Honor: God’s Key to Success Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. How many of you today watching want to move to the next level in blessing? We’re gonna be sharing a teaching this week from my son Aaron on honor, God’s key to success. And I guarantee you, if you employ these principles, you’re gonna go to another level of blessing. Friends, it’s so good to have you, and I’m glad to have Aaron here today. We’re actually sharing from his teaching that he was sharing with our youth, but really, really had positive results with the youth. But this is a teaching on honor, God’s key to success. And this is not only good for youth, this is good for every person in the body of Christ. You know the gospel works, and the word works. And we’re gonna begin with the scripture in Proverbs, actually, from your teaching, talking about honoring the Lord. But you know, Proverbs is something, it works whether you’re a saint or a sinner. And if you just apply these principles in life, you will begin to move in to the good things that God has for you.

And honor is so important to fulfill your destiny. You know, God speaks to people directly, but he also will speak to you through people. Sometimes he’s not gonna say certain things to you directly, sometimes he’ll speak through someone else. Because God wants to place people in your life, to build relationships, it takes relationships to build his kingdom. So sometimes God is gonna speak to you, not directly, but through a person. So that’s why it’s so important to honor him. You know, God spoke directly to David, King David, many times, but there are a few times where he just spoke through a person, he just spoke through a prophet. You know, he spoke through Nathan. You know, David, like the one thing he really wanted to do was to build a temple, build a house for God. You know, he built his own palace, he built the kingdom, he built the capital of Jerusalem. But the one thing he wanted to do was build a, you know, this temple for God. So that was a good desire he had.

Right.

So sometimes you might have a good desire to do something for God or for the kingdom or for other people, but it might not be God’s ultimate plan. But God didn’t tell David directly, you’re not the one to do this. He actually spoke through a prophet, spoke through Nathan because it takes not just kings, but it takes prophets and priests and God uses, you know, a body of people.

Right, well, and in this, Aaron, I actually had a person, an outside board member, a leader of a strong ministry years ago on my board. And I had him speaking to my advisory board here in the church, some of my elders and leaders. And he spoke to them and he said, you know, a lot of pastors won’t listen to other people, but he said, Pastor Lawson listens to everybody. And I do, I listen because you know, the Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 12, it says that there are many voices in the world and none of them are without significance. And so there’s a reason people are saying things, whether they’re right or wrong, but then you have to listen to the Holy Spirit. But I’ve actually had God speak through different people financially. We have a number of investment accounts personally, and we have a number of investment accounts with the ministry. And years ago, I was with a certain individual and I have different people that are investing that do good in different areas. But one of my investment managers, and he was a very, very good manager. He said something and he was a Jewish Catholic. He was born again. He watched me nearly every day on television teaching, but he was an amazing investor. And he said something, and when he said it, something spoke in my spirit. And gas and oil had been way down. And he said, we’re gonna take this money out of gas and oil and we’re gonna put it in pipeline companies that we’ve had invested in that sector of the market, because they’re gonna keep working because we’re still using gas and oil. And something spoke in me, and I actually had another investor in the church and his investments hadn’t done well. Some of my elders, I had a financial team at that time, I still do, had said, we don’t know whether we should keep that investment there or move it with this other group. And I didn’t, that person that managed that was in the church, I really didn’t wanna take it from him. But I went and talked to him about that and we moved that money and we made like 67% increase.

So God will speak through people.

Yeah.

Oftentimes, we hear from God, we’re led by the spirit, we can hear from him in his word, but sometimes God will speak to you through people.

Right.

And I’ve seen people of honor, they usually accomplish what God has called them to do, but when people step out of honor, they often step out of the ultimate direction that God has for their life, the ultimate destiny.

They quit listening to the voices that God has placed in their life or the authority that God has placed in their life. I remember this one time, the Bible says in Hebrews 13, to obey those who have the rule over you. So one time, close to 20 years ago, I told Andrew Wommack, I said, Andrew, anytime you wanna speak to me, I want you to know that I’m listening. And I’m here to listen. He said, I already know that. I said, well, how do you know that? He said, it’s the attitude that you present.

And the attitude is so key. And one thing I’ve kind of realized about when you step out of honor, a lot of people will step into just an attitude of criticism kind of constant negativity, pessimism, and criticism. And criticism is not a spiritual gifting.

No.

And oftentimes the people who are the harshest critics aren’t really accomplishing much themselves.

No.

And something I kind of learned, when I first went to school, I went to school for classical music. I play the flute. I have a doctorate in music. But when I was 18, I stayed with one of the most famous flute professors in the entire world. She played first chair in the New York Philharmonic, taught at Juilliard, very high level teacher. And she said, “Don’t listen to the critics. Ultimately, you’re the one who’s on the stage. You’re the one who’s doing something.” And I found this quote of President Teddy Roosevelt.

