Life on this earth is no dress rehearsal. We get just the one chance at it and when it’s gone it’s gone. So … what sort of a legacy do you want to leave behind when your life is gone? And … are you living the sort of life, that will indeed deliver the legacy you’re after?

At the End of the Day

Right now, there are just over 7 billion people living on planet earth; a number that’s going up every day. Today, just under 360,000 babies will be born into the world. And just over 150,000 people will die. So the net population growth of people on planet earth is around 210,000 a day, or around 75 million people a year.

They’re big numbers to contemplate, especially when all that you and I see is the small subsection of that 7 billion people that live around where we live. And in all of human history, they tell us that just over 100 billion people have been born on the earth and each of those 100 billion people have left a legacy. For many of them, their most obvious legacy is the children they left behind, who have had their own children, who in turn had children and so the human legacy of people is the most obvious thing they leave behind.

You and I are descended from an incredibly long line of people – the vast majority that we will never have heard of. Suffice to say that our DNA, the genes laid down on each strand is a complex pea soup made up of the legacy of an incalculable number of people. So that’s the most obvious legacy that most people leave behind.

But there’s also the legacy of our lives. The impacts that we’ve had on the people around us – impacts that ripple laterally across to other people, and vertically down through generations. As an extreme example, it’s reasonable to expect that both historically, and emotionally, Adolf Hitler has had quite a different impact on the world, compared to, say, Mother Theresa. Would you agree? Some people have left astounding legacies behind them – and others have left terrible ones.

And then just ordinary folk like you and me, we leave behind legacies too. Some leave behind a good legacy. Others not so good. Others leave behind a terrible legacy of abuse and hatred that reverberates down through many generations to come.

It’s worth stopping to think about these things for a while isn’t it, because the question that all this stuff causes me to ask of myself is this: what sort of a legacy will I end up leaving behind? And you – what about you? What sort of legacy will you end up leaving behind? Hmm? Have you ever wondered that?

The impact that we have on the people closest to us? Our parents, our spouse, our children, our friends, our work colleagues, our neighbours, our community. What sort of a legacy will you and I leave behind for them, hmm? That’s the question and that’s why today, we’re kicking off a new series of messages that I’ve called, “Living a Life that Leaves a Lasting Legacy of Love”. Bit of a mouthful I know – but I guess my central premise here is that if we want to leave something good behind, then we have to live the sort of life that’s going to achieve that outcome.

And the greatest legacy that we can leave behind is a Lasting Legacy of Love. You and I are each a mixed bag. We have some good attributes, some particular strengths in our make up, handed down in our DNA, shaped and refined by our experiences. And then … we have some weakness, some not so nice things about who we are. The question is which of those is going to shape the legacy that we live? The answer is, the ones that we allow to dominate in our lives.

Each of us will leave some legacy, something that we imprint on our children. If you’re a person who is constantly afraid, a worrier then chances are that a great deal of that is going to rub off on your children. On the other hand, if you’re a real encourager – someone who is always building other people up – then that is going to totally change how your children see themselves; an impact that will go down through the generations.

So it’s how we live our lives that impacts not just our children, but many other people around us. The smallest act of kindness can change a life. The smallest act of service can totally transform someone’s world – and that my friend is something that can ripple on across the world, down through the generations in a way that we simply cannot comprehend.

And this isn’t just Berni rambling on. It’s exactly what God says in His Word, the Bible. Have a listen. In the 10 commandments, Exodus 20:5,6 God says this:

You shall not bow down to worship false gods, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

It’s true. You see it all the time. Sin ripples down a few generations. A man who is an alcoholic, is likely to have an alcoholic son. A man who beats his wife or his children, is likely to produce a son who does exactly the same. Our sin impacts not just us and our immediate family it impacts the legacy that ripples down to generations to come.

But note please here the grace and the mercy and the power of what God’s saying. Our unfaithfulness to God only goes down three or four generations. But if we’re faithful to Him, if we worship Him and live our lives – as best we can – for Him, then the fruit of that faithfulness means that God shows His steadfast love to the thousandth generation. That’s a way of saying forever. A thousand generations is like around 25,000 years.

My friend it may be that you are dealing with the generational impact of the sin of your parents, your grandparents. It may be that there is a spiritual hold over you – of violence, of low self-esteem, of fear, of timidity, of pride – generational sin that has been handed down to you from your ancestors. But God’s Word is clear – you and I can break that cycle – by repenting, turning our lives around, worshiping and honouring God.

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about in this series. Breaking the power of generational sin, and leaving a lasting Legacy of Love.

Drowning in a Sea of Emotions

It’s great to want to have a positive impact in this world. It’s fantastic for us to want to leave behind a lasting legacy of love But – and here’s the BIG BUT – we can’t live the sort of life that’s going to leave that lasting, if we’re drowning in negative emotions.

I recently went out to my Facebook friends and asked them, what sort of negative emotions should I talk about on the program. Are you sitting down? Here’s what they came up with:

Bitterness, anger, disappointment, fear, low self-esteem, envy, lust, cynicism, bad body image, pride, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, greed, regret, guilt, shame, being money hungry, hate, prejudice, judgement, self–pity, worry, self-loathing, jealousy, possessiveness, being untrusting, being unable to share, unable to delegate, unable to open up, fear of being vulnerable, inability to love ….

Hey, that’s not a bad list. I’m sure that you can think of a few more too. Someone who’s caught up in continual disappointment is like someone who’s carrying their own personal rain cloud with them 24/7. Someone who has a poor self-image is likely to be untrusting and unable to share their emotions.

When we’re caught up in those negative emotions, we simply aren’t going to be able to shine a ray of love into someone else’s life. When we’re caught up in those negative emotions, when we’re drowning in them we aren’t going to be able to live the sort of life that leaves a lasting legacy of love in the lives of those with whom we come into contact.

And these negative emotions feed off one another. Let me come back to disappointment. If you’re someone who is constantly disappointed with people, situations, your circumstances, your lot in life, how you look, the things you’re not able to do – whatever it is – how are you going to view the world.

Well, first up, you’re going to be envious of everyone who has something that you don’t. Secondly, you’re going to be overly critical of people – often the passive-aggressive sort of person is talking criticism and discontent to themselves all the time. And when that’s the stuff you’re feeding on, you’ll start loathing yourself, you’ll be angry with yourself and with the rest of the world, you’ll pity yourself, you’ll worry about how you’re ever going to feel better and you can find yourself on a path towards depression.

How’s that for a chain reaction?! But it’s true isn’t it? This is the self life, the inner life that many people live. They are literally drowning in a sea of negative emotions. Can I ask you – what negative emotions are eating away at you right now? What negative emotions are pumping poison through your system? What negative emotions are you struggling with – wondering what the answer is? Wondering what the solution is? Wondering where to turn and what to do? Hmm?

