Household of Honor

I don't really think it's an overstatement to say that in many ways in our culture, we've lost the art of honoring people. Even in our attempts to do that as a society with great achievement from professional athletes or musicians or actors and actresses, or some other great feat, our honor so easily and quickly tips into deifying worship that puts a weight on people that they were never created to bear. And we see that often when we see headline after headline of a celebrity that just is crushed by the weight, all the pressure, to perform and show up because of this so-called honor for their skill and their ability, but it actually has tipped into glorifying and worship that really was never meant for them in the first place and they crumble under the weight of it. At the other end of our spectrum, as we've lost the art of honoring, is our propensity as a people to cut each other down, to not be able to honor the person that you disagree with when you disagree with them, but instead when you've run out of debate points for you to counterpoint, right, like you've out of things to offer as rebuttal, it stops being about the debate and starts being about, "Well, you're just a terrible person and I can't even believe you would say that." And we've lost this ability to disagree with civility, which I think reveals that honor is missing in many ways from the narrative of modern discourse. And you only need to scroll through the Facebook or Instagram comments for a few moments to see that. But sadly, though I wish this was not the case, sadly, I don't think that the church, and I don't don't mean like The Chapel, our church, I mean the church at large, I don't think the church is even exempt from that, our inability to truly and rightly honor another person. I mean, we're even guilty of this as a people. Again, not at The Chapel, but as a corporate people known as the church, where we put gifted communicators and musicians on pedestals and then are shocked that they believed that they were a god with a lowercase G. On the other hand, the church is not exempt either from this propensity to strike at one another and tear each other down, even among family members, which sadly has even become more blatant and egregent in these last days, where we're separating not over core doctrine, like whether God is Father, Son, and Spirit, but over lesser things that in 10 years, in 20 years, in a 100 years, in 1,000 years will not matter. And we've allowed those things to divide. I mean, and this is not a new problem either by the way, which is in some ways comforting and in other ways not. But the church has been talking about these things for a very, very long time. In fact, the Apostle Paul, he had to tell one church, the church at Galatia, he had to tell them this in Galatians 5: "If you bite and devour each other," in other words, if you keep on biting and devouring each other, "watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other." Or James, the half brother of Jesus, he had to tell another group, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you can't get what you want, so you quarrel and you fight." And these are written to Christians. These statements are written to believers. So the art of honoring people is something that we've been struggling with as humanity for a very, very long time. Maybe you've even held onto that, like thinking these thoughts about the church. Maybe that's been your reason to stay away from church for as long as you have. You think, "Man, that group, that's just a bunch of hypocrites who tear each other down and I want no business with that." Maybe that was all you thought about as you were on your way here today, whichever campus you're joining us from. You were thinking about, "Man, those Christians." Well, I pray that that's not the case here in our fellowship. But wherever humanity is found, we can find this struggle. Wherever broken people, and you and I are at the front of that list, that line, wherever broken people are, we're gonna struggle with this. But I want you to know and hear clearly that God wants something better for his church. he wants something better indeed for his world. And he intends to show the world what he wants through his church, and that this culture that he's creating, this household that he's created in Christ, would be defined by some things that give the rest of the world a desire to look in on and to see, "Well, what's so different about those Jesus people?" And that actually is part of the occasion for what Paul writes to his protege, Timothy. And we'll be in 1 Timothy 5 if you wanna turn in your Bible, if you wanna follow along, or pull up a digital device so that you could be tracking with us. If you're new to the Bible, that's okay. Stick with us. We'll show you some verses on the screen so you can follow along and hopefully you get acclimated in time. But remember that the occasion for Paul writing to Timothy, this pastor in the ancient city of Ephesus, which is in today modern day Turkey, the reason Paul was writing to Timothy is found in 1 Timothy 3:14-15. "Although I hope to come to you soon," Paul says to Timothy, "I'm writing you these instructions so that if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." "Timothy, I wanna write to you so that you'll know how to teach the people you are leading how they ought to conduct themselves. If they truly belong to the household of God, well, there should be some certain distinctives about those people who claim to know Jesus." And so here's where we're going today. I'm gonna tell you where we're gonna go, then I'm gonna take you there, then I'm gonna tell you how we got there, okay? So I'm gonna tell you where we're going today, and it's found in this summary statement. And if you zone out or doze off, you'll at least have this this far. The church is to be a household of honor. That's our overarching theme for today. The church is to be a household of honor. Now, I'm gonna explain what I mean by that as we move along. But you might even be thinking, "Okay, let's define honor." What are we even talking about when we say honor? Are we talking about respect?" Well, yes, that's certainly part of it. And whether you look up the word honor in Merriam-Webster or in the Greek lexicon, like the original word in our text, you'll find pretty much the same things, that honor has as its associations value or worth, sometimes even price or preciousness, something that carries weight or significance and the associated recognition that goes with those things. So that you find something that is worthy, that is valuable, that is honorable, that includes respect and the recognition that's associated with it. So when I say that the church is to be a household of honor, that's at least our baseline understanding for what we're talking about. That that isn't just, "Well, I gave them a shout out or I tagged them on my post on social media," but that rather these words would be followed by action is what Paul's gonna show us in 1 Timothy 5. So what does that even look like? What does it look like for the church to be a household of honor? Well, I'm gonna give you a few things that come right out of the text. Paul gives Timothy four very practical things, and these are gonna help us as well. Here's the first: the church, the household of God, encourages one another. The household of God encourages one another. Let me show you where that's found as you're jotting that down in 1 Timothy 5, just the first two verses of our text today. "Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him or encourage him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." He says, "Don't rebuke an older man harshly." That word for rebuke literally means to strike at. We might say to cut down, and it's verbally to strike at, to strike at verbally or to cut them down. And Paul tells Timothy, "Hey, you're a pastor in this church at Ephesus, and I want you to remember that your job as pastor is not to go around and cutting down people, specifically those who are older than you." He says, "Don't rebuke an older man harshly, but treat him as if he were your father, or exhort him, encourage him as if he were your father." And the same for older women and younger men and younger women, that there would be this, not a rebuke harsh, harshly, but instead an exhortation or an encouragement. Now, when Paul is telling this to Timothy, yes, it's for Timothy to apply, but it's so that the church at Ephesus would mirror that very thing, that in doing this, that in Timothy leading and conducting himself this way, it actually would influence the church, the community of believers, the congregation, to follow suit. Remember what Paul tells Timothy earlier in chapter four, verse 12. He says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity." So, "Timothy, here's the example I want you to set. I want you to honor the people around you by encouraging them. Don't cut them down. Don't strike at them verbally. Don't lash out, we might say, but instead exhort them, encourage them." There's another interesting word there too, because in the original Greek text that Paul was writing to Timothy, the word for encourage is actually the word parakaleo, which is the verb form of a noun that is a bit more familiar potentially, and that's the paraclete. The paraclete is the counselor, the advocate, the comforter. It literally means the one who is called alongside. And Paul says, "Timothy, I want you to be the kind of person, indeed, I want this to be the kind of culture that you have in Ephesus, where when someone is maybe erring and choosing a path that's sinful or not full of righteousness, that you wouldn't go around just trying to pop them on the head with the Bible, but come alongside them, wrap your arm around them, tell them that, 'Hey, come on, Let's work on this together.'" You know who the word paraclete is most often used for? The Holy Spirit. So I almost imagine that Paul is, and of course Timothy knows this, and so I almost imagine Paul was saying to Timothy, "When you go around and you're around people, you're gonna encounter brokenness. Your job is not to beat people up as if you're better than them, but instead come alongside them, wrap your arm around them. After all Timothy, how does the Holy Spirit correct you? Is he in your ear saying you're worthless, you'll never make it, you're a no good, you're..." No, that's not the voice of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit only testifies to the work of Jesus and magnifies the Father, so that would never come out of the Holy Spirit's mouth. But instead, the Holy Spirit, as it were, is called alongside us. He is our comforter, our counselor, our advocate, who actually says, "Come on, you can do this. I'm with you." What would it look like if in our church, I'm talking about us here, that we exhibited that kind of encouragement to one another? The church, the household of God, is a household of honor, first by encouraging one another, but secondly, the church, the household of God, the household of honor, protects the unprotected. There's a second practical thing that Paul tells Timothy: the household of honor protects the unprotected. Now, in this much larger and longer chunk of Scripture that we're gonna look at in just a moment, Paul's gonna use a real-world example to illustrate