Sermon: The Legacy Of The Righteous | Proverbs 10:7

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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So I'll start by reading the text, and then we'll get into the word. Proverbs chapter 10, verse 7.

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The legacy of the righteous, the memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked shall rot.

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Please go to the Lord and pray with me. Dear Lord, we are thankful for this time and opportunity to learn, to be shepherded, to be encouraged, and convicted by your word.

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We pray that you bless us, Lord, that you empower us, that you encourage us to do those things therein, but not trusting in the work,

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Lord, that we produce by our own hands, but by grace, understanding that you should bring to pass all that you see fit.

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We thank you and praise you for the opportunity. In Christ's mighty name we pray, amen. So as I was preparing notes for this sermon,

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I was thinking of a worthy example or story to bring to life the words of this text.

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And in doing so, I stumbled upon two studies regarding the legacy and posterity of two particular individuals.

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The first of which is Jonathan Edwards, who many of you know. The 18th century

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Puritan preacher, instrumental in the first Great Awakening, one of the greatest theologians in American history, with works such as Freedom of the

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Will and Religious Affections, and one of the most famous sermons ever preached, that is

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Edwards was an individual fervently devoted to personal piety.

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And if you don't know that, if you don't believe, just try reading halfway through his 70 resolutions, which he,

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I believe, penned at the age of 21, and see if you don't come away with an overwhelming sense of conviction at the standard to which he governed his life.

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He was a family man, a husband to a devout woman, Sarah Edwards, father of 11 children.

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And he committed to loving, leading, and teaching his family in the way of godliness. He was a churchman, a pastor, a theologian, who diligently exhorted and instructed the saints in sound doctrine and practice.

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And he was a revivalist, genuinely concerned with the well -being of his community and the people therein.

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He labored to call the lost to repentance, to faith, and obedience in God. Now, if you notice, he demonstrated faithfulness in four spheres of governance and life that God has placed all of us in, each and every one of us.

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That is, God has made us all individuals, he's made us members of families, he's made us as Christians members of churches, and he's made us members of community, cities, states, of a culture.

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And I believe that God has called us and obligated us to show faithfulness in each of these spheres of life, to make him known in each of these spheres of life, as individuals, right?

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As members of families, as members of churches, and as members of community. Now, examining

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Edward's life as such, it should come as no surprise that when a study of his lineage and legacy was done, one

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US vice president, one dean of law school, one dean of medical school, three

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US senators, three governors, three mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates descended from him.

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150 years after the 150 years that succeeded his first grandchild. Now, this is only making note of his actual descendants.

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Surely the memory of this godly man has been a blessing to far more than those of his posterity alone.

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I mean, surely he has blessed me, myself, and his writings. I'm sure he's affected many of you. Now, entirely antithetical to this story was that of a man named

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Max Jukes, which wasn't his real name, but it was a name given to him by the man who conducted this study.

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A man that they trace back to a common ancestor of six prisoners in the New York State prison system in the 1870s.

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When a similar study was done regarding his legacy and posterity, what

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God had infallibly stated as true in his word was acutely evidenced in this circumstance.

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While God does not punish children for the sins of their parents, the ramifications of their sins certainly have generational consequences, right?

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We all believe that we are forgiven by grace through faith, but that does not mean that our sins are inconsequential, right?

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We know personally, in our own lives, that we have suffered for some sins of our parents.

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And though God has forgiven us, and though we can believe that and know that to be true, that does not mean that our sins will not have some effect on our children.

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Winship, the man conducting the study, stated thus. The almost universal traits of the families were idleness, ignorance, and vulgarity.

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They would not work, they could not be made to study, and they loved vulgarity. It is very difficult to find anyone who is honest, industrious, pure, and prosperous among them.

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Of the 1 ,200 descendants recorded in his lineage, 310 of the 1 ,200 were in extreme poverty.

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300 of the 1 ,200 died in infancy for lack of care. 50 women lived in notorious debauchery.

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400 men and women were physically wrecked early in life by their own wickedness. Seven were murderers.

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60 were habitual thieves who spent considerable amount of their lives in lawlessness.

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130 were criminals convicted of various crimes. And again, all these descendants, all these are his actual descendants.

