 Amen. Acts chapter 16. So there's a lot going on here in Acts chapter 16. We're only going to get through 10 verses tonight. We're not going to go into the entire story. We'll study that next week and the following sermons. But I want to look at especially a new character that's introduced here in Acts chapter 16. We're looking at the beginning of the second missionary journey of Paul. Of course, we saw that there was a big argument on who should go on what missionary journey and Paul didn't want Mark to come with him and Barnabas and him got in an argument. They went their separate ways. We looked at that last week. But now Paul and Silas, Paul decided to take Silas with him and they went their way on this second journey. And as you can see, if you look at your map, this journey is quite a bit further than the first one. It's probably twice the distance. I'm sure they were gone for several years here on this missionary journey. So this wasn't like going somewhere for a week or two like we do when we go on mission trips. This was a long journey that they went through a lot of things. They went through a lot of places. And they went to some new territory here that we'll look at on the beginning of that this evening as well. Look at verse number one of Acts chapter 16. So we're going to go through pretty quickly. I'm going to go through the first ten verses here. And then we'll go back and see what we can study about some of the characters here that we see. Look at verse number one. It says, then he came here to Derb and Lystra. Now if you look at your map, remember, so now he's not going across the sea. He's not going across the Mediterranean Sea. He's actually going across the land to the same cities that he went on his first missionary journey. He ended his missionary journey in Derb and Lystra on the first missionary journey, except he goes across land and he goes back to these places. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothyus. The son of a certain woman, which was a Jewish and believed, but his father was a Greek. So here we have this man, Timothyus, or Timothy as he's known in the Bible. He's introduced here for the first time. Paul meets him. Look at verse two. Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. So here is this young man, Timothyus, or Timothy, as we know him from the books of the Bible. And we find some things out about him. We find basically three things about him. Number one, his mother was Jewish, but she was saved. She believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, she was saved, and his father was a Greek. So we can kind of assume, and I'll show you, I'll kind of prove that to you a little further in a few minutes into the sermon. We kind of assume that this young man had a saved mother and a father that was not a believer that was unsaved. So that's kind of what we can take from this so far. Point number two is interesting. Look at verse number two. Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. And verse number three it says, him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters. So in verse number two, we see that this man turned to Proverbs chapter 22. We see that Timothy, Timothyus here, he had a good report of the people that were there. So that means that he had a good reputation. People had good things to say about him. So if you turn to Proverbs chapter 22, look at verse number one. This is something that I bring up every now and then in sermons. But I don't think this is actually something that I can bring up enough because I think people undervalue this personally. Look at Proverbs 22 and verse number one. The Bible says, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. So in verse number two of Acts chapter 16, what we're seeing is kind of a proof of Proverbs chapter 22 and verse number one. We're seeing that this young man had a good name. He had a good reputation. And because of that, look, Paul didn't know this kid. Paul didn't know this kid. He came there. People had great things to say about him. Paul decided to take him with him when he went spreading the gospel. So it really benefited Timothy. Now turn to first Timothy chapter three. Turn to first Timothy chapter three. So of course, Timothy, there's two books in the Bible. If you look at it after Colossians, you have those five T books, first and second Thessalonians and then first and second Timothy and then Titus. Now it's interesting because we see what came of Timothy in the Bible because the T books in the Bible are actually called the pastoral epistles. If you've ever heard them called that. And the reason for that is because that's where you will find, you know, advice that Paul is giving to church leaders. He's giving, that's where you will find the qualifications of a pastor. We'll look at a couple of them this evening. If you want to go into the ministry, you'll have to meet those qualifications of, you know, first and second Timothy and many other places in those T books. They're the pastoral epistles because Paul is kind of preaching them to these men saying, look, these are the qualifications that you need to have. He's giving Timothy this young man advice for leading a church. Are you there in first Timothy chapter three? Look at verse number seven of first chapter three. Verse number seven. Let me get there myself. So we're talking about a good name, a good report. Okay, so Timothy we see is, he's benefited from people saying good things about him. He had a good reputation. Okay, now we should, the Bible does teach that is actually as a pastor, it is a qualification of a pastor to actually have a good reputation, to have a good report it says. Look at verse seven of first Timothy chapter three, verse number seven. Moreover, talking about all the different qualifications of a