Bible Covenants Part 5 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Friends, I’m so glad that you’re watching today. We’re gonna talk today about, the covenant is based on relationship. And we have some great revelation that we’re gonna be sharing from Genesis Chapter 17, the Life of Abraham, but did you know what? Your relationships and your identity actually determine a lot of what you receive in life, so stay tuned. I believe that you will be blessed. Friends, it’s great to have you, and I’m so glad to have Aaron. We’ve been teaching all week on Bible covenants. And we’ve talked about how when we look at the scripture, really we see different aspects of covenant, God’s covenant with Noah, Abraham, David, so on, and so forth. But ultimately, that is a type or a picture of a greater covenant that God has made with us in Jesus. And really, the Bible is one covenant, right? Has the first testament, the last testament; first covenant, last covenant, but it’s based on Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s total covenant of man.

And as we go through some of these Old Testament covenants, you can see that a lot of them point to Jesus, you know? Yesterday we talked about the covenant with Noah, and the rainbow is the sign of that covenant, It really points to Jesus. Even scripture talks about that that was an anti type or a picture, or a shadow of salvation in Jesus, water baptism.

They all point to Jesus.

And points to, and so all these covenants point to Jesus.

Yes, aspects of covenant. So in Genesis 17, we’re gonna begin sharing about Abraham. This is when Abraham was 99 years old. And really, he just had a major failure prior to this. It says in Genesis Chapter 16:16, “Abraham was 86 when Hagar bear Ishmael to Abraham,” so Ishmael wasn’t God’s idea. It was Abraham and Sarah trying to help God out. And God had made this promise to Abraham. And we read it in Genesis 12, when Abraham was 75 years old. And he had left earlier Ur of the Chaldees where Babylon is, or the current area of Iraq. And he had left that, and he got halfway to the Promised Land. And then his father-in-law died. And when his father-in-law died, he began to move on into the Promised Land. And God made this promise, “If you leave your family, “go where I’m gonna tell you to go, do what I tell you do. “I’m gonna bless you, I’m gonna make your name great, “bless those that bless you, curse those that curse you. “And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Now, Galatians Chapter 3 says, when God said that to Abraham, that he was actually preaching the gospel to Abraham because this is a promise ultimately that he was gonna do through the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, and so that’s when he 75. And actually, if you read it in Acts Chapter 7 when they’re given an account of it, it looks like God spoke that earlier to Abraham before he left Ur of the Caldees. So this is 24, 25 years into that from Genesis Chapter 12. And Abraham just had a major failure about four or five years earlier than this, or actually, that would’ve been 15 years earlier when Ishmael shows up, or 14 years now. Abraham is 99 in Genesis 17:1. “And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, “‘I am the Almighty God. “‘Walk before me, and be thou perfect.'” Now, we were sharing in yesterday’s broadcast about how God establishes covenant. So Abrams just had a major failure, and yet God appears to him again. And so he appears to him when he is 75, says, “I’m gonna bless you, make your name great, “bless us that bless you. “In you all the families of the Earth “are gonna be blessed preaching the gospel.” This is ultimately about Jesus. Genesis 15, he takes him and shows him the stars of, and said, “Your seed is gonna be like this.” Abraham believed in the Lord. It was counted to righteousness, but then Genesis 16, Ishmael shows up. Abraham and Sarah try to help God out. Hagar comes, creates a big old mess that we’re still dealing with, right? And then Genesis 17, he’s 99, and God appears to him again and says, “I am the Almighty God,” “I am El Shaddai,” “I am the many breasted one,” “I’m God who’s more than enough.” It’s not about us, it’s not about our performance, it’s not about our ability, it’s about who God is.

And God can take someone screw up and turn things around as well.

Yeah, that’s great.

And Abraham screwed up and had Ishmael. And Ishmael is the father of the nations of Islam. And there’s actually, God still has a heart for, he had a heart for Ishmael. He actually cared for Ishmael in scripture. And God cares for Muslim people today. There’s actually a lot of Islamic nations where there’s great revival happening.

Yeah, many.

In Iran, there are just, the church is exploding in Iran, the underground church. We actually support a ministry that smuggles Bibles into Iran, so God has a heart for these people, and he has a heart for the nation of Israel too, you know? Israel is going nowhere, you know? During recent times, people have been shout shouting “From the river to the sea.” They’re talking about the,-

Pushing Israel off-

Pushing Israel, Israel ain’t going anywhere!

