Building Faith In Our Children
Passing on the Faith (2 Timothy)
Have you ever thought about how
the Christian faith is passed along
from person to person,
from generation to generation,
like links in a chain?
Whether you realize it or not,
your faith is the result of the faithfulness
of hundreds of thousands of Christians
over the past 2,000 years?
We are all standing on the shoulders
of generations of prior Christians.
Think about, if you’re a follower of Christ today,
how did you come to your faith in Christ?
Well, probably
someone shared their faith with you –
maybe a parent,
a spouse,
a grandparent,
a friend
or a pastor.
But how did that person came to believe?
Well, likely through
their parents,
or spouse,
or friend
or pastor.
And that person was led by someone else,
And so on down
through generation, after generation, after generation.
Now, some of you might say,
Well, not me, I found Christ on my own,
Nobody else was really even involved.
There’s no other believers in my family,
I found God completely on my own.
Well, say that’s true.
Say that you never even heard of Jesus Christ,
until one time you were staying in a motel room,
Maybe it was a time when you were depressed.
your life was falling apart.
or your marriage was on its last legs.
or you hated your job,
and you became so desperate,
that you opened up the end table
by your bed in the motel
and you found a Gideon’s Bible.
and started reading in the front,
where there’s a series of Bible verses
about how to start a relationship with God.
So you read John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
You said, Whoh, I didn’t know that,
God sent his only Son,
just so I could live forever with him?
Then you read Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You said, I didn’t know that,
eternal life is a free gift from God.
Then You read Romans 10:9–10:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
You said, I didn’t know that.
All you have to do is
tell God you believe and you want to accept his gift.
So, in desperation,
you kneel down beside the bed
and pray the prayer
you find in the Gideon’s Bible.
You confess their sin;
tell God you want him to be the boss from now on;
Ask Jesus Christ to put his Holy Spirit in your heart.
And suddenly you feel the presence of God
for the first time in your life.
You feel a sense of peace.
and you feel the weight of guilt rolling off of you.
and you know, for the first time,
you are now part of God’s family,
and you’re going to be with him forever.
Now, even though you’ve
apparently come to faith in Christ
all by yourself,
with no one else’s involvement,
Do you realize how many people
actually were involved,
in your conversion?
Someone had to place that Gideon’s Bible in the room.
Someone raised funds for the Bible’s printing.
Others gave money so that the Bibles could be distributed.
Whatever version of Bible you were reading,
was produced after thousands of believers
studied manuscripts of the Bible,
which had been preserved, copied, and passed down
by thousands of other people,
and then translated and produced into Bibles
by thousands more people,
all so that you could read a Bible
when you got to that motel room.
Every conversion is simply
one more link in a chain that stretches
across twenty centuries
and thousands of miles
and millions of martyrs,
monks,
and priests,
and pastors,
and parents,
teachers,
and theologians,
a chain that goes back all the way
to Christ and the apostles
and a chain that reaches forward all the way
to you and me.
And now, there’s only question,
if you are a follower of Christ,
Here’s the question:
Are you going to break the chain?
Have you gotten those internet email chains,
like I have?
They’re always sort of the same,
a heart-wrenching story of faith,
with some lesson at the end,
sometimes it’s a great lesson,
sometimes its sort of dumb or obvious,
but there’s one thing
you can always count on.
At the bottom of the email
it always tells you,
don’t break the chain.
You need to forward this email to at least 18 people,
and if you don’t, then watch out.
If you break the chain,
God won’t like you any more,
and the irs will audit your taxes
and you’ll break out in pimples.
Now, to all of you
who send those emails to me,
I have a deep dark confession to make.
I hope you don’t get mad at me, but
here it is… I never forward those things.
I always break the chain
I am so guilty, I have broken so many chains,
I am definitely at risk of internet hellfire.
You see, I don’t honestly think there’s much at risk,
if an email chain is broken.
That doesn’t have much consequence.
But the chain we’re talking about today,
is life or death.
It is literally the most important chain
in this universe.
The chain of faith,
extending down through the centuries,
from one person to another.
