Speaker 1: Some of y'all have been here long enough, you know that you sit down just at the right time.
Speaker 1: And then I say if you'll stand, I believe in cardio, praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are trying to cast out the demon.
Speaker 1: So if you didn't make it Friday night, we know who you are.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm going to preach like this so nobody thinks I'm looking at them.
Speaker 1: We had a great night of worship.
Speaker 1: We had a guest come in and play piano.
Speaker 1: That boy could play.
Speaker 1: It was like he was going to stand up and walk off While we're all standing before we read our scripture.
Speaker 1: Today we have a you may have noticed Brother Vernon.
Speaker 1: He's one of the board members.
Speaker 1: He's also usually the first one to slap you when you come in.
Speaker 1: So he said pray for his wife, who isn't going to be here today.
Speaker 1: He didn't give me specifics, so I'm not going to tell you specifics.
Speaker 1: But when someone asks for prayer, we need to stop what we're doing and make that a priority every single time, because prayer works and it matters when we pray.
Speaker 1: So let's bow our heads and let's pray for his wife.
Speaker 1: Father, we come before you right now.
Speaker 1: You see the need and you saw the need before it ever began.
Speaker 1: I ask you right now, god, in the midst of where they are sitting there watching this service at home, that Lord, your presence, come down and a healing power flood that room and their lives, bodies and minds are transformed like they never expected to happen.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: So now we will get to 2 Kings.
Speaker 1: If you have your Bible or your phone, your favorite little Bible app, I have mine read to me all the time.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of road time for work sometimes and it is a blessing to be able to get read to 2 Kings 13.
Speaker 1: We're going to read two small little verses.
Speaker 1: This little paragraph is all of the story that we get, but in these two small verses, someone who lived a life for God was able to bring back life after his death, and we're going to label that today, leaving a legacy, and we're going to talk about living for legacy.
Speaker 1: So 2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 20 and 21.
Speaker 1: If you don't have your Bible, you can look on the screen behind me.
Speaker 1: We have it for you.
Speaker 1: Then Elisha died and was buried.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 1: He died, he buried.
Speaker 1: A group of Moabite raiders used to invade the land each spring, so they would come when their harvest was plentiful and raid what they spent all year working on and took it from them.
Speaker 1: Verse 21.
Speaker 1: Once, when some Israelites were burying a man, they spied a band of these raiders, so they hastily threw the corpse into the tomb of Elisha and fled.
Speaker 1: They were scared for their lives.
Speaker 1: They didn't do the proper burial.
Speaker 1: If you know, back in this biblical day Old and New Testament there is a certain way to bury people.
Speaker 1: They have a way that they do it.
Speaker 1: They were so fearful for their lives, they threw the body into the grave and they ran.
Speaker 1: So they hastily threw the corpse into the tomb of Elisha and fled.
Speaker 1: But as soon as the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man arrived and jumped to his feet.
Speaker 1: The word does not even name him his feet.
Speaker 1: The word does not even name him.
Speaker 1: But the legacy that Elisha left behind touched someone that he never met and it brought life to a place that isn't even named.
Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads and pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you so much for your presence here today.
Speaker 1: We thank you, lord, for allowing us one more time to come into a new year, to worship and praise your name, to be more than what we were last year, to seek you harder than we did last year, to read your word more than we did last year, to grow closer to you like we never have known before.
Speaker 1: I pray for the rest of this service.
Speaker 1: Use your humble servant as a mouthpiece.
Speaker 1: Let every word out of my mouth be directly from the throne room and nowhere else, and be led by your spirit.
Speaker 1: In your name we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: Y'all may be seated now.
Speaker 1: This isn't a trick.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask you to stand back up unless you just feel like breaking in.
Speaker 1: Praise, dance, encourage, stand aloud.
Speaker 1: So this little story.
Speaker 1: Right here we see a foreshadowing of what Jesus did through his death.
Speaker 1: In the death of Elisha, life was brought, brought In.
Speaker 1: The death of Jesus, life is brought.
Speaker 1: Do we have the slide of that little baby?
Speaker 1: I got a baby up here.
Speaker 1: It's not mine, no surprises, not yet.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing her down.
Speaker 1: All right, this little baby right here.
Speaker 1: Y'all may not know this, but as a church we sponsored a family for Christmas and she was Prego capital O.
Speaker 1: She was about to pop, and was it Christmas week or weekend?
Speaker 1: It was a week.
Speaker 1: She had her baby.
Speaker 1: The family that we sponsored.
Speaker 1: We were able to give them food, gifts, gift cards, and when we gave her the things, she just started crying and her husband wasn't there.
Speaker 1: We didn't get to meet her.
Speaker 1: He was at work.
Speaker 1: He works at the Walmart down the street.
Speaker 1: But just continue to pray for that family.
Speaker 1: It is important for the members of a church, for the family of God, the body of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It is important for us to not be so concerned about ourselves but to focus on those who will be left behind when we are gone, and that's what we're going to be focusing on today is living for legacy.
Speaker 1: So today, if you don't know, today is day two of our 21-day fast.
Speaker 1: Anybody hurting?
Speaker 1: Yet?
Speaker 1: If you go to our website, you go to connect-churchcom forward slash 21 days.
Speaker 1: It's also on our Facebook.
Speaker 1: We also have it on our Instagram, we have it on our YouTube, so you can just click and go right to it.
Speaker 1: On the very top.
Speaker 1: It says why we do it, the reason behind fasting and the reason we do prayer.
