Building a Christian Culture

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

The author of Hebrews reminds us to not neglect assembling together as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another all the more as we see the day of the Lord drawing near. And so we have gathered to encourage and to be encouraged as we come to corporately worship our great God. And as we do so, we remember that our help is in the name of the Lord. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 22, 27 through 31. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.

Before Him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve Him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness as to a people yet unborn that he has done it. Let’s pray. Father, we come this morning as an assembly of families to worship you and proclaim your excellencies. The day will come when all nations shall bow their knee and acknowledge you as Lord of all. Until that time, we will proclaim your righteousness to this generation and the generations to come. until the whole earth is filled with your glory.

May you find our worship this morning acceptable in your sight. We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may have heard the saying, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. The theme you’ll pick up on in today’s liturgical pieces is generational faithfulness. It’s appalling how often Israel was rebuked for repeating the same sins their fathers had been disciplined for. The pattern was repeated over and over until God finally gave them over to a spiritual hardness that persists to this day. In this Jewish version of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog day, we see a trio of sins that are not unique to them and serve as a warning to us. These sins are neglectfulness, self-rule, and forgetfulness. These sins build upon themselves, leading to the situation we find in Judges 17-6 where everyone did what was right in its own eyes.

The pattern we see starts when we are neglectful to read God’s word, pray as we ought, give give him thanks, keep his commands, and repent when we don’t. This results in an increase in sinful dependence from God where we begin to self-rule. We live without any real reliance on him. We become the foolish man mentioned in James 4 who makes his own plans without thinking, if the Lord wills, I will do this or that. It isn’t long before this self-rule causes us to forget what God has said, and we find ourselves deeply ensnared by sin and often oblivious to it. This neglect, self-rule, forget pattern doesn’t usually contain itself to a single person.

It slowly spreads across a generation who then fails to teach the next generation and its groundhog day all over again. Generations don’t fall into this pattern overnight. It comes about slowly, almost imperceptibly. C.S. Lewis made the following observation, in Mere Christianity, good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. It’s the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, we’re told in Son of Solomon. What spiritual habits are you neglecting? In what ways are you exerting your will over his? Have you forgotten your first love and rejected it with an inordinate love for this world?

If these or any other sins are coming to mind, now is the time to confess them to the Lord as we observe a moment of silence. And so if you are able and willing, you’re invited to get on your knees as we privately confess our sin to him. So let’s take that moment now. Father, we confess that too often, we profess with our lips what is not in our hearts. We put too much confidence in the flesh to accomplish what only the Spirit can produce. We vacillate between hot and cold in our desire for you. If it were not for your long-suffering patience, we would be undone. Forgive us for our neglect of basic spiritual disciplines.

Forgive us for times we choose our will over yours. Forgive us for allowing ourselves to forget how good and sweet it is to walk in obedience. And forgive us for not proclaiming your goodness as often as we should. We long to be set free from the sin that weighs us down. Thank you that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, and for your never-ending love for us. Thank you that when we confess our sins, you are faithful and just forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. May we not cheapen these promises by failing to take our sins seriously. And may we strive to walk in truth and obedience.

We pray this in the name of your son by whose stripes we’ve been healed. Amen. You’re invited to stand. And our assurance of forgiveness comes from Isaiah 57. For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would grow faint before me and the breath of life that I made.” How amazing it is to think that God, who dwells in the high and holy place, also dwells with the lowly and the contrite.

That is true for us if we have made sincere confession and should make our sin this morning all the gladder and heartfelt. Today’s scripture reading will be Psalm 78, verses one through eight. Psalm 78, 1 through 8. A Maskell of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Father, as we now take some time to reflect on your word, may you bless us from it, may we be encouraged, may we be exhorted where we need to be exhorted, As we reflect on generational responsibilities, where we’re doing well, encourage us, and follow where we are in laps, may you challenge us to do better, that we might be found faithful to pass on the baton of faith as you’ve called us to do.

We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen. When you consider Christianity’s influence in our culture today, what do you see? Is it growing or waning? What examples would you use to make your point? Is there a recognizable trend? Various research organizations, such as the Pew Research Center, the Barna Group, and LifeWay Research have tried to answer that question. And here are just some of their brief observations. They note there is an increasing number of people leaving the faith of their childhood. And of course, the study was done within America. Fewer people in America identify as Christian or attend church. Many church-raged young adults are disengaging from the faith.

