Legacy Worth Leaving

Wes Terry

Living Right in a World Gone Wrong • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Lead Pastor Wes Terry preaches a sermon on Genesis 5 entitled "A Legacy Worth Following." The sermon is part of the series "Living Right in a World Gone Wrong." The sermon was preached on April 23rd, 2023.

Notes

Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Today we’re launching two new things in our church. The first is a new series on the book of Genesis entitled “Living Right in a World Gone Wrong.”

I don’t think I have to persuade you that we live in a world that has “gone wrong” in a variety of ways.

Have you heard of the show “Breaking Bad?” A cancer stricken chemistry teacher Walter White gets down on his luck and when presented with an opportunity to do the right thing or the wrong thing he chooses the wrong thing.

Slowly, he begins “breaking bad” by making greater and greater moral compromises even as he tries to rebuild and fix some of what he did wrong initially.

In many ways that’s the story of Genesis 1-11 and that’s the story of the world in which we live.

We live in a world gone wrong.

Gen 4-11 illustrate that world but they also illustrate “right living” in that kind of world.

Which leads me to the second thing we’re launching this morning and that is our Foster325 ministry at Broadview Baptist Church.

If you’ve been around a while you know we’ve been talking about Foster325 and have even had several people sign up to help. However, we didn’t have a team of coordinators who could come alongside and get the ministry up off the ground.

In Foster325 we call them Champions because they champion the ministry of Foster Care in the life of our church. Our Foster325 Champions are Matt & Heather Henderson (who are themselves trained and certified Foster parents as of only a few days ago!)

In God’s providence, the text we landed on this morning perfectly fits a launch Sunday for our Foster325 ministry. So if you have your Bible open them to Genesis chapter 5.

Context

For those of you just joining us, our church typically preaches verse by verse through books of the Bible and right now we’re in the book of Genesis.

Our first series covered Genesis 1-2 and our last series covered Genesis 3.

Genesis 1-2 shows what God did in creation. God makes everything good: earth, sea, sun, moon, man, woman, marriage and culture. It’s all great!

Genesis 3 shows what man does in response. God’s design for creation is rejected. That sin brings separation from God, alienation from one another and the subjugation of the creation we’re called to cultivate.

The question then is raised, “What happens NOW?”

And that’s what Genesis 4 and following are all about.

Taylor got us started last week with the story of Cain and Abel and the generations that followed in the line of Cain.

Today’s text shows us a different generational line: the line of Seth.

Today’s text illustrates the impact that one godly family can have on the next generation.

With Cain we saw how sin affects marriage, the family, our interpersonal relationships and the legacy we leave behind.

With Seth we’re going to see the impact of fathers and families who walk by faith and live righteous lives.

Today, we’re going to see a contrast between two lines.

You’ve got Satan and his line, made up of those who choose to live wrongly.

You’ve also got Yahweh and His line, or those who choose to live rightly.

So we’ve entitled the series “Living Right in a World that’s Gone Wrong.”

Bottom Line

Here’s the bottom line.

The decisions made before you were born affect the life that you live today. The decisions you make today will affect the generations to come.

This series is a 2,000 year case study on that fact.

The Lord has a plan to bless your family. Satan has a plan to curse your family. The legacy you leave decides which one you’ll pass on.

I know this is a sobering word but it could be the very thing God uses to not just change YOUR future but the generations who will follow after you.

That’s why we’ve titled today’s message, “A Legacy Worth Following.”

Read The Text

Our text is Genesis 5 and it’s actually a long genealogy of about 10 different names.

Genesis 5:1–8 (ESV)

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

The genealogy continues for another 24 verses. 10 generations are listed from Adam all the way down to Noah and his Sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Why Genealogies Are Important

I know anytime you see a genealogy in the Bible (whether OT or NT) it’s tempting to just skip over it and think “there’s nothing really relevant or applicable to me in this genealogy so let’s just skip on to the “good stuff.”

But genealogies are important. Especially the genealogy in Genesis 4 and here in Genesis 5.

These genealogies are given so we might “track the seed of God’s promise” in Genesis 3:15.

