What is Your Legacy?
Notes
Transcript
As we start can I ask you a question?
Who in your life has left the greatest legacy?
Because every person leaves some sort of legacy
You know there have been big people who have passed away recently in our society who left big legacy’s
Beaty white- people called her America’s Grandma
Bob Saget- People called him America’s Father, because of his role on Full house
Billy Grahm passed away a few years ago and he was known as America’s pastor.
And I know some of the people I listed are not perfect, but they leave a big legacy right?
And I am sure we have had people in our lives who have left a legacy
Some of us would say I have a parent and they left a huge legacy on my life
Others might say I have an uncle
maybe a mentor
Maybe even a stranger
But we have these people who have left legacy’s in our lives, some might be positive others it could be negitive.
But the truth is every single one of us leaves a legacy.
And the question we have to ask is what will my legacy look like?
What foot print am I going to leave and most importantly what foot print will I leave on the people I am closest too.
And really today we are going to be looking at the legacy’s of two men who are father and son named David and Soloman.
And one leaves a positive impact while the other we see ends up leaving one that is not the best.
And so we are going to be jumping around 1 Kings 1-11
But before you if you have not been with us we have been in this series called “The Story” where we are looking at God’s grand narritive throughoutthe Bible and we are finding our place in His story.
And last week we talked about this guy named David (that I mentioned a second ago) and David goes from being a shepherd to a king, and not only that but he has done some amazing things.
But David also made some big mistakes that we saw last week, but through this he was still considered a man after God’s own heart.
And this week as we start we actually see David at the end of his life and so we are going to be starting in 1 kings 2:1-4 and it says this:
1 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
So the passage starts and David is recognizing that he does not have a ton of time left in his life.
He is getting ready to pass away
And something that will happen is when someone reaches the end of their life (assuming they are in the right state of mind) is the family will be with there loved ones and they will leave advice for their children and grandchildren.
And whenever they are doing that everyone leans in to listen, because it is some of the final words someone is telling.
And really this is what David is doing to his son Solomon. He is telling him his final advice before he passes away. (and so what he says here is important.
And look what he says:
Because he tells him he is getting ready to go, but he says I want you to be these three things: PLACE UP ON SCREEN
I want you to be strong-
I want you to be a man-
I want you to be a person who walks in obedience to God
So lets unpack that briefly, because the first thing for him to be strong, (and he is not saying make sure you go to the gym),
But he is telling him to be strong (be resilient, do not give up),
And David almost telling Solomon- “Being the king is hard, there will be really hard decions, there will be sleepless nights, there will be times you worry about the future- but be resilient live out your God given call through the challenges!
And I am not a king (yet at least) and to my knowledge no one in here is either, but there times life is hard?
I mean there are times you just feel like you want to scream and call it quits
there are sleepless nights, hard descions and times we worry about the future.
But here is the thing we can be strong and resilient in the middle of these times, not because of ourselves but because of who is backing us.
(COULD POTENTIALLY USE ROCK CLIMBING ILLUSTRATION)
Its kind of like how I started going back to the gym recently (Because I have started to get the Dad Bod)
But one thing I like to do is bench press and I hate benching alone because there is no one to spot me because if you can’t lift it and you are alone its not good but yesterday I had someone to spot me and guess what I was not worried can I lift this off me.
Because the guy spotting me would help get me through it
But you know in the same way we can be strong knowing we have a God who is holding us.
And look at the next thing David says because He says act like a man, and this does not just apply to men because really in a way it is David saying “be the person God has created you to be!”
And love it because this flows into the last one which is be a person who walks in obedience with God.
I mean be a person who lives the way God calls you too.
And David actually tells Solomon if you are faithful to God and his laws you will prosper
and whats implied is if you are not faithful you will not. right? (You will not be prosperous)
And some of us are saying this sounds really legalistic (doesn't it?)
And some of us are thinking that doesn’t seem realistic… does it?