And the question is,
are you going to participate
in adding one more link in the chain.
Will you pass along your faith
to a friend,
or a relative,
or a child?
Will the chain continue to be built
through you to another person,
Or will this chain
that stretches back 2000 years
and that made its way all the way to you,
will it be broken with you?
Let me tell you a story of the chain of faith
thats been going on in one famous family
for generations.
Many of you are familiar with the name Guinness,
from the Guinness Book of World Records,
and also from the Irish beer with that name.
The Guinness Family is responsible for both.
This family has made a fortune for over 200 years
brewing some of the most widely distributed beer in the world,
Arthur Guinness, the founder of the company,
was a committed Christian,
who was very influenced by John Wesley,
There’s a book about this called God and Guinness.
Arthur Guiness started the first Sunday Schools in Ireland.
And he chaired the board of a hospital for the poor,
and he was the beginning of a long line of Christians.
One of his grandsons was named Grattan Guinness
began a free school to train missionaries.
He started the school in the east end of London,
which was a very poor area,
a very tough neighborhood,
It’d be like starting your school in Over The Rhine…
Grattan Guinness thought
if the students couldn’t handle the roughest section of London,
they’re not going to be able to handle China or India.
But he also wanted a school for world missions
that anyone could go to,
without having to worry about
whether or not they could afford to pay,
so he used the Guinness family money
to make it all free.
Well, Grattan’s own children also went into missions.
Four of his kids served on the mission field
in Africa and China.
And one of his daughters ended up marrying
the son of Hudson Taylor.
If you’re not familiar with that name,
Hudson Taylon was a missionary to China,
and is possibly the most famous missionary ever,
because of the huge impact he had in China.
Then Grattan’s grandson followed his missionary parents
into the mission field in China.
In fact, his grandson
was arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese
when they occupied China in WW2.
Then Grattan’s great-grandson
is a man named Os Guinness,
who became a world famous Christian author and leader,
he’s still alive today,
some of you have read his books.
And now today there are great-great grandchildren
and great-great-great-grandchildren
of Grattan Guinness’s
serving Christ around the world.
Its an amazing picture of this chain of faith,
running through 8 generations of Christians,
And the huge impact of one family
that simply did one thing really well…
they passed on their faith,
from generation to generation,
They did that one thing really well,
Each generation made sure the chain of faith
would not be broken by them –
Let me ask you,
are you part of a chain of faith like that,
and if not,
do you want to be,
are you ready to start a chain,
so that in six generations from now,
people are going to look back at you,
and say, whoh,
look at the huge impact that person had,
because they didn’t break the chain.
They passed on their faith to others.
And we’ll see in a moment that
this doesn’t just apply
to those who have kids,
even if you never have kids,
you can still have a huge impact,
building and extending that chain.
We’re starting a new series today
based on the New Testament book of 2 Timothy.
I’m calling the series,
Passing On The Faith.
Today, we’re going to begin
where the apostle Paul begins this letter
to Timothy.
And we’re going to talk about
passing on the faith to our children,
whether its physical or spiritual children.
If you have your bible, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1.
While you’re turning there,
Do we have any Bengal’s fans here?
Here’s a questions for the experts,
If you look at the last couple years,
especially 2 years ago
when we had a pretty good season,
what would you say was
the strongest side of the Bengals, offense or defense?
Defense, definitely:
in 2009 the defense led the league in several areas.
Now say that this fall,
the defense takes it to the next level,
they lead the league all season in every area of defense,
they allow fewer points than any other team.
They are just amazing.
However, lets also say that
Carson Palmer retires, as he’s threatening to do.
His little brother Jordan becomes the starting quarterback,
and stinks up the place,
and so we have the worst offense in football.
Greatest defense ever seen,
but the worst offense.
The question is,
would we win the superbowl?
No way.
It is not enough to have a great defense.
Because the goal of football
is to score at least one more point
than your opponent.
You’ve got to put the ball across the goal line.
It doesn’t matter how great your defense is,
if you can’t score any points,
you’re gonna lose.
Now there is a point to this:
its a spiritual lesson.
