Why You Can’t Follow Jesus Alone | Fight The Good Fight | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Until then, for now, enjoy this Bible teaching. Good to see y'all. Here we go. Let's go. Hey, if you guys got your Bibles, head over to Second Timothy. Head over to the tiny little book at the end of the New Testament, towards the end of the New Testament, called Second Timothy. I'll give you 15 minutes to get there. It's going to be great. You're going to love it. Hey, let me do this real quick. I want to, we would be insane, you know, one of the little axioms I got from my life is we don't treat holy things as if they're common, because if you treat holy things as if they're common, they're eventually going to leave your life in ministry. So over the last four weeks, we saw something I've never seen in my entire life, and I just want to give God glory for it. So last four weeks during At the Movies, let me give you a heads up, we saw two things that were amazing. The second one is the one that matters.

The first one's cool. The second one actually matters. So number one, it was kite caught in a hurricane of grace. Total attendance over the last four weeks of At the Movies in person was 148,137 people. That's awesome. That's awesome, man. If you're one of those people who came for the first time, amazing. We're so glad you're here. But the second number is the one that actually matters. And this is the one that at all of our campuses, I want you to go nuts for, because these people are sitting next to you, and this might be the first week in their entire life that they've cracked open a Bible and been at church and been like, all right, man, let me give team Jesus a try. So the big number that actually mattered was the number of people over the last four weeks that indicated a first time decision to follow Jesus during At the Movies ended up being 4,318. Come on, man. Let's go. Give it to them. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen, man. Listen, man, if that don't make your eyes sweat at least a little, you're probably not saved. So you need to listen real close. So that's amazing. And if that was you, if you're one of those, I just want you to know, if you raise your hand at some point during the last four weeks, what I need you to know is that that was the

starting line. It was not the finish line, that you did not just receive Jesus Christ as a savior who paid the penalty of your sins, died in your place as a substitute. What you did is you bent your knee to him as your Lord and that all of his commands, they're not burdensome. And so what you're going to see is that he wants to lead you in paths of righteousness for his namesake. So the first, if that's you, the first thing that he asked you to do as a disciple, that's going to be a big word for the next nine weeks as an actual disciple of Jesus Christ, disciples follow somebody and you can't follow somebody without taking steps. It is impossible to stand still and follow somebody at the same time. So the step that he asked you to take the first one as a disciple of Jesus is to be baptized in water, to go public with your faith and go, man, I'm on team Jesus now. So if you could do this, if that was you before you leave today, you need to text the word life, text the word life to the number two zero four one one. We're going to have a big old baptism weekend here in five, six, seven weeks, something like that. It's going to be a huge party. It's going to be nuts. You're going to love it. It's going to be amazing. You've never seen one. It's going to be crazy. Bring your towels and your Kleenexes. And that guy likes it. That's my favorite church member. All the things, all the things. So you sign up for that. It's going to be awesome. I'll talk more about that later.

Last thing I need to celebrate. And then we're going to get into the word of God. Last thing I need to celebrate. Let me get this camera right here. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please help me welcome for the quote unquote very first time the grand opening of our Roy city campus. Come on, man. What's up Roy city? What's up Roy city? And I'll just, I'll just say this, that y'all Roy city, I'm talking to you, Roy city. You're the first campus in the history of the world that grew to four services before your grand opening. Y'all are a problem over there. Y'all are a problem over there. So that's it. Okay. Let's get right at it. Okay. What we have done, this is going to be, well, it's not going to be a little different. This is like our thing here. If you knew what we've done for the last four weeks during out in the movies is we have reached wide. It's like, man, let's get the gospel out wide to everybody. Wide net. What we're going to do for the next nine weeks is we've been reaching wide. Now we're going to go deep. You are about to open your Bible and we're going to begin a study of the book of the Bible that called second Timothy. The reason we're doing this for the next nine weeks, we're going to go verse by verse, the book of Timothy.

The reason we're doing this is listen to me. We are not in the crowd business. We are in the disciple business. Jesus did not say go into all the world and draw big crowds. Although crowds are fine. Jesus had big crowds. There's nothing wrong with big crowds, but crowds are not the goal. Crowds are a lead measure to his command to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. And what disciples do is disciples of the person of God love the word of God. They're full of the spirit of God so they can walk in the purposes of God. And so we're going to do. is we're gonna get into it and we're gonna be looking at this book of the Bible called 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy. Now, I'm gonna give you a couple little housekeeping heads up. If you have never studied the Bible before in your entire life, now's your shot. This is what we're doing. Verse by verse through the whole thing. So I'm gonna ask you, grab your pen. I'm gonna ask you a few things. Bring a pen, bring a physical Bible. Like back in the 90s, we had these things, physical Bibles. Bring a physical Bible. I'm just gonna tell you right now, there's no better sound as a preacher than a little rustling pages. I love rustling pages. Bring a physical Bible so that you can go home,

