("DeathBed" - ReliantK Music Video)
The saying goes something like there are two certainties in life, death and taxes. And near the end of the year, as a middle aged pastor, I find myself pondering both.
This past year I preached Victor’s funeral, and then a few weeks later traveled to Kansas City for my Grandmother’s Memorial Service. Over the next year Jamie will become a teenager, Debbie and I will cross the 40 year old threshold, and the odds grow greater that we will say goodbye to at least one other family member as age catches up with them.
And it can get me thinking about a simple, but profound question. One that there is space to answer there on your teaching outline this morning: What do I want written on my tombstone? Or in a larger scope and sense, how do I want to be remembered? Take a moment, reflect on it, and jot it down there on your outline. What would you want written on your tombstone?
(Solicit responses and Connect to a desire to be remember – to leave a deep and lasting impact on the world and people around us.)
You see, here is a challenge I face.
As each day and week goes by doing. . .
- Ministry at Indiana Wesleyan’s Campus in Hamburg
- Driving my bus with Step-by-Step
- Giving hours to coaching and officiating Upward basketball
- Speaking to the University of South Carolina Basketball Team, or Beaumont FCA
- Taking a missions trip to Haiti
- Watching pastor friends move on to other churches in other states
- Even driving home from church on Sundays
I am constantly nagged by, and sometimes even haunted by the question– Did I make any difference? Did any of those efforts, those hours of investment and energy, that piece of my life that was poured into someone else’s life. Did it really make any difference?
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:2 through 11)
Does all the effort make any difference? And will anyone even remember what I did, how I lived my life, or who I was when I pass from my deathbed (re-read verse 11)?
- Reflection on teen year suicide attempts & reaching the Naval Academy
(Read Ecclesiastes 1:16-18)
I’m guessing I’m not alone. Maybe some of you are young enough that it merely gets a passing reflection, but I dare say as I venture through the congregation, and increase the years spent here on earth, the question gets asked more seriously, and more intensely: Will anyone even remember me? Because I believe that God has wired us with a longing to make a deep, significant, lasting impact.
Just listen to the commission that Jesus placed on the life of every believer, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but that is no small, piddly little task. Make disciples. Of ALL nations. Baptize them. That’s pretty heady stuff. That is eternal, lasting work. Something to be remembered for.
(Read Ecclesiastes 2:9-11)
Pastor Mike Bickle puts it this way, “We play a small but significant role in a very large drama, in a great conflict with eternal consequences.”
Think of the phrases in that statement (expound on each one) –
- We play a small: 300 million people in U.S., 21 million Evangelicals, me.
- But significant role
- A very large drama
- A great conflict
- With eternal consequences
God has placed within us a capacity, an ability, even a desire and longing to make a significant, lasting, deep impact on the world around us. A longing, that when sought to be fulfilled through the world’s economy and priorities leaves us echoing the words of Ecclesiastes (read 6:7-9).
San Francisco artist David Best is known for building these intricate monuments from delicately cut sheets of plywood. They often reach 50 feet tall, and feature turrets, spindles and railings. He builds them in memory of people who have passed away.
And then he leaves a stack of magic markers in the structures and encourages people to write messages about their deceased love ones. Then after a period of time, they will burn down the structures.
The messages that people leave are mixed with profound reflections and pain. One message left on one structure was scrawled in green letters eight inches tall, and it read, “Dad, what did your life mean?”
Tragically, a child had reflected on his parent’s life. And was left with the mulling and spirit of resignation that said, “Dad, I watched you closely and cannot determine the impact you had. It would appear that your life meant. . .nothing.”
So what do we want on our tombstones? Or maybe the more important question, what are we doing about it? You see, the older I get, the more I realize that the issue for me is not making New Years resolutions. I’m good at that. The issue is making changes in my life that will enable me to fulfill those resolutions.
People resolve to lose weight, but never put in place a diet or exercise. People resolve to learn a new language, but never even pick out a language to learn. People resolve to grow in their spiritual journey, but never sit down and begin hearing from God.
And another year comes near an end, and we wonder, was it all vanity upon vanity? Striving after wind? Nothing gained? Will anyone even remember me?
But because this longing is put in our hearts by God, He also provides a fulfillment of that longing. And it actually quite simple.
SHARE WHAT HAS IMPACTED YOUR LIFE
One of the phenomenon of the last decade has been the resurgence of Apple Computer. After their initial runaway success of Microsoft, Apple was left for dead. But they owe their survival to a small but vocal group of users who would tell anyone who would listen, “This Apple computer is so much better than a normal PC. It’s ultra-simple to use. It’s intuitive. It helps me be more productive. I love it. I’ll never use another Windows machine again.”
These testimonies even led to the coining of the phrase “Mac Evangelists” Computer users with such an evangelistic fervor for Apple that you might think you are getting a free toaster or iPod if you convert from your PC.
And all they are doing is demonstrating a human trait that eagerly shares what blesses them. Have you recommended any TV shows to friends this year? How about movies? Stores? Restaurants? We tend to want to share with others something that we enjoyed or even loved. When something has an impact upon us, we are driven to share it.
(Radio commercial for National Search Dogs Association)
Check out the story of these two dudes in Matthew 9 (read verse 27 through 31).
When something great happens to us, we want to share it.
And if you want to be remembered. If you want to have a lasting impact. If you want to do something that matters for all eternity. It begins with something very simple. Share how Christ has impacted your life. No theological education is needed. No Bible tracts or memory programs. Just a willingness to share something great that has happened in your life.
One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is found in John 9. It is verse 25. Jesus has healed another blind man. This one has been blind since birth. And it has the synagogue all in an uproar. And they call this man before the Pharisees, and try to trap him in all these questions about who Jesus is, and how He does what He does. And I just love what this man says, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Isn’t that great? One thing I do know, I was lost and now I’m found. I was dead, and now I’m alive. I was forsaken, now I’m forgiven. And I just have to tell someone. And that will make a lasting, eternal impact.
How many times do we get caught up in what we don’t know? Questions that we don’t think we will be able to answer. Do I know when Jesus is coming again? No. Do I know what happens to the 35 year-old homeless man that dies frozen in a park, and never heard a pure presentation of the Gospel in his entire life? No. Do I know if there are pets in heaven? I’ve got a pretty good idea. But no, I don’t know any better than Bill Meck knows what the weather will be next weekend.
But what I do know, is that God so loved me, that one Christmas day thousands of years ago, He took on the form of a baby, and came into this world, and died for me, so that I might have eternal life. And I can share that with others. And it can make a deep and lasting impact on this world, and the world to come.
Romans 10:13 isn’t just about world missions. It is about the cubical next to you at work. It is about the neighbor across the street. It is about the little old man whose shopping cart you just bumped in the produce section. It is about making a deep and lasting impact.
Romans 10 it isn’t just about paid preachers, televangelist and seminary trained communicators. It is about tweens at Jessie Clark Middle School. Teenagers at Dunbar High School. Students at KCTCS. Workers at the Toyota Plant. Senior Citizens gathering for their weekly game of pinochle. . .whatever that is. It is about making a deep and lasting impact.
(Read Romans 10:13-15)
Have you ever asked yourself, “Will anyone even remember me?” Well, the choice is yours. What do I want written on my tombstone? The choice is mine. The choice is yours.
That longing to make a deep and lasting impact was put in your heart by God, and He desires that you fulfill it by taking what He has done in your life, and sharing it with others so that He can do the same in theirs. He wants you to fulfill it by living your life with a plan for leaving behind a memorable, Christ centered legacy.
(Nicole Nordiman "Legacy" – Music Video)
Prayer
