Leaving A Legacy

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media. So be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: This morning, before I get into the message I have for you, I wanted to recognize one of our young ladies that is stepping out into a brand new venture and I want us to pray for her. She has practically grown up in our church. She started serving and met kids and then she served in our student ministry. And you just heard her as she led you in worship. I wanted you to see Skylar Ford. Skylar, where are you, girl? She hates this. Come on out. Come on out. I want you to did it again, didn't we? I want you to know that Skylar has enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. And this will be her last official weekend with us. She'll be shipping out to be involved in boot camp and all of that. And I just wanted you to know her if you haven't met her, to assure her of our love and prayers for her and how proud we are of her. And so military service is a calling and I'm so glad she has responded to that calling and we love her and expecting great things from her. You're gonna do amazing. Yeah, you really are. Let's give Skylar another big hand. Thank you, sweetheart. Be in front of everybody. And then to be called out like that. She can do one, but she doesn't like the other. But I am so proud of her and I wanted you to see her and I wanted you to hear that. Cause I'm very proud of the path that her life has taken. This morning we're continuing in this series we've been doing about a life that matters. Because I think it's important that you and I all stop to consider the fact that we will be remembered one day by someone for something. It's called our legacy. And you and I are largely in charge of how we will be remembering. Remembered. I tell you from time to time that with all the funerals that I've done, I work with the material that the family has given me. And oftentimes I know something about the person who has passed away. And so I can share my own thoughts about them. But what I can tell you at a memorial service is there's nothing we could say that changes the accomplishments adds or subtracts the accomplishments of that person had while they lived their life in reality. We talk about. In some ways, you and I are preaching our funerals while we live. I mean, you can't say something about someone even at their memorial service that will change anything about their life. As I said, you can't add to anything. You certainly can't take anything away. And so if you consider the fact that you and I are in charge of our legacy, that we will be remembered for certain things, then it's important that we stop and consider how we want to be remembered. I told you, the first weekend out, I said, we will be remembered by the life that we've lived, by the preponderance of all that we achieved in our life. And by the way, the measure of a successful life is not in length of years. I've known people who live just a short period of time. I had a grandbaby that lived just nine months. But that baby changed our hearts and lives in so many ways. So you can't measure the impact of a person's life by the length of days. Instead, you measure it by the difference that life made in the lives of other people. So think about it. You and I are gonna be remembered by the life that we live. What kind of life did we live? None of us are perfect. It's not perfection, it's consistency. God doesn't say, one day, well done, thou good and perfect servant. He says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been consistent, and you were consistent in all that you did, and you continued in that, and I'm gonna honor you for that. So we're remembered by the life that we live. We said the first week, I said, the second week out, we'll be remembered by the love that we lavish, by how loving were we to the people that know us best. How loving were we as a spouse? How loving were we as a parent? How loving were we as a child? How loving were we with the people that we know and the people that we even don't know? I mean, we'll be remembered by the love that we lavished. And then last weekend, I told you, we'll be remembered by the load that we lift. The Bible said we're to bear one another's burdens. And it's that idea that we'll be remembered by the people we've helped along the way. Because there's gonna be people that will be in your life and people that will be in my life that God strategically kind of places them there so that we can make a difference in their life in the little period of time, the little window of time that we have with them. It's the load that we lift. And this morning I want to talk about the legacy that we leave to consider what is the significance of that legacy? The legacy that we leave. An inheritance is giving someone or leaving someone what you have. But an influence is not necessarily leaving them something as much as it is leading them somewhere. And I think more than an inheritance, I think the influence is something that we have to consider when we think about our legacy. Yeah, it's important to leave people certain things. And, you know, the Bible says a wise man lays up for his children's children. If you can leave them something, that's great. Work all that out before you're gone. Because I've dealt with some of them after you're gone, and it's not