Building a Legacy of Truth
Heritage: What we are born into, our cultural background, traditions, language, buildings. Things that connect us to our past.
Inheritance: What we leave to someone, a transfer of wealth or possessions, things that are tangible.
Legacy: What we leave in someone, a transfer of values and life direction, the intangible things that influence our thoughts, purpose and actions.
Heritage and inheritance are relevant to this life only, within the confines of time. However, our legacy will be taken with us into eternity. Our legacy shapes who we become, how we live. And that, in turn, shapes our eternity.
“Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm.
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
In this chapter God very clearly states that He is not talking to the children but to the parents. He is instructing the parents to teach their children of all the things that He had done, the wonderful acts of God that the children would never know about unless the parents told them.They were instructed to do this, it was not a suggestion but a God given command.
We are given that same command.
As parents, we are responsible for teaching our children about His faithfulness, His abundant love and the many wonderful things He has done in our lives.That is how our children come to love Him, to desire Him and long to know Him. Our children first see Him in us.
Creating a godly legacy doesn’t just happen, it doesn’t come by chance. A godly legacy is purposeful. It is what we create with our life choices, developed moment by moment, day by day. Our legacy comes to life in the things we do, the priorities and boundaries we set in place for ourselves and for our children. Our legacy is built as we live it. Our children learn by our example. Prayer becomes real to them when they hear us pray, they learn the importance of God’s Word when they see the importance we place upon it. They learn to be faithful as they watch us being faithful.
A legacy built upon truth doesn’t happen by accident.
Whether we choose to walk with God or walk in the ways of the world, we are leaving a legacy. My uncle, my dad’s brother, was an alcoholic. As a child, I can not remember a time that I saw him sober. Unfortunately, he was leaving a legacy for his children. Four of his six children followed his example and, it is my understanding that all 4 of them drank themselves to an early grave because of the legacy they were given. Children will typically follow the pattern that is set before them rather than seek out an alternative.
Never give up!
Years ago a faithful mother within our church told me that she had lost hope that her backslidden son would ever return. She had lost hope to the point that she had stopped praying for him. My heart broke for her. I understood her grief but I could not understand giving up the fight. When we give up the fight we concede, we give our enemy the victory. When we stop praying we not only give up on our child, we also give up on God.
We must ALWAYS look for our children to return. The only reason the prodigal’s father saw his son coming down the road back to the father’s house was because he was looking, hoping, expecting his son to return. Bro. Arnold has often said that expectation is the birthplace for the miraculous, and that is true. But that is because expectation is the product of faith! Without faith not only is it impossible to please God, but without faith we will give up the fight and leave our children without the covering of prayer. Don’t give up on your backslidden child. Continue to pray and walk in trust, leaving a legacy of trust, hope and expectation for your family. Remembering that, even when we don’t see it, He’s working.
An unforgettable legacy.
I am blessed to have a long Apostolic legacy. My mother was raised in this truth. The 14th of 15 children, she was the last one at home when Grandpa and Grandma decided to travel all over this nation and spread this gospel. Grandpa would preach on the street corners and mother would play her guitar and sing. But, as a young woman in her early twenties she walked away from God. She married a sinner man, who knew nothing of this truth and gave birth to 6 children who were taught nothing of this truth. But I am certain that her parents, Grandpa and Grandma Nix, were praying and, when I was seven years old, she found her way back to God and brought her family with her. Because she never forgot the legacy that my grandparents had instilled within her, I and my family are here today. Six generations walking in this Apostolic truth because of Grandpa and Grandma Nix.
If we want to leave an Apostolic legacy for our families then we have to pursue that, to pursue HIM, to be the example for our children. My grandparents were not perfect, my parents were not perfect, I am not perfect. Our children do not need perfect. Our children need for us to be real, transparent, and to communicate to them the beauty of our amazing God just as His word has commanded us to do. Teach them truth, live it before them and truth will lead them.
My Family’s Apostolic Legacy (6 generations)
Grandpa and Grandma Nix (my maternal grandparents)
Floyd and Mary (Nix) Cowart (my parents)
Gail (Cowart) Mansfield (me)
My children
My Grandchildren
My Great Grandchildren
Our responsibility.
We have been given a great responsibility to leave a legacy of Apostolic truth that will go beyond our children, our grandchildren, or our great-grandchildren to reach into all the generations to come as long as the Lord shall tarry. A legacy that they will continue to walk in and embrace, that will be with them on every mountain top and carry them through every valley.
It is our responsibility to build a legacy for our children, a legacy that will be with them when they stand before the King of kings on judgement day. A legacy that will allow them to hear the most important words that I believe will ever be spoken, words that will determine their eternity. Will they hear “Well done, enter into the joys of thy Lord, or Depart from me, I never knew you?” There is no greater legacy to be given, no greater purpose as a parent, than this. Those words determine their eternal destiny. There is no going back from the judgement seat. No do overs. It's heaven or hell. There is nothing in between. The pearly gates or hell fire and brimstone. And both are PERMANENT, FOREVER, NEVER ENDING and so very REAL!!!
We all want to give our children a good education, to set them up with a good career that will, in turn, set them up for life. Those are good goals for this life. But the real importance, the greatest priority, is to set them up for life everlasting in eternity. We must be intentional in building an Apostolic legacy of truth for our families.
When do we start building a legacy?
We don’t decide when to start building our legacy. We have always been building it. From day one your parents began shaping your legacy for you, just as their parents did before them. Each day, each decision, each choice shapes our legacy and the legacy of our children. We must ask ourselves, are we pleased with the legacy we are building?
The beautiful thing is that we don’t have to stay with what we have. We have the choice and the power to change our legacy, our story. If we don’t like what we have or what we are giving to our children, we can change it. Change happens by choice and begins with the first step, and then the second and the third. And it continues on until we have created a new legacy, not only for ourselves but for our children and for every generation to follow.
I encourage each of us to take an honest look at the legacy we are leaving and determine in our hearts to build a legacy of truth, godliness and Christlike living for our children and all the generations after them.
Their eternal destination, as well as ours, depends on it.