Honor, Amazon, and What’s Not About to Change
What does it mean to Honor God? What does it look like to honor God? How do we honor God?
How do we honor Him collectively? How do we honor Him individually?
Are we living lives that honor God?
If your family is anything like my family, it’s not uncommon to come home and find an amazon package on your front door step. I still remember the days when Amazon was the place you ordered books from. It was strange when all of a sudden you could buy other products from this online book store. Of course now, Amazon is the place you can order just about anything from!
As you probably know, the founder of Amazon is a guy by the name of Jeff Bezos.
He once said that he’s often asked what is going to change in the next ten years. And then he said, “I almost never get the question: ‘What’s NOT going to change in the next ten years?’”
If you ask me, that second question is more important than the first.
Understanding what is never going to change, what is always going to be true, may be the most important question we can ask and answer for our lives. Knowing what is always true, what is eternally true, gives us unparalleled hope and confidence for the future.
And here is what I want to suggest today that I believe is eternally true:
Our God is worthy of honor.
He was worthy of honor yesterday, He is worthy of honor today, and He will be worthy of honor tomorrow. He has never not been worthy of honor. He has always been worthy of honor. And that’s never going to change.
What Will Change
However, what will change is the quality and the trajectory of our lives if we fail to honor God in all we do.
The reality is that we live in a world that has lost the ability to give honor to God, to others, or even know what it means to live an honorable life.
From time to time we’ll take notice when someone has done something heroic, or sacrificed something for another, and we’ll hand out an award, we will give recognition, and we should!
But the world we live in today would rather tear people down than lift up those who live exemplary lives.
The world we live in today would rather point fingers, blame others, and complain about people than look for opportunities to build others up, celebrate the good, and praise those who are striving to make a difference.
We live in a world that has lost the desire for honor. We’re more concerned with winning than living an honorable life. We’re more concerned with wealth than doing what’s right. We’re more concerned about self promotion and pleasure than we are with self sacrifice for the sake of others. This is the world we live in.
We live in a world that has lost the desire for honor. And if we fail to guard our hearts and minds we will fall into the same trap that our enemy has set for us.
Like the world around us we will stop honoring our great God who is worthy of ultimate honor and honoring people who have lived honorable lives.
Two Kinds of People
Are we living lives that honor God? How do we live lives that honor God?
From the beginning of time you could say there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who choose to honor God and those who choose NOT to honor God.
You see it in the garden of Eden right after creation. Adam and Eve had a choice. Their decision to disobey God dishonored God. The moment they decided to take fruit from the tree and to believe the lies of the serpent they dishonored God. And that dishonor came with a natural consequence. They had to leave the garden.
But that wasn’t the only consequence.
Fast forward a few years and now Adam and Even have children. Two sons. Cain and Able. The two sons bring a sacrifice to worship the one and only God. One of those offerings honors God, the other does not. Cain decides to dishonor God by bringing less than his best as an offering to God, and the results were tragic. Cain, jealous of his younger brother Abel, kills him.
You see, whenever we decide to dishonor God, it’s easy to dishonor people made in the image of God.
Dishonor always leads to disobedience. It often leads to violence. It leaves us separated from God and separated from people.
It’s a pattern that is on repeat all throughout the story of the Bible.
Yet something happens from time to time that, as you read the story of scripture, you can’t help but be filled with hope. Because time and time again the people of God often realize that the way to the Good Life is found in honoring God and honoring people created in the image of God.
And when the people of God return to God, when they return to honoring God and honoring people created by God in the image of God, they always experience the good life that comes from living a God honoring life.
Honor & Worship
You can see this all throughout scripture, but today I want to invite you to turn to Psalm 96.
Listen to this opening verse to this song of worship written by the psalmist…
Psalm 96
1 Sing a new song to the LORD!
Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!
2 Sing to the LORD; praise his name.
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
3 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
4 Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods.
5 The gods of other nations are mere idols,
but the LORD made the heavens!
This psalm opens in worship. And by the way, it probably goes without saying, but worship is one of the ways we honor God!
Whenever we worship God, we honor God.
Whenever we worship anything or anyone other than God, we dishonor God.
There are other gods, other idols, other objects of our affection and our attention. And we need to be aware of that and we need to acknowledge that. There is an ongoing war for your worship.
If you didn’t know, let me share this with you today. The world you live in is vying for your attention and your affection. It will dangle shiny things in front of you, it will call you to devote your entire attention to certain people and certain things, it will try to convince you that it’s not bad, that it’s actually good, but whenever your life revolves around anyone or anything other than God, that has become the object of your worship. And if it’s anything but God, it is an idol. And it dishonors God!
How do we honor God? We honor God with our worship!
We honor God when we sing to Him a new song!
We honor God when we praise His Name!
We honor God when we announce the Good News that our God saves!
We honor God when we tell everyone about the amazing things that He has done!
And we honor God when we worship God and God alone!
6 Different Words for Honor
After this opening verse, the psalmist continues the song with these lyrics…
6 Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.
Now there are six different words used in the psalms for the word HONOR.
We only have one word in English. But it takes six different words in the original language to try and capture the honor that is attributed to God. All of these words share the same ideas in common.
