Vision – Part 6 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Vision Part 6 with Pastors Aaron and Lawson Perdue! In this session we’ll learn how the grace of God can change us into what God has made us to be.

Vision Part 6 Transcript

Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in to the broadcast today. We’re gonna be talking about our church vision and, specifically on experiencing the grace of God. So, you know what? Each and every one of us need to experience the grace of God and let the grace of God change us into what God has made us to be, so open your heart today, receive the good word of God and receive this great revelation of grace. Friends, it’s great to have you with us today. We talked about vision all last week. We talked about what vision is. We talked about how vision works and we begin to talk about our church vision and the vision for our ministry, “Grace for Today.” We want to continue to talk about that a little bit today. The part we talked about is the foundation of our vision as a relationship with God.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, we say that really our first key statement is to know Jesus.

Mm.

And Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, really the heart of the gospel, Paul said this, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” Praise God. We want people to know God. We want them to know Christ. And we talked also about Hebrews chapter 8, verse 11 and it says in the new covenant, “They will all know me from the least to the greatest.” And we want people to have a personal relationship with God where they know God for themselves.

Yeah, I like that. It’s not just talking about knowing about him. You know, there’s a lot of people who know about God-

Yes.

They might know about Jesus.

They might know about the Bible, but Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you.

And there’s a huge difference in knowing about God and knowing God personally and intimately for yourself.

And I believe that Jesus wants to know you and he wants you to know him, as well. And we can actually grow in that relationship. You know, that relationship, it’s not a stagnant thing. It’s a life-giving relationship. So, that means you’re to grow in that, you’re to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

I like what you said, where you said, Aaron, that Jesus wants to know you.

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

You know what God said about Abraham, I believe this is in Genesis 18.

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

But he said, “I know him.”

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

“And I know that he will command his children after him.”

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

And so a lot of people say they know God, but does God know you?

Mm-hmm.

And I know I’ve got a good friend, David Hardesty, he, for a long time, was the chief operating officer of Andrew Wommack Ministries and he’s been very successful in the world and business and then was very successful helping Andrew for a period of time to really grow his ministry, but David will tell me, “Well, God knows you, Lawson, and he can trust you. You’ve proven yourself.” And I think there is a proving time and so does God know you? I like that. So, we talked about that. Today we’re gonna move into experiencing grace. And Paul actually makes a statement in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10 where he said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” And he says, “His grace was not, bestowed upon me was not in vain, for I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I but the grace of God that was with me.” We need to let the grace of God make us into what God wants us to be, to be who we are, to be what we are by the grace of God.

Amen.

You know, when Paul made that statement, he was actually defending the doctrine of the resurrection. And Satan started condemning him, ’cause he said, “I’m the least of all the ministers because I persecuted the church.” And then he said, “But I am what I am by the grace of God.” Really, it’s not me, but it’s the grace of God that’s with me. So, how do we define grace, Aaron, if we define grace?

It’s the unmerited favor of God.

Right, so-

You don’t deserve it, you can’t earn it. It’s just God’s, just his love for you, his just-

Unmerited favor.

Unmerited, you can’t earn it.

I like to say divine favor. That by which we’re saved. It’s the Greek word, Charis. And it’s really, it is favor, unmerited favor. That by which we’re saved.

A lot of people understand grace that saves, but grace, I believe there’s three important aspects of grace. There’s grace that saves us. I call it grace that frees us, grace that brings freedom. There’s also grace that transforms us.

[Lawson] Right.

If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation. So, you aren’t the same person. You’re actually transformed into a new person. So, you’re no longer a sinner, but now you’re a saint, so you’ve been transformed into a saint. You’ve been transformed into a child of God. So, grace frees you, grace transforms you and, lastly, grace empowers you.

[Lawson] Also-

Grace will empower you to be the saint that you are.

Yeah, so when you talk about grace that transforms us, you know, Titus chapter 2 about verse 10 says, “The grace of God which has appeared to all men,” you know-

Brings salvation.

That the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly less and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world. So, Strong’s defines the word grace, Charis, there in Titus chapter 2, verse 10 through verse 14. He defines that Greek word, Charis, as the divine influence on the heart and its reflection in the life. So, that’s transforming grace. So he saved us, that’s divine favor, unmerited favor. We’re saved by grace, but we’re transformed. We’re changed by grace and its divine influence on the heart and its reflection on life. So, divine favor, that by which we’re saved, divine influence, that’s by which we’re transformed and then divine ability. I like to define grace last as divine ability, God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves and the person of Jesus Christ when he died and rose again.

And one aspect about this key vision point for our ministry, experiencing grace, like it’s a big aspect of what we preach, of how we minister to people, of how we see God. We see God as a gracious God, as a God that is good all the time and he wants to be good to you and it’s not, him using you isn’t dependent upon, on who you are, it’s dependent upon who Jesus is. And it’s a key aspect of what you preach and what our ministry does and, you know, different ministries have different focuses, I think that’s fine. Some ministries really focus on evangelism, on reaching the world. Some focus on, you know, reaching different groups of people. Some focus on faith, some focus on, but never preach against the grace of God.

Yes.

Now if your focus is on faith or your focus is on, never preach against the love of God. You know, years ago when I was just 18, I moved away to college in Pittsburgh and I was visiting church trying to find a church to go to and there was a famous minister there as a guest and he was preaching on the fear of God, but as he’s doing so, I think the fear of God is great. You know, we need to have an awe, a reverence, a respect for God, but as he was doing so, he was actually preaching against the love of God saying that if you focus on the love of God, then, you know, you’ll get into sin. But it’s the grace of God, understanding, experience, that actually teaches us how to live.

Right.

Right in this world.

And so, it grieves me when ministers might preach against the love of God-

Listen, I’ve made a decision.

Or the grace of God.

I’m am not gonna preach against anything that I see in the scripture, whether that be healing, prosperity, the Holy Spirit, peace, right, whatever. Because I never know when I’m gonna need that in my life and so it’s kind of foolish and really you, I remember you calling me. You were just a freshman in college, 18 years old, and saying, “Dad, have you ever heard of this person?” And you went to that church and he was a visitor and I actually knew what Andrew Wommack thought of him and thought of the message. It’s not, he’s a very nice person, but the message sometimes, we get conflicted. I believe in the fear of God. You know, really, when I talk about the fear of God, I talk about respecting my relationship with God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. By the fear of God, men depart from evil. I’m not going to preach against the fear of God, right, because I see it in the scripture, but I’m also not gonna try to make something and you said this person is saying that the fear of God will keep you out of sin, but the grace of God or the love of God won’t and you said, “Dad, that’s wrong.” And you explained to me the reason that you felt like it was wrong, you said, “Dad, you are my father and you love me. Because you love me, I respect you and I want to do what you want me to do.” And he says, it’s the same way with God. God is my Father, he loves me. He knows what’s best for me. Because of that, I respect him and I want to do what he wants me to do. So, you said, you actually told me this and it’s very correct with the scripture. And you said, “Dad, the fear of God grows out of the love of God and, therefore, the love of God will keep you out of sin.” And I said, “Aaron, that’s exactly right.” And that’s really what 1 John talks about. And most people when they read 1 John, they get spiritual dyslexia and they see it from a performance aspect rather than from a personal aspect. In other words, they see it from what we do instead of from who we are. But we’ve gotta turn that around and see it for who we are. And this scripture kind of says it all. In 1 John 5:3, it says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. So, his commandments aren’t hard to bear. This is, if you love God you’re gonna keep the commandments. That does not say that keeping the commandments makes you love God. Nobody could keep the commandments. That’s what, the law wasn’t sent for you to keep. It was sent to show you couldn’t keep it. So when Jesus came you’d believe on him. Now, we don’t wanna use grace as a license to sin, right? You can get on two sides of this thing. But he says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and when you really understand the grace of God, it will cause, grace will not cause you to sin more, it will cause you to sin less if you really understand the grace of God. Paul says in Roman 6, “Sin shall not have dominion over you because you’re not under the law, but under grace.”