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All those who would have been affected by the sins of his lineage, well, is incalculable.

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Now I bring up these examples to illustrate one point, incontrovertibly.

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The faithfulness or lack thereof that we demonstrate in our lives will have significance, will have a great significance and be regarded by those who are affected by them in time to come.

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And it would be silly for us to think anything contrary. The question then is, is how do we want to be remembered?

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What stories do we want our children to tell our grandchildren about us? We all know the saying, our reputation precedes us.

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What do people think when they know that you shall arrive to a place shortly? Or how about shortly after you've departed?

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What words are said about you? What words are spoken on behalf of you?

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Are you thought to be godly or gossip, pious or an impatient man?

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Are you thought to be kind or careless? These are questions we ought to be thinking about.

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As ambassadors of Christ, we ought to be extremely, extremely conscious of the way that we are impacting the people around us.

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Now, I call you to think upon these things not to be people pleasers, but to be pleasers of God in the way that we interact with people.

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To seek to please God in the way that we treat image bearers of God, redeemed or not.

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Proverbs 22 and 1 reads, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.

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And loving favor rather than silver and gold. Now really challenge yourself as you think about that.

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Do you hold your reputation to be more valuable than silver and gold? Do you think of the way that people think of you as more valuable than you being rich?

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We ought to challenge ourselves with the word of God here. For the sum of the purpose of our salvation can be no more clearly realized than from the

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Lord himself in his summation of the law, love God and love neighbor. Dear Christian, you have been saved primarily for the glory of God and for the good of your fellow man.

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I say your salvation was for you last of all, for the good of God and for the glory of man.

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The good branch stemming from our Lord and our vine bears fruit for the glory of its maker and for the benefit of its fruit's partaker.

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God does not need your works, but your family does. Your church does, your community surely does.

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Surely you've heard the quote, preach the gospel, die and be forgotten. Which is attributed to Nicholas Ludwig.

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Now, I'm going to challenge that, because here the text that we're reading says something contrary.

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Rather, this text would say, preach the gospel, die and be remembered. For those who live in such a way are not easily forgotten.

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In fact, they're ever remembered by the Lord of glory for their service to God and to man.

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And they are remembered fondly by those they impacted. In our text here, we have two realities being radically juxtaposed for optimal contrast.

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That is the memorial, the memory, or the mention of the righteous as opposed to the wicked.

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Now, the entirety of the New Testament echoes the same truth. Righteousness comes by faith.

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The just shall live by faith. I mean, Pastor James just went over the catechism. By faith, justification by faith.

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All of the New Testament, as well as the Old Testament, we see the model of that in Abraham. Justification is by faith, and so the righteous here spoken of in this text is also redeemed by faith.

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That said, like Luther, we can confess. Though we be saved by faith alone, we are not saved by a faith that is alone.

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No, for we are creatures recreated for God's glory on to good works.

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And again, these good works are for others and not primarily ourselves. Inevitably, the summation of an individual's legacy will be relegated to their service to God and man.

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You're going to keep hearing me say that, serving God and man. That is how you will be remembered.

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That is the impact and influence that you've had on those that you interacted with by word or by deed.

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For good or for bad, for God's glory or for your own pleasure. Therefore, it can be concluded that the blessed memory of the righteous is due to the blessings they have bestowed upon others through experience or through memory.

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Take Moses, for example, the great prophet and lawgiver of God, who led

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Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. Who served God diligently, who dedicated decades of his life to serving

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God and his people. Deuteronomy 34 details the end of his life for us after God had shown him the promised land.

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Deuteronomy 34 and 4, go there with me, and we'll read through verse 8. There's something very key

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I want us to take from this. And the

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Lord said to him, this is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

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I will give it to your offspring. I've let you see with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.

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So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor.

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But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died.

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His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated. The people of Israel wept for Moses and the plains of Moab 30 days.

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The days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. So the text tells us that Moses wasn't given a traditional burial.

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He wasn't made a statue or a memorial stone like the pagan kings, nor was he regarded for his wisdom or might like the ancient warriors or philosophers.

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Why was he remembered? The people wept 30 days at his passing for his faithfulness demonstrated in service to God and service to men.

