Destined To Win Part 13 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
Destined To Win Part 13
Destined To Win Part 13 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, be empowered to walk differently in this world. You have been seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, you are seated in a position of victory!
Destined to Win
When Jesus saved you, your destiny changed completely! He radically transformed us and brought us from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and from defeat to victory. Pastor Lawson goes through the book of Ephesians in detail and shows us exactly why we are destined to win. We are no longer fighting to be overcomers, we are made victorious through Jesus and any weapon formed against us will not prosper! Jesus came to give us life and have that life more abundantly! Because of God and his great love, we are destined to win!
Destined to Win Part 13 Transcript
Welcome, friends, to our broadcast. We’ve been teaching from the book of Ephesians, and in the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul talks about who we are and what we have. And then Ephesians 4 and 5, he begins to talk about how we walk because we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are seated in a position of victory. We walk differently in this world. So open your heart and receive God’s good Word today. Blessings. Thank God, friends, we are here today. We’re sharing from Ephesians 5, and we’ve been sharing actually for three weeks prior to this on the book of Ephesians. “Destined to Win.” Did you know what? You have a destiny in Christ, and when you understand your destiny in Christ, it changes the way that you live your life. And you know, the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul talks about who we are, what we have in Christ, that we’re blessed, that we’re holy, that we’re blameless, that we’re predestined to succeed, that we’re accepted in the beloved, that we’re redeemed from every curse, and we’re forgiven for every sin. He says, we’re “seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” and when you understand that changes how you walk. And then he begins in Ephesians 4 and 5, and he’s really talking about how we walk. And five times, he says, this is how you walk. He says, “Walk worthy of the calling “wherewith you’re called,” Ephesians 4:1. Walk worthy of your vocation. He called us with a holy calling, with a high calling. He called us to the feast, hallelujah. He’s called us to heaven. He says, secondly, he says, don’t walk like the world walks in the futility and the emptiness and the vanity of their mind. Then he says, “Walk in love as Christ has loved us “and given himself for us.” And finally, he says this in Ephesians 5:8, “And walk in the light.” Glory to God. And so, we talked about that in Ephesians 5:8, “Walk in the light.” The last one, the fifth one, and we’re gonna talk about that in this program, is “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” Now, what does that mean?
To walk with the mind of Christ. I love just talking about how we are to walk. You know, if you look at Paul, before he met Christ, he walked a certain way. He lived a certain way. He did certain things, but after he met Christ, after, you know, he encountered Jesus and gave his life to Jesus on the road to Damascus, his walk changed radically.
[Lawson] Amen.
You know, and our walk is different with Christ than without Christ. So, I love that He’s talking about that. I love that we’re spending time just really, really just spending a lot of time here on the book of Ephesians. It is a powerful book. I remember when I first moved back to Colorado to be a pastor here at Charis Christian Center. This is six years ago. I was visiting your house, and I was looking through your Bible. And there’s a couple books in the Bible that are just about ready to fall out ’cause you’ve read ’em so many times, but Ephesians is one of those books. I remember just thumbing through Galatians and Ephesians, just, you have notes upon notes, and you’ve read ’em so many times they’re about ready to fall out of the Bible.
Right there it is if they wanna show you. Praise God, and so, put it on the other camera. You can show ’em that’s how, what my Ephesians, and I’ve only had this Bible about three or four years. You know, I’ve written a bunch of ’em. I’ve probably written up 10 Bibles like this. And these letters of Paul, you know, I read ’em until the pages start wearin’ out and comin’ apart. Man, there is so much revelation, revolutionary revelation, in these letters of Paul. When you get a revelation of who you are in Christ.
It’s good to go deep, go deep in the Word and spend some time, yeah.
