1. OK City Survivor Tree
The most-sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing, an old American elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterhead. Other trees grow larger, fuller—even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of her appearance, but her endurance.
She endured the Oklahoma City bombing. Before the bombing, the tree was important because it provided the only shade in the downtown parking lot. People would arrive early to work just to be able to park under the shade of the tree’s branches.
Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree.
But then she began to bud. Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.
Cuttings of the Survivor Tree are growing in nurseries all over Oklahoma. Owners of landscape nurseries, arborists, urban foresters and expert horticulturists from across the state and country have come together to work and preserve this piece of history. None of these people have ever charged the Memorial for their work. Each year, the Facilities and Grounds crew at the Memorial provides Bays and the nursery men hundreds of seeds. They plant the seeds and distribute the resulting saplings each year on the anniversary of the bombing. Today, thousands of Survivor Trees are growing in public and private places all over the United States. It has a lasting legacy in its off-spring.
2. Abraham planted a Tamarisk tree in Beersheba (Genesis 21.33) – Tamarisk symbolizes Abraham
Genesis 21.33 – 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
• God promised Abram the land of Canaan – in Beersheba, the city of God’s faithfulness, on edge of desert he planted a Tamarisk tree –
• He did not own land; would not shade him or Isaac – by faith he believed he would own the land and would bless his descendants
• Needs to be tended/watered
• No fruit, only shade
• Slowest growing tree
• Planted for future generations [not for selves but for Great-Grandchildren
• Bedouin families want Tamarisk trees and show off their flocks, wives and Tamarisk Trees
3. God Knew that Abram was far-thinking in his approach to life and would teach his children – Genesis 18.19 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.
• So much of life is about the Now and the Me. We seek comfort, enjoyment, etc., but how much will we bless people in generations to come?
• Will you plant a Tamarisk tree today? Do anything that will bless others for generations down the road?
4. We have been discussing leaving a legacy in various arenas of our lives, the most important involves children. Psalm 128.1-6
I. Leave Your Legacy: Know God
A. God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply
1. Physical Children
2. Adopted Children (Abram and Eliezer)
3. Spiritual Children – Genesis 12.5 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people [souls] that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.; Paul and Timothy
B. Relationship of Husbands and Wives – Ephesians 5.22-25
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
• “Wives submit”
• Wait! –
o Husbands – Head as Christ is head of the church – provider for the wife as when the firstborn becomes head of a family – not so much for privilege as responsibility
o Husbands, love wives – as Christ loves the church and gave himself for it
C. This is not the end in itself – Ephesians 6.4 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
[Kings want male heirs to their thrones and may have little or nothing to do with sons (or daughters) who are born to them – Henry the 8th took 6 wives in search of male heirs to the throne – “an heir and a spare.”
II. Leave Your Legacy: Make God Known (to Your Children)
A. Personally Fear [Be in Awe/Wonder of] God – Psalm 128.1
• His Majesty – Jeremiah 10.7
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you.
• His Holiness – Revelation 15.4a Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.; Isaiah 6 (“Marriage” and “Holiness” same root)
• His Forgiveness – Psalm 130.4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
• His Sovereignty – Joshua 4.23-24
23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”
• His Goodness – 1 Samuel 12.20-24
20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 22 For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. 23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. 24 Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
B. Personally Walk in His Ways (= Fear God) – Ezra 7.10
Respect and Demonstration
[We tend to downplay action and emphasize words – “Preach the gospel at all times, using words when necessary.”
[We get our picture of God from our parents – especially dads; Do we paint a picture of a tyrannical; harsh; fickle God? Not the God of the bible – it is the Deceiver.
C. Pray Tirelessly – 1 Thessalonians 5.17 (Prayer IS the battle)
D. Personalize Your Teaching – Proverbs 22.6
6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
1. [“In addition to Sunday AM and Wednesday PM classes, how much do our children hear of Jesus?”
2. The Home is the Key Place to Train Children
• [What would happen if the government passed a law that shut down all religious organizations? – The Christian faith might end; Jewish faith would not cease because the primary place for training Jewish children in the home, not the synagogue.
• The Home is the “Little Temple” – Dad and Mom are the priests; the table is the altar; prayers are offerings; and the word of God is discussed and taught in the home – Deuteronomy 6.4-6
• Insula – generations – John 14.1-6
E. Encourage with Loving . . .
1. Actions
2. Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness
3. Words – 1 Thessalonians 4.18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
4. Discipline – Luke 19.41 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, Babylon?
1. EPCOT Legacy
Back in 2000, the Epcot Center had a new feature as you first walk in. There were giant slabs of black granite all over – tons and tons of granite – and a big sign that says “Leave Your Legacy”. For a certain fee they will take your picture and photo chemically transfer it onto these granite rocks, so that for all of time your picture will be on this granite stone. And hundreds if not thousands of people have put their little, tiny picture on these big granite stones.
Why do we do that? Because, down deep inside, everybody wants to leave a legacy, and everybody wants to feel like their life counts, that their life matters, that we’ve left our mark while we pass through this life.
2. Plant YOUR Tamarisk Tree to impact future generations [Cross = the Tree
3. Leave Your Legacy – Know God and Make Him Known
