Leaving a Godly Inheritance - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, May 6th. Today, believers get help thinking differently about the legacy we were given and the one we'll leave. Here's part two of Leaving a Godly Inheritance. The most valuable inheritance you can leave your children cannot be counted, can't be measured. You can't see it, but it's far more valuable than any of those things. So, when I think about an inheritance and you think about, for example, what you've been thinking about, or one of these days you will, or maybe you look back and say, well, my parents or my grandparents passed away and here's what they left me.

Do you still have it? Most people squander lots of money. If you get lots of money, then I'm prepared for it.

Or if they don't squander it little by little, they'll use it up on something that they wish maybe they would have done it differently. So, what I want to talk about in this message is this, leaving a godly inheritance. And the question is, what kind are you leaving? So, what I want to do is I want to give you a list.

And we'll just talk about each one of them a little bit because there are a number of them and any one of them would be a message. So, as a parent or as a grandparent, and you think about what's the most valuable things I could leave my children or my grandchildren. Let's start off with this number one, a pattern for obeying God in every area of your life. In other words, obedience is obedience. So, how am I going to teach my children obedience? By obeying God. And no matter what you and I say, listen, they are going to do what we do before they do what we say.

And after you have left home and you can sit here and recall some things that your parents said to you, or maybe something that you heard them say and then you watched the way they lived and you thought, that, mm-mm, something's wrong with that. The truth is, we need to know how to be obedient to God. And that comes with submission. We grow our children up and we say, you must do what your dad tells you to do because I want what's best for you. Well, the heavenly Father is saying the same thing. And so, how do we teach obedience? We teach obedience not by talking about it, but by being obedient.

And for children or young children or teenagers, whatever it might be. Then you talk about, here's the reason I did this, because this is what God showed me. This is what God told me to do.

And I've been obedient. Here's what happens. You want to convince a child or an adult, as far as that's concerned, how God operates?

Talk about what you ask Him about, how He answered your prayer, the process He went through. And before long, here's what happens. You pick up the pattern, but the whole issue of obedience. If I want to teach my children obedience, I have to talk about it, but then I have to demonstrate it because they're going to watch what you do. And I think about in my own mother's life and I try to think about, did I ever hear or see her or think about her telling me one thing and doing something else? Did I ever think about or remember anything that she said and she did the opposite?

And I never could, because she was so deadly honest with me about everything. And she taught me to be obedient to God, and she taught me in more than one way. And the very idea that you don't discipline children is as unscriptural as anything I know, because we all need to be disciplined. And, listen, if we're going to demand it of our children and teach them obedience, we have to show it.

Which means that we have to say, you know what? I made a mistake. I did the wrong thing. God showed me what to do. I didn't do it. I wasn't listening.

And here's what happens. You see, whenever you and I are too prideful to admit to our children we made a mistake or we didn't do what we should have done, you're not covering up anything for them. They're smart. They're perceptive.

God's working in their life very, very early. And so, we have to decide what kind of parents we're going to be. And remember this, you're going to leave it with them whether you want to or not. If you live around them, you're going to leave it. If you never call them and you never talk to them, you're still leaving them something, but maybe not the right thing. Then, of course, you need to leave them a faith that, listen, that conquers the trials of life. And what do I mean by that?

Simply this. They need to see in you faith. They need to hear you talk about how God is working in your life, how He's answered prayer. You want to teach your child to pray? Here's how you teach them to pray. You get down on your knees and you pray with them. I can remember, for example, the day that Andy and I were kneeling to pray.

And I thought to myself, I looked over at him and I thought, God, He's learned to talk to you. There's no treasure to match that. I could never give him anything to match that. You can't give your children anything of human value, materialistic value to match spiritual treasure, real genuine wealth. That is, how do you overcome strife and difficulty and hardship? You put your trust in God. They need to hear you talking about it. They need to see you demonstrating. They need to see you face challenges and that God brought you through it. They need to see you situations and circumstances that you're in that just look hopeless. You say, well, you can't tell your kids about that. Why not?

Well, they get a little age, not too much, but a little age on them. Just say, well, let me tell you what Dad's going through and let me tell you what's happening and so forth. We're going to trust the Lord for this and see how it works out. I never heard my mother say, we've got to fix this. In other words, she came up to a situation, didn't have whatever we needed. We just needed to ask God to provide it for us.

