A Foundation for the Next Generation

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in 2 Timothy chapter 1 this morning. 2 Timothy chapter 1. It has been a long week, to say the least. I was noticing some wind damage and things on the way down here, and it seems like you all got a lot of flooding, just like we did at home, but the one thing you don’t have is a tiger-nado.

Just when you think the weather can’t get any weirder in Moore, we had a tiger-nado on Wednesday, But we made it through and glad to be here this morning with you. You’ll notice we’re taking a detour from Moses a little bit. If you weren’t aware of that, he’s not in 2 Timothy, at least not 2 Timothy 1.

We’re going to look this morning at the importance we can play in the life of a child. And not even necessarily a child, maybe that’s the wrong way to start that out. Somebody younger than us.

We overlook a lot of times the impact that we have on those who are looking to us for an example. The reason I say maybe not even a child, because some of you have already raised your children, and now they’re raising children. And I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this message has nothing to do with you.

Because as long as your children are still living, there’s always an opportunity to have an impact on them. Maybe not as much of an impact as when they were little. Because when they’re little, I forget sometimes that they are seeing things for the first time.

Trying to drag them out to the car and they’re fascinated by the little, what do you call those little white things on the dandelions that you blow off? They’re fascinated by those. Just get in the car, it’s a weed.

But to them, they’re seeing it for the first time. So everything has an impact. But whether they’re young or not, whether they’re still children or not, if your adult children are still around, there’s an opportunity to have an impact on them.

There are grandchildren, there are nieces, there are nephews. We all have, ladies and gentlemen, whether you realize it or not, we all have people who are looking to us for an example, and there’s a tremendous opportunity to have an impact on people that we may not even be aware of. Like I said, I forget.

I forget until those moments when God reminds me that my own children are looking at everything. They know that nothing escapes their notice. Madeline will ask me, what’s that?

That’s a button. We’ve been over this. But it’s a different color than the last cuff button she looked at.

And so she wants to know, what is it? Most of you, I could have walked in without that button this morning, and you would not have noticed. But she notices everything.

Friday at school, we had a spirit day for a Hawaiian theme. I did not wear a Hawaiian shirt, but I did wear a lei. And when I got downstairs and my kids were there, my own children were downstairs.

I realize this is a little confusing. I had to go downstairs to release the older kids, let them go when it was time for school to let out. My kids were down there.

They saw that first thing and they wanted one because Daddy had one and they wanted to do just what Daddy did. We were in the car on the way home from lunch yesterday and trying to maneuver around the floodwaters and find a way to get home. And Benjamin asked if we were going to go home and take a nap.

I said, well, yeah. I was tired. I said, Daddy’s going to take a nap.

He said, well, if you’re going to take a nap, I want to take a nap too because I want to do just what you do because you’re my best friend. And I can hear him saying these little words. Now, other times when I get on to him, you’re not my best friend.

Make up your mind. But they want to have just what you have. They want to do just what you do.

They want to eat just what you eat, even if they’ve already eaten 20 minutes ago. It’s that way with small children. So if you’ve got small children or you’ve got small grandchildren or small great-grandchildren this morning, there’s somebody in your world who’s looking to you for an example, who’s looking to you for leadership.

But I’m here to tell you that even if your kids are grown, there’s still somebody who’s looking to you for leadership. I’m almost 30 years old, and yet there are still times I think, I’m not sure about this decision I’m about to make, and I will call my mother or my father and say, what do you think I ought to do here? That doesn’t mean I always take their advice, but I seek it a lot.

Folks, I’m trying to get the point across to you. As long as you’ve got kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, it doesn’t matter how old they are. There’s always somebody who’s looking to your example.

We need to be mindful of the example that we set. And Paul talked about this a little bit in 2 Timothy 1, when he was writing to Timothy. And in verse 1, he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

So he’s explaining who is writing and who he’s writing to. He says, this letter comes from Paul. I’m an apostle.

