Imparting Success To The Next Generation – Part 11 Lawson and Barbara Perdue (Updated)

  Praise the Lord friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in. We have some great teaching. We’re teaching on imparting success to the next generation. I have my wife, Barbara, with me. You’re gonna be blessed as you receive the word of God. Tell your friends about the broadcast and ask them to tune in. We’re gonna begin sharing this week about what we taught our children, so they could succeed in their relationship with God as we walk in this world. Blessings. Friends, we’re so blessed to have you today and I’m so glad that Barbara’s with me and we’re actually teaching on her book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” And this is something that’s worked in our lives. And Barbara, you did such a fantastic job, really, teaching this, you’ve taught it for years in Bible school, but also imparting it to our children and it’s working in their lives. It kind of amazes me sometimes how people will listen to someone just because of what they say and they really don’t see the fruit. And many times their fruit is a lot different than what they’re saying. But you have fruit in our three children that’s working. And so we wanna just take a little bit of time and go back what we’ve taught, just briefly over the last couple of weeks and then jump into the word today. So we’ve been sharing on a number of things. So just go ahead Barbara, and just share.

 

  Well, it’s exciting to be back and teach this. And I don’t know if we shared it, but when you and I were engaged and then even first married, before we even had children, we talked about things, we talked about, what did we feel like our our parents did, right? And what did we wanna repeat and what were some things we didn’t wanna repeat? And so my point is when we talked, we had intention, we set up with an intention how we’re gonna raise our children. And we brought out, we really appreciated that our parents took us to church where you could build community with other people of strong faith. And then so then we had searched, I had searched out the scriptures when I began teaching this in Bible school. I believe family should be successful, regardless of what you do. But everyone acted so shocked that we were in full-time ministry and pastors and had children who are healthy, that love the Lord, and we’re serving him, themselves and teaching our grandchildren about the Lord. And there’s something I really learned from first responders, especially firemen. And I like what they say, “No man left behind.” I didn’t wanna leave my children behind as we were pursuing, telling the world about Jesus. I wanted my own home to know about Jesus. And so as we search the scriptures, there’s things right in the Bible that make it plain and simple, how to raise your children. I don’t think we talked about this last week, I don’t think marriage should be a fight and be hard. I don’t think raising children should be hard. One thing I wanna bring out for someone who’s watching when our children were babies and then entering those toddler years, we never said or proclaimed or declared over our children that this is gonna be the terrible twos. It does not say that in the Bible that when your children are two, it’s gonna be terrible. It never says in the Bible, when your children are teenagers, it’s gonna be terrible. We looked at what other cultures do like the Jewish culture, and when their children turn 13, it would be celebrated, right? And then there would be some requirements with giving them more freedom than, I know when our children turned 13, we didn’t call ’em boys anymore, I would refer to them as men. But with that came responsibility for them too.

 

  Right.

 

  And so understanding that they were growing, but really helping to teach them to grow.

 

  Amen. And I think that’s very healthy for young men, young ladies when they turn into their teenage years in the Jewish culture they celebrate bar mitzvah and they accept them into adult society. And you don’t have to be kind of wandering around, wondering who I am, but no, I’m responsible, this is my responsibility. And I became responsible at a very young age. My dad made me responsible and he went home to be with the Lord when I was just 17 years old. And the things that he imparted into me, have really helped me. And a lot of things that he imparted into me, I’ve imparted into my children. And you know what? I do not believe in generational curses when you’re born again, because you can’t receive a curse from God who is your father. However, I do believe in generational blessing. And I believe that we can teach things to our children that are good, like you said, that we learn from our parents and impart them and they can help our children go forward in their relationship with God in their relationship with the word, in their relationship with their families, and in their relationship with their work. And we’ll be talking about all those things, through the week and how those things can help them. But children learn what they live.

