Imparting Success to the Next Generation – Part 3 Lawson and Barbara Perdue

  Friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in today. I have my wife, Barbara, here today. We are talking about imparting success to the next generation. We’re specifically gonna be talking about looking to the Word of God and seeing the Word of God as our total answer. Isaiah 54:13 says, “All your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” See how this works in our life today. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. It’s so great to have Barbara with me today. We’re teaching from her brand-new book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation,” and we’ve been talking all this week about raising the next generation, and now, we’re gonna get into really the first aspect of that. There’s three aspects that we really taught, that we feel like are so important for our children. Number one is love the Word. Number two is love your family. And number three is a practical trade. And we actually got this from the Jewish culture because when their children are 13, the boys, they celebrate bar mitzvah. They give ’em their first copy of the Scriptures, and they teach ’em these very practical aspects. You love the Scriptures, right. You love your family, and a practical trade. And I think so many times, we as Christians tend only to focus on the spiritual aspects like having ’em in church and reading their Bible, but we don’t talk about, you know, the physical aspects, about educational aspects, about emotional aspects, and all of these things are important. You know, we are a spirit, but we possess a soul, and we live in a body, and we have to develop well-rounded children that can go out and bring the light into the darkness.

 

  So I like what you brought out, that we’re made up of three parts: a body, spirit, and soul.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And so all these parts of all of us need nurturing and admonishing. And so we’re gonna just start off for an intro here, and this is found in Deuteronomy 6:3-9. And I love teaching from the Old Testament and the New Testament. It all goes together, but again, in Deuteronomy six, there’s an encouragement or a charge giving to parents, and so we’re gonna start, and we’re gonna read three through nine. And it says, “Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey.” He goes on and says again in verse four, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, everything that’s in you. These words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart.” So I have that word heart circled in my Bible. Then verse seven, it goes on to say, “You shall teach them diligently.” What do you think the word diligently means? It means this is gonna be something you do repetitive. You’re gonna talk about God, His Word, how amazing God is over and over. It’s gonna be a repetition in your home. It says again, “Teach them.” The parents. It’s the parents’ responsibility, not the government, not the school, not even the church. These things should be backed up and followed through in our children’s programs, but ultimately, parents are to teach these things diligently to your children, and it doesn’t stop there. It goes on and tells us how to do it. It says, “And you 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, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them down on the doorposts of your home and on your gates.” But I like it, how it says we are to love God with everything.

 

  Amen.

 

  All three areas of our life, we’re to love Him, and then we’re to teach the Word. We’re to teach about God to our children diligently, and it’s a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle of love, not law. This is a lifestyle of love. Like, we get to serve God. We get to serve people. There’s amazing things that we get to do ’cause God has called us.

 

  This is so good. You know, one thing, you know, we started out, we started out in a really small town, Kit Carson, Eastern Colorado, town of about 300 in a county of about, you know, 2,200 that covers 2,400 square miles. So there’s less than one person per square mile in that county, and yet we never taught our kids about lack. We taught ’em, “We get to do this.” We never taught ’em, “Oh, we’re so challenged because we’re pastors.” No, we taught ’em, “We get to do this. We get to love God. We get to serve people.” And look at this verse in verse three. I mean, this just stood out to me. “Hear, Israel, and observe to do the word.” He says, “That it may be well with you and that you may increase mightily.” Now, we have seen that happen in our children. They are supernaturally blessed, and they’re all in different walks of life in different areas. Andrew’s an engineer, works in the gas and oil business. Peter works in, you know, business. He’s currently the chief operating officer of Burger King of the Americas. Aaron works in the church and has this, you know, a buying and selling business that he does online, you know, on top of that. But it says, “That you may increase mightily.” That’s what’s happened in our life. That’s what happened in our children’s life. He says, “As the Lord God of your fathers has promised you.” This is the promise of God. You know, in a lotta the church, they act like it’s a problem if you increase mightily. This is the promise of God. This is the plan of God. You know, you gotta quit acting like if you have something, it’s wrong. You know, there’s a real discrimination in America, and it’s like, and the liberals have played on this, kinda playing the poor against the rich, and it’s really, a lotta these people that are pushing it, they’re more wealthy than anybody. Even a lotta churches where they promote poverty rather than prosperity, the people really preaching it are actually making more than a lot of us that preach the full gospel. And he says here, “As the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, in a land that flows with milk and honey.” You know, I remember years ago hearing Bill Basansky. He grew up in Russia, and he dreamed of coming to America, and he called it “the land of milk and honey.” And he was so blessed. It was in Full Gospel Business Men’s years and years ago, but you know what, if you get a blessed mentality, and I believe if you study the Word of God and believe it for face value, you’re gonna have a blessed mentality. And what he’s saying, “Listen if you learn My Word and you get My Word in your heart and you really let My Word have first place, if you really believe it and you’re not ruining it with religion, there’s no way that it’s not gonna work out to abundance in your life.”

