How to Build a Godly Legacy

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♪ Oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I feel it, I'll praise when I don't ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause I know, you're still in control ♪ ♪ My praise is a whim, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ My praise is a shout, that brings Jericho down ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I walk in light, my God is alive, how could I keep it inside ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Isn't he worthy, hey ♪ ♪ See how could I keep it inside, come on ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign, praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you, say ♪ ♪ Praise cause you're sovereign, praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise cause you're sovereign, praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Sing I won't be quiet, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Sing I won't be quiet, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside? ♪ ♪ Sing praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪

Come on, put your hands together. He is worthy. No one like you, God. Hallelujah. Let's continue to sing together. Come on, church. Come on, church. You are worthy, God. You are worthy, God. Yeah. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ What You gave ♪ ♪ Is there another way You took upon Himself ♪ ♪ All our guilt and shame hanging on a cross ♪ ♪ For the world's healed with His blissing grace ♪ ♪ It's just that once more we'll just live tonight ♪ ♪ We crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God ♪ ♪ We crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God ♪ ♪ We crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out You are worthy God ♪ ♪ To the one who endured all the shame of the cross ♪ ♪ To the Lamb who was slain as it's all made for us ♪ ♪ To the Son, come on ♪ ♪ We sing for the stripes, for the scars, for the wounds ♪ ♪ For the tears, for the love that was lost ♪ ♪ And for the mercy, for wonderful love ♪

♪ The pure love, we praise Your name ♪ ♪ To the one who endured all the shame of the cross ♪ ♪ To the Lamb who was slain as it's all made for us ♪ ♪ To the Son who overcame all the pain of the cross ♪ ♪ We praise, we praise, we praise Your name ♪ ♪ For the stripes, for the wounds, for the beating heart ♪ ♪ For the tears, for the love that was really made for us ♪ ♪ For the mercy, for wonderful majesty, the pure love ♪ ♪ We crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ We crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, we crown You, we fall face down ♪ ♪ We worship, we all cry out, You are worthy, You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ We crown, we fall face down, we worship, we all cry out ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God, You are worthy God ♪ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ♪ My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength.

Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing. Power and majesty praise to the King. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you. Come on, let's sing that again. My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing. Power and majesty praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas we'll roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have. Nothing compares to the promise I have. Nothing compares to the promise I have. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you. In the darkness we were waiting, without hope, without light. Till from heaven you came running, there was mercy in your eyes. To fulfill the law and prophets, to a virgin came the Word. From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt. Let's sing in church, come on. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Lord. ♪ Is there spirit free in the wild ♪ ♪ Our God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ Praise forever to our King of kings ♪ ♪ To reveal the kingdom coming ♪ ♪ And to reconcile the lost ♪ ♪ To redeem the whole creation ♪

♪ You did not despise the cross ♪ ♪ For even when you're suffering ♪ ♪ You sought to the other side ♪ ♪ Knowing this was our salvation ♪ ♪ Jesus for our sake you died ♪ ♪ We praise you Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ Oh God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ All praise is forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ And the morning that you rose ♪ ♪ All of heaven held its breath ♪ ♪ Till that stone was moved for good ♪ ♪ For the Lamb had conquered deadness ♪ ♪ And the dead rose from their tombs ♪ ♪ And the angels stood in awe ♪ ♪ For the souls of all could call ♪ ♪ Unto our Father be restored, come on ♪ ♪ And the church of Christ was born ♪ ♪ And His people in the rain ♪ ♪ Now this gospel spring, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ It shall not kneel, it shall not faint ♪ ♪ For by His blood and in His name ♪ ♪ It is freedom, I am free ♪ ♪ For the love of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Who was ransurrected me ♪ ♪ And that's your spirit too, come on ♪ ♪ Everyone, we praise, praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ Oh God, all-loving, all-trusting ♪

♪ A praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ Oh God, all-loving, all-trusting ♪ ♪ A praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ A praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ A praise forever to the King of kings ♪ Hallelujah! Scripture would talk about how we as the people of God are never to forsake gathering together. It's on a morning like this morning, as I look across this room and see many people who have been here their whole life, people who have raised their children in this place, people who have lost beloved ones, and I'm encouraged by the unity, by the power of seeing the people of God weaken and weak out, come together, and be reminded through song of the truth of who God is. You see, church, that's what worship is. Whether you're in a good season or a hard season, a season of pain, a season of sorrow, or a season of joy, we as the people of God get to remind ourself that God reigns, that he is Lord of all, and in spite of what we see, we get to worship him in this place. If you're grateful for the love of God, would you lift your voice in this place? Would you just take a moment to give him praise, to thank him?

Be honored, be praised, be honored, be praised, praise King Jesus for being ever-present, for being ever-faithful, Lord, we thank you. We love you and we say thank you. Thank you for your love forevermore. Thank you for being ever present in our time of need. Thank you for being close to the brokenhearted. Lord, thank you for being the God who was and is and is to come. And Lord, we know that we are being saved and will be saved one day. In you, Lord, we give our life. In Jesus' mighty name, everybody said, amen. Amen, one more time, I think the Lord is due. Shout unto the Lord, all the earth. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, hallelujah. Why don't you do this as we continue this morning. Greet those who are seated next to you. Keep things moving. Good morning, Church on the Move. How are we doing? I mean, I like when Micah gets fired up, don't you? Wow, good reminder for us today. Man, can we just do this? Can we just show our appreciation to the singers, the band? Yeah, we don't do that very often, but I know the prayerful preparation that they put in week in and week out to lead us in worship. Man, that's awesome. My name's Lee, I'm up here with Cameron.

