The Second Generation Syndrome

I'm going to preach tonight about the danger of losing the wonder of that or of anything the wonder of God the wonder of the Bible the wonder of relationship with him the wonder of walking in faith Anything that should create that sense of wonder in us and a relationship with him It is easy to lose that and it is easy for a second generation Never to really get it for themselves. It's one of the greatest dangers that faces us as believers as families and as churches Mutsetong was a radical revolutionary who overthrew the Chinese government in 1949 full minute the Communist Revolution Institute communism in China He butchered thousands of political enemies and Christians drove many missionaries out of the country But nearly 20 years after that initial revolution he became concerned about the next generation losing the fervor of revolution and So he came up he Divised what would come to be called the Maoist theory of revolution and what he began to teach was that there must be a new revolution a constant ferment of revolution so that the new generation has its own causes to revolt about So you may remember in the late 1960s just about 20 years after the original revolution He foe minute another revolution Called the intellectual revolution the cultural revolution and Then about 20 years after that you had Tiananmen Square where he overthrew some very early movements toward democracy and So he developed this concept of constant revolution or at least in every generation Fomenting a new revolution so that people wouldn't get or learn about revolution's second hand now I am no admirer of Mutsetong But he had a brilliant concept and he had a keen insight into human nature and the tendency of a second generation Forgetting what the first generation fought for and believed so much in I'm gonna call it tonight the second generation syndrome Quite often the second generation tends to accept as status quo What they're forefathers what their parents what the generation before them was so passionate about and fought for and and suffered and sacrificed for and That vision is lost by the second generation by the next generation coming after it because it was not their experience That they didn't have to sacrifice for it. They inherited it and And that danger is true in our lives It's true in our homes our families and it is certainly true in our churches to inherit second-hand beliefs second-hand spiritual experiences To where we have heard all that before we grew up with it. We know the language, but we are not passionate about it And that is one of the greatest dangers the church faces What was passionate To our parents What they are fervent about Becomes their children's status quo and Their grandchildren's apathy and indifference It is almost a given Unless we fight against that tendency It's almost a given that it will happen unless we fight against it nowhere in the Bible is that second-generation tendency more clear than in the book of judges Because it is played out on the pages of judges like probably nowhere else in the Bible So I want us to look tonight at judges chapters two and three And we're going to see What happened to the generation after the generation that took the land of Canaan after Joshua's Generation what happened to them and why did it happen if we can figure out what happened and why it happened Then maybe we can guard against it ourselves or correct it when we see it happening Because it inevitably will happen unless we do something to stop it So let's begin in in judges chapter two with Reviewing the spiritual impact of the first generation Joshua's generation now we're talking about Joshua was a great man. He was one of the great figures of the Old Testament. He was a great soldier He was a brilliant organizer. He was a bold leader. He was a gifted communicator But it goes so much deeper than that with Joshua. I want you to look at chapter two and verse six in judges After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites they went to take possession of the land each to their own inheritance the people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and Who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel and then verses eight and nine Joshua dies and is buried What is it about this man that made him so fervent and passionate about the work of God He himself was a second generation follower of the Lord He took over from Moses and so he could have had the same tendency that those who followed him did so what was it about this man? The first thing if you hold your place here and and go back very quickly to Joshua chapter one The first thing you'll find about Joshua himself is that he was responsive to the word He was responsive to the word of God Joshua chapter one verse seven God challenged him be strong and very courageous be careful to do to do all the law my servant Moses gave you Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go Keep this book of the law always on your lips meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything Written in it then you will be prosperous and successful Joshua took that seriously He read the word of God he meditated on the word of God he obeyed the word of God He took that challenge Seriously, he knew the challenge that laid before him and taking the land and he knew if it was going to be successful He'd better follow God's pattern for success and God's pattern for success God's view of success Is to immerse yourself in the Bible Understand it and then obey it meditate on it so it becomes a part of your soul But don't just stop with knowing it or thinking about it then go do it go live it That's God's pattern for success and the word of God was central in Joshua's life He really wanted to honor God by living according to the word of God and he would urge The people to do the same thing when they first got into the land Do you remember the first thing