Stay The Course – Part 5 Lawson and Barbara Perdue (Updated)

  Praise God, friends, and welcome to the broadcast, I am so glad that you’re here. You know what? I have good news, and I’m tellin’ ya ahead of time, some of you that are watching are gonna get healed and set free by the power of God today! So, stay tuned, the word’s gonna be good, it’s gonna encourage you not to give up, not to quit, but to keep believing God! And you will see his promises come to pass, blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today, and we’ve been sharin’ all week on “Stay the Course.” There are a lot of people that start out but don’t finish. And Lester Sumrall was one of my mentors before he went up to be home with Jesus, I went to his Bible school. It’s before Andrew Wommack had one. But you know Lester Sumrall, I believe that his greatest message that he ever preached was this message on, I did not quit. And I worked in his audio and video department, and I watched that thing 20 times if I watched it once. But we’d have these videos, and we’d record 10 at a time, but I could actually listen to those, because we recorded those at real time speed. And I was the only one, and worked in that office at that, I had a boss, but he’d go out and do other things, and I’d just produced this stuff. But Dr. Sumrall talked about all the times that he had from when he started out preachin’, to when he was later in years, he preached this later in life that he had to quit. And he just didn’t quit. He had a lot of opposition, he had a lot of people come against him, he had a lot of opportunities to quit. His denomination told him when he was 50, “Lester, you are 50 and you’re finished.” And he cried out to God, and God said, “No, you haven’t even got started.” And Lester’s ministry really didn’t grow ’til after he was 60 years old. Praise God. And I’m just comin’ up on 60 right now, and you know what? I’m takin’ one of the biggest steps of faith. I’ve made an offer, it’s the biggest offer I’ve ever made, but I believe it’s gonna explode the ministry. Now, at the time that we’re speaking, it hasn’t yet taken place, but I’m believing God it will!

 

  Amen!

 

  Praise God!

 

  Yeah!

 

  And you know what, I believe, you can’t just believe all the lies, and all these other things, you gotta look to God and ultimately do what God called you to do. Praise God. But you can’t quit. And if you quit too soon, you won’t get a harvest. The Bible says, “Don’t be weary and well-doing, or in due season you’ll reap if you don’t faint.” And there’s a lot of people that plainly faint before their harvest. I was just thinkin’, we had a break a while ago before the broadcast, and I was just thinkin’ about, certain people that I know, and you know what, they’re on the verge of breakthrough! But if they’re not watchful, they’re gonna get distracted, and they’re gonna completely miss a great opportunity for their life because they got distracted. And you don’t wanna get distracted. Praise God, and you don’t want to quit. Praise God, so stay at it, you’ll win.

 

  Well, amen. I’m really excited about the scriptures we’re gonna share. And again, we’ve been taking from the Bible, different biblical stories and examples to encourage all of us. And for my point one, I mentioned this to you earlier, I like this, when God says, “Go,” go!

 

  Amen.

 

  And until He says, “Go,” don’t! It’s just that simple!

 

  Praise God, and some people think, “Well, He always said “Go,” well, He did say “Go,” but you need to ask Him specifics, because you know what, you can be doin’ the right thing and doin’ it at the wrong time, and it can be completely wrong!

 

  In yesterday’s-

 

  Because you’re doin’ it the wrong time, and timing is so important. If you don’t understand that, you would go broke in business.

 

  In yesterday’s broadcast, we brought it out about Nehemiah, that God put it on his heart to rebuild, and he talked, went and had a meeting, and talked with the king. But another thing he did, he went, I believe the Bible says he went for three days and looked at the area that he felt called to go to to rebuild, but he spent three days walking there, praying about it, really counting the cost, that it would take his time and energy, and what it was, the resources it was gonna take to get the job done.

 

  Nehemiah had a plan! And if you’re gonna have a purpose and fulfill it, you have to have a plan. And a purpose without a plan is like, if you don’t have a, we call, if you have a vision without a plan, it’s like a pipe dream! You won’t accomplish it, you need a plan, you need to have some practical aspects, and ways that you’re gonna go about accomplishing the will of God.

 

  You brought this out, “But the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord.” Hallelujah-

 

  Yeah! That’s Psalm 37:23, says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And he delights in His way.”-

 

  Mm-hmm, I like that.

 

  I believe there’s two sides to that. That number one, God delights in you, but number two, you delight in God! When my steps are ordered by God, not only does God take pleasure in me, but I take pleasure in Him! Praise God!

