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Amen. All right, praise God. I'm gonna recover and jump into the message that we've been in, the door, the series on the door. And so eliminating generational gaps, releasing generational blessings. So this is the last uh message. This is the third message in the door. If you have not heard the other two or both of those, you need to. There's a lot of things we're gonna be doing moving forward as a church that won't make sense to you if you haven't heard these messages. I'm gonna do a short recap here today, but you will you will need to go back and listen to those. The door. That's D-O-R. That's a Hebrew word. It's the Hebrew word for generation, for generation or generations. Eliminating generational gaps, releasing generational blessings to ensure the synergy of the ages. God wants to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so as I share my story, God's will, God can interrupt anywhere and bring life. Wherever there's belief, wherever there's surrender, wherever there's faith, he can interrupt those curses, he can interrupt that sin, he can interrupt the unhealth, and he can bring blessing. But his will is that it just goes from generation to generation, that there's no break, that there's no gap, that there's no interruption. And so when it comes to what his will is, his will would be that my parents were followers of Jesus, that I'm followers of Jesus, that my kids are followers of Jesus, and we don't ever have to have those moments like what we had to have. Thank God for the miracles that God does, but miracles aren't his perfect will. Have you ever thought about that? Miracles really aren't his will. That's him correcting something that wasn't supposed to be the way that it is. So we all love miracles. We don't need, we don't like to have to need one, though, right? Because a miracle is always God doing something in a bad situation and turning it and making it good. And so us having the faith, the generational faith, the covenant of generational faith that God has instituted for us is the way that you can avoid all of that brokenness and all of that pain and all of that hurt. Doesn't lead to a perfect life. We're still human, we're still in this earth, this fallen world that is corrupted by sin and death. However, we can have heaven on earth. Eternal life starts now. It's not what happens when we die in our earthly bodies. And so in Genesis 17 7, he says, I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant. This is him saying, This is my covenant. This is how my covenant is intended to work. From generation to generation, this is the everlasting covenant. I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. That is the power of a generational covenant. God's covenant is a generational covenant. God thinks in generations and nations, never just individuals. So we talked about what is a generational gap. A generational gap, I believe, is an American thing. I think it is it exists in other countries, but I think it's probably the worst in the United States of America. And a generational gap is this it's a lack of honor and connection causing an interruption, hindrance, and decrease of the flow of God's character, nature, power, and ways between the generations. Generational synergy, then, would be the opposite of a generational gap or generational connection, is intentional honor and connection causing a continuation, increase, and advancement of the flow of God's character, nature, power, and ways between the generations. And so we're talking about generational blessing that endures from generation to generation. And blessed means this to be happy. This is the when you study out the Hebrew and the Greek of the word blessed in the Bible, that's a very Christianese term, blessed, blessed, blessed. We talked about that last time. Like everybody's blessed. We use that term very flippantly and very out of context. But what I'm wanting us to understand is the blessing of God is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. It is not to be taken lightly, it is a serious and weighty matter. The opposite of blessed is cursed, and we know that's serious. When we say cursed, we don't feel all fuzzy and fluffy, right? That's serious, that's hard, that's heavy, that's weighty. So is the blessing of God. And it means this to be happy, to be caused to prosper. The word prosper means to be pushed down the road. To be pushed down the road. Think about that. That means there's a force that is moving you forward. That's literally what blessing means. A force outside of yourself that is advancing you, that is moving you forward. It means to be led on and made happy, to increase, to go straight, to progress successfully. It is at its core a force that pushes you through life and all the challenges of life, causing you to advance and thrive no matter what comes against you. So to be cursed means to be made bitter. It's very interesting. To be made bitter, to be stuck, to cause to be shaken, alone or apart from. Think about that, apart from, to decrease. How many of you know there's an epidemic of isolation and loneliness in our country right now? I believe that's due to generational gaps and a lack of generational blessing. So it at its core is a force that hinders you in life, allowing all the challenges of life to overwhelm you and keep you from thriving. So we talked a lot about the progress of the believer. It starts with believer and then follower, then disciple, then disciple maker. That is a progression. Jesus was always trying in his earthly ministry, he was always trying to get people from unbeliever to believer. He was always sharing the gospel with them, sharing the gospel, inviting them to believe, inviting them to