A Legacy You Can Take With You

Waiting for Christ in 1 Thessalonians

Right, so we have been in 1 Thessalonians, and we've been talking about waiting for Christ. And Paul in these past two chapters in 1 Thessalonians has been talking about how thrilled he is that Thessalonians have begun to wait on Christ.

That they have turned from their pagan idols, and they've started looking to Christ, and waiting for His return. And that in turn has changed the way that he waits on Christ. Now instead of merely waiting on Christ for himself to be with Christ, he's now excited for not just himself, but for the Thessalonians also to be with Christ.

So let's read 1 Thessalonians 2 .17 -9 .20, and then I'll continue on in reading all the way down to the first part of the next chapter, but 17 -20 will be our preaching text for today. Please stand when you have that, so that we can fast forward.

Since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored to mourn eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. Because we wanted to come to you, I call again and again, but say you can hear us.

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting, is for the Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and our joy. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left in Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-worker, and the Gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions.

For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come in the past, and just as you know.

A Worldly Legacy That Fades

Adams caused a sensation four years ago when she appeared on the cover of Numer Business Week under the headline, Freeze Your Age, Free Your Career. Her story was one of empowerment, how a new fertility perceived giving women more choices as the magazine pivoted provocatively from the quest to have it all.

Adams remembers feeling a wonderful sense of freedom after she froze her age in the late 30s despite the $19 ,000 cost. Her plan was to work for a few more years, find a great guy to marry, and still have a house full of her own children.

Things didn't turn out the way she hoped. In early 2017, with a 45th birthday in the evening and no sign of Mr. Right, she decided to start a family on her own. She excitedly unfroze the 11 eggs she had stored and selected a sperm donor.

Two eggs failed to survive the thawing process. Three more failed to fertilize. That left six embryos, of which five were pregnant yet again. The last one was implanted in her uterus. On the morning of March 7th, she got the devastating news that it, too, had failed.

Adams was not pregnant, and her chances of carrying her genetic child had just dropped from near zero. She remembers screaming like, in quotes, a wild animal, throwing books, papers, her laptop, and collapsing to the ground.

It was one of the worst days of my life. There were so many emotions. I was sad. I was angry. I was ashamed, she said. I questioned, why me? What did I do wrong? Now, there's a lot that we could unpack from there from a Christian worldview.

There's the delay of marriage. There's the destruction of life that was involved. There's the profound trust in technological advancement. But the reason why I feel that this article, when I came across it, felt relevant for what we're looking at today is because of this woman's pursuit of a legacy.

She really wanted a legacy. Despite her situation, she wanted to make her legacy great by being able to store up wealth in her career and be able to pass it on to the children after her. And she was going to use whatever means necessary in order to make that happen.

And in boasting by her own sheer force of will and self-determination, she was going to have this legacy that she wanted. And it all evaporated before her eyes. Now, there are a lot of people who desire to pass on a legacy and have been successful to certain measures.

Right? They have many kids. Or maybe they don't have kids. They have some philanthropic organization that they leave behind that's able to touch many lives. The problem with all these things is that ultimately, any legacy someone leaves behind just fades.

Over time, it fades until it's nothing more than a ripple of a rock cast into a pond as it slowly fades and goes up in the water. And what's more, because of the problem with death, because we will all die, the one who leaves a legacy behind does just that.

They leave it behind. They can't take it with them. Well, in this passage, Paul is going to talk about his legacy. He's going to talk about how he cares so much about Bethlehem because they are his legacy.

But they are not like the legacies of the world. They are not like the legacies that you might leave behind on this physical earth. Rather, it's the spiritual legacy, one that he will not leave behind, one that he can take with him.

And as we look at that, the implications for us are that we, every single one of us here, can also have a spiritual legacy that we cannot leave behind, but one that we take with us. We're going to look at this passage, and we're going to see how it is that we can invest spiritually in people, and how that creates a legacy.

But the real focus of this message is that I'm going to give you six reasons why you should invest spiritually in others. Six reasons why you should invest spiritually in others. The first reason is the most obvious one.

It's the one I already said. It is in order to leave a legacy, or in order to take a legacy with you. Verse 17, but since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time, in person, not in heart, we endeavored more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.

