Power of Partnership – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. Today, we’re gonna begin talking about the power of partnership. There is something supernatural that happens when you get involved partnering with Life Giving Ministries, and I’ve received this in my life. I believe it can happen in your life. It’s something called supernatural increase. Stay tuned in Blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. We’re beginning a brand new series talking about the “Power of Partnership.” And when you get involved with partnering, the main thing is that you get blessed.

 

  Amen. I remember several years ago, I’ve been a pastor here now for eight years, but this is about, probably about 12 years ago, I was away at college at the time. I was gonna school in Houston, and I’d go to church every Sunday morning, but then I would rush home to jump on the live stream and watch services from this ministry. And I was always really blessed by the ministry here. And God just put it on my heart to start tithing here. Even though I’ve been away, I went to college for a long time. I have a doctorate in music, but I just felt like I should tithe here because this is where I was being fed and nourished and growing. And as I started tithing here, God actually just grew my income, just notably. It actually, I was tithing about a hundred dollars a month, but then, within a year, I was tithing a thousand dollars a month. And God just really blessed me and grew me. And there is power when you partner with ministries that really preach the word, that preach the gospel, that preach the promises of God, that preach who Jesus really is, who preach who God really is, that He’s completely good.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that we have hope because, man, Jesus is alive, and the promises of God are true. And I’ve been blessed ever since. You know, we’re gonna talk about Isaac, how he began to prosper, continued prospering, and became very prosperous.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that’s what God did in my life. So who you partner with, what ministry you partner with, there’s a great blessing attached to it.

 

  You know, in the Old Testament when you talk about tithing in Deuteronomy 26, God spoke to the children of Israel and He told them “To bring their tithes where he placed His name.” And I heard this years ago, well, “Where is the place that God places His name?” Well, if you look at Mark chapter 16, it says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not, shall be damned. And these signs shall follow those who believe. In my name, they’ll cast out devils. They’ll speak in tongues, they’ll take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. And they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The place God places his name is where people are getting saved, healed, filled with the Holy Ghost and set free by the power of God. Amen. And there’s a lot of ministries today that just, you know, they’ve kind of watered down the word of God, and they’re not boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus. They’re not boldly proclaiming healing, freedom. They’re not boldly proclaiming, you know, what the gospel says. But thank God, you know, we can follow the example of Jesus, what he did in the gospel. And we can have the same results. In Mark 16, it says, “The disciples went everywhere preaching the word, and the Lord confirmed the word with signs followed.” Praise God. We need to be giving into life-giving ministries that boldly proclaim the name of Jesus that see signs, wonders, and miracles. Follow the word where the baptism of the Holy Spirit is preached, where healing is preached, where freedom is preached, where the full gospel is preached. You know, I grew up in a traditional church and we gave, when we went to our traditional church, that’s one thing that I was taught as a child, we go to church and we tithe them. We were always blessed. Our needs were always met because of that. But when I found out there’s more, I’m like, “Praise God, this is what I’m gonna be involved in.” And I got involved as a young man in giving, praise God, not only tithing, I still remember the first thousand-dollar gift that I gave to a missionary. Inevitably, I talked to him the other day, he later became a pastor. He still travels around the world, has people saved, healed, filled with the Holy Ghost, but he’s got a very effective ministry. But, you know, I did that. That was about two thirds of my summer income, and I made about $3 an hour. And you know what? You just can’t outgive God.

 

  And I love that we’re gonna be talking about Isaac today in Genesis 26 because he sowed, you know, and actually when he sowed, there was a great famine, such a great famine that he was actually thinking about moving to Egypt. But God told him, “Don’t go down to Egypt.” You know, there’s a great famine during his father’s lifetime, Abraham’s lifetime. And Abraham actually moved down to Egypt. And, but God told Isaac, “You’re to stay here, dwell in the land, stay here.” And it said that Isaac sowed in that land. So he sowed during the time of famine. But that he sowed because he was expecting a harvest.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, when I sow, something my dad taught me, when you sow into the kingdom, when you give into the kingdom, you give as an investment, you’re expecting the kingdom to grow. You’re expecting to, you know, for God to grow you, for you to be a part of the kingdom, and for your finances to be a part of the kingdom.

