The Last Words that Echo for Generations | Pastor Chris Kouba

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Genesis 49.

Genesis chapter 49 is where we're going to be.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

Let me invite you as well to go ahead and grab your journals if you brought them.

I hope you have and have been able to bring them.

They're on page 35 of the journals.

If you don't have one, here's the QR code.

We'd love for you to be able to download this and be able to walk along with us.

Let's just say maybe you have not had the opportunity to be with us in the midst of this nine-week series that we're finishing up today, looking at the topic of leadership.

I want to just encourage you, implore you to go back and to listen to some of the messages and to be able to uh gather along with us because our goal is that we as a church would go on a leadership journey.

Because I believe everybody in this room is a leader.

You're a leader, a minimum of yourself.

But many of you are leaders in even greater capacities, maybe in your homes and maybe in your communities, maybe you're leaders at your workplace, maybe you're a leader on your team.

And we want to equip you because I'm hopefully what you've discovered as a result of this sermon series is this is that you've grown more in love with God's word.

Like I love leadership books.

I read a lot of leadership books.

That being said, there is no greater leadership book than this one.

Like this right here is the most life-giving thing that you possibly could ever have.

And so I just want to encourage you to whatever you do, whatever you do to personally grow, make sure God's word is the forefront and the first thing of what you do.

Because this is the greatest thing possible.

I hope that in the midst of this series, you've grown more in love with the God who wants you to be a great leader.

That you've followed after him, you've seen that his purposes and ideas for what he wants in your life.

If you align it with his will, man, it is, it's an it's the place to be.

What you also have seen in the midst of this series to the Joseph is this rise and this fall and this from the pit and these in the palace, and it's it's back and forth, and we've been able to see God has been faithful the whole time.

I have up here the bottom lines of every one of these messages that you can kind of see here.

Again, I want to encourage you, make sure that you you digest this and you marinate on this.

This is something that you keep coming back to.

But today, on page 35, uh I want you to write down this main point that I want you to take away from the message today, which is this leaders leave legacies.

Leaders leave legacies.

I have the privilege of being a pastor, and what that means is that I have the opportunity to be with people at some of the highest moments of their life.

I also, though, have the opportunity to be with people at some of the most difficult moments of their life at a funeral.

The way the funeral service typically works, you've got like a podium or something that would be up here, and then I usually have a chair that I will sit back here, and when it's my time to speak, I'll get up.

But I have the opportunity to kind of stand behind the family, and I can't, I would tell you that the most difficult part of a funeral service is not the death.

That's that's a normal thing.

It's it's hard for sure, but the reality is all of us are gonna die and we all know it.

The hardest part of a funeral that I've found is being sitting in that chair and having to look at a family member that comes up here and they look of the casket of their loved one and they say stuff like this.

If only I'd have told them.

She never knew what I thought.

I just wish if I had one more moment, this is what I'd want them to hear.

I had a guy that I did a funeral for recently, and uh his son gave a beautiful eulogy for his dad.

And he walked up to me afterwards and I said, Man, you did a you did a great job.

I know that was hard to do.

You did a really, really good job.

And he says, I mean, you know what's the hardest thing?

Is that I saved my best words from when he couldn't hear.

Like if I had a chance to have five more minutes with him, I'd have said all that stuff to him instead of just having to say it about him.

I want to ask the question Are there words that people in your life need to hear that you're just assuming that they know?

I've been doing this a long time, and I'm telling you, I've never one time had somebody come up to me and say, Man, you know what?

I just love too much.

I bless people too often.

I care too deeply.

No one's ever said that.

And I've seen story after story after story of people that feel regret because of words which never had the opportunity to be spoken.

Be honest.

What are you assuming that people know in your life?

Your kids, your spouse, your friends, your coworkers, your team.

What crucial words are you not saying because you think that they are implied?

Make sure you understand this truth.

Assumed love is not experienced love.

Assumed blessing is not experienced blessing.

MIT did a study.

84% wished that they'd express more gratitude.

91% had something, someone they needed to affirm, but they didn't.

