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.
3. Faithfulness to the Lord and His standards is the obligation of every believer.
4. 2 Timothy 2:2 “the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
5. “We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful” – Steve Green
C. Will you be remembered for your fruitfulness?
1. How can we make our lives count for something that lasts beyond us? By bearing fruit for the Lord.
2. John 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”
3. To be fruitful implies that what you produce will last longer than you. Any tree that produces fruit will not last as long as the fruit. Your fruit is a testimony to you. When you are gone and decayed, your fruit will be a monument to you.
4. The influence you have may not be realized for generations after you have gone. F.W. Boreham, in his book, The Heavenly Octave, writing about the influence of Christ upon the world in an essay on mercy, says that even in a resistant society the radiance of Christian good works gradually effects an entire society for good. He notes that Christian good works may take five centuries to change the standards of behavior for a society. – copied
5. A husband and wife who walked by faith and, consequently, left a legacy far beyond anything they could have imagined, lived in the early 1700s in colonial America. Their names were Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Jonathan Edwards felt God's call to become a minister. He and his young bride began a pastorate in a small congregation. During the years that followed, he wrote many sermons, prayers, and books, and was influential in beginning the Great Awakening. Together they produced eleven children who grew into adulthood. Sarah was a partner in her husband's ministry, and he sought her advice regarding sermons and church matters. They spent time talking about these things together, and, when their children were old enough, the parents included them in the discussions. The effects of the Edwards's lives have been far-reaching, but the most measurable results of their faithfulness to God's call is found through their descendants. Elizabeth Dodd’s records a study done by A. E. Winship in 1900 in which he lists a few of the accomplishments of the 1,400 Edwards descendants he was able to find:
100 lawyers and a dean of a law school
80 holders of public office
66 physicians and a dean of a medical school
65 professors of colleges and universities
30 judges
13 college presidents
3 mayors of large cities
3 governors of states
3 United States senators
1 controller of the United States Treasury
1 Vice President of the United States
What kind of legacy will you leave?
D. Will you be remembered for your servitude?
1. Numbers 14:24 “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went; and his seed shall possess it.”
2. Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
3. A servant is one who willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of serving God through Christ and building His Kingdom.
4. When asked the question: “What would you like to be remembered for?” Elizabeth Elliot, whose husband Jim Elliot (famous for the words “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”) was killed by Auca Indians in South America, had a simple answer: “I want to be remembered as a servant of God. Nothing else.” - Phil Callaway, What will be on your tombstone?
5. I want to leave a legacy of a servant who believed
That the world could still be changed by just one life
I want to leave a legacy that years from now they'll see
That I lived only for the cause of Christ – Aaron Jeoffrey, Leave a Legacy
E. Will you be remembered for your compassion and love for others?
1. Will people remember you as someone who tried to live their life with love and compassion, who loved God and cared about other people.
2. General Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army, when it was more interested in presenting salvation than it was establishing thrift shops. He led in spreading the Gospel over much of the world, as he organized street meetings and evangelistic services. With the passing of the years, General Booth became an invalid. His eyesight failed him, and one year he was in such bad health that he was unable to attend the Salvation Army Convention in London, England. Somebody suggested that General Booth send a telegram or a message to be read at the opening of the convention. General Booth agreed to do so. When the thousands of delegates met, the moderator announced that General Booth would not be able to be present because of failing health and eyesight. Gloom and pessimism swept across the floor of the convention. A little light dispelled some of the darkness when the moderator announced that General Booth had sent a message to be read with the opening of the first session. He opened the message and began to read the following: Dear Delegates of the Salvation Army Convention: OTHERS! Signed, General Booth. – Jack Hyles, Others
3. John 13:35 “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
4. Lord, help me to live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way,
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer shall be for others.
Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this my motto be,
Help me to live for others,
That I may live like Thee. - Charles D. Meigs
