In Christ Realities – Part 1 Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue
In Christ Realities Part 1 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today you’ll learn how to see yourself the way God sees you.
Redemption Package
Redemption Package includes two CD series from Pastor Lawson Perdue that will help you find the redeeming power of Christ. This bundle consists of the Redemption CD Series and the In Christ Realities CD Series.
In Christ Realities Part 1 Transcription
Welcome, friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re beginning a brand new series on “In Christ Realities” and the way that you see yourself is so important. You need to see yourself in Christ. When you got born again, God made you a new creation. And when you begin to understand who God says that you are, it’s gonna help you move in and possess what God has promised you. Stay tuned and receive God’s good word today. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us. Today, we’re sharing on In Christ Realities. And when you begin to understand who you are in Christ, it will literally transform your life. I was actually born again when I was eight years old. I did not begin to understand really who I was in Christ until that time that I was 14 and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. But when I began to get a revelation of who I was in Christ and I was the righteousness of God in Christ, it really transformed my life.
That’s awesome, yeah. Your identity needs to be found in Christ as a believer. You’re in Him and He’s in you and a lot of people deal with identity crises all the time. And if you’re trying to find your identity apart from Jesus, you’re gonna get lost.
It’s really tragic. And there’s a lot of people in the world today, they think there’s over 100 genders. That is the craziest thing. You’re either a male or a female. You are exactly what God made you. And in Christ, in your spirit, there’s neither male nor female. So in the spiritual realm, you’re either in Christ or you’re out of Christ. And when God placed you in Christ, everything on the inside of you became new. And so we’re gonna be, really, for these first few lessons, just talking about the value of identity. I think that’s the reason there’s so many people that are misdirected. They don’t have a lot of purpose, a lot of focus. Different things, is they don’t have a strong identity of who they are as believers. And so we as believers should be quite different than the world.
And your identity is formed in your heart, kind of in your soul. Your true identity’s down in your spirit. So you have the Spirit of Christ in you, but your identity is shaped through your emotions. It’s really shaped in your soul. I know there’s the great verse that says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
[Pastor Perdue] Yes, Poverbs 23:7. And that’s what we’re really.
That’s talking about the soul.
Sharing about.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So if you think you’re something that, even though you might not be that, there’s a lot of believers who think they’re sinners. Even though in their spirit, they have the righteousness of Jesus inside of them. They’re saints, but they think they’re sinners so they live like a sinner. And they, ’cause they think they’re that way. It’s like certain animals are raised by a different kind of species, they think they’re a different type of animal. [Pastor Perdue chuckles] If a duck is raised by a dog, it might think it’s a dog. There’s a lot of believers who think they’re one thing, but that’s not who they are, but they go on acting like it because their identity’s shaped in that pattern.
So we need to get our identity in Christ. And we’re gonna look at some Old Testament examples in these first few lessons and talk about the value of identity. It’s very important that you understand who you are in Christ and how God sees you. Nobody’s opinion of you is nearly as important as God’s opinion of you.
And a lot of people also seek value, they want people to value them. They seek their value from other people, but really, your ultimate sense of value, your ultimate sense of purpose needs to come from God.
Yes, it’s very important. So we’re gonna start in Numbers Chapter 13 today. And this is when Moses was preparing to leave the children of Israel. And it says, “The Lord spoke to Moses.” This is in Numbers 13:1 saying, “Send men that they may search for land at Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall you send the men, every one a ruler among them. And Moses, by the command of the Lord, set from the wilderness of Paran, those men who were heads of the children of Israel.” So God is preparing the children of Israel to go into the promised land and Moses picked one out of every tribe. Israel, at that point in time, was a few over two million strong. So the 12 tribes or 12 families of Israel, he picked one leader of each of those families. 12 out of two million. So pretty small percentage and every one was a leader. Now we don’t really know the names of two of those if we just think about it real quick. And who are those two?
Joshua and Caleb.
Yeah, we know the names of Joshua and Caleb because they lived by faith and they had their identity in what God said about them rather than what the world thought about them. And so the ten others, they complained, they whined, they died in the wilderness. So it’s very important that you get your identity in what God says about you than in some worldly outside form of existence.
Well, these other ten that had the native report, they were really comparing themselves to what they saw. That’s one danger that you can fall into, is just comparing yourself to other people or comparing yourself to different situations. Joshua and Caleb, they weren’t comparing themselves to the giants in the land and the people of the land. They weren’t comparing themselves. They were just looking at God and His promise.
Yeah.
And I think a lot of people really fail to walk into their destiny because they are too busy comparing themselves.
