Don't Drop the Baton: Gen Z Needs JESUS | Run To Win | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching every week really some podcasts that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free now. Enjoy this Bible teaching. Hey Lake Point family, it's good to gather with you guys. Got your Bible so I'm going to ask you to turn to two passages real quick. If you could turn to Hebrews chapter 12 and then if you could put your finger in Judges chapter 2, why are you turning there? Can I just say at all of our campuses we had students that helped us lead worship, they hosted the services, student on LP news, and hey Lake Point family, what we say here is that we don't just want to be a church that makes great disciples, although we're all about that. We also want to be a place that builds strong families and we do that by investing real heavy in the next generation that we're raising up. And so, Lake Point family, can you just one more time, can we honor all the students that put it out there at all of our campuses, man, and we're on the stages. Amen, amen, amen. All right, man. That was awesome. That blessed me. Okay, I also want to give you a heads up, something that you saw this in LP news. I just want to highlight it and explain to why. So for years, what'll happen is the weekend after Thanksgiving, you guys will have, you know, family comes in and it's like, here's what I hear every year is, man, Pastor Josh, my lost mom or my lost brother or sister or, you know, my lost family member, that's my one more. They come into town on Thanksgiving. It would be great if we had something that was like designed to help them come to know Jesus. So we test drove this last year. It was like total grand slam. We're gonna test drive it one more year, see if it sticks. So in order, I'm trying to respond to what you've told me. So the weekend after Thanksgiving, that's November 29th and 30th, that weekend, we're kicking off the Christmas series with one week only of Christmas at the movies. That's one week only. Okay. So that's like, thank you for that one person that's excited. That's awesome, man. So for one week, we're gonna do that. And it's like, literally, I reverse engineered the entire message from A, it's gonna be a ton of fun. That's gonna be great. But B, it's reverse engineered from helping somebody who doesn't know Jesus come to know Jesus. So anything you can do that week, that's gonna be your week. And I'll just give one little hint. It's a Christmas movie. And one little hint that towards the movie is just the, okay. So that's it. Now, if you're just listening to the podcast, you have no idea what's happening. Okay. But it's gonna be awesome. Okay. Sound good? All right. Well, we're gonna do it anyway. All right, there we go. That's great. All right. It's a bit we're picking up. All right. Let's get into it. Would you please stand with me if you're physically able out of reverence for the reading of God's word. This is the final week of the series in our run to win series. This is what says from Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Man, don't we feel that? And let us run. Some of you are like, run, you know, your favorite exercise is a cross between a lunge and a crunch. It's lunch, but this is, we're all gonna run this race. Let's run with endurance. The, will you say it? The, that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. You may say, man, what was the joy set before him that made him want to go to the cross? You were, you were. The spizing the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And all guys, people said, amen, you can have a seat. The book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12 that we're preaching today. This sermon is going to be very to the point. I only have two points today. The book of Hebrews chapter 12, it, it begins with the word therefore, and I'm going to begin with a little quip that is a very overused Bible teacher quip. But anytime in the Bible that you see the word therefore, you want to go backwards in the scriptures to see what the therefore is. Therefore is what they say. And what's interesting is in Hebrews chapter 12, now this is going to blow your mind, Hebrews chapter 12 for you Bible scholars is preceded by Hebrews chapter 11. It's amazing. It's amazing. Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the most famous chapters in the entire Bible. Bible scholars have historically called it the hall of faith. It's a play on the words hall of fame, because Hebrews chapter 11 is like the OGs, the real ones of all the scriptures. It goes all the way back to it begins with, with Abel in Genesis chapter two, three and four. Abel was the first martyr for the faith in the Bible. And then you get 16 consecutive stories about people who walked by faith. And the Bible tells us that by faith, they conquered kingdoms. And by faith, they cracked open seas. By faith, they shut the mouths of lions. They walked by faith. And so they overturned the world by their faith in, in God. But then it also says things like some of them by faith, they were thrown to the lions. Some of them were sawn in two. Some of them went to the grave. And the book of Hebrews chapter 11, it says that by faith, they awaited a day, they awaited a day when we all together with them would rise and see the Lord Jesus crack open the skies, and that we would receive the inheritance they look forward by faith. And that now what it's saying is that you are caught up in, we are caught up in the same race that those 16 