FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
How to Teach the Next Generation | Deuteronomy 6:4-9
How do we inspire faith in the next generation while balancing our own spiritual commitments? This episode promises to reveal insights and stories that guide us in nurturing young hearts towards a strong and genuine relationship with God. Whether it's through the laughter of our recent movie night or the joyous chaos of Candypalooza, we celebrate the vibrant community spirit at First Baptist Church, also extending heartfelt appreciation to Lorenzo for his musical contributions and welcoming James Wilson as our new associate pastor.
The belief of one little girl in the story of Jonah sets the stage for a conversation about our responsibility to teach and inspire the next generation. We discuss how creating an inviting atmosphere helps young people connect deeply with their faith. Drawing from scripture and personal experiences, we highlight the significance of passing down these teachings, ensuring that children and teenagers are not only aware of but are eager to embrace the love of Jesus.
Our exploration goes deeper into understanding the profound meaning behind the Hebrew word "Shema" and its call to love God with all our heart, soul, and might. We contemplate the unique Christian belief in one God and how we can use our influence to shape the hearts of the young. Through volunteer opportunities and daily life moments, we encourage listeners to engrave God's word into the lives of children, fostering their spiritual growth. Join us in this heartfelt prayer for guidance, as we strive to place God at the center of our communities and inspire others to follow in faith.
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Love it. Put your hands together for our movie night that we just got to have this past Wednesday night. It was incredible, just time together. Thank you so much, drew and production team. Thank you, grayson, god is so good. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for attending online. What in Lorenzo and our worship band Incredible. Put your hands together for them this morning.
Speaker 1:Very thankful, lorenzo does have a table out here. I Lorenzo does have a table out here. I think he's selling some music and some t-shirts and things like that. As he's a worship pastor, just good friend of mine, worship pastor down in West Palm, we are super honored and blessed to have him here. I'm blessed to have Dave and Mary Stevenson here from my past church and they're just incredible servants there. And apparently it was Mary's birthday and so Dave said, what would you like for your birthday? And he thought, like she wanted to go to the Caribbean. No, she wanted to take the entire family to Disney World. So they did that this past week. So they're very tired today, but I think they're heading home, but I'm so thankful to have them here with us. So welcome to First Baptist Church, powder Springs. If you're here today and maybe you don't know, but we're having Candypalooza in our kids area right now and so if there are any kids here all the way from babies to fifth grade every parent's favorite two words is hands-free. If you need to take them to the kids area real quick, get them over there. We can help you out getting them over there and then you can come back here and listen to the end of the message and the worship and your kids can have a great time. We're so thankful for all that God is doing. We have a new ladies group that is starting next Sunday. It's for ladies from the ages of 25 to 40. And as we have many different ladies groups here, you can go online and learn more about those. If you need more information about the new group starting, you can always give us a call or go on our website. We have a new men's study. Our men's group meets right up there in that room every Wednesday night at 630, as we have other groups going on at 632. But it's fundamentals for being a man, fundamentals for being a man, and I think I might attend and it's going to be up there in that room at 630. So any men in the room you can join Alan Martin be a part of that group and it's incredible.
Speaker 1:As we are on the tail end of Pastor Appreciation Month, I would just like to say thank you so much just for the way in which that you've appreciated my family. We just love you so much. We appreciate you. We are thankful for you. We are just so grateful that God would bring us here. We love our church family.
Speaker 1:I just wanna encourage you just continue to pour your love out on our staff, all the pastors on our staff, the ministry directors on our staff. Can we just put our hands together for our staff? What a great job they do. We're so thankful for them. Pour your love out on them.
Speaker 1:We do have a box out here for our new pastor, associate pastor of ministries, james Wilson, and so you can give to he and his family and that box will be out there next Sunday too, if God so moves you to give him a little cash, a check, a gift card, just a way to bless he and his family or, as they are here with us in our church family. That'd be a wonderful thing to do. Let me pray for us Heavenly, with us in our church family. That'd be a wonderful thing to do. Let me pray for us, heavenly Father. We love you, god, you're so good. We give you all the glory, the honor, the power, the majesty, god. To you belong all wisdom, to you belong all the glory. And so, father, we just pray, lord, that you would just use your word this morning into our lives, into our church. Father, I ask and I pray, lord, that God, as you've been doing so much, father, I pray that you would just keep your hand of blessing, your hand of favor, upon our church. And, god, may we always give you all the credit, all the fame, all the glory. God, we don't deserve it. It's nothing that none of us could do, god. It's all only what you could do. God, we say thank you for it. And, god, we just want more of you. Father, we just wanna experience you more. Jesus, we love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said amen.
