Second Kings chapter 10, you can tell that I've had little time to prepare my sermon tonight. No, I've got a lot of I've got a lot of thoughts and I'm hoping that it makes sense as I as I preach this. And I've been wanting to preach this for a while, but it's just difficult for me to gather my thoughts around this. Something that I've been thinking about for months and years. And it's really I've been thinking about this topic since we started the Sydney Church. And I don't know, you know, maybe it's just something that I think of as a past, maybe it's something you wouldn't necessarily think of.
As a church going person. I mean, I remember when I was just going to church and, you know, I just go in for the service, right, Wednesday service, Sunday service, we'd go for the here and now we'd go for that. And that's important. It's important to go for the here and now it's important to take things on board that you can apply to your life today.
But one thing that I've started to learn and to think about, especially as a father with 10 kids, especially as a as a pastor of two churches, is the idea of a Christian legacy.
You know, I think it is so important that, yes, we live for the here and now our minds are focused on the work that God has for us today. But that we're also considering the future to come, considering the next generations.
And I'm not specifically referring to our children. I'm talking about the future of the, you know, of Christianity in Australia, the future of New Life Baptist Church, you know, on the Sunshine Coast.
You know, just speaking to our friends that are here this week on the Sunshine Coast, you know, they've been out of Sydney for I think it was nine years, roughly. And they said the last time they went back to the church that we were familiar with, he said, like, they're all brand new faces.
You know, there are a lot of people that he doesn't know. And it kind of almost feels like another church. And that's fine. You know, we might find in 10 years time, if you were to look at New Life Baptist Church, it might be all new faces.
I don't know, you know, it might not be our children, it might be other people. But what's important is that we have left a legacy that we've left a Christian legacy that the work continues.
There are people still here on the Sunshine Coast, down in Sydney, serving the Lord, doing the works that God has left us to do.
And if it's not our children here, my hope that our children will be in other churches, other like minded churches doing great works for God.
Because that's where life can take us. Life can take us in many different places. We never know where the Lord will lead us.
And so the title for my sermon tonight is A Christian Legacy, thinking of the future. I'm not talking about just my future, but the future generations to come.
Now, you guys stay in 2 Kings 10. And I'll read to you from 1 Corinthians 10, 6. 1 Corinthians 10, 6, just as a reminder, something we're very familiar with.
It says, Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
So what's been taught here is that the things that the Old Testament saints lusted about, the wrong things they did, you know, the lessons that they went through ought to be examples unto us.
You know, we shouldn't have to go through the same examples. We shouldn't have to go through the same mistakes that the Old Testament saints did.
Because we have those stories in the Bible so we can learn from that, so they can serve as examples for us.
Verse number 7 says, Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them.
As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
Verse 10, Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
So this is an example of Old Testament stories of the Israelites, how they had, you know, just been frustrating to the Lord, and judgment fell upon them.
But then it says in verse number 11, Now all these things happened unto them for end samples, that they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore, let him that thinketh his standeth take heed, lest he fall.
I don't want us to fall. I've already preached about, you know, not falling, things like that, but I want to leave a Christian legacy.
You know, if I were to die, you know, and the future generations to come, if the Lord were to tarry and not to come back, you know, I would hope that we would see generation after generation.
You know, yes, my children, yes, your children, yes, but beyond that, you know, the believers, Christians, doing the work of God, that we've started, and hopefully we've continued that on, passed on that legacy, they continue doing those works.
So a lot of these things are on my mind, right? I want to see a longevity of New Life Baptist Church, of Blessed Hope Baptist Church down in Sydney, and also for my children.
So yeah, you know, parents, you can take this message and apply it to your raising of your children, even if you have grandchildren, you can take these lessons, yes, but it's beyond that.
It's more than just a preaching of parents and children, it's making sure the next generation of Christians continue serving the Lord.
So if you're in 2 Kings, you should still be there, let me just turn there, 2 Kings, verse 10, once again, we have the story here of Jehu, who was one of the, actually, he was the only king of Israel.
And when I talk about Israel here, I'm talking about the divided kingdom. I'm not talking about the United Kingdom of Israel, I'm talking about the divided kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel versus the southern kingdom of Judah.
And this is the only king that had something good going for him, okay? All the other kings, even his children, were messed up, even they made some major mistakes, and God's judgment fell upon them.
I mean, even Jehu is not perfect, even if you read this chapter that was being read, even Jehu makes some serious mistakes here.
But what can we learn from Jehu here, if you look at verse number 11, 2 Kings, verse 10, verse 11, verse 11, it says here, what did he do?
And then Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his king folks and his priests until he left him, none remaining.
What was great about Jehu, he took down a corrupt government, he took down the corrupt house of Ahab, the kingly line there, and all the descendants that would rule and reign would continue that lineage.
He started a new lineage, he started fresh, right? That lineage was corrupted, the Lord wanted that lineage, that kingship to be done away with, Jehu steps in and takes down that royal house of Ahab.
So that's a positive thing that he does, right? Look at verse number 15, now what else does he do? Verse number 15, it says here,
And when he was departed then, he lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rahab, coming to meet him, and he saluted him and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, It is, if it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. Verse 16, and he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord, so they made him ride in his chariot.
