Reevaluating My Impact

Ready for a restart is the name of our spring series. Thank you so much for joining us. My name's René, another one of the pastors here at TLC. As we start today, I want to ask you three questions. Just in your own mind, answer honestly, yes or no. Are you ready for this? First question, I want to make an impact for good in my life. Yes or no. Second, I would like to be generally speaking well-respected by others. Yes or no. Then finally, when I get to the end of my life, I'd like people to say, I made a difference. Yes or no.

Well, obviously, I would say that most of us would answer yes to all three of these questions. In fact, I'd say these three questions represent the deepest dream for most of us. Then when we get to the end of our lives, we will not just have used up space and oxygen and nutrition, but we will have really made a difference with our lives. We all long for that. Now, how do I do that? That's the question, right? I want to talk to you today about something that's really been weighing on my mind lately about this.

During this past year, I've officiated at and attended many memorial services, funerals in stadiums packed with thousands of people and funerals in our tent here at church attended by a few dozen. So far this year, believe it or not, we have averaged a memorial service every other weekend here at TLC. You cannot go to that many funerals without having it impact you. I personally have heard person after person at these numerous services talking about the deceased. I've been sitting there in the front row and not to be too morbid, but I'm thinking to myself, one day, people will be saying something about me and about you. The question is, what will they say?

You know, this is a good thing. This is a positive thing to think about, what will my funeral be like? The Bible says it's good to think in these terms, but it's so difficult to get that long range view. Most of the time, life is full of shopping lists and to-do lists and work and laundry and stuff to fix and schoolwork. Life is so busy and we all need occasionally to take time to sort of poke our head above the rising tide of urgent stuff and think long range. Think about re-evaluating my impact. How do I make a true impact with my life that really lasts, that really makes a difference?

The standard answer in our culture is get rich, famous, and beautiful. But does that make a real lasting impact? This week I was reading about this woman. Her name was Fanny Ellsler. In the late 1800s, she was the biggest celebrity in the world. She inspired what one writer back then called Ellsler Mania. They say this was the first instance of the word mania being used in conjunction with a celebrity. This was a century before Beatle Mania, but it was Ellsler Mania.

She was a singer, she was a dancer, and wherever she went, she drew hordes of fans. Let me show you something. People rioted outside her hotel in New York. This is actually an engraving of somebody who was there in New York when the Ellsler riot happened. Her fans just went nuts. They mobbed her carriage in Baltimore. Get this. US Congress was actually adjourned so the lawmakers could all go see one of her performances. People were crazy about her. Songs, the biggest songs of the day were written about her. Then she got even bigger. She married a European prince and became even more famous and even more rich.

Now, ever heard of her? Fanny Ellsler. Her name has been lost to history, and yet she was one of the most famous people, one of the most beautiful people, one of the richest people on the planet. My point is, apparently, that does not make a lasting impact. I mean, listen, you don't have to think about Fanny Ellsler. Try to name all the recent winners of the name of sports championship, all the recent winners of the US Open, or of contests like Survivor or American Idol or The Voice. These people were celebrities in their time, and now most of us can't think of their names anymore.

It's not riches. It's not fame. It's not beauty. If not that, then what is the best way to have a lasting, positive impact with your life after you're gone? I think this has also been on my mind because of the COVID year that we've been a part of. You know, for a few weeks, last March and April, we came face to face with our own mortality. Sadly, we got distracted from that by a lot of other things, but it's good to be at that point and ask this question.

So today, what I want to do is kind of hunker down in one book of the Bible that says a lot about this, the book of Proverbs. I've read through this whole book this past week, and Proverbs is very clear. It says there are four biblical character qualities for a life of true impact. I categorize most of the verses in Proverbs, and pretty much every verse that I found about making an impact fell into one of these four categories. And you know, I noticed that everything good that people said about the deceased and all those funerals that I've been attending lately, they all boiled down to one of these four things.