people marked in Hebrews chapter 11 were running. Now, what's really interesting about the Christian life is when you became a Christian, the dominant analogy, the New Testament uses for the Christian life, I made you say it out loud, it's the analogy of a race. And that's what Hebrews 12 one says it uses that word. What's interesting is when you first become a Christian, you may think that it feels like a sprint. So you become a Christian, and it's like, okay, bro, you know, I want to get in the word. I want to know God, I want to be used on mission, I want my life to count for something that matters in eternity. And so you hurl yourself into the Christian life. But the thing about a sprint, I did a lot of I did some competitive running in high school and early college. The thing about a sprint is it's all about energy. It's all about fast twitch muscle response. It's burst, burst, burst. But but but the thing about energy is that energy evaporates if you're over 40 say amen, amen, okay, amen, we feel that I'm gonna get to that here in a second energy evaporates. And so we get to this spot where you may have had a well meaning discipleship oriented Christian, they came into your life and they're like, Hey, bro, hey, they may have said something like this. Hey, the Christian life is not a sprint. It's a what they say it's a marathon is what they said. And so here's the deal about a marathon. Whereas a sprint is about fast twitch muscle response burst. A marathon is about rhythms. It's about habits. Here's how you win a marathon is can you put one foot in front of the other mile after mile, tens of miles after tens of miles to 26.2. It's about rhythm. So then what the Christian life comes along and you start to realize like, bro, this thing's about rhythms. The question is in the Christian life, anybody can be in the word for a day and anybody can worship with the people of God for a week. Here's the question. Can you be in the word day after day? Morning by morning, I seek thee. Can you gather with the people of God with your family, toddling in after you week after week, month after month, decade after decade. That's how you win a marathon. But here's the one problem that I would say about that and Hebrews pushes against this is we think of the Christian life as a sprint or a marathon because that's just about us. It's very individualistic and we live in an extremely individualistic society. We don't think about families and we don't think about generations. We think about me. Me, me, me, I, I, I, we take selfies, not youies, me. Okay. But then Hebrews 11 and 12 come along and what they point out is that actually it's not really the Christian life is not primarily zoomed out like a sprint and it's not primarily like a marathon. It's primarily like a relay race. It's like a relay race. Now, what I've noticed is that is some dudes, I'm a sports dude. What I've noticed about sports dudes is there's, there's sports guys that are Olympics guys and there's sports guys that are not Olympics guys. I'm an Olympics guy. When the Olympics are on, the first thing I do in the morning is I wake up, I check the ESPN metal tracker and I want to see the dang red, white and blue at the top every morning. I'm looking, listen, I'm all in, bro. Thank you, man. That's it. I got some friends in here. I want to see, not only do I want us at the top, I want us to have the most goals. I'm all in. Okay. And my favorite one to watch is the men's four by 100 relay race. That's my favorite one. The reason is in the four by 100 relay race, there's always drama. Somebody's always getting eliminated. There's huge upsets. And here's a thing about, check this out. If a sprint is about energy and a marathon is about rhythms, what a relay race, here's what it's about. It's about the baton pass. A relay race comes down to this one tiny little spot in the race. It's called the exchange zone. The runners are typically in the exchange zone for about 1.9 seconds. And everything comes down to who can perform in the exchange zone. That's the question. So years ago, it was in 2021, the Tokyo, I think it was in Tokyo, the Olympics in Tokyo. For instance, the men's four by 100, the American men's four by 100 team, it was like a total done deal. Like, bro, they were going to win because we had three of the top 10 fastest runners in the world on the same team. So everybody was like, bro, this is done. Put it in a bank. Okay. But that year, not only did we not win, I don't even think we placed. We may have gotten brought, I don't think we placed. And here's why the, it doesn't matter. Here's the thing. It doesn't matter who's got the fastest runners. The question is, who can pass the baton the best, the exchange zone. So the reason we lost a year was because in the exchange zone, this happened, this happened right here. This dude chokeslammed this dude. That's what happened. So instead of the baton pass happening in the exchange zone, a choke slam happened, baton dropped. And because the baton dropped, we lost the race. Now, when you get to the book of Hebrews, what it's saying is that you right now, every person within the hearing of my voice, I have, the Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die and then comes judgment. The book of James says, what is your life? You are like a mist, a vapor, a breath that disappears on a crisp fall morning. That's your entire life. And the book of Hebrews, what it's saying is it's saying that you right now, you have been plucked out of eternity. God has positioned you in