Asking for Generations | Rick Atchley | September 20, 2026

Let your love fall like rain, just rain. Lord, please, just bring down the Lord's peace. Let your love just shower us, just rain. Lord, please. Rain. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please down. Lord, please, just bring down the Lord's peace. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please, just bring. Rain, Lord, please. Sometimes it's all there's a myth. The secret. Hey man, that's something to celebrate, isn't it? We got to be a part of that because if you're generosity because God has given us an audacious and big vision. And by the way, watching that video gave me a thought. I'm announcing now that next August, we are going to have all of our services outside so people can watch us have church too, okay? You can be excited about that. My name is Rick and I'm the preacher of the Hills Church. I want to greet our online family and everyone who meets one of our now five campuses in Dallas, Keller, Northridge Hills, West Fort Worth, and Weatherford. And we are a church with a vision.

We call it Ask for Nations and Generations. It was launched five years ago as a five year vision. So we're wrapping up that vision. What I've done last week and this week is give you updates of how that vision's going. Last week about nations and this week, we've been asking for generations and the moment I'll share with you where we are. I'm going to begin with a story of a man who's leaving his driveway, a little late for work, so kind of in a hurry. He's driving on the street and he passes his young son on the sidewalk walking to school. So he waves to him. But the boy gestures and frantically communicates with his hands to his dad. I need you to turn around and come see me. So the dad made a you turn and came back and said, "What is it, son?" He said, "Dad, would you give me a ride in the West away to school?" Well, he's a little irritated because his school is one block away. He says, "You're one block from school and you stop me for that? You should be ashamed of yourself." When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he walked 10 miles to school. And the boy said, "Dad, when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he was the president." So in a healthy family, all the generations can encourage and inspire and even challenge each other. Hold on to that thought. So we launched in January 22 this five year vision. Ask for nations and generations. And obviously, it's going to be up in a few months and you're thinking,

"What's next?" I'm glad you asked. Come back next week and I will tell you. But today, as we consider what God has done in our church in five years asking for generations, I just want to remind you one last time, we don't have two visions. Ask for nations and generations is one vision. We believe you can't reach nations if you don't reach generations. We believe you can't connect to generations if you don't welcome nations. Listen to the psalmist. I will bring honor to your name in every generation. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever. So why are we asking for nations and generations? Last week, I gave you some theological reflection on why nations are our priority. Let me do the same today about generations. See, the only way we know anything about God is if God chooses to reveal Himself to us. So when God shares with us a name that we can call Him, it's a big deal. And the name God uses as much as any in the Bible is His name. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God chooses to describe Himself with generational language because He's telling us something about Himself. He's telling us that He is a God of covenant faithfulness. That if He makes a promise to one generation, He's going to make it to the next and He's going to keep it with the next. And so, God is wanting us then when we hear this name to value and embrace the same commitment We should be grateful for those who came before us. We should be mindful of those who are gonna come after us. We should take what we reaped from a older generation and we should plant it in a younger generation. And this is not our wish. This is not, well, I hope I hope I hope the next generation has faith.

No, it's not our wish. It is our intentional witness. Listen again to the Psalms, chapter 78. "I will utter hidden things, think some of old, "things we've heard and known, "things our ancestors have told us. "We will not hide them from their descendants. "We will tell the next generation, "the praise were the deeds of the Lord, "his power and the wonders he has done." Psalm 145, "Great is the Lord. "He is most worthy of praise. "No one can measure his greatness, "let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts "let them proclaim your power." So you had this theme in the Bible that the scriptures challenge every generation to invest in every generation. Now it hasn't happened often, but several times in my decades of ministry, I've heard this comment. Usually after a plea for people to volunteer for something serving children. Well, I've raised my kids, I've done my time. As if you have a few of your own kids and you're only concerned about the faith of the next generation is your kids. You would never hear the Hebrew people speak this way. They felt like every generation was their responsibility. This explains, I believe,

why Jesus put such a priority on kids when he wasn't the father of any. He didn't raise any biological kids, but he made children a priority. In fact, you want to make Jesus mad, make the next generation an afterthought. Communicate that they're not worth investing in. Jesus always gave the gifts of time and touch and prayer to children. Remember, he grew up going to synagogue every week, singing songs like we just saw, or songs like this, songs that promise God will be faithful and wanting every generation to know of his faithfulness. Jesus would have sang this song many times, but you, O Lord, will sit on your throne forever. Your fame will endure to every generation. Let this be recorded for future generations so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord. You see, the scripture isn't just saying care about the next generation that you can see. It's saying live so that the generations you can't see yet are going to be blessed. So, when we ask for generations, we don't have to wonder if we're praying for God's will to be done. So, let's review our seven big ask one last time. Our first generations go was to launch and lead Celebrate Recovery and a Freedom Ministry for the Redemption of Broken Generations. (audience applauding)

And we felt like this was a legitimate generation for this reason because we all know the next generation is impacted when the previous generation is in bondage. And for some of you, that's your testimony. For some of you, the bondage of your parents, or guardians, or caretakers diminished the childhood that you should have had. We know this is true. We also know there is power in Jesus' name to liberate and create a new normal for families. And God has been doing this at our church through CR. We've launched CR at North Richard Hills, the first year of our vision. And a couple of years later, we launched it at West Fort Worth. It's been led ably by people like Kyle Carnes here. And so, over 250 people now attend CR each week at the North Richard Hills and West Fort Worth campuses. (audience applauding) And I wanna commend the 70 volunteers that serve every week to make this happen. For people like Ben. Ben came to CR 15 months ago. For the last 12 months, Ben has experienced sobriety. of His two young sons. This is why we want freedom. The gospel doesn't just remove the penalty of sin. The gospel releases a person from the power of sin, but we believe that power to enslave involves more than addiction. There are many of us in bondage to anxiety, the shame, some trauma in our past that is paralyzing our presence. So from the very beginning of our vision, we believe that God's desire to remove bondage in our church went beyond

CR. We believe God has called us, pursued freedom in all ways, and you can't have a breakthrough until you have a pray through. And so next year, as the final piece of our vision, we're going to launch a ministry called Freedom Prayer. And I'll tell you more about it in weeks to come, but it's a way of taking prayer ministry deeper with people to help them find true freedom because freedom is a beautiful blessing to give the next generation. Our second generation goal was to raise up 25 new foster families and train 100 members to serve foster families because God's heart beats and breaks for kids without families. There are hundreds of children in the foster system in our communities, and we've asked God to use us to give some of those kids a chance for a better future. And God has answered our prayers by giving many in our church a burden for foster kids. And so over 100 people in our church serve every year. They serve foster kids by being licensed respite providers to give foster families a break. They serve by adopting foster families and blessing them. And the chief way is they serve in a ministry called Our Father's Children. And it's summer camp for kids in the foster system so that they can have an experience they would never be able to otherwise have. So maybe God hasn't called you to foster, but maybe He's called you to find a way to bless those that do. And so 20 families at our church have fostered in the last five years, and 14 families are currently fostering or in the process to do so. Now, our goal is 25, but I'm not discouraged. We would not have reached 20 families if we hadn't have asked. And we did, and think of all the young people whose lives could be forever different, because these 20 amazing families stepped up and loved foster kids. In a couple of entrances, these families wound up adopting their foster children because that was the best possible path for those children's future. But the true goal of fostering is to give a child who's been through trauma, space and time, and to give parents space and time to heal so that the child can be reunited to his biological family. And that is what has happened many, many times because of the courage of our foster families. And so we want to honor them, love them, and celebrate them. On March the 6th next spring, we're going to have an event here called Foster Family Day. We're going to bring our foster families together. We're going to celebrate and honor and serve them. And some of you can serve them that day by tapping your phone to that code in front of you. And we'll tell you how you can be involved in serving foster families and honoring them on that day. Because when you bless a child,