Speaker 1:I heard a story this week of a little girl, a little girl who went to Sunday school and she learned for her very first time, if you can imagine the story of Jonah. She could not believe it. She couldn't believe the story of Jonah that there was a man that was swallowed by a great fish. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't wait to go to school the next day to tell her whole school that there was a man that got swallowed by a fish. So she did. She went the next day, told everybody she could. She walked into her classroom, looked her teacher straight in the eyes and said you won't believe what I learned yesterday in church. Her teacher said why don't you try me? She said I learned about Jonah and he got swallowed by a fish. He said I don't believe that. She said well, it's in the Bible, it's true. He said no, it's not. She said yes, it is. He said no, it's not. She said yes, it is. And she said in fact, when I get to heaven one day, I'm going to ask him. And he said well, what if Jonah didn't make it to heaven? She said then you can ask him. I love that, I love that story. That's good stuff right there.
Speaker 1:Man Praise God. We never need to underestimate the next generation we have. It's amazing what God does in the next generation and their faith in him, their relationship with him and how important it is to raise the next generation just to know God and to know what God wants to do in their life. In fact, that's what we're talking about this morning, as we're continuing in the book of Deuteronomy, candy Palooza Sunday. We're going to be talking about this morning how to teach the next generation.
Speaker 1:Everybody say teach, say, teach. How to teach the next generation. See, there are people today that don't believe in what the next generation can do for God. There are people today that don't think that the next generation is interested in God. In fact, there are many people today that have given up on the next generation. Well, I'm here today to tell you the good news is that God completely disagrees. Amen, god completely disagrees.
Speaker 1:In fact, what God says is is he tells us in his word all that he promises to do, all that he desires to do, all that he wants to do in the next generation. He wants the next generation to know that he created generation. He wants the next generation to know that he created them. He wants the next generation to know that Jesus died for them. He wants the next generation to know that they can be saved and the Holy Spirit can live inside of them. In fact, they did a study just on Gen Z, the next generation, asking how many of y'all are really interested in learning more about God and over half of Gen Z said we would love to learn more about God. If somebody would only teach us. If somebody would only teach us. I love what God says in his word.
Speaker 1:In God's word we see that God has a passion and that God has an urgency for the next generation. In fact, I believe the importance in discipling every generation. I believe in the importance of discipling, in teaching every age and every stage of life. I believe that, while we should disciple every generation, that God is calling us to prioritize the younger, the next generation. That's what God wants us to do. I believe that God is calling us to have a red hot passion that the next generation should know God. I believe that God, he wants us to have a white hot urgency that the next generation believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You might be wondering, pastor, what's the difference in red hot and white hot? I have no idea. I just thought it sounded good. So that's what we're going with this morning. I wanna show you in God's word what does God say about us and what his passion is, and what our passion and our urgency should be for the next generation.
Speaker 1:Psalm 78, 4 says we will not hide from them the next generation, we will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders that he has done. We love telling the next generation. It also says in Joel 1.3,. It says tell it, meaning the gospel of Jesus. Tell it to your children, let your children tell it to their children and their children to the next generation. So the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus, is that which is to be passed on from generation to generation.
Speaker 1:Psalm 71.18,. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, until I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. In other words, no matter what age we are, we should be passionate and urgent about the next generation knowing Jesus. Why? Because Jesus said in Matthew 19, 14, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Jesus said bring the next generation to me, invite the next generation to me, allow them to come to me. And he says don't hinder them. In other words, one question that we always need to ask in our life as a Christian. One question we always need to be asking in our life, as the church, is to say are we doing anything? Are we doing anything to hinder the next generation young children, teenagers, young families from coming to church? Are we doing everything to bring them? Are we doing everything to invite them? Are we doing everything to include them so that they are not hindered? But they are here. Everybody say here, we don't want them to be hindered, we want them to be here.