There’s an old Proverb that comes from the Bible, Proverbs 17:22:

A joyful heat is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

That’s a terrible picture – that picture of dried up bones. The hardest thing to do with negative emotions is to admit them to ourselves. I used to be driven by greed and pride and anger. I would never admit them to myself.

I kind of knew about the anger, but constantly justified it to myself. But the greed – I didn’t even realise that I was greedy. And pride – well it wasn’t pride, it’s just that I was smarter than the rest of you. It’s just that I was quicker than the rest of you, more competent than the rest of you. And because I’m naturally good with words, and not afraid to act, I was a right pain in the you know what!

My friend the hardest thing is to admit them to ourselves – but when we do – when we take a good, hard look in the mirror and say – yep in that list that Berni prattled off on the radio today, three of those, no, actually four of those describe me – when we get to that point, now, all of a sudden, we can do something about them. Do you want to hear that rather depressing list again? Here it is.

Bitterness, anger, disappointment, fear, low self-esteem, envy, lust, cynicism, bad body image, pride, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, greed, regret, guilt, shame, being money hungry, hate, prejudice, judgement, self–pity, worry, self-loathing, jealousy, possessiveness, being untrusting, being unable to share, unable to delegate, unable to open up, fear of being vulnerable, inability to love …

Which ones amongst that little lot do you own? Because the moment you own them, admit them, say “Yep, that’s me”, you can begin to disarm their power over your life and over your legacy. My friend Jesus came to set you free from each and every negative emotion that robs you of your life, of your love and of your legacy. The very first time Jesus got up to preach in the local synagogue at the beginning of His public ministry, he unrolled the scroll to the book of Isaiah, chapter 61 and this is what He read to the assembled masses. He was telling them why He, the son of God, had come to this earth:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion — to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, he mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

My friend He came to set you free, to restore you to wholeness, to bind up your broken heart, to proclaim His favour upon you, to comfort you, to give you a garland instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. Do you get it! Jesus, came, for, you! And He can take away every negative emotion, He can plant you as an ok of righteousness to display His glory, and He can restore your devastations. It’s Jesus living in and through us that gives us the power to overcome those negative emotions and to live the sort of life that’s going to leave a lasting legacy of love.

On a Clear Day

Yep, on a clear day, you can see forever. Have you ever been on the top of a mountain on a day when the sun is shining? When there’s not a cloud in the sky? When there’s no mist or smog to obscure the view. You can see a long, long way on days like that – from a vantage point like that.

In fact, those are the two things that impact how far we can see. How clear the day is, and how high up we are.

For instance, if you’re an average height, say just under 6 foot, at ground level, you’ll be able to see for around 2.9 miles or 4.7 km before the curvature of the earth takes the view away from you. But if you’re up on a mountaintop at say 15,000 feet or about 5,000 metres, you’ll be able to see almost 150 miles that’s about 240 km. So altitude has a lot to do with it, as does obviously the clarity of the atmosphere.

And the same is true in life. And that’s what we’re going to explore today and it all has to do with vision. It’s all about altitude and clarity of vision. But all too often in life, we don’t have all that many mountaintop experiences do we? When we’re down in the trenches, battling to make it through each day with all the pressures and challenges and the emotions and all that stuff, it’s easy to lose sight of where we’re going. And we become completely immersed in it. You do that day after day, month after month, year in and year out – and you find yourself wandering aimlessly around the forest trying to remember now where was it that I was heading again?

Down here in the trenches, it’s actually about a hundred times more difficult than it looks from up on a mountaintop. And that’s how it is in life because in our lives, we’re down on the field, in the middle of the action, tired, emotional, confronted with challenges and positioned so that it’s really hard to see the big picture. The big picture for most of us looks something like this. When we get to the end of our lives we want to look back on a life that’s had an impact for good. We want to look back on a life that’s touched other people’s lives in a positive way, where we’ve used our gifts and abilities to make a real difference in this world, whatever that difference is.

And we want to look back on a life that we know is going to leave a lasting legacy of love in the lives of the people we leave behind when we depart this world. That’s pretty much it. When all is said and done, that’s what most of us want out of life – that sense of fulfilment at having done the best we could with who we were made to be and what we were given.

But down here in the trenches – oh, how easy it is to lose sight of that. Oh, how easy it is simply to plod along each day doing the things we know we have to do to get by. Doing the things that we have to do to earn a living, bring up our children – without a sense of purpose or direction. Without that vision from up on high – a vision for the future. A vision for where we want to end up … at the end.

We suffer from pressures, stresses, emotional conflict, illnesses, tiredness, exhaustion. Everything I’ve mentioned so far you’re getting right? And so there we are slogging through it all – you’re in the middle of your jungle right now, carving out a path, exploring the next thing. Working hard at it. So in the middle of your battles, your life – let me ask you – when was the last time you sat on a mountaintop and looked out and wondered – “What’s the vision for my life. Where do I want to end up?”

If you’re like most of us, the answer is,  “Not in a long while”, because all those immediate, urgent things crowd out any sense of a vision. Altitude and clarity is what’s required. Rising up above our circumstances, being still, thinking, looking, planning, dreaming about the sort of life you want to have ended up living by the time you get to the end of it – whenever that may be, right? Come on.

This is the one life you get to live on this earth. And it’s time to set it on a course; to have a vision for your life, what it’s about, what impact you’re meant to have, how you want to live it and what legacy you want to live behind. Without vision, people perish. Without vision, you and I can end up having lived a wasted life. Tragedy. Tragedy. Tragedy!

And I’m not talking here about an arrogant, self-serving vision for your life. I’m talking here about the sort of vision that comes from God – who after all made you who you are, and has already figured out what He wants you to do with who you are. James writes this in the NT:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

A vision without God in the picture is a boast. For me – the vision for my life is all about discovering the plan that God has already set His heart upon. He knows the plans He has for us – that’s what He says in Jeremiah 29:11 – and they’re good plans. Fantastic plans. I live as busy a life as any. There are so many things that conspire to crowd out any sense of the plan God has for my life.

That’s why most mornings, while everyone is still asleep, you’ll find me alone, quietly, sitting in my study – my favourite comfy chair – reading my Bible, speaking with God, hearing what He has to say. Being encouraged by Him, strengthened by Him, led by Him.

And in my heart of hearts, I know what His plans for me are. It’s a vision that’s crystal clear in my head and in my heart. It’s the plan He has for me and I wouldn’t swap it for the world.

So – what’s God’s plan for you? Have you asked Him? Is that vision before you? Without vision, people perish.

