======================================================================== ARE YOU GIVING GOD THE GLORY by James Jennings ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of giving God the glory and honor He deserves, showcasing the consequences of failing to do so through the example of King Herod in Acts 12. It highlights the need to act swiftly in glorifying God, even in the face of praise from others, and the contrast between those who exalt themselves and those who exalt the Lord. The message underscores the power and sovereignty of God in judgment and the eternal significance of honoring Him. Duration: 51:59 Scripture References: Acts 12:23, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, Psalms 35:18, Psalms 40:9, Romans 1:21, Revelation 16:9, Luke 17:18, Malachi 2:2, 2 Corinthians 5:15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of giving God the glory and honor He deserves, showcasing the consequences of failing to do so through the example of King Herod in Acts 12. It highlights the need to act swiftly in glorifying God, even in the face of praise from others, and the contrast between those who exalt themselves and those who exalt the Lord. The message underscores the power and sovereignty of God in judgment and the eternal significance of honoring Him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Father, we thank You for Your mercies this morning. Lord, we could be laid out, very sick on a bed, and yet here we are with not only a mind that works, but many of us are in our right mind spiritually. We're living in the realm of the Spirit. Our minds are not set on the flesh. And Lord, we're grateful. The only reason that is a reality is because of Your loving kindness and mercy that is from everlasting to everlasting. And we thank You, Lord, we thank You that You are our God. And Lord, we pray for Evan and Zach as they are headed towards that airport in Houston to fly out to the Middle East. Lord, we ask that You go with them, be with them now in that car ride. And Lord, I pray You would help me to bring You glory and honor and praise. And what I share to these saints here this morning, Lord, I ask for Your help. In Jesus' precious, redeeming name, Amen. So, this morning, I want to speak to you on God wanting us to be big givers. Now hear me out for a moment. Big givers. I want to look at a passage where one man did not give. In a moment when he should have, and an angel of the Lord struck him so that he died. This man was a king, and he had an opportunity to give. And he did not. It's a terrifying passage that reminds us to give. To not miss an opportunity to give. So turn to Acts 12. Acts 12. And we'll read verse 23. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. So I'm not speaking on God wants you to be big givers in a financial sense. And maybe some of you in those first few sentences, that's what came to your mind. Because that's often what comes to our mind when we think about giving. We think of money. And the Bible talks about that throughout all of Scripture. But here we find a man who did not give God the glory that was due to Him. And God killed this man. God killed him. And you know one thing this shows us? There's something that you can give. There's something that you can use these lips to do that honors the Lord, whether you have any money to your name or not. Here Herod is. He's got a throne. He's got this rich apparel on. And he couldn't honor and give and please the Lord. But you, even in your poverty, even in having absolutely nothing, even having nowhere to lay your head, you can use these lips to honor and praise God Almighty. And this is something we can do on a daily basis. That is give God the glory. That's render due to God the majesty and the greatness that is already true of Him. God is glorious whether you say it or not, but the Lord wants us to be praising Him for who He is and what He has done. The Lord wants us to acknowledge Him in all things. Another way you could think of it is this. The Lord wants us to be promoting Him. To be speaking of Him and promoting Him. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, Herod, he wanted to proclaim himself. He was very happy to take in some praise here. And let's read this account starting in verse 20. And one thing to think about in the context of verse 28 and chapter 11, there was a great famine all over the world. And in verse 12, Herod laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John with the sword. And then Herod, being a people pleaser, verse 3 of chapter 12, when he saw that it pleased the Jews, this man who wanted honor from men and not from God, proceeded to arrest Peter also. He wanted to please these people. Now, Peter then miraculously escapes, as we even looked at two weeks ago, of Rhoda, who the disciples said she was out of her mind. They did not believe that Peter really escaped initially. And then we get to verse 20. Now, Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. And they came to him during this time of a great famine with one accord and having persuaded Blastas, the king's chamberlain. They asked for peace. Why would they want peace? Because their country depended on the king's country for food. So these people, they want food? On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes. He took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man. That doesn't mean they were saying that you don't have the voice of God, you are but a man. No, they were actually saying he had the voice of a God and not that of a man. And then we have verse 23. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down. Reason? He did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms. And that led to his death. He breathed his last. And then there's an incredible contrast in verse 24. But the word of God increased and multiplied. And so we're going to see from this that the Lord is always going to win. Even in the midst of James being killed and Peter being arrested, you read through this chapter and it might look like there's some sort of defeat happening, but in the end, God always wins. He always works us together for good. He always gets the maximum amount of glory. You know, there are some who will give millions of dollars to charity. Millions. Yet they won't give one sentence to glorify God. Not one sentence will leave their mouth in 20 years to glorify the One who made them and gave them breath. They'll give millions of dollars. Then you think another way, some speak millions of words, but not one phrase is used to utter thanks to Him who formed them in their mother's womb and gives them air in their lungs this morning. And Herod is just one example of this throughout the history of humanity. So, which Herod was this? I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but it's very easy to read your Bible. You see the word Herod. You see Herod pop up multiple times. There are multiple Herods. Herod the Great had all the babies murdered when Jesus was born. Herod Antipas had John the Baptist murdered and was the one who treated Jesus with contempt and mocked him. And this is Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great. Now let's think here about the seriousness of this offense of not giving God the glory. How serious is this or is this not? Did God kill Herod after He killed James? No, right? Herod killed a Christian, had his head cut off, and did the Lord kill Herod for killing James? No, that did not happen. Did God kill Herod after Herod imprisoned Peter? No. The church prayed. Peter was released. That brought glory to the Lord. Did God kill Herod after Herod killed the guards who Peter escaped from? If you look at 1219, it says, "...and after Herod searched for him, Peter, he did not find him. He examined the centuries and ordered that they should be put to death." So they received the same death that Peter was going to receive. So this ruler's doing a lot of killing. Killing James, wanting to cut Peter's head off, killing the guards whom by Peter escaped. And he's living. He's not dying for these infractions. So a ruler wrongly murders a Christian, unlawfully imprisons another Christian, and like an oppressive government, he kills the guards who were on duty when Peter escaped, and he does not die for this. What topped the list? All of those things, you might think they're serious or not serious, but what topped the list that cost this man his life? He did not give God the glory. He did not give God the honor. How big of a thing is that? Think about Romans 1. What does it say led to these people who were given over to homosexuality? It says they did not give thanks, nor did they honor God. And what did God do? God gave them over to a debased mind to do what not ought to be done. What was their crime? They didn't give thanks. It really gives a new meaning when it says give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God. Herod not responding to refute idolatrous praise that the people gave him when no doubt their motive was flattery. They just wanted the food. And yet, no matter their motive, Herod's silence cost him his life. Here was a man. They called him a god for the provision of food, and he didn't point those people to Tyre and Sidon to the Lord and give God the honor. God had an angel of the Lord, a supernatural being, just like had delivered Peter, this angel struck Herod. So you could say this, in other words, Herod died for what reason? God struck Herod for being silent. That's one way to look at it. He was silent. It does not matter what Herod might have been thinking in his heart. If in his heart, which I highly doubt it, but if in his heart he was thinking, well, what they're saying is not true. I mean, I'm not a god. I don't believe I'm a god, but I like what they're saying. He was silent. He should have spoken up. No response to being called a god is a response. It's agreeing with it. God wants an outward display of us honoring Him, and God wants an outward display in this case of a lost man honoring the Lord and using His mouth to point these people to the Lord and show them that the Lord is the One who's provided this food for you. So God strikes this man down because he has given credit for something that was entirely a lie, and he did nothing about it. He did not refute their declaration that he was a god. You can think about it in this way. This was the ultimate copyright infringement. The ultimate. You're getting praise as if you're deity, as if you're God, for this food that's been provided, this peace that's been given to these people from Tyre and Sidon, and you see that credit pop up that points towards you, and he did nothing. He said nothing. He sat there and received their flattery. And God killed the man. We're responsible to speak up and refute false praise. But remember Herod, what did we see earlier in the chapter? Why did he even arrest Peter? Verse 3, "...when he saw that it pleased the Jews." You see, Herod was a people pleaser. He just pleased these people by giving them the permit, we'll have peace, and here you guys are going to get some food, and he gives this speech in his nice high throne where all can see him and hear him. We're going to give food. They start praising him. The people are pleased with Herod. Was Herod thinking about being pleasing towards God at that moment? No. Herod was just wanting man's approval. And in the end, man's approval is absolutely worthless. If you are not approved by God, you will have an