Imparting Success to the Next Generation – Part 2 Lawson and Barbara Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’re with us today. You know what? A lot of times, we are what we think. The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. We’re gonna be teaching from my wife Barbara’s brand new book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation,” and we’re gonna talk specifically about developing an overcomer mentality. God bless you as you receive the word of God today. So glad you’re here with us today. We are actually sharing from Barbara’s first lesson in her brand new book, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation,” about raising the next generation. And yesterday, we talked about it’s the Lord that builds the house and we need to instill faith. We believe faith is not only taught, but faith is caught. And we talked about Timothy, his grandmother, his mother, and then he had that same faith. But you wanna talk today about that we are not of this world. We wanna teach our children, we are not of this world.

 

  You know, again, this book is a lot about raising children, about family, but this book is for anyone, whether you’re single, married, or whomever. These are Godly principles we all need in our lives, and God wants us to have a great life, even now. Not when we get to heaven, but you know now. And so one thing, honey, you just brought out, the next point we wanted to bring out in today’s lesson is teaching our children and understanding yourself that we are not of this world. Do you know when our children were only four and five, I taught them these things. I believe I even read them the scripture we’re gonna read together, John 17:14-19, but I can remember taking Aaron, again when he was four and five years old, and reading this to him, so they understand that even Jesus said, “The world hated me, so don’t be surprised if it hates you.” We’re also gonna bring out in this lesson when someone is rejecting you, ultimately, they’re rejecting God, and they don’t like the Jesus in you.

 

  Right.

 

  And so this is powerful because a lot of times, again, people don’t understand this and they just fall apart and you don’t wanna fall apart when someone doesn’t like you, and this is in red letter. Again, this is John 17:14-19. These are the words of Jesus and this is what I passed down to our children when they were four and five. The sooner you understand this, the better it will be. But it says, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they’re not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” Verse 15, “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.” A lot of times, Christians want to shelter in, and we’re supposed to go and make a difference. We’re supposed to be a light and a salt, we’ll talk about that, but-

 

  Now, let’s stop right there and just talk a minute. You know, I’ve talked to some of my close friends that are ministry leaders, so on and so forth, and I think we have this tendency, when we see sin in the world, it creates fear. But we don’t wanna raise our children out of fear. We wanna raise ’em with faith. And so there’s different things that are the right thing for different people. For instance, we threatened our kids with homeschool. Of course, Aaron says today that the challenges that his nine year old is dealing with in school are greater than challenges he dealt with even in high school. Now, when Aaron was in high school, he said, “Dad, you could get drugs, you could get sex, you could get alcohol, you can get in witchcraft, or you can serve Jesus.” And he was just saying, “Ultimately, I’ve made a decision to follow Jesus.” But you cannot protect your children from temptation. We are in a world that has been affected by sin and by satan and there will come a day in your house, or out of your house, that they are going to be tempted. And so I believe it’s better for you to be able to help them through that and talk them through that while they’re living in your house, rather than just try to protect them from all that, and then they go out in the world and it’s like being eaten by wolves.

 

  Again, I really appreciate we brought this out in the first date. I appreciate my mother, who is really the one who took the time to talk to me. You really talked to our sons and keeping a a conversation open that if they have questions or concerns or have these temptations, they can come and talk to you about it.

 

  Right.

 

  But again, in verse 15, it says, “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world.” And I’m not saying, we really watch over our children, we encourage them to bring their friends to our home. If we didn’t know who their friends were or didn’t know who the parents were, we didn’t send them to people’s homes that we didn’t have any relationship with. You know, I’ve heard crazy things. In other words, when our children took jobs outside our home, we were aware of where they worked. We didn’t have ’em go work at a bar or something stupid like that. And I’m not trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings, I’m not talking about being ignorant, but we’re really imparting our children with the truth. And again, it’s so important for all of us to have the truth. And Jesus is saying here, “I’m not praying that you take ’em outta the world,” but I love this, “but you should keep them from the evil one.” We don’t have to fall for those deceptions and the deceive and train wrecking the call of of God on your life.

 

  Right. And you don’t have to just, greater is He that’s in you than He that’s in the world. There is sin in the world, there is evil in the world, and it’s ever more prevalent.

 

  But I like it how it says, “Greater is He that’s in the world than  Greater is He that’s in us.”

 

  “Greater is He that’s in you.” So teach them who they are in Christ. The light is stronger than the darkness. Jesus is the light of the world, and in Him was life and the life was the light of men, and it shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. That’s in John chapter one. So the light of God, when we came in this room today, this room has no windows, no outside source of light, we did not curse the darkness, we turned on the light. When you turn on the light, the light overpowers the darkness. And so many Christians are focused on the darkness rather than being focused, like Jesus is the light of the world. He’s the life of God. And when you focus on the good things of God, guess what? The things of the world are no match for that.