pastor in the verses previously and the verse after, but we're going to focus on verse seven. Moreover, it says in addition, that's what that means, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. So what the Bible is saying here, it said in Proverbs chapter 22 that a good name is very valuable to you. A good name, and this is something that I've just seen with people, I see people just throw their name away over some stupid thing, or some lie they're going to tell, or something they're going to excuse they're going to make. They'll just take their reputation and throw it away and the problem with your reputation, with the problem with Proverbs chapter 22 in verse number one, is it takes a very long time to build a good name, to have a good report. So Timothy, having these people in verse number two in this town say all these good things about him, they didn't just meet him yesterday. These people, and the reason that it held weight with Paul is because it takes a very long time to get a good reputation. That's why Proverbs 22 is saying that it's so valuable. But here's the thing about a good name, a good report, a good reputation. It's very difficult to get, it's actually earned over time. It takes diligence to earn that, but it is very easy to lose. It is very easy to lose. One dishonest moment, one, you know, just, you can throw it away very quickly. And then it would take you even longer to rebuild that reputation. But first Timothy chapter three, first Timothy chapter three in verse number seven is actually saying that not only is it valuable as Proverbs 22 says, it's literally a qualification for a pastor. And it says that the pastor, the person that wants to be in the ministry should have a good reputation of them that are without. Meaning people outside the church should, you should have a good reputation. Now this isn't to say, now this is kind of like a, you know, there needs to be some disclaimers here. Because there is going to be people in your Christian life that are upset at you, that attack you, don't like you, because of what you do in your life, because you're living for the Lord, because you're following God, you're showing your love for God, keeping his commandments. There's going to be people that are just against you for that. But in general, in general, this kind of talking about people, most people folks are just indifferent to the Bible. Most people out there could just care less what the Bible says, what it doesn't say. What this is talking about is just normal everyday people. So an example is a man at work. People at work should, you know, you should not just be, because look, we're dealing with unsaved people every single day of our lives. Especially men that go off and work with people that don't believe the Bible, never read the Bible, no idea what it says. They're just, they're indifferent to the Bible, but you should have a good reputation to those people. That means you should be nice, you should be respectful, you should be someone who's known as a hard worker. Pastor Jimenez used to say this all the time. He said, the Christian, the Christian should be the hardest worker at the company. The boss could not even be saved, not even like the Bible budget. He should just, he should just want people from this church working for his company because they're just, they're so honest, they work so hard, they're so reliable, they have a good report. That is what the Christians should be like. You should have a good reputation of them that are without. Okay, this isn't talking about people that you're supposed to just, you know, capitulate to people who are attacking you for your stance on the Bible. It's not what I'm talking about. It's just saying in general, most people should have a good reputation. You should be nice. Because look, we're right about the Bible. You're right about the Bible. You could go and you could be a real jerk to people about that. You could be just slamming the Bible in people's faces and you could make everyone that you ever met anywhere hate you. Just because you were constantly just pushing everything on them and just like, you know, but look, you're right. You're right, but look, there's a nice way to go about things. You can be nice to people. You can be respectful to people. And, you know, it's actually a qualification for a pastor. All right, now that's not, you know, there's going to be tribulation. So that always goes hand in hand. The other side of that coin is there's going to be tribulation, which means people persecuting you for your faith. Okay, that's going to happen. That's going to happen. That's not what this is talking about. So, Timothy had this, all right? Timothy had this. Don't dismiss this in your life. It's the little mini sermon before we go on here. Don't dismiss this in your life because Paul didn't know Timothy. He just knew that he had a good report. He had a good name from these people, and that was good enough for him. All right, look at verse number three. Go back to Acts chapter 16. Go back to Acts chapter 16. Look at verse number three. Now, Paul does something. Now, him, Paul, would have to go forth with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews, which were in those quarters for they knew, they all knew that his father was a Greek. So, he does this, not to repreach this, but he does this just so he can get past this cultural issue that these Jews had. They knew his father was a Gentile. He didn't want to deal with this. He's like, you know, to the Jews, I became as a Jew. This is what he's doing here. He's not doing anything for salvation. He's just, you know, trying to just get along with this cult so they can go and be effective preaching to these people. Look at verse number four. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders were at Jerusalem. So, they're giving these letters now. Remember all these letters that they wrote about decisions on doctrine, things like this? And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, I want to just explain verse number six through verse number ten. I'm looking at your map before we go back and talk more about Timothy. But look down at your map. Something very interesting happens in the next four verses. Basically, what you have here is you have God directing them where he wants them to go. Look at verse number six. Now, when they had gone through Fargea, the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After, it says they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. Now, when it says Asia there, what it is talking about is the western side, the southwestern corner of Turkey. That's what, if you look at what I've been calling Turkey, modern day Turkey on your map, that southwestern corner at this time was called Asia. So, basically what they were doing is they went to Derb, they went to Lycra, they went to Iconium, and then they were kind of taking a turn to the south, just like they did on the first missionary journey, which makes sense, right? They were kind of taking that same path, and God said, I don't want you going there. I don't want you going to Asia. So, God kind of steers them north, okay? And after they were come to Mycia, they assaged to go into Bithnia, but the Spirit suffered them not. So, Bithnia is north of Asia, all right? So, they're like, okay, we'll go up north. God doesn't want us going south. We'll go north. God says, no, all right? It forbid them not. It suffered them not. And they passing by Mycia came down to Troas. So, they went straight across. So, basically, God was directing them not to go to Asia, not to go north, but instead go straight across. You say, why? Well, in verse number nine and verse number ten, God explains to us why. Look at verse number nine. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night when there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. So, they're kind of like, this is why. You know, this is why God was like steering us all over the place here, is he wants us to go across. Look, it's across to Macedonia. If you look at your map, you'll see that Macedonia wears Macedonia. It's basically Greece. It's Greece. So, they're going to cross over the water. They're going to cross a G and C and go into Greece. So, this is really Paul's first trip to Europe, right here. So, if you look at a map and if you're familiar with your continents, you basically have, you know, the part that we've been calling Turkey, that's the continent of Asia today, all right? And the continent of Europe begins in Greece here. So, Paul, this is the first time that Paul has traveled across to Europe. God wanted the gospel going further west. He wanted it getting into Europe. And that's what we will find out when we read the rest of this story. So, this is the first time that Paul goes into Europe, all right, which is modern-day Greece, what we're calling Macedonia here today, all right? But look, let's look at some lessons from Timothy. So, we see Timothyus tonight. He is introduced. We see this character that joins Paul here because of the reputation that he had, because of, you know, just his testimony that he had from these people. So, if you go back to verse number one, let's look at a very interesting characteristic of Timothy that I want to kind of explore a little bit this evening. Look at verse number one. It says, a certain disciple was there named Timothyus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewish and believed, but his father was a Greek. Now, turn to second Timothy chapter number one. So, I told you that we know that from this statement, we know that his mother was saved, and you can't really say that like his father wasn't saved. I mean, it kind of seems like they're pushing at that, but there's more evidence that that was actually the case, that Timothy was actually raised in a home where his father was not a believer, but his mother was, all right? And we see more evidence of that in second Timothy chapter one. We see evidence that his mother was the spiritual influence on him, all right? Look at second Timothy chapter one. Verse number two. So, Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, and he says to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, graced mercy and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without seizing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. So, Paul, I mean, you'll find in your readings of Paul and his interactions with Timothy, Paul is clearly very fond of Timothy. Paul, you know, he acts like, you know, he treats him like his own son. He is very fond of this young man. Look at verse number four. Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. Look at verse number five now. When I call into remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, he's saying, he's saying, I just, I'm moved to tears when I think about the faith that you have. And look what he says, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice. I am persuaded that in thee also. So here we see, Paul kind of gives a history of where Timothy's great faith came from, where he received that influence in his life. And look, it was from his grandmother and then his mother. So Timothy is kind of, you know, look, he, I want to talk tonight about the great influence of a mother. The great influence of a mother. Look, there is a lot of, and you say, why is this important? Because the father's supposed to be the spiritual leader and the father's supposed to, you know, lead the home. But first of all, there's a lot of missing fathers out there today. And this story of this young man should give hope to