James Merritt - Heart to Heart
What we've heard today, and I've gotta preach quick. What we've heard today reminds me of a little poem that I heard a long time ago, and I hope you'll take it to heart. "You have only one life, and it will soon be past, and only what's done for Christ will last". Everything else is smoke and mirrors. The car you were able to buy, the house you were able to build, the boat you were able to acquire, the stocks you invested in. It's all smoke and mirrors. All will be gone. Only what's done for Christ will last. So according to the Harvard Business School, any organization offering a product or a service is in one major business. They're in the same business. They're in the business of solving problems.
And that's not just true about an organization, that's really true about life, because here's one thing I know about everyone in this room, every one of you has a problem. Matter of fact, if you don't think you have a problem, that's your biggest problem. Everybody's got problems. I got problems, you got problems, we've all got problems. And what life is all about, in fact, the quality of our life will depend upon our ability to solve the problems. Now, anybody knows before you can solve a problem, three things have to happen. First of all, you've gotta recognize there's a problem. You'll never solve a problem if you don't see what the problem is.
And then, if you can't define the problem, you're still not going to dispel the problem. You can know you've got a problem, but if you can't really pinpoint, okay, this is my problem, you will never solve the problem. And then you still won't solve the problem, you won't even try to solve the problem unless you believe the problem is serious enough that it needs to be solved. Now we've got big problems in the church. Not just our church, the Church, but I wanna tell you a story about a teacher. It's one of my favorite stories. She was in a math class, and she was teaching her kids how to do fractions, how to handle fractions.
And so she was calling on different students to solve problems, and she's looked at one kid, he's on the front row, his name William. She said, "William". All right, it was kind of a pop quiz. She says, "Okay, I want you to tell me right now, be quick. What is 3/8 of 5/16"? He said, "Ms. Smith, would you repeat that question"? She said, "Yes. What is 3/8 of 5/16"? He thought for a moment. He said, "Ms. Smith, I'll be honest with you, I don't know exactly what that is, but I don't think it's enough to worry about".
Now the church is facing a massive problem. The family is facing a massive problem. Christianity is facing a massive problem. Let me just kind of outline it for you. 35 million youth raised in Christian families are projected to disaffiliate from Christianity by the year 2050. These are people raised in a Christian home. These are people who went to a Christian church. Christianity in America will make up just 59% of the country's population by 2050, compared to 73% today. Worst case scenario, as many as 42 million people raised in Christian home will disaffiliate from Christianity by 2050. It is the largest and fastest numerical shift in religious affiliation in the history of this country.
I just got back this week. I was ministering to pastors in the New England Baptist part of our convention, six states, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. I can't remember the other two, Rhode Island and somewhere else there. There was six of them. Only four out of 100 people in New England go to church. We're in the buckle of the Bible belt, so get that down. Only four out of 100 people. I sat at a table one night with a couple, older couple got called to the ministry after he was 50 years old. They've been in a little village in Vermont of 300 people. They're the only church in the village, the only church. They'd been there 13 years. They finally got up to 20 people in attendance. It's a slog. It is hard. And it's the state of the church today.
Simply put, we're losing the generational battle for the gospel. That's why we've embarked on this series we're calling Generational Discipleship, because when you read the word of God, we find out that every generation, ever since the very first generation, has been given the same assignment from God. The same one. We are to pass down the truth of God and the God of truth to the next generation. And we're exactly where the nation of Israel was about 4,000 years ago. Let me kinda set up what we're about to study. Israel has been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because they disobeyed God.
Now they're about to enter into the promised land. Moses knows he's pretty much on his deathbed. So he pulls his family together, not just his own family, the nation together. For 40 years he's been with them, he wants to tell them, "Okay, you're about to go into the land, but it's one thing to take it, it's another thing to hold it. So I'm gonna share with you," he says, "how do you hold the land? How can you prosper in your property"? And he knew this was a pivotal moment in Israel's future. He knew they're going to move into cities they didn't start. They're going to live in houses they didn't build. They're going to eat from gardens they didn't plant. They're gonna drink from wells they didn't dig.
God was going to bless them richly. But God says, "But there's a condition, I do my part, you do your part. Here's your part". We're in Deuteronomy 6:4. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be on your hearts". Now listen very carefully. "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses, on your gates".
Now today, the average politician would've said, "Moses, you are a very poor leader. Don't ever run for office". Because you would've expected God to have told Moses, "Hey Moses, now make sure the people don't run up massive deficits. Make sure they take care of the poor and the elderly. Make sure they put the right people in office. Make sure they maintain a strong defense. Make sure that all people are treated equally". He doesn't say anything about that. He doesn't start with policy, He starts with a family. And basically, He tells Moses to make sure one thing. He says, "Moses, you tell those people to make sure your children and their children and their children and their children love God with all of their heart, all of their soul, and all of their mind".
Because see, God knows better than we do. You show me a nation that loves God with all of their heart, all of their soul, all of their mind, and all of their strength, I got news for you. They'll take care of the poor, and there will be racial equality, and neighbors will get along with neighbors, and they'll know when to fight and they'll know when to make peace. Now you wouldn't know it today, 'cause if you'd been standing there thousands of years ago in the culture of that ancient world when Moses said, "Above everything else, just teach your kids to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength," that would've been an eye-popping, head-turning, neck-snapping statement. Because back in that day, there was no such thing in the ancient world as a love-filled relationship between God and a human being.
When you go back and study all the religions of 4,000 years ago, they just had one goal in mind. This god's angry, this god can take us out in a moment, so we wanna appease these gods with sacrifice. Even to the point sometimes they would sacrifice their own children just to make sure that this god would not be mean, and ugly, and brutal to them. They never had any conception. Wait a minute, you mean to tell me this God can love me, and you mean to tell me that I can love this God? And here's Moses saying you can have a personal relationship with the God of that universe, and the foundation of that relationship is love. But then Moses says, "But that love will only be maintained if you, mom and dad, if you, grandmother and grandparent, if you, previous generation, passes it down to the next generation".
So here's the central truth we're going to learn today. Every day, in every way, our generation is to be pointing all generations to God, to teach all generations to know the truth of God's word so that they will know the God of that truth. We need to steward what God has given us and pass it along to the next generation. And then Moses says, "I'm not gonna tell, I'm not gonna just tell you what to do, I'm gonna tell you how to do it". So he says four things. You might wanna write these down if you care anything about your kids. He said, "There are four things parents ought to be doing, grandparents ought to be doing, every generation ought to be doing for the next generation.
Number one, we need to teach God's truth virtuously. Teach God's truth virtuously". Now Moses begins by reminding the people of the truth about God and the greatest commandment God's ever given to the human race. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength". So Moses said, "All right, here is 101, this is introductory. First thing you teach your kids is there's only one God. There's not two, three, four, five, 10, or 20. There's only one God.
Number two, you don't get to choose which god is God. We're talking about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're talking about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about the God of the Bible," and he says, "You teach your kids, He is the only God there is, and because He is the only God there is, He has the right to demand of every one of us, I want you to love me and nobody else with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength". But then he goes on to say, "It's not just enough to just believe the truth in our head. We've got to receive that truth in our heart". So he says in verse six, "These commandments I give you today are to be on your hearts".
One of the things that a lot of the average people that come to church never get past. And it's so sad. So many Christians and they are believers, but they never get beyond the head knowledge of God to a heart knowledge of God. It's one thing to know about God in your head, it's another thing to know God in your heart. There's a difference between a head knowledge of the commandments of God and a heart knowledge of the God of the commandments. And if you don't really hold God's word in your heart, you will never be able to teach those truths to any generation. So Moses said, "You've gotta have a heart that is right with God, a heart that is filled with God, a heart that is fully devoted to God".
