-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Thank you for joining me. Welcome to the cafe today.
00:41 Hope you’re doing good. Today we are discussing God and children. You know, we are the children of God when we’re born again.
00:46 And that comes with great responsibility, but also comes with great blessing. The proverb, actually, I’ve been thinking about doing Lord put on my heart to do a few messages on children.
01:01 And then last night we were in the Proverbs 13:22 in this verse fits so well, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
01:17 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children, the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So we see in Proverbs 13:22, several very important principles. It’s almost a message that could preach itself.
01:31 Amen. A good man. What’s a good man? What does it mean to be good? It means to be rooted in Christ.
01:43 We know that none are good without Christ, Jesus himself, when someone called him good master in the Bible, he said none are good, but my father, amen. And we realize that our righteousness without Christ is an offense to God. Amen.
01:55 I’ve heard great preaching on this, how the devil can be involved in righteous deeds, making man confused and triggering man into thinking that righteousness doesn’t have to be fully connected with God, that God can be absent and man can still be righteous.
02:09 Isn’t that how the atheists and agnostics live today? But God teaches us that all righteousness comes from him. And that without him, we can do nothing.
02:15 The Bible says that our righteousness is like filthy rags, the Bible says. So what does it mean to be a good man? I always do this when when the Bible instructs something about being good, I always are righteous. I always point back to being rooted in Christ.
02:33 We have to be rooted in Christ because when we are rooted in Christ, when we have his sinless robes applied to us through the precious blood of the lamb, and we are rooted in Christ, then we are living good.
02:45 Then we can say we are good. And when people say, well, why are you good? We can say, well, it’s nothing that we’ve done.
02:51 We’re just sinful man. But it’s all that Christ has done. And it’s Christ living within us.
02:56 Remember, when we’re born again, we get the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, the Holy Spirit, that’s part of the Holy Trinity.
03:01 That’s God. Is he not good? He is good. Amen.
03:06 The Holy Spirit is good. It’s a he. He is good.
03:10 And he’s living in us. Amen. And he is good.
03:14 So we are good when we are rooted in Christ. So a good man leaves inheritance to his children’s children. Who are the children’s children? That would be the grandchildren.
03:21 And now the Bible speaks of what a joy it is to have grandchildren. And you see that in the eyes of the grandparents when they’re around their grandchildren. And I love my kids.
03:32 And I get the idea that sometimes my love for my kids can be clouded by when they act bad, or when they get into trouble, or all these things happen. And the grandparents come along, and they just want to love on the kids.
03:45 And they oftentimes don’t have to really deal with the discipline and all these other things.
03:54 They just love on them. And just they get great joy from being with them. And I know some grandparents raise their grandchildren.
03:58 And so that’s a different story. And I know that they also love their grandchildren greatly. Here we have a good man leave with an inheritance to his children’s children.
04:04 And we see that in this proverb, Proverb 13:22, being good means being rooted in Christ, and leaving inheritance to our children’s children, our grandchildren, means leaving something lasting, the idea of generational wealth, and that wealth may or may not be material wealth.
04:25 You know, I think that this proverb probably addresses the idea that a good man leaves an inheritance to children’s children spiritually, right? And I’m not talking about just passing down the family Bible.
04:37 I’m talking about about passing down what’s in that family Bible, amen, passing down those lessons, passing down the scriptures, passing down most importantly, that salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone, and Jesus Christ alone.
04:50 And that can be generational. And I pointed out some contemporary examples of generational blessings of you’ll see a preacher and their sons, a preacher and their grandsons, a preacher, and you see fruit being born there spiritually. And you see households that are coming together in unity.
05:12 It’s not perfect here on this earth, even for the godly, of course, it’s not. Hey, if you’re godly, and you’re living on this earth, it’s probably harder for you, because Satan is constantly attacking you. But Satan’s power is limited, amen, and God’s power is infinite.
05:25 He is sovereign, amen. And he tells us in his word here in Proverb 1322, that he is going to bless a good man and leave an inheritance to his children’s children. The idea of godly living can leave lasting impressions generational.
05:42 In the Bible, we see this play out with Abraham, who has Isaac, amen, and then Jacob. And we’ve studied in our church here, we’ve studied Abraham, the life of Abraham, the life of Isaac, and we’re studying now the life of Jacob. And we’re seeing this fruitful experience passed down.
06:03 And of course, Abraham was very rich. So there’s also material wealth being passed down from generation to generation. And they were very blessed by God in all ways and in all things.
06:14 And you see that especially, I believe it was Isaac as he tarried there in the land, and he would come upon a well, and they would have water. And you may read that and say, oh, it’s just a well.
06:27 But in those times, a well was like opening up an ATM and just letting all the money roll out infinitely, because a well meant water for the cattle, which meant you had cattle that could live and survive and thrive.
06:38 And the well meant water for the crops, which means you have food to live off of. And then also, you could sell the crops, you could sell the cattle. So a well was a huge deal, hard to find in those desert-like areas out there.
06:46 And yet, Isaac continued to find them and give God glory. And we just see it on and on, even to Jacob when there was famine in the land, and the boys go off to Egypt, and they discover Joseph.
07:06 They don’t even know it’s Joseph, but he has them come there, and they’re richly blessed for coming there.
07:09 So we see that over and over again, that the children’s children of the godly will be blessed. And we see also this idea of aging gracefully in God. Think of the timing of someone leaving something for their grandchildren.
07:20 They’re older, they’re in a later season of life. God has blessed you enough to leave something to your grandchildren. And he gives you strength to persevere and prosper in this wicked world.
