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[ Silence ] [ Music ] There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, And I know it's the spirit of the Lord.

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♪ Jealousy, that expression on its face ♪ ♪ And I know it's the presence of the Lord ♪ ♪ Spirit, oh, whisper it ♪ ♪ Stay, heavenly God ♪

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♪ Stay right here with us ♪ ♪ May our day come now ♪ ♪ I hold this message ♪ ♪ Even the heart will praise ♪

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♪ Where God our God belongs ♪ ♪ There be a victory won ♪ ♪ When we shall leave this place ♪ ♪ Stay, holy spirit ♪

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♪ Stay in the clear light ♪ ♪ Stay right here with us ♪ ♪ And hear in us with your heart ♪ ♪ Time for these blessings ♪

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♪ We give our hearts with praise ♪ ♪ Without a doubt we'll know ♪ ♪ That we are here with heart ♪ ♪ When peace shall be his praise ♪

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- Speak to our hearts, O God. May we be hearers of your word, but not hearers only, but doers also. We ask in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ,

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our Savior and Lord, amen. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois, and in thy mother, Eunice,

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I am persuaded that in thee also, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

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The subject, "Roots and Fruits," Alex Haley's book, "Roots," has caused us to be more aware and has contributed to our appreciation of our progenitors. James Forbes of the Riverside Church, in a recent sermon, quoted Carlisle Marnie as having said to him that a person never amounts to very much unless he or she learns to bless

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their origins. That's where you came from. To bless your roots. To bless your origins.

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To bless the rock from which you are human. that unless one appreciates the depths from which he or she has come, that person never amounts to very much. When we were building a new home for the minister in Waco, there was a large oak tree that was near

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where the home was to be constructed. And we wanted to preserve that tree. It had begun to show signs of sickness 'cause there had been a series of droughts

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that had adversely affected the tree. So we decided to have a tree surgeon to come take a look at the tree. The tree surgeon said that

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The problem was in the roots of the tree. And he had a special solution which he provided and the roots were nourished. And he indicated to me, I said,

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"Well, how do you know where the roots are?" He said, "You can tell where the roots are by the branches." You see where the branches are going, the roots also are there in that same direction.

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And so on this day when we honor Christian mothers and we celebrate what we call the festival of the Christian home, we do well to remember our roots

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and our fruits. As a result of what was done by the tree surgeon and the care that was given, I was back there some time ago, not too long ago,

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and I looked at the tree and it was flourishing, green leaves living. So it behooves us from time to time To water our roots, to recognize our roots and appreciate them.

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What Paul has to say here in this passage of scripture, which is the basis of this message, has to do with family tradition. We honor this morning two families, one representing single parents, others representing the nuclear families who have long tradition in this church.

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In this second letter to Timothy, Paul reminds Timothy of his family tradition. In other words, he says, "Timothy, I know your roots." To put it in language that is familiar to most of us,

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particularly of another generation, I know how you were raised. That's what the older folk used to say. Now you weren't raised like that.

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I know how you were raised. I know your mama, I know your grandparents. Boy, I knew you before you were born. So Paul goes on to say to Timothy,

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I remember your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. Now, Timothy had a wonderful heritage, a praiseworthy family background. It's a blessing to have Christian grandparents.

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It's a blessing to have Christian parents before you so that the faith is communicated from generation to generation. That's a blessing.

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It's a popular saying these days, every generation is different. Baby boomers are different from those born at the turn of the century.

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And that may be true. But there are some things that do not change. The faith by which the church lives does not change. It remains from age to age the same.

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So Paul reminds Timothy that he has been nurtured in a family of believers. Then he exhorts him to rekindle the gift of God. Now we have nothing to do with determining

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our grandparents. We have nothing to do. We can't make that selection. But they provide for us a link with a past

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that we are not acquainted with. We have different titles for them. Some say big mama, big daddy, grandpa or grandma,

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or grandmother and grandfather. But those grandparents communicate to us a past that we are not familiar with. I used to sit with my grandfather when I was a little boy, learning to read, and he would have me to read from his Bible on the front porch with huge letters.

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I didn't know why they were so large, but as I've grown older I understand now why the print has to be so large. Those huge letters and he would have me to read. Well, there were some words that were

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too big for me. I didn't know what they were. And Paul would say, "Spell 'em." And I would say, "I-N-I-Q-U-I-T-Y." He'd say, "Oh, that's iniquity." It was iniquity, but he called it inequity. When I see that word now, I still think about my grandpa.