Then they interviewed the families, and that's when it got real.

What they discovered was this is that kids who've never heard I'm proud of you, are three times more likely to struggle with self-worth.

That spouses who've never heard you're enough are five times more likely to battle insecurity.

What this shows us is this is that your silence isn't neutral, your silence is destructive.

It shows that it creates a void that darkness begins to fill.

Someone that you love right now is experiencing life without words that they desperately need to hear from you.

And you're assuming that they know, but they don't.

I want you to take your journals out.

I want you to write down, I'm gonna give you three things from the text today, Genesis 49 and Genesis 50, about how you can leave a legacy.

First one is this speak life while you still have breath.

Speak life while you still have breath.

In the last two chapters of the book of Genesis, it's kind of interesting.

Genesis 1 starts with creation, it ends with two funerals.

But what we're gonna see is that these funerals don't just die with them because of the intentionality of the words that are spoken.

We see Jacob, Jacob is a central character, he's one that is Joseph's father.

We've heard about Jacob all the way from Genesis 37.

And if you read the story of Genesis prior to chapter 37, you see the story in the life of Jacob.

Then we're gonna see at the end of chapter 50 the funeral of Joseph.

And what we see is in both of these moments, they speak words that leave legacies.

In Genesis chapter 49, look with me at verse 1.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

It says, Then Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

He's not gathering his 12 sons, that's how many sons that he has.

He's not gathering them all there so that he can dole out his inheritance.

He's gathering them all there so he can give them something much more valuable, and that's identity.

That's purpose, that's calling.

He doesn't get them all together and be like, all right, boys, you be good.

Like some generic word spoken to all 12.

What I want you to do, I don't have time to read it, but I want you to read through today, I want you to read through all of chapter 49, and what you will begin to discover is that Jacob begins to speak specific words to each and every child.

It's not just generic blessed.

It's instead, here's exactly what I see in you.

Look at verse 10.

It says there, Judah.

Judah's the one we saw along the way.

He was the one that like kind of stood up for Benjamin and said, Hey man, you're not throwing Benjamin into the jail.

You want me in the jail.

He kind of was a spokesman, de facto spokesman.

It says there that scepter shall not depart from you.

What this is is that Joe Jacob is declaring kingliness in Judah's life.

We know the story of history goes that that Judah from him eventually came David, and from David eventually came Jesus.

What he's doing is he's prophesying here to his son, and he's saying, Son, I need you to know something.

You may think your life's just like this.

I see this in you.

You're gonna be a king, son.

This is what's on the future for you.

Skip down to verse 22.

Joseph, the main central character, we see that he is a fruitful bow.

The word bow means branches.

What he's saying is this is that Joseph, I need you to know this.

You're gonna be, you're, you're, you've had, you've been faithful, and you're gonna have fruitfulness come from your faithfulness for generations to come.

Look at verse 3.

Reuben, remember Reuben?

Reuben was an interesting character.

Genesis 37.

Reuben actually is one who tried to defend them, not killing Joseph, which is a good thing.

The problem was prior to that, Reuben is the one who slept with his father's concubines, disgraced the whole family.

And so what does Jacob say to him?

He tells him, You are unstable as the waters.

Is that a hard word?

Yes, it is, but at least Reuben knows where he stands.

Let me make this clear to you.

I want you to see before you get all weird about hard words, even correction spoken in love is better than affirmation that is never spoken.

How many times do you see people who just kind of isomignore folks, and you kind of wonder, do they even notice me?

And Reuben had the benefit of knowing, man, my dad is saying, Hey, I see you, Reuben, I know what you did.

You should need to do better.

And he gave him that specific word in his specific situation.

What does this mean practically?

This means in your home.

Your kids don't need to just hear, I love you.

That's very important.

But your kids need to hear, I see God's wisdom in you.

Your kindness reminds me of Jesus.

God has given you a gift for leadership.

Whatever specific thing you see in your kids, you speak blessing into them.

Men, what this means is that you don't just tell your wife, thank you, which you need to do a lot more than you probably do.

All right, if you're anything like me.