07:37 And it’s all God that gets the glory here, 2 Corinthians 4:16, for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man isrenewed day by day. Who’s renewing that inward man? That’s by the working of the Holy Spirit, by God himself.
07:53 Psalm 92:14, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fatand flourishing. Oh, I love Psalm 92:14 because it uses fat in a good way.
08:07 Psalm 92:14 lets fat be a compliment. Amen, I like that. They shall bring forth fruit in old age.
08:18 They shall be fat and flourishing. And oh, how we are able to bear fruit for God when we live for him, even in old age. It makes me think of an older saint of God involved in a ministry, and he’s up there in age, and he goes there every day to do his work in the ministry.
08:30 And every day I see God’s blessing on that man’s life, and I see peace and joy in his heart, and he’s got a good marriage, and he’s a happy man.
08:35 No, his life is not perfect, but he’s still bearing fruit for God in old age. And that’s what that Psalm 92.14 is saying.
08:38 Isaiah 40:31, very familiar verse, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
08:47 They shall walk and not faint. Again, we deal with here again, God renewing the strength of those that wait upon the Lord.
08:57 And I think of waiting upon the Lord is, yes, we’re waiting for him to return, but also the idea of waiting on the Lord as in serving, as in serving God.
09:04 You know, a waiter, a waitress, they are working hard. If you’ve ever done that profession as I have, amen, you know, it is hard work. You walk and walk and walk.
09:12 Thank the Lord. He had me do that when I was young and spry and wanting to walk and move around all the time. Now I’m a little bit older, a little bit more tired, a little more brittle.
09:23 But that job is hard, but it’s very rewarding. And you go home a lot of times, and you feel tired, but you feel like you accomplished something. It’s really neat.
09:31 And you get to connect with a lot of people. And those that wait along, wait for the Lord and serve the Lord and live for him, he will come and renew your strength.
09:40 I can testify personally, there are days that I get up and I say, oh, Lord, how am I going to work a job and take care of my family and preach your gospel? Oh, I don’t know what to do, but I know I’ll just put you first, Lord, and you’re going to bless and you’re going to see fit to do your will in my life and to use me as you see fit.
09:57 And I praise God that he renews my strength every day. And I see it in others. I see it in others.
10:02 And finally here, it wouldn’t be appropriate not to mention the latter part of this verse. And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So we see here, a good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren.
10:13 And the wealth of a sinner is laid up for the just. This is the idea of how God deals with the sinner, the idea of recompense. The sinner is rewarded, if you will, for their transgressions with the redistribution of their wealth to the just.
10:32 The Bible is full of it. There is prayers there, I want to say, in the Psalms, especially in God’s word of asking God to return that wickedness to the wicked person back to them.
10:41 There are pieces in the latter books of the New Testament where God returns the wickedness to the sinner and to the wicked, the ungodly, those that have blasphemed him.
10:53 Oh, how his wrath is poured out upon them. I’m thinking of the book of Revelation there.
11:07 And we see God’s recompense, or the idea of, and a simple idea I gave to our kids last night, and I think this was generally what I said, if you were in your heart wanting to steal something from someone, let’s say money,
11:13 and you went to that person and you stole that money from that person, totally with no reason to do it, amen, God would see fit that you will have your money stolen from you, if not more, right?
11:23 God will say, okay, you’re going to steal from this innocent person? Well, I’m going to recompense that, and I’m going to have everything stolen from you, and probably more, right?
11:33 And that money that’s stolen, that you stole, that’s stolen from you, is going to go right back to someone that is living for God, amen. That is the truth.
11:44 God will redistribute all of the wealth gained inappropriately, I believe that. There’s good articles on that by Bible scholars.
11:52 I always tell my church, one day I want to preach on how the Word says God will do that, but I believe clearly there is a thread, a common thread throughout Scripture of God’s judgment on the sinner, and that idea of recompense, or that idea of repayment.
12:08 I’ve heard great preaching on this. People say, oh, well, why would a loving God let someone go to hell if they reject that free gift of salvation?
12:23 And the preacher will often say something to the extent of, well, he is not forcing them to go to hell, he is honoring their choice, right?
12:39 He’ll let them go to hell with great heartbreak for them, because he loves all—the Bible says that God desires all to come to repentance, to all to come to that knowledge of salvation. And again, we know to be saved, it only involves by faith, and you have to have faith and truly believe, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
12:45 And when you believe on Christ as and you accept Him, you then have salvation. You have the Holy Spirit living within you, and you have God’s blessings upon your life.
12:57 And if you reject that free gift of salvation, you are going to hell, which is prepared for the devil and the fallen angels that followed him.
13:04 That is not where God wants you, but He’s honoring your decision. He gives us free will. Won’t you decide to sell out to Christ today, to give your life to the Lord, to live for Him? His blessings are so sweet.
13:25 He promises in His Word to never leave you nor forsake you. He lets you know that the godly man or woman leaves an inheritance to their grandchildren. Amen.
13:28 He helps you along life’s journey. He delivers you from endless amounts of snares and trouble. He promises you that one day there’s a reward in heaven for you, and great is that reward.
13:39 He gives you such great promises in His Word. Sell out to Him today. Say, Lord, I accept You as Savior, and Lord, I want to serve You with my whole heart.
13:50 I don’t want to be half in. I don’t want to be lukewarm. I want to live for You wholly and entirely because that is the sweetest, best way I will ever live.
13:59 Give praise to His name. Tell others about the goodness of Jesus. Stay in the Word to understand these great truths, these great promises, and apply them to your heart and live them out each day.
14:12 Thank you for listening. Take care, and God bless.