The Patriarchs: The Legacy of Faith, Part 2

What you do in a physical will is what God is expecting every parent to do with a spiritual will. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the importance of passing on a spiritual legacy to our kids. Don't just leave something to your children, leave something in them. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans.

Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. It's smart to make plans to protect the assets you want to pass on to your children. But today, Dr. Evans talks about the most important inheritance that you can possibly leave behind.

Let's join him as he explains. The greatest collapse in America, in our country today, is the collapse of the family. Because whoever owns the family owns the future.

The saga of a nation is the saga of its families written large. The greatest cause of poverty, the greatest cause of instability, the greatest cause of dropout rates, the greatest cause of teenage pregnancy, the greatest cause of criminalizing the next generation, can all be whittled down to the breakdown of the family. We're living in a day when the breakdown of the family has led to the lack of transference of a spiritual legacy. We live in a day of parental outsourcing. You outsource when you don't feel like you have or are able to get what is necessary to do it in-house, and so you put it in the hands of somebody else to do it for you so you don't have to worry about it. And as a result, we're raising a generation of children with no spiritual heritage.

Like water filters in the home. Your job is to filter what comes into the minds and hearts and lives of your children. And that job is not to be outsourced. Your responsibility and mine is to lay forward a spiritual legacy for our children. When God was instructing His children, parents, on how to raise their children, in Deuteronomy 11, verses 18 and following, He sets it up and He says, Now, I want you to teach your children, but not just in Sunday school.

He says, I want you to teach them over the doorpost of your own house. He's speaking about a legacy here. He's speaking about something that is transferred because, watch this, the covenant involved a blessing. That blessing was the passing on of the favor of God related to the covenant. The blessing. And that's what covenants are designed to do, Deuteronomy 29, 9. My covenant is to bless you. What greater thing can we pass on to our children than God's favor?

But it dawned on me, that's the problem. We have a generation of parents who haven't been blessed. So they don't have anything to pass on. That young man, that young lady, has never had somebody who is spiritually responsible lay hands on them and say, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, I transfer to you the rule of God to operate in your life so that all that God has in store for you will come your way. Whenever they did a blessing in Scripture, they placed their hands on you. And they placed their hands on you and say, I'm transferring to you through me, through my fingertips. God's favor on your life as it has been in my life so that you will have more of His life in you than I had in my life so that God will take you further than He took me because I am transferring the blessing. And it's hard to transfer a blessing you don't know anything about. That's why when you have a lot of unfathered fathers becoming fathers, you have generational chaos because they're unblessed parents.

And did you know it? They won't be able to articulate it to you. Your baby is waiting for that blessing. Your baby is waiting for Mom and Dad to lay their hands on them and say, I pronounce God's favor in your life as you follow His way, His will, and His Word. They're begging for it.

Because if you don't do it, Satan is ready to curse them, to bring them under his regard and under his regime. This is our situation. Now, let's notice it in the passage. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob. By faith, Jacob blessed his grandsons. And by faith, Joseph said, take my bones up from here. So that's our situation. So guess what?

We've got generational activity taking place here. This all starts with verse 19, because verse 19 says that he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead for which he also received Isaac back as a type. Remember? Abraham was told to offer up Isaac, his son whom he loved. So he took his son.

He was about to stab him. God said no, showed him the ram in the bush, and he got back his son. But he got back more than his son, because he got back his son as a type. A type is a physical illustration in the Old Testament designed to make a spiritual point in the New Testament. So it's something God used in the Old Testament that was visible and physical to bring a reality about in the New Testament, a type of a spiritual point he wants to make. So in giving back Isaac, he got back the physical, he got back his son, but he got back an oath and a promise. God swore that I'm going to now use you to be a blessing to the whole world.

In other words, I'm going to use your obedience to do something spiritual that's going to blow your mind. So he says he got back Isaac as a type. He then goes to Isaac. And he says, now Isaac blessed Esau and Jacob.

Those are his two sons. So let me talk about Isaac now. Isaac had the DNA of his daddy, Abraham. You remember, Abraham had issues. He was a liar.

He was afraid. He told the people that my wife is my sister. They almost, you know, he almost took her in, the king, as his wife.

Guess what? Isaac did the same thing with Rebekah. He said to the king, this is my sister. You're scared. You're scared. Same thing happened to his daddy. Because, daddy, you need to know what you pass on is not just your good looks. What you pass on is your sinful potential.

So whatever is wrong for you is in the gene pool, too. So that's why you got to be right with God so you don't pass that on. Because Abraham passed on the same gene. Not only that, but Isaac was so into money and so into food, he wanted to give the blessing to the person God had not chosen. God chose Jacob.

Isaac loved Esau more. So Isaac wanted to give it to Esau even though God chose Jacob. So he wanted to do something outside of God's will. God had to allow a trick play to be played on him by Rebekah and Jacob in order to get it to where God wanted it to go.

So he was even working against the will of God. Let me go to Jacob. Jacob has twelve babies by four different women.

