Passing The Baton

I'm honored. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so honored to be here. You can be seated. And that letter, Pastor Tim, from your father is precious. Goodness, I think I would have it plasticized or something so it doesn't fall apart. But I'm thankful for Christian parents and thankful for the legacy that you have in this church. And I feel, yeah, to have it established by David Wilkerson and led by Carter Conlon and now Pastor Tim. I know I'm on holy ground and I'm very humbled and honored to be here. So happy Mother's Day to you. So it's very special. So Pastor Tim and I were talking about legacy on Friday night and people ask me from time to time, you know, Ann, how was it that your great grandparents had faith in Jesus and they were able to pass that down to your grandparents, both sides, and then how did they pass it to your parents and your parents to you and you to your children and to your grandchildren? So, and some people ask, is it in your DNA? Is it in your genes? Or is it luck? Or is it just an accident that just happens? And I want to tell you that passing that faith from generation to generation is very intentional. And that's what I want to talk with you about this afternoon, is just being intentional about passing your faith in Jesus to the next generation. So this message is for mothers and it's for fathers and it's for grandmothers and it's for grandfathers and it's for single people. Those of you who don't even like Mother's Day because you're not a mother and you're single or perhaps you don't have children, it's for you. Okay? So this message is for each one of you. And before I share it, I just want to ask God's blessing. Can I do that? So Father, we come before you now and we thank you for this day. It's the Lord's Day and Lord, we honor you and you have been honored and worshiped and lifted up and exalted and our hearts are just, our spirits are soaring in that stratosphere of worship and glory and I thank you for Ricardo and those who have led the worship from this platform. I thank you for the elders who bathed in the service in prayer. I thank you for Pastor Tim and his leadership that I see in so many different ways. Thank you for his father for taking the time to write that letter, that it would be a blessing to us as well as to Pastor Tim. We all want to be role models, people that others can look at and see Jesus in us. So we thank you for that. And now I thank you for this opportunity to share your word and I pray please that you would speak to us through your word, Lord, that increasingly I would disappear and everyone here would begin to hear that soft, small

whisper of the Spirit speaking to their hearts. That this wouldn't be just something we check off on Mother's Day when we went to church, but that this would be a divine encounter with you. Oh, how we ask that, please. And we're going to thank you for the blessing we're about to receive because all blessing comes from you. If you don't bless us, we won't be blessed, but when we ask for it in Jesus' name, we believe you're going to pour it out. So thank you, dear God. Bless us, we pray. Bless your word. In Jesus' name, we ask for his glory. Amen. So the best way I can illustrate just passing that faith from one generation to the next is by describing the 4x100 relay race. So I don't know if you follow a track or anything, but it's one of my favorite events. And it's comprised of different teams. Each team has four runners, and they position themselves on the track at spaces of 100 yards. So the first runner is grasping a baton, and he crouches down the starting block, and when the gun goes off, he explodes out of the starting block. He runs as fast as he can that 100-yard lap. Then he comes to the second runner. The second runner is already in motion. He puts his hand back. The first runner hands him the baton. He grabs the baton. He runs his race as fast as he can. He comes to the third runner. The third runner is already in motion. He puts his hand back. The second runner passes him the baton, and so on until the race is finished. And the race is won not only by those who run the fastest, but by those who pass that baton the smoothest. Because if you bobble the baton, you lose precious seconds. If you drop it, you're disqualified. So in the race of life, the baton is passed from generation to generation, and I believe it represents the truth that leads to faith in Jesus. So we're just gonna summarize it by calling it the gospel. And we see it passed from generation to generation, and it's important to you and me that we don't bobble it or drop it. And when I look at this next generation, and I see the street takeovers, and the violence,

and the going in stores, breaking in jewelry stores, or designer stores just grabbing whatever they take, and see the division, the confrontation, the conflict, the rage, I believe somewhere along the line. If we're not dropping the baton, we're bobbling it. So this is a challenge to each one of us to make sure that you're grasping that baton of the gospel for yourself and that you're doing everything you know to do intentionally to pass it to the next generation or to pass it sideways to your sibling or to somebody else that you're working with or going to school with. So the text for this message is Genesis chapter five. And if you'll turn in Genesis chapter five, if you have your hard copy of your Bible or on your device, Genesis five is a genealogy. And so it may be that you haven't spent much time in it, but I think you're going to find it's a blessing. And it just is a record of 10 men. And on Mother's Day, I'm going to be speaking about men, but they all had mothers, so you'll get the point. But 10 men who faithfully passed that baton of truth from one generation to the next. They were a remnant that ended in Noah when Noah saved the human race during that flood, but we'll get to him in a moment. So I want to start in Genesis chapter five. I want to go back to Genesis chapter two. And you remember that God created Adam and Eve, and they lived with him in the garden of Eden.