They all mean something about majesty, and glory, excellence and beauty. But this word for HONOR used here in Psalm 96.6 also means grandeur. It carries the idea of someone with an imposing form and appearance.
In other words, our God is not only beautiful and majestic, He’s not only glorious and excellent and worthy of all our praise. When you enter into His presence, you have entered into the presence of SomeOne who has and is an imposing presence.
When my family lived in Coppell, Boban Marjanović, who played for the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks (as well as other NBA teams), lived near us. I saw him one time at a gas station. He had a special SUV. The front Driver’s seat had been removed. He had to essentially sit in the back seat on the drivers side to drive his car because he was so tall! He was an imposing presence. But even he would feel small standing in the presence of the God of the universe!
Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.
Obedience & Worship
And then the psalmist continues…
7 O nations of the world, recognize the Lord;
recognize that the LORD is glorious and strong.
When we recognize who God is, that He is the LORD, He is YHWH, we honor Him! (YHWH 10x in Psalm 96)
8 Give to the LORD the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come into his courts.
When we give to LORD, when we bring our offerings and give sacrificially, we honor Him!
9 Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor.
Let all the earth tremble before him.
When we worship the LORD, we honor Him!
10 Tell all the nations, “The LORD reigns!”
The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.
He will judge all peoples fairly.
When we witness to the world around us that the LORD reigns, when we tell the stories about what He has done for us and how He has saved us, helped us, healed us, we honor Him!
11 Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
12 Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
Let the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the LORD, for he is coming!
He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice,
and the nations with his truth.
When we honor Him, when we liver lives in obedience to His Word, we will be ready when He comes to judge the world with justice and the nations with His truth.
Are you living a life that HONORS God, really?
In his book, Experiencing the Presence of God, pastor and author AW Tozer imagines the story of a lowlife criminal that wanted to have an audience with the Queen of England.
If a known criminal wanted to stand before the Queen of England, it would be nearly impossible. He’d need a pardon—something he cannot grant himself—through proper legal channels to clear his record. Even then, he couldn’t just walk in; he’d need to pledge allegiance to the Queen, possibly restore his citizenship, and address his appearance—he would need to shower, shave, brush his hair, and then he would need new clothes to wear in order to appear before the Queen. Ultimately, even with all that, the Queen would still have to agree to see him.
It’s almost impossible to imagine. Tozer writes, “Now take this example of a criminal standing in the presence of the queen of England and think about our desire to enter the presence of a holy God.”
It’s almost impossible to imagine.
Here’s the Good News today, YOU CAN ENTER into the presence of the LORD most high because of Jesus.
Because of Jesus, you are pardoned, forgiven and free.
Because of Jesus, your debt has been satisfied and paid in full.
Because of Jesus, your citizenship is in Heaven.
Because of Jesus, you have been clothed with Christ!
Because of Jesus you can sing this song…
Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.
Every word reaching to describe our indescribable God. YHWH, the Great I AM, is surrounded by honor and majesty. Not the honor and majesty of others who are surrounding Him. He is surrounded by His own honor and majesty. He alone fills the room. His light alone floods the universe. His glory alone extends to every corner of every place. He is the LORD! YHWH is His name!
And when we enter into His presence we would do well to fall down before Him, to lift our hands in worship to Him, and Honor Him!
Who else would we honor? Who could compare to our King and Sovereign LORD? He has no rival. He has no equal. There is no one like Him. There is no one but Him! He is God Alone!
Is It Any Wonder…
Is it any wonder when the angels worship Him they can’t get past the word Holy!?
Is it any wonder when Moses came before Him in the burning bush he removed his sandals and fell down in worship before Him?
Is it any wonder why David danced before Him, Elijah heard Him in the Sound of Silence, Isaiah responded Here I am send me, and Habakkuk said I will be still and know that you are God!?
Is it any wonder why wise men traveled hundreds of miles to find him, shepherds bowed down before Him, Herod wanted to kill Him, and fishermen wanted to follow Him?
Is it any wonder why Pilate wanted to wash his hands and be done with Him, the criminal on the cross put His faith in Him, a centurion confessed He truly was the Son of God, and 500 people couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw Him, the resurrected Lord!?
Is it any wonder that when His Spirit came ordinary men and women could preach the gospel in languages they did not know, that 3000 were baptized in His name, and that His gospel and His church would spread across the world and continue to this day?!
Is it any wonder why we gather every Sunday…
We want to HONOR God in all we do and point people to Him!
How do you honor God?
Your obedience is your testimony.
Your worship is your witness.
So today, can I ask you again, are you living a life that honors God? Really?
If not, why not?
What change do you need to make today to live a life that honors God? Is it time to turn, or return to God? Is it time to give your life to God and follow Jesus? Is it time for you to sing a song of worship? Is it time to forgive someone who’s hurt you? Is it time to tell someone what God has done for you? Is it time for you to honor Him?
We live in a world that for the most part doesn’t honor God. But what if we were different?
What if, in a world of dishonor, we were to live honorable lives? Lives that give honor to God and to people made in the image of God for the glory of God?
When we do this, as we do this, people take notice, our obedience becomes our testimony, our worship becomes our witness, and God is honored.
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