The beginning this morning at Psalm 145. Verses one to four. I will extol you, my God, OK, I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever great is the Lord and highly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wonderful works. I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will tell of your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of your righteousness. Father, instruct us now, give us eyes to see. And having believed, give us hearts to obey in Christ's name. Amen. Back when I was in seminary, generational studies were all the rage and really the first few years I was pastoring here as well. As each generation, we were assured had its own personality, its own way of thinking, its own name. We talked about boomers and busters and Generation X and millennials, all these kinds of things. And so we were told because they all had their own needs. In order to reach every individual age group, we were told we needed to develop different tools. We had to come up with different approaches because you couldn't possibly reach a grandmother and her grandson with the same message. No, no, no. We had to be inventive. We had to come up with different ways of packaging the message to each particular group. Now, the fruit of such thinking, and it's become the norm in American church life now, the fruit of such thinking is that you now have to have different churches and different ministries for each particular age group. So that the church has become divided. With seniors over here doing their thing and empty nesters over there and families in this corner, singles, youth, children, each with its own little niche, each In its own little world, often in different buildings and sometimes today, even in different churches altogether. One man has said most churches in America today are carved up along generational lines like a Thanksgiving turkey, and the slices seem to be getting thinner and thinner with each passing year. And so in most churches today. From the moment you enter the building until you leave, parents and children will hardly catch even a glance of each other, a glimpse at each other unless they happen to bump into one another in the hallway. Singles and families are isolated from one another and from the older generation and all of that by design. But my question is. Is that the way God intended his church to be? With each of us in our own little self defined cocoons, Or does he have a broader and better picture for what we're supposed to be doing? What I want to do this morning is I want to try to expand your vision, perhaps, for what we as a church ought to do to build a multigenerational faith, that is, a faith that spans the generations. and pulls us together as we go forward in Christ, each contributing to meeting the spiritual needs of the other, each enriching the other and all together working to see this gospel declared not only around the world, but across the generational divides. And so here's the question that I'm kind of trying to work through in my mind. How do we obey Psalm 145, verse four, one generation shall praise your works to another. and shall declare your mighty acts. One generation will be telling the other of the mighty acts of God. Now, how do we do that unless the different generations are in some way spending time together, interacting with each other, getting to know and to love one another by worshiping and serving and praying and doing missions together on a regular basis? And so the first thing that we need to think about is this. We need to think about the need for a multigenerational view of the Christian faith. You see, one of the great heresies of our age is the heresy of radical individualism. We've got it into our heads that God always and only works through individuals isolated from one another. So that the only thing that really should matter to me when it comes to my faith is that I myself have a right relationship with God as an individual. And I am sharing that faith with other individuals. You know, it's just me and Jesus when it gets down to it. And it's just you and Jesus. The problem with that view of the Christian life is that it is only part of the story. In fact, it's a very small part of the story. Yes, yes, yes. God deals with us as individuals. That's very clear. Yes, you must personally be brought to faith in Christ alone through the gospel. No one can do that for you. So, brother, sister, repent and believe. You've got to come to faith in Christ alone. But here's the thing, it doesn't stop there. It's very interesting. One of the things that really opened my eyes when in seminary you have to learn Greek and Hebrew, was that all these commands I've been taking as an individual, my whole Christian life, I discovered were all in the plural, almost without exception. They were plurals. Y'all do this. We need a good word like y'all to really get into what the Bible means. But consider how God is. Consider Abraham, for example. Look at Genesis chapter twelve, verses one to seven. Genesis chapter twelve, verses one to seven is when God first calls Abraham to himself. Several things going on here. Chapter one, chapter 12, verse one, now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land, which I will show you. OK, here's an individual calling. Abraham is himself to obey God and to do what God has said, because God is calling him as a man. But it doesn't stop there, verse two, and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. So you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you. I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and a lot went with him. Now, Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Heron. Abram took Sarai, his wife and Lot, his nephew, and all their possessions, which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran. And they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem and the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was in the land then. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared. to him. Now, what do you see here? God called Abraham as an individual, but that calling involved Abraham in a web of relationships. The very first thing we see happening is Abraham leaves as he takes folks with him. Lot and Sarai and all the people who were a part of their lives, he took folks with them. And second, that God's calling on Abram's life. was a calling that had generational implications. Through you, I will raise up a great nation. Last I checked, nation took a lot of people. And in you, the families of the earth will be blessed. To your descendants, I will give this land. Notice, even the promises that God has given Abram were not promises just for himself. Abram, from this point forward, is not living just for himself, nor is he believing promises that are just for himself. There are generational implications. In fact, look ahead to Genesis, chapter 18, as God continues to deal with Abram. Listen to what he says, chapter 18, verse 17. And the Lord said. Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So we're looking back at that original encounter. Verse 19, for I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. Now, do you see that? God's purpose in calling Abraham was so that Abraham might command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord. Abraham's calling with a generational calling. Church that theme runs right through the Old Testament as every generation of believers is commanded by God to impart this faith to the following generations. Let me show you further Passover. You remember Passover. That great celebration, like the Lord's Supper today. In fact, the Lord's Supper is based upon that. It was the Passover that Jesus and his apostles had been celebrating. The Passover where the Old Testament church gathered together to remember what God had done for them and for their salvation. Well, in Exodus, chapter 12, verse 24, as this Passover is being instituted, God tells Moses this. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter the land which the Lord your God will give you, as he has promised, you shall observe this right. And when your children say to you, what does this right mean to you? You shall say there's a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians but spared our homes and the people bowed down low and worship. Now, do you see the point here? One generation shall praise your works to another. You know, I can't help but shudder as I think of churches all across this nation where the Lord's Supper is practiced out of the sight of children who are in children's church or some other activity so that they never even have the chance to ask. What's the point of that, Dad? What's this mean to you? The father then has an opportunity or the mother to explain. Now, we could continue this thing right on through, we could talk about Joshua as the sons of Israel cross into the promised land and and God stops up the Jordan River so that they walk through on dry land, just as their parents before them had walked across the Red Sea on dry land. And as they're crossing, God says to Joshua, have 12 men, one from each tribe, pick up 12 stones and build a monument. Well, why do they want this monument standing there beside the Jordan River so that in the future, when your sons ask, what do these stones mean? You can tell them of the mighty acts of God. One generation shall praise your works. To another, I think of Deuteronomy, where where God repeatedly commands the people of Israel to be intentional in their efforts to pass their faith along to the next generation. Deuteronomy four, verse nine, only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life and make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Deuteronomy six, verse one. Now this is the commandment, the statutes, the judgment, which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you're going to cross over to possess it so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord to keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days be prolonged. Deuteronomy six, verse six, these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up, teach them to your sons and your grandsons. Press this faith along. To each succeeding generation. Now I could go on and we could talk about how this constantly was the command and how Israel constantly failed at it. How we see the great failure of the fathers to do that very thing in the book of Judges, how we see that failure in the book of Samuel and Kings, how Eli failed to do this and what it cost him, how David failed to do this and what it cost him, how Samuel failed to do this and what it cost him. But I think the point is clear. A biblical faith must have this generational character to it. Well, somebody says, well, that's all well and good, but that's Old Testament. What about the New Testament? I'm glad you're asked. It's a fair question. But you find pretty much the same thing there as well. Look into the New Testament, look at Acts chapter two, verses 38 and 39. Acts chapter two, verses 38 and 39 is as Peter is preaching the gospel for the first time in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And the people who are gathered there, Jews from all the various nations of that part of the world, hear him preach the gospel for the first time. And it says that as they hear him preach, they are cut to the heart and they say to Peter and the apostles, Brethren, what must we do to be saved? Listen to what Peter says, verse thirty eight. Peter said to them, repent. And each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There's the individual call to faith, the individual repentance and faith. Verse thirty nine for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. We notice this clearly there is a cross generational concern here. This truth is for you and your children and for those who are far off. Now there's missions. And so the gospel has these twin concerns. There's a horizontal concern as it goes out in missions to the ends of the age. And that's a real concern that we have learned and are still learning to have. But notice, second of all, there's also a vertical dimension as it runs up and down the generations. This is the one I