Spirit of Generosity – Part 3 Lawson Perdue and Mark Hankins

Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you’re watching. So glad that you’re connected with us today. We’re gonna be talking about grace today, but we’re gonna be talking about another realm of grace that a lot of people really don’t even associate with grace. Actually, the Bible talks about grace in this area as much as any other area. So, open your heart, receive the word of God today, and I believe that you will be blessed. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here today and glad to have Brother Mark. We’ve been friends for over 40 years.

Yeah.

Praise God. And I just love being in relationship with you and I love, you know, the aspect you’re coming in part of our, you know, leadership team here at the church and come here and minister. And we’re actually, we’ve had a number of great camp meetings.

Wonderful, yeah.

We just love having you here.

Glad to be with you.

But, you know, even before that, there was just a couple really significant times in my life. One, I remember years ago, Barbara and I were pastoring in Eastern Colorado.

Yeah.

And you know, we just didn’t have a lot extra.

Yeah.

You know, but we went to Denver actually to Billy Epperhart’s church, Trinity Christian Center, and you were preaching. And Billy actually invited my family and my wife and my three sons and he put us up in the Marriott Hotel.

Yeah.

And he paid for everything.

Wonderful, yeah.

For the week. And you were preaching on some things there that challenged me.

Yeah.

Challenged my thinking, you know, and my religious thinking. But Billy had me come because I was a giver, because I supported, you know, a missionary that we were mutual friends, Brother Bearman. And you know, but you were preaching on some things that were stretching my, just religious thinking. And so, when we got done with the meetings after and I gave like $100 offering that week. We didn’t have a lot of extra.

Wow.

You know, that’s just where we were.

Sure.

But I support, I actually gave $50 a month to Billy’s ministry for about four years after that or something.

Wow.

I just stayed connected and kept.

You’re partner, yeah.

Kept continued partnering with him. And anyway, you know, when we were coming home from that meeting, we went to McDonald’s ’cause I was paying and Quarter Pounders with Cheese then, they had a special, they were two for $2. And then you could buy a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal for $3.

Yeah.

So I bought one meal, four Quarter Pounders with Cheese, got four waters, went to the restroom. I came back out. My wife and I were having a disagreement about what you were saying.

Yeah.

And when I got back, there was a french fry box, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a water at my place, but only one French fry. And I told my wife, I said, “Where are my French fries?” Because even if you split a box of French fries, you know, five ways you get more than one French fry. And she said, “Listen, Mark was right and you were wrong “and you need to get over it.”

You were a tightwad.

Yeah. She said, “You can be a one french fry man if you want to, “but I believe that God has more.”

More, yeah.

And I said, “Well, I pray about that.” So, that was Saturday. And you know, Sunday I got up, preached, regular thing. Monday morning I got out early in the morning, went running, and the Lord said, “Mark’s right and you’re wrong “and you need to get over it.” Hallelujah. You told me recently you said, “I see you got well over it.” Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

But you know, sometimes you have to change your thinking.

Sure.

So you can change your receiving.

Yeah.

And it’s not God that’s a problem.

Yeah, and you know, every breakthrough in faith, which is believing and receiving and every breakthrough in receiving from God, every breakthrough in faith comes from a breakthrough in revelation knowledge.

Yes.

Because the substance of your faith is the word. So, every breakthrough in faith comes from a breakthrough in how you hear the word and receive the word.

Right.

So, I wasn’t saying I was right, I was just giving you the word. And you apparently hadn’t heard those scriptures before. So, I gave you that word and you’re like, “Wow.” And so, we looked at several different scriptures on the blessing of the Lord. And you know, Proverbs 11:24 is still one of my favorite scriptures.

Amen.

Because in the King James version, it’s a little interesting in the King James because you’re kinda like figuring out what he’s saying. In the King James, it says, “There is a scattereth “and yet increasith, “there is that withhold more than his meat “and it tends to poverty.”

Right.

And so, I read that and then the next verse says, the liberal in King James. But it’s the same word as generous. “The generous person will be abundantly blessed.”

Right.

And while you’re blessing others, God will bless you. So, when it says there is a scatterith and yet increasith, then I, for years I was like, okay, if I want to increase, you would think if you’re gonna increase, you’d have to hold onto your money real tight. And he said, “If you hold onto your money too tight, “you’re actually gonna have poverty or lack.”

Right.

So the Lord said to me, lack doesn’t come from money you don’t have, it comes from money you do have, you shouldn’t have. In other words, I was like, wow, so God thinks totally different about money than I do. So, when he says there is a scatterith, one translation says, “One gives away and gets richer. “One keeps what he should give and is poorer.”