They lived with him in paradise. And Adam and Eve knew what it was to hear God's audible voice. And they felt God's physical touch. And they saw the expression on God's face when he welcomed them into his presence, when he walked with them in the cool of the garden. And they drew wisdom from him and strength as they worked with God, and they planted the garden, and they named all the animals. And my point is this, that you could never convince Adam and Eve that God is dead, because they knew him. And you couldn't convince them that you can't have a personal relationship with him because they did. They knew him on a personal level. So they lived in paradise. They lived with God. They enjoyed his presence. They had everything provided for them. And they thought there was something better. And the devil came and tempted them to disobey God. They did. So they disobeyed God and sin came into their lives. And that meant they would be separated from God. But before God drove them out of the garden of Eden, before he drove them away from his presence, he killed an animal and he clothed them in its skins. And the Bible doesn't explain all that, but the impression or the implication is very clear

that blood had to be shed before they could be covered, before they could come back into his presence. And it's an early picture of the gospel that the only way to have sin forgiven, the only way to come back into a right relationship with God is through a blood sacrifice. As Hebrew says, not through the blood of bulls and goats and lambs, but the blood of the son of God, even Jesus. It's a beautiful Old Testament picture of the cross and the necessity of the blood of the lamb of God to cover us in our sin so we can come back into our right relationship with God. So Adam and Eve knew God face-to-face. They received that baton of the gospel. That was the gospel. When God killed the animal, clothed them in its skins, and blood was shed, that was the gospel, just in a very vague way. But they received it face-to-face from God himself. And then when they were separated from God, they were moved from his presence, they lived outside of the Garden of Eden. From then on, from generation to generation, it was transferred face-to-faith. I hope I don't sound like I'm lisping, but face-to-face, Adam and Eve received it from God, face-to-faith from then on, okay? So they passed that baton of the gospel by faith to their sons. And I want to pick up four different men in this chapter.

And each one had a characteristic that I think is important for you and me if we're going to be successful and effective in passing the gospel to the next generation. And the first one is Abel, who passed that baton of the gospel through his witness. But I want to go back and pick up Cain, because Adam and Eve had three sons. Cain, Abel, and Seth was the younger one. We'll talk about him in a moment. But Cain was someone who knew that he was to come to God through a blood sacrifice. It's obvious from the story as it unfolds. But Cain was a farmer, and so he decided that he could just give God the best that he could. He would give him his best grain, his best corn, his best wheat, whatever, and he would offer God the best of his produce. And even though God required a blood sacrifice, Cain thought, well, I'm good enough for God. My best is good enough. So God, I'm not going to come the way you say. I'm going to come the way I think is all right. And if I come and give you my best, then you deserve to accept me and have a relationship with me. So his sacrifice was made up of the very best of his produce, but it's not what God required. So his sacrifice was not accepted. Abel, on the other hand, raised him,

and this is interesting, raised in the same home by the same parents, but he had a radically different response to the gospel. Do you know about that? You've responded to the gospel, but you've got siblings or children or somebody else who is not, and you're raised the same way. It's interesting, isn't it? But Abel came along, and it might have been, you know, as he saw the look on his mother's face when she talked about what it was like to live with God in paradise, and talked to Adam and what it was like to do all those animals and plant the things with God helping him and learning from God and being taught, and he must have seen the joy in their expression and just a glow about them when they talked about God, and Abel wanted that for himself. So Abel grasped that baton for himself, and he sacrificed to God, and he sacrificed a blood sacrifice, and his sacrifice was accepted. So I just want to make this point that I feel like he learned, he received that baton of the gospel for himself in his home, and I just wonder on this Mother's Day, who passed that baton of the gospel to you? Was it your mother, a grandmother, father, grandfather, somebody in this church, a pastor?

You might just take time today to reach out and thank them for passing that gospel baton to you when you received Christ as your savior because of some witness that they bore. I was seven or eight years of age. I can't remember the exact year. I know it was on a Good Friday. It wasn't a person that passed that baton to me. It was a movie. I was watching a movie about the life of Jesus, and it came to the scene of the cross, and I knew in my little girl's heart that he had died for me, and I was so ashamed, and I felt grieved that my sin would cost him. A death like that, and I wanted his death to be worth it. If for nobody else, it would be worth it for me, so I got on my knees beside my bed in my bedroom, and I had tears coming down my cheeks, and I asked God to forgive me, to cleanse me. I wanted his death to be worthwhile and claimed him as my savior, invited him to come into my heart as Lord, and I believe I was born again into God's family on that day. I know I was, amen, and you know, I grasped that baton of the gospel for myself because nobody can do it for you, and nobody could do it for me. I had to get it for myself. So God doesn't have any grandchildren, right?