Speaker 1: When Jesus told them to do something, he said through prayer and fasting, those two things in combination in your life will change your world.
Speaker 1: It makes you submit your flesh to a spiritual goal you're trying to achieve.
Speaker 1: That's tough.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one that my flesh don't want to submit on a regular day?
Speaker 1: And then I throw in not eating or eating different.
Speaker 1: There's a Daniel fast.
Speaker 1: You scroll down that page.
Speaker 1: You'll see every single type of fast that you can do and how to do it.
Speaker 1: It explains it all, and every single day we're posting a YouTube video.
Speaker 1: At 9 am there was one that you can do and how to do it.
Speaker 1: It explains it all, and every single day we're posting a YouTube video at 9 am.
Speaker 1: There was one that went out yesterday and today 9 am, every single morning on our YouTube channel and it'll be scheduled on our Facebook page.
Speaker 1: That is a short talk of the scripture for the day and the focus of our prayer for that day, so you will be able to start your day off with a focus and intentional in your day.
Speaker 1: That's a good way to start your day having intention.
Speaker 1: So today's title is Living for Legacy.
Speaker 1: What are you leaving behind?
Speaker 1: If you're like me, I get very easily tunnel vision and I get focused on my task at hand and I forget what I'm leaving behind me.
Speaker 1: I get so focused on working a job providing for my family, coming to church, being a pastor, worship leader.
Speaker 1: It's a job and you better do it good or people won't come back no pressure right.
Speaker 1: And you better do it good or people won't come back no pressure right.
Speaker 1: Then you have your relationships.
Speaker 1: You have to work really hard to keep those going.
Speaker 1: You have to work really hard sometimes to get your challenge of 15 every day, five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of worship.
Speaker 1: It is hard, but you are preparing now, in these times, alone with God, that will echo for generations in your family tree and in your family line.
Speaker 1: Every year we find ourselves anybody done it yet.
Speaker 1: So I saw a meme that I was going to try to share it, but it was too late.
Speaker 1: I found it yesterday and it said that it was, I think, two dogs sitting there and there was a big dog and I think the puppy.
Speaker 1: The big dog said what's a New Year's resolution?
Speaker 1: And the little one said it's your.
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 1: Your checklist for the first week of the new year, or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's like things that you're trying to get done, but it lasts for about a week or maybe a month, because you're trying to change what you do instead of who you are.
Speaker 1: We make New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 1: We declare I'm going to get better.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it better.
Speaker 1: We're going to be a better parent.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to not yell so much this year.
Speaker 1: But the other alternative is spanking, so maybe I'll let him decide.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have more serious stuff that you're dealing with personally.
Speaker 1: I'm going to quit smoking or I'm going to quit drinking.
Speaker 1: I'm going to eat better.
Speaker 1: Every one of y'all have done this every single year probably.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm going to change my diet this year.
Speaker 1: And how long does it last until you get all the chocolates in February?
Speaker 1: It's like we created holidays to set ourselves up for failure.
Speaker 1: Every month we got something.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't eat all the chocolate if it tasted worse.
Speaker 1: That's not on me.
Speaker 1: You ever heard of bodybuilders that do the carb loading?
Speaker 1: That's my entire Thanksgivinggiving and christmas holiday.
Speaker 1: Yo, I'm loading the cars up.
Speaker 1: Good, I'm going to eat better.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a gym membership.
Speaker 1: Anybody already signed up for their little free thing they're putting out there?
Speaker 1: Nobody not yet.
Speaker 1: All right, your week's coming, you'll see all the advertisements.
Speaker 1: You'll be like man, maybe I should start getting a treadmill.
Speaker 1: I I'm going to get gym membership.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start working out more.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start walking every day.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start praying more.
Speaker 1: We've been on this challenge for three months.
Speaker 1: By now you should be to 20 minutes.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to get longer.
Speaker 1: Get longer.
Speaker 1: That's called growth.
Speaker 1: Growth is painful.
Speaker 1: Growth hurts.
Speaker 1: It stretches you.
Speaker 1: It causes you to go outside of yourself, of who you were into, what God is trying to call you to be.
Speaker 1: Has anyone ever done this, all these things I just listed?
Speaker 1: Anybody guilty in the house today, anybody at home watching, say I'm guilty.
Speaker 1: I'm guilty.
Speaker 1: I have done this over and over, and sometimes I get the mid-year religion and I start trying to do it again.
Speaker 1: About July.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get my summer body and it's already like two months into summer.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'll just wait until the new year.
Speaker 1: Now, these are good and we come with the best intentions to the new year.
Speaker 1: Every single year.
Speaker 1: You get that.
Speaker 1: It's like when you first come to God Uh-oh, when you first come to God and you're like I'm going to go save the world, I'm going to go change the world, and you can't even get your house in order that sunk in a little late for some of y'all.
Speaker 1: We want to do good things with good intentions, but we focus on the what instead of the who.
Speaker 1: I will change or I will do whatever.
Speaker 1: Fill in the blank.
Speaker 1: It's good to make lists and go down that list and check it off as you become better and towards the goal that you want to do.
Speaker 1: These are great and beneficial to set goals, but today I want you to view your goals a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: Not what I want to do, but who do I want to become and, even further, who I want to be like.
Speaker 1: We see this in our own homes when you have your kids.
Speaker 1: They are little blueprints whether you want to admit it or not, of you.
Speaker 1: They're little screaming fits.
