The Generational Multiplier

0:00Generationally intentional: a week of answered prayer

Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, I’d invite you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11. Last week, we started a brand new two-week series called Generationally Intentional. This is one of the values of our church. This is the fourth value we’ve talked about, but we are generationally intentional as a church. We are not just focused on the next generation. We are mindful of every generation in the house of the Lord. We want everyone to receive ministry in a way that blesses them in this church. And obviously, that requires a little give and take, because sometimes the thing that’ll bless one generation won’t bless your generation, but don’t worry, we’re coming back around.

Amen. And so we’re a generationally intentional church. Last week, we talked about creating space for a refuge from the spirit of the age, because there’s an Athaliah spirit that is loose in every generation that is trying to prohibit the advancement of the kingdom of God. It’s trying to choke out the kingdom life of a generation, and we want to create space that’s a refuge from that spirit of the age. I also, last week, walked you through a tour of some areas of the building that need to be improved, fixed, addressed. Two things happened in the first 24 hours.

The first thing that happened is people started to give. We already have people that have given their vision offering for the year, and I will tell you this, at this point, the last time that I checked, we had more people who had sown into the vision offering that are not in our church than are in our church. We’ve had people from all over the nation sow seed into the kingdom offering or the vision offering this year, believing that God is going to do a great work in this house, and to y’all, we say thank you. We appreciate you. We honor you. Thank you for being part of what God is doing here.

Amen. And so that’s the first thing that happened within 24 hours. People began to give. The second thing that happened within 24 hours is we found out there were actually some more issues that need to be addressed in the building. When I got here, we were under the impression that we had a lot of old ceiling tiles that had old stains. The reason we thought this is, one, somebody put it in my mind, and I don’t know who that was, but shame on you, number one. Somebody put it in my brain. The second reason was, I don’t know if y’all realize this, but since I moved down here, either me or Ashleigh have shut up the windows of heaven, and it hadn’t rained since we got here.

Hadn’t rained at all till Monday when y’all all got a new pond out in front of your house, and so it just monsooned Monday, and when it started to do that, we found that there was quite a few leaks over in that children’s area. Your children are safe. If they come back in bathing suits at the end of service, we just made the most out of it. Amen, but your children are safe. They are in a safe environment, but we are going to have to address the leaks in the roof as well. We also have a leak back here that I have been aware of that we’re going to have to address.

This one back here is worse than anything that we have over in the children’s area, so we’re mindful of this. We’re going to be working on it, but I kind of just as these things came about this week, I started to feel a little like Caleb, and I was looking at it, and I just thought, well, we are well able to overcome it. Amen? Amen, so we’re able to do it. We’re going to make this thing happen in Jesus’ name. If you believe that, say amen this morning. In fact, I’ve had a strange week in that I’m very on mission right now with our church in terms of leading us in a direction.

I have a very clear pathway, but this week multiple times I have had thoughts come to me whether late at night while I was in bed or when I was engaging in a meeting or something, and I’ve had thoughts come to me, we need to do this, and I have had just a strange run of I’ll have an idea, and then a person who can make that happen will present themselves. No joke, I thought we need to do a certain type of ministry. I’m not telling y’all what it is because I’m not trying to get the cart before the horse here, okay? There’s plenty enough churches that have carts following their horses, amen, or carts in front of their horses.

I don’t know how to talk. Y’all just deal with it. Amen, but I thought I want to do this ministry, and then I got a message on Facebook from somebody who said, “We’re interested in coming to your church. We’ve had it on our heart to start this ministry.” I’m talking within moments. Thought something the other night, went to bed thinking it. Had someone show up at the church and do a drop-in on me, which I don’t normally do. I’m not the drop-in pastor. I’m the scheduled appointment pastor, amen, but he dropped in on me. Turns out specializes in the ministry I was thinking about the night before.

I’m having moment after moment like this, this week, and I’m just kind of getting where I think January could be real interesting around this place, amen, amen.

5:43The generational multiplier: Hebrews 11

This morning, what I want to talk to you about, continuing in this idea of being generationally intentional, I want to talk to you about the generational multiplier, the generational multiplier. I have noticed that if you can keep faith in a family long enough, it’s kind of like a snowball rolling down a hill. It just slowly gets bigger and bigger and more powerful and a greater force to be reckoned with the longer you can keep it in the family.

