Generational Drift - The Tale of The Three Chairs

Well, good morning. God bless each one Small little group here this morning, but I still have a burden which is good It's interesting in our in our time here this morning Already, I I don't know if this always happens when you're a preacher But you know, it just seems like all the songs go along all the comments go along Maybe it's just because you just happen to see it. But sometimes it just feels like God's hands in it Chad you asked the question in our in our Sunday school time, you know, how do we pass this on to our children? How do we how do we see this time coming with our country? and I'm just thinking I this is my burden this morning and and Then Bob's little admonition there where he said to us Which one did you come in? Which which heart did you come in this morning? Did you come with an attitude of faith or did you come with an attitude of doing your duty? And that is exactly what I'd like to talk about this morning For a while here, I've been thinking about just this thought about Generational drift Sliding I don't know.

I I like history. It's History is intriguing to me One thought I've had many times over is how do we not repeat the mistakes of the past? It seems like so many people who do not know history end up repeating the same mistakes even in in this nation And So, you know that kind of that kind of Topic is interesting to me this concept of drifting. I remember one time we were out camping and it was when I was a teenager and we had a boat that we had in the water there we were camping alongside of a lake and The next morning we woke up and the boat was gone Where did the boat go? So me and my brother we started walking around the lake looking for it and what had happened in the night They had raised it was a dam so they had raised the water and the boat came loose of where we had it and it just drifted down down the shoreline and then back into a Channel and then back into a cove we finally found it way back in a cove somewhere and brought it back around But we you know, what happened to the boat it drifted away That Happened overnight, but many times what we see if we're honest is slow drift slow change stuff We don't see overnight my wife.

They were playing with this little phone app making people look fat making people look old I don't know if you've ever done that before and Somebody took a picture of me and I look really fat and my wife said to me she said well If that happened overnight, that'd be really hard to accept but if it happened slowly I'd get used to it and so, um You know, that's how it is though when we stop and think about it with drift is it happens slowly We don't see it and pretty soon. We're where were we in just the last I think I've been in this community 12 years 12 years and I'm I'm just gonna be honest and frank this morning. I'm shocked at some of the things I've seen I'm not saying necessarily here, but just in this community just in the last 12 years.

I've been here the drift that's happened It's it's shocking to me and it's made me think I've been in at some different events lately and and just Just I come away from them sometimes a little sober. Sometimes I even come away from them a little discouraged I I stop and think to myself Why am I an Anabaptist and and you know, I have to think about this a little bit if if we're all drifting, you know What is it and I have to come back to the tenets of why I am and and though we may not be perfect That we still where is the church that stands for the teachings of Christ who stand by the Sermon on the Mount? Who take it literally? If you would turn with me this one, I want to jump and use a couple passages out of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 4, you know this whole thought of This whole thought of Generations, what is God's heart Deuteronomy chapter 4 in verse 9. He says this he says only take heed to thyself and Keep thy soul diligently lest. I'll forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest that apart from the heart All from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and Thy sons sons also look in Deuteronomy 6 verse 2 It says that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God To keep all of his statutes and his commandments which I have commanded thee thou and thy son and thy sons Sons all the days of thy life and that thy days may be prolonged.

God has a heart for Multi-generational He has a heart that this morning each one of us would be thinking about our grandchildren Not just teaching and trying to work on our own salvation with fear and troubling But teaching our children to fear the Lord and teaching our grandchildren to fear the Lord in Malachi it says That God desires a godly seed it says and where of one that he might seek godly seed You know as I think about the many movements that have happened we think of John Wesley what a powerful movement he he was a man who wanted to see holiness restored to the church and he created a society within the church and And people flocked to it and and I remember hearing about these meetings They would have where they would ask brother. Are you this are you this are you this and deep questions? they would ask each other and We look at the Methodist Church today what it's turned into what John Wesley's church now has gay pastors now has women preaching it it goes against everything in the scripture and yet it was once a holy a holy a Holy movement the Moravians we've heard about them and how they came in the United States and they they um They sent out missionaries to the Indians and they died and and it was amazing I remember hearing a story about a Moravian who? He packed all his stuff in a coffin because he said, you know, I'm I'm Probably not gonna be coming back. So I might as well use that for my luggage to get onto the ship.

I Mean these men were sold out forgot where was the Moravians? I think they had an all-night prayer meeting up for a hundred years, but they got so strange at one point I read a story about that They were like dancing around like bees and things acting very strange and the Moravians today are Are nothing to behold like it once was The Lutheran Church, it just goes on and on This was interesting, you know when we think about the Mennonite Church We think about Mennonites and we sometimes think well Mennonites have been around for 500 years And so they're a stable. They're a stable group Do a little church history on the Mennonites and you're probably gonna find a little something different in 1968 the Lancaster Conference, which by the way, the Lancaster Conference was started in 1711 by immigrants who came into the Pennsylvania experiment and At they started the Lancaster Conference as far as I read but in 1968 it had slid and slid to the point finally that they relaxed the Standards to allow members to have television. This was in the 60s And when this happened as The Lancaster Conference was sliding and by the way, if you looked at the Lancaster Conference today, you would be shocked at what you saw I mean They're this shy of supporting homosexuality Although they did pull out of the Mennonite USA, which does support homosexuality But that's how far they've they've they've slid and So in 1968 the Eastern, Pennsylvania I forget some a number of ministers were very concerned about what they saw and so they pulled out of The Lancaster Conference and started the Eastern Mennonite Church Mid-Atlantic many of you have heard of that fellowship name same thing 1978 that was the year of my birth ten years later They pulled out of the Lancaster Conference nationwide fellowship came out of the Mennonite Conference the church conference in the 50s to 60s I think Chad you've been in a nationwide church The Western Conservative Mennonite Fellowship the one we all think of today right around here 1973 they pulled out of the conference movements Bethel 1983 and charity One that we would maybe say was an amazing, you know, well, at least what our roots are here 1982 think of all of these groups we know of today and they've only been around since the 70s 60s 80s Not been around that long and they were all pulling it out because of the slide because of the drift because of what was going on and look at where they are today and Yet we would think of ourselves.

Well, we're not sliding right? It's always the interesting to think that we're not drifting but I wonder how many people really would be honest our church is drifting like History repeats itself. It happens to every church. That was that's what's concerning to me is if I'm seeing it out here It's happening everywhere, it's something we're constantly fighting There's something that there's a disconnect between the generations.

So we start off with the Jason Schrock's, you know I read about Jason Schrock and I texted Roger to me. Who is Jason Schrock's dad? Oh Melvin right am I right? I read about Melvin Schrock, you know back when they pulled out of Fairview Mennonite way back in the day and Fairview Well, I could read it to you really quick here They pulled out of there because it says Some of the issues were at hand This was in the 1960s wearing gold cutting hair on women in modesty and apparel Neckties irreverent stirring worship services use of tobacco and sports sport involvement. They pulled out in the 1960s You look at that today There's no head coverings anymore.

There's jewelry. There's all that stuff going on. Caleb said he had a conversation with this young man and he said That Yeah, he he thinks that what happens is there's a disconnect between that that those first generation those pioneers those Those those those Christians that were excited about the Lord and down to their grandchildren and and great-grandchildren You know history repeats itself I Said that already once But it's interesting as you start looking at this I think we could all realize this this is the cycle of apostasy and on this chart This is what happened in the book of Judges It happened over and over we can simply read through the book of Judges and see this happen over and over So first of all, the Israelites would abandon God, you know, they would abandon God and they would begin worshiping other idols God would then oppress them to punish his people then the next part of this circle is the Israelites would cry out that the Lord would help them and Then God would answer their cry so they would repent they would get serious with God The Lord would answer the reply and he would send judges to rescue his people Then finally the judge would drive out the oppressors and rescue God's people and then the Israelites would worship and serve the Lord But then what would happen the cycle of apostasy would happen again and again and again Not only that But we have the cycle of nations some man came up with this idea the cycle of a democracy in this picture We see that a nation will start off with faith and and we can even look at the United States of America We could think about all of the founding fathers and how they in a sense they want to say it's a Christian nation because they had Judeo-Christian values and Then they courage and they and they had did a lot of courageous things in this country And then we had Liberty freedom and then we had abundance You know after that freedom hard-working people still were Remembering the days of when they fought but then that abundance now you can see this happening in Even in our in our lifetimes and our parents let them became selfishness You're just the disconnect between the our parents generation and today's generation and then that turns into complacency Which then turns into apathy Which we're right here by the way dependence well, look at our society where we're at everybody's owed everything everybody's a victim and then finally bondage and then The cycle repeats and so we're like you said Chad.