Speaker 1:I believe that the church, that we, should be the most passionate people. This should be the most passionate place about the next generation. I've heard it said that whoever is most passionate about the next generation, I've heard it said that whoever is most passionate about the next generation are going to be those who win them. We know that today, technology companies are targeting the next generation, targeting little kids, so that they can get their devices in their hands, so that they can get addicted and hooked on their devices. We know today that brands are targeting the next generation, even young children, to wear their brands so that they can be a brand spokesperson for their brand. We know that today, whether it be the entertainment industry, they want children to listen to their music, to watch their movies, to watch their shows. Whether it be political parties, they want young children to believe in their policies and their ideologies. It seems like everybody is going after the next generation. Why? Because of how important they are, because of how valuable they are to God.
Speaker 1:In God, there is no one who is more passionate, no one who is more urgent about the children of this world than him, because he wants them to know that he desires to be their father, that Jesus desires to be their savior, that the Holy Spirit wants to fill them up so that they follow Jesus with their life, so that God can show them I have a plan for your life. I've created you, god is saying, in my image. I have what is good for you and I want to show you what. I have a plan for your life. I've created you. God is saying in my image. I have what is good for you and I want to show you what I have for you.
Speaker 1:So my question for you this morning that are here and those watching online is what children has God placed in your life that you have influence in? What children has God placed in your life that you have influence in. They may be your very children. They may you have influenced. They may be your very children. They may be your grandchildren. They may be your nieces. They may be your nephews. They may be children in your neighborhood. They might be children that you, that in which your, your friends, your that, your relationships that you have and extended friendships. Whoever they are, whatever children right now are coming to mind, you see their faces, you know their names. God has given you his influence for him, in their life, for his glory, so they can come to know him.
Speaker 1:This morning I wanna teach you about how to teach the next generation. I just have three points and we'll be done. The three points. I'll go and tell you what they are. Here you go and write them down. You can walk out if you want to. Here we go, point number one. Point number one is God. Don't take me serious on that one Point number one is God. Point number two is you. Point number three is them. Say it with me. Say them. Here we go. Number one God. Let's check this out. It says here in Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four. Deuteronomy six says hear, o Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one.
Speaker 1:Now here's what's very interesting, that word hear is actually the Hebrew word shema. Everyone say shema and these next few verses together are all known by the Jews as the Shema. Every Jew has the Shema memorized and they are to recite the Shema every single day. The Shema is what is supposed to be nearest and dearest to their heart, and that word, the Hebrew word here, is the Hebrew word Shema. And here's what here means. Shema means not just a here, here, but it means to listen, because there's a difference in hearing and listening. And not just means to listen, but it means to understand, which means to study it, to perceive it, to get deeper into it. But also the word Shema means to obey it, to hear, to listen, to understand and to obey.
Speaker 1:God is saying here's what I want you to hear that the Lord our God, what is most important, the Lord our God, the Lord, is one. Now I need you to see that he says here that the Lord is one. We believe that God is saying that there is, that he himself is one. There is only one God. Everybody say one. It is so important that we understand the power of the truth of one. Why? Because Ephesians 4, verses 5 and 6, says that there is one Lord, there is one faith, there is one baptism, there is one God and Father who is over all and in all and through all. In verse 4, he says that there is one body, there is one spirit and there is one hope to which you are called. Aren't you thankful that all of the different religions in the world are not true, that everyone who says that there is a God out there, that just claiming that there are many different gods or different gods that there are? Aren't you thankful that there's just one God? The Bible says, because that is the way in which that we know how to live, that's the way in which we know who to worship, we know who to trust, we know who we are living for. Acts 4.12 says there is salvation in no one else, under the one name, under the name that is given under heaven, jesus Christ. We know that Jesus said in John, chapter 14, verse six, that he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. There are not many different gods and there's not many different ways to God. God is saying that there is one God and there's only one way to that God, and it is through his son being saved in Jesus Christ, that Jesus has died for all of our sin, that Jesus has risen from the dead and all we need to do is simply place our faith in him, that we call on him to be the Lord of our life and we can be saved.
