The Gift of Jesus Part 4 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue – 12/23/2024

Praise the Lord friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’ve been sharing all week about receiving the greatest of all gifts, the gift of Jesus Christ, the gift of God’s Son. But what happens when we receive the greatest of all gifts, when we receive Jesus, the greatest giver, and He comes to live on the inside of us, we begin to give, we begin to share because it’s Jesus working through us. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us. We’ve been sharing all this week about receiving the greatest of all gifts, the gift of Jesus. But we wanna kind of switch and move into now is what is the result of that? And really, when we have received Jesus, God’s gift and He comes to live in us, we become givers. In fact, Paul encourages the church in 2 Corinthians 8, to give. And he says, you’ve seen the Macedonians and the people in Macedonia, even though they’re facing extreme difficulties, they’re givers. So he is using this other church to encourage them, to begin to give. And then he uses the example of Jesus. And he says, you guys abound in all these things in 2 Corinthians 8:7, “In faith, in utterance and knowledge “and in all diligence in your love to us. “See that you also abound in this grace.” And he calls giving a grace. And he says in verse nine, “For you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is one of my favorite scriptures on the subject of giving and grace, that even though he was rich, Jesus came from heaven. He created all things. He had the universe at His disposal, yet for our sakes, He became poor. Any condition on earth would be considered poor with where He came from. But He did it for a purpose that you, through his poverty and when you look at this word poor, it means to come to abject poverty. And of course, we’ve talked about this week how Jesus really wasn’t a poor person. He led 12 disciples, they traveled continually how His disciples asked Him one day when they were out in the wilderness, teaching, “Shall we take 200 pennyworth?” And that’s 200 days wages, and go buy food and feed all these people, maybe 20,000 people that might have been $40,000. So Jesus had some money. He wasn’t a poor person, but this word poor means that came to abject poverty as a beggar, He had nothing. That’s talking about Jesus identification with us on the cross. And He says that “We through His poverty might be rich.” That we might be richly supplied increased with goods, made rich or we might wax rich. So Jesus did that for a purpose and that’s the grace of God. Now you’ve been sharing and teaching on being planted in the house of the Lord. And one of these things that you talked about is giving in the house of the Lord. So we wanna kind of switch and move because when we receive Jesus, when we receive the greatest of all givers, we’re gonna become givers.

What we really wanna bring out into today’s message is talking about really living in the overflow. I believe the first step to living in the overflow is receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and then begin walking and fulfilling what he’s called us to do. And I like what you brought out, Jesus, God, the heavenly Father was the biggest giver in giving us Jesus Christ, His son. And because of that, it’s in us to wanna be givers. But I’ve noticed, honey, whether you read in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when we give, when we give our best or when we give with all of our might to the Lord, it will cause us to live in the overflow. We’re gonna be talking about it, we have scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament. But in Deuteronomy it talks about how the blessings will overtake you. We’re gonna talk about how people gave with all their might. And it says everything they gave, you know, we were both raised that when you would give, it was kept quiet and you didn’t say anything, you didn’t talk about it. But when we see in the Bible, there was always a clear description of what people were given. Even the woman who gave her gave her mite gave but Jesus said it was… Jesus was watching

Too much.

My point is-

She gave everything she had.

Jesus was watching. And a lot of times these things are written out what they gave. But what I really wanna bring out today is we’re talking about living in the overflow. And it comes from having that heart to give. And we’ve talked about this a lot, but he who waters others will be watered himself. I’m really excited that I wanted to start in 1 Chronicles. Like I said, we’re gonna be looking in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but in 1 Chronicles 29 is talking about David.

And this is at the end of David’s life. And you know, there’s a point in David’s life where he wanted to build the temple and God said no. And so I think David really didn’t get a bad attitude, he’s called a man after God’s own heart. He said, “Well, if I can’t do it, let me raise him money.” So you come here to 1 Chronicles 29:2, and David says this, he says, “I have prepared with all my might “for the house of my God, “the gold for the things to be made of gold, “the silver for the things of silver, “the brass for the things of brass, “iron for the things of iron “and wood, for things of wood, “onyx stones, stones to be set, “glistening stones of different colors, “all manner of precious stones and marble in abundance. “Moreover, because I’ve set my affection “to the house of my God, I have of my own proper good “of gold and silver.” So this was, you know, this wasn’t something that he owed God, this wasn’t a temple tax, this wasn’t a tithe. This was of his own wealth that he was giving. He says “Over and above all that I prepared for the holy…” This was an over and above offering.

When I was gonna say in the end of verse two, you said the word abundance, that these things were provided in abundance. It said marble slabs in abundance. But all those things were provided in abundance. And then again, you just read here in verse three where it said, “Over and above. “I have prepared.”

Lawson Overflowed.

Over and above. And so this is pretty exciting.

And when you get involved in over and above giving, you’re gonna start getting involved in over and above living. It’s gonna bring you to a total new place.

You know, I wanna just share a quick example or story. I’ve probably shared this before, but it just fits in perfect. We’re talking about what happens when you give and give over and above, but when you are a giver, it just opens the doors for some unexpected, amazing things happening. And this was a number of years ago, but you were with me and I said, “Let’s just go to a store just for fun.” We went to a mall and we’re at a store just kind of goofing off and we were in the shoe department and I had just grabbed some shoes just to try.

Lawson This is a great story.

Just to try on for fun. And an older woman was going around up and down these aisles saying, “They told me I can give my pair away for free.” And what the deal the day was, if you bought one pair of shoes, you would get a second pair for free.

And this is like at Dillard’s outlet, so high-end shoes.

And so I was bending over so all my hair was in front of my face and I kinda like looked like this. In the meantime, this person got your attention and so you stopped her and asked her and said, “What are you talking about?” And she still, she just kept saying over and over. “They said,” I think she must have went to the clerk to check out

To check out.

And they’re like, “Ma’am, you can get another pair of shoes.” But she’s like, “I don’t need another pair of shoes.” But she didn’t wanna leave that store.

She was older. It was pretty cool because, I said, “Well, we’ll be happy we’d pay half or whatever.” But she was determined, no, she wanted to give these away. And so you picked out a pair ECCOs, really high end nice shoes and she bought ’em and gave them to me. I mean, just random strangers there.

So that to me is like walking in the blessing of the Lord living in the overflow because anyone that day could have got a free pair of shoes. She was going up and down the aisles. So like I said, anyone in that store could have got that pair of free shoes. And like you mentioned, she had picked out a very expensive pair of shoes. And so it could be price match, shoe for shoe and that’s called living in the overflow, living in the blessing of the Lord. And if He does it for us, He wants to do it for you too.

You know, and this is like the gospel. You didn’t do anything to earn it, deserve it, receive it. But you just believed it and received it. How many people did this lady come to before she went to us? She might have went to several, but we believed it and received it. Hallelujah. You know, this is pretty cool because David gives an offering personally. Of course, David starts out in the sheep field. Taking care of the sheep and worshiping God. And he personally gives an offering in today’s terms it would be something like $4 billion. And then his mighty man, he starts out with these 400 men that are discontent, discouraged, in debt, but they start following him and they become his mighty men. So they come behind David, they give an offering of like $5 billion. I mean this is amazing giving. And then they said, “Lord, you know what? “We’ve given you of your own.” This is something, I listened to Steve Green recently and they’re the own owners of Hobby Lobby and Mardel one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America. And one of the most generous families in the United States of America. And he said a couple of times, everything that we have, came from Him.

Amen.

Everything that we have is God’s. And he kind of talked about how they operate and I think they give half of their profits to the Lord. And what they do is they can’t tell their profits in the year that they’re in, but they go to the year back and they give 50% of the year behinds profits to God. So just literally amazing. So David blessed the Lord and he said, “Both is riches and honor of come of You, of Your hand.” This is in verse 12, “Is power and might. “Your hand it is to make great and give strength. “We thank you and praise you. “But who am I and what are my people “that we should be able to offer so willingly in this way “for all things come of you “and of you of your own have we given you.” It’s really when we give it, we’re just giving back a portion of what God’s given us.

