Look Twice, Honor Once

Introduction: Look Twice

Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I want to tell you something that happened to me a while back, and I promise you, it's true, and it's a little embarrassing, but that's okay, because I think it's gonna help us today. So one morning I woke up late — you know how that goes, right? Alarm didn't go off, or maybe I just hit snooze one too many times — and I was rushing around trying to get out the door. Grabbed my shoes, threw 'em on, grabbed my coffee, ran out to the car. Went about my whole day. Talked to people. Had meetings. Ate lunch. Did all the pastor things I do. And it wasn't until I got home that night, and I sat down to take my shoes off, that I realized — my shoes were on the wrong feet. All day. The whole day. And here's the part that gets me — I saw people ALL DAY LONG. I talked to people. I shook people's hands. And nobody said a word to me. Nobody said, "Hey Pastor Tristan, your shoes are on backwards." Not one person. And I got to thinking — why didn't anybody tell me? And I think the answer is, people just weren't looking. Not really looking. They saw me, sure. They glanced at me. But they didn't LOOK at me — like really look, close enough to notice something was off. And you know what, that happens with more than just shoes. That happens with people. We see people every single day — at school, in the hallway, at lunch, on the bus — and we glance at 'em, but we don't really look. We don't really SEE them. We don't stop long enough to notice what's going on with them, or who they really are, or how much they matter. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk about really SEEING people — and not just seeing them, but honoring them. And to do that, we're gonna look at a verse — just one verse, but it's a big one — and I want us to look at it together. It's in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 17, and here's what it says, this is the ESV translation: "Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." Four short little commands, right? Boom, boom, boom, boom. But packed into those four commands is basically the whole Christian life when it comes to how we treat people. And I want us to break it down into three parts today — honoring everyone, honoring the family of believers, and honoring God Himself, which, believe it or not, connects to all of it. But before we do that, I want to teach you a word. Now, I do this because I think it's good for you to know that your Bible wasn't written in English. Did you know that? The New Testament, the part of the Bible this verse is from, was written in a language called Greek. And the word that gets translated "honor" in our English Bibles is the Greek word timaō (tee-mah-oh). And timaō means to honor, to value, to place a high price on something — like, to treat something as PRECIOUS. Think about it like this — if I handed you a rock I picked up outside, you might just chuck it back on the ground. Not worth much to you. But if I handed you a brand new iPhone, still in the box, you'd hold onto that thing with both hands, right? You'd treat it different. That's what timaō means. It means treating something — or someone — like they're valuable. Like they're a brand new iPhone, and not just a rock you can toss aside. And Peter's saying — everybody you meet, everybody, treat 'em like they're a brand new iPhone. Not a rock. A brand new iPhone. So that's our word for today — timaō. Say it with me — timaō. Good. Now let's dig into what that looks like, in three parts.

Point One: Honor Everyone — Look Twice

So the first thing Peter says is "honor everyone." Not honor SOME people. Not honor the people who are nice to you, or the people on your team, or the people who share your snacks at lunch. Everyone. Every single person you come across. Now I want you to picture two things with me. The first thing is a mirror. You know what a mirror does — you look in it, and you see yourself, right? Simple. Easy. It doesn't take any work at all to look in a mirror and see you. It's automatic. It's fast. You glance, and there you are. But here's the second thing I want you to picture — a magnifying glass. Now a magnifying glass is different than a mirror. A magnifying glass takes something small, something you might miss if you just glanced at it, and it makes it BIGGER. It makes you slow down and look closer. You don't just glance through a magnifying glass — you have to hold it up, and look, and really focus in. And here's what I think happens with people. When we look at ourselves, it's like a mirror — quick, easy, automatic. We know all about ourselves. We know what we like, what we're good at, what we're going through. But when we look at OTHER people, we tend to just glance — like a quick look in a hallway, like people looked at my shoes that day and never noticed a thing. We don't slow down. We don't hold up the magnifying glass. We just glance and move on. And Peter's saying, don't do that. Honor everyone means — stop glancing, and start really looking. Like a magnifying glass. Slow down long enough to actually SEE the person in front of you. Not just what they look like on the outside, but who they are — what they're going through, what they're good at, what they need. Because here's the thing — everybody you meet, EVERYBODY, was made by God, on purpose, with value. Brand new iPhone value. Timaō value. Not rock value. So here's your application, and this is simple, but it matters — this week, when you're at school, or at home, or wherever, I want you to practice being a magnifying glass instead of a mirror. When you see somebody — and I mean somebody who's easy to overlook, somebody sitting alone, somebody who's usually quiet — I want you to look twice. Not just glance and move on. Look twice. And when you look twice, you start to notice things. You start to notice, "Hey, that person could probably use a friend." Or, "Hey, that person's having a rough day." And that's when honor starts to happen — because you can't honor somebody you never really looked at in the first place.