They’re staying there.

There is a covenant that God has with Israel, but God cares about the descendants of Ishmael as well. And many people, he wants them to be saved as well.

There’s a lot of them. God said, “I’m gonna provoke Israel to jealousy through “what I’m doing in the Gentiles,” that’s in Romans 9, 10, and 11.

And I think that’s gonna happen with Muslim nations too.

And we see that happen right now.

Revival and-

Many of them are coming to Christ. And you actually, a number of years ago, were standing on our platform in a prophetic meeting and said, “There’s gonna be a great revival in the Middle East, “and many of these people are gonna come to Christ.” And now, we see it happening, and it’s really amazing what’s happening. And many of these people, God loves everybody. He doesn’t-

It’s really interesting. When I went to college for my bachelor’s degree, I went to school in Pittsburgh, went to Carnegie Mellon. But the church I went to, the pastor’s mother kind of became a mentor to me. She helped gimme a ride home, but she actually was part of the GLOW Women’s Ministry, and was over the ministry to Muslim Women. And she said, “In the US, “99% of Muslim people have never been invited “into a Christian home.” Later on, I went to school in Houston. And there was an older brother in his thirties, and his younger brother who’s like 15, they’re from Iraq, they’re Muslim. But I invited the 15-year-old into my apartment once for lunch. And as soon as he walked in, he just said, “I can feel the peace of God in here.”

Amen.

And the pastor’s mother said, “A lot of,” “when you minister to people “with a Muslim faith or background, “that one of the most offensive things “to them is to refer to God as father.” And I thought that’s really interesting because Ishmael, Abraham, well, his relationship with Abraham was cut off. So at a historical, at a heart level, there’s been this separation from the father, but people need to experience God’s love, and everyone needs to experience the heart of God’s love. And when they experience that piece, that love, that’s what draws ’em back.

Amen, and we’re talking about covenants established through relationship. And so he goes on and he says, “This is who I am. “I’m the Almighty God, I’m the many breasted God. “I’m the God,” Genesis 17:1, “of more than enough.” Reveals himself to Abraham, or Abraham at this time, he becomes Abraham here. “And I will make my covenant between me and you.” Again, the covenant, God always comes first because the covenant is not about us, the covenant is about him. It’s not about our performance, it’s about his performance, it’s about his desire. “I will make my covenant between me and you, “and I will multiply you exceedingly.” God wants to multiply. When you understand this is who God is. He is more than enough, he’s the many breasted one. He’s the God who has so much sufficiency running out of him that we don’t even have room to receive it. Then, and you come into relationship with him and have that understanding, then you begin to see who God is working in your life, and you get a revelation of multiplication.

Yeah, multiplication is actually part of the covenants, part of the blessing. That blessing, it leads to increase, it leads to multiplication. Some tenfold, some 30, some 100 fold, you know?

It’s-

Some 30, some 60, some 100 fold.

Some 100, yeah. Multiplication is part of the covenant.

And so he said, “I will make my covenant between me and you, “I’ll multiply you exceedingly,” so this is God’s promise to Abram. And Abram fell on his face. It says in verse three, “And God talked with him saying, “As for me,” I’m sure he felt like a failure! There’s times we, you know what? The devil wants to magnify your failure. He’s the accuser of the brethren.

But God is the one that always initiates, but he establishes the covenant.

Right, he says, “As for me, my covenant,” this is God speaking to Abram, who becomes Abraham, “My covenant is with you, “and you shall be a father of many nations.” He says, “Neither shall your name be called anymore Abram,” don’t identify with the old anymore.

So for, God’s covenant, he initiates it, he establishes it, and it’s based upon his word, but really based upon who he is, God’s own identity. And here for Abram to be able to receive the blessing from this covenant, he also had to have a shift in identity. And for us as believers, to receive the blessings of the covenant through Jesus, we have to have a shift in identity. You have to die to your old man and live unto Christ, you have to be in Christed-

Right, so-

to be able to receive from that covenant.

Same thing happened with Jacob who became Israel. Abram means what? Fatherly. Abraham is Abram in relationship with Jehovah.