More churches today are closing than are starting. So some of that data would then, or all that data, would suggest that there is a general decline in the religious life of Americans today. Where you do see churches growing numerically, and there are some churches that seem to be thriving, it is often the result of Christians playing musical church rather than new converts being added to the faith, just people moving from church to church.

If you broaden the question to include Europe, it isn’t very encouraging. Those who study religion in society now describe as post-Christian countries such as United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and France. They cite Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as being on the same trajectory with the United States not very far behind. Now this would all be very discouraging if it weren’t for Christ’s declaration that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, Matthew 16, 18.

The church has seen great revivals and major lapses in various times and places in its 2,000 year history, nevertheless there has always been and will always be a remnant preserved by God until Christ returns. This ebb and flow of the church has been noted by many pastors and theologians for hundreds of years, and churches have grappled with these cultural trends and sought ways to stem the tide and advance the gospel. For nearly 80 years, American evangelicalism has experimented with successive approaches to reaching the unchurched. And Dave, you’re going to recognize a whole bunch of these. Evangelism Crusades, the church growth movement, seeker-sensitive services, attraction models, the home church movement, large multi-site campuses, and lately online church.

Many of us older saints in the room have participated in or at least seen these movements come and go. Despite these efforts, the broader trajectory of Christian belief and practice in American culture has continued to decline. Someone once observed, one generation believes the gospel, the next generation assumes the gospel, the third generation denies the gospel. If this observation is true, and it generally seems to be, then the ability of any local church to carry and advance Christ-honoring culture to their community is problematic. How can churches make a lasting impact on their communities if they can’t strain three generations of faithful and fruitful believers together within their own fellowships?

Now, the main thought that I’d like you to take away today is this. If you’re going to go to sleep, stay awake for the next sentence, and then you can go to sleep, OK? So here’s the main thought. And kids, this isn’t the three points you’ve got in your things. I’ll tell you when we get to those. But here’s the main thought. A lasting Christ-honoring culture is built when the generations within a local assembly work together to make disciples and build the body up in love. And let me repeat that again. A lasting Christ-honoring culture is built when the generations within a local assembly work together to make disciples and build the body up in love.

All other strategies for maturing a church and impacting the local community for Christ will likely fizzle out over time if a church’s generational linkage is weak. Now, first blushes does not sound profound, but the more you unpack it, the more evident it becomes that most churches do a poor job of it, which is a major factor contributing to the current trends cited earlier. A good example of this generational influence is found in 2 Timothy 1.5 where Paul wrote to Timothy, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. The concern isn’t merely about shrinking denominations or declining attendance. It’s about whether our children, our our grandchildren, and those who come after will be blessed by God and who will be faithful witnesses to and blessings in their community. Recently I spent two weeks in Spokane visiting my son Chris and his family.

He’s a teaching elder of a church about twice the size of TEC. One evening he and I got into a discussion on this topic and the typical generational dynamics you find in the local church as it pertains to passing on the faith. If you were to visit his church today, you would find a very vibrant and loving community of believers that’s literally busting out at the seams. They keep expanding the building. What you wouldn’t see are many adult children of the older saints who attend that fellowship. Now, there’s various reasons for that, but too often it’s because the baton of faith was not successfully handed off. And Chris acknowledged that this is a painful regret of many of the older believers in his church, but they’re not unique in this problem.

I use this example to illustrate something that is far too common in many churches today and that the next new culturally relevant program that comes along isn’t going to fix it. What would making disciples look like if all the generations within the fellowship put their collective efforts into it? How much more wisdom could be passed on if the generations were better involved in the disciple-making process? Both within the Newcater family and among the broader local church community. How much richer would the fellowship be? This weakness in intergenerational disciple-making is a significant contributor to the failure to make disciples who are growing and maturing.

Making disciples of Christ is something much bigger than just teaching people to get their Bible verses right and obey them. A lot of the effort in churches today is just about getting your verses right. Kids programs are very famous for that. Think of what Paul had in mind when he wrote to fathers in Ephesians 6-4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Paul uses the word pideia, which emphasizes forming the child, not just informing them of things. It includes teaching, skills training, correcting, encouraging, forming habits, as well as moral and character development. When you think about all these aspects of what Pidea entails, disciple making becomes a much bigger task than we typically think of.