pretty. Get a very clear will. I did a funeral one time where half the family sat over here and half the family sat over there. And we had to have separate viewings because they were fighting over the will. That's why I tell people, do your giving while you're living, so you're knowing where it's going. That's just fresh, free. But I'm just suggesting to you that as important as an inheritance is, your influence is equally important. I read where the poet laureate from the era of Queen Victoria, Alfred Tennyson, perhaps you studied and read some of this in high school, but he wrote this line, and it's very significant to what I'm talking to you about this morning. He said this. Our echoes. Our echoes roll from soul to soul and grow forever and ever. Our echoes go from soul to soul and roll forever and ever. Meaning that the influence of our life goes from one person to the next to the next person to the next, and will live on long after you and I are gone. In Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 5, here's what the scripture says. Even though Abel has died, he still speaks. Have you had a loved one that's no longer with you? And you can still hear them in your mind? You still remember some of the words that they spoke into your life. The fun times and some of the sad times and the hard times. But they made such a difference in your life, even though they've been gone a long time, they're still living in your head. They're still living in your heart. Well, that's the idea of a legacy that you and I will live on in the hearts and minds of the People that we know and the people that we have helped along the way. In fact, even in nature, you see this principle. Ecologists will tell you that a young tree will grow better when it's planted by an older tree because the roots of the young tree will follow the path of the older trees. So we're all leading someone somewhere, our influence, our legacy. When the Apostle Paul was preparing to leave this life, he was very concerned that his young mentor, his young protege Timothy, would catch on to all the things that he had tried to teach him and he would remember them and he would follow in that pathway. And he wrote this famous, these famous verses in second Timothy chapter four, verses seven and eight. Most of you are familiar with these words where Paul was preparing to leave and he said, listen Timothy, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. And listen to how he described his death. The time of my departure is at hand. Let me stop long enough to say, when we leave this earth. Paul was using this nautical expression. He was saying, I'm boarding a ship and the ship is about to set sail. The the time of my departure, I'm about to depart. I'm going to leave from one place and go to another place. I'm gonna leave from the temporal and I'm going to the Eternal. I'm leaving from Earth and I'm moving into heaven. It is a departure. And that's really a beautiful picture because oftentimes when we think of the death of our loved ones, we don't think of it as something that is a beautiful experience as much as we think of it as a heart wrenching experience. And I'm just saying it, it's a little of both. It's possible to have the best of times and the worst of times at the same time. And when Paul was talking about understanding the value of heaven and where our loved ones go when they leave this earth, he was saying, when you understand it properly in 1st Thessalonians 4, he said, it's a happy hope. The hope of heaven is a happy hope. Even when your heart is broken and even if your soul is crushed, you have the hope of heaven that that can make you happy. In the midst of your sorrow, you smile through the tears. Paul is saying to Timothy, this is a departure. It's almost here. I'm about to board this ship and I'm going to leave this earth and I'm going to move in the presence of God. And even the psalmist David, when he wrote about that experience, he said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He didn't say into the valley. That might lead you to believe that this is an experience you go into, you never get out of. He said, I go through, meaning that it's just a passageway. I'm going to go through an experience, and I'm going to come out of this experience on the other side. When we think of death and you think of the departure, you think of the idea of separation, the separation of our loved ones from us. And certainly that's a good understanding of death, and that's certainly true. It is separation, but it's more than that. Death, by definition is separation, but it's more than separation of our loved ones from us. It's is separation of their spirit and soul from their body. When Paul wrote about how God made us, he said this in 1st Thessalonians 5. He said, I pray that your spirit and your soul and your body, you get those three parts. Spirit and soul and body. I pray they're preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. In theological circles, we call that trichotomy, meaning that I am a spirit and a soul. That part of me is eternal and I'm inhabiting a body. That part of me is only temporal. And when I one day depart from this body and I one day experience death, if Jesus tarries his coming, then my spirit and soul, the part of me that's eternal, will just vacate the part of me that's temporal, and this body