they did in Joshua chapter 8 was was Joshua gathered them at a place Near Shackham right in the center of the country and there are two hills there if we were using the screen tonight Maybe I could have gotten something together to show you that but remember Sunday nights Johnson Chapel unplugged We don't use screens on Sunday night. But anyway, there's two there's two hills right outside of Shackham Mount E. Ball and Mount Gerazim and he split the nation into two parts had them stand on those hills and They repeated the blessings and the curses of the covenant God had made with Moses in Deuteronomy 28 and 29 First thing they did in the land Once they took once they conquered what they needed to to gain a foothold in the land Was he took them up there and said okay? We're going to remind ourselves of God's word and what God's word tells us you see Joshua took that seriously To get into the Bible meditate on it and obey it and he said this land is going to do the same He did that a second time at the end of the book toward the end of his life in chapter 24 He gathers the people again at Shackham and he Challenges them to do everything that is in the law of Moses And he says I'm throwing out before you this day this child is now asked for me in my house You remember this has for me in my house we will serve the Lord But here's the challenge for you as a nation so Joshua took this seriously He was serious about the Bible about the word of God Secondly, he was a man of bold faith and we're talking about the spiritual impact of the first generation Committed to the word of God and Committed to passing that along but also he was a man who was bold and faith if you're still in Joshua one you see in verse five God tells him no one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will never leave you nor forsake you now down in verse nine Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you Wherever you go Joshua trusted that promise of God That was a promise God made to him and Joshua trusted what God said that if I follow him if I know his word Obey his word live by his word meditate on his word So it's a part of my thought process and my soul and my heart it guides my heart if I do that Then God will bless me he will make me successful and no enemy will be able to stand he trusted God's word And he boldly guided two million Israelites across the flooded Jordan by faith And toward the city of Jericho to take it by faith remember it was the weirdest battle plan in history March around the city for seven days seven day marks around it seven times have the people shout blow trumpets in the walls of fall down Are you kidding me? That's a battle plan? But he trusted God and when God said that's the way you're gonna take the city It didn't sound right. I mean they fought some battles in the wilderness. He knew how to fight battles But he had to trust God that what God said was the way it was gonna be done So they defeat Jericho then they moved through the middle part of the country and remember he didn't have enough daylight one day to finish a battle So in Joshua 10 he cries out to God Lord let the sun stand still So I finished this battle and you know what God did the Sun stood still it didn't go down and he had all the daylight and he was a man of bold faith That is the visionary of the first generation because he was committed to the Bible and he trusted God boldly and he lived that way That was the the passionate spiritual impact of Joshua and his generation If you live that way if you believe that then you can have a great impact Urally style will say something to the generation coming behind you, but the problem is Joshua died Now back in judges to verse eight Joshua son of none The servant of the Lord died at the age of 110 and They buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnah herets in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gash So he dies There is no more Joshua there is nobody with that influence and that passion left and the whole generation of Joshua Would die off also with him That lifestyle that passion All of those who lived that and knew that and saw the power of God and the victories that God gave them and the blessings He gave them and pushed forward into the land that generation's dying off and There is a new generation growing up That does not share Those same experiences and thus that same passion And so I want to move to that having seen the spiritual impact of the first generation People who are committed to meditating on the word of God and living it out obeying it and then people who are bold and faith and Pushed God's forward pushes program forward by faith Then you come to the second generation and you find a failure of the second generation look at verse 10 after that Whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors in other words the generation it was with Joshua They're all the scene now another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel How did that happen? Have the next generation not know the Lord and not know what he had done for Israel What does that mean what happened what what produced that? We're gonna think about this a little more carefully and try to look at what the text is saying about what happened to this generation I want to look first of all at the nature of their failure then we're gonna look at the reasons for their failure First of all the nature of their failure verse 10 says they did not know the Lord Nor what he had done for Israel. It's not that they were intellectually ignorant of the stories They heard the stories They knew the events They knew about the Exodus They knew about the wilderness provision of mana. They'd heard all that of obviously They knew about the conquest They may have even been small when that was taking place So they may have seen some of that firsthand they had information It was not a lack of information. They were an ignorant of the facts They