Building a Legacy | Father's Day Message

Such an honor to be here today and with with Chuck and Taryn,

two of our favorite people on the planet.

When when Chuck said reached out to me a few months ago and said,

would you be able to come over and we're yes, we even look at

our diary. We're just yes, we can come.

They're such humble leaders and as we've been able to be with

them several days this week and they invited us into their home

even. And they just care deeply about

you. They care about what God is

doing in your lives. They care about this this church

and what God is up to. And I, I love seeing that.

I have to say, Sherry and I, we very much love England.

We love the UK. We might love England the most,

but don't tell anybody else. We first came about 15 years

ago. We met Chuck and Taryn at that

time. And we get to come over about

once or twice, once or twice a year.

And I've told, I've told some people, I think I was supposed

to have been born British. OK.

My name is spelled Geoffrey, which no one in America spells

Jeff that way. My mom has never been to

England, but I think she meant me to be born in England.

Some people have even said I have a British sense of humor,

which I take as a huge compliment.

But I know I'm not supposed to be British because I cannot

drive on your roads. I hired a car.

I hire a car every time we come over and every time it is

helpful because Sherry is much closer to Jesus now than she was

earlier because I hear her over and over again.

Please, Jesus. Please, Jesus, save us.

We love being here. Love what we're learning about

Verso and to be here today, I was asking Chuck.

Chuck. So there's somewhere between 80

and 85 nations represented in this one church.

That's awesome. Well, I need to check real

quick. Any Americans?

OK, 86. All right, because Sherry and I

are from Denver and we said that my wife Sherry is here with us

and she's an amazing speaker. You would have been better off

to hear from her, but I got in front of the line and got ahead

of her. So I get to, we have a couple of

kids, today's Father's Day in the US as well.

And so I'm missing my kids, Mike and Hillary.

They're both or Mike and Brittany, they're both grown.

They're both married, Mike married to Hillary, Brittany

married to Freddie, and they're lovely.

We love them, miss them. We're going to celebrate when we

get back. But they matter not that much,

because what matters is we have grandkids, right?

Any other grandparents here? You know what I'm saying?

Right? Exactly.

Kids were fine. We're glad we didn't kill them

because we have better ones now. 4 grandkids.

We have two girls and two boys and they're just the delight of

our lives. They live about 20 minutes from

us and we spend as much time as we can with them and we're we're

I, I miss them. I miss my dad.

My dad's 92. My dad was a pastor.

My dad just gave up his teaching his Bible study the other day

and I did the math. My dad had been preaching or

teaching for 77 years when he gave up his Bible study.

But love being here and I love being here on Father's Day

because normally on Father's Day I go to church and then I spend

the rest of the afternoon barbecuing.

And I like barbecuing. My wife knows I like it because

I have 3 monstrous barbecues and I like doing it, but it's a lot

of work to do it for the entire family.

Today when we're done, Chuck and Karen have said we're going for

a lovely Sunday roast and someone else cooked it, so that

is phenomenal. But before we dive in today, you

know, I understand you're happening to translate an

American accent. And I will say some things today

that make no sense to you. And I apologize for that, but I

don't want you to hear me. I want us to hear from God.

So would you pray with me as we dive in?

Father, it's just such an honor today.

And we honor you as we talk about Father's Day.

But Lord, I thank you for just the honor and privilege to be on

this amazing platform at this church.

Lord, Lord, it's humbling to know that I, my job is to share

your word and to speak in your in your presence.

So, Lord, I pray you'll speak through me.

Maybe if you're listening, you might pray a prayer.

We pray this every single Sunday at my church.

Lord, I'm here, I'm listening, speak to me.

Maybe you'll pray this for someone sitting next to you.

Maybe you know them, maybe you don't.

But just pray, maybe something like this.

Lord, I, I pray for the one next to me.

I pray that they will listen and that they will have the wisdom

and courage to respond to you. Are we asking your name?

Amen. So Father's Day makes me feel a

little bit nostalgic thinking about growing up as a kid And,

and I, I, I, I, I try to be as humble as I can, which is not a

word Americans use a lot, but I try.