think Many of us in the American church culture have neglected. This theme runs right through the New Testament, if you were to look at Ephesians three, verse twenty and twenty one, it says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. One generation shall praise your works to another. Titus two, verse three, older women are commanded to teach the younger. Why? One generation shall praise your works to another. Maybe you're familiar with Second Timothy two, verse two, where Paul tells Timothy the things which you have heard from me and in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Here are three generations, four generations, not even blood relations at this point. The command in the New Testament obviously is broader, not narrower than the command in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, it was generally along family lines, father to son. But here it goes even broader. My concern isn't just for my family and my children, but for spiritual sons and daughters also, all these who are coming along behind me. So now my concern is to press this faith, not only to Stephanie and Kimberly, but to Chris and Jason and Brady and and Billy and Johnny and whoever else God brings along. My point is that that God has called us to have a multigenerational vision. Not to isolate and cut off one group from another, but somehow find a way for the various groups to interact. so that our regular practice is to see one generation passing the baton of faith and praise to the next. But how do we do that? Well, that brings us to this next thing. How do we build a multi-generational faith? That's where I want us to go ahead and look at Psalm 78. I read this at the beginning of the service, and so I'll just... Well, we'll read from verse one. Listen, oh, my people, to my instruction, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I'll open my mouth in a parable. I'll utter dark sayings of old, dark sayings of old. He's going to give us some wisdom here that comes from ancient times, things that perhaps we have forgotten that that have become obscure to us. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us we will not conceal them from our children. but tell the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he is done. We established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born. that they may arise and tell them to their children that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. First of all, I think what should jump out at you is. There must be a multigenerational mindset. In this faith that we hold. I'm struck by verse four, the first one I first read this passage was medicine, and it really it really took hold of me. We will not conceal them from their children. We will not conceal, but we will not conceal this precious faith from their children. No, this is not even my children. These are the children of my ancestors. These are the ones who are in the long line of passing the faith along year after year, generation to generation. And it says you, I will not conceal this faith. How do we conceal the truth from our children? Now, I know some who claim to be Christian who actually do this on purpose, which calls their very claim to be Christian into great doubt, I would say. But but I've talked to parents who will say, well, I don't want to influence my children. You know, I want I want them to make up their own minds. Yeah, are you crazy? First thing that tells me is the person saying that really doesn't believe this is a life or death, heaven or hell, eternity matter. They just see religion as a good thing, and whatever form it may take isn't that consequential. Let's get on to something more important. Well, hopefully nobody in here looks at it that way. If you do, we need to have a very serious talk because I'm concerned about your soul. But there are other ways that we can seal our faith from our children and from the others who are coming along behind us. One way, of course, is to isolate them from us when we worship church. This is why. We don't have a children's church. Because we believe the best way for your children to learn the value of God and the worth of Christ and to see his magnificent praise is to see it in you and to see it in me and the adults around them. I want them to see dad worshiping with all of his heart. I want them to see mom praising God with all of her soul. I want them to see it in older siblings and others they look up to that aren't even related to them by blood, but that are a part of this larger church family. They need that. Because faith is best taught by seeing it practiced in those around you than in finger puppets and playtime. And yes, there is sometimes that we play. And I see an important place for age graded Sunday school. Some prefer not to do that. I still think it has a place. I think it's the parents choice how they approach that. But I can see having that hour where they do some things with kids their own age and learn on their own level. But see, that's extra biblical. Sunday school is a non essential. Worship is an essential. And as we draw together for worship, Our kids gain something valuable when we worship together with them. Another way that we can seal our faith, I think, is when we have our kids isolated from our struggles and prayers as we work out our faith in the everyday life. You see, they need to understand from us that the Christian life is hard, that life in general is hard. that we struggle and stumble and fail and desperately need God. It's why I love having our kids in our C groups learning. And listening to us crying out to God, we'll understand everything we're talking about, yes, but they see the reality. hearing the big people around them talking about the things of God, expressing their hurts and their pains and their needs, and then seeing us bow our heads and take those needs to God on a regular basis. And oh, I love to hear the children pray. I can't tell you how many times we've sat there and they have no idea. Some child starts to pray and they start to pour out the honesty of their heart. And I'm having to choke back tears