A Godly Heritage and Unfeigned Faith | 2 Timothy 1–3

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

Romans 16:21

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

Acts 16 · chapter mention

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,