returns to the earth. Solomon says, the spirit returns to God who gave it, and the body returns to the earth. And then he said, ashes to ashes, which is cremation, dust to dust, which is normal decay. And he's just simply saying that's where it goes. If Jesus tarries his coming, but the spirit returns to God, Paul is simply saying, I'm about to depart. I'm going to leave one point and I'm moving to the next point. And this is about to happen. I'm moving now into the presence of the Lord. So this is important, Timothy, what I'm about to tell you, I want you to know. I fought the good fight. I finished the race, I finished my course. I've kept the faith. Finally, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me at that day. He's saying, timothy, I left it all on the field. I've done the best I could with the time that I had to make a difference in the lives of others. And I just want you to know as I summarize my life, I don't have a lot of regrets. I've done the best I could with the things that God has given me. And when I think about the legacy that Paul has left, what an amazing legacy that he had. There are roughly over 100 biographies that are listed in the Bible. And what's astounding about the hundred plus biographies in the Bible, two thirds of those biographies didn't end well. That's why the Bible is the most honest book in the world. The Bible shows you good things and bad things and happy things and sad things. And it doesn't just put a happy face on life. It shows you the reality of the struggle of life. And in the Bible, you have good examples of good examples, and you've got good examples of bad examples. And Paul said, looking at my life, I take pride in the way in which God has used me. And then in speaking to the believers in Ephesus, he summarizes his legacy this way. He says, I'll be remembered primarily for these three things. And this is what I wanted to share with you before we go home. Number one, he said, I will be remembered because I committed my life to a greater person. A greater person. And this is what he said to the believers in Ephesus. In Acts 20:18, he said, you know, the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. Now let me stop long enough. Paul is saying, you know me, you've seen me. You know this is not fake it till you make it. I've been around you guys and you know me and you know the guy that I am and you know the life that I've lived and you know this legacy that I leave, you know me and the people that know us know us. I told you about that. Go with me. I'm old. If I repeat this story again. I did a funeral, you know, years ago and I was working with the material that they gave me and I knew the guy pretty well and I knew he had a very colorful life. So I was trying to accentuate the positive, you know what I'm saying? I was cherry picking a little bit some of the things. And there was a lady in this memorial service that had gone to high school with him that knew him from get go and. Cause she had known me all my life. So, you know, as the custom is, you stand at the head of the casket. And that might have been Matt Bird, who knows? But anyway, I stood at the head of the casket and these people were passing by. Well, she came by. And when she came by, she took my hand and pulls me in real close to her. And she said I had to come look in the casket to make sure I was at the right funeral. She said, you really accentuated the positive in his life. And then she slapped me on the side of my face. You did good, hon. And then walks away so I can try to accentuate the positive. But Paul here is saying, you know me, you don't have to spend my life and you don't have to do. He said, you know the person I've been and here's what it is. He said, verse 19. I serve the Lord with humility, with tears, even though I was severely tested. He said, I didn't hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to you. I've tried to have your best interest in heart and be there for you. I've taught you publicly in front of people. And then I'm privately in house to house. I've declared both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in Jesus Christ. What was he saying? He was saying, the driving force of my life has been my commitment to Christ. He's made the difference in my life since I connected to him on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine. And from that point in time I've tried to be consistent and faithful, whether I in public or in private, to finding a way to share my faith with other people. And Paul never got over the significance of knowing Jesus as his personal savior. Neither should we. You think about when you commit to Christ, what that means. According to Romans chapter 6 in verse 20, we are now saved from the penalty of our sin. The Bible says the wages or the payment for sin is death, physical death and spiritual death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now look, we may have to experience physical death, as I said a moment ago, if Jesus tarries his coming. That's why I believe the coming of Christ is near. That's why I'm looking for the upper taker and not the undertaker. But if Jesus doesn't return, I'm probably not gonna get out of this thing alive. And you probably aren't either. We'll depart as Paul said. We'll walk through that experience. We'll not fear cause God will be with us. But we