DNA: God Is Honorable

Well, I missed last weeks ser­mon but pas­tor Jeff tells me I missed him talk­ing about one of the pas­sages I feel is life chang­ing if we can but fol­low it, Phil 2:1–11 [show]Philippians 2:1–11 So if there is any encour­age­ment in Christ, any com­fort from love, any par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Spirit, any affec­tion and sym­pa­thy, [2]complete my joy by being of the same mind, hav­ing the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3]Do noth­ing from rivalry or con­ceit, but in humil­ity count oth­ers more sig­nif­i­cant than your­selves. [4]Let each of you look not only to his own inter­ests, but also to the inter­ests of oth­ers. [5]Have this mind among your­selves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6]who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equal­ity with God a thing to be grasped, [7]but made him­self noth­ing, tak­ing the form of a ser­vant, being born in the like­ness of men. [8]And being found in human form, he hum­bled him­self by becom­ing obe­di­ent to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9]Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10]so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11]and every tongue con­fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
(see my study My Rights!). Pastor Bart for­tu­nately used it today as well. He started his ser­mon by show­ing how being a pow­er­ful leader does not equal hon­or­able, e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Mau Zedong. Pastor Bart defined hon­or­able as doing some­thing self­lessly for oth­ers. We see this in Phil 2 [show]Philippians 2 So if there is any encour­age­ment in Christ, any com­fort from love, any par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Spirit, any affec­tion and sym­pa­thy, [2]complete my joy by being of the same mind, hav­ing the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3]Do noth­ing from rivalry or con­ceit, but in humil­ity count oth­ers more sig­nif­i­cant than your­selves. [4]Let each of you look not only to his own inter­ests, but also to the inter­ests of oth­ers. [5]Have this mind among your­selves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6]who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equal­ity with God a thing to be grasped, [7]but made him­self noth­ing, tak­ing the form of a ser­vant, being born in the like­ness of men. [8]And being found in human form, he hum­bled him­self by becom­ing obe­di­ent to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9]Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10]so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11]and every tongue con­fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [12]Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my pres­ence but much more in my absence, work out your own sal­va­tion with fear and trem­bling, [13]for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good plea­sure. [14]Do all things with­out grum­bling or ques­tion­ing, [15]that you may be blame­less and inno­cent, chil­dren of God with­out blem­ish in the midst of a crooked and twisted gen­er­a­tion, among whom you shine as lights in the world, [16]holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. [17]Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offer­ing upon the sac­ri­fi­cial offer­ing of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. [18]Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. [19]I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. [20]For I have no one like him, who will be gen­uinely con­cerned for your wel­fare. [21]For they all seek their own inter­ests, not those of Jesus Christ. [22]But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. [23]I hope there­fore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, [24]and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. [25]I have thought it nec­es­sary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fel­low worker and fel­low sol­dier, and your mes­sen­ger and min­is­ter to my need, [26]for he has been long­ing for you all and has been dis­tressed because you heard that he was ill. [27]Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sor­row upon sor­row. [28]I am the more eager to send him, there­fore, that you may rejoice at see­ing him again, and that I may be less anx­ious. [29]So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, [30]for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risk­ing his life to com­plete what was lack­ing in your ser­vice to me. (ESV)
. Jesus was hon­or­able, it is in His DNA.

Other ser­mon notes:

1 Cor 13:4–5 [show]1 Corinthians 13:4–5 [4]Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arro­gant [5]or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irri­ta­ble or resent­ful; (ESV)
defines a part of God’s DNA of love, show­ing us how He is honorable.

There is a fine line between dis­hon­or­able and hon­or­able. Example: slan­der­ing to get a raise, work­ing hard to get a raise, vol­un­teer­ing with­out get­ting any­thing in return. Hoarding, giv­ing to a friend in need, giv­ing anony­mously. There are many things that this world calls hon­or­able but really are just aver­age, even mediocre.

Calvin Coolage on honor, ““No per­son was ever hon­ored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.””

Our genes come from our par­ents, when God becomes our Father, we receive His DNA.

Pastor of course asked us to ask our­selves the hard ques­tion, “Would peo­ple call me hon­or­able? Would I even call myself honorable?”

First, I am not sure but that call­ing one­self hon­or­able is the same as call­ing one­self hum­ble. But do oth­ers see me as hon­or­able? I guess I have to ask myself the ques­tion, “What have I done self­lessly, with­out thought of reward or honor?” What have I done for oth­ers in a way that they might not even know?

If I have done so, to answer that here pub­licly would be as wrong as boast­ing about how hum­ble I was in a cer­tain sit­u­a­tion. Instead, let me men­tion some ways we can be hon­or­able that we often do not think about.

I have a strong belief that tithes and offer­ings to our church should be given anony­mously. It isn’t always easy to do so and all too often we say some­thing silly like, “But then I can’t deduct it on my taxes.” I have to admit, writ­ing a check is a lot eas­ier than get­ting cash and putting it into the offer­ing box but tithing and giv­ing anony­mously is the “Jesus thing” (see my study On Giving).

Try send­ing a “Get Well” card anony­mously or bet­ter yet, do a ‘ring the door­bell and run’ tac­tic, leav­ing a full 5 course meal on the doorstep (well, in today’s sus­pi­cious world, maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea).

Volunteer for that one job at church that nobody really wants to do.

Leave an “atta boy” mes­sage on the desk of a fel­low worker, no signature!

I think you get the idea. Pastor’s chal­lenge to me is to find ways to do things for oth­ers that build them up with­out bring­ing any atten­tion to myself. And I hope you take up that chal­lenge too.