Love in Action Shapes the Next Generation

What kind of faith are we passing to the next generation? Pastor Chris Teien shares from Psalm 71:17-18, calling us to love, teach, guide, and model faith for children, youth, and young adults. Our love in action shapes their understanding of God and prepares them to stand firm in a world that often opposes biblical truth.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16632938

This message outlines seven biblical ways to invest in the next generation. From loving God first to exemplifying Christian living, each step provides practical encouragement for parents, grandparents, mentors, and church members who want to pass on a lasting faith.

Key Themes & Scripture References:

1. Love God First – A deep relationship with God is the foundation (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
2. Teach God’s Word Daily – Faith should be woven into everyday life (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
3. Encourage Their Unique Design – Help them see their worth in Christ (Psalm 139:13-14).
4. Guide with Wisdom & Discipline – Biblical training shapes character (Proverbs 22:6).
5. Pray Over Their Lives – Lift them up in faith (Philippians 1:9-11).
6. Conduct Yourself in a Worthy Manner – Live out faith with integrity (Philippians 1:27-30).
7. Exemplify Christian Living – Be a model worth following (1 Corinthians 1:11, Titus 2:7-8).

Personal Reflections & Stories:

• Chris’s grandparents encouraged his faith through Bible memorization.
• Raising children in faith included Christian media, homeschooling, and daily conversations.
• The power of mentors—stories of adults shaping kids’ spiritual journeys.
• The importance of prayer—his step-grandmother prayed for him daily.

Notable Quotes:

• "Faith isn’t just taught—it’s caught."
• "Love in action means being intentional about passing faith forward."
• "Your life is a sermon—what are your kids learning from you?"

Application & Takeaways:

1. Live a genuine faith—make your love for God real and visible.
2. Be intentional about teaching scripture through daily conversations.
3. Affirm each child’s God-given identity and help them discover their calling.
4. Discipline with wisdom and grace, pointing them toward biblical truth.
5. Pray for them regularly, asking God to guide their faith journey.
6. Model integrity and faithfulness, showing them what Christian living looks like.

Scripture References Mentioned:

• Psalm 71:17-18 – Passing faith to the next generation.
• Deuteronomy 6:4-7 – Teaching and modeling faith daily.
• Psalm 139:13-14 – Encouraging their unique design.
• Proverbs 22:6 – Guiding with wisdom and discipline.
• Philippians 1:9-11 – Praying over their lives.
• Philippians 1:27-30 – Living a life worthy of the gospel.
• 1 Corinthians 1:11, Titus 2:7-8 – Setting an example of Christian living.

Keywords & Tags:

Faith, Discipleship, Parenting, Biblical Worldview, Christian Family, Teaching Kids About God, Proverbs 22, Deuteronomy 6, Philippians 1