Remember God promised Adam that from the seed of the woman would come Savior who would crush the head of the serpent and place enmity between his offspring and hers.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

In Genesis 4 it looked like Abel was going to be the fulfillment of that promise. But Satan tries to thwart it through Cain’s murder of his brother.

Before Genesis 4 ends it’s looking really dark. Not only has sin ruined Cain it has also infected his line up to the seventh generation.

But Genesis 4 ends with a new son of Adam named Seth. And Genesis 5 ends with impact that his faith has on future generations.

It is through HIS line that God’s covenant promise continues.

From Adam to Seth (Gen 5:3)

From Seth to Enosh (Gen 5:6)

From Enosh to Kenan (Gen 5:9)

From Kenan to Mahalalel (Gen 5:12)

From Mahalalel to Jared (Gen 5:15)

From Jared to Enoch (Gen 5:18)

From Enoch to Methuselah (Gen 5:21)

From Methuselah to Lamech (Gen 5:25)

From Lamech to Noah (Gen 5:28-29)

From Noah to Shem, Ham & Japheth (Gen 5:32)

This same genealogy is actually repeated three other times in the Scripture. The same names, the same order, from Adam to Noah

(1 Chron 1:1-4; Luke 3:36-38; and in Jude 1:14 he appeals to Enoch as the seventh in Adam’s line )

The point? No matter what, God’s promise will prevail!

Your Family Matters to God

Before we dive into the particulars of this genealogy let me drive home two points of application.

TAKEAWAY 1: God has a plan for the future of your family. Your family (current & future) MATTERS to God.

The legacy you leave behind matters to God. Your actions today are part of God’s redemptive plan for the future! Even if you can’t see it.

The most important thing you do with your life might not have anything to do with your job, your education, or personal ambition. Instead it might be the kind of children you raise.

Your most important contribution to God’s kingdom might not be the goals you knock down but the children you raise up.

This genealogy is God’s way of planting a flag in the ground to say “Your marriage and family are stewardship through which God advances his purpose and promise.”

Marriage and family are a BIG DEAL to God. Including Foster families and adoption and parentage of various sorts.

That’s why the family is under attack in our culture. From all sides. Attacks from within and attacks from without. It’s a scheme of the enemy to undermine God’s redemptive plans for the future.

Leave a Legacy Worth Following

God has a plan for the future of your family. Takeaway 1.

Takeaway 2: God’s future plan depends on the kind of legacy you leave behind.

God’s plan advances through families that exercise faith in His promise.

The most important attribute of your family isn’t your bloodline, genetics or financial inheritance.

The thing that matters most to God is leaving a legacy of faithfulness for the next generation.

God’s family is established and expanded through faith in God’s promise.

Established & Received

That is the distinguishing mark that separates the line of Seth from everyone else.

You can see this explicitly at the end of Genesis 4.

Genesis 4:25–26 (ESV)

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Notice how chapter 4 ends, “At that time people begin to call upon the name of the Lord.”

In other words, God’s promise was carried through the line of Seth because of Seth’s faith and the legacy of faith he left for the next generation.

God cares about your spiritual lineage WAY MORE than your physical lineage.

God prioritizes the purity of a family’s faith WAY MORE than the purity of their bloodline or genetics.

God’s family is established by covenant and God’s covenant is received by faith.

Faith is the conduit through which God’s covenant promise continues. A legacy of FAITHFULNESS is the most important gift you can give to the next generation.

Your Father the Devil

There’s an example of this with Jesus in John 8:38 when he’s debating the Pharisees about genealogies and parentage and things of that nature.

The religious leaders were boasting in their genetics and bloodline. “We have Abraham as our Father!” (John 8:39)

They even claimed God himself as their father because of Abraham’s line. (John 8:41)

Jesus’ responds that their TRUE Father is the DEVIL because they lie just like he lied from the very beginning. (John 8:44)

There are only two family trees: God’s tree or Satan’s tree, truth or error, righteousness or sin. Satan can be your Father or God can be your father.

The determining factor isn’t your bloodline. It’s your faith in God’s promise.

In other words, your physical DNA secondary to your spiritual DNA.

Above all else, God’s covenant promise continues through a spiritual line of faith.

Confidence in the Covenant

So what does that legacy look like? How can you leave a legacy worth following for the next generation? What is required so that our families might be used in the redemptive plans of God?