eternity of eternities to regret living for the approval of man. So, Proverbs 29, verse 5, "...a man who flatters his neighbor..." What's that man do? "...spreads a net for his feet." Someone says flattery speech to you, it's like they're laying out a net that you can step in and trip. And these people laid a net for Herod. He could have had more time. If they wouldn't have said he was a god and he sat there and was silent, he maybe would have lived another day. Maybe would have had an opportunity to hear the truth. But here in this passage, we see the lost just self-destruct and destroy themselves. These lost people just wanting their food, not seeking for it from God, calling this king a god. The king dies by being tempted by their flattery. But then you think this, who ultimately put the king in this situation? God did by bringing about a famine on the land. This famine was there at the hand of God. And Herod got put up and set up in this situation right at this time when he's upping the ante on killing Christians. And the Lord is able to take a proud ruler and in one chapter just bring that man down and not humble him to the point of humility in this life, but humble him to the point of death. God is powerful. We should give glory to God. You know, it's interesting, the people who called the man a god did not die for that. The issue was the one who received this blasphemous title that was given to him and said nothing about it. He died. Not the people who called him a god. The man who received it and did nothing about it. He died. There's one true God. And He wants all your worship, all of your praise, all of your glory. He wants you pointing to Him. He wants you directing people to Him. He wants you doing that daily. That when they think about you, they think about a person who is not one who just sits there and soaks in all this praise even when it is another's lips and not their own. But they're thinking of someone who's constantly pointing to the Lord as the All-Sufficient One who gives them the strength to do anything at all. Think about Revelation 16.9. It says, "...they were scorched by the fierce heat. They cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give Him the glory." They didn't give Him the honor. They were like those in Romans 1. Hardening their hearts. Isaiah 42.8, "'I am the Lord. That is My name. My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.'" Think about the ten lepers in Luke 17. These ten were healed. And Jesus says, "'Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' One man came back and praised the Lord for healing him of the leprosy. The other nine, they did not give glory to God." Psalm 115.1, "'Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness.'" Think about Daniel Belshazzar in Daniel 5.23, "'But the God in whose hand is Yours' breath and whose all Your ways You have not honored.'" You talk about a proud man. Nebuchadnezzar was a very proud man. And he did not honor God. And it says, "'Whose all Your ways.'" You see, God has all of our ways in His sovereign control. All of it. And if we don't believe that, that's what's going to lead us to try to think that we can take some glory. If we have too high a view of man. Malachi 2.2, "'If the priest do not listen, if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,' says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings, and indeed, I have cursed them already.' Because you're not taking it to heart. These religious leaders just didn't take it to heart. They might have known it intellectually in the head, but they didn't take it to heart that they needed to give honor to the Lord. We should ask ourselves, what opportunities do I miss to give honor to the Lord because I am afraid? Or because in some way I'm self-deceived to think that some of what was said to me is really because of me and that I can soak that in. This passage, it shows us that God's the One who can kill you. Right? I mean, the Lord is the Author of life and death. In the day that we die, God was intricately involved in that happening. It's a very sobering reminder. We are but dust. We are but dust. Now, did the Lord use an angel? Yes, verse 23, immediately, an angel of the Lord struck Him down. Now let's think about this for a moment. Verse 23, how Herod died. I want to think about this because I think it can be perceived wrongly what happened. As a new Christian, when I first read verse 23, I thought the text was saying this. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck Him down and in my mind I thought, He's laying there dead on the ground. And, He was eaten by worms. So then I pictured thousands of worms coming out of His body and eating His flesh. And if you Google that, there's pictures of people. They've drawn this account like that. Because it could sound like that's what the author is saying happened. And I think the reason that really appeals to us is because that's pretty dramatic. And God has killed many a people in a pretty dramatic way. It's very, very evident that God struck them dead. But, we want to be faithful to what's happening here. We want to have a right visualization in our mind here. Notice the text. The angel of the Lord struck Him and He was eaten by worms and breathed His last. So what led Him to breathe His last? Was it the being struck down? No, it was the being eaten by worms and breathed His last. That's why the Holman Christian Standard Version renders it, He became infected with worms and died. Or the literal, if you go read this in the literal Greek, it's rendered in this way. And having been eaten of worms, He expired. And so the idea here is the angel struck Him. And that which He was struck with was these worms that ate away His flesh