A Mom's Legacy | Sunday, May 12, 2024

What's your favorite thing about Mom? What do you love about your mom?

She takes care of me and gives me hugs and kisses. She raised me, adopted me, and makes good breakfast for me. I love riding bikes with you, Mom. You work hard to keep us healthy. The perfect thing about my mom is that she cooks for me. She always takes care of us.

One thing about you that I love is that you're kind and always patient with me. I love you because you're loving, caring, and patient. You're hardworking and responsible. One thing about you that I love is that you're beautiful. One of my favorite things about you is your cooking and how you care for me.

I appreciate how you show me love, like affectionate support when I play baseball and at school. I love playing with you, Mom. I like your cooking, and I love cooking with you. My favorite thing about my mom is how dedicated she is to being a mom and for all the wonderful things that she has done for me.

My favorite thing about you is how much you believe in me and how much love you show me every day. I love you, Mom. The thing that I love most about my mom is that she's super kind and loving. My favorite thing about my mom is that whenever we've had a bad day or something bad happens, she always tries to bring us up and make us happy.

She's just a fun person to be around. She's the best mom ever. Happy Mother's Day! I love you! Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you! Happy Mother's Day, Mama! I love you! Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! I love you!

We are so grateful for our moms. Amen.

It's so good to see you guys. You can have a seat for a moment. It's a wonderful day, an important day. I'm so glad you all are here. The reports of my near demise were...

A pastor said last week that I was almost dead—mostly dead, like in "The Princess Bride." I guess there was a woman who approached another lady in the church afterward and asked, "Is Pastor Miles okay? Is he really okay?" I'm fine; I'm okay. However, I had a pretty bad sore throat last week, and I knew that if I came and preached, I would probably lose my voice after the first service. So, I am thankful for Pastor Mark stepping in.

Of course, today is Mother's Day, an important day. We are so grateful for the moms that are a part of our church. I don't know firsthand, but I know by observation that being a mom looks like an awful lot of hard work. I think there are many moms here who can attest to that.

I saw a video several years ago that a greeting card company put together. I thought it was such a great video that I wanted to show it this morning. Just give me one second.

Sorry about that. Hi, good afternoon. Nice to meet you. Have you ever done one of these interviews over the camera before?

No? Well, let me tell you a little bit about the job to get started. It's not just a job; it's probably the most important job. The title we have right now is Director of Operations, but it's really so much more than that. The responsibilities and requirements are quite extensive.

The first category for the requirements would be mobility. This position requires that you must be able to work standing up most, or really all, of the time. You will be constantly on your feet, bending over, and exerting yourself. A high level of stamina is necessary.

Okay, that's a lot. For how many hours?

135 hours to unlimited hours a week. It's basically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I'm sure you'll have a chance from time to time to maybe just sit down here and there.

You mean like a break?

Yeah, no, there are no breaks available.

Is that even legal?

Of course, it is.

Okay, so like no lunch?

You can have lunch, but only when the associate is done eating their lunch.

I think that's a little intense.

No, it's not possible. That's crazy.

Now, this position requires excellent negotiation and interpersonal skills. We're really looking for someone who might have a degree in medicine or finance.

In the culinary arts, you must be able to wear several hats. An associate needs constant attention; sometimes they have to stay up with an associate throughout the night. You must be able to work in a chaotic environment. If you had a life, we would ask you to sort of give that life up. There are no vacations. In fact, during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and other holidays, the workload is going to go up, and we demand that you do it with a happy disposition.

That's almost cruel. It's almost a very sick, twisted joke about when there's time to sleep. Oh, there's no time to sleep. It's all-encompassing, almost. That's exactly right—365 days a year. Yes, that's inhumane. It's very insane. However, the meaningful connections that you make and the feeling you get from really helping your associate are immeasurable.

Also, let's cover the salary. The position is going to pay absolutely nothing. Excuse me? Nobody's doing that for free—pro bono, completely for free. What if I told you there's someone who actually currently holds this position right now? Billions of people actually—who? Moms.

Yeah, moms! They meet every requirement, don't they? Wow! Oh my God, moms are the best. There's no pay, they're available 24 hours, and they're always there. Now I'm thinking about my mom.