So I had to make my decision. Just because I'm Billy Graham's daughter didn't mean that I had a grasp on that gospel. I think the home that I was raised in made it very conducive for that decision, but I had to make that decision for myself. So I received him by faith and grasped that baton of the gospel for myself. So when did you do that? And if you can't remember a point in time, maybe you can't remember the year, but you remember the day, you remember what was going on. If you can't remember that, how do you know you have? So at the end of this message, I'm going to give you that opportunity to make sure before you leave here that you know that you know that you know. You have grasped the gospel for yourself, and Jesus is your savior and your Lord, and you're right with God. So Abel made a blood sacrifice. His sacrifice was accepted by God. And Cain saw that Abel's sacrifice was accepted and his was not. And he was enraged, filled with anger, jealousy. And he called his brother Abel out into the field and Cain murdered Abel. He killed his brother. And this is what Hebrews chapter 11 says about that moment.

It says, by faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, He still speaks even though he's dead and he's been dead for thousands of years. So what is what is he saying? What is his blood saying and I think it's this That the gospel is worth standing up for and the gospel is worth speaking out for Even if it costs you rejection from your family Even if it causes you persecution and death because the gospel is worth living for and the gospel is worth dying for Amen That's what Abel's blood is saying And we get silent when somebody raises an eyebrow or criticize us or Won't invite us to some of their social gatherings and I think How ashamed we must be When Abel gave his very life for the gospel So that was his powerful witness What is your witness like when people see you do they do they know that you've been to the cross Do they know that you're a child of God? Don't hide your light under a bushel Jesus said you put it up where everybody can see it and bear a strong witness to relationship to Jesus So Abel's witness was powerful it reverberated through the generations, but this is interesting Abel was single as far as we know. He had no children So for those of you out there who were single you have no children. You're not exempt from passing on the baton Okay, so Abel had grasped that baton of the gospel for himself. He passed it to his younger brother Seth the third of Adam and Eve's children and We're not told exactly how that took place But maybe Seth just saw you know, his older brother Cain's misery the fact he wandered he never had peace

He was angry and then he saw his brother Abel's commitment to God and willing to risk his life to enter into a Relationship with God the way God required through that blood sacrifice and and Seth Grasped the baton of the gospel for himself And the reason I know that is because he's in this genealogy in chapter 5 chapter 4 has Cain's genealogy Adam is not in it and none of these men from chapter 5 are in it and Cain's Civilization ended they were so wicked only evil all the time that they provoked the judgment of God in the flood of Noah's Day so they are no more but Seth passed his baton of the gospel to his son Enosh and whereas Abel passed the baton through his Witness Enosh passes the baton through his worship So in verse chapter 5, I'm going to go on a little rabbit trail for a moment Chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 when God created man. He made him in the likeness of God He created them male and female and blessed them So I'm going to read it again When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female So listen to me. There are not 35 different genders or whatever. They're saying So, I know you can Masculinize a female and you can feminize a male, but you cannot change the genders That was established by God. He created the male and female so if there's somebody here who's struggling with gender dysphoria or a gender confusion or you somebody in your family is Then that predicament and I want to just say God loves you God loves you God loves you Listen to me and he created you as he did because he has a plan and purpose for your life He doesn't make mistakes. You are not a mistake. Okay? So if you're struggling with that, I know you and seek help I'm sure somebody in this church will come alongside you and help you but just know that God loves you and he created you for Purpose and it has a plan for your life or bring joy and peace and goodness and health so Enos then in verse 6

When Seth had lived 105 years He became the father of Enos and we can go back to chapter 4 verse 26 and it says Seth also had a son he named him Enos at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord and The names of the Lord Reveal his character who God is and I think it was in our saying God. I want to know you I want to know who you are sort of like Moses. Show me your glory and When he did that other people began to say God we want to know you and it wasn't just like worship on this platform Wasn't just music. It was the cry of their hearts Lord. We want to draw near to you. We want a personal relationship with you we want to know who you are and they did that by calling on his names so I shared an earlier service it was five and a half years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through the surgery and then you start the chemo that went for seven or eight months every three weeks and the first chemo treatments was in the hospitals about 30 miles from my home so my two daughters went with me to every chemo treatment and you know just thank thank the Lord so we thank God for our mothers I thank God for my daughters you know but going over to the hospital that first day I was a little unsettled and so I thought well to play a game and distract us I said we're going to go through the alphabet and for every letter in the alphabet we're going to think of as many names of Jesus as we can think and so we just in the car we just went round and round and round till we couldn't think of any more to go with a and then we did be and that you know and by the time I got to the hospital my spirit was settled and I was ready and we did that for several more trips and then I've gotten so even at night when I can't sleep at night if I'm troubled about something I'll just begin to go through the alphabetical list of the names of Jesus so I want to speak the name of Jesus over you okay so he's our Abba he's our beloved father he's the alpha the beginning of everything he's almighty nobody mightier than Jesus he's the bread of life and he said his word is the bread when we eat of it and we live it out we obey it and we live it out then it satisfies like people looking for satisfaction they're looking for fulfillment it's found in a relationship with God that you develop

