Next Gen Insurance - Believing Big

I gotta read to you, I shared this with somebody at breakfast.

The end of the journey of the book of Ezra.

Now we're, I'm, I'm kind of a little ahead of myself here, but I want you to see what I consider to be the promise of following these steps.

Because if we do it.

It's always nice to know where the destination of your trip is.

And the destination, and I'm going to read some a few excerpts from Ezra chapter 9. as he has been reading God's word to the people.

This is in the middle of his broken heart over their sin.

He doesn't want them to lose the opportunity God has given him.

So I pray you are on the edge of the fulfillment.

Of these verses in Ezra 9 that say this the Lord your God has been gracious, giving us a firm place.

Our God gives light to our eyes, and here we go, fasten your seatbelt.

He has shown us, this is verse 9, he has shown us kindness He has granted us new life to rebuild and repair.

Isn't that cool?

He has granted us new life to rebuild and repair, and he has given us a wall of protection.

So that's what's at stake, and that's what the possibilities are of um of walking the supernatural road and following these steps.

How many of you were track stars or wannabe track stars somewhere in your life?

Anybody here run track?

Some of you run now?

Do you I I used to, I had a little fitness program going when Brad was little because I would I would get up in the morning, I wanted to, you know I tried to be in shape as much as I could.

So I I actually ran around the block.

I f that's all I had time for, but I I ran around the block twenty times every morning.

Then Brad moved the block and I I couldn't uh I couldn't do it anymore.

So That was the end of that exercise program.

Um now you say I got up for this, yeah.

Um But if you watch some of the track and field events in the Olympics or even pre-Olympics and on any level Um one of the exciting track events is the relay race.

And uh not having ever run one, I don't uh understand exactly what it's all about, but I do know this much about it, because I've heard it from the runners.

I've seen it happen.

The critical moment, and you guys, some of you will know this, when is in in the relay race where the first one the man or woman running the first lap Has that baton in their hand, and then the on the second stage of the relay, they hand off that baton, the third stage, they hand off to the last person who's going to run the last lap.

Now Uh where is the race won or lost?

Who knows?

Where?

Yeah, the passing of the baton.

Because if the baton, that's that's tough because you got One's running full speed, the other's running full speed, they gotta time it perfectly.

They come up just at the right position to have that handoff so they don't lose a nanosecond and and proceed with it.

That baton gets dropped, probably the race is lost.

The last part of our steps to supernatural outcomes has to do with the passing of the baton.

For you have been running your race , but behind you is another generation, and another generation after them.

Not everybody here has children.

Some of us have children that are long out of the home.

I would say that most everybody here has influence on the next generation.

You work with children, you try to have a at least a personal ministry of encouragement to children or young people.

Or you have your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews.

There are next-gen people who matter to you.

And who you have some vibe that they pick up from you.

You are one of the tributaries into their life They're getting something from you.

So we are all shapers in the next generation.

And in Ezra 's day We're going to look at this interesting last place to go.

And in our day, the decisive battle going on was for the souls of their next generation.

Now, let's take a look at the Ezra chapter 9.

We have visited here before, but not in the I like that what we're looking at today.

Next gen insurance.

We're gonna I want you to take out an insurance policy on the next generations here this morning.

They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves, speaking of them marrying the Canaanite women. and their sons and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them.

Their problem was with the next generation.

This would be now the third generation back in the land.

The original generation that came back was Zeman , Zerubbabel, and Jeshua They came back, then their generation of kids, and now we are into, now in Ezra and ultimately in Nehemiah's time, we're into the third generation the grandchildren of the first wave to come back.

As we look at the list, actually a list is given of the sons and daughters who intermarried and mingled the holy race.

There's a little sad footnote that you say if maybe you skip genealogies.

Sometimes there's information that's interesting in there.

Jeshua, the high priest, who helped lead the rebuilding of the temple in the first gen, some of his sons, grandchildren, and nephews Intermarried and helped mingle the holy race.

And he was the spiritual leader of the first wave.

So the battle is raging here for whether or not the ground that has been gained in one generation's life will be lost in the next generation.

Well, we go to uh verse twelve where Again, guys, are you thinking next gen?

Don't give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or seek a treaty of friendship. that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children, are your children going to get the everlasting inheritance?

that I intended when I brought you back here in the first place.

We need to go over the book of Nehemiah and find here an instruction that Nehemiah, fifteen years later, Ezra still alive, uh, has to say back then.

He said, I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, they've basically got the the the walls of Ju of uh Jerusalem half done.

And the enemies, here we go again.

They're like, we're gonna stop you and we're gonna attack.

He says, don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight.

For your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your homes.

I take this as a personal battle cry.

Fight for your sons.

Fight for your daughters.

Fight for, not with, your wives.

Fight for your homes.

Fight for them.

As an enemy attack surrounds you and threatens you, fight for your families.

He was saying, this isn't about building a wall, guys.

This isn't about a construction project We're fighting for the next generation.

We're fighting for lives here.

This is not a new instruction.

We can go back in the time machine to the book of Judges. to the time uh right around when Joshua you remember Joshua took over from Moses they conquered much of the of the promised land and when you go back to the book of Judges uh which previous generation, it says the people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders. who outlived Joshua.

So Joshua had imprinted the lives of some of his fellow leaders, and they outlive him, but the people still got these role models.

And they had seen, remember, these guys, they were there when they saw the big stuff that God did in that generation.

They'd seen all the great things the Lord had done in Israel.

Oh, how I wish that had continued.

Let's go forward.

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who kneit the Lord.

Nor what he had done for Israel.

I've been told by people who own family businesses, and many great corporations in America were family businesses.

And I understand from management people that in those situations, the longevity of that enterprise Is at its greatest risk in the third generation.

The first generation were the ones who had to dig it out, claw it out, they made the sacrifices, they started with nothing.

Build it into something, you know, uh and uh and and and they they they paid the price.

They know what it takes They have, they have, they value what happens so tremendously because they know what it took to get there.

Now their sons and daughters didn't have to pay that price.

They kind of got it handed to them, but they saw what it took.

They at least got to watch what happened in that generation.

So they've got a little savvy.

I know what dad did.

I know what mom did, yeah.

Now the third generation, they really got it handed to them.

They're the ones who they didn't have to fight for it.

They didn't see the people who started the business fighting for it.

And in that third generation, it'll either it'll either uh uh solidify or it'll die. in their hands.

So it is spiritually, apparently, as we look in in Bible times.

It gets to the third the first generation sees the Red Sea part has these personal experiences.

This might be the generation that truly discovers Christ in your family.

Really sees what he can do.

Sees BC, A D, the difference.

And then the kids come along and they've got to get, they sort of have, they watch your experience, and we're going to talk in just a minute about how a secondhand savior will never do it for them.

But they got to get their own savior, but but they they know a little because they watch sort of what happened with you and now with that third generation, once again, well in the third generation, they're about to lose all that God had in store When he delivered them from their captivity.

Will the work of God, look at your notes, will the work God has done in me stop with me?

That's the question.

The Lakota Su have a proverb.

It says we will be known forever by the tracks we leave behind And we will.

And the tracks we leave behind will probably not be the title we held, the money we earned, or the enterprise we built.

The tracks we leave behind are the people that we were the closest to and whose lives we touched.

Jonathan Edwards.

Anybody know his name?

Jonathan Edwards, you may have studied his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Too bad that's all he was known for, because he really preached the love of God a lot.

But Jonathan Edwards was a uh was the key figure in the first, what they call the first great awakening, the first great move of God in this country. back pre-Revolutionary War days.

Let me tell you about his family and the story of the family.

Jonathan's Edwards home, they say, was known to all who touched it as a place of harmony and love and where everybody felt esteemed.

So they did a study of 1400 descendants of Jonathan Edwards.

Well There were 13 college presidents, 65 professors, 100 lawyers, 30 judges, 66 physicians. 80 holders of public office, including three senators, three governors, and a vice president of the United States.

And you know, he articulated his philosophy of his family.

Every family ought to be a little church Consecrated to Christ, wholly influenced and governed by his rules.

And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace.

If these fail, all other means.

The family doesn't make it.

If family faith doesn't make it, it says, he says, all the other means are likely to prove ineffectual.

If it ain't working at home, ain't much the church can do about it.

It's gotta be working at home.

So it's important stuff.

So here's the last step to supernatural outcome.

Secure the future.

Secure the future.

Now, as I'm speaking, you're thinking perhaps about if you have children or grandchildren of your own, you're thinking of them, and immediately what will come to mind is uh at least one who you're saying, wow, if this is the end of the story, um it's not a happy ending.

We have done anything but secure the future.

Um can I uh I'm a I'm a uh um we're gonna be a new denomination.

It's called the Yogiites.

Not yoga, yogiites, the yogi beta.

Yogi Berra said, he said, it ain't over till it's over.

Are they still breathing?

Oh, well then this is just a chapter.

As long as there's breath, there's hope.

It ain't over.

There may be people in this room who are living proof.

Then a wanderer doesn't stay away forever.

Wanderers come home.

And in one Intervention, remember, when God intervenes, when the Lord moves, everything moves.

And one intervention from heaven can turn the tide.

We saw that in the book of Ezra.

So don't be thinking just now, say, oh, this is so depressing.

Let's think about where to from here.

And I love what Dick shared with me at breakfast.

He said a simple but profound truth.

Just about changes God is doing in his own life.

He said it's never too late.

And I'm guessing that Dick is probably well into his 40s as he says that it's never too late.

Now, unfortunately, in their day, there was the nightmare scenario.

Look what happened.

Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 23 and 24.

Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married, here we go again, women from Ashdod, those are Philistines, Ammon, the Ammonites, Moab, Moabites, constant enemies of the people of God.

And their, listen to this, their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, Philistines, their perennial enemies, pagans, and could not speak the Hebrew.

But in the language of each people, in essence, their next generation had gone over to the enemy, couldn't even remember the language of God's people They were now talking like enemies of God.

Oh.

Well, with that in mind, there's also a picture of hope in that same time.

Look at Nehemiah 8, verse 13.

It's not all bad news at all.

On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests, no, it's the heads of all the families, the priests, the Levites.

Gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the law.

So here's what hope looked like back then The heads of families giving attention to God's word.

That's where hope begins for the next generation.

Is the head of the family giving attention to God's word.

So that's the flip side.

This is the good news side of it.

Let's go over to Nehemiah chapter 10.

Here's another face of hope in the midst of the sadness of this.

The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples.

For the sake of the law of God.

These are people who, in the words of our secrets of our steps to supernatural outcomes, held the line.

Together with their wives and all their sons and daughters, next gen, who are able to understand, all these now join their brothers, the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath. to follow the law of God given through Moses, the servant of God, and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord.

So you've got the heads of families giving attention to God's word and families who are going to follow the book together.

Families who are doing God's word together.

That's what the face of hope looks like Now, here's the news bulletin.

Breaking news.

The shaping, the spiritual shaping of your family cannot be delegated.

Cannot be delegated.

We live in our country in an age of specialists Where we we hand off our kids to coaches and tutors and mentors and youth leaders and youth programs and whatever.

Anything that people outside the home do for the next generations is supplemental.

What happens at home is fundamental.

That's nice if you got some helpers along the way, but it's what's happening at home.

That's the key.

So you can't delegate that.

