A Father's Legacy

A Father’s Legacy

Good morning, Stranger’s Rest, and happy Father’s Day to all the fathers. The title of my message this morning is “A Father’s Legacy.” Being a good father is one of the most important assignments that a man has here on earth because he is responsible for a life other than his own. Of all the things I have accomplished with my time here on earth, I hope to stand before God and hear Him say “Your children thought you were a good father and so do I.” I want my daughters to know how much I have been blessed to be their father as that outweighs everything else I have done. And to all my “adoptive” kids, I am blessed to have had the opportunity to be a father figure in your life as I too had other “fathers” who sowed seeds into my life.

If you are a father, I want you to know that when you leave this earth, you will leave a legacy and the most important legacy that you can leave your children is one of being a good father. You see, if you are a good father, it will be much easier for your children to see God as a good Father because of your example. If you are a father who is not saved, then God will use others to show your children what He can be to them when they accept His Son as their Lord and Savior. But, if you are a father who professes to have a relationship with Christ, yet outside of Church you do not live that professed relationship daily, you do more harm than the father who does not have a relationship with Christ. You see, if you go to Church and act all holy on Sunday but during the week you treat your family like nothing more than people you come home to, your kids will struggle understanding how a loving God can be different from the father they see and live with every day. I want you to keep this in mind as I share the story of the legacy of two fathers.

The word Legacy is defined as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.” When we think of legacy, we think of it as something passed on from one generation to another, which could be anything from material things to a reputation; habits to specific ways of doing things; to historical knowledge about the family. We sometimes ask people what they would like their legacy to be – how they would like to be remembered – based on the things that they are doing in this life. One of the key components of a legacy is that it is often talked about after a person dies. We all know that for those who die in Christ, they transition from one state of being to another. Their new state is one without pain, worries, doubts and confusions, which are left here when they leave their earthly vessels behind. In their new state there is joy and peace. Based on this understanding, we have funerals that celebrate the life of a person and often talk about their legacy. We ask their children if they will follow in their father’s or mother’s footsteps depending on the situation. We speak of all the things they accomplished, especially those things that had an impact on the lives of others. We speak as if what they had done is now over because they are no longer physically here. But is this true?

When we leave this world what we have deposited into people’s lives by how we lived remain and, Strangers Rest, that is the true legacy for each one of us. There is a lot of focus today on creating generational wealth and I get that, but what I am talking about this morning is more important than generational wealth – more important than just money. Leaving behind “generational wealth” for our children is fine, but we must remember what Jesus said in Matthew 16:26. He said, “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?” Generational wealth can only be used in this world, but the legacy I am talking about carries over into the next. If you are like me and you are doing some things “as your father did them,” then you are walking in your father’s footsteps as I am walking in mine. My father never stood in the pulpit or preached the word of God as a “minister.” He never worked in the industry that I retired from or held the same positions that I have held. So, you might be wondering how I am walking in his footsteps. How could I be a beneficiary of his legacy? How did I benefit from the life that he lived before me?