So what else do we learn about King Jehu here, or Jehu as he becomes king? He says, He saw him at his great zeal for the Lord, right? The reason he was able to take down the previous government is he has a great love, he wants to serve the Lord, he wants to do what's right.
His desire is to do the work that God has left him to do, so we see a great zeal in the Lord. Just keep these three things in mind, right? He takes down the corrupt royal house, he has a great zeal for the Lord, what else does he do?
What other great characteristics do we see about him? Verse number 25, and it came to pass, as soon as he had made the end of an offering, end of offering, the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in and slay them.
These are the false worshippers of Baal, the false prophets of Baal. Slay them, let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword, and the guard and the captains cast them out and went to the city of the house of Baal.
And they brought forth the images of the house of Baal and burned them, praise God. Verse number 27, and they break down the image of Baal and break down the house of Baal and made it a draught house unto this day.
Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. So he destroyed Baal out of Israel. So what's the next thing we see he do? Yes, he destroys the corrupt government, yes he has great zeal for the Lord, but he takes down the false prophets.
He takes down the false religion that has crept into Israel, right? Those false prophets, the false doctrines that have been taught to the people of God, he takes them out, he wipes them out.
He says just destroy them all, kill them all, he says. So this is the characteristics of a godly man. A godly man, right? And if we keep reading there, let's just keep reading, verse number 29.
Now verse 29 mentions something that he didn't do very well. It says,
So yes, he takes down the images of Baal, but one thing he doesn't do is take down these golden calves. He should have done that. He should have destroyed those golden calves as well.
But look at verse number 30. Look what the Lord says to Jehu.
And the Lord said unto Jehu,
What do we see then? Jehu doing great works for God, doing what's pleasant in the sight of the Lord.
Also, he had the heart of God. He knew what God's heart was and he executed those things that God had asked him to do.
And so the Lord turns around and promises something. What does he promise? That he's going to have four generations after him that are going to rule in Israel.
And that did come to pass. He had his son rule over Israel, then his son's son, his son's son's son, his son's son's son's son rule over Israel.
And so what we see by the actions of Jehu, he created a legacy. He created a Christian legacy, a godly legacy by his actions. His actions affected the next generations.
Even beyond his death, his actions and the blessings of his actions were still reverberating in his house, in the royal house.
Even with his children not being fully on board, even with his children's children, we see the faithfulness of God, the promise of God come to fruition.
And that's the thought that I want to think about tonight. And quite often as you read through your Bible, you'll often notice God mentioned the third and the fourth generation.
And here we see the third and fourth generation being blessed, being blessed because of the works of Jehu.
And my desire then, brethren, if I take this and I want to apply it to our church, I want to apply it to the Sunshine Coast for the believers,
Bible-believing Christians that are here, for those that are saved, for those that are yet to be saved, for those that are yet to join our church,
I want to leave this legacy unto the third and fourth generation. I know by the Bible standards that if we do things right,
if we follow, you know, if we do what's right in the eyes of God, if we follow after the heart of God, we're going to leave a legacy to the third and fourth generation.
Now look, we may not be able to control what the fourth generation does. You know, you may be old or you may have passed away,
but we can ensure that the blessings of God, the work continues and then we're leaving it up to those future generations to continue serving the Lord.
But I want to make sure what we do has a positive effect into the future, not a negative one.
You know, not something that will cause, you know, some type of curse or damnation upon the third and fourth generation.
And so, you know, it's important that as a church we're thinking of the future generations to come.
Again, I'm not talking about our children necessarily. You know, we have brother Mathews back there, you know, 18 years old.
He's not the children of anybody here, but I'm looking forward, I want him to grow in the Lord, right, just as much.
Whatever future generations come into the church, even if it's not the fruit of our loins, you know, they're believers.
You know, they're our brothers and sisters in the Lord. You know, I highly view the children in this church,
and it would break my heart if I saw the children in this church, you know, not want to be in church, not want to read the Bible,
not follow after the Lord and seek, you know, worldly devices, seek to follow after the devil.
That would break my heart. Not just my children, but your children.
You know, your children, if they were to do this, it would break my heart. And I would say, what kind of legacy did we leave?
I want to make sure we leave a legacy where they can follow on, continue the work that we've started.
And Proverbs 13, 22 says, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children.
Okay, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children.
So, of course, we're not talking about financial here, right? We're talking about the blessings of God.
We're talking about the work of God, right? We're talking about doing great things for God in this nation.
As long as, you know, the Lord tarries his return, we don't know when that is.
You know, for many of us, you guys think it's pretty soon? I don't know, okay?
I'm hoping for the return of Christ, but at the same time, if it is delayed, I'm also thinking about the future generations, right?
The future generations to come. It says a good man leaveth an inheritance. I want to be a good man.
I want to be a good pastor. I want to be a good church.
And I want all of us to be good people passing down this inheritance, a faithful Christian inheritance,
to the future generations to come that are part of New Life Baptist Church.
And so, it's important to understand that our actions can have lasting effects on the coming generations.
If you guys can go to, let's go to Numbers 14, please. Go to Numbers 14.
Just want to show you two other examples of this.
Numbers 14, and while you're turning to Numbers 14, I'll read to you from Exodus 20.
You go to Numbers 14. I'll read to you from Exodus 20, verse 5.
The Lord says, Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, that's the false idols or false gods,
nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
Okay, visiting the iniquities. Now what this is not teaching, this is not teaching that our sins,
you know, that God's going to judge our children because of our sins.