In life, there are no rehearsals. There are only performances. We get one crack at this life and if we want to achieve something, if we want to live the sort of life that leaves a lasting legacy of love – then we need to live life on purpose and live it in the power of God.

Beginning with the End in Mind

I want to share something with you today that changed my life. It was the turning point for me from a life of complete selfishness and self-indulgence to a life of doing the best I can with who I am and what I have to serve other people. When I read this short passage that I’m about to share with you, my whole world caved in because I knew … I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that my life was on the wrong course. You may have heard of the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey. It’s been a bestseller for many years. I read it back in the early to mid-1990s, at a time when I was on a self-improvement venture, and it was habit number two in that book that brought me unstuck. Have a listen to what Covey writes:

In your mind’s eye, see yourself going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlour or the chapel, parking the car and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers and the soft organ-music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there. As you walk down the front of the room, and you look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral three years from today. All these people have come to honour you; to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life.

As you take a seat and wait for the service to begin, you look at the programme in your hand. There are to be four speakers: The first one is from your family, immediate and also extended – children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, who’ve come from all over the country to attend your funeral. The second speaker is one of your friends – someone who can give a sense of who you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession, and the fourth speaker is from your church or some community organisation where you’ve been involved in serving.

Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about your life? What kind of husband, father, mother, would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of work associate? What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements, would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives?

Covey goes on to make this point:

The end of your life is, in fact, the best frame of reference (or criterion) by which everything else should be examined. By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day doesn’t violate the criteria that you’ve defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision that you have for your life as a whole. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination.

When I read those words for the first time, a couple of decades ago, I wept. I wept for a few days actually because I realised that my whole life, focused as it was on myself, was going to amount to nothing. I realised that the people at my funeral would not be able to say the things about me that I’d really wanted them to have said.

I was in my mid thirties at the time, outwardly successful but at this turning-point in my life, I realised that all the things I’d been doing up to this point simply hadn’t contributed to the outcomes that (in my heart of hearts) I truly wanted, and the outcome that matters at the end is to have lived a life that will leave a lasting legacy of love, and I simply wasn’t doing the things that would have achieved that outcome. I imagined people would struggle to say anything good about me – not because I’d wasted my life; I wasn’t a failure; I was a success, but because the things I’d been doing day after day hadn’t been speaking love and showing love into the lives of others.

That one realisation, as devastating as it was, was the starting-point for a completely changed life – not a perfect life by any means, but a complete change of focus, a complete change of direction; a decision to turn my life around and focus on doing things for others, and in so doing, discover the fulfilment and contentment that thus far had completely escaped me.

Some of you are thinking, “Berni, how could you have completely missed out on the most important things?” and my answer would be because I, like so many people on this planet, had swallowed this lie that to be happy, you have to accumulate a lot of stuff. I was simply being successful, but at the wrong things: Things that at the funeral wouldn’t matter a toss.

Friend, as we chat today and over the coming weeks about living the sort of life that will leave a lasting legacy of love in the people around you, I want to ask you: Have you really decided what is truly, truly important in your life? Is it getting the next promotion at the place where you work, or making sure that your children are getting enough of your time? Is it buying that next trinket or bauble that you can’t afford, or being part of changing the people around you for good? When those people get up to speak at your funeral, will they be able to say the sorts of things that you’d really (in your heart of hearts) like them to be able to say, or will they be struggling to find something nice to say about you?

Maybe it’s time for you to sit down quietly on your own, over the next day or two, and write down the sorts of things that you would like those people to say at your funeral and then ask yourself, “Am I living that life, doing those things that will lead them to say the things I want them to say?” It’s kind of a gap analysis of what’s really important to you, versus how you’re actually living your life. Beginning with the end in mind, doing that exercise seriously, is in fact one of the most powerful things that you can ever do. I can honestly tell you it’s one of the two or three things I’ve done in my life that have brought around the greatest turnarounds that I’ve ever experienced. Beginning with the end in mind.

Now interestingly Steven Covy’s a Mormon, so his theology and my theology are miles apart. Man, that’s an understatement! But at the end of the last chapter of his book, which can (I guess) be categorised as a self-help book, in a section he calls ‘A Personal Note’ he says this:

I believe there are parts to the human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with. I believe as human beings, we cannot perfect ourselves.

And my friend, as great as the other parts of the book are, this one sentence unlocked the door to change and transformation in my life. Over the coming months, it caused me to seek out a relationship with Jesus (the Son of God), who came that I might have life in all its abundance. Like Covey, I will freely admit that there are many things I still struggle with in life, but through each victory, through each negative emotion dealt-with, through each new act of service that I’ve learnt and am learning, I’ve discovered the truth of that one sentence that Covey wrote at the end of his book. Ultimately, we ourselves are powerless to change. Jesus said to His disciples (Acts 1:8):

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even unto the ends of the earth.

And with everything I am, as I speak to you today, I can tell you that without that power, the power of the Holy Spirit, who was given to me the moment I put my trust in Jesus, there would have been no change. No change at all. The power to change, the power to live the life we want to live, is only found in one place – in Jesus.

Being a Risk-Taker

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing what it means to live a life that leaves behind a legacy of love, and on every level it seems to me that loving other people involves risk, and loving other people in a radical, powerful way involves radical risks. Mother Teresa is perhaps one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth century. There will be very few people on the planet who’ve never heard of her, and very few people who don’t know what she did.

She was a Catholic nun who opened missions in Calcutta (in India) to reach out and minister to the dying, amongst the poorest of the poor, most of whom belonged to the Dalit class, or (as in the west they’re known) the untouchables. From small beginnings, the Missionaries of Charity movement that she founded has now grown to over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries round the world, running hospices and homes for people with HIV AIDS and leprosy and tuberculosis … They run soup kitchens; children’s and family counselling programmes; orphanages; schools … What she began was an amazing ministry of radical, unconditional love that since her death in 1997 has grown into an international legacy, that is touching the dying and the poorest of the poor around the globe.

But Mother Teresa wasn’t always Mother Teresa. She was born in 1910 as Anjezë Bojaxhiu in a place called Skopje, which is now the capital of the republic of Macedonia, but at the time, was part of the Ottoman Empire. Her father, a politician, died when she was just eight years old. She was always fascinated with stories of missionaries going to far-off lands, and by the age of twelve, she was convinced that she should commit her life to reaching, touching, and loving other people. She left home to join an order of nuns at the age of eighteen and from that moment on, she never saw her mother and sister again.

Some years later, on 10 September 1946, the now Sister Teresa (as she had been named) experienced what she would later describe as a call within a call. She was travelling to the Loreto Convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta, for her annual retreat. This is how she described it:

“I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was like an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.”

