The Church of Eleven22 - S02E19 - Honor One Another Above Yourself

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Jesus laid down His perfection and took from us our sin, not because we deserved it, but because He decided He was going to do it on our behalf. That’s what honor is. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. – Romans 12:10

Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in. Hey, church family, welcome back to the Deep and Devo. This past weekend, we had the privilege of just diving into the gospel. As we're in John chapter 12, what we kept seeing, is that people kept coming to Jesus on their own terms.

It started out with Palm Sunday. Jesus is on a donkey to fulfill scripture. He's coming into Jerusalem. He will never leave. And then the crowds gather and they cut palm branches and they lay down their cloaks and they say, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that phrase, Hosanna means save us.

But we know that the crowd was emphasizing the us part. in essence what the Jewish people were saying is Jesus we are glad you are here we have been waiting on you but we have been waiting on you to do what we want you to do in other words they were coming to Jesus on their own terms a part of the way we know this to be true is in a few chapters we'll see that that same crowd is going to gather on a Friday night and you'll crucify him they praised him on Sunday Hosanna, and they'll crucify him on Friday. Also, some Greeks showed up, and they grabbed Philip and Andrews said, hey man, we want to see Jesus. And ultimately, the Greeks wanted to see more miracles, more signs. They were interested in Jesus, but they too were coming to Jesus on their own

terms. And also, there were many officials that heard Jesus' teaching and they believed, but they sort of quasi-believed because they kept it quiet out of fear of man, because they did not want to lose power, they did not want to lose control. And what we see here is that we must come to Jesus as he came to the Father. And the way he came to His Father was with honor and surrender, which leads us to our one another. Romans chapter 12, verse 10, says, honor one another. Honor one another.

In fact, Paul and Romans is going to command us to outdo one another in showing honor. You see, that's how Jesus treated his father. It was not my will be done. It was thy will be done. The Greeks, the Jews, the Romans, the religious people, all came to Jesus and essentially said, I am coming to you on my terms, you honor me, and you do what I say do. But Jesus came to the father and said, no, no, no, no, I honor the father. Father, I surrender to you. In fact, Jesus in his text says that he did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. So I want you to try to get your head around this, that Jesus said he would be lifted up.

That means he's going to the cross. Everybody understood that terminology. And Jesus honored the Father at the cross, and Jesus honored you at the cross. Because ultimately what honor is, honor is to make your deal a bigger deal than my deal. That's what honor is. Like if I honor you, I'm going to, like Philippians,

2 says, I'm going to treat you as if you are better than me. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, this is crazy. If you take this too far, it's heresy, so don't go too far. The reason Jesus died on the cross was for the glory of God, for sure, and to save us. And God was most glorified when his son saved us. But he honored us. Jesus treated our sin problem, and Jesus treated our broken, separated relationship with God as a bigger deal than his own perfection. And he laid down his perfection. He actually laid his perfection on us and he took from us our sin. Not because we deserved it, but because he decided he was going to do this on our behalf.

That's what honor is. There's a big difference between honor and respect. Honor is given. Respect is earned. And so what we're going to see is there's very few places in the Bible where we're told to respect one another. The Bible says the wives should respect your husbands, but we are to outdo one another in giving honor. In Romans chapter 12, this is the context where we see our one another. But I want you to see these verses that Paul gives in Romans 12.

I want you to see them through the light of the cross of Jesus Christ. because as I read over these verses, it's almost a description of how Jesus treats us. Romans 12, 9, let love be genuine. Like for God's soul of the world that he gave, his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

That is a genuine love. The Bible says that this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and gave his son as the propitiation for our sin. The Bible says that God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. That is a genuine love.

Jesus says, no greater love is there than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends, and that is what you are, you are my friends. That Christ's love towards us is genuine. Therefore, in Romans 12, 9, Paul tells us, us to let our love towards one another be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. At the cross of Jesus Christ, Jesus hated what is evil.

I mean, God takes evil so seriously. He abhors evil so seriously that the Bible in Isaiah says that God was pleased to crush his son. Please, how could God be pleased to crush him? The way God was pleased to crush him is because God made Him who was without sin to be sin. And on the cross, Jesus became our sin, and God abhorred sin and evil so much that he crushed his son and hold fast to what is good. You know what is good and lovely and true and right? It is Jesus.

He says, love one another with a brotherly affection. We talked about that way back at the beginning of the Deep and Devo, and then we get this outdo one another in showing honor. Now let me ask you this. How are you at outdoing one another with showing honor? Do you honor the people you live with? Do you honor the people you work with? Do you honor the people you go to church with? On your social media feeds, do you honor one another? And Paul makes a competition out of it. He said, all right, here's the game I want you to play. I want you to try to out honor them. And the best way to think about this, the best way to treat one another, with that kind of honor is to think about somebody that you think is super honorable. I mean, right now, in your mind, who is the most honorable person that you can think of? Okay?