 

  Well, I like how it says in verse five, “You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.” In other words, how is your day gonna be? What’s gonna be the priorities in your day, in your family’s life if you’re saying, “I really love God with all my heart”? In other words, I don’t come home and just give God my leftover crumbs. “Well, if I have time to spend time with God.” I get up every day, and I praise Him and thank Him.

 

  And you spend time in the Word every day. I see you in there, you know, reading your Bible and studying and spending time with God. It’s amazing how well you hear from God, but I think a lot of it’s because you spend time with Him. You spend time in worship. You spend time in fellowship. You spend time in the Word on a regular basis. It’s not you’re just coming to church once a week and doing this because it’s your Christian duty. You’re not just reading your Bible, you know, your three and a half chapters a day because it’s your Christian duty. It’s a love relationship with God and with His Word.

 

  Amen, and I just wanna bring out again in verse seven, you know, about parents teaching these principles about God and His Word diligently, but it says, you know, “When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up.” It’s astounding to me parents who don’t wanna spend any time with their children. You know, we need to talk at the table in the kitchen, but, you know, and do chores around the house or do chores outside and working together, but it’s just talking about as they come home or as we’re together, you know, we used to encourage them to read at least one verse a day, but we’d always ask, “What has God said to you today?” Or, “What does that mean to you?” In other words, there’s so many things to rejoice about what God is doing and taking that time, but really spending time with your children, and again, it’s a lifestyle of love, not religion, like, “We have to do this.” We never taught our children they had to go to church because they were pastor’s kids. That woulda been terrible.

 

  Yeah, no, we get to do this. We get to go to church. We get to read the Word. And, you know, we taught ’em to read one chapter when they were young of the Bible a day, and then we really got ’em to reading one chapter of the New Testament every day when they got a little bit older, and read through it because you can actually read through the New Testament in a year if you read about one chapter five or six days a week. You’ll read through the New Testament a year. And then later, you know, we said, “Hey, read.” And I’ve done this for years, you know, over 30 years, one, you know, three, four, five chapters of the Bible, about three and a half chapters of the Bible, and I just read straight through it from cover to cover. I never quit. I never stop. And it’s always speaking to me. You know, the Word is life, and it amazes me how I’ll read something, just like right now, we were just reading that, and as we read verse three, it just stuck out to me like it’s never stuck out to me before, that if you’ll do this, if you’ll observe to do the word, it’s gonna be well with you. You’re gonna increase mightily. This is what God’s promised you. You’re going to a land that flows with milk and honey. You’re gonna have a good life, baby, and it’s because God’s promises are coming to pass in your life because you’ve learned to live by the Word. Jesus said, “Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” You start loving the Word and letting the Word work in your life, and man, it will produce life.

 

  Amen. I like that. You know, that was just our introduction. Hallelujah!

 

  I have something here in my notes. You know how important, we’re talking about teaching our children to love the Word, or as another culture, the Jewish culture, would say, the Torah, or loving God, having relationship with Him, and I have it in here how important it is to observe and teach the Word. That’s what we just read. Observe it, and then teach it. And I love what Proverbs 10:27 tells us, “The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be short.” But I like that, just the fact that you reverence, you fear, you love the Lord.

 

  Yeah.

 

  You trust in Him.

 

  Yeah.

 

  It prolongs your days. That’s a good word.

 

  Amen. Praise God. Thank God for the Word. You know, the Word works.

 

  It does work.

 

  And when you believe it, it’ll produce what you believe in your life.

 

  I wanna read this. It kinda goes with what you were just talking about a minute ago, how there’s a stigma even, I wouldn’t say in the church. Let’s say religion. Religion teaches that you should be broke and poor, and that’s just ridiculous, and Proverbs 10:22. It does not say that anywhere in the Bible. Proverbs 10:22 says, “It’s the blessing of the Lord that makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.” When you study that out, note toiling doesn’t even increase it. It’s a blessing of the Lord.

