Living the Dream – Part 1 Lawson And Aaron Perdue

  Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in. I’m glad that you’re with us today. We’re gonna begin a brand new series today on “Living the Dream”, praise God. I believe if you’re born again, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can live the dream. You can experience the goodness of God, and your life will testify to the world of how good God is. Stay tuned, bless you. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I have Aaron, I’m excited to have Aaron. We’re talking about “Living the Dream” and thank God we live an amazing life in Jesus Christ. And I remember years ago I read a book by TL Osborne called “The Good Life”, and when I read that book, I thought, this is almost too good to be true, I was probably about 20 years old. And it wasn’t very long after that that Andrew Wommack came out preaching that the gospel is the almost too good to be true news of what Jesus has already done for you. So the good life is in Christ. And when we’re talking about “Living the Dream”, we’re gonna begin with this scripture in Psalm 126, but it says in verse one, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them who dream.” I like it in the modern English. It says, “When the Lord restored the captives of Zion, when the children of Israel came back to their homeland”, it says, “we were like those who dream.” Praise God, what a marvelous thing. And we have left the bondage of sin and the bondage of the world and the bondage of slavery to sin and we’re living the good life, we’re living the free life, we’re living the dream in Jesus.

 

  Jesus has actually taken captivity captive.

 

  Yeah, that’s great.

 

  You know, one thing that the enemy does when he tries to take people captive, he really tries to affect their heart, their soul, their imagination, their ability to dream. You know, if someone’s held captive, they might be held captive physically, but often people will lose, they’ll be held captive in their soul.

 

  Right.

 

  And the enemy likes to take people captive in their soul and people will lose their ability to dream. You know, I have two young children and you can tell they love to dream. They love to, you know, my nine year old son likes to dress up and pretend he’s a, you know, an astronaut or pretend he’s a firefighter. You know, children love to dream and to pretend, you know, think about what they’ll be in the future. And one thing that the enemy does, he’ll take people’s souls captive and they’ll lose the ability to dream.

 

  Yeah, so we wanna keep dreaming, praise God. And actually Jesus, like you said, took captivity captive. It talks about that in Ephesians chapter 4. And it’s talking about how when he was crucified, he went to the grave and he literally had authority in the grave and he took Satan, he took captivity captive, and then it says, he gave gifts to men. And so when he was raised from the dead, he sent the Holy Spirit and gave gifts to us in the church, and we don’t have to live in that bondage anymore. And so when I look at this, it says, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.” Another translation of this says it seemed too good to be true. So again, the gospel is the almost too good to be true news of what Jesus has done. It’s really, I believe, talking about covenant blessing. We live in covenant blessing. Thank God we are blessed in Christ and we’re living a good life, it’s amazing. And I know sometimes we get challenged, but it’s just so much better believing God than it would be not believing Jesus, there’s no comparison. Praise God, when we go on down, it says, “Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing and they said among the heathen, “The Lord has done great things for them.”” You know, when we come into this covenant blessing, when we’ve come into redemption, we have great joy, and we have a tremendous joy that comes from Jesus, and we don’t have to be like the world. You know, the Bible says, “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.” And it talks about joy in a number of ways. The joy of the Lord is our strength. “And even though weeping may endure for a moment,” Psalm 30 verse 5 says, “Joy comes in the morning.” And so there may be challenges, there are gonna be challenges. Jesus said, “In the world, you’re gonna have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” And really, there’s three cheers when you go through the gospels. Number one, Jesus said, “Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.” Because our sins are forgiven, because we’re saved, because we’re in right relationship with God, we need to rejoice, number one. Another place, he says, “Be of good cheer.” You know, they’re in a storm and the disciples are going through this storm, and Jesus comes walking on the sea of Galilee, and would’ve passed them by, but they cried out and said, “Lord is it you?” And Jesus said, “Be of good cheer, it’s I. be not afraid”, so we can be of good cheer, number one, because we’re forgiven, we can be of good cheer, number two, because the Lord hasn’t left us. You know, we’ve recently went through a difficulty, it’s challenging for me, and you know, my good friend Bobby Crow from Old Mexico called me. Bobby pastors a great church there of over 2000 people, does ministry around the world, but Bobby’s like, Lawson, you need to remember who’s in the boat with you, praise God, and he gave me a word, Lawson, this is gonna be all right. The Lord’s helping you, you’re gonna be okay. And we are okay, God’s with us, we’re very, very blessed. But it doesn’t mean because you’re blessed, because you’re in covenant with God, that you never face a storm, that you never have a difficulty, that you never have a challenge. And then the third cheer, Jesus said, number one, be of good cheer because your sins are forgiven. Number two, be of good cheer because I haven’t left you, I’m still with you, you don’t have to be afraid. But number three, he says, be of good cheer. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. And so we can overcome the challenges, the difficulties, the problems of this world through our faith in Jesus Christ.

