Honor: God’s Doorway to a Life of Rewards

(0:00 - 3:05) So they take this man and they bring him up to the roof and they start breaking off the tiles of the roof and they lower him into where Jesus is because they realize something. Healing is here, Jesus is here, and honoring Jesus is the gateway for me to walk in the miraculous. Honoring God is the gateway. Honor is the gateway for the miraculous in your life. Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you. Nathanael St. Eloi? He scolded me this morning because I said special guest. He's like, I'm family. What do you mean special guest? I had to explain to him, like, that's for the new people. It sounds fancier. I can't say my brother from another mother is here to preach. International renowned speaker, special guest. He's got a word for you this morning. Just lift your hand to heaven and say, Lord, I believe that I receive. Now pull your hands into your chest. Ah, I receive. Let's put our hands together and honor the man of God. Praise the Lord. You know, I was here thinking, and 25 years in ministry is a big deal. You know, when God made the promise to Abraham, he made the promise to Abraham at 75 years old, and the promise was fulfilled 25 years later. 25 years is so significant in you literally giving birth to something that you've been processing. And I believe this 25 years of ministry is just going to catapult Pastor Boyan into the next level. I believe everything that he's been praying for, and the Lord has given him prophetic promises about, and what the Lord has spoken in his spirit. This 25 years, you're going to give birth to the promise that God spoke over you in the name of Jesus. It's like I saw you being clothed in priestly garments for your 25. It's like I saw kingly garments. You know, I saw God taking off the priestly garments and putting on kingly garments on him. If you know anything about the scriptures, the Levites, the priests served from 25 to 50. (3:06 - 5:16) But I heard the Lord say, I'm stripping off the priestly, and I'm putting on the kingly. Oh, y'all better rejoice for your pastor. It's like you've been patiently waiting, and this is going to be the season you seize everything God promised you. You've been sitting on promises, sitting on miracles, sitting on things that God spoke over you, and this is going to be the season of manifestation in the name of Jesus. You know what Hebrews 6.15 says about Abraham during his 25 years of waiting? It says, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. That's my prophetic word for you for the next 25 years, that as you waited 25, the next 25 is going to be filled with destiny promises being fulfilled for you and for city life in Jesus name. All right. Now that I got that off my chest. Now, I felt that so strong prophetically. I was sitting there and I heard the Lord say, 25 years is the fulfillment of everything I spoke over you. And this is why you're so settled now. This is why your family's so settled now. This is why things don't stress you out like they used to because this 25 years is when the Lord is going to just fortify everything. Can y'all make some noise for the man of God and for the miracles that God's doing? All right. Let's get into the word. The title of my sermon today is honor God's doorway to a life of rewards. I want to talk about honor, a spirit of honor and what honor looks like. Before I even get into any scriptures, I just want to give a definition of what honor is. Is that okay with everyone? Oh, I guess they don't want to hear it. Honor in the Greek, simply and literally, the definition is a valuing system. When you value something, when you speak of the word to a Greek person of that time, they would think of something precious, something weighty like gold. (5:17 - 6:00) When you think of gold, you just don't put it in some back drawer. You have gold, you put it in a safe place. You put it in a place of importance. You put it, hey, I got a security box. I'm going to put it in the security box. I have a safe. I'm going to put it in the safe. You just don't leave it on your table because you value it. Honor has to do with a valuing system. A lot of us, we mistaken honor and respect. They're two different things. The word honor has to do with valuing. The word respect has to do with what someone does. It's earned and it's gained based off actions. For example, the Bible doesn't say respect your mother and your father. (6:01 - 6:47) Why? Because parents do things. Let the church say, amen. Parents do things sometimes that you look at and you're like, that's not really worth my respect. But the Bible didn't say respect them. It said, honor your mother and your father, knowing that they're going to do things that sometimes are not honorable, but God's command is to honor anyway. Amen. So can we look at the scripture? Ephesians chapter six, who are maybe drug addicts who may be messed up in life. The Bible doesn't tell you obey them. It says, honor them, put a value on them. (6:47 - 7:40) Even if they don't deserve, it's not about deserving. And then look what the scripture says, because you know, this is part of the 10 commandments to honor your mother and your father. It's part of the original 10, right? Listen to what God says. If you honor your mother and your father, this is how much God puts a valuing system on honor. This is how much God looks at honor and says, this is so important to me. I'm going to attach a promise to it. It's so important and valuable to me. I'm attaching blessing to it. We look at honor, especially in a society, right? Where social media and media, and even the church, they find every opportunity to make fun of political leaders, to make fun of other people, to belittle people, to look down on people. (7:40 - 8:21) We find it in every culture. I was even watching Oprah the other day, and there was a whole group of adults saying, I don't talk to my parents anymore. I want nothing to do with them. I'm cutting them off because they're toxic and they're terrible. The culture loves to dishonor. But in the, in the midst of a culture of dishonor, God tells you honor has blessings, rewards, breakthrough, and harvest attached to it. He says, if you honor your mother and your father, here's the blessing. It may be well with you. That means your life is going to be a good life. (8:22 - 10:55) Man, you're going to live a blessed life because of honor. Honor is the key for you to tap into supernatural things you didn't walk in before. Honor is a key. It's a doorway for you to step into favor. He says, it may be well with you. And then here's the second part of the promise that comes because of honor. You may live long on the earth. So here's the thing. When the devil tries to lie to you and tell you you're