Compassion of the Holy Spirit – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Welcome friends to today’s broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in. Today we’re gonna be talking about how Jesus not only taught with grace and ministered healing and miracles with grace, but how Jesus demonstrated grace to people that were in need. So open your heart, receive the good word of God, and I believe you’re gonna be blessed today. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here and so glad Aaron’s here sharing the word of God. We’ve been talking about the compassion of Jesus, how… You know, and when you get a revelation of the love of God, a couple of things happen. Number one is if you fail, you run to Jesus. You come boldly to the throne of grace like Hebrews 4:16 says. But number two, it says in Hebrews 5:2 talking about the high priest because he’s compassed with infirmity. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant. Jesus can have compassion on ignorant people. And many times, we look at and we see such ignorance and it’s kinda just challenging. But at the same point in time, God has compassionate on ignorant people and those who are out of the way. But then we talked about how Jesus as our great high priest, but Jesus as a man who walked on this earth ministered with compassion. He taught the word of God with compassion. He was moved with compassion and healed the sick. And we’re continuing to talk about that, Aaron. We got an example in Matthew Chapter 20 about how Jesus healed with compassion. So, you can read that.

 

  So it says here in Matthew 20:34, “So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him.”

 

  So here’s these two blind men and they were crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on us.” And while the multitude, probably more than likely religious folks, were rebuking them. Tell them to be quiet. Be quiet. You know, Jesus is too busy, this or that. And the more they tell them, the more they cry out. And that’s how faith is, boy. Faith, boy, gets ahold of something, it’s not gonna let it go. And then Jesus, they got his attention, stood still and called them and said, “What do you want?” And you know, the will is a very powerful thing in a human person. In fact, I think the reason that some people are healed is because they just get a strong will towards that and some people are not because they really don’t will to live, so on and so forth. Or they don’t, you know. And so Jesus said, “What will you that I want?” You know, that I do. What do you want me to do? What is your will in the matter? And they said, “Lord, that our eyes may be open.” And Jesus was moved with compassion and healed them. So thank God for the compassion of God. Another example is found in Mark Chapter 5, and this is with the Demoniac at Gadara. And here’s a man that’s living in a graveyard and crying and cutting himself with stones. And they would chain him up and he would… He was so demon-possessed he would break the chains off. I mean, he would… You know, he’s crazy. They’d find him naked and… You know, and really, really a sad situation. But when Jesus come, Jesus cast the devils out of him. And Jesus frees him from this demonic possession. And when he does that, he just wants to come and be with Jesus. And it says this in verse 18, “When he came in the ship, he that was possessed with the devils prayed that he might be with him. And Jesus suffered him not but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how many great things the Lord has done for you and had compassion on you.'” And you know, we need to continually tell people about the grace of God and what the grace of god’s done for us. You know, sometimes we forget. You know, it’s not about our great intelligence. It’s not about our great wealth. It’s not about our great work ethic. And it’s not wrong to have intelligence or wealth or work ethic, but it’s really not about us. It’s about Jesus. It’s about the grace of God. And you know, I know people with intelligence and wealth and work ethic that still don’t, you know? And so we need to remember it’s the grace of God.

 

  Yeah, I liked too how you talked about the two blind men who cried out to be healed, “Son of David, have mercy on us.” And then you talked about the demon-possessed man that would just break chains off of him because I’ve heard this even about people who are dealing with demonic oppression, like their will is still very important, you know? If someone wants to keep those demons, they’re gonna keep those demons.

 

  Oh, it’s very important.

 

  But this person I’m sure had a will. Like he didn’t want to be tormented anymore.

 

  Right, we wanted to be free.

 

  He wanted to be free. And when he met the grace of God, the compassion of Jesus, he was set free.