time. He has proportioned your gifts, your talents, and your resources. He has planted you in this house, in this church for a span of 80 years. It's going to be gone before you know it. And that's if you're blessed. And the question is, now you've got the baton and God is saying, tag church, you're it. And the question is, how will we run our race in the exchange zone? Will we pass the gospel baton from our generation to the next generation? Because listen to me, the gospel is always one generation away from extinction if one generation does not pass it to the next. Are we understanding this? Does this make sense? Okay, so this is what I want to talk about. I have a, I just got a two point sermon. This is it. It's going to go right at it. Okay. First, here's how this sermon is going to go. First, I'm going to talk to the youngs. And then I'm going to talk to the olds. And I'm in the olds now. Okay. So let me start right here. Where are, I was going to say my people, I'm going to say your people. Where are your people, where are the people at who are under the age of 35 at all of our campuses? Raise your hand, raise your hand, raise your hand. First of all, look around. God bless the fact that right now we got church full of young men and women. Amen. Amen. That's awesome. That's awesome. Now, let me actually do it one more time. Under 35, put your hand up. God bless your vision, your flexibility, your ability to eat carbs. God bless you. God bless you. Eat the carbs while you can. In Jesus' name. Okay. All right. Let me say this to you. If you just had your hands up, you are a best chance. You're a best chance. Okay. Now, let me, let me talk about what I mean when I say that. What, here's my point. My point is, if you just raise your hand, what I'm going to beg you to do for the next three or four minutes is elevate your vision for your life. Elevate your vision for your life. About five months ago, I preached a sermon and people went back online about two months ago, found this little clip and then they clipped out. It went kind of viral because they were like, this guy's a prophet. I want to show you what that was and then I want to show you something. The reason they said that and it's all going to make sense here in a second. Okay. Now, let's do a little theology real quick. When you read the Bible and church history and church history is just family history. What you're going to notice is that there are two things that God typically works through what theologians call the ordinary operations of the spirit and the extraordinary operations of the spirit. These two things, the ordinary operations of the spirit are when the church is just doing what we ordinarily do. We're preaching a word. We're discipling people. We're helping a poor. We're doing all the things. And when that happens, the gospel advances in quote unquote, it's ordinary ways. The gates of hell should not prevail against that. That's awesome. But then there are moments in church history where the Holy Spirit works through what are called the extraordinary operations of the spirit. And listen, some people call them revivals. Some people call them spiritual awakenings. Here's all I know. Sometimes God will do more in a year than man with his organizing can do in 50. God would just downpour. He will just downpour an outpouring of the spirit and it just catches people up. Now, check this out. And I got a point to this. Just try to just roll with me. We have had four of those in our nation's history. Four times in our nation's history, something like that has happened. I want to show you this. The first one happened. It was called the first grade awakening. You read about it in high school, happened around 1730 to 1740. And there were two dudes, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. Fun fact, go read your history books. In 1730, 1740, the most famous George W. in America was not George Washington. It was George Whitfield. Weird looking, overweight, cross-eyed preacher. Brogis wanders out into these fields, starts preaching to sometimes 60,000 people, open air preaching. It is just a total preacher stud. And then you got Jonathan Edwards. You had to read Jonathan Edwards in high school. He's the guy that wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, walks into a church, come back to me, walks back into a church in Connecticut, in this tiny little church, reads the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God with his back to the congregation, because he didn't want the emotional affect of his voice to manipulate people as he reads it, extraordinary operation of the spirit. The spirit just falls, such a sense of the presence of God fell on that church in Connecticut, that there are firsthand accounts of people in the church gripping the backs of the pews, because they feared they would fall into hell as conviction of sin, the reality of the wrath of God and the grace of God began to fall on the people. Now this just, it metastasized, blew up all over America. Interesting side note for people who like American history, I'm all in. Our nation could never have been born like it was. It was born out of the first great awakening, this massive outpouring of the spirit. And so this happened. So that was the first one, okay, 1740, into 1740. Now the second one happened in our nation, second grade awakening, 1790 to 1850. Primary voice was this guy named Charles Finney. It was Charles Finney and a dude named Father Nash. Father Nash was like the prayer warrior. Charles Finney would