Foundations of Faith Part 4 – Lawson Perdue – 12/16/2024

Welcome, friends of the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. Today, I’m sharing on the foundations of faith from the book of James, Chapter 4. And we’re specifically talking about the humility of faith. The Bible says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.” It’s impossible to get where God wants you to go without having true humility. Now, we’ve been talking from the book of James and we’ve been talking about this subject of faith. And James was really one of the first books accepted into the New Testament canon, one of the oldest books. James, the half-brother of Jesus, really is an apostle of the subject of faith. And it took a tremendous amount of faith for James to believe in Jesus in that he was his half-brother. But James really gives us some great insights to the realm of faith. The first thing we talked about in Chapter 1 is the wisdom of faith. And when we talked about the wisdom of faith, we said this in the wisdom of faith, we said, number one, God is always good. James 1:17 says, “Every good and every perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” He says before that, “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man.” So God only does good and he always is good. He says in Verse 17, “Every good, every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Life.” He doesn’t change from that. He says in Verse 16, “Do not err, don’t change from that.” So God is always good. That’s the wisdom of faith. In Chapter 2, he talks about the works of faith and he says three times, “Faith without works is dead being alone.” Faith has to have corresponding action. And if faith does not have works, corresponding action, then it’s really not faith at all. In Chapter 3, we talked about the words of faith. He says in James 3:6, “Your words are like a spark that sets on fire the course of nature.” You can change the direction of your life by the words that you speak out of your mouth. And if you don’t like what you’re receiving in your life, change what you are believing and change what you are speaking, and I believe that you’ll begin receiving in a completely different area. Speak words of faith, speak words of blessing, speak words of life, speak words of grace, speak words of peace, and watch your life change. Now, in James Chapter 4, he’s talking about the humility of faith. And he says this in Verse 10, he says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.” Humility is the key aspect of faith. And if you really are operating in faith, you must operate in humility. He says before that, “God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” So don’t get lifted up in pride, don’t get arrogant, but humble yourself before God. Amen? So we’re gonna look at some of these aspects and talk about the subject of faith here in James Chapter 4. James 4:1-5, listen to what James says, “From where comes wars and fightings among you, don’t they come? Even of your lust, you warn your members, you lust and have not, you kill and desire to have, and you cannot obtain. You fight and war and you have not because you ask not. You ask and you don’t receive because you ask amiss that you may consume it on your own lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of this world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusts to envy?” Now, what is he talking about? He’s talking about faith is a fruit of the spirit and not a work of the flesh. It’s not through your strength, it’s not through your ability, it’s not through your power that you make the things of God work. It’s through faith in God. And faith is a fruit of the spirit. Now, we all love these scriptures, like when the scripture says in John 14:12-14, Jesus said, “The same works that I do and greater works than thee shall you do, because I go to my Father. Whatever you ask the Father of my name, he’ll give it to you.” That’s awesome because of redemption, right? And then he says in John 15:7, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you ask what you will, it shall be done unto you, according to the word of God.” Amen? We love John 15:16, “You have not chosen me, but I’ve chosen you, and I’ve ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father, in my name, he’ll give it to you.” We love John 16:23, “In that day, the day of the Holy Spirit comes, the day that I’m raised from the dead, you’re gonna ask what you will and it’s gonna be done unto you so that your joy might be full.” But James says, “Hey, there’s something going on when you’re praying your prayers and they’re not being answered.” And maybe it’s this, maybe it’s not God’s highest and best desire, maybe you’re praying something that’s your will and not God’s will. Now, how do we know the will of God? We know the will of God by the word of God. He magnified his word above his very