Truth Will Make You Free – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Welcome, friends, to our broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re gonna be talking about how the truth makes us free, and really, it’s a process of what we do with the Word of God. We’ve gotta believe it. We’ve gotta receive it. We’ve gotta continue in it. And if you believe it, receive it and continue in it, you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you today. We’re sharing on the truth will make you free, and that’s from John 8:32. But there is a process wherewith the truth makes you free. So we’re gonna be talking about that today.

 

  Yeah, and we need to really pay attention to the truth. There is truth. There’s lots of lies, but there is truth. There is one absolute truth. Jesus is the way, He’s the truth, He’s the life, and no one comes to the Father, except through Him. He’s actually full of grace and truth, the Bible says.

 

  Amen.

 

  I love that. If you wanna be completely free, if you wanna experience God’s grace in your life, you have to understand truth and be walking in the truth.

 

  Yes, so the Bible actually says that the Word is truth in John 17:17. We’ll be talking about that. And then Jesus is the embodiment of the truth. And we live in a world where they don’t wanna have any absolutes. We grew up believing that one plus one equals two. I still believe one plus one equals two. But then you get some brainiac, and they say, “Well, unless you change the value of zero or change the value of one, and then it doesn’t equal two.” But that’s what they’ve really tried to do in our society. They’ve tried to change the values, but we need to get back to the fact of the Scriptures are inspired. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. Jesus is the truth. The Bible is the absolute truth. Our country was founded with the Judeo-Christian ethic. And the laws of our country basically came from the Bible. They came from the Word of God. But the laws of our country were not made to govern an ungodly people. They were made to govern a moral and a godly people. And we have to have the truth of the scripture. It’s the fabric that holds us together as a society. And I think the Word of God is the fabric that holds us together individually and spiritually. Jesus said, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Word shall endure forever.” And so we need to just hold onto the truth. Praise God.

 

  Amen. Yeah, people are trying to get rid of absolutes, like you said. Years ago when I was in college, I went to a secular university, the Carnegie Mellon University for my undergrad, and at the time, homosexuality, homosexual marriage was still prohibited at a federal level, and there was a lot of debate about it. Even it was around the time Obama first ran for president. But when he actually ran for president, he said he personally disagreed with homosexual marriage. And he even spoke at big churches, trying to garner support. But he changed his tune very quickly. But I was able to talk to liberal thinking people at this university, and it was at a time where you could have these conversations. But I remember talking to a friend of mine about homosexual marriage, and he thought it wasn’t up to the government to say what’s right and what’s wrong. And I said, “Well, that’s what the, that’s what the government does. They make laws that establish what’s right and wrong.” And I showed him in the Supreme Court, years ago, they, there was a Supreme Court case that said that polygamy was wrong. And I read the thought process behind that, and they just said it would be bad for society. So therefore, we are saying it’s wrong, and it’s not gonna be allowed in our country. So I said, “That’s what the Supreme Court does is say what’s right and what’s wrong.” And just because public opinion or just because a group of people might say something is right and wrong, what really establishes what is right and what’s wrong is the Bible. It’s God’s Word.

 

  Yes. And God is the author. He is the author of the truth. And thank God we have the truth. Well, let’s jump in the Word today here, and we’re gonna be in John chapter eight, beginning in verse 30 to verse 32. And as He spoke these Words, as Jesus was speaking, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, “If you can continue in My Word, then are you My disciples? Indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” So we see this process. You’ve gotta believe the Word, first of all. Praise God they believed on Jesus. He is the living Word. Then you’ve gotta continue in the Word. And as you believe the Word and continue in the Word, you’re going to know the truth. And the Word is the truth, and the truth will make you free. If you continue… There’s a lot of people that start out in the Word of God, but they don’t continue. I started in a Bible study. I was thinking about it just yesterday. It was like 45 years ago, I started in this Bible study with Andrew Wommack. I was just 14 years old. I was born again. I wasn’t yet baptized in the Holy Spirit, but I got ahold of the Word of God. And those principles that I got ahold of 45 years ago have really set the foundation and set the course for my life. And my life has been on a good track. But there were other people that were in these Bible studies, many of them in my own family, and some of them are not even serving God today. They heard the same truth, they heard the same scripture, they heard the same messages that I did. They had the same opportunities, many of them that I did. But yet their life is on a crash course, and it’s not in a good way. It’s on a crash course negatively. And it’s because they did not respond to the Word of God. Jesus said, “If you’ll continue in My Word, you’ll be My disciples.” We need to be disciples, disciplined students of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciplined students of the Word, people who hear and do what He says. Praise God, it’s not just hearing.

