The Favor Of God Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Favor Of God Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Favor Of God Part 4 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, learn from the life of Joseph how God gives dreams and plans and how you can move into them through the favor of God.
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The Favor Of God Part 4 Transcript
Hi friends and welcome to the broadcast. I am so glad that you are with us today. We’re gonna be sharing today from the life of Joseph, and we’re gonna be sharing some very practical, simple truths that are actually revelation. I believe they will help you move into God’s dream, to God’s plan for your life. So stay tuned and invite your friends to be part of this broadcast with us.
Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re tuned in with us today. I have my son, Aaron. We’re sharing on the favor of God. We’ve been teaching all of this week on favor in the life of Joseph. What a tremendous example of favor. And we began with this scripture again. And Aaron, if you wanna turn there, it’s Psalm 44, verse three that talks about possessing what God wants us to possess through the favor of God. I believe that God has a dream, God has a plan for every person that was ever born. I don’t believe that God has created anyone for failure. I believe God has created us all to succeed, but if we’re gonna move into that and ultimately move into the God-given destiny of our life, it’s gonna be by his favor. So read this scripture in Psalm 44, verse three.
It says, “For they do not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you favored them.”
Amen. So this is talking about the children of Israel, God’s people. God’s people moved into their promised land, not by their own strength, not by their own power, but by the favor of God, and I believe that we can move into our God-given destiny by the favor of God. Not by our own strength, not by our own power, but by the favor of God. Favor’s an amazing thing. You know what? God can do more for you in, you know, a little bit of favor than you could accomplish in your own strength in your whole life, and I have had tremendous favor on my life. I remember we started our first church in Kit Carson, Colorado. Aaron, you were just a little boy, and shortly after we went there, we built a building, we paid for it cash. God revealed things to us supernaturally. But then Dr. Lester Sumrall came and dedicated and boy, he said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been this far out in the country” when he came there, and he said, “How’d you do all this?” I said, “I’ve had a lot of favor.” He said, “God gives favor. Don’t you ever forget it.” And you know what? I’ve never forgotten it. That was over 30 years ago that he spoke that word to me. In 1989, September of 1989, he came to dedicate our church. We moved there in May of 1988. We had a building completely paid for in one year. Supernaturally, God helped us. Man, the favor of God will do things for you that you can’t do in your own strength. Do things for you that you can’t do in your own power. Amen. And I thank God for his favor on my life. He’s been so good to me. Even my relationship with Dr. Lester Sumrall. You know, God gave me tremendous favor with him. God’s given me tremendous favor with Andrew Wommack, with different leaders in the body of Christ. And you know what? We should not take the relationships that God gives us for granted. I think so many people just take things for granted. They don’t realize that God is the one who connects you.
Yeah. One thing God showed me, too, about favors that you can be led by favor, be led by where he places his favor for you. You know, sometimes people try to force things to happen, maybe try to force a relationship, try to force a certain business, but man, you need to go where God has placed his grace, where he’s placed his favor. You know, if someone isn’t showing you favor, if they are, if they don’t value you or see the potential in you, or see what God has placed in you, you don’t have to to stay there and try to make them give you favor.
[Pastor Lawson] No.
You know, Joseph approached Pharaoh, you know, and revealed, interpreted the dream to Pharaoh and he said, “This is, you need to hire someone to oversee this program.” You know, “To save 20% during the seven good years. You need to hire someone.” He wasn’t saying “It has to be me” you know, but God gave Joseph Pharaoh.
Amen.
Gave Joseph, you know, favor in the eyes of Pharaoh.
Amen.
But you need to be led by favor. Don’t try to make it happen when it’s not happening.
Just let God do it. Let God accomplish it. You know, mom and I, we were in Kit Carson for 13 years. It was a very small place and a town of 300 in a county of 2,200 that covers 2,400 square miles. There’s less than one person per square mile in that county, and yet, God really blessed us there and helped us, and I believe that we learned things, right? We received favor at a lower level, and I think that was very crucial for us in our life, for us to be able to move into the next thing, which was God bringing us to Colorado Springs, and we’ve been here in Colorado Springs for over 20 years. And actually, I believe this year is gonna be a year of divine favor. And God spoke to me at the end of, you know, the year before last year, the end of the year before last year, and he told me that last year would be a year of separation. And we saw that happen in a lot of things, and it was really somewhat difficult. Even the Lord, even though the Lord told us, but I believe this year is a year of divine favor, and I believe that God is bringing us into things by his grace, by his hand of favor on us, and there’s gonna be amazing things happening.
