Faith on Fire

Happy Father’s Day! You know on Mother’s Day, moms are celebrated. On Father’s Day, dads get celebrated a little less. Maybe it’s that Father’s Day happens in summer, when there is a little less going on. We don’t spend as much on Father’s Day as Mother’s Day. But let me encourage you: Dad is just as important and contributes so much to kids. Today I give you some respect. I admire you. I want to give you some encouragement. 

Today I’m going to speak to Dads, but really to all of us. How do we influence the emerging generation to live for God? Everybody here has influence, what do you do with it? Tell someone near you: you have influence. 

And if you have young children, imagine for just a minute, your child is 25 years old, all grown up, and stops by your house for a surprise visit. What do you want them to be like? Who is that 25-year-old walking in your door? 

You want them to be doing ok. You don’t want them addicted to anything/ You want them still alive, that’s good. You don’t want any negative outcome for them. You want a positive outcome: they are thoughtful, caring, and following their dreams.  

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your 25-year-old is a professional baseball player? That would be great but, honestly, I think you could live with them not being that. You just want them to find the right path in life. Maybe you’re saving up for them to go to college, but it’s not the end of the world if they don’t go. You want them to be able to deal with whatever life hands them and bounce back. You want them on a positive path. And more: you want the world to be a better place because of your kid. Here we are in church, let’s dream bigger, we want them to have faith on fire! 

Jesus talked about what to go after in life. He once said, “What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” Jesus is saying, life is not just about success, power and money. Jesus bumped into a lot of people who just wanted power, money, authority and prestige, like King Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Pharisees, some of the religious leaders. They didn’t make the world a better place, they made it worse! Jesus tells us, life is about more than success. He raised up 12 disciples to change the world. They changed it because they had faith on fire. Jesus chose them not for their status or success. He was looking for faith on fire! 

If you want the life that really is life, how do you find it? Center your life on Jesus. Center your life on God. 

Sometimes we think we have to tell kids what to do and what not to do. Well, let’s just make their choices for them, how about that? Then they’ll make the right choices! 

But in a story from the Bible, way back in the Old Testament, Joshua seeks to influence the people of Israel to follow God. He doesn’t make their choice for them. He gives them a choice. Joshua says, “Choose this day who you will serve.” Will it be God, or some other gods? 

And Joshua powerfully adds, “As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord!” He didn’t make the choice for the people. He let make up their own minds. But he said, “This is what I’m going to do.” This is what me and mine will do. He was an example for them. And what did the people say? “We also will serve the Lord! We will serve the Lord! You can’t talk us out of this: we will serve the Lord!” 

What you do speaks louder than any convincing argument you can think of. What do you do? I tell you, I believe I am here in church today, worshipping God, because my Dad made a choice to go to church, every Sunday. I don’t know that he ever missed! And I’m here because my Mom made a choice to talk about the Bible and God with us at home. When you make a choice for God, and lead your family in God’s ways, more than likely, your kids will want to follow.  

We can’t force kids to make the right choices. It’s a world with very materialistic choices, over sexualized choices, prejudices, and an individualistic mindset. We can’t force children to follow Jesus. But we can expose them to the right people, the right places and the right environment that will increase the chances that they follow God. 

We need to expose kids to the joy of knowing God personally 

What I like about Joshua, too, is he talked about God with the people. Often, we forget how powerful it is to talk about God with our children. If your kid scores a soccer goal. What do you say, “Hey, that was a great goal!” I want to say, “Hey, you worked really hard developing the gifts that God gave you! And today you praised God by bringing your best!” There’s so much to say about God. Say to children, “Look at all the ways God has blessed us!” “I’m so glad God blessed us with our church.” “I’m so glad God blessed me with you!” That’s easy, to just talk about God. Parents are their children’s greatest spiritual teachers. Parents are with their kids more than anybody else is. So, talk about God. Bring God up. Let them see that prayer is important to you: it could be bedtime prayer with them, or prayer before meals, mentioning why you love God. Expose kids to the joy of knowing God personally. 

