Parenting seminar. It— what we received from Steve was outstanding. Let me just encourage you, if I know this, this week was fall break for a lot of folks and we were— people are coming back into town yesterday. Please, when we post the content from the parenting seminar, please watch it. It will serve you in a huge, huge way. I've heard that from a number of parents that were there yesterday. So when you get that link, don't just hit, you know, archive. Spend some time together, especially if you're married, with your spouse. And watch through it together.
Now, a couple of reasons I'm excited that Steve's going to preach. First is just our partnership in the gospel in Sovereign Grace Churches. So he represents— he's one of the pastors at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. And we love him and his church. And so we get to express our gospel partnership in that way today. But second, Steve has a unique passion for the next generation, as you'll hear both in his message and what he'll share afterwards. He has a heart to see this gospel passed on to the next generation. And third, he is a gifted teacher and expositor.
And just one quick story about how Steve has served us in a way that you did not even know. Who was here for our Revelation series? You guys— were you guys here for Revelation? Okay. I've heard a number of folks that have said Revelation was super helpful. You were always intimidated by that book. Well, I just want to say, as a pastoral team, so were we. We were— Revelation felt like a big giant forest. Thickly wooded, and it was like, I'm sure there's good stuff in there, but I don't know where. I don't know how to get through. And so I happened to listen to Steve's opening message on his church's series in the book of Revelation, and it felt like somebody opening a path in the woods that you realize, oh, there's great stuff in here if you just have a path. And so he happens to be writing his PhD dissertation on ethical formulations in the book of Revelation. And so It's going to be great. It's going to be great dissertation. So, but it served us in a huge way. And really, I want to say that it's one of the things that helped guide us. So whether you knew it or not, you've already benefited from Steve's preaching ministry.
And so I'm so glad we're going to bring his ministry as expositional ministry to this important topic of passing the word, the gospel and the knowledge of God on to the next generation. He's going to preach. We're going to sing in response. And at the end, briefly, he's going to share about a new initiative that he's starting that'll serve our— God willing— serve our family of churches for many years going forward. So let's welcome Steve as he comes to bring the word.
Thank you. Well, good morning, church. It is quite a pleasure to be with you, and I feel like that's something that, you know, guest speakers always say, and I'm saying it too. And so I'm just going to have to ask you to trust me that I would not begin my sermon by lying to you. It really is a pleasure and it's a delight. I've really enjoyed this weekend. Got to know many of you at the parenting seminar yesterday, got to spend time with your pastoral team and their wives last night, and then just meeting and talking to many of you this morning has been quite a pleasure. So I've not spent much time in El Paso prior to this. El Paso for me has always just been a waypoint en route to Rancho 3M, used to lead our youth group trips down there every spring break. And so to have some time here in the city, getting to know your city, but more importantly, getting to know your church, that's what has made this trip such a delight so far.
I've known Ricky for some time, but mainly just as a conference acquaintance, you know, would greet him at conferences and have just enjoyed getting to know him, and then through him getting to know the other pastors and What a gift it is to your church to have a pastoral team who love the Lord and care for one another and love you so much. Not every church can say that, and it's a gift to you, and I thank God for your pastors and for you.
6 · Steve uses light humor about pronunciation to transition from personal introduction to representing his home church, maintaining relational warmth while shifting focus
And I also want you to know I come with greetings from your brothers and sisters at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. That's how we say it in Kentucky. All right? On paper, it looks like Lewisville. If you say that in town, then just people know you're a tourist. Some people want to say Louisville, and that's fine, kind of the French roots or something. But most of us who live there just say Louisville, Louisville, just swallow the middle part. I know you can do this, right? Because I noticed down here nobody says "holla." So you know things about, like, leaving letters out. You can do it. So just Louisville. I'll let you practice later.
7 · Steve articulates the ecclesiological reality of cross-church prayer and partnership within Sovereign Grace Churches, establishing that Louisville's church has repeatedly interceded for Cross of Grace in evangelism and Word ministry
"More importantly, I come with greetings from your brothers and sisters in Louisville." There is a Sovereign Grace church in Louisville, Kentucky that, well, met this morning, and it's already afternoon there, but they met this morning, they prayed for you this morning. We regularly, every Sunday, we pray for another Sovereign Grace church. We work our way through just all the churches in Sovereign Grace, and so we have prayed for Cross of Grace Church many times. We have prayed for God's blessing and help to you. We have prayed for your success. In evangelizing your community. We pray that the ministry of the Word would be powerful and effective here in this church. And so we love you and we thank God for you. So that's why it's a delight to be here.
8 · Steve transitions to the sermon proper by directing the congregation to the text with practical help for Bible navigation, signaling the shift from introduction to exposition
Now I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles, if you would please, to Psalm 78. If you are new to the Bible, it's easy to find. Just open your Bible up to the middle, chances are really good you'll land in the book of Psalms, and 78 is right about in the middle of the book of Psalms.
