MK040 Sermons
After the Dedication (Audio)
I was coughing so I turned that off, sorry. This morning, since we had a dedication, then I was scheduled to speak this morning, I thought it would be a great time to take some time and to think about what happens after we do a dedication. So, you know, I'm sure many of you are sitting out there and as you're watching what just took place and you think, oh, this is nice, you know, it's a cute kid and great parents and hope things turn out well for them. But what happens beyond that and this morning I want to challenge you all, I want to challenge all of us, to think about what happens after the dedication, what happens after a family is up here? Not just these families that are up here this morning, but really what happens in the lives of all of our kids is we commit to this challenge of passing our faith on to the next generation. And I think what's probably true of each and every one of you here this morning is even though not everyone here is necessarily a parent or still has kids at home with them, my guess is that every single one of you has some sort of connection to a kid or to a teenager. And if you were to think through your life and if I were to make you flip your note sheet over and write a list, my guess is that many of you would be able to make a list of kids and students that you have the opportunity to interact with on somewhat of a regular basis, whether it's your own kids or grandkids or nieces or nephews or cousins or siblings or maybe the kids of people you work with, maybe kids of people in your small group, maybe it's kids in your neighborhood or kids that you pass each week on Sunday morning here at church. And my guess is that some of you would have, my guess is everyone would have at least one name on the list and some of you would probably have a list a mile long. The point isn't how big your list is. The point is is that every single one of us has a connection with the next generation. God has put someone from the next generation in our life. And if what I said earlier was true, if the greatest gift that we have to offer the next generation is our faith in God and knowledge and a love for Jesus, then I hope it causes us this morning to maybe stop and think about, okay, so what's next? What's that look like? What's that look like for the deets and their family raising Emily? What's that look for for me and my kids? What's that look for in the kids and the students that I have a context to influence and impact? And parenting, as I said, is not an easy thing. You don't get sent home with a book, you know, 18 steps to do in the next 18 years to help your kids develop an authentic faith. But the good news is that this is something that people before us have dealt with, that people for generations and years and years have dealt with this idea of how do we pass our faith on to the next generations. We're not the first ones to ask this question to wrestle with that tension. And in fact, thousands and thousands of years ago, Moses, as he was kind of coming to the end of his leadership over the nation of Israel, he also was facing the end of his life right before they were to cross over the Jordan River and enter into the land that God had promised them hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And so Moses, knowing this was kind of his, the end of his leadership, the last chance he was going to have to influence and impact these people, he was reminding them of a bunch of things that they needed to remember for their new life in the land of Canaan. And one of Moses's concerns was helping them to understand how to live successfully the plan that God had for them in this new land, in this big change that was happening in their life as a nation. And he was really concerned about the legacy that they would leave in each new generation that were going to grow up in this new land in such a different way than their fathers and grandfathers and those that came before them had experienced. And so as we look at Moses' words in Deuteronomy, chapter 6, that's where we're going to be this morning. We're going to see, I think in this short little passage, we're going to look at some principles I think that can help us and guide us and give us some clues into what it looks like and how we can navigate this process of passing on our faith to the next generation. Because my guess is that every single one of us here in this room, by your presence here, you probably have a desire to see that happen in the lives of your kids, in the lives of your grandkids, in the lives of the kids and students that you have an opportunity to influence and impact. And so we're going to be taking a look at Deuteronomy chapter 6, sorry, verses 4 through 9, and I just want to take a moment and read that with you. If you don't have a Bible, the guys are coming forward and they will definitely give you one that you can look. The page in there is 145, looks like we're having a little trouble with the screens, but it's on page 145 if you're using the Bible's there passing out. So let's go ahead and read Deuteronomy 6, starting in verse 4, it says, "Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children and talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates." And in this passage, Moses is giving some principles for them to think about and to follow as they pass their faith on to the next generation. And the first one we're going to look at is in verse 4, and it's just the beginning of verse 4, and it's just the words, "Here, oh Israel," and you might think, Tim, you're really pulling something out of there, he just said, "Hey, listen up," and you're right, he did. And then he said, "Who he told to listen up is what's really, really important." Who he told to listen up is Israel, all of Israel. The whole nation was there, the whole community. He wasn't just speaking to