you can circle the stuff, you can write little notes. 20 years from now, you're gonna be remembering notes you took this year in 2026 on 2 Timothy. Number two, at all of our campuses, and they're gonna sell out before probably the first service is done leaving. At all of our campuses, we've got this little thing. It's a little crossway. It is a 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus journal. We got these, we're gonna have more that we're gonna sell out, I guarantee it. These are at all the campuses, you can do two things. Seven bucks, and what you're gonna see, all this is, it's real simple. You got a Bible over here, you got note-taking page over here. You can grab one of these on your way out at any of our campuses today, unless they sell out. If they sell out, you can text the word journal to the number 20411. They're seven bucks, grab it. We're not making a dime on these things. Well, I just wanna put this in your hands so that you can actually get into the Word of God in the next few weeks. Now, while you're taking the notes, here's the last thing, housekeeping. I want you to be asking during this series, listen, ask during this series, what is the one step that Jesus is asking you to take

to follow him as a disciple of Jesus Christ? Because again, you're asking what steps do you need to take? Listen, at Lake Point, we say we're a movement for all people to know Christ, live free, and change the world for God's glory. We say live free, not learn free. The whole purpose is to follow Jesus Christ, to live our lives for him. And again, I'll say this, you're asking what Jesus, what is the one step you're asking me and my family to take with our lives to follow you? Why are you asking about steps? Because disciples follow and you have to take steps to follow. Again, you cannot be following somebody and standing still at the same time. So just asking the question while you're taking notes, Bible in your lap, what is the one step, Jesus, you are asking me to take to follow you? Now, here's what we're gonna do during this series. I'm just gonna open it and here's how every sermon's gonna go. I'm gonna read a little bit and then I'm gonna talk a little bit and then I'm gonna read a little bit more and then I'm gonna talk a little bit more, retalk, retalk, retalk, and we're gonna be done.

It's gonna be awesome, okay? So today what we're doing is we're opening this book. We're gonna do five verses. I'm gonna do about an hour on each verse and we're gonna be done. That's a joke. Three people clap. Everybody else is like, God, please no. Okay, here we go. Start with me, 2 Timothy 1, 1. Here we go, Paul. All right, now I'm done. Now stop, for real. Let me talk about this real quick. I'm gonna move a little faster, but I need to set this up. Here's what you got here. If you're brand new to the Bible, like Team G is a new thing for you. 2 Timothy is written by a guy named Paul. Now here's what you gotta know about Paul. When we first meet Paul, his name's not Paul, his name's Saul. He is a guy, watch this. You meet him first in the Bible, he's literally a religious terrorist. He's going around from city to city, finding Christians, men, women, and children. He's finding where are the churches meeting? And he's persecuting them.

The Bible literally says later, he was quote, putting some of them to death for their faith in Jesus Christ. So when you first see Paul, I want you to think this, think Al-Qaeda, think ISIS. Paul was like the Osama bin Laden of his day. Like that's who Paul is. Watch this, he was bold, he was fearless, he was fierce, all those things. And watch this, none of that was bad, it was just misdirected. Some of you, you're people here, you are bold, you're fearless, you don't run away from a fight, there's nothing wrong with that. God didn't want you to turn that off, he wants you to aim it at his purposes for God's glory. That's what God does in Paul's life. He grabs Paul and watch this, the guy that's the quote, worst of all sinners, killing Christians and sending them down, killing Christians, that's the guy that God looks down and goes, you know what, I'm gonna save that guy, redeem that guy and turn him into the greatest disciple of the New Testament. Can I say something to you? You may have turned your back on Jesus, Jesus ain't ever turned his back on you. Listen, God can use anybody. This is what happens to Paul. Jesus appears to him like a flash of light,

knocks him off his horse, converts him and then for the rest of Paul's life, what he does is he walks around and he plants all these churches, the rest of the New Testament largely is about the churches that Paul plants. Now check this out, now we're talking about Timothy, now check this out, Timothy. I'm gonna talk more about Timothy in a second. The first time Paul and this guy to whom this letter is written, Timothy, ever meet, Paul on his, it's called his first missionary journey. So here's what he does. Paul goes on. on these little mission trips all around. It's like parts of Africa and Asia and Southern Europe, all this stuff. Paul goes on these little mission trips. He's planting churches. The first time he goes into this place called Lystra, L-Y-S-T-R-A, Lystra. First time he goes in, first mission trip, he gets stoned, that's rocks, not leaves, for East Dallas campus. He gets stoned and literally they leave him for dead. They leave the apostle Paul, they think he's dead, okay? Now, little did he know on his first missionary journey, this little dude named Timothy, guy's probably around, like most Bible commentators think, on his first missionary journey,