That's not what it's saying, right? It's saying that he's going to visit that iniquity.
In other words, there are consequences to our sins. There are consequences to our actions, to our wickedness.
You know why a lot of, you know, once good Baptist churches have gone the way of Hillsong,
have gone the way of the Pentecostals, you know why?
Because they left a bad inheritance. Because they did wickedly. They did sinful things.
And within the next generation, you see them mimicking the world.
You see them just like any other Hillsong Pentecostal church out there,
when they once were a Baptist church, they once preached from the King James Bible,
they once cared about preaching the gospel to the community.
And I've seen this in my lifetime. I've seen the church that I grew up, you know,
once faithful to the Lord, now just looks like a, you know, second class Hillsong church or something.
Right? Who cares? Rather just got a Hillsong than that church.
You know, the churches I'm looking for, the churches that people are looking for to know the truth,
are the ones that are going to preach the word of God, you know, without compromise.
That doesn't care about getting in trouble, you know, for what the word of God says.
I'd rather get in trouble because then I know I have the blessings of God.
I know that the Lord is smiling upon me if we get in trouble for the word of God.
Who cares? I'd rather please the Lord than please man.
All right? But I've seen this. I've seen the churches fail.
And I've seen the churches collapse after even the first generation.
They've not passed down their legacy.
And so we see the consequences of sin.
And you guys are in Numbers 14 verse 18.
Numbers 14 verse 18.
The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression.
Amen! I love that about the Lord, right?
Longsuffering, great mercy, forgiveness for the transgressions.
But look, and by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
As I said, you can apply this to your life as parents.
You know, your wickedness, your sins can have an effect on your grandchildren and your great grandchildren.
Okay? But I want to take this thought for the church.
I want to take this thought that the next generations, even if they're not our children,
can be affected in a negative way by our sins, by our lack of following after what the Lord has said.
You know, we start following after the devil's ways, the world's ways of doing church or something,
then expect the next generations to collapse.
Expect the next generations to suffer from the consequences that we have done.
You know, and so we need to be thinking about this, right?
And, you know, even if you don't have children, again, it's not about necessarily your own children.
It's about the future work this church is going to do.
All right? We want this church to be here till the coming of Christ.
That's my goal. That's my personal goal, right?
That this church would remain here till the coming of Christ, doing the great work that God has left us to do.
And so if we can take this thought then, you know, that, you know, if we're faithful to the Lord,
we do things, you know, in accordance to God, that He will bless those future generations.
And we can also see the lesson there that if we do things not in accordance to God's ways,
that can have a negative effect on the coming generations.
So that's a truth that you generally see there in the Bible.
And so when we look at Jehu once again, we consider his life, we consider how he took down the royal house of Ahab,
which was, you know, the authority in that day, if you want to look at it that way.
You know, but they were wicked. They were corrupt.
They were, you know, accepting of these false religions, of these false gods.
Jehu came in and took it down, right? He took it down.
And his desire was that the God of the Bible would be in authority over Israel.
And that ought to be then. If we take that example, then that would be like, well, what's the authority of this church?
You say, well, it's Pastor Kevin. Well, kind of, right? I do have some authority here.
But am I the highest authority? No.
The highest authority, of course, is the Word of God, is the Word of God.
And so we always need to make sure by the lesson that we see there,
that we always allow the highest authority, the right authority to command what we do as a church, right?
And if someone comes trying to bring in the new King James or the NIV or the ESV or the NASB or whatever,
you know, the HIV's, Bibles into this church, no, we've got to take them out, right?
We've got to be like Jehu and say, no, that's not permitted. That's not allowed.
You know, we're a King James only church. We believe in the perfect, preserved Word of God.
We have the right authority.
But that would be an example of Jehu taking down the corrupt authority and bringing in the right authority, okay?
And that's why it's important. If we're going to see a legacy,
we need to make sure we have the Word of God, the perfect Word of God in this church.
In saying that, brethren, we need to be patient, right?
If we have visitors come to our church, they may not necessarily know that we're King James only.
They may be in church reading from the NIV. Be patient. Give them time, right?
They will soon learn what we are. They'll soon learn that we're King James only.
They'll soon learn when we're all reading from the King James and we're on the same page.
They're like, what? My Bible doesn't say that. Don't learn it, right?
And if they go on week after week, they keep attending, then, you know, of course,
I will pull that Bible out of their hands and give them a free Bible, okay?
So don't worry about that. But be patient, right?
If someone comes in brand new, not knowing a thing with the wrong authority, you know, don't destroy them.
Don't beat them up, right? They're new. You know, they've come into a good church.
They're going to learn good things. We've just got to learn how to be patient with people like that, okay?
But, of course, you know, we need to remain as a King James only church.
And then when we look at the zeal for the Lord, that Jehu had the zeal, you know, we saw him, you know,
pull up another into his chariot and he says, let me show you the zeal of the Lord.
You know what that means, brethren? If we're people that are zealous for God, it's going to rub off on other people.
We can have a positive effect on our church members or other Christians that we know around us, right?
And, you know, I'm always looking forward to seeing a fellow believer, someone that I can encourage, right?
I mean, I can think of many people in my past churches where I've had a direct influence over them going soul winning.
