Unless The Lord Builds The House Part 2 – Lawson & Barbara Perdue
Unless The Lord Builds The House Part 2
Unless the Lord Builds the House Part 2 with Pastors Lawson and Barbara Perdue. When you use the Word of God as a firm foundation, you will consistently see God’s promises come to pass!
Destined to Win
When Jesus saved you, your destiny changed completely! He radically transformed us and brought us from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and from defeat to victory. Pastor Lawson goes through the book of Ephesians in detail and shows us exactly why we are destined to win. We are no longer fighting to be overcomers, we are made victorious through Jesus and any weapon formed against us will not prosper! Jesus came to give us life and have that life more abundantly! Because of God and his great love, we are destined to win!
Unless The Lord Builds The House Transcript
Praise the Lord, friends. I have my wife, Barbara, with me today. And today we’re gonna be sharing from her series, “Unless the Lord Builds the House.” We’re gonna be talking about how you use the Word of God as a foundation. And when you have the Word of God as a firm foundation in your life, you can see God’s promises come to pass on a consistent basis. So open your heart and receive the Word today. Be blessed. Praise the Lord, friends. We are so glad that you’ve joined us today. And we’re gonna be sharing today on how you can build your house strong in a midst of a world that is in turbulence. You can have a strong family. You can have a strong home. You can have children that are serving God and not serving the devil. And you don’t have to live in fear when you build your life on God’s Word. And you know what? We have proven this in our lives. We have three sons and they’re all in their 30s. They all are married. They’re all involved in local churches. They’re all in business. And they’re all super blessed serving God. You know what? The Word of God works, if you’ll believe it. And so we’re gonna have some great things. Barbara’s gonna go ahead and start today. And we’re gonna be really talking about how you can train up your children in the ways of the Lord. And when they are old, they will not depart from it. Praise God.
Amen. Amen.
The Word of God works.
So as you mentioned, we’ve been talking about “Unless the Lord Builds the House,” that we can ask for a godly wisdom concerning our families, and know that God will give it to us liberally. There’s three areas that we really focused on. We saw other cultures. I believe that you had mentioned the Jewish culture did this. It’s really important. There’s three areas every parent really needs to train their children up in. And the first one is, love the Word, or love God, or the Jewish culture would say, “Love the Torah.” But it’s really important that we teach our children to love the Word, or God, love their family, how to have healthy relationships and a practical trade. So today what we’re really gonna be talking about is how do we train up our children to love the Word, or love God? And I love it in the Bible, it’s in the Old Testament, New Testament. And if you read just enough, God always tells us how to do it.
[Lawson] Amen.
So we don’t need to be confused. And so again, we’re gonna start today teaching our children to love the Word, love God. And this is found in Deuteronomy 6:3-9. And it says, “Therefore, hear all Israel and be careful to observe.” I have that underlined in my Bible. “Observe it, that it may be well with you, that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, oh Israel, the Lord, our God is one.” Verse 5 says, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” I have that circled. It needs to be in our heart first. Before we can pass something on to someone else, we have to own it ourself. So parents, get the Word in your heart. And then verse 7, it says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children.” I like that word again, “diligently.” So this isn’t just, you know, once or twice a year. Diligently means consistently, regularly. This is something that should be done on a regular basis. And I like how if you continue to read, it shows us how as parents to do this with our children. This says, “You shall talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” It’s a lifestyle of love, not law. We’re not talking about laws, rules, and regulations. We’re talking about a lifestyle of love that we get to have this amazing relationship with God, that we are created in his image. He wants to and desires to fellowship with us. And so it’s, again, when we’re with our children, we mentioned this in the previous show, that when we came together at the dinner table, we talked about God and his Word. We didn’t talk about lack and the problems. We talked about how God is the answer. And so praise God, that’s what it’s talking about. So when you’re just walking, when you’re in your home, we’re magnifying the goodness of God. Verse 8 says, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorsteps of your house and on your gates.” You know, there’s something else we did as a family. When we were believing God for something, we would take a scripture and write it down on an index card.
[Lawson] Amen.
Whether it was healing or prosperity or joy. And we have found that if you understand what the will of God, what does God’s Word say about something?
[Lawson] Amen.
