The Gift of Jesus Part 5 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue – 12/23/2024

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. I have my wife, Barbara, teaching with me. We’re sharing her teaching on living in the overflow. And guess what? When you begin to understand what God gave to you, you’re gonna wanna be a giver. And when you get involved in the grace of giving, overflow will flow to you. Open your heart and receive this good word today. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us on today’s broadcast. We’ve been talking all week about receiving Jesus, receiving the gift of God. Really, the greatest of all gifts is the gift of God’s son, the gift of Jesus, the gift of eternal life, right? The gift of righteousness. But you know, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for all these wonderful gifts that we receive from God. But when we receive things from God, guess what? The result of that is we begin to share that with others. You know, we begin to give, actually, Jesus actually said this in Luke 6:38, “Give and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet, it will be measured back to you.” I wanna tell you a little bit of a story. When Barbara and I started our first church, it was 1988, Kit Carson, Colorado, a town of about 300 in Eastern Colorado. Not connected to any big towns in a county of 2200 people that covers about 2,400 square miles. So there’s like less than one person a square mile. We had a man come there shortly after we started that church, his name was Irvin. And Irvin was a farmer. And Irvin had received Jesus like really quickly after he came and received the Holy Spirit. But Irvin had been through some challenges in his family in his marriage, and he had taken his property and given it to his sons to keep it out of a legal, you know, difficulty with a marriage dissolving. And in all that he owned, he farmed about 2,500 acres, about four sections, but he owed most of what that was worth when we came to town, you know, at the bank. And he lived in this like 14 by 70 trailer with tar paper just nailed to the North side of it to keep the wind from blowing in. He had a wood stove in the kitchen, you know, and so he lived very reasonable, but he heard about this program that Dr. Lester Sumrall started, “Feed the Hungry.” And we would actually gather wheat and we would send a semi load of wheat from Kit Carson, Eastern Colorado down to McPherson, Kansas, South Central Kansas, where there’s a mill. We’d have it ground the flour and then they would ship it right to the Gulf and they would put it on a ship. And Dr. Lester Sumrall would put this on this ship and they would go to like these third world countries and preach the gospel and give away food. And so Irvin said, “Hey, every time the ship comes in, I wanna give a semi-load of wheat.” So he started doing that. Every time the ship would go out, a semi-load of flour would come from the wheat that, you know, Irvin raised. And you know what, there’s an adage, you know, with the same measure that you give it out, it’ll come back to you. So if you give it out in shovels, it’ll come back in shovels, in buckets, it’ll come back in buckets. If you give it out in truckloads, it’s gonna come back truckloads and truckloads of blessing. So Irvin started finding these deals and he started buying property. And I think when he went to heaven, he owned about 20,000 acres and he had it all paid for, supernaturally by the grace of God. And you know what, it’s just like you can’t beat God given. The same way, with the same heart, with the same measure you give it, it’s gonna be measured back to you. Men are gonna give to your bosom. Well, God gave it to him, right? And he was supernaturally blessed, blessed a lot of people, but it’s more blessed, Jesus said, to give than to receive. And if you get the right heart about giving, God’ll see that he gets it back to you.

You know, we’re talking about, you know, living in the overflow and it’s really our heart as we minister today, how, you know, a lot of people are asking, “Well, how do I get from A to B?” Maybe they got behind or maybe their business is struggling or where their working is struggling and maybe they’re hearing about layoffs. And so we’re really trying to impart and teach how in the word, in the Old Testament, the New Testament, there are amazing principles that really are supernatural. It brings us to a whole ‘nother place. A lot of times people think only in the natural, what they can see or what they’re hearing in the news. But we’re talking about as we give, it opens the door to receive a supernatural blessing, a supernatural favor. We’ve seen it happen over and over in our own lives. And we’ve seen it happen in a lot of people who call this place their home church, whether they come in person or live streaming with us and partnering with us. We get amazing testimonies all the time of what God does for people. And it is exciting.