parents that we can easily read this passage and think, "Oh, that's just for parents." But Moses is talking to the entire community, and whatever is going to be said in these verses, he's saying to all of them. And he wasn't just addressing parents, but he was addressing siblings, and he was addressing grandparents, and cousins, and friends, and neighbors, everyone who lived together at that time. And I think what, as we think about that, what Moses is trying to help them understand is that even though parents are central to passing on their faith to their kids, they're not the only ones that are needed in that process, that others are needed in that process. And so when we think about passing our faith on to the next generation, we need to make sure that we widen the circle, all right? It's not up there, it would have been up there. But that's, write that phrase down, widen the circle, and you're like, "Well, what's widen the circle? What does that mean?" Well, widen the circle means if Matt and Katie were still up here with Emily, and they were to set her here, and to join hands around her, they just made a circle around their daughter, Emily. And so I think what Moses is saying is he addresses the whole nation is this is something that's not just for parents, but for all of us as a community of believers, as God's people, to widen the circle, to add some people around that circle of Emily. So it's not just her parents, but it's others. And the reality is, we kind of say this way in the family ministry here at CCC, we say parents have the most significant opportunity to impact their kids, right? The most potential to influence them, but they're not the only influence that a kid needs in their life, that they need others, that parents need other loving adults and others involved in their kids' lives that are saying the same things to them as they are, maybe in a little bit different way, and definitely in a way that they hear differently. One of the things that's true is that kids and students hear things differently when they come from someone who's not their parents, all right? And that's not a knock on parents. That's just a reality of the relationships that they have and the difference of those relationships. They just hear things differently. We hear that all the time in the family ministry, and especially with students as I've been told them that for years, but you say it once and they're like, "Oh, I need to do that," right? And it's just the reality. It's the way it is. And so we need to widen the circle around these kids. We need to join others, to join hands around them, so that it's not just the parents, but it's others with them. So what's that look like? What's it look like to widen the circle? And I think what it looks like is this, is that parents, you've got to pursue some intentional and strategic relationships in your kids' lives. No kid, especially when their younger's going to be like, "Hmm, I need some more people in my life. I should go and find these people and bring them around me," right? That's our role as parents. We have to help our kids have people around them, all right? So you have to find people that are willing to walk through life intentionally with your kids. And that doesn't have to be super huge and formal. It doesn't have to mean that they're small group leader for life as they go through the family ministry. It may just be someone that they see a couple times a year, and you just ask them, "Hey, when you have a chance, will you just be real intentional about investing in their life and connecting with them and helping them to see the story that God is writing all around them?" I think parents, we also have to be pretty intentional in pursuing strategic relationships for ourselves. Parenting is not an easy job, right? It's a difficult job, and we need others that are down the road from us that can walk with us as we try to figure this whole thing out. And one of the things that I'm fortunate to have is I work on staff with two guys that are like, "Way, way, way down the road from me," okay, not that far, but they're a little bit down the road from me, all right? So, sorry, Johnny, but he's got older kids than I do, and so one of the benefits I get is I get to hear the things that they're going through and they're wrestling with, and I get to learn from them, and I get to say, "Well, this is what I'm dealing with," and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I've been there. Done that. Hey, try this." Or think about this, someone that's down the road from where we are that can help us and encourage us to figure out what it looks like to raise our kids and to pass our faith onto them in some pretty significant ways. And parents, please understand what we're saying. What I'm saying this morning is this is not a replacement of you, all right? Parents are the most important influence in the life of a child, all right, but not the only influence. It's a supplement, all right? It's a way to multiply your influence in the life of your kids when you widen the circle and bring others around them and around you that can walk through that. And so for the rest of us here, we're not parents, all right? So what's for us in this, well, I think for all of us, we have to be willing to be part of somebody else's circle. Remember, Moses is talking to the whole assembly of the Israelites here. And so are you willing to be part of somebody else's circle? Are you willing to come around and to nurture and to walk with and to do life together with a kid or a student in whatever ways you're able to? And again, it's not just in the family ministry, although some people choose to do it that way, but maybe it's just somebody in your family. Somebody that you see every so often, maybe it's somebody that you just happen to bump into in your neighborhood a lot, maybe the kid who runs through