send him into cities a month before he went to preach and ask him to pray for the worst lost people in the city. There are stories of him praying with such vigor that he would get like nosebleeds while he's praying for these unconverted sinners. Charles Finney walks out into the middle of nowhere in rural New York state in Rochester, New York. For about a month, he preaches a series of sermons, 100,000 people start streaming to this little church, 100,000 people are saved, and it's just a massive outpouring of God's spirit for a span of 60 years. Millions of people in our nation are caught up into the kingdom of God, changes the trajectory of the nation, okay. Now the third one, that was the second one, the third one happened around 1900, 1910. Primary voice was this dude named D. L. Moody. Now for my charismatic brothers and sisters, this was also around the time of the Azusa street revival that birthed the charismatic movement that we have today around the same time. The primary voice was this dude named D. L. Moody, uneducated shoe salesman. Brother was just a shoe salesman. He gets saved at 18 years old, he starts preaching. He's preaching this little church and these two, listen man, these two elderly women senior saints. Man, let me just say, they were prayer warriors. Can I just say this? The kingdom of God advances on the backs of praying senior saints. You watch it all throughout history, that's what God does man. God bless you, we need you man, we need you. So these two elderly senior saint women, they grab D. L. Moody after he's preaching like, hey, we're praying for you to have a radical encounter with the spirit. He's like, I don't know what you're talking about. With, and they're like, well just wait, you will. Within a month, he's walking by a church, he just has this encounter with the spirit, so radical that later in his life, he never talks about it for the rest of his life. Later in his life, he just says, what happened to me was so powerful that I had to ask God to stay his hand because I thought I was going to die. Just a radical outpouring of the love of the Father. Same thing, both in North America and Great Britain, massive outpourings of God's spirit. He's preaching in both places, changes in the face of our nation. That's third one. Now, the fourth one, some of you were alive for the fourth one, okay? Laughter, laughter, laughter. Some of you were alive for the fourth one. The fourth one, 1960 to 1975, Billy Graham, come on somebody and Chuck Smith. Now, let's go man, legends, legends. Now, let me just ask this question. So this was like the Jesus movement, the Jesus revolution. Was anybody here that was saved in the Jesus movement, the Jesus revolution? Right down here, that's amazing, okay? But that's, God bless that. That's, that doesn't be good. Amazing. Okay, now, check this out. If you don't know this story, here's what happened. All right, God do it again. Here's what happened. In 1966, it was like faith in our nation was on such a decline that the cover of Time Magazine, I love talking about this, asked the question in big bold letters, is God dead? Karl Marx quote, is God dead, okay? Then you see right here, from 1960 to 1975, this, this dude named Chuck Smith walks out in California. He opens his Bible, starts preaching verse by verse, just exegetical Bible teaching through the Bible. All these like, unshowered, like drug-addled, gross smelling hippies, start str- no shoes. They start streaming into this church. A dude named, I don't have time, just God starts pouring out his spirit in such a radical measure that, that think about this, college campus all over America, millions of college students saved. In 1966, Time Magazine cover is God dead. Five years later, the cover of Time Magazine says, Jesus revolution, Jesus revolution, and the whole thing, listen, the whole thing culminated right here in Dallas, Texas. 80,000 college, college and young adults, Christian college young adults, students gathered at the cotton bowl, and I want to get it right, get gathered in Expo 72. I'm curious, was anybody at Expo 72, anybody? Maybe, I hear applause, okay, right there, you were there, okay. Now, that, we had a lady right down here that was there, as well, okay. Now, if you go look, that is still to this day, the largest gathering of Christian college students in the history of our nation. You go look at the pictures, it's a bunch of these college students holding up one finger in the air, because all over the nation, what was sweeping college campuses was not like woke pagan secularism, it was college students holding up a finger going, Jesus is the one way, He's the way, the truth and the life, nobody comes to Father except through Him. It was sweeping college campuses, okay. Now, so check this out, man, let man do it again. Now, here's my point, here, why are you saying this, Josh? Here's what I'm saying, let me point this out. So, check this out, from 17, from first grade awakening, second grade awakening, 50 years, second grade awakening, third grade awakening, 50 years, third grade awakening, fourth grade awakening, 50 years, if you take 1975 plus 50 years, guess what you get? You get 2025 is what you get. Now, come on, now listen, here's why, here's why people took that clip, I preached that five months ago, walked through that five months ago, here's why people took that clip and it started going viral. So, it's right after I preach about two weeks, about two months later, you get the assassination of Charlie Kirk, okay. All of a