Message for THE LORD S DAY EVENING, January 8, 2012 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister What Will Be The Legacy of Your Life? Revelation 14:13 Please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter fourteen, and let s read just one verse, verse thirteen. P R A Y E R Then I heard a voice from heaven say, Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the LORD from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. (Revelation 14:13 NIV) I N T R O D U C T I O N The story is told of JOHN DAVIS, big time farmer and self-made millionaire. John Davis started out as a LOWLY HIRED HAND ON A FARM...but through sheer determination and penny-pinching...davis eventually managed to ACCUMULATE A CONSIDERABLE FORTUNE. Though he had lots of money...davis didn t have many friends. He was totally estranged from HIS WIFE S FAMILY because they always told her she had married way beneath her dignity by marrying JOHN DAVIS. The embittered Davis vowed he would never leave any of his wife s family a thin dime of his huge fortune. After his wife s death, JOHN DAVIS hired a sculptor to erect an elaborate statue in her memory. The monument depicted Davis and his wife seated at opposite ends of a love seat. MONUMENT TWO: He was so pleased with the monument, he hired the sculptor to create a second monument: One of him kneeling over his wife s grave, placing a wreath on it. MONUMENT THREE: John Davis was so impressed with the second monument, he hired the sculptor to create a THIRD : One of his wife
with angel wings on her back, kneeling over his future grave, laying a wreath on it. Well...one idea led to another, until JOHN DAVIS had spent nearly a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS on stone monuments to himself and his wife. But any time anyone from town would approach JOHN DAVIS about making any kind of contribution toward the beautification of the City Park...or...the Local Hospital...or even toward the construction of community swimming pool for the young people...the MISERLY DAVIS WOULD CLINCH HIS JAW AND SNAP BACK... What has this town ever done for me, I don t owe anybody anything. Well, eventually JOHN DAVIS used up every bit of his wealth on STONE MONUMENTS and SELFISH PURSUITS. John Davis died at the age of 92...lonely, broke and friendless. The Day they had his funeral...only one person came to pay their respects and that was the man who had SCULPTED all his MONUMENTS. Today in field outside LINCOLN, KANSAS...those monuments of Davis self-centered and selfish life...have all but faded away into the Kansas soil, victims of time, vandalism and neglect. ********************** ********************** In his book, As Our Years Increase, Tim Stafford writes : We all reach a point where we start realizing that a great deal of our life is already behind us...and we are un-certain just how much life still lies before us. It is at that point we begin that invisible journey toward our eternity. We start thinking about WHAT WE WILL LEAVE, instead of WHAT WE WILL ACHIEVE. One day your life and mine will here on earth will come to an end, unless the LORD returns first. And when we die, there will be a monument erected to mark the place where we are buried.
On that MONUMENT there will be TWO DATES: One will be the DATE you and I made our ENTRANCE into this world. The other will be the DATE you and I made our EXIT. Sandwiched between those two dates will be a hyphen, one little dash. *THAT ONE LITTLE HYPHEN will represent everything that happened in your life between the day you made your entrance and the day you made your exit. Just one little hyphen *THAT ONE LITTLE HYPHEN will represent...all the education you received...all the knowledge you gained...all the experiences you had...all the friends you made. all the relationships you established...all of your successes and failures, all your victories and defeats, all your gains and losses. *THAT ONE LITTLE HYPHEN between the time you made your entrance and the time you made your exit will represent everything you did everything you were and everything you left behind as the legacy of your life. Right now, while you are still living, you are still creating your legacy. The decisions you make.the example you set..the deeds you do the faith you live..the lives you touch: ALL THESE THINGS AND MORE ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF YOUR LEGACY. The question I want you to seriously consider this evening is this: WHAT WILL BE THE LEGACY OF MY LIFE? * Will my legacy be that of A LIFE WELL-SPENT or A LIFE FOOLISHLY WASTED? * Will my legacy be that of A LIFE LIVED TO THE FULLEST or A LIFE OF UN-FULFILLED POTENTIAL. WILL MY LEGACY BE THAT OF......One who GAVE or one who TOOK?...One who BUILT UP...or ONE WHO TORE DOWN?...One who HELPED...or ONE WHO HURT?
...One who MADE A DIFFERENCE or ONE WHO FAILED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?...One who lived SELFLESSLY..or..ONE WHO LIVED SELFISHLY. I ask you again to seriously ponder that question: WHAT WILL BE THE LEGACY OF MY LIFE? ***************************************************************************** John tells us here in our scripture text, there is only one way to leave a legacy that will last for all eternity, and that is live our lives to the fullest for the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Look at VERSE 13 again: Blessed Are the Dead Who Die in the Lord from now on. Yes says the Spirit they will rest from their labor FOR THEIR GOOD DEEDS WILL FOLLOW THEM. For just a few minutes let s focus our thoughts on the last part of this thirteenth verse: For their good deeds will follow them. As we think about THE LEGACY you and I will leave, first of all I would have you to consider. I. Your Good Deeds Will Follow You Here On Earth 1. In the context of this passage, that statement: For their deeds will follow them points us toward our eternity. But it also reveals a more immediate truth. 2. The day you and I draw our last breath and our bodies are laid to rest in the ground, our labors here on earth will cease or as the Holy Spirit says in this verse, We will REST from our labors. 3. That doesn t mean that at that moment our lives will no
longer have any meaning or impact upon the lives of others. The deeds you do for the LORD while you are in this life are going to OUTLIVE YOU! Those deeds you do now are going to have an impact on the lives of others...perhaps years and years after you die. Your deeds of kindness, Your deeds of compassion, your deeds of love, your deeds of generosity your words of wisdom your words of encouragement.your words of faith all of those will be left behind like a priceless treasure to enrich the lives of your family and friends and those who knew you for years and years to come. 4. Let me give you just a few examples to show you what I mean: a. A while back I was listening to a preacher on the radio. His message was very powerful and stirring. It was entitled: WIN THE LOST AT ANY COST. But throughout the message I couldn t help but notice the poor quality of the recording. It was crackly and every now and then there were breaks in the message. I didn t discover until the broadcast concluded...that the sermon that had touched my heart was recorded back in 1934...just two years before that preacher went to be with the Lord. That preacher s message is still having an impact on the lives of others 75 years after his death. b. MY OWN PERSONAL LIBRARY is filled with numerous books written by great preachers and evangelists who have been dead anywhere from 50 to 500 YEARS...and yet their words have stirred something in my soul and spirit that inspired me to share some of their thoughts with you in many messages preached from this pulpit. YOU SEE, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE BEEN DEAD FOR YEARS OR EVEN CENTURIES...THEIR DEEDS CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THEM.