you never have to wonder if you're doing what Jesus would do, which relates to our third goal. And that was to mobilize 2,000 members a year to serve and ministry to kids and students in our church and community. This was the hardest of all of our goals to measure. All we can measure is people that are serving at our church or through our renew partners. But many in our church are serving kids every week, your school teachers, your doctors, and your nurses. You sit on school boards, you coach youth leagues in sports and dance and other things. And so all of you are blessing kids. And we believe that is our responsibility as followers of Jesus. Let me be clear. Every follower of Jesus is to intentionally bless the next generation. And I especially love when our young people pick up this understanding when I look in a door. And there are young people, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, and they are serving in children's ministry, already starting to pour into the generation younger than them. In the last 12 months, we know of 1,387 people who serve the next generation at our church are through our renewed partners. There are so many ways you can serve. You can teach children in their Sunday classes. You can be a student leader on Wednesday nights. You can go to camps. You can help lead mission trips. You can tutor fourth graders through Academy 4. You can help lead a team life support group. Jesus said, "Whenever you welcome a child in my name, you welcomed me." And every disciple should be able to find a way every year to welcome Jesus. Go forth with the launch of ministry residency program that trains at least 10 people for future service in the church. I believe the church has made a mistake and outsourced almost all ministry training to academies and seminaries, and they have their place. But the best place to train to serve the church is in the church. And so five years ago, we started a residency program that links theological training with actual hands-on experience in church ministry. Let me introduce you to our two residents this year. Anj Raghulu, born in Rwanda, moved here as a girl, went to Birdville High School, got a college degree from Mary Hart and Baylor. She has been a youth intern with us. She is now currently working on her master's degree in clinical counseling at Dallas Theological Seminary. And she's going to be a resident this year working with students in our church. And we love on. She is going to be a huge blessing. And then meet Grant Perkins. He got a degree in biblical texts from Abilene Christian University, and he's working on a master's degree in Bible. Grant wants to be a preacher. In fact,

he is the first resident we've ever had who wants to be a preacher. This makes Grant my favorite. Not really, but kinder, really. And I'm going to love skidding a year getting to pour into Grant. So in five years, 11 individuals have gone through our residency program, and three of those 11 are currently on our church staff as ministers. We don't want to just hire the next generation of ministers. We want to actually raise them up. Go five. Was to guide 3,000 people to connect to God, church, and purpose through rooted, a small group discipleship experience. Rooted is designed to help people experience together the practices that form people to become like Jesus. And through the rooted experience, lives have been transformed. New community groups have been formed. And many have surrendered to Christ and been baptized. And I'm going to give a shout out here. We have an elder at West Fort Worth, Jim Barber, his wife, and Debbie. They've led nine rooted groups. And often at the end of their time, Jim winds up in the baptister with people ready to surrender to Christ. So thank you, Jim, for your service. And so to date, 2,077 people at our church have been blessed by the rooted experience. Now, our goal is 3,000, and we're going to reach our goal because we're going to continue to offer rooted. And so some of you need to make that your next step. Matt and Emily Adams were asked to lead a rooted group. And they gave this testimony. I'll be honest, we were a little hesitant. We felt under qualified, worried about our busy schedules. We asked how can we do this. But here's where we saw God at work, in places where we felt weak and impressed. He grew our faith. And an unexpected blessing was that he strengthened our marriage. We got to see how God has gifted each of us and how we can use our strengths and weaknesses to bless others. And we finished rooted, saying, I want to watch God do that again. And so we're going to lead another group. Matt had the privilege of baptizing three people that came to his first ever rooted group. Our goal for every one of you is that you will grow as a follower of Jesus. You can't follow and stay still at the same time. To follow means you're moving. And for some of you rooted. Goal six was to strengthen marriages by developing relationship champions to impact and encourage 250 couples. And here's why this is a generation's goal for us. There's nothing that blesses the next generation