The primary place, they say, well, we got a great youth program in our church.

Nice That's a bonus feature on the DVD.

The main feature is what you're doing, not what the youth pastor's doing.

No youth program can make up for mom and dad who are not creating a discipling atmosphere in their family.

So the front lines in the battle for the next generation, they're not at school.

No, the front lines are not at school They're not in the community.

And the front lines for the next generation aren't a church.

They're at home.

Deuteronomy chapter 6.

We go back to a um a day as they're entering the promised land The Lord our God.

The Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God.

By the way, this is where securing the next generation starts.

Mom and Dad.

Notice this is not saying have have be religious.

It's a love affair with God.

That's what's contagious to kids, is a love affair with God.

Not rules, not teaching.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

Okay, then these commandments in that atmosphere of loving God for all your worth, all you're all in.

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts, not just in your head, not just a cognitive faith.

Yeah, I got all the right answers.

No, no, no.

This is in your heart.

Now, there's a heart transfer.

Impress them on your children.

In order to make an impression on a printing press or or anything, the the thing that's trying that you're you're trying to impress, they have to be in direct contact.

You can't make an impression from a distance.

To print a copy, it has to touch it.

So he says, talk about it when you're sitting at home.

Not necessarily when you got the big family Bible open, which is a good idea, but this is this is like the classroom of everyday life.

You do it when you're sitting at home, when you're walking along, in this case it's chauffeuring.

When you walk, when you're driving along the road probably, when you lie down, when you get up, those are some of the moments when people will talk.

They should run into God everywhere they're looking.

Tie him his symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads.

He's just part of our life, right on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

So that's how the transfer takes place to another generation.

And a hand-me-down faith will not fit your kids.

It'd be like them trying to wear your clothes.

Maybe they would fit But in most cases, if we try, if our kids were, they wouldn't be seen dead in our clothes unless there was some retro day at school, when they could laugh at us and how we used to dress, or do dress now.

But the fact is that they may not they probably don't look good in your clothes.

Well, they don't look good in your faith either.

A secondhand faith isn't going to make it in a culture like we live in.

They're going to have to be Jesus of their own.

They will not survive the bombardment.

Um there's a difference between clothes and skin.

Aren't you glad you came?

Because you know, you come, you go to a wedding and you dress up.

You probably don't wear the same thing to the beach that you wear to a wedding or a formal dinner.

And then you get home and you wear what you really want to wear.

And you get into your grubbies and hang out.

But you probably necessarily wouldn't dress that way for a business appointment.

So we change clothes for the occasion.

You never change skin.

Same skin all the time.

The question is, is the Christian faith for our next generation clothes or skin?

Because if it's clothes, they'll keep changing their clothes for the situation.

So I'm at a party, I put on my party clothes and I'm with my friends, I put on my friends' clothes.

I'm at church, I put on my God clothes.

But if it's skin, it's with them all the time.

That's what we want.

Not your faith.

Second hand, handed down.

They got their own Jesus thing going on.

May not look like yours, but it's every bit as personal.

So let's talk about, let's make this practical.

You ready for the fast ride?

Here we go.

Let's talk about the faith the next generation will not want.

Let's be negative for a minute.

This is the faith they will not want.

They will not want a religion.

If what you're trying to get them to be is good church boy or girl, church is important, but if they think this is all about going to the meetings, going to church, making you look good, because they show up at church they will not be interested in a religion.

So that won't that won't attract them.

They're not going to want a religion that's a rule book.

If what they see is that God is essentially rules, certainly there are boundaries, but if they see God as rules, here's what you're going to get.

You'll get short-term, and the studies prove this to be true, you'll get short-term compliance and long-term rebellion As long as they got to to get what they need from you, they'll comply.

They'll do your thing.

You'll think you've won.

But the minute they have a chance to get free and get out and make choices away from you.

Find out that they didn't buy the rules at all.

In fact, this is my chance to uh get to throw over those rules So the rule book will give a you'll get you'll get maybe a good short-term result.

You may not like the long-term result.

A reclusive faith.

They will not want a they're probably not going to be exad, excited about a reclusive faith.

Well we're saying we're really afraid of that bad evil world out there, so let's all just stay in the cocoon.

I really don't want you touching this nasty world out there.

John 17, Jesus taught us how to pray for the next generation.

He was praying for his next generation, the disciples.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world.

I don't want them in a cocoon.

But that you protect them from the evil one.

I want them in the world to make a difference in the world.

Jesus said we're to be salt and light.

What good is salt in a salt shaker?

Your meat still tastes bland.

The popcorn still doesn't have any salt.

You've got to get it out of the salt shaker and in contact with what you're trying to change the flavor of.

You know, light.

You have to turn on the light.

The light has to be in a dark room.

You don't want all the lights.

If you had a house with all the lights in one room, that'd be dumb and everything else is dark.

You need light in every room.

So we're salt and light.

What do salt and light have in common?

Almost nothing.

Except they both change their environment Salt changes what you put it on, light changes the environment in a room.

God says we're supposed to be salt and light.

We're supposed to change the environment.

We need to be raising kids to say you guys don't have to be an echo of a of a broken s a broken culture, a broken dating system, a broken romantic system that produces broken marriages.

You don't have to be a part of a All the broken stuff, we see where it goes for heaven's sake.

You can be an alternative.

You can show them a better way to be.

But not a reclusive faith.

That's parenting out of fear.

They probably will not be attracted to a religion or to a faith that's rejecting sinners.

Certainly we should be against sin.

But Jesus was called friend of sinners.

Now they were attacking him.

I think when they said that, he said, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'd like to be called a friend of sinners, not a friend of sin.

I don't want to be a friend of sin.

But if all if all they see is those nasty people, they need to know that lost people do.

Are we trying to raise our kids?

To know this is what what it's like when you don't have Jesus.

That's why they talk like that.

That's why their family is doing what it's doing.

That's why they're that's why their their parents are not together.

That's why they're angry.

That's why they're Hurting.

They don't have Jesus Not there's something terrible about them.

It's just terrible they don't have Jesus.

This is how people without Jesus live.

That's all they got We want them to learn to love sinners, not love sin, but love sinners and not reject them.

Now this next one I'm going to get in trouble for.

I made up a word.

They're probably not going to want republicanity.

This is not a political statement.

I hereby announce this is not a political statement, though it looks like it.

I came home one time from a trip to her house in Arkansas and I looked in the lower pasture and I went and I said, Karen, I cannot believe it.

Well, I've been gone, you got two Democrats.

We had two donkeys she had bought.

She said, great, you go away for too many long trips, I'm gonna get two Republicans.

Oh great.

Woo!

You know, that'll be great.

Two elephants are coming next.

This is totally non-political.

What I mean by that is this.

In surveys of next generation young people.

One of the things they think it means to be a Christian, why they don't want to be one, is that it's totally associated with a view of politics, conservative politics.

You go ahead and have your political views, but don't make it part of, don't make it, don't tie Jesus to political viewpoints.

We could say Democratic Anity or something too.

But more Christians tend to be more conservative.

So that's fine.

I have a dear friend who used to make posts on Facebook about Jesus.

And now every post Is a political slam making these, you know, any any news, who did you hear that now they're doing this and they're doing that?

And it's totally, he's totally not about Jesus anymore It's just all about these conservative rants.

I consider myself a conservative, but it's not, I don't want people to think that's Jesus.

That you gotta you gotta believe all that to have Jesus.

I don't want to encumber Jesus with that.

So our kids probably aren't gonna want a politicized Jesus.

Rhetoric without reality is another faith they're not going to want.

They're not going to be interested in rhetoric without reality.

Neither is Jesus Luke 6. 46, why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I say?

They see you all smiles and nice when the when you're in the Christian setting and then they're like, whoa, where did that guy come from?

That's not the guy I see at home.

They should see the greatest compliment they could give you is this is my there's only I got my mom 's only one person.

My dad My Sunday school teacher, my youth leader, there's only one them.

There's always that's integrity.

An integer in math is one whole number.

Integrity is one whole person.

There's only one you.

And so they don't go, whoa, where'd that church guy come from?

He wasn't a guy on the way to church.

No, rhetoric without reality is going to make them into rebels.

Adrian Rogers told the story of this guy who was hanging out near a place where people went out on a lake and did a lot of fishing.

And this guy, every day, this guy would come in with this.

I mean a boatload of fish.

He's like, where is he fishing?

How does this work?

He said, would you take me out with you?

I want to see this.

Guys said, sure, come on.

So he goes out to a far remote corner of the lake, just a little cove, and the fisherman pulls out a stick of dynamite.

Lights a stick of dynamite, throws it in the lake.

Fish floating everywhere.

Well the guy who's with him says, you can't do that, pulls out his game warranton card.

He says, you can't do this.

I'm a game warden.

The guy says, oh, okay.

Likes another stick of dynamite.

Hands it to his guest.

Says you gonna talk or you gonna fish?

I love that story for some reason.

That's kind of what our kids might be saying.

Are you gonna talk about this, Jesus?

Are you gonna fish?

Are you the real deal or not?

Now, can we be positive?

Let's go the home stretch.

A faith they will want.

Here's the faith they'll want.

We talked about the one they won't want.

What's it look like to have a faith they want?

First of all and foremost, it's all about Jesus.

It's all about Jesus.

And not about church, it's not about denomination, it's not about doctrine, it's not about rules, it's Jesus.

Because that's it is all about Jesus.

Remember we saw 2 Corinthians 4. 4 that says The God of this age has blinded unbelievers.

What has he blinded them from?

What is he afraid they will see?

He's afraid they will see the light of the gospel.

What does the gospel reveal?

The glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

He doesn't want them to see how wonderful Jesus is.

You know what the devil's attitude is?

I don't care what you're into, as long as it's not Jesus.

You can be into a religion that's all about Jesus.

That's fine with me.

Just don't be about Jesus.

Anything but Jesus.

I don't want you to see Jesus.

So you gotta make it about Jesus.

I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago.

She's very concerned about her granddaughter.

Her granddaughter's growing up in Christian home, their son's home.

But mom came from a pretty narrow background and and is pretty demanding on the rules side of things.

And so the granddaughter is brilliant, going to a wonderful Christian college, but her Facebook relationship that's developing is with a brilliant, handsome atheist guy.

And grandma's very concerned.

These are dear praying friends of ours.

She's very concerned about it.

But as so often happens, This girl listens to grandma.

Sometimes the grandparents can have more influence than the parents can.

And you may say, well, I don't have any real grandchildren of my own.

I'll tell you, the older generation, sometimes you have a lot more that they will listen to than you realize.

And especially if they like what they see in you, well I said to her, you know your biggest job?

Your biggest job is to let her know that it's all about Jesus.

She's got this confused with her father's faith, her mother's faith.

Will you just let her know, honey, this is all about Jesus?

It's all about a man who died for you.

So when you when you walk away, you're not walking away from your parents' faith.

You're walking away from the man who died for you.

This is you making a decision about Jesus, not mom's faith, not mom 's way of following Jesus.

Make it all about Jesus.

Over the years I heard people describe, you know, having devotions, having personal Bible study, um having quiet time, and I've called it all of those.

I don't anymore.

Because that doesn't aptly describe what that time is.

It's Jesus time.

And my grandchildren are picking that up Having my Jesus time.

Because it's time, it's not time with the book.

Do you know the Bible won't miss you if you don't show up?

The Bible won't care.

Jesus will miss you.

Because it's time with Jesus.

So remember?

That's that second step to the supernatural.

Beginning with Jesus?

It's a meeting with Jesus.

Getting together with that walk with Jesus.

So let them know.

It's not about Bible study.

It's about being with Jesus.

It's all about Jesus.

Mark chapter 1, Jesus said to those disciples, follow me, and that's still the important thing to communicate.

Always, always bring it back to Jesus.

Not Christianity.

Jesus.

Secondly, a faith they'll want produces joy.

It's pretty hard to get excited about a faith that seems to make the holder of that faith much of the time a fairly miserable person.

If you're gloomy gus, if you're Eeyore, if you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, that's not particularly magnetic.

The kind of faith they will want, that next generation, is one that produces joy.

Now joy, I'm sorry to tell Phil Robinson this from Duck Dynasty, is not happy, happy, happy.

Joy, and you want to write this down?

This is actually from last year's president's retreat, no extra charge.

Joy is a consistent buoyancy.

A consistent buoyancy, independent of circumstances, rooted in Christ That's the best I can define it.

A consistent buoyancy, independent of circumstances, rooted in Christ.

How do I know that?

Because what's the joy book of the Bible?

Philippians, where was it written?

In prison.

Hello?

It must not have anything to do with the circumstances.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Again I say rejoice.

Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy.

So it obviously has nothing to do with the environment.

It's rooted in Christ.

It's not happy, happy, happy all the time.

It's just a buoyancy like a beach ball.

You can only push a beach ball down so long and it bounces back up again.

There's a buoyancy and there is a glow about somebody who's been with Jesus.

This is one of the reasons it's so important. for you to make your Jesus time a Jesus time, not a Bible reading time, a Jesus time.

So you truly are experiencing Jesus.

Because when you come up, remember when Moses came off the mountain and he's glowing and they're like, you're glowing.

I am?

I'm glowing?

I know I was glowing.

Well where you've been?

I've been on a mountain with God.

See, they'll take knowledge of you, you've been with Jesus, and go, all I know is that it seems to make them pretty unsinkable.

1 Peter 1. 8 says says, in fact I'm about to find out.

Though you've not seen him you love him, and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

By the way, when the Bible talks about being filled with joy or filled with the Spirit, would you like to know what you're filled with?

So I wonder if I'm filled with the Spirit.

I wonder if I'm filled with joy.

I don't know.

Well, the way to find out is what's in an unmarked tube is to squeeze it.

It might be glue or it might be toothpaste.

If you're about to brush your teeth, it'd be important to know the difference.

The way you know what it is and when you squeeze it, whatever it's full of comes out.

That's what you're full of.

Whatever comes out when you're squeezed.

This says joy oughta come out when you're squeezed I'm just a pretty down home guy.

I don't know how theological this is, but it just works for me.

Okay.

Thirdly, they're going to be attracted to a faith that's life-changing.

2 Corinthians 4. 18 describes the transformative reality of loving Jesus.

It says, we fix our eyes now on what is seen, but what is unseen, what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is real.

And then it goes on to say, you know, and I think I think I might um I might have given you the wrong verse there, Micah, but and um maybe I should be in 1 Corinthians.

And that we are being changed more and more every day.

Is that 1 Corinthians?

Help me here, somebody.

Hold on a second.

Because this is worth looking up here.

No, it must be.

Well, I can't wait to find that.

You know, you should do a personal Bible study on this.

It would really be let me encourage you to do that.

It's it's uh oh it's chapter it's ver it's it's 2 Corinthians 3.

I'm sorry, I'm one chapter off.

Yeah, it's uh it's 318.

We who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed. into his likeness.

We're being transformed into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory.

Do you know what that means for your family?

They're getting a better mom or a better dad every day because you follow Jesus.

Every day, every week, as time goes on, they're like, I really like the way my my dad, my grandfather, I like the way my youth leader, my Sunday school teacher, I like the way they're at.

They're changing.

They're different.

They're not this you know they used to be uh all worried and anxious all the time and some of you just got something go what's going on with you?

You've got more peace now.

They get mad all the time.

And now they're just kind of they're more patient.

What's going on?

Your kids may not be ready to believe in Jesus, but how could they be against a better parent?

If they're getting a better parent out of the deal, that says you can't be against that.

So the kind of faith that's going to attract them is one that's life-changing.

Now also, it's one that makes a difference.

A faith that makes a difference.

What I mean by that is that you are a Matthew 5. 14 family, which says. . .

You are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

We guys, we are the lighthouse on our stretch of the beach.

Oh, this may just look like a house house, but it's a lighthouse.

Because we got the light of Jesus in this house and we want to spread it.

So you know what that means?

Your family has this wonderful atmosphere where you pray things done.

Some of you know this.

We as our kids were growing up, they had a prayer chair.

We had a prayer chair.

Now I don't know what you're expecting.

If you're expecting something beautifully upholstered and glowing?

It pretty much was a ratty blue chair.

But it was our prayer chair.

And every time, like when the kids are starting out the school year, they get in the prayer chair.

Pray for their teachers, pray for the temptations they're going to face, pray for the classes they're going to have.

We have a prayer chair.

Dad's going on a trip somewhere, we pray.

Dad gets in a prayer chair.

Mom's going through something, prayer chair.

Somebody's sick, get in a prayer chair Now you actually don't have to be in the chair to be prayed for, but it's sort of like a nice object lesson.

So that was our prayer chair.

By the way, I won't name the child.

But recently in recent years we had to reupholster finally that chair, freaked out.

This kid of ours freaked out, adult child.

You can't do that.

Don't change that chair It's like this chair is a mess, but that's the prayer chair.

It's still the prayer chair.

We can re-upholster, it's still be a prayer chair.

But but the point is that that Jesus isn't just a belief we have, he's part of the family.

We talk to him.

We consult him together.

You know what's really cool?

You may not even have a kid who really is into the Lord very much right now or a grandchild, but ask them to pray for you.

Say, you know, I'm really going through something right now.

Would you pray for your granddad?

Would you pray for your grandma?

He might go, uh Okay, sure, come on.

But you know what?

It's gonna make them think.

You need their prayer You're acting like, you know, I think you could be in touch with God.

You're acting like you could do you could do this without me.

I need you right now.

I need you to pray for me.

This is a a a faith that makes a difference.

And then maybe you even pray together for people you want to reach.

How cool would it be?

How cool would it be for a for a grandma to be praying for the friend of a five-year-old granddaughter who the five-year-old granddaughter wants to go to heaven Have her go to heaven.

Who say, I'm gonna pray.

Who would you like to have go to heaven?

Okay, honey, let me pray.

Let me pray for Wendy.

I'll pray for Wendy.

Lord, but Wendy's five.

I pray.

How cool would it be if now your five-year-old granddaughter is praying for the person Grandma wants to take to heaven with her?

She prays for Mrs.

O'Brien, little five-year-old granddaughter.

See, this is next gen security, baby.

This is next gen insurance.

Getting them doing the faith.

And wouldn't it be interesting?

You know what happens when you take any of you been on a mission trip with kids?

It's really funny.

They change as long as they're on a missions trip at least.

Kids who never read the Bible are on a rock at seven in the morning reading their Bible.

Kids who never pray, they're praying.

You peek, you watch him pray, you're like, George, that's George praying.

George never prays.

Yeah, George is praying.

Kids are never paying attention to anything you say.

Start asking questions.

Can I ask you something what happened to George?

They go on a missions trip and they need God.

They need them because you're trying to do something for them.

Exercise gives you an appetite.

What if your family was a year-round missions trip?

What if your family was but you don't have to go anywhere?

There's enough missions in your own community.

There's kids who struggle in school who need help.

There's children's programs in the church.

They look up the teenagers.

And you don't have to be a spiritual giant, but a teenager who at least would be willing to help those kids and serve cookies to them Be involved with them.

What if you together said, oh boy, you know, uh Mrs.

Johnson down the street is gonna has been in the hospital a long time.

Let's go see her.

Let's bake some cookies for her.

Let's make a difference for her.

My daughter, Lisa, is incredible at this.

Has always involved the kids, our grandkids, and going on our missions of mercy.

It's a make-a-difference environment.

I guess it might have come from the fact that when Lisa went to school, I used to say to her, go mad And many of you know that that did not mean I wanted insane children, although to some extent we got those.

But go mad means go make a difference.

I didn't want, I said, honey, the idea isn't for you to survive at school and say, oh, I'm the only Christian, I'm the only one who doesn't swear, I'm the only one who doesn't talk dirty.

That's the point.

You if they if you're not there, guess what?

They think there's only one way to be because everybody they know is one way.

But your way you can prove to them there's another way, guys.

Look, you don't everybody does not everybody Not everybody.

You don't have to be dirty.

You don't have to swear.

You can actually smile most of the day and not be grumpy all day long and angry.

So you begin to get creating the kids that make a difference mentality, whether they're grandkids or their nieces or nephews or people you teach or whatever.

A make-a-difference atmosphere.

Here's another thing.

A faith that they want cares for the hurting.

And we won't look up the passage.

It's a long passage.

It's the story of the Good Samaritan.

Somebody who finally stopped for the hurting guy when all these guys are going to the benevolence committee meeting at church in Jerusalem walked right by him.

I don't know if that's in there or not, but that's my picture.

And this this Samaritan guy, oh gosh, he makes the Samaritan the hero.

The stinking, dirty Samaritan.

We don't like him.

Jesus makes him the hero of the story.

So cool.

Little sideline.

But he says, I want you to be the one who stops.

They'll be attracted to a faith where you don't just believe beliefs, but you they see the love of Christ in action in you.

Also They'll be attracted to a faith that's more caught than taught.

That's what happened to Timothy.

Timothy grew up in a mixed family.

Timothy's daddy, apparently, didn't know Jesus.

Timothy's mother did.

That's a tough situation.

But look what happened.

I've been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Well, look at third generation.

It made it.

It made it To your grandmother Lois and then in your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded now lives in you.

And Timothy becomes this great leader.

Yay, it made it to the third generation.

It was so real.

It made it to the third generation.

And I have a feeling he caught it more than had it taught to him.

They're going to watch how you make decisions.

They're going to watch how you handle problems.

They're going to watch how you handle conflict.

They're going to watch what difference Jesus really makes.

And that's what either will attract them or repel them.

My question is, do they see you talking to Jesus Do they see you listening to Jesus?

Do they see you asking Jesus for advice?

Do they see you including Jesus?

That's reality.

I was very touched.

Doug cough from the Hopi Reservation.

He said, oh dad, just a second.

Noelle just came in.

Noelle was three, I think.

I said, what's she doing?

He said, well, I'm actually, I'm in here reading my Bible right now by um and when you called, but He says, she's sitting down.

There's a little, she made a chair.

She brought a little chair and she does this every morning.

She sits a little chair next to my desk and she's got her Bible in her lap.

Well, she couldn't read it.

But this is nobody told her to do that.

But that's what Daddy does every morning.

Well now she does do it every morning and she can read it.

Taylor was out on the on our swing where I said we sit and just listen sometimes.

And um Anna was trying to leave.

She was trying to get the kids ready to go and Taylor said, Mommy, not yet.

He was alone on the swing.

Not yet.

Come on, Taylor, we're automatically ready to go.

We gotta, mommy, a couple minutes.

She said , why not?

We got to go.

What's the problem?

What are you doing?

He said, I'm talking to Jesus like daddy does.

It's called More than taught.

Because it's a real deal.

That's reality.

A couple more things.

They'll be attracted to, they'll want a faith that's quick to forgive.

Because you're modeling the Savior Jesus.

Colossians 3. 13 says, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

The next gen people that you influence, do they see in you a forgiver or a grudge holder?

An angry person, a bitter person, a person who keeps bringing it up again Or do they see a reflection of the grace that you receive from Jesus?

They'll want a faith that's quick to forgive.

And they'll want a faith that's quick to apologize See, that's a form of humility.

James 5. 16 says, confess your faults to one another And pray for each other so you may be healed.

There were three words Fonzi could never say.

I was could never get that last word out.

Some of us can't either.

Some of us were raised by a parent who was never wrong, except they were, and you knew it.

Did you respect them more for that?

No, you respected them less And we become like that, unfortunately, some of us.

But a healthy human being is able to say those words, I was wrong.

And be quick to apologize.

Man, I can remember kneeling down next to five-year-old Brad's bed.

And it was hard, but just to say, Brad, Daddy, Daddy has to say I'm sorry to you.

Because I said something mean to mommy and and you heard it and I'm sorry.

I don't I don't think that diminishes us.

I think they say, you know, a parent who can be wrong, I respect, not one who always has to be right.

It doesn't matter who is right, it matters what is right.

And that's not always the side I'm on.

So a faith that they'll want is quick to apologize.

And it's a faith that starts with dad.

Mm-hmm.

Did you notice in Nehemiah chapter 8 that it says it was the heads of the families that spearheaded The getting into God's Word.

And over in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4, notice who gets the instruction.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children.

By the way, I.

I do see humor in the Bible, but it's just my mind, my twisted mind.

Ex aspirate, aspirate means breathing.

It just, I can just see exaspirates like you get so like.

Dad!

He's just so frustrated, ex aspirate.

You literally get the a draw you suck the air out of him.

Do not suck the air out of your kids.

I'm sorry, had to do that's just what I think of.

Do not frustrate your kids so bad you suck the oxygen out of them.

Do not exasperate your children.

Dad, you, dad, you.

Wait, that's mom's job.

Dad, you.

Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

In other words, don't bring them down, bring them up.

Don't tear them down, build them up.

I'm counting on you.

They're going to get God from you.

Dad takes the lead because he's the captain of the ship and if the captain is not at the helm in the storm, the ship will go aground.

Captain is expected to be at the helm So what we saw in the book of Ezra is that a man in love with God's word inspires everyone to look to the book.

When Ezra stood up and started reading for hours from the Word of God, slowly but surely the whole crowd gathers around him, and he has a contagious love for God's word.

By the way, just can I I just saw this in my Jesus time a couple weeks ago and I gotta drop it in.

In the in in the in the in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, because all these great guys.

By faith, Abraham by faith.

It mentions Enoch.

We don't know much about Enoch.

We got a couple sentences about him in Genesis.

It says Enoch walked with God and then was taken away to be with God.

Enoch walked with God.

Fine.

I went back to find out why Enoch walked with God and why he started walking with God.

This is a fascinating, I'm sorry, aha moment for me.

Go back.

Take me to Genesis 5.

Genesis 5.

Look at this.

He didn't always walk with God.

When he had lived 65 years, he became a father.

The father of Methuselah.

Now you've got to follow the math here.

After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years.

So, 65 years he didn't walk with God. 300 years he did.

You know why he started walking with God?

He became a dad.

Isn't that amazing?

Having a kid, he's like, I need God.

I gotta start walking with God.

I don't know what to do with this boy.

I mean, that's the way I read it.

The needs of our children, our grandchildren, drive us, show us how badly we need to walk with God.

If we didn't know it before, it's like if I didn't do it for me, I gotta do it for them.

The great incentive for walking with God So let me just conclude with one last insight that is a real important Period at the end of this long run-on sentence of the last several days.

When um When several of our grandchildren were little, their mothers taught them, I don't know exactly, that if they wanted more to eat or more of something, how do you do more?

Is this more?

More.

More?

Yeah.

They would do sign language.

More, more.

I want more Taylor, being a boy, that wasn't good enough for him.

He's like, he did like this.

This is how how guys say more.

No, no, that's the takiki.

That's girl stuff.

That's the guy way to say more.

God's been saying to you, I got a lot more.

You've probably underestimated me.

You've overestimated your problems, your challenges, maybe overestimated yourself.

I got more, however you want to do it.

A big God wants to do some very big things for those who believe big And live accordingly.

And what is living accordingly?

Embracing his plan.

In other words, deciding Making your decisions based on the big picture, not the small dot, embracing the plan that I cannot see, but knowing that God is wanting to do something much bigger than what I can see.

So the one thing that will get me to his plan is to live by his promises.

Remember the path of God is lit by the promises of God.

So the promises of God become the guiding light.

That's my lighthouse.

I will steer, I will make my plot my course by the lighthouse of the promise of God.

Secondly, you get to supernatural outcomes when you begin with Jesus.

You gotta keep it all about Jesus.

And that's what that you refocus every day go, oh yeah, okay.

I wandered a little bit, adjust my course, back with Jesus.

Thirdly, you got to hold the line.

Matthew 5, 6 says, blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God.

It's Matthew 5.

8.

Those who are pure and you've got to you've got to hold the line and say, I am going to build a high levy.

In a time of moral flooding, I've got to build a high levy around me that I cannot allow any of the flood in.

And so you're holding the line when no other Christian you know is holding the line.

You know that the supernatural outcome is at stake and you're holding the line.

You stay on mission, making the decision that you are no longer going to be building your own kingdom, your own house, but you are going to be using what you have for the greatest outcome of all and the greatest cause on earth.

And of course, resisting the ambushes.

I call that defiant faith.

A fist in the face of your enemy that says, you will not stop me with that again.

This has worked before.

I know who this is.

This is not going to work anymore.

I refuse to let the enemy stop me.

And finally, securing the future.

So it is a legacy of supernatural.

But now here is the little secret I didn't tell you till the end In Luke 24, at the end of Luke 24, Jesus says to his disciples, I want you to go and preach repentance and faith in Jerusalem and the whole world.

What would you think they would do next?

We have to go reach the whole world.

There are 11 of us.

We had better have a planning meeting immediately.

We had better have a strategic planning session We had better get busy.

Let's see.

Okay, Peter, you go this way.

Andrew, this is going.

We just get going here.

Nope.

God gives them the strangest order.

He gives them this huge assignment And then he says, don't do anything.

Uh, excuse me, why?

No, no.

I want you to stay in Jerusalem and wait.

You just told us to go reach the whole world.

And now you want us to wait?

What kind of a strategy is that?

He says, no, wait for the gift that I have promised.

So instead of running off to reach the world, 120 people get together in an upper room and pray and pray and pray another day and pray another day, waiting for whatever this thing is.

And then of course the Holy Spirit comes down big time at Pentecost.

And the whole world comes to Jerusalem.

And there are people from all over the world who hear the gospel in one day.

They didn't even go anywhere yet.

But here's what I learned from this.

Before God does a great work for you Or through you.

He must do a great work, finish it in you And when you heard about supernatural outcomes, I'll bet you were thinking of a situation or a person that you wished would change.

And God said, first, I gotta do something in you.

In fact, what I do in you may be the catalyst that starts to change So first we do you.

I'm not changing the situation yet.

I'm changing you.

And then the supernatural outcomes will happen in other areas.

First, I gotta get this stuff done in you.

That's why these are the steps to a supernatural outcome Because it happened in you.

Joshua was facing the ultimate mission impossible.

And with this we close.

You could see, I know, because I've stood on the other side of the Jordan River.

Now the walls of Jericho aren't there anymore, but you could see Jericho and and the walls of Jericho were just were taunting.

The Jews.

God says, go in and take the promised land.

And here what was believed to be possibly the oldest city in the world at that time, with these massive walls around it, there is no technology.

They have no way to bring knows well.

There's no way the conquest of the promised land is going to be stopped.

They're going to lose in the first inning.

It's going to be over in the first inning of the game.

Because you how do you get past Jericho?

What does Joshua do?

Well Joshua is a general, but he also, remember he was a scout first?

So he does this little scouting thing he did originally in the promised land.

He goes in, the general himself goes in to scout out Jericho.

And so he I imagine it's night, I think it's probably dark, and he goes up to the walls of Jericho, and I can only imagine little Joshua looking at the big walls of Jericho going You know, I've been in a lot of battles, but I I am I can I all of a sudden, womb, he senses a presence there.

And this big guy with a drawn sword is standing over him.

I used to tell Bible stories every night to our kids, and I used that's where I ended it one night.

I said, and so this man with a sword is standing right over him.

We'll finish the story tomorrow night.

Karen 's like, they're supposed to go to sleep.

What is this?

Well I want to keep them interested.

Yeah, you're keeping them awake.

But anyway, so uh and you know what happens?

Joshua says, and oh the Bible says it was the angel of the Lord.

When he falls down to worship, this angel accepts worship.

Angels don't accept worship.

So this is probably one of the pre-Bethleam appearances of the Son of God.

Well he's probably looking at Jesus.

The commander of the armies of the Lord, he says he is.

I am the commander of heaven's armies.

Forget Jericho.

I'm the who are you for?

Are you on our side?

That's what I'd want to know.

He said, I'm really not on either side He said, I don't really come to take sides, I come to take over.

And Joshua says falls face down on the ground in reverence before the Lord.

I've been told by people in the martial arts there's only one powerless position.

And that's flat on the ground.

I talked to a guy who's a black belt in three different martial arts.

And he said the one place we're totally powerless is face down on the ground.

And Joshua, the great undefeated general, puts himself in the powerless position.

And he says, what message does my Lord have for his servant?

You know what I believe was happening in that moment?

Joshua thought it was all about the conquest of Jericho.

But before there could be the conquest of Jericho?

There had to be the conquest of Joshua.

And the undefeated general of God had to learn what it felt like to surrender.

And then the walls of Jericho came down.

It starts with you.

That's where the supernatural outcome starts.

Right here.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for a fabulous ride.

On a road marked by your word Through verses and experiences of an ancient generation that so mirror our own I just feel so blessed, Lord, for what you've done for me, to me, and in me.

Through this part of your word.

I don't want to lose it.

I want to really live this way.

And I pray that for my dear friends, my brothers and sisters I pray for the names on this cross.

That names that are now on this cross will one day be written in the Lamb's book of life.

Not just on a card on earth.

I pray for sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters and generations yet I'm born. nieces and nephews and children we work with and youth and dear lord would they see in us a reality and a joy and a caring and a make-a-difference life.

A life that's so all about others and not at all about them.

That magnet would pull them right into Jesus Pray for prodigals.

Who've broken our heart, driven us to our knees.

As we pray for them, may we let you change whatever you want to change in us.

For perhaps that change will be what you use to answer our prayers for them.

And now I claim Lord for everybody here who is willing to walk the road to supernatural outcomes.

I pray that you would grant them a new life to rebuild and to repair.

And to build a wall of protection around them as they do it.

Thank you for showing up so tenderly, so strongly, so tenderly tangibly in this place.

We call this holy ground.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.