Legacy Sunday 2025 | Marshall Townsley

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Transcript

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You know when, uh, Jordan, my daughter and, uh, her husband David, our new lead pastors, aren't they doing a great job church? Wow. Um, it be, and when they began to date, and especially when it became clear that they were serious about the relationship and were wanted to pursue marriage, uh, you know, I began to, to, uh, pray in a different way. I'm gonna just let your imagination work for a few minutes there on its own. And then I'll tell you what I mean. It was a different time. Uh, pastor David, you know, had blue hair, um, and, uh, you know, ta tattoos art, skin art, um, was just kind of making it breaking through. And, uh, uh, a lot of things were just different and he, he wanted to travel. And did, uh, with, uh, officer Jeff, Jesse McDermott, who played drums for us this morning. They were in, uh, actually a great Christian band. Old man Shattered, uh, for a number of years until that season came to an end. But, you know, I'm glad that God didn't give me a spirit of fear, but a power and love and a sound mind when all this began to happen. I began to consider a number of, uh, of things about, uh, David began to watch him a little bit closer. We didn't have any real deep conversations about, about things, but I felt like we, we could talk to each other and things came up. We, we did talk to each other, but this was my youngest daughter we're talking about here, uh, being married and, um. So I began to pray in a different way and began to think about a number of things. I began to watch his life and, uh, over time I, I had any concerns, uh, really, uh, uh, I just calmed. I came to a, a strong place of peace and part of that was how faithful he was to my daughter. I watched him, I watched him when, uh, other, uh, girls would flirt with him. I watched how David responded to that, um, my hands in my pockets, you know, watching how I was reacting outwardly. Um, I, I watched how he was, uh, how he graced her life. He was very kind to her and over time I began to feel that she would be safe in his care. Um, but in addition to watching, watching David and those good qualities come out, even as a, uh, a much younger man, I considered his mom and dad. I, uh, I considered, uh, their lives. They've been a part of believer sin since forever. And, um, still a part of church today. They're sitting right, right here. 1, 2, 3 fourth row this morning here, Dana and Carol, you know, hard, hard workers. They were diligent. Uh, remained diligent, very talented. Uh, most of you may not know'cause you haven't been around that long that Dana used to play on platform in our worship team. He played, uh, a saxophone. For us. We turn him loose every once in a while, but we just couldn't do it every week. They're strong in faith. Dana and Carol, uh, compassionate people, uh, again, if you know their lives, they've, they've helped people in many different ways, in many different difficult places in their lives. Uh, they were first on the scene, first responders in many cases. Um, watch Carol do that. Watch Dana do that personally. Dana, you know, Dana said to me one day after a service, first of all, Dana's a, a, uh, he's a, he's just a great man. Amen. He's just a super guy, and if you've ever. Struck hands with him. You've, you, you sense even the physical strength that he has now at 110 years of age. I can say that because I'm 109 but strong and he, one, he touched me on the back once and, and, and I felt the strength. Can I say it this way? I felt and not be understood as silly or, or stupid. I felt the strength of God in him on me. Amen. And he said, I've got your back. And he has had my back all these years. You know, I feel perfectly safe with him. I know somehow he's, he's watching over me. So I've had this great example in this, in this. Couple, they helped spearhead a ministry that we had in the early years of the church that we called Pastoral Care Ministry. Uh, it was a group of men and women and married couples that helped extend our pastoral care to the congregation. We were growing very fast. The numbers were more than the staff we had, and we needed a great group of volunteer people who would come alongside of us and have the heart of the Good Shepherd. I have my heart to shepherd Cindy's heart, to shepherd the people of God. They readily volunteered and helped us do that, uh, in those early, early years, made a huge difference. Set a great example for others to follow in that ministry, and oftentimes when we were training new people. In pastoral care ministry, we would point to Dana and Carol sometimes, most of the time without them even knowing it. We would make them examples in our training because they did it so well. Their heart was so, um, engaged in it. They've always been super, uh, supportive of us financially. Uh, the church family, again, much of what we enjoy today. They did their part financially and more than their part. And more than, again, just volunteering their time, which is certainly worth a lot. Your time is worth a ton. They volunteered that, but in addition to that, they're working and they're taking their tithe from the very top of their income, which is 10%. For those of you who don't understand tithing or even the word tithe and special offerings with it throughout, through the years to help us do so much of what you see, uh, today. And, uh, so much of what we've done in the past. Today, we sit on 16 acres of land that we still can develop in a number of different, uh, ways, uh, to be a light to our city. We can make it somehow inviting to those in our community and, uh, make it, uh, a much, uh, even more, uh, glorious place. Uh, to worship God from and to be a light to our city and to the nations from, um, but there are a ton of, uh, ministries that we do. You know, we sit here on 16 acres. Uh, we're, everything's paid for, has been for years. We have no debt. Church, family. We owe no man anything'cause of the giving of people like Dana and Carol. And, um, you know, so here we are and it's a, a great time of celebration. In fact, if there were a, if the Bible