Fearless – Part 5 Lawson and Barbara Perdue

  Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today. What a joy, what a pleasure. We are sharing today on my wife Barbara’s teaching. She is with me here today, “Fearless,” and we’re gonna be talking about answering the call, fulfilling the destiny that God has for your life. So stay tuned, you’re gonna be blessed in this broadcast. We appreciate you, and tell your friends about the broadcast, blessings. Friends, it’s so good to have you here today, and I’m so glad to have Barbara, and we’ve been sharing all week on your teaching, “Fearless.” And praise God, you know, so many people in the world today, just get caught up in fear. And we’ve been teaching this with a bent, you know, somewhat towards raising our children and towards being involved in the workplace and education, different aspects of that today. And you just don’t wanna let fear, be your primary motivation. It will paralyze you, and it will keep you from doing what God wants you to do, being what God wants you to be. You know, this is one of my peeves financially, is a lot of these people in the church just preach fear that economy’s gonna crash, the dollar’s gonna crash, everything’s gonna go to hell in a hand basket. You know, they’ve been saying this since 1971, and I have a guy who used to be an economist that comes to our church, and he taught economy in Kansas University before he came here. And now, they travel the world and teach on marriage. They’re strong believers. But he said, “Literally, there is a new book written about this. Every year, you could take the cover off the old one and just put a new cover on it.” And it’s the same kind of fear, and you know what, it just paralyzes the church, and the world is getting rich, while the church is going broke. And it’s because the church, many times, has let fear motivate them rather than faith. And I understand there’s bad things in the world, but we don’t have to live in fear.

 

  Something else that you brought in on another broadcast a day or so ago, I like what you said about your father because you were out in the agriculture era growing up and the dry land area, but you know, how your father planted a lot of rows of trees and do a lot of work on the farm and ranch and you’d be saying, you know, like you said, a lot of prophets or a lot of people are always talking about how the world’s gonna crumble. And we do know that there Jesus is coming back. We do know this world is gonna end when Jesus comes back. But in the meantime, what are we supposed to be doing in the meantime? We don’t live in fear, but your father told you, “Son, the word says, ‘Occupy till I come.'”

 

  Yeah.

 

  In other words, we are gonna live in victory till Jesus comes.

 

  Amen. I know my dad, his favorite scripture was, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” But I say his second favorite was, “Occupy till I come.”

 

  Amen.

 

  I said, “Dad, Jesus gonna come back. What do we do?” He said, “Son, the Bible says, ‘Occupy till I come, get to work.'” And I know I had our oldest granddaughter out in the backyard, and I had her with the hose, she was wanting to play with the water. So I had her watering a tree.

 

  This was a–

 

  And my dad had me water trees.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you took a picture of it, and sent it to the boys, and Peter, our youngest son, starting them young, ’cause I had all our boys do little tasks, you know, not that they all liked, but it’s good for them.

 

  Well, this was a number of years ago, when she was a little bit younger, probably, just two or three years old. But you know, I took a picture, and she just had this big old smile on her face. I believe everybody feels better, when they’re doing something.

 

  When they’re productive.

 

  Productive. Everybody feels better. And so what we’re talking about today, yesterday, we talked about nurturing or fanning the flame, nurturing the gift and anointing in our children or even in our own life, nurturing those gifts. We never quit learning.

 

  Amen.

 

  We haven’t stopped learning, but we need to keep fanning that flame, nurturing those gifts. And we’ve been using Moses as the person in the Bible we’ve been talking about. Today, we’re gonna finish this up, this broadcast this week, with something very powerful. And this point is answer the call. You know, God has something amazing for all of us to do, but we have to choose to answer that call–

 

  Amen.

 

  That he has on our life. And God has called us all to really show people the truth and the light.

 

  Amen.

 

  And so, we’re gonna look at Exodus 3:4, and it says, “So, when the Lord saw that he turned,” in other words, “When the Lord saw that Moses turned to look at this bush burning but not being consumed, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses.’ And he said, ‘Here am I.'” Do you wanna read verses seven through 10? Are you there?

 

  Yeah, I’ll read that, but I wanna talk about something while we’re getting there.

 

  Okay.

 

  And that is this, I wanna talk about God has called us all to do something, but most people don’t realize. This is Exodus chapter three. Moses was 80 years old when this happened, and he was 40 years old when he left Egypt, right? He had 40 years–

 

  Good point.

 

  Right, in the flesh being trained in Pharaoh’s house, being raised as Pharaoh’s grandson under Pharaoh’s daughter, being trained in all the ways of Egyptians. So, that was really 40 years in the flesh. And then he had 40 years, he was on the backside of the desert, after he killed this Egyptian. He knew that he was called by God, but he tried to do it and he got in the flesh, right? And then he was in the wilderness for 40 years before he saw this bush on fire. And so he was being trained in his soul. There was nobody that was better equipped to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness than Moses. 40 years developing his soul. And then he had 40 years in the spirit, leading the children of Israel. And a lot of times, people think, “Well, if God’s called you to do something, you just step right out, you just begin.” But you know what, where you’re going to is more important than where you came from. And it takes time to develop the call of God. For instance, Paul the apostle was called to be an apostle from his mother’s womb. But it wasn’t until Acts chapter nine that he got born again. And immediately, he began to go out and begin to teach and different things. But it wasn’t until Acts chapter 13, a few years later, that he was sent forth into the ministry of an apostle. It took time to develop the calling, the gifting, the anointing that was on the inside of him. And whatever you’re called to do, whatever your gift is, it takes time to develop that. And a lot of times, people just don’t realize that it takes time. You need certain aspects to be able to step into certain fields. We, in the church world, we want our kids to be leaders in business. We want them to be leaders, you know, attorneys and doctors and teachers and all. But it takes an education, it takes development, it takes certain things. And if you don’t have those certain qualifications, you’re not gonna be able to do something that you’re not equipped to do. So we saw not only the value of educating our children spiritually, right? We saw the value of educating them right in the soul so they could do what God called them to do. And we saw the value of teaching them the value of work and physical things. We saw the value of sports, of music, of education, of all these things along with the value of being in the church, the value of being in the word, a value of developing godly relationships. And all these things are important. You’re not just a spirit.

 

  Preparation is really important, I like that. And there’s so many–

 

  And you want me to read from Exodus chapter three–

 

  Seven through 10. But I like what you brought out, there are a lot of times we’ve all brought this out because our society, with microwaves, we’re all used to things happening instant within seconds.

 

  Right.

 

  But there is a time of preparation, and that you wanna have a strong foundation.

 

  Right.

 

  God wants us. You know, God wants us to be able to fulfill that call on our life. And I like, you used Moses as the example, that because of what he did out there with the livestock taking care of that, he knew where every water hole was. But you know, as he was called to lead the children to freedom, you know, he really had a lot of preparation. But then, we’re really talking about today that we have to choose to answer the call. We have to choose to answer what the Lord has for us to do.

 

  Amen. You know, God’s not gonna make you do it. So we’ll turn here to Exodus 3:7. And the Lord said, “I’ve surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows.” You know, God knows your pain.

 

  Oh amen.

 

  God knows your difficulty. “And I’m come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians to bring them out of the land to a good land, land that flows with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel has come up to me, and I’ve seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, ‘Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?'” You know, somebody’s watching me today, and you feel like that you’re being oppressed in the place where you are. And I wanna tell you that God hears your cry, God knows you. But if you’ll do a good job, and if you’ll do your job as unto the Lord, if God doesn’t promote you in that place where you’re at, God will open not only one door, God will open multiple doors for you of opportunity for you. But do not leave where you’re at prematurely. That’s a word from God for somebody today.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know what? If you’ll just keep your heart right and do a good job where you’re at, God’s gonna open not only one door, but God’s gonna open multiple doors of opportunity, and God sees where you’re at, he knows where you’re at and God knows how to get you where He wants you to go.

 

  Amen, that’s a good word. So you just read here in Exodus three, and I have something underlined, and I think everyone watching right now needs to underline this in your Bible. But verse 10, it says, “Come now therefore,” the Lord’s talking to Moses, “And I will send you.” I have that underlined, “I will send you.” A lot of whether it’s in the natural or even things spiritual or in ministry, when God calls us to do something, it affects others.

 

  Right.

 

  It affects other people. And a lot of times, in the Bible, when we look at these stories like Moses, like Noah, it’s leading people. Moses is leading people to freedom it. The Lord always wants to set people free.

 

  Right.

 

  Like you just mentioned, “He hears our cries, He has compassion for us.” But again, a lot of times when we answer the call, it’s gonna affect others as well.

 

  Yes, and you know, it’s not about you. You know, if you study the life of Elijah, and you can see this in 1 Kings chapter 17. God told Elijah to go to the brook Cherith, and Elijah said, “There’s gonna be a famine in the land.” And Elijah went to the brook Cherith, and the ravens brought him bread and flesh every day, and he drank of the brook. But after a period of time, God called Elijah and He said, “Listen, I want you to leave Cherith, and I want you to go to Zarephath.” And really Cherith was more about Elijah, but when he went to Zarephath, He said, “Because I have commanded a widow woman to feed you there.” And you know what, when he got to Zarephath, he found this woman and she said, “I just have a little bit of meal in a barrel. I just have a little bit of oil in a jar. I’m gonna go make two cakes, one for me, and one for my son, and we’re gonna eat them and then we’re gonna die.” Now, that doesn’t seem like she was a woman of faith. Jesus, in Luke chapter four, calls her a woman of faith essentially.

 

  Well, and then, you just brought out that the Lord said, “I have commanded a widow woman to take care of you there.” And can you imagine he goes there, ’cause a lot of times, people feel like if there’s any negative circumstances or any challenges that they missed God.

 

  Right, right.

 

  And this would be a perfect opportunity for this person to say, “I must have missed God because here’s this woman, she’s planning on dying, and the Lord saying that, ‘You know, this is my connection.'” But was to really, so God could really even show this woman who he was–

 

  Right.

 

  And how he could show up, again, our lives, and when we answer the call and obey the Lord, it affects other people around us.

 

  Right, and so when we think about this, it is so important. And you know, again, Cherith was about Elijah, but Zarephath was about this widow woman. And Elijah told this widow woman, he said, “Listen, if you will feed me first,” can you imagine the audacity of this prophet? “If you not only make a cake for you and your son, but you make one for me too,” for he said, “I tell you what, that barrel of meal will not waste. And that jar of oil will not fail, until God sends rain in Israel.” And you know what, she fed him first. Praise God, if you will give to God first, if you’ll give to God first, the Bible says, “Honor the Lord with the first fruits of your increase.” And he says, “And your substance and your barns will be filled with plenty, and your presses will burst out with new wine if you will honor God first.” There’s something about what you do first, first time, every time you get paid, first time, every day with the word of God, first time, every week, do you honor God? And do you go to church?

 

  Well, another thing I wanna bring out ’cause we’ve seen it over and over, the difference of someone who looks to God as their source, and not to man.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know, this woman, just things that the prophet shared with her, I think, really encouraged her. You know, God has to show up or we’re toast anyway. But I like that really what I see here, this woman, something changed in her where she’s like, “You know what, I’m gonna look to God as my source and He’s gonna come through for me.” A lot of times people miss it when they feel called to do something, but they’re really looking to people to provide for them and then they miss it.

 

  Yeah, and you know what? God is a good God. He is a merciful God, and He cares about our needs. And you know, we’re gonna take a short break, we’re gonna be back right after this, and we’re gonna talk more about answering the call, about doing what God called you to do. But I want you to realize this is a process, and if you do what God’s called you to do today, I believe God will get you where He wants you to go tomorrow. If you’ll be faithful today in what God’s called you to do, and the basic things, God will get you where He wants you to go. So stay tuned, we’re gonna be right back after this break and you don’t want to miss it, 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. We had the blizzard of a century, and I had over 3000 cattle scattered around the country. Most of them were in the Mar, 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. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about answering the call.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know what, fulfilling the God-given destiny. God has a destiny for every one of us. But you know what? It’s a process. We didn’t get where we’re at overnight. You know, it’s a process. It’s taken us a long time to get where we’re at. And God has been really good to us. We’re very, very grateful.

 

  Amen.

 

  We’re very thankful. Hey, this is another thing. I think, we need to be thankful, and this is an attitude that we need to possess it. It will help us get where God wants us to go and do what God wants us to do. And if we don’t really learn how to be thankful, it’s gonna hinder us ultimately moving into what God has for us.

 

  Didn’t you used to say, “Your attitude will affect your altitude?”

 

  Yeah, that’s a saying we have. I’m a private pilot, and I haven’t flown for years, but I’ve got a couple 100 hours and used to own my own plane and different things before we went into ministry, actually sold this plane so that we could go into ministry. But your attitude, you know, if you’ve stick a nose up on a plane, it’s gonna go up. If you put the nose down, it’s gonna go down. And that’s just how it follows a nose.

 

  Wow.

 

  And so you pick your head up, put a smile on your face, you get a good attitude, and it’ll help you. Some people wonder why they’re not getting promoted, and they go around badmouthing, complaining, whining. It’s really an epidemic. And if you wanna go forward in life, you gotta learn to be happy, and be thankful. I have one rule for my employees at Charis Christian Center, and that is, you have to be happy if you can’t be happy. I love Renee Peterson, she’s the head of our TV, and you know what? She is always laughing, she’s always happy, she’s always smiling. And it is just a great attitude to have. It’ll help you get where God wants you to go.

 

  Amen.

 

  Amen. Go ahead and share this scripture in Matthew chapter five that you got, Barbara, it’s awesome. It fits right in with this.

 

  Yeah, I really love this, and maybe you’re familiar with it too, but again, we’re gonna be reading Matthew 5:13-16 because honey, a lot of times, people may have that unction or feel called to something, whether it’s in full-time ministry or working with the ministry or just in their community. And they may be saying, “Well, I don’t really know what it is yet.” But the Bible clearly tells us what all of us are supposed to be doing right now today, who we are. And it says, “You are the salt of the earth.” This is in red, this is Jesus talking. I love it. “But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

 

  Amen, you know, we need to be a witness and a testimony to those around us. And not only is what we do a testimony, our attitude is a testimony. And so we need to keep a good attitude. And you know what? We need to keep doing what Jesus said to do.

 

  Well, and I wanna bring something out. We’ve shared this before, and it’s happened to us more than once. When we first moved here, we lived in a Southwest location, and it was a number of years, I believe several years, five years after we lived there, there was a super nice gentleman who lived across the street, and his son showed up one day and rang our doorbell. And all three of his sons were grown and and married. But this son said, “God pointed to you, God moved you here for my father.”

 

  Yeah. “To witness to him.” He said, “My dad doesn’t let us talk about God, does not let us talk about a number of things.” But he’s like, “But he will talk to you.

 

  Yeah.

 

  This gentleman also had cattle. You grew up with that agriculture experience, so that was kind of the common denominator.

 

  No, this man, his name was Ken, he was a great man. He was actually a colonel in the Air Force, and he ran the air base at Detroit in Kansas City, and in Hawaii during his military career. And he was in the military, he joined the military right at the beginning. He got outta college, he’s going to college to be an engineer, I believe, got outta college when World War II was starting. And so he got in the military, and he got sent overseas. He flew over 200 missions, and came back alive. He sank a Japanese tanker during one of his missions. And he was credited with that. And really, he was a great man. He had three sons. His wife was Catholic. He didn’t really claim to have faith in God, but he was a good man. And you know, his middle son got born again, had his doctorate degree, was the head of Dr. James Dobson’s School of the Ministry. And his son actually came and told me, “My dad hates preachers, but he loves you. And my dad sent you,” he said, “To talk to my dad.”

 

  God sent you to my dad.

 

  Yeah. And I would go and talk to him, you know, and we would visit about cows and we’d visit about business and investments, and this man gave me some great investment things, some that I’d do to this day, and just gave me some great advice really. And he said, “You know, my dad really did these things.” But he said, “He doesn’t like preachers as a whole, but he loves you, and God sent you.” And you know, I led my neighbor, Ken, to Jesus on his deathbed. He had a small surgery and went into a coma. And I actually went in the hospital where they had left him to die in St. Francis here in Colorado Springs. And he’d been in this coma for close to four weeks. And I walked in and he came outta the coma, and started talking to me. And I said, “Ken, do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Do you believe that God raised him from the dead and made him Lord?” He said, “Yes.” Hallelujah, and I believe that I’m gonna see Ken in heaven.

 

  I like that. You know, we’re talking about answering the call. We’re all called to lead people to the light, to the truth, to freedom.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know, the Lord led you, during a kind of an economic downturn to invest in another home, which meant we moved to another property, another, you know, fixer up her property. And I made cookies. It was the first Christmas we were there, and I did some baking, and I said, “You know, go visit the neighbors,” and you visit again another neighbor.

 

  Right.

 

  And it was one of their family. They had a brother there, I believe, but one of their family talked to you and said, “God moved you here next door to save my family.” It’s happened again.

 

  Yeah, this neighbor actually said, “I hate preachers.” The men’s group helped me move to our current location across town. And you know, I went over there to talk to this guy, and they said, “Oh, he hates preachers,” but he loves me. And his wife, and he got married, this is a miracle, ’cause when I first went and saw him, he said, “It’s girlfriend, not wife.” I mean, he was rough around the edges, and they recently got married.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And she came to church Sunday, praise God, and her son, who’s 22, and her son said, “This was a great lesson,” and his wife just loved being here. And you know what, we have just reached out to them and respond to them in love. And you know, people respond to the love of God.

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know what? God has called us wherever we’re at, whoever’s our neighbor, God has called us to let our light shine. And you know what, this neighbor, his name is Billy, I love him. He was raised Catholic. They called him Bad Billy. And you know, religion destroys people, but God came to save them. Jesus came to save them and help them and heal them. Praise God, and I’m so glad that Billy got married.

 

  Amen.

 

  Praise God. I’m gonna go over there in the future. I was gonna go over yesterday without a bunch of people over. And so, I’m gonna go over there. I’ve went over there a bunch of times, and sometimes under less than the best conditions, but just been a light and–

 

  Praise God again, we’re all called to witness Jesus–

 

  Amen.

 

  Whether you’re a full-time minister or not, we’re all called. And I just wanna encourage you with this, we’ve got just a couple more things to share while we in this broadcast, but this is something I raised our sons with this knowledge. You’ve recently taught on this, but this is John 17:15. It says, “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.” We don’t need to live in this world, live in this time afraid, but I believe that we are to be involved.

 

  Amen.

 

  And even with neighbors, be open to witness like, and the Bible talks about that another translation. Open up your lives–

 

  Amen.

 

  Be hospitable.

 

  Praise God.

 

  Open up your lives so people can see God.

 

  And the way that He does it, the way God separates us from the world, we can’t share any anymore scriptures. But the way that we do it, the way God does it is, He separates us from the world through His word.

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, it’s Friday, and so our ministry team is not at the office today, but you can go on our website at charischristiancenter.com. You can get this teaching that we’ve been teaching all week on “Fearless.” You can get Barbara’s other teaching on “Faith That Is Taught & Caught.” And then Barbara, you have a brand new book that’s coming out. What’s your book entitled?

 

  Well, I’m really excited about this, “Imparting Success To The Next Generation.”

 

  And we talk about a lot of these principles. This is an awesome book, and it’s been a long time being developed. We also have “Kids Curriculum,” and we’re making it available absolutely free of charge. I’ve been paying over $900 a year for a subscription to a service to get a curriculum that’s not that good. So we just developed our own, and we’re making it free, because a family made a donation to help us with this. We’re making available free on the internet downloadable. You can use it on the mission field, you can use it in churches, you can use it in your homeschool groups, you can use it in your Bible studies. You can use it in your classes. You can use this anywhere, praise God, for your children’s church, for your Sunday school, praise God. Get it, it’s free. Go to our website, if you’d like to become a partner and help us with this, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you and God bless you. Have an awesome day, 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.”