Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today.
Amen. It is so good to be here this
morning at church. Family.
My name is Andrew. I'm the youth pastor here, so I
typically hang out with a lot of people sitting in that section.
I know in this we have a lot of students here in the second
service. I'm so glad to be here.
I'm the youth pastor here. I've been here since December,
so about seven months or so. I'm super excited to be here and
I'm looking forward to all that guy's going to do here.
But before we do that, I want to I want to go and and just
remember to to say our confession.
I'd like to stop and and make that confession because what our
confession does as a church is it slows us down right And what
does this this morning could have been crazy for you.
A lot of stuff going on. So it recenters.
Excuse me, your life in your mind around God before we hear
from him and and I know that in every single one of these seats
right here is a story. Some of you are feeling that the
badly broken part of our confession.
You are man, you've had a hard week.
It's been exhausting you. You don't know what's going on
you you've barely made it through the door this morning.
Everyone. I'm glad I'm so glad you're
here. You know, some of you maybe
you're you're hanging by a third.
You're not sure if God really is in control.
You don't know what's going on. Know that God is here and he
sees you others of you. You guys are here on top of the
world, man, God has been so good to you this week and you
couldn't wait to run into the door and tell everyone all that
God is doing. You're feeling that deeply loved
part of our confession and some of us are just right in the
middle. We've had some good parts, we've
had some bad parts this week, but our confession is for all.
Some confession, it rings true, is that we are badly broken and
we are deeply loved. Man, what a great reminder as we
enter into the Word of God this morning.
God sees you where you are and he loves you in the midst of
whatever you're in. Like I said, my name is Andrew.
I'm the youth pastor here. I'm the new guy, been here seven
months. So it's been an amazing
experience, man, It's it, God has done so much just in the
short time that that we've been here.
Many students there. We're going to talk about this
later, but man, they are, they're amazing.
So moved here from Houston, so just outside of Houston.
I served as youth pastor, youth pastor there, excuse me, for
about 7 years or so. I'm a huge fan of all like
Houston sports. I actually think that's one of
the reasons why Pastor Jason hired me because he knew like,
hey, I got to have an Astros fan Rangers to anything like dude,
like you're going to have to go down the road, OK.
But thankfully I'm a huge fan of all Houston sports.
So we, we get along really well. It's nice we can just sit and
talk about baseball and the Rockets and Kevin Durant, things
like that. Good things with the Houston
sports. So, yeah, I'm married.
I've been married for about a year and a half, I think a year
and seven months. I was waiting for that.
Yeah, exactly. Well, I was actually in the room
this service, too. So Joy, no.
So we, we've been married about a year and a half now.
It's been amazing. We we got married and then moved
here. So it's, you know, it's been a
crazy first couple of years of marriage, but I have a picture
of my wife and my dog. That's Luna.
She's the greatest dog in the world.
We got her when we got here, just just in case you didn't see
enough, I have another picture of, of Luna actually.
So yeah, she is just, her tongue is just perpetually like that.
It's too big for her mouth. So like, don't make, if you ever
see her, don't make fun of her. She's kind of self-conscious
about it. But yeah, she is the greatest
dog ever. Thank you for asking.
So it's been amazing. It's it's really been an awesome
time just being here in New Braunfels, being loved by this
church. It's been great.
I've loved every minute of it. You know, I don't have kids yet,
but there are sometimes where I, I often find myself thinking
about just like what my legacies and what are we going to leave
to my kids in the future? You know, I don't know, some of
you guys are on different, you know, points in that road and
doesn't necessarily have to be kids, but just like what, what
am I going to leave to the the next generation that comes
behind me? Like like what is my legacy?
And that's we're going to get into that a little bit today,
but I'm going to be honest, I understand and I recognize that
this topic of like death and and legacy and what we're going to
leave behind, that's not exactly what we're talking about around
the dinner table every night. Like I get it could be a bit
uncomfortable. It can be a bit challenging.
