A Message to the Next Generation | 1 Chronicles

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. Welcome. I hope you've had a great weekend. If you're just jumping in with us here at Watermark because you visited last week on Easter Sunday and you're just giving church a chance, I'm so glad you're here. I want to encourage you to check out our Watermark News and see all of the different ministries we have that can minister to you wherever you are in life. If this is your first Sunday ever with us, thanks for trusting us with your Sunday morning. I hope this place can feel like home for you very quickly.

We're going to jump into studying God's Word. Every Sunday, before we open up God's Word, we take a moment and pray, so I just want to give you a chance to pray and say, "God, would you speak to me today?" Would you pray that really quickly? Then, would you pray for the people around you and ask God to speak to them as well? Then, would you pray for me and ask God to speak through me to you?

Lord, we believe that you are here, that you are with us right now, that you want to speak to us. God, I pray that your voice would be clear in our lives today. God, give us eyes to see you and ears to hear from you. I pray that our hearts would be receptive to all that you have for us. Lord, may not one person leave here today without meeting with you. We give this time to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right. I'm going to ask you to do something that's going to require a little bit of courage for some. If you are somewhere between birth and a senior in high school, I want to ask you to stand up right now, and I want to ask you to keep standing. I know; you think everyone is looking at you right now. They're not. They're looking at me, so you're free. You're good. But keep standing.

If you are 22 or younger, go ahead and stand. Awesome. Thank you. If you're 25 or under, go ahead and stand. Okay, that's great. If you are 30 and under, go ahead and stand. All right. Everyone, look at me. Keep standing. You're doing great today. Here's why I'm asking you to stand. I want everyone to look around right now. Whether you're sitting or standing, look around.

The reason I've asked everyone to stand is I want it to be absolutely clear God has entrusted our church with the next generation. God has brought the next generation to our church, and that's an amazing thing. Keep standing. You're not going to stand the whole time. This isn't the 12th Man at Texas A&M. We could stand the whole service.

God has entrusted us with the next generation. Here's why that's so important. If you were to spend some time reading what's going on in the world, there is renewal happening among God's church, and do you know who's leading the way? It's the next generation. I don't know if you know this, but 30 million more adults would identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ than in 2021. Today, 30 million adults. Who's leading the way? It's Generation Z and Millennials.

Here's the surprising thing: it's especially Generation Z and Millennial men, which is awesome. So, if you're one of those people who's going around saying, "The church is dying. The next generation is walking away from Jesus, and nobody knows what it looks like to be a man anymore," can I ask you to stop that messaging? God is doing something right now where young men are rising up and taking a stand for Jesus.

Do you know where the church is flatlining? It's in… Well, let's not get into that. It's too convicting. Listen to this. Church attendance is up by 50 percent in the UK and Wales. Their attendance has quadrupled over the past six years among Generation Z. Bible sales are skyrocketing. Why? One of the factors is Generation Z is turning to the Bible for answers.

I'm going to allow you to sit down in just a second, but I wanted everyone to stand, because here's the reality: God has entrusted our church with the next generation, so today's message is a message to you. It's a message to the next generation. You can have a seat. If you're sitting there, and you're like, "Wait, wait, wait. Is 30 the cutoff? Does 31 make me old?" No, that's not what I'm saying. Some of you in here are old. You just need to embrace it. Lean into it.

Here's what I want you to hear. As I'm talking to the next generation, what I want to be true of the next generation I want to be true of everyone in this room. So, if you're in the older generation, you should totally eavesdrop on this conversation, because what I'm saying to the next generation… You might say, "That's not even true of me yet, and that needs to change." By the end of today, I will have spoken to every generation in the room.

The reason we're doing this message today is as we step back into the Year of the Word, you just finished reading the book of 1 Chronicles. Some of you are like, "I'm so glad 1 Chronicles is over, because the first nine chapters were just a bunch of names, and then the rest of it was a bunch of stories I already read in 1 and 2 Samuel."

But here's what you need to know. The book of 1 Chronicles is primarily about David, and it's about elevating David as the ideal king. Did you notice that David's greatest failure isn't even mentioned? Why? He is positioned as the ideal king. You get to the end of 1 Chronicles, and there is this generational moment where David is anointing his son Solomon as king, and as he's anointing him king, he charges Solomon. It's the older generation charging the younger generation.