 

  Amen. Yeah, I got a good work ethic, but I know people that work a lot that have nothing. It’s not because of how much I work. That’s part of it, right. I taught, you know, four things, right, in financial success, four basics, the, you know, four pillars of financial success. Number one is what you believe. Number two is, you know, what you give. Number three is your work ethic, and number four is stewardship. And those are all principles of the Scripture that are taught, and if you get those things and start believing right. You know, what you believe is a lotta times what you receive.

 

  I know, and when-

 

  And it makes a place for God to work in your life.

 

  Man, I know when we were growing up, there was, it was really pushed that, you know, only certain careers could be wealthy. And it has nothing to do with a gender or what country you live in here, whether you’re a man or a woman or-

 

  What career you’re in. You know, my grandma told me that I should be in insurance and not be a preacher. Because she thought preachers were poor people, and you know why preachers are poor people? ‘Cause they think poor. Because they don’t believe the Scripture, many times. And these same principles, but you know, it’s working in my life, and God has blessed. Our life is amazing.

 

  Well, I’ve seen this work in everyone’s life that believes the Bible. Again, the blessing, “The Lord is who makes one rich and adds no sorrow to it.” So again, religion will teach you against prosperity, and it will teach you that you’re, you know, if you’re wealthy, you’re gonna have problems, and that’s not in the Bible. So that’s just, you know, silly. And so, why don’t you read, do you wanna read Isaiah 54:13?

 

  Yeah, it talks about all of our children will be taught of the Lord, and great will be the peace of your children.

 

  Now, what did you say?

 

  All of our children will be taught of the Lord, and great will be the peace of our children. It’s part of the promise.

 

  Mm-hmm, amen.

 

  Of the new covenant. That’s what Isaiah’s prophesying about in Isaiah 54, is this promise of the new covenant that we have in Christ. We’re gonna take a break really quick, and we’re gonna come back, and we’re gonna be sharing some more about different aspects of teaching our children really to love God and love His Word. So we’ll be back in just a few seconds. Stay tuned. Hey, everyone, I’ve just finished reading the final script for my wife, Barbara’s book on “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” It’s a fantastic tried and proven thing that Barbara has proved in our lives on how we can teach our children to succeed. Andrew Wommack wrote the foreword. You don’t wanna miss it. You’ll be blessed. Thanks so much.

 

  We set up the prayer team. I just felt weird. I said, “Dennis, pray for me.”

 

  One of the ladies had taken his pulse when he first fell over, but there was no pulse.

 

  Pastor was listening to the Holy Spirit, and he spoke with authority.

 

  Then he starts kinda rousing up. He’s been to his heart doctor. He’s been to several other doctors. Nobody, nobody can find anything.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We are right here talking about teaching our children to love the Word of God. You know, the Word of God will change your life. Job said, “I’ve esteemed the words of Your mouth more than my necessary food.” David said, “Oh, how I love Your word. It is my meditation all the day. You through Your commandments have made me wiser than my instructors.” Thank God for the Word of God. Psalm 119:9-11, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Thy law. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You. With my whole heart have I sought You. O God, let me not wander from Your commands.” Do you love God’s Word?

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  Man, the Word is amazing.

 

  So we’ve been talking about observing and teaching the Word. Another point we have here, the importance of consistency in worship.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, a lotta times, well, I believe this is a known fact, your children are gonna learn more from what they see you do than what you tell them to do.

 

  Right.

 

  And so, you know, you were talking about how you’ve seen me. I know our children saw me reading the Bible, but, you know, that’s what I saw my mother do. Every day, I saw her at the kitchen table reading her Bible and underlining, and it was just evident she was praying for us.

 