children and especially mothers where maybe there's not a father in the home or maybe there's a father in the home but he's not a spiritual leader in the home. He's not leading spiritually. Maybe there's a mother who is saved and a father who is not. Look, this story gives us hope. This story gives us hope for the next generation. Look, here's the thing. It's not God's plan that the father would not be saved and the mother would be. God is not God's plan. God, but here's the beauty of the Bible. The beauty of the Bible is God teaches you the right way to do things. He teaches you to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. A young lady should never go out and she should never marry a man that is not saved. Never. She should never do that. But here's the thing. God, you know, God works with us even after we mess up his plan. God works with us and He gives advice in the Bible on a wife, on how to deal with a husband that's not saved, on how to speak with pure words and how to just show purity and show spirituality that she might win him to the Lord. Because look, everybody's not going to do everything exactly perfect the right way and people are going to mess up God's plan. My wife married somebody that wasn't saved. Thank God that it worked out the way, you know, God directed it to work out. Thank God. But the point is, the beauty of the Bible and the depth of God's word is that God gives us a plan do it this way. But if we don't do it that way, God always has a plan B and a plan C and a plan D and a plan E for our lives. This is, you know, it's not God's plan that a child would be raised without a father. That's not God's plan. But with Timothy, we see that there's a lot of hope for a child like that, that people that have messed up God's plan, people that have made mistakes with God's plan. Look, two parent families are much, I mean, there is so many statistical studies out there that have nothing to do with the Bible that will just show you that two parent families, a child raised in a home with a dad and a mom is going to be so much more successful in every single aspect of his life no matter what you study than if he's raised in a single parent home either with the dad or the mom. But the point is, and look, here's the thing, this is the biggest issue. You say, this is the biggest issue with fornication, by the way. You say, you know, I bring up fornication and the Bible talks about fornication, actually turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. The biggest issue with fornication is that it messes up God's plan for the family. That's the biggest issue with fornication. You say, well, there's lots of issues with fornication. There's lots of issues with fornication, but the biggest one is it derails God's plan for the family. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse number 18. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 18, on fornication. This is why the Bible is so serious about fornication. It says flee fornication. That means get far away from it. It says every minute, and then it explains it says it's different. It's different from every other sin. How? Every sin that man doeth is without the body. But he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. That's the unique thing about fornication. It'll hurt your body. Just think about disease and all these different types of things. It's literally unhealthy for you. You're literally destroying your own body is what the Bible is saying here. But back to the point. The biggest issue, I mean if you would ask me what's the main sin that is destroying America? I think I would probably pick fornication. That's the one I would choose. You say what about homosexuality and perversion and all this unnaturalness and nobody even knows what a woman is or a man is. Look, yeah, that's all terrible wickedness but honestly, that's not something we're going to deal with here because it's just not going to be here. Fornication is this universally accepted sin today and it's destroying the family. Look, even secular science knows this, that fornication is destroying the family. Guess what? I mean I look up these stats once a year at least so I can see the trend but the trend, the trend for people that I mean I'm talking about having physical relationships with the opposite sex outside of marriage. The trend is relatively flat as far as whose in fornication, the percentage of people in fornication because it's pretty much everybody. It's like 95% and it's pretty much flat. It's like 95% of people are committing fornication before they get married. It's pretty much flat. It's nearly universally accepted. This is a major problem in our country today. This is the problem with the family. This is destroying families. Let me explain to you why. And look, here's another thing. It's the same, here's another reason that it's so bad in our country because everyone complains about California. California is so liberal and you know people in the Midwest oh we're so much better. Look, it's the same there. It's the same. These stats are the same there. Why? Because everyone's watching the same Hollywood. Everyone's watching the same movies. Everyone's watching the same TV shows. Everyone's being programmed by the same media, by the same garbage, by the same internet. Everyone's bringing in the same stuff and they're all doing the same things. Is that surprising? It's not. So the point is, it's the same garbage everywhere. The fornication is almost universally accepted in our country today. I don't care what state you live in. But here's what is changing. Here's what is changing though. And I'm going to show you just, I'm going to show you a secular study that is so interesting on how this is destroying the family and it's creating single parent households in this