The late great Tim Keller said this, "Whatever captures the heart's trust and love also controls the feelings and behavior. What the heart most wants, the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable. It is all-important then to move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God. What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves, what they love most, more, less, and least. It's more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. Your love shows what you actually believe in, not what you say you do. People, therefore, change not merely by changing their thinking but by changing what they love the most".
So let me just ask a very pointed question. Just be honest. Is there anything, anybody, that you love more than God? And the mirror doesn't lie. Show me your pocketbook, show me your calendar, and I'll show you what you really love. Is there anything, anybody that you love more than God? Because, see, here's the point. If you want your kids and your grandkids, if you want them to love God with all their heart, they've gotta see that you love God with all of your heart. If you want your kids and grandkids to grow up loving the church, you better show them that you love the church. If you want your kids and grandkids to grow up loving this book, you better show them that you love this book, 'cause this next statement, if I could only say one thing to every parent in this room, every parent listening right now, if I could just say one thing and you get this down in your heart, this would be the statement.
God does not want you to be a good parent, He wants you to be a godly parent. And there's a big difference. There's a lot of good parents in the world, but how many godly? And let me tell you what it is. Do you remember when you were inoculated for certain diseases? Now this is going to betray my age, but a lot of you guys, you're gonna roll your eyes. But one of the biggest things that happened to me when I was in the first grade is they finally developed a vaccine for polio. And it was a big day. I'll never forget the day we went to school and everybody lined up and got their polio shot. Let's show our age. How many of you remember that? All right, some of you do, right? Boy, it was a big day. We all got that polio shot.
Well, you know what they told us before we got the shot? Do you know what was in that shot? Polio. And I thought, "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life". You're trying to inoculate me against the very thing that you're giving me. But here's what I didn't know. They only give you a very small dose of polio. Do you know why? Because it makes the body generate antibodies to build up an immune system to the real thing so that disease would never ever affect me.
Now listen carefully. That's what a lot of parents have done with their kids. They give them just this small dose of Christianity, not too much, don't want to be a fanatic, don't want to be an extreme. They give them this small dose of cultural Christianity, just enough to make them immune to the real thing. So what do they produce? Same thing they are. They go through the religious motions, they go to church occasionally, they check off the religious box, but their children never ever see in their parents a real, blazing, burning, passionate love for God. The love for God that is so strong, it doesn't just motivate them to fellowship with God's people on Sunday morning but it lasts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday because there's a word that's repeated here three times in this text, and I don't want you to miss it.
And it's that little word, and it's a crucial word. It's that little word all. If you're gonna love God with part of your heart, keep it. If you're going to love God with part of your soul, keep it. If you're gonna love God on Sunday but put Him on the shelf on Monday, keep it. He says, "I want you to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul".
And there's nothing more dangerous than for children to see in their parents a half-hearted love for God. Because your children are not going to replicate what you tell them, they're going to replicate what you show them. So I love the story about a children's Bible teacher. She's talking to a group of kids one time, and she said, "Can anybody tell me why you love God? Just tell me why". And so she was going down the line, and she got a variety of answers. She said the one she liked best. She came to this one last little boy on the end of the row, and she says, "Okay, why do you love God"? He said, "Ms. Johnson, I don't know why. I guess it just runs in my family".
That's the kinda love that you want your kids to have. If you're going to teach God's truth, you must teach it virtuously. Not teaching that comes from your head, teaching that comes from your heart, all right? Number two, you gotta teach God's word vigilantly, not just virtuously. You gotta do it vigilantly. Now listen very carefully to the next statement. He says, "Impress them on your children". Now that word impress is from a root Hebrew word shanan. You don't need to remember that. But it literally means to sharpen or it means to engrave. And it was a word that was used of an engraver who would take a monument. He'd take a hammer and a chisel, and he'd etch a text into the face of that grab of granite, because once he got finished, that message was there to stay.
