SERMON: Building a Legacy of Faith | Joshua 4

My family and I just got back from a wonderful trip. My Father recently retired after working 41 years for the same company. So we met the whole family in California to celebrate with him. We hit a few theme parks, but the most memorable moment happened on Sunday night. We had a big dinner with cake and ice cream for my Dad. And during the dinner, I asked everyone at the table to share memories of how Dad had made a difference in their life.

It was a beautiful moment, almost like what people do at a funeral after someone is gone, but my dad was there to hear it all. We laughed as we shared funny stories, like how my dad used to burn everything on the grill. But many of us also had tears in our eyes as we talked about how he was there for us, no matter how hard things were at work. He made a lasting impression on us that shaped who we are today.

There was a common theme that showed why my Father is a hero to my brothers and me. He always put God and then his family first. He is selfless in the way he is willing to do anything for his family. There were many times that he had opportunities to move up the corporate ladder, switch jobs, and make more money to provide for his wife and four sons, but it would have required uprooting his family to another part of the country, working longer hours, and that’s not the life he wanted for his kids. It could have been better for him, but it wasn’t best for us. 

I am the man I am today because of the example that my father set for me. I learned to serve others and put others first by watching my dad serve God and his family before himself. This is my father’s legacy. And one that I hope to continue to pass on to my children and grandchildren.

I tell you this story because it got me thinking a lot about legacy. If you gathered the people closest to you—and they were honest—what kind of impact would they say that you have made on them? In other words, what will be your legacy?

If you are thinking, I don’t have a legacy, you are mistaken. Everyone leaves some kind of legacy. The question is: What kind of legacy will you leave?

Some legacies are better than others. Some are blessings; others are curses. Some are soon forgotten; others last forever?

The Bible is full of examples of people who left legacies for better or worse. For example, if you have a Bible with you, turn or type to Joshua 4.

Twelve Stone Legacy

In the book of Joshua, the people of Israel, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, finally enter the promised land. They stand on the bank of the Jordan River, where they can see the land God promised to them on the other side, but there’s only one problem: the river is flowing too strong, and they cannot cross. But God, once again, does something miraculous. He has the priests carry the ark of the covenant into the river. As soon as their feet hit the water, he parts the Jordan for Joshua like he parted the Red Sea for Moses, and the people of Israel cross into the promised land on dry ground. 

And as the priests stand in the middle of the river after the people have crossed over, Joshua seizes the moment to leave a legacy for future generations. So he calls up a man from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and we read this in Joshua 4:5-7 (ESV):

And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

So Joshua gets twelve stones from the river to serve as a memorial for the Lord. And he continues in verse 20-24:

20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” 

These 12 stones serve as a monument to God, a legacy to future generations. God was faithful to Moses and the previous generation when he parted the Red Sea to help them escape from slavery in Egypt. And God is now proving faithful to Joshua and the next generation who were born in the wilderness and are now crossing into the promised land. And these stones are both a memorial (v.7) of what God did in the past and a sign (v.6) of what will come in the future.

Notice how in v.24 Joshua says that when kids ask what the stones mean, he says this is so that all people will know that “The hand of the LORD IS mighty.” It’s present tense. Not only WAS God mighty when he parted the Red Sea and the Jordan. But God still IS mighty, and all people should have a reverent fear of him. They should hold God in the highest respect with awe and a healthy fear of the power of his mighty hand.

These 12 stones would be a part of Joshua’s legacy as he led the Israelites to take the land that God had promised them and to build a nation of God’s chosen people. And when the people drifted from following God, as they often did, these stones would serve as a memorial, calling them back to what they had strayed from. And when the people repented of the error of their ways, they were a testament to God’s power to save his people if they would only follow him. 

I love the way one commentator puts it: “In sum, whenever Israel sees the stones—whenever the child asks and the adult answers—Israel remembers the might of Yahweh and rekindles their awe of that great God.”¹ The stones’ “critical function is to cause those who see them, who do not know their meaning, to ask questions. The questions then give us the opportunity to tell the personal story to which the symbol points.”²

Notice: they didn’t build a monument to Moses or Joshua but to God. That’s what our lives should be as well. It’s not about us. Jesus said the greatest among you will be the one who serves. But that’s not what most of us think about when we think about legacy.

SPIRITUAL LEGACY > PHYSICAL LEGACY

When most of us think about leaving a legacy, we think of donating a large portion of money so they put your name on a building. Or doing something so great that they make a statue of you. Or maybe leaving a large inheritance for your family.

And there is nothing necessarily wrong with any of these things as long as they don’t go to your head and inflate your ego to think that you did it all on your own without the help of the Lord. 

Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.”

It is good to leave your children and your children’s children an inheritance. This verse is referring to a physical legacy of wealth. However, even greater than this is the spiritual legacy that we leave. 

Don’t waste your life building a legacy for yourself. How sad and pathetic a life that is. Look at all that I have accomplished. I’ll build a statue of myself so everyone will remember who I am… because I am that important. Yet most people are forgotten. Few are remembered beyond their grandchildren. It’s a losing game.

After all, Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21:

“19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So, while a legacy of earthly treasure can be a good thing, it is far better to leave a legacy of spiritual treasure. A spiritual legacy is greater than a physical legacy.

If you can leave both, do it. But if you have to pick, choose to pass on the inheritance of faith from one generation to the next. Notice it’s not about stuff but the heart. That’s what God wants. The greatest legacy is a changed heart that God uses to move the hearts of others. And that’s what I want—a heart so on fire for God that it ignites the hearts of others around me! 

Not all of us have the financial means to leave a physical inheritance. But will all leave a spiritual legacy. The only question is, what will that legacy be? 

EXAMPLES OF SPIRITUAL LEGACY

Another great example of spiritual legacy is in 2 Timothy 1:3-5. The Apostle Paul writes:

3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Do you see the legacy chain here? Paul had a faith that was passed down by his ancestors. He didn’t always follow God perfectly, but he did follow God passionately because of the legacy of faith handed to him by his ancestors. He was raised to be a religious leader from a young age. 

And then he talks to his young protégé, Timothy. Not only is Paul discipling Timothy and praying for him day and night, but he acknowledges that it was not Paul’s influence on Timothy that most impacted him. No, Timothy’s faith was a legacy handed down by his grandmother to his mother and then to him. Now that is a lasting legacy of faith!

That is the dream of every believer—that your faith would be so contagious that it would be passed down to your kids and grandkids. 

But legacy is not just about your biological children, but also your spiritual children. We see this in Paul’s love for Timothy. And also in the writings of the Apostle John. In 3 John 4, he says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

John isn’t talking about biological children here, but his spiritual children—all those he has helped lead to faith in Christ and who he is continuing to disciple and pray for. He has no greater joy than to know that they continue to be faithful in their walk with the Lord.

These spiritual children in fact, are much like the stones we saw in Joshua. Just like Joshua set physical stones as a monument, we use spiritual stones today. 

OUR STONE MONUMENT TODAY… 

Jesus is the greatest stone. The Bible tells us that Christ is the stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone of the church, and has now placed all who believe in him as stones with him as a monument forever—a spiritual temple called the church: 

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:4-12).

A cornerstone is the first stone laid in a building. All other stones are set based on this one stone. Although this is not a physical monument like Joshua’s, the Bible essentially says that, just as the twelve tribes were represented by the twelve stones, Christians today are like stones in Christ’s cathedral. It’s not a physical building but a spiritual one. The legacy Christ left is more than a physical pile of rocks that can be toppled or worn away. The legacy of Christ is a spiritual legacy that we all build on. 

We live as stones in Christ’s grand cathedral—his holy, spiritual temple that will last forever and ever. Christ is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He is gathering his people—his stones—to build it. 

Like in Joshua, where God rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the promised land, Jesus has rescued us from the slavery of our sin and is bringing us to the promised land of eternal paradise! 

And this is our calling today. We are joining with Christ to build his church. Every person who comes to faith is another stone in the building.

This is the only building that will last for eternity. Every other monument on earth fades and falls eventually. If you ever travel to Europe or somewhere with really old monuments, they are constantly working to restore and rebuild them because of the wear and tear of the elements and the corrosion and erosion that results in time. If we didn’t work so hard to keep them up, they would eventually be a distant memory, wiped off the face of the earth like everything else. But Christ and his church will last forever. In the end, it is the only legacy that will last. 

What Legacy Will You Leave?