going to die early, you're going to say, no, I will not die early because I have a culture of honor in my life. And honor is going to be the doorway for a long life, a satisfied life, a blessed life, a life where your youth is renewed like the eagles. I prophesy you're going to be like Caleb. Even when you're 80 years old, you're going to have the strength of a 45 year old because honor is going to open up the door of miracles, rewards, breakthrough in your life in Jesus name. Somebody say, I sense a culture of honor. Can I say something? I'm not preaching this word because this church doesn't have it. I'm preaching it because the more honor is the more blessing. I'm not saying that you guys don't love your pastors and don't honor your leaders. What I'm trying to tell you is the more honor among you guys as just members, the more honor to spiritual leaders, the more honor to political leaders, the more honor, even at the place of disagreement, that's where God's blessing rests. Somebody said God's blessing is when I pray. Yeah. You can pray and not honor and miss out on God's best. This is good because honor is a valuing system. God said, I got 10 commandments that are really important. And one of them, I'm going to attach a blessing to it. It's not love the Lord with all your heart. It's not don't cover your, your, your, your neighbor's wife and belongings. Nope. It's not that one. It's honor. So from the beginning, God's like honor has blessings attached to it. Honor has favor attached to it. Honor has my grace attached to it. That's how much God values it. So God values it on that level. Guess what I want to do. Value it on that. Someone is smart in the house. (10:57 - 11:30) All right. So the first principle I need us to know is that God is a rewarder. His desire from the beginning was to bless you. He is a rewarder. Do you know when he created the earth? He created it as a reward for us. Eden. Perfect. Eden. No blemish, no fault. Everything God did was as a reward for his children. Even Jesus dying on the cross was a reward for us. We did wrong and God still is giving us a reward. (11:32 - 12:42) Man, we messed up and God's like still didn't give me that reward. Here's the participation trophy. All right. Let's look at a few scriptures. Hebrews 11 verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him. Right. You got to come to God in faith. For it is for he who comes to God must come believing that he is and that he is the reward. Part of his nature is rewarder. So even when you pray, God, thank you that you're a rewarder. You're rewarding me because you're God. You give rewards. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Then I want to look at one more verse. Look at this. So you can know that God wants to reward you. I have like 20 verses, but I'm just going to look at one more. Because I mean, look it up on your own time. Look it up this week. God's reward system and how God wants to reward his people. You'll see it over and over and over and over. (12:42 - 13:27) And because of Jesus, the reward is not because of our good works anymore. It's because of his grace. All right. One more. Um, we're going to look at the second John one. There's a second John one, eight. Isn't there only one chapter in John? Why did I have to put one eight? You just put eight redundant. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a show. The Bible is telling you that God's a rewarder. (13:27 - 14:35) He loves to reward his people. And the scripture says you can do certain things to receive a, not just a partial reward, but a full reward. And can I tell you, honor is the gateway to walk into the full rewards of God. So we're going to talk about three levels of rewards. And we're going to look at three different groups of people's behavior. Why some were able to walk into no rewards, partial rewards and full rewards. Are y'all with me still? All right. I hope you're getting some, you're getting something so far. I know this is not like the greatest sermon to get you excited, but it's a sermon that if you can grab hold to this principle, I'm telling you, you're going to be blessed. When you learn honor, God honors you and blesses you. I think I shared this testimony before my, my previous pastor, he was buying his first house. I had what I mean, I had no money at $1,200 in my bank account. And the Lord told me to sow a thousand dollars into him. That was an honor seed. And when I did it, I was doing it. (14:35 - 14:45) The point we were broke, you know, how it is pastor boy on early in ministry. I just started preaching full time. I was broke, broke, broke, just got married. (14:45 - 15:45) And the Lord said, you have $1,200 in your checking and savings. Take a thousand dollars and honor the man of God. Everything in me was like, he buying a house. I live in a little two bedroom apartment, but it was the gateway of honor that brought blessing into my life. Cause I sold that seed and I got a call a week later. Someone gave me a house worth $600,000 that I never worked for because honor is a gateway for the blessing, the overflow and the harvest of God. Somebody say I I'm going to learn honor. So Luke chapter five, verse 17, Luke chapter five, verse 17. This is like this scripture right here is if you're a preacher, it is one of the best messages, sermons versus you can preach liquid. (15:45 - 16:33) It says a Luke chapter five or 17. Now what happened on a certain day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem. When I'm telling you that's far, they're coming from far distances just to hear Jesus preach. And Jesus is sitting in the house and he got all these religious leaders listening to him, right? He got the elite of the elite lawyers, teachers of the law coming to hear what he has to say. And this is the most important part of the verse right here. Verse 17, the last section, it says, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them to heal who those that were in the house, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law. (16:34 - 17:08) Wow. It was there to heal them. It was in the room and it was for them. It was in the room and it was for the Pharisees and the religious leaders, and they could have gotten anything they needed in realms of healing, physical healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing. They could have gotten healed in their soul, their body, their mind. Healing was in the room, but notice when you read the text, they never got healed. (17:09 - 17:27) Read the text. They never were able to tap into the healing anointing that was in the room because you can only receive an anointing from who you honor and what you honor. You cannot receive an anointing from an anointing you don't honor. (17:29 - 17:58) Honor is the key and the gateway to receive from an anointing that's there. Your pastor is a well of insight, information, wisdom, deliverance, knowledge, and the way you open up that gateway is through the key of honor. When you value him, not just respect him, but you value him and put him up here and not down here like, he's just, I can do his job. (17:58 - 18:13) I can do what he does. Oh, I know I was going to get a lot of amens on this. Oh, it's nothing. You know, pastor, he just, all he has to do is just preach one time a week. And then he gets, he gets a pastor Nate to come a lot. So it's not a big deal. (18:15 - 20:29) Right. But they don't understand the pressure, not just a preaching, but of leading people and being accountable before the Lord. Well, the Lord says, if you don't do it right, the blood is on your hands. The scripture even says, many of you should not become teachers because you will receive a stricter judgment, but what opened up healing, hoping up a portal of healing and anointing for healing. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law couldn't walk into it because of a lack of honor, but look who walks into it. Then behold, men brought a bed brought on a bed, a man who was paralyzed whom they sought to bring in and lay him before him. All right. So let me give you the picture. The house is filled with Pharisees, religious leaders, scribes, Sadducees, and they're there listening to Jesus. And the anointing comes in the room for healing. The anointing comes in the room for breakthrough. The anointing comes in the room for God to do something. Guess what? They couldn't receive it. The room was packed with people who had no honor. The room was packed with people who was packed, but it was packed with people who did not have a spirit of honor. And God was there to do what he had to do. And none of them were able to receive it because of a lack of honor. But here's what the scripture says. There was a group of people who were trying to get in and all these people who were just taking space. You remember what Pastor Boyan said? There's sometimes people just taking space, the leeches. I couldn't find a better word either. And so they said, we got to find a way to get in. So they take this man and they bring him up to the roof and they start breaking off the tiles of the roof and they lower him into where Jesus is because they realize something. Healing is here. Jesus is here. And honoring Jesus is the gateway for me to walk in the miraculous. Honoring God is the gateway. (20:29 - 21:32) Honor is the gateway for the miraculous in your life. And what's interesting, it wasn't even the paralyzed man who did it because he couldn't even do it. It was his friends, which shows me something. A lot of your breakthrough is going to come based off who you're connected to. 2026, I don't want to be connected to any negative Nancy's. I don't want to be connected to any people who want to speak death over what God has spoken over my life. I believe God's going to connect you with your Mary, connect you with your Elizabeth, connect you with those who see the dream and the potential on the inside of you. God's getting ready to connect you with people who are going to push you closer to your destiny, not push you further away from your destiny. God's getting ready to bring a whole new connection and rid you of toxic friendships, toxic people, and bring a community that loves you, cares for you, and sees the best in you. (21:34 - 21:45) Think about it. He's paralyzed, but they didn't see him as paralyzed. They saw him as one who could receive from Jesus. (21:47 - 22:10) You know, I need friends who can see me in my paralyzed state, but see me beyond me being paralyzed, and who are willing to break through so that I can get a breakthrough. Oh, I felt that in my spirit. You guys said, oh, I can preach. There's some friends who are about to break through so you can get a breakthrough. Oh, I see your people. Your tribe is coming. (22:10 - 22:57) Yeah, your community is coming. Your friends are coming. Yeah, the people who God's ordained to be in your life are coming in this season, and they're going to break through so that you can have a breakthrough. They're going to break through barriers so that you can get a breakthrough. They're going to go through walls not for themselves so that you can win. You need those kind of friends who are going to pray the witches out of your life, who are going to pray. I'm telling you, my friend, he was dating this witch, Jezebel's spirit, through and through. I looked at this man, I said, bro, oh, but you know, I love her. I said, bro, don't go to sleep. (22:59 - 24:34) She will cut your hair off. You know what I did? I went on a three-day fast. I got my own stuff I need. I got my own breakthroughs I need. I got stuff for my family that I need, but I realized he was at a pivotal point in his life because he was about to marry her. He was at a point where I knew his destiny would have been destroyed, and everything God called him to do, he couldn't walk into it because he was going to marry the wrong person. And so you know what I did as a friend? I said, I'm breaking through the tiles for you because you need an encounter with Jesus. This Jezebel needs to leave your life, and you need to walk in your purpose. No joke, they broke up. Three months later, he started dating a girl that he dated before. Oh, we're in love now. I knew this was the right person for him. He got married, has a kid. He's blessed. He's walking in destiny. He's doing the work of the Lord. You need friends to break through for you. Yeah, I need some real friends. I don't need friends who talk behind my back, who tell people about how bad my issues are, how bad my paralysis is, how bad my shortcomings are. I need some real friends who are going to see me in my worst state and still prophesy over me. I remember, Pastor Boyer may not even remember this. We were walking down Williamsburg, and I remember this is when I just had a baby out of wedlock, and I was like, man, my life is over. My ministry's over. God's never going to use me. (24:34 - 25:45) God's never going to do anything in my life. God's never going to do this. God's never going to do that. And then Pastor Boyer looked at me and said, bro, you're 20 something years old. That's 25, but close. He said, get over yourself. He said, you're 25. He says, you didn't even make it anywhere yet. He says, do you not see what God's placed inside of you? Wake up. He don't even realize that conversation activated something in me. I said, I'm only 25. I made one mistake. This can't define my destiny. He literally broke the tile and was like, here. Don't you see Jesus is right here, ready to heal your paralysis? Look at you like, you don't see what you have. You're sleeping on your gifts. I did not mean to be here for so long. Okay. That was, that was for someone. Somebody needs to rid your circle. 