Yeah.

From 1910. And this is really awesome. It kind of goes along those same lines. So if you’re one of those people that just kind of wants to be a critic, I’d encourage you to try to honor people and sow into other people’s lives. So Teddy Roosevelt had this to say. This is from 1910. He said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of the deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Man, that is a fantastic statement. And, you know, a lot of times people think that, you know, that if you’re listening to God, you’ll never fail. Well, you know, we’re one third spirit, we possess a soul, we live in a body, and even the best people at times miss God and don’t hear God. But in the multitude, the Bible says, “In the multitude of counsel, there’s safety, and with good advice, make war.” And so I like to listen. You’re talking about listening to the people around you, listen to the Holy Spirit, speaking through other people. And I’ve had this happen in my life over and over again. I’ve noticed this too. Like, for instance, Andrew Wommack is really strong in the gift of faith, in my opinion, right? And he also operates in the word of wisdom, okay? But I’ve known people that operate a lot and they’re very strong in faith, but a lot of times maybe they don’t operate as strong in the word of wisdom, which is a supernatural word of God’s wisdom about the future that’s revealed by the Holy Spirit, not by natural things. But people who operate really strong in the area of faith many times are connected with people, right? And they’ll hear. For instance, in my life, Andrew Wommack’s given me about, over the last 46 years in our relationship, he’s given me about 23 words of wisdom, specific words of God’s wisdom about the future. And right now, 21 of them have come to pass. So when he speaks certain things, I’m listening because I wanna know what the Holy Spirit is saying. And then that gives me direction.

I wanna say this too, along the same lines of what you’re saying about Andrew Wommack, you received revelation from him because you honor him, because you have that attitude of honor. But I wanna say this, you cannot receive revelation, anointing wisdom from a person that you dishonor and criticize. And a lack of honor will negatively impact people close to you as well. So God actually, we are created for honor. He wants to honor us. He wants to value us. He wants to see potential in us, but he’s also created us to honor other people as well. And an attitude of pessimism, negativity, criticism, that places you outside of God’s honor system. And honor is God’s key to success. And I wanna talk about how we honor. We’re to honor God, we’re to honor our spouses, we’re to honor parents, we’re to honor people in ministry, we’re to honor just everyone. Even people that you might see as beneath you. Naaman, the Syrian general who was a leper, Jesus actually used him as an example when he preached his first message at the synagogue in Nazareth. He said there were many lepers during the days of Elisha, but only Naaman received his healing. Naaman actually had to listen to a slave Israeli girl. He heard a word from her. And he could have said, “You’re just the bottom of the totem pole. “You’re just a slave. “Why should I listen to you?” But she said, “If only you could meet this man of God “in Israel named Elisha, you’d be healed.” But he listened, he went to Israel, he sought out Elisha, he found his house. Elisha wouldn’t even come down to meet him personally. He just sent his servant down there with a word from the Lord, which was to go bathe in the Jordan seven times. And he had to listen to that servant to receive his healing. He didn’t want to, but he set aside his pride and honored that word, honored, ultimately honored the word that was from that prophet. Honored that slave girl by believing that word. And he received his healing. So honor is God’s key to success. And I wanna share this verse. Well, we’ll start off, we’re gonna have a break here in about a minute and we’ll come back into this verse. ‘Cause I wanna talk about how to honor. ‘Cause it’s something that has to be taught. It’s something that is intentional, something that you plan to do, you purpose to do. It doesn’t happen accidentally. Oftentimes it goes against the flesh because it is a very spiritual thing. But the Bible says in Proverbs 3, 9 and 10 that we are to honor the Lord with your possessions. And this is how you honor anyone. You can honor your spouse this way. You can honor a pastor this way. You can honor your children, honor a teacher, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. And that new wine to me, that’s talking about fresh revelation, fresh increase, fresh anointing, fresh insight. So if you want that new wine to flow in your life, it takes honor. Honor is God’s key to success. So we’re gonna take a break here. Just stay tuned with us. And we’re gonna dive into just how important it is to honor.

Amen. We’ll be right back. Blessings. Friends, I hope you’ve been enjoying this teaching. I certainly have enjoyed teaching with my son Aaron from his notes on honor that he taught in our youth. But I’m telling you, this is good for everybody in the body of Christ. And this is some of the greatest teaching really from my son Aaron that I’ve ever heard on the subject of honor. So you can download this free of charge on our website. Blessings. You helped single moms and orphan children in Congo, Africa.

Right now we have 510 household, 775 kids in school we’re sponsoring every month and 450 we’re feeding every day.

We support Julie. We helped her last year to build a new feeding center. Friend, I’m so glad that you stayed tuned. We’re gonna jump right into that word that Aaron ended with. It’s such a powerful scripture in Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. And honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruit of all your increase. And then he says, so shall your barns be filled with plenty and your presses shall burst out with new wine. So when you begin to honor God with what you have and with your first fruit, I like to take the first and give it to God. My dad taught me when I was just a little boy, we take the first 10% and we give to God. And I’ve done that for all of my life and it’s led to great blessing and increase.

