Released Into Freedom – Part 4 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today, and I’m so glad to be sharing. I have my son Aaron on the program. He actually has some great teaching today about faith and how you receive God’s provision of grace and God’s promises by faith. Faith is an indifferent thing, so open your heart and receive the Word of God. Friends, it’s so good to have you on the broadcast today. And we’ve got Aaron here and we’re sharing today talking about the Lord’s release, released into freedom. So, Aaron, jump into the Word. Let’s go here to Luke 4:16. Jesus came to set the captives free. Jesus came to release you into freedom.

Yes. And that’s the very first message that Jesus preached. It says He began to preach this. So, I believe that Jesus… His entire ministry here on earth was a ministry of releasing people into freedom. And I believe that the Spirit of Christ is still at work on the earth today. Jesus is still the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Amen. And He wants to set you free. He wants to release you into complete freedom, spirit, soul, and body. And that’s what He preached at His very first message. So, we’ll read about that here in Luke 4, verse 16. It says, “So He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” I love all these things that he’s mentioning about being released into freedom. It includes the realm of the Spirit, the realm of the soul, the broken hearts to be set free, and even in people’s bodies to cause the blind to be able to see again. And I like that Jesus is talking about to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. That’s talking about the year of Jubilee.

That’s right.

Which was every 50 years, where there’s a year of freedom and restoration. You know, we start talking from Deuteronomy 15 about the year of the Lord’s release. How every seven years. People were supposed to release people who were in debt. So, we just see that God’s heart is to bring freedom, and that freedom really culminates in the person of Jesus who has become our jubilee.

Yeah. He’s the one who sets us free. He’s the one who restores us, who eliminates our debts, whatever we owe.

That’s exactly what Jesus is saying when he says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. He’s actually saying, I am your jubilee. And if you study Leviticus 25, there’s actually seven results of jubilee. Slaves go free. Debts are forgiven. Everybody goes to their own property. Everybody goes back to their own place in the family. Oppression ceases. They live in supernatural increase. That’s six out of the seven of the results of Jubilee. And so, when Jesus actually reads this, he’s actually saying, I am your Jubilee. And he closes the book of Isaiah, the scroll of Isaiah, and he says, today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And guess what happened? Just like happens in our time when we say today is your day of freedom. God wants to heal you today. God wants to prosper you today. God wants to help you today. God wants to free you today. The religious people got mad. Nobody’s going to ever get mad at you saying, well, somewhere off in the sweet by and by, you know, you’re going to get free. You’re going to get healed. You’re going to begin to prosper. Or back in your great grandma’s day, we had a revival. Nobody cares about that. But when you begin to say today is the day of salvation, now is the acceptable time, God wants to heal you today, God wants to prosper you today, God wants to bless you, you’ll make some religious devils mad. And that’s what happened with Jesus.

Yeah, so in verse 20 it says, he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them. I like that. It says he began to say to them. So that means he wasn’t done preaching this message of freedom.

No.

He wasn’t done releasing people into freedom. He continued to do it, and he’s still doing it today. He said, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. This scripture is fulfilled even today, that Jesus wants to set you free. He wants to heal you. He wants to prosper you. He has good things for you. You know, the Bible says that we are now accepted in the beloved.

Yes.

That he wants to forgive you. He wants to restore you. He wants to place you at the table with our Heavenly Father. Verse 22, it says, “All who bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, they said, Is this not Joseph’s son?” They just started looking at things in the natural realm. You know, really to worship God, to see God, to be a person of faith, you have to look at things in the realm of the Spirit.

Yes. So, they just cut themselves off from the Spirit of Jesus, from what He was saying with His words. Jesus said, my words are Spirit, and they are life. And they just cut themselves off from that spiritual reality. They said, is this not Joseph’s son? Verse 23, he said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.” Then he said, “Surely, I say to you. No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent, except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.” So here Jesus, just being the great teacher that he was, he used two Old Testament examples of faith, of how to receive from God. And he’s saying it’s not God’s fault. It’s not going to be my fault if you’re not able to receive salvation.

Right.

It’s not going to be my fault. My will is for you to be saved, for you to be healed, for you to be delivered, for you to be placed into freedom. But you have to receive it by faith.

