All right, take your Bibles, if you will. Turn
with me to the book of 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter
number one, 2 Timothy chapter number one. Happy
Mother's Day. My mama, I know Sundays get busy,
so I called her early and I got her on the phone.
And my mom lives in Colorado. She is working
out in her wood shop. She has a CNC computerized
router, and you can hear it in the background.
She's doing a project. I said, mom, what are
you working on? And she said, would you like
to see? I said, sure. So we put that button on
there, you know, the FaceTime, you push that.
She sees me, I'm smiling, but I don't see her.
She's got it turned backwards and she starts,
you know, walking through there and she gets
over there, shows me the router. And finally
I said, mom, I wanna see you. She says, no, no,
absolutely not. And so I, you know, like any
kid does, I threw a fit. Mom, I wanna see you.
And so finally she turned it around and there
was my mom smiling from ear to ear. I loved my
mama, wished her happy memory. I got a few pictures
and I wanna show you, I think four pictures.
This is the first one right there. Oh, look at
that. My mom and I was a big baby. And some of
you still say I still am a big baby. No, no,
no, no, no, that's not very nice right there.
Here we go, look at this one. And that's when
we lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa. And that was
at Christmas time. There I am with my brother
and my mama. Now these two other ones are special.
And I wanted you to notice this. Look at this
next one. And yeah, look at my mom's hair. And
look at my hair. Absolutely right there, but
that's right before we were going to church.
And I remember those memories when I was a child
of every Sunday we would go to church and in
Council Bluffs after church, we'd go over to
a restaurant called The Chalet and we'd eat our
meal and in The Chalet they had the pie. a little
display and my mom and dad allowed us almost
every Sunday to go over to the pie display and
choose out our pie. That was wonderful. Then
look at this one. This is when we moved to Colorado.
We lived on Charon Drive, my daddy's yellow truck.
And where were we going? We were going to church.
And I look at those precious memories of my mom
and dad, especially I look back on Mother's Day
and think about the influence my mama had on
my life and is still having in my life. I have
a godly heritage and I'm thankful for that. Today
we're gonna look in the book of Timothy and we're
gonna notice a man named Timothy, Timotheus,
who had a godly influence from his grandmother
Lois and also his mother Eunice. And so we're
gonna stand for the reading of God's word. and
we're gonna look at 2 Timothy chapter one, and
we're gonna read together verse number five,
and if you can, read that with me. Ready, verse
number five. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned
faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy
grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and
I am persuaded that in thee also. Okay, some
of you, no doubt, you're looking around. You're
in First Timothy, you wanna go to Second Timothy,
okay? Second Timothy chapter one, verse number
five. Now you're there, we're gonna read it all
together, try your best, here we go. When I call
to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in
thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois,
and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that
in thee also. Oh wow, the life of Timothy, we're
gonna look at it. but we're gonna look at these
godly influences of his grandmother, Lois, and
his mother, Eunice. Before we go any further,
let's bow our heads in our hearts in prayer.
Dear Father in Heaven, we love you. Today's a
good day, a wonderful day, and Lord, thank you
for church, thank you for Bible -believing Christianity,
thank you for the word, your word. I pray that
you help us to take a moment, and in a way, we're
gonna look at some things that many of us already
know, but need to be reminded of. For some, this
is gonna be new. And I pray that you help all
of us realize the importance of a godly home,
a godly mother, godly grandmother. Lord, help
us to make some decisions this morning that honor
you. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
Oh, Timothy, wow, Timothy. You know, we look
at that and we're gonna turn over in a minute.
to the book of Acts, Acts chapter number six.
And that's a little kid throwing flowers at mama.
We like that, that's good, that's good. He loves
you. She'll just tape up, rip up mama's flowers
and throw them at her. That'll be great. And
it works every time. But we look at Timothy,
a young man mightily used of God. I'm gonna read
Acts chapter number 16, verse number one. It
says, then he, the apostle Paul, then came he
to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus. Timotheus, the son
of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed,
but his father was a Greek. And it begins to
tell the story about how Paul met Timothy. And
we begin to find that the apostle Paul begins
to disciple Timothy, instruct Timothy, begins
to guide Timothy, take Timothy along with him
on missionary journeys. And whether you know
it or not, Timothy becomes a mighty man of God.