You know, when God, I love scripture. Whenever he instructs us to do something, there’s always a promise attached to it. You know, in honor, actually the first commandment with promise, we’ll talk about this in later episodes, but it’s to honor your parents. And then that is the first commandment with promise. And here’s a commandment actually in Proverbs 3, 9 and 10, there’s a commandment to honor the Lord with your possessions, with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase. And there’s a promise attached to it. That your barns will be filled with plenty. Your vats will overflow with new wine. You know, we’ll talk about honoring, you know, parents honoring people that God has placed in your life. And there’s promises attached to that actually long life and it will be good with you a long and good life, not a miserable life, not a lacking life, but that long, good, abundant life. And that’s attached to honor. Honor really is God’s key to success. So honor the Lord with your possessions. So this or your substance, I love that. Something that’s substantial. You know, that’s why honor, honor has to be taught. I’m teaching my kids what it means to honor, what it means to honor God, what it means to honor your parents, what it means to honor, you know, your children’s pastor, what it means to honor your friends, what it means to honor your teacher. But honor, it’s very substantial.

Right.

You know, it’s not just, you know, giving someone a note saying thank you, but it’s putting something of substance in there.

Right.

Something that’s meaningful. It might be a gift, it might be cash, it might be, you know, recently my wife and I, we had three different ministry leaders over at our house for lunch. You know, we were very honored to be able to cook lunch for them, to be hospitable after church on a Sunday, but my wife really wanted to honor them.

Right.

So she said, go down into our cash pile and get $1,000 for each one of these ministry leaders. That was something substantial. You know, it wasn’t just a little sticky note that said thank you.

You and your wife are very, very generous. But I see, I’ve seen this. God is generous to you. I’ve seen it come back to you. It’s amazing.

Yeah, and that’s that promise that’s attached to when you honor.

Right.

And when you honor the Lord, when you honor people that the Lord has placed in your life, your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. You know, one of the greatest things about honor is that you receive revelation.

Right.

You know, I remember, you know, when I went to school for classical music, studying from some of the greatest, you know, musicians and teachers and conductors, some people did not improve. They, you know, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition, but they didn’t improve.

Right.

And it’s because they didn’t honor their teacher. They didn’t honor that conductor. They just thought they knew it all.

Yeah.

They were very prideful. Pride actually-

Comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Yeah, and God gives more grace to the humble. To be humble means to be teachable. It means that you’re gonna honor people.

I’m gonna share something because I work with a lot of different ministry leaders, but I’ve seen people who get lifted up in pride and they’re young and they think they know it all. But you know what, I’ve seen them crash and burn over and over and over. And it’s kind of like the children of Israel. How many times do you have to go around this mountain? And what should have been less than a month’s journey took them 40 years. You know, God doesn’t want you to take 40 years. God doesn’t want you to crash and burn. And God is a God of grace. But you know, before humility is honor. You know, or before honor is humility. That’s one of the scriptures in your teaching. And I have seen this. And so don’t get lifted up in arrogance. Ministry many times is a lot harder than it looks.

And I love that quote that we said from President Teddy Roosevelt, how it’s not the critic who counts but the man who’s in the fight. You know, and he might be a little bloodied. He might not be perfect. He might get knocked down, but he’s the one doing something. So be careful before you criticize him. And even though he might fail, he’s the one that’s doing something. And he’s the one that knows, you know, victory and defeat.

You know, my grandmother said this and my great grandfather, he was a great Methodist and a strong man of God. But he said, you never criticize anyone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. And a lot of people have never, they don’t have the life experience. They don’t have success. Really, they live off somebody else’s success. And they’ve never done a lot of stuff on their own. And they become very critical. They get lifted up in pride, but that leads, it doesn’t lead to a good end.

So talking about honoring the Lord with your possessions, your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase, you know, honor with substance, to me, that means time, money, talents. You know, when I went to college, when I was 18, I wasn’t being forced to go to church, but I wanted to honor the Lord on Sunday morning. So I took two buses to go to church. It took me an hour and a half to get to church on a Sunday morning. And I did it every Sunday for four years because I wanted to honor the Lord with my time. You know, I played my flute there. I volunteered, I served there. That was substantial to me. And I tithed, at the time, my tithe wasn’t a whole lot because I wasn’t making a lot of money. It might’ve been just a couple hundred dollars a month, but I was gonna honor the Lord with my time, with my talent, with my substance. And there is great promise attached to honoring the Lord.

Yes.

Man, God did so many great things for me because I chose to honor Him.

