Journey of Faith Part 3 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue – 12/30/2024

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. We’re gonna be sharing about Isaac today, how he began to prosper, how he continued to prosper, how he became very prosperous, because he had possession. Did you know what? God wants the church! He wants the body of Christ to have possession of physical things as well as spiritual reality. Stay tuned. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. So glad to have my son, Aaron. And we’re sharing on Aaron’s teaching really on the journey of faith. And we’ve been talking about earlier this week that faith is not just a movement, but faith is a lifestyle. The Bible says in Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” But then we begin to move into another area and we shared from Job 8:7, “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end will greatly increase.” And then we moved into Genesis chapter 26.

Yeah, and God, He’s designed faith to be a part of your life. Now His plan for your life requires faith.

Lawson Right.

But without faith, it’s impossible to please Him, because those who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder-

Lawson Yeah.

Of those who diligently seek him. God has a lot of promises for us. He has an inheritance of promises for us. But it takes faith to walk into those things, to really, to see those things be fulfilled in your life. And sometimes people miss what God’s telling them to do because initially things might seem small. Maybe His instruction, His direction for you is very small. Sometimes people get so spiritual, that they miss the very simple things.

Right.

You know? And it’s ’cause they don’t wanna do the simple things. They think they’re insignificant, but man, great faith, it’s sometimes, it’s just, often it involves just the simplest of things being done consistently over a long period of time. Maybe you want to be a great minister, go change the world. But are you nice to your wife?

Right.

Are you just mean to her all the time? Are you just a grouch to be with? Some of the smallest things you might not really care about because it’s not on a big platform and a lot of people aren’t seeing it, but God cares about those small things.

Lawson Right.

And I like what the Bible says in Job eight, verse seven. Job is actually one of the books of wisdom. There’s a lot of wisdom in Job, just like in the book of Proverbs.

Lawson Right.

But in Job eight, verse seven, this great verse of wisdom, it says, “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.”

Lawson Yeah!

God looks at the small things, other people might not look at them, other people might not care about them. But God looks at those small things and sometimes he speaks to you in a small way. He has you do something that might seem small, but God can use that small thing to just bring that multiplication in your life.