 

  Amen.

 

  Man, and when you, I love the concept of tithing as well, the principle of tithing. And there’s a lot of great blessings attached to it. But when you tithe, you’re forming a partnership with God, really. You’re saying, God, I’m giving you all my finances, but you know, specifically, I’m gonna give you the first 10%. And you’re not just tipping God or just giving Him the left, you’re saying, God, you’re getting a percentage. I wanna give a percentage of this to you, and percentage really relates to having a partnership. You know, if you own a percentage of a company, a percentage of a store, you know, my younger brother, he owns a percentage of an ice cream store, a soda fountain place in Salida, Colorado. So he wants that place to do well because he has a percentage of the ownership.

 

  Right.

 

  He’s a partner in that.

 

  Praise God. And, you know, the fact is if you really understand stewardship, everything that we have came from God. You know, if you read 1 Chronicles chapter 29 where David, at the end of his life, gave about $4 billion for Solomon to build the temple, and then these mighty men came after him, and they gave like 5 billion. These mighty men, they were the people that were distressed in debt and discontent, but they started getting behind the anointing, getting behind the place where God placed his name. And David at the last of his life, gave $4 billion. They gave like $5 billion. When Solomon came into the kingdom, he didn’t have to raise the money. David raised the money, praise God. But David said, “Of your own, have we given you,” and everything is really God’s. And the fact is, if we just start with the basic elements of tithing, giving a 10th of whatever God gives us, I believe God can expand that. You know, over the years, your mother and I have given about 30% of our income to God, and we’ve never been what in the world, would be considered really high income people, but God has multiplied us exceedingly. And the only way then you can explain the blessing in our life is because we’ve got involved in giving and receiving. And Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 9, and he said, God gives seed to sowers. And so, we should expect increase when we give.

 

  And you know, sometimes people miss the supernatural because they’re looking for the spectacular.

 

  Right.

 

  And you know, sometimes people are looking for something spectacular like, hey, I’m gonna give 10 bucks, and I’m just expecting to have a million dollars tomorrow.

 

  Right.

 

  That would be pretty spectacular. But God, God does supernatural things in people who consistently give. You know, if you look at my life, if you look at what God’s done in my life, since I started tithing here, you know, 12 years ago, it really is supernatural.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And you know, I don’t take a large income as a pastor. You know, I’m paid fair, but like God, God has blessed me in other ways.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, through investments, through real estate, you know, with my family. He’s blessed me, and people look at me, and they’re surprised that I’m an associate pastor. And you know, it doesn’t make sense. But over time, you know, God just keeps doing supernatural things. He gives you a supernatural leading, you know, because God’s a partner with you. And when you partner with life-giving ministries, people that you know, where God has placed His name, supernatural things will happen. And over the course of time, man, there’s gonna be a testimony. People are gonna see that the blessing of the Lord is upon you. God wants to make you an advertisement for His blessing. And man, it’s just, it really is supernatural.

 

  You know, Abraham came into relationship with God, and God, you know, gave him a covenant of blessing. And Abraham really began to prosper. And the scripture says that in Genesis 13, in Genesis 12, you see the initiation of that covenant. But then in Genesis chapter 13, verse two, it says, “Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold, God blessed him, God multiplied him.” Not only did that happen in the life of Abraham, who actually was the one who instigated tithing in Genesis chapter 14. Before it was a law, he gave tithe to Melchizedek, the priest king of Jerusalem or Salem. But God blessed Abraham, didn’t we see that God blessed Isaac? And we’ll come back, you know, later in the broadcast and talk about how God blessed Isaac, you were talking about that. But then we see it went from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. And if you follow this through, it goes from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, to Jesus, to us. And I do not believe in the New Testament in the generational curse. I don’t believe that’s a scriptural principle whatsoever in the New Testament. However, I do believe in generational blessing, praise God. And you can see this followed through from generation to generation. And really, we’ve re received, we’ve inherited the Abrahamic covenant through Jesus when you study Galatians chapter three. And so, you know, Abraham is our father as far as the, he’s the father of all who believed. That’s what the scripture talks about. And Abraham, our father, is the one who initiated, you know, the principle of tithing, the principle of giving. Actually, it was in existence before that. But we see it really laid out in Abraham’s life, then in Isaac’s life, then in Jacob’s life, and you just can’t out give God.

