All right, welcome back. And if you're watching online,
so glad that you're here with us at North Life Church this
morning or maybe sometime in the near future.
And if you are watching online, then we want to encourage you to
come and be with us in person. Come worship with us in person
at 115 E Main St. and Gaylord, right in the heart of the old
Alpine Village. This is your invitation.
Would love to see you worshipping with us sometime
soon. All right, again, notes are
available on the back table if you want to grab those.
If we run out, we'll print more. But there's you should be good
for what is back there. And I'm continuing a message
this week that I started last week and apologize.
Last week we had some glitches with our online live stream, but
our volunteer team did a great job this week coming in and
getting it figured out. So thank you to them.
So last week's message is not online.
So for those of you who missed it, I'm going to offer a little
bit more review this morning than I typically would.
But I want to make sure that you understand if you weren't here
last week or if you're not able to watch it online, I want to be
sure that you get what we talked about last week.
If you have your Bibles, please take them and turn to Numbers,
Numbers chapter 16. And Numbers is very early in
your Bible. It is about maybe 10 or I don't
know, 8% through depending on what you have in the back of
your Bible and maps and concordances.
Your Bible is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges, Ruth are the early books.
So Numbers, you can find it in that context, Numbers chapter
16. And as you're turning there, let
me just explain to you that as as the pastor at our church, I
do carry it very seriously on this idea of like teaching the
full magnitude of Scripture as best as we can.
And what do I mean by that? Well, I mean that sometimes
there are some Christians who only focus on what one might
call the red letters. And maybe you've heard that
before there. They might even call themselves
red letter Christians. And they focus pretty much
solely on the teachings of Jesus and they negate the Old
Testament and even other teachings in the New Testament
that it's very concerning to me. So not only do we focus on the
New Testament, the teachings of Jesus, but the the book of Acts
and the other letters. But also I want to be very
intentional about being open and mining truth from the Old
Testament because Jesus quoted the Old Testament, referenced it
numerous times. Because of that and other
reasons, we believe that the Old Testament is also inspired by
God and is valuable in our relationship and our pursuit of
Jesus. So I intentionally make sure
sometimes I'm in the Old Testament, sometimes I'm in the
New Testament, the teachings of Jesus, the letters, sometimes
the prophets, sometimes the Psalms.
This morning will be mostly in the Old Testament.
And I hope that this is inspiring and grows in you an
understanding of a great story in the Old Testament that you
might not have been aware. This story finds its way in the
tapestry of the Old Testament and seeing how it lands, it's a
very inspiring story that is valuable, valuable, valuable.
OK, so Numbers chapter 16 and I'm going to start in verse one
and it says now Korra, the son of Izar, the son of Kohath, the
son of Levi and Dathan, and a Byram, the sons of Eliab, and
the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men and they rose
up before Moses with the number of people of Israel, 250 chiefs
of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well known men.
This morning I want to talk to you about the sons of Kora.
Last week I talked to you about the Kora and his sons, but we
focus more on the actual story of Kora.
Today I'm just going to review that story, but then I want to
talk to you at greater length about the sons or the
descendants of Kora. Let me pray for us.
I got us out by accident that often, very often scripture has
running themes and from one book to another book, often the
tapestry or the weaving of the stories becomes really inspiring
and beautiful and gives us even the more confidence that the
word of God is inspired. And so this morning, as we look
to the story of the sons of Korra, I pray that you will
reshape some of our thinking when it comes to who you are and
how you act God and what is your character.
Help us to see it and respond well to it and grow us in our
relationship with you. We pray in Jesus name and
everyone said Amen. Now, I want to give you context
to where the story is landing in Numbers.
If you know even little about the Bible, you'll remember
there's a Moses and Moses is leading the children of Israel.
And if you saw the Prince of Egypt or you saw other movies,
you, you'll know that Moses was called by God to go and tell the
Pharaoh, Let my people go. So Moses, who'd grown up in the
Pharaoh's court, Long story short, but then it spent 40
years kind of hiding out in the wilderness, the desert.
Moses goes because God speaks to him in a burning Bush and he
goes to Pharaoh and says, let my people go.
They had been slaves in in Egypt for hundreds of years.
