We invest in the next generation
Their impact will be greater than our own
Deuteronomy 6:7–9
7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Them?
What's the them?
The Ten Commandments and the Law
Matthew 5:17, 20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them...
Jesus came to do what Israel never could
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So how can we impress anything on our kids?
Do you know what it takes to make a good impression?
The mold has to look like like the intended impression
The mold must make a consistent calculated connection to the object being impressed on
So how do we do this?
Hebrews 10:19-23
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
We impress what we model not what we say
You are impression the next generation what you model not what you know
Caught way more than taught
What is more valuable?
Telling the next generation what Jesus looks like?
Or
Modeling what Jesus looks like?
Matthew 7:24
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Implementation over information
Wisdom looks like this
Ask yourself
How do we invest the next generation?
We offer our lives living in word and practices of Jesus
We will model wisdom
We show our lives built on rock
John 14:26-27
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The Holy Spirit
Will teach and remind you what I have said
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid
John 1:12-13
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
We invest in the next generation because we are all children in the eyes and hands of God
We invest the wisdom and truth we know
modeling through the power of the holy spirit
the words and practices of Jesus
That impact will greater than anything we could ever do on our own
Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Who has done this for you?
Who is God calling you to do it for?
