Destined To Win Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Destined to Win Part 4

Destined to Win Part 4 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. On this episode of Grace for Today, discover who you are and what you have because of Jesus Christ!

Destined to Win Part 4 Transcript

Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. I’m gonna be sharing today with my son, Aaron, and we’re gonna be talking about who we are and what we have in Christ. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are citizens of heaven on loan to the earth from God. We’re not trying to get to heaven, but heaven took up residence on the inside of us. And when you understand that, it will change the way you live. Friends, we’re so glad to have you with us today. Aaron’s with me and we’re sharing on Ephesians chapter two. Man, what a message from the gospel? How God has changed us by his grace. Salvation by grace. You know we’re not saved by our works? We’re saved by grace. And it’s by the absolute grace and mercy of God that he saved us. Ephesians 2:8, here Paul says, “For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast.” Then he says in verse 10, “For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”

Yeah, I love this first part of Ephesians two, just talking about the transformation that happens with God’s grace. Grace, a lot of people understand, a lot of believers understand that grace frees you. You’re forgiven of your sin. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sin from us. But a lot of people don’t understand that grace also transforms us, and grace also empowers us. But this is probably my favorite few verses, just so compact, so powerful, that talks about that transformation that happens. And we really see here, a lot of believers still confess that they’re sinners. A lot of believers just still confess that they don’t really know God’s will. They’re still kind of dark. Concerned that there’s darkness in them. But man, this just really talks about that true transformation that happens when you believe on Jesus.

Amen. And there is a change that happened in your spirit. And if you understand that change and renew your mind to it, it’ll change the way you live in the victory that you have. And these first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul is talking about who we are and what we have in Christ. And then he says in Ephesians four, “Put off the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lust. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man.” But you’ve gotta understand, this spiritual change, what really happened and who you really are, if you’re gonna operate in that victory, that Jesus won for you. So let’s begin, Aaron, you can begin reading in verse one.

Yeah, it says here in Ephesians two verse one, “And you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others.” So that’s really talking about who you were BC, before Christ.

That’s right.

Before Christ, you were dead.

You were dead. You have to made alive. You went from death to life, who were dead in trespasses and sins. So our spiritual condition before we came to Christ, was we were dead spiritually. The Bible says in Romans five verse 12, “By one man, Adam,” it’s talking about, “Sin and death came upon all men.” By one man. Adam brought sin and death upon all men. The Bible says in Romans six verse 23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” So we received the gift of God’s grace and we received a life of God, a relationship with God through Jesus.

It’s like a driving down a a row that says, “Dead end.” Before you met Jesus, you were just driving down a dead end road. You were dead, you weren’t going anywhere, especially spiritually speaking, you were on a dead end road. But Jesus, he is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father, except through him. So Jesus put you on a different road that leads-

[Lawson] Amen.

It’s a one way street to the Father, one way street to heaven. That’s Jesus, he is the way.

You were dead, but now you’re alive. And where are you alive? You’re alive in the spirit. We’re alive to God. Roman six says, “Now that we’ve left the reign of sin and death and come into the reign of grace and righteousness.” Talks about that in Romans five verse 17 and verse 21. But he says, “Now we’re dead indeed under sin, but we’re alive to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now he says, “When we were dead in these trespasses and sin, in time passed before Christ, before we were saved. You walked according to the course of this world.” So you just lived like the world. You just did what came naturally, right? “According to the prince, the power of the air,” the devil, “And the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.” This word, for disobedience, is the Greek word, apathea, and it means obstinate or rebellion. So you know what? We were disobedient. We were obstinate and rebellious. Get this, apathea, just the meaning, that word.

[Aaron] Sounds like apathetic.

Apathetic. If you’re not doing anything, you’re still spiritually dead.

I think a lot of people don’t really come to Jesus because they’re just apathetic.

[Lawson] About that situation.

About eternity, which is a terrible thing to be apathetic about.

