The Favor Of God Part 5 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Favor Of God Part 5 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
The Favor Of God Part 5 from Pastors Lawson & Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, hear how Joseph made Pharoah the richest man on the planet with not only a dream and a vision but a plan to do it.
The Grace Life Package
The Grace Life Package includes some of our favorite teachings from Pastor Lawson and Andrew Wommack, about living a life full of the Grace of God. This bundle consists of Grace Life and Revelation of Grace in your choice of CD, USB, or as a Digital Download:
The Favor Of God Part 5 Transcript
Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in to the broadcast today. We’re gonna be talking about favor in the life of Joseph and how he was a man not only with the vision, with the dream, but Joseph had a plan and because he had a plan, he made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet and he brought the blessing to many, many nations and generations. So, stay tuned. Blessings.
Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. I have my son, Aaron, and we’re talking about the subject of favor and what an amazing subject that we’ve been sharing. We’ve been sharing all week from the life of Joseph. And it’s really, really interesting, I studied at Dr. Lester Sumrall’s Bible School, it was World Harvest Bible College at the time, in 1987 and 1988, South Bend, Indiana. And I actually went with Dr. Sumrall in November of 1987 to Israel and he had a vision. And in this vision, he saw a river of blood, and out of this river of blood, he saw a tree with three branches growing out of it, and he said one branch was to feed the hungry nations of the world, one branch was to preach the gospel, and I can’t remember specifically what the third branch was, but he started from that what he called The End Time Joseph Program. And he began to talk that very day in November of 1987 in Jerusalem where God appeared to him about how he was gonna buy a military C-130 and God had showed him this and he was gonna fly food to the nations and preach the gospel and how they were gonna have a great ship and take food around to the nations of the world. Now, when he began to talk about that, it seemed almost impossible and I thought that if there’s anybody on the planet that could do this, Lester Sumrall could do it. And praise God, I watched that vision come to pass. And you know, Dr. Sumrall came back here to the United States of America and the United States government told him no one in history has owned a military C-130, no civilian organization, and nor will they ever. And his answer to that was he went and bought a big plot of ground on the South Bend airport, northern, you know, Indiana, South Bend’s about 90 miles east of Chicago and build a hangar for a military C-130 and they gave him a permit to own one. And then I remember during the Kurdish challenge there in the Middle East in, you know, around the gulf of the Mediterranean Sea, that he worked with different Christian organizations there in Europe and they flew food and they flew gospel tracks to the Kurds every day. There were many, many people saved as a result of that. And I got to be part of that. I remember him getting the ship and we would, after that, I began to pastor in Kit Carson, Colorado and in 1988, we pioneered a church there with a group of people from Kit Carson and we would send semi loads of wheat and we’d have them ground into flour and shipped to the gulf and then they would take them and feed these nations of the world and I went with Dr. Sumrall in Russia in 1991 and right after the coup in St. Petersburg, and we had a great crusade and we had a stadium that seated at least 10,000 people. Filled it up every night, preached the gospel, people were healed and saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and we handed out food. And all of that was the result, really, of this vision that he had. And so, it’s amazing when God gives us a vision and then we can see that come to pass. And so, he called that The End Time Joseph Program, and Joseph, God used Joseph in dreams, in vision, interpretation of dreams, and Joseph had tremendous favor on his life. Praise God.
One thing I really noticed just studying about Joseph is that he had dreams from God, he had the ability to interpret dreams, his own dreams and other people’s dreams as well, like the butler, and the baker, and Pharaoh’s dreams, but he also had wisdom. You know, some people are dreamers, but they don’t have wisdom to go along with that. So, I love that, you know, Dr. Lester Sumrall, he had dreams, God-given dreams, he was very passionate about fulfilling those dreams, but he also had a great deal of wisdom and faith to step out and make those things happen.