Hello, everyone. Cameron, how you doing? Hot. It's hot outside. It's hot outside. Summer is here. And you wore a sweater and I wore two layers. I know, but here's why. And if you know, you know, it's cold in here, right? And I'm not complaining. I am not complaining. I like how cold it is in here. But hey, we just wanna say welcome. We've got a couple things to share. Cameron is a part of our Kids on the Move team. We've got some updates for Next Gen that we wanna share. But before we do that, just two really quick things. If you're new, it's your first time here, we love having new people. Just text the word new to 23101. We're gonna send you a gift card to Fulfilled Coffee Lab out here in our lobby. They got great coffee, some good pastries. Go get something on us. It's also a way for us to send you an invite to a monthly lunch that we do called The Next Move. It's a great first step if you're new around here because Pastor Witt talks a little bit about who we are, what we believe. And we get a chance to meet you,

maybe help you get connected into community or using your gifts to serve within the church. And so I hope you'll take us up on this. Maybe you texted new a long time ago and you're just now starting to say, hey, let's get more involved. You can text the word next to 23101 just to get connected to Next Move early June. So I hope that you will do that with us. Well, if you're a parent in here and you were checking in your kids today, you might have noticed that we had these printouts with a map on them. And that's because next weekend is a really important weekend in the lives of parents. It's upgrade weekend. And that might mean that you have kids moving from one classroom to another or from a kid to a student or a student to an adult. And as a parent, that means you're maybe a little bit overwhelmed, if we're being honest. You're not quite sure sometimes what's coming or what to expect in this next season, but whether you're nervous or excited about this next season, just know that we as a church are here to partner with you. We believe that parents are the primary disciples of their kids, but we want to walk with you. We want to help you to do what the Bible says and to train up your children in the way that they should go

so that when they're old, they don't depart from it. And so we get to pastor them here on the weekends, but you guys get to pastor them for the rest of the week. And so whether you need resources from us like books that you or them should be reading or podcasts or just someone to talk to because you might have the feeling that like, why on earth is my kid acting like this right now? That's a real feeling, and if you felt it, you know. But we are here for you in that because we want to disciple these kids with you. We want to train up these children in the way that they should go. And I'm not just talking about me and the other kids pastors being here for you. We have tons of volunteers that serve and give their time each week to your kids. And they are so faithful and they are consistent and they are caring adults that love your kids and serve your kids week in and week out. And this has been like a really, really exciting season. I mean, like today we have about 200 more kids in our kids' classrooms than we did this time last year, which is crazy and awesome. Yeah, it's worth making some noise for. But that also means that we need some more consistent caring adults to help with caring for those extra 200 kids. So if that's something that at all interests you, I like kids, I think I could serve kids.

I wanna point kids to Jesus. If that's something you're interested in, here's what I want you to do. Just take out your phone right now, go to cotm.info and in that top scrolling part, just scroll over to the Serve With Us tab and then click that you're interested in serving in kids. This is by no means signing your life away. You're not saying by clicking that link that you're gonna die serving in kids ministry or anything. That's not the case. That's just you saying I am interested and it's the start of a conversation that we wanna have with you to see if that's something that might be a good fit for you because the next generation matters to God and the next generation matters to us and they need consistent caring adults, not just at home. but also in their church family. Right, and I know firsthand because I work closely with Cameron, Pastor Hannah, the kids team, the intentionality that our team takes for our kids. This is the DNA of our church. We believe in investing in the next generation. And so I hope you'll prayerfully consider being a part of that, being a caring voice in the lives of our kids. And kind of speaking of Upgrade Weekend,

you may have gotten one of these when you came in. If you've got a fifth grader going into the sixth grade, they're jumping into the 180 youth ministry for our 180 students. This summer, Uncommon Conference, it's one of the biggest things that we do. It's powerful for our middle school and high school students. Today is the last day for early bird registration. Starting tomorrow, it goes up $30. So make sure your kids or your grandkids have gotten registered for this. They are not going to want to miss it. We are so blessed at Church on the Move to have so many great Bible teachers. And Pastor Greg Scott is gonna be up here in just a second. Yeah, somebody said, woo, yeah. Pastor Greg Scott's gonna be up here in just a second. I can't wait for you to hear his message. But we got one more thing we do before Pastor Greg comes up. Yeah, something we do every single week in here is we take time to worship God with giving. So if you came prepared to give today, maybe for some reason you still have paper money in 2026, well, we've got envelopes in the seat backs in front of you that you can totally use. And there's Dropbox at the doors. But if all your money's numbers on a screen, like mine is, you can also just text the word give

to 23101, and it'll give you some prompts on how that you can do that. And if you need more information on what types of giving that we have in here, there's also a handout in the seat back in front of you that you can check on that. Well, Lee, why don't we pray and then get on to the next. Let's prepare our hearts to hear from the Word of God. Can we do that? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for another great morning for us just to worship and be together. But now we want to learn, we want to grow. We want to be equipped with the truth of your Word. And so I just pray for Pastor Greg as he brings what you've laid on his heart to share with us. I pray that it would be what we need to hear and that we would take it and apply it to our lives because it makes all the difference. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, give some love for Pastor Greg. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