Right, in Proverbs 11, verse 24 and 25, it says, “There is one who scatters and yet increases.” You know, you go shake it around, you know, you gotta sow if you’re gonna reap. And he says, “There is one who withholds more than is sufficient, but it tends to poverty. The liberal soul or the generous soul shall be made fat. And he who waters also others also shall be watered himself.” You know, you started praying that verse and speaking that verse over me, because I’ve been generous and I’ve shared with a lot of people. And you know, it’s amazing the good things have started coming back.

Right, and I just wanna share a quick testimony again to really help show you what I mean when I’m talking about getting from A to B. And I understand, praise the Lord, I married a giver. That’s one of your motivational gifts. But you know, when we got married, we made 800 a month and then for the longest time, we made $1,000 a month. So it wasn’t that we had a big, huge salary, but it doesn’t change who God is. And I don’t look at what am I making ’cause how am I gonna afford anything? God is gonna set a price that is attainable. And this is what I’m trying to get at. The home I live in now, when we purchased it, it was a bank foreclosure, but we purchased it for $67 a square foot.

Right?

We can’t even build homes right now for that. And in our neighborhood, they do not sell for $67 a square foot. But it’s the blessing of the Lord. It is a gift. To me, our home, our place is a gift or a blessing of the Lord.

The cost of building in Colorado Springs, a home is about $300 a square foot currently. And yet, you know, our home didn’t cost nearly that. Now we spent some money fixing it up and a lot of people look at that and they like, “That’s work.” Well, if you wanna get ahead, work, right? But they don’t want to do what it takes, in other words. But we went and looked at it and we’re like, man, look at all this opportunity. And we actually had looked a lot too, over a period of years. It was in a financial downturn and we had been looking for about four years and looked at hundreds of homes. But when you walk through this one, a realtor that I work with wanted me to buy it as a flip. And I’m like, “I don’t want this house as a flip, not spend this much money,” but you, I didn’t think you’d like it, ’cause there’s so many, you’re a very content person. And I believe being content leads to blessing, right? But when you walked through it, you walked through it about 20 minutes, you said, “Buy this out.”

But, you know, if we would’ve looked at in a natural sense that all the homes in that neighborhood sold for hundreds of dollars a square foot, you wouldn’t even walk into that neighborhood. But that’s the blessing of the Lord. To me, you’re very much a number person. I’m just like, “I know God’s big and he’s going to get it to me.” And I don’t have a problem. And, you know, both of us have mentioned this, we like our sales and you know, I’ll go to a store when there’s a sale going on and when I have at least two coupons to go along with it and there’s a store I like to go to and get a few things and have on hand to have gifts ready, you know, I like to be able to give things myself. He supplies, if you’re a giver, he’s gonna supply. And you know, I loved it that when I got the receipt-

Give seed to the sower.

When I got the receipt, it said I saved over $117.83 cents.

What’d you spend, 55 or something?

I spent $33-

$33.

And saved over a hundred dollars. And that is the blessing of the Lord. That he helps us to walk in these opportunities.

It’s the blessing of the Lord that comes on us and makes us rich.

Honey-

The blessing of the Lord. Proverbs 10:22 makes us rich and that word in the Hebrew is asher and it means rich.

“And he adds no sorrow or toiling increases not.” I really want you to read Isaiah 32:8, ’cause we’re talking about living in the overflow. I’m talking about you do have a motivational gift to give, I love what this says.

Yeah, we’re talking about how God gives seed to sowers. That’s in Second Corinthians, chapter nine.

Did we even finish the proverbs? We might have to come back.

We can go back and read some different translations of that. But this fits in too, in Isaiah 32, verse eight, “The liberal or the generous devises generous things. And by generous things, he will stand.” If generosity becomes part of you, you’re gonna figure out ways to become more generous. Right? The liberal devises liberal things, he’s talking about generosity. And by his generosity, by his liberality, by his giving, he shall stand, you know, God gives seed to the sower, bread to the eater, increases the fruit of our righteousness, right? That’s in Second Corinthians chapter nine. This word liberal is the Hebrew word nadib and it means generous, willing, liberal, free, magnanimous. I had a prophet friend, she used to say magnanimous.

That’s quite a word.

God likes magnanimous giver.

That’s awesome.