That’s what I’d like to show you in the next few minutes. I think this genealogy actually gives us a profile of a legacy worth following for the next generation.

The first attribute of a legacy worth following is building confidence in God’s covenant.

One of the greatest gifts you can give your children is confidence in the promises of God, especially his promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

You can see this confidence by the language Moses uses in verses 1-3.

Genesis 5:1–3

New Section // New Line

In chapter 5 Moses begins an entirely new section in the book of Genesis. (book of generations). This section goes all the way through the flood narrative in Gen 6-10.

The question is WHY? Why is Moses starting this whole new section with a whole new line?

The answer? Moses is showing that it is through THIS line that God’s covenant promise will continue.

This is the line through which the serpent crushing Messiah will come.

This is the line that will end the enemy of death.

This is the line from which enmity towards the serpent will be established.

The promised war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman are coming through the line of Seth.

Language of Eden

This idea of getting back to Eden through Adam’s lineage in Seth is amplified by the use of language we first saw in Genesis 1.

Language like “made in God’s image… made male and female… blessed and named by God..” This is all harkening back to a pre-fall time.

Though sin has entered the world and through death is now a reality, God’s people insist that God’s plan is still intact!

They live by faith that God’s purpose will be accomplished through his people. God is not surprised, God is not outwitted or overcome.

He is always victorious! His plans will always succeed because the battle belongs to the Lord!

Made in Whose Image?

You also see a hint of this in the language of being made in God’s image.

In verse 1 Adam is made into the image and likeness of God but in verse 3 Seth is made into the image and likeness of Adam.

Some see this as a negative thing that Seth somehow doesn’t possess the image of God in the same way that Adam does. I don’t see it that way.

It can also been seen in the opposite light.

Adam was made in God’s image in the truest and fullest sense. Prior to sin he perfectly reflected God.

After the fall that image was marred and perverted and that broken mirror is passed on to every subsequent generation. Without divine intervention that wickedness grows and grows just as it did with the line of Cain.

But with Seth a contrast is forged.

Seth retains the general image of God given to every human by nature of being human.

He inherits the image marred by sin given to every human post fall.

But Seth also receives a third dimension. He, like his Father Adam, begins to worship and serve the true God.

Not only that, through Seth a whole line of family come who will also “call on the name of the Lord.”

Why? Because Adam left a legacy worth following. Adam gave Seth the gift of CONFIDENCE in God’s Covenant Promise.

What About You?

One of the greatest gifts you can give to the next generation is CONFIDENCE in the covenant promise of God.

It’s one thing to expose your family to the truth about God. Taking them to church. Signing them up for VBS. But that’s entry level compared to what we see here.

What we see here are families marked by confidence and courage because God is faithful to his promise.

Remember, these godly families were living in the midst of a very WICKED culture. The sons of Cain were alive and well just like there is great wickedness in our world today.

One of the greatest gifts you can give you family is courage is the face of darkness because God is faithful to his promises.

Display it with your life. Develop it in your children. Promote it amongst your family and friends.

Especially God’s promises to us in Christ.

That there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

That Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of God.

That he is the propitiation for our sins but not ours only but the sins of the whole world.

God’s covenant promise continues through a spiritual line of confident faith.

Foster Care & Confidence

By the way - this is also a reason why we want to promote Foster Care and Adoption.

Many of these children have walked through great darkness and difficulty. They’ve experienced many things: fear, failure, abandonment, neglect.

What they need is confidence in God’s promise.

They need courage to fight their fear.

They need to know God is faithful to his Word.

They need a saving knowledge of Christ as Lord.

They need to know all who call on Jesus name will be saved.

As the church we have that promise, we’ve been filled with God’s Spirit and we’ve been sent out to share that message with a world gone wrong.

It might be one of the most important things you ever do with your time, talent and treasure.

Challenge The Curse.

The second way to leave a legacy worth following is to show you family what it looks like to challenge the Curse of sin.

I want to show you at least two ways from this text that you can challenge the curse of sin.

Challenge Death

The first shows up over and over and over again in this passage.

