Power of Partnership – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Welcome, friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re with us today. We’re gonna be sharing on the power of partnership, and we’re gonna share from the life of Jesus. But we’re gonna share an instance early on in the ministry of Jesus where Peter, James, and John start partnering with Jesus, and they get connected at a totally, entirely different level. So, stay tuned. I believe you’ll be blessed. Friend, it’s so good to have you today, and we’re sharing this week on the Power of Partnership. And, I love this subject, and I love it, really, because it’s working in my life. And when you see how it works in your life, you wanna see it work in other people’s life. Yesterday we shared a little bit from Philippians 4, and Paul said this to the Philippians who were consistent, long-term partners with him. He said in verse 17, “Not that I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” When I moved to Colorado Springs, Andrew Wommack has been… I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, called to preach in his ministry in 1978, so he’s like a father to me in the gospel. But he told me, “Lawson, you’ll have to share more on the realm of finances.” He said, “First of all, because you want the people to prosper. But, secondly,” he said, “if you’re gonna have a ministry that accomplishes anything of substance in a city like Colorado Springs, it’s gonna take some money.” And now we don’t only minister in Colorado Springs. You know what? We minister around the nation and around the world, and it takes some substance to do that. We have a staff of 20 people, plus we pay other people outside of that. Our current payroll’s around $1,000,000 a year. We’re on television now. More than $1,000,000 a year. And it just takes money to do ministry. And if you’re gonna do ministry at a high level, right? We have a building. It’s a very good-sized building that enables us to minister to a lot of people. It costs money.

 

  Yeah, I was saying the other day, you talked about how you were pastoring it in Kit Carson. You were the only person on staff there. You were kind of the lone person out there. But it’s just a town of 300. Here, our church now, we probably, I think on a weekly basis, we have around 1,000 people come here for ministry to be a part of the church. And we reach a lot of people. A lot of people call in to receive prayer to… A lot of people connect with us all around the country, all around the world.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And we have people… Many of you watching this right now, are probably partners, and just really invest in what we’re doing. And we have a big team of people. You mentioned, we have a pretty significant staff, a lot of really talented, smart, just awesome people who love God, who wanna grow the kingdom, who believe in what we’re doing here. We have a large team of volunteers. Some of you might call in for prayer later during this broadcast. We have some staff members that take calls, but some people drive in to be here, to minister to people over the phones. But it takes a team of people.

 

  Right.

 

  When Paul writes a lot of these letters, he names off a lotta names and thanks them for being part of his team, for giving, for serving alongside him. But, like you said, to do things in a big way, it takes a team. I was thinking of this the other day. I have a 3-year-old daughter, and we’ve been going on walks with our two dogs. And our two dogs aren’t the best behaved. I have a Scottish Terrier named Winston. My wife, when I met her, she had a little Min Pin named Willie, and they both pull a lot, but Ada, she’s three years old, and she wants to hold the leash on her own, and she doesn’t want help from mom or dad. And sometimes there’s another dog that comes and they try to yank her away and-

 

  They can about pull me down.

 

  But, we were coming across… So, some people, they were walking their dogs and they’re kinda laughing at seeing us. We’re having a hard time with the dogs and Ada trying to hold on, and I thought of this statement, but it’s, “If you wanna go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”

 

  Yeah.

 

  And walking the dogs with… Going on a walk, it’s not the easiest thing with a toddler trying to hold on on her own and two kinda misbehaving dogs, but if you wanna go far, go together. And that’s what we’re talking about this week, that power of partnership, that power of working together as a team.

 

  Paul talked to the church at Philippi and he said, “I thank God on every remembrance,” because they started with him partnering early, they continued with him all through his ministry, but he says in Romans 16, and he’s really talking about relationships in Romans 16. And he thanks either 30 individuals or groups of people for their involvement in helping him fulfill his ministry, and some of those people he never even met. And so, it’s just really amazing how he thanks them and said, he says, “Stay around people who help you get done what God calls you to do.” But then he names a couple and says, “Stay away from people that hinder you from accomplishing what God calls you to accomplish.”

