Compelled For The 10th Generation
AI Transcript
I have been absolutely sharpened by the women and it's a gift. Like we are not called to be alone. We are called to community. We're called to spur one another on, to encourage one another in truth and faith. And sometimes we feel like we don't have that faith and so we borrow it from sisters. The friendships and the relationships that I have are so interwoven. These are the people we're doing life with and really
all because God used Redemption Parker for a platform for his purposes and his people. And so we give because he's given much and we show up for one another because he's called us to community. And I think if you sit long enough in that body and you show up and you're vulnerable, you taste that. You just don't turn away because where else shall we go? Because there are women before me that showed up to prod and to poke.
and to remind me of truth and God's Word. When I really didn't probably have that to stand on alone and reminded to cling to the cross and to show up and to pour out for women because there are so many who showed up and poured out for me. The women's ministry, I guess if I had to sum it up in a couple of words, would just be sisters supporting one another in Christ. And that's what we do. And sometimes it looks really messy.
but that's where God, I think, does the beautiful work of what he does.
The way that RP's made a big difference in our life, just as a husband, as a father, coming into this church, the men's ministry, and the way that the men have come around and just connected with each other and engaged with as a father, as a husband, and to be able to connect with them. What they're going through, what I'm going through, has just been such a unique experience of vulnerability. It's not just a Bible study where we're going and we're learning and doing that. We're actually
living life together and engaging with each other and immersing ourselves in each other's lives in a way that's been just super fruitful for me in many ways and for my marriage and for my ability to be a great dad. With what Men's Ministry has done for me in my life, I feel compelled to just engage in other men's life to be able to share as much of what God's given to me with them. As I look at Redemption Parker and the next two years in this compelled initiative, definitely convicted on how am I giving.
Am I giving sacrificially? Am I giving generously? You can I give more? And then I go to the place of can I give more of my time, more of my energy? You what does that look like? Stirred up some really great conversation with my wife and I, just how do we be more involved and engaged with what we're doing at RP and how do we dig in just deeper?
Amen. good morning. Morning. Welcome. And if you are new here, welcome. If you're just joining us, we are in week five of six of our compelled series, which really is just a launching point to what we believe God is calling us to for the next couple of years in discipleship to go deeper in our relationship with Christ, to go wider on our mission with Christ and to go forward into what God is calling us to. So if you
don't have a series guide, you can get one on your way out at the compelled table, but we are on page 60 of that today. If you're just now joining us, you can begin to turn there. I'd like to start a question. It's a question I like to ask people that I know, strangers. I asked the guy I was playing tennis with yesterday this question, and it's this, have you read any good books so far this year? What's the best book, or maybe if you're not a reader,
What's the best movie that you've seen so far this year or what's the best TV show? So, so I'm going to ask that of you. This is an all play. Anyone want to be bold enough to say what's the best book you've read so far in 2026? Anyone? What's that? That's mine too. I'll get to that in a second. Anyone else? Second, that one. I'm about the third, that one. But what else we got here? Okay. Bye.
Dallas Willard, good. What'd you like about it?
Amen. It's a good one. Anyone else? Any novels or anything? Yeah.
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Yes. Let's just go Roman. What was that stat like? Men think about the Roman Empire every seven minutes or something like that? Yeah, Lucas. What do got?
Okay, you guys are too theological. Can we get more? That's a great one, by the way. I love it. How about some novels? I'm actually, I'm doing this whole thing with stories. That's where I'm going with this. How about stories? Any stories? Yeah.
the new PBS County Monte Cristo. Awesome. Who said Emma? Yes, I knew if you asked my wife, she would say, the unselected journals of Emma Lyons. Did I say it right? Yeah, I did not read it, but. And Ryan seconds that. I've heard about it and I'm like, I've got read that one, but she's rereading them. So I'll wake up at like three in the morning. She's just reading the book again. I'm like, what are you doing? All right. Well,
If I was Dancer, I would say Theo of Golden. I didn't know anything about it. I was on Amazon looking for another book and I said, what is this 4.8 stars with 60,000 reviews? I'm going to check that. That's not always a great indicator, but sometimes it is. And so I started to read the book and I was like, what is this? And I was amazed by it. I'm amazed by the story of the author, that in itself. He was 67 years old. It's his first novel.
What I loved about the book is it, more than many books that I know, most books that I know, it consistently elevates the imago de, the value of humanity in every person, regardless of socioeconomic, religious background, regardless of their successes and failures. Like this book consistently put before the reader the value of all people. And so,
I'm reading it and enjoying it and I'm like, hey, this is, I didn't cut onions. Why is my face leaking? What's going on here? I don't do this when I read it. It's a story, just a story. But there's something about stories that we were made for. Like we enter into stories. Stories actually help us see the world. They help us order the world. They help us tell us where we come from and where we are going. I'm always encouraging.
especially young pastors. like, hey, you're in seminary, you're going to read plenty of theology and you should, but you should read novels. You should enter into the experiences of others that you won't have to see through their eyes. It'll help you be a better pastor. And so I love stories for that reason, but I love it because we obviously are unique in all of creation because we are storytellers.
In the Latin, sometimes humans get described as homo sapiens or thinking or reasoning man. But then you look at the world and you're like, not everyone's a thinking or reasoning man. Maybe that's not the best description. But there is another one, homo nerons. We are storytelling men and women. is across time, across culture, across space. Wherever you find humans, you're going to find story. It's our attempt to try to make sense of our lives.
of the world and it makes sense because we are created by a storytelling God. We've said this throughout this series that that that God is telling a story. It's an eternal story and in this time and in this place we've been invited into the story. We've been invited to live a story in such a way that honors him. All of us all of us have stories. In fact God
is encourages his people. One of the gifts that he gave to his people through the Israelites is the spiritual discipline of remembering stories to be storytellers and story keepers. We see this throughout the history of God interaction with humanity. So, for example, whenever God does an amazing rescuing work, he'll have like a festival and a
feast set up so that every year the people will come back and remember it the Israelites the Jewish people have been trained from millennia past to thank generationally backward and forward not to live just for this their particular moment but to live in light of the story of God and so you have things like the Passover that are remembered every year
Another example in Joshua chapter three, as the Israelites are are gathered to go into the promised land there, they have to cross over the Jordan River a million strong. The problem is there's no bridges. And it's the time of the year in springtime where the snowmelt has run off. So it's in flood stage. It's a raging river. And God says to Joshua and to the people, you're going to cross the river, bring the the priest and the Ark of the Covenant.
And when you step into the river, I will stop it. but but they they it's just rushing and they have to take a step of faith into a rushing river. And in the moment they step onto the water, it stops. And the Israelites cross over the Jordan, not unlike what happened at the Red Sea. And they cross over. And as they as the waters all piling up, God tells Joshua, go take 12 stones from the center of
river and take those to this town called Gilgal and then stack them up, stack them high so that when your children come and they see this stack they say, what is that? Let me tell you the story because God wants us to remember stories and he says and then those children should tell their children, those children should tell their children for generations remember this event and in Joshua chapter 4 it says this, he did this so that
all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful so that you might always fear the Lord our God. God wants us to remember and to hope. Remember what he's done and to remember what he's promised. There's a backward looking thing through generations and a forward looking thing to generations. There's remembering and hope. And so all of our lives
telling a story. And like Theo of Golden, I'm just reminded that every person here who bears the image of God, you come in here in the midst of a story. Your life has experiences, successes and failures, sins and triumphs. Like you have a story and the stories matter to God because people matter to God. Every person here has a story. And now you've
joined with us for a time, maybe for years, hopefully for decades, but your story will continue after my time with you. But I want to recognize that you have a story and God's not done with your story. And the question is, the question is, is it a good story? Is your life a good story? If your life was on display, on a movie, and at this point in your life, the crowd is watching the story of your life,
Are they cheering for you or against you? Right? Like what is the audience saying to you if they're in the crowd watching your story? Like, come on, get on with it. Or like, hey, go ask the girl or go do the thing. Like, what are you waiting for? What is the story of your life and how do you live in light of the story? God is inviting us into to change, not change, but
but to exchange the story of our lives just being the center point to enter into His eternal story. So we tell stories. We tell stories with our lives. We tell stories with our family. Your family has a story and our faith family has a story. We're journeying together to try to tell the story of God through Redemption Parker in this time and in this place. And today,
our series, if you look at chapter 60, we are looking at this idea that we are compelled by the love of Christ, this is 2nd Corinthians 5 14, we are compelled by the love of Christ to live a story such that ten generations from now those faith siblings and sons and daughters will be blessed by what we do in this moment. Because if you watch a movie and read a book, not all parts of the movie and not all parts of the book
are equal. are inflection points, right? There are moments where it's make or break and God has called us to an inflection point. This has been brewing for several years but a few years ago I was talking to a friend. He's an Axe 29 pastor up in Lafayette, Colorado. His name is Brad Edwards and unlike you and me, I promise you none of us know who are
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to the 10th generation. And when you study American history and you see actually those prayers were effective. Amazing lineage of doctors and pastors and a vice president and all these things come from Jonathan Edwards all the way through 10 generations. But on the 11th generation, Brad's dad wants nothing to do with the Lord. Rejected the Lord, didn't want to follow in any of that.