2026 has to be the year where you begin to purify your circle. (25:47 - 26:04) Get rid of people who are not going to speak God's word over your life. 2026, I'm not going to allow people who have no faith to speak into me. And they just spread in the, it was like, Ooh, it's like an infection and it keeps spreading. (26:04 - 26:57) And the infection is called a lack of faith. I need people. When they speak, there's faith that gets activated in me. Well, my baby starts jumping where what's inside of me becomes illuminated and awakened. You know, the difference there's people that come in the room as soon as they come, literally it's like your energy gets zapped. Like, why am I so tired? And you come in the room. Why am I so upset? Why am I not happy? And there's other people that come in the room. As soon as they get in the room, you just got a smile on your face. It's because they bring a level of energy. They bring a different type of feel into the room because God is with them. Well, the spirit of the Lord is there's a liberty. All right. So verse 19, when, when they couldn't find a place to go, they just lowered him. Verse 20. This is so interesting. (26:58 - 27:10) When Jesus saw their faith, not the paralyzed man's faith, the friend's faith. He said to them, man, your sins are forgiven you. You see, this is where the drama really starts. (27:10 - 28:35) The Pharisees describes all the people who were in the room, who the healing was for them who never received anything. That's when they go on their rant. Oh, Jesus thinks he could forgive sins. Jesus thinks he's all of that. Jesus thinks, oh, and they go on this whole rant. And it proves to me through their lack of honor, why healing was in the room and they couldn't receive it. I refuse to allow anyone from the outside to get something I should get from in here because of a lack of honor. This is good. Soon and very soon, more people are going to ask your pastor to come preach, to minister, to be at certain events. Don't let those people on the outside receive the well that he has and you don't receive it. He's I'm telling you, he's a well of knowledge when it comes to invest. I'll be hitting them up. Hey, what should I do right here in investing? Oh yeah. Invest in this. Don't let someone else receive what you should receive in the house by having a religious spirit. Cause you know, there's like two sides. There's like two sides of this. There's those you've been so hurt by churches in the past talking about honor, which was not honor. (28:35 - 29:03) It was just manipulation and control and abuse from leaders that now the principle, you throw the baby out with the bathwater, not knowing it's still a biblical principle and so important. So there's either that side and that group or is the group that you coming from the street, from the world, you didn't know Jesus and you don't understand the power of honor. Whatever, whatever group you're in, you need to get a biblical perspective of honor. (29:04 - 30:05) And once you get that, you'll see God moving harvest and breakthrough. So the first group we talked about with the Pharisees, the religious leaders describes, they got no reward. The next we're going to talk about is a group who got a partial reward because of honor or a lack of honor. You ready to see this? I had a lot more to say. I'm telling every point could be like two to three sermons because there's so much depth in this. Can I just say one thing? Um, you, do you guys remember the story of Esther? There was a queen before Esther. What was her name? Vashti. Oh yeah. Y'all know the scriptures. Yeah. And you know what the scripture says about Vashti? The kingdom was doing amazing. I mean, the kingdom was at the peak money, prosperity, blessing. They're having parties every day. I'm talking about blessed. I'll talk parties. Imagine parties every day. Imagine like your party every day, the kingdom's blessed, but then it was a queen. Her name was Vashti. (30:07 - 30:59) No honor. The king, king Eric Xerxes, the first called her, Hey, I need you to come. I ain't listening to you. King. I need you to come. I listened to you. King. His elders had to come together and say, Hey, if you don't deal with this lack of honor here, it's not our enemies that are going to destroy the kingdom. It's not going to come from the outside. It's not going to come from New York city and the government and the laws and the rules. It's not going to come from the outside. It's not going to come from the devil, Satan, because we got power over him. The division and the divide and the destruction of the kingdom is going to come because of a lack of honor. Whoa. Can I tell you something? There's nothing that can make us lose except for us. (31:00 - 31:31) There's nothing that will make you lose in this life except having a lack of honor first for God, then for who God puts in your life. Think about it. Think about if you honor God and you honor people, how blessed you'll be. Think about everything in your life. The root of it is the Lord challenging you to honor better. Think about the interactions with your job and your boss and your community and your friends and your husband and your wife. (31:32 - 32:15) Think about the time you get into an argument with her. Why? Because the honor wasn't there. I guarantee that if you honored her and she honored you, the argument would be done because you know what honor does? Honor looks to put the person first. Honor goes and says, we disagree, but we're not disagreeable. You can't say you honor someone until you get to a point of disagreement with them, with what they say, what they do. That's the proof you really honor them. Respect is we all agree. I respect you because we believe the same exact things, but let me start saying something you don't like up here. Then it proves to me whether you have honor or you just have respect. (32:18 - 33:08) Married couples, you want to know how to honor your spouse? Think about them first. Because if one person is thinking about that person first and the other person is thinking about the other person first, there's no room to lose. I'm thinking about my wife first. She's thinking about me first. We're just like, what can I do for you? How can I serve you? And then she's like, no, but how can I serve you? No, but I'm like, no, no, how can I serve you? Oh no, let me open your door. Oh no, let me rub your feet. Oh, let me give you a little back massage after a long day of work. Oh no, no, babe, I'm good. That back massage was good for five minutes. Now let me cook you some food. Man, honor is important. Does the Bible say