The Favor Of God Part 6 – Lawson And Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 6 – Lawson And Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 6 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you’ll learn how you can live in your divine design, and how purpose brings you into the favor of God.

The Favor Of God Part 6 Transcript

Welcome friends to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you are connected with us today. I have my son, Aaron. We’re gonna be talking about living your life by divine design, living with purpose, and how purpose brings us into the favor of God and men. When you understand the favor of God in your divine purpose, it will release the blessing of God and good things in your life.

Friends, I’m glad that you’re with us today. I’ve got my son Aaron with me, and we’re talking about favor, and we’re gonna be sharing all of this week about the life of Daniel. Last week, we talked about Joseph. Joseph had tremendous, tremendous favor, and he made Pharaoh, who was the leader of the largest empire in the world, at that time, the greatest empire in the world, the Egyptian empire, the richest man on the planet, because he had supernatural revelation that came from God. And he had a plan, not only a dream vision, you know, understanding in dreams and visions, but he had a plan on how to carry that out. And you talked about this, how a lot of people, they may have a dream or a vision, but they don’t have any practical application of it. And, you know, we need practical application wisdom. And I love the life of Daniel. In fact, we’re gonna talk about four things this week from the life of Daniel. I encourage you to get all your friends, tell your friends, well, I taught you Aaron and your two younger brothers, Andrew and Peter, all these things. This is really, these principles that I teach from Daniel I’ve drilled these into you as young men, but number one is live with purpose. Number two is supernatural revelation. Number three is keep a good attitude. And number four is surround yourself with the right people. And those things have made you, they have helped you.

Yeah, one thing I love about both Joseph and Daniel, in looking at favor, you know, they had favor with God, but that favor, it wasn’t just with God. God also helped them have favor, even in the midst of opposition. You know, both Joseph and Daniel lived their lives in ungodly environments. You know, they both lived, you know, amongst people, amongst leaders who were, who were ungodly, who were not, you know, believers, not you know, not believing in the one true God, not covenant people, but God still gave them favor and helped them be people of influence, be leaders, be people of purpose, of divine purpose, so.

Right. You can, even as the world gets darker and darker, God can still give you tremendous purpose and tremendous favor, even in the midst of opposition.

You know, Aaron, this is something that we teach, and I see Christian leaders sometimes, and they’re going out and attacking people in the world that have different thoughts and different ways, and they’re not being well received. And I don’t think that, I think many times it’s not so much that we’re in the world, we’ve got too much of the world in us.

[Aaron] Mm-hm.

And I see a lot of these Christian leaders and their own families are a train wreck. Different things. And I think that our lives can speak to people around us. Joseph’s life spoke to Pharaoh.

Mm-hm.

Joseph’s life spoke to the people around him in the prison, to Potipher his owner, when he was sold as a slave. Joseph’s life spoke to people around him.

Mm-hm. And Joseph, you know, made a huge difference and preserved the, you know, the people of God the children of Israel. And the same with Daniel. Daniel lived, there were opposing people. I’m glad that you brought this out. And so many people think, you know, we’ve gotta make the world around us conform to what we believe. And that, you know, if you don’t get them born again, if they don’t have a change in their spirit, they’re just gonna go keep being obstinate. But if your life speaks so much, you know, they did different things in Daniel trying to destroy him and yet he would keep rising up. Joseph the same thing. He would keep rising up by the favor of God, by the grace of God. And eventually they said, “Hey, nobody’s gonna serve anybody but the God of Daniel”.

Mm-hm.

And so they turned things around because their lives demonstrated the grace of God. And our lives need to be, not only do, I’m not against, you know, standing up. You know me, I’ll stand up, I’ll say things about, you know, what’s going down in the world. I do not compromise the Word of God. I do not compromise the message. But at the same point in time, you know what, a lot of times there’s just a lot of junk in the world. We gotta keep letting the light of Jesus Christ shine through us and let, and not letting the world overcome us so that our lives are a testimony to the world and keep testifying of the goodness of God, the grace of God to the world around us.

Mm-hm, amen. Yeah, now’s not the time to be afraid and just be retreating and living in a cave.

[Pastor Purdue] No.

You know, too many people are just kind of encouraging people to live in a cave. And that’s not, that’s not what’s called to do.

In the pandemic. The pandemic separated the men from the boys in the Christian world, because there’s a lot of these people in the church had just as much fear, if not more than the world. And you know what? Our lives are not to be marked by fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mine. And you can see in the life of Daniel, when we talk about these different things, he did not let fear, you know, to paralyze him.

[Aaron] Mm-hm.

But he was motivated by faith in God. And we’re gonna talk about, this first show about living with purpose. You know, purpose will set you apart. Purpose will, when you have a purpose that comes from God, you’re gonna stand out like a healed thumb, Hallelujah. And so let’s read this in Daniel chapter one, verse eight through verse 10. Aaron, go ahead and read Daniel one, verse eight through verse 10.

This says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the Chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now, God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the Chief of the eunuchs. And the Chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, ‘I fear my Lord, the King who has appointed your food and drink for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king’. So Daniel said to the steward whom the Chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you. And the appearance of the young men who ate the portions of the king’s delicacies. And as you see fit, still deal with your servants. So he consented with them in this matter and tested them 10 days”.

Yeah, “And at the end of 10 days”, it says, “their countenances were fair and fatter in the flesh”. And so he gave them what they requested. Now, later when they were brought in and tested, it says, “God”, in verse 17 “gave them knowledge, skill, and all learning and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in vision and dreams. And when the king brought them in”, it says this in verse 20, this was Daniel, their Hebrew names, Hananiah and Mishael, and Azariah or Shardrach, Meshach and Abednego, right? Their Babylonian names. “When they brought them in, the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm”. Not 10% better, 10 times better, 1000%. Hallelujah. Praise God. 10 times better. You know, I got this testimony about you, and this came from someone else from the outside, but our cousins, you know, in that live down in District 12, when you boys were in high school, Matt and Kyle Sheffy, they went over to this graduation party. And school District 12 is one of the top school districts in this state. Great, great school district. And, but anyway, they asked someone at this graduation party, if they knew the Purdue boys, they said, “Those boys are like the gods”. I thought, well, that’s just like Daniel. They said the wisdom of God, the Spirit of the holy gods is in him. Praise God. And so this happened then, but it happens now because the same Spirit that was working in Daniel is available to us through knowing Jesus. We can have the Spirit of Christ in us. We can be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We will talk later about supernatural revelation. But Daniel lived with purpose. And there’s so many people today that lack purpose.

Mm-hm.

And we need to have a purpose that comes from God that will set us apart. I think if you understand your purpose from God, it separates you from the world around you.

Mm-hm.

You don’t want to get involved in all that junk because that’s not who you are.

Really it kind of starts with identity. You know, the world is after people’s identity. You know, I just see there’s a big identity crisis amongst young people in America today. And you know, if your identity, if your children’s identity is really rooted in Christ, then you have nothing to be afraid of, you know, purpose and your life, it all stems from, from your relationship with God, your identity in Him. And if you’re strong in your identity, you can be in the midst of some crazy stuff going on in the world, and it’s not gonna phase you. You’re gonna keep going on track and living with purpose.

Yeah, you saw that in the life of Daniel, in the life of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his friends, they had a very strong identity. They identified with the covenant of God.

And they banded together too.

Yeah.

You know, I love that they were together. You know, one thing I love that my parents did for me and my brothers, they always brought us to church. You know, we were at church every Sunday, every Wednesday for youth, these types of things. But even my own kids, I have a, you know, very close to nine year old and two year old. And they love coming to church. That’s one thing I love about our church here. Charis Christian Center is like youth and kids, they love being here.

I get a kick outta your son, Fisher.

Yeah.

He’s nine years old and he’ll come not to one service Sunday morning, but to two. And after being at church for over four hours, he’s crying. He don’t wanna go home. He still wants to be with people. He loves coming to church and being around kids.

Well, I’ve noticed sometimes kids like being at church, being around other people even more than the parents do. I think during the pandemic, you know, adults got too used to just being at home, maybe working at home, ordering food in at home. They just got kind of lazy and just used to being at home. But kids are very social. They love being around their friends. So I’ve talked to our children’s pastor just to help motivate some of these people, who are a little too comfortable just sitting on the couch all weekend long. You know, let’s do some special fun things for kids and the kids will get their parents to church.

Yeah, they love coming.

Yeah.

And so they love celebrating.

So yeah, if you’re a parent, if you have kids, teens at home, get ’em to church. You know, find a church that has a positive atmosphere an inviting, you know, atmosphere for your kids and get plugged into a church that has a great kids program, great youth program. And that’s one of the best things you can do for your kids, is to get ’em around other believers.

Yes. –

Other families that are believers.

Yeah, so Daniel lived with purpose, and I know your son, Peter, graduated from Princeton with honors.

Your son, Peter.

My son, Peter, excuse me my son, Peter. And then he married Kendra and she went to Princeton, graduated, right? And then she went to Duke University and got her degree in law. I believe she graduated number three at Duke Law. She’s a very smart young woman. And then they got married, but a few years later, after they were married, they went to a graduation where her brother was graduating from Stanford University and Peter was actually appalled. And he said, “I don’t understand these young people. They don’t have any purpose”. And Peter and Kendra have lived with purpose, Praise God, in just a few short years, they paid off $200,000 of her law school debt.

Mm-hm.

And they’ve moved forward and been very blessed in life.

Mm-hm.

Leaders in business, you know, leaders in their church, Praise God. And God’s favors all over ’em, Hallelujah. You know, this isn’t just for my family, this isn’t just for Daniel. This is for whoever will believe on Jesus and believe the gospel. You can have favor, Praise God. And you can not only have favor with God, you can have favor with man. And Daniel had that. He lived with purpose. Now purpose, I believe gave him favor, right? It says, “God brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs”, with these people taking care of him. And then later God brought him into favor, you know, with Belshazzar, who was the head of the Babylonian empire. And before that, Nebuchadnezzar, and later Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede. So Daniel, this was tremendous favor that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they all had favor in three world, with three world, you know,

Empires, yeah. –

Governments. And with four world leaders, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar his son, both of Babylon, Cyrus the Persian, and Darius the Mede. That’s tremendous favor.

Mm-hm.

And you know, that shows this works. It’ll work with different nations, different generations. It’ll work with different cultures. The favor of God will work for you wherever you’re at,

Mm-hm.

if you’ll believe it. So we’re gonna take a short break and we’ll be back right after this. We’re gonna continue to talk about favor and walking in the favor of God through finding God’s purpose for your life. Stay tuned. Friends, I want to tell you about some products that we have available that I believe will help you move into God’s plan, to God’s destiny for your life. The first one is my book, Uncommon Favor. This is my life story. And there are a lot of just really simple stories, things that have happened in my life for the last 30 years, and really how God has blessed us and helped us, you know, move into what He has for us. And I believe that God is no respecter of persons. What God has done for me, he will do for you. I have so many people read this book. It’s a very simple read. And they’ll tell me, “Pastor, I was so encouraged that really helped me, and gave me hope for my life”. And so you don’t want to miss getting this book, Uncommon Favor. And we package it together with my teaching on the Favor of God. And this is a three CD teaching on the favor of God. You can get this by calling our office, or you can check us out on the web at charischristiancenter.com. Now we can walk in the favor of God through finding our God-given purpose. Now, I love the story of Paul, right? Saul who became Paul, who wrote about at least a third of the New Testament, but later in his life, in Acts chapter 26, Paul appears before the King Agrippa. And he shares his salvation testimony. Do you know, your story never grows old.

Mm-hm.

I mean, this is years and years later. And he talks about how he was on the road to Damascus, in verse 12, “with the authority and a commission from the Chief of priests. And at midday, he saw on the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. And him and all those with him fell to the earth. And he heard a voice speaking with him”. It didn’t know who it was at that point in time, saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It’s hard for you to kick against the pricks”. You know, it’s hard to go against the ways of God. The way of the transgressor is hard. The Bible says that. And a lot of people think it’s hard to serve God. No, it’s hard not to serve God. It’s a lot better to serve God. And he said, “Who are you Lord?” Now he knew immediately this was the Lord, this was the, and he said, “I am Jesus whom you persecute”. And he said to him, in Acts 26 verse 16, “Rise and stand on your feet. For I have appeared unto you for this purpose”. God has a purpose for your life. And right when he, you know, came into contact with Jesus, he found out that Jesus had a purpose for him. I believe Jesus has a purpose for you. He talks in II Timothy chapter one, and he talks to Timothy and he said, Timothy, God called us and gave us a purpose from the foundation of the world. And we need to move into that God-given purpose. He says, “To make you a minister and witness of the things which you have seen and those things which I will appear to you”. Now, whatever purpose that God has for your life, whether that’s being a farmer or a fisherman, or a business person, or a school teacher, or a banker, or an attorney, or a doctor, whatever purpose God has for your life, or a preacher, I believe that God has a purpose for us and wants our lives to be a witness to other people around us of Jesus.

