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We are going to focus on one verse. Verse 12. It says this: "But you O Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations." The Bible has an awful lot to say about generations. The Bible talks about the sins of the fathers being visited from the fathers on down to the third and forth generations. And we often times use that passage of scripture to talk about ..... sin. But there is also a blessing beyond that... It talks about the blessing of God visiting thousands of generations. To God there is always a flip side to the negative in the Word of God. [to those who are obedient]. When we are disobedient there is consequences to pay. When we are obedient, God blesses and the blessings out weigh the judgment many times over. And that is the Grace of God. And that's the mercy of God evident and active in a person's life.
I want to talk today about generations because it is very important for us as we focus on a week of missions. That is to understand the potential and the power of faithful people living faithful lives.
We are preaching the gospel today in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in close to 60 countries around the world. We have missionaries that have gone from churches just like North Avenue to take the gospel around the world and I praise God for that. As I mentioned last Sunday in the adult Sunday school class; this is kind of a unique representation in a technical sense I am not here as a missionary. I am here as a product of missions in the Christian and Missionary Alliance which has proclaimed the gospel among one of those unique people groups; the native Americans. I am a Chipawaw Indian. I was born and raised in the Leach Lakes region in north central Minnesota in a little town called Cass Lake Minnesota which is my home town. That's where I grew up. That's where my roots are. That's where my family history is. When I look back in my family I realize that our story is the story of many native people today.
But it is also a story of the Glory and Grace of God at work because of the faithfulness of God's people. You see, the Bible has a lot to say about generations. And the scriptures are very clear. It says, "But you O Lord sit enthroned [on High] forever and your renown endures through every generation." It is very important for us to realize that God always has been and always will be enthroned on high forever. That will never change and the reason why God sits enthroned forever is based solely on and exclusively on who He is. He is a sovern Lord; The Creator of all things. The one who has made everything; because of his stature and prominence ; because of his Glory; Because of his Light; Because of all that He is. He sits enthroned on High forever. King of king and Lord of lords. That will never change. It's all based on who He is. And, Oh, He is worthy ..of our worship ... Do you realize while you are here this morning.. you are not the audience. He is. God is our audience this morning. We have all come together to worship and pray and praise and give glory to His Name. That is our purpose in life.
And every generation is has been called to give honor and glory to God. But every generation does not necessarily do that. Since God's renown endures through every generation and that being based solely on who He is. We also need to realize ..that God does not necessarily visit every generation. Though God's renown endures through every generation God's renown does not necessarily visit every generation. While God's renown is based on who He is . His renown visiting a generation is based on the faithfulness of his people in the generation prior. That's an important understanding that we may sometimes not even realize.... God's renowned visiting a generation is based on the faithfulness of you and I as God's people. That is pointed out for us in scripture. If you go back to the Book of Judges you see the Children is Israel whom God called to be faithful. And when they came in to the promised land God told them: All these things are yours. And my blessing will be upon you and if you stay true to me I will bless you and you will prosper. But the scripture shows the story.. and if there was ever a generation that lived to see the manifest power of God in their lives it was that generation as they saw the delivering hand of God part the Red Sea. Can you imagine if our generation saw God divide Lake Champlain and we walked through safely ? You would think we would be faithful to God? .. We often say. "If God would only do this for me..." I would be faithful. Let me tell you something. [It is] very clear from the children of Israel that even when God comes down in great power and might there is always a potential for you and I to not be faithful to God because scripture is clear when they came in to the promised land they began to entertain the enemy instead of dealing with them as God had instructed them. They embraced them and welcomed them and tolerated them. And as they tolerated them all of a sudden they gave their sons and daughters to be married to the enemy and, the scriptures say, they served their gods and the end result is one of the saddest verses in all of scripture which is found in Judges chapter 2 verse 10 it says this: After that generation had been gathered to their fathers.... that generation being the generation that saw the delivering hand of God out of Egypt and the supernatural heating and air conditioning in the wilderness for 40 years. After that generation had died.. it says another generation grew up who knew neither God nor what He had done for Israel. A whole generation was lost. And why did that generation ..the second generation out of Egypt.. grow up and not know God? It is because Israel in that generation prior was not faithful to their God.