Well I wanted to bring out verse three where it says, “Moreover, because I have set my affection “on the house of my God, “I have given to the house of my God. “over and above all that I prepared.” And so we’re gonna take a break here in a little bit, but I wanna read another verse before today ends. And so praise the Lord. We’re just excited to share this message with you today about living in the overflow.

Amen. And I believe this is God’s will for every person. I believe that God wants everyone to live in the overflow spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially. God promised it to us, Jesus paid for it and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to walk in that, that God has promised and Jesus has already paid for.

Amen.

So we’re gonna be back in just a few seconds. You don’t wanna miss the last part of this broadcast. Barbara this is actually Barbara’s teaching and she has some amazing verses, blessings. Friends, we’ve been sharing about receiving God’s gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. But we have something that we want to give to you. We literally have thousands of hours of downloadable teaching audio and video available free of charge on our website @CharisChristianCenter.com. Also a great children’s curriculum, free of charge. The Bible tells us in the book of James chapter one that if we lack wisdom, we should go to God and we should ask Him. And He said we should ask Him in faith with nothing wavering. When you pray in faith, there is a knowing about your prayer. What thing so ever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Friends, I’m so glad you’re still here, we’re talking about living in the overflow. You know we’re talking about David. David came to a new place in his giving. But I don’t believe you can come to a new place in your giving if you’re being led directed by the Holy Spirit and by the Lord that you don’t eventually come to a new place in your receiving. And so he came to a brand new place of receiving.

You know, I’m thinking when I was young, we both talked about how we were raised in a more traditional church, but we loved it because they taught you the stories of the Bible. So how could you not see how amazing God was from all those stories? But we talked about how a lot of times when it was regarding giving, it was kept very quiet. You wouldn’t talk about it and didn’t really say anything. And I felt like, not that it was ever communicated from anyone, my parents or the pastor or anything, but I always felt like when it was time to give, you know, I love that we can be planted in the house of the Lord, we can give in the house of the Lord. But I always felt like people kind of came across as this was a time of drudgery. Oh it’s time to give. And it was like a time of, like I said, drudgery. But when we read here, I love it. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, it was like a sense, a full sense of celebration that we’re giving and we’re gonna celebrate why we do it.

Lawson Yes.

And I remember one time when I was a teenager, I was at special services and I was with some friends and I remember a friend putting a dollar in, the little round

Offering plate.

Offering plate and then waving goodbye to it. They did not have a revelation of giving because when we give, it will come back to us, good measure, pressed down. In other words, it’s gonna come back in overflow.

Shaken together and running over shall man give to your bosom for with the same measure that you meet, in the same way you give it out, it’s gonna come back.

And did you know what that means? I studied it when it talks about give back to your bosom. Like you have a pocket on the inside of your jacket and it talks about that you’re gonna-

One there,

It’s gonna keep, it’s gonna get so full that that pocket’s gonna stretch out because it just keeps growing and growing and stretching out.

Wow.

And I’m not one of those that has them teeny tiny purses. I like buy me a big purse baby because I have a lot of things to put in that purse. I’m living in the overflow, I don’t need a tiny purse. I don’t need those little

Lawson Praise God

Crossbodies. I need a big tote bag. But you know, praise God is talking about living in the overflow and having a sense of celebration. A party when we give. And that’s what-

