The Faith of the next generation
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Scripture Reading:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
Pastoral Prayer
Pray for transformation of our hearts
Pray for God to draw people to this place
Pray for God to make disciples
INTRODUCTION
I want to talk to you today about “The Faith of The Next Generation”. I heard this statement the other day by my professor and it has been deeply embedded in my heart. He said, “In America, we are on the brink of losing an entire generation” AND “Generation Z could be considered an unreached people group”. Gen Z are those whose age is between 9-27 (68 million in the United States).
Can you imagine the impact upon our nation if an entire generation rejects Christianity? It is this generation that will be leading our cities, our states, and our nation in the years to come. It is this generation that will be teaching our children in schools, that our children will be working for, and that will be responsible for leading the next generation after them to live with Christian principles.
Now you might say, “what does this have to do with me?” That is true, but the church cannot simply turn a blind eye and let someone else worry about it. It is our responsibility to do everything we can to pass our faith down to the next generation for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
I’m going to show you today that for thousands of years, the primary place where the transfer of faith has taken place has been the home. I truly believe if the faith is not being taught in the home, then the chances of the next generation walking with the Lord are slim to none. And I also believe the reason so many children are not following the Lord today is because children are no longer being discipled in the home.
I want you to think about this: Children spend an average of 40 hours a week in school.
Learning secular education, hearing worldly ideologies and explanations about Creation and mankind, and listening the foulest language, dirty jokes, and everything else you could imagine.
They spend another 4-10 hours a week watching television, playing on devices, or looking at some kind of social media.
The rest of their time is spent sleeping or cleaning their rooms, or playin outside.
If the church only has these children 1-2 hours per week, How can it ever compete with the world that has them 40-50 hours per week?
This is why God told Israel that the next generation must be taught and trained by them. This is why God told Israel that the future of their people would depend upon them today.
In Deuteronomy 6 God gave a charge to Israel before they entered the promise land. This charge was directed towards the families and God said, If you will to teach children to obey His commandments, it will ensure the their survival.
The commandments were the very foundation of life, telling man exactly how to live. God is the great Creator, the Giver of all life; therefore, He knows exactly how life should be lived. This was the very reason He had given the commandments to man, to show man how to live a full and victorious life. If a person obeys God, he will experience the fullness of life and conquer all the enemies who oppose life, seeking to drag him down into the pit of death.
People fear many things in our country, the Corona Virus, Putin, inflation…BUT these are not our biggest threat. Our biggest threat is God. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov 14:34).
The faith of the next generation hinges upon the obedience of today’s Christians
The faith of the next generation hinges upon the obedience of today’s Christians
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Explanation:
Moses is giving a charge to Israel before they enter the promise land. And in this charge is something called the Shema. And this Shema became the prayer of the prayer of the Jewish people who would recite this everyday and every night. The Shema is about loving God and teaching the next generation to love Him and follow Him.
Before Moses gives the Shema, he tells them why it is so important that they listen to what he has to say:
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Look at these key words “that you might do them” AND “so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord”
Our present state of obedience plays a major role in the faith of the next generation. We should never think that our children will somehow pick up this faith that we have not lived out in our own lives. We should never think that somehow the church will replace us and our kids will follow its teaching over our actions.
Children obey whom they can trust. And children trust their parents. They look to their parents for guidance, they trust them to provide for them, and they look to them for the principles to live by.
Why does moses want them to do what he commands them? So that they will learn to fear God
Fear of God: The word fear means to honor and reverence God to such a point that a person worships Him. The person who truly fears God surrenders his life to serve God, to obey God just as He commands. But the word means more than just reverence and honor: it means to respect the justice and judgment of God, to fear what God can do to a person if he disobeys the commandments of God.
The very purpose of Israel teaching the commandments to God’s people is just this: to teach the fear of God
And the only way they could teach that fear of God, was living it out in their own lives.
Bridge:
Children are really good observers. They follow the old saying, “monkey see, monkey do”. They will learn more from watching then they will from listening.