 

  Well, that’s one thing. Jesus talked about the parable of the sower and how some people would receive that Word right away, but it’d be snatched out. It wouldn’t take root. There were different things that happened to that Word. And I think that’s like what you’re saying. People might have received it initially, maybe received it with joy and it sprung up really quickly. Right now it’s been raining a lot here in Colorado, and it makes the grass and the trees grow, but weeds really spring up. They grow faster than about anything.

 

  Everything’s growing.

 

  Yeah.

 

  Weeds will grow here almost anytime, but it takes extra moisture.

 

  It’ll grow like a foot in a week or something. They’ll just pop up and be huge in a-

 

  It’s a major job.

 

  Yeah. You need to continue in the Word and be rooted and grounded in that. They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish.

 

  Amen. Let’s talk about the parable of sower. Jesus actually… And this goes along with this process of, you’ve gotta believe the Word, you’ve gotta continue in the Word. And then when you believe the Word and continue in the Word, you become a disciple of Jesus, and you know the truth and the truth makes you free. The truth will actually pick you up out of bondage and place you in freedom. And there are a lot of people claiming that they know the truth, but they’re not really walking in freedom. And that’s because they’re, they don’t have this ongoing relationship with the Word, this ongoing relationship with Jesus. And so in the parable of the sower, Jesus said in Mark chapter four, and you can also find the parable of the sower in Luke chapter eight, and in Matthew chapter 13, but in Mark chapter four, Jesus said unto them, “Don’t you know this parable? And how then will you know all parables?” He basically compares this parable, the sower, with all parables. And He says the sower sows the Word. The Word is consistent. The Word will only bring forth fruit like itself. The Word will only bring forth good fruit. But the Word is consistent. The thing that is not consistent is the condition of the soil or the condition of our heart. And that’s what makes the difference in what the Word produces. And He says, “These are they,” this is the first type of soil, “Sown by the wayside. They have heard the Word, and Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was in their heart.” When He was telling the parable, He said the farmer was on the way to the field, and some seed fell out of his bag on the road, and the birds came and ate the seed. It couldn’t go down because it was on the hard roadway. And what He’s saying here is, Satan comes immediately to steal the Word. Satan is an enemy of the Word because he knows, if you get ahold of the Word, the Word of God is gonna change your life.

 

  He’s an enemy of the truth. Jesus calls him the father of lies.

 

  Yes. And just because something is 90% true and 10% not true, doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. That 10% that’s a lie can make it a very… 1% can make it a… Truth is 100% right, it’s 100% true. What the devil does is try to deceive and mix in some lies with something that seems good. And you wouldn’t wanna drink water that’s 10% sewer water.

 

  Yeah, or chemical.

 

  Yeah, you wanna drink 100% pure water, just like the truth. It needs to be 100% pure and right. If it’s tainted at all, it’s gonna, it’s not gonna be good. It ruins the whole thing. Same thing with the truth, the truth about marriage, the truth about the Word of God, the truth about how we’re to live our lives, the truth about who Jesus is. Some people might accept some aspects of Jesus, like, well, He was a good teacher, He was… But do they believe that He was Lord? Do they believe that He is living for all eternity? Do they…

 

  Do they believe that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh?

 

  ‘Cause some people might accept… Even Mahatma Gandhi would read the Sermon on the Mount every day apparently. So he accepted some aspect of Jesus’s teaching, but he didn’t accept Jesus for who He really was.

