A Rich Heritage

I want you to turn in your Bibles with me here this morning, if you can, to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy in chapter 1. I want to read from three different places in the Word of God as we come to this baby dedication. And we're so grateful for the family being here joining us this morning, the Buckley family and the Welsh family and pray that the Lord really blesses you and I pray that even this little baby being given to you as a family can be an extraordinary blessing in such an hour.

I never cease to be amazed at how miraculous the birth of a child is. I don't take it for granted. It's not an accidental thing.

When you study the body of a human, the eye, the brain, the smallest cell that's way beyond our natural sight, and you see how comprehensive creation itself is. It is remarkable. It is awe-inspiring.

And to see that even behind the birth of a child. You know, in these days, I think we as a church have been so conscious. We're not taking childbirth for granted.

It's a miraculous thing. Not something to be taken for granted. And we don't want to do that here this morning.

And so as we come around God's Word, we really want to give God all the glory and the praise and the thanks even for these simple things. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Then I'm going to take you to chapter 2 and then to chapter 4. I want to read three portions of Scripture. I have three points I want to bring to you that I pray in and around this dedication of baby Lydia, that the Lord can really speak to your hearts as parents, as a family, as a church, and that we will see the seriousness not only of birth but of death, of how short our life is, and how we ought to number our days.

Reading 2 Timothy and my message here this morning, a rich heritage. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5. When I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and 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 the putting on of my hands.

And then next, just over to chapter 2, reading from verse 1. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as the good soldier of Jesus Christ.

And then last of all to chapter 4 and verse 5. Chapter 4 and verse 5. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions through the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight.

I've finished my course. I have kept my faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give to me at that day and not to me only, but onto all them also that love his appearing.

Let's pray together. Father, I do thank you for your word, your truth here this morning. As we come, Lord God, even with this family, with these parents, Lord God, for Paul and Victoria, as they offer up Lydia unto you, as they present her in the house of God, dedicating her to you, Lord God, making commitments before you to raise her in the admonition and fear of God, to love her, to care for her, to provide for her, to watch over her physically and emotionally and mentally and spiritually.

Lord God, to see her grow, to pray for her, to speak to her, to encourage her, to guard her on the left and the right. Father, I pray that you'd minister grace to them to be parents, to be a father, to be a mother. As a married couple, I pray that the grace of God would be ministered unto them.

And even as a church, we want to pray for them and believe together that you would answer their prayers, that you'd move in this family in miraculous ways, that these children, oh God, as an entire family would have divine encounters with you. Lord God, that they wouldn't only in our midst enter into life, but oh God, that they would progress and walk with you. And Lord God, have a real genuine faith.

Lord God, not hypocritical, not false, not traditional, but Lord God, a real faith in you, a real knowledge of you, and a real experience of you. And Father, I pray that all of us, that we'd stand before you, even in this service, all the mothers, all the fathers, all the families. Father, I pray that you'd move on each one of our families, that you'd raise up a godly seed that is going to serve you in this hour, and that's going to be a testimony of life, of faith, of love, and of hope in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we ask that you be glorified here now as we come around your word in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. I want to preach to you here for a few moments on a rich heritage.

What we have in 2 Timothy chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 4, where we read is the apostle Paul, one of the greatest preachers, teachers of the word of God, raisers up of churches, a man of God, not a hypocrite, a real man of God, a real Christian. And here he is writing his last letter. He served God.

He ran well. He's reached the end of the journey. And now here he is writing from a prison cell right in the center of the city of Rome.

We stood in that spot just weeks ago, some two weeks ago. We stood outside of that prison in the center of Rome where Paul was chained up down in the deepest cellar. And all around that prison cell were the greatest temples, the greatest buildings in Rome, buildings that were known across the empire, buildings that had wealth poured into them, great fortunes, and great power.

