Respect

A sermon from many years ago. Short and basic. If there is any wondering how it would fit as a sermon, I speak s l o w l y.


The Bible says that my King is a seven way king.

He's the King of the Jews - That a racial king.
He's the King of Isreal - That a national king.
He's the King of Righteousness.
He's the King of ages.
He's the King of heaven.
He's the King of Glory.
He's the King of kings and He the Lord of lords.

Thats my King!

Well I wonder do you know Him?

David said the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.

My King is a sovreign king!

No means of measure can define His limitlessness. No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shoulder supply. No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings. He is endurably strong. He's entirly sincere. He is eternally steadfast. He's immortaly graceful. He's imperially powerfull. He's impartialy merciful.

Do you know Him?

He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world!
He's God son. He the sinners savior. He the centerpiece of civilization. He stands in the solitude of Himself. He all this and unique. He unparralelled. He unprecidented. He's the loftiest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He is the supreme problem in our critisism. He is the fundamental doctrine of true theology. He is the corner nessesity of spiritual religion.
He's the miricle of the age.

That was from Dr. S.M. Lockridge sermon My King. I do not know much about the man who wrote this in fact this covers about 90% of what I have ever heard from him or about him. I can tell you one thing from hearing him speak these words. He has incredible respect for God.

I would like to state before going any further that I do not believe that any word can sufficiently be used to portray the awesomeness of God. I do not believe that we can describe the hight he is at sufficiently to do Him justice. With this in mind I will be refering to respect, but in no way meaning to diminish His awesomeness.

Who is God that we respect Him?

He is the Father that allowed His Son to die for us. He is the Son that took the burden of our sins on His back and He is the Spirit that draws us into communion with Him.

We respect Him because He is truly worthy. He is everything that is worthy of our respect. We have respect for him because he is imperially powerful. The dictionary tells us that imperial designates a nation having sovreign power over colonies or dependancies. That it is a name suitable to an emperor or supreme ruler. That they excersize the athority of a supreme ruler or commander. They are domaneering and overbearing. They are superior in size and quality. Of course this explanation falls short. There is no way of completely describing Gods greatness. This is the reason why we should respect Him. He is beyond our thoughts and capabilities to understand. His abilities are beyond our wildest imaginations. He is truly and completely worthy of our respect on the single basis of his Godhood.

Beyond this, but not needing any further reasons, He gives us another reason to respect Him. He of His own will, has grace on us beyond any ability to understand. His grace justifies the sinner and is worthy for our respect because it cost more than we will ever know. God says that we were bought at a price and anything that is a price to God is very costly indeed.

In the book of Deuteronomy we are commanded firstly that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me!

We have respect for Him because He commands us to. He expects it and demands it.

Now how do we go about respecting Him? What does it involve?

We need to bring the Lord into every aspect of our life. Involving the Lordship of Him in every aspect. Like he wrote on those tablets so long ago. NO GODS BEFORE HIM!! This is a tall command. It involves having Him as Lord over our thoughts, over our actions and over our hearts.

When we come before Him in prayer we do so respectfull of who it is that we are talking to. When we are working at our jobs we are concious of what He would have us do at any moment. When doing things at anytime we are aware of our call to be His servants first. And most difficultly, when we are thinking we are thinking pure thoughts and allowing God to shape our mindset.

Respecting Him calls us to let him have controll. He demands, expects, and requires no less.

In my own life I come across what would be commonly refered to as the dregs of society. I could share stories of situations here but that is unimportent. What is importent is how I look at these people. We know by what scripture says that we all are unworthy of his kingdom and yet he extends grace to us, AND them. If God is willing to give them his grace then it would be disrespectful to God to treat them in a manner that is looking down on them.

God requires that our treatment of all others that we come in contact with is colored by our respect for him. The reasoning is twofold. One is that if we don we will hold ourselves in higher esteem than others for we know truly that Christ died for us all equally. The second is that God would like them to be able to see Him through us and they will not and cannot unless we understand our position in relation to God.

God expects and deserves no less than for us to minister to the world with a respectful heart toward Him.

Now the entire culmanation of a life that holds respect for God in all ways is going to be a life that worships Respectfully.

In worship we are to do just that. We are to realize the greatness of God and spend time specifically acknowledging Him. This means that at all times we are doing it in prayer and communion with Him. Not just during that last accapella verse of Create In Me a Clean Heart. I wonder how we could ever say those words without being in prayer! When in the worship service we are to be acknowledging his greatness, THE WHOLE TIME!
We need to be quiet, respectful and listening when hearing the word or in congregational prayer.
Read Daniel 4: 9-37

As Nebucanezzer realized that he ought to respect God, we all need to realize that we should do the same. Fortunately I can think of no one who had to go through what he had to. You see he had already found out about the greatness of God long previous to the incident in the wilderness. He saw God give Daniel interpretaions and had seen the angel of the Lord come and save the men in the furnace. Yet would not let that knowledge affect his heart.

In the wilderness God humbled him. The end result was Nebucanezzer worshiping God prosrate. I pray that we would have respect for Him like this. I also pray that this would allow us to worship him in this manner without having to go through the drastic measures that God used on Nebucanezzer.

I challenge us all to allow God to humble us and to meet with Him having the greatest of respect.