There is a man I want to tell you about. His story
will help you see just how important it is to have
honor in business—important in ways you may not
have imagined.

This fellow was about 20 years old and had a
good job. He came from a family that had very little
money. He was the youngest child, and there was a
lot of difficulty in his household. He worked his regular
job all day, and at night fixed cars to sell. Gradually, he
began making money.

He finally saved enough so he could buy a
better type of car to restore and sell. He began to
make a bit more money. He was good at his work,
a gifted businessman.

His folks attended a Baptist church in Fort Worth.
There was a meeting at church, and he decided to
go. At the end of the service when the invitation was
given, the conviction of the Holy Ghost came on him
as he stood there. He had a tight grip on the seat in
front of him, trying to resist responding to the
wooing of the Lord.

The Spirit of God was all over him, and he was
trying to keep from going forward and receiving Jesus
as his Savior and Lord. A man in the church came
over, put his arm around the young man and told him
he loved him. He encouraged him to go forward. In
fact, that man walked with him down the aisle.

Before that week was up, the same man who had
led him to the altar to accept Jesus beat him out of
all of his profit on a car. It wasn’t a mistake. He just
skinned that young man in a deal—on purpose. The
older man should have known better. Any Christian
ought to know that you don’t get a man saved
on Saturday night, then cheat him on Tuesday.

That’s wrong.

The young man had a temper. He was angry, so
he rebelled against the Lord. He said he never would
go back to church again. And he didn’t.

He became very successful in the car business,
and eventually had a business that was nationwide.
Then he went into the airplane business, and I started
flying for him. He and I became close friends.

My mother and father lived just two doors down
from him. He liked my parents and would sometimes
eat with us. Mama would feed him and preach to him
and just love him. She would say, “I’m telling you right
now, I’m going to pray you into the kingdom of God.”
He would just smile.

She prayed for him just as she prayed for me—all
the time. She treated him as if he were her own son,
and he just ate it up. But she could not get him inside
the church door. Why? Because of a dishonorable
Christian businessman.

Years later, after I had entered the ministry I had
the opportunity to pray with him. He stayed with it
for a few days, then went right back to the way he had
been. Afterward, he stayed on my mind and heart a
lot. I was praying about his situation once while I was
in a meeting and I thought to myself, I’m going to call
him as soon as I get back to town.

When I got home and called him, a lady
answered. When I asked if I could speak to him, she
said, “He died day before yesterday.”
You can imagine how I felt. I thought, I missed him.
Although I rolled the grief and pain over on the Lord,
something in my spirit would not let it end that way.

I went to the funeral, and the man’s son asked me
to say a few words about his father. So I did. I told the
people exactly what had happened in this man’s life,
what had caused him to be the way he was.

After the funeral when we were gathered at the
memorial park, a woman walked up to me and said,
“Kenneth, I need to tell you something.” I want you
to see God’s faithfulness and honor from what she
told me.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries