1 00:00:09,609 --> 00:00:12,612 Psalm 78 one through eight. 2 00:00:12,812 --> 00:00:15,815 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. 3 00:00:15,882 --> 00:00:18,885 Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 4 00:00:19,386 --> 00:00:21,755 I will open my mouth in a parable. 5 00:00:21,755 --> 00:00:23,556 I will utter dark sayings from above. 6 00:00:23,556 --> 00:00:28,395 All things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 7 00:00:29,162 --> 00:00:33,933 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation 8 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:39,172 the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. 9 00:00:39,339 --> 00:00:44,010 He established the testimony and Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, 10 00:00:44,477 --> 00:00:47,480 which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 11 00:00:48,181 --> 00:00:50,750 that the next generation might know them, 12 00:00:50,750 --> 00:00:54,921 the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 13 00:00:55,321 --> 00:00:59,459 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, 14 00:00:59,893 --> 00:01:04,164 but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers. 15 00:01:04,164 --> 00:01:07,901 A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation 16 00:01:07,901 --> 00:01:13,740 whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. 17 00:01:17,177 --> 00:01:17,777 Hey everybody, good 18 00:01:17,777 --> 00:01:21,081 morning and welcome to Christ Community Chapel. 19 00:01:21,114 --> 00:01:24,150 I'm so, so glad that you're here. Welcome. 20 00:01:24,150 --> 00:01:28,521 Those of you at, East Service and tuning in online. 21 00:01:29,722 --> 00:01:30,156 All right. 22 00:01:30,156 --> 00:01:34,427 You can tell I am, sporting the same, kind of bright orange 23 00:01:34,427 --> 00:01:39,032 that a lot of people are wearing right now and that Jack wore last week. 24 00:01:39,032 --> 00:01:43,703 And the reason is, we don't want you to miss, premiere night, which is coming up. 25 00:01:44,003 --> 00:01:47,373 We haven't done anything like this in the history of the church, 26 00:01:47,841 --> 00:01:50,944 and, I can promise you, you will not want to. 27 00:01:50,944 --> 00:01:54,514 It's for everybody, and we don't want anybody to miss it. 28 00:01:54,714 --> 00:01:57,717 All right, so mark your calendars for February 16th. 29 00:01:58,084 --> 00:02:00,587 It's coming. All right. Don't forget. 30 00:02:00,587 --> 00:02:03,590 I'll tell you a little bit more about it at the end of the service. 31 00:02:03,957 --> 00:02:05,792 So we have our theme for this year. 32 00:02:05,792 --> 00:02:08,928 And our theme is every Minute matters. 33 00:02:09,229 --> 00:02:13,500 Every Minute Matters is approximately 498,000 minutes 34 00:02:13,967 --> 00:02:16,970 left in 2025. 35 00:02:17,303 --> 00:02:22,575 And, as I talk in the next couple of paragraphs, there'll be one last minute. 36 00:02:23,243 --> 00:02:24,878 It goes by that fast. 37 00:02:24,878 --> 00:02:28,081 When we say every minute matters, 38 00:02:28,081 --> 00:02:31,651 it may never be more true than it is with kids. 39 00:02:32,519 --> 00:02:35,522 And my wife, Karen, and I have a tradition at Christmas, 40 00:02:35,889 --> 00:02:37,624 and we've done this for years. 41 00:02:37,624 --> 00:02:38,591 Ever since we had kids. 42 00:02:38,591 --> 00:02:39,225 We would 43 00:02:39,225 --> 00:02:43,062 put them on the stairs on Christmas Day, and we would take a picture of them. 44 00:02:43,062 --> 00:02:45,932 And every year you could see the changes in them. 45 00:02:45,932 --> 00:02:47,934 And we started doing it with our grandkids. 46 00:02:47,934 --> 00:02:52,839 And just so you can see the change that happens in kids, 47 00:02:53,373 --> 00:02:57,844 one year to the next, I'm going to show you four pictures of our grandkids. 48 00:02:57,844 --> 00:03:01,014 The first is this is a picture from 2017. 49 00:03:02,048 --> 00:03:03,283 All right. 50 00:03:03,283 --> 00:03:06,286 This is 2018. 51 00:03:07,587 --> 00:03:10,590 This is, a couple of years later, 2021 52 00:03:11,958 --> 00:03:14,961 and then 2022. 53 00:03:15,395 --> 00:03:18,031 You can see that just the radical change, 54 00:03:18,031 --> 00:03:21,601 not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. 