Stay The Course – Part 2 Lawson and Barbara Perdue (Updated)

  Welcome, friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in. We’re gonna be sharing today about how you have everything you need to do, everything God called you to do, that you have no lack in any area of your life. And if you really understand what the Scripture says, if God’s called you to do it, then God has equipped you to do it. You just gotta realize what he’s given you. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here with us today and so glad to have Barbara with me. We’re teaching actually her teaching on staying the course. And we talked about yesterday in the first broadcast that if you’re gonna stay the course, you gotta know what the course is. And you know what? We live in a world that doesn’t really have a foundation for black and white, right and wrong, truth and error. I mean, it’s just like all gray. But when you go to the Bible, the Bible is very clear, and we have a clear-cut code to follow, word to follow, path to follow. And it’s laid out in the Word of God. And we read the Scripture yesterday in Psalm 119 that said, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.” And we need to understand that the Word of God has given us direction. And when you hide the Word of God in your heart, it’ll keep you out of a lot of major barriers.

 

Well, like you said, you mentioned what we talked about yesterday, and we brought out that the world says there’s no absolute truth, but we know, praise God, God’s word says there is absolute truth. I can tell you this. There is a God and He loves you, and He’s got the most amazing plans for you. Then we talked about, “Well, where do we go for that foundation to have that strong foundation?” And like you mentioned, we brought it out in the Word of God. You know, when we moved here to start this church, we’re here in Colorado Springs on the west side, and we looked at numerous properties, and I was just astonished at that time how many properties we looked at that, in my opinion, the foundation was toast. In other words, we’d walk around, there’d be cracks in the walls. You’d go in the basement, cracks in the foundation. And I remember looking at this-

 

  Well, some of them more than cracks. Some of them, the floors would be like this. They’d be at a huge angle, and you’re like, “Man, we’re not buying this house.”

 

  Well, I remember talking to the realtor and saying, “You are trying to tell me that people actually buy this stuff?” And I loved it when you were in Bible school at Dr. Lester Sumrall. He walked by you and another student and just said the words, didn’t he tell you both, “Dig a foundation.” And then came back the next day and said-

 

  He said, “Dig a hole.”

 

  Dig a hole.

 

  And he actually said this to a friend of mine that graduated from Bible school about the same time that I did. And he was… My friend was an assistant pastor. And he walked up to him one day and said, “Dig a hole.” And then the next day he asked him, he said, “You know what I meant?” And he said, “Well, I think you mean build a foundation.” He said, “Absolutely.” And because if you’re gonna build a skyscraper, you’ve gotta have a foundation that goes in the ground about half as far as you’re gonna go up in the sky. Otherwise, that thing will fall down. And we have a lot of people that are trying to build a mighty Ephesus. We talked yesterday from Jesus teaching in Matthew 7 about the Wise Man and the Foolish Man, Verse 24 to Verse 27. But the major difference in the Wise Man and the Foolish Man, they both heard the word, but the wise man did the word. The foolish man, did you know what… He might have looked like he was doing great things, but he actually was not building his life on the Word of God. And it amazes me how many people will argue for their rights to keep their old pet peeve doctrine that doesn’t even agree with what the Word of God says. And we need to… It’s the Word of God that lays the foundation for the truth. Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.” You know, we talked about this Scripture, “Thy word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against God.” But 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and it is profitable.” First of all, for doctrine, we gotta get our doctrine from the Word of God. And it amazes me how many people who call themselves Christians will just fight for their right to be wrong and disagree with the Word of God. I got this complaint recently, and I thought, “Did you even look at the Scripture?” If you just look at the Scripture that we taught, that we went over, it’s plain. But people look right over the Scripture to hold onto their stupid doctrine that completely disagrees with the Word of God.