What this means is, is you tell your wife, you bring so much joy and so much life to our home with the way that you serve our family.

This is not just blessing.

This is, I see this in you.

This is what I want you to hear, man.

I notice this in you when it comes to your workplace, that employee who always delivers.

When is the last time that you told them how much they add value?

Not just good job, but hey, your attention to detail makes this whole thing, makes this whole team way better.

I remember talking to a CEO friend of mine, and he told me that he lost his best employee.

I said, Man, what happened?

Get a better offer, do they go somewhere else?

And he said, No, honestly, I lost her because she didn't feel valued.

I said, What do you mean she didn't feel valued?

He goes, Man, I'm telling you, we would not be able to survive without her.

The problem is, I never told her.

Folks, in your small group, that person who's quiet, always comes into your small group and shows up faithfully every week, maybe doesn't say a whole lot.

Do they know that you see them?

That person who always serves, do they know that you notice your small group leader who puts in the time and effort to prepare to teach?

Do you let them know how much you appreciate that?

Or is it just assumed?

Folks, our church, man, I love our church.

I'm just telling you, I love our church so much.

I've I've jokingly said, but it's so true.

I would come here even if they didn't pay me to come here every week, all right?

Like I love this place.

I do, I love it.

Our family, we love this church.

We love the ministry of this church.

And the reason why this church is so amazing is because of you, the people of the church.

But let me ask you, when is the last time you went up to a member of the church and just said, hey man, thank you for what you do every week?

I noticed it every single time.

Like you're always at the same door, or you're always meeting me in the parking lot, or man, you're afraid that I've never once gone to the coffee and it not been there, and I just realized you're the one that makes that happen.

What I want to encourage you to do is to not just assume blessing, but speak it while you can.

I want you to take your journals out.

I'm gonna give you some homework this week.

I want to give you some heads up, all right?

Some of you are like homework.

I don't want to do homework at church.

You need to do this.

If you do this, it'll bless your life.

Okay, I've got some homework for you to do this week.

I'm gonna have some homework for you to do this month, and I'm gonna have some homework for you to do before the end of the year.

The first one is the homework for this week.

I want you to speak a specific blessing.

And I want to give you three different people to do it to.

First one is this I want you to speak a specific blessing to someone in your family.

Someone in your family.

Oh, they know, I promise you.

Even if they know they want to hear it.

Second one I want you to do is someone in your friend group, or maybe someone at your workplace.

Speak a specific blessing to them.

And then the last one would be someone in this church before you leave here today.

You just go to somebody in this church, somebody that you see all the time, somebody that you notice, somebody that checks on you and asks how you're doing, and you just assume it, and it's happened so often that you don't even think about it, but you can go to them and say, Hey man, thank you for doing that.

You have no idea this is what it means to me when you do this.

By doing this simple act, you are gonna change somebody else's life.

If Sunday comes around and you haven't spoken these blessings, next week, you've chosen to live another week in uncertainty, and that's on you.

And I'm gonna ask you to not make that decision.

But instead, assumed love is not experienced love.

People shouldn't have to die to hear what you think about them.

Remember, leaders leave legacies, and they do that by speaking while they can.

Speaking life is powerful, but what happens when life has been painful?

How do we bless when we've been broken?

I want you to kind of see the nature of what happens here.

Write this second thing down.

Another way that we see in this text that leaders leave legacies is number two, show God is always working for good.

Show God is always working for good.

At the end of chapter 49, kind of going into chapter 50, what we're gonna see, I want you to again read this on your own.

You're gonna see the beginning of a funeral service because Jacob, his last dying request to all of the brothers was, Hey, I want you to take my bones and I want you to bury me back in Canaan where I came from.

And so they agreed to do that.

And so you begin to see him die after he'd spoken this blessing over all of his family.

And then they take him all the way back to Canaan.

They have this very elaborate, long funeral service that takes place.

And then afterwards, as they're making their way back over to Egypt, all of the brothers start thinking, you know what?

Joseph, we kind of we kind of we kind of did one on him.

