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2 Timothy 1:3-7
Turn in your Bibles with me this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1, we're going to begin here shortly in verse 3. I want to start with talking a little bit about heritages. We all have somewhat different heritages.
Some of us have a different cultural heritage. Some from Canada, some from California, some from Texas, some from various other places. Some may be listening this morning from Mexico or Belize. And most of the time our heritage is important to us.
For it has molded and shaped us into parts of who we are. I want to tell you this morning of a much more significant heritage. One that makes a difference in what truly matters. 2 Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 3.
If you found it, if you would please stand as we reverence the reading of God's holy word. 2 Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 3. I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience.
As I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears I long to see you. That I might be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.
And now I'm sure dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. Which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father God as we go into your word this morning. I pray Father God that it would be pleasing to you. That it would be for your glory. That as we look into your scriptures that we would see truths about you Father God.
That we would see Lord that you are never changing Father God. That as Christians what a heritage we have Father God. What a heritage we have there is none like it. I pray Father as I preach this morning.
That you would help me Father God. That you would guide me. That you would guide my thoughts. And you would guide my words. Send me the help that I need. Because without you Father I can do nothing. I pray Father God for these that have gathered.
I thank you for them. I thank you for them seeing the need and the importance of gathering Father God. As a body of believers. I pray Father if there would be any here Father. That have not repented and trusted in you.
That they would do so today. Father I pray that the preaching of the word Father would pierce hearts. Father that you would go before the word. Soften hearts to receive it. That we would Lord strive to be not only hearers of the word.
But we would take what we hear Father God. And we would be doers of the word as well. We love you and we praise you in Christ's name.
Amen.
I want to speak this morning on a godly heritage. A godly heritage. Paul speaks here in our text of this. He speaks of his ancestors. He also speaks of Timothy's mother and grandmother. And then in this text I want to point out or I want us to see.
Four reminders that are given to Timothy in our text. About their heritage and about our heritage. The first one is that we serve the same God. We serve the same God as our ancestors did. As Paul's ancestors did.
In verse 3 he says, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors. Paul throws in four very important words there as he is thanking God for Timothy. The as did my ancestors. What is Paul declaring when he says as did my ancestors?
He is declaring that he serves the same God as his ancestors. Who are his ancestors? Well, they are those who have come before him in the faith. You can date this all the way back to Adam. He serves the same God that they did.
The same God that we serve today. The same triune God. The same Father. The same Son. And the same Spirit. The God of Abraham is the God of Paul. And the God of Paul is the God we are serving today. Most will amen that.
Most will say amen. I believe that. Yes, of course, He is the same. We know that. But yet they live and they operate as if God has changed throughout the years. And this comes from a misunderstanding of who God is.
This comes from a failure to study, to understand the attributes of God. That He has the same attributes today as He always has. Within church circles you will hear things like this. Well, the Old Testament God, that was a God of wrath.
But the New Testament God, He is a God of grace and of love. And while these are all attributes of the Holy God, this belief that tries to flame an idea that God has changed and is different now, that His attributes have changed, this is blasphemous.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There are many though, that they're not so bold as they would say that. They're not so bold as they would say that God's attributes have changed, but yet they still live as though they have.
They live as though God is not a righteous judge, or that God is not a jealous God. But Scripture tells us that God is unchanging. His character is unchanging. His view of sin has not changed. He will not all of a sudden stop being holy.
He won't all of a sudden start being corrupt. And that is very comforting to the Christian, and very terrifying to the unbeliever. For God's judgments will remain righteous. Dave Jenkins, summarizing Jonathan Edwards, said that the unchangeability of God provokes sinners to rebellion.
After all, the world hates the Lord because it knows His unchanging character guarantees He cannot overlook nor forget man's rebellion. The unchanging nature of God for the Christian is the rock upon which they stand in every situation in all of life.
What He hated before and times before, He hates now. His wrath towards sin has not changed. His judgment towards sin has not changed. He cannot pardon the wicked. His view of good has not changed. His law has not changed.
His plan has not changed. And that, the fact that His plan has not changed is absolutely wonderful. We can have confidence in the fact that though God has not changed and that He cannot just pardon you on a whim, because He feels like, you know, hey, you know what?
