Strangely enough, it usually catches us by surprise to find that the things Leaving a Legacy #1 – Live Like You Were Dying others considered most about us is not how successful we might have been, but rather, how much we loved them. Scriptures: Mark 12:28-31 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, Illustration which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, In his book, The Enormous Exception, Earl Palmer tells about a pre-med O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and [b] 31 undergrad at the University of California, Berkley, who became a Christian with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] There is no commandment greater than these.” after a long journey through doubts and questions. A bout with the flu kept him out of classes for 10 days. During that critical absence from his organic Introduction chemistry class, a Christian classmate carefully collected all his missed Tug McGraw was quite the baseball pitcher. lectures and assignments. The person took time from his own studies to -Two World Series with the New York Mets, One of the best closing pitchers help his friend catch up with the class. This Med Student later became a in Philadelphia Phillies history. A team cheerleader- "You Gotta Believe!" Christian and said years later: -He might still be on television as a game announcer today if it hadn't been "he gave that help to me without any fanfare or complaints. I wanted to for the sudden change of health that came in 2003. Age 59, 3 weeks to live. know what made this friend of mine act the way he did. I found myself -He lived nine months, pouring his time into family, into a legacy dedicated asking him if I could go to church with him." Palmer wrote, "I think the best to curing brain cancer, and even to reconciling with a past he'd tried to tribute I ever heard concerning a Christian was the tribute spoken of this ignore. He had a wife and kids, but he also had another son he had ignored. student. 'I felt more alive when I was around this friend.'" -The mother didn't tell her son about his famous father, as a teenager, -Don't underestimate the importance of Jesus' "love-your-neighbor" found birth certificate –Shocked. addition from Jesus. Read one of the last parables in Matthew's gospel, and -His favorite baseball player was also his father. Tim changed his name from it's easy to see that Jesus took this very seriously. Tim Trimble to Tim McGraw. Matthew 25-sheep and goats, and in the separating process, all parties Tim found Tug when he was an older teen-ager--nothing there. wanted to know why they'd missed their reward because they were "goats," -As an adult tried again, and they became close. And when news came that or why they'd received their reward because they were "sheep." In both time was running out, they became closer still. In the end, Tug McGraw cases, according to Matthew 25, the deciding factor was whether or not even died at Tim McGraw's Nashville home. those facing judgment had loved others. They either had or had not fed -In 2004 Tim's song, "Live Like You Were Dying," was on top of the charts for the hungry, satisfied the thirsty, housed the stranger, clothed the naked, 10 weeks, breaking a 30 year old record, and was the top country song of ministered to the sick and visited those in prison. the year by Billboard magazine. -story of a man who got the news that he When it comes to judgment, Jesus shows us that we will be separated was dying, who made a decision how he would live with time he had left. according to what we are. And what we are determines what we do. Jesus' Transition-Would it make a difference if you learned you had very little sheep follow His voice. They do what He does. They love their neighbor. time left? Would it change your priorities if you felt life slipping away? We Our ministry to University Hospital here in town—you have neighbors are all running out of time. The opportunity to leave the legacy we want is Conclusion one day shorter than it was yesterday. Everyone leaves a legacy. Good, bad, or indifferent, we all leave footprints TEXT EXPLAINATION-One day, a man approached Jesus with the same kinds behind us. We will be remembered for our generosity or selfishness. Those of questions. We don't know his circumstances, but we do know he was who mourn us will talk about the ways we loved them, or the ways we wrestling with ultimate issues. And though Jesus was surrounded at the neglected them. There's only one way to leave a Christ-like legacy - to leave time by men intent on arguing with him, this man was not one of them. He footprints that will last. You cannot do this on your own. You cannot find life approached the group and "heard them debating." He listened, recognized in loving God and loving your neighbor, because that is the Law. Scripture Jesus as a brilliant teacher, and went straight to the heart of the matter. makes clear that the letter kills, but the gospel brings life. Receive Christ's It's a twofold approach to life. Love God, and love the people God puts offer of mercy, let Him fill you with His Spirit, and then watch as He around you. Jesus modeled this perfectly, and his legacy has had more empowers and teaches you how to love Him and others. impact on the world than any individual in history. He didn't leave a legacy of