Short Devotion

Truth in Love Network

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February 13, 2021

What will they say of you?

00:00: Good morning, this is truth and love. I'm so glad to be with you this morning.
00:05: Thank you for watching and joining me and It's uh, it's going to be a wet several days it's wet out there this morning and we were getting plenty of rain
00:19: But we can still be thankful for what the Lord is giving us it's
00:25: You know when we get an over and abundance of something it's so easy for us to complain, right
00:32: When we're when we're in a drought we cry for rain, but then when we get an overabundance we complain when we
00:40: When we're in a drought we complain when it's too hot we complain when it's too cold we complain Maybe we can be thankful we can be thankful During these circumstances because we know the
00:54: Lord's in control and he's going to provide for his his children But thank you for joining me this morning
01:01: If I can pray for you at the end Let me know if I can do that. All you have to do is is type me
01:09: And I'd love to be able to pray for you If you're watching let me know you're watching
01:16: Thank you for Joining with me as we try to reach out to our community and share
01:22: Jesus Christ Share the gospel share the good news It's the the alternative is unthinkable we we must stop and pause and let that reality sink in the alternative is unthinkable
01:48: I mean we do Ourselves our family and we on a morning
01:54: Tim We we do everyone a disservice if we do not meditate
02:02: At least for a moment Occasionally about the alternative without Christ Which will of course
02:13: Be one of the motivations that leads us To to loving our family and our friends and our neighbors and Causing us to share the gospel, of course and then meditating on the being with Christ and in Christ Which would motivate us even more because of his kindness
02:37: To love our family and love our friends and love our neighbors take to give them the gospel.
02:43: So We Let's do that as often as possible and not forget the alternative and definitely definitely remember
02:58: What the kindness of Christ the goodness of God And it will lead us to love love our neighbor and share the gospel
03:09: Um This morning. I just want to do a short devotion I'm still studying and still working on this this next section in Colossians and I and I want to Do it justice as best to the ability that I have which um
03:27: There's no isn't I know it's not the greatest But to the best of my ability I want to do it justice and I want to do it
03:34: Well, and so I want to continue to study on the on the those verses But just want to do a short devotion with you this morning and and spend time together with you
03:44: If I can pray for you, please let me know if I can do that All you have to do is type me we'll pray at the end and i'll pray for you if you would like Please let me know that you're watching
03:55: Um, I love your encouragement um I'd also like feedback if there's any
04:01: Um any feedback that you would like to give me, um, if there was any topic that you would like for me to address um
04:09: Maybe we could do videos called Oh What I should do when blank what
04:17: I should do if Um, maybe we can tackle some of those topics and and I would just love to hear some suggestions from you if you have any but let's let's do a quick devotion this morning and Um seek the lord first thing this morning getting off my right foot and I ask that you you please take um
04:42: Take continue to take me serious. Um, even though Even though i'm going to use a prop i'm going to use a prop this morning and I know often we you know, we use props when we're teaching children or whatever but This um
04:59: Um this flashlight I'm going to use as a prop for our devotion, um, but it's uh
05:07: It's for a serious and a very weighty matter that I use this prop
05:15: And um And I'd just like for you to to take it, um
05:25: Listen and um see what you think of this issue.
05:31: Um This is this is no special Flashlight that I have
05:38: Um quite quite ordinary. It's not it's not modern It's not new and it's not ancient either
05:47: Um, it's it's an older flashlight But and it still functions, um,
05:53: I hope you can see that the light come on it still functions and It works and it does well and there's uh
06:02: You know, there's nothing really special about this flashlight. It does its job except for one thing
06:11: There is one thing special about this flashlight That's different and i'm going to say
06:22: With 99 percent certainty because there may be another out there at least one
06:28: There may be another out there But this there there's something about this flashlight that makes this flashlight unique Maybe the only one of its kind only one in the world
06:43: With the exception of maybe one or two that I don't know about but What is it?
06:51: What makes this flashlight special and unique one of a kind? Well It's the name on the back the name on the back
07:05: It says Clyde and i'm not going to give you the last name First name is
07:10: Clyde It has a name on the back. Who was who was
07:16: Clyde? And what makes that flashlight special? Well, this flashlight is in our house
07:24: With the name Clyde on it for a reason Clyde Is the grandfather of my wife and from my understanding
07:39: Um He was admired by his grandchildren and I know that At least my wife and her sisters
07:51: Admired and thought a lot About their grandfather Clyde Um Every time they they speak of him, they speak well of him.