sudden, there's all these little tremors of something going on spiritually in our nation. Like, I mean, like, look over there right now, like, we've seen attendance swell at Lake Point in person, up towards 27,000 people on a weekend. People sitting on stairs, just hear the Bible preach, because they walk in, they can't find a seat. Right now, what you're seeing in our nation, check this out, some stats here. Right now, Bible sales are up 41.6% since 2022. Whoa, hang on, hang on, hang on, religious apps downloads are up 79.5% since 2019. You got this one, song streams of contemporary Christian music up 50% since 2019. You get in an Uber right now, anywhere in America, it's Forrest Frank with a banger every time. It's like, what just happened? Shout out Forrest Frank. And then, bro, check this out, man. Read this this week. Gen Z and millennials are now the largest church attenders in America. Come on, somebody. Lord, do it again, man. Do it again. Now, you may be going, all right, Josh, why are you saying this? Here's why I'm saying it, because if you raised your hand a second ago, here's what everybody says about Gen Z. All everybody just screams at you all day long, whether they're like, oh man, you're a lazy, entitled, narcissistic, purposeless, video game addicted, porn, adult, brat, waste of time. That's all. Anybody's been yelling at you. In fact, I went into grok this week. I was like, hey, generate an image of a stereotypical Gen Z dude. And this is like, you got, yeah, that's it, man. I don't even know. Just take in that glory. I don't even know what that means. I made sure, Mike, I was told my kids, do I got it? Also, notice the six seven on the, that's it, man. I said, we were done with that joke. We got to kill it. Take that down. Take that down. Okay, let me just say, Hey, listen, listen, listen, that's not your destiny. That's not your destiny. And here's, listen, man, here's how I know that's not your destiny to go back to all those awakenings. Okay, I'm going to read this. Look at these names. All right, look at all the names under them. Okay, when Jonathan Edwards starts preaching in the first grade awakening, he's 30. He's 30. George Whitfield, cross-eyed dude, wanders into a field when he starts preaching, he's 25. Charles Finney is 29 when he's out in Rochester preaching the word of God. DL Moody starts preaching at 18. Travels over to Great Britain when he's 24, leading this worldwide revival movement. Billy Graham, people think, you know, if you even know who he is, and you raise your hand, sad if you don't, people think of Billy Graham as, oh, he was the elder statesman of Christian America. Bro, Billy Graham started preaching when he was 18 years old. The Jesus movement, wall-to-wall hippies in their teens and twenties. Here's my point, man, these, if you raise your hand earlier, these are not the years for you to spend your life drinking and playing X-Box and watching porn and scrolling TikTok three hours a day. These are the years to consecrate yourself for the purposes of God. This is right now, man. You're our best chance. This is what we need. So, let me leave you this question. All right, let me leave you this question. Let me talk to people like my age and up real quick. If you raise your hand a second ago, here's the question I want to ask you. Somebody asked me this question when I was 16 years old. I am doing right now what my answer to that question was when I was 16 years old. What would you attempt with your life if you knew that God was with you and you could not fail? What would you attempt with your life if you knew that God was with you and you could not fail? What you need is a God-glorifying vision for how you can spend your life for something that actually matters. And then you go out and attack it with a ferocity previously unknown to mankind, knowing that the wind of the Spirit is at your back. Amen, church. Come on, man. That's what we want to see, and we're cheering you on. Now, let me finish talking to me. All right, so where are the people at who are over 35? Where are you at? You raised your hand. Oh, man. I hear that, bro. What do I do one more time? Where are you at? You're like, oh, man, that hurt. It hurt. Literally, it's like I slept on the wrong this week, my shoulder hurt for two days. Welcome to... That's it. Now, if you just raise your hand at any of our campuses, here's what we got to do. We got to do our job. We got to do our job. Let me read you, I think, might be the saddest verse in the Bible. It's from the book of Judges. I know everybody today, they were like, I hope he's in Judges today. Give me some Judges, you know? Okay. Here, let's give... Here we go. Judges two. And the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua, good name, strong name, masculine name. And all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had... I want you to say this word out loud. Who had what? They had seen all the great work the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, that was his dad's name. It didn't mean he didn't have a dad. The servant of the Lord died at the age of 110. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath Haris in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaiosh. And all that generation were also gathered to their fathers. Now watch what happens after that generation passes away. And there arose another generation after them. Here's the tragedy, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. So here's what happened. There was a generation who think about this. They saw all the works of the Lord. Think about what that generation saw. Joshua and his generation, they literally watched their dads slaughter spotless lambs and smear the blood on the doorposts. And with their own eyes, they watched the angel of death pass in front of every place where the blood of an innocent lamb had been spilled. Come on, man. They watched with their eyes. Moses walk up to an ocean, hold a stick in the air, and God crack open an ocean. And with their own feet, their feet sank into the moist mud, and they walked through as if on dry ground. They saw the manna in the wilderness. They saw the Jordan River split open. They saw the walls of Jericho fall. They started as slaves in a land, and they ended their life in possession of a promised land. They saw all of it, but here's what they did. They had the baton, and they dropped it. And they did not pass the knowledge of who God was or his works to that next generation. And as a result, that generation death spirals into godlessness and opposition to God throughout the entire book of Judges. Can I say this to you, Lake Point Church? Listen, bro, we got amazing things happening. People sitting on the stairs and attendants doing the thing. We may baptize towards 3,000 people this year. The digital team, bro, this is insane. Digital team, I don't know about all this stuff. It's way above my pay grade. Digital team, let me know. This week, I think by the end of the year, like 600 million person reach on Bible teaching from Lake Point via digital stuff. Just like insane things happen. You don't got to do that. You don't got to do that. Insane stuff. But listen, if we do not listen, if we just raised our hand, I raised my hand. If we don't do our job and we drop it, that next generation arises who will know nothing of the Lord. Now, here's how I want to end the message. How do we make sure we don't do that? How do we make sure? Now, so Hebrews 11, Hall of Faith, half of the word count almost of Hebrews 11 is devoted to three guys, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Check this out. Watch. A grandfather, a father and a son. Now, this is really interesting. Your homework this week, go read Genesis 25. I don't have time. I'm not reading any of here. But let's do a little theology. In the book of Genesis, there is a phrase that serves as the spine of the book of Genesis. It's the phrase, these are the generations of. So in Genesis chapter two, it says these are the generations of the heavens and the earth. 10 times throughout the book of Genesis, it says these are the generations of, these are the generations of, these are the generations of, 10 times. And it culminates at the end of the book of Genesis by saying, and these are the generations of this guy we are mentioning right here, Jacob. Now, the point of the book of Genesis, check this out, is generations. And when God wants to generate something, his plan is to do it through generations. That's the point. Side note, I'm going to say this so I'm blue in the face. We're doing the opposite of that in our nation right now. What we're doing in our nation right now is we're breaking down men and then we're trying to get the government to do what the dads are supposed to do. So we're, let's wait, hang on, hang on. We're breaking down men, trying to get the government to do what the dads are supposed to do. So then the government is saying, hey, we'll provide for you, we'll protect you, we'll educate you, we'll decide right and wrong for you, we'll indoctrinate you. Hey, hey, listen, we don't need that. We need less government. We need more godly fathers. That's what we need, man. That's what we need. More godly dads. That's what we need. Generations. Now, check this out. Listen, man, this is just stick with me. We're going to end with a bang here. Okay. So what you get at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is check this out. Abraham, first believer in his family. His dad was a pagan worship, pagan demonic false gods. So he gets handed a bad baton. Okay. Abraham handed a bad baton. As a result, Abraham is, he's a blessed mess. Dude's a total mess. He's a chronic liar. He has like three wives. He lies about his wife being his sister. It's, I don't have time to go in. It's a total mess. Okay. Real Jerry Springer type stuff. The whole time is that's Abraham, but he was the first believer in his family. So he at least handed a baton of faith to his son, Isaac. Listen, some of you, you're like, bro, my life's a mess. Yeah, yeah. But you're the first believer in your family tree and your entire lineage will be different because you as a man or a woman, you chose to bend your knee to the Lord ship of Jesus and you're going to hand a different baton on than you got handed. Okay. So that's Abraham. Now what happens is, check this out. Because Abraham does that, watch this. Abraham's ceiling becomes his son's floor and his son takes the baton from where his dad was and he runs farther and goes faster than his dad. So Isaac is a little better than Abraham. Isaac, he's just like his dad. He's waiting on the promises of God, but instead of taking another wife and having a fair like Abraham did, he prays to the Lord on behalf of his wife. And here's what we know about Isaac. He had one wife, his whole life. He was faithful to that wife. He was a believer and he was a man of prayer. His dad's ceiling became his floor and he moved on. Now after Isaac comes Jacob. Now this is, here's what happens with Jacob. Genesis 25, when the time came for