Now what Moses is saying is, "I want you to take a hammer and a chisel every day, as long as those kids are in your house, till they leave your house, till they leave your home, and every day in every way you be hammering, you be chiseling God's truth into their heart. You drill God's word into the hearts of your children. You literally engrave the truth on them". And by the way, it also means to repeat. And that is, what he then says is, "You do it over and over and over and over". It's not something you do every now and then. It's not something you do when it's convenient, it's something you do every chance you get. So what does that mean? That means every day, in every way, this generation is to be pointing the next generation to God. And, oh, by the way, I have to tell you this, you can't help but notice this assignment was given specifically to parents.
Now it's for everybody, but it was given specifically to parents. I don't want you to raise your hand, but I know some of you would. If I were to ask you, how many of you send your kids to a, quote, unquote, "Christian school"? We'd have a few hands go up. Yeah, I send my kids to a Christian school. I got news for you. Every home should be a Christian school. You don't have to send your, listen to me, parents, you don't have to send your kids to Christian school to go to a Christian school. Your home ought to be a Christian school, and mom and dad, you ought to be the professors and you ought to be the teacher. And you've already got the curriculum and you've already got the subject.
So you already know what it is that you really ought to teach. And every home ought to be a Christian school from which your kids don't graduate until they leave home. So if you don't hear anything else, I want you to hear this, God intended for the home to be the university of life. He wants the children to be the students and the parents to be the professors. This is where He wants them to learn right from wrong. Listen, hear me. I love the public school system. I love the teachers. We got some fantastic teachers and some great administrations of the public schools. But shame on you if you turn teaching right from wrong over to the public school. 'Cause I'm telling you that it's not gonna work.
It's your job to teach them right from wrong. It's your job to teach them. I don't care what culture says, I don't care what your school says, I don't care what the university says, I don't care what Washington says, I don't care what Wall Street says. What's right is right because God says it's right and what's wrong is wrong because God says it wrong. You don't need to go consulting. I don't need to go consult any politician, any professor to tell me, "You know what? Certain things are right, certain things are wrong. And this is what God has said that it is". And that's the way God intended for it to be. This is where they'll learn. The home is where they'll learn actions have consequences. This is where they ought to learn personal responsibility to love God and to love their neighbors.
Home is where they ought to learn to be kind, courteous, submissive to authority, obedient, selflessness, have a God-centered life. So Moses says, "We are to be impressing, we are to be chiseling, we are to be drilling God's commandments, God's laws, God's principle's to life". And by the way, those commandments, you probably know who's referring to, refer back to the commandments that God just given to the people of Israel in chapter five. In other words, the Ten Commandments. And I really believe this, one of the first things a parent ought to do when your children are old enough to start learning, teach them the Ten Commandments, have them memorize the Ten Commandments.
And a great way to teach them is not only have them memorize it but explain to them what does it mean. What does it mean you have no other God? What does it mean to have a graven image? What does it mean, here's a good one. You wanna teach them this. What does it mean to honor your father and your mother? Do you know why some kids don't honor their parents? They've never been taught to. And that's your job, 'cause I'm telling you now, the schools are not gonna teach them to honor you. Washington's not gonna teach them to honor you. It's your job to teach them that you should be honored, to teach them to do those wonderfully great things. To do the greatest things, the two greatest things you can do with your life. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.
And by the way, there's a side benefit. If you teach your kids the Ten Commandments, it might help them get along better. I heard about a dad that was having a family devotion with his three little kids one night, and he's trying to teach 'em the Ten commandments. And he said, "Kids, now the way that God wants you to treat Mom and Dad is to honor your mom and dad. Now, do y'all understand that"? They all nodded their head. He said, "Okay, is there a commandment that teaches you how to treat your brothers and your sisters"? And his youngest little boy said, "Yes, sir, Daddy, you shall not kill". It works to teach your kids the laws of God. We are to teach them vigilantly, impress God's word, drill God's word, engrave God's word into their hearts. Teach them virtuously, teach them vigilantly. And then this is an easy one, you can figure this one out. He says, "Teach God's truth verbally".
