(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now in Psalm 16 there, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there, beginning in verse number 5, where the Bible reads, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of a goodly heritage. Now what is a heritage? Well, a heritage is an inheritance. That's why he uses those words connectedly here in verse 5. He calls it his inheritance. And then in verse 6 he calls it his heritage. And you can see how those words are related. He says, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. And when he says the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, he's using an illustration here that in those days they divided up the land amongst the children of Israel. And then that land was passed down from father to son. And there were of course lines that delineated one piece of property from another. Now obviously some people's inheritance or some people's lot of land was better than someone else's. You know, not everyone had the exact same quality piece of land. And so what David's saying is that the lines were fallen unto him in pleasant places. He had a good inheritance. But he's not talking about a physical inheritance of land or money. He's talking about a spiritual inheritance. If you would go to Psalm 119. He's talking about the fact that he had a godly and righteous heritage that had been passed down to him by his father and by his grandfather. We know that of course David came from a line of godly men. From Boaz, from Obed, from Jesse, and then down onto David. We know Ruth was in that lineage. And so it says in Psalm 119 verse 111, Thy testimonies, and thy testimonies there, that's speaking about the word of God, it says thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever. They are the rejoicing of my heart. Go to Psalm 103, Psalm 103. And while you're turning there I'll read you from Proverbs 13 22 where the Bible reads a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Obviously that's referring to a financial inheritance. But even more important than that is the spiritual inheritance. Passing down godly tradition. Passing down a godly role model and a godly example of a father and a grandfather or a mother and a grandmother. It says in Psalm 103 verse 17, But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. So the Bible is real clear here that our actions, and if you would go to Isaiah 54, our actions affect our children and our children's children. Whether we like it or not we are leaving them an inheritance. Now physically speaking we would have all loved for our father, our grandfather to leave us some great chunk of money or some great piece of land and then we would inherit that. But honestly much more important than that is what we leave behind spiritually and we're either going to leave behind a godly heritage for our children or we can leave a curse unto our children and pass down not blessings but rather cursings. Look at Isaiah 54 verse 17 it says, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Now if you would go to Exodus chapter 20, let's see the other side of the coin, Exodus chapter 20. While you're turning there I'll read for you from Numbers 14-18 it says, The Lord is long suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Look down at Exodus 20 there, this is the famous passage from the Ten Commandments, the second commandment about not making idols or graven images it says in verse 4, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Go to chapter 34 of the same book, Exodus 34. So we see here that it's very clear the Bible teaches that we can either leave a good inheritance, a godly inheritance as it said in Psalm 103, that if we are righteous that God will bless our children and our grandchildren after us because of our righteousness, because of the good things that we have done. The converse is also true that if we live a life of sin and wickedness, the iniquities of the fathers will be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. You know, that should make you take the actions that you take in life very seriously. The Bible says no man liveth unto himself or dieth unto himself. You say, oh, it's my life. You know, what I do, it just affects me and I'll face the consequences for my actions. No, your son will face the consequences for your actions and your grandchildren will even face the consequences for your actions and that's why it's so important to pass on a godly heritage to your children by living a righteous life and storing up blessings for them instead of storing up curses for them. It says in Exodus 34 verse 6, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundance and goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. Look, there's no question about this doctrine and a lot of people might not like this doctrine or might shy away from this and say, you know, I don't think that's really true. I don't think God's really going to do that. I don't think God is really going to visit the iniquities on the fourth generation. So what does the Bible say? Doesn't the Bible say repeatedly that our actions will affect our children and our children's children? Now it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's for better or for worse, but our actions will affect their lives and you know, when you look at your children and you look at your grandchildren, that should motivate you to want to live as godly and righteously of a life as you possibly can for their, not just for Jesus Christ's sake, not just for your own sake, but even for their sake that they would be blessed after you. But if you would, go to 2 Chronicles chapter 34 and I want to show you a story in the Bible about Josiah in 2 Chronicles chapter 34 because not only should we pass on a goodly heritage or inheritance of righteousness unto our children, a righteous example, a righteous life and blessings from God that will continue to flow on them for their days. But we should also strive to leave them a goodly inheritance of Bible knowledge. Of knowledge. Now if you think about this in regard to an inheritance, most of the time when we hear the word inheritance, we think of money, right? We think of money being stored up in a bank account that's passed on to the next generation. That way, they