  You know another thing your mom did, your mom was a saint. I loved her, but we would drive up to her house. I remember when they lived in Southwest Lamar, Colorado, where I grew up in that, you know, outside of town in Lamar, but your mother would be there, and she would just be playing the piano and just worshiping God, and you could hear on that. They had a pretty, you know, nice home at that, but you could hear it coming clear out into the driveway. She didn’t know we’re there. Of course, as soon as we opened the door, she quit, you know, but she would just, I just remember singing, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s something about that name.” And, you know, just the beauty of worship, and then, you know, you’ve got Hebrews 10:25, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, and so much more as we see the day of approaching.” You know, your parents, you know, we weren’t raised in Spirit-filled churches. We were raised in traditional churches, but we got saved there, praise God, and you know what, we were taught to honor the Bible. This is one thing: my dad, he believed the Word. We didn’t know what it said, but he believed it. And so if anybody preach the Word, he loved ’em. He said, “That person was preaching the Bible,” praise God, and then when we got in Andrew Wommack’s Bible study and really found out what the Bible said, that it wasn’t just, you know, hang on and hope to God that you make it, but you can believe God, you know, for the promises of healing, of prosperity, of blessing, of peace. Jesus paid for these things on the cross, and you can believe God for those things in your life. Man, I thought, “Praise God, I don’t have to be sick and poor and defeated by the devil. There’s a Bible full of promises I can believe.” But you know, we started, bu you know what, we were raised in the church. Man, my parents, “You go to church, and you pay your tithe.” I mean, my dad, he drilled that into me even as a young child, four and five years old, and, “You will respect the Bible.” I remember one time, one of my friends went to this church that had probably 14 or 15 stairs that went up, and then you went into this, from both sides, and one of my friends took my Bible, and he threw it from the top down on the grass, and my dad took off his cowhide belt and whipped my bottom. And I’m like, “Daddy, I didn’t do it.” He said, “That’s your Bible. You take care of it.” My dad was pretty strict, but it helped me. It was a very ornery child, and it helped me go the right direction. Were you a passionate child, honey? I was probably a passionate, a very ornery child.

 

  Passionate. Passionate child, and again, I just, we’re gonna go on to Ephesians 6:4 so we keep moving along, but you were sharing Hebrews 10:25, about not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. Another thing that people really got used to during this pandemic is just staying at home and just using technology. And it’s amazing to me how many people think if they have Facebook friends, they’re connected. Those aren’t even real friends. Those might just follow or read some, but you know, people think, “Well, I am assembling, and I am connected ’cause I’m on Facebook,” but this is actually talking about coming together, you know. And I know not everybody can drive here to the church, and there are, praise God, with technology, we can connect, but you actually need to connect with people, pray with one another.

 

  Yeah, and hey, I love it when people attend however they can. We have people that attend from all over the world. And, you know, if you can’t come here physically, if you don’t have a good church that you can go to that really is preaching the fullness of the Word of God, it’s great, you know, to get fed and to come. And, you know, I thank God for technology. I thank God that we’re preaching the Word all over the world, television, internet, you know, different aspects that we’re getting out there, but at the same point in time, you still need to build relationships with other believers of like faith, and that will actually help you in your Christian walk. You know, in Acts chapter two, I believe it’s verse 42, and this was the early church. They continued in the apostles’ doctrine. They continued in the Word. They continued in fellowship. They continued in church. They continued in breaking of bread. They continued in relationships, sitting down and having a meal with other believers of like faith, with people that believe in God, and they continued in prayer. You know, that’s four things that you need in your Christian life to really be healthy, I believe, as a believer, but that’s consistency in worship. You’ve got another Scripture, Barbara.

 

  Well, I have a Scripture here, and we’ve talked a lot about the role of mothers. You know, we talked about our mothers, and there’s actually things that it speaks about fathers. This is Ephesians 6:4. We’re still talking about consistency in worship, loving the Word, teaching our children, and it says in Ephesians 6:4, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” I like what it says. Again, we’ve been talking about this is a lifestyle of love, not religion and law. You don’t try and break people or break them, but when you study this out, it says a father is to take them by the hand and lead them in the way that they should go.

 

  Yeah, in the nurture and admonition and the care and the teaching or the care and even the warning sometimes.

 

  Amen. I like that.

 

  Admonition has to do sometimes with warning of the Lord. You know, I had a good friend in junior high and high school, and he, pretty ornery kid. I was a pretty ornery kid, to be honest with you. My mom prayed for me, “God, would you do something with Lawson? I can’t do anything with him.” And it was about that time, we met Andrew Wommack and got in the Bible study.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then they worried about me ’cause all I did was go to Bible study, go to church, and take care of cows, but anyway, my friend, his dad had been an alcoholic, and he got saved, but then the dad tried to force, you know, church, and he hadn’t raised the kids in that way, when they were 13, 14, 15 years old. And I was at my friend’s house, and he showed me his fingerprints on the side of the doorway, where his dad was trying to drag him by the hair of the head. You know, and he was ornery. I remember one time, the coach grabbing him by the head, and his body swinging around. That coach woulda been thrown in jail for doing that today. But anyway, his dad, and he’s just like, “I’m not going.” And I heard the other day, my mom said that he communicated with her on Facebook and said, “Have you heard the good news?” And I believe he’s loving and serving Jesus today, and that’s great. You know, I thank God. It took him a while to get it. It took his dad a while to get it, but his dad, you know, had changed. He got delivered from alcohol. Jesus had saved him and delivered him, and he wanted his kids to get it, but he was trying to force it. You know, he just, when you haven’t been living it, it’s hard to force your children into something that you’re not doing yourself.

