RAISING ANOTHER TIMOTHY IN THIS GENERATION

TOPIC: RAISING ANOTHER TIMOTHY IN THIS GENERATION

TEXT: Judges 2: 6-15; 2 Timothy 2:5

For parents to see their sons or daughters making the choice to serve God. Leading our children to the Lord can be compared to a relay race in which we parents strive to pass on the baton to our young runners.

*If you’ve ever seen an actual relay race, you know how important it is to pass on the baton to the next runner carefully and smoothly. In fact, it’s just as important as having runners that can run fast. This was demonstrated in the 1996 Olympics. The clear favorite in the 4 × 100 relay race, as in almost every Olympics competition, was the United States team—this race has been won by the U.S. team 75 percent of the time in modern Olympic history. The U.S. always puts together four of the fastest sprinters in the world.

*Well, in 1996 the U.S. team lost to the Canadian team. Why did this amazing group of U.S. sprinters lose this race? They were disqualified because of an improper passing of the baton. It is noteworthy that the few times the U.S. has lost this race was because of that same problem—the inability to pass properly the baton from one runner to the next.

The Bible compares our life to a race. Hebrews 12:1. But I want you to know, it’s not just any race; it’s a relay race. God is not only concerned about how you run or how I run; He cares just as much about the runners after us, who will take our baton and run the next lap—the runners of the next generation.

And who really knows whether the race of salvation history will end with our generation? The Lord may not return for a number of generations yet. So we had better not be shortsighted, but keep a long-term vision in mind.

And we had better learn from the past—we had better remember what happened to previous generations in times past. The Bible is full of examples of glory days of blessing and fruitfulness whenever a generation received proper training from the previous generation. Yet the Bible not only has glory stories, but also gory stories—when a generation experiences spiritual defeat and decay, because the parents and leaders of a former generation neglected to train their offspring for their turn in the relay race.

My subject tonight will be summed up in three perspectives

1.  To sound a warning to each and every one of us that, even if we are like Joshua and his generation, who knew the Lord and experienced His power, this is no guarantee that our children and the next generation will follow in our footsteps.

2.   To exhort each of us to play a significant role in helping to pass on the baton to the next generation with great care, because the race could easily be lost if we fumble the baton.

3.   To give practical instruction to parents, as well as to others who join in this task, on how to pass on the baton of faith to the next generation—that they might win the race.

1.   Judges 2:8,10

says, “Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died….” They all die sooner or later. Jacob died, Joseph died, and Moses died. Hey, if you haven’t figured it out already, if Jesus doesn’t come back quickly, you’re going to die too. But the good news is that the death of a godly man or woman doesn’t have to be the death of a vision. In fact, if we have been running our race rightly, we will have raised up people younger than ourselves to whom we can hand the baton. And they, in turn, will not only run well, but may even run far better than we did.

I know it’s so hard to believe, that such a tragic fumbling of the baton could have happened. I mean, with all the stories of the amazing exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the sea on dry ground, the miraculous provisions, the signs and wonders, the great military victories—these events were not ancient history for the generation following Joshua. And yet, the Lord and His mighty works were virtually unknown.

This should be a stiff warning to us. Many of us are eyewitnesses of the power of God; we have experienced the moving of the Holy Spirit. We may have had great healings in our bodies. In some ways, we have experienced as many of God’s wonders and as much of His power as Joshua and his contemporaries did. And so it is hard for us to believe that the younger generation we are raising up could ever stray from the Lord we love and serve. But be warned family of God, be warned parents and teachers, if we aren’t careful, the same thing that happened then could happen now. Our children and our youth could easily miss out on experiencing God the way we have. Unless we successfully pass on the baton, the next generation may not only lose the race, but even their own souls.

2.   To exhort each of us to play a significant role in helping to raise another Timothy in this generation with great care, because the race could easily be lost if we fumble the baton. Judges 2:11,12

So be warned. If it could happen to the ancient children of Israel just freshly arrived in the Promised Land, it could happen to the Messianic body in this land too—and sadly, it is.

Peer pressure is just too much for many children and youth. It says in verses 11 and 12 “The gods of the people who were all around them”—who are the people around our children today? How much of the time are our children surrounded by people who know the Lord and how much with people who don’t know the Lord? And with the fascination that Israelis have with the New Age—thousands attend New Age festivals each year and backpack in India in search of various gods—is Israel today that much different from post-Joshua Israel?

You don’t have to bow down to an idol made of stone or metal or wood to be a Baal worshiper. Anything that you make your lord and master is Baal worship. If your whole life revolves around money—if everything you do is in the service of making money and that’s the most important thing in your life, then you are just as bad as those Baal worshipers in the post-Joshua generation. Money can be a kind of lord and can certainly be in direct competition with God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “ ‘No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.’ ”

And it’s not just mammon, or money, that we can end up being our lord or master. We can make fame our lord; pornography can end up becoming our master—to the point where it’s almost impossible to shake free from it’s power. Alcohol and drugs can end up becoming just as powerful as a Baal or lord over us. The success rate in rehabilitation centers run by governments around the world is pitifully low. Only in centers run by believers, where there is round-the-clock prayer and dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit, is there a high rate of success in deliverance from these cruel Baals.