I want to talk to you about that this morning. If you’ll look with me at Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse 17, Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse 17, it says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.” Today, we’re going to look at the patriarchs of our faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then when we get to the end of this message, I’m going to show you something that is hidden in this text that the Holy Ghost had showed me one time while I was on the road, in fact. But you’re going to have to wait to the end. So, you know, buckle up. About to get good. Amen.

7:39God works through generations

But how many of you know that God works through generations? He’s not just the God of Abraham.

He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He works through generations. And I just thought I’d blast off a handful of scriptures to prove it to you this morning. Amen. Acts 2:39 says, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” The promise is for you, but it’s also for your children. Amen. Psalm 100 verse 5 says, “For the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.” God’s faithfulness goes from generation to generation. Hallelujah.

Psalm 102 verse 18 says, “Let this be recorded for a generation to come so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” It is our responsibility to keep a record of how God moves in our generation so that we can hand it to another. Somebody say amen. Psalm 103 verse 17 says, “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children.” The gospel is passed from generation to generation. The gospel is the account of the steadfast love of the Lord towards humanity. Psalm 145 verse 4 says, “One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.”

This is what I want you to hear, because we’re generationally intentional. We don’t just pass the things down that the Lord has done. We don’t just share how God has been good in the direction of the next generation, but when God moves in a younger generation, bless the Lord, it also is a blessing to a generation that’s come before. Amen. Some of you listen to me. Some of you are going to be blessed because you’ve been praying for your family, and a generation that came after you is going to be responsible for the generation that came after them that you’ve been praying for coming into the kingdom.

Hallelujah. You will reciprocate and you will be blessed by generational ministry. If you believe it, say amen. I got to calm down. I already feel like I’m ready to go. So the passing of faith happens from one generation to the next, and it happens through three different levels, and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. But the reason I want to talk to you about this specifically is obviously we are having our vision offering today, which I did not name that intentionally. In fact, I don’t know if we’ll do a vision offering in 2026. I just knew and I got up here a few weeks ago and told you, I believe I need to give you an opportunity to sow here at the end of the year, and I needed to have something to call it.

And that’s what I went with. Amen. Sometimes it’s real simple, guys. You just pulling out the best, you pull the thesaurus out and start naming stuff. Amen.

10:39Led by vision, not desire

But when I named that, I wasn’t thinking about this, but this week I got a phone call from a young minister. Let me say that differently. I got a call from a young man who is called to the ministry, and I have a sensitivity towards him for some reason. In fact, if I told you his name, you’d probably know who he is. But this young man, I genuinely believe he has the call of God on his life.

And this young man finds the ways to make the dumbest decisions he possibly can. And his life is in a spiraling cycle. He called me the other day. I actually brought him up in a board meeting and I called him the next day. And I was talking to this young man, and he starts telling me some things that he’s doing and the things he’s doing will make him feel happy. I’m talking about you right now, by the way, I hope you’re watching this message. I won’t say your name, but it’s Eric Jenkins. No, I’m just kidding. That was a guy I went to high school with.

But y’all were like, oh my God. Oh man. But he’s doing some things right now that are fulfilling and making him feel like he’s moving forward. And they’re not, they’re keeping him in a cycle. And the comment came out of my mouth, almost prophetically. I told him, I said, “You are being led in your life by your desire and not by vision.” And I’m just telling you, if you can lead your life by vision, you can actually get to a place you want to be. If you lead your life by desire, just doing the next thing that you want to do, that you want. I feel my preach coming on this morning and I am going to try to get through this content, but if you lead your life by your desire, you’re going to constantly find yourself back or behind your starting point, because it’s not going to work out again.

And it’s not going to work out again. And it’s not going to work out again. But if you can get some vision in your life, you can actually begin to move past some of the stuff. When it goes wrong, you can actually get a vision for your future. And the Bible says this, that after you’ve suffered for a little while, then he will establish you. But you got to have vision to do that. Because every time something goes wrong or something messes up, you’ll go back to the beginning spot of the bad decisions that you tend to make. So you need vision. You need vision.

