Fighting For The Next Generation

Well, good morning church. How's everybody doing today? Pretty good. That's pretty good. Everybody asked me how I'm doing. I'm good. Thanks for asking. The Knicks won last night. No, I'm kidding. Am I the only Knicks fan? Okay, we got a few. I was gonna say you guys all lost then, so not to rub it in, but no, I'm just kidding. Hey, welcome to church, guys. My name is Pastor Chris. I'm the student pastor here, and I have the privilege and the honor of leading our One Life Student Ministries, and today is our student takeover Sunday, like Pastor Dan said, and just some amazing things that God is doing in the lives of our students, and it really is just such an honor and a privilege to be a part of that ministry, to help lead it, and to just see all that God is doing, and to be a part of a church that just really rallies and believes in the next generation. Amen? So you guys are awesome. Thank you so much. I titled this message today, Fighting for the Next Generation, and really my hope and my prayer for this message is that it just takes everything that we already are and just elevates it to the next level. That's really my heart and my prayer for this message. All right, so let's start out with a little poll in the room. I want to see everybody's hands up high, confident, not down low, confident, up high in the sky. If this relates to you, here we go. All right, if you're in the room, raise your hand if you remember being a teenager and thinking that your parents had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world. Raise your hand nice and high if you remember being in that position. All right, not too bad, not too bad. Keep your hand up if you were right. Anybody? Oh, Andrew was. That's right. He's still, yes, I agree. Maybe not. Raise your hand if you're a parent right now and you're sitting next to the teenager that kept their hand raised up. All right, here we go. Ready? Raise your hand if you've ever tried to explain something to a teenager and they just stared back at you like you were speaking ancient Sumerian. That's me. That's me. I feel the pain there. All right, here we go. A little more serious. Raise your hand if you can still remember one person in your life, one adult in your child or teenage years, someone outside of your immediate family that believed in you. Raise your hand nice and high if you remember that. Awesome. Look around, everybody. Here's the last one. Raise your hand confidently nice and high if you want to be that person for someone else. Raise your hand nice and high. Everybody look around the room. Pretty much everybody's hands are raised high. We all have this in common today. Here's working with teenagers is quite the adventure. It's awesome, but it's definitely

an adventure. One of the funny things that I've learned working with teenagers, but also being an adult myself and working with adults as well, is that every generation seems to have said these certain things. Every generation has looked at the generation before them, so the young ones look to the older ones, and they're like, yeah, you just don't get it, right? You don't get what's going on in my life. But then the older generation has looked at the younger generation, and I'm sure pretty much everyone at some point has said, oh no, Lord, help us, right? This isn't new. I mean, the methods change, technology changes, the slang changes. Thank God, because I can't keep up with the slang these days. Someone said I had unk status. I think that just meant I'm old. I don't even know, honestly. I didn't ask. But how many of you guys know that the spiritual battle doesn't change, right? The spiritual battle doesn't change because every generation has to decide what they will believe, who they will trust, who they're going to live for, and who they will allow to shape their identity. And listen, church, today is Student Sunday Takeover, which means that it's not just a moment that we're celebrating our students, but this is a moment that I'm calling for the church to wake up, because the next generation is not waiting to be formed someday. They are being formed right now. And the question becomes then is who gets their heart? Who gets their attention? Who gets to shape their identity? Who gets to tell them what is true? Because if we have a moment of honesty, we know that the internet is discipling them, right? We know that social media is discipling them. We know that the algorithm is discipling them. We know that their friend group is discipling them. We know that culture is discipling them. And so the question for the church is not, is the world committed to discipling the next generation? The question becomes, are we? Because every generation is being formed by something. And the question is, is will it be formed by the truth of God or the lies of this world? And I want to bring us to Psalm chapter 78 today. And this is one of the longest Psalms in the Bible. It's 72 verses and it was written as a sermon in song form. So I'm going to sing every verse for you today. You laugh, the other ones that know my singing voice are crying.

But listen, here's Asaph. He's the writer of this text. He's the worship leader of this time. And he's looking back over the story of God's people and he's remembering God's faithfulness. And he's remembering their forgetfulness, God's mercy and their rebellion, God's patience and their wandering. And here's Psalm 78 verses one through seven. You can look at it on the screen and read along with me. My people, hear my teaching. Listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable. I will utter hidden things, things from of old, things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders that he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children so the next generation would know them. Even the children yet to be born and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds, but would keep his commands. And this is what Asaph is saying here. Right at the beginning, he's telling us why this matters.

