Fearless – Part 2 Lawson and Barbara Perdue

  Friends, thanks so much for tuning in and being part of this broadcast. We really appreciate you connecting with us today, and we’re gonna be teaching a powerful message today. I have my wife, Barbara, with me, and we’re gonna be sharing about our true identity. And when you understand who you are, it will help you fulfill your God given destiny. So, stay tuned, blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. And I’m so glad that Barbara’s here and we’re from her series “Fearless”. And you know the devil will always kind of tempt people like this generation is worse than any generation before. And these problems nobody’s ever seen problems like this or nobody’s ever had problems like you. And you know what the Bible says That there’s no temptations overtaking you, but such as common demand. And God will with that temptation, make a way of escape. And there’s always been challenges with every generation, there’s always been problems. and if you study history, a lot of them are just the same things kind of redone. The devil bring it up a different way. And this one we’re gonna be talking about how important it is for us to instill a strong identity in our children. How important identity is. And if you really study this out, you can see it in the life of Jesus in Matthew with the temptations. Every one of them, the devil said, “If you are the Son of God,” and it was attack on identity. You study those temptations out in Matthew four, Luke chapter four, they’re the same temptations that the devil brought to Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three in the garden. The devil doesn’t have any new tricks. It’s the same stuff. He just redoes it a different way. But praise God, you can go to the Word of God, you can find out what the Word of God says, and you can get a strong identity in Christ, and you can overcome the devil’s lies.

 

  Praise God, that’s encouraging. Just for a little review, we’ve been talking about the parents, the family of Moses, and how there was a law set that all the Hebrew male children were supposed to be thrown into the water. They were supposed to be killed, but the midwives feared God and listened to Him. And of course, we talked about in Exodus 2:2 when the woman conceived and bore a son, she saw that he was beautiful, a beautiful child, a healthy child or something special. I believe she saw the anointing on his life to fulfill his God-given destiny. And so, this family went into action. You brought out in yesterday’s broadcast that they walked by faith not by fear and how supernatural things opened up for them and provisioned for their child, but we understand that he was adopted by one of Pharaoh’s daughters, which was amazing. And then she was paid wages to take care of her son. And we also brought out in that culture that as a nurse for a baby, you would be with them for a number of years. And so, it’s amazing to me that Moses’s mother Jochebed was a part of his life and really teaching him. And this is what we’re bringing out. How do we teach and impart the truth, really teaching our children to know their true identity in a society where the wickedness and evil is always trying to make you feel separated from God, which is so far from the truth. And honey, I wanted to bring this out and then I wanna get some of your feedback. We have other scriptures, but I love it in Exodus 2:11. Now Moses is an adult, he’s grown. And I believe, again, when you study this culture out, I’m sure his mother stayed on as a friend of the family, as someone who took care of him as a baby. But this is amazing to me again, in verse 11, it said, “Now when it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.” And I like to bring out if he was adopted, who told him there was really only two people who knew Moses’ true identity, his birth mother and his adopted mother. And he’s walking out and recognizes the persecutions of the Hebrews. And it’s mentioned one of his brethren. How did he know that was his brethren? How did he know who he was in Christ?

 

  Yeah. Well, he knew, because I believe just like you taught that his mother instilled that into him as a young child. And I really believe when children are young, when they’re toddlers, so on and so forth, they really need the influence of their mother. When they grow, when they get up to their teen years, so on and so forth, they need the influence of their father. And if you don’t have that God will make a way. Your children can do well. My dad died when I was 14. I had a strong identity in Christ. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 14 and my dad, actually, died when I was 17. But that didn’t have a terrible negative effect on me, because of my relationship with God and my relationship with the Word. But we talked about this yesterday, children they say, learn about half of what they’re gonna learn by the time they’re five years old. So, that’s why it’s so important as young children that we instill good values and different things in them, that we train them up as young children.