Speaker 1: We all got adult versions of that.
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: They're little attitudes.
Speaker 1: Then they start growing into selfishness.
Speaker 1: That's my toy.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are going to get that when you're driving home.
Speaker 1: That that's you right now.
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep going.
Speaker 1: When life begins to squeeze you, what is inside of you starts to come out.
Speaker 1: It is what will come out, and who you are inside will be what comes out when life starts to squeeze.
Speaker 1: When you get in arguments in your spouse, who you are comes out.
Speaker 1: When you get in arguments, let's bring it home.
Speaker 1: When you get in arguments or you get having issues with attitudes at church who you are comes out.
Speaker 1: Is that too hard for us?
Speaker 1: On that one, good, because we're going deeper.
Speaker 1: What is inside of you is what pours out of you.
Speaker 1: What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Speaker 1: Who are you when no one is around?
Speaker 1: Because who you are then is what will come out later.
Speaker 1: No one is around, because who you are, then is what will come out later.
Speaker 1: Who you are when no one else is around you is what will be coming out of you towards other people when you are around other people.
Speaker 1: If we're honest, at some point I don't know why, I guess because of New Year, but we always do it at the beginning of the year but we need to do this daily.
Speaker 1: Christians need to start checking themselves before we start telling everybody else how to do their business.
Speaker 1: We need to start looking in mirrors and stop judging people on their mannerisms.
Speaker 1: If we're honest, we've all looked in the mirror at some point and we did not like what we saw.
Speaker 1: If we fashion our lives, our lifestyles, our attitudes, our jobs, our relationship.
Speaker 1: After the world, we cannot expect a spiritual outcome.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about legacy First.
Speaker 1: We need to really break down what is legacy.
Speaker 1: So if you Google legacy, this would be one of the first definitions and I want you to think about this, would be one of the first definitions and I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: I listened to a lot of Dave Ramsey stuff like his little podcast and stuff Cause it like fires me up to save money instead of spend it, which is really hard for me.
Speaker 1: My wife is the saver.
Speaker 1: She wants to choke me every time I Amazon and me got a bad relationship but it's so good I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't leave her.
Speaker 1: Legacy is an amount of money or property left to someone in a will.
Speaker 1: It's what for someone Left, it's left for someone.
Speaker 1: So legacy is not something that is for you.
Speaker 1: When we go through the growth track, if you don't know, out there on the table there's a sign-up sheet for growth track, our Growth Track, the first week is you understanding who we are as a church, what we believe, our core values, our core beliefs?
Speaker 1: Everything is based on the Bible and if we don't line up with that.
Speaker 1: You have that paper to take home with you.
Speaker 1: You can call us out on it.
Speaker 1: The second week is finding out your spiritual gifts.
Speaker 1: How can you be fulfilled in the spirit if you don't know what your gifts are?
Speaker 1: How can you work in a church and serve in a church if you don't know where you fit?
Speaker 1: So that's what we do on that.
Speaker 1: It's something that you leave behind.
Speaker 1: In the Spiritual Gifts Week we talk about scriptures that say the gifts are not for you.
Speaker 1: Your gifts and talents, your life is not for you.
Speaker 1: When we become me-centered instead of you-centered, we start doing things selfishly and we're not worried about legacy.
Speaker 1: We get so caught up in short-sightedness so it's something you leave behind for the person that is coming in after you so that they will have a better future.
Speaker 1: Now, when you think about legacy and you think about your life in this way, it changes the way you see things.
Speaker 1: To what can I get?
Speaker 1: To what can I leave?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been living your life?
Speaker 1: Spending your money, raising your kids, coming to church, going to your job and these tasks that we do year after year?
Speaker 1: There's a reason we have 401ks because we're looking towards the end and we're wanting to get out of here and not have to work anymore and get some money coming in and not have to do a squat.
Speaker 1: That's what retirement spells for me.
Speaker 1: But then we do this for years.
Speaker 1: But in the middle of that, before you get to the land over the rainbow, you get to this place where you're like man.
Speaker 1: This is just the same job year after year.
Speaker 1: I got the same family every day.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are more blessed than you know.
Speaker 1: I got the same job man provides for me.
Speaker 1: Every year.
Speaker 1: I go to the same church that loves me with no strings attached.
Speaker 1: We do these tasks, we go to these places.
Speaker 1: It becomes so mundane, we become bored with our lives and this is why one of the main reasons people go outside of marriage.
Speaker 1: Can we get real today?
Speaker 1: They get bored with what they got and start looking at what they don't have.
Speaker 1: We are playing footsie with the devil under the table sitting at Jesus' table.
Speaker 1: We are playing games year after year, going no closer, getting no deeper in the waters that God has available to us, getting no wiser through scriptures, because we're content and satisfied with where we are.
Speaker 1: We like the knowns.
Speaker 1: Does anybody like the knowns?
Speaker 1: You know what's coming.
Speaker 1: You know it.
Speaker 1: Our kid is ADHD.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, I've said this multiple times.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of stories, I'll get to them eventually but our kid is severe ADHD.
Speaker 1: In the morning he does not have his medicine in him yet.
Speaker 1: So getting him from his bedroom to the table to eat his breakfast, I have everything sitting on the table where there's no unknowns, because kids that are ADHD, if there's anything that's out of place or anything that kicks them in a different gear, all of a sudden they're woo.
Speaker 1: That's not a good day.
Speaker 1: He gets disrespectful and mouthy.