He becomes, what we would say, a faithful man
of God. We begin to read in the Bible, for example,
Romans chapter 16, verse 21, Timotheus, my work
fellow. Now, before I go any further, I wanna
mention about. the thought process, when we find
out that Timothy is mightily used of God, we
find him in the book of Romans, we find him in
second Corinthians and first Corinthians, we
find him all throughout the New Testament, that
Timothy was right there working with the apostle
Paul and mightily used of God. Now I wanna ask,
was this luck? Was it lucky that Timothy became
this mighty man of God? Was it sort of just luck
that Timothy became a work fellow, a helper of
Paul? My son Samuel, you're right there. The
other day, I think it was Friday, I come home,
I go into my kitchen, and all of a sudden my
Samuel, 11 years old, he whips out this wad of
cash. You're asking me where I'm gonna get my
dollar, I'm getting my dollar from Samuel. But
he whipped out, and like, where did you get that?
He starts, he's got all this money there, and
then he began to think, by the way, where did
he get that? Well, for a long time, he's been
out in the garage collecting copper, stripping
wires, and all of a sudden they took it to the
scrap yard. He turned it in and had so much copper,
he has this wad of cash right there. That's not
luck that he got that money. There was a, you
know, it looks like I'd like to have that wad
of cash, but that wad of cash came from behind
the scenes, a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot
of effort. And we look at Timothy. He's a work
fellow. He's Paul's beloved son, the Bible says.
He's Timothy, my brother in Christ. He's a servant
of Jesus Christ. It wasn't luck. Timothy was
a godly man trusted by Paul. He was used by God.
But how did Timothy become this kind of man?
How did he become a, luck? Just say no. Was it
luck? Okay, good. I'm tired, I'm already tired.
And you guys are tired of listening to the sermon,
I understand that. But just get this right. Was
it luck? No, okay. Now I want you to go with
me back to the scripture we started at. And well,
actually, I wanna continue on Acts chapter 16
to notice something. And if you're there, it
says this. He was the son of a certain woman,
which was a Jewess. and believed. The Bible makes
mention of his mama. Timothy's mama was a believer.
She was a Christian. But then it mentions his
father. But his father was a Greek. And it's
almost, as you look at it, God wanting you to
notice something that this man, yes, became a
mighty man of God, but he didn't come from a
perfect home without problems. He came from a
home with a godly mother, yes. But the Bible
is almost insinuating that his father was, you
know, a Gentile, an unbeliever. And part of the
message is going to be for us, well, I don't
have a perfect home. Well, you don't need to
have a perfect home to raise a godly man. You
don't need a perfect home. We don't live in a
vacuum. As a matter of fact, I don't come from
a perfect home. The Neddesheim home is not a
perfect home. Our church, by the way, when we
look at this, is certainly not a perfect church,
but God takes imperfect situations and can put
the pieces of the puzzle together, and God can
use it in a great way. How did Timothy become
this kind of man? It certainly wasn't because
he came from a perfect home. Now go back with
me to 2 Timothy, chapter number one. Okay, 2
Timothy chapter one, look at this. This is absolutely
amazing, amazing. Verse number five, when I call
to remembrance, when I call to remembrance, say
that with me, when I call to remembrance, now
look at this, the unfeigned faith, the unfeigned
faith that is in thee. Ah, unfeigned, unfeigned.
Now, That's not necessarily a word that I use
in everyday language. I don't go around saying,
you're unfeigned faith. How many use the word
feigned regularly? Okay, well, appreciate it.
I'm gonna have you come up here. How do you use
that in your household? That's exciting. That's
exciting. That's exciting. That's exciting. I'm
not gonna make you answer that, but I believe
you. I believe you. I believe you. We had one.
in the early bird service that sat right about
you right there, but when he said that, he sort
of scratched his head at the wrong time, okay?
But I'm gonna talk to you after the service.
I'm very, very, very, very curious right there.
The word fame, fame, think with me. The word
fame, it's invented or imagined. The word fame
is an idea of something that is not real. It's
an idea, it's something that's imagined, it's
something that invented. but it's something that's
not real. You feigned that, you feigned that.
Okay, I'll give you an example of this. Years
ago, me and my wife were asleep in our bed there
and all of a sudden, my wife all of a sudden,
she wakes up and sits straight up. And I'm like,
what? She says, a horse just ran through our
yard. Honey, you're feigning, I didn't use the
word back then, but honey, you're feigning that.
