Reaching The Next Generation | The Book Of Psalms Week 7 | Anywhere Service

00:00:03

- Listen to me, don't be the last link in your chain.

00:00:07

Today we're talking about legacy,

00:00:10

and we could use a family tree,

00:00:12

but chains are just a lot cooler,

00:00:13

and we like to have fun over here.

00:00:14

But also generations is -- it's linear,

00:00:17

one to the next to the next to the next.

00:00:19

And this is exactly what a chain is.

00:00:21

And I'm afraid just possibly your family legacy

00:00:25

is going to end with you instead of go beyond you.

00:00:29

Hey, my name is Joel, and I lead the student ministry

00:00:32

at all of our sites across Crossroads.

00:00:34

And I am so passionate about what we as people

00:00:38

are doing for the next generation because

00:00:40

we will not let the generations stop with us.

00:00:43

We will have it go through us to the next generation.

00:00:46

And I think the same is true for you.

00:00:48

In fact, at Crossroads we're at the series

00:00:51

called All of the Feels, and it's about the Psalms,

00:00:54

which has all these emotional feels to it,

00:00:56

and it talks about deep theological concepts

00:00:59

that they put a melody to it.

00:01:00

And today we're going to get into the Book of Psalms

00:01:02

as we talk about why this is so important

00:01:05

and what you can do to make sure

00:01:07

you're not the last link in the chain.

00:01:17

- Where are we in the Bible?

00:01:21

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

00:01:23

The Bible begins in the Old Testament,

00:01:25

written around 3500 years ago.

00:01:28

The first five books of the Old Testament:

00:01:30

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy

00:01:34

are known as the Pentateuch, or books of the law.

00:01:42

The next 12 books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth,

00:01:46

1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings,

00:01:48

1 Chronicle, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

00:01:52

Whew. That's a lot.

00:01:54

These are known as the historical books.

00:02:00

This brings us to the books of the Bible

00:02:02

known as the Wisdom Literature.

00:02:05

It starts with Job and then into

00:02:08

a collection of 150 poems known as the Psalms.

00:02:34

- It's fun to joke about the generations behind us

00:02:37

and ahead of us and and even our generation,

00:02:39

in fact, something that's so popular right now

00:02:41

for this generation it's called Tic Toc,

00:02:43

maybe you've heard of it.

00:02:44

So today we're going to have some fun

00:02:46

and we're going to make one.

00:02:47

[tone]

00:02:48

[music]

00:02:56

[tone]

00:02:57

- Gosh, I am so not cool to this generation,

00:03:01

but that doesn't mean I couldn't be impacted

00:03:03

to reach them, and the same is true for you.

00:03:06

Let's talk about family chains, all right.

00:03:09

Mine starts with my dad.

00:03:10

He started the legacy of our family. Why?

00:03:13

He was a first generation Christian in our home.

00:03:17

So he didn't grow up with people telling him about God

00:03:20

or even in a home that that took him to church

00:03:22

or showed him any sort of concept of God.

00:03:24

But at eight years old, a friend invited him

00:03:27

to something called Vacation Bible School.

00:03:29

And, you know the puppet thing. Yeah.

00:03:31

And it worked for him, and he gave his life to Christ.

00:03:33

And he became the first link on a legacy

00:03:37

that went through and beyond him.

00:03:39

In fact, he actually went home

00:03:41

and started trying to reach his parents.

00:03:43

He started telling them about church,

00:03:45

and eventually they went

00:03:46

and both his mom and his dad gave their life to Christ

00:03:49

because an eight year old invited them

00:03:51

to something called Vacation Bible School.

00:03:53

And now I'm here now. This is me.

00:03:56

I'm Joel, this kind of cute link right here.

00:03:58

And now I get to have Christian parents and grandparents

00:04:03

because an eight year old told somebody

00:04:05

about a God who loved them so much

00:04:07

and it better not stop with me.

00:04:09

It better not stop with me.

00:04:11

In fact, maybe you're listening and you're going,

00:04:13

"I don't even have kids

00:04:14

or I'm not even close to the kid age,"

00:04:16

and I don't have kids either.

00:04:18

But yet, it's why I've dedicated my life

00:04:21

to reaching this next generation,

00:04:23

to a legacy going beyond me.

00:04:25

And I hope you're interested in doing the same

00:04:27

because we're going to talk about it today.

00:04:31

We are in this series that's all about this concept,

00:04:35

theological concepts put into melodies.

00:04:37

And the theological concept we've been talking about

00:04:39

and will talk about is legacy.

00:04:41

But I want to show you it.

00:04:43

This is what the psalmist, his name is David,

00:04:45

this is what he says about the generation

00:04:48

below him and beyond him. He says:

00:04:56

In other words, it is a biblical command

00:04:59

to pass your faith on to the next generation.

00:05:02

Well, why don't we have a little bit of fun

00:05:04

and talk about how different generations

00:05:06

have done this over the years?

00:05:08

The very first generation, the oldest one

00:05:11

is the traditionalist or the silent generation.

00:05:13

They are 77 years or older.

00:05:15

And if you're watching, good for you.

00:05:17

You're a legacy builder. Keep going. All right.

00:05:20

Now, your generation, you got it handed to you

00:05:23

or you handed it on to the next with big revivals.

00:05:26

And they did these revivals

00:05:27

with a guy named Billy Graham.

00:05:29

And Billy Graham would reach the masses.

00:05:31

He wasn't in a dope vibe-y bar like this.

00:05:33

He would reach so many people from stages

00:05:35

and they handed it on to the next generation,

00:05:37

the boomers.

00:05:39

And the boomers then took it in

00:05:40

and handed their generation on to,

00:05:42

about 58 years old to 77,

00:05:44

to Gen X by a thing called tracts.

00:05:46

You remember Bible tracts? You'd go door to door. Yeah.

00:05:49

And then Gen X got wild. You all got out of control.

00:05:52

If you're Gen X, you about 47 or older right now

00:05:55

and you pass on your faith to our generation

00:05:58

by using something like this.

00:06:01

If you didn't grow up in church or any sort of mass

00:06:03

or anything like that,

00:06:04

you probably have no idea what this is.

00:06:07

This is a flannel graph board. It's incredible.

00:06:10

Some people argue that it never works

00:06:12

past 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning,

00:06:14

but this is how literally the generation above me,

00:06:16

Gen X, handed their faith

00:06:18

on to the millennial generation, mine,

00:06:20

was through a flannel graph board.

00:06:22

The first time I heard about Jesus

00:06:24

was through a piece of felt.

00:06:26

Now, if you didn't grow up in church,

00:06:28

let me explain what's going on here.

00:06:29

Just pretend it's six in the morning.

00:06:31

Your parents drag you to some room

00:06:33

that smelled like dust, and some person

00:06:35

that was 140 stood next to this

00:06:37

and put magical felt pieces on a board.

00:06:39

You're caught up. All right.

00:06:40

And I literally heard about Jesus this way.

00:06:43

Now, I didn't start following Jesus because of this.

00:06:47

It was fun to see a teacher take a boat

00:06:50

and wave it over and put it on a board that would stick.

00:06:52

If you were if you were picked as a volunteer

00:06:54

to come put the character up, it was crazy.

00:06:57

However, this was all 2D.

00:07:00

Those teachers could then go

00:07:01

and live and do whatever they wanted.

00:07:03

The way I learned about faith,

00:07:05

the way my faith started expanding,

00:07:07

was through my dad, a 3D example,

00:07:10

skin to skin of somebody who wanted to make sure

00:07:13

the generation behind him, me,

00:07:15

knew that it wasn't his link.

00:07:16

I couldn't hang on his link.

00:07:18

I needed my own link to do this,

00:07:21

because way more is caught than is taught.

00:07:26

Let's just talk about this generational fade. All right?

00:07:29

This doesn't just happen in the Christian world,

00:07:31

like, they will catch what our generation hands them.

00:07:34

And the generations above us,

00:07:35

we've caught what they've handed us.

00:07:37

I'll give you an example.