Speaker 1: It takes everything inside of me to not punch him Because I ain't going back to jail.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry, because I ain't going back to jail.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry, but our routine is great to have and sometimes, and a lot of times, it has its place.
Speaker 1: People you come into the church.
Speaker 1: You expect somebody to greet you at the door.
Speaker 1: You know where you sit and God help them if someone's sitting in your spot and you know that the worship is going to start when that counter goes down and if it doesn't, something's wrong.
Speaker 1: People are waving.
Speaker 1: Things ain't right in my ears.
Speaker 1: My guitar ain't playing.
Speaker 1: That happened all this morning, before you even got here and I was like man.
Speaker 1: We've got to find our groove again.
Speaker 1: But if we're not careful, our groove becomes our rut.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We, our groove becomes our rut.
Speaker 1: We get so easily distracted by our consistency.
Speaker 1: We forget that we're not just being consistent.
Speaker 1: Now, we're becoming complacent.
Speaker 1: Things get boring, it gets dull and we as people not even throwing in the Christian factor, we as people start becoming unfulfilled because our life is the same every single day.
Speaker 1: You want to spice things up.
Speaker 1: Take your wife to an actual restaurant where you got to dress up and I'm not talking about Burger King.
Speaker 1: They will give you a crown though I've worn it before but you may want to stop and you may want to take a step back and say am I really doing what I, who I am called to be?
Speaker 1: Am I stepping into the position that God has promised me?
Speaker 1: Every single person in here, you have a purpose.
Speaker 1: That's the purpose of our growth track, so you can know where we are.
Speaker 1: Someone asks you.
Speaker 1: You can say it.
Speaker 1: You have papers.
Speaker 1: You can flip back and say we believe this.
Speaker 1: Right here, we're all on the same page.
Speaker 1: Same line, same chapter.
Speaker 1: Everything is good because we're on the same page.
Speaker 1: You can't do marriage without being on the same page.
Speaker 1: You can't do relationships.
Speaker 1: If you go to your job, if you go to your job and start machining something with a hamburger, that doesn't even make sense, they'll be like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: You look like you need some ketchup, what?
Speaker 1: That sounds really out there and crazy, but we do this in our spiritual walk every single day.
Speaker 1: We bring fleshly weapons to a spiritual fight.
Speaker 1: We start labeling people as our enemy and forgetting that it's not them we wrestle against.
Speaker 1: It is not flesh and blood.
Speaker 1: People carry around things that you don't even understand and know and we judge them on face value without even getting to know them.
Speaker 1: Any other Christian in here guilty of that?
Speaker 1: Christians are probably the best at it.
Speaker 1: We could all probably write a book.
Speaker 1: Are you living for today or are you living for a legacy to leave behind, for generations to have a better future?
Speaker 1: So let's talk legacy blockers, because I can tell you all the things to do, but if I don't tell you what may be holding you back, I'm not doing you any good.
Speaker 1: When I did this, I promise you, I did not add up.
Speaker 1: You know the challenge of 17,.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of worship.
Speaker 1: Invite one person to church.
Speaker 1: And one small act of faith every single day, small act of faith, and maybe you're telling your spouse you love them when you don't mean it, when you get complacent, you end up there.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to talk about 17 things today and, seriously, it came to me this morning while I was getting ready.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I did 17 things, seven blockers.
Speaker 1: And then we're going to talk about 10 things that will get you motivated to do it now, because now is the best time to start.
Speaker 1: We're going to run through this quickly, if you're taking notes seven legacy blockers.
Speaker 1: Number one is lack of focus, of focus.
Speaker 1: I mentioned this a minute ago.
Speaker 1: Tristan that's our son he'll try to do eight things at once and not accomplish a one of them.
Speaker 1: I will walk in the living room and we would just get home.
Speaker 1: I don't know he's fast, I don't know how he does it.
Speaker 1: I walk in the living room and he has, as of right now I know there's a hat on the couch.
Speaker 1: Then he'll have a piece of wood.
Speaker 1: I know there's a piece of wood right now, with a knife on top of it, that he was going to try to carve on the couch last night.
Speaker 1: That's sitting on the coffee table and I'm pretty sure he's got another knife sitting on the table over here.
Speaker 1: That's almost every surface in our living room and he's nowhere near them.
Speaker 1: He's back in his room or outside riding a bike or something, and I'm like Tristan, come get your stuff.
Speaker 1: He walked in last night, my dad thank you, by the way, dad, for being here today that's my father.
Speaker 1: As far as I know, he is my real father.
Speaker 1: I just can't say he is my real father.
Speaker 1: He doesn't claim me much, but maybe today he will.
Speaker 1: Tristan walks in the house coming back from my dad with my dad and I walked through the hall and they just came in.
Speaker 1: His leather coat is on the like, right in front of the door.
Speaker 1: I'm like Tristan, he's not even in the house, he's outside riding something he got for Christmas.
Speaker 1: He's not even in the house, he's outside riding something he got for Christmas.
Speaker 1: Like all this kid, I will not pick up his stuff.
Speaker 1: He's going to learn that he will spend his entire day picking up after himself or he won't make a mess.
Speaker 1: But he lacks focus.
Speaker 1: He gets excited about one thing and he drops something over here and runs to this and then does it, then drops it wherever he stopped and then run over here.
Speaker 1: And we, we do this with trying to leave legacy.
Speaker 1: We do this in our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: We jump around the Bible and don't read it in order, we don't read like a collective thought, we just cherry pick and try to use it.