Timothy might've been around like 15 years old and he would've, watch, he would've seen the apostle Paul get stoned and left for dead, but then Paul comes on his second little missionary trip and because, listen man, Paul's fearless. He comes back in, hands up, chin down, goes back into Lystra and when he gets there, on his second missionary trip, Timothy goes, I wanna follow Paul and he joins Paul on his little trips. Now, I'm gonna talk about that more here in a second. Now, later, it's about 15 years later, I'm gonna talk about Paul, about 15 years later, Paul's been discipling Timothy for a minute, I'm gonna talk about that here in a second and eventually Paul gets called to go to another place and he leaves Timothy. Timothy becomes the pastor of a church called the Church at Ephesus. If you've never read your Bible before, you're gonna see a little book of the Bible called Ephesians. That book was written to the Church at Ephesus. Now, here's what's awesome. This massive outpouring of God's Spirit happens at Ephesus. Now, listen, Ephesus is grimy. Ephesus is real, I've actually, you can actually go to Ephesus. Back then, Ephesus was morally degraded. They had this big old temple

to a pagan goddess named Artemis. Thousands, watch this, of both male and female cult prostitutes, this demonic false religion that's like wound up in like sex and demonic false evil worship. It's like has this control on the city. This is where Paul leaves little Timothy to become the pastor. Now, check this out. What happens? There's this massive outpouring of God's Spirit because we know this, because here's what happens. There were all these little, they were called silversmiths, all these people who work with metal. And what they would do is they would make these little idols of Artemis, this demonic false God they were worshiping. And everybody would walk around with their little Artemis silver idol on worshiping these demonic false gods. All we know is so many people get saved in this little Ephesian megachurch. So many people get saved that it literally disrupts the economy of Ephesus. They literally have to come, like all these guys that are making these idols, they come to Paul and they're like, they actually try to kill him. They're like, we got to kill this guy.

You're ruining the economy of our city. Now, I'll be honest with you. You and me, we don't even got a category for what this outpouring of God's Spirit look like. We don't even got a category for it. The best analogy I can come up with is I want you to imagine if someday Jerry Jones called me and he was like, hey, Pastor Josh, I got a problem. And I would say, yeah, you sure do, bud. You sure do. You sure do, bud. Your problem's not my problem. I'd say, man, we got management issues, drafting issues. There might be some play calling, but your problem's not my problem, okay? And then he might say, hey, man, actually, that's not what I want to call you about. Imagine this, Jerry Jones is for real. He calls me and he's like, hey, man, actually, here's my problem. My problem is there's so many people, dads all throughout DFW. There's such an outpouring of the Spirit through your church that all the dads in the city are caring more about faith and the purposes of God than they are to come into my games. So we can't sell tickets to any noon games on Sunday anymore, and the ones we sell, they don't come till halftime because they want to lead their families

to worship before they go to a football game. I want you to imagine that. And he was like, hey, man, I'm gonna need you to switch this up. And then he might say something like, what if I started moving games to Saturday? And I'd be like, you got a big problem. You got a big problem in your hand, okay? And then he calls Roger Goodell and he's like, hey, man, we're gonna need Thursdays and we're gonna need Sunday night games. He might do that, okay? Now, this is the example. Imagine if every drug dealer in the entire city of Dallas had to leave because nobody will buy their stuff anymore. For real, I want you to imagine this. Imagine if every strip joint in the entire DFW area shut down because every man in DFW bent his knee to the Lordship of Jesus, stood up and acted like a man and treated every woman like they were a daughter of the living God. Imagine that. That's what happens. This is what happens in Ephesus. This is what happens. The whole time, this little dude that Paul disciples for probably like 14, 15 years, this little dude, we know he's young. We know he's young. This little dude named Timothy

is the spirit-filled pastor. of the church at Ephesus. Now, let me keep moving forward. Paul ends up, this dude named Paul, he ends up writing either 13 or 14 letters of the New Testament. That depends if you think Paul wrote Hebrews or if he did, and I don't think he did, so I think 13. Now, at the end of Paul's life, he ends up, I'm gonna show you this because I've actually been there. You can go with me sometime on a Journey of Paul trip. At the end of Paul's life, he ends up in this prison cell. I have taken pictures of this prison cell. This is the exact prison cell that the apostle Paul ends his life in. It's called Mamertine Prison. You can go there, it's in Rome. When Paul writes 2 Timothy, he's literally sitting in this prison cell on that seat and he's saying things like this in 2 Timothy 2. He's saying things like, remember Jesus Christ. He's talking to this little kid named Timothy that he took under his wing. He's going, hey, buddy, remember Jesus Christ as preached in my gospel for which I'm in chains. Watch this, and when he was in chains, if you look real close, there's two holes in the wall right here.

These are literally the holes from the chains that the apostle Paul had on his wrists when he wrote this book. They're still right there today. He goes, hey, bud, for which I am in chains. And then he says this, but the word of God is not bound. He's telling Timothy this. At the end of the book of 2 Timothy, we'll get there in a few weeks. We know this is his deathbed letter because he says this, he tells his little, it's like his son, he treats him like his son. He tells his son, Timothy, the time for my departure is near. And this is where we get the title of this series. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And then he goes on to say, and there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me. Now there's only two, there's this one phrase that both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy both say to Timothy. In 1 Timothy, he tells Timothy, hey, bud, fight the good fight. In 2 Timothy, this dying older man in his probably his 50s or 60s, Paul says, I have fought the good fight. So here's the point of 1 and 2 Timothy. Here's what I wanna preach to you for the next three weeks.

The purpose of this book is Paul telling the kid that becomes like his son, I want you to become a man of God and to fight a good fight. And what I wanna help you do, Lake Point Church, and I wanna do as a man of God, hopefully under the grace of God, I wanna help you become a man or a woman of God. I want you to learn how to fight and I want you to pour yourself out fighting a good fight. Okay, I'm gonna say that one more time. That's the whole purpose of this book. The whole purpose of this series, I want you to become a man or a woman of God. I want you to learn how to fight like the word tells you how to fight. And I want you to pour your life out, not for fights that don't matter, not for no fights, just lazy on a couch. I want you to pour your life out so that at the end of your life, you can look back on everything and you have people in your life that you can say, I have fought the good fight, I finished the race and there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. I want you to be able to say that, okay? So how are we gonna do that? All right, we're through one word of this book, let's go. Okay, we're gonna do it three ways. He's gonna go quick, three ways.

I want you to see how Timothy becomes the man he becomes. Number one, it takes a spiritual father or a spiritual mother. Check this out, let's go back to verse one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, and listen to this language, to Timothy, my dear son. It's awesome, it's kind of in the Greek. He doesn't use this word that's like just generally for kids. I think it's the word technon, it means like a little kid. He tells Timothy, this grown man that's in this hostile place he's like, hey buddy, you're like my little kid. Now, I wanna point this out. So he's Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, all these things. Let me ask you this question, why the intro? Why the big, if he's just talking to like one of his kids, why the intro? If I called one of my daughter, if I call Eliana on the way home and she picks up and I'm like, hey Eliana, this is Josh Howard, and senior pastor of Lake Point Church, graduate of Union University, attender of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, intramural champion of 2005. Once retweeted by Elon Musk, owner of a Larry Bird rookie card. Like Eliana would be like, dad, that's weird.

Okay, so why is Paul doing this? Listen, here's why I think he's doing it. I think Paul is establishing his authority so that the affirmation he's about to give to his spiritual son carries weight. So there's some stuff I didn't tell you about Timothy. Here's Timothy's deal. So again, first missionary journey, little Timothy as a kid sees Paul almost get killed. Second missionary journey, he goes, I'm gonna follow that guy. When Paul takes Timothy under his wing, Bible commentators guess Timothy's like 15 years old. Now here's what's interesting, you're gonna see it. I think it's in verse five. You're gonna see it in verse five. Timothy was the son of a Jewish mom, but a Greek Gentile dad. They were like nominally religious. So like think of like your Dallas sort of like kind of Christian family and they hit a service on Easter and Christmas and after grandma dies, that's what this family's like. Now here's all we know. Timothy's, you're gonna see it in a second. Mom and his grandma are mentioned for their faith. His dad is never mentioned, his name is never mentioned, but only his ethnicity is mentioned. Timothy, everybody agrees, Timothy becomes a fatherless child.

His dad probably abandons him. Now what Paul does, Paul has tons of disciples in the New Testament. There's only three dudes in the entire New Testament. Paul doesn't just call them disciples. He says these three younger guys, he's like, you're my son. I'm gonna treat you like a son. Timothy, Titus, and a guy named Onesimus. When you read those books, watch for that language. Timothy, Titus, and a guy named Onesimus. Paul takes Timothy under his wing and he goes, hey, bud, your earthly dad abandoned you. I'm gonna be your spiritual dad. Let me be that spot in your life. And listen, bro, they were tight. They're tight. Brings him on all his missionary journeys. Does all this stuff. I won't get into specifics. In Acts 16, Paul personally circumcises Timothy. They were tight. Listen, dude, I got a bunch of guys I know on staff. I got some good friends on staff. I don't know anybody like that. I don't wanna know anybody like that. They're tight. So Paul takes Timothy under his wing and he goes, hey, man, you're gonna be my son. Listen, watch this.

Listen to the affection, the fatherly affection Paul has for Timothy in the next verses, starting in verse three. I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience. As night and day, I constantly remember you in my prayers. He's going, hey, bud, you're my boy now. I pray for you day and night. You're my boy. Recalling your tears. And I don't have time. I'll get into this later in the series. I think the tears he's mentioning here, this few Bible nerds, here's your homework. I think he's calling back to Acts 20 when Paul leaves the Ephesian elders, Paul knows he's gonna die. I think that's the moment Paul lays his hands on a 15 or maybe actually it's probably 14 years later. So a little older, 30-ish Timothy, I think he lays his hands on Timothy and that's the moment where Paul gets his spiritual son. He's been with him for 15 years. I think that's the moment Paul goes, hey, bud, you got what it takes. The spirit of God is in you. You're gonna go farther and do better than I did. I think he's saying things like this. He's looking at Timothy who never had a dad. And I think he's saying, hey, bud,

you have not been given a spirit of fear. You've been given a spirit of power and of love and of a right mind. You go get it, bud. And listen, I'm just gonna tell you, when a man of God that loves you and that you love and that you respect lays his hands on you, I don't care how big of a tough grown man you are, when a man of God speaks a blessing into your life like that, you're gonna be waterworks. I think that's what Paul's doing when he says, I remember your tears. Now, let me just ask you this question, okay? Do you have a relationship with anybody in the church like that? It's a dude whose age starts with probably a five or a six, laying his hands on a guy whose age starts with a two or a three, and he's speaking blessing into his life. I have been very blessed. It is honestly, probably the biggest earthly reason that I am who I am today. I've been blessed in my life to have spiritual fathers. I'm gonna show you one of them. This guy right here, besides my dad, changed my life more than any other man in my life. This guy's name, by the way, that's me. I grew into my lips and my eyebrows in my 30s, okay? This guy right here, his name is Jeff Carlyle.

That guy's name is Jeff Carlyle. Jeff Carlyle got out of the military a few years before I turned 16, military guy. Loved Jesus, loved guns, loved to fight, loved the Bible. He was awesome. I love Jeff Carlyle. And when I was 16 years old, he just, that guy just walked up to me and he was like, hey man, I see something in you. And he just said, hey, can I disciple you? And I was like, man, so here's the deal. I go to Greenwood High School. I get off there in a bus stop over by the church. And he was like, well, so I said, man, the only way to do that, I would have to walk like two miles. He was like, great, I'll see you then, okay? So that's for the next like two, three years of my life, I would get off a little bus stop until I got my little 96 Kia Sophia. And I would walk like two miles over the church and Jeff Carlyle for the next two, three years of my life, he just discipled me, man. He just discipled me. And here was most of his discipleship strategy, is he would, here's his discipleship strategy. We would go through books of the Bible and he would explain it to me. I'd ask a bunch of questions. Most of his discipleship strategy was this, hey, bud, get in the car.

And he would just do stuff with me. So it'd be like, hey, Josh, I'm going on hospital visits. I want you to come with me. Hey, I'm mowing my lawn. Why don't you come over? Get out there, bud. Hey, he'd be like, hey, man, I'm supposed to do the, see you at the pole, Devo over at Greenwood High School, or Bowling Green High School. And I'd come with him. 10 minutes before, he'd be like, you know what I decided? You're doing the Devo this morning. Yeah, that kind of stuff, okay. He just did all that stuff. And here's what happened is, I want you to think about, here's what happened because of this one guy took me under his wing and started to treat me like a spiritual son. He discipled me for two years when I was 16, around then. I was saved under his ministry. That's the first guy that ever asked me to preach. He literally one day was like, hey bud, I need you to give a 10 minute debo in front of the entire youth group. And I was like, I don't know what to do. He's like, you're gonna be fine. It's gonna be great. I just got up there and my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,

vomiting, all this stuff, man. All this stuff. He's like, you're gonna be great. And then when I was done, he was the guy who was like, hey man, when you did that, people listened, it mattered. Later, I was called to ministry under Jeff Carlisle's ministry. Later, I go to college. If you've ever heard me tell the story of me and Jana getting set up on a blind date, somebody going through a church directory, going what about him, what about him, what about with Jana, what about him, what about him, what about him, what about him? That was Jeff and Mary Beth Carlisle. They're the ones who set us up on a blind date. So I want you to think about this. I got saved, discipled, called to ministry, asked to preach, and I got a wife out of the deal. It's a good deal, it's a good deal, man. Good deal, real good deal, real, real good deal for me. Now, you may be asking the question, where do you find somebody like that? Listen, I don't know how many times I can tell you this. Life groups is where you find somebody like that. Rooted is where you find somebody like that. That is the entire, the people who, listen to me, this is why we don't stick a bunch of 20-year-olds in a group and be like, be dumb together, we don't do that.

