Bulldog Faith Part 5 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends. We’ve been sharing all week on Bulldog Faith. This is my wife Barbara’s message, maybe one of the best ones I’ve ever heard her teach. It is a tremendous word. She’s gonna share the story later in the broadcast about how she got this message, and you don’t wanna miss it. I believe that God has a word for you, and he’s going to help you move through your challenge and move into his promise. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. We’ve been sharing all of this week on Barbara’s teaching on Bulldog Faith. And we were in Greensboro, North Carolina, ministering for Pastor Brian and Ashley Clark. And Barbara shared this message on Bulldog Faith, and it was just fantastic. And so we were talking about what should we share on TV? And I said, you know what, we need to share this message. It will encourage a lot of people. But there’s a number of things that you shared through this, and the points that we’ve covered prior to today were stay stirred up, don’t be distracted, avoid meltdown parties. It’s amazing how many Christians get together and have these whiny, complainy meltdown parties, even some ministers, and it’s terrible. And quit complaining and move forward. But we’re gonna go into the last points today, and share the finality of this message. And you can get all of these teachings on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com, plus actually hundreds of other teachings, downloadable audio, downloadable video. And we also have a children’s curriculum that’s there that we’ve made available that’s being used by a number of large ministry groups. We’re in over 50 countries with this, but it had been 20 years since we had a really good children’s curriculum, so I decided that we would develop one ourselves. I made the initial notes and worked with a curriculum developer and a lady here in our church who’s written for a major curriculum company. She’s done a lot of writing for other friends of ours and mentors, and praise God, it is great. And we’re really getting amazing reports back from this children’s curriculum. But we’ve got these great things, and it’s all free of charge. So go there to charischristiancenter.com and get these things. But we’re gonna move into your point today, which is understand that God is on your side. You know, this is one of the first things, the first thing that I teach in this children’s curriculum, is that God is a good God, and you need to understand the true nature of God. God is on our side.

It’s unfortunate when people really think that God is their problem.

Yes.

I’ve got good news for you today. God is the answer. And it’s really important for all of us to understand and have the revelation that God is on our side. Isn’t that amazing to know that God himself, my heavenly Father, is on my side? And how do I know that? Well, I know it from a personal revelation and relationship with him, but I’m so happy to share scriptures with you today that will show you and teach you that God is on our side. And so today, if you have your Bible, pen and paper, you can follow along and look this up with us. But this is in Romans. We’re gonna look at 8:31 through 32. And it says in 31, it says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” That is powerful.

Yes.

I mentioned, I believe, earlier in the week, this is a scripture I had written out on a card and had hanging up in my locker when I was a teenager in high school and public school. I never felt alone. I knew that God was with me. He was walking up and down those hallways with me. I was never alone. The Bible tells us that wherever I go, God goes with me. And it goes on in verse 32 and tells us this, “He who did not spare his own son,” just stop and think about that. God himself did not even spare the best gift, the best thing that he could give us, his son, Jesus Christ.

Amen. This is how we know that God is for us.

Amen.

You know, John 3:16, most of you know this scripture, but it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.” Verse 17 goes on and says this, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might have life.” You know, we know that God loves us because of the demonstration of his love for us in giving us Jesus.

Okay, stop there. You just said a word that was powerful. Demonstration.

Yes.

God has already demonstrated his love for us over and over and over.

Amen.