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And God, pleased with his work, would finally give him rest, immortalizing his name forever in the testimony of the

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Holy Scriptures. Or take

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Mary, who was promised a good Mary for her faith in Christ and the prophecy of his crucifixion.

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Even in spite of the anger of the disciples, and it seems their lack of faith in what Christ had promised.

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Turn with me to Matthew 26, verse 6.

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Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, he took very expensive oil. And she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

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And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.

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But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.

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For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for my burial.

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Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the world, the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

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And what a blessed memory that is. Now, something to take from this.

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Your faithful service to God and to men may not, and I will actually say will not, always be regarded fondly at the moment.

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Any of you who go out and outreach, they go out to Mill Avenue or go out to pride parades or to the abortion mills.

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You know, you are there because you love those people. You are calling them to repentance before a

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God who is unapproachable, apart from faith in Christ. We go there because we love those people and we want to see them saved.

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But how is your love regarded? As hatred. How is your service regarded?

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As hostility. Your service to God and to man will not always be regarded as such.

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For this reason, it is of utmost importance that we ground our service in the word of God and not in the preference of man.

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Again, it is of utmost importance that we ground our service to God and man in the word of God and not in the preference of man.

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There will be times, like I said, especially among unbelievers, but even sometimes among believers, that our love will be regarded as such.

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Ground yourself in the word of God and be sure about your good deeds. Not questioning it based on the way that it's received.

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The scriptures are littered with the legacies of those who serve God well, as well as the infamy of those who only serve themselves.

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We remember Abraham as the faithful and the father of the faithful, Lot as the worldly.

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Joseph as steadfast and virtuous, Potiphar's wife as a lying adulteress.

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We remember David as the warrior king, repented before God, saw as consumed with jealousy, and cast it from the throne.

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We remember Esther as dutiful queen who counseled her husband for good. Jezebel as wicked queen who led her husband after other gods.

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Elijah and John as zealous prophets of the Lord. Ahab and Agrippa as weak and emotional rulers.

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Paul as untimely born Pharisee turned apostle. Judas as son of perdition, apostle turned apostate.

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And we can go on and on and on. So many worthy examples have been given to us in the text.

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But I'd also like to touch on some throughout church history who have given us a worthy example as well.

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Those names are throughout scripture, those names that are revered, those names that are cherished, as well as those names that taste of bitterness and bring repulsion when spoken.

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I mean, just think of it. Have you ever met a little girl named Jezebel? No. Or how about, oh, this is my nine -year -old,

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Judas. You're not going to see it. Even the unbelievers know that these names are marked with shame.

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We stay far away from them. They are proverbs. They are warnings. Right? They're not names to name babies after.

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So, another thought that came to me as I was studying this topic that I thought was interesting.

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When Christ was on trial before Caiaphas, notice that there was not even one charge that two people could agree on.

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And I don't simply mean regarding the charge of blasphemy, but any sin at all.

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See, if you think of it, were not evidence of any sin suffice for them denying him as the Messiah?

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Denying him as the son of God? Any sin at all? And they couldn't even prove that.

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I mean, the scripture tells us in Luke 2 and 52, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

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He had a pristine reputation even among his enemies. I believe if anything could have been said to mar his character at all, they would have said it.

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I mean, bringing him to Pilate, would they not add something? Well, yeah, he's known to lie, or steal.

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We believe that Christ is sinless by faith, but this is proof in the text that there was nothing that they could charge him with.

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Nothing at all. Because if I can convince you, if I can prove that an individual is a liar, how far fetched is it to believe that they're also a robber?

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Or if I can prove that you're a robber, is it so far fetched that maybe you killed someone?

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I don't think so. Nothing could be said about our Lord. Perfect was his reputation.

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Pastor Jeff, he often calls church history a glorious mess. And if you study it, that is so very clearly the case.

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That said, God has had his hand very clearly on the church throughout the generations, throughout the centuries.

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And the church's formulation of doctrine and the history of interpretation, but also in putting to bed many heresies that in our time are simply repackaged and redelivered.

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All of our heresies of the present day are old. They just go by different names now. Jude 3,

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Jude 3, I want to read this quickly. You don't need to turn there, but I think it's important for us to understand this, that this is what the church passed down to us.

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Not perfectly, absolutely flawed, but by God's grace and God's providence.

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We have the faith that we have today because of people who came before us. Jude verse 3, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

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The early church did battle. They were theological warriors that faithfully fought for truths not so clearly defined in their time, truths that we hold now, but no second thought.

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Whether it was Ebionism, Dacitism, the different forms of Gnosticism, Monarchianism or Arianism, a lot of isms.

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These were heresies rightly identified as so through the faithful witness of those who came before us.

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We have guys like Augustine, whose teaching legacy regarding the sovereignty of God's will and man's inability apart from grace really laid the foundation and inspired the reformation some 800 years later.

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You have guys like Wycliffe and Tyndale who labored to give the Bible to the people in their own language.

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Bibles that we have now that people literally will burn to death, burn to death for this, for what we hold in our hands now.

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Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, who gave us reformed theology.

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We are the descendants of their theological posterity. And we remember their names for their service to God and his people in spite of overwhelming and contrary traditions of man.

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They had to fight for these things that we believe, these beliefs that we hold. They had to fight for them. They had to die for them.

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From them we get the English Puritans, the Scottish Covenanters, the

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French Huguenots, our elder brothers in the faith. Then at the very foundation of our nation, we have guys like Jonathan Edwards, mentioned earlier,

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John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, and George Whitfield. George Whitfield, who was said preached over 18 ,000 sermons with 10 million listeners throughout his life.

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Such a godly impression he had upon the new world that it was said that he was more well known in the colonies than George Washington.

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This is our heritage. Men and women have fought, labored, lived, and died so that we could hold this

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Bible in our hands. So that we might understand what beautiful truth

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God has revealed onto us therein, in our own language. Reading for ourselves so that we could receive the gospel untainted by the traditions of man.

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And what has been committed to us by the faithful throughout the preceding generations is for us to pass on to the generations that follow.

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So what does this mean for us? How are we to do our part in passing on this godly inheritance?

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I've said before, God has placed us in four spheres of life and influence in which we are to make him known.

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We are individuals, we are family members, we are church members, and we are members of our community.

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I heard a quote once, and I don't remember it word for word, I don't even remember who said it, but I think it's true.

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Culture is the outworking of the disposition and character of the men found therein.

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And I think you could say that about each of these spheres. A family is an outworking of the character of the father found therein.

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A church, you get it, a church, the same thing, on and on.

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It's an outworking of the character and disposition of the men found therein. Men and brothers, we are driving the culture, and we must take responsibility for it.

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So the question is, how do we do that? What's the first step? Gabe read

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Psalm 127 for us, and I believe it gives us some hints. It gives us the means by which we ought to approach this responsibility.

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I want to read it again. Psalm 127, one through five. Unless the

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Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

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It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.

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For he gives to his beloved sheep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb of reward.

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Like arrows in the hand of a mighty warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

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He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Now, I believe there are three directives that we ought to derive from this psalm.

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Number one, is to be a workman. Build by God's grace in light of God's revelation.

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Build up yourself in pursuit of holiness to serve God and to serve men. Build up yourself in your profession.

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Perfect your craft and become the best provider that you can. Build up yourself as a protector.

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Train yourself. Don't only hope that these terrible situations don't come upon you and your family, prepare yourself for them.

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Build up yourself to faithfully teach and lead your family in godliness.

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And for those men who don't yet have families, build up yourself now for when you will.

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Don't wait until you have the family to start. Start now. Your actions now can be a blessing to your family and the future.

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Take the examples through our church history. Their actions at the time are still blessing us now.

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So can be the case for you and your family to come by God's will. Read your

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Bible, but don't just read, study it. Dig into it.

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The depths of truths within scripture we will mind, I think, for all eternity. Start digging.

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And don't just study, apply. For the word is sufficient to equip you for every good work.

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Build your family, your home, and all of your life on the rock that is Christ. Be a workman.

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Secondly, be a watchman. Think back to the words of Christ. Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation.

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Be aware of yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your gifts, your interests to be utilized for the glory of God.