your backyard every week and rocks through your mulch and smashes it all down, right? I don't know who that is, but I know that God's brought them into your life and we can find ways to be part of circling around them, of widening their circle. But if we're going to do that, if we're going to be a part of somebody's circle as parents or as others involved in kids' lives, so what does that look like? How do we walk with them? How do we pass our faith along? And I think as we continue on here, Moses is going to give us a few more some insights into how we do that and what that looks like. And the next one there is just the next part of verse four that we're going to see here on the screen that says, "The Lord your God, the Lord is one." All right, and I'm not going to get into a big theological conversation about the Lord is one, he's three, but he's one and the Trinity and all that. I don't think that was Moses's point. But I think what Moses is trying to do here with this statement is to kind of establish a frame of reference for everything in life. And that reference point is the Lord our God. Reminder of the centrality of our faith in our life that everything is about and everything really is about God and what he's doing in us and through us. And so I think that the point here is Moses is making is that if they go into the promised land and they experience all of the amazingness of that land, but their kids never really come to know God, that that would be entirely heartbreaking for them as a nation. The land of Canaan was described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. It was an amazing place for them. You have to remember they were wandering in the wilderness in the desert for 40 years and now they get to go into this land that was plush and fertile and abundant with food and filled with opportunity. And not only that, but they're going to walk into cities that were already built and houses that they don't have to build themselves and fields that are cultivated already and they're going to have so much in front of them. But if you enjoy all of that, what the next generation misses God, I think Moses was really concerned about that. He was going to be crushing to them personally, be crushing to them as families, be crushing to them as a community. And I think Moses's fears is that the temporary things in life would crowd out the eternal things in life, that the shift from trusting God on a daily basis and to trusting in our own stuff and our own abilities as gradual, but it's very tragic as well. You know the goal for them as a nation wasn't just to get into the land, although some of them probably felt that way, but they wanted to get into the land and experience all of that within the context of the loving relationship that God had established with them as their Heavenly Father. So his challenge for them is to look beyond what's right in front of us, look beyond the right here and now, and to focus on something much, much more important, focus on something much bigger. And I think today, guys, we fight that same reality and maybe even in a lot of different ways more so and it's so easy for us to get caught up in the temporary things in life and lose focus on the big picture. The craziness of life, especially if you're raising kids, I was just talking to somebody on the way in and yesterday was one of those days in our life and you know I had a thing with the students and a daughter with a soccer game and a daughter with basketball and my wife was doing a yard sale and I had to speak this morning and so we were just all over the place yesterday and I caught myself because I was preparing for this thinking, all right, I can't just react in this moment, all right, my kids want my attention and I can't just shove them aside and say, I've got to go do this and go prepare and sometimes we have to do that but the reality is is that if we just focus on our schedules, if we just focus on our activities, if we just focus on grades and what comes next and the problems we lose sight of the big picture and so we have to train ourselves not to just live in the immediacy of the moment but to look at something farther out, we have to imagine the end. We have to imagine the end, where do we want our kids to end up, who do we want them to be, that's the question we have to ask. If you look at their life maybe when they're a baby like you look out to when they're 18, who do we want them to be, who do we want them to become, when they're 25 or maybe a good practice is to think about when my kid is 30 or when this child or this student is 30 years old, what do I want to be true about who they are, not what they've done, not what they have but who they are, that's what it means to imagine the end and I think that's what Moses was pointing them to. We can't just focus on what they accomplish or the behavior of the moment or the experiences that we long to give them but we have to focus on the big picture. It's kind of like if you, I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to paint soccer field lines, I used to coach at a little high school and because that was a little high school it meant I also got to take care of the field and so when I would set the field up, the lines would fade with the rain and as the students played on it and so I'd have to repaint them and what's true when you're painting a line is if you push the painter and you just focus a couple feet in front of you, when you get done and look back your line's going to be like this with every bump and every turn and every time you saw a bird fly it by, but if you look out in front of you and you pick the end of the line or even something past it and you focus on that, if you look at the end and you walk with that line painting, you look back your line, it won't be perfect and life's never perfect but it's going to be a whole lot straighter