The Legacy Begins Series

Leaving a Godly Legacy Begins with Faith in God

Leaving a Godly Legacy Requires our Faith to Grow.

Growing Faith in God requires knowledge.

Growing Faith in God requires a willingness to obey.

Growing Faith in God requires courage.

With the earthquake that happened in the Indian Ocean last weekend and the resulting Tsunami that caused the death of over 120,000 people, it gives us pause sometimes to see the uncertainty of our futures.

I am certain that those who were vacationing at many of the coastal resorts in the minutes before the tsunami hit, were unaware that those were to be their last moments.

If they did know, I wonder if they would have lived their lives any differently? Had they thought of how there life

would be remembered?

would impact their children’s future?

may impact the futures of those who had in some way been touched by their life, whether good or bad?

As those people are buried in mass graves, their legacy is set, whether good or bad. Many of them will not even have grave stones marking their graves so their only lasting impact will be in the lives they lived.

Whenever you go out to a cemetery here, you see gravestones of people with the dates of a person’s birth and a person’s death. And in between those dates is usually a hyphen.

It is in the hyphen that legacies are left.

The hyphen, the time between our birth and death,

the time that we actually lived our lives,

that is where lives are touched and futures are transformed by our living.

I want you to think about that this morning.

I want you to consider, given the fragility of life and the uncertainty of our own futures,

The life we are living in the hyphen.

The legacy we are leaving to those around us

We do not know when the end will come, just as those in Indonesia did not know, but we need to be thinking about how we are living life in the hyphen that will be more than just a separator between 2 dates, but will leave a legacy that will impact the world around us well into the future and into eternity.

We are beginning a series today entitled “Leaving a Legacy.” Over the course of the series I want to talk about the different areas of our life and the different roles we have and how we can leave a godly legacy to not only our

our families and

friends,

but also the future generations and

The future of the church.

This morning, though, I want us to see where we have to begin to leave a positive, godly legacy that will have an impact not only on this generation and the one to come, but even beyond the next generation and even into eternity. To do that, I want to consider the life of Joshua.

We will be starting in Joshua 1 to look at his life as he began to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. Joshua was Moses assistant and after Moses died, he took over leading the people of Israel.

We will look at the way he lived his life and the effects that it had on those around him.

Joshua 1:6-9 (p. 151 in pew Bible)

6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Leaving a Godly legacy requires Faith in God.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

God is with those people who have faith in Him.

People in the Old Testament while they did not know the name of Jesus, put their trust in God and His provision for their salvation.

Exodus 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation--

Psalm 62:7 My salvation and my honor depend on God;

Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation;