ECHO (Fathers Day / Falls Creek Message 2009)
By: Ken McKinley
Text: Psalm 145:4
(Read Text)
Well as you all know, we spent last week at Falls Creek. There were 5300 students and adults registered from 116 churches, and the theme this year is the idea of echoing your faith, from one generation to the next. And coming back this Sunday I wanted to talk to you all about Falls Creek, but also – since its Fathers Day, I wanted to say something about that, but guess what? The theme of Falls Creek, and Fathers Day both tie in together.
Look at our text again (read). It’s the Biblical duty of every generation of Christians to see to it that the next generation hears about the mighty acts of God. God doesn’t drop a new Bible from heaven on every generation. He intends that the older generation will teach the newer generation to read and think, and trust and obey, and rejoice.
Now when we look at our text we might think that it is speaking of imparting truth from one generation to another, and it is talking about that, but more is implied than just teaching. The New King James version says, “One generation will praise your works.” The NIV says, “One generation will command your works…” The literal Hebrew translation says, “From generation to generation, praise thy works, and thy mighty acts they declare.”
Praise is an exultation in God and of God. So we aren’t just to teach the next generation, we are to lead them to exultation in God through our teaching. John Piper from Bethlehem Baptist Church said, “Teachers and parents who do not exult over God in their teaching will not bring about exultation in God to their students and children.” He goes on to say, “Dry, indifferent teaching about God – whether it’s at home or at church, is only a half truth. It says one thing about God but portrays another thing.” But our text says “One generation is supposed to praise God’s works to another.”
Now I don’t know if you all remember a few Sunday’s back when I read to you the statistics from Lifeway and from the SBC, about the state of the church, but those statistics tell us a story, and what we saw at Falls Creek tells us a story as well. If you don’t remember what I quoted from LifeWay and the SBC I’ll remind you. They state in their studies and research that there are over 16 million members in the Southern Baptist denomination, but only about 6 million regularly attend church on Sunday. They also state that if the Southern Baptist denomination does not begin to replenish its numbers with younger people, ie: the next generation, we are going to have some serious problems because we are soon to face a wave of retiring older pastors and deacons, and other members in leadership positions, and no one to replace them. Now like I said, at Falls Creek this past week there were 5300 students. Falls Creek is 8 weeks long, and if they get 5300 students every week that would equal 42,400 students who attended Falls Creek this year. In 10 years that would be 424 thousand children, who are hopefully echoing God’s truths to their children when they become parents.
Now something else we learned at Falls Creek is that when a lot of these kids get home, they aren’t able to replicate the experiences they had at Falls Creek, and so they come from this week long mountain top experience, a week long experience where they and 5299 other kids were all seeking God, and worshiping God, and being saturated with God’s Word, and they come back home and we, and thousands of other churches aren’t able to replicate or duplicate the experience they had, and I think we can all guess what happens next… they often times loose interest. And that’s a shame. But it’s a reality, and it’s a reality we have to face.
Church, we have got to be committed to getting our children and grandchildren to be radically surrendered to Jesus and radically committed to His cause. Because if we aren’t, where is the next generation of Christians going to come from? They aren’t going to grow in our garden. Where are they going to come from?
Now I know the simple answer is that they come from God. We all know that God is sovereign, and that He can do whatever pleases Him. He can take a young person, in a dysfunctional family, or a small town church and turn their heart towards Him in such a way that they are totally committed to Him. He can most certainly do that, but that’s not His ordinary way… that’s not the way He usually does it. His ordinary way is to breed hearts like that in God-exalting families, with God exalting fathers, and in churches where “One generation shall praise God’s works to another.”
You see; Christianity is more than just right thinking about the Kingdom of God. It’s also right feeling about the Kingdom and right living in the Kingdom of God. We are not only to love the Lord our God with all of our mind, but also with all of our heart, soul and strength. It is about our whole being. I think what our text is saying here is that what God wants from the next generation is not just a head full of facts about the works of God, but heads full of the RIGHT facts and hearts that burn with the fire of love for the God that those facts describe. Hearts that will give up everything if necessary in order to follow Jesus.
But how do we do that? We can’t have a Falls Creek type experience every week here at Ft. Supply, and neither can most churches. We couldn’t if we wanted to, and in reality we shouldn’t have to. But let me tell you something, and this isn’t a dig, please understand this isn’t meant to hurt any feelings or anything like that. But Falls Creek is an evangelistic outreach geared towards the unsaved and the immature in the faith. The spiritually mature Christian can stand with Paul and Silas and sing praises at midnight in prison. They don’t need a Falls Creek type of experience, but the unchurched do, and that’s not a bad thing, it’s just the way it is.
So again; how do we do it? How do we take our youth who had this wonderful experience and encounter with God and train them up to where they are faithful and committed to the cause of Christ, whether they are at Falls Creek with its vibrant praise and worship or somewhere else?
Well dads, that’s where we come in to this picture. God’s ordinary way of shaping children and youth into radically committed, wise, thinking, loving, mature Christians is through parents who teach and model a God-centered, Bible-saturated worldview into their children. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (Read). Now turn to Psalm 78:5 – 7 and see what Asaph says about this (Read), and since we’ve been studying Ephesians go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter 6: 1-4 (Read). Keep your place in Ephesians because we’re going to be coming back to it in a second.
You see, the Biblical pattern is for parents, especially fathers is to not relinquish their role as the primary teachers of their children’s minds and hearts… not even to the church. The church is supposed to be a partner with the parents, but not the primary educator.
Turn with me back to Deuteronomy 31:10 – 13 (Read).
So the parents are the primary educators, the church is a partner and thirdly: The church should help to equip the parents in this job of educating the children.
Ok, now turn back to Ephesians 4:11 – 12 (read). We just went over this a few Sundays back; pastors and teachers are to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. That means that everyone is supposed to be included in this work.
We are all supposed to be echoing our faith and the truths found in Scripture to the next generation.
And let me tell ya’ll just one other thing. It’s not as hard as we think.
One night there at Falls Creek after I did the devotion, we had an amazing experience. WE had a round robin style, question and answer session, kind of like our stump the pastor thing we do on the last Sunday of the month. And these kids, our youth and the South Persimmon youth sat in a semi-circle around me and asked question after question.
The youth in our area are spiritually hungry.
They want to know about God, they want to know who He is, what He’s like, and how to live for Him. But the pull of the world is strong on them. Especially now that they are back in this environment, and away from the sanctuary of Falls Creek. And I’m telling ya’ll that it breaks my heart that now that they are away from that mountain top experience; the Devil, the world and their own flesh is going to attack them and tempt them in every possible way imaginable. And so they need our help church.
Any way we can help them. Whether its through prayer, or encouragement, or taking the time to answer their questions about God, or the Bible, or anything, or helping them stay accountable.
For such as we do to the least of these, we are doing to the Lord.
We’ve got to let God’s truth echo off of us to the next generation.
You never know, that echo might stir the heart of the next Billy Graham, God willing.
Lets pray
(Much of this sermon was taken from a message by John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church)
