Those Who Honor Me

We are to take everything in the Bible seriously.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) — 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

In case we missed something along the way, we need to be reminded of the warnings of Scripture as well as the description of benefits from following the instruction.

Psalm 19:7–11 (ESV) — 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

There is one scripture that we cannot miss, in which Samuel assures the people that when they seek to honor God, He will honor them, but the converse is also true that those who despise Him by not honoring Him, He will lightly esteem.

1 Samuel 2:30 (ESV) — 30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Let’s consider how we may honor God. The first is to take seriously His command to honor Him by setting aside a day to rest and worship.

Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV) — 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Remember this is not a suggestion, this is so important that God listed it in the Ten Commandments right after His command to avoid any idol and to not take His name in vain. In the instructions in this command that you see above, you will notice His reference to God blessing this day as part of His creation outline that we see in Genesis.

Genesis 2:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

When Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath He brought out the fact that He is lord of the Sabbath. Soon afterwards, His followers would treat the day of resurrection, the first day of the week, as the Christian Sabbath in honor of His resurrection and God’s declaration in it.

Matthew 12:8 (ESV) — 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

How do you honor the King of Glory on His day? Is Sunday as the world says, “fun day” or is it a day of rest and worship? It’s easy to fall into the trap of the world and spend the day or most of the day in activities or work, rather than honoring God.

Many times people look to needed projects with no other time to do them and reference Jesus’ words to the accusing Pharisees regarding His healing on the Sabbath, and say, my ox is in a ditch. Really?

Luke 14:3–6 (ESV) — 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

Granted there are emergencies, but most times people either fail to plan for the day of rest and worship or are demonstrating their real priorities in life, which does not include honoring God at the top. There are many illustrations of people who work hard the rest of the week to completely take a day of rest and worship and never miss out. It’s amazing what happens to that “to do” list that you thought you needed Sunday to complete when you honor God and find the benefits of taking the day to worship and rest. On the other hand, it’s also amazing of the countless stories of people who decide they need Sunday to work and can’t afford to take the day off and how frustrating it is when that extra day of work proved not to provide the needed assistance.

Of course, we could bring up the other principle of honoring God in giving to God off the top before anything else in your budget, but that will be for another time. Be it said as the old preacher, God is not as concerned about our ability as much as our availability as we honor Him with our time, talent, and treasure. If we want God to honor us, as in bless us, shouldn’t we be most concerned about honoring Him, especially in the ways in which He has outlined in His word?

Godspeed,

Bob Brubaker, Pastor

Christ Community Presbyterian Church

Clearwater, FL

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