 

  Well, one thing, too, that you see in Paul’s life, he was incredibly consistent. And I think when you partner with people… I like to partner with ministries that are very consistent. They’ve been consistent for a long time. My dad has mentioned that there’re people who started partnering with us 30, 40 years ago, even when I was just a little toddler myself, and they’re still partnering today, and their kids are part of our ministry. Their grandkids are part of their ministry. Even some great grandchildren. That, man, that consistency in life, that consistency and partnership, that consistency in giving and receiving, that’s where God, that fruit that abounds to your account. To produce fruit, it takes consistency.

 

  It takes that.

 

  You don’t just plant something and bam, there’s just this massive harvest the next day.

 

  It’s called seed, time, and harvest. And we sow, but it takes time. But when you consistently sow and you keep doing it for a long time, you reap a place. Amos actually talks about that in the last days, that the one who’s reaping is gonna overtake the sower. There’ll be harvest coming so fast. And I’ve seen that happen in my life. Mom and I have been major sowers, and, man, we get a lot of harvest, but I know it’s from seed sown over 30 years of time, right? That we just consistently sow. I’ve been giving since I’ve been a child. I’ve been tithing since I got my first paycheck. But mom and I give more, like 30% of our income, sometimes even more than that. But you just can’t outgive God.

 

  And consistency. God has put this word on my heart and I’ve kinda studied it out, that word multiplication, and it’s a word that is used through scripture, often talking about blessing. Like when God blessed Abraham, he said, “I’m gonna bless you and I’ll bless you and multiply. I’m gonna multiply you.”

 

  Amen.

 

  When things are multiplied over and over and over, there’s, eventually, an acceleration.

 

  Amen.

 

  And it’s like an exponential acceleration, and God’s done that in my life. When you’re consistent and God multiplies something and you keep giving, keep receiving, keep trusting God, keep doing what he’s told you to do, there’s moments where… Man, there’s just incredible acceleration. And I actually asked the church, “Would you rather have me give you $1,000,000 right now, or would you rather have me give you $2? But this is what would happen to the $2. Every day for 30 days, it would multiply by two.” I ask people, “Would you rather have that $1,000,000 or would you have $2 right now with that blessing of multiplication where it multiplies by two every day?” And some of them weren’t sure. $1,000,000 right now sounds good. It sounds a lot better than $2. But with that multiplication, multiplication, if you take $2 and multiply it times two every day, within 30 days, you’ll have over $2 billion.

 

  Crazy. It’s wild. Hey, let’s get into the word. We’re gonna be, today, in Luke 5. And Aaron, I want you to read Luke 5:1-3. And what happens here, Jesus is ministering to a multitude of people, so he needs help. It takes help to minister to multitudes of people. And so, he asks people-

 

  Yeah, I’ll read it right here in verse one, it says, “So it was, as a multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God.” I love this, that there was a multitude. When you see multitudes gathering to meet Jesus, there’s different reasons why multitudes gather. Sometimes it’s because he was healing. And I think people should still be gathering today to see that there’s healing going on.

 

  Right.

 

  But here, they’re gathering to hear the word of God. So, ministry should be teaching the word of God as well.

 

  Amen.

 

  So, I know. People have come to this church, come to this ministry, because they love the word of God. Sometimes because they’ve heard a great testimony of healing, but they’re gathering to hear the word of God. “He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.”

 

  Amen. So Jesus needed help physically, right? And if you understand how water works… When I was young, I grew up beside a lake, about a half a mile. Well, we actually lived about a quarter mile from the lake shore, but when it was a calm summer night, we could hear people on the other side of the lake, about three quarters of a mile or more, actually, probably a mile from our house. And we could actually hear them talking clearly, because that water would cause the sound. So, this was like having a sound system.

 

  So he needed a boat for his sound system. Today, ministry might need some nice microphones to make their sound system work.