What are you thinking about her? I'm thinking about all those nights and everything. Thank you so much for everything you do. I know it doesn't seem like I appreciate all of it, but I definitely do. So, Mom, I want to say thank you for everything that you've done. I love you very much. You've been there through thick and thin. My mom is just awesome.

Can we have all the directors of operations—moms—in the house? Would you stand for a moment for us? Thank you very much. Please stand. Awesome!

Standing, we have award ceremonies for athletes, authors, and all kinds of actors, but we don't really have award ceremonies necessarily for moms. It can sometimes be a thankless job, but we want to say thank you to all of you this morning. We are so grateful for you. You have a very hard job, and some of us sons may have made it more difficult than others, so we are very thankful for you.

We want to pray a blessing over you in just a moment. We also have a red rose to give to you when you leave the service today. We know it's just a very small token, but it is something we want to use to acknowledge you this morning. You'll notice there are also white roses up here, and these are to acknowledge the sorrows of the day.

It came to my attention a number of years ago that there are women who don't go to church on Mother's Day because it's too painful. They wake up on Mother's Day with a dryness in their throat and a weight on their shoulders. It is a heavy reality because there is the sorrow of the loss of little ones, the sorrow of miscarriage, the sorrow of estranged or wayward children, and the sorrow for those who desired to be moms but whose desire was never satisfied.

We just want to acknowledge the sorrows of the day. If that's you, we invite you to take one of these white roses at the end of the service. If you see someone with a white rose, you don't have to say anything to them, but maybe just lift them up to the Lord in prayer.

That's what we want to do right now. We want to pray for you and pray a blessing upon you today. So let's pray.

Father God, we thank you so much for these women who are standing here in an upside-down culture, such as ours, that has no idea what gender and sex are all about. There is no understanding that You, the Creator, have made us with a purpose. Lord, this group right here has a purpose for which You uniquely knit them together, and You have gifted them for that. You have poured out grace and mercy in extra measure upon them for the calling that You have called them to.

It's not a job; it's not a job that anybody could ever fill. Just like we saw in that video, no one would take that job willingly. But, Lord, this is a calling, and You have blessed us as a church with these moms. We pray that You would bless them and pour out a blessing upon them today. We pray that they would recognize that here they are honored, and Lord, You have honored them by calling them to this unique calling. Even though there are billions, You have called them to this calling.

We thank You so much for them. Would You pour out a blessing upon them in Jesus' name? Amen. Thank you.

So much we truly are grateful for you. Before I get into the message, I do have a special message that I want to share from the New Testament today. I want to introduce you to some individuals in the text that have some great things to teach us.

However, I wanted to take just a moment to acknowledge and recognize one other individual in our church. There is a woman who, for many years on Mother's Day, has not come to church because she desired to be a mom but never had the opportunity to be one. She's actually not here this morning, so you might wonder why I am talking about her. Well, I know she is going to watch this service later. In fact, if she were coming today and knew I was going to do what I'm about to do, she would be very angry at me if she were here. So, it's probably good that she's not present.

The reason I want to share about her is that she has been like a mom to our church and to our staff for a very long time, even though she never had her own children. In June, she will celebrate 33 years on our staff, making her the longest-running member of our staff here at Cross Connection Church. I have been on staff here for 25 years, and she has been like a mom to me. On numerous occasions, she has been an encouragement to me and one of my greatest champions here at the church. She has been a huge blessing to me.

You may not know who she is, and that's the way she would have it. Many times, she prefers to be behind the scenes. Her name is Lisa. Lisa Cook has been on our staff for 33 years, and she has been planning for about a year to retire. This has been a really hard decision for her to make because this role has been such a huge part of her life. She talked with me and Pastor Mark a couple of weeks ago, and I said, "Well, what you need to do, Lisa, is just choose a date. Just pick a date with your husband, Jeff, and then let us know. Whenever you want to go, that's when you'll go."

So, she came to my office this last week and gave me a letter of resignation, letting me know that this summer she is going to resign. It is going to be a challenge for us because we are going to miss Lisa in such a huge way. She has been such a blessing to us, and she is going to leave a massive hole. Technically, on paper, she is called my secretary, but I've never really been good at using a secretary. She has occupied all kinds of different roles as an administrative assistant, but more than anything, she makes sure that all the details of everything that needs to get done here in the office are taken care of from week to week.