It’s-

It’s father of-

Father of many nations, father. And so-

And Jacob was, his name meant-

Sub planner, deceiver.

Sub planner, deceiver to Israel, a prince.

Israel. As a prince, you have power with God and man, and have prevailed. Every time you say the name of Israel, you’re speaking favor,-

Blessing.

you’re speaking blessing, right?

I heard this interesting testimony recently that someone was asking this Jewish wealthy person,-

oh this is great

how do you become wealthy, “How did you become wealthy?” And he didn’t know how to answer it. He was kinda just dumbfounded by this question. And he said, “What do you mean? I am. “That’s who, I am a Jew, I am prosperous.”

Amen.

And as believers, you don’t become certain things, you are blessed. You don’t try to become blessed, you don’t try to become healed, you don’t try to become prosperous, you are. And God has given me revelation sometimes, when I was on the outside very poor and said, “You’re blessed. That is just who you are.” And then later on, my circumstances caught up to who I was.

Right, and I’ve got the same thing. We’ve actually got, there’s an anointing for increase in this ministry, on this church. And people that connect with us, they end up receiving it.

It’s a flow.

Yeah, if you believe it. It flows from the head to the body, praise God. And so we’re gonna take a short break and we’re gonna be back right after this, so stay tuned. And we’re gonna be talking more about how you can get this flow of increase working in your life. Friends, we’ve been teaching Bible covenants from my syllabus that I’ve been teaching at Bible school that I developed over 20 years ago. I’ve been teaching it for over 20 years in Bible school. We actually have that syllabus free of charge on our website, plus “Hebrews: The Better Covenant” in book form, in audio, and video downloadable form. Check our website out!

What I think what I was always longing for, raised in a Pentecostal church. When you’re coming here and you receive, there is no drama. Jesus showed us here how a healthy church is really working. God wants to show us how church really worked, so that was wonderful to see here.

Praise the Lord. Friends, I’m glad you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about how God revealed himself to Abraham and he said, “This is who I am. “I am the Almighty God,” “I am El Shaddai,” “I’m the God who has more than enough.” You know what? If you’re struggling with lack and ideas of lack, the problem is you haven’t been focused on who God is. And secondly, you probably haven’t been focused on who God made you to be.

Well, it’s a mentality almost, a lack mentality versus an abundance mentality.

Aaron,_ I had the same thing happen. So I got grew up in a traditional church, and my parents didn’t have a lot, they struggled financially. They drove cars with hundreds of thousands of miles, lived tin houses. I mean, it was, it just, but I mean, we always had enough because they managed what they had. But at the same point in time, when I received the full gospel and I began to understand that God wanted me to prosper, it changed my whole demeanor. It changed how I saw myself and it changed how other people responded to me. And I was like 17 years old in high school. I went and bought a house on the wrong side of the tracks in the. I was actually in town buying feed with the pickup. And I walked by this real estate office, saw that house, thought, “Oh, I’ll buy that.” And I went, and they were asking 6,900. I offered ’em 5,900 and bought it cash. And I owned it for a few years. The people paid me $125 a month rent, I gave, painted it, and fixed a couple things up, and gave them, planted the yard to seed, and they watered it. And I think I bought ’em the paint, and they painted it. But anyway, you know what? A few years later, something in me said, “Let’s sell that house.” And so I just went and put it on the market for 7,900, sold it for 7,500, but I made money, praise God! But I had people new because I had this mentality that God was with me and that I was gonna prosper. And even though I was only making three bucks an hour or something, $4 an hour, whatever. I wasn’t making much money! But you know what? In a little time, like you say, “Your circumstances will catch up “with what you believe, your mentality.” So you start thinking right, you get your thinking right, quit complaining, start rejoicing, start magnifying, and blessing, and praising God, giving, and you know what? Things will begin to change, and there’s a whole lot more to it, but-

And part of the blessing too, this covenant of blessing, when you read Deuteronomy 28, part of the blessing that I’ve really identified with is that whatever your hand touches will prosper.

Whatever you set your hand to.