I’ve been called by Jesus Christ to minister. And I’m writing to Timothy. And he calls him my dearly beloved son.

Now, we know enough about the history of these two men to know that Paul was not actually Timothy’s father. And on top of that, Paul was not claiming to be Timothy’s father. But he was claiming, in a sense, to be Timothy’s father in the faith.

that he had been somebody who took part in nurturing and growing this young man to where he needed to be in Christ. He had invested his life in this young man, and he had provided an example to this young man. And as a result of that, he felt a special bond with Timothy that even though they are separated over many miles, that he still feels this bond to Timothy and wants to see him continue to grow in the faith. You know, they say, I’ve heard teachers say that, you know, it doesn’t matter how old their students get.

If you’ve been my student, I will always refer to you as one of my kids. Half the time, the 3. 30 bell rings and I said, they’re not mine.

But I think there’s still some truth in that. You know, you’re always one of my kids because I’ve been your teacher. I’ve invested in you.

how much more so when Paul was not just dealing with Timothy’s education about math and language and all those things, but he was investing in his life spiritually, helping him to grow and to know Jesus Christ more. At that point, you’ve got to think of it like being a teacher. It doesn’t matter how old your student gets.

That’s always one of my kids. And so Paul felt this unbreakable bond based on the impact that he had had on his life earlier on. And so he writes to him and he says, grace, mercy, and peace, these are things that he’s wishing upon Timothy’s life, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s a great way to start the letter. Before anything else, Timothy, I’m praying that God grants you grace, mercy, and peace, things that only he can grant ultimately. And he says in verse 3, I thank God, whom I served from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.

he says here I thank God for this remembrance I have I thank the God whom I serve from my forefathers I thank the God who I was taught and and we’ll see a little clearer illustration of this principle later on in the passage but I want you to understand here even Paul is referring back to the the impact that previous generations have had on him he said the God whom I serve from my forefathers. Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity. He was not a pagan convert.

And in those days, that was pretty much all there was. Those were the two options, a Jewish convert or a pagan convert. Paul was a Jewish convert, which means that even though he came to faith in Christ later in life, he was already attempting to serve God.

He already knew who God was. He already knew God’s laws. He already knew God’s holiness.

And so he says, because of those things, because of those who came before me, they have prepared me in some way for where I stand now in ministry. I think it’s incredible that he says, whom I served for my forefathers with pure conscience. Now, we know about Paul that he persecuted the churches.

He was responsible for the murder of Christians. Now, part of me says, even though that was a horrible, horrible thing that he did, at least give him credit that he thought he was doing the right thing. He was very, very wrong, but it wasn’t just, I’m going to go murder these people and it’s wrong and I don’t care.

He at least thought he was doing the right thing. Later on, he realizes and has some regrets about the way that he’s lived his life up to this point. And yet the way God can clear our conscience, it doesn’t mean that our sin never happened, but our sin is forgiven as far as God is concerned.

He chooses to remember our sins no more. And no matter how we’ve strayed from where God has led us, no matter how we’ve strayed from what we were taught, God can clear our conscience and we can serve him in a pure conscience because of the forgiveness that he offers. So he says that he thanks God, whom he serves from his forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.

Now that part about serving God, the part about serving him from his forefathers with a pure conscience just a parenthetical thought. It’s just extra information. What he’s really wanting to convey there is, I thank God that I have the opportunity to remember you in prayer day and night.

This is not a boasting thing that, I thank God that I’m so wonderful that I think to pray for you. What he’s saying is, I thank God that I have the opportunity to pray for you day and night. A lot of times, Paul was in prison toward this part of his ministry.

As a matter of fact, if memory serves, he was in prison while he wrote this letter. Now it’s incredible that Paul would write things like this, that he would talk about giving thanks for his bonds and his chains. If I get locked up for being a Christian, I don’t know how thankful I’m going to be for that.