How do kids learn? By watching you, being with you, and talking with you.  

When Alan was learning to drive, we practiced the parallel parking. I thought he did ok. He asked, “Is this good enough?” Looks good to me. He did what I do, I park, and if I’m within a few feet of the curb, I think that’s good enough.  

When he took the test, what happened? The examiner had a different standard. He hadn’t done good enough. You had to be within a foot. He failed. Because he did what I did. 

Like it or not, your kids do what you do, they are watching you. What you do is huge! If you talk about God, they are more likely to get excited about God.  Expose them to the joy of knowing God personally. Don’t tell them what to do. Live it, talk about it, and they will do it too. 

Next, we can expose children to the power and presence of God in church. Church isn’t just what we do on a Sunday. Church is who we are. It’s great now. If you miss Sunday morning worship: guess what? You can watch it on Facebook, or YouTube, or read the sermon. Church is our family and our fuel, our support as we walk the Christian way. A lot of things for kids are not optional. School is not optional: you can’t miss many days. Soccer is not optional. If you miss too much you don’t play. Baseball is not optional. Serving God and being with his people in his house is not optional! We do it because church is not a destination. It’s our identity.  

When you are part of a church, you have other people helping you raise kids with faith on fire. When my kids were young and going to Sunday school, they had teachers who saw the good in them and noticed the bad, but never kicked them out of Sunday school. They were active kids and they saw the principal at school sometimes. But in Sunday school there was plenty of love, and confidence that God was moving in them. My kids knew they belonged, and that these were there people. They turned out ok as adults, not just because of their parents, but because of the goodness of God working through the church to His children. So we need to expose kids to the presence and power of God in the church.  

The third thing we want to do in order to have children with faith on fire, is to expose them to the thrill of being used by God. 

When there was flooding two years ago here and in Tremont, the UCC churches responded. And because I got involved, my kids got involved. One spent an afternoon helping with reconstruction. The other interviewed someone whose home was flooded in the basement and first floor. Ian spent a long time listening to their story, asking questions, and seeing what damage the flooding did. The woman felt listened to. They made a difference. They could tell they made a difference; God had worked through their gifts. 

So often when there is volunteer work, we think to ourselves, “Why would I want to serve?” “Why would I want to help in the food pantry?” “Why would I want to go to Bethany children’s home?” “Why would I want to hand out bulletins?” At first you might think, that doesn’t sound fun. Going to Hershey park is fun.  

But you serve because you feel good when you leave. You made a difference. The world is a better place because you care, and God has worked through you! 

The confirmation class weeded the community prayer labyrinth this past week. They wondered, why are we weeding the labyrinth? Pastor, what have you gotten us into? But they were too polite to say that. We weeded and enjoyed it! It was hard, there were prickly weeds, and things growing everywhere. We decided we need to introduce the caretakers of the labyrinth to weed killers. But we made a difference. We made it beautiful, then we walked it and experienced God.  

Young people love to serve. Think about it, we have more in children’s choir than Trinity’s adult choir, or soloists at St. Peters. Parents introduce your kids to the thrill of being used by God, and kids will out serve you. They’ll out worship you. Their faith will catch on fire!  

My homework for you this week, is to talk about God around us to somebody. Practice it. Hey, it’s great how you developed the gifts God gave you. How you gave all, the way God would want.   

We want children to live a Christ centered life. Christianity is not so much taught, as it is caught. We all have influence, we all have influence we can use to help kids catch on to how God is all around us, and to want to live for him. So, we’ll talk about God in our lives with children. We’ll help children experience the presence and power of God in the people gathered as Christ’s body. And we’ll help them experience the thrill of God working through them as they serve others. Then we’ll see young people with faith on fire! Happy Father’s Day!  

June 21, 2020