As you look at your Christian life,
and your family,
and your church,
and all that you do in the world,
are you only playing defense,
trying to hold on tightly
to the spiritual things you’ve received,
trying to protect and preserve, or guard?
Or are you playing offense too:
Are you actually involved
in extending the kingdom,
are you putting the ball across the goal line,
and racking up points for the kingdom of God?
You see there’s a lot of believers,
and a lot of churches,
where their whole focus is on defense,
We’ve gotta protect ourselves from
that big bad world outside,
We’ve gotta protect our kids,
and shelter our family,
and try to live in our own little Christian bubble,
so we’re not infected by the world outside.
So we put all our effort into playing defense,
and very little on offense,
so we make zero impact on our community,
Let me use another illustration.
It’s the difference between being a bulwark,
and a bulldozer.
If you don’t know what a bulwark is,
its defined as:
A wall or an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes.
Many churches today see their job
as that of a bulwark,
to protect the people in their church
from being influenced or led astray by the world.
They’ve got a wall around their church,
and their lives,
and their friends,
and they’re trying to keep all the bad stuff out.
Well, protection is good,
defense is good,
we need that,
but we also need offense.
And the Vineyard churches want to play great offense,
We want to be out there
not hiding from the world
but changing the world,
and building God’s kingdom,
making a difference in the community.
We want to be more like a bulldozer,
than a bulwark.
That means we’re going to be more open
to taking risks,
and reaching out to anybody we can,
We’re going to challenge people
to get out in the community,
and bring the good news of Jesus
to everyone out there,
rather than waiting for them
to come to us.
We want to spend our lives being bulldozers,
changing the landscape and environment
in our community,
so that we can see thousands of lives
changed and rescued and blessed.
We don’t want to just play defense,
we want to extend the kingdom
into places its never been before.
Jesus talks about that in his parable called
“The Parable of the Talents.”
A wealthy man distributes talents
to three different people.
Two of them take it and invest it,
and do good things with it,
and it multiplies and expands.
But the third guy
takes a defensive approach to life.
He’s afraid of losing what he’s been given,
so he buries in the ground.
so he can protect it,
His orientation toward life
is to just guard, protect, and preserve.
while the other two men are
investing, risking, growing, expanding.
At the end of this story,
the owner of it all,
is not happy with this 3rd guy
who’s just playing defense,
in fact he gets angry with him.
Jesus was telling us, through this parable,
I want you to go out and
risk and grow and invest,
so you can build and expand my kingdom,
not just preserve what you have.
Lets apply this to parents.
Is your major goal in parenting
to simply keep your kids
from being influenced by the world?
Are you trying to put them behind a bulwark.
so you can guard and preserve your kids?
Well, good luck.
You may be able to do that for a while,
but you can’t do it forever.
Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t protect our kids.
It certainly the job of the parent,
to decide what sort of media should be allowed in your home,
and decide who your kids are allowed to spend the night with,
and to be aware of what they’re learning in school.
Defending is a great part of what you are doing.
But are you playing all defense
and no offense?
Have you decided,
I want to train my children
to be extenders of the kingdom.
I want my kids to reach out to other kids,
to make friends with kids
that may not have it all together,
and learn to not be influenced,
but to be influencers.
I want my kids to take some risks,
and stretch, to be challenged.
so they learn to make a difference in this world.
My wife Kathy and I have been licensed foster parents,
for about 12 years,
and we’ve had a number of kids in our home
over that time.
Most of last year we had a 14 year old boy in our home named Ethan,
who came from a very difficult background.
And as a result it was a stressful year for Kathy and I
trying to deal with that.
And I am so thankful for the families in this church,
who didn’t say,
well, we don’t want our kids playing with Ethan,
because he might be a bad influence.
No, they didn’t do that,
they did the opposite,
they went out of their way
to include Ethan in activities with their kids,
and to invite him over,
and take him on family outings,
and they did whatever they could
to extend God’s kingdom into Ethan’s life.
Kathy and I felt so blessed,
to be part of a church
that is not just defensive,
we’re not just a bulwark,
but we’re trying to be bulldozers,
trying to extend God’s kingdom
into every area we can take it.
