A Call To Teach The Next Generation Living Hope

Hopeless Generation

This week I read a blog from the Annie E. Casey Foundation entitled, “Generation Z and Mental Health.” The blog, which was written in March of 2021, and updated in May of 2021, says,

“Members of Generation Z, which comprises young people born between 1995 and 2010, understand that they are growing up in an age of increased stress and anxiety, and they prioritize finding ways of managing their mental health. According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, 70% of teens across all genders, races and family-income levels say that anxiety and depression are significant problems among their peers — a higher rate than previous generations.”

The blog goes on to spit out alarming statistics gathered by Western Governors University describing the struggle Gen Zer’s face with anxiety and depression. For example:

“Only 45% of Generation Z individuals say their mental health is good or excellent. That is 11% lower than the next closest generation, millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996. In 2017, the latest year for which federal data are available, the study found that more than one in eight Americans ages 12 to 25 experienced a major depressive episode. Generation Z is the most depressed generation.”

The blog asks the question, “Why are Gen Zer’s so depressed?” They answer,

“Gen Z faces chronic stress from many factors impacting their environment, including gun violence, harassment and abuse, the worry of financial instability, politics and even social media. The connection that today’s youth have to the world through technology adds pressure to their lives and leaves some grappling with intense feelings of isolation and loneliness.”

And as is the case, people who suffer depression and anxiety with feelings of isolation and loneliness take extreme measures to find happiness. The blog goes on to say that suicide rates have increased by 30% from 2000-2016 among youth.

Generally speaking, Generation Z, one of the most connected and technologically advanced generations that has ever existed suffers, more than any other generation, high rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness to such a degree that suicide appears to be a better option than living in today’s society.

Something I’ve learned about suicide, and that is

Suicide is the pursuit of happiness when you are hopeless.

Where is the utopia the atheistic scientist, like Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking and agnostics like Neil deGrasse Tyson, promised? Science that reveals the mysteries of the universe and advances technology is supposed to usher in an age of health, wealth, and prosperity. Our children have technology in their hands that was mere fantasy fifty years ago. Science has made massive strides in medicine and health care so much so, that cancer is no longer an immediate death sentence. We operate with such affluence that most American teenagers have more wealth in their pockets and rooms than 1/3 of the population of the world. And yet, with all of our health, wealth, and prosperity, too many of our young people live under the dark clouds of depression, anxiety, loneliness to such a degree that they believe suicide is the answer to being happy.

Our society will try to provide a multitude of excuses and arguments to this problem, but the bottom line is our children are without hope because they are without God in this world.

Paul describes life apart from Christ as hopeless to the Ephesians Church.

Ephesians 2:11–12 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Look how Paul describes those without God: separated, alienated, strangers, and hopeless. That sounds a lot like Generation Z at the moment.

How did this happen?

Our nation, our community, our homes, and God help us, even the church, neglected to tell the next generation the glorious truths about God. We’re not allowed to talk about God in the public square. Prayer is forbidden and ostracized in schools. Our courts cannot bear a single commandment from God on their building pillars. In a pandemic, when our nation needs the grace of God, the church is told to sit down and shut up.

How often do families sit at the table and thank God for his provision? How often is the T.V turned off and the Bible opened? How many books can be written with the excuses we give to neglect the sacredness of Sundays?

When did the church stop preaching the gospel? When did we stop sharing the good news that God reconciles sinners to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ? When did we substitute teaching, admonishing, and encouraging each other in prayer and the scriptures for gossip and gab sessions?

When you stop evangelizing and discipling the community and the home, the world gladly captures the heart and mind toward worthless ideologies and philosophies that have nothing to do with real hope. These worthless ideologies and philosophies harden the heart, creating a stubborn spirit, that rejects the things of God and instead embraces the notion that happiness can be found in death. When has death ever produced happiness, let alone hope?

Why does the next generation feel hopeless? Is it possible because we are doing what Israel was told not to do? The church is not not telling the next generation where to find hope.

FBCL is moving into a ministry that it has always been called to do. If I am not mistaken, I believe that the two story building we use for Sunday was built in part so support the ministry of a school. There was talk and even some movement to the idea that FBCL could start a school to tell the next generation about Jesus.

God has laid on our heart the broken children of our community. Through a pandemic He provided an opportunity for us to capture the hearts of children who needed hope. Tending The Vine is a ministry that seeks to help children set their hope on God. Youth Camp this week is an extension of Tending The Vine.

