Honor: Building Powerful People Part 1

you're listening to the Jesus Culture Sacramento Church podcast really what I want to talk to you about this morning is this idea that honor requires a certain posture in your spirit it requires that you get yourself ready you know to to to posture yourself it's a it's a deliberate action that that you use to communicate something either either an attitude or or you know I'm for a long time I used to I don't know why but I would find myself standing like this I would kind of make a tea out of my feet and I would I would talk like this and somebody said did you used to be a dancer no no I wasn't a dancer I was a chiropractor told me that that helped me with my posture - my back hurt all the time so I'm not a dancer but posture kind of exaggerated something about you you're trying to you are sending a message deliberately and so when we when we talk about taking a posture of Honor we're talking about you know setting something out there on purpose like I want you to see that and throughout the years of me doing this I apparently I made it uh I made it an impact because at one point in my life I have had the honor of having someone dress up like me for Halloween of all the things he could have done Iron Man The Hulk no I want to be danny silk that's right and so you know that posturing catches on you know it it's i as we talked about taking a position or a posture of honor it's it's we're going to exaggerate this attribute in our our character in our in our culture in our environment and the way that we do this is we we collectively we understand what it is we're doing right and we're doing it on purpose you know generosity we we collectively are going to be generous people people are going to experience that but they're going to experience it through your honor or if it becomes conditional I will be generous if you which means you control my character which isn't true you don't control my character my character is is the formation and expression of my core values that I do regardless of what's happening around me you know all honesty is part of my character I don't tell the truth if you do you'll never control the the love the honor the truth about my life because it's part of my character I would never give that away to somebody else and so as I posture myself in honor I communicate that it's not something that's conditional it isn't you can't alter my honor in my character and so I'm looking for ways to express honor throughout my life throughout my day throughout my interactions and classically I'm going to find just gonna I'm going to discover honor when I don't feel like givin it well I don't think you deserve it when you have messed something up and in other places where I discover honor is places where I've been trained not to give it we'll get to that a minute we've we've been called to honor as believers and how many of you've done the elements course well done what about the rest of you what's going on here in the elements course is a I share a message called a new government of love which is really the culture of Honor in many ways I'm not going to go over all the stuff that's in there because we you know I we've laid a foundation in that course that we want you to carry I'm actually adding something to that if some of this is not making you know now you're not connecting all the dots it's because you're missing the chunk that we hid in the elements course so that you would go do it okay that was a little tip for you you're welcome we've been called to honor all people and this list it puts on display who and how and so many times we we take a look at something we go oh that's what honor is so honor honor the honor the King honor those in authority in our life okay we got that one honor your mother and father okay I understand that honor your wives wives I thought it was honor your husband huh it's actually I put the scripture if they're just for you it is honor your wives and live with them in an understanding way knowing that they are co-heirs with you not sub heirs co-heirs with you not a big deal though because if you don't get it husband's all it happens is God won't listen to your prayers that's all it happens okay so it's not a really big deal honor widows and orphans honor people who cannot force you to honor them honor people who are in many ways of less influenced and and they can't punish you if you don't honor them but the one that always gets me is that last one their honor all people because if you think about it it doesn't leave very many people out does it no it doesn't and so we are little squirm holes of trying to get out of honoring people they close up pretty tight when the same verse that says honor the king goes on to say honor all people that puts us into a little bit of a quandary and then we begin to have to really research and figure out what is this thing about honor what what is it an honor primarily communicates that I value you I have value for you and to such an extent that even if we disagree you get to stay valuable you get to stay powerful in our relationship and so at the heart of honor is this idea of empowering one another we don't have to be the same people we get to be ourselves we we don't we don't have to turn into one look that that honor allows each of us to happen in the design that Jesus gave to us therefore our community gets to experience honor because they don't have to agree with us other churches husbands and wives families you don't it's not the culture of agreement it's a culture of honor and that transitions our behavior from I punish people who don't remind me of me to I love and accept every one that Jesus gave his life for and my a month as I have freely received honor I freely give on her and your behavior your character never determines my honor towards you and so this begins to be a foundation piece because it begs the question are we really going to honor all people really really all people because we've been given permission to dishonor or disempower certain people certain we have we have permission to disempower certain people certain groups of people starting with children children you know what I'm an adult you're a child I'm so much smarter than you just do what I say just do what I say I'll tell you what to do next I'll let you know when you could do something else I'll tell you what you can't do and if you ever scare me you can't do anything wrong and so I give myself permission to