Right. So, he not only had a dream, he had a plan. And when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, we can read about this in Genesis chapter 41, he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he said, because this dream of the cows, the seven fat cows and the seven skinny cows and the seven fat ears of corn and the seven skinny ears of corn, he said the end of this dream, this is in verse 32, “Was doubled the Pharaoh twice, it is because of things established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass.” And so, he said, “Let Pharaoh look at a man who’s discreet and wise send him over the land and let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take up a fifth part.” Now, one-fifth equals 20% of the land of Egypt in the seventh plentiest year. So, Pharaoh, and we’ll actually talk about this, see, so Joseph had this vision, he interpreted this dream Pharaoh had, this vision, dream, and Joseph interpreted it, but Joseph had a plan, he had wisdom. And, you know, I had a man come to my church early, when we started the church here in Colorado Springs, and we hardly had any people or any money and he said, “God has showed me that Pastor Lawson is like Joseph,” and we’ve had a plan and you know what? We have saved at least 20% of the finances for years and years and God has used us with that 20% to be able to buy property, to be able to, you know, bless this church, to be able to bless other churches. I’ve helped other people build churches, you know, here in the United States, buy churches, I’ve helped people around the world, we’ve helped build churches in India, we’ve helped build churches in Africa, and feeding centers. You know, we’ve done ministry around the world because we don’t spend everything.
Well, and I think a lot of these churches that our ministry has helped, you know, secure loans to get their own buildings, a lot of them would have perished if this church didn’t have, you know, something in savings. But you know, you’re a great manager of money, you have a lot of wisdom to go along with the dreams and the destiny that God has for you, but that wisdom, that’s really important to have that wisdom alongside dreams. I know there’s a young man who used to be the associate pastor here, he’s about my age, Max Cornell, he went to Kansas City to start a church, Charis Church, and right before the pandemic started, he was able to buy his own building for that church there and he said if I hadn’t have bought that building, you know, they were meeting at a school at the time, and the governor of Kansas at that time was very…
Liberal.
Very liberal. And they wouldn’t have been able to have a church for probably two years, but they were able to have church because they had their own building and I know our ministry actually helped them secure that loan to buy that building.
Nobody would give him the loan there, but we got the loan here. I remember Max calling me because it was closing right when the pandemic started and he said, “Should I do this?” And I said, “It’s just like three houses, you do it.” And actually, mom and I were out there preaching for him a couple of years before he bought that and he was somewhat looking for a building and our flights got delayed for the weather or some reason, and so Barbara said, “You get on the internet, you look,” and I found this building, it’s actually the one that he bought, and they wanted 1.3 million, and mom said, “We need to buy that for 900,000 to 1.1 million.” We ended up buying it two years later for a million 50,000. And he’s made a beautiful building, and then he got refinanced and that building appraised for 1.7, over 1.7 million. So, he made $700,000 just in appreciation. And he said, “It’s so good that I did that.” And while I was there with him, he said, “You know, what I did is I came to your church and I worked for you and I observed how you saved 20 to 50% of the finances. And so, I did that same thing.” And he said, “I decided what worked for you worked for me.” And so, it’s worked for him, praise God, and he’s a very good steward of money, and they’re doing well.
Yeah, and from this story about Joseph and Pharaoh, there’s actually a really great financial principle here, it’s the 20-80 plan, and I know this is something that you teach a lot to the congregation here, but this is great for financial management for individuals, for ministries, for churches, also for businesses, I think businesses could, you know, put this in place, but what you do with 20%, what you do with 80%, so the 20%, that’s really important, that first 20. I know you even taught me from a young age to save 10%, to give 10%, and to live off of 80%.
Yep.
And if you’re able to save more, give more, do that, but that’s kind of the minimum, 10-10-80.
10-10-80, a lot of financial planners use this very same program. And you know what, it works, so give the first 10% to God. Save at least the next 10%. You can give over 10%, you can save over 10%, but save it, give at least 10%, and save at least 10%, and discipline yourself to live on 80% or less and your living will never be a problem. And you know what? If you have any kind of regular income, you can do that. And this works, again, personally, right? And we teach this, I teach it, in my book, “Provision,” right? Releasing supernatural increase, I go over this in detail, and I talk about it personally, and I also talk about it in church and ministry finances. And listen, what works for me, I know I’ve been to Chris Hodge’s things and Chris Hodge is a financial genius, he does the same thing that I do, he saves between 20 and 50% and he pays cash and buys these properties.
