Leaving Legacy

Man, well, it's so good to see you guys.

Many of you recognize me.

A lot of you are wondering why did he just get

those types of claps?

Who is this guy?

Man, my name is Blake.

I worked here at Southern Hills

as one of your pastors for five years.

Many of you know me from my Connections days.

Some of you know me from working in discipleship with you.

Small groups, a lot of different hats

through my time here at Southern Hills,

but I'm so thankful for the legacy

that Southern Hills has given to us,

our family specifically.

Man, so many things have been going on

and we're so thankful for you.

Just a little bit of what's happening.

God took us across country, back to where we're from,

South Jersey, and we pastor a church there

that is doing extremely well.

We're so glad with all that God is doing,

but we're so thankful for all that God has done

in and through this place to help us truly.

We could not have picked a better place

to begin our ministry and our scope and sequence

and advance the kingdom than Las Vegas, Nevada

and Southern Hills Church.

We believe that this is one of the greatest churches

in the world.

Do you believe that?

Okay, so some of you do.

That's not really convincing on a Sunday,

but that's okay.

We'll get the energy up.

Look, I've been back home for like 10 months,

so my speed is back up.

I'm excited to be with you and we're thrilled.

I do believe this is one of the greatest churches

in the world and truly as we talk about churches

and legacies and what they've done,

I believe the guest speaker's job is twofold.

One, to get you out of here on time

and beat the rush to lunch.

And two, to just encourage you a little bit

with what God is doing.

Man, I believe that Southern Hills Church

leaves legacies that last a lifetime.

And legacies are left truly through a plethora

of different things.

Some legacies are left with monuments, with trophies.

Man, Las Vegas has a brand new legacy.

It is a Stanley Cup winner.

Yeah, that's pretty big.

That is a big deal.

Congratulations on becoming a real sports city

with your first championship.

We are excited for you.

That's great.

And man, when I think of legacy,

what comes to my mind are truly monuments, trophies,

places that take me back.

And I'm assuming that you have some of those in your life.

That you have places, that you have monuments,

that you have trophies, that you have something

that indicates to you what you were doing then.

It tells a story.

It leaves a story.

Man, one of my favorite monuments I took a picture with

just last week with some people that you may know.

That's your pastor and his family

with me and Lisa at the Liberty Bell.

A symbol for freedom used through many different people groups

as we've established our country

and used it for freedom during civil rights movements,

women's rights movements, all a symbol for freedom

in our country.

One of my favorite monuments.

It brings me back to a place

remembering our great history of our country.

But man, I have to tell you,

one of my favorite monuments is called

the Ben Franklin Bridge.

This bridge probably means nothing to you,

but it means so much to me because that is one

of the first places that I saw Lisa

in her wedding dress on our wedding day.

She climbed the Ben Franklin Bridge in her wedding dress

and her and I took photos overseeing the city of Philadelphia,

one of the areas that we're from.

And man, that brings me back because it ties me

to the stories, to the miraculous in my life.

And setting up monuments, trophies, examples

is something we find in scripture.

It's really all throughout scripture

and the Bible even instructs us to set up these monuments

so that we can point people to the stories in our lives

so that we can point it to God's glory.

And today we're gonna look at Joshua chapter four

and all that God has done in setting up a monument

to the people then and something that we can learn from now.

So today we're gonna talk about how to leave a legacy,

two steps to leaving a legacy.

And number one is going to be recognize the miracle.

Let me set you up in Joshua four a little bit right now.

You see in Joshua four, this is what's happening.

The people of Israel have just spent the last 40 years

wandering aimlessly in the desert.

During this wandering though,

the children of Israel were taken care of.

They were sustained by the goodness of God's mercy,

but God's intention was not for them to live

in the wilderness forever.

You see, God had great plans for this wandering nation

and they weren't meant to stay there feeding off

the small provision of God,

but rather go into the bigger giving, the bigger gift.

God had great plans to provide them a land rich in soil,

flowing with milk and honey, the land of Canaan.

And the children of Israel were going to face

some difficulties, they knew that

while they were taking over that land.

They were gonna have some battles,

they were instructed in Numbers 13

that the giants would be in the land.

But when they go to their first battle,

their first obstacle, it was something

they never expected.

Their first obstacle you see was a river

called the Jordan River.

And the Jordan River during this time was in the spring.

And in the springtime of the Jordan River,

it wasn't like Lake Mead that's drowning.

It's like 15 feet high.

I don't know why I'm doing this at 15 feet high.

I'm like five feet high.

I'm like five feet high, so like three of me

or two of your worship leader Jordan, right?

So like the swells of the Jordan River are 15 feet high.

15 feet high.

And they face their first obstacle,

their first waiting on God for a miracle moment.

And man, when I read the scripture,

what I like to do is I like to place myself

in the moment in time in history.

Of when that took place.

Can you imagine it?

