Foundations of Faith Part 3 – Lawson Perdue – 12/16/2024

Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you’re tuned in today. We are sharing on the Foundation of Faith from James 3, and today, we’re sharing about the power of our words. Death and life are in the power of your tongue, and if you love it, you’re gonna eat the fruit of it. See how your words can change your world. Blessings. And we’re teaching through the Book of James. James was actually the pastor of the church at Jerusalem, and James was a half brother of Jesus Christ. And you know what? I believe he saw a lot of things as the pastor of the church, praise God, and so he was encouraged in people in their faith. In Chapter 1, we talked about the wisdom of faith. It says in James 1:6, “If anyone lacks wisdom, ask of God who gives liberally and does not upgrade us.” Then he goes on to say in Verse 17, “Every good in every perfect gift comes down from above, from the father of light with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” So, one foundation of the faith is knowing this. God is good, He’s good all the time, and He’s only good. He doesn’t have any evil to give. He doesn’t have any evil to tempt you with. God is good and He only gives good things. Then we went into Chapter 2 and we talked about the action of faith. We talked about works of faith. Faith, if it’s really faith, must have corresponding action. Faith without works is dead. He says in Verse 17, in Verse 20, and then in Verse 26, He says, “Faith without works is just like a body without the spirit. It’s just a corpse.” It’s going nowhere, it’s accomplishing nothing. Amen, so you must have corresponding action to your faith. Now, in Chapter 3, we’re gonna talk about the words of faith. He says in James 3:6, let’s look at this really quick. He says, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members. It defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature.” Everybody say, “My words…”

Congregation My words.

“Have power.”

Congregation Have power.

He says that your tongue sets on fire the course of nature. It just takes a little spark to start a huge fire. A few years ago, just west of here in the mountains, we had the Hayman Fire. It burned over 140,000 acres. It was started with just a small spark. Your tongue has the power of life and your tongue has the power of death. In fact, the Scripture says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat the fruit of it.” If you can learn how to harness the power of your words, you can go to new places and receive new things in the kingdom of God. In fact, in the realm of faith, there’s four major keys. The first key is when you hear the word and believe it, you’ve gotta make a decision. If you’re gonna live by faith, you’ve got to make some faith choices. I believe Jesus is a son of God. I believe Jesus died for my sin. I believe God raised Jesus from the dead and made Him Lord. And right now, I surrender my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Faith at a heart level is a decision. Not only do I believe He’s my savior and Lord, I believe Jesus is my healer, I believe He’s my peace, I believe He’s my provider, and I believe Jesus Christ is my righteousness. How many of you believe that?

Congregation Amen.

