legacy (n.) 1. money or property left to someone by a will; bequest. 2. Anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor to a descendant.
United, a legacy airline just announced that it is ceasing flights out of Oakland after 75 years.
Mayor Ed Lee wants to build a new Golden State Warriors stadium on Piers 30-32 as his “legacy project.”
The EFG celebrating your 50th Anniversary this year would like to do a “legacy project” for the church.
Every pastor hopes to be remembered as successfully making a long-lasting contribution to the life of a local church—leaving a legacy.
Jesus’ Legacy
John 17:1-12
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Jesus’ legacy was not a building or an institution, but living men and women who carry on his mission for his glory. How can we leave this kind of legacy? By living the same way Christ lived through his presence in us.
Leaving a Legacy
What kind of legacy will you leave with your family/children?
What legacy will you leave with the EFG? What legacy will EFG leave after 50 years?
How will church friends remember you?
Jesus’ legacy to his Father was disciples who continued his ministry. What do you think is the legacy you’ll be leaving with God?
What greater legacy could we leave?
The legacy we leave is the life we lead, the life of Christ in us and through us passed on to others in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Abraham remained faithful, he was blessed with “descendants…as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12).