Do you know how I know that?
Because children are like mirrors. When you raise them, you will begin to see some of your not so good characteristics show up. And the first question we ask is, “where did you learn that!?” And it will dawn on us that they learned it from us. Not from our verbal teaching them, but by watching us.
This is called observational learning. And what Moses is warning Israel not to do is say one thing and do another. Because if they tell their children to fear the Lord, yet do not fear Him themselves, the children will follow in the parents footsteps.
Application:
I realize that most of you in here have raised your children. But this verse does not only refer to children, but to grandchildren, and we could even say great grandchildren. And even further that that, there is a whole world out there watching the church today.
And what this next generation wants to know is “does the faith we claim to have truly make a difference in our lives?”
And for those of you who are mothers and fathers your faith is paramount in your children’s life! Your faith lived out is far more important than you teaching them to make money, far more important than you sending them to college. It is our faith that gives life!
Nothing else in this world will give life to your children! It does not matter how much money they have, if they do not have your faith then they are hopeless!
Here is something else we need to consider as a new church plant. We must be intentional about reaching this next generation! Gen Z does not want to come to religious gathering full of people who claim one thing and do another! They want to be a part of something authentic! And the survival of this church is dependent upon us reaching those between 9-27 y/o.
How can we pass this faith on to the next generation?
1) The Word of God must be internalized
1) The Word of God must be internalized
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
Explanation
“shall be on your heart”— that is, the people were to think on them and meditate about them, so that obedience would not be a matter of formal legalism, but a response based upon understanding.
By reflecting on the commandments, they were reflecting on God’s words (6:1); and by understanding the path of life set down by the commandments, they could live the ay God intended them to live.
The heart in the OT is the center of the intellect, equivalent to what we would call the mind. So God is tells Israel that His Word, His commandments, His statues must be imprinted within their minds that they become the very source that they draw from to live!
Bridge:
It was much harder to know God’s Word in those days, because they did not have Bibles. This was an oral culture who listened, heard, memorized, and obeyed. It took more effort and it only took place when someone read the laws of God before a group of people. But God expected them to put forth the effort and make His Word their source of life.
Application
How much easier is it for us today who have Bibles to internalize God’s Word? Everyone of us can pick up a Bible and read it freely and have the very words of God planted inside our minds. How much easier is it for us today who come to the church freely and hear the Word of God expounded to us to take what we have heard and commit it to memory?
If God expected Israel top remember what they had heard, certainly He expects us to read and digest His Word in our own lives.
If God’s Word does not live within us, it will not live inside the next Generation.
2) There must be continuous instruction of the Word of God in the child’s life
2) There must be continuous instruction of the Word of God in the child’s life
“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Explanation
Notice how they were to teach their children.
Continuously! When they have dinner they were to be teaching them. When they walked down to the school bus they were to teach them. When they took their child shopping they were to be teaching them. When put their child to bed they were to be teaching them! When their child woke up in the morning they were to be teaching them!
This is not reading them the Bible, this was regurgitating what was already in their hearts! This continuous teaching was to be the primary source of instruction in the child’s life!
The parents were to be pouring the words of God into their children's hearts!
Look what he says, “bind them as signs on your hands and frontals on your foreheads”.
This is not to be taken literally. He is saying paste the Words of God between your eyes and walk around. This will not benefit the child at all. Parents must impress the words of covenant faith into the thinking of their children by inscribing them there with diligence.
The image is that of the engraver who takes hammer and chisel and etches a text into the face of a solid granite. This is a task for sure, but when done with all diligence the message is there to stay.
Thus it is that the generations of Israelites to come must receive and transmit the words of the Lord’s everlasting covenant revelation
What God’s Word does to the mind is reprogram it to think like God. That is what the Word of God does! It changes the way we think and programs us to think like God thinks!
And what Flows from our thinking? Our actions! What we think we are! So if Israel would invest in their children and program the minds of their children to think like God thinks then they would likely become true followers of Yahweh.