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And he would tell me about how things were as a child he knew something about slavery. He was a child during slavery and I would sit and listen with rapt attention About what grandpa had to say about what had happened years and years ago

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That's our connection our grandparents our parents our connection with the present And Hendrick Heintz wrote the future Smells of Russian

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leather of blood of godlessness and and of much whipping, I advise our grandchildren to come into the world with very thick skin on their backs.

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Now Paul advises young Timothy to bless his origins, to be true to his family tradition, to pass the torch to pass on that which has been passed from your grandmother

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Lois from your mother Eunice Timothy you see was a product of a mixed marriage His mother was a Jew

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his father a Gentile And so Paul is saying I I remember the faith of your grandmother.

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I remember the faithfulness of your mother. I remember how you were brought up learning the scriptures, how you were taught to pray as a child. We can sort of remember those things

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in connection with our own lives, how as children we were taught, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

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I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take. Sometimes before I'd finish with that, I'd hop into the bed and grandma would help me to come back,

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get back on your knees and stay there until you finished that prayer, boy. But that's a part of the training of recognizing and appreciating

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those things that are eternal. Our being hooked up with God, were taught at an early age. So Paul is saying in so many words to Timothy,

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I remember how as a boy you were carried to prayer meetings. I remember how you were brought up in the church. I remember your grandmother in the Amen corner. This is an appreciation for our tradition.

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Sometimes when a person gets certain benefits and a certain stature and prestige and position in life, they get ashamed of their roots. Get ashamed of those old people who still splitting verbs

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and they forget how they made it. My mother would often say, you know, I didn't have opportunity to have this. She never finished high school, but I want you to go much farther than I have gone. And so when I stand here today, I stand on her shoulders.

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And all of us have somehow the responsibility and the obligation to remember our roots. Remember our roots because whatever fruits we have are related to those roots. Now you see these flowers that are before us, they are very beautiful. But in a few hours, they will wither, dry up and die.

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It's because they are separated from their roots. D. Elton Trueblood says that the problem with our civilization is that we have a cut flower civilization. No roots.

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No roots. No roots. So, Paul is saying, "Now, you've got a grand and glorious tradition. Respect it.

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Reverence it." And we can celebrate that today. We can celebrate the fact that you grew up in a Christian home, Bible-reading family. That's good.

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Those are good roots. Good roots. But he says now stir up the gift that you have. In other words you have a responsibility to stir up the gift that you have. Stir it up. That's a good word

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for us today as we celebrate, focus on mother and the Christian family. Stir up the gift that you have. Some of you can remember what it's like to have to make a fire in a fireplace and the fire after a while has a tendency to die down and you have to take the poker and stir it up. Stir it up. And so he's saying to Timothy

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You've been around with me and you've got a great tradition behind you, but stir up, Timothy, the gift that you have. You have a contribution to make. You have an obligation. Stir it up. And we are suffering so today from the deterioration of the family. Republicans have been talking about a contract with America and now their most recent revelation

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is that they have a contract with the family. And based on how they've been conducting things, I fear that contract. What we really need is a covenant with God that the family will be the family and that somehow we will be related to those eternal values.

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values that have to do with the recognition of the sacredness of human personality, those values that have to do with freedom, those values that have to do with justice, those are the values that somehow, if those values are observed, they must be observed through the family. We aren't gonna have a great nation

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until we have great families. And this is what Paul says, "Stir it up, Timothy, stir it up the fire that is within you. Stir it up! Because at times we tend to become rather lax and we need to heed this word by Paul to stir up your faith. In other words, Timothy manifests that passion which is needed for this hour and as God's people we need to rekindle the fire. Stir up the gift. That's what, Ebenezer needs that. I was looking some time ago at one of the historical accounts of a revival held in this church by our ancestors.

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It was held for 30 days and they took in 100 members. Oh, that was a great zeal, that was a great concern of reaching out. And so the word is stir up. We still have the gift. Well, we have a great collection of gifts in this congregation. But the word is as it was to Timothy, stir up.

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Stir it up, rekindle the flame. Fan the fire. Manifest the zeal for that which is good. As the scripture says the zeal for the Lord's house has eaten me up

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so Paul writes Giving Timothy this word of advice to inspire and strengthen him for his task in

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Ephesus Now brothers and sisters Timothy was going to Ephesus Paul had had a mission for him go to Ephesus And Ephesus was a pretty terrible place. It was a hotbed for paganism, Ephesus.

