Kerry Shook - Leave A Legacy
Growing up, I remember watching one of the best relief pitchers of all time, Tug McGraw. He won two world series with the New York Mets and then he became a Philadelphia Phillies legend. He was one of the best closers in Phillies history, and I liked watching Tug McGraw, because he had so much passion and he was fiery and not afraid to show his feelings. And he was also really quirky. He was a left-handed closer and he would get on the mound with all this extra energy that he seemed like he couldn't control and he would take his glove and hit it on his leg to fire himself up even more. And I liked that quirkiness about him. He was also a big encourager to his team because he coined the phrase, "You gotta believe".
Now, after baseball, he became a broadcaster, but in 2003, at the age of 59, doctors discovered a brain tumor and Tug McGraw was given three months to live. He ended up living nine months and during that brief time he wasn't interested in being remembered as a baseball legend. He spent all of his time in leaving a legacy. He poured his life into his family and into efforts to draw attention and raise money for the cure for brain cancer. He also tried to reconcile with part of his past that he had tried to ignore for years.
See, he had a wife and kids, but he also had another son that he'd ignored all his life. The mother, Elizabeth D'Agostino, didn't tell her son about his famous father because she wanted to forget about that time in her life as well. But the son Tim, he found his birth certificate one day and he was shocked to discover his favorite baseball player was also his father. So Tim changed his name from Tim Trimble to Tim McGraw, and as an adult, Tim reached out to his father and they became close. And when Todd got brain cancer, they became really close. In fact, in the end, Tug McGraw died at Tim McGraw's Nashville home.
Now, of course, Tim McGraw went on to sell more than 80 million records and is one of the best selling artists of all time, and even bigger legend than his father. But more important than any legend status, is that Tug McGraw proved it's never too late to leave a legacy. And you and I may never be legends, but we can all leave a legacy. It's kind of like planting a small oak tree, knowing that you may never be around to enjoy the shade of that tree, but you're planting something that will be here after you're gone, and maybe your kids or grandkids will enjoy the shade of that tree that you planted. And by the way, when is the best time to plant a tree? It was 20 years ago. But the second best time to plant a tree is today.
And so I want to share with you an encouraging message from God's word on this Father's Day, that it's never too late to leave a legacy of faith. And so we're going to look at a passage where King David has come to the end of his life. He's about to die, so he calls Solomon his son into the room and he says, "Son, I'm leaving you the Kingdom and it's in good shape. I'm leaving you the Kingdom, but I'm leaving something more important for you and that's a legacy of faith". And that's the most important thing you could ever leave behind when you leave this earth, is the legacy of faith.
So I want you to open your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 2. we're gonna do a little study of 1 Kings chapter 2. And would you stand in honor of God's Word and just follow along with me? "As the time of King David's death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon.: 'I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man.' " You can be seated. David challenged Solomon to step up and be a man, step up and be a man of courage and strength that lives a life that leaves a legacy.
Now for a lot of guys, they were never taught how to be a man. A lot of guys today were never taught how to be a man of real strength. And maybe you were taught how to make money, maybe you were taught how to be successful in business. Maybe you were taught how to have an outward appearance of success like you've got it all together and none of those things will leave a legacy. Nothing wrong with success but success never leaves a legacy. You can have legendary success and not leave a legacy. It's not success that leaves a legacy, it's significance that leaves something that really matters when you're gone.
Now, here's the good news, you don't have to have it all together to leave a legacy. In fact, you won't have it all together. In fact, you can have a great failure and many great failures and still leave a legacy of faith. You can have a lot of messes in your life and still leave a legacy of faith. King David, did he had some epic failures, but he was a man after God's own heart and he left a legacy of faith. And it's never too late to start leaving a legacy of faith. But David tells Solomon the secret to leaving a legacy of faith in the next verse.