9 · Steve introduces the sermon's theme—generational storytelling—through a personal illustration of his children's love for family stories, modeling the psalm's emphasis on passing stories across generations
As you're turning there, I want to tell you that one of the surprises of parenting that I have encountered now in my 19 years of parenting has been how much my children enjoy the stories that Nicole and I tell our children of our childhoods. They like to hear about us growing up, and it surprised me because I think— I don't think I lived a very interesting life, just a suburban kid, I wasn't very good at baseball, and I don't know, there's not much more to tell. So they love it though. They love hearing these stories, and I guess it shouldn't surprise me given how much my sisters and I enjoyed hearing my parents' stories. We would ask them for their stories all the time, and we loved just sitting around after dinner hearing their stories. My dad was a Navy man, my grandfather too. They were in the Navy, and so, man, I love, to this day I still love Tales of the Sea. You know, it's not for everybody. My sisters would quickly become weary of stories of engine rooms and celestial navigation. It wasn't their thing. But nobody could grow tired of my mom's stories. My mom is a master storyteller. I wish you could hear her.
10 · Steve narrates three family stories—the golf club incident, the wedding veil mishap, and the driving accident—demonstrating the memorable, character-revealing nature of family storytelling and its lasting impact across generations
And so we got her stories over and over again. We love the story of Uncle Clifton trying to teach mom to play golf, and my mom with a with a very zealous follow-through in the 9-iron, catching Uncle Clifton right in the head and knocking him out cold, just out cold. He lived, it's okay. Or we love the story of when Mom and Dad got married in June in small-town South Carolina in the middle of a heat wave in a church with no air conditioning, my grandfather being the intrepid and resourceful man that he was, ran around this small town that morning collecting all the big fans that he could find and positioning them around the sanctuary so everybody would be comfortable. And that worked out great until the key moment as the doors opened to the sanctuary and my mom steps in, voot, and her veil gets sucked into one of the fans. It worked out okay. They still got married. It's good. It's memorable, I'm sure. Or the time my mom, a 16-year-old, driving with her newly minted driver's license, quite proud of herself, is making her way down Main Street. Police officer up ahead of her had pulled over to the curb, and as she's passing by at just the right moment, or just the wrong moment depending on how you look at it, this cop throws his door open. Mom catches it with the bumper and bam, lays it flat against the front of the car. She pulls over. She's terrified, doesn't know what to do. Police officer gets out of the car, puts on his Smokey the Bear hat, doesn't say a word to her, walks into the store that happened to be right there that my grandfather managed, says, "Stephen, we need to have a talk about Nancy's driving." Memorable stories.
11 · Steve moves from illustration to claim by asserting that family stories shape identity, transmit culture, and participate in a universal human tradition of using narrative to form the next generation
We love these stories as kids because they shaped who we are. They told us something about who we were. They passed on our family culture, helped us understand What it meant to be a Whittaker, to have stories like that happen to you. It helped us understand how we got here. And it turns out now that as we— as Nicole and I are doing the same thing for our children, what we're doing is tapping into a very long tradition of generational storytelling. People have long recognized the power of story to shape the hearers.
12 · Steve provides two historical examples—Andrew Fletcher's maxim about songs and the Anglo-Saxon etymology of "poet"—to demonstrate the long-recognized power of narrative to shape cultures and individuals
If you go back about 300 years, there was a Scottish politician named Andrew Fletcher, and he is attributed with having said, "Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." Andrew Fletcher understood that even through song, if you tell the story, you shape the people. If you go back further, maybe about 1,000 years, the Anglo-Saxon word for poet was "shope," a word that in normal usage meant to create or to bring out. And our modern English word "shape" comes from this Anglo-Saxon word for poet because they recognized that stories shape people. It shapes their character, their perceptions, their affections.
13 · Steve applies the historical recognition of story's power to the congregation, calling them to intentionality about the narratives they pass to the next generation
And so we would be wise to pay attention to the stories that we tell as well.
14 · Steve frames Psalm 78 as a text about generational storytelling that transmits God's saving works, establishing the psalm's unique character as divinely-given narrative meant to shape future generations in the faith
Today we're gonna look at Psalm 78. This is a psalm that is based around generational storytelling. It is a psalm that tells stories in order to shape generations. And when the fathers of our faith start telling their family stories, what we get is the history of the saving works of God. It turns out that storytelling is one of the ways that God intends for the central truths of the faith to get passed on to the next generation. God gave us these stories, and they are stories unlike any other. The stories that are in this book, they are the Word of God, the story, the true story.
15 · Steve articulates the sermon's main thesis: the stories we tell about God to the next generation directly shape their love for God, a claim grounded in the function of Psalm 78
And so as we look at Psalm 78, let's remember that we're tapping into that big story. Now here's the big idea behind Psalm 78. The stories that we tell to the next generation about God shape the next generation and their love for God. That's what this Psalm is about. The stories that we tell to the next generation about God will shape the next generation and their love for God.
16 · Steve provides structural orientation to Psalm 78, noting its length and introducing the focused reading of verses 1-8 as the psalm's thematic introduction while encouraging personal engagement with the full text
So in a moment we're gonna read Psalm 78. Now I do have to tell you, it's 72 verses long. This is the second longest psalm in the Psalter. So we're not going to read the whole thing right now, although I would recommend if you have time sometime today or tomorrow, sit down, it won't take you more than about 10 minutes, just read through the whole thing. It'll be beneficial. It'll serve your soul. Now the first 8 verses basically form an introduction that introduce the rest of the psalm and the themes that are found there. And so we're going to read the first 8 verses and then I'm going to pray.
17 · Steve reads Psalm 78:1-8 aloud, the primary text for the sermon, presenting Asaph's call to generational storytelling and its purposes: that future generations would hope in God, remember His works, obey His commandments, and avoid their fathers' rebellion
So if you'd follow along with me, please, let's read Psalm 78. A maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell 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 might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose heart was not faithful to God. This is the word of the Lord.
18 · Steve prays for divine help in perceiving and embracing the psalm's teaching about passing God's glorious deeds to the next generation
Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for Psalm 78 and all it teaches us about telling the next generation of the glorious deeds of the Lord. Father, we pray that you would hope— that you would help us to see with our eyes, to hear with our ears, to set our hearts upon all that you show to us. And we pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, whom we love with all our hearts. Amen. Amen.
19 · Steve provides structural scaffolding for the sermon, announcing the three-point outline and introducing the first point—the mandate to tell the coming generation
We're going to look at these 8 verses in 3 steps, 3 parts to this. So if you are a note-taker, I've got 3 points, and I trust as we go you'll be able to see how those 3 points arise right from the text. And the first one is this. The first point is we have a mandate. First point is the mandate: tell the coming generation. So we have a mandate to tell the coming generation.
20 · Steve expounds verses 1-2, explaining Asaph's attention-getting opener and defining "dark sayings" not as morbid but as opaque truths from the past that unlock present and future understanding
The psalm opens with a call for attention. Look at verse 1: "Give ear, O my people." Listen up. Asaph wants us to pay attention, and he explains why in verse 2. He says, "I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old." We might wonder, what's with the dark sayings, parable? What is he talking about here? Well, when we see the phrase dark sayings, don't think dark as in morbid, right? Not Edgar Allan Poe. These are things that are opaque or otherwise unknown. They are riddles, things that are locked up. These are basically, these are stories from the past that have significance and meaning for the present and prepare the readers for their future.
21 · Steve expounds verse 3, identifying the shift from singular to plural voice as Asaph's invitation for all readers to join the generational storytelling adventure—a mandate framed as invitation rather than mere command
And he explains in verse 3 that they are things that we have heard and known, things that our fathers have told to us. There it is, generational storytelling. Here we go. And so Asaph is inviting all who read this psalm to join him in telling the coming generation. And so this psalm is a mandate. It is a mandate to tell the next generation, to join every previous generation of God's people in passing it on to the next generation. In other words, we're not simply commanded, we're invited. Asaph is saying, this is an adventure. This is something we're going to do together. We are invited to do it.
22 · Steve provides four rapid-fire examples—Ruth, Exodus, Acts, Ephesians—illustrating how biblical books have already shaped the congregation's theology and affections, motivating them to see storytelling's power to form the next generation
And think about Think about how this book has shaped you, just as an appetizer for the kind of motivation we need for a minute. Think about how these stories have shaped you as a Christian. Think about the individual books of the Bible. Let's just start there. What about the book of Ruth, for instance? Think about how the book of Ruth has shaped your confidence that God is sovereign over every disappointment disappointment and difficulty in life. It's one of the takeaways from the book of Ruth, and it'll shape us that way if we listen to it. Think about how the book of Exodus has shaped your awareness of God's desire to have a people for his own and to dwell with them and care for them. Think about how the book of Acts has shaped your sense of the importance of the local church for God's plan and to make the gospel known among the nations. Or maybe closer to home, think about how the book of Ephesians is shaping this church right now to help you see more clearly the grace of God to undeserving sinners through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his purposes for his people in election. What a book. What a book. Think about how these stories have shaped our love for God.
23 · Steve restates the psalm's mandate in light of the illustrative examples, asserting that biblical storytelling's purpose is shaping the next generation's love for God
So the mandate of this psalm, tell these stories to the next generation to shape their love for for God.
