or unclean because God is calling all these people. God will call who he wills. Every man is to be honored. We don't know who God will call. Eventually, he will call and open all their minds. Paul made the comment that at first Peter would sit down with the Gentiles, even though his history was, I don't eat with Gentiles, right? That was what the Jews did. Those are the circumcision, didn't sit down and eat with those of the uncircumcision.

But then, as the Jews came in, Peter reverted to his own ways, and he was only eating with the Jews. Paul had to call him out and say, Peter, Peter, you're doing what you shouldn't do. Your job is to be with everyone. You honor all people. You respect all people, everyone that God has called you. Respect. Peter didn't get mad. Peter learned his lesson. Peter understood, I've stepped out of line.

And from time to time, we need to be reminded. Respect, honor, and not revert to our old ways or old natural ways that might come easily to us. Peter learned his lesson later in his life. He wrote this in 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 17. 1 Peter 2 and verse 17.

He says, Honor. Honor all. Honor widows, honor the poor, honor the king, honor authority. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Whether the king agrees with you or you agree with him or not. Honor all. Peter came to learn that lesson. God wants us to learn that lesson. Now it says in Jude 18, in the last days, mockers will come. Scoffers will come. So between now and the return of Jesus Christ, we may be in a position like Noah was where people are laughing at us. Really? You think Jesus Christ is returning? Haven't we been hearing that for 2,000 years? Haven't you lived your life for the first 10, 20, 30 years? Haven't we been hearing you saying, He's coming back. He's coming back. And yet everything goes on just as it always has. Now we'll see what some people have felt like in the past when that's us.

God is seeing how we handle it now and how we conduct ourselves and where we grow in this area. But you know when Jesus Christ does return, because He will return. And we have some parables in Matthew 25 that talk about when He returns. And one notable one where He talks about He will separate the sheep from the goats. And it's interesting when you read through that parable of how He's going to separate the sheep from the goats. He doesn't say, Hey, you sheep, you kept my Sabbath. You didn't take my name in vain. You didn't kill. You didn't commit adultery. You didn't covet. Now all those things have to happen because that has to become who we are. That has to be just part of our nature that we don't do those things.

Matthew 25. Matthew 25, verse 40. He puts it at a level that plays right to what we're talking about today. After He goes through in Matthew 25 and talks about, I was hungry and I was sick and I was tired and I was naked.

I was in prison and you met my needs. You didn't forget me. You didn't ignore me. You figured out. You gave of your time. You sacrificed what you needed to. He says of this in Matthew 25, verse 40. And the king will answer and say to them when they say, Well, when did we do that? When did we see you naked? When did we see you hungry? When did we see you thirsty? The king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. When you honored them with your time, your substance, your compassion, your mercy, your love, and as much as you did it to one of the least of these, not just the high and mighty, not just the rich, not just the authorities, but even the least of these when I saw what was in your heart, you did it to me. You honored me.

We live in a land where there has been and will continue to be the loss of honor and the loss of respect. This nation will fall, and that will be one of the reasons for it. Among God's people, honor and respect for all should always remain.