Hope Church LV Sermons
AWAKEN :: GENE APPEL
C'mere, c'mere. Well hello hope. Vance, I don't know about you, but I preach better when J. Teddy Johnson leads the worship. Ha! Let it joy, let it joy. You know, thank you for those nice, very kind words. Man, I got a choir behind me, it's been a long time since I've had a choir behind me. You gonna Amen Bob? Amen, okay. The great thing about being away from a city for ten years since I've left Las Vegas is people remember you a lot better than you really were. And so I'm just soaking up all the lies and enjoying every minute of it. You have no idea how honored I am to be here. I've been looking forward to this, it's been quite a long time since Vance invited me to come and I've had it circled on my calendar and just have been praying and looking forward to this for many months. I love this church and this is a very special and it's a strategic church in the kingdom of God. And I mean, do you realize what God has done in a very short history in this church? It's just amazing. In 11 years, you know, I think he planted like 240 churches or something. And this is one of the great churches in America. You need to know that. And you know, sometimes you're so close to the miracle, you lose sight of the magnitude of the miracle. And I hope you never lose sight of the magnitude of the miracle that God is doing at Hope Church and will continue to do. And if you don't know it, you need to know you have one of the great pastors in America today and you really do. And give the love, give the love. I'm sure glad you responded that way. I have so much respect for your pastor, for his leadership, for his humility, for his teaching, for his family, for his global heart. And I'm not a prophet, but I can tell you something I absolutely know to be true. The greatest days of Hope Church are still ahead of it. And you are needed in this Las Vegas, you're needed in the world now more than ever. And on a personal note, I just got to say it's a real blast from the past to be here and to see a number of people that I know and love. I came to Las Vegas as a 25-year-old pastor. I could barely shave. And I was like 10 or 15 years ago now. And some of the people in this room, man, they loved me and encouraged me and prayed for me and tolerated me. And I met my wife Barbara in Las Vegas, all three of our children were born in Las Vegas. And I'd love to stay in touch with many of you. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, I'm easy to find. So let's connect there. And very fun to see so many new faces and meet so many new people, too. And I know many of you, we're not familiar with me, and already you're going like, "Is that his real voice? Does Gene Apple really sound that way?" And I told your audio, guys, I'd give them a hundred bucks if they could make me sound like Barry White tonight, kind of Jesus loves your baby or something like that. But instead, when God was giving out voices, I got one that sounds like he's been inhaling helium for four days, so that's what you've got. And hey, I know a lot of you get to Southern California from time to time, and if you do, come over to Anaheim and see us at East Side Church. Leave your tie that hope, but come see us at East Side, and we'd love to have you visit when you're over some time. Hey, I want to get started tonight by playing a name association game, okay, a little interactive. I'm going to say the name of someone who's fairly well-known, and then I want you to repeat back to me, shout back to me what they're well-known for, okay? So I say the name, you say what they're well-known for, okay? So let's start with John Grisham. Books, yeah, novels, I love John Grisham books. How about Frank Lloyd Wright, architecture, okay, how about Oprah, talk show, TV, money, I heard that, clean of the world, how about Mother Teresa, yes, Saint Mercy, caring for the poor, how about Beyonce, yeah, music, you know, I got a little beyond, if you like you should have put a ring on it, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, don't encourage me, don't encourage me. How about Kobe Bryant, how about Kim Kardashian, yeah, that's a little bit of a mystery to me too, okay, now my point is, everybody is known for something, when people hear your name, you're known for something, when people hear my name, I'm known for something, we're all known for something, friend of mine sent me an obituary from the New York Times a while back and it just had two sentences in it, it said Victor Dorman, who changed the way Americans buy cheese by putting paper between the slices as chairman of the Dorman Cheese Company, died on March 4 at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, he was 80. Now my friend also discovered that Mr. Dorman had been a naval officer, that he had been a philanthropist, he lived quite a life actually, but at the end of 80 years of life he was remembered as the man who put paper between slices of cheese, that's what he was known for, attended a funeral while back, buddy of mine, his dad had died and his dad was like a big league hitter in the business world and he hit grand slams professionally his entire adult life, and when he was remembered at the funeral he was honored for three things and only three things, golf, money and power, and I remember leaving the funeral sad that day because here was my buddy thinking he didn't have anything more of substance to remember his dad by, that's what he was known for, what do you want to be known for? What do you want your legacy to be with your life? You know I think from the time that we're a kid we all have these irrational dreams of greatness, we all want to grow up to do something great, you know, I dream of being president of the United States someday, I dream of being a Super Bowl quarterback someday, a gold medal at the Olympics someday, nobody grows up and says I dream of being vice president of the United States someday, I dream of being a third string quarterback for UNLV someday, nobody has those dreams, there's something intrinsic in the human spirit that just kind of pulls us, that draws us to destiny, to greatness, to purpose and friends listen to me, stretching out in front of you right now and stretching out in front of me right now is almost an entire new year, stretching out in front of us right now is the rest of our lives all of which is still unwritten, all of which still has to be determined and there's a legacy that you're going to write with your life and there's a legacy that I'm going to write with my life and I want to just ask you a question and I'm not trying to freak you out, I'm not trying to be morbid, I'm just trying to help you gain clarity, if 2013 were your last year on this planet, what would you want to be known for? How would you want to be remembered? What would you want your legacy to be? It's not an idle question, 2012 last year for Whitney Houston, Jenny Rivera, Andy Griffith, Norman Shortskoff, the children of Newtown and so before we conclude tonight I'm going to ask you to take a pen or a pencil and you have a card on the seat where you came in and you sat down and I'm going to ask you to write a legacy statement, I'm going to ask you to write down what you would like to be known for with your life but before we write that down I think it would be good for us to take some time to think about what is legacy worthy? What is worthy of being known for? I copied an article out of the Chicago Tribune a few years ago and the headline that caught me in this article was "Architect's Legacy Going Up in Smoke." The article was written about a world famous architect of a century ago named Louis Sullivan who at one time had over 120 buildings on the skyline of Chicago and in the last year, a year earlier than this article had been written, there were 23 buildings left but three had gone up in smoke that year in fire and so thus the title, "Architect's Legacy Going Up in Smoke" and the phrase that just haunted me from that title was "Legacy Going Up in Smoke," "Legacy Going Up in Smoke" and I thought what is it that I give my time to, my days to, my energy to, my resources to, it's just going to go up and smoke someday and it isn't even going to matter someday. Is it legacy worthy? What legacy am I leaving with my one and only life? And I guess what's really at the heart of the question that I'm trying to get you to think about tonight is what is the supreme legacy that you can write with your life, the supreme legacy? Anybody curious about that? The Bible answers that question and it comes down to three primary things. Everything in life comes down to three primary things. There are hundreds of thousands of buildings in this world, architectural marvels in this world and every building, including this one, just comes down to three primary things, line, angle, curve. There are thousands of colors in this world. Just go into any paint store and check it out. Go ask Sherwin Williams. There are thousands of colors to choose from but every color comes down to three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, primary things. Now the Bible says when it comes to writing your legacy, if you want to leave a legacy that will outlast your life, it comes down to three primary things. There are three primary things. There's line, angle, curve, red, yellow, blue. What are the three primary things that will outlast your life? What are the three primary things that will remain when you're gone? 1 Corinthians 13, 13. And now these three remain. Hear that word remain. Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Friends, these are the three primary things. Line, angle, curve, red, yellow, blue, faith, hope and love. These are the three big ones. First, there's faith. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. We are saved by faith. Through this wonderful grace that Jesus Christ gives us. A person's connection with God is dependent on faith. So faith is very big. And then there's hope. You cannot survive the curve balls. You cannot survive the valleys. You cannot survive the divorces. You cannot survive the difficulties. You cannot survive the illnesses. The heartbreaks of life that just hammer you without a sure hope. And the Bible says that God has given us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's a living hope. And so hope is huge. But then there's love. These three remain. Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. The very next verse in 1 Corinthians 14 one says, let love be your highest goal. Let love be the loftiest pursuit. Let love be the greatest aim of your life. Love is the supreme legacy that anybody can leave with their lives. Now, many of you are familiar with this verse. But if you ever wondered why a faith, hope and love, love is the greatest. Here's why. Because while these three remain on earth after you die, while this can be the legacy that you leave of faith, hope and love. Love is the only one of those three that you take with you to the other side of the grave. When you get to heaven, you're not going to need any faith. You're going to see Jesus face to face. No faith. When you get to heaven, you're not going to need any hope because there's no tears. There's no sickness. There's no death in heaven. In heaven, the thing that is going to be present there is just love because God is love as we see in Jesus Christ. That's why the greatest of these is love. When you think of Kobe Bryant, you think of basketball, when you think of John Grisham, you think of books and novels, when you think of Oprah, you think of TV. You know what I'm wondering? I'm wondering when people think of you, when people think of me, if any of us have a name that is synonymous with love. When our kids were little and we were living in Vegas, we went over to Southern Cal one time to take them to Disneyland. And many of you have made that trip, you know, Disneyland, the most expensive, I mean, happiest place on earth. And we had one of these days where it felt like everybody on the planet was at Disneyland that day. You know what it is? I mean, it was just everybody on the planet was there. And after the full day of waiting in Disneyland lines and fighting Disneyland crowds and paying Disneyland prices, I was just absolutely numb. I mean, you've heard of an out of body experience. I was having an out of money experience. And so we were staying at a nearby hotel. At the end of the day, Barbara and I took the kids and we were standing waiting for a shuttle bus that would take us to our hotel. And I looked at the crowd waiting for the bus and thought about the size of the bus, and I realized there's more people here than there's going to be room on this bus. And so when that bus pulled up, man, I had one kid and one arm, Barbara had another kid and the other arms, and I rushed onto the bus right away. I sat down in the front row of the seat, Barbara sat down, we had our kids, people started coming on, filling up the bus, and they started standing in the aisles. And then at the very end, this guy got on the bus and a little family came on and he was carrying a little baby in his arms, probably, I don't know, 10 to 12 months old in his arms. And so I'm sitting down and I'm looking up at him. He's got this baby in his arms. And you know what my first thought was? I'm sure glad I got here first. Sucks to be you, man. So I'm just sitting there basking in this universe called Gene. I mean, I'm just, you know, all feeling it. And then the guy across the aisle from me, who was sitting over there with his family, he stands up and he says, he says, oh, please, take my seat. Please sit right here. And the guy goes, the guy goes, oh, no, I really, I couldn't do that. He goes, oh, no, I would sure feel better if you were sitting here while you held that precious cargo in your arms. I felt about this tall, because sometimes I don't love very well. Sometimes I can be the most self-absorbed, narcissistic person on the face of the earth. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, one, he says, if I speak in human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. He's saying, if I have speaking abilities that can mesmerize thousands of people, if I master 24 in languages, if I become known as a great communicator but I don't love, I'm only a cacophony of noise. He goes on to say, if I have the gift of prophecy, and if I can fathom all mysteries, if I can fathom all knowledge, he's saying there, if I graduate magna cum laude, if I am a member of Mensa, if I have so many degrees after my name, they call me a thermometer. If I have the Bible memorized, if I can split theological hairs 20 different ways but I don't love, I am nothing and he continues, if I have faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I don't love all that I say that I believe, all the spiritual convictions that I hold are useless and he continues, if I give everything I own to the poor. Friends, I can give extravagant amounts of money away to people in this broken world who are in need but if I do it out of prestige or I do it out of power or I do it out of pressure or I do it out of guilt or and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr but I don't love, I've got nowhere. So no matter what I say, what I believe and what I do, I am bankrupt without love. To sum it up, God says, I can have the eloquence of an orator, I can have the faith of a miracle worker, I can have the generosity of a philanthropist, I can have the dedication of a martyr burned at the stake for telling people about Jesus but if I do all of that without love, it adds up to a big fat zero in my life. These three remain, faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love and listen, for love to be of any value, it has to be expressed. What good is unexpressed love? Here's a verse all of us ought to memorize, Galatians 5, 6, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love, it's the only thing. I had a blast from the past just a couple years ago for Thanksgiving, I was in Lincoln, Illinois which is the town that I was born and raised in and I grew up in and we were at one of my sister's house for the Thanksgiving meal and another sister who lives in that town who's a realtor said hey did you know the house that we grew up in is for sale right now and I said it is, I said could we go see it, it was vacant, nobody was living there and she said let me check and she called the listing agent and on Thanksgiving day we went and I took my kids through the house that I'd grown up in, hadn't been in that house for over 30 years, been a brand new house when we moved into it, I was one years old and this is the house right there and that's me with my dad and I want you to notice the purple Schwinn stingray in the background, shock absorber on the front of that baby, banana seed, oh yeah, that was all there, that's the house that I grew up in and you know to be honest with you what surprised me about this house was how little had changed, still had the same kitchen cabinets, still had the same built-in furniture in the family room, still had the same ugly murals on the basement walls, still had the same pewkey pink ceramic tile and toilet and sink in the bathroom, anybody else grew up with that pewkey pink ceramic bathrooms, what were people thinking, come on now, that house is over 50 years old now and basically nothing in the house has changed, but it evoked a lot of emotion in me that took me by surprise, I don't know what kind of memories the house that you grew up in would evoke in you and I'm sure for many of you in this room that house would evoke some painful memories, but in spite of all the family squabbles that we had in that house, in spite of the day my brother Mike dripped blood all over the house when he accidentally shot a bullet through his finger, spite of all the times that my brother Greg would dunk my head in that pink toilet, true story, which explains a lot, the overwhelming feeling that I had in that house that day is this is a place where I felt loved, this is a place where I felt like I was treasured, this is a place where I felt like I mattered, and call it corny, but I stood in that living room and I could remember when I was four, five, six, seven years old, crawling up on my dad's lap when he sat in his lazy boy and even though my dad has been dead now for over 38 years, I could feel his arm around my shoulder, I could feel the texture of his skin, I recalled the size of his hand and the touch of his love and it was powerful to me. I stood in the kitchen where we had had hundreds of meals as a family and in our family there were six kids, I'm the youngest of six, so eight of us in the house and the one meal that was required for everybody to be at together every day was breakfast because we all went a bunch of different ways, but we all had breakfast together every day and every day at the end of that breakfast my dad, a man's man, a leader's leader, a guy bigger than life to me would humbly take a Bible and he would open it and he'd read a few sentences or a paragraph of scripture and then he would take a devotional guide and he would read a little paragraph thought there and he would lead our family in prayer. Now honestly I don't remember a single one of those devotionals, but his legacy of faith and his legacy of hope and his legacy of love marked my life and I walked out of that house at 295 Southgate Street in Lincoln, Illinois on that Thanksgiving Day praying, "Oh God may the kids who've grown up in my house and who are eating around our table and sitting on my lap, may they get a legacy of love placed in them like that." Friends again I'm not trying to wig you out, I've just got to ask you again before you put pen to paper and you write a legacy statement, "If this year were your last on the planet, what would you want to be known for? What would you want your legacy to be? How would you want to be remembered?" That's not an idle question because one year will be your last. Sometimes death comes when children are just infants. Sometimes death comes in the prime of a person's life like it did for my dad, died of a heart attack. Sometimes in a few cases people live to be a hundred, it's like the 95-year-old reminds me who was saying one day, "I hope I die pretty soon," or "All my friends who are already in heaven are going to think I didn't make it." Heather and Eric Jacobs lived outside of Des Moines, Iowa with their four little boys and a fifth child on the way, all the boys under seven years of age when Eric at the age of 31 was on a small plane that crashed in Indiana cornfield and took his life. And before that fatal day Eric left an important message to his family and with Heather's permission I want to tell you their story as it was shared on a Des Moines, Iowa television station. >> Hi, I can always remember telling me that Eric's a perfect man, so you make me sick. He's the perfect man. >> Heather Jacobs was in grade school the first time she laid eyes on Eric, their fathers worked together. >> So we were always at the company, pick makes the company events together and I always asked my parents, "Are the Jacobs going to be there?" Because I wanted to see Eric, so I had a crush on him from elementary school. >> They never really got to know each other, going to rival high schools in Waterloo. >> I was from East and he was from West, so he liked to say I was from the bad side of the tricks. >> But at age 16 they did meet. Typical high school sweethearts come and go with the seasons, rarely do dates from senior prom make it all the way to a family picture. >> And they still say that to this day, they still say, "You know you always had the perfect man." >> They married while students at Iowa State, same major, same classes. After graduation came the boys, four energetic sons, baby number five is due in January. Looking at the family pictures there's no reason to doubt this Ankeny family was very, very happy together. >> And it was supposed to be Eric's last business trip prior to the delivery. So he wasn't going to fly anymore. >> The night of November 13th, Eric was with three fellow employees from two rivers marketing and Des Moines onboard a twin-engine Cessna that crashed into an Indiana farm field killing everyone onboard. >> I'm very grateful and I do feel blessed to have had it in my life. The news was devastating but with four boys and a baby on the way, Heather's first thought was not her personal grief. >> I need to make their life as normal as possible. I feel like they've already lost one parent. They can't lose another to someone who just can't get out of bed or every day. >> Suddenly a single parent Heather was without Eric for the first time in 15 years before active kids in another just weeks away. But soon after her husband's death, she found help for the future from a very unexpected person. >> Hello everybody, if you're watching this something bad has probably happened to me. >> Eric had left a message on a DVD Heather found in their fire safe at home on top of his will. >> As soon as I saw it, immediately a very vague memory came back to me. >> She recalled a night the summer when she awoke to Eric climbing back into bed. >> And he said, I had this terrible dream, I had a dream that I died at a young age. And I just felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to create a video for you guys. And I said, don't worry about it, I love you, don't worry about it, just forget, forget. And I did. I completely forgot. I had no memory whatsoever of that until I saw the DVD. >> I had all these instructions to go through my mind on what I would say, like on my last day of dying. I don't know if this is God's way of saying record this and it was divinely inspired or if I'm just paranoid or what so I wanted to record my thoughts while I had them. >> I feel like something's going to happen to me, this is kind of weird that I'm even doing this and I just feel very strongly about it. And he said if something does happen to me, this is proof that the Holy Spirit was working through me tonight and that there is a plan. >> For 40 minutes sitting at his computer's webcam in the kids' toy room, Eric in the middle of the night speaks about his faith, his hopes for his family, and gives personal messages to his kids, wife, relatives, and friends. >> I want you to show this to people to witness to them because my life was cut short or if the kids at the house are getting rid of this tape, but if the kids are still around, then you're going to need some of this instruction. >> He cries and says this is so hard for me, but then he smiles and he even has humor in the video and as he says, don't feel sorry for me, don't feel bad for me, I'm somewhere wonderful. Be sad that I'm gone, but don't feel sorry for me because I'm happy where I'm at. I didn't want to leave you now, but it was my time. >> It's an unbelievably comforting message for his children, but Heather has yet to show the full tape to any of her sons until she gets the okay from her child's therapist. >> You think the video is a very precious gift that we will always have and an instruction that he has even for the boys in the video is something that will grow with them through time. >> After the loss of their father at such a young age, the Jacobs boys will rely on videotapes and pictures that most every 21st century family can now rely on, but they will also have their father's instruction about where he is gone, instruction he started teaching them long before he made the DVD. >> They talk at least once a day, if not more than that, about how Dad is in heaven and it was something that Eric talked to him about all the time, about how wonderful heaven is and how it's anything you want it to be, it's a party, it's eternity and it's wonderful, and I think you talked about it so much that they were comfortable with it in the sense of knowing that Dad is in a great place. >> Mark Toshak, Channel 13 News. >> That's mysterious, isn't it? And I've spent some time with Heather working on a video project to help extend the legacy of Eric's life and she allowed me the privilege of watching the entire 40-minute DVD that he left to his family and friends that just helped vividly clarify what's at stake and what matters in our lives every single day. Eric got the faith dimension of his life straightened out and sorted out. He took that seriously and he pursued a relationship with God with all of his heart, the God who was so crazy about him, he gave his son for him. And there was no doubt where Eric had put his hope and it wasn't in money and it wasn't in his career and it wasn't in success, but his hope was looking forward to a much greater place in heaven some day. And he took the time to do what we often procrastinate doing. He expressed the words of love to the people in his life who mattered the most to him, his friends, his family, his coworkers and especially his kids and his wife. Having lost my dad as a child, I know firsthand there's challenging times ahead for those boys and their little sister Ella who was born a few months after Eric's death who will never know their dad. I know they will miss their dad every single day of their life, but I also know Eric wrote a legacy of faith, hope and love, the primary things that