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

So I want us to think about today how we heard about Jesus and what age we were when we first heard about Jesus and who told us about Jesus and what role our parents or our grandparents or our brothers or sisters and aunts or uncles or just people had helping us to find out about Christ, to learn about Christ, to find faith, true faith, and what we thought of faith when we heard about it. My grandparents, step-grandparents were instrumental in telling me about Jesus and paying me a quarter to memorize Bible verses, and so I didn't just automatically accept what they said and uh you know follow Jesus with all of my heart, but through their uh constant encouragement and paying for me to go to Christian school twice and Bible camps, that helped. And so sometimes it's a long process, but you and I have an opportunity to make a difference, to uh invest in the next generation, to tell other people about Jesus. And I started out in ministry almost 30 years ago at First Baptist Church in Forest City, Iowa, as the youth and family pastor. And while I was there, I did parenting classes. And you know what I found out about parenting classes is that parenting classes are attended by parents who probably don't need parenting classes because they are just so into studying about parenting, learning about parenting, and growing as parents and trying to be good parents, and it's the ones that really need to come to the class that don't come, that don't really care about parenting skills or learning about being about parenting and everything. And so a long, long time ago, you know, when you grew up on the farm or the neighborhood or whatever, society kind of pointed you towards God or faith and you know, towards morality. Um, now society points you in the other direction. And many people use screens as babysitters. And uh on one hand, there are so many things you can watch on screens, and you can uh get a report as to what's been watched, and you can control what's being watched, and you can be the gatekeeper over your kids' phone and TV and stuff, and you can use it for good if you pay attention. Uh, we offer the RightNow Media video service that has a bunch of parenting resources, uh, parenting classes, parenting seminars, all sorts of things to help you be a better parent, and about 2,000 videos that kids can watch, and those are good too, but somehow you and I need to take it serious that we need to look at this younger generation coming up and be quick to share our true faith in Christ. To just tell them, you know, uh the Bible says, and therefore you have to do this isn't good enough. You need to give them example, you need to give them reason, you need to share your experiences with them. And I chose a picture for this message image of a family camping together, spending some time together. And I don't know, you know, what you do to spend time together. Uh when we were in Forest City, Iowa, we had to drive to Mason City to grocery shop, so it was like 35 miles or something like that, maybe 35 minutes. And so we'd visit Julie's parents up in the cities, and so we spent a lot of time in the car, and so I think our kids listened to all the adventure and odyssey tapes and all the Christian stuff that we could have them listen to. And so as we were raising up our kids, we tried to do everything that we could to help raise them up in Christ. And you don't have to do all these things, but um, so we chose to homeschool with Bible curriculum and curriculum that had a biblical worldview. So we sent our kids, we came to church, Sunday kids went to Sunday school and uh the midweek kids club, and as they got older, uh sent them to uh not even older, we sent them to Bible camp as they got older, uh worldview uh camp uh where they learned about a biblical worldview for a week at the University of Northwestern. Um and then when we had opportunity, they did uh Crown College P SEO. Um so my wife homeschooled all three of our kids, and it's not a guarantee, but we tried to do what we could to help our kids to follow after the Lord. We tried to monitor what they watched on TV, we tried to make sure that the things that they were watching had some kind of biblical view. Like I'm pretty sure Saturday mornings uh we tuned in the the TV over the air to watch Superbook and some and the Donut Man and some other stuff like that. And so some people would say, you're brainwashing your children, but I don't think it's brainwashing. I think it's giving biblical instruction and guiding. So we need to influence the next generation. So I heard on I was listening to the Psalm FM, uh, the Christian radio station that actually has news and talking, uh, more so than the other one in Duluth. That's just music. But they had a uh news blip that said that I think Barna's recent