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And watch and be aware of the world around you to avoid its temptations and pitfalls.

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Be a watchman. And be a warrior. Be a warrior. Fill your quiver with many sharp arrows.

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Serve your family with godly leadership. Love your wife. Wash her with the water of the word.

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Raise up children with her in godly admonition and instruction. And then send them out into the world to pierce the very heart of the enemy.

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Children are weapons in our hand to be yielded in battle for God's glory. Dear Christian brothers, men of God, I exhort you.

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Be workmen, be watchmen, and be warriors. You are called to build, to stand guard, and to fight.

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Hear the word of Apostle Paul in First Timothy. First Timothy chapter six, verse 11.

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But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

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Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

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I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and to Christ Jesus, who is his testimony before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession.

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To keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

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Lord Jesus. Which he will display at the proper time.

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He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light.

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Whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion, amen.

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I think back to the Lord commanding the work of Adam in the garden.

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And there's this connection that is so beautiful but also very, very grand.

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And that is, Adam is told, till the ground. And then he's also told, subdue the earth.

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Now think of that. How do you go from tilling the ground to subduing the earth?

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And I don't think it's our job to worry about that. Be faithful in where you are.

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Build, work, watch, fight. And God, by his grace and by his providence, will bring about.

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He will bring about the subduing of the earth in time. I mean, it happened before.

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It happened before. Christianity in the first century started with 500, maybe 1 ,000 people.

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And in 200 years time, the world is radically changed. And another 100 years, and another 100.

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It happened before. It will happen again. But it's not our job to think so far in the future about how can this happen?

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We believe in a sovereign God who will, he will do all that he pleases.

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And so our job is to be faithful where we find ourselves and there till the ground.

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This good fight of faith starts with personal piety. You as an individual committed to faithfulness before God in light of his revelation.

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It's step one in influencing the culture for good and leaving behind a godly legacy. It starts with you taking the wisdom and instruction of God and applying it to your own life.

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Why is that? Why is that where it must start? Because you, as an individual, whoever you are, father, mother, children, you as an individual can only offer your family what you first cultivated in yourself.

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You can only give wisdom to your family if you first learn wisdom. You can only offer discipline if you first been disciplined.

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We are told that the righteous man leaves behind an inheritance to his children's children.

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Surely we can conclude that this inheritance was not financial alone.

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For wealth without wisdom is more of a curse than it is a blessing. The godly man's chief inheritance is that of godliness.

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And again, he must first possess that which he seeks to pass on. Now what's more, the same principle applies as we move from sphere to sphere.

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The individual can only offer the family what he has first cultivated in himself. The family in turn can only offer the church what they have established in their own home.

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The church can only offer the culture that which was first refined in the church.

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Our faithfulness in making Christ known in all of these spheres of life starts with you as an individual.

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And it moves from sphere to sphere. Now, please don't misunderstand me.

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I recognize that we cannot, we cannot all be a

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Luther or a Calvin. We cannot all be, we're not all called to be

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Whitefield or Spurgeon. We cannot all be a James White or Jeff Durbin to leave behind a godly legacy.

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That's not needed. We don't need to be these grand people. Our impact can be felt here and now by the people that we interact with personally.

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For a promise is given to the righteous in Psalm 112, Psalm 112, go there with me.

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112 in verse 4, Psalm 112 verse 4, light dawns in the darkness for the upright.

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He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.

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For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever.

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He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

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He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.

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His horn is exalted in honor. That's the promise that God has for the righteous.

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You will be remembered forever. That's not to say that the memory of the righteous shall never be, shall ever be in remembrance on the

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Earth. For at some point or another, those who have known us and those we have known shall fade away.

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They shall pass on. But that is to say that the fate of the redeemed is to be ever remembered by our

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Lord. Much of the sermon thus far has been what we ought to do to leave behind a

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Christian legacy and an inheritance, and rightfully so. We ought to approach this practically.

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That said, we are not an adherent of a religion of law, not of simply law.

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But the good news is that there is forgiveness in Christ for all of our shortcomings. For where we have fallen short, he has prevailed.

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Where we have missed the mark, he is spot on. Where we have failed to build or to watch or to fight, he has done so perfectly.

