The Commanded Blessing – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise God, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. Today, we’re gonna be talking about that you don’t have to wait to the seventh year to experience rest, and you don’t have to wait till the 50th year to experience Jubilee or true freedom and the blessings that come with it. Those things are ours in Christ the moment we believe. Friends, it’s just an honor to have you with us today. We’re glad you’re here. We’re sharing on The Commanded Blessing this week. We started with the fact that we have a covenant of blessing, and part of that covenant of blessing is the commanded blessing. Today, we’re gonna be talking about Jesus, and He is both our rest and He’s our Jubilee. And in that, when you believe on Jesus, you actually live under the commanded blessing of God. And when we study Jubilee in Leviticus 25, there are seven results of the year of Jubilee. And one of these is in Leviticus 25:21. It says, “Then, I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years.” Praise God today, we live under the commanded blessing as believers. And we don’t have to wait for the 50th year because Jesus is our Jubilee. And actually, Aaron, when Jesus opened His earthly ministry in Luke 4:18-19, after He had been baptized in the Jordan by John and then went out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil 40 days and 40 nights, overcame the devil and every aspect of temptation, it says in Verse 14, He returned in the power of the spirit. But when it was the Sabbath day, as His manner was, He went to the synagogue and they delivered to Him the scroll of Isaiah to read. He opened the scroll and He found the place where it was written. We understand it is Isaiah 61:1 and the first half of Verse 2. And He began to say, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives.” He says to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He ends that with in Verse 19, in Isaiah 61, it’s the first half of Verse 2. When He says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, what Jesus was actually saying is, “I am your Jubilee.” Because he looked at them and He said, “Today is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Now, when he did that, they were ready to kill Him. They were wanting to run Him off the cliff. They said, “Who is this that’s saying this?” But what Jesus was literally saying was, “I am your Jubilee.” When Jesus says in John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.” He’s talking about Jubilee, “I am your Jubilee.” So when you come into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus and you begin to really understand what the gospel is saying, you don’t have to wait till the seventh year. You don’t have to wait till the 50th year. You can be blessed all the time because you live under the command of blessing of the Lord. And one of these results right here in Leviticus 25:21 was when He’s talking about, first of all, Sabbath rest, and then he’s talking about the year of Jubilee. Is this, He says, “Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years.” The commanded blessing includes supernatural increase. Aaron, when you got a revelation that you were blessed by the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, when you were in college, your income went up by 10 times. You begin to tithe what you were making before because you just… It became a revelation to you. And a lot of people hear the gospel, they hear the promises, but they don’t have a real revelation of it. But when you get a revelation of it, it’ll transform your life.

 

  I love that you’re talking about Jesus being our Jubilee. He’s the one who frees us, He’s the one who gives us rest. Even while we rest-

 

  Amen.

 

  There’s blessing in that. when you come to Jesus and trust in Him, you stop trusting in yourself, you stop trusting in your own performance.

 

  Amen.

 

  You stop just worrying about what everyone else is doing. Sometimes, the devil can keep you really busy just fretting about what everyone else is doing or just worrying about stuff that you shouldn’t be worrying about. So many people just live their life just being just incredibly busy, trying to do things that ultimately don’t really matter.

 

  Right. Oh.

 

  And I think that’s one of the saddest things is to maybe be really successful, be really busy at something that in the end, doesn’t matter at all. And man, I love what Hebrews 4:9-10 says. It says, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God, for He who has entered his rest, has Himself also ceased from His works as God did from His.”

 

  That’s not about our performance. And when he is talking about there remains a rest. He’s actually talking about when Joshua took the children of Israel into the Promised Land, right? That wasn’t ultimate rest because he sent David. So Joshua lives about… 500 years before David, Abraham lived about 2000 B.C., Moses and Joshua and Moses about 1600 B.C., then Joshua about 500 B.C., and then David, about 1,000 B.C. And he says because David speaks in another day that there’s gonna be a rest, there remains a promised rest. So David lived 500 years after Joshua. So he said when Joshua brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land, that wasn’t ultimately what he was talking about. He’s talking about what we’ve received in Christ. So when you come into Christ, you know what, we cease from our own works. Jesus said this on the Cross in John 19:30. He said, “It is finished.” And it’s no longer, the gospel is not about our performance, the gospel is about the performance of Jesus and just resting. I remember years ago I heard Larry Stockstill teaching and he was sharing about this. He was sharing at Dr. Lester Sumrall’s. But he said, “You just need to be like a wet mop on a log. Just chill out.” And when I heard him teaching, I had a revelation of grace by that time. And I understood this man is talking about Jesus. He’s talking about resting in Christ and the work that He’s done.