 

  Amen. And it goes on to say, “They’re not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.” We’re talking about the word of God.

 

  It’s the word of God that separates us from the world. We’re set apart from the world through the truth of the word of God. Again, we didn’t try to teach all the lies of the world and why they were wrong. We just taught the truth of the word. Because the word, the truth, is stronger than a lie.

 

  Amen. I like how it goes on in verse 18 and says, “As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” And then we’re gonna wrap it up here. “And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” But I like how it says, “I’ve been sent in the world and I’ve also sent them into the world.” And again, we really raised our children, and I believe it for us, and again, everyone watching this, that we are the overcomers. We’re to make the difference.

 

  Right. Yeah, we’re the one that sets the standard, so on and so forth, and not the world. So thank God we live by that. And we don’t have to fear. We don’t have to live in fear. Again, God did not give us a spirit of fear. We shared about this yesterday from 2 Timothy 1:5-7, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. And that’s what he’s talking about when he says, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.” We got a sound mind. We have a mind that is well instructed and corrected in the word of God. And one of the first things that we taught our children, which we’ll get in probably in tomorrow’s lesson, is number one, you love the word of God and you let the word of God set the standard for truth in your life. When we’re not of this world, you have some other scriptures, Barbara, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 13.

 

  Well, this is really talking about those who lived with faith. And again, Hebrews 11 verse 13, it says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off were assured to them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” This is what we taught our children too. We’re of a different kingdom.

 

  Amen.

 

  They strongly believe that they were pilgrims on this earth. In other words, this isn’t our forever home. But while we’re here, we’re here to make a big difference and shine the light and bring as many people to Jesus that we can. And I know it was our oldest son when he was in college and studying music, studying business, and then music, a lot of times, he would take as many students as he could to church. And some of these students that he went to college with had never even been to church.

 

  Right.

 

  And then when he was interning, and again, studying to be a flute professor, part of what he had to do was teach classes. He had some classes that he had to teach and it was so awesome that he did this in Houston, Texas, at Rice University. He would do some teaching in a weeks on, what did he call it like?

 

  Practical life training.

 

  Practical.

 

  And he would talk about a relationship with God, he would talk about time management, he would talk about financial management. He said this when he was in college, probably, when he was a junior or a senior in just standard college, he said, “Dad, most musicians are poor managers of their time. They’re poor managers of their money, and they’re poor people. I’ve decided,” again, we taught ’em about decisions, “I’ve decided that I’m gonna be a good manager of my time, I’m gonna be a good manager of my money, and I’m gonna be a millionaire.” And you know, he’s 36 now, and he already is a millionaire. So, praise God. The kids are blessed because of the way they think and what they believe. See, what we believe determines what we receive. And the word of God, see the truth of the word of God, believing the truth of the word of God literally has the power to change your life and change what you receive in life.

 

  Well, I thought it was really amazing that when he taught this class, all the students said that was their favorite part. This was supposed to be teaching about music, and they all said that was their favorite part of the class. No one had ever taught them the simple truths about God, having a relationship with him.

 

  Aaron had like 20 some students in this class, and he would take ’em out to Chuy’s, it’s a Mexican restaurant in Houston, that’s one of the original ones, it is great food. He would take ’em all out and pay for their dinner. He personally, you know, Aaron developed an online business while he was in college and he was making a six-figure income while going full-time college with his online business. He’d take ’em all out, they’d bring friends, he’d have 20 or 30 students. He’d buy whatever they wanted to eat, and he’d pay. And you know, they’d just loved it. And he said, most of his musician counterparts, they ended college with a lot of debt. They didn’t even have enough money to own a car or have gas or anything. He had his own car. He was blessed because he believed.

 

  God makes a difference, and I like, something that I just caught when you were saying, and this is what I really believe, and I believe why these students who weren’t raised in Christian homes loved him, loved him teaching on that because I believe people see the power of God in our life. They see that something is different and it is attractive. They want it. And so we’re talking about not of this world. Do we have time to go on or do we need to take a break?

 

  We’ll take a break in about a minute. So, praise God. Actually, we could just go ahead and take that break right now. So we’ll take a break and we’ll be right back after this, and continue to talk about how we’re in the world, but we’re not of this world. Blessings. Hey everyone. I’ve just finished reading the final script for my wife Barbara’s book on “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” It’s a fantastic tried and proven thing that Barbara has proved in our lives on how we can teach our children to succeed. Andrew Wommack wrote the forward, you don’t wanna miss it, you’ll be blessed. Thanks so much.

 

  I started having sharp pains in my left knee, and they just gradually became more irritated. Sunday night, Jesse Duplantis was at church. I started thinking, “I need Jesse to pray for me tonight.” He walked down the aisle and he stopped in front of me, and he said, “Can I pray for you?” He prayed for me. When I got up, I started working my leg. The pain was gone. It was gone.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’re right here continuing to share on raising the next generation, and we’ve been talking about how we’re in the world, but we’re not out of the world.