It’s a lot easier for you to believe that God really is the answer–
[Lawson] Amen.
to that situation.
You know, the scriptures work. There is power. There is life in the Word. I grew up in a Christian home and you did too. And we were raised in the church, but we weren’t always on fire for God like we are today. But something happened to me when I was 14 years old. I went to Andrew Wommack Bible Study. When Andrew, he didn’t have a big ministry at all. He had six Bible studies in Southeast Colorado, Southwest Kansas that he held from Monday to Saturday night of the week, and then he started on the radio. It was just, you know, but I remember when I first went, my mom actually told me if I would go to this Bible study with her, that she would buy me some fish bait. And I was a 14-year-old country kid. We lived by a lake. I was excited. So she took me to Kmart and bought me fish bait. And then we went at this Bible study in this little house in southwest part of Lamar, Colorado. And Andrew was standing in the corner and I was sitting over on the floor. He led his own worship then, and he was playing his guitar, 12 string guitar. And he would tell us to turn to certain scriptures and we’d sing those scripture songs. Then when he got done, he plugged a little mic into a single cassette deck. And he just went to record it. And then he held his Bible in his hand just like this. And when he did that, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, “Listen to this man. He knows what he’s talking about.” Praise God, and I got so excited about the Word of God. I forgot all about my fish bait, all about those things. And what came to me is you don’t have to be sick, poor or defeated by the devil, but you can believe God. And you know, at a young age of even 14, 15 years old, I started believing that, you know, I could have a good family, and I could provide well for my family. You know, things I started believing I’ve received.
[Barbara] Amen.
Praise God. And I’m believing for much greater things now. But thank God, a lot of people never believed the promises and they get exactly what they believed for. You know, they don’t believe for anything and they hit it every time. So, you know what? We need to believe the Word of God. We need to believe the promises of God. And I started believing these things, and you know what? It transformed my life. But there was an excitement about the Word. And you know about that same point in your life, something happened to you, praise God. And you started believing.
I love that, what you’re bringing out. Really, it was both our mothers that really helped in part or encourage us to have a love for the Word of God. I would see my mother every morning at the kitchen table, reading her Bible, praying for us, having the scriptures underlined. But it was when I was 13 years old. We had always gone to very traditional churches, which I’m so thankful for. They taught us amazing things. But at one point my mom heard about a church, a startup church, and there was all sorts of rumors that people were rolling on the floor and hanging from chandeliers. And again, I was 13 years old. My mom says, “This coming Sunday, we’re going to that church.” And I like how we’ve been called, “That church.” Anyway, so we went to that church where there was rumors again, that people were hanging from the chandeliers and rolling in the aisles. And immediately, as soon as we walked through those front doors, it was like I was hit by a tidal wave, a wave that didn’t knock me out or wipe me out that lifted me up of just unconditional love. I was just–
[Lawson] My goodness.
Covered and surrounded by a manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a revelation of how much God loved me the moment we walked through the door. When we went on into the sanctuary, I saw this light, like a fire on someone’s head. And I saw this light going through the congregation, the people like welcoming people and shaking their hand. Well, anyway, this gentleman with this illuminated, this Holy Ghost fire came and introduced himself to my mother and I, and it was the pastor of this church. And I remember sitting down in the praise and worship. I just felt like I was in heaven. But I did notice that there were no chandeliers, and I was kinda disappointed. There was no chandeliers. You know, as a teenager, I was excited to go see something. But I tell you what I saw. I saw the manifestation and the power of the Holy Spirit. As a very young child, even growing up in very traditional churches, I always felt like I heard the voice of Jesus talking to me, but no one ever taught it. No one ever said anything. And it was shortly… My family was going through a very hard time and we were actually completely outta money, completely outta groceries. I was with my mother the whole time. She never told anybody anything about our personal life. But it wasn’t too long after that we visited this church, this pastor showed up on our doorstep and said, “God told me to come give you this.”
Praise God.
And it was a check for my mother. And that’s when I had that moment like, “I knew it. God does talk to us.” And again, there was just a powerful manifestation of the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit.