internally. There was a bodily infection that happened and came upon Herod. Look, as much as I wish that the text was clearly saying that Herod just dropped dead on the spot, my present understanding is that's not what Luke is recording happened here. An angel struck Him because He didn't give God the glory and He was eaten by worms and He breathed His last. There's nothing necessarily here that I believe would make us believe He instantly died on the spot or that He instantly died on that same day. Now, I realize by me saying this, in a way, I wish that wasn't something that I necessarily had to say because it feels like it takes away some of the dramatic nature of it. But this idea of eaten by worms, historians say that their tongues would swell up and worms would actually come out of their tongues and went into their nose while they were still alive. And so that's why if you Google this account, you'll find a lot of it pictures Him on a bed and there's worms all over Him eating His flesh even while He is still alive. This is a very cruel way to die. You know, in some way, if He dropped dead right there on the spot and then went to hell, that could have appeared to be more merciful. But this man, he suffered, it appears. And then it led to Him breathing His last. How would people have known what had happened was the Lord's doing? How would you have known what had happened was the Lord's? I mean, Luke records that. Luke says immediately an angel of the Lord struck Him down. How did Luke know that? How did Luke know an angel of the Lord struck Him down? Did the Spirit carry Him and give Him that thought? Was it something He saw? What happened? How did Luke, the one who wrote Acts, know an angel of the Lord struck Herod? And here's something I had to ask as I was wrestling with this. Do we automatically assume that the angel in v. 23 was invisible and nothing that anyone could see? Do we automatically just assume that as we look at this passage? Think about the very context, what happened prior. Look at v. 7. This is Peter's rescue. The same idea that there's an angel administering Spirit. V. 7, And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to Him and a light shone in the cell, and He struck Peter on the side and woke him. So there's clearly a physical manifestation, a physical presence there. And then v. 10, And immediately the angel left Him. At the end of v. 10. So when you look at the very idea of the angel of the Lord, earlier in chapter 12, it was something physical that could be seen. And if you remember the point I made about Rhoda, when she said Peter was knocking at the door, what did the disciples automatically assume? They said, it's Peter's angel. As if to the disciples, a physical manifestation of an angel at the door was not out of the ordinary. As much as that's out of the ordinary for me, those disciples concluded that physical manifestation or physical being, maybe manifestation is the wrong word, that's at the door was Peter's angel. In Acts 6, it says when Stephen died, they said his face was like the face of an angel. How would they know what the face of an angel looked like? Hebrews 13 hits that in another way. "...Do not neglect showing the hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." We hear they had someone there, an angel, and they didn't even know who this person was. Or you think of Cornelius in Acts 11. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, send a joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter. So why in my own mind might I have automatically assumed that the angel of the Lord striking Herod was something that happened entirely in the invisible realm? Maybe that isn't the best assumption to instantly have. Because when you look at Acts, constantly, the angel of the Lord was something visible that Cornelius saw, that Peter saw. At least, believers saw this. Now, I'm not trying to say that's what happened here. I'm just trying to say that's something I had to wrestle with as I thought about this. And I'm not trying to wrestle with this to try to in some way make it more dramatic as if God needs it more dramatic to get a point across. You know, if you look at these earlier Jewish writers, I don't know how to pronounce his name, but Ubesis, he says it like this. He says it's recorded that King Herod looked up and he saw an angel sitting over his head whom he immediately understood to be the cause of evil things to him as he had formerly been of good. The reason of the angel smiting him was because he gave not glory to God. Or as the Jewish historian says, because he reproved not the flatterers nor rejected their flattery. Could Herod have been laying on a bed being eaten by worms and said something about something he saw and that led to what is recorded here? I don't know. But the main point is Herod died. However that happened, Herod died and Luke tells us God's the one who killed him and the bigger thing for us to be concerned with which I'm not trying to sidetrack the point of the message, Herod died because he did not give God the glory. He did not give God the honor. Such a small creature. Worms. Took out a man who people said was God. You know, the Bible even calls men at times worms. Calls men worms. And here a man that men call a God was taken out by worms. That's pretty humiliating. Think about this. God's striking people dead. You have many different ways it happens. God killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Spirit in Acts 5. And they clearly dropped dead on the spot because their bodies were yanked out and buried. Think about the 70,000 who died because David took the census. The angel who was working destruction among the people, it says in 2 Samuel 24. You think about