 

  Yeah, and a bunch more. But, anyway, Jesus asked for a physical thing. A physical, so they sowed into a physical need. When we give financially, we’re giving physical, we’re giving financial things, but this physical thing worked out to a spiritual increase. So, we need physical things sometimes to accomplish spiritual things. It takes natural things to accomplish spiritual things. And when Peter sowed, his boat put him out on the lake, and after Jesus taught, Jesus gave him a command and said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for harvest.” Now, in the natural, it didn’t look like he would get a great harvest, but later he received a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish that actually really astonished him and those who were with him, and it caused a spiritual growth, a spiritual reaction in his life and his brother’s lives, those who were there with him. And so, when we sow into a physical need of a life-giving ministry, we should expect spiritual harvest, but we should also expect natural harvest.

 

  I love that you brought out that they loaned Jesus that boat. I never thought of that as them… But if you go rent a boat, if you’re on vacation in Florida, if you rent a boat for an hour or two, it’s probably a hundred, 200 bucks.

 

  Right.

 

  So, they gave something and they received as well.

 

  Amen. They might have received a hundredfold harvest that day. If you need prayer during the break, just give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. We’ll be right back and share some more testimonies. Friends, thank you so much for watching today. We appreciate your participation with us in the gospel, our special offer this week to everyone who becomes a new partner within the United States of America, we will mail you my book, “Provision: Releasing Supernatural Increase in your Life,” absolutely free of charge. Blessings. God doesn’t hear you because you bombard heaven with your prayers. God doesn’t hear us because we get 1,000 people praying, or 2,000 people praying, or 10,000 people praying. In fact, when Jesus was in a tight situation, he didn’t call a bunch of people to pray, he brought up a whole bunch of people out. And then Jesus took three of his top guys, Peter, James, and John in with him, and said, “Let’s get this job done.” Friends, we’re so glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been sharing from Luke 5, where Jesus asked Peter to loan him his boat and take him out right on the sea, so he can minister to this multitude of people that were there. But after he got done ministering, something happened. And Aaron, I want you to go ahead and read verse four, and just read as far as you wanna read that.

 

  This is really powerful. So, Peter had just loaned his boat to Jesus, and, I said that, “Man, that’s worth $100 if I’ve been on vacation.” Renting a little kayak, it’s usually a hundred bucks, so, probably worth more than $100 what Simon Peter had done for Jesus, but Jesus was preaching.

 

  Right.

 

  And something interesting happens here in verse four. Man, this is so cool. It said, “When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon,” man, that’s really cool. He had stopped speaking and then he said. So, this to me is like when you’re going to church or maybe watching great preachers on TV, they’re talking, but then they stop. And then the word of the Lord is something, it’s really speaking to your heart.

 

  Right.

 

  That’s what happened here. Jesus was preaching, he was speaking the word of God to the multitudes, but then he said something.

 

  Amen.

 

  And this is where just a dramatic shift occurs in Simon Peter’s life. Jesus says to him… It’s now the rhema, word of God, a command, a life-giving, and just action word of God. It says, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And that was the word of the Lord. God was speaking and everything had just stopped. It’s like time had frozen, and God was speaking to Simon Peter. And Simon Peter answered and said to him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” But this is awesome right here, “Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” Man-

 

  Yeah, when you’re fishing, generally, fishing is better at night. When I was a kid, I used to go fishing and I love fishing. In fact, my mom got me to go to Andrew Wommack’s Bible study when I was just 14 years old, and she told me… We lived out in the country about 10 miles north of Lamar, Colorado. Like I said, it was just a little over a quarter mile from this lake. And my mom told me, “If you’ll go to town with me and go to this bible study,” she said, “I will buy you some fish bait.” And so, man, I went, and she took me to K-mart, bought me fish bait, but then I heard Andrew, and, man, my life got turned around. And that’s what happens here. But, generally, fishing’s better at night. So, he’s kinda, in his mind, having a little argument. They had already washed their nets. They were already ready to go rest for the day. They’d been fishing all night and caught nothing, but then they obeyed the command of Jesus.