Because we wanted to come to you, I have called again and again. Now Paul has been using in this chapter metaphors of parenthood. If you look at verse 7, it said, but we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

So here he compares himself to a mother. In verse 11, he compares himself to a father. He says, for you know how, like a father with his children, he is working each one of you. So he's compared himself to a mother, he's compared himself to a father, and he's, uh, there's been some other subtle call outs to the Corinthians, or excuse me, to Thessalonians being his children.

If you remember several weeks ago, we talked about how when he says in verse 9 that he labored and toiled, it might not be a burden to any of them. There's a parallel verse in 2 Corinthians where he explains to the Corinthians that the reason why he doesn't accept money in exchange for the gospel, one of the reasons, is because it's the duty of a father to provide an inheritance for their children, not the other way around.

And so even in that verse, there's the theme of taking care of the children. And so while he has not used the word legacy, the motif of legacy is fairly thick throughout this chapter. And here he speaks of himself as one who has been bereaved of his children.

He says, we were torn away from you for a short time. We endeavored to see you face to face. We endeavored to see you face to face. He had planned on visiting them, but he was not able. He wanted to come to get them, and not just for pleasantries, but as you can see more in the next chapter, to secure his legacy, to make sure that the Thessalonians would not turn astray and they knew to stay firm in their faith.

So he wanted to come to them. He says, I, Paul, again and again, emphasizing how much he desired to particularly come to them. Literally, this is once and twice. So why Paul especially? Well, presumably, since he was the one who shared the gospel with them, since he was the one who had led them to Christ, since he was the one who had been with them in Thessalonica when he visited them in Acts 18, if you read it there, he is especially invested in them.

And as he is especially invested in the Thessalonians in a spiritual manner, he cares especially about them. Now, if you are a believer, and there are many people who have invested in you, there is a person or people who led you to Christ, who told you of the gospel.

There are people who have built you up over the years. And if you're an unbeliever and you're here, well then it is almost certainly still the case that there is someone who is invested in you and wanted you to come here, wanted you to be a part of this kingdom.

Wanted you to enjoy the great blessings of salvation. So know that you are greatly loved, like we see here. Paul especially loves the Thessalonians because he is especially invested in them. As people have especially invested in you, chances are they have a special attachment to you as well.

One of the implications of that is that you should make their job easy. If there is someone invested in you and you feel like you don't enjoy that relationship because it feels too nosy or feels too burdensome, consider that this might be the kind of relationship you're in where you have someone spiritually investing into you for your benefit.

But the other implication for us, perhaps the greater meaning, is that we also can have a spiritual legacy. We have the opportunity to invest into others and to build up a legacy for ourselves. You, as you speak with other people, your relationships have an eternal significance.

They are not just relationships for this earth, but they are relationships that may continue into the world to come. Consider a little more just how much people care about legacies and people are distraught when they can't have legacies.

Chances are you probably know someone who has had trouble with fertility, unable to have children, and I know I've been in several. And it is quite distressing to them that they won't be able to have a legacy.

And think about that woman I just met who had frozen her eggs. Think about some of the things she went through. She considered it shameful. In this day and age, no one looks down on someone who has a problem with fertility.

And yet, at the same time, people still feel ashamed. Consider the women in the Bible. Infertility is a big theme in the Bible. People like Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth. Why does the Bible have such an emphasis on infertility?

It illustrates the problem of sin. In the Bible, we notice a curse. A woman was told that she would have pain in childbirth. But it's not just the pain in childbirth. There is a promise of death, and with that death comes infertility.

This difficulty of having children, this difficulty in having a legacy. Now, the reason why the Bible highlights these things and calls attention to them, and then miraculously granted these women, Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, others, children, was not to make a promise that all who come to the faith in God will have their problems of infertility solved, will be able to have all the children they want.

Something more to that play. As this infertility shows the problem of sin, shows that death has been brought in the world through sin, these women were given children in order to show that God was dealing with the problem of sin.

There were many other women at their time who dealt with infertility, and God did not heal all of them, but he healed these women and reported it in scripture so that we could see how he was dealing with the problem of sin.