And I would say that it almost doesn't matter what you do in life. You could be a contractor, a software engineer. You could be in food service, ag, finance. You could be a stay-at-home parent. You could be retired. You could be a student. Build these four characteristics into your life, and you will have impact. And they have nothing to do with riches, fame, beauty, achievement. These are all achievable by you and by me. And as we dig into this, I've got to say I always want to give people credit.

I have gleaned so much wisdom on this topic from people like Tim Keller in New York, and Rick Warren down in Orange County, and my friend Bill Butterworth in Houston, and lots of other people, lots of people that I heard talk at those memorial services. And I've sort of taken all these thoughts, as I've been meditating so much on this over the past year, and I put this into this message. I truly believe that this could be one of the most important messages that I ever deliver and that you ever hear in your life because it is about leaving a legacy, leaving an impact with your life.

Four characteristics of real world changers. You can get our notes at TLC.org/notes. If you want to download these, jot them down. Four words I want to give you. Number one, humility. Humility, very counter-cultural right now. Humility is definitely not trending. But look at Proverbs 29:23. "The arrogant are lowered, but those of lowly spirit are honored." The idea is kind of the high-minded will be lowered, but those of lowly spirit will be raised up.

Now humility, having a lowly spirit does not mean putting yourself down. You know, walking around saying, "I stink, I'm so stupid." Now humility is realizing that you have strengths, yes, but God gave you those strengths. And so you praise God for your strengths. And humility is also realizing, "I have weaknesses. I have blind spots." Look at Proverbs 12:15. It says, "Arrogant fools are right in their own eyes, but the wise listen to advice." Right in our own eyes. We can all fall into this. Everybody says, "Oh man, I admit I am not perfect. I have so far to go." But let anybody point out just how you are not perfect and how far you have to go, and suddenly the defensive walls go up.

But if I want to leave a positive legacy to my kids, to my grandkids, to society in general, I need to have humility and admit, man, I don't have it all together. You know, I can't count how many times I've heard coaches say this about Steph Curry, the well-known basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, "He is the most humble superstar I know." What they will be talking about, I guarantee you, at his memorial service is his humility.

So for example, during all the social problems and division and strife in our society over this past year or so, approach all of those problems with a sense of humility and a willingness to learn. And don't be right in your own eyes. That is such a winsome attitude to have. Be counter-cultural and show humility. And then second, to leave a legacy, show positivity. Humility and positivity.

You know, several years ago, I was blessed to do a memorial service here for a woman named Irene Rose McCarty. Now Irene had had a tough life. She was an orphan. She moved to California all by herself as an orphaned child. But her children and her grandchildren told me that in their house, there was always dancing and singing led by Irene, who'd had such a tough life. She was so positive and so witty to the very last.

Even while she laid dying at Dominican Hospital, her daughter told me, like the day before she passed away, a very elderly man walked by the door of Irene's room in a walker, extremely slowly. And Irene looked up and said, "You know, I think I could catch him." And then as she laid dying, she said, "I want some private time with each one of you." She said this to her children, to her grandchildren, to her great-grandchildren. And so one at a time, they came into her room privately. And they said she lifted her hand and said a personal blessing over each one of them. And when she was done with the last one, she died.

She did one more thing before she passed away, which I'm going to tell you about at the end of this message. But man, I want to leave like that, don't you? You can have that happen. Now, you can't decide exactly how you die, of course, but you can decide exactly what kind of legacy you want to leave. Look at Proverbs 17:22. "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Irene personified that verse.

And then Proverbs 12:25 says, "Anxiety weighs down the heart." But a kind word, something as simple as that, a kind word cheers it up. Let me tell you a true story that is the best illustration I know of this verse. Barbara Glantz is a customer service trainer for retail stores, right? She's hired by different retail organizations to train their people in customer service. Well, she wrote an essay that has become famous justifiably.