And what I’m talking to you about this morning is vision for your family. It’s a generational multiplier. Sometimes you just have to get okay with the idea that it may not happen in my lifetime. It may not happen in my day. But if I’ll get a vision for what I want God to do in my family and I’ll start moving in the direction of that vision, God is faithful to do what he said he would do. Amen. Hallelujah. I heard, just happened to hear this quote this week by a man named John Morgan who started Morgan & Morgan law firm. If any of y’all been injured recently, y’all give them a call.

He can reciprocate for the quote here. But he said this, he’s a very simple man. He doesn’t take, he just, I think this year, crossed the billionaire list. And he’s not into any stuff. He’s like, I don’t want boats and houses and cars. And he said, “I’ll probably never buy a shirt or a suit again in my life.” He goes, “I’m not interested.” He said, “If it’s between filet mignon and a hamburger steak, I’m going to take a hamburger steak.” Just a real simple guy. So how do you get to that level without some type of other ambition?

Because it’s not selfishly motivated. And he said this, he said, “We’ve done this. We’ve been able to make all of this money. We’ve been able to generate all of this wealth because we’ve decided that the only thing that matters is tomorrow, not today.” My God, let that get down in your soul. So I want to talk to you about the three levels of the generational multiplier. If you’re ready, shout yes. Amen.

15:08Level one: generational influence

All right. Number one, number one is a generational inherit, or sorry, a generational influence. It’s a generational influence. We don’t all come from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob situations.

We don’t all come from a situation where because of our family, we grew up in church and we are saved. And I’m grateful that I wasn’t completely unaware that church existed, but I was raised far from the house of the Lord. I was raised in a house of turmoil and dysfunction. And so if it wasn’t for people who use some of their influence for the gospel, I wouldn’t be saved today. But because of them, Ashleigh and myself are both Abrahams in our family. We’re where it will begin because people use their influence for the gospel. And some of you have the same testimony where God just seemed to have drawn you out of a dysfunctional situation.

And you know, it’s the Lord, because you can’t figure out any other good reason that you’re saved today. But yet here you are serving the Lord, turning your family around. You’re an Abraham in your own family. And it happens not through a direct deposit. It doesn’t happen by people who give it directly to us, but it happens through kingdom minded people who have an influence for the gospel, an influence for the kingdom. And that influence happens different ways. Maybe it was the influence. Maybe somebody gave to something one day. Maybe it’s the influence that somebody had an idea one day for a ministry, or maybe it’s someone was kind to someone in the right moment.

For me, it was literally we had a ministry at our church who came and ate lunch with the kids at the middle school. I don’t know that they thought this would come from that, but it’s influence. It’s just using your influence. And so when we talk about Abraham, because we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, here’s a great question for you to tuck away for your own personal Bible study is where did Abraham’s faith come from? Because we know Joshua tells us that Terah, Abraham’s father, worshipped false gods. So he didn’t get it in the house. He didn’t get it at home.

So where did Abraham’s faith come from? Well, this is getting into a little bit of extra biblical literature, but many ancient Jewish teachers believe that Abraham learned about the one true God from either Noah or Noah’s son, Shem. Now we don’t often think about Noah and Abraham being alive at the same time because Noah was Abraham’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. That’s how old Noah was. Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. And Noah, however, was still alive for about the first 60 years of Abraham’s life.

So Abraham was into adulthood. Abraham was dealing with his inability to have a child while Noah was still alive. And people believe that at some point either Noah or his son Shem found a way to have influence with Abraham and start to tell him about the one who could solve the problem he had. You have an issue and we know the one. Let me tell you about when I had to build this boat. By the way, I started calling it that because we didn’t have a name for it before, right? Shem shared it with him. Shem shared the stories of what had happened on the ark and afterwards and seeing the world kind of come back to life after the great flood, and they began to tell him about the one true God.

And so even though it didn’t come directly through the family, it came through influence. And the great news is that even though there’s only one way to the Father, there are people in our city who do not come from a godly household, and there’s only one way to the Father, his name is Jesus Christ. But there’s many on ramps to Jesus Christ. Anybody in this room could be the conduit to see a generation of a family turned around, and it could start with an invite to Christmas. You never know what that kind of stuff is going to do. I’m not kidding. It sounds over the top, but it was a group of college-aged students in our church that came and had lunch with me at a middle school that got this.

