Lifestyle of Faith – Part 4 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  I’m so glad that you’re here. We’re gonna talk about something today that is dear to my heart. We’re gonna talk about the blessing of the Lord. And did you know what? There’s only two kinds of believers: those who are blessed and know it and those who are blessed and don’t. So open your heart and receive the good word of God and see how you can get more of God’s blessing working in your life. Friends, it’s great to have you here, and I’m happy Aaron’s here. We’re talking about loving life. Do you love life? Praise God, we wanna love life. And before we get into the Scripture about this, I thought about… 1 Peter 3:10 says, “For he who will love life and see good days.” Do you love life? Do you see good days? I thought about, “What is the foundation in my life? Why do I love life?” And a lot of times, we see all the corruption. We see all corruption in government, corruption in the world, we see problems, we see difficulties even in the church. Aaron, you addressed yesterday, sometimes, there’s things and we’re plainly believing for better. But sometimes, they’re just challenges. But what is the foundation for us to love life even in the face of challenge? We talked about number one, God is good. Don’t blame God for your problems. And we talked about the Scriptural foundation for that. We talked about number two, the word of God is true. We have a Bible full of promises that we can believe. Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God is true, is pure. He is a shield of those who put their trust in Him.” Number three, we talked about this yesterday. Jesus is Lord and He’s the eternal Lord. And if we’ve made Jesus Lord for eternity, we can stand whatever difficulties we have to deal with. Amen, when we have that confidence, and that trust, and that hope in Him. But number four, we’re gonna talk about that we’re blessed. Glory to God. We have promises of blessing. Now, if you’re born again, you’re blessed. A good friend of mine says, “There’s only two kinds of believers: the ones that are blessed and know it and the ones that are blessed and don’t.” Because if you’re born again, the Bible says you’re blessed. It says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Amen? That’s Ephesians 1:3. So let’s just get into the word and talk a little bit about the blessing of the Lord. And Aaron, let’s go to Numbers 6. And this is the priestly blessing that God gave to Moses, and God gave it to him for Aaron and his sons, the Levitical priesthood, right, to bless. And when we read it, I just love it, praise God. In fact, a priest was to bear the word of God. Two of his responsibilities was to pray to God and was to bless the people. And so when we understand the new covenant, the Book of Hebrews, we understand, and 1 Peter talks about that, that we are a kingdom of priests. That we are priests in the new covenant. Every believer is a priest. We have a Great High Priest Jesus and we are priests. And we’re not only priests, but we’re also kings. And Jesus is the Great High Priest, and He is the King of Kings. But when we understand that, praise God, then we can be, as a Old Testament priest was, to bless people. We can speak the blessings of God. So just read this priestly blessing, I just love it.

 

  You hear Numbers 6:23, it says, “The Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his son saying this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.'”

 