And when I was in school, I believed God to get out of debt, pay off my student loans. And I started a business buying and selling watches. And I just had this mentality, “Whatever watch I buy, it’s gonna be blessed. “”Whatever problem it might have, “I’ll be able to fix it, and I’ll make money on it.” And over the course of 12 years, I’ve bought and sold 4,000 watches. And I think there’s only one watch that I lost money on,-

That’s a miracle.

and that’s a miracle, but that’s the “Whatever your hand touches prosper.

That’s a covenant with God.

And that affects me here at the church. I mean, whatever ministry department I get involved with, I believe that it’s gonna be blessed, it’s gonna prosper, it’s gonna increase, it’s gonna grow, it’s gonna improve. So if I’m working with music, or with television, or with youth, I’m believing that it’s gonna improve, it’s gonna grow, it’s gonna flourish.

We have an anointing of increase. And when you understand it, right, Abraham believed it, and then he started receiving it. What you believe, I have a teaching on four pillars of financial success. And when I talk about these four pillars of financial success, and I don’t know if that’s exact right title for it, but it’s on finances, it’s on increase, but number one is what you believe. Number two is what you give, right? Number three is your stewardship. And number four is your work. Now, all of those are biblical principles, but if you employ those four pillars of financial success, you’re gonna prosper. You’re believing, you’re giving, you’re stewardship in your work, it takes all of those. And I know your brothers are prosperous, your brothers are both really prosperous, but you know what? You were raised with a strong identity of increase, of an anointing to prosper. You don’t think lack! Man, I don’t, I see abundance, I see wealth, and prosperity, I see blessing. And sometimes it takes things in the physical realm a while to catch up, but they will catch up if you keep believing and keep acting on the word of God.

And in the world, there’s this mindset that’s really pushed, a lack mentality or a scarcity mindset. I thought too, just historically, different periods of time, there’s been a fear of overpopulation that here’s too many people. We won’t have enough food, enough water, enough.

Lawson lies.

But now, there’s actually countries where they are underpopulated and they’re trying to pay people to have children because their countries are gonna go-

Western Europe.

Yeah, a lot of Nordic countries,

That’s right. Finland’s one of ’em.

they’re in a population crisis because they’re underpopulated because people have pushed this agenda of scarcity mindset, of not valuing family, and marriage, and just live for you. Having a child, you can’t live for you. You, it’s a very giving, sacrificial thing, And there’s this very individualistic worldly mindset. It’s starting to impact nations at a very foundational level,

Right, so we gotta get back to the gospel, believe in the word. And you know what? There’s enough. Not only is there enough, there’s more than enough, why? Because god’s more than enough. We even have, we talked about it earlier, but people have a scarcity mentality. “Everything is gonna run out,” “Everything,” but it’s a lie. In the 1970s here in the United States, I had uncles that were working in the oil field in Southeast Colorado, and we were going through a oil shortage. They were drilling wells, good wells full of oil, and they were capping ’em. And we’ve got enough oil in the United States to serve the United States for at least 200, if not 400 years. Your brother Andrew went to Colorado School of Mines, studied chemical engineering, graduated as an outstanding chemical engineer, but he made a decision. He was working for the government while he was going to school in a renewable, they actually made a little car that run on water, right, energy resource, but he said, “Hey, I’m gonna go into the gas and oil industry.”

And he worked for the National Renewable Energy Laboratories.

Yeah, but he said, “I’m gonna do this because for the rest of my life, “gas and oil is what we’re gonna use.” And you know what? We’ve got more than enough, and yet, we’ve got a lot of these liberal nuts bankrupting our nation by causing things to-

Or making us depend upon nations that are anti-America. And they’re trying to sell us a lie when other nations that want to take us over producing gas, diesel, coal, oil, burning it like mad because they want cheap energy, and they want to take us over. And some of these policies by the Green New Deal are, just don’t work in all reality. And you get some people with the brain, they’re saying, “You know what? We gotta run this thing different.” Praise God, and so God has a covenant he made with man. And in this covenant that he made with man is a covenant of blessing, is a covenant of increase. “I’m gonna multiply you exceedingly.” And you know what? When you begin to believe it, I started believing this when I was 14 years old, when I first heard the full gospel preached. And you know what? I started to receive it. And I have received it. I know pastors, when I started pastoring, and we started giving, and we gave at least 10 cents of every dime to missions and to other ministries, and I’ve done that my whole ministry through. We’ve given, we’ve been here, we came to Colorado Springs, and that was in 1988, in Kit Carson? Did it’s a very small community? 300 people in a county that there’s less than one person per square mile, and we prospered while we were there, and we gave while we were there, and we had more than enough! And we came here and started with almost no people and no money 24 years ago. And you know what? We’ve prospered here. We’ve got more than enough because God is more than enough.