So she left the security of the convent to live amongst the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. She had no income; she was begging for food and for supplies on the street, but in her heart of hearts, she was convinced that she was to live among the poorest of the poor and reach out to their dying. She experienced doubt and loneliness, and the temptation to return to the comfort and security of convent life. She experienced trials and challenges, doubts and fears, doubts beyond measure; but day after day, as she lived amongst the dying, tended to their wounds, held them in her arms as they died, she was building something.

No doubt it didn’t feel like that, and I’m sure that if you had told her in those early days that one day she would win the Nobel Peace Prize and sit in the Oval Office chatting with the president of the United States, she’d never have believed you. If you had told her that the Indian government would issue a special 5-rupee coin (being the sum with which she arrived in India) to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of her birth in 2010, 13 years after she died. She would have been absolutely incredulous.

I tell you this story because people who are famous, people who are successful, well – all we seem to know about them is that they’re famous and successful. That’s all we see. We look at those people and think of them as overnight successes, not having seen the 20 years of blood and sweat and tears it took to get them there.

Let’s just think about this young girl from Macedonia. Her native tongue was Albanian. Think of the culture, the environment she grew up in. The gap between that environment and the slums of Calcutta is incalculable. Ok; she’s arrived in India under the care and security of a large organisation (the Catholic church) but she chose to step out of that, to become a beggar herself, in order to minister to the dying amongst the poorest of poor. The risk was enormous. She was by any measure, as a foreign young woman on her own in a country where she didn’t speak many of the languages spoken around her, well come on; she was doomed to fail. This was Risk with a capital R, but here’s the principle.

Here’s the reason that I’m sharing this with you: Because radical love requires radical risk, and that doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your home and travelling halfway round the world to a foreign land. Radical love may be required by a difficult teenager in your home; by your neighbours whose family’s being torn apart by infidelity and divorce; radical love may be required by your friend who has nowhere to live, or by someone in your community who can’t even put a meal on their table to feed their children, or by a woman going through depression or by a man struggling with alcoholism.

Loving those people involves risk. It involves becoming vulnerable because it means exposing ourselves. See, we love to wrap ourselves in safety and security; we love to wrap ourselves in comfort and convenience, but all that is blown away the moment we choose to love people who are difficult to love. And remember: Love isn’t just a noun; it’s not just something we have or don’t have. Love is a verb; it’s something we’re meant to do. Love is a doing word, and so if you or I are going to leave behind our own legacy; perhaps not as large, not as world-recognised as the legacy of Anjezë Bojaxhiu from Skopje, but our own legacy (in our own way, in our own place), then my friend, it is going to involve risk. It is going to involve discomfort and inconvenience.

The nice world we want to construct for ourselves, where everything’s arranged neatly so as to our needs and our wants, will be completely shattered. The bottom line is that the moment we decide to leave behind a lasting legacy of love, we start living a life of risk. That’s just the way it works. Jesus said (John 15:13):

No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his friends.

And that is exactly what He did. He gave His life freely and willingly for you and me. He said (in John 10:17):

This is the reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one’s taking it away from Me, but I’m laying it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.

Jesus came to this earth to lay down His life for the dying, so that they might live. He came to this world not just for presidents and kings, but for the poorest amongst the poor – for ordinary people like you and me, to lay down His life so that whoever believes in Him, whoever believes that His death on the cross is full payment for their sin (the only way to be accepted by God), whoever believes that, would have a new life, and an eternal life. That’s radical love.

It involved radical risk and radical sacrifice. It involved losing everything, even His life, so that you and I might live forever. And yeah, it often feels like Anjezë Bojaxhiu of Skopje felt those first few years, while she was begging for food and resources on the streets of Calcutta: It’s often fraught with fears and doubts and pains and sufferings … When we choose to love people with the love of Christ, radically and powerfully and sacrificially, in a way that will transform their lives, my friend, it is definitely going to cost us something.

So, are you someone who wants to leave behind your own lasting legacy of love? Are you? Then my question is this: What risks are you prepared to take? What are you prepared to lose? How much are you prepared to give away, in order that others may live?

The Power of God

When it comes to leaving a lasting legacy of love, there is perhaps no greater example of that (in fact, there is definitely no greater example of that) than what Jesus imparted to His disciples – the eleven who were left; the guys who went out to found the Christian church. The twelve that travelled with Jesus for three-and-a-half years, when He taught them; He showed them; He loved them … Hey, these guys went to the best Bible-college ever, right? They spent time personally with Jesus. Of course, Judas fell by the wayside, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus, you’d think (wouldn’t you) that these eleven guys who were left would be ready to go and take on the world.

They’d had their training; Jesus is about to ascend to heaven again, and He’s left the whole future of the church (the body of Christ in the world, for all-time) in their hands. But just before He ascends, you’d imagine that Jesus would say something like, “Ok, boys, I have taught you everything I know. I’ve graded your final papers, and the eleven of you who are left now have your ministry diploma. Go for it! Go take on the world in My name”, but that’s precisely the one thing He didn’t say. In fact, in a very real sense, He said quite the opposite. Acts 1:4-9:

Whilst staying with them, He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This,’ He said, ‘Is what you have heard from Me, for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

So when they had come together, they asked Him: ‘Lord, is this the time when You’ll restore the kingdom of Israel?

And He replied: ‘It’s not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even unto the ends of the earth.’ When He had said this, as they were watching, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.

The very last thing He said to them was, “You need something more. Not just the training I’ve given you; you actually need something more. You need the power of the Holy Spirit if you guys are going to live lives that will leave a lasting legacy of love”, and just as He promised, Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on them. Acts 2:2-4:

And suddenly, from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. It filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability.

My friend, apart from Jesus, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, you and I can do nothing, absolutely nothing, of eternal significance. And I know that there are some people listening today who’ve been labouring and labouring and labouring for God, and not getting anywhere and struggling, and wondering, “Why is this so hard? Why does it feel as though I’m doing it in my own strength?” I know that we’ve already prayed in the programme, but actually, right now, I feel that we need to pray again for you to be filled with the power – the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father God,

we know that we receive the Holy Spirit the moment we believe in Jesus, whom You sent for us. That’s Your promise, but we confess to You today that we don’t always give Your Spirit free rein in our lives. We struggle through things in our own strength; we go off and do things we want to do, not all of them honouring You. Well today, we ask for Your forgiveness and we repent. We turn away from the sin of self-sufficiency, and we confess to You that without You, we are powerless to serve; powerless to have an impact; powerless to leave a lasting legacy of love.