I know most of you're thinking of me. Ha-ha, that's a joke. But think of who it is. If you could meet whatever, some actor, actress, maybe sports celebrity, hopefully it's none of those people, but maybe it is, whoever it is for you, okay? And then how would you treat that person?

I could tell you for me who it was. I got to have dinner with him one time. Billy Grape, Dr. Billy Graham. Dr. in my opinion is one of the most honorable humans who has ever walked the planet. He gave his life for the gospel. He lived a life of integrity. He led more people to Jesus than any other human.

And years ago, I've told you this a million times, I got to have dinner with him. Now, do you think it was very hard for me to honor Dr. Billy Graham? Well, then what I am called to do is to treat every single person in my life the way I would treat him. because now I do think he has earned respect for sure but it was easy for me to honor him and it was easy for me to try to outdo him with honor to give him the the best seat at the table to make sure that he got to get his meal first if he was talking and I was talking I did not say Billy hush I'm telling a story and you know you know what the Bible says I'm supposed to do I'm supposed to treat Robbie who is filming this right now and he films all of them for me

and he's a 20-something-year-old employee here at the church. And he honors me. I'm telling you, he honors me. He shows up on time. He's ready. He's kind. He asks questions. He often prays for me before I do this.

And what the Bible says is that even though I'm the lead and founding pastor, that my job, because of what Christ did on the cross for me, because when he was lifted up, it was for my salvation. and that's my relationship with Jesus, therefore my relationship with my friend Robbie right here is that I'm supposed to beat him in the honor game. That's right. That I'm supposed to pray for him and ask him how he's doing and how he's feeling and make sure that I come prepared and on time and all those kind of things.

How are you doing and outdoing one another in honor? I dare you this week to try it. Now let me tell you where it's going to be easy, okay? Honestly, it's easy. church with the church staff and pastors. You guys are so good to me. I'm not kidding you, the emails that I get where God has done a thing in your life, and I happen to be the one saying words while that thing happened, I get so many incredible encouraging emails, and they are so honoring, and I thank you so much. Do you talk to your wife that way?

Do you talk to your kids that way? You see, because I would honor you if you show up and you walked in the room right now, I wouldn't be like, can you be quiet? I'm busy. But oftentimes, man, I will dishonor my kids because I think they have not earned my respect in that moment because they've been disrespectful. But again, respect is earned and honor is given. We are to outdo one another in honor. And then what Paul does is Paul gives specifics on what that looks like. He says, do not be slothful and zeal. In other words, it's easy to get tired honoring one another, especially if the other person isn't super appreciative of the honor. He says, don't get lazy. Don't get slothful and zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. By the way, every single one of these is a description of how Jesus honored us. He was not slothful in zeal. When his hour came, he was determined. He was determined. He was purposed and he was passionate about the passion. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. That Jesus was spirit-filled and spirit-led. That Jesus said that all he did was what the Father told him to do.

He spent all of his hours and days and even minutes serving the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Why? Because of the tribulation that Christ went through. Be constant in time. prayer. Jesus says to the disciples, the Spirit is willing, but the fresh is weak. Can you not just stay awake and pray with me? Contribute to the needs of the saints. Seek to show hospitality. Bless

those who persecute you. Who did that? Jesus did. Bless and do not curse them. At the cross, when Jesus was being reviled, he did not revile in turn, but instead he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weak. We with those who we talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Live in harmony with one another and do not be haughty. That means don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. You know who associated with the lowly?

Jesus did. You know who is the lowly? You and me. And yet, Jesus humbled himself. He didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. He stepped out of heaven. He dressed himself as a man, as a servant. and he was obedient. He was submissive to his father's will,

obedient even unto death, and he associated with us. This is never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil. Why? Because all evil is accounted for at the cross. But give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. And if possible, so far as it depends on you, which means sometimes you do everything you can, and it's not possible, but so far as it depends on you, if it's possible, live peaceably with all. Church of 1122, may we be a people because of what Christ has done for us at the cross, because of how Christ honored his father in heaven and honored us at the cross, may we outdo

one another in showing honor. And I don't mean just here at church when we say kind things to one another, I'm talking about to the people that you are with the most. To your boss, to the person you share the cubicle with, it gets on your nerves, to your children when they're aggravating the life out of you, to your parents when they're aggravating the life out of you, because of what Christ has done for us, may you and I outdo one another in showing honor. Let's pray. Father in heaven, in a society where honor seems to be depreciating. God, it seems that we have traded in sarcasm and cynicism,

and we lift those things up instead of honor. God, we have traded in honor and respect for backbiting, tweets. Lord, I pray that we as Christ followers, we would just be different. Spirit, would you give us the power and ability to treat others as we have been treated? by Jesus and that we would make their deal our responsibility and that we would honor one another

in the way that we talk from, in the way that we act, the way that we pray for one another. We prayed in Jesus' name. Thank you for joining us for Deepen with Pastor Jobi Martin. If you're looking for additional resources to help you further deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, visit co-e-22.com slash resources. We're praying this message you heard today. helps you experience God in a unique and fresh way. And as always, be free.