Here’s what we read:
2 Timothy 1:1-2
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice Paul calls Timothy “my dear son.”
Now Paul was never married,
this was not his biological son.
It was his spiritual son, in the faith.
But Paul had a relationship with Timothy
that was very much like a loving father,
this relationship was something special.
Look at what Paul writes in Philippians 2:19
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon… I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
Wow. I would love to have someone like Paul,
say that about me,
wouldn’t you?
I have no one else like him.
He’s proved himself.
I can always depend on him.
That’s great stuff.
Paul could depend on Timothy so much,
that he would go into an area and start a church,
and then move on and leave Timothy behind
to help the new converts get established in their faith.
So right now Timothy is the pastor in Ephesus,
and he’s facing some real problems.
Paul tells Timothy, in
1 Timothy 1:3
Stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain persons not to teach false doctrines any longer, or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work.
There are problems at this church in Ephesus,
Timothy has a tough job here.
Certain men have been going around
to the various house churches
that Paul planted in Ephesus.
and spreading false doctrine,
that appears to have been a mix of
Jewish mythology and Greek philosophy.
But this false teaching has been spreading like the flu
from church to church.
and whole churches are being infected
So Timothy, who is Paul’s spiritual son,
has a mess on his hands,
he’s facing opposition.
If you have kids,
do they ever face messy situations?
do they ever face spiritual opposition?
All the time.
Now, here’s the question,
when people face opposition,
when they’re in tough or challenging situations,
what’ll keep them going?
How Do We Build Faith That Endures Opposition?
The first thing Paul does, is to
Constantly Pray.
2 Timothy 1:3
Paul says,
I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
Maybe you have a child
that’s going the wrong direction.
You discipline.
You encourage.
You confront,
but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere.
And you’re wondering,
what can I do with this willful,
rebellious child?
What you can do is pray.
You say, Ken,
I already knew that, that’s obvious,
of course we can pray.
Its obvious,
but are you doing it?
Paul tells Timothy,
night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.
Are you constantly praying for your kids, night and day?
In our society we’re all so busy,
especially parents,
running around from thing to thing,
You’d probably say,
My kids have 8 different activities every day,
I can hardly keep up,
I don’t have time or energy,
to pray for them night and day.
Are you kidding,
who’s got that kind of time?
Yet nothing is more important,
no act of love is more significant,
and no gift of love is more extravagant,
than that you pray for them.
That’s the first thing Paul does for Timothy,
his spiritual son,
when Timothy is facing great opposition.
The second thing Paul does,
when Timothy is facing opposition, is
Remind Him of His Faith.
Verse 4
Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith.
We don’t know what incident Paul is talking about
when he saw Timothy’s tears,
but those tears were clearly a sign
of the genuineness of his faith.
Sometimes when a person is facing opposition,
and they’ve got problems coming at them
from every which direction,
you can get so spun around,
you forget who you are
and what God has done for you in the past.
You ever had that happen?
You face something that seems huge, and say,
I don’t think I can face this cancer.
I don’t feel like I can handle being unemployed.
I don’t think I can handle this marriage conflict.
I don’t know if I can overcome this addiction.”
What do you do
when a person is facing something
they think is just too big for them?
Remind them of God’s work in their life.
Like Paul did with Timothy,
Remind them that they have a sincere faith.
You tell them,
God has done some great things in your life,
there’s been some miracles,
he’s made some real changes in you,
you’ve overcome some things,
your faith has made a real difference.
You see, we forget that.
When you’re down and tired and discouraged,
The enemy comes along and tells you
Just look at all your problems,
Look at your lousy circumstances.
Your faith isn’t working.
Nothing has really changed.
You are the same depressed,
anxious person you always were.
“You have the same problems.
you have the same patterns of sin,
and lust, and pride, and anger.
You haven’t changed.”
That’s what Satan wants to tell you.
But that’s a lie.
The truth is,
a lot has changed in your life,
It just happens slowly
so we don’t notice it much,
but a lot has changed,
and we need to be reminded of that.
Paul reminded Timothy of his faith,
and we need to remind
our spiritual sons and daughters.
You are connected to Christ.
You are different.
You can make a difficult decision.
You don’t have to be controlled
by fear or lust,
or self-pity or doubt.
You do have a sincere faith
You can overcome the opposition you’re facing.
So Paul says,
I’m praying for you night and day,
I remind you of your sincere faith.
Third, Paul reminds Timothy of how faith has been passed on to him.
Verse 5
I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
As parents and grandparents,
we need to take responsibility
for passing on our faith,
responsibility for continuing to build
the chain of faith
to the next generation,
so that 20 centuries of Christianity
doesn’t end with us,
but there is another link in the chain.
Now, I want to run through some quick thoughts,
on how we do that, with kids.
but before I start, I want to say
there are no formulas or guarantees
for raising kids.
You can follow every principle
and all the wisdom of the Bible,
right to the letter,
and it still won’t guarantee
that your children won’t rebel
maybe for a season, or maybe for years.
Kids have free will,
and they can choose to do right,
or choose to do wrong.
That means our goal as parents
is to build a spiritual foundation,
so that if rebellion does occur,
it won’t be permanent,
the foundation will still be there,
and one day the child will return to Christ.
Have you ever seen those bozo bop bags?...........(Picture)
No matter how hard you hit bozo,
Its got a weight on the bottom.
so even though it falls over,
it always comes back up,
it just will not stay down.
Our goal as parents,
is not to keep our kids from ever getting hit,
because that’s impossible,
they’d have to live in a plastic bubble,
to never get hit by anything.
But our goal is to build a spiritual foundation
into a child’s life
that’s like the weight on the bottom of the Bozo bag,
so that no matter how hard they get hit,
by peer pressure,
or bad choices,
or the wrong friends,
or rejection,
or failure,
no matter what hits them,
or how hard it hits them,
They will not stay down,
Eventually that foundation
will bring them back upright,
it may take years,
but if they have that foundation it will happen.
How do we build that foundation into a child?
First of all,
we parents need to see that
we have the primarily responsibility
for that spiritual foundation.
We can’t pass this job off to the church,
or to children’s ministry,
or to Christian schools,
or anybody else.
Dad and Mom, you are primarily responsible
to pass along the Christian faith to your kids.
you are still the most influential person
in your child’s life.
It may not seem like it,
but you are the 900 lb. gorilla
that your child has to deal with,
its your responsibility to pass on the faith.
Second, to build faith,
you need to make your children’s spiritual welfare
the top priority,
above everything else.
Now all of us in this room would say,
well of course,
yeah, I do that.
Oh really?
How many of us parents are thrilled
if our kids are getting straight A’s,
or if they have a lead in the play
or they’re starting on the varsity team,
or they get into a great college.
and we’re always pushing them to do those things.
But are we even more thrilled
to have a child that prays,
a child that wants to read the Bible,
a child that memorizes scripture.
Do we put as much emphasis on those areas,
as we do on sports or school.
VIDEO – Psalm 23
The thing that ought to thrill parents
more than anything else,
is when we see Christian character
coming out of your child,
when your child decides to stand up for God,
and do the right and good thing,
rather than give in to peer pressure.
So let me ask again,
Is your number one priority in your child’s life
that they grow up to be a disciple of Christ?
Is that really number one.
Matthew 6:33,
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Do you believe that promise for your child?
Would you say,
I’m seeking first the kingdom in my child’s life
before sports,
before academic excellence,
before anything else.
The third way to pass on faith. Start early.
Its never too early to start building a foundation.
It is way harder for kids to unlearn habits
than it is to learn them to begin with.
Don’t wait till your kids are 5-10 years old
till you start praying with them,
or reading to them from the Bible.
If you do wait,
they’ve already learned a lot of other things by then.
And your kids are never too young to learn
that faith is something you put into action.
One of the best things you can do
is serve together as a family.
You could bring your kids to our Helping Hands Pantry
on Monday evenings
and let them help you serve people.
