Foundations of Faith Part 5 – Lawson Perdue – 12/16/2024

Friends, today we’re sharing from James 5 on the “Foundations of Faith,” talking about the patience of faith. You know who the most patient person is in the realm of faith? It’s God. God has patience and waits for the precious fruit of the earth. If you will be patient, you will receive all that God has promised you. Open your heart and receive His word. Thank you, you’re all a blessing. We appreciate you. So good to have everyone here. God is so good. We’ve been teaching on the subject of faith. We’ve been teaching from the book of James. I love this book. Praise God. James was a pastor. He’s the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, one of the first churches. Hallelujah. This is known by many to be the oldest of the canon of the New Testament. And so, Pastor James has some things to say about faith and we started in chapter 1 where he talks about the wisdom of faith. He said, “If you lack wisdom, ask of God. He gives liberally and He does not upbraid us. He does not rebuke us.” Thank God God gives us wisdom. The first wisdom that He gives us is that He’s always good and He’s only good, and He always does good and He only does good. Praise God. He says, “God tempts no man with evil.” Praise God. How many of you are glad God is not tempting us with evil? He’s delivering us from evil.

Congregation Amen!

Amen? And then he says God only gives good things. James 1:17, “Every good, every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of light with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” If it is not good, if it is not perfect, it could not come from God because that’s all He has to give. Then he says in chapter 2, “Faith, if it’s really faith, must have corresponding action.” He said three times faith without works is dead being alone, in verse 17, verse 20, and verse 26. If you really have faith, you’re gonna have corresponding action. If you really believe something, you’re gonna do something with it. He says in chapter 3 that faith is connected to our words. You’ve got to understand the power of your tongue, the power of your words. And in verse 6, he says this, he says, “It just takes a spark, right, to change the very course of nature.” Your words can change the course of nature. Your words can change the direction of your life. Your words can change what you’re receiving.

Congregation Amen.

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life, it works on both sides, are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it shall eat the fruit of it.” If you don’t like what you are receiving, change what you’re believing and change what you are speaking because your words have power.

Congregation Amen.

Then he says in James 4, he talks about the humility of faith. He says, “Humble yourselves therefore to the Lord, amen, “and He will exalt you in due time.” He says, “Submit yourselves to God.” That’s in James 4:10. Back up to verse 7. “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and He will flee from you.” Some of you trying to resist the devil, but I’m telling you it works a lot better when you first submit yourself to the Lord. Amen?

Congregation Amen.

Finally in James 5, he talks about the patience of faith. Let’s begin in verse 7 and verse 8. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, to the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and he has long patience for it until he receives the early and the latter rain. Be also patient and establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws near.” If your faith’s gonna work, you got to tie it in with patience. In fact, Hebrew 6:12 says, “Be followers of those who through faith and patience, right, inherit the promises.” Generally, the greater the harvest, the longer it takes, right, for it to manifest, for it to come to pass. I love those words. It came to pass. Hallelujah. It’s nice when it comes to pass in 15 minutes. But sometimes it doesn’t come to pass in 15 minutes, sometimes it’s 15 years, sometimes it’s 20 or 30 years, but you just keep believing. And He uses God, the husbandman, the farmer, right, the gardener of the earth as the greatest example of faith. He sowed the greatest seed, he sowed the seed of Jesus and he’s gonna receive the greatest harvest, the harvest of humanity. In fact, Jesus said this in John 12, “Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” What is that fruit? That fruit is the fruit of the earth, of the harvest of humanity. He said he’s waiting. He’s been waiting nearly 2,000 years. He waits for it. He has long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. I grew up on Eastern Colorado. We grow wheat, primarily winter wheat. We grow a little bit of spring wheat, but mostly winter wheat. So winter wheat in the state of Colorado to get an ideal harvest, the ideal season for planting is September, about September 1st, right? You harvest it about July 1st, right? That’s a 10-month process. And if you’re going to have great wheat, you got to have moisture in the fall to bring the seed up. When wheat grows up in the fall, it looks like little grass, right, this little green grass that’s like on the ground, then it’s over, right? But if you’re gonna get a good wheat harvest, you not only need fall moisture, right, with winter wheat to bring the seed up, you need spring moisture. In about April, it’ll grow up about this high. And if you pull it apart and look down there on the inside of it, it’s got this little bitty head, right? And if it rains in that season, you get an abundance of rain, you’ll get a great harvest, right? In fact, we not only had dry land wheat, we had irrigated wheat. On the irrigated wheat, we’d irrigate it up, right? And then in July, we’d… But in April when it was just about that high, we’d just pour the water to it, I mean, just irrigate it, and it would shoot up and the heads would fill. And we would get a hundred bushel wheat harvest nearly every year. It was a hundred-fold. We planted 60 pounds an acre. Hallelujah. And we harvested 6,000 pounds per acre. That’s a good harvest. That’s beautiful wheat. That’s a hundred-fold return. Amen? He says, “Be patient in the realm of faith. Follow those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.” Amen? Now when we look at this, let’s jump back and look at some simple things. He’s talking about this aspect of the patience of faith. In verse 1, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them will be a witness against you, and eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cries, and the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth, the God of the battles. You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. You let your flesh have anything it want. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you.” You know what he’s talking about? He’s talking about sowing seed. And guess what? If you sow the wrong seeds, you’re gonna have the wrong harvest.

