Imparting Success To The Next Generation – Part 15 Lawson and Barbara Perdue (Updated)

  Praise God, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. My wife Barbara and I are gonna be teaching today on Imparting Success to the Next Generation. You don’t wanna miss this broadcast. I have a question for you. Do you have a plan to succeed? And are you imparting a plan to succeed to your children, spiritually, physically, and financially? Stay tuned and we’ll give you one. Friends, it’s great to have you with us today. So glad to have Barbara. We’ve been sharing all of this week on Imparting Success to the Next Generation teaching from your book. And we’ve also, we’ve been talking about the practical aspects that we imparted to our children. Number one, to love the Word of God, and then we’ve talked secondly about loving your family, what that looks like. And then we’ve been talking, you know, the last couple of days about the value of teaching them how to work or a practical trade. And this is something that we learned from the Hebrew culture, that they teach their children a practical trade. And you know, so many times in the church, we focus on the spiritual aspect, like be in church, right? Be in the Word of God, be in worship. But we also need to teach the practical aspects of developing your soul, like the value of a good education. You know, music helps with that. We put a lot of value on music when our kids were younger and helped them develop that area, but then also the value of work, sports, and work the physical person. Because we’re not only a spirit. I am a spirit. I possess a soul, and I live in a body.

 

  And so we brought this out in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he won’t depart from it.” The Amplified says, “Keeping in mind with your child’s individual gift or bent.”

 

  Right.

 

  “And then when they’re old, they won’t be lost.” When you think about how many people have never really discovered who they are and, you know, what they were created to do, I believe we are to live with destiny and purpose.

 

  Amen.

 

  And teach our children that, that God has amazing plans for them and that they do have gifts, talents, and anointings. And those things need to be nurtured. And so some other just really practical things, you know. You brought out, when we teach, we really like to teach just practical things. So, you know, we talked about, like you mentioned, don’t just be ordinary. Be extraordinary. Dare to be different. Stand out from the rest of ’em and learn, know how to work. And so that’s what we really wanna touch on right now is a work ethic. And both of us talked about how our fathers really encouraged us. I mean, you were living out in the country when you were raised. I was in the city, but my father never let me sleep in. I believe both of us never were allowed to sleep in. We were expected to get up and contribute and be a part. And you know, we had our children do chores. We had our children work for other companies. I know I worked when I was in high school. And you know, so with that, we wanna teach our children a work ethic. We’re also gonna talk about financial management, how they need to know how to manage their finances. But just again, the importance, how to work and to serve and do it with excellence.

 

  Amen. You know, work is not a curse. Work is a blessing. And you know, we had a neighbor. I talked about this earlier in the week, but he was a colonel in the Air Force. He had flown 200 missions in World War II and he actually ran three air bases. He had three sons, like we have three sons. But he said, “If you can get involved working and doing something that you enjoy-

 

  That’s good.

 

  Then work is not like, you know, it’s not like drudgery or whatever. And I think some people look at it, you know, we ought to be, like, if we enjoy doing what we do. And then if we can see, not only enjoying it, there’s parts of the ministry that are very enjoyable. There’s parts of the ministry that aren’t very enjoyable.

 

  That’s anyone’s job.

 

  Yeah, but if we can see how what we are doing is affecting people in a positive way, you know, for eternity, then that really adds value to what we do. Praise God, and so-

 

  You know, you just made me think of something. This is a movie I saw years ago. I believe it’s called “Gifted Hands.” And this is the story of Dr. Ben Carson, whose mother, you know, I think at the time when she had her children, couldn’t even read. But she really had big expectations for her children. And you know, she would really have a limit. I remember this. It was a really interesting, really had a limit on how much TV they could watch. And she made this comment, rather than sit there and watch TV, why don’t you be the one that they want to watch you? And later as a doctor, he came up with different procedures that had never been done before and separating twins and helping them to both live. And so it was just really extraordinary what his mother spoke over him and then really expected a lot out of her kids.

 

  Well, you brought something out and, you know, I think a great hindrance to our younger generation is this, they’re just so enamored with devices.

 

  Social media.

