Grace and Faith – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Friends, welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. I have my son Aaron with me, we are talking today about the grace of God on our life, specific to our God-given destiny and calling. And did you know what, God has graced you to do whatever He’s called you to do so you can learn to rely on that grace and move into His blessing. Stay tuned. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. And I’m glad I’ve got Aaron, and we’re sharing a brand new subject this week, and we’re talking about grace and faith. And we’re gonna specifically be talking about the grace of God surrounding our calling and our God-given destiny. And then we’ll be talking next week about faith and how grace and faith work together. And it’s not only the grace of God, but it takes faith to move into that destiny that God has for you. So we’re gonna begin right now in Ephesians 2:8-10. Aaron, if you wanna read that.

 

  Yeah it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”.

 

  So when we look at this, the first thing he’s talking about is how we receive salvation. And if we’re gonna move into our God-given destiny, we first of all have to receive Jesus as our Lord. And there’s grace available for that, there’s grace available. The Bible says that God was in Christ, not imputing our trespasses to us. And so Jesus already paid for our sins, paid for our salvation, but we have to believe that to receive it. And so that’s grace for salvation. He goes on and says, “It’s not of works, lest any man should boast”. There’s also grace for life and grace for living. And in Titus chapter two, the scripture talks about Jesus and it says, “The grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly, righteous and godly in this present world”. And so there’s not only grace for salvation, there’s grace for life and living. But finally, and this is what we’re really focusing on this week, is there is grace to fulfill our God-given destiny, our God-given call. He says, “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”. And when you study that out in the Greek, that’s talking about from the foundation of the world, that God actually planned for our salvation and planned, had a plan for our lives.

 

  And you aren’t an accident, you know, a lot of people are just kind of wondering what they should do, just kind of aimlessly wondering through life. But you’re not an accident, if you’re here, God meant for you to be here. He’s actually thought about you even before you were born. God has great things for you, He has a hope and a future for you. So you’re not here by accident. God loves you and He has great things in store for you. You know, one thing that I like studying is the anointing. You know? And the anointing is God’s tangible presence, it’s His power, it’s His purpose, His will. And I believe that when you receive Jesus, the anointing is in you because the anointed one is in you.

 

  Right.

 

  And the anointing in you is gonna lead you to the anointing on you. So the anointing on you, that’s what you’re called to do. So maybe it’s being a parent, a grandparent, a business person, a good neighbor, whatever it is that God has anointed you to do, the anointing in you will lead you to the anointing on you.

 

  Amen. So when you’re born again, you have the spirit of Christ in you. And every born again believer has that, according to Romans 8:9-11. So if you have received Jesus, you have the exact same spirit of Christ, the anointed one in you. That anointing is an anointing to live and that is equal with every believer. But the anointing on you is an anointing to do what God’s called you to do. And that is unique with every person.

 

  And that anointing on you, it might relate to your giftings, it might relate to your, even your spiritual giftings. You know, there’s the charismatic gifts of the spirit, there’s also the motivational gifts. Like some people are better at administration, some people are more prophetic, some people have, you know, mercy, some people are just gifted to give.

 

  Right.

 

  That’s a big purpose they have, a big desire that they have, to be extraordinary givers. And with that usually comes an ability to make money, ’cause you have to have something to give.

 

  Amen. You know, God gives seed to sowers. And if you don’t have seed to sow, I encourage you to, purpose in your heart, to become a sower. I purposed in my heart when I was a young man that I was gonna be a giver. And you know, I started giving as a young man, and God has made it so I can give. And you know what? My giving makes way for my living. My living is not a problem. My purpose really in life is not to make a living. I think if people are just living to make a living, that is just a really sad way. I want to be a blessing to other people. And you know what? I put my focus on others and what God has called me to do, and God has taken care of me in grand style.

 

  Yeah. And God’s grace, when you connect with His grace for your life, it won’t just affect you, it’ll affect other people around you. You know, it’s gonna impact your friendships, it’s gonna impact your family members, it’ll impact people that you work for, it’ll impact your community. That grace, when God pours out His grace in someone’s life, it’s always abundant, there’s always an overflow.