It’s the phrase, “and he died.” (Gen 5:5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31)

Adam lives 930 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:5)

Seth lives 912 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:8)

Enosh lives 912 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:11)

Kenan lives 910 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:14)

Mahalalel lived 895 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:17)

Jared lives 962 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:20)

Methuselah lives 969 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:27)

Lamech lives 777 years; “then he died.” (Gen 5:31)

It’s like a punctuation mark at the end of every generation, “he died. He died. He died. He died. He died.”

The only time death ISN’T mentioned in this 10 name genealogy is the seventh in Adam’s line which is Enoch.

Of Enoch it is said that “he walked with God 365 years and then he was not there because God “took him.” (Gen 5:21-24)

So godly families leave an inheritance worth following when they challenge the finality of death.

This is pointing to God’s promise that through faith in the Messiah death would one day be defeated.

Practical Application

Practically, this looks like being a person who has hope even in the fact of our worst enemy: death.

I see this all the time in funerals of a genuine believer.

We grieve. Absolutely we grieve. But we don’t grieve as other people do who have no hope.

We grieve as people who have a living hope because the one who delivers us from death is the one who NEVER DIES - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every time I preach or attend a funeral there’s a sense in which there’s great lament and angst. Death is an invasion into God’s original and good design.

But there’s also a challenging of that premise through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Challenge the Devil

The second way to resist the curse is the challenge the lies of the devil.

This too is tied up in that phrase, “And he died...”

Just like the language in verses 1-3 throw back to Genesis 1. That phrase in verses 4 to 31 are a throwback to Genesis 2-3.

When they read the phrase, “and he died...” they would’ve immediately thought of God’s warning to Adam.

“You can eat from any tree in the garden of Eden except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Why? Because the day you eat of that tree you shall SURELY DIE.” (Gen 2:16-17)

Not only would they have thought of God’s Word of warning to Adam. They also would’ve thought of Satan’s temptations and lies.

“Did God REALLY say you shouldn’t eat from any tree? You won’t SURELY die? (Gen 3:1, 4)

What Adam gave to Seth and what Seth gave to the next generation was an awareness the God’s Word is true.

His warnings are true.

His promises are true.

His designs are best.

Not only that, the enemy only comes to kill, steal and destroy.

Don’t fall for his trap.

Practical Application

You want to leave a legacy worth following? You want your family to be central to the redemptive plans of God?

Show them that the Word of God is true and Satan loves to lie.

One of the greatest gifts you can give the next generation is confidence in the Word of God and wisdom to identify the schemes of the devil.

Show them what obedience to God looks like even when it’s difficult. Show them what resisting temptation looks like even when you’re the only one standing firm.

Show them the integrity of a man of God or woman of God who says, “Let God be found true and EVERY MAN a liar!”

Communion With Christ

The third attribute of a legacy worth following is to live a life of communion with Christ.

Confidence in the Covenant

Challenging the Curse

Communion with the Christ.

You can see this legacy in the SEVENTH name listed on the 10 generation genealogy: Enoch.

The number seven is significant. In Genesis 4 Lamech is the seventh Son in the generations of Cain. The sin of vengeance in Cain is multiplied by ten. (Gen 4:24)

Enoch is the seventh generation in the line of Seth. Whereas Cain’s line was filled with vengeance and rebellion. The line of Seth is filled with obedience and communion.

Genesis 5:22–24

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Intimate Walk Wicked Culture

Enoch is somebody who didn’t let a culture of wickedness keep him from a life of communion.

That’s not easy to do. But it’s one of the greatest gifts you can give to your children.

When your family sees you worship God with genuine affection in your heart it leaves an indelible mark.

When your children see you reading God’s Word or leading a family quiet time or interceding in prayer for the needs of others - that leaves an impact.

Do you want to leave a legacy worth following? Leave the next generation an AUTHENTIC example of pursuing INTIMACY with Christ.

Key word: authentic. We all pursue intimacy with Christ in different ways. Don’t be an imitation of someone else.

Be true to you but show your family what it means to love Jesus with all your heart soul mind and strength.

Godliness is passed down to the next generation because of fathers who walk with God in a culture of wickedness.

How easy would it have been for Enoch to walk with the wicked like so many of his contemporaries?

Or to allow busyness or the responsibilities of the day to eat up his devotional life and affection for Jesus.

