Work with Purpose Conference | Honoring Up | Sept. 2025

As believers, we lead out by honoring

up. See, it doesn’t actually matter our

role or our status in the organization.

We can make an impact through the way we

respect our leaders.

Some of you might be thinking,

“Okay,

you don’t know my leader. They deserve

no respect.” Or, “You don’t know how

they’ve treated me all these years.” Or

the toxic work environment that they’ve

created. And and I would say, “I have

had every single one of those thoughts

and am right there with you.” When I was

working on this talk, I was reminded of

an undeserving leader. She had called us

all into the office on a Saturday. We

were behind. So, we were going to have

this dayong meeting where we worked on

projects. And so, we had this long

conference table. So, we’re all putting

our things down on the sides and and she

always came in at the end and she had

these big binders with all these papers

in them for our projects. And she puts

her stuff down. She starts the meeting

and about 10 minutes in something

triggers her and she starts yelling and

she’s cussing at us and she gets so mad

that she pushes her stuff away from her

and when she pushes her stuff it hits

our stuff and so papers are flying and

then she just gets up and walks out of

the room and leaves the building.

And I remember thinking, this is what I

gave up my Saturday for. And why would I

respect someone like her? And so as I

was working on this talk and and

remembering that situation and those

feelings and just the questions that

came from from that moment, something

funny and humbling happens. And it has

to do with this fella, this fluffy guy.

His name is Glenn.

So earlier this summer, I was walking

through our house and I happened to look

in our sun room. Glenn and our twins,

Hadden and Carolina Tate are in the sun

room. Critical to this story is we have

one set of Pottery Martin pillows in our

house. They are also in the sun room.

And I happen to walk by and Glenn is on

the sofa, which he is not supposed to

do. and he has one of those pillows and

his big paws are around it and he is

like gnawing at the pillow like saliva

is coming down. He’s just going to town

on this pillow and my kids are in there.

And so something for some reason when I

saw this I got so angry this like came

up in me I yelled his name so loud that

my son Haden burst into tears and ran

out of the room. But I was undeterred.

And I look at Carolina Tate and I say,

“How were there two humans in this

room?” And no one thought to tell the

dog, “Stop chewing on the pillow.” And

now she’s crying. And she’s like, “Mom,

please stop yelling. Like, you scare me.

You’re yelling. You’re scared.” And so

we just keep going and we have this

interaction. The afternoon goes on. We

all calm down. I come back to work on

this talk and I’m thinking about that

work situation again. But then all of a

sudden the Holy Spirit starts talking to

me and he says, “Was how you treated

your kids different from what your boss

did that day?”

And to be honest, at first I was like,

“Yes, of course. This was justified

today. There were Pottery Barn pillows

involved.” Like,

but then he said, “How did you feel when

your boss yelled at you?” And I could

still remember I felt belittled and

unappreciated. And then he said, “How

did your kids feel when you yelled at

them earlier today?” And I knew how they

felt because they had told me they felt

scared when I yelled at them. And what I

realized in that moment were th those

were I had categorized those scenarios

differently.

But the undeserving boss and myself, we

both needed forgiveness.

and your undeserving boss and you you

both need forgiveness.

Colossians 3:13 says, “Bear with each

other and forgive one another if any of

you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” You

see, I’m using a double standard if I

pick and choose who deserves my respect.

And as believers,

it is not or how we honor people is not

based on who deserves respect, but on

what Christ has done for us.

And so then that leads us to the

question and when we know this, that

leads us to the question, how do we lead

out by honoring up? And and what does

that look like on a daily basis? Well,

first we see the value in people. So my

friend Rebecca works in accounting. She

used to work for one of the big four

accounting firms and she said that her

leader created such a toxic work

environment that it had actually started

to ra make Rebecca physically ill. And

so she’s a believer. So she decided to

start praying about what to do. And she

said, “I started praying for my leader.”

And all of the sudden, she said, I

started to feel empathy toward that

leader. And she said, I I started to

have these questions like, what what

kind of pressure might she be facing?

And if I were in her shoes, how would I

want to be treated? And she said, and

then I just started treating her like

that. And she said, I actually started

praying for my leader success. She said,

I prayed that she would be successful in

every area of life. And she said when I

did that, I couldn’t hate her anymore.

She said at the end of their busy

season, her leader actually came to her

and said, “Hey, I noticed how you

treated me and you had a lot of empathy

toward me.” See, Rebecca saw the value

in her leader as a person. And we can do

that. It’s a way to lead out by honoring

up. And I think it’s natural when when

we work with leaders who don’t deserve

respect that people sometimes just do

mediocre work. But not us as believers.

We humbly bring our best. And I love

Esther from the Bible. She does this so

well. So King Xerxes is a pagan, evil,

selfish king. He listens to evil people.

Hmon’s one of those evil people. And

Hmon creates this plan to kill all the

Jews in the kingdom. And it seems like

Xerxes kind of nonchalantly agrees to

the plan to kill the Jews. And if you

look in Esther 3:15, so after the the

decree has been made to kill the Jews,

it says, “And the king and Hmon sat down

to drink, but the city of Susa was

thrown into confusion. And when the city

was thrown into confusion, Esther, who

once questioned her identity as a child

of God, she steps up to humbly bring her

best and she prays. She asks her friends

to pray for her. She fasts. But what I

love about Esther is she is so

strategic. If you read Esther chapters 4

through8, you see she’s incredibly

strategic. I think she uses this like

divinely inspired um wisdom and social

awareness in how to approach the king to

reveal Hmon’s evil plan. And if you read

it, you see that she’s really just

thoughtful. So, she plans a banquet. She

thinks about when to approach the king

and how to approach him and the timing.

