[0:00] I invite you to turn to our scripture reading for today. It's found in the letter of Paul to 1 Timothy. We'll be reading from chapter 5, beginning at verse 17.
[0:21] Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
[0:33] For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.
[0:45] Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
[1:01] In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.
[1:14] Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and for your frequent ailments.
[1:34] The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.
[1:57] Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
[2:09] Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers. Rather, they must serve all the better, since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
[2:29] Amen. All right. So today we're going to be continuing our study of the letter to 1 Timothy, one of the pastoral letters in which Paul provides instruction for the church, and specifically 1 Timothy, is in regard to how the household of God is to function.
[2:55] And so today we continue chapter 5 and the very beginning of chapter 6, and we see a word repeated twice in these verses that was also discussed last week, and that's the word honor, to give honor.
[3:13] And it is, I guess, by providence that it's also Veterans Day weekend, and so we've heard much about honor already. But honor is a form of respect.
[3:25] It's holding someone with great esteem. So it's more than respect, but it is a form of respect. And so the verses today talk a lot about giving respect.
[3:38] And so this brought to mind a phrase that I'm sure most of you have heard, and it's become quite common today. It's respect is earned, not given.
[3:50] I assume you've probably heard that phrase. I heard it when I was 15 years old in a leadership class put on by the Air Force. I wasn't in the Air Force, but it was put on by the Air Force.
[4:02] And I really took to the phrase, and I liked the phrase, and I never really reconsidered it, but reading the passage today and learning about honor and respect made me reconsider this phrase and made me think more about it.
[4:19] And I think we learn a lot about, as Christians, what we are called to when it comes to giving respect and giving honor throughout the Bible, but particularly in these verses.
[4:32] And so I want to talk about honor today. Now, respect often means different things to different people, right?
[4:43] It would be helpful to have a good definition of it, but often when I think of the word respect, I think of the type of respect that's given to someone because of a role that they have. We are called to honor, to obey our parents, to respect our parents because they're our parents.
[4:59] They have the role of parent, and so we are called to honor them, mother or father. I think also of a teacher. We are expected, especially in grade school, to respect our teachers because they've been given this position of authority by an institution and also by society, and so we respect our teachers.
[5:20] And we also see respect as greatly important in the military, whether we're talking about officers or NCOs. They are given respect because often of a rank, a rank that they earn, but respect is to be shown to them because of the rank, because of their appointment to a command, and because the institution of the military cannot function if orders are not followed.
[5:50] And I'm sure those who have served have had leaders that they didn't wish to respect, but they learned to show respect because it was out of necessity in that case.
[6:02] We also see that respect is given to police officers, to firemen, and to public officials in authority because society has agreed that we show respect to those that are placed in authority and society functions when we give respect to elected and appointed officials.
[6:25] And so in these cases, the sense of respect is one that comes from a role or a position. That position is often one that is earned, and so there is a sense in which the respect is earned, but we have decided as a society to show respect because we see that society and individuals benefit when we show respect.
[6:50] As Christians, we also are called to a different kind of respect, a respect that we give one another because we are all created in the image of God, because we honor God. We show respect to all people, and we see we're called to do so in Scripture, I think particularly of 1 Peter 2.
[7:09] And so to the phrase, respect is earned, not given, I think it sounds right, and I think it's grown in popularity because we've all been hurt by people who were called to respect, but they don't live a life that seems worthy of respect.
[7:27] It may be that we had parents who were uncaring or unloving, and we find it difficult to respect them, or I know we've all had at least one teacher who didn't care about the profession and didn't care about us, and it was very difficult to respect them.
[7:43] We've all heard numerous stories of police officers and public officials who are corrupt and seeking only their own benefit, and it's very difficult to respect them.
[7:53] But I think regardless of the fact that some waste the respect that has been given them through their roles, we're still called to show respect to one another.
[8:11] And so I think the phrase, respect is earned, not given, would perhaps be better said as respect gained hastily dwindles easily or is easily wasted, right?
[8:27] In other words, respect is not earned, but it is easily lost. There are many who have a position that is meant to be respected who don't live in a way that is deserving of respect.
