Raise the Limit

John 4:44

For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

John 4:53-54

So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. 54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

Introduction

He believed in Jesus AFTER His SECOND miracle. Whether or not we realize it, we place limits on each and every relationship that we have. I want to take a moment to examine this nobleman and the limits he placed on his relationship with the prophet Jesus.

Recognition

Firstly, in the beginning, the nobleman’s relationship with Jesus was limited to recognition.

John 2:11 teaches us that Jesus manifested His glory in turning the water into wine at Cana, but of all the people in Cana, only his disciples believed in Him then. Even after God manifested His power through Jesus, all the people of Galilee could spare for Him was recognition. ‘oh you’re the water to wine guy!”

How often is it that all we can spare for the prophet assigned to OUR house is recognition, we don’t give him heed, we don’t give him honor, we don’t give him offerings, we don’t give him encouragement, all we can spare is hiding our lottery tickets behind our back when we recognize him in the 7/11.

It took some desperate circumstances before the nobleman was willing to raise the bar to his second limit, which was to go from Recognition to Request.

Request

The nobleman had disregarded, disincentivized, and distanced himself from Jesus until dire circumstances in the form of a dying son made him remember Jesus and make his request. And too often we ourselves forget about the pastor until we have an emergency and then all of a sudden he needs to be available to visit momma in the hospital, he needs to be available to counsel you cuz your spouse won’t give you none so you cheated, he needs to be available to help you find some money to pay—oh I can’t get no help in here tonight

And this is where we get to the third level, the level he should have started at, because as we can see from this Scripture, the nobleman felt that he was entitled to make a request of Jesus while he yet did not respect and reverence the position and the person of Jesus.

Respect and Reverence

Is it possible that the nobleman’s son would have never reached the point of death if he had just respected and reverenced the Teacher from the beginning? How many anxiety and worry and emergency situations could be AVOIDED altogether if we would just live in a posture of respect and reverence to our prophets! If we would submit to their authority under God, allow their preached word to change our lifestyles, receive the blessing that God provides us when we bless His prophets, yes i’m talking about monetary love offerings. I wish I had time to talk about this!

Conclusion

But let me conclude by decreeing and declaring to you the blessing of the Lord that falls upon the people who move past mere recognition, who value the prophet beyond just requesting things from him. Because Scripture demonstrates that there is a special blessing for those who decide early and consistently to respect and reverence the prophet God has provided them.