The Abundance Of Grace Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

The Abundance of Grace Part 4

The Abundance of Grace Part 4 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. On this episode of Grace For Today, gain a revelation of the new family you are a part of! When you understand your position and authority can walk in what you have through Jesus Christ.

The Abundance of Grace Part 4 Transcript

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you are watching today. And I’m sharing with my son, Aaron. We’re sharing on the abundance of grace. We’re talking about being part of a new family. And when you understand who you are and that you’re part of this new family in Christ, it transforms your life and transforms your position where you begin to walk in the authority that God has given you in Christ. Blessings. Friends, I am so glad to have you with us in the broadcast. So glad to have my son, Aaron. He was recently teaching this “Abundance of Grace,” phenomenal teaching, I enjoyed it so much. I asked him if he’d come and share this on television with us, and so we’re gonna continue to teach. We said that we become a part of a new family in yesterday’s broadcast. And you said we have a new inheritance in him. So, I’m gonna read Ephesians 1 where we left off, verse 7 through verse 12. And then Aaron, you can go ahead and be commenting on that. But Paul says here in Ephesians 1:7, “In whom were in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches or the ultimate wealth of his grace, wherein in grace, he is abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom? In Christ. Also, “we’ve obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” So, he keeps saying those terms, we talked about it earlier in the week, in whom, in him, by him, through him. You need to see yourself in Christ. You look a whole lot better in Christ than you do outside of Christ. And when God was working in Christ, he was working on you, and God did in Christ what he wanted to do in every man. Praise the Lord.

And because of Jesus, you’re also placed in his family.

Praise God.

You’re in the family of God. You are a son, you’re a daughter, you’re a king, you’re a queen. You are placed in his royal family. You are chosen and you are placed in his family. And I love, you know, he kind of mentioned this, Paul mentioned this in Ephesians 1, that we are, you know, adopted, in verse 5, that he’s predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. But you know, this adoption, it places you in the family, but we’re also now heirs. We have an inheritance. You know, some people don’t realize that, you know, you really are a son, you really are… If you really know that you’re a son, you’re a daughter, you’re gonna expect some privileges for being in the family.

It changes the way you think. And I want to take a minute. When your mother and I were first married, I told her that she married me for my money. Now, in all reality, I probably had a net worth of about $10,000, maybe $20,000 when we got married. I’d been working a long time, and that was quite a bit of money back in those days. But at the same point in time, you know what, when I begin to understand who I was in Christ, it literally transformed the way that I thought. You know, I went and bought a house when I was still in high school in Lamar, Colorado. It was on the wrong side of the tracks, had a renter in it that was from the other side of the border, you know. I was walking down the street. I went to town to buy feed. We lived about 10 miles outside of town, north of Lamar in May Valley. And I walked by this realty place and I saw this house advertised, you know, for like $6,900 or $7,500. Something on the inside of me said, “Buy that house.” I just walked in that little realty shop. I talked to a realtor, they took me over, showed it to me, and I offered them $5,900 and they took it, praise God. And so I bought this house, 600 square foot, two bedroom, one bath house on the wrong side of the tracks in Lamar, Colorado for $5,900. It was rented out for $225 a month. Taxes were very low. The front yard was all grown up in weeds. I tore all the weeds down that spring, planted grass, asked them if they’d water it. They said they would. The front was just, you know, gray concrete stucco. I got them some white paint and, you know, they helped me paint the front of the house, and we made that house look a whole lot better, amen. And, you know, you look a whole lot better in Christ than outside of Christ. I owned that house for a couple years. Whenever I’d go to church, I’d stop by if it’s the first month, pick up my rent, you know, from the renters. And then I owned it for a couple years, and the Holy Spirit said, “Sell that house.” Something in me just said, “Sell that house.” I put it on the market for 7,500, sold it for 6,900 just like that. And then I think the renters moved out. God knew exactly what to do. You know, we have the Holy Spirit in us. But I begin to have people that were my friends in church kind of made fun of me and different things. But I began to have a victorious, conquering ownership mentality. And that changed the whole way that I live life. And so people that knew me, I was voted the most changed person in high school. And really what changed was my mentality changed when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to understand these things that we’re teaching about. But you have an inheritance in Christ, and you are not a poor person. You are not a victim. You are a victor through Christ. And if you change your mind… Go ahead.