He lays the responsibility for this training at the Father’s feet, but it doesn’t mean that the Father is the only resource for that training. This is where intergenerational and disciple making really helps. In addition to better discipleship, better intergenerational involvement would make for a healthier and more unified local body as all the members are built up in love. So with the time remaining, we’ll look at each of three generations found in the typical church and consider both what that generation’s focus should be and how that generation plays a role in supporting this disciple making process. So what is the primary role of that generation and how do they contribute to the disciple making process?

It’s helpful to think of each generation as a season of life with a primary calling and when these callings are lived out, the church is built up and the goal stated in Colossians 1.28 is better met. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So these generational seasons I’m going to call the season of preparation, the season of production, and the season of preservation. Now while you won’t find a Bible verse listing these seasons, they do help encapsulate the kind of work the Bible calls us to do over the course of our lives. Of course any generation can have elements of preparation, production, and preservation, but these callings do seem best to describe the primary calling of each generation.

So now kids, your first point on your kid’s corner is the season of preparation. So we’re talking right at you, young people, you kids. This is your season we’re going to talk about. It’s a season that covers childhood to early adulthood. This is a season to receive, to learn, and to become. It’s a time for acquiring wisdom, developing life skills, cultivating unique gifts and talents, and growing in obedience from the heart. The book of Proverbs is about a father giving his son instructions for wise living. Proverbs 1, 8 through 9, here my son your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teachings, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 4 and 1 through 4 shows the generational passing on of this wisdom. Hear, O sons of Father’s instruction, and be attentive that you may gain insight. For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandment, and live. This This season of preparation is crucial and sadly often squandered, partly because of a child’s own sin, partly because of a parent’s neglect, and partly because of modern society’s low expectation of youth. This low expectation was impressed upon me several years ago when I was at a bookseller’s convention in Dallas, Texas.

I was talking to a distributor who was bringing into print Puritan authors. I asked if he had any books that were suitable for older youth. And so as he was showing me what he had, and he currently marketed to teens, he mentioned that when they were first written by those Puritan authors, they were writing them for their six and seven-year-olds. But we marketed them to teenagers today. The notion of adolescence is another example of lowered expectation for our youth. Historically, youth were generally expected to make the transition from childhood to adulthood around the time of puberty. There was no culturally recognized phase between those two stages.

That began to change as factors such as industrialization, compulsory education laws, and urbanization that distanced relatives from each other came about. And in 1904, the psychologist G. Stanley Hall published a work called Adolescence. His ideas were based on evolutionary theory, and he considered adolescence as a quote, a critical period that needed to be properly managed and guided through organized sports, scouting, character education, and separation from adult vices in order to produce healthy and morally upright adults, end quote. And I asked myself, well, how did that work out?

When you combine lowered expectations with man’s sin nature, you see the problem that arises in this season of life. This season of preparation is a time for developing things such as character, sound doctrine, work ethic, friendships that uplift, vocational competencies, preparation for marriage, and commitment to church and civic community. Clearly, there’s much work to be done during this season since it will lay the foundation and build much of the scaffolding that the young person’s life to come. Parents, as disciple makers, need to examine if they are expecting too little of their children and repent of failing to diligently and thoughtfully prepare them for the next season of life.

Are you relying too much on others to give your children the wisdom, knowledge, and skills they’ll need in life? Are you proactive in these things or merely reactive when a problem crops up? Are you training them beyond some minimal set of standards? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, are you seeking to learn from those who have raised godly kids? This modern era has created countless ways for youth to spend their minutes, but are those minutes building towards something, or are they just using up time until the child magically comes of age and is expected to be a functioning adult? That is a problem, is we somehow just keep them alive and keep them fed and keep them dressed until 18 and say, bing, you’re an adult, go out and do.

And they’re like, look and check, what happened? To those of you under the age of 18 and still living with your parents, what is your attitude during this season of preparation? Say, kids, listen up. What is your attitude during this season of preparation? Do you grumble and complain about school? Do you despise the instruction of your parents? Do you push yourself to the limits of your giftedness? Or do you only do the minimally acceptable amount of work to keep parents and teachers off your back? Some of you kids are very gifted and you can get through life with your charm and just your natural talents. That’s not good enough.

You push to your best that God’s given you, which may be exceptional. If your best effort, if you work hard and your best effort, your best grade in school is a C, I applaud you. That’s your best effort. But if you can coast and get an A and you’re satisfied for that, that’s a problem. You need to push. Do you embrace the faith you’re being taught or are you just a good little parent who can quote verses?

Can you defend what you say you believe? Or could a good atheist pick it apart? And they do find that to be a problem today, is that kids that grew up in the church and they got all the IWANA awards, they go into the universities, and it turns out they can’t really defend their faith at all. And a good atheist professor just shatters her faith in just a couple debates, because they don’t know how to stand up and defend it. Are you taking dominion over your areas of responsibility? Your bedroom, what’s it look like right now? Your chores, your schoolwork, your relationships. Are you becoming the kind of, I’ve got to stop and apologize for a minute, but this stroke still has some weird effects on me.

So if I slur my words or my emotions, see me in ordinate, it’s just the strokes don’t have a weird effect, so be patient. Are you becoming the kind of person you want to marry? Are you the kind of person someone would want to hire? Are you self-starting or does someone have to push you to get you to grow in any area?

These are questions you and your parents should be honestly asking. Nobody is saying you must be an adult now, but you should be actively becoming one now. Age doesn’t make you an adult, training does. There’s some of what I’m saying sounds overwhelming. This is where the benefit of intergenerational discipleship comes into play. Exposing children to saints who share their lives, stories, and wisdom helps build continuity of faith.

It broadens their perspective, shows them their problems aren’t unique, and encourages them with stories of what God has done. The children can also learn many useful skills to spend time with older Saints. We’re becoming a generation where we go hire somebody else to fix things. A lot of these old people in this room here know how to fix things. So we just get our kids to hang out with Mr. Massey. They can learn a lot of good life skills. To the parents of the nerve, I would suggest weaving more intergenerational relationships into your family’s lives with a purpose to facilitate real life on life discussions, the benefits and blessings will flow both ways.

I should point out that this intergenerational benefit isn’t one way. I say to the young people and kids, here you have no idea the power you have to cheer up an older person with a smile, a hello, or some simple act of courtesy. Don’t be afraid to make eye contact and greet an older person. For many older saints who live alone or whose own children live far away, your simple act of kindness can really brighten their day and increase their joy. And so those in this season, they should always be thinking, what can I learn? So moving on to the next generation, I’m going to take a drink of water. I really don’t like this, but it is what it is.

Thank you for your patience. All right, let’s see. I’m getting my notes all discombobulated, right? OK. So let’s move on to the next generation. This is a generation in kids. This is the next line on your kids’ corner. This is the season of production. This is a season to build, serve, and multiply. And now I’m targeting what we would just call the normal adult phase of life. you’re raising kids, you’re out there. You’re not old yet. Many biblical responsibilities find their foolish expression during this season of life. It’s during this season that believers ordinarily marry, establish households, raise children, exercise dominion through their vocations, and serve the church and invest in the next generation.

This is the season Adam and Eve were created into and to which the cultural mandate found in Genesis 1.28 finds its fullest expression in the version of well. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. This generation’s focus is to fill, subdue, cultivate, protect, and build. This ordinarily entails getting married, having children, running businesses, providing leadership, showing hospitality, caring for the young and infirm, and defending against all threats.

Proverbs 2029 cites strength as one of this generation’s advantages. The glory of young men is their strength, but the splinter of old men is their gray hair. The work for people in this generation is to take whatever talents God has bestowed on them and work to be fruitful with them and multiply. The caveat is that this must be with the goal to glorify God and not simply pursue the good life. The wealthiest men today have achieved great things that we all benefit from, but they have missed the mark. Jesus asked the disciples, what does a prophet a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? The parables of the rich man call him a fool.

The fool calls him a fool who builds bigger barns simply so he could hoard more riches for himself. Simply working hard and gaining much is not the point. The wise man considers what he’s doing that will bring lasting blessing to others. He builds for a god-pleasing future for himself, future that he himself may not live to see. His motivation isn’t to accumulate enough wealth so that he can take an early retirement and cease from his labors. he has the generation following in his mind.

I often encourage men in this season of life with what I call the kiss principle. You may have heard the keep it simple stupid. I’ve modified it. It’s keep it spiritual stupid. Every decision you make, every promotion you consider, every major purchase you make, the educational choices you make for your kids, whether to encourage your wife to work or not, All of it should be run through the filter of what is in the best spiritual interest of your family. Not what will let you retire earlier or let you live the definition of the good life, your definition of the good life. I suspect if men lived by the KISS principle, it would alter a lot of decisions that they make.