Speaker 1: I can make the Bible say anything I want, word for word, and I can choose any word I want in there If I go and pick every little thing and I have the lack of focus Now.
Speaker 1: Number two is living the life others want you to live.
Speaker 1: We are trying to echo our neighbors more than ever before.
Speaker 1: If your friend gets a new car, I know it's got that new car smell.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's got 20 miles on it.
Speaker 1: Man, that'd be nice.
Speaker 1: You ever say it must be nice.
Speaker 1: You ever say that.
Speaker 1: I say that all the time until I realize what I have is exactly what I need.
Speaker 1: When I start focusing on other people and I start living according to what they got, all of a sudden I don't start appreciating what I have and then I get out of that grateful attitude towards God because all of a sudden, what I have and what he's given me isn't good enough anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm going to move on from that.
Speaker 1: Number three Now.
Speaker 1: We've touched on this a few times and I may do another one pretty soon.
Speaker 1: But bitterness, anger and fear these things will wreck your spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: They will ruin where God is trying to bring you to.
Speaker 1: These three things are the joy and the purpose, stealer and killer.
Speaker 1: Number four consumerism.
Speaker 1: Take in without giving out.
Speaker 1: If someone is always this is I'm doing marriage stuff because I've been married twice, so I know more than most of you If you always receive love and you never give love, eventually that love flow will stop.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I just saw somebody poke somebody.
Speaker 1: If you, if you always are taking in and you never give out what you receive, that well will dry up Every single time.
Speaker 1: Eventually it will being a consumer instead of a contributor.
Speaker 1: We have this issue.
Speaker 1: Don't get mad at me.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking at anybody specific.
Speaker 1: People come to church and they consume and they never want to contribute.
Speaker 1: All right, I said it, I can look down now.
Speaker 1: Don't be that person.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God has placed a purpose and an anointing on your life specifically for you, in the circle of influence that you have and every single person in here has influence.
Speaker 1: Don't compare your influence size to someone else's.
Speaker 1: You will get caught up in comparison, and comparison is the calling killer every single time.
Speaker 1: Number five urgencies that make you push back or suppress priorities.
Speaker 1: It will distract you by things that shouldn't take priority, giving priority to things that will yield the least amount of profit and outcome.
Speaker 1: This is a big thing in business.
Speaker 1: If you are spending money to try to sell an item and it is not selling, you need to cut that item.
Speaker 1: There are some things in your life that are not getting you the valuable return that you need in your life and are becoming toxic to you.
Speaker 1: You need to cut it loose and let it go, and when I say it sometimes, it may be a them.
Speaker 1: Number six safety.
Speaker 1: This will block your legacy.
Speaker 1: Nothing ever happens.
Speaker 1: That is great when you stay where you are comfortable, If you stay in your comfort zone, where you feel safe and you feel good and you're not having the stupid faith that you need to have to pray with somebody.
Speaker 1: I am kicking myself.
Speaker 1: For the past three days I didn't even tell my wife about this.
Speaker 1: We were in this place and she wanted to get some coffee at this little place.
Speaker 1: We were over by where we live.
Speaker 1: We went in there and this guy was talking to this other guy that he was serving the guy that worked there and he was talking about his back hurt, like he was in pain.
Speaker 1: He was like this, the young guy.
Speaker 1: I felt that I should have prayed for him then and I did not.
Speaker 1: When I allow the enemy to get me focused on what other people are going to think, miracles will slip through our fingers.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to get outside of my comfort zone and I talked with some people before about this.
Speaker 1: You know we often, and several times, healings in the church, healings in the church.
Speaker 1: When Jesus healed, it was for the sinners.
Speaker 1: He didn't make them do a sinner's prayer.
Speaker 1: He was just proving who God was.
Speaker 1: And then he said go and sin no more.
Speaker 1: Your faith has made you whole.
Speaker 1: We need to get our faith in order and get out of our comfort zone and stop trying to be safe and start grabbing people's hands, laying hands on their back and saying be healed in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: I didn't do what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: I was too concerned about my comfort zone.
Speaker 1: There's no way of me knowing what could have happened if I would have laid hands on him and he would have been healed.
Speaker 1: His whole family or family line could have been changed forever because one person decided to pray, and that one person should have been me.
Speaker 1: Number seven defeatism, and what this means.
Speaker 1: It won't matter if I really do anything or not.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not a pastor.
Speaker 1: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not on the stage.
Speaker 1: I can't do that.
Speaker 1: God can't use me.
Speaker 1: I'm too used to be used.
Speaker 1: I have dealt with this every single day of my life since I came back to the Lord After my drug addiction and all the things that I had done.
Speaker 1: I had never, never expected God to put any sort of anointing on me or any sort of anything, because I don't deserve it.
Speaker 1: But God started telling me to shut up and look around, because no one does and that when God places something on you and he puts a burden in your heart, you better follow through and follow him, because it does matter.
Speaker 1: What you do does matter and, more importantly, what you don't do sometimes can even matter more Giving up, before you even start living, by someone else's or society's definition of who you should be.
Speaker 1: The only definition you need to worry about is the one defined by your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: You are his child and what you do matters.
Speaker 1: What you are doing matters when you are, do something that matters.
Speaker 1: Leave behind a legacy that is not for you, but for the people coming after you, because you don't know that one prayer, that one touch of caring, reaching out to someone they may have never had someone reach out to them in the way that you did, what you're doing matters and, even more so, who you are matters.
