Petitions For The Next Generation Series

I am going to read from 2 John 1:1-4

Title: Petitions for the Next Generation

Theme: Praying With Authority for Our Children

Series: Girding up the Church

Introduction: There is a battle for the minds, hearts and souls of our kids. Anyone who enters this battle seriously spends many hours thinking up ways to have the greatest influence possible on their children and grandchildren. These influences take many forms. A couple of those influences are athletic gyms are open at 6:00 a.m. and close 9:30 p.m. at night most days of the school year. Also, there is a great deal of money spent offering our generation the highest quality of education possible around the world.

Proposition: I would propose to you that prayer for our next generation is needed more today than ever before as we live in the last days of the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:4)

Interrogative Sentence: Just how can we pray with true authority for our children and grandchildren? The church is always exhorting the Body of Christ to pray, but too often the leadership of the church fails to equip the people of God for the most powerful ministry in the world. That is a ministry led of the sword of the Spirit that will have the greatest influence regarding the eternal future of children, the ministry of prayer.

The ministry of prayer could enable parents, grandparents and the true church to rejoice as the apostle John did when he wrote 2 John 1:1-4, “The elder. To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth--and not I only, but also all who know the truth--because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. It has given me great joy…” catch that, great joy, “…to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.” (2 John 1:1-4) Pray!

It is my conviction that this passage of Scripture has a dual application covering individuals and the whole Body of Christ who love the truth and serve the Lord in sacrificial love. Those to whom it is written were ordinary people, such as any church is made up of ordinary people today and generations to come. Therefore, there is great assurance in this passage of Scripture for all Christians who will show true love by sacrificing time and energy to pray according to Biblical truth for their children and grandchildren, because we will see some of them living according to God’s Word.

Transitional Sentence: Petitions for the next generation begin with faith that God loves us and He will take care of us. We must enter His presence with praise. Psalm 100:3-5 says, “Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:3-5)

Take time to thank God for every child by name, then ask for forgiveness for anything the Holy Spirit brings to mind about your attitude or treatment to His children. As we enter the presence of God in Christ’s name we are to be thankful for the work He has already done in the lives of our children and the blessings He has bestowed upon them.

Transitional Sentence: After you have enjoyed the Holy Spirit’s bringing to remembrance of all the Lord has done for your children you can then pray for Holy Spirit revelation for them. Ephesians 3:16-19 says, “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)

The most important prayer that you can pray for your children and grandchildren is that God would send His Holy Spirit into their spiritual hearts to reveal Christ. That they be truly born again and live in the fullness and the abundant life promised in Christ.

Christian parents and grandparents can pray as the Apostle Paul prayed, that Jesus Christ would be made so real in the lives of their children and grandchildren and His love for them made so real that Christ would be allowed to be Savior and Lord, not treated as a tolerated authority in their lives. We can ask God to make it known to our children and grandchildren what it really means to have Christ dwell in their hearts.