I wanna talk about this, you’re talking about living in the overflow. So a couple of things kind of came to my mind. I have a friend and he’s went to heaven and so is his wife. But he married a person from Old Mexico, and she came from kind of a background where they didn’t have a lot but he would start giving her cash and then she kept her cash fund, it was separate from his and he’s a little bit like me, he made a lot of money, but he is getting stressed out about spending a little bits of it sometimes. And she said, “He go buy something big.” But he said, well if she got less than a thousand dollars, she doesn’t think, you know cash, he’d give her the cash then she thinks she’s running out of money. But that’s living in the overflow. God wants us to live in the overflow. And I just, begin to think about, when you live in the overflow, years ago John Osteen and I love Joel Osteen, loved John Osteen years ago, loved to hear him preach man what a preacher of the gospel of the good message of Jesus. But John Osteen said something, he said, “You know what, many times we have a debt mentality.” But he said, “We started this principle where, “when I could walk, I crawled “and when I could ride my bike, then I walked “and when I could drive, I rode my bike “and when I could fly, then I drove.” In other words, we let that increase get out ahead of us and we had that start working for us. You know, money will work for you, it will work against you. But some people just don’t have that right mentality. They just don’t see from that perspective,. You know, the rule of 72 for instance, and Aaron says that I taught him the rule of 72 when he’s five years old. But the rule of 72, he’s, Aaron’s our son, is this, that any number, you take something and multiply it by into 72 that determines what it takes to double. So if you take 8% interest for instance and multiply it by nine, that equals 72. So it takes nine years for it to double. If you take 9% interest takes eight years. 12% interest, it takes like six years. 20, you know, 4% interest takes three years to double. So a lot of times credit card debt, they got 24%, some of ’em even more, it works on both sides. It’ll double going against you, it’ll double going for you. And I have friends, in the ministry and I like to manage well and get that working for me. And I’ve told some of ’em, “Listen, you don’t have to just be in debt all the time. “You can get that working for you.” And it’s actually easier to live off of the top of the barrel than to live off the bottom of the barrel. But some people, they just got a bottom of the barrel mentality and they’re never gonna let anything build up in that barrel. They just wanna spend every last nickel that they have. And I don’t believe that we have to live off the bottom of the barrel. I believe that we can live in the overflow. Go ahead.

Yeah. So we have some scriptures we’re gonna share before we keep sharing the stories. We got a couple things I wanna make sure we get done today. So we’re still in 1 Chronicles and then I’m gonna have you go to Proverbs. But in verse nine, this is what I was trying to get to. It says, “Then the people rejoice “for they had offered willingly “because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly “to the Lord and King David also rejoice greatly.” In other words, there was a full sense of celebration when they gave. It wasn’t given with drudgery or how am I gonna pay for the milk and bread and eggs. It’s like I’m so excited to give and I wanna go on talking about still living in the overflow when we give, it really means we are glorifying God. So hun I want you to read Proverbs 3:9-10.

But let’s talk about that. We need to give with a sense of joy.

Barbara Yes.

We need to give with the sense of celebrate. I love to give

Barbara You do.

You know giving is one of the motivational gifts.

Barbara It is.

In Romans chapter 12, it says, “He that gives, let him do it with simplicity.” Okay, so when you have a gift of giving, you just love to give. And I believe that God, the Bible actually says in 2 Corinthians chapter nine I think it’s verse eight, that God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a hilarious giver.

A hilarious giver or a laughing giver. What you give something that when you put your money in, you just start laughing. I love it that if in a service as we pass the offering around people would just start laughing, knowing that God is-

That’s what happened.

Going to bless them

In 1 Chronicles, you know where you’re reading here.

Verse 29.

Chapter 29, they got excited about their giving. Proverbs 3:9-10, says this, “Honor the Lord with your substance “and with the first fruits of all of your increase, “if it’s increased to you, “if it’s increased to you, “give the first fruits of it to God.” So shall your barns be filled with plenty.

What’s that word?

Plenty. Plenty. God is a God of more than enough, right? He’s El Shaddai, He’s the many breasted one, the all sufficient one, the God of more than enough. He has so much sufficiency running out of Him, we don’t even have room enough to receive it. You know, God told Abraham in Genesis 17, “I’m the Almighty God, I’m El Shaddai, “I’m the many breasted, all sufficient God, “more than enough. “Walk before me and be thou perfect.” In other words, come into a relationship with me and I will multiply you exceedingly. Now He says, “Honor the Lord with your substance. “With the first fruits of your increase. “All of your increase, all of your increase. “So shall your barns be filled with plenty “and your presses shall burst out.”

Amen.

God wants our presses to burst out, your wine presses with new wine. Not only, He said you’re gonna increase, you’re gonna have plenty, but you’re gonna have new opportunities come to you.

