Mighty Oaks Legacy

(Testimony of Living a Lie before God)

I. The Legacy We Leave

Real men are defined by the legacy, the life and the fruit that comes out of them not by what they take in.

A primary purpose in the marriage relationship is to release a healthy Next Generation.

Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.

Note: one of the first jobs after the creation of humankind was to be fruitful and multiply. From the very beginning we were charged create the next generation.

These Two Events Make up the First Week of History

The structure of the chapter is created around what was created, and what was it created for.

Humanity is the pinnacle of all of God’s creation. (It was created good)

The health of a generation depends on an authentic Relationship with God.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.”

As a teenager, I could not wait to leave home and become my own man. I doubt I am alone in that!

We all, to some degree, want to be self-sufficient and successful. But where does that leave us as Christians?

There is a direct contradiction between what the world tells us we should pursue, and what Jesus says he will be looking for when he returns: a relationship with God.

2 Problems I see with having an Authentic Relationship With God

1. Authentic Relationship Takes Time and Effort

Isn’t it incredible to think that, in our day, we have access to just about anything and can get just about anything we want in a relatively short time? There are companies like Amazon Prime that spoil us with their two-day shipping.

However, that inadvertently trains our mind, to where we think we can get anything we want at a quick rate, with minimal effort. Someone says, “Here, watch this workout video, and you can lose twenty pounds in two days!” and we think, “Yes! That’s what I need.”

Or we see an ad that says, “Get your bachelor’s degree in ten months!” or “Take this five-minute survey and win $10,000 cash.” What’s the saying? “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

We want great achievement and accomplishment with minimal effort. It’s not a matter of serendipity that you are going through what you’re going through in your life. God is deeply interested in making you into the person you’re meant to be. It’s possible that he is trying to prepare you for your future. Learn to submit to life’s lessons now. We do not become who God wants us to be overnight or by taking some miracle pill.

2. We like our Independence.

Nobody likes needy people, they call too much, they seem to always need our help. Needy people are high maintenance people.

Instead we like self-sufficient people, people who do not need anything. Those are the kind of people we celebrate in our society today.

We lost our perfect dependence on God when we decided to eat the fruit in the Garden in Genesis 3 and were kicked out of the garden.

From there we became self-sufficient people.

Yet, those who have a relationship with Jesus are completely dependent on Him for everything. They have a child-like faith. Like my daughter when she first gave her life to Christ.

But, even more than that is is God’s children who have a relationship with Jesus. Look what Paul says in Romans 8:16-17

Romans 8:16–17 ESV

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Because they know that He has made a way for them to have a relationship with God.

This is why when Jesus returns He return for those who have put their faith and trust in Him alone for their Salvation.

How do we live an authentic Christian Life?

This is probably one of the most important Questions you can ask yourself?

Jesus tells us in John 10:10

John 10:10 ESV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The thief; i.e. Satan, enemy #1 has come to steal, Kill, and destroy your life. One of His key tactics is to get you to believe that you are okay, independent, apart from God, and do not need God in your life.

(Note: This was the first lie in the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say that?” Gen.3)

What is your Identity?

The most important thing in life is to understand who you are. When you have a good grasp of who you are, you are able to function effectively in that identity.

For identity shapes practice. Knowing who you are as a believer will enable you to live an authentic Christian life and have a real relationship with God.

Write this Down!

The Legacy that Shapes you, is the identity within.

What is your position with God? The Bible tells us we are either a child of God or alienated from God. We are either alive in Christ or Dead in our Sin. (Romans 5:12 “Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”)

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

An Authentic relationship with God for your children begins with you.

Deuteronomy 6:5-6 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” (NKJV)

(Testimony: I had been living my life for myself, I thought God was punishing me by taking my child away from me. I found myself face down in a mission church in Okinawa. For the first time I admitted to God that I needed Him in my life. I surrendered my life and my will to Him alone. A retired master Sargent began to pour into my life and show me what a legacy looked like. Here is the first verse of scripture He had me memorize. )

John 15:5 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Note: I came back from Okinawa and once arriving at 29 Palms I found out my wife was pregnant with our Daughter Hannah. God rewards those who are faithful to Him.

You Must be Intentional

Deuteronomy 6:7-8 “you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

>Pic of the box.

phylactery, Hebrew tefillin, also spelled tephillin or tfillin, in Jewish religious practice, one of two small black leather cube-shaped cases containing Torah texts written on parchment, which, in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:8

In our house we call these God (ordained) moments. When we are working, or serving other people we take took our children with us and would use it as an opportunity to talk about God.

My son is now 25 years old and I still look for opportunities to talk to him about God and the Bible.

When my daughter was little we would have Father daughter dates, I would take her out and show her what a Godly man looks like, how he treats women in a Godly way.

Before my kids graduated High School I took each of them on a mission trip outside of the U.S. to show them how to be on mission for God.

1. If those daily times-both quality and quantity-do not exist, then you must Create them.

2. Be Strategic.

How will you impress God’s Truth on your Children

Your first priority is to spend time daily reading God's Word. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 states, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.” God's progression in this passage is important.

>Pic of Evelyn doing advent with her Dad.

We started doing advent when our children were little. My daughter now does advent with our granddaughter Evelyn. This is them at our house this Christmas doing advent and recounting the story of Jesus birth.

