Set A Date To Celebrate – Part 4 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re gonna be talking about set a date to celebrate. And we’re really gonna be talking about tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. You need to experience the goodness of God for yourself. You need to experience the grace of Jesus for yourself. You need to receive the joy of the Holy Spirit for yourself. And when you do it, you’ll bring blessing to lots of people.

 

  Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us here on “Grace for Today.” I’m here with my dad, Pastor Lawson Perdue. We’re here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thanks so much for joining us. We have a great message in store for you today. We’ve been sharing on a message I’ve entitled, “Set a Date to Celebrate.” I think it’s a word from God for many people out there. Set a date to celebrate. If you’ve missed any of the prior teachings on this, I encourage you to go and listen to all of it. I think it’ll really encourage you. But today, I’m especially excited about this broadcast, what we’re gonna be sharing on, concerning setting a date to celebrate. We’re gonna be talking about how it’s important to taste and see.

 

  That’s right.

 

  That God is good. We are to experience it, we’re to taste it, we’re to see it. God doesn’t just want you to know Him in your head, just think about Him. He wants you to experience him in a very real, very profound, very relational way. He wants you to experience His goodness in a very experiential way as well. So you are to taste and see.

 

  He wants you to experience His love. A lot of people have heard of the love of God. A lot of people have heard of the things of God. But they haven’t really experienced the love of God for themselves. And when you experience the love of God, when you get a revelation of the love of God, it’ll change the way that you live your life, and you’ll come into a whole new place of grace. I really believe this message, Aaron, that you taught at church, you taught on a Sunday morning. I really believe it was filled with grace, and it really ministered a lot. I’ve heard from so many people how it ministered strength to them, how it helped them, how they loved it, and praise God. That’s what God wants the Word to do. I love it when people come to church and they feel better when they leave than when they came. And I think that ought to be the norm. We don’t wanna just beat people down. There’s two ways you can use the Word. You can use the Word like a hammer that beats the rock in pieces. But you can also use it like a mirror where you see Jesus in the Word, and realize He’s living in you, and just let His life flow through you. And I believe that’s really the ministry of grace. And when we understand that, we come from this position where we’re being beat down to where we’re being built up. And there’s a big difference in being beat down and built up. Jeremiah, God spoke to Jeremiah and He said, “I’ve called you to tear down and to throw down.” But then he said, “I’ve called you to build and plant.” And Dr. Lester Sumrall said, “Anybody can tear something up. Anybody can tear something down.” But he said, “It takes a wise person to build something.” And that’s what we want to do, is we wanna build people. And you build them with the Word, you build them with the Spirit, you build them with the things of God.

 

  Amen. And I get this point here, taste and see, from Psalm 34. So we’re gonna read here from Psalm 34, starting in verse seven. Dad, you can read there if you’d like to.

 

  It says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around about them who fear Him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.”

 

  That’s awesome, “The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear Him, delivers them,” I love that. God wants to give us divine protection. I remember when we were kids, you would always pray over us every night, and you would pray. One thing you would always pray is that God would give His angels charge over us, to protect us, to keep us safe in all our ways. Me and my brothers, all of us, to this day, none of us have broken a single bone. Both my younger brothers played football all through junior high, high school, even into college, my youngest brother, and none of us broke any bones. We really, I believe that we had divine protection. They’re our angels. And I love that it says, “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good,” I love that. “Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints. There is no want to those who fear Him.”

 

  “The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

 

  Amen.

 

  Any good thing, God doesn’t want you to lack it. He doesn’t want you to want for it. God really wants to take care of you. And it’s up to us to sometimes just taste and see that the Lord is good. We’re to experience His goodness. We’re to see it, to taste it, to see it. I just love that word taste that the Lord is good. We need to have eyes to see. We need to have ears to hear. You need to have taste buds to taste.

 

  Some people are always looking at what’s wrong instead of looking at what’s right. And it’s just simply a change of your focus. You can begin to look at what you have instead of what you don’t have. You can begin to look at what you have instead of what you lost. And when you do that, then I think life just gets better.