And so eventually there are enough plagues where the Pharaoh
is finally driven by God to release the slaves, the
Israelite Jewish slaves, and they leave.
And you might remember that they crossed over the Red Sea and God
does miracles with them. And Moses goes up on the
mountain and comes back with the 10 commandments.
Maybe you know that part of the story.
But where we are now is that they're kind of wandering.
And they're wandering waiting for God to lead them into the
Promised Land. But there is disobedience and
rebellion and other issues that God is going to deal with.
And so here's Cora. And Cora leads a rebellion where
he gathers 250 influential people to lead a rebellion
against Moses and Moses's brother Aaron, who was the high
priest. OK.
And that's where we are in the story.
So they rose up before Moses with the number of the people of
Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the
assembly of well known men. And they assembled themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron.
And they said to them, you have gone too far, for all in the
congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among
them. Why then do you exalt yourselves
above the assembly of the Lord? Cora is a Levite, meaning he's a
descendant of Levi, and he was a priest serving with others.
And they were priestly roles that that Moses had set up where
the Levites were going to minister to God's people and
lead them in worship and care for them and do other things.
So Cora is that he's a Levite. He has a priestly role, but here
he's leading a rebellion against Moses.
And watch what's going to happen.
When Moses heard it in verse four, he fell on his face and
he's going to inquire of the Lord what to do.
And then Moses in verse 5, and he said to Cora and all his
people in the morning the Lord will show who is his and who is
holy and will bring him near to him.
So Moses hears from God. What they're going to do is have
somewhat of a contest, and then God is going to speak on who he
is for and who he is against. And he's going to be for Moses
and Aaron, and he's going to be against Cora leading this
rebellion. OK, so that's the story.
It's a review of what we talked about last week, a little
shorter. So Cora rallies these 250
people, and Moses says, OK, what we're going to do is we're going
to give you a sensor, which is like an ornamental piece of,
like, metal or something. And you would put incense in it.
And then you would burn the incense, and you would have
worship. And there are some Christian
traditions that still do this today.
Maybe you have been part of a Christian tradition like that.
So here is Cora leading this rebellion.
He takes his incense. He's burning it in the censor.
And all of a sudden, Moses is going to warn those who are near
Cora's tent to step back, like step back, because God's
judgment is coming. And what happens is those who
have been LED in this rebellion in Korra, he, the people that he
has led, the earth is going to open up and it's going to
swallow them up, which is fierce judgment, fierce judgment.
God pours out this judgment because a rebellion against
Moses and God's people would be very detrimental.
And so God on this occasion deals really harshly with Korra
and his followers. Verse 7B.
Put fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord
tomorrow. And the man whom the Lord
chooseth shall be holy. One.
You've gone too far, says Moses. Moses.
Moses warns the people to step away from the tent of Korah, And
the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened its
mouth and swallowed them, and all the people who belonged to
Korah. Now that's a very important part
of this passage Moses is writing.
All those who belong to Korah get swallowed up in this
judgment of God. But when you think, OK, all who
belong, all the people who belonged to Cora, if you read it
incorrectly, you might think that Moses is referring to
Cora's children or his wife or family members, all who belonged
to Cora. But I'll present to you, and
it's not just my own idea, but I think scholars agree that what
it's really saying here is those who belonged in the rebellion to
Cora receive the judgement of God, and God doesn't pour his
judgement out upon Korah's children.
And this is a big principle that I want to take at length to
address. And then I want to show you what
actually happens to the descendants of Korah.
What is going to be their legacy?
Is it going to be the rebellion of their father, or is it going
to be something greater? OK, so let me show you first
that the descendants or the sons of Korah do not die.
They're not swallowed up in the judgement that God pours out.
We see this in in Numbers 26. So later 10 chapters later, this
chapter is called the census of the new generation and verse one
says after the plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar the
son of Aaron the priest, take a census of all the congregation
of the people of Israel from 20 years old and upward by their
fathers houses all in Israel who were able to go to war and the
sons. Now again these names become
important in genealogies when you know a bit about them.
The sons of Elii, Nemuel, Dathan and a Byram, they were already
mentioned earlier in chapter 16 as being part of the rebellious
ones that Cora is able to recruit to his agenda.
