Our Legacy

Introduction

The short-term effects of religious experiences.

An experience is enough to get you started, but it must be sustained with a faith of substance.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

What your faith is filled with has an effect upon those that you influence.

An overall decline in interest in Christianity.

Does the content of your faith encourage others to follow Jesus?

Time Is Limited

vv. 29-30

Joshua’s life ended at 110 years.

Productive, fruitful. FAITHFUL.

Epitaph:

Joshua’s: “Servant of the LORD”

A phrase used rarely - Moses.

Joshua gained his ultimate rest in the presence of God. Better than even the Promised Land.

Joshua considered what came later and this hope in eternity helped him to make his life matter.

Hope in eternity gives you hope for today.

There is a reward awaiting!

2 Timothy 4:7 ESV

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

And as we think towards the future, we also realize that our time is limited. Unless Christ returns during your lifetime, each and everyone of us will experience death.

Not only is today a unique day, but it is the only September 12, 2021 you will get! How will you make this day count? What mark will this day leave? Not only on you, but on others.

Use the time you have.

One of the ways we make each day matter is to ask how this day will...

Ensure A Legacy

v. 31

John Keats, the English poet who was born in 1795, wrote some of the most influential poems of his day. Poems that are still discussed from high school English classes to the highest levels of academia.

Ode to a Grecian Urn

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Keats was visiting the British Museum in London and was mesmerized by these urns. He came to this stark realization of how short life is and that things don’t last unless they are recorded somehow. For the figures on a particular urn he saw would live for as long as the urn survived. Yet, life was so fleeting. This was tragically true for Keats as he would die just a few months after writing this poem at the age of 25. Yet, here we are, 200 years after his death.

For Joshua, the legacy he was concerned with was not his own, but that of God. And, for a generation, it worked!

This was based upon an emphasis on making God known!

Yet, Judges 2:6-10.

Judges 2:10 ESV

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

The very things that the book of Joshua says that kept the Israelites strong were the very things that precipitated the downfall of the Israelites. The whole point of Judges is that when the people stop following God, the nation declines.

So, what do we do with this?

Teach His character.

Who is God? Why is He worthy to be worshipped?

Certainly at the top of that list is His love. Exhibited in Jesus Christ.

Right next to His love is His justice. Also, exhibited in Jesus Christ.

The cross is where the love of God intersects with His justice.

What we deserve is punishment. Yet, Jesus satisfied the penalty for your sins by His death on the cross.

Teach His works.

Scripture. But, for us to pass it along, we must also know it.

Conclusion

James Dobson. The proof of your own parenting is not how your kids turn out but how your grandkids turn out. It must go beyond the one generation.

Similarly, your faith.

It begins with you. A decision to fill your faith with the right substance of God’s character and His works.

For your faith to strengthen you, it must be filled with those things.

For your faith to outlive you and to carry through to the next generations, it must have that content.