It can be a bit just weird to talk about because we don't like
to think about what happens, what's going to happen here when
we're gone. That's not a, a topic that we
like to approach. And I understand that and, and,
and I see you in that because I'm the same way.
I, I don't like talking about it like I, I just want to assume
that I'm just going to be here forever and it's going to be
great. But we have to understand the
reality the same way that that David did.
OK, we are wrapping up our series on David.
But before we, before we get into that, I don't know if
you're like me, but I have those thoughts of, of legacy and, and
what I'm going to leave behind and, and all those things, they
often surface in just some quiet, reflective moments.
Obviously those aren't screaming at you because we don't like to
talk about them. We like to think about them,
right? Maybe we, we find ourselves
wondering like I do, like, how are people going to Remember Me?
Am I truly doing enough to set my children up for future
success? Right.
And sometimes it like, again, for me, my mind even drifts to
the, the thought of like, is anything I'm doing really going
to make a difference in the world?
Like it is it going to make a difference when I'm gone?
Like, is it going to matter? Some of us are uncomfortable
right now and I get it because we don't like to think about
that stuff makes us uncomfortable because we are
very, we're a very like closed tunnel vision kind of people.
We just like to think about what's going on right now, the,
the tangible things around us. But ultimately, I think I can
say deep down, we all care about whether or not our lives were
going to leave an impact. You know, for some it's, it's
the impact on our children, our close friends, our family,
things like that. For others, it's, it's making a
difference on a global scale. But I would say either way,
there's this just innate desire within us to leave our mark.
And that desire is powerful. We want to matter, we want to
make a difference. We want to change the world for
the future, whether it be for our family or for the world as a
whole. The issue is, though, in this
pursuit, we often misorder our priorities.
We get, we get focused on just this very small, just part of of
the the eternal story and it's our part of the eternal story.
We get so focused here. We get more concerned with our
impact on this fleeting world than than we do with the impact
that God can make through us. Like I said, we're concluding
the series on David. We've, we've looked at his life,
we've looked at the, the good things he's done.
We looked at some of the bad things that he he's done and the
way he responded and, and how through it all, he was still a
man after God's own hearts. But as we conclude our series on
David, I was tasked with with wrapping this up.
What I wanted to do is I wanted to examine the idea of how he
grappled with legacy and his legacy and, and more
specifically how he prepared the next generation of Israel.
Excuse me. So if you, if you have your
Bibles, it took me the book of first Chronicles chapter 22.
If you turned for for Pastor Brian's Bible reading, it's just
a couple pages before that First Chronicles 22.
But before we start reading, I'm going to give you all some time
to get there or scroll there or whatever it is.
I want to set the scene for us, David had learned, right?
As Chris Canton shared a few weeks ago, we talked about David
not being able to build the temple, and he learned that he
wouldn't be the one to build the temple of God.
He wanted to desperately. He wanted to be the one who's
going to build a temple, but he wasn't going to do it.
Instead, that task was going to fall to his son Solomon, right?
Immediately after receiving this news, I'm sure there's a lot of
emotions. This was David's desire.
He wanted to build a temple to honor God.
And then God says, dude, sorry, it's not going to be you.
If I'm David, I'm like, so then what's the point of my life if
I'm not going to get to do what I want to do with what I believe
I should do? Then then what's the what am I
going to do? How am I going to do this swirl
of emotions going on with David? And and we see that David,
instead of just giving up, he provides us with this example of
what building a true legacy looks like.
What unfolds in in these verses and in First Chronicles isn't
David just ensuring that Solomon has a comfortable kingship.
He doesn't have just like a, a a peaceful time in his life.
That's not what Solomon does. It was not what David does.
Excuse me, what David's does. What David does is this.
He goes to work diligently preparing the next generation of
Israelites to undertake the task that God placed on his heart.