country. Let me just, this is not the Bible. This is like science figuring this out. Don't you love it when science catches up with the Bible? You know, the Bible's been saying this for, I don't know, thousands of years. And here's some scientist, you know, in 2020, he's like, I figured out a trend. The Bible's been saying this for thousands of years. Let me just give you an example of a study that was just done. Okay? Here's what's changing. Fornication is not changing. The amount of people that fornicate is not changing. It's pretty much 95%. It's pretty much, pretty much everybody. All right? Not us. Not our kids. But pretty much everybody out there. All right? Look, here's what's changing, though. The amount of fornication is changing. And I'll try to keep this as professional as I can from the pulpit here, but basically the amount of people that people fornicate with is growing before they do get married. Okay? So two things are changing. The amount of fornication before marriage is changing is rising. And the second thing that's changing is marriage is happening later and later and later. Every year I check this, it gets later and later. There has never been a time in the history of the United States where the average male and female age of marriage has been higher than today. In 2022, that age, think about this for a second, think about this as a woman who would want to have children, the average age in the United States is 34 years old at this point. I mean, when I started the satellite, I remember it was 30. It's rising that fast. It's never been higher than that, okay? But here's what they found in 2021, this study that I'm going to kind of quote some numbers from, they found that the more fornication that happens before marriage, the greater the odds of divorce. And the numbers will shock you. The numbers will actually shock you. First of all, let me just give you a couple numbers on the amount of fornication and how that is increasing. Okay? In the 1970s, and it's funny because the person that did this study said we had to use women. All these stats are from women. They said to use women because men aren't honest about these things. I had to laugh. Men will just lie about these things. So basically, they're asking women this. In the 1970s, women, women that had fornicated with more than 10 people before they got married was 2% of women. Like almost nobody did that. Right? I mean, almost no one did that. In the 2010s, like after 2010, that number went to almost 20%. So like one in five. One in five women before they get married they're fornicated with more than 10 people. All right? Now the measure of a successful marriage in this, a successful marriage that did not end in divorce, the measure is being married more than five years. Right? Like you should be able to be married more than five years like on accident. Okay? If you have any like staying power or morality at all. Okay? But the point is more than five years and you're not on this list. Okay? So we see that in the 1970s it was 2% in that after 2010 it was almost 20%. Okay? Now look, 6% of the people this, let me see, let's see here. Pure marriages where there was no fornication. Pure marriages where there was no fornication in the latest study that they did after 2000 only 6% of them ended before five years. So that's a successful marriage. 6%. Okay? Now if you look at those women that fornicated with more than 10 people like that the worst case scenario I guess is what we call it in this study that number of marriages that failed before five years is 33%. This is just a secular study. I mean this is a person that's saying we found a correlation here. You know we found a correlation of and now they'll now what they'll do is if you keep reading these studies they'll just draw all the wrong conclusions. They'll come to they'll get the numbers right of what the Bible says is going to happen and what the Bible says you should do and shouldn't do. They'll get the numbers right they'll get the trends right but then they'll draw all the wrong conclusions about this. They'll say oh it's a societal problem on the way society views women or something you know stupid like that but the point is if you look at a woman who is pure who went into marriage pure and put off fornication before she got into marriage I mean the obvious answer on why she's not getting divorced is because that is a woman that values and heeds the word of God. That is a woman who takes the Bible seriously. That is a woman who has already denied herself for what the Bible says that I should the Bible says I should do this even though my flesh wants to do this I'm going to listen to what the Bible says so the Bible is also very against divorce God hates divorce God hates putting away the Bible says so she will also listen to that. So that's not like I mean look feminism itself feminism is the cause of this feminism is it destroys women it destroys marriages it just literally destroys women's lives this idea of feminism saying hey don't get married till you're 34 years old and go fornicate so when you do get married you'll have a failed marriage I mean it's the worst thing that has ever happened to women and then you get divorced think about it and I'm not trying to beat up anybody that's been divorced look that is a I have friends that have been divorced it's a terrible thing it's like the worst thing that could happen I mean I have a friend that got divorced and it's like it just it completely devastated his life I mean imagine being married to somebody that you thought you could be married too for the rest of your life and for one reason or another you end up divorced and you spent maybe 10 15 years 20 years with that that it happens to and it's it's even more devastating to the kids in the situation it literally