And verse 9 says the sons of Eliab, Nemuel, Dathan and the
Byram. These are the Dathan and a
Byram, lest you forgot, they were chosen from the
congregation who contended against Moses and Aaron and the
company of Cora when they contended against the Lord.
And watch this, the sons of Eliab and Nemuel and Dathan in
the Byron, they do not die. They're not swallowed up in the
judgment of God. And this is a big principle
because there are some, and I will show you why in a moment.
They think that God punishes children for the sins of their
parents. You might even think that God is
punishing you for the sins of your parents.
Or maybe you might fear that God might punish your children for
your sins. But I want to address this and I
want to show you the nature and goodness and character of God.
And verse 10, it reminds you what happened in the story.
And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together
with Cora. When that company died, when the
fire devoured 250 men and they became a warning, when it says
that God swallowed up those who belonged to Kora, it's not his
children, it's not his family. It's those who were in the
rebellion with them. Because watch what verse 11
says. But the sons of Kora did not
die. And this is the first that we're
going to get to see that. Oh, yeah, yeah, they're not
going to die. They're going to live.
And what is going to be their legacy?
What is going to happen with the story of the sons and
descendants of Kora now? It's vital to not misunderstand
or create a theology from this story without knowing the rest
of the story. If you read it wrong and you
think, oh man, look, God swallowed up those who belong to
Cora, meaning his family members, then it can really skew
your thinking about who God is and what he's like.
There's an issue that can be cleared up when we get the rest
of the story, one often misunderstood in the church, and
it's the issue of generational curses.
And maybe you've heard this term before.
It's sometimes taught in the church.
And I I would, it's semantics, but I would say that certainly
there are generational consequences.
If you create a habit that your children watch in your life,
then yes, your children and your grandchildren could grow to have
a propensity towards the sin that you gave way to in your
life. That's just the natural order of
things. But if you wrongly think that
God punishes our children by forcing them into the sin that
our descendants might have had, then again, I think you'll miss
God. So let's see that that that's
where people get this passage or this idea that God punishes
children for the sins of their parents.
Exodus 34, six through 7 and the new living translation.
This is an occasion where God and Moses are going to interact
and Moses is going to have a conversation of sorts with God.
And God appears to Moses and God shows up saying this.
The Lord passed in front of Moses calling out Yahweh the
Lord God, God's like, introduce himself, I am Yahweh the Lord.
And then watch what God says about Himself, the God of
compassion and mercy. I am slow to anger and filled
with unfailing love and faithfulness.
And I lavish unfailing love to 1000 generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the
guilty. I lay the sins of the parents
upon their children and grandchildren.
The entire family is affected, even the children in the 3rd and
4th generations. Now many misunderstand this
passage. It is a poem to show hyperbole
and contrast. So God is Speaking of himself
and he says I lavish my love and mercy and grace to 1000
generations, but I don't forgive the guilty and I bring
consequences. I allow consequences, you might
say to the third and 4th generation.
But it's to show contrast that God for 1000 generations shows
mercy, but God allows consequences to only the 3rd and
4th generation. It's not that that God is
saying, and I talked about this longer last week.
I don't want to totally re preach that sermon, but in my if
you have the notes from last week, I gave a bonus page at the
end so you didn't just think I came up with this idea myself.
And if you want me to send this I can.
But I gave many scholars and theologians who support this
idea that this passage is not promoting the idea that God
punishes children for the parents sin.
And I gave you passages and Ezekiel and passages and Psalms
and otherwise. I can send you those notes if
you like, or we can reprint them out.
I don't again want to completely do that message again, but I
just want you to know that it is not accurate to promote the idea
that God punishes our children, your children, for the sins of
their parents. And let me say this, you're not
being punished by God for the sins of your parents.
By the natural order of things. You might have some addictions
or habits or other, you know things that you're wrestling
through, but it's not the punishment of God on you.
And I explained it last week at great length.
OK so this this passage is to show that to 1000 generations
God's lavishes his love and only to 3 or 4 generations does he
allow it's to belittle the consequences that can come.
Now God is going to often in the Old Testament for the
unrighteousness of people who are still living unrighteous.
They would receive punishment and judgment, but it's going to
be after God is for generations allowed, allowed, allowed,
allowed and warned. And finally, the evil is so
great that God will allow His children to be brought into
captivity to receive judgment from their enemies.
But it's the natural order of things because of their evil.
Yes, you'll find that in the Old Testament, but you do not find
the idea that God is punishing children who are innocent and
following God's righteous ways. And this is big.
So the Korra story could be used if you misunderstand that all
who belong to Korra swallowed up.
It could be used to paint God as one who punishes children for
the sins of their father, but instead it's a story of God's
rewarding those who choose to follow him in light of an
ungodly heritage. And I'm not sure the heritage
that you came from, maybe you came from some from generation
after generation of your ancestry following God.
Or maybe you came from ancestry where people were anti God, they
were against God and against his ways and they scoffed in the
face of God. And so the question is, where do
you stand today because of the rebellion of your ancestors or
your parents or your grandparents?
I want to show you what happens with the sons, the ancestors of
Korra. And I wanted to be an example of
God's laying his lavish love and mercy and grace upon those who
follow him and live his ways. So the big idea is that the
goodness of God is going to be there for 1000 generations.
OK, now the mention of this, I'll skip over there.
Our sins and our choices and Pharaohs have consequences, but
God and His goodness can alter the wreckage, the consequences
of our parents and the consequences in our lives.
So what happens to the sons, the ancestors of Korra?
Watch this. They're going to build a legacy
of serving God and worshipping that is going to be mentioned
numerous times in the tapestry of the Old Testament.
And if you just think, oh, the story of Korah and his
descendants, and when God brings his judgment for the rebellion
of Korah, you'll miss no God raises up the descendants of
Korah to honor him in profoundly beautiful ways.
We find out then that they are going to have several roles, his
descendants of serving in God's house, and they're going to be
mentioned by name first Chronicles 631 to 3237 to 38.
This is a story of who are serving in God's house around
the time of David, and it says these are the men whom God or of
David put in charge of the service of song in the House of
the Lord after the ark rested there.
Now some of you will remember the Ark of the Covenant in the
Old Testament is this gold box that's very ornate.
And it had poles of sorts on it and the ark that God had
instructed the children of Israel to build, God would put
his presence inside of the ark, which sounds odd to us nowadays.
We now the Holy Spirit abides in us.
But the Old Testament, the presence of God would abide in
the Ark of the Covenant where the 10 commandments were held,
or later on, it would abide in the in the temple that is going
to be built and the Holy of holies.
So here's what's happening when the Ark of the Covenant is
brought into Jerusalem. It had been stolen away from
some of their enemies. But eventually David wins the
ark back. Short story, long story told
short. And so David now is going to put
some in charge of caring for the Ark of the Covenant that
contains the presence of God. And maybe some of you saw the
saw the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anybody remember Raiders of the
Lost Ark with the face melting, Right?
The older version, we remember that, right?
So that story, of course, is fictional.
But the idea was that Hitler was trying to find the Ark in order
to get this power. And Harrison Ford, what was his
character's name? Indiana Jones, thank you.
Indiana Jones is going to find the Ark of the Covenant.
So watch, that's the Ark. Now verse 32, it says they
ministered with song before the Tabernacle of the tent meeting
until Solomon built the House of the Lord in Jerusalem and they
performed their service according to their order.
Watch this. The sons of Tejas, the son of
Azir, son of a bicep, the son of Korra, the son of Izar, the son
of Koat, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.
In this story it's mentioned very specifically, lest you
think, oh, it's somebody else that would have had one of the
names of the descendants of Korra.
No, it tracks it all the way back to Korra.
God takes the descendants of a rebellious 1 and he leads them
and appoints them to serve with the Ark of the Covenant.
And that's beautiful. It's beautiful, OK.
And Psalm 47 is one of the songs.
Now, eventually the sons of Korra are also going to become
writers of, we think, 11 songs, 11 and 12 songs in the book of
Psalms. In the Bible, there is a book of
songs. We call them Psalms, and there
are 150 of them and 11 or 12 of them are written, and you'll see
it in the heading in your Bible. They're written by the sons of
Korra. And maybe you thought the sons
of Korra were like a brother band or something, right?
Like the Jonas Brothers or the elderly brothers or whoever.
