Episode Transcript
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I'll start by reading the verse that
I'm preaching on this morning, Romans twelve
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ten B. It's the second half
of that verse, but after reading that
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I'll go back and read this whole
section. That way we can keep reminding
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ourselves of this most immediate context and
and also, over time, hopefully begin
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memorizing this a little more. So
Romans twelve ten, the second half of
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the verse, is out do one
another in showing honor. A remarkable phrase
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as well as fairly simple. But
let's go back to verse nine now and
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read this section, from nine to
twenty one. Let love be genuine.
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Abhor what is evil, hold fast
to what is good, love one another
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with bread brotherly affection. Out Do
one another in showing honor. Do not
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be slothful in zeal, be fervent
in spirit. Serve the Lord, rejoice
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in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to
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the needs of the saints and seek
to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute
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you. Bless and do not curse
them. Rejoice with those who rejoice,
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weep with those who weep, live
in harmony with one another. Do not
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be haughty, but associate with the
lowly. Never be wise in your own
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sight. Repay no one evil for
evil, but give thought to do what
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is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it
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depends on you, live peaceably withal
beloved. Never avenge yourselves, but leave
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it to the wrath of God,
for it is written vengeance is mine.
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I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy
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is hungry, feed him. If
he is thirsty, give him something to
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drink, for by doing so you
will heap burning coals on his head.
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Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good. They God
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indeed bless his word to us.
You may be seated. So we're now
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in the fourth week of an extended
series moving through Romans twelve, and this
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is, of course, after a
even more extend a series moving through chapters
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one through eleven. We're taking our
time right now to consider the very practical
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implications of Christ's death and resurrection.
What does it mean that Jesus came into
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the world to save sinners, and
how does that affect our lives? What
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does it mean that the Gospel is
the power of God unto salvation for those
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who believe. And what about right
now? What about how we live?
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Another way we might put it is
that we're taking time to see how God's
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spirit is powerfully at work in us
through the work of Jesus Christ, the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ. Or,
to put it yet another way, we're
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taking time to consider how faith in
Christ produces obedience to Christ. So when
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we started here, in verse nine, we first thought about how love must
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not be false but genuine. Then
we thought, in the next part,
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about how we must cling to the
good and abhor the evil, and how
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that all begins with clinging first and
foremost to Jesus Christ. Then, third
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we considered how Christ's love for us, this was last time, makes us
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a loving family, how his love
poured out on us, on these individuals,
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unites us together as brothers and sisters
under one father, through the son.
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Today, as we consider Paul's words, outdo one another in showing honor,
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we consider how the honor that we
receive from Christ creates a church in
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which we honor others above ourselves.
Or, to use the to borrow a
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little bit from the last verse,
we sang in our him. Oh what
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wonder, how amazing Jesuy, Jesus, Glorious King of Kings, daigns,
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to call me his beloved, lets
me rest beneath his wings. It's this
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expression, that of wonder at how
much he has exalted us, how much
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he has lifted us. That the
king of Kings, the Lord of Lords,
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the Glorious Eternal Son, would take
sinners like us and crown us with
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eternal life is most certainly an honor
and it has an effect on how we
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treat one another in the church.
And so we are to honor one another,
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we are to outdo one another in
showing honor. Now, as I
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said, have been I started the
meaning of this command. I think is
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is fairly simple, but it is
remarkable, I think the way that he
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puts it. Usually, when we
talk about striving and outdoing someone in something,
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it's to elevate yourself. Right.
This is sort of the normal way,
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at least in English, that we
use and have this consider this idea.
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Go Work Hard, you need to
show yourself, you need to strengthen
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yourself, you need to lift yourself
up. But then Paul sort of turns
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it a little bit. He says
out do one another in showing honor.
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It's like being being the master of
being a servant. It's that kind of
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idea. Usually people strive to distinguish
themselves so that they can receive an honor,
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a promotion, a metal or something. But God wants us to work
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hard in order to give honor to
others, to distinguish ourselves in a sense,
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in being servants, in giving honor, to repurpose a common phrase,
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to use it in a different way
than it's usually used. Jesus imagines not
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a race to the top, but
a race to the bottom. He wants
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us to outdo one another in giving
honor to others. So this sort of
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simultaneously everybody lifting everyone else up now
saying that we of course, that this
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doesn't mean that we should do a
poor job in anything, but it does
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mean that we should have a poor
spirit in everything. You remember Jesus's first
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words in the sermon on the mount
he said, blessed are the poor in
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spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven. This is the ethic of
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his kingdom, this is the foundation
of it, this is how it works.
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Now someone might ask, perhaps to
get out of obeying or perhaps,
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hopefully, to understand. How do
we think about outdoing one another when we
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have God ordained distinctions between inferiors and
superiors. For example, Paul tells US
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explicitly in chapter thirteen that we are
to be subject to the governing authorities and
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to give respect when respect is owed
and honor to where honor is owed.