Jacob, he's pretty bad. He's pretty bad, but you know what? His sin is not as bad as some others. I'm just going to let him go. He would be an unrighteous God if he did that. While He has not changed in that matter, we can also have confidence in the fact that God is good and will always remain good and that His wondrous grace and mercy has not changed.
Malachi 3 .6, For I the Lord do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. He will not turn over a leaf tomorrow and start being a wicked God. He will not begin to change what He has proclaimed as right and as wrong.
He doesn't change based upon circumstances. Even things as mighty as mountains. You go into the Rocky Mountains and you see how big they are and how mighty they are. Even things as mighty as the mountains change slowly over time.
But the Almighty God does not. For there is nothing more powerful than God to make Him to change. Rather it is He who sovereignly decrees or allows any change that is to take place within the universe.
He never changes. God had faithfully guided Paul's ancestors and He was certain that He would do the same for him. God is faithful throughout eternity. Past, present, and future. We don't have to wonder if God will be true to His Word.
Does this Bible hold water?
Yes.
Why?
Because God is truth and will never change. He will never cease to be truth. We can have faith in this. How sinful and foolish of us to seek refuge and rest in things that will change. Things that might give temporary rest, but temporary is all that it will be.
Because the truth as mentioned is this. Things change. Jobs change. Our hobbies change. Your bank account will change. Most of the time not for the better. But people change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
I can change my mind on an issue. I have in my life changed my mind on an issue. I can be inconsistent. You can be inconsistent. You will change. Your children will change. Your body will change. What you can do now will change as you get older.
Your athletic ability will change. Your child's athletic ability will change. Remember these things as you grow older and as you raise your family. Not only will you change bodily, but you'll change mentally.
You'll change spiritually. But God will be consistent. God will be consistent. Order your life around that. Order your life around God. Not man. Man will fail, but God is immutable. He is unchanging over time.
He is unable to be changed. Question 8 of our Baptist Catechism. Ask this question. What is God? The answer is this. God is a Spirit. Infinite.
Eternal.
Unchangeable. In His being,.
Wisdom,.
Power, holiness, justice, goodness,.
And truth.
God's plans also will not change or fail. He has only ever had one plan. You may say, well what is that plan? Look at verse 5. I am reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well.
What is His plan that will not fail and is not changed?
Put this in.
Faith.
It is the glorious Gospel of Christ. We serve the same God and He has the very same Gospel. The same Gospel. What faith is He talking about in verse 5? I am reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother and then He says in your mother and I'm sure now dwells in you.
What faith is He talking about here? Is He talking about an Old Testament faith that is different from that of the New Testament? A children of Israel faith that is different from a Christian faith? You know, Timothy's mother was Jewish.
In Acts 16 .1, Paul came unto us to Derbe and to Lystra and a disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. What was she a believer in? What was she a believer in?
What faith was present in her life and that of her mother? It was the only kind of saving faith that has ever existed. Faith in Christ. The same faith that Abraham and even those before him possessed.
You may say, how? How is this possible? Galatians 3 .7 -9 says, No, then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, And you shall all nations be blessed.
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. We can see the Gospel. We can see the promise of a Savior all the way back in Genesis. In Genesis 3 .14 -15, the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.
On your belly you shall go, and the dust shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
That is referring to Christ. We must understand the continuity between the Old Testament and New Testament believers. Paul was making a case for Timothy to connect the Gospel of the past to now. The same faith.
It's the same faith. We need to see that connection going back further than Timothy's grandmother looking at the past. There has been the same Gospel from the past, from the beginning. There's a wrong view in many churches today that the Gospel only became effective.
After Christ.
And that those before were saved by something other than faith in Christ. That they were saved by the sacrifices of bulls and of lambs. Those who were saved before Christ came to earth were saved by what?
Faith in Christ. Habakkuk 2 .4 says, Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Hebrews 11. This is called the hall of faith. What does it say over and over and over in there?
Every verse when it talks about Noah or Abraham or Sarah or Enoch and all this, it's by faith, by faith, by faith. Romans 4 .3. What does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Romans 4 .6 -8. A little farther down, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness.
Apart from works.
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. How were they saved? Christ had not died yet. Christ had not been resurrected.
How were they saved? They were saved by faith in the future work of Christ. Job 19 .25. For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand upon the earth. They were not saved by their ability to keep the law.
