Set A Date To Celebrate – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’ve got a great message planned. God has surprises for you. Hallelujah. You know what? We don’t know exactly how to go about it, how to do it, how to accomplish it, but when we keep our eyes on Jesus and we rely on the Holy Spirit and get out of that mentality of loss, we can move into the promise and provision of God’s blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I’m so glad to have Aaron with me, and we’re actually sharing one of his messages this week. And I’ve had so many compliments on this when he shared it in church. People were so encouraged. I believe it really ministered the grace of God to ’em. But we’re talking about “Set a Date to Celebrate.” And we’re gonna be talking this morning specifically about God’s plan for our life. God’s plan for our life is better than our plan for our life any day of the week. Yeah, and God is full of surprises.

 

  We’re talking about “Set a Date to Celebrate,” make an appointment to throw a party. And God wants to throw a party. He wants to celebrate with you.

 

  He wants you to be able to celebrate the good things that He’s done for you. And I have a word for some of you today, that God is full of surprises. He wants to surprise you with His goodness, with His love, with His mercy. The Bible says that, “His loving kindness, it follows me. His goodness and mercy follows after me.” God wants to actually sometimes just smack you head on right-

 

  I love that.

 

  Right in front of you and just surprise you when you’re coming around a corner-

 

  Whoo.

 

  Just whack you with His goodness, with His love-

 

  Yeah.

 

  And mercy, and surprise you when you least expect it. And God’s out to surprise you even today.

 

  Yeah.

 

  So set a date to celebrate. God’s gonna throw a surprise party for you.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you talked about the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.” When that son came back, he was thinking he’d just have to be a servant just shoveling manure for his father. But his father threw a giant party. It was actually a big surprise.

 

  Yeah.

 

  He wasn’t expecting it.

 

  That’s great.

 

  So God’s wants to do some things that are gonna surprise you.

 

  And God’s plan is always better than your plan.

 

  Amen. So you said God wants to smack you-

 

  In a good way.

 

  I was in a church one time and the pastor was up preaching. He said, “God is sitting up in heaven. He’s got his big two-by-four, and He’s ready to whack you down just when you step out of line. He’s got a big pile of…” Usually, I’ll get up and walk out, but it was so comical because it’s so wrong.

 

  But God wants to smack you in His love, right? He’s God.

 

  He wants to hug you. He wants to cover you with his blessings, all of his blessings. Come on you and overtake you. Hallelujah.

 

  And you’ve got it right. Hallelujah. And people need to get it right.

 

  Yeah, and his plan is always better than your plan. A scripture that has always spoken to me. It’s from Proverbs 16:9. It says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Some of you are actually grieving things that God wanted to close in your life. Maybe it’s a job situation that didn’t work out the way you wanted to. Maybe it’s a housing situation. You thought you should live in this certain neighborhood or live in this certain house. God has something better in store for you. I’ve learned how to actually appreciate the blessing of a closed door.

 

  When I look back and see some of the doors that were closed, maybe it was a girlfriend or a job I really wanted, I’ve actually looked back and seen, man, I’m so glad that God didn’t-

 

  Open that door for me or keep that door open. I’m glad some of those doors closed because he had something much better planned out for me.

 

  And as an example, I’ve been married four years now. I have a awesome wife, Heather. She actually moved here five years ago to Colorado from Tennessee. She had been married seven years prior, and her husband passed away after a three-year battle with cancer. So she moved here to go to Bible school, brought her four-year-old son, and we met here at church. And she wasn’t really looking to get married, at least not-

 

  Quickly.

 

  Not that quickly. But God really brought us together and we saw that was His plan. And it’s been awesome. And our son’s nine years old now, and we have a two-year-old daughter. And God’s just done a lot of great things, but He’s done things that I didn’t really expect.

 

  And it’s actually a good thing. I actually wrote down a list. Heather found a journal of mine from 10, 15 years ago where I wrote down a list of my expectations.

 

  Right.

 

  What I wanted in a wife. And Heather kinda laughed because she found this and read it, and she isn’t really on that list. But she goes much beyond what I could’ve expected.

 

  Right.

 

  And God, God actually knows you better than you know yourself.

 

  Absolutely.

 

  You might think you really know what you want. You might think you really know what you need. You might think you just really know it all, but God knows more than you know.

 

  His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. His ways are higher than your ways. And He knows you better than you know yourself. I wanna share something that’s kinda funny. Aaron, personalitywise, you’re a lot like your mom.

