Faith's Family Tree

amen in prophecy isaiah called jesus wonderful and he is full of wonder is he not and i was thinking so many similar adjectives are true of him our god is a marvel all inspiring i think we could use the word fascinating and maybe even stunning when you think about him who he is and then when you consider a god with all of those qualities and those effects upon us to think that he reaches down in love and wants a relationship with us it's kind of mind-boggling but i know i'm with people who are grateful on this wednesday night for the fact that jesus christ found you where he did when he did and why don't

we offer thanksgiving from the heart right now lord you are wonderful so glorious so awe-inspiring to think that you and your glory reached us when we did not deserve it and we say thank you from our hearts on this night thank you thank you thank you thank you for your redemption for going to the cross in our place and providing a plan of salvation amen and amen what a joy to know jesus christ and to be with all of you again tonight you can be seated we thank god for the opportunity to gather and there are lots of other things happening throughout this building in terms of ministry but i'm glad we get to share

this time together in god's word back in april and i won't text your memory so i'll just tell you what i taught i've put together a little lesson that i call the god of my father which was in part a tribute to my dad that was around the time that he passed away in 2020 and was also laid to rest and so i put together a little lesson that honored him but also talked about his god our god and the great relationship that we have with him and because no one came to me and said don't ever do something similar like that again and because i actually got a few affirmations i realized that my

mother's birthday is coming up july 19th and knowing her she would probably want equal time and so i'm going to take just a little bit of time to honor her but this is under the heading of our church theme others that you see displayed there and certainly through the word of god we're going to be looking at building the church's future and i'm talking about spiritual church the entity of it building that now and for the future but had she lived this coming july 19th my mom would have been 99 years of age my wife always thought she'd make it to 100 but she didn't quite do that 97 when she passed in 2020 and

for a scripture text and you can remain seated this is just one verse i'm going to read from second timothy chapter 1 verse 5 and i'll have several verses from this book if you want to keep it open throughout the lesson ii timothy 1 5 this is the apostle paul writing to timothy and he says when i call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother lois and your mother eunice and i am persuaded is in you also and so clearly paul was referencing a generational uh transfer of faith and so i'm going to bring to you this lesson tonight faith's family tree faiths family tree and this

of course is talking about the generations of serving the lord we're not told too much in scripture about grandma lois and mom eunice little is known but we do gain what little insight we have through their grandson and son respectively we know that eunice was the mother of timothy and she was a believing jewish but married to a greek who from what we gather was not a believer and they were in the town of lystra lois and eunice were probably and we don't know this for certain but probably converted in paul's first visit to lystra and we get that idea from the fact that when paul wrote to timothy he referenced timothy knowing about the

persecutions and afflictions which paul had experienced in lystra and that came on his first visit recorded in acts 14. so again in all likelihood it's not a deal breaker but in all likelihood that's where they came to the truth and were converted during that time and then he came back on a later visit and my own mother born july 19th as i mentioned in 1923 in french like indiana she then when her childhood was moved to south bend indiana which is the far north of indiana just below the michigan border and that's where she grew up graduated from high school and it was during her high school years as i've pieced together the oral history

from our family her older brother paul she was one of nine children and her older brother paul was invited by a co-worker to church i don't know if it was the church they ended up going to but paul ended up going to midway tabernacle in south bend that was founded by bishop rao in fact that church is still in existence they've changed the name of it and his great grandson is the pastor of it at this time since 2011 i think so a church that's still in existence he founded it in the early 1900s and uh my uncle paul was converted and he influenced his mom my grandmother and several of his sisters one of

whom was my mother to come to church and for my mom's part when she was 14 years of age she was born of the water born of the spirit and had her life changed after high school a couple years went by and she attended apostolic bible institute in saint paul minnesota where brother s g norris was uh overseeing everything and graduated from there in 1947. but eunice and her mother lois in the scripture here were distinguished by the king james version uses this word unfeigned faith which really just means sincere or undisguised there was nothing hidden about it and certainly without hypocrisy and paul in this letter to timothy was commending both of these women