They couldn't keep the law. Romans 3 .20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Even if they were able to outwardly keep the law, which in and of itself is impossible, but even if they were, if they didn't internally keep it all, then they were guilty of it all.
We have a misconception of some of Jesus' words. And maybe I'm not the only one who grew up hearing this misconception. Matthew 5 .27 -28.
Jesus says,.
You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. People too often believe that Jesus is saying in the Scripture that now that the new covenant has come, lust has now become adultery.
No, that is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that it is about the heart and the inward action has been all along. It has always been a sin to lust. The Pharisees had twisted this to their own condemnation.
We have looked wrongly upon the law as something that we outwardly adhere to. All of that was required in the Old Testament for them to be saved was an outward adherence to the law. We must reject this view.
We must get away from this unbiblical view. It has always been and still is about those who have repented of their sins and have trusted in Christ and have desired to obey the law not just for mere outward obedience, but rather their obedience flows from a changed heart that loves God.
This is true now and it was true then. They were saved by looking to the promise of the Redeemer who was to come. Abraham was not saved because he took Isaac up on a mountain to slay him. He was saved because he was looking to Christ.
To the coming of Christ. We have the same Gospel today. We are saved by faith in Christ in the finished work of Christ our Redeemer. He has died and He has rose again. We can have faith that the same God will save in the very same way.
He will keep His promise to forgive all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ. We have faith in the Gospel. That all those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Gospel, this Gospel that we have, it is not to be twisted.
It is the same Gospel that we go forward from here with. We have watered the Gospel down in too many ways. People today, people in the future, they don't need a motivational speech. They don't need a self-help guide.
They don't need ten tips to be moral. They need the Gospel. You need the Gospel. Your grandparents needed the Gospel. Your kids need the Gospel. Your kids don't need another A on a report card or a batting practice or a football camp as much as they need the Gospel of Christ.
That is what they need. The people of this world don't need to be told how to reform their lives. They need to be redeemed by the blood of Christ. They need to repent of their sins and trust in Him. What a gift we have been given in the Gospel.
In the salvation of our souls. Only made possible by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Which leads us to the next reminder. We have the same God as Paul did, as his ancestors did. The same Gospel.
And we have been given the same gift. We have been given the same gift. V. 6 says, For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
Now I do want to recognize there is some disagreement here as to what gift Paul is talking about when Paul is saying to fan into flame. Some say he is telling Timothy to fan his gift of ministry that had been given to him.
They believe this because Paul says, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Others believe he is referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit that Timothy has as a believer evidenced by his sincere faith in Christ that also dwelt in his mother and his grandmother.
And he is to continually renew his dependence upon the Holy Spirit. I strongly believe that the two go hand in hand in this text. The gift of Paul's ministry and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What gift is Paul telling Timothy to fan into flame?
Well, in part, it is his ministry as a preacher of the Word. You may say, well, I'm not a preacher of the Word. I'm not a preacher. How can I have the same gift as Timothy if I'm not a preacher? How does this apply to me?
Let's look a little closer at v. 6 and 7. In v. 6, Paul says, for this reason. For this reason. What reason? Well, he's pointing back to v. 5. What does it say in v. 5? I am reminded of your sincere faith.
A faith that dwelt first in you, or first in your grandmother Lois and then your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well. He is pointing backwards to v. 5. To Paul's mentioning of Timothy's sincere faith.
The reminder of his salvation. He tells Timothy to fan the flame of the gift of God based upon what?
His faith.
His conversion. Based upon the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. The gift of ministry that Timothy received was not a gift that Timothy had placed upon himself or something that Paul had placed on Timothy.
His gift of ministry was a gift bestowed upon him by the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit that indwelt him upon conversion. The Holy Spirit that doesn't give fear, but rather power, love, and self-control.
You don't possess any of those. You don't possess power, love, and self-control without a working of the Holy Spirit in your heart. You have no power apart from the Holy Spirit working in your life. You have no true God-given love or self-control apart from the Holy Spirit changing your heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
For these are evidences or fruits of the Holy Spirit at work within your soul. What a gift we have in the ways in which God uses us to serve. In Timothy's case, it was for the ministry of the Word. It may be different in your case.
You may serve in a different role than Timothy, but I do want you to understand this about how you serve and how Timothy serves. Your service to God, whatever it may be, was enabled by the very same Holy Spirit that has been at work from the beginning.