knew the facts. They knew about God. They knew about his great victories They knew about his great deeds, but they evidently had no direct experience themselves with that It was all secondhand information and so they became complacent about who he was About what it meant to do what Joshua did to walk in the Word and meditate on it Read it obey it live it out They had the stories they had second that experiences that information passed down to them But to immerse their own hearts in the Bible they lost touch with the wonder of God himself and The wonder of the deliverance from Egypt and the water from the rock and and crossing the Jordan and the Battle of Jericho They would hear those stories and yon Yeah, we were all that before That is the danger of the second generation. It is the heart of the second generation syndrome a lukewarmness a complacency an apathy about an amazing God a God of wonder Amazing Bible truth That we've heard from childhood From our parents we've heard from our Sunday school teachers But we've had no personal experience of walking with God and living out his Word and trusting him having to trust him and See him answer prayer in dramatic ways No personal experience with that we've heard all the stories of our parents and grandparents But we have no stories of our own to tell That is the danger We've not seen God's power at work in our lives. We've not Cryed out to him desperately in prayer and seeing him answer in amazing ways. We've never had to trust him for ourselves to work and See something happen in our lives This can even be true of salvation We grow up hearing the gospel story We grow up knowing all the information And we kind of think we're grandfathered in to the family of God When there's been no personal recognition of sin and of the need for a savior and a crying out to him to save us We just kind of feel like well. Yeah, I just kind of grew up with it That is the danger of the second generation and it is very much a part of our lives It's very much a part of our families. It's very much a part of our church When you are brought up in a good church and a good family and You've heard it all to the point that it's almost nauseating to you You hear it again and you yawn because you can tell it better than the preacher you know the information you know the stories But there's apathy inside there's no heart for it. There's no passion for it That's all gone I believe this may be the most effective weapons Satan uses and his arsenal against the second generation of believers People who grow up in Christian families and grow up in good Bible believing churches You know, I've used a lot of Illustrations from CS Lewis and joy his writings and one of the most interesting books He's written that I've referred to before is the screw tape letters I think it's one of the most provocative books that he ever wrote it it's It's a book about the devil briefing his nephew wormwood about how to be successful in tempting Christians and Getting Christians to mess up And on the subtleties of the techniques of temptation. It's a it's a very clever way of Teaching what the Bible teaches about the dangers of Temptation and the dangers of Apathy and lukewarmness listen to what Satan cautioned cautions his his nephew Wormwood about he cautions him to keep the prospect the patient Which is a believer Keep him comfortable at all costs if he should become concerned about anything of importance Encouraging to think about his lunch plans Not to worry it could produce indigestion and Then this definitive job description that the devil gives his nephew wormwood either devil will always see to it that there are bad people Your job my dear wormwood is to provide me with the people who do not care The people who do not care The people who are apathetic the people who have no concern no first hand experiential Knowledge of walking with God All they got is second-hand information Now why does this happen that that's the nature of it the nature of it is is very little if any Personal experience in walking with God but just accepting the hand me downs The stuff that we've been told and taught from others and oh yeah, we know that's true and that's the way it works and yeah Yeah, I know all that That's that's the nature of it. That's the danger of it which leads to complacency and apathy Why does it happen? Now we would think that Part of the blame rests with the first generation and Maybe some of it should Maybe some of it does but that's not what the Bible says here maybe it's not in this situation No blame is placed on the first generation I think Joshua did everything he good to try to pass along The fervency and the passion the need for a personal walk with God That's why I challenge the Israelites in chapter 24. I'm at the end of my life. Here's my commitment Now I'm gonna challenge you with yours You choose this day who you're gonna follow he really tried to push that I don't think the the blame rested primarily with the first generation and their failure to live and model and teach The word here lays the the problem squarely on the second generation And you know all of us are a part of a first and second generation in a sense You know, I'm a part of a second generation. I grew up in a Christian home Christian family good church Like many of you did But then I become the first generation if I grasp it and become passionate about the Bible and Living by faith if I become passion then I become that first generation that must Transmit that to the next generation the generation behind me comes the second generation and so on But the blame lies primarily with the second generation and here's the three problems here are the reasons for the failure of the second generation To continue on with a passionate faith and a priority of the word of God. There are three reasons why it happened number one They took God's blessings for granted They took God's blessings for