Yeah, grace really does transform people. It’s marvelous. We’ve been talking about the abundance of grace, how grace frees you, grace transforms you, grace empowers you. But man, grace really transforms people, and God’s grace, that abundance of grace is at work in your life, in your heart, in your mind, it really does transform you.

Amen.

And man, having this understanding that you are a son, you’re a daughter of God, that you have an inheritance. Some people might think, “Well, my inheritance isn’t really worth that much, or I don’t really get that.” Man, you’re inherited. The Bible says that you’re actually co-heirs with Jesus.

Right.

That is a powerful, powerful statement, that our inheritance, we are co-heirs with Jesus. You’re not a lesser heir, you’re not a lesser son, a lesser daughter.

Joint heirs, King James says joint heirs, in Romans 8:16-17.

Joint heirs.

In Galatians 4, Galatians, the end of Galatians 3, the beginning of Galatians 4, it says those things.

Yeah, you know, and I kind of mentioned that when I met my wife, she was a widow and she had a four-year-old son, and we got married when he was five. Now we have another child, we have a daughter who’s almost two. And my son, little kids like to do this, they like to ask their dad, you know, “Well, how much money do you have?” And my wife, Heather, told me, you know, she was raised mostly by her mom and stepdad as well, but she said, “Oh, yeah, I remember asking my stepdad all the time, ‘Well, how much money do you have?'” But one time, you know, my son was asking me, “Well, how much money do you have? And what happens, you know, if you die? What happens to all your money?” I said, “Well, your mom would get it. But,” I said, “if she’s not around, you know, if we both die when we get really old around the same time,” I said, “you’ll get 50% and and our daughter will get 50%. You know, you’re my son, she’s my daughter. It’s 50/50.

You’re coheirs.

You’re co-heirs, yeah. And there are cases where people get cut out of a will, cut out of the family. They demonstrate that through their will.

Right.

You know, several years ago, I paid someone to kind of research the Purdue ancestry. And they went back 13 generations, clear back to the Purdue when they moved from France to England to escape religious persecution. Purdues were Huguenots, which means they were French Protestants, and the French Catholics really persecuted them. So they went to England, and then they weren’t in England too long, then the Purdues immigrated to Virginia. But you know, these people who researched my history, our history, they found several wills from these Purdues that dated back really far. But I remember reading the will of a Purdue who fought in the Revolutionary War. I think his name was Malachi Purdue. He had like 13 children. And in his will, you know, he left, you know, various properties and houses and, you know, beds, different things to many children. But two of his kids, he just said they only get $1. And it said, “For reasons known only to myself.” So it’s in writing that his will, they were not heirs. You know, they were no longer sons. They were not his.

Yeah, that’s probably what happened. But I think the son that we descend from, I think his name is John Purdue, he had a good inheritance. So we were, you know, a favored child of this Purdue.

We’re all favored children of God. And I don’t care if your parents have disinherited you. I had that happen, not because I was a bad boy, but because I chose to go in the ministry and preach the gospel instead of running a ranch. I was taken out the will. But God has made that up to me. You know, the Bible says if you leave anything for Jesus’ sake and the gospels, he’ll give you how much, a hundred fold in this life, right, and eternal life in the life to come. And with persecutions. We’ve had a little persecution, but jealousy, people are jealous sometimes. But you know, God has been really good to us. So we just thank God for his goodness.

Yeah, we have an inheritance and we are… And again, it’s not just a $1 inheritance. You’re not a lesser heir.

Praise God.

You are co-heirs with Jesus.

His righteousness is yours.

Equal heirs together. Whatever is his is yours. Praise God.

That’s really talking about the transformation power of grace we have obtained. And I like that it says that we have already obtained it. It’s not something that… You know, Jesus, he already died.

We’re not trying to get it. It’s like we are citizens of heaven on loan to the earth from God. We’re not trying to get to heaven. We’re already citizens of heaven.

And because Jesus died, his will, his testament went into effect. And because he was resurrected, because he lives, he’s there to make sure that we get what’s ours.

Praise God, so he says this, “We’ve received this inheritance in him,” Ephesians 1:11, “being predestined according to the purpose of him.” So, he’s given us what it takes to do what he’s called us to do. I like to say I have everything that I need to do everything God called me to do. I have no lack in any area of my life. You know, your mother and I moved here. You boys were all with us. We moved here 21 years ago at the time of this recording to start this church. And we had almost no money and no people. And we started on 9/10/11, the day before 9/11. And you know, but God has helped us, God has increased us, God has blessed us. But notice it says the purpose of him who works all things according to the council of his will. If you work with him, he’ll work his will out in your life. And his will is a good will. But then he says this, that we should be to the praise of the glory, praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. And in verse 12, the same term that he used in verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. So when God sees you in grace, he sees you in your full potential in Christ. He says, “He’s given you all these things that you should be to the praise of glory in your full potential in Christ who first trusted him.” You have an amazing potential in Christ. God has no, you know, second fruit. He has no bad plan. You know what I’m saying? God only has a good plan for your life. And if you just get involved through grace, amen? It’s amazing what grace will do for you.

Yeah, grace really does transform you. So, it puts you in a new family. But because we’re in a new family, we’re also given a new position.

Praise God.

You know, as co-heirs with Jesus, as sons and daughters. Jesus was a king and a priest. And I love in Revelation, it talks about that he’s made unto us a kingdom of of priests. We are kings and priests. You know, in the Old Testament, when a king would pass away, that the rights, the authority, that position of a king would go to his son, to someone in the family, right? When David died, you know, his position went to his son, Solomon. When a priest would die, that position would also go to someone in the family. It’s very different than like a democracy. You know, the kingly positions, the high priest position, it would be passed down through family. So, we’re given inheritance as a king, as a queen, as a priest through being a part of the family. So now we are in a new position because we’re part of the family. And Paul also talks about this new position that we have. Man, just grace transforms our position, radically transforms our position.

Amen, you know, in Revelation 1:6, this is the Apostle John writing about his revelation of Jesus. But he says, “He has made us,” speaking of Jesus, “kings and priests to God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”

So, he said he’s already made it. He’s not even even looking forward to the second coming of Christ. He said we already are kings and priests.

Kings and priests. We’re already seated. And we’re gonna talk about this in the second half of the broadcast, that we’re already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Grace has transformed our position.

Yeah, so we’re gonna be back in just a few seconds. Stay with us, it’ll be awesome. Blessings, we love you. Friends, I wanna tell you about our Grace package. I received a “Revelation of Grace” in Andrew Wommack’s ministry in 1994, after I’d been pastoring for six years. It revolutionized my life and it’s helped me in so many different ways. I actually had been called to preach and filled with the Holy Spirit in Andrew’s ministry 16 years prior to that. But when I received a “Revelation of Grace,” it changed me. We’ve also included a great teaching from my son, Aaron Perdue, on “The Abundance of Grace,” a single CD on “Entangled,” a great message on grace from Aaron. and my series on Galatians, “The Grace of Christ.” You don’t want to miss this teaching. Just like it’s revolutionized my life, it will revolutionize yours. You can share this with your friends. If you don’t want to call in and get this, you can actually listen to these free on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. We want to get the Word to you. Blessings. Praise the Lord, friends, I’m glad that you’re here, and we are in Ephesians 2. We’re gonna begin reading in verse 1. I’m gonna have Aaron read what he wants to read and comment on it. But we have a brand new position as children of God.

Yeah, and I love the first part of Ephesians 2. I think it’s just such a powerful, just conjunct, tight, this statement of this transformation that we have in Christ, this transformation of position. So first of all, it says in Ephesians 2:1, “You he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” That’s a transformation right there. Before Christ, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Before Jesus, you were spiritually dead. But now you are made alive. In your spirit, you are made alive.

Hallelujah.

So, we receive the life of God for death. You know, the word for the life of God in the Greek is zoe, and it’s talking about the character and the nature of God. So, we have a brand new nature in Christ. We have the life of God. We were dead, right, spiritually. But when we believe the Word, we came alive to God in the realm of the Spirit. The Word, you know, was sown in our spirit. We believe that Word. I believe it joins with our spirit. We became a new creation and we got brand new life. And we’re part of a brand new kingdom. We left the dominion of darkness and came into the dominion of life, the authority of life, the kingdom of the sons of his loves, according to Colossians 1:13. And in this new kingdom, we have a brand new position.

Amen, so you were made alive. You were once dead, but now you’re alive. It says, “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” So before Christ, we walked a certain way. We were set on a certain course. We were conformed to this world. And the way the world worked, it still works this way. You just make decisions. You live your life according to the lust of the flesh and just the desires of the mind. You know, if your flesh lusts after it, just go for it, just fulfill your pleasures. If you think something is right, it’s right. Your mind is God, your thought, whatever you think is true. That that is really what the world teaches. That is the course of this world. If you went to the world to learn, take a course on how to live, it would say, if you think something’s right-

There are no absolutes. Well, one plus one still equals two, Aaron.

There is black and white. There is right and wrong. There is truth. When Jesus was put on trial before his crucifixion, Pilate said, “Well, what is truth?” So even back then, even back during Jesus’ day, people thought there was no truth. Even today, if you claim there is absolute truth, you upset a lot of people.

You know, Jesus said this. He said, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth,” John 17:17. The way that we’re set apart from the world is through the truth of the Word of God. And it’s what we do with the Word of God and believing the Word of God and letting the Word transform the way we think. So when it transforms the way we think, it transforms the way that we act. But we are set apart from the world by the truth of the Word of God. And you know what? Truth is stronger than a lie.

Amen.

I never raised you and your brothers to fear. I never raised you to fear all these lies in the public school, all these lies that are in the world. I raised you with faith to believe that, you know what? Love is greater than hatred. Light is greater than darkness. Truth is stronger than lies. So, you know, the truth that we believe of the Word. I didn’t teach you all the wrongdoings and all the wrong thinking of the world. That’s like you’ll never get done with it. I taught you the basic principles of the Word of God. And you know, America and many people in our nation have got away from basic Christian living, right? I was raised in church. Hallelujah, I was raised that we believe the Bible. We might not have known what it said, but we believed it. You know, I was raised with some absolutes in life. And we didn’t know everything, but what we knew, we lived and we believed. And one thing that I believe is a tragedy is we’ve got away from the history, the Christian foundations that we had in a nation. And we need to get back to those basic elements of Christianity. You know, your mother and I were raised in churches where they didn’t believe in the baptism of Holy Spirit. They didn’t believe in divine healing like we believe in divine healing. They didn’t believe in the promises, like prosperity, like we believe it today. But we were saved in those churches. And so we received a lot more good than we did bad. And praise God, we both at a young age, about the same age, about the same time, were baptized in the Holy Spirit and begin to understand that there was more for us. And that really set our lives on our good course.

Well, it’s really important to have, you know, an honor for the Word of God, an honor for the Bible, but also an honor for the local church.

