The Favor Of God Part 9 – Lawson And Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 9 – Lawson And Aaron Perdue

The Favor Of God Part 9 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, you’ll learn how having the right relationships can be the thing that helps propel you into your God-given destiny.

The Favor Of God Part 9 Transcript

Welcome, friends to the broadcast. I am so glad that you have tuned in with us today. I have my son Aaron here. we are teaching on favor in the life of Daniel. And today, we’re gonna be talking about having the right relationships. Do you know what? It’s hard to get to the right place if you’re hanging around a bunch of turkeys! So you need to be connected with the right people, fly with the eagles, praise God, and it will help you fulfill your God-given destiny. Blessings.

Welcome, friends to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re here with my son Aaron and I today. And we are sharing on the favor of God. And I have had so much favor in life, and thank God for the favor of God. I would not be able to accomplish what we’ve accomplished, to do what we’ve done without the favor of God. So we’re gonna share, we’ve been talking about favor from the life of Daniel, and we started with living with purpose. We then talked for a couple of days about supernatural revelation and how that comes through the word, through the spirit of God, through the peace of God, through the right relationships, you know, counsel, godly counsel, and also through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But then we’re gonna talk today about positive relationships and keeping the right relationships. Now, the scripture in Proverbs 16:15 says, in the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain. Now, last week we talked about Joseph and how Joseph had favor and he had favor with Pharaoh, right? The head of the largest empire on the earth at that time, the Egyptian empire, and how favor promoted him. This week, we’ve been talking about Daniel. And Daniel had favor, not only with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar in the Babylonian empire, again, the the greatest empire of that time. But then also with Darius the Mede in the Median Empire, and Cyrus the Persian, the Persian empire. So, Daniel had favor in three different kingdoms under four different kings, world leaders. God gives favor. You know, Dr. Lester Sumrall told me when I was just a young minister, we just built our first church, God gives favor, don’t ever forget it. And I’ve never forgotten it. And so thank God I’ve had so much favor with different people, different ones. God brings us into favor. We need to trust God.

Amen, I love that.

So, Aaron, let’s talk about relationships and how relationships help us move into the purpose and plan of God. I heard this one time that every person is within four relationships of anybody that they need to be connected with in the entire world to accomplish the purpose and plan of God in their life.

It’s really important to honor divine relationships as well. Some people, just be friendly towards others if there’s some benefit to them. And when that benefit’s not there, they’ll just burn that bridge and not ever.

Or they perceive it’s not there.

Yeah.

They actually hurt themselves by burning those bridges.

Yeah, man, it’s really important to honor relationships. You know, like in your family, the Bible says, to honor your father and mother. It’s important to honor, you know, family relationships. It’s important to honor, you know, mentors. It’s important to honor pastors. It’s important to honor, man, just honor people. Honor your friendships.

[Lawson] Yes.

Especially honor your spouse, people that God has brought to you into your life. So, man, honor is huge. If you start dishonoring important relationships that God has brought you, it is going to, you’re not gonna live with much purpose.

Smart people honor relationships and they honor ’em lifelong. You know, the Bible says your own friend and your father’s friend, forsake not. My dad told me when I was a young man, he said, you’ll be fortunate if you have three good friends in your life. Now I believe I’ve had more than three, but I keep relationships and I don’t do things to burn bridges with people. I may move on and go to other things. God may take me farther or, but I don’t, if somebody has had a positive influence in my life in any way, I am thankful to God for that. I am thankful to them for that. And I do not go burning down relationships, burning down bridges.

Yeah, definitely. I remember, you know, I’m now in ministry full-time, but you know, for a long time I went to college for classical music for flute playing. And I’m still in communication with some of my professors, even though I’m not pursuing, you know, a career in that field, I’m not. I still stay in touch with these people who’ve invested a lot in me, who’ve mentored me, who’ve helped me along the way. And it’s really important to honor people. And that’s actually a way to witness unto other people, to non-believers, is by being a person of honor.

Yes, and you know, the Bible talks about that in the book of Romans to honor those who deserve honor. And I honor people who have invested in my life. I honor people.