And yet Paul was able to say in all sincerity that he was thankful to God for the opportunities that God gave him to minister in prison. One thing I’m going to say is he had a lot of time on his hands, I’m sure. In between preaching to a captive audience and the beatings for preaching to a captive audience, he was going to have a lot of time on his hands.

What are you going to do? You have a few options. You can sit there and be miserable.

You can go crazy. You can talk to God. I’m sure Paul spent a lot of time talking to God.

And because of his imprisonment, he has opportunities to lift Timothy and his ministry up in prayer that he might not have otherwise had. And so he says, I thank God for the opportunity to remember you in prayer night and day. Greatly desiring to see thee, he says in verse 4, being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy.

He says, I desire to come and see you. I want so much to be there with you now in the ministry that you’re undertaking. I want so much to just go with you as you’re out there in the world by yourself.

how many of you have felt that way about your children? I have no right to stand here and talk to some of you about this because my children are two and four. Some of you have sent your kids off or have watched them go off to live in another city or in another state for work or you’ve sent them off to college.

My kids are two and four, but I know what a traumatic experience it is for me just leaving them at school knowing they’re downstairs or leaving them and letting them go to church back in town and I come here. Anytime I leave my kids, it’s a little bit of a heartbreaking experience for me because I want to be away from them. So many of you know so much better than I do what this is like.

And Paul is looking at his spiritual son saying, you’re off by yourself in this ministry. Timothy served in Ephesus, which was a vile place. It was the center of the pagan worship of Diana and Christians were beaten, not by the government, but by mobs.

And Timothy’s off serving in this place and Paul is thinking about his son in the faith and says, I just wish I could be with you there right now. And many of you know what that’s like when your kids are off somewhere and they’re facing a difficult situation and you just want to be with them. That’s what he says, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, because I know the suffering and the that you’re going through right now, Timothy.

I know what you’re dealing with in life. One of the things that we as parents have to do is to prepare our children to deal with the struggles that are ahead of them in life. Because if we don’t prepare them, this world will tear them up.

If we don’t prepare them to stand on their own two feet, they will fall. If we don’t prepare them to stand for God, then this world will tear them apart and tear their faith apart. Sometimes Benjamin will tell me, as I mentioned earlier, when I get on to him, you’re not my best friend.

It’s not my job to be your best friend. I hope we do get to a point later on where he says I’m his best friend and he means it. But my job is to prepare him for life, to prepare him to be an adult and a functioning member of society and a worthwhile servant of God.

Now, if I do that, that’s my job. And if I can be his best friend on top of it, hey, all the better. But that is my job.

That is your job with your kids and your grandkids. maybe your great grandkid. It’s our job to prepare them to send them out into the world so that they are able to stand on their own, so that they are able to stand for God when the storms hit in line.

And he says, but I wish I could be there with you because I understand the trials and the difficulties and the circumstances you’re going through. I know your tears. Being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy.

Why? Because he likes seeing Timothy hurt? No.

But don’t you find joy in being able to help your children? Don’t you find joy in being able to bring your children comfort? So he says, while you’re out there, in the midst of these tears and in the midst of these struggles, I want nothing more than to be with you and to help you, and I would find the utmost joy in that.

And he says, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, I am persuaded that in thee also. He remembers with joy the unfeigned faith that was in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice. And he believes, he knows in Timothy also.

Now that word unfeigned, that’s a great word, but we don’t use it much anymore. To feign something means to pretend or even to do something half-heartedly. And for him to say the unfeigned faith that was found in these ladies, he says it was not something that was faked.

It was a genuine faith in God and in Jesus Christ. Timothy did not become a Christian because of Paul’s ministry. Now, Paul worked with Timothy and helped him grow further, but the foundation was laid much, much earlier in his upbringing. We don’t know anything about his father or his grandfather, but we see at least these two ladies were in Timothy’s life and had an impact on him that lasted him beyond their time with him.

