Summary: When's the last time you've seriously thought about your funeral? How do you want to be remembered by those you leave behind? If you were to write a eulogy for your own funeral, would what you say? What would you like to be included in your obituary? What would you choose for your epitaph?

These are seemingly morbid questions, especially in a culture desperately bent on sheltering itself from the realities of death. However, every sober-minded person needs to meditate on the inevitability of death. The inevitability of death should guide our life. We will die. We will be remembered. Everyone leaves a legacy. What kind of legacy are you working to leave? Does your desired legacy shape your current life?

Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Heavenly Father, oh God who is everlasting before time and now and forever more, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you, the living word of God, came and poured yourself out. You fought the good fight, you ran your race, and you kept the faith. And you did all of that, taking your life as a sacrifice to the cross, poured out your blood in order to pour out your love into our hearts. And I pray, Lord, that you today show us that a salvation isn't achieved, it's received. And after we receive it, we are then to go and to pour ourselves out for the faith of others into their lives for their eternal souls.

Lord, I pray that you make us a people who care about leaving an eternal legacy. A legacy that will transcend our lifetimes, that through us, your word will be proclaimed into this generation and beyond. And that many, Lord, a myriad of eternal souls will be converted, and will spend eternity with us in your presence in heaven. And I pray that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit. Even now we welcome your Holy Spirit. We love you and we love your presence, come and minister to us, plant within each one of us a vision for living lives that will impact eternity. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.

Today we are finishing our sermon series that we've been going through this fall called Tough and Tender: Developing A Resilience for Life. And I hope the series has been a blessing to you. Today we're talking about leaving an eternal legacy. Living to leave an eternal legacy. And by legacy, we mean how do you want to be remembered after you're gone? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? And it's a strange question to ask in our present-minded culture. We rarely acknowledge the legacy that we have inherited. For example, what are your great grandparents' names? And we rarely acknowledge that we will leave a legacy as well. Also, we live in a youth obsessed culture.

We idolize youth and do everything we can to stay young. And there's nothing wrong with being healthy, but there is something wrong in staving off the reality of death, finality of death. We forget about the fragility of life. And if the Lord tarries, every single one of us will die. So do you want to be remembered for perhaps your intelligence or education? No one takes out their resume at a funeral, that's not part of your eulogy. We want to be remembered for the impact we made on our friends, on our family, on the impact that we made in the world.

Early on in my life, at very formative seasons in my life, I lost three really close friends. The first of which was my friend, Pete. We grew up together. We were both bi-cultural. He was from the country of Georgia, I was from Estonia. We actually went to the same public school in Cranston, Rhode Island, in middle school and high school. And we also went to the same church, and we were just best friends and understood each other in a way that few could because of our bi-cultural past. And he was just a great guy to be around.

And Pete was driving with his brother, Dmitri, to my house in January of 2004 for a Bible study. And his brother was driving, and they hit a patch of black ice, and they went off the road and Pete died on impact. His brother was in a coma for three months, came out from that. That shook me to the core, and by God's orchestration, two weeks after that, I had pre-planned a study abroad in Moscow, so God took me out of my environment in Rhode Island, out of college and I went to do the study abroad in Moscow. My first Sunday in Moscow, I went to this church, Moscow Bible Church, and it was a little church, a church plant in a basement, and I connected with a few people and I was invited to a prayer meeting that Wednesday.

I show up to the prayer meeting and there were three wonderful elderly women of God, and there was this guy named Constantine, my age, who was also there to do a study abroad from another part of Russia, and we became fast friends. Fast forward after I come back to the United States, graduate, I met my wife Tanya. We got married and we went to seminary, got called by God to go into ministry. Then we moved to Boston to plant a church. While in seminary, my best friend was a guy named Rowland. Rowland and I were prayer partners. Actually, I went into my Google, into my Gmail, and searched for his name, and I saw the prayer thread email, the thread that we had going. We just encouraged one another. He was a great guy, we took a lot of classes together, and then moved to Boston in July, 2009.