So we're going to read in First Chronicles 22 verses 2 through
19. It's a little bit of scripture.
I want you guys to have the full picture of what's going on here,
says this. So David gave orders to call
together the foreigners living in Israel, and he assigned them
the task of preparing finished stone for building the temple of
God. David provided large amounts of
iron for the nails that would be needed for the doors in the
gates, and for the clamps, and he gave more bronze than could
be weighed. He also provided innumerable
cedar logs for the men of Tyre and seden had brought vast
amounts of cedar to David. David said, My son Solomon is
still young and inexperienced, and since the temple to be built
for the Lord must be magnificent, must be a
magnificent structure, famous and glorious throughout the
world, I will begin making preparations for it now.
So David collected vast amounts of building materials before his
death. The David sent for his son
Solomon and instructed him to build a temple for the Lord, the
God of Israel. My son, I wanted to build a
temple to honor the name of the Lord, my God.
David told him. But the Lord said to me, you
have killed many men in the battles you have fought.
And since you have shed so much blood in my sight, you will not
be the one to build the temple to honor my name, but you will
have a son who will be a man of peace.
I will give him peace with his enemies and all the surrounding
lands. His name will be Solomon and I
will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign.
He is the one who will build a temple to honor my name.
He will be my son and I will be his father, and I will secure
the throne of his Kingdom over Israel forever.
Now my son, may the Lord be with you and give you success as you
follow his directions and building the temple of the Lord
your God. And may the Lord give you wisdom
and understanding that you may obey the law of the Lord.
Your God is your rule over Israel, for you will be
successful if you carefully obey the decrees and regulations that
the Lord gave to Israel through Moses.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or lose heart.
I've worked hard to provide materials for building the
temple of the Lord. Nearly 4000 tons of gold, 40,000
tons of silver, and so much iron and bronze that it cannot be
weighed. I've also gathered timber and
stone for the walls, though you may need to add more.
You have a large number of skilled stonemasons and
carpenters and Craftsman of every kind.
You have expert Goldsmiths and silversmiths and workers of
bronze and iron. Now begin the work, and may the
Lord be with you. And then David ordered all the
leaders of Israel to assist Solomon in this project.
The Lord your God is with you, He declared.
He has given you peace with the surrounding nations.
He has handed them over to me and they are now subject to the
Lord and His people. Now seek the Lord your God with
all of your heart and soul. Build the sanctuary of the Lord
God so that you can bring the Ark of the Lords Covenant and
the holy vessels of God into the temple built to honor the Lords
name. Pray with me this morning.
Dear God, we love you. We thank you for this word that
you've given us the the scriptures that we can God, we
can be guided and LED in wisdom and we can walk in faith knowing
that you have spoken to us. God, I pray that you would speak
to us this morning and speak to our hearts.
That'll be your words that are softening our hearts and and
urging us on in a, in a new direction towards you.
God, we love you so much and we give you this time.
Pray all these things in your son's name, Amen.
I mean, so a lot of a lot of scripture, but I wanted you guys
to get the full picture of what was going on here.
And, and in these verses there, there are three actions that
David takes for Solomon and, and ultimately for the next
generation of Israel of God's people.
And, and what that did for us is that reveals a legacy, what a
truly honoring God looks like, right?
A legacy that truly honoring God.
This is what it looks like. This is the very first thing
that David David does. You see it in verses 2 through 5
is that David prepares the way for Solomon, right?
When David heard the news that he wasn't going to be the one to
build the temple, he wasn't just like, all right, well, Solomon,
get to it. I guess I'm going to let you do
it and I'm just going to go sit and mope in the corner.
Like, I mean, he could have. This was his dream that he
believed God had given him to build and and he was just told
no, no, what he did is David prepares the way for Solomon.
He gets to work, right? He he begins to gather the
workers in the quantities of materials and, and everything.
It was so much that you couldn't even you didn't even know how
much you you had right. David made it his personal
mission to ensure that Solomon would have everything that he
needed. Solomon face this enormous task
this this building project of of a temple on an unprecedented
scale. We think this building is nice
man like this would be a a shack in comparison to the temple that
that was for the holy and living God.