24 · Steve anticipates and refutes the objection that the psalm addresses only parents, arguing from the text's pronouns—"my people" in verse 1 and the shift to "we" in verse 3—that this is a church-wide mandate for all life stages
Now, I think we could probably get to a point like this in a sermon and some people are saying, "I see what's going on here. I get it. This is a parenting message. I get it. Oh, well, I don't have kids, or my kids have grown up and moved out. I'm off the hook. I'm going to think a little bit about the menu for this week, maybe plan some errands I need to run, wonder who's going to win the game today, will my guys start." Hold on, not so fast. This is a mandate for all of us together as God's people, and I can prove it. Look at what he says in verse 1: "Give ear, oh my people." Right? He doesn't start with parents. "Give ear, dads. Listen up, moms." He'll get to moms and dads in a minute, but he begins here. "Give ear, oh my people." And so Asaph is addressing us all, whether we have children or not. If you are a college student, if you are single, if you are an empty nester, if you are a widow or divorced, you are called to this same mandate. Look what else happens here. He begins at the beginning of the psalm speaking in first person singular. My teaching, the words of my mouth, I will open my mouth, I will utter dark sayings. But in verse 3, all of a sudden he switches to first person plural and it becomes we and us. Things that we have heard and known. That our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children. We, we, we. Passing on the gospel is a responsibility that we share.
25 · Steve applies the church-wide mandate by calling non-parents to serve in kids ministry, framing 1-2 hours weekly as a direct investment in generational discipleship that refreshes parents while passing the gospel forward
And even if you don't have children of your own, there are a lot of ways to do this. In fact, you just heard about a great one. You could serve in kids ministry. That's fantastic. Think about of all the things that you could do with any given hour of your week. What do you have, 168 hours in a week? What if you took 1 or 2 of those, 2 of those a week, and invested them in the next generation? What if you sacrificed your strength and your energy for a couple hours so that parents could come in here and be refreshed and recharged by hearing God's word? What a great way to participate very directly in passing on the gospel to the next generation. And I know many of you are doing that. Some of you are even wearing the shirts of kids ministry right now. That's fantastic.
26 · Steve articulates a second way non-parents fulfill the mandate: authentic Christian living validates the gospel for watching children, who possess acute radar for hypocrisy and recognize genuine faith in ordinary church practices
Now, there's other ways you can do this. You don't have to be involved directly. And if you're not around these children directly as often, you can still be involved in passing on the gospel by living out the gospel message faithfully in your life. Here's why. As you do that, as you live as a genuine Christian in this church community, You are validating the gospel message. And if you've ever been around children at all, you know how important this is. Man, kids have a radar for fake, right? They can sniff out inauthentic hypocrite. They have a hypocrisy-o-meter, and they know when people don't practice what they preach, but they also can tell when it's for real. And as you faithfully live out the Christian life, as you get up each day and read your Bible and are shaped by it, as you're praying for your brothers and sisters in the church, as you are faithful not to neglect meeting together as is the habit of some, but you come to church and you're ready, you got your Bible open and you're here and you're soaking in God's Word, or you go to your small group and you encourage your brothers and sisters in their suffering and difficulty and frustration. Thank God for the ways that he has blessed them. All of those things, you are passing on the gospel message.
27 · Steve illustrates how faithful church members become living curriculum by narrating Dawn and Arnie Bear's childless yet generative service in his Louisville church—service his children recognize as embodied servanthood when teaching moments arise at the dinner table
And do you realize too, as you do this, you are creating opportunities for parents. You are a curriculum. Your life is a curriculum. Here's what I mean by that. Around the Whitaker dinner table, and we sit a long time, we talk. It doesn't take us long to eat. The kids are hungry. But we sit and we talk for a long time. And it's not unusual that there is some virtue or character quality that we're trying to encourage in our children. They are fantastic children, but they are sinners and they need to grow. And so we might be talking to our children about servanthood or diligence and faithfulness. We want them to grow in use of their words and how they encourage one another. And I can't tell you how often we have been able to point to the example of other church members and use them as a living illustration of what it is we mean. One great example of this is there's a couple in our church named Dawn and Arnie Bear. They're both in their late 50s. They got married kind of late in life. They don't have children of their own, but man, they are serving the church constantly. Dawn comes from Mennonite stock in Pennsylvania, and the woman can cook. And so if there is a church event there are Dawn Bear baked goods on site and people are like throwing elbows to get at these cupcakes or whatever it is because they're amazing. And we have all been blessed by Dawn's cooking and she serves for all kinds of events. And Arnie is a fix-it man. Anything you need done, Arnie can do. He's one of those guys. And so it doesn't matter if your pipes are leaking or if your car is steering wonky or whatever, he can fix it. And he has this little business on the side where he'll work on your car. He does work for widows in the church. He does work for anybody who doesn't know how to work on their own car. He'll do it for the cost of the parts and a nominal hourly rate. And then any money he makes on it goes straight into the church's building fund. And they are serving in our church constantly. And so we were talking about serving not long ago, and we were like, kids, who do you know in the church that's a servant? Who lays down their lives? They were like, Mr. and Mrs. Bear. Like, yes, got it. Y'all are doing that too. That's what happens here. That's a healthy church when people are living out an authentic, genuine Christian life. You are passing on the gospel to the next generation.
