Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I believe you will be blessed by today's message as I minister on the importance of raising a godly seed. You know, I'm a third-generation preacher, and I want to share with you the legacy passed to me from my dad, R. G. Hardy, and my granny, Mother Hardy, in today's message, A Godly Legacy.

R. G. Hardy: But my grandmother literally prayed him into the kingdom of God. She prayed him into the kingdom of God. And when he had that crippling back injury, my grandmother prayed and fasted with her church people, and they brought that anointed prayer cloth and laid it upon him, and he was miraculously healed. He wasn't even saved; he was healed because of her faithfulness. And when God healed his body, of course, then it wasn't long after that that he got saved.

As soon as he got saved, my grandmother marched in there because she had the privilege of actually meeting Finis Jennings Dake of the Dake Bible Course. He actually came to their church that she was in at that time, so she actually met him and sat under a little bit of his teaching. First thing she did was come in with that Dake's course. She immediately, as soon as my father was just brand new, just brand-new saved, she saw he was hungry and he had a zeal. She stuck that Bible course in his hand, and immediately he began to just absorb the word of God.

And so you see that legacy began, and I saw in my grandmother and my father people that absolutely were in love with the word of God. I mean, they'd rather read the Bible than eat. I mean, literally, spend hours and hours and hours reading the Bible. I saw that, and I just thought that that was what you're supposed to do because that's what I saw them do.

I watched my grandmother. We used to always laugh because we'd say she got up with the chickens. She got up at the break of day when it was still dark out, and she had her same routine every day. She got up and spent hours reading the Bible. I see her sitting now in her chair. It didn't matter where she lived—she lived on Lombard Street, she lived on William Street, she lived on Clement Street—and in everywhere she lived, she always lived on the top floor.

She always put her chair, if this is the window, she had her chair like this so she could look out the window and watch everything going on. She had her table here with her Bible and her books and piles of handwritten notes. Handwritten notes where she would just read the word of God and prepare lessons and write down her thoughts.

My grandmother started, well, when my dad got saved, I was only about two, and my mom wasn't a Christian at that time. And so when my father would have to go on street meetings, my mother was working or whatever, he would take me and my grandmother would hold me while my dad was standing there preaching on the street meetings.

Now, my dad, you know, he was first saved. I mean, he was just like a bulldog ready to go out there. So when he got that mic, it was like ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff. I mean, he was preaching; they were going to get saved one way or another. And my grandmother would be standing there holding me, and my father would get so... I mean, you're talking about my father now 40 years ago. He would be preaching, and here my grandmother's holding me, and I would start going ayayayayayayaya.

Do you know why? It was an anointing. I was catching the anointing. I was only two, but I was catching that anointing. There was something... I didn't know what he was saying, but I was catching that anointing and I would begin to yell and shout with him. And then when I got to be a little older, my grandmother started taking me door-to-door.

Every weekend she'd pick another place in the city to go. I've been all over this city, places I have no idea where they're even... where they are. And we would get on the trolley car back then, and we would go. And some of those places you had to walk up way, way up to get to the house, way, way down, go way, way up, way, way down. I mean, it would take you half an hour to do three houses just to walk the steps. And my grandmother did this now, and she's like, by this time, in her 60s.

And she would take me every week. We were a team: grandmother and granddaughter. Now you gotta realize that 40 years ago, people weren't quite as ignorant as they are today, and you didn't have to be quite as fearful about going to people's doors. And if people would invite us in, you didn't have to be... today I would think twice about going in, but at that time it wasn't quite that bad.

There was something about a grandmother and a granddaughter that would soften people's hearts. Granny was wise. She'd let me start off with my little "who I am" and give my little girl speech. And then when their heart was softened and they'd say, "Well, come on in," then Granny would sock it to them. She just let me get them in the door, and then she'd say, "Now, honey," and then boom, that was it.

But people received that. And she was allowing me to catch an anointing and a love for the word of God. How many say amen? So I had this picture in my mind of my grandmother and I watched her, and her Bible was so raggedy, the pages were falling out and she'd have them taped in there. It was so, you know, so well-marked. It was precious, all her notes. I mean, it looked like a big pile of junk, but it was not.