be dishonouring in a relationship because you're a child we give ourselves permission to be dishonouring towards people who've made mistakes you made a mistake oh you got caught for your mistakes I've got got you you bad person you you deserve know where you don't get to move around you could just a Roger you're scaring off prey we is we spray pay you paint you orange and we put you somewhere where because see you we put a light on you because you got caught and we've given ourselves permission to dishonor our women you know we we don't like to talk about it but we've given ourselves permission to treat women as second-class all kinds of verses and all kinds of theology and it's just not true it's not true at all that our ladies are second-class or that they are less powerful or that they're less significant or less capable of leadership and authority and so but in the church especially we've given ourselves permission to dishonor certain people and so just in-house in internally in our culture we have to address things that for generations have been preserved they've been preserved and and there's been an inheritance of momentum in the house around what it is that we get to do to certain people it's it's it's sad but we we have a culture we have a society that feeds on dishonor it is so prevalent to get on the dishonor wagon and essentially it's if you fail or if I disagree with you I get to dishonor you it happens politically it happens throughout social media if you post something that I don't agree with I can hardly keep my fingers from moving like what what shut up just put it back in your pocket do you really have to write something do you really have to say there well it is my Christian duty because I am certain this will change the situation oh you give yourself way too much credit goodness a goodness sakes I don't have permission to be dishonouring towards you just because we disagree I don't have permission to be dishonouring to you because you're on this list I don't ever have permission to be dishonouring toward you which means to be disempowering of you it doesn't mean that I never say no which we'll talk about next week it doesn't mean that I never that I always go along with what you want it doesn't mean that I have because I have responsibility and authority that your your voice is equal to mine in an organization or in an environment because I carry more responsibility than you do you know at any point I carry more responsibilities than you do I have more authority than you do that's just how this works so trying to create these organizations where there's no leader there's no voice of authority get over that to know if you're a parent you soon realize wow somebody needs to make some decisions around here it's people without children who go are there going to be like this I think I should be like that you need to be quiet you don't know what you're talking about well I've never run an organization I've never had children I've never really accomplished much but I have strong attitudes it's true you do you've got some really strong opinions too bad they came out people are posting right now as I'm talking I disagree with that guy I can't even believe what he just said I guess I'm gonna change what he just said I'm gonna equal it out Bill Johnson said something we were we were filming this foundations of Honor series and I asked him I said bill this is 20 years later I mean 20 years at Bethel let alone 17 years before and we were bill you know that we've either practiced honor or we've been talking about honor for at least 15 years 13 years and and he says Oh honor honor is when we treat other people as we would treat Jesus what what did you just say we've been doing this for 20 years we've been trying to define this for two decades and you pop out with that now it's so beautiful I mean it's so succinct and to the point that yeah this is how we do it we treat one another as we would treat Jesus himself that's culture of Honor that is an attitude and a behavior of Honor it's it's it's it's something to stop and think about before you're about to respond to whoever whether you're happy with them or not happy with them but especially if you're not happy with them how would I talk to Jesus right now yeah but this person won an election and I didn't vote for them yeah stop yourself stop yourself and this is this is the moment this is the moment right here this is where you get credit for your character right here slow yourself down put your thumbs in your pocket for a minute and think how would I talk to Jesus right now well Jesus never would have said that let a little posted it and what would you say to Jesus right now but they're wrong their policies are wrong they're there everything is wrong and what would you say to Jesus right here you are taking all the fun out of this no no no no I'm trying to help you I'm trying to help you I'm trying to help you see something because what we tend to do is we tend to just blast right through situations because we've done them before or we've seen them done before and we don't think we don't apply something we don't apply a new revelation and so I'm going to tell you a story that that is it's an old story and if you've read the culture of honor you've heard this before nonetheless I think it's important that you hear the story in this context in this moment as we are building a foundation into what it is that we're doing here we're all going to be standing together in agreement understanding something of why this works why we do what we do years ago we we had a situation in our school of ministry where we had two students who ended up in bed together before they got married now this is the school of supernatural ministry right it's supernatural which means people are perfect well they were for the first year now they weren't but we thought they were and we kind of we kind of had so we're so proud of them we're so proud of you were second year student that means you've made it through the first year and you have you have you are now carrying our culture and you are now you are now broadcasting to the planet and at the time banding was there he was the second year leader so banning banning is getting the first year students in you know and they're coming in waves so you know this this year I think the school was like 46 students or something like that and September which means school just started banning comes don't obviously goes um okay um kind