Released Into Freedom – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in. I have my son Aaron with me today, and we’re actually teaching today the year of the Lord’s release. And Aaron taught this at church not very long ago, and I released a person from a major debt. And do you know what? It has been a blessing to me. And so, you don’t wanna miss this teaching. Tell your friends to tune in. Blessings. Hello, friends. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us today, and Aaron’s here, and we’re actually gonna share one of his teachings that he talked about, Released into Freedom. And he preached this at the church, and it really ministered to me. The Spirit of God ministered to me. I actually, after he first ministered it, released a person from over $150,000 of debt. A missionary, and God has brought that back to me already, what I released him from, and I believe he’s going to bring it back to me many times over. So, thank God it works. When we forgive others, God takes care of us.

And God really has a heart for freedom. We see that all throughout scripture, and that’s really part of his plan for redemption. He really wants to set people free. You know, he wants to see people free completely in every area of their life, in their spirit, in their soul, in their bodies. You know, Jesus came to set the captives free. The Bible says that he who the Son sets free is free indeed. So, we really see God’s heart and plan for freedom. Just people walking in victory, walking in freedom, found all throughout the scriptures. I remember once I actually got this teaching from the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, there’s something called the Lord’s Release. And when I was reading through Deuteronomy, this is in Deuteronomy 15, that terminology, the Lord’s Release, it just really jumped out at me and really struck me. So, I studied it out and made a whole teaching based off of Deuteronomy 15. And you can turn there if you have your Bibles with you. We’ll read here from Scripture in Deuteronomy 15, verse 1 and 2, but it says here, “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release, every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it of his neighbor, or his brother because it is called the Lord’s release.” So, we see here on this concept, this plan for freedom called the Lord’s release, how God wants to set people free from debt, but also, He wants you to be able to release things as well. And there are great promises attached to the Lord’s release. Later on in verse 10, Deuteronomy 15 verse 10, we see the promise that’s attached to the Lord’s release. Here it says in Deuteronomy 15 verse 10, “You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him. Because for this thing, the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.”

Yes.

So, when you release things, when you release, you know, it might be things that people owe you. Sometimes it might be an area in the soul where people hold on to offenses and grudges and, like, they owe me. You know, in the world today, there’s a big sense of entitlement.

Right.

A sense of, like, people owe me, or they wronged me, and I want to make things right on my own. But when you hand these things over to God and trust God, trust that He’s going to make things right in your life, even when other people have wronged you, wrongfully accused you, despised you, sometimes not fulfilled their obligations to you financially, when God calls you to release things, it makes your hands open to be able to receive from God. And it says here, whatever you put your hand to, it will be blessed.