Right.

So I thought, wow. In other words, giving, our generosity can actually and should actually cause increase. So, the Lord told me one time, He said, “I did not design tithing and giving for you to decrease.”

Yes.

I designed tithing and giving for you to increase.

Amen.

In other words, when Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given unto you, “good measure, press now, and shaken together “and running over shall men give to your bosom.” In other words, He’s saying, “Your generosity “is gonna cause something supernatural “to happen financially in your life.”

Right.

And so, in Proverbs 11:24 where He says, “One gives away and yet increases.” So He said, really, if you take your giving serious, then it will produce, you know, it says Malachi, that He will open the windows of heaven when you’re a tither and a giver. So, when He says one gives away, here’s a great translation the Message Bible says, “The world “of the generous gets larger and larger, “and the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.”

Yes.

So God is not a stingy God. We are children of a generous God.

Right.

Matter of fact, God’s the biggest giver. And when you have His nature, it makes you enjoy being generous and giving.

Amen. You know, I’ve blessed a lot of people.

Amen.

I’ve helped a lot of people. I’ve helped people buy churches, build churches all over the world.

Yeah.

I’ve put my name on the line a number of times, sometimes it cost me a little extra, but. Sure, yeah.

But at the same point in time, I’ve been very generous and helped, I’ve helped people buy homes, I’ve bought homes outta foreclosure. I’ve done all kinds of things. And you know, Barbara started actually, she said, “You know, “this scripture’s about you “and I’m gonna start praying this.”

What’s that?

But the verse 25, in this other translation, I think it’s the message.

Excuse me.

That you were just quoting in verse 24. It says, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger.”

Yeah.

“And the world of the stingy “gets smaller and smaller.” Verse 25 says, “The one who blesses others “will be abundantly blessed.”

Yeah.

And those who help others will be helped.

Wow.

Praise God. And you know what? God supernaturally has helped me. Even, you know, at the turn of the year this year, my wife and I were actually on a trip and we were on a plane and we just started talking about a couple of thing. I started saying one thing, two of my mentors in the area of finance that had passed away in the last year. And I said, “You know, I need God “to gimme some new relationships in the area of finances.”

Yeah.

And another thing, we had a real estate property and I said, “You know, I might like to sell that.” And we just talked about it, you know, that week we got a offer on that property. Now because of some different things, we couldn’t release it yet, but we’re gonna, we’re gonna get that done and it’s gonna be taken care of.

Sure.

But you know, even, we hadn’t listed it, we hadn’t put it on the market, we hadn’t said anything to somebody, and yet somebody made an offer. Right? And then I had a major investment account, you know, of the ministry.

Sure.

And a small investment account with the same person personally, and they got transferred to another company.

Wow.

And I got connected with these other people.

Yeah.

And it’s taken me to a higher level.

Sure.

And I didn’t, it’s nothing that I did. It’s something that God did, but it was the desire of my heart.

Wow.

And you know, you start, when a man’s ways please the Lord, you know?

Oh yeah.

Certain things just happen.

A blessing of the Lord.

Yeah.

Actually that word increase in Proverbs 11:24, actually that word increase is so interesting that God’s way of increasing is not seeing how much money you can hold onto, but it’s seeing how generous you can be. In other words, when you’re a tither, you’re a giver. In 2 Corinthians 9.

Right.

The Apostle Paul, this is what we call Paul’s revelation. I mean, I love Paul’s revelation.

Right.

Of the redeemed and who you are in Christ and the blood and what happened on the cross to the throne. But a part of Paul’s revelation is 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Right.

And in 2 Corinthians 9, He calls giving, sowing.

Right.

Sowing. That means you’re like farming money. When you’re a giver, you’re sowing. And that means you’re expecting a harvest if you’re a farmer, right?

Amen.

So he says, “If you sow sparingly, you’ll reap sparingly. “If you sow generously, you’ll reap generously.” And he said, “And God loves a cheerful giver.”

Amen.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you have all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. And it says, “And God gives seed to the sower.” And in other words, the Lord told me, He said, “If you’ll get addicted to giving, “I will support your habit.”

Amen.

In other words, God gives seed to the giver, or God gives money to the giver. ‘Cause God’s the biggest giver.

Amen.

And when I was first started pastoring, we had a, you know, a rich man in the church. And you know, I knew he was the biggest giver in the church. And can you believe it? I mean, he got mad at me for some reason. I won’t tell you about the church and stuff, and so he left. So, I was sitting in my office and I was thinking, you know, the biggest giver just left the church.

Yeah.