When did Sarah have a child? When, as Galatians 3 says, Abraham was preached the gospel beforehand. God preached the gospel to him, telling him that there will be a Savior. When did Hannah receive a child?

When God decided that her child, Samuel, would be the one to herald David, the king who would save the people from their enemies. When did Elizabeth have a child? It was when God decided that John the Baptist would herald Jesus, the final king of Judah, who would save the world from its sins.

Through this theme of infertility in the Bible, through this theme of legacy, God was demonstrating that he was dealing with the problem of sin by sending Jesus Christ. And through Jesus Christ, because the problem of death has been dealt with, because sinners can be forgiven of their sins and not have to suffer the second death where they go to hell eternally, but instead be raised again with new bodies and new life, that means that there is a spiritual family knit together in Christ.

A spiritual family which we can invest in. A spiritual family where we can have a great legacy because Christ has solved the problem of death because he has died for her sins, providing forgiveness for us.

And so that is the first reason, in order to have a spiritual legacy. The second reason why you should spiritually invest in others is because it is strategic spiritual warfare with mercy at the end. It says, but Satan hindered us.

Satan hindered us. Now, most of you probably know who Satan is. He's the chief of the fallen angels. And it says here that he hindered Paul. Now, Paul probably explains this to the Thessalonians so that they can know why it is that Paul sent Timothy and didn't bother coming himself.

Paul doesn't explain to most how Satan hindered him. Maybe Satan used governing authorities to keep Paul from coming. Maybe he threw him into evil activity, prevented Paul's travels. It's uncertain, but what we do know here is that Satan did indeed hinder him.

Now, there are a couple of implications of this. First is that spiritual activity is real. Ephesians 6, 12 says, for we do not have soul against flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, within the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There is a real spiritual battle that is going on. Satan is real. The demons are real. Angels are real. And they are really at work. However, another implication here is that spiritual activity, spiritual warfare is discernible.

Now, you might look at this and say, well, Paul was an apostle. He had supernatural revelation from God. And so that's how he knew that Satan was in love. That very well may be the case. At the same time, we have been told what things God values, what things the enemy values, what the enemy is doing.

And we have been given the means to be able to cautiously discern when Satan and his angels are at work. And so that should not be off limits. We certainly don't want to be the kind of people who see a demon under every rock, right?

Oh, there's a demon in my marriage, or there's a demon who kept my tax return from being as high as it should be. Or there's a demon that calls me to stub my toe. We don't want to do that. But we do want to read Scripture soberly and be sensible people.

Sensible meaning having the sense, like a sixth sense, to tell us what it is to read Scripture and see the spiritual activities happening and to recognize it. The biggest implication for us here is just how valuable this work of spiritually investing into others is.

Satan hindered Paul. Paul wanted to come and invest more in the Thessalonians to secure this legacy. But Satan would prefer that he stay in Athens and away from the Thessalonians. It shows how much he values that.

Consider that, how much Satan values hindering this work of spiritually investing. If you have opportunities to spiritually invest in others, you know who are those people? Ask yourself who it is. And ask yourself also, what would be the enemy's priorities in keeping you from this?

You know, right now, I'm telling you to make spiritual investments in others. And according to the enemy's priorities, he would have you not hear what I'm saying, not apply any of this, to not recognize it, and to discard this truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ has dealt with the problem of death.

And one of those great blessings is that you might have a spiritual legacy, that you might invest in others and have the joyous benefit of the gospel, even have you not know that benefit of the gospel.

Do you remember a few years ago when Bin Laden's compound was discovered? You know, they had this large, large compound. There was no internet connection coming in and out. There were tall walls, even on the balcony, the right balcony still normally has very tall walls.

And they were especially tall because Bin Laden's 6 '4", right? So they had to be a little taller than him. And on top of that, all the neighbors always put their trash out for collection. This compound would always burn their trash.

You know, there were a lot of signs. And you know, all the military intel says the enemy really cares about this place, whatever it is, right? And we're able to go to that place and capture the bomb. Well, we have all the signs right here of what the enemy values.