for having that kind of faith and i am blessed and and again i beg your indulgence for this little bit of personal reference in the lesson but i'm blessed to uh likewise have a experience of a grandmother and a mother uh with a faith in god after their conversion both my grandmother crowder and my mother were established in the faith and they ended up going to that midway tabernacle for some years and by 10th year after my mom's conversion she was had graduated from high school graduated from abi in 47 and during her years there she had traveled with a trio janice mabry and hilda george and they traveled around singing representing the bible college

and oftentimes when they finish singing it fell to my mother to do the preaching though she was never licensed all through her lifetime she did have a passion for ministering the word of god some of you got to hear her from time to time and she had a great passion for that and then my grandmother over time i don't know the exact timeline but she became a faithful member of christ's temple which was pastored by carl belastero and then later his son marty and that church too is still in existence up in south bend indiana and then in i think 1951 my mother uh came to saint louis uh to get a a job and

joined this particular church and was a part of it all that time until her passing but like lois and eunice in scripture my grandmother my mother had a genuine faith that was recognized by others and i'm not i know i'm a little biased but there are others that have commented along those lines that their faith was certainly recognized and as a mom and a grandmother uh eunice and lois train timothy in the fear of god this is evident from scripture and in the knowledge of the old testament scriptures that's what they would have had to train timothy and for evidence of that second timothy chapter 3 and beginning at verse 10 this is again paul

addressing him he says but you have carefully you timothy have carefully followed my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering love perseverance persecutions and afflictions which happened to me at antioch and iconium and lystra and that's that reference that makes us think that his mom and grandmother were converted during that first visit what persecutions i endured and out of them all the lord delivered me verse 12 yes and all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but you timothy must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned

them and here's where lois grandmother and eunice mom come in verse 15 and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in christ jesus so clearly eunice as timothy's mother out of her love for god and her son left a legacy of faith for timothy that continued in his lifetime and in his ministry and my mom's influence on me is enormous she again i'm biased but she proved herself to be a faithful person once she was converted and her love of god's word was known her zeal for the apostolic lifestyle and the plan of salvation all of that was evident and

one of the ways that she expressed her love for god's word was through teaching uh in a what we call sunday school class christian education now uh all those years i wish i had better records but as best as i can piece it together she taught for at least 40 years and probably closer to 50 before she retired i remember her teaching the 14 and 15 year old girls class that may have changed over the years i remember because when i was like six seven and eight i would dash from upstairs and run to her room and sometimes i'd open the door where my mom was still teaching and interrupt things and all the girls

loved me and so much and wanted to see me so you know how that goes but she was teaching that age group for a number of years and as i say probably closer to 50 i wish i had better records but at the time of her passing uh just so you know it's not only me several commented regarding her impact there was one lifelong apc member that described her as wonderful godly woman a wonderful godly woman smart humorous patient a fount of wisdom another member noted that sister river was loved for her sincere moments as well as her witty humor and she did have an honoree streak to her i will admit to that and

uh in fact i don't know for some reason she picked on poor sister lil horton uh she sat usually in the row ahead of my parents the second row my parents sat on the third row on this side looking at the platform and i remember one time it was told i didn't get to see a lot of this but i was told later that sister lil and either sister betty williford or my mother had a similar purse and my mother very devilishly switched purses and poor sister lil at some point in the service was rifling through this purse with all kinds of foreign objects in it and she couldn't figure out what had happened to

her possessions and then another time poor sister lil asked my mother if she had a cough drop i think i shared this at the funeral if she had a cough drop and my mom did have a cough drop but there was one little catch it was one that she had partially dissolved in her mouth and put back in the wrapper and so when sister lil asked her for a cough drop you guessed it my mother gave her that cough drop and they both lived quite a while after that so i guess things are okay this was before coven so i shouldn't laugh about that but it but anyway they they managed but that was the