this? All right, let's go. (33:09 - 33:13) So let's look at partial reward. We looked at no reward. Now we're going to look at partial reward. (33:18 - 34:29) Mark chapter six, verse five. Here's what it says. Mark six, verse, we're going to look at verse two to five, actually. So let's read that whole thing. It says, and when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing him were astonished saying, you see all these examples I'm giving is about Jesus, right? Honoring Jesus, but I want us to get it in the context of honoring the people God placed in our lives, especially the leaders that God placed in our lives, right? So as many hearing him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things from? Man, I'm impressed by what he's teaching. And what wisdom is this, which is given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands. Look at verse three. Is this not the carpenter? So there's a group impressed. Man, we never heard teaching like this, man. He's working in miracles, man. There's supernatural things that God's doing through him honor. And then there's another group dishonor. (34:29 - 35:51) Dishonor. The crowd was divided. There's a crowd honoring Jesus. And then another part of the crowd. Isn't he just a carpenter? Isn't this just Mary's son on his brothers and the sisters with us. So they, the Bible says they were offended at him, but Jesus said to them, a prophet is without honor. So he saw what they said, how they treated him like common. They treated him as normal. They treated him as average. And he, you don't know what he compared it to dishonor, common, average, normal, regular, mediocre is the language of dishonor. Just Mary's son, just a carpenter, just pastor boy on just my leader, just my church. Yeah. (35:52 - 37:03) See how sometimes the spirit of dishonor can come in suddenly with our speech at first starts in the heart, but it starts, it, it, it comes through our speech. Look at this. Jesus said a prophet is without honor, except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house. Look what verse five says now. Why now? What you have to look at the verse before because of the dishonor now he could do no mighty work there. The God who created the heavens and the earth, the one who was there from the time everything was formed was like, there's a cat that's been put on me. And the cat that was put on me is called dishonor. And do you know, God can do anything, but he said, I can't do mighty works there because the spirit of honor is not there. And he only, the Bible says he was only able to lay hands on a few sick people and heal them. (37:05 - 39:03) Dishonor will put a cap on the miraculous in your life. And because dishonor starts here, it starts with, why do they got to say that? Why do they have to do that? You know what dishonor starts? Pastor Boyer said it so perfectly when you put race before kingdom and you expect your pastor to speak out on every racial thing that the media is trying to push and drive. Instead of preaching the gospel, race is not our job. Gospel is our job. And in gospel, guess what? We don't treat people any different because of their race. We love them. Doesn't matter how they look. Doesn't matter how they speak. Doesn't matter where they came from. Doesn't matter their background. We love people because we love them. That's what true honor is. It's dishonoring to try to push people to the front because of a racial quota you have. That's not honor. Honor goes, every person is loved equally because they're made in the image of God. That's honor. All right. So they got a partial reward. Now we're going to talk about people who got a full reward. All right. Can we just look at Matthew chapter 10 just for a few minutes? Matthew 10, 40 to 42, because I want to talk about this, how important this is. Jesus goes through this whole entire dialogue with the people. Are y'all receiving something? I really wanted to teach a little bit more today, if that's cool. As a guest preacher, a lot of times I preach the sermons. (39:05 - 39:24) That's what they called me. So that's what I'm going to say. As a guest preacher, itinerant preacher, I preach the things sometimes that your pastor wants to preach. (39:25 - 40:10) But he's like, if I preach, people are going to think it's self-serving. Honor me. It seems kind of self-serving, but it's not. It's biblical. And then there's blessings attached to it. And that's when I come in and he didn't tell me to preach this. He didn't tell me what to preach. Never has told me what to preach. And guess what? I go, yeah, you know what? This is important. This is how CityLight goes to the next level. Honor is how CityLight moves to the next level. Because what happens is anyone who walks through these doors, when a spirit of honor is here, they're going to send such a love and an embrace. (40:10 - 40:39) No matter even what's said on the pulpit, they're going to be drawn to Jesus by your love. The Bible says they will know we are Christians by our love for one another. Not because we preach powerful sermons and we got great PowerPoint. We got the right worship team. No, our love is going to draw them. Matthew 10 40, he who receives you receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me. (40:40 - 41:12) So Jesus is giving an order. He's giving an order, right? This is the order of honor. First is the father, right? I honor the father who sent me. All right, go to the next. He who receives a prophet next in line, I honor those who I send. Then the next, he who receives a righteous man, honor. (41:14 - 41:30) In the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's. Every level of honor comes with a level of reward. You can receive the prophets reward. (41:31 - 42:46) You can receive the righteous man's reward or look at the next one, what it says. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, surely I say to you, he shall by no means lose his. So what is Jesus saying there? Let me break it down very simply. Honor has to be on every level. So it shouldn't be, Hey, the church just honors the man of God. It should be. Everyone's honoring each other because there's rewards to honor. Yeah. When you honor someone who the Lord's placed over your life, there's a level of reward attached to it. When you honor your fellow members, there's a level of honor to it. When you look at the smallest kid in the room and you honor them, there's a level of reward attached to it. And if you do it, the Bible says you will by no means lose your reward. CityLight church. There's a culture of honor coming here and none of you guys are going to lose your rewards. God's going to bless you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (42:47 - 42:50) All right, let's go. Let's go to the last one. Full reward. (42:50 - 43:15) You're not going to miss your blessing because of honor. All right. I have two verses here. Which one do I want to do? No, I can't do both. I don't have time. Let's, let's do, let's do the Mark chapter seven. (43:16 - 44:17) You see y'all getting stuff that they didn't get. Mark chapter seven, verse 24. From there, he arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden. Jesus was trying to rest. He was trying to relax. He's in a house. I don't want to be bothered. It's nap time. Right? My, my, my social batteries on low. I just came from a 50th birthday celebration. 