Freedom Part 1 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue – 01/06/25

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. We are beginning a brand new series today on the subject of freedom. The scripture says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Another translation says, “Christ set us free to live the free life.” But how do we do that? We’re gonna be talking about that today in this broadcast and throughout this week. Blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us and praise the Lord. We’re sharing today on freedom. I believe freedom is the message of the gospel.

Yeah, Jesus came to set us free.

Yeah.

You know, people can be chained to all types of things.

Right.

You know, there’s just a lot of people in the world today that are really oppressed.

Lawson Yeah.

You know, oppressed just by, their own emotions, oppressed by their own thoughts, oppressed by other people. And Jesus wants to set people free. And true freedom only comes in Jesus. It’s not found through, you know, politics. It’s not found through self-help.

Lawson Right.

It’s not found through, you know, social justice movements. True freedom is only found in Jesus.

That’s right.

And if you have Jesus, you have freedom. You know, and don’t let the devil deceive, you know, the enemy tries to deceive a lot of people and make them feel like they’re chained and oppressed. But if you have Jesus, you know, that’s the very first thing He he preached about.

Lawson Right.

Was about freedom, was about jubilee, was about just putting faith in him and that he would set people free.

Right, and, you know, I mean, I believe freedom is the message of the gospel. And just like you’re saying, that was the first thing, when Jesus opened his ministry in Luke chapter four, that he preached about was freedom. He said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” And the good news is you can be free.

Yeah, and God wants to set people free. You know, even when you look throughout the Old Testament, like the Israelites were in Egypt as slaves.

Lawson Right.

And I think it’s a picture of a lot of people today. A lot of people are just enslaved to different things. And I love how scripture talks about being in Egypt. They’re in the house of bondage.

Right.

You know, and God doesn’t want you to be in a house of bondage. He wants you to dwell in a place of freedom, to dwell in those promises that he’s already provided for us.

Right, and there are a lot of different types of bondage, you know? I believe the first one, you know, we’re talking about is being free spiritually. ‘Cause there’s a lot of people that they’re, they’re just bound in sin. And if you don’t know Jesus, you’re really bound in sin. You’re a sinner by nature. And a lot of people may not realize this, but being good’s not gonna get you to heaven, only Jesus gonna get you to heaven. And Jesus said, “You must be born again.” So I believe when we study the gospel and understand the gospel, you know, the gospel, the message of Jesus provides freedom, first of all, spiritually, secondarily, emotionally, thirdly, physically and fourthly, financial. And I believe that Jesus paid for all those things. I can give you chapter and verse for all that, that Jesus paid for that in his death and resurrection. So I believe that the message of freedom is attractive. I believe that gospel is still attractive to people when people really understand what the gospel affords or what Jesus paid for us to have, freedom, spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially. We don’t have to stay bound in any area.

And you know, that message, it’s really resonated with just the history of our own country.

Lawson Right.

You know, this is the land of the free, the home of the brave and I just.

Lawson That’s right.

I just feel like God has great plans for America. And just like that freedom that comes from the gospel, that passion for freedom, it’s just embedded in the blood of this nation.

Lawson Amen.

And there’s so people who really believe in freedom. And it’s connected to our hope in God, our hope in Jesus, our hope in the gospel. You know, and they, right. You know, there’s different movements out there and there’s some movements that really, they talk about bringing freedom, but they’re really not gonna bring freedom.

Lawson Right.

They’re gonna bring oppression ultimately.