 

  Man, that is just a picture of God’s grace, too. I see it as a picture of man just before coming to Jesus. You’re working and toiling and caught nothing. That’s actually part of the curse, where you work and toil and you just get thistles, you get thorns, you get nothing. You fish all night, you work hard, and it just doesn’t amount to anything. Unproductivity. But, man, when you hear the word of the Lord… Man, this is a picture of grace.

 

  Yeah.

 

  With hardly any effort. It’s just that the power is within God’s promise itself. This is just such a picture of grace. It said, verse six, “When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.”

 

  Amen.

 

  “So, they signaled to their partners,” and we all need partners. We’re talking about the power of partnership.

 

  Amen.

 

  Amen. There is a blessing in partnership. So, it wasn’t just Peter that was blessed, his partners were blessed. Verse seven, “They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.” I love it when I see partners blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I just saw someone here who’s actually been a part of the church for a long time. She married into someone who you’ve been ministering to for generations. And, just eight years ago, she started a… She just came out with a little flyer for guitar lessons, and, “I’ll give you your first guitar lesson free.”

 

  Amen.

 

  Eight years ago, and this is when I became a pastor at the exact same time.

 

  Amen.

 

  Eight years ago.

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  And God has blessed her. She just started with a simple flyer for guitar lessons. Now she has, I think, close to 200 students that have lessons every week. It’s a full-time business.

 

  Yeah, she has a lot of different people work for her. All this, she has a building, like a commercial building that they use for this music school, and all these-

 

  And God’s multiplied it, and then there’s a blessing in partnership.

 

  I wanna share something. Years ago, she was raised and went to Nazarene Bible College, but she married a young man that grew up in our church in Kit Carson, Colorado. And when she was raised in this… She was going to this Nazarene Bible College. She actually heard me years ago on the radio teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so, she called and had some questions for me. She was writing something for this Nazarene Bible College about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I shared this with her, and she just had a hunger in her for the word of God. So, eventually, her and her husband started coming to our church. And then, I remember, one of the first Christmases that they came to our church, she wrote this Christmas card to us and said, “I have a vision that I can become a millionaire.” And, Aaron, she had this when they… They had an apartment in the poorest part of town, but they not only bought one, they bought two, and they rented the other one, and then they rented both, and then they got a house, another foreclosure house. But they didn’t have a lot. But she got a vision that she could be a millionaire. And did you know what that has come to pass? You know what, you gotta be careful what you see. It might come to pass. And if you see right, if you see good, good things can happen. Praise God. And it’s happening in a very… And you know what? God’s multiplied her and she’s blessing at the kingdom of God.

 

  And I love hearing verse seven. It said, “They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” Man, when God supplies, it’s always in abundance. And it’s just always more than enough, and you’re gonna be a blessing to other people.

 

  Now, let’s talk a little bit about these fishing boats. I’ve been to the Sea of Galilee. I’ve seen boats that they had in that era, and they’re maybe 30 foot long, maybe eight foot or a little bit wider. So, maybe a little over 30, but they’re not giant ships, but they’re pretty good-sized boats. And these guys made their living off fishing. These guys had been out fishing all night. They had toiled. They had sweated. They had worked. They had caught nothing. They had washed their nets. They were done. They were ready to go to sleep. They heard Jesus preach. They helped Jesus. They sowed a physical seed. Maybe that was worth $100, $200, maybe more in today’s thinking. While Jesus was out there teaching, maybe a couple hundred, $250 an hour. A man to take you out on the boat in our time, right? But they got a net-breaking, boat-sinking load. This is probably worth more than $10,000 a fish in today’s language. Man, it didn’t take them long to receive this harvest. And so, what’d they do? They called in their partners. And when they called in their partners, their friends, they were partners with Jesus, but Jesus multiplied them so much, they had to call in some other people to help them. And it says in verse seven, “They filled both ships, so that they began to sink.” Man, this was an amazing harvest. I believe that supernatural increase. I’ve seen it in my life. I believe it’s not only a possibility. I believe it can be a reality. But it not only made a change for them naturally, it also made a change for them spiritually.

