Imparting Success To The Next Generation – Part 5 Lawson and Barbara Perdue (Updated)

  Praise the Lord. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re tuned in today. We’re talking about building foundations in our children’s life, and we’re gonna be specifically talking about the foundation of work and rest, what the Bible says about it, and then the foundation of the wisdom of God. The Bible says that we have the mind of Christ. Open your heart and receive God’s work. Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. I am glad to have Barbara. We’ve been sharing all week on imparting success to the next generation. And actually we’ve only shared on the first two lessons, and this is a eight-lesson series that you have. So it’ll take us a couple more weeks at least to share on this. At least we’ll share on part of it. But this is great teaching, and you can tell your friends about it. And if you haven’t been able to watch all the broadcasts, you can go to our internet, and you can actually watch ’em this week free of charge. And we actually have hundreds of hours of teaching, downloadable audio and downloadable video, that are available free of charge. We also have this new curriculum that we’re developing for children, and we’ve made it free of charge. I was paying $900 a year for it, but you can get it. Tell your friends about it. We got lots of homeschool families that are using it. If I’m correct, we’ve had at least 50 countries now in the world have downloaded this, and we just started it out. And so I’m so excited about the Word that’s going out, that’s gonna change, you know, really children’s lives for their whole life. You know, if you get a hold of the Word of God when you’re a young child, it’ll change your life for good your whole life.

 

  Yeah, and we also want to remind people that we also have a declaration over our children. It’s scriptures that I prayed over our children as we were raising them. So you can check those things out. We have a lot of resources, and we’re just so excited and happy to be here today to continue talking about how important it is to have a strong foundation in the Word of God. And, you know, as I wrote this curriculum, as you mentioned, it was initially written to teach in the Bible school but then also for families and how we raised our children. But what we’re gonna be talking about today is the importance of work and rest because as I developed this teaching, I just thought, “You know, when God calls us to do something, “he wants us to do this.” It’s a lifelong journey, and I don’t believe he wants any of us to get burnout. He doesn’t want us to lose our family or lose our children. I was surprised how many people would come up to us and say, “All your children are saved and love the Lord. “This is not the norm for a pastor’s family.” And I thought, “We need to put a stop to that.” This should be the norm for a pastor’s family or people in the ministry that you have children who love God and are excited that you were pastors and didn’t feel like they were left out or mistreated or, you know, rejected because you put more emphasis on your calling in ministry than you did your family. And so I just-

 

  Well, and I wanna say this, Barbara. You know, there are people out there that do exactly the right thing, and their kids just make bad choices. And, you know, one of my good friends wrote a book, and he wrote this book talking about how God had two wayward children , Adam and Eve. And, you know, so don’t be condemned, but, at the same point in time, we can take the principles of the Word of God and begin to believe them. And I believe that we can see different results.

 

  Amen. So you wanted to talk about work and rest. This is an area that I haven’t always been the best at. And I actually had a friend that had me come teach at Christ For The Nations. He was the Director of the Bible School, heard me years ago teaching on Daystar when I was only on one day a week. And he heard me teaching on there, and he wanted me to come. And I went down there and taught. He understood the message of grace. So I went and taught some messages from 1 John there. But he told me years ago, and I still remember this, he said, “You’re gonna have to rest more.” And I’ve had to employ that, and I’ve got better. I’m not the best at it, but I’m better at it. So you can read the scriptures there.

 

  This is why we are starting in the Old Testament. And Exodus 20:8-11 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, “but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. “In it you shall do no work: “you, nor your son, nor your daughter, “nor your male servant, nor your female servant, “nor your cattle, “nor your stranger who is within your gates. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, “the sea, and all that is in them, “and rested the seventh day. “Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day “and hallowed in it.” And the reason why I bring this out is just like you said. I feel like we have a couple of different groups of people. Now, I remember thinking of you when I was writing this part of the curriculum in the book because you grew up on a farm and ranch, and, you know, there’s just a lot to do. And so you do do chores seven days a week but-

 

  Yeah, you know, Jesus was criticized for healing people on the Sabbath.