What could you giving a Christmas invite card come out to? What could a kid sitting on Santa’s lap in our church end up with? What could just somebody seeing the inside of our building and a gospel presentation, how could it turn somebody’s family around? You ought to say amen before I harp on it any longer. Hallelujah. There’s many on ramps. So that’s through influence. There’s influence. It’s indirect and somehow it catches a person and they start the process of people coming to know the Lord in their family. They start the generational multiplier.

20:49Level two: generational inheritance

The second way is through generational inheritance.

Generational inheritance. The Bible says, Solomon said in Proverbs, that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children. And that is talking about more than wealth. But let me just toss this in real quick. You need to leave something behind for your family. Oh, I know what I need to talk about now. You need to leave something behind for your family. And it’s not that hard. I’m going to give everybody a little tip here. Okay. You need to get life insurance and you need to get a personal will. So when you pass away, nobody’s fighting over what is theirs.

I’ve watched brothers and sisters who were 65, 70 years old fight tooth and nail because mama couldn’t write it down. Y’all better wake up, or else, I’m for real, I’ll bring an attorney in here and have y’all start filling this stuff out before y’all leave. Amen. I’m serious. Y’all get this stuff handled, get life insurance. It’s very easy. No matter how old y’all are, you don’t have to have a million dollars to leave a million dollars. Amen. So leave your family behind with something, but it’s not only wealth. It’s also an inheritance of faith. We leave behind an inheritance of faith.

This is a direct deposit from one generation to another. This is when you see your kids give their life to Jesus Christ. And here’s two things that I would encourage you to do if you want to see that happen. Number one is you need to involve Jesus in the home. Involve Jesus in the home. Genesis chapter 18. I’m not going to read this. I have it, but I’m just going to tell you what it says. Genesis chapter 18, Abraham looks up one day and he sees the Lord walking towards his house with two other people. He sees it. And Abraham says, “I want you to come into my house.”

And they say, okay. And so he has Sarah bake a cake. That’s a good way to work. I want to see somebody come in with a cake next week for the Lord. Amen. And he says, bake a cake. And they sit down with the Lord. Some of y’all need your family to see that you sit down with the Lord in your home. You need to involve Jesus in the house. Church Jesus is not enough. It’s not enough. You want your kids to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the faith you have is not a social club that you’re involved with, but that it’s a real burning faith.

Hallelujah. Revelations chapter three, verse 20 — Revelation chapter three. I hate it when people put S’s on Revelations, and my Southern’s coming out here. Revelation chapter three, verse 20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I’ll come into him and eat with him, and him with me.” The King James says that when Jesus comes to the door, he says, “sup,” sup. That’s what Jesus says when he answers the door. Amen. You sup with me and I’ll sup with you. Hallelujah. But you’ve got to involve Jesus in the house.

Your kids need to see that Jesus isn’t just a Jesus at church. The second thing I’d encourage you to do is you need to trust the Lord with your kids. I think this is one of the hardest things for good, well-meaning, godly, Holy Ghost-filled people to understand is that you are not the Holy Spirit. You’re not the Holy Ghost. You have to trust the Lord with your kids. As Abraham, Hebrews 11 talked about this, but as Abraham goes to offer up Isaac to kill him in worship to the Lord, because the Lord had told him to. Now the Lord told him not to do it. He just wanted to see if he would.

Amen. But he’s taking him. He’s taking Isaac to kill him. And this is what Abraham says on the way, totally willing to do it. Abraham says, “God will provide a lamb.” God will provide a lamb. And I’m here to tell you this morning that your kids are going to go through a process. In fact, your kids are going to scare you silly at times. Your kids are going to do things that are going to have you so worried you’re not going to know what to do with yourself at times. But I’m here to tell you that if you’ll let God do his work and you’ll stop trying to be the Holy Ghost in their life, let the Lord work it out.

That’s a promise to you. Let the Lord work it out. I promise you there is a lamb for the sacrifice and his name is Jesus Christ. And that’s the lamb your kids are going to find. Somebody give him praise. Amen.

25:36The third generation

And I want to talk to you for just a moment kind of off of the pattern here. And I want to talk to you about where faith kind of becomes a real difficult thing to keep in the family. It typically happens during the third generation. If Abraham serves the Lord, Isaac is probably going to serve the Lord. Like, I pray for my children. I’m praying for Jocelyn and Ali that faith will get in them in a way that is very real.

