Honor God’s Key to Success Part 3 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise God, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in. I have a question for you today. Who makes the decision whether you are a vessel of honor, whether you succeed or whether you fail, whether you are blessed or whether you are cursed? Who makes that choice? We’re gonna answer that in this broadcast. Stay tuned. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us, and I’m so glad that I have Aaron today. We’re sharing about honor, God’s key to success. And God really wants you to succeed. But if you don’t begin to operate in honor, it’s gonna be really hard to operate in the level of success that God wants you to.

Yeah, and honor, it’s an incredibly spiritual thing.

Yes.

And it needs to be taught. It doesn’t happen accidentally, it doesn’t happen just naturally. It’s actually a supernatural thing. So you have to be taught it. You have to foster this environment of honor within your home, you know, between husbands and wives, you know, at work. I actually oversee the worship ministry here at church, and I try to foster an atmosphere of honor. It’s actually something I do every week at practice. I call it the hot seat. So we just pick someone from the team. You know, we usually start off practice with a devotional. I’ll just kind of, me or another leader will just share something that’s on their heart or maybe just kind of instruct the team on what we’re our purpose is. Just give some direction, some reminders. But we’ll do something called the Hot Seat, where we’ll all sit in a circle and just pick someone from the team. And they kind of sit in the center of the circle and we’ll go around, and people either compliment them, encourage them, share scripture that’s on their heart and even prophesy a word of encouragement over their life. But that creates a culture of honor. You aren’t here to criticize each other, to tear each other down, to be negative, but we’re gonna really honor everyone. It doesn’t matter if there’s someone new, someone young, someone older, someone more experienced, you know, a leader. We’re gonna honor everyone. That’s what we do. And that just creates just a very healthy atmosphere. And, you know, dishonor will actually stop the power of God.

Yes.

And I wanna read from Mark 6. This is a really interesting account in the life of Jesus. You know, Jesus, the only begotten son of God, could walk on water, raise the dead, but he went somewhere where there was an atmosphere of dishonor. And it actually hindered the power of God, hindered the power of Jesus, that culture, that atmosphere of dishonor. It says in Mark 6:1, it says, “He went out 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?'” You know, who does this guy think he is? “And what wisdom is this, which has given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands?” So they knew that he had performed a lot of miracles.

Right.

That he moved in the power of God. But it says in verse three, “Is this not the carpenter?”

Right.

“You know, the Son of Mary and brother of James, Josephs, Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” So they were offended at him. Offense is really the opposite of honor.

Mm.

And we’ll talk a little bit about that. But being offended, having that attitude of offense, that attitude of bitterness, that attitude of, you know, criticism, I know it all, you know, that comes from offense. Offense is a spiritual route.

I wanna share something about that really quick. I’ve shared this for years, but I believe offense is like a one-way street right out of the ministry. Or a one-way street right out of God’s plan and purpose for your life. And so you don’t want to let ministry or offense rule your life. You know, years ago, I was speaking with one of my leaders of worship, and he was employee. And we were talking about his friend. And his friend was certain name. And as I was talking to him, this person who’s a volunteer walked by and happened to hear us talking about this person’s friend. However, he thought it was someone else-

‘Cause they had the same name.

Because they had the same name. And he got completely offended. And he came in to talk to me. And I was actually thinking about, because this person was volunteering, and a lot of times we hire volunteers, right, if we have a place for ’em in the ministry. And I was thinking about hiring this person and giving him a job. And he was a young person. It would’ve been a complete blessing to him. But he came in after that and he was just very offended. And I talked to him and I said, “Listen, you didn’t even know what we were talking about and you don’t even have the story straight. We weren’t even talking about the person. You think we were sharing something. It wasn’t even negative, what we were sharing.” “But you are just completely…” He was completely wrong. And I said, “Listen, you need to guard your heart and don’t get offended because this is like a one-way street right out of the ministry.”