55 00:03:22,202 --> 00:03:25,338 That means every minute was packed, 56 00:03:25,338 --> 00:03:28,808 was loaded with something that went inside of them 57 00:03:29,909 --> 00:03:32,011 and changed them. 58 00:03:32,011 --> 00:03:34,380 The psalmist in Psalm 78, 59 00:03:34,380 --> 00:03:37,350 the psalm we just had read, was crying out 60 00:03:37,850 --> 00:03:41,521 about the importance of passing our faith on to the next generation, 61 00:03:41,521 --> 00:03:44,824 that some of those minutes need to be packed with faith 62 00:03:44,824 --> 00:03:49,195 that go into the hearts and the minds of our children. 63 00:03:49,229 --> 00:03:53,199 That's why here at Christ Community Chapel, we have 160 64 00:03:53,199 --> 00:03:58,938 volunteers in our kids area each week by Thursday night worship. 65 00:03:58,938 --> 00:04:02,141 And then this morning, 160 volunteers 66 00:04:02,141 --> 00:04:06,012 taking the next hour and packing every one of those 60 minutes 67 00:04:06,012 --> 00:04:11,150 with something about the love of God so that your kids, if you have kids, 68 00:04:11,751 --> 00:04:15,989 if your kids are one of the 550 kids we have over there, 69 00:04:16,489 --> 00:04:19,492 that they are being changed minute 70 00:04:19,592 --> 00:04:22,395 by minute by the love of God. 71 00:04:23,463 --> 00:04:24,264 And I have, 72 00:04:24,264 --> 00:04:27,367 three points that I want to pull out of the eight verses 73 00:04:27,367 --> 00:04:30,603 we had read to us, to the very, very, very simple. 74 00:04:31,404 --> 00:04:33,706 I want to talk about how, how, 75 00:04:33,706 --> 00:04:37,844 what and why when we talk about passing on our faith 76 00:04:37,844 --> 00:04:40,847 to the next generation, how does it happen? 77 00:04:41,481 --> 00:04:45,485 What happens and why it must happen. 78 00:04:46,252 --> 00:04:46,519 All right. 79 00:04:46,519 --> 00:04:48,621 First, how it happens. 80 00:04:48,621 --> 00:04:54,260 The first four verses of Psalm 78, they give ear, O 81 00:04:54,260 --> 00:04:56,429 my people, to my teaching. 82 00:04:56,429 --> 00:04:59,432 Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 83 00:05:00,233 --> 00:05:01,834 I will open my mouth in a parable. 84 00:05:01,834 --> 00:05:05,138 I will utter dark sayings from of old things 85 00:05:05,138 --> 00:05:08,141 that we have heard and known, that our fathers have taught us. 86 00:05:08,441 --> 00:05:12,912 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation 87 00:05:13,579 --> 00:05:18,951 the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. 88 00:05:20,186 --> 00:05:21,754 The psalmist says that 89 00:05:21,754 --> 00:05:25,958 generations are like links in this chain, 90 00:05:26,459 --> 00:05:30,063 and each generation is connected to the generation before it. 91 00:05:30,063 --> 00:05:35,268 Like, I won't directly impact generations this far down. 92 00:05:35,268 --> 00:05:39,605 My responsibility is to impact this generation, my kids 93 00:05:39,872 --> 00:05:42,642 and this generation, my grandchildren. 94 00:05:42,642 --> 00:05:44,644 And if I live long enough, I. 95 00:05:44,644 --> 00:05:48,081 I guess I could have something to do with my great grandchildren. 96 00:05:48,081 --> 00:05:51,217 Now, although I don't know how much I'll have left by that. 97 00:05:51,217 --> 00:05:52,952 And all right. 98 00:05:52,952 --> 00:05:55,421 But we are all connected, you know. 99 00:05:55,421 --> 00:05:59,625 And that what what the psalmist says is the way that faith 100 00:05:59,625 --> 00:06:02,729 is passed on from one generation to other. 101 00:06:03,329 --> 00:06:07,433 The psalmist mentions two things hearing and telling. 102 00:06:08,601 --> 00:06:10,503 Hearing and telling. 103 00:06:10,503 --> 00:06:13,473 Somebody has to tell the next generation 104 00:06:13,740 --> 00:06:18,511 about who God is, who Jesus is, what the Bible says. 105 00:06:19,212 --> 00:06:22,715 Actually, every person has a responsibility to be both a hearer 106 00:06:23,850 --> 00:06:25,218 and a teller, 107 00:06:25,218 --> 00:06:27,720 and this is our commitment to you as a church. 108 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:33,159 We will provide every opportunity for you to learn what you need to learn. 109 00:06:33,626 --> 00:06:37,497 Here, what you need to hear in order to be a teller, 110 00:06:38,731 --> 00:06:41,100 to tell somebody your children, 111 00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:44,570 your grandchildren, your neighbors, your friends, your classmates. 