 

  I love that second verse there in Psalm 126 that it says, they said among the heathen or among the nations, you know, among non-believing people, the Lord has done great things for them.

 

  Right?

 

  You know, when, you know, non-believers look at your life, they should be able to see that there’s something different about you, and there’s something positive about what’s happening in your life. And and oftentimes nonbelievers won’t be able to explain it. They won’t be able to….

 

  Yeah.

 

  Like, why are you so blessed, why are you so happy, why are you not worried, why…? You know, like they can’t explain it. And sometimes you might notice this, you know, when you go back to a, like a, maybe a class reunion, maybe some of your non-believing friends see what God’s done for you in the past 20 years, that should be the testament the Lord has done great things for them. They should see that, yeah, there’s something different about you and that could cause it. God wants, you know, he wants you to represent him. You know, we’re his ambassadors. And as an ambassador, you know, of a nation, you know, that ambassador should, should represent the nation well, not just make everyone think, well, look at that ambassador. They’re just so beat up and depressed and poor and-.

 

  No, we aren’t.

 

  Broken.

 

  You know, we’re blessed.

 

  Like, as an ambassador, God wants you to represent him well. He wants you to represent his kingdom well. And when people look at you as an ambassador of his kingdom, they should say, man, I wanna join that kingdom, I wanna, I wanna be, there’s something different. The Lord has done great things for them.

 

  Right, so I just think of a couple of times in our life, I think of one, when we were in Kit Carson, you know, we were 24, 25 years old just starting out, Mom and I, and you were just a, you know, a little, little boy. But we had people from the world, I remember one person and he came to look when we put our house and God gave us a supernatural deal. We bought a house at DIA, when they were building DIA, and we had that house moved. The whole deal was supernatural how God put it together. You know, I found out about this auction on a Wednesday. A guy by the name of Mike Angel from Kansas had called, we didn’t know that he was an angel, and he said, he asked mom, we were living in low income housing, and he asked mom, he said, “Is there anything I can pray for you about?” I didn’t have a telephone at my office. My office was this little tin shed by the railroad tracks, and I was very happy with it. One of the people in the church owned this grain elevator there, an old grain elevator and had a tin shed. And, you know, I swept the cobwebs out, cleaned the place up, painted it, you know, it did have running water, so I had a toilet that worked and, you know, but I just walked over there and went to work every day and went back home at lunch, went back home in the evening. But this Mike Angel called and asked Mom, is there anything you need prayer for? And she said, “Yeah, I need a house.” And so he prayed for her and then it was like the next day or two that I found out from Charlie Nordquister, Kerry Pickett’s daddy, he told me about this auction in Denver and I had a contract on a piece of property to buy it, and you had to have a stick-built house. And at this auction, at DIA, they had only one stick-built house. And mom wanted a three bedroom, two bath house with a eat-in kitchen and a two car garage, an attached two car garage. This one stick built house had exactly what your mother wanted. And I went up there to Denver and we had a contractor move that house from DIA to Kit Carson and put it on a basement that we had built for $7,000 to move in. People had a contract to move that into Denver, and it was like 12,500. Well, we ended up giving 7,500, we gave him 500 extra. But, you know, it was supernatural how God set that whole deal up. And I went up and I was planning on paying $20,000 and you had to have a certified check. I didn’t have a certified check, I went to the auction on Friday. But anyway, I waited till everybody else paid, everybody else was gone, and then I went up and paid. But that morning I called mom, we were planning on paying 20,000, and I said, “Mom, let’s believe that we get this house for $17,000.” So we set ourselves in agreement, we bought that house for $16,500. And by the time we moved it and put it on a basement, put all the utilities in, put the sewer in, did all the things in the property, the land and everything, it was just less than 40,000, it was a miracle. And you know what? That’s what I was believing. So she was believing for a specific house, I was believing for a specific amount of money that I knew we could afford at that time. And, you know, people came and looked and they said, “I wanna see what it looks like to live on the other side.” And they were saying that like, you know, in a, maybe a little bit derogatory manner, ’cause they were just heathens. But you know what? Our life does testify to people about the goodness of God. I remember driving out way out in the country from Kit Carson, there’s some people visited the church, and they said, and this was in the first year or two that we were there, and they said, “Man, it must be nice to be a rich preacher.” And I thought, what do they think, rich preacher? And mom and I, you know, we were making maybe $1000 a month plus housing allowance, it wasn’t a lot of money. And we had you, and Andrew, and not very long Peter was born. And I thought, man, you know, they just don’t know what we’re dealing with. It was taking every nickel just to, just to, you know, balance the budget, and I’ve always been committed to living within our means. But then, you know, God came, and God helped us. But you know, our life testifies to other people of the goodness of God. And we want our life to testify, we all want our life to be a testimony. I know recently one of the people that went to college with you had been watching you on YouTube or on Facebook or something, and they got ahold of you and said how much it ministered to them. Your life testifies of the goodness of God. Our lives testify of the goodness of God, and it’s good that we remember that. You know, so many people tend to forget about God and how much he’s done for them, and we don’t want to be like those who’ve forgotten the goodness of God. Praise the Lord. Well, if you stay with us, we’re gonna come back, and we’re gonna talk some more from Psalm 126 about living the dream, about the blessed life. We have a blessed life in Christ. And so stay back, stay tuned, we’ll be right back right after this break. Thanks so much and blessings. Friend, I’m so glad that you’re with us today and watching “Living the Dream”. I have these teachings on the website and from when I taught it live in church also, CharisChristianCenter.com, they’re downloadable in audio and video and they’re absolutely free of charge, plus many others also, blessings. You know, my grandmother told me when I was just a little bitty child, she told me birds of a feather flock together. And then a preacher told me a few years later, flocks fly the same place. You know, there’s some flocks you fly with, you’re not gonna get what you want. And so you wanna hang around the right people, it’s very important, the relationships that you have. Praise the Lord. We’ve been talking about living the dream, living the blessed life and we said part of this is we live in the covenant blessing of Almighty God, and that testifies to the world of the goodness of God. Praise God, how does your life testify of the goodness of God?

 

  It does all the time.

 

  You got a great wife, you got great children, you got a nice house, you got…. Aaron, God’s blessed you so much. You believe God and He’s helped you, praise God. So thank God our lives are testifying of the goodness of God. We said another thing is this, we live with extreme joy. Romans 14 verse 17 says, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” It’s not about a bunch of religious rules and regulations, but it’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We have right standing with God, we have peace with God, and because of that, we have supernatural joy. We have joy that comes from heaven. You know, when you look at the Bible, there’s a lot of examples when the disciples were going through hard, difficult times, but yet they rejoiced. You know, and sometimes it’s difficult, sometimes people come against you, sometimes people don’t understand you. The world, Jesus said, “Beware if all men speak well of you.” You know, but he said, “They persecuted me, they’re gonna persecute you.” But the Bible says that we can count at all joy when we fall into different kinds of trouble, temptations. And sometimes that’s just persecution from the world. It’s persecution sometimes even from other believers that don’t understand and that aren’t maybe living where you’re living. But we can walk in joy because we have joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, praise God. Paul, in Acts 13 verse 52, you know, that they had just run him out of town, him and Silas, and you know what? It says that they, you know, they just, I believe they just wiped the dust off their feet, but it says they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with joy. We have a joy that the world can’t give us, the world can’t take away, the world can’t explain. Thank God for the joy we have in Jesus.

 

  I love too that it says when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zions. So, you know, they’re gonna be situations that can be difficult to deal with, but God is always turning things around.

 

  Yes.