And here was the apostle. He had preached widely in many nations, many cities, seen thousands get born again and come to Christ, seen hundreds of churches raised up during a 30-year period, raised up many young preachers and sent them out. And the Bible actually tells us that just before this, when he was in Rome in prison prior to this, he was in prison twice, he was released for a few years, and now he's back in prison.

The previous time, as he sat with a chain on his hand in a hard house that he had to pay for for two years, awaiting standing before Caesar, not knowing if he was going to die or be released, that the apostle at that time, he used to train up preachers and send them to churches, send them to preach, send them to evangelize. He was chained in a prison, a prisoner of Rome. But this time it's different.

No visitors to warm his heart. He's in a dark prison, locked up, and he's writing this. And I want to give you three points from the text that I've already read here.

And I believe it's for you, Paul, and it's for you, Victoria, and it's for today as we dedicate Lydia. I believe God's got a message here for you. It was a message for them in that day.

And I believe it's for all of you in this room. I don't believe any of you are going to be missed this morning. And I pray God gives you ears.

Here's my three points. An unfamed faith, an unchanged message, and an unsullied crown. And I'll explain all three of those statements for you.

But I want to deal here right now with a rich heritage. See, Paul in that prison cell was handing on to a young preacher, a young Christian, Timothy, a rich heritage. As he wrote this last letter, the words within it, the statements, they weren't casual words.

This is a man who's going to die. He actually knows it's only days until he dies. He's going to get beheaded.

Nero, that wicked Roman emperor, is in power. They're killing Christians. They think nothing of taking life.

They are reckless in the things they do. Remember Nero? He's the one that burnt Rome. He was an insane maniac.

And that's the classification of history. That's the judgment of historians. He was a mad man, a crazy man.

And he blamed the Christians. But here's Paul handing over a rich heritage in the words that he speaks. He's speaking to Timothy, writing for the last time.

We'll never see him again. But this is his last will and testament. So I believe there's a rich heritage here, even for Lydia.

She doesn't know it yet. She doesn't understand me yet. She may hear me.

She certainly does hear me. Won't have a clue what I'm saying. But Paul and Victoria, you have a rich heritage to pass on to a baby child that can't even understand it at this point.

I believe you've got a faith on fame to hand on to her, an unchanged message and an unsullied crown. I believe there's something for you to pass on to her. And you only have a short period of time to do it, either successfully or to fail at it.

What a serious thing when we know we've got something to pass on here. So I'm thinking of a rich heritage here this morning. I can't help but think about it.

A year ago, Victoria contacted me, messaged me, said, Keith, would you mind if in Lydia's name we put Candice as a middle name? Lydia Candice Walsh. Candice was my late wife four years ago. Four years ago.

That means something. See, I'm not going to be able to dedicate this child without thinking of a rich heritage. She's got Candice within her name.

And sorry for being personal, but you better tell her of her heritage, that a woman of God served in this place, who prayed and loved you, who wrestled with God in prayer. You know, the last time she walked in here, she came with a suitcase with an air tank, and she fought to get up one step to play on that piano. And we've got it on record.

We've got it videoed. She played this piano with gusto those last months. I used to sit there or stand there and go, I don't know how she's doing it.

I've never seen her play the piano like she did. And I know what she's like outside. Nothing hindered her worshiping God.

You better tell Lydia one day that name means something. There's a rich faith, a rich heritage, a rich example, a rich testimony. A Christian looks like something, speaks like something, acts like something.

We better pass a heritage on. We better not forget. We can be so casual, so superficial, so lazy, and we forget the heritage.

This little girl's got a heritage right in her name. She's got a heritage in her surname as well. You know, it's just thinking, Nigel's sitting here.

He's not going to escape here. I won't let him off. He's got Livingston in his name.

He's got Livingston blood. Maybe some of you know a man called David Livingston, the great missionary. If I hear rightly, this is one of his descendants.

What a heritage. You know, as we sit here and just think of these things, what a heritage. One of the greatest missionaries, pioneers the world ever knew.

He opened up all of Africa for all that came after, wrestled with the land and survived it. But I'll tell you what, he was a man of prayer, a man born again who knew Jesus Christ. What a heritage you have, Nigel.

What a heritage. Get his autograph afterwards. There was four years ago, sorry, three years ago, we had a visiting preacher here.

And I wanted to take him on a little tour, always try to create a little tour when I'm here. And when I'm going to take him on a Thomas Walsh tour. Now this is Thomas Walsh, but there was another Thomas Walsh that he's named after.

See all these names, there's a heritage, there's a rich heritage here. Just think for a moment of the richness of the heritage that this little girl is coming into, that you can tell her, that you can give to her, that you can lay before her. Well, this Thomas Walsh is named after another Thomas Walsh.

So I said, I'm going to take this preacher on a Thomas Walsh tour. Thomas Walsh, the preacher, the great Methodist preacher was born in 1730 and died in 1759 at the age of 28 years old. I decided to find his birthplace, his home place at Ballylyn, out your direction.

And so I went out there and I found it. There was no house there, it's an empty field, but that is Ballylyn. I took that preacher there and I said, look hard, a man of God was born here in 1730 that was going to touch the entire island of Ireland in a period of eight years.

Only born again for eight years, only a Christian for eight years, only a preacher for eight years, and yet this country, this nation was impacted. Thousands, thousands from all over this island, the north, the west, the south, the east, all met Jesus Christ through this one man, Thomas Walsh. He was a remarkable man, an astounding man.

Listen to what John Wesley, the great Anglican preacher, Church of England preacher who came to Ireland, spent about six years total in Ireland. John Wesley did. Listen to what he actually says concerning this young preacher Thomas Walsh.

He never got to 30 years old. He only lived as a Christian in his 20s. Don't waste your life.

This is what John Wesley said many years later. He said he did not know any other preacher and he knew hundreds all over America and England and Wales and Scotland and Ireland, and he said he didn't know any other preacher in so few years who was a greater instrument of converting so many sinners from the errors of their ways. That's some commendation from John Wesley.

He didn't know a greater soul winner, but he also said this, quote, such a master of biblical knowledge I have never saw before and never expect to see again. He was fluent in Hebrew and Greek and Latin and even English, but he was an Irish speaker and preacher. You've got a heritage, Thomas, don't you? What a heritage, what a name to live up to, this Thomas Walsh.

And so you understand when I come here and I say I've called this a rich heritage and I'm thinking of your family, Paul, Victoria, what a heritage, a name, a middle name, a surname, a history, a family history, what a remarkable thing, what an astounding thing. You know, Ballylyn where Thomas Walsh was actually born, just 10 minutes down the road is Ballygrain Methodist Church. It was built in 1766, six years after Thomas Walsh died.

So we went to that church. It's the building that was built there, the original building. And we went in, there's a plaque to Thomas Walsh on the wall, the great preacher, the first Methodist Irish preacher in Ireland.

And as we stood there, I went, what a remarkable testimony this building is. And we walked out the door and I looked at the graves. You know, I'm one of those strange guys that does this.

I just started looking at the names, Walsh, Walsh, Walsh. And I took a picture and sent it to Paul and said, hey, there's a bunch of Walshes here in this church. This is the area of Thomas Walsh.

And he went, yeah, that grave there is my granddad. See, there's his granddad Buckley. That was his granddad Walsh.

He said, that's my granddad Walsh. That's his grave. This was the church, their Methodist church.

Thomas Walsh never had children. So they're certainly not born from him, but it has to be the same family line. What a heritage.

Thomas Walsh was one of the great men of God. I can't speak high enough of him. In fact, one of the first men that wrote his biography, do you know what he said? He said, do you know when you go to investigate men, you shouldn't dig too deep, shouldn't scrape below the surface.

You know why? You'll get disappointed. Men who claim great faith and religiosity, often they're hypocrites. That's what he wrote.

But he said, I knew Thomas Walsh. He wasn't like that. He was real.

He was genuine. He was the real thing. Men who lived with him found him real.

He shook a nation. You know what he done? He stood on this city in the center and preached in the open air to thousands in the city of Limerick. Let me give you my three points here in this message, a rich heritage, an unfeigned faith, an unchanged message, and an unsullied crown.

Number one, an unfeigned faith. We just read in 2 Timothy chapter one and five, and this is Paul writing to Timothy. This is an unfeigned faith.

This is the first thing. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in me, Paul's talking to Timothy, a young preacher. When I remember, imagine having one of the greatest preachers of the generation saying, when I thought of you, I thought of the unfeigned faith within you.

That's the first thing. What does someone think when they think of you? What's the first thing they think of? First thing Paul thought of when he thought of Timothy was unfeigned faith. Not just faith.

Lots of people claim faith. This is unfeigned faith. Paul is defining something that is in thee, Timothy, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Louis, and thy mother, Eunice.

And I am persuaded that is in thee also. This is my first point on unfeigned faith. I'm talking about a rich heritage.

Timothy had a rich heritage in his family. He had a grandmother who had unfeigned faith. He had a mother who had unfeigned faith, and he had unfeigned faith.

What is unfeigned faith? We know what faith is. It's not blind faith. See, lots of people think Christian faith is a blind faith where you've just got to believe in something that's not there or something you can't have evidence for.

That is not faith. That's blind faith. I would call it deceptive faith.

Do you think I'm going to jump over a wall without looking? No chance. Do you think I'll stake my eternity on something that I'm hoping will be there? No chance. If I don't believe fully, absolutely, with evidence, with proof, infallible, beyond question, I would not trust this.

And I'd adjure you not to. If you question your faith, search it, challenge it, test it, make sure it's real. What is real faith? It means to entrust yourself to another person.

It literally means, faith means to be persuaded. You are utterly convinced. Saints, if you doubt everything, that isn't faith.

Just hoping you'll be okay when you die, that isn't faith. Hoping there's something out there, that isn't faith. Faith is an absolute, confident trust in a person where you entrust yourself, you lean upon him, you rely upon him.

And it says here, listen to what Paul says on same faith. Timothy, I am convinced, and when I think about you, I think of on same faith. It was in your grandmother, it was in your mother.

It means Paul the preacher, he knew people. He knows the grannies, he knows the mommies, and he knows the young preachers. It wasn't all about this young preacher.

Oh, go for it boy. No, it's faith. I don't care what you do.

I don't care how great you preach. I care about your faith. Notice what Paul says, it's on same faith.

Here's three family members, a grandmother, a mother, and a son, and they have on same faith. What does the word on same mean? It's an old word, but there's what it means. Sincere, genuine, not counterfeit, not hypocritical, not sham.

Why would Paul talk about on same faith? Why not just say faith? Because lots of people claim faith. Some people have faith that is only surface thick. There's nothing to it.

There's no depth. There's no reality. It's a Sunday morning.

It's an outward. It's not real. It's not loving.

It's not pure. It's not holy. It's hypocritical.

You can claim to have great faith, faith to move mountains. Remember what Paul the apostle said, if you have faith that could move all mountains and yet you don't love, you don't have charity, your faith is deception. It's deception.

It's not real. How can you claim to have great faith and yet you don't have love? That isn't real faith. And so here's Paul talking to Timothy saying, I'm convinced.

I think of you. I think of on same faith. Your faith is sincere.

It is real. Your Christianity is real. Paul and Victoria gave Lydia a real Christianity.

There's too much sham and emptiness and shallowness. Give her faith on same. Victoria, wouldn't you want to be like his mother Eunice? Paul actually says when he thinks of Timothy, your mother Eunice had on same faith.

And Victoria, you've got to have this to give to Lydia. You need an unhypocritical faith, a pure faith, a genuine faith, a reliable faith, not sham, not make-believe. She's going to see you in the home.

