Faith Passed Down

Knowing from whom you are born and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred guidance, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is free through by God and probable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness.

That the name of God may be complete.

I believe that for the word of God.

Alright.

Thank you, Meg.

Worship team, Phil.

I'm excited to be with you guys today.

Um, we are not gonna be in Acts chapter two this week.

Um, we are in next week, we are gonna start our series on Galatians.

So this week, I get to once again be the hinge from one series to the next.

And what we are gonna look in today is in 2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Before we do this, the year was 1885.

C.T.

Studd was a prominent cricket player.

If you're wondering what cricket is, it's a it's a baseball-like sport that they play in England and other areas of the world, and it was pretty famous, especially at this time.

It was way more prominent than baseball was worldwide.

And C.

T.

Stud had been pretty accomplished.

He was kind of like the Christian Pulitz of the cricket world.

And he was faced with a decision.

I can go and get all this glory and fame for England by playing this game, getting the accolades, getting the fame, getting everything that he needed.

And I guarantee you that the scope of athletics in 1885 isn't the same as now, but there was pretty a lot of prestige that was at his very hands.

But in 1885, at the age of 24, he decided to walk away from the game of cricket.

But the focus isn't necessarily what he walked away from, it's what he walked away for.

And what he walked away for is that he he joined missionaries, a group of other seven missionaries, where he would go to share the gospel in China, he would go on to India, and he would go in to Africa as well.

And so what famously is associated with C.T.

Studd are these words that he lived out with his life.

Only one life will soon be past.

Only what's done for Jesus will last.

I think there's something about Studd's story that resonates with all of us because deep down we want our lives to matter.

We want to know the years that God has given us are being spent on something that is worthwhile.

We want to look back at our lives and know that the things we invested in has made a difference.

But the reality is sometimes the things that we spend our entire lives building, whether it's successful or not, can neglect what matters most.

And that's the tension that we have to face.

Are we simply building a life for ourselves, or are we investing our lives in something that will outlast us?

And here's why I love the passage that we're looking at this morning.

Paul is thinking about not his life, but the gospel, something that is going to outlast his legacy, his prestige, any kind of fame that he ever did or had.

And he's looking to how does the gospel that he's been entrusted to get passed on to someone else.

The circumstances between him and the stud were very different, but the conviction is the same.

There's something worth giving your life to more than your own success and reputation.

Paul knows in this moment that he soon will die.

Because what he is, is he's writing this letter in a prison, and we're not talking about the comfy uh house arrest prison in Acts 28.

No, he is at in prison in Rome, and he's writing to Timothy because he sees the end of his life is near.

And he knows that soon he will die, but the gospel will not.

And that's where we're gonna see our passage this morning.

We're gonna see the importance of remembering those who shaped our faith, remaining faithful to the word we received, and how important that is, and why we need to pass our faith on to others.

And our passage this morning has significant implications, particularly for family discipleship.

But not just family discipleship.

Because here's here's the trick discipleship inside of the family and how you disciple kids is actually how you disciple.

So it has implications for all of us in here today.

And so I want us to turn our attention to Paul, and I want us to get this main idea.

The faith we received is the faith we're called to pass on.

The faith we received is the faith that we're called to pass on.

Let's start in verse 14.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

Point number one is this remember those who pass the faith to you.

Remember those who pass the faith to you.

Notice that Paul begins in verse 14, but as for you, the reason that he is saying, but as for you, is he's contrasting it with the teachers that are actually being presented at the beginning of chapter three.

What's happening in his day is that everybody is kind of moving to the cultural moment.

They're compromising the gospel, they're actually forgetting the gospel, and they're going into other false teachings.

They're going into things that are leading others astray and leading them away from Jesus.

And Paul is encouraging Timothy.

But as for you, remain.

It says, knowing from whom you learned it.

From whom you learned it.

He actually references this earlier in his letter in 2 Timothy 1, 5 through 7.

I'm going to read it for you.

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.

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.

The names Eunice and Lois.

Eunice was his mother, Lois was his grandmother, and before Timothy was a pastor or a missionary, he was a child whose mother and grandmother faithfully taught him the scriptures.

Their faith didn't automatically become his faith, but God used their instruction and their example to point Timothy toward Jesus.

What's interesting in this is that Timothy's background wasn't necessarily what we might call picture the ideal Christian background.

