Video Transcript: Honor

All right. Task number five, under being an effective manager, creating a culture  of honor. Whatever your organization is, it has a culture, a way that people think, and the way that they are, and you are in charge of creating that culture. So I  want to talk about Moses and Joshua. Moses was a leader, and then Joshua  took over. First, Moses. Exodus 15:24 so the people grumbled against Moses,  saying, What shall we drink? Exodus 16:2, in the desert, the whole community  grumbled against Moses and Aaron. Exodus 17:3, but the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, Why did you bring us  out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst. So Moses  had a lot of people grumbling when they followed his leadership. Numbers 14,  another one. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the  whole assembly said to them, If only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness.  Okay, Joshua, Joshua 1:7, Joshua takes over from from Moses. Be strong and  very courageous. Be careful to obey the law My servant Moses gave you. Do  not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever  you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and  night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, then you will be  prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you be strong and  courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord, your God,  will be with you wherever you go. Very encouraging words to Joshua, as he  takes over from Moses. But then these words, verse 16, then they answered  Joshua. These are the people. Now, whatever you have commanded us, we will  do wherever you send us. We will go. Moses, the people grumbled. They  grumbled about their food. They grumbled about what to drink. They grumbled  about being in the desert. Why don't you just leave us in in Egypt? Would it be  better for us to die there than to be out in this wilderness? Joshua, hey,  whatever it is that you say and wherever you want us to go, we will do it. So  what's the difference between Moses and Joshua? Number one, Moses was a  leader, but he came out of nowhere. The problem Moses had in getting people  to follow Him is Moses never had the opportunity to give an example, or be an  example of what it is or how one treats a leader. Moses came out of nowhere.  The people were in bondage. God sends Moses to deliver them. He shows up,  he starts doing what God says it just gets worse for the people. And the people  are like, well, you know, Moses, you've come to save us, but the only thing that's happening is our lives are getting worse. And then you go through the whole 10  plagues, and after each plague, it doesn't work with Pharaoh. It's like, you know, Moses, you know, just leave us alone. And finally, God, you know, brings the  people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and they go down to the the river and  the sea, and then, and then they're trapped there. And now here comes Pharaoh with his chariots, and the people are like again. Why are we following you? And  Moses is saying, follow me, trust me. But people keep grumbling, keep  grumbling, keep grumbling, keep grumbling. Joshua was a leader that showed 

the people how to treat a leader for 40 years. So for 40 years, Joshua was  Moses right hand man, and what did Joshua model to the people. He modeled  to the people for 40 years, obedience. How do you treat a leader? You OBEY  Him. You treat him with respect and honor. When, when Moses went up the  mountainside to get the 10 Commandments, Joshua stayed below, and he just  stayed there. He waited respectfully for Moses. Whatever Moses did, Josh was  there to treat him well. So for 40 years, the people are watching Joshua treat the leader Moses with respect and honor and trust, Moses, whatever it is that God  tells you. I will support and I will follow. So the people have watched Joshua do  this for 40 years. So when Joshua finally takes over from Moses, in a way,  Joshua has been training them for 40 years, this is how you treat me. When I'm  a leader, you treat me as I treated Moses. See, Moses didn't have that. Moses  came out of nowhere. Moses was the king on top of the hill. And how did he get  there? Well, we don't know. He just made himself the king. And so when people  see someone sitting as the leader, and they don't see the leader honoring  anyone else, he's just, he's just the leader, then people want to be like the  leader. You know, a son wants to be like his father. People want to be like what  they see. So when they looked at Moses, they go, I want to be like Moses. Well,  what is Moses? Moses is the leader. He's the undisputed leader. How did he get there? I don't know. And so people want to take his spot, and so they rebel. See, Joshua didn't have that problem, because Joshua taught people this is what it  means to be a leader. You treat the former leader really well, and then one day  you can become a leader. I'll tell you. I wish I had known that. I mean, I  discovered that late in life, when I planted a church in my denomination. I  planted a church through our denomination, and there was something called  home missions. They were in charge of planting new churches, and they were in charge of my new church plant. They were in charge of me, but they were a  bunch of bureaucrats. I thought there were people that talked about church  planting, and they had the money and stuff, but they had never planted churches themselves. What did they know about planting a church? So I sort of, you  know, you know, I'm planting a church. I have my team of people, but I didn't  honor home missions very much. I was like, you know, what do those people  know? We're the ones that know. You know, I'm a church planter. I'm out here  doing it. I know what I'm doing. I am the leader. My leaders the home missions  department. They're not really leaders, and that's how I projected it to my team,  that they don't know what they're doing. My leader doesn't know what he or she  is doing, but I do well, guess what? Some of my best people wanted to be like  me. Well, what was I like? I was dissing my leaders. So leaders, so what did  they do? They dissed their leader, and that was me, because they want to be  just like me. So when I understood this principle of Joshua and why Joshua had  it a lot easier than Moses, when I finally understood that, I realized what I should have done. What I should have done is I should have said to my people, look 

home missions is my leader. And I'll tell you, this is what I like about them. This  is why I appreciate them. They love God, and they really want to see our church  planted, and they will do whatever it takes to help us see I should have honored  them, regardless of what I thought of them, regardless of whether I thought I  was smarter than they were. None of that matters. I should have modeled that I  too, am following. I'm not just a leader coming out of nowhere. I should have  modeled to home missions. I should have modeled to my people my honor of  home missions so that they would know how to treat me well. How can a  manager create this, this culture of honor? That's really what we're talking about. How do you get this where we honor our leaders? We honor people who are  doing things rather than, you know, always pulling them down. Number one, the  manager must find leaders that he or she is following and then honor them in  the presence of those he manages. So that's that's my point, that if I am the  leader, I need to find other leaders somewhere that I can honor. I am not just the king of some hill. I too need leaders. I too have to follow and be willing to honor  someone else, and I need to model that to all the people that I'm leading.  Number two, recognize publicly what you want repeated. This is where if you if  you want good things happening in your organization or in your church, you  want, let's say people encouraging one another, then you must recognize when  people do that. Recognize publicly. Hey, you know, I really appreciate John,  because I just saw him recognize someone else and lift them up. If you want  John's activity, what he is doing, repeated by all the people in your organization  or in your church, then you have to. Recognize it, lift it up. Whatever you lift up,  whatever you say. This is good. This is great. I really appreciate you, because  you're you go the extra mile and you lift that up. Then other people will want to  do the same thing, and they'll go the extra mile. Find many things in your  organization, in your church, or whatever it is you're leading, find many things to  recognize the most successful. You're doing a campaign. And someone we did a campaign once where in a whole summer, you had to keep track of how many  people you invited to your church or to your home. We wanted to get people to  invite people to their home, and eventually, you know, they might come to  church as well. So we honored the person who did the most. We actually kept  track of it, or the most improved, you know, so you're not just honoring the most  successful. Some people are really talented. They're just good at everything,  and they win every award. No, some people really struggle. Their talents aren't  that great, but they've really worked on it, and they've improved. So you honor  the most improved or the biggest risk. Someone took a risk with a program, or,  you know, they invited people to their home, and for them, they haven't invited  someone to their home in years, and they took a risk and did it recognize that?  Or the biggest failure, someone who tried something and it just failed. Or the, at  least, I tried a word, you know, someone who went out on a limb, tried  something and it failed miserably. But, but you want people trying and and once 