  Amen, so this is a spoken blessing of the Lord. Now, we, as new covenant priests and kings, our words have authority. In fact, the Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat the fruit of it. Jesus said, “By your words, you’re justified. By your words, you’re condemned.” And so He says out of your heart, the words that come out of your mouth come out of your heart. And so our words have power. And we, as new covenant priests, need to speak this blessing. Now, when we say, “The Lord bless you,” in the Hebrew, this word bless is the Hebrew word Barak. And it means to kneel, to bless, to be blessed. It means to praise, to salute, to cause to kneel. But as we surrender, right, to the Lord Jesus, I believe that we come into a blessing, a place of blessing. The Lord keep you. That word keep is the Hebrew word Shamar, and it means guard and protect you, to preserve you. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is the one who’s the protector to save life, the protector of our life. The Lord bless you, the Lord protect you, the Lord keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you. I love this one. In the Hebrew, this is the word Or, and it means to become light or bright to shine, to make to shine, to set on fire, to be glorious. Hallelujah, we have been set on fire as new covenant believers with the blessing, with the glory of God. The glory of God is honest. And He goes on and says, “The Lord be gracious to you,” and that word gracious is Canaan, talking about the Promised Land. Be gracious to show His favor to make favorable. The Lord shines His favor on us and makes us favorable. He says to direct favor, too. He directs favor our way. Hallelujah. In fact, I used to teach a series in Charis Bible College years ago called The Favor of God. And a good friend of mine, his name is Paul Stewart, Paul said, “Lawson, that ought to be your life message because your life is a testimony of the favor of God.” And I’ve seen so much favor. In fact, when we built our first church in Kit Carson, Kit Carson, town of 300 in Eastern Colorado, and a county of 2,200 that covers 2,400 square miles. Aaron grew up there, praise God, till you became a freshman in high school when we moved here. But Lester Sumrall came, we built our first church in 15 months. We had a paid-for cash from when we went there. And Lester Sumrall came and dedicated, he said, “A long time since I’ve been out this far in the country.” They actually flew into Lamar, Colorado. That was the closest place that they could land their jet, 60 miles away. And Mr. Jim Mitchik and I went down and picked Dr. Sumrall up and brought him. And that’s when he said, and he came and he preached, he said, “How’d you do this so quick?” I remember after this, the service, and we just got in the car to take him back, went to our house to eat something, then drove him back to Lamar, and spent the night, and then took him out to the airport in the morning. But he said, Lester said, I said, “I’ve had a lot of favor.” When he asked me how I did all, did so quick, I said, “I’ve had a lot of favor.” He said, “God gives favor, don’t you ever forget it.” And boy, I’ve never forgotten it, praise God. And I don’t know, I don’t actually believe he was shouting, but I believe the Holy Spirit magnified his voice in my ears and it seemed as if he screamed. It shot through my body like fire. And I just thought, “Man, God gives favor.” I’ve never forgotten it, hallelujah. That was in 1989 when Lester Sumrall came and dedicated our church, praise God, and he gave me that word. I’ve never forgotten it. I remember when he ordained me into the ministry, he laid his hands onto me and he gave this Scripture, John 15:16. And he said, “You have not chosen me, but I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain.” And I remember that just magnified in my ears. It seemed like he shouted, “Go.” And I worked for Dr. Sumrall then, and I went to Bible school there, and I went and looked at the tape, the VHS, the video tape the next day. And when he said it, he said, “You have not chosen me, but I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit,” just normal voice. But in my ears, the Holy Spirit magnified that sound. And I thought, “I’m gonna go till Jesus comes or I go be with Him.” I’m gonna go with the gospel, glory to God. So thank God, the Lord is the one who gives favor to us. He says, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” This word peace is the Hebrew word Shalom. Hallelujah. Aaron, what does shalom mean?

 

  Peace.

 

  Peace. Hallelujah. Peace, it also means blessing, and prosperity, and increased spirit, soul, and body. Hallelujah. Wellbeing. When the Jews greet one another, they say, “Shalom.” God’s peace be to you, God’s wellbeing, God’s provision, God’s prosperity. He’s called Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. But when he gave that, it’s in Judges and it’s in Judges 6, I believe, when he first gave it. And Gideon was who God revealed himself to as Jehovah Shalom and Gideon’s like, “I’m the poorest of the poor from the poorest family.” And the Lord gave that name, He called the name of that place. He built an altar and fire came out of the rock and consumed the sacrifice. Jesus is the rock, the fire of the Holy Spirit, consuming that sacrifice a type of Christ. And he’d called the name of the place Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is my peace and the Lord is my prosperity. And he says, get in and go in the mic, go in the anointing on you, and you’ll deliver Israel as one man. And he says, “The Lord gives you peace, Shalom, His blessing, His favor, His increase, His provision, and they will put my name on the children.” And that word name in the Hebrew is the word shem. It means reputation, fame, or memorial, a monument. We are to be a monument for the Lord’s glory. Hallelujah, in the Old Testament, they set up rocks, right, and monuments, and they were to remember what God did. But today, when people look at us, they should remember what God did. And we need to remember what the Lord has done. So praise God today. We are blessed by the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. Aaron, we’re going to go to break in a little bit, but after break, I want you to share a little bit how you got that revelation while you are in college, hallelujah, about you are blessed by the Lord, the possessor of heaven and earth. Praise God. Thank God we are blessed today. We have a covenant of blessing. It’s ours in Jesus. We are the seed of Abraham through Jesus Christ, and the covenant of God and the promises of this covenant are ours today. And we don’t have to wait till this week by and by to be blessed. We are blessed right here, right now. Amen, and if you know Jesus and believe the promises, praise God, you can begin to experience that blessing in your life. Because God is not a respecter of persons. He is only a respecter of faith. We’ll be back right after the short prayer blessings. Hey, friend, I have a question for you. Do you love life? I believe that God wants you, as a believer, to love life, to enjoy living. And I believe that God has given us the keys in His work so that we can do that. So go to our website at Charis Christian Center and download this teaching. Absolutely free. Blessings.