What God has done for you in Christ. Now, when he says this in Ephesians 5:15 that you “walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise,” this means several things. But a Jew, when they saw a Jewish person there, circumcision, it said several things. Number one, it said, I am a covenant person, and I have a covenant with God. Number two, it said, I have a destiny. Praise God. And as a covenant person and a person with destiny, you live with a purpose. I am here with a purpose. And so, we don’t live like the rest of the world. I like it how he says this circumspectly. He says, in the Greek, when you study this out, it means walk exactly. Walk accurately. Walk diligently. You know, one of my best friends just went home to be with Jesus, and I met with the family, and they kept talkin’ about how he lived his life intentionally. Praise God, you can do these things intentionally. He intentionally prayed with his wife every morning, every evening. He intentionally sought to listen to the Holy Spirit, to look for divine appointments, to minister to people. He intentionally spent time with his children. He intentionally invested in the gospel. He intentionally, praise God. He was a great man of God. Hard to live up to him, but praise God we have these great people. But he says, don’t walk like the rest of the world. Walk circumspectly.
I like that. You know, a circumference of his circle, it’s the.
The whole thing.
The whole thing. It’s perfect. You know, a circle is a circle. You know, if you try,
Yeah, it’s complete.
If you try to draw a circle on your own without any extra help, any tools, any device, like, it’s nearly impossible. I remember when I was in high school, I had a teacher who could draw a pretty good circle. It was pretty impressive on the whiteboard, but no one can can really draw a perfect circle on their own. They have to have some type of help.
[Lawson] Wow, that is great.
And for you to live circumspectly, it’s gonna take Jesus. If you try to do it on your own, you’re gonna have some bumps. You’re gonna have some gaps. You’re gonna have, it’s not gonna be a perfect circle. So, you really need, you really need the Holy Spirit to walk circumspectly.
You know what? We can’t live the Christ life, you know, the Christian life, without the Christ life. It’s impossible. So we need him.
I like that. I like that Paul first talks, you know, his letter to the Ephesians, he talks about who you are in Christ first before he talks about how to walk.
Amen.
If you try to walk circumspectly without realizing who you are in Christ, you’re gonna have a lot of struggles.
Hallelujah, that is a great point. That is the whole point of this book. You begin from a position of victory. You are seated in heavenly places in Christ, and you’re seated, you’re seated in victory. Christ has done the work. He’s finished the work. He’s conquered the enemy. He’s been raised from the dead. He’s sent the Holy Spirit. You’re seated in victory. Then he says, walk it out, Ephesians 4 and 5. Walk, what? Worthy of your calling. Walk not as the rest of the world walks in the vanity, the futility, the emptiness of their mind. Renew your mind in the Word of God. Let Jesus live big in you. Walk in love, as God, as Christ has loved us, as God has loved us. Then he says, walk in the light. You were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk in the light. And finally he says, walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Be wise. Buy up the time, redeeming the time. You gotta buy up the time. You gotta use the time for good, he says, because the days are evil. And you know, if you don’t walk with intentionality, with purpose, being exact, accurate, and diligent, you’ll get caught up in a bunch of junk you don’t need to be.
You have to walk circumspect like a perfect circle. Be perfect, for I am perfect. Be holy, for I am holy.
Which Jesus, livin’ his life in you, but you purpose to live this way. He says, buying up the time because the days are evil. If you have seen a woman when somethin’s on sale. Well, they gotta go get it, hallelujah. You know, redeeming, buy up the time. You know, just buy up the time. If you’ll buy up the time and use it for good, you won’t have to get involved in a bunch of the evil. You know, when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to understand these things that I’m teachin’ right now, who I was in Christ, my life was transformed from darkness to light, from night to day because I begin to understand that God had a purpose for my life. And I was pushing, pressing towards the mark of the high call of God in Christ Jesus. I was pushing into those things, and automatically some other things just went by the wayside. Hallelujah, some stuff I was just, it was just gone.
Well, time is one of the most valuable resources you have.
Yes.
It’s an extremely valuable resource.
