Today, we are launching a new sermon series called “Passing the Faith to Our Next Generations.” Some time ago, during a Wednesday Prayer Meeting, one of our church members shared with me a prayer request about transferring her Christian heritage to her future descendants. This topic reminded me of an interesting survey on worship attendance across generations…This survey data highlights the importance of ministry for young people today.

In our Gospel text, when people brought little children or babies to Jesus, the disciples rebuked their parents, grandparents, or guardians for some reason. Perhaps they wanted to prepare an appropriate teaching environment in a quiet temple. However, Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these…” (Luke 18:15-17). He wanted to see the presence of children and bless them with the Word of God.

As a church, we have been happy to see parents or grandparents and their children or grandchildren worshipping in this sanctuary or via Zoom on some occasions. We would be pleased to see our next generations run to Jesus in the House of God and keep growing up in faith. Mothers, fathers, and grandparents here or via Zoom today, I am sending God’s special blessings to you and your children or grandchildren. We are delighted to have you in our divine assembly. I firmly believe that one of the good things we can do for our loved ones is to provide some opportunities for them to experience the Lord in the place of worship.

Since neither my mother nor father went to church, I rarely had the chance to hear the Word of God when I was little. However, one summer, my family and I visited my uncle, who was an elder of a Presbyterian church, and fortunately, I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a summer Bible camp there. The conference happened to take place in his church during our stay with his family. I was probably in grade 3 or 4 at that time.

During the camp, I was introduced to many Bible songs and got to participate in various fun activities with other kids. The highlight of the Bible camp was a talent show on the last day. Each group of 6 to 7 kids was asked to present some creative performances. The group I belonged to prepared a short skit based on the Book of Acts in the Bible. The story we acted was about Peter and John going up to the temple to pray. Near the temple gate, there was a beggar who had been unable to walk since his birth… During the play, I was tasked to act as a little tree to provide some shade for the temple beggar and witnessed Christ’s amazing healing ministry. The most exciting part of the skit for everyone was singing and dancing with a favorite Bible camp song titled “Walking and Leaping.”

The lesson about the powerful name of Jesus Christ has stayed with me since my first spiritual encounter with God at the summer Bible camp. Even as an adult, I still recall parts of the Bible camp and truly appreciated the invitation to attend. I am confident that our children or grandchildren would be grateful for the times they have been in the temple of God when they grow up. I am also sure that the Word of God planted in their minds will help them recognize who God is and remember who they are in the Lord someday.

This morning, I want to start off with the scripture taken from the Book of Judges, Chapter 2, Verses 6 through 15. Let me provide you with some background to remind you of what is going on here in this passage. Most of us are familiar with the story of Exodus. The people of Israel suffered from forced labor under King Pharaoh’s rule and they cried out to God for help. God answered their prayers and called Moses to lead them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. The distance between the two places was a 40-day journey, but due to their disbelief and disobedience, the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for almost 40 years. Throughout that extended period, God showed His incredible patience and provided them with manna every day. He protected them with a cloud by day and fire by night.

Before the people of Israel were about to enter their God-blessed land, the Lord asked Moses to deliver two critical messages. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and “Remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). These instructions are also crucial for us, as Christ’s followers today, to love the Lord our God wholeheartedly and remember Him as the source of our strength to fulfill our God-given dreams and enjoy His blessings in the present time.

The primary reason why Moses emphasized these sacred commandments repeatedly was to ensure that the people of Israel would continue to receive God’s blessings. Spiritually speaking, God understood their sinful human nature. He also foresaw the risk of the people of Israel forgetting Him when they entered the Promised Land and experienced His abundant blessings there. After Joshua became the successor of Moses and continued to lead the people of Israel to the Land, God asked him to share the same message: “Loving the Lord and remembering what God had done.” When the people of Israel followed these instructions, they were continuously blessed, and God granted them victory one after another in the Promised Land.