 

  You know, he’s not done turning things around in your life. You might think, well, he turned it around once, but that’s it. No God keeps turning things around and he keeps giving joy. You know, God is a joy giver, not a joy stealer. The devil’s a joy stealer, but God is always a joy giver, and joy comes in the morning. You know, how often does the morning come? The morning comes every 24 hours, so every 24 hours, God’s gonna give you something to rejoice about. He’s gonna be turning again things around. He likes to turn things around, he can work things out and he’s gonna keep giving you joy. He’s gonna keep giving you reasons to rejoice. He’s gonna keep just giving you joy. And, you know, mourning may be for a night, it’s for a period, but he’s gonna give you joy again. So don’t stay in a perpetual state of mourning, in a perpetual state of despair. You know, that’s a period. Sometimes you go through that, but God wants you to rejoice. He’s gonna give you reasons to rejoice, so be on the lookout for that joy that’s coming.

 

  We need to operate in joy that comes from Jesus. And, again, you know, joy comes in the morning. It may be okay to be sad for a night, but don’t stay in that place of despair, don’t stay down. You know, Jerry Savelle said this years ago. He said, “If the devil can’t steal your joy, he can’t take your goods.” You know, and he was talking about Nehemiah chapter 9 in verse 10, you know, and this is when Nehemiah had rebuilt the temple and he was reestablishing worship. And the priest began to read from the law, and the people began to weep because it had been so long since they’d heard the word of God read. And there may be different reasons that people are weeping. Maybe they were weeping because they saw what they missed out on, but you know what? Nehemiah said, “Listen, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions of those who have none prepared for them for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” When you have joy and operate in joy continuously as a believer, that will give you strength. We don’t have to mope around and be like the world. We don’t have to be sad and depressed and let the devil get the best of us. And, you know, even somebody said, well, you don’t understand what happened to me. You don’t understand how this person died or whatever. You know, but my dad died when I was 17 years old, and you know of course I miss my dad, but you know, that didn’t change. I never go to the grave and weep. You know, I don’t go back there because my dad’s not there. My dad’s in heaven with Jesus. And the Bible actually says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 at the very end of the chapter, I think it’s verse 18, it says that we are not the sorrow like other people who have no hope, we have hope in Jesus. And it’s a sad thing if a believer loses their joy or loses their hope, we need to operate in hope, praise God, and praise God, thank God for the joy of the Lord that’s our strength. And you don’t need to, don’t let the devil steal your joy. You know what? You have authority, you take authority. You know, the Bible says in Galatians 5: 22 that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Joy is the fruit of the spirit. You got the joy of the Lord in your spirit, so you can choose what you focus on, you can choose to rejoice, you can choose to be happy. You don’t have to focus on all the negative, all the things that are wrong, you can focus on what’s right. And really, joy a lot of times comes because we do focus on the right thing. Phillip, Go ahead.

 

  Yeah, I love just going back to Psalm 126. I’m gonna finish reading the chapter here ’cause I wanna get to the last verse of that. So Psalm 126 verse 3 is kinda where we left off, it says, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad. Bring back our captivity oh Lord, as the streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping bearing seed for sowing shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” I love that sixth verse, it says, “He who continually goes forth weeping.” So someone who’s going through a difficult time, maybe you’re going through a, you know, just a time of weeping, the key here is bearing seed for sowing. Keep looking to the future. That’s the really key phrase is bearing seed for sowing. You know, there’s, sowing and reaping is a major principle in scripture, you know, concerning giving, but also concerning other things.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, recently we, you know, some new kids moved up into the youth group, and I encouraged the parents saying that, you know, I know it’s a lot of work to bring, you know, your students to church on a Wednesday night. You know, people have activities, you know, parents work, kids have sports, school, different things. But I said, “If you sow into this, if you sow into your kids’ lives and to committing to having them be a part of church, being a part, you’re gonna like the harvest.”

 

  Right.

 

  And I’ve seen, you know, parents who’ve sewed a lot into their kids, they really, you know, ingrained them into coming to church, being a part of youth group, and sometimes the kids, they become young adults and they, you know, sometimes they lose a little bit of their sense. You know, I was talking to one family that they have a young adult child who kinda lost his way, but he still wants to come to church, he still wants to be a part, and it’s because of what was invested in him. I believe he’s gonna, you know, completely come back. But he can’t just completely go prodigal because there’s something on the inside him, they really sowed into him. And that seed is still there, those roots are still there. And even though…

 

  Right, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. That’s Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6.

