All right, yeah, I give it up. Kids Week 2026 coming to an end. Hey, I can promise you, I will not. have as much energy as those kids in that video. I get tired just looking at that.
Hey, it was an awesome week, and I just want to thank you for everybody who served. We could not have done it without the thousand people serving this week, and so. It was a really amazing week. Hey, I wanna encourage you to maybe look at this card real quick. We have a lot going on.
I want to draw your attention to two things, summer studies, lots of Good groups to get in. If you don't have a group, I'm leading one here at the Ridge campus.
So, if you're not in a group, I'd encourage you to maybe check that out. Also, Church at the Ballpark, September 13th. That's the next big thing we're doing for families. It's going to be all of our campuses, one service. The kids will be in that.
We're doing baptism, so it's going to be a really Awesome weekend. All right. Psalm 78, if you have a Bible, go ahead and turn there. I feel like I have the easy part of kids' week, ending with this message. It's a great passage from Psalm 78.
So, two things about Psalm 78 before we jump in. Number one, it's one of the longest chapters in the Bible.
So, if you have a Bible in front of you, you're going to see how long. It's the second longest Psalm. It's the fourth longest chapter in the Bible. The second thing About Psalm 78. It's a song written.
To show us what it looks like for faith to get passed down from one generation to the next. And When you get into Psalm 78, one of the things that you can see. is this old saying that history has a way of repeating itself. Both good and bad, quirky, weird. History has a way of repeating itself.
Things get passed down. From one generation to the next. I know if you're like me, I am squarely middle-aged at this point, almost 43, and Maybe at some point you've said something to your kids, or you said something to your spouse, and you realize: wow, I sound just like one of my parents. There's those progressive commercials. I don't know if you've seen them with Doctor Rick.
So, Dr. Rick says: if you buy a new house, you have a 98% chance of becoming just like your parents. My wife and I were driving recently and We were pointing out to one another: look, you know, that's a red oak, or that's a white oak, or look, that's a tulip poplar. And then eventually we were like, Who are we? You know We pass down all sorts of different things to our kids.
Both good and bad. You know, if you've been around me, you know that I enjoy like extreme things. Uh I run hundred mile races. I love to climb mountains. And people get around me and they're like...
And that's a little weird. Don't you think? And I'm like, yeah, a little bit. Uh and then You know, I talk about my family and You know, tell them about my dad. you know, when he was 22, uh swam across the English Channel.
Like swamps. 30 miles at night from France to England. People hear that, they're like, okay. Uh I can at least see how you've gotten into the stuff that you're into. We all pass something down to our kids, you know, whether it be Chevy or Ford, Carolina or Duke, hunting or fishing, whatever it may be.
You know, for the younger generation, maybe a Pokemon addiction, whatever it may be, we pass something down. To our kids. Psalm 78 asks this question, though. What are we spiritually passing down to our kids. Because We could talk about the funny examples from our parents or whatever.
But The world is also filled with a lot of really dark Tough examples. of things that get passed down. To our kids, you know, whether it be divorce or fatherlessness or cycles of addiction that happen in families, all sorts of things. get passed down from one generation to the next. Psalm 78.
You're gonna see this. The writer says This is a parable. And it's not a parable the way Jesus tells parables, you know, where he makes up a story to make a spiritual point. It's a parable grounded in real history. to show What it's Looks like for faith to get passed down from one generation to the next.
And I just know for myself, I really want. To pass the good things down to my kids and not the bad things from my history and my past. Here's the big idea. Every generation passes something down. Either Hope in God.
or simple patterns of the past. Psalm 78. It's a really long Psalm.
So, what we're going to do. The first eight verses, it works sort of as an introduction. It kind of introduces the psalm as a whole.
So, what we're going to do is, we're going to read the first eight verses to kind of just get us going. And then we're going to look at three. Things that are sort of the roadmap for the way that faith gets passed down.
So if you have a Bible, go ahead and follow along with me. Starting in verse 1, it says this. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I'll open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings from old. Things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We're not going to hide them from their children, but tell them to the coming generation. The glorious deeds of the Lord. and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
He established a testimony in Jacob. And appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers. to teach to their children. That the next generation, three things, might know them. The children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should hope.