Right, I wanna talk testimony about that scripture. We started this church in the year 2001. God actually spoke to me on January 4th, 2001, while I was in my office at our church, the other church that Mom and I, with a group of believers in Eastern Colorado, planted in Kit Carson, Colorado. Very small community, town of 300. We had been there at that point in time, 13 years. But as I was sitting in the desk in the morning and as I’m meditating on the scripture and praying, and God just spoke to me and said, “Go to Colorado Springs and start a church, Charis Christian Center.” I had that word confirmed. I went home later, told Mom and she said, “We need to get with it.” And then later that week, I spoke to Andrew Wommack on Sunday following that, I believe it was on a Thursday morning that God spoke to me, actually your birthday and called Andrew Wommack Sunday afternoon. And Andrew Wommack said, “That’s God, you need to get with it.” And so we had that word spoken to me, confirmed by your mom, confirmed by Andrew Wommack, who was one of my mentors and actually my main mentor at that point in time. Because Lester Sumrall, who had been one of my main mentors, had went on to be with Jesus. And so Andrew said, “You need to get with it.” So we came up to Colorado Springs a week after that on January 11th. Actually met with the pastor of one of the largest churches here in Colorado Springs. He gave us some great advice on that day and began to look at houses. And then, we started a Bible study the 1st of March. And this Bible study I thought, well, I’ll have 20 or 30 people I knew at least 50 people up in the Colorado Springs area. A lot of them, I’d led to the Lord, different things. But we started this Bible study the first Thursday of March, and six people showed up. So it was a terrible, hard start. I think about $11 or something came in the offering, but I took it and put it in the bank in the Charis Ministries account, which became Charis Christian Center. Then the next week, somebody gave me $1,000 at the Bible study. So I thought, well, somebody believed in me. Now I am totally committed because God has entrusted me with this. And so I was committed to doing it. But we continued the Bible study, for another six months, we actually had the Bible study. And it never grew to over 20 people in six months. And then during the summer, Mom and I had bought a house. We moved here, we fixed that house, moved here in July, resigned our church in Kit Carson. And we actually had our first service on September 9th, which was two days before 9/11, 2001. And we had that and we had about 20 people in it in the first service. And that’s after I handed out 10,000 flyers. So then the next year, February, so we’ve been going at this for a year now since God spoke to us and we’ve been coming up here and counseling with people. And actually we’ve been, since the Bible study started 11 months, but in February, Mary Peterson, and Mary and Mike helped us start the church. And Mary Peterson had a word on a Sunday in February of 2002, after we’d been going for nearly a year with the Bible study, and then the church for about six months. She had this word, “That though your beginning was small, yet your latter end will greatly increase.” And we actually had 40 people with kids and all there that Sunday. And I felt like we had a landslide, but it just took us a long time. It was a very slow start. It took us about a year of actually having physical services then to get to 80 people. And another six months to get to 100. After about two years, we were about 200. After three years, we had our third anniversary service. And Andrew Wommack actually preached, and by then we’d moved to his facility. We actually had the first service in his facility on Elkton Drive in the first Sunday of October, or the last Sunday of September, I think it was the first Sunday of October, 2004, Andrew preached for us. And we had 400, and I believe it was 80 people, maybe only 420, but right in the 400 numbers. We had people there that day. And that was one of Andrew Womack’s largest meetings ever. And a lot of people think about Andrew had, 2004, Andrew had been on television then since 1978. So he’d been going 26 years. He’d now been on television three years. This was one of his biggest meetings that he’d ever had. And he had in the 400s. Now, Andrew has thousands and thousands of people. Now we have in our church about 1,000 people that meet every week on a Sunday. and we’re very grateful to God. We’re very thankful. But some people think, well, that’s insignificant. But if God’s in it’s not insignificant. I don’t believe that the time that we spent, Aaron, in Kit Carson pastoring in a town of 300 where we had a church of about 100 for 13 years was insignificant. I don’t believe that first year was insignificant. I don’t believe that anything was insignificant. It just takes time sometimes when you’re moving into the plan and the purpose of God. But many times people despise the day of small beginnings. And so it’s important for us not to look down on the small beginnings, because it’s sometimes necessary for us to learn lessons and build things at a smaller level that we can use then to help us when we get to a larger level.

So we talked about that, just not despising small beginnings. And when you trust God with even small things, or He might lead you to do something small, God likes to also use people that the world might overlook. You look at the disciples that Jesus picked. They weren’t the most successful, the most educated, and most influential.

Lawson Right.

They were pretty normal, even problematic at times. But that blessing of Jesus that’s on your life, it’s a blessing of a multiplication.

Right.

God sees that full potential in you. He sees it in other people. So don’t despise small beginnings.

Right.

God can use great things and do great things. He a God of multiplication. The blessing of the Lord, it’s a blessing of multiplication.

Lawson Right.

And we talked about Isaac in Genesis 26, how this is kind of early on in his story, but he was facing a severe famine.

Lawson Right.

And it said it as like the famine that his father Abraham experienced. Abraham, God instructed Abraham to go to Egypt to ride out the famine.

Lawson Right.

To survive the famine. But God told Isaac to do something different. Faith is doing what God tells you to do. And he speaks to us through his word, but sometimes he might instruct you to do something differently than maybe he instructed someone else to do. So God instructed Isaac and told him, “You need to stay put.”

Right.

So Isaac stayed put, it said he was to dwell there in that land. And sometimes it takes faith to move, to go start something else. A lot of people get excited sometimes about having faith to move, to move to Africa, to move to Europe, to move wherever to Asia. But oftentimes faith is staying.

Lawson Right.

Faith is staying where God has called you to be and to stay. And sometimes people tell me, “Well, God told me to move. God told me to quit, God told me.” But I get excitement when I hear people say, “God told me to stay, even though it might be difficult, even though there might be something difficult going on, God has called me to stay.”