So, Lord Jesus, we ask You to fill us with this very same Spirit – this very same power. Fill us to overflowing. Drench us. Baptise us with the fullness of Your Holy Spirit so that rivers, rivers of living water, will run out from our hearts and our bellies, and bring life to the dying world around us. Jesus, we ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, in Your precious name.

Amen.

My friend, if you prayed that prayer with me, from this moment on, believe you me, you are filled with power from on high: Power to be holy; power to lay down your life; power to love and to serve the unlovable; power to live the sort of life that will leave a legacy of love. Come on, Jesus said this. He said:

Apart from Me, you can do nothing. If you abide in Me and My Word abides in you, then ask Me whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Friend, Jesus wants you to love this world, in His power.

There are basically two types of love in this world. Conditional love and unconditional love. One belongs to the world. It’s a shallow imposter. The other one belongs to God. It’s the real thing.

Love is a Radical Thing

Marilyn Monroe once said:

I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you certainly don’t deserve me at my best.

That’s a cheery thought isn’t it? But it makes an important point. People who are perfect are easy to love aren’t they? They never make mistakes. They never fall short of our expectations. They never disappoint us, or hurt us, or ignore us.

Yep – those people are soooo easy to love. Have you ever found one? A perfect person that is … No, me neither. Of course we know that there aren’t any perfect people walking on this planet. We kind of know that in our heads, but that doesn’t stop us from expecting perfection when we go looking for love. And I’m not just talking boy–girl, husband–wife type of love.

Friendship is a form of love. Being a parent involves loving. In fact, in a sense, we can interact with work colleagues, associates, acquaintances – either in love, or not. With compassion, or not. With kindness, or not. You understand what I’m saying, right?

My dictionary tells me that love is a strong feeling of affection and even attraction. That can be true. Well, it is true … at least in part. At least some of the time. But that dictionary definition falls a long way short of what love really is. That romantic sort of love is easy to have when the person we’re loving is perfect – and lets face it, everybody can be perfect in short bursts.

But anybody who’s ever been married will tell you that their life–long soul mate is far from perfect, lots of the time. Anybody who’s ever been a parent will tell you that their children are far from perfect. So, what is love; what’s the definition when people and situations and circumstances and relationships are imperfect – which, let’s face it, they are, most of the time? What does it mean to love someone then, huh?

Jesus once said this:

No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his friends.

If we stop and think about it, that’s absolutely true. Because in an imperfect world, loving imperfect people, love is all about sacrifice. In fact, I’d like to propose an entirely different definition of love: Love is the decision we make to unconditionally, care for, support and honour someone. On their good days and their bad days.

And the fruit of that love is that it develops a relationship that becomes rich and satisfying. In other words, the feelings follow along behind the decision to radically sacrifice ourselves to another person. To put up with their failures. To help them when they’re acting badly, rather than criticise them. To give them the space to make mistakes and still be there for them when they come to their senses.

Often times, love is a radical sacrifice that hurts. And when we choose to live out that radical sacrifice, relationships develop that last a lifetime. How’s that for a definition of love? Radical, sacrificial, unconditional love. What would our world look like, if everybody adopted that definition of love, instead of that trite, superficial, inch deep dictionary definition – a strong feeling of affection?

Affection is the reward of love; the feeling is the result of love. Love – as you may have heard me say before – isn’t just a noun. It’s not simply something that we have or don’t have. It is also a verb. A doing word. Love is something that we are meant to do. And the doing part of love, is sacrifice.

We each would like to think that we would live behind a legacy of love – that when we’re gone, our children, our grandchildren, our friends and wider family – all the people we’ve come into contact with, well be better off, for having known us. It’s pretty natural to want that. But let me tell you, there can be no lasting legacy of love that our lives leave behind, unless we’re living out the right definition of love.

And that definition is that love is a decision to make radical sacrifices for other people. And radical sacrifices always, always cost us something. True greatness isn’t about what we achieve. True greatness is about what we leave behind in the hearts of those whom we’ve served. Again, that’s exactly what Jesus said:

The greatest among you will be the servant of all. (Matthew 23:11)

Can I ask you this – what definition of love are you living out? That shallow dictionary definition or the real definition, the true definition – radical sacrifice?

The most beautiful, the most sublime definition of love that I have ever read comes, of course, from the Bible. 1 Corinthians 13. I’ve often heard it read and spoken about at weddings in a lovey-dovey, fluffy kind of way. Have a listen – tell me whether you thing that it’s lovey-dovey, and all fluffy and soft:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

It seems to me that every part of that description is an explanation of the sacrifice involved in loving. Patience – that’s a sacrifice. Kindness – that’s a sacrifice. Not being envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Not insisting on your own way. Not being irritable or resentful. Bearing all things, enduring all things. They’re all about sacrifice – a sacrifice that never ends. There’s nothing lovey-dovey or fluffy about any of that. It’s all about sacrifice. The sort of love that God is calling you and me to, is the sort that involves radical sacrifice. The sort that the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans 5:8:

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

My friend anyone who wants to live a life that leaves behind a lasting legacy of love – they need to be living that sort of life. That sort of love. It’s as simple … as that.

Two Types of Love

When we’re flat out, busy with the hectic lives we lead, leaving a lasting legacy of love isn’t always in the front of our minds is it? But … ask anyone who has a lot of time on their hands. Some one who’s retired maybe, or living on their own. And one of the things that’s at the top of their list is the significance of their life. What impact have I had? Are people better off for having known me? What legacy will I leave behind when I’m gone? They ponder those questions perhaps more than any others.

Funny how our perspective changes as we get older. The less time we have left on the planet, the more the important things really matter. Problem is, when you’re older, isn’t necessarily the best time to start thinking about these things, right? Because by then, many of the opportunities to have a positive impact, to leave a lasting legacy of love, will already have passed us by. And then what?

That’s why we’re chatting about this stuff. Because the life we’re living now, today and tomorrow, and next week, next month and next year – is the very life that’s going to determine the legacy that you and I are going to leave behind. And one of the strongest indicators of how good (or not), how powerful (or not) and how long-lasting (or not) that legacy is going to be, is the sort of love that we give to other people.

As I said at the top of the program – there are really only two types of love – conditional love, and unconditional love. Now, giving unconditional love is hard work. It involves sacrifice, it involves time and effort … so you have to ask yourself, is it really worth it? Well, to answer that question the best thing, I think, is to look at conditional love first.

Conditional love, quite simply, is love with strings attached. We place conditions on the party whom we are going to love. I will love you if … you do this and you don’t do that. Provided that you will hold to your end of that bargain I will love you. But if you don’t, I won’t.

