The Blessing of Generosity – Part 6 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re here with us today. We wanna begin teaching today on the blessing of generosity, and we’re gonna go to some foundational principles that are laid down in the word of God. You know, the scripture says, “If the foundations be destroyed, “what shall the righteous do?” So if you get these foundations right, then you’ll have a strong foundation and you can move into the greater things that God has for you. Friends, we’re so glad that you’re with us today. We’re teaching this week again on the blessing of generosity, and I want to take a little bit of time today and go back and share some of the things that we shared about during last week’s broadcast. And we talked last week, really, we began the series with this scripture in Proverbs 11, verse 24 and verse 25. And it says, “There is he who scatters and yet increases. “And there is he who withholds more than is sufficient, “but it tends to poverty. “The liberal soul will be made fat “and he who waters others will be watered also himself.” So it’s talking about sowing and reaping. And I believe as we go through the scripture, the first principle really about giving and receiving is that of sowing and reaping. And it really begins in Genesis chapter one. And we see it carried forth not only there, but in Genesis chapter eight, and all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. And it says here, when we scatter, we increase, but if we withhold more than is sufficient, it tends to poverty. The message says it this way, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger, “but the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. “The one who blesses others will be abundantly blessed, “and those who help others will be helped.” And then we see again, even in the modern English, verse 25 says, “The generous soul will be made rich, “and he who waters others will be watered himself.” So when we become generous, you know, as we sow, we reap back what we sow.

 

  And all throughout scripture, you actually see one of the just signs of someone that’s a person of faith is their heart for generosity. You know, God is the most generous person in the universe. And when we have his spirit, the spirit of Christ inside of us, it causes us to be generous as well. And I think generosity, you see it all throughout the New Testament and especially when the, you know, in Acts when the church was born, just people had this, just this supernatural heart for generosity. And it’s really just a very practical way to exercise your faith, to set your faith to action is by giving, by being generous. And again, I love that concept of sowing and reaping. It’s really true. You know, God has gotten a lot of things to me because he put it on my heart to give initially. And as I gave, he caused it to come back to me. Sometimes when God puts on your heart to give to someone, it’s because he also wants things to come back into your life. And that’s his system for doing it.

 

  Yeah, Jesus said this in Luke 6:38. He said, “Give and it shall be given to you. “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, “and running over shall man give under your bosom for “with the same measure that you give it out, “it will be measured back to you again.” And you know, if you give it out in teaspoonfuls, it’s gonna be multiplied in teaspoonfuls. If you give it out in shovels, it’ll come back in shovels. If you give it out in buckets, it’ll come back in buckets. And if you give it out in truckloads, it’ll come back in truckloads. You know, when we started the church in Kit Carson years ago, I had a farmer and he just, he came to church, he’d had kind of a rough history, but him and his wife started coming to church and he’d been born again, but he hadn’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit, but he got baptized in the Holy Spirit. And Dr. Lester Sumrall had started the Feed the Hungry program where he was taking food and taking the gospel, you know, all around the world and passing these food out in third world nations, you know, through pastors. He wanted to use pastors and churches. And this, I had this man in my church and basically he had been through a divorce situation. He had given all of his stuff to his kids, kind of to keep it out of the divorce. It was kind of a really, you know, hard situation. But then he had been remarried and when I moved there, he had like four sections, about 24, 2500 acres. And, but he basically owed all that they were worth. But when Dr. Sumrall came and ministered and dedicated the church, you know, he said, “I wanna get involved with this Feed the Hungry. “And every time that ship comes and they fill it up, “I wanna put a semi-load of wheat on it.” And you know, he got so blessed, he was giving it out in truckloads that by the end of his life, I think he owned over 20,000 acres and it was all paid for because you know what, you just can’t beat God given. And that’s what you’re talking about, that’s what the scripture’s talking about. The world of the generous gets larger and larger. The story you were telling reminded me of Dr. Sumrall. You know, when, when God is living in you, God is the greatest giver and we really can’t, you know, out-give God. But there’s a story he told years ago when he was preaching as a young man in England. And as he was preaching there, two people came to the altar and you know, prayed. And he said when they left, they left the offering boxes at the back then, they didn’t pass an offering, but he said it was evident that God really touched one, but the other one didn’t receive much. And he said, the one that didn’t receive much, kind of just turned his head and went the other way. But the one who was touched, took his wallet, opened it up, and basically took everything out and put it in there. And he said that the giving, you know, when God lives in you, you know, and your heart’s been touched by God, you’re gonna become a giver. But you can’t out-give God in the same way that you give it out, it comes back to you.