don't have to start from scratch. Have you ever heard the saying, it takes money to make money? See it's a lot harder to start out without two nickels to rub together and try to make money and try to succeed and prosper and buy a home and to own things. But you know what? When you already start out with money and you're born into money, it's a lot easier to make money when you already have your startup capital or startup money. So that's what an inheritance does. An inheritance given unto your children means that they don't have to start from scratch financially. Okay, but forget money. Think about when it comes to wisdom and living a godly life. Many people today have to start from scratch because their parents haven't taught them any wisdom about life. So they have to learn everything the hard way and they have to learn everything as an adult and they have to make all kinds of mistakes. And I don't know how many times, and you know I was taught a lot of good things by my parents because I thank God I was raised in a Christian home. I thank God that I have a goodly heritage. I'm grateful that I was raised up in Baptist churches and taught the precepts of the Bible from a young age. I had good examples in my life. But honestly, I've learned more as I've gotten older and how many times have I said and have you said, man, I just wish I would have known X sooner. I mean how many times have you said, I mean I say that all the time. You know you'll learn things that just revolutionize your life, that just make life so much easier. You know you've been beating your head against the wall all these years and even on the job. You know when it comes to doing your job I do electrical work and you know you'll learn some trick and you just think to yourself, man, for a decade I've been doing this wrong and I've found the way to do it right and man I wish I would have known this sooner. And so what we ought to be doing for our children, not only living a righteous and godly life so that they can see a godly example, not only living a righteous and godly life so that God can bless them for our sake. I mean how many times did he bless the children of Israel even when they were in sin just for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's sake. He'd give them a break. He'd go easy on them. Why? Because God will bless the children and the children's children of the righteous. So we should store up that inheritance but also we should pass on wisdom and knowledge to our children so that they cannot make every mistake for themselves and not have to reinvent the wheel with their lives. They can actually go into it with a lot of knowledge of how to have a godly marriage, how to have a good family, how to live a Christian life, how to succeed in business and whatever else, teaching them how to go soul winning so that they don't have to just figure out soul winning. That's one thing that I was not taught growing up. I grew up and I was not taught soul winning whatsoever and so as a teenager I would try to win people to Christ and I just wasn't very good at it. I didn't really know what I was doing and it wasn't until I was 17 that I got into a church that taught me how to win people to Christ and how to effectively give the Gospel. And I thought, man, I wish I would have known this when I talked to so and so back a few years ago. You know, I wish I would have had that training. I wish I would have had that knowledge. And then, even then, you know, some of the methods I was taught in the beginning were not the best methods in the world. And so as I went soul winning with different people, and that's why it's always good to go soul winning with as many different people as you can, I picked up different things. I picked up different skills and I was able to assimilate those skills and actually become a better soul winner. And it took me years and years to figure out the best soul winning methods, but now I just pass on those methods. You know, it took me years to accumulate those methods and it takes me, you know, 20 minutes to break down those methods to somebody else and make it easier for them. You see, it's a lot easier if the next generation is always building on the previous generations, knowledge, not having to start from scratch, but building upon what they've been taught. And then they can pass it on to the next generation who can build even more upon it and learn even more and do even better and gain even more knowledge. That's the way the world should work. And you'd think that 6,000 some odd years in, you know, we'd be doing great. Because everybody should be doing a little better than the people before them because they have that advantage of starting with knowledge. But sadly that's not what happens. History is a cycle of forgetting knowledge, not passing down knowledge to the children, and then a new generation has to continually rise up and reinvent the wheel. And it happens over and over and over again. I mean just think about science. Think about how in the dark ages they thought that the world was flat. Well people knew that the world was round before that. It's not that everybody thought the world was flat until a few hundred years ago. Of course not. People knew that the world was round thousands of years ago. They had all kinds of knowledge, they had all kinds of skills, but somewhere along the line those things were not passed down. And then in the dark ages they knew nothing about the world around them, you know, in Europe. And they thought that the world was flat. And then oh wow, they discovered the world's route. It's like that had never been discovered a long time ago. They rediscovered. And the world is a cycle of constant forgetting and rediscovering. Now I was thinking about this. You're in Second Chronicles 34, I'm going to get to that in a moment. But another illustration that I thought of is when it comes to food. You know, today a lot of people are rediscovering healthy eating, you know, in 2013 and the day that we live. And the reason why is because for thousands of years people have eaten food that was pretty healthy compared to the garbage that people eat now. You know, they ate food that was actually real food. But the last couple of generations have completely forgotten how to make