And Brad was the same but he was in college. He was a skeptic and an atheist and he liked to make fun of Christians but the Lord rescued and redeemed him. And now he's a church planter up in Lafayette and he says I'm praying now to the 10th generation. To which my daughters are like why don't you just pray for more generations that. My 10 is pretty good. 10 is pretty good. And today we're looking at that. What does it mean to live for the 10th generation. It's all.
launching from this passage, 2nd Corinthians 5, for Christ's love compels us. This is the fuel for all of our Christian's life or should be. then he begins to unpack various ways that that love should compel the way we live. And in 2nd Corinthians 5, 15, says, he Christ died for all that those who live or this is speaking spiritually, that those have been rescued and redeemed have
are no longer spiritually dead but are alive. Those that have entered into the story of God. That those who live should no longer live for themselves. The story should not be about themselves. We shouldn't be the main characters in the story. Should no longer live for themselves but for Him. His story. For the story of Jesus who died for them and was raised again. This is what it means to be a Christian.
We don't live for ourselves. We live for the story of God. And in this case, we live to the 10th generation. So if you have your series guide, you can turn over a couple of pages to page 62. And the passage we're going to go a little deeper in is at 1 Chronicles chapter 28. Let me set the scene a little bit for you on this a little bit before we see what's happening here. In 2 Samuel chapter 7,
David King David is coming towards the end of his life with with triumphs and tragedies in his life. But overall a man who's been just absolutely compelled by who God is. But at the end of his life he's he's in his palace in Jerusalem and he's looking out and his palace is nice. He's got his abundantly blessed him. He's looking at the the cedar planks in his palace and and in second Samuel chapter seven or I'm sorry.
What did I say? Second Samuel 7 to. He looks out and he sees the tabernacle. The tabernacle was given to the people of God at the time of Moses as they were wandering around the wilderness and it was the place where God's manifest presence would come down at the Ark of the Covenant. And it was a place where where people could could meet with God. Prayers could be offered. Sacrifices could be offered. But but now it's hundreds of years later and the tabernacle.
It is still there, but it's it looks shabby compared to King David's palace. David says, Who am I that I live in a palace with cedar walls and God has a tent. And so he has this idea and he goes to the prophet Nathan and he says, I want to build a temple. And Nathan's like, that sounds like a great idea. Go for it. But that night, Nathan has a dream and and God comes to Nathanials.
Is it Nathan or Nathan? Nathan, sorry. Nathan. I'm thinking of a different story. It comes to Nathan and says, David wants to build a house for me. don't live in a house built by human hands, but I understand the impulse. He's not going to build my house. I'm going to build his house. And in it, we get what's called the divinic covenant where God says, on the throne of David, I will
Set my ruler forever. We know that's the Messiah. We know it's King Jesus gets eventually fulfills that role and so eventually Nathan comes and tells David that hey you think you're gonna bless God God's gonna bless you but your heart and your impulse is right, but Given your history you have blood on your hands Nathan David. You're not the guy to build the temple. It'll be your son Solomon
And so for the rest of his life and the rest of his days we see David leveraging himself and his country and his people and his own resources such that he's going to bless the people of God to the 10th generation. He gets all the designs for the temple he begins to make plans for it but he knows that it's Solomon that's going to do that. And so he calls Solomon to him and all of Israel. And this is where we pick up.
the scene in first Chronicles 28 verse eight. says So now I charge you in the sight of all of Israel and in the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of our God. He doesn't just call Solomon into his private chambers and say hey son you should probably do this that would really honor the Lord. No there is a inflection moment in the life of Israel. There's.
There's some weight to this moment. And so he calls Solomon to stand before him. He calls every Israelite, the massive crowd, to come stand before him. It says God is there. There's weight on not just Solomon's shoulders here, but all of Israel will see that there's weight on them. Will they meet the moment that God has called them to? And he says this, be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land.