 

  I love that you brought up what Jesus said. “Give and it will be given back to you. “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together “and running over.” You know, recently I saw a very famous minister on television, it was a few years ago, but he was on a late night, you know, comedians show, Stephen Colbert, and Stephen Colbert was kinda making fun of him, asking him, you know, “Do you tell people to give “or ask people to give and tell em it’ll come back to them?” And the minister was just trying to, you know, skirt around the question. But I was actually, you know, kind of upset that this comedian when asked that because Jesus said, “Give and it will be given back to you.” Jesus actually didn’t ask people to give. It’s a command to give. And he says it will come back to you and it’s really true. You know, several years ago, I’d just finished my master’s degree and I had, you know, quite a bit of student debt and I believe God that I pay off all this debt within a year. And I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have a salary, I was just kind of in survival mode. But I was at church on a Sunday morning. I was living in Houston at the time, going to a Lakewood Church with Pastor Joel Osteen. And just during church, I felt like I should give all the money I had in my wallet to this older woman next to me. And, you know, generally I wouldn’t do something like that. And that was like all the money I had, that was my lunch money for the whole week. And, you know, at the end of worship, I just felt like I should go ahead and do it. So I took out all the cash I had in my wallet, it was about $82, and I handed it to her and just said, “God, you know, really wants me to do this.” And I just felt God’s compassion for this woman. And I knew it really touched her. She was just crying and, you know, just really ministered to her. After church, you know, I was heading out about ready to leave the door and someone just tapped me on the back and said, “Hold on, I wanna give you something.” And he handed me a, you know, a handful of cash and ended up being almost the exact same amount around $80. And I asked him, you know, did you happen to see me in church? It’s a really large church, like 50,000 people go there every week. And he said, “No, this is my first time seeing you.” And I told him I actually gave some money to a woman earlier, but I was so excited because it was like confirmation God was confirming me that I actually heard his voice. Some of you want to hear God’s voice. Oftentimes one of the first ways you hear it is in terms of giving.

 

  Amen.

 

  And when you respond to his voice, when you respond to God instructing you to give or how to give, he’ll tell you more.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know, and shortly after God actually gave me this idea to buy and sell watches online, I started doing that and God helped me pay off all my student loans. I ended up getting my doctorate there in Houston at Rice University. And when I moved here after that to become a pastor, I had enough money saved from that business to buy my first house.

 

  God supernaturally blessed you, Aaron.

 

  But he wants you to give because he does want it to come back to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaking together and running over.

 

  You know, we’re gonna talk in the second half of the broadcast about the tithers blessing. And it’s amazing that only about 20% of the church actually tithes. You know, that’s what the numbers say. But yet, you know, when you study Fortune 500 companies, almost every one of them practice generosity. And the world is tapped into something that we see right here in the book of Proverbs. You know, Proverbs will work for saints, it will work for sinners, it works for everybody. And you know, a lot of times the world is operating in the principles of the word of God. And when they do that, they see the blessing. I want to talk about one thing before we go, you know, into the break, but I wanna talk about this in Genesis chapter eight. Aaron, if you wanna read there, verse 24. And this is, you know, really the second time that we see seed time and harvest mentioned, but it begins in Genesis chapter one. But I want you to read that scripture because a lot of times people are dealing with fear. And I don’t think you need to let fear motivate you. And I think when we understand this principle, we can let faith motivate us and not fear we can move into the blessing that God has for us.

 

  Genesis 8:22?

 

  Yes, Genesis 8:22.

 

  This says, “While the earth remains seed time and harvest, “cold and heat, winter and summer “and day and night shall not cease.”

 

  Yeah, so as long as the earth remains, this is a principle that’s working on the earth. There’s gonna be seed time, there’s gonna be harvest, there’s gonna be day, there’s gonna be night, there’s gonna be cold, and there’s gonna be heat. You know, we have a lot of times, and even many times in the church, people get operating, they say, “Oh, you know,” and they start talking about, you know, lack and things missing. And people get in fear. I think you were watching something and they have this food that they’re trying to sell on some, you know, “Christian”, quote, program. And it’s like dehydrated. It’ll last 25 years. You know what, I don’t have my basement filled full of crackers. I have a freezer in the garage. I have, you know, a little food, you know, because I like to shop sales and stuff, but I am not gonna let fear motivate me. As long as the earth remains. This is what God said, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter shall not cease.

 

  Well, a fear-based mentality will actually cause people to stop giving. It’ll cause people to stop growing, to stop stepping out in faith, to stop, you know, going beyond where God wants. You know, they need to keep stretching and really we’re to have an abundance mentality. Jesus came to give us life and to give it to us more abundantly. When you have that mentality, you’re gonna be a giver. You’re gonna be stepping out in faith, you’re gonna invest, you’re gonna trust God and not just be hindered by fear. Fear will stop you from growing.

 

  Yeah. And we’re gonna come back right after the break again, we’re gonna talk about the tithers blessing. But before we do that, you know, we’re gonna share a couple of examples about how fear has really limited people and really kept them, I believe, from moving ultimately into what God has for them. And so, you know what? We don’t wanna let fear motivate us. We wanna let faith in God be the motivator. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So we’re gonna go to the word of God, we’re gonna get the answers from the word. We’re gonna do what God said and we’re gonna receive his blessings. We’ll be back right after this break. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been connected with us while we’re talking about the blessing of generosity. We have these teachings and those live in church services available to you free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com in downloadable audio and video. Also check out my book, “Provision: Releasing Supernatural Increase” in your life. At the foundation of all my teaching, I believe that God is good and the devil is evil. It’s the thief that comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come to give you life and that life more abundantly, that life extremely excessive, abundant. You know what, Jesus wants to give you extremely excessive, abundant, good life. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re right here. We’ve been talking about seed time and harvest and the blessing of generosity. We started in proverb chapter 11, verse 24 and 25, where it says, “There is he who scatters “and yet increases. “And there is he who withholds more than is sufficient, “but it tends to poverty.” Then it says in the modern English in verse 25, “The world of the generous, “the generous soul will be blessed,” praise God. And so we wanna be blessed. We wanna operate in God’s goodness. Then we moved into Genesis chapter eight, verse 22, and we talked about this principle of seed time and harvest. And again, when we see this, this is all through the scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament. I believe it’s one of the greatest principles on giving, but it says, as long as the Earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. And many times we see people and sometimes they’re in the church and they’re trying to get people to operate in fear. One of the ones that I really remember was in 1998, actually people started talking about Y2K the year it’s gonna turn 2000. And I remember I was driving tractor, I was planting wheat for a farm in my church about nine o’clock at night in September. And I remember people coming on the Christian radio and saying, everything’s gonna go, there’s gonna be all this lack. You need to store up, you need to do all this. And I thought that is a crazy lie. And a lot of times we saw the same thing in COVID. In fact, we saw people, they were just buying everything in the store, taking everything off the shelves. People were like, “There’s gonna be a shortage.” And it was just crazy, people’s reaction. But they were reacting out of fear rather than out of faith. And I had two of my good friends, Mark Hankins and Andrew Wommack, both of them. Mark said, “I tell you something bigger than Y2K, “it’s the DBR, the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus.” And Andrew, when I first heard that, I thought, this is a lie. This is all based in fear. It’s not based in faith. And Andrew Wommack came out and said, “You know what? “This is not gonna be a big deal. “I’ll come and apologize to you later if I’m wrong, “but I won’t be wrong.” And he wasn’t wrong. And yet a lot of the church got carried away. I had a lady in my church that wanted me to fill the church up with all this food and stuff. I said, “We’re not gonna do that.” We lived in Kit Carson, I said, we got five grade bins, we could feed this town for years if you just want to exist. God’s mentality is never existence. He doesn’t want you just to make a living. That is an ungodly principle. He wants you to plan on being a giver and being a sower. If you’ll make your goal giving, your living will be no problem at all. Praise God? Now, I said we would move from this and I wanna move into again, a little bit of what we talked about last week, Aaron, to the tithers blessing. And I want you to read from Malachi chapter three. We’ll read verse 10 to verse 12. Now, prior to this, the prophet Malachi pronounced a curse on Israel because they weren’t being generous. However, I believe that Jesus redeemed us from the curse. He redeemed us from the curse of the law. I believe that he took every curse. And so I don’t believe that we’re cursed actually if we don’t tithe. I believe we limit God and God’s not able to really bless us like he wants to. But Jesus took all the curse. Praise God. But when we go to Malachi chapter three, verse 10 to verse 12, I want you to read there, and I want to talk about, because there is a blessing associated with tithing. And it’s a basic principle. Taking a 10th of your income, the first 10th, and giving the first to God,