 

  Amen.

 

  And it affects people around you. Like we’re created for good works, those works go beyond yourself, they affect other people around you.

 

  It says that we have those from the foundation of the world. Now Aaron had a scripture that he wanted to share, talking about our grace gifting or our grace call and that’s what, he says they’re in Ephesians 2:10, “We were created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before”, we understand that as before the foundation of the world, “Ordained or chose that we would walk in Him”. And so Aaron, if you wanna share that scripture that you had.

 

  Yeah. This is from one Corinthians chapter one, starting in verse 26. It says, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called”. So God likes to call people that are unusual. He likes to call unusual people to do unusual things.

 

  Amen.

 

  In unusual places. You know, my dad here, Pastor Lawson, you know, this is a very large church, very prominent church, but you grew up in a small country area, you know, farming and ranching and God likes to call people, you know, from the world would consider to be outsiders, the world might not see a great future for. But God likes to call these people, He likes to call the Davids, the Gideons, the Rahabs. He likes to call unusual people because when they enter, you know, His purpose, it’s by His grace. And people know it, it’s a God thing, it’s not just that person’s talent or their charm or their intellect. Man, that had to have been God.

 

  It’s not all of our education and all this. I went and got a very brief education, I had studied actually Berean school. And then after I did the Berean school, I did a couple years of that, then I went and finished a two year course with Dr. Lester Sumrall on, you know, Christian ministry. And then I got my four year course, four year studies, got my four year degree actually while I was pastoring. But I started pastoring when I was 23 years old. And we were pioneering a new church with a group of believers in a very small town, Kit Carson, Colorado. And there were about five other families that helped Mom and I start that church. But I turned 24 within a month of when we moved there to start that church. But, you know, I mean, I was counseling people that were 80 years old that had been filled with the Holy Spirit for 50 years. How do you do that when you’re 23 or 24? You know, you do that by the grace of God. You do that by the gifting, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I knew that God gave me wisdom, so on and so forth. And I see this, even today, I see it really strong in my wife, Barbara, she has tremendous insight, especially into children, relationships, different things. And she can just tell, even sometimes I’ll tell her, “Hey, I was talking to this person, this is what they said”, she’ll say, “They were telling the truth”. She just knows by the spirit. But you know. So God gives us certain things and abilities, and it’s not us, it’s the ability of God.

 

  And I love what it goes on to say here in one Corinthians one going on in verse 27, it says, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are”. You know, I just think about, you know, the disciples that Jesus chose, you know, he picked a lot of people that probably-

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, the religious leaders of the day wouldn’t have even allowed to go to their, you know, their schools or whatever. You know, He picked, like even when people saw them, they noticed they were uneducated, just fishermen, but they could tell that they had been with Jesus.

 

  Right. The Book of Ex talks about that.

 

  Some people might be surprised, like, hey, this person doesn’t have that great of education in this area. They don’t have that much talent in this area, but they’re really succeeding. But people will know that, hey, I can tell that they’ve been with Jesus. And it says in verse 29, “That no flesh to glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord'”.

 

