You’re probably serious about being successful. You wake up early, work hard all day, and answer emails after your kids are in bed.
You oversee projects and people, revenues and resources, budgets and buildings. All of these take serious effort to do well.
But you also want your life to count beyond the fifty or sixty hours at work, beyond the seventy or eighty years we’re given. You want to make a difference. You want to leave a lasting legacy… but how?
The Linchpin Of Your Legacy
What’s the first thing you remember about Adam and Eve? Yes, their disobedience to God. That’s their legacy. The same will be true for us.
The linchpin of your legacy will be your obedience or disobedience to God. The mark you make on the world will not be based on your success or your wealth but on your willingness to act on the truth of God.
We see in Scripture a river rushing through the mountains, a theme carried along from beginning to end. That river is obedience. Obedience to God is the surest way to leave a legacy you will be proud of a thousand years from now.
Obedience to God is the surest way to leave a legacy you will be proud of a thousand years from now.
Counsel For Great Leaders
Obedience is difficult to talk about in twenty-first century Christianity. But God has never been shy to bring up good old-fashioned obedience. In fact it’s his constant counsel to leaders.
To Joshua God says, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to OBEY all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” Joshua 1:7
To Solomon God says, “If you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and OBSERVE my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever… 1 Kings 9:4-5
To his disciples, Jesus says, “Anyone who loves me will OBEY my teaching.” John 14:23
God is seriously concerned with our obedience to him and he wants us to take it seriously too.
A Serious Pursuit
Years ago I was driving home from a ski trip with my brother and a good friend named Jeremy. My brother and I were sharing some of the struggles and temptations we faced, but instead of being gentle and understanding, Jeremy said, “Guys, you need to take this much more seriously.”
His words came like a shock, like a jolt of truth. And he was right. What we needed was neither sympathy nor comfort, but a wake-up call to obedience.
We take our careers, our money, and our politics seriously. But what about our obedience to God?
Famous Last Words
Moses and David both had major failures in their lives and yet we find the last words of their lives thick with the theme of obedience.
Moses addressed the people of Israel, saying, “For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in OBEDIENCE to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws… Deuteronomy 30:16
David, from his deathbed, instructed his son, Solomon, “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: walk in OBEDIENCE to him and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations…” 1 Kings 2:2-3
And if the witness of these two heroes was not enough, Jesus’ famous last words to his followers were these, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to OBEY everything I have commanded you…” Matthew 28:19-20
When the last words are spoken about your life or mine, our salvation will come from God’s grace, but our legacy will come from our obedience.