But really David is not telling him this to say if you follow the rules your life will be easy,
But David is telling him this because throughout the Bible God directs the people to live a certain way and gives them guidelines to carry it out.
and the reason these guidelines are given is because they are life giving to a person who follows them.
And then the things that God tells us to stay away from cause destructiveness.
And really God wants us to live a life to the full without brokeness that is life giving which is why He gives us a way to live.
You know its almost like how in high school I was in a ceramics class and the teacher would give us instructions and if you followed the instructions it would look good!
But if you went off and did your own thing a lot of times it would get pretty ugly
And not just that but there were stories of kids who would completely ignore the teacher and by mistake made their piece in a way that when it went in the kilm it exploded and destroyed everyone else's stuff.
And really this is the reason God calls us to live a certain way .
Because when we get off the way God has called us to it does not just twist our own lives, but it has the ability to explode where others feel the impact.
But you know I think about David telling Solomon these things and he is not just telling Solomon this as a token “Follow God Talk” before he passes.
But David saw this in his own life.
And you can picture him emotionally telling his son, please follow God, live by the way he has called you, learn from my mistakes.
Do not let things explode.
And I know David made mistakes, but he was someone who owned up to them and decided instead of living into those mistakes (some which had big consequences), he decided he would begin living into who God called him to be.
and because of this we see that ultimately Solomon is set up for success, because of his fathers faithfulness and legacy.
And so Solomon becomes king and early in his reign in 1 Kings 3:5-9 look what happens:
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
So look what happens because Solomon has a dream where God is talking with him and He basically says “Hey tell me whatever you want and I will give it to you.”
You know if God came to me and asked that I think I would have gotten out a list:
I sports car would be great, maybe a vacation house, maybe a personal chef so I do not have to cook.
But whats interesting is Solomon, does not ask for anything money related or fame related,
but he realizes that he is a young leader who has no idea what he is doing and he tells God that above everything else he needs wisdom to lead.
and God grants Solomon his request and because of this Solomon becomes the most wise king during this time.
And like I said this is a great start because Soloman is recognizing his weakness and he does not hide it but he ask God for wisdom to lead
And really he is asking God for Him to be tuned into His heart.
And really as a side note: We can be gifted, we can be smart, we can have an attractive personality, but if we do not have our heart tuned into God a lot of times those traits can go to waste
But getting back to the story because of Solomon receiving this wisdom we see him do some amazing things.
He builds the temple, creates treaties with other nations and more
But something really unfortunate is that the wisest person at this time still was bale to drift away from God.
And I want to read this last part from 1 Kings 11:9-13 because look how far Solomon drifts.
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
You know I think this is a prime example is that no one is above sin and its important to look at our lives and ask are their areas I am turning from God.
Because Solomon turns from God.
He marries many foreign woman- which the issue is not that they were from other areas, but they worshiped other false god’s.
And what we see is as a result Solomon begins to worship them as well turning from God.
And we kind of end on this low note where Solomon is far from God.
And as we close today I want you to notice that in this story we see two legacies that are left.
We see David who was not perfect, but owned up to his mistakes and seeked God
And we see Solomon who where we are today ends up straying from God.
And as we are finishing today can I just ask you who are you in this story?
Are you the person who has made mistakes, but have turned back to God
Or are you more like Solomon where you are still far from Him.
Maybe today you just have an area where you have turned from God.
Maybe you realize that you need to turn back to God this morning
What would it look like to turn back?
And for some of us this might look scary! because we are saying do you realize how far I am from where God desires me to be?
Do you realize the mistakes I have made
But the truth is we serve a God who is holding out His arms open wide ready to embrace you!
He is greater than your mistakes
He is greater than your errors
You might be facing a battle this morning, but its not how strong you are it is how strong the one who backs you is
What would it look like to come to Him this morning.
Because the truth is the battle belongs to God we just have to say “Yes, God I am ready!”
Will you pray with me?
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