may have that. So knowing Jes. Jesus doesn't mean we may not die. It means he'll be with us and we won't fear it. And we'll go through it and get out on the other side of it. He's not talking here about the wages of sin is death in the sense of physical death. He's saying the wages of sin is death in the sense of spiritual death, meaning that spiritual death is that eternal separation from God. And when you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and you've committed your life to him, you don't have to fear spiritual death. You know him as your Savior, and you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 1 says, so being committed to a greater person means, listen, I am now saved from the penalty of my sin. Not only that, According to Romans 6:23, we're saved from the power of our sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us. We're not a slave to our sin, meaning that we now have within us a power above us that helps us to succumb to the pressure around us. And so anything that I face in life, because I know Jesus, I don't have to submit to that. I have something within me more powerful than that. And so he's talking about knowing Jesus as Savior. He's saying, the penalty of sin is dealt with, and the. The power of sin is dealt with. And here's a third thought. This is in Revelation 20, and that is, one day he'll save us from the presence of sin. One day we'll be in heaven. This past week, I did a memorial service for Cindy's uncle who went to heaven. And in the service, I was reminding them of that promise in John 14, where Jesus said, don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. He said, if it weren't so. And I love this line, if there were no heaven, if that isn't so, he said, I would have told you. Jesus said, I'm not giving you a false hope. If there's no heaven, I would be honest with you about it. And didn't just buy into the Epicurean philosophy and just say, hey, man, just eat, drink, and be merry, because ain't nothing after this. But he said, look, man, I go to prepare a place for you. And that's what I wanted you to see, a place. Heaven is a place. In the Greek, it's topos. We get the word topography from that same word. Heaven is a topos. I go to prepare a topos. A place. It's as real as Fort Worth, Texas. The people there. As real as anyone in this room is real. And he's saying, I go to Pray. And he said, and if I go, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Thomas was skeptical. He said, lord, we don't know where you're going. And how do we know the way? And Jesus said, thomas, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. You commit to a greater person, and he will save you from the penalty of your sin, from the power of your sin, from the presence of your sin. Paul said, I model that before you every day. Here's the second thing he did. And he did so well. Not only was he committed to a greater person, but he was also committed to a greater purpose. A greater purpose. Acts 20. Again, look down. Verse 28. What was the purpose? He said, keep watch over yourselves, over the flock which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which he bought with his own blood. What was he saying? He was saying, you have a calling. I mentioned Skylar's calling, and she felt like she's supposed to be in the Marine Corps. And that's the life she's pursuing. You and I have a calling as well. God has a purpose for every life. You are not an accident. You're an incident. God just didn't look down from heaven and spot you one day and go, what am I gonna do with that one? I mean, you were created with a design in mind. He has something for you to do. And when you connect with your Creator, you start discovering your purpose. And whatever your profession is, whatever line of work you're in, that you're passionate about, you've been affirmed in and all this kind of thing, that's the purpose God has designed you to fulfill and to walk in that purpose. And what an incredible thing that is. Someone asks this question every now and then, what's your vocation? Did you know that's actually a ministry word? Voca? In the Latin, we get the word calling, like the Bible speaks of being in ministry as it being a calling. Voca, a vocation. When you're asked your vocation, what they're asking you is, what is your calling? What are you called to do? What is your purpose in life? And Paul not only was tuned to his following after his Savior, he was in tune with the purpose that God had placed him on this earth to achieve. And when he looked back over that purpose. Here's back to our text. He said, the first thing I did is, he said, I fought the good fight. I gave it everything I had. Man, I love people who just persevere, don't you? That just dig in and say, I'm not gonna give up. And I will not give in. And I just will not give out. I mean, they are absolutely committed to the thing God has called them to do. And listen, man, when you find your purpose and you dial it in, I'm telling you, the road to success, as Paul Harvey said, will be uphill all the way. You know, you're not running with the devil when you run into him. That's the good news about the bad news. Paul even put it this way. He said, there's a great and effectual door open unto me. But there are many adversaries. Think about that door, Paul said, that's open. The door of opportunity will