And he was building this and, and before David's time on earth
was done, he wanted to make sure that Solomon had everything he
need to allow him to do the work that God had commanded him to
do. Like I said, David didn't just
throw his hands up and assume that Solomon would figure it
out. He didn't just say, well, God
told you to do it, so go do it. He understood that he had a
vital role to play in the future of God's people.
His part, David's part we're learning now, wasn't to build a
temple. David's job was to ensure that
Solomon was fully equipped for the incredible task of building
the temple. And he did that through
preparing the materials, preparing the land.
He bought the land. We, we read about that David's
jogged and just in with the, the materials and the, the, the, the
land, though there's, there's more to it.
He didn't just need to prepare the land and materials.
He needed to prepare Solomon as well.
That leads us to the next thing that we see in the in the
Scripture that that David does in verses 6 to 13, we see David
encouraging Solomon, right? So David encourages Solomon
wasn't enough for the land to be prepared, the materials to be
stockpiled, right? Solomon, it says in Scripture,
he was a young and inexperienced king.
He needed to be firmly reminded and encouraged about his divine
calling, right? Solomon needed to be reminded
that he was the chosen one to build the temple, and more
importantly, that he would have God with him through every
challenge. David here in, in these verses
performs this, this passing of the torch, right?
But it's more than just this transfer of authority from king
to son. He actively empowered Solomon,
right? He built them.
He built them up. Excuse me.
With this unwavering confidence, David wanted Solomon to grasp
deep in his spirit that he was fully capable, right of what was
about to happen. And not only was he capable of
it, that it was both his sacred privilege and his duty to do
those things. Solomon's job was to build the
temple. David's job was to prepare and
encourage Solomon to do those things.
So, so Church, we're going to get to this in a second.
I'm jumping ahead, but I want you to know where I'm going with
this. Your job may not be to do the
big thing that God asks you to do.
You have on your heart. What you may be called to do is
prepare the next generation to do that.
Your job may not be revival, but it's prepare the next generation
for revival. Getting too far ahead, y'all?
Sorry, I'm all in it now. David reminded Solomon of God's
specific promises. Right?
The promise of success, right? The promise of peace, right?
He reminded Solomon with, with all the things he's like, hey,
I've done this for you. You're going to do great.
You're going to do amazing things, right?
David didn't just encourage Solomon with words, but with the
assurance that he wasn't in this alone.
God's promise was the foundation.
And beyond that, David encouraged.
It wasn't just a soft, hey, Attaboy, you're going to do it,
kid. It was he was challenging and he
said, hey, Solomon, you're going to need to be strong and you're
going to need to be courageous because things are going to be
difficult. I'm doing the best I can to
prepare you, but it doesn't mean it's going to be easy.
You need to be prepared for that.
So be strong, be courageous, find your strength, find your
courage in God, not in you, not in this Kingdom, not in this
temple, but in God is that reminder in the challenge, in
those moments, we see David's final action, right?
That led to us using his legacy as a template to follow and one
that truly glorified God. And last couple of verses in 17
through 19, we see that David reminds Solomon of the goal.
He reminds Solomon of the goal with this, this immense, you
know, preparation and, and honestly, like, think about the
pressure that Solomon was under in this moment.
He's a young and inexperienced king.
He's never done this before. And his father, who was the
greatest king up until this point Israel had ever had, his
father comes in to say, hey, you know that dream I have to build
the temple. You're going to do that.
Like just, I don't know if you put yourself in Solomon's shoes
right there, knocking my mic off, Sorry.
I'll put yourself in Solomon's shoes right there.
But it's just an idea of like the weight of the world is just
got to be crushing down on his shoulders.
Just that idea of I have to do what my father couldn't.
God has called me to, to just undertake this immense task.
And in that, David was going to make sure to ensure that Solomon
never loses sight of the point of what he is doing.
See this temple, this temple was not for David.
This temple was not for Solomon. This temple was not for Israel.
This temple had one purpose, and that purpose was to bring glory
and honor to the one true God. It was going to be vast.
It was going to be magnificent. It was going to be just beyond
anything in our comprehension. Not because they wanted to just
have a fancy building project. Because David understood and he
impressed on this to Solomon, the idea that what we do is not
for us, it's for the glory of God alone.