1 Kings 1:4: "If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, 'If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always be on the throne of Israel.'" David says, "If you and your descendants, Solomon, follow God faithfully, then you will leave a legacy and they will leave a legacy and that legacy will continue". Now focus on the word faithfully. Here's the point: your legacy will be determined by your faithfulness. Your legacy will be determined by your faithfulness, not your wealth, not your intelligence, not your talent, not your education level. not even your work ethic. Your legacy will be determined by your faithfulness. And then David goes on to tell Solomon what faithfulness is all about.
And he says, "First and foremost, you need to be a faithful follower of God," and the first thing I need you to do to leave a legacy, is be a faithful follower of Christ. In fact, in 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 3, he says, "Observe the requirements of the Lord your God and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations and laws written in the Law of Moses, so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go".
He says, faithfully follow the God who made you because God made you to take great risks in faith. He made you to live a daring adventure and fight epic battles and live life to the full. And you can't do that unless you follow Jesus Christ with all your heart, unless you follow the God who made you. And when you follow Christ, it may not be comfortable. In fact it won't. It may not be safe, but you will live life to the full. You will live passionately, all out with a full heart, the way you were made to live.
Now focus in on that word follow, because we're to faithfully follow. I know a lot of men today who like to lead and they like to make their own rules and call the shots and tell everyone else what to do. I know a lot of men today who like to lead but they don't know how to follow and until you learn how to follow, you can never be a great leader. There's a lot of men with authority issues that make really bad leaders. They have the title of leader, but they're not a real leader. And until you learn to submit to authority, you really never know how to be in authority. You won't know how to be in authority and be an effective leader until you learn to submit to authority.
You see, you can have the title on your door that you're a leader, but how do you know if you're a leader? You look back and see if anyone's following you. And if you look back and see that no one's following you, you're not a leader. I don't care what title you carry, I don't care how many people you tell you're a leader to. If you have to tell everyone you're a leader, you're not. And until you learn to submit to authority and become a good follower, you will never know how to be in authority and be a great leader.
David says to Solomon, "Son, if you're gonna be the leader of all Israel, there is someone you better follow. You may be the King of Israel, but there's the King of Kings that you report to. Your boss is the King of Kings, and if you don't report to him and you don't follow him with all your heart and you ask everyone else to follow you, but you're not following him, then it's gonna be devastation. And you're not going to leave a legacy. So you better follow him with all your heart," because what David is saying here as well is, "Solomon be faithful in the small things and God will do the big things".
He was saying if you do these small things, if you do the big things and the small things and whatever God requires you to do, instead of saying you know what, I'm the king. I can decide what I do, what I don't do, God, I'll follow you here, but I won't follow you there. God, I'll do this commandment, but that commandment I don't really like if. You follow God in the big things and the small things God will do great things in your life. So be faithful in the small things and God will do big things in your life.
You see, when you're faithful in small things, the things that no one else sees, the things that no one else gives you credit for, that's integrity, because integrity is who you are when no one's watching. But God's watching, he's always watching and that's why I need to care about all the small things that God calls me to do. That's why in Zachariah 4:10 it says, "Who dares despise the day of small things"? And some of you are doing some small things right now, you think unimportant things. They feel unimportant, but you're being faithful and maybe you got passed over for that promotion and no one saw the good work that you've done, you haven't been recognized for it, no one seems to notice.
God sees, be faithful. God's your boss, you work as unto the Lord. Or maybe you're mom of a preschooler, and everything you do seems to get totally undone by the end of the day, and you're just barely hanging on and no one notices. You're building a legacy is what you're doing, just be faithful, just be faithful, just be faithful. Maybe no one else sees, no one else notices and it feels totally unimportant and you feel like you're living a life in obscurity. You're building a legacy. All you gotta do is be faithful, and maybe you'll never see it in this life, but God will do something big through your life. You will leave a legacy of faith. Day in and day out, be faithful and leave the rest to God.
So David tells Solomon, faithfully follow God with all your heart and be faithful in the small things so God can do a big thing in your life. But then he tells him something really strange in the next verses. In 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 5, he says, "And there is something else. You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me when he murdered my two army commanders, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He pretended that it was an act of war, but it was done at a time of peace, staining his belt and sandals with innocent blood. Do with him what you think best, but don't let him grow old and go to his grave in peace".