food. Because they just quit making food. And they just get all their food from the store or from a restaurant. So they've completely forgotten how to make food or where food comes from. Well then what happens is because of the love of money and because of man's greed, the quality of the food has gone down progressively. And it's getting more chemicals, more additives, we're cutting more corners, more shortcuts, just what's the maximum profit, how can we use all this leftover trash from the animals and turn it into some kind of a chicken nugget, you know, and make it palatable. And what we see is that the food quality just deteriorates and deteriorates until it's just complete poison and junk and it's horrible for your health. So then people look at the food and they say, man, this food's garbage, we need to make our own food. You know, we need to start cooking at home. And we need to, you know, make our own bread and churn our own butter and, you know, make our own yogurt and cheese and whatever. But here's the thing, most people don't know how to do it anymore. And so now ladies today, instead of having been taught by their mother, you know, how to make the bread, how to make the cheese, how to make the yogurt, how to make all the stuff fresh that's good, healthy, you know, living ingredients, now it's like they have to go reinvent the wheel. They have to figure out all this stuff on their own. But I was thinking about the fact that, you know, my daughters, they have this great advantage of growing up being taught how to do these things. And they're going to go into it with a lot more knowledge and to them, you know, baking a fresh loaf of bread is going to be like throwing a Stouffer's in the microwave, you know, was for the previous generation. You know, it's going to be that simple to them. It's going to be that easy. Why? Because there's a building of knowledge. And for thousands of years, people have known how to make bread. For thousands of years, they've known how to make butter and cheese and all these things. For thousands of years, they've passed on basic homemaking skills, okay? But today, a lot of those skills have to be rediscovered and reinvented. Well, let's apply that spiritually. Look at Josiah. Second Chronicles 34, 1 tells us this, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem one in 30 years. Now, did Josiah have a goodly heritage? Did he have a godly upbringing? Absolutely not. You see, the last godly king was King Hezekiah before Josiah, okay? And King Hezekiah died 57 years before Josiah began to reign. So he died approximately 49 years before Josiah was even born. And that was the last really godly role model, okay? Then we had 57 years of wickedness in the kingdom. Now there was a change of heart at the very end of Manasseh's life, but it was too little, too late, and his son Ammon turned everything back to complete wickedness and ungodliness. So we see that Josiah didn't really have a great godly upbringing. He's kind of starting from scratch. He's kind of reinventing the wheel. Let me prove that to you. It says in verse 2, and remember, he's only eight years old when he began to reign. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father. Talking about, when it says father there, it means like great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. And it says he declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. Verse 3, for in the eighth year of his reign, so that's when he's 16 years old, right? While he was yet young, and by the way, if you're 16, you're still young. That's what the Bible says. It says he began to seek after the god of David his father, and in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and the molten images. So when he's eight, he begins to reign. When he's 16, he starts to seek after the god of his fathers. He hasn't been brought up this way, he hasn't been taught this way. He's 16, and he's already lived a lot of life by the time he's 16. But now he's going to start to seek after the god of his fathers. Four years later, when he's about 20, he starts to purge the land. He starts throwing down the altars of the high places and the groves and the idols and the carved images. It says in verse 4, they break down the altars of Baalim and his presence and the images that were on high above them. He cut down and the groves and the carved images and the molten images. He break in pieces and made dust of them and strode it upon the graves of them that sacrificed unto them. He burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon. He's even going outside the borders of Judah. He's going into the northern kingdom and just throwing down even more idolatry. I mean, this guy is zealous. He's getting rid of this satanic worship of Baal. And it says, and when they had broken down the altars and the groves, verse 7, and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Now watch this. Now in the 18th year of his reign, so how old is he now approximately? 26, right? Because he was 8 when he started, he's 18 years in. So when did he start to seek after the Lord? He was 16, right? Well now he's 26, so this is a decade later. And it says in the 18th year of his reign when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and Maasiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Jehoah as the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. So in the next several verses it talks about how they're going to repair the house of God. Jump down to verse 14. It says, and when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found a book of the law of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan and Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again saying, all that was committed to thy servants they do it and they've gathered the money and all this and that. And it says in verse 18, then Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, Hilkiah the priest had given me a book and Shaphan read it before the king and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes. Now why is he renting his clothes? Why is he tearing his clothes when he hears the word? Because he had never heard it before and the book taught him that there were a lot of things that he was supposed to be doing that he was not doing. And there