repent. And so he he talked to unbelievers, inviting them to become believers. Then he motivated believers to become followers. He's like, okay, you're a believer, now you need to become a follower. And then to the followers, he chose disciples, and to the disciples, he gave power and authority to make disciples. Big difference. Not every one of those groups gets the same thing from Jesus. They don't get the same message, the same level of revelation, the same authority or power. And so it is a progression, an advancement, it's a blessing to move and mature through those different stages of being a Christian. And what I've found in from years of ministry and just years of life and being in doing relationships with people as Christians, the number one thing that will hinder this movement, forward progress, advancement, blessing, the number one thing that will hinder this is offense. Offense. Again, that's literally almost what the word curse means is almost means to take offense, to be offended. Offended is the Greek word scandalon. It means stumbling block. It means to turn away from, right? Remember, apart or alone. It means to turn away from. So think of someone's heart. If they're with you and they're with you, they're in relationship with you, and then they get offended, they turn their heart away from you. This can happen with them not even knowing this is happening. They just get offended, they get critical, they get judgmental, they complain, they gripe, they murmur, they grumble about whatever it is you did or whatever you didn't do, whatever expectation they had that you didn't meet. This is what stops everything right here. It also works with our relationship with God. We can get offended at God. We can get uh, you know, uh uh uh, you know, we can have take offense with God. Like, why didn't you heal that person? Why, if you're real, why don't why do bad things happen? What, right? You can get this uh scandal, it can come in. It's a stumbling block, it's an impediment, it impedes your ability to have relationship. It comes in and blocks the flow. It's like a clogged artery. And and so, listen, listen, this is this is crazy. When you get offended and you don't forgive and resolve it, you get stuck. All forward movement and advancement stops. You can leave that relationship, you can leave that church, you can leave that job, you can leave that city, like and go wherever, and there you are, right? If you don't change the heart that is getting offended, the feelings that are getting offended, the the where that thing is breeding and living and growing, if that doesn't shift and change, you're going to get stuck. It's literally the definition of being cursed. It's like a curse. A curse isn't some you know weird thing that causes supernatural activity to happen, pictures falling off your walls, and you know, whatever, right? Like that, that there's some elements there where there's demonic, obviously, a spirit realm, and things can happen, but really it just means to get stuck. It just means to not grow, to not mature, to not thrive and flourish. The number one number one thing that that haunted is offense. Offense works together with negativity and bitterness to solidify an individual being spiritually and relationally stagnant. This person justifies complaining, and disgust is their dominant emotion. Without repentance and forgiveness, this is the chronic condition of that person and it follows them wherever they go. It's the same story over and over. New people, new places, same negative rut of offense, same complaints, same injustices, same frustrations, because without repentance, wherever you go, there you are. But repentance is the greatest gift that God's ever offered us. It's a positive word. It's a happy word, right? Remember, we changed our mind about repentance. Repentance just means to change what you believe to be true, to change the way that you think, to change your mind. God is inviting us, God is inviting you into a new way of believing and thinking that leads to a new way of hearing, seeing, and living. Amen? How many of you know that's the invitation of a lifetime? So then we talked about this. Inheritance, what's the difference between inheritance and legacy? We're talking about generational blessing, eliminating generational gaps, releasing generational blessing. Inheritance, this was a quote from Tim Tebow, is what you leave for people. Legacy is what you leave in people. And I'll even say it like this inheritance is them having your stuff, but legacy is them having your spirit. Amen. How many want to leave a legacy for your kids? You want to store up generational blessing for your kids. That's a good thing because there's no such thing as a generational gap in the kingdom of God. Those only belong to the kingdoms of this world and are probably worse in the U.S., as I mentioned. And I believe it's just a lack of honor, it's a lack of submission to authority. I believe that it's a strategy from the enemy to keep the power of sin and death systematically preserved through family brokenness. So the strategy of the Father would be to keep the power of righteousness and life systematically preserved through family wholeness. Titus 2.1. We have that, we should have that slide. Great scripture. This is the heart that we get of the Lord in Scripture. It's a command to promote right conduct in God's household. What is God's church? What is Ecclesia? It's the family of God. It literally means the governing family of God in the earth. As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. So this was this was Paul giving instruction to the church leaders as to their the conduct, as to how this is supposed to work, how our faith is supposed to work from generation to generation. He says, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. Wholesome, that's a word that we don't hear very often. I love the word wholesome. How many of you know the world doesn't? They want to violate anything wholesome that could possibly exist in your house, in your heart, in your children, in your grandchildren. It is a war against wholesomeness. It is a war against purity. I think one of the most powerful things, uh, one of the most powerful lives we can live is a wholesome life. Listen to what he says. Teach the older men to exercise self-control, be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. Listen, similarly, so when it says that, it's connecting the previous thing to the next thing that he's about to say. So what he's saying is, all of the things I just mentioned also apply, and I'm adding some things here. So he says, similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. Listen to the language there. Teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and to be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. In the same way, so again, verse six is connecting verse one, verse two, verse three, verse four, verse five, all of them together. So if you if you reverse this, it means the same thing for the men as the women. So it would literally, it would literally apply to a man or a husband towards his wife. So you could read it like this these older men must train the younger men to love their wives and children, to live wisely and pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their wives. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. Isn't it interesting? You could reverse that and it it still applies. It's still the will of God. You wouldn't just say, oh, no, except for the submit thing. That one's different. No, it's not different. It's the same. That's why Paul says, husbands and wives submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Similarly, okay, then he says, this, in the same way, verse 6, in the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely, and you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. So the challenge then is how does this become an opportunity that's facilitated? So we talk about the door. Gave a lot of vision for that. I'll give some more in the fall, but the door means we'll just run over the definition of that, and then I want to get into some new content here. Properly, a revolution of time, an age or generation, characterized by quality, condition, and class of men. Also a dwelling place, habitation means posterity, great word, or secession. Secession. That's what door means. It is a revolution of time, an age of generation. The primitive root of that is from the word dur, and that means to move in a circle to remain. It's literally means this an unbroken generational connection that fosters a habitation of God, heaping and piling up blessing for posterity and generational spiritual health. Isn't that good? I'll say that again because I don't think I had that on there. The door. This is just my definition from studying what it means in the Greek and Hebrew. In the Hebrew, it is this an unbroken generational connection that fosters a habitation of God, heaping and piling up blessing for posterity and generational spiritual health. How many of you sign up for that and say, Yes, Lord? Yes. From generation to generation to generation. Okay. Well, why is it not happening? We've got to figure that out. All right. First Timothy 4, 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. So Paul's actually telling Timothy here. Timothy's discouraged, and he's telling Timothy, uh, fan into flames. You might know that NIV, fan into flames the gift that was given to you by the laying on of hands, by impartation of the presbytery. The presbytery were the elders, the spiritual leaders. And so this whole idea of generational blessing requires this concept of impartation. There has to be impartation, which is spiritual, spiritual gifts, spiritual power. Impartation, it's something that an older person has, and they can give it to somebody else. There's a transfer of power and gifts, spiritual things, by the laying on of hands. This is the word uh impartation, the word meta denomai, and it means to give, to impart, uh, to share with after being with, right? Meta denomai. Meta means after being with, to give something to someone of one's own accord, something necessary to endure something vital. Okay, that's essentially what it means here. It's to receive something necessary for your advancement. What is advancement? Blessing. After investing relationally in submitting yourself to someone in order to receive what they have. That changed my life. I shared the story of how much that changed my life. So then I want to touch on this word um Bible. How many of you how many of you know what the word Bible means? The word Bible, most people think just means book, right? Book. And so we call it the Holy Bible, which is a set apart book, a special book, right? That's different than any other book. But actually, it means it means book or scroll of genealogy. Isn't that interesting? Book or scroll, the genealogy. What are we talking about? The generations. It's a special book, a set-apart book about a special family's genealogy. That's what the Bible is. How many of you skip that part when you're reading? I skip it. I skip it. It's in there for a reason. It's in there because that's actually the whole point of the book. It's to catalog and to trace the genealogy of the family of God. The good, the bad, the ugly, right? It's all in there. I mean, you read Genesis and you're like, this is a soap opera. I don't watch soap operas anymore. I gave those up. Listen, Matthew 1.17. All those listed above. How many know Matthew