because I'm just touched by that, by something deep that's going on there in the heart of a child who just wants, who has seen the value and seen the worth and whether or not they even know Christ yet, they want to express that. Wow, that's good. And of course, they ought to see the same thing at home. You know, when is the last time that your children heard you pray for them? I think this is one of my biggest failures. I confessed a lot of failures yesterday to our men in our men's group. This is one of my big failures as a parent, that I didn't establish a consistent prayer time with my girls when they were younger. We were very haphazard and that's on me. And then for years under my watch as pastor here at Rockport, we isolated our kids away from the prayers of the saints by ushering them off to children's activities while we would gather in prayer. And yet, verse four screams, we will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous words works that he has done. Second of all, here we practice a multigenerational mindset. With a consistent focus on scripture. Look at verse five. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children. The Bible must be the standard for our faith and practice as a church, as parents, as family and friends, because here is where God has chosen to reveal himself. Here is where God has spoken. Here is where God has given us all we need for life and godliness. And so as a church and as families, we must go back and relearn how to let the scriptures govern the whole of our lives. I mean, let me warn you, that doesn't take place overnight. There is not a single book you can read that will give you this, though shepherding your child's heart back on the book table is not a bad place to start. There's not a single activity you can plan that will do this, though regular family devotions are a really good beginning point. But dad, it's about you being saturated with scripture so that scripture governs your daily life, it governs your words to them, it governs your advice to them, not what was on the talk show or whatever, but but but the scriptures, the truth, it governs your discipline of them. So that all of us within the church, the topic of our conversations come back again and again to God and the great things that God has done. Because being steeped in scripture trains your mind to see God at work every day in your life and freeze your tongue so that it becomes normal to share with others the great things that God has done. We just don't share enough. That doesn't mean we can't talk about the cardinals or whatever else, that those are forbidden topics and we have to try to be fake and plastic. No, no, no. But that the realities begin to permeate our lives. I mean, here's a really good question I read this week. When's the last time you had a conversation about the things of God with someone 30 years older or 30 years younger than you? When's the last time you had a sustained conversation with someone 30 years older or 30 years younger than you? Third thing, we must set a priority on building a multi-generational faith into our families. Now, I could take you so many places in the Old Testament. Let me simply remind you of something in the New Testament. 2 Timothy 1, verses 3 to 5. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, Paul says, the way my fathers did. As I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, by the way, notice even Paul here is multigenerational in his thinking. The faith I possess is the faith of my father's. Longing to see you as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I'm sure is now in you as well. Notice the multigenerational reality of Timothy's faith, first in his grandmother, then in his mother and now him. Now, I don't know where Timothy's father was. Acts tells us he was a Greek pagan. He was not a believer, so this is a mixed marriage, not an ideal situation at all. Nevertheless, I see some hope here for single mothers and grandmothers. others trying to raise children without the faithful input of the father who ought to be there, because though it is best for the father to be involved in dad, that is, that is placed upon your shoulders to give leadership here. And that is always our goal. Nevertheless, when sin intervenes and that is not the case, that's not the end of the story, because God can work even when dad reassured his calling, if others will step in. And by the way, church, we need to be stepping in. But the point is, we must be intentional in building a multi-generational faith into our church and into our families. Now, how? Well, Bodie Bauckham has written a lot about this subject, so much so that I haven't even read everything he's written. But he tells us three things. Let me just list them for you here. Number one, he says we must prioritize our marriages. We must prioritize our marriages more than we prioritize our children, even. Because sometimes parents, especially very earnest parents who want to raise them in a godly environment, will put so much focus on the children when the children are gone. Nothing left. But one of the things that children need if you want to want to do best for your children is to see the love between a man and a wife exhibiting and being that which Christ said is the image of his church. And so. Marriage is a picture of Christ's love for his church. As I make my marriage to Amy my priority, as I keep my love for her alive and serve her as a man should serve his wife in giving godly leadership, then I am building a hedge around my children and preparing them to build strong and healthy marriages as well. Malachi 2, verse 15 talks about that, if you want to look it up. Second. We must prepare our children for marriage. and then help them find godly mates when the time comes. One of the tragic developments in the past 60 years or so is this insane idea that a good marriage just happens. No training, no planning, no preparation. You just fall in love and you live happily ever after. What a fairy tale. Amen. What a fairy tale. Anybody ever really see that work? No, no, it takes a lifetime of preparation. You