You look at Paul, Paul honored a lot of people. He would mention people by name, you know, men, women.

[Lawson] Amen.

Jewish leaders, Gentile people, different, you know, laborers, he would honor take time to honor people. Even when he’s writing to Timothy, he by name, you know, mentioned Timothy’s grandmother and mother, you know, Eunice and Lois, he would honor women. Yeah, be a person of honor.

Romans 16, Paul talks about all these different relationships with people who helped him. Then he talks about a couple relationships with people who hindered him. And he said, stay away from people, you know, like this that cause division and strife, so on and so forth. But he only talks about a couple, but he talks about literally probably hundreds of people in Romans 16 who helped him accomplish what God called him to do.

And he would mention other ministers too at the time that were trying to destroy his reputation, destroy his ministry. And he said, a lot of these people are just in it for their own selves.

[Lawson] Yeah.

And.

There are some that are out there like that. And you need to be careful. You know, there’s some people, they’re not in it for the right purpose. They don’t have the right heart. And I’ve been, you know, mom quoted the scripture to me today, but don’t lay hands suddenly on any man. And we’ve seen some of those people and as soon as they perceive in their mind that they don’t have something they can get from you, boy, they’re gone.

As long as it’s okay to take a little time in developing a relationship, maybe it’s a romantic relationship. Maybe it’s a business relationship. Maybe it’s a ministry relationship. Sometimes it’s okay to take time. You know, God will reveal things.

[Both] Over time.

You’ve brought that out. And I believe that is so powerful. You know, Aaron, in your own life, you dated a girl and she was a believer. She was going to Bible school. You thought this might be the one, but as you dated her, you know, I saw some things and you prayed about and asked God to show you and He showed you that they weren’t stable emotionally. And I know because counseling Christian people, the people with these specific issues, they’re very hard to deal with in the marriage relationship. And I talked to a marriage counselor who’ve been, you know, really in that business for over 30 years and counseled thousands of people and said, that’s a hard thing to know, but the only way you can know is by spending time with them. And Aaron, through spending time figured this out. And so you broke off the relationship immediately. You didn’t go on down that road. And sometimes people will go past that or they don’t spend enough time. And you just learn things about people if you spend a little time with them. And so, some of these Christians that think, boy, I’m just meeting Mr. and Mrs. Right and I don’t ever need to date or get to know ’em at all, I don’t know, Barbara and I, you know, we got engaged pretty quick and married after several months. But some people just, you know.

Well I’ve seen people too who give up a lot to go, you know, follow a certain ministry or go, you know, they’ll.

Well that.

Uproot their family, but it’s really important to look at the history of someone too, you know, like has this, has a certain minister, whatever, have they, what’s their long-term history?

Yeah.

And.

There’s some of these people that go from place to place, use all the people they can use and then they get all they think they can get and then they go and they burn down every bridge behind them. And they do that everywhere they go and they have an ongoing track record that is not good. And you know, you just need to, sometimes it takes a little while to figure those things out. I believe God loves everybody. God gives everybody grace. But at the same time, I believe, Aaron, since you’ve been a little boy, since five years old, I believe that God gave you discernment in relationships and you’ve seen a lot of things and you know, you’ve been with us, you know, pioneering, you know, two churches and building three church buildings and you’ve seen a lot of stuff down through the years and you get wiser through some of that and.

Well, I think, yeah, I think, I know even in music there’d be people who are just kind to you because they think that you have some influence or you know, and if you don’t have much influence and they’ll just treat you like dirt, same thing’s true in the church world, sometimes.

[Lawson] We watch this.

Even in relationships even, you know, dating and marriage type situations, it can be the same. But you know, if you’re gonna marry someone or if you’re gonna, you know, start really partnering with a certain ministry or really, or even a business type thing and you need to have a lot of wisdom and just take your time and.