were a lot of sins he was committing without even knowing it because he did not have the book of the law, the whole word of God, the whole book of Moses. See he was seeking after the Lord but he did not have the whole Bible, you know, that was available to them back then. He had the words of the prophets and he knew the name of the Lord and he had parts of it. He had bits and pieces. He was doing the best he could with what he had. But I mean what point did this nation get to, to the point where they can't even find the Bible? I mean literally they go in to fix up the house of the Lord which was completely broken down and it's like they're digging through the rubble and they find, you know, all the dust on it. Wow, this is the Bible. And then they read the Bible and they're like, oh man, we're not doing any of this. This is not how we're living at all. We're violating this every day. And it made him really sad because he thought he was doing good. I mean he was, doesn't it seem like he's doing the best he possibly could? But he lacked knowledge. You see a lot of times you can be very zealous and your heart can be in the right place and you're really doing the best you can. But you know what, if you don't have the knowledge of the Word of God, you're doing things wrong. And Josiah was doing many things wrong for ten years and it made him very upset to realize I have been wrong all this time. Here's the Bible, I'm just now finding out about this stuff that we're supposed to be doing. And you know that's probably a lot of how you will feel. Those of you who've never read the Bible cover to cover one time, if you would actually read the Bible cover to cover? Because you know what, we're not living in Josiah's day where we have to go dig it out of a rubble heap. Let me tell you something, it's available at the 99 cent store, it's available at the Dollar Tree. But you know what, if you haven't read the whole thing, it might as well be buried somewhere. I mean you haven't read it any more than Josiah had read it. Josiah hadn't read it and you haven't read it. You know and that's why, and I encourage you, and we've got the little Bible plans in the back, the little checklist to tell you how to read it through cover to cover in one year. If you've never done it, that's a great place to start. Read it cover to cover in one year. Take about 15 minutes a day. And you know what, you say well I've been in church my whole life. It doesn't matter, I've known people that have been in church for 40 years that have never read the Bible cover to cover. Independent fundamental Baptist for 40 years. You say well I'm sure over that time I heard it all. No you didn't. Because there are parts that never get referenced in church. There are parts that rarely get turned to and the only way to have read it is to set out to read it and make a point. And you know what, if you read it cover to cover, when you're done you'll say there was a lot of stuff I'd never read. I promise you that. I promise that when you're done reading it cover to cover you won't say well I'd already heard all that. No, no, no. You'll see things that you've never seen. And so let me say this, if you don't have the knowledge of the Word of God, there are things that you don't know. There are sins you're committing that you don't even know about. There are things you're supposed to be doing that you don't even know that you're supposed to be doing. And so that knowledge should be there. Now Josiah should have had this knowledge passed down to him. He should have been handed that book as a child and told look, this is the law of God. These are the rules. This is the way you walk. But he wasn't. And his life was hindered. And it wasn't until he was 26 that he even had it. And then he had to start over just learning it, just reading it, instead of like Timothy from a child knowing the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Now let me ask you this, are you passing down to your children a knowledge of the Bible? A complete, full knowledge of the Bible or are you burying it somewhere where it's not being read? Look, I make sure that my children know the Bible because we read the entire Bible to them out loud in the course of a year. They hear the whole thing out loud. And then they also are commanded to read it on their own every year. They read the Bible on their own. They have the Bible read out loud to them in addition to coming to church, in addition to hearing it in church. So I'll tell you this right now, my children, and look, I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up being taught the Bible. I grew up in Sunday school, but let me tell you something. My children know far more about the Bible than I did at their age. They've already done it cover to cover multiple times, the older ones, through listening to it and also through reading it on their own. They've been through it a few times. I didn't go through it for the first time and finish my first time cover to cover through the Bible until I was 17. See I was 17 when I finished my first time. They're finishing it at a younger age. You see that? They're starting out with an inheritance. They start out with a better starting point than having to start from scratch, reinvent the wheel, figure out this stuff as an adult when they've already made a lot of the mistakes. Josiah ran into that. And you know, they don't even know, they find the book of the law and they read all this stuff and they're like, we need to find a prophet to inquire of the Lord because that book of the law explains to them that, that they need to find a prophet. They can't even find a male prophet. They find a prophetess that's living in a college. It's a, yeah, exactly. In verse 22, you know, Hilda, you know Hilda here, Helga, they find Helga the prophetess, you know, in verse 22. And she tells them, look, you're right, God is mad. That's what she tells Josiah, I'm paraphrasing. She says, look, God is mad because you've done all this stuff wrong. This nation has completely forsaken the laws of God. But she said, you know what, your heart was in the right place, so at least it's not going to happen in your days. But it's still going to get destroyed. There's still going to be consequences for not following God's word