Look to Yourselves: Honour Is What Attracts God's Favour

Sermon outline

2013 is a year of great grace, but grace is experienced by attracting God's favour and blessing, and the word that connects them is honour: look to yourself, stay humble and honour the people above you, beside you and below you.

1. What he learnt about tithing, honour and partnership

   He and Pastor Zubeda both worked for many years while going to church, and their first struggle was to get the tithe right, then the offerings. Because of their backgrounds they already honoured their pastor. He tells how their home began to be blessed, how a pledge he could not afford opened prosperity to him, and how obedience in giving kept bringing results. His conclusion is that prosperity is attached not only to tithes and offerings but to partnership with the ministry.

   Illustration: Early in their Christian life their pastor, who was fasting, accepted only a glass of water in their home, quoted the prophet's reward and blessed the house. Later, though he worked for the government, he stood with the businessmen and pledged towards tarring a church car park; God gave the money for the pledge, and about 20 days later almost 100,000 rand came into his account. At a building fund breakfast he pledged a last 1,000 rand and his name was drawn for a week for two at Victoria Falls. And when God told him to empty his bank account he sowed it to a pastor, asked him to agree in prayer over a building, and the building became his.

   “Your prosperity was attached to your partnership with the ministry.”

   • Matthew 10:41-42

2. Do not fight a man of God: bring back the fear of the Lord

   In his 32nd year of serving the Lord, one thing he has learnt is that if you fight a man of God, God will begin to fight you, so in a disagreement he would rather walk away and let God deal with it. Ananias and Sapphira did not fight Peter; they only lied to him. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of mercy and grace and also of judgment, and the church that is crying out for a great anointing has lost the fear of the Lord. His own resolve for 2013 is to walk in reverential fear, which is not a spirit of fear.

   “What has happened by and large in the church today of Jesus Christ is that we have lost the fear of the Lord.”

   • Acts 5:1-10
   • Proverbs 9:10
   • 2 Timothy 1:7

3. How to attract God's favour and blessing: exalt wisdom and get the basics right

   He announces his title and reads Proverbs 4:5-9: exalt wisdom and she will promote you. He gives a run of statements on making a living and making a fortune, and says his own philosophy had to change from "the more I keep, the more I'll get" to sowing into the kingdom in faith. Do not search for the exotic until you get the basics right: loving God, giving him what is due, coming when the church doors open and respecting authority. The church is a theocracy, not a democracy, and the ministers God appoints are worthy of double honour.

   “Democracy is not the way of the church. Democracy is the way of the world. Theocracy is the way of the church.”

   • Proverbs 4:5-9
   • Ephesians 4:11-12
   • 1 Timothy 5:17

4. Great grace is not a licence to speak your mind

   A year of great grace does not mean living recklessly and saying whatever comes into your head. Speaking your mind is fine if you have a good mind; if not, keep quiet, because you are harming yourself and everyone around you. Christians ought to speak the oracles of God, with words seasoned with grace that bring life and not death. Bless your enemies and let God take care of the rest.

   “Even if you have enemies, don't curse them, just bless them.”

   • 1 Peter 4:11
   • Colossians 4:6

5. The word God gave him: honour

   He had been grappling with God over how the church would experience the great grace he had announced. God said it would be by attracting his favour and blessing, and when he asked what they must do, God gave him one word, honour. God told him not everyone in the church would prosper, because not everyone understands honour, and that teaching it would bring more people into favour and blessing. Such understanding comes by revelation and not by education. He adds that he will not apologise for the way he preaches: God told him to stay with his calling.

   Illustration: He told the Lord he wanted to be seeker-sensitive so that he could attract a lot of people, and the Lord answered, "I didn't call you to do that."

   “Without honor, you will never receive anything.”

   • Matthew 18:2-3

6. Look to yourselves: do not lose your full reward

   The key verse for the series is 2 John 8. To look means to take heed, to examine and to watch out for yourself with a sense of urgency: what am I doing wrong, so that I can realign it and get results? It does not say look to the pastor, your wife or the church leadership, and he applied it to himself first: he cannot look at what other pastors are doing. Time is a more precious commodity than money, and people have invested years of time, money, prayer and service in the kingdom. It would be foolish to lose the prize right at the end.