You don't have to have a college degree or be seminary-trained to teach God's truth. It's as simple as this. Listen to this. This is how simple it is. "Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up". It's not hard. You know, if you're ever with me, you'll hear me pray. If I ever say a blessing and you're with me, I've done this forever and ever and ever. I did it with my kids, 'cause I even in saying a blessing, I wanna teach my kids something. So whenever I'm in a restaurant or wherever, you know, we're sitting at the home, just me and Teresa, here's what I'll always say in my prayer. "Lord, thank you for this food because you're the one that gave it to us".
I taught our kids that. I wanted 'em to know, Even the very bread that you eat, even the very water that you drink, it all came from God. So this is not hard. You don't have to have a PhD. You can carry on conversations with people every day of their lives. You can have, I've learned this, you can have a spiritual conversation just as easy as you can have casual conversations or financial conversations. One of the biggest problems we're facing in our church right now, can I just be honest? And I'm not trying to put you on a guilt trip, but if the shoe fits, wear it. Many of us will walk out this door today, and we won't have one conversation about God to anybody till we come back next Sunday. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. He ought to be the number one thing that we try to turn our conversation to.
As a matter of fact, the latest research tells us we're having fewer spiritual conversations than ever. I want you to listen to this statement. A full three-quarters of all self-identified Christians have fewer than 10 spiritual conversations a year. That includes a conversation with anyone about faith. And by the way, you can count anything, discussion of the Bible study, conversation with your spouse about a recent sermon. Most Christians are having less than one conversation a month.
Now think about that. Most Christians have less than one conversation that brings God into anything less than one a month. So I would encourage you to begin today to learn, how do you make God a part of your everyday conversation? This past week, when I was up there with these New England pastors, we had a waiter that came over to us, and I always ask their name. And he said, "My name's Benjamin". And I'm always waiting. He says, "My name's Ben". I said, "Oh man, that's a Bible name". He said, "Really"? I said, "What's your middle name"? I think he said his name was Aaron. I said, "Man, you're you're two for two. That's a Bible name". He didn't even know it was a Bible name. I'm off to the races, I'm off to the lobby. Said, "Man, you have a Bible name".
So you can always take, you can always turn those conversations. And here's the interesting thing, why is it so easy that we can talk to our kids and our family about everything except God? How much conversation do you have this week with your kids since they just started? What's going on in school? How's your classes? How do you like your teachers? You know, if you've got an athlete, "Hey, how's the team going? How's the team practicing? When's our upcoming, you know, when's the next football game? What you gonna be doing next weekend? What's the latest movie to come out"? You know, it's amazing. We can talk about all these other things, when we can talk about those things, we can talk about God, and God's truth, and God's word.
Now I'm gonna be very honest. That won't just happen. You gotta make it happen, 'cause I hate to tell you this, unless your son is the incarnate Martin Luther, they're not gonna come to you and say, "Hey, let's talk about God". That's just not the way they operate. That's what you've gotta do. You've gotta take the distance, you gotta have the intent. You've got to always keep in mind, how can I bring God into this conversation? It may be something as small as just telling your little preschooler when you go outside, you knew who made the sun, you knew who made the trees, you know who made the birds, all the way up to talk to your teenagers about God's magnificent creation.
And by the way, don't forget that right in the middle of talking to parents, Moses almost interrupted himself what he said about God back in verses four and five. He said, "By the way, we need to always be talking to our kids and teaching them the right thing about the right God". because author Darlene Schacht rightly said this, "If we don't teach our children who God is, someone else will teach them everything that He isn't". That is so true.