No, when you see it in your Bible, it's saying that they are
the descendants of Korra and they become great songwriters in
the Book of Psalms. And I get excited about that as
a as a musician, as a songwriter, I get excited about
this idea of them having their songs inspired by God and
landing in the Bible. So one of the Psalms that we
think that the sons of Korra wrote regarding worshipping
around the Ark of God. This is when the Ark of the
Covenant came into Jerusalem. Psalm 47 one it says in the
heading to the choirmaster a Psalm of the sons of Korra and
they write clap your hands all you peoples and shout to God
with loud songs of joy for the Lord, the most highest to be
feared, to be admired, to be astounded of a great king over
all the earth. The sons, the descendants of
Korra, receive a very specific role of worshipping and caring
for the Ark of the Covenant, and this was a place of great honor.
Are they being punished for their father's sin?
No, they've been forgiven, and they're walking in God's favor.
Now, there's another account where the sons, of course, show
up. This is First Chronicles 9
versus 19 through 21. And this is going to mention
that they're going to serve in a role of like guarding the House
of God or the tent of meeting where they meet with God.
And I would say it would be like somebody guarding our church,
right? If somebody tried to break in
and steal the drums or my guitar, we we would want someone
guarding, right? Well, they were instruments of
praise, furnishings and dishes of likes and the Ark of the
Covenant that were there in the worship place that got it set
up. And some were appointed to guard
the place of worship and watch who they are.
Verse 19 of Chapter 9, Salem, the son of Kor, the son of a
bicep, the son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his father's house,
the Korites. So eventually, the descendants
of Kor, Salem being one of them, they get the name the Korites,
right, descendants of Korah. They were in charge of the work
of the service, keepers of the thresholds, of the tent, as
their fathers had been in charge of the camp, of the Lord,
keepers of the entrance. It's going to mention that the
descendants, the sons of Korah, they guard the temple and the
tent where God is worshipped, and this is a place of great
honor. And it says that their fathers
actually taught them and had served in the same place.
So the heritage had become serving God in the acts of
worship and guarding God's place of worship.
This, it's not just Salem, but it's his father's all the way
back a couple generations. So they've gone now in the
tapestry where they are serving God and they're being honored
for it. Now, it's possible for the sons
of Korra, if it's possible for them to have a heritage that is
rebellious and ungodly, if it's possible for them to find God
and his favor and his forgiveness and walk in serving
God, then I propose to you that it's possible for us.
And I get excited about this. OK, now my parents are living
proof of this. My parents found came to Christ
when I was a young boy and really just grew in the ways of
God. And there was a tradition of my
ancestry of dysfunction and other things.
And, and my family certainly isn't perfect.
My siblings, I'm not perfect by any stretch, but I will tell you
that because my parents, they, they, they wanted to do away
with the general racial consequences of people not
serving God. And my proposal to you is that
you can do this, or maybe your parents or grandparents did, and
you can now walk in serving God beautifully.
Your children, your grandchildren can serve God
beautifully even if their ancestry was rebellious and
ungodly. But if you adhere to the idea
that oh God punishes through the 3rd and 4th generation, then
you'll miss it. That's not what that passage is
saying it's promoting. The God is lavishing his love
upon 1000 generations and the consequences of our sin can
visit be laid upon only the 3rd or 4th generation now.
So that's what's happening. So they are serving in the in in
in service to God and worship. And then watch some of their
songs. They write these beautiful songs
that we think 11 of them. So just think like one in 15 of
the songs in the book of Psalms are going to be given attributed
authorship by the sons of Korra. And I find that so beautiful
because maybe this is where the Bible to me is so inspired
because if you were just going to make this stuff up, maybe you
wouldn't promote the idea that this rebellious ancestor now has
these sons that are writing the songs that the church is
worshipping with. But God doesn't hide that.
He promotes it. One of the songs I wrote to
Psalm 42 in the heading of your Bible, it might say to the choir
master a masculine musical term of the sons of Korra.
And maybe you're familiar with the Psalm.
It says as a deer pants for flowing streams.
So pants my soul for you. Oh God, it's where we get our
our song from 30 or 40 years ago as the deer panteth for the
water. Do you know the song?
So my soul longest after you. You alone are my heart's desire.