through his word and he's our creator he knows our frame he knows we're just little dust people now we're sharing with Cindy who's both of her parents all of a sudden are having heart issues and it's just because and I've had heart issues too so at this age you know you have body parts that are just wearing out but God is he is my creator he knows what it's like to have issues like that and he doesn't expect more of us and you know if we just make ourselves available he can do it through us but as we get older we get a little bit weaker and he understands that he's the defender of the weak and the defender of widows and I also I told pastor Tim I'm also an orphan and a widow and but he's the defender of those like me he takes up our cause he's Emmanuel God with us I love Psalm 23 verse 4 when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will be with you he says he's with you Isaiah 43 says when you go through the waters or go through the flood you go through the he's with you he's Emmanuel and so EF he's a friend of sinners aren't we thankful we can be the friend of God oh my goodness he is God and forget the alphabet GH he is holy he is high and lifted up he is our hiding place our refuge from the storm he's the I am not that I was or I will be he's eternally the same the same yesterday today and forever he is Jesus he is the King of Kings he's the Lord of Lords he's the Messiah he's the Nazarene think of him in Nazareth amen living in Nazareth placing himself under the authority of people that weren't as smart as he was I don't know if God has you in a place like that but you're working for somebody that is not as capable as you are he would understand that he knows what it's like to meet a job quota he was a Nazarene he's the Omega he'll have the last word he's the Prince of Peace he's the quickener he renews us restores us on the inside he's the Redeemer he can redeem us from anything and everything he's our Savior he's our Shepherd he's the truth and people say you have your truth and you have your truth and you have well Jesus said I am the truth right there the you I don't have a name for you but undefiled unprecedented unequaled you know V he's the victor one day you know he will have the victory and we know the end of the story don't we he wins in the

end and W he's the wisdom of God if you need wisdom for a decision you need counsel for what you're going through you just lean on him and XYZ he's exalted to sit at the right hand of the Father we put all authority under his feet speak the names of Jesus call on his names I love that song there's power in the name of Jesus yes there is so I think that's one reason our culture wants to silence that name they don't want us to say it out loud they don't want to say it in the workplace or the school place or because there's power in the name of Jesus Jesus. Amen. So, Enosh passed, was passed that baton and he passed it through his worship. So I, in my home, of course, my father, his worship was lived out on worldwide scale where he just was obedient to God's call in his life at any cost to himself. And I love seeing his faithfulness to that call when he was tempted to do many other things and he never lost his focus. But my mother is the one because my father was gone about 60% of my growing up years. So I was raised somewhat by a single parent and grandparent. So if you're a single parent or a grandparent, you know, you do it faithfully as under the Lord and not that I'm perfect, but at least I love the Lord and I'm trying to serve him. And, and a single parent and grandparents raised me that way. So, so you can do it with God's help. And so my, in the home, it was my mother pretty much that I spent time with and saw on a daily basis and didn't matter what time I got up in the morning, my mother would be at her big flattop desk and she had 14 different translations of the Bible and she would be comparing verses and writing notes. And, and then at night, if I slipped down to her room, she'd be on her knees in prayer and I might as well go back up to my room because if she wasn't going to get off her knees for me and, and you know, my mother, she had five children. So I have two sisters and two brothers, two of my siblings. I won't tell you who they are, but they were a handful. So, um, and I never saw my mother lose her temper. I never saw her angry. I never saw her bitter. I never saw her complaining. And I knew, and she had zest. She was full of joy and sparkle and wit and fun, but she loved Jesus. I would say, if I can say it in a respectful way, she was in love with Jesus. You could see it when she picked up her Bible, the way she handled the pages, the way she spent time in it. And she just loved Jesus. And I saw the difference that it made in her life. And