And David wanted to glorify God. And he did that by passing on
this legacy to his son, that hey, you are not doing this for
you, you are not doing this for your people, You are not doing
this for me, You are doing this for the glory of God.
David instilled in his son this laser focused, single minded
vision for the temple and it's a vision that would frame the
entire beginning of Solomon's reign.
Like I said, just the pressure building this structure while
he's doing that while also trying to maintain Israel status
is like a like a power in the world.
And and to be honest, it would have been really easy for
Solomon to lose focus. We lose focus all the time.
And we're not kings. They're Queens.
They don't have massive building projects at hand, and yet we
lose focus on God all the time. So David wanted to make sure
that Solomon knew what the point was.
David, in his wisdom, he set this tone.
He reminded Solomon that the only goal was to glorify God.
Nothing else mattered. And we witnessed this in David's
life before this. Like David, he had some really
good things that he did. And as we also know, he had some
really bad things that he did. But above all, what we see in
his life and the legacy that he leaves to Solomon into us too,
is this sense that he wanted to do everything he could forgot
nothing else mattered to him. He got in his way.
Sometimes he stumbled, he tripped, he fell hard, he jumped
off cliffs sometimes into sin. But man, he wanted to do
everything he did for the glory of God.
And we see this is is what Pastor Brian read earlier.
I wanted to to give you guys that whole prayer, but I'm going
to just take a little bit of it from first Chronicles 29 just to
see David's heart laid bare out for all of Israel to hear.
He says this says, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may
you be praised forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty.
Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this
is your Kingdom. We adore you as the one who is
over all things. Church, This was David's prayer.
This was a resounding truth that he wanted Israel to remember,
and this was the eternal truth. He passionately desired Solomon
and the next generation of Israelites to carry forward.
That's his legacy. So you'll be asking like, why?
Why is a youth pastor with no kids talking about legacy?
That's question. You know, I, I asked God the
same question whenever he told me, I was like, no kids.
I'm not really working with people who are worried too much
about their legacy right now. What's going on here?
Well, here, here's why. You know, David left, left us
this example. It's a legacy that honors God
and powerfully equips the next generation for his work.
Now church, that's something I'm passionate about preparing and
equipping the next generation because like I said earlier,
church, the revival of tomorrow starts today with us here at
River City Church. It doesn't start with us
bringing revival, but it starts with us preparing this next
generation for revival. I'm not going to go into the
statistics for anything I could, but there's there's this thing
happening all around the world. You may have heard of it, you
may not have. It's it's this, this thing.
It's it's they're calling it the silent revival, which is kind of
crazy, like counter intuitive, but they're calling it a silent
revival. And, and what it is, is we're
seeing just this incredible, like statistical jump in the
amount of young men going to church across the world, not
just here like in other countries.
It's I'm talking like 200, three, 100%, just this increase
of young men going to church. If you, if you want to know like
how your life can be, how you can have a purpose and how your
legacy can matter, maybe you're wrestling with that.
How how can you truly make a difference in the world, man?
It starts, it starts with you setting the example for the next
generation. OK, now you understand why the
youth pastors here. OK, You're like, OK, this is
making sense now. But let me, let me be clear, OK?
Beyond me as a youth pastor, just me as as a follower of
Jesus, there's nothing that you can do outside of God's call on
your life that will leave a lasting impact.
Think about this. What good is a substantial trust
fund for your child if you never shared the transformative love
of Christ with them? Is it truly matter that you
built a comfortable life for your family if they never
learned about Jesus's life, his death, and his resurrection?
For the forgiveness of our sins, Church, we fail the next
generation. If we offer them only comfort
instead of preparing them for the next generation of work that
God has for them, we fail them. And that's like, I'm not going
to not that we are. Listen, I want to, I'm going to
get this out front. Like I'm not saying that River
City Church is doing bad. You guys do an incredible job of
loving the next generation. You guys do an incredible job
of, of building them up. But like, this is not just a
River City church initiative. This is a follower of Jesus
initiative. It's each and every one of us.
It is our legacy is to pour into the next generation for the
glory of God. And if we're not doing that, we
we fail them. Right.
David, he understood this right. He, he ensured that Solomon had
everything that he needed to construct the temple.
He prepared the way for him. He encouraged him, he built him
up. He reminded them of the goal.
That's what this generation that's coming up needs from us.
They need us to prepare them to glorify God to the ends of the
earth, not just to live comfortably here in America.
And I'm not saying that this next generation is missionaries,
but man, I'm going to tell you, if you haven't been in a high
school in a few years, it is a mission field.
And these students have it so hard.
They have to grow up at the age of 10, basically with social
media and the expectations placed upon them.
It's hard for them. I see it because I, I'm with
them. I, I hear them, I hear their
stories. And some of you that have kids
that are that age, you know, you know how hard it is.
This is why they need us. They need a, a person, a people,
a, a generation willing to pour into them so that they can go
and they can move beyond all the stuff that's holding the back.
And they can go and share the love of Christ with their
friends, with their, their, their, their whoever's around
them with the to the ends of the earth.
Let me tell you something about the next generation too.
If you don't know, I spend a lot of time with him.
I do stuff like that research or whatever.
I'm a bit of an expert. I hate saying that because it
sounds weird, but I'm an expert on youths.
It's weird. But hey, let me tell you
something about them. I've learned.
I just spent, I spent two weeks at Cannes, one week with middle
school, one week with high school.
And the one thing is true across both ages here.
And this is even for kids too, for kids that are in our kids
ministry. This is the same this
generation. They're hungry, y'all.
And I don't mean hungry in the sense of they eat you out of
house and home. Like I know a lot of them are
that too. Like you guys are like, dude,
just move out so I can afford groceries again, right?
But that's that's not what I mean.
But what I mean is church. They are weary of shallow
religion and empty rituals. They're tired of soft
Christianity that just tells them to behave, do better, be
better. What's the point of that?
They long for authentic worship, and they crave the challenge to
grow and live a life that's completely devoted to Christ.
Church. They want this.
You're not going to have to do a lot of work.
They desperately want people to come alongside them and show
them how to live, because the world's going to show them the
other way to live. If we don't, they're hungry.
Man, it was so funny at the camps.
I say funny. It's not funny.
It's it's cool. We had so much impromptu
worship. Like the high schoolers know the
middle schoolers did the same thing.
They just wanted to worship. They wanted to sit and they
wanted to be in the presence of God together.
All we have to do is show up and show them how they're ready.
Crucial question then becomes like, how do we do this?
How do we build a legacy that honors God and equips the next
generation? I mean, thankfully we have the
scripture. You know, David's life provides
this powerful, timeless example for us.
But before we even get to the example of David, for each one
of us here in this room, it begins with an authentic
relationship with Jesus Christ. Parents, if you want your kid to
follow Jesus, you have to follow Jesus.
Don't just tell them to do something and you're not going
to do it. This generation, they see right
through that. They're not going to listen to
you tell them what to do and watch you live a different way.
And that's, that's a lot of pressure.
I get it. But man, that is that's what
they need. So reach one of us in the room
what it starts with, and this is for the next generation too.
They need to hear this because they're going to be the ones in
a few years preparing the next generation.
This is, this works for all of us.
You need to be fully devoted to Christ.
Let me be clear, if I haven't been clear enough yet, nothing
that you pass on to the next generation, no inheritance, no
worldly success, no nothing is going to hold eternal
significance unless you first have made the life altering
decision to surrender your own life to Jesus.
Humbling ourselves before the Saviour and saying I can't do
this, I need you. Because isn't that the example
we want for our next generation? Isn't that the example we want
for our children to to to humbly devote themselves to the
Saviour? That starts with us, because
here's the truth, you can't give something away that you don't
possess yourself. So if if you're fighting with
your kids, making sure that that you want them to have a
relationship with Jesus, like where are you at in your
relationship with Jesus? We put a lot of pressure on the
next generation to be so good while we ourselves just we
phoned it in. I grew up in church.