And I can imagine he's gonna be like everybody else is, is that eventually I'm gonna get back at you and I'll even wait to get my turn when it's necessary.

And their assumption was when Jacob was alive, Joseph wasn't gonna do anything.

But now that Jacob, Jacob's gone, they're they're thinking, oh, this is now Joseph's time when he's gonna come and take retribution back on us.

So they come up with this elaborate plan and they come to Joseph and they say, Hey, hey, Joseph Yi, your dad told us to tell you that you're supposed to forgive us whenever he dies.

Kind of a preemptive shot, hey man, don't come after us.

Look at the words that are spoken beginning in verse 19, some of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible.

It says, But Joseph said to them, chapter 50, Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God.

Verse 20 is a verse you should memorize.

But as for you, you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones.

Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Look specifically with me at verse 20.

The NIV, New International Version, translates it like this: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.

The ESV, the one we just read, says, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

The Hebrew word translated intended or made is the word hashav.

Hashav.

I want you to say that with me.

Hashav.

Hashav, it means to weave like a master craftsman.

It's the same word that's found in Exodus, whenever it begins to describe all of the elaborate tabernacle curtains that were going to be put in there, and it shows all the different colors and all the different designs.

It says that they were hashaving, they were weaving those things in order to make that beauty.

What it's saying is this is that every thread is intentional, every color is purposeful, nothing hashab is being randomly done.

It is all being done in such a way to create a masterpiece.

And Joseph is not saying, hey, God allowed suffering and some bad stuff to happen.

He's saying God was weaving Hashab, he was weaving.

Picture a master weaver at a loom from underneath, whenever they're stitching it together, it just looks like chaos and knots.

And then what do they do?

They flip that thing over and you see a beautiful picture that is being created.

What look like random threads of pain were actually God's deliberate design of a master craftsman who sees the finished tapestry.

Joseph is saying, While they were selling me, God was Shavaiing me.

He was weaving in me.

Here's what gets insane.

Look at verse 20, the end of it.

To bring it about that many people should be kept alive.

God wrote a rescue story through rejection.

Track this, guys.

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, which led to saving the nations from being starvate, from starvation.

Joseph was thrown into a pit, which led to him eventually being elevated to a palace.

What I want you to see is this.

This right here is a gospel trailer for what's going to happen in 2,000 years.

Because think about it.

Jesus was betrayed by his brothers, his disciples, and it led to him being saving humanity from their sins.

Jesus was thrown into a grave.

And it says that it prepared an eternal palace that you and I would get to live in, and we all know we don't deserve to live in a palace.

What I want you to see is this the cross looked like evil was winning, cosmic injustice, murder of the innocent, but God was cavaiing and he was weaving salvation through crucifixion.

Folks, if God can turn the worst day, worst Friday ever into good Friday, He can transform your worst day too.

That is why you can trust God's sovereignty.

Not because life's a Hallmark movie, because it's not, but because the God who wove redemption through the cross is weaving purpose through your pain.

We gotta never forget this.

God is sovereign and God is good.

And if these two things are true, then we gotta change the narrative about our pain and our struggles.

Romans chapter 8, verse 28 says this.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

Let's get practical.

Let's get real.

Your divorce?

Is it your mom ruined everything?

Or is it God's writing the story I don't understand yet?

And I'm just gonna walk through it.

Your job loss?

Is it corporate greed?

Or is it, hey, I'm not sure what it is, but I do know this.

God seems to be doing a divine redirect.

And I'm gonna trust.

Your diagnosis?

God abandoned me?

Or is it God is still good?

Even in this.

I think back on my own life.

I think back even on just the last my time since I've been back in Houston.

I mean, there was times when it was just crazy hard.

It was painful.

I remember back as I journal and just look back and see how I just I was asking God just to quicken it, make it go away.

Like fix it, change it, improve it.

Man, as I stand here today, coming off of the ministry week that we've just experienced in the life of our church, so filled with gratitude and just overwhelming joy in my heart.

I look back, you know what I see?

He was weaving.

And all those times when maybe it felt hard and difficult, it's exactly what God wanted in order to create this beautiful picture.