But they’re living in a different environment that we grew up in. But they hear the stories about how we grew up so much that I know they know that the Lord has done a work. And so if Abraham serves the Lord, Isaac will probably serve the Lord. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying that it’s without consequence. I’m just saying that it’s probably going to happen. However, when you get down to Jacob, it can have a tendency to fall off. We see this pattern throughout the whole Bible. Just a handful of examples. You’ve got Elijah, Elisha, and then Gehazi.

Elijah is a prophet. Elisha does double the miracles that Elijah does. And then Gehazi is a prophet who is only out for selfish gain. The third generation falls apart. You have Moses, Joshua, and I don’t even have a name to give you. That’s how much it falls apart. And the whole nation of Israel goes and they serve other gods. They step into the greatest fulfillment of the promise that any of them had ever seen and they run off and worship idols. Because it falls apart in the third generation. Here’s a more familial one. David, Solomon, Rehoboam. David is the king.

He’s a man after God’s own heart. He’s the one who Jesus sits on his throne spiritually. So you’ve got David and you’ve got Solomon who’s the wisest man who ever lived. The wealthiest man who ever lived. And then you have Rehoboam who within three days had split the kingdom that his grandfather and his father had built. Falls apart in the third generation. But we also see power in the third generation. Take for instance Timothy, who traveled with the apostle Paul, who was the bishop of Ephesus. A major figure in the early church. He got his faith from his grandmother Lois.

I’m actually grandmother Lois’s pastor. Amen. Hallelujah. Her and Santa come to this church. Amen. Hallelujah. And so his grandmother Lois, his mother Eunice, and then he stepped into that leadership role in the early church. It took off in the third generation. And obviously we see it with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who has 12 sons. He is the core of the nation of Israel. He is the core of how God moved in ancient times through Jesus Christ coming and paying the price for our sins. And one reason I think this happens in the third generation is that the enemy sees the potential so there’s great attack on it.

But if I was to de-escalate the spiritualizing of it, I actually think that generation just has some unique challenges. It is much easier when you’re that far in the lineage of faith to trade an authentic experience for grandmama’s stories. To just come to church because daddy wants me to rather than to have a real faith that resonates inside of me. In fact, I would say it this way. It’s very easy once you get down to the third generation for a family to start trading the garment of praise for the spiritual coattails of somebody else who came before them.

And they don’t get down and do business with God. And we see this with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Genesis chapter 12 starting in verse 1 it says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I’ll show you, and I’ll make you a great nation. I’ll bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. And I’ll bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” Right here Abraham gets a word from God and he follows it.

Abraham gets a personal word from God. Genesis chapter 26 in verse 1 it says, “Now there was a famine in the land besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and I’ll bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I’ll establish the oath that I swore to Abraham.’” Isaac gets a personal word from God, and just to let you know that it was a personal word, it was a different word than what his daddy had.

Abraham got to go, Isaac got to stay. It’s a different word. It’s a personal word from God. Genesis chapter 28 verse 1 says, “Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, ‘You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as a wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.’” So Abraham gets a personal word from God. Isaac gets a personal word from God, and Jacob gets a word from Isaac. Jacob leans on his father’s faith, not his own personal faith.

It’s easy to trade the garment of praise for the coattails of your family members. I like to write in my Bible. I’m open to, I write it all in my Bible. I call that tearing up your Bible. You need to tear up your Bible. You don’t need to tear up your Bible but you need to tear up your Bible. Amen. I like to write in my Bible, and part of the writing in the Bible community, one of the things they talk about a lot, because there’s other people that like to write in their Bible and I’m friends with them, they always talk about taking a Bible, writing a bunch of notes in it and passing it on to your kids, and I think that’s super sweet.

I think that’s sweet, but I don’t want my kids to get this Bible. I mean they will. This isn’t what I’m, I’m not trying to hand them this. I’m trying to hand my kids the passion and the relationship with the Lord that drives them to tear up their own Bibles in Jesus’ name. In fact when they get this Bible I want them to go, “You know, I like this, but it just ain’t got the stuff mine’s got in it.” Hallelujah. I’m trying to pass that thing on, a real relationship. But part of that, I said this earlier, you’ve got to let your kids go through the process. You have to let your kids go through the process, because it took Jacob 20 years, but there was a point when Jacob got down and he did business with the Lord and he wrestled with his faith and he came out with a brand new name.