You notice that there is this person that is not mentioned there.

Do you know who that is?

His father.

Now, actually, Acts 16.1 mentions his father.

Acts 16 1 tells us his mother was a Jewish believer and his father was Greek.

We aren't told whether his father was a believer, so we shouldn't assume anything that scripture doesn't say.

But Paul specifically highlights the faithfulness of his mother and father.

Why do you think he doesn't mention the faithfulness of his father?

Again, I don't want to make scripture say something that it doesn't.

But I think that we need to understand that a perfect family isn't the requirement for us to get faith to pass on, get passed on to.

And this actually can be encouraging to us.

That there's not actually a perfect situation that we have to have in order to gain the gospel and grace of life.

That what God gives us, He is going to do that in spite of the circumstances that we have.

And that's comfort for us.

See, uh Timothy's uh spiritual formation, it wasn't limited to Eunice and Moas, his grandmother and mother.

And in 2 Timothy 3, 10 and 11, he actually describes his relationship with Timothy.

It says, You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

See, Paul wasn't passing on information to Timothy.

He was sharing his life with him.

And this is where we get our plumb line that discipleship happens in relationship.

God uses preaching, he uses the equipped classes, he uses all the things that we're able to understand and gain knowledge and information, but he uses them to put them in the context of relationship.

So that would be the field in which we can grow as a disciple.

So I got to ask you, who are the people who shaped your faith?

Maybe it was a mom or a dad who prayed for you, a parent who showed you what it means to have repentance.

Maybe it wasn't someone in your family at all.

Maybe you're the first generation believer in your family.

But there was someone, whether they were down the road, a neighbor, and they extended an invite, or they were a friend that you met at school and you began walking with the Lord, is somebody that you met in college and you remember their faith, somebody that just decided to invest in you, a coach, a teacher, whoever it is.

Who is it that shared that faith with you?

Look, we're not just recipients of someone else's faithfulness.

God has also entrusted us with the influence of the lives of others.

So not only are we that people, but we're also the people who are the ones who are going to initiate a relationship with someone so that they can understand that they have faith.

Parents, your children are watching you.

They're watching how you respond to difficulty.

They're watching how you treat your spouse or how you speak to others and how you respond even when you're wrong.

They're learning from you long before you sit down and read something to them or formally teach the Bible.

Your life is communicating what you believe.

Here's another thing.

We talk about the absence of Timothy's father.

But that is not an excuse for fathers to be absent.

Actually, in fact, in Ephesians 6 4, Paul specifically calls fathers to bring their children up in the instruction of the Lord.

You know, this is speculative, but I wonder if he has Timothy in mind with the father not being mentioned there.

When I think about my girls, they just looked at me.

When I think about my girls, you know, I want to pass them on something more than my sports teams or my hobbies.

Now I gotta say, passing on my sports team for them not to cheer for a blue devil is a noble thing, right?

Especially in our context right now.

And yes, God's sky is blue, Carolina blue.

But if that's the legacy that I'm leading, what kind of legacy am I leading?

You know, I don't care who they play, pay their college or sports allegiance to if they pay the allegiance to the Lamb.

It really doesn't matter to me then.

I hope that they get from me not absence or something in spite of me, but a glimpse of the Father's love through what he's given me.

Fathers, that is the legacy that you have the opportunity to give to your sons and daughters.

Don't outsource discipleship that you need to own.

Make that the initiative just as you take in your job, just as you take anywhere else, that that is something that you are ready to pass on.

Because it's an opportunity of inheritance for you.

And maybe you didn't receive that kind of example from your father or your family.

Maybe your story includes neglect or anger or spiritual indifference or patterns you don't want to repeat.

I want you to hear me.

Your past doesn't have to determine what you pass down.

Maybe you hear some of this and you actually stand in regret of how you raised your children.

The gospel is a place where we repent and move forward.

So the next day is not what the rest of the life has to look like.

And here's what's wonderful through the grace of Jesus, you can repent from what was sinful and you can move forward, understanding that the gospel that you need to pass on is the gospel that ministers to you now.

Paul wasn't Timothy's biological father, but he loved him as a son and deeply invested in him.

Get this.

Even if you don't have children to pass your legacy on to, you have someone.

God has given the church spiritual mothers and fathers, spiritual aunts and uncles, so that people can be invested in and believers' lives can be shaped.

God uses those people in our lives so that we can understand who he is.

So I want to ask you again: who has God caused used to shape your faith?

I want to encourage you to remember those people with gratitude.

Remember who has given you that faith.

And he doesn't just tell him that so that he can remember Paul himself, but he's wants to move him towards something.

Because the greatest way to honor a faithful spiritual heritage is to remain faithful in the gospel ourselves.

Verse 14, I'm gonna read it again.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

Verse 15, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for the training in righteousness.

Point number two is this remain faithful to the word you have received.

Verse 14, it says this at the beginning: continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

Other translations they said use the word remain.

Actually, in the Greek, this word remain or this word continue is the same word that is used in John 15.

In John 15, does anybody know what what word that is used?

Abide.

Which means to stay, not to be disconnected, but to almost dwell in, to be anchored to.

Paul is giving Timothy this charge because everybody else is abandoning.

They're abandoning the faith as false teachers, they're abandoning it for the cultural moment so they can have relevance, so they can have prestige, so they can do the things that they need to do.

But Paul doesn't tell Timothy to do a new thing.

He says, remain in the scriptures.

He says the scriptures, the sacred scriptures that he had from childhood, and those scriptures are able to make him wise for salvation.

That's important because just because Lois and Eunice were believers, it didn't automatically make Timothy a Christian.

They could teach him the scriptures and point him to Jesus, but their faith couldn't substitute for his own.

And here's what's remarkable: when Paul talks about the scriptures, Timothy knew from childhood he's primarily talking about the Old Testament.

Paul says that those are the scriptures that make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus.

A lot of times when you look at the scriptures, well, let's just go to the New Testament with the New Covenant, and let's we can hear that because the Old Testament, that's a little different.

Or we have this whole category of the Bible.

We think that the Bible is a book of rules.

Or it's a book of different heroes and stories, and really it's just trying to buy our time until we get to Jesus.

Jesus is the best hero of all of them, and then now we have a few more rules that Paul gives us at the end.

Let me tell you this: the Bible is not a book of rules.

The Bible does have some rules in it.

They tell us how life lives best, but it is not a book of rules.

Actually, the Bible is a story about how so many people failed.

One hero accomplished what everybody else could not do, and that hero was Jesus.

He came to live the life that we could not live, a perfect life, and then he died in death that we were supposed to die.

And the Old Testament says this hero failed, and this hero failed, and this hero failed, and this hero failed, and this hero failed.

And then finally we have Jesus, the one we have been waiting for, the right and true Israel, who did everything necessary to save us, took our place on the cross, and now we can give him allegiance.

He fulfilled and kept every rule that we have broken.

That's what the Bible is teaching us.

Somewhere along the way, we heard the story of Jesus, but we also added to the gospel where it uh, whether it's a church that we grew up in or just our own personal default, that we have to keep the rules so Jesus can be okay with us.

So sometimes we take stories like David and Goliath and we apply it like this.

Hey, David is facing a giant.

You have giants in your life, your room is a giant mess.

Go clean it up.

And that's how we laugh, right?

That's how we kind of approach the scriptures and we're gonna apply it to the day.

No, that is not how we teach the gospel in Harbor City kids.

What we say is just as David stood before Goliath, representing all Israel, so Jesus stood before us, representing us before sin and death.

And just as God delivered Goliath into David's hands for the sake of Israel's victory, so sin and death was delivered because of what Jesus did.

And because of what Jesus did, we now have a way back to God.

That's the gospel.

That's what the scriptures are proclaiming, that's what the scripture is testifying, and that's what we're gonna teach our kids.

We're not gonna teach a bunch of moralism because what we don't need is just simply that our kids become contributing citizens to society.

No, they need to become worshipers of the King Jesus.

They need to remain in the scriptures because the scriptures are good not just for following a bunch of rules, not just for doing a bunch of good things or a bunch of good deeds or making people feel better.

No, the scriptures are good for salvation.

If your kids get nothing else but the scriptures and the gospel, they don't need anything else.

Because it's good for salvation.

So you gotta ask the question.

If that is what the scriptures are for, what is discipling to you?

Everything is discipling you.

Is it the scriptures?

We talked about this before.