 

  The sermons are so rich, there’s so much Scripture, and there’s so much depth to what’s being taught here.

 

  I’m really eager to learn more about the Bible and I really like going to hear Aaron on Wednesdays. He delves into Scriptures and really wraps his mind around it.

 

  We love all four pastors. Each has a different kind of calling on their life. I feel.

 

  Praise the Lord, friends. I am so glad that you’re with us. We are talking about that we are blessed, we have a covenant of blessing. And Aaron, you got a revelation of this in college. Tell us a little bit about that.

 

  I wanna talk about Gideon for a minute.

 

  Yeah, that’s great.

 

  You were mentioning Gideon, and when Gideon got this revelation that God was peace, Jehovah Shalom, before he received that revelation, he was actually arguing with who God said He was. The angel of the Lord appeared and told him that you’re that mighty man of valor, and he was actually arguing. God sees you for who you truly are, and He’s gonna call you who you truly are. He’s gonna call those things out of you. He’s gonna identify you as who you truly are. So He’s gonna call you blessed even when you might not feel blessed, think you’re blessed. And I think some of you have been arguing with God, saying, “I’m not really blessed. Look at this situation, I’m not really blessed. Look at this situation.” But once Gideon finally realized that he was talking with the Lord, like, he was afraid. He fell down and he was afraid that he’d get zapped, just like the offering got zapped. And then, but God spoke peace to him and just said, “Don’t be afraid.” And when God spoke peace to him, he had that revelation. This God is peace, He is Jehovah’s Shalom. And a lot of you need to identify with who God says you are, and He calls you blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  If you had Jesus on the inside of you, you are blessed. So that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you have in your bank account, what’s happened to you, what the doctor has said, what the lawyer has said, what people who’ve hurt you relationally have said, God is speaking blessing over you right now. And you need to identify with it and stop trying to argue and fight against the blessing of the Lord that’s on your life.

 

  Amen. Now, Aaron, when you got this revelation when you were in college that I’m, and you went to a lot of college, 11 years. Got your undergrad, your master’s.

 

  Yeah, so God… God actually, I was reading through Scripture, and God spoke to me from Genesis 14. It was when Abraham had gone out and fought these enemy kings who had taken away Lot, his nephew, and all their goods and the people. And he took out his servants, hundreds of servants that he had trained with him to go bring them back and he did. And when he is coming back with the spoils and the people, it says, Melchizedek came out and spoke a blessing. A priest will speak a blessing. Melchizedek was the Priest King of Salem, and he blessed Abraham and said, “You’re blessed by the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth.”

 

  Amen.

 

  And as I was reading that verse, that blessing just came alive to me. And I really identified with the blessing. I knew that I was blessed by the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. And when I received that revelation, and that was my new identity, it didn’t really matter what was happening in my career, relationships, bank account. I knew I was blessed. At the time, I didn’t have anything. I was sleeping on an air mattress, I was barely surviving, but I knew that I was blessed by the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. And that just shifted my… Just everything started changing from that moment in my life. And I just… God just keeps pouring out blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace in my life.

 

  Amen.

 

  But it started with knowing that I was blessed. So many of you need to stop arguing with God.

 

  Amen.

 

  And see yourself the way he sees you. See yourself as blessed.