Now, on the surface that sounds just a bit reasonable. After all, if the other person is difficult, if the other person is a pain in the neck, if the other person isn’t playing the game – why would you love them. Cut ‘em off. Be done with them. Move on. And of course that’s what many people do. That’s what divorce is about. In fact the more you think about it, the less you want to be on the receiving end of conditional love. Am I right?

And the reason for that is that we know we’re not perfect. Our weaknesses sometimes give us a distorted perspective on reality, and so we can be overly touchy about this or that. We need people to love us who are prepared to love us despite our weaknesses, despite the fact that we fail them sometimes, despite the fact that we won’t always meet up to their expectations of us.

If we can’t find people like that, we are not going to be secure in who we are and where we belong. And yet all too often the love that we ourselves crave is not the love that we dish out to others. How often have you allowed another person’s weaknesses or failures to cause you to withdraw your love, your friendship, your support from them.

Well! Well – if that’s how you’re going to be, then ….

We’ve all done that haven’t we? We may not say it out loud, but we certainly think it and we certainly do it. It’s like pulling the rug out from someone else’s feet. They were relying on your love and support and all of a sudden you pull it out from underneath them – and they fall flat on their face.

There was a time in my life when I was difficult to love. I’d gone through a rough patch, a few people, one in particular, who should have been there to love me unconditionally, failed me and withdrew their love and support. At that time, some friends came out of the woodwork – people to whom I had never been particularly nice – and they loved me unconditionally. They gave me somewhere to live. They wept with me. They held me. They encouraged me. This was truly, unconditional love.

Those people – if they’re listening to this today – know exactly who they are. Those people have left a lasting legacy of love in my heart. They have shaped who I am. Each time you benefit from something I say, you’re actually benefiting from what they did for me. It’s a legacy that’s rippled out to countless more people? Why? Because the most precious love of all is the love that we don’t earn or deserve. That’s the sort of love that will cause your life to leave a lasting legacy of love. Unconditional … love.

The very sort of love that God gives to anybody who believes in Jesus His Son. Back in the OT, the agreement between God and His people was conditional – I will bless you, said God, if you keep my commandments, but if you don’t, I will punish you. Hmmm. Israel copped a lot of punishment, because somehow they couldn’t obey God’s commandments. Sound like anybody you know?

You can read the contract, or the covenant if you will, in Leviticus Chapter 26. It’s worth reading. Of course the Lord our God always knew it wasn’t going to work. So … eventually He sent Jesus, His Son, to die on that cross to pay for our sins.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)

And the reason that God’s love towards you and me is so precious is that it costs us nothing, but it cost Him everything – the life of His Precious Son, Jesus. In Christ, God’s love is completely unconditional in every way – no matter what I do, no matter how badly I fail, I can always be forgiven, I am always forgiven – because my trust is completely in what Jesus did for me. And the same, the very same is true for you, if your trust is completely in what Jesus did for you.

My friend, if you would leave behind a lasting legacy of love, then the sort of love that you need to give today, is the very same love that you have already been given through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Unconditional love.

Putting Your Life on the Line

So, if you had to, would you be prepared to put your life on the line for the people you love? Pretty tough question isn’t it?

I want to share a story with you today – an historical story that comes from the nation of Israel – about a young woman called Esther. She was a young Jewish woman who lived in the 3^rd or 4^th century BC. As has been the case for most of their history, the Israelites were captive and subservient to a foreign King, Ahasuerus, who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. He and his wife had a falling out, so – as was the custom – he sent out his servants to gather all the beautiful young maidens in the land for him to choose another wife.

As a result of this process, young Esther becomes Queen. Unbeknown to the King, she is of course, a Hebrew, of the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, once she is Queen, she is queen. Not long after, her uncle Mordecai – who had raised her – discovers that one of the king’s top advisors, Haman, has decided to destroy all the Jews in the kingdom – quite simply to put them to death. Haman said to the King: (Esther 3:8–11)

‘There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the kings laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, so that they may put it into the kings treasuries.’ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the enemy of the Jews. The king said to Haman, ‘The money is given to you, and the people as well, to do with them as it seems good to you.’

Hmmm. What to do? So Uncle Mordecai sends a message to his niece Queen Esther to go in to the King and get him to change his mind. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Esther sends this message back to Mordecai:

‘All the kings servants and the people of the kings provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’ When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai’s answer came back to her swiftly:

‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.’

Of course what he said made a lot of sense, but think of the absolute dilemma that this young woman faced. Would she put her life on the line? Would she go in to the king? And when she did, would she find his favour, or would she come to an untimely death? She showed such great courage and decided to go in to the king who held up his sceptre. Se won his favour, she wooed him and he changed his mind. He rescinded his order of genocide. And ultimately Haman, the man who plotted the demise of the Jews, was put to death.

Now there’s probably very little chance that you or I will ever be asked to literally, physically put our lives on the line for others in quite the same way as Esther did. And yet each and every day, opportunities abound for us to lay down our lives for others.

For our children when they make some terrible mistakes in life. Four our wives or husbands, as they fall short of our expectations. For our work colleagues. For our community. In fact as you think about it – opportunities literally abound for us to lay down our lives. We live in a world that’s used to instant gratification and disposable just about everything. And all too many of us, when we don’t get that instant gratification, want to dispose of the relationship. Hmm. So, let me ask you again – would you lay down your life for your friends, for your family, for those whom you love?

Will you give them the sort of sacrificial love that you would want if you were in their shoes … or not? Tough questions I know, but they’re exactly the questions we need to be asking ourselves if we want to live the sort of life that leaves a legacy of love. This is what Jesus had to say about laying down his life for his friends:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. … For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father. (John 10:11-18)

The price God paid for you and me is totally mind-blowing – the life of His precious Son so that we might have eternal life in His Presence. It just boggles my mind. And that’s what makes God’s grace and His love so powerful. It’s unconditional and it came at a price and even God Himself didn’t shrink from laying down His life for us.

My prayer is that as you contemplate that sort of love – the love He has for you, the price He was prepared to pay for you … that that might take you to a place where you can honestly evaluate, re–evaluate the love that you show to others around you; to the people who really matter; to the people in whose lives, when all is said and done, you would like to leave a lasting legacy of love.

Love isn’t just a noun. It’s not just something that we have or don’t have. Love is also a verb. It’s a doing word. And the doing part of love, involves sacrifice. It involves sowing seeds that will result in an eternal harvest.

Planting Seeds Today

The farmer who expects a harvest without planting any seeds in the field. Now I’m no farmer; I’m not even a particularly good gardener, but I’m smart enough to know that unless the guy plants some seed, he’s not going to see any sort of harvest. In fact the only thing he’ll see is an empty field full of dust or mud depending on how much rain he has had.