You're imagining that. There's no horse that
ran through our backyard. You're imagining it.
She says, no, a horse. I said, honey, no. No,
no, no, no. You're imagining that. It's not real.
So she gets up and she goes to our living room.
I follow her there and she opens up the curtain.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And right in her
backyard is a horse. So it was her, it was not
feigned. It was unfeigned. In other words, what
she saw or she heard, it was real. It was real.
It was not imaginary. So you think unfamed faith,
it's real faith. It's not fake faith. And so
Paul's writing to Timothy and say, the unfamed
faith, you have real faith. You have something
that's not imagined. You have something that's,
it's important, not fake faith right there. And
this is awesome right there. When I called to
remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois. And
all of a sudden we begin to look at that. Timothy's
faith didn't just show up by accident. He had
grandma Lois, Grammy Lois, and Mimi Lois. There's
all those Grammy names. You know what I'm talking
about? Grammy, grandma, Mimi, all those grandma
Lois, Mimi Lois. And so we begin to look at that.
Timothy, before ever, before Timothy. ever stood
up for God publicly, behind the scene he was
influenced by his Mimi, his Grammy, his grandma
Lois. And that's important. He didn't have to
have a perfect home, but he had a grandma who
influenced him to do right. He had a Mimi that
influenced to do right. And we begin to think
that he also had his mama, his mama. Eunice right
there, his mama Eunice had great faith, had unfeigned
faith, not fake faith. In other words, Timothy
had something around him, an influence around
him that pointed him to God, that showed true
faith in God. And that's important, I believe,
right there. You know, we begin to think about
this. We like the results of having Timothy's.
Okay, let me go a little bit broader here to
help us understand, because some of you don't
have children in the home. but we have a church
family. And inside our church family, we have
a responsibility to help our church young ones,
our church young ones to grow up to serve the
Lord. And it just doesn't happen by luck. It
doesn't happen by luck. We have to have some
people, some men. And soon we need some Grammy
Lois's. We need some Mama Eunice's. We need some
Grandpa Bubba's. And some. Daddy Chubbies. I
don't know. What do you got it for a name? I
don't know. But we need some people that have
some unfeigned faith that influence, that guide,
that direct the Timothes of the church and the
young ladies of the church to live with God.
By the way, I like the results. I want to raise
a Timothy. But children know when we act one
way at church and they see something different
at home. They can see the difference between
something that is real and something that is
imaginary, the difference between feigned faith
and unfeigned faith. And that's why our Christianity
must be lived at home, not just shown at church.
It needs to be real. Okay, I'm out of breath.
I'm out of breath. You out of breath yet? No,
your ears hurt though, don't they? I get it,
I get it. But think with me, I remember going
to church before I was ever a pastor, there was
an older lady in the church named Cecilia Stroud.
And she was short, she was really petite, really
skinny, and she loved the Lord. She loved the
Lord. She read the Bible through from cover to
cover every month of the year. And after church,
she would often go, she didn't have family in
the church, but she would grab a young lady.
and she would get them to sit with her. And after
the sermon, she had preached another sermon to
this dear lady. But she cared for these people.
And those young girls, they loved her. They cared
for her. They loved the investment. But her faith
was real. Her faith was real. By the way, you
got around Miss Cecilia Stroud, you stood up
a little straighter. You guarded your mouth a
little bit more. Now her husband, Brother Stroud,
Brother Stroud would want to go golfing. And
he'd say, Brother Matt, you want to go golfing?
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, well, you pick
me up. And I was like, OK. And so I'd drive over
to his house. It was off of Indian River Road,
off the highway. There's the Waffle House in
the neighborhood back there. I'd drive down the
street. They had lived on the corner. I'd get
out. And then I'd walk out knowing that I'd get
to see Brother Stroud. And Brother Stroud, come
on in. And you'd meet up with Sister Cecilia
Stroud. And then she'd be looking at you're going
golfing, huh? And she's looking up at you. Yeah,
I'm going golfing. Did you read your Bible? And
you never want to go over that without reading
your Bible. And she had real faith that also
influenced you. And that's what we need. We need
some influencers and people who lead with a faith
that's not feigned, but unfeigned faith. Now
go over with me to the book of 2 Timothy chapter
three. 2 Timothy chapter number three. Part of
this message though, if you got children in your
home, wow, you have an influence. Be a godly
mother. Be a godly father. Boy, maybe your grandpa
who has or grandma who has influence with your
grandchildren. Be a godly grandpa. Be a godly
grandmother right there. Take that opportunity.