And I just gotta trust the process.

Folks, the same is true for you.

God is weaving in the background when you can't see.

And you can leave a massive legacy by allowing your response to pain to become the resource that other people lean on in their problems.

They're learning how to interpret suffering by watching you interpret your suffering.

So for your family, for your coworkers, for your friend, leave a legacy where you are constantly speaking about and you're confirming that God is working all things for good.

Take out your journals.

Here's your homework.

You gotta do this in the next 30 days.

I want you to share your Joseph story with someone.

I want you to share your Joseph story with someone who needs it.

What's your Joseph story?

It's where you've seen God weave good from garbage.

Where has rejection in your life led to redemption?

Find something going on, someone going through it right now, and share your story.

Here's the key, though.

Don't just meet with them and tell your story and just say, hey man, it's gonna get better one day.

It may not.

But connect that to the greater story, which is something like this the same God who used the cross for salvation has used this crisis in my life to transform my life and make me different.

Give people a theology that can handle real life stuff.

Who needs your story?

Set up that coffee meeting, make that phone call, do it this month.

Leaders leave legacies.

Keep reading.

I want you to see the third way in this passage that we can see how leaders leave legacies.

Skip down with me at the end of the chapter to verse 24.

It says, And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.

So Joseph died, being 110 years old.

They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Let's set the scene up, okay?

Joseph's 110.

Great, great, great grandkid sitting on his lap.

His family's been in Egypt for 93 years.

They're comfortable, they're successful, they're set.

This is when most people try to coast.

And what does he do?

He instead says, verse 24, he drops the bomb.

I am about to die, and God will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land.

They've got to be sitting here thinking, why would we want to get out of this land?

We run this place.

Like we're in charge.

Why would we want to leave?

Like everything's at our disposal.

We don't want to leave Egypt, but Joseph sees further.

He knows that comfort isn't permanent.

He knows a Pharaoh is gonna come who's not gonna know Joseph and it's not gonna be as friendly to him.

He knows that prosperity that they're experiencing is eventually gonna become slavery.

So he prepares them.

It's one thing to trust God with your pain, it's another to help others trust him with theirs, especially people that you'll never meet, which leads us to the third way to leave a great legacy.

Here's number three: create lasting vision.

Create lasting vision.

Joseph does something here that separates legacy levers from everyone else.

He speaks into a future that he'll never see.

He prepares them for problems that he'll never face.

He gives them promises for pain that he'll never experience.

In verse 24, it says that he will visit.

It's actually listed in the Hebrew twice.

It's meant to be like you can take it to the bank.

This 1000% will surely happen.

No question whatsoever.

God will come for you.

He's promising God's presence in the face of oncoming difficulty.

He's saying, Hard times are coming, but God's track record is perfect.

Go back to Abraham.

Remember him?

Go back to Isaac, remember him?

Go back to Jacob.

Remember him?

Now think about this going forward.

You have a track record of seeing.

God will not forget you.

And then in verse 25, he does something genius.

Look at what it says.

You shall carry up my bones from here.

Why bones?

Because future generations need tangible reminders of God's promises.

For 400 years, imagine this, through slavery, through infanticide, through decades when God seemed silent.

There set Joseph's coffin preaching one sermon.

Hey guys, this isn't home.

God will come, and you just need to hang on.

And of all the elements of Joseph's life, we've talked about a ton, the thing that gets mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, which is called the hall of faith, is verse 22, is this about Joseph.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Here's what it says.

By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

This, not interpreting dreams, not saving Egypt, not saving the world, this is what gets Joseph mentioned in the hall of faith.

Speaking about something that won't happen for 400 years.

It shows you can have a vision that outlasts voice.

And here's what messes with me.

Joseph's thinking about people that he'll never meet.

He's investing in generations that he'll never see.

He's giving words that will sustain people through slavery that he'll never experience.

In 1905, this entire region here in the northeast area of Houston was basically a hunter's paradise.

It's your people came to hunt.

There was a bunch of pine trees all over the place.