She knew exactly all those notes, what that was. And you know, somebody said it's true: if your Bible is falling apart, you're not. Amen? And her Bible was always falling apart. And so now I look at myself, and on my kitchen table I've got a Bible; it is falling apart. Everywhere I've got pages taped, I've got rubber bands holding certain parts together, other things paper clips are holding it together.

Some places, if I want to read, if I wanted to read in Chronicles or something, I'd have to actually go and get a part where I've tucked it away; it's so raggedy so that I could open it up and read it. But that Bible is so marked that I won't give it up. And every time, every now and then, I smile to myself and I see my grandmother's raggedy Bible sitting there.

And I realize what a treasure, what a legacy. And my father, all of the books... if you go in his room, you would... please make sure that there's a bright light when you walk in there because you don't want to break your neck falling over the books. Books everywhere: on bookcases, on the floor, piled up here. Everywhere you go, books, books, books.

It's a legacy, a love for the word of God passed down. Isn't that right? She passed it down to my father and then onto me. And I want to tell you, when my grandmother died at 89, she didn't leave us a will with a bunch of property to be given out. She didn't leave any houses, she didn't leave any land, she didn't leave any bonds or stocks or savings accounts or money—nothing like that. No diamond rings, no jewelry, nothing.

There was nothing to be passed down to anybody. But she left us pearls of wisdom. She left us a godly legacy. And oh, how I wanted to get her Bible and her notes, and I don't know what my uncle did with them. I have no idea. And I've asked him several times—of course, my grandmother's been dead almost 18 years now. And I'd say, "Uncle Billy, whatever happened, where's Granny's Bible? Where's Granny's notes? I hope you didn't throw them out."

I don't think he would have, but he's what they call a pack rat and so he's got so much stuff and he don't know what he has, and he refuses to let anybody go through it and help him go through it. So it just, who knows where it is? I just pray one day I'll come across it. But here's the thing. About a month or so ago, my mom and dad, in all my work that they bring over to me, they brought over this envelope.

It's addressed to R. G. Hardy, and the return address is from my cousin, Margie Hardy. And I thought, hmm, wonder what this is. And when I opened it up to see what was in it, I saw these very fragile handwritten notes in my grandmother's handwriting. Somehow, when she was going through some of her father's things, she found them. She's Billy's daughter.

And so she sent them to my dad and he sent them to me now. I just want to read you a small portion. I want to show you the legacy that I'm talking about. In this very... after this, I'm going to try to find a way to preserve them a little better. This is my grandmother's writing: "If we wish a place in the kingdom of God, we must be willing to drink of the cup of suffering that our Lord drank. We must face trials and temptations and even opposition and failure with something of the courage that Jesus possessed.

We must have in our lives the willingness, the mental strength to endure sufferings and adversities with courage and patience and endurance. We must press on and on and not give up. We must have a made-up mind that no difficulty, no danger, not even death itself will cause us to draw back. Christian fortitude and courage is something different than mere physical bravery.

Right reason and free will must enter into it. And those only are courageous in a true sense who are willing with a firm, unwavering will to do what they know is right. There may be a struggle within themselves, but strong faith in God's word and perseverance and God's grace will be sufficient to take us through and give us the victory. Our suffering is in the Lord and not ourselves.

In order for a Christian to be strong through the Lord, he must have a life of prayer and of Bible reading and waiting on the Lord. He must live a spirit-filled life if he would gain ground and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must be willing to die to self and to flesh and also to the world and take up our cross daily and follow on to know Jesus. We must be completely yielded to the Holy Spirit that he might have his way in our souls, minds, and bodies."

This is the legacy I'm talking about. This is what I'm talking about that enables me that I have that same strength that the Lord gives because it's been passed down from me. I've caught that anointing. I caught that spirit even though I was young. That spirit, that anointing was being passed down. And God wants the same thing in every family here. Amen?

Why does God choose some people that he chooses? God made it very clear why out of all the families on the face of the earth why he chose Abraham. He chose Abraham for this reason: "For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment."