Speaker 1: One more time for those taking notes Seven legacy blockers the lack of focus, living the life others want you to live.
Speaker 1: Bitterness, anger and fear, consumerism, urgencies that push back or suppress priorities, safety, defeatism it won't matter.
Speaker 1: It does matter, it does matter, you matter.
Speaker 1: Building a legacy by eliminating you.
Speaker 1: Build a legacy by eliminating behaviors and attitudes that dilute your impact.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to add positive behaviors.
Speaker 1: You need to eliminate the bad ones as well.
Speaker 1: We're really good about this in the church.
Speaker 1: We want to add more programs.
Speaker 1: Oh, we have this gap over here.
Speaker 1: Let's add something.
Speaker 1: We want to add, add, add.
Speaker 1: But it's really hard and I don't know why you don't want to ever take away.
Speaker 1: You always want to add oh, we can do this.
Speaker 1: I'm a spastic person, y'all probably know this, but I want to go over here and be like, oh, let's do this, let's have this group.
Speaker 1: Oh, let's do this, we can do this.
Speaker 1: And I drive my wife nuts Because she's like but baby, we have three more to go, come on.
Speaker 1: And she's like please, for the love of all, that's holy, stop.
Speaker 1: If y'all don't know, she's my anchor and I'm her sails.
Speaker 1: She keeps me in one spot and I get her to move the only time.
Speaker 1: So it's not enough to add positive behaviors, we have to eliminate the bad.
Speaker 1: The only time to build legacy and the perfect time to build legacy is now today, and something I have learned is that if you're always waiting for the perfect time to start doing something, you'll never do it.
Speaker 1: If you're waiting for the perfect time to do something, waiting for that perfect moment to act, you'll be waiting your entire life for a moment that will never come.
Speaker 1: You'll never accomplish anything.
Speaker 1: So we address the hard stuff.
Speaker 1: Maybe some things that are blocking you from leaving a legacy.
Speaker 1: Maybe some things that have been blocking you from stepping into the calling that God has for you.
Speaker 1: What can block leading a legacy?
Speaker 1: So now let's talk about how to build one.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at 10 things.
Speaker 1: We're going to go through them quick 10 ways to build a powerful legacy.
Speaker 1: We're not doing some mundane stuff.
Speaker 1: We're going to be world changers, and that starts in our families, in our church and in our city.
Speaker 1: Dare to be joyful.
Speaker 1: The joy of the Lord is our what.
Speaker 1: You can't fight the devil if you're weak.
Speaker 1: You can't stand up and do what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: If you're weak because you've lost your joy, who you are will come out of you when the enemy begins to squeeze you.
Speaker 1: If he starts squeezing you and you're full of joy, you'll laugh in his face and that's fun.
Speaker 1: Serve in a way that brings joy.
Speaker 1: This is part of our growth track.
Speaker 1: You find out where you are fulfilled spiritually and you will serve with a glad heart.
Speaker 1: That's like my mantra here for ties, and I'll say it till the day that I die.
Speaker 1: If you don't trust this church with your money and you're going to give it with a bitter attitude, don't give your ties here.
Speaker 1: I don't want your money and I know that God doesn't need your money.
Speaker 1: Here's my rule.
Speaker 1: Find a church that you trust and believe.
Speaker 1: Three months you give your ties, full ties, to God and see what he does in your life.
Speaker 1: And then you and I are going to have a conversation, because you'll come to me and tell me how right I was, because our God doesn't fail and he is faithful.
Speaker 1: Serve in ways that bring you joy, that gives you strength, that gives you fulfillment.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I have learned about being married to my wife is I'm a people person.
Speaker 1: She's not, she's the saver, I'm the giver, I'm the spender.
Speaker 1: I'll give you everything I got.
Speaker 1: And she's like Stephen that puts the account in a negative.
Speaker 1: We can't do that.
Speaker 1: But, baby, I just want to.
Speaker 1: She's like, I know, I know, go lay down, take your nap.
Speaker 1: So what I've learned is that I am a person who gets fulfillment and enjoyment from being around people.
Speaker 1: I have learned, actually in the last year, that sometimes I have to put what I want, hello.
Speaker 1: I have to put what I want on the back burner and say, okay, baby, let's just go sit at the house.
Speaker 1: She's a homebody.
Speaker 1: In high school, when I got my license, me and my friends, we were riding every night.
Speaker 1: We weren't going anywhere, we would just drive around just to go, just to drive.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if she did you even leave the house.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm going to die when I get home, but I'm the one that wants to go, go, go and I get.
Speaker 1: I get fulfilled by going and shaking hands and hugging people's necks.
Speaker 1: That's not her personality.
Speaker 1: Don't try to have some personality of somebody else.
Speaker 1: Be who you are.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, my wife is the sweetest woman alive.
Speaker 1: People that meet her and talk to her they know they brag about how sweet her spirit is.
Speaker 1: That's who she is and God has blessed her with that.
Speaker 1: She is amazing in so many other ways that I am not.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have someone else's gifts.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have someone else's anointing.
Speaker 1: That's a door that's locked.
Speaker 1: You need to go to your door, get the key that God gave you, put it in and start turning, because God wants you to serve in a way that he created you, and then, if you got a big mouth, you may end up a preacher.
Speaker 1: I don't know If you can't stop talking, you may be a preacher, but allow God to work in you and do a thing in you based on who he has already created you to be.
