Power of Partnership – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Welcome, friends, to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We are talking about the power of partnership, and we’re gonna be sharing from Philippians 4 some of my favorite scriptures in all of the word of God, where Paul shares this promise, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus.” Stay tuned. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today, and we’re sharing on the power of partnership. Today we’re actually gonna be in one of my favorite scriptures concerning partnership, and it is in Philippians 4. And Paul really makes an amazing statement when he’s talking about promises. And a lot of people look at these promises, and in Philippians 4:19 Paul says, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus.” That is an amazing promise, but when you read this in context you realize that Paul is talking to the Philippians who were a group of partners that had partnered with him. They partnered with him initially when he started preaching and continued partnering all through his ministry. So this was a very special group of believers, it was a specific church. He said in verse 15, “No church communicated with me in giving and receiving but you only.” And so this is a promise to people who are connected with life-giving ministry, right, and people who are consistently giving should be consistently receiving.

 

  Man, that’s an awesome promise too. I remember I’ve been a pastor here now for eight years but before I moved here to start pastoring, I was going to school in Houston and I go to church every Sunday morning, and then I would always rush home to catch the live stream of our church here. And I was just really being, you know, growing and being fed here, you know, if you’ve watched our broadcast you know, man, we just love the word of God, to preach the word of God, the promises of God. We don’t hold back, we don’t shy away from what the Bible says, and I was really growing as a result of the ministry here. So God put it on my heart to really partner with the ministry here, even though I was living out of state, I started tithing here and, man, God took care of all of my needs. And when God supplies it’s never in short amount, it’s always more than enough. Whenever there’s a need and God supplies it, there’s more than enough. So when I first started tithing I was a full-time grad student. I wasn’t making a lot of money, I started tithing just $100 a month but within a year I was actually tithing $1,000 a month. God grew my income times 10, multiplied it by 10 and, man, I’ve still been tithing, I still been giving, with this ministry, I partner with other ministries as well. But God, when He supplies all your need, it’s always an abundance.

 

  Amen. You know God is not the, you know, God of lack He’s a God of abundance, and in Genesis 17 He appeared to Abraham and He said, “I am the Almighty God, I’m the many-breasted one, I’m the God who is more than enough.” If you study it out in the Hebrew, He says, “I am El Shaddai.” And He basically told Abraham, “Walk before Me and be thou perfect.” In other words, “Come into a relationship with me and I will multiply you exceedingly.” And, you know what, Abraham was already involved in giving, he was already a very blessed, a very prosperous man. He had a covenant of blessing in Genesis chapter 12, Genesis 13:2 says that he was very rich, but then we see in Genesis 17 God reveals Himself to him in a different aspect. And some people have no revelation in this area of who God is, that he is the Lord our provider, and that he is a God who’s more than enough. But when Abraham began to understand that and came into relationship with God, understanding who He was in that area, Abraham even began to prosper more and more. And I believe that’s what God wants us to do.

 

  Mm-hmm. And I love looking at Paul’s, you know, letter here to the Philippian church, whenever Paul writes, you know, a lot of churches he, actually several letters, he goes and names individuals who partnered with him, who helped him. Maybe they worked alongside him, they gave into his ministry, they helped support him, they helped, you know, support other, you know, believers that he was ministering to, but ministry isn’t meant to be done alone.

 

  Right.

 

  Yeah, that’s something I’ve realized as a pastor. It takes a team of people to really advance the kingdom, to change lives, to preach the gospel. It takes a team of people and here at our ministry we have, you know, a really awesome staff, you know, that minister to different areas. Whether it be through TV or children’s ministry, you know, receiving calls, doing prayer ministry. We don’t have a team of people here we have a team of 100s of volunteers, and we have a team of probably 1,000s of people who give into this ministry on a consistent basis. And whenever I preach, like, whatever I’m sharing right now, I take it really seriously because I’m representing this whole team of people, it’s not just me speaking but-

 

  Amen.

 

  … people believe in what we’re doing. They’ve invested into what we’re doing, into the message that we’re preaching, so when I when I communicate it’s not just me it’s the whole group of people who’ve partnered with us.

