River Church NOLA
2026 June 28 Showing Respect
  • Beautiful One
  • Love Came Down
  • No Longer Slaves
  • Great Are You Lord
  • Intro
    Let me start with a story.
    Boudreaux and Thibodeaux had been feuding so long that neither one could remember how it started — fifteen years, not a single word between them. Well, one Sunday the preacher got to preaching on loving your enemies, and it took hold of Boudreaux. After the service he walked clear across the churchyard, stuck out his hand, and said, “Thibodeaux, I’m praying you get everything you’ve been wishing for me all these years.” Thibodeaux’s eyes got big, his face turned red, and he hollered, “Now there you go, Boudreaux — starting it up again!”
    We laugh because we recognize it, don’t we? Two grown men so committed to their contempt that a peace offering sounds like a declaration of war. But before we shake our heads at Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, let’s be honest — that’s the air all of us are breathing right now.
    Picture the last conversation you witnessed about anything that mattered — politics, religion, a school board meeting, a decision at work, a post you scrolled past while you were waiting in line somewhere. Now ask yourself one question: how was the other side described?  My guess is that they weren’t just called wrong:  They were called stupid. Evil. Brainwashed. A clown. A snake. Threat to society. Not a person who sees things differently, but an enemy who needs to be defeated, humiliated, or canceled.
    That tone has become the air we breathe in this culture. A few years ago a social scientist named Arthur Brooks gave it a name. He said we are no longer living in a culture of anger, because anger actually wants the relationship to get better. He said we are living in a “culture of contempt” — the settled conviction that the other person is utterly worthless.
    And here is the frightening part: contempt feels good. It feels like strength. It feels like clarity. It gives you a hit of moral superiority every single time.
    Into that culture, the Bible drops one short, stubborn command. Four words. The apostle Peter wrote them to Christians who were a tiny, disrespected minority living under a government that would eventually kill many of them. And he said:
    1 Peter 2:17 NLT
    17 Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.
    Respect everyone. Not respect the people who deserve it. Not respect the people who agree with you. Not respect the people who are nice to you first. Everyone. And he wrote that about a government run by Nero. Nero makes which ever current president you don’t like look like a saint. If anybody ever had an excuse to be contemptuous, it was the first readers of this letter — and the Holy Spirit told them to show respect anyway.
    So this morning I want us to do three things.
    First, I want us to look honestly at the disrespect of our moment — and not just out there, but in here, in us.
    Second, I want to give you four reasons straight out of the Word of God for why His people show respect.
    And third, I want to get very practical about how we do it — in our words, in our relationships, with the people we disagree with, and with the people we’re trying to reach for Christ. Let’s pray and get into it.

    Part One - The Diagnosis: We Live in a Culture that doesn’t trust anyone.

    Let’s start by putting some numbers to what you already feel.  Researchers have been measuring how much Americans trust the major institutions of our lives, and the trend lines are sobering.
    Start with government.
    In 1958, when the Pew Research Center first asked the question, about 73 percent of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do what is right most of the time.
    By the fall of 2025, that number had collapsed to just 17 percent. Roughly three out of four Americans once gave their government the benefit of the doubt; now fewer than one in five do.  
    Confidence in Congress, according to Gallup’s 2025 survey, sits down around 10 percent — which means about nine out of ten Americans have little or no confidence in the body that makes our laws.
    Now bring it closer to home — to the church.
    For most of the twentieth century, the church or organized religion was at or near the top of the trust rankings.   
    As recently as 2019, a slim majority of Americans — about 52 percent — said they had a great deal of confidence in the church.  
    By 2022 that had fallen to 31 percent, a record low.  It recovered a little in 2025, up to around 36 percent, but think about what that means: nearly two out of three of our neighbors look at the institution you and I love and say, “I don’t trust that.”
    The story is the same almost everywhere you look.  In Gallup’s 2025 numbers,
    confidence in big business sits around 15 percent.
    Confidence in the criminal justice system, around 17 percent.
    Even the police, who fared better than most, are down near 45 percent — a long fall from the 64 percent who trusted law enforcement back in 2004.
    Newspapers, television news, banks, the Supreme Court, the presidency — down, down, down, almost across the board.
    Now, I want to be careful and fair here, because I told you we’d be honest.  Some of this distrust is earned.  Institutions have failed people.  
    Governments have lied. Covid…
    Businesses have cheated.
    And yes — churches have wounded the very people they were supposed to protect, and covered it up. The answer to that is not to pretend everything is fine.
    Respect is not the same as blind approval, and the Bible never asks us to bury our heads in the sand. So I’m not saying we are wrong for noticing that institutions have problems.
    But here is what those numbers really reveal. It is not that we have carefully evaluated each institution and found it wanting. It is that