And the the two really go hand in hand in affecting you as an individual, but also affecting a culture. You know, we need to have an honor for the Word of God, but also an honor for the local church. I was talking to my wife about this. I didn’t date a whole lot when I was in college. I went to a secular university, so there weren’t a whole lot of Christians around. But every now and then, you know, I would meet a Christian, you know, young woman. I’d be excited because I’m like, “Oh, finally there’s another one.” You know, I might go out to coffee or grab lunch just to get to know them. And one of the first things I would ask someone I was interested in potentially dating, I would just ask them, you know, if I knew they’re a Christian. I’d just say, “Well, where do you go to church?” And if they said, “I don’t really go to church. I’m too busy, I don’t go,” for me, I didn’t even realize until I was talking to my wife, Heather. But for me, that was an automatic deal breaker. If they said they didn’t go to church, I didn’t wanna date them again.

You know, your wife, Heather, came here and she got immediately involved in the church. She got immediately. She began to serve in the church. And she had had different challenges in her past, different difficulties, which she’s very open and very honest about. People love it when she ministers because she’s so real. You know, she doesn’t, you know, sugarcoat any of that. She doesn’t try to be something that she’s not. But I believe that God honored her commitment, you know, to the body of Christ, to the church. And you know, the Bible says… Most of you that are watching would say that you would believe it’s wrong for me to pastor a church that God didn’t call me to. I believe God set the ministers in the Bible, right? He set first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly, teachers, which I believe is pastor teachers as 1 Corinthians 12:28. But God has set the members in the church, in the body, everyone as it pleased to him. That’s in 1 Corinthians 12:18. Some of you don’t like these Scriptures, but they’re still Scriptures and you gotta do something with it. Anyway, we better go on. You could tell we’re pastors, can’t you? So he says this, he goes on, “We walk just filling our own.” We had our own idea, right? We were on our way to hell in a hand basket, you might say. But he goes on and says this in verse 4, “But God, who is rich in his mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has made us live together with Christ, by grace are you saved. And has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ.” Man, grace is an amazing thing.

I love it, yeah, and that’s really the highlight of what we’re trying to say here, that grace transforms our position. We now have a position, Ephesians 2:6, this is just a great statement on your position in Christ, that you are raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Man, that’s just so awesome. Just think about that. That is your position. If you know that that is your position and it’s a reality to you, you won’t be so concerned with what happens with, you know, your earthly position.

Amen, we reign with Jesus over principalities. Hallelujah, we reign with Jesus. Hallelujah, we have authority. Praise God. When you begin to understand that and you approach life from that way, it changes the way that you live life. And you can’t just live like a victim anymore. You can’t just live like a popper anymore. You begin to think in a different way as that transforms your mind. It begins to change the way that you live your life.

Grace is so abundant. And to really reign in life, God wants you to reign in life. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundant, have extravagant life.” We are created to reign in life. And it takes the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

We have a rich, full, abundant, amazing life in Jesus Christ. Aaron, before we go off today, why don’t you pray for those that are watching?

Yeah, well, thank you guys so much for everyone who’s watching this show right now. Lord, I just think that your grace is abundant. Your grace is working in their life, Lord. And I just thank you right now, that you are opening up people’s hearts, opening up their minds, opening up their ability to receive this revelation of grace. I thank you right now that they are being transformed, radically transformed in the spirit of their mind, just concerning grace, concerning just who they are in Christ Jesus. They’re not beggars, they’re not defeated, but they are victorious through Jesus Christ. They are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves them.

Amen, well, friends, we’ve been teaching from Aaron’s series “The Abundance of Grace.” We’ll continue teaching this next week, Monday through Thursday. And then the following week, I’ll have Andrew Wommack on, and Andrew and I will be talking about the revelation of grace. So, you don’t wanna miss the next two weeks, great programs. And you can also, if you’ve missed programs, you can get them on our website, charischristiancenter.com on demand. At the first of every week, we put up all the programs for that week. If you need prayer, if you want to become a partner, make sure and give us a call today. Thanks so much and God bless you. Friends, the Scripture says, “If you will continue in the Word of God, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” If you go to our website at CarisChristianCenter.com, you can get all of our materials there on the website as you watch them, as you listen, absolutely free of charge. And we’ve done that just to be a blessing to you. And I believe that the Word that has freed me will free you. Blessings.

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