00:07:39

Right now I work a lot, as I mentioned,

00:07:41

with the next generation.

00:07:42

And a 16 year old, so someone a part of Gen Z,

00:07:45

this was the exact phrase they said to me.

00:07:48

They said, "Respectfully,"

00:07:49

which if anybody of that generation looks at you

00:07:52

and says, "Respectfully," you're about to get roasted.

00:07:54

He said, "Respectfully, the outfit,"

00:07:56

I think he said fit. "That fit is mid."

00:08:00

You need a translator, right?

00:08:02

But what he was saying here is basically

00:08:04

my outfit is like okay and average.

00:08:06

And he just wanted to tell me and he was allowed to

00:08:08

because he said, "Respectfully."

00:08:09

Where did they catch a concept like that?

00:08:12

My generation.

00:08:13

I'm part of the millennial generation,

00:08:15

so that's right now about 27 to 45.

00:08:18

And for our generation, it was, "No offense."

00:08:21

You could just be like,

00:08:22

"That shirt doesn't look good, no offense."

00:08:24

And you were fine. Where did we get it?

00:08:25

The generation above us, it was "Bless their heart."

00:08:28

You remember that?

00:08:29

You could say whatever you wanted,

00:08:30

and if they said, "Bless their heart," then didn't matter.

00:08:33

So, so much is caught from generation to generation,

00:08:35

from chain link to chain link to chain link.

00:08:37

And what I want to make sure

00:08:39

and what I want to challenge you on

00:08:41

is that your faith, your link,

00:08:43

it can't stop there because right now we are failing.

00:08:47

Barna, a Christian organization, said that

00:08:49

64% of the millennial generation

00:08:52

have left the faith altogether,

00:08:54

if they grew up in any sort of concept with it.

00:08:56

Gen Z, the one beyond them,

00:08:59

they are twice as likely to do it

00:09:00

as the millennial generation.

00:09:02

And it's impacting our nation.

00:09:04

It's impacting our world.

00:09:06

Teen suicide is at an all time high.

00:09:09

Depression is at an all time high.

00:09:11

Anxiety is at an all time high.

00:09:13

Addiction, even in young people, is at an all time high.

00:09:18

And we can blame the generations above us.

00:09:21

And they may have been a part of it,

00:09:23

but all I know is this time to get solution minded

00:09:26

and to make sure the link doesn't stop with us.

00:09:29

Maybe you're listening

00:09:30

and you're not even a Christ follower.

00:09:32

You don't even believe in God,

00:09:34

but you love chains, big chain guys.

00:09:36

You're followed along and you like watching.

00:09:38

But I'll give you a business principle

00:09:40

that's doing the same thing.

00:09:41

It's not being passed on from link to link,

00:09:43

generation to generation.

00:09:45

It's called the third generation problem.

00:09:46

If you're in the business world, you've probably heard about it.

00:09:50

The concept's simple.

00:09:51

It's that it's almost impossible for a business,

00:09:54

a family business that's successful

00:09:56

to last three generations.

00:09:58

The joke in the business world

00:10:00

is the first one starts it,

00:10:01

the second they run it,

00:10:03

and the third one, they just ruin it.

00:10:05

And this is what happens in the business world,

00:10:07

because the first one is their business

00:10:09

and they're entrepreneurial and they run after it

00:10:11

and it's successful and they see some reward

00:10:13

and the next one just says,

00:10:14

"I don't want to screw this up."

00:10:15

So they preserve it and they keep it safe.

00:10:18

And then by the time we get to the third generation,

00:10:20

they're sitting there going,

00:10:21

"I don't want just a safe life running someone else's business.

00:10:24

There's no risk there.

00:10:25

There was no really even big reward there.

00:10:27

I want to do my own thing," and usually they do.

00:10:31

You see we see countless examples of this in Scripture,

00:10:34

not just the Psalms.

00:10:36

There's a guy named Joshua who he was so successful,

00:10:39

he was a man of God.

00:10:40

He got a generation to follow God

00:10:42

and they would win all these battles.

00:10:44

They were victorious.

00:10:45

And then they hand it on to the next generation

00:10:47

and they just keep it safe.

00:10:48

They say, "Let's not fight any battles.

00:10:50

We did pretty good.

00:10:51

Joshua handed off a pretty good thing."

00:10:53

And by the time it gets to the third generation,

00:10:55

here's what we read, Judges 21:25 says this:

00:10:59

In those days Israel had no king

00:11:01

and they did whatever they wanted in their own eyes.

00:11:06

You see, it's one thing

00:11:07

if it's happening in the business world,

00:11:08

but in the faith world, the exact thing is happening.

00:11:11

A first generation Christian usually is inspired.

00:11:14

They're excited. It's like my dad.

00:11:15

He couldn't stop telling everybody about it.

00:11:17

He was the first links others need to know.

00:11:19

And maybe you have someone in your legacy line,

00:11:21

your chain that's like that.

00:11:23

Maybe you have a grandmother

00:11:24

that they just have such a strong faith

00:11:26

and like you always see them praying.

00:11:28

Why are they always praying?

00:11:30

But you're also glad that they're praying for you.

00:11:32

And then it got to your parents possibly,

00:11:34

or people your parents age and they said,

00:11:36

"Let's just preserve it. Let's just -- I mean,

00:11:38

we'll go to church Sunday mornings

00:11:40

or watch something online once a week.

00:11:41

And that'd be good. That'd be good."

00:11:43

And you look at that faith, you say,

00:11:45

"That's not inspiring.

00:11:46

I don't want anything to do with that."

00:11:48

And listen to me, faith is inspiring.

00:11:52

Around here we call it an adventure

00:11:53

and we say you're born to do it,

00:11:55

but not when it's a 3D thing

00:11:57

that you're just being told about or preserving.

00:11:59

When it's one lived in action and when handed off

00:12:02

to the generation behind you, it's a life giving.

00:12:05

It's exhilarating.

00:12:06

And we can't be the one.

00:12:08

We can't be the one that fails to hand it on

00:12:11

to the generation below us.

00:12:12

We can't afford it.

00:12:13

The faith of the next generation is worth everything,

00:12:16

and we need you to do it.

00:12:18

You see, people think legacy is about your name

00:12:21

being put on a college dorm or a statue,

00:12:24

maybe a business handed off.

00:12:26

But it's so much bigger than that.

00:12:29

It goes beyond you.

00:12:30

In fact, what if it's not about your name at all?

00:12:33

What if it's about a bigger name?

00:12:34

What if it's about God's name?

00:12:36

What could you do to make sure the next generation

00:12:39

gets and catches this faith?

00:12:40

What can you make sure to do to make sure

00:12:42

you're not the last link in it?

00:12:45

We're going to talk about that in a little bit,

00:12:47

right after this.

00:12:49

- Hey. I'm Kyle. - I'm Hannah.

00:12:50

- Hey, we hope you've been with us through

00:12:52

this entire series in the Book of Psalms.

00:12:54

And whether you have, whether you haven't,

00:12:55

we want you to know that we're able

00:12:57

to do videos like this in the series like this

00:12:59

because of your giving. - That's right.

00:13:01

And if giving is something that you want to try,

00:13:03

it's super simple, you just go to the Crossroads app,

00:13:05

you click the gear in the corner,

00:13:07

and then you click give.

00:13:08

- So easy. Let's get back to the message.

00:13:16

- Here at Crossroads we go to the Bible

00:13:18

for our ultimate source of truth.

00:13:19

Like, if we've got questions or want advice,

00:13:21

it's where we go.

00:13:22

And if you're kind of new to faith

00:13:24

or the whole Bible thing,

00:13:25

it's split up into two different sections.

00:13:27

There's an Old Testament and a New Testament.

00:13:29

In most Bibles right in between the two

00:13:32

they've got a single page, usually a blank page.

00:13:34

And people don't know this,

00:13:35

but that page represents about 400 years.