money, property or power. Instead, he left a legacy of loving God -Jesus wouldn't have left the sick to fend for themselves. Jesus would have completely, and sacrificially loving us. stayed. Jesus would have healed. Jesus would have loved. They did what Jesus would have done. People the world over were stunned at the I. A legacy of loving God completely difference love made. The way they acted - it was as different as light is A) When Jesus was asked about the most important commandment of all, from darkness. This is why the Roman Empire changed so dramatically. he quoted the Shema (pronounced "Sh'ma"). In Hebrew, "Hear o Israel," is People couldn’t ignore the actions of people who loved God so passionately. "Sh'ma Yes'ra'eil." So important is this passage, it is the first a Jewish child You can't legislate a nation into following Christ. But you can love them. You memorizes. So treasured are the words, they are written on small scrolls, can shine the light of Jesus upon them. And then you can speak the truth. rolled up, and inserted into a small container called a mezuzah, which mark the doorways of Jewish homes. The church body that decides to use its resources to sacrificially love its community will discover that it holds more power than any person or B) The question of the most important commandment had long been group in political power. The Person who does this leaves a legacy settled among God's people: Love the Lord God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and might. And all of Israel knew that truth. Knowing the truth was II. A legacy of loving others the easy part. Pulling it off was the difficult part. Jesus added the command to "love others as yourself" without being asked -But not for Jesus. He loved God completely. He wasn't interested in power, to add any other commands that belonged in the same category as the wealth, or popularity. But He was passionate about God. He depended on Shema. Still, he added it, and it didn't seem to surprise his audience. God through prayer, through knowing the Scriptures, and by submitting to There was a raging debate in that day between two points of view on God's will - even at the cost of His life. keeping the commandments. C) What's involved in loving God completely? The better question would -One group argued that to properly love God, one must keep His be, "What's not involved?" commands, even if those commands kept you from helping a person in According to Mark 10:17-22, The Rich Young Ruler.. went away sad need. If the person was in need on the Sabbath, and it would require work The problem? He loved his wealth too much to give it all away, and until he to help him, then it would be better to keep the Sabbath. was willing to make that sacrifice he could not have the one thing he lacked: The second group argued that a person in need trumped the law of the Jesus. When we realize who Jesus is and what He offers us, there is no cost Sabbath. When Jesus added the answer, "Love your neighbor as yourself," we should be unwilling to pay to have it - and have Him. he was identifying with the more moderate of the two groups. But Jesus Jesus loved the "rich young ruler," but the man who came to him couldn't went even further. part with the things he loved-he fell into the category of knowing the truth ---But Jesus loved His neighbor perfectly. He was constantly criticized for but not putting it into practice. When people see it, they simply cannot befriending "sinners." Sometimes they were prostitutes. Other times, they forget it. were tax collectors, the white-collar criminals of their day. Jesus also loved Illustration: Historians tell us that two plagues swept through the Roman the religious people around him who had excellent morals, like the rich Empire while Christians were being horribly persecuted. young ruler. He was as comfortable in the home of Lazarus, Martha, and -The Antonine Plague was the first, a little more than a hundred years past Mary as he was the home of Zacchaeus. the life of Jesus. The Plague of Cyprian came along a century after that. One -Jesus loved them all, until he had breathed his last. He would not even document says that in Rome, where a million people lived, as many as 5,000 hate those who nailed him to the cross. Instead, He chose through the pain died per day. People were filled with terror--they left sick family members to ask God to forgive those who were in the process of executing him. And in their beds and ran for their lives. He loved you, while you were still in your sin, enough to finish His work on -But Christians didn't run. They stayed and brought water to the sick. They the cross and die so that He could bring you near to God. I’ve spent the last fed them. They changed their bandages. They spoke kindly to them. They 33 years preaching funeral sermons. As families and friends gather to talk loved and encouraged them. And they got sick in the process. about their loved one, they almost never mention work or money, unless There's no telling how many people were saved because Christians served, the stories are about how their loved one had used a job or their money in and there's no telling how many Christians lost their lives Darkness-light giving to others. Instead, the stories will come of fathers who read, or mothers who stopped to play, with their children.