Amen. So, thank God. You know that the Lord blesses whatever we put our hand to. And I like something when I was listening to you teach this that you talked about, you have to put your hand to something. And some people seem like they get a hold of the word of God, and they know God wants to bless them, but they think I’m just gonna go on easy street and not do anything. And it just doesn’t work that way. So, when you apply yourself to something, you can believe God to bless it. But if you don’t do anything, it’s hard to get that blessed. I’m 36 years old right now, and I was kind of looking back just for examples in my life where I really tapped into the Lord’s release and tapped into just being set free in different areas. And I remember when I was 24 years old, I just finished my master’s degree in music at Rice University. And I was going to have a year off from school. I was going to start taking professional auditions and applying for doctoral programs. But I had to start paying back loans from my undergrad. And I remember that I believed that I would pay off all my debt within a year. And I had about $30,000 in student loan debt. And I didn’t have a job yet. I was just, you know, going to just try to make ends meet, but I believe that I’d have all that debt supernaturally paid off in a year. And I believe that God can help people. He can help you get out of debt. He can do it through various means. But I remember that summer after I finished my master’s, I went to Breckenridge, Colorado to play with an orchestra, and I had subleased my apartment in Houston to a young woman that I’d you know, met through just advertising my apartment online. I didn’t know her personally, but she, you know, paid me for the first month’s rent. We had a contract that, you know, after the first month, she’d pay me for the second month and for the third month. But after the first month, she actually moved out, threw out my furniture or stole it. And I was out of state, so I couldn’t find another renter to put in there. But, you know, she was supposed to pay me $650 a month. So, I was out two months rent, $1,300. So… For me at the time, that was a lot of money because I was barely getting by. And when I moved back, I was $1,300 short of where I thought I should be, and I was really angry. I was super frustrated. I wanted to track her down and find her and sue her, take her to court. And it was really, really just eating me up. And God told me to just forget about it, that He would pay me back. He would take care of me. And initially, I didn’t want to. I was watching Judge Judy. You know, just learning about how it works at court, you know, and how I go about suing this person. But I just let it go. And I was sleeping on an air mattress. I didn’t have any furniture at all in my apartment. And I just started getting on free Craigslist there in Houston and finding, you know, I found a free bed, a free couch, free desk, just getting a few little free things here and there. And I started getting some students to teach to make just a little bit of money. I was kind of just surviving, but God actually led me into a business idea that really blessed me and prospered me. I was, you know. On Craigslist, I came across someone who was moving away and getting rid of furniture really cheap, and I saw he was selling a nice watch, and I thought I’d try to buy that watch. And he’d already sold it, but I got on eBay and found the same thing for a really good deal, and eventually I started buying and selling watches. And after about a year, I was making close to $10,000 a month profit. So, God, you know, I was able to pay off all my debt, you know, within a year’s time. And it was a supernatural thing, but it started with this, the Lord’s release. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I forgave someone of their debt.

Yes.

And really, I think God wanted me to release that because it was just eating me up. I was just thinking about it nonstop. It was really bothering me a lot. And I just really wanted to go after this person with vengeance.

Yeah.

But God just wanted me to trust Him. And, you know, the promise happened. Whatever my hand touched was blessed. I found free stuff on Craigslist. I would sell it for 50 bucks, 100 bucks. I found like a broken TV, and I went and picked it up for free. And I thought I’m going to pray over this thing, try to get it to work, and I couldn’t. But I just ended up finding a TV repair guy who bought it for $100 and wanted to have it for parts or to fix it himself. But just whatever my hand was touching was prospering.

