What Will You Leave Your Children? Proverbs 20:7

“The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him” (Proverbs 20:7). “The man of pure life, who religiously performs his duty towards God and man, shall bring a blessing on his children who follow his good example, both during his life and after his death” (The Pulpit Commentary).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name

A Good Name 1) Is valuable. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1). “A good name is better than precious ointment, And the day of death than the day of one's birth” (Ecclesiastes 7:1).

A Good Name 2) Legacy left behind by some. “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). “At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did” (Acts 9:36).

A Good Name 3) A warning to parents. “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name A Personal Example

A Personal Example 1) Must teach our children. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

A Personal Example 2) Teach & be a good example. “Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children’” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).

A Personal Example 3) Example will last after death. “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name A Personal Example A Memory Of Home

A Wonderful Memory Of Home Life 1) Prodigal son’s memory. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants”’ (Luke 15:17-19).

A Wonderful Memory Of Home Life 2) Philip the evangelist an example. “On the next day we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied” (Acts 21:8-9).

A Wonderful Memory Of Home Life 3) Think about Philip. (a) Part of the church at Jerusalem. (b) One selected to help care for the Grecian widows who were neglected. His qualities – a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and Wisdom (Acts 6:3). (c) Went down to Samaria to preach (Acts 8:5). (d) Sent to teach the eunuch (Acts 8:26). (e) Preached in many cities and settle in Caesarea (Acts 8:4).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name A Personal Example A Memory Of Home A Value System

A Value System 1) The spiritual over the material. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

A Value System 2) The moral over the immoral. “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

A Value System 3) The eternal over the temporary. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).

A Value System 4) Positive example. “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name A Personal Example A Memory Of Home A Value System A Strong Faith

A Strong Faith In God 1) Not just verbal. “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:14-18).

A Strong Faith In God 2) One that puts God first. “Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:28-30).

A Strong Faith In God 3) An example. “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also” (2 Timothy 1:3-5).

What Will You Leave Your Children? A Good Name A Personal Example A Memory Of Home A Value System A Strong Faith