Loving Life – Part 7 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I’m gonna tell you today how you can turn your whole life in a positive way. And this will work for anybody anywhere, because faith will work for you. God is no respecter of persons. He’s only a respecter of faith. Stay tuned, blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. We’ve been talking about loving life. And last week, we talked about the foundation for loving life as an understanding that God is always good, the Word of God is always true, Jesus is always Lord, and we are blessed. And if you’re a believer, you need to come at things from a blessed mentality. And we began to talk about how that is actually worked out in our life. And yesterday, we shared this scripture, which is really the teaching comes from 1 Peter 3:10 12. But in 1 Peter, Peter is talking about relationships, specifically, the marriage relationship. And in this, he’s talking about being of one mind, being compassionate in the marriage relationship, being merciful and courteous. He says, “Don’t render evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing.” In other words, you can’t just react to what somebody else does, or you’re just gonna, you’re gonna have negative results. Because if somebody’s negative with you, you get negative with them, you’re gonna have a negative result. So he says, “But contrariwise, be positive.” You’re called to bless, that you might inherit a blessing. You know, the Bible says, “Pray for those who despitefully use you, bless those who curse you.” And that’s what he’s talking about in a marriage relationship. But he goes on and says this, “He who will love life and see good days.” So we began to talk about yesterday, the foundation of having this work in our life, or how it works is we need to see good, we need to see from a perspective of the promise rather than the problem, from a perspective of victory rather than defeat. And as we begin to see, we need to see ourselves the way God says we are. So see God for who He is. See yourself for who God says you are. See the promise. See the situation for the way God says it can be through the Word of God, through the promise of God, rather than the problem. “He who will love life and see good days.” So we’re talking about how can we, we’ve got to change how we see. So if we change how we see, we’ve got to change the way, ultimately, that we think. We’ve got to renew our mind. The Bible actually talks a lot in the New Testament about renewing our mind, and it actually talks some in the Old Testament. But in Romans 12:1 2 says, “I beseech you now therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” And he says, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And that’s talking about the absolute renovation of your mind. So your spirit was transformed the moment that you believed on Jesus. But your mind’s gotta be renewed if you’re gonna begin to see the goodness of God in your life, if you’re gonna begin to see what God sees. And so you were involved, Aaron, when Mom and I moved to Colorado Springs, we bought a fixer upper. And it was a major fixer upper. It had like blue and red, and gold shag carpet that was stained black with dog hair and animal hair, and the walls were stained brown and black with smoke. And it was a beautiful, it had amazing potential, but yet it needed a lot of work. And we went and we transformed it. And you know, we ripped all the flooring out of the whole house and you know, painted everything with kills first. And then repainted it, you know, and I changed it from that brown and black smoke collect to bright white, you know. And we put all new, it had single frame, you know, single pane aluminum windows that had there, you could see where the rain and the water had come through them, and messed up the walls. And you know, the kitchen was like gold, you know, countertops, plastic countertops with black kind of plastic cabinets that were all greasy. And eventually, we ripped all that out there and put a brand new cherry cabinets and stone countertops, and you know, it had a tile roof that was, it was actually a fiber tile made for California, but it was here in Colorado. And you know, it was actually a bad product, faulty product for this area. But we eventually replaced that with the stone coated steel roof. And it was stained black with yellow trim and looked like a barn. And we took the Xs off the front that looked like a barn and changed the yellow trim to white, change a black to gray. And you know, I mean, we just transformed that house. And you know, our mind in the same way, a lot of times we’ve focused on negative things. We’ve focused on poverty or lack, or sickness, and we’ve gotta choose to focus on health and healing and provision to focus on peace, to focus, you know, on the promises of God rather than to worry. So you talked about how yesterday, how you can do that by the things that you speak. And you can change your mind, praise God, and you’ve gotta change the way you think. So renewing our mind, it says to be transformed in Romans 12:2 by the, “Don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

 

  And one way the enemy tries to just make people stuck, is just really in their soul and their thought life. And I believe that God wants to help people just break through just from being stuck in their thought life. And a lot of people just are stuck, because they think there’s no hope. They think this is just the way they, I think this is just the way life is. But God, God wants you to break through that. And like we said, the words that you speak are very powerful. And the Word of God, it’s the most powerful thing in the universe. You know, the Word of God, it’s not just normal words. It’s not just ink on a page. It’s Jesus said, “The words that I speak are spirit and they are life.”

 

  Yeah.

 

  So when you speak God’s word, it’s like you’re speaking nuclear bombs into your heart, into your soul. You’re speaking spirit, you’re speaking life. When you speak God’s word, it’s incredibly powerful.