He's calling the church. He's saying, listen, church, pay attention. We're not going to hide what God has done from the next generation. We are going to tell them about the Lord and his power and his wonders so that they will put their trust in God and remember his works and his commands. And this really is the heart of Psalm 78, church, that one generation receives the story of God and that that generation tells the next generation and that generation tells the next generation. And it's this chain of faith. And when that chain is strong, the story keeps moving. But when the chain breaks, there's something tragic that happens. Judges chapter two, verse 10, this might be one of the most scariest verses in the entire Bible. It says, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. And I think this verse should just pause us for a second, make a stop, because this wasn't five or 10 generations later. This was one generation that stopped telling, one generation that stopped remembering, one generation that stopped passing it down, and the next generation grew up not knowing the Lord. And church, I want to say this to you with all the love in the world

and with the most urgency that I can give in this moment is that that can happen anywhere. That can happen in a nation, that can happen in a city, that can happen in a family, in a home, where people attend church, but they never talk about Jesus because faith, how many of you guys know faith is not passed down accidentally, right? Like students don't just drift into discipleship. No one actually becomes deeply rooted, accidentally becomes deeply rooted in Jesus. And so the question then becomes is how do we fight? So three things that I think we can pull from Psalm 78, number one, if you're taking notes, is that we fight by remembering what God has done. Listen, church, before we can give anything away, we have to remember what we have received, amen? Psalm 78 says that we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders that He has done, but before they could tell, they had to remember it. And I think a lot of times this is where maybe we have to start, because for some of us, our faith has become so familiar that we've actually forgotten the miraculous power that it was, that we've forgotten that we were lost and that Jesus has found us. We've forgotten that we were broken and that Jesus has restored us,

that we were guilty and that Jesus has forgiven us, that we were empty and Jesus filled us, that we were wandering and Jesus came after us. And I wanna just kind of slow down the moment right here and propose this question for you to just ponder in your mind today. When was the last time that you really sat down and remembered your own story with God? And I'm not talking about the polished churchy version that you rehearse and try to say to make yourself sound spiritually impressive, I'm talking about. We're talking about the real version. Because listen, church, that's the version that the next generation needs to hear. They don't need to hear fake Christianity. They don't need adults who pretend that they've never struggled. They don't need leaders who are following Jesus act like they've never wrestled, or they've never doubted, or they've never grown tired, or they've never needed grace. They need to see people who say, man, I've needed the mercy of God in my life, right? I've been carried by the grace of God in my life, and I'm not standing here because I'm impressive. I'm standing here because God is good, amen? And I think about my own life and just the faithfulness of God. And I grew up in church. I was saved at a young age.

I was filled with the Holy Spirit from a young age. Called into ministry when I was in ninth grade, following Jesus the best that I can. But it doesn't mean that there weren't seasons of doubt, that doesn't mean that there weren't seasons of struggle or hardships that came, and also seasons of growth. But through it all, I look back and I see God's faithfulness through it, right? And what amazes me about my own life is that it's not about how great I've held onto God and how perfectly I've held onto God, but it's how he's held onto me. That he's put people around me, and leaders around me, and mentors around me, and friends around me before I could really see the full thing in myself. And they didn't correct me, they just, they called me up. They didn't just tell me what not to do. They helped me to see who God called me to be. And I wonder how many of you in this room right here have the same story, that you're here today because of the investment of someone before you. And now the question is, who are you doing that for? You know, your testimony doesn't have to be some dramatic crazy thing for it to be powerful. Like if Jesus met you there, wherever you're there is, is powerful. It's worth telling. And Paul writes to Timothy, he says, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in, listen to this,

your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice. And I love that before Timothy became a pastor or a leader, there was a grandmother and there was a mother. Lois and Eunice, there was no platform, there was no podcast, there was no ministry title, there was none of that stuff. It was just sincere faith, faith in the home, faith at a table, faith in the ordinary conversations, faith that was lived and not just spoken. Church, listen to this, do not underestimate the power of sincere faith. And I'm talking about a faith that just says, man, I'm growing, I'm growing, but I'm following Jesus. And I might not have every answer, but I'm trusting the Lord. And I know that I've failed, but I know that I've also been forgiven by the power of Jesus. And it's a faith that says, man, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, right? And so the first way that we fight for the next generation is by refusing to forget what God has done in our lives. And listen to this church, because if we forget the story, if we stop telling the story, the next generation will be left to believe what story the world gives them. And point number two, we fight by telling the next generation who God is. So remembering is personal, but telling is generational. And Psalm 78 says, it does not say

that I will tell the next generation, right? It says, we will tell the next generation. Everybody say we. We. Come on, everybody together. Everybody say we. We. It says, we will tell the next generation. Like we, the people of God. Notice that it does not say that just the youth pastor will tell the next generation, right? Or just the kids people, or just the parents, or just the leaders, or just the ministry staff. It says, we, the whole people of God. Listen, church, one of the biggest lies that has been told and sold to the modern church is that youth ministry is someone else's job. And I'm so grateful to be a part of a church family that just embraces the next generation and believes in them and wants the most for them and all that God has called them to be. And I'm grateful for every leader that serves every single week and shows up consistently and prays and texts our students and eats way too much pizza. Come on, somebody, because of youth ministry. And somehow they survive middle school energy. I don't really understand that one. Like that's a miracle of God in itself. But hear this, that they can't do it alone, right?

They cannot do it alone. And parents, listen, the youth leaders are not in your car on the way to school. They're not in your dinner table. They're not in the stands at every single game. They're not in the kitchen with your teenager at 10 o'clock. 10.47 p.m. when your teenager decides to open up, which is always when teenagers decide to have deep conversations, right? Not at 4 p.m., at 10.47, late at night, when we're half asleep, emotionally hanging on by a thread. I get it. But that might be the holy moment, right? Like that might be the discipleship moment because discipleship was never designed to happen only in church, it was designed to happen in the everyday rhythm of life. And I'll prove this to you in Deuteronomy 6, it says to talk about the commands of God when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up. In other words, what it's saying is that when you're at the table, when you're in the car, when you're getting ready for bed, when nothing else looks spiritual, when there is no worship team and there is no pastor with a microphone, that is where faith gets formed. And sometimes I think that we have made discipleship seem a little more complicated than it needs to be.

Like discipleship is talking about Jesus in normal life. It's praying out loud so that your kids know what your prayer actually sounds like, right? It's not your churchy voice where all of a sudden you adopt a British accent and start talking in the King James Version. You're like, dear heavenly father, we beseech thee. And your teenager's like, bro, like, who are you? No, like, let them hear your real prayers, right? Like Jesus, I need your help. Lord, would you give us wisdom? God, we're anxious, but we trust you. Thank you for being faithful in our lives. Discipleship is opening scripture in your home. It's apologizing when you get it wrong, parents. That's hard, I get it. I have a two-year-old. I've apologized so many times to him already. It's hard. But listen, one of the most powerful discipleship moments in your home, parents, might not be when you actually get everything right. It might be when you have to say I was wrong, and I'm sorry, and will you forgive me? Because when we do that, we're not just teaching our children manners, but we're teaching them repentance, and we're teaching them the gospel. We're showing them that. And for those of everybody else that's in the room,

like you're not off the hook, everybody say we. Say we. Okay, Psalm 78 is not just a parenting text. It is a community text, and this is for the whole church. For all the seniors that are in the room that you're listening, the older people in the room, and you're listening, you're like, yeah, no, I'm too old for this, man. Listen, no, you're not. No, you're not. You have wisdom that this generation needs. You have stories they need to hear. You have prayers that need to be covering them. Young adults, listen to this. You might not realize this, but somebody younger than you is looking up to you. There's a middle schooler somewhere that thinks you're cool, which is slightly terrifying. But it's true. Like they're watching how you worship. They're watching how you serve. They're watching how you date. They're watching how you handle disappointment. They're watching whether Jesus is real to you or just something that you do on a Sunday morning. And listen, for everybody that serves on the Dream Team, listen to this. Don't underestimate what God does through consistency and serving with these teenagers. Like sometimes we think that students have to have

these massive spiritual moments, and yes, like I believe in those moments, camps, conventions, retreats, altar calls, amazing moments. I believe that the Holy Spirit can change someone's life in an instant far greater than anything else. But listen, often what opens a student's heart to that moment is years of someone simply showing up in their life. Like week after week, remembering their name, asking how school was, noticing that they seem off, praying for them, laughing with them, correcting and coaching them when needed, encouraging them when they feel invisible. Students may not always remember the youth pastor's lesson. In fact, I know they don't. But they will remember who was there. Like they will remember who cared for them. They will remember who walked into the church and said good morning and used their name. And so what are we telling the next generation? We're not just simply telling them to behave better or go to church or just simply follow the rules. We're telling them, church, that Jesus is better. We're telling them that Jesus is alive and that Jesus forgives and He heals hearts and fills us with the Holy Spirit and that Jesus gives us purpose and Jesus is worth building our whole life on. Because listen, church, if all we give the next generation is this wrapped up beautiful little box on the outside