How's everybody doing? I love this crowd. The 830 crowd, it's too early for me. Oh my goodness. It's good to see you guys. Hey, I wanna make sure we say a special welcome to all of our pastor, our churches that are in Dick Connor, Dr. Eddie Warrior, would you please welcome them to our service this morning? We love you. Thank you for being a part of our church. Listen, we're gonna talk, I'm gonna conclude this series on the life of Abraham. Pastor Witt asked me to speak on how to become a legacy person, a believer, somebody that passes something on to the next generation. I live with a lot of next gen people. I live around teenagers all the time and I'm around young adults all the time. As a matter of fact, I just got back from a trip to Disney World with 76 of them. And, oh yeah, yeah, I feel it. It's a, oh, they don't know that, but I sleep everywhere I can. So much fun. If you have your Bibles, go to Genesis chapter 18. We're gonna read two verses of scripture here to begin today and I'm so excited about this. This is so fun for me to get to do this with you guys. It'll be on the screen if you don't have your Bible.

This is Genesis chapter 18, verse 18 and 19. The Bible says this. Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great nation and mighty nation, all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him. For I know him, the Lord said, I know him. That he will command his children and his household after him. They shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. As the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken to him. This is the word of the Lord and we all said, thanks be to God. You know, one of the things about Abraham and his life, we are supposed to emulate this. Abraham is the father of our faith and we're supposed to be tracking with his life and doing some of the things he does. One of the things that I have, I personally have, I have a very strong gifting to be around teenagers and young adults, the next generation. Don't put me in a nursery, that's not a good idea, but hey, you put me with a teenager and we can go. I love them, they are one of the coolest. If you're a teenager in here or a young adult, I just want you to know, I love you so deeply. And I do, even if I don't know you personally, I would love to get to know you. I'll be out afterwards, you can come and say hi,

I don't care. You don't scare me, your life doesn't scare me, your mess doesn't scare me because I was one. Okay, so I can talk the lingo. I don't wear skinny jeans and I don't wear trucker hats, but I do have a heart for you, okay? I don't even have skinny jeans, just do Levi and Wrangler and we'll be fine. One of the things that Abraham did early, even before he had to deal with Isaac, told God that he cared about the next generation because of how he dealt with Lot. Lot's dad passed away. Abraham's brother, Haran was his name. He passed away, and Abraham took this kid under his wing and just said, hey, I need to leave this guy. As a matter of fact, he did it so much that he, when he got to the land, there was so much conflict, they got so blessed that they had to separate from one another, Abraham took the high road and went to him and said, hey, we don't need this conflict, so you pick whatever lands you wanna go to, and I'll go wherever you don't go to. But how many of you know, that should've been opposite? It should've been Abraham, Lot should've went, hey, I'll pick, but he didn't. But how many of you know, that's okay, because as older adults, how many of you know, we defer? Malachi 4, 6 says that God will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, then the hearts

of the children will return to the fathers. We go first, and if you wanna reach the next generation, you have to go first. You can't want to be first, you have to go first. And so, when he let him pick and he chose the land, and how many of you know, right after that, Lot got in trouble and got taken into captivity. Well, you know who came and delivered him? Abraham. If you're not careful, there's guys in here, you think, I don't wanna be like Abraham, because you know, he's passive, he's just doing sacrifice and things like that, you know. I mean, you know, he went and fought, bro. This dude got, I mean, let's get after it. He wasn't some sissy guy. The Bible's not full of sissy people. These are strong people. He went and fought and got him back. There's one time when two angels were gonna come and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was there, and you know what Abraham did? He interceded for him. I mean, you know, it's our job to intercede for the next generation. They make really dumb decisions sometimes, and we have to intercede for them. God wants you to step in. Step in the gap. Is it painful?

Yes. Do they make right decisions? No. Did you? Yeah, all right, thank you. It's amazing how much you judge the generation that you created. Yeah, we fuss about the iPhone, and we gave it to them. Listen, we need to be able to give our life away to the next generation like Abraham did. It's a calling that you have. It's not just on me. I know I have that calling on my life. It's not just a mandate on our church, although that's great. How many of you know the Bible says there's a seed of Abraham? It's on you as a person. No matter where you find yourself, there are the next generation around you, and you need to be leading them. We have responsibility. We'll talk about it here today. I got three things I wanna share with you, and I'll get done as fast as I can. First thing is, if you wanna become a person of legacy, here's one of the first things you're gonna have to do. You're gonna have to think in generations, not just in moments. We love moments.

There's nothing wrong with having moments. We take pictures. We live in the now, but God doesn't live in the now. He's thinking way past you. He cares about you, but he's trying to get things not just in you, but through you to another person. And it's our responsibility to do it. God's mandated us to do it. God uses words in scripture like descendants, households, nations, next generation to describe what he's actually building. And so you'll see it all through the scripture. But in an individualized culture that we live in, it is so easy to get yours and mine and forget the mandate of generational impact. It's so easy to go, hey, I'm building my, listen, I'm just living my dream. Whose dream? Whose is that? Be careful how you put you and my and mine in conversations about what God has done for you. Here's one thing I had to understand. I've done this. I can't tell you how many times I have taken responsibility for things that God done. But how many of you know, if you take responsibility for it, you have to take the blame for it? Don't take credit for things God's doing. God has a calling on our life and we have things that we're doing.