I wanted that. So who sees your worship? Who sees you spending time on your knees in prayer, reading your Bible in the early morning hours? Do your children catch you? Do your grand, I remember catching my grandfather on his knees. He got up at four o'clock in the morning every day. When he died, we came across his prayer list. It was pages long. He even had names of my, my school, school members, the girls that I went to school with on his list that he prayed for every day. And I saw that worship lived out on the home and that's what I wanted. So who sees that in you? And yes, we do work, but we never cease to worship. And from our worship flows our work. So don't put your work before your worship. Okay. There's a tendency to do that when we get so busy, but we put our worship first. And as we never cease to worship, we serve him and we work and that's contagious. So it was contagious. Enish past, excuse me, before I leave Enish, I want to point this out because 1 Peter 1, verses seven and eight says, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus is revealed, revealed to your children, revealed to your grandchildren, revealed to your neighbor, your coworker. But so often people see our worship and our love for the Lord when we're going through something hard, right? And, and Peter says that hard thing, that disaster. So maybe I should just ask you, what, what trial are you going through? What's your grief? Has it been the loss of a loved one, a death, a divorce, a disease, some disaster? And people see the way you handle it. And it's like a platform. And as you handle it with love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness and self-control and the fruit of the spirit, they see Jesus in you and they want to know you're Jesus. If every, if everything's going well in your life and you know, they don't even care because you can be good and kind in a situation like that, they could too. But it's when those dark times come, when the trials hit and they see you handling it with grace and thoughtfulness and kindness and consideration, then they see Jesus in you. Years ago, I went to the Tower of London in England and I don't know if they do it the same way now, but I bought my ticket and then that got me through the door and I stood on a moving sidewalk and the moving sidewalk took you around the display cases where the crown jewels were. So I could go around the cases as many times as I wanted on that moving sidewalk, but you couldn't stop. But I saw inside those cases, there were diamonds that

looked like eggs and emeralds as big as, you just couldn't stop. believe in sapphires, rubies, that the gems were absolutely spectacular. And all of them were laid out on black velvet. And it was a contrast between the black velvet and the jewel that made the jewel more spectacular than you could even believe. So what black velvet has God allowed to come into your life? What's that fiery trial? It's not to punish you. It's not that he doesn't love you. It's not to withhold blessing from you. It actually may be a gift. It's your platform. So that when you're going through that fiery trial, then the spectacular glory of Jesus comes out in your life and other people see him in you. So I can't thank the Lord for the cancer and some of the other things I've been through, but I do thank the Lord for the opportunity it has given me to share his faithfulness and his goodness in my life and the way he brings you through those things, doesn't he? Amen. So you can thank him for his glory that's revealed in your home to those who know you when the black velvet shows up. So Enos passed that baton of the gospel to the next generation through his worship. And he passed it to Canaan. Canaan passed it to Mahalolel.

Mahalolel passed it to Jared and Jared passed it to Enoch. So now this is different. We have Enosh and we have Enoch. So it gets a little confusing. Enoch was the next man on this list I want to spend time with in verses 21 to 22. It says when Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years. So did you notice when he began walking? It's when his baby was born. So you wonder if Enoch is holding his little baby named Methuselah, which is some name to put on a little baby, isn't it? But anyway, here's Methuselah and he has his little long lashes on his chubby cheeks and a little rosebud mouth and cling to his father's finger with his little baby hand. And Enoch is looking at Methuselah thinking, God, how can I raise a godly son in this ungodly world? How can I raise my son to love you and believe in you and grasp that baton for himself when we're living in a wicked, wicked world? And that's when he began to walk with God. When he was overwhelmed with the responsibility of being a parent in a wicked world. And I haven't been in New York long. My husband, by the way, was born and raised in Flushing. Then they moved out to Northport.

So that's where his parents were still living in Northport when we dated and got married. And so I feel like I'm a New Yorker by marriage, but I don't come up here that often. But we've been here for a couple of days and I don't know how you raise a godly son or a godly daughter in this city. I mean, one way is to immerse yourself in a church like this and fellowship and get into the Bible studies and have people to pray with you. But the temptations and the wickedness and the blasphemy and the obscenity is just permeating this city. And actually, this city is not unique. I think it's our whole country, actually. And how do we raise godly children in a country like this, in a city like this? And I think that's when Methuselah started walking with God because he was overwhelmed with responsibility. So what responsibility are you overwhelmed with? And maybe it is raising a godly child in this kind of environment. Or maybe it's something that's bigger than you are at your workplace or just a challenge with your health and challenge with elderly parents or a child that's physically, mentally challenged. And it's just more than you can handle. And that's a good time to start walking with God.

So what does it mean to walk with God? So back home, I love to walk. It's a stress reliever for me. But I enjoy most of all walking with a friend or with one of my daughters because that makes the time go faster and a walk is more enjoyable. And if I'm walking with a friend, we have two rules so we can't walk together. And the first rule is that we have to walk at the same pace and the second rule is that we have to walk in the same direction or we don't walk together, right? So when you walk with God, those same two rules apply. You have to walk at his pace, which is moment by moment, obedience to his word, which you take the time to read, you apply, you live it out, okay? And then you walk in his direction, which is the surrender of your will to him. You can't go off in your own direction. You can't set your own goals and your own pace. You have to surrender everything to him and that's when you walk with God So, how's your walk? Are you limping? You know one day you pray one day you don't One day you read your Bible one day you don't you just limping that won't cut it Be consistent be faithful in your walk with God Enoch was faithful in his walk with God for 300 years Until God became more real to him than anything else and heaven became so real to him that he actually Enoch Walked right into heaven. He never died

One of the two people in the Old Testament who didn't die. The other one was Elijah So when we get to heaven, we're going to see Enoch. I'm sure he's there and What a testimony He passed along that baton of the gospel through his faithful consistent walk with God So Make sure and maybe you would use this Mother's Day as a time to recommit yourself to walking consistently faithfully with God every day That's what it takes if you're going to be intentional About passing the baton of the gospel of the next generation it requires your witness that you're bold and you take a stand for the gospel your Worship as it comes from your heart and you're calling his names and your walk where every day you're reading your Bible Applying it to your life obeying what it says living it out Surrendered completely to God and can I just tell you for those of you who are afraid to surrender? You're afraid if you surrender to God He's going to have you do something. You don't want to do Take you somewhere you want to go. I Wish I had time to share with you testimony, but I can tell you that God's plan for my life was much bigger than I ever ever would have thought of on my own So when you surrender to him, he may get you to do some of those things But I can tell you something that his overall plan is going to be bigger greater more glorious more satisfying More thrilling more exciting than anything you could come up with on your own. So surrender. Don't be afraid to surrender So Enoch had totally surrendered until he walked right into God's presence But before he went up to heaven He passed his baton to his son Methuselah and Methuselah passed as a lame and Lamech passed it to his son Noah And Noah passed that baton through his work So I have to go down to Genesis chapter 6 verses 8 and 9 It says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord

Noah was a righteous man blameless among the people of his time and Noah walked with God So Noah was somebody who had a bold witness and he worshiped God he was right with God blameless among other people got along with his neighbors and He walked with God And it was while he was walking That God gave him his assignment And the turn to chapter 6 verse 13 as Noah was walking with God God said I'm going to put an end to all people on the earth for the earth is filled with violence because of them I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth So in other words as Noah was walking with God God imparted Noah what was on his heart and You know, sometimes we go into prayer and we spend time with God and we want to tell God what's on our heart So we're going through our shopping list We're telling him all of our burdens and what we need and what we want and but walking with God requires listening You read your Bible listening for him to speak to you ask him to impart on You in your heart what's on his heart? so when Noah did that he was walking with God and God imparted to Noah what was on his heart and it was judgment So I don't walk with God as faithfully and consistently as Enoch did or as Noah did But I'm going to tell you that I walk with God. I spend time with him every day in prayer I spend time with him every day in his word I'm listening for what he has to say to me and I want to know the burdens that are on his heart and I can That on his heart and mind today is judgment You cannot do the things and I'm just looking at America, but also the world you cannot shake your fist in God's face You cannot utter all those blasphemies Obscenities and live an abomination and think you get by with it My mother once said if God doesn't judge America, he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah So judgment is on the heart and mind of God and I know it and let me tell you something else

maybe you won't judge America and I pray that he would say the judgment but but if you come into the human race, which you when you're born you're born with a sinful nature and Every mother knows that when you have your little baby and as soon as they get old enough They're going to kick you or steal that cookie or scratch their sibling or they're just we're sinners, aren't we? We have a sin nature. We do the wrong thing when we have the choice and If you don't do something about that if you step into eternity and you've never done something about your sin nature You will come under it under God's judgment in eternity separation from God which is called hell so I Know judgment is on the mind of God Maybe for some of you here some of you watching online some of you in the annex of these other countries And you've never been to the cross. You've never grasped the time of the gospel for yourself and you're in danger of God's judgment But listen to me Noah kept on walking and God kept on speaking and After God told Noah that I'm going to judge the whole world and I'm going to send this flood and destroy every living thing Then God said to Noah, so build yourself an ark because God's Also on God's mind is salvation from judgment and he wanted to provide a place where people could be saved from his judgment So that was Noah's work Noah's work was to build that ark. It took him 120 years and I don't know if he got a day jobs who'd have enough money He could pay the workers to come help him at night he got his son's involved after they were older and and he worked so hard to provide a Place a hiding place from the judgment that was coming a safe place It's a beautiful beautiful picture of us Seeking to share the gospel inviting people to come into the ark who is Jesus one door into the ark And Noah did that Presenting building that ark and inviting everybody to come in the New Testament tells us he was a preacher so