 

  That’s right.

 

  And he said, “Don’t you guys take your donkey and your cow “and lead them away to water?” “And shouldn’t this woman, who’s a daughter of Abraham, “be healed on the Sabbath day?” That’s in Luke 13. So, you know, there are things that we have to do, but we do need to establish boundaries in our life. And I remember John Hagee said this years ago, and this was a great piece of advice that says, “Six days shall you work, “and the seventh day shall you rest.” He said, “That means some of you need to speed up, “and some of you need to slow down.” And most of my life, I’ve been on the slow down side of that because there’s always so much that I see that needs done. But I have learned to take regular times of rest. And the children of Israel actually took holidays, holy days, right, where they celebrated different aspects of their covenant with God. And I believe it’s scriptural for us to take regular times of rest so that we can be refreshed. I love the example that our son Aaron uses many times of Chick-fil-A, and they work six days, and they take one day off. And they make more money than almost anybody that’s working seven days.

 

  Amen. That’s great. And the Bible talks about that, doesn’t it?

 

  Yes.

 

  Mm hmm, and so, again, I have this in here because I don’t like to see people get burnout or get fried up, and, you know, there’s some people who would work 8 days or 10 days a week if there was that many days in the week. Then you got some people who want to maybe work just two or three days a week but get full pay, and they expect it, and they don’t really give. And so you kind of have the two different groups and, you know, the Bible brings it all together. You know, it is important to take time to rest and time for your family, and I was, you know, again, this book is “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” I wanted to make sure families knew you have to take time for your children. You know, as far as being in full-time ministry, you know, there’s always sin, and because there’s always sin, there’s people that make bad decisions. There’s people that are always in emergency situation. And those emergency situations, a lot of times, I’m not talking about medical ones, I’m talking about spiritual problems that they made years of bad decisions, and then, you know, we had someone email us, I remember one time on December 24th, “Oh, we need you because, you know, “we’re gonna get a major divorce,” and I thought, “You know, it’s Christmas Eve,” and we had, you know, young children at that time, and then, what was so interesting, once Christmas was over, they’re like, “Oh, we’re fine now.” And my point is, you have to, even when you’re in full-time ministry, you have to unplug, and you have to unplug the phone, and there has to be other people that people can call because you have to have that time with your family, with your spouse, and with your family. And so you can’t be on 24/7. Nobody can.

 

  Well, you have time with God too. And I’ll tell you, ministry starts with your time with God.

 

  And that’s in the book too.

 

  Yeah, when you study the word ministry in the Bible, it actually talks about ministering to the Lord twice as much as it does ministering to one another in the body of Christ. And then it talks about ministering to one another in the body of Christ twice as much as it talks about ministering to the world. And that’s how ministry should be done. Number one, it starts with your ministry to the Lord. Number two, it continues through ministering to one another in the body of Christ. A good avenue to experience that is the local church, and then it should go to the world. And I’m telling you why a lot of people get burned out is because they’re go, go, go to the world, and they don’t keep, first of all, ministering to the Lord and, secondly, ministering to one another. And Dr. Sumrall said, “Burnout? What’s wrong with you?” And you know what? I believe if you minister to the Lord first, and you minister to one another in the body of Christ and bring that strength from your relationship with God to one another in your family and in the body of Christ, you’ll be strong to go to the world, and you won’t have to experience burnout.

 

  So it’s important to have some boundaries and some perimeters there; priorities. But I like what it says in Psalm 23. Of course, a lot of us are familiar with this. I know when I was growing up, we were all encouraged to learn Psalm 23, and it says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” But “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; “He leads me beside the still waters.” You know, God knows that we need time to restore and

 

  Rejuvenate.

 

  rejuvenate. And so I like how it says He causes me. You know, this is such an amazing illustration, isn’t it, of just absolute peace.

 

  Amen. It says in the next verse, verse 3, “He restores my soul; “and He leads me in paths of righteousness “for His name’s sake.” Barbara, I think you have some of this in another translation.

 

  I do. So again, this is Psalm 23:3. In “The Message,” it says “True to your word, you let me catch my breath “and send me in the right direction.”

 

  Amen.

 

  Isn’t that neat?

 

  Praise God. Verse 4 says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley “of the shadow of death, “I will fear no evil; “For You are with me; “Your rod and Your staff comfort me.” The valley of the shadow of death was a literal place in Israel. When you go from Jerusalem down to Jericho, the Bible talks about the parable of the Good Samaritan. And there’s a creek like that’s cut down through the rock, and it’s so dark in there that there are places that the sun never shines. And thieves would hide in there because people would have to go down if they were going from Jerusalem to Jericho to take their flocks to water, so on and so forth, and the thieves would wait, and they would rob them. And so that is called the valley of the shadow of death. There’s a lot of places today. I mean, there’s a place we shop that people in our church say, “I won’t go there.” But, you know, there’s a lot of different things, but we never fear when we go over there. We do use some wisdom. But he says, “I will fear no evil; For You are with me; “Your rod and Your staff comfort me.” “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies “and anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me “All the days of my life; “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So, thank God we have these promises of rest and restoration. And we need a foundation, not only of the Word of God, we need a foundation of basic principles that, you know what, we take time to rest, to rejuvenate, we take time to minister to the Lord and minister to one another in the body of Christ. And then we’ll be built up to go to the world.

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, we’re gonna be back right after this break, and we’re gonna be teaching more on foundations that we need to lay in our life to have strong families. So stay tuned. 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. We had the blizzard of a century, and I had over 3,000 cattle scattered around the country. Most of them were in Lamar, Colorado. But what God told me to do, he said, “You need to look at what you have and not what you lost.” And. as I did that, God brought me completely out of that. Friend, I’m so glad that you stayed with us, and we’ve been teaching on foundations, and yesterday, at the broadcast, we talked about the foundation of the Word of God. Of course, I think that’s the most important foundation that every believer needs in their life. But the second one we talked about in the first half of this broadcast was this foundation of rest and work, and you need to have the proper balance. You know, I was privileged that I had a dad that taught me how to work and instilled in me a strong work ethic. And that has blessed me and helped me, but it’s also, I’ve instilled that in our children, and it’s blessed them and helped them. And I believe this is something that really needs to be taught. We taught about the rest side. We didn’t teach very much about the the work side, but, you know, you talked a little bit about it, but we got people that want to work, you know, 10 hours a week and get paid for 30 or work 15 hours a week and get paid, you know, 40 hours a week. And it’s just a tragedy. You know, I was taught, “Man, you do a good job, you give them extra,” you know. Never, you know, I remember when I worked at Dr. Lester Sumrall’s, and I was going to full-time Bible school at night every night of the week; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thursday we actually had church and bible school combined at the same time. I worked 40 hours a week, plus I would always show up early, and I would always get there a half hour early, generally every day. And I volunteered at church on Sunday morning and Sunday night. And Thursday night while I was at Bible school, I was volunteering at church. And, you know what, the only time we really had for ourselves was on Saturday. And part of that time we were writing. You were helping me write term papers for the classes. But I remember people standing in line for 20 minutes before five o’clock to clock out. They just couldn’t wait to leave. They were lazy. That’s terrible, but they were. And, you know, that’s a tragic thing that you just can’t wait to… If you’re like that, maybe you need to go find a place where you can be excited to go to work. And you know what? It’s just a tragedy. We need to be productive people. And I would, you know, I would be walking through there working, but I would go early. I would stay after, you know, noon a little bit. I’d clock out, you know, run home, eat lunch, get back 15, 20 minutes early, work till after 5:00 PM, and get out, clock out, you know, go home, you know, eat something really quick and go back to Bible school. And, you know what? We were blessed. It wasn’t always easy. I made minimum wage. You know, and people like this, and people that don’t give. I made between $4 and $4.25 an hour. We tithed first. You know what? Then we paid our rent. Then we paid our utilities. Then we bought gas for our car so I could go to work. And then we bought groceries. And you know what? We didn’t have everything that other people thought you should have, so on and so forth, but we made it.

 

  Well, I like what you said. You know, your father was really the one who taught you a strong work ethic. My father was the same. My father would not let us sleep in. You know, he believed in, that we all needed to get up, and so, you know, that’s something we really taught our children too is to have a strong work ethic, and, you know, that really sets you apart. When you go to look for jobs or, you know, businesses really notice that. I just noticed with all three of our children, just the fact that they had a strong work ethic made them very hirable. And I remember, I don’t know if this is the best example, but it’s what comes to me with our youngest son. He had graduated from college. He took a job that he was excited about, but he entered in in a management training position. And so with that position, he had to work in their, you know, fast food restaurants, and then I know there was a time he was actually driving. There was an important test they were all supposed to take, and he was driving in the state of Florida, and there had been a lot of moisture, a lot of rain. He actually had a wreck on the way. It was early. He had had a wreck on the highway,

 

  I mean, he totaled his car. It mashed in both sides. It flipped around. It hydroplaned. It smashed into one side of a cement barrier, flipped around backwards, smashed the other side of the car, ripped three of the wheels completely off. The other wheel, it ripped the tire off of it. Totally basically destroyed the car, and this was 6:00 AM in Florida when he was going to work. And Peter called us at 4:00 AM, and I heard the phone ring, and I thought, “I need to answer that.” And I got up and answered, and it was Peter. And I said, “Well, are you all right?” And he said, “Well, yeah, I’m okay.” And I said, “Well, can you get out?” He said, “Well, let me see.” And you know, the thing is, he got out of there. I called the guy then. The guy hadn’t got in the shower yet. He bought Peter’s car sight unseen. I told him what it was. It was a Mercedes-Benz. And thank God that thing was built like a tank.

 

  It protected him.

 

  You know, and it protected him, and God protected him. “The angels of the Lord encamp around about us.” We taught our children this and spoke a about it from Psalm 91 and different scriptures. But, you know, he went and picked Peter and the car up, took Peter, it was close to the airport, and I said, “Hey, can you take him over there to rent a car?” He did. Took the car back to the junkyard. We sent the title out to him. He gave Peter the money. And then, you know, by that night, you know, I had found Peter a Chevy Impala. It was about two years old. It was the cheapest one in the nation. I bought it, it was a home run deal, from a dealer. It was in perfect condition. But actually Peter bought it himself, and he got the financing on. Had the money to pay cash, but he got the financing on it, so on and so forth. And I remember we bought that thing for $9,900. And I told that guy, “Listen, this is my son. “If you treat him right, God’ll treat you right.” And they wouldn’t first finance him, but I got financing here locally, and then like three banks wanted to finance him there, and Peter was taken care of. But, Peter, you know, that day that guy took him to the airport to rent a car. He rented a car. He went to work at that Burger King. And then he went and took this test, and his bosses were so amazed. They said, “Peter, you don’t have to do this.” But he did it, and you know, it set him apart. And Peter was working for 3G Capital, and he still works for 3G Capital, and they own a number of companies. But that set him so far apart, at the end of the year, they said, “Peter, you are the number one new hire out of 50 people.” And when 3G took over his corporation, they fired 800 out of 1,000 people. And Peter was in the second group of 50 people. And then, within another year, he was put in management and sent to Tim Hortons coffee in Canada where his boss became the CFO. And Peter has had supernatural favor, supernatural blessing. Of course he believed this, and he spoke it. And, you know what he got? Exactly what he believed.

 

  Well, you know, we’re talking about work and rest and understanding that. And that was just an example we used that, you know, even his boss was like, “You didn’t have to come to work.” But, not only that, something else that sets you apart is when you get along with those you work with.

 

  Yes!

 

  And so, all of our children, we had them take a foreign language. They all took Spanish. And so, again, Peter began working after college in the Miami area where just about everybody does not speak English. Whether you go to CVS store or whatever, people speak a form of Spanish. And so, part of his management job was to work in these restaurants and work during the night or early in the morning hours, and they would have other men and women from other countries who would also be in this management. I know one was from another-

 

  India.