 

  And Heather is a lot more like me. So it’s kind of interesting how God brought you together.

 

  It’s just a… It’s a really great… Opposites attract.

 

  It’s a really great thing that God’s done. But yeah, God knows you better than you know yourself.

 

  The Bible says that He knows the number of hairs on your head.

 

  Some of you don’t have any hair on your head, so it’s easy for you to count. But for those of you who do have hair, you don’t know the number of hairs on your head, but God knows. The Bible says that before… He spoke this to Jeremiah, but it’s really a word for all of us. “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.”

 

  When you were in your mother’s womb, God was forming you and He knew you. He knew everything about you. He knew you inside and out, spirit, soul, and body. He knows every aspect of your entire being, all your emotions, all your thoughts, all your desires, everything physically about… He knows it all. And when you were in your mother’s womb, you didn’t know anything.

 

  You just might be able to know the sound of your mother’s voice. You might be able to know what foods you like that your mother was eating, you were taking through the… But you didn’t really know a lot. God knew a lot more than you.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And even right now, compared to God’s knowledge of you, your knowledge of yourself is very small. So it’s much better to trust God than to just trust your own emotions, your own desires, your own…

 

  Man, and when you trust God, He’ll give you his desires, too.

 

  He’ll lead you and He’ll guide you. And you can go ahead and write out your list of expectations, write out your list of what you want, but you need to learn how to be flexible, too. Now, Aaron, you were talking about maybe God closed a door and you look back and say, well, that really wouldn’t have been good, and I’m so glad.

 

  It might’ve been okay, but God had something much better. Or there was something negative and you needed to let go of that. But once in a while, there’s somebody that’s had something that’s really good. They’ve lost a loved one, and that loved one was really good to ’em. They’ve had a really good job and maybe that came to an end or something.

 

  And yet God has better for us.

 

  But the sooner that we can get over that grieving process-

 

  And start rejoicing-

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  Right? The sooner we’re gonna move into victory.

 

  Yeah, and we talked about this yesterday. There is a time to mourn. There is an appointed time to mourn. And actually, in scripture, like even in the law of Moses, there’d be appointed times for mourning. Like the priests could cease doing their priestly duties for an appointed time while they were to mourn the loss of their father, their mother, an immediate family member. There was a set time, but it wasn’t… There’s never a set time to mourn for more than a year.

 

  Right. Yeah, you gotta-

 

  You know? So some of you, it’s actually a good thing. It’s a godly thing to mourn, but at the same time, it’s a set thing. It’s not a perpetual thing.

 

  It’s not forever.

 

  Yeah. And I think some of the longest appointed times for mourning that I saw in scripture was like 180 days, so about half a year. So I don’t think anyone should really mourn, just be in a constant state of wearing sackcloth, wearing all black for more than a year.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And some people are just really stuck there. And you need to set a date to celebrate, you know?

 

  And your loved ones who’ve gone on to be with Jesus, they want you to have a good life. They want you to enjoy the good things that God has for you.

 

  Yeah.

 

  They want you. They don’t want you to be… If I were to go, I wouldn’t want my loved ones to just be in a perpetual state of mourning.

 

  Well, some-

 

  And when you remember, it’s a good thing to remember people.

 

  Right.

 

  But you can remember people in a healthy way, in a-

 

  Sure.

 

  In a way that that causes you to want to celebrate and thank God for what he’s done.

 

  Yeah.

 

  But God wants to do new things in your life. And when someone goes through a very tough loss, everyone has to make a decision, I’m gonna either draw closer to God or I’m gonna turn away from God.

 

  Yeah, that’s right. And there’s other things. Grief is really an overwhelming sense of loss.

 

  So maybe some of you had a major financial loss. And I-

 

  It might’ve been a job, too. I’ve seen men, especially during COVID, when a lot of people kinda lost their positions or things were shifted. I’ve seen men who lost their kinda title, their notoriety, and they’ve kinda been stuck for years upon years because they were really wrapped up in that position.

 

  Yeah, see, our identity should be in Jesus.

 

  But the sooner you can get over that… And I went through a major time of loss, I think it was 2004, 2005. You were probably a senior in high school. But I was in the cattle business and we had a lot, a lot of cattle and a lot of debt. There was a major blizzard, the blizzard of a century in Lamar, Colorado. It snowed you know, like overnight, like over 36 inches, and winds of over 60 miles an hour. And it killed a lot, a lot of cattle.

