What's your legacy?

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arpey Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Well, please turn over in your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1, 2 Chronicles. And this morning we'll be looking at 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And as we can have continued in our biographical preaching series, this morning isn't a biography of necessarily one person, but of three different generations. And so we'll be reading 2 Chronicles 20, verse 31 through chapter 21. Pay careful attention now.

This is God's Word. So Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was 35 years old when he became king, and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azuba, the daughter of Shilhi, and he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. For as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, which is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel. After this, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who acted very wickedly.

And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made ships in Ezion-Geber. But Eliezer, the son of Dodavan of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, The Lord has destroyed your works. Then the ships were wrecked, so they were not able to go to Tarshish. Chapter 21.

And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Then Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place. He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Zephathiah, and all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. Their father gave the great gifts of silver and gold and precious things with fortified cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. Now when Jehoram was established over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also others of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. just as the house of Ahab had done. For he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

In his days, Edom revolted against Judah's authority and made a king over themselves. So Jehoram went out with his officers and all his chariots with him, and he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots. Thus, Edom has been in revolt against Judah's authority to this day.

And at that time, Libna revolted against his rule because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord God of your father David, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot, like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father's household, who were better than yourself, Behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction, your children, your wives, and all your possessions.

And you will become very sick with a disease in your intestines until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness day by day. Moreover, the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians, and they came up into Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king's house, and also his sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him except Jehohaz, the youngest of his sons. After all this, the Lord struck him in his intestines with an incurable disease. Then it happened in the course of time after the end of two years that his intestines came out because of his sickness. So he died in severe pain and his people made no burning for him like the burnings of his father. He was 32 years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and to no one's sorrow departed. However, they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

Father, we pray that you indeed would open our ears and our minds and that you would enlighten our hearts, Lord, to understand what you have for us this morning. Please, Lord, build us up in our faith and let us bring you glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, there was a song that came out a while ago, a country music song that I kept playing over and over again. It kind of made me tear up. We had just had our first son. And the song is about a little boy. And that little boy is looking up to his father and he imitates his father, whether good or bad. And the chorus of the song goes along the lines of, well, now I went blank. I printed this out this morning.

It's, I want to be like you, dad. Ain't that cool? I'm your buckaroo. I want to be like you. I want to grow as big and be as tall as you are. We like fixing things and holding mom's hand. We're just alike. Hey, ain't we, dad? I want to do everything you do. Children look up to their parents. and their grandparents. It's a reality of how God has made us. It's a reality of how families are knit together in the Lord's providence.

We have a legacy that goes on to our future generations, and that doesn't stop once they leave our households either. And so this morning, the question that is being asked of you is, what's the legacy that you're leaving behind? What's the inheritance that you're giving on to the future generation? And your call this morning and answer to that question is, for the sake of future generations, live godly lives.

For the sake of future generations, live godly lives. And that starts with following the good path. Look with me at chapter 20, verse 32. As we look at these three generations of kings, Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, we find that Jehoshaphat, the middle generation, follows in the good past. Chapter 20, verse 32. And he, that's Jehoshaphat, walked in the way of his father Asa, and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.

See, we live in a generation now where children rarely have a lot of respect for their parents, where elementary school and middle school and high school teachers, when I talk to them, they talk about how little respect the children have for the older generations. We live in a society where that sense of honor isn't just ingrained anymore, but that doesn't give us an excuse to just give up. on the younger generation. It might have been the case, but I'm going to let you in on something. As a historian, I know that's been a problem for a long, long time in a lot of cultures. But in God's Word, we find that it is in the family that the paths of the godly are set.

In Deuteronomy chapter 6, when the Lord says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, it goes on to say that you are to take his commandments, you are to bind them around your hands, there to be a front lip between your eyes. And what does it go on after that?

You are to teach them diligently to your children. It is our blessing as parents, as grandparents, as great-grandparents, as mentors, as older siblings, that as you walk along the way, you get to tell of the things of the Lord. As you sit down to eat, you get to tell of the things of God. As you lay down to go to bed, you get to read bedtime stories with your kids and tell them stories of the past, about what God has done in the generation. This is built into the life of the church.

And during the Passover time, when people would come together to eat of that Passover lamb, the children were there. They weren't somewhere at children's church or something, but they were there. And they had to ask their parents, why do we do such and such a thing? And they were given the opportunity. When we take the Lord's Supper, When the children go home and they ask you, why were you doing that?