And I have this word for someone watching right now. You know, offenses will come. You’re gonna have… There will be offenses, especially, you know, in a church setting with other people. You might be a volunteer, you might be there to receive, you might be a leader there. Offenses will come, usually, as a leader. There are a lot of offenses that come. You know, for me, there’s offenses that come on a daily basis.

You are really good about overcoming offense.

But you make a choice to be offended or not.

Right.

Offenses will come, but you make a choice to be offended or not. So you have to make the choice that I will not be offended. I’m gonna be a person of honor. I’m gonna honor. You know, God, actually, when I… You know, I’ve actually been pastoring for eight and a half years. I have a doctorate from Rice University. I’m a millionaire. I’m a pretty high level person. And, you know, eight and a half years into doing this job, I assume the role of youth pastor.

And you didn’t get that million from the ministry. That million came from you working-

Investing and-

Yeah.

But, you know, God told me this when I was… He told me two things when I was stepping into that role of doing youth ministry, being a youth pastor. And it’s a really important ministry. And a lot of people don’t do it right, they don’t do it well. It takes time, it takes effort. And maybe our youth pastor watching this right now, it takes five years, five years to accomplish anything. So if you’re just gonna do something for one year, and that’s kinda the average, you know, youth pastor out there. I talked to a good friend of mine. He goes to church to another denomination.

Worship pastor.

He said, you know, the average youth pastor, the youth director, they can’t get him beyond a year. And they’re a big church, pay well, all these things, but it takes five years to really make a dent in anything.

Right.

But God told me these two things. First of all, he told me, I’m to pour myself out as a drink offering. That means if I’m not being treated right by a student, whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m to be like Jesus and I’m just to keep ministering, keep loving, keep doing an incredible job, and I’m to pour myself out as a drink offering. That’s what Jesus said when he was gonna be crucified. So that is the ultimate level of ministry, is to pour yourself out as a drink offering. The youth leader before me said, you know, “If I don’t get the honor that I deserved, I’m quitting, I’m leaving.”

And we treated him like Jesus. We treated him so good.

So true ministry, the highest calling of ministry is like, you are gonna pour yourself out as a drink offering. God told me that, number two, he told me, you shall not hold a grudge against the children of my people.

Right.

And that is something that, actually, the religious leaders approached Jesus and they said, “What is the greatest commandment?” And he said, “Well, the greatest commandment is this, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength.” And he said, “The second is like it.”

Right.

“And it’s to love your neighbor as yourself.” So loving God, you know, honoring God, if you’re gonna honor God, you’re gonna honor people.

Right.

If you’re gonna love God, you’re gonna love… He said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I was looking up that verse, and that’s actually in Leviticus. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And it’s half of a verse. The other half of that verse, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The other half of that verse is, “You shall not hold a grudge against the children of my people.”

Right.

And I’ve seen people in, you know, ministry roles, especially with minors, kids, youth, teenagers. Like, someone gives ’em a little attitude and they just say, “I’m gonna chop them off.” “I’m gonna…” And when you hold a grudge against a minor, especially, and even it might be someone, they might be a minor and just in their spiritual maturity. Sometimes you need to show some people some grace. That’s one thing I’ve learned from my dad, is just, you need to give a lot of grace to people because sometimes they’re just a minor. They haven’t really reached adulthood spiritually. And some of the reasons why they aren’t very kind, they aren’t very respectful, they aren’t acting right, whatever, you know, it’s just a maturity thing. And you can have grace, and God will treat you and honor you and protect you and do all those things, even when you’re not being treated right, and you can still minister grace to people.

Yeah.

But he said, you know, just do not hold a grudge.