Deposited to bills being paid, to payroll being paid, we thank God for Lisa. She has been such an integral part of this team. When I took over this church 16 years ago, she was right there along with me, and she has been a huge blessing. She took up a significant role here at the church at that point in time, helping us.

We are really hopeful that we will figure out how to pay the electricity bill and payroll without her. Please pray for us because we do need to fill a huge role as she is going to be leaving this summer. I want to acknowledge and recognize Lisa this morning, even though she is not here. Lisa, I know you watch this; we are so grateful for you, and we are going to miss you greatly when you leave our staff. Please be praying for her and her husband, Jeff. They have some things they are looking forward to, as he retired about a year and a half ago and has been waiting for her to finally retire. She is ready to do that.

If you know Lisa, maybe just encourage her; if not, would you pray for her?

Now, would you take out your Bibles this morning and open them? We are going to be in the New Testament. We have been in the Old Testament Book of Judges, but this morning we are going to step away from that. I will tell you exactly where we are going to be in just a moment, but I want to introduce you to another important person—actually, a couple of important people—from the Scriptures.

Before I do, I want to set up a backdrop for these two individuals that we are going to look at in the text by talking for a moment about something I have discussed before: success and prosperity. There are a lot of people in our culture who are fixed and focused on these two things. I would call them the twin idols of our culture: success and prosperity.

When I say the words "success" and "prosperity," different things will come to the minds of different people. If you talk to various individuals, you will come up with various ideas that define success or prosperity. After a while, you begin to see some common themes, but there are many different ways that people articulate success in society. You can watch the way a culture exists; you can listen to the stories they tell or the different movies and things they entertain themselves with to discover what that group of people values as the measures of success and prosperity.

When you look at Western culture, or the United States, you can see these themes clearly.

America in the 21st century presents a picture of the things we value and lift up as measures of success. So, what are those things? For our culture in 2024, people often find that the measures of success and prosperity relate to fame. It is interesting how the concept of celebrity and fame changes over time. If you were to ask children in the 1960s what they wanted to be when they grew up, the number one answer was astronaut. Today, if you ask kids the same question, the number one aspiration is to be a YouTuber.

There has been a shift in our culture, and perhaps not the best shift. We have this narrative that one needs to be famous for others. The measure of success and prosperity is often found in fortune; if I have a lot of money and wealth, then I will have met the measure of success. We see these values promoted by our culture—the cultural narrative and the stories we believe and tell ourselves.

For some, it is not necessarily fortune in the form of a huge nest egg, but rather financial stability. For others, it may be fitness and health, social status, career advancement, educational advancement, or political advancement. These things are lifted up very high in our culture. The different stories we tell ourselves loop over and over in our minds, establishing value and worth upon these aspirations. They become the targets toward which people orient their lives, planning out what school to attend, what classes to take, what major to choose, and what career path or internship to pursue to reach those goals.

Once these aspirations have a value placed on them, they become the focus of our attention. For all intents and purposes, we begin to worship them. The word "worship" is fascinating; it comes from two Old English words, "worth" and "ship," and it means to ascribe worth or value.

Set a value upon something, and when you do, you begin to worship it. You can tell that someone worships something because they show a level of commitment and devotion in their life to that endeavor or object. By observing people, you can discover their value system. Every culture has a value system, whether it is right or wrong. Look around your neighborhood, your co-workers, or those you interact with; you can see that cultural value system at play, and it affects us. Even if we may not want it to, we are all influenced by it.

Consider this: if you take something and put it in the refrigerator, the culture of the refrigerator will cool that item down simply because it is in there. Conversely, if you place it in the oven, the culture of the oven will heat it up. This inevitability shows that we are all affected by the culture surrounding us.

In the New Testament, Paul states in Romans chapter 12, "Do not be conformed to this world." For Christians, we find ourselves in a challenging position because the Bible presents a value system that increasingly contrasts with the value system around us. The surrounding culture seeks to conform us into its image, but the Bible instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This transformation allows us to prove what is the good and perfect will of God.

This is the challenge we face in our current culture. We are constantly being conformed by the worldview of our society, and we need to be transformed by renewing our minds. It is critically important that as we strive not to conform to this world but to be transformed, we re-evaluate our metrics of success. The cultural narrative we encounter daily values certain things, and we must recognize whether those things are truly worthy of our devotion and commitment.

We need to have the right concept of success and prosperity. Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning, is what I value.

The things that we value will affect how we live. The decisions that we make will be ordered by our values. This includes choices about what school to attend, what major to choose, whom to spend our lives with, and how to handle our finances. All these aspects will be influenced by what we hold dear. Therefore, it is important to examine whether the value system we have been fed by our culture is the one we should adopt and order our lives by.

If it is true that what I value will affect how I live, then if I desire to live a good life—keeping in mind that the idea of the good life varies from culture to culture—I need to have a rightly ordered perspective on what is worthy of my commitment and devotion. I must discern what is actually valuable. As we turn to the Scriptures and explore what the culture of the Bible teaches, we may find that it shifts our perspective or even provides an entire attitude adjustment regarding what is truly valuable.

The culture will inevitably affect us, and in recognizing this, it is helpful to examine what the Bible lifts up as valuable. What does it present as the measures or metrics of success and prosperity? The Bible has much to say about success, prosperity, and the good life, making it worthwhile to consider its insights on these questions.

If you were to spend even a year exploring what the Bible identifies as valuable or as measures of success and prosperity, you would discover a wealth of information. There are indeed many things to consider. One significant insight I have shared before is my examination of the Old Testament, particularly regarding the children of Israel, who were called the people of God. When they were walking righteously, as Pastor Mark discussed last week, they exemplified what it means to pursue what is right.

There were certain things that were exalted as valuable for the people of God, which became their aim and focus. Many times, they were walking righteously, and we don't want to follow the wrong path. However, when they were walking rightly, what were the things that were lifted up as measures of success or prosperity? When you evaluate your life throughout the various stages, what are those things?

There are three things that I think really stand out in the Old Testament that were valued by the people of God when they were walking righteously. These three things are longevity, lineage, and legacy. To put it another way, if you're taking notes, point number two is that God's people valued long life, a big family, and a heritage to hand down.

I want to encourage you to take some time, maybe this week or over the next several weeks, to meditate upon this. We have a value system that is being forced upon us by our culture, and we have to wonder if that value system aligns with Scripture. In some ways, our culture might align because it has been influenced for a very long time by a Judeo-Christian principle or value system, but that's increasingly not the case.

God's people valued long life, a big family, and a heritage to hand down. Those are at least three of the many things we could say were metrics for success in the Scriptures. In the opening words of the Book of Joshua, which we studied a year ago, God says to Joshua, "Commit yourself to following the precepts and principles of Scripture. Do not turn from them to the right hand or to the left, and then you will make your way prosperous, and then you'll have good success."

I've asked this question before, but it's worth considering: How many of you want a prosperous and successful life? If you're not raising your hand, you're not listening. How many of you want a prosperous and successful life? That's better. I think God wants you to have a prosperous and successful life. This is a dangerous thing to say because I do not agree with the Prosperity Gospel, but I do believe that God wants you to have a prosperous and successful life. The issue is, how does God define prosperous and successful?

We define prosperity theology, or the Prosperity Gospel, which you can find on some cable channels. It says this is what God wants for you, and it follows the pattern of success and prosperity that American culture promotes. This amplifies greed, which the Bible identifies as one of the seven deadly sins.

I do believe God wants you to experience success and prosperity, but according to His definition of success and prosperity. Among the things that God says are successful and prosperous are longevity, lineage, and legacy. We see this in certain passages of Scripture. For example, Psalm 128:5 states, "The Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem." This is the capital city of the people of Israel, both 3,000 years ago and today. The verse continues, "May the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel."

The Psalms are the songs and poems of the people of Israel, and what did they sing about the good life? They sang that you would see your children's children. What does that mean? It means that you would have a long life and a big family. Not just the Psalms, but also the wisdom literature of Proverbs supports this idea. Proverbs 13 states very simply, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children." There it is: long life, a legacy, and a lineage.