Yeah. I like what you said, too, about not taking that favor for granted. You know, when people have shown you a lot of favor, you need to honor them and and respect them. You know, I went to school for classical music. I got a Bachelor’s degree at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, but I also got a Master’s and then a Doctorate at Rice University, and I was the first student that the flute professor there at Rice University ever, ever allowed to do two degrees with her. I did a Master’s and then a Doctorate. And shortly, like after I finished all my classwork and final exams, I knew I’d be kind of shifting gears with my career rather than going into full-time music. You know, I knew I’d be going into to ministry, so I wanted to honor my flute professor, ’cause I knew that she’d invested a lot in me to help me become either a symphony musician or a music professor, and I really talked to her and wanted to have her, even though she wasn’t a believer, I wanted to have her just, just her
[Pastor Lawson] Blessing.
Blessing upon that. And she really blessed me and knew that it was God’s will. She even said that. And I’ve really tried to honor her and, you know, one thing I did, too, to honor her and some of the professors that I had that helped me with my doctorate, I, before, before I left, I still had to write a dissertation. I had to write a like a hundred page research paper, which is a lot of work. It takes about a year to accomplish that. But while I was here working full-time as a pastor, I actually completed my dissertation, and when I went back to defend my dissertation and then graduate, one of the other professors who really gave me a lot of favor, he was the orchestra conductor, he just said, “I don’t know why you even did this, ’cause it doesn’t really matter for your career now” but it meant a lot to him that I went ahead and completed what they had helped me start out doing, so.
There are a lot of people that do all the work for their Doctorate and never do their dissertation, a high percentage, so, you know, we, of course, wanted you to finish that and I believe God gave you that degree. But Mom and I really also respect your teachers, not only at Rice University, Jeanie Bax or.
Leon Buyse.
Leon Buyse. We really have a lot of respect for her. But also, Jeannie Baxtresser at, when she was there at Pittsburgh, at the university, and how, at Carnegie Mellon University, and how they invested in you, and they saw the hand of God on you, and people even in the world that may not agree with you can see the hand of God on you. And sometimes, it’s amazing how people in the world can see things that people in the church don’t see and people in the church don’t honor. But, you know, Pharaoh saw the hand of God on Joseph, and when Joseph came and told him the interpretation of his dream, right, told him the vision, told him the dream, and then not only did Joseph tell Pharaoh what the dream was, what the interpretation was, the vision, then Joseph said in verse 34 of Genesis 41, “Let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take up a fifth part, 20% of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiest years and let him gather food and store against the seven years of famine that are coming. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all of his servants.” So they saw this and Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the spirit of God is?” They saw the hand of God on Joseph. And did you know what? This favor on Joseph promoted him to become Prime Minister. And Pharaoh said, and to Joseph in verse 39, is, “For as much as God” he knew this was the hand of God, “has showed you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as you are. You will be over my house. according to your word, shall all my people be ruled only in the throne.” He made Joseph the Prime Minister over all of Egypt, the greatest empire in the world at that time, “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I’ve sent you over all the land of Egypt.’ And Pharaoh took off his ring, a ring was a symbol of authority from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen.” You know, Joseph’s dad gave him a coat and his brothers took it away. It was a coat of human sentiment. And then Joseph went to Podiphera, so his boss gave him a coat, right, and his boss’s wife took it away. It was a coat of human works, human accomplishment. Joseph worked in Podiphera’s house and was promoted over all Podiphera’s house, over all that he had, and then he went to the prison house, right, and the prison keeper gave him a coat and he ran the prison while he was a prisoner. Man, what tremendous favor. And you know what? Joseph took that coat off. It says he arose when they called him to go to Pharaoh and he took that coat off and he dressed himself and shaved himself. But this coat that Pharaoh put on Joseph, God gave him this coat. This was a coat of divine destiny, and he never took that coat off. Praise God. He lived with that for the rest of his life. And do you know what? God has a coat of divine destiny. God has a coat of divine favor for you. Amen. And if, you know, Kenneth E. Hagin said this, Papa Hagin, he said, “Lots of people live, lots of ministers live and never fully enter into God’s destiny for them.” I don’t wanna be that person. I wanna move into the