What Kind of Financial Legacy Do I Want to Leave for God’s Kingdom?

You've built solid financial habits. You've been budgeting, you've been giving and you've been living with purpose. But here's a bigger question for today.What happens to your money when you're gone?Yeah, I know this is not an easy thing to talk about, but ask yourself, will your financial life continue to build God's kingdom even after your lifetime is over? Let's talk about legacy today. Not just wealth but, but eternal impact.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey, welcome back to your Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and I am truly honored to be with you again today.This is the show all about answering one key question and that's how can I become a financially confident Christian? And, and we're continuing our series today, beyond the Budget, Finding Financial Freedom through Intentional living.Yes, this series is all about living with intention. Now yesterday we talked about future pacing, your freedom, and we envisioned a life filled with purpose and intention.So if you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out. And today we're going to ask this powerful, often overlooked question.Listen, a lot of people don't want to talk about this, but it's something that we really need to spend some time on. And that is, what kind of financial legacy do I want to leave for God's kingdom?Yes, it's going to get a little deep today, but I promise you it'll be profitable for you. Now you've probably thought about this before. Most people say to me, Ralph, yeah, you're right, I really should write a will.But legacy planning, you know what, I'll put that off for later. You know, Ralph, I'm not worried about that because you know, that's the kind of thing I'll just for the wealthy people.Ralph, right now I'm focused on today, man. I'm focused on paying bills. And you've given me all these things to meet goals and you've told me to be generous.I'm putting that other stuff off for later. But just like we talked about yesterday, here's the truth.Without a long term vision, and I know you might not be ready for this because you got a lot of stuff on your plate every day. But without a long term vision, stewardship is incomplete. Yes, you're doing well in the now and I'm so proud of you for doing that.But are you thinking about what comes next? See, that's where the rubber meets the road, that's where it gets a little complicated.And trust me, I've been down this road myself, having to have these very difficult questions answered. But here's the thing. Stewardship doesn't end when our life does. It extends beyond our time on earth. They might be saying, Ralph, wait a second.I could care less what happens later. Well, let's get into the Word, and I'm going to address why I think you should be caring about it. Look at the Book of Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 22.And it says this, and this will grab you. It grabbed me when I read it. A good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children. But a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.What is it saying to us? A good person, I'm assuming we all want to be good people, leaves an inheritance for their children's children. Well, that's talking about legacy.And Paul reminds us in First Timothy, chapter 6, verses 17 to 19, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and be generous and willing to share.In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Wow. When I read that again, I thought, that's exactly what I'm talking about today.Laying up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. And what has he ended with? So they may take hold of a life that is truly life. You're listening right now. You don't need millions to leave a legacy.You just don't. Some of the people that have left the largest legacies, it wasn't about money. You just need intention.You might be saying, okay, Ralph, that sounds good, but I don't understand if I don't have a lot of money, what are you talking about? Well, see, here's the thing. A lot of people get hung up on what legacy really means.Legacy is what you value, who you bless, and biggest point of it all. And I want you to hear this right now. Legacy is about how your life points others to Jesus Christ himself. So you don't need a lot of money for that.But ask yourself, what kind of legacy am I leaving that point others to Jesus. Now I'm hoping you're gripped by that. I hope you're like Ralph. Yeah, yeah. What do I Do. How do we move forward with that?Well, I've got the solution today, and it starts with prayerfully defining your financial legacy and just taking one small step this week to align your finances with that vision. So I want to give you your one action step for today. So here's how to start today, sort of like yesterday. I want you to really envision your legacy.Ask yourself these questions. What do I want my money to accomplish after I'm gone?You know, once the funeral's over, the headstone is set, everybody goes back to their, quote, normal lives, if there is such a thing. After death, what do I want my money to accomplish after I'm gone? That's the first question. The second question is, who do I want to bless?Ask yourself that question. Who do I want to bless after I'm not here anymore? And then finally this question. What part of God's kingdom do I want to invest in long term?See, this is very long term thinking. This is that legacy Thought so. Now you might be a little confused, Ralph. What do you mean? So here's what I want you to think. Think family.What do you want to leave for your family? What do you want them to be able to do when you're gone? How do you want to bless them? How do you want to invest that they will find Jesus?Maybe you think missions, you might be saying, Ralph, you know, I've always wanted to go on that missions trip, but I never felt like I could do it. But I would really like to support somebody who does it after I'm gone. Or maybe think ministry.You know, maybe you see a ministry and you just want to bless them when you're, when you're no longer with us. But you know that that ministry will carry on and people be. Be