You know, I was in the cattle business, this is great to bring out, but I was in the cattle business for years, for well over 30 years. And there’s a couple things. Number one, I would not partner with people who were not people of integrity. You know, and I felt like they had at least some kind of a relationship with God. But they had to be people of integrity, people who kept their word. Number two, they had to be people who were, you know, good at what they did. You know, ’cause people that are incompetent in business will hurt you. So they had to be people of integrity, have some type of relationship with God. They had to be people who were good at what they did. And they also had to be people who are hard workers. ‘Cause people who are lazy, you know, it’ll cost you. And you know, if I’ve got a thousand head of cattle out with somebody and a blizzard comes, I don’t want some lazy fool out there trying to take care of ’em, they’ll let ’em die. I want somebody who’s gonna take care of business and do everything they can do, everything within their power. And so those three things, I would not deal with somebody that wasn’t a person of integrity, that they didn’t have, you know, at least some type of relationship with God. And I knew that they were, now God gave me, you know, connections with people and things and helped me tremendously. Number two, and you need to trust God. God can bring you into a relationship with the right people in business, in your family, in ministry, all these different areas to help you. Number two, they had to have some level of expertise, right? They had to be good at what they did. There had to be something, you know, and I would come into people, into relationships. People had different areas of expertise and we could grow through that. But the third thing was this, not only were they people of integrity and people who had expertise in a certain area, but they were people. And I’ve seen people who will go partner with somebody who doesn’t know anything about a business ’cause that person says, oh, I got this great idea. And I’ve actually warned some people and probably saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars. And this has happened not once, but several times in my life. And then the third thing is, you know, people that are good hard workers. I don’t want to be in a relationship partnership with somebody that’s not a hard worker. Lazy doesn’t fit in my book.

Yeah, my wife, she was married before marrying me, her previous husband of seven years passed away. And then she moved from Tennessee here to Colorado and went to Bible college. We started dating, got married, but her prior husband was partnered with someone in business in the concrete industry. And she said, it’s a giant mess when her husband passed away ’cause this person didn’t have any integrity, was very incompetent, like didn’t keep books at all and just was very lazy too. So she just said it was a giant mess.

All three of those things!

Her husband, you know, probably lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to this person who just was.

A crook!

A giant crook.

Yep, I’ve seen some around.

Yeah.

And I’ve seen some, not only in the world in business, I’ve seen some in the church, in the ministry and.

Yeah.

I don’t, you know, it might take me a while to figure it out, but once I figure it out, you know, we’re going new direction so. God give you wisdom in relationships and help you move in.

I think one way sometimes people are deceived is through flattery too. You know, in a, maybe it’s a ministry situation, a business situation, a romantic situation where people are just flattering and.

Ugh!

God has to give you wisdom in being able to discern what’s the true intent of this person’s heart.

I have a person in my family, very close to me, and they married these people because they were romantic and they would flatter ’em and they’d buy ’em a dozen roses. And but when they got married, you know what? They might buy ’em a dozen roses, but they wouldn’t pay the light bill! And that is not attractive for a long term relationship. And so it didn’t work out well. And so listen, you gotta look at some other areas and have a little sense to go along with that. And don’t marry a lazy person. Don’t marry a person who’s not a giver. You know what? Marry somebody who’s a giver, who has a relationship with God, who’s a good worker, and that’ll help you in life.

Amen.