In God. Not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. And they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast. whose spirit was not faithful to God.
So Psalm 78 in a song. Is a roadmap for what it looks like for faith to get passed down from one generation. to the next. And so what I want to do. I want to kind of go 30,000 foot altitude and draw out three principles.
Of what it looks like, a roadmap of how faith gets passed down from one generation to the next.
So three big principles, and then we're going to conclude. Number one. One generation tells what God has done. and teaches what God has said. That's the first part of the roadmap.
Look at verse 4 and 5. What does it say? We will not hide them from their children. Look at this word, but tell. to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might.
And the wonders that he has done. He's established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. Which he commanded our fathers to teach, so two words: tell and teach to their children. These two words, telling to our kids, teaching to the next generation. That's what it looks like to pass down faith.
I know we can sometimes overcomplicate it. What does it look like? How do I do it? But simply put, We tell the next generation what God has done. What God has done in the Bible?
What God has done in the world. And also, what God has done in your life. We're to tell the next generation, to tell your kids how God has worked in your life. And we're to teach them what God has said, to teach them. God's Word.
Here's the thing. You cannot give Your kids' faith. Like you cannot give your kids belief But you can tell your kids about what God has done. In the Bible? in the world and also in your life personally.
And it's not just the responsibility of parents. That's one really important thing from Psalm 78. It's easy to look at Psalm 78 and to think, oh, this is a... This is a psalm for parents. And the language in Psalm 78.
As it talks about children and as it talks about fathers. It's going across hundreds of years of generations. And so the point is, you could even sub out the word fathers for ancestors. That's the point it's trying to make. It's not just the parents.
responsibility to hand down faith. It's all of our responsibility to hand down faith to the next generation. This is why we spend so much energy on things like Kids' Week. to invest an entire week with a thousand volunteers. This is why student ministry is so important.
This is why college ministry is so important. This is why we invest our time, talent, treasure. This is why adoption and foster care ministry is so important. Because the faith doesn't go forward, it stops. with us if we don't hand it down.
To the next generation. You know, there's not a lot of things that make me cry. You know, some people are kind of naturally criers, you know. You probably know people like this. Pastor John Azarella, who often leads worship here at the Ridge campus, he's naturally a crier.
And I think it's admirable, honestly. The older I get to just naturally be able to cry, I swear he's got like a little button on his pack. Whenever he wants, he just hits that cry button, and it just comes out. One of the things that really gets me emotional, you know, we planted Mercy Hill 14 years ago. I was 28, 29.
Uh myself. Uh my family, Pastor Andrew. Anna, their family. A small group of people moved here to Greensboro. We are 28, 29.
A lot of the people on that original launch team were 21, 22 years old.
So now, 14 years later, Uh they're not 21, 22, they're 35, 36. They've gotten married, they have kids, and over the last year, We've started to be able to see their kids get baptized here at Mercy Hill. And just when myself and Pastor Andrew, when we see those baptisms, they're just meaningful for us because we're getting to see. Faith passed down from one generation to the next. I was telling that story to a group of pastors a couple months ago here at Mercy Hill.
And I just started crying when I was telling the story and I just couldn't stop. And for everybody listening, it was like very endearing. For me, it was not endearing. Uh when you're up here and you can't control crying, it's a tough thing. It's so important that we pass faith down.
from one generation to the next. We have to tell them, we have to teach them. This brings us to the second part of the roadmap. The next generation They have to set their hope in God. We tell them.
We teach them so that verse 7 happens. Look at verse 7.
So that they should set their hope in God. And not forget the works of God. But keep his commandments. This is where. A transition happens.
from one generation to the next. from parents to children. The church, we're responsible to tell and to teach. But the thing is, the next generation, they have got to set their hope in God themselves. And that's how the faith gets passed down.
And For us and the generation that's trying to hand off the faith. We've got to trust God with this. Because all we can do Is be faithful to tell them. and to be faithful to teach them. We Do not control their response.
We have no control over our kids believing. For themselves. Psalm 127.1. It gets at this idea of this relationship between what we do, but also just trusting God. It says, unless the Lord builds the house.