Now I wanna finish my story. So anyway, this young man, I was talking to him. Tell him, “Don’t get offended. Offense is like a one-way street out of the ministry.” Thinking about hiring him. He was a good volunteer. But he got offended, stepped down from his position, you know, probably quit the church, you know, but he was going to Bible school, you know, ended up moving in with this girl, dropping out of Bible school. I think that she’d been in Bible school too. He came back about, you know, a year later, and I had an assistant pastor, actually, Max Cornell. He now pastors, you know, Charis Church in Kansas City, Johnson County, Kansas. Kansas City, Kansas. And great pastor, great church. We helped him plant that church. But pastor came back to… Pastor Max, he was demon possessed. You know, when you get an offense and you let offense stay there, and you make that decision not to forgive, to hold a grudge, to be offended, you are opening up your life to demonic activity. And so don’t do it. It’s a one-way street out of God’s plan, out of God’s purpose, out of God’s blessing, out of, you know what? The ministry. So just don’t do it. Don’t let offense rule your life. Forgive and go free.

And it really hinders God’s power in your life. You know, we even see that in the ministry of Jesus in Mark 6. You know, it says, he was ministering his hometown, and it says they were offended at him in Mark 6:3. And I’m going on here, it says, “Jesus said a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now, he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Right.

And he actually marveled because of their unbelief. Unbelief and dishonor are sisters.

Right.

Unbelief and dishonor.

Right. You know, two times Jesus marveled in the gospels. One was at their faith and one was at their unbelief. And so, listen, I’d like to be on the faith side, but I don’t want to be on the unbelief side. And so I wanna live a life of honor. And, you know, Aaron, you had one more scripture along these lines. In Proverb 15:33, it says, “The fear of the Lord is instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.” So take a humble attitude, right? And if you live with humility towards God and towards people, you will move into honor. We’re gonna take a short break. We’ll be back right after this short break and share more on this principle of honor. But if you need prayer, be sure and give us a call. You can call on the break or at the end of the program or anytime during it. Thank you and God bless you. Friends, I hope you’ve been enjoying this teaching. I certainly have enjoyed teaching with my son, Aaron, from his notes are 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. II Corinthians 5:19 said, “God was in Christ, not imputing the trespasses of the world to them, but he has forgiven them for all trespasses.” So as far as forgiveness is concerned with God and a born again person, you have already been forgiven. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re sharing about honor, a key to success. And you know what? God has chosen us to be, all of us, I believe, to be vessels of honor. And we’re gonna be talking about this later in the broadcast. But even though God has chosen us to be vessels of honor, we have to make that choice. He’s not gonna make you be a vessel of honor. There’s a lot of people, even though God’s chose them to be a vessel of honor, they choose to operate in dishonor. And so we’ll talk about that from the scripture. And it’s a choice that we all personally make. So you can make a choice to be a person of honor, a vessel of God’s honor.

It’s talking about honor too and just how to grow in honor. This is actually something that you can grow in. Proverbs 15:33 says, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility.” And, you know, God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. You know, God wants to give you his grace, he wants to give you his power, he wants to give you gifts, but it takes humility. You know, you have to have humility towards God and also humility towards people that God has placed in your life. It takes honor.

Right.

You know, honor and humility go hand in hand. Humility is talking about your attitude, and it’s really a teachable attitude. You know, I said… I’ve mentioned in earlier broadcasts, I have a doctorate in music, classical music from Rice University, one of the top music schools in the country. But when I was a student, one of my professors said that she had some students that she taught for four years, and they left. You know, even though they were getting the same instruction as some of our other students as me, that after four years, they actually digressed, they did not improve. And the reason why was because they weren’t humble. They thought they knew it all going in. So they didn’t really receive instruction, they didn’t… You know, a fool resists instruction.

Yes.

And you actually digress if you’re prideful. And, you know, when the Bible talks about God giving more grace to the humble, but resisting the proud. It also mentions the enemy goes about like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he may devour. One of the number one-ways the enemy tries to devour people is with pride.

Yes.

With planning offense. Roots of offense and pride. And you wanna resist that stuff. You know, the Bible actually says this is about offense. You know, we talked about Jesus, how when he came to his hometown in Mark 6, that he couldn’t do many mighty works. And he said, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” And they were offended at him. But the Bible says in Hebrews that we are to avoid this root of bitterness by which many have become defiled.