   Illustration: Imagine serving God from the age of 20 to 60, then backsliding at 60 and losing eternal life because you walked away from the things of God.

   “I've got to look to myself because God's word says look to yourself.”

   • 2 John 1:8

7. God's laws work whatever your opinion

   2013 is a year of great grace and discovery, but there are steps to follow to partake of it. The laws and principles of the kingdom work in spite of your opinions, agreements or disagreements. God is resting and his laws are working, so engage them and tap in. He practises what he teaches: he recently asked for a man of God's banking details, sowed a seed into his account and thanked the Lord that money was coming back to him.

   Illustration: Jump off the tenth floor wondering whether the law of gravity works and your face will kiss the ground. Suck the oxygen out of the room and everyone dies. Dare a car to run without fuel and it sputters to a stop.

   “God is resting. God's laws are working.”

8. Grace comes in measures, and God gives it to the humble

   Paul told the Philippians they were partakers of his grace, and grace is given to each according to the measure of the gift of Christ, so he agrees with Pastor Justice that not all believers are equal. "He giveth more grace" shows that grace comes in measures, and since God resists the proud, the arrogant person is losing from day one. Be clothed with humility and be subject to one another. Even young children should be honoured, or how will they learn honour?

   Illustration: On the cooking competition Chopped he watched a contestant keep saying he did not care what the judges said, though the judges decided the prize. He also recalls driving his mother at 16, arguing with her and getting a backhander so hard that there was blood on the steering wheel. From that day he spoke with respect.

   “Humility is a key, brothers and sisters. If you really want to see results in your life, humility is the way.”

   • Philippians 1:7
   • Ephesians 4:7
   • James 4:6
   • 1 Peter 5:5

9. Five things you do not want to do with grace

   To understand what grace is, you must know what it is not. One, grace can be set aside, or frustrated. Two, grace can be fallen from, by going back to the law. Three, the Spirit of grace can be insulted. Four, you can fall short of the grace of God. Five, grace can be turned into lasciviousness. Practise these things and you will not experience the grace of God, so put on the brakes and stop acting foolishly.

   Illustration: In what he calls a "commercial break" he urges people to get the CDs and his Faith Chronicle as a point of contact with the anointing, recalling Kenneth Copeland's account of missionaries who laid a copy of his magazine on their dead child and prayed.

   “Put brakes in your life sometimes and say halt.”

   • Galatians 2:21
   • Galatians 5:4
   • Hebrews 10:29
   • Hebrews 12:15
   • Jude 1:4

10. Honour on three levels: above you, on your level and below you

    To run with grace, favour and blessing, bring a new word into your vocabulary and your Christianity: honour. It means honouring not only those higher than you but those on your level and those below you. The car guard is made in the image and likeness of God too. It costs nothing to be respectful, and promotion is too valuable to lose through fighting people. Husbands, honour your wives; wives, your husbands; and both, your children, so that they honour you back. If someone is ugly to you, choose to be beautiful in character.

    Illustration: He gives car guards and petrol attendants a good tip, and says that at the garage where he fills up the attendants fight for his car and all greet him, as if he were a cricket star.

    “I honor those petrol attendants. They honor me back.”

    • Genesis 1:26-27

11. God will bless you through people, and through a man of God

    He has an anointing but can only do what the Spirit allows, and he cannot put people's hearts right: unforgiveness, hatred or hidden sin can stand in the way of healing, and the Bible says to lay hands suddenly on no man. Elders are worthy of double honour. You cannot say you love him and reject his wife, his family or his church. He rebukes those who ask what race he is, calls racism a small demon to be cast out, and says he wants the anointing a man carries whatever his colour.

    Illustration: He quotes Benny Hinn telling of a stadium full of Christians where most were not healed, while a Hindu man with cancer who could not get in prayed outside and was completely healed. He also points to the woman whose daughter was vexed with a demon: she made a demand on Jesus and would not be put off.

    “Sometimes God will send a man to you in a package you don't really like.”

    • 1 Timothy 5:22
    • Matthew 15:22-28
    • 1 Timothy 5:17
    • Genesis 2:24