And so your life was changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not, again, it’s not law, but it’s love. And the love of God has shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost that’s given to us. And you know, that same age, it happened to me and you about the same time. You know, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I began to get an understanding of who I was in Christ. I just fell in love with the Word of God and it transformed my life. You know one thing we tried to teach our children is to read the Bible. And I know when they were little, we would get ’em to read just a chapter a day for five days a week of the New Testament. And if you’ll do that, did you know what? You can read through the Bible, the New Testament, in a year by reading a chapter a day of the New Testament Monday through Friday, every week. So we started very simply, and now they still read the scriptures. They have applied the Word of God to their life. But do you know what? You never get too old. Praise God. There’s some challenges and different things that I’ve been facing. Most people think we don’t have any challenges, but we’re just like you. We live in the world, there’s difficulties. But last night you heard me. I was laying in bed and I was speaking the Word of God, and God was just comforting me with the scriptures. You know what? We can be comforted by the scriptures. We can be encouraged by the scriptures. We can be strengthened by the scriptures. And so thank God, we really invested the Word of God in our children. And so many people think, “Well, it’s the church’s responsibility.” And you know what? I don’t wanna shirk our responsibility as the church. I want the children in this church to get the Word of God when they come here. But what do we have with the children? A couple a hours a week at most, or three? And yet you have so many hours with your children. And if you’ll teach them the Word of God. Did you know what? The truth of the Word of God is stronger than the lies of the world. And we don’t have to fear the world. We don’t have to fear all this garbage teaching that’s in the world. We can teach them the truth of God’s Word, the simple truths of the scripture, because this truth is always stronger than a lie.
I wanted to bring something else out too, that is also, we have numerous notes and points to talk about. But as you were sharing, I wanna share with you what Deuteronomy 6:20-21 tells us. It’s really important. Again, we’re talking about a lifestyle of love, not law. It’s really important as families, as parents that we remember to glorify God and give testimony when he’s done something amazing in our life. And so it’s talking about when you walk with them, sit with them, what are you talking about? What are you testifying of God? And again, in Deuteronomy 6:20, it says, “When your son asks you, ‘Why do we do all these things? Why do we go to church? Why should we read our Bible?'” This is in verse 21. “Then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes.'” In other words, when you look this up in another translation, it says, “We stood there and watched God deliver signs and wonders. He brought us out of there.” Have you ever been a sinner and you invited Jesus Christ in your heart and you got saved? Are you testifying what God has done in your life? Have you prayed and believed God for something and he showed up, he delivered signs and wonders for you? Are we testifying of the goodness of God? I love that the first three years we were married, we lived on the family’s farm and ranch where your grandparents had started these things. But we worked alongside with your grandfather for those first three years. And I loved it that as we were just doing our daily chores and daily things, your grandfather had just such a strong testimony of his faith in God. And that really, there was just something that was amazing about him. He was always talking about stories, whether there were stories of riding his horse to school when he was a little boy. But it was just, I loved about your grandfather, there was just this strong presence of his faith in God, that God had been faithful to him his whole life, and he communicated that to us as we just went about our daily lives.
And our lives, we need to communicate with our children.
That’s right.
The faithfulness of God, you know, faith in God’s faithfulness. And you know what? As we communicate that and they get that down on the inside of them, we talked about this yesterday, God is a good God.
[Barbara] Amen.
