we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 8. Psalm 6 to watch day one of the Republican National Convention this week on television. If you missed it, it was done in true Trump style with personalities like Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan speaking and performing. Dana White gave him his introduction. And you know, in some ways, I was actually encouraged about the possibility of change for the better, if and when this man is elected. However, at the closing of day one, there was something done that absolutely raised the hair up on the back of my neck, and it put fear in my heart concerning the direction our country's headed. Did anybody watch it? How many of y'all, some of y'all may know what I'm talking about here. But the last speaker of the night was a woman by the name of Harmeet Dhillon. And she closed the night with a recitation of The Artist. Now for those of you who don't know what that is, that's a Sikh prayer asking for protection from God. So far so good, right? For those of us that don't know, Sikhism is defined as an ethical monotheism fusing the elements of Hinduism and Islam. And they're going to tell you that their God and our God is one and the same because there is only one God. They're monotheistic. However, I can stand in front of you this morning and tell you it can't be true. Because while they may accept Jesus as a great prophet, they will not accept Him as God because they believe that God cannot be born. Now, this woman, and which I believe the intentions were good, but this woman offered a prayer to quote-unquote, our one true God, Waheguru, asking for His divine protection. Now as I stand in front of you this morning, I don't know who this Wahoo Gru is, but he is not the God of our founding fathers. He's not the God our founding fathers worshipped. He's not the God I believe in. He's not the God I serve, nor the God who shed his very blood and died on a Roman cross to save my soul. He is certainly not the God that I feel comfortable as a nation offering a prayer to. Now, I went after this because, like I say, I was disturbed. And I went, and they say iron sharpens iron. So I went out and I began to talk to some of my Christian friends, some that have been in the faith for a very, very long time. Less than 1% even caught it. Less than 1% even cared. See, many in this country simply do not care, and they would tell me right now that I'm majoring in the minors, that I'm overreacting to this. Many just simply did not notice or weren't offended because they just don't know any better. But why are we, that are supposed to be a Christian nation, We that are supposed to be one nation under God, now praying or tolerating prayers to a foreign god. You know, I can't help but feel, I was sick about this the rest of the week, and I can't help but feel that even more so now, we are a nation running headlong into idol worship. I can't help but have the feeling that we, like Israel, have forgotten the God of our fathers. and all of the wonderful things that he has done. And I can't help but feel that generationally, there's been a failure at some point. And that we are now in the process of failing our children. Look at Psalm 78 verse 1. It says, a mascal of Asaph. It says, give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, which should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." See, Psalm 78 is a history lesson in Psalm. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, it is the second longest psalm after Psalm 119. And it was almost certainly written after the division of the kingdom. And we know this because it specifically addresses Ephraim in verse 9 and verse 67. Now Ephraim was the dominant tribe for much of the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. And here in this psalm, it is recorded how Ephraim led Israel astray, away from God and into sin. In this psalm, it's recorded how God chose instead the tribe of Judah and the house of David. Now in between these themes is an overview of Israel's history. It's an overview of how God brought them out of Egypt and He provided for them in the wilderness. But it is not a history written to make the Israelites look great. Instead, what we see here, beginning in verse 54, is how they turned away from God after He had established them in the Promised Land. And in this psalm here, it credits David and his kingdom with bringing the Israelites out of the darkness of the Judge's period. Now, that's a summary of verses 9-72. But this morning, and everybody can say thank God, we will only be focusing on the first eight verses that we read as a text. Because these eight verses serve as a preamble for the history lesson to follow. And if we look at this, it is practically parallel to the commandments of Deuteronomy 6, verses 1-13. See, Deuteronomy 6, verse 1 says, Now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither you go to possess it. that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And thou shalt talk of them while thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of goods, things which thou fillest not, and wells dig, which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not, when thou shall have eaten and be full. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name." See, this passage right here establishes so many wonderful facts, including the greatest truth. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. The greatest commandment Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. The greatest responsibility, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him. And the greatest duty, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." It is that duty, the passing of truth from one generation to the next, that's going to be our subject this morning. And while I'm talking about children as of size and of age, I'm also talking about the passing of this knowledge from the older Christian to the baby Christian. Both of these are our future, nationally and within the church. Brothers and sisters, It's our duty to pass on the truth of God. It's our duty to pass on the love of God. It's our duty to pass on the blessings of God. And with that in mind, I have four things I want to bring out to you from this passage. The first off is we need to hear the truth. Look at Psalm 78, verses 1 through 3. It says, a mask of Asaph. It says, give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline, lift that ear, to my ears. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable and I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known our fathers have told us." Look at verse 3 there. I slowed down. "...which we have heard, which we have known, and our fathers have told us." See, I want you to see here that we have a personal responsibility. Not only to teach it, but there's a personal responsibility for us to hear it. And it's a personal responsibility, in other words, in order to pay this forward to the next generation. To pass on the truth to the next generation, we first have to possess the truth ourselves. We've heard it. We've learned it for ourselves. We've known it. We've experienced it for ourselves. When we experience it, it becomes our truth. We've been told it by our fathers. Someone carried out the duty of teaching us. See, if the next generation is going to know the truth, we have to pass it on to them. And that next generation has to be willing to sit down and learn it. You know, it's scary how much I see myself in my kids sometimes. You know, the things I never really tried to teach them, they just picked it up. from music, to food, to habits, to the things that I say. I never thought that, you know, I look and, you know, my daughter is older now and I'll watch her with one of my nieces and the things that come out of her mouth, I go, oh my gosh, I said that way back when, you know. And it's nothing I really set out to pass on, but they've picked up from my example. See, what I realize there is what I have modeled is far more powerful than what I have simply told them to do. You know, there's an old saying that says, actions speak louder than words. Can I tell you the problem with the youth, what the problem with the youth in our society is today? They act like their parents. Yeah. You know what their parents act like? Their grandparents. It's a vicious cycle that seems to gain momentum if unchecked. You know, if we look, we've had a few generations now where parents didn't take responsibility of raising their families as seriously as they should have. And they let schools raise their children. And they tried to let the churches raise their children. They let television and media and pop culture raise their children. And the problem we have, and we see it in the prisons, we see it morally, we see it spiritually, the problem we have is we have let everyone else do the job that we should have done. But you know what those kids learned? And we look around today, you see it on the freeway. You see it in the stores. Those kids learned how to be apathetic parents. And the cycle continues. Do you want to change the next generation? It starts with the previous generations learning and holding the truth and then passing it on. Not only knowing it, but living it. Second thing I want you to see is hide not the truth. Look at verse four. It says, We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done. See, here's what's scary about the cycle I was just talking about. Somewhere up the line, Somewhere, you know, you go back 60s, 70s, 80s, somewhere up the line, some generation probably had the truth or at least something close to it. We tell everybody, we're not in Mayberry anymore. Life isn't simple anymore. Things just aren't like what they used to be. But some generation had the truth or at least close to it. but someone had the truth and they did absolutely nothing with it. They hid it like candles under a bushel. They hid it like the man that buried his talent. They hid it like someone stuffing cash into a mattress. You know, I thought here of my grandfather and my father, you know, as real life examples. My grandfather served in World War I and my father in World War II. And you know, I know that neither generation didn't talk about that stuff very much. You know, I wish I could have heard more about their experiences, but they were hidden away. That was in real life examples. They didn't talk about the war, but they talked even less about spiritual stuff. Neither one talked much about their life experiences. Neither one talked much about spiritual truths. See, for far too long, too many have hid away their faith for fear of offending some person that desperately needs to hear the good word and see that faith in action. We don't share in the workplace. We don't share in public because we're afraid of offending someone, possibly that we don't even know. Friends, first you must have the truth. And then when you have it, you can't hide it. That means you let somebody see it. You're living it. You let somebody see it. I remember the pastor when we were playing softball. You know, he was always praising the Lord. You want the chance to witness to somebody? You want the chance for somebody to ask you the questions? If you're constantly praising the Lord, if you're constantly living this life, someone is gonna ask you, somebody has been prepared, somebody is gonna ask you, and you get to share and you get to pass it on. We have to live it. We have to tell it. We have to teach it. I like what it says in Deuteronomy 6, verses 6-9. It says, "...and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and these words which I command thee this day..." I have a repeat verse here. "...shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." And thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine eyes, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them on the post of thy house and on thy gates." See, in verse six, the words, the truth is supposed to be in our hearts, but it doesn't stay there. In verse 7, we teach them and we talk about them while we sit, while we walk, while we lie down. In verse 8, we bind them on our hands as a reminder and we put them as frontlets before our eyes. In verse 9, we write them on the post in the gates. That to me, when I read that, that doesn't sound like hiding it. We're not in God's secret service. It doesn't sound like hiding it. The truth should be in every part of our lives. It should frame our thoughts, our attention, and our actions. Our world, if you look around you, and as I watch our government play out, and I watch our community play out, our world needs Christians, good, solid, godly individuals, now more than ever. Our families need them. Our churches need them. Our society needs them. We need godly men and women to stand up and not only believe the truths they learn, but to have the courage to defend them and share them. You can't hide it, guys. You gotta live it. You gotta take that action. It should show in every part. People are gonna ask you, Third thing I want you to see is we should hope in truth. Look at verse 5. It says, For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that he should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children. that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. See, here's the goal. It's written right there. Here's the goal. We bring others to hope in God. We teach them their faith is established. Their hope now doesn't rest in government. It doesn't rest in man. It doesn't rest in anything. Their hope is