 

  Social media and all these things. And I actually believe it’s unhealthy. When our kids were growing up, it was video games. So we actually never bought our kids video games. Other people gave them video games that we allowed them to have. We still have them and our grandkids sometimes play ’em. But even when our grandkids come, we limit the time that they can spend on those games. And we limit our grandkids time on social media. You have to get after me once in a while, you know, so that I’m not just fixed on, you know, all these different texts, all these different emails, all the different things that can just take up our attention. And we have to be watchful that we don’t get distracted from what we’re really supposed to be doing.

 

  I feel like a lot of that really robs our creativity as well.

 

  Right.

 

  And I know some people will say, “Oh no, that, you know, brings all these other things out. Like if you’re a surgeon, it helps your hands move faster.” I mean, I’ve heard every excuse. But when it comes to social media or telephones or, you know, TV or whatever, you know, computers, there really needs to be a limit. There’s still nothing that takes the place of getting outside or actually building something, being creative. When our kids were young, we had LEGOs, we had clay. You know, they went outside. We had a sandbox, but there was places for them to build. I know even when our youngest son, I believe he was in fifth grade, and we did have a half an acre, but right here in the city, and there was a lot of scrub oaks. It was pretty much natural out back. And it was really some of our neighbors that pointed out to us what he had been doing, ’cause we really encouraged our kids to be creative and build something. And so he took that to heart and got free supplies. There was different building sites going on, and he got free wood and free whatever. And he had literally built his own tree house. It wasn’t up high. It was down low. But he had literally built his own tree house. And it was quite an eyesore. We were just so blessed that our neighbors really, you know, enjoyed or appreciated that our son was out there being creative and building something. They knew he built it on his own.

 

  Right, and, you know, but we got our kids, like you said, outside. You talked in broadcast before how our middle son Andrew had so much energy and you’d tell him to run laps around the house was actually around the outside of our house. And we’d have him go run 10 laps. We had a big fenced yard when we lived in the country in Kit Carson. And, you know, he would run around. He was about a mile and that would help him, you know, and do different things. And, you know, you just need to be connected with your child, with their physical ability, not only their physical ability, emotional ability. But don’t let them just spend their day in front of the television or, you know, live streaming all this stuff or, you know, social devices. Let them get outside and, you know, breathe fresh air. I know we still have a lot of LEGOs and our grandkids come and they make amazing creations with LEGOs. One of ’em will make a stable and put horses in it and all these different things. Other ones build castles and all these, you know, beautiful creations. But that’s really helping I think their creativity at a different level. I’m not against, totally against those, you know, things, but I think far too many kids spend far too much time on social media, on electronic devices when they need to spend some time doing some things, physically getting outside, breathing fresh air. Doing that, it helps ’em.

 

  Yeah, and you know, this was one of your father’s favorite scripture. You know, again, you grew up in an agriculture area, out in the country. And so what I’ve had to help you with is there’s only seven days in a week and you don’t need to try and work 10. And so, we kind of had that opposite with you. But this was your father’s. You know, we’re talking about a work ethic and a healthy one. And I wanna share some other scriptures here pretty quick. But in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, it says, “If you will not work, neither shall you eat.”

 

  Amen, and so Paul was talking about in the ministry. And he was saying, “Hey, wherever we were, we didn’t take people’s bread for nothing, but we worked in labor night and day that we might not be chargeable.” You know, the Bible says that if any man has a need, let him work that he may give. And the purpose of our work really should be given, not just living. And if you make your purpose given, your living won’t be any problem. I’ve proved that out. But anyway, my dad’s favorite scripture was this one, “If you don’t work, you’re not gonna eat.” And he taught me from a young age, you know, we go to work and we go early and we work late. And, you know, I served my grandfather. I served my father. And my dad actually went home to be with Jesus when I was just 17. But the values that he instilled in me helped me, you know, as a young man helped us with the family. And those values I’ve instilled in my children and they’re set apart. Because you know what? They’ll go to work.

 

  I wanna read Proverbs 10:4. It says, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor. But the hand of the diligent makes rich.” You know, you’re talking about your father was really teaching you the principles of being diligent.