I just want to step into this moment in Scripture, and I want us to have our own charge here, where one generation is charging the next generation. Solomon is somewhere around the age of 20 at this time, as he is stepping into being king. I'm going to show you at least two things that David wanted to be true of Solomon, and the two things David wanted to be true of Solomon I want to be true of the next generation here at Watermark.

1. An undivided heart. I want for you an undivided heart. We just sang a song titled "Undivided Heart." We all just sang, "You can have my heart undivided." You just said that to God. Look with me at 1 Chronicles 28. I want you to imagine this gathering of a bunch of "who's who" people. These are the greatest leaders in the nation of Israel. They've all come together, and David has this time where he's speaking. He's addressing everyone. Then he turns his attention specifically to Solomon, his son. Here's what he says, starting in verse 9:

"And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever."

I want you to look at the verbs. "Know God. Serve God. Seek God." If you're the next generation, you might hear that and be like, "Check. Check. Check. If the message this morning, TA, is you want me to know God, I know God. I've known God for a long time. I grew up in the church. I know God. If the message is 'Serve God,' I'm doing my best. I have school going on right now or work is really busy, but I'm trying to be as loving as possible. I'm trying to do good things when I can. I'm knowing God and I'm serving God."

See, with those verbs, if we just isolate those commands, we can make them mean whatever we want them to mean, but David will not allow that. He has something very specific in mind. The Hebrew word he uses for know can mean to know someone intimately and deeply. It can also mean to know by experience. Think about what David is saying. He's saying, "I want you to know God by experience. I want you to experience him, Solomon."

When he uses the word serve, to serve God, that Hebrew word can carry a sense of worship with it. David is saying, "Solomon, let your work be worshipful. Serve God with worshipful work that is for his glory." Then he says, "Serve him with a whole heart." What's a whole heart? That can mean one heart, a single heart, an undivided heart.

We're going to unpack what it means to have an undivided heart more in just a minute, but what I want you to see is David is telling his son, "Hey, know God intimately and experientially. Serve him worshipfully. Seek him wholeheartedly." Why? Look at what he says. "…serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought."

Do you see what he's saying? He's like, "The reason you should seek him with a whole heart is because God cares about your heart. He seeks and searches your heart, and he understands every single plan you have. Every thought you have, God knows it." If I were to summarize what David's message is to Solomon, it's this. Don't miss it. This is David's message to Solomon: "You exist for God."

So, next generation, let's be clear: you exist for God. What David is saying to Solomon is "Saturate your life with God. Point every aspect of your life at God. Let your daily routines prioritize God. Let your interests center on God. Let your plans revolve around God. Let your work be to the glory of God. Saturate your life with God."

Here's why. This is amazing. It's so subtle, but I want you to look back at verse 9. There was something that I normally just pass over that jumped right off the page at me this round. He says, "And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father…" Isn't that interesting? "Know the God of your father." Who's the father? David. David is saying, "Solomon, know the same God that I've known." Isn't that interesting? He is inviting Solomon to know his God.

Solomon would have grown up hearing stories from David about how God gave him strength to conquer Goliath and how God supernaturally sustained him when he was on the run for his life from King Saul. David is basically saying, "You have access to the same God. You can know that same all-powerful, supernatural, all-present God," the God about whom David said, "In your presence there's fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." "Solomon, you can know that God."

If you're in the next generation, I want you to hear me say… Jesus Christ, through his perfect life, through his sacrificial death, and through his victorious resurrection has made a way for us into relationship with the God of David, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the Scriptures.

Now, here's my fear. My fear is that many of you might be looking at the generation that has gone before you… If you're in that older generation, I really need you to hear this, because if we're not careful, we're going to do the next generation a massive disservice that they're going to have to spend years unwinding.

I get this sense from people that there is this tendency in us to live like God has changed, like he's no longer the God he was when he was the God of David or no longer the God he was when he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that somehow God has changed. We begin to believe this lie. "God doesn't do miracles as much anymore. God doesn't speak to people anymore. God doesn't heal as much anymore. God doesn't reveal himself anymore. He doesn't need to because we have the Bible."

We wouldn't say this out loud, but here's what we live like. Don't miss what I'm telling you. We live like the people of the Old Testament and the people during the time of Christ and the Gospels and the people during the time of the book of Acts… Like, "They got to experience God; we get to read about God." What? Are we serious? "The people of the Old Testament, the people of the Gospels, and the people of Acts got to experience God; we get to read about God."

The story and the flow of Scripture is the exact opposite. The flow of Scripture is that God is consistently moving closer to his people. In the Old Testament, he's in the Holy of Holies. Only one person one time a year gets to go into the presence of God. Then Jesus comes. He's Immanuel, God with us, but he can only be in one place at a time, so he says, "It's actually better that I leave, because I'm going to send the Spirit. He's going to live inside of you. You're going to do the works of Christ by the power of the Spirit."

So, next generation, know the God of David. Know him. Seek him. Some of us equate knowing God's Word with knowing God. You can know God's Word without knowing God. There are actually a lot of people in this world who know God's Word and don't know the God of the Word, but we can know and experience God through his Word.

Now listen to the promise of David to Solomon. At the end of verse 9, he says, "If you seek him, he will be found by you…" Then he says, "…but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever." That last part was specific to Solomon as the king of Israel, but listen to the promise. "If you seek him, he [God] will be found by you…"

That word seek in the Hebrew is to seek with care. God wants to be found by you, but you're going to have to seek him. To find him you have to seek him, and that takes intentionality. Awhile back, my sons and I watched this show called Beast Games. Some of you guys watched Beast Games. The older generation did not watch Beast Games.

If you've never heard of it, that's fine. Here's what you need to know. It was a game show with the largest money prize in the history of game shows. The prize amount was $5 million. But there were 1,000 contestants. A thousand contestants were going to get whittled down to one who could win… In the end, it turned out to be $10 million.

Here's the thing. The minute the show started, the organizer of the event was like, "Hey, the prize is $5 million." They had a pile of $5 million in cash. He was like, "Look. If you want to weigh out right now, I'll give you a million dollars. You can take it and go home. But as many of the thousand contestants who opt in, those people have to split the million dollars."

Right away, people started tapping out, tapping out, tapping out, and then it began to get split amidst I don't know how many people. So, in the end, people walked away with thousands of dollars, which is great, but they came for $5 million. All throughout the series, there were people who took the opportunity to tap out. For some people, there was no reward, and they were just like, "Look. I'm just going to go."

I think that's so many of us in our relationship with God. People are willing to settle. People settled in the Beast Games and tapped out because they assumed they wouldn't win. If we're honest, many of us don't seek God wholeheartedly because we don't expect to find God. We don't seek him because we don't expect to find him, and we definitely don't expect to find him to be infinitely more satisfying than anything else in the world. We just don't expect it.

I remember being at a conference, and Francis Chan said, "You can have the best quiet time of your life tomorrow if you want to." I want you to think about that. You can have the best quiet time of your life tomorrow, the most meaningful interaction with God you've ever had. You can have it tomorrow if you want to. What do you feel when you hear that? Is something in you like, "Probably not"? "Yeah, but how does he know? It probably won't happen."

What was he getting at? I think his point was so many of us come to our time with God in the morning or in the evening with no expectation. We come expecting it to be mediocre. I think God is like, "I'm not a mediocre God! I have a long track record. Go look at the story of Scripture. It is a story of me meeting with my people and my people being transformed." God is a treasure. In his presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Seek him. Find him.

Unfortunately, Solomon didn't listen to his father. He was a 20-year-old and didn't listen to his dad. Some fathers are like, "The Bible has never made more sense to me than right now." Listen to what 1 Kings 11 tells us about Solomon. It says, "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women…" Verse 3: "And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father."

Remember, next generation, what I'm calling you to is an undivided heart. Solomon shows us what a divided heart looks like. What's a divided heart? It's a heart and a life where God has competition for our attention, affection, and allegiance. It's where other things are equally, if not more important to us as God. Charles Spurgeon said, "If Christ is not all to you, he is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men."