25. I had more conversations with people than I ever had in my life. I'm ready to relax. Look at this. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. (44:21 - 44:40) Do you know this woman was from the region of Tyre and Sidon. This was the idol worshiping region. This was, we know nothing about God here region. This is we're disconnected from the covenant. We're disconnected from the promise. We have nothing to do with God. (44:41 - 47:44) And look at this. See the police is coming for those who are not honoring. I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. I'm joking. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. And she came and fell at his hold on. She, she ain't a believer. She ain't a Christian. She's not a good Jewish girl. She's far from the promise far from the covenant, but understood honor. She understood this is not just a regular person here. See, look at the difference between the Pharisees who were in a house and this woman who didn't even have a strong knowledge of God, but who had a strong knowledge of honor. You may not know every scripture in the Bible, but if you understand the principle of honor, you'll see miracles in your life. Think about the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They knew the scriptures back and forth. They knew every verse they can debate you on everything. They knew what every scholar had to say. They read every commentary, but they could not get a miracle from God because it was just head knowledge and it wasn't in the heart. And this woman who knew nothing about scripture, she probably couldn't quote one verse to Jesus, but she understood the principle of honor. And that was the catalyst. That was the point of breakthrough in her life. Verse 26, what is liquid? It says, the woman was a Greek. That means idol worshiper. That means didn't know God, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. This is what Jesus says, but Jesus said to her, let the children be filled first. So those who were in the house, not the dogs is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Listen to her response, honor. Even when you don't feel like you're being respected, honor is not the same as even when you feel like you're being treated like a second class citizen, honor will still bring miracles into your life. (47:46 - 50:09) I dare you. When your boss starts acting up and cursing at you and starts getting upset and doing those passive aggressive emails, you know, the emails that I'm talking about, cause y'all send them all the time to Pastor Boyan and Pastor Mo. No, I'm just kidding. Some of you do. Most of you don't, but some, I, you know, I just don't understand. You know, the ones I'm talking about, you don't see them because Pastor Mo answers respond with honor, change your disposition. Instead of getting angry honor. Thank you for the great job you're doing. I appreciate you. How can I serve better? Watch how that changes everything. I'm not going to lie. Someone came up to me like there's children and there's dogs and you're in the dog category. I think personally, I would have been a little offended. I know y'all are super safe now, but it would have been a little bit of a fence, not for her. She said, yeah, Lord, I get it. I'm not part of the promise. Yeah, I get it. I'm not part of the covenant. Yeah, I get it. I'm not part of what you're doing on the earth right now. Yeah, I get it. I'm just an idol worshiper. Yeah, I get it. I shouldn't even get any bit of the benefits that you have here on earth. I get it. You didn't come for me. I get it. I'm not supposed to get the blessing, but even the dogs are able to eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Jesus said, then he said to her, for this saying, it wasn't even just her worship, it was what she was saying when she worshipped. See, your words are going to create your world. (50:10 - 50:51) Oh, I'm going to say it again. Your words are going to create your world. Her words matched her disposition. It wasn't just, I'm getting on my knees and I'm doing this false humility thing. I'm really honoring you, Jesus, with my disposition and with my words. And then Jesus goes, because of what you said, because we all know something that what you say starts in your heart. So she just wasn't just talking. What she said, let me say it like this. You know, when you get offended, what's really in your heart comes out of your mouth. (50:54 - 52:31) Let them really offend you and start cursing you out. Hold on a second. I was trying not to say that, but I got to say why? Because what's in here comes out of here. What's in here comes out of here. What's in here out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. I like the King James version on that. But what's in here comes out here. Yeah. So for her to say this was proof that the honor wasn't just something that she did as a performative thing. It was something that was literally in her heart. And Jesus said, because this thing is not just something you're doing out of performance, but it's really in your heart. Go your way. The demons left your daughter. And the Bible says, when she came to her house, she found that the demon had left her daughter and her daughter was lying on the bed free, totally delivered because a spirit of honor came in and opened the gateway for the supernatural in her family's life. If you want honor, guess what? If you want blessing and open doors, honor is the gateway for the open doors and the supernatural in your life. (52:33 - 53:15) I'm going to end with this. A few ways you can honor your pastor, practical ways that you can honor. I had a lot more to say, but, you know, honor looks for ways to make things easy for your leaders. Can I just be practical? You do not need to text your leaders to do something very easy. You see a piece of paper on the floor. Oh, pastor motion. I fixed the chairs. You don't have to ask him, just fix them. There's things that are like more important. You may need, oh, is this something that's cool for us to do? That's different, but something that's easy. You see a piece of paper on the floor. Oh, pastor, boy, should I pick up that