Right. When you look at this, Jesus is saying. Today is the accepted time, right? He’s saying to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He’s saying, I am your Jubilee. It says in verse 22 that they wondered at the gracious words. Jesus that proceeded out of his mouth. He is the embodiment of grace. Grace has provided everything. Grace has provided forgiveness for our sin, healing for our body, peace for our mind. Grace has provided for us spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially. But if we’re going to receive the grace of God, faith makes it a reality. It takes faith. And what he’s saying, he said there were many widows, but only one of them received provision. There were many lepers, but only one of them at that time got healed. So, what he’s saying, it’s God’s grace, but it’s our faith. And God’s grace has to be coupled with our faith to receive it. It’s not just the grace of God. Grace, if it was just all God’s grace, there wouldn’t be a need that wasn’t met because God has more than enough provision to meet every need. There wouldn’t be a body that wouldn’t be healed because God has more than enough provision and more than enough power to heal everybody. But it’s a combination of God’s grace and our faith. All the promises of God, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 20 says, in him are yes and amen to the glory of God by us. It’s yes, the promise, but it’s amen by our faith. It’s God’s grace saying yes, and it’s our faith saying yes, I accept it, amen.

And these two examples that he used, I believe he picked those for a certain purpose, because he was showing it’s really about their faith. It’s not about who they were. And actually, both of these examples are examples of people of faith who weren’t Jewish people. They were actually Gentiles. And not only just Gentiles, they were from groups of people that were very anti Israel. They were very against the Jewish people. So, first of all, he mentions the widow woman that Elijah was sent to who was in Zarephath, a city in the region of Sidon. So, Sidon is present day Lebanon, which is still against the nation of Israel. I’ve been to Israel. I’ve actually been up to the border of Israel and Lebanon. I talked to Israeli soldiers that are stationed to patrol that border, and people that live right there, right next to the border, they actually say they’re not scared to live there because whatever rockets get fired from Lebanon, they go over our head. So, it’s actually safer being up against the border than being further out from the border. But Sidon at this time, this is where Jezebel was from. You know, and we know the story of Jezebel. She was just after Elijah. Elijah was actually scared of her. I don’t know why he was scared of her, because he saw the power of God.

She’s a wicked woman.

But he was, you know, running from his life away from Jezebel. She was the princess of Sidon, and King Ahab of Israel married her, and she brought the Sidonian Baal worship into Israel. So, God sent Elijah to Sidon. He sent Elijah to the capital, to the Mecca of Baal worship because there was a woman there.

Yes.

Who believed in the one true God of Israel. And Elijah had a word for her. He said, you know, when he found her, she was gathering sticks for her son. And she’s this widow, and she said, this is the last meal we’re gonna have. We just have a little meal, I’m going to bake a little cake, and that’s going to be our last meal, and we’re going to die. And Elijah said, feed me first.

Right. And if you do so, the one true God, the Lord God Almighty, Lord all caps, Yahweh, your food’s not going to run out.

It’s in 1 Kings 17.

And she chose to believe the word of the Lord. She chose to believe the prophet. She made that meal for him first.

Right.

And God provided for it. It was a miracle of provision. And she had to do something with her hand, do something. We talked about the miracle of provision that takes place in your hand. She had to make that cake herself.

She had to believe it, right?

And believe it.

Elijah, actually, I read this in 1 Kings 17, verse 13 and 14. He said to her, “Fear not, go and do as you’ve said, but make me a little cake first and bring it to me. And after that for you and your son.” In other words, honor God first. “For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal will not waste, neither shall the jar of oil fail until the day that God sends rain upon the earth. Verse 15 says, “And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. She and he in her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal did not waste, neither did the jar of oil fail according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah.” So, she believed it to receive it. And if you want to receive the promises of God today, you have to believe them to receive them. That’s why it’s not just automatic. The will of God is not automatic. It takes faith to receive the promises of God. It takes faith to receive the good blessings of God’s grace. We’re going to take a very short break, and we’re going to be back after this. And we’re gonna give you another great example of faith you don’t want to miss the rest of this broadcast. Friends, we have a great offer for you today. We’re talking about The Lord’s Release. This is my son Aaron’s teaching, and it has brought great blessing to myself as I have used this teaching. We actually have hundreds of hours of teaching, downloadable audio and video, free of charge, plus a free children’s curriculum on our website. Blessings.

What I think, what I was always longing for, raised in a Pentecostal church. When you are coming here and you are seeing, there is no drama. Jesus showed us here how our healthy church is really working. God wants to show us like our church really worked. So, that was wonderful to see here.

Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’re moving into the Word of God. We’ve been talking about how it takes faith to receive the promises that God has made available by grace.

So, when Jesus preached this very first message there at Nazareth in Luke 4, he opened from the prophet Isaiah, and he began preaching about freedom. He began preaching about the year of jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord. And he was making it clear that he wanted to release people into freedom. It said he began teaching this. So, he continued teaching this, and he’s still ministering this today. Jesus is still ministering freedom today. Today is acceptable year of the Lord. Today is the year of the Lord’s release.