It's your blessing that you get to instruct the children, we do this because Jesus Christ died for us. It is our blessing to do this. And it doesn't just end in the Old Testament either, and it doesn't just end in your family. The book of Titus chapter two is clear as well that the older men, it is your blessing and your obligation to disciple the younger men. And older women, you should be looking around in the congregation and looking for the younger women and asking yourself, who can I disciple? Who needs some wisdom that I can give and speak into their lives? This is how the church and the people of God, the family of God, are supposed to operate.

I remember my grandpa set this, you'll hear about my grandpa all the time, I love that man. And I remember him telling me about his grandparents when we were going through our family tree and he was talking about the church that they went to up in Wisconsin when he was a dairy farmer as a little boy.

And then he kind of walked away from the faith and then when he was on the ship during the Korean War, he was telling me that there was one guy on the ship who was always there every night and he was reading his Bible. And he was the only guy in the entire birthing, in the entire sleeping quarters, that would read his Bible every night. And it was a conviction to him that that's what I'm supposed to be like, that's how my parents raised me. And then when he fully embraced the faith later in life, when my mom was a teenager, I can't remember a time spending the night at my grandparents' house where I don't remember my grandparents early in the morning waking up and seeing them at the kitchen table just for their quiet times to be in God's Word in prayer. I have no clue what they were reading other than it was a Bible. I have no clue what they were praying about, but I learned that that's how Christians should start their day in God's Word, meditating on it day and night.

See, our families give us a path to walk. And your blessing is you get to help your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren walk in those paths of godliness, like Jehoshaphat learned from his father Asa. But there's a reality here also, though, that this isn't going to be easy. In a community that is not set on the gospel, You've got to fight for a purity in your religion, and that's your second point. Purify your religion. Look with me just a few verses down at verse 33.

This is about Jehoshaphat and how he had done right in the sight of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God. of their father. What were these high places? What was going on? See, this, Jehoshaphat's reigning in Jerusalem. There is a temple to the Lord God Almighty in Jerusalem. That's where they were to go worship. That's where they were to go offer sacrifices. That's where they were to go pray. But one of the things that happened early in the history of Israel and Judah is They found every high place, every mountain, and there they just kind of intermixed the pagan worship practices with worship of God.

There, where Baal was once worshipped, now they worshipped Yahweh there. But the problem is the ceremonies and the language sometimes would get intermixed. See, the name of Baal, is just an old word for master. And so people even started calling the Lord Baal, master.

They started to merge these two, this pagan god and the true god, and there at the high places, what was pagan and what was true religion got mixed up and muddled, and the true religion got polluted. And this was a constant scourge and black mark on Israel and on Judah for their entire history. They fought against this.

Asa himself in chapter 14, 2 Chronicles chapter 14. You don't need to turn there, but 2 Chronicles 14 verse 5. You can turn there if you want. 2 Chronicles 14 verse 5. This is talking about Asa. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. Asa, when he becomes king, tries to get rid of the high places, try to get rid of these places where they're burning incense. But then you just look over the next page at chapter 15, verse 17, and you find out that it's not so easy. But the high places were not removed from Israel.

Nevertheless, Asa's heart was loyal all his days. Asa tried to purify the land of this pollution, of this false change in the religion, but the people were stiff-necked. This is what happens in Jehoshaphat's reign as well. It's not like he doesn't pay attention to it.

Chapter 17, verse 6 says, Jehoshaphat in his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord. Moreover, he removed the high places and the wooden images from Judah. See, Jehoshaphat tried. He comes to reign and he tries to get rid of these, but what do we find in chapter 20? He's not successful.

See, there's a reality here that all of you know in your heart of hearts, but sometimes we don't like to admit it. You have to fight for purity in religion. Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind. and with all your strength is not easy. This is something that you have to fight for. When we just back off and we try to cruise, we back up. We have to advance continually in our love for the Lord to maintain it. We need to seek to tear down these high places.

Because one of the things that happens when we're not careful and we keep fighting, or we stop fighting, is the younger generations, what we stopped fighting against, they can implement. Turn over to chapter 21, verse 11. And Jehoram, it says, moreover, made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry and led Judah astray. See, the things that we might passively just stop fighting against can become the very snares in our children, our grandchildren's hearts.

There's a reality that when we don't weed out the sin in our hearts, it spreads like weed. So I'm begging you this morning, One of the best things for me to hear was for an 85-year-old woman in a different congregation to confide in me one time after worship that, man, I knew I should have honored the Sabbath day better and I didn't.

And I thought, here's this godly woman who we all love in the congregation who's still struggling with sin. Praise God. Praise God that she's still fighting and she's not just on cruise control with her faith, but she is still seeking to love the Lord with all of her heart. She's still doing Colossians chapter three, trying to put off those sins that so easily ensnared her and trying to put on Christ.