 

  And I believe in you. When you trust God financially and just sow, or he calls you to sow and leads you to sow, I believe that there can be a great financial things that happen in your life, but also great spiritual things. About a year ago, my wife and I just felt led to give a really large offering to a ministry that’s really blessed us, Mark Hankins Ministry, and it was a sacrificial type of gift. Something that makes you sweat a little as you’re writing out the check. And Mark wrote a really nice thank you to us. But, what he prayed for us in that thank you letter was really powerful. He just prayed that we’d have just increased revelation. He was actually praying for great spiritual things to happen in our lives.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that just really touched me that… Yeah, I know that God’s gonna bless us financially, but, man, I want great spiritual blessing. I want great revelation. I want knowledge.

 

  Amen.

 

  I want to hear from God and just to understand scripture even more and to be able to minister in a greater way. And I’ve seen that happen. And we can see that here in this story, in this account of Peter. Man, Jesus speaks into his life and just great things happen, just not physically, but spiritually as well.

 

  So, they sow a physical seed into a spiritual ministry. It takes physical things to accomplish spiritual ministry. Then they received a physical harvest, right? They had this boat-sinking, net-breaking loads. I mean, it was so much harvest, they couldn’t even contain it. They had to share it with their partners. But then what happens? In verse eight through verse 11 it says, “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I’m a sinful man.'” I mean, he comes to a revelation of salvation. You know, Mark talks about revolutionary revelation. And I believe Peter that day not only sowed this physical seed, financial seed, received a financial, physical harvest, but he got a spiritual revelation that changed his life for eternity. And then he was astonished with him and all those who were with him at the catch, at the harvest. Have you ever been astonished at your physical harvest? I’ve had this happen. I’ve had so much blessing at times that I’m almost embarrassed by the blessing of God, astonished by the harvest. And it says, “At the harvest of fish they had taken, and so was James and John.” So, Peter and James and John, these end up being Jesus’ closest three. “The sons of Zebedee were partners with Simon.” So, Peter got blessed in partnering with Jesus, his partners got blessed. And Jesus said unto Simon, Jesus changed the whole direction of his life, “Fear not. From henceforth, you shall catch men.” Some of you may not realize this, but if you don’t get involved partnering when the Lord tells you to partner, where the Lord tells you to partner, you may hinder your spiritual destiny in life. I’ve been trying to obey God in this realm of giving, and it’s worked out good for me. And I believe God’s got respect for a person. “When they brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.”

 

  Amen. So, just keep following the voice of Jesus. I believe that Jesus can lead you in many things in life, but he can lead you with your giving as well. Man, one of the first places I’ve learned to hear the voice of God, the voice of Jesus, is concerning giving. And as I’ve stepped out and just followed his voice, man, he’s done great things in my life as a result.

 

  If you want prayer, if you want a partner, I wanna encourage you to call and I’ll be back right at the end of the broadcast to pray for you. Blessings.

 

  Today’s program, Pastor Lawson and Aaron talked about the blessing that gets released towards you when you partner with spreading the gospel. We invite you to join us as we share this message of grace, faith, and righteousness with countless others by becoming a regular monthly partner with “Grace For Today.” When you do so, we will send you a copy of Pastor Lawson’s book entitled “Provision,” free of charge. To become a monthly partner, go to our website charischristiancenter.com, and click on the give icon at the top of the screen. Once you’re there, click on the give button, then choose what level of partnership you’d like, then select whether or not you’d like your copy of “Provision.” You can also start your partnership by calling us at 719-418-4000. We are receiving an overwhelming number of calls at times, so if the phones are busy, please leave a message, and we’ll call you back as soon as possible. We wanna say thank you for your generous gifts and we look forward to hearing from you today.

 

  Hi, friends. I don’t wanna leave this broadcast without inviting you to pray with me to the Heavenly Father, to receive Jesus as your Lord. So, pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins, and you raised him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord. And right now, I surrender my life to you, In Jesus’ name.

 

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