with a bow on top and say, this is what we have to pass down to you of just Christian language, we failed them, right? Like we're not trying to just pass down religious routines. We're passing down the living faith in Jesus Christ. And so church attendance can become a habit and Christian language can become a habit and doing the right thing can become a habit. But it's only Jesus that can make a person new. Only Jesus can save, He can fill, He can transform. Only Jesus can take the students that you see on. on the stage with these cardboard signs, the anxious, confused, ashamed, addicted, angry, lonely, lost student, and can make them whole. That's only Jesus. And so yes, bring them to church and prioritize the house to God, but don't just stop there, talk about Jesus in your homes. Pray with them, tell them who God is, tell them what he's done, because we fight by telling the next generation who God is. And this is my third point right here, is that we fight for the next generation by making room for them to encounter Jesus now. Somebody say amen. Like we remember what God's done, we tell the next generation who God is, but ultimately what they need most is not just information about Jesus, they need an encounter with him.

And Mark 10 tells us that people were bringing children to Jesus so he could bless them, and the disciples actually rebuked them in this moment. And probably the disciples thought like, oh, you know, they probably thought they were helping Jesus in this moment, like Jesus is too busy, Jesus is too important, he has adults to teach, miracles to perform, religious leaders that he needs to confront, like we don't have time for all these kids running around. But Jesus sees this, and the Bible says that he was indignant. Do you all know what the word indignant means? Like this is a strong word, that Jesus was not mildly annoyed, he was deeply moved in this moment, he was upset because the people who should have been making a way were becoming a barrier. And Jesus says, no, like let the children come to me and do not hinder them. In other words, he's like, do not block them, do not delay them, don't underestimate them or treat them like an interruption. Don't make them wait until they're older to come close to me. And then Jesus takes them by the arms and he places his hands on them and blesses them. It was the disciples that were managing logistics, but Jesus was making room for them. In church, I believe that a church that looks like Jesus

makes room for the next generation. Not someday, but now. Not when they're older, now. Not when they have it all figured out, now. And making room doesn't mean that you just give them a seat in service, it means giving them a place in the family, it means giving them and letting them serve, it means letting them pray, let them worship with passion, letting them discover and develop their gifts for the Lord, calling out what God has placed inside of them. It means believing wholeheartedly that the Holy Spirit can move through a teenager. Come on, somebody, right? Acts 2 says your sons and daughters will prophesy, your men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Like this is spirit-filled language. This is not God saying that one day after they mature, after they get a degree, after they know enough, then maybe I can use them, right? The Holy Spirit doesn't have a junior version to them. Like here, this church, the same spirit who has raised Christ from the dead can fill a teenager. The same spirit who empowers adults to witness can empower a student to share their faith at school. The same spirit who speaks through pastors can speak through their sons and daughters. And listen, church, I say that because I've seen this. I've seen the students worship with purity and passion that convicted adults even maybe struggle with.

I've seen teenagers pray for one another with face that was not even polished. They're praying things and I'm like, that was a little, you know, but it was powerful. Like I've seen students go to camp and come back marked by the presence of God in their life, completely changed. I've seen students stand at an altar and surrender things that even grown adults are still having a tough time letting go control of in their life. Like the next generation is not second class. They're not a side ministry. They're not an accessory to the church. They're a part of the body of Christ and Jesus is calling them now. And so church, we gotta make room for them because sometimes we want revival, right? But then we get a little nervous when revival starts to look young and messy and emotional and inconvenient. But if you read the Bible, you can see in the Bible that when God moves, it often is in an inconvenient way. He often uses people that maybe we wouldn't have picked. And I'll give you a few examples that David was a teenager when he faced Goliath. Mary was young when she said yes to carrying the Messiah. Jeremiah said, I'm too young. And God said, don't you say that. Timothy was young enough that Paul had to write to him, tell, he said, don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Listen, church, God has never been intimidated