Right. I think one thing that’s important, Aaron, when you talk about this is, you know, sometimes these people aren’t right. And, you know, I mean, the person that I had loaned money to was a missionary, and they were in a bad situation, and they thought they were going to lose their place. And so, I loaned them $150,000. And they had actually been in my church and served and done a really good job serving. However, I realized shortly after I lent them this money that they did not understand money very well. And so it went on a number of years, and they started actually doing a lot better and paying me. And then we went through COVID, and they just couldn’t pay. And so, I forgave them, and they were paying a moderate amount of interest, and I forgave that and so on and so forth. But it came up that they just couldn’t pay. And the night when you preach this, the Lord, just the spirit of God got on me. And I was kind of against it in the natural mind because, you know, I haven’t really given you boys. You and your brothers, a lot. You know, and I thought, well, I haven’t done this for my own children. And, you know, but I taught you good principles, right, about finances, about giving, about working, about attitude. So, you guys have all done well and prospered. But the Lord, just the Spirit of God really ministered to me that night and told me, you need to let this go. You need to forgive this person and let it go. And so… It was a lot of money, and it was the church’s money. So, I talked to your mother first. And then I talked to you and Heather because you’re here in leadership. And then I talked to some of my elders who were here that Wednesday evening. And they all agreed that this was God. This is what I needed to do. So, then I went home, and I didn’t even wait until the next day. That night, about 9.30 to 10.30, I sent him an email and said, listen, I’ve forgiven you this debt, everything that was owed. I forgive it. You don’t have to pay it back. It’s yours. Just don’t worry about it. It’s done. And, you know, I think it was important for me to release it. It was important for me to let go of it, whether they did right, whether they didn’t do right, no matter what they did. The Lord wanted me to let that go. And that’s not always the case. But in this case, the Lord wanted me to let it go. And you told me after that shortly, you said, Dad, God’s gonna give that back to you seven times over. And then I had another older gentleman, elder here, I consider him an elder. He’s been a leader in a very high role in another large church in the community for years before he came here. He’s been in this church 10 or 15 years. He told me that we were at men’s fellowship that Saturday, and you said something about what I’d done, and he just looked at me and said, God’s going to give you that back seven times over. Well, I haven’t got it seven times over, but I’ve got more than that, and I recognized it when it came in within 30 days. I had two special gifts come to the church that was two thirds of it. And, you know, in a few months, God’s paid me over or given back to the church over that amount in special gifts. So, God takes care of us when we, you know, obey him in this area, right, and release things. God will take care of us. And it doesn’t mean that the people are always right. Sometimes they’re not right. Sometimes they don’t think right. And that’s probably why they’re in the mess they’re in. But when God tells you to let something go, to forgive somebody, to forgive a debt, to let it go, you do what God says. And just like it says right here in Deuteronomy 15, verse 10, for this thing the Lord will bless you in all your works and all you put your hand to. So, you might receive a blessing back in other areas. So just trust God, and he’ll help you. Praise God. We’re going to take a short break, and Aaron’s going to come back. We’re going to come back after this break and continue to teach on this aspect of the Lord’s release. So, released into freedom. So, stay tuned. We’ll be right back after a short break. Blessings. Friends, we have a great offer for you today. We’re talking about the Lord’s release. This is my son Aaron’s teaching, and it has brought great blessing to myself as I have used this teaching. We actually have hundreds of hours of teaching, downloadable audio and video, free of charge, plus a free children’s curriculum on our website. Blessings.

Wednesday afternoon, my knee started hurting. My right knee went out. So, I went forward for prayer. The change didn’t come immediately. And my husband, Mitch, encouraged me, just keep laughing. Devil, you think my knee is not healed, but I believe I’m healed. Just continued getting better and better. And so, I was able, by the time we got home, I was able to kneel down on the carpet. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’re so glad to be sharing the good word of God. I’m glad to have Aaron. We’re talking about the Lord’s release. And when you learn to forgive debts, forgive whatever it is to do, to forgive others who’ve wronged you, it’s gonna bring good things in your life. I’ve heard that, you know, unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting it to affect somebody else, but no, it’s gonna kill you. And so, you need to forgive. You need to let things go. It’ll help you move into what God has for you.

In Hebrews, it says to beware of the root of bitterness by which many have been defiled. And I’ve seen this kind of pop up just in my ministry and just in observing people, but sometimes people get offended or bitter about something that’s rather small. And I think that they’re over it, but then like a year later that there’s just a little situation that might arise, maybe just a little, you know, someone did something wrong, said something the wrong way or

And you know what? People, Aaron, are gonna do things wrong.

They are.

They’re just people. They’re just human beings. You know, Dr. Lester Sumrall said, every person of God, every man of God has clay feet. In other words, he said, you know what? We’re all human. We’re all going to make mistakes. And I know sometimes people will think, well, you know, I’m willing to forgive this ABC person, but that person is a spiritual leader. You know, it was really a shock to me when I moved to Colorado Springs. We were in a very small town and, you know, Kit Carson, Colorado, a town of 300. pastored for 13 years. I really only had to take care of myself. I had to forgive a few things. But when I moved up here, I was just shocked working with other ministers, full time ministers that were ordained in the ministry, thinking they shouldn’t be like this. God actually told me about one person, a situation. He said, listen, he said, you are not to judge them. They are not your servant. There’s somebody else’s servant. So, you let them go. And I actually took a person that had been really ornery to me in the ministry. And I took him to Denver. I bought him a pair of very nice boots. I scheduled an appointment with him for four hours. He didn’t even know what he was going to do. I said, don’t worry about it. You’re just coming with me for four hours. I didn’t tell him anything about it. And then I took this person to Denver and bought him a pair of really nice boots. And you know what? He bought somebody else a pair of boots while we were there, and it really worked in his heart. You know, and… You need to release people. You need to forgive them. You need to get over it and let it go.