 

  Amen.

 

  In working and serving.

 

  Well, I remember we grew up in Southeast Colorado on the plains and there’s not a lot of trees. And my dad would actually, we planted hundreds of trees and he would have me go out and hold the weeds around these trees in ditches in July. It’d be over a hundred degrees and humid. And then we’d flood irrigate ’em. He’d have me wash the sand and the dirt off of them with a bucket. It was hard hot work. I didn’t like it very well at some time. But did you know what? I go down there and I’d say, “Dad, why are we doing all this?” Jesus, after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 14, I said, “Jesus is gonna come.” And he said, “The Bible says, ‘Occupy till I come.’ Get to work.” And I had a missionary tell me one time, you know, I would go there later. You know, I could still go there today. And there’s these beautiful groves of trees that my dad planted that he had me hold the weeds around, water, care for. And it’s because we physically work with our hands and we can see the value of that. And my missionary friend said, “A lot of those are gonna be here till Jesus comes and maybe in the millennium.” So, thank God for our value. And you know what, we can impart values to our children and help them become productive members of society.

 

  I know one time it was when our granddaughter was, our oldest granddaughter was just two years old, and we were taking care of her one day and we had her help water the trees and bushes. And so even our children said, “Well, you know, you’re starting early.” But you know, our granddaughter was so excited that she got to do chores at her house. It made her feel so important.

 

  Amen. And so, you know what? These things that we’ve taught our children will work for you. Barbara has her syllabus. It’s online on our website, in our curriculum area, free of charge, plus hundreds of other teachings. So check that out. We’ll be back right after this short break. Hi, friends. We’ve been teaching from Barbara’s book “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” These are principles that will help you establish 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.

 

  I came kicking and screaming because I thought if I came to a Word of Faith church, I’d find people puffed up with pride saying, “Look at me. I’m full of faith.” And when I got here, I found humility, real people that were going deeper. They knew the Word. They loved Jesus. And it was an amazing experience for me. I just feel like I’m in family.

 

  Friends, it’s so good that you stayed with us. We’ve been sharing on Imparting Success to the Next Generation. This week we’ve been talking about priorities, really, that we imparted to our children. Number one, to love the Word, number two, to love their family. And then the last couple of days, we’ve been teaching about the value of a practical trade and the value of work. And we talked about a good work ethic. Barbara, our children today are all in their 30s and they’re all supernaturally blessed. They’re thriving in life. They’re prospering. They’re involved in a local church. You know what, they’ve got good families. But a lot of this is because they have a good attitude. They have a good work ethic, right? And they’re givers. And we’re gonna share a little bit about financial management.

 

  I just wanna read here in Ephesians 5 and then one more in Proverbs. And then I wanna get into the financial management, ’cause people really do their children disservice by not teaching them about just simple money things.

 

  Right.

 

  And how to have a bank account, and how to, you know, write a check, and how not to shop emotionally. But I wanted to share this as we wrap this up and then we’ll dive right into financial management. This is Ephesians 5, let me see, 15 through 17 it says, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise. But understanding what the will of the Lord is.” You know, we’re talking about a work ethic and, you know, really teaching them to redeem the time and understand what the will of the Lord is for your life. And I know we’re to share the gospel around the world, but you know how you can be blessed, but be a blessing to others as well.

 

  Amen. I believe God wants us to be blessed. You know, you talked about how we had Paisley, and she was just two years old and she’s what helped. So I gave her a water hose. You took a picture of it and you sent it to all of our sons. And our son said, “Hey, Dad’s starting ’em young,” because I used to have them water trees like my dad had me water trees that sometimes I kind of hate as a young child out there in the heat in southeast of Colorado in the summer, you know, dragging around like, you know, 2 or 300 foot of hose watering trees besides some of the other ways that we water trees. And, you know, but here I had them water trees when we lived in Kit Carson, you know, out on the eastern plains. And we actually grew a few trees, you know, probably around a hundred on our property there. We had a few acres just on the side of town. And then, you know, but I took Gavin out, our grandson, and I was mowing the grass and he was just five. And I had him, you know, I was pushing the lawnmower, but I had him walking in front of me pushing the lawnmower. And then when we got done, you know, I gave him $3. And he said, “I have one to give. I have one to save and I have one to invest.”