But I, I have some amazing skills and I want to share some

of those skills. I think we have a slide that

illustrates some of those skills.

So in the middle is that many of you don't know what that is.

That's called a telephone. I know how to use it.

I can dial A number on that telephone.

On the other side there's a the black and red with all of that

coming out of it. I can do think two things with

that. That's a cassette tape.

I can make a mixtape. Any of you know how to do that

mixtape there? There's my people.

I also know how to take a #2 pencil, which you don't know

what that is, and I know how to re spool the cassette tape,

which you don't know how to do. Yeah, I also know how to ruin a

marriage and a relationship trying to drive using the other

thing which is a folding map. I can read a map, I can dial a

telephone and I can re spool A cassette tape.

Skills that are of no use whatsoever.

They will never be of use again. If we had had to go with a with

a paper map while we have been in the UK we would have died on

Tuesday. But it makes me wonder what else

is no longer going to be important.

What is we see society and information increase and now AI

and is there a point in time where not just the skills I

have, but will I become obsolete?

How do I honor the legacy that was passed on to me for my

grandfather and my father? How do I pass that on to my kids

and my grandkids? What am I leaving for the next

generation? And I wonder about you.

Do you ever stop to think about your legacy?

What will be here when you are gone?

What are you building that will bear fruit after you are with

Jesus in heaven? And so that's what I want to

talk about today. I want to look at a guy that if

you've been around church, you're familiar with in the Old

Testament called Daniel. And if you have your Bible with

you, you can open it to Daniel or have the verses on the

screen. But we're going to look a lot at

the book of Daniel. But he is a man who left an

incredible legacy. Now, his story begins with

challenges. Daniel was taken as a slave into

another country when he was 16 years old.

And when they captured him and took him to the country, they

made him a eunuch. And I'm not going to explain

that today. That'll be a fun conversation

with the kids that over lunch today.

I'm just going to say it's not a good thing he was made of

eunuch. He was forced to serve

Nebuchadnezzar, the very man who destroyed his homeland and

killed his family. Daniel had no money and he

really had no real power. And yet his legacy is

incredible. Later in the Old Testament, the

prophet Ezekiel calls Daniel one of the three most righteous men

to ever live. Jesus quotes Daniel as a great

prophet. He leaves a legacy that

thousands of years later still influences people.

People all over the world know some of the stories we'll talk

about today about Daniel. And So what we'll do is we're

going to talk about four stories.

We're going to talk about four, Four things we learned, 4

building blocks for a legacy. And then we're going to finish

by saying, what does that mean to me?

So let's dive into the first story.

The first story is a meal. A meal.

So the Kingdom of Judah is defeated by the Babylonians, and

the Babylonians take the best and brightest of mostly the

young men and take the young men and take them as slaves into the

kings of palace. And the goal here is to take all

of the Babylon is conquering the world really.

And they want to bring the best and the brightest.

They want to educate them and then they want to turn them into

useful servants in that Kingdom. And so Daniel is is captured,

his friends are captured, they're taken to the palace and

they're educated, created and groomed for leadership.

And part of this program is they went, they're giving the best

food in the Kingdom and a banquet of meats and fruit and

delicacies from around the world is put before them.

And I don't know if if buffet is a big thing here.

I love a buffet because I just get all of everything that I

want. And I start at the beginning and

I get too much and then I need another plate, you know, to get

the rest. But they have this banquet, this

buffet before them. The problem is, is the food did

not conform to Jewish law. Now, Daniel and his friends have

been raised as as as very devout Jewish young men, and they know

the law. But they look at this food and

they realize we have been told by our faith, by our religion

that we should not eat. Stop right there.

What would you do? Like, what would you do?

You're you're in this foreign country.

You are a you are a servant, you are a slave.

This food is put before you. It's amazing.

It's like wow. But you know, it violates the

principles that you grew up with.

Maybe you would eat the food and ask for forgiveness later, you

know, Hey, sorry about that God, but man, were those shrimp good,

you know, or something like that prawns.

Sorry. Or maybe you would pretend to

eat the food and just keep. Quiet about it.

Sherry when she was young, her mom would, would, would fish,

would, would, would make fish fingers.

OK, Sherry didn't like fish fingers.

She wouldn't eat fish fingers. So.

She would take her fish fingers and when her parents weren't

looking, she would hide them behind the radiator.

OK, Oh, you know where this story is going.

In the summer, not a problem, but when it would get cold and

those fish fingers, it sat there for a little while and the

radiator comes on and the smell of old fish begins to fill the

house. She was discovered.

Sherry would. Have hidden the food, but here's

what Daniel did. In Daniel 1/8 it says that

Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and

wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to

defile himself in this way. See, Daniel knew that his

decision was bigger than Justice himself.

He. Wasn't just making a decision

that will impact him. He knew that the other young

leaders that were captured. With him.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He knew that they were watching

him and so he lived by his his convictions.

And so our first building block. If we want to build a legacy.

Something that outlives us is to have deep convictions, to live

by our convictions. See, people who leave a legacy

decide what they believe. Before they are tested, Daniel.

Didn't at that moment decide what he believed about the food.

He had decided ahead of. Time people who build a legacy.

They choose faithfulness over comfort and conviction over

compromise. Daniel's convictions led to a

legacy that outlived his challenges.

And so we see the next few verses.

We see the result of Daniel's stand.

It says in verse 11. Daniel then said to the.

Guard whom? The chief official had appointed

over Daniel Hananiah Michelle and as I can't say those names,

you can't. Either, so we're on the same

page. Here we go, please.

Test your servants for 10. Days give us nothing but

vegetables. To eat and water to drink.

Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat

the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what

you see. So he agreed to this and tested

them for 10 days. At the end of the 10 days, they

looked. Healthier and better nourished

than. Any of the young men who ate the

royal food so the. Guard took away their.

Choice food and wine. And they were.

They were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

Which, by the way, did not make Daniel very popular.

With the other guys, however. He stood by his deep

convictions. So story number one is the meal.

Story #2 is the dream. So.

Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of this.

This empire, Babylon, he he has a.

Dream. And so he brings.

In all of his wise men. And he says, OK guys, I want you

to tell me, what does the dream mean?

And the wise men say. Absolutely.

We'll tell you. Tell us what the dream is, he

says. No, no, no, no, no.

That's not how this. Works you.

Tell me what I dreamed and then you explain what that means to

me. And if you can't do that, I'm

going to put you all to death. You think your line managers

tough, right? Guess what your job is and then

do it. Really.

Really. Well, well, Daniel hears about

this and he knows that not only the guys in in of the King's

presence, but all of those in the palace, including him and

his friends, are going to be put to death.

So he sends word to Nebuchadnezzar that he, Daniel,

will tell him his dream and he'll explain it.

And here's what's interesting about this part of the story is

at this moment, Daniel had no idea what the dream was.

He had no idea what it meant. He was stepping out in.

Faith. He was believing God will show

up. God will act.

I will move before. I know what the next steps are

going to be. And then God honored his faith

and allowed him to interpret the dream.

And that's our second building block of a legacy is bold faith.

So we have deep convictions. We have bold faith.

Daniel's faith enabled his legacy to outlive his fear.

Extraordinary faith is common among people who leave legacies

in Hebrews 11/8. The writer says that by faith,

Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as

his as his inheritance, obeyed and went.

Look at this last phrase, even though he did not know where he

was going. I've thought about that a lot.

I've thought about what if I walked into Sherry and I said,

hey, Sherry, I think God's leading us to a new place.

And she would say, yeah, let's talk about that.

Let's pray about that. Let me hear about it.

Where do you, where is it that you think God's leading us?

And I said, no idea, but I think we should sell our home and just

start heading east. That would not go well at all.

That would not be a good conversation.

But Abraham had that conversation with Sarah.

The results of Daniel's faith when he when he told the king

his dream and interpret it is that the king then placed Daniel

in a high position and lavished many gifts on him.