like strong marriages in this one. Now I say this every year. And I have to be careful every year and make it very, very clear. 'Cause many of you are single parents. You are brave and courageous people. And we're here for you. But I also have to say what is absolutely true. The data is unassailable. When they study what is the single biggest factor in the thriving of young adults, it is this. They grew up in a home with a married mother and father. It is the single biggest factor. You've heard me say I'm a testimony to this truth. My parents split up when I was a boy. I lived a part of my life without my dad. They made the decision for the sake of their sons to come back and work on their marriage. And I wouldn't be standing here if they had not made that decision. Here's what I'm saying. When marriages are stressed, it's the kids that are blessed. And so we've trained 43 mature couples across all of our campuses to be relationship champions, to walk alongside younger couples through our newly wed seminar enriching your marriage groups, premarital counseling, personal mentoring. And so don't take lightly this number you're about to see.

In the five years of our vision, relationship champions have coached and encouraged 496 marriages. (audience applauds) So don't just see the thousand people that are married. See all the kids and the grandkids that are gonna be blessed by these marriages. Then Amy Michelle or two of our relationship champions. They were paired with Jonathan and Priscilla Reyes who had planned to be married, not much of a church background, came to our church just once or twice, heard about premarital counseling. They said we should get that. They were paired with Dan and Amy. And the first thing they learned is you need to put Christ first. And they began to explore what that means and they heard about baptism Sunday. And they asked Dan and Amy, would you baptize us? And so they were baptized into Christ. And then Dan and Amy got them into a rooted group. So they could start learning how to do the things that Christ did. And now they're in a community group and now they're serving in a ministry. And so now it's not just that their lives are serving Christ. But now think about how their kids and their grandkids are gonna be blessed

because they committed to a strong Christ-centered marriage. That is a gift that just keeps on giving. And then our last goal was to create an intergenerational mentoring experience for men and women across our campuses with the goal of mentoring, 300 kingdom influencers. People in the church are saying, where do you find leaders? You don't find leaders. You form leaders. We wanna challenge the next generation, not just to be different, but to make a difference. Now we're doing this through two different strategies. Through women, we have a strategy called gathered groups. A group of women that get together in homes once a month. And every group has a leader who has asked a younger co-leader to help her and to be her mentee. And we have gathered groups 68 across our campuses and they are just wonderful experiences. For men, we've chosen a strategy called radical mentoring. A group of young guys meet with a couple of older guys, usually elders or former elders. And it's intensive and it requires a high commitment. But they meet together and it has had a profound impact on a lot of young future leaders in our church. In fact, in the five years of our vision, we've mentored 272 women and 267 men. So 539 kingdom influencers have been encouraged in the last five years in our church.

(audience applauding) I want to read a part of a testimony of one of the men who did radical mentoring. He said one of the greatest blessings of this journalism was the transformation of my marriage. As a part of an assignment, my wife and I separately listed who typically took the lead in the wide range of responsibilities within her home. And I knew she carried a heavy load, but I had no idea how unbalanced things were until we put it on paper. It was humbling and frankly embarrassing. I recently heard my wife tell a friend that this exercise has created a turning point in our marriage. That day gave me a completely new understanding of what it means to lead and serve. wife better than I do. To be like Jesus is to surround yourself with a band of brothers, men who help you expose your blind spots challenge you to grow, call you live up to your God-given potential. And without question this process has provided some of the greatest and returns on investment in my discipleship journey. Now we're all in this opposite journey, right? All of us who are on a journey to be with Jesus and to become like Jesus and to do what Jesus did. And doing this is going to require a commitment to faithfulness beyond our present generation. We're going to have to be like Jesus and do what He did and live not just for my generation but for those who came before me and those who were coming after me. We need a challenge and inspire other generations and we need to let them challenge and inspire us. That happened to me last summer. It's June and I'm having my daily Bible reading time and I picked the life of a Lycia. Now he's a prophet in the Old Testament. He doesn't get the same press that Moses or Elijah do and I don't know why. Do you know that only Jesus performed