were a Pictionary book, then, uh, alongside the word faithful or faithfulness, we would see Jesus's picture. But we would see Dana in Carol's picture because they again, exemplify what the Bible refers to as, as faithful. They have, uh, been building a legacy of faith. Uh, to their children and grandchildren for all these years and aren't, aren't finished yet. Uh, the legacy that has, uh, been passed to their children, uh, uh, Holly and aj who have, they're building their own families now. They have about 110 children, and we don't, we don't know if they're finished yet or not. We're just praying and, and standing strong with them. But it's, it's pretty special to see this incredible enduring faith passed on to this young man. That's right. Who's now passing it on to all of us being a spiritual brother and father to us. Right. And to my youngest daughter who has learned something of faith and walking by faith, and they're passing it on to Gracie. Their children. Of course. I'm, I'm just extremely blessed to be married to a woman of faith and to have an older daughter who's also now grown up and walking in faith and serving us on our staff in an executive position, uh, with us today. You know, it's a blessing to, to those who are parents, to have their children and to enjoy the comfort of their children, knowing their children are falling after Jesus Christ. That's right. They're building their own legacy. Uh, now, and others of you, of course, are doing the same thing, uh, with your lives and all the, the opportunities that life is, is presenting to you. I just wanna remind you again, uh, I, I'll wrap this up and zip this up. Um, I wanna remind you before we present ourselves for the, the special offering this morning, that this is the way that God builds his kingdom. You might be scratching your head at that and going, really? Yeah. Really, since God has been making promises that needed to be inherited by other generations. He has been developing the idea of legacy. He is a legacy God himself. He is the father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. He's a God of generations. So he chooses this working of legacy in building his own. Kingdom or we would just simply say his own family. God begins something. You found this in your Bible cover to cover. God begins something, and if it isn't finished by that generation, he simply passes it on to the next generation and they inherit. Everybody say inherit. Inherit. They inherit the promises that were made to others before them. They make it their own and work to fulfill it in their day. I don't wanna lose my place here, but that has also been done with Believers Center. There are people that came before us before this church was planted. They worked in our city by faith. They interceded on their knees and on their faces. They wept for churches like Believer Center to be raised up at the Eastern gate of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They prayed. They laid down their lives for it, but they did not see it happen. Amen. But we have inherited the promises God made to them, right? Those of you who. Haven't been around that long. There've been others. Many others come before you. Some are still here. Some have left to bless other churches. Some have gone into heaven, but you, they didn't see the fullness of what God is doing. At Believers Center of Albuquerque, there are unfulfilled promises, words, prophetic words, spoken over us over 45 years that have yet to be fulfilled. Guess what? God is still working in us to fulfill them. If we don't see them, you're going to inherit them and carry them on. If you're a part of Believer Center of Albuquerque and the church, uh, that Jesus is building in our city and our community. In fact, very, I'll just touch on that. Hebrews 11 talks about how men and women of faith inherited. Inherited promises, and of course that can mean personally. God speaks something to you. You inherit that. You don't deserve it. You don't try to merit it. You don't try to, you know, work for it and earn it. It comes to you. It's an inheritance to you. That's what an inheritance is by nature. It comes to you by promise, and all you can do is receive it by faith. Somebody else did the work and you're getting to receive the benefit now by faith. Right? And so there's much that we have inherited personally, but there are things that the church. Is inheriting from previous generations? Yes. That we are to be diligent over to work to fulfill in our time. You know what? I don't know. We get all hung up as to the date that Jesus is gonna come. I think again, I di, I forgot. I didn't hear about this until it was too late. I think the pa, the rapture was supposed to have happened last Tuesday night. That means all of us missed it. This Tuesday? Is it coming Tuesday? Oh, watch out. But we get all hung up about that and we forget that regardless of what time Jesus is coming, this is our time. Can you say it out loud with me? This is our time. This is our time. Others have gone before us. If Jesus tarries, others are gonna, if he doesn't come before next Tuesday, others are gonna come after. But this is our day and this is our time. Again, God's been doing this as long as promises have been made. It's always been his plan to fill the earth. As soon as you open the Book of Genesis, you don't read too far before you realize that it's always been God's plan to fill the earth with his presence. That's right. And with his glory through establishing and then passing on a legacy of faithfulness through men. That's what he wanted for Adam and Eve. That's right. That's what he wanted them to do as part of their assignment. Things went really bad in the garden, and after that, you know, things went really bad in the earth, but you know what? God never changed his mind. That's right. That's right. He's faithful to a thousand generations and he's teaching men to to do the very same. They won't live a thousand generations, but in their time, they'll be faithful the way that God has been faithful to us. Come on, somebody. Has God been faithful to you? I know he is been good to you, but has he been faithful to you? Amen. So again, we're trying to establish from a