[8:40] But although some people make it increasingly difficult for us to show them respect, respect, we know that society, specifically families, and moreover the church, they function well when respect is given to those in authority, and so Scripture calls us to this.
[8:58] But we also know that there are some who are truly worthy of respect, and some who rule well, some who lead well, that are worthy of honor, of more than respect.
[9:12] And so I think the church, we've been called to show respect and to show honor, not only because it's God who grants authority, as we see in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, but because doing so brings honor to the name of God and also to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
[9:31] And we'll see that in these verses today. So that's enough civics, kind of politics, for one day. Before we get into specifically what Paul has to say about honor in regard to elders and in regard to bondservants, I want to pray before we look at these verses.
[9:51] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. We thank you for how practical it can be at times, getting into the details of how we worship together as a church, but also going into our lives, into the place where we work, and into the way that we treat those who are in leadership over us.
[10:16] And so I pray that we would apply these truths well, but also that we would have a right perspective fixed on the honor of God and the continued working of his gospel in and through us.
[10:31] I pray for your guidance. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So I've broken this down into three points. And so the first point I've titled, Worthy of Double Honor.
[10:43] And I want to look at verses 17 and 18, which is specifically talking about elders, elders who rule well or who lead well.
[10:55] And so we see in verse 17 that the church, in this case specifically Timothy, is called to count the elders who rule, who preach, and who teach well as being worthy of double honor.
[11:09] Last week we learned that the vulnerable widows within the church are called to be honored because God is compassionate, He's kind, and He's loving towards the truly helpless.
[11:22] But here we see that some elders are worthy of double honor. So why double honor? Well, I think first, honor comes from the position.
[11:33] An elder is a leader within the church, and it is also a role that's given by the church. It is appointed by the eldership of the church.
[11:44] It is affirmed by the congregation of the church. And it's also in recognition of a calling that comes from God. And so it's a role that's reserved for those who meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy chapter 3.
[11:58] And so these elders, they've been entrusted to lead and to uphold sound doctrine and also the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, verse 3.
[12:14] But then they're called to double honor, specifically to give double honor to those who lead well, those who labor in preaching and teaching. And we see that because these elders have devoted themselves to the work of the ministry, and because of their sacrifice, that we are called to give them double honor.
[12:37] And so we know that it's natural to give double honor to those who sacrifice much. We just talked about Veterans Day and how we honor those who sacrifice for our country.
[12:50] Well, I think Paul here is calling us to give honor for those who sacrifice for the church. And so he calls us to show double honor for those who lead well and those who labor in preaching and teaching because these men, they sacrifice much for the kingdom of God.
[13:10] They make themselves a servant to all, as Paul said, in order to present the gospel and to win people for the kingdom of God. Moreover, they shepherd the flock of God.
[13:22] They don't do so under compulsion, but they do so willingly. They have a willing heart to shepherd the flock, not for shameful gain, but eagerly that they may be an example to the flock.
[13:35] We see this in 1 Peter 5. We also see that these elders will receive an eternal reward, what Peter calls an unfading crown of glory.
[13:47] But here we see that there's also an earthly reward, and we see this in 1 Corinthians 9, we see it in Galatians 6, and we see it in Philippians 4.
[14:01] And so Paul clarifies for us what he means by double honor, and it's not simply an expression of giving respect or giving honor.
[14:13] He means more than that. And so in verse 18, he tells us that according to the Old Testament law, we're not to muzzle the ox as it treads out grain.
[14:25] And so maybe that one lost on you. We usually don't deal with oxen much in our day. Probably most of us don't know why we tread grain.
[14:36] But Paul fortunately explains it for us, but I do want to appreciate the meaning of this phrase. And so it actually comes from Deuteronomy chapter 25.
[14:49] And in ancient Israel, it was common practice that you might borrow an ox from your friend or from someone who is putting out their ox for rent, and you would borrow this ox in order to tread your grain.
[15:03] We can kind of think of this in our day like going to Home Depot and borrowing a piece of yard equipment for working at our house, right? But this ox would often be tied to a pole and made to tread in a circle and trample the grain underfoot, which would separate the chaff from the grain, and then it would be winnowed so that the chaff would blow away in the wind, and then they would keep the grain.