I used to watch my mom. I'd walk into the kitchen. She's there doing the dishes, doing it.

I'd speak. She wouldn't even hear me. She's caught up in the Lord, talking to the Lord.

I watched her fasting at home. I watched her bring enemies together. I watched her do many things behind the scene.

No one else seen her. People seen her at church. People seen her in living rooms.

People seen her in conversations. I seen her at home every single day growing up. I was there.

She taught me to pray. I was there. She read the Bible with me.

I watched her. When my dad went off to work every day, I'm there with my mom growing up, watching her. Her faith was real.

It was a genuine faith. I've never doubted my mom's faith. Oh, she wasn't a perfect woman.

She did have her issues. She had those little things, you know. Now you, you mom was closer here to second.

Now you sons, you know what I'm saying. A mother can have her little traits, okay. But we love her.

But I'm telling you, a mother can have little traits and quirks, but you go, her faith is real. Her faith in God is real. It is genuine.

And that's what Paul is saying here. Imagine having that, when Paul the apostle thinks of you, thinks of genuine, unthemed faith. It is real.

And Paul says to him, it was in you. I'm convinced it's in you. I'm convinced it was the same faith in your grandmother.

Do you see how a whole family can have real, genuine faith? Now listen to me carefully. You can't pass it on. You don't get born with faith.

You don't get taught faith. You don't get raised in the faith. You need this.

You know what the Bible says, faith, real faith is a gift from God. Only God can give it. It's only an experience with him that he grants you where you know he's real.

How could you know that God created the whole solar system, all the galaxies, all the planets, all the stars, put them in place and named them? Do you know so far in my life, every person that's met with Christ and got born again, instantly knew that God had put it there. Not something they had to believe, try to believe, they knew the reality that God had done that. Unfeigned faith is utterly, utterly unique.

Listen, I've got a book of sermons of Thomas Walsh. You know that old Thomas Walsh from Ballylin that preached on the streets of Limerick in the 1750s. Guess what? See in these sermons, there's one sermon I come across from 1 Timothy chapter 1 and 5, and it's called Love, the End of the Commandment.

And he preaches a sermon, and he's got four points in his sermon. Listen to what the points are, a good conscience, a pure heart, love, and faith unfeigned. What my point here is, he actually, Thomas Walsh in this region preached on faith unfeigned, the very same statement that Paul writes to Timothy about.

And listen, in this sermon of his, faith unfeigned is only one of his four points. And that one point in his sermon goes on for eight pages. And I was sitting reading it last night.

Can I just read a little portion of it to you, so you understand? This man, Thomas Walsh, what did he think? What did he believe? What did he preach? Listen very carefully. This is Thomas Walsh. You know what? After preaching on the streets, he went home and he scribbled this down, and he never corrected it.

It lay amongst his stuff until the day he died. He never got to update it or perfect it. So it's a few scribblings.

Excuse that it's so obscure. I am first to speak of faith unfeigned. And it highly concerns me, everyone, rightly to understand the nature of true living faith.

We are told that without faith, it is impossible to please God. And that by faith, the elders, the patriarchs, the holy prophets, the primitive servants of God in general obtained a good report. And it is by faith that all true Christians stand in the favor of God and are promised eternal life to be fully informed as to the necessity and the fruit of faith one needs only to read with understanding and deeply consider.

And he gives a whole list of some 20 verses for you to go and read. He was a man of the Bible. So if you want to know what real faith is, read your Bible.

He then says, if we give due heed to these scriptures, we shall soon see the necessity of that direction that it says in 2 Corinthians, examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. No easy believism here, but how may this be done? How shall a person be assured that his faith is the very true Christian saving faith? There is no other way of determining this, but by trying our faith by the law and by the testimony. God who had been pleased to ordain faith as the condition or instrument of salvation has likewise condescended of his great mercy to attend to the accounts which the scripture gives us of this matter.

And we may find these particulars described in four ways. So he takes us one point and then he breaks into four. I'm only going to give you one of them.