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Ephesus. Ephesus, Paul says, I fought with peace in Ephesus. And even though it was very difficult, Paul said, I have decided, when he was writing,

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he said, I've decided to remain in Ephesus. Ephesus was a very difficult place. And Paul says to him, stir up the gift, get yourself on fire for God if you're going to Ephesus,

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because things are gonna be difficult for you in Ephesus. But stir up the gift of the spirit that is in you, that spirit that you had manifested when we laid hands on you,

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when you were ordained as a young man. Stir up that gift! Let the spirit have its way in your life. Stir up the gift.

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Fan the flame. And the same spirit that was there when I ordained you, same spirit that was there when I laid hands on you, that same spirit is still present.

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Stir it up. Rekindle the fire. And as we celebrate this marvelous witness, Of those who have traveled the path before us,

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the divine word addressed to us is rekindle the flame. The fire of the Holy Spirit has not gone out. Stir it up, fan it, and no matter how strong may be the opposition,

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stir up your gift, rekindle the fire, fan the flame. And the wonderful thing about having good parents, good mothers, good fathers, good grandparents, is that they speak words to us that remain with us

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long after they're gone. And many times when you find yourself in a difficult situation, and somehow that voice speaks to you.

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It's a voice from yesterday, and it speaks to you saying, this is the way, this you ought to do, And this you know when you find yourself not exhibiting the kind of enthusiasm that you should,

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sometimes you hear that voice that tells you to stop the gift that is within you. Rekindle the fire, for the fire of the Spirit will illumine us. The fire of the Spirit will cleanse us. The fire of the Spirit will purify our souls.

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The fire of the Spirit will make us strong and courageous. Rekindle that fire. Oh, I know that there will be periods in our lives when we encounter coldness and indifference in Ephesus,

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but rekindle that fire. For God has not given us a spirit of fear. We need not be afraid. God has not called us and sent us to do anything

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that we ought to approach with fear, but we ought to approach it with power, knowing that God has the power available for us, no matter what the task may be,

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and knowing that with Him, we have the power to persevere, we have the power to survive, We have the power to conquer, so rekindle that fire. Well, Paul talks about the roots,

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and there are the fruits. Timothy is exemplifying the fruits as he goes about with Paul in his missionary endeavors. And we are called to exemplify the fruits

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of those roots in our daily lives. That's our task. The Bible says, "Blessed are those who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly,

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nor sit in the seat of the scornful, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but their delight is in the law of the Lord.

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And in his law they meditate day and night. But they shall do like a tree planted by the rivers of water. The leaf shall not wither and whatsoever they do will prosper.

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Stir up again. Be sure that you're hooked up with yesterday in such a way that your roots continue to provide the kind of nourishment that will enable you

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to bear good fruits. And when we think of that, we need to be reminded that we can't bear it without being true to our roots.

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Beside 12 trees, the traveler stood to use their shade and fruit. Oh, foolish man, beside you stand 12 trees without a root. And the traveler grabbed the trunk of one

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and pulled it from the ground, amazed and praised To see no roots, he pulled the 12 trees down. But there is a place where there is a tree that grows that has deep roots.

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And John had a vision of it. He said, "I saw a tree." It was there by that great stream that flowed from the throne of God.

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and I got a vision of it, and I saw there the tree, and he said, "By the river, I saw trees "bearing 12 manner of fruit, "and the leaves thereof were for the healing of the nations."

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And that's the tree of life. And God has provided that for every one of us. He provided a tree in the Garden of Eden that he told Adam and Eve not to eat of,

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but he has also provided a tree, a family tree, for every one of us to nourish us and to keep us in such a way that we can be properly hooked up with the eternal in the here and now.

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As we sing now the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church and we ask you to come as we invite you to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life

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and becoming a member of God's family here at Ebenezer. The door of the church is open. ♪ Jesus, Savior, pilot me ♪ ♪ Over life's tempestuous sea ♪

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We invite you to come. Everybody, let's sing. ♪ Jesus, Savior, pilot me ♪ ♪ Over the tempestuous sea ♪

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♪ On the waves, he's on the oar ♪ ♪ Riding out at winter's draw ♪ ♪ To the darkest of the night ♪ ♪ Jesus save your heart and be ♪

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♪ As a father steals a child ♪ ♪ As he sows the ocean flower ♪ ♪ Watch those waves on the river clear ♪ ♪ In the saints to Him we sing ♪

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♪ God the Son, Creator of the sea ♪ ♪ Jesus, Savior, God the King ♪ ♪ We are blessed, born near the shore ♪ ♪ And the fields of grace are strong ♪

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♪ 'Tis beyond the peaceful rest ♪ ♪ In my being behold my rest ♪ ♪ May I hear ye say to me ♪ ♪ He is our God ♪

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♪ And is right above the sea ♪ [MUSIC]