 

  Amen.

 

  And actually, our son Andrew took some of the stuff from one of the leading teachers of finance, you know, in the Christian world, and he’s teaching this for his kids. And so here’s our 5-year-old grandson.

 

  That’s amazing.

 

  And I was so impressed when he said, “I have one to give, and one to save, and one to invest.” And that’s something that I’ve taught for years on the area of finances. Not only do we need to have a good work ethic, because if you don’t work, you don’t eat, right? But we also need to have good management practice and it starts with giving. And so I taught this principle to our children of 10-10-80. In other words, you give the first 10%, you invest the next 10%, and then you learn to live on the 80%. Now, you can give, right, above 10%. You can invest above 10%. But you learn to give the first 10%, invest the next 10%, and live off the 80%. And if you do that, you’re gonna be blessed your whole life through.

 

  And it’s really neat to teach them this at a young age. You know, we talked about when our children were younger, we lived out in the country, so there was plenty of chores to do as far as with animals and livestock. But as we moved to the city, they took on other jobs here in the city, and, you know, you helped them open up bank accounts. In other words, I’ve seen people do a disadvantage to their kids when they get money. They’re like, “With your money, you can do whatever you want.” And you know, we really, like you said, taught our children to tithe and give and to save.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I would teach our children, don’t shop out of an emotional need just like we shouldn’t eat because of emotional, you know. You don’t wanna overeat or undereat. And I see, you know, really unhealthy things with money. And again, it’s really a heart condition. You want to help our children have the right heart condition with money.

 

  And I wanna say this, it’s not always how much you have, right? It’s how you manage what you have.

 

  That’s right.

 

  And we’ve always managed what we have. Like when we were in bible school, I was making between $4 and 4.25 an hour. Aaron was like, you know, just a year old or so, while we were in bible college. And I worked full-time for Dr. Lester Sumrall kind of minimum wage. But the first thing that we did when we received our paycheck is, number one, we gave to God, right? Then after that, you know, we paid our rent. Then we paid our utilities. Then we bought gas for our car, and then we bought groceries. And we didn’t have a lot besides that. But you know what, it started with giving to God. And we’ve never, you know, that’s always the first thing that we’ve done. And God has always taken care of us. You know, my pastor told me, I wanna say I have great respect for my pastor Kenny Davis from Lamar, Colorado. He invested in me as a young man, but he taught me. When I was gonna get married, I was making like $800 a month. I didn’t know exactly how I was gonna make it, you know, because now, I was given actually 200 outta 800 to the church. And then I took on a house payment back then, you know, for a double wide trailer that we lived in of a little over $300 a month. So I thought, how am I gonna, you know, make it on this $500 a month? And he told me, “Lawson, you’re a giver and you’re always gonna have enough.” And did you know what, that has been the gospel in my life.

 

  That really goes with Proverbs 11:24 and 25. “There is one who scatters yet increases more. There’s one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself.” Isn’t that awesome?

 

  Yeah, and so, you know, I love that scripture. You know, when you start by giving to others, God’s gonna see that you have enough. And, you know-

 

  You know, we’ve had some real, I’m sorry you just get me excited when you share that. We’ve had some really amazing things happen. Again, it’s not about so much your job or the career, what you make, but it’s really putting God first and giving to him what is his and knowing that God is gonna do amazing things. I can remember years ago really wanting a new sweat outfit. I was, you know, walking and running outside. This was years ago and we went to a store in the mall. And they had this clearance rack. I am the queen of clearance racks. It’s just that, we just  that’s how we shop. I’m good at it. And I went over there and that wasn’t, the whole outfit under a dollar. It was just the craziest thing I think-

 

  Well, you had watched it for a while and it was over a hundred dollars and you bought it for less than a dollar. And it just kept going down and down and down. And it was amazing when you got up there, how many discounts, you know, were on that. And you know, we live really, really well and, you know, we dress well. But a lot of times people, I bought a coat the other day and I’ll probably be wearing it on the broadcast not very long, but it was almost 90% off. It was 88% off. And for a $500 jacket, it cost me $53. And you know what, God blesses us with deals all the time when you trust him. And you don’t have to get fret about it. Just trust God.