Those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake. In vain. And I know for so many of us, we have fear. Over our kids, or worry about what they're going to do, and are they going to believe?
And there's even some of you here today. Maybe you have grown kids that have walked away from the faith. And I just want to encourage you because I know when that happens, sometimes people can carry this guilt. over their kids' salvation. But we have to remember Salvation belongs to God.
And so if you are carrying a guilt or a fear. Over your kids, it's like, man, you're putting a weight on yourself that you're not supposed to carry. Because all we can do is be faithful to tell them. To be faithful, to teach them, but they are going to have to make a decision for themselves. We're going to see later in this Psalm.
There's instances where God directly reveals himself to people. and they still choose not to believe.
So to think it's on us To get somebody else to believe, we're putting ourselves in the place of God. Let me speak to you if you are in the next generation. Maybe you went to Kids' Week and you're in here. It's so great. to learn those stories.
And to memorize scripture. I know I was talking with my admin, Sarah, with her son, who was in the office this week after Kids' Week. It was his first Kids' Week ever. He's like this big. He's quoting scriptures directly that he learned at Kids Week, and I'm like, that's amazing, that's awesome, that's why we do it.
But the reality is, if you are in that next generation, You're going to have to decide: is God the most important thing in your life? Because your parents cannot do that for you. You know, just because I'm a pastor. My kids don't enter the kingdom because I'm a pastor. That's a decision they have to make for themselves.
Nobody passes faith down genetically. It's a decision the next generation has to make. And what we're seeing at Mercy Hill, it is so encouraging. You know, so many times there's just so much negativity about the next generation. You know what they're doing and the things they're saying and what they believe and all these things.
Here at Mercy Hill, we're seeing so much ownership and so much faith. In the next generation. I mean, I wish you, if you were not here at Kids Week this week, I wish you could have seen it. All of the Middle schoolers and high schoolers and college students that were just taking ownership. Over their faith, and they were here serving this week.
You know, that's something I see in so many young people here at Mercy Hill, just taking ownership over their faith.
So many times. People come into the church. And they have so many excuses. Man, nobody talked to me, or nobody asked me to serve, or nobody this, or nobody that. And then there's other people that come in and they just take ownership over their faith.
They're like, man, if nobody's serving, I'm going to serve. You know, I'm not going to ask people to serve me. I'm going to serve. I'm going to take ownership for Getting in relationships, and I'm gonna take ownership for being a friend to other people, and that's what it looks like for the next generation. to take that step where they place their hope.
In God. All right, it brings us to the third part of the roadmap. This is what Psalm 78 spends the most time looking at. Each generation must remember the past to break free from it. It spends sixty verses.
After this, making this point. Because here's the thing. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, every single one of us has a dark spiritual cloud of our past hanging over us. I mean, the way that Ephesians. Chapter 2, verse 1 through 3 describes it.
Every one of us were dead in our sin. Every one of us followed the course of this world. Every one of us carried out the desires of our flesh. And the way Ephesians 2:3 says it, by nature we were children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind.
So when we see the rest of this story. Of Psalm 78, we know that we were just like the rest of mankind. If we do not put our hope in God. we end up becoming like the generations before us. And that's what verse 8 says.
Uh yeah. Why do we tell them? Why do we teach them?
So that they put their hope in God, and then verse 8: that they should not be like their fathers. Because their fathers, they were a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast. whose spirit was not faithful to God.
So If you think your family history is messed up, it's got nothing. on these stories from Psalm 78. Stories of unbelief, stories of God revealing himself and people choosing not to believe. The next sixty verses gives a history lesson. of how prevalent unbelief is.
Ninety percent. of this psalm. Talks about the prevalence of unbelief.
So, if you got your actual Bible in front of you, I just want to take 60 seconds and just kind of follow along with your fingers. I just want to point them out very quickly. All of these instances of unbelief.
So starting in verse 10. They did not keep God's covenant. Verse 11. They forgot his works. Verse 17: They sinned all the more against God.
Verse 18, they tested God in their hearts. Verse 19, they spoke against God. Verse 22, they did not believe in God. They did not trust. In his saving power.
Verse 37. Their heart was not steadfast towards God. Verse 41. They tested God. Again and again.