Nabal. The Lord struck Nabal. It says his heart stopped and ten days later, he died. In 2 Samuel 6, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the ark of God. 2 Chronicles 13, 20, Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah. And the Lord struck him down and he died. 2 Chronicles 21, and after all of this, the Lord struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor like the fires made for his fathers. Uzziah, in 2 Chronicles 26, and Azariah and the chief priest and all the priests looked at him and behold, he was leprous in his forehead. This is after they rebuked him for going to offer incense. And they rushed him out quickly. And he himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him. The Lord, whether the Lord uses an angel, whether the Lord Himself does the striking, our God in one moment can strike. You think about when there's war going on, and people are scared of Tomahawk missiles striking from a drone. And you get it. I understand why countries would be fearful of that. But the thing that men need to fear is they need to fear God. God can strike at any moment. And here He strikes a king dead. At least, makes him sick that he dies whether the same day, the same hour, days later, because the king did not give God the honor. He did not point and silence the flatterers and say that is not true. I am no God. I am but a man. A few more of these. 2 Kings 19, Then it happened that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. 2 Chronicles 32, the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every mighty warrior, commander and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his God, some of his own children killed him there with the sword. Many of those I just referred to were very religious people who God killed. And I said, Zephira, obviously Uzzah was. We ought to tremble at all of this. This is the God of the Bible. The God of Acts. It's the same God of the Old Testament. And you know one thing I thought about that's amazing that should all the more make us give God the honor? God sends His Son. And what was one of the things that the Lord Jesus faced? He had men come and strike Him on the face. You read all these verses. God struck them down. God struck them down. God killing them. And here God the Son comes in His very creation. They take their hands and they strike the Lord Jesus on the face and they don't drop dead. That's incredible. They spit in His face and struck Him. And some slapped Him. Matthew 26. Matthew 27. They spit on Him. They took a reed. And they struck Him on the head. And God doesn't strike them dead, but instead, God on the cross strikes His own Son with His wrath to die in our place. That is incredible. They mocked Him. He saved others. He cannot save Himself. Let Him come down from the cross. And no, we'll believe in Him. He still didn't strike them dead, but was merciful. Think about Matthew 27. It says, "...the centurion and those who were with him, they kept watch over Jesus and they saw the earthquake and what took place. They were filled with awe and they said, truly, this was the Son of God." And then the thief on the cross, he clearly got converted. I mean, you think of that. The character and composure of the Lord Jesus Christ. His perfect response to His enemies. And how the Lord used that for the enemies to see this is truly the Son of God. So we ought to glorify God for not striking us dead when we did not honor Him. I mean, you think of the things you did behind closed doors, on your computer, wherever. The things you did. And some of you, like Paul, were blasphemers. Cursing God. And He didn't strike you dead. Think of all of the glory you took for yourself. Just all this praise. Life was lived seeking the praise of man. And you were eating it up, eating it up. And God didn't kill you. Instead, He actually slaughters His own Son to make a way for you to be saved. And as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, we no longer live for ourselves, but now we live for Him who for our sake died and was raised again. That's what the Christians were living for. The Lord. We want Him to be glorified. We want Him to get honor because He truly is the Son of God. Now think about this. We not only see that God's judgments can be swift, verse 23, immediately. Menherit had to act. He didn't say anything. He soaked in that praise and an angel of the Lord struck him. Not only do we see that he needed to act immediately, but God wants us to act swiftly. Not a week later, God wants you bold. Right here, right now, when you're facing that conversation with that co-worker, whatever individual situation, God wants you to act and give Him the glory for great things that He has done. And think about the apostles. These acts. Turn to Acts 14. Yeah, turn to Acts 14. You know, Herod died in Acts 12. These things right here are happening in order. Think of Acts 14. You can imagine this was on their minds. Maybe. Maybe that's a wrong assumption, but maybe it was. I'm assuming they heard about it. Who wouldn't have heard about it? Verse 8, there's a man sitting. Let's start... well, verse 10, Stand up aright on your feet, and he sprang up, began walking. Verse 11, when the crowd saw that Paul had done, they lifted their voices saying in Lyconian, The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostle Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments." This is the opposite of Herod. They tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of like nature with you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God Who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations, He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without witness. For