 

  And these are things we taught our children when they were as young as four and five years old. And then there’s something else. We’re teaching from the New Testament, but I wanna bring something very powerful out in the Old Testament that was so encouraging to me, because especially as a Christian, that’s a message of good news and it can be shocking sometimes when people don’t like you for sharing good news. There’s something, again, very encouraging in 1 Samuel that I saw that God was communicating to Samuel. So again, this is when Israel, this is 1 Samuel 8, we’re just gonna look at verse seven, but this is when Israel demands a king. And it wasn’t really God’s plan, but they wanted what they wanted. Sometimes people are carnal minded, not spiritual minded.

 

  It’s like Samson, “Get her for me for she pleases me well.” It’s all about me.

 

  Well, sometimes, people really think they’re spiritual when they’re really just being carnal, and that’s what’s happening. Samuel was a prophet at this time. And it says again, this is 1 Samuel 8:7, “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.'” And this is important information to have. We have brought out what Jesus said, “You’re not of the world, the world’s gonna hate you,” and then here, God is telling Samuel, the fact that they’re demanding something, they wanna be like everybody else. You know, we taught our kids, don’t be like everybody else, be different, be a light. But here again at this time, Israel wanted to be like everyone else. And God has this personal conversation with Samuel. They’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting me ultimately.

 

  And so that’s powerful. You taught our children. There’s people in the world, they make choices, we make choices. We choose to follow God or we choose not to, and we need to know the word of God, so we can know what is following God and what isn’t because it’s the word of God that really makes the difference. But you have another scripture that you wanted to share right along those lines.

 

  Yeah, and then we better get on to Matthew so we get through our lesson today. But I like it, goes on. If you skip down to verse 19, it says, “Nevertheless, the people refuse to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, ‘No, but we will have a king over us.'” And again, it just says it in here that the Lord says they’re rejecting me, not you. They were, demanding their own way. And so that’s just good to know that you don’t need to take a personal rejection just because somebody doesn’t like the God in you or the Jesus in you or the good news that you’re sharing that you can live in Heaven forever with a loving God.

 

  Amen. So we’re in the world, but we’re not of the world, but the world doesn’t have to overcome us. In Matthew 5 beginning in verse 13, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is from then on, good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven.”

 

  Yeah, I wanna bring something out. I believe you remember this too. We had a president years ago by the name of President Ronald Reagan. And he used to quote this scripture. he really quoted that we are to be a city on a hill, and he is really talking about America.

 

  Yes.

 

  Being a city on a hill and setting a precedent for what a nation looks like when it believes in God and put our trust in Him, hallelujah.

 

  Yes, and so we are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Jesus said, “I’m the light of the world,” in John 8:12, “But he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” But then He goes on and says, “You are the light of the world.” So we need to let our light shine. And guess what? Light is, again, light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger than death. The truth is stronger than a lie. Love is stronger than hatred. And so we just need to keep letting the light shine. We need to keep following the truth of the word of God and keep letting the life of God empower us.

 

  Amen. I like that, and I like what it says in verse 15. They don’t take a lamp and put it under a basket. You know, in other words, we’re gonna give light out, we’re gonna go public with this, it says in another translation. And I’m just gonna share an interesting story. I’ve shared this before, but during the pandemic when fear was just being pumped daily and it really had serious negative effects on people-

 

  It was terrible.

 

  I would continue to walk outside every day like I always had, and it was just interesting. There’s people always out walking their dogs. And there was one day, I don’t know, I was quite a ways away. I was going down the center of our neighborhood and there was a woman with her dog, and the dog saw me, stopped, wouldn’t move, and looked at me and kept barking. It was the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen. And as I got closer and just greeted her and started talking to her, the dog just sat there and quit barking. It’s like the dog knew something. And so what was interesting as I was talking to this woman and just things opened up, she did tell me, after talking to her about 10 or 15 minutes, she’s like, “Thank you so much, I feel so much better.” I find it so interesting that we are a light. And the light is seen from far off, even when you’re walking in a neighborhood and someone is in a dark place. And even if God has to use the dog, ’cause she said, “My dog would not move till you got here.” I just thought that was interesting.