Yes, the Holy Spirit has been there from the beginning, and yes, the Holy Spirit worked in the Old Testament. And we don't have time this morning to go into all of that. But if you are a Christian, the very same God that regenerated the hearts of people in the Bible worked and did the very same thing in you.
What a gift we have in God. What a gift we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what a gift we have in the Holy Spirit that comes and regenerates the heart of man, dwells within us, sanctifies us, and guides us through the Word.
For the Word was authored by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has not changed. The Word has not changed. And we have the very same gift in the Holy Spirit that gives us, lastly, the very same game plan.
Same God. Same Gospel. Same gift. In the same game plan. That same game plan that is based upon the same groundwork of those before us. And I don't think you have a blank on your bulletin for the same groundwork, but our point here is that we have the same game plan before us.
Verse 6 says,. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. Fan into flame. Keep the fire of the Gospel alive in your ministry, Timothy. Do not be fearful or ashamed, for it is not in your power that you rely, but it is the power of God Almighty.
Stir up your dependence upon the Holy Spirit for the work you have been gifted. As a part of the working of the Gospel in Timothy's life, Paul is telling Timothy to not let that light go dim. Paul reminded the Romans of this.
In Romans 12 -11 he says,. Do not be slothful and zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. That fervent means intense. Paul is telling Timothy to keep that flame burning bright. In the context of this letter, every time we've been in a text here in 2 Timothy, in the context of this letter, he's saying, Timothy, you are going to suffer.
You are going to face persecution. Keep the flame burning in spite of these things. Don't change to fit your circumstance. Don't change to avoid persecution. Fan the flame of the Gospel. Preach it boldly with God-given power, love, and self-control.
Brothers and sisters, we have a foundation that has been laid through the Word and the faithful brothers and sisters who have gone before. Through the likes of Paul and Timothy and so many others who faithfully fanned the flame and preached the Gospel, many of them even in the face of sure death, they did so not by the power of man, but by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
And in this present day, in the world we live in today, by the grace and mercy of God, we have been changed by the Gospel of Christ in order to do the work of God. The spreading of His glorious Gospel to the whole world.
The Gospel transcends time and connects believers across generations. May we continue upon the same paths and the same groundwork that has been laid throughout God's Word. That is the flame that we fan.
Fan the flame in your prayer closet. Fan the flame in your home. Fan the flame in your church. Fan the flame in your community. Are we building upon the foundation that was laid? Or are we seeking to lay a new one that is based upon something other than the true Gospel of Christ?
Timothy's grandmother. Timothy's mother. They played a crucial role in the nurturing of Timothy's faith from a young age. Teaching him the Gospel. We have the same responsibility to our own children and future generations.
What is the game plan moving forward? It's the same game plan that we find throughout the entirety of Scripture. First off, we prepare ourselves. We prepare ourselves. How do we prepare ourselves? We prepare ourselves through the study and the meditation upon God's Word.
A godly foundation that is rooted in the truth of God's Word. Regularly studying and meditating upon Scripture that enables us to know the character of God, understand His will, and to discern His guidance.
We are, church, preparing for battle. If we are not preparing through the study of Scripture, then we are in no way equipped to fight the battle that lies before us. It's like going into battle with a toy sword or a wooden sword or even an imaginary sword and going to face the enemy.
It is through His Word that our faith becomes anchored and our foundation strengthened. Firmly holding on to the Gospel. We prepare ourselves. We position ourselves. We position ourselves. Standing upon the solid rock of Christ.
For upon Him we have our solid foundation. He is our chief cornerstone. All other ground, but Christ is sinking sand. Paul reminds Timothy of the faith that dwells within him which comes from the Holy Spirit.
As believers, we are called to stand firm in the truth of the Gospel. Not wavering in the face of opposition or cultural pressures. Too many churches and too many pastors today, when faced with opposition, they have cowered.
They have changed their message and they have sought to remove the offense of the Gospel. As a result, they preach a powerless, false Gospel that is unable to truly redeem and change the heart of man.
They will be judged by God Almighty for this treacherous handling of the Gospel. Some haven't molded to fit culture. Some are still preaching the truth, but they've hunkered down. They have went and hid from culture and have allowed themselves to be silenced.
