Generation to Generation

What kind of church do we wanna be? Not consumers of sermons or carriers of the gospel, but part of a chain of transition transmission from one generation to the next. Imagine, thirty years from now, there are believers in Issaquah who could say your name the way Paul says Lois and Eunice's name, not because you're famous, but because your faith did not stop with you. Your faith did not stop with you. You passed it on to others. [00:36:39] (28 seconds)  #PassTheFaith

You can't pass on what you don't hold. So here's why that matters for our theme today, because you really can't pass on what you don't personally hold. See, disciple making doesn't start with curriculum. It starts with people who are captivated by Jesus. Are you captivated by the savior? Do you know him? Do you have a relationship with him? Are you hungry to spend time with him? You can't pass on what you don't personally hold. [00:12:46] (32 seconds)  #HoldToPass

The pattern is not be impressive for Jesus and then share with others. The pattern is die with him. Die to yourself every day. Endure with him. We face all the challenges of this life with a committed allegiance to the to the father, with our eyes fixed on Jesus. Die with him, endure with him, trust him, and then invite others onto that same grace filled road. That's the pattern, inviting others to join us, to join you on this this grace filled road. [00:21:50] (34 seconds)  #DieAndFollow

This last slide says this, and this is the piece that's really important for us. The chain holds because Christ holds. If this transmission becoming a part of the chain of entrusting over the generations landed and and ended with us, it would be an utter miserable failure. Right? Because we are not the savior, We know that we're gonna have moments of being unfaithful to him. We know that our allegiance can waver. But we know this, that Jesus' character never changes, that he is the one who holds it all together. He's the one who holds us and is faithful to us even when we're faithless. [00:38:51] (35 seconds)  #ChristHoldsTheChain

So as we think about remembering Jesus, right, Paul says in verse eight, remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David. I catch this when he says remember Jesus. He doesn't say remember the principle of Jesus. He doesn't say remember the program about Jesus. He doesn't say remember the religious tradition that we worship Jesus. He says remember Jesus Christ. He's talking about a person, not a program. For many, many years, I've been believing in and teaching and and proclaiming to others that people always come before program. [00:09:20] (34 seconds)  #RememberJesusNotProgram

And so this idea of one generation to the next, the people just following God, and that's his call for us. It's not just about in the household moms passing on to their kids as it was in this scripture, but it's the idea that at the same time Paul's calling all of us, that this is how it normally works. Right? God normally works. Ordinary people with sincere faith opening up scripture over time and that's the call that we have on our lives. Parents, your everyday faithfulness matters more than your perfection. [00:34:55] (29 seconds)  #OrdinaryFaithMatters

Well, takes us back to the trustworthy saying. Right? We're gonna remember the pattern. Paul gives us this early Christian summary. Right? This trustworthy saying that that lays out the pattern of the Christian life. We die with him, we live with him. If we endure with him, we reign with him. If we disown him, he will disown us. And when we're faithless, praise be to God, he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. [00:16:56] (22 seconds)  #LiveDieEndureReign

Paul is suffering for the gospel. He is in chains when he writes this letter. He's writing to a young pastor who might be tempted to shrink back. He might be tempted to be overwhelmed with discouragement because the gospel doesn't appear to be flourishing as maybe we hoped it would be. Any number of reasons why Paul might want to come along and and encourage this young pastor who's been his protege. And in his first move, says, fix your eyes on the risen reigning Jesus. [00:10:58] (27 seconds)  #FixYourEyesOnJesus