00:13:38

So between the Old Testament ending

00:13:39

and the New Testament beginning,

00:13:41

it's about a 400 year gap

00:13:42

that you could just rip out if you wanted to,

00:13:45

because really it's one total story of legacy,

00:13:49

chain building, of people passing things on

00:13:51

from one generation to the one behind them.

00:13:53

In fact, all of Malachi,

00:13:55

the very last book of the Old Testament,

00:13:57

it's talking about a prophesied to come Messiah

00:14:00

by the name of Jesus.

00:14:01

And then you flip past that one page

00:14:04

and the New Testament starts with this.

00:14:06

It's just a list of names that, honestly,

00:14:08

people always skip over and just go to like verse 22,

00:14:10

because they don't want to read

00:14:12

all those long, weird Bible names. Right?

00:14:13

Well, guess who's one of the names on that list?

00:14:16

It is David, who I know, looks exactly like Jesus.

00:14:22

But, you know, budget cuts probably.

00:14:25

And David was on that list of names, like,

00:14:28

he was one of the names of people

00:14:29

that went through him all the way to Jesus.

00:14:32

And it's fascinating.

00:14:33

If you missed it earlier, David is the guy

00:14:35

who wrote the Psalm we talked about,

00:14:37

the theology of legacy put to a melody.

00:14:39

He cared so desperately

00:14:41

about the next generation hearing about this.

00:14:45

You see, a lot of you in here,

00:14:49

you have some sort of chain,

00:14:51

you have some sort of chain in a way or another,

00:14:53

and maybe you're the first link, you started this.

00:14:55

You're like my dad, the first generation Christian.

00:14:57

Or some of you, though, you're pretty far down.

00:15:01

Legacy has been handed on to you.

00:15:02

But the heartbreaking part is

00:15:04

it's not going to start with you, or even continue with you.

00:15:07

It's possible you actually are the one

00:15:08

that breaks the link, it ends with you.

00:15:12

And the reason this is,

00:15:13

is we care so much about happiness,

00:15:17

bowing down to the God of happiness

00:15:18

that we care about the now and me.

00:15:21

When the entire message of Jesus was

00:15:23

what if you cared about later and others?

00:15:26

It's the key to passing down generational stuff.

00:15:30

In fact, my dad was a first generation Christian.

00:15:34

You knew that. What I didn't tell you is

00:15:36

he was actually a first generation pastor.

00:15:37

And so it's cool when now I get to do the same thing.

00:15:42

And a few weeks ago,

00:15:43

Shep called this a professional churcher.

00:15:45

And I hope there's a long legacy behind me.

00:15:47

I hope I'm not the final link.

00:15:48

I hope I can pass this on to the next generation.

00:15:53

My dad likes to tell this story

00:15:54

of while we were at church, w

00:15:56

e basically just lived there as a pastor's kid.

00:15:58

I was pretty much born on a pew.

00:16:00

I was there all day Sunday.

00:16:02

And I just -- all my memories were at church.

00:16:04

At about five I figured it out that other kids,

00:16:07

they don't just go to church all day

00:16:09

and I got mad about it.

00:16:10

And they tell the story where I ran up to them

00:16:12

while they were praying with someone.

00:16:14

And I literally said,

00:16:15

"Do you know some kids just go to part time church?"

00:16:17

This is the problem.

00:16:19

The problem right now is

00:16:21

that we're attending part time church.

00:16:23

We think church is either what we do

00:16:25

for an hour on Sunday

00:16:26

or what we watch for some hour during the week.

00:16:28

And we call it good, but it's 2D.

00:16:31

Our faith's never affected or changed because of it

00:16:34

because we're so content

00:16:35

with this part time version of what church is.

00:16:37

You are the church.

00:16:39

You are made to pass people on to the next generation.

00:16:41

This is what David did.

00:16:43

In fact, we did have one other felt character.

00:16:45

David had a son named Solomon,

00:16:47

who I think is a little older than him

00:16:49

in my 2D analogy. That's why we got to be 3D.

00:16:52

And he cared about him knowing.