research shows that this generation coming up is much more likely to listen to their parents when it comes to spiritual things, more so than a pastor or any other professional. And out of the two parents, that the mother was the one that was most likely listened to and trusted. So that puts some big responsibility on parents to teach their kids about spiritual things. So one of my favorite passages is Psalm 71, and Psalm 71, 17 says, Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds, even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, until I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. And so we need to share our faith story. It is important for us when we have opportunity to let our kids and grandkids know about our walk with Christ, how we came to Christ, uh, maybe the difficulties, the adventures, the answered prayer, the great things that happened. Uh, if we have experienced a true relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to share that with our kids and grandkids and other people's kids and whoever will listen. Telling personal testimonies of his faithfulness uh to the people around and to the next generation. And so I try to do that. I hope that you try to do that also. So I've um been finding that we're getting listeners now, changing our audio podcast to Well Faith instead of Rock Rockwell Church. So um that we're getting that one one day I noticed that someone listened to a message uh from India and Indiana. I thought that was interesting. But I recently one that's up there right now is a recounting of the um, it's like seven minutes long of how God answered our prayer to sell a car that I shared here. So it's easy for me to recycle that stuff and put it out there. Um, do you do that though? I mean, is there any kind of like, do you have a journal that somebody could read? Uh, have you shared a testimony? Have you shared things that could be passed on? It might be worthwhile to leave even a legacy if you were to write down some of like God at work in your life that might be passed down and read. Um, hopefully before you go be with Jesus, before you die and go be with Jesus, but um something that could be passed down even to future generations, it would be a great thing if you did that to discuss Bible passages and how they apply to your life, to pray for your children and grandchildren and the children around, to demonstrate God's love through serving others and caring for others and being generous towards others, um, to speak often about God's goodness in everyday life, and to live a life of praise and thanksgiving, to just be thankful for things and let your kids and grandkids see that, to encourage scripture memorization. So my grandpa paid me a quarter back in, I'm not sure what, 1975. So that was a lot of money back then. So you might need to give each your kid a buck for every every Bible verse they memorize, but maybe it'd be worthwhile. I think I mentioned before that a uh leader of a Christian camp and Christian author wrote that he um told his kid that if he memorized all these different Bible, he made a list, all these different Bible passages. If he could memorize the Bible passages and tell his dad what they meant, that when the kid turned 16, he would buy him a car. And sure enough, the kid did all of that faith training, did all of that memorization, was able to explain those verses, and so his dad bought him a car. Not a brand new car, but a car that was good for transportation. The kid was motivated, and the dad, the kid was motivated to get a car, and I memorized Bible verses, but the dad was motivated to pass on his faith to his kid, and this is a method that he used, and it was a good thing. So you need to know your kids though. Some kids are really good at doing their own work, and some kids need you to read with them and to discuss things with them. If you give them a book and tell them to go do something, they're not gonna do it. So other kids will. Um, some kids are big on reading, like books and things. Um, other kids are better at video games and fast-paced things, and you just need to figure out your kid and the best way to make that work. As time goes on, as your kid gets older, or you're with older kids, maybe you can share some of your struggles, some of your failures, along with your victories. You don't need to glorify sin and give them ideas on how bad you could be, but you know, just share, you know, how maybe uh you made a mistake or uh did something and uh that there was there was a price to be paid for it, and that you asked God to forgive you and that it was a mistake and you hope that they wouldn't make the same mistake. Let the kids learn from your mistakes if you can. So uh let's watch this video for two minutes and I'll be right back about parenting.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