 

  And so things we had brought out is developing a strong foundation in our lives and our children’s and the importance of having a relationship with God. So, in this book, I have things, three things every parent should teach our children. But not only that, I have priorities. I know how important it was as far as, going into full-time ministry, running our own businesses and starting a family. You have to have some priorities. And so my priority was my relationship with God first. My relationship with you, my relationship with our children, and then our ministry, our calling was after that. But we brought that out in last week’s teaching. The importance of keeping your relationship with God. We are created to worship him. We should want to fellowship with him. And there should be a desire in a marriage relationship to work out things together. That you are my priority and I am your priority. And again, and that our children are a priority. We didn’t treat ’em like a bag of confetti. And we didn’t treat our marriage like a bag of confetti. Again, we had specific intentions that we saw in the word. And this doesn’t have to be hard. And so you’ve brought out and other ministries have brought out that were made up of three parts, a spirit, soul, and a body. And so we have talked about that. I think we’ll touch on that a little bit today. But again, in my book, I have priorities, our relationship with God, for those who are married, our relationship with our spouse, and then our family. And then we’ll talk about even this week, about the importance of a relationship with family, but how we serve in the workplace and all these practical things we teach our children. And so what we’re gonna really be diving into this week is there are three things every parent needs to teach their children. And that is love the word, love their family and a practical trade. If you can get the love for the word of God in your children, they will be successful in every aspect of life. And I believe it’s important for them to be taught how to love their family, serve in the family, serve in the workplace. We’ll be reading on that. And I really like the third thing, practical trade. People need to understand that you have an amazing destiny.

 

  Amen. And you talked about spirit, soul, and body. And this is something that we always share with raising children. It’s not a just about the spiritual aspect. And this is something that kind of happens in Christian realms, church realm. We focus on the spiritual side, but we forget to think about the emotional side and the mental side, developing them academically, developing them in sports in these different areas. Also a practical trait in the workplace. And I know with the, I talked to a lot of business leaders in our community, and with the generation, really a couple of generations, but the younger generation, kind of under 40 years old, they’re struggling with figuring out how to motivate these people in the workplace. And I think it’s because it hasn’t been and this isn’t just in the church, this is just across the board. And when children have been taught these values from the word of God and they can actually go and really thrive, which has happened in our children’s lives. And I believe that’s God’s plan for everybody. But we need to teach the principles of the scripture that affect all these areas and then then get them going in all these areas. We need to realize the value, not only of the spiritual realm, but also the soul and the body, the physical realm.

 

  Yeah and so we’re gonna just get going here with what we wanna share for a couple of days. Teaching, again, teaching our children to love the word. How do we do that? Did you know it tells us how to do that right in the Bible. And it’s not amen hard. It’s not a lifestyle of law. I wanna make sure we make that clear. It’s a lifestyle of love. We get to love God and we get to share the good news with people around the world. But again, it’s not about law. We’re talking about love and that’s a huge difference. And so, hun, do you wanna read just for a great introduction of this teaching, and if you’re watching and you’re have your Bible read with us. This is Deuteronomy 6, we’re gonna look at verses three through nine.

 

  It says “Therefore hear, O Israel, “and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, “that you may increase mightly “as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you “in the land that flows with milk and honey.’ “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, “all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you shall be in your heart “and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, “and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, “when you walk by the way, when you lie down “and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, “they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. “And You shall write them upon the posts of your house “and on your gates.”

 

  I like what it says. And I believe we’ve touched on this and we brought out that this is in the Old Testament and the New Testament. That we’re to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, just with our soul, all of our soul and with all of our strength. In other words, every part of our life, God wants to be a part of that. And we talked about this, if you say, “God, I love God and he’s first place,” what does that look like? What kind of decisions are you gonna make today? Short-term, long-term? But then it says, get the word parents in your heart and then it’s your responsibility to diligently teach these principles, the word of God to your children. And I love that we have an amazing children’s ministry here at our church, but ultimately parents, you are responsible for diligently getting this in your children.