Yeah, I don’t wanna be apathetic about life. I don’t wanna be apathetic about anything. And live again with purpose, we’ve been talking about that. But he says this in verse three, “When we lived in the world, we had our conversation, our lifestyle.” That word, that’s the old-

[Aaron] Can downgrade ourselves, yeah.

Yeah, that was talking about our lifestyle, our behavior, or citizenship in time passed in the lust of our flesh. Fulfilling the desires of our flesh. If it felt good, we did it, right? And our mind, sometimes we might have known better.

Yeah, I saw someone say that one of the worst things about just the young generation today is, their thoughts are too exalted. People just think if they think something that it is true, because I thought it, and therefore it is true.

You’re not God.

But God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways.”

Amen.

So just ‘cuz you think something, doesn’t mean it’s true.

No, Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth.” Thy word is truth. And the way that we’re separated from the world is by renewing our mind in the word. And you can’t. We are not God. That is terrible to think that way. And so he says, “This is how we walked when we were following the devil,” when we were not saved, when we were not born of God. He says, “When we were spiritually dead, we fulfilled the desires of our fleshing of our mind.” This is really the problem that Adam had. The Bible says in first Corinthians 15 about 40 something, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. But the last Adam, speaking of Jesus, was made a quickening spirit, a life giving spirit. So, I really believe the reason the first Adam fell into sin was because he was living more by his brain, out of his intellect.

Yeah, by his knowledge.

Rather than his spirit. He had a tremendous intellect. He named all the birds, all the animals. But at the same point in time, you can have a tremendous intellect and split hell wide open. And it’s not by our great intellect.

I like too, that Paul talks about this in verse three, that we’re by nature, children of wrath. So before Christ, you had a different nature. Your nature has been transformed.

Yeah, we had a nature. Children of wrath means determine lasting anger, even as others. So we were on our way to hell. Do you know, if you’ve not been born again, you are going to hell? And that’s what the Bible says. I’m sorry to break that news to you, but the good news is, if you’re not born again, you can get born again. You can believe on Jesus. The Bible says, “Whoever believes on the name of the Son of God has eternal life.” And you can be born again and receive a relationship with God through Jesus. And he goes on and tells us, “But that changed.”

Yeah, this is the transformation that happens. So it’s awesome. You can actually write these things down, make a line down the middle of the paper and put what he’s talking about before Christ and put what he’s talking about after Christ.

So we went from death to life, right? We went from wrath to mercy. We went from darkness to light.

From disobedience…

To being a child of God. From a child of the devil, to being a child of the God. That’s what he’s talking about. So Aaron, why don’t you read verse four through verse six or so?

Yeah, is says, “But God who is rich in mercy.” I love that, but God. That’s the key there. That’s where the transformation happens. It’s because of God. “But God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses.” So even when you were dead. You’re not the one who makes this transformation happen. You can’t transform yourself. Christianity is not a self-help program. It’s God who transforms lives.

Amen.

Amen. So it says, “Even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you had been saved. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

So God gave us eternal life, made us live with Christ.

There is no greater transformation than that.

Amen.

Now, there’s a lot of TV shows out about just transformation. How much weight can people lose? How can we transform this house from an old house into looking nice? A lot of people are interested in transformation. There is no greater transformation than what happens to you when you believe on Jesus.

There must be a spiritual transformation. You must be, Jesus said, “Born again.” People used to have this bumper sticker, it was kind of popular for a while, “Born right the first time.” No, you weren’t. The only person that was born right the first time was Jesus. And you were born in sin. And we talked about how we worked in sin.

Well, some people explain their sinful behavior, just saying, “Well, I was born this way.” Well, maybe you were, but you need to be born again.

[Lawson] Turn it around.

You can be born again in Jesus. Amen. Everybody needs to be born again. Hallelujah! How’d you get born again, Aaron?

I believed on Jesus.

[Lawson] Hallelujah!

