Once as a 4 year old I was misbehaving in Church so my mom took me and sat me on the lap of an old WWII veteran but not even his strong arms could stop me from my naughty ways.
In this episode of “Now Is the Time” I tell you the story of my errant ways as a child growing up in the church. I also talk about what the next generation will need in order to become faith filled and God honoring adults.
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About this episode
In this podcast episode you’ll hear audio from my sermon this past Sunday at Discovery Baptist Church’s banquet for their new facility they are preparing to build.
I share some of my concerns and my heart for the next generation, especially for those who have grown up in the Church as I have.
From personal experience I know it’s so easy to see a well-behaved child in the Church and just assume everything is fine with him.
That’s a dangerous thing to do!
We can easily miss deep heart issues, broken patterns of thinking, hidden wrong attitudes, and well camouflaged sins.
If I could sum up what I said in a few words I would say this:
“Our kids need heart change that only Jesus can give them!”
Further, I need to ask myself,
“If my heart is not changed by the Gospel daily, how can expect to give my child a Gospel that changes his heart?”
Honesty, we have to get this right, otherwise we are just raising a generation of actors, who can put on the face and play the part at the push of a button. God, however, doesn’t want actors, he wants hearts broken before Him, and changed by Him.
A Church can have a hundred programs and facilities with millions of square footage but with out hearts changed by the Gospel it will amount to nothing!
In the News
This week I’m at Word of Grace Bible Church’s Russian Pastor’s Conference where I’m enjoying some great expository Bible teaching and fellowship with pastors from all over the Russian speaking world.
Yesterday I met with a group of 45 pastors from several different countries. for about 4 hours we shared our experiences with evangelism in our local churches and contexts.
There were a few pastors from “closed” countries where laws severely restrict their freedoms to evangelize, yet they manage to do it anyway despite a great risk to themselves.
I was challenged to think about my church in Odessa and what I could do personally to help my church members do a better job of sharing the gospel boldly and clearly with the unbelieving world.
Pastor Alexey Kolomiytsev asked a number of the pastors the questions, “What percentage of your church actively shares the gospel on a regular basis?”
On the one hand I was a little surprised to hear #’s like 50-60% because I don’t think it’s that high in our church. On the other hand it was encouraging to know that some churches are so active in the work of sharing the Good News.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:03 — 37.0MB) | Embed