It's an echo of last week Deuteronomy 6. Be careful to follow the commands. The commands are not for restricting your joy, but they are pathways for your joy. So be careful. This matters. He says that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. Like live in such a way that you're going to bless.
generation after generation after generation to come. And then in verse nine he says, you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your fathers. But like be Godward facing. Have what the reformers called the sense of quorum Deo. Live before the face of God as if God is looking at, and he is.
at all of your lives and all of your thoughts and intentions and desires. And he says this, acknowledge the God of your father, serve him with wholehearted devotion, with a willing mind. For the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Again, it's a echo of Deuteronomy 6, the Shema, love the Lord your God with all your heart.
with all your mind and with all your soul. But here's the thing. That is true for all. That command is true for all of us. But it doesn't just happen. Like the spiritual entropy of our lives is not to move more towards a wholehearted devotion to the Lord. It's not to want to go deep in our knowledge of who God is. It is not to love our neighbors of ourselves. No, that's not how...
this fallen world is. Like if you just think this is going to happen, it's never just going to happen. This is why through the ages, God's people have said, no, we're not going to be led by our hearts. We're going to lead our hearts. We're not going to just allow the culture around us to determine what's true. We're going to study what's true. We're going to enter into some spiritual disciplines. We're going to organize our lives so that we do love God with our whole hearts.
that we do know who God is in this study, that there is some discipline in our lives. Again, not to rob us of joy, but to lead us on a pathway to deeper joy in who God is. And so he commands, he charges Solomon. This whole thing begins with our relationship with God and our hearts. He says this, verse 10, consider now, feel the weight of this moment, consider now for the Lord
has chosen you. is no small thing Solomon. This is no small thing Israel that that you would build a space where people will meet with the living God of the universe. That this will be a space where where prayers will be offered up by the priests. This will be a space where sacrifices will be made for sin. This will be a space where the nations will come and learn that there is a
living God in the universe. So don't take this lightly. Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary.
Again, this is an inflection point in the story of God's people. What will they do? He says, be strong and do the work. Be strong and do the work. Like the easy thing is always to punt the work, right? For anything in our life, anything worth having, the easy thing is like, I'll get to it later. Or, yeah, I know that's important. Maybe someone after me will be faithful and do that, but I'm just going to kind of coast.
Again, that's what our natural cells want. But he's charging like, this is an important moment. Be strong, do the work. then drop down into verse 20, he repeats himself. David also said to Solomon his son, be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged. He just repeat because he knows this is going to be difficult. He knows on so many levels this is going to be difficult spiritually.
This is going to be difficult relationally. This is going to be difficult financially. In every way this is going to be hard. There's going to be opposition. And so he's just saying don't worry. Be strong. Be courageous. Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. And then he gives them the ultimate reason that Solomon and all of Israel can have hope. The ultimate reason that you and I can have hope today. He says this for the Lord God. My God is with you.
This is, again,
Because David knows the story of God, he knows that this is true. How can we be strong and courageous? How can we know that we can be successful, not in our own strength and our own wisdom and our own resources, but because God is with us. This is the promise of God for the people of God. Immanuel, God with us. And so he knows this. He knows the story. He knows what Moses wrote about Abram.
and the faithfulness of God in his life. He knows what happened to Joseph in a prison cell in Egypt, and God was faithful. He knows about Moses and God leading the people out of slavery in Egypt across the Red Sea. He knows about Joshua conquering the promised land. He knows not just of the story, he knows by experience. Do you know by experience that God is with you?
David knew. David knew that as a young boy, someone came and put oil on his head and said, you're going to be king over Israel. And then one day he finds himself in the middle of a field with armies on both sides and a giant standing before him. And he's got a sling and some stones. And he knows from experience that God is with him. David knows that even as his life progressed and enemies were always
seeking his life, always trying to take him out. God was with him. David even knows that when he was faithless, God was faithful. When he sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and all of Israel and against his God, God was with him. God was faithful. And so when David says, be strong and courageous for the Lord, my God is with you, he speaks from personal experience.
My God is with you. I know God is able to do far more abundantly than we can think, ask or imagine. God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. I know it's going to be hard, Solomon. I know it's going to be expensive. I know it's going to be dangerous. I know there's going to be opposition. know that the enemy hates this, but God is with you. God will not forsake you. He will not fail you.
and to all the work of the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. Redemption Parker, God is with us. We know because we have the Bible, we have this story, but we also know from experience of nine years as a faith family, God has constantly met us in these spaces. so borrowing on those things, we know He will also be with us in the future. So we're at this inflection point.