Yeah, the best thing you can do is accept Jesus into your heart. Believe on him and make Him your Lord and Savior.

[Lawson] Praise God.

It’s the greatest miracle, really, that can happen.

Amen.

One time, my dad invited me to preach on a Sunday and I just preached about the thief on the cross who accepted Jesus. And to me, that was just such a great miracle. The miracle of salvation, it’s a beautiful miracle. When that thief believed on Jesus in the natural, him looking at Jesus, that was probably the worst time to believe that Jesus was Lord. He was on the cross. They said he was so beaten that he even looked like a man. He could probably hardly… He was probably so beaten, he could probably hardly breathe, hardly speak. Yet the Holy Spirit moved on this thief’s heart, and he believed on Jesus. And he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you go into your Kingdom.” And Jesus spoke to him and said, “Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”

Jesus said, “No man can come to the Father or come to me, except my Father who has sent me will draw him.” And it takes the Holy Spirit. And I believe the Holy Spirit is ministering today to some of you that are watching. And the Holy Spirit is quickening your heart that you need to be born again. That you maybe have had a change in your mind, but you’ve not really had a change in your spirit. And Jesus said, “You must be born again.” And that’s not talking about a natural birth, that’s not talking about an intellectual thing, that’s not talking about a works thing, that’s talking about a spiritual rebirth that happens when you believe on Jesus. And when you believe on Jesus, the scripture says, “You’re born of God and your spirit changes.” You have an outward man and you have an inward man. And your inward man needs to be born of God. And you receive that by grace. And that’s what he’s talking about. He says, “God made us live together with Christ by grace.” Or you say, it’s not about your performance, it’s not about how good you are, it’s not about all the things that you’ve done right. It’s about who you believe.

It says, “You were dead in trespasses.” There’s nothing you could have done.

I knew a man years ago and he was a good friend of my father. And he said, “I would believe, but I can’t live the Christian life.” Well, you can’t live the Christian life without the Christ life. That’s why you need to believe on Jesus. And God didn’t ask you to do all these things. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It’s not a bunch of religious rules and regulations. Romans 14:17, “But it’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” And when you believe on Jesus, you are made, you are given the gift of righteousness. You are made the righteousness of God in Christ. And so he says, “He made you live together with Christ, by grace are you saved.” And look at this. He says, “He’s raised us up together,” in verse six, “And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians two verse six is the key verse of all of the first three chapters of Ephesians, that talk about that we’re seated in heavenly places in Christ. We have a new position, and a new possession. We’re blessed, we’re chosen, we’re holy, we’re unbelievable. We’re predestined to succeed. We’re accepted in the beloved. We’re forgiven for every sin. We’re redeemed from every curse. We’ve got a new position and new possession. We’ve got a new purpose. We pray in a brand new way. And we were dead, but now we’re alive. And it’s because of the grace of God.

There’s something that you teach that I like from Ephesians. I think you got it from a famous Chinese minister named Watchman Nee called “Sit, Walk, Stand.”

And that’s what we’re talking about. We’re seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And I did get it from Watchman Nee’s book. I read that as a young minister of the gospel. Powerful, “Sit, Walk, Stand.” If you can get that book, it’s a great book.

It’s that revelation of being seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

Yeah, so many believers, so many churches teach, you gotta stand against the devil so you can walk out this life and gain a position of victory. You cannot do that. That is anti-gospel. That is you trying to perform, doing it in yourself. You begin from a position of victory. You’re seated, and because of that, you walk in a different way, and you stand against the devil and enforce the victory.

So seated first.

Yeah, you’re seated. See, we’re seated, we’re resting, right? Christ is seated at the right hand of God, waiting till his enemies be made his footstool. And we’re seated with him. Now, we walk this out in this life, right? But you gotta begin to understand this spiritual position first.

[Aaron] That’s awesome.