They too will be judged by God Almighty for this. A godly foundation upon the Word of Christ that is rooted in Christ empowers us to live with unwavering conviction in a world that often challenges our faith.
We don't change the Word of God. We don't hide. We don't run. We prepare ourselves. We position ourselves and stand firm. And then we plow ahead. We plow ahead. We get to work. We serve God and one another through the means that He has given.
What are those means that He has given?
The local church.
We serve God through the local church. As a local body, we go out into war. We don't come in here to stand in air conditioning and to live a cushy life and say, hey, we gather on Sunday. Boy, we're carrying our cross.
We gather on Sunday. There's football on. We could be watching that, but man, we're carrying our cross. We're coming in. We're knocking on the doors. We're sitting in a pew. We are a local body. And we are going out to war as a local body.
We don't take this Word that we have been given and the glorious Gospel of Christ and then do nothing. We don't sit by on the sideline. We are not hearers of the Word only. We are hearers, but we are also doers of the Word in the face of opposition, rejection, and maybe even humiliation.
We press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.
Of God in Christ, Jesus.
Philippians 3 .14. And when we tire, and we will grow weary, we will grow weary, we will get tired, we trust in God to strengthen us and to help us to continue to move forward. We plow ahead, and we pray unceasingly.
For we are continually and always relying on God for our might. We have no strength apart from God, for He is our source of sustenance and He is our source of strength. This battle will not be won or will not be won, rather, without bloody knees upon those who are fighting.
Knees torn from falling before a holy God for any victory that might be attained. For we will see no victory without the petitioning of the saints to our one true Master, the Creator and Ruler of this universe, Yahweh,.
The Great I Am.
We pray unceasingly, and then we preach powerfully. We preach powerfully, courageously sharing the Gospel. Our godly foundation upon His Word equips us to boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
We don't have to cower. We don't have to go into the streets and wonder if what we're preaching is the truth. We don't have to be confused about the Gospel of Christ because we have a foundation. A foundation that has been given to us by the Ruler of this universe.
A foundation founded upon the King of kings and the Lord of lords. A foundation that was authored by the very Holy Spirit of God. And we are therefore, we can boldly share the Gospel. We can boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.
Our faith should not remain hidden, but lived out and shared with those around us. And by sharing the Gospel, we participate in the ongoing work of laying a godly foundation in the lives of others. We don't preach a watered down Gospel.
As mentioned before, we don't preach seven ways to your best life now. We don't preach ten ways to be moral. We preach the whole counsel of God. We preach an offensive Gospel. It will not be popular, but it will accomplish what God has set it out to do.
We can have faith in that. We preach the true Gospel that was effective then, and is effective now. Paul wasn't ashamed of the Gospel in Romans 1, 16 and 17, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. We must not be ashamed of preaching the Gospel, of proclaiming His Word. We must not sit on it.
We must not change it. We must not try and hold it in, but rather we preach it powerfully and then we keep passing it on. We keep passing it on. We spread it as widely as we were commanded to do. Matthew 28, 19 -20, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Acts 1 -8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Mark 16 -15. And He said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to just your family members, just your friends, just your church members.
Now, what does He say? Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. We evangelize. That's what we do. We evangelize. In 2 Timothy 4 -5, Paul tells Timothy, what does he tell him to do the work of?
Do the work of an evangelist. Who do we evangelize? I posed this question to Jack this week. I asked him, I said, Jack, who do we evangelize? And he said it like this,.
Everybody!
We evangelize everybody. How? I don't know everybody. I don't know everybody.
Then start at your home.
Then move to your community. Make sure everyone in Perryville has heard the Gospel. And when you're sure everyone in Perryville has heard the Gospel, then make sure everybody in Perry County has heard the Gospel.
When you get done there, go over it again. Or share it somewhere else. Let me go back real quickly because I don't want to just glaze past the evangelizing of our homes. It is important in the context of our text when he mentions Timothy's grandmother and mother and it's important in each of our lives.
Evangelizing your homes cannot be optional. For far too long it has been. You may not have grown up in a home where evangelism took place within the home. Even in a lot of cases, it might have been a Christian home without evangelism in the home.
But mom and dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, it must change with you. It must change with you. You may have grown up with a different foundation or a different game plan. Get rid of it. And dive into the foundation that was set by Christ.
We must start caring about the faith of our children and seeing how the way we live and the choices that we make.