28 · Steve presents prayer as a third concrete way to fulfill the mandate, urging the congregation to pray for parents—especially those with squirmy or crying children—and to ask parents directly for prayer requests, acknowledging parenting's desperation
So another way you can do it, here's the third way, you can pray. You want to help pass on the gospel to the next generation? Pray. Pray for these parents. Pray for the parents that are seated around you. You know, whose kid is squirmy and a little distracting sometimes, or maybe is crying while you're trying to listen to the sermon. Pray for the parents that are in your small group. Pray for those families that you see like hanging out after the meeting and their kids are just like running wild. Pray for them. And if you're not sure what to pray, if you're not sure what to pray, first thing you ought to do is just go up to a parent and ask them. Man, you want to encourage a parent? I don't know if there's anything that would be more encouraging to me as a parent than somebody being, hey, I want to pray for you. I want to pray for you, and especially in your parenting for your kids. Be like, wow, that's amazing. Because I got a list, man, and I need prayer. I need the Lord's help. I've never felt more desperate about anything than parenting. So please pray for me.
29 · Steve provides three specific prayer categories for parents—wisdom for knowing what to do, strength for doing it, and faithfulness for doing it persistently—addressing parents' common sense of inadequacy and exhaustion
But if you're not sure, here's a starter list. Pray that God will give them wisdom. I mean, how many times do parents just sit and scratch their heads and be like, man, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get across to this kid. I don't know how to, I can't change them. I need the Holy Spirit. So pray for wisdom. Pray for strength. Parents are tired. Parenting is hard work and it goes on and on. So pray also for faithfulness. Pray that they'll have the wisdom to know what to say and do, the strength to do it, and the faithfulness to do it for a long, long time.
30 · Steve transitions from church-wide responsibility to parental responsibility, noting that while both parents share the mandate, Asaph addresses fathers first to establish their role in setting the family's spiritual tone and pace through visible practices like early Bible reading and prayer
So the church, y'all, we together are responsible for passing on the gospel to the next generation. It's not only the church, it's also fathers. Fathers also are responsible to— fathers and mothers, parents are responsible. He names fathers here in verses 3 and in verse 5, so I gravitate towards that. He sees fathers and mothers both. This is how this works throughout the Bible, but also particularly in Psalm 78. Fathers and mothers both have a responsibility here to pass on the gospel to the next generation. But it's not an accident that here in Psalm 78 and elsewhere, Asaph addresses fathers first, saying, listen, dads, you're responsible to set the spiritual tone and pace in your family. It's a gift from God if children will exceed their fathers in spiritual desire, but how much better if the fathers are out in front showing the way so the kids can draft along behind. They see their dad getting up early. Is there any better gift you could give your children? They wake up early one morning and come toddling out of their room and there's dad with his Bible, or there's mom and dad praying together. What a gift we can give to our children.
31 · Steve applies the mandate to parents by calling them to create intentional family cultures, using Cross of Grace Church's observable culture of joy, gratitude, and warmth as an analogy for what parents should cultivate in their homes
And so there are many, many ways this can work. We talked some about this in the parenting seminar, so I think that audio will be available soon. But this calls for an entire way of living. This calls for creating a culture. This church has a culture. I felt it immediately when I came in. This church is full of joy and gratitude and service. It's a very warm— you all greet people very, very well. I've had lots of people come talk. Nobody's kind of standoffish. It's great. It's a wonderful, wonderful culture. Well, we're called to create family cultures too. And it's a worthwhile exercise, husbands and wives, to talk— what is our family culture? Somebody comes over for dinner, what do they perceive here? What are they thinking? And there's lots of ways you can grow this culture in your family.
32 · Steve illustrates family culture creation through his practice of reading Christian biographies at dinner, explaining the "gospel twofer"—children witness both the gospel transforming historical figures and the gospel transforming their father's affections as he weeps over Corrie ten Boom's faith
One of the things we've done— practice that we got from Nicole's parents is we read a lot around the dinner table. I got 4 teenagers, 19, 18, 15, and 13, 2 boys and 2 girls. They're not too old for me to read to them. They love it. They love for us to still sit and read. And we have lately been reading Christian biographies. In the last year or so, we read Corrie Ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place. We read Elizabeth Elliot's book, Through Gates of Splendor. Right now we're reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Great conversations about all of them. I especially love these biographies because you get— you basically get a gospel twofer with a biography. My kids get to hear the gospel at work in a woman like Corrie Ten Boom. It's a powerful, powerful story of how the gospel transforms people. But then they also get to see the gospel at work in their dad, because I have to keep stopping and explaining to the kids why I'm crying and I can't keep reading. Because I'm affected by Corrie ten Boom's example of faith and joy in the midst of trial I can't even imagine. And so they get to hear about my affections for the Lord, how I want to grow to be more like that kind of maturity that we're reading about.