And he said, “He raised us up together.” He gave us a glorified position. The Bible says that we then as ambassadors for Christ beseech you, that you be reconciled to God. Second Corinthians chapter five verse 20, “For God made him Jesus.” Verse 21, “To be sent for us.” Jesus never sinned, but God made him a sin offering for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Let’s take a break, Aaron.

Awesome.

So we’ll be back really quickly. Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Purdue, and I’ve been teaching “Destined to Win” from the book of Ephesians. This is one of the greatest teachings that I’ve ever done. I’ve had more requests for this teaching than almost any teaching we’ve done. I’ve got it in eight parts as I taught it in church, in CD form, also in a USB. And then I also have the teaching in 16 parts, as we’ve taught it on television with my son, Dr. Aaron Purdue. And in this 16 part teaching, I am just thrilled with all the different things that was brought in. So you can get the eight part CDs or the USB that has all the video and audio, or you can get the 16 part as taught on television. Call us and let us know what you would like to have. We have a special offer today, and we’re so blessed to have you check out our website, CharisChristianCenter.com. We have this and many other materials, and we have all of these things online for free. Blessings. Praise the Lord, friends. We’ve been sharing from Ephesians chapter two, how that grace has changed us, and that we’ve come into a new place. And we went from death to life, from wrath to mercy. We’ve also went from slavery to dominion. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now we’re gonna read in verse seven, where we go from fear to hope. Glory to God. We are no longer living in fear, but we live in hope. He says that, “In the ages to come, he might show us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Wow, we have a bright future in Christ. Man, your future is so bright in Christ. And the path of the believer gets brighter and brighter as the coming of the dawning of the day until Christ comes again. That’s how it is. So we have this great hope in Christ. And notice this what he says in Ephesians 2:7, “In the ages to come, he might show us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Grace didn’t stop when you got born again. Grace didn’t stop when you got saved. Great, that’s just the beginning of the work of grace in your life. And if you’re honest with yourself, as believers, you could see the grace of God in your life even before you got saved. I could tell you, I could see the grace of God in my life. God protected me from something. God is an amazing God of grace. And a good example of this in the Old Testament is the story of Hosea. And God told Hosea who was a prophet to go marry a prostitute. And he went and picked Gomer and married her. And she deserved judgment. She did not deserve mercy. She did not deserve to be called a person of God. And yet God ministered grace to her. And then she, after he got married, you know what? She decided she didn’t like the preacher’s life. She didn’t like the prophet’s life. She wanted to go back out. She said, “I wanna go seek my other lovers that gave me wine and corn, and so on and so forth. It was better then than now.” And what a tragedy when somebody thinks that was the good old days? Listen, there wasn’t nothing good about it if you’d be honest with yourself. It was terrible. And God said, “I’m gonna hedge up her way, for she does not know that I gave her her corn, her oil, her wine.” That’s in Hosea chapter two. And then, she goes and literally becomes almost worth nothing. The world doesn’t even want her. And Hosea spends everything he has to buy her back to himself, because he is so in love with her. And I want you to know, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, if you’ve got any good in your life, it came from God. And even if you’ve sold yourself to where the world doesn’t even desire you, I want you to know that Jesus Christ loves you, and he gave everything. God gave everything to buy you back into a relationship with himself. And boy, when you receive the grace of God, it doesn’t end when you get saved. The Bible says that we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus. In second Peter chapter three, verse 18, it says, “We receive grace upon grace.” I mean, there’s so many things about grace. It’s a many faceted thing. But ultimately, we received grace in eternity that it talks about right here in Ephesians chapter two verse seven. So when you get saved, that’s just you answering the call of grace, really.