swing on the hinges of opposition. You're going to face headwinds, you're going to face difficulty. And Paul said, when I think about it, man, he said, I fought the fight. I fought the fight. We were talking about it this last week. Have you noticed everything in life that is worthwhile is hard. It's hard. Some of you have your own business and you run your business. That's hard. That's hard. You deal with the public all the time, and that's hard. That's why people don't understand people who are involved with the public all the time needing solitude. You need time away from the people. Jesus, man. He preached to thousands of people. But then he went up into the mountains. I love you. I just gotta get away from you for a little bit. Loosely translated. But I'm just saying you gotta get replenished sometimes. If you're dealing with the public every day, the best thing you can do for you is watch the gauges of your life. Your physical energy, spiritual and emotional energy. And when those tanks get low, you gotta replenish. You can't give somebody something you don't have any more than you can come from somewhere you've not been. You gotta replenish the tanks. And I'm just saying anything you have that's gonna be worth having, whether it's a business is. You're gonna have to fight for it. Whether it's a relationship, a marriage, you gotta fight for that marriage. I mean, that idea that. Remember the Captain and Tenille. Some of you will remember Captain. They were. Google it. Kids. They were a thing. Well, they had a song called Love Will Keep Us Together. I don't wanna sing it. I don't wanna stampede the herd. I'm just saying it was a cute little tune. Love will keep us together. You know what the truth about that song is? That's not true. Love will not keep you together. Oh. It may draw you to one another. And it's good that you love that person. Obviously you do, but it's not your love that will keep you. Listen, I was married 42 years before Cindy went to heaven. And we loved each other deeply. But I'm telling you, the thing that kept us together was not love as much as it was commitment. Now, one person can't make that work. Can't. It doesn't matter how committed you may be. If that other person twists off, there's nothing you can do about that. You just take care of you. I tell people all the time, two half people doesn't make a whole person. Remember that. I don't know why I'm quoting these lines, but Jerry Maguire, another one came to mind. I'm sorry. I was married and she made me watch these movies, guys. But I'm just saying. Remember when he made that line, you complete me? That's the dumbest thing I think I've ever heard anybody say. Nobody can complete you. Are you serious right now? Complete you? Like, you're incomplete without them. Can I tell you, two half people doesn't make a whole person. It just makes a weirdly dysfunctional relationship. Cause you're gonna be looking at them to feel something that's missing in you, and they're looking at you to feel something that's missing in them. And you're gonna go round and round and round, and both of you are gonna be miserable in your relationship. Here's what happens. Two whole people make a whole relationship. Two healthy people make a healthy relationship. That's why I'm saying, focus on you. You can't change them, so you can change you. So get as healthy as you can, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and you'll bring so much value into that relationship, it'll be amazing to you. And I'm just saying it is your commitment to that person. But it. Guys. It is a fight. It's a fight. I'm not discouraging you. I'm just trying to be honest with you. I tell young couples a lot when I do their weddings, and I've done tons of those. And I tell them all the time, when I do those, I say, hey, look, man, here's something you need to know. Marriage is the end of your trouble, huh? But it's the front end. It's the front end. Not trying to discourage. I'm just saying that it's but isn't that true? Anything worth having, you gotta fight for it for your kids. If you want your kids to do, you gotta fight, man. Some of you mama bears know what that's like. You papa bears know what that you fight for your kids. They're your priority. There's nothing you would not do for those kids. Well, it's a fight. And I'm just saying that's what Paul was driving at. He said, man, when I look back at my life, I fought all the time, hopefully the right people for the right reasons, for the right things. But he's saying, I fought the fight. And then I love this line. He said, I kept the faith, I held onto my beliefs. I never wavered in the things that I knew, I believed, I kept the faith. And it's not perfection when we step in the presence of God. The scriptures doesn't say that. He will say, well done, thou good and perfect servant. Cause none of us are perfect. We don't do it perfectly. He'll say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You were consistent. And I'm honoring your consistent, your faith. Paul said I kept. And then he said, I finished my course. I finished my course, my part of the race. Now it's interesting. I did track one year, just long enough to know I'm not a track guy. Not a track. I know you wouldn't know that by looking at me, but I'm not really very fast. I was built for comfort, not for speed. But I do know this about