We'll go to Mark, Chapter 6, and I want to give you the first principle. It's the principle of honour or respect. Whatever you disrespect, will move away from you. Whatever you respect, will attract towards you. To respect something means: to look at it, with a view of placing value on something. The word honour means to place value, so whatever you place value on will come near to you, whatever you devalue will move away from you. If you devalue a relationship, it will diminish; value a relationship and it will grow. So whatever you value or respect will come near to you, whatever you disrespect will draw away from you. Now you've got to get that. See the thing is, it's such a simple principle, but it actually works everywhere in life, and many marriages fail because of just that simple thing of dishonour and disrespect.
I know many Christians who have missed out on what God could have given them. Very simply, they just didn't respect and honour the people God brought into their life to help them. They actually rejected or despised the counsel that was given. Let's see the principle in operation, just so you can see it absolutely vividly in Mark, Chapter 6. Jesus went from there, and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come He began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing Him were astonished, saying: where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! So notice what people are saying? They are amazed at the tremendous wisdom He has, as He teaches in the synagogue, and they have heard of the miracles He's done, and they are stunned by all the miracles Jesus has done; blind eyes opened, deaf ears open, the lame walked, people raised from the dead. They have heard of the miracles, and now they see Him teaching in their synagogue, and they are astonished.
Now, so they go from being astonished to this. It says: now isn't this just the carpenter? Isn't this just a carpenter, an ordinary carpenter? Aren't His family here, you know, the son of Mary, brother of James and Joses, and Judas and Simon? And aren't His sisters here as well? And they were offended at Him. It says - notice this - it says, Jesus said to them: a prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. Then He said: He could do no mighty work there. Now He could no mighty work there. He laid His hands on a few sick people who did receive Him, and respond, and honoured Him; He healed them, and He marvelled at their unbelief. Now here's the thing, the statement, an amazement statement: Jesus Himself could do no mighty work there.
Now I want you to see that in that town there were many sick people. There were many people with financial problems, there were many people in distress, there were many people who were demonised and tormented, many people. Now God's answer has just walked into the city. See, Jesus was the answer that God had for the needs they had, the need for healing, the need for deliverance, every need that they had, He had the answer for them, and the heart of God was to help the people, and the heart of Jesus was to help the people. This was His home town. He knew the people there, He knew the people that suffered from blindness, and deafness, and torments, and were demonised. He wanted to help them, so get this; He's anointed with all the power to help them. In His heart, He wants to help them. It's the will of God to help them, God has sent Him into that town - yet He could do no mighty work.