He says there was this unfeigned faith that was found first in Lois and then in Eunice and then passed along to Timothy also. And some of you, some of you have that ability to look back in your family and say, you know, I was led to Christ by. .

. My parents taught me early and their parents taught them. Now that’s not to say you’re any more valuable than somebody who came to Christ and were the first in their family.

You know what? if you were not raised in a Christian home, if you were not raised in a Christian home and you came to faith in Christ through the ministry of somebody outside your home, hey, praise the Lord that you came to Christ. Praise the Lord that you were given that opportunity. If you came to Christ as a result of what your family taught you, then praise the Lord for that also.

It doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. I was led to Christ by my parents. My mother was raised in church, my dad not so much.

And they had different experiences. it doesn’t mean either of them are more or less saved than I am or each other. And yet, we have no control over the circumstances we come from, but we absolutely do have control over the circumstances in which we raise our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

Do we want to cross our fingers and hope that they eventually find faith somewhere out there in the world, or do we want to give them every opportunity? Do we want to give them every opportunity to pass along our faith to them? And I’ve said before, you could theoretically do everything right.

I realize it’s not possible as a parent to do everything right. We are not perfect people. We mess up.

Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ways, but none of us are perfect. But theoretically, even if we could do everything perfectly, it doesn’t guarantee that our children will follow in our footsteps. And by the same token, a parent can do everything wrong and lead their children away from God, and the child could still grow up to trust Christ. that pesky free will.

And yet, why would we want to do anything less than give our children every opportunity? Why would we not want to give our children and our grandchildren every opportunity to grow up to know Christ and to serve Him? I mean, doesn’t it just seem, let’s just look at this from a practical standpoint for a minute.

Doesn’t it seem that they would have a better chance of walking in the right direction if we open those doors for them? We can’t make them get saved. I can’t pray my child into heaven.

They’re going to have to grow up and make those decisions themselves. But why would I waste the opportunity to sort of nudge them in the right direction? You know, they’re still pretty young, too young to understand.

Benjamin may be getting close. I don’t know. When I say close, I don’t mean in the next few weeks.

But he’s four. I was five when I trusted Christ. I know at five, I didn’t understand a lot of things, but I understood enough. I understood that Jesus died to save me from my sins.

so I wouldn’t have to go to hell. And that was enough. I had the opportunity to talk to him a little bit this week.

He started asking questions. Some of you who read some of our conversations on Facebook on the way to school will be surprised to know that the drive to school is about three or four minutes. I don’t know how we get in these deep conversations in three or four minutes, but the boy never stops talking, so it’s not that hard.

He was asking me, because of something we heard on the radio right as we got in the car, he was asking me one day this week on the way to school, Who is Jesus again? We only talk about this every day. So who is Jesus again?

I was explaining. He’s God’s son. And what did he do?

Because he hears all these Bible stories at home. He hears these Bible stories at school. And I’m sure he’s having trouble remembering who is who.

And so I told him a little bit about what Jesus did. And I talked to him about dying on the cross. He wanted to know why he died on the cross.

I said, well, he died for us. I wanted to know why he did that. I said, he’s taking our punishment.

He didn’t understand that. I said, well, it’s like if you ran out in front of a car and in the street, and you know you’re supposed to get a spanking because you’ve broken the rules and you’ve done something dangerous, and you’re about to get that big whooping. Well, he knows there’s a difference between a spanking and a whooping.

You’re about to get that whooping that you’ve earned. And Sissy came along and said she’d take it for you. And he said, well, why did Madeline run out in the street?

I said, okay, you’re not understanding this. So he’s asking me more questions, and I’m explaining to him, not in graphic detail. I don’t want to just terrify him, but explaining to him the crucifixion and what Jesus did for us.

And he got real quiet, which never happens. And I lowered the rearview mirror so I could see him. I said, what’s wrong?

I said, why are you so sad? He said, it was so mean that they took all his blood. What do you say to that?