The point of youth camp this week is

To teach the next generation the glorious truths of God so that they have hope in this world, and in the world to come.

Psalm 78:1-5, is going to help explain that we are called to be prepared to tell the next generation, and to actually do it over and over and over again. Through the eyes of Asaph, we will see how to help the next generation set their hope of God for this life, and the life to come.

Psalm 78 is a psalm of Asaph. Dr. John Barry, notes that Asaph was the son of Berechiah (1 Chr 6:39). He was a Levite appointed by David to worship before the ark (1 Chr 16:4–7). David later established his family as temple musicians (1 Chr 25:1–2). His descendants continued this role throughout the period of the kings (2 Chr 35:15) and again after the exile (Ezra 3:10; Neh 11:17).

He wrote this Psalm as a wisdom psalm for Israel to ponder on their unfaithfulness to God in contrast to God’s faithfulness. There are six sections to the structure of the psalm:

Psalm 78:1-8 A call to teach and hear that God is faithful despite Israel being constantly unfaithful. Then he proves it with Israel’s history.

Psalm 78:9-17 Israels’ Covenant Failure despite God’s deliverance

Psalm 78:18-28 Israel doubting the Lord despite his provision

Psalm 78:29-40 Israel’s cycle of sin, punishment, and repentance despite God clearly revealing his law.

Psalm 78:41-51 Isreal forgetting the Lord despite all of his glorious deeds.

Psalm 52-68 Israel has more unfaithfulness despite God remaining faithful

Psalm 78:69-72 He concludes the Psalm showing how God is a faithful God. Knowing that God is faithful, even when His people are unfaithful gives Israel hope that all is not lost. God will keep his covenant promise.

For our time this morning, we will focus on the first eight verses. As I said before, I want FBCL to understand why we do summer camp for these children. Why do we go through all the trouble to raise every dime so that money is not an obstacle to their participation? Why do we beg adult volunteers to sacrifice a week of their vacation to share the gospel with un-churched children? Furthermore, why are we stressing the importance of TTV as much as do? We do this because we want God to give you s vision and a conviction to

To teach the next generation the glorious truths of God so that they have hope in this world, and in the world to come.

A Call To Listen

Psalm 78:1–2 ESV

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,

Asaph begins his psalm with a call to listen. “Give ear…incline you ear” to the words of my mouth. Why does he want you to hear? It is because he is going to teach you wisdom.

First, the wisdom is in the form of instruction. The emphasis is not as much on the law as it is how to maintain faithful relationship with God, which is obedience to the law.

Second, wisdom comes in the form of “parables” and “dark sayings.” Parable is the Hebrew word mashal. It can refer to a proverb, but it can also be an extended figurative comparison or story. The dark sayings allude to riddles or mysteries. Aspah is going to use word pictures and comparisons of Israel's unfaithfulness to God’s faithfulness to describe Israels inability to trust God despite His unwavering faithfulness.

What is Asaph saying? “Listen! I want to teach you how you can have a sustaining relationship with God. I want you to see that even though you are unfaithful, God never looses sight of his covenant love. Knowing this, I hope to inspire you to more faithfulness to God.” Your road to hope, and helping the next generation to have hope, begins with you listening.

Listening is simply hearing with intention.

You have to hear God’s voice in his word as it is preached and taught with intention. You have to hear God’s voice in your personal bible study with intention. You have to surround yourself with people who are committed to searching for God’s truth and will speak that truth with intention.

Friend, you cannot help the next generation know hope if you are not steadily and readily and intentionally hearing of that hope. In a negative sense, if you fail to listen to God’s instruction, you are failing to help the next generation have hope. Or, in a positive sense, your faithfulness to hearing God’s word with intention, helps the next generation to have hope. Why? Because, you must listen to God’s instruction so that you can teach God’s instruction.

A Call to Teach

Psalm 78:4 ESV

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

A few verses later he says

Psalm 78:5–6 ESV

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 unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,

Th command Asaph is speaking of is

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

God has ordained that His hope is passed down through the generations by priests, God people, and parents teaching their children the instruction and wisdom of the Lord.

A couple of observations. First

It takes a village

Parents, especially fathers, have the responsibility to teach their children the glorious truth of God in order to give them hope. But the parents are not alone. Moses implies, as does Asaph that the children are the responsibility of the covenant community priests, the people, and the parents. It takes the effort of all of us to inspire our children to put their hope in God.