that was my mom a little bit of an honorary streak and uh in fact she liked to scare us too in fact my grandson scared the socks off me tonight he had the front door open he came we gave him a ride to church he came around the corner as i was coming out the closet and said boo and i about jumped out of my skin but that's another subject i'll get him later but one of her sunday school quote unquote girls shared at the time of her passing that she taught with a burden and love and proved a great encourager there was a friend in the church here that said she could always make

me laugh but when i needed it she sure could pray and as for me i'm a witness to her staunch love for me and certainly for god and and along with my dad she battled for my soul i don't know how else to describe it i did enter some wayward years in my early teens and made some poor choices in a variety of areas but i've said this publicly when she was living on mother's day or some other occasions so she would know it and hear it but i know only jesus christ can save us from our sins only his blood washes and pays the penalty but my mom saved me essentially it was her

not giving up on me it was her taking me before the throne of god in prayer getting in my face making me uncomfortable doing this doing that and just making sure that that i knew what the right way was and thankfully by god's grace in due time i did make that choice to serve god and i remember one time in my struggle struggling years i look for it in my bible i have a couple of scofield bibles i used to use and it's not in there so what she must have done was make a copy of this this verse here about eunice and lois but she gave me the copy of it and she had

written where lois was grandma crowder and where eunice was herself and she was trying to impress upon me that i had a rich heritage in this faith and it would be wise to honor it it would be wise not to squander it that was her way of communicating with me in that one instance but her passing along her faith and certainly instilling a fear of the lord and she did that and fighting for my souls i would say are the best things that she left me uh out of any earthly or material possession it was these things that mean the most to me and i'm so grateful standing here tonight in the year 2022 it

was in the late 80s that my mom wrote a letter to my brother and me which in effect if you don't know my brother he's a minister out in baltimore in effect it was just encouraging us uh telling us to be true to the apostolic message and just a lot of uh wisdom in that and uh in the last oh i don't know three weeks or so i reorganized my files and came across that letter and it would have been perfect to read some portions of tonight but my filing system is so good i can't find it so i told my wife at dinner tonight i'm gonna find this tomorrow you know that right when

it's too late but i wish i had it because it was uh quite a moving letter i've shared in some lessons in the past that i've presented and i need to have a better filing system and hang on to there take a screenshot of it that's what the young people would do right then i would have it but a mother's influence certainly is far-reaching we know moses in the scripture his mom if you think of it she actually broke the law to keep him safe and evidently in his early years was responsible to teach him the jewish faith and when he was educated and greatly influenced by egyptian culture when he reached a certain age

the scripture tells us that he had to decide for himself but clearly there was something in still with him and presumably by his mother for the most part where he when the time came refused to be identified with pharaoh with egypt and he rather chose even though it wasn't the most comfortable choice he chose god he chose god's ways for him to live and somehow there was a love for god a love for truth that got into the heart of moses at a time of crisis for him opposition pressure testing moses demonstrated his beliefs what truly was in his heart by his actions and certainly the beliefs of his family his ancestors became his beliefs

they became his own and not just something he had been told about and clearly moms have a powerful influence uh you know her influence in your life and and i recognize that not all of us have the type of situation that i did and sometimes you didn't even know your mom my own father didn't know his mom she died when he was about five years of age so his grandmother raised him so there's an example where sometimes we don't even know our natural mom but the point is whether it was your mom your dad a grandfather grandmother or even somebody that's not blood related to you anybody that influenced you in this glorious faith and

gave you a legacy a heritage that person deserves honor does it not and gratitude and what if that person's living you've got the opportunity to let that person know if they're not living you can certainly honor them uh in your mind your memory and things that you do and say and when it comes to eunice and lois there was a faith transfer from one generation the next clearly lolas instilled it into eunice and then eunice into timothy and they taught him to succeed in life with a foundation of scripture as they had it and from them he derived a faith to face life and and live successfully in the ministry and as we age uh

