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*Inscription: Writing God’s Words on Our Hearts & Minds*
*/Part 24: Teaching the Next Generation /*
*Judges 2:6-13*
*/June 27, 2010/*
*Objectives of sermon:*
· To motivate and instruct my congregation to bring our children up in the ways of God in specific, pragmatic ways.
* *
*Prep: *
·
*Scripture reading: Deut.
6:4-9 (Genea)*
Happy belated fathers’ day!
This week, Micah asked me why we didn’t do anything for the fathers last week for Father’s Day.
He noticed, and I think he is right, that being fathers ourselves, it feels a little self-serving to push a gift through, but the fact is that we are church that values fatherhood.
Prayer
You have given us as parents and as a church the responsibility and privilege of raising our children.
As we see the failures made by others, help us do learn from their mistakes.
What happened?
Last Sunday we were in Joshua, and this week we enter Judges.
If the theme of Joshua is God fulfilling the covenant, then the theme of Judges is Israel breaking their part.
In Judges we watch them descend to the depths of depravity and wickedness.
· Judges ends with a story so graphic and violent that it would offend many of you if I shared it publically.
Q So how did they go from faithfulness in Joshua’s day to wickedness in Judges?
· To borrow from one of my favorite movies, “Wa’ happened?”
(Are you not mockumentary fans?
“I don’t think so!”)
It’s like finding out that that perfect couple with the fairytale romance and wedding are getting divorced; you want to know what happened.
· And why do you want to know?
Because you know that if it happened to them it could happen to you.
Judges tells us exact what happened:
*Judges 2:7, 10-13 * 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel....
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
11 ¶ Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.
12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt.
They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.
They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Do you see what happened?
It’s not as if one day the Israelites watch God break down the walls of *Jericho* and the next day they’re *sacrificing* their first born to Molech.
· Each and every time, things went down the tube at the changing of the guard, when it passed from one generation to the next.
It’s not like the next generation was born wicked.
They didn’t come out smoking a cigar, swearing like a sailor, and trying to seduced the nurse.
· I not saying cigars as a sin, but they are if you’re under 2.
How did they get from A to B? It tells us right here:
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
We have a major problem here: How could they not know about the plagues of Egypt, manna in the wilderness, the fall of Jericho?
· That’s like us not knowing about FDR and MLK.
Folks, what we have here is a failure to communicate.
Joshua’s failure
Joshua’s generation did fail, not by idolatry or forsaking God, but by failing to pass their faith on to their children.
In one generation, the nation went from *serving* God to *ignoring* Him.
· Think about that – in one generation everything was lost.
My heading says, “Joshua’s failure,” but I desperately hope that this is not my failure: I want to be strong and courageous, I want to lead this church into the Promised Land, as he did.
But I want to make sure that we bring our children with us.
· And I mean “we”: Because we are all about community, even those who are not parents play a key role in this.
One of the joys of community is helping each other in many ways.
spiritual law of thermodynamics
The nature of things is that each *new* *generation* must either build on their parent’s faith, or drift from it.
Either our children will be closer to God then us or else further from him.
· And a spiritual law of thermodynamics says that the tendency is to drift away from him, not towards.
In 19th century France, Jewish immigrants faced the same problem.
They observed:
· “The grandfather prays in *Hebrew*, the father *reads* the prayers in *French*, and the son does not pray at all.”
This drift is just as likely in ancient Palestine, 19th century France or 21st century America –the church is only one generation from extinction.
While that is very unlikely, there is a real possibility that your children will walk away from God, and he will hold you responsible for how you raise your children.
Free will
I need to be very clear about something: We’re held responsible for our role, but at a certain point free will kicks in.
I can do everything *right,* *teach* them everything, and be a perfect example but they can still choose to *rebel* against God.
I can’t make my girls love Jesus.
One of the *scariest* parts of *parenthood* is knowing there’s no *guarantees*.
· God’s first kids were rebellious too.
Some children simply have to learn the hard way – we may have our heart ripped out before we see them return.
Some may never choose God.
Ultimately, it’s up to them.
· We are responsible for what we give them.
· They are responsible for what they do with it.
A lasting legacy
This is a principle, not a promise:
NIV *Proverbs 22:6* Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
· But if we raise our children in the ways of God, it will have an effect, even if it has to “skip a generation.”
If we are faithful in our role, we have the power to create a lasting legacy of following and loving God.
Many of you are familiar with Jonathan Edwards, godly pastor before the American Revolution and a key figure in the Great Awakening.
You may not be aware of was his legacy.
In 1900, a study was made of his 1,400 known decedents:
· Over 100 lawyers, 30 judges.
· 13 college presidents and over 100 professors.
· 100 clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors
· 80 elected to office, 3 governors, several members of congress, 3 senators, and 1 vice president (Aaron Burr)
And in fact Cecil and I went to college with one of them (Cecil wants you to know that he was in his wedding.)
It is my hope that all of us also leave a legacy by training up our children in the way that they should go.
That we teach them what God is like, that it means to fall in love with Jesus, and give them a genuine experience of what God.
Q So how do we do this?
The NT has surprising little to say about parenting, because it builds upon the OT.
Because the topic was well covered there, the NT writers did not have much to add.
For this, we begin by looking to the “3rd Greatest Commandment”:
*Deuteronomy 6:4-9 * 4 ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
[There’s the first great command, then the second is “love your neighbor.”]
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
7 Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
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