biblical point. He's still doing this today. And what we talked about with Dana and Carol, what Cindy and I have tried to do, I know what Al and TA have done with their children with, or Toya. All many of you in this room have work to do. You've, you've really labored. Um, is my mom labored, uh, over me in prayer that I would walk with God and walk by faith. Uh, a bunch of what she knew has been passed on in me and is being passed on through me. Um. Uh, but we must be, we must lean that much more on God's faithfulness to be certain of being faithful ourselves. The simplicity of this whole idea, this scheme, if you will, the legacy idea, uh, the real simplicity and power of it is that it is repeatable. It can happen again and again and again. Day after day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year. After your decade, after decade. But God needs people like you everyday. People just like you walking a spiritual life out in the natural. You're, we're far from perfect in all this, but God's not asking us to be perfect, but he is depending on us to make progress. He to work toward progress. He is, he has given us a trust, if you will. And we need to be faithful to what he's given us. Here's the commission again. It's always good to reminder what Jesus actually said to his disciples. We are his disciples in 2025, but in Matthew 28, 18 and 19, from the passion translation, Jesus is recorded as saying this. Then Jesus came close to them and said, all the authority of the universe has been given to me. Now go. In my authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to faithfully say that word out loud with me faithfully. Teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you and never forget that I'm with you every day, even to the completion of the age. Another expression of his faithfulness. We never go a minute without his presence. Right? An essential part of the legacy that we leave to those who follow is this legacy of genuine, tenacious, possessing faith. There's other things that we leave them loving the way that God loves us. That's incredible. To lead to our children being kind to people. Wow. There's an idea. Being, actually being kind to people and being gracious to people being quicker to show mercy than judgment. Learning what it is to edify and build up instead of tear down. That's right.'cause anybody can pretty much do that. Um, all giving, uh, given it shall be given you his generosity. There. There's just no, it can never be questioned. Every step he took, every breath he breathed, every beat of his heart was a contribution. He laid down his life so that others could live. That's right. He bled out his life so that we could enjoy eternal life with him. That's a great part of legacy. Amen. Amen. We've heard Cindy talk about how her daddy made sure she had a quarter to put into the offering. He watched her. Made sure she put it in the offering. I started to bring it out. I don't have it with me. I actually had still have an offering envelope that I used to fill out in the Baptist church growing up that my parents would give me usually with a dime or a penny in it, and she would give the boys three and then eventually five of us, she would make sure that we learned that. Giving, making a contribution, not just again of everything else in our life, but also our monies and our resource in an offering. You know, things we, we are shaped our lives and so your giving should shape the lives of your children. But we're talking specifically this morning about this legacy of faith. That's just where I landed when I began to pray and study about this morning, but active saving faith. Working in US produces faithfulness, a fruit of the spirit, a necessity to establishing legacy and passing it on. Matthew recorded Jesus making this statement about mustard seed faith. Now I've got some things on the screen for you here, but look here at the verse first, Matthew 1720. He said, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, say As a grain. As a grain. If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, remove hints to yonder, place It shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Amen. We we think about the size of a mustard seed. That's energizing, I think. But Jesus made a point here. He said, if you had faith as not the size of only, but as a mustard seed in the first century, they understood mustard seed to have a number of qualities. I think we have those. I think David put those on the screen for us. The mustard seed was invasive. Say it out loud. Invasive. Invasive. Once it took root in a garden. It spread fast. In fact, it was almost uncontrollable if it ever took root, similar to a carrot's root, uh, which is real resistant to even a shovel's edge. The mustard seed, once it took root, not while it's laying on the top of the ground, thus not just as it's beginning to seek beneath the soil, but as it really began to take root and then took root. It was something that began to spread and you just couldn't get rid of it. Did you know that history reports this, that if, if people wanted to change the landscape of a mountain's edge, edge, or edge, one of the things they considered doing was planting the mustard seed because they knew that if the mu, they could get the mustard seed. To take root and begin to spread. It would begin to penetrate even the rock of the mountain and move it. It would begin to crumble under the force of that growing mustard seed. Jesus used it in a spiritual way. He says, you'll move a mountain, you'll speak to it, and you'll move it. If you have this. Kind of faith operating on the inside of you. It crowded out and destroyed other plants. That helps too when we know Satan's working always to plant weeds in our heart. Horrible thought. I can't wait for David's new series beginning next Sunday where he is gonna address mental health and mental chaos and much of the spiritual battle. Again, a huge percentage of that is happening right here. Yeah. You know, and us learning and being empowered to say yes when we need to say yes and no. When we need to say no to thoughts, it's gonna make a big difference in your quality of life and whether or not you're beginning to resemble