Know your time is short and show them as best
you can to have a real living, live faith. Amen.
Okay, good, good, good, good, good, good, good.
If he didn't say amen there, the sermon was getting
longer. Look at verse 14. chapter number three,
verse 14. This is interesting. But continue,
okay, but what's that word? Okay, keep on going.
But continue thou in, in what? The things which
thou hast learned. But continue thou in the things
that thou hast learned. Paul's instructing Timothy,
continue thou in the things that thou hast learned.
Now, stop with me for a second. He had learned,
he learned him some things, okay? And we're gonna
look at it a little bit longer in a moment, but
think about us. If we could stop in a moment
and think about what are our kids learning in
our homes? Okay, that's sort of convicting. If
you just think about your home, maybe your grandchildren
came over to your house or your kids came over
to your house. What did they learn in the last
week from you in your home? And think about maybe
the last month. What would your kids say, I learned
this from Grammy. I learned this from Grandpa
Bubba. Amen. What are the kids learning? Now
this is very convicting because you begin to
think about it and it becomes reality. What have
you, he's saying continue now the things that
thou has learned right there. Paul wanted us
to know something. He wanted to know that he
learned some things in the past and I wanted
to say the world. Oh, we live in a sin sick world,
do we not? We live and you go out there and I
do feel very bad for the world and the children
growing up in this Sinsic world because often
they're not raised by a parent they're raised
by their phones and often on their phones there's
a lot of things on the phones that are not good
and The statistics I'm not that I'm not trying
to do that this morning But the statistics where
some of the children are introduced to things
they should never be introduced at is absolutely
horrific. They're taught things, shown things,
seen things that they should never see in their
entire life. And they're shown at a very young
age. And it is sad. It's corrupt. It's terrible.
And I told myself I wasn't going to get into
it in the sermon this morning because I don't
want to get sidetracked. But it's terrible. OK.
OK. We would say that. But that's not what they
ought to be learning in your home. And if I could
do a secondary thing, that's not what they should
be learning at our church. at our church. So
we go to this next part. Well, what did he learn?
Look at verse number 14 again. But continue thou
in the things which thou hast learned and hast
been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned
them, and that from a what? Child. Thou hast
known the what? Holy scriptures. Has known the
holy scriptures. Wow! Wow! That was known the
Holy Spirit. And from a child somehow we can
find out that Grandma Lois and Mama Eunice took
the word of God and somehow taught him the word
of God from a young age. The word of God. We
all know the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any of you. We can quote all
those verses, the power in God's word. This is
not man's book. This is God's book. It's true
from beginning to end. And praise God. God preserved
his word, the pure, inspired, and errant word
of God in the King James Bible. You can believe
it from Genesis 1 to Revelation, the last chapter,
the last word. This is a true book. It's a wonderful
book. But it does you no good if you never learn
it. And part of the story is inside your home.
Okay, grandpa, grandma, when the children, the
children come over to your house, your grandchildren
come over to your house, what are they learning
from you? Hopefully, grandpa says, hey, let me
take a moment and read this book to you, this
word of God to you and teach them something from
the word of God that they remember you stopping
and praying and asking God to bless the food
that you're about to eat and they see a semblance
and influence of godly living in the home. and
we would say amen to that. Let's take another
step. Inside of our church, we desperately need
to be a church that's built upon and where we
teach the word of God. Wouldn't you agree with
that? You know, at church, when people come to
our church, we're not necessarily, well, I want
a church that entertains. Well, entertaining
is not gonna help the children as they get a
little bit older, but you know what'll help them?
The word of God. And that's the point right there,
from a child that has known the holy scriptures,
which, by the way, yesterday, my son Amos, Saturday,
I like to go to bed a little bit early, and so
Saturday, I went to bed, I'm in bed at eight
o 'clock last night, and I'm sitting up a little
bit, but in comes my Amos, boom, pounds through
that door, and he's saying goodnight to me, and
he says, daddy, I just wanna talk to you. So,
you know, he's five almost six years. I said,
come on up here He sat on my bed. He begins to
look at me. He says daddy He says and a few weeks
ago. Well, I think it was last week last week
It's his birthday coming up and I ordered him
a present and I let him open up early and it's
a knife That's about this big knife and it is
a brutal looking knife. It's rubber though It's
rubber. It's just bends all over the place. And
so he says daddy If somebody broke in our house,
what would you do? I said, well, Amos, you know
what I would do? I would go get your knife, and
I would go, wah! And I would get there, and he
says, that's not what I would do. Well, what
would you do? And here's what he said. He looked
at me, he said, Daddy, I would pray. And wow,
where did he learn that? He learned that here
at church, obviously not at home. I mean, come
on. I just want to say thank you, thank you.
But really, he learned that. From a child, he's
been taught the holy scriptures that lead him
to go to God in prayer right there. What are
the kids learning in your home? What are the
kids learning in your home? The childhood matters,
the early years matter, the homes matter, and
we at church, we can make a difference. We need
some Cecilia Strouds here at the church. We need
some grandpas who, maybe your kids are no longer
kids, but you can help raise and train and teach
and model biblical Christianity to the kids at
church. Now I want you to turn over to Psalm
chapter number 19. Psalm chapter number 19. I
want you to have seen something. Remember, but
continue thou. in the things that thou has learned,
has been assured of, knowing of the things that
thou has learned, and that from a child thou
has known the holy scriptures, holy scriptures.
In Psalm 19, an amazing Psalm, Psalm of David,
we get to verse number 14. Look at verse 14.
And this verse is memorized. People know this
verse. Say it with me. Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart. Be acceptable
in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Say it one more time. Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be acceptable
in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
That verse is a verse we commonly try to get
people to memorize. Pastor, I'm struggling with
my thoughts. Pastor, I'm struggling, well. Memorize
this verse, let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be acceptable. I say,
oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Memorize
that, say it a hundred times and get in your
mind. Let the words of my mouth and sort of like
a prayer, let the words of my mouth, the meditation
of my heart. And by the way, it's crazy, through
the years, I've had so many people, Brother Mitch,
this is important. You and I, we talk to people,
they struggle, they struggle. Memorize this verse,
they memorize, I still struggle. And part of
it is because we never do the first part. Look
at this, go back a little bit earlier in this
verse, the verse number seven, look at this.
The law of the Lord is what? Perfect, okay, the
law of the Lord, that's the word of God, the
Bible. Converting the soul, the testimony, that's
another name for the word of God, of the Lord
is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes
of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The
commandment of the Lord is pure in lightening
the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous all together. Those are all verses
on the power of the word of God. Then it says,
more to be desired. Okay, God's word, it's more
to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Wow, okay. Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be accepted by my side,
oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. And you
say, I would like the words of my mouth, the
meditation. I'm struggling with that. But how
does that happen without filling your heart and
your mind with the word of God? In other words,
sometimes we do not emphasize the importance
of saturating your heart and your mind with God's
holy precious word. We skip that part. Well,
I'm struggling. Well, try not only saying, let
the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart
be accepted on the side of the Lord, my strength
and my deliverance, but try saturating your heart
and my mind, your mind with God's holy precious
word for a while. Psalm chapter one, just a few
chapters before that, it talks about the blessed
man, his delight, his delight is in the law of
the Lord and in his law that they meditate once
a week on Sunday. And then all of a sudden, once
a week on Sunday, and then you're struggling
by Tuesday, and then you quote the verse, let
the words of my mouth, no, you need to saturate
your heart and mind day and night with God's
holy, precious word. We look at the end result
of Timothy, man, a mighty man, you might say
a valor, a man of strength, a man used mightily
of the God, and we thank God for that, but it
happened with a Eunice. It happened with a grandma,
Lois. It happened with a purposeful saturation
of that child where they learn the word of God,
they study the word of God, and it's a powerful,
glorious, amazing truth that I think that we
all ought to find. And this is interesting, that
from a child that's known the holy scriptures,
we're at the end of the sermon, amen. Okay, now
if you don't say amen, it's gonna go longer.
It's the end of the sermon. Some of you need
to get right with God. Make it a little bit longer,
okay? This week, I got a call. Hello, this is
Pastor Matt Chesapeake Baptist Church. How may
I help you? And all of a sudden it was a missionary.