Yeah, it’s the first 10% that you give and then 10% that you save, that’s before, you know, you do other things with that finances. Some people like to pay all their bills, have all their fun, and then whatever’s left over, you know, the leftovers, they’ll say, the leftovers I’ll give to God, but that’s not what it’s about, and I’ve even seen some great ministers think that’s how to manage money. But that’s not right.
Listen, I give first. Right? After I give, you know, I save and I invest. And then, you know, we pay all of our bills. We always pay all of our bills, right? And then we save what’s left over. So, we actually give, we pay all of our people, we pay all of our bills, and then we save. But we save at least 20% and we give at least 10%. But every year that we’ve had this church, this year we may be beyond this in giving, but we’ve given between 10 and 27% and we started this church over 20 years ago, we had almost no people and no money, and God has blessed us, and we have a facility, the county evaluation on our facility is over $22 million. And yeah, we didn’t pay nearly that for it because God gave us supernatural wisdom and supernatural favor and supernatural increase. Amen. But it’s completely paid for and we’re still giving and we’re still saving. Amen. And God is helping us reach many, many more people with the gospel. And so, I’m excited, I’m glad that we get to do this and we get to, you know, not only to be blessed, but God blesses us so that we can be a blessing. So, this happened in the life of Joseph and you know, after Joseph here in Genesis 41 told Pharaoh what to do, Pharaoh said hey, can we find such a one in whom the spirit of God is? Because he knew that Joseph was a man not only with a vision, but with a plan. And Pharaoh took off us ring, and that’s a sign of authority, and put it on Joseph’s hand and he put a robe on him and you know, Joseph became the prime minister, you know, of Egypt, which was the greatest empire in the world at that point in time. And Joseph, through his wisdom, it says he was 30 years old, he was 17 years old, he was 17, wasn’t he, when he had the dream?
Mm-hmm.
And then he got sold into slavery. But he was 17 years old when he had the dream and he was 30 years old when he began to step into the fulfillment of this and he took action and, you know, Joseph, it says he gathered corn like the numbering of the sea had tremendous increase. People actually criticized him for that. I’ve been criticized for the amount of investments in different things that we have been. You know what? Too many people operate on the world’s debt system instead of God’s blessing system.
You know, a lot of people, when they have a really good year, they just spend it all right then and there. I mean, they go buy a fancy new car, or you know, I remember when I was in college, after I graduated with my master’s from Rice University, I believed God that I pay off all my student loans within a year. I didn’t have a job at the time, but God helped me through it, I paid off all my loans, it was around $30,000 or so, within a year without having a full-time job. But one thing God taught me to do was to start buying and selling things online and I kept doing that while I started my doctorate and I was making quite a bit of money during my doctorate years and I remember I had a good friend come to my apartment, I lived in a really cheap apartment, and he knew I was making quite a bit of money, I was making over $10,000 a month profit doing my online business, and he said, “Man, if I was making that, I’d live in, like, a luxury apartment, I’d have a big TV.” You know, I just had a little tube TV that I got for free, you know, off of Craigslist and I was saving up, I was really disciplining myself during those good years because I was planning, you know, ahead. I wanted to buy a house eventually, have a family eventually, so during those good years, I went ahead and disciplined myself. And you know, I’m not scared, like, I have a lot of good years financially, but if there’s a year that dips some, I’m not worried because I know how to be disciplined, I know how to stretch a dollar. Some people don’t know how to stretch a dollar or how to discipline themself or how to just…
They don’t know how to manage.
Yeah.