This is a race that you are running in a marathon and please don't stop. When you keep running that marathon, when you keep weeding that garden, your children, your grandchildren will see. Older siblings, when you keep fighting, your younger siblings will see. That's how the family of God is designed to operate.

But there's a dark reality here of the human heart, and that's we just can't go after the big obvious sins, but we need to question even the good intentions, even those small good intentions of our heart that might be displeasing. to the Lord. Look with me at chapter 20 verse 35 for how we need to question the good intentions. Jehoshaphat shows us this after Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who acted very wickedly.

Jehoshaphat tries to seek peace. He tries to seek prosperity for his country. Is seeking peace a bad thing? No. Is seeking prosperity for a kingdom a bad thing? No. But seeking peace or seeking prosperity for the country by allying yourself with a wicked king is not pleasing in the Lord's heart. So even the intention of his heart might have been good, but how he went about it was against the will of God.

But Jehoshaphat learned this from his dad. Jehoshaphat learned this from his dad Asa. Asa had made in chapter 16 an alliance with Ahab, the king of Israel. Ahab is the one who completely took Israel to go worship Baal. He's the one who built the temple in Samaria to this pagan god. He is the one who completely changed the people to go all the way away from the name of the Lord. and to go serve a pagan god. And that's who Asa went to try to make security.

And in that desire for security there was actually a political marriage. This isn't only in Hebrew culture. Go study European monarchs and you'll find all sorts of people who are second and third cousins and brothers and sisters getting married because kings are intermarrying with other queens and they're trying to trying to build up their alliances through marriage. What this did in unequally yoking this marriage is now this pagan princess marries this prince of the king of Judah. These families are now forever intermixed.

And Jehoshaphat makes a treaty with Ahab in chapter 18, verse 1. And then that alliance and the marriages in chapter 21, verse 6. But when we get to chapter 21, verse 6, we find out one of the reasons why Jehoram turned away from the Lord. Chapter 21, verse 6.

And he walked in the ways of the king of Israel. Remember, Israel never had a good king. Never once, never once did any of the kings of Israel at the end of their reign have said they loved the Lord or walked in the ways of David. Not a single one. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Jehoshaphat wanted a good thing. peace and prosperity. But in that good intention, he still sinned by unequally yoking himself and the kingdom with a pagan person.

But we need to ask our own selves, what are the good intentions that we have that can become idols of themselves? Is it that you are so desirous of providing for your family that money becomes your God? Is it that you want your house to be comfortable for visitors and for your family that you get so consumed with housekeeping that you neglect your family? Is it that you are so worried about the fields and worried about what's going on and how the Lord is going to provide that you stop trusting the Lord who gives you food?

Is it that we want our kids to be liked, but instead what we do is we put them in friend groups that are unhealthy for them. Do we have to admit sometimes that we want to act like we're angry because of sin, but in reality we're just annoyed. Some of us want peace in our house, peace with our spouses. And that's a good thing, but we try to accomplish it by just ignoring problem or just stop talking altogether. See, there are good intentions that we might have in our own hearts, but we need to question our good intentions and ask, is this the right means by which God has given to accomplish that end? There's another way in which we need to live our godly lives for the sake of those around us, and that's also not following the culture. Don't follow the culture, but walk in godliness.

Look with me at 2 Chronicles 21, verse 3. Their father gave them, and this is Jehoshaphat, who gives great gifts of silver and gold and precious things with fortified cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the first born. Why does Jehoshaphat, this godly man, this godly father, this godly king who does right in the sight of the Lord and walks in the way of David, why does he give the kingdom over to a reprobate son? It's just the culture. He's the firstborn. He's got to be the king. And we can't just lay all this fault at Jehoshaphat's feet because the priests had to anoint Jehoram and the elders had to agree that he was going to be king. The entire kingdom goes behind Jehoram, this wicked king, because he was the firstborn.

We have to ask ourselves, was Azariah not more righteous? Was Michael, his brother, not able to possibly bring the glory back to Jerusalem? Could Azariah who finally have brought the covenant back to the full faithfulness and destroy the high places in Judah?

Why? Jehovah. Tradition. It's culture. It's what you do. It's sad. It's sad. Look with me at verse 13 of chapter 21. This is Elijah's words to him, but you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab and also have killed your brothers. Those of your father's household who were better than yourself. Think about that.

Jehoram gathers together all of his brothers and murders, slaughters all of his brothers. Why? Why? Could you imagine taking a knife to your sibling's throat? This is what Jehoram does in cold blood. Murders because he's power hungry. Murders because he wants his own way. And why is he a king at all? The culture. This is the way we do things. We need a question. Why are we doing the things that we do? Why do we live the way we live? We can't just walk on defaults.

