Passing on the Faith

(The following is an edited summary of the message that was preached on Father's Day, June 16, 2019, by Michael Larsen.)

Someone once said, “God has no grandchildren.” Every Christian generation must pass on its faith to the next generation or Christianity will die out.
Children from even the best Christian families must still make their own decisions to follow Christ. But the Word of God makes it clear that it is our responsibility to reach today’s younger generation with the gospel — and train them to follow Christ and pass on the faith themselves. 

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 tells God’s people to actively and systematically to pass on the faith to each successive generation:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons [and daughters] 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 up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates"

That passage gives us a divine model for passing on our faith to our children, a model with three crucial steps: 

1. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP 
Passing on the faith to our children requires a healthy relationship with them.

Spending time with our kids may not be as easy as it once was, but it is just as necessary, even if it means making an extra effort to enter their worlds, adopt their interests, and seize any opportunity to build a stronger relationship with them. 

2. BE AN EXAMPLE 
Passing on the faith to our children entails example. 

God’s commandment required that "these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:6). His words must be on our hearts before we can impress them upon our children’s hearts. We’re being watched. The things we model — by design or accident — powerfully communicate our beliefs. Vulnerability will have a greater impact than any illusion of perfection. Honesty and vulnerability will also prompt us to admit our mistakes, even to our kids. 

3. SHARE THE TRUTH 
Passing on the faith to our children includes instruction. 

Teaching our kids will involve every resource we can summon. We must not only create and seize teachable moments ourselves, but also have the support of a strong church family and Sunday school program.  It takes a whole church to raise a Christian, particularly for those who did not have good models in their own families and are now trying to raise their children differently. 

Training our children is as important as teaching them. We must not only tell them what they need to know; we must help them practice it. 

The job of passing the faith to the next generation is more important than all our programs, all the sermons we preach, or all the church services or Bible studies we attend. God helping us, we look forward to the day when someone will say to a child we have influenced, as Paul wrote to Timothy, "I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother … and in your mother … and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also" (2 Timothy 1:5).