A holy stewardship, a precious opportunity, a divine calling, a parent. Parenting isn't just about babysitting and potty training, it's not just about teaching them to ride a bike or tie a shoe, it isn't just about making lynches and brushing teeth. Parenting is about changing the world, it's about reminding our kids who they really are. Children of God, born for school. Okay, let's remember that the most important meetings of your day are in a conference room or on a stage, but at the dinner table, and at the bedtime. Let's remember that there's no quality time without quality time. That the most valuable thing is without what you leave for this. What you leave is every time they fall down. You have a responsibility in the kids don't need to be popular.

Chris T 12:42

I mean, if you want to be successful as a godly parent, the first thing is you need to have a personal relationship with Christ. You need to love God first, and then out of that relationship, out of that experience, then you can show Christ's love to your kid. Some people think that they can they should wait, you know, they should wait a while. But I think that you should start reading that little baby books, Bible books, probably be good in the nursery if they were reading the kids' Bible books. I notice some churches have a nursery curriculum even. But to start reading Bible stories and praying out loud, praying out loud is an interesting thing because on one hand, you know, prayer can be a really private thing. But when you pray out loud around your kids or the grandkids or whatever, then they have a general idea of, you know, how you pray. They can learn from your example, but if you all pray silently, um, or if you just pray a wrote written prayer, um, you know, some families do that. They just sit down at the table and they have a little grace saying that they say over and over again, and that's their prayer. Um some people make the mistake though of saying, Hey, we're about to eat, let's pray. And then they have this really long prayer, and they pray for all the missionaries in the world, and they the food gets cold. So it would probably be a better idea to thank God for the food, and then if you want to pray longer after that, after everybody's eaten, then you can have a longer prayer time or schedule a prayer time. But to love God first. So the I mentioned this a couple weeks ago in the Shema, uh, that the uh God's people, the Hebrew children, the Israelites would say over and over again, but Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5 says, Hero 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 that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. So we are to love God first and foremost. And that's kind of what Psalm 71 talked about too, is that out of the experience that we have, we share our faith, we share our deep love for God, and it is a good thing. So when God is the priority of our life, hopefully people would know that. Hopefully people could tell. Um so some people are interesting to me, and so on right now media, uh, the video service that you could get, if you go to rockwell.church forward slash right now, you can get a free subscription to watch that. But Tim Tebow's just very out there faith, not out there bad, but uh very public about his faith from the time when he was playing football in Florida to the time uh he tried to play football. I think he was probably a better football player than he was given credit for. They tried to play baseball, I think. But anyway, all of these things he's been still um living for Jesus, talking about faith. And I think that's a pretty cool thing. And so if I had a boy that was into sports, I might sit down and you know watch some Tim Tebow videos. Um or I might get him Sports Spectrum magazine or a subscription to get him on the list and for the videos for that. And I already shared with you when my grandson was here, we watched the Christian football videos, and so um I'm always you know thinking about how can I portray faith. When I came here, I had a thing on the back of my window that said Iamsecond.com. And I'm not sure if I'm keeping my current truck, I'd like to get a different one, but I would probably put that back on there again instead of Rockwell Church. Because if people go watch those videos to see the people sit in the white chair and talk about how their life was a mess and how Christ uh came into their life and how now Christ is first and they are second in those whatever seven-minute films or whatever, I think it can transform lives and help help people. D.L. Moody said, if I walk with the world, I can't walk with God. The more we love God, the more we will be like him. And to be those kinds of people that, you know, we just talk about our love for God and you can do that in a manly way. You don't, it doesn't have to be weird or strange. Some people might think you're weird because they don't get it, but when they come to Christ, they will get it and it can transform their life. And not to give up. Not to give up is you're sharing your love for God with others. I think I mentioned before that uh at the last church there was a guy that he was he was huge. He was big, he was strong, he was in strongman competitions, his work required him to do heavy things, and he was just a really big guy, liked riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle. And his brother was coming to our church, and we were trying to get this guy to come too. And so he came, um, but he hadn't received Christ, he hadn't come to Christ, and we took him to Grace Church for a rise with the guys, and there was a like an all-star wrestler that this guy knew had connected with sharing his testimony about how he had come to faith in Christ and how it transformed his life. And on that day, Dan got saved. And then after that, I got to disciple Dan, and um, he was part of the church for a long time until he moved, but we just kept bringing him to stuff, showing him stuff, and maybe that's what we need to do with our kids and our grandkids is keep pointing him to Jesus through music. Oh, this is another thing that I did with my kids is we constantly took them to Christian music concerts. So my daughter was hooked on this one Christian boy band, and it was so funny because we went to that concert and there was like, I don't know, like a thousand girls and 20 dads in the building. So it was kind of funny. But nonetheless, um to love God so much that we share. John Piper says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. So we all love different things. Some people love cars, some people love fishing, hunting, uh, cooking, um, so many gardening, so many different things. But what would those people closest to you say that you love the most? Is it really our Lord and Savior as your God? Or is there something else that's a step up, step above that you're, you know, I go to church, but I'm all about this other thing that is my God. So um, you know, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So sharing scripture, uh, reading scripture, maybe encouraging your kid or um your grandkid or a kid you want to reach out to to go through a Bible reading plan with you and discuss that. That could be a good thing. Billy Graham said the moment you read the Bible and receive it as God's word, it is like putting fuel on the fire. It will burn in your soul and make you want to live for God and to love him more. So putting God, putting God first, putting God first with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind to put him first and to teach God's word daily, to share God's word daily, to make it part of your life. Now, it can get really weird if you do this wrong. I knew a guy that had a Bible verse for everything and nobody liked him, and it just wasn't very effective. So you would talk about some news thing and he'd be like, Well, that's just what, like it says, and you know, he was, I think he had a photographic memory. He knew a lot of Bible verses. But he would just always, you know, he wouldn't actually enter the discussion. He just kept throwing out Bible verses. So as you're trying to share your real faith with people that you pass that you care about to pass on to the next generation, uh, make it real, not pretentious. Make it so that they know that you love God. And what's a really great thing is when your kids or your grandkids they love God and they love you so much that they enter into a moment or a season of temptation and difficulty, and they don't give in to temptation, and they don't give in to sin because they don't want to displease God and they don't want to break your heart. That is a good thing when you can train up a kid to love God so much that they want to do what's right to please God and to please you. What a wonderful thing. So um, this passage about the Shema. Um so the Hebrew children they were raised at an early age to memorize these things, to learn these things. So an ancient Jewish culture, memorization of the Shema Deuteronomy chapter 6, 4 through 9 was a central part of childhood education. Uh, so they would be daily recited in the home. Parents taught it from infancy. It was the first scripture a child learned to say, morning and evening recit recitations or reciting helped children repeat it daily until it became second nature. So they uh repeated it, it was taught in the school at a young age. Children would hear the Shema spoken and then repeat it aloud. Um, parents would discuss it and what it meant. Meant and how it applied to their lives and uh ways that they sought to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. And uh they would seek to apply scripture daily. Fathers often prayed it over their children at bedtime, reinforcing it's important. So it was written down on doorposts and bound on the hands and foreheads as a visible reminder, uh as a physical reminder. So remember the little wrist things people used to wear that said W W J D, you know, what would Jesus do? Sometimes that could be a filter in a kid's life. It's like, oh, what would Jesus do? He probably wouldn't do this. And maybe it would keep him from doing something that was wrong. But it was it was taught, it was memorized, it was discussed, and it was part of the training. So another thing that we can do as we are trying to help pass our faith on to the next generation and raise up kids that either we're biologically attached to or not. Uh sometimes we have an opportunity to speak into our neighbors' lives. Sometimes we have an opportunity to show care for others. So I remember when I was a kid, we lived in a lot of different apartment buildings. But uh there was this guy in one apartment building that uh I would, I think he was upstairs. But I don't go over there and play chess all the time. So he didn't teach me any biblical stuff, but we played chess. Um, I don't even remember how to play chess anymore, but I just remember that that was you know something. So maybe we have opportunity to do that. Maybe even better if you had kids or grandkids, uh, if you have them and then you bring another kid along with you. That can be a good thing too, but to encourage their unique design. So in Psalm 139, for you created me and my for you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. Kids need to hear from us their God-given identity, their value, their importance, and what is uh meaningful in life. So the world says that their appearance, their achievements, or popularity is what makes them special, but we need to affirm their identity in Christ. Remind them that God made them special and loves them deeply. Ephesians 2.10 says we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do, and to help that kid find out what is it that God has prepared in advance for you to do? What are the things that you like to do? What are the things that you're interested in? And pray about that. Pray for them to find that, to uh figure out why God has put them on this earth and to encourage them and uh following that path to that skill or that career or whatever, whatever it is, uh, to pray for them and also pray that they can find at least one Christian friend that's their age to encourage them in their faith. It's really great when you get multiple godly parents together and they're all watching out for your kids and caring for your kids, and they're doing things together, and you can trust that whatever is going on in that other parent's home is something that you're in agreement with. That's a great thing. So help build confidence in them and celebrate their strengths and their talents. So be careful though, when celebrating their strengths and their talents, to not set up this idea that as long as they're performing and succeeding and you know, scoring goals or uh getting A's that you love them and value them because you don't want their relationship or love to be a performance-based thing. Um, encourage them, but you know, even encourage them if they don't score the goals, even encourage them if they do spend most of the time sitting on the bench, even encourage them if they don't get A's, but they get C's, and you know that they're trying their hardest. But celebrate, celebrate things with them. So disciple them to see their value beyond performance and encourage them to be themselves, their their godly selves. So don't let them, you know, linger in sin and rebellion and just say, well, that's the way I am. But to just encourage them and show love for them and help them to be thankful and grateful for how God made them. So guide them to use their gifts for God's glory. Colossians 3 23 says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, and help them overcome insecurity with God's truth and God's word. So inspire them to dream big for um living a Christian life, having maybe having a Christian marriage, having a Christian family, or not having a Christian marriage and family, and being uh content if God has created them to be single. God can use them in many ways that way. Pray for them in their growth and think how are you helping the next generation to grow up in Christ? And