And I was kind of sad. And the Lord spoke to me and said, “No, “the biggest giver is still here.” I said, “Well, I’d sure like to know who it is “’cause I see the printout.” And the Lord said, “It’s me.” The Lord said, “I’m the biggest giver. “As long as I’m still here, “you will never lack for money.” As long as He is with you, His presence, His word. He said, “You’ll never lack for money.”

Amen.

So, we were not only giving and tithing personally, but we tithed off of the whole church ministry, off of all the church finances.

Right.

Not only tithe, we would give 20%.

Right.

Then we got to where we were giving 30% off the whole ministry. And boy, some of my elders were nervous about that. And I said, “Well, you watch and see what God will do.”

Yeah.

And so, our finances, once the biggest giver left, our finances went from about $8,000 a week and went to 10,000, 20,000 a week. $30,000 a week, $50,000 a week, 60,000, $70,000 a week. And it been growing ever since. And so, I got up and asked if anybody else wants to leave. In other words, God became the source of my supply and my blessing.

Amen.

And as long as we honored God first, and we so generously individually.

Right.

And corporately as a church, as a ministry, we partnered with those that were blessing to us, then we kept increasing and still increase.

I have the same testimony.

Sure.

And you know, we’ve pastored this church, we came here 20 plus years ago with almost no people and no money.

Sure.

We’ve given every year between 10 and 27% of income.

You keep increasing, yeah.

And the church just keeps growing.

Keeps increasing.

And prospering, and we keep reaching more and more people.

Wow.

And it’s supernatural how God takes care of us.

It’s amazing grace.

Amen. Hey, if you need prayer, we’re gonna have a break and we’re gonna be back right after the break. Continue to share. Just give us a call right now and we’ll be back. Friends, I am so glad that you are watching today. We’ve been talking about the spirit of generosity. I have my good friend, Mark Hankins with me, who has a tremendous revelation in the area of finances. And for any new partner that gives any partnership of any amount in the United States of America, we’ll send this book to you, “God’s Extravagant Generosity,” free of charge.

There is so much power in the spoken blessing. Things happen in the spiritual realm when you speak the blessing. You might not see anything happening in the physical realm, but you need to speak the blessing because things are happening in the spirit realm. There is a blessing in the congregation.

Friends, I’m glad you stayed with us again. I’m so happy to have Mark and praise God, I love being around you. Love Trina. Love your ministry.

We love you.

Praise God, you’re a super blessing to us. Super blessing to our family. And I just appreciate, you know, good, long-term, godly relationships

Following Jesus, following the word, amen.

Amen, it’s so good. And so, we’re talking about this spirit of generosity and we’re in 2 Corinthians 9. And you know, it says this, you were in verse seven and verse eight and jumped over a little bit into verse 10. But in verse six here in 2 Corinthians 9, it says, “He who sow sparingly shall reap also sparingly.”

Wow.

“And he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”

Wow.

You know, I’ve got a agricultural background.

Sure.

And I grew up on a small farm, right, in southeast Colorado. Now, I mean, it was about 1200 acres. And then my granddad sold about half of it. So, we ended up with about 600 acres. But we had these, you know, little fields, and we’d sow ’em and, you know, they were maybe 20 acres and we’d sow 100 pounds of wheat or something, 60 pounds of wheat a acre. And we’d generally, 60 pounds is a bushel, we’d get 100 fold return on that irrigated ’cause we could control the conditions.

Yeah.

You know, the Bible talks about the early and the latter rain. But then, you know, after a period of time I moved and I began to pastor in Kit Carson, Colorado. Really small town out on the prairie.

Wow.

But I had some people came to my church and they farmed thousands of acres.

Wow.

And I had one man, you know, he had been in a divorce and he’d give nearly everything away. And he had four sections, which is 2,500 acres, which isn’t large, that’s about average. But he owed about everything he’s worth because he’d been in his divorce and gave all the stuff to his kids, to keep it outta the divorce. His wife, of course, divorced him, has agreed to that. But anyway, when we started there, he got baptized in the Holy Spirit, started coming to church all the time. He had been born again prior to that. But he, Dr. Lester Sumrall started a ministry, Feed the Hungry.

Yeah.

So, he said, “Every time the ship comes to the harbor, I wanna put a semi load of wheat.”

Wow.

“On that ship.” And so, we would ship it down to the Gulf, have it ground into four, ship it to Kansas, have it ground into the flour, ship it down to the Gulf. And you know, we’d go to these third world countries and give away food, preach the gospel, and do all these things. But you know what, he ended up in his eighties and I did his funeral last year. He’s a great friend to me. But he said, you know, “Pastor Lawson,” he said, he had about 20,000 acres that he paid off. So, God increased him 10 times and then took care of all the debt.