You must teach with intention

Moses says you must teach your children diligently. You must train them formally and informally, in your house and in the community. Every sphere of life is governed by God and you must teach your children to know him and how to sustain a relationship with him the the church, community, and home.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Solomon encourages the parents to train up their child in the way he should go. Dr. gentry points out that the Hebrew word for “train”-“ חֲנֹ֣ךְ” is better rendered, “initiating children according to the dictates or measure of their way.” The initiating must come from the parent.

The parent must be intentional in teaching the right way in which the child must go; namely the way of the LORD. Children are undeveloped in their thinking, and so they need to mature (cf. 1 Cor 13:11; 14:20; Eph 4:14; Luke 7:32)[2]Therefore the word of God and prayer must be intertwined in every teachable moment with the child. The word of God has the ability to transform through the power of the Holy Spirit. Both agents are needed to effectively train up your child. Furthermore, our children receive training from both the home and the church.

The Children suffer at the lack of your intention

Jeremiah warns Israel, especially the priests, to make sure the people know His truth. Do not neglect teaching the entirety of God’s testimony. If you neglect this, its not just the adults who suffer, but their children.

Jeremiah 2:8–9 ESV

The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children’s children I will contend.

The prophet Hosea says the same thing:

Hosea 4:6 ESV

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

If the children are hopeless, it is not because hope is not available. Its because they do not know where to find true hope. The children suffer when we do not intentionally hear God and intentionally teach his glorious truth to the children.

George Robertson and Bruce Ware sum this up with sobriety. They write,

‘All members of the covenant community must listen to the Word so that they can teach it. God so dignifies parents and pastors with the responsibility of the next generation’s faith that he holds them accountable when their actions or neglect lead to covenant children growing up not knowing the Lord.”

We must answer the call to listen. That is be intentional to hearing God’s word in regularly in church, in discipleship, and in your own personal study. We must also answer the call to teach the Lord’s instruction to the next generation. If we do not intentionally teach them, they will not know, and will not have hope.

What doe we teach them?

Psalm 78:5 ESV

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

God has established a testimony. He has given Israel his Law. If you think of concentric circles, in the bullseye you might put the Ten Commandments. Asaph is alluding to

Exodus 31:18 ESV

And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

The Ten Commandments teach God’s people how to live with Him and with each other. The Ten Commandments are the practical applications of loving the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s God instruction on how to have a sustaining relationship with him and each other.

John Piper preached this text in 1986 and pointed out something significant. You will notice that the ten Commandments open

Exodus 20:2 ESV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

John Piper observes

“the tables of the testimony begin not with a testimony about God’s demand but with a testimony about God’s grace and power for the sake of the people he had chosen. With an outstretched arm and a mighty hand God saved Israel from bondage, before he gave them the Ten Commandments.”

What Piper is alluding to here is, God’s testimony is as much about His ability, his power, and the miraculous nature by which he works, as it is about his Torah. He tells Israel what he has done on their behalf before he tells them what they must do. That is what Aspah means when he says “tell them the glorious deeds of the Lord.” God’s glorious deeds demostrate

God is Able

Psalm 78:4c ESV

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

Asaph says the next generation needs to know the glorious work of God. He is referring to Israel's deliverance from Egypt in the Exodus, the Conquest, and the victories God gave David over his enemies. Asaph wants his readers to recount all the times God has demonstrated the greatness of his power to work on behalf of his people. Show them how God delivered them, provided for them, blessed them, remained faithful to them despite their wickedness. Show the next generation that there is no circumstance God cannot overcome.

Tell the next generation that

God is Mighty

Show the next generation God’s immeasurable strength. Reveal to them the omnipotence of our God. Tell them how he brought ten plagues upon Pharaoh to humble him and reveal that the idols Pharaoh was trusting were worthless. Reveal how God delivered the people of Canaan into the hands of Joshua at the conquest. Reveal how God took Gideon and three hundred soldiers and destroyed the 130,000 Midianites. Reveal to the next generation that God has no equal, no enemy, not even Satan himself, that can touch him with a ten foot pole.

Tell the next generation that

God is Miraculous

Tell how God created the heavens and sustains creation by his word. Tell of them how he starts and stops the rains at his will, or how he held the sun in place until the battle was won. Tell them how he defeats the prophets of Baal by sending fire from heaven. Tell them how he raised the son of a gentile woman from the dead. Tell them how God made water come from a rock, or how he made sure not one sandal or shirt wear and tear for his people as they wandered in the wilderness.