 

  It says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse “that there may be food in my house, “and try me now in this says the Lord of hosts, “if I’ll not open for you the windows of heaven “and pour out for you such blessing “that there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I’ll rebuke the devourer for your sakes so “that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, “nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, “says the Lord of hosts. “And all nations will call you blessed “and you’ll be a delightful lamb, says the Lord of hosts”

 

  Amen, so God said, what will happen if we bring the tithes into the storehouse? That’s the spiritual place where we’re fed from. He said, I’ll open the windows of heaven. Now, I believe that we live under an open heaven today because Jesus opened heaven in his death, burial, and resurrection. But I believe we can limit the blessing of God in our life if we don’t get involved in giving and receiving. Praise God? And the tithe is one of the most basic forms of giving. Aaron, who started out tithing in the Old Testament?

 

  Abraham.

 

  Abraham. And so sometimes people when they get in gray circles, they say, well, I don’t have to tithe because I’m not under the law. But Abraham actually lived 400 years, over 400 years before Moses and the law came. And so if we go to Hebrews chapter seven, it says in Hebrews chapter seven verse one through 10 that Levi paid tithes in Abraham. Now what’s unique about that, it is not talking about what Levi did because the Levitical priesthood didn’t come ’til over 400 years after Abraham. And yet what that’s saying, and when it says that Abraham in Genesis 14, he gave a 10th to all after Melchizedek blessed him. And I like what you teach. This is one of the first revelations that you really got in this area. Aaron, you talked about how I am blessed by the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. But you talk about how Abraham received this blessing from Melchizedek before he became a tither. And and that’s important.

 

  Yeah. In Genesis 14 when Abraham encounters Melchizedek, the priest king of Salem, the blessing actually came first Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said, “You’re blessed by the most high God, “the possessor of heaven and earth.” And then it said that Abraham gave a tithe. So he was blessed and then he tithed because he believed that blessing. And it’s the same way we tithe today. It’s not, we don’t tithe to try to get the blessing. We are already blessed in Christ, Jesus. He’s already taken the curse upon himself. So you’re not cursed if you don’t tithe. Jesus has already taken the curse upon himself. But because we’re blessed in Jesus, we tithe just out of faith because we believe that we’re blessed. We believe that God’s gonna take care of us. We believe that he’s gonna multiply it back. And you know, we should tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. You know I tithe to, you know, the local church where I receive, which is here. But really it’s that there may be food in my house. The food, it’s like the bread beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Like you don’t want to tithe where there’s bad teaching, bad doctrine. You don’t wanna propagate that. You know, I know some people who started coming to church here and they began tithing here and God grew their income, things like that because they were tithing to place where the food, it’s good food.

