26 Jul 2009  LIVING A LEGACY  AND LEAVING A LEGACY

Pastor Bernard Foo

What do you want to leave  your children  when you are gone. We all have dreams for our children and our family.

In my case, I have 2 boys who are gifts from God-  I have dreams for them to fulfil their dreams- in the field of missions to  heal the sick and help drug addicts. .etc. I have dreams for the church and churches we planted from Philippines, Bangladesh to Indonesia..etc.  In my own life, when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer 3 years ago, there was such a sense and feeling of loss when the doctor broke the news. God is Jehovah Rapha. 

In the true story of a boy rescue from the plane crash in San Gabriel  Mountains in Ontario, he simply says, ” I am alive because my dad teach me never to give up.”

In another story of a remote tribe in India, a village chief experience many deaths within the family – son, daughter-in-law..etc  When they start to  hear the name of Jesus, however, the deaths stopped.

 Deut 6:4-12

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

 ¹⁰ When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

We are living in end times- and the signs are around us. The sense of purpose of living is almost void. This is materialistic generation. There is a deprivation of healthy self worth, of good and Godly discipline and divine direction based on God’s instruction and God’s purpose.

2^nd Timothy  3:1-5

Godlessness in the Last Days

 ¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

HOW CAN YOU AND I -AS PARENTS PLAY OUR PART to instill healthy self worth. Parents are the first teacher. We need to instill the Father-God-Love in our children. Jesus save us to take us out of hell – more than that- he came to call us into sonship with the Father. We may not fully understand how as a young boy- we found God or God found us.  In their walk with God, young people and children often suffers from image and identity problems as they try to relate to others, as well as the expectations of others – parents, siblings, relatives, teacher, classmates and others. They are demoralized by failures, poor social communication, name calling and hurts..etc.  Sometimes children are let down by their parents- their earthly father.

We need to teach them to come to Jesus and come to the Father so they have the right sense of identity. We need to instill Father God love to give them the self worth and encourage them to walk with God to have the sense of security.

Galatian 4:4

⁴But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ⁶Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba,^[a] Father." ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Rm 8 :15

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.^[g] And by him we cry, "Abba,^[h] Father." ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

 Psalms 68:5

 ⁵ A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
       is God in his holy dwelling.

 Psalms 103:13

 ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
       so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Isaiah 63:16

 ¹⁶ But you are our Father,
       though Abraham does not know us
       or Israel acknowledge us;
       you, O LORD, are our Father,
       our Redeemer from of old is your name.  

Matt 7:9-11

⁹"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Next, we look at dysfunctional family for different reasons. Sometimes, parents drive children to perform, to be the best of the best so much that they become slaves to perform. We may push the children over the edge – and scared them and the impact of a failure can devastate the sense of security and self worth.  In other situations, the discovery of some dark secrets, ill treatment, extra marital affairs..e.g father having another family, mistress, lover..etc can have a big impact on the children. We need to bring our focus back to Father God  is love. Love is His nature- He is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, truth..etc  His love is constant and not affected by situations, feelings or other conditions. He rescues us more than He judge. Father God can give us the identity in Christ and restore us back- so we can start to reconcile and move forward in our lives.

In old testament times, it is so important to do things right in the sight of God. We can look at the lives of Kind David  and Joseph to learn about our own relationships to our father as well as father with their children.

Father should not be biased against /towards any child because of his weakness or problems (David was omitted in the lineup when prophet Jesse came to his household). We also see David’s own son Absalom wanted to kill him. We need to start treating all our children equally- as God forgave us and covered us.

In Joseph’s case, he suffered a great deal and was sold off. His dream and vision,  and his rightful relationship with his father was a source of his strength, his deep love  – in his upright life.   

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