And it would be profoundly unwise to discard this piece of military intel, this spiritual battle that the enemy values. We know what the enemy values. We know what we want, the United Nations. Make spiritual investments in others.

Do not let the enemy in on you. And recognize that this has profound weight in the spiritual world. Now next, I'd like us to look at verse 19 and 20. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown, for those of you who adore the Lord Jesus at His coming?

Is it not beauty? For you are our glory and joy. Now, you can consider this, for reasons three through five. I'm just going to group them all together. You should spiritually invest in others because they can be your hope, because they can be your joy.

Now, this verse should be fairly surprising if I ask, what is a Christian's hope, joy, and glory? You might give the Sunday school answer, Jesus. And you would be right. And so it is very surprising that Paul would say that Thessalonians are his hope and joy and glory.

You know, as I looked at this in Greek, I found this even a little more surprising because the order of the verse is different. It reads something like this by God would change the order. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown, or boastment?

Is it not you? And then in parenthesis after, before the Lord Jesus at His coming. So Paul says that all without even explaining the Lord Jesus. He just says, you're our hope, and joy, and glory. And then he explains, he qualifies what he's saying.

Before the Lord Jesus at His coming. And before here, this is not referring to temporal antecedents, right? It's not something that comes before in time. He, before means in the face of, in the presence of.

In the Lord coming, even in His presence of Jesus, right? So Paul's talking about being in the presence of Christ. That this is when it will be his hope, his joy, and glory. So very surprising. But let's talk about these one at a time.

So first of all, the Thessalonians are his hope. He is hoping not just for himself to be with Christ. But he is hoping for the Thessalonians to be with Christ. Because he has invested in them. Second Corinthians explains that the Corinthians he considers to be like a virgin.

That he as a father will be presenting to the groom, right? You see a wedding, the father gives away the bride. This is what Paul imagines himself in this metaphor of parenthood and legacy. That he is as a father giving away the bride.

And so his hope is to be able to do that. Be able to see the Thessalonians in the presence of Christ. They are his joy as well. Now certainly Jesus Christ is Paul's joy when Jesus arrives. Paul will be rejoicing that he is in the presence of Jesus.

However, that joy will be magnified by the fact that the Thessalonians will also be in the presence of Jesus. They will also receive new bodies. They will also be resurrected from the dead. Paul as he considers the things in this world, all the various pleasures, etc.

What joy does he ultimately have? All these other things will fade away. The only thing that will stay will be him, Jesus, the Thessalonians. Those who are brothers and sisters that have been led to Christ.

And then he says they will be his glory. Now there has been a theme of glory running through this chapter as well. So let's take a look at verse 6. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have named man as apostles of Christ.

So he is saying that he didn't seek glory from them. But then in verse 12 he says, we exhort each one of you and encourage you and charge you to walk in the manna of the living God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

So he says, we don't want glory from you. We want to bring you into glory. And now he mentions glory again and says, you are our glory. So that whole chain is, we don't want glory from you. We want you to have glory.

Why? Because they are his glory. As they are glorified, as they receive glorified bodies, as they are resurrected from the dead, that will be Paul's glory. It will show, not only that Jesus is glorious, but it will show how glorious Jesus has been in Paul's ministry as he has been witnessing to the Thessalonians and calling them to Christ.

We have opportunities to pour into others. You have opportunities to invest into others. Don't waste this. You know, we usually think of these words, hope, joy, glory, being very individualistic terms, right?

Like our own hope, our own glory. But we can have that hope, joy, glory in others. It can be much greater than just me and Jesus. But me, Jesus, and all my brothers and sisters together who have been built up, even through God working in me.

And you'll probably have noticed that I skipped over this phrase, crown of boasting, because I wanted to leave that for the sixth reason. The sixth reason that you should spiritually invest in others is because they can be your crown of boasting.

This should be another very surprising phrase here. Because boasting is a sin in Christianity, right? Pride is a great sin. And it's something that even distinguishes Christianity from other religions.

Because while other religions may seem to, or say they care about humility, in the end, whatever their equivalent of salvation is, invariably, I'm not aware of any religion where it's otherwise, invariably comes down to what you have done differently than others, right?