 

  It’s releasing life. And I think, you know, we’re talking about mind renewal, but part of this, if you’re gonna speak life, you know, which is our next point to see good. If we’re gonna love life, we’ve gotta first of all see good. But secondly, we’ve gotta speak life. But to speak life, we’ve gotta renew our mind. So in Ephesians 4:23, it actually talks about being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Verse 22 says, “Put off the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Then verse 23 says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” That’s not talking about your spirit, it’s talking about the attitude, the way you see things. Do you see from, like school spirit, from an attitude of victory? You know, faith has been defined by some as having a major attitude. So you can have a major attitude of faith, a spirit of faith. The Bible talks about that in 2 Corinthians 4:13. So it says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and the attitude of your mind.” And it says, “Put on the new man,” in verse 24. Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new man,” which is created in righteousness. Your spirit was created in right standing with God and true holiness. True holiness isn’t something that you put on the outside. True holiness is something that comes from the spirit of man. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Proverb says, “Lighting all the inward parts of the belly.” So when you got born again, your spirit changed. You got a brand new spirit. But you’ve gotta renew your mind and begin to think from the perspective of who you are in the spirit. And if you do that, you’re automatically, when you begin to meditate the Word of God, you’re gonna begin to speak the Word of God. You know, I got some verses in Joshua 1, “God was speaking to Joshua and telling him that he had called him to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.” And He said, “I’ve given you this land.” Then He said, “By the way, there’s some giants.” You know, you preached a great message on this, Aaron, talking about limitless knowing what God has given us, following the Word of God, if we’ll follow the Word of God, we will have good success. But after He told him, you know, “This is the promise. Every place that your soul, that soul of your foot goes, I’ve given. You gotta walk through this land. You’ve gotta see this land.” Then He said, you know, “There’s some problems.” There’s some giants, there’s some Hittites, right? There’s some different kind of giants in this land. You know, I love something Joyce Meyer said years ago. She said, “Another level, another devil.” You can’t think there’s gonna be no problems, if you’re gonna take the promises, you’re gonna face some problems. But he said, “As I was with Moses, I will be with you.” So He says, “Be strong and have a good courage, because you’re going to divide the land to this people. This is gonna be your possession.” Then He says in verse 7 8, which is really where I’ve been going, “Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the word, which Moses, my servant, commanded you do not turn to the right or the left that you may prosper wherever you go.” He says, “This book of the law shall not depart outta your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night that you may observe what you meditate,” what you think, what you utter, what you focus on is what you begin to talk about. “You shall meditate there in day and night that you may observe to do according to all that’s written for, then you will make your way prosperous and you shall have good success.” If you wanna be prosperous and have good success, you gotta meditate the Word of God. You gotta meditate the promise of God first. And as you begin to meditate the Word of God, you’re gonna begin to speak the Word of God. Because you talk about what you met, Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” He said, by your words, you’re justified. By your words, you’re condemned. So you meditate the Word of God, you speak the Word of God, right? Then you become a doer of the Word of God. And then ultimately, you’re gonna be blessed in your deed. Psalm 1 talks about this same thing, praise God. So the thoughts that you have continually, as you renew your mind in the Word of God and begin to see from God’s perspective, you can’t help but say some things that are different than the world.

 

  Amen, there’s just so much power in that too in what you say.

 

  Amen. And in Psalm 1, also talking about meditating the word, it says this and speaking the word. This Book of the Law, Psalm 1, well, I’m actually speaking Joshua 1:8. But Psalm 1 says this, verse 1 3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scorn pole.” That’s like an unholy progression. But his delight is in the Word of God, and in it does, he meditate day and night. “And he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of living water that brings forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.” So what the key to, we’re gonna go into the second half, what you’ve been talking about, the power in our words. But the key to speaking words of life is what you meditate. And you can’t meditate on negative, discouraging, you know, things and be a positive person. If you meditate on how somebody’s hurt you or how this person departed from your, if you just meditate on this sickness or meditate on this, you know, point of lack, whatever it is, if you meditate on those things, that’s where your focus is. That’s what you’re gonna talk about. That’s what you’re gonna have. But if you change what you meditate on, you’ll start talking the word and begin to meditate the word, you’ll start talking the word. And as you start speaking the word, your life will begin to go a positive direction. So we’re gonna talk about how this works in the second half, and the power of our words, our words are powerful. So stay tuned. Don’t miss the last part of this broadcast. I mean, I believe this is one thing that I believe in teach, I get criticized for it, but I am telling you, friends, it works in my life and it’s working in an amazing way. And you know what? God is no respecter of persons. He’s only a respecter of faith. And if it works for me, it will work for you. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back after this break. Blessing. Hey, brethren, I have a question for you. Do you love life? I believe that God wants you as a believer to love life, to enjoy living. And I believe that God has given us the peace in his work so that we can do that. So go to our website at Charis Christian Center and download this teaching absolutely free, blessings.