Listen to this. She says, "I was hired by a large supermarket chain to lead customer service training. And during my talk, I said, figure out something to make your customers feel special. Well, about a month later, I get a call from a 19-year-old bagger named Johnny. He informed me first that he was a Down syndrome individual, and then said, I liked what you talked about that day. Here's how I do it. Now, every night after I work, I come home and find a thought for the day. And if I can't find a saying I like, I make one up.

And then he said his dad helps him type it up, print multiple copies out on the computer. And then Johnny cuts out each quote, each little slip of paper, and then signs his name on the back, Johnny. And he told her, when I finish bagging somebody's groceries, I put my thought for the day in their bag. And I say, thank you for shopping with us. She thought that was great. Well, she says, one month later, the store manager called her. And he said, you won't believe what has happened. Johnny's checkout line is consistently three times longer than anyone else's.

Even when I add more cashiers and I try to get people to move to shorter lines, almost no one takes me up on it. They tell me, we want to be in Johnny's line to get a stop for the day. She writes, a few months later, the store manager called me again. And he said, Johnny has transformed our store. Now, for example, when the floral department has an unused corsage, they find an elderly woman or a little girl and they pin it on them. Our customers are talking about us and how encouraged they feel when they shop and they're bringing their friends.

Man, that's not just good for stores. That's good for life. So I got a challenge for all of us. Let's be like Johnny the bagger. Because so many people right now are feeling anxiety and they're feeling way down. Let's find large and small ways to cheer them up. Listen, you want to leave a legacy for people. You want to make an impact. You do it through humility, positivity, and then third, generosity. Generosity.

People who make a positive impact with their lives are always generous people. You know, there's a famous Harvard Business Review article that I've quoted before. And in it, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen writes about the final lecture that he gives his Harvard Business School students each semester. He says in this famous article, he says, I observed that many Harvard grads, some of the smartest and most capable people on the planet, inadvertently invest for lives of hollow unhappiness. Why?

He says their troubles relate right back to a short-term perspective. And so he tells them, think about the metric by which your life will be judged and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success. Exactly what we're talking about in this message today. He goes on, research shows the most satisfying long-term motivator in our lives actually isn't making money. It's the opportunity to contribute to others.

In the end, we will measure our lives by our contribution, not our accumulation. That's not the Bible. That's Harvard Business Review. But this is very biblical also like Proverbs 11:25 says, a generous man will prosper. He refreshes others will himself be refreshed. That's counterintuitive, isn't it? If I give to others, I'm going to prosper. If I refresh others, I'll be refreshed. But again, research proves out this biblical principle.

Notre Dame University has now a whole department devoted to the study of generosity. And what they do is they get academic studies, research studies from all over the world. They put them together to find out what generosity does to people. It's very powerful. They say that generous people, for example, are happier, healthier, and less depressed than people who are not generous. They have lower blood pressure, reduced stress, longer lifespans, better moods, better marriages, more friends. This is exactly what the Bible is referring to.

In verses like Proverbs 20:29, a generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. Here in Santa Cruz, our daily newspaper is called the Santa Cruz Sentinel. And this past week, they had a fascinating article about the legendary billionaire of about 100 years ago, Andrew Carnegie. Did you know that he had local connections? Did you know that Andrew Carnegie himself funded and then endowed almost all of our local branch libraries?

This is a picture of Andrew and his wife on a visit to Santa Cruz, and he loved Santa Cruz. He said, quote, Santa Cruz is just full of wonders. And I mean, this is the wealthiest man in the world at the time. He had traveled all over the planet. And he had this to say about the place that most of us live here in Santa Cruz. And I totally agree with him, don't you? But getting back to his local connection, if you've been to a library here in Santa Cruz, you have probably been to a library that he funded.

Check this out, the Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Seabright, Garfield Park, and Eastside Libraries were all completely funded by Andrew Carnegie, who loved Santa Cruz and had sort of a come to Jesus moment in late middle age. It was really a change for him. He'd been characterized by President Theodore Roosevelt as a robber baron. But suddenly, Carnegie became devoted to a life of generosity and actually became a very close friend of his former critic, Roosevelt.