Now at first glance, this sounds like something out of the Godfather doesn't it? I mean really, it's like David calls his son Solomon close to him, and he says, "Solomon, come here". And he grabs him by the cheeks and he says, "You remember Joab, how he whacked two of my guys? He shouldn't have done that. I need you to whack him, I don't care how you do it, just do it". I mean, that's what it sounds like to me, revenge. But no, David was saying, "Solomon, Joab's an evil person and he's not going away. Joab wants to take away your Kingdom and your legacy. If you ignore him, he's just gonna get more powerful. You can't ignore him".
David is saying to Solomon, "Faithfully face your giants. Faithfully face your giants head on. Don't ignore him, you deal with him or your legacy will be taken away". Face your giants. Faithfully face your giants head on. Don't run away from your problems, don't hide from them, they'll just get bigger. Now David knew something about giants, didn't he? I mean, he faced Goliath and the Scripture says this teenage boy David ran toward the giant when everyone else was running away. Why? Because he knew how big and great his God was, and when he looked at God and how big he was, that giant became really small, like a little ant. And he ran in faith toward the giant when everyone else was running away in fear.
Everyone else said, "The giant's too big" and David said, "Yeah, he's too big to miss". And he brought his little slingshot, and the smooth stones. And you know the story of how David used a slingshot and that little smooth stone went out and hit the giant in the head and boom, he went down with a thud. But what, maybe you haven't remembered is, when the giant went down, David didn't know if the giant was just knocked out, or if he was dead, but he didn't take any chances. He ran over and he found Goliath's huge sword and he cut the Giants head off. And that's a great principle of life right there, because many times I'll knock the giant problem in my life down and feel pretty good about it, then like a bad horror movie, the giant comes back to life.
And I have to deal with it again because I don't cut the giant's head off. Sometimes when you're facing the giant of your struggle or sin or weakness, I mean you knocked the giant down, you're feeling pretty good about yourself, but you didn't cut the giant's head off, and it comes back to be devastating in your life. And so I have to face my giants and some of the biggest giants you'll ever face are your weaknesses and your struggles and your faults and your sins, really facing them head on and not ignoring them, not diminishing them.
You see, David's biggest giant was an epic fail. But he faithfully faced his failures. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he sent Bathsheba's husband Uriah onto the front lines to be killed and then David just went right along. He didn't think much of it at the time, but then God just knocked him to his knees with conviction, and he realized the depth of his evil acts and his sin. And David faithfully faced his unfaithfulness. He faithfully faced his failure and in Psalm 51, it's a whole song that David wrote after the conviction overwhelmed him. It's a song of repentance and brokenness and God's forgiveness.
In Psalm 51:1, David says, "Oh loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my transgressions. Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again. For, I admit my shameful deed- it haunts me day and night. It is against you and you alone I sinned and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and your sentence against me is just".
David admitted his sin. David admitted the depth of his sin. David admitted that he didn't deserve forgiveness. Now, he didn't minimize his sin. He didn't ignore his sin. Sometimes we as men, you know, because of shame, we want to move away from God, we want to move away from our sin rather than face it head on and move into the cross of God's grace. We want to diminish our sin, "Well everybody else does some of those kind of things. My sin's not that bad".
We wanna diminish the depth of our sin. We wanna make excuses. I mean, David could have said, "You know what, I just kind of got caught up in being the King. I made some mistakes there. You know, I forgot to follow you God, no big deal though". No, he could have said, "Hey, a lot of kings do a lot worse than that God," no, he just admitted the truth of the depth of his sin and he accepted the consequences. He didn't complain. He didn't gripe. And he asked God for forgiveness because he knew that God was the only one that could do it. He knew he had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and against his own family. He'd sinned against the whole nation, but he knew mostly he'd sinned against God. And he knew God was the only one who could forgive him.