track. There's a race, a relay race. And that's part of what Paul had in mind when he's using that term. Because in Hebrews 12, he talks about finishing the race and being surrounded by witnesses and the stands, and then here, finishing the course, finishing the race. Now, what that means is when the race still goes on even after you finished your part of the race. That's one of the things I know when Cindy went to heaven, that was just weird in some ways, to realize how life was going on all around me. Even though for me it felt life had just stopped. And I'm seeing other people drive by and I'm just zoned out. You know what I mean? But the thing you come to realize is just when we lose a loved one, there's still people running by us. The race is still going on all around us. And at some point we get to the point where we can reengage and we start running again. When you kinda get work through that till you get strong enough to where you can do that, Again. And Paul was saying, we all have. I don't know how long. The race that I'm going to run, I don't know how long that's gonna be. Neither do you. Maybe it's 90 years. We've had people leave a lot sooner than that. I'm just saying none of us know how long the run will be. But we do have a run that we're going to run. Paul said, let's run the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our race, meaning Paul said, I've got a race to. And when he uses this term, finish my course. Here's what he means by that. It is a relay runner. And when the relay runner has finished with their leg, the relay runner takes the baton and hands it to the runner coming behind them. And when the runner behind them takes the baton, they continue. Now, it's their run, it's their course. So what does the runner do when he hands the baton off? He doesn't get in the car and leave. Why? Because he's interested in the race. What he does is he goes to the finish line and he cheers on the people running behind him. Paul said, I finished. Meaning I'm handing the baton off to somebody coming behind me. And I'm gonna be at the finish line. I'm gonna be cheering you on. I want you to do good. I want you to do great. I'm pulling for you. Did you know you have people in heaven pulling for you? Hebrews, chapter 12. We are surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses. Let's lay aside, he said, every weight. And the sin that does easily beset us and run with faithfulness the race that is set before us. Think about this imagery. When our loved ones leave us and they hand this baton to us, called a legacy, and we start running our part of the race. Do you realize that your loved one is in heaven cheering us on? Their race is run. They're pulling for us. Now. They're saying, don't you give up. Don't you give in. Don't you give out. You stay with it, man. You keep running, I'm pulling for you. You got do this. Can I tell you, Let me go out on a theological limb a little bit for you. In Luke, chapter 15, the Bible says there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents. Meaning that? It didn't say there's rejoicing with the angels. It said, in the presence of the angels. Now, I'm sure the angels are happy about people coming to faith in Jesus, but that's not what he said. Jesus said, there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels who are in the presence of the angels, our loved ones. Now let's put this together and you'll see where I'm going with this illustration. There is some information of the things that happen on earth that are made known to the people who are in heaven based on that verse. I believe with all my heart there's nothing in the world that would make heaven more heaven than for our loved ones who are already there. To know that we're going to meet them there one day. Maybe it's a grandchild they'd never met. Maybe there's a grandparent in heaven that never had the chance to meet the grandchild on earth. And for Jesus to be able to go over to them and say, hey, just want you like grandbaby down there. You're gonna be seeing them one day. They place their faith in Jesus and there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels over a sinner who repents. Now, here's where I'm out on the limb a little bit with you. I think God might make. Might make. I land on this on my side of thinking. I think God might make people aware of some of the events that happen on earth. He might make that aware of them in heaven if it would make heaven more heaven for them. I don't think he would make them aware of anything that happens on the earth if it would make heaven less heaven for them. So I kind of go there sometimes with the experiences we have in life that I know Cindy's missing out on. And I just wonder sometimes if God doesn't in some way kind of let her know how we're doing and where we are. And you thought about that for your mom? Maybe that's there, Your father that's there. Maybe you have a child that's there. I don't know. Paul just said, I know this. I finished my part of the race, I ran that, and I'm at the finish line, I'm in the stands and I'm pulling for you guys. He lived his life committed to a greater person. He committed his life committed to a greater purpose. Here's the last one. We'll go home. He committed his life committed to a greater principle. A greater principle. In Acts, chapter 20, verse 35, he reminds