more miracles in the Bible than Elisha? And one of his best known is a story about healing a man of leprosy named Naaman. Now Naaman was a general in an army that was an enemy of Israel and he came to Elisha and Elisha had dipped seven times in the Jordan River and he was cured of his leprosy and he gave glory to God and it's a great story right? So it's one morning I'm in my office I got my Bible out and I'm gonna start reading that story and I got three verses in and the Holy Spirit said pause and reflect and here's where I was told to pause. The Arabians had gone out to raid the Israelites and had taken a little girl as a captive. This little girl served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress I wish my master would meet the prophet who lives in Samaria. He would cure him of his disease and I felt God asked me to spend a few minutes and just think about that little girl and the more I did the more my awe of her faith grew. The thing about it her faith was resilient. She's getting kidnapped she's in a foreign country away from her people away from her parents away from her traditions away from her worship and she had every reason to be mad at God. You would think that she would forget her faith in view of the hardships she's experienced but even though she's far from home she's never far from God. We need to pass on to the next generation of faith that transcends circumstances with steadfastness and courage. A faith that stays close to God no matter where you are or what you're going through. Her faith was also benevolent. She showed her enemy concern instead of contempt. Could you blame her if she thought well I hope he dies. I hope they all die they're my enemy. Instead she's got a faith that wants to bless the nations not just her own. We should be asking and we should be modeling a faith for the next generation that sees all people as image bearers of God no matter where they're from or what they look like. We need to pass on a faith that wants to bless the world not curse parts of it and finally it may be most impressive. Her faith was confident. Who's ever heard a cure in the leprosy but she believed in the ableness of God. Her faith was in a God who could do the imponderable and who never met the impossible and we should be asking and modeling for the next generation of faith that expects the

supernatural. We need to pass on a faith in God who shows up to do mighty things in this generation not just in generations past. And so I'm reflecting on this little girl just getting more and more amazed and the question comes to my mind. How did this young girl come to have such an amazing faith and the answer was obvious. I don't know if it was her parents. I don't know if it was the little old widows around the campfire. I don't know if it was the local Levites or the priests, but somebody has poured that kind of faith into this girl that changed an entire family. Somebody said, "We will tell the next generation "the praise worthy deeds of the Lord." His power and the wonders he's done. Because passing on the story of God has to be more than a wish. It's got to be an intentional witness. And that's what I'll be asked. A couple of years ago, I'm on a hike with my wife. And all of a sudden, she just stops and points and says, "Nations and generations." And this is what she pointed at. This incredible display of God's creation, powerful, strong tree from a past generation, becoming the foundation for life of the next. The scriptures challenge every generation to invest in every generation. And so, let's ask. I'm gonna ask you to pray with me. In fact, I'm gonna ask you to start the prayer this way. And I picked the arbitrary age of 40.

And if you're under 40, I want you to let the Holy Spirit put a face and a name in your mind, and you are gonna pray for blessing on that person. And if you're over 40, let the Holy Spirit put on your mind someone in a younger generation, a face and a name. And I want you to pray blessing on them and that they will all come to walk after Jesus. No matter what generation you are right now, you are gonna pray for another generation. So bow your head and let the Holy Spirit bring that person to mind. (audience member speaking) And so, Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and every generation since, we ask for generations. I'm asking for those of us in older generations that we will finish our race well, that we will truly care about those younger and ask how we can serve them. And that we will be a model to them of radical faith. I'm asking for those in that parenting season of life right now, blessing on them for wisdom, faithfulness and courage, for strength, and for an understanding of how holy their calling is. I'm asking for our children and for our teenagers that they will look up to generations ahead of them and find people, their parents and others, that they can go to for wisdom and counsel. God, we're asking for the generations.

And would you use our church to model faith that will bless those not yet born? And they will follow Jesus. and send the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.