Why? Why do we tell the next generation that the one true God is more than able to do whatever we ask and more? Why do we tell the next generation that God’s power and strength cannot be matched? Why do we tell the next generation that God works the miraculous like raising the dead?

Psalm 78:7 ESV

so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

The works of God inspire hope in the heart. God tells Israel what he has done for them to inspire them,to give them hope so that they would be faithful to his commands.

When I was in seventh grade, my junior high school was connected to the High School building. we would have to interact with high schooler’s as we walked the halls. One boy who was a sophomore loved to give me a hard time. it got o the point where it was hard to get to class without being pushed down or sucker punched.

What he did not know was I had a brother who was a senior, and he stood about 6’2, 260 pounds. Shane was athletic and well liked by his classmates. Shane caught wind that this sophomore was messing with me and immediately put a stop to it. Shane toward over this kid and put the fear of God in him to such a degree that the kid avoided me at all cost. I also think some of the football team got involved and made it clear I was off limits to his bullying. My heart went from fear and frustration to confidence and hope. Shane was able. Shane was strong, and in my mind he worked a miracle. How much more hope can our omniscient, omnipotent, miracle working God provide for our children?

The central verse of Psalm 78, the central message of the Psalm, is

Psalm 78:38 ESV

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.

The consequence of sin brings the greatest despair to the soul. Asaph alludes that God should have destroyed them in his anger. His wrath should have consumed them. But he had compassion and atoned for their sin.

We know that their sin was never fully atoned for through animal sacrifices. The blood was never sufficient, and therefore, true hope could never be realized. To give God’s people real hope, he had to give them Living Hope. Living hope would require a faithful high priest and great sacrifice that would be able to remove all of God’s wrath.

Asaph explains that God took the tabernacle out of Shiloh from the tribe of Ephraim in Psalm 78:62-72. God gave the temple to Judah. From Judah he raised up King David to be king and who would have a son who would never leave his throne. From David came Jesus, our faithful high priest, who gave the tabernacle of his body to atone for our sins (Hebrews 2:17), was raised on the third day satisfying God’s wrath becoming your Living Hope. Jesus is the living Hope the next generation is longing to have.

For the next generation to have living hope, they must be born again (1 Peter 1:3-9). God uses His testimony, His works and His word, to bring about salvation. We must tell them that Jesus is God’s Living hope for the world. We must tell them that God sent His Son to die in the cross as the perfect sacrifice for this sin, was raised on the third day, satisfying God’s wrath, and ascended into heave where he interceded for them. By faith, they must repent of their sin and believe that he is their only hope for salvation. Then the church must teach them how to live in the kingdom now! Our children must learn how to joyfully advance the kingdom of god by making much of Jesus in the church, community, and home. Intentional discipleship, like a week long camp and Tending the Vine, teaches the children how to have Living Hope and Live in that Living Hope day to day, even in uncomfortable circumstances.

The Power of Jesus’ Living Hope in Children

In 2005, a Chinese church was gathering on Sunday to worship the Lord. Chinese officials from the Public Security Bureau invaded their children’s Sunday school room. They found thirty children inside and herded them into a van. Despite the scary situation, one child started to sing. In a few moments, all the children were singing.

Upon arrival at the police station, the children marched bravely into the interrogation room, still singing to the Lord. The Chinese officers attempted to force the children to write, “I do not believe in Jesus,” telling them that they had to write it a hundred times before they would be released. Instead, the children wrote: “I believe in Jesus today. I will believe in Jesus tomorrow. I will believe in Jesus forever!”

How can these children sing as they are going to Jail for loving Jesus? How can they have such faithfulness to not deny him at the threat of imprisonment? They were told about the testimony of God. They saw his glorious works, his ability, his might, and his miraculous nature and they were inspired to obey the commandments of God.

Heed the Warning

Psalm 78:8 ESV

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.

Forgetting God creates stubborn, rebellious, unbelieving hearts who have no hope. Gen Z, as well as the children before and after them, is suffering from a stubborn, unbelieving, rebellious heart that does not know there is Living Hope. Death does not bring unbelieving hearts happiness. Death ushers them into God’s wrath, his eternal condemnation. There is no hope in hell. Church, I beg you

To teach the next generation the glorious truths of God, the salvation of God, so that they have Living Hope in this world, and in the world to come.

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