We are one generation away from, in this land, from Godlessness and total anarchy. One generation away. So you see, my friend, in this generation it is important for the church to be the church. It is important for the Standard of God to be raised up in this land in this day and around the world. Its our responsibility to be faithful to God in this generation. So ..there was a time in Indian history, where God's church was demonstrating faithfulness.
I was not even born when that faithfulness was manifest ...back close to a hundred years ago. In the early years of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, in churches as Nothave Alliance, God was calling out. In the vision of our founder AB Simpson; ..In his passion for the world; In places similar to this congregation here people had a passion for reaching the world with the gospel of Christ.
I was just reading a few days ago about the Boxer rebellion in China where 36 of our Alliance Missionaries laid down their life as martyrs in the soil of China . I'll tell you it takes a faithful people in that generation who are faithful to God to take the gospel to the ends of the earth . And God Blessed and subsequently in some church some young person came forward to [an] alter and said "I'm willing to go Lord." Just like the choir sang in that awesome song "Is it I Lord?" Could it be today that God is calling? He is still in the sending business. In this generation He is active. Is He sending today? Where are our workers in this generation? Where are our prayer warriors in this generation? We live today in such a comfort zone of Christianity but, I tell you, we have got to get back to the old passion for souls and the lostness of man and the realization that if we are not faithful today to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth there will be a generation that knows not God nor what He has done among his people.
But I am here this morning as a testimony of the faithfulness of a generation. My grandmother and grandfather were forcibly removed as young people from their homes in northern Minnesota. They were sent by the United States government to Toma Wisconsin 500 some miles away. That is where they met at the government boarding school. It was the purpose of the United States government about 100 years ago to completely take away from the native people their identity, their culture, their language and all these things... My grandfather was from the Leach Lake reservation. My grandmother was from the Wide Earth Reservation . And there at the boarding school they had their whole identity taken away from them forcibly. My grandmother told me times when she was literally beaten by the government workers when she was caught speaking her [native] language. That was all she knew when she went there. And consequently it was a dark day in the history of our people. Our people came away from that experience 100 years ago a broken people.
They met at the boarding school, they fell in love and got married, but yet they were broken people. [It was a] terrible time in our history. My grandmother internalized her pain and my grandfather turned to alcohol . He became and alcoholic. I didn't know my grandfather. He died before I was born. But one of his ...friends told me when I was a young man growing up in that reservation, your grandfather was a very angry man. His idea of having a good time was to get his buddies drunk, [and] take them home so he could beat them up... When I look back in my family history and prior generations all I see was hopelessness and despair and pain. But in the mist of that kind of termoil God was still enthroned on High. His renown was enduring through that generation . But is renown needed to visit that generation. And His renown visiting that generation needed to be done through faithful people and they were faithful in that generation. Some young man came to an alter, prayed and gave his life over to Christ to go. And others said they were willing to stand behind him and to pray and support him so he could go do that work. And finally, that faithful person came to our reservation. One of the first reservations that the Christian and Missionary Alliance ever targeted to preach the gospel. and share the love of Jesus Christ. When the C&MA missionaries came to that reservation ... one of the couples they met were my grandparents. To make a long story short; after hearing the gospel and seeing that God could change her life, and heal her of all the pain and despair that was in her life [my grandmother] responded to the gospel and she was gloriously saved. My grandmother was one to the first Chipawa Indians to come to know Jesus Christ and she came to Christ through he faithfulness of the Alliance Church that was preaching the gospel to our people. My grandfather, when he saw the transformation that took place in my grandmother's life, this angry drunk man saw the transformation and it was not long before he bowed his knee before Jesus Christ to confess Christ as Lord and Savior and embraced Christ... When my grandfather got saved , the very moment he accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, he was completely, 100%, delivered from the power of alcohol. He was set free. (applause)