 

  Yeah, the fact is if you’re born again, you’re blessed. And we talked about that from Ephesians 1:3, but I wanna show you something from Galatians 3. And in Galatians 3, Paul makes a statement. Let’s just look at it really quickly. It’s in Verse 8 or Verse 9. But he says this, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the gospel before to Abraham.” So Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Jesus Christ and God spoke this to Abraham in Genesis 12 and then confirmed it on a number of occasions. But he said, “In you shall all nations be blessed.” So some people think you can’t see the grace of God in the Old Testament, but right here it says, God preached the gospel to Abraham. And that was 2,000 years before Christ when he said this. So he says, so then those who are of the faith are blessed with faithful. And I like one translation of this in Verse 9. Says, “All they who are of the faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” So if you’re born again, if you believed on Jesus, you’re blessed. And in your spirit, you’re already blessed. Now, you’ve gotta renew your mind to what the word of God says. Now, what happened to you is you were studying the Scriptures, you were reading. God made that a revelation to you. And I remember mom and I came to meet you. I think it’s when you were getting your doctorate. So you had already done your undergrad and your master’s, but we came to visit you in Houston. You were living in a little 500-square-foot apartment. But you had Genesis 14 on the Scripture that said, and you put, “I am blessed by the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” And praise God, I just rejoiced to see that. In fact, after you moved to Colorado Springs a number of years, I saw it by your back door, you had that same sign. “I am blessed by the Lord, the possessor of heaven and earth.” And when you get that blessed mentality, it’s hard for you to stay broke, it’s hard for you to stay sick and stay defeated. In fact, I had some people tell me years ago, Mark and Denise Bassett, it’d be hard to come to your church, Lawson, and stay sick and stay poor if you come to your church for any period of time and really believe what you preach. And you know, Denise was supposed to die of cancer and God healed her. Praise God, we’ve seen lots of people healed by the power of God that believes the gospel. And when you believe the gospel, you don’t have to stay sick, you don’t have to stay poor. The devil will try to attack you. He’ll try to get all he can get, he’s a deceiver. But you can believe the Bible, you can believe the word of God, you can believe the promise and operate in the blessing of the Lord. In fact, as we read on down through this, he basically says, “Christ,” in Verse 13 and 14, “has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'” But then he says this in Verse 14. So that, or that in the King James, but to me it means so that the blessing of Abraham, you are redeemed from the curse for a purpose. Jesus took the curse. And because he took it, you don’t have to take it. He says, “So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” So what that’s actually saying, when you’re born again, when you believe on Jesus, the spirit of Christ comes on the inside of you. So if you’re born again, you’re blessed. You’ve already got the blessing on the inside. But if you’re gonna walk in the blessing on the outside, you’ve gotta renew your mind to who you are on the inside to what God says about you. And so when we read on down through this at the very end, I love to go to the end because he says this in Verse 26 through 29, “You are all the children of God by faith in Jesus.” You see, the reason that we get all the promises, the reason that we get all the stuff is because we’re God’s kids. We’re in the family. Hallelujah, I’m in God’s family. Do you know, Aaron, because I made a decision to be a minister of the gospel and not to pursue a career in agriculture, I was actually taken out of my grandfather’s will? But you know what? I’m blessed anyway. And God helped me anyway. And I’m much more prosperous probably than if I’d have just stayed there. I’d have prospered anyway ’cause I believe the word of God at that point and believe in the word of prosper you wherever you’re at. God hasn’t called everybody to do what He’s called me to do, but I believe I’m more blessed because I obeyed God, Amen, and did what he said. Now, he goes on and says this. “For as many of you have been baptized into Christ, to put on Christ, where there’s neither Jew or Greek, there’s neither bond or free, there’s neither male or female.” So it’s not about race, it’s not about religion, it’s not about class, it’s not about being an employee or an employer, right, it’s not about how much money you have or don’t have. It’s about Jesus. He says, “Neither male nor female.” It’s not about gender, it’s about Jesus. He says, “For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” If you’re born again, if you’re in Christ, you’re blessed. And he says this, “And if ye be Christ’s, then you’re Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” So we’re Abraham’s seed. And as Abraham’s seed, we’re blessed by the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. You know, Abraham not only met Melchizedek, the Priest King of Salem that day when he came back, he also met the King of Sodom. And the King of Sodom tried to bless him with the worldly blessing. We’re not talking about a worldly thing, we’re talking about a spiritual inheritance. And he told the King of Sodom, “I won’t take anything from you except what the young man have went, Abraham went,” with an army, three or 400 young men, right, of trained servants to go after in the Battle of the Kings, to get back Lot and his goods. But they’d been going a lot of places. So Abraham not only restored the goods and the people from Sodom where Lot lived, but he got all this other. And when he met Melchizedek, right, Melchizedek blessed him. And then Abraham gave to Melchizedek a tithe of all. So Abraham’s really the father of tithing. I tithe, right? And I not only tithe, I give much beyond a tithe. Your mom and I give about 30% of our income and have for about 40 years. Praise God. We give about 30%. I was giving about 30% before I married your mom. And we continue to give 30%. We’ve given about 30% of our income, yet our net worth is about three, over three times all the money we’ve ever made in 40 years of married life. That’s a miracle of God. That’s only because of the blessing of the Lord. But you know what? God has no respect for persons. He has a respect for faith. We’re the seed of Abraham, we’re not the seed of Moses. So this isn’t talking about a legalistic thing. This is talking about receiving the blessing. And Abraham gave to Melchizedek, the Priest King of Salem, the city of peace, Jerusalem. And Jesus receives our tithe. Hebrew 7 says, “So that’s a good enough reason for me to give.” Now, you may have an argument with me, but listen, I’m receiving the blessing, I’m walking in it, praise God, and I believe the greatest thing in giving is sow and seed. So I give and I like to give to places that have an anointing of increase. Amen? And just as we’ve received it in Charis Christian Center, we’ve shared it with other people. Just if I’ve received it personally, I share it with other people. Praise God, so I want it just speak to you a little bit about partnership. And if you’ve never become a partner with Charis Ministries, with “Grace for Today,” I ask you to pray about that because I believe that in sowing to this ministry, you will receive a harvest and it will be more than you sow. Praise God. Because God multiplies our seed zone. Amen? If you wanna know more about that, you can get on the website, you can call us. And we’ve got literally hundreds of hours of teaching that we’ve made available for free, downloadable video, downloadable audio. And we’ve got many, many things, materials that we give. We have a free children’s curriculum. We broadcast this all around the world in different places, and that’s because of the health of our partners. If you don’t wanna do that, Don’t feel directed to, that’s fine, praise God, but I just want to give you that invitation. I believe you’ll receive more than you sow, praise God? God’s good. Aaron, share a word before we go off.