[15:27] It took a lot more work back then to get food than it does to go to McDonald's today, right? But it was a lot of work, and so the problem was, an unmuzzled ox could eat the grain while it was treading.
[15:43] It might be a 12-hour shift of walking in a circle. Certainly the ox would be hungry and want some of the grain, but if you borrowed an ox and you were greedy, you might muzzle the ox so that it couldn't eat your grain, and then you would return it to its owner, hungry and probably in poor health.
[16:03] This would be like borrowing something from a friend, a piece of yard equipment, and then returning it damaged and with an empty tank of gas, right? Not really fair, and so we can see what Paul means.
[16:18] This isn't fair to the ox, and it's also not fair to the owner, and I think God is concerned for both. The ox and its owner, they deserve to partake in the fruit of their labor.
[16:31] Paul doesn't leave us, though, for those of us who don't know much about oxen, he gives us another statement, and he quotes Jesus' own words from Matthew 10.
[16:41] He clarifies what is meant by this. The laborer deserves his wages, right? The one who labors deserves the wages of their labor. And so we see that an elder who rules well, who demonstrates teaching and preaching well, is worthy of their wages.
[17:01] They're worthy to be shown honor, and they're also worthy to be financially supported by the church. And so we see that Paul's usage of the word honor, which is in the Greek, timee, it not only means to hold with great esteem, but it also means to hold as being worthy of great value, or as giving value, right?
[17:28] An example, an elder is worthy of a fair wage for the work they have done. And so we can conclude from these verses that it was Paul's vision for Timothy as the lead elder in the church at Ephesus, but also for future generations of elders, that they would be supported by the local church, that these elders would be supported so that they could devote themselves wholly to teaching and preaching and leading the church.
[17:57] And we see specifically in Galatians 6, verse 6, that the church is called to support them. We're told by Paul, let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
[18:14] And so I believe this is what Paul means in these verses. His vision for the church is that honor and respect be shown to elders, elders, first because they are called and appointed by God, and second, because we are to support them, these exceptional elders, so that they may continue the work of the ministry of Christ.
[18:38] And I think this is something we do well at Steel Valley Church. I'm not asking for a raise, but if Daniel is okay with doubling my salary, I wouldn't complain. Yeah?
[18:50] Yeah? But as we continue in the passage, we find that not all elders are worthy of honor, but as in all areas of life, there are some who waste the honor that has been given to them.
[19:07] So in these next verses, we'll look at Paul's direction for rebuking such elders and keeping the church unstained from the world. My second point, I've titled, Do Not Be Hasty.
[19:23] And so I'm going to look at verses 19 through 25, and I'm going to break this into two blocks, and we'll see how they connect. But in the first verses, chapter 19, or rather, verses 19 through 21 of chapter 5, if you want to look along in your Bible, we can see that Timothy is charged to rebuke elders that persist in sin.
[19:52] Elders, like everyone else, battle sin. Anyone who says they're without sin is deceived, right? We're all called to a life of confession and turning from sin, as we see in 1 John 1.
[20:10] Elders as well are called to a life above reproach. But when an elder is found in sin, they're to be confronted and they're to repent, to confess.
[20:27] But if an elder persists in their sin, even after being confronted, if they continue in sin and multiple witnesses come forward, two or three in this case, then the elder is to be brought before the congregation and rebuked before all of them.
[20:43] So the requirement for multiple witnesses is in order to keep the church from being slandered from a single false witness rising up and trying to discredit an elder or to discredit the church, and therefore we require, as in all cases, two or maybe three witnesses.
[21:01] And the rebuke is to be public for the elder's good. They're given one final chance to repent and hopefully to be restored. But it's also for the good of the church, as we see, so that others will see the severity of sin and hopefully keep themselves from sin.
[21:24] We see, as we continue into verse 21, that Paul is deeply concerned about these things, and he's concerned that they might be kept with prejudice or with partiality.
[21:38] And so he charges Timothy, he charges him before God, before Christ Jesus, and also before the elect angels, that he must keep these rules without prejudice or partiality.
[21:54] Right? A truly sobering charge that he would take the name of God and Christ and the angels as witness. But I think Paul was aware that one of the greatest dangers to the early church was, and I think remains to this day, that of unconfronted sin and that of false teaching, and that this was particularly true in the church leadership.