He doesn’t do that. He walks with God.

And as a result of that communion he actually escapes death. It just says, “He was not because God took him.”

Again showing that the greatest gift you can give to the next generation is the gift of communion with God through the person of Christ.

Community of Care

The last attribute of a leaving a legacy worth following is leaving behind a community of care.

One of the other phrases that shows up over and over and over again in this passage is the phrase, “And he had other sons and daughters...”

You see it with Adam (Gen 5:4)

Seth (Gen 5:7)

Enosh (Gen 5:10)

Kenan (Gen 5:13)

Mahalalel (Gen 5:16)

Jared (Gen 5:19)

Enoch (Gen 5:22)

Methuselah (Gen 5:26)

Lamech (Gen 5:30)

Noah (Gen 5:32)

These other “brothers and sisters” were biologically related as far as I know. But the kinship that matters most to God is not just your bloodline. It’s the purity of your faith.

It’s easier to be confident in the covenant, and challenge the curse and pursue communion with Christ when you’re doing so alongside of brothers and sisters committed to the same.

As a man or a woman you cannot force your children to freely choose the right thing to do. But you CAN give your children other brothers and sisters who will support them in that journey.

The Power of Community

If you’re a member of our church you know there is incredible power in community.

The etymology of the word comes from an old french word that means “shared by all.”

You’ll find yourself able to do the most difficult things when the load can be shared with people who care.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give the next generation: a community of people who show some love by sharing the load.

There’s maybe no better gift a family can give you than sharing the load of life’s greatest pressures.

Again, these families lived in a culture that became increasingly wicked. We’ll see in a few moments that God is going to FLOOD the earth because the wickedness got to great.

They had EVERY excuse to bunker down, stop having children, isolate themselves and shut themselves off from the world.

Instead, they have MORE children and promote righteousness and faith.

Obviously, many of these children failed to sustain their walk with the Lord. But many others did. And it is with those brothers and sisters that the load could be shared.

Conclusion / Foster325

This leads me to my final point of application for today and that is a next step for our Foster325 ministry.

The reason I think Foster care has such a relationship to this text is because God’s family is primarily SPIRITUAL not just physical.

The children you raise don’t have to be your biological children. A child doesn’t need your blood line in order for you to make an eternal impact on their life. The most IMPORTANT legacy you leave on the next generation can be given regardless of a person’s heritage or parentage.

So I want you to consider two things in closing. There are two ways you can get involved:

1.) Become a foster parent.

Get directly involved by signing up for the agency fair, meeting a representative, choosing an agency, getting certified and positioned to receive children into your home.

This is obviously the biggest ask but it’s also the way to have the GREATEST impact. We NEED foster parents in the 325 area code.

Kids are getting shipped all over the place because we don’t have enough families to receive them in Abilene.

That should not be! In a city that is as CHURCHED as the city of Abilene, not only should every foster kid have a home.

Every foster kid should have a SAFE home indwelt by Spirit-filled, Gospel-centered men and women who will show the love of Christ and leave a Christ-like legacy for the next generation!

Some of you have sensed God leading you to do this for a while. You’ve been hesitating and delaying and today is the day you need to commit.

Go out there, sign that piece of paper and make yourself accountable to the process. We’re going to help you take the next steps but only YOU can make the commitment.

2.) Support Foster Families

Some of you can’t become foster parents because of one reason or another but EVERY SINGLE one of us can support those who DO make that commitment.

We’re going to enlist people into what are called wrap-around teams. Wrap around teams consist of 5-6 individuals who will “wrap around” these foster families to “show some love” by “sharing the load.”

Gift cards to go out to eat

Taking care of laundry for a weekend

Home cooked meal on a busy school week

Respite care /child care when it’s needed most

These wrap around teams will ideally become people that these Foster Families can trust and confide in because of the demonstrated faithfulness to have their needs met by their efforts.

Impacting Tomorrow

God’s redemptive plans advance through through those who hope in his covenant promise. Let us build those kinds of families and leave that kind of legacy.

If you’ve never had a time when you repented of your sin and put your trust in the person of Jesus Christ for your salvation then God’s covenant promise is offered to you this morning as well.