Well, I was saying just I’ve kind of observed that some people, you know, they might have a little personality conflict with someone and then I think that they’ve kind of moved past it, but then like a year later, there’s just some little thing that happens and they just blow up. It really triggers them, and I see they really haven’t released. You know, those offenses. They’ve just let those offenses that, you know, they haven’t moved on, they haven’t forgotten, they haven’t forgiven. And that junk is still sitting in their heart, sitting in their craw, just festering. And, you know, and you see it when just something little happens and there’s a little trigger and it just blows people up. And God doesn’t want you to just be blowing up, to be holding on to things. I like here, you know, we’ve been talking about the Lord’s release in Deuteronomy 15, that it’s a systematic thing. Every seven years, you’re to forgive debts, to release people, and God would bless you. And systematically, you need to check your heart. You need to check your attitude. You need to check towards people in the church, towards your pastor, towards your spouse. I think towards your spouse in a marriage setting. You know, you need to systematically release things, release offense, release. And really, in a marriage setting, I think it should be at least every day. Don’t let the sun go down on your ass, so at least once a day. My wife, Heather, got up after I preached and said, I have to release you every seven minutes, you know.

Yeah, every seven seconds.

Every seven seconds or something.

She’s kind of joking, but you know what? You need to live with that spirit that, you know, I am forgiven. And God forgave me the greatest debt. And since God forgave me the greatest debt, I am going to forgive others. And sometimes it’s harder in certain areas, and especially when people maybe don’t have the revelation you do. And, but… You can’t, you know, when you release people, God’s forgiven you a great debt. He’s forgiven you for sin. Praise God. You know, and it doesn’t matter how much you sin, big, little, or indifferent. You know what I mean? It’s like we’ve all sinned, and we were all guilty, and the penalty was hell. And God forgave us and gave us heaven. And so, since God’s done that for us, we can forgive others because we have the ability to forgive others because of the love of God.

And in the world today, there’s a huge push for entitlement, for promoting this sense of entitlement. And it’s really a spiritual thing. I think it’s almost a spirit of entitlement. Like if someone wrongs you, you got like justice must be served. And there’s a lot of… God is a God of justice, but you won’t find true justice apart from Jesus. And a lot of people are just stirring up anger, stirring up strife, and that’s not the heart of Jesus. That’s not the Spirit of Christ. And this kind of entitlement type thing, like everyone owes you, and if anyone’s wronged you, it’s up to you to get back at them, and you’ve got to hold on to things. And that sense of entitlement, it’s actually against the Spirit of Christ. I was thinking about Paul the Apostle, what he wrote. He didn’t say, you all owe me. I’m entitled. I’m an apostle. You’re all. He said, “I’m a debtor.”

Right.

The complete opposite of being entitled, of being owed. He said, “I’m a debtor.” I’m a debtor to the Jews. I’m a debtor to the Greeks. And he had that attitude.

Right.

That mindset, because he knew that Jesus gave him everything. Jesus gave him a calling. Jesus forgave him. Jesus set him free. Jesus made him right before God. So, if Jesus has given you everything and you’re focused on that, then you’re not so worried about who owes you.

Right.

Yeah, you can release things. You can let them go. And, you know, I mean, actually in Matthew chapter 18, the scripture talks about forgiveness. And, you know, if we hold our brother in contempt. you know, for something God has really forgiven us, a greater debt in the debt of sin. And so how can we, you know, hold on to that? You know, the Bible actually says in Romans 5, verse five, that the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost that’s given to it. And so, because we have the love of God, and the King James actually calls it charity. You know, and charity is something that’s not deserved, it’s not earned. And that’s why we have to forgive because they don’t deserve it. We didn’t deserve it, but we got it.