Now it’s a tragic thing to lose our kids to these Baals. But even more tragic than their slavery to these forces of evil is the fact that our kids will ultimately be destroyed. We read in verses 13-15 of our text:

It’s one thing to fall into the hands of the devil—that’s awful. But it’s far worse to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:30, 31

I don’t want my kids, I don’t want your children or our youth, to fall into the hands of the living God—do you? Later, in Hebrews 12:25, 28 & 29 we read,

The devil didn’t prepare the fire of hell. God is the one who prepared it for those who reject Him as their Savior and Lord. We read in Matthew 25:41 that the King and Judge of the universe will “say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ ”

3.   To give practical instruction to parents, as well as to others who join in this task, on how to pass on the baton of faith to the next generation—that they might win the race.

So now that I’ve sounded the warning about how easy it can be to fail in bringing up our children to know the Lord, I now want to give some practical instructions to parents, as well as to others who are called alongside to help parents in the task of raising their kids to know the Lord and win the race. Now I could point out a lot of things we should do, such as setting a personal example for our kids, disciplining them, expressing our love to them, and praying for them. And all of these things are vital and Biblical. But rather than just scratching the surface in dealing with all of these good things, I’m going to confine myself to just two things—two things that come out of our text in Judges 2.

The first thing we need to do to make sure that our kids know the Lord is to teach them God’s Word.  Judges 2:10:

One of the keys to coming to know the Lord is to know His Word, the Scriptures. Now in the time of Joshua, there were no formal Scriptures. But whatever revelation they had already received, they were commanded to teach it to their children. And whatever works that God had done for Israel, they were to tell to their children.

We read in Deuteronomy 4:9,10; 6:5-7;12

There is no substitute for carefully teaching our children. If our kids would automatically come to know and fear God because they live with godly parents and have godly friends, then Moses would never have needed to say to the people of Israel, “You shall teach them diligently to your children.” The knowledge of the Lord isn’t transmitted merely by osmosis.

And both father and mother should be involved in teaching the kids. Proverbs 1:8 says, “My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.” Also, other family members can effectively help raise up the kids to know the Lord by teaching about Him. We read about how Timothy was taught not only by his mother, but also by his grandmother. It says in 2 Timothy 1:5, “

And then we read in 2 Timothy 3:14,15: 14 “Timothy was being taught the Scriptures by his mother and grandmother.

Now what about singles in our congregational family? Do they have a role in helping to raise the children and youth of our congregation? Yes. Just as Timothy’s grandmother had a part to play, so do they.

So you don’t have to be a parent to have a significant role in teaching our children and youth. In fact, we need more of you to answer the call to this crucially important ministry. For most of our history as a church, we’ve had excellent teachers in our children’s ministry. I’m so grateful to the Lord that right now our children and youth ministries are in such good hands—and if we will make sure that our kids come and get involved in these programs, they’ll get excellent teaching.

I’ve observed that even godly parents who have a deep spiritual walk with the Lord have failed desperately in the discipline of bringing their kids to services regularly. A huge percentage of such parents ended up losing their kids to the world.

But I want you to remember one thing: The greatest danger to our children and youth is not starvation, nor enemy armies or terrorists. A far greater enemy that has the potential to starve the soul and destroy the soul is having too many comforts and too much prosperity.

Parents, don’t spoil your kids. Don’t lavish on them too much money, too many toys, or too many possessions.

So let’s not go overboard and spoil our kids with things they don’t need, and things that might actually cause them to turn from the Lord their provider. If we spoil our kids, they’ll never learn to depend upon God. But you say, “We’ve earned good money over the years; we want our kids to have it better than we did growing up in poverty.” Well, of course, we should be generous with our kids; but, believe me, if we overdo it, they’ll come to expect it. They’ll no longer appreciate what they have. And they won’t ever come to the place where they have to cry out to God, as you did, for their provisions.

If you’ve got too much money, I can suggest a good cause to which you can give. Don’t hand over all your money to your kids; if you want your kids to put their trust in God. Solomon prayed this wise prayer in Proverbs 30:8,9:

It seems to me that this was the problem at the time of the passing of the baton from Joshua’s generation to the next. They now had their inheritance. They now possessed the land. They no longer had to depend upon God for daily miracles. And as a result, they became full and said, “Who is the Lord?”

One father said this prayer: “Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will realize that to know Thee and know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenges. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fall.

“Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.”

So parents, when we get to the point when we’re past the stage of barely making it financially, when we have the comforts of life—let’s not get too comfortable. Let’s give generously to the work of the Lord when we get blessed with much. Let’s watch that we don’t spoil our children and they come to say, “Who is the Lord?” Instead, let’s live by faith, and let our children walk with us in that life of faith. Let’s have them pray in the groceries and pray in the promotion at work and pray in the things we need. Then our kids will see with their own eyes the mighty works of God. It’s not enough for you to have seen those works; they must see them too.

Many of our kids are going through a hard time, and will go through more hard times. Some will wander for a season in the wilderness. But I believe that if we will continue to pray, God will use that wilderness wandering to bring them to a place of want—to a place where they realize that they need God. So keep praying. It is not too late to pass on successfully the baton to the next generation.