The Ultimate Ride: Leaving A Legacy

The Ultimate Ride: Leaving A Legacy

Today we embark on a brand new journey. The Ultimate Ride: Transforming Your Life and Family. A few years back, Rick Warren wrote the book, The Purpose Driven Life. This book went on to become one of the best selling books of all time. Why is that? Because the world is searching for answers to life. Trying to find what our purpose is, why we exist, what we’re supposed to be doing. And so, the world bought that book.

As we begin this journey today, that’s basically what we’re going to be talking about, but we’re going to be talking about what we can do to ensure we make the most out of life. To squeeze every last ounce out of our lives. Over the past year, we’ve focused on what is needed in our lives to be who God wants us to be, to do want God wants us to do, to become what God wants us to become. Well today, we begin talking about this journey called life and how it relates to our families. How we can make sure that we do everything possible to experience the most out of life.

And, as we start this discussion, we must start it at the end. You see, in order to properly discuss how to transform our lives and our families, we don’t start at the beginning, we take a look at where we want to end. You’ve often heard my dad say that we need to leave footprints in life. He talked about the fourth quarter of life and making sure that our lives are lived to make a difference.

So, in order to talk about the Ultimate Ride, we must begin where we want to end. Where do we want to take ourselves, where do we want to take our families, what kind of difference do we want to make, what kind of impact do we want to have, what kind of legacy do we want to leave?

So, as we begin this series on the Ultimate Ride, I thought it would be good to include some visual references for us as we discuss these important issues. Today, as we talk about the legacy that we must leave in this Ultimte Ride called life, what better visual can you imagine than to have this: a 1928 Model A Ford. Talk about leaving a legacy. Talk about creating something that will only get better with time. Something that is great now but will have incredible value later. That’s what a legacy is all about.

Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deut. 6:20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

The world is full of contradictory examples and illustrations of a bad legacy. We often see in the media a skewed picture of what our parents and grandparents teach us and leave for us. The common perception is that we must distance ourselves from our predecessors, from our parents, from our mentors. These are lies that Satan uses to draw us away from truth.

FOUR LIES SATAN WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE:

1. You Can Leave A Great Legacy Without Seeking God’s Direction

It is impossible to leave a Godly legacy in your life and with your family without God in the center. So many people try to do it all on their own. Thinking that money, fame, status or possesions are all that is necessary to make you happy and to build a great life. Nothing could be farther from the truth.