In my office, I have two big posters on the wall with one of my favorite quotes by an old British missionary in the late 1800s and early 1900s named C.T. Studd. It’s a line from a poem he wrote titled “Only One Life.” Is says, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”³

I love that quote because it rings true. And leads me to ask myself all the time, what am I doing with my one and only life? What legacy am I going to leave? Will it be all about me? Will it be about making my name great? Will it be about building the highest level of comfort and pleasure that I can find in a life of leisure? Or will it be not about me whatsoever and all about Christ? Will I give my all to build his church and make his name great? That is what I want my life to be about. That is the legacy I want to leave. 

And so I ask you the same question: What legacy will you leave with your one and only life?

You have to know the legacy you want to leave, and then you have to live that legacy. 

God has entrusted us with this small corner of our world. Let’s leave this place in a better shape than we found it. Let’s give our all to have a spiritual legacy for Christ. That’s what I want my life to be about. When I die, perhaps a few people will remember me in their lifetime. Maybe my grandkids. If God grants me many years, maybe even great-grandchildren. But after that, my memory will be wiped from the face of the earth. There will be no monument to Brandon. I doubt I’ll even have a gravestone somewhere with my name on it. And that is the case with most of us. Few of us are in a position to do anything that they will write about in history books. And that’s fine with me. 

Nothing we build on earth will last. The cars will rust. The house will decay. One day, if Jesus doesn’t come back in the next hundred or more years, they’ll be knocked down to build a new house or something else in its place. 

But you know what will last? Christ and his church. That is forever. The souls that we can partner with God to save. They will rejoice with us forever in eternity. The legacy of faith that we can build will be passed from this generation to the next until Christ returns. And that’s exciting to me. 

Do you want to make your one and only life count? Build it on Christ. Leave a legacy for Christ. Make Christ the ultimate goal of your life. Follow him. Serve him. And invest in things that will make a difference for him! 

So what does that look like? 

It means you raise your kids and your grandkids to know Christ, and most importantly, you set the example in how you follow Christ for them to see and follow. 

And whether you are a parent or not, you go and make spiritual children. 

This is all about our mission as a Church. We are all about “Making Disciples who Love God, Love People, and Love the Bible.”

It starts with you being a disciple of God. So maybe that’s where you need to start this year. First, if you aren’t a Christian, you need to turn to Christ today. Repent and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. 

If you are already a Christian, you need to grow in your love for the Bible by reading it. Set a time and a place where you will meet God every day. Maybe that’s your next step. Join a group here at the church that studies the Bible and ask a lot of questions. For those of you who are already doing that, the next step is to go make disciples. 

How do you do that? You tell other people about Jesus. And you have a thick skin about it because some will reject what you say, but if you do not give up, some will hear it and be curious. God will open their eyes and ears to hear the message and you will witness a miracle where God changes their heart. And you can invite them to church, tell them more about Jesus, pray with them, and help them begin their walk with Christ for the first time. What could be more exciting than that? 

And another way that you can leave a lasting spiritual legacy is to support the work of Christ. You give your time to serve and your money to fund the church. 

As you saw coming in, we’re starting the new building project. In a few days, the old D and E buildings are coming down so we can build a new contemporary worship venue and a coffee shop gathering space. And we have an opportunity now to give above and beyond to help this new building project so that ACC can have a lasting impact as a light for Christ that stands firm with the call to teach the Bible day after day long after all of us are gone. We have a chance to be part of that. Many of us weren’t here to help build this church, and we’re the recipients of the legacy that others left for us. And now we have the chance to build on that legacy for people in the future who are not here now.

These buildings may not last forever, but they will be a beacon of light in this city as a place where people will come to hear the teaching and preaching of the Word for generations. The work done in these buildings will leave a spiritual legacy that will outlast all of these stones. And that is something to get excited about! 

What legacy will you leave? However God leads you to go about it today, let’s use year and however many the Lord gives us to build a legacy for Christ. As C.T. Studd reminds us, You have “only one life, ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” 

PRAY 

1. Robert L. Hubbard Jr., Joshua, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 162. ↩︎
2. Robert L. Hubbard Jr., Joshua, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 173. ↩︎
3. https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/only-one-life-twill-soon-be-past-by-c-t-studd-1860-1931/ ↩︎