We're Right into this right here this bondage It happens in business, too I don't know how many have you ever heard of the term shirt sleeves the shirt sleeves at the three generation Anybody hear that term before? Shirt sleeves the shirt sleeves in three generations. So this is how it works the first generation They work hard, you know, they're in shirt sleeves they're just basic common folk and they work hard and they build a business and they Invest their time and they're up late hours at night and they they pour themselves into this thing And then the second separation it says the sibling stage. This is when the children take over the business They maintain the wealth, you know, they're used to they were they grew up in this place where You had lots of money and everything went well, and then you get into the third generation It's called the cousin Federation and that's where they squander the wealth.

It's interesting. We do this over and over it's in the Bible It's in church history. It's in business history and so I Want us to think about that this morning? What is the answer? Is it just no hope? Should we just all just quit right now and go home and say that's just what's gonna happen in by the third generation of Valley Christian Fellowship, we're all gonna be washed out.

We might have you're just gonna have to start another another group I mean sometimes I thought that like maybe that's just what's gonna have to happen Maybe the third generation is just gonna have to like come out Is that is that answer every time I say stuff like that? My wife says no, there's prayer You know, there's there's something that can be done and I think she's right So I want to talk about this morning, I want to do an illustration here now I will give the credit to someone else. I didn't come up with this idea But I thought it was a very powerful illustration of what we're talking about. Oh, thank you By the way, I left this tape at home.

Kristin Gussie happens to carry tape with her. So now I have two things of tape I Could I get a volunteer to get me or two volunteers to get me three folding chairs three folding chairs, please I Want you all to turn to Joshua chapter 24 Joshua chapter 24. Thank you Okay, Joshua chapter 24 Joshua 24 and verse 14 It says this Now therefore this is at the end of Joshua's life.

By the way, he's He's coming to an end. He's seen all these miracles thing. Put yourself in his position Moses is gone and he's going to charge the children of Israel as he passes off the scene verse 14 Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth Sincerity and truth fear the Lord and serve him with Honesty with realness without hypocrisy and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve you the Lord and If it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve Whether the gods Which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell But as for me and my house We will serve the Lord And so Joshua we think about him.

He knew God he saw the miracles firsthand He was dwelling at the tent door. Remember to know God He fought the battles With his own hands he led them He was one of the ten spies to scout out the land. He stood with Caleb when they said When he said we are about to take the land and asked after Moses died he was chosen to leave Israel and Here he says in this passage He's gonna go a hundred percent and he's telling them you should choose you should make a decision today Who will you serve will you serve God or the idols you need to go a hundred percent do it with sincerity and with truth he says Seek him with all of your heart and so as we see Joshua here I Would say he was in this first chair, which I'm gonna Put a little sign on it We're gonna call this first chair the chair Those who sit in it Are those who are committed to God? So we're gonna call it the chair of commitment They're committed they they are a hundred percent with God They want to know God they they seek God with all of their heart Joshua it says in Chapter 14 of Joshua.