He said, oh, Pastor Matt. And Pastor Matt, I
think he called me Pastor Nettisime, but Pastor
Nettisime, and I don't know how he said my name,
but he actually said it pretty good. And he said,
wow, I'm excited, I'm a missionary. Me and my
family, we. watch your service all the time.
I can't believe we're talking. I like your sermons.
I like this guy. Okay. You know, I get a lot
of calls from missionaries, but if a missionary
is watching us right now, if you ever want to
come to our church, get support, that's a good
way to get started. Okay. And anyways, this missionary
to Indonesia, man, amazing person. They have
11 children. And then he began to talk to me
a little bit about his parents. They had 12 children.
And then he'd tend to talk about their life,
living for the Lord. And then he told me a story.
He asked me a question first. He says, Pastor,
how many people are in your family? You have
kids and grandkids. And we counted them up. And
it's a little over 40. With grandkids, the daughters
-in -law, son -in -law, and the grandkids and
kids is about 40. He says, my dad has over 100.
And I said, wow. And he emphasized that God,
he says, you know, when I was growing up, my
dad never worried about money. He was worried
about us knowing the word of God. He was interested
in us knowing Christ. And then they had a lot
of kids. We'd say, wow, I'd say that's a lot,
right? You'd say that's a lot. Then he said,
and we emphasized, he said there was another
family member, a relative, who is more interested
maybe in money. And he looks back and he says,
you know, they only have, and then he was just
talking about, the power and the blessing of
having a godly heritage, having a dad and a mama
who led them to the scriptures and led them to
living by the word of God. And I got done talking
to that and I thought, wow, what an opportunity
I have as a dad. I've still got five children
in my home, well six, almost five now and my
son Joshua's getting married, but I want to take
those five children that I have in my home and
I want to be a godly, I don't want to be a fake
Christian. I wanna teach him the word of God.
I wanna teach him the word of God. I want him
to be a part of a church where it's not fake.
It's not fake, it's real. Where we have some
Cecilia Strouds and some men and women here who
are more interested in not entertainment, but
actually learning and living by God's holy precious
word. And I think about that, we have an opportunity.
Now let me ask you a question. What about you?
What is your home producing? What are your children
hearing? I don't got no children. Well, what
are your children? We're brothers and sisters
in Christ. What about the children in the church?
What are they hearing from you? What are you
doing to help the next generation? Is your faith
real or is it an unfeigned faith? And is the
word of God central, not just in your home, but
in your life? A godly heritage, it can happen.
I'm gonna mention one other thing, we're done.
but that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation, unto salvation, wise unto salvation
which is, I think it's in Christ, I don't wanna
misquote it, and so I'm gonna go back and find
it, ah, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
At that point, the word of God points us to how
we can go to heaven when we die. And if you were
to die today, are you 100 % sure you'd go to
heaven? If you're not, God wants you to know
that when you die, you go to heaven. The scriptures
point us to the only way to heaven, and it's
not you being good, it's not you being a Baptist,
it's not you getting baptized, but the way to
heaven is through Christ Jesus, through the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came born of a virgin, lived
a perfect life, he died on the cross for our
sins, he rose again proving to God. He is the
way, the truth and the life. And if you accept
Jesus Christ as your only hope for heaven, the
Bible says you'll be a child of the king, you'll
go to heaven when you die. Let's do this, bow
your heads, bow your hearts, go to the Lord in
prayer. Dear Father in heaven, we love you. Wow,
this truth, as I studied it, convicted me. And
I thought about what influence is in my children
through my home. And I pray that you help me
and Mandy. make good decisions where we have
a Christian home, an unfeigned faith home, Lord.
I pray that you help me to be a dad, a grandfather
that leads my children and my grandchildren to
you and influence them for truth and right. Help
me to be a pastor, help us be a part of a church
that will re -influence the next generation to
live by your word. I pray that you help the moms
and dads here to take their training. of their
children seriously. Help them even make decisions
right now. Maybe have an uncomfortable talk with
a husband and wife, Lord. I pray that you help
maybe a mom or a dad with an imperfect situation
at home realize there's hope for their children.
Lord, if there is one that's not been saved,
I pray that this would be the day of salvation
for them. We sure do love you. We need you, Lord,
in Jesus' name, amen. Stand with me if you will.
In a moment,