- Good morning, Harvard Church family. How's everybody doing today? (audience cheering) I can't tell many times my wife over the last couple weeks has said, I don't know who invented their conditioning, but God bless them. God bless them, everyone, right? So thankful for that. Outside of that, what a great summer. Anybody else had a great summer? Just a great summer. Oh my goodness, fantastic summer. When I think back, actually though, to a couple of things from the summer, I'm actually, for me, right? This is kind of what I do. This is what God's called me to do. I actually think about our series from this last June. Right, this last June, we talked about the pathway of discipleship. Right, it's this idea that once we believe and receive that Jesus is Lord and Messiah, we begin this path. Right, we start walking this journey of a disciple, which big churchy word, right, high churchy word, it simply means a follower of Jesus. And we begin that journey once we step through that doorway of faith believing that he is Lord and Messiah. And so from there, we kind of laid out. Then what's that path? What does it look like specifically? First, right, we become a learner. Right, we become a learner of God's word. The power of the gospel found in scriptures. That's why I hear it harbor. Right, we talk about groups, men's groups, women's groups. It's why come the fall, we're pushing. Right, the week after Labor Day, we will restart so many groups. My wife and I are leading a group for young Mary's on parenting, 'cause clearly we have it 100% figured out. I say a lot of times I was a great parent until I had kids. I could have written all sorts of books and then I had them. But we're gonna be starting that, right? Because it matters that we get into God's word, we wrestle with the truth down there. That's the path of discipleship, you be a learner and then a server, recognizing that whatever gift, whatever skill, whatever talent God has given you and yes, God has given every one of us a talent and a skill and it is not just for us. It is for others to serve them as Christ served us. So we're to serve others and so I love. I see people signing up, right, to join the welcome team, the tech team. I've had another, we need some more people. Oh, that was tough. Jordan's gone on vacation so I can put a couple of digs out there, that's all good. No, they do an incredible job. We get gremlins every now and then. Those that remember in the Oriental days, I remember one Sunday coming in and things you had never experienced, right, they didn't talk about in Bible college, was what do you do when on the night before at the venue you're renting, they spilled beer on the sound equipment. These are things we've had to deal with in the past, so today's no big deal. But right, I love seeing people sign up, I love the people that are signing up to be a part of kids church. As we look to be that learner, server that meets the needs where God has placed us here in the local community at Harbor Church, and then a giver, right, to give us Christ gave fully, completely, literally read our pocketbooks, not because God needs our money, but because he wants our hearts. And he knows, so oftentimes, write our hearts are tied to what is in our wallets. And so to give financially, learner, server, giver. And then we talked about, right, so if that's a triangle learner, server, giver, this is the pathway of discipleship, then the last one is you gotta spin the wheel, you gotta pass it on. You gotta pass it on because, and you've probably heard this right there's a cliche, there's a reason there's a cliche in this. It's only ever one generation away from all of this ending. Right, it only takes any of us as adults going, you know what I'm out? You know what I'm not gonna pass on? This pathway of discipleship, the power of Christ in my life, I'm not gonna do it. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna keep it to myself because I don't wanna be judged, I wanna maybe be uncomfortable, I don't want anybody to feel like my truth is necessarily the truth or whatever, so I'm just gonna keep it to myself. And then it ends. Now we've gotta pass it on. We gotta pass on our faith to the next generation. Now there's a lot of different strategies, right, ways you can talk about, okay, how do we do that? I've been to like evangelism classes, discipleship classes, all of that. If I had to condense it down, it's this. To pass it on, I have to begin by being rooted in my faith. I gotta have a faith that's so centered and so focused, right, that has roots going through every area of my life that now everything about my faith, about passing it on, about being a learner, server giver becomes natural, it's no longer a program. It's just my life because I'm rooted in it. And so I think specifically here in August, as so many of us, we either have kids going back to school or we're around people going back to school, what a great reminder, right? And so for the month of August to remind ourselves, we must be rooted in faith, not just for ourselves, but for the generations that come after us, otherwise it all comes crashing down. I think about the Apostle Paul who writes these words in Colossians two, verses six and seven. He says this, he says, "Since then, "just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord," right, here's your beginning point, "receiving Christ Jesus as Lord." You've walked through that doorway. You've believed and received that Jesus as Lord and Messiah, just as you've done that, he goes on. Continue to live lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. There is a process here that Paul is clearly laying out for every one of us. And it begins, first, as you have received Jesus as Lord, that's the beginning place. I just always feel like I have to pause there whenever speaking to a group. Again, whether you're watching online or here in the room, this is the starting point. Have you walked through that doorway? Have you believed and received Jesus as Lord and Savior, not just giving lip service to it and I get it, he is that know that he's your Lord