Jesus is our Jubilee. In John chapter 8, where Jesus talks about freedom, he’s talking about… If the Son, therefore, will set you free or make you free, you shall be free indeed. He’s saying, I am your jubilee. You know what? They got mad at him and wanted to stone him.

Yeah, when he preached this, they just started looking in the natural. Faith looks in the spirit realm, and they’re just looking in the natural, just saying, is this not Joseph’s son? They weren’t really hearing the words that he was preaching. They weren’t able to tap into what he was saying in the realm of the Spirit. You know, the words that Jesus spoke, they were Spirit, and they were life. They are today. So, Jesus then gave them two examples of faith and the faith that receives from God. He talked about the woman from Zarephath that Elijah was sent to.

Right.

And he said there were a lot of widows in Israel.

Right.

But Elijah was sent to this one in Sidon in Zarephath, and that’s where Jezebel is from. That’s where Baal worship was going on.

That had to get under their religious skin.

That made them mad, and that would probably still make… that type of example and make religious people mad today. And then not only that, he went on to another example in verse 27, Luke 4, 27, he said, “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.'” So, he gave these two examples of faith to tap into freedom, to being released into freedom, and both examples were really irritated, really stirred up. You know, pure faith, when you preach faith and what it is, it stirs up that religious spirit. It fills that religious spirit with indignation. And they were so upset, it said that they rose up and tried to run him off a cliff outside the city. I want to talk about Naaman the Syrian for a minute, but Naaman, he was the Syrian. So, the Syrians, even today, the Syrians are against Israel, and they were then, the Syrians were always attacking Israel, and Naaman was actually the general of the Syrian army.

Yeah, wow.

And Naaman was not a perfect person. You might not be a perfect person, but there’s still hope for you. And Naaman, actually, the way he heard about Elisha, the way he heard about the power of the one true God was through an Israeli slave girl, someone that they took captive. And this Israeli maid that had been taken captive during their raids. just spoke to Naaman about, you know, I wish you’d meet Elisha, this man of God who flows in the power of God. And, you know, she was someone from the very bottom level of society, speaking to someone at the very top level of society.

Right.

God, you might not have a lot going on in your life, but God can connect you, place you in the right place, in the right sphere of influence where your voice will be heard where it matters, with who it matters.

Amen.

And this Israeli slave girl, this Israeli maid. was a witness. She was an evangelist. She was placed there amongst the Syrians to talk about the one true God and the power of God.

Praise God.

And Naaman believed what she had said and went to Israel. He went to find Elisha, and once they found Elisha’s home, Elisha wouldn’t even come down to talk to him face to face.

No, he sent his servant out.

Because Elisha was looking at things in the realm of the Spirit. You know, this might be a great man in the natural realm. He’s a general for the Syrian army for one of the greatest armies in the world, but I’m a great man of God and I don’t really have time. I’ll just send my assistant to go down and talk to him. And his assistant said, hey, if you wanna be healed, this is what you gotta do. You gotta go to the Jordan River. Right, and dip seven times.

Dip seven times.

And that really irritated the pride that was in Naaman. He probably had a sense of ego, especially due to his position.

He said, don’t we have better rivers where I’m from than this? And he initially got mad. And then his servant said, well, hey, if he asked you to do something great

Something great

Would you do that.

Yeah. He said, yeah. So, he said, “Well, why don’t you try it? And he went down there. And the Bible says, actually, you know, leprosy will eat your flesh and eat your skin. But the Bible says after he dipped seven times that his skin came as a baby’s skin. God restored him. This is something that’s really unique about this, outsiders become insiders when they believe God. And if you’ll believe God, you can become an insider. When Israel left Egypt, there was a mixed multitude that believed God and went with them, right? There are two Gentiles in the lineage of Jesus, Rahab, and Ruth. And here we see Jesus is talking about two other Gentile people of faith. In Matthew chapter 8, where Jesus heals a leper, there’s a leper that came to him and said, Lord, I know that you can heal me if you will. And Jesus said, I will be clean. And he was healed. And then there was this centurion. He was a Roman ruler of a hundred soldiers. And he came saying, Lord, my servant lies at home, very sick of the palsy. He was tormented. And Jesus said, I will come and heal him. And the centurion said, “Listen, I’m not worthy that you should come under my roof.” But this is Matthew 8, verse 8. “But speak the word only, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, and I have soldiers under me.” See, this man understood authority. And if you’re going to operate in great faith, you have to understand authority. And he said, “I say to one, go. And he goes. And another, come. And he comes. And to another one, do this. And he does it.” When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them, “Verily, I say unto you, I haven’t found so great a faith, no, not in Israel. And I say to you that many will come down from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” So, Jesus says outsiders become insiders when they believe God. You know, God doesn’t care whether you’re Jewish or Gentile. Do you know, I’m pro Israel. I believe God is pro Israel. Israel has a covenant with God, but yet I’m a Gentile, God hasn’t left me out. And anybody who believes Jesus, you know what, can enter into this covenant. And I believe if you believe the scriptures, you’re going to side with God. You’re going to side for Israel.