But it’s not only what God has called you to do, it’s when he called you to do it, so right, the timing, many times is as important as what God’s called you to do, because you can do the right thing and do it at the wrong time, and it’ll be the wrong thing. Because it will actually, it has potential to destroy you. Moses delayed the children of Israel by 10 years because he got ahead of God 30 years. So it’s important. Timing is very, very important in fulfilling God’s plan and God’s purpose for your life.

So Isaac, he dwelt there and it says that he sowed in that land. So even though as a time of famine, he sowed in the land, he sowed because he believed God’s promise. He knew that he was blessed.

Lawson Right.

He was gonna multiply, even though he is a famine, I’m gonna sow, I’m gonna stay. You sow because you’re planning on staying.

Lawson Right.

When people are planning on quitting, people are planning on moving. they stop taking care of things, they stop-

Lawson Right.

They stop planting things. They stop investing in things. Stop investing in people because they’re planning on exiting.

Lawson Right.

But if you’re gonna stay, you’re gonna be a leader. You’re gonna keep investing, you’re gonna keep showing up.

Lawson Amen.

You’re gonna keep being consistent. And it said he sewed in the time of famine. And in that same year, reaped 100 fold blessing,

Amen and we’re gonna come back right after this very short break, and we’re gonna be sharing on what happened to him. And you don’t wanna miss this because it is so important. And I believe that God wants to bless you, just like he blessed Isaac. And you know what? And so we’ll be back right after this short break. Stay tuned. Hi, friends, today we’ve been teaching on the journey of faith. And we actually have a lot more information on this, on our website at Charischristiancenter.com. We have hundreds of hours of downloadable audio, downloadable video, and a free children’s curriculum on our website. So check it out at Charischristiancenter.com today. Blessings. I’ll tell you how to get your prayers answered! Jesus actually said this, “If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you’ll ask what you will. And it shall be done unto you.” You’ve taken up residence in him. Let his word abide in you, praise God. And just call on the name of Jesus. Friends, I’m so glad that you continued with us. We’re gonna share more on what happens. After we begin, we need to continue, until we become very, very prosperous, amen?

So we see that in the life of Isaac, we’re talking about the journey of faith and how faith is really, it’s a lifetime call for every believer. Faith is not-

Lawson Amen.

Just a momentary thing, but it’s really God’s design for your life.

Lawson Amen.

God’s plan for your life. It always involves faith, every step of the way. So we’re talking about Isaac and his journey of faith, how he was facing a great famine, and this is in Genesis 26. And God called him to stay put and he sowed in that land even though there’s a famine going on, because he believed that the blessing of the Lord was on his life and that he was supposed to stay.

Right.

So he put two and two together and said, “You know what? I’m gonna keep investing, I’m gonna keep sowing.” And it says in that same year, he reaped 100 fold harvest.

And the Lord blessed him.

Yeah, and you know, and it says something very important here. The Lord blessed him. This is Genesis 26, verse 13. It says, “The man began to prosper, continued prospering until he became very prosperous.”

Yeah, and I wanna stop right there, and I’m gonna let you continue, but I wanna read it in the King James. It says, “The man waxed great. And he said he went forward and he grew until he became very great.” If something’s gonna wax like wax melting on a candle, that takes time. It doesn’t happen all at once. So he began to prosper, right? He said, and he continued prospering. He went forward. I told a man recently, and I was encouraging him in the realm of his physical health. I said, “Go forward!” In other words, you stay at this plan, don’t quit. Don’t let up until you get the victory. I told him when he actually had a terrible diagnosis, but I told him right at the onset, we already know the end from the beginning and the end from the beginning is this, by Jesus stripes, you were healed. That’s a word for somebody right now. That is the end of the story. By Jesus stripes, you already have been healed. Now what do you gotta do between now and then? Well, God uses different things to get different people to that end, but that is the end of the story. That’s the gospel truth. So “He waxed great, he went forward and he grew until he became very great.” He began to prosper, right? He continued to prosper and he became very prosperous. Go ahead, Aaron.

Yeah, and some people have faith to begin, some people have a lot of excitement to start new things.

Lawson Right.

But they don’t really have faith to continue.

Lawson Right.