He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and

placed him in charge of all the wise men.

So Daniel stands on his faith. He steps out when he doesn't

know what God's going to do. God shows up and then Daniel

becomes one of the leaders in the Kingdom.

So the first story we talked about the meal, we talked about

the dream. The next story is the party.

So eventually Nebuchadnezzar dies and his son Delshazzar

becomes king, and Daniel is forgotten.

Daniel winds up behind a desk. He's shuffling scrolls, he goes

to endless meetings, and he's just another office worker in

Belshazzar's Kingdom. So Belshazzar throws a party.

It is what we call an America, a rager.

The music is loud. The wine is flowing.

People are making decisions they're going to regret

tomorrow. Like this is a wild, wild party.

And then in the middle. Of the party.

Suddenly a hand appears out of nowhere.

Not a arm, not a person, just a hand.

And the finger begins to write on the wall.

And I don't know about you guys, but nothing stops a party like a

disembodied hand. So it writes on the wall.

Everybody stops drinking, the music stops, they don't know

what's going on. No one can read the writing.

And suddenly Belshazzar's mum, Nebuchadnezzar's wife, remembers

Daniel. And she says, I remember this, I

remember this guy. And Nebuchadnezzar had a dream.

I think he can interpret stuff. Let's go get this guy.

So they go find Daniel. They bring him in to read the

writing, and he's offered all kinds of gifts and a big job if

he can do it. And Daniel turns down all the

bribes, all the offers, and he doesn't mince words he says to

the most powerful man in the Kingdom, a man who doesn't even

know he exists. He reminds Belshazzar of

Nebuchadnezzar's failure. He tells Belshazzar that he has

made the same mistake. And then he reads the writing on

the wall. He says, this is the inscription

that was written. Many, many.

Tackle, Parson, here's what these words mean.

Many means God has numbered the days of your reign and brought

it to an end. Tackle You have been weighed on

the scales and found wanting. And Paris, your Kingdom is

divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

How would you like to deliver that message to your boss?

Like that would be a tough one to say, but the reality is

Daniel stood on courageous truth.

He didn't hide, he didn't shade it.

He just said the truth. He was bold in his faith and he

was courageous in truth. His commitment to truth meant

that his legacy overcame his circumstances and the Bible is

full of people who spoke difficult truths.

If you remember the story of of David and Bathsheba, you

remember the date the prophet Nathan who had to come and

confront David and I'll never you that one of the phrases that

stands out in the Bible is Nathan looking at the king and

saying you are that man. In the New Testament we read

about John the Baptist and Herod had had had married his

sister-in-law and John the Baptist stood up to him and in

front of the public said that is not right.

David wrote this in the Psalm Psalm 15.

He says, Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent, who may live

on your holy mountain? The one whose way is blameless

and who is does righteous, who does what is righteous.

Let me let me start that phrase again.

The one whose way of life is blameless, who does what is

righteous, who speaks the truth from the heart.

That's what Daniel did. Daniel had this amazing faith.

He was he, he, he, he stuck to his convictions and he spoke the

truth boldly. One more story and this is the

story that people all over the world know.

Some of them know it and they don't even know where it came

from. This is the story of the lions.

Belshazzar dies the night of the party.

He dies that night. Darius the Mead becomes the

king, and now he he rules. By the time we get to the story

of the lions, Daniel is now 80 years old.

He was captured during the he was 16, so he's been living as a

captive slave most of his life. He's now serving under his

fourth king since being captured.

And Daniel's just a normal guy. He's just a guy going to work

every day, trying to do his job, trying to live his faith out in

a faithless nation. He's once again made one of the

top officials in the nation because he is a faithful person

that can be relied on. But it didn't make him popular

with the other government officials.

They were jealous and they went to Darius and they said, Darius,

you are an amazing king. You're awesome.

Here's what you should do. You should make a decree.

You should make a law that if anyone prays to anyone in the

Kingdom except for you for 30 days, they get thrown into a den

of lions. Now I think it's interesting why

they chose punishment by lion, right?