In addition, the wise man understands that one of the greatest works God has entrusted to him is building people. He and his wife labor to raise children who know, love, and obey Christ. They recognize that one faithful disciple will bear fruit for generations after they are gone. Unfortunately when it comes to discipling children, many Christian homes are failing to prepare them well for when they join their productive generation. It is tragic that so many young people reach this season with little to no preparation for it. Many are deferring marriage and vocation into their 30s simply because they are not ready or willing to embrace it this season.

This is often because parents fail to train the child and prepare them. We’ve already discussed the problem of low expectations. Those who study the labor market, as an example, report that of men aged 25 to 54, 11% or about 7.2 million men in America, 7.2 million men have simply chosen not to participate in the labor market. They’re not even looking for a job. And that is up from around three to 4% in the early 60s. So from the 60s, we’re three to 4% we’re not participating. Now we’re up to about, what I just said, 7% are not participating. That’s a huge labor force going on. Just a side note, as an example, the CEO of Ford out in Michigan, he’s got jobs right now that don’t require a degree that pay $150,000 a year to work on the assembly line, and he cannot find people to take those jobs.

It’s crazy. The concern raised by economists and sociologists is that these men are less likely to marry, engage in civic duties, or religious communities. They also self-report low levels of personal well-being. But the good news is that they’re experts in Minecraft.

These effects are not surprising given that these men are missing out on their God-given calling for this season of life. Research into the religious beliefs of these young adults raised in Christian homes isn’t very reassuring either. Studies show a large number of these kids come out of our churches do not hold a biblical worldview by the time they leave home.

Now it’s tempting to roll our eyes at all these statistics and dismiss them as someone else’s problem, but they are too common among our kind of people. I am currently addressing those of you in the productive generation. How are you doing discipling your kids? Who is discipling your kids? Are you relying on Sunday school and youth gatherings to do the work? I would suggest you quiz your kids on the fundamentals of the faith and see how they answer. Is it their faith or your faith they embrace? If you do not understand the fundamentals of the faith yourself, are you seeking to learn so you can teach them to your children?

As parents, your generation is the most influential when it comes to making strong disciples.

And conversely, you’re the best generation mess them up. Several years ago the question was asked at a Christian conference with over 8,000 in attendance who introduced them to Christ. Not surprisingly well over 98% of the attendees said that it was their own childhood home where they came to faith in Christ. So the home is by far the has the biggest impact on a kid as far as how they’re going to turn out in relationship to Christ. Once again intergenerational relationships can help you in the process. As your children relate to saints from all generations who demonstrate a genuine faith, it will help deepen their own faith. The key word in that last sentence is relate. Just seeing old man Jones in the second pew every Sunday isn’t going to have much impact. They need to relate to old man Jones. Stories from older saints who have gone through deep trials has a way of reaching the hearts of your kids in a way that veggie tales just can’t do it. Another benefit to having real relationships across the generations is

they can help with your blind spots. This is especially true between those who are raising kids now and those who have raised kids. For whatever reason there’s a tendency for each generation to keep reinventing the wheel. By that I mean they choose to figure things out for themselves rather than benefiting from those who have gone before. I’m thinking of things like parenting, marriage, or finances. Now this isn’t to say the preceding generation got everything right. My adult kids have said to me plenty of times, okay boomer, when I’ve gone off on them about the good old days. The previous generation got plenty wrong, but would it be better if you could build on lessons learned rather than always starting over by yourself again? So a person in this generation should always be asking, what can I build in terms of things and people? And that leads us then to the final generation. The generation I call this the generation preservation. So kids that’s your third line on your kids corner. Ideally this

generation serves to provide wisdom and support to the previous generations. Culturally it is mostly assumed that this is the time to retire and and take it easy. Retirement, as it’s typically viewed in practice in our culture, goes against the part of the Genesis mandate to take dominion. It is true that strength is coming to an end. These people have raised their children and perhaps wrapped up a career, but that does not mean there isn’t work to do. There is much benefit to be derived from this generation. Some of what, hopefully, some of what they hope they’ve acquired over their life is wisdom, perspective, wealth, and godliness.

Of course, they now have more time as well. With regards to wealth, economists are now talking about the great wealth transfer that will happen between now and the year 2048. They project about $124 trillion will change hands during that time. Between now and 2048, over $100 trillion is going to shift hands. 105 trillion will go to heirs, and about 18 trillion will go to charities. That’s a lot of money being passed down. This generation should be thinking how to use their wealth wisely to benefit succeeding generations. Proverbs 13.22 says, in part, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. The point is that this generation should be actively thinking two generations down the line in how they can help.

Don’t be just thinking about your retirement. Are you thinking about your grandkids and maybe your great grandkids that might not even exist yet? What are you laying out to help them get going? Economists note that today’s younger generations are less likely to surpass their parents economically, reversing a trend that started post-World War II. After the war, each succeeding generation was economically doing better and better, but that trend has reversed, and now our kids are having a harder time economically, certainly in areas like this. This will become an increasing problem for the church as economic realities force younger generations to migrate to more affordable locations, thus impacting regular intergenerational connectedness.

It’s just the bugaboo we deal with. Off to college they go, they find somebody, they get married, they live somewhere else, or economic sports and have to go somewhere else and the generations keep getting blown apart and we lose that intergenerational connectedness. The generations ought to have conversations about how they can mitigate against these trends. Two solutions that are gaining traction are passing on inheritance before death and multi-generational living. And this church does well on the multi-generational living front.

There are great benefits, of course, but also, of course, sacrifices involved. But are we older generation thinking about how can we maybe be passing on some of that generational wealth now to make it so that we can help our kids get into their first homes and begin getting established in this community? And then again, even if possible, multi-generational living is a tremendous way to do that. I mean, just as a side note, I have my daughter and her husband. They’ve been with us for three years into a one-year agreement. And it’s been great. We think we’re going to make it permanent. But in the three years my mindset’s been, pass on generational wealth.

So I’ve not charged rent and just let them live there. But the son-in-law has been able to save enough money that he can literally take a year off and build his own business if that’s what he chose to do. So just in three years, he’s accumulated enough wealth to take a whole year off and just focus on building a business. That’s exactly what I want to be able to do. The point is there’s a need to come up with creative solutions into these economic realities. And I know there’s a few people in our church that are already chewing on that problem. But beyond the need for economic preservation, there is a greater need for knowledge and wisdom preservation.

There are well-known examples of practical knowledge that have been lost to history. In just a few examples, Greek fire, which was nearly impossible to extinguish, Roman concrete, which can last for over 2,000 years. The concrete we make today decays in 40 years. They had concrete that could go 2,000 years under seawater. Damascus steel, which was known for its strength and flexibility, and the stratovarius violin, its unique tone. Modern science has been trying to figure out how to reproduce these. They can’t figure out how did they do it. Somehow they got lost to history. So it’s unfortunate that those technology losses may be far worse as the wisdom, the knowledge, and the testimonies of faith that our ancestors won’t have had it.

Won’t have had it? The sad fact is that as each generation passes, more is lost than is received. The old people in this room will take far more to the grave than they will have handed on to the next generation. The preservation generation has a duty to labor to make sure they are passing on the wisdom and knowledge they have gained over a lifetime. We would be foolish to make light of failing to pass those things on. Consider Judges 2, 7 through 12. In the span of six verses, we see all the people of Israel transition from worshiping the Lord to serving false gods. Verse seven, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great works that the Lord had done for Israel.

In verses eight through nine, we read about Joshua’s death, then picking up in verse 10, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord for the work that he had done for Israel. And then finally in verses 11 and 12, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers. Five verses. Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how long that period of time took, but it suggested that was probably about 50 years that it took from all the people worshiping the Lord. to all the people worshiping the Bales. We read something like that and think that couldn’t happen here.

Really? What would an American Christian who died in 1960 think about our culture today, even our Christian culture? Politically, the Republican Party today looks very much like what the Democratic Party was in 1960, meaning both parties today have slid further away from the Christian values. Many of you weren’t alive to see this change, but some of us here today did, which is another benefit to intergenerational living. Some of us frogs in the kettle, notice it’s getting a little warm in here.

There are two observations pertaining to the preservation generation in relationship to the other generations. The first is that many in this season have largely bought into the retirement culture. The general mindset is, I’ve done my time so let the younger generation take over. At a time when they are freer than ever to serve or participate in discipleship gatherings, they opt out. This feeds the cycle of each generation figuring it out for themselves. They fail to lend their experience and wisdom to or work to the discussions. There’s little to no contact with the preparation or production generations, and so there’s not much transmission of anything.