Awhile back, I was driving, and I was trying to listen to music on Spotify. So, I open up the app and push "play," and I can tell it's playing, but no sound is coming out. It is driving me crazy. I'm closing the app. I'm restarting it. I'm pushing "play," but no volume is coming out. I'm like, "What is it? I know I'm 44 and way beyond being technologically savvy, but this feels like… Like, if I could blow in my phone, I'd probably do it at this point. What is happening?"

Do you know what the problem was? My wife was driving in the car in front of me, and I have synced my phone to both cars at different points. So, when my car got close enough, it just disconnected from my car and started playing in her car. It took me awhile to realize it, but then I was like, "Oh! That's the problem. My phone has been synced up with two different cars, and now I can't hear what I want to hear because it's synced up somewhere else."

I just wonder if that describes your relationship with God right now. You wonder why you're not hearing from God. You wonder why your connection doesn't feel that great. It might be that you can't hear from God because your heart is synced up somewhere else. All of your attention, your affection, is going to someplace else. God is saying, "Look. I refuse to be a part-time king in your life." You have to forget the device for something else in your life. Seek God with a whole heart.

So, here's what I want to encourage you to do. Let me give you some practical action steps, next generation. First, I want to invite you to pray daily. Here's what you're praying: "God, I want more of you." Every day, "God, I want more of you. I want to experience everything that is biblical, nothing more and certainly nothing less."

Next, I want to encourage you to do an audit of your life concerning what, where, and who. What do you spend your time doing? Where do you spend it? Who do you spend it with? Then answer the question…Is it conducive to you knowing Jesus deeply?

Thirdly, get around the right people. Think about this. Who's the person you know who loves Jesus the most? Whoever that person is, schedule a lunch with them in the next two weeks and just say, "Hey, tell me what's going on in your life. Tell me about your rhythms with Jesus. I want to draft off of you." Live life in community and call out gods for each other. Call out the gods you see in each other's lives.

When one of my sons was young, he was obsessed with Barney, the purple dinosaur. Like, obsessed with him. It was the time when Netflix… When you went to recently viewed, there were just thumbnails, and all of the thumbnails were only Barney. I remember sleeping with the baby monitor next to our heads, and one morning, we just hear him wake up, and in the baby monitor we hear, "Marney?" We're like, "Is Barney in his room? What is happening?"

Barney would come on the TV, and he would go, "Marney! Yay! Marney!" He actually went up to the TV and tried to hug Barney. Barney was a god in my kid's life. Look. At that age, I didn't Jesus-juke my 2-year-old, like, "Hey, dude. Barney is an idol, and we are going to destroy him." At the time it was cute. But that in the life of a teenager or a young adult or a 6-year-old… It's not cute anymore. It's idolatry. Call it out in each other's lives. "Hey, I see you worshiping at the wrong altar, and I love you enough to tell you."

Start serving. Just jump in where God is moving. Next generation, start getting together and praying together just to pray together. No agenda except to pray and to just say, "God, would you move? Would you move?" I'll just say this. I believe in what I just said so much… If there is a group of the next generation that is getting together just for the purpose of praying, would you email me and let me know it's happening? I want to know it's happening.

If there's a group of people, a critical mass, that is consistently getting together, begging God to move in their generation, I want to know about it. What I want for you, first, is what David wanted for Solomon: an undivided heart.

2. A clear calling. Look at verse 10. This is the second verse we've looked at so far. David says, "Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it." This is interesting. If you know the story of David, it was a desire of David's to build a house for God, to build the temple, and God actually told him, "No." God said, "No, that is actually specifically for Solomon." Just a few verses earlier, listen to how David expressed it in verse 5.

"And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, 'It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.'"

God had a very specific purpose for Solomon. What was it? It was to be king and to build the temple. He had a clear calling. Mark Twain said, "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Pastor Charles Swindoll said, "You have, like no other person on this planet, particular contributions that you are to make to this generation. They may not be as great as your dreams or they might be far beyond your expectations, but whatever they are, you are to find them and carry them out."

There is a calling on your life. God has made you to make a specific contribution to his purposes, his kingdom. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Just listen to what he's saying. He says we are his workmanship. That's the Greek word poiema. It's where we get poem from.