and Savior. And that can happen today. Or that can happen in a simple prayer in your own mind, in your own heart, in your own seat, or sitting at home. Lord, I believe Jesus that you are Lord of all, King of kings and Lord of lords. I believe you, I receive you. I believe that what you did, the work on the cross, to pay the price I could never pay to welcome me into a life of purpose, of passion, and perseverance. I believe and receive that, that can be you today. Paul assumes that's happening, and then he moves forward. Then he says, continue to live your lives in him, which sounds like a great statement, right? Sounds like a great bumper sticker, right? That's a good one. You can get a Thomas to concave painting, you can put it on there, continue to live your lives in him, to which the way I'm wired, I go, how? That sounds very high-minded, sounds great, but how do I do it? He gives us the how. It says two things, rooted. And in the Greek, this is a fantastic word. So much depth of meaning in this one word. Do you want to continue to live your lives of faith? First be rooted, meaning thoroughly grounded in Jesus. Thoroughly, allowing, right, the shoots, think of a tree, your roots that just shoot everywhere in your life, that there's not an area of your life that isn't touched by your faith, your passion, your commitment, your love to Jesus Christ and his gospel. It is rooted in you thoroughly. You're not dabbling in it. You didn't just get a taste of it. You're not skimming the surface like a skipping stone. No, you're allowing it to seek deep, letting go of the wall and jumping in all of you. I think about years ago, actually a couple decades ago, as a youth pastor, we used to take kids down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was a youth pastor in Phoenix, take them down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and you spend a week just jumping off things into water. And I thought, right, and it's fantastic, I'm telling you, you need to do it. But I've often thought about, right, you can't sort of cliff jump. Right, there's no like, well, I sort of, I got 63% of a cliff jump in. No, that's about the way it works. Right, you get to that point, you either let go of a wall or you don't. And once you let go, you sink deep. You immerse yourself, you're rooted. That's what Paul is talking about here. Right, we're rooted into it. Sinking fully, allowing our faith to branch out into every area of our lives. And then the next step is to be built up to establish Christ as our foundation from which we build the very structure of our life. And that word built up in the Greek, I love it. I love it because it has a variety of meanings. It means an initial first foundation. It means that, right, you go by new home developments around you, around here. Right, you see them, the crews come out and they pour that initial foundation 'cause there wasn't one to begin with. And maybe that's some of you here or even the summer, right, we've had, I think over 30 different people get baptized already. We're gonna have another baptism, August 25th, one Sunday outside stage band. Please, if you have just recently accepted Christ, you have yet to be baptized. Sign up, go to harberchurch.life/Jesus, schedule that. Right, and for you, it's pouring that first ever foundation that's built up, but it has multiple meanings. It also means it can be a repair to a foundation, a fixer upper. How many feel like their foundation is a bit of a fixer up or some days? Right, and this word allows for that. Right, maybe when you were younger, a different season, right, you poured that foundation of faith, you were committed to Jesus, but the storms of life have left that foundation cracked and crumbling. This word gives you the freedom to go, then repair it, mud jacket, whatever you need to do. And then it also means the third thing. Maybe it's a complete scrape and rebuild. For some of you here in the room or maybe watching online, you look back at your life. Some of the decisions you've made that have just shipped, wrecked your own life and maybe even left awake of pain and hurt in the lives of others, and this word gives you the freedom to go, I'm gonna scrape it. I'm gonna till that soil fresh and I'm gonna pour a brand new foundation as I seek to be built up fully in Jesus Christ as the foundation of my life. This is what it is to be rooted in faith. Right, to be grounded in Jesus and established in Him as your foundation, as the launch pad from which you build the very architecture of your life. This is a rooted faith. It's this kind of faith that the Psalmist, Psalm 61.3, he says, "For you, Lord, have been my refuge "a strong tower against the foe. "This is a rooted life." Don't we want that? It's rhetorical. Don't we want that? Don't you want that in your life? Right, it's the Psalmist and Psalm 31.2, "My rock, Lord, you have been "of refuge a strong fortress to save me." These are the words of a rooted life. God's been your refuge, a strong tower. He's a strong fortress there to save you. You see, when we are rooted in our faith, now passing it on becomes natural. Right, sharing your story is natural. I think about my mom who is here this morning. She lives in Indiana. She's here, give it up for my sweet mom. (congregation applauding) She's a bit of an attention hound, I'm just saying. So she really wants all the attention. Right, my mom who still wrestles with her faith, doesn't understand and know everything, but she has rooted in it so much so that in May, we were in New York City, that family vacation, my mom's with us. We fly out there to kind of experience all the Manhattan and New York has to offer. And when we get on the ground, Julie and I find out that one of our dearest friends is in liver failure at Mount Sinai hospital. We go over there, we come into the lobby. We're like, we're gonna come up there. We're gonna go up to the intensive care. We're gonna pray for you. And so we get to this lobby. This is our New York vacation, right? And we're in the lobby and my mom, with the folks at her sweet little church in Columbia