Yesterday, we had well over 140 people from our community come to our Halloween party. It was a great time of fun and we enjoyed meeting and serving families and children in this way. We invited many to come to our church. And my hope is that we can see more and more people from our church become active in our church because it will bless them.
I been thinking about the people in our community a lot. I’ve been praying for the families here—ones we haven’t even met. I’ve been wondering what do they, we do we need to hear from God? What does God want to say to us this fall? And I think He wants us to remember what really matters.
And so over the next 4 weeks, we’re
going to look at 4 big life questions people ponder.
Does my life matter?
What deserves my attention?
What am I building my life around?
What remains when everything else is
gone?
So I hope you will make a commitment to be here for these important messages I believe God wants us to hear. Today, we start with “What will you leave behind?”
This is an important passage for us on All-Saints Sunday. As we remember the “Saints” who passed away over the last year, I would point out our particular understanding of “Saints” from a protestant/Methodist point of view.
Some Christian denomination venerate special
people as saints—people whose lives offer examples of holiness and whose prayers believers may
seek. But that is not exactly the perspective of Methodists and other protestant
denominations. Rather, we emphasize that no one is worthy of heaven or sainthood. We are all sinners saved only by the grace of God, not by our own good works. Furthermore, we don’t pray to saints, but we offer our prayers directly to God
through Jesus.
However, we believe everyone who
repents of their sins and receives Jesus as Lord is saved. And thus, every saved Christian is a saint—in this life and in the next. And so as we gather today, we remember the “Saints” who have gone before us and
entered into eternal life with Christ. We honor them for what they meant to us, celebrate
their reward in Heaven, and recognize they continue to cheer us on as we run
our race to the finish line.
As we remember, honor, and celebrate the legacy of these saints, it is natural for us to wonder: What legacy are we building that we will leave behind for the generations that come after us?
I suppose we would all like to leave
behind something worthwhile. In my early mid-20s, before I was a pastor, I read a wonderfully helpful book
by Steven Covey called 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In it, Covey recommended consider: What do you hope people will say at your funeral?
What do you want people to say
at your funeral? Do you want them to say:
"She made everyone feel welcome.”
“He was always there when you needed him.”
“She lived her faith through kindness.”
“He left us better than he found us.”
I encourage you, if you have not done
so before, spend sometime this week considering what you want people to say
about you after you’re gone. What will
you leave behind?
I suppose we all want to leave behind a proud legacy. But in order to build a great legacy, you’ll have to leave behind some other things along the way.
Hebrews 12:1 uses the illustration of running in a race. If we want to receive the prize at the end,
we will need to: “strip off every weight that slows
us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.”
Sin is bad.
We know we shouldn’t sin. So the
first step to finishing the race and becoming a saint who wins the prize of
eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven is repentance—turning away from our sins
and turning to Jesus as the Lord of our life.
So, if you want to leave behind a good legacy, the first step is to
leave behind your life of sin.
Repent. Turn to Jesus. Follow Him.
But there are many things in our busy lives
that aren’t so clear cut. Some things that are not necessarily sin, they're just things that slow us down
or distract us. Some weights might be:
Busyness — filling our schedules but neglecting people.
Worry — letting tomorrow’s concerns consume today.
Comfort — avoiding opportunities that require sacrifice.
Distractions — giving screens and entertainment our best attention.
It might be other things too. Hebrews says, leave these weights behind so you can run the race God sets before
you.
Now, some have been scarred by the hurtful or neglectful behaviors of some who went before. Some have been abandoned or betrayed or abused. Some have experienced family wounds. Others have been hurt by the church. And these negative legacies threaten to drag you down. But you don’t have to be derailed by the failures of those who went before you. You can leave those wounds behind too. Strip them off. Learn from them. Make a commitment not to repeat them. Let the Lord redeem your legacy and make it new.
More Than Wishful Thinking
It’s great to want
to leave behind a great legacy after you’re gone. But wishful thinking won’t accomplish it.
And it isn’t done through one grand gesture. We choose the legacy we leave behind—not by wishful thinking, but by the
choices we make and the way we live each day.
Perhaps we say, “I love God and I want my children and grandchildren to
love God.” That is a wonderful aspiration. But your
children and grandchildren will not learn to love God if you don’t live out your love for God over your lifetime. Our legacy is passed on through a thousand small choices we make throughout our
life. You say you love God, but do you worship Him in church on a consistent weekly basis? Do you talk to Him daily through prayer?
Do you really know God by reading His Bible? Do you serve Him sacrificially, follow in the footsteps of Christ who laid down
His life?
This is such an important message we and the people of our community need to
hear. If we want to leave behind something that really matters, we need to be a
people of faith. We need to be a people who love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. We need to be a people who love our neighbor as ourselves. And these aspirations need to be more than words we say or wishful thinking. They need to be values we live out consistently with our actions day by day.
Today, we have the privilege of sharing the sacrament of Holy Communion. It reminds us of the sacrifice Christ made to redeem us. It also strengthens us to live for Him daily so we may leave behind a legacy that will last.
