The Blessing of Honour & Respect

Follow-on message from Father's Day....
Learn Humbly – Honour & Respect
It does not takes us long to realise that al leaders, parents and other person of authority over our lives are not perfect. In fact we are often disappointed by those in moral and spiritual authority failing in their role.
The current culture is one of all man are equal. But is this concept biblical? Hence there are people who criticise and have become expert critics of government and leaders of any sort.
The 5th commandments recorded in Exodus 20:12. “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
In a perfect world, a sermon about honouring your father and mother would be an easy message to preach. All fathers and mothers would live honourably and it would be a natural response for children to honour their parents. But unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. So this message on the 5th commandment may cause us some pain and some sadness.
What honour is not – Just for honouring the other person, we agree to them saying that "black is white". Absolutely no! this will amounts to breaking the 9th commandment - bearing false witness
Don’t tell lies to make them look better than life. Just tell the simple truth. If your dad had a foul mouth, but he worked hard and provided for his family, then honour him for being a hard-working provider. He might be so shocked to hear you say such kind words about him that he might apologise for his foul mouth! And even if he doesn’t, you have honoured him by saying something good about him.

There are three Basic Spiritual Stages of a person’s life
First level – living under the curse – like Adam after the fall. Or for us modern day is to symbolise the time before we know Christ. Bad things happens to us, and we have little or no intention of living a life that pleases God
2nd Level – the level of sow and reaping – that is like Noah after the flood. Gen 6. What we sow we reap. What we do not sow we do not reap- we live like everyone else
The 3rd level is the level of blessing & inheritance – it is from a culture of honour, we receive inheritance. EG. By honouring our parents, we receive a blessing of physical and spiritual inheritance. (See Exodus 20:12)
Someone asked Chris Volloton, the writer of “Supernatural kingdom living” – what is God saying to the present day church? He said – we must leave the round table and return to the long table…. Why? Luke 14:7-11 – Here Jesus specifically endorse a system of hierarchy of honour. It is God’s blueprint and order for His creation.

WHOM SHALL WE HONOUR
1. Honour God first and foremost – Eli in 1 Samuel 2:29 did not honour God. His sons died on the same because they did not honour God. Eli did not do anything when his sons despises God. Unfortunately after Samuel succeed Eli, he did not seem to learn the lesson – he wanted to appoint his sons to be the judges of Israel – but the people refuse, the main reason is that Samuel’s sons are also very carnal – the Israelites asked for a king instead – God was not please. (1Sam 8:1-7 - they did not reject you, but they reject me)

2. Honour & Respect those in Authority in Church – You will not receive anything if you come to church with a very critical attitude. Now I am not asking you to be gullible and take in everything the leader say – you must be like the Bereans, check the scripture to see whether they are honouring God, exalting Christ and the Holy Scriptures.(1 Tim 2:1-2 pray for Government authority – see also 1 Peter 2:14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. ) I Tim 5:17- Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

3. Honour your parents – Hebrews 6:1-2 leaving the elementary – laying of hands is not only for ray for the sick. One main function is for the impartation of anointing, affirmation and blessing. Let us to back to the picture of the patriarchs in the Bible – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – remember what they did before they die? There is currently a keen awareness of passing the baton of anointing and blessing to the next generation by most church leaders. Eg Bill Johnson pray for the Joshua generation. (under 40) as against the baby boomers.

4. Turn to Gen 27:34-38 – Jacob cunningly stole the unique blessing of the first born. A) From an unseen realm, something is being passed down. But in order to receive it – you must know the principles of honour. B) after Jacob took the blessing of favour and inheritance, all is left is the common level of sowing and reaping. no wonder Esau was so distraught and bitter after he found out that the bleesing has been given to Jacob.
The third level is only obtain from seeking it & coveting it in the right way. Here is not that Jacob was doing right, but that Esau was wrong in flippantly treating such an honour and blessing. The line of Blessing that flowed from Abrahamic covenant with God to Jacob's line from then on.

5. Act 2:17-18 – the promised revival is one where there will be a real intergenerational one – fathers and mothers, son and daughter- - see I John too. When he address the church consisting of fathers, young men and children.

6. We must not just blindly follow a performance culture – i.e., anyone who performs well, gets the honour. There is another level – what can the near dead and dying Isaac has to offer? I think he is not only blind, he is lame too. Likewise later when Joseph ask Jacob as the grand father to bless his sons Ephraim & Manasseh, a crossing of hand happened because Jacob has prophetically blessing one son over the other.
What am I telling you today? – Honour is the path to blessing and anointing. Honour & humility comes hand in hand - God see the hearts, you can outwardly honour, but does your heart really?

7. Illustration – Philip Mantofa of the Rose of Sharon church in Surubaya. Go and google search or search his name on Youtube. His father in-law handed him the senior pastorship in recent years - But he still honours and respect the old man very much. And his father in law stayed behind to pray and intercede his ministry – recently one meeting – 4000 made decision for Christ and 1200 was baptised in one day! In all his crusade meetings, there is a central message of purity and holiness – people do not just raise their hands to accept Jesus as Lord and savior – they have to be restraint from running to the altar!

8. The last line of the prophecy – Malachi4:5-6 This is not the enemy want to see fulfilled- he has been in the business of division, deception and destruction of God’s people. Like Karl Marx says - "to conquer a nation you just have to block the transfer of values, morals and beliefs between generations." Solomon said, 'The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him' (Proverbs 20:7 NKJV)

9. Obviously, this is not only a message for the young, it is a message for all – we cannot demand respect, we have to earn respect by constantly growing in grace and knowledge of God. If we become old and grumpy, we will hinder the passing on of this spiritual blessing to the next generation.
I have testimony of a sister who goes to church every week, attend every meeting but she would find it hard to respect her parents due to their bad behaviours and values. But one day, God impressed upon her heart after reading the 10 commandments – within a short few weeks her parents came to the Lord!

10. Revivals have often stopped at one generation – why, becuase there is no passing on. The older generation demands honour and respect, the younger generation would refuse because they see themselves as better or more clever than the previous. Then the down flow of the anointing stops. Let us learn humbly to learn from each other, most importantly learn from God and His words

CONCLUSION
1. Do you want to ascend to the level of Blessing& Inheritance? A level where you do not have to rebuild from scratch but to build on something that has a wonderful foundation built for you! – I believe in favour but to enter into the favour of God, we need to embrace certain God ordained spiritual principles.

2. Are you more convicted of the need to honour God? I have said this before and will say it again, let us learn from the failure of Esau, he treats the honour and inheritance from God flippantly. He who treats what God treasure flippantly will regret for eternity. Don’t despise what God has esteemed. Don't what is holy as common.

3. Salvation & alter call – friends I know you have been coming to church. But have you seriously wanted to honour God , receive his forgiveness and salvation? There is this free gift of being the sons and daughters of the most high God waiting for us - but we must respectfully admit our need of forgiveness and salvation.