It's fine. It's not.
Your kids need to see you living out in authentic faith, and that
is where our legacy begins and ends.
So question is, what's this look like in our daily lives?
Well, if you have children, it starts right in your own home.
Do they see you constantly and consistently putting God first,
choosing Him above the endless distractions of the world?
When they observe your life, they see someone like David,
someone who's passionately pursuing Christ despite their
own sins and shortcomings. Let me take some pressure off.
I feel like we're, we're kind of in it right now.
I'm not saying that you need to be perfect or your kids are
going to go to hell. That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is that this next generation needs to needs
to see you as authentically you. That's what they need.
They need to be. They need to see you just being
unashamedly sinful and broken and unashamedly loved by God the
Father. They need to see those two
things come together and go. That's what it looks like to
follow Jesus. Your kids don't want you to be
perfect. They want you to be authentic.
Are you preparing your children? Are you encouraging them?
Are you pointing them to Christ on a daily basis?
Because that's the legacy that truly matters.
Not much money, none of that stuff.
It's important. Again, I'm not saying those
things are bad. Don't hear me.
Don't be like, you know, the pastor said that we don't need
to give them money. So we're going to take their
college and we're going to go and we're going to go on a
vacation for, you know, six weeks.
They don't need that. Like, no, they do.
Please, like make sure that they can make it through life, but
ultimately make sure that they can make it to eternity as well.
That's the goal. And then there's another group
in there. Maybe you don't have children.
You know, my wife and I, we don't have kids yet.
And so the question then becomes, where do you step in?
Or maybe maybe your kids are grown and gone and, and like
you've done the, the, the faithful work of pouring into
them and they're going and they're honouring God and
wherever they are. And, and 1st off, like they're
always going to be your kids. They need your example.
They love you, they see you. But then beyond that, and where
are the opportunities for you to invest in preparing,
encouraging, and in pointing the next generation to Christ?
And, and this is not like a, like an advertisement for youth
in kids ministry. Come help.
Like, yes, I would love for you to come and help on Monday
nights. It's amazing #1 because it's a
lot of fun #2 because church these like I said, these kids
are hungry. They're showing up like we have,
we have a sanctuary full of students who want to be here and
who wants to hear the word of God and want to be changed by it
and growing community, right? This is, again, this is not an
advertisement. This is a, a, a pointing to what
the, the goal is, what the point of all of this life is.
David understood that his life as he as he followed God
throughout the life, the, the, the legacy was to make sure that
Israel could glorify God, make sure that Solomon was ready to
do the work to glorify God. So maybe like I said, you don't
have children where the opportunities and all that.
And well, let me tell you like my own story.
It is filled with just this impact of of older men and women
who they just showed me the way of Christ.
There is a guy I remember specifically, he was an
electrician by trade. He worked in the plants.
We live by a bunch of refineries in Houston on the on the east
side. He was an electrician by trade.
And there was one time I was at the church, I was actually
working at this point. So I was a little older.
He was an older guy and he was there doing some work.
He was always working around the church.
He was always, he wasn't very like, he wasn't like a small
group leader or anything, but he was always at the church just
working and and making things right at our church building.
He's an amazing man. He is an amazing man.
And one day he, he came to my office and he was like, Hey, I'm
doing some electrical work. Can you, can you come up on the
roof with me? I was like, like the roof.
So our church, I, I was worried because our church where I came
from, it had this massively steep roof, you know, like the
classic like church and all that stuff.
And I was like, you don't mean to get up there?
Like I'm already too tall. Like I don't like heights.
Like I don't want to, I don't want to fall off of that.
But you know, it was a different part and it was even part of the
roof. Thankfully it was flat, so I can
actually get up there and not feel like I'm going to cry.
So I got up there and like there was no plan.
It wasn't like a like a hey, here.
I have this Bible said in the reading here, you know, here's
what we need to do. I want I want to tell you this.
It was like a like a hey, hand me this tool.