 

  You know, and here’s something that I heard one time years ago from Rod Parsley. But he said, you know, and I think it’s in Deuteronomy 26, they were commanded in Deuteronomy to bring their tithe right to the place where the Lord put his name. And he said, “Where does God put his name?” And if you go to Mark chapter 16, the Bible says, “Go into all the world “to preach the gospel to every creature. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. “And he that believeth not shall be damned. “And these signs shall follow those, right, “who believe in my name they’ll cast out devils. “They’ll speak in new tongues. “They’ll take up serpents.” In other words, they’ll be divine protection. If they drink any deadly thing, it won’t hurt them. And they’ll lay hands on the sick and they’ll recover. And he was just sharing the place where God places his name is where people are being saved, where people are being set free from the devil’s power you know, delivered. Where people are being healed, where people are being filled with the Holy Ghost. And I wanna give into a life giving ministry where the signs of, you know, of the power of the Holy Spirit is following the preaching of the word. And so there’s not only the preaching of the word, but there’s the power of the Holy Spirit. And we see people saved, healed, set free, and filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen? Praise God. So we wanna be giving into good life giving ministries. You know, when we think about this, you know, the tithers blessing, another scripture that comes to me is Proverbs chapter three. And in Proverbs chapter three, verse nine and verse 10, it says, “Honor the Lord with your substance “and with the first fruit of all your increase, “so shall your barns be filled with plenty “and your vats will break out with new wine.” And you get involved in this, you know, tithers blessing. Praise God. I just love this. You know, and I remember years ago when we’d been through a real strong battle and I’d had suffered a severe loss and Mark and Trina Hankins, I was actually giving them a ride from Colorado Springs to Buena Vista where Trina’s parents lived. And I was talking about this and Mark just began to say, at the same time I was talking about the blessings that God had poured out and different things, how God had blessed me. And Mark just began to say, “That’s a tithers blessing. “That’s a tithers blessing, that’s a tithers blessing.” And it just got in me, there’s a blessing that is on tithing. But at the same time, Trina began to just minister scriptures and just speak scriptures to me. And it’s like I’d been wounded because of this battle in the financial area I had been through and probably one of the greatest battles I ever had financially. But as she just spoke the word, it’s like those scriptures were like healing oil and they just healed that wound in my soul. And I was able to go beyond that, and you know what? I got everything back that the devil stole from me over seven times. Hallelujah. And you know, if you’ll believe that Satan is the thief, Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But you know what? God wants you to be blessed.

 

  I like too that you were just talking about how the scripture, those promises about finances and God providing for you, it just brought, it was like healing oil. You know, when you’re a giver, it’ll impact you financially, but it’ll also impact you in your heart and your soul and even in the spirit realm. You know, the Bible talks about when you sow, it’ll increase the fruits of your righteousness.

 

  Amen.

 

  And the fruits of your righteousness is actually a spiritual thing. We’re made righteous through Jesus. But there needs to be fruit abounding to our account. So as you give and just tap into generosity, it not only impacts you financially, but it impacts your peace, your peace of mind, and even just the fruits of your righteousness, your spiritual shining, you know.

 

  It really talks about that in Second Corinthians chapter nine, where it’s talking about the grace of giving. And we’re gonna get involved later this week sharing about the grace of giving. And there is a grace on giving. And I believe, you know, we talked today and just kind of recapped what we talked about last week about seed time and harvest. And I believe that’s the foundational principle of the scripture started in Genesis one, goes to Genesis eight, we saw it in Proverbs, we see it in the New Testament. It’s all through the Bible. And so it’s still relevant, it still works. Seed time and harvest, sowing and reaping. It still works. And then we see the tithers blessing and we see that, you know, tithing started in Genesis chapter 14. We see it carried on with Abraham’s grandson in Genesis 28. And then again we see it in Deuteronomy. We see it all through the Old Testament, we see tithing and we see tithing also in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter seven. But ultimately Hebrews chapter seven is talking about we have this greater priest, we got a greater covenant. His name is Jesus. And you know what? It all begins with Jesus. So I don’t wanna leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to pray with me and receive Jesus as your Lord. Just pray this simple prayer. Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus is your son and he died for my sins. You raised him from the dead and made him Lord. And right now I surrender my life to you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Friends, our broadcast can now be seen by over two thirds of the world’s population and it’s our partners that have made this available. I wanna invite you today to become part of this blessing by becoming a partner of Charis Christian Center and Grace for today. So we would love to hear from you. And thank you so much for prayerfully considering this today. Blessings.

 

  When we step out in faith and tap into giving and receiving, there are tremendous promises available to us. Discover scriptural principles that will help you understand the abundant blessing that is connected to generosity. We are blessed to be a blessing. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, The Blessing of Generosity, a $20 value free of charge. Download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

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