than if we just look right in front of us and this is the idea that Moses is trying to help us, that his parents and those involved in the next generation, sometimes the most difficult thing is to look out to the end, look out to who they're becoming and sometimes that means we just have to trust that God is God as it's said in the passage there, that trust him to show up and do what only he can do in the lives of our kids. So the most important thing in our relationship with our kids isn't to try to make sure that everything in our relationship is right, it isn't to give them everything that we think they should have or to do everything that we think they should do, but the most important thing is that they're pursuing a right relationship with Jesus. That's the most important thing, that's what it means to imagine the end and not get caught up in just the here and the now. I want to just take a minute and kind of pause right here because I know the reality is for some of you it hasn't turned out the way you hoped and maybe they've kind of gotten farther in their life and they haven't taken on the faith that you tried to pass to them and I think the reminder here for us too or for you if that's true of you is that that's not something to feel guilty about, not something to feel ashamed about, but I think Moses wants to remind us the reminder that you need to grab onto is that God is God and you can trust him to do what only he can do. God uses us in the lives of kids and he uses us to pass our faith on to the next generation but it's his job to do it and so if that's the reality for you I just want to encourage you to keep your focus on the end to imagine the end because God's not done writing their story. So no matter where you are in this journey no matter where you are in raising kids or connecting with the next generation and we have to stay focused on the big picture we have to imagine in the end. The next principle that we see here that Moses gives us is found in verse 5 says it says love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and you know after spending the last five chapters if you look at the beginning of Deuteronomy kind of reviewing the last 40 years of their history as they came out of Egypt and they wandered around in the desert and reviewing all the laws and the statutes and the commandments that God had given them to live how he longed for them to live you know he kind of now wraps it up with something that was a little bit probably new to them you know like sometimes you're sitting here and you know somebody's up here speaking and maybe you're just kind of fading off a little bit and all of a sudden they say something that kind of catches you and you're like huh like this is going to be that's the statement for them they were you know they're like all right so don't lie honor your parents don't murder don't commit adultery love the Lord you got to follow your heart so am I huh that's new what's he talking about and if you look back through through the Bible up to this point the emphasis of a relationship with God to this point was was on a worshiping God and God alone it was on it was on respecting God and fearing God and so Deuteronomy 6 it's kind of a pivotal point this is a statement that Jesus takes and uses as the foundation of the kingdom that he's building to love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and all your strength and what Moses is is fighting here I think is fighting their tendency and our tendency to just focus on the rules to focus on the list of the things we have to do and the things that we can't do and all the things that we have to follow and I think what he's trying to do here is he's trying to fight for the heart and that's what we have to do with the next generation is fight for the heart love is what keeps our faith from simply becoming a system of rules right from just becoming a religion right and from keeps us from boiling our faith down to the do's and the don'ts and it's a tendency that we have to fight it's something that we have to resist we have to learn to fight for the heart and to and to help right Moses wanted the people not just to be people who followed the rules but people who who would pursue a loving relationship with their heavenly father with their creator love and relationship with God always comes before the rule before the rules right the love and the relationship that God establishes a relationship and expresses love for them before he gave them anything that they had to do but that's a really easy thing for us to forget sometimes you know when it comes to our relationships with our kids or with other kids and students that were involved in it's easy to just focus on their behavior and how they're doing and are they you know are they toe in the line and we forget to easily can forget to focus on the heart that's something that I know I struggle with a lot in my life and I'm sure many of you who work with kids that can be easy just to focus on the behavior and to forget to focus on who they are and what they're becoming on the inside so we have to move from just correcting behavior and just just making sure that they know the wise behind all the things that we want them to do and and and we have to help them to get beyond and understand the relationship that lies under the rules right the the heart and the love that God has for them and and when we we want them to understand how God loves and desires a relationship with them they learn that through our relationships with us and so an important way for us to fight for the heart is to to focus and to work on building relationships with kids and with students that that are built on trust that are built that are trust worthy for them see Moses went through and he recalled their history and he said look God showed up and God showed up and God showed up and God promised and