whether you knew it or not. There's still consequences. Now if you would turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Let me change gears here because there are two ways that we need to leave a godly inheritance or a godly heritage for the next generation. And remember that godly heritage and inheritance is a threefold inheritance. It's a godly example. It's also storing up the blessings of God for the next generation and it's also passing on knowledge unto the next generation so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to serving God or when it comes to anything for that matter. We need to teach our children how to live their lives so that they can not make the mistakes that we've made. But it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1, thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Go to Titus 1, a few pages to the right. And so we see that the second way that we need to leave an inheritance to the next generation, the first way was by having children and training them, passing the knowledge onto them, passing the godly example onto them, passing the blessings onto them. But the other way is to start churches that will pass on the knowledge of God unto the next generation. So one way is through having physical children, reproducing physically, and then the other way is that we would reproduce spiritually by passing on what we've learned unto faithful men who will be able to teach others also, okay? Look at Titus 1, 5, it says for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest said in order the things that are wanting, wanting means lacking, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Those are the faithful men that are being taught that they may be able to teach others also. May be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. Not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word, watch this, as he hath been taught. So is this guy reinventing the wheel? No, he's been taught the faithful word. It says, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. And let me tell you something, we need a new generation of churches to start up now. We need churches now more than ever. So many churches are watering down, so many churches are going liberal, so many pastors because of the love of money are teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake, so many are more interested in being popular and comfortable and hanging around with the mayor and the police chief and the governor and they want to be accepted in high society that they have not, they've gotten out of touch with their calling as a prophet of God, as being a prophet of God, as being the messenger of the Lord of hosts. And let me tell you something, this is the message and it's not a positive only message, Joel Osteen. It's got a lot of negative to it and we need men who will stand up and preach the whole counsel of God, all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It all needs to be preached, every part of the Bible. The part where God talks about heaven and the part where God talks about hell. The part where God talks about love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and the part where God talks about vile, filthy sodomites and reprobates that are going to be roasted in the lake of fire. Both! Preach both! Preach it all! It's God's word! And we need preachers who love souls but also hate sin. Who are encouraging and inspiring but who also preach doctrine, sound doctrine. We need a new generation of preachers, not this sissified, limp-wristed crop that's coming out of Bible college right now. These bunch of queer little sissy looking pink tie, purple, you know, they're just girly, they're soft, they're weak, they're lame. They don't want to be, whoa, hello, anybody out there? They don't want to be persecuted. They don't want to be hated. Jesus said, you'll be hated of all men for my name's sake. Remember that verse? Jesus said, if they hated me, they'll hate you. He said the disciple is not above his master, neither the servant above his Lord. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? And look, unless you're better than Jesus, if you're following him, you're going to be persecuted. You're going to be hated. The Bible says, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But we have men today who want to start churches and pastor and they don't want any persecution. And they are afraid to preach the whole Bible. And today we need a new generation because the last generation in many ways has dropped the ball. We need a new generation to rise up with the zeal of God and the fire of God in many ways to reinvent the wheel of what church is supposed to look like and what soul winning is supposed to look like and what hard preaching is supposed to look like. And we need a new generation and we as Faithful Word Baptist Church need to pass on what we've accomplished here in the short seven and a half years of our existence. We need to pass this on to others also. You know, I think it's great what we've accomplished in the last seven and a half years, but you know what? It's really not enough. We really need to do a lot more. And we really need to start as many other churches as we can. And that's why I thank God that we've got a couple of guys in our church right now. You know, Brother Dave Berzins for example, he's out, he's preaching in Sacramento right now, but you know what? That are going out there and starting churches. That are going to go out there, that are being trained, that are learning how to preach, that are ready to go out there. Because look, it's great to pass it on to our physical children. That's half the battle strategy right there. And then the other half is that we need to find faithful men who we can teach and train and give the doctrine to and the methods to that they can go out and teach others also. And I guarantee you, you know, in many ways it'll be easier for the guys that we send out to start churches. It'll be a little easier for them to do it than it was for me. Because I can tell them, hey look, here's some of the mistakes I made. Here's some of the things that looking back, I wouldn't do it the same way. Let me give you some tips, let me give you some advice, let me help you do a little better than I did. But you know what? When I was starting a church, I didn't have that luxury. Because when I was starting a church, you know what everybody told me? Hand out flyers for six weeks. Start with Sunday morning only. Six months later add in the Sunday night service. I was being told, you know, have a coffee get to know you. I'm like, this isn't biblical. And I had to reinvent the wheel. I just showed up to town, knocked doors, won souls, three days later had the first service. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night from day one. From day one. You know, and we did it by soul winning, not by handing out flyers and advertisements. We did it by winning people to Christ, okay. And you know what, they also said, for the first year, don't preach hard. Well you know what, I've noticed that these guys don't preach hard the second year either. So I just started preaching hard the first year and I just kept on doing it. You know, but it doesn't work. As you can see, it doesn't work. As you can see, you know, I failed, you know, when I started the church, okay. But no, it does work, okay. And what I'm trying to say is, we need to pass these things on to the next generation. We need some men in this room right now to think to themselves, you know what, I can be that faithful man. I will be one that carries the torch. I will be the next generation. I will start the next faithful word Baptist church. You know, I will carry the torch. And look, both of them are important. We need to start churches and we need to have physical children. And that's another thing that the next generation did for us. They taught us not to have, or I'm sorry, the last generation, they taught us not to have children. They showed us how to have 1.5 kids. Anybody out there? They taught us to not have children. They taught us to not think that children are in heritage of the Lord and that the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. You know, they taught us to have 1.5 arrows in the quiver. And let me tell you something. At our church last Sunday, I counted, we had 30 children. Younger than teenagers. I mean children. 30 little kids. You say, why do you have so many little kids at your church? Because our people actually reproduce like normal human beings have for the last 6,000 some years. They actually reproduce. They actually have children like the way God designed it. Instead of refusing to have children. And you know what, you say, oh man, you're a lunatic, you're crazy. You know what? Birth controls a sin. There, I said it. Okay? It's sinful. It didn't come from the Father, it came from the world. It's not biblical. It's a worldly humanistic philosophy. Okay? There, I said it. And let me tell you something. We have bought into a lot of lies. We've had to reinvent the wheel on that one. You know, on having a lot of kids. You know, reinventing the wheel on having a church that's a biblical church and preaches the whole council of God. We need to pass something on to the next generation that has value, that's an inheritance, that's far more valuable than a 401k or an oil field or a gold field or some kind of a land purchase. We need to pass on an inheritance of knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness, and godliness. And we need to have children and it's not just enough to have a bunch of children. We need to have a bunch of children and then we need to teach them and guide them and train them and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And to school them in the Word of God day and night in our homes and take them to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and teach them everything that we possibly can. And then when their children grow up, they'll have an even greater advantage because they'll be raised by parents who knew even more than we knew. And it should just get better and better. But here's the danger, and let me close with this last point, I'm going to go to two scriptures. Look first of all at 2 Timothy chapter 1. Second Timothy chapter number 1, you should be close by. You see, we're supposed to be leaving an inheritance behind us. Faithful Word Baptist Church is supposed to be starting other churches that are the same way and teaching other men to do the same things so that we can reach other cities with the Gospel of Christ. You know, I'm supposed to be raising children that will grow up and win souls and preach and be godly mothers and fathers and soul winners and preachers and servants of God in whatever capacity that God will use them in. We ought to be passing it on to our physical children, but then we ought to be reaching spiritual children. Winning souls to Christ, teaching them, training them. I thank God that Brother Dave was baptized in this church. And now he's going out to start a church later this year. Ten years ago he was baptized in this church. Okay, see that's where the cycle is complete. You know, where one is taught and trained and sent out to reproduce, not physically, not a physical son, but a spiritual son. A spiritual son of Faithful Word that's going out there to do likewise. Look what is the strategy for reaching America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I'll tell you what the strategy is. We need to have children and train them up because there's only so much that one person can do. But if I have ten children, I can do ten times as much over the long haul. And if I train ten preachers, if I train Brother Donnie Romero, if I train Brother Dave Burzins, if I train ten preachers and send them out, now I can do ten times as much. That's what the Bible teaches. It's not a one man show. One man can only do so much. You can only do so much, but you can train others. You can teach others. See, I don't have kids. You can take others under your wing and disciple them and teach them soul winning. Take them out as your soul winning partner. Train them. Guide them. Pass on the knowledge that you have. Now let me just show you the danger here because this all sounds great. You know, passing on this information, passing on righteousness and godliness. But here's the pitfall. Here's what we have to watch out for. Ten times the second and third generation Christian have a tendency to take things for granted. Now think about this. The first