completely in God. See, hope is an expectation. And it's an expectation that God will save us, an expectation that God will guide us, an expectation that God will protect us, an expectation that God will deliver us, an expectation that God will be with us forevermore in that land of perfect peace and beauty. It doesn't just say that these people will know the truth. though they won't forget the works of God. It doesn't just say that they will keep the commandments, though it says they will. What it says is that their heart will be stirred and hope will spring forth. See, when we share, when we teach, when God becomes our hope, something is sparked. And something is sparked in them, and they're going to develop. We're going to watch these people. We're going to watch our children. We're going to watch our children's children. We're going to watch these new baby Christians develop their own love for God. And when they do, hope is brought to life. By the way, hope is only as good as what it is attached to. And we should place all of our hope in God. Final point I want you to see this morning is that we should humbly share the truth. Look at verse 8. It says, "...and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." Now in all my previous points this morning, I've taken a word directly from the text, but this one I see as implied. See, what could follow in this history lesson is victory after victory. If we do this, things could turn around and victory after victory could happen. Success after success. It could be the, and as we look at this in the Bible, as this is applied, the preamble's applied. In Israel, it could have been victory after victory, success after success. And it could have been the most glowing account of a nation that you had ever read. But instead, the Bible's honest. The Israelites experienced firsthand the great miracles of God, and yet they fell into unbelief. See, those adults that came out of Egypt, think about it. Those guys saw the plagues. They crossed the Red Sea. They heard that thundering on Sinai. But they failed to have the faith to cross over into the Promised Land. The next generation took possession of the land, yet it wasn't long until their descendants didn't choose to serve God like Joshua told them to do. And the sins of the people continued until God forsook the tabernacle. You read this. This Psalm, it's not a glowing report. But it is honest. And that's where humility steps in. You know, there's an old saying that says, men at best are simply men at best. Have we failed at times? Have our forefathers failed at times? Yes. But let me tell you something. None of that negates the greatness of God. Rather, it absolutely magnifies it. See, the goal in passing the truth on to the next generation is not for them to think that we were great. The goal is for them to think that our God was great. And in doing so, sometimes we need humility. Sometimes we just gotta teach by saying, you know what, don't do it like I did. I made every mistake in the book. Sometimes we just have to apologize for our own failures. Truth should breed humility, not pride. And as I close, let me say that I don't think that we have lost the younger generations completely. However, we are definitely starting from behind. But so long as God lives, there is hope. See, the more the world tries to silence us and limit us, the more we need to make our voices heard. And there are a lot of lies out there right now. Everywhere you look, there are a lot of pressure for Christians and churches to be silent. There are a lot of people out there, young and old, that absolutely need to hear the truths. These people need to know about our God. They need to know how good He is and what He has done to reconcile us back to Him. Guys, if you, and I'm gonna stop here, but if you don't take anything else away from today's message, please remember this. The only way truth dies is if it is not passed on or picked up. God bless you. Pastor. The easiest thing about praising the Lord, what makes it work, is that you pay attention. The Lord is blessing in areas all around us all the time. He'll take a storm and turn it into magic that just transforms lives sometimes. you'll take the worst thing that ever happened to you and pull a Romans 828 and apply it to it and it turns out good. You don't know how it happened, but you know from whom it came. Learn to not be silent. We get to thinking that we're gonna offend somebody. Well, let me remind you that there's somebody in all of that group of people that may be potential offendees There's somebody there that is just dying for somebody to tell them the truth. Because the Lord's already been working in their life. He's already been drawing them, and they're getting more and more and more ready by the day. And then when somebody comes along and gives him praise for what he's done in their life, especially somebody that has the truth, we're a little church. We're short on resources, but we're not short on truth. We know the truth. I can teach you how to go to heaven. And there's a bunch of you out there now that can teach somebody else how to go to heaven because you've learned it and you know the truth and you know what the Word says. We're coming up to Vacation Bible School. God's given us a message today that says, remember to pass on the truth to the children. That can't be an accident. The Lord's trying to tell us something. He's knocking at the heart. I know that some of you are having a little more trouble with your energy levels than you used to. I used to praise the Lord more than I've been doing lately. I found out that when you're hurting and you don't have any get up and go, it's hard to be excited about anything, let alone the most important thing. But we need to do it anyway. We need to do it when it hurts. And praise the Lord for the pain, because we still, if you're dead, you don't feel pain. Well, unless you're dead without Jesus, then you'll feel pain. We're going to pass on this truth to our children. I had an experience this last week or so, about a week ago, I guess. My sons, who have long since not been children for a long time now, they were talking back and forth, texting back and forth in a group text about what happened to President Trump and his near assassination attempt. The young fellow that I say young, he's 50, that's young to be in Cecil. He covered his wife and daughters with his body and died protecting them. And they were angry about that. And so they were expressing their anger back and forth about what happened and how it happened. But you know what, the conclusion of their conversation was, we gotta quit being quiet, it's time to tell people about Jesus. Whether they like it or not, tell them. There's some of them that are gonna listen.