he did it and he showed up and he showed up and he showed up and he was he was building a case that God can be trusted that God can be counted on and we have to do that in our kids life too we have to show that just like God can be trusted over time that we can be trusted over time and so if I think about myself and my relationship with my kids there's some things that I can do and that sometimes I battle that breaks that trust in our relationships that that that impacts my kids in a negative way and and here's a few of them when I when I discipline or I react to them in anger it breaks their trust of me when I when I use words that communicate rejection or or use words that communicate they don't matter when I don't fight and when I ignore their voices when I don't fight to hear their heart through everything that's going on when I don't work to understand who they are and who God made them to be and and we don't do these things on purpose I don't nobody not very many people in the world you know wake up and be like how can I ruin my kid today you know what can I do to just break this relationship and give them a horrible life we don't we don't do that but these things creep in right because we're imperfect people and we have to face them and but when we can take those things and we can flip them around and and we don't always get it right but when we can give them instances where they see that that will respond without anger that will we won't always react and discipline that we can do that out of love and self-control and when we use words that communicate value and communicate that we love them even when we have to correct them and you know when I can work to hear my kids heart to hear what's going on underneath all the stuff that they're going through but I can look for and appreciate the way God made them when I can when I can celebrate who they are with them it builds trust with them and it proves over time that they can trust me and when when they can learn over time that they can trust me it helps them to understand that over time they can trust God as well and trust that we build over time with kids and with students it's a it's a relational glue all right that seals intimacy and love in our relationship with them and that's what it means that's what it looks like to fight for the heart and that's what Moses was calling the Israelites and I think calling us today to focus on the heart he keeps going here in the in this chapter and in verse six he says this it says these commandments I give you today to be on your heart because the reality is if we need if we're gonna fight for our kids hearts we've got to consider our own hearts he's reminding that what's in our hearts is going to be what comes out and what we pass on to the our kids and to the next generation maybe you've heard the phrase if it it can't be in them until it's in you and I think that's what Moses is talking about here that we have to before we can ask who our kids are becoming we have to look at and we have to focus on who am I becoming what is my life like and then my what am I passing on to my kids one of the dangers in that and one of the things I hope you don't take away from this today is that sometimes we think well if I have to pass this on to the next generation and if this depends on me and God's using me to do this and I've got to be perfect I've got to be perfect I've got I've got at least a peer perfect and so that you know like I've got it all together and and I think that's a trap that we can get in it the idea here is not that we are perfect so we don't pass anything bad along to them the reality is kids and students are perceptive they're going to see right through that anyway all right the kids have a front row seat to their parents lives and the questions what are they watching is it just a show or is it this real life journey of ups and downs as you work to grow your faith and develop your faith and so we we absolutely want to show them things like what it looks like to have a loving and a committed marriage we want to show them things like how to prioritize slowing down in our life to be with Jesus like John challenged us over the last month and we want to we want to pass on to them you know how to reject materialism and consumerism and how to live a life of generosity but the point is that we do those things perfectly we don't have to be a perfect example in those we just have to be a growing example in those they need to see us struggle to find the answers in life they need to see us wrestle with facing our own weaknesses they need to see us you know admit when we're wrong and deal with our problems and resolve conflict in our relationships because when they see that we're not perfect but we're growing in our faith they realize that that's really where they can be too and and when they see God at work in our lives they have a hope that God can work in their lives in the same way and when they see the gospel at work in us God making us new and they can understand that it's at work in them too and they can understand that we're all imperfect people that are desperately in need of God's grace that are desperately in need of his love and his forgiveness in our lives because without it we're a mess and that's okay that's what they need to see not not a perfect person but they need to see someone who's growing they need to see that we're making it personal in our lives and help them make it personal in their life thank you sorry I'm getting hard to listen to aren't I alright so let's look at the last one here it verses seven to nine Moses gives us one last principle if I want us to look at and it says this says impress them on your children impress these things on your children talk to them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates alright doesn't mean that we ought to go out and get signs to put on our doors