Hey, you know, do this. Here's how you do this.
Here's how you make this connection here kind of safely.
So, you know, we survive. So it's OK, you know, and that
that's that's what it looks like church.
It's not just this this thing of like, well, I got to come and
volunteer and lead a small group and do others like those are
great. Again, I want you to do that.
But man, just involve somebody younger in your life.
Bring some like these kids, OK, You may have to teach them a
little bit of stuff to do, like they're not going to be perfect.
They may mess things up, but man, give them grace.
That's how they grow. That's how we grow, right?
Because ultimately, no matter how old we get, we always want
somebody there with us, just guiding us and leading us and
walking us through life. Like without, without that man,
without countless. I honestly, I could stand here
for an hour and tell you stories about men and women that just
poured into my life. They weren't my parents, like
they, they, they didn't, you know, they, they didn't have any
parental, you know, rights or whatever you want to say over
me. They just showed me the love of
Christ and because of that, like, like I wouldn't be who I
am without them. They poured so much into me.
And like I said, it wasn't this big specific thing like, man,
just find somebody and pour into them.
And if you need help find somebody, talk to me.
We got, like I said, we church this, this student ministry is,
is doing amazing things. I'm not saying this for for like
glory. I'm saying this because they
need you. The more students we get in, the
more church members we need to to lead them and guide them and
show them and pour into their lives, because ultimately that's
what the legacy, that's what our legacy is.
Experience the tangible love of Christ through these people and,
and the the joy is that you get to be that person for somebody
too. And it's a beautiful thing to be
able to pour into the next generation and just love them
and church like man, we are specifically called to be those
people for this generation that's rising up.
And I know it's, it's scary. I know it's, it's so it's
amazing because again, I just want to make sure that we
understand this point. I'm not saying that you were
doing a bad job church. I'm not trying to stand up here
and be like, you need to do this better.
I can't believe they're just all falling away.
Like no church, you do an amazing job supporting student
ministry here. I could, I could go on for
examples of people here in this room right now that are pouring
into the next generations. And it's a beautiful thing to
see. I love that our church loves the
next generation, but what I, what I want to do is I want to,
I want to narrow the focus from just a church wide thing that we
do well to individually things that we do well as followers of
Jesus. Because preparing the next
generation for the work of God is not the work of the church.
It's the work of the Christian. That's what we're called to do.
And let me tell you, it's hard, but it's so rewarding whenever
we see just that, that switch flip and that light bulb go on
in in their heads. And like, I get it now.
I understand. I love that that we get to walk
them through that. God gave us the the opportunity
to do that. So Church, my hope for us is, is
that we would commit to leaving a legacy that's eternal, right?
A legacy doesn't fade when the money runs out and the fame
dissipates or like when the earthly stuff is gone.
The goal is a legacy that goes beyond ourselves and that can
only be found through preparing, encouraging, equipping, and
pointing the next generation towards Christ.
And that's our goal. We pray this morning.
Dear God, thank you so much that you love us.
God, thank you that God, thank you that you sent your Son to
die for us. God, thank you that we have the
opportunity to have a relationship with you even
though our sins are many. God, I pray that we would be a
church that prepares and equips the next generation.
And beyond that, God, I pray that we would just be a people
that prepares and equips the next generation.
God, give us wisdom and how to do that.
God, show us how we can better honor you in our everyday life.
I just pray that you would just continue instilling us a desire
to chase after you. God, we love you so very much.
We give you all the glory, all the honor, all the praise,
forever and ever. Amen.
Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about
experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and
community, and we hope that you've been able to experience
that today. As grateful as I am that you've
spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no
substitute for full participation in a local church.
I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it
is those who show up week after week, faithfully giving their
support and time and resources that make all of this possible.
If we can help you get connected to a local church, pray for you,
or support you in any way, click the link in the description and
let us know. If you'd like to financially
support the ministry of River City, click the give link on our
website in the description. Don't forget to subscribe and
don't forget to share this with your friends.
Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you
in all grace and peace.