We have to ask ourselves, wasn't there warnings? in Jehoram's life? Was Jehoshaphat that ignorant of what was going on in his son's own heart? Was he not discipling him? Did he not sit down on the stoops of the palace and help him write out his own copy of God's law? Did he not see how he was loving to go after the ways of the King of Israel? At what point did he stop intervening in his son's own life? Was Jehoshaphat praying for his son? Or was he afraid of the conflict that it might cause?

How often Have you just glossed over the sins of your own kids? How often have you neglected to disciple your own grandchildren and great-grandchildren because you're worried about how they might react or how their parents might react? How often are you praying for the generations in your family? How often are you taking them to the Lord and doing the completely counter-cultural thing and saying, God, please save my kid, a sinner?

Our culture loves to make kids out to like, oh, they're perfect little innocent children. Be around a kid for five minutes, you know, there's no perfect innocent little child. They need Christ. Live a godly life and live it in front of them and with them and pray with them and care for them. Even if they're your adult children, they still need you. They need your mentorship, they need your discipleship, they need your wisdom, they need your prayers, and they need God's word. Live godly lives for the future generations. I was watching a TV show. My old pastor would say Netflix was a waste of time. It was a good source of sermon illustrations for me. I was watching this show called Swamp People. Bunch of Louisiana people going out and hunting alligators.

And there was this one boy during the show who's extremely dishonoring to his father, just a lazy bum, just sit on the couch, don't do anything, mooch off his parents, and that was his life. And his father finally said, kid, get off the couch, you're going to go hunt gators with me. And for the entire summer, that's what he had to do, was go hunt gators with his dad. And it was amazing over this series, in this show, watching this spoiled little boy, even though he was 19 years old, become a man who would actually say yes sir to his father when he told him to do something. Who wasn't any longer sitting as a bum on his couch, but his father had taught him how to earn a living with his hands.

Your children need you to teach them that. Your grandchildren need you to teach them that. Your great-grandchildren need you to show them this example. If you don't, there's a way that they'll go. Again, when we back off, they back away. They backtrack into those hard places. So why don't we? Well, it's hard. It's hard. It takes hard work.

I promise you, if you do this, you're going to be tired, because you are going to invest yourself with time, with finances, with emotional and spiritual energy, It is exhausting to live out your life, to raise this inheritance for the Lord, for these future generations that have this legacy, but it's worth it. You might also not do it because you're worried about the ridicule that might come to your own grandchildren, your own children, your own kids. You might just want them to fit in, but it's better to fit in in the household of God than in the culture around us. It's better to have a godly inheritance, to have a legacy rich, dripping in the sweet honey of God's word and in gold and silver that isn't of this world, but is of inestimable value to the kingdom of God. There's a result.

In your life, as you seek to walk in conformity to Christ, you're going to have an impact on those around you. Husbands, you will have an impact on your wife when you seek Christ. Wives, you will have an impact on your husbands when you seek after Christ. Parents, you will have an impact on your families as you seek to walk after Christ. Older siblings, you will have an impact on your family as you walk in the footsteps of Christ. Those of you who are far older than I am, you are having an impact in my life and in the younger generations here as you are leaving a legacy in the family of God. Children, When you, with your little feet, walk in the pathways of Christ, you give your older members of the family hope that God is raising up still a family of His own. When we walk in the footsteps of Christ, there is a blessing.

And this is a key thing to remember. Do not walk out of here thinking that this sermon is all about do, do, do. It's all on you, and it's up to you, and it's only you who can raise up this generation. This is not a pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap type sermon. Look with me at chapter 21, verse 7.

Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. Jesus Christ's church will never be snuffed out. God is the one who will raise up a future generation.

Your job is to be faithful. He will bring the fruit. Your job is to love the Lord your God, and he will sustain his church. Your job is to plead with the Lord that he will raise up a new generation, and he will do it. It is the Lord who builds up his church. Yes, you are going to expend your energy. Yes, you will pour yourself out. But unless the Lord shall build the house, the builders build in vain. It is the Lord who will build his house. It is God who builds up this legacy and he will never leave his church without a remnant. Cry out to the Lord. Seek Jesus Christ with all your heart.

Closing Prayer

Put off the sin that so easily entangles you and walk and righteous for the sake of leaving a godly land. Let's pray. God help us. Holy Spirit, please work in us. And Father, please raise up a new generation. Lord, we pray that you would enable us and give us the energy and the will to be able to pour out our hearts and to the lives of future generations. Please, Father, please, Lord, work in us. We can't do this ourself. Please let us put to death the sinful desires of our flesh and put on for your glory.

Please, please, Father, hear our prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.