08:03: So I have nothing but good thoughts to think About Clyde my wife's grandfather
08:11: And so when we we have this flashlight in our home We still use this flashlight
08:17: And when we see this flashlight, we don't we don't need this flashlight to think about him
08:23: And she doesn't need this flashlight to think about him But when we see this flashlight we do think about him because this was this was his flashlight
08:34: And it has his name on it And when we think of him, we think well of him
08:43: And I think well of him because Of how my wife thinks of him
08:51: And not only that This object this flashlight Still functions
08:59: This flashlight that came from my wife's grandfather Still provides light for us in the dark
09:08: When we need it And we're thankful for that, too But more than that We're thankful for the life of my wife's grandfather
09:21: And we're reminded of that when we see this flashlight that has his name on it
09:27: And of course you you probably know where i'm going with this. Um What i'm thinking about What will they say of you?
09:40: What will they think of when when they think of you when they are when they are
09:51: Looking through Your belongings that you leave behind The belongings that you pass down.
09:58: What will they think of you? What will they say of you? And I wanted to think of what scripture would teach us
10:07: About what kind of life that we should live That when we are not here anymore what we would want those that we leave behind To think of us to say about us and what we would want to be doing for them
10:31: For when that time comes And I think of proverbs chapter 13 verse 22
10:39: And it says a good man Leaves an inheritance to his children's children
10:46: A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children
10:54: And the wealth Of the sinner is stored up for the righteous
11:02: And the first one's obvious a good A good man leaves an inheritance.
11:09: We want to leave something for not just our children But our children's children so that means um
11:16: There there must be an abundance of it, right? It's not just some measly little something that um
11:24: That can only make it to our children scripture is teaching us that it should flow on down to to Multiple generations
11:35: To our children's children's so what we leave behind for our family
11:41: Should continue for generations That's the expectation here from the author of proverbs and then the second half
11:53: If i'm reading this correctly and please correct me if i'm wrong But it says the the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous
12:03: And that doesn't make sense On the surface the the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
12:11: So We know it if this is what a good um man is doing if he is if he is
12:19: Growing an inheritance so that he can leave it for multiple generations That's the opposite of what the wicked is doing, right?
12:29: The wicked man is is not building up that inheritance so the the wicked man what he is doing is
12:39: Is wasting it is is building up Um In such a way that it's not going to to benefit future generations of his family and so If it if it doesn't go to them
12:59: It's left behind for the righteous man I hope that makes sense.
13:05: So he's not he's not going to be able to use it His his um
13:12: Future generations his family to come they're not going to be able to use it. It's a waste for them and so it's going to be um
13:23: It's going to be to the benefit of the righteous man because it's not going to to his his family um
13:31: So so there's the there's the standard. There's the the proverb the thought the wisdom be building up so that you can have enough to affect multiple generations in the future of your family
13:57: And the first place that we want to go to of course is financially And I do think the scripture speaks of that we do want to leave a financial inheritance
14:10: To the best of our ability to future generations to our children
14:17: But you know, that's not always Not always possible in in every circumstance.
14:22: Not everyone is is able or has money Financial means that they can pass on to their children and children's children.
14:32: Um, I I think that we um We should do the best of our ability to to do that and I think that um
14:42: I think it's a good thing when we do that But we're we are in christ christ has come
14:49: That we are we are in christ and we want to be thinking In new covenant terms
14:57: Um, we want to be thinking as people who are in christ people in his kingdom and take this proverb and take its application
15:06: And and use it with those means um with those um thoughts in mind
15:15: How can I leave an inheritance to my children and children's children in this new covenant in this um
15:21: In this kingdom of god and kingdom of christ in his kingdom Um, and of course the first thing that we want to think of Is um
15:33: Spiritually And so I want to go to first peter And there's there's just going to be uh two ways that we want to um
15:43: I think leave an inheritance. The first one is is of course spiritually.
15:49: So first peter chapter one Verses three and five Seeing that his divine power has granted us
16:00: Granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness Through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence for by these
16:11: He has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises In order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature
16:21: Having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith
16:32: Supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge Um, so The the inheritance that we receive is the the inheritance of um
16:48: Of heaven of eternal life of christ And and all the promises that come in christ
16:58: Which first and foremost is is that eternal life? It's it's life in him
17:05: Life eternal life that begins now and and goes on for forever And being able to enjoy him forever
17:14: That's that's the life that we want to to share and grow we want to be growing ourselves in such a way that we are
17:30: Influencing and growing our immediate family But that's our first.
17:35: Um And foremost calling in our life we may be gifted in other areas um
17:47: Many are gifted. Um in so many different ways and we
17:58: And many are gifted very well but too often
18:05: That gift is Is is put above The family um
18:14: Too much emphasis and focus is put on that gift, you know, whether you know god maybe has given given someone a great sense of business a great sense of leadership uh a great teaching ability and so You know all their efforts begin to be piling up into that gift
18:35: And and building building themselves up here on this earth and building their kingdom and their wealth here on this earth
18:43: And and then neglect because so much time is spent there So much focus is spent there because they enjoy it.