 

  Yeah, another thing that we talked about is Psalm 37:5, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” You really have to put your trust in Him, and keep it there.

 

  Amen! A lot of times, when God has had me on the break, on the verge of great breakthrough, I’ll have some key person quit, whatever. But you just gotta keep your eyes on God, and keep goin’ forward, and don’t let the devil mess ya up.

 

  Today, for our biblical example, I’m very excited, it’s one of, I know our favorites, but this is in Numbers 13. We’re gonna be talkin’ about Joshua and Caleb. Again, talking about don’t be distracted or derailed from what God has called you to do, the anointing that’s already there on your life to do it. And I find this really amazing, and when I read the Bible, I like to stop and like, look at, what did you really just read? So, Numbers 13, 1 and 2, and it says, “The Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel from each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone, a leader among them.'” But notice what it says here. I want you to send out the spies, and this is the land I’m giving you. What I see from the Bible, from Genesis to the Revelation, He’s already told us that you will have the victory!

 

  Yeah, He tells you, He’ll give you a land. You can see this exact same thing that you see in Numbers 13 in Joshua chapter 1. When later, Joshua was leaving the children of Israel into this land to possess it. Here’s where he was sending 12 men, 12 of the best that he had, and he was 12 out of 2 million. He told them beforehand, “Do not be discouraged. Tell me about the land. Tell me about the fields and the fruit, the cities. Tell me about the people, and do not be discouraged.” Because Moses knew that people have a tendency to gravitate towards the negative. So, he was tellin’ ’em ahead of what he wanted ’em to see, and how to see it from the perspective-

 

  Wow.

 

  And when they came back, 10 of ’em said, “Oh yeah, the land’s beautiful, it’s got beautiful fruit, but! There are giants in the land.” Only two of ’em really saw it, they said, “Oh yeah, the land’s good, the fruit’s good, let’s go get it, God’s with us!” Only two of ’em really saw it from God’s perspective. And talkin’ about this, these were 12 of the best men that Moses had out of 2 million. And so, I say, nobody can remember the names as a whole of those 10, but they remember the names of Joshua and Caleb, because they were people of faith. And being a person of faith will make you one in a million! And you know what? They, people, remember, and God had to let an entire generation of people die off in the wilderness, not because he wanted to, but because they rebelled, and they refused to believe Him. And you know what? The way those people saw themselves ultimately determine what they received from God. When you read the very end of this chapter, I think it’s in verse 33, they said, “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight.” And your own perception of yourself, you need to see yourself the way God sees you, so you can do what God called you to do!

 

  You really brought out somethin’ very important that just kinda leaped out at me. You said the word discouragement, how 10 of ’em are really, were so discouraged, and just like passion and joy is contagious, discouragement is contagious. And you really wanna stay away from people who are always trying to bring you down. And again, you need to really watch out for discouragement. As a number of years ago, I just feel like sharing this personal testimony with you, but a number of years ago, I was told that I had a disease in my liver, they couldn’t really determine how I even got it or where it came from, and when your liver doesn’t work right, it doesn’t matter what you eat, you just have an allergic reaction, that’s what I was experiencing, I was literally having a serious allergic reaction with anything I put into my mouth. It didn’t matter if it was fruit, vegetables, I remember meeting our son in Denver, eating lettuce, a salad from a restaurant, and within 15 minutes, I was broke out and itching everywhere. It was-

 

  It was terrible.

 

  It was terrible. Sometimes, it’d feel like my face was on fire. I’d look in the mirror, and I’d have red stripes that would form on my.

 

  Ah, it was not only on your face, it was all over your neck, all over your body, it was terrible.

 

  It was a-

 

  But the good news is, you believe God! And you did not even have to take prescription medication. We went to a, he was actually a medical doctor, but he did natural stuff. And you know what, he told you what to do, and in cases, I went to him with another challenge I had, and he made me go, he said, “Oh, with your challenge, you need to be on the strongest medication you can, but you got completely healed, most people never get healed from that, they never get over it, but you believe God, and you got completely healed just taking care of your body.”