Help your family. Well, we’re gonna be back right after this broadcast break, and after this break, we’re gonna be continuing to share from the life of Daniel how certain relationships helped him walk in favor and fulfill the purpose of God. So, stay tuned. Friends, I wanna 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 has 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’ve packaged 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. We are in Daniel and we are in Daniel 2:17-18. And this is when the king had had this, Nebuchadnezzar who Daniel was raised up under in the Babylonian empire, had a a dream and forgot about it and then wanted his wise people to interpret it. They couldn’t, so the king basically said, I’m gonna just annihilate these people who are my wise people because they’re just costing me money and not getting it. And Daniel prayed and asked the king, he’s like, hey, give me a little time and we’ll come up with an answer. And he went to his house, it says in Daniel 2:17, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his friends: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; and Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Man, you gotta have the right friends. And you know what? As they prayed and sought God together, God gave them revelation and showed them exactly what the dream was and Daniel had an exact interpretation that came to pass. It’s still coming to pass actually. It’s really amazing Daniel’s, a lot of people don’t believe that Daniel could have been written before the fact of some of these things when it was written because he had so much revelation that came from God. But you know what, these people that prayed together stayed together. And literally, and then in Daniel 3, these same three people, the King Nebuchadnezzar made this image of himself and he stood it up and said, everybody, when you hear the music, you gotta fall down and you gotta worship me. But these three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they wouldn’t fall down and worship the king. They wouldn’t, you know what they, they just, and so they took them and threw ’em into the fiery furnace. And you know what? They did not bow and they did not burn. And when they got in that fiery furnace, the king looked down in there and he saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They boldly answered the king with no remorse whatsoever. In verse 16, we’re not careful to answer you. If you throw us in, God, who we serve is able to deliver us outta the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us outta your hand. But basically if you throw us in, we’re not gonna bow, throw us in, don’t whatever, but God’s able to deliver us. And if you don’t throw us in, this is my interpretation of this. And I actually had my Bible school instructor who helped translate the New International Version, looked this up in the Hebrew and said I was right. He was actually mad at me ’cause he’s kind of religious. And then, he looked it up and said, well, you’re right.

Looked up what?

This, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said, if you throw us in. If it be so, then God’s able to deliver us, but if not. And he thought what it meant was, you know, if you throw us in, God will deliver us, but if you don’t throw us in, well, we’re not gonna serve you anyway. But they said, basically they said, God is gonna deliver us if you throw us in. They were, that was, you know, definite affirmative faith in God.

Oh, okay.

And God delivered ’em. And that their answer enraged Nebuchadnezzar. It says in verse 19, that he was full of fury, in his form of his visage, his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he commanded them to heat the fire one seven times hotter. And he was sitting up, you know, in his throne. However, looking down at this burning fire. This fire was so hot when he had ’em heated up seven times that it killed the people that threw ’em in. And they throw ’em in bound and the only thing that burned off of ’em, it burned the ropes off of ’em. And he looked down in the fire and said, didn’t we throw three? And they said yes. But he said, I see four walking in the fire and the fourth one looks like the Son of God. And he got ’em out of there and said, hey, everybody’s. And he promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These guys stayed together, they prayed together, and they were promoted together. Man, you need to hang around the right people! It’ll help help you get where God wants you to get.

Amen.

You know, I recently called a friend that went to high school. He was my best friend in high school and he was a Methodist and I was a recovering traditional person and got filled with the Holy Spirit when I was just 14. But we were best friends and you know, God made him a grain dealer and he’s made millions of dollars and super blessed in his life and very thankful to God and his children have done well. And you know, the people you hang around says a lot about you. And praise God, how God brings those relationships back and different things, but you need to stay around the right people. And we also look and see about Daniel’s friends in Daniel 5:29 and Daniel 6:2. So we’ll read in Daniel 5, Aaron read verse 29 about Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