My daughter shared with us recently that since reading the stories from her children’s bible she will randomly say something from what they have read.

Your children are more likely to come to faith in Christ because of the influence and example they see in you.

3. Use Symbolism and Ceremony to mark events and clarify promises.

>Pic of Troy receiving his wooden sword.

(Troy: presenting him with a sword with Deuteronomy 6:5 written on it. We then had men from our family and Church give spiritual wisdom to our son, then they gathered around and prayed over our son.)

(Daddy daughter Dates with Hannah, showing her what a man of God looks like.)

Raising a Modern Day Night - Robert Lewis.

4. Share your Successes.

The greatest success that you can share with your children is the success you have been given in Christ Jesus in having an authentic relationship with Him.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in a steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

(Share story of Derek, laying up his rel-estate business, but, failing to marry the woman who he has a child with for fear of what it will cost him if the marriage does not make it. What kind of legacy do you think he will be leaving for his family?)

5. Share your Failures, and ask Forgiveness

Romans 3 “We are all sinners, there is none righteous, no not one.”

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Your Poop Stinks Too!

Look what Paul writes in 1 John 1:8-10

1 John 1:8–10 ESV

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

II. Spiritual Growth Chart

> Slide of Chart

The Legacy starts with God. Whey you start making out your Legacy plan it should begin and end with God.

First, you must be in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:17 “If you are in Christ you are a new creation, the Old has passed away and the new has come.”

How do you know if your Position has Changed?

Marks of someone whose Legacy has truly changed

1). Do you have vertical sorrow? (2 Cor. 7:10)

Worldly sorrow is not just being sorry you got caught, or being aware that you do bad things. It’s realizing your offense against a Holy God alone. Psalm 51:4 “Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

2). Do you have a commitment to change? (there is no hesitation to do right and wrong vs. the mindset on the flesh is indifferent. Repentance is not only saying I’m sorry, but saying I am through with sin).

3). Do you have a desire to display real Christianity? (clearing a defense against accusation — vindication of self; - eagerness to clear self. 1 Peter 3:15 “A desire always to defend Christ before a watching world”).

4). Do you have a righteous anger against sin? (indignation; this is getting back on the right team - vs. self, sin, enemies of God. Romans 6:21 “But what fruit were you getting of the things which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”

5) Do you have a fresh sense of the Presence of God? (Reverent fear of God). Proverbs 18:13 “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate.”

6) Do you have an unreserved Love for those who confront you?

Natural Reaction: Comparison; Criticism, Legalistic View.

Litmus Test: How does the “repentant” person talk about and act towards the one who confronts us. (do we have a humble loving heart towards the person who confronts us with our sin.)

The Explicit Gospel

I would be remiss today if I shared all of these things about having a Legacy plan without sharing where that Legacy plan begins. It begins with having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We call this the Gospel, or the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The gospel goes beyond individuals being saved from their sins and going to heaven after they die. The gospel involves the full scope of redemption for God’s creation.

God Created us to have a Relationship with Himself. (Gen. 2)

God’s good created world and the people in it rebelled and brought sin into the world, and God has been working to redeem that world back through his Son, Jesus.

Our Sin Separates Separates us from Loving Holy God.

There is a gulf called sin that separates you from God’s mercy and Grace, this gulf is called sin. Sin cannot be removed by anything man would try to do, to be good enough for God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Sin Cannot be Removed by what we Do

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Paying the Price Jesus Died for you.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Redemption in scripture refers to the work of Christ on our behalf, whereby he purchases us, he ransoms us, at the price of his own life, securing our deliverance from the bondage and condemnation of sin and death.

God did for you, what you could never do for yourself. Remember I shared how one of the biggest lies Satan weaves into our lives is that we can live this life independent apart from God.

There gulf that once separated us from God’s mercy and Grace has now been bridged through Jesus Christ death on the Cross.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be Saved

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

While Jesus paid the price through His sacrifice on the cross, He won the victory when he walked out of the grave 3 days later, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father where He will one day return to judge the living and the dead.

Living Eternally in Heaven

Heaven is not some mythical, ethereal, place where cherubims sit around playing harps on clouds all day. Revelation 21 gives us the picture of the new heaven and the new earth descending out of the sky coming as a groom for His bride that is now made complete and ready for Heaven. Jesus is the groom and those who are His children are the bride.

Note: There are two prayers I want to share with you today.

The first Prayer is for someone who has never prayed to receive the gift of Salvation Before.

Prayer or Repentance

“Dear God I come before you humbled and sorrowful. Aware that I have sinned against you, and you alone. I am ready to repent and turn from my sins, ask for your mercy and forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son, and that He took the penalty that I rightly deserve, by dying a sinners death on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead and won the victory over sin and death. Thank you Lord for hearing my cry and saving my soul.” Amen

Prayer of Restoration

“Dear God, I know that I have wondered away from your plan for my life. I have allowed sin to rule and reign my heart. Restore me oh Lord to the joy of your Salvation and grant me a willing spirit and heart to walk in your ways. Restore me today oh Lord. Have mercy on me, according to your steadfast love and mercy. Wash me thoroughly today oh Lord and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Amen

Note: If you prayed one of these prayers, make sure and share it with your TL.