He says, number one, the author of the faith. This is how you tell your faith is genuine. First of all, the author.

Who's the author of your faith? Oh, I was born with it. No, you weren't. Not according to the Bible.

Oh, I've always had it. You couldn't have. See, number one, the author of the faith.

Number two, it's true and immediate object as just that. Who are you believing in? That reveals if your faith is real. Number three, the subject of it.

What is your faith filled with? And number four, it's fruit or effects. Do you obey God? It can be seen. We may speak a little of each.

Number one, the author of true saving faith is the eternal God, father, son, and holy ghost. Faith is an especial gift of God. It is he that bestows it upon per sinners.

Man has no power to work it out himself. Neither has he the least goodness to merit it from God. The Holy Spirit works it in our hearts.

Being given freely of the father through the merits of his son, a man may have a speculative historical faith by hearing and reading and the like, which may be said to be his own faith, not God's faith, his own. He may change his religious system and embrace what some call the faith, all which being a mere human thing and in the power of everyone to do it as pleasure, does nothing at all to advantage the soul. Yea, one may assent to do all the things contained in Holy Scripture and yet be destitute of faith unfeigned.

Spoken of in our text, this does not grow in nature's garden. It is not everyone that saith unto Jesus, Lord, Lord, that has this precious, this invaluable treasure of faith. It is not produced by arguments from others, nor is it the result of mere study or speculation in ourselves, but it is the work and the gift of him that speaketh in righteousness who is mighty to save.

It is his gift to every pure conscious unbeliever. It is the gift of God. I'm only starting.

This man is a man of God. I like his preaching. 350 years ago, 400 years ago, he's preaching in Ireland and I can lift up his sermons and go, if I preach this here, you wouldn't think that I'm changing my doctrine.

You know why? It's the same message. 400 years ago, since we as a church have a heritage in this land, I can go back to Patrick and read his letters and I'm telling you there's a real faith. I can read the sermons of Thomas Walsh or his life and I go, it's real.

That's number one, unfeigned faith. Paul Victoria, you've got an unfeigned faith, genuine, real, biblical to uphold in this family. Number two, an unchanged message.

Look what Paul says in chapter 2 verse 1, thou therefore my son, speaking of Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Notice what Paul says to Timothy.

He says, the grace of God is on your life. Not only do you have real faith, you have the grace of God. What is grace? God's unmerited favor.

God's hand is upon you. The influence of heaven is upon you. It's God's ability or strength or empowerment.

That's what grace says. You can't have grace on you and just carry on sinning and be a rebel against God. See, if the grace of God is on your life, it's going to change your life.

The grace of God doesn't mean you can sin willfully in rebellion against God and say you're under grace. No, that isn't grace. See, Paul writing to him is speaking about an unchanged message.

Be strong in the grace of God and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses commit to faithful men. Paul and Victoria, you have a message, an unchanged message, not only an unfeigned faith, you have an unchanged message that goes right back to Paul in a prison cell. If you trace the history of this message, it has turned the world the right side up.

It has changed lives. It has given people their mind back. I was just listening to a testimony two days ago of a guy.

I forget his name. I'm not into antiques. Okay, that might surprise you, but he was a top guy on antique roadshows in England.

Very, very well known in England. Everyone watches it. He's just got born again a year and a half ago.

Go listen to testimony, powerful. He was oblivious, no time for this, didn't believe anything. He'd given his whole life to antiques, a very funny man, a very interesting man.

But do you know what? His daughter was hyper depressed, suicidal. His heart was broken. Guess what? She got born again.

Her mind's restored, her joy, her peace, her life. He was shocked by it. This challenged him to ask questions.

He got born again. He's been saved a year and a half now. He's going on.

He says, I don't even care if I lose my job. This is so real. I never knew this.

I wasn't raised with this. It's changed my whole life. See, we've got a message.

You have a message as a family. It's not a new message. It's no strange message.