After the 120 years God brought him all the animals and maybe it was a hibernating instinct when they sensed the storm coming They came to Noah. He didn't have to go out and beat the bushes They came in the ark and he's getting them all settled seven days. They were in there getting it settled I have a picture of Noah standing in the door preaching to everybody but surely a crowd gathered this crazy old man What's he doing? They had never seen rain. They'd never seen a big body of water and here's this crazy old man building this great big boat with all those animals and maybe they sold popcorn and they had cotton candy and balloons, it was like a you know, the vent to see and Noah standing in the door judgment is coming judgment is coming come into the ark be saved from judgment Nobody did except for his family after seven days God had enough and he shut the door and The judgment everybody said was not coming came and swept them all away So I know Judgment is coming for those who have not dealt with their sin The only place you can be saved the only hiding place from the judgment of God is the ark It's the blood of Jesus going back to Genesis chapter 3 The only way you can be right with God is coming to him through a blood sacrifice And that's the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross So he is the ark So our work is to not build the ark the ark is built but our job is to invite people to come into it So that's our work and in Exodus when Moses had that confrontation with God at the burning bush. Do you remember? And God said I'm gonna send you to Pharaoh and Moses as I can't do that and God said take your shepherd staff Throw it on the ground So Moses did and it turned into a snake and then God said pick it up and he picked it up and it became his staff Again, and God said I'm going to take what's in your hand and I'm gonna use that to display my power to Pharaoh in Egypt So this is my thoughts as we do God's work and we want to display his power and draw people to him

What's in your hand? I? Love the testimony of Angie who made the quilts. That was what was in her hand. What did she say? she's 76 years old she loves to sew and Instead of retiring and just taking it easy and here She is looking at what's in her hand and and she loves to sew and she's making those quilts as a means of blessing But she said she does it in the name of Christ. So she's using that her work is being used to share the gospel I had a friend at home who was a tennis player and she played tennis several times a week and she began to look at what was in her hand it was a tennis racket and she realized the other women at the tennis club had never been to church they didn't go to a Bible study or anything and so she invited them to a Bible study and she's established the Bible study at the racket club at the tennis club and they came with their little Bibles that they had bought that never been opened their pages stuck together but she took them through the scriptures and started a Bible study another friend who had four children at the same time she had quadruplets and when they were you know like three four or five years of age she said every child in the neighborhood came into her yard they're trampling her bushes trampling her flowers she was sending them away and then God said wait a minute what's in your hand you have four children that are attracting all these others so she started a backyard Bible Club and the parents were so glad to get rid of them for an afternoon they let her teach them anything they wanted they came in and and she was teaching these children the scriptures another friend who was I had her home right by the public school bus stop her two daughters went to public school so they were waiting one day it was raining so the two little girls came back into the house they brought all the children at the bus stop into the house so they were standing in the front hall and so my friend just thought since they were there she read them a verse and then she prayed over them and then the bus came and they went off to school the next day the sun was shining it wasn't raining but all those little children were back in her front hall because they wanted a verse read over them and they wanted

prayer just what's in your hand what is it that God's given you we don't have to be on a platform like this you don't have to be in a pulpit just look at what's in your hand and ask God to show you how you can use that to invite people to come into the ark so Noah worked for God we glad he did you and I are here because Noah was faithful to do the work God called him to do and I wonder who's going to be in heaven because you're faithful to invite those people into the ark and they maybe you don't actually lead them to Christ maybe you don't actually pray with them but you sow the seeds and somebody else until finally at some point they make that decision and they grasp the baton of the gospel for themselves they enter the ark and they're saved praise God so you and I are responsible for passing that baton of the gospel to the next generation and have you ever thought if we don't I mean it's up to us right if we don't pass the baton of the gospel of the next generation who will and it's not an accident it's not in your DNA it's not luck you're intentional about passing the baton of the gospel not just of the next generation to the people all around you through your bold witness and through your worship and through your walk and through your work that you faithfully do for the Lord so just give me a moment because you're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses right a lot of people have gone before you you and I wouldn't be here this church wouldn't be established if that baton of the gospel hadn't been passed from generation to generation so Adam passed his baton of the gospel to Seth, Seth to Enosh, Enosh to Kenan, Kenan to Mahalolel, Halolel to Jared, to Enoch, to Methuselah, to Lamech, to Noah, to Shem, to Eber, to Terah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, to Moses, to Joshua, to Deborah, to Gideon and I'm leaving out generations but otherwise would be here a long time but Gideon passed it to Samson, to Ruth, to Samuel, to David, to Solomon, to Josiah, to Hezekiah, to Elijah, to Esther, to Nehemiah, to Ezra, to Haggai, to Zechariah, to John the Baptist who said there goes an ordinary-looking man walking beside the Jordan River but that is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world and the baton that had been received by Adam and Eve face to face from God

himself and then was relayed through the generations face to face when Jesus came the baton once again was relayed face to face by sight the Apostle John said I've seen him my ears have heard him my hands have touched him I've beheld his glory full of grace and truth God in the flesh and John grasped that baton of the gospel himself and then when Jesus died rose again ascended into heaven then once again the baton of the gospel is passed from generation to generation, faith to faith. So John passed it to Polycarp, Polycarp passed it to Ambrose, Ambrose passed it to Augustine, Augustine passed it to Anselm, to Wycliffe, to Hus, to Luther, to Knox, to Calvin, to Bunyan, to Edwards, to Wesley, to Whitfield, to Asbury, to Carey, to Spurgeon, to Moody, to Halderman, to Sunday, to Mordecai Hamm, to Billy Graham, to me, and to you. So, don't bobble the baton, don't drop the baton. I've passed it to you, they've passed it to us, we passed it to you. Grasp it for yourself, and be faithful to pass it on to somebody else. Through your own witness, be bold, even if it costs you something, and you're persecuted, or ostracized, marginalized, just be bold in your witness.