And so, because of that, the sawmills would come in here every now and then, and it was plentiful supply for them to be able to get some resources to be able to cut down these trees.

However, it was just a place most people knew of this area as a place that you would go hunting.

And then in 1906, they found oil and it changed everything.

You suddenly had an influx of 15,000 people who moved into an area all trying to get rich by getting some of that oil.

There was no infrastructure at the time.

And so what they did is they set up these tent cities.

You can imagine all there, there's really no, there's really no order to the whole structure.

They just 15,000 people descending on this hunting area.

They set up their tent cities.

There was lawlessness.

There were people that were just debauchery taking place.

It was just, it was all the things you can imagine by people trying to just get rich.

And there was a pastor who came through.

His name is JJ Pipkin.

And JJ Pipkin thought, you know what this area needs?

It needs a church.

And so he got together with 11 charter members and they started a church at the corner of Avenue C and Main Street.

It became that ultimately, but it wasn't at the time.

It just started it at the corner and it became Downtown Umble.

That church is this church.

I just got to wonder.

If JJ Pipkin could walk into our church services today, what he would think.

If JJ Pipkin heard about all the lives that got changed in our community in the last eight days in the ministry and the life of this church, that's just stuff that we know about.

Do you think he would have any clue that God was going to do that?

He did it primarily just to make sure that people wouldn't kill each other while they're trying to find oil.

And what he did is he planted a church that has planted many other churches.

That's going to plant many other churches.

And a church that has disciples that have raised up disciples that have raised up future disciples to allow us to have massive impact in all of Northeast Houston and beyond.

What am I doing that's going to matter in 120 years?

What am I?

What are you giving your life to that's going to outlast you?

Like, what would it mean if we actually embraced the idea and the calling of living, not just for our immediate generation, but for like multiple generations down who won't even know who we are?

Like, what would it look like if I parented in such a way where I wasn't just trying to raise my kids, but I was trying to raise my kids, kids, kids, kids, kids who will never know my name?

What would it look like if I prayed in such a way that my family generations would be living on the prayers of a dad multiple years ahead of them?

And I truly believe God for that.

What would it look like for you to speak words that outlasted you a century from now?

What does it mean for you with your finances not only to take care of yourself, but to use your generosity to go and impact generations after you?

Folks, I want to ask you to do is take out your journals.

Last one.

Last assignment, last homework assignment before the year ends.

What I'm gonna ask you to do is create something that outlasts you.

Create something that outlasts you.

Maybe you got some major milestones coming up in your friends' life or your family members' lives.

Why don't you write them a note?

Not just that you are congratulations and all of those types of things, but instead, why don't you write, hey, here's what I see in you, here's what I believe for you down the line?

What if you recorded your testimony?

What if you write out your God's story, how you met Jesus, when he proved faithful?

What if you shared that with your family and allowed that to be a legacy thing that keeps long after you're gone?

What does it look like for you to maybe create a family mission statement?

This is what we're gonna be about.

This is what we're gonna do.

Joseph's bones preached for 400 years.

What are your words gonna do?

Your legacy isn't what you accomplish, it's the vision that you cast for those who come after you.

Three things leaders do to leave legacies.

They speak life while you have breath.

They show God is always working for good.

And they cast vision beyond your lifetime.

Some of you may be sitting here and thinking, Chris, I've already blown it.

I got way too much unsaid.

I got way too much time wasted, it's just way too late.

I want you to remember Joseph's brothers.

By every metric, they'd ruined everything.

They sold their brother, they destroyed their family, decades of guilt, but God was Hawaii, he was working, he was weaving, and what looked like the end was actually the beginning.

Their worst sin became the pathway to salvation, not only for their immediate family, but for all of the nations.

This is the gospel.

The cross looked like game over.

The disciples scattered, hope was dead, but God was weaving the greatest comeback story that has ever been told.

The murder of Jesus became the salvation of humanity.

The worst thing possible became the best thing possible.

The same God who transformed Joseph's rejection into rescue is the same God who can transform Friday's crucifixion into Sunday's resurrection.

And it's the same God who can transform your regrets into his redemption.

Right now, today.