Congregation Yes.

But you wanna keep sowing good seeds. Everybody say, “Keep sowing.”

Congregation Keep sowing.

“Good seeds.”

Congregation Good seeds.

Galatians talks about sowing good seeds. Let’s go there to Galatians 6 and let’s read this. When you first glance at this, many people think it’s talking primarily about sowing bad seed, but actually it’s primarily talking about sowing good seed. Look at Galatians 6:6 through 10. “Let him who is taught in the word communicate to him who teaches in all good things. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption or death. But he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season, we’ll reap if we do not faint. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to everyone, to all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” You wanna keep sowing good seeds. Because if you do, eventually, guess what? You’re going to have a good harvest.

Congregation Amen.

Right? And if you go back to Galatians 5, you can either sow to the flesh negatively or you can sow to the Spirit positively, and he explains the difference. But he says this in verse 17, Galatians 5:17, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.” You cannot just let your flesh have its own way. If you wanna have a good harvest, you’ve gotta keep sowing to the Spirit. You’ve gotta keep sowing good seeds. Amen?

Congregation Amen.

So in the realm of faith, keep sowing good seeds. Now he goes on and he says this in verse 7 and 8, again, “Be patient, therefore, brethren, to the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman, the great farmer of the earth, waits for the precious fruit of the earth. He has long patience for it until he received the early rain.” How many of you know the church was born in power? God poured out of His Spirit in Acts 2, and the church was born. But guess what? The church was not only born in power, the church is gonna leave in power.

Congregation Yes!

Amen?

Congregation Amen.

Friends, we’ve been sharing today from ‘Foundations of Faith.” I have a lot more to say in the realm of faith, and we have all of these teachings online, downloadable audio, downloadable video from live in our church. We would love to have you receive them and many others free of charge. So check us out at charischristiancenter.com.

We went to Pastor Lawson and we said we were just, you know, needing some guidance, some wisdom on how to believe or whatever. But he said, I feel like God is telling me you’re gonna get all this money all in one chunk. We just started calling that money in. That money came, we got the check before the end of the year, and it actually, there was, it paid enough for it to cover all the medical debt, and there was 10,000 left.

Harvest takes time. Now reading James 5:9 through 12, “Grudge not against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge stands at the door.” How many of you are glad that were not the judge? I’m so glad I’m not the judge. I had someone, you know, a year ago or so, and they said, “Pastor, if you don’t bring this person up and publicly rebuke them from the platform, then we’re going to quit this church.” Well, listen, I’m not their judge and I’m not gonna do that. That’s not my job. Amen, that’s His job. Hallelujah, I’m glad. “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate.” How many of you are glad that God’s compassionate?

Congregation Yeah.

“And of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven nor earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation.” What’s he saying here? Faith is a process. But during the process, what do we need to do? We need to keep doing the right thing. We need to keep walking in love. We need to keep patiently enduring affliction and persecution. Again, it’s a lot easier said than done. And we need to keep being people of our word. He says, “Let your yay be yay. Let your nay be nay.” Listen, keep your word. It’s a good thing. And I believe if you keep your word, it’s gonna be easier for you to believe God, and God always keeps His.

Congregation Yes.

Amen. Jesus talks about this. In Matthew 5, he says some things. Notice this in verse 43 through verse 48. “You have heard it’s been said, you will love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be children of your father who is in heaven, for he makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them who love you, what reward have you? The tax collectors even do that. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Don’t even the publicans, the heathen? Be therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Amen. What’s he saying? You got to learn how to love your brother. Amen? You gotta learn how to endure persecution. Praise God? But he also says this if we back up to verse 37, “Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatever is more than this is evil.” Amen. Keep your word. Keep doing what you say. Barbara asked me one day, we were getting ready to go somewhere and I said, “Well, I have to go take care of this,” and she said, “Well, I really wanna go now.” I said, “The problem is, Barbara, is I gave them my word.” She said, “You go do that right now.” My word is my bond.