fullness of what God has for me. And so it says this, you know, “He put this and he put a chain about his neck.” So he had wealth, he had honor, he had power, authority, you know, he had all these things and God gave him this position. And it says in verse 46, “Joseph was 30 years old.” He was 17 years old when God gave him a dream, and now he was 30 years old, and it was another seven years. You know, it was at least 20, I think it was actually 22 years before that first dream came to pass, if I’ve done the math right. “Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and Joseph went out of the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt in the seven plentiest years, the Earth brought forth by handfuls.” You know what happened? Just like Joseph said. You know, we built our first church here in Colorado Springs and we moved into that property after we had been here nine years, and I had a woman come and tell me this. She said, “I listened to this series that you taught years ago” and she said, “You know what it’s like you told us what was gonna happen, and it happened just like you said.” I believe God gives us revelation and shows us things to come, and when we have that revelation, we move. So many people, I believe God has given them some foresight, forethought, pre, you know, but they don’t faithfully carry out that plan, and so they’re not able to move into this divine positioning, you know, this divine destiny that God has for them. I heard a Baptist minister, actually pastor at Riverside Baptist Church years ago in Denver, right up there by the Bronco Stadium, and great church, great message I heard him preaching and he talked about how many ministers he knew that could not move into the plan that God had for their life because they had not taken care of their personal finances well, and that’s a sad thing. But you know what? God has blessed us and helped us personally and helped us as a ministry, and I believe that we can move into what God has for us because we not only have a vision, we have a plan, and we’re walking in those things that God has for us. Well, we’re gonna take a break and we’re gonna be back in just a few seconds. Praise God. So we’ll be back right after the short break and stay tuned. We’ve got some great things to share about moving into your God-given destiny.
Friends, I wanna tell you about some products that we have available that I believe will help you move into God’s plan, to God’s destiny for your life. The first one is my book “Uncommon Favor.” This is my life story, and there are a lot of just really simple stories, things that have happened in my life for the last 30 years and really how God has blessed us and helped us, you know, move into what He has for us. And I believe that God is no respecter of persons. What God has done for me, He will do for you. I have so many people read this book, it’s a very simple read, and they’ll tell me, “Pastor, I was so encouraged. That really helped me and gave me hope for my life.” And so you don’t want to miss getting this book “Uncommon Favor,” and we packaged it together with my teaching on the favor of God. And this is a three-CD teaching on the favor of God. You can get this by calling our office or you can check us out on the web at CharisChristianCenter.com. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed tuned with us. We’re right here in Genesis chapter 41, verse 46. And it says, “Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before the Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, and he went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.” He was the Prime Minister right under Pharaoh himself. Only, Pharaoh said, “I’ll only be higher than you in the throne.” Man, amazing. And you know, 30 years old, he’s a type of Christ. Jesus was 30 years old when he entered into the ministry. David was 30 years old when he became King over all of Israel. You know what? There’s preparation. Dr. Lester Sumrall said this. He said, “You have 30 years to learn. You have 30 years to use what you’ve learned. And then, after that, hope to God somebody will listen to you.” Hope to God that you’ve done enough, by the time you’re 60, somebody will want, right, to have you speak into their life. And you know what? I’ve been a mentor to some young men, but I believe in the later years of my life, that will greatly increase. And I just was recently with Pastor Max Cornell in Kansas City, Kansas. Pastors Charis Church there. Pastor Max is a great pastor, has a great church, and he came to my church in Colorado Springs for a number of years, worked for us for three years, and then he went to Kansas City, planted a church. We sewed a, you know, a nice big seed into him to help him do that, but I was recently there and he said, “I went and I watched Pastor Lawson do it” and then he said, “I did it.” Hallelujah. And he said, “What worked for Pastor Lawson worked for me.” And you know what, you can observe people that have done things and when God has the, you know, his hand on you in certain areas and you can use those things. You know, the Bible says “He that walks with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed” and I think if there’s anything a lot of young people lack, they lack a mentor that will really invest in them and really help them move into what God has for them.
