Investing in the Next Generation

Intro

Good morning church fam!

I have been praying about today and what I would share with you for this Mother’s Day service and the Lord prompted me with the phrase:

Investing in the Next Generation

Before we get into the message, I want you to think back into your childhood and for those who may have grown up in the church, think back to Sunday School, VBS, or some children’s activity.

Now raise your hand if a teacher, pastor, Sunday School teacher, has impacted your life?

I can think back to when I came back to the church when I was 19 and how Pastor Brian impacted my life.

One of the main ways he impacted my life was when I moved back to Indiana to live with my mom and I had to go back to Tennessee for a court date for my second oldest son to set up child support.

I have only been going to the church for a short period of time and he took the time and drove me down to my court date.

He didn’t really know me. But he went out of his way for me and helped me when I was in need. That impacted me.

I believe that is one of the reasons why I am the way I am today. I know Jesus has a lot to do with it as well, but he stepped out in faith and took a chance on me.

I have had others as well who invested into my life who have made me who I am today.

I am sure many of you here today are the way you are because someone invested in you.

The realization that much of who we are today is due to the fact that someone took time and invested in us. That’s the main point of today’s message. There is a generation that is behind us that if we are not purposely investing into their spiritual lives will no nothing about God.

The International Bible Society indicated that 83% of Christians make their first commitment to Christ between the ages of 4 and 14. Surveys done by the Barna Research Group indicate that American children ages 5-13 have a 32% probability of accepting Christ. While the probability of youth age 14-18 becoming Christians falls to 14%. It gets even lower from 19 and over with a 6% probability of accepting Jesus.

This data is alarming, but it is also reveals to us the importance of investing into the next generation.

Jesus said,

Matthew 19:14 NASB95

14 But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Paul said to Timothy,

2 Timothy 1:5 NASB95

5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

Paul reminded Timothy, a young pastor, the importance of investing into the next generation by reminding him how his grandmother and mother invested into his life at a young age.

Parents, grandparents, church family, I implore you today to understand that we have a responsibility to invest into the next generation for the Kingdom of God.

In the book of Psalm there is a chapter dedicated about investing into the spiritual lives of our kids.

Psalm 78:1–8 NLT

1 O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, 2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— 3 stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. 4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. 5 For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, 6 so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children. 7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. 8 Then they will not be like their ancestors— stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

Verse 4 really speaks volumes.

Psalm 78:4 NLT

4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.

Church, we cannot hide the truth of who God is, what He has done, what He is doing from the next generation. We must invest into their lives and include them in the church.

I say this as often as I can, the kids are not the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. I am so blessed to see so many kids here in our church.

I am apart of several groups on facebook - pastors, kids ministries, youth ministries - and you wouldn’t believe how often I hear those who attend smaller churches or churches with only seasoned people who long to hear a baby cry in the middle of service, or long to hear the laughter and kids running up and down the aisle.

The sounds of children in a worship service is a sound of life. We as the church have an opportunity to invest into those lives. Think about it. These kids are the next pastors, worship leaders, youth pastors, children’s pastors, missionaries, men and women’s leaders.

Our youth today are being bombarded on all sides in our culture.

A. Social Media

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube shape their identity, values, and worldview.

Trends, influencers, and viral content dictate what’s cool, acceptable, and even moral.

Many youth struggle with comparison, anxiety, and low self-worth due to filtered online lives.

Spiritual Impact:

Constant exposure to secular worldviews often crowds out time for God, Scripture, and reflection. Truth becomes relative.

B. Education & Ideologies

Many schools and universities are pushing progressive ideologies on gender, identity, and truth.

Critical thinking and faith-based reasoning are often discouraged or devalued.

Spiritual Impact:

Students may feel pressure to hide their faith or conform to secular values to fit in or succeed academically.

C. Family Breakdown & Loneliness

Many youth are growing up in broken homes, fatherlessness, or emotionally disconnected families.

This often leads to emotional insecurity, a hunger for attention, and misplaced trust in counterfeit relationships.

Spiritual Impact:

Without strong family or church connections, many young people turn to the world to define love, value, and purpose.

Most likely the biggest attack is coming from:

D. Global Issues & Mental Health

Constant exposure to politics, war, climate crisis, injustice, and school shootings has created a “trauma-aware generation.”

Anxiety, depression, and suicide rates among teens are at all-time highs.

Spiritual Impact:

Hope seems distant. Many youth are desperately looking for peace, truth, and something eternal—but don’t know where to find it. So they turn to drugs, alcohol, promiscuous relationships and other things trying to find hope. Trying to fill in the gap.

During all of this, the church cannot sit idly by and watch our kids be taken down by the enemy one by one.

You and I have an opportunity to reach this next generation who just might be the generation to bring in the next BIG movement of God across our nation!

A farmer doesn’t scatter seed randomly and hope for the best. He plows, plants, waters, and protects the field day after day. Likewise, investing in the next generation means teaching, modeling, and correcting with purpose.

The question is how do we do this?

Determined Faithfulness

We as the generation before these kids need to have a determined faithfulness.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 NLT

6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

God tells the Children of Israel to “repeat them again and again to your children”. In other words, there needs to be a determined faithfulness in teaching our children.

God didn’t tell Israel to hope that the next generation would “catch on”. He told them to teach them and repeat it again and again.

Teach what? Truth.

God commanded them to teach the next generation the truth of God’s Word deliberately, repeatedly, and consistently.

Even when they don’t understand it. Teach truth.

Even when they don’t want to hear it. Teach truth.

Even if you don’t see the fruits of your labor. Teach truth.

I just planted my garden this past week, something I had’t done in years. The years I didn’t plant I didn’t walk out there expecting to see tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, or watermelons. I had to do something intentionally. I had to plant the seed.

Just as I can’t complain about not fruits and veggies in my garden if I never intentionally plant anything, I cannot complain how the younger generation doesn’t want anything to do with God if I am not willing to cultivate that relationship with God in the first place.

When we do invest in the next generation, you may not see a harvest right away. Just like my garden. I don’t have a harvest yet. So I keep watering. Keep pulling out weeds. We do the same thing spiritually with the next generation - we sow, water, and nurture daily!

All of us from me as the lead pastor, to the parents, mentors, and church members…we all have a roll in the investment of our kids.

There was a lady named Suanna who prayed for her 19 children for at least two hours each day, dedicating one hour specifically to prayers for them and the other hour to personal faith. She also spent one hour each week with each child to discuss their spiritual lives and other matters. Additionally, she taught her children the Lord's Prayer and had them say it at rising and bedtime. 

Her consistent, determined faithfulness birthed a revival through her sons’ ministry. Her son’s name? John Wesley.

He was a key figure in the Great Awakening and his message of salvation through faith alone had a profound impact on thousands of people.

“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” - John Wesley

Church, we cannot just entertain the next generation, we MUST equip them with TRUTH! Mentoring and discipleship needs be a priority and not an option.

Source of Strength

Investing in the next generation is not an easy task. In fact, ministry in general is not an easy task. Discipleship is not an easy task. Raising up the next generation can be spiritually exhausting work.

Whether you are a parent, pastor, youth worker, kids worker, you will face discouragement, fatigue, rebellion, and even questions you can’t answer.

This is why you need to know the source of your strength.

Isaiah 40:29–31 NLT

29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

The source of your strength must come from the Lord.

You cannot rely on your charisma, clever ideas, or even natural patience. You MUST rely on the Lord. This means that you have to be working on your relationship with God. You cannot pour out from an empty vessel. You cannot give what you do not have.

Luke 6:45 NLT

45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

You will pour out what has already been stored up. If you are empty, nothing good will come out.

Jesus said,

John 15:4–5 NLT

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

If you find yourself discouraged, impatient, unloving, unforgiving, then it may be an indicator that you are running on empty.

When we run on empty, we are running on our flesh. If we do anything out of the flesh, it will always produce death. But if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22–24 NASB95

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Those who work in Children’s Ministry (including nursery)…stand up for a moment.

Those who work in Youth Ministry…stand up for a moment.

I want you to know that you are not alone in the work that you are doing to invest into the next generation.

Church. They need help. They need you.

I think of Moses on the mountain, raising his hands when while Joshua fought the Amalekites in Exodus 17. As long as Moses had his hands raised towards the heavens, Israel would prevail. The moment they started to fall, Israel would start losing.

But Moses, being human, began to grow weary, so Aaron and Hur stepped up to support his arms. Moses. The one who led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground needed help.

Church, as you can see, we need help in these areas. These that stood up are not called to lead the next generation alone…they need God first and foremost, but they also need you.

Psalm 145:4 NLT

4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.

Notice God doesn’t say let each pastor or parent…but each generation. The old saying it takes a village to raise a child is true for the church. A child's spiritual upbringing and development benefit from the involvement and support of a community, not just their immediate family. 

Inspiration

Finally, a way you can invest in the next generation is to inspire them.

1 Timothy 4:12 NLT

12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Paul, a generation before Timothy, believed in Timothy before others did. One of the greatest investments you can make in someone’s life is to believe in them before they believe in themselves.

These young people are looking for heroes - not perfect ones, but real ones. They need to see what real faith looks like. They need to see how to forgive others. They need to see how to love others without expecting anything in return. They need to see you walk out your faith in the real world.

We don’t just pass down information - we pass down inspiration. A generation inspired by Christ will carry the Gospel message farther than we ever could.

I think of Barnabas and Saul (Paul).

Acts 9:26–27 NLT

26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer! 27 Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

The name Barnabas has a couple of meanings, one of those is “Son of Encouragement”. When others doubted Saul’s conversion, Barnabas believed in Saul. So much that he stood up for him.

Barnabas also stood up for John Mark.

Acts 15:37–39 NASB95

37 Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. 38 But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

Because of Barnabas, both Saul (who became Paul) and John became two of the most influential men in the early church.

One encourager can unlock a legacy.

I had people like this in my life. I remember in the church I came back to, my home church in Hammond, IN., a pastor by the name of Brian Shaver, seen something in me, even when others did not. He encouraged and inspired me, one generation to the next, and I am who I am because of him. He seen the importance of reaching the next generation and seen me as an investment in the Kingdom of God.

I just spoke with him the other day and he told me he was praying for me and how proud he and his wife Debbie are of me from where I was to where I am today.

Church, we need to look for opportunities to affirm our young people’s calling and gifts.

Who knows, we may just have the next Billy Graham who God used to usher in thousands to Christ in our nursery right now.

Closing

Church it is imperative we invest into the next generation. I want to leave you with one more Scriptures.

Proverbs 13:22 NLT

22 Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren…

The inheritance that we leave to our kids is not just money - it’s values, wisdom, identity, and purpose. When we invest in the next generation, we multiply the Kingdom of God beyond our lifetime.

Here is how you as the church can invest into our kids starting today and then we will pray.

How the Church Can Respond:

Provide authentic community that replaces loneliness with belonging.

Teach biblical truth boldly and clearly—especially around identity, truth, and purpose.

Empower youth with spiritual tools to stand firm—prayer, Scripture, accountability, service.

Be present—youth don’t need perfect adults, just consistent, Spirit-filled ones who care.

Join the kidmin team. We need more godly men and women to step in and invest by teaching the truths of the Word.

Pray