led to salvation because of it. So start there. Envision that legacy.Get a clear picture in your mind. Ask yourself those questions. And then the second step today, identify one legacy aligned area. You may be like, Ralph, now you've lost me.Just bear with me here a second. Just one legacy aligned area. It could be your will. Maybe you want to make sure your will. Maybe for you, it's like, you know what?My kids are already doing pretty well. I don't need to leave them anything. I want to leave this to this charity. I want to leave this to this mission, or I want to leave it to benefit this.So that could be your will, could be your giving strategy, maybe start to think about long term. Start thinking about that legacy that you're building with your current giving strategy. Maybe it's your savings approach.You want to save so that your legacy could be that there's this. This bucket of savings to carry on the gospel or to carry on a mission that's important to you.Or maybe for you, and I love this one, maybe it's just the way you talk with your family about money. So look at your vision and identify one thing, and then I just want to encourage you to put it into action. Take one planning step. Choose one action.For example, research how to create or update your will. Go and go and find an attorney who can help you. Do some searching online, but understand what that looks like, how to create it.Maybe you already have one and you're like, Ralph, I haven't updated this thing in years. Well, it's probably a good time to do that. I'm not an attorney, but it's probably a good time to do that.Or maybe this is the point where you open a new savings account called Kingdom Legacy. This is going to be your. Your beneficiary, your legacy for the kingdom.Maybe you've done pretty well for yourself and you want to start a charitable giving fund. You want to start building that for. Maybe bring your family into that and really have conversations about what you can do with that giving fund.Or as I talked about a few minutes ago, have a conversation with your spouse or your kids about your vision so they understand what you're seeing, what that vision looks like. Because I have worked with families. Somebody passed away and they said, you know what? I don't really know what my dad was passionate about.I don't know what my mother was passionate about.Well, if you really want to leave a legacy, if you want to make an impact, it's a Kingdom impact for the future, then share that information with somebody. Share that with your spouse. Share that with your kids or your grandkids. And now you might be saying, Ralph. Oh, okay, I get it. But how does this help?Well, see, by building this legacy plan, it aligns your finances with an internal perspective, as it talked about there in the scripture, you know, saving for the future, that legacy, that life that matters. And by having this plan, it replaces those vague ideas with actionable steps. We move beyond. Yeah, I'd really like to help somebody someday.I'd really like to benefit somebody someday. This makes it actionable steps. It makes it concrete, and I really, truly believe that it builds peace and it builds intentionality into your future.You've got this legacy plan. You're working towards a purpose, and in the end, if you do it Right.And I'm going to encourage you to really take that step of faith and start moving towards this. It ensures your financial life makes a difference even after you're gone. And listen, nobody wants to talk about that.Nobody wants to think about that, but you can make a difference even after you're gone. How about we pray together? Father God, we just thank you for blessing us with resources and blessing us with purpose.Forgive us when we get caught up in today, Lord. It's so easy to get caught up in the day today and forget to plan for the legacy that we'll leave tomorrow.And we just ask that you would give us clarity, Lord, and give us courage as we think beyond ourselves. It's so easy to get stuck on us, Lord, but we want you to give us clarity and give us courage to think beyond that, Lord.Help us to steward wisely, not just for our benefit, but for your kingdom, Lord. Let our lives leave behind generosity, Lord, and leave behind wisdom.And most important, Lord, leave behind faith and a legacy that glorifies you, Lord. And we ask this in boldness, and we ask this in confidence. In Jesus name, Amen, friend.If you hear nothing else I say today, I want you to hear this loud and clear. Legacy isn't reserved for the wealthy. It's for the willing. Are you willing? Are you willing to build that legacy?See, your financial story isn't just about what you build now, yes, that's important. I want you to continue to do that. But your financial story also is about what you leave behind.So I just want to say to you one more time today, take one step, shape the legacy for your life and shape that legacy that your life will tell in the future. And while we're talking about legacy, I would love it if you would share this show with somebody else that is.That is interested in getting impacted in a way that grows their faith, in a way that improves their finances. If you've been listening to this show and you're getting value from it, I want to encourage you.Send a text, send an email, just say, hey, check out this podcast. Check out this guy Ralph. He's got some really great ideas, all based on scripture, all based on faith.And today, let me just tell you, he was talking about legacy building. And I know this could be really impactful for you.Just send them to financiallyconfidentChristian.com and listen while they're there or while you're there, you can get a free copy of my book. It's called Mastering Your Finances. Get to it by going to financially confidentchristian.com/master. Now tomorrow we're going to talk about a creep.Yes, we're actually going to talk about how do I actively combat creep so it doesn't steal my progress. I'm be talking about those things that steal your progress.So until then, I want to encourage you right now, stay intentional, stay legacy minded and stay financially confident. You got this. God bless you and you have a purposeful day.