granted Again, I want you to hold your place here in judges and turn back to Deuteronomy chapter six God warned them about this He warned them about taking his blessings in the land for granted Deuteronomy chapter six verses 10 through 12 When the Lord your God brings you into the land. He swore to your fathers To Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you a land with large flourishing cities You did not build How's this filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide? Wells you did not dig and vineyards and olive groves you did not plan Plant then when you eat and are satisfied be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery Here's the issue when you have blessings handed to you When you inherit blessings that you yourself did not sacrifice and sweat for There is the tendency to forget the tendency to forget God's Gracious nature the one who gave them to us There's the tendency to forget God himself we enjoy God's blessings and We forget that we don't deserve them We come to expect them You know there is a sense of spiritual entitlement, you know that We live in entitlement culture, right? I'm entitled to this. I'm entitled to this benefit that whatever the government will do for me We were living in an entitlement type of culture and it's possible to get that way spiritually too We come to expect God owes me this We didn't have to sweat and sacrifice for it We inherited those blessings from our families from a good church that we grew up in and so we forget that they come from God And we lose here it is here's the crux we lose the attitude of thankfulness and the sense of the wonder of God who deserves our worship And when I begin to think that I deserve the blessings of God Off draw grew up with them I expect them through natural part of our life, right? If I ever forget that they come from God And if I ever forget to be thankful to him and to bow on my heart my face before God and worship him Then I will become the second generation Who takes God's blessings for granted? That's why there is such a need for authentic worship Why there is such a need for authentic praise? I don't care if it's a song you've sung a hundred times or a thousand times I don't care if anything is too fast or too slow or you don't like the way it's arranged That doesn't matter what we need to do when we worship God is to force ourselves To sing that song like it's the first time we've ever heard those words So that it comes from our hearts and we truly worship God it forces us to reflect on him and on his good goodness You see there's a danger of coming to church and sleeping through the services Maybe with your eyes open But to go through a worship service to go through a worship time and Have no passion no energy no zeal no real meaning to what we're doing That's how we get here. That's how we get to the second generation syndrome We take God's blessings for granted and so we just sing the songs We hear that song this thing is song Right and we don't think about what we're singing and truly praise God If it's a song you've sung a million times greatest life a fullness Look at the words Process them through your heart the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14 that we should pray with the spirit and understanding And sing with the spirit and the understanding so when we sing the Bible commands me to sing with understanding not with wrote memory to sing with understanding To make sure I understand what I'm saying and mean it That's why the Bible continually says we ought to be thankful First that's lonies 518 be thankful in every situation for simile 4 4 Everything is to be received with Thanksgiving Hebrews 13 5 let us offer the sacrifice of praise the fruit of our hearts Giving through our lips are praised to God the Bible is continually joining us To be serious about worship and thanking God I don't see how anybody can stand or sit through a worship service Glammy with no feeling with no movement in their hearts If that happens I believe it shows apathy and complacency you say well, I can't sing That's not the issue the issue is not musical ability the issue is worship worship is focus on God and when we do not focus on God We begin to take his blessings for granted it'll happen every time Apathy cannot coexist with genuine praise Apathy cannot coexist with genuine worship You envision yourself in the presence of God singing those songs to him directly Filtering it through your heart singing with the understanding of what you're singing and meaning it to God and meaning it with Irvincy Losing yourself in the message of what it means to be in the presence of God thanking him for his blessings And I'll guarantee you Even if you did inherit those blessings they will become your own experience And you will escape the second generation syndrome The second generation syndrome happens When we take God's blessings for granted God warned the generation going into land that they would tend to do that And they did they did so They took God's blessings for granted the second reason for the second generation syndrome is they became satisfied with the status quo Now here's what I mean by that in the book of judges we didn't read chapter one But if you had read chapter one What you would read was that the Israelites You see in the book of Joshua Joshua led them on some major campaigns to To conquer the major strongholds They went first of all Jericho right through the center of the country and took those major parts divided the country between north and south Then they swept north and then south and took the major strongholds Everything was conquered except for pockets of resistance and that was going to be left up to the individual tribes And God told them that's the way he wanted it done Because he didn't want them to conquer everything quickly and then not have time to occupy the land and to begin to plant crops and so forth So it was supposed