 

  And I lost, in a instant, about a quarter million dollars.

 

  But as I was praying and seeking God, not very long after that, the Lord told me, “Lawson, look at what you have and not what you lost.”

 

  And that’s a way that you can get out of that place of mourning, that place of grief, that place of loss, and get into where God’s provided for you.

 

  And I came through that. And I know it’s the devil, right?

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” Jesus said, “but I’ve come to give you life, and that life abundant.” But Proverbs says, “If the thief’s be found,” what’s he gotta do?

 

  “Restore seven times.”

 

  He’s gotta pay back seven times.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  So whenever I go through a time of loss, I just believe, God, I’m gonna get this back. Not once-

 

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

 

  Not twice, not three times, but I’m gonna get it back seven times.

 

  And I had that happen, praise God. And sometimes it takes me a while. But the sooner you can overcome that sense of loss, that sense of sorrow, that sense of grief-

 

  The sooner you will move into-

 

  The provision of God. The blessing of God.

 

  Yeah, and there is a time to mourn, but there’s a time to dance as well.

 

  And I remember when I was going to school in Houston, working on my doctorate, I taught a man flute lessons. He was in his 70s. He was a very respected doctor for premature babies. And he was Jewish. And he would often invite me to his house for celebrations for different holidays. And he had three sons, lived all around the world. And every now and then, they would come to Houston to visit him on these holidays. I remember celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year with him. But he eventually passed away and his wife invited me to their home when… They had a set time to mourn. And in that tradition, they cover all the mirrors in the house, and they read scripture and sing. And it was actually a very beautiful thing.

 

  Wow.

 

  They knew how to mourn. There was a way of mourning. But in scripture, you see there’s a set time to do this, but then there’s also a set time to celebrate where you take the black drapes off the mirrors and-

 

  Yeah, it’s time to get up and move forward. Let go of that.

 

  And just recently, there’s a man coming to our church, and he had lost his wife a few years ago. I actually went and did the memorial service for his wife. And that was a few years ago. But he still…

 

  Comes to the church.

 

  It was a very difficult loss, too. But he kept trusting God. When someone faces a difficult loss, really, you’re at a crossroads. You’re gonna either choose to keep trusting God or you’re gonna kinda diminish away from that.

 

  And during those difficult times, you need to draw closer to God.

 

  And he actually drew closer to God. He kept coming to church. He actually drove from two hours away.

 

  It was a pretty big commitment for him to come here to church. And he’d drive two hours from the South. But he actually met a woman who drove from an hour away in the opposite direction.

 

  They lived three hours apart, but they met here at church. And just recently, I was able to marry them. And it was awesome.

 

  God is full of surprises. So this is really kind of amazing ’cause he was driving a couple hours from the South, she was driving from over an hour to the North-

 

  And then God brought them together.

 

  And she knew there was a change in her life. So God really did this amazing thing.

 

  And you know what? If you can get over your grief, get over your mourning, keep your faith in God, keep trusting Jesus, God will move you into blessing.

 

  But until you get over that grief and mourning and sorrow and sadness, it’s gonna be hard for you really to step in ultimately to what God has for you. So we’re gonna be back after a short break, and we’re gonna continue to share on “Set a Date to Celebrate.” Friends, I hope you’re enjoying the teaching today. This came from a message that my son, Aaron, taught on Sunday morning, “Set a Date to Celebrate.” I have heard so many compliments. So many people have told me how much this encouraged them, how much that this helped them. So I want you to go to our website and you can download either the audio or the video of that single message. I believe it will bless you. You’re not prosperous because of what you have on the outside. You’re prosperous because of what you have on the inside. But if you begin to understand what you’ve received on the inside, you can change that and begin to see what you’ve received on the inside flow to the outside. Watchman Nee said, “The greatest challenge in all of Christianity is getting what is on the inside of us to the outside.” You gotta begin to see what God says about you. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about “Set a Date to Celebrate.”

 

  Praise God. We have so much good. We have so much to thank God for.

 

  And there’s so many people, rather than focusing on God, than focusing on the good, than focusing on what they have, they tend to just focus, they tend to accentuate the negative.

 

  But we need to look at the positive.