Well, we're gonna talk about it again today, and the reason that we're talking about it because, guys, it is an epidemic, it is a problem.

Our algorithm is discipling us.

Sometimes we spend 30 to 40 minutes, depending on who's preaching, in a sermon, and that's the only Bible intake that we have.

And then we go to our algorithm and we get anywhere from 20 to 40 hours, sometimes up to 50 to 60.

That algorithm, I mean the content that we consume.

Now, the scriptures they're designed for you to know Jesus unto salvation.

Your algorithm is designed, designed to confirm your biases, to make you continue to look at the things that you want to look at, to even accentuate the beliefs that you have and confirm what you already do, and then give you more content and more content so that you are engaged for longer and longer and longer.

And here's the other thing: it also knows that you're more addicted if you're angry about what you're looking at, it's a problem, and we have to recognize that those things are discipling us.

And get this some of the things that your algorithm is feeding you might actually align with scripture, but the character and the means by which you are receiving it is not the character of Christ, and sometimes you can deliver or act on that information in a way that is not Christ-like because you are being discipled by a mode that is not healthy, and it's a problem.

Here's the other thing if culture is defining the way that you look at the world as opposed to the lens of scripture, you're wearing the wrong lens, and sometimes then you can take that lens and apply it to scripture and not let the scripture put its lens on you and you remain unchanged.

What is discipling you?

Parents.

What is discipling your kids?

Because the algorithm principle still works for them.

Guess what?

Your coaches, they have scholarships in mind for your kids.

And I know that every single kid here is going to go to the majors.

Okay, I've seen the talent back there.

It's really good.

Okay.

Some of them might not make it.

Actually, most of them might.

They probably won't go professional, be professional dancers.

There's gonna be something for them.

Disney is discipling your kid with all the content that they are putting out.

Because guess what?

They want you to spend thousands of dollars down in their little happiest place on earth, and they're discipling your kids to disciple you to take them there.

I know what they're doing, and it's working.

Okay.

Your teachers are discipling your kids.

Your kids' friends are discipling your kids.

Everything is discipling.

So guess what?

When it says in Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, that you are to take every opportunity to be able, when they walk by the way, when they rise, when they lie down, every single opportunity to share the gospel is because we don't want to assume that they just know it.

Because everything else is trying to convince them of the things that they have an agenda for your kids for.

Why not make sure that your agenda with your kids is also prominently the gospel?

When they wake up, when they rise, when they mess up, that the gospel is what you are going to proclaim according to the scriptures.

Every opportunity that you have, you don't want to assume it.

There's this guy, a kid, Johnny.

I'm gonna just call him Johnny.

He grew up the entire time uh going to church, but uh what was absent was that the fact that the home was the first mission field.

So as Johnny walked through church, he uh he won went all through youth group, he did everything, and then he went to college, and it came time that he would sit in front of the pastor and he would say, Hey, uh the pastor would say, Hey, I want you to share with me the gospel.

And this is what Johnny said.

Johnny said, the Ten Commandments.

And I noticed the air kind of coming out of the room because we know that's not the gospel.

That's actually exposes our need for the gospel.

Let that not be the story for our kids.

That we would say that the scriptures are for salvation, not for just rule keeping.

God has given us those scriptures.

And here's the other thing Paul didn't point to himself, Eunice or Lois, for the sake of the scriptures.

He pointed to the scriptures for the sake of salvation.

Faith needs to be passed on down, but the scriptures are the authority of that faith.

Which means that what we're pointing them to is not necessarily what we believe, but what the Bible has said.

Which means that as we sit under God's word in the faith that even you grew up in, the traditions and the cultural elements that you grew up in need to still subject themselves to Scripture.

That is what God has given us.

Now let's move to point three.

Verse 17, I'm gonna read that.

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Point number three is this pass on the faith that is entrusted to you.

Paul concludes this passage by telling us that the scriptures equip Timothy for the work God has called him to, that the man of God may be complete in every good work.

In the context, Paul's specifically speaking about Timothy's responsibility to minister the gospel, and scripture equips him to teach sound doctrine and to confront any error that he needs.

Look, we don't need a new message.

We need to remain faithful to the word God has already given us.

But here's what I want you to see: God doesn't equip Timothy simply by his own faithfulness, he equips him for ministry that extends beyond his own life.

