Different Generations

1. Different Generations • It is not uncommon to find one generation that is very different from the preceding generation. (Judges 2:7-12)

2. Different Generations • Judges 2:7-11 (NKJV)- So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel….

3. Different Generations • 10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;

4. Different Generations • The key to what a generation becomes is what the first generation does in the home. (Deut 6:7-10)

5. Different Generations • Deuteronomy 6:7-10 (NKJV) - You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

6. Different Generations • 10 “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,

7. Different Generations • Casual teaching with little emphasis rarely will build a strong faith.

8. Different Generations • “A cartoon in the New Yorker showed a father scowling over a very bad report card while his little boy stood by, asking, "What do you think it is, Dad? Heredity or environment?"”

9. Different Generations • Casual teaching with little emphasis rarely will build a strong faith. • Moses knew that the efforts made by this generation would mean everything for the nation of Israel after they possessed the land.

10. Different Generations • Moses commonly pointed to the crossing of the Jordan as a huge step in the development of this young nation.

11. Different Generations • Moses commonly pointed to the crossing of the Jordan as a huge step in the development of this young nation. • This was to be a decision that like the generation before would have great significance.

12. Different Generations • Moses commonly pointed to the crossing of the Jordan as a huge step in the development of this young nation. • This was to be a decision that like the generation before would have great significance. • Once this decision was made there was no going back.

13. Lessons from a failed generation • One generation will always look at and point to the faults of the previous one.

14. Lessons from a failed generation • One generation will always look at and point to the faults of the previous one. • Many times they get it wrong and pay a great price! (Prov 22:15; 29:15)

15. Lessons from a failed generation • Proverbs 22:15 (NKJV) - Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

16. Lessons from a failed generation • Proverbs 29:15 (NKJV) - The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

17. Lessons from a failed generation • The previous generation had their crossing and failed to take advantage of it.

18. Lessons from a failed generation • The previous generation had their crossing and failed to take advantage of it. • They crossed the Red Sea in a great miracle. (1 Cor 10:1-6)

19. Lessons from a failed generation • 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 (NKJV) - Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

20. Lessons from a failed generation • 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

21. Lessons from a failed generation • Rather than build their own faith in God they followed the flesh and became a cowardly generation of complainers. The forgot very quickly! (Num 11:4-5)

22. Lessons from a failed generation • Numbers 11:4-5 (NKJV) - Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;

23. Lessons from a failed generation • “Backsliders usually are guilty of criticism, condemnation, and complaining.”

24. Lessons from a failed generation • When the time came to fight by faith they reacted in a predicable manner.

25. Lessons from a failed generation • “When we expect more of others than we expect of ourselves, we are in a state of carnality.”

26. Lessons from a failed generation • Moses later numbers the next generation and makes a strong point on them! (Num 26:63-65; 32:7-13)

27. Lessons from a failed generation • Numbers 26:64-65 (NKJV) - But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai. 65 For the LORD had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” So there was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

28. Lessons from a failed generation • Numbers 32:7-13 (NKJV) - Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them? 8 Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

29. The Crossing of the next generation • They would be going to a new place by faith. (Josh 3:3-4)

30. The Crossing of the next generation • Joshua 3:3-4 (NKJV) - and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”

31. The Crossing of the next generation • Unlike the previous generation that looked back and became fearful, they were moving forward. Too many are cursed by the familiar.

32. The Crossing of the next generation • Unlike the previous generation that looked back and became fearful, they were moving forward. Too many are cursed by the familiar. • Jesus warned us not to look back. (Lk 9:62)

33. The Crossing of the next generation • Luke 9:62 (NKJV) - But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

34. The Crossing of the next generation • While we hold onto the old paths we will go to places new to us!

35. The Crossing of the next generation • They witnessed a great miracle. (Josh 3:10-17)

36. The Crossing of the next generation • Joshua 3:10-17 (NKJV) - And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: 11Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.

37. The Crossing of the next generation • Joshua 3:10-17 (NKJV) - and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

38. The Crossing of the next generation • 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

39. The Crossing of the next generation • The knowledge of the miracle would give them courage in the future battles they would fight!

40. The Crossing of the next generation • The knowledge of the miracle would give them courage in the future battles they would fight! • God also gave them a leader in whom the people could trust to do God’s will. (Josh 3:7)

41. The Crossing of the next generation • Joshua 3:7 (NKJV) - And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, soI will be with you.

42. The Crossing of the next generation • It would be easy for this generation to remember!

43. The Crossing of the next generation • They were also prepared for this event by Moses.

44. The Crossing of the next generation • They were also prepared for this event by Moses. • They were reminded of the certainty of the promises of God. (Num 33:50-53)

45. The Crossing of the next generation • Numbers 33:50-53 (NKJV) - Now the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, 51“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places;

46. The Crossing of the next generation • 53 you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess.

47. The Crossing of the next generation • They were reminded that their strength and righteousness was not the reason for their success! (Deut 9:1-6)

48. The Crossing of the next generation • Deuteronomy 9:1-6 (NKJV) - “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’

49. The Crossing of the next generation • 3 Therefore understand today that the LORD your God isHe who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.

50. The Crossing of the next generation • 4“Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you.