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Jack Graham: When it gets right down to it, we leave three things behind in life. We leave memories, we leave material things, and we leave markers, markers of faith.

Guest (Male): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can be sure you're leaving a legacy that will last for eternity. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, Leaving a Legacy or Losing a Legacy.

Jack Graham: The life you live produces the legacy you live and the legacy you leave. When it gets right down to it, to the bottom line, we leave three things behind in life. We leave memories. We leave material things—stuff, souvenirs, achievements. And we leave markers. Memories, material things, and markers.

Now memories fade. We have wonderful memories of parents and grandparents, but as time goes on, even our memories can fade. And the memories that we leave behind will one day fade. Material stuff. We leave that behind. We leave it to our families, our kids, our friends, our church, to ministries.

But ultimately, the material goods that we accumulate and keep for ourselves—all that stuff, the trophies, the souvenirs of life, the things of this life, our achievements, our accolades—that all goes packed into a box in somebody's garage or sold off in a garage sale. But the material things that we leave behind really are immaterial to the lasting legacy that we live and leave. But oh, the markers.

Markers of faith. Markers that identify who we are and how we live. Have you ever considered the markers, the legacy that you leave behind? Again, I say it is the life that you live today that produces the legacy you will leave tomorrow. One businessman that I know actually sat down and thought about what he would like to leave behind concerning his own legacy, the markers of his life, how he would like to be remembered. That might be a worthy project for all of us.

He said, "I want people to know that I loved God first, that I loved my family, my wife and my children. I want people to remember that I loved my friends. I want people to remember that he was a giver. I want people to remember that he was an encourager. I want people to remember he wrote that I was a forgiver, that I was a man who kept my word, that I was a man who honored God in his church with my life.

"I want to be remembered as a man with a positive attitude. I want to be remembered," he said, "as a man who was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to be remembered as someone who was a role model, an example for others. I want to be remembered as a person who consistently helped and served others, and I want to be a person who is remembered for continually serving the community and most of all, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ."

What are the markers that you are leaving behind? Now Jacob is one of the most convoluted characters in all of the scriptures because on one sense, he was a man who could be very devoted, very committed to his God, a disciple and follower of his Lord. On the other hand, he could be manipulative and deceptive. And his entire life really was a struggle, a battle within.

He was a man who would ultimately experience the very power and presence of God in his life to the degree that his name would be called from Jacob the cheater, the supplanter, to Israel, the prince of God. He was a man who was not a prince, who became a prince because God worked so beautifully in blessing his life. He ultimately came to a place of brokenness in his life and received from God the hand of God, the blessing of his legacy. The very nation of Israel is named after this man Jacob or Israel.

And so I want us to always remember that this Christian life is a struggle. Paul himself, the greatest Christian who ever lived, in Romans 7 spoke of this struggle and wrote of this struggle. He said, "The things that I want to do, the very things that I want to do and to be for God, I don't do. But the things that I don't want to do are the very things that I find myself doing."

There was this internal struggle in the soul of the Apostle Paul that is in the life and the soul of all of us. Thankfully, we can discover, as Paul discovered as he concluded Romans 7, that we can achieve and receive victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But life was a struggle for Jacob, and it was a struggle from the beginning. So let's pick up the story in Genesis chapter 25 beginning at verse 19.

"This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her, and she said, 'If all is well, why am I like this?' So she went to inquire of the Lord.

"And the Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.' So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over, so they called his name Esau," which means hairy.

"And afterward his brother came out and his hand took hold of Esau's heel. He was the heel-catcher. And so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the fields. But Jacob was a mild man, or a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

"Verse 29: Now Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, 'Please, feed me with the same red stew, for I am weary.' Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, 'Sell me your birthright as of this day.' And Esau said, 'Look, I'm about to die, so what is this birthright to me?'

"Then Jacob said, 'Swear to me as of this day.' So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. And then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright."

Two men, two brothers, two very different kinds of men. Brothers born into the same family and yet so different. If you looked at the two, Esau perhaps initially would be the most impressive. For Esau was a man's man. And he was his daddy's boy. He was the apple of his father's eye. He was an outdoorsman. He was a hunter. He was a man of the fields.

And the smell of wild game was upon him. He had every subscription to Outdoorsman and all those kinds of magazines. And he, like his brother, had heard the stories of faith passed down from Abraham and now to his father, Isaac. Isaac was a very common and ordinary man. He was the son of a great father and the father of a great son.

And Isaac loved this boy. And he was raised in a family and given the birthright, the promise, the legacy of that family. Esau apparently had it made due to nothing of himself. It was just given to him. And yet he had no interest in his spiritual legacy. He had no idea, apparently, of the value of this wonderful gift from God.

His brother Jacob—these two twin boys, Esau and Jacob—they struggled because they were so different. One hairy, the other heel-catcher, Jacob. Jacob was a mild-mannered man. He's described here in the Bible as a plain man. It's also translated quiet. He was a man who was at home not in the field but at home in the tents. And he was favored by his mother. He was a mama's boy.