112 00:06:44,837 --> 00:06:48,841 To be able to tell them what it means to be a follower of Jesus. 113 00:06:48,841 --> 00:06:51,944 That's why we have things like men's summit and men's 114 00:06:51,944 --> 00:06:55,148 fraternity and women's Bible studies in circles and region. 115 00:06:55,148 --> 00:06:59,385 And that's why we have this winter event guide that's just packed 116 00:06:59,719 --> 00:07:02,722 with opportunities for you to hear, 117 00:07:02,855 --> 00:07:05,858 for you to learn what you need to learn 118 00:07:05,892 --> 00:07:07,794 to be a teller. 119 00:07:07,794 --> 00:07:09,228 Right. 120 00:07:09,228 --> 00:07:11,130 And your job, your commitment 121 00:07:11,130 --> 00:07:14,133 is to just come take advantage. 122 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,569 It's like we are setting the table. 123 00:07:16,569 --> 00:07:19,439 All you have to do is come and eat, 124 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,208 but you have to come. 125 00:07:22,208 --> 00:07:24,644 The second commitment that we will make to you is that 126 00:07:24,644 --> 00:07:27,747 if you have kids, we will provide an environment 127 00:07:27,914 --> 00:07:32,552 and programing that they will want to come to, that they will love. 128 00:07:33,286 --> 00:07:36,289 And your job as a parent is to get them here. 129 00:07:37,056 --> 00:07:40,960 Listen, somebody needs to tell the next generation 130 00:07:41,961 --> 00:07:45,932 about who God is, who Jesus is, what it means to follow him. 131 00:07:45,932 --> 00:07:48,935 Every minute is packed with something. 132 00:07:49,168 --> 00:07:53,105 Some of those minutes need to be packed with faith 133 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,510 so they can catch the faith of Jesus. 134 00:07:57,743 --> 00:07:59,612 All right, that's the first thing. 135 00:07:59,612 --> 00:08:03,216 The second thing is what exactly needs to happen? 136 00:08:03,216 --> 00:08:04,584 What do they need to learn? 137 00:08:04,584 --> 00:08:07,053 That's verse four says this. 138 00:08:07,053 --> 00:08:11,891 We will not hide from from their children, but tell to the coming generation 139 00:08:12,625 --> 00:08:14,894 the glorious deeds of the Lord 140 00:08:14,894 --> 00:08:18,130 and his might and the wonders he has done 141 00:08:19,999 --> 00:08:20,199 this. 142 00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:24,103 And the question is, how do the how does the next generation 143 00:08:24,604 --> 00:08:27,106 get at least your level of faith 144 00:08:27,106 --> 00:08:30,109 or greater faith than you have? 145 00:08:30,243 --> 00:08:34,780 And the answer the psalmist gives is they need to learn three things God's deeds. 146 00:08:34,947 --> 00:08:36,482 God's might. 147 00:08:36,482 --> 00:08:37,917 God's wonders. 148 00:08:37,917 --> 00:08:39,719 First, God's deeds. 149 00:08:39,719 --> 00:08:42,722 God's deeds are what he has already done. 150 00:08:43,155 --> 00:08:45,358 If you've never read the Bible, 151 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:48,628 you might be surprised, particularly in the Old Testament, how many times 152 00:08:48,628 --> 00:08:52,598 the people of God are told to remember they're told. 153 00:08:52,598 --> 00:08:55,835 Don't forget what God has already done. 154 00:08:55,835 --> 00:08:59,805 Every feast was about remembering the Passover feast 155 00:09:00,172 --> 00:09:04,176 that there were to celebrate every year was so that they would remember 156 00:09:04,176 --> 00:09:08,347 that God had redeemed them with a mighty hand, that the angel of death 157 00:09:08,347 --> 00:09:12,685 had passed over their house because of the blood of a lamb. 158 00:09:13,486 --> 00:09:16,889 You know, every week here at CTC, we celebrate communion 159 00:09:17,290 --> 00:09:22,261 and we celebrate communion because Jesus said, do this in remembrance. 160 00:09:23,462 --> 00:09:24,897 Remember me. 161 00:09:24,897 --> 00:09:28,501 We need to tell and retell the stories to each other 162 00:09:29,101 --> 00:09:32,171 and to our children and into our children's children. 163 00:09:32,805 --> 00:09:36,142 They need to hear the stories so they do not forget. 164 00:09:36,142 --> 00:09:39,011 Listen, sometimes people lose their faith. 