destroys lives divorce does and what does it all stem from? it all stems from fornication fornication is destroying the family unit it's destroying God's plan God has this plan of a man and a woman and he's the spiritual leader and she's also supposed to be spiritual and look the kids I mean how could it's like this fail safe plan that God has and we even see in the case of Timothy you take away the dad and the mom takes her role seriously look at Timothy he became this great pastor this great spiritual leader because of his mother let's go back to Timothy look I I beat the guys in this church over the head about being proper spiritual leaders but God always has a plan B God always has a plan B well women are not to be the leaders in the family and they're not to be the leaders in the church they have great influence to step in and fulfill this role when a faithful man cannot be found and this is what we see in Timothy so let's look at the value of a mother's influence through him turn to Proverbs chapter one just think about a mother's influence think about a grandmother's influence if you're an aunt a grandmother a mother just think you could have great influence over children that are yours children that you have influence over just you can pass this faith on to them this cannot be overstated it is always better to have two parents that are faithful and strong leadership of a husband but God always has a plan B even after we mess up the marriages we mess up the families God doesn't you know why doesn't though because God values the next generation God wants the next generation the next generation why you say why because Christianity in the gospel it depends on the next generation it's like it's how it works it's how Christianity works look at Proverbs chapter one verse number eight the Bible says my son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the what the law of thy mother Proverbs 622 says very similar thing says my son keep thy father's commandments and forsake not the law of thy mother look that's double protection right there but the mother look the Bible here is saying that she the mother is the law giver in Deuteronomy 6 when the Bible is saying you know we talked about being keepers at home what are you doing you're speaking the law to your children as they rise up as they lie down she's giving the law to the next generation she is the law giver turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 look that's a big responsibility right there to be the law giver to the next generation to be the law giver to the children in the home 2nd Timothy 3 says in verse number 16 it says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine now look what it's for it says for reproof for correction and guess what for instruction in righteousness you know what children need they need instruction in righteousness that is the law giver right there that is the mother right there to instruct the Bible in righteousness now guess what guess what ladies to give the law you must know the law you cannot teach something that you don't know so even if you have a husband that is spiritual and you have a husband that is doing a good job leading your home you still have to know the law to give the law to the next generation you still have to know it you know the next generation turn to Psalm chapter 145 God is extremely concerned about the next generation always look at Psalm chapter 145 and verse number 4 I'll read for you Psalm 100 verse number 5 where you're turning there for the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations that's the difference between the Bible and every other book right there God's truth applies to every generation there's no other book that's like that no matter where you live no matter where you were born what time you were born what generation you could have been born 5,000 years ago you could have been born yesterday the Bible applies to you the same there's no other book like that there's no other book that's been written God's truth endureth to all generations it's also a promise that God will keep his word for us which is why we have the King James Bible here look at Psalm 145 verse number 4 again Christianity depends on this generational transfer of the law this generational transfer of God's word look at verse number 4 of Psalm 145 one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts how is the next generation gonna know what God has done because their parents are gonna tell them and the Bible talks specifically the mother is gonna give the law to the children now turn to Proverbs chapter 31 and we see a very specific example of this in the Bible so look it is the responsibility of one generation to declare the works of God to declare the gospel to declare the law to the next generation you say that's an easy one look at Proverbs chapter 31 look at Proverbs chapter 31 so Proverbs are attributed are attributed to King Solomon so King Solomon was what was he? he was the wisest man that ever lived I'll read for you first Kings chapter 4 verse 29 and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart that is on the seashore so remember Solomon as a young man when he took over the kingdom he asked God for wisdom for discernment to judge the people and God said I'm gonna make you the wisest because you didn't ask for riches because you didn't ask me to crush your enemies he's like I'm gonna make you the wisest how about this? I'll make you the wisest person that ever lived but the question is how did God do that? what was the mechanics of how Solomon became so wise? remember Paul when Paul got saved when Paul got knocked off his donkey on the road to Damascus and Jesus himself took Paul for three years into Arabia Paul was taught by Jesus Christ that's the mechanics Paul wrote most of the New