Well, it didn't take me long to figure out. When I started the school, I had sent to college, I had seventy-five dollars and three months before I didn't have anything and didn't even have a way to go. My mother prayed long and hard, Lord, You provide. You know we don't have any money.

You provide. One day I had no scholarship, next day I had one. Went to school, I had seventy-five dollars. Every once in a while, my mother would send me a few dollars. But she knew what she left me with. She had let me live with her for those about eighteen years, watching God provide our needs.

She knew I was not going to worry about it. That's treasure. That's wealth. That's an inheritance that you cannot buy. You can leave it to your children. You say, well, why so many of us have already passed that stage?

You've got grandchildren. How do we instill these truths into our children? By the life that we live. Then, of course, a forgiving heart. Forgiveness means I keep my heart open. And you teach a child forgiveness by being very forgiving. Watch this, and you also teach a child forgiveness by saying to that child, sweetheart, they had promised you he was going to be here, and I wasn't, and I'm sorry, and I need to ask you to forgive me. You say, well, you don't ask your children to forgive you.

Yes, you do. You ask them to forgive you because we're not perfect. Now, any time you come up to the idea that you think you're not going to deal with that forgiveness, remember this. Who has forgiven you of every sin you have ever committed? And I remember the day when I was dealing with something in the church and the way people had treated me and so forth. It's like the Lord said to me one day, when you look at me on the cross, is there anything that I've not been willing to forgive you for? Can you rightfully hold anything against anybody no matter what they do?

Settle it for me. The only way you teach your children and the only way you leave them a spirit of forgiveness is watching it in you. If they see jealousy, for example, and they see this vengeful spirit that you're going to retaliate, I'm going to get the best of them. Well, you don't know how I've been treated. Doesn't make no sense how you've been treated.

I never have a legitimate biblical right or biblical authority to be unforgiving no matter what. And you know, I've had too many opportunities to learn that lesson, but I remember when we were going through a difficult time way back in the church and this guy walks up on the platform in a business meeting and makes a little statement and he backhands me and hits me in the jaw. Well, Andy was sitting over here to the left and he jumped up and one of my deacon friends grabbed him and said, Andy, your dad just won that battle.

Just relax. Well, when I went home, you can imagine what our conversation was about. And I knew that the first thing I had to convey to my children was I forgave him as soon as he hit me. No vengeance, no retaliation, no get the best of. It's instantaneous forgiveness. Listen, that's the only way to live free is to be forgiving. If we're going to teach our children and leave them anything of value, one of the most valuable things we can leave them by demonstration is I forgive you. Then there's an orderly lifestyle. In other words, this is certainly a part of what we leave our children. If I came to your house, would I be able to get from the front door to the kitchen without stumbling over about four, five, six, seven things to get there?

You know I'm just sort of kidding you, sort of. Is your house junky? Are you orderly about not only things, are you orderly about your time, orderly about your relationships? Or is it just you do your thing, I'll do mine, you don't get in my way, I won't get in your way. I think about how some families live.

Not too sure I can live very well in a disorderly family. Now, it was just my mother and I for most of my young life, and so I didn't have to worry about being orderly. You see, well, did she say, Charles, be orderly?

No. She laid it all over clothes at nighttime before she went to work the next morning. She had everything on the table for breakfast the next morning before we ever got up. She gave me my instructions about what I was to cook and how I was to cook my breakfast. And I was cooking my breakfast at about six years of age. But you know what?

It was no big deal. She said, now here's what you do. And here's what you do with your clothes. You do not lay them down. You hang up your trousers, hang them up, hang them up, hang them up, hang them up, till finally you hang them up.

And so, the truth is, I think so many parents are so afraid that they're going to have their children's disfavor and rejection, they won't even, they won't even provide an orderly lifestyle. But I think about Jesus. He didn't say, well, where am I going today? I think about, no, this is a day that demands and requires discipline for all of us. Discipline, watch this one, in our finances, discipline in our diets, discipline in our time.

You go right down the line. These are days that demanded, they're required. And our children need to see that in us. An orderly lifestyle is one that is not confusing, but very clear. You see, some children grow up in a lifestyle that's so disorderly.

They grow up confused, what to do next, how to make decisions. Then, of course, one thing you want to leave them as a servant spirit, which means you and I must have that. Now, most folks want to be waited on, pampered, and so forth. But according to the Scripture, of all the servants who's ever lived, Jesus is the perfect example.

