How Will You Be Remembered?

How Will You Be Remembered?

Proverbs 10:7

“The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.”

Maxwell House Coffee sponsored a weekly CBS television comedy-drama series called “I Remember Mama” which ran from July 1, 1949 until March 17, 1957. It told the ongoing story of a loving Norwegian family living in San Francisco in the 1910s through the eyes of the elder daughter, Katrin Hansen, who was seen looking through the pages of the family album at the start of each episode with the familiar opening narration: "This old album makes me remember so many things in the past: San Francisco and the house on Steiner Street where I was born. It brings back memories of my cousins, aunts, and uncles; all the boys and girls I grew up with. And I remember my family as we were then. My brother Nels, my little sister Dagmar, and of course, Papa; but most of all when I look back to those days so long ago, most of all, I remember ... Mama."

We are not going to be around this world forever. Every one of us will experience death should Christ tarry. During the time that we are here, we are writing a legacy that will be left for generations who will follow us. A legacy is something that is handed down or remains from a previous generation or time. The memories one leaves are part of that legacy. How will you be remembered? Years from now, when someone mentions your name, what memories will be invoked?

I. How you live will determine how you are remembered

A. “We will be known forever by the tracks we leave” - Native American proverb

B. What comes to your mind when you hear the name - Demas?

1. A superficial believer; a quitter; one who loved the world more than serving Christ

2. 2 Timothy 4:10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia

C. What do you think of when someone refers to Job?

1. Patient; one who was faithful under the severest adversity

2. James 5:11 “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

D. What comes to your mind when you hear the name of Lot?

1. A compromising Christian; one who held mixed allegiances; one whose lifestyle destroyed his influence

2. Genesis 19:14 “And Lot went out, and spoke unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.”

E. What pictures come to mind when you the think of Lot’s wife?

1. A pillar of salt, one who couldn’t let go of her love for the things of the world, disobedient to God’s clear command and was judged by God for it

2. Luke 17:32 “Remember Lot's wife.”

3. Genesis 19:26 “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

F. What comes to your mind when you hear the name David?

1. The apple of God’s eye; God’s chosen; one who was disciplined by God; one who loved God and sought to do His will

2. Acts 13:22 “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”

G. Many other people from the Bible illustrate the truth that how you live will determine what legacy you will leave.

H. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes a legacy as: “Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past”

I. Will someone point to their memories of you and say there’s no way they would want to be like you or would they say that they want to be just like you?

II. For what will you be remembered?

A. Realize that we are going to be remembered, but how we are remembered depends upon how we lived and how we served the Lord.

B. Will you be remembered for your faithfulness?

1. Will you be remembered as a Demas, one who chased after the secular abandoning the sacred... or as a Moses, one who chose to faithfully live for God rather than enjoy the temporal pleasures of this world?

2. Hebrews 11:24-27 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.