He says I wholly followed the Lord my God and Joshua 11 It says as the Lord commanded Moses his servant So did Moses command Joshua and so did Joshua he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded him He was a committed Individual he was committed to God. He was committed to Moses he was committed To following what God wanted him to do But then I want you to jump down to Joshua 24 31 we're gonna see something here it says and Israel served the Lord all of the days of Joshua and all of the days of the elders that outlived Joshua and Which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel So here we have another generation a second chair the next generation It says there were some elders who outlived Joshua They weren't that first generation Joshua was dead now, but there were some more that outlived him and It says that all of Israel Served the Lord all of the days of Joshua and So they served the they served Israel all the days while this person was of alive And they also served the Lord all the days while this person was alive chair 2 now I'm gonna say If you were chair to this morning You were one of those people who grew up in a home where your parents were like just a little bit odd You know, they just loved Jesus. They talked about Jesus.

They expected miracles from Jesus. They uh They were committed. They were just a little bit the old-school odd duck kind of person and so you grew up in that home and You saw that you saw God you saw The commitment you saw the sincerity you saw that they were Honestly trying to serve God And if you grew up that kind of home then I'm gonna guess most the time you probably became a Christian most the time The person sitting in chair 2 became a Christian Now there's a third chair here But before we uh before we go to the third chair, why don't we put our sign up for the second chair The second chair I'm gonna put here the chair of compromise Let's look at the third chair.

Let's jump to judges to the next the next book and we'll look in verse 7 It sounds kind of like the verse we just read and it says and the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all The days of the elders that outlived all Joshua and who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he had did for Israel That's chair 1 and 2 but then jump down to verse 10 And also all the generations were gathered unto their fathers. So chair 1 and chair 2 now have died After them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel Chair 3 they didn't know the Lord Crazy so What did the scripture just teach us chair 1 knew the Lord Born again, right they knew the Lord In in an old testament way kind of but chair 2 knew the Lord born again Chair 3 not born again doesn't know the Lord That's That's uh, we need to wake up to that what is that so let's put the the third sign on The third sign is the word conflict This generation is in conflict This generation here, you know They saw when this generation talked about we went over the uh, we went over the the the Jordan River and it parted and we ran around this town called Jericho and we screamed the walls came down They were they were there, you know, they heard it seemed real to them because they saw the miracles their parents were under this generation When they tell them that story they say what? What are you talking about? God made walls fall down god made rivers open. What are you talking about? They didn't know the lord Now this chair here the very first chair we were talking about Like I said earlier they're the kind of the odd ducks they're the ones that love jesus They're the ones that you know, just don't feel comfortable in this world.

They're The world is is like a vexation to their soul they the songs of the world The speech of the world the way the world does business the immodesty of the world It just vexes their soul Because they're of another kingdom their heart is set somewhere else And to them truth matters morality matters to them they're about doing this thing with sincerity and with truth But see the second generation is the generation that believes they They believe that the faith of their fathers is correct You know, they look over here and they say yeah, all the doctrines are right um They practice all the doctrines they um They don't have any questions about who god is And that they should serve him and obey him, but there's something missing to them the second generation christianity is more of a duty It's more of a religion you know Coming to be a part of church services and and serving in the church is drudgery to them. It's boring But they do it. It's it's a duty.