That's why God chose Abraham out of all the people on the earth, because he knew he could trust him that he would pass down a godly legacy. And that's why today millions of people, be they Jewish or be they Christian, we all lift our hands and bless the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Because it's a legacy. It's a legacy that's passed down.

How many say amen? And now for the remainder of my message, I want to take the word "legacy"—L-E-G-A-C-Y—and I want to make points of how that we can pass down a legacy using those letters L-E-G-A-C-Y. The first letter is L, and it's a no-brainer. L is for love. The greatest need of every human being and the greatest gift we can give is love.

God wired us that way. Everybody desires love. Everyone. And for Christians, it's the most natural thing is for us to love because our heavenly father, whose nature we have if we're his children, the Bible says God is love. Not just that God loves, but he is love. That's his very essence and nature. And even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his humanity, he needed to know that his father loved him.

He needed to know that as Jesus, the human part of him needed to know that God his father loved him. Now, you know it's only recorded three times in the New Testament when God almighty the Father has spoken out of heaven in an audible voice. Only three times is it recorded. And two of those times, he spoke to Jesus to say, "I love you."

He said, "Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." Jesus needed to know that his father loved him. The first time his father told him that was at his baptism when he came out of the water, and he went straight from there into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days of the enemy, of Satan. And God knew that when he went through that trial and that tribulation, he needed to know his father loved him.

The second time God spoke out of the heaven and said, "I love you" was when Jesus was at the Mount of Transfiguration. And the voice of God spoke out audibly and said, "This is my beloved son, hear him." He needed to know that his father loved him because in a few days he was going to be in Gethsemane drinking that cup of suffering that my grandmother talked about and he was going to go to the cross and cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

He needed to know that his father loved him. The need of every person is to know that their father loves them. We have an epidemic in our nation of fatherlessness. Children that are being raised without fathers for whatever reason. Born out of wedlock, some never even know who their father is. So there are children that are being born without a father.

There are children whose fathers are in jail for a long time. They're not home to help them out. There are children of divorce, and because of divorce, their fathers have basically dropped out of their life. Maybe send the check that the state makes them send, but that's about it. And because of that, the statistics show... it shows it's proven that children that are living in a home without a father, they are more likely to grow up and be unwed mothers, they're more likely to grow up and be drug users and alcoholics, they're more likely to go to prison.

It's proven in our society. It's because why? They're looking for love. They're looking for something to fulfill them, and unfortunately they're looking in all the wrong places. And the devil knows they're vulnerable. They're vulnerable without that love, so he sets them up. That's why it's important that you stress to your children how much you love them.

And if you happen to be a single parent, especially a single mother, I identify with you because I was a single mother for about five years... that I wasn't... and even before then, emotionally you may as well say I was a single parent. And I understand that it's hard. It is very hard, and my heart goes out to you. But you need to let that child know, regardless if your father never writes you, never sends you a birthday card, never comes around, and never has a thing to do with you, you've got a father in heaven who loves you unconditionally.

He will never leave you, he will never forsake you. Never, never, never. He said, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Because children who grow up that do not have the security of love, they grow up with all kinds of fear. Fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear that they're going to grow up and be a bad parent, fear that they're going to grow up and fail.

Because why? The Bible says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out all fear. For he that feareth is what? Not made perfect in love. So that's one of the problems: if children do not know that they're unconditionally loved, they're going to grow up with all of these fears. When we come to Jesus, a lot of us, some of you may have come to Jesus and you may have had all kinds of fears when you got saved.

But the Lord took them, and once you realized how much he loves you, then those fears, they left you. How many say amen? So number one, L: we must make sure that our children know that you love them as their parent and constantly reaffirm to them that God loves them. And he's a father that will never forsake them.

E. E is for encouragement. Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul. That's one thing about my granny. When I was little, she used to watch me before I went to school and my mother worked. My dad would take me over there, and she didn't have a television. She didn't even... all she had was a radio. And it was tuned to WBMD 750 on the dial for all the preachers.