And if you get magnanimous in your attitude of giving, you’ll get magnanimous in your attitude of receiving.

But go back-

Unfortunately, a lot of times people, you know, I feel like our culture our media is always making everyone feel like there’s lack ’cause that’s a tool how to sell. If I’m gonna sell you something, I gotta make you see that you need it. There’s a lack in your life. And so it’s totally opposite of what the Word of God is saying. So are we back in Proverbs or where did you go?

I’m back in Proverbs 11, verse 24 and 25. And I love this in the message it says this, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger, but the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. Are you generous or you’re stingy? And then this in verse 25, and this is a story of our lives. “The one who blesses others will be abundantly blessed and those who help others will be helped.” Amen. The modern English in verse 25 says, “The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters others will be watered himself.” You just can’t help. You can’t beat God given. And when you get involved in giving, you’re gonna start receiving. If you just stay at it, there comes a, you know, Dr. Lester Sumrall say “I give in every offering.” And the reason he said that is “Because I always,” he said, “need harvest, so I’m always sowing seed and then I have multiple harvests that are coming to me.”

That’s awesome. That’s really good. We just have a little bit of time before we’re gonna take a break and we have a lot of amazing things on our website, you know, free of charge that you can check out. We’re so excited. We have so many more scriptures to share with you and I know it’s going to bless you how to get from A to B and live in the overflow.

You know, I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars giving stuff away. And if you go on our website, we’ve got thousands of hours of teaching audio and video downloadable that are absolutely free of charge. Get those things. Friends, we’ve been sharing about receiving God’s gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. But we have something that we want to give to you. We literally have thousands of hours of downloadable teaching audio and video available free of charge on our website at charischristiancenter.com. Also a great children’s curriculum, free of charge. God doesn’t hear you because you bombard heaven with your prayers. God doesn’t hear us because we get a thousand people praying or 2000 people praying, or 10,000 people praying. In fact, when Jesus was in a tight situation, he didn’t call a bunch of people to pray. He brought a whole bunch of people out. And then Jesus took three of his top guys, Peter, James and John in with him and said, “Let’s get this job done.” Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve stayed with us. We’ve been talking about giving and receiving and you know what? You can’t beat God given. And really, it’s been amazing. There’s the grandson of a woman and her husband that that used to come to our church. They were from Galatia, that’s about 20 miles Southwest of East Colorado. But their grandson actually runs their place now and he’s been coming to church, drive about 130 miles to church the last few weeks. And his whole family’s been really a blessing to have them. But you know, the scripture said, you wanna go to the scripture, Barbara, this is your teaching in Isaiah 55, verse 10 through verse 11. And it says, for us, “The rain comes down in the snow from heaven. It does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth in bud.” Right, the rain. You gotta have rain in a real agricultural setting if you’re going to have harvest. “That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth.” If we really receive the word that God wants us to receive, this should be the result. It will not return to me void, it won’t return to me lacking of power, empty. But it will accomplish that that I please the word will produce a harvest of the will of God in your life.

Amen.

It will accomplish what I please and it will prosper the thing I send it to. If the word of God comes to you, just like when the arc came to Obed-Edom’s house, everything in Obed-Edom’s house and under his power began to prosper. If the word of God comes to you, it will prosper the thing I send it to.

That’s right. Man, that’s exciting.

Yes. You know, and it’s important for us to have the right attitude about it. And you wanted to share some scriptures from Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, written about 400 years before Christ about, you know, really, it’s talking about our attitude in giving, but also in receiving. You never separate receiving from giving. You know, they’re always tied together. So go ahead here, Barbara, in Malachi chapter three, and you can read in verse 10 through verse 12.

Yeah, I’m gonna read for sure 10 and 11 and maybe let you wrap it up. But I like how it says, “Bring all the ties into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this or prove me.”

Yes.

“Prove me to see, I will give you a test or a demonstration of the auticity of this,” okay? So it’s like, prove me-

God said put me to the test.

“Put me to the test, says the Lord of host. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there is not room enough to receive it,” that’s a pretty amazing, another translation says, “Pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.”