 

  Right. The difference in basically heaven and hell is how you look at Jesus. Do you really believe that He’s God manifest in the flesh? First John chapter four says, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus came in the flesh, that Christ came is of God. And every spirit hat does not confess that Jesus is God in the flesh is not of God.” That’s basically, that is the foundation for salvation. That’s the foundation for living in eternity with God. But Satan is an enemy of the Word. He doesn’t want the Word really to produce a harvest in your life. And so this farmer that was going to sow, and he sowed and some fell on the wayside, before it could ever get into the soil, the birds came and ate it. And that’s what Satan tries to do. He comes to try to steal the Word before it ever takes place in your heart. Because if it can get root in your heart, the Word is gonna produce a good harvest in your life.

 

  I think that’s probably one of the number one things that Satan tries to steal is the Word of God. ‘Cause the Word of God is the most powerful thing.

 

  There’s a lot of different ways that he tries to steal the Word, and we’ll talk about some of those as we go forward. So Satan is an enemy of the Word. I know when I first got born again, I got born again when I was eight years old, the devil came immediately and said, “God’s not real. This isn’t real. You’re not saved.” I mean, I never had those thoughts before I got born again. And you hit… It didn’t take me two weeks to throw those lies out. I thought, man, if God’s not real, then why didn’t the devil tell me this before I got saved? If I’m not saved, then why didn’t he tell me before I got saved? There’s people struggle with that question for years and years, but we need to just get established in the Word of God and quit believing the devil’s lie. But if the enemy comes and tells you things like that, that’s good information to say, “Hey, God is real. Amen. The devil is a liar. Amen. I am saved.” Praise God. So man, when you believe on Jesus, when you believe the Word of God, the Word of God will literally change your life. We’re gonna come back more and talk about how the Word produces a harvest in our life in the last part of this broadcast. So stay with us. We have a short message and we’ll be right back. Blessings. Friends, our partners have made our product free of charge to all those who are watching, all those who connect with us online at charisschristiancenter.com. And you can get these teachings in live form from when I taught them in church or on our shows. You can get downloadable audios and downloadable videos free of charge on the website. 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. We’re right here in Mark chapter four. And Jesus taught the parable of the sower. He basically said everything in the kingdom works like this. And then He began to explain it. And when we look at this, He talked about the first type of soil. And we talked about how the seed, the Word is consistent. The Word is always the same. The Word is unchangeable. We have the unchangeable Word of an unchangeable God. The problem is not with the seed. If we have a problem having harvest, it is not with the Word of God. There’s a problem somewhere with us receiving the Word or the Word taking root in our heart. So He goes on down. There’s a problem actually in our heart. So in verse 16, Mark 4:16, He says, “These are those who are sewn on stony ground, who when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves, and so endure for a time. And afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the Word’s sake, immediately they’re offended.” Now, this is what happens a lot of times. I was eight years old when I got born again. And immediately after I’m born again, the devil comes trying to tell me that I’m not saved, trying to tell me that God isn’t really. He didn’t tell me that before I wasn’t saved. Soon as I got saved, he starts lying, right? Because he wants to steal that Word. But then I’m 14 when I get baptized in the Holy Spirit and really begin to get a revelation of what God has for me and who I am in Christ. And then, when you do that, when you really begin to get a revelation that God wants you well, for instance, Satan will come to fight that Word because he knows if you stay healthy and strong, you’re gonna be an enemy of his kingdom. You’re gonna do damage to his kingdom. The Bible actually talks about this in Hebrews chapter 10, I believe it’s verse 32. But the Scripture says, “Immediately after you were illuminated, after you received the light of the Word, you endured a great fight of afflictions.” And so He says, “Persecution or affliction comes,” He says, “For the Word’s sake.” And immediately people are offended. I know religious people many times will persecute you for the Word. Religious people will fight the Word because they maybe don’t understand it. But it’s hard for you to receive something from God that you don’t believe in. If you don’t believe in divine healing, it’s gonna be hard for you to receive the promises from God’s Word in the area of divine healing. I know we got a man that comes here once in a while to minister in the area, and he’s from North Carolina, he’s a pastor of a church. He’s a very effective pastor. And he said he started going to this Bible study, and he heard things that he didn’t hear in his church. And it was challenging. And so after he was at this Bible study, he went home and God told him just to read Galatians chapter three. And he read it and he said, “Well, God, I don’t believe this.” And that’s a problem with a lot of Christians. They just don’t believe what the Word says. And we need to get down to the point that, man, I receive the Word, I believe the Word. I don’t care if my best friends disagree with me. I’m gonna stick with the Word. I’m gonna stick with what God says. Praise God, the Word, man. It’s the Word that got me here and it’s the Word that’s gonna keep me here. “Heaven and Earth,” Jesus said, “Will pass away, but the Word of God will endure forever.”