33 · Steve applies the storytelling mandate through hospitality, urging parents to invite guests to share conversion stories while children listen—turning dinner table into gospel proclamation
What about hospitality? Think about what you do with your hospitality. When you have somebody over into your home and you take a few minutes and say, hey, could you tell us how you became a Christian, how you ended up here at the church, and your kids are sitting around, they're hearing another story of coming to faith in Christ. That's a gift. That's another way to preach the gospel.
34 · Steve applies the mandate by urging parents to narrate God's ordinary daily help rather than complaining, providing concrete examples of testimony about self-control and project completion that reveal God's active presence to listening children
You could talk to your kids this week about how the Lord has blessed you. It's so easy to complain. So easy to complain about the traffic, how difficult work is, but instead to talk about what we're grateful for. Say, kids, let me tell you, you wouldn't have any way to know this if I didn't tell you, but I was at work today and let me tell you how the Lord helped me. Lord gave me grace to exercise self-control and not enter into gossip with a coworker. The Lord gave me help to finish this project ahead of schedule. Whatever it is, there's things there you can talk about, ways you can introduce them to them.
35 · Steve asserts God's eagerness to bless generational discipleship, emphasizing divine empowerment by the Spirit and God's intention to accomplish His purposes through parental faithfulness in storytelling
In all of this, I hope you see in Psalm 78 how eager God is to bless the passing on of the gospel to the next generation. God wants to empower it by his Spirit. God intends to get stuff done in your family through your faithfulness as you pass on the gospel.
36 · Steve transitions from the first point (mandate) to the second point (message), framing the shift as answering the question of content after establishing the call to action
So church and families, we have a mandate to tell the coming generation. Now Asaph doesn't stop there. Not only do we have a mandate, we also have a message. So secondly, we have a message, what to tell the coming generation. You might think, this is great, okay, what am I supposed to tell them about?
37 · Steve expounds verses 4-5, identifying two categories in Asaph's content mandate: God's saving works (glorious deeds, might, wonders) and God's Word (testimony and law), summarized as "God's works and God's Word
Well, Asaph makes it clear. Look at verses 4 and 5. We will not hide them from their children. We will tell to the coming generation, first, the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. It's actually like all one thing. And second, he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. Okay, I got 3 things that are one thing and then 2 things that are one thing. So what are these things? Glorious deeds of the Lord, his might and wonders. That's how God has worked salvation for Israel, a testimony in Jacob, and a law in Israel. That is the Word of God. So just to boil it down real simple, we're called to teach our children, teach the next generation God's works and God's Word. Should be easy to remember: God's works and God's Word.
38 · Steve identifies the "glorious deeds" as code language for the Exodus, establishing it as the Old Testament's paradigmatic saving work—the event to which all subsequent biblical writers return as proof of God's saving power and pattern
First, we teach them God's works. What are the glorious deeds of the Lord that Asaph is referring to? Well, these phrases right here, glorious deeds, his might, the wonders that he has done. These are like code words for a very significant event in the life of Israel. And if we were to keep reading, we would understand really clearly what you might already be able to guess, and that is this is about the Exodus. Throughout the Old Testament, the Exodus is the great saving work of God. It is the example par excellence of God's desire and power and ability to save his people. And so over and over again throughout your Old Testament, the writers of the Old Testament, the prophets, the psalmists, Solomon in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, are always looking back to the Exodus. Remember salvation. Remember how God saved his people. He can do it again.
39 · Steve performs a biblical-theological move by mapping the Exodus onto Christ's greater saving work: Jesus as the new Moses, sin as the new Egypt, the cross as the new Red Sea, wilderness wandering as the present age, and heaven as the new Promised Land—urging the church to teach this fulfillment pattern
Well, brothers and sisters, a Christian reading of Psalm 78— well, we still want to teach our children about the Exodus, because it reveals God's character in powerful ways. But for us as Christians, we have an even greater exodus to tell our children about. And all of the main characters and breathtaking events of the story of the exodus are fulfilled in an even greater way in Christ. Jesus is our Moses. He is our leader and our representative before God. And just as the Israelites were enslaved and in bondage in Egypt, we were enslaved to sin. And as Moses led them out and across this dangerous passing through the Red Sea, Jesus has brought us out at great personal cost to himself and freed us from our sins by his blood. And now, just like the Israelites wandered in the desert, We were wandering for 40 years in the wilderness of this world awaiting our home. And one day Moses— well, Moses died, he didn't get to see it. His successor Joshua led his people into the Promised Land. We have a promised land too. We have the hope of heaven. And one day the Lord will return or we will die, either way we will see our Father face to face. And be clothed with new bodies that are set free from the presence and the burden of sin. What a gift! Glorious deeds, might, wonders. Let's teach them the story. Let's teach these children the story of the Exodus. Let's teach them the story of the Christian Exodus through Christ.