That's exactly what it is. It's like, hey, come out soul winning.
You know, let me show you what it's like to knock doors.
And, you know, we're out there knocking doors. I'm not sure if they're enjoying it the first few times. I don't know.
But since I've left those churches, they're still there. They're still soul winning.
And that's excite me because now they've got the zeal. It's rubbed off, right? The zeal has rubbed off.
And to be a zealous people, we need to be people that are willing to, you know, motivate, encourage, you know,
rub off that zeal to the future generations.
You know what gives me great joy in this church is when I see Brother Callum, you know, take, you know,
maybe Brody or Paris or, you know, out soul winning, right?
Praise God. Yes, it's his children. But you know what he's doing?
He's trying to show them his zeal for the Lord, right?
And when you take your kids out, you're trying to rub it off on them.
Hey, you know, get excited about soul winning, right?
We're thinking of the future generations, not just the here and now.
Yes, the here and now as we knock those doors, but we're thinking about the influence we're leaving for our children.
You know, I'm really appreciative of Sister Rachel, you know, takes out Lily or, you know, Isabel.
And, you know, I don't want to miss any names.
But of course, you know, we're trying to get our kids involved in the work of the Lord.
That's what we're called to do. That's what Jehu did.
That's what gave God joy.
When you could look down on Jehu and say, you're done, you're doing right.
You're executing the judgment that I've left you to do. You're doing the work that I left you to do.
That's what we need to do, right?
I want to see our children desiring to follow, continue doing the work that, you know, we've left them to do.
And, you know, for many of us, we started soul winning late in life, right?
Don't we wish we started earlier?
Don't we wish we were saved earlier that we could do, you know, go back in time and do greater works for God and be soul winning more and have many more souls saved in the past?
Well, we can't change that for ourselves, but we can motivate the next generation to start early, to start young, get out there, have a heart for soul winning.
Have the zeal like Jehu had. Have the zeal and let it rub off on other people.
You know, I don't believe in church segregation. I don't believe it, you know.
And I realize now, especially having a church where we don't segregate the kids, many churches do that, right?
All right, kids, before the preaching starts, it's time to take you far away and go learn some little kid songs and some little message about, you know, where we won't tell you about the bad things, these guys.
Just the nice things that the Old Testament saints did will confuse you.
So when you read the Bible for real, you'll be like, I don't remember this story.
That will take you far away.
No, why would we segregate them when we want to rub the zeal off onto them?
We want them to learn the Bible.
We want them to serve the Lord, right?
Not separate them.
I mean, the right time to have them in church is when the preaching is going on.
Man, right?
I realize now, you know, how serious it is.
Now look, I'm not saying these churches, I'm sure, it's just they're following a formula, right?
They've got this cookie cutter formula.
It's worked for the past generations, whatever they think.
But you know what?
If they weren't segregating the kids, they would have left a longer legacy than what they've already left, right?
And I want to do what's right.
I want to make sure that our kids remain here and see our zeal for the Lord.
See our zeal.
It can rub off on them.
And you know, my view on the children, Reverend, and I don't say this because it's my kids.
I say it because of all the kids here, right?
I look at them and I think of them as the next leaders of New Life Baptist Church.
That's what I want to think of them as.
Now, I know they're not all going to be leaders.
Of course, you know, maybe they're not even going to be preachers, right?
But I want them to be the ones that are driving the work of God forward, right?
Encouraging one another.
Where we're not saying, hey, son, come soul winning with me.
You know, I want one day one of our kids to say to one of the other kids, hey, let's go soul winning, right?
You know, it's school holidays.
We've got nothing else to do.
You know, let's go soul win.
And then we'll go kick a ball around.
Then let's go soul win some more or something, right?
That's when we know we've made it, is when our kids are excited and they're running their own schedule of soul winning times.
That would be exciting for me to see.
But it only starts if we pass that down onto them, right?
And so we need to do things together.
We need to work together.
I know we live in a society that says, well, kids, you go to school and kids in the first grade, you're friends with the first grade, and kids in the second grade, you're friends with the second grade, and kids in the third grade, you're friends with the kids in the third grade.
That's not what it's like in this church.
I don't want it to be like that in the church, right?
And so then we have this generational gap between fathers and their children.
No, you know, the children here are important, are just as important as anybody else, and maybe more so because they've got the future on their backs for the work of God in this area, all right?
And the first thing we see Jehu do was he took down the prophets of Baal, okay?
He took down the false prophets.
He took down the false teaching, right?
And that's what we're required to do.
Brethren, thank God we've not allowed false teaching to come into this church.
You know, I don't see it happening on my watch, I'm telling you now.
And you know what?
Even if I'm not watching right, I know there are faithful men in this church that will alert me straight away if there's some type of false teaching, right?
I don't see it happening now.
But we need to prepare our children for the false prophets, for the false teachers, for the false doctrines.
And if they do creep into this church, just like the false Bibles might, we need to make sure we rid ourselves of other things.
We take them down.
We destroy those things.
We teach sound doctrine.
The way we get rid of false teaching, number one, is to preach against what is false, but more important, that we preach what is truth.
We preach what is right.
So when they hear what is false, it's very clear to them that is wrong, that is false, that is something that is not accepted in New Life Baptist Church.
And so this is the story we see from Jehu.
These three great things he was able to accomplish, and we need to take the application, take the principle, and think about the legacy that we want to leave to the third and fourth generation.
And so I'm talking about passing on the baton.
You know how we have those races?
I can't remember what they're called.
You know, you might see the Olympics, and someone starts a race, and he's carrying a baton.
What are they?
What is that called?
Relay.
Relay race.
Right, yeah, relay.
And there's no point of the guy that's next to start all over again, right?
We've started New Life Baptist Church.
We started it from scratch, right?
Just two years ago.
We don't need our kids or the future generations to start all over again.
You know, when it's time to pass on the baton, it's time to pass it on.
And we pass it on at the point that we left it, and they continue running the race.
They continue doing more for the Lord, not starting all over again.
You know, we've started this church, and we don't want, you know, it's important they just continue the work that's been left us to do.
And the great example we see of this is Jesus Christ.
Please go to John 17.
John 17.
John 17, passing on the baton.
John chapter 17, verse 8.
Jesus Christ speaking to the Father, and he says,
For I have given unto them, those that are his disciples, the people that are following him,
I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.
So what's Jesus saying?
He says, God, you had the baton.
You passed it on to me.
Now I ran it.
I had the baton.
I'm passing it on to them.
I'm passing it on to the disciples, right?
That's the lesson we see from Christ.
He wants the work to continue.
It says here,
And they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
All right?
So we see the principle there.
We see the Father passing the baton down to the Son, and the Son then passing it down to the disciples.
Now we do have a relationship there, a family relationship between God the Father, God the Son.
Yeah, you know what?
The first time we pass the baton down, it may very well be to our children.
But then he passes it down to the disciples, okay?
And of course, those disciples went off and did amazing works for God because they continued the race.
They didn't have to start again.
Jesus Christ started the race.
They took the baton.
They continued doing the work that Jesus has left.
And that baton has been passed down, passed down, passed down.
We have it today, New Life Baptist Church.
Now we have it on the Sunshine Coast.
We have to run the race that God has set before us.
We need to continue doing the work, continue passing this down.
And for us, though, it was the start of a new church, right?
And we started another church, Blessed Hope Baptist Church down in Sydney.
You know, who knows how many future churches may come out of this church?
What a blessing, though, to think about that, right?
What a blessing to go to heaven and to know that, hey, the church I was part in, the church I served in,
was able to start these other churches.
I'm glad because that's us passing on the baton to others to continue the work in other places in Australia.
And maybe, who knows, other countries.
We don't know what the future holds, right?
We continue doing the work that God has left us.
Go to John chapter 20.
John chapter 20, just a few pages over.
John chapter 20, verse 21.
Then said Jesus to them again,
Peace be unto you, as my Father have sent me, even so send I you.
Okay?
So what you need to understand there, then, is that we need to send.
We need to encourage.
We need to motivate.
We need to teach the next generations.
We can't expect the next generations to start from scratch all over again, okay?
The things we've learnt, we then pass down.
The works that we've started, we pass it down.
We send them to continue doing the work.
That's the example that we see that Jesus has left us to do.
So we want to leave behind a legacy, okay?
A biblical legacy.
Now please go to Exodus 17 for me.
Exodus 17.
And I believe what we can see here, we're going to look at the story of Joshua.
All right?
And of course, Joshua continued the work from Moses, okay?
And, you know, often we look at Joshua in the light of, you know, a pastor, you know,
or another pastor kind of idea.
You know, the Israelites being the church in the wilderness.
So we look at Moses and Joshua, kind of like Old Testament pastors, right?
Of a very large church, of an entire nation, as it were, okay?
And we can take those principles, but, you know, let's take that and apply it to our church.
Let's take that and apply that to our children.
And I think we can see a great example of how we can leave behind a biblical legacy,
how we can make sure we apply it to the next generation.
Exodus 17, verse 9.
So we're just going to take snapshots of Joshua's life that led him to be the next leader, okay?
Verse number 9.
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out.
Fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and her went up to the top of the hill.
So what do we see there?
We see Moses, a more elderly Christian, and Aaron and her, right?
Saying to the younger generation, to the next generation, go and fight.
It's time to fight, right?
That's what he does.
And then they go up, because they're too old to fight, they go up to pray.
They go up to seek the Lord's help in the battle.
And Joshua now, this is our first introduction to Joshua in the Bible.
He goes out and he fights.
But notice that he was sent by the previous generation.
He was sent by Moses.
He then goes out, and look, at this point, this is the first time we know about him.
What do we learn?
He's a fighter.
He's a warrior, right?
And so what do we learn then?
If we're going to pass on a biblical legacy, we need to teach our children
and the next generations to come to be warriors, to be fighters,
to stand on God's Word, which is the sword of the Spirit, and take the battle.
Preach what the Bible says.
Don't be ashamed.
Stand where God stands.
Love what God loves.
Hate what God hates.
And preach the Bible without compromise.
Go to the battle.
Go soul winning.
Hey, that is a spiritual battle.
It's a spiritual battle within yourself because your flesh doesn't want to go soul winning.
Your flesh wants to go home, lay on the couch and relax.
It's a spiritual battle within yourself.
And then when you knock those doors, listen, the devil has blinded the hearts
and minds of those people behind the doors.
You go in with the Word of God, with the Holy Spirit working in your life,
and you're battling.