I like some of that, you’ve mentioned before that understanding grace, it really has to come by revelation. You know, I even know people who’ve sat in this church, sat under other great grace preachers who have been for years, but they don’t really understand the grace of God. It hasn’t, they haven’t opened up to that revelation, that experience of it.

You know, Aaron, I pastored for seven years before I got a revelation of grace. So, I got a revelation of grace in 1994. I believe you were like six years old when I got a revelation of grace and when I got a revelation of grace, it really changed my life in a positive, very, very positive way, so you must’ve been seven when I got a revelation of grace. But I am not the same since I got a revelation of grace. And it’s something that God works in you, in your heart and who you are as a person. You know, it doesn’t really matter how smart you are. I remember, this is years ago when I first came here, there was a lady who Paul talks about something, they think themselves to be very spiritual. She thought herself to be very spiritual, I think she had a doctorate in theology. She, you know, but her husband had an eye condition and she had elders of the church come to her house and said that God actually did this to her husband and was causing him to become blind and it was God that was doing that.

God is not in the blindness business.

And so she really didn’t have a revelation of God’s grace, like God doesn’t put sickness or disease.

If that was God’s will, Aaron, then why wouldn’t Jesus have put sickness on people?

Yeah.

So, when you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-

You see what God’s grace is.

Jesus never put sickness on anyone. It does say 14 times that he healed them all. They brought them to him, every sick person with all kinds of disease and he healed them every one, he healed them all. It says that 14 times in the New Testament. So, I believe that Jesus is a perfect representation of the Father, but a lot of people do not have a revelation of that.

It starts with knowing Jesus, too. I like that we start with knowing Jesus and then you can experience grace.

Yeah.

Some people don’t really know who Jesus is. They don’t know his-

He is the grace of God.

He is the embodiment of grace. So when you get to know him, you begin to understand grace at a whole new level, so we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk more in the second part of the broadcast about how grace affects us in this life. So, stay tuned, we’ll be right back. Blessings. Friends, I wanna tall you about our product that we have available with this teaching and we have a special offer. First of all, we have the “Vision” series and I have five messages that I taught on vision. You can get them on CD or digital download on our website, you can get them immediately. And then my “Uncommon Favor” book. This is my life story from just a few years back. It’s a lot of different stories. A lot of people tell me when they read my “Uncommon Favor” book, it encouraged me because it gave me hope that if God did this for you, he would do it for me. He would help me and there’s so many ways that God has blessed me and helped me, but it’s not unattainable. You see, God is no respecter of persons, he is a respecter of faith. So, when you get a hold of the word of God and begin to believe God, you can move into the vision and the plan that God has for your life through the favor and grace of God on your life. Thanks and blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re sharing here on getting a revelation of the grace of God. And, you know, I was born again in 1972. I was only eight years old when I was born again. And then in 1978, when I was 14 years old, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, called to preach, began pastoring 10 years after that in 1988, 23, just before I turned 24 we started pastoring full time. And I didn’t get a revelation of grace until 1998. I’d been pastoring, actually 1994, I’d been pastoring for six years. And God just gave me a revelation. The way I got it, Andrew Wommack was preaching for us, we were pastoring in Kit Carson, Colorado, a church that we pioneered in Kit Carson Church of the Redeemed with a group of believers there. And when we were there pastoring, you know, it’s just like Andrew came and he was preaching about it doesn’t matter how much you’ve broken God’s law, whether you’ve broken it just a little bit or a whole bunch. He said, it’s like a plate glass window and it doesn’t matter with the plate glass window whether you shoot a BB through it or drive a mack truck through it. If it’s going to be perfect, you’ve gotta replace it and it’s just like, it just snapped in my mind because the fact is, see the Bible says if we sin in one point, we’re guilty of the whole law. We break the law in one point, James chapter 2, verse 10. And so it’s just like I realized that if it, you know, it doesn’t matter whether we sinned a little or a lot, sin is sin and, you know what, you’ve gotta be born again, you must be born again. You’ve gotta become completely new and it’s not our performance, it’s the performance of Jesus that saves us. And really, that’s the first thing. When we’re talking about experiencing grace, you know, our church vision. Know Jesus, experience grace, build relationships and live with purpose. It’s through our relationship with Jesus. That’s how we experience grace and there’s grace for salvation. You know, we can’t be saved any other way. You know, Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8, “For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves.” It’s a gift of God. “Not by works as to any man should boast.” And then he says in verse 10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” What happened when we got saved is we became a new creation, spiritually speaking. We were made brand new and just like Andrew was saying, you know, this plate glass window, it doesn’t matter whether it’s got a BB through it or it’s just destroyed, the only way to make it perfect is make it new. So, God made us new in the spirit.