it doesn't mean that we got to wear things on our forehead and our hands alright it's not telling you to get tattoos alright that say I love Jesus but you know these instructions that he's giving I think Moses realized that it's really really important for them as a generation a new generation grows up in this new land to foster an everyday faith in the next generation to find simple ways in life and a lot of these are pointed to parents but remember he's still talking to the whole congregation alright to find simple ways in everyday life to show them that God is present with them show them that they can continue to rely and to trust him you have to you have to understand that for the last 40 years as they wandered in the wilderness that that God was present with them in some pretty unique ways every morning when they woke up there was this white stuff on the ground called manna that they ate every day they reminded that God is here and God provides every day as they moved around they followed this pillar of cloud as God's presence with them and a reminder that God's with us and he is leading us and every night when they stopped and they set up camp a pillar of fire stood over them a reminder that God's here he protects us he is with us every day they had these continual reminders the presence of God was visibly present with them in their everyday life but Moses knew that wasn't going to always be the case he knew that as they moved into this new land things were going to change and things were going to be different and those daily reminders would soon be gone and soon there would be a whole lot of distractions all right they would could cause them to drift away from this everyday faith and reliance you see they weren't going to be wandering around in the wilderness anymore now they're going to have permanent places to stay and live and they weren't going to be in the desert anymore they're going to be in this lush plush land that they could use to provide for themselves and so I think that Moses was understanding the human tendency that we have to kind of compartmentalize our faith right instead of viewing you know God is kind of the big box that encompasses everything in our life and everything fits in that box and that's how we understand it all our tendency is to take our faith and just make it another little box to take God and just make it another part of our life instead of how we understand and interpret all of life and you know over time our daily you know faith gets reduced to maybe well a certain time of the day and then our certain time of the day maybe gets you know reduced down to a certain time of the week and maybe our certain time of the week gets reduced down again to just a certain time of the month maybe you know and our tendency is over time to put faith in its own box instead of seeing how it is the connection to God and to the story that he's writing in our lives and seeing faith as you know one of the many things in our life and not as the framework of our entire life and how we understand everything else that happens in our life. And so Moses is trying to encourage them that we've got to find ways you've got to find ways in this new land to foster and everyday faith to find ways in everyday life to remind them that God is here and God is present and he protects and he loves and he guides and he provides because over time if we don't our kids will drift away and they'll forget that God is present with them and they can continually rely on him. You know and the examples that Moses gives in this passage are pretty specific to parents right if you're someone that's involved in the life of a kid or a student that's not your own please don't show up at bedtime right please don't show up when they wake up in the morning they will not appreciate it and you'll creep out their parents okay all right so small group leaders that's not what we're encouraging here all right but he's just using these as examples you know when you're when you walk along the road when you're driving in your car when you're walking down the sidewalk when when when you're sitting at home together as a family whenever it is that you bump into kids and students that that you can take those everyday opportunities and use it right to leverage these daily experiences and to point to God to help them get a glimpse of who God is and who they are in light of that this week I had an opportunity to do this and I missed it Mondays my typical day often so this Monday I was home and I was trying to get caught up on some weeding and mulching in the landscaping around our house that I kind of let go for a while and so I was kind of working all day long it was hot that was like 80 degree day and it was hot and and I was working on the mulching part so kind of getting towards the end and my son Josiah was out there helping me playing and it lasted about five seconds and the boy who lives right next door came over to play with Josiah as well so they're kind of playing and they got bored in about five minutes playing and and he came up to me and he asked me he said can I help you mulch and and it was a moment it is an opportunity for me to to show him that I value him to show him the acceptance that God shows us to just to value him and up say yeah come do this with me and let's enjoy doing this together and I missed it because I said well you know why don't you guys just go play because I'm a little particular and I don't want your little footprints through my I didn't say that to him but that's what I was thinking in my head you know and you won't spread it evenly and I'm trying to make it go a long way you know and and I just kind of dismissed him and put him back to go play with Josiah and I missed an opportunity that I could have used and I wouldn't have sat there and given him the gospel story and I wouldn't have sat there I probably