The reason we don't do that is because that concentration of ignorance all together in one room is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. More dangerous than, because the two worst things about a 20-year-old is they don't know anything. And number two, they think they know everything, okay? So this is why we try to get those groups, and who those groups are led by, usually we try to get them led by people whose ages start with things like four, five, six, and seven. Why, because you don't need another cool 20-year-old investing in you, you need a spiritual father or a spiritual mother who can show you what it's like to follow Jesus for a few decades. This is what this thing is. So for some of you, if you do not have a relationship like that in your life, I can already tell you right now, this is the one step Jesus is asking you to take. Sometime in the next few weeks, I'm saying today, you need to text the word ROOTED to the number 20411, sign up for that 10-week discipleship experience so you can get around people following Jesus. I gotta keep going, I gotta move. Here we go. How do you do this? Number two, watch what happens next. Paul says, I am reminded, Timothy, of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, I love this so much, dude.

I'm gonna ask a vulnerable question. You guys go and do this at all of our campuses. And listen, when I ask this question, this is not about shaming anybody. This is, I wanna bless and encourage you. If you are or have ever been a single mom, would you raise your hand real quick, if you're comfortable? God bless you. God bless you. I want you to hear something from me. What you're about to read is the greatest disciple in the post-New Testament era came from a single mom. And hey, church, listen to me. All those people who just had their hands up, they need help, blessing, and encouragement from all of us with our hands now. Okay, check this out, check this out. Paul says this, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I am now persuaded lives in you. So again, I already said this. Here's what probably happens. Here's what people think happens. On Paul's first missionary trip to Lystra, Timothy's mom, Eunice, grandma Lois gets saved, but Timothy's dad doesn't. 1 Corinthians 7 says that abandonment by an unbelieving spouse is a biblically legitimate reason for a divorce. Most Bible scholars, I should say some Bible scholars

think what happened is because Timothy's dad didn't get saved and mom did. Timothy's dad was like, man, I'm kind of like out on the team Jesus stuff. I'm kind of like not in. I really don't like the life you want to live. And eventually he peaces out. So this leaves Timothy alone, but watch this. The story of Timothy's life is not determined by the faithlessness of his dad, but by the faith of his mom and his grandma. That's what determines Timothy's life. Now, let me just do this real quick and move on to the last thing. Single moms, people who come from broken families, that kind of thing. I need you to hear this. God obviously has an ideal. And this is why I preach like I preach like I preach. So often some of you guys like you do not love how frequently I especially get onto dudes and talk about, you know, lean into the husband and all the things. I mean, you don't like that, but listen, the ideal is clear, but where the ideal is absent. that God's grace abounds. And this is what happens for Timothy. Okay, this is what happens for Timothy. Now what you need to know,

I'm gonna try to move this along. What you need to know is Timothy's mom, so Lois and Eunice, they look at this little boy and they understand, hey man, this life for children is not a playground, it's a battleground. They understand this. This world is not a playground, it's a battleground. If you do some theology of the family, here's what you're gonna notice. God establishes the first family in Genesis 2, Satan shows up in Genesis 3. Here's the big idea. When you start a family, Satan starts a fight. And I have this in my notes, but I don't got time to do it. For your homework, you Bible nerds, you need to go to Revelation 12. What Revelation 12 shows, you get into Revelation, you start reading about Jesus looking like metal and dragons eating babies that have three heads. You're like, I didn't know they dropped acid in ancient Rome. What's happening in Revelation is it's not primarily revelation about the future, it's revelation about what's been going on behind the scenes in the spiritual throughout human history. And what it says is that Satan wages war, throw it up there, I want them to see it. Revelation 12, 17. It says that he wages war against the woman

talking about the church and her children. Here's the big idea. Satan throughout history specifically targets children. So you need to know this. This world is lorded over by Satan, the father of lies. And it says he's targeting your children. So hey, mom, hey, dad, you cannot just roll your kids out into this world like it's a playground and they can just do whatever they want. No, no, this is a battleground and they're gonna need mom and dad. Here's one of the good fights you need to fight. You need to step in between the serpent and your children and say, not on my watch, I'm fighting for my family. That's a good fight. That's a good fight. Now, listen, we got a ton and I'm in it with you, man. I got three little kids. I got 15, 11, seven. I just real quick, I'm gonna bullet these real fast. We got a ton of young families. Here's all the grandparents whose ages start with five, six, seven, eight, nine. What I need you to do right now is I need you to affirm the things that you hear that you're like, that's true. They may not wanna hear it, but that's true. Because there's things that you may have needed to hear when your age started with two or three

and somebody didn't say, and you know, when you're two or three, the age two or three thing, you're like, I don't know how this is gonna land. They need to know it's true. So let me just say a few things. If you're in this fight, fighting for your children or your grandkids, here's what you need to do. A few things, practical things. Number one, you gotta prioritize the right things. Listen to me. The chance, I'm gonna say something that's got a bit of an edge to it. I love you. Listen, my job is to open this, tell you what it says. The chances of your kid becoming a professional athlete are 0.02%. The chances of your child standing before the Lord Jesus Christ are 100%. Prioritize the right things. Prioritize the right things, okay? That's what's gonna matter in eternity. Number two, you gotta get good at this, parents. And listen, again, this world is lorded over by the father of lies. He's trying to get your kids with those lies. Number two, parents, you got to learn to steward your kid's influences and be very wise about what and who gets into your kid's heads, in front of your kid's eyes, and into your kid's ears.

You gotta steward your kid's influences. There's that old book, Hillary Clinton said it years ago. It takes a village. Ain't, that ain't true. It takes a village. If the village raises your kid, you're gonna end up with a village idiot or the village people, if you know what I mean. One of those things is gonna happen. Yeah, that's not true. It doesn't, listen. It does not take a village to raise a child. Listen to me. It takes a redeemed village. The Bible calls that a church. You need a church to help raise your kids so that they're growing up with the right things in their ears. Listen, parents, we gotta, our job is to be gatekeepers, gatekeepers that stand between our kids and Satan, keeping the serpent out. And some of us, what we're actually accidentally doing is we're accidentally being door holders, allowing the serpent to come right in when we hand our kids things like this, unrestricted when they're 13 or 11 or nine. Let me just say something like, again, bit of an edge to it. I just wanna say this.

Listen, the 10, 13, 16-year-old girl, you can do the same things for guys, but the 10, 13, 16-year-old girl who can pump a decade's worth of Taylor Swift, Tate McRae, and Sabrina Carpenter into her ears and grow into godliness, that girl does not exist. That girl does not exist. Children cannot idolize worldliness and grow into godliness. What we have to do as parents is steward the influences of our kids and make sure this is getting into their head. The people of God are getting into their head. This is what we're pumping into their hearts. We have to care about that stuff. And I know, listen, man, you're gonna have the same fights. It's just entertainment. It's just entertainment. I'm not being influenced by it. It's just entertainment. They're literally called influencers. They know what they're doing. So we gotta steward our kids' influences. Last one, let me talk to dads, let me land a sermon. Dads, let me talk to the dads real quick. I don't have time to do this, this is just, I don't have time to explain it, I'm just gonna say it. Dads, you, the spiritual leadership and protection of your family,

God has primarily placed that on you. That's your job, that's my job, and I'm in it with you. You are going to fail forward in the grace of God along those lines with me for the rest of your life. But what we cannot do is stand idly by and let the serpent devour our family just like Adam did in Genesis 2 and 3. No, sir. Like what this book is calling us to do is stand up and fight the good fight, fight for our family. Dads, there was a study that came out, I love it when sociology catches up with theology. There was a study that came out, it was two years ago, studied Christian dads. The number one determiner of whether a child embodied the faith of their parents when the child grew up. So the number one determiner if Christian parents have Christian kids that grow up to become Christian adults and they embody the faith of their parents, the number one determiner, watch this, it was all these things are important, but they weren't number one. It wasn't church attendance, it wasn't whether they went to youth group, it wasn't what school they went to. Here's what the number one determiner was, the warmth of the dad.

The warmth of the dad. In other words, when the child grows up and they think about their father, is their thought, my dad had a warmth of affection and love towards me and he loved Jesus. So listen, let me just say it, man, I'm gonna keep urging you, dad, dads, go after your kids. Fight for your kids, win the hearts of your kids. Right now, we are living in the first generation in our nation's history where almost as many kids grow up in a home without a father as with a father and we wonder why this place is so jacked up, man, that's why. So listen, dads, what we gotta do, listen, you wanna change the world, here's what you gotta do, easy. Here's all you gotta do to change the world. How about every man at Lake Point bend their knee to the Lordship of Jesus, stand up and act like a man and go fight for the hearts of their kids, that'll change everything. Change everything, man. So this is what it is. Now, last one. So Timothy has a spiritual father, he has a godly family, number three, it takes faith in a heavenly father. I almost said it like this. It takes security in the affection of our heavenly father.