Why? Well, he had started with nothing as a Scottish immigrant. And after he sold US Steel in 1901 for half a billion dollars, he suddenly decided to devote the rest of his life to helping people who were also starting with nothing. And he actually said his goal for the final third of his life was to give away all his money, all of it. And that's exactly what he did. In fact, whatever he hadn't given away at the time of his death, he gave away in his will.

Now, he was not a perfect guy. No one is. But my point is about legacy. There are plenty of his contemporaries who were very rich people who are now simply not remembered at all. He is. Why? Really, one reason is generosity. Now you say, good friend, Andrew Carnegie. Nobody watching is as rich as Carnegie. So what are you saying, René? How does this apply to me, to regular people here in Santa Cruz or watching the live stream?

Well, first, I can be generous with a lot of other things besides money, right? That doesn't cost me a dime. Like my attention, my encouragement, my time, my love. And in fact, those things may mean a lot more to your family than money in the end. And then second, you know one of the things that I think is part of the beauty of churches, even if you feel like personally, you have very little to give when we give together, we can make a huge impact.

Let me just show you, I want to encourage you. Here is part of how your generosity has made an impact at TLC in just the past month. People's pantry distributed groceries to 587 families. Our benevolence team helped dozens of people with bills, housing needs, medical needs totaling over $40,000. In South County, we continue to hire in-person tutors for the public school students there, who even those schools have opened up, are still often learning online.

And then coming up our new college ministry center and coffee house grand opening is June 10th, and that is going to impact generations. And you're the ones who are building all this. And that is just a small window into what God is doing through you and your generosity here at TLC. And thank you so much for doing that. You are having an impact. You are making a difference. When we are generous together, great lasting impact happens.

We have a lasting impact with humility, positivity, generosity. And then finally, integrity. Integrity, this is so important. What do people remember even about great world leaders, if they're remembered well? Integrity. Think about it. What do people call Abraham Lincoln? Do they call him Brilliant Abe, even though he was brilliant? Or highly accomplished Abe, even though he was very highly accomplished? No, what do they call him? Honest Abe.

We are remembered not for our achievements, but for our integrity, for our character, for our heart. And this is so important because a lack of integrity can undermine everything else you do. Look at Proverbs 10:9. It says, whoever walks in integrity walks securely. But whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. What does it mean whoever walks in integrity walks securely? I like what Rick Warren says, when you have integrity, you don't have to have a good memory. Because you don't have to remember the lies that you told people to cover up.

Integrity produces stability. Integrity produces security. Integrity produces a sense of confidence. But integrity may be the most difficult of all these four qualities to really safeguard and preserve. I was reading this week about the Titanic and how scientists for many, many years tried to figure out why did it sink exactly? I was watching the famous movie Titanic, with Leonardo DiCaprio the other day. And the scene where it hits the iceberg is so over-dramatized.

The people who are steering the ship see this in the movie, it's this massive iceberg that's just looming over the ship. And they try not to collide with it, but it's so big that they can't avoid it. And the ship crunches into the iceberg and the whole thing shutters. And it sends chunks of ice falling onto the deck. That's all just so that the special effects guys could show off their craft and maybe win an award or something. It was fun to do, but they say that's not how it was in real life.

In fact, get this, the only survivor who actually saw the iceberg, who was on deck, saw the iceberg approaching and lived to tell about it, said it was as small as a sailboat. And this is why the crew didn't feel threatened by it. It wasn't looming over their boat. And no survivors on the lifeboat reported seeing any damage to the boat. One of the most common things that the survivors said was, as we saw the ship go up and then sink, we didn't see any damage. Until it broke in half because of gravity.

They couldn't understand why the ship sank. So what happened? Well, once they found the wreck, scientists sent subs to the submerged wreck to find out. And using radar, you know what they discovered? The damage was surprisingly small. Instead of a huge gash, they actually found six narrow slits that all would have been below the water line. The largest was as wide as a human hand. And some of the gashes were pencil thin. Little gashes at the right spots or the wrong spots.

Here's what I'm saying. Small damage below the water line, invisible to most, can sink a mighty ship. And this is exactly how we lose our integrity. We think it'll be a massive mountain that we can see coming. But it'll be tiny compromises, punching little holes below the water line that maybe no one else even sees. Integrity is determined by the small choices you make on a daily basis.

And let me get very specific about something that I'm observing and if I can be super specific, particularly in some of the older people that I know, or some of the older parents of some of the people that I know. Something that is putting their legacy at risk. Something that is putting their relationship with their own children and grandchildren at risk, and it's this. Every day, you and I choose to read, or choose to watch, or choose to browse things that are ennobling, things that inspire, things that challenge, and your character grows.

Or you choose to watch or read things that debase you, that bring out fear or anger or lust or envy or self-righteousness. Maybe it's just a hairline fracture, but it can be fatal. Because those small daily choices change you incrementally into a different person. They change your destiny, just like they change the Titanic's destiny. You are always being changed by what you allow to impact you, no matter how small it seems.

So, are you allowing yourself to be changed into this, or into the opposite of this, into a person of arrogance and negativity and withdrawal and worldliness? And how do you and I fight those negative influences and instead build these four things over the long run into our character? And here's where I want to land. Humility, positivity, generosity, integrity, they all flow from your identity. That's where they're sourced. And for Christians, this means you are in Christ.

Think about it. The perfect picture for the kind of character that we've been describing is Jesus Christ. I mean, talk about humility, positivity, generosity, integrity. That is a description of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. And what this means is the more time you spend with him, abiding with him, letting him love you, letting him lead and teach you, meditating on him, the more you will grow in these qualities. That's part of the fruit of the spirit in your life.

Because the Bible talks about Jesus this way in Philippians 2. It says Jesus, who being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, amen. Now think of this, you can know this man as your friend, and that changes everything.

How does that happen? Let me close with a story. I talked earlier about Irene McCarty and her death a few years ago here at Dominican Hospital and how I was able to do her memorial service. You know the secret to her character? She displayed all four of the things we've been talking about, but here's the secret. Every now and again on her deathbed, on her very last day of life, her family told me that she would look up and say, hi Jesus. Just like a surprise little girl.

And then the last thing she did was she began to sing, Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me this I know. And her family started filtering in from the hallway and soon four generations of her family surrounding her in her hospital bed, sang it together with her. And she died. Their last memory of Irene will be singing Jesus Loves Me With Her. That was the secret to her character. That was the secret to her humility, to her positivity, to her generosity, to her rock solid integrity.

Listen, as I said, you can't determine the exact circumstances of your last moment, but you can decide now on your impact on others. And it begins when you know, like Irene knew, that Jesus loves you. He loves you unconditionally. He sacrificed himself for you. And let's remember that now together at Communion.

During these live stream services, we've been doing Communion at home. And I just wanna invite you, if you've placed your faith in Jesus, please join us. You can get out a little piece of bread or a cracker, a glass of water or some fruit of the vine. And as I said, since on the live stream, we've been asking you to join us in our homes, each month we've been going via video to one of our pastors homes and asking them to lead us all in communion together.

And this month, let's go to the home of Steve and Molly Craig. Steve is our pastor to high school students.

Hey, my name is Steve Craig. I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. And I hope you got your bread and your juice in preparation for Communion. On the night that Jesus was in the upper room celebrating Passover with his disciples, he took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup and he said, this is the new covenant of my blood poured out for you. Let's pray and remember what Jesus has done for us.

Dear Lord, thank you for your death, burial and resurrection. I thank you that through your sacrifice, we are made whole. We are made right in God's eyes. May I never take for granted, Lord, just the joy set before me because of my relationship with you. In Jesus name I pray, amen.