City, Indiana, they have decided that at every evening at 605, their congregation stops what they're doing, causes and prays that God's will will be made known to them for their church and for themselves. Well, we're in that lobby. We're trying to get up to see our friend who's in liver failure and her little alarm goes off. She's sitting in this lobby, and next to her is this 20-something young woman, tattoos, gauges, the whole deal. And my mom just very sweetly, as she would with anybody, reaches over, grabs her hand, says, would you like to pray with me? And prays with this woman in the lobby of Mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan, because my mom is rooted in her faith and sharing her story as natural. When you're rooted in your faith, serving others as second nature, Robin Stevenson, you passed him when you came in this morning. Big guy, beard, is one of the most natural and purest servers that I know. This last week, men's grill and chill. It's 90 plus. Whereas Robin, he's laboring over the grill, making food for all the men that come, because he's rooted in his faith and service becomes second nature. And then I think of one of our elders, Duane. Duane Wright, who on Thursday, went into work at UPS for the final time after 42 years. 42 years. (audience applauds) Right, he's not here this morning. I hope he's sleeping in. He's earned it, right? But Duane goes in, and I can tell you, you can meet Duane, and he's not here, so I'm gonna talk about Duane. Duane can appear a little crusty. He would tell you. I might be a little off-putting. Duane would tell you that. But here's what you would know if you spend any time with Duane, is if you get him talking about Jesus or about the word of God, he will choke up and tears will flow out of him, because he is rooted in his faith. And because of that, studying scripture is a simple joy. Unfortunately, though, too often we like to approach our faith and compartmentalize it, minimize it, make it a list of to-do's and to-don'ts, rather than allowing it to infuse itself into every area of our lives. We do this, we make it some sort of checklist. And the negative impacts of this are far-reaching. Faith becomes superficial and lacks depth. We have a reduced sense of purpose. If it's all superficial, if I'm just skimming the surface, then what's the point of it? And for purpose, do we then get to spiritual burnout? It's like, why am I doing any of this stuff, if none of it matters? And then we end up with a fragmented identity, rather than being right anchored and rooted in our identity. As sons and daughters of the Most High King, know a shallow compartmentalize, minimize faith, leads us with a fragmented identity, trusting others to tell us who we are, trusting culture to tell us who we are, rather than anchoring and rooting ourselves in who our creator says we are. And that's just how it impacts us. But it doesn't stop there. A compartmentalize, minimize faith ripples into the generations that come after us. Leads to inconsistent modeling, which is really a nice way of saying, we become hypocrites in the lives of the generations that are coming after us, which results in weakened spiritual resilience, because if our faith doesn't sustain us through life storms, why should the generations that come after us trust that faith to sustain them in their storms? And so when adversity comes, they're left unmoored, adults with a minimized compartmentalized faith, they do not prepare young people to integrate their belief into all aspects of their life. Resulting more often than not. And young people who abandon their faith later in life. Or who never lean into believing and receiving Jesus as Lord to begin with. Leads to uninspired vision for service. You see, when we as adults privatize and minimize our faith, rather than modeling of faith as a call to serve and engage the world, it sucks the power of purpose out of the next generation. Red is why Proverbs 29, 18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." The people specifically for us, the adults in the room, if we are modeling a rooted faith, a faith that ignites us, fills us with passion and purpose and perseverance, why in the world would the next generation want it? And then it ends, because where there is no vision, the people perish. Again, there is a better way. You see, when we as the adults are rooted in faith, it benefits us and the generations that come after us. The question then is, what does it look like? Where's the bar exactly for us? Right, Paul talks about it a little bit in Colossians, but where's that original bar? Man, I'm taken back to honestly Deuteronomy chapter six. We're gonna sit in these verses just briefly a little bit. This is one of my favorite scenes. We're gonna go to Deuteronomy six and we're kind of one through seven. We're gonna look at this and I would rank what you're gonna find in Deuteronomy six. I'd put it up there, probably top one of three different speeches, sermons and all of scripture behind the Sermon on the Mount. But this is Moses, right? The Moses. He's looking out, he steps up in front of the entire nation of Israel. Three million people, all ages, right? Spread out before him on the plains of Moab. I mean, the scene is incredibly cinematic to me. He steps up, he's an old man. They've spent 40 years wandering in the desert. I love camping, but come on, 40 years. Oh, and they're all knuckleheads. The whole bunch of them, but they finally get there. They're approaching the Jordan River and they're ready to pass into that promised land. Moses is preparing to pass off the mantle of leadership to Joshua and he gathers the entire nation together. And I believe supernaturally right God enables his words to be heard over the entire nation and inspired by the Holy Spirit. He calls out to them what essentially is the call to be rooted in their faith and in their identity. So I wanna pick it up here. For several of you, maybe you're familiar with these. These are powerful words, right? He gets up again, just so cinematic. I mean, pictures of millions of people out in front of him. Old man, ready? He steps out in front of him. He says, these are the commands, decrees and laws, the Lord your God. Directed me, sorry, directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you're crossing the Jordan to possess. Right, right out of the gate. He says, this is not about me. This is not my wisdom, these are not my thoughts. This is the word of the Lord that I'm sharing with you. God is using me as his voice piece. Please listen. Verse two, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as you live, may fear the law of the Lord your God, as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, so that you may enjoy long life. He gives us the so that, first he says, I'm gonna remind you of these things. I'm gonna remind you of these incredible commands, decrees, laws that God has given you. And I'm gonna do it, why? It's not just for you. It's not just so you can get out a hell free card. It's not just for you, no, what is it for? For you, for your children, for your children's children and as a benefit, so that you'll live longer. Incredible. He moves on, verse six, these commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. He doesn't say there to be on your hands, he doesn't say on your head, he doesn't say tattooed on your inner thigh, he doesn't, you know, tramp stamp, it's not that. Thank you. Things, my wife will go, why did you say that? That's dumb. And she's right. In her monologue, Joel, in her monologue, sometimes it gets sketchy. Says there to be on your hearts, why? Because in Hebrew culture, it wasn't the mind that was the center of who you were, no, it was your heart. He says these are to be engraved, tattooed on the very center of your being. Again, telegraphing what the Apostle Paul is gonna say in Colossians, you are to be rooted permanently, indelibly in your life. And then he goes on, says impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Can I be honest, any parent figured out how to do devotions with your family? There you go. Good job, right? Julie and I have struggled with this, all of our kids' lives, three of our, three of our four are adults, right? Zach, 16, we have had mixed success at best in this, right? We've tried to have devotions, we've tried to do family prayer, we've tried to do things, right? And it's hit or miss, especially as they get older and their personalities come out and their attention spans come out and retreat and come out and retreat and all of that. It just gets messy, but I can tell you one thing that we have done, we've lived out our faith. We've done our best not to be hypocrites. We've done our best to go the person that you see here from this stage and my wife's gonna be teaching next Sunday. You gotta come in here and it's gonna be incredible. Who you see here is who I am anywhere else. We have modeled that along the way and that's the best seeds we could have so. He goes on, he says, "Tie them as symbols on your hands "and bind them on your foreheads. "Write them on the door frames of your houses "and on your gates." Now, unfortunately, the Jews at the time, they only took it literally. They're like, "Oh, okay." So they make little boxes called flactories and they tie them on their hands and they strap them on their foreheads and they actually have special straps that they use and you can see it, I was able to go to Israel, go to Jerusalem about a year and a half ago and man, that's what they do. And they think it'll come from the outside in. They miss the point that Moses is saying you must be rooted. It must be anchored and deep in every area of life. He's giving a metaphor and hyperbole, he's exaggerating it, right? They miss the point. They're like, "No, I'm gonna put boxes here "and I'll put a little brass thing over my doorway "and I'll call it good." And they miss the point. You see, we set ourselves up and the generations that come after us for success when we are rooted in a faith that inhabits all of our lives. So what does this look like? I'm gonna give you two things. And I like 'em 'cause they're simple, because I'm pretty simple. And the first one is this, live your faith daily. I wanna talk to the adults in the room, but it's not just the adults, right? Anybody here who claims the name of Jesus, who believes that Jesus is Lord and has received him as Messiah in your life, this is on you and it's on you for the next generation. Anyone younger than you? It means also that you go, "Well, I don't have kids, "or I don't have grandkids, or I don't have any of that." And I go, "Well, guess what, Moses didn't address "just the parents, he addressed the nation." And it was for all of those who have believed to receive Jesus, right, we are all this family. None of us get to tap out as adults. Know it's on all of us to pour into the next generation, to live out our faith daily for them. Live your faith daily. I think of Paul also, Colossians 3, 17, and whatever you do, whether in word or D, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Make your faith a natural part of each and every day of your conversations, your activities, whether at home, commuting, spending time with family, find opportunities to reflect on and discuss your belief, your faith in Jesus. This consistent integration, right, it keeps your faith active, active invisible to others, and to the young people that are coming behind you in all aspects of life. In prayer, pray, pray at dinner. For us, for a season there, we prayed every time we did drop off at Lincoln Academy mostly that we'd actually made it mostly on time. Praise God, 'cause that was not always the case. Somebody else with me, late to school, almost always. We were that family, that's us right here. We're just praising God we got there, right? I mean, pray, share, share your story with your kids, share them with other people's kids. Share it daily, share it consistently what God is doing in and through you so they hear it, know it, and believe the vibrancy of it. Serve, sign up to serve a kid's church. Welcome team, tech team, worship team. Serve internationally, we had almost 30 people come back from Casa. Give