I like what you were saying about Hosea and Gomer. The woman he had married who went back to her lifestyle of prostitution until she became completely worthless. It reminds me of the story of the prodigal son, the parable that Jesus talked about, this prodigal son who was lifted up in his own pride. And, “I wanna do it my way.” And he asked his father for his inheritance early. What a selfish thing to do? You haven’t even passed away yet, but I want everything that’s mine, and I want it now. And he went and lived in the world. And then it said, he became so destitute that he realized that there’s no one who would give him anything. He was just surrounded by takers. I kinda saw that. The world will just take and take and take. That’s what happened to Gomer. Maybe that’s what’s happened to some of you. You’ve just been-

[Lawson] Used, and abused.

Gone their own way, and you’ve been used up and abused. And there is no one who will give you anything because they’ve just taken everything, every last dime, every last bit of self-esteem. They’re just taken everything away from you. But just go to God. God is a complete giver. Grace always gives.

You don’t have to be hurt and broken.

There’s nothing you can do to earn it. Yeah.

You don’t have to stay in that condition. You can receive grace from God. I mean, maybe even somebody in the church hurt you. But you just need to receive the grace of God, and let God use you.

God is such a giver too. He is not a taker. The devil takes away, the world takes away, people who are influenced by the enemy, take and take and take. But God only gives. His grace only gives. And there’s nothing you can do to deserve it or earn it.

Amen. So this is powerful. It’s amazing when he goes on in verse eight. He says, “For by grace, you have been saved.” This is a tenant of the faith. We are saved by grace through faith. And there’s people that preach about grace. And grace is essentially what God did for us in the person of Jesus Christ when he died and rose again. You know what? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. We were saved by grace and not by works. Romans 11, verse six says, “If it’s by works, then it’s not by grace. If it’s by grace, then it’s not by works.” But it’s not by grace and by works. And you are saved by grace through faith. Now, faith. Grace is what God did for us in the person of Jesus. Faith is our positive response towards the gospel. Believing it, believing Jesus. But I like to say, believe in Jesus changes everything. And it does, and it’s spiritual condition. It changes your spiritual conditioning. And he says, “And that not of yourselves.” It’s not your own faith. God even gave you the faith to be saved. He says, “For it is the gift of God.” Salvation is the gift of God, but the faith to be saved as a gift of God. And when you hear the gospel, the Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God in Romans 10, verse 17. And he says, “How are people gonna be saved if they don’t hear? And how will they hear if they don’t have a preacher? And how will they preach except they be sent?” As it’s written, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them who preach the good news that preach the gospel of peace, that preach the good news of good things?” Man, there’s good things that are involved in the gospel.

Well, when you step out in faith too, God is just gonna reveal more and more of his grace to you. It’s gonna become more and more of a revelation. I was just thinking about the prodigal son. It said when he reached the bottom of the barrel, it said he came to himself. And he was just thinking about his father’s goodness. And he thought, “Even my father’s servants have bread to eat and enough to spare. I wanna go back to my father and just repent. Say I messed up and just make me like one of your servants.” So he took that step of faith to go back to the father. And when he came to the father, there were just more and more grace said, “Exceeding type of grace was revealed to him.”

Amen. And it says, “It’s not by work, so that any person should boast.” It’s not by our own performance. It’s not by our works. You know what? Nobody can say that they’re better than another person, because without Jesus, we’re all sinners and we all need a savior. But then he says this, “For we are his workmanship created, in Christ Jesus under good works.” God had a plan for your life, and it’s good. That God before the foundation of the world ordained that we should walk in him. God wants you to have a good life. He wants you to have good things in eternity, but it’s all through receiving Jesus. If you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or if you’re not right with God, I wanna invite you to call our prayer ministers today. Thank you for tuning in today. Blessings.

[Aaron] Do you know your true position in Christ Jesus? You have been saved, raised up and seated in heavenly places with him. You can stand against any attack of the enemy from a position of victory. You are destined to win. You can get the eight part live teaching on CD for $48, or on USB for $35, or get the 16 part as seen on TV USB for $59, when you call 719-418-4000, or visit CharisChristianCenter.com.

Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I wanna say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.

[Aaron] Thanks for watching “Grace For Today.” This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on “Grace For Today.”