So Daniel 5:29, it says that Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And so when you see this, you know, Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were promoted. Daniel was promoted. But then we see in Daniel 6:1. It pleased Darius, right, who was the Median king to set over the kingdom, 120 princes to be over the whole kingdom over these three presidents of whom Daniel was first. So you know, this again is the Median Persian empire, over 120 kingdoms, and he put three over all 120. But Daniel was the head. And Daniel was preferred above the princes and presidents because the excellent spirit was in him. And the king thought to set him over the whole realm. So again, they were promoted together and they kept a good attitude. And we’ll talk tomorrow more about keeping a good attitude. But you know, the people you hang around can affect your attitude? And I’ve actually, once in a while, because I was hanging around the wrong people got the wrong attitude. And so, you gotta guard your attitude, you gotta guard your heart, and you gotta keep a good attitude. But relationships are so important, you know, I wouldn’t have been able to do all the things that I’ve done without good godly relationships. And a couple scriptures really speak to this. Proverbs 13:20 says, that he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. And you know what? I’ve had wise people that God’s given me, you know, as a friend growing up and then in business, when I first started in business. When we moved to Kit Carson, it was this little bitty place. And God put me in Kit Carson, this town of 300 in a county of 2000 that covers 2,400 square miles. Less than one person per square mile in that county to teach me how to think big. And he gave me three good friends. And those three good friends, Aubrey Shotton, Jim Mitch, and Irvin Mitch. Those men taught me how to think big, praise God. And I still have relationships, you know, that came. Aubrey went home to be with Jesus. And, but I still have relationship with those people. I still honor ’em. Jim’s daughter now comes here to church and her husband helps us in worship. And you know what? I honor these godly relationships that God has given me for years and years and years. And Jim is still a very good friend of me. Praise God. I remember going to a cow cell with Jim Mitch when we first moved to Kit Carson. I said, I might be buy 10 or 15 cows. And Jim said, you might as well buy a semi-load. Then if you make money, you’ll make it. If you lose it, you’ll lose it, but you’ll make a difference. And you know, they just thought big. Irvin talked about farming the world and you know, they bought thousands and thousands of acres and used debt and God blessed ’em. Aubrey Shotton fed thousands of head of cattle, bought thousands of acres. And God blessed him and prospered him. But all those men were men of wisdom and I surround, he that walks with wise men will be wise. And I learned different things from Aubrey and different things from Jim and different things from Irvin. And I applied those different things in my own life, in my own business, and it led me to blessing. So many people don’t realize the value of these relationships. And some of them, man, they didn’t give me money for years or years, but they gave me wisdom. Do you know what, wisdom is worth more than money. Some people go hang around somebody else because they don’t perceive they can get anything off somebody financially. But they don’t listen to wisdom. And one of the worst things that you can do is destroy a relationship or person that has wisdom. Andrew Wommack, one of my mentors, Lester Sumrall was one of my mentors. God’s given me different mentors. Bobbie Jean Merck, who’s a prophet of God, who’s spoken in my life years ago, I’ve called her recently, she’s still speaking into my life and I’ve received good things from her. But Andrew Wommack years ago, I went to him probably over 25 years ago and I said, Andrew, anytime if you see me doing something wrong, you come and tell me. My door is open. You can talk to me anytime you want to. He said, Lawson, I already know that. And I said, Andrew, I’ve never told you that. How could you know that? And he said, I know it because of the attitude in which you conduct yourself. Boy, you gotta keep the right attitude and you gotta surround yourself with the right people. And I have observed things and learned from Andrew Wommack. I observed things and I learned from Lester Sumrall, I still receive from Lester’s son Steve Sumrall, praise God. Different aspects of wisdom that I apply in my life. I’m not doing anything to destroy these God-given relationships that God has given me. God gave me great friends here in Colorado Springs. Ed Meyer, who’s went home to be with Jesus was one of my best friends. And you know, Ed spoke certain things into my life and really helped me with my advisory board here at the church and different things that we’ve done and was a tremendous blessing. And God will give you relationships with people and you need to honor those relationships. And I’m not, I have honored relationships, some of them for most of my life, and I’m not doing things to burn down bridges and destroy relationships that God has given me.

That’s awesome.

So valuable.

Well, thanks so much for joining us today. I’ve really been enjoying this topic of favor. If you have Jesus, God’s favor is on your life. You have favor with God, you have favor with man, and you have a good understanding. If you’d like to receive any prayer today, just give us a call. Also, if you value this ministry, the teaching that comes from here, we’d love for you to partner with us. If you’d like to become a partner, give us a call. Thanks so much for joining us. We’ll see you again soon.

Blessings.

Hi, ladies, I am so excited to invite you to our Rejoice Women’s Conference, February 9th through the 11th. This is an event for women 13 and up. It’s time to rejoice!

Not only are you gonna have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, you are also gonna experience the power of God when you see signs, wonders and miracles.

[Heather] Amen, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming. So make plans and register today.

[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 719 418-4000 or visit CharisChristianCenter.com. 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 P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on Grace For Today.