Congregation Yes.

Amen. God’s word is God’s bond. Amen? And God never breaks His word. So keep your word. Why? Because faith is a process. You keep doing the right thing, ’cause there’s a day that harvest is coming. Amen? But it’s a process. It takes time. You know, they asked Smith Wigglesworth, they said, “How does great faith come?” He said, “First the blade, then the ear, after that, the full corn in the ear.”

Congregation Yeah.

In other words, great faith is a process. It comes first the blade, just that little wheat, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Amen. And if you keep living by faith, you keep walking by faith, you keep speaking words of faith, you keep doing things of faith, guess what? You’re gonna get a harvest. It’s gonna come to you, but it’s a process. So keep doing the right thing because faith is a process. Let’s read a little further, James 5:13 to verse 18. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. If he have committed sins, they will be forgiven. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” Keep praying the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith still works. Now guess what? You cannot pray the prayer of faith if you don’t know the will of God. I grew up in a church, right? We didn’t know that it was God’s will to heal you because we didn’t know what the Bible said. And if you don’t know what the will of God is, it’s impossible to pray the prayer of faith.

Congregation Yes.

But he says if any is sick, let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Take authority in the name of Jesus, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And if they’ve committed sins, they’ll be forgiven. Amen?

Congregation Amen.

Hallelujah. Thank God we have people who know how to pray the prayer of faith. And guess what, when I’m in a tight situation, I don’t call 5 people or 10 people or 20 or 30. I don’t have a prayer line where I call a thousand people. You know what I do? I call one or two people who know how to believe God. I call one or two people who understand faith and I say, “I need some agreement in this realm. Can you please stand with me?”

Congregation Amen.

He says the prayer of faith will save the sick. When Jesus was in a tough situation, things looked really bad. He didn’t get a whole bunch of people to pray. He put a whole bunch of people out, and he got two or three folks that knew how to believe God. And he said, “Get in here, you get out of here!”

Congregation Yes.

And he also said this, “Don’t think you’re going to be heard because you pray a lot.”

Congregation Yeah.

He raised Lazarus from the dead with three words, “Lazarus, come forth.” That wasn’t a long prayer, but it was a heartfelt, hot prayer of a righteous man. And this Scripture says in another translation, “The heartfelt hot prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And guess what, it even works for people like Pastor Lawson. It even works for those of us that are a little emotional sometimes. Guess what, that’s not a sin. God made you with emotions. Amen? You know, Elijah was like Pastor Lawson. Sometimes he got upset about things. Sometimes, you know what, he said the wrong thing, “God, I’m the only one!” God said, “No, Elijah, there’s 7,000 that haven’t bowed their knee. Quit being such an emotional mess.” Hallelujah. God talks to me like that. Amen? And he prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years. You know, when I lived in Eastern Colorado, we said it don’t take much faith to get it not to rain for three and a half years. But it takes faith to pray and see it rain.

Congregation Amen.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. Keep praying the prayer of faith. Jesus said, “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say to this mountain, or you talking to your mountain about your God, ‘Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea,’ and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, shall have whatsoever he sayeth. Therefore I say to you, what thing so ever you desire when you pray?” What do you want when you pray? Believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. Forgive every person for every little thing. Let forgiveness rule your life, let the love of God rule your life, and you will receive like never before. You know, the Bible says this in Job 42, that the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he forgave his friends. And the Lord gave Job… He was already the richest man in all of the East, and the Lord gave Job twice as much. I’m gonna tell you something about Job. I believe that Job believed God’s promise.

Congregation Yes.

And just like the Scripture says about Abraham, he patiently endured and obtained the promise. I believe… He said have you seen, heard of the patience of Job? I believe that Job patiently endured. The devil tried to steal his wealth, steal his health, steal his family, but you know what, Job kept believing God.

Congregation Amen.

And God turned his situation around. And the end of Job was better than the beginning. Hallelujah. I like things that end well. Amen, how about you? Amen, so keep praying the prayer of faith. Friends, thanks so much for being part of the broadcast today. If you need a church home, we would love to have you at Charis Christian Center, either online or here in person. So check us out today on the web at charischristiancenter.com. Thanks so much and blessings.

Announcer If you are gonna live for Jesus, it will take both faith and wisdom. God has a great plan for your life, and any plan He designs takes faith to bring it to pass. The book of James is full of incredible wisdom. Pastor Lawson’s five-part teaching, “Foundations of Faith, Lessons from James” will unpack that wisdom. The digital download is a $25 value, yours free today. Download them now at charischristiancenter.com.

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