c. Quite frequently I think about some of the godly people I have known in my lifetime who are now with the LORD. I find myself remembering some of the wise things they said or some of the kind deeds they did for me, or the sermons I heard them preach. You see their deeds continue to follow them. d. From time to time I run into people who knew my late father. And they tell me what a tremendous influence he had on their lives. Its been nineteen years since my dad preached his last sermon and taught his last Sunday School lesson and made his last hospital call. And yet his deeds continue to follow him. 5. Brothers and sisters right now you may not see any visible evidence that your life is making a difference in any else s life. But if when your life is over, God used you to make a difference in just one person s life, just one person, then your life will have not been lived in vain. I saw this beautiful, thought-provoking statement on a picture not long ago: One Hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had, nor what my clothes were like. But the world may be a little better then because I was important in the life of a child. 7. You don t have to be GREAT to leave a GREAT LEGACY... just let CHRIST LIVE HIS LIFE THROUGH YOU, and leave the rest to Him. Keep passing along your FAITH...your LOVE...your COMPASSION...your GENEROSITY...your KINDNESS and your GODLY EXAMPLE For your good deeds will follow you here on earth. Secondly as we think about your legacy, I would have you to consider:
II. Your Good Deeds Will Follow You to Heaven 1. READ: REVELATION 14: 13 again 2. You notice this is a PROMISE that is given ONLY to those who die in THE LORD. This is NOT a promise to UN-BELIEVERS. Un-believers may accomplish great things in this life and leave a legacy here on earth that will live on many years after they are gone. Think of William Shakespeare and Vincent Van Gogh and Mozart and Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Milton. These men have been dead for years and yet we still benefit from their earthly deeds. BUT ONLY THE GODLY DEEDS DONE BY GODLY PEOPLE WILL LIVE ON FOR ALL ETERNITY. 3. Brothers and sisters, YOUR GOOD DEEDS ARE THE ONLY THING YOU WILL TAKE WITH YOU OUT OF THIS LIFE INTO ETERNAL LIFE....You may accumulate A LOT OF MONEY in your lifetime, but you won t leave here with any of it....you may enjoy the benefits of LOTS OF NICE MATERIAL POSSESSIONS while in this life, but you won t take any of them with you now....you may be called BOSS or SUPERVISOR or OWNER or MANAGER now...but you will leave any and all titles behind when you leave this world. 4. The only thing you will take to heaven with you are your good deeds. This is why Jesus gives us that command in Matthew 6... Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
5. Brothers and sisters, the LORD is going to remember Every act of Kindness...Every act of Love...Every act of Mercy... Every act of Compassion...Every act of Grace...Every act of Forgiveness...Every act of Benevolence...Every act of Generosity...and Every act of Service you did for Him. He is going to REMEMBER those deeds you have done for which you received NO THANKS, NO REWARD, NO RECOGNITION and NO APPRECIATION. He is going to REMEMBER those deeds that were seen by many, and those DEEDS THAT WERE ONLY SEEN BY HIM. He is going to REMEMBER EVERY GOOD DEED no matter how SMALL, how SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT or how SEEMINGLY MEANINGLESS. 6. While all your good deeds here on earth will not be the basis of your salvation, they will be the basis of your eternal reward. You see, every good deed you do here on earth is being credited to your heavenly account. And one day the LORD will reward you THIRTY SIXTY.even ONE HUNDRED TIMES the amount of your treasure in heaven. CONCLUSION What kind of a LEGACY are you going to leave here on EARTH? What kind of LEGACY are you going to take with you TO HEAVEN? I want to close with this illustration from Vance Havner...the great North Carolina Evangelist who went to be with the LORD over 40 years ago. Bro. Havner used to tell the story of the Beautiful Canadian Snow goose that left the flock and landed in a barnyard. This Canadian goose started living with the chickens...and eating what the chickens ate...and living like the chickens lived.
The next Winter when the Canadian geese were migrating to their beautiful winter home in the Sunny South...the goose that was living with the chickens heard them honking as they flew over head annd he tried desperately to take off and join them. In his foolishness, the beautiful goose had gotten so fat on chicken feed and couldn t leave the barnyard to soar with the other geese! Brothers and sisters, there s a moral in that little story and that is this: If you and I allow ourselves to be weighed down by the world we will never soar to the heights God intends. If you and I are to leave behind a lasting legacy, we must set our minds on things above and not things below. Blessed are the dead who die in the LORD from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.