I don't know. They had tried if you if you

know the story, they tried to burn some of Daniel's friends

up, but that didn't work. So they say, well, maybe the

maybe the lions will eat him. And so they they Darius loves

this. That's great.

I am so, so great. People should pray to me.

All right, let's do that. So he signs this decree and then

it's interesting. Some guys go to tell Daniel.

Daniel, hey, did you hear about this decree?

Did you hear about this law and we.

Pick up the verse or. We pick it up in Daniel 610.

Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published,

he went home to his upstairs room where the windows open

towards Jerusalem. And three times a day he got

down on his knees and he prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he

had done before. I love this picture.

Daniel's 80 years old. He gets the news.

He's an old man. He's faced death many, many

times. Most of his friends, they were

captured with him, have died of various things.

And they tell in the news, Daniel, if you're get caught

praying to anyone but Darius, you're you're going to be thrown

into the den of lions. You're going to die.

And he goes. All right, Thanks for letting me

know. Let me know.

I I got to go. Where are you going?

Oh, it's it's 3:00. I I pray at three.

I got to go pray. Wait.

Hey, didn't you hear us? If you pray, you'll get thrown

into den of lions. And Daniel goes, Yeah, I'm old.

I'm not deaf. I heard you, but you're making

me late. I got to go, and I think about

Daniel climbing the stairs. I know when I climb the stairs,

it sounds like somebody's playing the drums, like all the

clicks and clacks gets to the top of the stairs.

And he goes into his prayer room.

And this is the same room that he prays in every day.

Three times a day, he kneels at the same place that he kneeled

every single day, and he opened his windows toward Jerusalem.

And that's interesting to me. Why did he open his windows

toward Jerusalem? Jerusalem was 500 miles away

when Daniel prayed. Jerusalem was in ruins.

It had been abandoned for decades.

Wild animals roam the streets of Jerusalem.

Why did Daniel pray facing Jerusalem?

Because Jerusalem represented hope, and Daniel had never given

up hope. So three times a day he kneels

in the same spot. He opens his windows toward

Jerusalem, and he prays just as he had always done.

And what's amazing is we know how his prayer began.

His prayer began. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our

God, the Lord is 1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your strength.

And why do we know that? That's how he started his prayer

because that's called the Shema and faithful Jewish men always

started their prayer with the Shabba.

Faithful Jews almost always still 2500 years later begin

their prayer with hero Israel the Lord, our God the Lord is 1.

Daniel's faithfulness in prayer. His life was rooted in year

after year after year, the faithful prayer.

The last building block of legacy is this idea of

consistent prayer. Daniel has established prayer as

such a habit in his life that he can't imagine not praying.

This day is no different. He's done this every day for

year after year after year. His legacy is built on his

consistent prayer. It's there's incredible strength

in that image. It reminds me, it reminds me of

my grandfather on Father's Day. I was thinking about grandpa and

my grandfather grew up in the 1930s in America.

And if you've seen old movies of the, of the the West in America

or the Depression and how crazy, how wild it was, that was my

grandpa. My grandpa grew up in the state

of Oklahoma. He worked as a farmer.

He didn't own the land, he just worked the land.

And to make extra money, he made what we called moonshine, which

was illegal in the 1930s in America.

So he made moonshine and he sold it.

He sold it to roving gangs of guys who went around robbing

banks. That's who my grandpa hung out

with. My grandpa was a mean man.

In fact, he was known as the meanest man in town.

That was a label that he had. He would go every Saturday night

to the barn dance, and he didn't dance.

He fought. He went to fight.

He carried A handgun, a pistol with him everywhere he went.

And he actually, he told me this, he filed the works of the

pistol down so that if he shot somebody, it had a hair trigger,

it would fire first. That's who my grandfather was.

He was a mean man, a dangerous man.

One day he caught someone stealing the whiskey from his

still from his his moonshine, and he pulled out his gun.

They pulled out their gun and my grandfather got into a gunfight

and he shot a man in the elbow and crippled the man for life.

The man shot him with a shotgun. There was a little tree in front

of my grandpa, and it kept the shot, the buckshot from hitting

his heart. And that's how he survived.