Now, I realize that it probably sounds odd having conversations like that with a four-year-old. And certainly, like I said, I was not going to discuss in graphic detail the crucifixion like I tried to explain to my 6th and 7th graders the other day and how the asphyxiation worked and the blood loss. I wasn’t going to go into all that because there’s no need to give him nightmares.

I know it sounds strange to have that kind of a conversation with a four-year-old, but why would I wait until he’s 14 to start laying the foundations? don’t I want to give him every opportunity now he may grow up and trust Christ at an early age I hope he does I pray he does pray the same thing for my daughter he may grow up and not accept Christ until later on in life as much as it breaks my heart to say he may grow up and never trust Christ as his savior I pray to God that doesn’t happen that God made us with free will I don’t have any control I can’t make him trust Christ but shouldn’t I want to give him every opportunity? Shouldn’t I want him to have every opportunity to understand what God did for him when he sent his son to die on the cross?

Shouldn’t I give him every opportunity to understand how beautiful grace is that God forgives us even though we don’t deserve it at all? Shouldn’t I talk to him about it every opportunity I have? Is it not the most important news that I ever heard myself?

I think it is. I’ve heard a lot of good news in my life, but when I finally at the age of five understood that Jesus Christ died to pay for my sins so I wouldn’t have to. I submit to you it’s the best news I’d heard up to then or still have ever heard.

We talk to our kids and everybody else around us for that matter about a lot of stuff. Why would we neglect the best news we’ve ever heard? Wouldn’t we want to give them every opportunity to hear and understand?

That’s the point I’m trying to make to you with this. Now I realize that we could do everything right and they still may go astray. We have no guarantees there.

We can do everything wrong and they still could trust Christ. We have no guarantees. But don’t we want to open the right doors in hopes that they’ll walk through them? And that’s what Lois and Eunice had done.

When they demonstrated this unfeigned faith, Timothy got it from an early age. Timothy went the right way from an early age. He said, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

And he talks about the ordination into the ministry. And it goes on from there. but I really want to focus for just the next few minutes on this idea of Timothy growing up in the faith.

Now, it starts out with Paul talking about his relationship to Timothy. And Paul did a lot to help grow Timothy in the faith, help him be a stronger Christian, help him to know God better and to love him more. But Paul came in later on when the foundations had already been laid.

And if we want to see where the foundations were laid for Timothy’s life, we need to look no further than Lois and Eunice. See, the foundation started early on. The foundation started early on.

The foundation for his life was built when he was a child. And those especially who have children still about, whether they’re your children or your grandchildren or your great-grandchildren, your nieces, your nephews, whoever it may be. I want to ask you, what kind of foundation are we laying for their lives?

Are we laying a foundation that later on they can build on and it will lead them to Christ? or are we building a foundation of something else? I’m not saying we’re building an evil foundation for them.

I’m not saying, you know, you’re teaching. I’m not saying anybody here could be teaching four-year-olds to smoke and drink and worship Satan. I’m not saying any of that.

But I’m saying if we do not actively build a foundation that’s going to lead to them coming to Christ, then we’re missing it. We’re missing a golden opportunity. If Christ is not at the center of our homes, Christ is not at the center of our lives together.

We’re missing an opportunity. Bringing kids to church once a week, twice a week, three times a week will not fix them. I can’t tell you how many families that I’ve talked to with teenagers, they get up into the upper high school years and say, you know, I don’t know what went wrong, fix them.

Oh, okay, because I’m magic. We can’t ignore, and I’m not even saying families that are involved in horribly wicked things, but I’m saying we cannot ignore the things of Christ all through our everyday life and bring them into church on Sunday and expect that that’s going to be a magic bullet for everything. Lois and Eunice laid a foundation that affected Timothy for the rest of his life.

Good or bad, we lay a foundation for those behind us that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Now, a bad foundation can be overcome, but why would we not give them every opportunity? So how did they lay this good foundation?