 

  And you know, I love that we’re talking about the power of partnership. You know, ministry isn’t meant to be done alone. You know, when I look at like Paul’s letters, when he is writing to the Romans or the Corinthians, he always thinks just a whole list of people who’ve partnered with him in ministry, who’ve helped him-

 

  right?

 

  who’ve worked alongside of him, who’ve given towards him. You know, ministry isn’t meant to be done alone. Even here within our ministry, there’s so much happening. We can’t do it on our own. We have other people who help us. We have staff members, volunteers, a lot of people who give to support big projects. And I was just talking to our children’s pastor just yesterday, just saying, “Man, you are doing big things for the kingdom. You know, kids get saved. They’re taught who they are in Jesus. They’re taught about who God really is.” And I just, I can’t minister to all these kids, but she does, and she does it in a powerful way. And you know, we minister as a team.

 

  Yeah, it takes a team of people to get the job done, but you know, those who partner get a reward with those who are actually in the battle. And we’ll talk about that later this week. So we’re gonna be back after this short break, so stay tuned. Friends, thank you so much for watching today. We appreciate your participation with us in the gospel. Our special offer this week to everyone who becomes a new partner within the United States of America. We will mail you my book, “Provision, releasing supernatural increase in your life,” absolutely free of charge. Blessings. The Bible tells us in the book of James chapter one, that if we lack wisdom, we should go to God and we should ask Him. And He said, “We should ask Him in faith with nothing wavering.” When you pray in faith, there is a knowing about your prayer. “What thing so ever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.” Friends, I’m glad you stayed with us, and we’re continuing to talk about the “Power of Partnership,” and we’re sharing actually from Genesis chapter 26, and it actually says here in Genesis 26:1, “There was a famine in the land.” You know, partnership isn’t determined on what’s going on in the outside world. It’s determined on your personal relationship with God. And it says in right here in verse one, “Isaac went to Abimelek, the king of the Philistines under Gerar. And the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down into Egypt, dwell in the land that I tell you of.'” You know, if you’re where God tells you to be, if you’re planted where God tells you to be, you ought to expect blessing, you ought to expect harvest. He said, “Stay in this land” in verse three, “and I will be with you, and I will bless you for under your seat. I will give all these countries and perform the oath or the covenant, which I swore to Abraham, your father, and I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven and give unto your seed all these countries, and in your seed, shall all of the nations of the earth be blessed.” So God renewed this covenant with Isaac that he had with Abraham, and Abraham was a giver, and Abraham was a very prosperous, a very blessed man. If you read in Genesis chapter 24, verse 35, “When Abraham sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac, he said, ‘The Lord has blessed my master greatly, and the Lord has given him flocks and herds, and silver, and gold, and camels, and donkeys, and a multitude of servants. And he accounted the blessing to God.'” Man, I like to account the blessing to God. If I have anything good, it came from God. But we’ll read here in a little bit that Isaac got involved in this same thing. And when you read in verse 12, Aaron, I want you to read verse 12 to verse 14. You really taught a great message recently on these scriptures, so.

 

  Yeah, it said here in verse 12 that “Isaac sowed in that lands.” Remember when he was sowing, it was during a time of famine.

 

  Right.

 

  And you know, my dad here grew up in southeastern Colorado near the Arkansas River where there’s a lot of farming. But when people farm, you know, we have some farmers that come to this church. We have farmers that actually come from two hours away that come to this church. When I preach this, I asked a question, I said, “Hey, if you’re sowing, are you gonna move? Are you gonna quit?” And they said, “No, if we’re sowing, we’re planning on staying there. We’re planning on harvesting.” We’re, you know, Isaac was planning on staying. He was planning, you know, I sow because I’m planning on seeing a harvest. I’m planning on seeing.

 

  Praise God.

 

  I’m dwelling in the kingdom. So “Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred fold. And the Lord blessed him,” Man, the blessing of the Lord. It is such a powerful thing. Man, and as believers, we are blessed. You’re either blessed and you know it, or you’re blessed and you don’t know it. But as believers, we’re blessed.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And we give as an act of faith, we give because, not because we’re trying to get the blessing, but we give because we’re agreeing with God and saying, I am blessed. I’m blessed to be a blessing. I’m gonna sow into the kingdom. I’m not, you know, I have more than enough to do everything that God has called me to do. So it said, “The Lord blessed him.” And this is what happened in verse 13, it said, “He began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So, man, when you start giving, when you start trusting God, when you start taking steps of faith, man, things will begin to happen. But continue in it and then just see what God does with it.

 

  It’s amazing what God will do.

 

  You know, I’m not gonna give up. I began, I’m continuing it. I’m gonna become all that God has called me to become. Amen. Praise God. And so, I like what you talked about, Aaron, is expecting a harvest. You know, some people have been taught in a religious way and that you should not expect a harvest. But when I was in the farming business, when I sowed a seed, I expected a harvest. And we constantly received good harvest when we were sowing, farming, right? And in the same way, in the kingdom of God, I expect a harvest. You know, I went to Dr. Lester Sumrall’s Bible school, and when I went there, he would give in every offering. And he said, “I give in every offering because I constantly need harvest. And so I’m constantly sowing seed.” And he actually didn’t take a salary from the ministry. He just lived on whatever people gave him. And I saw him sometimes go up to one of his elders and say, he’d pat ’em on the shoulder and say, “Hey, I need to borrow some money.” So I give him his offering, and he said, “I’ll get it back to you.” Praise God. And you know, Dr. Lester Sumrall was a great giver and sower in the kingdom of God, and in different ways he sowed. I remember him talking about when he bought his first TV station, and his first TV station was down in Indianapolis, a little over a hundred miles south of South Bend, Indiana and RCA had it. And basically, they closed it down and he wanted to buy this TV station, but he had borrowed all the money he could borrow at the bank in South Bend. These banks have limits. So he went across the border to Niles, Michigan to a bank about 10 miles north there. And he went over to this banker in Niles, Michigan, and he said, “Hey, RCA wanted a million dollars for this station.” And basically he told him up, called him up and said, “All you’ve got is a pile of iron in a corn field, rotten and rusting away, and I’ll give you 500,000 for it.” Praise God. And they accepted his offer. Well, then he had to get to the money. So he went to this banker in Niles, Michigan and sat down across the desk. And this, it was the head of this bank. So the banker in Niles, Michigan called down to South Bend and asked the banker in South Bend, he said, “I got a man named Lester Sumrall sitting here in front of me that wants to borrow, you know, a half a million dollars to buy this TV station down in Indianapolis. What do you think?” He said, “Loan him every dime and don’t bat an eye.” Praise God. You know, bankers do business. I’ve borrowed millions and millions of dollars in business, and I’ve borrowed some in the ministry too. Praise God. Today we’re debt free in the ministry. I still have a little in business debt, but praise God, it’s making me money. But you know, they do business with people based on relationships and based on those people’s character. And you know what? That man loaned him a half a million dollars, didn’t bat an eye. Dr. Lester Sumrall ended up buying 12, you know, individual TV stations around the nation. Then he bought a satellite television channel that he was on. And he had a couple of short wave radio stations. And not only they have a big church in South Bend, Indiana, when I was there, he started a worldwide feeding program, Feed the Hungry, praise God. And he was just a super blessed man, but he was interested in giving to expand the kingdom. Praise God. So when you give, you ought to expect to harvest. But we give for a purpose. We want to expand the kingdom of God. Praise God.

 

  That’s awesome. And I love what God did in Isaac’s life. It said, “He became very prosperous,” in Genesis 26, verse 14. It said, “He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.” And as I was thinking about this in verse 14, those possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great number of servants, really, God gave him possessions that were assets, things that would-

 

  Increase.

 

  increase, not decrease, and not just be a constant headache and a constant, you know, money pit. Right.

