When we started this initiative several weeks ago, we wanted everyone listening to understand that the generations before handed our church family an incredible spiritual inheritance. This inheritance is almost 100 years of kingdom impact. Jesus said: To whom much is given, much is required.
We need to be asking ourselves: How can we hand off our faith to the next generation? How can we go, give, live, and serve so that our ceiling becomes their floor?
We have a call from God to leave them a legacy. We have a call to finish the unfinished task of covering the earth with the glory of God. That's what we want our legacy to be.
The difference between Inheritance and Legacy is that: Inheritance is what you receive. Legacy is what you leave.
Like Abraham, we have a divine call to leave an eternal legacy. Genesis 12 is to the Old Testament what Matthew 28:19 is to the New Testament. We have been blessed to be a blessing.
Our ultimate prayer coming into a day like commitment Sunday was that the Lord would Burden our hearts. We will take every opportunity possible. We dream that every street corner would be filled with a chance for somebody to get off the sinking ship and into the lifeboat. We need more lifeboats.
The hourglasses of eternity are ticking down, and if there's not enough room in this lifeboat, we need more! We need lifeboats in Uganda, in Vietnam, in Sachse, in Wylie, in Rowlett, in Garland. God forbid, we don't have enough room!
We are the rescue ship, not a cruise ship. Our goal is to go in where people are lost and perishing and save as many lives as possible.
If you drive through a large US city and pass a church, a mosque, and a synagogue, the worshippers inside of every one of them see themselves as children of Abraham. Three of the world’s largest religions, the majority of the world’s population, look to Abraham as the father of their faith.
Too often, when people study Abraham’s life, they see all these big things and the lasting results and residual of his life. That may be true, but there is something so much more significant that it always gets overlooked.
Abraham was responding to the call of God. The call of God is what makes your life unique. It’s what sets you apart and marks you for something unique. Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. In our circles, when someone here’s the phrase “the call of God,” we immediately assume the Call to pastoral ministry or preaching or missions.
Pastoral ministry is not at all what I’m referring to when I speak of the call of God on Abraham’s life. Abraham's call, was a call to a relationship, a call to a profound personal encounter, a call to know God and be known by God. And Abraham’s response to that call is what made him “bigger” than life.
God is extending that same call is to every one of us in this room or watching online: It’s The Divine Call to Leave an Eternal Legacy.