 

  And some people just, I don’t know why they don’t want to just taste and see, ’cause some of these things that we can celebrate, and appreciate, and rejoice over, they’re just right there. God often has really great gifts, really great things He wants to give to us, and they’re just sitting right there, but people just aren’t willing to taste and see. Before I met my wife Heather, she’s from the South, she’s from Tennessee. She’s a fantastic cook, and I can’t cook anything. I just was kind of in survival mode during my bachelor years until I met my wife. When I first met her, we would go shopping together, and we’d be at Costco and I would tell her, “Hey, we need to get this tuxedo cake. It’s phenomenal. It tastes amazing. It’s a really great dessert.” But she didn’t believe me. She thought, I don’t know, if you’re gonna make something good, it has to be, I have to make it at home, make it from scratch. I have to grow my own sugarcane and cut it down. I had to do it from, if it’s gonna be good. But she never believed me. But not too long ago, we had a party at our house, and someone actually brought this tuxedo cake as their contribution to our party, our celebration. My wife tried that tuxedo cake for the first time and she was like, “Wow, this is amazing.” And she had to kind of repent and say, “Aaron, you were right, I was wrong. Please forgive me. I don’t know why I didn’t believe you. I don’t know why I didn’t trust you. We should have bought that years ago.” She finally just tasted and saw for herself that this is good. And some of you just need to taste and see. Maybe you’ve seen it in the Word of God, or your preacher has preached about it. Maybe you heard it here on this broadcast, some good things that God has in store for you, but you just wouldn’t really believe it. You wouldn’t really ask for it, desire it for yourself, just go and get it. I’ve known people who just kind of been on the fence for years about receiving the Holy Spirit. I guess they come here ’cause they’re open to it, but they just don’t wanna jump in the deep end with everyone else here at church. And finally they do, and they’re like, “Oh, I’ve tasted, I’ve seen this is good.” Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is a good thing. I’m so glad that I received it. Some people, you just need to taste and see. Just trust God. If He says this is there for you, He wants it for you, He desires it for you, it’s a promise in scripture, just go for it, taste and see.

 

  Amen. Amen.

 

  That the Lord is good.

 

  And here’s the deal. I believe there is a promise for every problem that we face. And we got a Bible full of promises that we can believe. But if you don’t believe ’em, you’re probably not gonna receive ’em. So it’s important. The Bible says, “If you will not believe, surely you will not be established.” I think that’s in Isaiah 7:14. But if you wanna get established in the things of God, you need to start believing the things of God. You need to start believing the promises. And if you’re struggling. I believe before I’m there. I believe for health all the time, and healing all the time. I believe for finances and financial prosperity all the time. If you don’t believe it, you’re not gonna receive it.

 

  Yeah, and if you don’t learn how to celebrate God’s goodness, along the way, you’re not gonna make it very long. You’re gonna have to, you need, some of you need to set a date to celebrate. You need to start thanking God, rejoicing.

 

  Amen. Hallelujah.

 

  And looking, and God, He’s good. And He’s sending you good things. Joy comes in the morning. He’s continually, surely goodness and mercy will follow me. It’s there for you. And if you don’t learn how to see it, how to value it, how to appreciate, to see the goodness of God, you’re not gonna, you’re gonna dry up. And I like what the Bible says in Psalm 27:13 and 14, “I would’ve fainted unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.” So that word wait, it means to have a positive expectation.

 

  It’s like hope. Faith is a substance of hope think for, of things hoped for. Hope is positive expectation, and so that’s what he’s talking about, “I would’ve fainted unless I would’ve believed.” Are you believing to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? There are good things that are available to people who are born of God, to people who believe on Jesus. We have a covenant with God.

 

  And they’re available on this side of eternity, in the land of the living. I love that he specified that, that we need to see the goodness of the Lord.

 

  In the land of the living.

 

  In the land of the living. It’s specified there. Some people just say, “Oh, it’s just when you go to heaven, that’s only, like you’re gonna just experience hardship, and pain, and toil, and anguish until you die.”