 

  There’s another comment you made a number of years ago, and I really liked it. You made this comment and when we were raising our three sons, we didn’t teach them about all the darkness and all the bad. We taught them the Word of God and knew that, that would light their path. And so, we’re gonna talk about this in a minute, in let’s see, Psalm 119.

 

  Yeah, well, there’s a temptation in the church to focus on all the evil,-

 

  Good point.

 

  on all the darkness, on all the hatred, on all the death, on all the problems in the world. And I never talked about all the evil. I didn’t talk about all the death and darkness. Why? I didn’t talk about really all the lies in the world. I didn’t teach my children all the different things about evolution and why it’s not right. I didn’t teach ’em, you know. They’re used to talk about how you could play a rock and roll song backwards and it’d teach you how to roll a joint, you know, pot. So, I didn’t teach my children all that stuff. I didn’t teach ’em all the hatred and stuff from the world and all the prejudice of the world. I taught them the basic principles of the Word of God. The Bible says in Psalm 119, 130, that the entrance of the Word gives light and gives understandings, it is simple. And light is stronger than darkness. When we came in this room today, we didn’t curse the darkness, we turned on the light, and the light is stronger than the darkness. Love is stronger than hatred. A lot of the world is so focused on hatred and they’re actually taught. You grew up in a very biracial area. I grew up in a very biracial area. I grew up where it’s 49% Hispanic, 51% white. You grew up where it’s almost a lot more Hispanic than white. And then you spent your high school year where there was a lot of blacks, or when you graduated from high school in Denver East and you never learn to hate anybody. And hatred really has to be taught. And a lot of this stuff like CRT, what they’re doing is instilling hatred in one person for another person. And I don’t believe that children grow up hating anybody. So, I believe love is stronger than hatred. I believe life is stronger than death. I believe light is stronger than darkness. I believe the truth is stronger than the lie. Now, we did the best to get our kids in good schools, to get them a good education, so on and so forth. I thank God when our children were young, they were going to Kit Carson, Colorado and they were in public school. The man there was a Catholic teacher, very godly man, a very good man. I believe the man completely knows Jesus. In fact, I went back there recently to preach some funerals and he talked to me and asked all about our boys. And he said, “Your boys, when they came to school, they were ready to learn.” But when he got to the history book or science book, when it talked, he was their science teacher, and it talked about evolution. He just said, “I don’t believe this. I believe God created the heaven and Earth and we’re gonna skip this chapter.” And I remember when I was a freshman in high school and they tried to teach evolution, I sat in the front of my class. Had about 25 kids in my class in Wiley, Colorado. My science teacher’s name was Mr. Horan. And he had a big afro, you know, it was back in those days. And anyway, I just kept asking him, where did that come from? And he came down to where it all came from a seed on a rock in his philosophy. And I just said, “Well, where did the seed come from?” And he just looked at me and said, “But I believe in Jesus Christ too.” And it just proved to that class that in the beginning, God created the heaven and Earth.

 

  Amen.

 

  And everybody knows that there’s a Creator, Romans chapter one says that. And so, there are no atheists in the foxholes. But we don’t have to go and talk, teach all the evil and all the darkness and explain all the lies. We could just teach the basic principles of the Word of God. And at a heart level, I believe that’s my responsibility as a parent for my children. Is to teach my children the basic truths, the basic principles of the Word of God. And when they get that, do you know what? That’s gonna help them overcome the darkness and the hatred and the lies that are in the world. And so, when we read here in Psalm 119:9-11 it says,…

 

  And I wanna bring something out. As you were talking, I’m sorry it got me.

 

  That’s all good.

 

  Got me going, but it was, actually, one of our daughter-in-laws who told me this. She said, and maybe you’ve heard this, that a lot of people are going to their computers and Googling for answers. And we know that you’re gonna get false information anyway, the best place for the truth. Where should I get my truth from? Is the Word of God. And that’s what we’re really

 

  Amen. focusing on today. But I believe she was telling me that a lot of people are going to the internet and googling this. It’s the one of the number one questions, who am I? Why would you wanna go to the internet  and ask them who you are.