Just a couple things that there’s not a lot of information in this passage, but there are a few things that we can see here about how they laid this good foundation. First of all, they passed their faith along to him. They passed their faith along to Timothy.

To pass the faith along, you’ve got to talk about it. Has anybody ever just walked down a street past a church and, oh, I got too close to the church, now I’m a Christian. Whoops, how’d that happen?

I got infected. No, anytime the faith has been passed along, whether it’s from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild or neighbor to neighbor or even stranger to stranger, anytime the faith has ever been passed along, it’s been because somebody’s been talking about it. Either verbally in writing something, somebody has been talking about the faith.

And for them to have passed along the faith first from Lois to Eunice and then from Lois and Eunice to Timothy, somebody was talking about the faith. And so what I would challenge you to do if you’re not already doing this, and please don’t think I’m standing up here saying I’m perfect and you need to be like me because I don’t do it as much as I should. But let me challenge you, if you’re not already doing this, talk to your kids about Jesus.

You know what? Even if they’re grown and already Christians, still talk to them about Jesus. Talk to them about what he’s done in your life and talk to them about what he’s done in theirs.

Continue to build that foundation that, hey, this is something that affects real life, not just Sundays, but this is something that matters outside the church house. If you’ve got young kids, tell them about Jesus. I think I told you all last week, Benjamin wants to be told bedtime stories all the time and I’m so bored with trying to come up with, well, I’m not that creative on the fly.

I’m so bored of trying to make up boring stories. Now, he’s fascinated, but I’m bored to tears because my stories are not, there’s not much of a plot to them. I started telling him Bible stories.

You know what? Your kids want to hear a story? Tell them a Bible story.

I’m not saying necessarily read it to them at this point, because little kids, you start reading and they space out somewhere. Tell them Bible stories. Talk to your kids about Jesus.

Let them know who he is. I give this example all the time, but it’s so tragic that when I was in high school, there was an exchange student there from Germany who asked me, who is this God person you’re talking about all the time? Don’t let your kids wait until they’re teenagers and hear somebody else talking about it and say, wait, who is Jesus?

If we don’t teach them the right things about Christ and if we don’t teach them the right things about Christianity, the world is going to teach them the wrong things about Christ and about Christianity. As we have opportunity with little kids, with adult kids, in an age-appropriate way, and depending on where they are spiritually, talk to them about the faith. Try your best to pass your faith along to the generations behind you.

Now, I’m not one to want to twist scripture. And that’s got to make you nervous, doesn’t it? I feel like a but is coming.

I’m not one to want to twist scripture. But if I can paraphrase something for just a minute, there’s the passage where Jesus tells them, what will it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? If I can play on that for just a minute, I’ve always had the thought in my mind, what will it profit me in ministry and in life if I were to reach the whole world and lose my own children?

Now I’m not saying that’s a word from God. I’m just saying that’s something I got out of reading that when I started thinking about what’s most important to me in life. What does all of the rest of the world profit us if we lose our own children?

So we need to be talking about our faith. But second of all, he says it’s an unfeigned faith. Is it enough that we just talk to our children about it?

Or do they need to see it lived out in our lives? Do they need to see that it’s genuine? I was watching a show last night with my family.

And one of the characters has a mother who is what they refer to on the show as a Bible thumper. Like, that’s a bad thing. And did something that was terrible.

And then the character got on to her about hypocrisy. The son got on to her about hypocrisy. You’ve quoted the Bible to me my whole life, and then you live this way.

Yeah, I see the problem. Now, I don’t like the way that Christians are portrayed on television. Like, that’s who we all are.

And yet I do see the problem there. We can quote our Bibles all we want to our kids. We can talk about our faith all we want to our kids, but if they don’t also see it, if they don’t see an unfeigned faith, if they don’t see a faith that is genuine, that is lived out, that is unfaked, it’s no