And I love the similarity also between Paul and Daniel. You know, Jesus wanted Paul to be a witness to the Gentile nations, to the Gentile people. Just like Daniel actually was placed, you know, it wasn’t really his fault, but because Israel had turned away from God that they were overtaken by these, you know, enemy empires. And you know, the Israelites were carried captive into Babylon. But, God actually turned that around and made Daniel a light there. And a lot of Bible scholars think that actually the wise men, the Magi, who came to see Jesus when he was born, came from Babylon because of the prophecies that Daniel gave. You know, Daniel was at one point the leader of the Magi there in the Babylonian empire. And they probably kept records of his prophecies, of his teachings. And these Magi that came from the east, they very well might have came as a result of Daniel’s influence there.

Praise God. So we have influence wherever we’re at.

Mm-hm.

Even in opposing systems, right? Even in opposing government. See, we can have wisdom, we can have favor. And I like something that you brought up earlier this week that we can have great favor and we can have great increase even in times of difficulty. There’s great opportunity. And so he goes on and Paul’s talking about his salvation experience. And Jesus appeared to make you a minister and a witness of what you’ve seen “and the things that I will appear you, I delivered you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I now send you”. So Saul who became Paul, became a witness to the Gentiles. He had much fruit among the Gentiles. He tried to go to the Jews and didn’t have much fruit. You know, you need to see where your, where the favor of God is on your life and where the fruit really is. And he says this in verse 18, “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and”, I like the word and. In Acts chapter 26 verse 18, “and in inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith, that is in me”. A lot of people just trying to believe to get forgiveness of sins.

Mm-hm.

But there’s a covenant that you have with God. And when you come into forgiveness, you come into this covenant. And you can not only have the forgiveness of sins, but you can also have an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. And I believe God wants us all to move into our divine inheritance. Praise God, He’s got promises, He has a covenant. And we’re not just saved, but Praise God, we’re blessed. I love Hebrews 11, verse six. It says, “faith is the substance”, well that’s Hebrews 11:1, but verse six, “Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder”. One translation says, you gotta believe ’em both. And some people believe that God is, the devils believe and tremble. But you not God only, not believe that He is, but that He rewards those who diligently seek him. Some people are almost against getting any reward. Well, praise God, I want some reward. You know, there’s rewards that come with the gospel. There’s rewards that come with believing on Jesus. And I don’t wanna miss out on my divine inheritance. And so when you live with purpose, I believe you can move into your divine inheritance. Not only did Paul live with purpose, well, let’s look at II Timothy. We just talked about it. But in II Timothy chapter one, Paul talks about this, and we talked about this earlier, in verse seven, in the broadcast this week. “But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind”. So we don’t have a spirit of intimidation. We’re not to be intimidated by the world, intimidated by the devil. But we’ve got the power of God, the love of God. And we got a sound mind, a mind that’s well instructed, corrected in the Word of God, washed in the Word of God. And he says, “therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus nor me His prisoner, but be a partaker of the afflictions according to the power of God”. Verse nine says this, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began”. I believe that God has a divine design for every person. And I believe that one way that we can all prosper is find out what is the purpose of God for our life.

Mm-hm.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, purpose will keep you on track too. You know, purpose means you’re pointed, you have a direction, you’re goin’ somewhere, you have some motivation.

[Pastor Purdue] Amen.

Maybe also just stepping out in faith, you know, there’s always a purpose to faith.

[Pastor Purdue] Amen.

You know, it doesn’t take much faith just to sit around and not have much direction.

[Pastor Purdue] Amen.

It takes faith to, to accomplish things, to go for it.

[Pastor Purdue] Amen.

To step into what and, and what God has for you, the plans he has for you. It’s bigger than what you can do in your own strength and your own ability. So really, it takes faith to live with a

Amen. –

divine purpose.

If you can accomplish what you’re doing without God, it’s not much good. But, I believe it takes faith to live out the purpose of God. Now, Aaron, you did this, you didn’t even know where I was going, but the very next scripture I was gonna share talks about purpose and faith. And Paul says this in II Timothy three, verse 10, “You have fully known my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions and inflictions”, so on and so forth. Now, when he says that, I believe all of these things work together, they all build on each other, right? So when you believe, you know, my doctrine, what I believe, how that directs my manner of life, if what you believe doesn’t direct your manner of life, there’s a problem. You know what, I know a man that has a tremendous message. I just looked at the notes that he taught on marriage, and I’ve heard man, the man, it just was saddening. You know, it’s a real tragedy in the body of Christ. But I just looked at the notes that I took on a message that he taught, and it is from the holy scripture. It is from the Word of God. But if your beliefs do not direct your manner of life, there’s a problem.

Mm-hm. And then he says, my manner of life directs my purpose. I am living with purpose. We wanna live with the purpose that’s greater than ourselves. We wanna live with the purpose of God. I believe when we live with purpose, it gives us favor. Hallelujah, when you move into the purpose of God, the purpose, I’ve had a lot of favor. I asked Dr. Sumrall, Dr. Sumrall asked me when I built my first church, “How’d you do this?” I said, “I had a lot of favor”. He said, “God gives favor, don’t you ever forget it”. I’ve never forgotten it, some 30 years later, Praise God. And then faith, it takes faith to move into that, that God does, Praise God. You know, it took faith for us to move into this church. It took faith to, you know, take on this project of rebuilding this and doing the work and spending the money. It takes faith to turn on the lights every day here.

Mm-hm.

You know, this church costs us almost per month in utilities what our last church costs us per year.

Mm-hm, really to go from grace to grace, from glory to glory, it’s gonna take faith too. You know, I think you’re gonna have to stretch yourself from time to time too,

Yes –

to grow to maybe step out when it’s uncomfortable. You know, faith isn’t always a comfortable

Situation. –

Situation.

Aaron, you’re preaching my message. But you know, when we moved here to Colorado Springs, I had to go to six banks before I found a banker that would loan me the money. And I had 50% down to buy a house because they didn’t believe in the vision, the dream that God gave me. I don’t think they thought I could pay for a house. If I bought it even if I had 50% down. And then, you know, 10 years later in the downturn, financial downturn here in the city, God gave us a great deal on a house. But it was really challenging, two of the most, and those two houses were two of the best financials decisions that I’ve ever made in my life.

I know when you bought the house you’re in now too. You wanted to sell your old house, the house that I lived in when I was in high school. And you, it was kind of a challenging time. It was during the recession and you had a buyer, but it fell through. And I know it was upsetting at the time, but God actually used that

Yeah. –

to your advantage. You know, you got some renters in there for a few years and.

God spoke to me and said, “I know how to bless the righteous and I know how to reserve the ungodly to the day of judgment”. Now I don’t, that person that was dealing with one of the most ungodly people I’ve ever dealt with, and I’ve done a lot of business, but you know, God just gave me that scripture. And you know what? We gave ’em their deposit back. We got our house back, we rented it out, we paid it off, and it appreciated a whole bunch. And we bought a business with it and God blessed that business. Hallelujah.

Well, thanks for joining us today. We love you. We hope to see you all back soon again tomorrow. God bless you and see you again soon.

[Announcer] The favor of the Lord has the power to change your life. In this Favor Package, you’ll learn how you already have more than enough favor because God loves and cares for you. Get the Favor CD series along with the book entitled, Uncommon Favor for $24 when you call 418-4000 or visit charischristiancenter.com.

[Announcer Two] Did you know that you can stay connected with us?

[Pastor Purdue] We have a church app. You can get it for your phone. You can get our most recent videos, audio, stay connected with the church, all of it’s absolutely free of charge. Stay connected with the different things that are happening in different departments. We’d love to have you get our new church app. Blessings.

[Announcer] 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 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.