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So how can those who are to
be honored pay respect to inferiors if inferiors
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are supposed to be the ones paying
honor or respect to their superiors? In
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other words, there are these God
ordained distinctions in which we might say,
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well, some people are more honorable
than other people. There by virtue of
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their virtues, by virtue of their
office, by all kinds of things,
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perhaps their age or wealth or education. There is a kind of thing that
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deserves a certain honor, we might
say, if these distinctions exist in the
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world, well, how can those
who are supposed to be honored then called
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to outdo those that are beneath them
in honoring? So it's a reasonable question,
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but I think the answer is simple. A superior honors someone in the
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same way that an inferior does,
that is, according to his or her
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office. A superior does that by
ruling, well, ruling in of and
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an according and according to the needs
of their inferiors. One Who gives honor
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to those that are beneath him is
one who treats them with respect, with,
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ultimately, an eye towards God,
his superior and inferior honors by serving
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in Love, according to his office
or her office, serving not as a
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man pleaser, but with them again, and eye towards God and from the
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heart. In other words, we
honor one another when we see each other
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as those that are made in God's
image. We can honor each other no
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matter what station we are in society, no matter how many gifts we have
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or don't have, when we think
about ourselves all under the one most honorable
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one who calls us to serve one
another according to our various offices. So
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a tyrant, for example, is
certainly not honoring either God or other people
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when he acts as a tyrant,
when he does not love, when he
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pushes and when he bullies, but
he does honor those who are under him
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when he rules well and treats them
with respect. I remember working at a
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working one time, at a at
a place I probably shouldn't say. I
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was working up some time and there
were there were two bosses and they'd sort
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of demonstrated this very well. One
boss is caring, thought about our schedules,
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worked carefully with us to get the
time off that we needed, gave
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clear instructions, did everything that that
everything that she could to make the company
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and make us all work together and
work together well. She was a great
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boss. There's another boss, though, who was kind of her equal,
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who is just the opposite, difficult
to work with, constantly Bossi always unclear,
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difficult to understand, and in one
you felt like you were cared for,
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you were honored, they work that
you were doing was valued and respected.
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And you know how it made me
feel. Well, made me want
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to honor her all the more for
doing a great job as the boss.
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It made me respect her and want
to want to do a good job.
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The other boss, it was a
little harder with in his not honoring as
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employees and him not working with us
and serving and love. It made it
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difficult to respect him, difficult to
treat him well. I'm sure that you've
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all experienced these kinds of things.
So the point is is that, no
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matter what station we are in society, no matter what things God has given
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us, we certainly do have an
opportunity and even an obligation to honor one
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another. So when Paul says Outdo
one another and showing honor, he doesn't
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mean that there are no longer governing
authority these or subjects, as he says
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in chapter thirteen. He means that
we should seek the promotion and the service
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of others. That may mean a
king like Jesus will have to get down
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and be pleased, to get down
in his goodness, on his hands and
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knees to wash the feet of his
subjects in order to teach them and show
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them his love. But it also
means that the woman who washed Jesus's feet
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would be forever honored by her Lord, Our Lord, throughout his kingdom.
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And when these things happen, these
mutual honoring happens, we have something that
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is really quite beautiful, don't we? Something that is full of love,
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and that's what the church should be. When each person honors only themselves,
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what happens in the church if everyone
is out for number one? You have
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you have the church divided into a
thousand pieces and like a broken light bulb
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that's been shattered on the ground,
it simply doesn't work. It doesn't shine,
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it doesn't illuminate, it doesn't do
anything that it was intended to do
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if everything is broken and shattered in
a million directions. But when each honors
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each other, a kind of beautiful
unity and glory to God is achieved when
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we honor one another, when we
seek to outdo one another and showing honor,
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there's this kind of pleasure in service. We can shine brightly in the
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world, and that's why Paul says
that we should outdo one another in showing
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honor. Of course, doesn't mean
that we're to make it a competition brag
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about how much honor we're showing,
because that, of course, wouldn't be
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honoring someone, but he does mean
that there should be this kind of holy
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ambition, a pleasure to work and
strive in being a servant. Now,
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to strengthen our wills for this difficult
but honorable task, I want to give
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you a few things to keep in
your mind as you approach others in the
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church, especially the difficult ones,
the least honorable ones, the most challenging
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ones. Some things to keep in
your mind that will help you. Number
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One, first, we honor others
because God has honored us in our justification.
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On the cross, Jesus, the
eternal and most glorious king of kings
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and Lord of Lords, poured out
his blood and he died so that people
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who were formerly condemned could be,
I'm justified, so that people's whose records
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of sin were so stained and dirty
and gross and repulsive to God that they
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only deserved hell. He died and
shed his most precious blood so that those
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sinners could be forgiven and, instead
receiving a death sentence to hell, receive
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a crown fit for heaven. There
is no greater honor that has ever been
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bestowed on any single person than that
honor God gives to us in our salvation.