He may be dejected, he may be upset that there’s no harvest. But what does he expect? He didn’t plant any seed. Pretty obvious – and yet all too often we live our lives on the very same, equally ridiculous basis. We wonder why our relationships aren’t producing a harvest.

We want our relationships to be rich and fruitful. We want them to be rewarding. We want relationships to be fun, as well as being strong and supportive. But all those desirable attributes of relationships don’t just happen. They take investment. They take effort. And if your relationships aren’t all that you want them to be – then maybe, just maybe it’s time to plant a seed.

This is the last message in a series that I’ve called, “Living a Life That Leaves a Lasting Legacy of Love”. Bit of a mouthful but I guess you get the point. We all want to leave something good behind. We all want to leave a legacy of love in the lives of our children and their children. In the lives of our friends, even our work colleagues and our acquaintances.

I hope that when I’m gone, some of the many people who have, over the years listened to these radio programs, will have a much better life, because I did what I did. I hope my children carry forward values that I imparted to them – decency, integrity, kindness – and hand them on to their friends, and their children.

We all hope those sort of things and yet, all too often, we don’t build and nurture the sorts of relationships that allow that to happen. When you think about it, by and large, we only really allow ourselves to be influenced deep down inside by people we respect and trust. If we don’t trust them, why would we listen to them? If we don’t respect them, why would we take on any of their values or ideas? It makes sense.

I want you to think right now about a relationship that’s important to you, but it isn’t quite what you want it to be. This is a relationship that really, really matters … and yet, it’s not as healthy as it should be. Do you have that person’s face pictured in front of you at the moment?

Now, what do you do with that relationship?

One of the options is to run away. That’s a distinct possibility if the relationship is causing you pain, or if you’re just not quite up to working on it just at the moment. Sometimes, what we want to do is give up because the circumstances are against us. I’m pretty sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I want to share with you a story of a man who wanted to run away from something, from a situation – but instead he stayed amidst his difficult circumstances and did something very, very important. Have a listen to this story:

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you. Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’

So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘My wife’, thinking, or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance. When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, ‘So she is your wife! Why then did you say, She is my sister?’ Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought I might die because of her.’ Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’ So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, ‘Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death’.

Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year he reaped a hundredfold. (Genesis 26:1–12)

I shared that story because it has three very important lessons in it about planting seeds. The first one is about the famine – adversity. Our natural reaction is inevitably to run away, to withdraw. When a relationship is going through a difficult time, one of the things that we so often want to do is to crawl into a cave and hide from it. Anything just to get away. The last thing we think of doing is being proactive and planting a seed. Think about that difficult relationship I asked you to picture earlier – what have your thoughts been about it over the past week. Have you been thinking about how you can get out of the situation, or how you can make it better? Which one have you been focusing on.

The second lesson is that Isaac, like his father Abraham, was far from perfect. He repeated his father’s mistake by lying about his wife and putting her into danger. Sometimes, we think we have to be perfect to sort things out. Well, it’s just not true – you and I will never be perfect and if we wait until we are to work on a relationship then we will never get around to it.

And the third lesson is the lesson about planting seed in the middle of the famine. The most counter intuitive thing you can possibly do. Isaac sowed seed in that land and in the same year reaped a hundredfold.

If you want to improve a difficult relationship then be prepared to plant seed in the middle of the famine, to plant a seed in the time of adversity, because chances are, you’ll reap a hundredfold in return. What does it look like to sow seed into a relationship?

Let’s imagine that your relationship is with a teenaged son – he’s causing you all sorts of grief and you just don’t know what to do. He listens to all this weird music; he’s into all these things that don’t make sense to you.

How do you sow seed into his life, to produce a hundredfold harvest? Well, it’s time to get interested in the stuff that he’s interested in. Ask to listen to some of his music, show interest, ask him who the band is, what they’re singing about, why he likes their music.

Maybe he’s into Facebook and you’re a complete novice – so ask him to show you how to setup an account and how to use it. Or maybe he’s done really well at something and its time for you to celebrate with him.

Entering into his space, listening to him, getting interested in the things that he’s interested in … and that’s just the beginning. Each one of those is like planting a seed. There’s a famine – the relationship is difficult. It’s a seed that says you care. It’s a seed that says I love you and I accept you just the way you are. And my friend this is a seed that will reap a harvest of a hundredfold; it’s a seed that will deliver a harvest.

If we want to leave behind a lasting legacy of love then we need to deal with those difficult relationships – proactively, positively, on the front foot. And that means, quite simply, being prepared to plant seeds into good soil – the sort of soil that’s ready to accept them – even during times of adversity. Especially during those difficult times.

Because that’s the sort of seed that’s going to deliver the sort of harvest that we’re looking for – a lasting legacy of love. Otherwise, we’re just like that crazy farmer who expected a harvest, without planting any seeds.

Choosing Your Investments Wisely

Don’t worry, I’m going to give you just a little bit more time to consider your investment options. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been chatting about living the sort of life that is going to leave behind a lasting legacy of love. Because as our lives here on this earth draw to an inevitable conclusion, what we leave behind for those for whom we really care starts to matter more and more to us.

The important things start getting really important, the shorter that our time on this planet becomes. Problem is, it’s right now that we need to be doing the sorts of things, planting the sorts of seeds that are in fact going to leave behind that legacy of love – it’s no good leaving it until it’s too late.

So that’s what we are talking about in this series – what we need to do now, what seeds we need to plant now, who we need to invest in now – so that when our days on this earth draw to a close, we will really be at a place where we know that we’re leaving behind that legacy of love.

Now – how are you going on your investment questions? Still struggling with them? Well here they are again.

You have $100,000 to invest and three choices. Option 1 – put it in an interest bearing deposit with a bank. Option 2 – invest it in a blue chip stock that’s been performing handsomely over the past 3 years. Option 3 – invest it in a company that looks like it’s about to go under. Which one will you choose?

Now if we were talking about a real $100,000 the answer is actually pretty obvious. You’d pick between the bank account and the blue chip stock, depending on the degree to which you’re a risk taker. In fact, probably what I would do, is I’d split 40% each to the bank deposit and the blue chip stock, and I’d take 20% and buy a CFD or a Contract for Difference – that’s a stock market device which allows me to win if the stock of a company falls and put that on the struggling company.

But now let’s take that same investment question and look at the relationships that you’re going to invest in between now and when you die. Let’s draw a relationships analogy. Let’s say that with the time and effort that you have to invest in relationships you can choose between (1) A rock solid relationship, (2) A slightly higher risk relationship but one that offers greater returns, or (3) A struggling relationship that looks like it’s going to fail.