This brand new leader, Joshua,

has just inherited this great responsibility

of a wandering country.

And he's standing there receiving instruction from God.

And he has watched his mentor

split the Red Sea.

He's watched God do this miracle

for his mentor before Moses.

And this new leader has to be wondering,

man God, you did it then.

Are you gonna do it again?

Are you gonna do it for us?

You see, all of these children were grandchildren

from wanderers in the wilderness.

They had disobeyed God,

so they weren't allowed access to the promised land.

So now these grandchildren in the story

are receiving this brand new confrontation with the miracle.

They've heard the miracle of God splitting the Red Sea

for their grandparents,

and now they see the miracle.

They're their grandparents, and now they stand

at the Jordan River, and they're wondering,

is God gonna do the same for us?

Man, many of you have been here

for the whole scope and sequence

of the life of Southern Hills,

and you've seen God move you

from Ken's salad dressing area, right?

To this place.

But maybe some of you are like brand new,

and you're wondering,

man, I heard about what God did then.

Is he gonna show up again, and do it again?

And we wonder and we think,

and I think of all of these multiple perspectives

as they walk to the river.

And then this is what takes place.

Joshua receives instruction from God directly

in chapter three and verse seven,

saying that send the Levites, the tribe,

that handles the Ark of the Covenant,

and what they're going to do is when they're saying,

when their sandals or their feet hit the water,

that's when I split it.

So can you picture it?

Can you picture it in your mind?

You have Joshua standing here,

all of Israel standing behind him,

the priest standing in front of him,

and he's like, man, when they get to the water,

please open, please open, please open.

And then they get to the water,

and the first priest's foot hits the Jordan,

and it opens like it did for Moses.

Man, the miracle that God took place in their lives.

These are no longer now their grandparents'

stories of God working.

These have now turned into their miracles

and saying, yes, I heard that God parted the Red Sea,

but you'll never imagine what God did in the Jordan.

He parted that for us.

That was my miracle.

And man, I'm assuming none of you have walked over

to Lake Mead or the Colorado River

and stepped in it and it's parted?

If you have, I really want to meet you.

Like really bad.

I'm going to be here after service.

Tell me, I want to talk so much longer than we have,

but I'm assuming that's never happened to any of you,

but I know this, I know this.

On a 4th of July weekend,

that you hear are probably professing Christ,

so there has been a miracle in your life,

even if it's just a salvation that God has bestowed upon you.

You have a miracle in your life.

And our first step to leaving proper legacy,

leaving legacy that lasts is recognizing the miracles.

The miracles.

Recognizing the miracle.

And this is what brings us to Joshua 4, chapter 1,

or Joshua 4 verse 1.

Joshua 4:1

When the nation, and here it is,

had finished passing over the Jordan,

the Lord said to Joshua,

take 12 men from the people from each tribe of man

and command them saying, take 12 stones from here

out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place

where the priest's feet stood firmly,

and bring them over with you,

and lay them down in the place where you lodged tonight.

What is he doing?

He's saying, I want you to recognize your miracle.

I want you to take 12 stones from where the Jordan parted,

and I want you to set them up at the first encampment.

Why?

Why? Because God calls us to recognize the miracle in our life.

So then, step 2, we can share our stories

so that he receives glory and honor and praise that he deserves.

So this story continues, and they recognize the miracle.

They pick up their stones.

They walk over to Gilgau,

and the first encampment at Gilgau.

They place the 12 stones,

and they tell us why.

They tell us why about 17 verses later.

And those 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan,

Joshua set up at Gilgau,

and he said to the people of Israel,

when your children ask their fathers in times to come,

what do these stones mean?

Then you shall let your children know.

Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan for you.

Did you see that?

For you.

Until you passed over.

And here's a key phrase, and we can't miss it.

As the Lord your God did to the Red Sea,

which he dried up for us until we passed over.

So that all the peoples of the earth may know

that the hand of the Lord is mighty,

and that you may fear the Lord your God forever.

What is he saying there?

He's saying recognize the miracles.

You want to pass down the miracles that God has done in your life,

and then they're going to claim ownership of their own miracles,

so that it gives God the glory.

What he's saying here in these passages is,

I'm the same God that worked with your grandparents,

are now working with you,

and are going to work with your children,

and their children, and their children,

and continually when they walk past these stones in Gilgau,

I want you to look there, and I want you to tell them

all that God has done,

not just through the Red Sea, but through the Jordan,

and not only is he going to work through the Jordan,

but man, we're going to go into Canaan,

and not only is he going to go through the Canaan,

we're going to develop a country,

and that country is going to be called Israel,

and then David's going to take over, and Solomon's going to take over,

and through this perfect, imaginable people,

his son is going to come.

And this is the beauty of what he's saying.

He's saying, our stories must be passed down

so that other generations, that next generations know the Lord.