Jacob is a player. He got baby mama drama. He got twelve kids by four different women. He is a deceiver. He is a manipulator.

He is a trickster. That's what his name meant before he met God. He was such a bad father that he raised up terrorists in his family, rapists in his family, incestuous boys in his family, and he raised up brothers who would sell his younger son into slavery because that's the kind of daddy he was. He was a messed up daddy. Yet here in chapter 11 of Hebrews, that ought to give you a little bit of hope. Isaac, when God reversed it and didn't let him give the birthright to Esau, his favorite older son, Isaac said, I give up.

God, however you want it is how we're going to do it. Esau came in and said, reverse it, Dad. Reverse it, Dad. I'm your son.

You love me the most. Reverse it, Dad. Dad said, I can't do that.

That's not God's will. Okay, watch this, Dad. His sons were grown.

So even if you failed at a young age and have to make it up as a grown man, you get that thing right with those kids that you failed so that you can begin to live by faith at the position you're in. So you say, oh, I wish I was a better father when they were two, three, four, and five. Yeah, I wish you were two. They wish you were two. God wishes you were two. Now they're 35 and 40 years old.

What's a man to do? You to go back and make everything right you can make right because you want still whatever legacy God can lead to be transferred. Jacob leaned on his staff and worshiped, having blessed his grandsons. Now he leaned on his staff for two reasons. He's very old and God had messed up his hip. Remember when he wrestled with the angel of the Lord and he got dislocated hip?

So he's walking with a cane because he's old and he has a dislocated hip. And he blesses his grandsons, Joseph's son, the son who he had initially led to get in trouble by making him the coat of many colors and parading it in front of his brothers. Okay, here's some good news. Once God gives you grandsons or daughters, he just gave you a second chance. He gave you the chance to make up for the failures you made with your children. Some things you can't do with them at 35 and 40 years old, but once you start having grandbabies, he says, okay, we can't do this with them, but you can do this with the grandkids, so I'm giving you another opportunity to lend spiritual influence in your family structure.

So don't miss the grandkids, even if you miss the kids. It's God's second chance. And then it says Joseph by faith. Joseph didn't have the problems of his father, grandfather, great-grandfather. His problems were basically related to immaturity, and he had to spend a life of ups and downs. We went through that in our series on Joseph, ups and downs, ins and outs.

He went up and down. But he came to the end of his life. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good.

He was able to forgive because he saw the hand of God. And then according to verse 22, he says, when I die, take my bones up out of here to the place God promised. Take my bones from here when I die to the promised land whenever God brings it.

Watch this. Abraham didn't get to own the promised land. Isaac didn't get to own the promised land. Jacob didn't get to own the promised land. All they had was a promise.

That's all they had was a promise. But they said, our confidence with God is so strong that even though he just got us to visit it, and Joseph didn't even get to visit it because he lived all of his life in Egypt, we're going to believe the promise of God, and we're going to keep telling it to our children, one generation after another generation, in spite of the fact that God has done some good things, but we haven't seen the full manifestation yet. Dr. Evans will talk about seeing that multi-generational faith legacy played out in his own family when he returns shortly. First, though, I want to tell you about his newest book, Kingdom Heroes.

This title was just released this month. It's a look at the Bible's Faith Hall of Fame, full of ordinary people who did extraordinary things by taking God at His word. It teaches us that spiritual reality is about much more than we can see or touch, and shows how much we can endure, overcome, and accomplish when we act as though God is telling the truth. We want you to be one of the first to receive a copy of Kingdom Heroes. It is our thank you gift when you make a contribution to help keep Tony's teaching on this station. Along with the book, we will send you as a bonus Dr. Evans' companion Bible study and all 13 messages in the Heroes of the Faith series.

You can get them on CD or digital download, whichever works best for you. This is a limited-time offer. Be sure to get in touch with us today to get the details and make the arrangements. You can do that online at TonyEvans.org. That's TonyEvans.org. Or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you right after part two of today's lesson and this. Let's return to Dr. Evans now as he retells his story about checking in on his father and the faith legacy his dad transferred to their family. About every other day I call my dad in Baltimore. Dad, how you doing? How's it going? You okay? Yeah, I'm doing okay. You getting the food being delivered like it needs to be? Yeah, right.

You know, the heat and the air conditioning working right. Yeah, I just want to call. I just want to call and make sure you're okay. And then inevitably, my dad will say, Well, I'm just trusting the Lord. I'm just, I'm trusting the Lord for when either He comes from me or He brings me to Him. Since I was 11 years old when my father gave, became a Christian, I've been hearing that. I've been hearing, I'm just trusting the Lord and I'm waiting for my Savior to return. But Jesus hasn't returned yet. And I'm raising my kids and I'm saying, Trust the Lord, you know, till Jesus returns. You know, I'm telling them that, but Jesus hasn't returned yet. And now my family is telling my grandkids, Jesus is coming back. You know, we passing and we ain't seen nothing.