of problem one of our perfect first year students ended up in bed together their wedding in December this is September it's before the wedding and it actually happened even before this so it happened this summer like oh my gosh okay poof oh we haven't had a problem like this yet that we knew of you know that's the other thing that we knew about okay we knew about this one cuz Josh came and told banning and so you're like oh oh my gosh what are we gonna do what we gonna do because I guess worse she's pregnant okay okay okay well that means people are gonna find out about it this is a different problem here okay people are going to find out about this one so we're going to have a pregnant second-year student supernatural school administrator and we have you know we have to explain this we have to say something about this okay and so we're trying to figure out what to do what do we do because what we know has been done it was not helpful it's actually destructive it's super dishonouring what has been done that we're aware of that has been done so basis what are we gonna do I said I don't know let's get them in a room and we'll sort this out so we bring Josh and Robin into my office and as they come into my office they are like you know they're they're on their way to their execution you know they come in they don't even look at me but they they don't even know me I don't know them either I mean there's all these people you just it's weird but you don't get to know them and here they are in my office and they sat down and I said thank you thank you for trusting me thank you for coming in here you didn't have to thank you for coming in here and trusting me because you don't know what's going to happen and really I don't know what's going to happen either but I'm going to ask you some questions and we'll see what happens so I got banning and and Jill the two second-year pastors that they trust I'm borrowing their trust to do something that requires Josh and Robin to be very vulnerable but I I see them as valuable and I see them as powerful even though they made a mistake it got caught they got caught for their mistake because most people get treated as valued and respected even though they may mistakes but you just don't know about it yet that's the other part that makes us all mad try this one I just wanted you lied to me all that time I thought you were like me hiding thought you were better at this I start with some questions you know I said hey so what's the problem here Josh what's the problem and he looks at banning light doesn't it does he not know this has got to be why he's being so friendly he doesn't know yet well over the summer Oh summer oh we we had we had sex over and over and over I said okay are you still doing that no no no I said all right all right so what's the problem he looks at banning again penniless exactly so what she's pregnant I said okay what can we change that no said okay so what's the problem I don't think I understand the question okay well let me help you understand something I mean you you add some stuff going on that you're not doing anymore we have a situation that we cannot change but there is something that led to this behavior what is it that happen inside of you who love Jesus your worship leader man you you know you know the deep parts of his heart you love people you love us you love her and you broke through all the barriers in your own character to do things that have produced this what would lead a man to bust through all those things to end up here I don't know I said well have you repented yes yes I said of what I used to think I knew but I don't know because they asked me these questions so right so you cannot repent of a problem you don't yet have and if you don't repent you will not fix that broken spot and if you don't fix that broken spot you will not change your behavior so do you want to repent yes I do I do and so I lead him through some questions and basically what I'm trying to get him to see is that there are some things in his life and character in the way he behaves in relationships that led him to this situation I do the same thing with Robin and we get we get to a spot where they are both standing there looking at a part of their life they had no idea had anything to do with this I don't I'm not interested in this I don't want you to do this this is done this is destructive please don't do that please don't do it and let's fix the problem let's fix the problem so we don't end up back here and so they're both looking at that and I said all right now who has been affected by this problem that they're going to find out about this but this is really what's been driving it what it what is that who is that who has been affected by this so now this is where they start to see the faces of the people that they love the people with broken hearts the people that they that they would never want to disappoint and as these faces begin to come up their parents or family members Robins brother just got saved in and and she said he thinks I'm Jesus more like yeah it's going to be so hard and my parents going to be broken heart I can't believe it Kim believe doing this to my parents and my and Josh says my pears my pastor of you my pastors they take them offering every month and pay part of my school bill it says this is just ah they're going to everybody's going to be so upset so disappointed and so they go through this list and they stop right here and so I say well what about your other team your other schoolmates in second year how about them yeah oh gosh yeah oh gee yeah so what about first year what about the next class coming in who sees you as leaders as second year students what about those people as a hundred of those coming in oh gosh oh geez and so we go through this whole deal and then I said what are you going to do so he apologized to our parent we did oh gosh we need I said all right we'll get to these other guys so they go home and they they apologize and it went really well except except that the Robbins brother now wants to kill Josh that's the only problem that we ran into everything else went pretty well you know it's pretty it was pretty clean they come back banning calls me says hey we have a spot open a second year could you come up and help us with this thing I said I'll be right there so I go up there and we get in front of the class I said hey all right everybody and once you have it I want you to hear something that you've