 

  Amen, You know, one reason I wanna succeed is I wanna be a blessing to the people that are helping me, praise God, and I want to be able to expand the gospel more and, you know, what we’re doing more than we’ve ever done before, we’ve taken greater steps this year in outreach ministry than we’ve ever done, but one thing I believe that happens is when you get involved in sowing you also reap. And, really, when we talk about the power of partnership one of the main things, and it’s really right here in Philippians, Paul talks to this church and he’s so thankful for their generosity and that they had given and continually given to him, but he says in verse 17, “Not because I desire a gift, but I desire that fruit may abound to your account.” You know, I got involved as a young man in giving and I got involved in sowing, not just only tithing. My father taught me to be a tither from the time that I was four years old. I received my first paycheck for full-time summer work when I was 13 years old driving a tractor, and I made like $1,350 for that summer, or a little bit less than that but I took $135 check and put in my Sunday school offering. And, you know, that was in the junior high Sunday school class of about five kids and, man, it was like eye-opening to those people but I had been a giver, my dad trained me to give. But then when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was just 14, in a very short time I began partnering with other ministries, in addition to just tithing to my local church and, actually, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and called to preach in Andrew Wommack’s ministry, and I started partnering with Andrew Wommack when I was 14 years old. And I’m, you know, I’ve been partnering with Andrew for over 45 years, praise God. And you know what? I not only partner with Andrew Wommack in our church, we give to between 60 and 70 ministries every year and, you know what, this, we have given every year, we started this church in Colorado Springs in the year 2001 with almost no people and no money; and we’ve given every year between 10% and 27% of the income away and we have a supernatural abundance. And I believe that is not just for us, I believe that’s available to anybody out there. And just like it happened in your life it happened in my life, I gave my first $1,000 gift when I was about 16 years old and that was about two thirds of a summer’s income, when I was still in high school, to a missionary. And, you know what, I believe I’m still reaping, praise God, and we’re still supporting missionaries. We’re building churches in India, I talked to somebody today we’re planning on, you know, we built 14 of them in the last year and few months and we’re planning on building a bunch of them in the next year. We’ve got a children’s curriculum that we’ve made available free of charge that’s on our website, where we were paying $900 for kind of a subpar curriculum and I’m paying to develop this whole curriculum. We got the first year available, soon we’ll have the second year up of children’s curriculum, then we’re gonna develop a junior high curriculum, two years of that, and then special curriculums for kids and junior high age kids, and then maybe we’ll move it into youth but, praise God, and we make all of these teaching materials available free of charge. We’re on television on five networks preaching daily around the world.

 

  That’s awesome, I love what the Bible says there in that 17th verse of Philippians 4, “Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.” You know, when I was a kid my dad taught me to give, to tithe, and I remember it was, I grew up in a small town, Kit Carson Colorado. It’s just on the eastern plains of Colorado, town of 300, but there’s not a whole lot to do for kids to make money there but we lived close to the football field, the school football field, and we went out on a Saturday morning, the morning after a, you know, a football game. You know, in a small town, Friday night lights, you know, that’s the entertainment for the whole week. So we went Saturday morning and picked up pop cans, I know we had people all around the country so it might be a soda can or a Coke can but here I say pop cans, we picked these up and, you know, bagged them up and took ’em to the recycling center and I think I got just like five bucks, but we opened a bank account and my dad taught us to tithe. And when we opened those bank accounts the teller kind of laughed because we didn’t have a lot to put in there, but, you know, if the teller now saw my bank account, my brother’s bank accounts, they wouldn’t be laughing now because God supplies and His supply is always supernatural.

 

  Amen.

 

  But you taught us to tithe, not that you know the 50 cents really would put a dent in the church budget, but you knew that there would be something that abounded to our account, and I love that word abound.

 

  Praise God.

 

  You know, what a great word. I remember when I was 18 I moved to Pittsburgh to go to college and I, you know, I went to a local church there and was tithing there, and it wasn’t a whole lot, maybe $50 a month, but I know that it abounded to my account. I actually started partnering with Andrew Wommack Ministries as well when I was 18, because he made all of his teaching just available for a free download. I had a iPod touch, and I just downloaded every single message he had and would just listen to those messages. And I started giving $10 a month, and gave that throughout college because it was just really a blessing me and helping me grow, it was good bread for me and, you know, $10 a month didn’t necessarily put a dent in their budget but it was abounding to my account.

 

  Praise God and, you know, God multiplied you, God increased you. It’s not where you start out that matters, God is not looking for what we don’t have. You know, but if we’ll start where we’re at and believe Him, I believe that God will increase it. And, you know, we’re gonna have a short break and if you want to you could call in during this break, and if God lays it on your heart, become a partner. And we have partners that are supernaturally blessed, and we’ll talk about that maybe in the second half of the broadcast. And I know we often receive those testimonies so stay tuned, we’re gonna be back and share more from Philippians chapter 4. 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.

 

  Hi everyone, we have a special announcement for you.