 

  I like that it says that they were sewn on stony ground, but they didn’t have root in themselves or the wrong kind of root. I had this really beautiful bonsai tree. It was like a hybrid cross. It was a little bonsai tree with these leaves on it. And it was a beautiful little tree, and had it for three or four years, but it started dropping leaves. Then all of a sudden, just every leaf fell off. And I knew there was nothing that I could do about it because the roots, something… There was a disease in the roots, and it was just gone. You didn’t notice it at first. It would just lose a leaf or two, but then it just killed off everything. But the roots were diseased. And it says they didn’t have root in themselves or they didn’t have the right kind of root. And when these things arose, they were offended. The Bible says in Hebrews, beware lest the root of bitterness defile like it’s defiled many. It’s a big issue, that offense. And when people get offended too, you might not notice it at first. It might just be a little leaf drop in here, a little leaf. But pretty soon, if that offense, that root of offense isn’t dealt with, it-

 

  Offense will destroy you.

 

  It just kills you at the root. So even the Word can’t be effective in your life.

 

  Right. And it talks about, I’ve seen this happen, somebody will get bitter, they’ll get angry about something, they’ll hold unforgiveness, and then all of a sudden, it not only affects them, but their closest associations and the people that really… And people many times will get offended over somebody else’s offense. And Jesus basically taught really strong on offense. And He basically, in Luke chapter 17, He said, “Woe to you through who these offenses come.” We don’t need to get offended over… And I’ve made this mistake, get offended over somebody being wrong to somebody else. We got enough trouble to deal with ourself without trying to get involved in everybody else’s trouble. And so your mom’s good at not getting offended and helping me stay out of offense. Amen. But I’ve had to learn some lessons in that area, and you have to guard against this. And so, but there were people, when you get ahold of the Word of God, when you begin to believe that God wants you to be healthy and God wants you to be healed and God wants you to prosper, man, there are over 2,000 Scriptures on finances, wealth, riches, money. And people get offended when you teach about money. And it’s because they have the wrong relationship with it. And you gotta get over it. We’re having Mark Hankins come here to the church really soon. Mark, when I first heard him in 1998… Man, this is over 25 years ago that I heard Mark preaching. I had heard him before this, but this is the first time that I really heard him preaching in the area of finances. And you know what, it offended me, and I had to get over it. And your mom told me, “He’s right and you’re wrong.” Your mom has helped me so much. You need to get over it. And it took me a while. And that was on a Saturday after we’d been at this meeting at Billy Epperhart’s church in Denver for a week, and we were going home. And she told me that, and I didn’t, I just thought, well, I told her, well, I’ll pray about it. I’ll think about it. And Sunday I preached, and Monday I got up early like I do, and I went running in the morning and God said, “Mark’s right and you’re wrong. You need to get over it.” You know what, we need to take an attitude that, man, the Word of God is the truth no matter what. And I’m gonna stick with the Word. And you know what, I got over it. And Mark’s come recently and said, “I see you got well over it.” Praise God. And so that transformed my life. And if I wouldn’t accepted that truth, I wouldn’t be here today in Colorado Springs. I wouldn’t have been able to-

 

  This is a big, big step up from-

 

  Yeah, and we wouldn’t be in this building.