 

  Well, I wanna bring up what we use in our own lives, but what we taught our children. Don’t ever spend more than you have.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, if you’re out, and that’s what I mean about don’t shop out of an emotional need. If I went somewhere and there was something that was $200, this is when we’re younger and we even taught our children this. If you want something and you see it and it’s $200 and how hard is it to see if you should buy it or not? You look in your wallet. Do you have 200? Or have you paid all your bills? Do you have groceries? And it’s like if you don’t have 200, then you don’t buy it that day, but you can trust God that it will be provided.

 

  Amen.

 

  So never spend more than you make. Don’t let emotional things override. Just, you know, to me it’s just common sense.

 

  Amen. You know, I watched Pat Robertson years ago, and he got a whiteboard, and he was talking about he knew someone and they made $20,000 a year and they spent 21,000 and he showed how quickly you’d go broke. You know, the rule is 72 is this, how many times something divides into 72? And if you’re paying 24% interest on a credit card, did you know what? That happens in three years. So your debt will actually double in three years. But if you’re making 24%, which is pretty outlandish on an investment, but I make a lot of things that do better than 12, right? Then that’ll double. 24% will double in three years, or 12% will double in six years, 8% will double in nine years. You just, that’s the rule of 72. But then he showed how much, if somebody made $20,000 a year and they lived on 19,000, right? And saved how quickly they would get ahead. And you know, we had a banker that came from Kentucky and taught in our first church, and he said, “You know what, if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.” And a lot of people just don’t understand simple math. But it’s not only what you give, right? It’s giving, right, and then investing. And you need to invest in something not a scam. There are a lot of scams in the church, right? Investing and then, you know, living and keeping your living under control. And if you’ll believe God, God will help you.

 

  I like what the Bible says. It’s the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and he adds no sorrow to it. Your money should, there’s ways that your money should be making you money. You need to, again, learn how to even invest. We taught our children that how to invest our money and not just spend it all or go just take a credit card and buy everything you want.

 

  You know, years ago, credit cards were like the number one thing, you know, that were getting people in debt that they had to go bankrupt. Today I think it’s these paycheck loans that’s actually worse than credit card debt. And it really, you know, it’s people spending beyond their ability and not looking out there and just, you know. Again, if you give to God first, and then you save and invest and then live off the rest, and just start doing that and do it for a long time, and then just believe God. You know, I have a great book on “Provision” that people can get releasing supernatural increase in your life. And I had three people that wrote, you know, comments about it that knew me well, Andrew Wommack, Jesse Duplantis, and my friend Dr. Weiss, and all of them said this about it. It’s what you believe. And man, if you believe the gospel, these are principles of the Word of God. But if you believe it, it’ll work for you just like anybody else. And, you know, we’ve got these teachings and they’re available on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. We’ve got so many teachings on this and this will help you in life. And if you teach these things to your children, they’re gonna be far ahead of the crowd.

 

  You know, again, we never talked about laugh with our kids and when they came needing to go to college, we said, “Believe God.” There’s so many miraculous stories. We’re just running out of time today. So, you know, you can get this book “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” You can get my notes for free. They’re already, you can download that for free. There’s so many different tools by going to our website. We wanna help you. God is good. His Word is true.

 

  Amen.

 

  It’s practical. You can impart it in your life today and it’ll make a difference.

 

  And you know what? If you’re in Colorado Springs on Sunday morning, we would love to have you at Charis Christian Center. If you can’t be here physically, you can live stream our services at CharisChristianCenter.com, YouTube, or different places that we live stream. I wanna say thanks so much for tuning in. Again, check out our website CharisChristianCenter.com. We’ve got kids curriculum. We’ve got your syllabus, many other teachings absolutely free of charge. You don’t wanna miss those resources. We wanna bless you.

 

  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 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.”