Jesus more and more and more in the way you live your life. But it's faith at work that will also help you in pushing out and choking out, uh, the seeds that don't belong in your heart. Faith as Jesus referred to it, commanded the soil or dominated the soil until it owned the whole field. It was feared by farmers because it couldn't be controlled. It became massive and was impossible to remove or get rid of. So when Jesus spoke of faith as a mustard seed, his listeners didn't think tiny, insignificant. Small. They thought, watch this uncontainable. That's good. Invasive, dominating, unstoppable. That's right. A new thing is coming. Come. It's part of revival is the reviving of this kind of faith that's right in the body of Christ. This kind of faith that Jesus was pointing to, not just fragile or small. Once planted, it spreads into every part of your life. It's unshakeable, unwavering. It does not politely coexist. I love this with fear and doubt. Come on. That's right. Fear needs to be cast out. That's right. And that word means to hurl with great force. That's right. Where's that coming from? That's coming from God. That's not your best self, self effort. Let's see if I can get rid of fear. It's God at work in you, faith, at work in you. God's strength being released by faith that will cast fear from you. It overtakes, uproot, destroys lies and systems of this world. It takes full authority and establishes God's kingdom. Faith as a grain of mustard seed is about being so rooted. So forceful, so unshakeable that nothing else can stand against it. It's this faith that is capable of enduring generation to generation, to generation, to thousands of generations. Amen. We say it in our creed, that our faith is audacious. That's right. It's one of the, one of the ideas we wanna plant here is that the faith that God plants on the inside of us. Is a difference maker. And if you and I can get that into our children, God can get it into us. By the same help of the Holy Spirit, we get into our children, then we can be at peace. We can be, we can enjoy our lives, we can enjoy watching them grow as we're getting to do, you know, as we see it happen in our family. And you know, that's just part of what God is doing to, to enhance his kingdom. To further grow his kingdom, to get it deeper into our world, and we're a great and important part of that. Does that help you this morning at all? Yeah. Amen. So again, let me just say that the special offering that we receive today is something that we do in order to help, uh, empower us. Say empower. It's, it's, it's a great word. Empower us. It supplies us the church. It empowers us. After you give this offering, Cindy and I are not going to take it and buy a first class ticket to Hawaii. If you want to do that for us now, you can just slip that into our pocket. But this offering is not going for that. It's not going, uh, to send David and Jordan on a a super cruise. If you want to do that for your lead pastors at any time, you can do that. For them.'cause they'll take their parents with them right down. Right, Carol? But that's what, this is not what this is about. Again, there are things that we confront. They're big expense items. I'm just talking practically to you now before we do this. They're big expense items that we, again, have not had to go in debt for, to fix. Or to maintain, we haven't had to come to you and beg you for extra money in order because we had our back against the wall. We had a good surplus because of people who were, again, they were consistent in their giving and especially when it came to legacy offering, they, they gave, we have people who give Penny a penny on this day. And we're thankful for it. The largest offering I think we've had at one time was a$50,000 offering one year. But whatever God puts in your heart today, again, we want you just to be a part of this church family, doing everything it can to carry on the legacy that God has given us and taking it beyond that again. This special annual offering that we receive today is uh, something again. That we prepare to do. Our kids can get ready, you know, as, uh, if they're not already ready. Uh, and why don't we all just stand to our feet together? The, this is this, again, essential and essential, I should say. Unique. This is a word I was looking for. Not essential. It is become that but unique. It is unique in that if you look around a little bit this morning while it's happening, you'll get to see. Uh, all the generations participate. You'll get to see, we'll get to see our Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Generations participate in this offering. Together we'll see the beauty of Hearts United, laughing en enjoy, enjoying God's goodness, getting to do something now for him. Again, it's not, our thoughts are not focused on what more he can do for us in our giving. God does give. When we give, he gives back to us, but that's not where our focus is today. Our focus is on what we can do for him and what we can do for his life's work.'cause he's still working at it. What can we do to get the kingdom further into our city? And then beyond the oceans and the, the, uh. Mountain barriers into other places. This good news message that has transformed our life and continues to transform our life. How, how can we say I love you, God, in another great, meaningful, um, way. So we're gonna get to see that today. I have a first, you know, first review of it every year and, you know, while it's happening, especially as our kids are coming and, uh. Wa watch them as they give their little offering here, or their big offering here. The youth are gonna come, our great youth are gonna come and participate in this together. This generation, God's hand is already mightily on them, is already working mightily through each and every one of them. Many of them are anointed with offices. That only God gives and gifts and only God gives. They're exploring those, they're finding those out. They're getting their feet wet, so to speak, figuring that out. Some of us, you know, are, uh, we've been around a while and, um, and we are just, we continue to be excited to watch on this day in particular, the generosity of God's people.