Amen. You know, Aaron, our son has taught on this. And when it says the Lord of hosts, in some aspects this means the God of angel armies. And you know, when.. Who was it ran from Esau’s brother. Isaac left, right, running from Esau, his brother, when he left, the Lord appeared to him. I might have to go over here and get this, I want to get this story right. But in the book of Genesis, when Jacob ran from Esau, his brother. Jacob fell asleep and had a rock, you know, as a pillow. And there appeared unto him, he had this dream of a ladder going to heaven and angels coming up and going down in it. And when he saw that, right, God made a covenant and he said, “God, surely everything,” all he had was his staff. He said, “Surely Lord, everything that you give me, I’ll give a 10th to you.” He made this covenant to tithe. And that’s what it’s talking about, right, in Malachi three. And there there is a blessing on tithing right? To give a tenth, so he made this covenant of tithe. And you know what, Jacob went and worked, you know, for his father-in-law, Laban, for over 14 years. He worked for seven years, right, for Rachel. And then he was given Leah, his father-in-law got him drunk, ’cause he thought Leah was a little plainer. Rachel was a little prettier. So his father-in-law probably thought, “Hey, by the time, you know, it gets around seven years, he’s worked seven years. Leah will already be married off.” But Leah wasn’t married off. So he got Jacob drunk and slipped, you know, Leah in the bedroom on the night of the wedding. And he got up and said, “Hey, I’m married to the wrong woman.” And his father-in-law said, “Hey, just work another seven years.” So he takes care of Leah for a little bit. They have another ceremony. He also marries Rachel and works another seven years. And you know what? God prospered him. His father-in-law changed his wages 10 times, but God blessed him, God prospered him. God multiplied him, God increased him. You know, people can try to cut you out, but God will cut you in.

Amen. That’s right. And I wanna finish Malachi, ’cause we gotta get into-

Yes, he’s talking about this blessing.

Amen.

But on the way in there, now when he leaves the land, right? And he’s coming back to meet Esau, his brother, he’s somewhat afraid because Esau, and Esau comes with like several hundred trained men. Like he could destroy him, but he gives a gift. His gift in today’s terms, you know, some ewes, right? Some rams, some she goats, nanny goats, some Billy goats, right? Some donkeys, right? Some females, some males, some cows, right? Some bulls, some female camels and their foals. Camels are expensive. And then so this gift is worth well over a million dollars. And it’s really, you know, his brother said, “Hey, I don’t need it. God’s been with-” He’s like, “No, take it. God’s been good to me.”

Amen.

You know when you operate in this covenant of God, and when we go over here to Malachi, he says, “The Lord of hosts, prove the Lord of hosts, the God of angel armies.” Hallelujah. The angels go and the angels come. Hallelujah. Jesus’ name, money comes to us. Hallelujah. That’s the blessing of the Lord. Let’s look at this. Let’s go back over here to Malachi chapter three.

I’m still there.

You’re right there. Why don’t you go ahead and-

I’m waiting for you.

Share, Barbara, keep sharing.

Come back.

He says, “Put me to the test, if I’ll not open the windows of heaven.” We live under an open heaven today because of Jesus, but also because of this covenant that Jesus brought us into. Hallelujah. Go ahead, Barb.

I like what it says in verse 11. “And I will rebuke the devour for your sakes so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine to fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts. There it is again.

Amen, the guard of angel armies. And so God says, “Listen, I’m gonna pour out a blessing that’s so big that you can’t even receive it.”

That’s right.

Yes. “And all nations will call you blessed, for you’ll be a delights of lamb,” says the Lord, the God of angel armies. Now in Deuteronomy chapter 28, when we look at this covenant of blessing-

Amen.