That's who my grandpa was. But one day my grandmother got

really, really sick. In fact, she was going to die.

The doctor said there's nothing else we can do for her.

And so they sent her home. And my grandmother heard about a

couple of ladies who are traveling through that part of

Oklahoma, and they were doing what were called tent revivals.

They would do church services just out in a wheat field, and

people would come and listen to them.

And my grandma heard about that and she asked my grandfather to

take her to this church thing. They've never been to church.

They had no church connection at all.

My grandfather thought she's going to die, hits her dying

wish. I'll take her.

So he loaded her up in the car and they went to this field.

My grandmother was too weak to get out.

So they just sat in the car and they roll down the windows and

they could hear what was being said.

And at the end of the sermon, one of the ladies preaching

said, if you want to follow Jesus, if you want to become a

Christ follower, just raise a hand.

Well, my and grandma in the car weekly raised her hand.

She couldn't get out, she couldn't walk forward.

No one saw it. She didn't know what following

Jesus meant. She had no idea.

She just knew that she had no other choices.

She raised her hand and then nothing happened.

And so they drove home. But then she began to get

better, and she began to Her health was beginning to be

restored. And she told my grandfather when

I'm well enough. I want to go to.

Church. And I want to go to the church

that was sponsoring that revival.

Well, that church. Was a crazy Pentecostal

charismatic pre vineyard vineyard.

Church like they did they. Ran around and yelled and jumped

and they did all the stuff. Right, my grandpa said it and no

there and I'll. Never do that.

Said some other words I won't. Repeat.

He just. It was.

Just bad. He stormed out of the house he

was so angry and he was walking down a red.

Clay St. in the. In in in a little village in

Oklahoma. And this is my grandpa's story,

not mine, but what he. Said is something.

Knocked him on his face and he fell face down in the dirt and

he thought that God was going to kill him.

He said, God, if you let me live, I'll figure out how to

follow you. And he got up and he went back

to the house and he told my grandma we're going to go to

that church. So they went and he tried, he

figured out how to be a Christ follower.

And I, one of the things he did in that church that they would

raise their hands like we do here, right?

And during the worship, well, there were some ladies raising

their hands and they were just keeping them up.

And my grandfather thought that how do they do that?

He pulled his watch out and started timing how long they

could keep their hands. That was my grandfather.

But he followed Jesus eventually.

If you ever read The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, that's my

grandpa's story. They moved to California, they

became farmers. And then he wound up in Northern

California and he wound up putting together enough money.

He bought a little store and a gas station and he got committed

in the church. He became a lay pastor in the

church. But he and his his boys weren't

didn't follow Jesus. They were teenagers, My dad, my

uncle. And every day at 1:00, my

grandpa would go in the back of the store and he'd begin to

pray. But my grandpa somehow thought

that God didn't hear too well. So he prayed at the top of his

lungs. He just, oh, God, I can imagine

how that went over in the store. But he was praying for his boys.

He's praying for his boys. God, you've got to get a hold of

my boys, get a hold of their hearts.

And one by one, first my uncle, then my dad, they did commit

their lives to Christ. And my grandpa felt that he was

supposed to be a church planter and he was kind of like Abraham.

He said. It's supposed to be back in

Oklahoma. I don't know where God gave him

a picture of a building. He didn't even know where that

building was. He just saw this picture of a

abandoned building in a wheat field.

He sold the store. He loaded up their furniture and

that they headed toward Oklahoma and they just drove.

They're driving through a wheat field, and my grandpa stops the

truck and he says that's the building.

They go. They find somebody who knows

about the building. They said it's abandoned, you

can use it, whatever you want to do.

And they started a little church.

And my grandma started inviting the children to come and hear

Bible stories and built the church.

And then he moved on and planted another church and planted

another church. My grandpa, my grandpa died at

70. And at 70, he knew he'd lived a

better life than he started out, and he knew that his kids

followed Jesus. But my grandpa never knew his

legacy. His legacy was built on that

prayer. I remember as a kid, we'd go see

grandpa and grandma and we'd stay with them.

