Here are sermon notes for Don’t Duck Your Dynasty | Week One

Over the Next Four Weeks, we are going to focus on the gospel in relation to our FAMILY LIFE.  You have a heritage.  There is a lineage that you came from and through you more will come.

Don’t Duck Your Dynasty!  Will you have a Dynasty?

Dynasty= series of members of a family who are distinguished for their success, wealth, etc.

You WILL be successful at passing down certain attributes to your future family members!

What will those attributes, habits, and characteristics be? 

When the Israelites had been ushered into the Promised Land, their leader gave them a strong message. It was a choice. You can serve the God who promised us blessing, delivered us from slavery in Egypt, gave us the Holy Land OR you can serve the local gods of the Canaanites. 

Joshua 24:14 “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. 15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (NLT)

Who does your family serve?  Here is a question that you could ask yourself that will probably answer it clearly:

What is it that makes your family proud? What is your family known for? With what do you identify with first, second, third, etc?

Are you most proud to call yourself:

• a man or a woman
• Hispanic, Black, White, Asian
• College educated
• Republican or Democrat
• Self-made
• Man’s Man
• Independent
• Ecology conscious
• Cowboy, Texan, Spur, Longhorn, Aggie

What energizes you the most? When are you most offended? What part of your life do you DEFEND the most?

How you answer these questions defines your core identity(s) as a human.  We may not like it or want to agree with it, but it often surfaces and is often ugly.

In 1994, terror began in Rowanda when the president’s airplane crashed.  Over the next several months, Rwanda, “the most Christian country in Africa” with as much as 90 percent of the population claiming some Christian church affliation, suffered a genocide unlike any in recent history.  As many as 800,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered within a 100 day period.  The tension was between two tribes in Rwanda: the Hutus and Tutsis. Ordinary citizens hunted down those of a different tribe identity using household tools as weapons to mutilate and murder their own neighbors.

WAIT A MINUTE!  Wasn’t this country 90% Christian?

Lee Camp writes in his book Mere Discipleship that “Rwanda had often been cited as a case study for the success of Christian missions.  However, the genocide of the mid 90s demonstrated in a graphic and horrific way that the western Christianity imported into Africa had failed to make true disciples.”

Their identity was not first ‘a follower of Christ’ but instead their first identity was Hutu or Tutsi and when that was threaten, everything else didn’t matter.

We can look at that episode in Africa and say, ”Well that would never happen here.”  Oh really?

The history of America doesn’t look a whole lot different. We been from the North or the South.  “Christian White Men” bought and sold, beat and abused “Christian Black Men, Women, and children”.  After slavery was abolished, “Christian” men and Women continue to segregate and ostracize blacks because they identify more closely as a being white than being human.

I am amazed at the hatred and ugliness that people post online defending their political party, their moral choices, or religion.  While other so their so called brothers and sisters in the faith happen to be on the other side and suffer the anger and verbal vomit.

Jesus said in

John 17:21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

How do we become one?

Our first identifying factor must be the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We are FIRST believers and followers of Jesus.  What does that look like practically? How does our Family’s identity reflect the gospel first and foremost?

We do NOT want our family to be known as

• Ministers or churchy people
• Preachers or Theologians
• Blessed, Smart, Wealthy or Successful
• Holy people
• Conservative or Liberal

At PromiseLand San Marcos, we believe that our family should be known for LIVING OUT the Gospel.

• Forgiving without Merit (Mercy)

Romans 5:2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

What if your family took Jesus’ identity by issuing undeserved privilege to others?

Renee had 4 kids, 2 were twins. One of them, Megan was returning from beach.  Eric (24) killed both Megan and her friend in the wreck.  Renee was devastated. Her daughter was taken from her. Eric as sentenced to 22 years in prison.  Renee went on a mission. Traveling around schools and churches talking about drunk driving.  However, she was in a dark depression.  She realized she had not forgiven Eric.  She reached out to Eric in prison.  Eric said he couldn’t even forgive himself.  She forgave him, he met Jesus.  Not just Renee, but the rest of her family reached out to Eric and forgave him.  Now Eric is considered a part of the family. Renee and 11 of her family members went to the court and stood before the judge on Eric’s behalf. They were able to get Eric’s sentence cut in half to 11 years. Now, her and Eric go into schools and talk about the devastation of drunk driving and the power of forgiveness.

• Empowering Justice (Grace)

Isaiah 2:2 In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all–the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship… 4 The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes.  They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor study war anymore

God will make ALL things right.  To bring power to the weak.  To Give a voice to the speechless.

What if your family took Jesus’ identity by being the solution to the brokenness around you?

We felt called by God to move to our current neighborhood. We were thinking it will be so neat. We will go to our neighbors and borrow sugar, watch each others kids, and all sing kumabaya in the cul-de-sac.  Little did we know, that we were being dropped in on a war zone. Grown women calling each other names like 2^nd graders. Angry, Bitter, Broken,  Frustrated, Insecure.  He was calling us to BE A PART OF THE JUSTICE.

• Loving Unconditionally (Love)

“For God so loved the world that he GAVE…”

What if your family took Jesus’ identity by loving in every way?

When we see places that need justice, we often rise up with judgment and respond with violence.  What if our response was giving, serving, and loving those who disagree with us?

What is Martin Luther King known for? His Christ likeness.  He spoke to huge crowds like Jesus.  He had followers like Jesus.  However, from the early 1900s and 60s hundreds of blacks were being brutally beaten, hung and murdered. Because of the continual hate and prejudice of the past.

Martin Luther King’s Legacy or family Dynasty represents forgiveness and love in the face of horrendous evil.