Let me share another one that goes with this. But in my translation, the New King James, it says, “So your barns will be filled with plenty “and your vats will overflow with new wine.” You know, we’re talking about living in the overflow. And He’s like, “I’m gonna bring you “to a place of overflowing.” And you know, for three years we lived out in the country, we farmed and ranched and out in the country you’ll see a lot of the huge metal buildings, the round-

Graineries

Graineries. And I know someone else said, “Are you talking about silos?” But barns will be big and the graineries will be big. And when I think about when you fill them up to the point that then it’s spilling over onto the ground and making another huge mountain, that’s quite, I love how the Bible a lot of times does communicate in these illustrations. Let me give you a picture of what I’m talking about. The place I’m going to bring you to. And I want you to read, ’cause I have a thought I wanna run with Hun. If you can read Deuteronomy 8:18, ’cause someone might be watching and saying, “I love what you’re saying, but how do I get to that place? “’cause I’m not there yet.” And you talked about, new opportunities. The Lord will give us new opportunities. And you need to stand on the word, when you give, stand on the word.

What’s saying here in Deuteronomy is when you come into the good land that I give you and houses filled with good things, barns that you didn’t build, filled with good things that you didn’t put in there. When you come into all of you know orchards that you didn’t plant, so on and so forth, He says, “You shall remember the Lord your God “for it is He who gives you power.” The Hebrew word for power there is the Hebrew word, Koach, force, my strength, ability, even wealth, to get wealth. God gives you the power. Now, if it was wrong to have wealth, then it would be wrong for God to give you the power.

So we’re talking about Deuteronomy-

To get it.

8:18.

And so He says, “When you remember the Lord thy God, “He gives you the power to get wealth, “that He may establish His covenant.” It’s so He can establish his covenant in the earth, right? And I believe even with you, “Which He swore to your fathers as it is this day.” So don’t forget the Lord.

Barbara Amen.

Remember the Lord. And He’s the one who’s given you power, force, might strength, ability, even wealth to get wealth.

And you know, I like what you were bringing out, that He’s the one who gives us new opportunities. He gives us favor. We’ve had a lot of people come up and testify that when they partnered with this ministry, either came here in person or watched online and participated watching with us online in giving that things changed, their businesses began to take off. They began to walk into prosperity that they haven’t experienced before.

Amen. And this is a testimony of a lot of different people. And you know what? I personally believe that there is a anointing of increase on our ministry. We came to Colorado Springs like 23, 24 years ago and we had almost nothing. No people, no money. Today we have 120,000 square foot facility, worth 20 plus, over $25 million. It’s completely paid for. And it’s by the grace of God. And we’re building churches all around the world. We’re sowing into other ministries. We’re sharing the gospel. It’s not cheap to be on these broadcasts, but you know what God has provided for us.

Amen. And we know that God will provide you. So we are excited to continue this teaching, but if you need prayer, you can call the number there. And we are agreeing with you that you are blessed coming in and going out, that God has abundance for you to live in as well.

Blessings. Friends, I want to tell you about a great resource that we have available on our website absolutely free of charge for your children. It’s a two year children’s curriculum, teaching them who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is, who they are and many other promises of God written by a professional curriculum writer. And I developed all the outlines for it. It will be great for your children and we made it free just for you. Blessings. Friends, in the last few months, we have heard from over 50 nations in the world, people from all around the world are downloading our curriculum, our syllabus, our downloadable audio and downloadable video teachings, our confession cards, and all of these great teaching materials. And you can go receive it too @CharisChristianCenter.com. Receive these resources and be blessed. Friends, we here at Charis Christian Center and “Grace For Today,” believe in being good stewards of the resources that God has given us. So we pay a professional service that’s actually available to help you do that in a couple of ways. Number one, you can make a will absolutely free of charge with professional legal help. And number two, you can go to Tax Smart Ways of Giving. You can find them all on our website.

Narrator Thanks for watching “Grace For Today.” This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/Give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time, on “Grace For Today.”