I want to start off with a current event that illustrates what Legacy is not. You’ve all probably heard how some movie stars were recently caught bribing people at certain prestigious colleges to get their kids admitted into those colleges. This is a big scandal. These rich movie stars were trying to smooth out the road for their kids to get into college. That is totally the wrong lesson or legacy to leave for their kids. Instead, of smoothing out the road for their kids, they should have been preparing their kids for the road. My working definition of Legacy is, preparing our kids for the road ahead of them.
In this Legacy series, we’re learning how to leave something valuable for our kids. Obviously, this is really pertinent to us as fathers, but even if you’re not a dad, you're going to leave a legacy to someone, whether you want to or not. We want to leave a good, solid, positive legacy for our children. Not just in a material or physical sense, although we do want our kids to be healthy, prosperous, well behaved, good citizens. But it's more than that. We want you, our sons (and our daughters as well) to know the LORD; to follow Him and love Him with all your heart. That's our desire. With that in mind, I'm going to talk through some practical, "matter of fact" things, but my hope is that God the Holy Spirit would make these ideas sink deeper, into your hearts, your souls, and your spirits. Only the Holy Spirit reveals truth so can we know it and experience it. Hopefully He'll use this to deepen our walk and our relationship with Him. When I heard the word Legacy was the theme of this series, my first thought was "father Abraham". So I want to take a few key experiences from his life and use them as illustrations; lessons for us.
#1 Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
God commands Abram (remember, his birth name was Abram), to move away from his country and his family. ouch. Moving away from your country and your family hurts; I can attest to that first hand. I think it did a couple things for Abram. Since it hurt, it taught Abram that obeying God would be painful and costly. And it taught Abram that he'd have to rely entirely on God, not on his family. Then, God promised to bless Abram, make his name great and that he would be a blessing to those who bless him. This is all about the fact that the Messiah (the Savior) was to come from Abram’s family line. That's a big deal. The lesson for us is that the Christian life is not easy; there will be pain; it will be costly. Think about our savior; it cost Jesus His life. We know that salvation is a free gift, but the Christian life will cost us our very life, Matthew 16:24 says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. My point is that a lasting, valuable legacy will be painful and costly.
#2 Genesis 12:7-8 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent [with] Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
Abram "calls on the name of the LORD". He understood the need to call out to God. He understood the need for sacrifice… We’ll have to make some sacrifices to point our kids to God. Sacrifices as in time; as in desires…. let’s put our kids ahead ourselves. There are lots of ways you can make this a reality, but one aspect of this is don’t leave your kids spiritual formation up to Sunday school. Just bringing your kids to church is a good start, but it isn’t good enough. One thing we can do is open the Bible and read it to our kids. Besides the fact there are some great stories in there, it will stimulate questions and responsibility to what you've learned together. My point here is one of priorities; we need to put our kids faith in God ahead of satisfying our own desires and goals. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other needs/wants/desires will be met. Get started, it’s never too late.
#3 Genesis 15:1-6 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." 2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
God is our shield, and so are you to your kids. We’re protective of our kids lives, hearts, minds. There's a very fine line though, between being protective and being overprotective and overbearing. Being protective is instinctual; God made us that way, but the best thing we can do is foster our kids walk with the LORD, so that He'd be their shield. God is our exceedingly great reward. How much more could we ask for? God Himself is our reward. He is life itself. He is everything that's good. He owns everything and He’s generous. He’s infinite, He has all wisdom and knowledge and He makes that available to us. He’s the best thing we have going for us and He has our best interests at heart. He is truly our exceedingly great reward. God made the promise to Abram that he would have a son (an heir) and Abram believed God and God counted Abram’s faith as righteousness. We all, I’m sure have seen that God is faithful to keep His promises to us, we need to show our kids how God has come through for us over and over again.
#4 Genesis 17:5-15 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 9 And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 "This [is] My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 "and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 "He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 "He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 "And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." 15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah [shall be] her name.
Two things of note in this section: name change and skin removal. First, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham. Notice the insertion of the h. The sound of the h is the breath sound. Put your hand in front of your mouth and make the ‘H’ sound. I believe this is looking forward to the Holy Spirit, “The breath of God”, being inserted into the lives of believers. I believe this is a foreshadowing, a word picture pointing ahead to when God would insert His spirit into the lives of believers. In other words, being “born-again”. I know Abraham was not born again. He didn't have the Holy Spirit like we do as Christians. The Holy Spirit was not given into the hearts and lives of Christians until 50 days after the resurrection; on the day of Pentecost. Here's the deal, I want to ask you a question; you don't have to answer to me, and you don't have to answer out loud, but I want you to think about this question and answer to yourself: Do you know that you know that you’ve been born again? Can you point to a time in your life when there was a noticeable change in your life. Where you were changed from going away from God to going toward God. I time where you can say, you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior and God came into your life? Where you turned away from following your own desires, and turned to follow God? If not, please come talk to me afterward.
