Raising Leaders Part 4 – Lawson Perdue
Raising Leaders Part 4
Raising Leaders Part 4 with Pastor Lawson Perdue. In today’s episode of Grace For Today, explore the realm of honor. Explore the topic of honor as it pertains to Christ, elders, and finances.
Destined to Win
When Jesus saved you, your destiny changed completely! He radically transformed us and brought us from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and from defeat to victory. Pastor Lawson goes through the book of Ephesians in detail and shows us exactly why we are destined to win. We are no longer fighting to be overcomers, we are made victorious through Jesus and any weapon formed against us will not prosper! Jesus came to give us life and have that life more abundantly! Because of God and his great love, we are destined to win!
Raising Leaders Part 4 Transcript
Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I am teaching today on raising leaders from 1 Timothy chapter 5 and chapter 6. And we’re gonna be talking specifically about the principle of honor. And we need to understand honor in the realm of elders, in the realm of the body of Christ, and in the realm of finances. And if you begin to understand honor in those areas, I believe that you will be honored by God. Bless you. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’re connected with us today. We’ve been sharing on raising leaders from 1 Timothy. We’re in 1 Timothy chapter 5. We’re gonna start in verse 17. And we’re gonna be talking today about the principle of honor. Do you know the Bible says in the Book of Romans, honor, give honor to those to whom honor is due. And we live in a society that many times is challenged with honor. So we want to live with the biblical honor. Now, I believe as we raise our young men, our young women to have honor, that will lead to blessing and favor in their lives. So let’s look at this in 1 Timothy chapter 5, beginning in verse 17. He’s talking first of all about honoring elders. He says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor.” Now, what’s he talking about? He’s actually talking about the realm of finances, that elders who are ruling well, you would give them double, especially those who labor in the Word and in doctrine. Those who are teaching the Word of God. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.” You know, when I started this church in Colorado Springs, there was the first year that I received very little finances for what I did. And, then you know, for several years beyond that, I didn’t take very much of a salary, didn’t take a very large housing allowance. In fact, mine was about half what the average was for a number of years, and then we raise it up to where I was about 30% under. And then we got it to where it’s closer to average, but I had one of my board members sit down with me and this man had been helping me for over 20 years in the ministry and been connected with us in the ministry. And he sat down and threw the Bible on the table and said, “Listen, if you don’t start taking more, then,” he said, “I’m gonna get off your board, because this is what the Bible says.” And he went to this Scripture right here and he said, “The laborer is worthy of his reward. You do not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn.” Now, I told him, listen, if you’ll meet with my board, my advisory board, in-church advisory board, which was seven couples in the church at that point in time, if you’ll meet with them, if they approve of this, then I’ll do it. And you know what, he met with them. They all approved it. They not only approved what he recommended, they approved more. Do you know what happened to the church finances? I started receiving more. The church finances exploded. They went forward. They began to do very, very well. And so I was very thankful for that, but you know what, a lot of the money that the church gave me then, a lot of the money the church gives me now, I give back to the church. And God’s blessed us, praise God, in many ways. We’re very, very thankful. But this is an attitude that I think we need to train up our children with, with an attitude of honor, and with this principle of honoring the church, and not only honoring the church, but honoring those who are leaders in the church. He says in verse 19, “Against an elder, receive not an accusation except before two or three witnesses.” So if you’re gonna make an accusation against an elder, you don’t just go in there and make an accusation against the elder with one person. There needs to be two or three witnesses that are witnessing that. In other words, you don’t just go mouthing off and talking bad about leadership in the body of Christ. He says, “Those who sin rebuke before all that others may fear.” So if somebody’s living in sin, then he says, “Rebuke them before all that others may live in respect.” He says, “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without preferring one before another. Do nothing by partiality.” So as much as you can, you wanna be equal with everyone. Now, this sometimes can be challenging just because when you think about not being partial with people, especially if you’re in charge of finances in a certain area in the church, there are certain people that have certain skillsets, other people have different skillsets, different relationships, so on, different things they can do, they can’t do. So I always try to do the right thing as far as when I’m in charge of something. If I’m on another person’s board, you know, so on and so forth, I try to honor people who are ministers. I would rather fail in giving them too much than too little. If people work for me, I try to do the right thing. I try to be honorable before God in the way that we treat our employees. In fact, the Bible actually says, “Masters give unto your servants that which is just an equal, knowing that you have a master which is in heaven.” In other words, God’s my boss. So I wanna do the right thing to people that work, so on and so forth, for the church. Now, he says something else here. He says, “Don’t prefer other people.” So as much as possible, do not show partiality. He says this, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other men’s sins. Keep yourselves pure.” So guard against entering into too close of relationship or giving somebody too much responsibility when you don’t know them. Now, listen, Pastor