And at one O clock we'd have lunch.

And at one O clock we would all go into the room.

Had a sofa? Had a chair and my grandpa would

kneel down at his chair and the kids, we'd kneel down at this

scratchy sofa and grandpa would begin to pray at the top of his

lungs. And after about 3 minutes as a

kid, I'd prayed everything I needed to pray.

I was good to go. 30 minutes later, grandpa still pray and

still pray, and I'd fall asleep with my face on that sofa.

But my grandpa never saw his legacy.

His son, my dad became a pastor. His other son became a pastor.

His daughter married a pastor. All their kids became pastors.

All their grandkids became Christ's followers and pastors.

Today across the world there are over 25 or 30 different pastors

speaking as I today preaching to congregations that are all

directly related grandkids of my grandpa.

But what my grandpa never saw and I I'm not sure if we have a

picture. I must not have got the picture

there. I apologize.

Few weeks ago I stood. And watched as my son.

There it is, baptized. My oldest granddaughter, my

grandpa's great, great granddaughter being baptized.

Why? Because this was a man who was

faithful in prayer. This was a man who was knew what

his convictions were. He stood in faith and he spoke

the truth. And that's the example I have.

So let's finish Daniel's story. He was in trouble.

He was praying. He got caught praying to God.

And they go and tell Darius and Darius.

Throws him in the pit with the. Lions and the next day, Darius

comes to see. What happened?

And it says in verse 19, at the first light of dawn, the king

got up and hurried to the lion's den.

When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguish

voice. Daniel, servant of the living.

God has your God. Whom you serve continually been

able to rescue you for the lions.

And Daniel answered, May the king live forever.

May God, my God sent his Angel, and he shut the mouths of the

lions. And they have not hurt me

because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done

any wrong before you, Your Majesty.

The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the

den. And when Daniel was lifted from

the den, no wound was found on him.

Why? Because he trusted in God.

Because Daniel trusted in God, a powerful legacy was built.

It was built on his deep convictions and on his bold

faith, and on courageous truth, and on a consistent prayer.

Now, most of us will never have be called on to interpret a

King's dream, or to confront a king with his sins, or to spend

the night in a lion's den. Any night with cats is bad, but

I'd sight. But every one of us will decide

what kind of life. We're building.

Building a life that lives beyond us.

A lasting legacy. It's rarely built in dramatic

moments. It's built in one decision at a

time. It's built in one conviction 1.

Step of faith one difficult. Truth.

One prayer this week Which building block needs your

attention is God calling you to? Stand.

Firm on a conviction is God calling you not to take a leap

of faith, but a step of faith? Is there a difficult truth?

In a relationship that God saying you need to speak up, you

need to say the truth or is God saying, let's rebuild that

prayer life, no condemnation, no guilt.

You know, you promised I'm going to pray every day and I'm going

to pray in the morning. And it didn't follow through.

And God saying, let's take a next step.

Daniel's legacy wasn't built in a day.

It was built over a lifetime. And for some of us, we hear a

message like this and we think that would have been great when

I was 20. It would have been great when I

was 30. It was been, it would have been

great before I made this mistake.

It would have been great before these things happened with my

kids. But it's too late.

There's a. Phrase we use at our church all

the time from this day forward, from this day forward, God is

not here to condemn you for your past.

We ask for his forgiveness. We're forgiven.

God is saying, what is your step today toward the legacy that you

will leave for the next generation?

Kind of pray with you guys. Lord, I am so thankful for the

legacy that I have for my grandfather, for my father, for

my family. Lord, I know that so many times

I have come short of stewarding that legacy, but Lord, you are

faithful. Lord, I pray for those who are

here today. Chuck talked about Father's Day

being a tough day. It can be so, so bad.

Many of us didn't receive a legacy from our Father.

Some of us are not in a place where we can leave a legacy to

our own children. The Lord, every one of us, man

or woman, we can take a step today that will impact the next

generation. Lord, give us wisdom and guide

us in your name.