40 · Steve expounds the psalm's narrative structure as a four-beat rhythm—Israel's rebellion, God's righteous anger, Israel's repentance, God's merciful forgiveness—a pattern he visually studied with colored highlighters
There is a rhythm to this psalm. As you go through Psalm 78, there's a description of what happens to Israel. They There's a low point. Israel should have been following God. They rebel God. They receive, secondly, God's righteous anger. They repent, and then God is merciful to forgive them. I went through the Psalm with 4 different colored highlighters and highlighted those 4 themes of rebellion, anger, repentance, and forgiveness. Very illuminating just to see all 4 of those themes in this Psalm. They're all there.
41 · Steve asserts that teaching God's works includes teaching God's character—specifically His covenantal mercy and steadfast love articulated in the psalm's rhythm and echoed in Psalm 34
We're going to teach them about God's ways. Teach the coming generation about God's ways. Ways with his people, that he is merciful and gracious, slow to abounding— excuse me, slow— I got messed up there. Slow, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and mercy. Remember Psalm 34. What a gift that we can teach our children this truth.
42 · Steve transitions to the second content category—God's Word—asserting that parents must teach children not merely Bible content but Bible love, evidenced by personal reading habits
So we teach them God's works and we teach them God's word. Let's teach them about this book. Let's teach them to read it, to know it, to love it. To read it for themselves.
43 · Steve illustrates progressive Bible training through his family's practices—from audio Bible for toddlers through age-appropriate Bibles to ESV Study Bibles and church-wide read-through-the-Bible challenges enabling spontaneous conversation about passages like 2 Samuel 7
When our kids were little, we started them on audio. Thank God for technology these days. We can just play the Bible for them. I— when I was— my kids were little, I would record myself reading books of the Bible and play that for them, which was a little weird first thing in the morning to walk by my kids' room and hear myself reading the Bible in there, but worked out all right. We wanted to to help our kids develop habits from a very early age of taking in God's word. And as they got a little older, then we would get them kids' Bibles that were appropriate to their age, and then kids' Bible studies where they would, you know, they would read a little bit of the Bible and do a connect the dot and color it in and draw a picture of the Exodus or whatever the case might be. And then we moved them up to young adult Bibles. And then a couple of years ago, they started getting ESV study Bibles, big fat ones for their Christmas and Now, for the last 3 years, I think, my kids, every year we've been doing it. My kids have been joining in on the church's read-through-the-Bible challenge. So read the entire Bible in a year, which is so great to be able to, as we're driving around, we're all reading from the same chapters each day. And so we can pull up to a stoplight and let's talk about 2 Samuel 7. What'd you think about that covenant with David, huh? That was great. We get to have conversations about what we're reading in God's Word. We're teaching them to love this book.
44 · Steve summarizes the second point by asserting that teaching God's works and Word is a lifelong, phase-appropriate parental responsibility aimed at cultivating children's love for Scripture
So we're going to teach them God's works and God's Word at every age, in every phrase— phase of their lives. We want to teach them to know and love this book.
45 · Steve transitions to the third point by signaling that Asaph provides not just command and content but compelling reasons—motives—for generational storytelling
And if that isn't reason enough to encourage you to tell the coming generation, there is more. Asaph also tells us why all the people of God have a God-given responsibility to tell the coming generation. So we have a mandate, we have a message, we also have a motive. So if you've taken notes, the third point is the motive, why to tell the coming generation.
46 · Steve expounds verses 5-6 by counting the generational cascade—fathers, their children (us), the next generation, the children yet unborn, and their children—establishing that faithful storytelling impacts 4-5 generations, not merely one
Look at verses 6 through 8. See how 6, 7, and 8 all begin with the word "that." There are 3 reasons here that we should do this. First, this is about more than just your children. There's more generations in view here than just your direct offspring or the next generation that is being served in kids ministry here. You got to back up into verse 5 to see this. Let's see if we can count them. He established a testimony, he appointed a law, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children, that's us, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children. And depending on how you count it, that's either 4 or 5 generations in view. Generational storytelling has generational effects.
47 · Steve applies the generational math by tracing exponential gospel impact—three children becoming dozens or hundreds of influenced people through marriage, neighbors, coworkers, friends across just a few decades
Think about it. If you teach your kids the gospel, there are downstream— Lord willing, there will be downstream effects of that for generations to come. I mean, just do the math. If you have a few kids, If you have— well, you know, the national average is what, like 1.7 kids per family or something? So if you have a big family and you have 3 children and those few kids each have a few kids of their own, those few kids have a few kids of their own, and they all get married and they have neighbors and coworkers and friends, it's not long, a few generations, a couple of decades, You have influenced dozens, maybe hundreds of people. That is gospel impact in the world.
48 · Steve applies the generational vision to exhausted fathers by urging them to mentally seat future generations—grandchildren, great-grandchildren—around the dinner table to find motivation for sacrificing rest to engage children in gospel conversation
And so dads, when you come home from work and you just are worn out and you feel too tired to ask about the kids' day and what they learned and what happened at work, at school today, you don't want to talk about how God helped you at work. You just want to veg out. You want to eat your dinner. You want to put the game on. Think about this. Around that dinner table, it's more than just your kids. In your mind, you need to pull up some more chairs, a lot of chairs, a lot of chairs, because your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, maybe your great-great-grandchildren are seated around that table. And so whatever sacrifice of strength and attention is needed in that moment, it will be worth it for a generation that you cannot yet see.