Next, Abraham got circumcised. Woe right there Keith. This is a sensitive subject. Ok, I know, but I’m going to go there, so stay with me. We are all men here, right? Fathers and sons should be able to talk about anything right? Let me just preface this with the understanding that God’s command of circumcision was for the Jews (the Israelites). It isn’t something commanded to Christians per se, but many of us, I don’t know who, and I’m not going to check, but many of us are circumcised, in honor of this commandment. So, for those of you young enough not to know what circumcision is, it is a minor surgery performed on baby boys (according to the Bible, it’s supposed to be done on the eighth day after birth). It is a minor surgery where they remove some extra skin we have around our penis. This commandment of circumcision to Abraham was supposed to signify that a man was in the family of the Hebrews (or to be a member of the Jewish people). But, Romans chapter 2 tells us what circumcision means to us: Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit. This actually isn’t new to the New Testament though, Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. So physical circumcision is supposed to point to a deeper, inward, spiritual circumcision of the heart. With physical circumcision, from the time a baby is circumcised, he bears that mark. He’s changed, but it isn’t something others would normally see. So too, you and I (if we’ve been born-again), we bear the mark of Christ himself in our hearts and in our lives. We're changed on the inside. Just like with physical circumcision, that little bit of skin is removed, or rolled away, when hearts are circumcised, our old fleshly life is removed and we are different. John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and [they] are life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. And it’s a change that keeps on working in our lives. Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So, circumcision signifies the rolling away of the flesh, and trusting in God by the spirit. Galatians 6:7-8 says Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. So, for any real, substantial, meaningful Legacy, you and I as father’s need to lead our sons and daughters, from belief, to faith, to a spiritual, life changing walk with God. Without that; well nothing else really matters.
Last point from Abraham’s life
#5 Genesis 22:1-2 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only [son] Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
What God? I can’t be reading this right. Well, you know the story, Abraham took Isaac and wood for the fire up on mount Moriah, and as Abraham lifted the knife, God stopped Abraham from killing Isaac, and God provided a Ram stuck in the thicket for an offering. That story is about Abraham’s obedience, and God’s provision of the substitute.
Let’s think about this story in terms of Abraham and Isaac’s father-son relationship. I think I can safely read into the story that Isaac was absolutely precious to Abraham. Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham for a son to be his heir. Come back to the here and now, If I try to put myself in Abraham’s shoes, and someone came up to me and told me that I’m supposed to kill my son, I’d know it wasn’t God. How’s that you say? Abraham was completely unique in all of history. He'd already received a promise from God, not only that he’d have a son, but that his son would have children of his own. So for God to keep His promise, Abraham surmised that God would raise Isaac from the dead. We learn this from Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten [son], 18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," 19 concluding that God [was] able to raise [him] up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. This is some difficult stuff. But Jesus echos this same concept, in Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. I’d say being willing to kill your son is like hate. Yet, Jesus is not telling us to hate our family members. What He is saying though is compared to our love for God, every other love should be as if it were hate. Even our love for our kids, which is arguably about the strongest love you can have for someone, should seem like “hate” compared to our love for God. With that kind of relationship with God to be able to pass down a successful, positive legacy to our kids.
That is really the crux, of what I wanted to share, but as a postscript let me say a few things about my dad, and a few things about my sons.
When I think back about the upbringing my mom and dad gave me, I am blown away by what model parents I had in so many ways. My dad was always very involved in my life. I think this is key, my dad was very involved in my life; from family vacations, family picnics, to taking me fishing, to motorcycle riding, to sports from a very early age. My dad was always there for me; playing catch, coaching me, cheering me on. When it came to school, he was very willing to help me with my homework. When it came to my spirit, I count my dad on the short list of people who pointed me toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. I remember going to Sunday school from a very young age, and I went to private Christian schools from preschool through my first year of High School. But more than that, he prayed for me. When I was straying from God, and living a very sinful life, he was praying for me. He kept encouraging me, why don’t you go to youth group at that church down the street.
Now, a story about my youngest son, and then a couple of things I remember doing with my sons, when they were young… My youngest son Daniel, was my little shadow when he was young. If I had tool in my hand, he was there asking questions. If I was working on my computer, he had to be sitting on my lap, even frustratingly if it was way past his bedtime. Here’s a story that cracks me up about Daniel at his baby dedication. Picture this; Pastor Steve was holding Daniel, the whole family was up on the stage, and I was standing next to the pastor. We all bow our heads, Pastor Steve starts praying, and Daniel begins to squirm, and reach for me. As Pastor Steve is praying, Daniel starts for fuss, squirm, and reaches for me, and just about jumps out of Pastor Steve’s arms. Without skipping a beat, Pastor Steve hands Daniel over to me, and the whole comotion was over.
But as my boys were growing up, I tried to do things like read to my sons. We read the Bible, we read christian fiction, we read all kinds of books together. When the boys were old enough to sit still at the dinner table, we started reading though the Bible after dinner every night. So I guess, all that to say, keep the lines of communication open. Overall to pass a lasting, meaningful, positive Legacy to your children, prepare them for the road ahead by being involved in their life, focusing on their hearts and spirits.