wouldn't even mention God but I had the chance to show him that I valued him I accepted him and that I loved him and I missed it I pushed it aside I didn't help foster his faith that day and those are just the little things and there's tons of examples of ways that we can do this ways that we can keep our focus on on who they're becoming and every day find the opportunities to foster faith to connect them back to God and and that's what we need to do if we're going to pass our faith on to the next generation and as you look at these you know these five principles that we've kind of looked at in this passage widen the circle and imagine the end and fighting for the heart make it personal and foster and everyday faith I think these are some pretty key ways that if we kind of learn to think this way it'll help us to be a little bit better at passing our faith on to the next generation the danger that is is that you might look at this list on your note sheet and start trying to put checks beside them yep did that doing that yep and that's not really the point because these these are these are some magic formula to be a better grandparent or parent or cousin or uncle or mentor in a kid's life these are these are just things that principles that help us stay focused on the right things that help us do just a little bit better and think of what can happen if if we can begin to to understand these and and begin to to think about these things and focus on these things as we pass our faith on the next generation we can do it just a little bit better than maybe our parents did with us and if our kids can do just a little bit better than we did and their kids can do just a little bit better think of the impact and the the multi-generational impact that's the view that Moses had when he was saying that he wanted to go from generation to generation to generation to generation to generation and we get to be a part of that and God wants to use us in that he doesn't want us to be perfect never pursue perfection in that alright our kids need to see the gospel at work in us but we need to pursue these things and as we pass our faith onto the next generation because it can make a huge difference in them and in those that they influence and on and on down the line and I think that's really what Moses was challenging the the Israelites to that day and what God wants to challenge us to today even as we watch a dedication and think all right so now what happens next so let me pray to you guys this morning and ask God just to help us do this as we invest in the next generation and God we thank you first and foremost for your love for us and if it wasn't for that we wouldn't be talking about any of this and thank you that you love us no matter what that you long to have a relationship with us that that you establish that relationship before you ever gave any rules and God as we think about the kids that are being dedicated today we think about the many that are in this building the many that are sitting in this room the the many that are represented by the people who are here right now and the fact that they have a connection with them that they have contact and influence in their lives and God help us just to stay focused on the big picture stay focused on the end and help us to in just small little ways find ways that we can point them to their loving heavenly father and God we love you thank you for even just using us in this process you don't need us but you choose to use us and that's the way you have planned it and so we thank you for that and we ask that you would just help us in that today and as we go from here and we pray these things in Jesus name amen for Johnny in the band closed our service for us I just want to share with you a resource where a lot of these ideas came from all right it's a book called Parenting Beyond Your Capacity right and the authors Carrie Newhoff and Reggie Joyner are some mentors of mine in ministry and they just did a great job even diving a little deeper into this subject if if you're curious if it you think it might be helpful and not just as a parent I know it's a parenting book but even just as someone who works with the next generation the books called Parenting Beyond Your Capacity I would encourage you to pick it up and to check it out and to dive in a little deeper into the subject that really we were only able to scratch the surface on this morning Johnny thanks Tim and you know I've learned that when I became a parent and trying to be the perfect father it really kind of worked me up to kind of looking back through and saying well what did I experience and and it's some many of us maybe have fathers that didn't model what being a father should be and so as we go through this journey trying to figure that out we all have so many different experiences and then as we become a parent and then we see even in our own faults in our own moments of non-father we don't have our kid do the mulch and get away we get away I want to do the mulch myself when that's an awesome moment but but beyond that many of us haven't really received fully the father in heaven and the way he views you he says when lies speak I'm reading the bridge of the song we're going to sing when lies speak louder than the truth remind me that I belong to you and when I can't see past the dark of night remind me you're always by my side we are the sons and daughters of God and beyond that we're the beloved is this big church where but you are loved by God even in your brokenness we don't have to go yeah but I did this and I did that he loves you for who you are right the way you are he wants you to grow and change but not so that he will love you he already loves you so let's all stand together and sing out and be reminded of the love that God has for us as sons and daughters. 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