It's a fight.
That's why it's tiring.
That's why it takes a lot of effort, right?
I mean, after going soul winning, in the morning, when we've done the two things,
the marathons, the morning, the afternoon, I'm done.
I'm done for the day.
It's hard work.
It's very rare that I can say, that I can liken that to doing hard work on the job.
It's very rare for me to say that.
It takes a lot out of you because it's a fight.
It's a battle.
We need to send our kids to fight the war, get them ready, get them ready for the fight,
put on the whole armor of God and send them into the battle.
When we send them into the battle, we need to be praying for them,
praying that God will use them, praying that God will give them victory.
What other battles do our kids need to fight?
They need to fight against this ungodly, this wicked ungodly world,
the influences that come in this world.
Our children are not going to escape it.
They are going to face those temptations.
They're going to face the peer pressure.
They're going to face all those things.
They're going to feel like, well, if I serve the Lord, I'm weird in the eyes of these people.
We need to teach them to stand strong, to fight.
That is a spiritual war.
We need to stand out and be different from the world.
We need to get our kids ready for this fight and then send them to fight.
Trust them to fight and let them get out there and do the works that we've started and pass that baton on.
Let's keep reading, verse number 14.
Exodus 17, verse 14.
And the Lord said unto Moses, write this...
Sorry, before I read this, so they have victory over the Amalekites.
They have victory.
And then verse 14.
And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,
for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
So what is God saying to Moses?
He says, look, celebrate your victory.
Write this down in a book.
Make this victory a memorial.
And where is it recorded?
Exodus.
That's where he wrote it, right?
The memorial in the book of Exodus so we can go back and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
Tell him about it again.
Rehearse it.
Repeat it.
Tell him about it.
Remind him about his great victory.
You know what that means?
That means we need to look back and see the great victories we've had,
the great blessings that God has given us to our church.
And remember those things.
Enjoy those things.
Celebrate those things.
You know, sometimes I've heard preaching.
And I understand where these pastors' hearts come from, but I've heard preaching.
It's like, well, you know, 2019 is over.
Forget it.
2020, you know, look forward to 2020.
You know, there's a truth to that.
We don't want to live in the past.
We don't want to always talk about the great old days where we were serving the Lord
and, you know, 2020 has been such a failure.
You know, I understand that from that perspective.
But one thing that's going to drive us to continue working for the Lord,
looking to the future, is just reminding us of what God has already done for us,
the great victories.
Rehearse it in our ears.
Remind ourselves where we started.
Remind ourselves how God has given us this building, right?
It's hot.
It's not the best.
It's uncomfortable.
But isn't it better than the shed we had back in the old days?
Amen, right?
And we don't have to always be setting up and packing down.
It's all here, you know, ready to go.
God has given us so many great things.
And we need to rehearse it in our ears from time to time.
Remind ourselves of the victory that God has given us.
And that's what God tells Moses.
Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
Remind him of the victory so he can go out and have further victories,
future victories as well.
And so we need to rehearse these things.
And look, not only is this teaching for Joshua, it's for us.
It's for our children.
Parents, teach your kids.
Open the Bible.
Show them the great victories of the Israelites.
Show them the great victory of God's people.
You know, so they can be motivated and say,
well, if God was able to do that with them, God can do that with me.
You know, it's the same God that we worship.
The same God that gave them victory is the same God that will give us victory.
That has already given us victory, right?
And will continue giving us victory.
So we need to remind ourselves of the victories of the past.
Let's go to Exodus 24 now.
Exodus 24, verse 13.
What else should we do with the next generation if we want to leave this legacy?
It says,
And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua,
and Moses went up into the mount of God,
that's our Mount Sinai,
and he said unto the elders,
Every year here for us, until we come again unto you,
and behold Aaron and Hur are with you,
if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.
So this is when God's called Moses up to Mount Sinai,
and notice who he takes with him.
He takes Joshua.
He takes Joshua with him, right?
And look, the Bible's not very clear.
Obviously, when we see that Moses goes into Mount Sinai,
we see that God gives him the Ten Commandments,
and God speaks directly to Moses.
The Bible doesn't make it very clear if Joshua made it all the way.
We don't know if Joshua was observing these things from afar.
We don't know if he made it halfway to the mountain,
and then he stayed there behind.
We don't really know.
But what I want to focus on is what the Bible tells us here,
is that when Moses went to spend time with the Lord,
he said, we've got to take Joshua.
We've got to take the next generation.
We're going to go, Joshua, and talk to God together.
This is where God is.
God is up in this mountain.
Come with me.
Let's go talk to God.
And look, we don't need to go to Mount Sinai,
but we do spend time talking to God at the church.
On a Wednesday night, we spend time going to prayer to the Lord.
And that's a time for our kids to join us.
Children, praying is your time to pray with the adults together.
We're passing down the legacy.
We want you to get into the habit of praying to the Lord.
We want you to know that you're important to us.
Pray with us.
And I don't get tired of the children praying.
I don't get tired.
And I know a lot of the prayers are repetitive.
I'd rather the repetitive prayers.
They're not praying at all, though,
because they're coming to the Lord.
They're joining with the adults.
They're learning what it is to pray.
And they're learning how important it is for us to do this.
And Moses felt this was important for Joshua.
Come up.
Let's talk to the Lord.
