Leaving a Legacy (Sun. A.M. 3-8-26)

The legacy you leave is gonna be, if I could put it this way, whatever your loved ones saw you living for. If you wanna know what's my legacy gonna be tomorrow, let me just summarize it for you this way. What are you living for today? That's gonna be the legacy that you leave. I heard a preacher say just a couple weeks ago that he had to preach a funeral for a man, had never met the individual before. So, the family called on him to preach a funeral and before he could preach the funeral, he wanted to talk to the family, find out some things about the man who had passed so he could try to honor him in the service and he said, what are some things that was his life.

Very possible. Could she have been a sister? Very possible. It's a proven fact. She was somebody's daughter, right? But when we find god's record of this woman, we don't find out how good of a mama she was. We don't find out how good of a sister. We don't find out how good of a daughter but she is left with one single solitary title and it is the title of disciple. Friends, can I say there is no greater, more honorable title to be given your name when you pass out of this world and into the next than that of disciple of Jesus Christ? Can I remind you this that there will be a lot of CEOs there will be a lot of of people who excelled in community causes and when they die, their name will perish and they will spend eternity in hell.

This is going to sound simple to you but the Bible said verse 36, this woman was full of good what? Works. You know what works is? Means you had to do something, right? You had to be active. There had to be action involved in what she was doing. She was a laborer and that's why she left a legacy. Mark this down. If you don't ever stop being lazy, you will never leave a legacy. Right. Ever. Nobody is remembered on the basis of what they said. They're remembered on the basis of what they did. Nobody is remembered for what they like. They're remembered on the basis of what they pursued and what they went after. It is our actions. It is our works. It is our labors that leave behind a legacy.

You're never going to leave a godly legacy to your children by just telling them how much you love god. They're going to have to see you doing it. Right. You have to see you with your hands to the plow working. You know, I can tell my wife I love her all day long but if I don't do something to show her, is she going to believe me? No. I'm required to show my wife that she loves me. When god loved us, did he or did he not show it? Romans five eight, but god commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. First John four ten, and this was manifested the love of god toward us and that god sent his only begotten son in the world that we might live through him. God didn't just tell us he loved us. He showed us by his works and if we're going to leave a legacy and tell people how much we love god, it's gonna require some work.

If your loved ones see you just living for money today, then guess what the legacy you're gonna leave them behind is? Well, mom or daddy love money and that's it. If your children see you living for possessions when you pass away, guess what they're going be able to say about you? They had a lot of nice things and that's it. If your children see you living for Christ though and they see you giving yourself daily to the cause of Christ when you pass away, what are they going to have to say about you? They love the lord Jesus and they served him. Right. Which one do you want to be left in their mouth when you leave this world?

A church is comprised of two different kinds of people. Consumers and contributors. Every church, you are either if if you're here this morning, you're one of the two. You're a contributor or you are a consumer. One of the two. But can I say this, when I look at verse number 36 and I look at somebody who left a godly legacy, were they a contributor or a consumer? Alms deed, she was a giver, right? She's a contributor. She gave to the work of the lord. The consumer in the church is not the one who leaves a godly legacy. It is the contributor who leaves a godly legacy. Think about it this way. When you're gone, nobody's going to remember you for what you took. Everybody will remember you for what you gave. Everybody.

Here in Acts chapter number nine, we've got a really special story and you say, well, not story, it's an account. I I don't like the way the word story for the Bible by the way because it makes it sound like a fairy tale. It's not a story. It's an account. This really happened but we have an account here of a woman named Dorcas or Tabitha and we find out that this woman is a very godly woman, done a lot of wonderful things and we find somewhere through the middle of the text that she gets sick and she passes away and in her passing away, they call for the apostle Peter who at this time, the apostolic miracles are still in full effect and Peter comes and it's an extra special account because a dead individual is raised to life and Peter lays his hands upon her, speaks to her. He says, Tabitha, arise and she opens her eyes. She wakes up and she comes back to life. A pretty extravagant event. This is not everyday occurrences. This is not things that happen all the time and so this text stands out but why it stands out to me is not really the resurrection aspect

Clearly, left a void in the hearts of the people she impacted. They're standing around weeping and it it just in my surmising and thinking about this, I think that's the measure of how you know if you've left a legacy or not. Does your absence make an impact on people that you are involved with? Yeah. And I know that's a heavy thought to think that our life could be lived in vain to the point where us not being here doesn't even matter anymore but let's not look at it this way. Let's look at it in the sense that it that that's a challenge, right? Whenever I'm gone, I want my absence to make an impact and let me just ask you this, if your absence makes no impact, could it be said that you really left a legacy?

