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In this series, we are tackling 6 of the biggest issues wrecking our homes:

Money, being single, raising kids, marriage, divorce.  There is an enemy out there trying to destroy your home.

HOME-the place in which your domestic affections are centered. (dictionary.com)

At PromiseLand San Marcos, we want to help you and anyone else that will listen to find the TRUTH from Jesus so that your home will not be wrecked by the lies of this culture.

Jesus said it like this:

Matthew 7:24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

Today, we are going to talk about what will happen when you leave.  You are going to leave. At some point, you will leave this earth. Then what?  Will your home stand after you are gone?  When you have passed from this earth, what will be left?  We call this a legacy.

When most people think about passing something down to loved ones, they think about the property, the house. Who is getting the car? Who is getting the jewelry or the guns or the antique?

However, we are talking about a different type of legacy than personal possessions. We are talking about a way of life. A Home Culture.

What type of home culture or foundation are you leaving your family right now?  We are ALL right in the middle of passing down something to the next generation. It is not a question of if you will pass something down. The question is: WHAT are you currently passing down? Most likely you are passing down what ever was passed to you

We all have been GIVEN a heritage. We will all LEAVE a legacy.

WHERE WE HAVE COME FROM IS OUR HERITAGE.  A heritage is the spiritual, emotional, and social legacy that you received from whomever raised you  .  .  .  good or bad.

We cannot deny the ties of biology and identity that tie us to our parents and their parents, going back for generations. Your connections to preceding generations can bring the good or the bad.

WHAT DID WE INHERIT?

How we talk, walk, cook, eat, exercise, smile, laugh, see and understand God, How we treat our kids, how we treat our spouse, how we work, how we view the world, how we see other skin colors, how we value education, how we approach a difficult situation, what kind of faith we have, how we value family, how we view moms and dads roles…

Many in the room today were handed a pattern or cycle of negativity. For generations there has been: addiction, abuse, poverty, jealousy, racism. Some come from a long line of workaholics, cheaters, arrogant/prideful judges (judgmental).

Without even knowing it, we begin to pass down traits like this to our kids and stepkids.

Kids say the darndist things, don’t they? No. They say what we say. They repeat what we say. They repeat how we treat our wife. They repeat how we deal with our problems.

The anger, fear, frustration, bitterness that you were hated as a kid and promised never to participate in has somehow become your nature and now you are passing it on to the next generation. Sometimes we wake up in the middle of these situations almost like we have had a bad dream and think, what I have I done? I am becoming just like my dad. I am sounding just like my mom.

The good news today, is that we can reverse the curse through Jesus Christ. He did not come into the world to save you and leave you like that. He came to redeem you from your past and set you up for a new future: That your home might be on a firm foundation AND that your kids will carry on that firm foundation long after you are gone.

Our hope in Christ not only provides the way out of an ungodly HERITAGE but also empowers us to establish a Godly LEGACY.

Writer Ring Lardner: “The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.”

God is calling us to Leave a Christ-Like Legacy!

Proverbs 17:6 Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Peter said it like this:

2 Peter 1:12 Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. 13 And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live. 14 For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, 15 so I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone.

HOW DO WE BUILD A LEGACY?

1. Acknowledge Your Heritage

Come to terms with what you have been given. Admitting what our heritage is can be one of the toughest things to do. Why? Because we have a bond with our family. We love our family. However, we need to identify what parts of our heritage are not a firm foundation. We need to discover what cycles need to be broken in our family culture.

• How we process Anger
• How we process Fear
• How we deal with Pressure
• How we express our Feelings

2. Accept Your Responsibility

You matter. What you do matters.

Stop thinking that kids are resilient and that they will bounce back, they will not remember or that it is good for them to be toughened up.

Sometimes we feel ourselves slipping back in to the old nature (daisy). We trust in Jesus to clean the closets of our heritage.

3. Create Relationships with Mentors.

Find someone you want to be like and learn from them. Have them download a new operating system into your life. Talk to them. Ask them questions. Take them to dinner or coffee. Spend money. Put your treasure there.

I found pastors that I admired and I emailed them, stalked them until I got their phone numbers, texted them, sent them money. INVEST in me! HELP me!

You need to sow where you want to go. Find someone that is in a place where you want to go and started sowing there.

This church is filled with godly men and women that are needing people to disciple. Small groups are the easiest way to find some of these people. “I tried a small group and didn’t really like it. It quit meeting. FIND ANOTHER ONE. TRY AGAIN.

1 Peter 5:2 (Elders) Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God…5 In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

4. Start Now!

Stop putting it off. It is not too early. It is not too late.

SELF DISCIPLINE – make changes when you do not feel like it. When you do not want to do it for yourself, do it for your kids.

Having active parents makes a difference!

• Children with Fathers who are involved are 70% less likely to drop out of school, are more likely to get A’s in school, are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities are more likely to avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.
• Adolescent girls raised in a 2 parent home with involved Fathers are significantly less likely to be sexually active than girls raised without involved Fathers.

By walking with Christ, we can do what is against all odds, humanly speaking. As believers, we have the presence of God’s Spirit to guide us to change, so the legacy we write in others’ lives can be godly.