Sermon Outline - Actions Speak Louder Than Words Series

Actions speak louder than words

The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7,10)

God has handed to each of us a torch to carry for him. That torch is the light of the Gospel, the knowledge of God and His ways, and the Word of God. It is put into our hands and our hearts by the Holy Ghost and the fire is ignited so that we may burn as lights in a sin darkened world. Each of us are to let our light shine that all men can see Jesus in us and then we are told to run with it and to pass it on to the next generation so that we will not forget God.

How could a nation that had experienced all of the miracles that God had done for Israel, and had seen the presence of God in the pillar of fire and cloud, and had known the power of God in such greatness, not pass along the torch of the knowledge and love of God to their children?

It seems so impossible that the very next generation after Joshua’s generation, would completely forget God and not know about anything that God had done in the past.

Could it be that Israel failed to talk about God in the home?

Were they so worldly minded that they failed to even teach their children that God existed?

I believe that Joshua’s generation tried to turn around.

God honoured them, but the damage to their children was already done.

Though the words of their parents praised and honoured God, the children saw their actions.

Actions speak louder than words.

We can talk about Jesus, claim to know and love him, and say that we are serving him, but are our actions proving it to be true.

The next generation will learn from what we do more than from what we say.

Are we passing the torch?

We can’t allow the light of the gospel to be extinguished.

We must do everything we can to be a torchbearer and then to try to pass that light on to the next generation as well.