Neither have they. But they were so confident in the truth of God's Word that they were willing to pass it on generationally, even though they hadn't seen it yet. Because we're talking about faith and faith is acting like God is telling the truth.

It's acting like it is so, even when it's not so, in order that it might be so, simply because God said so. And so you pass it on and you let God give you down payments along the way. It's like the father who said, Okay, I'm going to give you an inheritance of $100,000 when I die. That's what's in the will. It's $100,000. But every year I'm going to give you $5,000 because we don't know when you're going to get the $100,000 because you don't know when I'm going to die.

So every year I'm going to give you $5,000 just to let you know I'm serious about the $100,000 when it is to come. So while we got a great future, God in eternity has got a lot for us. But he says if you operate under my covenant, I'm going to give you a little something here, I'm going to give you a little something there, I'm going to give you a little something here, I'm going to give you a little something there just to let you know I'm good for the big thing later on. But some of us are missing out on the little something because we don't believe the big something. And so we don't walk by faith, we walk by sight. And if you walk by sight, you have Isaac but no type.

You have no spiritual reality. Please notice something, men. Notice it was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. It's all men in this section.

Why? Because the covenant was passed from the man. In the Bible, the man raises the children, not the woman. Ephesians chapter 6 says, fathers raise your children. It's the father's job. You say, well, what's the woman supposed to do? Help. She's supposed to fill in the gaps when you can't be there because you out there hunting.

You out there providing. So she fills in the gap when you can't be there. Your job is to raise the children. Your job is, she shouldn't be waking you up asking you, are you going to church today? You're supposed to be the first one up on Sunday making sure everybody's ready to come worship God. That's your responsibility. You shouldn't be asking her to lead devotions when you there.

She's filling in when you not there, when you are there. That's why you want to be men, the first one in church, so you can get the sermon so you can steal it and repeat it at the dinner table. That's your responsibility because the covenant was not passed from Sarah to Rebecca to Rachel. It was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because men were held responsible. That's why God says, Adam, where are you?

Not Adam, where are y'all? Because you're responsible. That's why Satan is causing men to desert their homes, to renege on their families, to desert their children, to walk away from pregnant mothers.

He's getting the men out of the home so he can stop the covenant from transferring. So praise God for all you mothers who refuse to let the devil have his way. It is time that there be no more cotton candy parenting. Cotton candy is where you keep giving sweet stuff that has absolutely no nutritional value.

It tastes good. Here's a toy. Here's a candy. Let's go here. Let me buy you this.

Let me buy you that. That's cotton candy stuff because that stuff doesn't cross generations. The toy is going to be broken. The clothes will get too small, but a spiritual heritage goes on and on and on and on.

It says they passed it. Don't just leave something to your children. Leave something in them. Because when you do, you will give the next generation a bungee cord so that even if they leave God, they're going to bounce back because you didn't attach them to the covenant. And if you're single and you don't have children, whatever the young people are under your influence, nieces, nephews, cousins, or if you're mentoring in one of our public schools, the four boys you're mentoring or the four girls you're mentoring, you want to pass on the Spirit. Yes, we want them to get a good degree. We want them to have a good job.

We want them to maximize their potential, all of that. But we want them to do it on a solid, deep spiritual foundation. Dr. Tony Evans on the importance of leaving a strong spiritual legacy for our children. But as he mentioned earlier, you can only pass on to your kids something that you yourself already have.

You've got to own it before you can transfer it. The Bible makes it clear that putting our faith in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is the only way to bridge the gap between our human failure and God's divine forgiveness. If you're ready to make a faith connection between you and Christ, visit tonyevans.org today and follow the link that says Jesus. There Tony will explain everything you need to know about what it means to be a real Christian and how to start a brand new life. That's tonyevans.org. While you're there, remember to take advantage of our special three-part faith resource package, all 13 messages from both volumes of Tony's current audio series, Heroes of the Faith, along with his brand new book and Bible study, Kingdom Heroes. They're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. A longtime listener of this broadcast recently left us a voicemail commemorating 40 years of God's faithfulness to the urban alternative, and we wanted to share it briefly with you. Hi, my name is Matthew Greenwald, and I wanted to mention that I've been listening to Dr. Evans since he was on AM radio in Houston back in the early 80s when I was just a young boy of 12 years old delivering the penny advertisement papers on my bicycle. His was the only station I could get on my AM radio while I did that. And his voice came across like God's then, and it continues to do so today, and I wanted to let him know that he has been an absolute instrumental voice in my life, now more so than ever as I am 51 years old.

But I did want him to know that he has touched the other little boats in his world that he may not even know exist. So thank you so much. God bless. And thank you, Matthew. Dr. Evans and all of us here at the Urban Alternative are so thankful for the lives God has allowed us to touch and the encouragement and support that you have given us in return. Life is all about making decisions.

Some are obvious and easy, others more difficult and costly. Dr. Evans says faith quite often falls in that second category, and tomorrow he'll offer some biblical motivation to help us make the more difficult but wiser choices. Be sure to join us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.