[22:20] Right? And so he warns that regardless of an elder's position in the church or in the community, regardless of any fame they may have amassed through their leadership, that any sin or unsound doctrine that they may have in their life must be addressed carefully, but it must be addressed quickly.
[22:44] And so we see that no elder is untouchable. No elder is set above anyone else. If it's evident that they are persisting in sin, they must be rebuked before the congregation.
[22:58] We've seen this in the world around us, and we've seen that in some cases this may require an elder to step down from the office of being an elder until it's evident that they have turned from sin and that they again meet the qualifications, and then after which, assuming they're above reproach, they may be reappointed to the office of elder.
[23:25] But Paul calls specifically for a public rebuke so that those that they may have led into sin or misled into unsound doctrine may also hear of their rebuke and may also turn from their sin.
[23:42] Right? And this is also to be public for the good of the world. If the world sees that we take sin seriously, that we take the purity of the bride of Christ, the church, seriously, but we also take repentance, confession, and restoration seriously, then they will see the goodness of God even in the midst of failure.
[24:09] We know, as Paul said in chapter 2 and 3, that the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth. The church must be unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, as he says in chapter 6, verse 14.
[24:25] And that is Paul's call for the church. Continuing into verse 22, we see that he also has a warning regarding the laying on of hands.
[24:40] And he says not to be hasty in the laying on of hands. And so, this idea of laying on of hands, if we were to jump to James, we may assume that he's meaning or discussing healing, right?
[24:54] There was often laying on of hands for the sick to heal them, but I think he's more so referring to what happened back in Acts chapter 6 about appointing leadership.
[25:05] Laying on of hands was common practice accompanied by prayer and fasting when appointing those deacons to leadership and also elders, as was Timothy's case when he was made an elder.
[25:18] And so, in the New Testament, we see that this most likely refers to appointing elders. He's telling Timothy, don't be hasty in appointing elders.
[25:32] Instead, elders must be tested and shown to meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3. They must be found unstained from the world and also not given over to any persistent sin.
[25:45] And he also warns Timothy that some sins are evident or conspicuous is the word that he uses and these sins are difficult to hide. But that other sins may remain hidden for a time.
[25:59] A person can pretend to be without sin for a time if it is to their benefit and then these sins may become evident later. And so, we must be patient in testing these people to see that they are truly above reproach.
[26:13] And the same is true of good works. We also test someone's faith by the evidence which is their good works. And some good works are conspicuous or evident and others take time.
[26:26] And so, we test by waiting to see the fruit that is brought about by a person's ministry as evidence that they are in fact living a life of holiness and a life of turning from sin.
[26:39] And before we move on in verse 23, there's, if you've got the ESV Bible, a parenthetical statement in parentheses that maybe seems a little bit out of place.
[26:53] I'm not quite sure why Paul chose to put it here but he needed to put it somewhere in the letter and this was perhaps a good place. But he says, no longer drink only water but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
[27:08] And we don't have time for a whole sermon on the use of alcohol in the Bible. So, I'll just address what I think is Paul's literal meaning here and that is that the water in Ephesus was contaminated with microorganisms and much worse that we don't want to think about.
[27:27] But, it was really bad for people whose stomachs were not adjusted to the water and in the ancient world it was common practice to put a little bit of alcohol in there to disinfect the water and so, he told them put a little bit of wine in the water disinfect it and then you can drink the water your health will be restored and you can focus on the ministry that you're called to.
[27:51] And so, I think the parenthesis is put here only to address the concern of Timothy's health and also put here because these things that he's called to are sobering and the ministry that he's called to is difficult and he needs to be strong in health in order to focus on the task before him.
