SERMON NOTES

Unmuted Appreciation: Honouring Those Who Lead You

There is a difference between acknowledging someone and actually honouring them. Acknowledgement is polite. Honour is intentional. And when it comes to the people God has placed in spiritual authority over our lives, Scripture doesn’t leave the standard ambiguous.

1 Timothy 5:17 says: “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” Double honour. Not occasional appreciation, not a once-a-year gesture, but a consistent, wholehearted recognition of the grace and calling that a person carries.

The word appreciation itself carries weight. At its core, it means to place value on something — to recognise what something is worth and respond accordingly. When we appreciate our pastors, we are not simply being polite. We are making a declaration about what we believe God has placed in their hands, and what we believe that means for our own lives.

Appreciation Is a Lifestyle, Not an Event

It is easy for appreciation to become something we practise once a year and set aside for the rest of it. But the kind of honour Scripture calls us to is woven into everyday life — in the words we speak, the posture we carry, the way we engage with those who lead us.

Colossians 4:6 tells us: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.” The atmosphere we create with our words matters more than we often realise. When we speak life over our pastors — that sermon spoke directly to me, I’m grateful for your leadership, what you said last week stayed with me all week — we are doing something spiritually significant. We are creating an environment where those who give themselves to prayer, preparation, and preaching can do so with their whole heart, knowing that their work is not invisible.

Appreciation expressed consistently — not only on special Sundays — oils the ministry. It builds cohesion. It tells the people who pour themselves out week after week that what they carry matters and that the people receiving it recognise the gift.

The Widow Who Gave First

One of the most striking pictures of this principle appears in 1 Kings 17, in the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. There was a drought. Famine had set in. The widow had one small portion of flour and oil left — enough for one final meal for herself and her son, and then, she assumed, they would die.

Elijah’s request seems almost unreasonable at first glance: “Make a little bread for me first. Then make something for yourself and your son.” Give what you have to the man of God before you provide for your own need.

She did it. And the jar of flour did not run out, and the jug of oil did not run dry — not for a day, but for the entire duration of the drought.

The principle at work here is not about manipulation or pressure. It is about faith expressed through action. The widow’s willingness to honour the prophet before taking care of her own need was a declaration of trust — that God would make good on His word through the vessel He had sent. And He did.

There is something that gets released in our lives when we stop treating the honouring of spiritual leadership as an afterthought and start treating it as an act of faith. What we sow, we reap. What we honour, we draw near to. What we place value on, we position ourselves to receive from.

Honour Them While They Are Present

One of the most practical exhortations in all of this is also the simplest: honour people while they are still here to receive it. It is a peculiarly human habit to save our most generous words for funerals — to eulogise people with warmth and detail that was never expressed while they were alive to hear it.

Galatians 6:10 says: “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” The opportunity is now. The people in your life who have poured into you — your pastors, your spiritual mentors, the leaders who believed in you and prayed for you — they deserve to know what their investment has meant while they can still receive it.

Tell them. Write the message. Say the words. Express the gratitude in tangible ways. Don’t wait.

What Appreciation Releases

Here is what shifts when a church becomes genuinely appreciative — not just in words, but in culture. The pastor who feels genuinely valued leads with greater freedom. The congregation that honours its leaders creates an atmosphere where the Word lands more deeply. There is a spiritual dynamic at work: when we receive someone’s gift with open hands, we position ourselves to receive more of what they carry.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 captures it well: “Respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.”

Unmuted appreciation is not flattery. It is not manufactured enthusiasm. It is an honest, wholehearted recognition of what God has placed in the people who lead us — expressed openly, consistently, and generously.

In a season where this church is learning to unmute — to let what is on the inside find full expression — let appreciation be one of the sounds that fills the room. Not just on the days set aside for it, but as a way of living that honours God by honouring the gifts He has given us.