Or take them shopping to fill a bag with food
that can be donated to the pantry,
and make sure they know
they’re helping a hungry person
have something to eat.
When they start getting an allowance
teach them to tithe on that allowance.
There’s all kinds of things we can teach kids,
from an early age,
so they have a firm foundation.
Fourth, to pass on faith,
you need to set the example.
Your example, as a parent
is way more important
than what you say.
Don’t tell kids not to smoke
while you have a cigarette in your mouth.
“Don’t tell them not to watch junk on TV,”
when they know that
mom or dad can watch anything.
“Don’t tell them not to gossip,”
when mom and dad spend the whole dinnertime
running down their extended family,
the neighbors,
and all the people at work.
If you want your kids to pray,
do they see you regularly praying?
If we want your kids to read the Bible,
do they see you reading your Bible?
They’re going to follow your example.
Fifth, Never think that
just because you are a single parent,
or because your husband or wife
doesn’t have the faith you do,
that you can’t do it on your own.
You can.
We’ve been reading this letter to Timothy…
Timothy’s mother
was married to an unbelieving man,
but she still passed along the faith to her son,
and he became a great leader.
There’s a true story
of a woman named Monica
married to an unbeliever.
The father set such a bad example,
that despite Monica’s efforts,
her son started going the wrong way in his teens,
He partied all the time,
became sexually promiscuous,
and had no interest in the Christian faith.
But mom kept praying for him.
Mom kept sharing her faith with him.
Mom kept arranging times
when he would be around Christians
who were living out their faith,
and setting a good example,
and finally,
God answered mom’s prayers.
Monica’s son was radically converted.
You’ve probably heard of her son,
he became known as St. Augustine,
the most influential church leader
for 1000 years after the first century.
Church history is filled with examples
of single parents
who gave their kids a great spiritual foundation.
Sixth,
the church has a role
in helping you pass on your faith.
The church’s job
is to support you as parents.
You have primary responsibility
for passing on your faith,
and building the foundation,
but the church can support and encourage you.
Let me close with a story.
There was a great evangelist in the 19th century named D.L. Moody.
Thousands of people came to Christ under his ministry.
One of them was a man named Wilber Chapman.
Wilbur Chapman became am evangelist
and while he was preaching in Chicago,
a professional ballplayer named Billy Sunday
came to his meetings.
and Billy gave his life to Christ.
Billy Sunday played pro baseball for two more years
and then quit baseball
and became a world famous evangelist.
He set up tent meetings all across the country.
At one of Billy Sunday’s meetings,
a man named Mordecai Hamm accepted Christ.
And Hamm became an evangelist in the Southeast.
He ministered to large crowds in Southern states.
In the 1930’s,
a young man came to one of his meetings,
and gave his life to Christ.
That young man’s name was Billy Graham.
A chain of faith,
from D.L. Moody,
to Wilbur Chapman,
to Billy Sunday,
to Mordecai Hamm,
to Billy Graham –
a chain of faith.
But… I left out one part of the story.
Do you know how this chain of faith started?
It started with a Sunday School teacher.
A Sunday School teacher named Edward Kimball
wanted to make sure that
every kid in his Sunday School
really knew Christ as Savior.
And so he started visiting all the kids
in the Sunday School.
He found one of his kids,
a young teenager,
working in a shoe store as a stockboy.
Kimball went back to the stockroom
where this teenage boy was working.
and talked to him about Jesus,
and then he and D.L. Moody, knelt down
right there in that shoe store
and Moody received Christ.
Now, Edward Kimball
was not a world-famous evangelist,
he was a simple Sunday school teacher.
But he passed on his faith,
and that chain of faith led to Billy Graham,
Tens of millions of people
over the next six generations
have come to faith in Christ,
because a Sunday school teacher
wanted to be sure he didn’t break the chain,
he wanted to be sure he passed on his faith.
You have no idea
what kind of impact you can have
on the history of this world
when you decide to pass along your faith to a child.
There may be no greater accomplishment,
that you will ever achieve in your lifetime,
that is greater than
passing your faith to someone else,
building and extending the chain of faith.
Let’s pray.