So when you believe that, if you really believe that, right, you make a choice to believe it. Now, what happens is when you believe the word, then you begin to meditate the word of God. So number one, make a decision. Number two, meditate the word of God. Now, what’s it mean to meditate? It means to utter, it means to mutter, it means to dream, it means to say. You get a mentality about something and it changes your vocabulary. You begin to think differently, you begin to speak differently. So number one, it’s a decision. Number two, you’ve gotta meditate the word. Number three, you begin to speak the word, but also, right, has to be an action. When you begin to think differently, you begin to speak differently, you begin to act differently. Praise God. Joshua 1:8 says this, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, that you shall meditate therein both day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.” He’s laying it out, right? You begin to meditate the word, you begin to speak the word, you begin to act on the word, and what? You will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. So today, we’re talking about the power of our words. James starts, this whole chapter is talking about our words and how powerful they are. Let’s start in Chapter 3:1-6. “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we’ll receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If a man offend not in word, the same is a perfect mature man, and able to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, are driven of fierce winds, yet they’re turned about with a very small realm, wherever the captain of the ship wants them to go. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” Now, he’s using it here in a negative way, but you can turn it around and use it in a positive way. In fact, this is my first point. We need to speak words of life. Amen, and speak words of faith. James says that our tongue, he says it’s like a bit in a horses’ mouth. You can take a 1,200-pound stud horse, put a six-inch bit in its mouth, put a 70-pound, six-year-old girl on a 1,200-pound stud horse, and that six-year-old girl can control that 1,200-pound stud with a six-inch bit. She can turn him this way, she can turn him that way, she can back him up. Hallelujah. Why? It’s like a bit in a horse’s mouth. That bit has directed that entire horse. He said, “It’s like a rudder on a ship.” You take a huge ship, put a little rudder on it. You know what? If it’s moving, just the slightest turn of the rudder will turn that entire ship. It might take some time. The bigger the ship, the longer it takes to turn that thing around, right? But you keep believing, you keep speaking, and you know what? You can turn that ship 180 degrees. There’s power in our words. Amen? Our words have power. In fact, he says, “Our words are like a spark that sets on fire the course of nature.” Hallelujah. Amen. I believe for a long time, when I first heard the word of faith preached, right, that I would get to a certain level financially. After I got there, I wrote my first book, and I called actually, all of my three sons, and I said, “Now I’m believing for three times this much money, and I believe I’ll give each one of you this much money.” When I called my son Andrew, my son Andrew said, “Hey, dad, don’t believe for that much. Believe for 30 times that.” Guess what? My mind went working. I started thinking. I started going to a new level. And guess what? I’m already beyond three times. Hallelujah, already beyond that. But I think, praise God, I started doing the math. And if I do this, and do this, and believe God, and God blesses me like this, Amen? By the time I’m 90, 89 actually, I’ll be 30 times. Amen? A lot of people don’t believe, don’t receive because they don’t believe. But when you believe something, did you know what? And you meditate on it, you think it, you begin to talk differently. Not only does it change how you talk, it changes how other people talk about you. I used to have some of my friends that I love that would make fun of me, and they’d say, “Pastor Lawson, he not only gets Lincoln’s face off the front, he gets the memorial off the back.” They would call me cheap, they would do different things. Guess what, the same friends that said that about me now compare me to different things. I had one, that years ago, that criticized me. I thought, “He’s my mentor, I love him, I think the world of him.” I thought he doesn’t know the change that’s taken place in my life. And I was just with him the other day, and he said, he said, “Pastor Lawson, everything he touches turns to gold.” I thought, “Well, that’s a nice compliment.” Now, they don’t know some of the battles that I faced. But praise God, when you win the war, you won’t win in life unless you learn to win the war of words. Amen? And your faith can change. The power can change the direction of your life. Your faith can change your life physically in the realm of healing. I have a man, years ago in my church, well over 30 years ago, he was from Kit Carson and he was diagnosed with MS. He came here to Colorado Springs to the doctor. He told the doctor, he said, “Doctor, I don’t have MS. I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus and I won’t be back.” And I’m here to tell you, over 30 years later, he doesn’t have MS. He’s healed by the stripes of Jesus. Amen? And there’s been no more of those circumstances and those signs in his life. I have a girl, her parents called me just about six weeks, five or six weeks ago, and they said, “Pastor, we’re really struggling.” And I said, “What’s going on?” “They just diagnosed our daughter with MS.” I said, “That’s no problem, bring her to church. We’ll anoint her with oil. We’ll pray the prayer of faith over her. We’ll speak the word of God.” And I gave them a testimony, and she came the next Sunday, and we anointed her with oil, and we prayed the prayer of faith, and we had the elders lay hands on her, and they spoke the word of God. Even her husband was here. And guess what? Then we sent her to the spirit-filled, believing doctor that comes to this church. Hallelujah, Dr. Henderson. They said, “Oh, he is wonderful.” She walked out today, she looks completely different, she looks totally better, and she said, “I don’t have MS anymore. I am healed by the stripes of Jesus.” And I am telling you she is going to get what she says.

Congregation Yes.

Her dad who called me, he called me years ago, and he said, “Pastor, I’m coming to the church for prayer because I was just to the doctor, and they said I had this tumor, and the doctor wanted to operate and do more tests.” He said, “Doctor, you’re not gonna do anything. I’m gonna go to church and I’m gonna get prayer.” The next year, he went back and they looked at that tumor. I don’t know how they looked at it, but they said, “Did you know what? That tumor looks like an eraser on a pencil the next it shrunk way up.” They didn’t take any medical treatments. What they did was believe God. The next year, he went to the doctor and they said that tumor is completely gone. Hallelujah, I’m here to tell you that faith in God will change your life, it will change your finances, it’ll change your family. Aaron can tell you what I prayed over my children when they were kids. They often talk about it. I prayed that God would give His angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways. I prayed that God would keep them healthy, that God would keep them strong, that God would make them a testimony and a witness for Him, and He’s done it in every one of their lives. I’m here to tell you, if He did it for me, He’ll do it for you because God is no respecter of persons, He’s only a respecter of faith. 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.