It's this beautiful picture that we are God's masterpiece. We are his artistic expression. We are a product of his limitless creativity, and God has created us in Christ Jesus. So, there's that union with Christ. Picture us in the tubs. We are in Christ. Christ didn't just come to save us from hell; he came to save us into such an intimate relationship with him that the Scriptures paint us as being in Christ.

That picture is we are so wound up and intertwined with Christ you can't unravel it. What Christ's work is, what his purposes are on the earth… They become ours, because we are in Christ. His work is now our work. But we've been created for good works. Those aren't works that we decide what is good or bad; they're works decided by God. They are works that exist to glorify God. He says, "God has prepared them beforehand, that we should walk in them." God has a specific purpose for your life. We are to know that purpose and live it out.

So, let me give some practical action steps to the next generation, because when I talk about having a clear calling, this is what causes so many young adults such anxiety, because you're like, "I just want to know God's will for my life. Yes, I want a clear calling. Just tell me now." Let me give you some action steps to take.

First, your calling and contribution to Christ's kingdom will be specific, but it might not be unique. It's good for you to know that. God might call you to be a teacher. There are a lot of teachers on the planet. God might call you to be a dentist or a nurse. He might call you to be a realtor, and there are a lot of those people on the earth. Your contribution might not be unique, but it will be specific.

See, the reason I bring this up is the next generation is growing up in a time where there's a value being cultivated, especially by social media, that you need to try to distinguish yourself from everyone else. You need to be so unique, so special, so distinct from everyone else. But what's the end goal? The end goal is to be famous. It's to become an influencer. But here's the deal. In Christ, our aim isn't to be famous; it's to be faithful.

So, here is the most freeing thing. It might not be what you do or how you do it that is unique, but why you do it, which is what makes it unique, that you're doing it for the glory of God. Here's the thing. When you do something to the glory of God, you're going to do it with excellence. You're not going to half do anything. That in and of itself is going to stand out.

Let me encourage you with this. Some of you need to let the dream die of who you're supposed to be. You just need to let the dream die of who you're supposed to be. The end of who you were supposed to be is the beginning of who you were made to be. Steve Jobs said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

You have messages coming at you, telling you who you're supposed to be. These messages might be coming at you from your parents, but they're especially coming at you from social media. Just think. Who have you been told you're supposed to be? You're supposed to be CEO or president of something. You're supposed to be rich with multiple houses and nice cars.

You're supposed to be on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. You're supposed to be an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers. You're supposed to be someone who works 60-plus hours a week, is in incredible shape, has a ton of friends and a ton of plans and still crushes every single aspect of life. That is exhausting. Maybe you need to let the dream die of who you're supposed to be and start asking God who he has made you to be.

So, let me encourage you. Ask God good questions. Here's what I mean. Ask God who, where, and what. "God, who do you want me to leverage my life for? Who do you want me to invest in? God, where do you want me to do it? What ministry inside of the church? What city do you want me in? What apartment complex? Which neighborhood? God, what do you want me doing? What do you want me doing in the place with the people you're calling me to?" Ask God good questions.

Next, evaluate your passions against the world's needs. Frederick Buechner said, "Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." So just evaluate. How can your passions be leveraged to the glory of God? If they can't, you need new passions. If your passions can't be leveraged to the glory of God, you need new passions. You know what? This church is full of really successful men and women in the marketplace who have leveraged their lives to the glory of God.

Next, seek godly counsel. Sit down for breakfast or lunch with an older man or woman and say, "Hey, would you just listen to what's going on in my life and then speak in?" Then, let me just encourage you with this. The best way to discern God's unrevealed will is to faithfully accomplish his revealed will. Do you hear what I'm saying? The best way to discern his unrevealed will is to faithfully accomplish his revealed will.

So many of us are like, "God, would you just tell me what you want me to do with my life?" Yet we won't give a rip about what he has already told us to do with our lives in this book. I think God is like, "Hello! Why don't you focus on that." I think, when we stand before God, God is not going to be like, "Oh, you know what? You missed it. I was telling you to be this one very unique profession, and you missed it." No, I think God is going to be like, "What did you do with the Word that I went to great lengths to give you?"