You know, when I was in Kit Carson with Pastor, our first church, and God blessed us and helped us there, and we built the building and paid it off cash within a year and a half of being there, and Dr. Lester Sumrall actually came and he dedicated the church and we’ll stop with this thought, take a break just here in a minute, but he asked me after he’d preached for me, when he dedicated the church in September of 1989, he said, “How have you done all this?” I said, “I’ve had a lot of favor.” He said, “God gives favor, don’t you ever forget it.” Praise God. So, I’ve been preaching over 30 years since then and I know that God has given me favor. Amen. And favor surrounds me, praise God. The favor of God will help you, the favor of God will bless you, and you know what? God will give you favor in your area of expertise in different things, in your family, in your business, in your church, praise God. You know, whatever you set your hand to, the Bible says it can prosper. So, remember, God gives favor, and never forget it. We’ll be back in just a few seconds. We’ll have some great stuff to share, so stay tuned. Blessings. 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 wanna miss getting this book, “Uncommon Favor,” and we package 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 with us. I have Aaron here, we’re talking about the life of Joseph, and we’re actually talking about how Joseph, you know, was able, by the wisdom of God, by the foreknowledge of God, really, Pharaoh had a dream, and Joseph knew what was gonna happen. So, they had seven years of tremendous increase and Joseph saved up, it says he gathered up corn as the sand of the sea until he left numbering, for it was without number. You know, Solomon had great wisdom and Solomon piled up silver in Israel so deep they didn’t even know how much they had. It was like the stones. Hallelujah. You know what? That favor, that wisdom is available to us. You know, the Bible talks about wisdom, but we need to seek God for wisdom. And then when the famine came, Pharaoh told the people, and this is in Genesis chapter 41, verse 55, “You go to Joseph and do whatever he said to do.” Praise God. And you know, Joseph, you know, bought from the people, first of all, he got all of their money. And then after he got all of their money, he bought all of their cattle, and their livestock. And then after he got all of their livestock, then he bought, you know, them and their property. And then they worked. And this is really interesting, you know, Joseph’s brothers came, you know, again, when Joseph’s brothers came, he put them in the best part of the land of Egypt and he used a lot of wisdom with that. And he said, “You’ll eat of the fat of the land,” this is in Genesis 45, verse 18, verse 20, “Don’t regard your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is…” And he forgave his brothers. You know, if we wanna operate in grace and favor, we need to forgive others. But then this is what it says, look at how he did this in Genesis chapter 47, verse 14, it says, Joseph gathered up all of the money that was found in the land of Egypt and brought all the money into Pharaoh’s house and when the money failed, and the people came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread,” and he said, “Give your cattle,” so he bought all of the livestock, and he bought their cattle, and then when they ran out of cattle, he bought their land, and they became servants of Pharaoh. Now, look at this. When he did this, after he did that, Joseph bought all of the land, so Joseph made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet. So, it was a leading empire of the world, made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet. And then when he got the land, he let the people work the land, right, and he told them when you increase, you’ll give a fifth part to Pharaoh, you’ll give 20% back. Now, that’s actually very generous as a landlord, you know, to only take 20%. So, crop sharing today is between 30% and 50%, when you have a farm and livestock. But he said you just give him 20%. And so, really, by the wisdom, he was generous towards the people. So, he gained favor again.
I love, too, that there’s a lot of difficulty happening during this time, but Joseph was able to see the opportunity there. You know, there’s a quote that I like, that Winston Churchill said, he said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, but an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
And that is the gospel.
Yeah, and I think someone here right now watching this, you might be facing some difficulty, maybe with your finances and your job, but I believe that God will give you wisdom to see opportunities there where other people don’t see those opportunities.
Praise God.
And maybe your job isn’t working out the way you expected it to, but I believe that God can give you wisdom in how to find creative ways to earn income beyond maybe what that job, maybe you’re limited somehow, there’s some difficulty, but I believe that God can give you wisdom and foreknowledge just to see opportunities where other people don’t.
There is opportunity like never before. I know, Aaron, you have an online business, but you’ve been buying stuff internationally from different areas and you’ve been doing very well because the US dollar, even though a lot of things here are backwards right now, right?
Some places are worse, yeah.