I know some people, they’ll just go, they’ve had like 100 different girlfriends. They’re always excited.

Lawson That’s terrible.

This is the one, this is the one, this is the one, they have that faith to begin, but they never continue anything. They never actually get married.

Right.

But you need to have faith to begin, faith to continue, faith to become. Last year something happened, significant, I believe here in Colorado, but the University of Colorado at Boulder hired a new head football coach by the name of Dion Sanders, one of the most famous football players to ever step on the field in the US. And he had a phenomenal career in the pros. And he’s a college coach now. And Boulder hired him and he’s a very outspoken Christian. So I was very excited, because Boulder is very liberal, it’s very anti-Christian. But they hired this very outspoken believer to be in a prominent position. I knew it was a God thing. And he had this slogan as they’re starting out their first season, and it was, “We coming, we coming,” there’s a lot of hype, there’s a lot of excitement because “We coming.” They actually started off with a bang. They won their first three games. One of those games, they actually beat the number two team from the year before, Texas Christian University was number two. They just lost in the championship the year before. So it was a huge upset that and the year before CU Boulder, I think had 0 wins and like 12 losses. They’re terrible. So they started off 3-0, but then they did, people figured them out. They figured out their offense and would just smack their quarterback which is Dion Sanders’s sons. He’d just get blitzed all the time, just get smacked. They just lost pretty much every game the rest of the season. So people were wondering. There’s a lot of hype. “We coming,” they started off strong, but then things, that might be like you, maybe like God call you something. It started off good, but then just-

The devil figured you out.

Yeah, as a famine kind of early on. But I wanted to see what was gonna happen. “We coming,” it is exciting, but people wondering, is he gonna go to another team, ’cause it got difficult? And he said no. His whole message was we staying, he didn’t say about, I knew he was staying because he was trying to recruit. During the off season he was trying to recruit, he was trying to build a team. He was saying, “Hey, I’m staying here. I’m not going anywhere. Because I’m staying, you can trust me as your coach. You young players come here to Boulder. I wanna meet parents, I wanna meet players. I’m gonna invest in your kids.”

Yes.

For them to be great football players, but also to be great people. He actually preaches the gospel to his players. He cares about them. He’s investing-

Amen!

In them spirit, soul, and body and this second season now, it’s not been easy, but they’re actually doing a lot better. They’re playing pretty good. They’re winning right now. Have a winning season so far. And they’re playing pretty good football. But I can tell he’s investing, he’s sowing.

I can tell you, I’ll prophesy to you. I believe they’ll become very, very good. And they’ll be on the winning side. I believe they’ll have a winning season this year. And we’re early in the season as we’re recording this. But I believe in the years to come, they’re going to win and win and win and become one of the top teams in college football throughout the nation at this higher level. And Dionne, very outspoken about his faith in God and God bringing him here. And I believe God’s doing something in the state of Colorado. And we’re kind of liberal politically, which is sad. Here in El Paso County, the rural areas we’re still very, very conservative and stand up for the right issues. But the Denver Broncos got a new quarterback this year, and he’s a strong believer. He actually went to Chris Hodge’s church and he’s kind of had a rough start. But I was watching yesterday, and they had a great game yesterday. And when I was watching this game, they were actually showing some things. And they said he’s actually started out better than John Elway started out, who was the, of course, the winiest quarterback ever.

Well, Tim Tebow is a quarterback here for Broncos.

Yeah, very outspoken Christian. It’s very sad that what happened to Tim. But this guy’s a believer and he’s strong and he kind of had a little rough start, but he’s a strong believer. And I believe that they were showing that he’s actually started out better than John Elway started out.

So you didn’t have that faith to begin, but faith to continue.

Amen.

And faith to become, and again sometimes you see people that have faith to begin, but they don’t really continue anything. They just bounce from job to job to job or move from place to place to place. Go from relationship to relationship to relationship.

Lawson That’s no good.

Some people actually that they might have faith in the end, but not faith to begin.

Lawson Right.

The beginning just scares ’em off because some people don’t even have that.