all of us i think look to a secure future or at least think about it to the extent we can do anything about it specifically when it comes to finances you know how it is we work hard we uh save we invest we employ different financial strategies in the hopes that when we do retire maybe once in a while we can buy an ice cream cone or something like that so my point is we think about our futures and and maybe our legacy that we're going to leave with our children what we're going to what kind of impact we're leaving on them and certainly spiritually it's important that we think about the future not only

of our natural family but even the church family and it's no secret you know we've got the young people down the hall and the fellowship hall having their own service uh we are the they call this big church we are the older people the adults in the church and so certainly we want to think about what the future will hold if god would terry is coming god's church is not going to be defeated amen it's not going to be it's not going to disappear i should say but one generation does have the responsibility to teach to train the next generation and to leave a godly heritage and that takes time doesn't it it takes time

and really love is the answer my mom she could give me what for when she needed to but i knew at the heart of it all was a deep love for me and so even when she was correcting me and making me mad i knew that underneath it all her motivation was pure and it was because she truly did love me and that's really the answer love isn't defined in dollars but in hours someone said and you spell love t-i-m-e and so it just takes time just takes time an investment of yourself and your hours and hours and hours of letting another person know and ideally we should start that early i know spend lots

of time and give great love passing on a spiritual legacy but whenever we begin i hope i can impress it on us all it's a worthy pursuit to deliver faith to children to young people that's the highest priority for us as christian parents or if we're not a parent as an adult in the church the fact that both eunice and lois are credited with passing along a genuine faith to me suggests teamwork and teamwork can extend beyond an immediate family or extended family for that matter to include the church and other forms of christian education so whether you have children grandchildren that are blood related to you we all have a opportunity and i would

even say a responsibility to do what we can to pour into the coming generation that they might get this legacy for themselves second timothy chapter 2 and verse 1 reads you therefore once again paul writing to timothy you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also so you see there paul timothy has this legacy through his mom and grandma now paul is challenging timothy to take what he's been taught and turn that over to other men who then in turn themselves could train so you see

the successive succession there of transferring the faith and that's something that needs to be going on whatever our sphere of influence whatever our degree of it we can all play a part in growing faith family tree we can all have a part in doing that here at apc i recognize that not everybody here is a parent or grandparent but many of you have nieces nephews or you have young people that you've quote unquote adopted just you're not blood related to them but you've just sort of taken them under your wing and similar to a mentoring program like big brothers as far as i'm concerned we can be church dads church moms or aunt uncle whatever

you like to be called i love it when the little ones around here call me poppy i may not be their blood relative but it's a thrill to me to hear them call me poppy and i'm hoping it instills something if nothing else subliminally uh that that i'm a guy that loves them and wants to see them serve the lord and so investing in our youth however you would go about it and whoever you might choose to work with whether it's family or not investing in our youth is of great value great value and i know we have a youth pastor and he has a great team that works with him but we also can

have a part i think should have a part in raising up the next generation i wouldn't dare cast vision for our youth pastor or set goals but i think we could all agree on this that our goal for today's youth is that they would love the truth and stand for it because they are not told to do it but because they want to do it and that's the real key and how you get there again i go back to it takes time takes love you just got to set the example and teach and train and do all of the things that you can do and uh we want them to reach that point where it

becomes their truth if you will and should jesus cherry we'd like to make sure that there is a next generation of apostolic believers amen we want that and once our influence is gone we want those down the hall to stand for righteousness to uphold principles of god's word to advance his kingdom and we recognize that the faith devotion and beliefs of others can't be substituted for those of today's youth i say it this way just as salvation is not by proxy you know i i want my girls saved my grandkids save but i can't be saved for them all i can do is tell them how to do it and encourage them and do everything