Right. And so let’s jump into the word today. We’re gonna start in John chapter eight. And as Jesus was ministering in John 8:30, it says, “As he spoke these words, many believed on him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And they answered, “We’re Abraham’s seed. We were never in bondage to any man. How do you say that you shall be made free?” So his message on freedom was somewhat offensive to their religion. However, Jesus answered and said unto them in verse 34, “verily, verily I say unto whoever commits sin is the servant of sin.” Now, as Jews, they had studied the law. And the Bible actually says in Romans, I believe it’s 3:20, “That by the law is the knowledge of sin.” So when he started saying that, they understood what sin was, and it really revealed to them, and he says this in verse 35, “The servant does not abide in the house forever, but the son abides forever.” So the law would make you like a slave, right? And a slave, if they do a really good job, they may get some good things, but it doesn’t belong to them. But he says this in verse 36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free.” Indeed, Jesus came to take us out of slavery, out of bondage, out this bondage of performance and into the freedom of the grace of God, or the freedom of the gospel, the freedom of sons. Actually, Galatians chapter five says that we’re no, or Galatians chapter four says, “We’re no longer servants, but sons.” And you know, I believe that, you know, we’re both, Paul talked about being a love slave of Jesus. So we can be a servant, but not in a law mentality. Not in that mentality, but you know, we serve God from love from our heart. But you know, we’re free from slavery. We’re free from bondage. We’re free from performance. And we’re free to live, love and serve God and serve Christ. Galatians brings out free to give, all those are aspects of Galatians five and six. So really when we look at this, just the first verse in verse 30, John 8:30, it says, “As he spoke these words, many believed on him, Jesus is the only one. Christ is the only one who can bring true freedom.” And then verse 36, he says, “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” So Jesus is the only one. He’s the only one who was God, who became a man, who lived a sinless, holy, perfect, pure life, who died on the cross for our sins. Who went to the grave, who conquered the enemy, who was raised from the dead, and who sent the Holy Spirit who’s coming again. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. And that’s what Jesus is talking about. He’s actually, if you study this out, he’s going back to the same thing that he began his message on earth when he started preaching in Luke Chapter four, is the spirit of the Lord’s upon me, because he’s anointed me, right? To set the captives free. That’s one of the things that he talks about, having true freedom. And when he shares that in Luke chapter four, what he’s literally saying is, I am your jubilee. And he’s quoting Isaiah 61:1, the first half of verse two. But he’s really going back to this. And it kind of shocked those religious people as he was saying this, just like it did here. He began to say this and they said, “Hey, we’re Abraham’s children.” We’ve never been in bondage, but again, as good Jews, they had studied the law and by the laws, the knowledge of sin. So they knew that they were sinners. So they knew they needed to receive true freedom.

And I love what Jesus says here. You know, freedom starts with abiding in his word. You know, he said, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Lawson Yeah.

So if you’re deceived

Right.

Or don’t know what truth is, you’re not gonna be free.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of people are following lies. There’s a lot of lies out there in the world. And that’s actually a big, you know, worldly philosophy right now is that, you know, you can pursue your truth.

Lawson Yeah.

But Jesus is the truth. And if you’re just pursuing your truth and think that truth is subjective, you’re not free.

Lawson Right.

It’s gonna lead to bondage and oppression. So Jesus is the only one who can make you free, and you have to abide in his word.

Right, and so, you know, that’s really the second part of this. First of all, you get to know true freedom by knowing Jesus, then, you get to know true freedom through the word of God when you believe on him. And that’s what he’s saying to these people who just believed what they were saying, when they believed on him. They were basically saying, you’re the Messiah, you know. And then as a believer, as a disciple of Jesus, and really that’s our goal here at Charis Christian Center, as a church, is to make true disciples of Jesus. We don’t want to just have the biggest Christian club in town. We wanna make people who are disciples of Jesus and discipleship that says, you know, not only do I say that I believe, but I’m gonna live by the word of God. You know, I’m gonna live my life by, and Jesus said, man will not live by bread alone, but by the every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And he goes on to say, and you know, if the Son therefore will make you free, you shall be freed again. Jesus is saying, I am the Messiah.

Well, and their response here in verse 33, I think it’s similar to a lot of people’s response today who don’t receive Jesus as their savior. A lot of people don’t receive Jesus as their savior, especially today in America, I feel, because they think they don’t need a savior.

Lawson Yeah, and that’s a very.

These people right here in verse thirythree, they didn’t think they need to be freed.

Lawson Right.

But they were very much chained. They were very much in bondage, but they just thought they didn’t need this freedom that Jesus was talking about.

Right. Well, you know, there was a rich young ruler that came to Jesus, right? And he said, what can I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, “Well, what did Moses say in the law?” And he said, “I’ve kept all these things from my youth up.” This is in Mark chapter 10. And Jesus actually said, Well, “One thing you lack.” And he said, “Well, what’s that?” And Jesus said to him, he said, “Go sell all your goods and give to the poor.” Now, he was a rich, young ruler. He’d been living, right? By the law, and it led to his wellbeing. However, he was saying he had kept all the law, right? Not only the 10 Commandments, but the 620 various laws that went with him. And Jesus said, “Well, the first one is, you shall have no other gods before me.” So you really even haven’t even kept one. ‘Cause the law wasn’t given to, the law was given to show us how much we needed a savior. So Jesus was actually telling him, I am the Savior.