 

  I was recently preaching for Max Cornell in Kansas City, Kansas. Max is a very different person than me. He’s very different in his style, so on and so forth, and the way he preaches. But one of his members, I was preaching for him. And Max actually worked here for three years for us as assistant pastor. He learned a lot. And then we sowed a big seed in him and sent him to Kansas City to plant a church. And he’s done phenomenal. And he’s been going now seven years. So we’ve had this relationship for 10 years. Actually, we’ve had it for more than that because he was in the church about three years before he worked for me. And I was out there. And after church, they had a big celebration, back-to-school celebration. And when I was there, one of the men of the church came to me and he said, “I see something that Max, I believe, got from you.” And he said, “You know, you are very practical and you are very positive.”

 

  And he said, “I see that same thing in Pastor Max.”

 

  And so Max Cornell, Charis Church, Kansas City, Kansas, you can check that out. It’s a great church. But I thought that’s really an interesting observation, because as different as Max and I are in our teaching and our preaching and our style, you might say, there’s a lot of things that are very similar. And this man picked up on that. But I believe that we need to be positive and we need to be practical.

 

  And give people practical tools that can help them move out of grief and move into the joy and move into the things the Lord has for ’em. That’s awesome. And just remember that God is full of surprises.

 

  You know?

 

  He has great things for us.

 

  Yeah, the best gift-givers are usually give you things that you don’t expect.

 

  Things that go beyond your expectations. So I actually wanna read from 1 Corinthians 1, starting in verse 26. I’ll let my dad read from there. But God is so full of surprises and He actually wants to surprise you. “For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, has God chosen. Yes, and the things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are. That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. That, according as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

 

  I love that. He says, “For you see your calling, brethren, the not many wise according to flesh.” So God likes to choose people who you wouldn’t really expect Him to choose. I’ve been reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, through the gospels, and I just find it really fascinating the people that Jesus chose to be a part of his leadership team. And according to the world, they weren’t really leaders. They weren’t experts.

 

  Right.

 

  They weren’t that smart. They weren’t that educated. They weren’t that… He actually chose some major rejects.

 

  And God is full of surprises. And you might think you’re really wise, really smart, but it’s not about how smart you are. It’s not about where you went to school, what degrees you have, what position you have, what experiences you have. Your calling is actually much greater than your wisdom. For you to do what God’s called you to do, it should tap into the wisdom of Jesus. He’s became for us wisdom.

 

  I remember… I have a doctorate from Rice University. I remember when I was getting my doctorate, I felt pretty proud of myself. I even like kinda boasted to my two younger brothers. They’re both very smart people. My middle brother, Andrew, is a multimillionaire in the oil and gas industry. He has a master’s in chemical engineering. My youngest brother is the COO now of Burger King. He went to Princeton University. But when I started my doctorate, I told them, “Hey, you guys can start calling me Dr. Perdue.” And they didn’t-

 

  And I-

 

  Like that very much, but I thought I was something. And I remember one time I was in Houston, getting my doctorate-

 

  This is a great part.

 

  And I like spicy things. And in Houston, certain times of year, there’s these Hatch green chile peppers. And you can buy ’em by the gallon for like a dollar a gallon or something. And I had a bunch of these things and I was chopping ’em up to put in an omelet. And I was chopping ’em, chopping ’em up, and my eyes were itching. So I took my hands and rubbed my eyes.

 

  Oh, Lord.

 

  And then I just realized how dumb I was. And God just told me, “I’m a lot smarter than you are.” And so it doesn’t really matter how wise you are, if you have a doctorate or if you have a eighth grade education. I know one of your mentors who taught you a lot about business just had an eighth grade education.

 

  But he was a multimillionaire. He had a net worth of $10 million. So it’s not about how smart you are-

 

  It’s about how smart the Holy Ghost is.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And when you learn to get to know the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost will make you look smart. Amen.

 

  So it’s “Not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.”

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  So it’s not really about how other people see you or even about how you see yourself. You might think, I’m not that mighty. I’m not that noble. I’m just very ordinary, very plain. When you get to heaven and see some of these heroes of faith, from Hebrews 11, see the disciples, see… You’re gonna be surprised at how ordinary a lot of these people are. Even James said this about Elijah. He had a temperament. He had a personality just like us.

 

  Yeah, he had faith in God. He was able to say, “There’s gonna be a drought for three years,” and it happened. He is a person of faith. But really, he’s not that different than we are.

 

  Yeah.

 

  James talks about that.

 

  Right.

 

  And I think there’s gonna be a lot of people in heaven that you’re gonna be surprised at just how ordinary they are or how, you know.

 

  There might be some that you’re really surprised they’re there. And there might be some that aren’t there, and you’re really surprised that they’re not there.