Let's have fellowship with the Lord.
And this might be just reading the Bibles together.
You know, dads in the mornings, open your Bibles.
Or mums, whatever.
Open your Bibles.
Teach your children the Bible.
As a family, get together behind the Bible.
Read a chapter together.
Talk to the Lord.
The Lord talks to us through His Word.
That's how we commune.
It shouldn't just be the adults.
And men, I enjoy our Friday Bible studies.
And that's great.
There's a time for that.
But let's not forget the next generation.
Let's not forget our kids.
Make sure you spend equal time with them, or more time.
Because they're so much more important for the future.
Teach them what God has to say in His Word.
And again, that's why I'm against segregation.
Because we ought to come in the house of God together.
Go to Exodus 33 now.
Exodus 33, verse 9.
So we're seeing how Moses is preparing Joshua, right?
For the future.
Joshua will be the next leader.
He'll be taking the Israelites into the Promised Land.
So we see how Moses works, and you know, Joshua.
And here it says here in Exodus 33, verse 9.
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle,
the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle,
and the Lord talked with Moses.
So remember the tabernacle?
That was before the temple.
They would go and sacrifice the animals there.
Well, this cloudy pillar.
You know, the presence of God is right there.
Talking with Moses.
Look at verse number 10.
And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door,
and all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door.
Before we read verse number 11, what was the tabernacle known as?
The house of the Lord.
What is the New Testament house of the Lord?
The church, right?
The church.
So let's now think about our local church.
Let's think about New Life Baptist Church.
Verse number 11.
And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend,
and he turned again into the camp.
So Moses then leaves, and the tabernacle goes back into the camp.
But look at this.
But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle.
Joshua goes, I've not had enough of the tabernacle.
I've not had enough in the presence of God.
You know, Moses is done.
He goes into the camp.
Joshua says, no, I'm hanging around.
I'm going to hang around and spend more time with the Lord.
So if we want to take this principle then to the church,
to the New Testament church, the house of God,
we're talking about church attendance, right?
We want to teach our kids, we want to teach the next generation
how important church attendance is, right?
We say, well, I want to be here every time in the presence of God,
in the house of God, in the body of Christ.
I want to be there Sunday morning.
I want to be there Sunday afternoon.
I want to be there for the midweek service.
And even after you're gone, I want to hang around
and spend time with the Lord.
Hey, yes, encourage your children, the next generation,
to come to church.
How important, you know, church is to their spiritual growth,
to the time they can spend fellowshiping with the Lord,
serving the Lord by serving the brethren, right?
Doing things for the church is doing things unto the Lord.
And so we see the heart of Joshua, right?
He wants to be in church.
Can you have more services, Moses?
Is what he's saying.
Can we have Monday service, Tuesday service,
Thursday service, Friday service?
I want to stay around, right?
And so it's a great thing how we see the heart of Joshua there develop.
He wants to fellowship.
He wants to spend time in the Lord's presence.
Now, if you can, please go to Numbers 11.
Numbers 11.
Numbers 11, verse 26.
Now, we see the zeal of Joshua, but it's misplaced.
Verse number 26.
Numbers 11, 26.
It says,
But there remain two of the men in the camp.
The name of the one was Eldad and the other, sorry,
and the name of the other, Medad.
So these are two men here.
Look at this.
And the Spirit rested upon them.
So what's that?
The Spirit of God.
He came and he rested upon them.
Is that a good thing?
Absolutely.
Amen.
It's a great thing.
And it says here,
And they were of them that were written,
but went not out unto the tabernacle,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So they have the Spirit of God upon them, these two men.
What are they doing?
They're prophesying in the camp.
They're preaching.
The Word of God is what they're doing, right?
God is using these two men to preach the Word of God.
And then verse number 27.
And there ran a young man and told Moses and said,
Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
Look how Joshua responds.
Joshua, the son of Nan, the servant of Moses,
one of his young men answered and said,
My Lord Moses, forbid them.
He says, Moses, get out there and tell them to stop preaching.
Right?
Look, Joshua has loyalty, right?
He has a good loyalty toward Moses, right?
He means well, but you notice in this story it's misplaced.
Should we be stopping other people from preaching God's Word?
Doing the work that God has put upon them?
No, we shouldn't be doing that.
Look at verse number 29.
And Moses said unto him, unto Joshua,
Envious thou for my sake, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets,
and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them.
Right?
So we see the difference between a more elderly believer
and a younger believer there.
And you know, Joshua's worried, you know?
Why are they preaching?
And Moses is like, well, let them preach.
You know, I wish everyone was preaching.
I wish the Spirit of God would fall upon all these people here
and they could all be, you know, prophesying, you know, things of the Lord
that they would be serving the Lord, right?
And this is the kind of picture that I get of a young person full of zeal
and sometimes it can be misplaced.
And you know, they want to serve the Lord,
but they think every other church is faulty.
You know, every other preacher is false
and no one else should be doing the work of God.
And you start having this mindset that it's just us.
We're the only church doing things, great things for the Lord.
We're the only church that's preaching the truth.
No.
There are other people, brethren.
There are other Christians, yes, in Australia doing great works for God.
We may not know their names.
Here we have two names, all right?
We don't necessarily know their names.
