Today’s sermon from the Luke series will be part 74, “Jesus and Children.” As a complement, here is this article on one of Pastor Mark’s most encouraging days, one he shared with his son, Zac, in ministry. It’s adapted from the February 2002 sermon, “”//www.marshillchurch.org/media/proverbs/celebrating-children">Celebrating Children," the part 16 of the original Proverbs sermon series. Zac was two-and-a-half years old at the time.

In 50 years, who is going to preach the gospel in the city? Who is going to plant the churches that reach the new generations? Who is going to continue the work forward? That should be your grandkids. That should be my grandkids. Having children is not just about you getting your emotional needs met and having the perfect Christmas card photo where you all have matching hats. That’s not the Biblical point.

“If you don’t have a plan, the legacy will end with you. It’s a gospel issue. It’s a future generation issue.”

The Biblical point is you want your children to multiply fruitfully and to serve God and to extend his influence and to bring the good news of Christ from generation to generation. If the statistics are true and the majority of people that are having children these days are not Christians, who are not living in wisdom, then isn’t it going to be important that we send a lot of kids out there to connect with them and tell them about Jesus? It’s hugely important. It only takes one generation for a nation to go from Christian to post-Christian.

Many of you are single, but if you don’t have a plan, the legacy will end with you. God says, “Increase. Do not decrease in number.” It’s a gospel issue. It’s a future generation issue.

I had one of the most encouraging experiences with my son, Zac, this week. It was magnificent. My son is a Bible freak. He reads the Bible at least an hour a day. He always wants to play act the Bible stories. One of us is Jonah. One of us is the whale. One of us is David. One of us is Goliath. One of us is Peter. One of us is John. We’re always playing some sort of story. And this week, I got up early with him and we had breakfast, read the Bible, and wrestled and played a little David and Goliath and he slew me, and then I had to get to work.

“Where you going?” he asked. I told him I was going to the hospital to pray for a man. The man had had a surgery go badly a year ago, lost all use of his lower body, and had been hospitalized ever since, unable to get out of bed.

Zac looked at me and said, “Well, I wanna go, too.” I said, “Well, Zackie, I’m his pastor.” He said, “I’ll be his pastor.” I thought, God rebuke me. You’re right. He should go with me. So, I told him he could come with me, and he put on his froggy boots and grabbed his Bible.

We jumped in the car and went to the hospital. As we get out, I was trying to explain to him, “People here are sick. They’re dying.” This was a bit of a new experience for a two-and-a-half-year-old boy. He walked in. I sat down with this man, a good Christian brother, whom I’d gotten to know and love. And my son sat on my lap for about an hour. Two years old. No toys, no nothing, and we talked with this guy. A two year old boy. And he was sitting on my shoulders and hanging out. He was being obedient and attentive, and he was listening to all the things that the Lord was teaching this guy. And we got all done and I said, “Zac, you need to pray for him.” Zac said, “Okay.” He bowed his head, and quietly prayed that God would heal him and touch his feet, and touch his legs, and he was paying attention and he knew what to pray for.

It’s when you pour yourself into God’s purposes that you actually get to be alive.

We left and I looked at Zac and it was like he was a 20-year-old man. I mean, it was amazing, my little co-pastor. I took him out to lunch, and we sat at lunch, and he asked me questions for about a half hour on ministry. “Daddy, how often do you do this?” “What do you pray for?” “What parts of the Bible do you tell them?” “What if they’re not Christians?” He had all these great questions about how to be a pastor. I was just amazingly encouraged. I put him in the car and came home. I told Grace, “This is the like the best day I’ve ever had in my whole life.” It was amazing.

Later, I got an email from the guy. His legs had just started to work, but his feet weren’t moving and working, so he couldn’t stand. And Zac prayed, and he went into physical therapy and God healed his feet, and now his feet worked and he could stand and was starting to walk. And he would be able to live on his own and move out in the coming month, go into his own house and resume life a bit. He said, “Tell Zac that God answered his prayer and I’m grateful.” I told Zac, I said, “Zac, God answered your prayer. God healed his feet. He can walk.” Zac said, “Who else should we pray for?”

I’m hoping that by the time I’m done raising Zac, he’s ready to take my grandkids into the next generation. That’s what you want. Whatever God has for them, we should prepare and train our children so our work and the mission outlive us.

Here’s the funny thing: We think, No, I want my own life. And Jesus says, “If you lose your life, you’ll find it.” It’s the person who tries to build this autonomous, self-governing, disconnected, one generational, weekend-to-weekend life that is dead. It’s when you pour yourself into God’s purposes that you actually get to be alive.