 

  I really don’t care about complaints. I’m too excited about living out what God has for us and proclaiming His goodness. And I really wanted to bring out today ’cause I love this. What I see in the Bible, He has created us in His image, He has amazing plans for us, and He never leaves us alone. I’ve seen the Bible, we’re only gonna look in one place, but numerous places where God is really helping us as a godly, good, heavenly father, a godly parent. It says in His Word that He will help us. He will help us along the way. And I’m gonna read it and then I’ll have you help out here. But Psalm 25:12-13, it says, “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way he should choose or go. He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth.” But I like this, “God will teach us how to choose the best.” Are you listening? Praise God.

 

  Yeah. I love that translation.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And my Bible, I have marked in here that the New King James is prosperity. And we teach prosperity, teach what the Bible says about it, see how many people just are super excited. Anyway, what man is respects his relationship with God. That’s what fearing God. There’s a very positive aspect of the fear of the Lord when you’re talking about really honoring your relationship with God and really respecting your relationship with God.

 

  Again, what I see here, though, He is a good heavenly Father. And it says here that He will help us to choose the very best. When I think again about raising our children, we wanted the best for them. Why wouldn’t God, your heavenly Father, want the best for you? We’re talking about having that strong foundation. A lot of times, what God has called us to is a lifelong journey. We’re supposed to wake up and be excited every day. That’s what I believe. And use these amazing anointings that we have on our life. And I’m gonna have you share some things, but we’re actually gonna look in the Bible about somebody. The Word of God says He found grace in favor and this was a lifelong journey.

 

  Yeah, well, before we go to that, it says, “What man fears God, what man respects his relationship with the Lord? He will teach him in the way that he…” God will teach you in His path. The Bible says, “The steps of a good man are directed by the Lord, and He delights in His way.” That’s in Psalm 37, I believe it’s Verse 23. But when you look at that, there’s a couple of things. Number one, our steps are being ordered by the Lord. The steps of a good person are being ordered by the Lord. And I believe that God delights in us, but I believe not only does God delight in us, I believe that we delight in Him.

 

  Amen.

 

  And another Scripture, Psalm 37:4, says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He’ll give you the desires of your heart.” Well, God, when you delight yourself in the Lord, He works on your desires. And you know what? When people are like, “I don’t wanna get close to God because I’m afraid what He’s gonna do to me.” Well, you don’t know God.

 

  That’s right.

 

  Because you’re gonna… You’re gonna find pleasure in doing His will and following His plan for your life.

 

  I like that. That is a really good comment. A really good, great truth.

 

  Yeah.

 

   Well I mentioned that we were gonna look at a story right here in the Bible. I love this story. We’re talking about how God will help us choose the best, God will help show the way. But again, we all have something amazing that God has called us to do, but we have to open our ears to listen to Him. And then to me, the word obey or obedience is doing something with the information that God gives you. You just mentioned a couple of people you know who complain. We don’t wanna be complainers, we wanna jump on board with what God is telling us and get ecstatically excited about it. And we’re gonna talk about Noah. I think this is a most amazing story. This is found in Genesis 6:5. That’s what we’re gonna go to anyway, Genesis 6… Genesis 6:5, sorry about that. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And if you skip down to Verse 8, but it says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

 

  Now, the reason that their thoughts were only evil continually is because they were living by their own knowledge of good and evil, by their own conscience. And you cannot please God by your own conscience, apart from really having a relationship with God and knowing what the truth is. And so your conscience is a good thing. But if you’re led by conscience alone, man, in his knowledge of good and evil, in his consciousness of good and evil, failed. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Go ahead, Barbara.

 

  We’re gonna go on with Genesis 6:13-22. And again, as I mentioned, Noah had an amazing relationship with God, and God talked to him and he listened. And I know a lot of times people are walking around confused, and I don’t know, I don’t really know what God’s told me to do, but when I read these stories, God does speak, and are you listening? But God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with earth.” But it says in Verse 14, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it.” I like that, “This is how you shall make it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits. It’s with 50 cubits and it’s height 30 cubits. You shall make a window of the ark and you shall finish it to a cubit from above and set the door of the ark. In its side, you shall make it with lower second and third decks. And behold, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breadth of life. Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you. And you shall go in to the ark, you and your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you, and of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every soar into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds, after that kind of animals, after that kind of every creeping thing of their earth after its kind. Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.” There is a reason why I’m reading this Scripture for Scripture. “And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten and you shall gather it to yourself and shall be food for you and for them.” Verse 22, look what it says here. I have it highlighted in my Bible. “Thus, Noah did according to all that commanded him. So he did.” The reason why I read that Scripture by Scripture is so that you can see that God and Noah had a conversation. And what I see is Noah did a lot of listening and God had a lot of information.

