08/15/2026
A number of years ago, I found myself lying in a hospital bed after having a heart attack. Moments like that have a way of making you think about things differently. One of the questions I found myself wrestling with was pretty simple: what kind of legacy am I leaving behind?
How would my family remember me? How would my church remember me? Would people remember me as a man who loved God or something else? I guess the ultimate question was whether or not my life would leave behind something worth remembering.
Those are important questions because our legacy matters. But as we continue our Building a Godly Home series, I want us to think about something even more important than the legacy we leave behind. I want to focus on the heritage we intentionally build into the generations that follow us.
We often use words like inheritance, legacy, and heritage interchangeably, but there are some important differences between them. An inheritance is usually something tangible. It is the house, the car, the investments, or the possessions we leave to the next generation. It is something they RECEIVE. Those things can certainly be valuable and helpful, but eventually they will be spent, sold, worn out, or passed along to someone else.
A legacy is more intangible. It's what people REMEMBER about us. I want my children to remember that I loved them. I want them to remember that I loved God and tried to faithfully follow Him. But even those memories will eventually fade. A generation or two from now, people may know my name, but they probably won't know much about me.
A godly heritage, however, is intended to keep moving forward. A heritage is something that has been handed down to us with the expectation that we will build on it and pass it on again. Our children receive it, but it isn't supposed to stop with them. They pass it to their children, who pass it to another generation and another generation.
And that changes the question. Instead of simply asking, “What will my children remember about me?” we begin asking, “What am I building into my children that they will someday pass on to theirs?”
Psalm 78:1-7 gives us a beautiful picture of exactly that kind of heritage. The psalmist talks about truths they had heard and known because their ancestors handed them down. Now their generation has a responsibility to make sure those same truths are not hidden from their children. They will tell the next generation about who God is and what He has done so that another generation will know Him.
That's bigger than leaving behind good memories and it is certainly bigger than leaving behind our possessions. A godly home intentionally passes on the truth of who God is and what He has done so the next generations will put their hope in Him.
This Sunday, we're going to talk about The Right Heritage and what it takes to build something into our homes that can continue long after we are gone. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, or one of the “bonus” adults God has placed in the lives of children, I hope you'll join us as we consider what we're passing on to the generations coming behind us.
See you Sunday!
Pastor Dan