Don't be living your dream. We don't live your dream. We live the one God gave us. Because if he takes it away and it doesn't exist anymore, how many of you know all you got is you? Let God do something in your life. It's a cool thing to watch God do something in your life and not call it yours. But we live in a world that we love to do this because we think we made our dreams come true and you didn't. You know what? Be so gifted at something that you actually have had a gifting since childbirth. I mean, you've had it a long, long time and you can have it so long that you think you generated it. And you didn't, God gave it to you. Make sure he gets credit for everything that you do. If you do, he will supersize that thing just for you. You make him great, he'll make your stuff great. Make God big. Listen, God is building something that would have outlasted Abraham. And it did because it showed up in you. It reminds us that our own lives are not as individualized and private and as personal as we actually think they are. We do not have a private faith. If we have a private faith, we have failed the next generation.

We have to declare the goodness of God. We cannot leave it in our homes and in our prayer clauses. We have to come out with something to share with the next generation. Everybody okay? I know I'm pretty aggressive right now. I'm just so passionate about this. You have no idea how passionate I am about this. So just hold on, look at your neighbor and go, he'll get over it, you'll get over it. Psalm 78 says this. My people, hear my teaching, listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable and I will utter hidden things, things from of old. Things we have heard and known, things our ancestors told us. We will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation. The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, the wonders he has done. He created statues for Jacob and established the law in Israel which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children. Now listen, this is very strong language. We don't use language like this in America because we don't like to use the word command. We don't like using strong language. This is, actually if you read, there's multiple places where God talks

about passing something to the next generation and he almost always uses the word command. It's not a suggestion. And here's where this shows up for us. How many of you know we make our kids get their homework? We make them. You're gonna do this. We make them go to practices and we make them go to their sporting events. But we are very hesitant to make them do anything spiritual. And yet God, it's the very thing God told you to command. We don't make our kids go to church. They don't want to. They don't want to. I'm tired today. Well, what about the homework? And here's why. I'm gonna just tell you. Please listen. I'm not trying to be mean. There is more spiritual opposition to spiritual things than it is a sporting event. And one of the reasons God is telling you to command certain things is because he knows their opposition and if you won't push through it, you won't win. We get afraid of this. We don't want to push our kids too much spiritually. Well, you never know what they'll decide to do. Listen, they're gonna decide to live for God.

Let's go. You say, well, I don't want to annoy my kids with telling them about the Lord all the time. I do. Listen, I wore my kids out telling them about the goodness of God. I don't want to hear it. Good, you're gonna hear it anyway. Eat your dinner. I'm feeding you. Listen. I grew up in a church and some of you probably did too. I mean, I grew up in a church that's so small that everybody in the church could paddle you. I mean, everybody corrected me at church. You could take somebody out of here, go somewhere. They're not even your child. They're just taking them out and spanking them, bringing them right back in. They'll tell your parents about it later. You do that today and it's like, don't you touch my child. I understand all that stuff. My mama made me go to church. My mom and daddy, I would have hangovers and I'm going to church. They knew it. You're going Sunday morning to Sunday school. You're going to church on Sunday. You're going Sunday night, four hours later. You're going right back.

It's boring. You're going. Pastor's 75 years old, you're going. King James Version, you're going. You are going. Wednesday night, giddy up, you're going. I actually played baseball. I was a really good baseball player and my parents, we had a baseball team. We had a bunch of believers on it. And we played, we were playing for a birth into a state champ. We were a very, very good baseball team one summer. And we had to forfeit the championship game because it was on Sunday morning. Didn't even go. We're going to the house of the Lord. Today, you wouldn't even think about that. And one of the reasons is because you can watch it online, which is great. My parents wouldn't even have thought about that. We're online. We're doing it. We're going to the house. That's how it was. Now, I'm not even, I'm not telling you you have to be that extreme, but that's how it was for us. Thank God it was. For me, thank God it was. How many of you know, our heritage is spiritual,

not just financial, not just work ethic. We have a spiritual heritage that we're trying to pass on to these kids. The Bible says in verse six, so the next generation, they would know them, even the child, the kids not yet born. They would turn, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds, but would keep his commandments. And we have the next generation in the palm of our hands. We need to ask this question, what am I gonna do about it? Our lives shape other people. Our parents, we shape our children. Our marriages shape our home. Our leadership shape culture at work. We shape our kids spiritually. And one of the things the Bible is always doing, the Bible is always trying to pull you and I away from surviving the weak. We're not just surviving the weak as a believer. We're not just paying the bills. We're not just building a career. We're not just managing stress. We're not chasing our dream. That's not what we're doing. We're building something spiritual for the next generation. And we need to know this. So what am I building that will remain after me spiritually?

One of the things we are not building is financial security for everyone in our home. Now listen, we need to do that. I'm not against that. But it's not the primary goal that scripture talks about. It's spiritual heritage that you're building. You need to be financially secure. There's nothing wrong with this. Please don't hear me saying, but how many of you know it's not first? It's secondary. Primary is spiritual heritage. Because your kids are more than a salary. They're more than six figures. It's not a work ethic. We're not just trying to build a work ethic in them, although we need to teach them to work hard. Because our life is not about family status. And making sure that we all work hard. We work seven days a week and we don't know how to Sabbath. That's not what God's trying to do. America's trying to do that. The enemy's trying to drive, he's driving us to performance. It's not about academic aptitude, although they need to be smart. We want them to do as well as they can, but I'm telling you, how many of you know your kid is not an ACT score? Or a GPA?