At a time when perhaps they should be leading discussion groups, they are either not present or remain a largely silent presence. The second observation is that some in this generation would like to be more involved but withhold either thinking that they have nothing to offer or they sense that the other generations don’t value what they have to say. Perhaps personal regrets such as waivered adult children or squandered opportunities when they were in the productive generation, holds them back now. Even if that describes you, your stories of lessons learned can benefit the next generation. Now conversely, if you are someone younger who looks at the mistakes of the older generation, thinking you don’t want that, be careful with your judgments.

Focusing on the highlights or lowlights of a person’s life rarely gives you a complete picture of the person. Provided those who came before you are humble and can honestly assess their wins and losses, there will be some valuable lessons to be learned. So a person in this season should be thinking, who can I prepare to replace me? Almost done. Hey, Niner. I must admit, this has been one of the hardest messages I’ve ever prepared. hard in the sense of what I want to say but trying to say in a compelling way.

My goal has been to both encourage and exhort us. I ask the Lord to help me not do that but I guess he never wants. I’ve just wanted to exhort us to think about these things. While this has not been an expository message, I believe it has been faithful to point out what the scriptures call us to. It’s a topic that’s been nagging me for most of my adult life. I remember being in my mid-20s when a young man much older than I am now, or not much older than I am now, stood up in a church meeting and announced that it was time for him to step aside and let the younger generation take over. I don’t recall why he felt compelled to say that, but I do do remember thinking, Lord help me to never. My reaction to that moment in time was not based on a knee or desire to hang on anything. It’s simply an aversion to the idea that there is ever time for a believer to say I’ve done my time. Yeah, I’ve done my time with the intent to step away from everything. So I hope this This message has found ears to hear, even if it was clumsily delivered.

I do believe this weakness in intergenerational relations within the Church, universal and to a degree at TEC, is a real problem, and a major reason why the Church struggles to sustain an upward trend over time. The goal of our life is simply, is not simply to arrive safely in Heaven, having believed the right things. The goal is to leave behind a people who know Christ better because we lived. Every season of life is a stewardship. Those in the season of preparation steward potential. Those in the season of production steward responsibility. Those in the season of preservation steward wisdom.

What each generation embraces, when each generation embraces his calling and equips the next, the church becomes resilient, families become stronger, neighborhoods become healthier, and cultures are built to last. There are many things that mitigate against this vision. Personal sin, children who don’t know their elders, adults who prefer to go it alone, retirees who are on perpetual vacation, and a broader culture that lures us swipe after swipe to live alone in in alternate realities. The church must look radically different than this. When civilizations collapse, it isn’t primarily because of economics or politics.

It’s because of families of a failure to pass on godly faith and wisdom from one generation to the next. Let’s pray. Well, Father, that was different. I hope and pray that through the blubbering and the slurring that that point was made and that you will have applied to our hearts what you want us to hear. As Phila prayed, thank you, that it was your design to have generations, teach successive generations and Lord we confess that our churches and our culture don’t do a very good job of that these days and so help us fathers that really take to heart these things and to start doing a better job. That we will start hearing stories of five, six, seven, eight generations of continual progressive faith being kept.

As we continue now with our time of worship, may you just be pleased, Father, with all you see and hear. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen. Depending on how you define a generation, there have been roughly 70 generations of Christians that have gathered to celebrate the Lord’s table since the time Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room. During that time, empires have risen and fallen, philosophies have come and gone, political systems have gained prominence and vanished, entire civilizations have disappeared. Yet for 2,000 years, Christians have gathered to teach the scriptures, baptize, and share communion.

A few other movements have lasted as long in name, but none other has lasted as long as we have, holding over time the same core beliefs. That’s because the church isn’t man-made. It is founded and built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, and because of his spirit, and because his spirit is keeping the torch of faith passing from generation to generation through ordinary, but faithful people such as us. There is both comfort and discomfort in that thought. The comfort is knowing that generations from now, the church will still be gathering if the Lord tarries. The discomfort is in wondering if our particular thread in the gospel cord weaving through history will still be present or will it have been severed.

Your charge today is simple. So kids, you’re first, listen up. If you’re a child, go find an old person, smile at them, and say, have a good afternoon. And it has to be somebody besides Mr. Massey. But you can greet him too. If you’re an adult of any age, don’t be in a hurry to rush out of here. Greet someone you don’t normally greet. agree. Consider including someone not in your usual fellowship network or generation the next time you are hosting a get-together and get to know their faith story and see how you might build one another up in the faith. To all of you consider seriously the generational season you are in and how you can own it better for the sake of passing on the faith. So the Lord will bless those who fear him, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who has made heaven on earth.