The gospel is worth standing up for, and speaking out for, it's worth living for, and it's worth dying for. And you pass it on through your worship, worship that comes from your heart, as you just, you know, want to know God more than anything in life. Calling on the names of Jesus, and through your walk, becoming faithful, and consistent in your Bible reading, and your prayer life, and then through your work, looking at what's in your hand, saying, God, how can I be used of you to invite other people to come into the ark, to share the gospel? So, would you be faithful, pass that baton until all of your life, until one day, your faith becomes sides, and all of this is worth it. Pray with me, please. So, just in the quietness of this moment, with your heads bowed, and your eyes closed, I want to take a moment, and give you the opportunity, I told you that I would. If there's somebody here in this beautiful sanctuary, if there's somebody watching online, somebody in one of the universities, and you know, you have never grasped the ton of the gospel for yourself, you have never grasped the ton of the gospel for yourself,

you've never been to the cross, and I don't know why, maybe it's pride, unbelief, maybe you're like Cain, you just thought it wasn't necessary for you, because you're a good person, you call yourself a Christian, that ought to be enough for God, but it's not. You must be born again, Jesus said. So, if you want to make that decision today, do it right now, on this Mother's Day, I can't think of a more wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day, than to grasp that baton of the gospel for yourself, and if you want to do that, just pray with me, I'm going to try to pray slowly, and you're gonna pray after me, it's not the words that are so important, it's just the faith in your heart, okay? Dear God, I want to grasp that baton of the gospel for myself I want today to come into the ark, I want today to come into the ark, I want to know that I'm saved from your judgment, and so right now, I confess to you that I'm a sinner, and I'm sorry, I've done wrong things, and I know it, but I'm willing to turn away from them if you'll help me, and I believe Jesus died on the cross for me, I believe he is your blood sacrifice on my behalf, so I claim him as my savior,

I ask him to forgive me of all of my sin, cleanse me with his blood, and I believe that Jesus rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and right now I've received eternal life, and I understand that's not just heaven when I die, but it's a personal, permanent love relationship with you right here and right now, and I open up my heart, and I invite Jesus to come live inside of me in the person of the Holy Spirit, and I know I'm told in Hebrews, he will never leave me, never forsake me, so at this moment, claiming Jesus as my savior, surrendering to him as Lord, I choose to invite him in and to live the rest of my life for him, I want to walk with you, obedient to your word, surrender to your will, walk with you every day, day after day, until one day, I walk right into heaven, so listen to me, if that's your prayer, God has heard your prayer, you put your faith in God's word, he says that if you confess that you're a sinner, he will be faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sin, past sin, present sin. and future sin. If you receive the eternal life he offers, he will give it to you.

You open up your heart, he will come in and you'll have that personal relationship with him, the assurance that you're born again, that you're saved. So if you made that decision, if you prayed a prayer or something like that, welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. You're now a child of God. You're redeemed, you're forgiven, you're on your way to heaven. So for the rest of us, let me pray for you. So Lord Jesus, we come, how we thank you. Thank you, thank you for that wonderful old gospel story that you came to save sinners, Lord. As Paul said, of whom I am chief. You can redeem anybody, everybody. You want all to come to repentance. So I thank you for the privilege of living in this wicked world that's coming under your judgment because I know the truth and I have access to your throne room and we can stand in the gap for this generation, praying for them, looking at what's in our hand. Lord, use us. Would you use us for your glory that you would use us to bring people into the ark before judgment falls? So we thank you for entrusting to us the gospel message. Oh dear God, I pray. Don't let me bobble that baton.

Don't let me drop it, but just keep my heart on fire to share the gospel and to tell people that in this wicked world, there is a God who loves them, who has a plan and purpose for their lives, who sent Jesus to die on the cross just for them, that take away their sins, bring them into that personal relationship that you want all to come to repentance. Oh Lord God, what a message to give in this day and time. Thank you for entrusting it to us. Help us to be faithful as we share it. And so I pray, Lord, for your blessing on these beautiful people at Times Square Church. I pray your blessing on Pastor Tim and Cindy, the elders, the leadership. I pray that you would keep them faithful, keep them focused, keep them fired up to share the gospel in this day and time. So we commit all of this to you, Lord. Seal this message in our hearts until we can get home and just do business with you. Let this morning make a difference, this afternoon make a difference in our relationship with you. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the one who is the gospel himself wrapped up in human flesh. We pray this in his name and for his glory, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, thank you.