 

  Amen and we have some practical tools that we’ve developed to do that here at our church. We realized that for the last 20 years, really we haven’t been able to get a very good curriculum. And so what we did is we, I actually wrote the notes for children’s curriculum and we hired a curriculum writer. She’s been in our church for about 12 years. She’s written a number of curriculums for Andrew Wommack. And then she took my notes and wrote ’em. And then after she’s written ’em, I’ve went through and made edits. But I mean, and we were paying over $900 a year for this downloadable service. And we’ve done the first year now, we’re gonna be doing the second year, then we’re gonna be doing two years of junior high and some special curriculums. But we’ve made this available free of charge on our website.

 

  Awesome.

 

  And we’re actually in, I think over 50 countries of the world now with this curriculum. So, people are getting a hold of it and it’s really changing lives. And again, it’s free.

 

  Amen. And so again, get it in you then get it in their hearts and diligently and it tells us how to do this.

 

  Praise the Lord.

 

  And I think we’re about to take a break.

 

  So, we’ll come back right after this break and we’ll be sharing with you more on how you can teach your children really to love the word of God. That is a foundation for a healthy life for all of us, both adults and children. So, stay tuned. You’re gonna get some good things to help you as we come back. Blessings. Hi friends. We’ve been teaching from Barbara’s book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” These are principles that will help you established a strong marriage, a strong home and be a blessing to your children. We’ve also made the syllabus for this free of charge on our website at charischristiancenter.com. Blessings.

 

  2nd Corinthians 5: 19 said, “God was in Christ, “not imputing the trespasses of the world to them, “but he has forgiven them for all trespasses.” So, as far as forgiveness is concerned with God and a born again person, you have already been forgiven. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and I’m so glad that we have Barbara and we’re sharing here from Deuteronomy 6, talking about loving the Lord God and how we impart this to our children and we impart it through the way that we live and what we talk about. He says, when you’ll observe this word and you’ll talk about it when you go by the way. And when you sit down and when you lie down and when you get up. And really for us, it wasn’t hard for us, because this is our lifestyle, right? And so our children observed us, they observed us spending time in the Word, I observe you every day, spending time in the word and studying and fellowshipping with God. And our children observed us. So, it wasn’t something that we were just trying to enforce on them. It was something that was part of our lives. And children learn what they live.

 

  Children do learn more about watching you than what you tell them. So I could share a lot of funny stories about about that. But I wanna bring out, we just kinda ran outta time in the first part. And so I’m very excited to come back and again share on Deuteronomy 6. And it talks about loving the Lord God with everything, getting these words in your heart, then diligently teaching them to your children. And it tells you how it doesn’t just stop there. It tells you how to do this. It says, and you shall talk to them when you sit in your house. This is verse seven. “And when you walk by the way, “when you lie down and when you rise up.” In other words, this is a lifestyle of of love, not law. And it’s just when we are with our children, we’re gonna talk about the things of the Bible, talk about the things of God declare his amazing things He does. But I remember even just taking our children outside, taking them to a nearby playground and park and seeing like a caterpillar and then seeing a butterfly and just telling them about getting reborn, what it means to be turned into another creature. And just seeing these simple things in nature and telling them how the caterpillar makes that cocoon. But when he comes out, he is a butterfly. And so when we ask Jesus Christ in our heart, we become a new creature, something beautiful. And I could just see that really connected the dots when our children were very little to always be talking about the Lord on their level that they could understand and that God is a God of love. And this is huge parents for us to teach our children that God is a God of love and that he loves them and is working mightily on their behalf. It’s so sad to me when traditional religions or even parents will always be talking about, how God’s mad or they call it the fear of God. We are supposed to have a reverence for God and honor him and love him, but we never taught our children to fear God. How can you go to God see him as the answer if you’re afraid of him?

 

  Well, we need to explain that, because the Bible actually talks about the fear of the Lord in a positive way, but it’s talking about respecting your relationship with God.

 

  Right.