David says in Psalm 90, “Teach us, Lord, to number our days.” We gotta number our days. We gotta know that we might apply our hearts towards wisdom. He’s sayin’ the same thing. “Don’t walk as fools but as wise “buying up the time because the days are evil. “Wherefore,” because of this, in verse 17, “Do not be unwise, “but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Aaron, how can we know the will of God?
[Aaron] Through His Word, primarily.
Number one, we know the will of God through the Word of God. Number two, he talks about this right here. We know the will of God through the Spirit of God. Number three, we know it through the Word of God, through the Spirit of God, through the peace of God. You know, many times believers will come to me that are married, and they’ll ask me a question. What, is it God’s will for us to come to Bible school? Is it God’s will for us to buy a business? I’ll say this, you’re born again. She’s born again, right? You both have the Spirit of Christ in you. If you’re both in agreement about it, if you’re both in peace about it, I believe that 90% of that time, that’s the will of God. Now, sometimes people have never done anything so it’s harder for them to have peace. I remember when I bought the first bunch of cattle I bought. I bought 40 little calves, cost me $20,000. I borrowed 20,000 from the bank, and I had a hard time sleepin’ at night. You know, I got where I had over 3000 head of cattle, had over $3 million of debt between the bank and the feed lot, the feed lots that I was doin’ business with. And you know what? I could sleep fine, but that first, that initial breaking into new territory. And so, I didn’t, you know, it was just different for me. And so sometimes people mistake that, but the Bible says in Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of God rule you to which you’re called.” And so we need to let the peace of God act as an umpire in our heart. We need to let the peace of God. So, the word of God, the Spirit of God, the peace of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We can, you know, sometimes people operate in different gifts.
One, and making major decisions in life too. You wanna be making that decision out of, out of faith, not out of fear.
Right, you wanna take time. You know, Kenneth Hagen said this. I think it’s so good. He said, “It’s better to be a little bit behind God “then ahead of God because if you get ahead of God, “you can’t see God out there in front of you working.” And I see sometimes people, they make major decisions that really affect their family and could have very negative connotations, and it’s very emotional.
Well, yeah, you had a great business mentor who helped us a lot here at the church who, he had a, you know, a dirt removal, like an excavation business here in Colorado. And he said if he was unsure about a business decision, he just wouldn’t do it.
Yeah, he said, “If you don’t know what to do,” John Baldwin, “then just don’t do anything at all.” He’s a great really man of God.
That can apply beyond business as well so.
Yeah, and so, you know, we can know by the Spirit of God. Also, the last one I didn’t talk about is godly counsel. We need godly counsel.
In a multitude of counselors there’s safety.
There’s safety. You know, he that walks with wise men, one of my favorite scriptures, Proverbs 13:20. “He that walks with wise men shall be wise, “but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Now, I have a whole series on knowing God’s will for your life, and if you wanna get that, you can call. You know, my secretaries, they can find it. One of us will tell ’em, but they can find it. But it’s on these five things, and I think a lot of times people, they really need to know how to be led by the Spirit. And so, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the peace of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the word of wisdom. It talks about the future. The word of knowledge, but you gotta check, those things you have to put a kind of check on it.
Well, all these things should be working together as well.
And then, godly counsel, a lot of people don’t have a lot of good counsel, and God will give you godly people in your life that will help you if you’ll look for ’em. But some people, they don’t really want counsel, you know?
Yeah, that’s true.