And they begin to understand the goodness of God, and that God is a faithful God that they can have confidence, that they can put their trust and confidence in Jesus. And when they do that, it will change their life. We’re gonna be back in just a few seconds. And so stay tuned. We’ll be right back. Praise the Lord, friends. I am so excited to be sharing with you this great teaching I’m sharing from my series on 1 and 2 Timothy on “Raising Leaders, Part One and Part Two.” Also my wife’s series on, “Unless the Lord Builds the House.” And then we have a special edition, “Faith That is Taught and Caught, by my wife, Barbara. And you know what? We are making these things available to you because we know the principles in these will help your family, just like they’ve been a blessing to us. And you know, we’re not talking about something that doesn’t work. We’re talking about something that we have proved in our own family, that we have proved in our church for years and years and years. You know what? The Word of God is true. And when you live your life and conduct your family by principles of the scriptures, you will find the blessing that God promises in his Word. So we want you to call us today and get this product. Thanks. Praise the Lord, friends. We’ve been sharing. We’ve been teaching from the Word of God. And we’ve been talking about raising children and what we invested in our children. And first we taught them to love the Word of God. And not only that, but that God is a good God, and he’s a faithful God, and how much he’s blessed us, and how much he’s helped us. And so we need to keep sharing these good things of God with our children. Another thing that you put in your notes is that we were very consistent in worship. And I like to tell people, “We took our kids to church unless we’re dead. And if they’re dead, we took ’em to church and raised them from the dead.” And that’s not quite accurate. But I remember one time Peter was very, very sick. And there were a lot of kids that got what he got when he was two years old and died. And I was at a prayer meeting. I took him to church Sunday morning, but at the prayer meeting, we were praying for him and different things. That was Sunday evening. The elders there at church, they said, “Are you gonna do something for Peter?” I said, “Listen, if he’s not better by the time I go home, we’re gonna take him to the hospital,” which was in Eads, Colorado, 20 miles from where we lived in Kit Carson. And so when I got home, his whole chest was sinking in and we took him down there, and they flew him, Flight For Life, to Colorado Springs. I went home, went to bed and prayed. You flew with him. But we prayed for him. And I called some people, and I think they stayed up and prayed while I slept. Like Daniel in the lions’ den, I just had perfect faith, perfect piece, that everything was gonna be all right. But you said you were there with Peter, and they put him in intensive care at Memorial Hospital here in Colorado Springs. But you said every time the bells and whistles would go off, by the time the nurses would get there, everything would be straightened out. And, you know, they thought Peter would be in the hospital for two weeks, and a minimum of two weeks. He was in there for less than two days. The second day, so he stayed in there one full day. And the second day, they had him on some IVs and different things, he got out and was running around dead off. The doctor came in and saw Peter running up and down the hall and all around the room. He said, “Oh, he can go home. He’s fine.” Praise God. It was a miracle. But you know, God brought us through, and God helped us so many times in so many ways. And the children saw this, praise God. You know, kids need to have a firsthand relationship with God. And they need to see this. You know, you and I, we were raised in the charismatic movement, and our lives were touched by the power of God and by the power of the Word. But our children had a personal relationship with us, so they’ve seen that in our life. But you know what? It needs to be restored by the third generation, which is our grandchildren. And I believe that our grandchildren are gonna see the power of God. Our kids have seen the power of God. You know, we recently saw a man raised from the dead right here at church. Praise God, God works. And the word of God works. This man was having major heart issue. I could tell he was in cardiac arrest. You know, his eyes rolled up in his head and he quit breathing. We had a nurse there that took his pulse. He didn’t have a pulse. But we commanded his heart to work. We commanded his blood to flow and he came right back. Praise God.
[Barbara] Amen.
They went and took him to the hospital and couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Tested him for a day in the hospital and then put this thing on, tested him for two weeks. They can’t find anything wrong. Well, praise God, thank God. The Word of God still works. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. But we need to have these things be reality in our life and share them with our children. Our children, you have this in your notes, but they need to see God as the answer.
Amen. That’s right. So you mentioned, make sure they spend time in his Word. What do they see you do? I believe that’s what you’re talking about. You were just talking about that. Fathers, you’re to lead them in the way. And we’re talking about when we lead ’em, you wanna testify God’s goodness. But it is important that, as you mentioned, to see that our children see God as the answer, trusting God in time of need. And do you wanna read Proverbs 3:5-6?
Yeah. Proverbs 3:5-6 says this. It says, “Trust in the Lord–“
Amen.
“with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct–“
I like that.
“Your path.”
Amen.
And so, you know, children see that. I know the scripture we had before that was Ephesians 6:4, that says, “Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, in the care and in the teaching of the Lord.” And you brought this out so well that it’s the example that they see lived in us. And when they see us, that the Word of God is a major force in our life, and how we rely and trust God and believe his Word, that they can rely, that they can trust God and believe his Word. You know, it’s an attitude. You have it in your series, “Faith That is Taught and Caught,” praise God. So we’re teaching our children the Word of God, but they’re also catching the Spirit of faith that comes from the Word of God. And so they need to see God as the answer. God is my answer and he is not my problem, amen? Boy, that needs to be, if we need to teach anything, that needs to be taught, that God is the answer, not the problem. Amen?