We're to leave our children that. We're to teach them, demonstrate to them what it means to be a servant. Which means, first quality, I must be willing to forget myself and ask what's best for him, what's best for her. How can I help him?

How can I help her? And I think we live at such a fast pace, most of us would say, I would be a better servant, but I just don't have what? Time. But the question is, what do I want to leave? What do I want my kids to remember? Did I help them? Did I serve them? Not serve them because I wanted something back, but because I wanted them to understand a servant spirit makes a person very, very valuable.

It doesn't make any difference what their occupation or vocation is. If you have a servant spirit and you live that out, you're valuable to whoever you work for. Then, of course, a generous hand. That is, your children need to see you being generous. Because listen, I've never met a happy, tight-fisted anybody. A person who is tight-fisted and, you know, scrape and count every penny and you can't have this, you can't do that. In other words, that's no joy.

No kid wants to grow up in that kind of a family. Generosity says, you know what, I'm thinking about you. I have whatever I have, but I want you to have it.

I want you to have whatever you need in life. And a generous spirit is certainly a Christ-like spirit where He gave Himself totally and completely, continually giving, giving, giving, giving, giving. So, if I want to teach my children to be generous, I want to get them in the Word of God to first of all say, here's what God says.

Because let's think about it. Our children come into this world with a bent away from God for the simple reason they have a carnal nature. And so, this is why little children get in a fuss over something that is oftentimes very ridiculous, that this is mine, no, it's mine, that belongs to me, that belongs.

And they have big fights until finally they realize that that's not the solution. Would you say that you demonstrate to your family, your children, your grandparents, do you demonstrate generosity to them? You say, I don't have much. You don't have to have much. It's that you give whatever you have to give.

And you can never out-give God. A person that's a spirit of generosity usually has a kind spirit, open spirit, free spirit. They're generous. That is, giving is part of their life. It isn't just giving money and things. It's giving of themselves, of their time, of their opinion, of their faith, their witness, or whatever it might be. So, what you have to ask is, would your children consider you a generous person?

And then I would just say one last thing. The one thing you certainly want to leave them is a sincere love. Not fake, not giving them things as a substitute for love, but genuine, sincere love.

It's real. It's unconditional. Let me ask you something. Don't you really and truly love to feel love from somebody? Amen? Now, don't sit there like it isn't true.

You do. We all want to feel loved. And if you feel loved growing up, I can still remember how it feels to hug my mother and to be hugged by her. And I think I would wish that for every child.

Now, I know there's some families that have horrible problems, but you can love somebody, but it's got to be real. The wonderful thing about a small child is they have not learned to doubt. You tell them something, if my daddy says it, that's the gospel, so to speak. And so, you love them and you teach them to love other people and you know what?

You're pouring, well, I keep saying this, you're pouring your God-given self into them. Now, how do we leave a spiritual inheritance? There are three ways. Number one, by the pattern of our life.

That's one way we do it. Number two, by the principles that govern us, what we believe. And number three, by the power of our words, what we say.

We leave an inheritance in those three ways. And may God give us all wisdom to know how to do that in a way that transforms works in the lives of our children and grandchildren to the point they grow up honoring God and living a godly life. And Father, how grateful we are, all of us who've had parents that have helped us through those troublesome times and to learn the things that we need to learn in life and keep on learning. Pray for all these mothers, Father, who have no husband to help them.

They're on their own. I pray that You'll give them wisdom to know how to transfer these precious truths to their children in such a way that they too will rise up and call their mother godly. We love You and praise You, Father, and ask that the Holy Spirit would make all of us grateful, thankful for what You're doing in our lives, but also for the heart to reach out to others who so desperately need us. In Jesus's name, amen. So let me say to you, if you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, listen to me carefully.

You are going to miss life. If you just think worldly pleasure's going to satisfy you, it's not, it can't. The only thing that's going to satisfy you is the person of Jesus Christ living within you. You can have or have not, but when you have Him, you have what counts. And I would encourage you to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and trust Him as your personal Savior. Tell Him, I'm asking You to forgive me on the basis that You paid my sin debt in full at the cross and I'm surrendering my life to You right now.

Then He will begin to work in your life, things that probably you've missed all these years. Thank you for listening to part two of Leaving a Godly Inheritance. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.