paper? Honor goes, I want to make it as easy for my leaders as possible. (53:16 - 54:52) If there's things that I can handle without them, I'll handle it. And then I'll just tell them I did it. You don't got to worry. I took care of this. Oh, pastor. I know we're raising money for a mission trip. Don't worry. I got it. I paid for the whole trip. That's what honor looks like. Oh, they ain't going to say amen. They got quiet on me. Honor looks like that. All right. So let me tell you some practical things you can do to honor your leader. Was this a good word? You sure? Y'all seem like, he's like, ah, this is cool. You all right. Here's the first thing you can do to honor your leader. First Timothy two, two, you can pray for them. I'm not going to go through all the verses. I may highlight some of the verses, but the first thing you can do to honor your leaders, the Bible says for all the Kings and all who are in authority that we may live, live a quiet and peaceable life in Godliness and reverence. Look at verse one. Can we go back to verse one? I know I'm telling you guys this. They're like, he always does this to us. The team's mad right now. They're like that. Oh, two verse one. If that's okay. Sorry guys. Oh, I messed them up. Wow. Sorry, but we're going to see it once it comes up to verse one, your responsibility to your leader. It basically says to pray for them. (54:55 - 57:06) All right. Let's just summarize. It says to pray for them. If they're in authority, you can trust me. Yep. Oh, okay. No. First Timothy. First Timothy. Sorry. First Timothy two. Did I say second Timothy? I thought it was me again. I was like, man, therefore I exhort you. First of all, that supplications. So it tells you different types of prayers. So you're not even supposed to pray one type of way for your leader. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for Kings and for all who are in authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life. Your prayers contribute to your leader, living a quiet and peaceable life. When you pray for him, you supplicate, you intercede, you release prayers, you open up the door for them to live a quiet. Cause you know, the devil's one of his main agendas is so that spiritual leaders can live a life of disarray, chaos, disorder, lacking peace in trouble with the government in issues at work. If they work a second job at issues with people contentious with their husband contentious with their wives, contentious with their children. When you pray for them, you literally open up a portal so that they can live a quiet and peaceable life. You know what that does for you? They come to the church, they, and they're able to deliver the word with no restrictions. They're able to preach with strength and with power because of your prayers. So the first thing, the first way you can honor your leader every day, Lord, I just bring pastor boy on before you. I bring his wife and his family. I cover them with the blood of Jesus. (57:06 - 57:28) No attack of the enemy will be able to come near them. I pray peace and prosperity and blessing over them. I speak that he would be a powerful messenger of the gospel and he will preach the, the, the word of God with bonus, like a lion, unleash him into his gifts, activate him into his calling, right? Pray for your leader. (57:29 - 58:13) So here's some things you can pray. You can pray for his family finances, faithfulness in preaching the word favor. You can praise for spiritual force and strength, health and long life and protection from demonic attacks. All right. Number two, this is a good one. Obey and submit to your leader. Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey your leader and submit to them for they watch out for your souls. That's really deep because the responsibility is not just for you. It's for your leader, their jobs to watch for your soul, your jobs to obey. So everyone has a responsibility and it's a major responsibility before God. I don't obey no man. That's why you're broke. (58:15 - 58:58) I realized in life, people who've never had to obey any type of leader, most of their lives are in chaos and confusion. Always. I, every time I've seen, especially a man who could never submit to another man in leadership, that man is always confused and chaotic and poor and his family is never blessed. And he hates his wife and his wife hates him. And his children want nothing to do with him because there's something about the principle of honoring those who God placed in position where God honors you because you honor someone else. God could never bring you to the place to the forefront until you learn how to honor and bless someone else's vision. (59:01 - 1:01:05) Number three, and I went way over my time, but I feel like this was necessary. Give, you know, I come here a lot, right? I'm family. So I'm taking my liberty as your uncle to just go overboard and I'll get in trouble, but it's cool. We'll deal with it. Number three, give generously first Timothy five 17. It says, let the elders who, who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Can I ask you a question? Um, do you think your pastor does a good job? I don't think he does a good job. I think he does a great job. The Bible says, if he does a great job, he's worthy of double honor. Look at that word in the Greek, right? That word in the Greek, go to blue letter, bible.com type in the verse and see what that word double honor is in the Greek. That word literally means good pay to be paid. Well, your pastor should not be struggling. Your leader should not be struggling. They should be blessed. And let me tell you, he, he came to me. He was so overwhelmed. He said, he'll people really blessed me like for my party. And some of you haven't blessed him yet. Don't forget it. I'm throwing it out there. He's worth double honor, which means good pay. All right. Number four, if you need to email, my email is Nathanael.sainteLord. I'm giving you my actual email. So don't email them. Email me if you have an issue. See, I didn't tell them the rest of the email. They're going to be stuck at hotmail. Yeah. Yeah. You can send this to my hotmail account. (1:01:05 - 1:01:47) I'll make sure I get to it. 2045. Number four, speak well of them, man. Always have something good to say about your leader. Speak well of them, honor them with your words. You know how valuable that is? You know what the Bible says that you shouldn't even bring an accusation against an elder unless you have two or three witnesses. Why? Because tarnishing a leader's reputation can literally destroy what God's trying to do on the earth. So you got to be careful how you speak about your leaders that, you know, the scripture says, touch not my anointed ones or do my prophets no harm. I know people