 

  India, and Peter could speak the language, and he didn’t say anything the first day. He just showed up at work. But then, by the second day, because a lot of them were Cuban, a lot of them spoke, or he said would yell, Spanish, so the second day he began to speak in Spanish, and that one of them yelled to all the other employees in Spanish, “The redhead speak Spanish!”

 

  I guess they were saying different things.

 

  And so, and then I know they would complain about the other person from India, and Peter would always just say, “Oh, they’re saying they like ya. But, you know-

 

  Sometimes they don’t need to know everything.

 

  Yeah, but I know, you know, when they’d come through the drive-through, Peter, whether he worked at the counter or the drive-through, they said, “We didn’t have problems. We didn’t have complaints,” ’cause he knew how to show up and work that would bring peace to the whole situation. But what was funny, is when people would come through the drive-through and see who he was, that, you know-

 

  He was a white redheaded kid, and he was speaking Spanish with perfect Cuban accent, and they would be shocked. And he didn’t learn it like that, but he’s sharp, and he picked it up really quickly.

 

  He picked up their accent. So they, “Where did you learn this? So, you know, the Lord helps us, and, again, we’re showing people how to have work and rest. But I want to go on. We have just enough time. You know, he gives us wisdom. We just talked about our son, how he had wisdom, how to work in the workplace, get along with people of all different nationalities, whether they were from India or Cuban. You know, he really respected everybody there, and they could see that. He respected all their personal stories about how they came there to work and was really interested. So God gives us wisdom.

 

  You know, the 3G Capital Corporation, the 25th richest man, last time I checked it out, in the world, owns it. He’s worth $29 billion the last time I looked. But he personally ate dinner with Peter. But he sent one of his top managers over all 3G Capital to meet with Peter. And he told Peter, “Peter, if you keep your work ethic, “and if you keep your ability to work well “with all kinds of different personalities, “you’re gonna do really well.” And Peter has done well. Our son Andrew is somewhat the same. And, you know, Andrew works, he’s an engineer, but he’s also very good with people, and he’s part owner of his company. But he was the vice president. Recently, they fired the two people over him, and then they put Andrew over the whole office because he could not only do really good at engineering, he can manage people, and then Andrew rehired one of them that they let go because the person he thought really needed that job and was a good engineer. But it’s not only your knowledge. It’s your ability to work with people. And you know, the Bible says, Barbara’s talking about how God gives wisdom, and we have Solomon as example, and Solomon prayed for God to give him wisdom to do what he was called to do. Proverbs says, “Get wisdom and get understanding “with all you’re getting.” And you know what? God will give you wisdom. God will give you wisdom to do your job. God will give you wisdom to work with other people. God will give you wisdom in finances. God will give you wisdom to raise your family. God will give you wisdom on the gifts and the callings of God and your children and how to develop them. And, you know, we’re trying to supplement that with this information that we’ve made available, but, you know, God gives wisdom.

 

  Amen. We have just enough time to read James 1:5. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, “who gives to all liberally and without reproach, “and it will be given to him.” So, no matter what you are going through, we can ask God for wisdom, and he will give it to us in whatever situation we need it most. And he’ll give it to us liberally.

 

  Amen. God will help you. Praise God. You know, today we’re almost out of time, but I want to encourage you about a couple things. Number one, if you’re in the Colorado Springs area on a Sunday or almost every Wednesday night, we would love to have you at Charis Christian Center. So check that out. Secondly, if you’re not in the area, you can watch us on the website or YouTube or Facebook, or you can also download hundreds of hours of teachings. All the teachings we’ve taught this week are now on the website, and you can listen to them, and they’re free of charge. And we make this available to bless and help you. Thank 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 want to 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.

 

  Friends, we don’t want to leave this broadcast without giving you the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that he died for my sins, and I believe that you raised him from the dead and made him Lord. I surrender my life to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

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