Honoring God

There is a story that always stirs my heart's friends in relation to honoring God a Very wealthy man had an only son whom he loved dearly The son also loved and honored his father But one day to his father's inconsolable grief the boy died The devastated father never forgot his son and eventually the old man himself passed away When the lawyers came to settle the estate no trace could be found of the old man's will They searched unsuccessfully for some time until finally the authorities Ordered that the property should be sold and the estate settled according to law At the estate auction One of the articles put up for sale was a portrait of the son who had died The picture had little or no value to most of the people present But among the bidders was an old woman who had nursed the wealthy man's son when he was a child She bought the picture for a very small amount and she cherished this reminder of the little boy She had loved and cared for years before one day while cleaning and repairing the Picture frame the old lady discovered a document on the back of the picture Which turned out to be the old man's will? He had left all of his property to anybody who thought enough of his son to Want his portrait the old lady became rich overnight Well that story always stirs me friends and our text today speaks of ways we can honor God with our lives We will be in Proverbs chapter 3 and in verses 5 through 10 You may turn in your Bibles there now friends and may God attend the reading of his holy word But trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Be not wise in thine own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be held to the navel and Merrill to the bones Honor the Lord with that substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase So shall that barns be filled with plenty and that presses shall burst out with new wine I will stop there friends In our passage today. We see ways in which we can honor God in our lives You see friends when you preach a God-centered gospel then your hearers will want to live their lives to the glory of God But if we preach the man-centered gospel, so prevalent in our day Then your congregation will want to live unto themselves and please themselves This passage from Proverbs is for the God-centered crowd that follows Jesus along the narrow way There are four ways spoken here in our text of how we can honor the Lord with our lives number one By honoring him with our whole heart in the seat of our affections number two By honoring him with our whole allegiance in our daily actions number three by honoring him with our whole obedience in a life of consecration and Number four by honoring him with our whole tithe with our finances You see friends God wants all our heart Too many fail here and try to serve God with a divided heart and I can tell you I've tried it And I can assure you friends a half-hearted worship of God will only result in a half-baked Religion that has no witness to the world and no power from on high like that rich man Who left his entire estate to the one who would honor his son? so to God will open heaven's blessings and Resources to the person who honors the son with his life as it is lived unto God for his great glory Let us pray