One more from Proverbs, Proverbs 17:6, says, "Children's children are the crown of old men." Just think about that in the context of American culture in the 21st century. What is the crown of an older life in the American mindset in 2024? Is it this? Children's children are the crown of old men. Would any of you agree today that our culture might need to reevaluate its value system? I certainly think it does.

But here’s the challenge: I need to reevaluate my values.

In light of the Scriptures, do I value what the Bible values as success and prosperity? Those are important things to consider. As I said, you could do a study in the Bible and ask the question: What are the things that the Bible lifts up and values as successful and prosperous? You can find all kinds of different things, but among the list would certainly be lineage, legacy, and long life.

With that as a backdrop, I want to introduce you to two individuals in the New Testament who have a great legacy. Even though we know very little about them, they are two individuals that we should consider and perhaps not only consider but also emulate. There are only two passages in the Bible where we really see them. The first one is in the New Testament book of Second Timothy. If you have your Bible open, turn to Second Timothy. Coincidentally, it falls right after First Timothy.

If you open your Bible to the last third, you will find Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which are the Gospels. Then you have the book of Acts, and after that, you begin the Epistles, the letters starting with Romans and continuing on. If you keep turning, you will find Ephesians, and after that, Colossians and Philippians. Continuing on, you will get to First and Second Thessalonians and First Timothy.

Now, look at Second Timothy, chapter 1, verse 3. The Apostle Paul is the writer of this letter to his friend Timothy, who was like a mentee, shall we say, a disciple of Paul's ministry. Paul says this in Second Timothy 1:3: "I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did. Without ceasing, I remember you, Timothy, in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance."

Note this in verse 5: "When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, Timothy, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded it is in you also."

Here, we have four people mentioned in this text, and I want to focus our attention on two of them. We have Paul the Apostle, who is writing this letter to Timothy, a son in the faith, as he calls him in other places in the text. He also mentions Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. I think these two individuals, about whom we know very little, are worth our attention.

There are two individuals that are worth consideration, and we meet them here in this passage from Second Timothy. However, we are introduced to them for the first time in the Book of Acts, specifically Acts chapter 16. You can turn there if you like, maybe keep your finger in Second Timothy, but if you turn to the left back to where the Gospels are—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—after the Book of John comes the Book of Acts.

In Acts chapter 16, the Apostle Paul is traveling on a missionary journey. The Book of Acts chronicles three of his missionary journeys. On the first one, he went to a region of the world that at that time was called Galatia, where he planted churches. Today, this area is known as modern-day southwestern Turkey. After planting these churches in Galatia, he leaves and years later returns during his second missionary journey, which is described in Acts 16.

We read in Acts 16, verse 1, "Then Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, two chief cities of Galatia. And behold, a certain disciple, a learner and follower of Jesus, was there. His name was Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman, Eunice, who believed. Timothy's father was Greek." Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium, and Paul wanted to have him go with him.

Other than this passage in Acts chapter 16 and Second Timothy chapter 3, we know almost nothing about Lois and Eunice. Therefore, we don't have a lot of information to go on, but there are some key things that are worthy of note in this text and in the passage in Second Timothy.

First, Timothy had a grandmother and a mother who believed. He was the son of a Jewish woman who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Not only that, but Timothy had a mother and a grandmother who lived out their faith. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and they lived out their faith.

Third, Timothy had a mother and a grandmother who made sure he knew the faith and lived it out in such a way that he had a good reputation. Notice that it says he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Grandma did such a good job in raising him, and this is so key. Paul the Apostle wanted Timothy to come with him. Why is that important? Because Paul was a hard dude; he did not suffer fools. In fact, just a few verses before this, he fired a guy who was about the age of Timothy. Timothy, at this time, was probably still a teenager, maybe about 15 years old. Paul had just fired a guy named John Mark, saying, "I don't want him on my team." Some of you have fired people before, and some of you have a reputation for being kind of tough to work for. Let me tell you, I think Paul was probably tougher to work for than you.

He had just fired John Mark because he didn't do things quite the way Paul wanted them done. Now, Paul says, "I want this 15-year-old on my team." How did that happen? I think it had something to do with Mama Eunice and Grandma Lois. They had a genuine faith. Paul says, "I thank God for the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mom Eunice, and I am convinced it is also in you." They believed.

