Legacy

Imagine What we Could Do Together!

Last week my wife and kids and I left Colorado on our road trip to TN to celebrate my mother’s life while she yet lived. As is our custom, whenever we travel here, we stop in Kansas City to spend time with my wife’s father. We usually stay over night but sensing an urgency to get home to mom, we had dinner with my father-in-law and decided to keep driving. As we drove on, we realized that we wouldn’t get to Clarksville until 4am, and so we stopped in St. Luis to rest for the night.

We hit the road again at 8am Saturday morning and when we were two hours out I got a call from my sister saying, “Mom needs you here now!” I could hear mom in the background crying out while others were praying over her in the room. My son, Samuel was driving at the time and although he was doing well, I needed some experience behind the wheel to get us to Clarksville ASAP. That’s when my wife took the wheel and she was driving so fast that I literally passed out.

As we neared town my health was restored and as we pulled up to the house I jumped out of the car towards the house. As I walked into the room, where folks were praying, and ministering, my mother called my name. “Corey” she said. I replied, “Yes Ma’am.” “My Corey.” I leaned over so she could feel my presence. She turned her head and said one more time, “Corey.” I leaned in closer to hear what I anticipated to be her final instructions to me and she said. “Don’t have these people in church all day. 15 minutes. Like you did Momma’s.”

And with that said, I have about 10 minutes left to share with you what God would have me say today. So if you have your Bibles, turn to

Ephesians 1:1-10

Ephesians 1:1–10 NIV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Now, because of time’s sake, I cannot break all of this down to you but here are three things you need to know today.

According to verse 3, believers are blessed beyond measure. It’s hard to believe sometimes, but the truth is, you can be blessed and broke, we can blessed and bothered. But because we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, we know that trouble won’t last always. That’s what it means to be blessed. Blessed people know that whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. And whatever we bind here shall be bound in Heaven. Blessed people understand that when God makes a promise, it’s a guarantee. So if he says you’re blessed in the city… I gotta move… So the second thing you need to know today is this.

According to verse 6, there is a grace for your assignment. Do things get hard? Yes. Will trouble come? Yes. Will problems arise and will people act funny? Yes. But God has given you a grace to carry on. Paul helps us to understand that God is rich in a priceless grace that costs you nothing. You’ve heard it said before, but let me remind you of the difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve. Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve. I get to minister the gospel. You get to lead worship. You get to usher at the door. Not because we deserve it, but because God has given us the grace to be in Him what we cannot be on our own. I wish I had time to stay here for a moment, but I don’t. So let’s move on to number three.

According to verse 8-9, with all wisdom and understanding, God has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. What that means is that, if you don’t know why God would do what he did, just wait a while and pay attention. He’ll show you his hand if you stick around long enough and close enough. If he’ll show up for two or three, imagine what he’ll do for twenty or thirty. How would God act for 2 or 3 hundred? There is wisdom in numbers. There is understanding in the counsel of many. In other words, we are better together. We are smarter together. We can do more together. That’s why the enemy wants to keep us divided. Because division is the enemy of destiny. But I dare you to lean over to somebody and tell them, we are destined to do this together. We are destined to make disciples together. We are destined to make Jesus famous together.

And I have to go because my time is up. But before I go, I need to ask, “What could we do together, if we understood these three things? If we realized we were blessed to be a blessing, and used our blessings to bless others. If we understood that ministry is not about what we deserve, but more so about how we serve within the grace that God has poured out on us. And finally, what would our cities be like if we did God’s will instead of ours. I believe there would be less drug and alcohol addicts, if we became addicts of Jesus.

I believe there would be more peace in our homes if there was more peace in the church. I believe we would see less racism if we would learn to love each other despite our differences. And I believe God would be pleased with us if we would learn to seek His will over our own. Legacy is really not about you. It’s about the impact you have on those around you.

Many of us are here today because of the impact my mother had on your life in some way. What impact will you have beyond preaching, teaching, singing, playing, and other churchy stuff. That’s all good. Those things are all necessary and important things. But the most important thing any of us could ever do is to lead others into knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So Imagine what we could do together!