And that’s what Paul says in Romans chapter five too. He said, “God demonstrated his love for us in that Christ died for the ungodly.” And Jesus, you know, coming first of all as a gift of God, but secondly, Jesus giving his life and dying on the cross. And that’s what this is saying in Romans chapter eight, verse 32, that we really know and understand the love of God for us because of Christ on the cross. He says, “God did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all.” You see, a lot of people, when they look at the cross, they think this was the work of the devil. But if you go back to Isaiah 53:4 and 5, Isaiah prophesied this in verse 4 and 5 in Isaiah 53. And you look at this, Isaiah prophesied this about six to 700 years before Christ. It’s actually God that sent Jesus to the cross. The cross was not the work of the devil. The cross was not the work of religious people. The cross was the work of God because he delivered Jesus for us. Jesus became a sin offering for us who knew no sin. He had never sinned so that we who were sinners might be made the righteousness of God in him. That’s in 2 Corinthians 5:21. But not only did Jesus take our sin, he also took our sickness, he took our anxiety, he took our poverty on the cross. And we can find those scriptures in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9, Isaiah 53:4 and 5, 1 Peter 2:24 and 25 all reveal those things. So the cross is the first picture, really the greatest picture we might say of the love of God for us. And so he said, “How shall he not the Father not with the Son freely give us all things?” So if God would forgive your sins, why wouldn’t he heal your body? If God would forgive your sins and heal your body, why wouldn’t he give peace to your mind or meet your needs, prosper you physically and financially?

That’s good. And I actually have, regarding Romans chapter 8, verse 32, I actually have it in another translation that I love how this is communicated. And it says, “If God is rooting for us, who can win over us?” Isn’t that good to know that God’s rooting for me?

Pastor Lawson Amen.

If he didn’t hold back his own son, but put him in the game for us all, won’t he even more gladly, in addition to his son, equip us with all we need to win the game? I like how he says he put him in the game for us. He saw that we were losing and that we needed some help, and he put Jesus in the game. And that was what you call a game changer.

Amen. That’s awesome. You know, because the fact is that mankind could not do it apart from God and apart from Christ. And when Adam sinned, Adam brought sin and death on everyone. But, you know, since we’ve received Jesus, and actually the Bible talks about this too in Romans chapter five, where we were just sharing that God commended his love toward us in that Jesus, he sent Jesus to die for us. That’s in verse eight. But in verse 17, it says this, “If by one man, if by Adam’s sin, death reigned by the one, much more, those who receive the abundance of grace,” that’s us, that’s people who believe on Jesus. “And the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.” And that, if you read that in the older amplified translation, it says that we will reign in life as kings. God doesn’t want life to reign over you. God doesn’t want sin, or sickness, or anxiety, or poverty to reign over you.

Barbara That’s right.

God wants you to reign in life as a king. And really, if you really understand the gospel, if you really understand the grace of God, you understand that when God did this for us in Christ, that God took us from a position of defeat and brought us from, he brought us out of the authority and the dominion of the devil, and he brought us into authority and dominion of his dear son. The Bible actually says this in Colossians 1:13, that he delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the sons of his love. I love that. And there’s another one here in Romans 4, and this is verse 21, and it says, “Being fully convinced or persuaded that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.”

Amen.

I like that.

Amen. He’s, you know, not only made these promises, he’s able to perform them. And really when you begin to understand the gospel, when you begin to understand the scripture, you find out that God made these promises, and these promises are consistent with who he is. But then Jesus paid for the promises in his death, burial, and resurrection. And now the Holy Spirit, since Jesus died for us and shed his blood, gives us the power to walk in the promises of God. See, the Bible says this in 2 Corinthians 1:20, that all the promises of God in him, in Christ, are yea and amen to the glory of God by us. God gets glory when we walk in his promises. And we do that because Jesus already paid for them, but it’s the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to walk in him.

Amen. I like something you were sharing when we were driving here and even earlier in the week. You talked about the difference of when we’re trying to do it in our own strength and really allowing the Lord to do the work.

Yeah. Many times people come to church like ours, where we teach that these promises, a lot of churches don’t teach them.

Barbara Yeah.

But they come to a church like ours where we really teach that these promises are relevant for today and that they are ours, which is the Bible truth. But if they’re not careful, they go out and they try to accomplish it in their own strength. And it’s much better to find out what God wants you to do and then just start doing that, or get where he wants you to be. Right. And be where God wants you to be and do what God wants you to do, and then that blessing is already on that endeavor.

Amen. I like what you just said. It’s worth repeating. And that blessing-

Is on.