That’s in Hebrews chapter 12, yes.

So there, you know, the rider is warning people don’t let roots of bitterness. And the best time to rip out a weed

Is when it’s little.

Is when it’s little, not a giant tree. You know, some people just feed offense, they water it. You know, something I… This is really awesome too. When I notice someone who’s just very offended, that is just their attitude, they’re just negative, pessimistic, critical, offended, I usually avoid them because offended people look for reasons to be offended.

Yeah.

They look for reasons to justify their offense. They look for people to also justify their offense. They try to suck people in to their poison.

Yeah.

But you need to stay away from that stuff. It is not good. So the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility. You were created for honor. God wants you to be a vessel of honor. He wants to value you, to lift you up, to care about you. So you are a vessel of honor.

Amen. Let’s go to that scripture, Aaron, that talks about being a vessel of honor. It’s in II Timothy chapter two. I’ll start reading in verse 19 and I’ll read through verse 21. And there’s some very good keys in this chapter to being a vessel of honor. But he says this in verse 19, “Nevertheless, the foundation of God stand sure. Having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ depart from iniquity.” You know, we need to depart from rebellion. We need to stay away from sin. You know, years ago, I sat with Jesse Duplantis and I had a couple younger ministry leaders, and they’re like, “Tell us, Jesse. Tell us how we can make it long term in the ministry.” He says, “Don’t sin.” I mean, stay out of sin. That’s what Paul’s telling Timothy. If you name the name of Jesus, depart from iniquity, stay out of rebellion, stay out of sin. He says, “But in a great house, the kingdom of God is a great house. There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore will purge himself…” Who is the one who purges himself? It’s our choice. “If a man will purge himself from these.” Now, he talks about some things, right? He says in verse 22, “Flee youthfulness. Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” He says, “Stay away,” in the next verse, “from foolish and unlearned questions.” You know, foolish and unlearned questions, stay away. When I was younger, did you know what? I know a lot of scripture. I could win most scriptural arguments. But I learned when I matured, sometimes there’s some questions you just don’t want answer, because the spirit of the question is not right. They don’t want to grow. They don’t wanna and they just wanna be-

Well, sometimes people come to Jesus and question him or ask questions. And sometimes he would just remain silent.

