Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Will Your Legacy Be? | Torah | Genesis 25:1-11

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

What will you be remembered for when you die? For your achievements? Your wealth? Your athleticism? The way you looked? In today's episode, Jensen looks at Abraham's death in Genesis 25:1-11 and discusses his legacy of faith. Will people remember you for your faith? Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 25:1-11 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. America's sweetheart, Betty White, passed away at 99 years old on New Year's Eve, just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday. Celebrity deaths aren't new to our front page news, but I'll be honest, the loss of Betty White hit me and many others differently. It could have been because of how long she had been in the spotlight. It could have been that she played some of the most beloved characters. But I think most would agree it was just because she was always someone you love to watch. She was kind and funny and endearing.

And honestly, she was pretty unproblematic. She was so beloved that on what would have been her 100th birthday, people wanted to do something to celebrate her life, even though she was still gone. It was well known that Betty White was an advocate. for animal rights. And so on January 17, 2022, animal shelters and organizations around the world saw an incredible influx of donations in honor of Betty White. Calgary Humane Society posted that they'd received $91,845 in donations as part of the Betty White Challenge. The Nashville Humane Society raised $1,100 in 17 minutes. And before the challenge was over, they had received around 30,000 and donations. That's just two of many stories of these donations. See, Betty White had a lasting

impact on the world around her. She left a legacy that will continue to make the world a better place far beyond the 99 years she was alive. Legacy matters. And right now, we're halfway through Genesis, and today we've reached the end of Abraham's story. Genesis 257. These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. In the entire account of Abraham's death, we never find out how he died. It's not what the author found important. Instead, the author chooses to focus on what Abraham left behind, his children and descendants. They give a detailed account of everyone who comes after him.

What was important at the end of Abraham's life was what he had left behind and what God was going to do through his family. From Abraham would come the nation of Israel and eventually with the life of Jesus, the culmination of God's redemptive story for the entire world. That's a legacy. But even more than that, Abraham left a legacy of faith. I know we've talked about the passages in Hebrew 11 before, but I want to take a closer look at what these passages have to say about Abraham and his legacy of faith. If you aren't familiar, Hebrews 11 is oftentimes referred to as the Hall of Faith. It's a chapter in the New Testament where the author of Hebrews highlights a list of people from the Old Testament and notes their incredible faith.

Their stories are there to encourage and to challenge believers in their faith. We're going to take a look at Abraham's legacy of faith, and as I'm reading these passages, try to listen for why Abraham did what he did. What was it that motivated his faith? By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Later in verse 17 we read, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named? He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did not receive him back. So the author chooses to highlight two moments in Abraham's life where he showed incredible faith. The first, when he was called by God to leave his homeland and trust God despite not knowing where he was headed to.

And the second, when he was told to sacrifice his only son, his promised son. I don't know if you were able to catch it, but in both accounts of Abraham's life, the author tells us the reasons why Abraham was able to be faithful in these. moments to God's call. See, when God called him to leave his home, he was faithful because he was looking forward to a future city. They tell us this city's designer and builder is God. See, he had faith that God would provide an even better city than his homeland someday. And when he was called to sacrifice Isaac, he was willing to do so because he had faith that God had promised to provide nations through Isaac. He knew that he was called to sacrifice Isaac. He knew that

if this was what God was calling him to, then God had the power to raise him to life again. At the end of Abraham's life, we don't get a reminder of his wealth, although he had it. We don't get a snapshot of all the things he had accomplished. We aren't told what his IQ was, or if he was really good at sports, or how popular he was in high school. Yes, I know those things didn't exist then, but you get my point, right? At the end of his life, what mattered was Abraham's legacy of faith. Abraham had a greater hope in Christ, and it changed his life. It has impacted the world for good for generations and generations.

Dallas Willard, he's an American philosopher, and he spent a lot of his life writing about spiritual formation. And as I was thinking about the way that Abraham lived his life and the legacy that he left, I was reminded of this quote from Willard. The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds. This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to him.

In the early time of our practicing, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits, not the law of gravity, and they can be broken. A new grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps towards keeping God before us. Soon, our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north. If God is the great longing of our souls, he will become the pole star of our inward beings. It's a long quote, I know, but it's good. That last line, if God is the great longing of our souls, he will become the pole star of our inward beings. If we keep God's promises at the forefront of our minds, his promise of a future city, his promise that he will

live with us and he will be our king, if we keep these before us constantly, then our lives, they're going to change slowly over time. But the knowledge of who God is and what he promises has the power to affect our daily lives. It's what we're called to. Abraham knew of the hope he had in God's promises and it changed the way he lived. At the end of his life, what mattered was the legacy of faith that he left behind. What kind of legacy are you leaving? Is it a faithful life? When you think about how you spend your time, the things you give your attention to, the things that you think about and ruminate on, are they leading you to a more faithful life? See, maybe if you're honest, you spend most of your time trying to get ahead at work and be the best at what you do so that people will recognize you in your field. Maybe you spend most of your time thinking about how to gain wealth, how much you should invest, how to max out your retirement accounts,

and how to make sure you end this life with as much money as possible. Or maybe you spend your time trying to look your best. You work out, spend money on expensive clothes and beauty regimen so that you can pull a Jennifer Aniston and beat the aging clock. What you give your time and attention and affection to, how you're building your daily life has a lot to say about the legacy you'll leave behind. Is the way that you live your life today setting you up, up to leave a legacy of faith or a legacy of self? See, when we live lives hoping to leave behind a

legacy of faith, we're living lives with an eternal impact. As wonderful as Betty White's impact was, as incredible as it is that animal shelters got the donations they need to do restorative work in this world, how much greater could her legacy have been if she had used her position to point people to the promises of the gospel. In 100 years, people probably won't remember if you were a hard worker or if you were really smart. They won't remember if you were the star athlete or if you looked 30 at 50 or if you had more money than you could ever imagine. If the focus of your life is you, then you're spending your days building a legacy that won't last. What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

A few years back, my friend had a family member pass away. She had been a member of her church, very involved, volunteering and serving when she could. It was an unexpected loss. She was young, and it had been a freak accident. In a second, she was gone. And after she passed away, my friend told me that the people in her community flooded social media with stories of her life and the different ways that she had impacted them for the better. The common thread that was woven throughout her family and friends' memories

was her love for Jesus. Every single post highlighted that she was who she was because she loved Jesus and she wanted the people around her to love Jesus too. And in her death, so many people heard the gospel being shared through the testament of her life shared by her family and friends. Is that the legacy I'm leaving? Do I live my daily life in such a way? Loving the people around me, giving my time to things that matter,

do my habits and my life remind and point people to the promises of God? What kind of legacy would you leave today? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? Maybe you want to leave behind a legacy like this, but you think you're too far gone. You've made too many mistakes, you're too set in your life trajectory to leave that kind of legacy. Well, the good news is that leaving a legacy of faith doesn't mean living a perfect life. If you've been listening along to this series, you know that Abraham was far from perfect.

He made mistakes, lots of them, big ones. But his legacy in Hebrews 11, it's still one of faith. No one is ever going to live a perfect life. but what we can do is fight to live faithful ones. We can do what Dallas Willard encourages us to. We can live lives with God at the forefront of our minds, not ourselves, not lesser things. We can constantly come back to who God is and what he has promised. We can fight to form habits that show the love of God through our daily lives

so that one day we can leave behind a legacy that makes our friends and our family look back and see that God was the greatest longing of our souls, the pole star of our inward being. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.