 

  Jesus actually talks about this, Aaron, and he says that if you cast the devil out of someone and they don’t want to be free, that devil will go out and get seven more devils that are worse than himself and come back. And the end state of that person will be worse than the beginning. So you don’t wanna deliver people beyond their will. You know, they need to have a will in the matter, and your will has a lot to do. You know, I just had a man over the weekend here at the church that went home to be with Jesus. You know, I was right there. You know, we were praying different people… But I believe this man willed to go home to be with the Lord. And you know, I’ve had other people and they willed to live, and your will has a lot to do with what you receive. I’ve even heard about non-believers who will… God’s not gonna override your will, who will certain things, good things that we get in the promises and they’ve received them. Because you know what? Your will is a powerful thing and God gave it to you.

 

  I think it’s kinda interesting, those two blind men who were crying out for mercy, Jesus stood still, called them, and asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

 

  Yeah, what do you want?

 

  Because they weren’t being specific. They were saying, “Have mercy on us. Oh Lord, Son of David.”

 

  Wow, that is a great observation.

 

  There’s a lot of ways he could show mercy towards them. But he wanted… You know, faith is specific.

 

  Faith is very specific. And God’s compassion can flow in a very specific direction too, so. You know, he wanted them to specify what exactly he wanted his mercy to be shown about. And they said, “Lord, that our eyes may be open.” They said very specifically. And he had compassion, touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him.

 

  Amen. So, thank God. We wanna be able to have compassion on the ignorant and those who are out of the way. And thank God, God works through us. God helps us to be compassionate and to show the grace of Jesus to people who are in need. Amen? Now Jesus not only taught with compassion, not only worked miracles with compassion, but Jesus demonstrated compassion in his ministry. And in Luke Chapter 9, we see a great example of this in Luke 9:51-56. And Aaron, you can read Luke 9:51 on down through verse 56, and just see how Jesus ministered compassion.

 

  So this here in Luke 9 starting in verse 51, “Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?’ And he turned and rebuked them and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of for the son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And they went to another village.”

 

  I mean, that’s… I mean, that kind of hits close to home because sometimes we just see the crazy in the world. Man, I was just thinking about a certain situation in the world. God, could just strike these people dead. You know? But you know, he’s a god of grace. And you know what? He allows people… Like for instance, we live in the United States of America and it’s a democratic nation. It’s a republic actually. And you know what? We get to vote. And sometimes people don’t vote the best person in there. So people get… You know what, sometimes they get what they want. For instance with Israel, God didn’t really want Israel to have a king. And yet Israel wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. So God told Samuel the prophet, “You give them what they want.” See, our will has a lot to do with what we receive and what we want. And you know what, I like what you said that faith is very specific. I’m in a situation right now with the ministry and that just kinda kicked into my heart. This is what I’m believing for.

 

  That’s good.

 

  Amen?

 

  You know, I am. I like that Jesus, when James and John said, “Do you want us to call fired down from heaven?” They were pretty fired up. I’m sure they were just shaking and really upset by the situation. And I like that he says, “You don’t know what manner of spirit you are of.” You know, the spirit has certain ways to flow certain manners. And Paul writes about a spirit of gentleness. That’s a manner of spirit. How if someone’s caught in a fault, you’re supposed to have a spirit of gentleness about how you handle that situation. And it’s a… You know, I like that Jesus says, “You don’t know what manner of spirit you are of.”

 

  Right. It’s really not the spirit of God. It’s more the spirit of the world. I mean, they’re quoting the Bible, right? Should we do like they did and Elijah did? And he rebukes them and said, “You don’t know what spirit you’re of.” And really, I mean, the same thing applies when… For instance, the woman that’s caught in adultery in John Chapter 8. And these religious leaders bring her to Jesus and said the law. Moses said, “Stone her, what do you say?” And Jesus says, “Well, if you haven’t sinned, you cast the first stone.” So they all leave from the oldest to youngest being convicted by their own conscience. And then he says, “Woman, where are your accusers?” You know, accusation is not God’s business. Accusation is the devil’s business. But there are a lot of Christians that get involved in false accusation. And boy, we need to be careful. You know, the Bible talks about in Genesis with Abraham, “I’m gonna bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And in you, all the nations of the earth are gonna be blessed.” You know, I don’t wanna pronounce a curse against anybody who’s the natural seed of Abraham or anybody that’s born of God. Period. And I don’t want to pass false judgment. I mean, God is the judge. You know, God told me on a certain situation, ’cause I get to working with other ministries and people, he just told me plainly a number of years ago, they’re not your servant. You keep your hands off of them. They’re that person’s servant. That’s that person’s job. They work in that ministry. I have people call me all the time, “Can you do something about this other men?” I’m like, “That’s not my position. I’m not doing that. I’m not getting involved. That’s not my place there.” And you need to know your place and keep your nose out of other people’s business, so.