And while Esau was extroverted and excitable, animalistic, Jacob was quiet and introverted and even knew how to cook. He was a plain man. This same word, the Hebrew word in verse 27 describing him as a plain man, is also translated in the book of Job as a perfect man. Job, have you considered my servant Job, perfect in all of his ways? Same word. Obviously it doesn't speak of moral perfection, but it speaks of contentment. It speaks of completeness.

So here was a man who was contented. And yet there was this favoritism that was going on between mother and father and son and brothers. And when you really consider this family, they put the fun back in dysfunctional. They were a dysfunctional family. Part of the problem, of course, was this favoritism that mother and father showed between the two boys.

That's a bad thing to do in a family. Never show favoritism to one child over another. How easy it is, how tempted we are to compare our children. Why can't you be like your brother? Why can't you make good grades like your sister? Why can't you behave like your younger sibling and so on? Every child needs to know their uniqueness and their distinctiveness.

God made them all unique and different. And you ought to bless every child with your love unconditional and not just find something wrong constantly, but to be a good finder, finding something right. Well, as a result of this family that was formed, friction resulted. And ultimately, Jacob wanted something that Esau had. And he wanted it so badly that he could taste it. What Esau had that Jacob desperately wanted was the birthright of the family.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Leaving a Legacy or Losing a Legacy. We are excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It's our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint. You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content.

To join, start a new text conversation by texting the word "Connect" to 59789. Again, text "Connect" to 59789. Every gift given to PowerPoint Ministries before June 30th will be doubled through a $200,000 matching grant. This is a crucial moment as we close out the financial year because your support helps ensure that the truth of Jesus continues reaching people who are searching for something real they can trust.

And as our thanks for your gift, we'll send you The Jesus Discoveries by Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, a resource designed to strengthen your confidence in the truth of the gospel. To give your gift and request your copy, text "June" to 59789. That's "June" to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, Leaving a Legacy or Losing a Legacy.

Jack Graham: Now, in the book of Genesis and throughout the pages of the Old Testament, the birthright stood for, well, let me divide it in three ways. It stood first of all for possessions. If you had the birthright, typically given to the older son, that meant that you received a double portion of the family's possessions.

But not only did it have to do with a double portion of the inheritance, but if you had the birthright, you were called upon to be the spiritual leader of that family. So it had to do with possessions, it also had to do with priesthood, to become in effect the priest, the spiritual leader of that family.

And then thirdly and most importantly, it had to do with the promise, because the one in this line of Jewish legacy would carry on the promise of God, the messianic promise. It was a valued thing, a treasured thing, especially in the heart of Jacob. But Esau had been out hunting. And he came in tired and weary and famished, worn out, weakened by his time away.

And he didn't care for the promises of God or even his possessions at that point. He saw this and smelled this wonderful stew that Jacob was cooking. Did Jacob manipulate this whole scene and whole situation? We don't know. But knowing something of his personality as we will observe it later, it may be that Jacob prepared this whole setting in order to capture his brother's birthright.

And so Esau came in and he said, "Please, give me some of this wonderful stew that I'm smelling and give it to me now." Esau was consumed with his own appetites. He was like the people mentioned in Philippians chapter three and verse 19 whose god is their belly. And in the end, they destroy themselves.

Esau was a man who cared very little for the spiritual. He cared about the sensual. He cared very little about the eternal. He cared only about the temporal, only about today. He was as Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 16 says, a profane man. A profane man. And that word means literally outside the temple, of the streets, on the streets, secular, profane.

The heart of this man was not a heart for God. Though he may have wanted the blessing, the possessions, and the rest, he did not want God. He only wanted to fill his belly. There's no sense of desire for God, no desperation for the Lord. He was a secular man, a sacrilegious man, a sensual man.

And so when he was hungry, just hungry, he said, "I'm starving. Feed me." Jacob had him right where he wanted him. And he said, "All right, sell me your birthright." Esau said, "Forget about it. What do I care about this birthright when I'm dying here?" And he signed on and he threw out his treasure and gave away his birthright.

The last verse of this passage says he despised his birthright. He despised it. He didn't care for it and therefore he simply discarded it. He lost his legacy. Now the Bible tells us that those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been given by the right of our spiritual birth certain treasures, privileges, possessions.

We are the children of God and we are to live this legacy of faith that we have been given. We have been given a birthright, and that birthright is to live for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to leave behind for our family and to link ahead to those who will follow us, the birthright of the follower of Jesus Christ. But I wonder how often we sell out too cheaply. How often we sell out our birthrights and we lose our legacy.

For example, God has given us his word, this book, as a perfect treasure of truth. We as believers have the key that unlocks the message and the ministry of God to the world. And yet how many Christians throw away the treasure? How many of us who name the name of Christ, who have been given this wonderful gift from God, we despise the gift? We discard the gift? We set it aside?

God has given us the wonderful promise and practice of prayer. Prayer, the privilege of connecting with God and communicating with God. God speaks to us and we speak to him. All of heaven is open to those who pray, and the blessings of God are poured out through believing prayer. And yet how many of us abuse this treasure or refuse to use this treasure of believing prayer?