Somebody ought to say amen right there. You got to give them time. You got to let them go through the process and it’s all going to work out because God is good.

33:13The fourth generation: Joseph

So I want to go back to Hebrews chapter 11. We started here, Hebrews 11 verse 17. I want to show you what I saw. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 17 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, for which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.” Everywhere in the Bible we are told about either the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We always see this grouping of three throughout all of scripture, except right here in Hebrews where we are shown that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

And Joseph, not three generations but four. And I was reading this one day and I saw a pattern here, that Abraham had one son, he blesses one son. Isaac had two sons, he blesses two sons. Jacob had grandsons and he blessed his grandsons. But once they got it through that third generation Joseph was able to bless centuries of generations. Almost 400 years that the people of Israel were holding on to the promise of God that had been foreshadowed to Abraham but also to Joseph. That they would be in bondage and in slavery. But there is a day coming that God is going to bring you out, and it was nearly 10 generations that held this word that Joseph had.

35:31Level three: generational legacy

Number three, what we’re talking about is generational legacy. Legacy. This is why you got to get a vision for your life, because I believe that you can see in your family a dynasty of born-again, Spirit-filled offspring emerge. I’m not talking about one person in the family serves the Lord with you. I’m not talking about grandma and this grandson over here both in church. I’m talking about a moment that you stick with God long enough that you see family members that you don’t even know exist because you’re looking down from heaven and they’re still serving the Lord.

I’m talking about generational legacy for the kingdom. Hallelujah. I’m excited about it even if you aren’t. Talking about generational legacy. Something that goes on and on and on. An Energizer bunny anointing, keeps going and going. Talking about a long line. Your children can be saved. Your grandchildren can be saved, and something can happen in this time with your family that your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandkids can be serving the Lord too. Amen. Talking about generational legacy, and I just want to encourage somebody this morning.

I do feel this in my spirit, that maybe you feel like you’ve messed up with your kids, and maybe you feel like you’ve gotten off track at some point and you got away from doing what you need to do with your kids. Let me tell you something about kids. Let me encourage you. The wrong decision with your kids is real easy to get into. It’s going to happen. You’re going to mess up with your kids. But if God, rich in his mercy, would send his only son Jesus Christ to the cross, I’m telling you, if he’ll shed his blood for you to be redeemed, God can do a great work in your children’s lives as well.

Not because of your mistakes but because of his goodness and his power and his rich mercy. Hallelujah. I’m going to tell you right now, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 there is therefore now no condemnation. Some of you need to stop worrying about the bad decisions you made with your kids and you need to start worrying about the decisions you’re making today. It’s not about, well, I didn’t have my kids in church, and, oh well, we never did family devotion, oh, and I didn’t pray with my kids. No. How do you get Jesus in the house today? How do you do? That’s where you pick up, and it all starts with where you are now. And I would ask you, where are you standing in the generational legacy of your church or your family?

Where are you standing in the lineage of faith that’s developing? Are you an Abraham? Are you taking Jesus into the house? I think as Abrahams we struggled with this, because we were raised in a home that was so funky that just as long as it ain’t going crazy in the house, I don’t have to have — and listen, it don’t have to be over the top, and I’m not saying that I’m doing it right, but let me just tell you, we don’t do family devotional around the dinner table. We don’t watch small group curriculum with the kids. But I’ll tell you this, we pray. There’s Bibles all over the living room and they’re usually sitting open, and we watch a lot of preaching and we listen to a lot of podcasts. And if they get in the car with me they know they’re probably going to hear something that’s got something to do with Jesus, and if they get in the car with their mother they’re going to hear 90s gangster rap, amen. But don’t worry, I’m working on it. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

Sorry about that. But no, I’ll tell you, just what are you doing to bring the Lord in the house? You won’t do it all right, but you can do something right. You can do something right. Are you keeping them in church? Are you getting them here? Just get them here. If they’re young enough, make them come. If they eat your food, make them come. If they use your gas money, make them come. They make you do stuff. Jocelyn had me running all over Alabama the last few days, okay. I just sat out in 40 degree weather for four hours for this child. Hey, get up, we’re going to church. Amen. Some days we’re just going to do it.