You know, the Bible says that comparing themselves among themselves, they were not wise. So we’re to take God’s opinion of us rather than some worldly person’s opinion of us, even sometimes, some church person’s opinion of us. We’re to take God’s opinion of us. And God has a good opinion of us. You know, Todd is teaching us later into the book of Ephesians, but in Ephesians 1:6, it says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He made us accepted in the blood.” He makes that statement to the praise of the glory of Christ. If you look at it in the Greek, that says something like this. “When God looks at you, He sees you in your full potential in Christ.” He sees us in our full potential through the grace of God. And seeing us in that, He stamps on us, accepted in the blood of God. Karito is the Greek word. Karito, karito. In other words, He sees you in your full potential and accepts you based on that. So we’re accepted on the basis of the blood of Jesus. So that’s good news.
Yeah, it’s actually a big danger for believers to get overly pessimistic. We shouldn’t be pessimistic people. These negative, pessimistic, complaining. That’s kind of what happened with the 10 spies who had the bad report. They were just very pessimistic.
Yeah.
I like this quote, something that Winston Churchill said. He said, “A pessimist finds the difficulty in every opportunity, but an optimist actually finds the opportunity in every difficulty.”
[Pastor Perdue] Right.
So there is difficulties as they were gonna go into the promised land. There were giants there. There were people who maybe had bigger armies or more organized and more established. They had walls around their cities. There were difficulties, but Joshua and Caleb saw the great opportunities that were there. So these grapes that they had, they’re huge.
Yeah.
Look at the great opportunity here, but the 10 that had the negative report, they saw the opportunity, but they just focused on the difficulty. So there’s great opportunity, they just focused on the difficulties.
Yeah, we need to focus and see the opportunities. Some of my greatest opportunities, Aaron, really in business. Some of my greatest opportunities in ministry had been when I’m facing the greatest difficulties. And I had a good friend. He was one of the largest cattle feeders in the United States of America. And he had, I think, about ten feed lots in several different states. He had several big ranches here in the state of Colorado. And I remember one time when cattle were just terrible cheap. Corn was very much cheap, but he’s like, “There’s never been opportunity like this.” And people were losing money, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, really. But he said, “There’s never been opportunity like this.” And so we have to be people who see that opportunity. And one thing that can help us see the opportunity as Spirit-filled believers is praying in the Holy Spirit. Jude says this in verse 20, “Building up your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” And so if you’re praying in the Spirit, I’ve done that before when I’ve been facing great challenges. And as I prayed in the Spirit, God would show me things about the future. And I would take advantage of those things that God would bless me and help me with.
And I like that verse that says you gotta build yourself up. So it’s not just up to us to build ourselves up. If we’re just waiting for situations to turn around, you might be waiting a long time. You have to build yourself up in your most holy faith.
Yes, so we need to get built up in the Holy Ghost, built up in the faith.
Amen.
And see really who we are and what we have in Christ.
So I wanna read about the.
Yeah, what we’ll read about this Joshua and Caleb, these other 12. They go through them. He picks one out of each tribe, so 12 out of two million. And it goes on and says in verse 17 through verse 20. Numbers 13:17-20, “Moses sent them out to spy the land of Canaan and said unto them, ‘Get up and out of this way south. We’re to go into the mountain and see the land, what it is, and the people that dwell therein. Whether they be strong or weak, few or many. And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it’s good or bad, and what cities be that they dwell in, whether in tents or strongholds. And what the land is, whether it’s fat or vain. Whether there be wood therein or not. And be of good courage and bring forth the fruit of the land.’ Now the time was the time of first striped grapes.” And so when you look at that, he says, “I want you to go look at this land.” Go tell me about the land, the fruit, the houses, the people, the cities. But at the same point in time, I think Moses knew the tendency of people is to focus on the negative. And he said, “Be of good courage.” And you’ve read a study where the average person has over 60,000 thoughts a day. About 90% of them are repeated thoughts, but over 80% of the average person thoughts are negative. And if you wanna get where God wants you to go and do what God wants you to do, you gotta break out of that negative pattern. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.” Inevitably, Paul wrote that from prison, but he goes on after that and tells us how to do it. And in verse 8, he says this. “Whatever is good, whatever is lovely, if there’s any virtue, if there’s any praise, think on these things.” And he only names good things. He says, “You gotta take authority in the realm of your thoughts.” And so Moses tells them, “I want you to look. I want you to see what’s out there, but then I want you to be of good courage.”
That’s awesome. Yeah, and I like that he says that you need to think on these things and he lists the things we’re supposed to think on. The world doesn’t really focus on the positive. The news doesn’t focus on the positive.
No .
You spend a lot of time on social media, that’s not really focusing on the positive. Generally, people focus on the negative, you know? And that’s why so many people just have continually negative thoughts.
[Pastor Perdue] Right.