have used that verse and abused it and manipulated it and made it seem. (1:01:47 - 1:01:50) I'm the king. I can do whatever I want. That's not what the scripture is saying. (1:01:50 - 1:02:37) The scripture is saying there's a place of honor and blessing that comes when you learn how to honor your leaders. Okay. Think highly of them. First Timothy chapter five, verse 12 to 13. Can we actually look at that one? This is what I really like a lot. And I want us to actually look at the verse. Sorry. First Thessalonians five, 12 to 13. First Thessalonians. Someone's calling. And we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you, recognize those who labor among you, recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, which means I know people don't like to hear this. Your pastor is over you. (1:02:39 - 1:03:41) You guys are not on the same level. You're not friends. Hey boy on what's up. I'm just saying to recognize those who labor among you and who are over you in the Lord. They're not over you in every area in life. When it comes to the things of the Lord, the Lord's placed them in your life for a specific reason. It says, and admonish you. This is big language, admonishing someone and to esteem them very highly. President walks in here. Oh, everyone's clapping. Oh, they're the greatest. Make some noise for your pastor. Esteem them for me, my spiritual leaders. I have more esteem for them than I do the president. You want to know why the president is not watching over my soul. (1:03:42 - 1:04:33) The president doesn't have a spiritual responsibility before the Lord to make sure that I'm good. Esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and be at peace among yourself. You want to be at peace, honor your leaders, esteem them highly. That's how you're at peace. All right. These next few, I'm just going to go quickly because I went way over pattern yourself after them. First Corinthians 11 one and second Timothy one 13. And then I'm going to talk about a couple of honor killers. And then one last thing, and then we're out of here. One honor killer familiarity. Don't become too familiar with your leader. You're not buddy, buddy, right? You can only receive from a source that you honor. (1:04:36 - 1:07:02) Number two, do not gossip and slander about them. If there's something that you're going to say behind their back, make sure it's something that you have enough boldness gall to say in their face something. Anything you would say behind their back, make sure that you're like, yeah, this is something I'll say in your face. Cause you know, we've got a lot of keyboard thugs out here, Twitter gangsters, email thugs. They talk a big talk. Oh yeah. So that's what true honor is. Number three, don't burn in your leader. I said that don't create unnecessary stress, help them out so they can focus on the word and prayer. I want to end with this last thing. I was reading the story this morning. Actually I read it this morning. It was about Noah and his sons. And I know this church doesn't typically use that language of spiritual father, but pastor boy on is your spiritual father. Amen. That's biblical. The Bible says we have many teachers, but we have one father, right? He's your spiritual father. You got to look at the story of Noah and his sons. Um, after the 40 days, um, they're in the boat, the waters subside and the scripture says something very interesting. Noah plants a vineyard and you know, what's in a vineyard grapes fermented. They become y'all know a little bit too well. I saw y'all at the party. You weren't even drinking and y'all was like, that's it. Thank God for the blood for some of these folks. I'm just kidding. Some of y'all know how to party. I was shocked. I was like, Oh my gosh, it seems so conservative in church, but they be turning up. He plants a vineyard and he gets high on his own supply. Don't clip that and put it on YouTube, please. (1:07:06 - 1:08:13) But, but, but he gets drunk off his own supply and you know what the scripture says? Because I've read this a million times and I never saw this. He did not get drunk outside. He got drunk in his, his tent. So when his son walks in, his is like his son walked in, in his room, saw the dad drunk, stumbling on his words and naked. Yo, let me come and try to point out his failure, his mistake, his shortcoming. Everyone look. Yeah. He made this joke at him. Like everyone look, he said something that offended me. Everyone look, he did something that I didn't agree with. Everyone look at his shortcoming. That was his son, Ham, but his other two sons, Sham and Japheth, when Ham came and tried to expose the father, the Bible says they took a covering, walked in backwards. (1:08:16 - 1:08:29) Instead of looking at their father's nakedness, they wrapped a towel around him. And they covered him. And that's when the Holy spirit gave me a revelation. (1:08:30 - 1:10:46) You know, for Ham, it's so messed up 40 days. Your dad had you covered in an arc that he made one momentary slip up. And this is for every pastor. This is so real that I can do 40 years of blessing you. I can do 40 years of speaking into your family and telling you how amazing you are and giving you money and the church helping you, but one momentary slip up. Oh yeah. Pastor said this, look at it. Look what he said on Facebook. Look, real sons. Don't do that. Real spiritual children. Don't do that. Real spiritual children walk in backwards and say, even if you said something or did something I didn't like, I remember the years of blessing my family and speaking into my life. And I know your heart and I'm going to cover you in love because love covers a multitude up. So even if you don't say hi to me, I'm still going to love you. If you step on my footbacks and I'm still going to love you. If you do something I don't agree with, I'm still going to love you. Now that's honor. I still look at you the same. Ham was cursed. His family was cursed. His lineage was cursed, but sham and Jeff it blessed their lineage, blessed their family blessed because of the spirit of honor. Can we just clap our hands and just give God thanks for this amazing time. Can we stand to our feet and just for 10 seconds, can we just give God a radical praise of thanksgiving for the leaders that he put in our Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We praise you Lord. (1:10:47 - 1:11:23) This is the CityLight church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about pastor Boyan Jancic and CityLight church, visit us at CityLightnyc.com. That's CityLightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person. Anytime we would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to CityLight church podcast, wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.