Wow.

And he said, “It’s been hard “to keep my net worth under $10 million.” I said, “Oh, you’d better just keep a giving.”

Sure.

Praise God. But you know, when you get involved sowing, but he would talk about after they’d plant, ’cause we’d start, we’d sow, you know, for two weeks in September with a 12 foot drill.

Wow.

I mean, he had 60 foot drills in several of ’em. And they’d start sowing the middle of August and sow ’til November.

Wow.

And then at November they’d take a 200, you know, bushel truck, a pretty good sized little grain truck.

Wow.

And go plant all the ends of the fields. He said, “The ends of my fields “that the grasshoppers ate off “produce more that most people’s farms.”

Wow.

But when you sow bountifully, you reap bountifully.

Yeah.

That’s just a principle. And it works.

Yeah. It is part of Paul’s revelation. 2 Corinthians 9, chapter 8 and 9. Chapter eight, verse seven, Paul says to these believers, ’cause he had noticed their generosity and their giving, even though they were poor, he noticed their giving. He said, “Wow, you guys gave abundantly.” And then he says, “You abound in your faith, your utterance, your preaching, your knowledge, your love.” And then he said, “See that you abound in this grace also.”

That’s in 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 8:7.

Yeah.

So, he’s saying it’s possible to abound in different facets of the grace of God and not abound in other facets. So he says, “Your knowledge is great, your love is great.” He says, but when it comes to your finances, Paul says, “You gave out of your need and your lack” in 2 Corinthians 8. But in 2 Corinthians 9, he left Titus there to teach them, “I’m gonna show you how God will increase you “so you can give out of your abundance.”

Right.

I think John Osteen years ago said, “You can give off the bottom of the barrel, “or God can fill the barrel “and you can give off the top of the barrel.”

Yeah.

So, he’s telling them how to increase and he says, when you sow, so he calls giving or generosity, sowing.

Right.

So, I call it farming money. So, I think it’s interesting you’re talking about farming, you know, and sowing and the seed. And so, when you’re giving, he calls it sowing, you should expect in harvest.

Right.

So, we have a farmer friend, you know, in Colorado, and he farms thousands acres. And he went to a school and he asked the students at the school, “What’s the most important equipment on our farm?” And they’d say, you know, tractor and this and all that. He said, “No, the most important piece “of equipment on my farm is the planter.” He said, “‘Cause if the planter’s not working, “then we will not get a harvest.”

Yeah.

So he said, “We make sure our planter is working.”

Yeah.

So Paul is saying, make sure you’re sowing when you’re giving, if you want a generous, or abundant harvest, make sure you’re sowing generously. And I asked the Lord one time, I said, “What’s the difference “between sparing and generous?” I said, “How will I know when I’m generous?” Because I want the generous harvest. And you can’t get the generous harvest by sowing sparingly.

Right.

You have to sow generously. So, I said, “How will I know when I’m generous?” The Lord said, “You’ll know.”

Yeah.

I said, “How will I know?” He said, “Because when you’re generous, “you leave your comfort zone a little bit “and you sow in faith.”

Right.

Expecting a harvest. He said, “When you’re generous is when you give “and take your giving serious. “You give and you think about it for months later “or years later. “When you’re generous. “If you stay in the sparing, you can give “and not even think about it again.” But if you’re sowing generously, you’re giving and you’re going, “Wow, Lord, I know your word is true. “I’m expecting a whopper of a harvest, abundant harvest.” So Paul said, this is one of the laws of the kingdom of God is the law of sowing and reaping.

Yeah.

Amazing.

You know, God established that law in Genesis 8.

Sure.

Actually in Genesis chapter one when He created everything to produce after its own kind.

Yeah.

Right? And then, actually, after He created man in his own image and gave him dominion.

Wow.

Then it says He blessed him, but it says He gave him herb bearing seed and every animal that had life.

Wow.

So both of those things reproduce.

Interesting.

So He said, “I want you to take authority. “I want you to have dominion, “but I’ve given something to you.”

Yeah.

So that God will never call you to do something when He hasn’t given something to you.

He gave you a seed, yeah.

Right? To help you accomplish what He said. In other words, 1 Thessalonians 5, I think it’s verse 25, it says, “Faithful is he “who calls you, who also,” or verse 24, “who also will do it.” If God’s called you, then He’s given you the ability to do it. Now, you were talking about abounding in this grace, so people can abound in different aspects of grace.

Yeah.

But he says this grace of giving, and then Paul says, this is 2 Corinthians 8:7, he says that you abound in faith, utterance, knowledge, all diligence, your loved us, see that you abound in this grace.

