Honouring

Who do we honour?

• How do we honour?
• We have opportunities all the way through life to honour people.
• 1 Timothy 5 v 16-25
• The issues in Ephesus were - people taking leaders for granted and we have unrealistic expectations of what they can do.
• Do we take our church leaders for granted?
• We can take our leaders for granted and some people even blame them for everything.
• We need to take responsibility for building the Kingdom and supporting our leaders in it.
• We have many opportunities to encourage and honour our leaders and yet we sometimes don't.
• Galatians 6 v 6 - "Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor."
• This verse speaks of how when a leader has taught us in something we should share the fruits when start to do it so they can rejoice with us.
• What do we expect our leaders to do?
• There are several different ways this works.
• We expect them to be like the others or their predecessor (the church in Ephesus expected this of Timothy after Paul left).
• We expect that they will conform to the traditions that are already set in place (the Pharisees expected Jesus to do this).
• We expect them to do EVERYTHING!
• People sometimes see leaders as people that don't sin but they do.
• Leaders will be judged more severely than others.
• Matthew 18 v 15-17 - "¹⁵ “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector."
• We all sin, we may throw off the sinful nature and be renewed in mind and Spirit but we still have the battle to fight as our body sins. But God can set us free He can help us to get free from that sin.
• Even if a leader sins publically or on another level they still deserve honouring for all they have invested in that past and sown into the future.
• People can accuse leaders of sinning just because they are meeting the unrealistic expectations.
• Paul encourages Timothy to keep himself pure and by not compromising and allowing sin to creep in or others who sin may spread.
• Will take the opportunity to honour your leaders?