We identify way too much with numbers and letters in our country. I mean, everybody gotta know what your Myers-Briggs is. If you don't know what that is, it's like you just, like, what happened? Or your Enneagram. It's a number. I mean, you know, that's a man-made thing. God has things in your life. He never told Moses, you're an eight, so I'm gonna call you. But we get into these things, and I'm telling you, you can rob your life of purpose and vision because you identify with a letter and a number too much. Now, I'm not saying that you don't need good grades. I'm a C student at best. And I don't even, I don't even know what that is. And I don't even, I don't even, listen, I don't even know, I didn't even know that you could have a five-point something. If it was a five, mine was always on the other side of the decimal. It never was on the left side. I'm okay with this. I don't identify because I was a C- student, maybe even worse. I'm gonna tell you why, because I can't tell you how many young adults and young people that I talk to, they've sinned before the Lord.

They mess their life up, and I sit down and I talk to them, and I talk to them about, tell me this, what is your expectation for you for grades? And almost every time, they will tell me, hey, my family, everybody expects me to have A's, all A's. I hear it all the time. Now, you may not be that way, but I hear this all the time. All A's, A pluses, so I just write it on the board. I write it up there, grades, A's. What about your sports, how your sports gotta be? Oh man, we gotta roll, they paying for me to go AAU club, I gotta, listen, we gonna go up here. We're gonna go all out, A's. What about your conduct? What's your, everybody expect out of your conduct? Listen, there cannot be any flaws. If I mess up, we hear about it. Now, I'm not opposed to all of this, but as soon as I say, what do you think about how you approach God, and as soon as I put God on there, I ask him, what do you think he wants you to bring? They always say, A's. You know why they say A's? It's because they are performing in every single area of their life that's non-spiritual. And when it comes to God, they, most kids, when I ask them if they've messed up. Most of them, when I ask them, have you asked the Lord to forgive you? They say no.

And you know why? Because they won't bring God anything but an A. And so they wait till they perform until they can say something to him. And how many of you know you don't bring A's to God? Hello? We don't bring A's to God. There's nobody in here good enough to bring an A to God. Listen, most of us are bringing C's, D's, and F's. Aren't you glad he grades on the curve? It's so awesome. Listen, if you'd have been in school with me, I would have not liked you if you made all A's, because you broke the curve. You messed the whole thing up, man. I am relying on you that you are as dumb as I am. You have to be careful how that we ask our kids to perform everywhere, because they start relating their relationship with you as their parents with their relationship with God. And when they come to God, they won't talk to him until they can bring the A. And it's dangerous thinking. Because we are flawed people, we know that. They are not athletic prowess. They're not a rushing yard and a passing yard, a starting position, kills on a volleyball court, a batting average, points per game, or a scholarship offer. They're more than that. They're C's of Abraham.

They have spiritual, we have to give them spiritual heritage, not just these things. There's nothing wrong with these. They have to be in right priority. Because listen to this, a person obsessed with the present rarely leaves a healthy future. If you are only obsessed with what's going on right now with anybody in the next generation, you are gonna create somebody that's performing the rest of their life. Here's the second thing. If you're gonna be a person of legacy, you're gonna have to pass down your faith, and you're gonna have to acknowledge your weaknesses. Abraham did this. The scripture does not sanitize Abraham's journey. I don't even know if he had some issues. Anybody here have any issues in your family? Is there anything in your family you don't tell anybody about? Or when you go to a family reunion, you tell your kids, stay away from Uncle Vernon. Don't talk to Aunt So-and-so. There's things in everybody's family you don't talk about. There's things that we don't say. Of course, there's flaws in all of our families. Have you ever read the Bible? These people were insane. I mean, you actually read and try to find

a family you would wanna live in, there's hardly any. I wish I was in that family. The only one I can find is possibly Timothy's family. At least his grandma's talked about and his mom's talked about. His dad was a Greek, which made Timothy, as a young adult, have to be circumcised. How about that? Anybody wanna be in Jesus' family? I say that and people go, yeah, really? You wanna be Jesus' sibling. Who? A younger sibling. He's never done anything wrong, never sinned, heals everybody he comes in contact with, raises the dead, dies and comes back to life, and you're the sibling. Not a chance. Anybody wanna be Joseph's sibling in the Old Testament? Holy. Help us, Lord. This dude has one biological, you're talking about a blended family. It was blended on blended, and it was blended on high speed. I mean, we got his biological mom and three other moms in the same house. Not only that, Abraham's a liar.

I mean, you deal with Abraham? This dude is lying. He passed lying down to his son. Abraham lied about Sarah. Isaac did the exact same thing with Rebekah. I mean, almost identical. Jacob, his name is Deceiver. And then all of Jacob's kids basically lied about Joseph. They faked a funeral and kept a family secret for years, deceiving their dad. We have flaws in our families. God knows that. Abraham passed down favoritism. Abraham favored Isaac. Isaac favored Jacob. Jacob favored Joseph. There was a cutoff a brotherly cutoff in every one of their generations Isaac was cut off from Ishmael Jacob cut off from Esau Joseph was cut off from his brothers You know what? This tells you and I that legacy doesn't mean perfection It means a real and honest pursuit of Jesus in the middle of flaws That's what it means for us I I can't tell you how many times we deal with things at our school and parents a kid does something wrong and they take it So personal the parent takes it so personal. What do you think's gonna happen? You have a kid they're flawed You raised them Yes, don't take it so personal the Bible's full of weaknesses in a family but it is also they're full of faith I'm gonna give you a few things that you need to put in your family. I mean just start just start cultivating You're not perfect. We're not asking to be perfect. But if I give you some of these just get better at a couple of them Just get better Just start really working on it