She had no amusements, no entertainment. I mean, you know, of course there was no such thing as computer games and video games. I mean, she didn't even have a television anyway. So my entertainment with Granny was playing church, making up songs, singing songs, drawing pictures, reading stories, telling stories. This was my entertainment with her for hours and hours and hours every day.

And the thing about Granny was... and any of you that remember her, she was very demonstrative and she tended to... her voice would get up there a little bit, you know, and she'd go, "Oh," you know, and she'd... you know, this way she was. And... praise the Lord. I'm taking time out for a drink. Amen.

The thing about it is, whatever I did, if I made up a little song and sang it to her, "Oh my goodness, that is the best song I have ever heard." If I drew a picture, "Oh, that is the most beautiful picture I've ever seen." Everything I did was the best. It was the greatest. It was wonderful, and I believed her. She would go on. Now, I'm... you know, this is just what she did.

She always would say that. And so what she was doing was pulling things out of me. "Oh well, gee, Granny, I can do better than that." And so everything was "you're the best," "you're the greatest," "that's wonderful," "that's so wonderful." And so she constantly encouraged me. And so it began to develop that confidence in me so that I could do things, so that I would stand up before people.

And so, you know, I stood up before her and we sang songs and we played church, and I wrote this song one day and I still remember it. It's not real hard, but I mean, this was before I went to school. I wrote this song and it was: "The devil is a liar and I love my Lord because he saved my soul and he made me whole. The devil is a liar and I love my Lord because he saved my soul and he made me whole." And she said that was the most beautiful song she had ever heard.

But what I want you to see is this. Listen to the truth. I don't... what was I, four years old maybe, five years old at the oldest because I wasn't in school yet. Listen to the truth. The first word of my song: "The devil is a liar." Whoa. I mean to know at that age the devil is a liar. I had learned already the devil is a liar. That Jesus saved my soul and made me whole.

So you see it was legacy that was being put into me. And so we have got to have encouragement. I always... I remember when I was growing up, my mother always said to me... she had little sayings that she always said. And one that always stuck in my mind: she always say that quitters never win and winners never quit.

Whenever anything would be, you know, a problem or I didn't want to do something or I didn't feel like doing something, she would always say that to me: "Quitters never win and winners never quit." And that would stay in my mind. That was encouragement. And then I remember I would always tell my children: "You can do it, you can do it, you can do it."

And Sarah when she was little, she would always have this... she'd get this little girl whiny voice, "I can't do it." And I'd always say, "Yes, you can do it. Stop saying you can't because you can." And what would happen is she not only would do it, she'd end up bringing an A home. And then the next time she'd go back into that same "but I can't do it."

I'd say, "What happened the last time? Didn't you get an A?" "I know, but I can't do it this time." And this was over and over again. And I mean, the next thing you know she's on the honor roll. "I can't do it." The next thing you know she's getting a scholarship. "But I can't do it." But she was doing it because even though she was saying that, she was wanting me to come back and say, "Yes, you can." She was wanting that encouragement. She wanted to know that her father and I believed that she could do it. Amen.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I hope you're being blessed by this message, A Godly Legacy. This message speaks not only to mothers and grandmothers, but to all parents, grandparents, godparents, and really to anyone who mentors or has influence over children. You know, I love to talk about my granny, Mother Hardy. She was a self-taught Bible scholar who trained many young believers in the word of God.

And when she died at age 89, she had no earthly riches, no property or money in the bank or even jewels to leave us. But she did leave me pearls of wisdom which she gleaned from a lifetime of daily prayer and Bible study. She left a well-worn Bible with ragged pages and voluminous notes, and this is the most valuable legacy we can receive and we can leave to those who come behind us.

I want to help you to walk with me in God's word as we discover the power of L-E-G-A-C-Y: Legacy, and the six attributes these letters stand for. You may want to order this message for yourself or someone you want to become a godly legator. It's available on CD for your love gift to the radio ministry of $10 or more. Ask for offer SK129.

That's SK129 and mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. You may also order online at soundoffaith.org where you can order on MP3s. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203 and request offer SK129. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.