this principle of how the church should protect the unprotected, and it has to do with their care for widows. To lose a spouse, as some in our church know, is one of the most disorienting experiences that you can encounter, on multiple levels. Of course emotionally, physically that person's no longer there with you, financially it's disorienting, it's scary, it's worrisome. Maybe the spouse was the one who looked after all the bills and knew all of the passwords to all of the accounts, and that's a disorienting time. And so regardless of what day and age we're in, we kind of at a surface level understand that even if we never have walked through that ourselves, we've been close to people who we love who have. And so that's common. But what maybe we don't understand is the incredible financial vulnerability that widows in the first century faced that was distinct from what's going on in our time as a norm, because in our day we've got things like life insurance and pensions and retirement accounts and at the very least social security. So there's at least some provisional support that we have at our disposal. None of those things were at play in the first century Roman world. There was no term life insurance. There was no Dave Ramsey recommendation for how to go about funding your retirement. There was none of that. So we have to hold that in our minds when we read these verses, because there's some things that were very culturally appropriate that we may not fully grasp the weight of. So hold onto that as you listen and as you read with me, beginning in verse 3-16. It says, "Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need." Pause. This phrase, "give proper recognition," in the Greek text is the word for honor. Some of your translations even say, "Honor widows who are widows indeed," or, "Honor widows who are truly widows." Not wrong at all to say, "give proper recognition," but just so you know, that theme of honor is running through this chapter. "Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God." And every parent and grandparent was like, "Amen," you know? Like, "Now we're talking. I knew this Bible thing was good." "The widow who is really in need," verse five, "and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure," and he means solely lives for pleasure, "the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give the people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame. Anyone who doesn't provide for their own relatives, especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she's over 60, has been faithful to her husband, is well known for her good deeds," And here's like a list of like example of those good deeds, "such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord's people," that is to say willing to do the most menial things, "helping those in trouble, devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. As for younger widows, don't put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they wanna marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they've broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. Not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes, to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan." And then verse 16, "If any woman who's a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them, not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need." Okay, a lot to unpack, more time than we have to give to it today, but allow me to maybe synthesize not only what Paul says here, what he says elsewhere in the New Testament, but also just the general testimony of Scripture, okay? So lemme give you a few things. Just pay close attention and stick with me. This is important for where we're going. That the household of honor protects the unprotected, and the chief example of unprotected persons in Ephesus was a group of widows, okay? So here's a few things to know and understand as we're synthesizing what in the world is Paul saying here? The first thing that we have to know is that widows matter deeply to God. Those who are widowed matter deeply to God. This is just near and dear to his heart, reaching all the way back into the story of Israel. As God is leading his people out of Egypt, he's giving them laws for the kinds of people he wants them to be. And in Exodus 22:21-22, God says, "Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry." And then in Deuteronomy 10:17-19, "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt." He reminds them of this over and over again, and then even in the Psalms, in Psalm 68:5, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." So we know that God wants people, his people, to look after the unprotected, the vulnerable, the forgotten, the ostracized, and the outcast. These people matter deeply to God, and if his people don't look after them, he will hear it. That's a promise and a warning. He says, "If you truly understand," I mean to Israel, "if you truly understand what I did for you, and you see someone in your midst who's walking through the same thing that you were and you don't help them like I helped you, you don't really understand what I did for you. Show me that you understand what I did for you by loving them the way that I showed my love to you," is what he says. And that applies to these unprotected, vulnerable people that matter deeply to God. And widows certainly are included in that list. But secondly, the church family assumes responsibility when the earthly family cannot. So not only do widows matter deeply to God, but the church family is to assume responsibility for those unprotected persons when their earthly family cannot do so. That's why he talks