by someone's age. And so we shouldn't be able to either. The Holy Spirit is not waiting for the next generation to grow up. He wants to fill them now. And this is how we all bring it together. Listen, church, we fight for the next generation because Jesus has fought for us, right? Jesus didn't just stand at a distance from broken humanity. He came close and He took on flesh and He entered our world. He came into our soul. and our shame and our confusion and our brokenness and our rebellion and our pain. And He lived a life that we could not live and He died the death that we deserve to die. And Jesus went to the cross willingly, He carried our sin, He carried, He shed His blood and He was buried. And on the third day, He rose again, not as a symbol, but as a metaphor, as the living Lord who has defeated sin, death, hell, and the grave. And listen, church, because Jesus is alive today, every generation has hope. Hear that. Which means, I'm gonna invite the band out, which means the anxious student has hope. It means the exhausted parent has hope. It means the wandering young adult has hope and the grandparent praying for their sons and daughters

to return to Jesus has hope. The teenager who wonders, does God really see me, has hope. And this is why we fight. Because Jesus is still saving, right? Jesus is still healing and Jesus is still filling people with the Holy Spirit and He's still calling His sons and daughters, He's still blessing children and He's saying, let them come to me. Listen, church, we are not the savior of this next generation, Jesus is. And that should take the pressure off because we can't save them. But what we can do is we can point them to the way that we can. And so as we close, I wanna bring us back to this idea that every generation is being formed by something and the question is, is will it be formed by the truth of God or the lies of this world? Listen, church, there is a real enemy out there, right? You guys know that, right? And He would love to isolate a generation, He would love to confuse them and distract them, He would love to define them by shame and anxiety with lust and comparison, performance, bitterness and unbelief, He would love to convince them that church is irrelevant and that scripture is outdated and purity is impossible and identity is self-created and that Jesus is optional. How many of you guys know that there is a real God, right?

There is a risen savior, there is a Holy Spirit, there is a church and a generation that is not lost and they are here and they are in our homes and they're in our church and our youth ministry. And listen, I believe that God is raising them up, not someday, but God is raising them up now. Do you guys believe that? Amen, can you guys all stand with me in this moment? And so Father, I just pray in this moment, God, I pray for this church family, Lord, God, that you would just begin to work in all of our hearts and Lord, that you would just do the things, Lord, that you need to do in these moments. God, you saw at the beginning of this service, Lord, all the hands that were raised saying that they wanna be someone that invests into someone else. So God, I pray, Lord, that you would just unite us as a church family around this next generation of kids and students that are growing up and God, that you would unite us with a purpose, Lord, to be able to lead them, to guide them to the truth of your word. God, that you would just place in us, Lord, a desire and a passion, God, and just an incredible will in our hearts, Lord, to fight for them. God, we've been where they've been before and so Lord, I pray that you'd help us to lead them and guide them, Lord, the best we can, Lord, that we would just show them what real faith looks like.

And God, I pray, Lord, that you would just do what you need to do, Lord, in our hearts and in the lives of our teenagers. And I just wanna take a moment and just offer this to anybody that's in the room that maybe you haven't made Jesus the Lord of your life before. And what that simply means is to just simply give him control of your life and say, Lord, it's no longer about me, but it's about you. I see that my ways are wrong and I see that your ways are right. And so for anybody that's in this room that maybe hasn't made Jesus the Lord of their life, I wanna give you an opportunity to respond in this moment. And the way that we're gonna do that is I'm just gonna ask you to raise your hand in a simple way to just respond on the outside of what God is doing on the inside. That's all it is. So Father, we pray over this gospel message, Lord, that you would just begin to speak to your people, Lord. God, that you'd give us the ability to recognize that we're sinful, broken people that are in need of a Savior, and that Savior is you, Jesus. And Lord, may today be the day that we choose to trust you. If that's you today in this room, if you wanna put your trust in Jesus for the very first time, would you just raise your hand nice and high?

I won't embarrass you. Just wanna see some hands. If that's you in this place, just for the opportunity to pray for you. I see those hands around this room. Thank you. Father, we just pray for these hands. Lord, God, we pray that you'd work and move in the lives of these individuals. God, would you meet them where they're at, Lord? And Lord, I pray that you would just give them, Lord, this recognition, God, that they need you, Jesus, in their life, Lord. Would they choose to trust you today, Lord? And would they make you the Lord of their life? Lord, we need you. God, we believe that you died for our sins. Lord, we believe that you rose from the dead. Would you forgive us and save us, set us free? God, would you just be with us in this moment, Lord, in Jesus' name? Come on, everybody said.