I remember when I went to college in Pittsburgh, it took me a little bit to find a church, but I eventually found a church in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. It took me an hour and a half to get there. I had to take the bus. There were actually two buses that I had to take to get out there, and there weren’t a lot of young people at the church. It wasn’t a super big church. There might have just been two or three like young adults at that church, but it didn’t matter. I actually really learned from some of the older people there at the church. I really learned, learned a lot from them. You know, if you’re a younger person, you shouldn’t just wanna only be around young people. You know, like my dad was saying, you need to find some mentors, and a lot of people just wanna stick around people who are just like them, but you need to find some people who have some wisdom and learn from them.
You know, Aaron, Jesse Delaney is gonna be ministering here at the church in a few weeks, and I love Brother Jesse and he’s really, you know, come spoken for us every year for over 10 years. He’s been a tremendous, tremendous blessing. But, you know, I have the privilege, he’s gonna sit down and be with me for a couple of shows, and that morning we got a big docket. I mean, I’m taking him up to Charis Bible College to teach after that, but I am super excited about having Jesse and, you know, I’m gonna ask him some questions, ’cause I think he has some good answers for me and I have a little bit of time. Andrew Wommack has been my personal friend and mentor, you know, over 30 years. He’s, you know, invested somewhat into my life. And you know what? I value that and I honor him and I honor Jesse, and, you know, so many people, they get what they can get and then they run off because they don’t think there’s anymore that they can get. And you know what, there’s a lot more. You know, the Bible says “Your own friend and your father’s friend, do not forsake.” And my dad died when I was just a young man, when I was only 17 years old, but you know, people who are my dad’s friend, they were my friends because I saw, you know, how they had a relationship, and it worked for my dad, praise God. And my dad told me, “If you have two or three good friends in your life, you’ll be blessed.” And you know, I can tell you I’ve had a lot more than two or three good friends, but I honor relationships and I honor relationships for years and years and years. You know, there were people that invested in me when we started our first church in Kit Carson, Colorado over 30 years ago, and even though we’re not physically there, I still have friends there, and many people that I had as friends that helped me there are still my friends and they’re still helping me, and I value those relationships. And, you know, there’s so many people that they, they just don’t think about relationships. They don’t think about long-term. They just think about their self. And, you know, I do not want to violate having positive, good, healthy relationships, and so I am not doing things to destroy relationships.
That’s really good. Yeah. And you never know how God’s gonna use a relationship. You know, God works through relationships. Your destiny is attached to relationships.
[Pastor Lawson] Yes.
Big time. God doesn’t work apart from relationships, and even in Joseph’s life.
[Pastor Lawson] Yes.
God cares about relationships, and the end of this story is very beautiful and very powerful, because there’s a restoration of relationships, a restoration of a brother with his brothers who betrayed him. There’s restoration between this father who thought he lost his son.
Right? Wow. Praise God. That’s beautiful.
And Joseph even realizes why God had him on this track, why God had him on this destiny, was to ultimately save other people, to save his brothers, to save their families, to save an entire nation.