Well, here in Colorado, there’s a lot of rocks and dirt roads and it’s really easy to get a chip in your windshield. And, you know, even a little chip, it’ll eventually crack out. I know that happens to a lot of people, so they don’t want you get it fixed right away, but if you don’t even just a little BB, a little rock hitting your windshield, it can eventually crack the whole thing out.

I’ve had it happen.

Yeah.

I had mine pop one morning. I didn’t even know, but it was down in the black part at the bottom. It got a rock and I heard it but I never could see it. And then one morning I went out and started the car and that thing cracked out and cracked clear across the window. Just like that. I had to go replace the whole window.

So you might think you’re perfect or, you know, good enough on your own, but eventually things are going to start cracking and falling apart.

Yeah, in your spirit, you’re either 100% righteous or you’re 100% a sinner. But you’re not 95% righteous and 5% sinner or 90% righteous and 10% sinner, 75% righteous and 25% sinner or 50% righteous and 50% sinner or, you know.

That’s a very worldly way of looking at, you know, righteousness or goodness. You’re mostly good but a little big bad.

Because the world is performance based, right? And that’s having a performance mentality. That’s not a grace mentality. That’s actually a law mentality. Now when you’re at your job, you gotta perform. And if you don’t perform to a certain level, you won’t keep your job, you know. But we live in a performance world, but God is a grace God. And we receive from God by grace and when you understand that, it liberates you because you realize it’s not about all the things, it’s not about how much I pray, how much I read my Bible, how much I love my neighbor, how much I give. It’s about Jesus and what he did. And when I understand that, it liberates me. And, Aaron, I live personally 10 times better since I got a revelation of grace than before I did because I realized it’s not me, it’s him.

And I love how one of our previous broadcasts, you tied experiencing grace to healing, like we teach very strongly that it’s God’s will to heal.

[Lawson] Right.

And there are a lot of people here who experience healing miracles and I believe that flows with the strong grace message.

Right, if you’ve studied Acts chapter 4, they preach great grace, but there was also great power. And I say this often, great power is released where great grace is preached. And so it’s not only grace for salvation, but there’s grace for ministry. In Galatians chapter 3, verse 2, Paul asked the question, how did you get saved? Did you get saved by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.

By the hearing of faith.

Yeah, by who you believed. You heard about Jesus and believed. He says I marvel, you know, you guys started in the Spirit, but are you now made perfect by the flesh? And he says I have another question. He therefore who works miracles among you and ministers to you, does he do that by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

By the hearing of faith.

So, that’s Galatians 3 and Galatians-

He’s talking about grace, I mentioned grace frees you and grace transforms you, grace empowers you, so he’s saying you understand that grace frees you, but then he’s saying now grace is the one that empowers you, as well.