about those who are truly widows or widows really in need. He's not saying, he's not discounting, that there are some widows who aren't widows. "Well, no, only the true widows." That's not what he's saying. He's acknowledging that there's need across the board, but that some have a greater financial need and others don't. Some, maybe they're, even in the first century world, some had maybe great wealth amassed for them and maybe a household full of servants, maybe an enterprise of some kind, and that widow was able to live off of the proceeds for some time. She was a widow, but she wasn't really in need. She was all set. So that didn't need to reach the desk of Timothy in his case, except for, of course, pastoral care and concern. In no way would they be deprived. "Oh no, you're all set financially, then you don't need us at all, goodbye." That's not it at all. He's saying, "As you're gonna enlist these people to a record, a list of widows, there are some aren't actually in financial need. There are others who are in financial need, but they're not all alone. They've got family, they've got grown kids, they've got nephews, they've got nieces, they've got brothers and sisters who have funds who can take care of them." See, what must have been happening and what Paul was guarding against is that there were some who had children who could've supported them financially, or at least in some way, but they heard about this awesome program over at the Ephesian church. And they were like, "Sweet. We are good here. We're going to Boca, let's go," right? Like, that's what their mindset might have been. And so Paul says, "No, no, no, no, no. First of all, do you realize what your mom did for you? Like, do you realize what your parents did for you? They gave you life." I distinctly remember the moment in my mind holding my infant daughter when I was like, "Wow, my parents really loved me." Like, not that I ever questioned it, but it's like this child can do nothing for me. This child can't cook for me, work for me, clean up for me, and I am just gushing as I look at this little face. And it made me realize and have a greater appreciation for the love that I was shown. You see in Ephesus, there were some who the light bulb didn't go on for yet. And Paul says, "If you claim to know Jesus and your mom is widowed and you don't take care of her, you're actually worse than an unbeliever, because even people who don't know Jesus know to take care of their family, and you're saying, 'Oh, good, the church will take care of that,' as if that's not your responsibility." Paul says that shouldn't be the case. But whenever the widow is truly in need and left all alone, as verse five says, then the church family should assume responsibility, but also that financial support that comes from the church is actually in recognition of faithful service. Now, you know that this ministry to widows is part of like the oldest branch of ministry in the history of the church. It shows up in Acts 6 when the church is only, I don't know, a couple months or years old. And so as this system grew and expanded and people got on that list of widows, these unprotected persons were so grateful for this financial support. But in time, if they didn't have the moral fiber to understand that they were living off of the generosity of other people, then they would use that as a way to just become lazy and to coast. And Paul says, "Man, these people don't actually understand that it's because of the congregation's generosity that they get to just be. We just wanna care for them and take care of them." Paul says it's wiser to find the people who have already demonstrated a life of faithful service and recognize and validate their faithful service with financial support. And you know that too, because they're the kind of people who would say, "No, no, I'm fine, I don't need anything." right? The people that you try to give something to, the givers in your life, and you try to give something to them, you're like, "You give to so many people. Let me just take care of you for a second." And they say, "No, no, it's okay, I'm all set." Paul's like, "Those are the widows who have truly demonstrated a life of righteousness, and they've done that everywhere they've gone. Now it's only right for us, as they're over 60 and nearing the end of their days, that we would care for them, especially so." But then lastly, and you maybe have been wondering about this, those who are widowed are never commanded to remarry but are free to do so. And Paul says he thinks it might even be wise for them to do so. So the younger widows are never commanded to remarry, but Paul does say you're free to do that, and it actually might be a really good idea. Some may have sworn off remarriage romantically, right? Once you've found your "Notebook" love, right? Once you've found that "Sleepless in Seattle" kind of love, right? And some may have said, "You know what? I'm never marrying again." That may have been done from just, hey, reaction to the moment. Others may have sworn off marriage because of some false teaching that Pastor Jerry read for us from chapter four last week. It's not on the screen, but just listen, that there were some false teachers, remember, that said that every thing material, the body, was bad, and only the Spirit mattered. And Paul says that the false teachers in verse three of chapter four, they forbid people to marry and ordered them to abstain from these things which God created to be received with thanksgiving. So Paul's like, "Look, marriage is not a bad thing. Marriage is a great thing. It's a God invention. So younger widows, you're free to remarry." But he wants them to do