David: Part 8- An Irreplaceable Piece

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.

1 Chronicles 22 · chapter mention

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

1 Chronicles 22:2–19

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

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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you

in all grace and peace.