And he that walks with wise men, the the wiser people you surround yourself with, the wiser you become, shall be wise. And so, we’re gonna take a very short break. We’re gonna be back right after this, and we’re gonna continue to talk about walking circumspectly not as fools, but as wise. Amen? Walking in the wisdom of God by the Spirit of God. You don’t wanna miss it. We’ll be right back. Blessings. Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue, and I’ve been teaching “Destined to Win” from the Book of Ephesians. This is one of the greatest teachings that I’ve ever done. I’ve had more requests for this teaching than almost any teaching we’ve done. I’ve got it in eight parts as I taught it in church, in CD form, also in a USB. And then I also have the teaching in 16 parts as we’ve taught it on television with my son, Dr. Aaron Perdue. And in this 16-part teaching, I am just thrilled with all the different things that was brought in. So, you can get the 8-part CDs or the USB that has all the video and audio, or you can get the 16-part as taught on television. Call us and let us know what you would like to have. We have a special offer today, and we’re so blessed to have you. Check out our website, CharisChristianCenter.com. We have this and many other materials, and we have all of these things online for free. Blessings. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you stayed connected with us. We are right here in Ephesians 5, where the Bible tells us to walk circumspectly, walk intentionally, walk exactly, accurately, diligently, not as foolish, but as wise, buying up the time because the days are evil. Don’t be unwise, but understand the will of the Lord. We said there’s five ways that you can know God’s will. By the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. The third one, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the peace of God, the gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit, and finally by godly council. Those are five scriptural ways to know the will of God. And he says, “Don’t be unwise, “but understanding what the will of Lord is.” Then he says, “And don’t be drunk. “Be not drunk with wine wherein there’s excess.” In other words, a way not to get drunk is don’t drink, but if you get excess of it, you’ll get drunk.
I love the 17th verse there that says, “Understand what the will of the Lord is.” Some people say, you know, the Lord works in mysterious ways. You can’t really know His will. They pray, if it be thy will, but he’s saying, don’t be unwise. Understand what the will of the Lord is. How can you understand what the will of the Lord is?
Yeah, and we talked about that, but I’m gonna go to this. We talked about the Spirit of God will lead you into the things of God, but in 1 Corinthians, this is very, exactly right what you’re sayin’. And I think I’ve got the scripture wrong, but the scripture, oh no, it’s right here. 1 Corinthians 2:9, he says, “As it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, “neither entered into the heart of man “the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” Some people years ago would preach that verse and say that nobody really knows God’s will. But you know what? They didn’t take it in context because the very next verse says, “But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit. “God has given us revelation by his Spirit, “for the Spirit searches all things “ye the deep things of God.” And he tells us in verse 11. We’ll read verse 11 through 16. “For what man knows the things of a man “except the spirit of man, which is in him, “even so the things of God knows no man “but the Spirit of God.” So there’s only one way you can know the things of God is by the Spirit of God. Jesus said, listen, I’m gonna leave, but the Holy Spirit’s gonna come, and I got a lot of things to tell you, in John 16, but you can’t understand ’em now. But when the Holy Spirit has come, he will take the things that are mine and the things that are the Father’s, and he will show them unto you. He will show you things to come. Now he says, “We have not received the spirit of the world, “but the Spirit which is of God.” It’s not the spirit of the world. The Spirit of God operates differently than the world. “That we might know that we have received the Spirit of God, “that we might know the things “that are freely given to us by God.” So, we can know the things that God has freely given us, which things we’re also talking about, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches. This is not man’s wisdom, but the Holy Ghost teaches. The Holy Ghost will teach you the things that God has for you, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I believe that’s things in the Word with things in your spirit. And you talked about this, Aaron, like the spiritual things of the Word. God breathed the word and the God breath in us. Talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, so the bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and there’s a scripture that says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That word “inspiration of God” in the Greek it’s just one word. It’s not inspiration of God. It’s one word. It’s theopneustos, which is the combination of theo, which means God. Like if you think of a theocracy, theo means God. And pneustos, it’s like pneuma or spirit or breath. So all spirit is God breathed.
[Lawson] All scripture.
All scripture is God breathed, and God also breathed life into Adam. He breathed his life in Adam. Those are the two God breathings that we see in the Bible. But scripture is God-breathed, and also He’s breathed his Spirit, His life into man.
So when you’re born again, you’re born of the Spirit of God.
Well, and Jesus.
So you the God breath Jesus.
Jesus also blew on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Right, that’s when they were born again in John 20.
Yeah, so they received that God breath.
Verse 21, I believe.
Inside of them so. When the God breath inside of you in your spirit,
Connects.
Connects with the God breath in scripture, that’s when.
Yes, see, Jesus said this in John 6:63. He said, “It’s the spirit that quickens, “It’s the spirit that gives life. “The flesh profits nothing, “but the words that I speak to you “they are spirit, and they are life.”
That’s why a non-believer might read the Bible, and it might not mean anything to ’em. It might just mean, well, this is just a book of poetry, a book of history because they don’t have the Spirit of God in them connecting with the Spirit of God in scripture.
But the Spirit of God in the Word connects with the Spirit of God in you. And when the Spirit in the word connects with the Spirit in you, you have the mind of Christ, and that’s what he goes on to talk about here. He says, “These things we speak,” 1 Corinthians 2:13, “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, “but which the Holy Spirit teaches.” Comparing spiritual things, the things in the Word with the things in your spirit or the things in your spirit with the things in the Word, either way. “But the natural man,” this is exactly what you just said. The unregenerate man, the person who’s not born again, “does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, “for they are foolishness to him.” You know, they’re spiritually blind. It’s like trying to bring a blind person in this room that’s been blind from birth, that’s never seen, and explain what this room looks like. He just can’t get it, and that’s how people are if they’re not born again. He says, “Neither can he know them “because they are spiritually discerned or revealed, “but he who is spiritual discerns all things for himself, “yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man “for who has known the mind of the Lord “that he may instruct him, “but we have the mind of Christ.” I like to say I have the mind of Christ, amen? You know, I put this on a cup. I have favor with God. I have favor with man. I have a good understanding, and I have supernatural increase, amen. But I took that from a missionary that was speaking that over her daughter. She was actually sayin’, “I have favor with God. “I have favor with man. “I have a good understanding.” And then I added to it, you know, when your son, when your brother Peter was in eighth grade, he was havin’ a hard time in geometry. He’d already done algebra in seventh grade, but I took him to school one day, and I said, “Peter, how you doin’?” He said, “Well, I’m strugglin’ with this geometry.” And so I prayed for him and I said, “Peter, say I have favor with God. “I have favor with man. “I have a good understanding, “and I have the mind of Christ.” And so he said that, and I said, “You say that every mornin’, “every time you think about it in the day, every evening, “and then see what happens.” And a couple weeks later, I was takin’ him to school. I said, “Peter, how you doin’?” He said, “Oh, I’m the top of the class. “Praise God, I got it.” Why? Because I have the mind of Christ. Now Peter is 31 or 32 years old. He’s in a very high corporate position, you know, and he told his mother the other day, told your mom, Barbara, he said, “You know, I have a lot of things that are hard “and that I don’t understand, “but I say that I have the mind of Christ, “and God shows me what to do.”
Well, the Bible talks about that too. Like how can we be instructed by the Lord? And it says, we have the mind of Christ.
Amen.
We have the mind of Christ so God can instruct us.