Yeah, and Luke 4, when Jesus was preaching this first recorded sermon there in Nazareth, when he brought up the example of the widow woman from Zarephath and Sidon and Naaman, it was so offensive to the religious people there at that synagogue in Nazareth that they tried to kill him. They tried to run him off a cliff. But, you know… the Spirit protected him. He just walked right through the midst of them.

Right. Because he wasn’t done with his mission yet.

And so just like in John 8 where Jesus said, what, if the Son therefore will make you free, you’ll be free indeed. They got angry, right? They wanted to kill him. Here in Luke 4 when he opened his earthly ministry and said, I am your jubilee. Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. They got angry and wanted to kill him. So religious people don’t always accept. And you brought this out earlier this week in the broadcast. Many times, when we preach on healing or we preach on financial provision, promises from the Bible, plainly from the word of God, religious people get mad. And you brought this out that if you’re getting mad about the same thing that worldly people are getting mad about, and they do, maybe you better check out where you’re at. Maybe you better check your doctrine. Amen.

That’s really true. And, you know, one thing I really see that Jesus brought out about the woman, the widow from Zarephath and Naaman just receiving from God, we really see that in the realm of the Spirit, the only thing that God sees is faith.

Yeah.

He doesn’t see race. He doesn’t see if you’re a Jew or a Gentile, if you’re black, white, brown, yellow. He doesn’t see these things. He doesn’t see who your parents, who your grandparents were. He doesn’t see if you’re powerful or if you’re at the lowest, you know, rung of society, if you’re a general, if you’re a widow. God is blind to all these things in the realm of the Spirit. The only thing that God sees is faith. And faith is what taps into God’s provision, into the throne room, into His presence, and receives just the abundance of His grace.

It takes faith to receive from grace, exactly. We’re saved by grace through faith. And it’s not just grace or faith alone, it’s by grace through faith that we’re saved, that we’re healed, that we receive from God.

And, you know, like the religious people, they were really upset because they took pride in who they were, in their lineage, in their keeping of the law, and their, you know, the who’s who of the who’s who. They took a lot of pride in that. And Jesus said, it’s not about that.

Jesus is gonna pull your pride bag.

It’s about, it’s God’s grace. It’s limitless. It can impact anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re from Israel, or from wherever, if you’re a man or a woman, His grace is limitless, and God’s heart is to save everyone, but to receive from that, it takes faith. And in the realm of the Spirit, the only thing that God sees is faith, which is really encouraging to me, and I know it’s really encouraging to you as well. You know, maybe you’re not a perfect person, I guarantee you’re not, but you can receive today by putting faith in God’s promise and putting faith in the promise keeper, who is Jesus Christ.

Amen. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Aaron, we see lots of examples of that here at the church. We see lots of people healed, lots of people set free, lots of people baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking other tongues, the gifts of the Spirit flowing. And so, thank God for all these things that we’ve seen. And I just love to see God minister to people. I want to take the time to invite you today, if you’re in Colorado Springs on a Sunday or a Wednesday evening, to come to church and come and just receive the Word of God. Praise God. Sundays currently were 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. If you can’t come and attend physically, if you’re in another place or you’re not visiting, I want to invite you to get on the website and watch our live streams. Praise God. We have people actually that are healed watching these programs. We have people that are healed watching our live streams. And if you want to become a partner, we would love to hear from you. Blessings.

All throughout the Bible, we see that God’s heart is to set people free. He wants people to experience complete freedom in the spirit, soul, and body. Jesus came to set the captives free. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, The Lord’s Release, a $5 value, free of charge. Download it today at chariscristiancenter.com.

Friends, the scripture says, if you will continue in the word of God, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. If you go to our website at chariscristiancenter.com, you can get all of our materials there on the website as you watch them, as you listen, absolutely free of charge. And we’ve done that just to be a blessing to you. And I believe that the word that has freed me will free you. Blessings.

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