Speaker 1:I remember one day I had the opportunity to be able to be in a taxi. I was in a taxi going from the airport to a hotel. I was speaking somewhere around the country. This was years ago, I can't even remember where I was and I remember that there was a gentleman that was driving the taxi, and this gentleman was from India. I've always, honestly, wanted to go to India. I love Indian people and I love Indian food, amen.
Speaker 1:And so I got to talk to him and so we just started striking up this conversation and he said, sir, are you a Christian? And I said, yes, I am. And he says well, he said I'm a Hindu. And he said well, you know that we believe, just like you, right? And I'm like ah, I don't think so let's talk more about this. And he said well, he said we believe that there is one deity, but there are millions of different gods. He said, like a tree there's one tree, there's one deity, but all of the different branches, all of the different limbs might be a different God. He said there could be millions of different gods, but there is one deity. And he said and you believe in many different gods, you believe there are three gods. I said, sir, that's actually not correct. We believe in one God and that one God is Father, son and Holy Spirit. But there is only one God.
Speaker 1:And he said well, you believe in Jesus and we believe in the Hindu God, one of the million different gods, and his name is Krishna. And he said Krishna is the one who took on human flesh and he came and lived among all the human beings to be an example, to be a model for him. And so you believe in Jesus, we believe in Krishna. It's all the same religion. I said, sir, no, it's not. I'm sorry, but yes, we believe in Jesus, who is God. He stepped out of heaven and he took on human flesh. He remained fully God, he became fully man. He did live in our place, but Jesus died for our sins so that we could be saved, and he raised from the dead, he went through resurrection. Is that what Krishna did? And the man looked at me and he said no. He said that's impossible. And I said, sir, I love you and I respect you, but we do not believe the same. We believe in a resurrected Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, who brings true salvation into life, and what he's done in me, he can do the same thing in you. That is exactly what God is telling us in his word that we need to hear, that we need to remember that the Lord, our God, is one.
Speaker 1:Now I want to show you one other thing the word Lord everyone say Lord. The Hebrew word here for Lord is Yahweh. The Hebrew word is Yahweh, and Yahweh means that he is the existing one. Yahweh means simply to be that God is, or that God says I am. That's why, when Moses was talking to God and God was sending him to Pharaoh to get the Israelites delivered from Egypt, and Moses said well, who am I supposed to tell them to send me? To ask him Pharaoh to let all of these millions of Israelites go. And God said just tell him that the I am has sent you and I'm here to tell you this morning that Jesus, when Jesus came on the scene in the New Testament, he made these outrageous statements because he said I am the light of the world. Jesus said I am the bread of life. Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus said before Abraham was I am. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by me. Put your hands together this morning if you believe that Jesus is Lord, we believe in one God who is three persons, and here's why I say this.
Speaker 1:I say all of this to say everybody wants to reach the next generation. Everybody wants something from them. We don't want something from them, we want someone for them. We want them to know God. We want them to know that God is the Lord, that he is one, and we want them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, to hear the word of God so they can be saved. So that's number one. Number one is God. Number two is you. Everybody say you, you.
Speaker 1:Here's the point. Here's what he says in Deuteronomy 6, verses five and six. He says you shall love, you shall love. This is what God is all about. Notice how God did not use the word here obey, notice how God didn't use the word here, even just follow. But he says you shall love. Why? Because God is a God of love.
Speaker 1:Everybody say love. And what does God want most from you? What does God want most from me, most from us? He simply desires our love. Why? Because God infinitely loves you. God could not love you anymore and he could not love you any less because he's God. He's just crazy about you. If you knew how much God loves you, you'd be blushing right now. Amen, man, god loves you so much. And so what is his call on our life? His desire on our life is to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart.
Speaker 1:Everyone say heart. The word heart is how we are called to love God. He goes on to say to love the Lord, your God, with your heart, your soul and your might. Let me break those three down. What does it mean heart? Heart means how you love God. Heart means your affections. Heart means your emotions. Heart means your passions. The heart is the how you love God. And then he says he wants you to love him with all of your soul. Your soul is your who, it's your inner self, it's your inner being, it's who you really most, truly, deeply, are. Your soul is your who. Your heart is your how. And then he says to love him with all of your might. Your might is the what or the amount. The might means exceedingly, it means abundantly, it even means with force, it means that it is a powerful love that we have for God.