And my I can't forget the lyric or I forget the lyric and I long
to worship you. Interesting enough, that song
was written in the dormitory where I went to Bible school.
Christ for the Nation's Marty Nystrom wrote it in a dormitory.
They say he was kind of heartbroken by a girl that that
had done him wrong in Bible school, like broke his heart.
And in that context is where he wrote this from the sons of
Korra as the deer paneth for the water, my soul along is after
you. It's attributed to the sons of
Korra, Psalm 44. It's to the choir master a mask
full of the sons of Korra. And they wrote this song.
Oh God. We have heard with our ears.
Our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in their
days and the days of old. This generation testifies that
their fathers taught them about the goodness done by God in the
days of old. The tradition that course set up
is changed and they don't have to suffer the consequences of
the generational consequences because they decide to honor and
follow God in His ways. What if our children testified
the same? Wouldn't that be great if your
children in their old age wrote songs and said, man, I remember
my father's and my father's father's telling me about the
goodness of God and I'm testifying about it.
It's beautiful. They write another Psalm.
This is Psalm 46, one through 2. It says to the choir master of
the sons of Korra, according to the Alamut, the song probably a
melody, a familiar melody and it said our God is God is our
refuge in strength, a very present help in trouble.
Moses had instructed those who were near Korra's rebellion in
near the tent entrance to step away from his tent and those who
did in obedience were saved. God was their refuge.
He was their protection from his judgment that was being poured
out because of Korra's rebellion.
They also wrote Psalm 84 where they they they wrote the song
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, my soul
longs, yes faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and flesh
sing for joy to the living God for a day in your courts.
In other words, in your service, serving you got is better than
1000. Elsewhere they said I would
rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than dwell in
the tents of the wicked. Now watch this.
You can't miss the reference to 1000.
God's loves lavish on 1000 generations and this idea of the
tents of the wicked. Remember, Korra was operating
out of this tent of worship and he was rebellious and evil and
God's, God's judgments poured out.
So they're referencing this, I believe, when they write about
1000 in the tents of wickedness. And then I want to show you one
more profoundly wonderful thing about the sons of Korra.
They're used to guard the ark. They're used to to be
gatekeepers in the place of worship.
They write beautiful songs to give us great theology even to
this day. And then I want to show you one
last thing. And again, you can read often in
the Bible where there's lots of names listed and miss it, but
watch what happens here. Last summer I taught, I talked
to the summer first Samuel, the story of Samuel and Saul and
David, David's running from Saul, who'd gone mad.
And in that context, I taught, you can go back and find the
message from last summer. I thought about David at Ziklag,
ZIKLAG. And Ziklag was a place where
David had kind of hidden away because Saul, the king before
him, was trying to kill David. So David hiding from Saul,
eventually experiences great tragedy at Ziglag, but God
redeems it his, you know, it's just the Philistines raid them
long stories and the Malachites do.
So it's just, it's a long story that I taught at length last
summer. But in brief, Ziklag is a place
where David sees some mighty men, they're going to be called,
rally around him with great loyalty and and great risk to
their own lives. And watch who's going to be
listed in the list of David's mighty men, some of the most
brave heroic figures in the Old Testament.
First Chronicles 12, verses 1 and verse 6.
Now these are the men who came to David at sick lag while he
could not move about freely because of Saul, the son of
Kish. And they were among the mighty
men who helped him in war. And I'll skip down to verse 6.
Alkana, Ishaya, Azarel Joseph and Joshua Boehm, the Korra
heights. The descendants of Korra end up
in the list. All of those names listed were
Korra heights. They were descendants, the sons
of Korra. God took the descendants of this
rebellious figure that received his judgment, and he made them
mighty men. And seeing the tapestry of it in
the Old Testament is so beautiful and so profound.
What I want to say to you is the God made the sons of Korra
legendary, and if he did it with them, he can do it with us.
No matter what your lineage is, no matter what your ancestry is,
you knowing that God is not going to punish you for your
great grandfather's sin. It's not in his nature.
When you start living righteously for God and say,
God, I want to break those generational traditions,
traditional things that our family did.
God, I want to break it and I want to now live under your
blessing. Under your blessing, then we are
free from the curse of the law of sin and death that came as a
result of Adam and Eve, our ultimate descendants, deciding
to sin and not follow God's commands.
We, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, can walk free from the
curse of the law and sin, of sin and death.
So here's my hope. There are grandparents in this
room. I'm a grandparent.
We have two grandchildren that are 1 and 3 and their mom and
dad, our daughter and son-in-law, they, they're
serving the Lord. And again, they'll be here in a
couple weeks and they're leading worship at a really wonderful
church in the Dallas area. And we're proud of them, right?
And the vision that I want to get is our grandchildren someday
saying our parents and our grandparents taught us about the
goodness of God and the great deeds that God did in days of
old. And when we give away that
heritage, then it can change the trajection of your family.
But if you think if you've succumbed to the teaching or the
idea that God punishes those children to the third and 4th
generation of those who do wrong things and sin and don't follow
him, then you might think, man, this is as good as life is going
to get. This is as good as it gets
because God is punishing me for the sins of my grandfather and
great grandparents. And how tragic that would be.
But I'm telling you, maybe you've never heard that
teaching, but I'm telling you it's out there.
So if you can get past it and say that's just not true, God
lavishes his love on 1000 generations and you can walk in
God's favor and blessing and your children and your
grandchildren can also. But if you succumb to the idea,
it's like, no, this is as good as it gets.
Well then how sad that would be. Now, I'm not promoting what some
might call the prosperity gospel where some are promoting this
idea that God wants everyone to be rich and have this type of
house and this type of car. And no, I'm not, I'm not saying
that at all. What I am saying is that you can
walk in God's blessing and favor and when you face difficulties
in life that come, then the presence of God, the goodness of
God, can sustain you through every challenge, every
disappointment, every valley. When you get an just get a
picture of God's goodness being lavished on 1000 generations,
you look and see what God did with the descendants, the sons
of Korah, and you can get a vision for it for your family.
Let me pray for us, God. This is such a great truth.
And I would hope and believe and pray that as a church family we
will live in light of this, that we're not being punished for our
parents and grandparents or great grandparents.
It's not the nature of God. But instead, like the sons and
descendants of Korra, you, God can put us in places where we're
serving you beautifully and we're walking in your favor.
And we can become mighty men and women.
Our children can become this. God help us to get a vision for
it. Our children, our grandchildren,
and our great, great grandchildren.
God help us to walk in light of the love that you lavish on us.
In the name of Jesus we pray. And of course this starts with
you receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
If you've never done that this morning, I want to encourage you
to do that and following the Lord in baptism.
So I want to pray this morning. If you've never given your life
to Jesus and at that, at the point at which you give your
life to Jesus and surrender to a salvation, then that's where
you're out from under the curse of the law of sin and death,
which is a long story, but it came upon us as a result of the
sin from Adam and Eve and the Apostle Paul talks about in
Galatians chapter 3. So I want to lead you in a
prayer of receiving Jesus as Lord.
And that's the first step. And then from there you want to
grow in God's ways. And I would love to talk to you
more about that and talked about baptism.
So let me pray and you might echo this prayer.
You might say, Jesus, I come to you believing in your love and
grace and mercy and I want to receive you and I want to walk
with you eternally. So Jesus come into my life as my
Lord and Savior. I want to repent and turn from
my own ways and I want to surrender to your direction and
your your your callings and standards.
So lead me, Jesus, I pray in that.
Lead my children and my children's children and my
family in it also and show me what it looks like Jesus, to
follow you as I want to live for you righteously in response to
your great love for me. And as I tell others about this
God, I pray that you'll even the more solidify my salvation in
you that is eternal. And Jesus name and everyone said
Amen. All right, thank you so much for
coming today. I hope that you end up having a
super great day enjoying your summer.
Let's all stand together. And before you go, please allow
me to say this blessing over you.
I Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may He make his
face to shine upon you. And may the joy of the Lord that
is unspeakable and full of glory made a bound to you.
And may the peace of God that passes all understanding may
surprise you in the midst of all of the challenges that life
brings. And then may the mercies of the
Lord that are lavished on 1000 generations, may they meet you
every morning. And now may the Lord Jesus
Christ guard your heart and your mind.
You were salt and you were light.
Go now and be salt and light under the world.
You were blessed.