I gotta do this thing Jesus is more of an acquaintance rather than in a relationship They follow much of the same lifestyle as the first generation But they're not totally committed there's compromise in their life there's mixing going on there's Having some of the world and also trying to mix and and seek god And so what happens is this generation tends and by the way This this is what the person who came up with this theory said i'm not making this up They tend to become critical They tend to become critical of the church others in the church How people aren't doing it, right? And what's interesting is this generation, you know, they know the bible pretty well you pull out the sword drills pull, you know go to this chapter this verse and And uh, they probably know it better than this generation They were raised up all their life in singing these songs and you know, um reading these verses and so they have incredible bible knowledge But the question is did the heart for christ pass along You've heard that term you miss heaven by 10 inches or whatever it is from your heart to your brain They tend to be more sold out towards their job their career Where they're going what they're doing in life this generation tends to be sold out for god And for the church for people serving this generation tends to be sold out for their job and and and money and The things of this world while still having and following the faith of their fathers Notice when joshua he was sitting in this generation chair, he said he he said sir Choose whom today you will serve As for me, I will serve the lord and he put it out. What do they say? They said, oh, of course, we'll do it Yes, we'll do it But then what do they do? If we read into judges, it goes through tribe after tribe after tribe who did not drive out Did not drive out this tribe didn't drive out These people and this tribe didn't drive out these people and this tribe The people actually drove them up into the hills and they had to live in the hills, you know And and god said now because you haven't obeyed me Their idols are going to now be a vexation to you. They're going to be a temptation to you Because there was compromise in their life Now the last generation all the way at the end there this is the generation now that Has seen the hypocrisy in this generation's life and this is where If we don't wake up You know that that song we say saying It said rise you children of salvation pour it forth a mighty anthem.

We do not wake up And we're staying this chair. By the way, I I believe I was in this chair at one point in my life We will lose this generation because what happens is this generation here the conflict generation they Only see hypocrisy In this chair they see people who are doing church out of a drudgery out of you know We've got to do this thing because it's the right thing to do And they began to say I don't I don't really want that life I don't really want to live a hypocritical life. They're the ones That you know on the way to church service you know, they're back here mom and dad are driving and They're arguing They're bickering back and forth they're sitting back here in the back seat And they're thinking to themselves as they pull in the parking lot, you know, all of a sudden the fight Tames down a little bit And the dad gets out and puts on a sunday best smiles.

Hello. Bless you everyone, you know greets everyone the holy kiss You know and they walk in like everything's okay. They get back in the car.

They bicker and fight on the way back home Right and so what happens is the children sit back here and they look at that and they say I don't want that I don't want that and they and and they say you know what? I think all of these people are really just hypocrites, too at the end of the day if this is what Christianity looks like then all of these people they're not really for jesus because in behind closed door They're also hypocrites, but they don't realize there is really A true christianity there is really a fully committed type of christian and so they become They become conflicted with the message and they throw it out They give up, you know, they say right now that five percent Of this current generation is going to become christians five percent They're throwing it out They've seen enough of the hypocrisy And so this morning we really need to ask ourselves. What chair are we sitting in? Are we um, are we sitting in the 100 sold out for god We're sitting in the compromise. Are we sitting in the conflict here? We have to remember that chair two Experienced the miracles.

They they were in communication with god. They heard directly from god joshua moses Chair one. Sorry chair two the compromise generation saw them so they they still want to follow but chair three They don't see the miracles in Their parents life They don't hear about god and him being alive and working Because really God is just something for sundays, right? God is just something we put our coats on and come and look nice And the rest we live for ourself Think about this david sat in chair one He made some mistakes, but he was a man after god's own heart solomon sat in chair two Think about solomon.

He started off. He was he was uh, he was leaning on his parents faith But by the end of his life, he was more like chair three than he was like chair one And when we see solomon he was about money he was about All of those things and at the end he says after the end of his life he says What is life all about but to fear god and keep his commandments after making a wreck of his life How many people at towards the end of their life after they realize this? I had so much more I could have lived for But I lived for this life in this world while You know living out my sunday christianity George muller we know about him. He had the amazing um Orphanages and they say he recorded 10 000 miracles.