Wednesday afternoon, my knee started hurting. My right knee went out, so I went forward for prayer. The change didn’t come immediately, and my husband Mitch encouraged me, “Just keep laughing. Ha-ha-ha. Devil, you think my knee is not healed, but ha-ha-ha, I believe I’m healed.” Just continued getting better and better. And so I was able, by the time we got home, I was able to kneel down on the carpet.

Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 4:13. He says, “We then having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore we speak.” Now, Paul was actually quoting David in Psalm 116:10, and David had faced a challenge. He faced actually many challenges and a difficult thing in his life, but this is what he said. He said, “I have believed, and therefore have I spoken.” Paul said, “We also believe, and therefore we speak.” When you face challenges, guess what? You gotta learn how to talk back. David talked back. When Goliath said, “What’d you send, a pretty little kid out here? I’m gonna kill you and feed you the birds.” David said, “Oh, no, you ugly giant. I’m gonna kill you, and I’m gonna cut your head off, and I’m gonna feed you and all your brothers to the birds. You ugly giant!” You gotta learn how to talk back to the devil.

Congregation That’s right.

You gotta learn how to talk back. The devil knows how to talk trash, but you can talk trash to the devil, and you tell him what God said about the situation. But quit your moaning, groaning, and whining, and complaining, and quit saying what all the world said, and start saying what Jesus is saying about you. Hallelujah. I’ll tell you what you’re getting in life, what exactly what you’re believing and speaking, and some of you ain’t believing and speaking nothing, and you’re getting exactly what you’re saying. So, quit your complaining, and start praising, and start glorifying. Complaining calls demons, and praising calls angels. What do you want? Demons or angels? I believed, and therefore I’ve spoken. So we believe, and therefore we speak. Jesus said, “This is the real trouble with your words.” Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34, he said this in Verse 37, “By your words, you shall be justified, and by your words, you shall be condemned.”

Congregation Yes, sir.

Joshua was one of the first people in the Bible that employed this. In Joshua 10, he was in a battle with five different kings. At the end of the day, it didn’t look like he was gonna win. It looked like the sun was gonna go down and his enemies were gonna escape. And so while he is in the middle of the battle, he spoke and said, “Sun, stand still in the Valley of Aijalon and moon in the Valley of Gibeon.” And it stood still for about a day. The Bible says there in Joshua 10 that there’s never been a day like that, before that, or after that that God harkened to the voice of a man. Joshua said, “You know what? I’m doing kingdom business. And while I’m doing kingdom business, I got the king at my command.” And he spoke, “And the sun stood still until he defeated all of his enemies.” In fact, the Bible says this in Isaiah 45:11. The Scripture says, “Ask me things to come concerning my sons and concerning the works of my hands. Command ye me.” If you wanna start seeing things change, ask God what he wants, and then start speaking to those things. Your words have the power of life and death, so speak words of faith and speak words of faith. Life, let’s go on. James 3:7-12. Every kind of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea is tamed and has been tamed by man. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, Pastor Lawson, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless God, even the Father; and we curse men, which are made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things should not be this way. Does the fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive, berries, either vine or figs? So can no fountain yield both salt water and fresh. He said, “Listen, you shouldn’t be blessing God with your tongue and cursing people. You gotta learn the power in your tongue.” Did you know that we have a covenant of blessing? Again, our words have power. In Mark 11, Jesus was on the way to the temple. On the way to the temple, He was hungry, and He saw a fig tree in the distance, had a lot of leaves on it, so He went over there. But it wasn’t the time of figs, it wasn’t the time of fruit, so it had no fruit. So Jesus cursed the fig tree on the way to the temple. Then He went in the temple and He found out in the temple that they had made His house a den of thieves, rather than a house of prayer. So he threw the tables over, so on and so forth, cleaned the place out. How many of you know that fig tree was a type of Israel, and Jesus speaking to that fig tree was talking about dead religion, right? So there’s a prophetic thing that’s going on there. But the next day, the disciples came by and they saw that tree. It was dried up from the roots. They marveled, Peter marveled, notice this in Verse 20. “In the morning when they passed by, the fig tree was dried up from the roots.” That tree looked like it had been dead for 10 years. The bark was falling off of it, the leaves were all gone. Amen, I can just see, just completely dead. And Peter marveled, he remembered, he said, “Jesus, the fig tree you cursed, it weathered away.” I’m sure they thought Jesus was a little weird when He was talking to a tree. I’m sure some people around me think I’m a little weird sometimes, but they haven’t seen the results I’ve got. So you can think I’m weird if you want to, but I’m gonna keep believing in speaking God’s word ’cause I know how much it works. Jesus answered and said unto them, “Have faith in God.” He told them, “This is how faith works. For whoever will say to this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea. And shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, shall have whatsoever he sayeth.” How many times does he talk about saying? He talks about saying three times, He talks about believing one time. Amen?