that in such a way that they're actually marrying a fellow believer. Apparently some were worried about their financial security and that was motivating them to find the first guy that came along, who didn't even know Christ. That's when he says some have even strayed after Satan, that some who were like all-in, "Okay, great, the church is gonna take care of me, but now there's a guy over there that says he's gonna take care of me. He doesn't know the Lord." And they walk away. Paul says, "Man," with a tear in his eye, you can almost, some have already strayed. So Paul says, "I give advice to younger widows that they should find another spouse. It's okay for them. They're allowed to do that." Now, I know where we are. I know the time we're in. And maybe you're even thinking, "How so old fashioned for Paul to tell... I mean, who does he think he is, that he should be telling them to remarry? I mean, she's all good. She doesn't need no man," right? Like, you're thinking those kinds of things. But I wanna caution us. You want me to do it again? I wanna caution us about projecting our 21st century Western value system on a first century Roman world. Listen carefully. And you can study this for yourself like I did. It was very hard for an unmarried woman in a certain age bracket in the first century to earn a legitimate living. Did you hear me? Do you hear what I'm saying? Okay, we're good there? It was very difficult. It wasn't like today, start a Etsy shop or open up a popup. It wasn't like that, okay? Those options weren't on the table. And so in the very real first century Roman world, this was a natural question. And that's okay for us. We can let that simmer. But I don't want you to get stuck there. Please, please, please don't get stuck there because if we do, we will actually miss the whole point of what Paul's trying to say. And that is that the household of honor protects the unprotected. This is what we are to be and do. So who are the unprotected in your midst? Who are the vulnerable among you? Honor them. And honor them in more than just words. Just like the early church honored these widows by opening up their wallet to take care of them and look after them when no one else would or could, so it should be for us. And this is just true to who the church is supposed to be. I mean, elsewhere in 1 John 3:17-18, John says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother and sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with just words or just speech but with actions and in truth." Or again, I go to James in James 2. "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm, well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Hey, praying for you. How many of us have ever, don't raise your hand, but how many of us spiritual people have said, "Hey, I'll be praying for you," and then didn't? I'm so thankful that I'm looking at Lynette here in our church, who was one of my teachers in school. And just remembering this as I'm looking at your face. And when we would be in class, if someone... I went to a Christian school. If someone said that they were really concerned about something, you know what Lynette would do? Of course she wasn't Lynette then, she was Mrs. Wrigglesworth. I learned that. You know what she would do? She would say, "Let's pray right now. Let's pray right now." There's action there. What a great discipline to get into. "Hey, I'll be praying for you, but actually let's pray right now too." And Paul says that this faith, and James reinforces this, this faith by itself should be accompanied by action, even if that immediate action is prayer. But he says, "The words don't stay by themselves." But if you've got material possessions and you see someone in need and you do nothing about it, what good is that? So I ask you again, who are the vulnerable, who are the unprotected, who are the forgotten persons in our midst? And this is just one of those things that can't be orchestrated by human planning, but only by the sovereign direction of God, because this text was pre-planned months ago to land on this day. But without even 24 hours notice, we actually made a decision today at all of our campuses. We're gonna take up a special offering at the conclusion of our worship gathering for some unprotected and vulnerable people in our global community. Even as you heard, we've been praying for the people of Ukraine, for peace in the midst of this war-torn situation. And we want to honor people in need with some material possessions that we have. If we see a brother and sister in need of clothing or food, we should act on that, and so we're going to before we leave today. And as a reminder that as a church, every week when we give we're doing that as well. That's included in our regular giving, that we support ministries like Every Child, which looks after the foster and adoptive care systems in Eerie and Niagara Counties to see every child find a home. I mean, these things don't really need much convincing from the Scripture. But the household of honor should be the leading agency in protecting the unprotected persons, because we recognize what Jesus has done for us. So I would encourage you, church, to act on your honor this way today. But there's a third thing, we gotta keep moving, the household of honor upholds the standards for godly leadership. The household of honor upholds the standards for godly leadership. Look with me at verse 17-20 of chapter 5. "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain, and also, 'The worker deserves his wages.' Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it's brought by two or three witnesses. But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove," correct, "before everyone so that the others may take warning." So how do we honor the excellently ruling leaders? How do we honor the leaders who lead well? And Paul says they're actually worthy of a double honor. Now, you gotta know that there's a lot of scholarship that was undecided about what exactly this means. It certainly includes some form of remuneration, it includes money, but it's not just that. Some scholars even suggested maybe it means like a twofold honor, both respect with words and also honorarium, compensation, right? In other words, as Paul says elsewhere, it's right for those who preach the gospel to make their living by the gospel. And Paul says, "Just like the Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain.'" You're thinking, "What analogy word picture is that?" Well, it's a quotation from Deuteronomy, as some of your Bibles might have at the bottom. And what would happen is as the ox would tread out the grain and separate the grain from the chaff, God says, "Don't put a muzzle on the ox while he's doing that." Let him eat while he's working. Because the more he works, the more food there is for him and for everybody. And then the second quotation is, "The worker deserves his wages." So Paul says, "For just as the Scripture says," and then he quotes Deuteronomy, and then he says, "And the worker deserves his wages." Well, what Scripture does that passage come from? Well, that comes from the Gospel of Luke, which was written maybe two or three years before Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, and it contains the words of Jesus. So here's what's amazing about that. Paul, just a couple of years after Luke writes his gospel, is recognizing it as authoritative on par with the Old Testament Scripture. And he says, "Don't muzzle an ox while he treads out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages." Now, you imagine in Ephesus with all that they've been going through with this theological battle, and if you've been walking with us for the last couple of weeks you've heard pastor Jerry reference this theological controversy that had risen in Ephesus. I would imagine that the elders who labored in word and in teaching had been working overtime. They had been working day and night to correct these errors. And Paul's like, "Will you just take care of them, please? They've been going crazy. They've been doing so much for the church. Would you just take care of them? They've been leading faithfully through controversy. Will you honor them please in front of everybody?" It's hypothetically, if there was, I don't know, a global pandemic, and there were leaders in the church who ruled well, who cared well for their flock, it would be right to honor those leaders, hypothetically speaking. But Paul says that you should do this, but pay attention because there's gonna be some people who will seek to malign the name of Jesus by taking down the leadership. They will seek to malign the gospel if they can get rid of the people in leadership. So don't just entertain hearsay. Don't just entertain anybody who's got a bone to pick. But if there's a legitimate accusation, he uses a legal term, accusation, then you take it, you take it and you hear it, as it's accompanied by the testimony of witnesses, which echoes the Old Testament. But on the other hand, lest anybody think that these rules are in place just to protect the leadership, he says, "For those elders who are sinning, confront them publicly." He says, "For the safety of the church, for the safety of the flock, if there are leaders who are in open sin and unrepentant, and there's been two or three or five or 10 or 50 people who have said something about this one, confront that sin so that everybody else recognizes the gravity of sin, that nobody thinks that in the church some can do no wrong and some can do no right. That's not how it works in the household of honor." He's looking to protect people and leaders, and so he says, "Let's uphold the standards of godly leadership." And then the last thing: the household of honor shows no favoritism. The household of honor shows no favoritism. Verse 21 of our text. "I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism." Yes, I think that applies to that section on leaders. I think it applies to the whole of this chapter. Do nothing out of favoritism, show no partiality. We know that that's true to the character of God, that he shows no favoritism. He doesn't want his church to be a place where there's some favorites, where there's premium seating and premium access. He says that's not how it works here. You've all come to God through Christ on level footing, so treat people that way. Honor them by showing no favoritism. And that's what we want. That's what we want for ourselves, isn't it? That the church should be the place where each person is honored, not because of their output, not because of their performance, not because of their recognition in the community, but because of who they are made in the image of God. That even for those that the world would call unworthy and unvaluable, that they would be able to come into the household of honor and receive the thing that their hearts most deeply long for. Wouldn't that be an incredible thought for the church to be that kind community? For the church, the household of honor, to be that kind of family? You see, you don't have to agree with someone to show them honor. You don't have to vote the same way as a person to show them honor. You don't have to approve of every action or decision to show them honor. You can do this because they are made in the honorable image of the honorable one, God himself. And why do this? Why