to be done that way But when you get the judges one the tribes didn't follow through And so the end of it you read it time and time again the tribes did not Conquer certain cities or certain areas of their country and what they basically said was well, you know We got all the land we need we don't really need anymore and and you know these Canaanites are really not all that bad We can get along with them and chapter one is a story of compromise Of lowering the standard And of becoming satisfied With what the first generation had conquered What they conquered under Joshua was enough that was we don't have to go any further There has never been a first generation no matter how great they are I don't care if it's Joshua and Caleb There's never been a first generation no matter how great they are that conquers all the land That defeats all the enemies or that has been all that God wanted them to be Now I can look back at my parents' generation and some of you had parents in that same generation in this church And we look back at them and we think wow they were great people of God You know what they were But here's the problem when we begin to compare ourselves to them and think that their experience is now the standard And so all we want to do is try to meet that level That's not how God intends us to live the Christian life He intends for each generation to raise the bar a little higher So that what I saw in my parents' generation what I saw in this church in the past is not good enough Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it doesn't mean it was bad But I'm supposed to build on that I'm not supposed to see that's the standard And I'll try to reach that No, no God wants us to go beyond their experience Not be satisfied with it Not to say well what they conquered that's good enough for me And if I can just kind of settle down in the land and inherit what they conquered for me Then I've got it made right no no you immediately begin going into the second generation syndrome And you become apathetic and complacent and everything is done just by spouting it out because you know all the information and your heart shrivels up That's what'll happen So what God teaches us through the experience of Joshua and Judges Is that yes, we should thank God for godly parents But we should want to build on what they gave us to have a richer experience with God to have a deeper spiritual experience than they had and to hope that my children will go further than I did That's the pattern that God is teaching us We thank God for the church of the past but we can't be satisfied with Re-living and reproducing the past God wants us to build on that move beyond that There's more ground to take There are more enemies to conquer There's more progress to be made. There's more country To take and to to do for God. There's higher ground to claim what we tend to do is we tend to formalize What the first generation did And think that's the pattern for success right there if we can just duplicate that if we can just replicate that and God Please don't do that Build on it go further Then that don't be satisfied with that don't institutionalize the past Don't institutionalize the methods or the programs Don't set them in stone or you know what happens The church becomes a museum And we look back at what they used to do in the good old days And we think that's the standard we just want to get back to that That's a trap my friends It's a terrible trap Because it will trap you into an apathy and a lukewarmness and complacency where your heart will shrivel up to nothing spiritually God says take what your parents did take what the church of the past did use it like these people were supposed to do with Joshua Build on it don't be satisfied with the status quo Or you and your church will be robbed of all vitality It's something we have to fight against constantly we have to fight against it personally and we have to fight against it as a church The reason for the second generation syndrome of apathy and complacency is first of all you begin to take God's blessings for granted And secondly you become satisfied with the status quo that what our parents and the past generation did that was where we want to stay Because that's good enough That's a trap It's a trap of the devil But there's a third reason For the second generation syndrome and it's this they neglected God's word Okay, it sounds so basic sounds so simple But they neglected God's word look back at chapter two in judges verses one and two The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgau to bokehme this is after chapter one and all those failures to finish the job by all those tribes So the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgau to bokehme and said I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give your ancestors I said I will never break my covenant with you And you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their authors yet You have this obeyed me. Why have you done this? You see they did not obey God's word they neglected God's word So in verses 10 through 13 He says about this generation That did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel verse 11 the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord Serve the bails they for suck the Lord the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them They aroused the Lord's anger because they for suck him and serve bail in the asterisks that was direct disobedience to God's word they neglected the word of God what was so central to Joshua Was lost by this next generation so they lost their direction I Said this morning that I will preach till my dying day The gospel and the cross. I will also be just as passionate about this If we ever get complacent about the Bible about the word of God we are done We're done Because we will start down that path of second hand knowledge Just based on old information and no vital