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Though we pursue good works, we must acknowledge them all as imperfect and mingled with sin.

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And therefore ultimately untrustworthy alone to fulfill the purpose to which we direct them.

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We work hard, but we don't put our trust in that work. Rather, we ought to rely upon the grace of God in granting what he has commanded of us, and with great effort pursue obedience.

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George Mueller had this to say, George Mueller was a great man of God whose testimony is so very encouraging.

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Work with all your might, but never trust in your work. Pray with all your might for the blessing in God, but work at the same time with all diligence, with all patience, with all perseverance.

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Pray, then and work, work and pray, and still again pray and then work, and so on.

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All the days of your life, the result will surely be abundant blessing. Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of service will be blessed.

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Work and pray, trusting not at all in your work, but in the grace of God to bring about his desired end.

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We're not working to earn a great legacy from God or even from men. Such is the pursuit of the unbeliever who seeks to be remembered for their own supposed feats and triumphs.

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Rather, our pursuit of faithfulness and a blessed memory is by God's grace for God's glory.

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Therefore, our work, as imperfect as it is, is accepted on account of the perfect work of Christ.

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Therefore, true Christian legacy is not defined by the blessed memory of one's name, but to what extent one has made the name of Christ known.

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As individuals, as members of families, as members of churches, and as members of communities.

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For it is he that shall ever bear the testimony of the righteous and present them names before his

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Father in heaven. Revelation 3 and 5, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments.

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And I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

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And what of the wicked name? What of the wicked name that is rotten?

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Can we not recall the name of infamous persons throughout history? Sure, sure, there's many that we know.

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But the question is, to what end and for how long? The wicked is regarded as a proverb and a warning.

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Their names bear no blessing, but rot with contempt and shame throughout history. Furthermore, the word rot in the

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Hebrew literally means worm eaten, which

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I take to be a reference to their final end. For it is the Lord himself that will cast them from his presence on that great day.

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I mean, just think, when the omnipresent, omniscient

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God who ordains and knows all things will declare to the lawless that he never knew them.

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And so their names and their memory thereof will be blotted out from among the living. The all -knowing one saying he never knew you.

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Lastly, I'd like to call your attention to the metaphor of Paul in 1

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Corinthians 3. I won't read it, this is not the exact application that he's using it for, but I think it's applicable to the

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Christian life. While it's utilized specifically for that of teachers in their work in building upon the foundation of Christ with sound teaching of gold, silver, or precious stones.

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Think of a castle or a temple that is built up with these precious metals. And also that of unsound teaching or teaching that is lacking made of wood, hay, and straw.

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Generally, I believe this metaphor to be applicable also for the Christian life. You see, the apostle warns that all in Christ build upon that immovable foundation.

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All Christians are building their life upon Christ. That said, not all work is equal.

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Not all that we've done is of the same quality. Take care not only what you build, but also how you build it.

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For God discerns the quality of our efforts. For he himself has ordained the measure of our ability.

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That which is acceptable for the Lord is proven by fire, and that which is not is burned up. Now, is any man perfect in his work?

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Is any man built perfectly? Has he watched perfectly? Has he fought perfectly?

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Of course not. And as stated before, we're forgiven. We have Christ, our

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Lord and our Savior. That said, we would be lying to say that whatever good we've done, we could not have done more.

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We would be lying to say that we could not give more effort, that we could not fight harder, that we could not build stronger, that we could not watch more watchfully.

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That's the Christian life, always further up and deeper in. So the call is this, that which your hands find to do, that which

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God is obligated to view in all the spheres of life where God has placed you, work, watch, and fight with all your might to the glory of God and for the good of man.

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And in doing so, be remembered forever. Pray with me.

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Dear Lord, we are thankful for your grace in our lives. We are thankful for the examples throughout the history of your church that inspires us, that instructs us, that emboldens us to be faithful in the work that you've put before us.

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Help us to continue to build upon the foundation that is Christ, preparing it for the next generation to build faithfully as well.

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That one generation at a time, we may take back, Lord, what is yours and press the crown rights of Jesus Christ upon the face of the

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Earth. And in doing so, have our names written forever in the book of life.