And God wants to really release you into freedom. You know, I’ve been on staff here seven years. We have a phenomenal staff, a lot of phenomenal, you know, key volunteers at the church, but it hasn’t always been that way. You know, when you have people in leadership who are just can’t let things go, let offenses go, it’s terrible. Constant strife and it’s just terrible. It’s miserable for everybody. And man, we need to be released into freedom. And people need to figure out how to do that. And that’s where the blessing is. And when you set your hand to things, it’s gonna be blessed.

Yeah.

The devil is really trying to… He’s the one who tries to stir up strife and contention. And we see that in Scripture as well, where there’s strife, where there’s contention, where there’s confusion.

There’s every evil word. James chapter 3, verse… I think it’s verse 17, but either verse 16 or 17 says, where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every evil work. And God is not the author of confusion. God is not the author of every evil work. But you don’t want to just let the enemy rent space in your head. And that’s what you’re doing. If you’re holding a grudge, if you’re holding bitterness or resentment or unforgiveness, you are giving advantage to the devil, you’re giving a door to the devil to cause problems in your own life. And so, release them. And when you release other people, did you know what? You go free yourself.

And it doesn’t matter if the other person changes or not.

No.

You know, because you don’t really have the power to change someone, to make someone be a better person.

No.

You know, just the other day, I was trying to explain this to my nine year old son because he gets upset if people make fun of him or, you know, and it’s not like a bullying type of situation. But I just said to my son, you can’t let someone else dictate if you’re going to be happy or not.

No.

You know, some people are going to laugh at the wrong time or not be that kind, but your happiness can’t be wrapped up in what other people think.

Yes. And some people are going to just… They’re going to kind of scoff. The Bible talks about scoffers. There’s various types of people out there, but your happiness, your joy can’t be wrapped up in other people’s minds. And maybe they’ll grow up and mature. Maybe they won’t.

That’s correct.

And you might be married to a person who isn’t perfect, and maybe they’ll mature, maybe they won’t. But you have to find your happiness in Jesus.

Amen.

You know, and I think, you know, Paul really tapped into this. Just that, like, I’m a debtor to Jews, I’m a debtor to the Greeks. But I think he was able to overcome that sense of entitlement that a lot of people have just because he knew what Jesus had given him. And he writes this in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He knew what happened. At the cross, he knew what happened with Jesus, that Jesus took all of his sin, and he received the righteousness from Jesus. I love this quote. It says, the only sin that Jesus ever had was ours. The only righteousness that we ever have is his.

Amen. The only true righteousness. You know, the Bible says that our own righteousness is as filthy rags, like a minstrel’s cloth. That’s man in himself trying to please God without Jesus. But thank God. He sent Jesus. He gave us Jesus. He gave us life. He forgave our sins. And because he did that for us, we can release other people and we can let them go free. So, we’ve been made free by receiving Jesus. And you know what? We can share that freedom with other people. So, before we go off the air today, I want to ask if anyone has never received Jesus. Never received God’s gift of love. And if you have not received Jesus as your personal Savior, I want you to pray with me right now and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Just pray this. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and you raised him from the dead. And right now, Heavenly Father, I receive your son, Jesus, as my savior. I receive your forgiveness for my sins. And I thank you, Heavenly Father, for helping me to forgive those who have sinned against me. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen. As we’ve been forgiven, we can forgive others. I wanna say a great big thank you for being with us. I trust that you enjoyed the broadcast. Tell your friends about it. And we have lots and lots of free teaching and downloadable audio and video on our website. Thanks so much, and God bless you today.

All throughout the Bible, we see that God’s heart is to set people free. He wants people to experience complete freedom in the spirit, soul, and body. Jesus came to set the captives free. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, The Lord’s Release, a $5 value, free of charge. Download it today at chariscristiancenter.com.

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My house and everywhere I walk, there is bright glory and light shining because God is with me. This is going to be a lot of fun. I’ve also invited you this year.

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It’s time to rejoice.

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