starts with what? Genealogy. Starts with a genealogy. And it says this all those listed above. So it gives the genealogy of Joseph and Mary and Jesus. All those listed above include 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 generations from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah. So 14 generations three times. Now, what I want to share, we're going to read the story of the birth of Christ. So you just consider this Christmas in July. How many of you like a little Christmas in July? I remember one time bluebell ice cream. How many of you like bluebell ice cream? Bluebell, um, you know, around Christmas time, they come out with their peppermint ice cream, and it's so good. Well, they did. One. It was red, white, and blue, and they released it one year, and it was called Christmas in July. It was red, white, and blue peppermint ice cream. And I just love Christmas in July. I think it's needed. Luke 141. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, this is obviously talking about Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, and Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. And Elizabeth's pregnancy was further along than Mary's. The angel, remember, the angel spoke to Mary and said, Your cousin Elizabeth is with child. And so Mary said, I'm going to go see her. She went and spent three months with her. And when the I love this. I love this. So here's here's Elizabeth. There was a 30 to 50 year age gap. Most people believe. 30 to 50. We don't know exactly, but 30 to 50 year age gap. So here's Mary, this teenager pregnant, walks into the house with Elizabeth, the next generation, and something happened when those two generations came together. God was doing something in Elizabeth and Zachariah. He was doing something in Mary and Joseph, something special. And when they got in the presence of each other, something supernatural on the inside happened. God sends Mary to stay with an older family member, probably her cousin or her aunt. It shouldn't surprise us that as soon as Mary conceived Jesus, God sent her to connect to the older generation to authenticate and encourage what she was carrying on the inside of her. So there's something that is needed. There's something that Mary needed that Elizabeth had. There was an authentication and an encouragement that came from Elizabeth to Mary that she needed for the journey. She needed to do what God had called her to do, to carry the thing that God was telling her to carry. She needed the older generation. And guess what happened in the process? That blessing ricocheted back from the younger generation to the older generation. So who wins? Everybody wins. Mary gets blessed, Mary gets what she needs. Elizabeth gets blessed, and Elizabeth gets what she needs. And that is a beautiful picture of the synergy of the generations. When we eliminate the generational gaps and we see generational blessing flowing, that's what it looks like, and that's what it feels like. And I love that exchange because it shows us what happens spiritually when the generations connect. I love this. Luke 142 says, Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit you? How many of you know Elizabeth had full revelation of that? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed what the Lord would do, that the Lord would do what he said. You know, it's interesting to have record of Mary and Joseph's fathers in the genealogy. Um, we have that. You know, we have uh Mary's fathers, we have Joseph, Luke actually accounts Mary's, Matthew accounts Joseph's genealogy, but we have the genealogy of their fathers in uh in the Bible, but we have no mention of them being alive and involved anywhere in the story. Most theologians believe that neither Joseph nor Mary's parents were alive at the time Jesus was born, and Joseph probably died before Jesus was 30 years old. But listen to this, I love this. But when Jesus was born, God sends different people to celebrate, witness, worship, and encourage them. He sent shepherds to witness, celebrate, and spread the good news to the room where Jesus was born, to the hospital. What's God's heart there? Someone shows up. When you don't have family in the natural, when you don't have biological family to be there in those important moments, God will put it on somebody's heart to show up and to be with you. Isn't that amazing? He supplies, he supplements. So now in this important, incredible moment of celebration, Joseph and Mary aren't alone. Then he sends three wise men, older men, to worship him, confirming what God told them and bringing gifts to honor, celebrate, and for provision for their journey. He made sure that there was provision for them to stay in Bethlehem and to live as refugees in Egypt. So think about that. That's what family does. That's what family does. They show up, they provide, they make sure you have what you need to steward what God's called you to do, to live where God's called you to live. That's what family does. And it's literally like God was supplementing family there. He made sure that there were people to share the special moments and seasons together, welcoming the birth of their firstborn son. Luke 2, 39 says, When Jesus' parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. There, the child, hang on one second, let me. So so one thing I want to mention, I don't have the scripture here, but when Jesus was eight days old, they took him to dedicate him at the temple. It was the baby dedication. And there's no record of them having any family or anybody with them. It was just Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. But how great and how sweet of the Lord that he had this old man in the temple named Simeon. And Simeon was there to celebrate with