Speaker 1: If you're not working through joy, if you're not working with joy, if it's not on the tip of your lips at all times, if it is not who you are and it is not where you draw your strength, you'll be angry and unhappy.
Speaker 1: And people like that do not leave good legacies, they leave problems, people who don't have joy, and they're always angry.
Speaker 1: They got that look on their face all the time and you're like what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: And then you start questioning what did I do?
Speaker 1: It starts infecting other people, but so does joy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: But so does joy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Number two monitor your impact on others.
Speaker 1: What you are doing when you, what are you doing when you make the biggest difference.
Speaker 1: Do more of that.
Speaker 1: It's pretty simple whatever you're doing and you feel fulfilled, do more of it, because you will be more fulfilled and find more joy.
Speaker 1: Number three develop and maximize your talent, strength and skills.
Speaker 1: Know yourself, bring what you have to the table and allow God to use it.
Speaker 1: Do not compare, because comparing kills your calling.
Speaker 1: This is why we have our growth track, so that you can know yourself and you can know how God can use you.
Speaker 1: Number four do what matters now.
Speaker 1: Everyone who's at the end of their life says it goes by so fast.
Speaker 1: You ever notice that the older you get, the faster it seems it goes.
Speaker 1: Don't waste the precious time God has given you right now.
Speaker 1: We are not promised tomorrow, so make today count, seize.
Speaker 1: Number five seize small opportunities.
Speaker 1: No one just wakes up one day and they're a millionaire.
Speaker 1: No one just wakes up and they have the perfect marriage.
Speaker 1: No one wakes up and they have the perfect church.
Speaker 1: We're probably the closest on this side of heaven, but no one just wakes up and it happens.
Speaker 1: People have given their sweat and blood to make this what it is today.
Speaker 1: They have sacrificed and they have given it all to make where we are right now.
Speaker 1: Be as comfortable as it is.
Speaker 1: Do what matters now.
Speaker 1: Don't waste your time.
Speaker 1: We are not promised tomorrow, so make today count.
Speaker 1: Seize small opportunities.
Speaker 1: No one just wakes up and everything is good.
Speaker 1: No one ever just pops out of bed.
Speaker 1: Wow, now I know all the scriptures.
Speaker 1: Tackle the small things.
Speaker 1: How do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 1: One bite at a time.
Speaker 1: Do it in small chunks.
Speaker 1: That's why I challenge you with the 15.
Speaker 1: It's 15 minutes and you have 24 hours.
Speaker 1: Some of those you sleep, some of y'all don't.
Speaker 1: That's why we have the challenge of 15.
Speaker 1: Small steps lead to big outcomes, large returns.
Speaker 1: If you start investing, if you have a 401k or you're investing in the stock market, you didn't start off with a billion dollars investing.
Speaker 1: You did a certain portion of what you got, and that's all God is asking you for is to you to give what you got so that he can magnify and use it and multiply.
Speaker 1: They always lead to bigger gains and more increase.
Speaker 1: Number six start with those closest to you and the ones you spend the most time with.
Speaker 1: If you're wanting to build legacy and make a change, start with the people that are in your inner circle.
Speaker 1: World changers.
Speaker 1: Start by making a difference in their home, in their church and in their city.
Speaker 1: Bring your best self.
Speaker 1: Wake up every morning expecting to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Bring your A game to the table every day With a good attitude, joy in your heart.
Speaker 1: You can't speak life with negativity.
Speaker 1: Just in case somebody in the back didn't hear it, y'all hear me, okay.
Speaker 1: So bring a good attitude.
Speaker 1: When people see your joy, it produces joy.
Speaker 1: When people see anger and bitterness in you, it produces anger and bitterness.
Speaker 1: If you believe you're going to make a difference, so will everyone else.
Speaker 1: If you doubt you can make a difference, so will everyone else.
Speaker 1: Whether you think you can or you can't.
Speaker 1: Either way, you are right.
Speaker 1: Number eight think service, not success.
Speaker 1: Your life, your gifts, your talents, they're not just for you to enjoy.
Speaker 1: Living for legacy takes the focus off of you and it points to others.
Speaker 1: That was the life of Jesus.
Speaker 1: He did not live for himself or he would not have died on the cross.
Speaker 1: If it was for him, he would not have given his life.
Speaker 1: And number nine I know I'm giving you a lot today.
Speaker 1: Number nine relax.
Speaker 1: There's a lot at stake, there's a lot on the table, but there's nothing more gratifying than being able to just sit back for a moment and just breathe in and breathe it out.
Speaker 1: It's like okay, lord, I've been running around like a nut job this whole holiday season.
Speaker 1: I just need to breathe this year.
Speaker 1: I just need to relax for a second.
Speaker 1: Don't run around building a legacy.
Speaker 1: Run around making a difference and that in return, we're building a legacy.
Speaker 1: When you are going around trying to build your legacy, you are trying to do it for yourself.
Speaker 1: If you're going around trying to make a difference, you're trying to change people's lives, living with purpose and serving others, not yourself.
Speaker 1: Number 10, elevate the needs of others before your own.
Speaker 1: Change from me-centered to you-centered.
Speaker 1: This will change the way you respond to situations.
Speaker 1: You'll see people from a perspective that Jesus saw them from.
Speaker 1: It will give you a new level of compassion and love for people that you've never even met, a new level of compassion.
Speaker 1: Charles Dickinson said this.
Speaker 1: He said no one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of compassion.