So he goes to God rather than run away from God, rather than hide from God, rather than let shame push him away from God, rather than diminishing the depth of his sin. And then in Psalm 51, verse 7, he says, "Sprinkle me with the cleansing blood and I shall be clean again. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And after you've punished me, give me back my joy again. Don't keep looking at my sins, erase them from your sight. Create in me a new clean heart, oh God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires". He says, "God, I know that you're God of forgiveness. And you're the only one that can".
David was broken before God. He brings his sins before God and says, "God, you're the only one that can wash me clean and I know that you will. I accept your forgiveness and I ask you to change me. Change me, take me in a different direction". He repented of his sins and he knew that God was the one that could change him. He had a heart after God after God's own heart, but he failed miserably. But he faithfully faced his failure. He asked God to faithfully take away his unfaithfulness. And I need to come to God and face my failures and faithfully face my unfaithfulness and my failures to God. See, failure will never keep you from leaving a lasting legacy. But not facing faithfully your failures will.
I have to face my failures faithfully. And then in 1 King 2:7 David said, "Be kind to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead, make them permanent guests at your table for they took care of me when I fled from your brother Absalom". So David is saying, "Be faithful to those who were there for you". David said, "These guys stuck with me during my worst time, during the rebellion, during the coup, when most people turned away from me. When the winds of change were blowing away from me and it looked like I wouldn't be king any longer, they didn't go to the other side. They didn't just change sides because... It looked like I was defeated, they stuck with me. They risked their life for me, so be kind to them because they were there".
Be faithful to those who are there for you in the tough times. Hey, the older I get, the more important loyal friends become, friends that stick with you through the years, because a real friend is someone who walks in when everyone else walks out. A real friend who's someone who's there for you in the tough times. And I found that most men don't have any friends. Most men have a lot of acquaintances. Most men have a lot of people in their network, but they don't have one real friend that they can confide in that will love them no matter what, that'll be there for them in the tough times. That's why it's so important to be at a men's life group and our men's life groups are blowing up at Woodlands Church.
So many men are finding that they can have three or four friends that are with them and stick with them and help them and encourage them, through good times and bad. You need that you don't need a lot of friends, but you need a couple. And so, he says, "Be there, be faithful for those who've been there for you". Proverbs 26 says, "Everyone talks about how loyal and faithful he is, but just try to find someone who really is". See, it's easy to talk a big game about faithfulness. "Hey, I'll be with you forever, you can count on me. I'm gonna always stick with you," and then about two months later they're gone. You've experienced that, haven't you? "Hey, I'll be there forever. I'm so faithful".
And then at the first sign of something difficult, they're out of there. It's really hard to find someone who's really faithful. Everyone talks a good game. How do I know? I've done it. "You can count on me," and then I'm a no show. I have come to find that a loyal, faithful friend is so rare but so important. Basically what David is saying to Solomon is be there and faithful to those who will cry at your funeral, because most men spend all their time trying to impress, trying to be there and be known by people that don't even care about them. And they live their life for people that care about them when they're successful, but aren't there for them when they're down. You live your life for those who cry at your funeral and you will leave a lasting legacy.
Don't waste your life on those folks that won't be there for you. You spend your life and your time focused on those who'll cry at your funeral. Carl Kisner was sorting through his granddad's attic, right after his grandfather had passed away and he came across, underneath a bird cage, this old box that was covered in dust, and he opened it up and he found there were 100 year old baseball cards in there. There was a baseball card of Ty Cobb and one of Cy Young and one of Honus Wagner and after he looked through it, he put them back in the box and tucked it away because he was looking for something valuable in the attic. And he kept on looking.
But then a while later, he told a friend about it and they said, "Those are so valuable". And he didn't realize he had discovered the greatest treasure in sports memorabilia history. It was the rarest of cards in mint condition worth millions upon millions of dollars. I want to tell you, something greater, a greater treasure that you can leave behind after you're gone than millions of dollars worth of baseball cards, and that's a legacy of faith in Jesus Christ. That's the most important thing you can leave behind.