her, his mom, to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. God bless you ladies. The first to come out was red. Okay. And his whole red, highlight that, and his whole body was like a hairy garment. So he's like a furry ginger is what we got. This is what you got for, his name was, I have a red-headed wife right down here. I'm allowed to make those jokes. Okay. So they named him Esau. So furry ginger. Now I love this. What's interesting is archaeology is always confirming what theology was also always saying. They're always digging up stuff that confirms what the Bible was always saying. The most reputable source of this is the encyclopedia of biblical archaeology. A few years ago, they dug up something that confirmed that Esau had existed. They dug this up. It was amazing. That's it. That's great. It's a joke. Take that down. Take that down. Yeah, that's it. Now here's a, here's a point. Check this out. Jacob does better than Isaac. So for Jacob, he walks with intimacy with God. He's the one that birthed 12 tribes of Israel. God gives him the name Israel. That's where all comes from Jacob. And he's the one that becomes a nation. Now watch this. Because the baton was passed Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, each generation's ceiling became the next generation's floor. And that is the opportunity that we have. Now here's how I want to finish. Every time I'm preaching, I'll stand like right here. And when I'm preaching, I'm always a little surprised at the stage that doesn't cave in. Because there's not three guys preaching to you every week, or not one guy preaching every week. There's three men that are preaching to you every week. Jerry Howardton, Rick Howardton, and Josh Howardton. All three guys are preaching every week. Now here's what I mean by that. So this is my Pat Ball Jerry. He's giving Vince Gill, if you look close enough. And this is me right here. I look like a squish mellow. And my little Oshkosh Begosh thing outfit. So this is Jerry. My Pat Ball Jerry, he's hugging Jesus now. I miss him. I miss him. He was a good man. He was born in abject poverty in the Ozark Mountains. Son of an egg farmer, didn't always have a house, grew up for part of his life, sleeping in somebody else's garage. Rough life, rough life. But somewhere along the way, when he was a teenager, he bent his knee to the Lordship of Jesus, and Jesus began to change Jerry Howardton's life. And he found a cute little girl who loved Jesus, and he married Doris Howardton. And because he'd been as needed the Lordship of Jesus, he had, he was faithful to one woman his entire life. He wore a heart. Jerry Howardton wore a heart. Truck driver for part of his life, worked himself into three heart attacks and spinal stenosis. Kind of guy who knew how to swing a hammer. He was all that stuff. Okay. Worked hard. Later in his life goal, my Pat Ball Jerry's life goal was to be the first Howardton to graduate college. This is his life goal. And show that next picture when he was 50 years old, he achieved his goal. 50 years old, first Howard and ever to graduate from college. Got a Bible degree, and Jerry became a country preacher in his little country churches in Missouri and Kentucky, all over the place. Never passed a church and more than 200 people. But watch this, but because he'd been as needed the Lordship of Jesus, his ceiling, he passed a different baton to his son that he got handed. His ceiling became his son's floor. So in this picture, so this is Jerry. This is my dad over here. People call him Rick, but his real name is Ricky. He won't like that I said that on stage. This is Ricky. Now, so that's Jerry, that's Ricky, but then go to the next one. And here's, here's Ricky and Joshy is who that is. So here's what my dad, my dad is. My dad's probably the best man I've ever met. My dad has the spirit of Barnabas in him, man. You can't be within 100 feet of my dad without being encouraged in the Lord and given strength and courage. And my dad, because Jerry passed him a different baton, he grew up around the Word of God, growing up with the worship of God, hearing the things of God. And so my dad went to Bible college, found a, found a cute girl who loved Jesus when he was in college, married my mom, Julie, one of the greatest women you're ever gonna meet, just loves people death. And, and so that my dad, he took Papua's baton. My dad also became a pastor. And so this picture is a picture of me and my dad standing in front of, my dad started a church, planted a church in Nashville. This is me and my dad right before I moved here to Texas, standing in front of the church sign of the church. My dad started. And so he literally handed me, I was the second pastor of that church. He literally handed me his ceiling, literally became my floor and he passed that baton to me. I passed that church for 10 years. Now this last picture, some of you actually were here when this happened. This is me and the founding pastor of our church, the legend himself, Pastor Steve Stroup. This is right here is a, this is in December of 2018. It was the week that I stood on this stage and Pastor Steve announced that I was going to be the next pastor of Lake Point Church. And when he announced that, there were people all over the country that were like, Josh? Who? Josh out? Because I was 34, 35 years old at the time. And they were like, Josh, like, usually at churches size, they're going to find somebody that's 50-ish. They're like, Josh, he's 34, 35. He's only got 10 years experience pasting a, pastoring