One thing for certain is, you know, yes, if we want to leave a legacy,
we want to make sure that our future generations
don't think they're the only ones,
that they're not filled with envy when they see other churches,
other believers doing great works for God.
In fact, they should be encouraging those, brethren.
You know, one of my desires is to find other believers
that may not necessarily want to be part of our church,
but to encourage them, to motivate them,
to get them to do the work of God.
And you know what?
If there's a good church out there, King James only,
right in the gospel, you know what?
We may very well go knock doors in that area,
preach the gospel in that area,
and encourage them to attend that other church.
Why not encourage the other brethren?
Encourage the others doing the great works for God.
Otherwise, we can become like Joshua.
But what we learn here, brethren,
is that zeal, excitement also needs to be measured.
It needs to be controlled, right?
And if our future generations are doing something wrong,
we need to bring that back.
We need to say, hey, no, you're wrong.
That's the wrong thing to do.
And what do we see in the churches today?
We see pastors that are solid, that are sound,
that are fundamental in doctrine, fundamental in practice,
but then we see their children say,
well, Dad, why don't we bring in the,
you know, okay, yeah,
we won't bring in all of Hillsong's music,
but this one's not too bad.
It's got some great songs.
If we sang this in church, they'll think it's a hymn, Dad.
Why don't we bring in that song to the church?
That's what happens, right?
I mean, I'm sure their hearts are right.
I'm sure their hearts just want to do what's right
and serve the Lord,
and they think we can grow our church.
But you know what's required then for the more mature believers
is to say, no, no, right?
That's not, you know, that's not the right attitude to have.
We need to make sure we maintain, you know, what is right.
We maintain the work that we started, right?
Sometimes then with the next generation,
we need to make sure that they're going to have ideas that aren't right.
Joshua had an idea here that wasn't right,
and he had to be corrected by Moses.
And so, fathers, you know, future leaders,
we need to make sure we correct the next generation.
They understand why we do certain things.
They understand why we sing the old hymns
because of the doctrine that's contained in these words, right?
It's going to fill your hearts with knowledge and wisdom and understanding,
you know, not just some touchy-feely thing
that goes away once the song is finished.
You know, we want doctrines that will stay in our hearts,
teaching us the Word of God.
And so young men with zeal, they need direction, okay?
They need direction as well,
but that comes from the older,
the more mature generations that have come before.
Now let's go to Numbers 27.
We're almost done now.
Numbers 27.
Numbers 27, verse 15.
And we'll just wrap it up here.
It says,
And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying,
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh,
set a man over the congregation.
So it's time to put a new man in place,
a new leader that's going to give a bright future to Israel to come.
Verse number 17.
Which may go out before them,
and which may go in before them,
and which may lead them out,
and which may bring them in,
that the congregation of the Lord be not sheep which have no shepherd.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Take thee, Joshua the son of Nun,
a man in whom is the spirit,
and lay thine hand upon him.
Brethren, there can come a time when we need to pass on that baton.
And my hope is that we would have some Joshuas in this church,
some young men ready to continue the work.
Verse number 19.
And set him before Eliezer the priest,
and before all the congregation,
and give him a charge in their sight,
and thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him,
that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.
And he shall stand before Eliezer the priest,
and shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord,
and at his word shall they go out,
and at his word shall they come in,
both he and all the children of Israel with him,
even all the congregation.
And Moses did as the Lord commanded him,
and he took Joshua,
and set him before Eliezer the priest,
and before all the congregation,
and he laid his hands upon him,
and gave him a charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.
You see, Moses was ready.
He had looked at the next generations.
He had prepared Joshua to be the next leader,
to lead Israel, you know,
and he was ready to pass on that baton.
And one thing that we need to learn is when it's time to pass it on.
You know, I don't know when that is.
I have no idea, right?
I mean, you know I'm looking for a pastor down in Sydney, right?
I'm looking to pass that baton on to somebody,
but it's not, do we see Moses rushing into this?
No, he had a mind, right?
We need to prepare the next generation.
We need to work with the next generation.
We want to leave a legacy.
We want to make sure we have men and women that are serving the Lord.
We want to make sure there are others that are prophesying,
that are preaching, that we prepare them when it's time to pass on that baton.
I don't know when that time is, brethren,
but you know, we're a young church,
but we need to be thinking about these things, right?
We need to be thinking about the future.
And so, brethren, you know, I'll leave it there, a Christian legacy.
You know, what do we have to do?
What do we have to do?
Well, as we continue serving the Lord,
we need to keep a mind about the next generations to come.
Just keep in mind, our actions have an effect onto the third and fourth generation.
What an honor to think we can have that positive effect.
But if we mess it up, we're going to mess it up to the third and fourth generation.
We can mess it up today,
and New Life After Church will not exist at that time, okay?
I want to make sure we leave a Christian legacy.
You know, I hope as parents, I hope there were a few things here
you can think about in light of your children.
But once again, I'm not thinking about that necessarily.
I'm thinking about the greater truth, you know,
that Christians would continue doing the work that we've left them to do,
that we've started to do here,
and that we can leave a Christian legacy.
I want to be in heaven.
I want to be one of those witnesses in heaven
looking down, passed on, and saying,
wow, they're still doing the work.
They're still knocking the doors.
They're still preaching uncompromising truths of God's Word.
We want to make sure we leave a Christian legacy.
Let's pray.