You see that family?
That’s my godson, his lovely wife and their beautiful four daughters.
Suzette, Amber, Gabby and Aleia!
They are my nieces—I know that because… they call me Uncle Alan.
That’s what they decided I was to them—Uncle.
They knew that I was Shane’s godfather and that I had performed the wedding ceremony of their parents.
But…I had become something more to them… I was now going to be their Uncle.
And… I was the guy who always brought Sunday School to their living room.
We started with Easter… what it meant and how it affected us…
We learned the word Golgotha—as in Golgotha’s Hill… the place of the skull.
Then we continued at Christmas… explaining the true meaning of Christ’s birth.
And Gabby remembered Golgotha!
They know Uncle Alan as that guy who teaches them Bible stories.
And they asked their parents if Uncle Alan would teach them about water baptism.
Yes—water baptism! I didn’t see that one coming.
The girls decided that they wanted to be water baptized, but… they weren’t sure what it meant.
Two of them come from a catholic background, so…they heard it was just water on their head.
And… they wanted Uncle Alan to explain it to them and teach them about it.
No problem.
The Bible says that “the older will teach the younger” (Titus 2:2-5)
That’s our responsibility.
Not to sit on a couch, watching TV all day, declaring “I’m done! I did my life—now leave me alone!”
Nope—that’s not God’s way.
He sends people into our lives so they can teach us!
My guide was my father in the Lord – Gordon Henry!
He taught me to love the scripture and serve the Lord with zeal and passion and love and dedication.
And to never give up learning more about God—and to always GIVE BACK because YOU’VE been GIVEN!
That’s the reason I get so frustrated with people who are “retired in place!”
They know who they are—they just think their job is done—“so leave me the heck alone!”
When God invests in “you” time and talent—HE expects a return on HIS investment!
And that means—someday I was to be a Gordon Henry into someone’s life.
Someone like…Suzette or Amber or Gabby or Aleia.
That was my responsibility—to be willing and able to teach the younger about the ways of the Lord.
No one does that anymore.
No one takes that expectation and accepts it and—follows through with it!
But… I knew—when Gordon was teaching me—that someday, I’d be teaching them!
And now… they wanted to know about water baptism.
And here we were again… our “Saturday Sunday School” in their living room.
And I took them to the best example of why we should be water baptized.
Because Jesus was!
We went to Matthew 3:16 and saw that Jesus asked John the Baptist to water baptize Him.
And we talked about an American Flag being in the yard was a symbol that we were proud of being Americans.
But… being born in America is what made us Americans.
How water baptism is an outer symbol to the world that we love the Lord inside our hearts.
But what mattered most was… we loved the Lord inside our hearts.
And then… it happened.
I felt like the Lord was urging me to…
Ask these girls if… they wanted to ask Jesus to come into their heart.
I explained the ABCs of Salvation:
Admit you need Jesus-the Savior
Believe that He is the Savior
Confess Him as your Savior!
And they each raised their hands that they wanted to be saved.
And then… I had their parents come sit with them, holding hands and doing this together, as a family.
And Aunt Bella was there too… arms around the girls.
And we said the Sinners Prayer together—all eight of us.
And then… we opened our eyes and realized… they were filled with tears.
The girls were crying, their mom was crying and… even their dad was wiping away tears.
In the middle of their living room—a miracle had taken place.
Gordon would have been sooooo proud!