And when she does and speaks the truth

to reveal the evil plan, Xerxes changes

his mind and people are saved. And those

are all strategic tips from Esther that

we can utilize in our daily jobs. And

thankfully, a lot of what we do isn’t

life and death. And I think Craig

Rochelle, he sums it up really well. He

says, “Learn your leader rhythms and the

best time to approach them. And when you

do, approach them with kindness and

clear communication.”

Or maybe humbly bringing your best looks

like my friend Heather. She does her

best attitude or she brings her best

attitude and she does her best work. She

owns a consulting firm and she has this

client who is just um they just operate

in this chaotic environment and they

don’t communicate well. There’s just a

lot you could say they don’t deserve.

But what I’ve noticed about Heather is

she’s chosen to operate with care and

grace toward them. She told me one time

she said, “I just don’t enter into their

chaos. But what she does do is she shows

them a different way to work. She does

excellent work. She does it on time and

she doesn’t scramble at the last minute.

She brings her best attitude. She does

her best work. And it’s a way to lead

out by honoring up.

And then lastly,

we speak truth. So Daniel from the Bible

does this with Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar is another evil uh pagan

king. He captures Jerusalem, captures

the people. Daniel’s one of those

people. And Nebuchadnezzar has this

dream. And in those days, dreams were

believed to predict the future of the

kingdom. So Nebuchadnezzar actually had

people on his staff to interpret the

dream. But for some reason, this time,

no one could interpret the dream. And he

gets so angry that he that he says he’s

going to kill all the interpreters on

his staff. And again, in a time of

crisis, a follower of God steps up. And

if you look in Daniel 2, you can see his

response similar to Esther. He prays, he

fasts, he asks his friends to pray for

him. He goes boldly also to the king,

speaks truth, interprets the dream,

credits it to God, and again, people are

saved. And we know that Daniel remained

a source that continued to point

Nebuchadnezzar to God’s truth. And down

the road, Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and

actually confessed to the one true God.

The study notes in my Bible say that God

used Daniel’s faithfulness to bring

light to Nebuchadnezzar. You see, an

undeserving leader came to know God’s

mercy because a follower of God was

willing to lead out by honoring up. And

the God who did that in Daniel’s

situation is the same God who’s still in

our workplaces today. And he wants to

bring the most furthest, most

unbelieving people to come to know his

love. and he wants to use you just like

he’s using my friend Rebecca in

accounting, just like he used Esther,

just like he’s using Heather in her

consulting business, and just like he

used Daniel.

So, let’s lead out by honoring up.

I want to share with you one more story

from my family. My son Haden uh wanted

to play soccer about two years ago. So,

we signed him up on this team. We

immediately get this email that says,

“Thank you for joining. Your team has no

coach.” And so we continually we get

these emails. So finally my husband

Brandon, he replies all to all the

parents and he says, “I have never

played soccer. I don’t know how to coach

soccer, but if if no one else can coach,

I can do it.” So you can guess Brandon

becomes the coach. And it did not go

well. Like it was going so bad that even

the twins were five at the time. Even

Carolina Tate, she like pulled me to the

side and she was like, “Hey, I don’t

think dad knows what he’s doing as a

coach.” And I was like, “I mean, he

doesn’t, but it’s going to be fine.” So,

the season starts. Here are some of the

blue predators. We had a really mean

donut game. But as the season starts, we

get to know these guys and we learn that

some of them are going through really

difficult family situations. And while

Brandon didn’t know how to coach a

soccer team, what Brandon does know how

to do is he’s fun, he’s loving, and he’s

encouraging. And so each week he was

just this stable, encouraging presence.

I mean, the guys were doing cartwheels

on the field. Like they just had fun.

And I remember kind of stepping back and

thinking, huh, maybe this is bigger than

the game. And then we had this hard

loss. We had a lot of losses, but this

one, for some reason, a lot. Um, but

this one like hit the team really hard.

And so afterward, Brandon is lining the

the guys up to, you know, go high five

the team because you do that. So he’s in

the front, the boys are in the back, he

lines them up, he starts walking, he

high-fives. What he doesn’t see is that

our whole team puts their hand behind

their back and refuses to shake hands

with the winning team. And so because

we’re on the sidelines, the parents, we

see it and we’re like, Brandon, turn

around. And so he turns, he sees what’s

happening and he is livid. I mean, he’s

like, “Everyone, like he made us parents

come to.” He’s like, “Everyone take a

knee.” And he gets down and he’s looking

him in the eye and he’s like,

“Absolutely not. That was not how you

lose.” And he’s like, “Every great

athlete experiences loss.” And he’s

like, “And when you do, you respect

yourself and you hold your head up high.

And then you respect that winning team.

You go high-five them. You look them in

the eye.” and he keeps going. And I

remember again in that moment thinking,

huh, maybe it’s bigger than the game.

And what I realized is that Brandon’s

purpose was bigger than his role. His

purpose was bigger than his role of an

unpaid volunteer coach to 5-year-olds

who couldn’t win.

And your purpose is bigger than your

role. As you lead out by honoring up in

your business, your purpose is bigger

than your role. See, Jesus calls us to

follow him and to see the value in

people just like he did. And to humbly

bring our best every day just like he

did. and to go speak truth just like he

did.

And the role it might change from time

to time. In fact, it’s actually less

important, but the focus is to point

others to Jesus and his amazing love. So

today in our jobs,

let’s go lead out by honoring up

And so we’re also going to pause one

more time just for a minute of

reflection. And I want you to think

about what’s the first step, either the

first step or the next step that you can

take to honor up.