Freedom Follows Following: Live to Leave - Mother's Day 2018

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Sermon Notes

"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers." - Rudyard Kipling

"The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother." - St. Therese of Lisieux

"An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest." - Spanish Proverb

"Nothing is really lost until your mom can’t find it." - Unknown

 "To raise a child, it sometimes takes a village…but sometimes that village should shut up and mind their own business." - Blogger Susan Mclean

"Before I was married I had 6 theories about raising children; now I have 6 children and no theories." - John Wilmot,  17th century satirical poet

Joshua 24:14-15

14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

One Big Legacy Choice

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my household WE will serve the Lord.” 

These words ring with…

• Accountability
• Personal Responsibility. 
• Conviction. You cannot lead convincingly without conviction.  
• Direction

Life Lesson

“To leave a legacy you have to live a legacy.” - Charlie Weir, 21st Century Pastor

3 Big Legacy Paths

1. Fear the Lord

• God has never had a beginning.
• God will never have an ending.
• God is absolute reality.
• God is utterly independent.
• Everything depends on God.
• God is constant.
• God is the absolute standard.
• Everything God does is good.

2. Serve Him Faithfully

A. Serve: verb = the action of the sentence

“…more and better than a life we ever dreamed of!” - Jesus in John 10:10. 

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” - C.S. Lewis 

 “…what profited a man to gain the whole world and loose his own soul.” - Jesus as found in the gospels Matthew, Mark & Luke

B. Him: subject = the focus of the sentence. 

C. Faithfully: adverb = the manner in which the service is to be conducted. 

Ephesians 4:1-3 (Message)

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run! —on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

3. Throw Away the gods of the Past

ONE BIG LEGACY DESIRE

Deuteronomy 33:1-3

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

Deuteronomy 33:7-11

7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. 11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. 

Deuteronomy 33:12-19

12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” 14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 

Joshua got the BIG THINGS right to Live and Leave a Legacy

• He made the right choice – Serve God
• He walked the right path – Fear the Lord, Serve Faithfully, Throw Away the Competition
• He had the right desire – A face to face relationship with God