in my power to see that they make that choice but i can't be saved for them and in a like manner a love for god a love for his word a love to live for him it can't be done for somebody else they've got to get it in their own heart and that of course comes again through time and effort and training and example and so we can encourage it and so forth but at some point each person must get it for himself and that's what we're praying for that's what we're working toward here at apc eunice and lois obviously did a good job with timothy teaching him the scriptures from childhood acts 16 just

to give you a little character reference of timothy it says he was well reported of by the brethren he had a good testimony among believers in lystra and iconium he had a reputation that was above reproach and so they clearly did a great job in that regard and in kind of a pickup where mom and grandma left off fashion the apostle paul then invested his life into this young man they did their part but then paul took him under his wing and they had a very close relationship paul called him his beloved son and timothy was one of his chief associates in the missionary journeys timothy first joined paul in acts 16 we read after

he visits a city called lystra there and joins him and we see that he was a faithful friend through paul's all that time through his ministry through paul's imprisonment in rome and maybe the highest commendation that could be given to timothy by paul is found in philippians chapter 2 and verse 19. let me read this this is of course paul addressing the church in philippi and some of his plans and you'll see how timothy works in here but i trust in the lord jesus to send timothy to you shortly so paul was writing to them from prison and saying i i want to send timothy to you to help you spiritually be a pastor that

i also may be encouraged when i know your state so timothy was going to be sent to find out about the philippian church what it was like what was going on and verse 20 says for i have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are of christ jesus but you know his timothy proven character that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel therefore i hope to send him at once as soon as i see how it goes with me talking about his imprisonment and if you'll notice the phrase there i have no one like-minded and what a

compliment for timothy for the apostle paul to say that out of every associate i have in gospel work there's not one like timothy who is like-minded with me there's no one that thinks like i do paul was saying when it comes to ministry there's no one that sees it and approaches it like i do except this guy my beloved son in the faith and so perhaps that was the highest commendation that paul could give timothy along with calling him his son in the gospel to say that i've got no one that is like-minded such as timothy as i am along with me and my approach to the gospel were so ultimately the credit goes to

lois and eunice for preserving faith family tree in their own family but the gift of faith is not hereditary is it and the power of a godly loving example cannot be overemphasized for us today they eunice and lois did their job of planting a love for god and a truth and the truth in timothy and saw it branch out to where he could in turn reach others as he did but when the coming generation thinks of the truth of the bible as my truth they think of it as my beliefs my lifestyle my values and so forth that's when faith family tree stands strong and i know that's a desire for all of us and

i know that we are grateful for those who went before us uh all the way from patriarchs of the scripture to those of this last century pioneers of the apostolic faith that we've built on i was in conversation with someone just recently and we were talking about some of the men and i guess it was ed goddard i had lunch with him this week and we were talking about the influence of men like n.a urshan and those that have gone on brother pew and different ones that had infected brother affected us by their chambers and i'll forget many of them that we were talking about but just just to realize that those individuals had an

impact on us and then we in turn have the opportunity to let some of that influence filter through us to the next generation and on it goes we're just a blessed people and uh whatever your experience i don't want to diminish it i don't want anybody to feel like you've been left out because you haven't there i know there's somebody in your life that you're grateful for that has influence whether it was a blood relative or not and that person of course needs to be honored and remembered and we're very very thankful tonight for what he's done so i'm going to invite you to stand if you would and we're going to just take a

moment here and thank the lord for the past and ask him to help us look to the future and do our part as today's generation lord jesus thank you so much for the things that you have accomplished through us by helping others invest in us and we stand here on the shoulders of others as it were and we're grateful our hearts are full but we also at the same time that we express gratitude also make a plea to you that you would help us as the church today to give ourselves uh that we might be examples for the coming generation and invest in them and instill in them as best we can a love for

truth we know it takes your power your intervention and you're the one that saves from sin but we want to do our part to point and direct and help others to love this glorious truth and to raise up a coming generation until you come again that will stand for truth and we ask that you do these things through us in jesus name amen would you lift your voice in your hands and let's just thank the lord together as pastor brad comes