generation Christian, let's say the Josiah, right? The pioneer. Wasn't Josiah kind of a pioneer? I mean here, you know, the Bible's not even around. He's just starting from scratch, trying to figure out how to serve God, trying to figure out how to throw down the altar of Baal. He finds the Word of God, he reads it, he learns about it at age 26. So he's a first generation guy. Here's the thing. The first generation Christian, he's the one who fought for it. He's the one who had all the obstacles and all the opposition and he earned everything he's got, right? So he appreciates it. Now often, let's go back to the illustration of a financial inheritance, right? The first generation guy, he might have started out poor, built a big business, earned a bunch of money, right? Then he passed it on to his son. The son grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, right? The son's had everything handed to him, he didn't really earn it. So the son's going to have to be careful that he appreciates and understands and is a good steward of what has been given him. Spiritually, it's the same way. The second and third generation Christian can tend to be a slacker and take things for granted and be apathetic because he's never really had to fight the battle. It's all been handed to him. He didn't have to be a pioneer, everything was just given unto him. Now theoretically, the one to whom everything is given should do better, should take it further. But this is the pitfall that we need to watch out for. If everything's been handed to you, you've got to be careful that you're not one who takes it for granted. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5. Here's a third generation Christian, Timothy was a third generation Christian because it says in verse 5, when I called a remembrance, the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I am persuaded that in thee also. He's saying look, you're the third generation of faith and godliness. In verse 6 he says, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. What is it that he's warning the third generation Christian about? What's he warning Timothy about? He says look Timothy, you're the third generation, you've got a godly grandmother and a godly mother and you're the same way, you've inherited that godliness, you've inherited that righteousness. But he says look, number one, you need to stay stirred up about it. He says the first thing is look, you need to stir up the gift of God Timothy. You're getting too comfortable, you need to get excited, you need to get fired up and not just oh ho hum, you know I'm the third generation. He says stir it up and then the next thing he says is for God hath not given us the spirit of fear. He says look, don't be afraid of battle, you know don't be afraid of persecution because he says in the next verse in verse 8, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God. He's saying look Timothy, first of all get stirred up, second of all don't shy away, don't be afraid, and don't be scared of persecution and affliction. You know many times the one who's in the third generation because everything was handed to them, they want to be comfortable. They've grown up comfortable. They didn't have to fight for everything and they want to keep it that way. They want to be soft, they want to just relax, they want to just take it easy. This is what they want to do, they want to coast. They don't want to stir anything up, they don't want to be fired up, they don't want to fight, they don't want to be persecuted, they don't want to be afflicted. I mean they want to take the easy road, the easy life. You know and think about it, let's go back to the financial illustration. You know the guy who built the business from nothing, he worked hard didn't he? He's working 100 hours a week, he's rolling up his sleeve, he's sacrificing, he's struggling. He went from poverty to building a great business. He hands it to his son, his son just grows up floating and floaty in the pool, hanging out you know and his son if he's not careful is going to grow up and not be a hard worker because he didn't have to be a hard worker because everything was given to him. You know he didn't have to pay his own way so he has the leisure to relax and the tendency can be to become lazy, relaxed and look are you listening to me second generation Christian? Are you listening to me third generation Christian? Don't get lazy, don't get soft, don't say well I don't need to, I don't need to study the Bible as much because you know Pastor Anderson will just tell me what it says. He'll just tell me how to live my life and then they're not digging in on their own and learning it for themselves. You know hey I don't need to really go out and do it, I mean you know what I'd rather just take it a little easier you know. The old man's a little extreme, you know. The Apostle Paul, I mean Timothy's looking at the Apostle Paul saying okay we're not all the Apostle Paul, you know what I mean? I know he's in prison, I know he's constantly getting beaten, I'm not going to do that, but he says no Timothy don't be fearful, preach, preach the word, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. And he's telling him don't get soft, and that's really what the whole 2 Timothy's about. The whole book of 2 Timothy's telling him look, work, fight, endure, suffer, be persecuted, do something for God. Now go to Luke 12 48, last scripture, Luke 12 48, Luke 12 48. So we want to pass on a good inheritance to our children. It's a three-fold inheritance. We want to give them a godly example. We also want to get the blessings of God stored up that will continue to flow on their lives. And then we also want to give them knowledge that we can pass on. Then we, that's our physical children. Then we have our spiritual children, the people that we win to Christ, or people that are already saved that we take under our wing. You know, did Paul win Timothy to the Lord? Well you know, it seems like Timothy grew up knowing the Gospel. But he was his son in the faith because Paul's the one who took him under his wing and taught him all the scripture, taught him everything he knew. So then we have our spirit, not just our physical children that we teach three-fold, but then we have our spiritual