    We have lost the ability to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

    We have defaulted to suspicion. And suspicion of everything eventually turns into contempt for everyone.
    That’s the culture…
    And then there’s Us
    Here is where the sermon has to turn and point back at the preacher and the pew.  Because it would be the easiest thing in the world to stand up here, recite those grim statistics, shake my head at “the culture,” and sit down feeling pretty good about ourselves.  

    The contempt is nogt only “out there” - it’s also in here.

    But the contempt I’ve been describing isn’t only on cable news. It’s in our group texts.  It’s at our Thanksgiving tables. It’s in the way we talk about the family member who voted differently, the neighborwith the sign in their yard, the person in the next pew who rubs us the wrong way.  It’s in the church parking lot.
    And I have to be the first to confess it.  I have rolled my eyes at people made in the image of God.  I have won an argument and lost a person.  I have said cutting things and called it “just being honest.” So when I preach this, I’m preaching to myself first.
    And honestly, sometimes we Christians are the worst offenders, because we’ve learned to baptize our contempt. We dress it up in Bible verses. We tell ourselves we’re “standing for truth” when really we’re just enjoying the feeling of looking down on someone. James saw this in the early church and called it out as bluntly as anything in Scripture:
    James 3:9–10 NLT
    9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!
    Same mouth. Sunday morning it sings “Holy, holy, holy.” Sunday afternoon it shreds a human being Jesus died for. James says this is not right. So before we go one step further, let’s define our terms, because a lot of us resist this message for the wrong reason.
    Respect us NOT agreeing with them,
    To respect someone is not to agree with them. It is not to approve of everything they do. It is not to stay silent when something is wrong.

    Respect is treating a person as someone of real worth — because of who God made them to be — even while you disagree with everything they think.

    You can hold the line on truth and still honor the person standing on the other side of it. In fact, the Bible says you must.
    PART TWO · THE REASONS

    Four Reasons We Should Show Respect

    So why? Why should we swim against this current? When everyone around us is sharpening their contempt, why would we lay ours down? The Bible gives us reasons — not feelings, not vibes, but solid theological ground to stand on. Let me give you four.
    We should show respect …

    1. Because every person is loved by the God and made in His image.

    Listen to one of the most famous sentences in the whole Bible:
    1 John 4:8 NLT
    8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
    God is love. That’s not just one of His moods; it’s His nature. And John’s logic is unavoidable:
    Genesis 1:27 NLT
    27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

    If I claim to know the God who is love, I cannot live in contempt for the people He loves.

    Now connect that to the very first chapter of the Bible, where God says He made human beings “in his own image.”
    Every single person you will ever meet — the cashier, the senator you can’t stand, the President you can’t stand, the relative who drives you crazy, the stranger online — every one of them bears the fingerprints of God and is loved by the God who is love. You cannot despise what God treasures and claim to know His heart. When I show contempt for a person, I am insulting the God whose image they carry.
    We should show respect …

    2. Because respect blesses you, and contempt destroys you.

    Here’s a reason that hits closer to self-interest, and the Solomon is not shy about it in Proverbs:
    Proverbs 11:17 NLT
    17 Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you.
    Look at that closely. Your cruelty will destroy — not the person you’re cruel to — it will destroy you. Contempt is a poison you brew for someone else and end up drinking yourself.
    Have you ever noticed that the angriest, most contemptuous people you know are rarely the happiest? Bitterness is a fire that consumes the house it’s lit in. When you carry contempt for people, it doesn’t hurt them nearly as much as it hardens you. It steals your peace, it sours your relationships, it ages your soul.
    God’s command to show respect is not Him taking something from you. It’s Him protecting you from a slow self-destruction.
    We should show respect …

    3. Because our words carry the power of life and death.

    Disrespect almost always comes out of our mouths first, and Solomon warns us about how much weight our words actually carry.
    Proverbs 15:4 NLT
    4 Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
    A tree of life — something that grows, that gives shade and fruit and shelter for years. Or a crushed spirit.
    Those are the two options on the table every time you open your mouth. You are never neutral.
    With your words you are either planting trees in people or crushing them. Think about who first told you that you mattered, that you could do it, that God had a plan for you — and notice that you can still hear their voice years later.
    Words are seeds. And the question this verse forces on us is simple:

    When people walk away from a conversation with you, do they feel built up or torn down?

    Are you planting trees, or are you crushing spirits?
    We should show respect …

    4. Because we will answer to God for how you treated people.

    And then there’s the reason that should sober every one of us. In Romans 14, Paul is dealing with Christians who were despising and condemning each other over disputable matters — and he stops the argument cold with this:
    Romans 14:12 NLT
    12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.
    Notice the word personal. Not a group account. Not “well, everybody was doing it.” You. Me. Personally.
    And read the verses around it: Paul’s whole point is, “Why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on them?” — because you’re going to stand before God, and so are they.
    One day I will not give an account for whether I won the argument. I will give an account for how I treated the person on the other side of it. That changes things. Imagine standing before the Lord and replaying the comment you typed, the way you talked about that person, the contempt in your heart — not in front of your followers, but in front of Him. We will answer for our respect, or our lack of it. Every one of us. Personally.
    So there are your four reasons:
    people are loved by God and made in His image;
    contempt destroys the one who carries it;
    your words give life or death;
    and you will personally answer to God. That’s the why. Now let’s talk about the how.
    PART THREE · THE RESPONSE

    How We Show Respect?

    It’s one thing to nod along with the theology. It’s another to walk it out on Monday. So let me get specific in four arenas where this gets real.

    1. We show respect in our words.

    Respect lives or dies at the level of speech, so this is where we start. Paul gives the church a filter for everything that comes out of our mouths:
    Ephesians 4:29 NLT
    29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
    Everything you say. And to the Colossians he adds, “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive.” Gracious and truthful are not enemies. Col 4:6
    Colossians 4:6 NLT
    6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.
    So here’s the practical work this week:

    Before you post, pause — ask whether you’d say it to the person’s face, in this room, with Jesus standing beside you.

    Talk about absent people the way you’d talk if they were present. And try this one small discipline:

    Stop saying “those people” and start using actual names.

    It’s a lot harder to be contemptuous toward a name than toward a category.

    2. We show respect in our relationships.

    Respect has to show up where it costs the most — with the people we live with, work with, and worship with. Paul sets the bar like this:
    Romans 12:18 NLT
    18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
    “All that you can.” He’s realistic — it won’t always be possible, because peace takes two. But as far as it depends on you, do everything in your power.
    In your marriage, that means honoring your spouse even mid-disagreement.
    With your kids, it means correcting without crushing.
    At work, it means giving your coworker the dignity of being heard.
    And right here in this church family, it means assuming the best about each other instead of the worst, asking a question before assigning a motive, and keeping short accounts instead of building a case.
    Most relational damage doesn’t come from the disagreement. It comes from the contempt we mix into the disagreement.