Is already on that endeavor.

Endeavor. Amen. So, it’s not by our might. It’s not by our power. It’s not by our physical strength, but it’s by the power of the spirit of God. And you know, one thing, God may be calling you, God may be ministering to you to possibly move to Colorado Springs. This is a great city to be a part of this church. And you know, Kenneth E. Hagin used to share this and he said, he wouldn’t move anywhere unless he knew that there was a good church. And we have people actually that have moved away and that were really connected to this church, and they thought they were gonna be happy. And people encouraged them not to. And then they moved back just to be part of this church and it’s really helped them. Because they’re like, you know, a lot of people aren’t really teaching what you’re teaching as far as this message of victory in Christ. And so, we’re gonna take a short break, and let you know about some things that we have available and different things. But after this break, we’re gonna be back, and we’re gonna continue to share how you can receive what God has for you. Praise the Lord, friends. I am so glad that you’ve been watching today. We’ve been sharing on Bulldog Faith, and we actually have a lot more to share on this. This is my wife Barbara’s message. I believe it’s one of the best messages that I have ever heard. So go to our website and download these other messages, plus many more, free of charge at CharisChristianCenter.com.

I’ve been dealing with sciatic nerve pain in my right leg for multiple years. We’re actually about to walk out of service when my wife redirected me to the front. She told me that you were talking about nerve damage. Yourself, Aaron, and your dad were in back of me, and you guys were praying over me. I just felt this movement in my hips and in my back that I haven’t felt like a freedom. The next morning, I tried to move in the ways that I didn’t in the past, and it felt completely healed.

Well, friends, we’ve been having a lot of fun, and I hope you’ve been enjoying these broadcasts. I hope you’ve been connected just not only today, but you can go to our website and see all these teachings that we have from this series this week and many others. And they’re free of charge, downloadable audio, downloadable video. It’s cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this available to you. So I hope you’ll take advantage of it, but we’re gonna share some great things. And Barbara has a great story that really this teaching came from, all this teaching. And she hasn’t shared it, but she’s gonna share it here on this broadcast. So you wanna stay. So we’ve talked about stay stirred up, don’t be distracted, avoid meltdown parties, quit complaining, and understand that God is on your side. But you’ve got another point you wanna make.

Another point that we’ve been sharing for this last bit here is all things work together for my good. And a lot of times when we’re going through something, we know that’s a scripture, but it’s hard to see, now how on earth is this particular situation gonna work out for my good? But I love it. It’s in the Bible, so if it’s in the Bible, it’s mine to receive. And I’m gonna start in Romans 8:28, but then we’re gonna go back a few scriptures. But I love this. And this is what I just quoted. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. I love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. I know that we are called. I know that God loves us and that we have a calling.

Pastor Lawson Amen.

And so all things, ultimately, delay is not denial. We’ve talked about that. And ultimately, we know that all these things, God is gonna, even in the negative times, even in the times of our life that seem like a serious storm, God’s like, I’m gonna work this out for your good.

Amen.

And we talked about in Exodus, about the children being led out of Egypt and how they’re up against a rock in a hard place. And the enemy was pursuing them, and there’s the Red Sea in there, and the Lord saying, move forward. And, you know, all they saw was the problems, but we saw how God worked things out and fought for them.

Amen.

And I love we talked about that.

What God did was he used the same thing to deliver them and destroy their enemies. And God can do that same thing. In fact, he’s done that in our lives. So you can go ahead and share.

Well, I was just gonna share. I like how it says in numerous places, and we read this the last few days that, you know, it says in the Bible, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, and, you know, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

Pastor Lawson Yes.

And so these are just good scriptures for us to go over and over. Okay. I don’t need to be afraid because we talked about when we’re full of fear, you usually don’t make good decisions.

Yeah. So go ahead and share your story. It fits right in here.

You want me to share your story now.

Yeah, go ahead. Okay. So we’ve been talking all week on Bulldog Faith. And again, we can’t always show everything on these shows, but you can go to our website, and look this up in its full entirety. But I got this message and this title from something that happened. We were first married. We were married really young. We were 19 and 20. I was from the city, you were from the country. And so we worked and farmed and ranched for the first three years of our marriage, but that was not a world I was used to. And your grandfather had us take a horse to a horse auction in another state. And there was supposed to be, I believe, a contract and an understanding. It’s called a reserve bid.

There was a reserve.

And they didn’t honor that reserve bid. And so I think this person, you know, promised your grandfather’s horse to somebody and thought they would, you know, maybe because we are young-

Steal it from us.

I think maybe they thought, well, we’re young and we can just, you know, pull the wool over their eyes.

And this was in downtown Dallas, you know, where this horse auction was being held.

And so-

So go ahead.

You’re so funny. It’s just kind of interesting how God does work things out. So anyway, during this auction, the hammer went down, and they accepted this person’s bid, and it was not the reserve bid. So what you did, you acted very quickly. And there’s other people you knew there, but I did not know anything of the horse will. I didn’t know any of these people you knew. I knew, everyone look at me, I knew nothing. I’m a 20-year-old person. We hadn’t even been married a year. We’re in a world that I know nothing of. I do know enough business to know that this was a contract dispute. But I didn’t know anybody. And you took the horse immediately and took it off grounds, but you left me there alone. And, of course, I’ve asked you now, why did you leave me there? So anyway, I was left there alone.

Well, I know, right. That possession has a lot to do with the law. So, whoever has possession. So, I wasn’t gonna let them take that horse from me when we were having a dispute, right? Because I had a reserve bid that they didn’t honor and they sold it to somebody else. So we knew some other people that we had delivered horses and they actually were with me, and they took me and the horse and we left, and you were there and you can tell the rest of the story.

I love it. Isn’t it awesome with a married couple? It’s one story but two totally different perspectives. And so when I taught this, I said I’m going to be sharing my perspective because you left and you didn’t see what happened after you left. And does everyone know I knew nothing and was there all alone at this auction? And you left, and I didn’t even know where you were. And so this person was so angry. And I asked you the question, have you ever had one of those dreams about a very angry dragon wanting to eat you? That’s what I experienced after you left. This auctioneer became very, we’re laughing now, but I don’t think I was laughing then. I did have the peace of God, but I wasn’t laughing. But this auctioneer became very angry. And since you were gone, the horse is gone, and I was the only one there. That anger was a full force on me. And he actually called the police. And so a lot of police cars, I’m not exaggerating when I said there’s at least a half a dozen, if not more police cars show up at this venue with the sirens going, and these police get out with their weapons drawn. And I thought this is a very interesting situation to be in. And so praise God, God is with us. I really wasn’t afraid, but I just absolutely knew nothing. And so, eventually, the sergeant comes over. I’m sure I have no idea what this person said when he called in, because it was not what he said. So, eventually, the sergeant comes and talks to me, with the auctioneer there by me, very red in the face and fire coming out of his mouth.

Well, he was not only the auctioneer, he was the owner of kind of this company. So, this dispute was thousands and thousands of dollars.

And I knew nothing. I was 20. Anyway, the sergeant comes to talk to me, and every question he asked me, I seriously knew nothing. He said, where’s your husband? I don’t know. And he just, every question he asked me, I see, cause I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know these people that you knew that your grandparents had a relationship with. I knew someone was supposed to eventually come get me and take me somewhere, but I can’t even tell you the name of these people to this day. And so, I think this sergeant could see I was 20 years old and seriously was not lying. I knew nothing. And finally, I did say something. And I said, we had a reserve bid. And immediately that sergeant looked at the auctioneer and said, this is a contract dispute that will have to be worked out in court. This is not our jurisdiction. But that person was still very angry. But the way I had been raised, number one, God is for me, not against me. If God be for me, who can be against me? Number two, I was actually taught a very positive thing about police, that they are servants to us and that they are to help us. And so, I knew God was with me. I knew that this sergeant was my friend, even though no one at that time said anything. And so, he was about to call everyone off and leave. But before he left, I could tell this other person was very angry. And I asked the sergeant, and in the meantime, in between all this, the ride you had for me came. This woman came. And I asked the sergeant, can you please give us an escort to our vehicle? And he said, yes, ma’am, I can. They completely surrounded us. The people that he called to haul me away worked out for my protection. They literally made a wall around us. All these police officers, heavily armed, made a wall around me and my ride. And then as we got to the vehicle, that person, that auctioneer was still there breathing hellfire and brimstone my way. And I looked again at the sergeant, and I said, can we please have a police escort off this venue? He said, yes, ma’am, you can. They literally had police cars go before us, police cars go after us. So, we were safely removed from the venue, well out of the way from this person being able to follow us. And I did eventually get to a place of safety, but you know, I just wanted to really bring out that, you know, all things do work together for our good. And those things that look like they were gonna bring you down, it’s amazing how it can turn around, and actually get you to a place of safety, get you to a place of moving forward in the things that God has called for you. And this was something that was a challenging time in your life. You were very young. You weren’t getting these registered letters, but a minister came to you and ministered to you at our church.

A prophet of God came to our church.

Good things happen when you go to church, but you are ministered to. And he said, you have bulldog faith.

Yeah.

When you see it in the Bible, and I’ll let you share your scripture, but when you see it in the Bible, you hang on to it. And so as my husband shares his scripture, we just wanna close and encourage you, get a word from the Lord, get a scripture, write it down, and hold on to it no matter what your circumstances look like today-

Yeah.

And begin to move forward in the things that God has for you.

So, we had just been married, 20 years old, had almost no money, living in a trailer house, owed payments on the trailer house. And now this was a dispute over thousands and thousands of dollars, and we had nothing. You know what? The dispute was over almost as much money as our double wide trailer cost, and I bought that trailer for half price. I bought it foreclosed a year old, but it looked terrible. And we were getting these registered letters in the mail threatening us, me, and you know, but God woke me up in the middle of the night and gave me Isaiah 54, verse 17, that no weapon, this is a word for somebody today, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue that rises against you in judgment, I will condemn, you will condemn for your righteousness is of me, says the Lord. And so, every time that I’d wake up in fear, I would just speak that word. And then this prophet of God came as a guest speaker to our church, gave me this word that you’re going through a hard situation right now, but God has given you bulldog faith. So just hold on and you’re gonna be okay. And you know what? God brought us completely through that. Nothing ever came from it. We kept the horse. My granddad eventually sold it for what that our reserve price would have been. We were protected, and everything worked out good. Amen. And you know, it took, it took a few months, but we continued to believe God. And we’ve had battles since then that have went on for years. And some of them take months, some take years, but we just keep believing God. So, I wanna encourage you to keep believing God. I wanna encourage you today, you can go to our website, you can get these downloadable audios, downloadable videos, you can see this entire group of messages. This will really help you in your faith. And if you don’t have a church home, I wanna encourage you to come to Charis Christian Center. If you’re in Colorado Springs on a Sunday morning, on a Wednesday night, we would love to see you here. And if you can’t attend in person, you can attend online at YouTube, Facebook, or CharisChristianCenter.com. Thanks so much, and God bless you today. We appreciate you.

Narrator Are you ready to strengthen your faith like never before? Pastor Barbara’s Bulldog Faith series teaches you how to hold on to God’s promises, overcome challenges, and live victoriously. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of Bulldog Faith, a $25 value free of charge. Don’t miss this opportunity to grow in your faith and experience God’s power in your life. Visit CharisChristianCenter.com today.

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. Hey everyone, I wanna invite you today to subscribe to the Charis Christian Center YouTube channel, where you can get hundreds of hours of teaching and different materials absolutely free. We live stream all of our services there. And so, check it out, Charis Christian Center on the YouTube channel. Thanks so much and have an awesome day.

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