us of the words of Jesus, who said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Jesus said, if you love receiving, you're Going to really love giving. What was he talking about? He's talking about being a generous person, having a generous life. Just being known for the love that you give, for the load that you lift, for the life that you leave you live. In other words, just being known by. You're just a generous. If somebody needs you, you're there. If somebody wants you to pray for them, you do. You think about. You kind of get outside yourself and you think about what you can do to maybe help somebody. Today you're sensitive to the people around you, right? You find yourself being a generous person. That's what Paul said. Over in the Holy Land there are two bodies of water. There's the Sea of Galilee and I've been there and been out on that. And there's a Dead Sea and I've been there and been in that. And believe me, they contrast one another. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful. Blue waters, fishing. I mean, swimming. Just a gorgeous body of water. The Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea is just as. It's dead. Nothing living in it. No life in the Dead Sea. It's at the lowest point on Earth. It's 1300ft below sea level. And when we were there after Cindy had passed away, I had three of my closest friends in the church who took me over there and said, we just want to get you away. And kind of. So they took me to the Holy Land and we did that experience. And one of the things boys wanted to do was get in the Dead Sea for the love of God. I don't know why I did that. Nasty, nasty. It's like snorkeling in the Trinity. A little worse than that. Without the bodies. I just. Man, there's the high content of minerals in the water is real. It's like a salty baby oil kind of thing. You almost can't drown really. You can stop treading water and you will not. I'm serious about that. You won't sink because that concentration, that water so heavy, heavy salt content. You better have something on your feet. It's hard to walk on the. Because it's so much content, that salty stuff. Then you gotta shower to get that nasty off of you. Well, what made the dead see the Dead Sea as opposed to the Sea of Galilee? They're close to each other. You look at em and go, what happened here? Well, the Sea of Galilee, it receives water and it also gives streams and tributaries. So it's constantly recycling. The Dead Sea goes one way. Everything goes in, nothing comes out. And because all it does is take and take and take, and it never gives. It's dead. And you know, in some extent, God made us that way. That's why Jesus said, look, if you love receiving, you're gonna love giving. It's more blessed, more blessed to give than it is to receive. Paul said, I was a generous person. I did what I can with what I had to help the people around me, and I committed my life to that principle. You see, guys, as I close this morning, we don't really, honestly, we don't know how long we're going to be here. David wrote in 1st Samuel 20, verse 3, he said, there's just a step, a step between me and death. Someone would say we're a heartbeat, a heartbeat away from eternity. A step. And so it's important that we wake up every day knowing this day is a gift. God has given me this gift. What could I do to help somebody? What could I do to get outside myself and to be a blessing to someone else, knowing that one day I will be remembered by the life that I've lived? And can I give this to you, too? Don't minimize the moments that you have with people, because in those moments, there can be incredible memories. Maybe it's just a glance, maybe it's just one word, but can you remember back in your life the people that have made some significant difference? Maybe they just. Maybe it's just a dad that gave you a wink at the right time. Or maybe it was just at a critical moment when mom came up and just put her arms around you and told you she was proud of you and she loved you. Maybe just seeing somebody while you're competing on the sidelines, standing and cheering. Just the moment. Just the moment. And now we're sitting here in this room, living on the memory. So never underestimate the difference that you may make in someone's life in the little things, the little things that we do each and every day. Take the moments, make the memories, leave the legacy. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word that always challenges us to be better, to do better. Thank you for these little ones that we've been able to celebrate and dedicate. I pray again for their families, protect them and watch over them, and the hard work that they do, the fight that they engage in to raise these kids, to build businesses and build a life. Thank you for them. Bless them today. And, Lord, I pray especially for people in the room watching online or those who catch a podcast at some point, who may never have trusted you as their personal savior. They've never committed, taken the first step, committing to a greater person. I pray this will be that moment when they humble their heart and they pray a simple prayer like this and they just say, lord, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. And I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. [00:37:41] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.