Your Lasting Legacy

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Shalom beloved. I want to talk to you today about something that many Christians don't think rightly about. I want to talk to us about our passing and our legacy. First of all, I want to make the point, I think that many Christians have a very wrong perception about the death of loved ones, particularly when their loved ones are believers. Many Christians look at it as such a negative thing when the Bible tells us that the Lord takes His own out of the world to save them and spare them from trouble. Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I remember years ago, I went to my physician for my annual physical, and I talked to my physician just about what was happening in my life. And I let her know that I was leaving in a few days to travel to Haiti to preach the Gospel. So a few days had gone by, I'm in Haiti, and all of a sudden in Haiti, I get a call from my physician. And when I got a call, seeing her number come up on my phone, I realized she wouldn't be calling me, she knows I'm in Haiti, unless something is wrong. So I pick up the phone, it's my physician. She says to me, "Rabbi, I need you to come back in for some blood work. Your blood count was very low, and I need to schedule this right away." So she told me a little bit about what she saw in the examination and the blood work that she wanted to investigate more thoroughly. We went ahead and scheduled an appointment, and after we got off the phone, I did some research as to what it meant when my blood count was low and the other information that she had given me. I researched it. And what I saw is that it could indicate cancer. When I saw on my phone that that could mean that I had cancer, that was one of the sweetest moments that I ever had because I thought, "Oh my gosh, I may be getting ready to leave this world, and I'm going to be able to rest." I felt so embraced by the love of God. I felt such peace. It was one of the high emotional moments of my life when I felt like my hour of passing from this world into the next might be just around the corner. And I think we should all have an attitude like that about death. I don't understand why Christians are so tied to this world that they don't want to leave. I personally like watching NDE experiences, near-death experiences, where people that have passed, their heart has stopped beating, their body signal is indicating that they're no longer present, and then they're brought back to life or they come back into life in a few minutes, and then they give their testimony about what they had experienced in this NDE experience. There's a guy that interviews, I think his name is Pastor John Burke. He's a Christian, grounded in the Word. I think his channel might be called Imagine Heaven, but don't quote me on that. But his whole pathway has been interviewing these people that have had these NDE experiences and then filtering what they say they encountered through God's Word. He's grounded in God's Word. But I have not ever heard a testimony, a Christian testimony of somebody that had an NDE, in other words they were pronounced clinically dead, they went out of their bodies, they say they encountered the Lord and the age to come, I have not heard one of those people ever say that they didn't want to stay in heaven. Not one of them wanted to come back to Earth. And so I'm just saying all that introductory today to say that I think that as Christians, many of us have a wrong perception about what death means to us. You know, the Apostle Paul came to the end of his life, and he said, "I have fought the fight. I have run the race, and now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, but not only for me, but for everyone that loves his appearing." So we as Christians need to filter our perception of reality, taking into account that this world is not our home. We have lots of pain in this world, lots of struggles on this earth, but when we get to heaven, there's going to be no more sorrow, no more suffering, and no more pain. I want to talk to you today about what happens when we do pass, when we do leave this world. And I want to ask ourselves the question today, all of us, myself included, when we do leave this world, beloved one, what will our legacy be? What will we leave behind? A legacy is something that we leave behind in the earth after we're gone. My wife's father created a great legacy for his family, the things that he imparted spiritually, financially, he left all that behind with his children and they're still being blessed by that today. He's long gone, he's passed, but his legacy lives on. So let's ask ourselves today, what will our legacy be? And how do we build a legacy? Well, first of all, legacies are built, as we all know, through relationships, through the lives that we have sown into. And because of our investing in somebody else's life, their life is better. I heard it said one time that the benefit of having a father is that you don't have to start from the ground. When you have a father, you can start from your father's shoulders. And the same thing is true when we invest in other people's lives. We allow them to build on territory that we've already conquered. So when we invest in our children's life and teach them practical tools for living, we talk to them about finances, most of all we talk to them about their relationship with God. We talk to them about how to navigate relationships and handle life. We talk to them about how to handle setbacks and defeats. We help them prepare for the future. And through our investment, through our counsel, our children or grandchildren or others that we're in relationship with through our family, their life is better because of us. We have invested something in them. And so even when we're gone, you and I, our children, grandchildren, and the loved ones that we've sown into, their lives will be better because of us. We will have left an imprint in them that remains. That is a legacy. We get testimonies all the time. I just received a testimony, it was a beautiful testimony, a woman that wrote into Discovering the Jewish Jesus. She said, "Rabbi, you're the only one my children will listen to. I have a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old, and you're the only teacher and preacher they will listen to. They love the sound of your calm voice." So for me, I get joy out of that. I get simcha out of that because I'm blessing these young people. And even when I'm gone, their lives will have been enriched because of me and their lives hopefully will have been set on a trajectory to some degree because of what they received through my life. And so every relationship that you sow into, you never even know the littlest thing that you do sometimes. When you share your love for Jesus with that person at the grocery store, with your whoever it might be, your dentist, whoever, you say something and it creates a spark. The person takes notice. You might be a small part of the chain that actually led them to their salvation. That will have been a legacy for you.
Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, here's a testimony from a listener who's been touched by Rabbi's teachings.
Guest (Male): Rabbi, you don't tickle people's ears. You boldly proclaim the uncompromised Word of God. It's my joy to sow monthly into your ministry.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. Thank you Lord. And to submit your testimony, go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com, just click on ministry and submit your testimony today. Matthew 25, it reminds us to care for people in need, so we're making Rabbi's teaching available to men and women in prison each and every day through a special app. And last year, thousands of inmates clicked the button on this app telling us they were surrendering their lives to Christ. And if you want to help us in this mission, would you please support us? Give or become a monthly partner at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now, back to Rabbi.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I remember years ago, before I was in full-time ministry, I was working in financial services. And there was a guy that he was the chief producer in this organization that I worked for, and I worked for a top-notch organization. And I remember all the team came together one day, about 10 of us. And all of a sudden I started praising Jesus, and I felt like I was totally rejected. I mean, they didn't react at all to my praising Jesus. It was like they had deaf ears to everything I had to say. But years later, approximately 10 years later, when I was now in full-time ministry, I was ministering in a small church in a small town in rural Ohio. And I got to the service where I was going to be preaching that Sunday and I set up my things, you know, I had cassette tapes that we made available, etc. of different ones of my teaching. And the pastor came out, he said, "Hey, just continue to set up your display here and I've got somebody that called, they said they want to be at the service today and they don't have a ride, so I'm going to go pick this person up." So lo and behold, the pastor walks out the door of the church, I continue to set things up. 15, 20 minutes later, the pastor comes in the door. Who does he come in the door with? One of the guys that worked in that financial service company that I worked for that was together when I was praising Jesus, one of those 10 guys. He was there. The pastor brought him there. Why did the pastor bring him there? Because the guy ended up selling drugs, wound up in jail, no longer had a car. But when he was in jail, he remembered that day that I was lifting up Jesus and witnessing to that group of 10 salespeople. And as a result of my witness to him, when he was in jail, God brought it to his remembrance, he gave his life to the Lord. Now he was walking with the Lord. He had heard that I was going to be ministering in the church that morning, and so he called the church and got a ride to the service. When I pass on, he's going to be part of my legacy. And so I want to encourage you beloved, you can make an impact in the earth through your relationships. Your legacy is the individuals that you affect through your love, through your witness, through your kindness, while you're on earth that continue to live on in the world after you're gone. The second way we leave a legacy in the earth, beloved ones, is through the passing down of our finances. The Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22 this: "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children." Listen again, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children." So we leave a legacy in the earth when we sow financially into somebody else's life and they benefit from our financial investment in their lives, even after we are gone. But to have this concept and to have this perspective of making somebody else's life better because we've made a financial investment in their life at our passing—we're talking about a legacy that's created at our passing—we really have to gain a long-term perspective of our finances. Because some people only think about everything they can get right now, and I've even met people that have the mantra, they have the philosophy that they want to spend all their money while they're on Earth and not leave a cent behind. And that's the way they live, that's the way they think: "I want to spend it all, I don't want anything to be left over." That is a very narcissistic mindset as we all know. A narcissist is someone who's completely self-focused. We need to understand beloved, if we're going to have a mindset to create a legacy with our finances when we leave this world, we need to really understand that ultimately God really does own everything. We might say, "Yeah, the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills, yeah, we know God owns everything." We say that, but is our heart really surrendered to that? Because when our heart is really surrendered to the reality that ultimately God's the owner of everything, it will change the way we plan for our future financially, it will change the way that we use our finances while we're on earth and also affect what we do with our finances when we pass so that we can create a legacy in the earth for our lives for the Kingdom of God at our passing. The scripture says from Him, to Him, and through Him are all things. Ultimately the Lord is the owner of everything in the earth. I love Psalm 24, verse 1: "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains." Everything ultimately belongs to the Lord. We don't think like that because we buy something on Amazon, right? It arrives at our doorstep and we put the clothes on or whatever it is, we think it's ours, but that's a very small narrow perspective of the big picture. Ultimately everything belongs to the Lord. For example, think about property. We might think, "Well, we own this piece of property," those of you that own homes, "Well, I own this property." But do you really own that property? That property, that land or that house that you call your own, that land that that house is on, it was bought and sold probably many times before you became the owner of it. To say it another way, you and I might own the deed to the property for a few years, but then it passes on and it passes on to someone else and it passes on to someone else. And ultimately, the owner of the land that our house is set on, it belongs to the Lord. Why? Because He created the land. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. We need to really understand that everything belongs to the Lord. And when we understand God's glory in the earth, that everything belongs to God, from Him once again to Him and through Him everything belongs, we're going to honor Him with our financial resources when we pass just because we want to honor the Creator from whom are all things. I remember some time back I was looking at some minnows in the water, you know, I was on this river. And I looked into the water, and I saw the beauty of this brackish water and I saw the beautiful life that was in the water, the minnows spinning around. And when I got done being out in nature like that, there was nothing that anybody could have done to offend me or hurt my mood because I was so high on the glory of God that I saw in creation. His glory was so much bigger than all my puny problems, there wasn't anything in the world that anybody could have done to offend me. God owns the earth. His glory beloved is through the entire world, and we need to release our finances to the one that created all things because from Him once again, to Him and through Him everything belongs. Now when we think about carrying this concept on of honoring the Lord with our finances at our passing, creating a legacy gift at our passing, I want you to consider what Yeshua said. He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, or where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So we want to think about how are we using our resources and are we sowing financially into the Kingdom of Heaven because Jesus said what we're going to reap is what we sow. And so many of us consider that we should honor the Lord with our finances while we're living, we tithe, we give offerings, but have we thought this through to the end of our life that we want to honor the Lord with our finances and our offerings when we pass? Jesus said this at the end of His ministry: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Jesus's mandate to the church is to go into all the world, preach the Gospel, making disciples of all nations. And we want to make sure that we're empowering ministries that are doing this to continue on after we're gone through our legacy gifts. Do you know, beloved ones, that more than half of Americans do not even have a will? This is Make a Will Month. I want to encourage you, if you've never thought this through before or if you've never taken action, I want to humbly ask you just to still yourself for a moment and ask yourself, have you thought through what will happen with your resources when you pass, when you leave this world? I know I'm talking to most of you. You want to honor the Lord with your resources when you pass. You want to have a will or a trust in place where you can designate a portion of your estate, what you have left to your resources. You want to designate some of that to a Christian ministry so that the Great Commission that Jesus spoke of, go into all the world and preach the Gospel, making disciples of all nations will be fulfilled. Many of you in your heart, you're saying yes to that, but let me ask you: Do you have a will, or do you need to update your will to include a Christian ministry that is effectively going into the world and making disciples? So this is a time for action today. This is important. We need to be good stewards of our resources. When we leave this world, we want to go out of this world honoring the Lord, and one of the practical steps we can take to ensure that we're honoring the Lord at our passing is to honor Him, beloved, with our resources by including a Christian ministry or ministries in our will or in our trust. So I just want to pray for us today. I just want to pray that we would truly get clarity on this, that we would take action and get prepared. Don't let just inactivity paralyze you. Don't be passive. Don't listen to the message and say, "Yeah, that's good," but not do anything. Beloved, let's stand up, let's take a step, let's make a will or update our will and do what's necessary to be good stewards of our resources and invest in the Kingdom of God so that the Great Commission of Jesus to go into all the world can continue on even after you're gone. Father, we offer our hearts to You right now. Lord, we love You and we honor You, and we want, Father God, to honor You even through our last breath. So if there's specific wisdom that You want to give anybody that's listening right now to this broadcast, I just pray, Father, that You'll give them that wisdom. Father, that You'll give them everything they need to take a step forward to do what needs to be done to honor You with their resources at their passing for Your glory and for the honor of Your name.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. And if the Lord is leading you to leave a legacy gift to Discovering the Jewish Jesus through your will or estate, we've made an easy way for you to do it. Just go to our website discoveringthejewishjesus.com, click on resources and then "Need a Will." We have a free tool right there. It's called FreeWill, and it'll walk you through in simple easy steps on how to create a will and how to leave a legacy behind to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. It's absolutely free and no cost to you. You can check it out with no commitment, so I encourage you check it out today. And for those of you who already have a will or an estate plan, I encourage you, speak to your attorney if you'd like to leave a legacy gift to support the ongoing preaching of the Gospel. God bless you and thank you for listening today and thanks for being a good steward. And now here's Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6 is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh, God Almighty, our creator and maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. And now in Hebrew. [Rabbi Schneider chants in Hebrew] God bless you and Shalom.
Dustin Roberts: I'm your host Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Make sure to join us again when Rabbi Schneider shows us the blessing we can personally receive from the Sabbath. That's Tuesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.