There are people like that. I dated your mom, I don’t recommend this, but I asked her to marry me on the third date. But I had prayed a lot about it. I was very close to God. And it’s worked out very well. We’ve been married 40 years this year, celebrating 40 years of marriage. We’ve had a great marriage. It wasn’t always easy. It’s kinda like my friend Bobby Crow who’s talking about it. He said, “Well, we’ve been married 53 years.” He said, “The last 37 have been great.”

He said 37, those years have been great.

So yeah, the last 37. But what he is saying, they had some challenges at the beginning. He was actually just telling a joke. But we were kinda challenged at the beginning, but we stayed at it. And you know what? We’ve got great faith in God. Your mom’s a great woman of faith. She married me, hallelujah.

Yeah, and looking at Isaac, that faith to begin, to continue until you become, I like what it says about his prosperity. God has a lot of promises for provision,

Lawson Yes!

For prosperity, the Bible actually says, “The blessing of the Lord makes someone rich and he adds no sorrow with it.” But it says here in verse 14, I think this is actually very significant. It says, “Isaac had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.”

Lawson Amen.

And notice he had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, flocks and herds are things that can multiply.

Amen.

The blessing, of the Lord is a blessing of multiplication. So you need to have things that can multiply.

Yes, amen. When God blessed Abraham or Adam in the creation, after God blessed Adam and God blessed Eve, he told them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth. Then he gave them every herb bearing seed, right? Things that could multiply and every beast of the earth wherein there was life. So he gave them things that could multiply. So not only did God tell them to do something and give them a responsibility, but God gave them ability to do it. And I’m here to tell you that you can do whatever God called you to do. “Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.” And if God called you to do it, God’s equipped you to do it. God’s given you what it takes to get the job done. So he had possession, and some believers, they don’t ever possess anything. But I believe that God wants us to possess. I know people that don’t have faith like you’re talking, Aaron, to get married. I had one of my close cousins tell me, “Don’t marry Barbara! That’s not God.” I said, “Well, I’m marrying her and not you.” Praise God, now, we’ve been married 40 years, he’s a member of my church and we’re good friends, but I’ve had people, “Don’t get in that investment.” And now I’ve prospered over and over again, or don’t buy that church or don’t buy that house. things that are appreciating in value. And I believe that God wants the church to have possession.

And it says here that the Philistines envied him.

Right.

So these people who weren’t people of faith-

Right.

Envied Isaac for what? That blessing that was on his life.

He became very prosperous. And you know what? Over the years God has prospered mom and I. Billy Epperhart, who’s a great financial teacher, says that Mom and I are ahead of over, we’re less than 5% of people will get to where we are financially.

Yeah, and I wanna say this too, about the blessing of the Lord. It does affect you financially, but that blessing, it goes way beyond that. There are people who have a lot of money, but they’re very poor people.

Right, they’re poor spiritually or poor in their family.

Yeah.

Right?

So God, that blessing, it brings true richness. The promised land, it was land flowing with milk and honey, the fat and the sweet.

Lawson Amen.

God wants to bring fatness and sweetness to your life. So keep trusting him and be very cognizant. Be very aware of what he’s telling you to do.

Lawson Amen.

And it might seem insignificant in the beginning, but have faith to begin, faith to continue, faith to become and do what he’s called you to do. And keep sowing where he calls you to sow.

Again, the blessing of the Lord. It’s not only spiritually. I believe God wants to bless you spiritually. He wants to bless you physically. He wants to bless you emotionally. He wants to bless you financially. And he wants to bless you relationally. And we have a lot of teaching, actually, hundreds and hundreds of hours of teaching that you can access free of charge on these subjects, blessings. Friends, I want to tell you about a great resource that we have available on our website, absolutely free of charge for your children. It’s a two year children’s curriculum, teaching them who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is, who they are, and many other promises of God, written by a professional curriculum writer. And I developed all the outlines for it. It will be great for your children and we made it free just for you. Blessings.

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. Cathy 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’ll also be ministering. It’s gonna be a great time. Look forward to seeing you there.

Friends, I want to 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.

Announcer Thanks for watching “Grace for Today.” This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”