So you just need to tune out things, juts put your phone away, turn the TV off, and actively think of what God wants you to think of.
I’m telling you, I can’t watch all these Liberal media and even some of the Conservative news. I can’t feed on that very much because sometimes, they’re almost as negative as the Liberals because they just focus on the negative. They focus on problems rather than to focus on, you know, the promises. We need to focus on the promises of God, which is really what was happening here in Numbers 13. Joshua and Caleb were focusing on the promises while these other 10 spies were focused on the contrary circumstances. We’re gonna take a short break and we’re gonna be back right after this break. And we will continue to talk about the value of identity, how we see our self. How we see our self determines how other people see us. And many times, determines what we do receive or don’t receive in life. So stay tuned and we’ll be back right after this break, blessings. Friends, I’m so glad you’ve been watching. Today, we’ve been teaching on the subject of redemption and who we are in Christ. This is some of my best teaching. In fact, I got a revelation of this over 40 years ago in Andrew Wammack’s meetings when I was just a child and it revolutionized my life. And I believe that you get a revelation of who you are in Christ and what happened in the deathbed and resurrection of Jesus. It will literally transform your life. And so we have a lot of great teaching on “Redemption”, what Jesus did for us in His deathbed and resurrection and who we are in Christ. I encourage you to get this teaching. I believe just like it transformed my life, it will transform your life. So get on the internet, give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much and God bless you richly as you love His Word first place. Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us and we’re here and we’re continuing in Numbers 13, where God spoke to Moses and told him to send 12 of the children of Israel and chose a leader out of each of the families of Israel. And Israel was over two million strong at this point in time to go search out the promised land. And Moses tells them, “When you go in the land, I want you to tell me about the cities, the fruit, the fields, the people.” And he tells them at the same time, “Be of good courage.” Because he’s done enough leadership that he knows most people tend to focus on the negative. And if you wanna get where God wants you to go and do what God wants you to do, you need to realize, you gotta focus on the promises more than you focus on the problems.
That’s awesome.
So we’re gonna go ahead and read when they come back, we’ll read in verse 21, actually, through verse 25, while they were there. Aaron, if you wanna read Numbers 13:21-25.
It says, “So they went out and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, as far as Rahob, near the entrance of Hamath. And they went up through the south and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan and Egypt. Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and there, cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes and they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. The place was called the valley of Eshcol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days.” And so when they came, they were in that land. They saw how amazing the fruit was. It took one man to carry, two people to carry one cluster of grapes. But they also saw this different giants that were in that land.
It’s probably very exciting for them to be there. It mentions that they went to Hebron. That’s actually where Abraham and Sarah are buried and also Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah are buried there in Hebron. So it’s actually on of the most holy sites in Israel. Even today, it’s the second holiest site after the temple mountains. So it’s probably a big deal for them to come to Hebron and they knew that’s where Abraham was. The father of their faith after they’ve been enslaved. This is a big deal for them to go to that specific area in the promised land. They’re the first Israelites to be there in over 400 years.
Yeah. So again, like a big deal. And they saw this beautiful fruit.
Yeah, one cluster of grapes took two men to carry it. That’s enormous.
And if you’ve traveled in Israel, I went to Israel with Dr. Sumrall, Lester Sumrall, in 1987. While I was in Babel and I saw, cabbages as big as a large watermelon.
Well, it’s interesting going. And yet, in Israel today, a lot of the same things are harvested today. There’s vineyards, there’s figs today. There’s a lot of the same Biblical.
So they saw this beautiful fruit at the same point in time they saw the problems. They saw the difficulties. They saw the things that could hinder them. And so however, the report that they brought, the way they processed that information was very different between Joshua and Caleb and the other 10 spies. And so in verse 26, “They went and came to Moses in the errand and all the congregation with children of Israel, in the Wilderness of Paran and Kadesh, and they brought back word unto them. And all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and they said, ‘We came to this land where you sent us and surely, it flows with milk and honey.'” In other words, this is a beautiful land. There’s phenomenal opportunity. And this is the fruit of it. However, you know? Nevertheless. You gotta watch those words. “The people are strong that dwell on the land. The cities are walled and very great. And we saw the children of Anak there. The Amlekites that dwell on the land of the south. The Hittites, the Jebusites, Amirites dwell on the mountains. And the Canaanites dwelt by the sea and the coast of Jordan.” So they saw the land, but they saw all these enemies. And really, these enemies stayed there until the children of Israel came in and took over their land. And in one way, they kept the land being productive. They kept the fields working and not overgrown, and so on and so forth. And you, actually, were teaching on Abraham and said it was a long time before the children of Israel ultimately possessed a lot of these areas.