 

  So it says that “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.” And really, it’s because He doesn’t want any flesh to glory in His presence. It’s not about you. It’s not about some other person and how talent they are. Really, when people look at your life, they should say, “Aaron, he’s not that smart. I don’t think there’s no way… How did…” Your life should point to God.

 

  Amen.

 

  There’s something bigger than… “He’s not that smart. He’s not that noble.”

 

  I’m sure.

 

  “He’s not that extraordinary. When I look at his life, it needs to point to God.”

 

  Amen.

 

  Even non-believers, I think, can see it.

 

  I think people see on me, they see certain things. And I think a lot of people wonder, “How’d that farmer from, cattleman from Southeast Colorado come to Colorado Springs and now has a big church that’s completely paid for?”

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And the blessing of God on our ministry and the blessing of God on our life. It’s not us.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  It’s Him. And it’s learning really to rely on the Holy Spirit.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And rely on God. And understanding that God is good, that He has a good plan, that He has a good promise, that He has good things for you, but then realizing that, and then relying on the Holy Spirit to take you where he wants you to go and do what he wants to do.

 

  Yeah, God is full of surprises. And He wants to throw a surprise party for you.

 

  I think he has things that you’re gonna just celebrate and just shout about and rejoice over that you weren’t expecting.

 

  You might just be thinking you’re just opening a door, walking into a dark room where there’s no hope, there’s no… But bam, the light’s gonna come on and you’re gonna just see a big surprise. God wants to… He wants you to set a date to celebrate.

 

  And there is joy coming your way.

 

  There are surprises coming your way, so be on the lookout.

 

  Amen. Praise God. We just went through a situation, and I’ll testify after we have the total answer, but after it was done, it was excruciating, it was painful, it was difficult. It was a problem. And but something in me said, it’s not over till it’s over. But Mama told me, “Hey, you need to call Coree Stewart.” And Paul and Coree Stewart have been friends with us for a long time, and they’ve been in the church, and they travel and spend a period of time in other states. And so I called Coree. When I called Coree, she said, she just said, “Something in me, Lawson, says it’s not over till it’s over.” And I just started rejoicing. But it took me like one day, hallelujah, just to… “Weeping may endure for a night, for a moment, but joy comes in the morning.” And I just started rejoicing. And then I had to go on this trip to minister. And in the middle of the night, God started downloading things to me and my spirit. And I just started laughing and laughing because it ain’t over till it’s over. And I want you to know, maybe you went through a very painful, difficult, problematic situation. But I’m here to tell you, God’s on the throne. Jesus is Lord. The word of God is true. And it ain’t over till it’s over. So start rejoicing in Jesus. Amen.

 

  Amen. I just wanna say thank you to everyone who’s joined us today. If you’d like to become a partner with this ministry, I believe this is good ground to sow into. We preach the word of God. We preach the promises of God. We preach Jesus. We believe in the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you’d like to sow into a ministry like this, I believe it is good ground. I believe God will give you a harvest. I believe that we’ll change lives. We’ll see people saved, healed, delivered, filled with the Holy Ghost. We already have. And God’s working in awesome ways. If you’d like to partner with us, just give us a call right now. You can also go to our website to do so if you’d like to do that. Also, if you need prayer, feel free to give us a call. We have people who will pray the prayer of faith with you. They will agree with you. They will point you to God and who he is. And man, if you need anything, if you’d like to get more of this kinda teaching, you can go to our website. Actually, all of our teachings, thanks to our partners, we’ve made available free of charge. You can download any teaching you’d like for free, just a free download. So feel free to give us a call or connect with us via our website. God loves you, and we do, too.

 

  Thanks so much for tuning in. We certainly appreciate you. If you need prayer, again, call us. Blessings.

 

  God is not mad at you. He is not a joy-stealer. He’s a joy-giver. Now is the time to taste and see that the Lord is good. Because of Jesus, you have a reason to set a date to celebrate. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, “Set a Date to Celebrate,” a $5 value, free of charge. Download it today at charischristiancenter.com.

 

  Hey, everyone. I wanna let you know about something coming up for our livestream congregation. We have Brother Jesse Duplantis gonna be here at Charis Christian Center.

 

  You let God do what He wants and He’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams-

 

  Whoo!

 

  Spiritually, physically, and financially.

 

  You’re gonna get some great revelation with Jesse Duplantis. Tell your friends about it. Charis Christian Center, Sunday, November 5th.

 

  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.”