Affects them.
Those who we believe to be theologically unsound are investing in future generations. Our godless culture is investing in future generations. We must invest in future generations. Just as Timothy received a godly heritage from his family, we have the responsibility to leave a godly heritage of faith to future generations.
How? By investing in the spiritual growth and well-being of our children, of our grandchildren, and others in our sphere of influence. We contribute to the foundation of faith in their lives. But the difference between how we and many others invest in children, though, that is important.
We don't cater to the culture. We don't desire to entertain. We invest in the same way God instructed thousands of years ago. In Deuteronomy 6, 4 -9,.
He said,.
Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house.
And when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. I want to be clear that children cannot piggyback off of parents.
Grace does not come by natural generation. Only sin does that. Your children's faith must be sincere and real, but parents play a key role.
In that.
Children are more likely to do what you do than what you say. And they will know when what you do doesn't match what you say. Bring family worship into your home if it isn't already there. I don't care how young your child is.
You say, well, my children are young. Bring family worship. I don't have any children. Bring family worship in with you and your wife. Evangelize your home. Invest in your children. Instruct your children in the Word.
In Deuteronomy, what did he say? He said, teach them diligently to your children. And she'll talk of them when?
Once a month?
Once a week? Every now and then? And she'll talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates. Big part, bring them to church. Teach them the gospel over and over and over. What can I do for my children? Can I guarantee that my children will be believers?
I can't guarantee that. But what I can do is I can pray to God Almighty. I can continually pray for my children that God would save them and I can teach them the gospel. Not once, not twice, but over and over and over.
And then rather than putting faith in those boys that one day they'll turn over a new leaf.
And decide, hey,.
I want to give to Christ a try. I put my faith in God Almighty. I put my faith in the One who is able to bring about salvation and I pray and I teach the gospel and then I trust and put my faith in Christ that He would save my children.
Same for our community. Teaching the gospel. We don't stop just at the home. We spread the gospel to our community. Not through fancy gimmicks. Not through making our services feel or look like a concert.
But by preaching the gospel every Sunday.
Here.
And then telling those in here who haven't repented and trusted in Christ to repent and trust in Christ. I tell you that today. If you're in here and you haven't repented and trusted in Christ, I urge you to repent and trust in Christ.
And then,.
Once we preach the gospel in here, we go out into the community and we preach the gospel out there. May we be a church who takes very seriously the heritage we have been given as well as the heritage we leave behind.
May we seek to glorify and put our trust in God Almighty. The God who remains the same and never changes. May we preach the gospel. Not a watered down gospel. May we preach the gospel that has been preached from the beginning.
May we preach it to our children at home over and over and over. May we proclaim it in church to one another. Yes, Christians need the gospel too. May we proclaim it in our community for the salvation of sinners.
But hear this, church. Even if not one person bows the knee to Christ, he is worthy of his gospel being proclaimed. May we not water it down. May we not desire to mold it to culture. May we proclaim it boldly, even in the face of opposition.
For we have no hope in anything but the gospel of Christ. It was effective then. It is effective now. And it will be effective until the glorious return.
Of Christ our Lord. Let us pray.
Father God, we are thankful. Most of all for You. And for who You are and that we have Your Word where we can read and know more about You. We can know of Your wonderful and mighty attributes. We can learn of Your Son who came and died and paid our sin debt.
And upon that foundation, the foundation that You have laid in Your Son, that is the foundation that we stand today. The foundation that is built upon the gospel of Christ. And through the working of the very same Holy Spirit, Lord God, we thank You for saving sinners like me.
Lord God, and I pray that we would be a people who are about Your Word, who are about You and are about Your gospel. That we be a church who preaches the gospel at home, teaches the gospel at home, who teaches the gospel.
Here,.
Who shares it with one another. And Father God, who we're driven by our love and our desire to see You glorified, that we go out into the community and we proclaim Your Word there. Father God, we know that it is not by our strength or by our will, but by Yours.
May You strengthen us. May we love You deeper. May we desire to serve You more purely and more faithfully. Father God, may we not take for granted the gift we have been given in Your Son, but the gift also that we have been given to be a part of Your church.
And the gift we have been given of this local church. May we love one another, Father God. I pray that You are pleased by what has happened this morning. I pray that You are pleased with us as we go forward from here.