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You can be the lowliest, most
despicable, horrible person, a sinner
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of sinners, a wretch of wretches, but when God brings you under the
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saving blood of Jesus Christ, he
makes you a prince or princess. He
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crowns you with eternal life, he
draws you in to his divine self and
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loves you and honors you with his
own glory. Any kind of metal or
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achievement or promotion or at a boy
that you can receive in this life,
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no letter of recommendation or good score
on a test can ever compare with being
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crowned with the Glories of Heaven itself, can you imagine? And that is
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what God has done for us in
Christ that means, because this applies to
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the greatest king of the world and
all the way down to the lowliest servant,
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that neither King Nor servant can ever
look on the other with Christianize and
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fail to honor the one that the
Lord has lifted up. We honor others
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because they have been honored by God, no matter how different they are from
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us. With the eyes of faith, we see on their head a crown
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of glory, a Crown of Righteousness, and we humble ourselves before them in
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the name of our God and Great
King. A second reason we honor others
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is because God is honored all of
us. In Our sanctification in the church,
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we experience God's blessings largely through the
blessings that he bestows on others.
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After our justification, God's work of
salvation continues on. After moving us out
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of the category of of damned and
into the category of righteous and justified,
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he continues this work of salvation and
US by rooting out sin taking it out,
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pulling it up like weeds, and
then also pouring into us and creating
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in us by his spirit holiness,
and he gives to US gifts for service.
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sanctification means being set apart, being
put to good use for the service
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of God. Now, on one
hand, on the one hand that means
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we get to work. There's a
kind of rightful selfhonoring that has to happen
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if we are to see ourselves rightly
before God. If God has poured out
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on us, by His grace and
his mercy, all kinds of the spiritual
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gifts of salvation, well, let's
put them to use, let's get to
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work. And how are we to
use them? Well, of course,
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and service to others. So we
have this wonderfully busy bee hive of activity,
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of people all working together, serving
one another for the benefit of the
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group and ultimately the king be to
mix metaphors. So we get to work.
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But it also means that we must
never ever despond eyes someone for what
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God has given them. Honoring one
another beloved means we cannot cove it.
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If God has given someone beauty or
intelligence, education, money, strength of
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spirit, generosity, wisdom, you
name it, we can't covet these things,
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because the Lord has honored them with
it. He is bestowed riches and
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blessing on them. And how can
we despise something that the Lord has given?
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If our great king of kings has
decided to pour out gifts on his
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people, including us, how can
we, as an individual, especially a
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recipient of grace, ever point to
someone else and say, well, I'm
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not going to honor that and I
don't like that or I want it for
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myself? Instead of being jealous and
coveting, we celebrate what God has done
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and when somebody has been given a
gift of any of these things, we
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encourage them in it, we praise
God for it, we honor them in
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it. And you know what happens? If they are using their gifts rightly,
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as God has in intended them to
do, it all comes back to
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US anyway, because all of those
blessings that God has given them are used
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to bless us and the blessings that
he's given us are used to bless them.
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And back and forth and back and
forth it goes, and everyone is
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being lifted up. It's like a
tree that's growing, each branch on top
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of the other, moving higher and
higher, up and up, and while
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that's happening, the trunk is getting
bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger.
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It's beautiful, it's wonderful. We
ought to honor one another, not just
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because God has honored us and our
justification, but also our sanctification. When
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we see the gifts of the Lord
and people being put to service, we
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must honor whom the Lord has honored. And finally, we honor others because
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God has honored us in our glorification. This is yet still ahead of us,
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but this is the goal. You
don't get anywhere by just wandering around.
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Right. We head toward the goal, we keep our eye on the
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thing that we are wanting, and
the final goal is not a million fractured
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pieces. The final goal is a
perfectly unified body in the Lord Jesus Christ,
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a glorious kingdom, a Holy Temple, a great and massive tree of
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righteousness. That's the goal. And
if we're heading that way and we see
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this is the picture of heaven that
is set before us, we move in
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that direction and we honor one another
and grow in that tree and move higher
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and higher and higher. This should
be our desire for the church, for
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our church, for this church and
for the church at large, that we
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might give respect and honor to those
whom the Lord has honored. When we
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see the work of salvation that he
has put on other people, when we
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see the things that he has done
in us, should we be prideful?
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We have no reason to be prideful. God has honored us, not according
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to our good works, but according
to his wonderful grace. When we think
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about that, how can we do
anything other than give that same grace and
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honor and respect to others? This
is the spirit in which we strive for
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these things, not in jealousy,
not in self love, not in a
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kind of beastly competition, but in
with our eyes on the Kingdom of God
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and the glories of all the things
that he has done in the past,
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in the present and certainly in the
future. Let's pray and ask that God
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would help us in this and would
honor US through Christ