understand, nobody believes that fairy tale stronger than Hollywood. How's that working for them? It's not working. Romance is a weak platform on which to try to build a life together. Doesn't mean you can't have romance, but it means that it's not the reality and it's not love. Love is stronger stuff than that. So, Dad, you've got to train your son, first of all, to be a godly man before he can ever become a godly husband and father. So what if you send him to school and get a good education so he makes lots of money? Is that where happiness is found in making lots of money, ultimately? You see, your job is to prepare him for marriage. to train him and show him what a godly husband and father looks like, to discipline him and love him so that he sets his course to become that kind of man who will make a godly husband and father. Same is true of daughters. Dad, I'm addressing mainly dads, your job is to model for them what such a godly man looks like, how he treats a woman, both in the way you treat their mom, and in the way you treat them, instructing them in what men are really like. I'm amazed at the dads who don't even ever have conversations with young girls to tell them, here's what men, young boys your age are like, here's what they're looking at, here's what they're concerned about, because the girls have no idea. That's why a girl will put something on and she'll say, oh, I look cute. And dad, you look at her just a minute, you know, no, that's not cute. That's I'm for sale. And having the guts to say, not in those terms, because she won't get that. But in a gentle, loving way, here's why you can't go out of the house in that. You think it looks pretty. Every boy who sees you is thinking about how much of that I can get off of you. Every boy who sees you is fantasizing about what you look like. Because that's how boys are. Until God saves them, and then they struggle even after that. But God is gracious. We talked a lot about this yesterday in our men's meeting. Dad, your job is to protect them from the predators. And they tell you that's a full time job. Another tragic development that is absolutely destroying our culture, even among Christians, is the way we leave our children to fend for themselves when it comes to picking a mate. This is a new development in human history, and it's not working. The typical approach today is we go, we open the front door, we send them off to college and we say, well, gee, I hope you come back with a good one. Let me know when the wedding is. That is insane. You understand the whole of human culture up until 70 years ago was built around protecting girls from themselves and boys from themselves by putting structures around them so that the parents were involved in the process of sorting out the tragedies from the good mates and establishing righteous marriages for the propagation of godly children and grandchildren. May I be the first to admit there's a lot I still have to learn here and we're still working this out in our lives. But I find it very interesting that in the Bible, it's dad who finds a wife for his son. And it's the dad who gives his daughter in marriage. Now, we used to use that language in the wedding ceremony. Where did that come from? Who gives this woman to be married to this man? Well, that's just tradition. No, it's not. In the past, if dad didn't give her, she didn't get taken. Dad understood his responsibility. I forgot what it was, Billy said, and we gave away Molly after after after examining this young man carefully and giving our approval, we give our, you know, that was good. But think of it, think of it. That person your child is marrying will one day be the father or mother of your grandchildren. There's a thought. Can they see far enough down the road to understand what that means? No, they can't. But you, as a parent, if you're a godly parent, you have enough wisdom and years to help your children weed out those who will lead them to tragedy. And if you've trained them from the beginning to expect that you're going to be doing that, you're constantly showing them why the culture's way of doing things is a disaster. So that when they're 12 and they're watching Disney, and Disney has these ideas built into it, they're dating at 11 or something like that, and you're explaining to them why this will lead to tragedy, why people are hurting, why the divorce rate is what it is, because they need to be taught what it means to be a godly wife or a godly husband long before they even think about a relationship with the opposite sex. And as a parent, being in the middle of that, Well, my kids won't like it. I know they won't, until they get the vision for it. Until they understand what it is you're doing to protect them. This is just another book to you dads. Bodie Bauckham has written, What He Must Be If He Wants To Marry My Daughter. I love the title. I love the book. I'm out of them on the book table. Somebody starts a list and signs them. We'll order one for every dad if we need to. Because I think every dad ought to have it. Third thing. Bodie suggests is that we plan our lives with the next generation in mind. You know, my grandfather had a farm and on that farm he planted some fruit trees and maybe he got some of the fruit. Of those fruit trees. But most of that fruit. Was for the next generation in mind. You don't plant trees necessarily for yourself, you plant trees for posterity. At least that's how our ancestors saw it. We have to live with that same mindset in mind. Proverbs 13, 22, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the center is stored up. For the righteous now, that obviously has to do with finances, but I believe there's more involved here than just material wealth. I must live my life now with the faith of my grandchildren in view. I must live my life now with the faith of your grandchildren in view. A question. Am I living in such a way and imparting my faith to my children in such a way that four generations from now, I'll have great grandchildren who are walking with God and praising God? Have you thought about that? You who are single