Experience with God through his word ourselves that moves us to obey him and to live lives of passion You see these people still had a Bible they still had a tabernacle They were still going through the traditions of worship But it was all second-hand preferences It was not biblical convictions. They had developed for themselves There is a big difference Between direct and indirect relationship to the scriptures There's a big difference between you directly engaging the word of God to the point that it becomes a part of your heart Your spirit you meditate on it you want to live it with all your passion There's a big difference in that and an indirect relationship to the Bible in other words you know The information you've heard the stories you know the right answers and you can give them Just like that That's indirect It's something that's been passed down to you And you've not gotten back into it and dug it out for yourself You Huge difference in direct and indirect relationship to the Bible both both groups can give the same answers But one comes from the heart a heart conviction The other comes from a hollow inside and blank eyes. I've seen it I've probably done it There's a huge difference Second generation second-hand knowledge Information passed down you've heard it from the pulpit you've heard it from your parents you've heard it from your teachers But you're not in the word yourself There's no personal time where you are in the word digging it out for yourself And so it's not really Fresh with you. It's just second-hand stuff And you can you can give all the answers But you don't hold any convictions deeply in your own heart biblically You've heard But you haven't really developed it biblically it happens all the time with our kids And and again, I will say the fault is not always the first generation the first generation bears some responsibility If we've not been consistent the way we've lived it out and if we've not taught it faithfully But when the second generation just accepts from the forefathers from the parents from the church in the past and never digs it out for themselves never makes it their own Then you're headed down this path of apathy If you haven't really prayed and sought God in his word on your own But you just know the answers from someone else You're on dangerous ground If you have no fresh dynamic of walking with God You develop apathy and so blank expressions slumping in the seat yawning ho hum Attitude toward a Christian life and walking with God That's the second generation and it comes because of not being in the word yourself Now we don't have time to develop this but God gave a challenge to the second generation It's found in chapter 2 verse 3 and chapter 3 verses 1 through 4 You know what he said he would do look at chapter 2 verse 3 and I've also said I will not drive them out before you They will become traps for you and their gods will become snares to you What he did is he gave them problems he sent some of those people they had not conquered to attack them to test them So that they would have to develop their own sense of trust in the Lord They did not do that well some did But not all of them But that was the purpose of it God said he would make them thorns in their flesh and in chapter 3 verses 1 through 4 He talks about the fact that he would send these people to test them Sometimes God shakes us out of our apathy with problems with battles with tragedies With disasters you know why Because that's the only way we'll get into his word and we'll get into a passionate time of prayer with God when we realize we need him the most And so God sometimes sends those kind of tests to seek to shake us out of our apathy That's the only time some of us will come to the end of ourselves and God really gets our attention when our lives are shattered with something And we must have God in a real personal way what I heard in Sunday school is not enough What I learned from my parents and I can quote and memorize and say that I wasn't enough I need it for myself I need to throw myself at God's feet and find out what he can do for me And sometimes God sends testing and trial for that very reason to shake us out of our apathy and our complacency I heard about a guy one time who was on an ocean liner storm came up And People on deck watched as a woman fell overboard and they just all kind of froze And then all of a sudden they noticed someone had jumped into the water It was the oldest man On the on the ship and he struggled and struggled and finally got the woman closer to the ship and they got her up And they were just so proud of this guy they threw a party for him and celebrating him and and they said Why don't you tell us what you were thinking? And he said I've only got one question who pushed me Okay, sometimes God has to push us a little bit to get us in the water where we're thrashing around And we have to look up to him and like Peter say Lord save me And that is when we learn a firsthand personal Need for the Lord and a walk with him Where are you tonight? Are you just repeating what you've heard? What you've learned from someone else Thinking back to the past wishing we could just go back to that Rather than saying what that first generation did was great, but it wasn't enough We've got to move on I've got to grow myself. I can't just depend on what I learned in Sunday school I need to get into the word myself. I need to depend on God myself. I need to pray I need to fervently grow. I need to worship with all my heart So that I never lose that sense of gratitude for God That's what it takes to stay away from the second generation syndrome God help us Not to become guilty of just playing church and going through the motions But do what we do with passion and zeal because we have a first hand First generation Joshua kind of walk with God That's what we need And let's pray for our kids who haven't learned that yet It's pray together