 

  Praise God.

 

  Let’s go to the Bible and see who we are.

 

  I’ll you where you can get this. In our new curriculum for our children. Now, you can use this for a homeschool group, you can use this for a Bible study. But we start with who is God? Who is Jesus Christ?

 

  Amen.

 

  Who is the Holy Spirit? But then our fourth curriculum is, who are you? Who am I? And we need to know who we are from the scripture. When I was 14 years old, I was saved when I was eight, received Jesus as my Savior. But when I was 14 years old, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and I began to understand who I was in Christ, that I am righteous, sanctified, redeemed, wise, that greater is He that’s in me than he that’s in the world. I begin to learn all these truths from the scripture. And you know what? That set me up to succeed.

 

  Amen.

 

  And even though I was raised, my dad had epilepsy, my parents were challenged financially, challenged relationally and all these different things, because I got these truths of the Word of God on the inside of me, it really set me up to succeed. And so, you can get this, we actually offer this free of charge. We’ve been paying as a church over $900 a year for a downloadable curriculum. And now, we’re providing one free. And we’re gonna have two years of children’s and we’re gonna do two years of junior high. We don’t have it all yet, but you can get that on the internet Charis Kids curriculum, absolutely free of charge, praise God. And you can download it, you can use it for your homeschool group, you can use it for your Bible study, you can use it for your Sunday school class, you can use it for children’s church, you can use it for all kind of stuff. Praise God, and we’ve developed this, and it’s a lady that’s been writing curriculum. She’s one of the top curriculum writers in the nation. But she’s been working for one of these organizations that won’t let her write all these things that we’re teaching that come from the Bible that I learned that really set me up to succeed. And when you find out what the Bible says, when you find out what God says about you, you don’t need to let the world define you. You need to let God define who you are, and praise God, when we let God define us, when we let the Word of God define us, when we let the Word of God be the final authority in our life, it will change our life for good. And we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk about more how we can be set apart from the world by the Word of God. And we don’t just have to go the way of the world, think like the world, act like the world, talk like the world, be like the world, and have the same results of the world, because the Word of God is the absolute truth. We’ll be back right after this break. And so, stay tuned, blessings. Friends, I’ve really been enjoying teaching with Barbara on her message “Fearless”. I know these messages have the power to help you just like the Word of God has helped us in our life. And so, you can get them absolutely free of charge on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com in downloadable audio or video, blessings.

 

  The law cannot make you righteous. It cannot free you, it cannot transform you, it cannot empower you, only Jesus can do that. Only His abundance of grace can do. Here’s what I’m gonna do, devil. I’m gonna take this report card from Jesus Christ and He holds it up and He puts a slash next to the name and He writes your name next to it. So, His righteousness becomes your righteous. His peace becomes your peace, His joy becomes your joy, His healing becomes your healing, His prosperity becomes your prosperity.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’ve been teaching and sharing this about understanding our true identity. And that doesn’t come from the world, that needs to come from God. And really, there is an attack on identity in society.

 

  That’s true.

 

  And the scripture says that when God created us in the beginning that He created them male and female. I like something that our son Aaron said when he was teaching a while back. If they dig up your bones 1,000 years from now, they won’t be able to tell what you thought you were. But they’ll be able to tell whether you were a man or a woman, because your DNA states that, praise God-

 

  Yeah, praise God.

 

  and soul.

 

  Yeah, so we’re talking about, again, teaching and imparting our children the truth and the best source of that is the Word of God. And so, I have numerous scriptures we need to get in before this broadcast ends today. So I love it. Can you read this, hun? This is Psalm 119:9-11. Then I’m gonna read in Deuteronomy, ’cause that’s very important as well.

 

  So it says, “How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to the Word. With my whole heart have I sought You. Let me not wander from Your commandments. Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Again, understanding your identity is like, it’s a strength against sin. And sin means to miss the mark or to transgress the Word of God, the law of God, and we’ve all sinned, we’ve all missed the mark. We’ve all fallen short. We’ve all transgressed the Word of God. You know the law of God, but thank God Jesus came and paid for our sin.

 

  Amen.

 

  But we need to find out the truth about who we are.

 

  Amen.

 

  And we find that out in the scripture.

 

  Yeah, that’s in the scripture. And I love something Deuteronomy brings out. This is Deuteronomy chapter six. And we’re, actually, gonna read verses three through nine. We took this very serious, I know our parents did, but it says, “Therefore hear Israel and be careful to observe it.” And I have that word observe underlined, “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. Here are Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” I love it how it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.” In other words, everything. He should be number one. And you know, I always say, if you’re saying this scripture, just think this is gonna cause an effect on the decisions we make today. How we start our day, how we end our day, the decisions we make as short-term goals or long-term goals. But it goes on and this is what I wanna bring out. “And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart.” So parents, the Word needs to be in our hearts. And then verse seven goes on and says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children.” And it doesn’t stop their, hun. A lot of times people are like, “Well, how do I do that?” And I wanna bring something out. Both of us have really been strong in this area. We’re not talking about law, we’re talking about love. And I love it, it says, “You’re gonna teach your children diligently.” And it goes on in verse seven, it says, “You’ll talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you’ll bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as front lips between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.” But I like that it says, get the Word in you then get it in your children diligently. And really it’s a lifestyle of love, not law. In other words, when you’re with your children, at breakfast time, what are you talking about? At the dinner table, what are you talking about? When you’re walking the dog, we should be talking about all the amazing testimonies of who God is, not a lack mentality. We kinda had a rule at our house when we gathered as a family. We didn’t talk about all the, again, you mentioned it earlier, the negative things. But how God, with God, all things were possible, that God is the answer, He is not our problem, He is there to help us.

 

  Amen, praise God. And this is one thing when you think about this, children not only learn from what they hear, they learn from what you do, from what they see. And I know for instance, when I was a child, I was taught you don’t smoke, you don’t drink, but my dad smoked and drank. So, I’d be off with the kids trying to make cigarettes or something. And thank God I never smoked much and I didn’t drink. I couldn’t stand alcohol to tell you the truth. And when I got older, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 14. So, God just delivered me

 

  Amen.

 

  From a lifetime of grief. And I even saw some things in my own family, certain areas, how alcohol negatively affected people. So, I just didn’t want to go that direction. But then when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, God just freed me. But children learn from what you do. And a lot of times parents say one thing and do another. And it’s important that you not only say something, but you do what you say, that you live the gospel. And I know I taught our kids the value of the Word of God. And we also taught ’em the value of education and the value of music and the value of physical activity, because they’re not only a spirit. They have a soul, they have a body, and we took care of the whole man. And I think Christians make a mistake sometime when we only think about the spiritual side. And many times when we only think of the spiritual side, we put it all off to the church and we have ’em at church. You know what, a lot of kids, we might have an hour and a half a week. If they come to midweek service, we might have them two and a half, three hours a week, or it’s not very much. And yet you’ve got 100, you got a lot of hours with your children every week and you can impart things. And it’s important what you impart to your children, day by day, week by week.

 

  There’s just some very simple things that we taught our children too. I like what it said in here, “You shall write them down.” Write the Word of God down as a sign and regardless of what we’re believe in God for I wanna encourage you, if you’re watching a day, whether it’s for joy, a job, provision, your finances or healing, or even with relationship, we would find that in the Bible and write the scripture down. So, no matter what was going on, the God’s Word, what our focus was and that God would have the answer. For whatever our family was going through.