APPLAUSE

Man, God gives them an interesting command.

Take the twelve stones, set them up for the next generation,

we'll come and ask,

and those that experience the crossing

will tell them exactly what God has done in their life.

Man, you know your stories.

They help others come to salvation.

Your realities are others' revelations,

and your monuments build momentum in people's lives.

They do.

Your stories are powerful.

Your miracles, your stories are powerful.

Man, Southern Hills creates lasting legacies.

Do you know this about your church?

You have people across the country

expanding the kingdom of God

because of the monuments that you placed

right here in Las Vegas.

You have people that have come to the saving knowledge

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

because of the legacies that you've left.

Man, one of the biggest things we picked up from here

is the influence of family in our lives.

We learn so much on how to grow our families here.

Man, we take it for granted here,

but your pastoral team has incredible families,

and that's unique.

Look, you see the Coal's family worshipping together,

like right here on the side.

Do you know how rare that is?

Last service, you had the Murray family worshipping in the back.

Of course, Pastor Fred is in the back,

and Pastor Jason is in the front, you know what I mean?

But it's a miracle.

The families, you saw the Sargent family worshipping back then.

The Olson family worshipping over here.

The Tice family every Sunday.

In our home, if you walk through the back door,

through the patio,

you'll continue to walk into our kitchen,

and then you'll walk through the living room,

and you'll see a stand.

It's a wooden stand that I made in Las Vegas, actually.

But on that wooden stand on the second run is a box.

That box is our family miracle box.

Inside that box, if you lift it up and take it out,

you'll see a small band about this big

from when our son was born at 28 weeks and five days.

A miracle of God's provision in our life.

You'll see another thing, you'll see a cut out of a hoodie I was wearing,

the day that God spared my life in a hiking accident in Red Rock.

You'll see in that box receipts and checked receipts

and multiple little things that most people would just look at

and be like, okay, cool.

But in that box for us is the story of God in our lives.

That miracle box tells the story of how God has worked in and through our lives.

You know, I often think, what happens when the people of ancient Middle East

walk past Gilgall and saw these 12 stones?

You know what probably happened?

Nothing.

They just walked by.

But you know what happened when an Israelite walked by those 12 stones?

The dad would take his son or mom would take their son and say,

hey, do you see this?

This is God's story of preserving our nation.

All of these other people are going to walk by.

But man, we've recognized the miracle of God.

We have to share our stories because son, one day,

you're going to have your own 12 stones.

You're going to have your own box of miracles.

Man, I'm not sure where you find yourself today.

But I know that there's been a miracle in your life.

Because sometimes God works through the miraculous, massive, open seas,

but sometimes God just works through the minuscule.

However he's decided to work in your life,

we must memorialize that.

That's what moves the next generation.

That's what moves a 19-year-old church from a warehouse next to Ken Salad

dressing to a plot in Las Vegas to sitting in the future sanctuary

where kids will worship and find Christ.

That's what leaves legacies.

That's what does it.

And man, maybe you've had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home,

but maybe God's walked into your story midstream and changed your life.

However you find yourself, I know he's done something

and he wants you to take it and memorialize it and share it with others

so that he can get the glory.

Most of you know Alfred Nobel.

He's the creator of the Nobel Peace Prize.

But did you know that he also created dynamite?

Alfred Nobel created dynamite and he believed, listen to this,

this is fascinating to me,

he believed that this invention would make war so horrible

that it would never happen again

because no one would be willing to inflict that kind of terror on someone else.

Not surprising, he was wrong.

Instead of ending wars, dynamite made them even more devastating

and more wide-ranging than they'd ever been before.

He was horrified, but he also had no idea what to do.

And, and to top it all off, he made a ton of money from styling the dynamite.

And until one day, something happened.

Alfred Nobel woke up to read, get this, his own obituary.

Look at what it said.

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who died yesterday,

devised a way for more people to be killed in every, in a war than ever before.

He died a very rich man.

Not surprising maybe to you, maybe you've already gotten there,

but the newspaper had made a mistake.

He knew he died, but his older brother who had passed away.

But this is what he woke up to read.

And this is how it changed his life.

Mr. Nobel realized that he didn't want to be known primarily as the person

who invented the world's most effective killing machine of his generation.

So what did he do?

He founded the Nobel Peace Prize, an award for scientists, authors, writers,

which fosters peace.

And Nobel said this, every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph

in midstream and write a new one.

Man, you have that ability.

We have that ability.

Many of you have come and become Las Vegas to change your path midstream.

And I find no better a place than to allow God to change it than right here in this church.

Man, what does God want you to do with this?

Truly, to be a legacy lever, to leave a proper legacy, what does God want us to do?

He wants us to first recognize our miracles.

Man, you have them.

And number two, he wants us to share our stories.

God has done so much in and through your lives, right here and beyond.

And he wants you to share your story so that he receives your glory and your honor.