One aspect of this is Deuteronomy chapter 28, I wanna find the verses. It says in verse 11, he says this in verse 10, “All the people there will see you’re called by the name of the Lord and stand in awe of you” is what that really means. And the Lord will make you plenteous in goods. And here’s your word, Barbara. Modern English says “The Lord will make you overflow in prosperity, overflow in the fruit of your body in the fruit of your cattle, in the fruit of your ground and in the land which he swore to give you. And the Lord will open unto you his good treasure.” God’s gonna open heaven for you. We live under a open heaven today, because Jesus opened it in his death and resurrection. And we’re blessed because we’ve come into this covenant with God. But you know what? There’s still something called seed time and harvest. Sowing and reaping, giving and receiving. He says, “The Lord will open his good treasure, the heaven to give reign to your land in its season, to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations. You’re gonna share with the nations.” We give in this church to the nations of the world. We sow seed in the gospel all around the world. Canada, North America, Mexico, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East. We give to the nations of the world and it’s because God’s blessed us.

Amen.

Hallelujah. And he says, “You’ll lend a many nations.” I just think about that overflowing in the abundance of God. When you overflow, it’s not a problem to give.

That’s right.

Glory to God.

That’s right. And I like what it says in Deuteronomy 28 too. It says, “All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord, your God,” that he brings us into a place. And we’ve been talking a little bit about this, touching on it, that these blessings will overtake you. Did you wanna explain that? Like how someone said that years ago to you?

Oh, years ago. Hey, we ought to tell another story. JD Link, he pastors a church in Blanco, Texas, Abundant Grace Fellowship. And his wife Krista, they came here, they had what, three children? And they were living out of the back of their suburban. He had no job, but he started giving and started believing. And in a little bit, he had two jobs. And God blessed JD while he was here. In fact, the last year, and this has been years ago that he was here. He gave $5,000 to this church. But I would let JD take up offerings. And one Sunday, I still remember this, he said, “The blessing of the Lord will come on you and overtake you.” Just get this picture in your mind. He said, “That is like a linebacker overtaking a quarterback.” Man, getting smashed with the blessings of God. Just getting overloaded, glory to God. Getting just weighted down with a blessing, with the glory of God, with the good things of God. And I believe that’s still the will of God today.

I believe so.

That covenant promise is secure to us through the work of Jesus. And his We’re the seed of Abraham by faith in Jesus. And these gospel promises are ours. Hallelujah.

Well, we’re about to run outta time, but is there something you wanted to share outta Second Corinthians, chapter nine?

Well, let’s just look there really quick. There’s so much we could share out of that.

You have like a minute.

Hallelujah. Well, I don’t know what to say, but it says, you know, I’m not there yet, Barbara, so you might just have to share something.

Well, I like what it says second Corinthians 9:7. “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver, laughing giver.”

Amen.

“Hilarious giver.” And verse eight says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always, always,” say with me, “always having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work.”

You know, I believe that is God’s will for every person, for every believer. You know, God gives to all, he opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every good thing. But when you get involved in this covenant of blessing, right? Sowing and reaping, you can’t beat God given. And I wanna encourage you, you could go to our website, you could get on there, you can receive a lot of free materials. But I’ll tell you, those who get more are those who give.

And we’d love to see you here. We’d love to have you come visit us here this Sunday, hallelujah Charis Christian Center.

Yes, at Charis Christian Center, we have two services. We would love to see you this Sunday.

And if you can’t come physically, you can watch us online at charischristiancenter.com, on YouTube, on Facebook, and praise God, share this with your friends. God bless you. We love you. Friends, I want to tell you about a great resource that we have available on our website, absolutely free of charge for your children. It’s a two year children’s curriculum, teaching them who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is, who they are, and many other promises of God written by a professional curriculum writer. And I developed all the outlines for it. It will be great for your children and we made it free just for you, blessings.

Hi, ladies. I am so excited to have you personally join us for this year’s Rejoice Women’s Conference. I know that God has something amazing in store for you. I know that he has good plans for us. I hope to see you there February 6th through 8th. Kathy Duplantis is our keynote speaker. My daughter-in-Law, Heather Perdue will be joining us as well as I’ve even asked my husband, Pastor Awesome Lawson, and he will also be ministering. It’s gonna be a great time. Look forward to seeing you there.

Friends, it’s great to have you with us today. And I want to invite you to attend services with us at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. The atmosphere is amazing. Recently in one service, I had people from 10 nations in several states. They watch us on a regular basis online and they said, “This is amazing.” So if you can’t come physically, come and attend online at Charis Christian Center or YouTube, blessings.

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