So yeah, freedom, you have to follow Jesus.

Lawson Right.

You know, Jesus said, if you try to save your own life, you’re gonna lose it.

Lawson Right.

But if you lose your life from my sake, you’ll find it.

Right. So he’s saying, you gotta just give up on your own thoughts, your own ideas, your own plans. Like you said, Aaron, what people call their own truth, which is not the truth. The word of God is the truth. And we’ll talk about that later this week. But Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.” And believe on Jesus, who is the embodiment of truth.

That’s awesome,. yeah. And we’re gonna take a, just a short break here in a couple moments, but just really stay tuned. I believe that God is gonna just bring even greater levels of freedom in your life.

Lawson Right.

And, Jesus, man, he just wants you to experience freedom in a great way. So stay tuned. You don’t wanna miss out on what we have to share here in the second part of the broadcast. So stay tuned. See you again here in just a moment.

Friends, we’ve been sharing on freedom, and I have a lot to share about freedom. Actually, my book, “Absolute Victory in Christ,” covers the way we teach about being free. Number one, through knowing Jesus. Number two, through believing in the word. And number three, through receiving the Holy Spirit. You can get that book on Amazon or on our website at Charis Christian Center, and also many free teachings on freedom.

Say it with me. I can.

Audience I can.

Do

Audience Do.

All things

Audience All things.

Through Christ.

Audience Through Christ.

Who strengthens me.

Audience Who strengthens me.

It doesn’t matter who you are, there’s probably been a day or a morning where you just thought, I can’t do it. Maybe as a parent or maybe the job you have or some neighbor you have, and you just think, I can’t do it anymore. But I love this. It says, I can do it because Christ is with me.

Friend, I’m glad you stayed with us. And we’re right here in Luke chapter, actually, we were in John chapter eight, and we were talking about the only way you can really experience freedom spiritually is by believing on Jesus. And as they believed on him, Jesus went ahead and pushed him towards the word. He said, “If you’ll continue in my word, you’ll be my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

But that somewhat offended their religion. And I know there’s religious people get offended sometimes. I’ve been offended through religion.

When people hold on to things, you know, and they don’t realize these, you know, the banish that comes from holding onto something that you think is right, but it’s really wrong.

Lawson Yeah.

You know?

Lawson It’s crazy.

It really is crazy. And some people make, they make a huge deal out of things that they don’t quite understand or that are wrong.

Lawson Right.

You know? I can go on to all types of things like that, but a lot of people are just really not in the truth. They’re holding onto some something that isn’t right. And yeah, you have to know the truth to make you free. You know, God doesn’t want you to be ignorant.

No, ignorance is not blessed. And we’ll bring this up again a lot in the second part of the message. But you know, the scripture actually says, “My people are kept in bondage because they have no knowledge:” In Isaiah 5:13, and it says in Hosea 4:6, “They’re destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” Well, the first knowledge that you need to come to is the knowledge of Jesus Christ as savior, right? Jesus Christ as Lord. And Jesus is the Messiah. And actually, when Jesus brings this message and talking about you gotta, you know, I’m the one who brings freedom, they’re challenged. They said, well, we’re Abraham’s children. We’re never in bondage. And Jesus said, no, if you’ve committed sin, you’re the servant of sin. The same thing happens in Luke chapter four when he opens his earthly ministry. He went to his hometown of Nazareth and he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and they gave him the book of Isaiah to read. And it says he found the place where it was written. You know, Jesus had been studying the scriptures, you know, from a young child. And now he’s about 30 years old when he’s going into the ministry. And so it’s like he studied the scriptures and found out what the father said about him. And then he says this, what we understand is Isaiah 61:1-2. And he said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me,” in verse 18, “to preach the gospel to the poor.” The gospel is first of all the message of Jesus, right? And he said, he has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach again, what? Deliverance or freedom to the captives and restoration of sight to those who are blind to set at liberty. Again, this message of freedom to liberate those who are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of God’s grace. What are you saying? Again, right here on Luke 4:18, when he’s saying to preach the acceptable year. He said, “Jesus was saying, I am your jubilee.” And he closed the book and gave it to, again, to the minister or the servant, and sat down and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. And then he began to say unto them, today is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. And they bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words, which proceeded out of his mouth. And they were challenged because they knew him, right? Naturally, this was his own town. They knew Joseph, his father, Mary, his mother, right? And they were somewhat challenged, and he said unto them, you will surely say unto me, physician heal yourself, whatever we have heard done and confer him do here in your country. And he began to tell them, essentially is you need to believe on me.