name. So we know it’s always God’s will for us to walk in righteousness and to live free from sin. We know it’s always God’s will for us to walk in peace and live free from anxiety. We know it’s always God’s will to heal us and that we would be free from sin. We know it’s always God’s will for us to prosper and never God’s will for us to live in poverty. We know that from the scripture because Jesus paid for those things in his death, burial and resurrection. But there are some things that we may pray for that may not be covered under the scripture, right? It may not always be God’s will for us to go to Africa, right? So there are some things we need specific direction from God about. And sometimes maybe he, Isaiah talked about this in Isaiah Chapter 58. He said, “You fast for strife and debate.” You’re having arguments and you’re praying for God to vindicate you, and maybe you’re on the wrong side of that argument, maybe you need to see it in a different light. But faith, right, is a fruit of the spirit and not a work of the flesh. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.” And if you’re born of God, you have the spirit of Christ in you and you have the exact same faith as Jesus. So you don’t have a faith problem, but you may have a flesh problem. And that’s what he’s talking about, he’s talking about flesh. In fact, I’m sure this wasn’t the most exciting message that Pastor James ever preached to the church at Jerusalem. In fact, it seems like in some of the circles that I’m in, and I gladly claim to be part of the grace circles and teach the message of grace, I believe in the gospel of grace, it’s really changed my life. But it seems like in some grace circles, if you say anything and you don’t agree with somebody, that you’re wrong. Now, Paul told Timothy, “Reproof, rebuke and exhort with all long suffering in doctrine.” I don’t know about you, but we all love to be exhorted. We love to be encouraged. But most of us don’t love to be reproofed. Most of us don’t love to be rebuked. But guess what? I grew up and I was a really ornery child. My mom comes from a big family, she’s got nine brothers and sisters. I have over 50 first cousins. You know what people thought about my dad? They thought that my dad was the meanest of them all. But guess what? Even though Pastor Lawson was a very ornery child, Pastor Lawson grew up pretty good. Why? Because you know what? My dad disciplined me severely. Now, Hebrews Chapter 12 says that if you love your child, any father that loves his child is gonna discipline ’em. And he said, “If you don’t discipline them, if you don’t ever rebuke them, if you don’t ever reproof them, then you really don’t love them.” And I’m sorry, sometimes in spiritual leadership, you gotta judge the fruit, and sometimes the fruit is not good and sometimes you have to speak words that don’t always agree with crazy. That just goes with it. And if you never have any reproof or you never have any rebuke, you don’t love your kids. That’s just how it is. If you’re gonna take on this level of responsibility, sometimes you’re gonna have to speak something and sometimes you can’t sugarcoat it. Sometimes sugarcoating it don’t help it because, and James is saying, “Listen, sometimes you guys are praying, but you’re praying wrong and you gotta change the way you’re praying, maybe you gotta change what you’re praying for.” Because faith is a fruit of the spirit, it is not a work of the flesh. And so James is just being real with him. But even though we have, right, a spirit, we love these verses, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he’ll give you the desires of your heart,” right? We love these verses. We also have a flesh, and Romans 8:6 says this, it says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” And as I read those scriptures and read them in context, carnal-mindedness is not only talking about worldliness, right? And John says this in 1 John, he’s the apostle, “Whoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.” But it’s not only talking about worldliness, it’s also talking about legalism. And we can all get legalistic sometimes. So it says, “Listen, faith is a fruit of the spirit, it’s not a work of the flesh. You’ve gotta let the spirit have his way.” And you’re not wall-to-wall Holy Ghost, you’re not 100% Holy Ghost. You also have a soul, right, as well as the spirit, and a physical body. So you may have some desires as a believer that aren’t always good and that aren’t always God. So faith is the fruit of the spirit, it’s not a work of flesh. Then he goes on and he begins to tell us this in Verse 6 through Verse 10, he says, “Faith aggressively pursues God and faith aggressively resists the devil.” Faith aggressively pursues God and aggressively resists evil. Look at what he says, he says, “But he gives more grace,” in Verse 6. How many of are you glad there’s more grace?