Again, all of our lives is telling a story and every story says something about what we believe. Your story is communicating something. Your family is communicating something. But not just that. Did you know the spaces we build tell stories, right? I could go into any one of your homes without you being there and I could learn something of you and your story just by the way that you decorate. I could look and see,
This is what they value. is how they arrange their home. This is how they arrange their office. This is what's on their walls. This is what's in their kitchen. We all have a theology of place. And you guys have great theologies of place. I've been in your homes. You're telling a story. Why? Because you know that space matters. know, gathering isn't just gathering, but that space matters. And so even as a faith family, we want to tell...
a We want to tell a true story. We want our space to reflect what we believe. This is why we're actually so grateful that we get to build from the ground up and begin to tell a story. What is the story we want to tell? We want to tell a story that is consistent with what we believe about God, what's distinct about us.
what our values are. And so we value the welcome of Christ. And so how do you in your architecture design the welcome of Christ? you design a hospitable place, a place where people will come in, where there's natural light, people can have conversations, where you design places so that when moms and dads take their kids to the kids room, they say, this church cares about the children. They've been intentional about their
space. We want a place that promotes authentic community because that's one of our values. And so you can go on our website and go to Compel and look at the building. There's a courtyard and there's a kitchen and we'll share meals together. We want a space that lifts our eyes in worship. We've designed the sanctuary such that it is full of natural light. Why? That's intentional.
We could build a box in some churches. That's what they want. They want to control the environment. But we are the people of light. And so we want to see each other. We want to see image bearers worshiping God because they've been rescued and redeemed. Like everything is intentional. We have classrooms. Why? Because we believe in going deeper, knowing God with our heart, soul, mind and strength so that our Redemption Institute can have a...
programs and classes and even certificates so that we are a church that is disciplined in our pursuit of God. Everything is intentional. God is with us. Do the work. When I graduated from seminary a month after graduating we moved with our six month old to Japan to do military ministry and it was on base but also off base.
We were in this building, I have a picture. This was a few years into it. We've got three of our kids here.
And so we would go to this. This is our church and connected to it was our house. And we had another house behind that that like interns and others would stay and we have dinner every every Friday night and we would have coffee and worship and Bible said all these things. And then I got to just have a front row seat for the work of God in young military men and women and their families and their children just.
for 10 years. I got to learn how to preach and they put up with me and I got to see so many people give their life to Christ. I got to baptize so many men and women. Like it was just a privilege, privilege, privilege. Every week we gathered in this space. It's because in the 1950s, 75 years ago, there were some Christians, missionaries that were like, hey, we want to reach military families.
We want to share the gospel and our lives with military people. And so they sacrificed. They sacrificed greatly. They ran the numbers if you were to account for inflation, inflation. They on the island of Okinawa went to other military people and they gathered together. They went to the chapel. They went to the Navy Seabees to help them build this. They raised about four point five million dollars, actually, if you run the numbers.
And they built this space. And every week we I gather now generations later and even now that I'm gone for the last 10 years there's still many of the people that are leading this place. And every week people come into a space and hear the gospel and people are being rescued and redeemed every week. It's because of a generation that was before them that they never met and never knew. And they were the recipients of that blessing. Church that's all I'm asking us to do.
Let us be for others what others have been for us. You know, for the first six years of Redemption Parker, I wasn't paid by you guys at all. You know who paid my salary? Other people that supported us as missionaries. Because they wanted to bless you even though you don't know it. Because those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and gave Himself up for. This is where we're at. So.
I have two requests this week. Next week is our commitment Sunday where we will culminate and as God's people celebrate and come together and say this is what the Lord has called us to do, where we will make our commitments. Our goal is 100 % engagement. Whatever the Lord has for you, whatever it is that you would come and do two things. You would show up, pray up and show up. This is an important moment.
in the life and the story of our church. So would you pray? Would you just ask the Lord to show you what is your role in the story of God in this moment and the story of God at Redemption Park? Just pray about it. But not just for yourself. Would you pray about for our whole church? Would you pray for others? Would you ask the Lord to move in them in such a way that there is a joyful unreleasing so that we can bless the 10th generation?
And then next week, would you just show up excited and expectant for God to meet us in this space so that 10 generations from now, people will look back and say, that was a moment where God's people blessed us. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.