Some places are a lot worse, and so the US dollar’s very strong, so you’ve been able to buy internationally. Now, some of that stuff you may hold for years, some of it you may sell nearly immediately. But God has given you wisdom. And with me, it’s been difficult just because, you know, a lot of investments are down, different things, but at the same point in time, I have not stopped investing ’cause there’s great, great opportunity now. I’ve never seen opportunity like this. And I know this with a man, really, his wife was a Sunday school teacher and he was a very good businessman, became maybe one of the largest cattle feeders in the United States of America, but in cattle, there are great swings up and down sometimes and when there’s great difficulty, he would never stop.
Be aggressive, yeah.
He would be aggressive and keep going forward.
I’ve heard that when there’s blood in the streets, it’s a good time to buy, but it’s hard to buy when it’s your own blood that’s in the street, when you’ve lost money, yeah. But you still have to keep…
You know, when everybody else is running, usually I’m walking. And sometimes even just crawling, just going really slow. When everybody else is completely stopped, I’m still going, I’m still walking up. I just stay at it. Praise God. And good things happen to people that don’t quit.
Yeah. And I just love, you know, when Joseph’s brothers eventually come to Egypt, you know, seeking grain and food just to survive and Joseph recognizes them right away, they don’t recognize him though probably because they didn’t’ expect him to be the governor, the prime minister over all of Egypt, but you know, when Joseph eventually reveals himself to his brothers, it’s just a very beautiful story of restoration, of forgiveness, of God’s power to just take care of people, bring families back together, you know, Joseph is reunited with his father, you know, meets his brother, Benjamin. And to me, the really neat thing about Joseph and his dream coming to pass, you know, he had many opportunities to become bitter along the way. He could have been very upset, very bitter, very jaded, very offended by his brothers, obviously, for throwing him in a pit and, you know, telling his father that he’s dead, selling him into slavery. He could have been very bitter at Potifer and Potifer’s wife especially for, you know, lying, accusing him of rape. He could have been very bitter against the butler, who forgot about him for two years.
He could have been angry with Pharaoh.
He could have been.
We talked about this in our program earlier this week, but you know, he came in before Pharaoh and he didn’t say, “Pharaoh, your prison system is wrong and I was wrongfully accused. I’ve been in prison all these years.” He didn’t let bitterness and unforgiveness ruin his life, but he said, “God will give you an answer of peace.”
Mm-hmm.
Boy, you know what? That will get you favor. You know, the Bible says a soft answer turns away wrath. And if you wanna get favor, praise God, you need to operate in that. You know, I shared about something today and it is not part of our special offer this week, but if you want to get that “Provision” book, you can go to our website and you can get our “Provision” book. You can also get it on Amazon. But “Provision: Releasing Supernatural Increase in Your Life.” Listen, it’s practical principles in my life. I’ve taught them to Aaron, I’ve taught them to my other two sons, all my sons, as we speak, are in their 30s, they are supernaturally blessed, they’re way beyond the crowd, hallelujah, and I believe this is available to everybody who’ll believe it. Praise God. And so, you can get that, it’s a very practical book, and I tell you, it will work in your life. We also have this series on favor that I’ve taught and we’ve just been sharing from one message on this all week on Joseph. And I have this book on “Uncommon Favor,” and this is my life story written from a few years back, but my life has been so good. So many people tell me, “We just sat down and started reading and I couldn’t quit and it encouraged us because if it’ll work for you, it’ll work for us.” So, hey, check us out online. And a lot of these things now are downloadable, a lot of these things you can watch for free, you listen to for free, right there on the web at charischristiancenter.com. Thank you for being with us today. If you need prayer, if you want to become a partner, if you need product, you can check us out online or give us a call today. Thank you so much. God bless you and enrich you.
[Announcer] 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.
Hi, ladies. I am so excited to invite you to our Rejoice Women’s Conference February ninth through the 11th. This is an event for women 13 and up. It’s time to rejoice.
Not only are you gonna have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, you are also gonna experience the power of God when you see signs, wonders, and miracles.
Amen, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. We have Cathy Duplantis coming, so make plans and register today.
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