  Amen. So when you talk about, “No flesh glorying in His presence”, I mean, he’s like, “But of God, are you in Christ Jesus”. In Christ, Christos, the anointed one. And Christ has been made unto us. We need to learn to rely on Christ in us, on the anointing of Jesus, that’s really the anointing to live. And Christ is made unto us. It’s not something that we did, but he’s made unto us wisdom. You know, the Bible has, says this in one Corinthians 2:16, but it says, “We have the mind of Christ”. And years ago, I remember I had Andrew Wommack ministering for me in Kit Carson and he asked me if he could pray for me. And I said, “Yeah, pray that I’ll have wisdom”. And he said, “Do you know where wisdom is?”. And I said, “No”. ‘Cause when somebody’s smarter than you is asking you a question, you might want to reply in the negative. And he said, “You have wisdom in you in Christ”. And Colossians 2:3 says, “In Him is hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. So if he says, Christ is in you, and so you have wisdom in you, so you rely on the spirit of Christ in you. And we learn to rely on Christ in us, on the anointing in us, on the spirit, and will lead us into the things of God. And I like what you’re saying. And so Jesus is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So those are four things that are immediately, the moment we’re born again, we have all those things in our spirit. But then they also, we grow in walking them out as we walk with God. And He says that, “It’s according, as it’s written”, in verse 31, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord”. So our glory, our rejoicing is in Christ Jesus. Amen. So we’re rejoicing in Christ, the anointed one, and we know that Christ, the anointed one, is living in us. And we rejoice in His strength. It’s not us, but it’s His grace. Praise the Lord. I’m glad that you’ve been connected here. We’re gonna come back after a short break. If you need prayer, be sure and give us a call. And we’ll be back right after this break, continuing to share about the anointed one in you. Blessings. Hi friends. In my book, “Grace Life”, I share about how I received a revelation of grace over 20 years after I received Jesus as my savior. And that has completely changed my life. And we’re making this available as a free offer to anyone who becomes a new partner with, “Grace For Today”. Thank you so much. And blessings. It says, “Some brought forth 30, some 60, some a hundred fold”. I believe a hundred fold ground, that’s the ground is talking about our heart. The word is talking about the seed. How many of you know the seed is consistent? The word is consistent, but our heart is what changes. In fact, your heart is producing a harvest. If you don’t like the harvest you’re getting, you gotta change the seed you’re allowing to remain in your heart. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve stayed with us. We’ve been sharing about our grace calling and you know, we were sharing at the first part of one Corinthians where Paul is saying, “No flesh should glory in His presence. But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For God is made Christ unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption”. So we have all of those things in us, in Christ. In that we have the spirit of Christ in us. Paul writes in Colossians 1:27, he said, “I’ve been preaching the mystery that’s been hidden from ages and generations, Christ in you, the hope of glory”. And then he goes on and says, “I labor”, in verse 29, “According to His working, which works in me mightily”. So what we need to do is recognize that Christ is in us, right? That we have wisdom, sanctification, righteousness and redemption on the inside of us in Christ. But then we need to release those things. And he says, “I labor, not me, but according to His working, the working of Christ, the anointed one”.

 

  One thing I wanna say too about your grace calling, really God will lead you, if you’re in relationship with God, He’ll lead you through your heart’s desire. You know, Psalm 20:4 says, “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your purpose”. Sometimes people have a heart’s desire for something and they want to put it off on someone else. Like recently someone came to me at church and they have a heart’s desire to produce, you know, Christian entertainment, like shows and film. And they were trying to put it off on me like, “Hey, have the church do this”.

 

  Right.

 

  But it’s your desire. I don’t have a desire to produce a Christian film, it has nothing to do with my desire. But sometimes people have a desire to something to do and it’s a grace that they have, but they try to put it off on someone else.

 

  Yeah.

 

  Maybe another minister, another friend. And this happens quite a bit, you know, someone came to you recently saying, you know, we need to send all of our youth on a mission trip right away. And they have a heart for missions. And you know, they have an influence, they have a sphere of influence where they could take some people with them. But it might not necessarily mean like, hey, my pastor should do this and he should take everyone, right? So sometimes just because it’s your desire doesn’t mean you need to go put it off on someone else. That’s your grace, that’s your desire, that’s the direction God’s leading you in.

 

  Amen.

 

  So you can do it, you know, you can, if it’s your desire to make a film, then you go for it, you know, don’t have your, put it off on your pastor, say, “Hey, this is what you should do. This is what the grace for you”. But because it’s not, you know? I know that I’m not a filmmaker.