Testament you're like how did he get so smart because Jesus taught him this stuff how did Solomon get this wisdom? did God just be like now you're the wisest man that's ever lived? look at Proverbs 31 look at the very first verse the Bible says the words of King Lemuel that's King Solomon the prophecy who taught him? that his mother taught him so obviously his dad was involved here but I mean look the Bible was saying that the wisest man that has ever lived was taught by his mother here's another one well I'm just I'm an imperfect person and I'm just going to lean on my husband to just be the spiritual one maybe I've made a lot of mistakes in my life maybe I'm not just going to be this great teacher of the Bible to my children who was Solomon's mother? Bathsheba was she a perfect woman? she made some pretty major mistakes in her life wouldn't you say? I mean Bathsheba I mean the first time I say that word you think of the adultery with King David and you think of the terrible thing that happened to her husband Uriah and you just think about like look she's the one that taught Solomon the law of God she actually came back from that so look God used at least in part Solomon's mother to declare his wisdom to him to convey the wisdom to Solomon look your kids aren't going to learn the Bible by sleeping next to it that's what I'm trying to get you to understand they're not going to learn the Bible by having it on the bookshelf in the house you know the children are going to learn the Bible by you first reading it to them explaining it to them it's just like soul winning you know I mean the Bible is not the simplest thing to understand especially for children but it's just going to take a lot of time reading to them explaining to them what do we do at the door we read a verse we explain a verse so we read to our children we explain to our children pretty soon they start reading on their own you know I don't have to sit with Garrett at night and help him read his Bible anymore you know it's just they start to walk on their own but look it takes a lot of time to do that so look at the point I'm trying to get you to understand tonight is that God's design is perfect it's powerful it's protection for the next generation it's a failsafe to have the spiritual leader of a father and then this mother as well but Timothy is a perfect example of this failsafe plan working or he didn't have that spiritual father but instead his mother still taught him and she still she imparted this great faith on him so ladies mothers grandmothers aunts great aunts do not ever downgrade your influence that you have over what the next generation say what kind of influence maybe there's a child that I only see twice a year you could still be a great influence when you see them those two times a year you know but you have to you know you have to have that knowledge that faith in you because it doesn't just happen just by osmosis turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 so Timothy let me just give you two quick points to just close up on Timothy here first of all we need to find Timothy's you know every church every mission every ministry needs Timothy's and you never know when we go out and we knock doors and we get people saved look this kid Timothy he wasn't saved for that long a few months because he got saved through Paul's first missionary journey and it was his mother's faith that got him saved and then it was just the reputation that he had his character you know that matched up with his faith where he turned into this person he got saved and he just wanted to get to work right away so look we need to find Timothy's but here's the next thing I want to say you never know because look Paul when he walked into Elystra and Derb he didn't know this kid from Adam so that's the last point I want to make is you are never going to know your full influence that you have had on this world until you get to heaven you are never going to know you know if you get somebody saved and then they get somebody else saved and then they go off to be some great soldier for Christ somewhere you're never going to know fully know your complete influence until you get to heaven because Paul he didn't even know Timothy until he came through the second time he didn't even know that this seed that he planted in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in verse number 6 Paul says I've planted a Paulist watered but what God gave the increase this is another thing we need to realize that you know you're just not going to know when you go and you talk to somebody about the Bible maybe that maybe it's just a bridge too far for them to cross at that time but take that time if they're willing to listen preach them what the Bible is answer their questions on what they have you know about questions they have contradictions that they think about in their head try to answer their questions and just plant as many seeds as you possibly can because when you get to heaven you're going to realize that a lot of those seeds were watered by somebody else and God was giving the increase the whole way and we just never know where we're going to find Timothy's like this we never know when a seed planted that maybe isn't a salvation right at that moment turns into something like this something great ok so Timothy great man in the Bible just turns out to be just this great pastor in the Bible two books of the Bible and Paul wrote letters to Timothy just but just a great example of just how his mother had this great influence over him so I yell a lot at the guys about being that spiritual leader but mothers you have a huge responsibility and you can have a huge effect on the next generation it's literally God's failsafe plan for these kids let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer