Honor, Priority, Diligence - Part 2
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: What you honor
you give priority to and what you give priority to you’ll be diligent with.
I. The Law of Diligence says
you can’t walk in victory without being diligent in hearing and doing the Word
(Josh 1:8)
A.
After hearing these things how can a person
stay slothful in the Word?
II. Honor, Priority, Diligence
A.
Everybody can be diligent because everybody
is diligent at something right now
1.
People have selective diligence; they’re diligent in flesh pleasing activities
2.
Most people are outright lazy, but their
diligence is misplaced
B.
Why has diligence been misplaced? Diligence has
been misplaced because God and His things have been given no priority
1.
Diligence will manifest with the highest
priority
2.
What is most important to you, you’ll be
diligent at
C.
Why do God and His things have no priority? God and His things have no priority because believers have walked in a lack
of honor
1.
Honor-Greek
(Timios)-Estimate or attach a value to something, to
honor somebody as sacred or special, to value as of great price, precious,
esteemed (valued), to hold especially dear---Hebrew (Kabad)-Weight, heaviness,
to be heavy or weighty; in those days they had scales and how much something cost
was determined by weight; if something was very expensive you had to pile a lot
of heavy precious metals on that scale to buy it; the more valuable a thing was
the “heavier” the price
2.
Whatever has the place first priority in your
life got there through your honor/because you value it the most
3.
When we honor something it’s valuable to us, it
gets priority in our lives, & we’re diligent at it
D.
Many believers don’t show honor because
they’re dominated by their feelings
1.
Honor says when it’s convenient or inconvenient,
when I feel like it or when I don’t, when I have time or don’t have time; you
are so valuable to me that I don’t care what I have going on you have place,
priority, and my diligence
a.
They valued their king enough to die to get
in a drink of water; many believers don’t value their king enough to come to
church (2 Sam 23:14)
2.
I honor this thing so much I can ignore my
feelings when it comes to how I treat it; It’s not important enough to you to
disregard your feelings
a.
Honor works in spite of feelings, not in
response to feelings
b.
Honor is not feeling-based it’s a faith-based decision and act of your will
c.
I can be diligent in this thing b/c I value
it enough to disregard my feelings
1)
Is this Word important enough to you to
disregard our feelings for it
3.
Have you ever given the Word that type of
honor that you give carnal things?
a.
People are underdeveloped in honor and
overdeveloped in their feelings
E.
We are to honor God and His Word (John 5:23)
1.
John 1:1-5,14-God is the Word and you can’t honor
him w/o honoring His Word
a.
EX: You can’t honor your spouse, but not
value what they say
2.
We honor God by giving him and his word our
diligence
F.
What you honor/value the most u give
priority/preference to & you are diligent at
1.
Lack of diligence manifest through lack of
honor; it’s an honor problem
a.
What do you value/honor the most?
2.
Believers aren’t diligent in the Word because
it has no priority in there lives; it has no priority in their lives b/c their
honor for it is missing; their honor for it is missing because they don’t
really believe that this Word can change their lives
III. Diligence has been misplaced
because honor has been misplaced; you value the wrong thing; it’s not a
diligence problem it’s an honor problem
A.
What you see as valuable you will honor and
be diligent with (Jesus in hometown)
1.
The Word is precious and knowing what it says
and doing it is precious (2 Pt 1:4)
a.
Because people have seen this Word as
precious, they give it no priority, and are not diligent with it
b.
Romans 10:8-10-Salvation; 2 Corinthians
10:5-Peace of mind; 1 John 4:18-Freedom from fear; Luke 6:38-Provision
2.
You can trace a persons success of failure in
life back to the level of diligence they gave to hearing and doing the Word
a.
People are waiting on God to do something,
but the power of God only responds to your diligent obedience to His Word
b.
Religion has taught has to pray and hope God
moves instead of finding out what the Word says to do and doing our way out
(Joshua 1:8)
3.
There’s great results when u value the Word (Pr
13:13, Ps 119:92,165, 1 Sam 2:30)
a.
What price tag have you attached to the word?
B.
Attaching the improper value to things leads to
misplaced priority & misplaced diligence
1.
Matt 13:45-His selling all that he had and
buying that showed he honored it
2.
Luke 14:16-They honored other things more,
those had priority, & their diligence
3.
There can only be one first (Luke 14:26-33,
Matthew 6:33)
a.
If I’ll keep first things first and be
diligent in what’s first I’ll be the best I can be at what’s second, third &
so on; You’re wife, kids, family & everybody else would enjoy u a lot more
if they were second & God was first
b.
Count the cost for what you say you want?
4.
Mt7:6-Hogs value slop
as much as they do pearls; they don’t see the true value
a.
We won’t miss our TV shows slop, but the Word
is secondary
b.
EX: We’ve put a $5000 price tag on a pack of
bubble gum
C.
There is two different values systems (John
5:41,44, 1 Samuel 16:7)
1.
What men see as important often times God
sees as meaningless
2.
What God sees as important often times men don’t have time for it
D.
If your honor is misplaced your priorities
are out of whack, your diligence will be misplaced, and you won’t walk in
victory
IV. Locating your honor
A.
Where is your honor? Find your diligence (Malachi
1:6)
1.
Matthew 15:8-Many believers like to think
that they can honor God
a.
Matthew 6:24-Their heart/treasure, what they
value the most is far from me
2.
Malachi 1:6-13-When it comes TV you got time,
attention, and effort to give
a.
6-They despised his name
b.
8-God got the polluted stuff, the governor
got the good stuff
c.
11-Second best doesn’t please God and he
doesn’t accept it
d.
12-They didn’t value God’s stuff and they
weren’t excellent & diligent in it
e.
13-It was too inconvenient for them
B.
Proverbs 5:7-13-We can locate your honor by
locating your diligence
1.
7-Your attention is your diligence
2.
9-Your effort, energy, and excellence is your
diligence
a.
Vigor-Physical or mental strength and energy;
intensity
b.
Splendor-The condition of being magnificent,
impressive, or excellent
3.
9-Your years (time) your diligence
4.
10-Your money is what your diligence
5.
10-Your labor is your diligence
V. A big part of developing
diligence is becoming developed in honor
A.
Release your faith-I am a person who honors
God and His Word above all else
B.
Find and attach the proper value to things
C.
Ignore your feelings
D.
Refer to the Word with honor
E.
Confer upon the Word-Make time for the Word
F.
Prefer the Word over other things-Practice
giving it priority