Verse 42, they forgot his power. Verse 56, they rebelled. Against the Most High God. They did not keep his testimonies. They turned away and acted treacherously, just like their fathers.
In verse 58, they provoked God to anger. Ninety Percent of the psalm. is about looking at the past.
so that we can break free from it. Why is the past so important? I mean The Bible is us looking at the past. That's what the Bible is. Why is it so important?
Because the past If we get it right. The way that we look at it, it's a warning. to all of us, and it's also a teacher to all of us. Because if we do not put our hope in God, every one of us are capable. of repeating the same cycles.
of unbelief that we see here in Psalm 78. I mean, it is a story as old as time. Generations of unbelief. Generations of addicts, generations of divorces. Whatever it may be, it's a story as old as time.
And most of the Bible, like I said, is us learning from the past. Because if we read Psalm 78. And we say to ourselves, man, I could never be like that. then we will be repeating the past, I promise you. If we think that we don't have The uh ability to end up doing exactly what these people did.
See, if we forget the past, we just end up repeating it.
So the only way to actually break free From the past. is to remember it as a teacher. And to not follow that same course that generations before us did, that our family history would say, hey, that's the path that we're on. And a couple mistakes I often see that people make with the past. Number one is, We just end up surrendering to the past.
This is so prevalent in our culture. We see this all the time, and some of you maybe have repeated.
Some of these lies. We say, man, my You know why I'm this way? Because my parents were this way. My family has always In this way. These cycles, my family's always been this way.
This is just who I am. You know, we say history repeats itself. And the past ends up becoming our excuse. And when the past ends up becoming our excuse, you know what happens? We surrender to it.
And the past ends up becoming our destiny. Like those who came before us, that just ends up becoming our destiny. Another thing that we do Because it's so painful. to look at the past oftentimes. is we end up just ignoring the past.
You know, we say like, man, I just can't. Like, I don't want to look at what came before me. I don't want to look at the past. I don't want to remember how my parents or grandparents were or how my childhood was. And we just uh end up ignoring it.
We think, man, that's not going to happen to me, so I'm not going to look at it. And The reality is Ironically, if we end up ignoring the past, we just end up repeating it. And again, the past ends up becoming our destiny. The past must become our teacher and not our home. That's really important.
That's why the Bible has us looking at the past. Not so that it'll become our identity and our home, and we live in the past.
So many of us live in the past. Right, we live in the past of our mistakes. We live in the past of our family's mistakes. We're supposed to learn from it. But it must not become Our home.
Here's the thing. It's so easy to read Psalm 78. and see the importance. of passing down faith. And see the importance of the next generation taking hold of their faith.
And what ends up happening is We end up just feeling kind of guilty over all this. Because when you look at God's word and it points out something in your life, you realize, like, man. I've not probably done as well as I can in passing down faith to the next generation. I'm not as good of a dad as I should be. or I'm not as good of a mom.
As I should be? Or I've repeated the same cycles. From my own history? But here's the thing. There's this pattern in Psalm 78 that I want you to see.
It spends so much time. talking about unbelief in the past. But the other thing that it does when you look at this cycle In Psalm 78. It points us to God's faithfulness in the past. Because when we look at our past, We look at our family's past.
We look at the history of humanity. It's pretty depressing. But when you look at God's track record in the past, it's a completely different story. Because in Psalm 78, every time. That Israel was unfaithful, God was faithful.
Every single time. Because more than our story, it was God's story that was going to go forward. And so when you look at all these examples from Psalm 78. Them forgetting God and testing God and not believing in God and sinning against God. You come to verse 38.
And we see this cycle over and over and over. And I want us to really just camp out here. Even with all the mistakes. All the family history, all the dark cloud. of not believing in God.
What does God do? Yet he Being compassionate. He atoned for their iniquity, and he did not destroy them. He restrained his anger. He did not stir up his wrath.
Just like those in Psalm 78, many of our stories are marked with regret. and guilt. and unbelief and not doing the things that we should have done. I mean, even as we talk about the next generation, I know there's people that have guilt over how they raise their kids. And I didn't teach them.
I didn't tell them enough. I didn't bring them to church enough. Or shame. I talked to so many people after the services. Shame.