 

  Amen.

 

  And then you have a decision to do something with the information

 

  Or no to do it.

 

  Or not to do something with the information.

 

  And you know what? This was no easy task. It took Noah and his family 100 years. He was 500 years old when God spoke to him and he was 600 years old when they got in the ark. It took 100 years. It was a lot of sweat, a lot of toil, a lot of labor, but God enabled him and helped him. But when you make a decision to follow God, it doesn’t mean that it’s always gonna be easy.

 

  Well, it doesn’t always mean it’s gonna be a microwave moment. A lot of people think if it doesn’t happen in 60 seconds or less, God didn’t show up, God did something wrong, or I didn’t hear him, but they go to that blaming God.

 

   Yeah. A lot of people just don’t have a long-term vision, and you gotta have a long-term vision. God spoke to us in 2001 and told us to come here and start this church. And you know what? We’ve been doing it. We’ve been here for 22 years at this current time getting ready to be more than that. And you know what? We have just kept our nose. And so many people think, “Well, God told me.” And I have a revelation. Do what God told you to do last. And you know what? If you’ll do what God told you to do last, He’ll speak to you again. And I really, really try to obey God. And I believe this is really one reason that we’re so blessed, is because I try to obey God in a number of areas. And we’re gonna come back and talk about how you can get direction, how you can hear God’s voice, and how you could know the right way to go instead of the wrong way. And you can ultimately be blessed when you do it, praise God? So stay tuned. We’re gonna be right back after this short break. Blessing. Friends, we’ve been teaching from Barbara’s teaching on Stay the Course. And you know what? If you don’t quit, you’ll win in the realm of faith. So you can go to our website at charischristiancenter.com. You can get this downloadable audio, downloadable video, and hundreds of other teachings absolutely free of charge. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us, and we’re right here talking about staying the course. And what a great example. You just brought up how God spoke to Noah and God, by His grace, called Noah after man had miserably failed by trying to live by his own knowledge of good and evil. And then God called Noah and his family and gave him very specific instructions to build the ark. And how Noah, for 100 years, was building that ark with his family. And it took all their effort. People were mocking them, people were making fun of them. The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but you know what? It was so real to him, he just kept going with God. And the word of the Lord needs to be real to you where you’re just gonna keep doing what God told you to do last. And I believe if you’ll do that, I believe God will give you instructions about what to do next. But if you don’t do the last thing that God told you, and some people, man, they got a word from God every 15 seconds, and half of them, it just, they ate pizza or something. But you know what? If you’ll be adamant about following God, God will direct your path.

 

  As you were talking about that, and we, again, used Noah as an example, and I like what you said, preacher of righteousness and how more than likely he was mocked. He built that ark inland. He didn’t build it near water. And talked about something how a flood was gonna come. God gave him a warning and then told him what to do. And I believe he preached that and shared that with other people. But you can see, as you read the Bible, how many people listened and how many people repented. I find it amazing, and I’ve heard this said before, that… A lot of times, when you’re doing what God has called you to and when you’re preaching the Word of God, when you love God and you’re preaching righteousness, it doesn’t always win you a popularity contest. Too many times, especially with social media, people put too much into what others think. A lot of times, I’ve had people come tell me they look on more of a seeker-sensitive-type ministry and say, “This has all these numbers and we should be doing this.” And I’m like, “That is not who we are.”

 

  Amen.

 

  “I am not a seeker-sensitive person.” I love people, I want them to hear this amazing message, but I feel like we have got to preach God’s word and absolute truth. And it may not win you a popularity contest, but we need to do what God has called us to do and move in the things that I see in God’s Word not just because some person came up with an idea that’s popular or makes you popular on Facebook.

 

  And some of these ideas are just crazy that people come up with. And listen, I don’t care. If somebody else does that and it works, God bless him, we love him. But I wanna follow God and do what God tells me to do. And I’ve made some decisions recently to do some things. And it’s gonna cost a lot of money, but I believe it’s God-

 

  Hey.

 

  Directing me to do it. And ultimately I believe that it’s gonna work out to be well and really cause this ministry to be more effective, and to grow, and ultimately prosper.

 

  You just made me think of something that I’ve heard other ministers say and I know you’ve heard. And again, we see that here in this story about Noah. Notice that God told them what to do, and Noah didn’t say, “Whoa, where am I gonna get the money? Where am I going to get the supplies?” I’m sure he saw the forest and started chopping down trees one tree at a time. And I like how you’ve brought this out more than once. And I love it. When God has called you to do something to provision, we’ll be there. Everything that we need in this life, the resources are here.

 

  Amen. The Bible actually says this in 1 Thessalonians 5, it’s in Verse 24-25, but it says, “Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.” And if God has called you to do something and God has given you what it takes to do it, I love 2 Peter 1:3 that says, “His divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness.” And when you begin to… You have everything pertaining to life and godliness through your knowledge of him who called you to glory and virtue. That’s really talking about through your relationship with Jesus. Jesus called you to glory and virtue. And God’s divine power, God’s divine grace, God’s amazing grace, has given you everything you’ll ever need to accomplish everything He called you to do. But you find out about it through your relationship with Jesus. But you’re never gonna get there if you sit and say, “Well, God call me to do this, but I don’t have what it takes.” That’s just, it’s not gonna get you there, praise God.

 

  You’re declaring it with your mouth. But I love what Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Another than one that I love, this is something I wrote down even when I was a teenager. I just love this Scripture, Psalm 119:105. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” We don’t have to stumble around in the dark like everyone else. God’s word lights the way and it shows me where to go.

 

  We brought this Scripture up, and I think it’s in Proverbs 4, but it says the path of the justice, like the dawning of the day that gets brighter and brighter and clearer and clearer.

 

  I like that.

 

  Until the dawning of the perfect day. Make a decision to follow God. Make a decision to go the way that His Word says. And you’ve got a lot of different things. I love Psalm 138:2 that says, “You’ve magnified your word above your very name.” God is not gonna tell you to do something that contradicts His Word.

 

  That’s right.

 

  And so, number one, we need to have the Word of God. I’ve had some people say things, and I’ve had to go to them and say, “You know what? You’re saying this, but that just doesn’t line up with the word.” Here’s what the word says.

 

  I like it.

 

  So if that happens, I’m going with the word.

 

  Amen. I like another one. I have this underlined too in my Bible. I love the Word of God. You can tell, as we just quote more Scriptures, it just really gets me excited. But Psalm 16:11 says, “You’ll show me the path of life. In your presence is the fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. But you’ll show me the path of life and in your presence is fullness of joy.” Why are we so happy we have spent time with him?

 

  Amen.

 

  And it gets me pumped up.

 

  Amen, praise God. So he gives us direction, praise God. His Word-

 

  Amen.