Watch what Paul says to Timothy, I love it so much. Grace, actually, I got it up here because I want you to see it. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, this is so interesting. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. So three different words, grace. I'm gonna start here with mercy. Mercy is you not getting the bad things you deserve. That's what mercy means. When you get mercy, you didn't get the bad stuff you deserved. The wages of sin is death. Every now and then, somebody will be like, oh, hell exists, that's not fair. That's so dumb, bless your heart. No, hell is the only place where everything is fair. Everybody gets exactly what they deserve. You don't want fair. Your only hope in life and death is mercy from the Father, that you don't get the bad things you deserve that are the wages of your sin. And what the Bible says is that our God is so loving that he is, quote, rich in mercy. Do you know what rich means in the New Testament? Here's what rich means. It means more than enough. So when it says that God has mercy,

Paul's saying, God has mercy for you, Timothy. He's saying, he has more than enough for you. There is more mercy in God than sin in you. And the Bible says his mercies are new every morning. Listen, if you're a Christian, every day when you wake up and you see a sunrise, that's a new guarantee there's mercy for you that day. Mercy, he says mercy. Two, he says, Timothy, God has grace for you. So mercy, he has grace for you. Mercy is not getting the bad things you do deserve. Grace is getting the good things you don't deserve. Listen, can I be honest? Does anybody else do this? Do y'all ever do this thing where you feel like God's level of love for you is dependent upon your level of obedience to him? I'm the only one. Y'all a bunch of liars. You're a liar. Every one of you is a liar. You're lying. And he has a whole different sermon. Y'all need the ninth commandment. That's what you need. Okay, when Paul says, Timothy, God has grace for you, he's saying he is lavishing his love on you, and it is not dependent upon your level of obedience to him. It's dependent upon Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and his sacrifice was perfect.

And so, Timothy, now there is therefore now no condemnation for you because you're in Christ Jesus. There's only love. In fact, what the father said to the son is he looked at his son and he said, this is my beloved son. this, with whom I am well pleased. He was pleased with the Son, and you have been put in the Son, and so your heavenly Father cannot be displeased with you. Grace, and then peace. Man, don't we need peace. The only way to know peace is to know a person and know the Prince of Peace. And what most of us try to do is we try to get this little set of circumstances. If we get everything just like this, well, then I'll finally have peace. I'm gonna tell you right now, never gonna work. You're never gonna get everything just like you want it. And if you do take a picture, it's gonna last two seconds. The only way that you can get peace is to know a person, the Prince of Peace that will usher peace into your life. And what Paul's doing right here, I want you to understand this. There is only one, only one New Testament book where Paul uses this phrase, only one, where he goes, grace, actually it's two, but they're both in the same person. Only in Paul's letters to Timothy,

his quote, beloved son, remember this, whose father abandoned him. Only to that one guy, Paul two times goes, hey, Timothy, grace, mercy, and peace from who? Timothy, you've got a father in heaven. And I think what Paul's doing is he's going, hey, everything you didn't get from your earthly dad, your heavenly father has on store for you. And that is what solidifies Timothy's security to walk forward as a disciple. Now, listen, here's what I know. Some of you, you've spent your entire life pretending and performing and thinking that the only way you can get your way into God's good graces is to work your way in. But what you gotta understand is that there is therefore now no condemnation. We are saved by faith, by grace through faith, apart from our works. And you've never in your entire life, instead of trusting in your imperfect, real jacked up works, you have never trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ and gone, man, he died for me somehow in some way, the cross counted for me, that's all I need. And if I put my faith in that, I have the eternally secure love of the father. You've never done that. If you don't have that, you can't be secure in him because you gotta have the love of the father. So here's what I wanna do.

At all of our campuses, I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And I wanna give you a chance to step into that love of the father, maybe for the first time at the outset of this series. Okay? So that's you and you're realizing like, man, I need to cross that line. All I want you to do is in your seat. I want you to pray this prayer silently in your seat right now as an expression of your faith in the father, receiving his love. So right now, if that's you, just pray this silently, just pray, God, I know I'm a sinner. And I know I've lived for other things besides you first, but I believe you died for my sin. I believe that somehow, in some way, the cross counted for me. And I believe you rose from the dead and that you live to give life to anybody that would call on your name. Pray this from a sincere heart. From this day forward, as best as I know how, I will live for you first. Today, I received the free gift of adoption as a son or a daughter and the forgiveness of my sin apart from anything I've ever done, just as a gift. Thank you, God, for adopting me as a son or a daughter. Now, at all of our campuses,

keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. And then if that was you and maybe today you're crossing a line of faith for the first time, count of three. What I want you to do is just slip your hand in the air when I count to three. And the reason I'm doing this is I believe something solidifies in you spiritually when you respond physically. So count of three, all of our campuses, no fear, no shame. Don't you ever let somebody make you ashamed of what God's doing in your life at church. That's you, count of three, hand in the air. And the reason I'm doing this is I believe something solidifies in you spiritually when you respond physically. So count of three, put your hand in the air. One, God loves you. Two, you came here for a reason today. Three, put your hand in the air right now, right now. Get them up, like, hi, I wanna see them, man, amen. Keep them up, wow, keep them up. Amen, amen, amen. Now, coming home, receiving the grace of the Father.