If you want to bring I mean you really want to touch the next generation in your own family or outside your family Maybe you're a boss somewhere you ought to just just add some of these into your life And if you have them just get better at them. Here's the first one integrity Walk in integrity do what you say stop lying if you caught a fish this big don't tell them it was this big Don't fabricate your testimony Don't lie about what the Lord did or didn't do in your life tell the truth Kids know this stuff man. I mean these kids are so sharp now brother. They know when you're authentic and they know when you're not I Think we've always been that way. We just try to fake it. You're not faking with anyone Walk in integrity Operate your life in business at a high level of excellence. Don't cut corners use integrity in your life Show it to a young adult show a teenager what it looks like To swear to your own hurt and suffer for it Second repent repentance. It's more than words We say a lot of words and kids are waiting for you to back it up fruit God looking he looking he's looking for fruit that has repentance Apologies that really mean something anybody ever had to apologize to one of your kids Just you know great you and me Philip, that's it This is the other it's been about a month ago I was on a phone call we it was a conversation I have three children and we were talking one of them's in Nashville and she rebelled and moved off and the other two They're good. They stayed here We were in a conversation and Abigail was on the phone and in the conversation I Said something that I knew in my heart I said I said something that I knew in my heart. I should not have said Anybody ever had those conversations and you knew instantly inside you that the Lord was going What was that? They didn't say a thing My kids thought it was the funniest thing ever and I got off the phone and I'm telling you what? Right here. I mean if you're born again, there is something in here. That'll tell you

And when that happens, there's a couple of things that's happening you've either said something you should have never said or you went too far with something you said and Mine was I went too far and so as soon as I knew it I Texted my children said hey just want you to know I need to ask you to forgive me I went too far on this the Lord checked me on this and I went too far and they all went I know no big deal dad. Don't worry, but that was funny But the Lord didn't think it was funny I Mean you know, we apologize because the Lord told us to It's repentance it's an apology when you owe one even if it's to the lowest thinking or the lowest person you're around Doesn't matter if it's at work. How many of you know if you own apology and the Lord tells you to give one you go Give it You're giving an inheritance away you're giving a spirit you're giving spiritual legacy away when you do that Third thing is consistency And what I mean by that is that I mean we have some strength we have we're grounded We're secure doesn't mean that we don't have problems But men when they come we may go listen I can't tell you how many times I've had a crisis come up and I go off and I get mad or I go Off and cry a little bit because something's really happened and I have to gain how many of you know You have to get composure of yourself so you can handle yourself with some strength I'm not saying you can't have problems and I'm not saying that you can't have issues that happen in life But how many of you know in we do not need to be Losing it emotionally all the time. There needs to be a sense of strength. Now this only comes from a relationship with God. You have to get in Scripture, you have to get in some solitude and some silence, you have to have some time in Scripture and the Word and prayer, and so God can settle some things in your life

so you can do this. It doesn't come because we have self-help books, it comes because we personally know God. It's a consistency that we have. Work on it, get better at this. Don't lose it all the time. If you lose your temper all the time and you use foul language around your kids, how many of you know it's because you're inconsistent? You lose control of yourself. How many of you know you can have self-control? The Bible says it's the fruit of the Spirit. You can control yourself. It can be controlled. Here's the next one, peace. It means it's a calm, non-anxious, non-chaotic presence. It's what you want. Next one is prayer. It's where you get God involved early on in things. Us dudes here, we love, especially if you're an alpha guy or girl, either one, because we got some girls that can, they're awesome. I mean, they get things done. They're not playing around. And it's awesome, but how many of you know you have to be careful that you don't pray because you have an emergency? Learn how to get God in on early in things. Some of us, we are dudes in here,

sometimes we don't even know how to pray. We think as soon as we pray, we change personalities. I mean, we goof off all day. We're sarcastic all day long, and then all of a sudden we get to pray, and we just go to London. For some reason, we just go, Lord. I mean, it's just this thing. I mean, we act like we're reading from the King James Bible. I mean, you know, that's not you. Act like you. You have a relationship with the Lord. Talk like you talk. Don't change tones. He knows you're not real. I think sometimes the Lord looks at us, who is that? I don't even know who that is. And we do that stuff. I'm gonna just give you a great piece of advice. It's helped me so much when I learned how to pray. Just pray like you text. Seriously. Short, listen, sweethearts. Listen, I'm just gonna tell you ladies. I'm gonna give you a great piece of advice. I don't care how much you text your husband long paragraphs. You're only getting one word back. Or one letter.

It could be just K. That's how I wrote. Listen, God's looking for just a conversation and a banter back and forth, and just going, hey, Lord, I need help over here. Give me wisdom on this. Driving to work in a dually. Or going downtown to a business. How many of you know God knows what you're going into? And he has wisdom for it. Listen, no matter where you are in life, no matter what problem you have, God has the answer for it. He knows the finance world. He knows the business world. He knows the law enforcement world. He knows the teaching world. He knows how to get into every world. He knows it all. He knows everything. And how many of you know, he's not gonna give it unless you ask. And once you start asking, and he knows you care, he'll give you all the information you need to get out of whatever you're in. Next one is forgiveness. We need to refuse to allow bitterness in our lives. And here's why. Because it leaks into your families. It's one of the most dangerous things

you can have in your family, is bitterness. Now I'm gonna just give you a hint of this. If your children know the names of the people you hate, you have gone too far. I mean, you know, we ruin people, even their relationship with their own kids because of things that we say that need to be done privately somewhere else. Don't leak all over your family over this. Forgive. When I moved here about 23 years ago, there was a person in Kentucky that I had some real issues with. Every time, now listen to me. Four years after I'm here, I hear that name, and I feel myself get mad. Four years, 600 miles, a person is controlling me because of bitterness. Let it go. There are more dreams and more godly vision issues that are destroyed because of unforgiveness and bitterness than anything else you'll ever do. Because you're holding on to things God's saying, let them go, let them go, let them go. plans for you, let them go. Doesn't mean you have to have a relationship with them, let them go. You know why you forgive? Because Christ forgave you. You let people go because God's let you go.