Here's the good news: there is no time wasted when your ultimate goal is to please and glorify God. Some people are going to be like, "Man! I'm so far behind because God is just not telling me what he wants me to do." I'm like, "Just do this and no time is wasted." I encourage you to evaluate where God's wind is in your life right now. Is it at your back or is it in your face? Where is God's wind right now?

Here's what I mean. It's the difference between being in a rowboat and being in a sailboat. Being in a rowboat… I want you to picture God's wind in your face, and you are just straining at the oars, trying to get somewhere, and you're not getting there. It's because you're trying to force something. You're trying to force your own agenda. It's for your glory. It's for your name. It's for your fame. You're trying to do what you want to do.

If that's you, if I'm describing you right now, would you just stop? Put down the oar. Just feel that in your heart. "God, I'm going to stop straining at the oar." Just put up a sail. Just say, "God, I'll go where you want me to go. I will do what you want me to do with whoever you want me to do it with." Just allow his wind to catch that sail and carry you forward.

Listen to what David tells Solomon in verse 20. "Then David said to Solomon his son, 'Be strong and courageous and do it.'" He's talking about building the temple. He says, "Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished." Do you hear what David is telling Solomon? He's like, "Look. No fear here. Be strong."

To the next generation, I just want to tell you, one of the best ways to live out your clear calling is to cultivate a resounding yes to God in your heart. When God calls you to do something, just say, "Yes." Don't fight him. Say, "Yes." "Yes. God, yes. If that's where you want me to go, that's where I'll go. If that's what you want me to do, that's what I'm going to do."

Here is the great news: the safest place to be is right in the middle of God's will. Why? Because God is with you, and wherever God's presence is, that's where his pleasure, his power, and provision are. Here's what I want you to understand: God never dispatches us. He never dispatches us to go to places where he isn't. He only invites us to come and join him where he already is.

That's really freeing when you understand God is not dispatching you, like, "Hey, go give it a whirl. It might fail, but just come back and tell me how it went. If everything falls apart, I'll try to comfort you on the way back." No, he invites you to be where he is to join him in what he is doing. My hope for the next generation is that you'd have an undivided heart and a clear calling.

Now let me speak to the older generation. Right now, the older generation is 31-plus, which I understand is really offensive, but here's what I want you to think about. You're not old, but just think about it. If you're 31, you were a freshman in college 13 years ago. Allow that to settle in. Thirteen years ago if you're 31. What's my point? My point isn't that you're old; my point is a new generation has come up.

I was flying last week, and when I was flying, there was this young family at the gate, these parents, super stressed out. You could just tell by the way they were talking to each other. It was like, "Okay. I got it!" They had more stuff than they had arms to carry it with. They had the big, bulky cart. They had everything. You could just tell they were so wound up.

There was this sweet woman in front of me. I was just standing there watching. A sweet woman was like, "Can I help you?" I was like, "I'm a pastor. I should probably start thinking that way in the future." I had all the sympathy in the world for those people, because I was there, but I'm not there anymore. Now it's like, "Hey, you get one suitcase, and if you forget it, you forget it. That's on you, man." It was just a reminder I'm not there anymore. A new generation has come up.

The reason I need you to acclimate to that is that as soon as you understand there is a generation that is already coming up behind you, your mentality is going to shift from wanting to receive to wanting to invest. So many people get into their 40s and are still like, "Who's going to invest in me? Who's going to help me figure this out?"

You should always be seeking godly counsel, but at some point, you just have to own the fact that "Look. I have what I have. I'm going to keep looking for wisdom, but it's my turn to invest. God wants to use me. It's my time to step up to disciple and raise up the next generation." What does the next generation need from you and me? They need an example of a surrendered life. That's what they need. I'm going to show you two things really quickly. Look at what verse 1 of chapter 29 says.

"And David the king said to all the assembly, 'Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace will not be for man but for the Lord God. So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze…'" He goes on.

Isn't this amazing? David is like, "Look. I wanted to build the temple. God told me no. Okay. Well, if that's Solomon's calling, then I'm going to provide everything needed to build the temple." What a kingdom mindset. David is like, "I don't even get to be the one to do it, but I'm going to resource it." I tell you that to say if you're here in your 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s, does the next generation see you as someone fully surrendered, building God's kingdom?