 

  Mm-hmm, yeah, I like, there’s another thing I wanna go into. Well, Proverbs 10:4 talks about how the hand of the diligent makes rich. Just, there’s something about just being diligent and being consistent, and that brings fruit. And we have just enough time here. I wanna just kinda wrap it up with this. You know, we really taught our children, and we believe this. This Scripture, I love. It’s seeing God as the answer.

 

  Yes.

 

  You know, not the stimulus check, which, praise God, you know, money comes different ways, but putting your trust in God. And this is Proverbs 3:5-6, so again, Proverbs 3:5-6, it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” You know, it’s so much easier to me to put my trust in God than anything else.

 

  Amen, praise God, and you know, trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Trust Him, trust God with all of your soul, with all of your emotions, with all of your. You know, spiritually, you’re born again, so you have faith there, but get it over in your mind, your will, and your emotions, where you’re really learning to lean on Jesus and rely on Him, you know.

 

  I like what it says, “And not on your own understanding.” A lotta times, we’ve heard people say, “Well, I prayed, and it didn’t happen.” You know, sometimes we have this preconceived, stereotype idea how it has to happen, and it might be even something more amazing, just-

 

  Listen, you can be setting yourself up for a major. You know, we’ve had words from God and thought things were gonna happen a certain way, and, you know, God brought it another way. But the good thing is, you keep believing God no matter what happens. You know, I had a recent experience where I was severely disappointed, and I’m usually a very happy, positive person, but man, it took me, you know, a week. I mean, it was just, like, discouragement was trying to overcome me. Now, in one day, you know, you told me, “Call Cory Stewart.” Cory and Paul, they’ve been in the church for years, you know, and they’re outta state about six months a year, a little bit over right now, but Cory said, “Lawson, it’s not over yet,” and that’s exactly what the Lord had put in my spirit. And you heard God say, “Call Cory.” Cory had a word that was in my spirit, and it isn’t over yet. We’re gonna get the victory, praise God, you know, and this is one of the Scriptures that you have, is, “Thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph and gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” in 2 Corinthians 2:14. And, “Whosoever is born of God overcomes this world,” 1 John 5:4, so thank God. You know, we have these promises, and we can believe these promises, and we can not only observe and teach the Word, have consistency in our own life, in our own worship, but teach our children to look to God for the answer.

 

  Amen. Amen. I think I have just enough time. It’s also important that we teach our children, we talk about the victories. Like, remember to celebrate what God has done.

 

  We’ll go into that tomorrow.

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s too big a subject for us to get to in the last part of this program. So you know what, if you haven’t got this book, I just read the final draft, and it is a fantastic book. It took us a long time to get it done, but it’s got a foreword by Andrew Wommack. Cathy Duplantis wrote a really encouraging statement about it, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” And Barbara wrote this book, this is her first book. It’s fantastic, and I’m telling you it works. A lotta these people are writing books, and it’s really not working in their life. I’m telling you this is tried. This is true. This is proven. Barbara’s taught this for over 10 years in Bible school, but not only that. It’s working in our family. It’s working in our life, and I guarantee you that these principles from the Scriptures will work in your life too. So you can get it on Amazon.com. You can get it on our church website, CharisChristianCenter.com, or you can come here physically to church, and we’d love to have you if you’re in town on a Sunday morning, 8:30 or 10:30, or Wednesday night. Blessings. Thanks for tuning in.

 

  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.

 

  Hey, everyone, I wanna let you know about something coming up for our livestream congregation. We have Brother Jesse Duplantis gonna be here at Charis Christian Center.

 

  You let God do what He wants, and He’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams spiritually, physically, and financially.

 

  You’re gonna get some great revelation with Jesse Duplantis. Tell your friends about it, Charis Christian Center, Sunday, November 5th.

 

  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 PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today.”