it up for the 30, went to Casa. (congregation applauding) Multiple generations serving side by side and study. Study God's word and do it so the other, the next generation sees it and knows it. Step one, live your faith daily. Step two, teach with intentionality. Teach with intentionality. Be deliberate about teaching and mentoring the next generation in your faith. This means actively creating moments to share biblical principles and values through stories, lessons, and real life applications. This is so true, I gotta share this. Intentional teaching ensures that faith is not just a set of beliefs but a lived experience that is passed on. So we're gonna live our faith daily and we're gonna teach with intentionality. Now that all sounds great, you go, how do we do that? I'm gonna invite three incredible ladies to come up and join us and share a little bit of what that looks like for them. Give it up for these ladies here. (congregation applauding) Welcome, welcome. Georgia. (congregation applauding) Kayla. And Ms. Beth. (congregation applauding) So a couple things, we got together, right? Began to hear the story from Kayla about all that was happening at CASA. We wanted to share some of those things but as we talked about this message, how we're kicking off an entire series. Really about generational faith. I thought, man, what a great way to bring both of that together to hear. I mean, these are three generations sitting here, right? Three generations of faith, of service, of prayer, of all that, and I thought, one, we wanna hear about CASA but then also wanna hear from each of these ladies what it looks like, what it's been like to be part of a legacy of faith in their family. I'm gonna start actually, Georgia, why don't you hand it to Beth there. Beth, why don't you kick off? 'Cause really Beth and Kayla kind of led the group down there together. Beth, tell us about CASA, first of all. Well, I have to start with our team. So we go down, we love on kids, you've seen the pictures. But I'm always so encouraged and moved by the team, the people who go. There were 29 of us and I could sit here for 10 minutes and tell you a story about all of them, but watching them pour out, we encourage them that their whole lives they've been poured into. And when you go on a missions trip, it's your week to pour out. And so to watch them pour out and be exhausted on every level, spiritually, physically, emotionally, all the things to watch them do that. To see Barbara and Rodney at the end of the week, do the water fight with the kids just like they were 12 years old. With such joy, I have pictures in my mind of just such joy of big Jeff singing Happy Birthday across the dining room, leading the kids to sing Happy Birthday to somebody. Wyatt teaching the kids how to play American football. And then the Mexican kids showing our team how to play soccer and humbling them badly. And having them ask for it another day and another day. But just so many ways, sweet conversations at night, watching discipleship happen, watching God grow those roots in those 29 people's lives that went. So that's my glimpse. - Georgia, how about for you? How old are you, Georgia? Sure. - I am 13 years old. - 13, going into eighth grade? - Yes, going into eighth grade. - Going into eighth grade, awesome. Georgia is a rock star. She is incredibly intelligent and passionate and I was so excited that she could be up here and do this. And we want to hear from our youth as well. And so Georgia, what were a couple of things about Casa that stood out to you? - Well, so one thing that stood out to me at Casa, there was one group of people who were sorting out a bunch of shoe donations. And in those shoe donations, there were a ton of shoes so that the kids could obviously just wear shoes and whatnot. And when some of the older boys came and tried to pick out shoes, there was none that fit them. So a little group and I was in that group, went into town and they got to pick out their own shoes. And they had probably like almost never get to pick out what they want for themselves. Like they have their food served to them, they don't get to really like pick what they want and all sorts of stuff. So they spent so much time and thought of what they wanted. And it was really cool to think like, wow, I always get to pick what I want. Like my mom's texting me about which backpack I want for school like, man, that's crazy. So that's one thing that stood out to me. - That's awesome. Kayla as staff member going down, also you've been key in really laying the foundation with the mission team. We have an incredible mission team, right? We've got Estonia, Mexico, Greece, we've got Uganda, we've got Czech Republic, Thailand. I mean, it's just, we're gonna be having North Carolina as the quality bombs head out to go down there working with cadence, they're gonna be doing that. And so what did you, right, just appreciate? - I think as the leader, you go through all the details, you know, a year, six months in advance leading up to it. And to get to kind of set the stage for people to see Jesus in a new way feels super sweet and humbling for me. To be able to kind of sit back and watch them interact with each other, watch them interact with their families who went with the kids who are there and represent the Lord in a real tangible way is really, really sweet. And something that, yes, we get to see here every single Sunday, but when you're giving of your extra or of your empty, it really just, it means so much more. And it was just great to see. We had a handful of mom-daughter duos. And I think that was my favorite this week to see these moms who have stuff going on, who are starting work soon, who, you know, this isn't exactly how they would want to spend their time sleeping in bunk beds or whatever with their pre-teen teenage daughters, but said yes to doing that. And it just makes me think exactly of what you're talking about of rooting ourselves and showing our kids what is important. And it was just, it was beautiful. - Beth, I want to ask you as we kind of shift in that, we talk about right as a