He's forgiven you way more than you're ever gonna forgive somebody. Last thing is this, is faith. We need to give faith to our kids in the next generation. I'm talking about where you believe God and you get God involved in some things that are going on in your life, man. And you talk about it like God's gonna do something about it, you walk in faith. You have a spirit of faith about you. About three or four years ago I had an issue that happened here at the church and I was so negative about it. Anybody ever got into complaining and thought you were really, really full of faith? And you complained about this one thing, every day it was a complaint. And it got so bad I just leak, complaint leaks like bitterness does, it just leaks out in everything. You're talking about it all the time. And I had one of our pastors one day, which is I love being around, you know, people that will tell you, and Polly will tell me too, I have a wife that is the fourth person of the trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Polly. And one of our pastors I was talking about one day and they just said to me, said hey, you're really negative about this. And it bothered me. You know, who are you to say something, what are you doing?

Let me complain. I went home and it's amazing how you will keep yourself in complaints even if somebody challenges you on it. And it was me. I went home and got to thinking about it, I was mad and I got in my Bible and started reading how much God didn't like complaining. I went oh, I might wanna deal with this. So I did. You know how to get rid of complaining? Get faith in your life. Get in the Bible. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And I started reading the Bible about the situation that I was going through. And then I got my words right. What you're saying about the situation. I mean, you know, God's gonna come through. Come on, yes. We gotta have to get our words right. Not just our attitude, we gotta get our words right and get things, I mean, we're gonna turn this thing around. God has to have something to work with. And I'm gonna read a psalm and how much David, I want you to listen to how David talks. I mean, he's, I mean, this guy is saying some things that this is what we should be talking to the next generation. How we should be talking about their future and how much God is doing in their life.

And this is Psalm 71, it'll be on the screen. I'm gonna read it boldly. It says, in you, Lord, I have taken refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me. Turn your ear to me and save me. Be my rock of refuge to which I can always go. Give the command to save me for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel. For you have been my hope, sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth, I have relied on you. You brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you. I have become a sign to many. You are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. Do not cast me away when I am old and do not forsake me when my strength is gone. For my enemies speak against me and those who wait to kill me conspire together. They say God has forsaken him. Pursue him and seize him. No one will rescue him. Do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly, God, to help me. May my accusers perish in shame.

May those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace. As for me, I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long, though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, sovereign God. I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I will declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, watch this, until I declare your mighty power to the next generation. Your righteous acts to all those who are to come. Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens. You have done great things. Who is like you, God? Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again. From the depths of the earth, you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. I will praise you with a harp for your faithfulness, my God. I will sing praise to you with a lyre, holy one of Israel. My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praise of you, I whom you have delivered. My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long, for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion.

You talk like that to the next generation, they're gonna know you're God. It's the way we ought to be talking to them. You say, well, I don't have any kids. Find somebody. You're a boss at work, you're around young adults, find them. You say, well, they don't wanna hear about God. Tell them anyway. You say, well, it's gonna make them nervous. Good. It's one of the things that we've gotten in our comfort. We have too comfort about sharing our faith and what God has done for us because we might offend someone. Offend them. Why? Because they need to know God. They need to know God. Your kids need to hear about God, the mighty works that he's done, the cool things that he's done, not just from the Bible but from your own personal life. Look what the Lord has done. Here's the last thing. A person of legacy can inherit faith while others must begin it. See, not everyone comes from a healthy spiritual legacy. Some have inherited addiction. They come from an anger situation,

a dysfunctional home, abusive, absent parents, instability, spiritual indifference, but here's the thing. Abraham began from a pagan background and God reached in and said, hey, I'm calling you. How many of you know if Abraham does not obey, you and I have serious, we're gonna have serious issues with our faith? He's the father of our faith. Listen, you may not be responsible for what was handed to you as a kid, but you are responsible for what you hand to somebody else. None of us get to decide what hand we were dealt in life, but you are responsible for playing the hand you were dealt. Every now and then I play, about once a year in our student ministry, I bring a deck of cards to, and I play blackjack with somebody on our stage. Now, we don't do any money, so you can send your kids. We're not gonna get them into gambling, okay? One of the things I do, I mix the cards up and I hand them two cards and me two cards, and we're gonna play blackjack till somebody wins. Inevitably, they get a card with a four and a six. Well, how many of you know they're halfway there? I get a card with a jack and a 10. Yes, we're dominating these kids.

But here's the problem with those two kind of hands. One is the prodigal son, and one is the other son that stayed home and thought he was too righteous. You know, if you get held, if you get dealt a two and a two, guess what you get to do? Hit me with another card. And I'm hitting till I win. We're not gonna fold just because we were dealt something bad from our parents, or something happened in our family. The Bible's full of people that got handed and dealt a card that was bad, and it didn't look good. And as soon as they reached out and God took a hold to their life, the deck changed. God is always doing things with bad hands. Keep playing. Don't fold your life away. Stop complaining about everything. You're here. You can't fix all of that. I understand this pain. Go to counseling. Get hold on the inside. God's got something for you to do. He's got a legacy for you to live out. We're not gonna pass this stuff on to our kids.