Bridge
How do you you think our kids minds are being programmed today? Do you know that this world continuously programs the minds of our children? Do you know the enemy is constantly putting garbage in front of our children so that they will begin to dwell on evil thoughts?
The world we live in today is overflowing with knowledge. Right at our fingertips in w seconds you can have an answer to any question you could imagine, or a picture to illustrate anything you could imagine. This world is continuously pouring in secular principles and ideas and how much of God’s truth are our children getting?
Application
How should we teach our children the Word of God? CONSTANTLY!
Teach your children constantly about the Word of God. Tell them about when they wait for the bus, when they work in the garden, when you fish in the boat, when you walk by the way and when you go to bed.
Every night at the dinner table share a story from the Word of God and teach them what true salvation is! Pour the Word of God into their hearts every opportunity you get because this is time you have with them is limited!
But don’t stop with your children, look for opportunities to pour into other children. What hope is there for a child who’s parents are unbelievers? Well if God provides an opportunity, pour into those children as well nieces, nephews, neighbors, children who visit this church. Fill their minds with God’s Word!
3) There must be a compelling explanation as to why we live the way we do
3) There must be a compelling explanation as to why we live the way we do
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ‘Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’
Explanation
Notice this instruction begins with: “when your son asks you”. This is not question of ‘if’ they will ask but when they ask.
Children were no different back then than they were today. When they see their parents doing things that does not make sense they want to know why!
Can you imagine all these rules and regulations the Israelites were following and the children who began to mature wondered why are we doin this? Why are we celebrating this weird festival? Why do we look so much different from the neighbors over there?
What did God say to tell them? Tell them about your slavery in Egypt. Tell them about how evil Pharaoh was and how he forced hard labor upon your people. Tell them that the Lord saved you from that slavery and brought you into this better place. Tell them that you experienced supernatural things that only God Himself could do! Tell them that God gave you life and that is why you gave your life to God!
Bridge:
This whole act of bringing Israel up out of Egypt is a picture, a foreshadowing, of the great deliverance that we experience today from our sins. We were once enslaved to an evil ruler, we were under hard forced labor, we were in a place where we could not free ourselves, and God delivered us! God pulled us out from the depths of hell and death and brought us into life! God saved us from sin and made us His children!
And our children need to hear that God is still delivering people today. Our children need to hear that God still works miracles in people’s lives and that is why we come to church. That is why we call ourselves Christians. That is why we give and serve and dedicate our lives to Jesus Christ because He has called us out of Egypt and given us new life!
Application
What will you tell your Children? What will you tell, your children who asks you why you do the things that you do?
Our children need to hear our testimonies.
They need to hear about our personal walk with Christ.
They need to hear about our personal struggles, temptations, victories, our sacrifices and God’s faithfulness in our lives.
They need to hear how God has taken care of us in impossible situations and always met our needs.
They need to hear about our answered prayers and our fellowship with other believers.
Our children need to God is real to us and we have experienced Him in our lives.
CONCLUSION
What is the hope of Christianity in the next generation? What is the future of this church, this country, this world? It largely depends upon us. How we pass on our faith will affect generations after us.
Ex 20:4-5 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”
Illustration
In 1900 American pastor and educator Albert Edward Winship wrote a book entitled “Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity.” In it he traced the posterity of the two men. The first: Max Jukes, born about 1720. Jukes was an atheist, who married an ungodly woman. 540 studied descendants, 310 died as paupers (very poor persons), 150 were convicted criminals, there were 7 murderers, over 100 drunkards, and 190 female prostitutes.
The other was Jonathan Edwards. From Jonathan Edwards’ 1,394 studied descendants came an American vice-president, 3 senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 30 judges, 13 college presidents, 65 college professors, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 military officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 prominent authors, and 80 other public officials.
How we live our lives, treat our spouses, and relate to our children now will affect generations after us, for good or for evil.
What will you do?
~PRAYER~