I mean that man was sitting in chair one The things that happened in his orphanage He would sit them down And he would say the lord will provide and he would pray Expecting god and the knock would come on the door and a baker would say I felt like this morning The lord told me to bring you food and they would have food. He was sitting in chair one He was experiencing the miracles of god And it wasn't just I I don't think sometimes we might think that uh Well, those are special people But You know, it says elijah was like a man like but like a man like us, but he prayed right? We can experience god too we can be in chair one maybe this morning as you're thinking which chair am I i'm in Maybe you started off in chair one and you're sliding to chair two Maybe you're in chair two and you need to get up and come back to chair one Maybe you've all the way down here and just saying what is this? I don't even want it well There is a god there are miracles and he still works today Another way to put it would be Paul puts it like this. He said there are spiritual christians there are carnal christians and there are natural Natural are not even able to receive anything of the spirit he says Carnal are the ones that have a little bit of mix, you know They they have the spirit, but they still there's envying and strife and and jealousy going on Paul says and you're carnal you're babes in christ another way to say it jesus said You're hot You're lukewarm And you're cold He said i'd rather you be one of these but I don't want you to be this i'm going to spit you out of my mouth the third generation They saw this They were never taught the ways of god.

They never were They heard it on sunday morning, but they didn't hear it They didn't hear it on a daily real basis while they went by the way while they were going to bed while they're getting up they didn't hear about god and what he did and and his wonder and his might and so they kind of They accept the cultures of the world around them They end up throwing out this generation's culture and accept the culture and that's what we see in joshua they no longer fear the lord and they Uh, sorry in the book of judges here verse 10 There arose another generation after them which knew not the lord nor yet the works which he had done for israel I was watching um A little history of the midwest conference, which I don't even fellowship. I don't even know if that which one that is but He was giving all this history and it looked interesting to me. And uh, I was praying yesterday lord What message do you want for this church? What do we need to hear? And I had about three different sermons on my mind And when I scrubbed in, you know, I just pulled over to just jump in and see what is this man even talking about? It landed right on him saying this he was saying Our generation is the one that failed and he's and he's okay.

Let me back up He said he was saying all of the old men who started this conference are now dead He said except one and he's no longer with this fellowship. It was a fellowship and he said And our generation has failed he said we have not passed on to the next generation. Why? The reasons the the heart behind why we did what we did and now they're all gone and i'm the only one last year Uh, wow, lord, you must be you must want us to think about this That's where it landed I also was watching um an anabaptist perspectives chester weaver And he was going into the apostasy of the 1960s And this was the time when the fellowship movement started people were coming out of the conferences because of the slide that was happening And he said these three things i'll write them on the board And I think it's the same things here.

He said there's three generations. He said there's the fight generation And then he said um Oh, what is it now? I gotta write it look at it. Oh the right generation And then he said there's the flight generation.

I don't think i'm spelling that right, right? Maybe I am The fight generation they're the generation that says I need to know this. What is it? Who is god? I need to know who he is and they pour into the bible they pour into prayer they pour into knowing who he is and they and they They seek him with all their heart god says you will find me if you will seek me with all of your heart And so they're the generation that wants to know god Then the right generation comes along. They're the next generation and they say oh, yeah everything my parents said are right It's all right.

All their doctrine is good And we'll just live it out, but they're not fighting for it And then the last generation is the flight generation. That's the generation that that says something's missing here I don't want it and they leave So first of all, let's be honest this morning which chair are we in first of all Are we in chair one? Are we in chair two of compromise? Or are we in chair and three of conflict? What do we do? I don't want to leave this today at There's no hope that We're just all doomed Maybe you are in chair two this morning Maybe you are a second generation of the first generations that came out like, you know these What was his name marvin or jason troxad whatever his name is uh, denny kenniston and mose stolzfus and the charity And all of all of these fellowship movements had people Maybe you are now the second or third generation down What you need to do is you need to become sick of this chair You need to become You need to hate this chair You need to Cry out to god to give you hunger To know him And and every time you find yourself sitting back in this chair, you need to get up and move back to this chair Until it becomes a reality That's the hope you have this morning. If you want to pass it on to this generation, you're going to have to now And this is why I have a burden because we have so many new families starting in this church We have to now become move from this chair to this chair maybe we're Me I I I was once here.

I slid over to here. Maybe i'm gonna i'm getting tired, you know, i'm getting older i'm getting Uh church life is harder and i'm slowly slipping I need to I need to get up and move back to this chair. I need to repent we need to all repent You need to ask god to chain us to that chair So this is a call for us to wake up um This has been a burden on my heart, you know as I look Just looking at this map here Here's a map.