I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. My friend, the power of God is what needs to be proclaimed in the community. There is power in this message that transforms a life. My grandmother and grandfather became one of the first believers in Christ in my people. And because of that their children (my father sister and brother)[also believed] At first it was a Godless home but subsequently from there God blessed to a point when my father accepted Christ when he was eleven years old. He went on to St. Paul Bible College, [and] sang with the St. Paul Bible College choral club. Met my mom. They got married; raised five boys , no girls. Pray for mom. She is still recovering (laughter). But my father raised our family in a Christian home. That is what we knew. We knew about Jesus from a young age. God blessed in our family to a point in time when I, as a young man, gave my life to Christ. He saved me. He set me free. I am not a Christian because my grand mom and grandfarther and my father and mother are. I can't go to heaven on their coat tails. I have to go on my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and I have surrendered my life to him. Then God Blessed me with a wonderful wife and one little, two little, three little Indians who are now one little, two little, three great big Indians. (laughter) who have grown. But I want you to know as I stand before you this morning every one of my kids have given their lives to Christ. They have surrendered their lives to Him. That's four generations in one family. And I can stand before you and tell you that I thank God that he delivered my grandfather from the power of alcohol and the curse that affects so many of our people. But I can be more thankful that I can stand before you today and tell you that I praise God that he didn't have to deliver me from that curse because I didn't need it. You see, every generation that follows Christ has the potential to being further and further removed from the pain of the past. And that's the power of the gospel as it visits one generation and then begins to move to other generations and benefit and bless the subsequent generations. I am far removed from the garbage because of the gospel. I am far removed from the pain because of the power of the resurrected Christ resident in our family .
We don't' realize the potential of faithfulness and the power of faithfulness. As we are faithful to God today. Because, you see, what literally happens; the power of faithfulness is this.: Faithfulness literally reaches out into the future and it changes the future . I WASN'T there when the missionaries first came. I was not even born when my grandfather and grandmother confessed Christ. But because of the faithfulness of that generation I, today, am preaching the word of God. I am carrying the cross in the places that God gives me. And my children are carrying on that walk with Christ as well. That is the power of faithfulness.
Go back with me to the 102 Psalm and look at another verse. This is my life verse and so significant to me as an individual. It is Psalm 102 and verse 18. "Let this be for a future generation that a people not yet created may praise the Lord." Alleluia. Isn't that an awesome verse? Isn't that a powerful verse? There are people who are not yet created today; as we are faithful to God in our filling out our pledge cards we are saying.."God what will you have me do.?" As I give of my resources that is enabling our missionaries this day to preach the gospel in these communities and the impact of that is going to be so much that there are people who are not even born right now that in their generation are going to able to stand and give praise to God because of the faithfulness of you and I today. That's the power of faithfulness.
And who knows what God will do for those who are not even born yet today. Who will carry the mantle of the cross in their generation because we were faithful to God today? What better investment of our time; of our talents; of our treasures that we can give to God and get involved in his Kingdom work that reaches out and changes the future. I am here today as a testimony of that.
See, all it takes in a family is one person. That's all it takes in a family to make a difference. It started with my grandmother. She never realized the effect. When she confessed Christ; what it would have in generations to come. And here we are today. Continuing on serving the Lord.
Let me close by reminding you that all it takes in a church to make a difference is one person. ALL GOD'S LOOKING FOR IN A CHRUCH IS ONE PERSON WHO IS WILLING TO MOVE FROM THEIR COMFORT ZONE. and say, "I willing. God, is it I Lord?" God is still in the sending business. We need people praying like never before.
I close with this illustration. When I was just a young boy growing up in the Aliance Curch in my home reservation. We had a mixed community with 50% Indian and 50% non-Indian. So we had a lot of Swedes and Norwegians along with Indians. I think the Norwegian and the Indians are a lot similar. When the Lord comes to take us all home and we go up to meet Him in the air. We will all leave at the same time but the Indians and the Scandinavians will be kind of trailing along behind cause we will have to stop for coffee somewhere between here and there. (laughter). That is what I have noticed in those people groups.