 

  That’s under the curse. That’s not the blessed life. That’s not what, God wants us to have a good life. The good life is in Christ. Amen. And if you’re born again, you’re blessed in the Spirit, and you ought to be blessed in your soul and in your body. But you’ve gotta begin to renew your mind and think like God wants you to think. And that’s why he says, “I would’ve fainted unless I would’ve believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living.” So wait on the Lord. Come to a place of positive expectation. And when you do that, you bring yourself to a place where you can begin to really see and experience for yourself the goodness of God. You’re really coming to a place where you, he says, “Blessed, blessed, fortunate, happy, to be envied.” I love that, in the Amplified Version, it says that in a lot of places, “is the man who trusts God.” So keep believing God. Keep believing Jesus. And then he says, “Fear the Lord.” Respect your relationship with God. He says, “For there is no want to those who respect Him,” respect the good things he has. “The Lord is my shepherd,” Psalm 23, again, another Psalm, “I shall not want. I’m not gonna lack any good thing because Jesus is my shepherd. He’s taking care of me. I’m laying down in green pastures. I’m laying down beside still waters. He’s preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You know what? He’s guarding and protected me, even though there’s enemies all around. Surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life.” Think about this place. There’s no want, there’s no lack to those who fear Him, who respect their relationship with God. “The young lions lack and suffer hunger. But they who seek the Lord will not want any good thing.” “Seek first the righteousness of God and His kingdom, and all these things,” Jesus said, “will be,” what?

 

  Added to you.

 

  Added unto you, that’s Matthew 6:33. And so we need to keep seeking the Lord. We need to keep thanking the Lord. And we need to realize He has great provision for us. But many people are not experiencing the provision that He has for ’em because they’re not looking for it. So keep thanking God for it, and look for what God promised you, it’s there. He’s no respecter of persons. He’s only a respecter of faith. So keep believing God. We’re gonna take a short break. We’ll be back right after this break, and we’ll continue to talk about the good things that God has available to you. Thanks so much for staying tuned, blessings. Friends, I hope you’re enjoying the teaching today. This came from a message that my son Aaron taught on Sunday morning, “Set a Date to Celebrate.” I have heard so many compliments, so many people have told me how much this encouraged them, how much that this helped them. So I want you to go to our website, and you can download either the audio or the video of that single message. I believe it will bless you.

 

  I began to pray, “Lord, I’d really love to meet other people.” And God just started opening the door. And it wasn’t very long after that prayer, we got into a community, being with some other women. One thing I really liked about Flourish, to me, that community is really important. That’s why I liked a small church before, I was a little worried about a big church. But to have that opportunity to sit together then and reconnect.

 

  Share what’s going on.

 

  It’s been really powerful.

 

  Really good.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’ve got more to share on seeking the Lord and what He has for you, and how God wants you to act as a believer. Praise God. So go ahead, Aaron.

 

  We’re talking about just tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, talking about the goodness of God. We’ve been talking about set a date to celebrate, that is a word from the Lord for someone. But we’re talking specifically about, hey, you need to taste and see that the Lord is good. Man, God has really spoken to me from this book of the Bible. I know my dad has some series on this actually, from Nehemiah. And I know there’s a lot of leadership lessons we can learn from Nehemiah, but I think right here in Nehemiah 8, we see an important, just what a great leader he was. One thing that a great leader, a Godly leader, needs to do is passionately lead people towards celebrating God’s goodness. A very, a good Godly leader should be a passionate person, and should just be really, really strong in celebrating God’s goodness. Be very strong in knowing that God has good things planned for them. And to be constantly communicating that to people. So we see this here in Nehemiah 8:9-10, this is, Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem, brought people with him to rebuild the walls, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. And when they did it, it’s kind of interesting, they started reading from the Bible, from the Bible that they had at the time, the Law of Moses. And it said as they were reading, the people began to weep. They had not heard the Word of God read for 70 years. Those scrolls, the Word of God, what was left behind in Jerusalem, and they were taken away captives to Babylon, so they had not heard the Word of God for 70 years. And we are so blessed as believers to have the full counsel of God’s Word, Genesis through Revelation. Here in America, I know we have people watching all around the world, but we have freedom to, people died to try to receive the Bible. There’s a ministry that we support, that they smuggled hundreds and hundreds of Bibles into Iran. And the way they did it, they used drug smugglers. They paid drug smugglers to smuggle in Bibles into Iran.

 

  So they were smuggling out drugs.

 

  From Iran into Iraq.

 

  And into western Europe. And so they just, they just paid these drug smugglers.