Ephesians 2, eight through nine says, where I grace you, I can save your faith. This is not your own doing. This is a gift of God, not out of work, so that you know what to boast. Right? There's no place for boasting in Christianity.

So, how does Paul mention boasting here? Well, there are a few other passages where he mentions it, but I can't clarify what he means. So, in Galatians 6, he says that he boasts in the cross of Christ.

So there, he's not boasting of the Son, he's boasting of Jesus. And first and second Corinthians, he says that those who boast should boast in the Lord. So there, once again, not boasting in the self, but boasting in the Lord.

But yet, this isn't such a simple, you know, boasting in the Lord, this eternal and unchangeable God. It is, it is something more personal, something that involves him. It is his own personal boast. And to illustrate that, some consider first Corinthians 115, where Paul says that if he were to exchange the Gospel of life, then it would ruin his ground for boasting.

You know, he doesn't think it would ruin anyone else's ground for boasting, but he has ground for boasting. In that, God delivering the Gospel through him, if he were to receive pay, he would be saying that, I am going to use my own strength, my own power, and he personally would have lost his ground for boasting.

He says in second Corinthians that he boasts in his weakness. Meaning that when he is especially in need, when he is recognizing not his own strength, but the strength of God, he is able to boast most to the Lord.

So, on one hand, this is a boasting of the Lord. On the other hand, it is a personal boast, because it does have to do with Paul and his use as an instrument of God. He is able to boast to the Lord here, because God is working through him in the lives of the Thessalonians.

And so he will, as he's gathered together with them, be able to boast in what the Lord has done. Not because of what he has done, but because God through him has led the Thessalonians to repentance. You know, the analogy of a crown, Paul uses that mousetrap, for example, in Philippians 4 -1.

He uses that to refer to this victory that he has in there with the Philippians. The Philippians are his crown. These are something that an athlete would have to show that he has been victorious. Paul has his commission from God to go and plant churches, and these, the Thessalonians, the Philippians, and presumably all the other congregations that he's founded, these show that he was victorious, and that God was working through him, that God was producing this victory.

Now, this is not something just for church planters or just for those who are working as evangelists. Consider with me, go ahead and turn there, 1 Corinthians 3. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10, it says, according to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care of how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, but the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, for it only has to fire. Now, maybe you've read that before and been very curious what it's talking about.

Just to summarize here, Paul's saying it, beginning with, he's the builder who lays the foundation, he is bringing people to Christ and teaching them the gospel, they're learning it, and they're being saved, and that's the foundation.

Now, other teachers might come along and build on top of that, and if they build on it poorly, that won't matter, but if they build on it well, that will receive a reward. That is something that will be lasting and eternal, and so the principle I would like to take away from this is that this idea of having legacy, this idea of making spiritual investments in others, that lasts forever, is not something just for evangelists and church planners, but something for you and me and everyone who has an opportunity to invest in brothers and sisters.

Now, has anybody here ever heard of Dick Hoyt, or Team Hoyt, is that, or anything else? Okay, so there's this, and maybe you'll know what I'm talking about when I explain, but there's this man who was famous for having, 32 times, pushed his son in a wheelchair through the Boston Marathon.

Okay, someone who I'm still talking about. Yeah, so he, his son was a, Rick Hoyt, was a quadriplegic who had cerebral palsy, and his father pushed him 32 times through the Boston Marathon. I feel like that is a very good analogy for what we're talking about here when we're talking about boasting the Thessalonians being just crowned boasting.

Rick Hoyt, the quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, you know, he registered for the Boston Marathon. He has 32 medals, I don't know if they really have medals or certificates or whatever, but he has completed the Boston Marathon 32 times without ever lifting a leg, and he is able to boast, and when he boasts, of course, he's not boasting in his own athletic ability because he has none, he has less than, you know, the least of us here, but he's boasting in his heart.

Now, there are some places where this analogy breaks down. The reason why I was thinking about this story is because this past Thursday, just a few days ago, Dick Hoyt, the father, died. And so, though Rick Hoyt, you know, is no longer able to be with his father, he will be with God, and we're boasting him forever.

