What Legacy Will You Leave? Series

Our reading today come from the book of Deuteronomy 5:9-10 It says … “for I the Lord your God, I am a jealousy God, punishing the children for the sins of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. ”

Did you get it? What did you hear? The curse of the blessing? The Lord shows loving kindness to a thousand generations of those who love him.

Most of us have visited doctors with health conditions. And depending on the condition, the doctors tend to ask intriguing question like “do you have someone in your family line that has suffered from the disease you have, this question is often ask for diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, asthma; is there a history of this sickness, or that sickness in your family line? They know that it can be passed down from generation to generation.

And in the same way, we can pass down a whole lot of other junk unless we rise up and do something about it. And it is so easy to justify it. You just say well, this is the way my father was. He was always hot tempered and that is why am hot tempered.

Some of us today have all kind of junks in our family lines. It has been there for generations; divorce, poverty, alcoholism, addiction, negativity. Listen, you can rise up and do something about that. Because if you stay passive and just learn to accept it, all you are going to do is to pass it all down to the next generation. And what a shame to perpetuate it when you are the one to put a stop to it by the power of the blood of Jesus.

Saints, the decisions that we make don’t just affect us; they affect people around us. They affect the future generation.

All through the bible, there are many examples where God bless people because of their parents obedience, or because of their grand parents obedience. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”

Can God break generational curses? Yes He can! I think about King Soul. He had every opportunity in the world to do what was right. But he just didn’t do it, he didn’t honour God with his life. Eventually, God had to take the throne away from him. But Soul’s son Jonathan, refused to follow in his father’s footsteps. And I know it was difficult for him. It is difficult when everybody around you is compromising and taking the easy way out. But Jonathan refused to give in. He continued living a life of excellence in spite of what he saw his father doing. Unfortunately, he and his father Soul were killed in a battle.

Many years later, David started thinking about his friend Jonathan. And David said in 2 Samuel 9:1, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”.” I believe David thought this because of the covenant of mercy that David had established with his friend Jonathan. When you make decisions that honour God, God will cause people to want to be good to your descendants.

And David said to his servants, is there anyone from the house of Jonathan that I can bless? The servant replied, Jonathan has a crippled son. Then David gave an order for the son to be found and brought to the palace. At that time, the young son of Jonathan descent was living in extreme poverty. But now, he is being brought to the palace to live in royalty. But why? Why did David do that? David did that because of the crippled boy’s father, Jonathan. Friends it pays to live a Godly life.

The scriptures say in Deuteronomy 30:19 “…I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live in the land”.

I love listening and taking notes from this preacher called Joel Osteen. In his sermon, “The Legacy that you Leave”, he says, “Friends, we need to learn to think generationally. What am I passing down; what kind of legacy am I leaving? Is it greed, selfishness, negativity or am I leaving a legacy of giving, a legacy of helping others, am I kind to people, do I have a positive outlook, am I really making a difference with my life?”

I had a story about a man by the name of Alfred Nobel. He was the creator of the Nobel peace prize. It is kind of interesting how it all came about. Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist. And he invented dynamite and some very powerful explosives. And most of them were used as weapons during the war and for other very harmful purposes. And he made fortunes out of this inventions; millions of dollars.