a much smaller church. Why, why did you pick John? And here's part of why is because when I was 30 years old, 35 years old, I didn't have 10 years experience pastoring a church. I had 80 years experience of pastoring a church loaded into me by Jerry Howard, Rick Howard and Josh Howard. And in three generations in my family, one man's ceiling became the next generation's floor. And for every man and woman of God, for every father and mother, for every spiritual father and spiritual mother, hey guys, we got a job to do. It's to pass a baton to the next generation so that they go farther and do better than we were able to do. And they swing some axes for the kingdom of God long after all of us are hugging Jesus. That's our job, man. That's our job. Okay. So check this out. We're all in on that at Lake Point. We're all like in families and spiritual families. We're all in on that at Lake Point. You don't know it, but you're actually doing significant things to make that happen in the students at Lake Point Church. And so I want you to see an example of one story where that's happened through this testimony. Check this out with me right now. Feeling the weight of the cross on your back. This is what Jesus carried. He's so died such a horrible death for us. Feeling the weight of that on my shoulder. I couldn't do anything but cry. Hi, my name is Sammy. I am born and raised in Mesquite, Texas, growing up. We didn't really know Jesus. And that made it a really difficult faith journey. And I just didn't believe that there was a way that I could just be forgiven. One of my friends, Maya, I texted her because I knew she went to church. And I was like, I'm having ideas of just like self-image and self-harminess. How worthless and just how humiliating I am. I just don't know what else to do. She messaged me back and just told me, hey, why don't you come to church with me? I just remember walking in. All my friends are like, yeah, we're going to share the gospel. And I was so clueless. I was like, I don't even know what that is. When I saw people my age lifting their hands, worshiping God, I want to live like these people. I don't want to be stuck in my sin. I want to be able to hear what God has to say to me. He's doing for all my friends. I just remember feeling a calling. I am broken. And I am in need of a savior. I was just like, I need to raise my hand. I'm going to do it. I'm not going to go back. And so I did. And then like, honestly, my whole life changed after that. I just became very aware about financial stuff at a really young age. We really can't afford camp this year. We were really thankful to get scholarship fully. Any insecurity that I had about me not going just got flipped over. And when people give so willingly, it teaches you so much about their heart and so much about their willingness to serve God. Jesus really has transformed me inside and then out. And I think that he would just say, there's no amount of hurt that God doesn't already know and that his son didn't suffer. You're my creation. I made you perfectly in my image and I could just live for me. There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels, but one sinner turns from their sin. Are you going to trust God to lead you in your life? I really do just work out the number of people that Jesus spoke to tonight. One, two, three. It all comes down to faith. You'll be able to do something so much greater. Then you can even imagine. 230,000. My name is Sammy and this is how Jesus changed my life. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, Lake Point Church, we guys go ahead and stand with me. Stay with me. Go ahead and stand with me. And here's what we're doing right now is from now to the end of the year, we're receiving what we call our annual missions offering. And this is the offering that does a few things. It funds our 20-ish international partners taking the gospel to the nations. It funds our church planting network. It's planted 80 and counting thriving churches in the hardest to reach cities in North America. It funds our more than 40 local partners in the DFW area serving the last, lost, least and lonely in DFW. But what a lot of people don't know, this is also the offering that funds are massive and we make sure it's massive on purpose. Our massive student camp scholarship fund so that if any, listen, if any student wants to come, have a life changing encounter with a living God at student camp, we're going to make sure the answer is yes. Any, any, okay? So this offering funds that as well. Okay? So I'm asking you to do what my family's doing right now. I'm asking you to pray about what God would have you give above and beyond your normal giving to the annual missions offering from now to the end of the year. You can give that one of three ways. You'll see a envelope on the seat in front of you that says annual missions offering. You can, on a check, just write the word, the letters AMO in the subject line and we'll know that's for annual missions offering. Or you can text the word give to the number 20411 and choose annual missions offering from that drop down menu. But go ahead and begin praying about what God would have you give from now to the end of the year and that thing. Okay? Now, last right now, we're getting ready to receive our regular giving so you can give to that in the buckets they come by, in the boxes next to the doors on your way out. You can text the word gives to the number 20411. But right now, worship with us both as we give and as we sing. Let's go.