 

  Well, hey, on your way back.

 

  Yeah, take these Bibles.

 

  Over the mountains take.

 

  And now they’re, Aaron, you prophesied this, you stood on the platform in this church about three years ago, and you said that there is gonna be a great revival in the Middle East. And people, they’re closing mosques, and people are coming to Christ by the thousands. It’s literally amazing. And the church is exploding. Don’t get me wrong. There is a last day revival. God said, in the last days, He would pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh. And that is happening and we’re seeing it. And so they’re seeing many, many people in the Middle East come to Christ, it’s amazing.

 

  Well, it’s really neat. A lot of these pastors, they can go to, they might not be able to go to America, but they can go to Turkey. Right now, Mark and Trina Hankins are in Turkey, ministering to pastors from all these different places where Christianity is illegal, where the Bible is illegal. That’s so awesome that they’re being trained by people like Mark and Trina Hankins, who are just full of the Holy Ghost, full of the joy of the Lord.

 

  We support not only Mark and Trina, we support Behrman Ministries and Scott and Sue Behrman. That’s Mark and, that’s Trina’s brother and his wife. We gave them a nice gift. They came and ministered here at the church. They were in Turkey, and people are being ministered to, the Word of God. We support another missionary, and gave him a special gift and his wife, but they were going into Greece. And many of those people are leaving those lands where they’re persecuted by Islam, and then they’re getting saved. And so they’re ministering to these basically.

 

  Kind of, they’re in Asia Minor. Turkey is Asia Minor. These are places that Paul went to, wrote to.

 

  So there’s a great revival happening.

 

  God works through churches too. I love that we have a church here. I just saw one of our friends in England, Ben Conway said this, “All the letters of Paul, they’re either written to a church or to a church leader.” God works through churches. I believe that God wants local churches to grow, local churches to be planted. We’ve actually helped plant.

 

  Several churches here in the United States.

 

  In the United States and India. We’ve actually paid for the building costs, 50% of the building costs for how many churches in India?

 

  12 this year, two last year.

 

  So the gospel is exploding. Churches are exploding. And I just wanna read here about Nehemiah. Let’s go back to Nehemiah 8:9-10. It says, “Nehemiah, who is the governor, Ezra the priest, and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn nor weep.'” Says, “All the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.” They hadn’t heard the Bible read for 70 years. And he said something very profound. They probably, in reading through the books of Moses, you see that there’s certain days that are holy. The Sabbath is holy, the year of Jubilee is holy there’s different feast days that were holy, the Passover. But he said, “Today is holy.” He set a date to celebrate. He said, “Today is the day to celebrate.” Set a date to celebrate. This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. They all wept. He told ’em how to celebrate. Some of you need to know how to celebrate. Some of you have never really celebrated much in life, and you’ve never really been taught. But he says, this is how you celebrate, “Go your way.” He says, “You need to move ahead. Look at what God’s doing for you. Go your way. Also eat the fat and drink the sweet.” we kind of talked about the Israelites complaining, wanting to go back to Egypt, having this intense craving for fish and for vegetables. And here he says, “Hey, if you wanna have a party, don’t just have fish and vegetables.” Don’t just have salad. He says, “Eat something fat, drink something sweet.” Some of you have been dieting so much, you haven’t ate a piece of candy in like 30 years. And some of you just need, on occasion, you need to just celebrate. Go buy a tuxedo cake and eat a piece of it. You don’t have to eat the whole thing. I’m not saying to just go, just celebrate 24 hours a day with your diet. But like some of you actually do need to eat something beyond salad. There’s a lady here at church that I met, and she just always looked like she’s been sucking on a lemon all the time. I don’t think I ever saw her laugh in five years. And whenever I was around her, she’d only eat salad. She ate nothing but salad. And you need to eat something beyond salad. This is a word of the Lord for someone here. You need to go eat something that’s fat. Drink something that’s sweet. And this is really.

 

  Nehemiah 8:10.