Point Two: Honor the Brotherhood — Family Looks Out For Family

Okay, second part of our verse — "love the brotherhood." Now that word "brotherhood" just means the family of believers — everybody who follows Jesus. It's like Peter's saying, hey, if honoring everyone is the wide circle, loving the brotherhood is the close circle — your church family, your Christian friends, the people who are IN this with you. And I like to think about this one in terms of something really simple — lunchtime. Now, how many of you have ever seen somebody sitting by themselves at lunch? Maybe they just moved to a new school, or maybe they're just having a rough week, or maybe, I don't know, maybe they just don't have anybody at their table that day. Now here's a question — is it hard, or is it easy, to invite that person to sit with you? I'll be honest with you — it's not really hard. It doesn't take a whole lot. It takes about ten steps and one sentence — "Hey, you want to sit with us?" That's it. That's the whole thing. But here's what's amazing — that one little sentence, that one little action, that's timaō in action. That's honor. That's saying, without even using the word, "You matter. You're valuable. You're not a rock — you're a brand new iPhone, and I want you at my table." And when Peter says "love the brotherhood," I think part of what he's getting at is this — the family of God ought to be the EASIEST place in the world to find honor. It ought to be the place where nobody sits alone, where nobody gets overlooked, where everybody's looked at with a magnifying glass instead of a mirror. So here's your application for this one — think of your church family, your Christian friends, the people you sit with at chapel or in Sunday school. Is there somebody in that circle who could use a little extra honor this week? Maybe a text, maybe an invite, maybe just sitting next to somebody who usually sits alone. That's loving the brotherhood. That's family taking care of family.

Point Three: Honor God — The Reason Behind It All

Alright, last part — and this is the part that ties the whole thing together — "fear God." Now don't get scared off by that word "fear" — it doesn't mean be terrified of God, like He's out to get you. It means something more like — hold God in such high respect, such high honor, that it changes how you live. Timaō, remember? Placing the highest value on something. And God gets the HIGHEST value of all. But here's the connection I want you to see — why does Peter put "honor everyone" right next to "fear God"? I don't think that's an accident. I think it's because of something we read all the way back in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, which says: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Every single person you will EVER meet — every classmate, every teacher, every kid who annoys you, every kid who's different than you — every single one of them was made in the image of God. That means when you honor a person, you're actually honoring God, because that person carries His image. And when you dishonor a person — when you glance and walk away, when you tease somebody, when you leave somebody out — you're not just being unkind to them. You're disrespecting the image of God stamped right on them. That's a big thought, isn't it? But I think it's true, and I think it's important. And that same honor, Peter says, extends to the people God puts in charge over us too — parents, teachers, coaches, principals. Same word — timaō. Same idea — treating them with value and respect, not because they're perfect, but because God placed them there, and honoring them is really another way of honoring Him. So here's the application for point three — this week, when you honor your teacher, when you honor your parents, when you say "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" and you mean it — remember, you're not just being polite. You're worshiping God with your actions. You're saying, "God, I see You in this person, and I honor You by honoring them."

Conclusion: Look Twice, Honor Once

So let's bring it all together. Remember my shoes? All day long, on the wrong feet, and nobody looked close enough to notice. Well, I don't want that to be true of us when it comes to people. I don't want us walking through life just glancing at each other, missing what's really there. Remember the mirror and the magnifying glass. The mirror's easy — that's just looking at ourselves. But the magnifying glass takes work — that's really looking at somebody else, close enough to see them the way God sees them. Valuable. Precious. Timaō. A brand new iPhone, not a rock. And remember our three parts — honor everyone, even the people it's easy to overlook. Love the brotherhood, take care of your church family like family really does. And fear God, because every person you honor carries His image, and honoring them is honoring Him. So here's what I want to leave you with — a phrase, simple enough to remember, I hope you'll carry with you this week: Look twice, honor once. Don't just glance at people. Look twice. And when you do, you'll see somebody worth honoring — every single time. Let's pray together. Lord, thank You for making every single person in this room, and every person we're gonna see this week, in Your image. Help us to slow down. Help us to really look — not just glance, but look twice — so that we can see people the way You see them. Help us to honor everyone, to love our church family well, and to honor You in everything we do. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright — go ahead and get with your small groups, and let's talk about looking twice.EditHistoryRecord