It is the message of this Bible, the message Jesus Christ preached, the message Peter preached, the message Paul preached. We're not relying on something weak. It's not a denomination, not a local church, not some preacher blown in from the north.

It's none of those things. It is a very ancient message. These words don't come only from 2000 years ago.

They come out of eternity. You know what Paul in a prison cell saying? Young Timothy, you have received this message from me amongst many witnesses. You've seen it.

You've seen this message change lives. Paul and Victoria, you've seen lives changed. Paul, your life was changed.

When I think of that night, I'll never forget it. That night, I'm in a prayer meeting when Paul gets born again. Soon, I've seen him soon afterwards, met him.

I didn't give him that faith. Something happened under a car bonnet. Christ revealed himself.

I get speaking and I go, man, that's the same message I believe that's in this book. It can be tested. You ought to test everything a person says.

Look at the heritage of Paul and Timothy, four generations. Paul says, I've handed this message on to you. You hand it on to others.

Let them hand it on to others. Do you realize how precious this is? Mothers, fathers, pass the message on to your children. You could give them a house.

You could give them a heritage. You could give them skills. These boys are skilled boys, I want to tell you.

I'm telling you, you must have your hands full. They'll fix anything in your house, I'm sure. Maybe they'll break it as well.

I don't know. We don't hear that side of it. James, is there some stories to tell? You could get a great heritage handed on to you, but if you don't get this message, there's nothing your mother and father can hand on to you of greater value than the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, that he loved you, that he has a plan for you, that he cared for you, that he bare your sins on a cross.

Lydia's going to grow up hearing this. She's going to hear of a God that loved her. You know what? This world is really messed up and it's getting worse.

Rebellious. You want to see the fruit of sin and rejecting God? Look at this world. Look at this generation right now.

You're seeing the fruit. We're in a serious crisis in this generation. But you know what? I know a message.

Third and finally, an unsullied crown. An unfeigned faith, not hypocritical, it's genuine. An unchanged message.

It's solid. It's real. It's true.

But third, an unsullied crown. 2 Timothy 4 and 5, but watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Paul is talking to young Timothy.

He's about to die. He's going home. He's preached.

He's suffered. He's been persecuted. He's been in prison.

He's been whipped. He's been shipwrecked. He's gone hungry, suffered many things.

You know, church history tells us when Paul was in prison this last time, they kept bringing guards and chained to him. They had to keep changing them every several hours. You know why? They were getting born again.

Do you know what happened during that time? They must have, see that coat, if it ever come off his back, where'd you get all these scars? Paul, who are you? You must be a vile man, a murderer, a wicked man, a dangerous man to be chained in here. Nero's got you in here, scared of you. You must be a very wicked man.

I preach the love of Christ. I preach men can be forgiven. I preach pray for your enemies.

How radical. He's sitting and he's writing the last letter to Timothy, his son in the faith. Wouldn't you find it easy to believe if you saw Paul, genuine, real laying down his life? It'd be easy to believe.

Hypocrisy and false Christianity destroys people's faith, makes them skeptical, makes them say, I don't want that. Real faith does the opposite. You know what? This world's looking for reality, really searching for reality.

Thomas Walsh was real. Candace Malcolmson was real. This is real.

We've got to be real in this hour. And as Paul wrote this last letter, listen to what he said. For I am now ready to be offered.

He's at the end. I've preached, I've served. Timothy, guess what? I'm out of here.

I'm finished. But you're not. I'm finished.

Some people have left us. They've finished their course. But you haven't.

Paul, you're here. Victoria, you're here. Buckley family, you're here.

The entire family. LCC, you're here right now. Paul said at the end, listen to his words to you.

For I am now ready to be offered. My life has been given over to God. I'm ready.

Just like a sacrifice, just to give over. Lord, it's always been yours. And the time of my departure is at hand.

He's not scared. He's going, I am ready. I'll die for my faith because it's a genuine faith.

It's a true faith. I don't have fears. I'm not hoping.