And I like that he read from Isaiah 61 and everyone one was just watching him, you know, because that was clearly a messianic prophecy.

Lawson Right.

So they’re wanting to see if he was claiming to be the Messiah. And he said today.

Lawson Right.

He wasn’t saying Revival is gonna happen, healing’s gonna happen, freedom’s gonna happen. The Messiah’s gonna come. He said today.

Right. You know, you can talk about the revival that your great-grandma had or your great-great grandma, and you can talk about the revival that your great-grandchildren are gonna have. But when you start saying right here, right now is the day of salvation. And that’s what the scripture tells us. Today is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “Now is the accepted time.” That’s what Jesus was preaching today, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. Well, again, the gospel’s the message of Jesus, the good news of what Jesus has already done. So if you haven’t believed on Jesus, you need to repent, you need to change and believe on Jesus.

And I love that, you know, he’s talking about that acceptable. You hear the Lord talking about Jubilee.

Right.

Recently I was preaching here on a Sunday morning, and I had a point in my message about Jubilee.

Lawson Right.

That year of Jubilee. And you know, God said there’s a commanded blessing on that year, on the year right before Jubilee, because he said, that’s the last year you can work the land. The next year you can’t do anything.

Lawson Right.

You can’t prune, you can’t. But that sixth year, there’s a commanded blessing on it, and it’s gonna produce enough for three years.

So we’ll talk about this in tomorrow’s broadcast, but we’ll talk about Jubilee and we’ll talk about seven results of Jubilee. It’s really powerful from Leviticus chapter 25. But when we talk about Jubilee, the children of Israel actually took a Sabbath rest every seventh year. So they would farm their crops for six years and then the sixth year, right? They let the land rest. So they didn’t, they didn’t plant, they reaped, you know, but they didn’t plant because they weren’t gonna harvest the seventh year. And they didn’t, you know, the seventh year they didn’t reap because they didn’t sow the sixth year and then the eighth year, right? They didn’t reap because they didn’t sow the seventh year. So God actually said in the sixth year, the land will bring forth fruit for three years. So it was like supernatural increase. But then they took seven sets of these Sabbaths. But then after they had 49 years, they celebrated the seventh one as the 50th year. And that was Jubilee. And what that kind of said was everybody could go back to their own family, to their own property. Everybody had at least once in 50 years that you were completely free. You were free of any debt, you were free of any, you know, and everybody had opportunity.

Kenneth Hagen used to, Papa Hagen used to teach this years ago, that he believed that every person had at least one opportunity in life to really make it, to really do well, to really prosper. And he said a lot of people miss it. He even said a lot of ministers, you know, preached for years and years and never ultimately entered into what God’s called them to do. And I actually believe, you know, we’re just beginning to enter into things that God has ultimately called us to do. And I’m 60 and been preaching for, you know, over 40 years, been preaching the gospel.

Yeah.

And we’re just beginning to enter into things that God wanted us, that he prepared for us. But it takes time. You know, I believe we’re called from our mother’s womb to do these things. And then I believe when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, you know, when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, and this will be the third part of this message on freedom, is it takes the spirit of God to bring you into freedom. So first, believing on Jesus. Second, believing the Word of God and renewing your mind in the Word of God. But thirdly, the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that brings freedom. And all of these things bring us believing on Jesus, believing in the Word, in the Holy Spirit, bring us into the freedom that God has for us. We can’t do these things in our strength, our power, but I believe if you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak with tongues, and that’s a promise to believers of a personal prayer language. I believe when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, I believe your ministry on the inside of you, it’s full grown. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was just 14 years old in a Bible study of Andrew Wommack in my aunt’s apartment, you know? And this is when almost nobody knew Andrew Wommack and God showed me things. Some of those things I didn’t enter into for over 30 years. But praise God, we’re doing some of ’em right now. But God showed me when I was 14. I’m 60 years old, as we are sitting here, you know, doing this broadcast. And so, praise God, you know, for the freedom of the gospel. So I believe your ministry is full grown, but yet when you’re born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, but it takes a lifetime to walk it out.