We can touch the world. We can change the world through prayer. But do we despise our birthright? Do we set aside this treasure? Are we more interested in beans than the bread of heaven? Are we more interested in soup and filling our stomachs rather than filling our hearts and our souls with the presence of God?

How many people sell out so cheaply? They sell out their families, they sell out their futures by making dumb decisions like Esau made. Devaluing what is precious and living a life that is sensual and making choices that just throw away the blessing of God.

Now in contrast, Jacob desired above all else in his life the blessing of God. You may not see it yet in this story, but you will see it as we move through his legacy. He wanted the right thing. Now he goes about it in a number of occasions in the wrong way. Part of Jacob's problem was that rather than receiving the blessings of God and understanding who he was, he thought he had to spend his life hustling and grabbing and scheming and manipulating to get what he wanted.

When all he needed to do was to trust God and to wait on God because God had already promised his mother, his family, that he would be the one that would receive the birthright and the legacy. No doubt his mother had told him this as God had spoken to her. But he couldn't wait, could he?

And so he spends a great portion of his life trying to achieve what God simply wanted to give. Rather than trusting God, he was trying his best to grab. He was the heel-catcher. His very name means crooked one, the cheater, the supplanter. And I know Christians who do the same thing.

Rather than trusting God for God's best and God's blessing, they get ahead of God, manipulate the situation. I know people who have gotten married outside of the will of God and the plan of God for their life because they would not, could not wait on God. I know men and women who have climbed ladders of success, career decisions that have been made manipulating, cheating, lying, trying to get to the top.

But a Christian ought to be different. Rather than deceiving and manipulating and working it, working every angle, we live differently. Not that we don't desire to achieve success, but we do it for a different reason, a different motivation. We do it for the glory of God, by the hand of God, and the blessing of God.

Jacob got what he wanted, but he spent a long time trying to want what he got. And he struggled and he fought and he paid a great price for his greed. Two men in a struggle. Two brothers. One sensual and secular and carnal. The other a man who ultimately became spiritual and eternal in his legacy.

Do you value this world more than the blessings of God? Sometimes it takes a wakeup call to get our attention. A tragedy, a sorrow, a grief in order to wake us up so that we would really value what is eternal. To reassess our priorities, to reaffirm our faith, to reestablish our values.

The ultimate legacy is your faith in Jesus Christ. The ultimate purpose for living and the ultimate purpose even in dying. Paul said it is whether we live or die, that we live in the lordship of Jesus Christ. And if you don't know Jesus, you don't have a real legacy to give to your children, your grandchildren.

Even if you don't have children, you don't have a legacy to live or to leave if you don't have Jesus Christ in your life. I want to invite you to come to him first before anything else. To give him that rightful place of lordship in your life. And rather than struggling and manipulating your way through life, that you would give yourself to follow him as his child and learn to live in the birthright and the blessings that belong to every Christian, every child of God.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Leaving a Legacy or Losing a Legacy. When you support PowerPoint Ministries, you help share God's word with people around the world through programs just like this one. And as a thank you for your gift this month, we'll send you The Jesus Discoveries by Dr. Jeremiah Johnston as our thanks.

This powerful resource walks through real historical evidence that points directly to Jesus, helping strengthen your faith and giving you confidence in the truth of God's word. And right now, every gift given before June 30th will be doubled through a $200,000 matching grant. This is a crucial moment as we close out the financial year because your support helps ensure that PowerPoint Ministries continues reaching people with the gospel in the months ahead.

To give your gift and request your copy, text "June" to 59789. That's "June" to 59789. We are excited to share that we have a new way to connect with us. It's our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint. You'll be the first to know about upcoming events, special announcements, and truly enriching content.

To join, start a new text conversation by texting the word "Connect" to 59789. Again, text "Connect" to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: What I mean by markers are specific values or traditions, truths that shape the way those who come after us understand God and his ways as they live in the world. The most important thing any of us can do is to point others to Christ and to bring them to know and love him as we love him. And this is especially needed in our families today.

Parents, you need to be leaving markers for your kids so that they can find the right way, God's way, as they live their lives. One of the best markers you can leave is the habit of reading God's word and praying daily. I remember seeing a plaque once that read, "The family that prays together stays together."

And while that sounds very simple, I believe it's absolutely true. Every family ought to have an established time when they gather together and read God's word and pray. And while this may seem like a small thing to some, I'm telling you it can be an extremely powerful motivating force in building a legacy of faith and the godliness of your family.

Your children will grow up watching you turn to God in every situation if you do, and they will come to understand just how near God is to your family and how much he loves and cares for each one of us. And as you read and as you take time to teach your children God's word, you will see their hearts becoming more and more shaped by his power and grace.

Giving your children a love for God and his word and teaching them the privilege of prayer, what better way to set them in the right direction and leave them a legacy that will prepare them for success both in this life and the life to come.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Jeremiah Johnston's book The Jesus Discoveries. Just text "June" to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about the blessing every parent can give their children. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.