probably never heard before but I want you to apply the blood of Jesus to them as much as it has been to you and so they get up there and they stand in front of their their class and they they weep and they share their heart and they apologize for breaking everyone's heart and they talk about what they've discovered and what it is they're going to do about it so this stops happening and then I asked one of the leaders in the in the class that said Brandon will you come up here and just just pray over them and we'll agree and so Brandon gets up to come up and forty-five other students get up and come up and surround them and they are now just all around them praying for them prophesying over them thanking them for staying and not leaving thank you for not leaving our community because of the guilt and the shame thank you for trusting us with your life thank you for letting us be a part of walking through this with you thank you and they begin to prophesy over the baby and and and accepting the baby into the community and it was a beautiful thing about about the time we finish with that somebody comes over from 1st year and says hey there's a break in the schedule would you like to come do that thing you were talking about and I looked at Josh and Robin and they were just we might as well keep this going let's just keep it going so we will we go over next door as we leave the room and enter this room of hundred strangers 46 second-year students come in and line the walls like a bunch of angels and now Josh and Robin stand in front of this crowd and they say the same thing please forgive us you don't know us but we we fail an important role and we need your forgiveness and there was one of the students was a pastor and I said Kevin will you come up here and just pray over these guys and so he gets up and as he walks forward a hundred people get up and surround them and they begin to pray and prophesy over him and one of the things I remember Kevin doing is he he began to break the curse of shame over this over illegitimate see and begin to open up the the and pour out the redemptive power of the blood of Jesus over this this child in this family and he and he said that shame will come to kill steal and destroy and we break your power and we cancel your assignment against this child against his family Josh and Robin going to get married in December and in the spring they have Anya a little baby girl and from the day she's born she's struggling for her life Josh and Robin ended up down here in the Children's Hospital with her baby and Anya she she struggled through about 30 days or so and we had prayed numerous times you know about about the situation the leadership team and and we were together one day and Robin knew we were had staff meeting and she calls and she says the doctors say she's not going to live another 24 hours her her body's in complete failure all her organs are in complete failure everything everything is she didn't get a miracle she's going to die and so we gathered again to get to pray and I remember I remember us remembering that that experience that they had with the school and we began to make the same declarations breaking the power the destroying power of shame that was aiming at this at this legitimacy and that we canceled that assignment and we and we just spoke it out one more time and then we went on about our day and we hadn't heard and the next morning we got a report from from Robin and she said the doctors are calling Anya Lazarus because we don't know what happened but overnight her numbers are all normal everything yeah all her organs everything every level that they measure is normal they don't know what to do they don't know how to explain this they're going to keep her in for a couple more days just to figure try to figure it out when Robin was in third year because she went to third year she was asked to speak at the graduation banquet and she gets up there and she says to the audience she says you will never know what this community has done for me and my husband and my family you have saved our lives the way you handled our mistake created a safe place where we will never be the same as a result we have a family that will always be part of to this day Anya is about 12 years old she's about this tall healthy as a horse it's a beautiful child their family is currently in Washington serving in ministry together they're all just doing great they've had their struggles but they're doing great I say all this to ask you to posture yourself for honor regardless of who is standing in front of you regardless of what situation you're dealing with you may be dealing with a schoolteacher that your child is having a hard time with in year you're having a hard time with them how would you talk to Jesus how would you deal with Jesus if you stand right in front of you it may be a waitress eye or a server that's having a hard day and how would you treat Jesus it may be one of your neighbors who keeps doing that thing that you hate posture yourself in honor and watch heaven manifest and change lives that you just you just can't believe what you just watched what you we're just a part of but this is what we're doing this is what we're doing we're bringing a culture of heaven and in that we're bringing honor and love and forgiveness and strength and power to places that have never known it before and when people cross paths with you and your honor is on you leave a mark of heaven on their heart and their life they might not have otherwise gone amen amen let's all stand together put your hand on your heart Holy Spirit please open up our understanding of what it means to walk in honor one to another lord I pray that you show us what it looks like to live with our honor on towards all people starting with our own families help us to see what it looks like I pray for I pray that we would have supernatural ideas that develop into skills I pray that you begin to show us how to cultivate healthy strong relationships we that have high standards and yet are filled with love and honor or we pray that your body of a testimony in this region of who our Father is bless you we Thank You chief this has been the Jesus Culture sacramental podcast for more information about the church visit Jesus Culture com you

Channel: Jesus Culture

Views: 16,993

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Id: cmKAOHKS65U

Length: 37min 44sec (2264 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2015