THE NEXT GENERATION
This is part of the series we are doing on the Values that we as a church believe in. As a church having people of multiple generations it will be amazing to look at this topic – the next generation.
A mum texts, “Hi! Son, what do IDK, LY and TTYL mean?”
He texts back, “I don’t know, love you and talk to you later.”
The mother replies, “It’s OK, don’t worry about it. I’ll ask your sister. Love you too.”
This kind of sums up the perception we have when we hear or think about generations. But what we believe is as follows:
“We value, invest into, and support at every level the children’s ministry, youth ministry, college and young professional ministry, as well as any and all related ministries and strategies that develop the next generation of our church”
It’s important to understand the Heart of God for every generation. We can see that in first section of Matthew 1. Although this is one of those passages people skip easily, these passages hold so much of God’s graciousness. We need to understand that this was written in a period when there was no paper like we have. They wrote on leather and papyrus which was not a usual commodity but a luxury. So they wouldn’t write anything that is not needed. This means that these passages (any passage in the Scriptures for that) is not to be skipped. And in this passage we see a crisp summary of God’s goodness and amazing hand over people of multiple generations – across various backgrounds and circumstances. We could very well conclude that God has intentionally been invested in the lives of people in various generations and he has raised Godly people in each of it.
It is also to be noted that there is no favoritism with God. We usually hear phrases like ‘kids these days…’ Some have been negligent about raising the next generation owing to the difference between generations like the taste of fashion, music, etc. But there’s no such thing with God
Genesis 17:7 AMP
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”
It’s amazing the way God looks at things. For Him, each person is precious – no matter what background or what the story of their life has been. And He loves to be our God and the God of our generation!
Looking at the following passage, we will see the transition between two generations – one who entered into Canaan from the wilderness and their immediate successors.
Judges 2:10 NIV
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
It’s paramount to know how God had revealed Himself to the Israelites (categorised into 3 major titles given below) because their entire lives were a typology for us to learn from
– Source of life
Deut 30:15-20
“15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Here we see that God lays before them life and death, blessing and curse, prosperity and destruction – and expects them to choose life. And this life interestingly was not something we get from God as a give and take but something we find in Him. So it’s not some religious barter but a personal and intimate affair. God is our life.
– Source of direction
Joshua 24:14-15
14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Secondly we see Joshua the leader of the Israelite camp saying to them something crucial. Here stands a man who is known for his leadership in taking such a tough people into the promise land – if there’s someone who understood leadership best in that camp it was him. And he chooses to follow and be led by God even if lakhs and lakhs of Israelites refuse to do so because a leader that he is knows who is the ultimate leader – And that is God.
It’s not just running to God for direction in some specific life events, but He demands to be the God who we constantly look up to for direction and groundedness.
– One worthy of all of one’s adoration, admiration and attention.
Deut 4:32-37
“32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God[a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength
Thirdly we see that these verses put so beautifully who God is and His glorious magnificence. If there’s anyone at all worthy of our attention and admiration it could only be God. And He is the same God who unconditionally loved us with an Everlasting Love.
But we see in the following verses that there’s a tragic twist to this plot:
Judges 2:10 and 15
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
These people to whom God had revealed Himself to be their source failed to pass on to the next generation how great and good He was
How could one not come to seek Him?
“We are products of our circumstances”
Generation to generation the preferences of life decisions are based on:
– Culture & Value
Localised customs and beliefs
“What they wear, what they listen to, what they got”
– Socio-political factors
Situation and circumstance bound
“Youths and adolescents are one of the major perpetrators of antisocial and deviant behaviors, which have deleterious consequences for both the perpetrators and society”
– Influences & trend
That which is much sought after
We have influences from all sorts of media where there is a continual indoctrination of what the influential believes or are forced to portray as true and long lasting.
‘These are tough currents in a fallen world tossing a ‘young’ mind between waves of rights and wrongs of legitimate needs of a human soul that tries to grabble on to what it thinks is right and eternal.’
These have the potential to bring to question about what is primary in life. And what is primary is spiritual in nature. But through it all, man tries to find spiritual satisfaction (meaning, purpose, groundedness, fulfillment, love) from all of the above materialistic things
General hindrances
- The focus is on the outward stuff when actual problem is elsewhere
- Most often we try to satisfy what is spiritual with what is carnal and temporal
But we have hope in Christ who is the
- Source of our life
- Source of our direction and
- One worthy of all of our love
In John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
Jesus is our life and by believing in Him who won for us life and was raised to life by the Father, we have access into this abundany life.
In like terms we have vibrant ministries at RHC:
Kid’s ministry, youth (boys & girls) ministry which function for the upbringing of young minds to find in Christ the true meaning and purpose for their existence and to grow in Him who is our hope and life for the Bible tells us to
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
in Proverbs 22:6
Finally in the words of Mordecai who invested in the life of his neice
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:14 NIV
As elders let us invest in the lives of the next generation for the ‘times’ they were created. And in general as children of God let us find our source in God and press on to excel for the ‘time’ we are present!
Samuel Melbon works as a civil engineer and is part of Renewed Hope Community which is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that Renewed Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Karanjade, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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