rooted faith passing on our story, just those two things, right? We want to live it daily and be intentional. As you think about you, you had Jack, I believe it was, that approached you and asked your question and about, you know, so this is just how you did, you know, this is what life was like for you growing up. Tell us about that conversation and how you've begun, right? This is different for you. You're setting a new path. - Yeah, so on the way to the airport, Jack asked, did you grow up doing this kind of stuff? Well, I got to thinking about it this week more, but at the time I said, no, I didn't really grow up. I didn't grow up going on missions trips. I didn't grow up doing a lot of the things that Mark and I have chosen to do with our lives, but I grew up with parents who were faithful. I grew up with parents who loved Jesus with their whole heart. It looked different than what my life looks like. When I got home this week, I remembered a journal writing that we have from a woman who would be my great, great grandmother who was married to a pastor and she had a journal writing from, it was, we figure around 1900 and she was about 40 years old at the time and she writes her testimony so that her children will know her testimony in the years to come. And the last part of that journal entry was her prayer for her children to love Jesus and to fervently serve him. And I thought, Ellie, sorry, Georgia, is she would be the seventh generation, and we don't know how much further back that goes, but what a legacy we have. The way that our faith has played out in our house is different than how it's played out at their house, how it played out in my parents' house, but the rootedness, if that's a word, is the same. - That's awesome. Kayla, for you, great growing up. I'm sure you love your mom. And times, probably as a teenager, whatnot, annoyed, right, all of those things, but your mom and your dad, Mark, right, they did set a course. They did live there faith, Ellie, and they did do so intentionally. How did that, how is that shape for you and Cole and your family? - Yeah, so Cole and I both come from deeply rooted families, people who always welcomed people in. I have a memory of my parents, I don't know, I was probably five. And they would always have their small group over after bed, I'd go to bed, I'd go to bed. But really, I would pull my pillow to my door and it was cracked open just enough that, I don't know what they were talking about, but I knew it was important. And I knew what they were doing in that room with all of those other church people was important. And so having those memories, and I know that Cole does too, of they never missed a Sunday at church. Their parents were always serving, always doing the things, no matter where they lived or for how long they lived there, they poured in. And so when Cole and I got married, it just became a natural thing for us. It wasn't even a conversation. And we started with, let's have our friends over. Let's have our friends who don't know Jesus over. Let's jump into this church in a small town and give it our all. Let's volunteer with the youth group. And that has grown into just how can we welcome people into who Jesus is. And for us, that has been welcoming people into our home, welcoming friends, families, strangers, babies, whoever it is, we wanna welcome them in the name of Jesus. And that foundation was definitely laid for both of us. - That's awesome. Georgia, for you, right? You hear about your grandmother and your mom's rooted faith. How does that impact the faith that you have and that you're growing into? - So because of my mom's and like all my family's faith, I have never found a time where I've not known who God is. Like who Jesus is. Like I've never, like I've always known the stories I've always known who he is and those sort of things. And if I did have any questions or doubts or anything about it, I could just walk over across the room and ask my mom or over to my grandma and ask my grandma. And that's really nice. Hold on, I'm forgetting half of what I was gonna say. - It's okay. - Like I can talk to them about my faith all day long and it's nice having to save people that can really talk to it about, and yeah. - That's awesome. Beth, I wanna ask you 'cause I would imagine there's some families, again, whether you're watching online or you're here in the room. You go, maybe your upbringing wasn't a legacy of faith. Maybe you're looking at, you're into parenting and you've recently come to the Lord or maybe you as a, you loved the Lord, but your spouse didn't. And so family dynamics were difficult, were painful. Right, I think you can hear this and go, well, great, you guys are perfect. Super for you all. And you're not a perfect family. What do you say to that adult here that, man, it's been a little messy and it's been hard. What do you say to them? - That was not on the list. - It wasn't. (audience laughing) - That is correct. - I think the first thing, I was thinking this week, when I was pregnant with our son, who's 40, with some friends in Chicago, we were out for a walk one day and we were talking about this legacy and growing up in Christian homes and all of that. And they had not grown up in Christian homes. They were pregnant with their first kid and they were like, oh man, I wish we had that. And I said, but you get to be the first. You get to be the first one. You get to be the one that generations to come go back to and say it all started with my grandma and grandpa, with my great-grandma and grandpa. So there's something awesome about being the first ones. If you didn't grow up with that, my goodness, that's amazing, that that's where your name will be in the link. I think too, we've had messy, we've had hard. We have a son who's very kind and a great person and we have a great relationship. He's not walking with Jesus right now and that's okay. That's God's business and not mine. And so there are many parts of this legacy of faith that I see in his life and I'm very proud of that, of him for choosing those things because he could choose all kinds of