The legacy that we leave behind is the revelation. I want you to hear me. The legacy we live behind in essence is the revelation of the mission that we had in our life. You understand that? Basically, if I could put it to you this way, your legacy is the revelation of what your mission statement was while you were alive. Okay? The legacy you're going to live behind leave behind is revealing what your mission statement was while you were on this Earth. If you were gonna leave a godly legacy, then you had to have a godly mission statement while you were yet alive. And I believe that that's what happened here with Dorcas.

If I pass away and I leave a legacy behind, let it not be some frail, fragile thing that's meaningless in the span of eternity but let me have a name of of honor and reverence of Christ that I live for him. I served him and he was the essence of my being. That's the legacy I wanna leave behind. My question would be to you, what do you wanna leave behind? There's some people that really that's all they want to be known as. Maybe they're climbing the corporate ladder and when they die, they want to be known as the CEO. They want to be known as their boss. So, as as you know, making the most money out of anybody else in the family or the first one to go to college or something like that. They want that to be their legacy but here's the problem, paper perishes.

Whether it's a degree, whether it's money, whether it's a title, whether it's a certificate, whether it's a diploma on the wall, it's going to perish, it's going to burn up, but the name of the righteous endures forever. All throughout the book of Proverbs, we find the idea that the name of a righteous man lives on, but the name of the wicked will perish. It rots in the grave. There was no meaning. There was no purpose to it. But if we give our lives to the service of Christ, it will leave a legacy for our friends, our families, our loved ones, our children, our churches, our community that will live on if we live our life with the right mission statement. The right direction, the right thing.

I think about how, I'm sorry, not Matthew 23 but Luke chapter number 10. You remember the disciples, the 70, they went out and they cast out demons and they healed the sick and they did all the stuff and they came back to Jesus and they said, master, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. They were amazed. They said, man, we got power. This is incredible and you remember what Jesus looked at him and said, he said, rejoice not that the devils are subject unto you. He said, but rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. You know what that means? He said, it's great. You can do all that but what's more important than that is fact that you're one of my disciples. You understand?

This woman bore the reputation of what she did for the lord and let me just boil it down for you. This is the essence of the legacy she left. What she did. It is these works that lived on after she was gone that identified who she was and what her mission statement was. You remember when she died, they were all standing there holding the coats and the garments, verse 39 says? You remember that? That's some of the work she was doing in '36. When she did these works, she passed away but her works outlived her. Let me say this, you're sitting in a church this morning that is the legacy of somebody who has passed away but their works outlived them. Dale Galloway gave his life, poured his life into this place, and he's gone now and he's been gone for many years but he left a legacy and it's still alive because he labored while he was here and his works live on although he may be gone. Right.

Question is, are you doing anything now that'll be here tomorrow when you're gone? Right. Do you have any of those kind of works? Notice first off, the abundance of her works. I like what verse 36 says. It says, this woman was full of good works. Full of good works. That means that she did not just have one avenue of serving god. You say, what does it mean she's full of good works? Here's what I think it means. I think she had a lot of irons in the fire for the lord. That's what I believe it means. She had all kind of stuff going on. She's serving the lord here. She's serving the lord over here. She's making coats. She's making garments. She's teaching the widows. She's doing all kinds of stuff. She is full of good works.

She had more than one iron in the fire. Let me say this, if you want to leave a godly legacy, it's going to take more than just singing in the choir every week. Don't take more than just one thing, right? Gotta be full of good works. If you're going to leave a godly legacy, just come into church and go and cut it. That's good. That's great but it's going to take more than that. Right. There's a lot of people whose parents went to church but whenever they died, their children remembered them as anything and everything except for disciple of Jesus Christ. You do know that, right? Yeah. Coming to church is not enough to ingrain that in the minds of those around you.

You will never leave a godly legacy from the couch. You'll never leave a godly legacy without calloused hands. You'll never leave a godly legacy without being busy. You know, busy is a is a a bad word in our culture but being busy for the lord is not a bad thing. Right. When I look at verse number 36 and I see this woman was full of good works, does that sound like she was busy? Does to me. It does to me After she left, she had something to leave behind. The abundance of her works, the action of her works, and then the alms of her works. Verse 36, this woman was full of good works and what? Alms deeds which she gives or what she did. Alms deeds. What is that? It is the idea of giving out of compassion. When we give alms, we're we're we're we're giving to somebody who's in need. We are moved with compassion. We are moved with mercy towards somebody in need and so we give and what I find right here is that she's remembered and she leaves a legacy of her own steeds. She leaves a legacy of what she gave.