He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasonings, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. They're giving God the glory for food right there. Verse 18, even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them. That's the insanity of the lost man's darkened heart. They responded in that way and gave God all that glory and pointed to the Lord in such a strong way. And that scarcely had an effect from these people wanting to believe that they're deity. It really gives meaning to the fact that Paul says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. These people are dead. They can't see. They can't comprehend. Even in such a strong rebuke. He gives history. I mean, verse 16, it's like He's got an opportunity. He's going to say all He can. He's not being silent like Herod two chapters earlier. In past generations. It goes on to the past. He talks about the rain, the food. He gives God all the glory, all the honor, and that scarcely restrained the people. Incredible. Incredible. And then obviously verse 19, having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing he was dead. What a turn of events there. You take a stand for Christ, you might end up getting stoned. You can go the route of letting them proclaim you're famous and all of these things and just soaking in the flattery and the world loves you. Or you can say the hard facts, the truth, and they end up stoning you and dragging you out of the city to die. Paul was not seeking to be pleasing to man right here. He was seeking to be pleasing to the One who bought him with a price and He wanted to glorify God in His body. In Acts 10, Cornelius fell down to worship Peter and Peter said, stand up, I too am a man. And Luke in Acts records them being on the island of Malta and after being bitten by a snake, nothing happening to Paul. Luke then records they were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead, but when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. Now if you read that, you might be disappointed. It doesn't record Paul saying anything, but this is Luke writing about what they said. Paul who then goes on to face Nero. You know Paul wasn't sitting there soaking it up. Them calling him a god. So don't let that bother you that Luke doesn't record however Paul responded there. He didn't remain on that island of Malta and become their leader and ruler. He went on to be a martyr for Christ. So look, these people, often these situations, people are proclaiming them to be a god. Look, I don't know how often we're going to face that as Christians. I don't think the guys who've been downtown have had people come up to you all proclaiming that you are some sort of deity. Would that be correct? In fact, that's not going to happen probably. It will not happen in our day, most likely. But what does happen, what's more practical for us as Christians, is there are other ways in which people will say things to us and we're given a prime opportunity to point them to the Lord. I mean, you think about sports athletes. I mean, sports athletes have that all, the newscast people are ready to lavish all this praise on that athlete. Look at all you've done and all the work you've done and all this effort you've done and you, you, you, you. And thank God there are some athletes who are sick of that and they're going to tear that down and they're going to point to the Lord and give Him the glory. Now you wish they would do that and then go preach the pure and undefiled Gospel of Jesus Christ and not just say some comment about, yes, because of God. It's because of which God? You're talking about Muhammad? You're talking about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? And when you talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, are you talking about our triune God? Or what Lord Jesus Christ are you talking about? Paul gave a lot of specifics there before he got cut off in his interview apparently in chapter 14. So, on smaller scale, there are different things. Even just thanking God for each other. I mean, think about Paul. How often in his letters, I thank my God in all my remembrance of You. He's giving some honor to the Lord. He's recognizing the Lord is the only reason I can even give thanks. I thank God because of You. Paul is constantly thanking and glorifying and pointing to the Lord and His majesty and His worth and who He is and what He is doing, and we ought to be bold to give God the glory and honor. This is not a footnote in our lives that this is from the Lord. No, that's the prime thing. Everything else is secondary. But back in chapter 12, it's amazing when you think about it. The chapter starts with Herod having Christians put to death. Peter in prison. I mean, that is kind of a rough missions update. Right? James has been killed. Peter's in prison. And now we're all praying as a church and then the next update comes and you're stunned. I mean, we open the letter on Wednesday night. We start to read. Peter was supernaturally delivered. He had two guards chained to him and the chains fell off and he got out of the prison and wrote it was out of her mind. And you're reading this. And then you keep reading. And then you find out Herod died. This man who was leading persecution was on his throne. And God struck him via an angel of the Lord. And this man died. And then what does it say in Acts 12 at the very end? And what did all this lead to? Verse 24, the end of their update is this. But you know what happened after all of this? The Word of God increased. It didn't get shut down. And it multiplied. It spread all the more. You think about in 1 Thessalonians, deliver us from evil men and may the Word of God speed ahead and be honored. They saw that happening. So when the persecutors actually tried to tear down the church, the Christians, what were they actually doing? Were they actually tearing down the church? Or by their persecution, were they actually building it up? They were actually building it up. This is a complete reversal of this church's situation. It's incredible. And it shows us that God always wins. That He's on the throne. He's sovereign. We've got to trust Him even when things might look dark and grim. The Lord is actively involved in all of that and He's able to turn things in a moment. He's on the throne. He's sovereign. We need to give Him all the glory and honor and praise that He deserves. Well, are you giving God the glory? Look, if you're not a Christian, if you're an unbeliever, this should put fear in you. You should realize that there is a God in Heaven who could strike you dead today. I'm reminded of Kurt Daniel's sermon on the verse where David said there's but one step between me and life and death. One step. And he had a friend who recorded all the newspaper articles of ways people died for years. And in this sermon, Kurt Daniel goes through reading a list of all of those ways. And even as a Christian, when I heard that sermon, you felt scared in a healthy way that my next step could be it. One guy out on his tractor, mowing it, some bolt fell off a plane, it sped down, hit him in the head, killed him on the spot. Another guy laying in his recliner in his backyard, some random bullet was fired blocks away, went down, hit him in the head, killed him in the spot. One guy, they were out open air preaching, a heckler came up, was cursing them, turned around right as a car was coming, was hit by the car, killed on the spot. That sermon, he goes through example after example of real ways people died. And guess what? Our God was involved in all of that. And we should thank God that God was involved in another death. And again, that death was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that God gave. That you might have life. And the only reason you have life physically is God. What you need is spiritual life. And the only way to have that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way to the Father but through Christ. You want to give Him the honor and the praise. You are but frail. You are but dust. You could be eaten by worms tomorrow and laying on a bed alive with them coming out of your throat like Herod had, eating your flesh. And that is nothing compared to the second death in hell where it says the worm will never die. It will not die. An eternity of eternities of worms gnawing upon you. And that's just to give us an idea of what it's like. Clearly, it's far worse. And words can only depict it in such a way. So, maybe one balancing statement here. Someone might say, are you saying that I've not given God the honor and that's why I'm struck with some sickness? Look, I wouldn't say that that couldn't be a possibility. But again, we do want to remember Job. Job was struck with a lot of stuff. Sickness, calamity, and trial. And it wasn't because Job had sinned. So no, you don't want to be overly analytical there. But is God in the business of humbling the proud? You better believe it. And He's also in the business of exalting the humble. Psalm 35, verse 18, I will thank you in the great congregation. In the mighty throne, I will praise you. Psalm 40, verse 9, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips. As you know, O Lord, I've not hidden Your deliverance within my heart. He used His lips. I've spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I've not concealed Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness from the great congregation. You know, we don't do each other service if we're concealing great and glorious things that God hath done in our life from one another. We give God glory and honor to praise Him for the great things that He has done and what He has brought about. How often we just hide His deliverances in our heart. And I realize there's different situations that you can't necessarily share publicly. There's a lot more that could be said on that. So yeah, we want to remember Herod. He was not a big giver of giving God the glory. And we want to be big givers. It doesn't matter if you have not a penny to your name. You can give God glory and honor and praise and exalt Him for who He is with these lips of yours. And if you can't speak and you're mute, you can use your hands. There is some way that you can point people to Him, the one true God, and not with cheap terms, just God and Jesus, but being specific and articulate about who He is and what He has done like Paul did. And God's going to get glory. And God is getting glory. And He saved us as a people for His own possession that we might be zealous for good works. And one good work you can do is use your lips to praise the Lord and to honor Him. Let's pray. Lord, we do give You the glory. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. Lord, You have done so much great things. Lord, we enjoy reading our Bible to see all the great things You've done. We enjoy reading church history to see all the great and the mighty things that You have done. And Lord, we're sad to read of men like Herod who are in hell right now with the worm upon them that will never die because he sought to please man. He allowed himself to be called a god. Lord, help us to all the more be like the apostles to dramatically, if need be, tell people don't flatter us in that way. To God be the glory. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/-U_ibbRnSFU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/james-jennings/are-you-giving-god-the-glory/ ========================================================================