 

  Amen, the Bible is the answer. The Word of God is the answer. We read this scripture in Psalm 119, how shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to the Word. We talked about how we don’t have to be like the world. And what really separates us from the world is the Word. Jesus said in John 17. And we’ve talked about this yesterday, we really talked quite a bit about don’t be caught up with fear, because a lot of times we see evil, we see things wrong, and we tend to wanna react in fear. And the Bible really taught, Jesus addressed this in John 17:15-19. But He really said, “Shall I take them outta the world?” And He said, “No, don’t take them outta the world, but I’m gonna set them apart. And the way I’m gonna sanctify them or set them apart is through the truth of the Word of God.” And it’s the Word of God, the entrance of the Word gives light, gives understanding. It’s the Word of God that protects us against the lies and the deception in the world. And so, we need the Word of God and we need to not only teach it, but live it, and we need to see it lived out, praise God. Because the Word works. I know different people have brought this up, Andrew Womack’s written this and brought this up about us. But he’s like, “Lawson and Barbara not only preach that they live what they preach.” And you know what? It works in our life. The Word is working. And what we’ve been believing for a long time is working in our life.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I thank God, God is a good God. Go ahead and share your next verse.

 

  Well, I’m just really excited. Again, we’re talking about teaching our children the truth. And the best source to get the truth from is the Word of God. And I mentioned how our daughter-in-law said a lot of people are going to the internet and asking the same question over and over. It’s the number one question. And that is, who am I? So, I wanna just show you in the Bible who you are. This really set me free. I can remember being a young child, learning how to read and thinking, okay, I’m gonna read the Bible myself. And I couldn’t even hardly get through the first book in the Bible, the first chapter, because I was one of those who stumbled when I talked. And so, I was put in special speech classes, which I don’t know if that ever worked and told, because of that told I was dumb. And so, I really like what Genesis 1:26-28 says. Because when I read this, I was like, those were lies that people spoke over me. Anyway, it says, then God said, “Let us make a man in our image.” Who are you? You are a creation of the most amazing Creator. You are made in the very image of God. It goes on to say, “According to our likeness, let them have dominion.” Oh, you’re somebody special. “Dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the all the Earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth.” So, God created man in His own image, in the image of God. He created him, He created him. Male and female, He created them. And then I love what verse 28 says, because again, a lot of people think they’re cursed, and that God hates them, and I love verse 28, it says, “Then God bless them.” You are created in the very image of God. And then He Himself has spoken blessings over you. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Everything how we are designed, God’s purpose for us. Everything in our life is supposed to multiply, not shrivel up, fill the Earth, subdue it. “You take authority, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the Earth.” But I love that I am made in the image of God, His likeness, His personality, His intelligence. And then He has spoken His blessing over us.

 

  Amen, praise God. And we have a very definite identity.

 

  Amen.

 

  God made us in a very specific way. It says He created them, male and female. And to be fruitful, multiply and take dominion. Guess what? You need male and female. So, it’s so simple, the things of the Bible. In the spirit, there’s neither male nor female, but God created us physically as well as spiritually. And when you understand spiritual truth, then you can take authority and dominion physically, and begin to walk ultimately in God. What He wants you to walk in. And if you read this after this, He gave them something to do it with. And you may think, well, I don’t have ever any opportunity, but I actually believe that God has created every person with opportunity. And all of us have the opportunity to be successful, to be blessed, and to be life-giving part of society. And so, we need to understand who God made us to be. Understand the scripture, who God says that we are. We also need to understand that God has given us whatever we need,-

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  to prosper. He’s given us whatever we need to be a success in life. And when we understand that it will really change the way that we live our life. I’m so glad that you tuned in. I’m so glad that you’re here with us today. We have trained prayer ministers that are here that are waiting to take your calls. And if you need prayer, if you need healing in your body, if you need to receive Jesus, receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit in your personal prayer language. Just give us a call today. And you know what we have, literally hundreds of hours of teaching available free of charge on our website CharisChristianCenter.com. You can go there, watch a lot of information, and if you’d like to become a partner, we would love to have you join us, blessings.

 

  There are practical ways for parents to raise their children by faith and not by fear. Now, is the time to step out in faith and equip the next generation with everything they need to be successful. We’d like to bless you with the digital copy of “Fearless” a $5 value free of charge. You can download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I wanna say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today, blessings.

 

  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”.