Honor is not based on how much you can put in your pockets and line your pockets with. Honor is based on what you're willing to take out of your pockets and pour into somebody else. Which one do you want to be? Amen. And I'll say this, there's nothing wrong with receiving from others. My life is fueled and funded by receiving. I live on the goodness and the kindness of god and his people That you you take care of me as your pastor and I'm so grateful for that but if all my ministry was was just take, take, take, take, take with no give, I wouldn't have a ministry and you wouldn't have me. You give to me because every week I get up and I try to give to you and I pour myself out and I pour god's word out before you. So, there's nothing wrong with receiving from others but just look at it this way. If I'm going to receive from them, then I'm going to try to give more than what I received. For every dime you take in, give a quarter out

They missed her. You say, how do you know they missed her? Because they couldn't stomach the fact she was gone. To the point where they said, we gotta get her back and they call for the apostle Peter so as to hope that Peter can raise her from the dead. Now, that's missing somebody pretty bad. There's people that passed away and you miss em but how many of you have ever went through and look for somebody to raise em back from the dead? You just kind of accept the fact, right? You accept the faith. They missed her so bad. They said, we're not going to stop of of flipping every stone over to make sure we've done everything we can to get her back. That's not common practice in the Most time when somebody's dead, the community just accepts the faith, they write it off, and they move on. They weren't willing to do that with Dorcas though.

There was something about her that they said, we cannot stomach the idea of her not being here. She had been so impactful. They couldn't take her being gone and they called for any measure that it might take to bring her back. If you were to die today, did you make such an impact in people's lives that they wouldn't be able to settle with you being gone? And by the way, that is a kind of honor that is earned, not freely received, right? People say, well, nobody would care if I'm gone. What have you done to make them care? Right? That type of honor is earned. It's not something that's just given. Have you lived your life in a such a way where they can't help but honor you? You see, we we want that type of honor. We want that type of respect but respect is earned. I learned that as a child. Respect is something that you have to fight for. You fight for. You'd, she was not honored and respected like this for no reason, was she?

She was honored and respected because she poured her life into these people. She earned it. She earned every dime of the honor that she got when she left. There's a lot of people that would leave and they would say, well, nobody would care if I'm gone. What have you done to make them care? Have you poured into them? How have you affected them? How have you impacted them? So, we know that she made an impact because they're missing her and then we also know that she made an impact on em because they're mourning her. Verse 39, it says, Peter rose, went with him while she was come or while he was come, they brought him to the upper chamber and the widow stood by him doing what? Weeping. Weeping.

Made such an impact on her on their lives that when she passes and notice who it is that's weeping in verse 39. It's all the widows, right? Who are the widows? That's the people she poured into. The specific group that she worked on were the ones that missed her. If you were to pass today, is there anybody you have poured your life into that would miss you? That would mourn you not just because of who you are but because of what you did for em. How you labored over them? How you poured into them? How you made an impact in their life? Do you have anybody that you personally have laid your hands on, put your labor into, you have worked on, you have developed, you have built, that they have a respect for you because of what you have been to them. She had that. And I believe the legacy is the leaving behind of that. The impact that you made by pouring into people. Right.

First off, there's tangibility to her legacy. Did she or did she not leave behind something that could be tangibly seen? Yeah. There was evidence she loved god. There was evidence she served god. There was evidence she served the people around her. As she left, she may not have been there but her works was. Right. And she left them behind and they said, you can say whatever you want to want to say about Dorcas but we got the clothes right here that she made for him. Yeah. You know, and there might be a lot of people who there probably was a lot of people who didn't like Dale Galloway but you can say what you want to about him but he left something behind that you can look at and see this morning. There's works that he left behind.

Even after Dorcas was gone, the works that she did remained. What she gave herself to outlasted her and remained in the hands of the people she ministered to long after she was gone. I've mentioned Dale a few times this morning. I can't help it because the legacy is just where we're at. We're living in it. And I'm thankful that he left a tangible legacy that can be seen and touched long after he passed but I want to leave one too. I want you to leave one. Right. And I hope you want to leave one. And then to wrap it up this morning, how did she do all that? What what was it that enabled her? Verse number 39 was those last few words showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made. Here it is.

She made the most of the time that she had with them. If you hear me this morning, you're still with them. If you hear me this morning, you're still alive. You know what that means? You got time to leave a legacy. You're still here. You say, well, I've I've I've I've waited too long. I can't do it now. Sure, you can. We don't know when Dorcas got saved. No idea. She might have got saved two years before she died. The Bible doesn't tell us. You want to know why? It really don't matter. The point is, she did what she could with the time that she had and if you realize I've got short time this morning, make the most out of it. While you're with them. Do something now. You say, what is it that leaves a legacy legacy behind me? It is putting your focus into the things of god, laboring in the things of god as long as you can while you can and ain't that simple? That's not very hard, is it?

If I could summarize for you this morning, if you want to leave a legacy, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going have to get involved in the work of god. Right. And if you'll get in the work of god, you'll put your hands to some things that there's tangible that hey, he or she was here. They did this. Right. They worked on this. They put this together. They brought this about. They started this. They helped this. They furthered this and when you die, your name will still be there. But it's going to take work. She earned that respect. She earned that honor. She earned that legacy and we all must do the same.