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Handout
Handout
Stewarding
Stewarding
# Legacy: Transferring God's Blessings to the Next Generation
## Introduction
When most people think about inheritance, they think about money.
But in Scripture, inheritance was much bigger than money.
Inheritance included:
- Land
- Businesses
- Livestock
- Wealth
- Family blessing
- Covenant promises
- Wisdom
- A way of life
/passage
1 Chronicles 28:8
8 Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.
Read and explain:
David's concern was not merely possessing the land.
His concern was possessing it, stewarding it, and leaving it to the next generation.
/quote
Legacy is transferring God's blessings and the wisdom required to steward them.
---
# God Intended His People to Leave an Inheritance
/passage
Proverbs 13:22
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children..."
The biblical expectation was not merely survival.
It was generational blessing.
A good man thinks beyond his own lifetime.
/slide
A good man lives beyond his lifetime.
Many people spend their lives consuming.
The righteous think about what remains after they are gone.
---
# Inheritance Is a Biblical Pattern
God repeatedly works through generational transfer.
## Abraham → Isaac
God blessed Abraham with:
- Land promises
- Wealth
- Livestock
- Servants
Abraham intentionally passed these blessings to Isaac.
## Isaac → Jacob
Isaac transferred:
- Wealth
- Family blessing
- Covenant promises
## Jacob → His Sons
Jacob distributed blessings and inheritance to the twelve tribes.
## David → Solomon
David did not merely leave Solomon a throne.
He left:
- Resources
- Relationships
- Plans
- Preparation
- Wisdom
/slide
God's blessings were never intended to stop with you.
## God → Israel
God brought Israel into a land they did not build.
He gave them:
- Houses they did not build
- Wells they did not dig
- Vineyards they did not plant
/passage
Deuteronomy 6:10-11
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full,
God Himself is the ultimate giver of inheritance.
/slide
God is the ultimate giver of inheritance.
---
# The Owner's Manual Principle
Imagine receiving a business worth millions of dollars.
Would you want instructions?
Imagine inheriting a large ranch.
Would you want to know how to operate it?
Imagine receiving a kingdom.
Would you want to know how to govern it?
God did not simply give Israel the Promised Land.
He first taught them how to live in it.
/slide
Before God transferred wealth, He transferred wisdom.
Before Israel inherited the land, God taught them:
- Laws
- Business Ethics
- Property Rights
- Family Responsibility
- Stewardship
/slide
THE OWNER'S MANUAL
Laws
Business Ethics
Property Rights
Family Responsibility
Stewardship
## Laws
/passage
Deuteronomy 16:20
20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Justice creates stability.
Justice preserves blessing.
## Business Ethics
/passage
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Honest weights and measures honor God.
Integrity matters in commerce.
## Property Rights
/passage
Deuteronomy 19:14
14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
Respect ownership.
Respect boundaries.
## Family Responsibility
/passage
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Teach God's ways to the next generation.
## Stewardship
/passage
Leviticus 25:23
23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
"The land is mine."
Ultimately, God owns everything.
We are managers, not owners.
/slide
God gave them land.
He also taught them how to live in the land.
This is one reason inheritance without instruction can become destruction.
---
# Warnings About Inheritance
Not every inheritance becomes a blessing.
/passage
Proverbs 20:21
21 An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning
will not be blessed in the end.
An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.
/passage
Ecclesiastes 2:18-21
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
Solomon worried that everything he built could be handed to a fool.
/passage
Ecclesiastes 5:13-14
13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
Riches can be lost.
An heir may receive nothing.
/slide
Wealth without wisdom is fragile.
Money alone cannot preserve a legacy.
Character and wisdom must accompany it.
---
# Leaving an Inheritance Today
Most of us are not leaving vineyards and livestock.
But we may leave:
- Real Estate
- Businesses
- Investments
- Insurance Proceeds
- Savings
- Skills
- Knowledge
- Family Values
- Faith
/passage
2 Corinthians 12:14
14 Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
Parents store up for their children.
/passage
1 Timothy 5:8
8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Providing for family is a spiritual responsibility.
/slide
We are called to build more than income.
We are called to build inheritance.
The goal is not simply to make money.
The goal is to create blessing that outlives us.
---
# Application
/question
What inheritance am I building?
/question
What wisdom must accompany that inheritance?
/question
If my children inherited everything I own today, would they know how to steward it?
/question
What step can I take this year to strengthen my family's legacy?
---
# Conclusion
God did not simply give Israel land.
He prepared them to steward it.
Likewise, our responsibility is not merely to leave assets.
Our responsibility is to leave wisdom, character, and faith alongside those assets.
/quote
The greatest inheritance is not what you leave to your children.
It is what you leave in your children.
/quote
Legacy is transferring God's blessings and the wisdom required to steward them.