Speaker 1: Charles Dickinson said this.
Speaker 1: He said no one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
Speaker 1: Let's reflect and I want you to self-examine.
Speaker 1: You know I'm about self-examination, like we have to be a church that looks at ourself before we look at others.
Speaker 1: We have to.
Speaker 1: Even Jesus prayed and fasted.
Speaker 1: He was making sure he was in check, he was in line, he was seeking God.
Speaker 1: What is holding you back from leaving behind a legacy?
Speaker 1: Is it something that we mentioned today?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you just don't think you have a legacy to leave?
Speaker 1: But I guarantee you every single person in here watching online no-transcript In some way, and if you have influence, you can leave legacy.
Speaker 1: Don't compare what somebody else's legacy looks like.
Speaker 1: Be where you are.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, in the darkest times of our life, in the darkest times of mine, when I didn't feel that God was there, I couldn't see him, I couldn't feel him, I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: It was just in the dark, dark time and I was like man.
Speaker 1: I just feel like I'm, I'm by myself, I'm covered up, I feel suppressed, I feel beat down, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know where I am, I can't even see anything.
Speaker 1: And God says stop.
Speaker 1: You're not covered up, you're planted.
Speaker 1: It's in those dark times that real fruit is produced and that deeper roots are grown, that real fruit is produced and that deeper roots are grown.
Speaker 1: When you're in the ground and you're planted, the roots that go down below, the wind can't blow them.
Speaker 1: The storm can rage and try to get you, but your roots have already been planted.
Speaker 1: You're not on top soil, you're down in it.
Speaker 1: You got to get dirty sometimes.
Speaker 1: You got to get down in the dirt and do the job.
Speaker 1: What's holding you back from building?
Speaker 1: You got to get down in the dirt and do the job.
Speaker 1: What's holding you back from building a legacy?
Speaker 1: What do you need to start making a difference.
Speaker 1: Some of you you may need to change jobs.
Speaker 1: Some of you may need to quit your job.
Speaker 1: Some of you may need to find your love again for your spouse.
Speaker 1: Some of you may need to really start loving yourself.
Speaker 1: The legacy that God wants to do through you first has to start in you, and if you're focusing on the what's, you'll leave out the who, and that's the most important part.
Speaker 1: What can I do today?
Speaker 1: What can I go down my list and check off who can I be today?
Speaker 1: And then, when the devil squeezes you, who you are will come out and you've been sanctified, blood, bought and washed by the blood of the lamb, and there ain't nothing that the devil can do to mess you up, because you started off with joy in your heart that day.
Speaker 1: You've been preparing yourself.
Speaker 1: If we're not concerned about who is replacing us, we're dishonoring God with our lives If you're not training somebody or leaving a legacy behind.
Speaker 1: A lot of us do it with our children, but we have people who need leaders in their lives because they didn't have fathers, they didn't have mothers, they didn't have grandparents, they didn't have a brother or sister.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye open for a legacy.
Speaker 1: Keep your eye open for that potential.
Speaker 1: Matthew 28, 19 through 20 says this therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you, and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Speaker 1: The last word Jesus spoke to his disciples.
Speaker 1: It was about leaving a legacy.
Speaker 1: He didn't say all these gifts I give you, go and take them, bury them and don't tell anybody where they're at.
Speaker 1: He said take what I have given you and what is to come, and spread it like wildfire, so much so that we still talk and preach about it today.
Speaker 1: That is a legacy that I want to be a part of, that we are to make disciples that we are to seek after God.
Speaker 1: Just like Elisha, his life was already gone.
Speaker 1: He was dead.
Speaker 1: It was his bones.
Speaker 1: If you know anything about the body, it takes years for decay to happen.
Speaker 1: It had been years since he was gone and his legacy still lived on and gave life to a person he had never met.
Speaker 1: He was able to bring life through his legacy.
Speaker 1: I had been so convicted in my spirit when I didn't pray for that guy?
Speaker 1: What kind of legacy did I skip past?
Speaker 1: Because I wasn't willing to get a little uncomfortable and ask somebody some personal questions.
Speaker 1: If I struggle with it, I'm sure you do too.
Speaker 1: We have legacies available to us every single day that God can use us for.
Speaker 1: What are you looking past?
Speaker 1: What are you looking over?
Speaker 1: Who are you looking over, sister?
Speaker 1: Sister Vera, back here.
Speaker 1: She comes to the prayer meetings on Tuesdays and she requested prayer for a guy that was at Burger King.
Speaker 1: I think she got his name or something like that.
Speaker 1: But that heart, to want to pray for somebody that you don't know, to want to lift somebody up, people you don't understand, what you could be missing out on the blessings of God flowing through you.
Speaker 1: If we skip past the legacy that God is presenting to us to make a difference in somebody else's lives, it is not about us.
Speaker 1: We should not be living with gifts and living this life.
Speaker 1: God did not bring us to this place for us.
Speaker 1: We are to be his hands and feet in this lost and dying world.
Speaker 1: People that we know, family members, are dying and going to hell and we act like it's just another day.
Speaker 1: We have to start getting serious on our face.
Speaker 1: You may never be able to talk to them, but you sure can pray for them.
Speaker 1: And prayer doesn't change some things.
Speaker 1: It changes everything when God's people start bowing their lives to God and saying Lord, whatever I got is yours, small, great, your bank account doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: What church you go to doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: God has called all of us to do something and leave a legacy behind in his name's sake.