And Rick Hoyt's certificates or medals will all fade, and eventually, y 'all don't even know where they are. But our crowns of boasting, our medals, will be our living brothers and sisters who will be with us forever and ever, and we will be able to see what God has done in them, through us, and we will be able to rejoice in this amazing blessing of the gospel that we have taken with us, this great legacy that God has worked through us, in them.

Living crowns, living medals. And so, with these six reasons, you ought to persevere, persevere in making spiritual investments. Paul was injured by Satan, and yet he still managed to continue making spiritual investments.

Christ has invested in us, and in doing so, given us a new life, and empowered us to be able to make investments ourselves. So, how do we do that? Well, first of all, is the case with unbelievers. So, as Paul spoke to unbelievers, brings them to Christ, they were his crown of boasting.

You, as you speak to unbelievers, there is a potential there that God could use you to bring this person to Christ. So, do take advantage of those opportunities. You know, it might be uncomfortable now, but imagine that for all of eternity, you would have this living person, this crown of boasting, and you would be able to say, God worked through me, and then, and pray.

Pray for those who do not know Christ. You know, we started praying more frequently on Wednesday nights, or not Wednesday nights, excuse me. We started praying in the home groups more frequently for those who don't know the Lord.

And it's something very valuable to do. One of the most serious times I ever engaged in prayer. Before we started, she was an unbeliever. I thought she was pretty wonderful, and I really wanted God to save her.

And so, I prayed and prayed. That's not something I regret. God answered my prayer. I would encourage you to pray for those who do not know the Lord. They will be your crown of boasting. And for those who are already believers, you can invest in them.

You can build them up, encourage them. You can be present for them. Think of ways that you can be present. You know, there's a lot of opportunities here at this church. There's the Wednesday night prayer meetings.

There's the Sunday school, where there's not always as many people as there could be. Those are times when you could encourage others. Not just by sitting and listening, but there's lots of times to talk to each other, especially in prayer groups.

Consider these opportunities you have to spiritually invest in others. And ask how you can serve. If you come to me or Pastor Josh and ask, we might not have an answer right away, but we will find something, because there's so much around here to do.

Do you remember the Predator principle that 20 of people can be 80 over? There's no reason why we can't find that here now. And I'm telling you these things not as commands, but they are good things to do.

I tell you these things because they are. It is an opportunity. It is a blessing of the gospel that because Jesus Christ has dealt with the problem of death that we are able to make these spiritual investments, that we are able to build a legacy that we will have with us forever.

Consider what wonderful opportunities we have. In the first century, grave goods were still a common practice. You know, like the pharaohs would do, where they would keep a lot of stuff with them and they would take it to the afterlife.

And Christians are concerned at all because they wouldn't have grave goods, right? Because they knew that they couldn't take physical things along with them. But they did not do that because they didn't think they couldn't take anything with them, right?

They knew that what they would be able to take with them would be the resurrected body and the resurrected bodies and the lives of their brothers and sisters in Christ. They couldn't take the physical legacy behind but they could take spiritual legacy with them.

And that is precisely what we should do. And so consider these six reasons once again. You can have a spiritual legacy. That's why you should invest in, you should invest in spiritually not your brothers and sisters because you can have a spiritual legacy because of the strategic spiritual warfare because they can be your hope, your joy, your crown of boasting, and your glory.

Because of sin, mankind separated from God has no hope. Mankind, apart from any salvation because of the problem of death can only attempt to leave legacy behind, often fail, and that legacy will fade and that person will not be able to take it with them.

And what's more, because of such a death they will suffer eternal hell. But God has provided a way of escape. God has provided this son of Jesus Christ who has died for us solving the problem of death so that we might live again and might live with those that we have invested into because of Jesus Christ and his wonderful gospel.

We can have a legacy. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you for all the blessings of the gospel many of which we do not consider. Having a spiritual legacy, pray that you would empower us by your Holy Spirit that we would be a thriving kingdom and that we would be able to enjoy you when we see you but not just enjoy you but to enjoy you as we see you in others and how you have worked through us in others.

It may be as it says in the Gospel of Luke 1, Sing, O very one who did not bear, for he forth is singing and crying about you who have not been in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Lord. Jesus.