In our Old Testament reading for today, Joshua died at the age of a hundred and ten. Before his passing, he allowed each tribe of the people of Israel to take possession of their land. Later, the people who had lived alongside Joshua and witnessed all the great things God had done for them also died. After Joshua and his entire generation had passed from this world, a new generation arose. Unfortunately, this generation neither knew the Lord nor recognized the marvelous deeds He had performed for Israel. Unlike their ancestors, they began to do evil in the eyes of the Lord and turned to the worship of idols. Consequently, they abandoned the Lord and worshipped various foreign gods, which made the Lord angry. As a result, when the people of Israel went out to fight, the hand of God was against them, and they suffered significant defeat and faced great danger.

Some of us might question how the people of Israel, who had been so blessed by God, could turn away from Him all of a sudden. We don’t know exactly what happened to the next generation after Joshua and Moses, but I can only speculate about a couple of reasons why they left the faith.

Firstly, do we remember today’s passage, where each tribe inherited the land prior to Joshua’s passing? Eventually, they did not have to fight against enemies anymore. At the time, they lived in a land known as “the land of milk and honey.” As a result, they no longer had to depend solely on God for His daily provisions and protections.

But what about their ancestors? Every day, they struggled with a tough environment in the wilderness. They were stressed when they dealt with their adversaries. They had to rely entirely on God and His power during numerous difficult situations. Throughout these experiences, however, they learned that God was the foundation of all the blessings they had enjoyed – whether before, during, or after the time of Exodus. They had witnessed God’s presence, protection, and provision.

… Please understand that I am not against God’s abundant blessings; we should indeed pray about them. However, the sad result was that when the following generation of Joshua only focused on their inherited visible material blessings and forgot the great things the invisible God had done for them, they began asking, “Who is the Lord?” Unfortunately, as time went by, none of them knew the Lord.

The second reason would be the influences of other gods in those days. Since the following generation of Joshua was living among inhabitants who had already settled in the Promised Land, they were exposed to the foreign gods known as the Baals. The term “Baals” is plural because the Gentiles believed in many idols. These people served their own gods in various areas that they hoped for success and prosperity. The word “Baal” means “lord,” and those who worshipped these idols devoted their lives to these false gods. Today, we may not bow down to an idol made of physical materials. However, we need to carefully remember that anything in which we put our trust in more than in God can be considered our modern-day “Baal.”

The third reason lies in the reality of our individual hearts. Whether we possess much or little in our lives, we should be aware that our hearts can be the most deceitful if we do not take care of them in God. Due to Adam’s fall, we, as human beings, tend to be inclined toward this fallen nature. Without regularly examining our minds through the Word of God, we may fall into the same mindset as the people of Israel in the Promised Land, saying, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:17). When we forget what God has done for us in our faith journey and fail to love the Lord with all our hearts at every moment, we may become like the descendants of Joshua. We might not know the Lord nor understand the marvellous things He did for our loved ones and us.

According to the study report distributed in our denomination more than 10 years ago, The Presbyterian Church in Canada experienced a peak in both baptisms and professions of faith in 1958. During that time, the church played a vital role in its community and there was a boom in church attendance. However, since then, there has been a significant decline in participation at worship, including baptisms, Sunday school, and youth ministry. For example, in 1964, the PCC had around 204,000 members, but by 2010, the membership had decreased to about 106,000. This figure indicates an annual decrease of about 3,500 members.

The report projected that if this trend continued without major changes, the denomination could have around 65,000 members by 2020, approximately two-thirds the size of the church in 2010. Due to the unprecedented situations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, specific data on the denomination’s 2020 membership and recent information may not be available. However, I have heard and seen that some churches have closed in the last three years, and many vacant congregations are no longer seeking a minister. Additionally, certain group gatherings associated with ladies, men, or children have decided to disband their ministries.