Praise God. You know, and I’ve taught people. I taught some kids. I was teachin’ this in Chicago, African American grandma. She said, “Listen, my grandkids are “making Cs and D’s and F’s. “I’m gonna get ’em to speak this word.” And so, I came back the next year. She said, “I got ’em speaking that word. “and they’re all making A’s and B’s.” Hallelujah, glory to God. By a confession of the Word of God. I’ve seen kids in my church that were on the lowest levels of math go to the highest levels in a very short time. Same thing happened with this missionary’s daughter in Italy. She went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class in 30 days by speakin’ that word. So, when you speak that word, I’ve got this guy in my church, he’s 83 years old right now. His name is Bob, and I made this cup, coffee cup, in honor of him because he said, “I say this every day. “I have favor with God, “I have favor with man. “I have a good understanding.” He said, “Pastor, and I added your saying, “‘I have supernatural increase.'” And man, this guy, he’s not lookin’ for a hole in the ground, praise God. He is lookin’ at how much he can bless the kingdom of God, be a blessing, and live with a purpose. And so, praise God, we have the mind of Christ. And if you’ll believe and speak God’s Word, you can call when and order that, that cup, if we still have some, praise God. So you could call, and it’s a 14 ounce beautiful mug, praise God. And you speak that word every day, every mornin’, every night, and you see what happens in your life. You’ll begin to see the goodness of God. So, he says this as he goes on. He says, “Don’t be drunk with wine when there’s excess, “but be filled with the Spirit. Let the spirit fill you up to overflowing, “speaking to yourself.” You gotta talk to yourself sometimes, hallelujah. “In psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs.” Psalms are talkin’ about the goodness of God, the greatness of God. Hymns are talkin’ about the work of the cross and the greatness of Christ. Spiritual songs, just little songs in your spirit risin’ up, amen? Singin’ in the Spirit, hallelujah. You can pray in the Spirit. You can sing in the Spirit. If you haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and you wanna be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can call right now, and one of my prayer ministers will pray with you so you can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is a promise only for believers so you gotta be born again first. But he says, “singing and making melody “in your heart to the Lord.” I’m always singin’ and praise the Lord, hallelujah. I remember one day, years ago, I was walkin’ out of the post office and I said, it was a little post office at Kit Carson. I said, “I’m blessed of the Lord, “the possessor of heaven and earth.” And I didn’t think anybody else was in there, and the postmaster was behind the little mailboxes. She said, “That sure sounds good to me.” Praise God. You know the Word of God and the blessing of God is a positive thing. And so he says this, “giving thanks always “for all things to God in the Father.” You give thanks for every good thing to God, amen. “In the name of Jesus “and submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” And that really fits on to the next one. We’re gonna begin startin’ tomorrow talking about relationships. Tomorrow’s broadcast, we’ll be sharing on the relationship between husbands and wives. It’s so powerful. And you know, Paul says, here’s where we walk it out, right? We walk these things, right? Walk worthy of your vocation. Then he says, walk not as other Gentiles walk. Don’t like walk like the unbelievers, but renew your mind. Then he says, walk in love. Then he says, walk in the light. And then he says, walk circumspectly, not as fools. And here’s how you do it. You do it in relationships, in the home, in your marriage, with your children in the workplace, right, employees and employers. You walk this out. So, we’re gonna begin talking about walking this out in your relationship, praise God. And if it ain’t workin’ at home, you might not wanna export it. Praise God, hallelujah. You know, the Bible says some things about that. Praise the Lord. Aaron, pray for the people.
Yeah, well, I’m just excited about tomorrow’s broadcast. Be sure to turn tune in tomorrow, especially as we talk about relationships. God works through relationships. You know, He’s not gonna accomplish everything He wants in your life with you being all alone. God wants to work through relationships and bring about divine connections with friendships, with family, with churches, with other believers. So, I’m just gonna pray for divine connections for you right now so. I thank you, God, that you are bringing about your divine destiny for everyone watching this relationally, Lord. I just thank you, Lord, that just people who’ve been isolated, people who have been alone, people who’ve been in a desert season relationally, Lord, I just thank you that you’re gonna bring streams into that desert. You’re bringing fresh relationships, fresh friendships, Lord. We just thank you for it. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Now, you believe God, and He will do that. He will bring you two or three key people in your life that will help you walk out His will. If you need prayer, give us a call. God bless you. We love you.
[Announcer] Do you know your true position in Christ Jesus? You have been saved, raised up, and seated in heavenly places with Him. You can stand against any attack of the enemy from a position of victory. You are destined to win. You can get the 8-part live teaching on CD for $48 or on USB for $35. Or get the 16-part as seen on TV USB for $59 when you call 7-1-9-4-1-8-4000 or visit CharisChristianCenter.com.
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