Right, and then he-

Or he wouldn’t even answer the question. He would say something completely…

Sometimes he would say answers that would cause ’em to shut up. But he says, “Knowing that they gender strifes.” If the spirit of a question is to bring strife, to promote strife, don’t answer it. Stay away from it. He says, “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men.” The Lord taught me this early in the ministry, right? If I was gonna really do good, right, he must be able to teach in patient, in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves; if peradventure God will give them repentance.” God has to grant them a way to change their thinking or change their action. “To the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” It’s the devil that’s trying to trip you up, trying to take you out of a place of honor that God called you to, into a place of dishonor. He says, “Who are taken captive by him at his will.” Now, early in the ministry, I wanna share this one example of this. I had a man that we went and visited, and he had been offended at a Word of Faith church. And then I was a Word of Faith preacher more than a Word of Grace preacher, right? I did have some understanding of grace, but not the revelation that I have of it today. But this man actually had not been in a full gospel, you know, faith church for years. He was in a non-spirit filled, just nominal church that didn’t teach a lot of the promises that we believed. So we went and visited him, and he came, you know, 25 miles. He was a business owner, came to our church. And the first year that he was in my church, I noticed nearly every Sunday, every time I would share on faith or prosperity or healing nearly, which is most of the time, I would share something of that, even if I wasn’t teaching on that, because I know that people need those things, right? Kenneth E. Hagin said, you know, that the devil will try to really fight you in the realm of healing or finances to stop you and hinder you from accomplishing the plan and purpose of God in your life. And so he would be at the back door and he’d have all these questions, questions, questions. And I would say, “Well, look at this scripture and check it out in the Strongs, check out the Greek, check out the Hebrew, go look at this scripture. You know, and I wouldn’t really answer. I would just tell him to go study the scriptures, check me out in the Greek and the Hebrews. See if what I was saying was right. Now, I can prove them in English, right, but sometimes religion… And it was really because he had been offended at a church like mine that taught what I did. But they didn’t live like I lived, right? So that caused problems. But anyway, I noticed after about a year, he quit asking those questions. I noticed after another year that he started being a great ministry leader. He led mission trips to Mexico, building houses, doing different things for ministries, became a great ministry leader in our church. And he stayed there for the rest of our tenure in Kit Carson. So he came about two years, and he stayed there for 11 years. After we were there 13 years and we were leaving the church, they had a church there. It’s a town, 300 people in Eastern Colorado out on the prairie. You know, no big metropolis close you had to drive. For a while, you had to drive over a hundred miles just to get to a Walmart. And they built 160 miles away, you know? But anyway, you know, only 2,200 people, less than one person, a square mile in that county. But he continued to come to church. When I left, they had an open mic. So he got up and he said this, “When I first came to this church, I had a lot of questions.” And he said, “I came to Pastor Lawson nearly every week after church, and I’d have these questions.” He said, “He would tell me the Bible, tell me to go look this up and study it out.” And he didn’t say he always agreed with me, but he said, “I never could prove him wrong.” So that’s just, keep a meek attitude. You may disagree with them a lot, but keep a humble attitude. Keep a gracious attitude, right? Because sometimes people, they’re asking because they really wanna know. Or maybe they’ve been hurt or they’ve been offended. You don’t know the background. He says, “In meekness, instruct those who oppose themselves; if peradventure God will give them repentance and they might acknowledge the scripture, the truth.” Jesus set ’em apart through thy truth. So it changed, really, our relationship and this man’s relationship with our church. And he became a very fruitful, effective member of the body. But you gotta purge yourself not only from sin that it talks above, but he says, from all these youthful lust, foolish and unlearn questions, judge the spirit of a question. Is it just trying to cause strife? He says, “Don’t be strife. Be gentle to everybody,” right? Now, once in a while, you gotta cast out the devil, right? He says, “Able to teach patient, but in meekness. Keep a gentle attitude if maybe God will give them repentance and they can recover out the stare of the devil.” If we have that attitude in the church, we’re gonna keep a lot more people. Right? Then we’re gonna lose or cause to be offended.

And I like that word from ministry, that gentleness. You know, in Galatians 6, I believe, it’s talking about if you find someone who’s in fault, you should restore them with a spirit of gentleness.

Right.

And I think that’s something about honor too. God wants you to try to keep people’s honor intact. ‘Cause if you just go trying to slam ’em, try to strip away honor from them, it’s a very dangerous thing to do.

Right.

So you want to respect people, even if they’ve treated you poorly and are moving on. You don’t have to talk bad about them all the time. You don’t have to make a public display of what they’ve done wrong. Because honor is so important. So, thank you so much for joining us. This is a powerful series on honor. I’d encourage you to get the teaching. Also, if you’d like to give to this ministry, honor God by sowing into this ministry, I believe that he’ll open up doors for you and bring that open door thing blessing in your life. So thanks so much for joining us. We’ll see you again soon. God bless you.

Announcer Discover the power of honor with Pastor Aaron’s life-changing series, “Honor: God’s Key to Success.” Pastor Aaron reveals how humility, gratitude, and respect help you build meaningful relationships and step into your God-given destiny. We’d like to bless you with a copy of “”Honor: God’s Key to Success,” a $25 value free of charge. Visit charischristiancenter.com today.

Pastor Lawson Friends, in the last few months, we have heard from over 50 nations in the world. People from all around the world are downloading our curriculum, our syllabus, our downloadable audio and downloadable video teachings, our confession cards, and all of these great teaching materials. And you can go receive it too at charischristiancenter.com. Receive these resources and be blessed.

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