 

  Well, what I wanted to bring out is there is a lot of well-meaning friends and different people who were gettin’ online, and lookin’ this up, and telling me how it would take years to get healed, or years, that it would just take me a number of years, and I thought, “I’m not doing that route.” But to make a long story short, I had to turn off that discouragement, turn up my time spent with God, just really thy word have I hid in my heart, that I knew that we can go to God and believe for anything, any type of, what I mean is, if you need healing, it doesn’t matter what you’ve been told you have, you can go to God, and His word says, “We can be healed.” And to make a long story short, what I wanted to bring out is, I had to turn off any discouragement from even well-meaning people. And it was actually just a period of time, it was just several months, and that just turned around, my liver turned around and became healthy again. And so, praise God, I just wanted to encourage some of you watching right now, we do have to guard ourselves. It’s good to have family and friends, but there’s some time, you really need to guard against people who just seem to always be discouraged, and want you to take that on as well. It’s not a good thing to have. And it really affected the whole multitude! And then, it affected their destiny! Entire multitude of people because of 10 people’s negative report, there was 2 that were of faith and proclaimed God’s victory, what He already said, but then there was 10 people who were so negative, so full of discouragement, that they got everybody crying!

 

  Yeah!

 

  It says how they all wept and tore their clothes, and began to cry-

 

  Oh! Because they were emotional, and they were negative. People get emotional, and they get negative, and they get stupid. You know what you’re talkin’ about. Proverbs 4: 20-22 says, “My son, give attention to my word, and incline your ear to my saying. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.” Verse 22 says, “For they are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh.” And that’s what you did! And that word for health in the Hebrew, here in Proverbs chapter 4, it means medicine! The word is medicine to all your flesh. I believe it’s the Hebrew word marpe. But if you’ll take the word of God like medication, praise God, the word of God will heal your body! Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent His word and heal them, and deliver them from their destructions.” We had a woman in our church, Judy Paget, and Judy, this last year, was given a diagnosis by the doctors that she had less than three weeks to live. Her belly was all swelled up when she went in full of cancer. They said it was completely throughout her. They said, “We could do surgery, we could do, what, chemo,” but they said, “It won’t do nothin’ for you. You’re gonna die within three weeks.” And Judy just made a decision, “I am gonna believe God.” And you know what? It wasn’t! It was a few weeks, but her stomach flattened out. She was all gray, she turned pink again. She’s dancing and worshiping God, and you know what? She doesn’t have a bit of cancer in her body. She is healed from the top of her head to the sole of her feet. I thank God for the word. And you know what? She just believed the word, and I told her about Dodie Osteen, and she already had the scripture! She was in the hospital, she said, “Oh, I already got that, and I’m already believing it, and you just lay hands on me and pray for me, and believe God, and agree with me.” And you know what? She wasn’t callin’ me every two or three days or every week, or she didn’t hardly bother! I mean, she just left me alone! I’d call her, it’d take her two days to call me back! But she’s healed and whole, and well. Because she believed the word of God. And we got another woman in our church that last year had cancer, now she’s healed. I got another woman that I went and prayed for, and she couldn’t come here physically to church. I said, “Let me!” I called, I said, “Bring him,” and she said, “I can’t come, I can’t physically get there.” And they asked “If I’d come and pray. Call for those of the church!” Just like James chapter 5. And I went over last week! And anointed her with oil, and prayed for her. And I told her, “I believe within 10 days, you’re gonna be completely healed. The power of God is comin’ on you,” and I told her some testimonies, and this was on Thursday, and she was in church Sunday, and she said that “Pain has went down, it’s much better,” I said, “I believe you’re gonna get better and better, and better.” And I agreed with her again on Sunday. But you know what? The word of God works. And if you’ll believe the Bible, it’ll work for you. Well, it’s time for us to have a break. So, we’re gonna take a short break, we’ll be back right after this break! And we’ll continue to share the good word of God, blessings. Friends, we’ve been teaching from Barbara’s teaching on “Stay the Course!” And you know what, if you don’t quit! You’ll win in the realm of faith. So, you can go to our website at charischristiancenter.com. You can get this downloadable audio, downloadable video, and hundreds of other teachings absolutely free of charge, blessings. Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue, and I love church! And I’m excited about church. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And I want to invite you to come to church, whether you’re in Colorado Springs, or wherever you are in the world, you can connect with us online, Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 AM, or you can just get on our website and watch us at charischristiancenter.com, blessings. Friends, it’s great to have ya, and it’s great to have Barbara, I just love having you on the show, Barbara, and teachin’ with ya, and love your teaching, so go ahead, and share what you got. I praise God, I enjoy being here. And I know there’s someone watchin’ right now, and there might be several of you, but I just feel really impressed just to agree with you and pray right now, together, my husband and I are gonna agree with you. I just rebuke that pain right now in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is above that pain. And I stand and agree with you, and I speak to it right now, I rebuke that pain, and I command it to go right now in the name of Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  God is with you, His word is true.