 

    Gives us direction. I like Deuteronomy 8:18. You have this in your notes about following God’s word, but it says, “You shall remember the Lord your God, for its He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He might establish His covenant with you.” You remember God, you honor God. And you know what? God gives you the power, the ability, the wealth, the substance. To even get wealth, God gives you the gifts and the talents. And so praise God. I just love the Word of God. And when you follow the word, the word is not gonna lead you the wrong way when you follow Jesus. I love what Jesus told His disciples. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and I like to take off the last part and just say, “Follow me, and I will make you.” If you’ll follow Jesus, Jesus will make you into what He wants you to be. And I believe whatever that is, you’ll become a fisher of men. And I don’t care whether that’s a lawyer, or a doctor, or a banker, or a welder, or a car mechanic, or a farmer. You know what? You can win people to Christ. And ultimately, we all just need to do what God calls us to do. And I think if God has really called us to do something, that we’re gonna find a joy, we’re gonna find a pleasure in doing that. And if He’s really called us, He’s either given us the ability to do it or He’ll give us the relationships where we can learn to do that in the right way. And you know what? Somebody said this, that every person is within three relationships of anybody that they need to connect with in the world to accomplish what God has called them to accomplish. A great example of this is our son, Aaron. He had a tremendous gift musically with the flute. And Aaron ultimately went to Carnegie Mellon University and studied with Jeanne Baxtresser. But she not only taught at Carnegie Mellon, she taught at New England Conservatory and was the head instructor. And then he went to Rice University and studied under Leone. You might know her last name, I can’t think of it right now, but she had more professional flute students of hers in the field than anybody in the world. And just really, just really, really amazing people. Aaron studied with two of the top three flute professors in the world. And then this ability to learn in music, and then God called him to come here to the church. And what he learned in studying classical music was attention to detail. And there’s not one time that he teaches, Barbara, that I don’t learn something new. And I’ve heard thousands and thousands hours of teaching, but a lot of times I’m like, “Man, I never heard that, I never saw it that way.” And he’s just got a gift to teach. But what it taught him going into classical music was it taught him to pay attention to details, and now he oversees our worship here at the church. He’s not the worship leader, but he has several worship leaders that work under him and he administrates these teams and stuff, and they just do a fantastic job. And it’s to a much higher level.

 

  And now, when you’re talking about what he learned from these professors at these colleges, something else that was very unusual about these two people you mentioned. They really had a teaching that you need to help others, you need to help your colleagues, you need to help other people be strong and raise them up too. And so when you talked about how Aaron oversees the worship here and the music, I know he sits down with our worship team leaders, and that when people volunteer and help, whether it’s on an instrument or as a vocalist, Aaron, our son, tries to pick songs he knows that they’re really strong in, because again, he’s trying to help everybody rise up and do good in what they’re called to do. And that’s something else he learned from these professors.

 

  Yeah, but actually, Jeanne Baxtresser and Leone Buyse from Carnegie Mellon University and New England Conservatory. And Jeanne was first chair in the New York Philharmonic, and Leone was first chair at Boston. And I mean, there are amazing people, and they have more professional students than anybody in the world. But the Bible says that your gift will make room for you and bring you before great people. And you know what? If God wants you to go somewhere, He has the people, He has His Word that will direct you, and ultimately… You know what? When Aaron made the decision to come here and pastor, his teacher, Leone, she came and visited him. And he’s been so successful, and she could actually… She actually supported him in this decision. And she saw this. And in COVID, when all these orchestras were shut down, Aaron was playing for thousands of people every week. Praise God, and he’s used that gift for the kingdom of God. There’s not a greater way to use your talents than to be a blessing in the kingdom. But wherever you are, you can be a blessing. And I guess we’re out of time. But thank you so much for being with us. And if you need prayer, give us a call today. Blessings. 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, that He died for my sins and that you raised Him from the dead and made Him Lord. And I surrender to you now in Jesus’ name. I believe that God the Father gave different motivational gifts, and I believe it’s just how you’re made up. Your personality, different things about you. I believe God has given everybody motivational gifts. I believe the way you succeed in life is find out what your God-given gifts are. Praise the Lord, friends. I want to invite you to church this coming Sunday morning whether you’re in Colorado Springs or whether you’re wherever you are at. If you’re in Colorado Springs, you can see us Sunday morning at 8:30 or 10:30 AM live. But you can also watch us with our livestream congregation at 8:30 or 10:30 AM or you can go to our website and get it anytime at charischristiancenter.com.

 

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