18:49: So it's their gift. It comes naturally and so that's where they want to be But but in that they neglect their family and don't leave that spiritual inheritance.
19:00: They don't use that gift And and it's Naturally in our natural self um it would be hard to do that when when you have such a gift that That that it allows you to to lead other people to create money to create jobs to create wealth um
19:31: To do so many wonderful things on here on this earth I'm sure it is quite difficult to reserve and restrain using
19:43: That ability and that gift To that degree so that you don't
19:54: Neglect your family that you you use that gift that you were building that kingdom building that wealth
20:01: Um influencing so many people And you use it
20:09: Within your family and your your kingdom here on this earth in in in this in the sense of the world
20:22: Your your kingdom is not as um influential your kingdom is not as um
20:31: Widespread your kingdom is not as big your kingdom is not as noticeable
20:38: If you're using that energy and you're using that gift within your family
20:46: Now i'm not saying don't use it out here because that's why the lord has given it to you and we won't speak and Speak to that in just a moment
20:55: But i'm speaking of priority Because the family is often neglected because we we lean into the temptation
21:04: Of building our own kingdoms and growing our own wealth wanting to be noticed wanting to be popular and we neglect our family
21:12: When we should be using that gift that god has given us first and foremost in our family
21:20: So that we are building Building ourselves up spiritually In christ and we are building up our family so that we are leaving such an inheritance
21:32: Think about the focus think about the energy that that we must use within that family structure
21:44: To leave such an inheritance that it multiplies and it affects multiple generations
21:53: That's a lot of hard work spiritually To affect multiple generations down the road
22:01: Now ultimately we are not in control we leave it in the hands of the sovereign god but our job is to love and Build and be an influencer within our own families in such a way that that we are
22:20: Building an inheritance a spiritual inheritance that it will be effective multiple generations down the road
22:28: And that takes a lot of time and an effort on our part
22:36: Jesus Is what we want to leave? to our children and our children's children
22:44: There is nothing richer There's nothing more to gain We can't leave anything better than jesus to our children and our children's children
22:57: And that takes effort on our part And we do not want to neglect if we focus so much on the other that we neglect
23:12: To be growing our family in christ If we're not sharing christ and building that inheritance
23:22: That we're looking to the future Then we might as well say that we hate our family and we hate our children and we hate our children's children
23:36: If we are not Sharing christ with our family because without christ, what did we think about earlier?
23:48: The alternative is unthinkable If one dies without christ they spend an eternity in hell and if we are not sharing christ
24:00: If we are not trying to leave such a legacy that christ is flowing through our family for generations to come
24:08: Then we might as well say that we hate our family if we're so focused on the other things in this world that we neglect
24:16: To share christ with our family It's it's that serious it's that big a deal
24:24: And then the second thing This one's pretty interesting and I do not think that we think about it
24:32: Like we should if at all And I wanted to share this with you Matthew chapter 5
24:44: Matthew chapter 5 And one verse matthew chapter 5 verse 5
24:52: This is where jesus is teaching And he says this And see if you catch it see if you hear it see if um
25:03: It catches your ear differently Okay, because we're thinking about leaving it leaving an inheritance to our children's children what we should be doing what it looks like What did you what does jesus say?
25:17: Jesus says blessed are the gentle for the meek
25:23: For they shall Inherit what?
25:29: Heaven You know, we're all looking towards heaven
25:36: That's where our inheritance is We're looking towards heaven because that's where we're going to live that We speak of heaven when our loved ones are gone
25:51: Our focus is on heaven Have you noticed that? So much of our focus our only focus when it comes to our future in our in our eternity
26:04: Is on heaven We never think of the earth
26:11: Even though jesus speaks of the earth we never think of the earth
26:18: Why do we do that? Well, I think there's a lot several reasons why we do that and it
26:24: That would take too long to discuss But maybe it's something that you can meditate on Why do we not think about the earth?
26:31: And we only think about heaven I would challenge you to do that. I would challenge you to think about why our focus is lopsided when jesus speaks of the earth
26:47: Jesus says blessed are the gentle or meek for they shall
26:57: Inherit the earth so If we're in christ
27:04: And we're spending that spiritual time To grow ourselves so that then we can grow our immediate family and it will be to such a degree that they are spiritually affecting their family and then their family and we're
27:22: Affecting multiple generations we're sharing jesus christ and he's flowing through our generations to come
27:32: If if we're doing that and jesus says
27:39: Blessed are the meek blessed on the gentle for they shall Inherit the earth
27:46: What are we also inheriting? as christians We're inheriting the earth
27:57: We are inheriting the earth If if we meditate on that And I challenge you to do this
28:09: Why are we lopsided and why does jesus say we want to inherit the earth
28:17: Why do I skip over that verse? when When it's significant when it means something that he jesus is saying it because it means something
28:27: It is real We will inherit the earth so spiritually
28:39: As i'm growing my family And i'm leaving an inheritance for my children's children that idea of inheriting the earth
28:54: Should encompass how we grow and the inheritance that we leave and and what we leave for our children and children's children
29:06: I think Why does jesus tell us? That we are we are the salt of the earth
29:17: Salt is used to preserve Why why do we want to preserve the earth if it's just going to if it's sinking if it's just going to be destroyed
29:27: Why preserve it? Why does jesus say that? It seems that the way we um
29:38: Have been brought up to think It seems that how we have been taught to think
29:46: Is not always consistent with what god's word says Why be the salt of the earth if it's going down if it's
29:58: If it can't be won over if it's going to be Destroyed why be the salt of the earth?