When you look at that, what Paul’s really saying in those first five verses of Galatians chapter 3 is everything from the beginning of your salvation to the end of your ministry is by the grace of God and the sooner we realize that, the better off we’re gonna be. You know, I talked to you about when I started out, my first church I felt like, you know, in Kit Carson, very small community and a group of people helped us, that I can do this, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But when we came here, I told Mama, “Hey, Mama, if Jesus don’t show up, it’s over, hang it up.” That we can’t do this on our own, that we absolutely need Jesus. I was, both of those scriptures, Philippians 3:10, John 15:5 have their foundation focused on Christ. But my first focus was more on I can do this. My last focus was man, if Jesus doesn’t show up, I’m done. And I actually believe the last one is much stronger than the first. It’s not in my wisdom, my ability, my strength, but it’s in the ability of God, the grace of God. Paul makes a statement about the grace of God, which was with me. Thank God the grace of God is with us. And so we’re not only saved by grace, but we also minister by grace and Paul makes a statement or Peter made a statement 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 10. He says as every man has received the gift, so let them minister one to another as good stewards of the manifold, the many sighted, the many faceted grace of God. So, grace is a mini faceted thing, like a diamond has many facets, many different aspects of beauty. Grace has many different aspects of beauty, so there’s grace for salvation, there’s grace for ministry. Everything from the beginning of our salvation to the end of our life is by grace. And, actually, there was grace for us from the foundation of the world. Paul talks about that in 2 Timothy chapter 1 about verse 8 and 9. But then there’s grace, you know, in eternity. Ephesians 2, verse 7 says that, you know, he saved us, raised us up, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. He says in verse 7 that in the ages to come, he might show to us the exceeding riches of his grace. So, there’s grace from eternity past or eternity future. We get caught somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, I know, you’re talking about the many faceted aspects of grace and how that helps us. There’s grace for ministry. You know, that grace from ministry, it’s not just a grace for pastors to help them be better pastors or for Bible, it’s really all the saints are called to be ministers. Yeah, as every man has received the gift, what gift, salvation, sow of the minister, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. There’s also grace for growth. You know, and how do we grow? We grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Bible actually says that in 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 18, the very last verse. So we’re to grow in grace. We’re to grow in the knowledge of Jesus or in our relationship with Jesus. Inevitably, when Paul starts, you know his books and not only Paul, but Jude started this way, Revelation started this way, John the Apostle. They’re started with grace and peace, grace and peace. Over half of the New Testament books are started with grace and peace. So, we wanna grow in grace. And Paul says in 2 Peter, chapter 1, I think it’s verse 2. I think it’s grace and peace be multiplied through you through the knowledge of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And God can give more grace. He wants to give more grace and he wants you to go from grace to grace.

Yeah.

And grow in grace, I love that.

So, there’s grace for salvation, there’s grace for growth and there’s grace for ministry and we’ll come back tomorrow. I’ve got four other aspects of grace that I wanna talk about in our life but, you know, if you know Jesus, if you’ve come into a personal relationship with Jesus, God wants you to know his grace. He wants you to understand his grace.

To experience it.

And grace will change your life. Grace has transformed my life. Your mother actually says that, you know, she says she doesn’t believe that each of you boys would’ve grown up and been where you’re at today loving God and serving in the church if I didn’t get a revelation of grace. She said it was really hard to live with me before I got a revelation of grace because I was so demanding. And that’s what legalism does. Legalism is demanding, demeaning, belittling. I know some legalistic people. I know some grace people that are legalistic. Demanding, demeaning, belittling. That’s not grace. And we don’t wanna be that way, praise God, we wanna let the grace of God minister through us and to other people and to let the grace of God make us into what God wants us to be.

That’s awesome. Yeah, and grace, it transforms lives, you know. We’re talking about the importance, one of our goals here is for people to experience grace and grace will transform, radically transform people’s lives and I’ve just seen results of that from people who’ve been ministered to here at the church through our television ministry that Grace will, that it’s available and God wants you to experience it. He wants you to experience that aspect of who he is, that he’s gracious, he’s full of compassion, he loves you, he’s completely good all the time.

Amen. And when you understand that, it changes you and so if you need prayer today, if you need to receive Jesus, if you need to receive prayer, receive the Holy Spirit, receive healing, we’d love to hear from you. If you want to become a partner or receive product, just give us a call today. I have prayer ministers waiting to receive your call, blessings.

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

[Lawson] 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] Too many people live their lives without ever connecting to their God-given purpose. Learn the importance of having a vision and some practical steps for walking it out. God has a tremendous plan for your life. Start now and see it come to pass. Get the “Vision” package, which includes the book, “Uncommon Favor” and the vision CD series for $24 or digital download for $15 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.”