and unmarried, have you thought about that? You say, well, it's in God's hands whether or not they come to him. Oh, sure it is, yes. But guess what? He's given you the means through which he will work to see that happen. He's told you to set a priority of raising godly children, both yours and these others, who will treasure this same faith and be able to pass it along to the next generation. Folks, in a very big way, that is job one for families. Again, Malachi 2, verse 15, why does he demand? Why does God hate divorce? Why does he say make it work? Why does God put such a priority on husbands and wives, husbands loving their wives, wives submitting to their husbands? Because he was seeking godly offspring. Which brings me to the last thing, and that is, this picture is bigger than the individual, it's bigger than the family. It means that we as a church must seek to establish a multi-generational fellowship here at Rockport. Let me give you my vision for this church, because unless God were to call me somewhere else, which I don't see happening, nobody else will take me, and I have no desire to do that, my prayer would be one day we'd be a church where the norm would be to see four generations worshiping together, and singles and others, But the norm would be to see four generations worshiping together. I want to marry off some of these little kids and then watch them have grandkids. That's what I want to see. The gospel must be consciously sent out in both directions, out into the world, but also down through the generations. In church, that's more than just a program. It is an entirely different way of thinking. But it is a biblical way of thinking where we as the church become willing to establish relationships with each other across generations to think hard and biblically about how we take this faith and make it living as a faith in my life and my children's and my grandchildren's and your children's and grandchildren's and through them out into the world day in and day out. How we obey Psalm 145 for one generation shall praise your works. to another. And my time's up, but I want to just do. One last thing and give you some application, if you will, let me. Some points of application, because let me tell you, this is the kind of message that I'm wanting you to get the big picture. Now we've got the rest of our lives together to work out how it works out. But here are some things I think that will point us in the right direction. First. Church, just get this mindset. Learn to think in terms that are bigger than yourself and bigger than the present moment. Learn to plan the long for long term spiritual gains, pouring yourself into others who can carry this Christian faith into places and times that you will never personally see and begin doing that now. Second. Open up your life to people of other generations within this fellowship. If you're a young person, go visit some of our older generation. You have no idea how important that is to them. I went to see Nancy this week, Danielle, and the first thing she says is, where's Danielle? I told her, well, she's at missions training. Oh, I'm going to be praying for her while I'm laying here. So you've been prayed for. But she missed you because you were out of town. She didn't know it. Go to the older people. Ask them to tell you what it was like for them at your age. how they met Christ. Ask them what advice they would give someone like you. If you're an older person or a family, invite some of these younger ones over for dinner. Get to know them. Share your testimony with them. Tell them about how God got you through some terribly hard times. You know, you may not even have told your children some of those things that they need to hear. The third Take time for the children running around here. God's given us a lot of them, hadn't he? Amen? Do you know their names? Do you know which kids go with which family? Introduce yourself. Tell them you're praying for them. Little Tyke runs by, say, Hi, what's your name? Engage with them, learn to see them and acknowledging them as a part of the blessing of this congregation. They're not just the blessing of their parents and family. They're the blessing of our congregation. Fourth. Are there people here that you don't know? Especially from a generation older and younger than you. I'm amazed sometimes I'll mention somebody in this church who were not a huge church. And somebody else will say, well, who's that? Well, they've been going here for three, four months, six months. I don't know. Invariably, when that happens, it's someone from a different generation. So if there's someone you don't know, go up and introduce yourself. Take a moment to get to know each other, purposefully mix and mingle with folks outside your age group. And then finally, I will sound like Brother Bob. Join a C group. That means during the week. Because there is where you'll get to know across generations, a number of people. Well, many of the things we could say. The brothers and sisters join me as we seek to be faithful to our calling in Christ to put Psalm 145 for into practice, one generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. But you stand with me. Father, I know even as we looked at this topic this morning. There are some here who this is already well grained into their thinking. Perhaps they could teach some of us how to work these things out, there's others, Lord, for whom this is. A completely new realm. My prayer is that you, as sovereign Lord, would lead us as a church To be a radical counterculture. To the lost culture around us. And to rethink what we do with our children. Raising them, disciplining them, training them. We would rethink dating and marriage. We'd rethink family life and single life. We'd rethink how we separate rather than come together. And we rethink it all biblically and let your spirit speak through your word and bind us together as a culture community. For the declaring of your praise, not only to the ends of the earth, but to the end of time. Help us each to take up our place and take up our cross and follow you in Jesus name. Amen.