    3. We show respect with the people we disagree with.

    This is the hard one, the one our whole culture has decided is impossible. We’ve come to believe that if you respect someone, you must secretly agree with them — and so to prove how much we disagree, we pour on the disrespect. But that is a lie.
    Jesus disagreed with people more sharply than anyone who ever lived, and He never stopped treating them as souls worth dying for. You can hold your convictions with everything in you and still refuse to dehumanize the person who holds the opposite.
    So here’s the practice: learn to state the other person’s view so fairly and so strongly that they would say, “Yes — that’s exactly what I believe.”
    Argue the best version of their position, not the dumbest caricature of it. Separate the issue from the image-bearer — you can go to war on the idea while you guard the dignity of the person.
    When you do that, two things happen:
    you actually become more persuasive,
    and you stay obedient to the God who told you to respect everyone.
    Winning a person is worth more than winning a point.

    4. We show Respect with those we share our faith with.

    And this is where it all comes to a point, because the way we treat people is the first sermon they ever hear from us. Peter — the same Peter who said “respect everyone” — tells us how to share our hope:
    1 Peter 3:15–16 NLT
    15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.
    Gentle and respectful. The gospel travels down the road of respect, and it dies on the road of contempt. Nobody in the history of the world has ever been insulted into the kingdom of God. You will never belittle someone into believing.

    So if you want to reach your neighbor, your coworker, your son or daughter who has wandered — listen to them before you preach at them.

    Honor the questions instead of mocking them. Win the right to be heard by treating them with the dignity Christ already paid for. People do not care how much you know until they know how much you respect them as people Jesus loves.
    CONCLUSION

    The Cross - Where Respect Was Shown to Us

    Now, maybe a question has been nagging at you this whole sermon. It’s an honest question, and I want to answer it. You might be thinking: “Pastor, that sounds nice, but why should I honor people who haven’t earned it? Why should I show respect to people who show me nothing but contempt?”
    Here is the answer, and it is the whole gospel in one sentence: because that is exactly what God did for you.
    Romans 5:8 NLT
    8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
    While we were still sinners. Not after we cleaned ourselves up. Not once we deserved it. The Bible says we were God’s enemies, living in rebellion, and that is precisely when Christ went to the cross for us.
    Think about what happened there. The Son of God absorbed the worst disrespect humanity has ever offered — they spat in His face, they mocked Him, they jammed a crown of thorns onto His head and bowed in fake worship, they nailed Him to a Roman cross and dared Him to come down. Humanity poured out its contempt on Jesus. And He answered it with, “Father, forgive them.”

    God honored me before I ever honored Him.  I can show respect because I have received it.

    That is how God treats the undeserving. That is the respect heaven showed you and me when we had earned the opposite. The God of the universe honored you before you ever honored Him — He counted you worth the blood of His own Son. And here is the point:

    You cannot receive that kind of love and keep dishing out contempt.

    The grace that saved you is the grace that softens you. We love because He first loved us. We honor because He first honored us.
    So here is what I’m asking you to do this week. Not all of it — just one.
    Pick one place where you’ve been living in contempt and trade it for honor.
    Maybe it’s one relationship where you’ve quietly written someone off.
    Maybe it’s one comment thread you need to close instead of conquer.
    Maybe it’s one person you disagree with that God is calling you to actually listen to.
    Maybe it’s the way you talk about a whole group of people you’ve never met.
    Just one. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you, and obey Him.
    Because the world has more than enough contempt. What it has never had enough of is a people so secure in the love of God that they can afford to honor everyone — even their enemies, even the people who can do nothing for them, even the ones who disagree.
    That is who Jesus was. And by His grace, that is who His church can be. Let’s be that church.
    Let’s pray.

      • 1 Peter 2:17NIV

      • James 3:9–10NIV

      • 1 John 4:8NIV

      • Genesis 1:27NIV

      • Proverbs 11:17NIV

      • Proverbs 15:4NIV

      • Romans 14:12NIV

      • Ephesians 4:29NIV

      • Colossians 4:6NIV

      • Romans 12:18NIV

      • 1 Peter 3:15–16NIV

      • Romans 5:8NIV

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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