August, 2009 I get news that Rowland died tragically. We plant Mosaic in October of 2011. December of 2011, my friend Constantine from Moscow dies with his wife in a car accident. At very pivotal times in my life, the Lord reminded me that life is fragile, that every single one of us, we have a mission given to us by God, and when we're done, when that mission's fulfilled, we're taken. And every single one of us leave a legacy, either good or ill, it's a legacy that grows into the future. And here's a thought experiment that perhaps is on the front end, seemingly morbid, but it's actually very sobering.

What do you want, if you were to encapsulate what your life was all about, what do you want on your tombstone? The inscription, the epitaph, what do you want that to say? This is really ... Honestly, come up with an answer. If you were to write your own obituary, what would you want included in that? If you were to speak at your funeral, if you were to write out a message for what your life was all about, what do you want included in that? Then is your current life lived in light of the legacy that you want to leave? This is what we're talking about today.

To frame up our time, we're going to look at the last words of St. Paul. St. Paul is the second most influential person on world history, after Jesus Christ. Whenever anyone speaks a final word before they pass or write a final word, those words are really important. And today, we're going to read the final words that St. Paul ever wrote. It's in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8. And just to set the context, St. Paul is in prison. He's awaiting execution by beheading. He's in the Mamertine Prison in Rome. Our prisons today are like the Hilton compared to the prisons in Rome. His cell is actually a damp, cold dungeon, more of a hole than anything else.

The prisoner would be brought down on a rope from a hole up top. He would be brought down, the rope would be taken away, and this is a bucket for human excrement. He's there in the dark, and he is meditating on the final words that he wants to write to his disciple, Timothy. St. Paul is clearly at rest. He's confident in the life that he has lived. He has poured his life out for Christ, poured it into disciples, and he's made a difference eternally. He's poured his life into the next generation, passes this torch. And this is what he writes to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.

Five points to frame up our time. We'll focus most of our attention on points one and two and then close off with the last three in rapid fire fashion. First of all, love God's word, pour yourself out, fight the good fight, finish your race and keep the faith. This is St. Paul's recipe for living a life to leave an eternal legacy. First of all, love God's word. There are only two things that are eternal in this world other than God himself: His word, which is an extension of himself and eternal souls created in the image of God.

Therefore, St. Paul says, "Timothy focus on these two things. Give your life to these two things. Preach the word. Proclaim the word. And do the work of an evangelist. Meaning speak the word into people's live who are far from the Lord so they can be reconciled with God so that their souls are regenerated, so they spend eternity in the presence of God." He said, "Devote yourselves to these things, things that will outlast you." And what does he mean by this word? The very text right before our text today, if you take away the chapter divider in 2nd Timothy, 3:16 and 17, all scriptures breath out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work.

He's saying eternal souls were breathed out by God and the eternal word was also breathed out by God, therefore they last for eternity. Isaiah 40:6-8, All flesh is grass. All its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. Preach the word. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. By evangelist, he gets the word from evangelion, which means the gospel. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.

That Christ has done everything that is needed for salvation to be achieved. So we are not saved by anything that we do, we're saved by what Christ has done. Salvation isn't achieved, it's received. All we need to do is accept God's gift of grace. We all need grace. He says, "Doing the work of evangelism is sharing God's grace." Everybody needs it and everyone is offered the same grace. Just receive it. That's what it means to be an evangelist, is sharing the good news. That's what it means to preach God's word, is sharing God's word. That's what it means to fulfill your ministry.

So we as Christians are to love God's word, study, meditate upon it, ruminate on the word within the word, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So much so that it's so in us, it's embodied in us, that it just flows out of us naturally. And we talk about whatever we love. And then practically, it's sharing with the people around us, in our circles of influence. It's devoting yourself to the local church where God's word is proclaimed and to church planning, where God's word will be proclaimed.

And we've received it for free, we are to share the gift of grace in the same way. An illustration just to help us grasp the eternal importance of sharing the gospel. Imagine if you contracted Ebola in a village in Africa, and there's a doctor who comes in there, offers medicine you know about, and the doctor says, "Go and tell anyone else who has the same virus that they can have healing if they come to this place." Obviously, you would go and tell absolutely everyone. It would be of first importance in our lives. Now, dear Christian, obviously we do other things in our lives other than share the gospel, but everything we do must be a means to the end of glorifying God, sharing the gospel so that other people may acquire, receive eternal life.

Martin Luther King Jr. was asked, "If you were to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" And he said, "I would plant a tree." Meaning, he wanted to do something that would outlive him, and that's how he lived his life. Holy scripture says that we are not just plant physical things, we are to plant ourselves, devote ourselves to eternal things. And St. Paul understood this. He didn't have children that we know of, Jesus Christ didn't have children, but they affected the world. They influenced the world in a way that will impact not just the world, but all of eternity through the gospel of Jesus Christ, loving God's word.

Proverbs 11:30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. And the idea here is, that we've received the gospel, God has freed us from captivity and the kingdom and the domain of darkness, and we're transferred to the kingdom of God's eternal light. And then we go and through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we are to then capture souls. Daniel 12:3 says, and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

He's saying this is the impact that we can have for all of eternity to help people turn to righteousness. That star, he says will shine forever. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 has this incredible train of thought that a lot of Christians miss. A lot of Christians think that, okay, I receive grace and then I just wait until I go to heaven. St. Paul says, "No, you've received grace. Now, God has made you into an ambassador of the kingdom of God, of the King. You are not your own, you're sent as a representative to a foreign land with a message that is not your own, with resources that are not your own," and then we are to fulfill the mission that he has for us.

This is 2 Corinthians 5:16, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. And this is incredible. He says, "This is the message you've received. This is how you have become new creation in Christ." The message is the double imputation, the transfer of our sin to Christ, his righteousness to us. How does it happen? By grace through faith. Now, through us, the Holy Spirit reconciles many to himself.

What's our message? Our message is, Jesus in my place. Our message is, Jesus got what I deserved for my sin against a Holy God. There was hostility between me and God, Jesus Christ absorbed the penalty for that hostility on the cross, in his body, in his flesh, in his soul, and now I'm reconciled with God just by grace, through faith. And God now implores others through our lives, "Please be reconciled. Accept this peace treaty that God offers through the gospel of Jesus Christ." So dear Christian, know this message, love this message, proclaim this message, share this message, and in our growing secular age, be able to defend the message.

Take a course in apologetics. Read a few books to answer the questions that people have for why we believe what we believe. Tim Keller, The Reason for God or anything by Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig. 2 Peter 3:15 says, in your hearts, honor Christ, the Lord as Holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. And even so, we don't rely on our words, on our articulation, our eloquence, we don't rely on our apologetics. What do we rely on? The gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes, and we rely on the Holy Spirit. I remember when Tanya and I, my wife, we were in seminary and we were talking about building partnerships with people to help us plant a church in Boston. I remember talking to this one gentleman, very affluent in North Carolina. And one of the things he said, we were over his house for dinner, and he said, "Nah, don't go to Boston. Anywhere but Boston." He's like, "Boston's lost." He's like "Way too many pagans up there. You can't preach the gospel there, too hard. Hardscrabble ground. Don't do it."

And I remember driving home from that meeting, and it was like, thanks for the encouragement, first of all. Second of all, if I were to rely on myself, on my own resources, I wouldn't be up here. I can't save anybody. You can't save anybody. I didn't save myself, you didn't save yourself. If you're a Christian, you're a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit, and whoever becomes a Christian becomes a Christian because God saved them, and I believe that. And we've seen that over the course of these eight years here in Boston, God has been saving people.

God continues to save people, and I trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, Therefore we are ambassadors for God. But ambassadors don't go by their own resources. God making his appeal through us. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that convicts, the one that regenerates, the one that draws people to God. And finally, ambassadors. If you continue with this metaphor. Ambassadors do have to give an account. How do you represent the King of Kings? King David lived a phenomenal life, faithful to the Lord for a long time. And then he got to this place of complacency in his life, committed adultery, and then ultimately murder.

And then the prophet comes to David, and speaks the word of God. And the word of God was, "You have blasphemed the name of God. You misrepresented the glorious God that you were commissioned by, whose name you are carrying." Dear Christian, every single one of us, we will give an account to God for how we lived our lives. And one of the things that a lot of Christians miss in their theology is that there will be two judgments. The first judgment is the great white throne of judgment where we stand before God, and God says, "What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ?"

If you rejected Christ in your life, you rejected grace, the gospel, you go to the left. And scripture says, "Consigned to eternal punishment in a place called hell, a place of eternal darkness." Why? Because you are separated from the God of the universe who is the source of love, light, truth, goodness and beauty. If you accept Jesus Christ, and if you're not a Christian, we plead with you, accept Jesus Christ today. If you do you, you are now brought to a second judgment. And that's the judgment seat of Christ, where we stand before God, and Christ will say, "What did you do with all of the talents, treasures, time, opportunities that I gave you."

And St. Paul says, "This reality that I will be judged for everything God has given me, this reality, and it's not judgment of salvation, I'm saved by grace through faith, it's a judgment for rewards." He says, "This is one of my great motivators. This motivates me that I will spend eternity with God, and God will judge me for what I did with everything he's allotted to me." 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And then verse 11, Therefore, knowing the fear of God, we persuade others for what we are is known to God, and that hope it is known also to your conscience.

And yes, this is difficult. Evangelism is difficult. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in greater Boston is difficult. And that's why he says, "Fulfill your mission, endure suffering." And our suffering isn't physical, not in our culture, our suffering is more emotional, psychological, social. Yes, people might look down on us. Yes, your reputation might suffer. Yes, people might mock, but we are to do this, and we are to share God's love. And one of the things I hear is, "Evangelism's is not my gift. It's not my thing. I have other gifts, this isn't my thing. Let the people who have the great gift of evangelism do that."

And yes, God does give exceptional, extraordinary gifts to people in terms of evangelism, in terms of prophecy, and in terms of service, even generosity and faith, but their great gifts should not eclipse the fact that we have been given a responsibility. Every Christian is called to believe, every Christian is called to serve, to be generous, and every Christian has been given the great commission. How do we do this? And this is point two. We do this primarily by pouring ourselves out. In 2 Timothy 4:6, this is the metaphor that St. Paul used to talk about his life ending. He says, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come."

It's a vivid image that he pulls from the Old Testament, an image that was used in the context of the ritual of the sacrifice of the lamb, where a chalice of wine was taken and poured out at the base of the altar. St. Paul takes this metaphor and he says, "This is what my life is. My life is fluid, and I need to channel my life. I need a pour my life out." And this is really incredible. What does he mean? He means his time, the greatest commodity that any one of us have is time, that any one of us has is time. And time, our life as in time, and time is in our attention.

And he says, "I pour my life, I pour my time, I pour my attention into others." It's a fascinating metaphor because it can be used either way, like our life drips by, our life is like this river that keeps passing. But St. Paul uses this metaphor to talk about life that is invested by pouring into something, and the opposite of this is a life that is wasted by pouring it into things that ultimately pass.

And he uses this metaphor to talk about pouring himself, his time, energy, emotions, everything he has into the faith of others. Philippians 2:17, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all because I sacrifice the most valuable thing I have for the faith of other people to impact eternity.

Why could St. Paul's so freely, generously pour himself into other people? Because he knew his life was not his own and he knew that this life was not all there is. He understood that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain because I get more of Christ. He understood that death wasn't the end, death is just a door into life with God. He understood that death is not cessation, death is separation. When we die and our body turns into a corpse, our soul is separated from the body. Death is separation, and our eternal soul lives for eternity either with God or apart from God.

This is why we can freely pour ourselves into other people, do everything we can so that they spend eternity in the presence of God. And he says, and by the way, everybody knows this. Everybody knows that the good life isn't about things. It's not about pouring yourself into things because we brought nothing into this world, we'll take nothing out of it. We are not to be like the Egyptians who would bury themselves with their wealth thing like they can transfer that into eternity. We can't take material things with us.

So St. Paul invested his life, poured his life out into eternal things, eternal souls. He says, "My departure has come," and this is another very vivid Greek word that he uses here. It's a word that can be used in the context of unyoking or loosening. Unyoking in the context of a farm animal. And he says, "I'm unyoked," meaning my labors and toils are done, I fulfilled my ministry. In the context of loosening, my departure has come, my loosening has come. It's used in the context of the bonds of a prisoner being unshackled.

He's saying, "I'm unshackled from this body of flesh, from this corruptible body, loosening of ropes of a soldier." 10 he's saying, "My job as a soldier of Christ's done. The battle is over. I'm headed home. The victory is won." And this word is used in the context of loosening the mowing ropes of a ship. And he said, "I'm now leaving the stormy shores of earth and I'm putting into the calm pool of heaven. He's pouring himself out because he knows that his life is a sacrifice, the sacrificial offering.

Romans 12:1, I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, because of the gospel, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He says, we don't pour ourselves into the lives of other people because we earn salvation. We do it as a sacrificial offering, thanksgiving to God because we are saved. Different if you are a Christian and whom are you pouring yourself, in whom are you pouring your life?

Perhaps if you have children, it's your children and the next generation, you're pouring yourself out and that's what it means to parent children in the faith. Perhaps it's your spouse, perhaps it's your colleagues, your friends, your family, it's the people around us. We pour ourselves into them. Why? Because our life is in our own. Acts 20:24, I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I've received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 12:15, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Dear Christian, can you say that? Can you say, "I spend myself, I'm being spent for the souls of the people around me?" One of the things that secular stories have a really hard time understanding, they grapple with this, "Why did Christianity grow as it did in the context in which it was started? We understand why Islam grew by the sword convert or else, Christianity grew despite the sword, reject Christ or else."

And one of the reasons why Christianity grew in the way it did was because Christians poured themselves out to the death to love others. They poured their love into people even at the cost of their own life. I'll give you two examples. In Rome, first century and second century, there were two plagues that swept the Roman empire. And first century is the Antonine Plague. The second century is the Plague of Cyprian. These plagues were so bad, thousands of people were dying per day in this Plague of Cyprian, there were a million people living in Rome, 5,000 were dying per day.

At the first signs of the symptoms of this plague, streets would be emptied. People would leave their loved ones in homes on beds and run from the sickness. And everybody ran except for Christians. Christians stayed and they loved and they bandaged and they watered the sick and they fed them and they loved them and they encouraged them. They shared the gospel. People were dumbfounded, "Why are you doing this at the risk of your own life?"

And many Christians died and they shared the gospel that this life is not all there is, that we have eternal life. And all you need to do is put your trust in Jesus Christ who has conquered death. Do you pour yourself out for the salvation of others? And this is by the way, the most effective way of sharing the gospel is by pouring your love into other people. Sacrifice your time, your talent, your treasure for other people. We understand that the most effective way of doing evangelism is personal relationships, where people know you and you have a relationship with them through hospitality, generosity, and sacrifice.

I believe this is one of the most effective ways of doing evangelism today and sharing the gospel. Why? Because as Ravi Zacharias says, "We live in day and age where people think with their feelings and they hear with their eyes." People think with their feelings and hear with their eyes. Therefore, just proclaiming is not enough for many people, they don't want to see just proclamation, they want to feel your love. They don't want just the truth, they want the truth and love, and God tells us to do both 2 Corinthians 3: 14-15, for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised.

How do we do this practically? It's got to be absolutely natural in the environment of love. I'll give you a couple of cross sticks here to think about, to think through when you think about sharing the gospel. The first one was just ABC of sharing the gospel, ABC. The first, the A stands for, do you ask the Lord for opportunities to share the gospel? Even St. Paul did this in the Colossians, he says, "Pray for me that the Lord would give me a door to share the gospel." Opportunity. Do you ask God, "God, please send me someone to share the gospel. Give me an opportunity today to share the gospel with someone of the good news to share the grace of God."

If you're not asking for those opportunities in prayer, do you even really want them? So ask. The second one is belief. Believe that God can save anybody. Believe that God can save your roommate, believe that God can... Just think of the most lost person that you know, the most antagonistic person to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that God can save them? Of course he can. There's nothing impossible for God. God's saved Saul, and converted him into Paul.

My goodness, God saved Kanye West. If God can save Kanye West, he can save anybody. I found out that Manny Ramirez, Manny being Manny, like 2004 Reds, Manny Ramirez has been converted. He's actually been trained. He's been in seminary for five years, he's been training to be a pastor. My goodness, what a miracle that is. God can save anybody, and if you're a Christian, the greatest miracle of salvation is your own. I still can't believe God saved me. I definitely I wouldn't. And this is the posture of heart. It's like, "I can't believe, God, thank you for saving."

And then C is connect with people. Just connect naturally. Connect, and if you have a hard time connecting, a lot of people are super introverts in Boston. Here's another acrostic, FIRE, Family, Interests, Religion and just Experiences. Family, Interest, Religion, Experiences, ask about those things. Get a person talking about their favorite subject in the world. What's everybody's favorite subject in the world? Themselves. Everyone loves talking about themselves. It's just like, why? Because we're all selfish.

It's like whenever you get tagged on Facebook in a group picture and you go and you look at it, who's the first person that you look at? Yourself? It's just like whenever you're FaceTiming with someone or Skyping, 95% of the time, you're looking at the small window, every single time, "I need to change the lighting." Every time. Get people talking about their favorite subject, and as they do, connect with them on universal human experiences, purpose, morality, hope, family.

Two on-ramps for sharing the gospel that I like to use is beauty and death. I think beauty is one of the greatest apologetics for the existence of God and that God is beautiful. Why is it that though we live in a secular materialistic culture where we're told that material is all there is, why is it that we're so moved on like a deep soul level by creation, by the sunset, by an incredible work of music or art or film? Why is it that we're moved by the smile of a loved one and we look at them and we say, "You are so beautiful"?

We're not saying, "I prefer your collection of Adams to any other collection of Adams. And it's not even my preference, it's the neurons firing in my brain, so it's not even me." No. Of course, nobody is a committed materialist. It's almost unthinkable to live like that. And the Christian explanation is that true beauty exists. A beauty that transcends the material. You look at a painting and all it is is canvas and wood and some paint. If you look at it and there's something that transcends it. Same thing with music, same thing with something that impacts your soul.

And the Christian explanation is that, all that's true, all that's good, all that's beautiful is a manifestation of God. Image's God. God created everything beautiful for us to delight in and enjoy. And we understand that beauty exists in a fallen marred world, therefore we hunger for a restoration of beauty and it's coming in its perfect state. C. S. Lewis and his wonderful work, Till We Have Faces, expresses this yearning through a character. He says, "It was when I was the happiest that I longed the most, when I was the happiest I longed the most and because it was beautiful, it set me longing, always longing, somewhere else there must be more of it." And there is.

The other on-ramp, and everyone can connect with this is the reality of death. This is a terror that haunts every single one of us. The anthropologist, Ernest Becker says, "We try our best to ignore mortality, but it's there, underlying everything." The current answer in our culture according to a materialist world views is that when we die, we just cease to exist. Yes, we say this, no one believes it. That's why at a funeral, you don't look at casket with your friend Joey. No one says, "And Joey, poof, cease to exist." No one says that.

You know what they say, "Well, Joey's in a better place." Why do we say that? Why do we say that? Atheist philosopher, Luc Ferry says, "The question of death far from being something that we can easily dismiss, lies at the heart of our distinctiveness as humans. This is what sets us apart from all the other animals." He says, "As distinct from animals, a human being is the only creature who is aware of his limits. He knows that he will die and that his near ones, those he loves will also die. Consequently, he cannot prevent himself from thinking about the state of affairs, which is disturbing and absurd, almost unimaginable."

Why is it that we even know that we're going to die? And why is it that we're so disturbed by it and we can't shrug off the existential way of this? Our greatest desire's to be loved, to be known, to be understood, and our greatest fear's being separated from our loved ones. In a word, our greatest fear is dying. And at this point, when I have conversations, you know what I say, "Wouldn't you want this to be true? Doesn't your soul want to live forever? Why do we long for this so much?" Perhaps it is true, and in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Christ lived and Jesus Christ died. He came back from the dead and in Christ death, we see the death of death itself. And when we believe in Jesus Christ, at that very moment, we're given eternal life. And I understand in my conversations with friends, when I share the gospel, I understand that I'm probably not going to close the deal right then and there, but you know what I try to do? I try to awaken them just a little bit from their spiritual slumber, and little by little, this is how the Lord wakes us up.

So we have to know the tough truths of the gospel and present them in with humble confidence and love. And then points three, four, and five here at the end, how do we do this? We fight the good fight, we run our race and we keep our faith. Why? This is what I've seen in sharing the gospel in high school, with my wrestling friends, and with my football friends, and in college, with my rugby friends, share the gospel and they're like, "Yeah, not for me." But we're still connected. We still see each other. We're still connected on social media and you know what they want to know? Do I really believe this?

And where do they get evidence to understand, do I really believe? Are you living it? See, our lives are our greatest sermons. That's why St. Paul at the very end says, "I fought, I didn't just preach the word, I didn't just do the work of evangelist, I didn't just fulfill the ministry. I fought the good fight." He said, in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I fought the good fight," the wrestling metaphor, and what he's saying is there's spiritual warfare. We're fighting on a daily basis and we're standing again. We're not wrestling with flesh and blood, but we're standing against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.

And our righteousness is not our own, it's the breastplate of righteousness that Christ has given us. We have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. We stand through prayer. 2 Corinthians 6:7, with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. See, the enemy wants to hate... He hates our legacy, he wants to taint our legacy and he does that by stealing, killing, and destroying our legacy. He wants to get us to stumble so that people look and they say, "Yeah, you don't really believe this."

So we are to fight the good fight. Four is, the St. Paul says, "I've finished the race." 2 Timothy 4:7, I've finished the race. Starting stuff is easy, starting a race as easy, finishing it is much harder. Starting a diet is easy, day one super easy and you're like, "I can do this." Day two, three, four, so much harder. Starting a relationship, easy, you're in love. Flirtation, wonderful. Continuing, sustaining, much harder. Having a baby, easy, the man. Raising a child in the faith is difficult. The Christian life begins...

Honestly, you come to faith, it's as if the Lord, God, the father's carrying you as a spiritual infant in his arms. It's incredible. And after a while you grow, and the enemy begins to attack, temptation comes from within, from with out, and you got to run your race. Galatians 5:7, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? If you were the enemy, if you are saying, "How would you try to dissuade yourself from finishing the race?" Perhaps through distractions of entertainment or money or power or comfort. Perhaps through discouragements, "It's too hard, I should quit."

Perhaps through divisions between you and God, between you and other Christians or deception that your life is for yourself, live any way you want. God wants the most pleasures possible for you. All lies. And the five is keep the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7 he says, "I've kept the faith. I've guarded my faith. I've cultivated my faith. I've grown my faith. I didn't bury my faith," and we are to hold onto our faith tenaciously. Why? Because your life is your greatest sermon. Your life is your greatest plausibility structure that when you speak, your words are plausible.

Are you living your life in such a way that people want to hear your words, that you words carry weight? And part of that is just don't underestimate the power of living a joyful life, a loving life, a kind life, a generous sacrificial life. And verse A in 2 Timothy, St. Paul says, "Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to those who have loved his appearing." He's not talking about a crown or award of salvation, he's talking about the reward that we get by living faithfully in our life after we've been given salvation.

He's talking about reward for service. 1 Corinthians 3:10 and five talks about that. We can't do this on our own. Perhaps you look at your life and you're like, "If I died today, my legacy isn't what it should be." Perhaps there have been seasons in life where you've squandered your life, where you've wasted it, and this is where the gospel Jesus Christ is our only hope, that Jesus Christ left the greatest legacy that there was. His death on the cross, he poured himself out. He loved God's word, poured himself out, fought the good fight. He ran his race, he kept the faith in order to give us faith.

And the way that the gospel impacts our legacy is through course correction. If you look at your life, you say, "Mm, I went off course here." At that moment, we need the gospel through repentance. We receive God's grace through repentance. And do you know what repentance is? In the Greek, the word repentance means, just turning around. It means, I have been running the wrong way and Jesus turned me around. I'm turning to you, I want to follow you. At that moment, he corrects us and continues to sustain us on our path.

Galatians 2:20, St. Paul says, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." It's his legacy. It's not mine. He's living in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Back to our question at the very beginning and we'll close with this before we go into communion. Do you have an answer for the question? What do you want your epitaph to be? That inscription on your tombstone, what do you want to say?

Some of the most famous epitaphs in the world history, Alexander the Great was, "A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough." Ludolph van Ceulen, the gentleman, the German Dutch mathematician who calculated pi to 35 numbers. Guess what his epitaph was? 3.1415926 etc, all the way to 35. Wanted everyone to know. Martin Luther King Jr, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty. I'm free at last." Frank Sinatra, "The best is yet to come." We don't know what St. Paul's was because we don't have his tombstone. We don't know where his grave is. But you know what I think an appropriate one would be, "Fought the good fight, finish the race, kept the faith."

As we transitioned to Holy communion, we remember the words of Jesus Christ, he gave us Holy communion to do on a regular basis and he says, "Do this," why? "In remembrance of me." We remember his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection because this is what sustains our walk with the Lord. The way that we celebrate Holy communion at mosaic is, the usher are going to hand out the elements, the bread and the cup. We ask that you hold on to them until everyone's received them. Here's what we're doing in Holy communion.

The bread symbolizes the body of Christ broken for us and the cup symbolizes the blood of Christ poured out for us. And we eat and we drink, and what we're doing is we're internalizing these elements as a symbol for how we are saved, for how we're sanctify. We internalize by faith that Jesus Christ died for me. Who is welcome to take part? 1 Corinthians 11 says that, "Holy communion is for the converted and the repentant." For people who have repented, initially have become Christians and continue to repent. That's what it means to be a Christian. So if you today, repent of your sins. If you today turn to Christ, trust in him, you're welcome to partake.

If not, we ask that you just spend this time meditating on what you've heard. After the ushers handout the elements, please hold onto them and they will partake. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. We thank you for offering up your body and your blood, and I pray as we receive your sacrifice and your offering, I pray that you forgive us for our sins. Forgive us for our pride, forgive us for our selfishness, forgive us for living as if our life is our own. It's not.

And I pray that you make this time a truly meaningful for each of us, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.