Here's oregon Here's all the churches that were started out here all the different mennonite churches back since like the Oh, I think in the 1800s or so I mean and I I read down through this list like did you know there was a church in eugene? There's a mennonite church in eugene that started it's gone. It's extinct Um listen to some of these churches and I I just got on and looked up some of them and the semblance of What the anabaptist once stood for us and many of them gone Uh, there's fairview which we know about zion Hope well, we still know about that one albany um, I got on albany's website last night and Gay stuff all over it. Um Yeah, bethel Which I think is probably gone Is it extinct bethel near canby Sheridan, I looked at that one a little bit And then there were 10 smaller outreaches.

So these were the earlier churches Uh, so these were the ones that were outreached later smaller sweet home Porter which we know about that one blaine tangent Um Grant's pass which I think is gone Uh winston, which I think closed their doors about the time we came down here lebanon and logs didn't Many of those are not even exist anymore Let alone if they do have slid that's that's um If we don't wake up, we're gonna repeat the same history We will be in the same spot. We will be just another number another statistic So I believe closing the service down. I believe there are three things That we need to do, um, how do we stay in this chair, how do we get to this chair number one, I think Um, we need to be seeking god ourself we need to be well Listen to these two bass passages deuteronomy chapter four, but if from thence thou shalt seek the lord thy god Thou shalt find him if thou shalt seek with him Seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul jeremiah and you shall seek me And you will find me when you will search for me with all of your heart If you are going to be in this chair, it has to be all of your heart.

It can't be It can't be a mix The promise is if we seek for him with all of our heart we will find him So I believe we need to be seeking in prayer study of his word. Um commitment to the body of christ, um Being intentional. The second one I would say is wholehearted and sincere We read that verse fear the lord and serve him with sincerity and truth put to death hypocrisy I just listened to a sermon yesterday and they were talking about the old river brethren He said we have a different service than you all here.

I think he was talking to eastern Group, and he said we our whole sunday school time is a time of testimony and he said we get up and we we uh The whole time every week I grew up every week hearing this we talk about what the lord did and where we fell this last week they said so I grew up all my life knowing that that uh, that we weren't perfect that we had problems that but You couldn't really live in hypocrisy because you know, you just said it in front of your brothers But it's very tempting when we don't testify when we don't confess To begin to put on the sunday Compromise we live our life this way and act like everything's okay and have hidden things And act like we're here. We're not and then this generation sees that So I would say we need to be wholehearted and sincere put away hypocrisy number one Seek him with all of our heart number two be wholehearted and sincere and then I would say the last thing We need to we need to talk about him in our homes We need to talk about what he did. We need to talk about what? He means to us You sang the song lost and it said Rise ye children and the chorus said pour it forth a mighty anthem We need to be people that are doing that Singing praises to god pouring forth an anthem in front of our children Listen to this psalm.

It says this I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old Things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us We will not hide them from their children But tell them to the coming generations the glorious deeds of the lord and his might and the wonders that he has done He established a testimony in jacob and appointed a law in israel Which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them The children yet i'm born Look at the heart even the children that are not even born yet. We're thinking about And arise and tell them to their children so that they're Should they should set their hope in god and not forget the works of god But keep his commandments and that they should not be like their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation a generation whose heart Was not steadfast whose spirit was not faithful to god So we need to seek him with all of our heart we need to be wholehearted and sincere In other words be intentional be intentional pour our lives into Knowing god and to his church And also we need to talk about him with our children And i'm afraid i'm really afraid if we don't My fear is that We will be just another statistic We will be either slide to the world eventually or We will be dead spiritual it will be cold and dead and nobody will truly be born again But they'll look good on the outside And so I hope this morning, um I hope we can all take that seriously.

I thank you for listening in your time and May god, uh, may god wake us up. May god show us where in our lives. We're not 100 committed to him And where we're not sincere And lord bless each one