Over repeating those cycles in your family history that you said you never would repeat. Or sadness. Just over the fact of, man, I wish I would have done a better job with my kids. And Without God, Those things are the end of the story. You know, our culture says, like, you're not identified by your past or whatever.
And it's like, man, without God, You absolutely are identified by your worst mistakes. Like without God, that is exactly who you are. But the good news is The plan of our life, of the next generation, of the story of the world, it does not end with us. It ends with God. And God is faithful.
even when we're not faithful. It says in verse 38. He atoned. For their iniquity. What does that mean?
To atone means to make a way for sinners to be forgiven instead of destroyed. Look what it says in Romans 5.8, but God He showed his love for us that while we were still sinners, So while we were living in that dark cloud of our past, Christ died. for us. See, we don't break free from the past on our own. Like we don't just try harder and be a better person.
We've got to have our sins atoned for. That's the only way that we're ever going to break free. That's the only way that we're going to end up passing on the faith to the next generation.
So I just want to circle this here. As we conclude today. Like some of you just need to believe that today. Like you need to break free. from the identity of your past.
Some of you need to let Let go of guilt today. Like some of you. Yeah, you still worry about your kids. You know, maybe they're not. Walking with God or whatever, but it's like, man, that's not your identity.
Ultimately. The guilt over wishing you had another chance over something in the past. When the Bible says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, you know what that means? That means that your worst moments Are not the truest thing about you if you are in Christ. And that is so important.
as we go forward from here today. Your sin can be given can be forgiven, your guilt can be lifted. Your past does not have to be the final word. over your life. If you are in Christ, I want everybody to hear this.
If you are in Christ today, It is not too late to have a different story written about your life. I know there's shame and guilt in the past, and things we could have done better, and cycles that we've repeated, or whatever. But at this point, for every single one of us in here, that is in the past. We cannot do anything about that. And feeling shame and guilt over that.
All we have is what we do as we go. From here today. And so, if you are in Christ, it is not too late to have a different story written about your life. Like No matter what you've done with your kids, it's not too late today to start reading the Bible with your kids. Doesn't matter if you don't know where to start or wherever, just man, open the Bible and start reading the Bible with your kids.
It's not too late to start praying. with your kids. Even if you have never served here at Mercy Hill, it's not too late to jump in and to begin to. Serve so that the next generation Can have the faith passed on to them. And then the last thing I want to say.
Because I know as we're thinking about the past. and thinking about our own family story. Maybe you didn't come from a Christian home. And over the years, I've seen so many different examples. There's examples of just generations of believers.
Right, you meet somebody and you realize like their grandparents and their great-grandparents and their great-great-grandparents were believers. And maybe you come from a home where like, man, there's none of that story. Like when you look in your past, it's like addiction and divorce and unbelief and all these different things. But in both of those different stories. It takes one person.
It takes one person to break that cycle. And maybe that's you today. Like a cycle of unbelief from your family history. It takes one person for that cycle. to be totally redeemed and changed.
And maybe three or four or five generations from now. You know, there's a great-great-grandkid that doesn't even know your name or remember who you are, and they're sitting in a church and they're a believer and they're raising their kids the right way because you chose to break that cycle. And so that's what I want to pray for us today. Like, all we have is going forward. And the starting place for all of us.
Is faith in Christ, and he began to rewrite the story of our life. Let me pray for us. God, we thank you. We know the Bible says we at one point, every single one of us were children of wrath. Following the way of the world?
the patterns of the world that we all have followed at some point. And God, for so many people in the room right now, you broke that cycle in their life. Then I pray today, God, it would be a starting point for even more people, God, to have that cycle of unbelief broken in their life so that.
So that we would be the sort of people that would pass on faith to the next generation. God, you gotta work in us. Before any work is done in the next generation, Lord. And so for some people, that maybe just needs to start today, God. Our kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, they're not going to have their future change, God, until you work in our life.
And so I pray that you would do that today. God, we do pray for the next generation. The flame of faith that you have started in so many young people at Mercy Hill, God, we just pray that you would continue that. And God, I pray as a church that we would be faithful to tell them. And to teach them your word.
And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah.