honor people? Paul says, "God is watching. I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus and the angels." Like he's just, "I don't even know what else to throw at you, Timothy, but you better do this, man. This is important." Again, a promise and a warning. And no one is exempt. You see, what would happen if the church was a household of honor? What would happen? What would be different? Let me show you a couple other places in Scripture that speak to this. Look at Romans 12. "Outdo one another in showing honor." Or later, Romans 13, "Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if you owe honor, then honor." Or from the pen of Peter, "Show proper respect." Honor everyone. "Love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor." In Peter's day, it was a guy named Nero. Well, Nero's not a good guy. Nero does crazy things. Nero's erratic. Nero's selfish. Nero burns Christians. Honor the emperor. Honor everybody. Love the family. Fear God. Honor the king. Honor the emperor. Honor the governor. Honor the president. Honor the mayor. Honor the pastor. Honor everyone. No one is exempt. Can you imagine how our world would change if Christians, just the people listening to me today, if we did these things? I mean, imagine how our community would change. Imagine how our neighborhoods would change. Imagine how our marriages would change. What if spouses just tried for a week to outdo one another in showing honor? Do you think that would solve some things? How might that change our political discourse? How might that change our church? Imagine for a moment of what that would look like for the church to be a household of honor. But lest that feel like a crushing weight for us that we could never carry ourselves, because we'll run out of reserves at some point. We'll come to the end of ourselves. I want you to remember something, of what was done for you and for me, of what we were given, of the honor that we were shown. You see, for all of us, every single person in this room, every single person at Cheektowaga, Lockport, or Niagara Falls, everyone watching online, this is true for every human being. In our guilt, in our sin, we have taken the honorable image of God in our lives and we've smeared it. Instead of reflecting what God looks like to the world, it's as if we walked up to a mirror with a sledgehammer and just cracked it and it created a spiderweb distorting the reflection. We no longer reflect God to other people like we should. And that's when we see our brokenness on full display. Though we know God exists, we don't honor him as such, we don't glorify him as such, and so we've suppressed that truth, every one of us. All of us are guilty of sin and covered in shame. You know, maybe that's why we spend so much time going around and biting and devouring each other is because we want to forget about our own shame, and it temporarily feels better to point out somebody else's. But Jesus, the only one truly worthy of honor, he came to this earth, he was dishonored for us. He left the glory of his throne in heaven and stepped into the shame of humanity and took on the frailty of our own humanity as we are. We're all frail, we're all broken. He took on this vessel, this human body. And although he lived a pure and sinless life, he was mistreated, he was lied about, he was falsely accused, he was dishonored, he was spit upon, he was beaten, he was tortured, he was killed on a cross. But in dying on that cross, taking upon himself our shame, our sin, our dishonor, he willingly brought it all on his own shoulders, and he did that so that we could receive the greatest honor in the universe: to be called one of God's children. He did that for us. And to the extent that you and I believe that and allow it to change us is the extent to which you'll be able to honor others as well. Let's bow together for a word of prayer. We'll be gone here in just a moment, but maybe you're here today and you're thinking, "You know what? Jonathan, I don't know God personally. I don't have that close faith connection with Jesus. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian or a church person. I just came here today because there was a baptism or someone invited me." But if that's where you're at today and you would recognize that what you need most is to begin a life of following Jesus, if that's where you're at today, don't walk outta here the same way you walked in. When we dismiss in just a second, I'm gonna close our time in prayer, and we've got just one more thing to share with you about that action step I was referring to. But when we dismiss, I wanna invite you, if you're in a spot where you say, "Jonathan, I need Jesus, that's what I need," I wanna invite you to come just across the hall here at our CrossPoint Campus to the Fireside Room, it's across the atrium. You'll see it labeled clearly. We've got some pastors and prayer partners who are there, who would be ready to see you, to talk with you about what it means to know Jesus, to follow him. They wanna give you a Bible if you don't have one and let you know, you're not alone, that you matter to God and you therefore matter to us. So we'd love for you to come by the Fireside Room today. God, we pray that you would take this truth and write it on our hearts. Give us the grace by your Spirit to do what we can't do on our own. You've shown us such grace, such honor, in taking us from self-declared enemies to sons and daughters. We can't imagine, we can't imagine that. We can't even put words to it sometimes. But we're thankful. I pray that we would have the heart to honor others as you've honored us in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.