 

  And not that God’s angry, not that God’s mad, but we need to teach them foundationally that God is good. I know this one thing that we’ve, the very first lesson in our children’s curriculum is that God is good. Did you know nearly every person who claims to be an atheist is mad at God? There are no true atheists if you really believe Romans like one verse 20 to 21, there are no true atheists. Everybody knows there’s a God, but a lot of people are mad at God. And it’s because God has been misrepresented, because they think God has done some kind of evil and he really hasn’t done that. So, they need to see the goodness of God. And so another thing we’re pastors. And so sometimes it’s difficult when you start out, but we never talked to our children about what we didn’t have. We talked to them about what we did have and that we get to do this. And we focused on the positive. And when you focus on the positive, things in your life that helps your children.

 

  That’s right. But a lot of people are really angry and you don’t need to be angry because God is good and he has a good plan for you. And you just need to see it in the Word and you need to focus on the good. A lot of times that’s our focus.

 

  It is our focus. I like another scripture, talking about teaching our children to love the word and really getting it in our hearts. I love what Isaiah 54:13 says, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord “and great shall be the peace of your children.”

 

  Praise God.

 

  How amazing to have a scripture like that, maybe written down on paper, on an index card and hanging up. Our children don’t have to live in fear and wonder what’s gonna happen. It’s just awesome that when we get the word of God planted in our heart and then in our children, they’re gonna have great peace. That is amazing promise.

 

  Amen. The Bible actually says this in Psalm 119:165. It says, “Great peace have they who love your word “and nothing will offend them” or “nothing will cause them to stumble.” I know my pastor had a dad and they ran a business together and when he was a child, and sometimes they would be challenged by different people in a small town running a business, but my pastor would often hear his dad, praying that scripture, Psalm 119:165, that “Great peace have they that love thy law “and nothing will offend them.” And many times they might not have enough money to meet all the needs of the budget. And so it was a western store that they ran in Lamar, Colorado. So my pastor, his dad would pray and they would believe God. And my pastor said in a little bit, a bus would stop by and like the whole bus, the people would get out and come into the store and just start buying stuff. And he literally saw God’s hand. And I think in our lives, our kids have seen God’s hand. They’ve seen God provide for us and God help us. And not only planning our first church in Kit Carson when they were Aaron was just a little boy and then Andrew was born there and Peter was born while we lived there. But then when we moved here, I know the kids begin, they saw God come through for us and he helped us amazingly. And it’s good for kids to see the hand of the Lord in your life when you believe God and see the provision of God and different thing that God does. But if you’re always talking about what you don’t have and you have this lack mentality that is very negative for children. And so we need to look at God as he is good and he has good things for us and we need to be thankful.

 

  I think we brought this out in last week, but again, talking about loving the word. I like what Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich “and he adds no sorrow to it.” Again, God wants to bless us. He doesn’t want our life to be full of sorrow. So, you talked about, we never talked about lack, right? And as a family we’re teaching, we’re talking about teaching our children. So, what does that look like in your day? What does that look like at breakfast, lunch and dinner? And those were very important times of our family time, starting the day off in the morning and talking about God and how he had amazing plans for us. And I know, and again in the evening, we talk more as a family. And even if there was lack, the focus was never the lack. But it was always that God will provide. And I like something that you did as our children could read, you said we want you to read the Bible. We didn’t say what they had to read or how much we just said, we want you to read the Bible for yourself every day. And that’s when it would get really fun at the breakfast and dinner time. Because I would ask them, “Well what did you read?” And I didn’t care if they just read one. I think you said read one chapter. I didn’t really, I didn’t really put a bunch of demands, just like read the word and I would say, “Well what did you read?” And they would say a scripture. And then I would say, “What did that mean to you?” And it was kind of fun as we raised three sons and it was kind of fun as the others would share what they read and how the Bible really does fit together. And so it was really teaching them how do we take this word of God and apply it in our life to help us get from A to B? A lot of times people I know they come here and they say, “One thing we like about the ministry here “is you don’t just teach the word, “but you teach how to get from A to B.”