 

  We’re having a camp meeting and it’s for the whole family. We have special kids teaching, special youth teaching, special adult teaching, special guests and special workshops. It’s a great event and you don’t wanna miss it. I believe it will be a blessing to you and your family, so come see us. Friends, I’m glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about the power of partnership, and one of my favorite scriptures along these lines is Philippians chapter 4. And, really, Paul writes this letter to the Philippians and he’s constantly giving thanks to them. He starts out in verse three of chapter one and he’s giving thanks for them, and he says, “I give thanks on every remembrance of you.” Well, that’s how you feel about partners who’ve, you know, when you started out they helped you and they continue to help you, and finish they up. There’s not a lot of people that will go from start to finish, but that’s how these people were. And Paul actually says in Philippians 4:10, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, now that at the last your care of me has flourished again, wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity.” You know, Paul said, “You guys cared for me, but you really didn’t maybe know the need or you didn’t have an opportunity, an easy way to sow, so on and so forth, at that point in time.” But he begins to thank God and he’s rejoicing over them, and rejoicing in his relationship. Paul’s actually writing this from prison, where he’s been put in prison for preaching the gospel. And he says, he makes seven statements of abundance that are really powerful here. But he says, “Not that I speak,” in verse 11, “in respect of want, for I’ve learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” I believe that’s an attitude of prosperity, no matter  You know, Paul says later, “I’ve learned how to be abased, I’ve learned how to abound.” You know, “If I have a lot I’m gonna make it work, if I have a little I’m gonna make it work.” That’s an attitude of abundance. He says, “I know how to be both abased and I know how to abound everywhere, and in all things I’m instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” He said, “Whatever challenge, whatever difficulty that I’m dealing with or whatever abundance I’m dealing with, I can deal with it.” You know, some people deal well with challenges and difficulty, but when they really begin to prosper they don’t do well because they forget God. God told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 8, He said over and over again, “When you come into this land, when you come into this blessing, when you come into houses full of good things that you did not build, filled with good things that you didn’t put in them, when you come into vineyards that you didn’t plant, and you come into this great abundance, beware. Lest you forget.” We don’t want to forget God. And so some people deal with lack well but they don’t deal with abundance well, but we wanna deal with both lack and abundance well. And I believe the way we deal with it well is just trust Jesus who strengthens us. And He says-

 

  And also to keep giving-

 

  Right.

 

  You know, I think it’s really important to keep trusting God. You know, Paul actually writes in some of his pastoral epistles to pastors to, “Hey pastors, you need to teach those who are rich in this world to not trust in uncertain riches.” So he’s saying, “You need to teach people who are doing well to be givers.”

 

  Right.

 

  And that’s how you put your trust in God ultimately, is by continuing to give-

 

  Amen.

 

  And not just saying, “Well, I can just sit on my can now, I’m just… I can check out and just sit on my lazy boy and-“

 

  Yeah, we need to trust God. He said, “Trust not in uncertain riches but trust in God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” When you get involved in giving and receiving, Paul’s talking about that right here. He said, you know, “God will give you,” in 1 Timothy 6, “richly all things to enjoy.” I believe that’s the fruit again of our giving. And so he says, “You guys are well done that you communicated my need,” in verse 14, and he says in verse 15, “No church communicated with me in giving and receiving, but you only.” So if you give you should expect to receive.

 

  Mm-hmm, that’s awesome. You know, it was like five or six years ago but a young man in England who I’ve just met like once or twice in person, but he wanted to partner with me. And I don’t have any, you know, I don’t have a personal ministry where I do a lot of things personally, I mainly minister through the church but I said, “Sure, if you wanna do that.” And he’s actually been sending me, I don’t know what it is exactly, he sends it through PayPal and he sends it in British pounds, he’s in England. But, you know, he’s been sending once a month for like five years-

 

  That’s awesome.

 

  … and he hasn’t, man, he’s still done it, and it’s just really neat because I can tell that he understands giving and receiving.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And he is a pastor’s son in England and he went to college and, you know, he’s been through all of the same things I’ve been through as a young man, you know, being single and ready to mingle and trying to just get direction from God, and he actually just recently became a pastor.

 

  That’s awesome.

 

  And is a pastor in Manchester, UK, but he sends a, I don’t know what, he probably sends it in pounds and then it’s converted but it always ends up being like $32 and somewhat cents, so it’s probably around 20 or 25 pounds but, man, he understands giving and receiving and, man, God has given him direction and led him and opened the right doors, and just really guided him and…

 

  You know, his dad and mom are great pastors and I think they oversee a number of churches, and they’re great leaders in the body of Christ. And, you know, we thank God for these partners. And, you know, He says, “They gave,” and he says in verse 16, “For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again to my necessity.” Aaron, you just talked about this young man that partnered with you now for five years, and now he’s become a pastor. You know, I think about the family from Kit Carson, the Mitchette family, and how Jim partnered with me when I started out in the ministry over 35 years ago when we started pastoring, and now I have ministered to four generations. We’re ministering to his kids, his grandkids, and even his great-grandchildren now are coming to this church. And on occasion, and I thank God for long-term relationships with people, and that’s what Paul’s saying to these Philippians. And he is saying, “Praise-“

 

  I love that you brought up that family because I was just talking to our children’s pastor who ministers to, you know, some of the grandkids in this family and she’s looking out for one, he is, you know, he’s in middle school right now and she wants him to really, you know, serve God and be blessed. So she’s trying to encourage him to become a partner here at the church, “Hey, you shouldn’t just be a spectator, you know, you need to be a participant.” And she’s encouraging him and talking to the parents that, you know, he actually joined the AVL team and learned how to run a camera-

 

  Praise God.