I like how the Word of God all fits. We’re talking about building our homes, our lives, our families on the Word of God, “Unless the Lord builds the house,” and talking about three things we need in part, teach our children to love the Word, love their family, practical trade. Today, we are focusing on the Word and looking to God’s Word as the final authority. You know, social media is always blasting things. But really, what does God’s word say about things? You talked about our kids, encouraging them to read the Word. And I would always ask them, “What did you read? What did it mean to you?”
[Lawson] Yes.
In other words, “How can you apply this in your life?” And it was so fun to hear everyone talk about what they read, what they learned, and it all fits together. But again, looking to God’s Word as the final authority. And recently I mentioned this. You know, when we were going to school, when we were in our younger years, and I guess they’re still teaching, I was surprised. We were taught that man evolved from an ape, that we were all created. Somehow we evolved from an ape. Now talk about, does it take faith? It takes, to me more faith to believe that I came from an ape than to really believe what the Bible says in Genesis 1:26, that I am made in the very image of God. So even as a young child, even though my mama wasn’t right there with me or my dad, or our Sunday school teachers, because the Word of God, even as a small child, had already been planted in my heart, I knew that was not true.
Well, you know, Genesis 1:1 proves that wrong. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.”
Amen.
And you know, I take it just a simple attitude towards the Word of God. and I believe it.
Yes.
And I’ve applied that. And you know, the Bible says the entrance of the Word gives light and gives understanding–
Hallelujah!
to the simple. Now our children are much more educated than we are. Our oldest son, Aaron has a doctorate from Rice University. His undergrad from Carnegie Mellon. Our middle son, Andrew, has his masters from Colorado School of Mines, and actually was the outstanding student in chemical engineering in both his undergrad and in his master’s courses. And Peter graduated with honor at Princeton University. But you know, these, our children can tell you the reasons in math and science that prove that creation is true. But we taught them the simple principles of the Word and I just believe the Word of God. And that the Word of God is the final authority. And I know Peter recently mentioned to you, “My work is very challenging.” Has a very high position in corporate America as a young man, it’s amazing. His position, most people wouldn’t have till they’re 50 or 60 years old. And he’s in his early 30s, very blessed. And he said, “It’s very difficult, but I speak the Word of God that you taught me that, you know what, I have a good understanding. And I have the mind of Christ and God shows me what to do.” And so he believes that. He also held Bible studies in his church years ago. They would have ’em in their home. He said, “It’s amazing to me how many of these people call their selves Christians, but they do not live by the Word of God.” You know, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes from the mouth of God.” He said, “They don’t even know what the Bible says.” But if you’ll live by the Word of God, and if you’ll conduct yourself by the Word of God, that the Word of God is the final authority. We need to receive with meekness, James 1:20-21 says, “The engrafted word which is able to save our souls.” And I know some people, they want their own idea to work. They don’t wanna submit to the Word of God. But you know what? You need to submit yourself to the authority of the Word of God. And when you do that, praise God, the Word of God is gonna produce good fruit in our life. Praise the Lord. Barbara, you got just a few words?
Well, I just believe in Proverbs 4:20-23. It’s just really important that we teach our families, our children, to respect God’s Word, and that’s what you brought out. We do have some teaching, we wanna let you know, some CD–
Barbara has this teaching and this is, we’ve just shared a short part of it on, “Unless the Lord Builds the House.” And then we also have “Faith That is Taught and Caught.” And then from the next couple of weeks, I’m gonna be teaching on “Raising Leaders” from 1 and 2 Timothy. And we’re gonna create that teaching for you. But I’m telling you, this is a Word that is working in our life, and we’re not talking about something that doesn’t work. We’re talking about something that we have proved in our own lives, that’s been proved in our children’s lives, that we’ve seen the Word of God work when people apply these simple principles from the scripture. And you know what? God is no respecter of persons. He’s a respecter of faith. And if you’ll put the Word in your life, the Word will build your faith so you can receive what God promised. If you want these gifts, call. If you need prayer, call us today. Thank you so much and God bless you.
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