Yeah, and God actually told them when they would start occupying the promised land that it would be a gradual process. He said, “If I just wiped out all these people in there, you’d be overrun, wild animals would overtake you.” He needed people there to kind of take care of the land. So Moses said, but this around 1600 years before Christ when Moses lived. But it wasn’t until David was actually the first king that established Jerusalem as the capital, that was still occupied by the Jebusites. So even for 600 years, there’s foreign people in that land. So David conquered the Jebusites and set up Jerusalem as the capital.
No, 600 years.
Yeah, he was around 1,000 BC.
1600 BC, Moses. 2000 BC, David. So, they brought this word back and said it’s a beautiful land. However, there’s problems. There’s not only promises, but there’s problems. And you know what? For every promise, there’s usually a giant. And you see the greater the promise, the greater the giant. I know something Joyce Meyers said years ago was another level, another devil. And it seems like that’s sometimes true in what we face. And so, when they began to talk about these giants, in verse 29, they said, “The Amlekites dwell on the land of the south. The Hittites, Jebusites, Amirites dwell on the mountains. Canaanites dwell by the sea and the coast of Jordan.” In verse 30, it says, “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses.” You know, he said, “Stop it!” Sometimes, you gotta tell people, “Just stop.” People start focusing on the negative and they just go crazy. Sometimes, I just tell people, “Just stop. Right now, just stop. Don’t talk this way.” And he said, “Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it.” I’m telling you, people, they don’t know how that power of their words. And lot of times, they get that any little situation and they just fall apart. And they need to stop their tongues from being negative and speaking all these death and unbelief. And it says in verse 31, “But the men that went up with him said, ‘We are not able.'” You know, here Caleb and Joshua are bringing a good report. But these other 10, they say, “We’re not able to go up against these people for they are stronger than we.” And they brought up an evil report. A report that’s based on facts. And these can be facts that are real in the world can be an evil report. We need to focus on the truth. And the truth is the promise of the word of God. And God’s promise is greater than any problem we face. And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we’ve gone to search is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people, now I’m sure there was even a dwarf giant or two. He says, “In the land were men of great stature and there we saw the giants, the son of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers and so were we in their sight.” A lot of times, the way other people see you is directly connected to the way you see yourself. And so you need to begin to see yourself the way God sees you. And as you grow in Christ, as you grow in your revelation of the Word, your mentality will change. And I’ve had some of my good friends that said kind of negative things about me in the past, but I knew, even when they were saying that, that my mentality had changed. And because my mentality changed, I just knew my mentality is changed and they’re not gonna say the same things in the future. They’re not gonna see it this way because my mentality changed. And it takes a period of time after you change your mentality to see that in reality. If you, as a born again believer, your spirit is already doing well and if you renew your mind and change the way you think and that begins to take place, eventually, if you stay steady in that, you will see those promises come to pass. You will see the reality. But the way they saw their selves was the way other people saw them and it really determines what they receive. Joshua and Caleb believed that they could possess the land and they did. The other 10 didn’t believe they could and they didn’t.
Yeah, they died like grasshoppers ’cause they had a grasshopper mentality.
Their bones were strewn in the desert. God had to let a whole generation of His people, of Israelites die off because they refused to believe Him and raise up another generation that would believe Him, that would take the children of Israel into the promised land. And I believe there’s been a generation raised up in our day that’s gonna take the promise. Praise God.
I love that.
[Pastor Perdue] Who’s gonna take the territory that God wants us to have.
I like what Joshua says a little bit later. This is Numbers 14:8, he said, “If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord nor fear the people of the land for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
Amen. So we need to take God’s opinion of us rather than people’s opinion. Another person’s head is the wrong place to have your happiness. And we need to get God’s opinion, do what God says. And I believe, we’ll reap the results of that when we begin to understand who God says we are, what God says about us, and we take that. I’ve lived to see a lot of good things and I’m gonna see a lot more good things. Praise God. ‘Cause I’ve taken up the opinion of Jesus about me. And we need to see God. Praise God.
Amen.
Well, I’m so glad that you’ve taken this time to be with us and receive the word of God. You know, the word that you believe will change your life. And some people have heard the word, but it’s not just enough to hear the word. You gotta believe it. And you gotta believe it to the point that you begin to act on it. And when you begin to act on it, the word of God will literally change your life. The word of God has changed my life. I look so much different than I used to. I’m talking about not physically, but the economics in my life and my health and all these different things, my family. And it’s because I began to believe what God said about us. If you need prayer, we want you to give us a call today and thank God for you, blessings.
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Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue and I love church! And I’m excited about church. You know, Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gate of hell will not prevail against it.” And I wanna invite you to come to church, whether you’re in Colorado Springs or wherever you are in the world. You can connect with us online, Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. or you can just get on our website and watch us at charischristiancenter.com. Blessings.
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