Honor - May 15, 2014

Scripture: Esther 6-10
1 King Xerxes imposed a tribute throughout his empire, even to the distant coastlands. 2 His great achievements and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Media and Persia. 3 Mordecai the Jew became the prime minister, with authority next to that of King Xerxes himself. He was very great among the Jews, who held him in high esteem, because he continued to work for the good of his people and to speak up for the welfare of all their descendants. - Esther 10

Message:
Great achievements and Honor are gained through great fear and trust in GOD.

Observation/Promise:
When we seek to honor GOD and work for the good of others and to risk our lives for the welfare of our people, GOD will honor us with position, wealth, security and great success in what we do in life. Just as how Mordecai had served for the good of His people, so great was the honor and respect GOD gave to him for being selfless and responsible. 

Application/Command:

Seek GOD, Honor Him first more than your desires. Work for the good of others, speak up for the welfare of your people. When we put GOD first in our lives, we receive great favor and blessing from Him. When we seek the good for others and their welfare more than our own, great honor will be given to you from our most honorable Lord.

Our Part in Honoring GOD - March 11, 2014

Scripture: Nehemiah 10-13

28 Then the rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, Temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the pagan people of the land in order to obey the Law of God, together with their wives, sons, daughters, and all who were old enough to understand— 29 joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath. They swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey the Law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of theLord our Lord:
“We promise together not to neglect the Temple of our God.”

Message:

Our Part in Honoring GOD.

Observation/Promise:

GOD wants to bless us but in return for His goodness, GOD wants us to do our part in honoring Him. GOD has issued commands and decrees for us to follow. Like Honoring our parents and it will go well with us, we have to pay our respect and honor to our parents because they are the people that GOD chose us to be raised with and in return GOD wants them to be happy. Loving GOD first with all of our hearts, because when we love Him first before anything else, it is easy to obey the things He wants us to do. His commands will not be a burden if we love GOD.

Command/Application:
We ought to put GOD first in our lives. We cannot obey GOD or understand HIs ways when we do not put an effort to know Him and love Him. GOD is a person and He wants to be known and loved, just like anyone of us. When we obey GOD, we gain more, we gain blessings, and inheritances, promises from the Lord. When we struggle with obeying a certain command from GOD, we can come to Him and ask for His grace to enable us to obey them. When we obey GOD we will never regret anything in life, He will make sure we will have all we need and more. Our part in Honoring GOD is to obey HIM.

Honor Dictates Your Destiny

5 The oldest son of Israel was Reuben. But since he dishonored his father by sleeping with one of his father’s concubines, his birthright was given to the sons of his brother Joseph. For this reason, Reuben is not listed in the genealogical records as the firstborn son. 2 The descendants of Judah became the most powerful tribe and provided a ruler for the nation, but the birthright belonged to Joseph.
22 The people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh lived in their land until they were taken into exile. 25 But these tribes were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors. They worshiped the gods of the nations that God had destroyed. 26 So the God of Israel caused King Pul of Assyria to invade the land and take away the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as captives. The Assyrians exiled them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River, where they remain to this day.

- 1 Chronicles 5

Dishonoring people can cost you also your honor. As an eldest son in the family, you are entitled to both honor and strength. GOD gives these things freely to every eldest son in the family but as for Rueben who chose to honor his flesh than to honor his father, his birthright was taken from him and given to his brother, and the honor of strength that was supposed to be his was given to another brother. Rueben's simple act of sin has made history and determined the destiny of his descendants.

The people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh were a people who were unfaithful to GOD because they worshipped other gods. It already takes an amount of effort to worship the true and living GOD, they still had the energy to worship the wrong gods. Unfaithfulness can cost you your life, inheritance, freedom, home and more. The unfaithful people of Israel were exiled from their homes. We should be careful how we live lest we could be exiled too. Truly those who dishonor GOD are people who have no regard or fear of HIM. People who are unfaithful to GOD are those that rebel against HIM. Every act comes from our thoughts, every thought will always bear something good or bad. Therefore be careful how you think, let your thoughts be aligned to GOD's ways through HIS word. Do not be careless to bring honor to those due the honor lest you should be robbed of your own.

The Hall of Fame

10 Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth. 

- 1 Chronicles 1The sons of Hur, the oldest son of Caleb’s wife Ephrathah, were Shobal (the founder of Kiriath-jearim), 51 Salma (the founder of Bethlehem), and Hareph (the founder of Beth-gader). 52 The descendants of Shobal (the founder of Kiriath-jearim) were Haroeh, half the Manahathites, 
-1 Chronicles 2

9 There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez[d] because his birth had been so painful. 10 He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.

- 1 Chronicles 4

There's this song by the Script called the Hall of Fame, one that inspires you to be a somebody than being an ordinary person on earth. The book of 1 Chronicles is a list of endless names of people and descendants of Jacob who is now called Israel. There's many names except for a few people that have a certain description of what they have accomplished on earth or what they have done to make a difference in the world and these are the people that has attached to their names honor from what they have done. The point is, there's only one life to live, what are you going to make out of it?

There's Jabez, a man that stood out of this book when GOD decides to tell his story and why he is more honorable than his brothers. He was born in a most inconvenient way and was named in a way that cursed his destiny. GOD was pleased with his life and when GOD is pleased with a man's life, HE will bring honor to you. It doesn't matter whatever success or accomplishment you have attained in life. Isaac Newton was known for his contributions to Physics but what most people do not know was that HE was had an obsession for GOD's word. What brings the blessing and honor is loving GOD first and obeying His call because just like Abraham and Yeshua, we become legends when we follow GOD out of pure faith. If we are faithful to GOD, one day we will find ourselves standing in the Hall of Fame.