them. And Simeon was there to prophesy over that son and to rejoice in what the Lord was doing. God made sure there was somebody there that could be with them and could rejoice with them in that moment. God put Simeon right there, an older man with this young couple, and said, I'm strategic, strategically placing you here. And guess what? Simeon said, I can die now. Like, not only was it a blessing to Joseph and Mary, like Simeon's like, this this like was such a blessing to him because he knew what was going on, and he's he's going, my life is like complete. Think about that. It's the connection of the generations, it's the door. Then there was an older lady that was there named Anna, and she was an old widow who was made a widow when she was young and she never remarried, and she just spent all her life in the temple praising God and praying. And she sees Mary and Joseph and Jesus in the temple, and she goes up to them and she begins to prophesy and to speak life over them. It's amazing. Why is that recorded in the Bible? It's God connecting the generations because He is a God of the generations. His dream is family. Amen. So then, fast forward, when Jesus' parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. There the child grew. Listen, there, where at home, where did they go? They went home. They went home. All these amazing, spectacular things happened. Angelic visitations and announcements, supernatural stars in the sky, shepherds showing up, wise men showing up, Simeon and Anna in the temple, all these incredible things, dreams and visions, angels coming saying, You better go to go to Egypt because Herod's going to try and kill the child and all of this amazing stuff. And then it says, They went home to Nazareth. There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was on him. Now look, we have the next mention, the next mention in verse 46, from verse 40 to 46, the next mention was 12 years later. So they go home with Jesus to build their family. 12 years later, this is what it says. Three days later, they finally discovered him in the temple. Now a little context here. So they he was 12 years old at the time. They leave, and after a day and a half journey, they realize they left Jesus. They couldn't find him. So they go back another day and a half. So three days they go back, and this is where it picks up. Three days later, they finally discovered him in the temple, sitting among the religious leaders, listening to them and asking questions. So where was Jesus? 12 years old, and he was sitting in the temple. He obviously was sleeping there, and they were feeding him and they were taking care of him. And he was with who? The older generation. He was with the elders of the temple, the leaders of the temple. And he was listening to them. He was receiving impartation from them and he was asking questions. Isn't that a beautiful picture? The Son of God sitting among the older generation, listening to them and asking them questions. And then it says this all who heard him talking about the leaders who heard Jesus were amazed at his understanding and answers. So you have this exchange from the younger generation to the older generation. This beautiful conversation that's happening about the kingdom of God and the things of God. And he was listening to them and asking questions, and they were listening to him and amazed at this young man. Isn't that a beautiful picture? That's the door. That's the door. That's what the door is. It's the older and younger generations coming together and learning from each other. Listen to this. Why did you need to search? So his parents come and they're upset. Why did you need to search? He asked. Didn't you know that I must be in my father's house? But they didn't understand what he meant. Then, listen again. Then he was 12 years old. He returned home to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother pondered all these things in her heart. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and favor with God and people. So two different times you have this where they go home and Jesus grows in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and people. So they took Jesus home and we don't hear anything for 12 years. Then they take him home again and we don't hear anything for 18 years. And the only things we know about him is that he was homeschooled. Listen to this. He was homeschooled and he grew in stature, strength, wisdom, favor with God and man. Jesus was homeschooled. Have you ever thought about that? The most influential, powerful person to ever live as a human on the earth was homeschooled. Jesus was homeschooled. And if it was the proper way to educate and train the Son of God and the Savior of the world, it's probably the proper way to educate and train our sons and daughters too. Amen. Education in the time of Jesus was first century A.D., mainly in ancient Israel under Roman rule, and it looked very different from modern schooling. It was less about formal institutions and more about family, religion, and apprenticeship. Think about that. Family, religion, and apprenticeship. That was homeschool in Jesus' day. There was no public education in Jesus' day. Think he turned out all right. Home was the foundation for children in Jesus' day, and they were taught at home. Fathers had the primary responsibility to teach their sons the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy, memorization of scripture, basic reading in Hebrew and Aramaic, moral and religious instruction, apprenticeship, family business, learning how to work, produce, and provide. And then the second part of their education was synagogue schooling. Local synagogues function as community learning centers. Boys might attend a kind of early schooling