00:16:55

1 Chronicles we have this recorded talks about this.

00:16:57

It says this in Chapter 28:

00:17:05

In other words, what he's saying is,

00:17:08

"Go be the church, go and do this.

00:17:10

Pass this on to the next generation."

00:17:12

In fact, let me take you back to David's Psalm.

00:17:14

Psalm 145, remember,

00:17:16

this theology of legacy put to a melody, says:

00:17:22

When I read that word commend,

00:17:23

I legitimately thought my Bible had a typo in it,

00:17:26

but it's a real word, commend.

00:17:28

The definition here, I had to look it up myself,

00:17:30

it's praise formally or officially.

00:17:32

And this is a lot more fun because

00:17:34

what David is saying is not, hey, tell and a 2D way

00:17:36

the next generation and make sure

00:17:38

you're extra boring when you do it.

00:17:40

He's saying model it, just praise,

00:17:43

live this big faith, and it's how

00:17:45

the generation behind you will catch it.

00:17:47

And so hear this today:

00:17:50

if you're worshiping, I need you to do it

00:17:52

with both hands raised because

00:17:54

there are tinier hands behind you modeling what you do.

00:17:58

If you're singing, I don't care if you can sing or not.

00:18:01

I want you to singing at the top of your lungs

00:18:03

because there's tinier squeaky voices behind you

00:18:06

that will be repeating what you're saying.

00:18:08

Feel like doing something with your time,

00:18:10

serving somewhere at a nonprofit

00:18:12

or even we do these things called Go Trips,

00:18:14

we put our faith in action.

00:18:15

Go on one,

00:18:16

because there's littler feet behind you following.

00:18:19

There's tinier bank accounts watching how you give.

00:18:22

So give generously.

00:18:24

Get in a Bible study with people.

00:18:25

Get around a community because

00:18:27

the next generation behind you, they're watching you

00:18:31

and the way we pass our faith on,

00:18:32

it's not by just saying it,

00:18:34

it's not by preserving our faith and keeping it safe.

00:18:36

It's by having a faith in action.

00:18:38

It's by modeling it, it's by moving it,

00:18:41

it's by doing it.

00:18:42

And we will see the next generation reached.

00:18:45

We will see them have a faith of their own

00:18:47

if we first can work on our faith of our own.

00:18:51

We've got a tool for you today to help you do this.

00:18:53

We actually put the theology David talking here

00:18:56

to a melody and we're going to play this song.

00:18:58

This is one of our own,

00:18:59

and I hope you stick around for it.

00:19:01

In fact, I hope you play it all week

00:19:02

so that this doesn't just stay

00:19:04

in this one little moment you're watching this.

00:19:06

I hope you're on the treadmill

00:19:08

and you're singing this song loud in the gym

00:19:10

because you know there's smaller people there listening.

00:19:12

This is for you so you can take your faith,

00:19:15

put it in action, go and do something about it,

00:19:17

not just for your life, but because

00:19:19

the next generation behind you hangs on it

00:19:21

and their faith is worth everything.

00:22:13

- We hope you enjoyed the message today

00:22:15

and that you were able to get something

00:22:17

out of going deeper into the book of Psalms.

00:22:19

- That's right, and this entire series on Psalms,

00:22:21

that's all been connected with an initiative

00:22:23

our whole church has been doing

00:22:24

called the Bible Challenge. - That's right.

00:22:26

As a community, we're in the Crossroads app

00:22:28

all throughout the week,

00:22:29

reading and diving deeper into scripture.

00:22:31

I know I'm going to be there

00:22:32

and Brian's there and Kyle's there.

00:22:34

- I've been trying to hit three times a week,

00:22:36

helped me connect to God. It's been amazing.

00:22:37

If you want to jump in with us,

00:22:39

just download the app and you're all set.

00:22:40

- That's all we've got for you today.

00:22:42

We'll see you next time on Crossroads.

00:22:45

- You might be here right now

00:22:46

feeling like your joy has been stolen

00:22:48

or it keeps getting stolen from you.

00:22:50

I got good news for you, no one can steal your joy.

00:22:54

You choose to give it away or you choose to keep it.

Recent Series