 

  Yeah, very practical aspect. I know one of my friends who was a major leader at Andrew Wommack Ministries for years said, “Lawson, when I hear you teach, “I can tell you’re a pastor, “because you’re very practical “and you’re showing the people, “this is how this word works in our lives.” And so not only did our children see that we had a relationship with the word, they saw how that worked out in believing God and seeing God manifest himself in our lives.

 

  That’s awesome. And we have something in here too, and you helped me, I believe with this lesson years ago when I wrote it and we both talked about this, having consistency in worship that our children see that there is a consistency. And do you wanna tell us what Hebrews 10:25 says? I know a lot of pastors know this scripture.

 

  Yeah, it says “Not forsaking “the assembling of ourselves together “as the manner of some is, “but so much more we see the day approaching.”

 

  And I have to tell you something, really just truly amazing. Again, we talked about how you and I were, had parents who raised us in the church and it really built community. I can remember those Resurrection Sundays, the early rise, breakfast and services and eating together, eating pancakes together. But something fun that I’ve noticed here at Charis Christian Center, whether it’s Sundays or whether it’s Wednesdays, I love seeing people come in and hug each other, excited to see each other. But the children really bless me. They just come in running and we have children right now that tell their parents we need to get to church. And even on Wednesday nights, I had a mother tell me, that her son was like, “We’ve got to get to church tonight. “It’s really important.” And how this right now her husband is not really wanting to come to church or living for the Lord she saved and their son is saved. And I said, you just wait. And it’s the children that will lead that parent sometimes, that enthusiasm.

 

  It’s not even that. I met a lady this past Sunday, they introduced me to a lady here and she’s serving here and she’s actually only been in the church about nine months, but this couple said, we want you to meet her. And they brought her to church. And about nine months ago and the first Sunday we were having, like a God bless America celebration, it was last July. And when we were having that, they said, “We want you to stay after “and we want you to meet at least five people.” Which she said, I probably met 50. But shortly after she began coming here to church, she received Christ as her savior. And then she was water baptized and then baptized in the Holy Spirit. And she just loves coming here. And then I was talking to our director of volunteers and she was telling me this lady would come and serve and she had to get rides. She didn’t have a car. So, they all started praying for her and then God bless this woman with a car. We’ve seen this happen a number of times with people that are just coming and serving and giving and man, and so it’s just amazing. And so God does good things when you just let the word really work in your life and come into a relationship with him, come into a relationship with one another and then just begin to share that with other people around you.

 

  Did you know, I was just gonna say passion and joy are contagious?

 

  Amen, praise God. Well, we’re really glad that you’ve tuned in and if you need prayer today, I want to encourage you to call in. If you want to become a partner with us, we would love to have your partnership. And we’re sharing the word of God, all around the world and it’s changing people’s lives. And we know the word that’s working in our life that we have believed will work in your life as you believe it. So if, again, if you need prayer, if you want to partner, just give us a call and check us out online. We have a lot of free materials. Thank you so much for tuning in. Blessings.

 

  Hi everyone. We have a special announcement for you.

 

  We’re having a camp meeting and it’s for the whole family. We have special kids teaching, special youth teaching, special adult teaching, special guests and special worship. It’s a great event and you don’t wanna miss it. I believe it will be a blessing to you and your family, so come see us.

 

  It is important to keep God first, family second and our ministry third. In a busy world, it is essential that we understand and act upon these priorities. Raising kids to love the word, value family and live with purpose will bring them great success. Get your copy of Barbara’s new book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation” for $15.99. Go to charischristiancenter.com and order yours to today.

 

  Friend, we don’t want to leave this broadcast today, without giving you the opportunity to pray and surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I believe that you raised him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord, and I surrender my life to you in Jesus name.

 

  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.”