It should never take a serving requirement to get people to serve. Never. Why? We should have a line out the door of people wanting to serve with high school, middle school, and kids' ministries because you're getting to reach the next generation with the gospel. This whole thing of, "Is it a requirement or not? If it's not a requirement, I'm not going to do it…" What? Build his kingdom.

People wondered why at Christmastime we asked people to consider giving. People were like, "Man, is the church in crisis financially?" No. The reason we did that was, over the years, we've seen giving in decline. Let me just say "thank you" for the way you responded. I'm so grateful and encouraged by the people here and your generosity.

But here's what you need to know. God is inviting us into several things coming that we're going to be unpacking for you in the coming months and years in addition to what we're already doing. We don't ever want to have to say no to something because we don't have the resources to do it. A day is going to come where we're going to be planting churches, sending groups of people out from this campus to plant churches in lesser-reached parts of the United States.

We have a vision to send hundreds of people to places in the world where the gospel has not gone yet. Hundreds of people. We want the name of Jesus to go to the places where it hasn't gone yet. We have some discipleship initiatives that are coming, and we want to say yes to all of it. So, that is just your way of saying, "Look. I'm committed to building God's kingdom. I'm not going to sit here and be like, 'Well, I'm not going to give unless it's according to my preference.'" Look. God is not going to be held hostage by your giving. You're either going to build your kingdom or build his. Build his. Finally, verses 10 and 11:

"Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: 'Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.'"

Isn't this fascinating? Everything David just said had actually been ascribed to him as king. He was said to be great and powerful and victorious, yet here we have the king saying, "Yeah, I'm the king, but this king has a king. Yeah, I rule, but I'm also ruled. Yeah, I've been over this kingdom, but it's actually his kingdom." It's full surrender. The next generation needs an example from the older generation of full surrender.

I used to run track a long time ago. There's this idea in a race called the kick. When do you start your kick? What's your kick? It's the moment at the end of the race where you surge or you sprint to the finish line. So, it's a question of when you start your kick. You don't want to start it too early because you don't want to fall off. You don't want to start it too late and leave gas in the tank.

Some people never start their kick. They just finish the race. They don't stop running; they just stop racing. The right place to start your kick is right around the 200-meters-to-go mark. That's when you start lifting your knees to lengthen your strides. It's when you start pumping your arms to use your arm strength.

When's the right time to start your kick spiritually? Today. You're like, "Well, I could still have 40 years left." Yeah. You might not. You could have a week left. Start your kick. Don't be one of those people who hits 65 and is like, "Okay, I'm cashing out. It's someone else's turn. I'm going to coast from here." Start your kick. Finish the race. Finish sprinting. Run in a way that you're running to win. Finish well. The next generation needs a model of full surrender.

Maybe you're here today, and you've never surrendered to Jesus. You've never come to a place where you've said, "Jesus Christ, you can rule and reign in my life." Maybe you're part of the next generation, and you're hearing me talk about how the next generation is turning to Christ around the world, yet you haven't turned to Christ. Maybe today is the day for you to do that.

I want to end today with one generation praying for another generation. If you're part of the next generation that stood, I want to invite you to stand one more time, if you're willing. If you're around one of these people, whether you know them or not, I want to invite you to stand. Stand around them. Put a hand on them.

If you're not close to one, you can just turn to the people you're with. I want to invite you to pray out loud. If you're next to them, pray out loud over them, but pray for the next generation. Pray for an undivided heart for them. Pray for clear callings upon them. Let's let one generation pray for the next, and then I'll close us in just a moment. You can begin to pray now.

Lord, I thank you for trusting Watermark Community Church with the next generation. I just want to ask, in the name of Jesus, for the 2,000-plus kids on our campus today, for the 2,500 young adults who will be here Tuesday night, for the hundreds of high school students who were in this room this past Wednesday, for all of the young marriages that are starting in Foundation Groups right now…

I want to ask that you'd fill our church with young men and women who have undivided hearts and clear callings. God, I pray that this church would be marked by full surrender, surrendered lives, no spectating. I pray that we would know you and serve you, God, with a whole heart. We love you. We sing to you. In Jesus' name, amen.