 

  Amen.

 

  Keep standin’ on it. As my husband was saying, that the word of God brings life and health to our flesh. And so, we are so glad that you are with us right now watching, and we are standing with you. And that is gonna come to an end right now!

 

  Jesus took your sickness, Jesus took your infirmity, Jesus took your pain on the cross! And because Jesus took it, you don’t have to take it. And I agree with Barbara right now, that in the name of Jesus, pain is leaving your body, and the healing power of God is flowin’ through you. There’s some of you watching this that may think this is hokey, but you know what? We have people that call in, you gave a very specific exact word the other day when we were on a broadcast, and somebody called in and said, “That was me, and I agreed, and I got my miracle!” And you know what? We have miracles happen all the time at church. We have miracles happen on television, we have miracles that happen online. God is a God of miracles, and He’s the same yesterday. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the word of God works if you believe it.

 

  Amen. And I know we’re talkin’ about stay the course, but this word of God works for anybody in any situation, and I like what you brought out before the break, how it says it in scriptures, I mean, we’re in Numbers right now, but it’s in Joshua, I love it every time it says, “Be of good courage, be of good courage, be of good courage. Don’t fear but be of good courage.”

 

  The devil will try to discourage ya! And what he’s trying to do is get you off course! He’s trying to get you to give up before your harvest. But don’t faint before your harvest, and you’ll win! God wants you to have the victory! The Bible says, “Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph, and gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is victory available in Jesus! And it’s available right here and right now! And if you’ll believe the word, you can receive it!

 

  Mm-hmm, that’s good.

 

  Amen-

 

  That’s really good.

 

  Praise God, it might take time! Andrew Wommack is a very close friend of mine, and he had this growth on his ear. Lord, it looked like just go get it taken care of, but he would not, and he spoke to that thing, and he spoke to it, and he spoke to it. And then one day later, and I may have the story wrong, but I think I’ve got it right. And if Andrew you’re watchin’, I love you. He just tore it off, praise God! And it never grew back, and he’s completely healed.

 

  Mm-hmm, amen.

 

  Praise God. But he didn’t even go to get the bad report. Now, I don’t care if you go to a doctor. Man, you know what? You told me, I had this issue goin’ on, and it went on for a couple months, and I was draggin’ my leg, and you told me I made an appointment for you, and you’re gonna go today! And I went. And you know what? I needed help and I got help, and God healed me, so I thank God the word works.

 

  Amen-

 

  Amen, if you need a little help, go get it!

 

  Well anyway, praise God. God loves you so much. I know there’s someone that just really needed encourage with that today. And I’m just gonna go on and just read a couple more scriptures here in Numbers, I know it’s gonna be encouraging to everybody. But we had started in Numbers 13, and I love what it says in verse 20, and this is what we’re talking about when it kept encouraging them to be of good courage. But it says, and you mentioned this too, “Go and see!” I like how you brought this out. “Go and see whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forest there or not, but be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now, the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. And it talked about they brought back produce, fruit!

 

  Amen.

 

  When they went out to spy the land, and didn’t they have to put these grapes like two men carry ’em-

 

  Between two people on a branch? I mean.

 

  That’s a lot of-

 

  I’ve been to Israel years ago, and they had cabbages that were like big as a watermelon that we would see! They were huge! And it just amazed me. Here’s somethin’ about the land of Israel, when the Israeli people have been in charge of it, they prosper and they grow, and they do. When anybody else, it just goes to nothin’. God gave that land to them, and it’s productive under their authority. Amen, and if God gives you something.

 

  Amen!

 

  It’ll be productive under your authority! So, don’t you give up what God’s given you. You take authority and walk in what God gives you. Praise God. So, that’s a good word, Barbara, keep going.

 

  Well, I wanna go on in verse 3, but what you gave just a very good word, but in verse 30, so we’re still in Numbers 13, but I love what verse 30 says. ‘Cause what I wanna bring out now, it’s really a heart condition with people. It’s a heart condition. It says, “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession for we are well-able to overcome it!'”