Speaker 1:Now I just want to set one matter straight, because I hear this all the time. You might be wondering I can't do this, and sometimes, when we come up against something that we're told to do and we know we can't do it, we don't even begin to do it. I need you to understand that. God understands, he knows that I, he knows that you not, you not me, not we. We cannot love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, our soul, our mind or our strength. And if God knows it that we can't do this, then why would God put it in his word? I need you to know that this is not what saves us. You don't get saved when you love the Lord with all of yourself. No, the Bible says that we get saved when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you shall be saved when we believe on him. Here's what happens Then the God of love takes his love and he puts his love in you so that you love him in return and you love others too. But we never love God perfectly. We never love God infinitely.
Speaker 1:This is not to bring shame and not to bring guilt in our life, because we don't love God enough. This is the reason God put this in his word, is to motivate you, is to inspire you, is to inspire me that, while we may always fall short, you always have something to strive for in your life that you would love God, because God loves you, god loves us, and he says and all of these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. See, what God is going after is our very heart. Jesus said if you love me, then you will obey my commands. So we focus on loving Jesus. Jesus said that this actually comes down to. He said this comes down to the greatest command we talked about last week in all of scripture. In other words, if there's anything that we need to focus on in our life, it is simply loving God.
Speaker 1:And as we talked about last week, and go back and listen to it if you missed it, how do you love God more? You get in God's word, because when you get in God's word, god's spirit gets in you and you start to love what God loves, and you start to love God and you be out of the way in which that you see that God loves you. And why is this important? Because if we want to teach the next generation about God, listen to me, if I want to teach the next generation about God, then I've got to love God first. I don't know if you've noticed about this next generation, but they can sniff out a fake in a heartbeat. They know if we're real, if we're sincere and if we're genuine. And so if I wanna teach my kids about loving God, about believing God, about living for God, then it's got a first start in me. I have to have a heart that loves the Lord, my God, with all of my heart, my soul and my might. The way I think about it is is I can't give them what I don't have.
Speaker 1:If I picked out one of you this morning and I said, listen, today I'm gonna give you a billion dollars. Everybody say billion with a B billion. I'm gonna give you a billion dollars. Everybody say billion with a B billion. I'm going to give you a billion dollars. Number one, that's called a good day in church, right, that's called a good day in church. Number two we're going to be the biggest church on the planet the next week.
Speaker 1:If I gave you a billion dollars and I said, look, I want to give you a billion dollars this morning and you run out of the church and you start telling everybody because you can't possibly spend a billion dollars. Your husband thinks you can, but you can't possibly spend a billion dollars. So you go out telling people I'm going to help you, I'm going to give some to you, I'm going to pay off your bills, we're going to cure world hunger, we're going to do all these things because the pastor's given me a billion dollars. The problem is you never took it. And we can have the greatest news in the world, but if we don't have it first in us, then we ourselves cannot make a difference in the next generation. So I wanna encourage you, as if last week I even talked about, if you're on an airplane, how the stewardess tells us what to do.
Speaker 1:They repeat the same things over and over and over again. One of the things they repeat is the oxygen mask. What do they say to do with your oxygen mask? To put it on you first. Why the reason they say to put it on you first, because if oxygen is sucked out of the cabin, you're not going to make it two seconds putting an oxygen mask on someone else before you put it on yourself. In other words, if you want to help the most amount of people, you make sure that you have oxygen first.
Speaker 1:If you want to reach the next generation, you make sure that you are growing in your love for God first. We got to make sure that we are growing in our relationship with God. In other words, the next generation needs to see us, me. The next generation needs to see you in the word of God. The next generation needs to see you in prayer. The next generation needs to hear you tell people about Jesus. The next generation needs to hear you invite people about Jesus. The next generation needs to hear you invite people to church. The next generation needs to see you serve among them. See, I believe that churches that prioritize the next generation are churches that God blesses. We need to prioritize children and teenagers and young families in reaching them so that they can come to know and to believe in Jesus too. In fact, right now we have a couple of different volunteer opportunities in our children's ministry. I reached out to our kids ministry this week and they told me there's a couple of different opportunities to serve Wednesday nights between first and fifth grade. They're looking for someone to come in and volunteer at 630 in the tree house. You're not teaching, you're not preaching, you don't even have to sing right. We just need you to be there to love on kids and to be ready to talk about Jesus. They're just looking for someone to come in and volunteer. We're looking for a first grade support teacher every other Sunday at 9.30. That is about as low expectation as you can get. You're not the main teacher, you're not the lead teacher, but we are looking for a support teacher for the lead teacher every other Sunday at 9.30.