This decline in membership and church activities is not limited to our denomination but also affects other mainline churches in Canada. This fact raises concerns about the future of our denomination and individual churches. We may wonder what The Presbyterian Church in Canada will look like in another 10 years, where St. Andrew’s Fenelon Falls will be in 10 years, and whether our Christian heritage will continue to exist in the coming decades. While these are valid and honest questions, dwelling on these considerations can lead us to have feelings of depression. A couple of years ago, my mom shared with me an encouraging quotation over the phone: “The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.” This quote reminds us that although we are aware of the spiritual challenges we are facing today, we should also remember that the future can be shaped and developed in better ways by those who put their trust in God and seek His guidance and help. If we keep being faithful to our Christian beliefs and doing the right things before the Lord, God will continuously lead us, as the denomination, local churches, and individual families, to the bright paths in the coming years.

In our text of Psalm, we heard that “[God] commanded our ancestors to teach their children so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born and they, in turn, put their trust in God…” (Psalm 78:5-7). That is a span of four generations! As a church, we have witnessed multi-generation gatherings in our worship services… As Christians, we all have the responsibility of passing down our divine values to future generations. All the lessons, insights, wisdom, and character that we have gained over the years should be transferred to our descendants. When we share our faith through our words and deeds, whether we realize it or not, we can actually influence people who are not even born yet. In the eyes of the Lord, sharing our spiritual legacy with those close to us can create an ongoing ripple effect, and this chain of blessing can extend to many of our next generations!

Before I conclude this message, I would like to share a very interesting comparison between a criminal father and a faithful servant of God… What a stark difference!

According to the Bible, every human being has been influenced by the fall of our ancestors, named Adam and Eve. The Apostle Paul realized the inherited fallen nature within him. He also recognized the inner sinful attribute, so he often did things he did not want. Those desperate situations caused Paul to have self-condemnation on himself and made him cry out to God for His godly intervention. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul found the profound truth that anyone in Christ is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Some of us may be thinking, “From my ancestors, I have not inherited something good.” However, like Paul, we need to remember who we are in the Lord our Heavenly Father. Each of us is a new creation in God. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can all be the ones who could immediately stop perpetuating some of our family’s dysfunctional behaviors and newly pass on something good to our future generations.

Many of us would agree that one main reason family history can impact our lives is because of the lifestyles we have been influenced in the same household. Growing up in the same environments can significantly impact one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual health. That is why we sometimes want to experience a makeover for our entire circumstances, such as making changes in our diet, exercise levels, or sleep habits to become healthier and stronger. Family genes and environment can be changed in a better way if we decide to make wise choices.

In a spiritual matter, we can alter some dysfunctions in our lives, whether those would be some form of addiction, anger, time and/or money management, relational conflict, and eating and exercising issues. No matter what they are, with the power of the Mighty and Merciful God, we can not only change the whole course of our journey but also impact the entire race of our future descendants.

As Westernized citizens, we tend to live in a society that may encourage us to live just for ourselves and for today only. We need to remember that we are serving God, the Creator of many generations. He loves each and all of us. Over the years, we have been introduced to the faith we have in God because He sent someone to us and has motivated us in one way or another. Maybe, they were/are our parents, grandparents, and/or uncles and aunts. Maybe they were/are our friends, our mentors, and/or our Sunday school teachers. We need to give thanks to all of those who have passed the baton of faith to us. As a church, we also give thanks especially to those who have worked hard and transferred the legacy of our spiritual founders so that our church St. Andrew’s could be here today. When we understand this sacred heritage we have received from many, we can think anew about not only our individual lives but also the lives of our loved ones.

Our Heavenly Father has many godly characters and divine genes. When we come to the Lord our God and ask Him for these godly blessings, He will abundantly pour them upon each of us, as His Children, and help all of us become an Abraham in our family to begin making over an incredible family tree. Furthermore, God will help us become the ones of passing the faith to our future generations.

*In this sermon I have used some thoughts and materials from various sermons based on the texts Judges 2: 5-15; Psalm 78:1-8; Luke 18:15-17.