 

  Amen, we are well-able.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  Thank God, do you know what? You’re able to do what God called you to do. What God appointed you to do, what God anointed you to do. What God called you to do, and when you’re operating in God’s time, you need to go for it. Praise God. Mm-hmm.

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  And it’s interesting that of all these people, I’m gonna just skip down, I wanna read Numbers 14:1, but. And of all these people, because they allowed a few people to cause discouragement to spread. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones that walked in to the amazing promises, years later that God had for ’em. And I find this amazing in Numbers 14:1, it said, “Because of the evil report from a few of these leaders, it said, “So, all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.” Nothin’ good or fruitful ever comes from when you have a meltdown party. You don’t wanna have-

 

  Ugh.

 

  A meltdown party. We need to be around people that are life-giving, bring life and strength, and encouragement. But you really need to guard yourself against people who are just always in that mode of discouragement, and being negative, and I’m a victim, and you’re a victim, and I’m mad at you because of what’s goin’ on in your life, and people were mad at Joshua and Caleb, they were mad at their faith and wanted to stone them!

 

  Yeah! And you know what? You don’t wanna join that kind of a crowd.

 

  No.

 

  You don’t want to join some ball baby party, some victim whining and complaining thing, you’re not gonna get anywhere!

 

  I wanna.

 

  And Moses had to let God! Actually, to use Moses, but God had to let an entire generation of people die off in the wilderness because they refuse to believe in Him. And ultimately, only Joshua and Caleb, and the younger generation of people went into that land. So, they had to wander in the wilderness 40 years. That was never God’s plan-

 

  That’s right.

 

  For them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, but it’s because they rebelled, and they refuse to believe God.

 

  So, we don’t wanna rebel, we don’t wanna walk in doubt and rebel. And I wanna bring somethin’ out, because this is something both our fathers, mainly our fathers, really encouraged us in. And this is in Philippians 2:13 through 14. But it says, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure,” 14, 1:14 Philippians 2:14 says, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” Do all things without complaining, get that wine out of there.

 

  Yeah, that is not. Kenneth E. Hagin said this years ago, Kenneth Hagin Sr. He said “He could tell whether people had received from God and really were people of faith, because if they had really received from God and they were people of faith, they quit whining.” And he said “If they were still whining, they weren’t really operating in faith.” And so, you wanna get over it, amen? I said this one day, I quoted Andrew Wommack, he said, “Get over it.” Or he said, “Get your thumb out of your mouth, get over it, and grow up!” And this woman came to me after church, and she was so upset, and she said, “Pastor, you said this, and it just made me feel so bad!” And she was just havin’ a terrible meltdown! And a couple of weeks later, a lady walked in my office, and my office was off premises then, we just day leased where we were. And she came in, and she got her purse, and she said, “You told me something that totally set me free!” And she pulled this paper out, you said, “Get your thumb outta your mouth! Grow up and get over it!” It was the same exact word! But it’s her perspective of it. And you know what, God can use the same exact word and bless somebody, and somebody else will have a meltdown about it! But it’s how you perceive it! And if your heart is right, did you know what? You’ll get the good outta whatever’s there! And you’ll be able to move forward with God. Barbara, before we go off, I want you to pray for the people today.

 

  Well, dear heavenly Father, again, we come to You in the precious name of Jesus. And we just speak blessings over everyone. And Lord, I thank you that faith has been stirred up, and things are arising, and they’re getting a vision and a dream of the calling and anointings that are on their life. And Lord God, we just praise you and thank you for all good things in Jesus’ name, amen.

 

  Praise the Lord, and I wanna encourage you, if you’re in the Colorado Springs area and you can come to church, we’d love to have ya. Or if you’re traveling through! We have services on Sundays, 8:30 and 10:30 AM, and we have people nearly every week from all around the world, and from several hundred miles away, sometimes numbers of people from a hundred miles away. But we always have testimonies of people bein’ healed and set free by the power of God. And if you can’t praise God, you can watch online and see us at charischristiancenter.com, or you can look on YouTube. Thank you so much, and blessings. Friends, We don’t want to leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins. And right now, I surrender my life to you, in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

 

  God’s calling on your life is a lifelong journey. It will take both faith and patience for you to do what God has called you to do. The first step is to get up and go. Just remember, it’s not by might nor by power, but by His spirit. He will be with you every step of the way. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, “Stay The Course.” A $15 value free of charge. Download it today at charischristiancenter.com. 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.”