Speaker 1:I believe that all of us need to ask God this question God, how would you have me serve the next generation? How would you have me serve the next generation? God, what can I do to help the next generation come to know you? Well, it started with first is God, hear, o Israel. The Lord, our God, is one. Everybody say God. Then it goes to you. Everybody say you. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and these words I command you today shall be on your heart. And then, lastly, number three is them. Everybody, say them them. Here's why we look to God, here's why we love God, and it's for them.
Speaker 1:Verse seven says and you shall teach them the word of God, the commands of God. You shall teach them diligently to your children. Did you know that that word teach them diligently is actually one word in Hebrew? It's this power-packed word and it's the word shanan. And shanan is a word that would be used for someone who is sharpening a knife or a sword, so that it is effective and useful for them. In other words, what we are called to do is by the word of God we are to sharpen the next generation. I don't know if you noticed, but kids today aren't getting any sharper. Can I get an amen? And we need to be people who say you know what they need education, but it's not education that's going to make them the sharpest. They need experiences, sports and history and all these different things, museums and family but it's not experiences that's going to make them the sharpest. The Bible says that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Speaker 1:That word, shenan, also is used as a word for an engraver. It would be like if you had a huge stone up here, a huge rock, and someone with a hammer and with a chisel is engraving words into the stone so that they could never be removed. And that's what we do when we are giving the word of God, the scriptures, to the next generation. We are engraving the word of God on their hearts so that God uses it in them for the rest of their lives. It's also a word that's used for a sculptor. If you can imagine a huge slab of rock or huge slab of stone up here and a sculptor is able to take that hammer and chisel and to sculpt it into an image. God's word is saying that the Holy Spirit's role is to transform us, is to conform us into the image of Jesus, and the way the Holy Spirit does it is through the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit uses you and the Holy Spirit uses me. And as we give the next generation the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is sculpting them, transforming them into the image of Jesus.
Speaker 1:I want you to see here that he says a few things he says I want you to teach them. I want you to see here that he says a few things. He says I want you to teach them diligently. That is shenan. And he says I want you to teach them in four ways. He said number one when you sit in your house, when you're at home, do you know what is important at home? What's important at home is just simply conversation. It's when your kids feel free to ask questions and be real and they know that they can fail and they know that they couldn't ask any dumb question and that you're willing to talk about anything and you ask them questions and they ask you questions. Or maybe when you're with your grandkids, or when you're with your nieces and nephews, or when you are around kids of friends that you have sitting in the house, that is all about conversation. And then he says and when you walk by the way, when we're out and about, and that is all about mission, showing them when we're out, how we engage people, how we talk about Jesus, how we invite them to church.
Speaker 1:And then he says when you lie down, one of my favorite times every day is when I put my kids to bed. Amen, put those kids to bed and everything quiets down. But as I put them to bed. I love to pray with them. It's a time of appreciation. It's a time of appreciating God for what he has done that day, thanking God for all the different things that he has done in our lives. We make a big deal about lying down. That's when we read their storybook Bibles to them. I've got a five-year-old, a two-year-old and a five-month-old and we just wanna get God's story. We just wanna get God's word into their life, into their hearts. He says not only when you sit in your house or walk by the way or when you lie down, but also when you rise, when you get up in the morning, even just this morning in my house. You would think my house is the perfect house, you'd think it's like a musical, it's a war zone, just like yours.
Speaker 1:And this morning I told my kids, told Brooklyn she's five, she's feisty, she's strong-willed. Brooklyn, before we watch any other cartoon, we're gonna watch a Bible story this morning, as we often do. And she threw down, she wanted to watch just a Bible song. She's like dad, can I get a three minute song? She said these Bible stories last forever, forever. I was like, babe, 20 minutes is not forever. So we watched Superbook. One of my favorite Bible cartoons is what I grew up watching, is what I want my kids to grow up watching just watching these Bible stories. Why? Because it etched the word of God on my heart and I want God's word to be etched on my kid's heart. She cried for a minute. After a minute she's already sucked into the cartoon about the Good Samaritan. She loved it. Why? Because that's how God works. That's what God does. He wants to do these things in our kids' lives.