165 00:09:39,011 --> 00:09:40,112 You know they can 166 00:09:40,112 --> 00:09:43,716 have an intellectual challenge, or they can have a crisis in their life 167 00:09:43,716 --> 00:09:47,520 and sometimes people lose their faith because their faith erodes 168 00:09:47,954 --> 00:09:51,457 simply because they've forgotten what God has already done. 169 00:09:51,991 --> 00:09:54,860 It's my responsibility to tell my children, my grandchildren, 170 00:09:54,860 --> 00:09:59,098 what God has done in my life to get me to this point. 171 00:09:59,932 --> 00:10:02,702 That's God's deeds. 172 00:10:02,702 --> 00:10:05,304 The second thing is, God's might. 173 00:10:05,304 --> 00:10:09,241 If God's deeds are what God has done, God's might is what he can do 174 00:10:09,241 --> 00:10:10,743 his strength. 175 00:10:10,743 --> 00:10:13,245 When I was like, 4 or 5, 176 00:10:13,245 --> 00:10:17,650 I was my brother and I, we slept in the same, bedroom. 177 00:10:17,650 --> 00:10:21,554 And we were laying there in the dark one night, and I don't know what my dad 178 00:10:21,554 --> 00:10:27,226 had done that day, but we were talking about how strong my dad was right then. 179 00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:31,230 And just then he opened the door to the bedroom to say good night. 180 00:10:31,230 --> 00:10:35,234 And it was dark in the room, but the hall light was on, 181 00:10:35,234 --> 00:10:38,237 so he was silhouetted in the doorway 182 00:10:38,337 --> 00:10:41,440 and we said, hey, dad, dad, that shows your muscles. 183 00:10:43,509 --> 00:10:46,479 And he said, what we said shows your muscles. 184 00:10:46,479 --> 00:10:49,482 And my dad like, looked at it and he did this right. 185 00:10:50,082 --> 00:10:51,150 And then he said, goodnight, guys. 186 00:10:51,150 --> 00:10:53,285 And he closed the door. 187 00:10:53,285 --> 00:10:56,288 We just laid there in stunned silence, 188 00:10:56,589 --> 00:10:59,525 and we both agreed that my dad was one of the strongest men 189 00:10:59,525 --> 00:11:02,395 the world had ever known. Right. 190 00:11:02,395 --> 00:11:03,396 Some of you knew my dad. 191 00:11:03,396 --> 00:11:06,332 My dad was not a particularly big guy or muscular guy. 192 00:11:06,332 --> 00:11:08,701 Why do we say that? 193 00:11:08,701 --> 00:11:11,704 The reason is because we had seen him do something that 194 00:11:12,471 --> 00:11:14,907 we couldn't imagine doing. 195 00:11:14,907 --> 00:11:17,143 That's what the psalmist is saying. 196 00:11:17,143 --> 00:11:20,880 The psalmist is saying we need to pass on to the next generation. 197 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,483 This I just understanding of God that God does 198 00:11:24,483 --> 00:11:27,620 stuff, that you cannot do it. 199 00:11:27,620 --> 00:11:29,388 You cannot imagine doing. 200 00:11:31,290 --> 00:11:32,792 How did this church get? 201 00:11:32,792 --> 00:11:34,293 How did all this happen? 202 00:11:34,293 --> 00:11:38,531 This church here, here we have hundreds, thousands of people coming. 203 00:11:38,698 --> 00:11:40,900 How did you know how this happened? 204 00:11:40,900 --> 00:11:45,705 44 years ago, 30 people sat in a room, 15 couples, 205 00:11:46,405 --> 00:11:49,942 and they talked about what it would be like to start a church in Hudson. 206 00:11:50,676 --> 00:11:55,081 And they agreed that they would need to raise, like $30,000 207 00:11:55,081 --> 00:11:58,217 so that they could support the church for one year. 208 00:11:58,651 --> 00:12:02,922 And so they all took pieces of paper and they wrote down how much their family 209 00:12:02,922 --> 00:12:04,256 could give that year. 210 00:12:04,256 --> 00:12:07,293 And they collected in a basket all the pieces of paper, 211 00:12:07,293 --> 00:12:11,664 and they counted it up, and the total was $38,000. 212 00:12:12,531 --> 00:12:12,765 All right. 213 00:12:12,765 --> 00:12:14,133 So they started this church. 214 00:12:14,133 --> 00:12:15,601 Listen, I have news for you. 215 00:12:15,601 --> 00:12:18,804 $38,000 didn't do all this. 216 00:12:19,438 --> 00:12:24,810 God did this with $38,000 in a group of people who were willing to trust him. 217 00:12:26,145 --> 00:12:29,148 God's might. 218 00:12:29,181 --> 00:12:31,717 If God's deeds or what he's done in the past. 219 00:12:31,717 --> 00:12:34,620 God's might is what he can do. 220 00:12:34,620 --> 00:12:35,688 The God's wonders. 221 00:12:35,688 --> 00:12:38,624 What he will do 222 00:12:38,624 --> 00:12:41,660 is that if God's understanding of the future is not like 223 00:12:41,660 --> 00:12:44,897 your understanding of the future or my understanding of the future, 224 00:12:45,731 --> 00:12:49,235 we know that from the book of Revelation, God tells us how things are going to end. 225 00:12:49,969 --> 00:12:53,873 At the end of time, heaven will descend to earth, right? 226 00:12:53,873 --> 00:12:57,143 And and God will wipe away every tear, 227 00:12:57,143 --> 00:13:02,014 and then God will heal not just individuals, but whole nations. 228 00:13:02,014 --> 00:13:05,384 That's how all of time will end. 229 00:13:05,818 --> 00:13:10,089 And all these think that, you know, God knows what's going to happen. 230 00:13:10,089 --> 00:13:12,391 He knows how the story ends. 231 00:13:12,391 --> 00:13:15,027 And so that's a different way to experience 232 00:13:16,128 --> 00:13:17,830 life. 233 00:13:17,830 --> 00:13:20,499 Yeah, I'm a big basketball fan 234 00:13:20,499 --> 00:13:23,502 and I love what's going on with the Cavs right now. 235 00:13:24,003 --> 00:13:27,206 It's really fun team to watch. 236 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,976 But if you're a Cavs fan or a Cleveland fan, you know that. 237 00:13:31,477 --> 00:13:36,315 You know you will probably never forget the 2015 2016 season 238 00:13:36,315 --> 00:13:40,653 where the Cavs won their first ever NBA championship. 239 00:13:41,353 --> 00:13:43,122 This is, 240 00:13:43,122 --> 00:13:47,359 the DVD of the highlights of that run. 241 00:13:48,327 --> 00:13:52,298 It's the greatest DVD the world has ever known, right? 242 00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:55,901 A lot of people don't have a DVD player. 243 00:13:55,901 --> 00:13:59,205 I have a DVD player just for this one DVD. 244 00:13:59,972 --> 00:14:02,975 I watch it like once a year. 245 00:14:04,143 --> 00:14:08,113 Listen, if you're not a basketball fan, just sit back and enjoy this story. 246 00:14:08,113 --> 00:14:08,781 I'm going to. 247 00:14:08,781 --> 00:14:11,450 So when I was watching this, run 248 00:14:11,450 --> 00:14:14,453 in real time, when the Cavs dropped, 249 00:14:14,620 --> 00:14:17,790 game for their last game four, they went down 3 to 1. 250 00:14:17,790 --> 00:14:18,324 I was just 251 00:14:19,425 --> 00:14:20,626 devastated. 252 00:14:20,626 --> 00:14:23,262 Really bummed. Right? 253 00:14:23,262 --> 00:14:26,332 Because no NBA team had ever come back 254 00:14:26,632 --> 00:14:29,635 from A31 deficit in the NBA finals. 255 00:14:30,603 --> 00:14:33,572 Now, when I watch that DVD, 256 00:14:33,706 --> 00:14:36,876 when they have the press conference after the the fourth game 257 00:14:37,176 --> 00:14:40,679 where they have gone down three one, the Warriors are so cocky 258 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:45,351 in the press conference and the sports pundits have the Cavs dead and buried. 259 00:14:45,351 --> 00:14:47,853 It's my favorite part, right? 260 00:14:47,853 --> 00:14:49,054 I love that part. 261 00:14:49,054 --> 00:14:52,224 If if you had never if you didn't know anything about the series 262 00:14:52,224 --> 00:14:56,195 and you and I watched this DVD together at that moment, I'd be going, 263 00:14:57,429 --> 00:14:58,764 don't worry about it. 264 00:14:58,764 --> 00:15:00,132 The best is yet to come. 265 00:15:00,132 --> 00:15:02,735 Just wait. Okay? 266 00:15:02,735 --> 00:15:04,770 I just wonder sometimes 267 00:15:04,770 --> 00:15:09,008 if when I get to heaven and I watch the DVD of my life, 268 00:15:10,042 --> 00:15:11,577 if the things that 269 00:15:11,577 --> 00:15:14,713 are the hardest things that I experience in real time 270 00:15:16,315 --> 00:15:19,018 might be my favorite parts 271 00:15:19,018 --> 00:15:21,420 when I watch it on a DVD, 272 00:15:21,420 --> 00:15:26,325 is that the reason that we tell the next generation about God's deeds? 273 00:15:26,325 --> 00:15:30,362 God's might, God's wonders, is because a child 274 00:15:30,362 --> 00:15:34,099 who learns to trust God early will follow 275 00:15:34,099 --> 00:15:37,102 Jesus later. 276 00:15:37,903 --> 00:15:41,707 You know, right now, Pastor Zach is kind of, 277 00:15:42,074 --> 00:15:46,712 he's stuck on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 278 00:15:47,646 --> 00:15:50,716 Zach and I meet all the time, and one of my favorite things 279 00:15:50,716 --> 00:15:54,453 about meeting together is when one, of us 280 00:15:54,753 --> 00:15:59,024 is learning something about God like, and we're excited about it 281 00:15:59,458 --> 00:16:02,394 is Zach is so excited about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 282 00:16:02,394 --> 00:16:04,830 We're going to do a whole series on it. May, 283 00:16:05,898 --> 00:16:07,199 but the story of Shadrach, 284 00:16:07,199 --> 00:16:10,202 Meshach, and Abednego comes from Daniel chapter three. 285 00:16:11,136 --> 00:16:14,139 And they are exiles to Babylon. 286 00:16:14,373 --> 00:16:16,775 And there's three young men, probably in their late 287 00:16:16,775 --> 00:16:19,778 teens, maybe early 20s. 288 00:16:20,946 --> 00:16:25,417 And, Babylon is ruled by a king named 289 00:16:25,417 --> 00:16:29,855 Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful man in the world at the time. 290 00:16:30,589 --> 00:16:33,592 And Nebuchadnezzar decides to build a statue. 291 00:16:33,659 --> 00:16:36,228 And then he has this, band 292 00:16:36,228 --> 00:16:39,164 that he assembles, and they're going to play really loud. 293 00:16:39,164 --> 00:16:40,165 And he says that. 294 00:16:40,165 --> 00:16:45,237 But when you hear the music, you bow down and worship the statue. 295 00:16:45,871 --> 00:16:50,242 And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego decided that they would not bow down. 296 00:16:50,976 --> 00:16:54,279 And you have to imagine this with me because you know, 297 00:16:54,279 --> 00:16:57,616 when when they bowed back, then they didn't bow like this, 298 00:16:57,616 --> 00:17:00,786 like when Nebuchadnezzar said, I want you to bow. 299 00:17:00,819 --> 00:17:05,224 They had to get on all fours and then place their forehead 300 00:17:05,691 --> 00:17:07,559 on the ground in the dust. 301 00:17:07,559 --> 00:17:09,361 That's the way you bow. 302 00:17:09,361 --> 00:17:12,731 So you got thousands of people with their foreheads 303 00:17:12,998 --> 00:17:17,002 in the dust, and three young men standing straight up. 304 00:17:17,002 --> 00:17:18,037 They stood out. 305 00:17:19,138 --> 00:17:22,141 So Nebuchadnezzar had them brought to him. 306 00:17:22,174 --> 00:17:25,477 And Nebuchadnezzar said to them, listen, maybe you didn't hear me, 307 00:17:27,012 --> 00:17:30,049 but I said, when the music plays, you bow down and worship. 308 00:17:30,049 --> 00:17:33,552 So I have that music play one more time, give you one more chance, 309 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:39,691 and you bow down and worship the statue, or I will throw you in the fiery furnace. 310 00:17:39,691 --> 00:17:41,960 Then he adds this. 311 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:42,461 And what? 312 00:17:42,461 --> 00:17:44,663 God is there? 313 00:17:44,663 --> 00:17:47,666 Who can save you out of my hand? 314 00:17:48,467 --> 00:17:51,470 And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 315 00:17:51,970 --> 00:17:53,005 look at the king. 316 00:17:53,005 --> 00:17:55,374 It is just an amazing thing here 317 00:17:55,374 --> 00:17:58,844 that the most powerful man in the world is just threatening them. 318 00:17:59,645 --> 00:18:02,081 And this is what they say to them. 319 00:18:02,081 --> 00:18:05,084 They said, okay, 320 00:18:05,250 --> 00:18:08,253 our God is able to deliver us. 321 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:09,655 How would they know that? 322 00:18:10,923 --> 00:18:13,926 Someone had told them 323 00:18:13,992 --> 00:18:19,631 about God's deeds, someone had impressed on them God's might, what he can do. 324 00:18:19,631 --> 00:18:24,870 So they say, our God is able to deliver us and then they say this. 325 00:18:26,004 --> 00:18:30,142 But if he doesn't, may you know, oh, King, 326 00:18:31,343 --> 00:18:34,113 we will never bow down 327 00:18:34,113 --> 00:18:36,215 you what they're saying? 328 00:18:36,215 --> 00:18:37,916 You're saying, you know what? 329 00:18:37,916 --> 00:18:42,754 No matter how this ends, this is going to be our favorite part. 330 00:18:42,754 --> 00:18:45,757 And the DVD we watch in heaven. 331 00:18:46,725 --> 00:18:49,728 That's the confidence of the Christian life. 332 00:18:50,963 --> 00:18:54,666 You pass that on to your children, to your grandchildren. 333 00:18:54,666 --> 00:18:57,669 We pass that on to the next generation. 