what would it look like if you could invest in children so that they would know about faith in Christ? You could be a world changer uh through what you're doing. So, number four, guide them with wisdom and discipline. So this verse right here says, start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it. You have to remember that Proverbs is not, the Proverbs aren't guarantees. What they are is they are uh basically generalizations, so uh general truths about how life typically works, not absolute laws. Proverbs are observations of how things normally turn out when godly wisdom is applied. So if you train up a child to be godly, most likely they will turn or return to it. So they might go through a spiritual rebellion time, they might go off and try something else, but more than likely they're going to return to it. So uh statisticians say that soon the world will be overrun by Muslims, that um Islam will become the number one religion in the world because of all of the babies that they're having. But the thing they're not taking into consideration is that Islam is a fear-based religion, and people uh give in and follow Islam because they are, hang on a second, they follow Islam. Had this happen before one time. They follow Islam because it's the cultural norm, but there are waves of revival going through Muslim countries where people are turning to Jesus. So I think that as Christ continues to work in people's lives, that there will be continue, there will continue to be waves of people turning to Christ. Like if you were to watch in Ohio State this year, and all of the times they proclaimed their faith, it was pretty, pretty exciting, pretty fun to watch. But uh Cain and Abel both had the same upbringing, yet Cain chose to sin. So King David tried to raise his kids in the Lord because David was a man after God's own heart, but his son Absalom rebelled against him. And so um just know that as you are training up your kids in the faith, that they might push back and they might even ask hard questions. Please don't say, well, that's just what we do. We've always done it that way. That is not a fair answer. Give them reason for their faith, give them examples from scripture. Go to godquestions.org where they have lots of questions and answers, and you know, find some resources, but help them to get answers to the questions that they're asking. And, you know, if you're a parent of a young child, you've already learned when the kid keeps saying, why, why, why, that your answer is why do you think? And to lead the end of the discussion. So pray over their lives. Uh, my grandma, my stepgrandma actually said she prayed for me every day. She's gonna be with Jesus now. But in Philippians 1, verse 9, I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, and this will bring much glory and praise to God. So we pray in love, because we care for kids and the next generation, um, that they will experience Christ's love. And hopefully what has been experienced in us will overflow into their lives and it will be it will be real. Everybody makes mistakes. Y'all get, I'm sure everybody, you know, gets angry or does something wrong around their kids. Just just own it. You know, ask forgiveness. I shouldn't have I shouldn't have blown up like that, or I shouldn't have done that, or I shouldn't have been speeding, or whatever it is. But anyway, just own it. Um, so don't be mad at your kids when they're speeding under your insurance with their new licenses when you say that five over is is fine, or or whatever you do. They they watch, they watch, and they so much more is learned by um observation than it is by instruction, but to conduct yourself in a worthy manner, to conduct yourself in a worthy manner so that you will be an example. So a young person without guidance is like a boat with a rudder, without, I'm sorry, a young person without guidance is like a boat without a rudder. They drift wherever the current takes them. So to conduct yourself in a worthy manner, to be an example worth following. Again, Philippians 1 27. Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith which is the good news. Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but you are going to be saved even by God Himself, for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. For we are in the struggle together, and we have seen, you have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it. You need to not only teach your kids about the good things of the Lord, but you need to prepare them to be rejected. You need to prepare them to be persecuted, you need to prepare them for spiritual warfare, for the difficulties, for the hardships, and for everything that goes with it. You conduct yourself in a worthy manner and you choose to do right for God's glory and for the good of those people who are watching you. And that's pretty much the same as seven. Exemplify Christian living. Exemplify Christian living. We're going to do a series in Titus next month. No, we're not. We're going to do a series in Jude. We're not going to do a series in Titus. Um, Jude. But anyway, and everything, set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. To exemplify your godly faith, to show them um how to study the Bible for themselves, and teach them about biblical generosity and why and how you give and how important that is, to uh support God's kingdom and to support the church and how to have endurance and trials and to um how to have integrity and yet still have fun. So uh to encourage them by helping them see their identity in Christ, to guide them with wisdom and discipline, to pray for them without ceasing, and to live in ways that inspire them to follow Jesus, to pass down a legacy of faith, which will help shape the next generation with love and action, because love leads them to faith, love guides them in truth, love protects them from worldly deception, love equips them for a lifelong walk with Jesus. So who in your life could benefit from you sharing Christ with them? Um maybe it's your generation, maybe it's the current generation, maybe it's the upcoming generation. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you so much that you've given us an opportunity to reproduce our faith in others through sharing it, through evangelism and discipleship. Lord, help us to look to that next generation as a great opportunity to mold lives for the future. The future of our country depends on it. Lord, we pray that you would help us to find ways as a church to do it wisely. We pray you'd reward all the volunteer workers that are even working with the kids right now and on Wednesday nights. God, we pray that if there was anybody here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, that today they would cry out to you, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need you. And please forgive me of my sin. Come into my life and save me. Help me to follow you and help me to teach the next generation about you. So we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sing refiners fire.