Speaker 1:So my question for you is how are you passionate about the next generation? How are you urgent to see the next generation taught about God? What influence has God given you over the next generation, whether your kids, your grandkids, your family, friends, neighbors, whoever they are? Because God blesses churches. Who prioritizes the next generation, and I wanna say thank you, thank you for being a church that does whatever it takes to see the children of our community reached for Jesus.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna ask us all to bow our heads and close our eyes. With every head bowed and every eye closed, maybe you're here today and maybe you're thinking about, maybe you're focusing on, you're praying for the next generation. I just want you right now just to be focusing on those faces. I want you to be thinking about those names that God has put influence in your life and right here, right now, I just want to encourage you that God has placed you in their life to give them an opportunity to just speak the name of Jesus, to point them to God and who he is. I want to encourage you right now that maybe you're here this morning and you're thinking well, I can't give it to them because I don't have him yet, I don't have Jesus yet. I believe that today is the day of your salvation and so today I can't give it to them because I don't have him yet, I don't have Jesus yet.
Speaker 1:I believe that today is the day of your salvation and so today I would encourage you, if you've not given your life to Jesus, that today is the day that Jesus wants to save you and I can't pray this for you and I can't save you, but you can pray this prayer to him right now to be saved. You can say Jesus, I believe in you, in to be saved. You can say Jesus, I believe in you, in Jesus. I need you. You can say Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. In Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sin my past, present and future sin. Forgive me of all my sin, jesus, I pray. You can say Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, you're alive and you're real. So I want to turn away from my sin and I want to turn and give my life to you and you can call him right now and say Jesus, be the Lord of my life, be my God, be my master, be my savior, be my Lord. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If that was your prayer, if you said it to Jesus, if you meant it, then he has saved you, he has forgiven you and you have a home in heaven forever. Can we put our hands together right now for anybody that gave their life to Jesus? We're so thankful. We want to say welcome to the family. God is so good. I want you to know there's a next step card in front of you that you can take out, that you can fill out during this time. But I want to show you just two more things very quickly.
Speaker 1:Pastor James Wilson and his family Allison, his wife, and Eli and Ellie, their son and their daughter, and Ethan is to be born in December and Pastor James called me on the phone the other day as our new associate pastor of ministries. He called me on the phone and he said Pastor Chip, I had a dad moment this morning. I got to tell you about it. I said what happened. He said, pastor Chip, I was studying my Bible and my kids came in and they didn't need anything, they were just playing around and they just wanted me to play with them. They didn't need anything, they were just playing around and they just wanted me to play with them. And he said kids, daddy's spending time with God right now. I love you. If you need something, tell me. I love you, but daddy needs to spend time with the Lord. He said they walked off, walked off into one of their bedrooms. He said it got real quiet. That's how you know they're up to no good. And he said he walked into the bedroom and they were both on the bed reading their Bibles Eli reading his Bible, ellie can't read, she's looking at the pictures because of what they saw from their dad.
Speaker 1:God has given us influence. God has given you influence. Let's be the most passionate ones, the most urgent ones about the next generation, not because of what we want from them, but because of we want for them, because that God created them, jesus died for them and the Holy Spirit wants to save them. Amen, let's all stand together. Let's all stand together.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna pray one more time and we'll sing one last song of worship. Heavenly Father, we love you and God, you're so good and God, we just, we give you this moment in our lives and we just pray and we ask right now God, give us your passion for the next generation. God, give us your urgency for children in our community. God, we pray that you would help us to love you first, so that we can pass it on to others, so they would see our love for you, that they would want to love you like we do. And, god, we just pray for you that they would wanna love you like we do. And, god, we just pray, lord, that you would move during this song, move in our hearts, move in our lives, move in our families. God be moving in our children in Candy Palooza right now. And, father, we just pray that your will would be done so your glory can come. We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name. In all God's people said amen.