 

  Right. It’s interesting about this, when I first started pastoring, so we start pastoring and I’m 23, you know, turned 24 in the first month, and we’re pastoring in Eastern Colorado. And we were divinely called and directed to go there and the people were directed by the Holy Spirit to have us in this Bible study to start this church. But anyway, people would come up saying exactly, “Pastor, we need to do something about this”. And I’d say, “Well, you can go do that”. And then a little bit later they’d come, you know, another week or two, “Well, you need to do this”, and I’m like, “Well I just release you. I just, you can just go do that”. And I noticed that after a little bit, they quit telling me to do all that stuff. Now I kept myself busy, it wasn’t like I didn’t have things to do and I didn’t stay on top of it, I stayed on top of a lot of stuff. But at the same point in time, I couldn’t do everything for everybody all the time. So even though it was a smaller area and a small church, you know? So anyway, I noticed they quit telling me so many things to do when I started telling them, “Hey, if you’re called to do this, that’s great. Just go ahead”.

 

  Yeah. And, you know, let God direct your heart’s desire and He’ll grant you, you know?

 

  Amen.

 

  He’ll grant you the grace to do it. He might not grant someone else the grace to do it, but He’ll grant you the grace to do it. You know, so may He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your purpose.

 

  Amen. And you know, God leads us according to the desire of our heart. You know, the Bible actually says in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”. You know, recently I was with a group of ministers and I was with Andrew Wommack, and we were sharing, and we were talking about the call of God. And we were, I was specifically talking about the call of God to pastor. Now I personally would not wanna pastor a church if God did not call me to pastor a church. That’s a fivefold ministry gift given by the Lord Jesus. And I wouldn’t wanna pastor in an area that God didn’t call me to pastor in. So I believe in being lead and directed by the Lord. But just about this overall calling, Andrew Wommack shared that there were some older, very successful ministers that shared, you shouldn’t even really go into the fivefold ministry unless you feel like, you know, I just cannot, you know, keep from doing this. Which is kind of the experience that I had as a young man. I was on the farm and I felt like if I did not do it, I was really gonna disobey God. So there’s a very strong call on my life and I knew it, that this is what God has called me to do. And even I made decisions about financial things, my grandparents offered to give me this ranch and the livestock was worth over a million dollars. And they said, “We’ll give this to you”, when I was just 17 years old, “If you’ll stay and run it”. And I said, “I can’t do that because I know that God has called me and I don’t know that I can stay and run it”. If they would’ve given it to me unconditionally without that condition, I would’ve received it. But they did not offer that, so I did not receive it. So, you know, we need to understand the calling of God. God calls us and God directs us. And if God calls us, then God, you know, has anointed us to do what He’s called us to do.

 

  He’s gonna give you wisdom too. I like that. You know, we share that Christ has become for us, you know, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You know, God will give you supernatural wisdom to do what you’re called to do. You know, and this is a, you know, advice for parents out there, you know, people might have advice for you how to raise your kids, but ultimately, God entrusted those kids to you. So you need to listen to God first about the wisdom, you know, to raise your kids. Amen.

 

  Amen. Yeah so we have the mind of Christ, and God leads us with wisdom. And we have been redeemed from every curse, so God leads us into redemption, leads us into blessing. We’ve been sanctified. And our spirit’s already sanctified, but God leads us in sanctification. You know, Aaron, I know I didn’t beat the message of holiness or sanctification into you when you were a child, but, you know, you and your brothers, you know, you were seven years old when I got a revelation of grace. I know that as I got that revelation and I taught that, that got in your spirit. And so I was excited when you went to college and got out on your own that you, I heard you saying things like, “I can’t be there and I can’t do that because I’m sanctified, I’m set apart to God”. And it wasn’t something that I had beat in you or made you do, it wasn’t a legalistic thing. But it was the desire of your heart. And God leads us by the desire of our heart. And God leads us by our understanding of Christ and Christ in us.

 

  Yeah. And God will, yeah that grace for you, it’ll also come with supernatural favor too. You’ll see that God will connect you with the right people to help you grow in that grace calling on your life.

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, God doesn’t just have you do things on your own, you can grow in the grace that He’s given you. And He’ll do that through relationships, it might be mentors, it might be teachers, it might be friendships, but God will actually connect you with the right people to help you go down the path He’s called for you. And you need to be led by favor too, you know, if you don’t have favor with a certain relationship, you don’t have to go down it, you know?

 

  Yeah.