 

  So keep sowing, keep looking to the future, and you’re gonna like the harvest. There’s a time for seed time and harvest.

 

  Right, you know, we were just, I was just talking about, and we’re gonna come back and talk more about this tomorrow, but in, you know, rejoicing, Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” And then he goes on and tells us how to do it. “Let your moderation be known to all men”, verse 5, “for the Lord is at hand.” You gotta keep your eyes on Jesus, remember why you’re here. Then he says in verse 6, “Don’t worry, don’t be careful about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, keep thanking God. Let your requests be made known to God.” And then he goes on and he says, “The peace of God will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Finally, he says in verse 8, “What things so are good, are lovely, are just, are pure if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.” What you think on is gonna affect your attitude. And if you think on negative things, terrible things, what everything that bad that’s went on, you’re gonna be a negative person. But if you begin to think on the positive, you can choose what you focus on. And as you choose to focus on the good and focus on what’s just, what’s praiseworthy, if there’s any virtue, if you choose, you’re gonna, you’re gonna begin to operate in joy. You’ve got joy in your spirit. But if you’re gonna have it in your soul and in your physical person, you’ve got to focus on the word of God. You gotta focus on the good things that God’s done. And there’s sometimes people that are living in very negative situations that are very happy because they put their hope in Jesus. I remember when I was in, you know, high school, right after high school, I went to Jamaica and I saw these believers in Jamaica and they were living in things that looked like our chicken shed, and they didn’t even have running water. A lot of them had to carry, you know, they’d carry water in a five gallon bucket on their head. And they might have one electrical outlet in the house if they had any, and they were so happy. And I thought, what is wrong with this picture? We got people in America that got a three car garage, and three cars, and four televisions, and a boat, and they’re still not happy, because you know what? Things can’t make you happy. Only Jesus is the one who can really make you happy. But if Jesus, you got the joy of the Lord in your spirit, so if you’re born again, the Bible’s says, “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.” You have the joy of God on the inside of you. But if you’re gonna operate in joy, you’ve got to choose to focus on good things. You’ve gotta choose to rejoice and you gotta choose to focus on your relationship with the Lord.

 

  And, you know, something about living the dream too, I realized, you know, going back to Psalm 126 verse 6, you know, that principle of sowing and reaping, like even though you may be sowing in tears, you can reap rejoicing. You know, when you live the dream, the dream doesn’t just happen overnight, you know?

 

  No.

 

  If you look at some of the things that God’s done, it’s ’cause you’ve been believing him, trusting him, just stepping out in faith continually, even sowing for a long period of time.

 

  Right?

 

  And…

 

  There’s some things that God showed me, it took over 25 years for those things to come to pass, but I just keep believing God. And later this week, we’re gonna talk about Joseph. God gave Joseph a dream and after his dreaming, he had 13 years of difficulty and problems. But you never wanna give up, he never gave up on his dream. You know, we’re gonna talk about some different people and how, you know what? They really operated in joy and they operated in the things of God. But faith is not a hundred yard dash, it’s not a 10-second sprint. Faith is more like a marathon, and you gotta train for that thing, and work at it, and it takes time to develop it, praise God. Well, I’m glad that you’ve tuned in. I’m glad that you’ve taken the time to be with us. I wanna, if you’d like to watch this broadcast again, tell your friends about it. You can watch it on YouTube, you can watch it on Facebook, you can go to our church website, CharisChristianCenter.com. We have hundreds of hours of teaching available, downloadable video, downloadable audio, and we’ve got children’s curriculum, we’ve got great things, and guess what? They’re all free, Praise God, so you can come get all that stuff on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. Tune in tomorrow at the same time and watch the broadcast and tell your friends about it. Thanks so much and blessings.

 

  Faith isn’t just a momentary thought or burst of emotion. It is a lifelong commitment to trusting in God and his unfailing work. Now is the time to take a step of faith and trust in God’s plan for your life. We’d like to bless you with the digital copy of the teaching, “Living the Dream”, 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 because 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 Conference.

 

  It’s time to rejoice.

 

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