Yes.

Yeah.

How many of you glad there’s grace for life, grace for salvation, grace for the promises, there’s grace for growth and there’s grace for eternity? Thank God it says, “He gives more grace.” And guess what? You’re somewhere along that line and you need more grace. Everybody say, “More grace.” Friends, we’ve been sharing today from “Foundations of Faith.” I have a lot more to say in the realm of faith. And we have all of these teachings online, downloadable audio, downloadable video, from live in our church. We would love to have you receive them and many others free of charge. So check us out at charischristiancenter.com.

I just had this headache, like a migraine or tension headache. When we came into the service, he said, “It’s on your left side, specifically right along your head right here.” And even motioned that way, and said something like, “The power of God’s gonna come on you.” I just felt like this electricity, just like it felt like it outlined my whole entire body.” Then I just felt, “Wow,” just touched by God.

God provided everything by grace, but it’s not automatic you receiving everything. You’ve got to aggressively push yourself into the things of God. In fact, I love what Jesus said in Mark 11. We talked a little bit about it, but I wanna stop just in Verse 22, Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Have faith in God. Don’t have faith in your faith, have faith in God. Have faith in God. But Jesus said this in Matthew Chapter 11, I wanna go here, I want you to turn with me to Matthew Chapter 11. I wanna read two verses in Matthew Chapter 11. First of all, in Verse 11, Jesus is talking about John the Baptist. But I wanna read this verse in Matthew 11:11, and then in Verse 12, “Truly I tell you, among those who are born of women, there is not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Not withstanding he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Did you know what? If you’re born again, you have more than Abraham did. If you’re born again, you have more than Isaiah did. If you’re born again, you have more than any of the Old Testament prophets had. It’s amazing if you’re born again. So Jesus says, “He who’s least in the kingdom of God is greater,” or, “Kingdom of heaven is greater,” but listen to Verse 12, “And from the days of John the Baptist ’til now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” You know what that means? The violent are forcefully advancing it. The violent are forcing their way into it. In other words, I know there are some things that God has for me in the kingdom of heaven, but if I’m gonna receive it, number one, I gotta believe it, but if I believe it, then I’m pressing the envelope, I’m pushing into those things. Now, we’re talking about believing God, right? We’re talking about partly walking in the plan of God. James addresses that here, but he said, “Listen, if you’re gonna walk in the plan of God, you just can’t sit on easy street and think it’s gonna come to pass automatically. You’ve gotta press your way into it. You’ve gotta force your way by faith into things that, it’s not you that does it, it’s God that provided, but you by faith gotta press into that envelope. Amen. EW Jackson was preaching on this. He’s talking about how do it, he said, “Number one, speak the word. Number two, take authority. Number three, get violent about your faith. And number four,” he says, “praise God.” Keep praising God. Amen?

Amen.

From the days of John the Baptist ’til now, the kingdom of heaven is suffering. There are things that are there, there are things that are forced, the kingdom of heaven is suffering violence, but the violent are taking it by force. Everybody say, “Take it.”

Take it.

“By force.”

Audience By force.

Push your way into it, amen? Move into the things that grace has provided by faith. It takes both grace and faith. And you know what? When you really start believing God, if you read Hebrews Chapter 10 right after Aaron just quoted, you’ll find out that when you start believing God, immediately there are challenges, there are difficulties. Why? Because when you’re not believing God, not really a threat to the enemy’s territory, but you start believing God. Amen? And you become a threat to his territory. In fact, the Bible says this, the Bible says this in Ephesians Chapter 6, it says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power and in the authority of his ability and in the power of his might.” It says, “Having done all, stand,” right? “Take unto you the whole armor of God that you might stand,” he says later, “against the wiles of the devil.” But Verse 12 says this, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.” “Well, Pastor Lawson, I thought the war was over.” Now, I’ve read that verse, right, in like 20 translations. I’ve looked it up in the Hebrew, and you know what it says? It says, there’s a battle. Now, the only way that you can really get a hold of that when you understand what we teach in our circles is this. You begin to understand, number one, there is a spiritual battle, but number two, Satan is a defeated foe. But you gotta take the word of God and enforce your victory by faith. Jesus already won the battle, but you take the word of God and you stand on it. You take the armor of God to you, and you stand against the devil, and you move into those things that God has for you by faith in Jesus. Amen?