 

  and be involved but like… Amen, and she understands that it’s not just like, ’cause we need him to run a camera but it’d be good for him.

 

  Yeah, you know, this is something, there’s a mentality around a lot of young people today that, you know, they wanna go to a church because, “What can that church give me?” But, you know, you boys came to our church when we hardly had anybody, you know, when we might have had four or five people in the youth group when we first started the youth group-

 

  But we were involved.

 

  But you were all involved and you, all of you, you and your two brothers, Andrew and Peter, they’re involved in different churches but you don’t just go to that church because of what you receive, you go to that church because of what you can give and what you can invest. And I know Chris Hodges, who has a very successful ministry in Alabama, and the Highlands Ministry, and he has a college there and he has like 50 some thousand people and, you know, over 20 locations. But Chris has got involved with youth and he said, “Hey, we’re doing this wrong and we need to get these kids involved in what they can give, not just what they can receive.” And the kids that get involved in serving in the local church, and actually he has this mentality about his Bible school, the Highlands College, that he wants every graduate to go serve in a local church. Because if you go with the mentality of, “How can I serve, how can I help someone else?” Guess who gets helped? You’ll get helped. And that’s been a blessing to you, and so we’ve seen this in many lives. And so Paul says, “It’s not because I just desire a gift, but I desire fruit.” This is what’s gonna happen, I believe it’s gonna be consistent with what’s happened in my life, what’s happened in our church, what’s happened in your life, and we’ve seen this happen in the lives of many other people. Aaron, I have people here that are retirement aides that are still working and really prosperous, but some of these people were told by their attorneys and by their bankers to go bankrupt. And they said, “No, we’re not doing that.” And they went out and believed God and took two or three jobs when they got saved, and God supernaturally prospered them to where now they’re business owners and they’re just prospering like never before. You don’t wanna accept the world’s opinion, you wanna accept God’s opinion, if you’ll start where you’re at.

 

  Yeah, I wanna share this too. Several years ago, this is probably 12 years ago now at this point but I was going to church in Houston to Lakewood Church where Joel Osteen is a pastor, But on a Sunday morning Dave Ramsey actually preached the message. And I don’t know if he met, you know, necessarily mentioned this a lot now but he said, he just really opened up his heart about finances and just how God has blessed him, but he said it all really started early on in his life. Him and his wife decided to be givers and tithers, and early on in his marriage they were facing bankruptcy.

 

  Wow.

 

  And him and his wife talked about it and they decided they’re gonna keep tithing no matter what, and God brought them out of that. And you look at him now and it’s just incredible what God has done, but he just really opened up and shared about tithing. And I don’t know if he does that so much now-

 

  Amen.

 

  But…

 

  Aaron, Doug Weiss is a good friend of mine and, you know, Doug has counseled 1,000s of people in their marriages, and he’s said that he’s never seen a Christian family who tithes on a regular basis face a financial challenge that they cannot overcome. And so that’s just a testimony from somebody who’s seen it. And, you know, Dave, I didn’t realize this about Dave Ramsey but he’s a very prosperous minister and he’s helped a lot of people in this financial area. I wanna go ahead and read these scriptures really quickly, but Paul goes on, he’s writing, listen to these statements of abundance while he’s written, that he’s writing while he’s imprisoned for preaching the gospel. In verse 18 he says, “I have all and I abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor, a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” You know, I believe that if you get involved as a partner, and if you partner with a life-giving ministry just like this one, “Grace for Today”, Charis Christian Center. I believe that you can have this promise, Philippians 4:19 working in your life, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory.” So before we go off the air I’m gonna pray at the very end, but I wanna let you know that you can call in, that you can become a partner. I want you to pray about it. And I believe if you partner with this ministry, I believe that you’ll receive a blessing that will be above and beyond that what you sow.

 

  Amen. Yeah, and I believe that, yeah, it’s not just what it does for the ministry but it’ll abound to your account.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I love that word abound. God does things in abundance, He doesn’t do things in short supply.

 

  Amen.

 

  Amen.

 

  Praise God, so thanks so much for being with us. I’ll pray right at the end so stay tuned. Blessings.

 

  On 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 charischristianscenter.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.

 

  Friend, we don’t want to leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to pray with me and receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Pray right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins. I believe that you raised Him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord, and right now I surrender to you in Jesus’ name.

 

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