E-note 1/14: Winning the Next Generation

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Winning the Next Generation is our simple theme for this year's Missions Conference. We come by such a vision in many passages of scripture, but few are as poignant as Psalm 78. "We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done" (v. 4). The people who sing Psalm 78 are a people who have been pressed into service with a sense of urgency. They are a generation pressed by the greatness and goodness of God. They are a generation soon to pass. The next generation comes nearer every day. There is a duty to discharge before it is too late. The next will soon be the now. Thus these are a forward looking people. They have something to say. What will we tell the next generation? What must we tell them? The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord! His power! The wonders he has done! In other words, tell them how big God is and how great is his salvation. Make not the Lord small by just telling them to be nice and earn a living. Make not the Lord small by making all the details of life bigger by your silence. Make not the Lord smaller than they are by telling them their goodness can earn God's favor. Tell the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.

Even the most cursory glance at Psalm 78 reveals how the people of God expect to accomplish this noble task. The Psalm is a song and it marches on in seventy-two verses telling the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. Do you see what is happening? The people who sang this Psalm "told the next generation" in their corporate worship. Their worship singing re-enacted the great drama of God's victory over Satan and God's redeeming love through his own humiliation. How many parents struggle to find the words to tell the next generation? How many parents feel ill-equipped for this great task? But here we see God's wise and loving administration for all: when the people of God gather to declare his praiseworthy deeds in corporate worship, we find our voice together, we find our courage to tell the truth together, we find our joy to revel in God's wonders together. And our children hear, they see, they take hold of their inheritance. After all, numbered among God's praiseworthy deeds is that he saved a people not just a me. Corporate worship saves us from telling the next generation the myth that God is small and local and all about just one of us.

How will we know when we have won the next generation? For one we will know when they themselves refuse to hide the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. How can someone be silent about their inheritance? But Psalm 78 gives an answer that goes beyond mere enthusiasm. Right after verse four we hear this: "He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but keep his commands." (vv. 5-7). Read that carefully. It becomes apparent that the next generation has received their inheritance (God!) when the deeds of the Lord have overwhelmed them to obedience to God. But notice that this is no mindless, heartless acquiescence. It is a glad and most reasonable submission because the Lord is so praiseworthy, so inestimably good, so trustworthy! O, how we so easily lose the next generation when we demand their obedience to a God they do not know as great and good. The pursuit of holiness is a morning mist without the resplendent Good News of God's saving nearness to his people; a nearness that comes to its fullness in Immanuel, Jesus Christ, perfect sacrifice for sin, victor over all powers and principalities, firstborn from among the dead. As we look upon Jesus we see now with great clarity that winning the next generation has been at the heart of God's own mission and promise. And he is and will accomplish it because he has loosened the jaws of those he has already won and they are declaring his praise. Grace and peace, John