30:06: Why? Because the meat shall inherit the earth The earth is our inheritance and so we should be
30:18: Living as salt in the earth to preserve it and that is in all realms of Of life here and within This life we should be teaching our our children
30:41: That Yes, we should yes, we should vote but that's not the only um, that's not the only way that a christian can um
30:53: Be involved in politics we we push and push and push. Um That Voting is a christian right a christian duty a christian responsibility
31:06: But when we cast that ballot We think that we've done our christian duty. We've fulfilled our christian responsibility and we're finished it's over it's done because The political realm is so corrupt the things in the political realm are so evil that it's we need to keep it separate
31:27: We've got this, um, it's called dualistic thinking That my christian life is here
31:37: And My secular life is here And um, the political realm is in the in the secular life
31:46: And and um You know, we we want politicians in there that are going to um
31:52: Be be moral and lead us morally and we vote and then we think we've done our our duty, which is
32:05: Which is one of the you know, greatest things that we can do it is vote But we can be teaching our children how to be politicians
32:14: That it's great to go into politics because when you have influence you can obey god and Use that position to love your neighbor
32:30: We should be teaching our children how to be Entrepreneurs ceos
32:41: Leaders So that they can use that influence use that position to love their neighbors to preserve the earth
32:52: We should be teaching our children that if they are a custodian if they are a teacher if they are a principal if they are a
33:08: Um a superintendent If they are a um
33:14: Board of education member. It doesn't matter what level that you are on You are fulfilling the highest calling in the world
33:27: To glorify god and he says preserve the earth
33:33: And use that position To glorify god and love your neighbor
33:42: By doing it with excellence doing it to the best of your ability And we love our neighbor first and foremost by sharing the gospel
33:53: And then secondly, you know Meeting needs that are there gospel and then physical needs but living the life of christ
34:09: Is living that life of christ Not in a bubble With our eyes to the sky
34:16: Waiting on christ to come to destroy the earth Jesus seems to teach just the opposite.
34:24: You are the salt of the earth The meek the gentle will inherit the earth
34:30: So therefore we want to be leaving our children and our children's children
34:36: Such an inheritance that they are conquering the world for christ
34:47: Can we meditate on those two things today? Spending so taking so much effort
34:56: Um That we are being influencers in our family to lead them spiritually in such a way
35:08: That it's leaving an inheritance that will affect our children's children and then growing our family in such a way
35:22: That we are leading them to be influencers in the world
35:31: Taking on every position every place of authority
35:39: Because jesus has promised Jesus's command is for us to preserve the earth
35:46: Be the salt of the earth Be the light of the world and the meek the gentle Will inherit the earth
35:59: And use that position Use that place to glorify god
36:07: And love your neighbor Be leading your family
36:14: We should be leading our family families To be conquerors and so when they
36:25: When they think of you And what you have left them will you continue to function
36:37: As a light That shows them the way In the darkness
36:45: That shines the light on christ And his promises and his commands and his ways
36:55: What will they say? What will they think of you? When they see your name
37:02: On what you've left them I want them to see christ Hope that was encouraging to you
37:11: All of christ for all of life. We don't want to be lazy wicked servants amen tim
37:19: I'm in full agreement. I'm right there with you Hope you guys have a wonderful day.
37:24: If I can pray for you. All you have to do is Is type me at any time come back send me a message.
37:31: Let me know that I can pray for you Love to be able to do that Hope that was helpful and encouraging to you.
37:37: Let's pray together father. We thank you so much for Allowing us to spend time together looking at your word.
37:44: Help us to Help us to be servants who were as tim says not lazy but are laser -like focused
37:54: On your kingdom your glory and our family
38:01: As we are Called to preserve and give light
38:07: And take care of our inheritance Help us to be long term
38:18: Minded As proverb says that we should leave an inheritance for our children's children help us to think long term
38:27: And not just short term and what benefits us Thank you for your kindness your mercy and your goodness and we worship you and give you all praise
38:38: Glory and honor in jesus name. We pray. Amen Thank you for joining me this morning.
38:45: I hope you have a good day today. Remember that jesus is king Go live in that victory and let's continue to get out there and proclaim the gospel.