Now, which one of those are you going to invest in? I know what you’re thinking – right now, no doubt what’s going through your mind us – hang on a minute, the criteria I applied to the financial investment quiz don’t apply to relationships. And if that’s what you’re thinking … you’re absolutely right.

Because if the struggling relationship that’s about to fail happens to be your marriage, or a relationship with a difficult child – there’s every chance that you’re torn – on the one hand, you want to throw everything into those relationships, on the other, you want to run a million miles from them because they’re tough and they’re hurting, they’re demanding and the toll on you is huge.

Some people make the decision to pull the plug on their marriage – and invest in a more pleasant relationship – an affair perhaps. Others will go down with the ship fighting to the last to save a marriage or a child. Because the main criterion in choosing the relationships we invest in is not the return, it’s how important those people are to us.

There is not a single person on this earth who is more important to me than my beautiful wife. I love her dearly – and if I had to, if she needed me to, I would abandon every other relationship, in order to save her.

So, why are we talking about this stuff? What’s the point of these tough questions – simply this. The sad truth is that a good percentage of people are so busy, or tired, or jaded that they don’t invest in any relationships. It’s like taking their $100,000 and stuffing it under the mattress.

Some people never make the decision to invest in any relationships, or when they do, they do it half heartedly, and they go for the return that they get out of it, rather than how important that person is, or should be, to them. If you and I want to leave behind a lasting legacy of love then we need to invest in relationships – we need to be deliberate about choosing the relationships we invest in – and like any investment portfolio, there is going to be a spread of different types, with different risk/return profiles.

A man whose marriage is struggling should throw all of his emotional energies into investing in his marriage. I remember hearing a man speak once, and he told of the last time he sat and talked with his grandfather in hospital before he passed away. He said Grandpa, “What’s the one thing that you’re most proud of in your life?”

The Grandfather got a tear in his eye, and he answered, “Oh, that’s simple. Growing old with the mother of my children.” That’s a powerful answer, wouldn’t you agree. To any man or woman whose marriage is struggling, I want to implore you to invest all that you have in that company that looks like it’s about to go under.

It may be that you save your marriage, it may be that you don’t, but I guarantee you that in the long run, whichever way it turns out, you won’t regret having given it all that you have.

I want to encourage you too, to invest in a handful of good friends. Some will give you more than you give them, others it will be the other way around. But friends are invaluable. Choose them wisely.

I also want to encourage you to invest in some people who have nothing to give you, but who desperately need the help and love and care and concern of someone like you.

And finally, please … please … invest in some young people, at home, at work, in your local community group and become their mentor. Hand on your wisdom and skills – as you pull alongside them and make them much greater and much better than they could ever have been without you. If you want to leave a legacy of love that lasts well beyond you, that ripples out from you and down through the generations, then what you need to do now, is get your relationships investment portfolio going.

Jesus is a great example of this. He had thousands – thousands of disciples who followed him around. Often when you read about the Disciples in the Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the writer is talking about this wider group.

But Jesus, out of all of those, selected only 12. Mostly uneducated bumpkins. Fishermen. Tax collectors. Not the educational elite from Jerusalem, but the flotsam and jetsam from the slums of Galilee.

Simon (whom he named Peter); James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Those guys, when you read about them, so often got things wrong. They made a hash of things. They argued. Judas stole from the money that they all had. They tried to out do each other. He chose imperfect people and he built close relationships with them – and on their shoulders stands His Church around the world today.

From the investment that Jesus made in those 12, has grown a massive, global church. Jesus’ investment in his relationships with those men has left the most amazing legacy of love that has rippled down throughout the ages.

He was so often frustrated with them. They so often fell short of his expectations, and yet his 12-fold relationship investment portfolio has returned more than anyone could ever have imagined.

An Eternal Harvest

The whole point of sowing seeds is that eventually the yield a harvest. That’s what we know, and that’s precisely what Jesus taught in the parable of the sower. It may be quite a familiar parable to you, but have a listen to it again:

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen! (John 13:1–9)

Now the part of that parable that you normally hear people focussing on is the bit about where the seeds fell and what that means. That’s fine. When the Disciples asked Jesus to explain this parable to them, that’s what He told them about.

But I particularly want to focus on the harvest bit at the end. And how the harvest is achieved. Here it is again. Verse 8:

Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

But where did the harvest come from? It came from those people in whom the seed – which, as Jesus later explains to His disciples is the Word of God – fell in good soil and took root and brought forth the grain.

The return on one seed is massive – one seed in such a person yields a hundred, or maybe sixty or at the very least thirty more grains. How does that happen? Well, it’s as natural as a farmer sowing wheat. When the Word of God takes root in our hearts, it produces an abundant harvest.

Here’s what I all too often observe. Well meaning Christians who think that impacting people’s lives is all about working hard. Now to be sure, it involves hard work – and, as we’ve seen sacrifice a lot of the time. But that work and sacrifice flow out of us naturally, willingly, joyfully when they come through the Word of God, which, through the Holy Spirit, has taken root in our hearts.

Think about it, the farmer may well sow, weed, fertilise, but who gives the growth? Who turns that one seed into a wheat stalk into a 100 grains – not the farmer! God does. And so it is with us. The more of God’s Word that we get into us, the more He transforms our lives through His Spirit and his Word – the more grain we are going to produce. The more of a harvest we are going to see – because it’s His harvest, not ours.

And only God, by His Spirit and His Word, can produce an abundant, eternal harvest. Only God can win souls and transform lives through you. Your role, my role is to be close to Him, with the Word of God dwelling richly in us. Our role is to be one of His vessels, pure and clean and holy as we can be, ready to be about His business of winning souls and transforming lives. And the time for that to start is … not next week, or next month or next year my friend. The time for that to start is now. Here … and now. That’s exactly what Jesus said:

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. (John 4:35)

I want to encourage you today to live a life that is so close to Jesus, a life that is so transformed by Jesus, so full of His radically sacrificial, unconditional love. The sort of love that is prepared to lay down its life for others. This Jesus who laid down His life for you, my friend, if you put your trust in Him, if you put your life in His hands, he’s calling you to lay down your life for others.

God means to use you just the way you are, just the imperfect way you are, to sow the seeds that are going to make an eternal difference. With all my heart this is what I know; that’s what it means to live the sort of life that is going to leave a lasting legacy of love.

So as we come to the close of this series, let me ask you this. What are you going to do to change your life so that your life leaves a hundredfold harvest?

What are you going to do to change your life so that when you’re gone at least 100 people will have their lives touched and transformed by the love and the spirit and the word and grace and the mercy of God simply because they knew you? That’s the plan God has for your life. It’s a plan to produce an abundant harvest.