[28:13] And so, as we move into the third point, recall that going through chapters 2 and 3, Paul addressed first men and women as we saw in chapter 2 and then elders and deacons in chapter 3 and then in the beginning of chapter 5 he addressed widows and now as we look at the first two verses of chapter 6 which I think perhaps should just be part of the same block of text but nonetheless they've been put into chapter 6 we see that he is going to address bond servants and so I've titled my third point worthy of all honor and I want to look at the first two verses of chapter 6 we see in verse 1 that bond servants are called to regard their master as worthy of all honor so I want to talk a little bit about the idea of a bond servant because I don't think most of us at least before going into this study myself included had a clear picture of what a bond servant truly was and I don't want to lose all of your attention
[29:23] I'm a teacher so I know if you make reference to something people will go look at it immediately instead of waiting to afterwards but I do encourage you to look at the preface of the Bible if you have the ESV Bible they make an explanation for why they render this word bond servant and I can see you Micah back there they make a good case for why they translate it bond servant here and in other places it's translated slave but I'll give you a brief summary first of all we see that bond servants were addressed frequently by Paul in 1 Corinthians in Ephesians in Philemon and in 1 Peter as well Peter addressed them as well and they were addressed because in the first century church bond servants and masters were gathering together to worship and there was a question about what this interaction was to look like but also the church was at odds with the culture around them bond servants and masters were not on equal ground and so how are they to interact outside of the church and so they were addressed here by Paul and also by
[30:34] Peter but we see this phrase right let all who are under a yoke as bond servants and so under a yoke gives us a little bit of a picture of the reality of this relationship that it's a burden right there is there is a sense of burden or bondage here in this relationship looking into it apparently about a third of the population in Ephesus were bond servants and so this represents a major portion of the people that are being addressed here right a third of the people but a bond servant specifically they were bound by a seven year contract they were bound by a seven year contract although some a 14 year contract and they were bound by this contract to serve a master into which they entered the contract and then at the end of this contract they would be freed they would be paid their back wages for the seven year service and then they would be declared a freedman with a certificate to indicate that that was the case so that they wouldn't be captured and returned right but they typically entered this service voluntarily because it was a job and it would pay them at the end of the term or they maybe entered because of debt that they needed to repay and so they were somewhat forced into it once the contract began the bond servant was under the yoke they were bound to complete the contract unless they were able to pay their way out of it they could buy their way out of it early but the problem is they weren't paid until the end of the term so unless they came into money otherwise they weren't going to be able to buy their way out of it now this form of in the modern word we might say indentured servitude it was a fundamental part of their socioeconomic system it represented a third of the population and it was also the case throughout much of biblical history this was the labor that was available in their time and we really have to contrast this with what most of us have learned in our history classes about the 16th through 19th century slavery that was common in the western world this was a brutal dehumanizing form of forced labor that was disgusting right and so often that's what we picture when we think of slavery but in the new testament bond service was drastically different from what we often think about as slavery and that's why the word is rendered bond service rather than slavery because we don't want to have our modern context in mind when reading it all of that being said
[33:28] Paul is not advocating for any form of slavery or indentured servitude to continue right he simply addressing the reality of life in their circumstance he's writing to a church where bond servants and masters are gathering together and there are questions about how societal roles are to change immediately and in the future and so from our perspective we may wish that Paul had simply abolished slavery and put it in writing it would have made things simpler but we realize that it would have been impossible at his time to do this and he offers an explanation we see in verse one the end of the verse that his reasoning is so that the name of God and the teachings may not be reviled he's concerned that if he tells bond servants to neglect the remainder of their contract to be dishonest or disrespectful or to dishonor their masters then the name of God and the teachings of Jesus will be reviled and so the work of the gospel will be hindered we see that Paul's foremost priority is the work of the gospel and to honor the name of
[34:58] God and so he doesn't want to hinder the work of sharing the good news of the gospel right because if he were to hinder this work then the church would be disregarded by the culture likely destroyed by the culture and there would be no chance for the change that the church was to bring to take effect and so he knows that this is a difficult command we know Paul is writing himself in prison in chains and yet he's still calling with empathy for sacrificial love that he knows is only possible by a heart that's transfixed on Jesus Christ so now knowing what bond servants what their life truly entailed what specifically does Paul mean by regard as worthy of all honor right regard your own master as worthy of all honor we get a clarification of this in the letter to the