 

  Nehemiah 8:10, “And send portions.” So you don’t have to eat the whole cake. Share with some other people. This is actually a very profound way to celebrate. Be a giver, be hospitable, be a giver. Send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. As a pastor, I get to be with people who are going through very important moments of life, moments of celebration like weddings and graduations. Also, I get to be there for people who are going through very difficult situations, like the loss of a loved one. When I’m with people who’ve been through a great difficulty, especially the loss of a loved one, I encourage them to stay connected to church and actually to volunteer, to keep giving of themselves, give of their time, give their talent. Because that’s really important for you to grow, and to be healthy. That will help you get through different seasons of life, to be a giving person. Man, there’s so much purpose found in that. Amen.

 

  So praise God.

 

  Be a giver, and realize this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Tomorrow we’re gonna be talking about the joy of the Lord, specifically saying, you need to get your joy back. The devil is a joy robber. I think that’s the number one thing he wants to rob from people. But God is a joy giver. Joy comes in the morning. So eat the fat, drink the sweet, be a giver, send portions to others, and realize this is the day that the Lord has made.

 

  Praise God, you know, Jerry Savelle said, I believe it was years ago, that, “If the devil can’t steal your joy, he can’t take your goods.” I think joy really is an expression of faith. And when you’re operating in faith, you’re gonna be rejoicing. And if you’re not operating in faith, you might be having a hard time rejoicing. So we need to learn how to thank God, how to rejoice, how to glorify God, how to magnify Jesus. Hey, this is good for me. There’s sometimes that I don’t take enough time to celebrate and to enjoy the goodness of God. God has been really, really good to me. But you know what? You need to set a date to celebrate. Have a good time. Take some of the good things God’s given you and enjoy it.

 

  Just enjoy it, yeah. And you can really do that whenever you feel led by the Holy Spirit to do so. Some of you might, like right now, might need to just, you know what, tonight I’m gonna go out to eat. I’m gonna go to a nice, nice restaurant. I’m gonna eat hopefully something better than just salad, and vegetables, and onions, and leeks, like maybe whatever you enjoy and like. Set a date to celebrate.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And you don’t have to wait for a holiday. You don’t have to wait for the weekend. You can just celebrate right now. You can have a Holy Ghost party right wherever you’re at watching this.

 

  Paul was in prison and he was in prison for preaching the gospel in Acts 16. And they had him and Silas, they beat ’em, and threw ’em, and locked them in the stocks. And at midnight they praised and sang praises to God.

 

  They set a date to celebrate.

 

  And you know what? The stocks fell off of them, the doors of the prison opened, and they walked out, praise God, celebrating. And the prison keeper said, “Hey, you could go,” and said, “No, those people made this mess, they can clean it up,” amen, hallelujah. But when you start celebrating and start rejoicing, you’re getting ready to get released from the prison of pain that you’ve been in. Some people, right now, you listening to me, some people have been in a prison of pain. And one thing that will help you to get outta that prison, I’m talking about physical pain, I believe there are people listening to me right now, and you have been in physical pain because you have not been rejoicing. And you start laughing, you start rejoicing. You know what, doctors have even figured out that this brings health to you, praise God. And so you need to start rejoicing, and start thanking God, and praising Him for what He has. And if you need prayer today, I want you to call our prayer ministers. They’re here, they’re ready to pray for you. They’re ready to minister to you. Praise God. And also, we’ve got hundreds of hours of teaching on the website at CharisChristianCenter.com. And it’s downloadable, audio, video, free of charge. We’ll give it to you. Praise God. And this is all because of our partners. And so I wanna say a great thanks to our partners that are helping us share the gospel. We’re on five networks, five days a week, and all around the world. If you want to become a partner, we would love to hear from you. Thank you so much. God bless you. And may God increase you greatly as you rejoice in Jesus.

 

  God is not mad at you. He is not a joy stealer, He’s a joy giver. Now is the time to taste and see that the Lord is good. Because of Jesus, you have a reason to set a date to celebrate. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, “Set a Date to Celebrate,” a $5 value, free of charge. Download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Hey everyone, I wanna let you know about something coming up for our livestream congregation. We have Brother Jesse Duplantis, gonna be here at Charis Christian Center.

 

  You let God do what He wants, and He’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams, spiritually, physically, and financially.

 

  You’re gonna get some great revelation with Jesse Duplantis. Tell your friends about it. Charis Christian Center, Sunday, November 5th.

 

  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 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.”