Yeah.

This grace of giving. Then he says in verse nine, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, “even though that He was rich.”

Wow.

Jesus was in heaven. He was the creator of the universe.

Sure.

With the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

And he said, “Yet for your sakes, He became poor.” And that’s the poverty. It means He came to utter poverty when He went to the cross.

Yeah.

He said that “You through His poverty might be rich.” In fact, on the cross, Jesus took four things. He took our sin. He took our anxiety. He took our sickness. And He took our poverty.

Wow, yes.

And did you know what, those four things, did you know what? He took our sin to give us righteousness. He took our anxiety to give us peace. He took our sickness to give us health. And he took our poverty to give us wealth.

Amen, amen.

And a lot of people leave out that fourth thing. A lot of them leave out the third thing, too.

Yeah.

You know. It’s not the full gospel, it’s part of the gospel.

Yeah.

But actually, when we talk about grace, a lot of grace, people get mad when you talk about giving.

The grace of giving.

But Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, he talks about grace as much as anywhere in the entire scripture, in the entire New Testament. The only place that’s equal is Romans five and six when he’s talking about grace to receive righteousness. It’s equal with 2 Corinthians eight and nine. So, it must be important.

So, he’s talking about 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, clearly about giving.

Right.

So, it’s really not just the grace of giving, it’s the grace of giving and receiving.

Praise God.

Or, I call it amazing grace.

Amen.

So, if grace is amazing in every other area of your life, Paul says, it can be amazing in the area of your finances.

Right.

In other words, the grace of God can hit you financially, the blessing of the Lord, which is more than how hard you work, more than your education. It’s amazing grace. And that means one day you’ll look at your checkbook and say, “Amazing grace.” In other words, you’ll say, “Look what the Lord has done.”

Amen.

Not just spiritually, but it has blessed me financially. So, he says, I’m able to give right to every good work. So he says, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, not just one area, but in every area of your life. So that you have all sufficiency in all things. In other words, he says, “You access this grace “by sowing.”

Right.

Giving, sowing. The Lord told me this way, He said, “Your sowing will outperform your savings.”

Amen.

Aha. In other words, that doesn’t mean God doesn’t want you to save and be blessed. It just means that your sowing will get you a better yield than your savings.

Amen.

People always say, well, you know, if you want the risk factor to be high or low or medium when it comes to your investment. Listen, when you’re giving into the kingdom of God, there is no risk factor because the seed is guaranteed. God said, “I will multiply your seed sown.” So, you never think subtraction when you’re giving or partnering with the ministry and the gospel. You always think multiplication or increase. God said, “I’m gonna multiply. “I’m gonna give you increase.” In other words, your sowing will not, your giving will not produce decrease. It will produce increase.

Amen. Praise God.

Amen.

And so, thank God. You know, many of you watching this maybe are not partnering, but I wanna encourage you, I believe that our ministry has an anointing of increase. In fact, we get calls from people all over the United States and even around the world.

Yeah.

And they say, “Something happened to our finances.”

Sure.

When we started supporting your ministry, when we started giving to you, then our finances increased.

Yes.

And you know, I used to have a lady in my church years ago, she said, “You can’t beat God given.”

Yeah.

And you know what? That was their personal testimony and it worked.

Wow.

And you know, in my life, I’ve give, and I’ve sown and we’ve continued, and Barbara and I have given about 30% of our income.

Yeah.

Over the years. And there is no way that you can explain the blessing.

You keep increasing.

And I’m not asking you to do anything that God doesn’t want you to do.

Sure.

But I would ask you to preferably consider sowing seed into this ministry and becoming a partner. You know what, we’re receiving, you know, words all over the world. We’re in over 50 nations.

Wow.

With the free children’s curriculum. We’ve made all of our teaching audios and videos downloadable free.

Wow.

And you know, we’re preaching the gospel all over the world, and we do this without charge. And so, if you’d consider partnering, we’d love to hear from you. And if you want prayer, give us call today.

We’d like to invite you to join us as we share this message of grace, faith, and righteousness with countless others by becoming a regular monthly partner with “Grace For Today.” When you become a new partner, we’d like to send you a copy of Mark Hankins book entitled, “How to Receive God’s Extravagant Generosity” free of charge. To become a monthly partner, go to our website, CharisChristianCenter.com.

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. If you have faith, your faith must have corresponding action. You’re gonna be rewarded not really for what you do, you’re gonna be rewarded because you believe Jesus. But the evidence that you believe Jesus is in not your words, but your actions. Or maybe we should say both your words and your actions.

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.”