 

  I’ve had people approach me too questioning someone who’s maybe in a leadership role at the church because they have a discernment against them. You know, someone said… We hired someone for a leadership role. They’re kind of kooky themself and like very flaky, haven’t really lasted, helping out hardly at all. And they said they had a discernment about someone that they had unclean spirits. And I said, “Well, I’ve known this person for a year and they’ve worked in ministry before, and the bible says you’ll know them by their fruit. So I hired him based upon his fruit.”

 

  Yeah, that is crazy, Aaron.

 

  Yeah.

 

  Dr. Lester Sumrall said there’s some people that think that they have the discerning of devils. And the Bible actually doesn’t talk about the discerning of devils. It talks about the discerning of spirits. And if you study it out in the Bible, it’s not the discerning of devils. It’s a discerning of spirit. The definition is to discern the presence or activity of a spirit. It can be a spirit of a person, whether good or evil. Jesus looked at Nathaniel who they just brought to him and he said behold an Israelite in whom there’s no guile, there’s no deceit. Jesus discerned his spirit in a positive way. And he’s like… And then Jesus said, “Well, before they brought you, I saw you sitting under the fig tree. You moved into the word of knowledge.” But there’s a lot of these people that think they have the discerning of spirits, the discerning of devils, And if you turn that gift around, Lester Sumrall says this, and put it on their self, they would quit being so doggone judgmental.

 

  Well, it’s crazy because… And then it becomes pre-judgmental rather than seeing the fruit of someone and seeing how they do that they wanna go and chastise that person ahead of time. And I actually explained to this person this way, like I have two children. And sometimes I tell them to do something and I know they’re not gonna do it. I know they’re gonna maybe make a fuss or mess up, but I don’t go and pre-spank them. I said that’s actually… That’s just crazy to go and pre…

 

  Pre-judge somebody.

 

  You know, how would you like to go? And just send you tickets for speeding. Because they know you’re gonna speed. So, you’re just gonna get a ticket before you did it. We have a feeling that you’re gonna speed in the month of July. So, here’s your pre ticket for July.

 

  I was a really ornery child and I’m one of about over 51st cousins on my mom’s side of the family, only four of my dad’s side of the family. But my dad was probably the whole… My mom was sister to… She had nine brothers and sisters. And my dad was by far the strictest disciplinarian out of any of my aunts and uncles, and people didn’t like him. And my dad would whip first and ask questions later. But I remember one time when I was a kid, I’d been actually good for a couple weeks and my dad said, “Get in here.” He said, “Bend over and grab your ankle.” What have I done? He said, “No, you’ve been good. So I’m just gonna give you one to keep you good.” And he didn’t. He’s actually complimenting me for being good. Boy, he kept me straight. And a lot of people don’t understand that kind of discipline. But it helped me. It did not hurt me.

 

  But anyways, when I kind of explain it this way to that lady, she kinda calmed down and-

 

  Well, they need to.

 

  Yeah, anyhow.