Are you an Isaac? Are you holding the standard? Are you holding the standard? Are you giving in on every little thing? Are you holding the standard in your family? Are you a Jacob? Are you doing business with God? And listen to me, if you’re here this morning and your family’s been in the faith for a long time, I’m going to ask you this: have you had a real encounter with a real Jesus, or have you just been coming to church and singing the songs, and you kind of know how to do it, and you go home and it makes me all happy, and so I’ll do it? Or have you taken the moment to wrestle with God, taken the moment to do business with the Lord? If you haven’t, I’m telling you, you think you know how good it is. If you’ll get honest with the Lord and let him actually infiltrate every area of your life, everything about you, your relationships, your job, your income, your faith, your hope, it’ll all go to the next level in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Are you a Joseph? Are you carrying the legacy? Are you carrying the prophetic vision for your family? Have you said over your family, “No, we are going to serve the Lord, and we’ll do it for generation after generation after generation”? Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. I feel like we’re about to step into something in the next few months that I don’t know how to just, I don’t know how to describe it. God’s about to do a great work here. Some of y’all are going to see some stuff that you’ve been praying for for years. It’s about to happen. We’re in a unique season where we can cast different bait. In every season of change you get a window of opportunities. You just get a window of opportunities. You can do things and say things that you may not ever been able to do before.

You don’t have to always sell everything that’s going on. If it’ll get your kids to come to church, I don’t have to be anointed, tell them I’m funny. If they’ll get your kids to come to church, tell them, “Hey, every time we do worship it’s awesome.” I had somebody write a message in one day. They said, “We don’t like doing lots of songs.” Okay, well, you get to decide when you answer that question if it’s a lot or not. You don’t have to tell them how many we sing. Just, “Oh, we don’t do a lot.” They say, “We like a lot of worship.” “Oh, we do a lot.” You get to make the decision. What things are changing? Hey, a lot is happening in our church, you should come check it out. Even if stuff ain’t changing — we’re about to change the seats out a little bit. We’re putting them where all the backs have the plastic things on them, and we’re taking the ones out that don’t have the plastic. But stuff’s changing. All you got to tell them, stuff’s changing, why don’t you come see it? Stuff’s happening.

But we’re in a season where we can use the opportunities that God is giving us to see a return we’ve been praying for. Use everything. Exploit it all. Your kids shall be saved. I think that’s a word. Exploit it all. We’ve given you Christmas cards to invite people. I will tell you, I’d be shocked if y’all have taken 33 of them. Exploit the cards. Take a hundred of them and do something. I don’t even care what you do with them. Just drizzle them all at the entry at Rouses. I don’t care, just do something. But do it in faith. Pray in tongues while you do it, that’ll be better. But take advantage of it.

We’re about to have an opportunity here in a few minutes to sow. Some of you can sow into the next level. You can sow change into your life. Another church today is doing a vision offering. They’re calling it something different, but they’re doing it. There are pastors from all over the nation who are flying in to give in their vision offering because they’re believing God to do something in their church. There is a power to sowing. If you have a need, there’s a seed for that need. I want you to lift your hands all across the room and I want to pray for you this morning, especially for those of you who are not sure how you’re going to see your family come to know the Lord. The good news is you don’t have to see it, you just have to receive it.

Heavenly Father, I ask you right now that you would, in your rich mercy, that you would set the peace that passes all understanding on every parent and grandparent and person who is believing for a breakthrough in their family, for generational blessing and generational salvation and generational kingdom work, generational influence, inheritance, legacy. God, I pray that you would begin to reassure every person who’s believing for that, that you are faithful to your promise, that you do what you said you would do, and that this morning the word in the house is that you and your family shall be saved. Father, we thank you for people who have been faithful, faithful in serving you, faithful in bringing you into their house, faithful in seeking your face. And God, I ask you that every tear that has been sown in prayer would be reciprocated today with generations of family members coming to know you and carrying the legacy of faith. Father, I pray for every lost son, daughter, grandson and granddaughter today. We declare that they shall be saved. And Father, we ask that we’ll see it in our lifetime. Every family member that someone in this room is praying for, God, we pray right now and we declare right now that they will see it in their lifetime, that that person shall be saved. We call prophetically every far-off family member, every prodigal family member, to come home in this season, in Jesus’ name. Amen.