 

  What can you tell? What’s different?

 

  I struggle with pain in my neck and my shoulders consistently.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And they just prayed over me and it was gone.

 

  It’s gone. That’s awesome.

 

  It’s gone.

 

  See that? Hallelujah. Amen.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad that you’re still with us and we’re gonna continue to teach. And we’ve talked about, you know, what we meditate changes what we speak. And you know, the scripture that I always think of that comes to my mind all of the time is this one. In Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Did you know that scripture works for saints? It works for sinners. It works for everybody. And you know what, what you believe is really being released through your words. What you believe at a heart level. I’m not talking about when you’re trying to look pretty at church. I’m talking about what you think on, what you meditate on. You know, when you’re laying in your bed in the middle of the night, what is coming out of your spirit? What is coming? You know, what thoughts are coming to your mind? What words are you speaking? Those words have power. And you know, here’s an instance. People, you know, they miss it all the time. You know, I’ve had people say, well, it’s easier to raise the dead than raise children. Well, that’s a very negative statement about raising children. And you know, sometimes people are just very negative with what they say about their children, so on and so forth. Aaron, how did your mom and I raise you?

 

  Just raised us full of faith. Just raised us, you know, pointing towards God, towards God’s promises. Just that all things are possible with God. Really, there aren’t limits to what you can accomplish in life if God’s on your side, just full of faith.

 

  Right, so we didn’t speak a lot of death over you and your brothers. You might’ve got in trouble once in a while, but we didn’t focus on negative things as a whole. We focused on positive things.

 

  And I wanna say this too, you know, like you mentioned that you’re criticized for this a lot of times, and I’ve seen people criticize this aspect of faith, this speaking part of faith. And I don’t understand why you would criticize, you know, people even come up with negative phrases to describe this type of teaching. Like they call it the name it, claim it, or the blab it, grab it. But why would anyone criticize someone for wanting to profess, to confess, to speak out God’s word.

 

  Amen.

 

  God’s promises. His word, it is spirit, it is life. When you speak it, it is incredibly powerful.

 

  Amen.

 

  So anyone who criticizes that, they’re a complete moron.

 

  Yeah.

 

  Like you should want to believe God’s word and also confess it, and speak it, and stand on it.

 

  Yeah, Jesus talked about it, right? He talked about the principles of faith. He said, you know, that we would give account for every negative word that came out of our mouth. He said by our words, you know, Matthew 

 

  Every idle word, right?

 