[36:04] Ephesians specifically in chapter 6 verses 6 through 9 he gives a much longer discussion to bond servants regarding their service but in essence he says that they must obey their master with a sincere heart as bond servants of Christ and render good service or rather render service with a good will as to the Lord in other words they're called to render honest hard work because they're not working for man they're working for the Lord and the work that they do it honors his name and it advances the work of the gospel and so whether their master was worthy of their respect or their hard work or not was not the issue instead the issue was the work of the gospel and this continued by bond servants honoring their master as though honoring
[37:05] Christ we see in verse two that this is especially true for bond servants who had believing masters masters that themselves were Christians and so Paul charges these bond servants to serve their believing masters all the better right even more vigorously because it benefits their beloved brother in Christ I think this one may also be difficult from our perspective Paul has an opportunity here he's addressing bond servants that are working for believing masters to free these bond servants from their contract but he doesn't take this opportunity right he simply says that these bond servants must render service all the better we do see that Paul addresses these believing masters directly in other letters such as Ephesians 6 and Colossians chapter 3 and he calls for fair and just treatment of bond servants by these masters but he doesn't compel them to free their bond servants rather he leaves it up to their own goodness as he says to
[38:17] Philemon in his letter to Philemon specifically verse 14 but he also in other places instructs bond servants that or rather instructs Christians that they are no longer to become bond servants of men because they have been bought with a price by Christ and for any who are already in a contract he encourages them to finish the term of their contract as is the honest thing to do but to gain their freedom as soon as it is possible and so it would only take a generation maybe seven years for all of these Christians to be freed from their bond service if they follow Paul's teachings here right throughout this though we see that Paul deeply cares for the good of God's children but he has an eternal perspective he knows that there may be suffering for a short while but there's an eternal reward for those who do good whether bond servant or free but we know that this reward it comes by faith to those who hear and receive the gospel of Jesus
[39:27] Christ and so Paul's priority our priority is foremost the spread of the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes but we also know through the abundant goodness of God that the gospel transforms hearts and minds and when it takes effect larger societal changes often follow and we know that it eventually transformed the Roman Empire all of western civilization and it brought about the end of indentured servitude and slavery all to the honor and glory of God forever and it has the power to do the same in the world around us today so as we close none of us here today are bond servants by the grace of
[40:28] God but these principles for honor they remain we could perhaps apply this as employees most of us working for others we're called to render faithful service to work heartily for the Lord not for men as we see in Colossians 3 23 rather we do all things to the glory of God not seeking our own advantage but the advantage of others so that by his grace they may be saved and so we count our co-workers we count our managers our directors our CEOs our colleagues as worthy of all honor in order that the name of God and the teachings may never be reviled we must remember that they're watching our co-workers are watching to see if we live what we preach or if our faith only be superficial but it's through faithful service through integrity at all times that we bear witness to the truth of God's word which is at work in our hearts this gives purpose to our work even if your work may seem difficult may seem menial if your manager is impossible to respect it gives purpose to showing respect when it feels impossible because we're working for the Lord we're working for his honor this applies more broadly than just the workplace it also applies to how we show respect and honor at home how we respect and honor our extended families our teachers in school and also those in our communities and even in the government right we see instructions from Paul in Romans 13 that we're to honor those in government because they're appointed by
[42:24] God for our good the honor we show we see is an integral and important part of our witness to the world it's evidence that we're transformed by grace that we no longer count ourselves more highly than others but instead we love genuinely we hate evil and so we outdo one another in showing honor we no longer are overcome by evil but we overcome evil with good as we hear in Romans 12 and we can't only share the gospel with our actions rather our actions must be evidence of our words but the words of the gospel only ring true if our lives demonstrate that we have faith in a good and holy God that we acknowledge our sinfulness that we have a deep reverence for Jesus Christ who died the death we deserve and that we are living a life fully surrendered to him our words as Paul warns will be of no effect if we profess to know
[43:31] God but then practice arrogance partiality and prejudice that culminate ultimately in disobedience disrespect and dishonor out of love and reverence for the name of God the teachings of Jesus Christ the work of the gospel we show honor to everyone even the difficult whether difficult people difficult bosses difficult parents the call is the same show honor to everyone I'll end by reading a bit from 1 Peter 2 17 to 21 honor everyone love the brotherhood fear God honor the emperor servants be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly for to you for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps let's pray
[44:38] Can you