children, those who we train, those who we win to Christ, who we basically pass on knowledge, pass on a blessing through the laying on of the hands here it talks about with Timothy, and we also just pass on a righteous example. We be a role model for those people, okay? The pitfall is that oftentimes these people who receive so much take it for granted, don't have to work as hard, they have it a little too easy because everything was kind of handed to them, and they can tend to get lazy, apathetic, soft, fearful, ashamed. Like what it says in Luke 12 48, but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, and stripes is talking about being beaten, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. So the Bible is saying, look, if you disobey and you didn't know, you get less stripes. If you knew that what you were doing was wrong, and you disobeyed, you're beaten with many stripes. Now look, doesn't that prove right there that even if you didn't know, it's still a sin, you're still getting beaten. Because a lot of people say this, well if you don't know better, it's not a sin for you unless you know better, wrong. You're going to get less stripes, but hey, does anybody want any stripes? Okay, I mean we're talking about a beating here. He's saying look, if you didn't know the masters well, you're going to be beaten with few stripes. Still a sin. Josiah was still in sin, even though he didn't have the book to tell him, okay. But if you knew the masters well and did not, you're going to be beaten with many stripes. So listen up children, listen up young people, and you know what, you say well Pastor Anderson, I wasn't even raised in a Christian home. Okay, you're sitting in Faithful Word Baptist Church right now. That's an advantage for you right now, because you are learning the Bible, you are hearing biblical preaching, you are being trained right now, and you are going to be held accountable for what you hear in this church, and for what you read in this Bible. You know, Josiah could say, well I didn't even have a Bible. Okay they're on the shelf back there, go grab one. What's your excuse now? Go back there and grab a Bible on the way out and take it with you and read every single word of it, and you have no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. You've got a Bible believing church, you've got a fire breathing preacher, you've got stacks of Bibles, you've got people all around you, you're surrounded by people who love soul winning, you're surrounded by godly examples, you're surrounded by a church filled with people who go soul winning, who want to be your friend, who want to train you, who want to help you, who want to lift you up and be there for you. You know you've got all these advantages. Let me tell you something, God is going to require it of you. And I say unto my children lined up there in the back, you are going to be held accountable for being taught the Word of God for your mother who reads the Bible to you every single day and who teaches you the Word of God and to be in a church and to be trained and taught and God is going to beat the fire out of you when you screw up. So you better take that very seriously and realize, you know what, I better walk worthy of everything I've been given. You know you grow up and commit fornication, God's going to kill you, God's going to destroy you because you've grown up with so much and so much of an advantage and so much knowledge and God says it's going to be required of you. And everybody in this room to varying degrees, many in this room grew up in a Christian home like I did. God's going to expect more out of you. You say I didn't grow up in a Christian home, well you know what, God's going to expect more out of you because you're sitting in a fundamental Baptist church because you have the Bible, you have access to the preaching, you have access to the Word of God, you have access to soul winning opportunities, you have access to everything, people who love you and pray for you and care about you. Look, you had better stir up the gift of God. And if you've, whatever you've inherited, don't squander it. Don't go out and blow it like the prodigal son on riotous living. You better take that godly inheritance and cherish it. Like David said, he said you know what, I'm thankful for it. He said I'm going to bless the Lord. He said the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. He said look, I am going to bless the Lord because of the knowledge and training and wisdom I've been given. And it came through his parents. And it came from their parents. Look, be thankful for the instruction you've been giving and understand that you'll be held accountable for it. So the message is twofold. Number one, leave that godly inheritance for crying out loud to your children, to your grandchildren and to those who you come into contact with on the spiritual side. But number two, be a good steward of what you've already received. Pass it on to the next generation. Don't take it for granted. Stir it up. Use it. Take it further. Don't be content to say well my dad did X, I don't have to do that much, he's a little extreme. No, you need to do more. You need to make me look like I'm nothing because you know what, you have more advantage than I had. You ought to excel me in every way. And you know what, everybody ought to try to take it to the next level each generation. We ought to be getting better and better and better, not deteriorating like we see our society doing and our churches doing. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the inheritance that we have. I thank you for my grandfather and grandmother who, my grandma lives in Tucson, but thank you for my grandma and grandpa who read the Bible every morning and who went soul winning and who loved you and I thank you for my parents who loved you and took us to church and taught us to be a Baptist and taught us the King James Bible. I thank you for my brothers and sisters. I thank you for all the pastors that preached to me when I was growing up. God please help us to be thankful for our inheritance and to pass that on to our children. Help us to pass it on spiritually and help us to do better and for them to do even better and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.