In My Generation | Legacy matters

The Dash

• The dash = your life
• What happens during “THE DASH” is…

LEGACY

• What you leave behind
• Impact
• Mistakes

Current Series

IN MY GENERATION

Asking this question

• What do we want to see God do in OUR GENERATION?

Today we are going to talk about Family

The family is:

• The backbone of civilization
• Ordained by God from the beginning

Broken families can leave a legacy of PAIN for generations

• A Righteous family can leave a legacy of BLESSINGS for generation

The story of the bible is a story about a family

• God works through families and legacy

Today’s question is:

How does God want to work IN and THROUGH my family?

A Transitional Character:

• A person who, in a single generation, changes the entire course of a lineage.

The changes might be for good or ill, but the most noteworthy examples are those individuals who grow up in an abusive, emotionally destructive environment and who somehow find a way to metabolize the poison and refuse to pass it on to their children. They break the mold. They refute the observation that abused children become abusive parents, that the children of alcoholics become alcoholic adults, that ‘the sins of the fathers are visited upon the heads of children to the third and fourth generation.’ Their contribution to humanity is to filter the destructiveness out of their own lineage so that the generations downstream will have a supportive foundation upon which to build productive lives. ~ Marriage and Family Scholar Carlfred Broderick

Being a Transitional Character means…

• Either pass what you’ve been handed
• Or Give something new altogether

Generational Sins

• Usually, generationally learned patterns of thought and behavior
• Your kids see what you do and copy

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
This verse is true for both positive learning… Or Negative…

Let’s look at a story that shows what this can look like

CONTEXT:

Israel had a string of wicked kings

• They did not follow in the steps of David/Solomon

Sins included

• Idol worship
• Cult prostitution
• Child sacrifice
• A host of other social injustices

Our story is about 3 different generations

Grandfather: Abidjan

Father: Asa

Son: Jehoshaphat

Grandfather King Abidjan

1 Kings 15:3

3 Abijam walked in all the sins his father before him had committed, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God as his ancestor David had been.
Father King Asa

2 Chronicles 14

2 Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God. 3 He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles. 4 He told the people of Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands. 5 He also removed the high places and the shrines[a] from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him.

2 Chronicles 15

16 King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

Grandson King Jehoshaphat

2 Chronicles 17

3 Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of his ancestor David He did not seek the Baals 4 but sought the God of his father and walked by his commands, not according to the practices of Israel. 5 So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand. Then all Judah brought him tribute, and he had riches and honor in abundance.

Asa was a TRANSITIONAL CHARACTER in his family

• He changed the course of his family
• He changed the course of his city

2 Ways to be a Transitional Character in your family

1: Recognize what You’ve Been handed

In your life, this may look like:

• Patterns
• Mistakes
• Family history
• It might be good or bad

King Asa recognized what his father had been

• Evil in the Lord’s sight

He could have complained about it

• But it wouldn’t change who his father had been or what he did

So if Asa wanted to SEE change, he had to BE the change in his family

It’s the same in your life…

• Some of you have been handed blessings – CELEBRATE that
• Some of you have been handed brokenness – CHANGE That

This is really important to understand…

Don’t assume or pretend that you have been handed something you haven’t

• It’s not fair
• It’s not right
• But IT IS WHAT IT IS

Here’s the good news

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THAT!

Here is the good news as Christ’s followers…

2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

What God has made new in you can be used to make new in everything around you
So first, Recognize what you’ve been handed

Leads to…

2: Start what must be started – End what must be ended

Sacred Cow:

Anything that is untouchable or unchangeable

Whether you know it or not, you may have “SACRED COWS” in your life handed from your family

Could be:

• Habits
• Thought patterns
• Emotional issues
• Preprogrammed Responses
• Patterns of Sin

After recognizing it (1st step)

Don’t make peace with it; destroy it
King Asa removed His GRANDMOTHER and DESTROYED her idol

• He broke the family pattern
• He fully destroyed it so future generations wouldn’t look to it

Example:

Alcohol

• Don’t drink
• Don’t have it in your home

Proverbs 3

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

7 Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

8 This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest;

10 then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline;

12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

What we’ve been talking about is YOUR legacy

• Will you keep it going
• Will you change it

I believe that God wants to move powerfully in your family

• To change direction
• To heal and restore
• To forgive and move past

Ask God for not just wisdom to know what needs to be done, but COURAGE TO DO what needs to be done.