Now, think about this: his dad was Greek, which means he was a Gentile. In that part of the world, that probably meant he was a pagan. He didn't have the best father influence, but listen, his mom and his grandma had a huge influence on his life. We don't know a lot about them; maybe we will get a chance to meet them one day when we get to heaven and hear a little bit more about them.

However, here's something I think we do know: they had a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and they lived out that faith. It affected their son and grandson, Timothy, to the point that when Paul, the traveling Apostle, came through, he heard about Timothy from the other brothers who were there in Galatia. He said, "I want that guy on my team." Timothy became the sole standout of Paul's team for the next several years, more than a decade and a half, as Paul ministered and planted churches during that time.

Now, we know the name Paul much more than we know the name Timothy, but I can guarantee you Timothy was the one who carried on the faith. He was the pastor of the church in Ephesus many years later. Where did that genuine faith come from? First, it came from Mom and Grandma. I bring all this up today to remind you of an important truth.

Truth is that the greater legacy than property and money is the legacy of a genuine faith handed down. Think about that for a moment. What is it that we value in our culture? We value money, money, money, and we think that this is the thing to strive for and perhaps to hand down.

Many of you here this morning were born between 1946 and 1964. You were called the Baby Boomers, the most wealthy generation of people in all human history. Over the next 15 years, you are going to hand off $70 trillion in wealth—the greatest wealth handoff in all of history. However, the most important thing you can hand off to your kids and grandkids is a genuine faith in Jesus Christ. That is what Lois and Eunice handed off to Timothy, and that is exactly what the Scriptures teach.

I think they believed and followed the exhortation of Proverbs chapter 22, which says, "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." They followed the admonition of Moses in what is called the Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6, where it says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children."

Point number three, and I'll close with this: the greatest family legacy is a genuine faith handed down. The most important thing you can hand off to your kids is a genuine faith, and it's not just in your words; it's in the way that you live your life from day to day. I've heard it said, and I think it's absolutely true, that a genuine faith is more caught than taught.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at my daughter Evangeline's dance recital. Sitting behind me was a guy who, throughout the entire thing, was sneezing and coughing. The whole time, all I could think of was that I was totally going to get sick. I wasn't here last Sunday because that nice guy shared with me a genuine faith that is more caught than taught.

Taught, I want to encourage you to evaluate what you set value on in your life. A genuine, vital faith is something you can hand down to your kids and your grandkids, to your children's children. May that be the thing you pass on more than anything else.

Listen, handing off a financial or property inheritance is wonderful. God bless you if you get to do that; that's great. However, the greatest legacy is a genuine faith handed down. That is one of the reasons we rejoice in moms and dads in our church. I look around and see a group of people who are endeavoring to value that above all other things. Commit yourself to live out and follow the precepts, principles, and truths of Scripture. Do not turn to the right hand or to the left, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

What do we hear over and over again from people who are in the last third, the last quarter, or the last period of their life? The things that are most important to them are not what car they drove, how many square feet their home had, or all their career advancements and titles. The most important thing to them at that point in time is their kids and grandkids.

We need a reordering in our culture. I talk to a lot of people who are concerned, and I think rightly so. I share some of these concerns about the direction of our culture. Much of the direction of our culture has to do with the things we have exalted as valuable. Our entire culture has been magnetically drawn in that direction. We need to be those who are not conformed to this world but are transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we may show the culture around us what is the good and perfect will of God.

Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, I thank you for your word, and I pray that you would do a work in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters here, transforming our minds. There is no possible way that we can live in San Diego County, California, the most costly county in the nation, and not be affected by the value system of our culture.

Culture is constantly trying to press us into its mold, conforming us to its way of thinking. I pray, God, that by Your Spirit and by Your Word, You would transform our minds so that we would live according to what You have revealed to be right, true, and good.

Do a work in our minds and in our hearts that would affect the way we live. I pray, God, that our lives would be exemplified by a genuine faith that would be contagious and handed down to our kids and grandkids. We pray this today in Jesus' name.

And all those that agreed said, "Amen." Let's sing to the Lord.