 

  That’s especially true for, you know, like young people figuring out who they’re gonna marry. If someone doesn’t really see your value, like you don’t need to keep trying to get that person to recognize how valuable you are.

 

  Hey. If you kick down a door, you may not like what’s behind it. So look for the open doors, the one that God opens and God opens doors and God closes doors. And you know, we’re talking about relationships. I love this Aaron, because you know, really God has used relationships in my life. And early on when I was just 14 years old, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and called to preach in the ministry of Andrew Wommack. And you know, Andrew really taught me a love for the word of God. And we’re gonna have Andrew in this broadcast later this week and he’s gonna be sharing with us on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And praise God, it’s awesome. You know, the revelation, and I still have that relationship after 46 years. And then when Andrew Wommack left Lamar, where I was, after a couple years after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in His meetings, he moved here to Colorado Springs. But then God eventually placed me in a good full gospel spirit filled church. And that pastor immediately saw the callings in me, pastor Kenny Davis of Lamar, Colorado. And he began to develop me in Bible doctrine, in good teaching, in different things like that. And then I was led by the Spirit and directed to go to Dr. Lester Sumrall’s. And at Dr. Sumrall’s, I had a tremendous amount of favor with Dr. Sumrall. And that’s after I looked at a couple very prominent Bible schools in other areas. And the Holy Spirit did not lead me to go there. And Dr. Sumrall had World Harvest Bible College, it wasn’t a very large college at that time, but that’s where God wanted me to go. And probably because the anointing on Dr. Sumrall and the personal impartation that I receive from that. And so God’s given me mentors in the ministry, but God’s also given me mentors financially. And I’ve had mentors, you know, God took me to Kit Carson, which is a very small place, and He surrounded me with some farmers that farmed thousands and thousands of acres. And those men imparted vision on the inside of me. And so I learned from Andrew Wommack, right? A love for the word. I love from my pastor in Lamar, Colorado, pastor Kenny Davis, good doctrine. I learned, you know, from Dr. Lester Sumrall, a love for souls. And then God placed people around me and gave me wisdom in business and different things. And you know, even earlier at the turn of the year, this last year, I was praying because I had a couple of my mentors pass away. And I was praying and asking God to open doors for me in financial relationships. And then supernaturally, God connected me with people and different things. And I know it’s gonna go in a good direction. And I can see the hand of God. I prayed and God answered. And you know what? God will do that for anyone. If you’re called and anointed to do something, God will help you and God will put people in your life to help you get where He wants you to go.

 

  And that grace, yeah, it’s poured out in the way of favor too. You know, grace is God’s unconditional love, unconditional power towards you.

 

  Amen.

 

  Unconditional ability for you. But He’s gonna connect it with favor as well. Favor, you know, His favor, but also favor with people as well. Favor with the right doors, the right relationships, so you can grow in that purpose that He has for you.

 

  Amen. So God has an amazing plan. He has an amazing purpose for every person. You know, He doesn’t have anything less than, you know, absolute good things for every person that He has planned. And you know, that begins through us believing on Jesus, receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And then it continues, you know, as we develop a relationship with Jesus through the Word and through the Holy Spirit. And it continues, like you’re talking about Aaron, through other relationships that God gives us to help us develop the call on the inside of us. If you need prayer today for salvation, healing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or if you wanna become a partner, just give us a call. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and blessings.

 

  The apostle Paul understood the importance of equipping the next generation to succeed in all areas of life. Delve into Paul’s first letter to Timothy and see exactly how Paul was training Timothy to become a successful leader. The, “Grace Life”, book is available for purchase for $12.99 on our website. If you become a monthly partner today, we’ll send it out to you free of charge. You can contact us at 719-418-4000 or sign up on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com/give. Friends, it’s great to have you with us today, and I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently in one service I had people from 10 nations and several states, they watch us on a regular basis online. And they said, “This is amazing”. So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online at Charis Christian Center or YouTube. Blessings. Friend, I want to invite you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that he died for my sins. I believe that you raised him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord. And right now I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen. Thanks so much friends for being with us today. Blessings.

 

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