 

  And we’re gonna be reading in Leviticus 25 about that commanded blessing on the Sabbath, and Jesus is our Sabbath, He’s that promise of rest. So there is a commanded blessing on trusting in Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  Man, just ceasing from your work. Just ceasing from your struggles, your worries, your toils. I like that Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

 

  Amen.

 

  There’s a commanded blessing on just trusting in Jesus. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

 

  Amen.

 

  A lot of people just have anxiety. Man, the world is plagued with anxiety today. I saw this study that said, “A lot of the Nordic countries are some of the happiest countries in the world.” Like Finland, I think, was rated the number one happiest country. Not too long ago, my wife and I went to Iceland, and it’s one of those rated high happy countries, but we read a statistic that 75% of adults in Iceland are on antidepressants.

 

  Yeah, because-

 

  And I thought, “Well, that doesn’t sound like a happy place if the majority of your population has to be on medication for things, so…”

 

  Well, years ago, I have a missionary friend that was in Finland, and I traveled to Finland in December. And it’s almost dark all day because almost nobody wants to go to Finland in December. And he just said, “Nobody wants to come here,” because you don’t even really see the sun. And he took me up, I preached down by Helsinki, but then we went up past the Arctic Circle, and we were sharing the gospel preaching. It was like 30 below sea row. It was crazy, crazy cold. And really good things happened when I was on that trip, but I found out that a lot of the people there in Finland, they just lock them up because they become alcoholics and a lot of them will die in their 30s. And it’s dark all winter and that’s hard on people in the natural. But when you have Jesus on the inside of you, your joy doesn’t come from an outside condition, your joy comes from your spirit on the inside. But we’re talking about Jesus and Jesus is our rest. It’s not about all these outward things.

 

  Yeah, so I wanna read about this commanded blessing on this Sabbath that we see in Leviticus 25. So starting in Verse 1, it said the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai saying, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land, which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord.'” This is actually a great principle. My dad grew up farming, we have a lot of farmers that come to our church here. And sometimes, the land needs a break. People do crop rotations or they’ll let the land take a break. If you just work the land nonstop, it’ll deplete it of its nutrients. So God has just given them some practical advice for the land but also for themselves. Sometimes, you need to take a break. So it says in Verse 3, “Six years you shall sow your field, six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit. But in the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.” And I like what is spoken later, we’ll go back earlier in that, but in Verse 20, it says, “If you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year?'” Like the natural tendency for people thinking is like, “If I can’t work that seventh year, I’m gonna starve.”

 

  Right.

 

  So in Verse 20, God’s saying, “If people are gonna ask this, what shall we eat in the seventh year since we will not sow or gather produce?” Verse 21, it says, God said, “I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So it’s gonna give you food for that sixth year, it’s gonna give you food for that seventh year, it’s gonna give you food for that eighth year. ‘Cause the eighth year, you’re gonna be planting again.

 

  Amen.

 

  And not harvesting.

 

  Amen.

 

  So it’s gonna… It’s gonna have this triple blessing on it.

 

  When you begin to believe this, it’ll change your life. I had a man that came here years ago and he came to the church for at least 10 years, but he was actually at a different church here in the community. And he started praying to God and said, “Why am I not increasing?” God said, “You’re sowing your seed in dead soil.” And he came in here and he was actually already doing pretty well. But in a pretty short period of time, after he came to our church and started sowing into our church and ministry, his income tripled. And I believe that we live under this commanded blessing of God. This is part of what we receive in Jesus. And if you believe the gospel, I believe that we, as believers, should be at least three times more productive than people in the world. We should be at least three times more prosperous. And I don’t believe that you have to wait till the 50th year or the seventh year to get this blessing. I believe that Jesus is our rest and Jesus is our Jubilee, and we can start operating in that right now. And you know what? If you’ll believe it, you can start receiving it. So I wanna encourage you to call in if you need prayer, call in if you want agreement, and check out our materials on the website. But this blessing is for you. It’s working for me and it’ll work for you because God is no respecter of persons, He only respects faith. Friends, we’ve been teaching from my series “The Blessing of the Lord” and my Son, Aaron’s, teaching on “The Commanded Blessing.” You can get these and hundreds of hours more absolutely free of charge, downloadable in audio and video on the website at charischristiancenter.com. Get ahold of this truth, blessings.

 

  I just had a brother-in-law who went into a coma, then I asked this group of women to please gather around me and pray. I had heard, and I think it was Lawson who had said this some time is to just imagine what it is you are praying for. Not only did he wake up, but the songs we sang over him, he woke up singing. Our family, I don’t think, has ever seen a miracle like this.

 

  Friends, I’m glad you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about Jesus is our rest and Jesus is our Jubilee. Both of those things are… Hebrews 4 talks about the rest of faith. When Jesus opened his ministry in Luke 4:18-19 and was quoting Isaiah 61:1-2, Jesus was basically saying, “Today is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. You don’t have to wait till the 50th year, you don’t have to wait for another day. You just believe the gospel, and when you believe the gospel, you can begin to receive these promises.” And when we go into Leviticus 25, Aaron read in the first part of the broadcast from the first four verses that talk about the seventh year rest. But then if you go into Verse 8 through Verse 10, it says this, “You shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years, 49 years, the space of seven Sabbaths, and they’ll be 49 years. Then, you will cause the trumpet of Jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim freedom, proclaim liberty throughout all your land.” When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2, He was saying, “This is the day of deliverance. This is the day of God’s acceptance.” He was saying, “This, today, is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He was saying, “I am your Jubilee.” And He says, “Proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants it will be a Jubilee to you and you’ll return every man to his possession and every man to his family.” So there’s actually seven results of Jubilee. I’m gonna go through them really quickly here in Leviticus 25 because Jesus is our Jubilee. So number one, we return to our proper place in the family. The Bible says that we’re ceded in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When you believe on Jesus and receive Him as your savior, you come into right relationship with God and you’re ceded. It’s because Jesus has already done the work, and you gotta begin to realize that starts first. And then He says, “Not only to every man to his family, to his proper possession.” The land of Israel was broken up and it was divided according to tribes. And in the 50th year, everybody went back to their possession. Didn’t matter how much debt they had got in, didn’t matter what they had lost, they were given their proper place. So I believe that Jesus came to redeem us and to restore to us everything that Adam lost in the garden. So we’re proper place in the family, proper possession, praise God. He wants to restore not only our right relationship with God, but he wants to restore us in our health, our wealth, our peace, our provision. Praise God, so go back to your family, go back to your possession, it’s yours, praise God. Then the third one is in Verse 12. It is Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You will eat the increase out of the field. Again, we talked in the first half of the broadcast how they didn’t work during… They didn’t plant in the sixth year because they weren’t gonna harvest in the seventh year. So they just ate whatever they had. And God said, “I would command my increase,” that’s another one of the blessings. But He said, “You’ll eat the increase.” I believe God wants us to live off of the increase. He says in the… In Verse 14, He says in Verse 13, again, “In Jubilee, everybody returns to his possession.” Verse 14 says this, “Don’t sell anything unto your neighbor or buy anything from your neighbor’s hand. You will not oppress one another.” So everybody goes back to their proper place in the family, goes back to their proper possession, number two. Number three, you eat the increase. Number four, you don’t oppress one another. Oppression will cease. Jesus came to release us from oppression. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. Amen? The fifth one is this. And Verse 17 actually reiterates, “You will not oppress one another.” So it’s the same thing again. But the fifth one in Verse 21, you’ll live with supernatural increase. I’ll command my blessing on you in the sixth year, it will bring forth fruit for three years. So supernatural increase triple the harvest, triple harvest. Verse 35 says, “If your brother is waxen poor and fallen in decay with you, then you shall relieve him so all debts will be forgiven.” Praise God, this is supernatural. Did you know what? There are laws about bankruptcy. Did you know bankruptcy laws actually come from the Scripture? And there’s a law about seven years that comes from the Scripture. This is the 50th year, so all debts will be forgiven. The last one’s talking about if you have a slave, they’ll go free. And it says in Verse 41, then he will depart from you, he and his children with him, and will return to his own family under the possession of his father’s shall he return. So all slaves will go free. So there are seven results of Jubilee.

 

  I love that last one about freedom.

 

  Amen.

 

  Just this morning, I was listening to some music. I was going on a run and I usually listen to different sermons, different teachings where like… But I thought I listened to a new album that just came out. I have a background in classical music and I like very artistic types of music. I like jazz as well. But one of my favorite musicians, he’s a jazz organist, just like complete genius, Mozart-level genius. And he grew up in a gospel church, a Pentecostal church in Brooklyn playing gospel Oregon at a big Black gospel church. And he just Mozart-level genius in terms of jazz and this kind of things. But he just came out with an album called “Church.” And I thought, “Man…” I’m curious ’cause I’ve known… Every now and then, he’ll put in a little hymn in his concerts and his music. But he had a whole whole album called “Church.” And I thought I listened to it and it was just a big Pentecostal church service and it was awesome. So I’m glad he has just hundreds of thousands of followers ’cause he’s just such a tremendous musician. I just thought, “Man, it’s so awesome. He’s just bringing church to people.”

 

  Amen.

 

  And he just went back to his roots. And this minister was just singing, and preaching, and-

 

  Whoo!

 

  And he said, “Jesus didn’t just set you free. Jesus made you free.”

 

  That’s the truth of the gospel, and I actually had the man who led me to the Lord. His name was Phil Smith, He was the pastor at The Fringe Church. I got born again in The Fringe Church in Penrose, Colorado. And Phil Smith, actually, years later, came to our house. I was 14 or 15 years old. I had just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Andrew Wommack’s Bible study in Lamar, Colorado back in 1978. And Phil and his wife came to our house probably in 1979, I was probably 15 then, and his wife Iris. And I led him, Phil, the pastor that led me to salvation, I led him into the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the front lawn of our trailer 10 miles north of Lamar, Colorado, about midnight. And he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. And I quoted John 8, and this is really interesting that you’re talking about this because in John 8, Jesus is talking about freedom, and it’s really connecting back to Jubilee. And He says to these Jewish people who believed on Him in Verse 31, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed? And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” And I quoted that. And that’s 31, 32, I quoted that as “Set you free.” And Phil told me, “No, Lawson. It says He will make you free.” And when you really understand the gospel, when you really understand, like Colossians 1:13. Colossians 1:12 says that basically, He made us sufficient to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light. Or we’re qualified for God’s best blessings. One translation says it that way, I love that. But in Verse 13, Paul writes in Colossians 1 and says he delivered us from the authority, from the dominion, from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, the Sons of His love. We have been taken out of the dominion of darkness and we have been placed in complete freedom. And when you understand that, did you know what? It’ll liberate you.

 

  Well, and knowing… Being set free versus being made free. When you’re set free, yeah, you’re set free, but sometimes people will go back to bondage. Maybe they’re set free, maybe their debts were forgiven, but they’ll keep their same habits and just go back into ringing up the credit card debt. Or maybe someone you know for a period of time gets free from an addiction, but they’ll be tempted and they’ll go back into it. But being made free means you’re never going back. You’re completely free. You’re never gonna go back to the house of bondage.

 

  Now, here’s what makes you understand and really walk in that freedom. If you go from Colossians 1:13 to Colossians 1:14, Colossians 1:14 says, “In whom or in Christ, in Him, we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches, according to the ultimate wealth of His grace.” And when you really begin to understand that redemption, we quoted this early in the week from Galatians 3:13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of law. That is past tense. And when you begin to understand the past tense of the gospel, that in Christ you have redemption through His blood, part of redemption, he hath, past tense, redeemed us, is the forgiveness of sins. And when you begin to understand that you’re already forgiven, that’s what brings you into freedom. That’s what brings you into authority, brings you into dominion. In fact, Colossians 2 says this in Verse 13 and Verse 14. It says in Verse 14 that He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross. Verse 15 says having spoiled, having defeated, having conquered principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. What really gives you dominion over the devil is an understanding, a comprehension that you have already been forgiven for all sins. Jesus paid for all sins of all people at all times when He died on the Cross. And when you come to God and ask Him to forgive you, it’s not that He has to do something, it’s already been done. It was already decided. He was just waiting for you to come. Praise God, and you don’t have to get up there and cry these crocodile tears, and hope to God that God will forgive the stupid thing that you did last night, or a year ago, or 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. It’s already been paid for, it’s already been done. Your sins were paid for before you were ever born. And when you begin to understand that, that is what brings true freedom and that’s what brings you to dominion.

 

  Amen, the commanded blessing is on you. If you believed on Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  You are blessed. The blessings of the Lord are coming after you, they’re overtaking you. You don’t have to chase after the blessing. The blessing is actually chasing after you. That commanded blessing. We talked about the commanded blessing on the Sabbath year. That triple anointed blessing, that blessing is on your life.

 

  Amen. Praise the Lord. And I wanna encourage you to call in and receive prayer. Our prayer ministers are here. There’s an anointing of increase, an anointing of blessing on this ministry. I believe that will flow to you also. You can go to our website and you can get these teachings and many others absolutely free of charge. Check it out. God bless you.

 

  Hi, everyone, we have a special announcement for you.

 

  We’re having a camp meeting and it’s for the whole family. We have special kids teaching, special youth teaching, special adult teaching, special guests, and special worship. It’s a great event, and you don’t wanna miss it. I believe it will be a blessing to you and your family. So come see us.

 

  There are only two types of believers: those who are blessed and know it and those who are blessed and don’t know it. God has commanded his supernatural blessing on you. And as you seek Him first, all these things will be added to you. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of Pastor Aaron’s teaching, “The Commanded Blessing,” and Pastor Lawson’s teaching, “The Blessing of the Lord,” a $20 value free of charge. Download your copy today at charischristiancenter.com.

 

  Friend, we’ve been talking about the commanded blessing and that Jesus is our rest and he is our Jubilee. Ultimately, Jesus is the condition of this covenant. So if you’ve never received Jesus, pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus is your Son. I believe that He died for my sins and you raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord, and I surrender to you.

 

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