 

  You know, your mom and I are totally different, and I am very gracious. I give people the benefit of the doubt and I sometimes give too much grace, I’ll be honest. And I get myself in trouble. Your mother, on the other hand, she wants to… They gotta prove it out. And she looks at the fruit, right? But I grew up in the country and with pretty much trustworthy people, and mom grew up in the city and the hood, you know? And so your mom just got… She has different life experience and we’re a very good complement to one another. But we need to have some of both of those things working. Now we’re gonna take a short break. We’ll be back right after this break. Stay tuned. We’ve got some more to teach on the ministry of compassion. And specifically in this last half of broadcast, we’ll be talking about Jesus’ ministry of compassion. Blessings. Friends, we’ve been teaching on the ministry of compassion and recently I taught this in church and I feel like this is one of the best teachings that I’ve ever done. And so I want to invite you to go to our website, charischristiancenter.com, to download not only the teachings that we do here live in the studio, but to download the live services from church and watch those. I believe that you’ll be blessed. At the foundation of all my teaching, I believe that God is good and the devil is evil. It’s the thief that comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come to give you life and that life more abundantly, that life extremely excessive. Abundant. You know what, Jesus wants to give you extremely excessive, abundant, good life. Friends, we’re gonna go back to that place we’re just talking about in John Chapter 8. Aaron, I’ll read it and I’m gonna let you comment on it because you’ve got actually great revelation on John Chapter 8. But we’re gonna begin reading in verse 1 through verse 12. And we’re gonna be talking about this woman caught in adultery. And it says, “Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and talked to them. And the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery. And when they set her in the midst, they said, ‘Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say?’ And this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down with his finger, wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, ‘He who’s without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And when they heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one beginning at the eldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. And when Jesus has lifted up himself, he saw none but the woman. And he said to her, ‘Woman, where are those of your accusers? Has no man condemned you?’ And she said, ‘No man, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.’ Then Jesus said again to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.'”

 

  That’s awesome. You know, these very religious, very legalistic people caught this woman in the act of sin. And you know, Jesus talked about what manner of spirit you are of. And that legalistic, that religious, legalistic…

 

  Critical.

 

  It’s a spiritual thing. It’s a manner of spirit. And it’s not… It doesn’t actually minister to people. It actually hurts people. when God first spoke to me about this scripture here, I preached a message called entangled because that manner of spirit, that legalistic manner of spirit seeks to entangle people. It’s just trying to be offended, trying to be… Trying to find fault with whoever they can find fault with. And I’ve even seen that in grace circles where people just go around trying to find fault.

 

  Listen, grace people can be some of the most legalistic people there are, and I’m a grace person.

 

  So Jesus had a ministry of compassion. And you know, for years when I would read through John 8, I would would kinda ask myself, did Jesus break the law? Because the law does say that one of the penalties for adultery is to be put to death. So they brought this woman to Jesus saying, “The law says to put her to death, but what do you say?” And God actually showed me in the center of the law… Deuteronomy is the reiteration of the law. It was Moses’ last sermon actually to the nation of Israel. He reiterated the law to them. There’s the law spelled out in Leviticus which is the law how it pertains to the priest, but the Deuteronomy is just how the law pertains to everybody. So Deuteronomy is like the cream of the cream of the law. It’s the reiteration. And if something is reiterated, that means that it’s like very high level what’s being spoken. And in the middle of the law… Deuteronomy is 34 chapters. Right in the middle of the law, there’s actually like an amendment to the law, something that’s not mentioned in Leviticus but it’s mentioned here in Deuteronomy. It’s kinda interesting, but actually points to what Jesus does here in John 8. Right in the middle of the law, starting in Deuteronomy 17:7, it says there’s a matter of controversy within your gates, like someone is guilty and blood needs to be shed, they’ve committed some high crime. But you know, it’s just such a controversial thing. You don’t exactly know how to go about handling it. You can take that person before a priest, before a judge, before a Levite in those days, and you can take that situation of them and let them make a pronouncement. And then right in the middle verse of that middle chapter… Deuteronomy 17 is 20 verses, right? In the middle verse, verse 10, it says whatever they pronounce, you have to do. So I believe Jesus, he started writing out when they brought this woman to him. He started writing out the law right there from Deuteronomy 17 verses 7 through 10 and then he stands up and makes his pronouncement which does not break the law. His pronouncement is, “He who’s without sin, let him throw the first stone.” And then he stoops down and writes again. I believe he wrote the next few verses at verse 10 which says, “If you don’t do what they pronounce, you’ll be put to death.” So they drop their stones because they knew that was right in the law. And you know, if Jesus pronounces you righteous, if Jesus pronounces you set free, if he pronounces you forgiven, no one can come against that because he’s the highest judge in the entire universe. We’ll all sit before the throne of God, before the throne of Jesus. And if he pronounces you…

 

  Righteous.

 

  Righteous. You’re righteous. And it doesn’t matter what any other accuser says. Whether they be here on earth or in the pit of hell.

 

  Right. And right there he’s standing in the temple, right? As the priest, as the judge. Jesus is the judge. He’s the judge of believers and Jesus pronounces the judgment. And like you said, they were convicted by their own conscience and they left. Aaron, that is a great teaching. And I wanna just mention this, but you can go to our website, charischristiancenter.com. That’s called Entangled. You can look up Aaron’s teaching on that. I wanna encourage you to get it. But you know, sometimes Christians are so… They’re just like these people. They’re so judgmental. And yet, we’ve received so much grace.

 

  Well, Jesus was saying to them, if you’re without sin, you can throw the first stone. He’s saying, “I wanna minister to this woman through compassion. She’s gonna be set free. Her life’s gonna be radically changed through compassion. But hey, there might be a time where you need some grace yourself.”

 

  We all need grace.

 

  So you better drop those stones or else they’ll come flying back at you.

 

  Right. That’s rough.

 

  And some of people can have just a critical spirit to be that critical manner of spirit. And you never know when you’re gonna need…

 

  The grace of God.

 

  Or you want the stones to be dropped. Maybe something will happen to you or to your family where you need some grace.

 

  Listen, we all need grace, Aaron. And we need… You know, the Bible said blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. And so just like we need to receive grace, we wanna share grace with others because you never know when that’s gonna come back and you’re gonna need that. And kinda in the same way, you never know… Like I never criticize anyone that’s preaching anything that I can see really with a basis in the scripture. Whether it’s healing or prosperity or peace or forgiveness of sin. If I can see the basis of that in the scripture, even though they may be a little bit extreme, I don’t criticize them because I don’t ever know when I’m gonna need that in my own life. So I don’t wanna be coming against somebody teaching something that I might need in my life, even though they might be a little bit out. Sometimes we’ve been so far in that field, we gotta get somebody that’s a little over on the other side to get us back in the middle of the road back where we need to be. And God anoints people different. So praise God. You know what? If it’s in the Bible, if it’s the truth, if it’s a promise, I’m not gonna criticize people for preaching it. And you know what? Just like Jesus not only taught with grace, he ministered healing, ministered miracles with grace, but then he demonstrated grace to people and we need to demonstrate grace to people. So before we go off there, I want you to pray for the people today.

 

  Just thank God for everyone who’s watching right now, Lord. I just think that your grace is ministering to them, Lord. I just think that your compassion is flowing to them and also through them, Lord, I just think that everyone watching right now will just be led by your Holy Spirit. They are your sons. They’re your daughters. They’re led by your spirit and they can be led by that ministry of compassion.

 

  I wanna just say thank you for tuning in. We have trained prayer ministers ready to take your calls. If you need healing, if you need to receive Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit, or if you wanna become a partner, just give us a call today. Blessings.

 

  When Jesus comes into your life, you are fully redeemed, you are set free, and he gives you a great purpose in calling. Keep walking with Jesus and the dream he placed inside of you will surely come to pass. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching “Compassion of Jesus”, a $15 value free of charge. Download it today at charischristiancenter.com.

 

  Save the date for our women’s Rejoice conference, February 8th through 10th, 2024.

 

  My house and everywhere I walk, there is bright glory and light shining ’cause God is with me. This is gonna be a lot of fun. I’ve also invited you this year.

 

  We’re gonna have our very good friend, Cathy Duplantis, here with us sharing at our Women’s Rejoice comfort.

 

  It’s time to rejoice.

 

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