I know my redeemer liveth. I have fought a good fight. Have you? I have finished my course.

Have you? I have kept the faith. Have you? Henceforth there's laid up for me a crown. Now this is my third and final point, an unsullied crown.

I hope you pass this on to your daughter as she grows. There's a crown to run for. Just a few weeks ago, yet to show you in the video, we were at Olympia.

Do you know where they had the Olympics originally? And I got Anna to run on that original race course where all the Olympics came out of. And we had bought her one of those little crowns, golden crown. It wasn't real gold, I tell you.

And we got her to run down. This is where it all happened. You know, Paul is stealing that term for crown.

You know what he's saying? I've finished the course. I'm at the end. I'm now ready.

I have ran the race. I've kept the faith. I have fought against what was false.

I'm ready. I'm at the end. I'm at the behemoth seat.

I'm at the throne of reward. I'm just about to get my reward. See, your reward isn't here.

If you run for your award here, you're going to get very disappointed. My reward isn't here. People who went ahead of us, they didn't get the reward here.

They seen it as soon as they looked on the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's sitting in this prison cell. He says to Timothy, henceforth, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness.

And the righteous judge shall give me on that day. He's righteous. He won't give it to those that haven't ran or fought or lived, had genuine faith, had a genuine message, who lived the life.

You're not going to get a crown. This is for Paul who has run the race, finished the course. He is ready.

You're not saved by good works. You're saved by faith. But I'll tell you what, there's a crown to run for.

And Lydia is going to find out there's a crown to run for. Not only an unthemed real faith, not only a real, genuine, unchanged message handed down from hand to hand through the Bible, but there's a crown to run for and live for. One day we're going to get rewarded and it's all over.

And listen, he says, and not to me only, but onto all them that also love his appearing. Do you know what Paul said to Timothy? He says, hold sound words. He said, you've known by my life, my doctrine, my purpose, my faith, my long suffering, my charity, my patience, my persecution, my afflictions that I was real, that I was genuine.

He says to young Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. You know what he was saying, Timothy, I've run the race.

I'm going to get the crown. I'm laying hold of eternal life. Now you do the same.

I don't know whether you'll have 30 years. I don't know how long you'll run, but my course is finished. Do you know men like Thomas Walsh and the apostle Paul and hopefully Keith Malcolmson have simply preached Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners.

God loves you. Jesus died for you. He bore your sins.

You must be born again. You must have a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ. Life is soon going to be over and you'll stand before Jesus Christ and either your life will have been wasted building on all the things of this world and it means nothing.

So only one thing means anything and that's your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we come to dedicate Lydia right now, I pray Paul and Victoria that you're going to run this race. Be an example.

Embody faith unfamed. Carry a rich testimony. Hand it over to her in her name.

Tell her Walsh means something. Oh, I know there'll be lots of bad Walshes, lots of bad Buckleys, lots of bad Malcolmsons, but there are Walshes who walk with Christ. There is a real.

Tell her there's a message they'll carry you through every trial, every trouble would prove that. Tell her there's a Candace in your name who walked with God right to the last breath and went out victoriously. Since we've yet to finish our course and this world is looking for reality.

Let's pray together. Father, we pray right now for your grace and mercy as we come to dedicate Lydia onto you to offer her up. We know no one else that we would want to be entrusted with her over her soul, over her eternity, over her future, over her decisions.

That she'll grow up knowing that there's one who cares for her, that loves her, that can answer life's problems, that will hear her when she cries aloud. If she be alone at points, she can seek you with all of her heart. Father, thank you for a rich heritage in this family, Lord God, in this home, in this church, in this nation of Ireland.

And Father, I pray that you impact her young life, that she'll grow up hearing about Thomas Walsh, about David Livingstone, about the Apostle Paul, about Jesus Christ that died for her on a cross, that she might be forgiven, redeemed, saved from the power of sin and the wickedness of this world. And Father, I pray for your grace to come down right now.