If you don't believe this, and by the way, I know you, I'll just tell you, nobody ever does it around me, but don't do this. If you really wanna get my hackles up, if you really wanna get me charged up, call Him the man upstairs. That may be where Grandpa lives, upstairs. He is not the man upstairs. He is the God who speaks, and worlds come into existence. He is a God who just holds His finger up and the Red Seas part. He's the God who can just say, "Peace, be still," and a storm quiets down like a whipped puppy. He's not just the man upstairs. And we're gonna be teaching our kids this is who God really is. Don't get weary in doing this, and don't believe.
By the way, don't believe that your children can't learn and can't memorize a lot of scripture. I've got my grandkids now. I'm bribing them. I admit it. But I pay my grandchildren a certain amount of money to memorize a verse. We try to do it every week. I got 'em memorizing scripture every single week. And I thought they were gonna complain. They haven't complained yet, 'cause I guess you know the wage is right but I'm waiting on them to do it 'cause I'm ready. Because when the first one says, "Pop, this is just too hard. This is just, you know, we do this," and they haven't done it yet, but I'm ready for them, and I'm gonna remind them of something. If you go back to ancient Jewish culture, formal education began at six years of age.
I want you to listen to this. Jewish boys would enroll in the local synagogue school. It was called Bet Sefer, which means house of the book. You ready for this? By the time those kids, four years, from six years of age to 10 years of age, by the time they graduated, they'd memorized the entire first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So the next time anybody complains about memorizing scripture, just tell 'em that story and say, "Now what's your excuse? What's your problem"? So you teach God's truth verbally. Now here's the last thing, then we'll be done. Teach God's truth visually. Visually. Remember, this was addressed to an ancient Jewish culture, but they had ways of verbally showing truth, not just verbally telling truth. And so they were so clever.
Now we do it differently today. So Moses said this, "Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates". How many of you, just curious, a lot of you have probably been with me. How many of you have ever been to Israel? How many of you ever been to Israel? All right, a good number. By the way, if you ever get a chance, I go every other year. One thing every Christian ought to do, at least one time, y'all gotta go to Israel. I mean, it's a trip of a life. It's a life-changing trip. But if you ever go to Israel, you will see this real deal, these Orthodox Jews who they don't cut their hair, and they're curled up, and they got these long beards, and they're all dressed up in black. But you'll see these boxes that are tied to their head.
And if you go to their houses, you'll see it on the side of their homes, and it's called phylacteries. And what they have in that box is this scripture in Hebrew 6, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength". And so it's not only a visual reminder when you see them, oh, I know you're an Orthodox Jew, everybody also knows what's in there. Now unfortunately, they don't obey that, but they know exactly what's in there. You go to any Orthodox Jewish home, you'll see exactly what Moses was talking about.
So fathers would take what's called, what we call the Shema, that's verse four. He'd put it in a little box, and he'd tie it on their hands or he would put it on their foreheads. And then they would kinda leverage their doorframes as a daily reminder of God's word and God's truth, and this is so interesting, a specially trained scribe would use indelible ink and a quill pen. He would inscribe on parchment the most important prayer in Judaism. It was then rolled up, placed inside a special case called the mezuzah, and it was hung on every door of the house because they would want people to walk in, and they'd see that little box on the side of that door, and they'd say, "Oh, this is a family that loves God. This is a family that believes God's word. This is a family that wants to live the way that God wants them to live". They wanted to visually show God's word and God's truth, not just to the family but to anyone who came around their home or inside their home.
Now, I'm not saying you have to do that, but I'll tell you what I do believe. I believe every Christian home ought to have somewhere in their home some framed scriptures. You ought have some pictures of God's word. You know, we've got at our disposal today, we've got iPads, we've got cell phones where we can visually show Bible stories to our kids. And there's so many ways that we can always visually display and demonstrate God's truth and God's principles for living. So that's reason I'm gonna say two last things, one to parents and one to kids and teenagers. Parents, what I want you to remember today is I want you to remember this.