Everybody okay? I love you, I love you. What are we gonna do? Psalm 145, great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another. They will tell of your mighty acts. What are we gonna give the next generation? Some of you in here, you're a grandparent today. Let me know, grandparents are awesome. Grandkids are awesomer. They are, I have two of them. And they're God's gift for me not killing my children. Today, I have two grand boys, sons, one's 10, one's nine. They're gonna come to my house and when they get there, guess what? They have their own flavor of ice cream. It's not because of me, it's because of her. One of them likes chocolate. That's my grandson, yes. The other one has a big mouth. That's my grandson, yes. The other one has to have special because he has a dairy allergy and things like that. But I'm telling you, every Sunday, every Saturday, I know whether there's ice cream in there. Because I'm Pawpaw. When they come to my house, they don't even ask to go to the refrigerator. They just walk in there like they own it.

You know why? Because it's Pawpaw's house. Yesterday, one of my grandsons said, hey, Pawpaw, you got your, is your pool ready to swim in? And I went, no. And I had to preach last night. I get out in the middle of the night. of the day yesterday, clean my pool out so he can swim today. I would have never done that for one of my children. And I love you, but I wouldn't have done it for you. I would not have done it for you. You know what an impact a grandparent can have on a kid? Tell of the mighty works of God. Tell them. Tell them what God's done for you. Things of old. Tell them. Tell them what God's done. What he did for you and your grandma. What he did here. What he did over here. Tell them what he did at work. Tell them how you led somebody to Christ. Tell them how he provided. Tell them. They need to know the mighty works. Not just doctrine. We need to teach our kids doctrine. But every time the Bible talks about a group of people telling the next generation, he says, tell them about my power. Tell them about my mighty works. Tell them. They need to know a God that's bigger than just your intellect. Some of you are parents, step-parents, foster parents, doctor parents, coaches, bosses. Do something. Say something. Tell them. But no matter where you are today in this whole journey of legacy, some of you you messed your life up and I mean, sometimes you just feel like, how in the world did I get here? I'm just gonna give you a piece of advice. Wherever you are, start now. Start it right now. You say, I messed this whole thing up. Start right now. I've blown the whole thing. Me and my husband, we've got divorced and our whole family's a mess. Start right now. Start right now. Stop letting the... Listen, I can't tell you how many people live in shame because of something that they did. Listen, there's no doubt that we have to deal with things. There's no doubt. We're not saying that everything that everybody does is perfecting right, but how many of you know, at some point we're gonna have to

accept the forgiveness that God has given us? I'm gonna say this and then we'll close. Regardless of how flawed you think you are, how far you've gone, and what you've done, God cares about you. He's calling you to start right now. Spar heads. You're here today, you know you need to give your life to Christ. It's a starting point. Or you're in here and you have messed your legacy up. You feel like nobody wants to hear you've messed your family up. How many of you know God... Listen, you start repenting and just start following God and God will begin to restore whatever He can and He'll pursue things in your life and He'll get you as close as He possibly can. We have to begin. This is not about forgiving yourself. There's not a scripture in the Bible that says that you need to forgive yourself. The only thing that is taught in scripture is that you need to receive the forgiveness that God has given you. We don't forgive ourself because that's what we do. We don't bring that to God. We receive the forgiveness that He has given. You're here today. You need to give your life to Christ. You've never been what the Bible would call born again. Something on the inside of you has actually changed. Or you're here and you've broken, I mean you've broken your fellowship with God and you need to repent. If you're here and you want prayer, would you just lift your hand and say, Pastor Greg, that's me. Pray for me. Where are you in the room? Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Back here to my left. Thank you very much. I'll do this as quickly as we can but we want to make sure. What are we doing? Let's come on. Let's get this thing cleaned up. Let's get on the journey. Let's start now. We've had numerous hands raised. Listen, here's what I want to do. If you're there, you lifted your hand. Listen, I want you to act like the Lord's sitting right in front of you. We're all gonna do this together but if you lifted your hand, I want you to be personal with the Lord right now. Here's all I want you to do. We're gonna say a simple prayer and I want all of us to say it. But if you lifted your hand, I want you to personally say it to the Lord right there. Say this, Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. I give you my whole heart. I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me. I'm sorry. I give you all my flaws, all the mess I've created. I give it to you. Give me your

righteousness. Today, I receive your forgiveness. Thank you. Today I'm accepted in Jesus name. Amen. Give it up for your friends in here today. It's awesome. You guys have been so patient and kind. I'll get you out of here. Listen, if you lifted your hand, listen, sometimes there's just steps you need to take and we have one for you. We're gonna have a whole group of prayer partners down here. They're friends of ours. They know what they're doing. We have a booklet we want to give you. If you lifted your hand, you're getting born again. You need to come and get this. Tell them what you did. Tell your story to somebody. Tell them. If you need prayer for anything in our church today, come. We want to make sure we pray and get in agreement with you on the things that we're praying and we're gonna pray a blessing over each other right now. Let's all stand to our feet. We're gonna say it over ourselves and our family, all of our legacy. Let's say this about and over one another. You ready? The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, give you peace. God bless. You are dismissed.