Lawson has made that mistake. I’ve not made that mistake in major ways, but I have at certain times giving people too much confidence or too much trust. You see, I grew up in the country, and I really trust everybody and you have to prove me wrong. That’s just kind of how I am. That’s my nature. Now, my wife, Barbara, she grew up in the city. She grew up where they had gangs and different things, and you have to gain her trust. So she’s got a little bit different personality than me. Now, there are times that Barbara and I have been perfect agreement on something, and later these people have proven themselves wrong. And do you know what, sometimes I think God gives people grace to see what they’re gonna do with it. I do that sometimes, I give people grace to see what they’ll do with it. It’s really a proven thing. And so he says, “Don’t lay hands suddenly on any men, neither be partakers of other men’s sins. You might get involved in sin. Keep yourself pure.” Now, my son Aaron says this a lot. He says stay out of drama. Avoid drama. And sometimes there’s a lot of drama. He said sometimes people in the church and leadership, they just run to drama, and we don’t need drama. And that is the God honest truth. He says drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s ache and often in infirmity. So if you’re at a place where there’s no good water supply, maybe you should drink a little grape juice, praise God. Now, I personally do not drink alcohol. I know, have believers who are friends who drink wine. Once in a while, I don’t believe that is a sin. When Jesus turned the water into wine, I believe it was real wine. But at the same point in time, I think it’s better not to drink alcohol. That’s my personal conviction. Again, I have good friends who once in a while drink a little bit of wine. I have no problem with that. I love them. There is absolutely no condemnation, because I have to be honest with what the Scripture says, again, with what the Scripture teaches. And when Jesus, Jesus’ first miracle, John chapter 2, was turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. I personally believe that was real wine. In fact, the leaders, when they tasted the water, the governor of the feast that was made wine, he said, man, this is the best. Usually people let people drink a little, and then they put out the worst. This person saved the best for last. He didn’t know that that was the water that Jesus made into wine, okay? So he says just some practical application things, living with honor, and not only honoring others, but personal honor, the way that you conduct yourself, you wanna live in personal honor. He said some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to the judgment. In other words, sometimes people sin and you know they sin, and some they follow after. Sometimes people are sinning and you don’t know they’re sinning. It’s not something that’s open. “Likewise,” he says, “also the good works of some are manifest beforehand.” Some people you can see the good that they’re doing. Some other people, you can’t see the good they’re doing, that they are otherwise can be hid. So he says, “Live with honor, honor the elders, and then personally you live with honor.” Now he goes on not only about honoring elders, honoring godly ministry leadership in the body of Christ, but he says this, “Honor your masters. Honor your employers. Keep a good attitude.” You know what, if you keep a good attitude in life, it will help you go far. You know, the Bible says that Daniel was a person who had an excellent spirit. And you know what, Daniel reigned under four world leaders, Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and then Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. In three world empires under four world leaders. That’s because he had an excellent spirit. He had a good attitude. So keep a good attitude, honor your masters. Now, he says this in verse 6. “Let as many servants or employees who are under the yoke count their employers worthy of all honor that the name of God and his Word not be blaspheme.” If we keep a good attitude towards our employers, it actually, it makes a good name for the church, praise God, and for the kingdom of God, that the name of God and his doctrine and the Word of God be not blasphemed. “You who have believing employers, do not despise them because they are brothers, but rather do them service because they’re faithful and believers, partakers of the benefit.” In other words, we’re partakers of the benefits of Christianity, of the benefits of salvation. These things teach and exhort. Not only do I want you to keep an attitude, but you encourage other people to keep a good attitude. And he says, “If anybody teaches otherwise, if you teach people to have a bad attitude towards their employer, you are not consenting to good words, even the words of our Lord Jesus, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness.” So I’ve been around ministry sometimes with people that have terrible attitudes that work in these ministries, and that is negative. He says if somebody’s teaching people to act like this, they’re proud, they don’t know anything, they’re causing questions and strife of words that bring envy, strife, you know, railings, which, you know, anger, evil surmising, perverse disputing of men’s corrupt minds in destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such, withdraw yourself. In other words, go to work, keep a good attitude. I often tell people, you know what, if God can’t promote you where you’re at, God will promote you somewhere else. But you keep a good attitude and you let God do his part. Praise God. Now, he goes on, he says, “Godliness,” in verse 6, 1 Timothy 6:6, “with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and we can carry nothing out.” I’ve never seen a hearse pull a U-Haul truck. And so he’s talking about the right attitude towards money. He says, “Having food and clothes, let us there with be content.” You know, when the Bible talks about caring, it talks about this for the widows, just before this in 1 Timothy chapter 5, you know, they’re talking about basic needs, food and clothes, that’s basic needs. And so he says, “But they who will be rich in this world fall into temptation and ensnare into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and judgment,” perdition, which means judgment. And so, you know what, the