Yeah, he talked about that. In fact, we’ll go there and share those scriptures in a little bit. You’re talking about restoration. You know, after Joseph became Prime Minister, he married a wife there of Egypt, Asenath, the daughter of Podiphera. This is verse 50 of Genesis chapter 41. In verse 49, it says, “Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the seed very much until he left numbered for he was outnumbered.” You know, Joseph had a plan that came from God. I’m sure there were people that criticized Joseph for what he did. And you know what? God has showed me, I believe our future and I have a plan and I have received criticism from some very high powerful people, you know, but I’m not here to please them, I’m here to please God, do what God said. We wouldn’t be in this building unless I did what God told me to do for about, you know, five or six, seven years before we got here, and I wouldn’t have been in the building that I had before that if I hadn’t done for the last nine years what God told me to do. You know, you’ve gotta obey God at a small level, and people, a lot of times, you know, it’s a long-term fulfilling God’s dreaming. It’s a long-term thing, and it takes sometimes days, sometimes months, sometimes weeks, sometimes years to enter in, praise God, but I believe that we’re moving into things that God showed us 20 years ago, showed to other people. I believe those words are from God. And you know what? I wouldn’t be able to do it if we weren’t ready, but we’re gonna be ready when God opens the door. We’re gonna walk into our God-given destiny. And you know what? I’m sure he got some criticism for that, but God blessed him. He gave him a wife and then he gave him children. It says in verse 51 that “Joseph called the name of his first born Manasseh, “For God’s, he said, made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” His father’s house was painful to him at that point in time. Sometimes there are things that have been painful, but God can cause you to forget the pain and remember the good, and the name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” You know what? God can cause you to be fruitful in the land of your affliction. “And when all the land of Egypt, it was famished.” This is the end of the seven years of good. “Pharaoh said, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he says to you to do.'” You know what? Pharaoh knew Joseph was God’s man. Sometimes when we’re in leadership, we have to learn that God gives us certain people to help us. Recently, God’s given us some really powerful, good people here that have accomplished a lot in life. I believe they’re gonna help us move into what God has for us, and so I’m listening to what they have to say. I listen to all the people that God puts around me. Don’t always do what they all say, but I try to hear God through them. “Joseph opened the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians.” You know, Joseph, first of all, got all their money, right, and then the people came from the other lands. He bought, got all their money, he got all their livestock, he bought all their property then, and then they, he bought them. They worked the land and Joseph, the same thing with 20%. He said, “Listen, you can have it all,” he didn’t overtax it, “but give me 20%.” And for 20%, he made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet. And I believe if we’ll operate in that end time, Dr. Sumrall had a world feeding program called “The End Time Joseph Program,” and he said “20% glory to God.” Joseph for 20%, I believe for 20%, we give the first 10%, we save the next 10%. We, at this church, save at least 20% of our gross for opportunities that God gives us to move into the future, and I believe that God helps us now. In Genesis 45, Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. And Aaron, I want you to read this in verse five through verse eight. This is just what you were talking about, before we close. Here, Genesis 45, five through eight.
This says. “But now do not therefore be graved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve my life. For these two years, the famine has been in the land and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, and God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”
You know, if you wanna move into your God given destiny, I’m gonna give some of you a word right now. This will help you. Don’t get bitter and don’t get offended. Those two things, bitterness and offense, they kind of go hand-in-hand. They will keep you out of God’s destiny for you. So if you wanna move into your God-given destiny, don’t get bitter and don’t get offended, and it will help you move into what God has for you. Praise God. Aaron, share a little bit before we go off here.
Yeah, well just, I just believe that God is placing dreams in your heart right now. You know, that’s something that God wants to do in the latter days. We talked about that latter rain. In the latter days, God is gonna be placing dreams and visions and just planting his purpose in people’s heart. So I believe that right now, God is just stirring up those dreams in your heart and that he’s gonna give you wisdom.
Amen.
And those practical steps to help get those things accomplished.
Amen. You know, I’ve been sharing, we’ve been talking on favor. I wrote a book, it’s my life story, on “Uncommon Favor.” A lot of people read this, and they tell me, “Were really encouraged.” It’s so simple. It’ll help you, I believe, move into God’s given destiny for your life. So if you need prayer, if you wanna become a partner, if you’d like that book or our product, give us a call today or check us out on the website at CharisChristianCenter.com. Blessings.
[Narrator] The favor of the Lord has the power to change your life. In this favor package, you’ll learn how you already have more than enough favor, because God loves and cares for you. Get the Favor CD series along with the book entitled “Uncommon Favor” for $24 when you call 719-418-4000 or visit CharisChristianCenter.com.
Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I wanna say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.
[Narrator] 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 P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace For Today.”
