Passing God’s Praiseworthy Deeds to the Next Generation

All it took was one generation. One generation where the transmission failed. One generation where the parents didn't pass on what they had received. And the result of that was four hundred years of spiritual chaos in Israel. Here's the truth, folks. There's probably somebody right now in La Grange at a church, maybe even our church. You've seen god provide. [00:31:17] (27 seconds)  #FaithTransmissionMatters

You've seen god hold your family together when everybody said it should fall apart. You've seen how god has answered your prayers when you pray on your knees in the middle of a crisis. You've seen how things cannot be explained by anything other than the faithfulness of god. But your children or grandchildren don't know anything about it because they've never heard the story. [00:31:45] (26 seconds)  #ShareGodsStory

You can fill a young person's head with doctrine, and you can leave their heart with nothing to lean on. You can produce in a Christian home, in a church going family, a generation that is morally compliant but spiritually hollow. Theologians call this functional deism. It's where God exists, where God is acknowledged, but God is not necessarily important for how your life runs. [00:02:07] (37 seconds)  #HeartOverHeadFaith

And notice that it comes last, not because it's unimportant, but because it cannot carry the weight of the first two. Obedience without hope in God is moralism, and it becomes legalism. Rule keeping disconnected from the god who gave the rules is not good. And moralism always leads to collapse because there is nothing underneath it. [00:35:33] (34 seconds)  #ObedienceNeedsHope

Too many churches have been leading with the third thing. We have given our children the fruit and assumed that the root would follow, but that's not how it works. Hope comes first, memory comes second, and then obedience. If you reverse the order, everything collapses. Jesus in Matthew 15, he quotes Isaiah, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. [00:36:21] (36 seconds)  #HopeMemoryObedience

Asaph says, we will not hide them. Concealment is named here as a genuine danger. It's a real temptation. Now it's not necessarily a deliberate suppression. In fact, most oftentimes, it just shows up in silence. I'm talking about the parent who never brings it up. I'm talking about the grandparent who assumes that someone else is handling it. [00:19:05] (27 seconds)  #DontHideTheFaith

Right? He's not talking about coincidence or or favorable timing or or good fortune. Right? But he's saying, tell them about the omnipotent, sovereign, irresistible power of a god who did these things. Tell your children that god is capable of anything. And the third term here is wonders. It is acts that exceed natural explanation. He says, tell your children about a God who acts beyond what any human power can account for. [00:21:15] (36 seconds)  #TellGodsWonders

This is not a conversation that you have once, but it is a transmission that is part of your daily life. It happens at the dinner table. It happens in the truck on the way to school. It happens when something difficult comes up, and it's apparent has enough god in their soul to open up their mouth and say, let me tell you what god did. Let me tell you the wondrous deeds of my god. [00:22:08] (32 seconds)  #FaithInEverydayMoments