Right, and Aaron, you could’ve went to some seeker-sensitive mess. You could’ve went to other churches and different things, but you chose to go to a church where God placed you, right, to a church that really taught grace and faith, was full of the Holy Ghost, and God, you know, you were sowing your seed in good soil. And because of that, God honored that, and God brought you into great blessing and great favor. And God not only gave you favor, right, in different things, but God gave you favor with your instructors. Many times, they had a different political view, so on and so forth. I know even in my neighborhood, there’s people sometimes that will be at my gym that will have a different political view, but I treat everyone with respect. I had, you know, I had this lady come to me, and she was on the total different end politically, and she didn’t know where I was, and it was before the last presidential election. And she was saying, “Well, I don’t know what we’re gonna do if this conservative person gets elected, and we need to pray.” And I agreed with her that we need to pray. And then I told her that I was from a different political side, and I noticed she’s actually sold her house and moved out of our neighborhood, but she’s a very outspoken liberal person. And she said, “Well, you know, none of these people will talk to me that are across the street.” And I noticed they both had, you know, conservative flags flying at their, they had flags flying at their house, and they were patriots, you know, they had the United States flag, and you know, one of them had a conservative political flag, and I thought, “Yeah, they don’t wanna speak to you ’cause you’re kind of crazy politically.” But you know, she said, “Well, I can’t, I don’t have anybody to help me move this mirror out of my house.” When she was moving, I said, “Well, my wife or I’ll come help you.” You know, we can treat everyone with respect, even if they have a different political view.

Well, and God honored us even while we were yet sinners.

Yes, God loved us, yes.

You know, he sent Jesus, you know, so God has honored us, he’s valued us, he’s cared about us, he’s gone beyond what we deserved. You know, just last week, you know, I was talking to my watchmaker, I have a business buying and selling high-end watches, and I was dropping off a watch to get it fixed, and he said, “Well, if Trump gets elected, me and my wife might move to Canada.” I was kind of surprised, because I didn’t realize-

Socialist country.

I didn’t realize the way that he thought politically, and we talked for 10 minutes, I was pretty bold about how I thought our country should be run, but we’re still great friends, and he helps me a lot with my business.

Treats you good.

Treats me very well, I’m very respectful, kind to him, and, you know, try to give business to him, but we have a great working relationship, so even though I was kind of surprised by that statement-

It’s amazing, when you started this business, you were at Rice University, and there was this German man who was very conservative politically, and he actually, you started a business, and he would restore these watches and do different, but he loved you so much because you were conservative, and there weren’t a lot of conservatives going to the college where you were.

Yeah, I think he was impressed, ’cause at the time, I was trying to do this business to get out of debt, out of my student loan debt, so I told him that was my goal, and I think that impressed him, because I wasn’t just looking for loan forgiveness or whatever, you know, I wasn’t being a victim about what, you know, I was thankful for my education, I’m gonna pay this thing off, I’m gonna do it quickly, and God helped me do it, so honor is incredibly essential, but I wanna say this, too, you talked about honoring your neighbor who is different than you politically, might not deserve all this kindness, but honor goes beyond, you know, a lot of people think, well, I’m just gonna give people what they deserve, or I’m just gonna give this pastor what he deserves, I’m gonna give my spouse what they deserve, you know, they weren’t that kind to me, so I’m just gonna, you know, reciprocate, you know, they spoke mean to me, so I’m just gonna be mean right back, that’s not honor, that’s actually the world system, giving people what they deserve or what you think they deserve, honor goes beyond. So I wanna say this, you know, respect is actually what’s due to people, when you show respect to people, you know, basic kindness, basic respect, and that’s very lacking in society.

Right.

You know, even yesterday, I was out driving, and there’s a lot of traffic, and people are just horrible, just flipping you off, you know, honking your horn, I got kids in my car, just not even basic respect, basic decency, but honor goes beyond that. You know, the Bible has something to say about respect as well, in Hebrews 12, verse nine, it says, “Furthermore, we have had human fathers “who corrected us, and we paid them respect.” So you pay someone respect, because that’s what’s due to them. And it says, “Shall we not more readily be in subjection “to the father of spirits and lived?” So respect, it’s giving people what they deserve, that’s why it’s called a payment to pay someone respect, but honor goes beyond that. So if you wanna honor, you know, your pastor, honor a teacher, honor your boss, you know, to honor your boss means to, like, I’m not just gonna do what I think, you know, is due to them, but I’m gonna go beyond.

Yes, we’re gonna have to-

I’m gonna do extra work, I’m gonna do it extra well.

Stop, we’re gonna start right here tomorrow, and share more on this, but if you need prayer today, we want you to give us a call, and we have a lot more of this teaching that’s available, it’s on our website, we actually have hundreds of hours of downloadable video, downloadable audio, available free, but if you need prayer, or want a partner, give us a call, blessings.

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