where they learned reading, writing scripture, reading and writing scripture, recitation and memorization and interpretation of the law. And so listen, listen, listen. There's something sacred. This is the burden of my heart right now. There's something sacred and altogether sufficient about growing quietly and consistently at home. So hear me when I say this. I know these are broad, sweeping statements, and I'm happy to have deeper conversations around this if you have questions. But listen to me, parents. Your kids don't need an exciting, fast-paced, fun, friend-filled life. They need a wholesome, quiet, steady, consistent, family-filled life. That's what they need. That is sufficient. It is sufficient. It is sufficient. Contrary to what they may think or want or need, you as the parent need to know that is sufficient. Your kids don't need friends. They need family. Healthy parents form healthy kids. Formation of their souls and beliefs will happen in those early years, and they will have the rest of their lives to have friends. For 18 years, they need family. And for 70 plus years, they can have friends. You understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying you can't have any friends. Don't get me wrong. I know that's a broad sweeping statement. That's an over-generalization. My kids have friends, but they don't have that many. And most of their life they really haven't had any. And I'm not sorry about that. I have no regrets about that. My kids are doing just fine. I remember meeting a pastor from Zimbabwe. Pastor is one of the largest churches in Zimbabwe. And he and his wife were American. They moved to Zimbabwe as Christian missionaries and they stayed there their whole lives. They're still there pastoring this church in Zimbabwe. And they came in to our church and we hosted them. Great man of God. And he brought his young adult son with him. And his young adult is a good-looking dude, young guy called to ministry. And he brings his son with him. And his wife, him and his wife, are American. They talk exactly like us. And his son had this strong African accent. I mean strong, like you could hardly understand him when he was talking. And I he spoke English, but it was African English. And I was like, how did that happen? Like his parents don't talk like that. And I asked him, I said, Pastor, what your son speaks so strongly African with this dialect and accent, and you guys don't have any trace of that. How does that happen? And he said, Oh, he goes, Oh, when this situation happens where the parents are American and they raise their kids abroad, the kids always take the language of their friends. The kids always take the language of their friends. And I was like, but they spend most of their time with you. How is that even possible? And it was like the Lord just showed me the unbalanced power and influence of friends. There's an unbalanced power and influence of friends. And I can just tell you from my life, uh, I never had a friend positively impact my life. Every bad thing I ever learned, I learned from my friends. I'm serious. It did me no good to have friends when I was a kid. I have spent years of my life having to undo all the stuff that I learned from my friends. And I was that kind of friend to other people. I was a bad influence on others. The unbalanced power of influence friends can have has to be offset by the force of family if you want to see generational blessings storing up in their lives. It is a long game. It's hard because it is slow and sometimes seems to be creating frustration. But as you press through and persevere those seasons, deep, beautiful, solid formation of belief and core values sets in and is galvanized in their hearts. They need family, they do not need friends. They need family, they do not need friends. Listen to me. We have to help people understand that. Family, quiet life at home. That's what Jesus had. And I think we can take a lesson from that, especially in our culture today, if we want to see generational blessing storing up. Love the picture of Jesus sitting in the temple with the elders, both learning and teaching, and the elders both learning and teaching. And Jesus says, You should have known that I would have been about my father's business. What a statement to make to your parents who are distraught. And he's like, You should have known, I'd be about, well, I don't know what that meant, but maybe, maybe that day the father's business was bridging and eliminating a generational gap. These people that showed up in the story of this family are legends in the timeline of the events of Jesus' life. They're in the Bible. They are legends in the story, the Christmas story, the childhood story of Jesus. These shepherds and these wise men and Simeon and Anna and all these people that came around them, Elizabeth and Zachariah and John the Baptist, all of these people that came around them were legends in the story of Jesus, his birth, his ministry. How many of you know the disciples are legends in the story? Paul is a legend in the story. James, the brothers of Jesus, are legends in the story of the gospel. Melody and I have a whole list of legends in our story. When we showed up at Shreeport Community Church, not only did I get really surrender my life to the Lord, my mom started coming, she surrenders her life to the Lord. Melanie starts coming. She surrenders her life to the Lord. Completely changes our lives. Completely changes our lives. I've shared this with you before. You know the story. But one of the ways he changed our life was he put people in our life to supplement the things that we didn't have in the natural with faith family. And so all of a sudden, we have spiritual mothers and fathers. We have spiritual brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. And we start, God just puts us, just tucks us in to the life. He puts us at a seat at the table of these people. I can name them for you. You don't know them, but I'm going to name them because it matters. It names them in the Bible. I'm going to name the legends in my story. And so we come into this church. Obviously, the pastor by the Duron family, the Duran family, are legends in our story. But I didn't really even know the Duron family for the first year or two that we were there. But there was a man named Mike Back, and he's one of our elders. You may have met him when he's been here. But Mike Back is a legend in our story. I'm not here today if it's not for Mike Back. He came in as a spiritual father, as a big brother, and he modeled what it meant to follow Jesus. And he taught me how to pray and he taught me how to read God's word and he taught me how to build relationships and how to wait on the Lord and how to serve, how to submit to authority. And Mike Back's a legend in our story. And then there was the Carter family. The Carter family gave me my first job when I got out of the rehab center, and I went to work at their cell phone store that they had in Shreeport and sold cell phones and Dish Network, but that was just a cover up because really what God was doing was He was tucking me in to this precious family, Sugar and Ken Carter, and Todd Carter and Chris and Keisha and all their kids, and they would invite us over for Memorial Day cookouts and Fourth of July parties and Christmas parties and here. We are fresh out of the world. Didn't know what in the world it meant to live for Jesus. Didn't have any reference for that. And we step into these families and we're sitting at these tables of true riches. True riches. It wasn't flashy. It wasn't exciting. It was wealth. It was the true riches of the kingdom of God. And then there was the, oh, there's so many. There was the Donahue family and the Otbrook family and the Powell family. Unbelievable, these people. The Dunn family. So many. I could go on and on and on. The Yusei family, the Buckman family. Man, these people, we would do, we would do life. We would live life with them. They absorbed us into their families, changed our lives, gave us a picture of healthy marriages and training godly kids and all of the things that we didn't have in the natural. We got. She was my Bible school professor, my Bible school teacher, and I sat for years every Monday night for three, four hours under her teaching, and it wasn't flashy and it wasn't exciting. It was the true riches of the generational blessing that I needed desperately in my life. And she poured into me and poured into me. And I got to speak at her funeral. You go back and listen to it. It's powerful, powerful. But listen, here's the thought that I had. Whose life are you a Marla Eden for? Whose story are you gonna be a legend in? That's where it really brings it home, right? Those people had to be intentional to make that stuff happen. They were making disciples by opening their house, by putting a seat, an extra seat at their table and an extra hamburger on the grill, right? We didn't know then what all it takes to host stuff. We just showed up. And that's all we needed to do in that season. But as soon as we got old enough and we go, you know what? I want to be a legend in somebody's story. There's other people around here that need us to be that for them. And so we started hosting stuff at our house and New Year's Eve stuff and Christmas parties and Memorial Day and Fourth of July. Now we're no longer having to go responding to an invitation. Now we're creating the invitation. That's what maturity looks like. It's not feeling bad that you didn't get invited. It's no God's saying, whose story are you gonna be a legend in? Who's gonna stand up in front of a group of people 15 years from now and name you as a legend in their story? I don't mean that as harsh. I'm like, this is this is the kingdom of God. This is what it means to serve a generational God, to be a part of a faith family. It's the true riches of the kingdom of God. Lamentations 5.13. I'm closing with this. There's this picture we have here in this scripture that's powerful. I want to capture it today before we close out. Lamentations 5.13. Young men toil at the millstones, boys stagger under loads of wood. The elders are gone from the city gate. So what it's saying is there's a problem among the young people. They're toiling, they're staggering under heavy burdens. It's not going well. What's the problem? The elders are gone from the city gate. The young men have stopped their music. Do you realize about like this? Somebody's song depends on you. Somebody's music, the what God's called them to release from their life, it depends on you making room for them. It depends on you being at the city gate. Joy is gone from our hearts. How do you know there's an epidemic of depression and anxiety and fear? Joy is gone from our hearts. Our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned. Because of this, our hearts are faint. Because of these things, our eyes grow dim. Now that's a sad story. And it's the result of a generational gap. And what happened was generational blessing was stopped. And what God's calling us to do at River Life Church is to eliminate generational gaps and release generational blessing. And I am excited about that. I am so excited about that. And that's going to require us all leaning in and going, okay, that's what time it is. It's time to do the work of being the family of God and having the generational synergy where generational blessing flows to those who may not have that in their biological family, but they can have it in the family of God. Amen.