Leave A Legacy For The Church Series

Leave a Legacy for the Church

To leave a legacy for the church, we must

Pray for the church

Serve in the church

Give to the church

Slide 1

We are finishing up our Leave a Legacy series today.

Over the past month we have looked at where a positive, godly legacy begins

(with a faith that continues to grow)

We have looked at how to leave a legacy as

a wife and mother

a husband and father

Slide 1 and how to leave a legacy for our neighbor.

Today I want to talk about Leaving a Legacy for the Church.

You may not have thought of this, but today you are beneficiaries of the legacy of others.

Because of others you are able to sit here today and

worship the Lord,

grow in your relationship with Him,

be encouraged and spurred on to action,

enjoy fellowship, and

live out the salvation of the Lord.

All of these things are due at least partly to the people that went before us at this church.

How is it that they left a legacy?

How can we leave a legacy for those who will come after us in this church?

There are at least 3 things we need to be doing today, to leave a legacy for this church for tomorrow.

To Leave a Legacy for the Church we need to

Pray for the Church

Slide 2

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Slide 2 11 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count

you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul has set an example for us that we need to follow.

In many of Paul’s letters to the churches, He tells them he is praying for them because prayer is vital for the church to continue to have an impact.

Hickory Creek Community Church is here today because God has been faithful to keep it here as those who first began this particular local church prayed for the church.

Just as in the letters we read from Paul to the churches, there was prayer going on for the church so that as people obey God and act in faith, God would fulfill the noble purposes that where behind the beginning of this church.

The continuation of Hickory Creek continues to be dependant in part upon your faithful intercession through prayer.

We need to continually be praying for this church so that we can be part of the legacy of this church and others can continue to be blessed by it being here.

Our prayers today will affect

The future of this church, which will affect

The salvation of souls in the future

The saving of marriages

The tuning from addictions

The living of life.

Pray for this church each day during your prayer time. If you don’t’ have a time when you normally pray, establish one. This will help you stay connected with God and help you to leave a legacy for the future works of this church.

Another thing that we must do to leave a legacy for the church is to

Serve in the Church

Slide 3

1 Peter 4:10

10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

Slide 3 A month or so ago, we talked about spiritual gifts and how we needed to be

using our gifts.

Well, that remains true today. We need to be serving in the church if this church will continue to remain and leave a legacy for the future.

When this church was first established, the people who founded it served in various aspects to make sure the church was functioning properly.

As this church has gone through changes, its people have continued to serve in it.

As I came to this church several months ago, seeing many of the people here step up in their service so that this church would continue to be a place where others could come and find hope, was inspiring.

As Paul wrote to the church in Rome

Romans 12:4-5

4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

(from New International Version)

We belong to each other and need to be serving with each other so the work of the church can go forward.

One of the main reasons that Christ has left us here is to serve in the church.