in a while, they'll succeed. If they never tried, they'll never succeed. So, so you  honor that initiative, or the Initiative Award, someone came up with a program  and went for it and tried it out, or The No Fear award, they you know, you're  trying to raise some money, and they went and asked somebody that you know  was fearful, and they didn't. They didn't want to do and they did it. They  overcame their fears, or they signed up for the canvassing team that went  around and knocked on doors and asked people if they went to church or not,  and and this person actually signed up, and that's their worst nightmare, is  talking to new people. So you honor those things that people fear. Do a  recognition banquet. In our church, we try to do that every year. We have the big party together. We have food. And in my first church, we did what we called the  thimble of hope, and it was a thimble, and people would put little eyes on it, and  a little nose on it. And then we had all these crazy awards. We tried to think of as many awards as possible. You know, the person who comes earliest to church,  award, something you recognize, oh, whatever is going on in your church,  whatever is going on in your organization. And we'd have people come up to the front. And then there was the ceremony of the thimble being put on the thumb.  And then they had to say a few words, and they got a little certificate, and there  was a verse on it, so you go to the nth degree to try to recognize and honor  what people are doing, give pay raises and job titles that reflect a person's  contribution. People are contributing to your organization and they're getting a  pay. Pay them accordingly. Obstacles to a culture of honor. Jealousy is the  number one obstacle. We don't honor people. I'm not going to tell you that you  do a good job, because you haven't told me that I do a good job. I'm not going to encourage you, because when's the last time you encouraged me? And so  that's, that's the kind of thing we have in a in an organization, you don't you don't really recognize what I do in this organization. You've never said anything. So  why am I going to say anything to you? And so it becomes this petty thing, even  if you do something good, I'm not going to say anything, because you never you  know, and it goes back and forth, and it's just a jealousy thing, or number two,  fear of competition. If I honor you and I recognize you, that means you're doing  better than I am, and you're ahead of me, and I'll never catch up, as if, if I honor  you. You know you have that with brothers and sisters. Sometimes, if you're  doing well, then then I'm doing worse. I can't just honor you. You did a good job.  Has nothing to do with whether I did a good job or not. It's just good job. But we  had that fear of competition. We had this sense that if you're winning, I'm losing,  and if I'm winning, you're losing. Why can't we both be winning? Number three,  false humility, let's not honor people. Because, you know, after all, it's all about  God. It has nothing to do with us. And so. Often, especially in the church, we  don't want to honor people. We don't want to lift them up. We don't want to say,  good job, because then they'll get a big fat head and they'll start thinking they're  better than God. You know the truth is, people, most people, have skinny little 

heads. It's very difficult to get a fat head, because most people are insecure  about who they are and what they do. You could tell them 10 times that they've  done a good job, and all they hear is, or all they see is the mistake that they  made. And they don't feel it. They don't they don't accept it. It's very, very difficult to lift someone up. It's, you know, if someone gets a big head, it's easy to bring  them down. There's no, no problem with people criticizing people. The hard part  is lifting people up and, and, and certainly, we do it all for God's glory, but God's  glory is like the sun. The sun produces all the heat and the light, but God has  made us like the moon. We reflect His glory, and so we can recognize God in  each other, recognize the gifts that he's given in each other. Number four  obstacles to a culture of honor insecure manager. I mean, if the if the manager  is insecure about his own position, if he's insecure about his own talents, that  then he's always looking for praise, always looking for others to encourage him  and lift him up, and he's never looking to lift other people up. And so you have to be a secure manager. I will get more honor and praise if I give honor and praise  I found as a pastor, the more I let people do. I let someone else preach. I let  someone else lead the whole service. I'm there. I say, like, three words, and  after the service, people come up to me and say, Wow, you did. You had a great  service there. And what did I do? I did two minutes of it. See, I get credit.  Regardless. I get credit when the people that I've helped succeed succeed. I  don't have to do it. So I don't have to be insecure about all the glory coming my  way and all the encouragement, the more encouragement I give away, the more  encouragement comes back. Okay? I just want to reiterate one more time as I  finish this session, recognize what you want repeated honor. Another word for  recognize is honor. What you honor is going to get repeated if you if you honor  walking with God, then you're going to get people trying to walk with God,  whatever it is you honor, whatever it is that you lift up, you want to lift up  friendliness, then people will try to be friendly. You want to lift up humility. Then  people will try to be humble. You want to lift up dependence on God. Then  people will, people will do whatever it is that you honor,