 

  You know, I remember a few years ago, I was looking for a house, and my realtor was actually my youth pastor when I was in high school. Her and her husband were my youth pastor, and my wife and I had just gotten married, and she had a smaller home in Woodland Park that she bought when she moved here as a young widow, single mom. She bought a small home. So she’s sold her home. And I was thinking about selling my home and buying a home together. And we’re looking at this, you know, really big house. But you know, my realtor who had been my youth pastor like 20 years ago, she said this thing, she could just tell, because she is a home builder as well. She said, “This thing is a money pit. You’re just gonna be throwing money in this thing, and it’s not really gonna be much of an asset. It’s gonna be more of a liability.” So God wants to give you assets. You know, I love this ministry because, man, my dad understands investing, understands assets. We bought the building we’re in right now. We actually paid cash for it for a little over 5 million, you know, renovated it into a church. You know, I think we had a little over 7 million in it, but it’s probably worth like $40 million-

 

  Yeah.

 

  today. And so we have this great asset, you know, it’s part of the kingdom. We own the real estate. We own the land. We own the building. This is actually a prime area in town, like companies and businesses are fighting for this type of real estate here. In-N-Out opened their very first restaurant here in Colorado, just half a mile from here. And, man, it’s just prime real estate. God wants to give you possessions of flocks, possessions of herds in a great number of sermons. And the Philistines envied him.

 

  Praise God. You know, this is something I want you to see here, right in this scripture. “Isaac sowed in that land” in verse 12, in Genesis 26, verse 12, “and received in the same year a hundred fold. And the Lord blessed him.” You know what? The only way that we could do what we’ve done as a ministry, that we can do what we’ve done as a church. And it’s happened in my life personally too. The only way that you can explain what we’ve received is that the Lord blessed us. And it says “He waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great. He began to prosper. He continued prospering.” And he, in the new King James, where you read Aaron, “He became very prosperous.” And then he said, “He had possession.” I believe that God wants the church to have possession, but I don’t believe there’s any way that we’re really gonna possess what God wants us to possess unless we get involved in the grace of giving, unless we get involved in giving and receiving, unless we get involved in partnering where God wants us to partner in sowing where God wants us to sow. Praise God? And you know, some people think that’s not New Testament, but if you go in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, that’s the greatest disposition of giving in the New Testament. And Paul talks about it, praise God. And it says, “God gives seed to sowers.” Praise God. So I think, you know, I want you to pray about becoming a partner. And I believe that this is a great ministry to partner with, and maybe God will lead you to partner with our ministry. Maybe God will lead you to partner with another ministry. But I believe that everybody, as believers, should get involved in this blessing of partnership. And really, when you study worldly companies that really prosper, most of them are involved in giving and receiving many times more than the church. And many times, when you see believers who are not prospering, it’s because they haven’t tapped into these principles that are laid out in the word of God. And I believe that if you’ll, you know, begin sowing, if you pray about it and God moves on your heart to become a partner of this ministry, I believe that you’ll see increase on the seed that you sow into this ministry.

 

  Awesome, and we just wanna thank everyone who is currently partnering as well because you’re helping us get this message, the good news out to lots of people. You’re helping us make resources available. A lot of them are on our website, free of charge. And man, we just wanna say big thank you to all our current partners who are helping us just expand the kingdom. And we really appreciate it.

 

  And you can stay with us. I’ll pray with you right at the end of the broadcast. Blessings.

 

  On today’s program, Pastor Lawson and Aaron talked about the blessing that gets released towards you when you partner with spreading the gospel. We invite you to join us as we share this message of grace, faith, and righteousness, with countless others by becoming a regular monthly partner with “Grace For Today.” When you do so, we will send you a copy of Pastor Lawson’s book entitled, “Provision,” free of charge. To become a monthly partner, go to our website CharisChristianCenter.com and click on the give icon at the top of the screen. Once you’re there, click on the give button, then choose what level of partnership you’d like, then select whether or not you’d like your copy of Provision. You can also start your partnership by calling us at 719-418-4000. We are receiving an overwhelming number of calls at times, so if the phones are busy, please leave a message, and we’ll call you back as soon as possible. We wanna say thank you for your generous gifts, and we look forward to hearing from you today.

 

  Friends, we don’t want to leave this broadcast until we give you an opportunity to pray with us. And if you’ve never received Jesus Christ as Lord, or maybe you have, I wanna invite you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins. I believe that you raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord. And right now, I surrender to you in Jesus’ name.

 

  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.”