goal isn’t money, the goal is God, have a good relationship with God. You know, he tells us later that God gives us richly all things to enjoy. So God’s not against you having good things, but he’s against those things having you, praise God. He wants you to have those things. He wants those things to be used for the proper aspect in his kingdom, but he doesn’t want those things to have you. And so he says, “But you, oh man of God, flee these things. Follow righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Flee all these different things, the love of money.” Right? Covetousness. You know the Bible says in Colossians chapter 3, I think it’s about verse 5, but he says covetousness is idolatry. So keep the right attitude, okay? I think about my dad when we first got in the full gospel. My dad would see somebody before that driving a nice ’56 Chevy, you know, old pickup done up real pretty. He’d say, “Man, I wish that I had that and they had a feather.” After he got spirit-filled and began to be in the good Word, he said, “I wish I had that and they had a better one.” Praise God. Well, we don’t wanna covet our brother’s things, but you know what, God wants to give you richly all things to enjoy. We’ll read this in a minute. Now, he goes on and says this. So we wanna honor elders, we wanna honor the church body, right, we wanna honor our employers, and then we want to live with honor in the realm of finances, praise God. Now, finally, he talks about having an attitude of faith and living with honor in an attitude of faith. Before I get into this, we’re gonna take a break, and I’ll be back in just a few seconds. Thank you so much. Praise the Lord, friends. I am so excited to be sharing with you this great teaching I’m sharing from my series on 1 and 2 Timothy on Raising Leaders, part one and part two. Also my wife’s series on Unless the Lord Builds the House. And then we have a special edition, Faith that is Taught and Caught by my wife Barbara. And you know what, we are making these things available to you because we know the principles in these will help your family, just like they’ve been a blessing to us. And you know, we’re not talking about something that doesn’t work. We’re talking about something that we have proved in our own family, that we have proved in our church for years and years and years. You know what, the Word of God is true. And when you live your life and conduct your family by principles of the Scriptures, you will find the blessing that God promises in his Word. So we want you to call us today and get this product. Thanks. Praise the Lord, friends. We’re talking about living with honor. And what kind of honor should we have? We talked about honoring elders, right, older ones in the faith, specifically teaching elders in the body of Christ, pastors, ministers of the gospel, right, older ones in the faith. Not only that, he talks about just living with honor in the church body, keeping the right attitude towards other people in the church and not playing favorites, proving out our faithfulness. He talks about keeping a good attitude towards your employers, right? Honor your masters. Then he talks about honor in the realm of finances. And finally here in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 11, he talks about honor with an attitude of faith. He says, “You, oh man of God, flee these things.” Right, flee covetousness, flee the love of money. He says, “And follow godliness and faith and love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith.” Did you know sometimes faith is a fight? He says, “Lay hold on eternal life where unto you’re called.” You’re called to eternal life, so fight the good fight of faith and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. Now, listen, he says something here, and I believe this is how we fight the fight of faith. He says, fight, fight, profess, profess. Now, the word profess here in the Greek, the first one is the Greek word homologeo. It means to confess, to profess, to promise, to acknowledge, to give thanks. The confession is made to say the same thing as another, to declare openly or speak out freely, praise and celebrate. I believe that one way we fight the good fight of faith is by speaking the Word of God, by saying what God says about us, by saying what Christ says about us, by saying what the Scripture says. So fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold onto eternal life where unto you’re called and have professed a good profession. Now, the word profession here is the Greek word homologea, right, profess is homologeo, and and homologea means what we profess to be ours. What one professes or confesses, praise God. So what are we professing? What are we confessing? If you wanna fight a good fight of faith and win, you can’t fight that without believing and speaking the Word of God. So keep believing and speaking what God says about you. Praise God. Now, we go on down. He says in verse 13, “I give you charge in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.” You know, Jesus kept his confession of faith before Pontius Pilate. When Jesus was accused, he said, you say, you know what, Jesus always told the truth. I was reading the other day in John chapter 8. He said, listen, if I said what you say about me, then I’d be a liar, and I can’t lie. So I gotta tell the truth. I gotta keep saying who God says I am. Praise God. We need to keep saying who God says we are. Praise God. We need to keep agreeing with Jesus. Hallelujah. And the Holy Spirit. He goes on and says this, that you keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing of Jesus. So you keep fighting the good fight of faith. You keep laying hold on eternal life and keep speaking, believing and speaking the Word of God. He says until the coming of Jesus Christ, which in times he’s gonna show, who’s the blessed and all-powerful King of kings and Lord of lords who only has immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach to. Jesus is the all-powerful King of kings and Lord of lords. He has eternal life. He dwells in the light that no man can approach, who no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power for everlasting, amen. Finally, he talks again about honor in the realm of giving. So continue to be a giver. He says, charge those who are rich in this world. Now, you say, well, I’m not rich. Well, if you’re watching me in the United States of America, by most standards in the world, you would be considered rich. He says, “Charge those who are rich in this world that they be not high-minded.” Don’t be arrogant. Don’t get lifted up in pride. Nor trust in uncertain riches. Don’t trust in your money, but trust in God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. God gives us richly. We have everything that we need to do everything he called us to do. He says that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, be constantly ready to distribute, willing to communicate, willing to give, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come. You know, you can’t take it with you, but you might be able to send it on ahead, praise God. Jesus talked about giving. He said don’t lay up your treasures here on Earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But he said, lay up your treasures in heaven. We need to put our treasure in heaven. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. We need to keep our confidence in him. We need to keep seeking first the kingdom of God. He says, “Oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called.” You know, there are people that will say that science disproves the Scripture. That is an opposition of science falsely so-called. True science proves the Scripture. You know what, for instance, in the theory of evolution, there is no fossil record for the theory of evolution. That’s because it’s a theory. But you can take principles of math and science, and you can prove that the doctrine of creation, the truth of creation, that in the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. Now, as we go on through this, he says, “Some people have professed these things, oppositions of science falsely so-called, and they have erred concerning the faith.” He says, “Grace be with you. Amen.” So praise God, we wanna keep living with honor. And part of living with honor is being a giver. Now, we’re gonna use a few Scriptures that talk about this because Paul’s sharing this out, and a major portion of what he shares in the realm of honor is connected with finances. Did you know what, if you don’t get finances right, you’re not gonna get a lot of things right. Jesus actually talked about it in the gospel of Luke, and he said, “If you will not be faithful in that which is least, then you won’t be faithful in that which is much.” And when he’s talking about that which is least, he’s actually talking about financial and physical things. He says those are the least things. He says spiritual things are the much, praise God. Let’s look at these Scriptures. I’m turning over there really quickly in the gospel of Luke. In Luke chapter 12 and verse 32, he says, “Fear not, little flock. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Do you know God wants to give you, again, good things? He wants to give you the kingdom. He wants to prosper you. He wants to bless you. He wants to help you. But if we don’t learn the principles that are laid down in the Scripture concerning finances, it’s gonna be hard for us really to operate in abundance in the kingdom of God. Do you know the Bible actually says that it’s the Lord, the blessing of the Lord that makes rich. And sorrow has nothing with it. And so, praise God, we need to trust God for blessing us. We need to trust God to help us. We need to trust God to give us good things so that we can do the right thing, praise God. And so if we live by the principles of the Scripture, you know, the Scripture says, “He that is faithful in that which is least will be faithful in that which is much, and he that is unfaithful in that which is least will be unfaithful in that which is much.” So we need to keep operating in principles of the Scripture, principles of the Word of God, so that we can be entrusted with spiritual things and move into the abundance ultimately that God has for us. And so as we begin to look at this, Jesus talked about these things in Luke chapter 12. He also talks about this in Matthew chapter 6. He said in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” So as we keep seeking first the kingdom of God, as we keep seeking first his righteousness, amen, all of these other things, he’s talking about clothes, he’s talking about food, he’s talking about all these different things. He said, “They will be added unto you.” He said, see, the Gentiles seek after all these things. The Gentiles seek after clothes, they seek after food, they seek after riches, but if you’ll seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. He goes on and says this, “Therefore do not take thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient today is the evil thereof.” So keep your eyes on Jesus and keep trusting him. Friends, I’ve been teaching from my series Raising Leaders. And this is in part of our family package. We taught last week from my wife’s series, Unless the Lord Builds the House. And we have two of these series on Raising Leaders from 1 Timothy, and then 2 Timothy I’ll be sharing next week. And we also added as a bonus in this package, Faith that is Taught and Caught. This is a message from my wife, Barbara. You know what, we have proved these things out over years and years of ministry. They have worked in our family. We have three sons, Aaron, Andrew, and Peter. They’re all in their 30s. They’re all serving God. They’re all good husbands. They’re all good fathers. They’re all involved in the local church. And they’re all making a difference in this world for the kingdom of God. And you know what, we’re teaching these things because we know the principles that have worked for us will work for you, because God is not a respecter of persons, God is a respecter of faith. So we know these principles of faith that we believe and teach, they will work for you, amen, as you apply these same principles of the Word of God. Again, because God is no respecter of persons. He’s a respecter of faith. And we have a special offer that we’re making available on this. I want you to call in and get this material. You might know someone that you can share this with. But it will help you move into the good things that God has for you. If you need prayer, if you want product, if you wanna become a partner, just give us a call today. We would love to hear from you. Thanks so much, and blessings.
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