other things. And so we're just waiting for that to happen. Yeah. - What, this is on the list that I gave you. My apologies, not really. What would you say to the grandparent sitting out there right now? Or to the person 60 and over, grandparent or not, grandparent essentially status in the church? What would you say to them about the impact they can make? - When we were talking about it in the office this week, I said, well, when we do baby dedications, there's always that question to us as the congregation. Will you support this family? It's said much nicer than that. But what will you do as the aunties and the uncles and the friends and the come alongside this family? And I think that even back to Casa, watching the adults who were on the team as they were pouring into some of the kids on the team, that that's what we have to do, right? Whether we're related or not. We still have very much a role. But I was thinking specifically as grandparents, and I might get in trouble for saying a couple of these, but when you get to be this age, the culture, our culture tends to tell us, you deserve a break. You've worked really hard, and you get to now sort of take some time off. It's all about you. You get to go do those vacations. You get to go do those things that you worked hard to do. And scripture doesn't say that. We don't get to stop. We don't get to keep pouring in. And I love a good beach vacation as much as the next person. But we just don't get to stop. We have years to pour in. Makes me think too. I think that the enemy will lie to us and tell us that we don't have anything to offer, that we have gotten old. We're not relevant, so we don't have that. But we have stories to tell. We have stories because we've got years. And so we have stories of God's faithfulness in our lives. We have stories where we've seen people serving and being faithful to God. So the faithfulness both ways. And scripture's clear that we should tell those stories. We have to keep telling those stories of God's faithfulness through the years. I think too, there's just an aspect of just do it. How do we pour into our little lives? Arranging your schedule so that you can do school pickup and go get froyo after school once or twice a week. Arrange your schedule so that you're available on the Friday night for the sleepover. Arrange your schedule for whatever, for yours. When the caucetry comes in a couple of months and we get to pick the kids' names and go buy a gift for them, don't go by yourself. It might be easier, but don't go by yourself. Take your kids with and have them pick out the sweatshirt. Have them pick out the toy for the kid at Casa. When you're fixing a meal for somebody, why not include your kids in that? And tell them why, don't just do it, but tell them why we're doing these kinds of things. I think too, the other thing is as we tell our stories, we always tell our stories with Jesus at the center of it has to be about giving him glory. It, even in our family, those who don't yet believe, depend on us to tell the stories of where we've seen God's faithfulness as God's faithfulness. If Mark and I didn't tell stories through that lens, then we wouldn't be who we are. We wouldn't be who got us, put us in a position to be. We have to tell the stories through that lens, even if it's scary and risky to tell the stories that way. And I think the other one, one other, is just that there's, we worry about the inheritances that we're gonna leave our kids, and we worry about what those inheritances might look like, and we work hard for those, but we all know, there's only one inheritance that lasts, and that's the one that we have to do, that we have to be more concerned about. If we were as concerned about that inheritance in our kids' lives as we are the others, just think what would happen. Just think what would happen in the next generations. - I'm sorry about that. - You really should be sorry there. (audience applauding) So good. Kayla, for you, a room full of moms, my mom's watching online. What do you say to them about generational, about handing that down, passing it on? - Yeah, well, since my mom said things she probably shouldn't have said. I'll say 'em too. (audience laughing) - The apple doesn't fall far, so that's true, that's true. - Clearly. - There is something that pushes against our culture when you choose to live life this way. There is something different that we're teaching and showing our kids, and it should be. It should be different. I think as moms, the world tells us, you gotta get 'em in the sports, you gotta get 'em on those vacations, you gotta show 'em the world, XYZ. How 'bout that cruise? How 'bout Disney? Have you done that yet? Believe me, I sit on the sideline with other moms too, and I hear what they're doing with their friend or with their family and their kids, and the experiences that their kids are having, they sound awesome, that sounds great. But my goal is for my kids to know and love Jesus. I actually told Joel the other day, I hope my kids are just mediocre athletes, because I don't want that distraction for them. - Cole's not here, by the way, that's-- (audience laughing) - He's not. - Cole's going, what? (audience laughing) - I don't tell why, he's gonna be in the NFL. - That's right. - But I want my kids' focus to be different than that of the world, and different than that of the kids around them, because ultimately, it's salvation that is the goal for us as parents. I don't wanna go through life and think, oh, I should've had that conversation with my kids sooner, or watch them walk away from their faith later and be like, oh, they're really good at soccer, but do they know Jesus deeply? What if, as moms, we put as much effort, time, finances, and communication into discipling them as we do, getting them to be the best athlete, academic, XYZ that they could be, because I feel the rub, and I know that all of you moms probably feel the rub, but I want salvation for my kids first. - Amen. Amen. (audience applauding) I've got one of my mentors, dear friend, he makes it very simple. He just says two words, be there. I want my kids to be there. I want them to be in heaven. I want them to be there. That's his goal at the end of the day. I love that. Georgia, you got the floor. What would you say to youth? - I would say, for one thing, it's amazing having rooted parents and grandparents in the Lord. 'Cause if these amazing ladies can do it, I can too. - Amen. (audience applauding) - Like, if my grandma lived her whole life and is still going right now, I can do that. (audience laughing) No! (audience laughing) I said whole life. (audience laughing) - So yeah, and if people, my age, don't have those parents that want to drive them to church or drive them to youth group or have those fun, or not so fun conversations with them, or all those things, I can share. 'Cause we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, you know? - That's awesome. - Would you give it up for these ladies? Thank you all so much. (audience applauding) I'll tell you what, that's Sundays like this are some of my favorite. We get to hear the real stories of what this looks like in just one family's life. It matters. It changes the course of an entire family for generations to come, right? And I love what Beth said. Yeah, maybe you can't. Maybe you can't dig into your family archives and pull out the letter from that great, great grandmother who was committed to Jesus, to living their life and married to a pastor and laying this incredible foundation. That's probably many of us. But what you do get to do is you get to be the first. Julie and I in our kitchen, right over our kitchen table, right? It's that classic verse, you know? I'm sure Hobby Lobby is to blame and to credit for it. We've got a great, a great plaque, right? A little thing that hangs there. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You get to decide that at any season, like a hope and Marcus, right? Expecting a brand new baby, closing on a house this week. They absolutely give it up for them. (congregation applauding) Getting to determine to set the course for their family. They get to do that, right? Each of us, we get to do that. Whatever stage you find yourself in, and I do, I want to take a minute and I know it's a little longer, but gosh, don't you want to just listen to Beth in particular? You just want to like let Beth talk some more. I want to talk to some of those, we call them right, the prodigal parents. Maybe there's some of you out there that you go, boy, I tried, I modeled it. I poured into my children, my son, my daughter, and they have not embraced that faith. Beth spoke to it a little bit about her son. And I think the mistake is to hear this and even hear me this morning and go, well, it's just to paint by numbers, right? I just, I do this and this. I do this prayer and I go to church and I do this and it's a guarantee that my kids will now have their own faith and be rooted in it. It is not, it is not a guarantee. I find solace in looking at the track record of God himself. Who outside of Jesus and Enoch, if you know the Old Testament, he's got a pretty crummy track record of a bunch of children that are hot messes, amen? Right, every one of us. And he's a perfect father, we're just imperfect children. But what I can tell you is if you don't live your faith daily and if you don't teach with intentionality, there's a guarantee that there's no fruit to come afterwards. And as for me in my house, as for me and my wife, we will serve the Lord. And we will pray for our kids and we will trust that they will make that agreement, that decision, that connection between them and God the Father on their own sooner rather than later. And we will maul it and live it in our lives trusting that God is gonna pursue them more and more consistently than we ever could. I'm gonna invite you to stand up and we're gonna go to a time of communion. We do this the first Sunday of every month as a reminder, right of Christ's sacrifice for us, right? The bread there, representing his body that was broken for us, the juice representing his blood that was poured out on all of us. I wanna invite you particularly, again, the adults in the room, not just the parents, the adults in particular, as you go and you take that communion. Would you take this as an opportunity to reflect not just on the sacrifice of what Christ has done in your life, but about the opportunity you have to demonstrate that, to share that, to pour that story, that message, that faith into the next generation. How? How does God want you to live your faith daily for the generation that comes after you? How does God want you to teach with intentionality? Maybe it's serving in kids' church. Maybe it's just being intentional as you come, as you go, as Moses talked about. But our faith is not just for us. It's for our children and our children's children because we lay a strong foundation for generations to come when we live our faith daily and teach with intentionality. So I'm gonna pray over us and then just flow around as you feel that. We've got two in the back, two in the front. Take it with your family, take it with friends, sit, stand. However you feel led as the band leads us in this next song. Father, we thank you for this morning. I thank you for Beth, for Kayla, for Georgia. I thank you for Beth's great, great grandmother who set a course for seven generations thus far and many to come. Father, I thank you for my mom, for my dad, for my grandparents, for the generation of faith that I've been able to step into. I pray for all of us here that we would feel the ownership and the responsibility, whether biological, adoptive, foster, or just part of the family of parents that are here at Harbor Church, that we would feel the responsibility to pass on the faith that we have, that we would be so rooted in it. We would share our story. We would serve others. And we would study your word passionately for our children and our children's children. Bless us now, as we move as we go about to take this community. Show us how we might live our faith daily and teach with intentionality. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