We can see this more clearly in 2 Timothy 2, 1 and 2.

You then, my child, this is Paul to Timothy, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who have been able to teach others.

Notice where Paul begins.

Before he tells Timothy to entrust the gospel to others, he tells them to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And then get this the faith Timothy received was never meant to stop with Timothy.

That actually brings us even back to our main point that the faith that we received is to be passed on.

And the same is true for us, that we are to pass on what has been entrusted to us.

My favorite meetings that we have at Harbor City is when Pastor Phil walks in with this box of dozen donuts.

You know why?

Because my thought isn't Pastor Phil wants to eat 12 donuts.

My thought is he has some good news to share.

And how much better is the gospel than a dozen donuts?

A lot, in case you were wondering.

Even if that hot now sign is on a crispy cream, it's a lot.

See, the good news is something for us to pass on to share.

It's not something that we good we we fill up.

Actually, it says that the got the gospel is something that that fills our cup, and our cup runs over with the grace that we have, which means that it can be spewed out and given to others.

That's what he has given us to.

So I want you to picture this.

When we talk about passing it on, one of the places that we think about that is the church and the home.

The church and the home are two gardens in which we want the next generation to grow up in.

The home is the first mission field, and then the church comes alongside to see the home as a partner.

So in Harvard City, we say that discipleship happens in relationships, and sometimes we can hear this and be like, okay, I'm supposed to pass that on.

But Tyler, can I actually save them?

Hey, no, you can't.

Let's take the weight of you saving someone else off, even off your children, off the people that you're trying to share the gospel with, because the reality is that salvation comes from hearing of the word of God, but it doesn't come from you.

That responsibility is on God.

What God has asked you to do is be faithful.

He's asked you to be a faithful disciple, He's asked you to be a faithful parent.

He's asked you to be a faithful grandparent.

He's asked you to be a faithful friend.

He's asked you to be faithful, not to be perfect.

God's word is perfect for you so that you can be faithful.

That's why you point them to his word.

And so what he's calling you to is to be faithful to what he's entrusted to us.

Hey, we have a highly individualistic society, meaning relationships don't always happen naturally.

I mean, in college, we could just walk down the hall, knock on the door, we have a group and we can go play basketball or we can go watch a movie and everything.

And it was very easy.

Even then, you had to walk out of your room and go knock on the door.

Now, when we uh move from college to young adulthood, it's all of a sudden not as easy as it used to be.

Because you have to set appointments and times and you got to make discipleship and relationships actually intentional.

And then you're not gonna do less, you're actually gonna do more.

You're gonna have one kid, then two kids, then three kids, more friends, more responsibilities at work.

But think about what Acts 2 said in the past.

I know I said I wasn't gonna bring it up, but I'm gonna bring it up, okay?

They devoted themselves to the fellowship and the teaching of God's words, which means it had to become a priority.

And you, hey, get this.

You will make time for what's important for you.

It has to become a priority.

Parents, you don't have to have a three-point sermon when you sit down and disciple your kids.

It can be as simple as this: read God's word, pray together, sing together.

And as the word of God works on you, it will work on them.

If you don't know an answer to a question, say, I don't know.

That's okay.

But in that, you can model humility and repentance for your children.

And then I said that there were two gardens.

The other garden is the church.

And the reason I want to say this, church, I actually want to speak to you for a moment.

One of the most worthwhile places you can invest in the discipleship at the church are our kids and students.

The most concentrated place where most of our unbelievers will be here this weekend is in our kids and student ministry.

I'm gonna let that sit.

One of the most, one of the most concentrated places that unbelievers come each and every weekend is in our kids and suited ministry.

Research from Barna has highlighted that formation and childhood can be uh is that they are developing their belief before they're 12 and 13.

Not that they can't continue to develop beliefs later, but primary, a lot of those beliefs are developed before they're even the age of 12 and 13.

And research reinforces why this matters, because Barna found that among young adults who grew up in church, 59% of those who remained active had a close personal friendship with an adult in church, compared with 31% who were just no longer active.

Think about that.

One of the most significant differences between those who stayed in church and who didn't is because there was a meaningful adult relationship with that child.

And at church, we have around 60 kids behind those doors who need the gospel.

And we have an opportunity to share that with them.

Guys, even between now and the end of the year, we want to add eight more people who can serve on our kids' ministry.

That's not simply childcare, so that we can sit in here and service, it's discipleship.

From the moment that we're caring for them and praying over them to the time that they're understanding concepts and understanding what sin is and God's love to the fact that they're gonna understand uh the content of scripture.

Even more in bridge that they go, they know the convictions of which they believe.

All of that is what we are doing.

We're discipling our kids.

It's not just childcare.

Actually, if you say it to childcare to me, I'm gonna tell you you're wrong and it's discipleship because that's what we're doing to form our children.

We are partnering with parents to pass down what God has entrusted to us.

And let me tell you this: if you can share the gospel with a three-year-old, you can share it with anybody in the world.

If you can share the gospel with a three-year-old, you can share it with anybody in the world.

If you want training on how to share the gospel, share it with a three-year-old.

They'll be honest with you if they didn't understand it.

They won't even pay attention to you, they'll walk away.

It is a worthy investment.

Because get this a gospel renewal movement doesn't just go outward into the city for one generation.

It needs to go forward into the next because that is a gospel renewal movement that has staying power.

Let it not be said that there was a generation that did not know the Lord.

It is a worthy investment in your life to pass on your faith.

And get this it's not just to the next generation, it's also to the people that you have.

I'm gonna give you a paradigm real fast, okay?

You need to look for a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy.

A Paul, someone who's pouring into you.

A Barnabas, a friend that you are doing life with.

Timothy, someone that you are passing your faith on to.

If you don't have a Timothy, a very practical step would be to begin serving in kids' ministry.

There's a ton of Timothy's back there.

And Timotha's, okay.

Commit to community where you can find and cultivate those friendships and seek out people that you can learn from so that you can grow and actually understand a faith that you have been passed down to.

Find your one more.

Find someone to pass the faith on to.

Now we're gonna round from third and head from home, and I'm gonna ask the worship team to come up.

And as they do that, I have an illustration that I'm gonna walk over here for.

As they come up, they're gonna prepare.

And I'm gonna go ahead and hit the lights for you, and I want you to just kind of get in a time of reflection.

What I have here is I have a rope, and it's got a different color here, and then you see the yellow just kind of going on and on past the drums throughout the door.

I want you to imagine with me, it doesn't, but I want you to imagine for the sake of the illustration that it just keeps going on and on and on and on and on.

Okay.

This, in light of eternity, is our lifetime.

This is our lifetime compared with eternity.

And often we spend this time concerned with this moment.

C.T.

Stud in 1885 realized that he didn't want to live for this moment, he wanted to live for this.

And that's why he said, only one life will soon be past, only what's done with Jesus will last.

Look, maybe you're thinking about the missed opportunities that you had during this time, and you wish you wish you did something different.

But church, hear me, the grace of Jesus isn't just for people who are trying, we're trying to reach, it's for us too.

Which means that right now we can begin to focus on the rest of eternity and not live in the failures of our past.

Our hope isn't in what we've accomplished, but in what Jesus accomplished for us.

And what he accomplished for us is this.

So let that be what we live for.

Let that be the legacy that we pass down.

In light of eternity, what are you passing on and who are you investing in today?

Because the faith we've received is the faith we're called to pass on.

Want you to take a moment and reflect and prepare your hearts for the taking of communion.

Church, we're gonna come to the Lord's table.

I'm gonna encourage you to go ahead and get the bread and the cup and you can prepare it.

As we come there, we spent this morning talk about the faith that we've received and our responsibility.

Our responsibility to pass it on.

Before we think about what we're called to do, we need to remember what Jesus has done.

Listen, if you haven't trusted in Jesus, the bread and the cup is not what you need today.

What you need is what the bread and the cup represent.

It was Jesus' body broken for you and his blood poured out for you.

I want you to take the cup.

1 Corinthians.

Says this: the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body for which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Church, take and eat, remembering the body of Christ given for you.

Paul continues, in the same way, he also took the cup.

After supper, saying, The cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.

So get this.

We don't pass on a message about being better people.

We pass on the good news of a Savior who gave his life to make us new.

Take and drink.

Paul reminds us that whenever we eat the bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Church, that is the gospel we proclaim at this table, and the gospel we're called to pass on with our lives.

Let us stand and sing and rejoice in the Lord.