Congregation Amen.

You gotta learn. When you really believe something in your heart, you’re gonna say it with your mouth. Amen? Whosoever shall say to this mountain, I remember years ago when we were building out the Elkton property, there was a mountain behind that property. It had about a thousand semi-loads of dirt in it, and we needed to move that mountain. I didn’t know anybody to help me move that mountain. So I went over there on a Saturday, and I looked at that mountain, and I spoke to that mountain, and I commanded it to move in the name of Jesus. The next day I come to church and in the first service. I had the church, I said, “Listen, we got a mountain. We need to move it.” We were meeting in Andrew Wommack Ministries right across the parking lot. “We need to move that mountain.” And so I said, “We’re gonna pray and we’re gonna speak to that mountain. We’re gonna command that mountain to move.” And so in the first service, we spoke to that mountain and we commanded to move. There was a man that had just barely been in church. His name was John Baldwin. He’d just been healed from cancer and he told his wife, Sue. He said, “I’ll go back to church when my hair starts growing back.” So his hair started growing back and he came to church. Well, Sue didn’t know if he’d come, but he actually loved church and he liked the early service because he could go back. He played basketball in college. He could go back and watch basketball, watch different games on Sunday. So he’d come to the early service. He was there that Sunday, he had just started coming back to church after God healed him of cancer. When I met him on the step that day, he said, “Pastor Lawson,” he said, “I’ll move that mountain for you.” Praise God. John was an amazing man. He bought a giant track hoe, and he did some work there, didn’t charge us anything for it. And then when it got to mountain move in time, he brought a giant loader and put on the back of the property. He put one up on the mountain, at the mine where we had permission to dump the dirt. He got three semis and two bobtails. He got all these five truck drivers. He made a train, and boy, they just load one and load the other, and then had a guy unloading it at the other thing. And ma’am, they moved that mountain. A thousand semi-loads of dirt. It was a miracle. John only charged me something like $30,000 to move that. Listen, everybody else would’ve charged me 300,000. It was amazing. They would’ve charged me 30,000 to load it on a truck, not to haul and clear up the mountain, and unload it, and then stack it up at the mine. Not only did John do that, but a few years later, John sold a portion of his business. He gave the $30,000 back to the church. What a great man, what a great friend. But you know what? Your words have power. Jesus said, “Whoever shall say to this mountain, what mountain do you have in your life? Start speaking to that mountain. Whosoever say to this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, shall have whatsoever he sayeth.” Therefore, I say to you, what do you desire when you pray? You believe that you receive it and you shall have that. And when you stand, stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anybody if you have any little thing against anybody. Amen? And when you forgive your brother, your heavenly Father will forgive you. Amen? Friend, we’ve been sharing about the power of our words. Our words determine our destiny, change your confession, and change your life. I have people here that are ready to pray for you and minister to you. So, we would love to hear from you today. Thanks so much for tuning in and being part of this broadcast. 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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