 

  I mean, just the cost of everything.

 

  Our ministry wouldn’t be doing what it’s doing. It costs me nearly a hundred thousand dollars to pay staff every month and cost me-

 

  My wife and I were on vacation recently. We went to Southern California near Laguna Beach. And she was wondering how much these houses were there on the cliff overlooking the ocean. And I looked them up. Somewhere like $68 million. And I looked at the tax. Monthly tax was $107,000 a month just for property taxes.

 

  That’s crazy. Man, so the next type of soil that we see here is the thorny soil in Mark 4:18, 19. And if you have a bunch of weeds… We just planted a bunch of grass. I planted over 400 pounds of grass seed about a month ago here at the church. And it’s rained almost every day. Well, I planted the biggest portion of it after it started raining, but it’s just kept raining and raining. And man, there’s grass everywhere. But the grass that I planted before the rain, it’s doing really good. There’s hardly any weeds in it ’cause the grass came up and the weeds didn’t have much chance. But the grass I planted after the rain, the weeds grew up with them, and you’ll kill this new grass if you spray it. So we’re out there handpicking a lot of this, and it’s taken a lot of time. But once we get it established, we can spray that stuff till we get the weeds down. But the weeds will choke the good seed. And Jesus basically said, “The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things enter and choke the Word.” And that’s why we’re getting rid of these weeds. And it becomes unfruitful. I believe that God wants every believer to bring forth fruit, but I believe a lot of Christians live and die and never reach their full potential in Christ. And some of them, they let the devil steal the Word before it ever takes root and ever brings forth any fruit. Man, they don’t even let it really produce salvation. And then there’s other people. They get offended because somebody preaches something that they don’t quite understand. They’re not rooted and grounded in the Word of God. And some religious person comes and says, “Well, I don’t believe in that healing stuff. I don’t believe in that prosperity stuff.” That’s why you’re so sick and poor. You ought to start believing the gospel. If you believe the Word, the Word will produce a harvest. But if you don’t believe it, it won’t work for you.

 

  And talking about the ones sewn among thorns, they hear the Word, there’s the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, desire for other things. One thing the enemy tries to do is get you distracted. People might be very effective. They might be doing exactly what they’re called to do. But the enemy can get them distracted on things that don’t really matter. And I think the body of Christ oftentimes gets sucked into things that, that they’re missing the main point. They’re missing the big picture. They get focused on things that don’t really matter.

 

  They’re doing something that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. People get sucked up. God has a great plan. God has given them gifts, talents, abilities, annointings, and they get sucked up doing this stuff that don’t amount to nothing.

 

  And even individuals, it’s the same, the same thing. Look at the big picture. What really matters here?

 

  Amen. Praise God. And so, man, Jesus basically said, “Everything in the kingdom works according to this parable of the sower.” The last type of ground. And the seed is consistent, but our heart is what needs work. And the last type of ground is that, is, He says, good ground, and it brings some 30, some 60, some hundred fold. I believe that’s fulfilling. A hundred fold is fulfilling 100% of what God wants you to do. Amen. Fulfilling your God given destiny. Praise the Lord. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. We have these teachings on the truth that will make you free and we have them available on the internet. You can watch our broadcast, but you can also watch this live when I taught it in church, and I go much more in depth, and it’s got a different kind of feel to it. But you can go to the internet and you can get these teachings free of charge, downloadable by just going to the internet to our website. If you need prayer, if you want to become a partner, just give us a call. We have trained prayer ministers waiting to take your call. Blessings.

 

  Freedom comes from knowing and walking with Jesus. God’s Word is consistent and will remain forever. By continuing in His Word, you will know the truth and be able to walk in it. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Truth Will Make You Free,” a $20 value free of charge. Download it today at 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.

 

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