 

  Yeah, I was just gonna say my wife and I like to partner and give to ministries where we really receive revelation from where we really value the teaching and it’s helped us grow. And so we like to give back into ministries that have really ministered to us, really encouraged us in the word of God. So-

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s how I’m led with my giving. I tied to the local church, but I also like to give to ministries where I’ve just been blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I want to give back and share in that message that’s going out to other people too. So-

 

  Amen. Praise God. You know, I give to some people that have needs. I give to orphans, so on and so forth. I give to great ministries, but I also give to some very wealthy, prosperous ministries because the word’s working in their life. So praise God, it’s great to have you. If you’d like to become a partner, if you need prayer, if you want product, give us a call today, we’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much for being a part of this broadcast. Tell your friends, and you can check these teachings out on the web at charischristiancenter.com. Blessing. Friends, we don’t want to leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son, that He died for my sins and that you raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord. And I surrender to you now in Jesus’ name.

 

  Hi, everyone. I am so excited to invite you to join us for our Rejoice Women’s Conference, February 8th through the 10th.

 

  It’s gonna be a great time. It’s gonna be live streamed, so if you can’t physically come to Colorado Springs and be here, you can attend online at our website, charischristiancenter.com, or YouTube, or Facebook. Also, men, you can sit in the back with me. Blessings.

 

  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 PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”