49 · Steve directly addresses mothers with pastoral empathy, acknowledging the Sisyphean nature of daily tasks while affirming that their faithful presence and gospel conversation are modeling generational discipleship for their children's future parenting
And mothers, oh mothers, we have so much respect and appreciation for the work that you do. It seems like almost everything you do, especially if your children are young, almost everything you do is done to be undone. Beds are made only to be slept in again, and meals are cooked only to be eaten, and floors are mopped only to be tracked upon again. Clothes are cleaned quickly to be dirtied. Over and over, day after day, it is a wearisome task. And yet the Lord is using this. The Lord is using your sacrifice, your perseverance, your faithfulness, your willingness to get down on a child's level and share in their joys, to feel their hurts, to talk to them about the hopes and the faithfulness of Christ through the gospel. You are preparing them to do the same thing for their children. You're showing them how it's done. And that's gonna happen, Lord willing, generation after generation. So don't grow weary in doing good.
50 · Steve expounds verse 7 as a three-stage process—knowing, remembering, obeying—asserting that children set their hope in God by progressing from knowledge to memory to action in a divinely-designed sequence that parents facilitate through gospel teaching
There's more reasons to do this. Look at verse 7, so that they should set their hope, follow this progression here, so they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Set their hope in God, keep the— not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. The idea here is that they need to know what they would know. We teach the gospel to them. We pass on the truths of this book to the next generation so that they'll know what they know, so that they will remember what they know, and so that they will act on what they remember. There is a God-designed process here. That we help our children to obey by teaching them the gospel.
51 · Steve expounds verse 8 as the third motive—warning against hardening—explaining that Israel's cyclical rebellion serves as a cautionary tale so the next generation can learn from failure and choose a different path, citing 1 Corinthians 10's interpretive principle
And thirdly, so that they will not harden their hearts. That's in verse 8. They should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. This is a warning. This verse is a warning. Passing on the gospel to them, part of it is to say, do you see what happens when people are unfaithful to God, when they wander from God? Do you see how the nation of Israel keeps going down and down and they get disciplined, they come back up for a little bit, down and down and down? This pattern. It doesn't have to be like that. 1 Corinthians 10 says that those stories are there, are an example to us so that we might learn from them and do differently.
52 · Steve balances the warning with gospel promise, asserting that teaching Israel's failures includes teaching God's faithfulness to forgive confessed sin—turning warning into encouragement
And so let's teach these stories as a way to warn our children and to encourage them with the promise of forgiveness, that if our children sin, our God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness when we confess. That is a gift.
53 · Steve concludes by locating Cross of Grace Church within the millennia-long stream of generational storytelling begun by Asaph, summarizing the sermon's three points and elevating storytelling from entertainment to divine pleasure—a means God eagerly blesses in homes and churches
And so we tell these stories to warn them. We tell these stories so that the next generation would know the glorious deeds of the Lord. All of this is meant to accomplish the same generational storytelling in our families and in our church. It's the same thing. We're doing the same thing that Asaph did here in Psalm 78. The same thing that God's people have done now for millennia. We're standing in that same stream. When we tell the story of the gospel from our lives or from the lives of saints who have gone before us in church history or from the stories that are contained in this book, in any case, we are shaping the next generation. And so parents and church, let's see together how we have a mandate and a message and a motive to proclaim the gospel to the coming generation. And as we do, this is not mere entertainment for our children. This is not just a way to pass time on a road trip or to have something to talk about around the dinner table. I hope you see in Psalm 78, I hope you hear and feel in Psalm 78 how it pleases the Lord when we do this and how eager he is to bless and prosper the proclamation of his word in your home and in this church. May it please him to use these stories to shape the coming generation.
54 · Steve prays for the congregation's faithfulness in generational storytelling, asking for courage and perseverance for parents and fruitfulness in kids ministry that produces conversions, baptisms, and multi-generational church membership lasting decades or centuries if Christ delays His return
Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this book. Thank you for these stories. Thank you for the stories that our fathers and mothers told us, stories that were passed on to us. We pray that you would help us to be faithful to pass on these stories to the next generation as well. Father, I pray especially for fathers and mothers. Give them courage, conviction, and perseverance in this task. And I pray for this church, you would cause them to be fruitful and effective. Lord, may there be from this kids' ministry, may there be salvation, may there be conversions and baptisms and children who are added to membership in this church, who take their place in this church, who then grow up, get married, and start families of their own, and the process is repeated again. May this church prosper in the proclamation of the gospel to the next generation for decades, and if you tarry, even centuries to come. We pray all this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, whom we love with all our hearts. Amen. Amen.