Amen,

Hallelujah. So he says, “Draw near to God and he’ll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your heart, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.” So number one, he says this, “Faith is a fruit of the spirit, not a work of the flesh.” Number two, he says this, “Faith violently,” right? “Faith aggressively pursues God and faith aggressively resist the devil,” or resists evil. The third thing he says in the next two verses is really this, “Faith is established in the grace of God,” right? Let’s read Verse 11 and Verse 12, “Not in law, not in legalism. Don’t speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you’re not a doer of the law, but a judge. There’s one law giver who’s able to save and destroy. Who are you that you judge one another?” Now, guess what? We’re not to judge one another, however, we are to judge the fruit. Jesus said, “You know a tree by its fruit.” However, you’re not supposed to judge, right, like other people’s servants. So the first 13 years of our pastoral ministry we spent in Kit Carson, Colorado, I was my only employee. Now, guess what? I had one or two people there that didn’t like me. In fact, Andrew Wommack came to minister for me about 10 years in. I told Andrew, “I got this one lady that doesn’t like me.” And I was planning on going to a church where they asked me to come preach, they had about 1,000 people there. He said, “I’ll tell you, when you go to that church and preach where there’s 1,000 people, there’s probably about 300 that won’t like you.” “So just get over it.” Everybody say, “Get over your bad self.”

Audience Get over your bad self.

Amen, you gotta get over your bad self. In fact, Jesus talked about getting over your bad self. He said, “You gotta die to yourself and live to me,” right? Paul talked about getting over your bad self. He said, “You gotta die to the law and live to God.” Amen?

Audience Amen.

He said this in Galatians 6:14, talking about the first part of this, he said, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and me to the world.” There’s four things that we need to die to as believers, die to sin, die to self, die to the law and die to the world. And so grace is really established, right? Faith is really established in the grace of God. In fact, when Paul makes this statement in Galatians 2:20 that I love so much, he says, “I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” You know what he’s talking about? If you read the context of what Paul’s talking about in Galatians 2:20, he’s talking about being dead to the law. He says in Verse 19, “If I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” He’s talking about Verse 16 to Verse 21, death to the law, ’cause not only do we need to die to sin and die to self, we need to die to the law and we need to die to the world that we might live to God and live to Christ. And so he says, “Don’t speak evil of one another, brethren. He that speaks evil is,” listen, the church should quit fighting each other. We need to start working together in the church. We need to work with people who believe on Jesus and who are born of God. I don’t care, if they stand for some of the things we stand for, we need to work together. He says, “If you speak evil of your brother, you’re judging the law, you’re a judge of the law, not a doer of the law, but a judge. There’s one law giver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you that judge one another?” And if your faith’s really gonna work, in some areas, you need to know the will of God. I’ve prayed this scripture before when I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t know what to do. Job 23:14, if you wanna see things change, I’ve prayed this thing for months and months and months, and I’ve prayed it since then for weeks and days. Job 23:14, “For he performs the things appointed for me, and many such things are with him.” God has a plan. Amen?

Amen.

You know what? Sometimes we know it in part. In fact, we always know it in part. The Bible says, “We know in part, we prophesied in part,” but then we’ll see, we’re not gonna completely know that thing ’til we get to heaven. But pray that verse, that verse is a powerful verse. I love this verse, Proverbs 16:9, it says, “Man’s heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his step.” Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many plans are in one’s mind, but the Lord directs his steps.” Guess what? We might have a plan, but God has a plan. And God’s plan is always better than our plan any day of the week. See, Hebrews 8:11 says this, talking about the new covenant, he said, “They will all know me from the least to the greatest.” And you know what? Great people of faith, Andrew Wommack, Mark Hankins, Jesse Duplantis, great people of faith are people who know God. Friends, we’ve been sharing on the humility of faith. And you know what? God has great grace available to you. In fact, the scripture says here in James Chapter 4 that God gives us more grace. We need his grace to accomplish his plans and purposes here in this life. And there’s ways that we can get involved with all that grace has to offer us. One way that we can get involved in more grace is get involved in the grace of giving. The Bible actually says that God makes all grace abound to those who abound in this grace of giving. If you would like to partner and help us with this broadcast, we would love to hear from you today.

Announcer If you’re gonna live for Jesus, it will take both faith and wisdom. God has a great plan for your life, and any plan he designs takes faith to bring it to pass. The book of James is full of incredible wisdom. Pastor Lawson’s five-part teaching, “Foundations of Faith: Lessons from James” will unpack that wisdom. The digital download is a $25 value yours free today. Download ’em now at charischristiancenter.com.

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 8th. Kathy 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 will also be ministering. It’s gonna be a great time. Look forward to seeing you there.

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