Lindsey Bell, author of the book "Searching for Sanity," said this, "The goal of parenting isn't to create perfect kids, it's to point our kids to the perfect God". And that's all God asks us to do. Just virtuously, vigilantly, verbally, visibly point your kids to the perfect God. Now, to all of you who may be kids in here today, you're a teenager, a high school student, middle school, or whatever, lemme say a word to you guys. You would be good, and by the way, for those of you whose kids and teenagers are not in here, this is good. Parents, you'd be good to share this and remember this as you fulfill your duties as a parent. We're not gonna put all these up on the screen, but I just want you to listen. This was a letter that one parent wrote to their children. So just listen to what he wrote.
"I gave you life, but I cannot live it for you. I can teach you things, but I cannot make you learn. I can give you directions, but I cannot always be there to lead you. I can allow you freedom, but I cannot account for it. I can take you to church, but I can't make you believe. I can teach you right from wrong, but I can't always decide for you. I can buy you beautiful clothes, but I cannot make you lovely inside. I can offer you advice, but I cannot accept it for you. I can teach you to share, but I can't make you unselfish. I can teach you respect, but I can't force you to show honor. I can advise you about friends, but I can't choose them for you. I can advise you about sex, but I cannot keep you pure. I can tell you the facts of life, but I can't build your reputation. I can tell you about drinking, but I can't say no for you. I can warn you about drugs, but I can't prevent you from using them. I can tell you about lofty goals, but I cannot achieve them for you. I can teach you about kindness, but I cannot force you to be gracious. I can warn you about sins, but I cannot make you moral. I can love you as a child, but I cannot place you in God's family. I can pray for you, but I cannot make you walk with God. I can teach you about Jesus, but I cannot make Jesus your Lord. I can teach you how to live, but I cannot give you eternal life".
So you young guys and gals over here, it's your choice. It's your call. Yeah, there's a lot of things that your parents right now can make you do. But let me tell you something you're gonna learn pretty quick. You'll figure it out, the kids figured out pretty quick. Your parents can't make you do the most important things. They may can make you do good things. They can't make you do godly things. Oh yeah, they can drag you to church and make sure you hear the preacher preach about God. But they can't make you know God. They can't make you love God. They can't make you serve God. They can't make you worship God. They can't make you obey God. They can't make you live for God. They can tell you till they're blue in the face all about heaven. But only you will choose whether you go there or not.
So we come to this passage, and we learn all over again that every generation has to be a heart-to-heart generation. One generation needs a heart for God. And then our job is to transplant that heart into the heart of the next generation, so they'll do the same for other generations to come. Now you can walk outta here in a moment and do what a lot of people do, blow it off, fine sermon, appreciate it. Not gonna change the thing you do, it's up to you. But I'm not overhyping what I'm about to tell you. If what I've told you is true, you gotta determine whether it is or not. But if what I've told you is true, it is the only hope for our nation. It is the only hope for our community. It is the only hope for the church. It is the only hope for every generation. It's our job to steward what God has given us and to take every opportunity at every point to every person that we possibly can to teach them the truth of God and the God of truth, 'cause he's the only one that can make the real difference.
Would you pray with me? I just wanna know one question. I just want an answer to one question. Do you know this God? Do you really know this God? Have you really trusted this God? Have you really given your life to this God? Have you done that? God sent His Son Jesus to die for us so that we might know Him, and we might love Him, and we might trust Him. And I would just say to you today, if you have even an ounce of doubt that you know this God, that you might consider even today giving this God your heart and your life. Because the only way to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, the only way to do that is to love the one that loved you so much, He came to die for your sins. And that's Jesus. If you've never given your life to Christ, I'd ask you to consider doing it today. You could just, in your own words, you could just do it. You don't need a formula, you don't need a prayer. You can just simply say:
Lord Jesus, I believe you died from me. I believe God raised you from the dead. I believe you're the Lord of the universe. I want you to become my Lord. I repent of my sins, and I surrender my life to you.
And if you mean that, if you mean it, God saves you.
Father, my prayer today, as always, is not one person would leave this place without knowing and knowing that they know that Jesus Christ is the Lord of their life.