remain that will never go up in smoke some day. Friends, I'll tell you why it's important to do what we're going to do before we leave here tonight and to take a moment and write this legacy statement because we have demonstrated over and over and over again in our lives what great procrastinators we are. Maybe the most dangerous word in all the English language is someday. Someday I'm going to be the dad, the mom that I've always intended to be. Someday I'm going to go on a spiritual journey. I'm going to give serious attention to the spiritual dimension of my life. Someday I'm going to slow down and I'm going to enjoy the loved ones in my life. Someday I'm going to take and get involved in a small group of church. Someday I'm going to get a serving team. Someday I'm going to do that. Someday I'm going to ask God to use me in some foreign country or some compassion project of some kind. Someday, someday, someday, someday. Someday maybe I'll receive the amazing grace of Jesus Christ into my life. Friends what if Eric Jacobs had led and laid in bed that night when he got that nudge from the Holy Spirit, many of you know what it is this month as you're opening yourself up to God for awakening in your life. You know what it is to get those nudges and to hear those whispers. What if he had laid in bed some nights that make a video for my family. Good idea. I think I'll do that someday, someday. You want to know three words that can revolutionize your life? Here they are, start right now, just start right now. Many of you in this room all bed in a crowd this size you have yet to get the whole faith dimension of your life figured out. Why wouldn't you start right now pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ? You say, well I don't even know if I believe in God, I don't know, well then start asking the right questions, start reading the right books, start listening to some CDs and podcasts, start engaging in conversation, open up this book and let it speak to you. Faith comes from hearing the word of God, get into it, get the faith dimension of your life settled. Just start right now. Why wouldn't you want to do that? Many of you, some of you in this room of this year where you're last, if you were honest about it, you'd have to say you don't know what kind of hope awaits you beyond the grave. You're not even sure. What if you started right now? Did your loved ones have the kind of confidence that Eric's family has about where you are in the life beyond? Would they really? What if you started right now and tonight invited the living hope, Jesus Christ, to be the leader of your life, to trust his resurrection from the grave to be your hope? I'll tell you, when you experience the love of heaven and when you experience the love of God that comes from putting your faith in him, he gives you capacity to love other people, he gives you capacity to extend love to others. Honestly, when people think of your name, do they think of love? Are you writing a legacy of love? Eric Jacobs did and you could too. As I said, I had the opportunity to watch that entire video. His comments to his brothers and sisters, his parents, people that he worked with, talking to them about how much he wanted them to come to know Jesus Christ and his grace in their life. And there's a segment that I want to show you right now with Heather's permission that is so emotionally charged and raw that I honestly debated about whether it was appropriate to show it or not because I don't in any way want to be manipulative and after praying and thinking about it a while, I finally came to the conclusion it's too important not to show you because friends sometimes we just need our bellrong. We need our bellrong about what really matters and so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to show you this clip of Eric's last words to his family and then the lights are going to remain dim in the room and it's going to be eerily silent in here and I'm going to ask you to sit in that awkward silence for a few moments and just open yourself up to say, "Okay, God, what are you trying to say to me right now? What is it you're trying to do in my life right now? I'm going to ask you to listen to the voice of God." So let's look at Eric's last words and then you pay attention to what God's saying to you. Heather, I'm going to end because I have pulled it together. I'm going to end on you. I love you. You really love my life. My two best days in the world I guess was first the day I met you. That was my first best day, but the second best is the day I married you, pull it together. Oh, God, the day I married you was the best day, the second best day of my life. The next four days as of this point and the fifth day if it happens after this video or the birth of my boys and the new over that fifth baby is, that was my fifth best or seventh best day. You guys, my family means so much to me. You guys are close second to God, but you made a whole lot to me. All right, I'm signing off. Wow, I didn't think I was going to cry when I made this video, but I guess I did. I love you. I want to end by saying, I love you. Goodbye. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Let's bow our heads together. Gang, this is the stuff that really matters. So what kind of legacy are you going to write with your life? Will it be a legacy of primary things, things that will outlast your life? We're going to in just a few moments, take some time to write our legacy statements. And you know, I don't want this to leave you in a sad place. That's not my intention at all. My intention is to inspire you to go to a strategic place in your life. My intention is to lift you to a legacy building place in your life. To a place of meaning, to a place of purpose, to a place of destiny. To God's best for your life. So I want to pray right now and then in a moment, we're just going to take some time and we're going to write our legacy statement. God, once in a while, we need something that rings our bell. We need something that grabs our attention and refuses to allow us the luxury of ignoring that which matters most. And I thank you for the clarity of the truth of your words, sometimes just simple words that come with such clarity that reminds us what remains long after we're gone, faith and hope and love. And God, I pray that you would inspire us now. I pray that you would lift us now to this clarifying place. I pray that this would be a redefining moment in the lives of many individuals and the lives of many people throughout this room and the lives of families throughout this room and the lives of husbands and wives and moms and dads and sons and daughters as we consider writing our legacy. May we pay attention to what it is your Holy Spirit is saying to us and respond to it and I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So I'm going to ask you to take that card that you have and maybe you have something to write with, maybe you don't, maybe somebody near with you could share something to write and I want you to think about what you're going to write on that card. This is your time. The rest of your life is still unwritten. I'll tell you what I wrote on my card. I wrote out of love for the God who loved me first. I will leave a legacy of loving leadership with my wife, family, church and relationships. Out of love for the God who loved me first, I will leave a legacy of loving leadership with my wife, family, church and relationships. Maybe you're going to say, you know, I want to be remembered as a fun, caring, faith-filled dad or I want to be a person who invested in some of the broken and forgotten and marginalized victims of oppression in this world. Maybe you'll write, I want to have a heart of generosity for anyone that comes in contact with my life. I don't know what it is. God speaks to us in different ways and you can blow this time off, you know, and you can say, "Oh, good idea, Jean. I really like that card idea. I'm going to do that tomorrow," or you could start right now. Let's all just take a moment right now. Share your pens and pencils if you have to. I want to encourage you when you have this filled out, put it in a special place. I mean, maybe you're going to want to tape it in the front of your Bible. Maybe you want to put it on the dashboard of your car, maybe you want to take a picture of it and make it your screensaver. Maybe you want to put it on your nightstand or magnet to the refrigerator. Put it somewhere so you remember what matters. You know, God wrote a legacy of love for you. God wrote a legacy of love on the cross by sending his son, Jesus Christ. And many of you could start right now by just responding to whatever God's doing in your life, and I'm going to ask Pastor Vance to come up, I'm going to ask you all to just stand with us right now, would you just stand. I'm going to ask your pastor to talk to you for just a moment about maybe how you need to respond in faith or in hope or in love tonight. We ask God in preparation for these days to just open our eyes. I don't know about you and where you are tonight, but there are two phrases that Gene used that are ringing in my ears, and it's that phrase someday, and that phrase start right now. What are the things that are for you in the someday category that tonight need to move into the start right now category? We're about to have a time of worship. We're going to sing a song of worship, and it's something that we do at Hope often at the end of our services, and hope people you know this. This is not a time when we slip out early. This is a time for us to really worship God and respond to what God said through his word. If you're here tonight and God's deeply convicted you about an area in your life that you need to surrender to him, or there's a burden on your heart, and you just want to be a lone with God. During these days we've taken these front steps here at the front, and we've kind of converted them into an old-fashioned altar. While we're singing and worshiping God, if you want to come and just be alone with God, you can just come and you can just kneel right here, and just be alone with God and cry out to him. We have some pastors that are going to be here to the front on both sides. I'm going to be here in the middle. While we're worshiping God, if God's spoken to you and you need to pray with somebody, you need somebody to pray for you, or you're somebody tonight, you're ready to give your life to Jesus, and you'd like to talk with somebody about that? As Jean talked about a moment ago, while we're singing, you just come take one of these pastors by the hand and say, "Hey, I need Jesus tonight," or, "Hey, here's what I need you to pray for me," and we'd be honored to pray for you for the rest of us, let this song be a time for you to worship, for you to think about what God has spoken into your life, and the lay your life fresh down before Him. [MUSIC PLAYING]