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It is well said that the church is always one generation away from extinction.
Without passing on the faith to another generation, as believers go to be with the Lord the church would quickly dwindle until there are none left.
The biblical model for passing on the faith is discipleship.
But the model of discipleship is less like a teacher imparting academic data or bare practical skills, but more like that of a parent and child.
As such the model of discipleship is first and foremost a model of a biblical home, but also provides a Biblical model for passing on the faith as well.
One of the most well known examples of biblical discipleship is the relationship between Paul and Timothy.
A brief survey of his life as it appears in Scripture will help us understand what the Biblical model of faith really looks like and the responsibilities involved in doing so.
This is why I have entitled my sermon
Who was Timothy?
My Son in the Faith: A Pattern of Biblical Discipleship
Timothy was probably converted to faith in Jesus Christ on Paul’s first missionary journey.
We don’t meet him until Paul’s second missionary journey in , but by then he has been saved long enough to have a reputation.
On his first missionary journey Paul had visited the cities of Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium, and had met Timothy in one of them.
Paul reminds Timothy of his struggles in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra in and here in Timothy is either from Lystra or Derbe.
So timothy was probably from Lystra.
Lystra was not a great place to find a faithful believer.
When Paul first preached in Lystra, he performed a miracle there that had the totally opposite effect that Paul wanted ().
Miracles were supposed to prove that Paul was genuinely God’s messenger.
In the mostly Jewish contexts that Paul had been preaching in, the miracles really helped to convince people that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.
But the people of Lystra were so ignorant of the God of Israel that instead they thought Paul and Barnabas were the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes and tried to sacrifice to them.
I. Passing on Your Faith in a Faithless World
Yet despite living in a society totally ignorant of the true God, Timothy himself was a faithful believer.
I submit that this was no accident.
Timothy didn’t get that way because by being sent to some Rabbi for advanced training - No Rabbi would have taken him because he was half Gentile.
Nor did he just pick up faith accidentally when Paul came through.
Instead his faith grew by observing the godly instruction and lifestyle of his mother Lois and grandmother Eunice.
Clearly Lois and Eunice were passionate about passing on their faith to the next generation.
Now it is obviously not possible to pass on your faith to your own children unless you have true faith yourself.
The attitudes and behaviors that you model in your home, the things you make important are in most cases going to be the things that your children consider to be important too.
Therefore if the things you push your children to do and the things you talk about are primarily about succeeding in the business world, then your children will often believe that it is more important to be successful than godly.
It is rare that the good teaching they get in church is enough to counteract a home environment that implies something else besides God is more important.
How could this happen to a whole generation when previously the whole nation saw the mighty works of God?
The parents failed to teach their children the ways of God as God commanded
But instruction of godly parents is of such benefit to children.
The attitudes and behaviors that you model in your home, the things you make important are in most cases going to be the things that your children consider to be important too.
Therefore if the things you push your children to do and the things you talk about are primarily about succeeding in the business world, then your children will often believe that it is more important to be successful than godly.
It is rare that the good teaching they get in church is enough to counteract a home environment that implies something else besides God is more important.
II.
Passing on Faith without a Father
Timothy’s mother and grandmother were the kind of people that were passionate about teaching him genuine faith.
This is the reason he had such a good testimony despite the pagan world he lived in.
It is obviously not possible to pass on your faith to your own children unless you have true faith yourself.
Now God has often demonstrated his power to save people out of all kinds of ungodly backgrounds.
Many here can testify that they did not grow up Christian.
My point is that God can be gracious and overrule even the most secular homelife to build children into god-honoring sacrificial servants of Christ.
But instruction of godly parents is of such benefit to children.
The attitudes and behaviors that you model in your home, the things you make important are in most cases going to be the things that your children consider to be important too.
Therefore if the things you push your children to do and the things you talk about are primarily about succeeding in the business world, then your children will often believe that it is more important to be successful than godly.
It is rare that the good teaching they get in church is enough to counteract a home environment that implies something else besides God is more important.
It is obviously not possible to pass on your faith to your own children unless you have true faith yourself.
Now God has often demonstrated his power to save people out of all kinds of ungodly backgrounds.
Many here can testify that they did not grow up Christian.
My point is that God can be gracious and overrule even the most secular homelife to build children into god-honoring sacrificial servants of Christ.
But instruction of godly parents is of such benefit to children.
The attitudes and behaviors that you model in your home, the things you make important are in most cases going to be the things that your children consider to be important too.
Therefore if the things you push your children to do and the things you talk about are primarily about succeeding in the business world, then your children will often believe that it is more important to be successful than godly.
It is rare that the good teaching they get in church is enough to counteract a home environment that implies something else besides God is more important.
Yet we should not imagine that we must have a perfect home to pass on our faith to our children.
Timothy’s home was not perfect.
Most likely his father did not believe - certainly the man was not a practicing Jew as his mother and grandmother had been.
Passing on your faith is more than just Bible quizzing.
Think about why you have them do what they do.
Make Jesus the center of your life.
If you communicate that the reason to do well in school is to make a lot of money, don’t be surprised if your kids want to make money instead of serving Jesus.
There are a lot of movies and TV shows that have an implicit message that directly opposes God and his Word.
I am talking about wrong ways of thinking, not about dirty shows.
I assume you make sure your kids don’t see dirty stuff.
But it is almost impossible to avoid seeing and hearing wordly anti-god philosophy.
Don’t be afraid of that, but instead use it as an opportunity to have a spiritual conversation about what God says and how it is different that what you just saw.
Another way to have intentional conversations about God is to find out what your kids learn in school.
If they go to a public school, while a lot of it is just good information, there will be unChristian ideas mixed in with it as well.
Evolution is a big one.
Another one is the flawed ethics of the world.
Sometimes teachers or textbooks will confuse kids with emotional or complicated ethical situations that make God’s way seem weird or wrong.
Make sure you know what they are learning.
It may be that the scenario confuses you too, and you don’t know how to answer it.
In that case please admit to yourself and your kids that you don’t know, and get help.
Josh or myself would be overjoyed to assist you.
There are answers to all of these things, so please make sure you find the answer.
I hope you never have to experience the pain of seeing your children walk away from God.
But some of you have adult children who do not know the Lord.
Know this - the choices of your children do not necessarily mean you have failed in your responsibilities.
Children are not robots.
They have free will, and sometimes they choose to abandon what they have been taught, despite all the good instruction from their parents.
God knows how you feel.
He created Adam and Eve, yet they chose to disobey him.
But what can you do now?
Of course you no longer have the influence over your children that you did when they were at home.
You know your kids.
Be wise about how you bring up spiritual things.
There is a right time and place to speak.
But do not fail to exhort them.
Remember that the prayer of a righteous person has great power ().
Never stop praying for them.
As long as there is life there is hope.
Others of you still have children at home, or perhaps you are a young couple who plans to have children soon.
2 Tim 1:
Timothy’s father was a Gentile, so probably did not worship the God of Israel.
Now there were godfearers that tended to hang around Synagogues and worship the God of Israel.
Cornelius was an example of one such person ().
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