 

  That dog knew that she needed to speak to you. That’s amazing how animals are. You know, your last point here on raising the next generations. First is let the Lord build the house. Number two is instill faith. Number three, we’re not of this world. But the last one is we need to develop and overcome our mentality. And I love your first scripture on this 1 John 4:4, it says, “This greater is He that’s in you than He that’s in the world.” This is what we’ve been saying. John is written, and he’s talking about, there is a spirit of antichrist, but he said you have the spirit of truth. You have the life of God, you have the anointing, and because you have that, you don’t have to fear. That’s in 1 John 2. This spirit of antichrist that’s in the world. You have the truth, you have the love, you have the life, you have the anointing of God. Then in 1 John, later, that’s the last part of 1 John 2. Right before that, he says, “Love not the world for all that’s in the world is lust, lust of the flesh, lust of eye, pride of life.” Many churches just focus on that. But they don’t focus on verse 12 through verse 14 of 1 John 2 that says we are forgiven, we have a vital relationship with God, we have the word of God, we have the greater one in dwelling us, and we’ve already overcome the wicked one. There’s five things in 1 John 2:12-14 and if you realize you already have those, you are forgiven, you have a relationship with God, you are strong, the word of God dwells in you and you have overcome the wicked one, if you realize that, guess what? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life is no match for you. That’s the same thing Jesus was tempted with. That’s the same thing Adam and Eve were tempted with in the garden. Satan doesn’t really have any new tricks. But he just brings them in a different way. But see, it’s the same thing. And as you go through 1 John, he’s talking about you have the love of God. And then 1 John 4, he’s like there is a spirit of antichrist in the world, but you don’t have to fear it because greater is He that’s in you than He that’s in this world. So we have the greater one living in us.

 

  And I just have a special word for parents, it’s detrimental to teach your children, or to tell them that they’re victims. That is detrimental.

 

  It’s terrible.

 

  It’s terrible, it’s stops them, again, from really walking and reaching all the amazing plans that God has for ’em. If you’re just too busy sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. We have some extended family, a couple of young men who are in their 20s who we love them dearly, and neither one of them are working because their mother, I’m just gonna be honest, their mother just told them since they were little that they were victims and these children were smart, they were funny, and-

 

  And this mentality has been just pervading our nation, and it is terrible. So we want a victor’s mentality, an overcomer mentality. You have another scripture, Barbara, on that.

 

  Yes, I love this in 2 Corinthians 2:14. “Now thanks be to God who always,” say that, “always say that leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” Another translation puts it this way, “Praise be to God who makes us strong, He makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of Him. He makes my life a constant pageant of triumph in Christ.”

 

  Amen. Yeah. And then we wanna share this last scripture before talking about an overcomer’s mentality. And this is something that I got a hold of when we were really young in the ministry, probably when I was 23, 24 years old. But Psalm 112 and Psalm 112:1-4, it says this, and I actually prayed this for months, it really helped me change my thinking, you know? And I think I started really praying this, Psalm 1:12 and then Psalm 1:15, and Deuteronomy 28, it was 1998, so I would’ve been 34 years old when that happened. But it revolutionized our life. But in Psalm 112, it says, “Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty on the earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in His house and His righteousness endures forever. To the upright, there arises light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous.” That’s a blessed mentality. And if you go to Psalm 115 and read those scriptures, it says in Psalm one 115:9 on down through verse 15, I’m gonna actually read the verse 11 through verse 15. It says, “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is your help and shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them who fear Him, small and great. The Lord will increase you more and more. You and your children, you are blessed of the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” And when you get a blessed mentality, rather than a victim mentality, an overcomer mentality, you are gonna move into the things that God has prepared for you from the foundation of this world.

 

  Amen. Having a blessed mentality. Not a lack mentality. That’s another thing. Our children remember this too. Every time we came to the table in the kitchen, whether it was breakfast or dinner, we never focused on lack, but we focused on how God was an abundant, good God.

 

  Amen. You know, the world is fear-based. Just like, again, you talked about the pandemic. They were like, “We’re gonna run out.” You know, we went to the grocery store. People had their carts loaded. We went and got a few bananas, a head of lettuce, a couple apples. We went out. People are like, “You’re not from here.” Listen, there is more than enough provision in this earth for the people of this earth, as long as it’s here. Genesis 8:22 says, “As long as the Earth remains, seed, time, and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter shall not cease.” There’s provision for us, the people on the earth. God made it for us as long as we’re here. So we don’t have to live in fear, we can have a overcomer mentality. We’re not of this world. We can instill faith in our children and let God build our house. Barbara shared just a few words.

 

  Well, praise the Lord. Again, it’s not about fear, it’s about love. It’s about putting our trust in God, and He will always give us wisdom in any area of life that we need wisdom. James tells us this, that we can ask for wisdom, and he’ll give it to us liberally. So we just wanna encourage you with that today.

 

  Praise God. And I wanna remind you, we’re teaching. We’re just in lesson number one, ultimately, “Imparting Success to the Next Generation.” This is Barbara’s brand new book that’s come out. It’s got a forward by Andrew Wommack, A great note by Cathy Duplantis. But these are practical principles that we use that have brought blessing in our life. You can get this on amazon.com, on charischristiancenter.com, or you can buy it here physically at the church. Thank you so much for coming and being on the broadcast today. Blessings.

 

  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, 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.

 

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