March 27 - Psst… Pass It On

 Read today’s texts first: Judges 1,3; 1 Corinthians 12

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Bob Dylan said it well, “you gotta serve somebody.”
If we don’t teach our children to serve God, they will serve themselves and eventually the god of this world.

There are parallels between Israel’s compromises with their heathen neighbours and the church struggling with the revived paganism of our day. I was a youth pastor over 30 years ago and I am shocked at how much more difficult it is now to keep our youth connected to church. They are being bombarded from all sides by sexual images, corrupt lyrics and an overt celebration of sin once shunned.

Israel went through a similar culture shock. They came from a nomadic, introverted, family-centered society into a very different world. Like today, Canaanite culture was steeped in sexual perversion and violence. That is why God commanded Israel to drive them from their land. He warned Israel about entering into agreements, intermarrying, worshipping other gods, and exposing their children to such flagrant sin. But as Joshua’s generation died out, the next one did all of those things. After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals (2:10,11).

Somehow the Israeli parents failed in passing their faith on to their children, and it is a repeated pattern throughout the book of Judges. Every successive generation seemed to drift from their faith, suffer the consequences from their sin, and cry out to God for help. God would hear their prayers, send a judge to deliver them from their enemies, only to see the cycle continue. The theme of that day (and ours) was every man did that which is right in their own eyes (21:25). 

Sin is simply selfishness or self-centeredness. The antidote, once you have asked God for forgiveness, is becoming outwardly focused, to loving and serving God and other people. The secret is revealed in our NT reading today: discovering the gifts of God’s Spirit within each believer and putting them to work. As our children begin to see what God has given them to give away to others, the grip of selfishness is broken. The children’s ministry at our home church does this so well. At every age level, children are given opportunity to put what they are learning about God to work, in serving and ultimately leading younger children. This is modeled by adults throughout the church and hopefully in every home. 

Bob Dylan said it well, “you gotta serve somebody.” If we don’t teach our children how to serve God, they will live to serve themselves, and eventually the god of this world. “Lord, thank you for a family and a home church that showed me how to serve You. Help me continue to pass that on to my children and grandchildren!”