  Yeah, Matthew 12:37, “By our words, we’d be justified, by our words, we would be condemned.” He said in verse 34, Matthew 12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” You cannot help talk about. And I remember people used to criticize Fred Price. And you know, maybe, we look at things a little bit different than Fred in certain areas, but Fred understood this principle. And people would call him, name it, claim it, the blab it, grab it. And he’d say, you know what? “I named it, I claimed it, I got it, they didn’t. I blabbed it, I grabbed it, they didn’t.” I mean, he just used it. But really, you cannot separate what you believe from what you speak. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it are gonna eat the fruit of it. And the Bible says so much about the words of our mouth. And you know, I was actually raised, you know, fairly positive. My dad had a lot of challenges physically, a lot of challenges emotionally in certain areas. But my dad was not a victim. My dad would not accept government help. My dad just stood up and believed, and you know what? He got a lot of what he believed and his life was a lot better, because he believed rather than just succumbed to what the world would say about his situation. My mother actually had this thing over the kitchen sink in our house, and actually we lived in a trailer house. And that, I mean, we moved up from actually an 8 by 40 to a 10 by 60, then from a 10 by 60 to a 26 by 64. So, you know, we moved up in life. But you know, my mom had this over the kitchen sink. And over the kitchen sink, it said, “Be careful of the words you speak. Keep them short and sweet. You never know from or soft and sweet, you never know from day to day which ones you’ll have to eat.” And the Bible has a lot to say about our time. In James 3, and James is really a book on faith. Some people don’t like the Book of James. I love the Book of James. And chapter 1 talks about the wisdom of faith. Chapter 2 talks about the action of faith. Chapter 3 talks about the words of faith. Chapter 4 talks about the patience of faith or the humility of faith. And chapter 5 talks about the patience of faith. And it’s really a book on faith. But in chapter 3, we can turn to James 3 and read these verses. I don’t know how people could just, you know, unless you just wanna disagree with God’s word, how you cannot believe this. But he says in James 3:2 6, “In many things we offend all. If a man offends not in word, the same is a perfect to hold, a complete man able to bridle the whole body.” He said, if you can control your tongue, you can control your whole body. He says, behold, we put bits in horse’s mouth that they may obey us and we turn about their whole body. You know, you could put a 70 pound, 6 year old child on a 1200 pound stud horse with a six inch bit in that horse’s mouth. And that 70 pound child can control the entire direction of where that horse is going. It just works. You know, a bit will turn a horse. I grew up in the horse business. We had over 80 horses most of my childhood growing up where I worked for my grandfather on a ranch. And you know what? He says, “We could turn their whole body.” He says in verse 4, “The ships, even though they are huge, are driven with just a very small helm.” Just a, you know, a little rudder turns a whole ship wherever the governor wants it to go. You get a ship moving, and you can just slightly turn that rudder. You can turn that thing from, you know, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, you can turn it completely around. You know, just by a little rudder. That rudder will, if a ship is moving. And you know what, you’re moving somewhere, and your words actually say where you’re moving. And my words have defined my life. In fact, I just talked to one of my good friends, Brian Clark, he’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and I might have that wrong, but Greensboro, North Carolina, he pastors Grace Life Church, him and his wife, Ashley, powerful young man. And the church is growing, it’s healthy, it’s doing really good. But I shared on, we went through a situation, it looked very negative. We were told there was no way that we were gonna get things settled. And ultimately, I said at the end of this negative situation that lasted over three and a half years, I’m gonna have this thing settled. I’m gonna have it settled and I set a date. And I don’t always set dates. Within two and a half months, I said, “I’m gonna have this.” And do you know what? It was a large sum of money concerning this church, and we had it settled. We actually put the money in the bank. My secretary put the money in the bank the day that I said we’d have it done. And it was a complete miracle of God. And I shared this with Brian, and Brian said, “That’s exactly what I’m teaching on.” Praise God. But Brian understands this and praise God, and he said, “That’s such an encouragement to me.” And Aaron, you’ve learned the power of your words speaking over your children. You know, we need to be careful of what we say over our children. And we need to be careful over what we say about our financial situation, about our physical health. You know, I said years ago when we moved into this church, by a miracle of God, we moved into this building, and we had it completely paid off. But I said, by this date in five years, I’ll have this amount of money. And because I believe that we can prepare, we can do things debt free, but you don’t do it without planning it. And you know, that’s the way God works with me. And you know what? We are at that date now, and I don’t have quite what I have, but I have more than half of it. And it was a very large number. And people, you know what? They’re amazed sometimes when they know this. But you know what? God will do what we believe. Many times people, you know, don’t believe for anything and they hit it every time. They speak doubt and belief, and they get exactly what they speak every time. If you want to change what you’re receiving, you gotta change what you’re saying. And he says, our words are like this. He said, “The tongue is a little member that boasts great things, behold how great a matter, a little fire.” Can a little spark will start a great fire. We had this Hayman Fire years ago that burned up hundreds of thousands of acres here in the forest of Colorado. And it was started by just a little spark. And you know what, at the tongue, he says is a fire. He’s talking about it in a negative way. He says, “A world of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on the fire.” Your tongue sets on fire, the course of nature. You can change the way your life is going by the words that you speak. In fact, I got a whole bunch of scriptures. I don’t think I have. But when you read the Book of Proverbs, amen. It just has so much to say about our words. Our words have power. And you know, Proverbs 10:11, “The mouth of a man is a well of life.” Proverbs 10:31, “The mouth of the just brings forth wisdom.” Proverbs 12:6, “The mouth of the upright shall deliver them.” Proverbs 12:14, “You’ll be satisfied with the good by the fruit of your mouth.” Proverbs 13:2, “You’ll eat good by the fruit of your mouth.” Proverbs 13:3, “He who keeps his mouth, keeps his life.” Proverbs 14:3, “The lips of the wise preserve them.” Proverbs 15:2, “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge in the right way.” Proverbs 15:23, “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth. A word spoken in due season how good it is.” Proverbs 16:23, “The heart of the wise teaches his mouth.” Proverbs 18:20, “A man’s belly will be satisfied with the increase of his mouth and with the increase of lips shall he be filled.” Proverbs 21:23, “He who keeps his mouth and his tongue, keeps his soul from trouble.” Proverbs 31:26, about the virtuous woman, “She opens her mouth with the law of wisdom.” Praise God. We can learn to channel our words and use our faith in a positive way. So if we’re gonna love life, we’ve gotta see good and we’ve gotta speak life. Aaron, go ahead.

 

  Amen. Well, just thanks for watching today. If you’d like prayer or to become a partner, just give us a call. You can connect with us by calling or also going to our website charischristiancenter.com. God bless you and see you again soon.

 

  Thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate you. Friends, we don’t want to leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that He died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord. And right now, I surrender my life to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

 

  God is the author of life and every gift from Him is perfect and good. If you have breath in your lungs, you have a reason to rejoice. You can love life, because God is good. His word is always true. Jesus is Lord and His blessing is upon you. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, Loving Life, a $20 value free of charge. Download it today at 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.