334 00:18:58,303 --> 00:19:01,306 The next generation will follow Jesus 335 00:19:02,107 --> 00:19:05,310 with all their heart, mind and soul. 336 00:19:06,745 --> 00:19:08,947 That brings me to our third point. 337 00:19:08,947 --> 00:19:11,016 Why it must happen. 338 00:19:11,016 --> 00:19:15,454 Why it's so important to pass our faith on to the next generation. 339 00:19:15,454 --> 00:19:16,555 What the. 340 00:19:16,555 --> 00:19:19,992 But the psalmist says that every generation is connected 341 00:19:19,992 --> 00:19:21,727 to the generations that follow it. 342 00:19:21,727 --> 00:19:27,633 So if you have one of these generations that breaks, then the whole chain breaks. 343 00:19:28,967 --> 00:19:30,802 I think there are three reasons 344 00:19:30,802 --> 00:19:35,140 why it's so important to pass our faith on to the next generation. 345 00:19:35,674 --> 00:19:39,144 And the first reason is that every child is a link. 346 00:19:40,245 --> 00:19:41,813 Every child is a link. 347 00:19:41,813 --> 00:19:44,316 This is verse five and six. 348 00:19:44,316 --> 00:19:48,187 He established a testimony and Jacob appointed a law in Israel 349 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,690 which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 350 00:19:52,291 --> 00:19:55,160 that the next generation might know them, the children yet 351 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,198 unborn, and arise and tell them to their children. 352 00:20:00,065 --> 00:20:02,201 That means every child 353 00:20:02,201 --> 00:20:05,571 of the 550 children in our kids 354 00:20:06,271 --> 00:20:08,674 area is a link. 355 00:20:08,674 --> 00:20:10,209 That's the first reason. 356 00:20:10,209 --> 00:20:14,012 Second reason is that every family is one link away 357 00:20:14,012 --> 00:20:17,015 from changing the family tree, 358 00:20:17,049 --> 00:20:19,251 every family, one link away from changing 359 00:20:19,251 --> 00:20:22,955 the entire family tree all the generations after it. 360 00:20:22,955 --> 00:20:28,827 That's verses seven and eight says so that they should set their hope in God 361 00:20:28,827 --> 00:20:30,762 and not forget the works of God, 362 00:20:30,762 --> 00:20:33,899 but keep his commandments, that they should not be like their fathers. 363 00:20:34,166 --> 00:20:37,903 A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart 364 00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:42,040 was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. 365 00:20:42,975 --> 00:20:46,311 I mean, every family is a link that can change the family tree 366 00:20:46,712 --> 00:20:48,614 in either direction. Good or bad. 367 00:20:50,148 --> 00:20:52,117 My dad was the 368 00:20:52,117 --> 00:20:55,921 the first person in his family to be to become a follower of Jesus, 369 00:20:56,622 --> 00:21:01,093 first Christian in his family and he came from a pretty rough family. 370 00:21:01,093 --> 00:21:06,465 His two older brothers, both died of alcoholism in their 40s. 371 00:21:07,532 --> 00:21:10,535 Uncle Bill drowned in the bathtub 372 00:21:11,069 --> 00:21:14,072 and Uncle Charlie died of cirrhosis. 373 00:21:14,873 --> 00:21:16,708 Who? My dad or my? 374 00:21:16,708 --> 00:21:19,978 My brother Brian, when he was, getting his master's 375 00:21:19,978 --> 00:21:22,981 degree from Ball State University in psychology. 376 00:21:23,315 --> 00:21:26,151 The professor, was trying to, 377 00:21:26,151 --> 00:21:29,755 help them learn how to administer what was called the MPI, 378 00:21:30,222 --> 00:21:32,924 which is the Minnesota Multiphase Personality 379 00:21:32,924 --> 00:21:36,128 Inventory was the most complete personality inventory at the time. 380 00:21:37,095 --> 00:21:39,364 And so my brother was supposed to give it to several people 381 00:21:39,364 --> 00:21:41,700 and take it back to the professor. He gave one to my dad. 382 00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:44,970 My dad filled it out, and he brought it to his professor. 383 00:21:46,238 --> 00:21:48,740 And the professor looked at the results. 384 00:21:48,740 --> 00:21:51,743 And the first question the professor asked was this 385 00:21:52,110 --> 00:21:55,080 is your dad an alcoholic? 386 00:21:55,247 --> 00:21:56,682 Is your dad an alcoholic? 387 00:21:56,682 --> 00:21:58,917 My brother said, no. 388 00:21:58,917 --> 00:22:02,954 The next statement from this professor at Ball State University was this. 389 00:22:03,522 --> 00:22:05,991 Then he must be very religious 390 00:22:05,991 --> 00:22:08,994 because those are his only two options. 391 00:22:11,163 --> 00:22:14,166 My dad changed the family tree 392 00:22:15,467 --> 00:22:18,003 and I stand here 393 00:22:18,003 --> 00:22:20,972 simply because he did. 394 00:22:21,373 --> 00:22:23,742 Every family is one link away 395 00:22:23,742 --> 00:22:28,647 from changing the family tree, good or bad. 396 00:22:29,381 --> 00:22:31,783 And the final reason it's so important is that 397 00:22:31,783 --> 00:22:34,786 every church is one link away from closing 398 00:22:35,220 --> 00:22:37,989 every church, one link away from closing. 399 00:22:37,989 --> 00:22:41,293 Zach reminded me of his story when he was planting a church in Cleveland 400 00:22:42,060 --> 00:22:46,164 that they were looking for, church building to have, their services in. 401 00:22:46,164 --> 00:22:49,167 And they just wanted an hour where that church was not meeting. 402 00:22:49,201 --> 00:22:53,238 And so they were looking at this church, and this woman was showing them around. 403 00:22:53,238 --> 00:22:54,806 And Zach said, do you have a nursery? 404 00:22:55,807 --> 00:22:58,810 And she said, I think so. 405 00:22:58,944 --> 00:23:02,581 And then she took him to her room and unlocked the room and opened it, 406 00:23:02,581 --> 00:23:07,986 and it was used for storage, but the wallpaper was Noah's Ark wallpaper. 407 00:23:08,754 --> 00:23:11,523 And she said, yeah, this is the nursery. 408 00:23:11,523 --> 00:23:14,359 And Zach said, listen, what are you going to do if, 409 00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:18,130 if a family comes with young children this Sunday? 410 00:23:18,930 --> 00:23:20,532 And the lady laughed and she said, 411 00:23:20,532 --> 00:23:23,935 we haven't had a family with young children in five years. 412 00:23:24,903 --> 00:23:27,873 That church building is now a doctor's office. 413 00:23:28,907 --> 00:23:33,378 15,000 churches will close in America 414 00:23:34,045 --> 00:23:37,382 in 2025, in the next 498,000 minutes, 415 00:23:38,917 --> 00:23:41,286 because they didn't know. 416 00:23:41,286 --> 00:23:42,053 Right? 417 00:23:42,053 --> 00:23:46,691 Listen, we have to pass our faith on to the next generation. 418 00:23:46,691 --> 00:23:48,860 We do it by telling, hearing and telling. 419 00:23:48,860 --> 00:23:49,694 You have to be both 420 00:23:50,862 --> 00:23:53,598 we we're going to tell them about 421 00:23:53,598 --> 00:23:57,068 God's deeds, God's might, God's wonders, 422 00:23:58,003 --> 00:24:00,739 because every child is healing, 423 00:24:00,739 --> 00:24:01,473 every family. 424 00:24:01,473 --> 00:24:03,942 One link away from changing the family tree. 425 00:24:03,942 --> 00:24:06,945 Your family one link away. 426 00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:10,282 Every church, one link away from closing. 427 00:24:11,316 --> 00:24:13,618 Every minute matters. 428 00:24:13,618 --> 00:24:16,621 Would you pray with me? 429 00:24:17,055 --> 00:24:17,756 Father in heaven, 430 00:24:17,756 --> 00:24:20,759 we come to you and I am so grateful. 431 00:24:21,927 --> 00:24:25,330 I'm grateful because generations are linked 432 00:24:26,898 --> 00:24:30,569 and my generation is linked to my dad 433 00:24:31,937 --> 00:24:34,272 who began to follow you. 434 00:24:34,272 --> 00:24:37,275 And because he began to follow you, 435 00:24:37,542 --> 00:24:40,612 he changed the trajectory of our family tree. 436 00:24:41,913 --> 00:24:43,548 I pray for us as a church. 437 00:24:43,548 --> 00:24:47,619 I pray for the 550 kids that are in our kids area right now. 438 00:24:47,619 --> 00:24:52,023 I pray that every minute will be packed with faith, 439 00:24:52,023 --> 00:24:55,026 and that we will pack enough minutes with, 440 00:24:55,527 --> 00:24:58,730 faith that they will get it in their hearts and minds 441 00:25:00,298 --> 00:25:00,966 and they will learn 442 00:25:00,966 --> 00:25:03,969 to love you and follow you. 443 00:25:04,803 --> 00:25:07,005 And in doing that, 444 00:25:07,005 --> 00:25:08,940 impact the world 445 00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:11,943 and the next generation and the generation after that. 446 00:25:12,811 --> 00:25:13,812 Thanks. 447 00:25:13,812 --> 00:25:16,748 We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.