And I like, you know, just talking about the spirit, the Lord bringing freedom.

Lawson Yeah.

That’s something I’ve noticed as a pastor. You know, I’ve been in ministry for eight and a half years now. When there’s just a real strong anointing, a real strong presence of God at a service, you know, and I think that’s a really and important reason why we come together as believers.

Lawson Amen.

You know, God says he inhabits the praises of his people.

Lawson Amen.

You know, I’ve kind of noticed a lot of people, you know, we’re in the modern world. There’s a lot of technology. You can get a lot of great teaching remote.

Lawson Yeah.

But it’s still important to come together, worship Jesus together, hear the word taught together. That there’s a special anointing on when we come together as believers. And just a big mark of that is the freedom that that brings. You know, God’s presence brings freedom. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

Amen. You know, I was just in Holy Ghost meetings. We had our first ever Charis camp meeting East Coast out in Brian Clark’s church, which we helped plant in Greensboro, North Carolina. But Pastor Max Cornell, who’s the pastor of, and Brian’s the pastor of Grace Life Church in Greensboro, which we helped him plant, and it’s doing really well. And Pastor Max Cornell is the pastor of Charis Church in, actually Johnson County on the west side of Kansas City and was there and Max ministered on Joy and on the, and man, the spirit of God was moving. And it really ministered to me and helped me. And I believe from those meetings, God was already beginning to deal with me about some things. But I believe, we, as a ministry are going into a completely new and entirely different level as a result of the move of the Holy Spirit. And I know you and Heather were down at Mark Hankins place there in his son’s church, Aaron Hankins Church in Alexandria, Louisiana. And they were, you know, moving in the spirit. They’re just good things that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, you need the Holy Spirit. And some of you, you know, if you are born again and have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you haven’t, you can call in and receive Jesus Christ. If you don’t know you’re on the way to heaven, call our prayer ministers. You know, they’re waiting to receive your calls, and you know, if we get too many calls, they’ll call you back. Just leave your number. But you know, if you haven’t received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you haven’t received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and have a personal prayer language where you regular pray in tongues, call our prayer ministers and receive the baptism of Holy Spirit. These things will help you walk in freedom. You know, the only way to get free, really, is to believe Jesus. You know, believe the word and receive the Holy Spirit. I have a book on it. You can actually call in and request this book, or you can get it on Amazon, get it on our website. But it’s talking about absolute victory in Christ. And when you’re born again, you’re born, right? You know free, you’re born into freedom. And then when you receive the Holy Spirit, you’re baptized into freedom. But when you believe the word you believe under freedom. So praise God, we need to receive all of that.

I’d also like to invite anyone who’d like to become a partner today as well. We have a lot of partners that help pay for and fund our broadcast ministry. So if you’d like to become a partner or make a one time gift, you can contact us here. We’d be, we’re available, ready to receive your call. But this is good ground to sow into. And I believe that God’s gonna bring you a great increase.

Narrator Through grace, you have absolute victory in Christ, and absolute victory in Christ. Discover how you can live the victorious life every day. Get your copy of Pastor Lawson’s book entitled, “Absolute Victory in Christ,” when You visit our website, CharisChristianCenter.com. Follow the Amazon link to get your copy in either Kindle or in paperback. While on our website, download your copy of this teaching freedom from the store. Go to CharisChristianCenter.com to get your copies of these powerful resources.

Hi ladies. I am so excited to have you personally join us for this year’s Rejoice Women’s Conference. I know that God has something amazing in store for you. I know that he has good plans for us. I hope to see you there February 6th through eighth. Cathy Duplantis is our keynote speaker. My daughter-in-law, Heather Perdue, will be joining us as well as I’ve even asked my husband, pastor “Awesome Lawson.” And he’ll also be ministering. It’s gonna be a great time. Look forward to seeing you there.

Friends, it’s great to have you with us today. And I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently, in one service, I had people from 10 nations and several states. They watch us on a regular basis online and they said, this is amazing. So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online at Charis Christian Center or YouTube, blessings.

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.