And that’s what Abraham saw too with God, that he’s a God of more than enough. That’s actually the name that Abraham knew God by was El Shaddai. The Almighty God, the God of more than enough. And God established his covenant with Abraham. You can really see it with Abraham through relationship. Abraham was called a friend of God.

Right, and he said, “I wanna make my covenant with you. “I’m gonna change your name.” And this is what, and nothing had changed physically in Abraham’s life yet, but God said, “I’m gonna change your name, and we’re gonna,” because a change of identity is necessary for a change of destiny. And I’ll be honest with you, I teach a class and, or have taught in the past, Bible covenant, or in Christ realities. You get a change of identity, it’ll change your destiny. It’ll change where you’re going, change what you’re doing. This happens in Abraham’s life. And not only God says, “Listen, Abraham, I wanna be God to you. “I wanna,” in Genesis 17:7. “I’ll establish my covenant between me and you, “and your seed after, “and their generations forever to be God unto you “and to your children.” And he goes on and says, “I wanna be that God.”

An everlasting covenant,

Perpetual generations, like he told Noah. And for this covenant to happen, God knew that Abraham couldn’t just pass it on to a servant. God wants you to have close, valuable relationships. Too many people just have acquaintances and colleagues. They don’t have really deep, meaningful divine connections in their life. And God cares about, he himself is relational, and he’s created us to be relational. And one thing I think that’s very important for believers to just connect relationally is to be a part of a local church. We actually have a very strong, amazing church here, Charis Christian Center. You can join us online. We have a great way to connect online every Wednesday night, every Sunday morning. You can visit us. Colorado Springs is actually a great place to go visit.

Great place to live.

And we have people that have moved from across the country to be a part of this church.

Across the world.

So maybe you have a job that you can work remote, or maybe you’re retired, or have investments where you can move. Where if you don’t have a good church, I would actually consider moving here to be a part of Charis Christian Center.

Yeah, come visit us, come check it out. We had a lady came on our last Sunday service, and she said, “I’ve never been to a church that prays for the sick,” and she had a major back problem. She came up, our prayer ministers prayed for, and she was healed. There’s a powerful anointing of increase. We’ve got great children’s ministries, great youth ministries, and it’s a great people, we’ve got great teaching where you can see.

So you can begin by watching our services online. We live stream all of our services. We try to connect with people that way, but come visit us sometime. You can see all that information at our website, charischristiancenter.com. But yeah, I think, it’s really God’s system for us to grow and to make good relationships. And this is a very healthy place, a very strong place.

Amen.

And-

And we got a lot of great tools on the website. We’ve got this entire syllabus on Bible covenants free of charge. We’ve got a two-year children’s curriculum right now free of charge. We’re gonna develop a youth curriculum all free of charge. What we paid hundreds of dollars per year for, we’re making it available free of charge that we’ve developed. Also, great teaching free. Just check it out.

Narrator Hebrews 8:6 says that we have a better covenant based on better promises. In “Hebrews: The the Better Covenant”, you’ll learn how though new covenant is better than the old simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Hebrews: The Better Covenant”, a $35 value free of charge. Don’t miss this opportunity to know what Jesus accomplished in establishing this better covenant. Visit charischristiancenter.com today to download your copy.

Hey, everyone, I want you to mark your calendar for Family Camp Meeting! We’re gonna have great teaching with Mark Hankins and Pastor Max Cornell, Great worship with Philip Renner sharing the grace of Jesus all around the globe! And we’re gonna have great children’s meetings, great youth meetings, something for the entire family right here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. We wanna see you here, blessings. Friends, I wanna thank you for being with us today. It’s our pleasure to share with you the word of God. We believe it changes lives. And because of that, we’re broadcasting all around the world. It costs me right now around $2 million a year just for my staff and paying for our broadcast costs. But if you wanna become a partner and help us share the message all around the world, we would love to hear from you today.

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”.