But we had an old Scandinavian lady in our church . Her name was Clara. She was a widow. She was my Sunday School teacher and I will never forget as I grew up in that church that she would look like she was always old. She was born old. As a kid, you think there are people like that. That person has always been old . (laughter) How did that happen?
I couldn't wait to get out of her class. You know promotion Sunday when you get your certificate and on you go. Well I couldn't wait. I finally got promoted out of Clara's class and guess what happened? Clara also got promoted too and next year there she was again. (laughter) . But as a young boy I never forgot one day we were ready to tear out of the Sunday school at the buzzer. I remember tearing out of there and these hands grabbing me, turned me around in that musty old basement of that church and someone put me up against the center support like they were going to beat me up. I opened my eyes there was Clara holding me like this.. with my lapel up like this and almost lifting me off the ground . And a big old smile came on her face and she said "Craig Smith, God had laid you on my heart" I am committing myself to praying for you every day that I live" She let me go and I fell down and I tore out of there (laughter) It didn't mean anything to me [then]. I just went out playing . Got muddy, got in trouble, and on we went with life. But you know, as I grew up, in that church as a teenager going through adolescence... (by the way I finally graduated beyond Clara's class)..I was so excited and guess who I got.? I got my own grandmother as my youth teacher. Grandma Irene, the first convert to Christ. So I don't know who was better Grandma or Clara. They were both old. (laughter). But every so often as I passed by Clara in the Church she would tap me on the shoulder and remind me "I am praying for you." LaDonna and I got married in that church 23 years ago and I remember people going through the reception line and there was Clara. She gave me a great big hug and whispered in my ear "Craig, now I'm really praying for you." (laughter).
We began traveling and singing, Ladona and I, and I remember one time coming home and the phone rang and it was the pastor of the Alliance Church, "I don't know if you know this but Clara has taken ill while you were gone and in fact she is on her death bed. And she is at home. And there is a nurse taking care of her. " Ladona and I; we had to go see her. She lived about a block from the Alliance Church. She had this itty bitty little home. Beautiful oak floors and beautiful antiques all throughout that little house. We knocked on the door and there was her brother Jerry. We said we heard Clara was not doing well and he said, "No she is not. She's really on her death bed." Can we go see her? I don't know. She probably won't even recognize you. She's so weak. He went in and talked to the nurse. She said you can come in and say good-bye, that's all you can do. And I remember grabbing LaDonna's hand and we walked in through her little house. And there to the right was her bedroom. And there was this little, little frail body laying in a fetal position. And I will never forget that image. It's burned into my mind. I remember going over to her and putting my hand on her shoulder. I said Clara "its Craig and LaDonna . We've just come to say Hi. We hear you're not doing well. We just want you to know we love you. She tried to open her eyes. She was too weak. I had my hand on her shoulder and all I felt was bone,.'Like there was no meat. I said "Its Craig and LaDonna." And she opened her eyes just a bit and she tried to talk and she didn't even have the strength to mutter a word. But I could read her lips . And she said this. She said. "I prayed for you today."
That night she died. Yes, that night she died. And every time I get discouraged in the ministry; Every time I think "Lord is it even worth it? We are working with hardened people. My mind goes back to that moment where I saw the fulfillment of faithful people investing themselves in me. As a child she said "God has laid you on my heart and I am committing to pray for you every day that I live." I was there the day she died and saw her testify to her faithfulness in my life. That's why I'm here today. That is why God has called. I can't help but do it. God has called . You see, my friend, if we are to do what God has called us to do what it is going to take is an incredible level of faithfulness. Its' going to take incredible moving beyond what we are comfortable with; to getting back to the days that we see God comfortably at work like Him. It is so easy to coast in a level of comfort as a Christian in America. But God is calling us to go beyond that to be aggressively faithful in this generation. so that a people not yet created can praise the Lord. What a heritage that would be. And as that great song that Steve Green sings says "May all who come behind us find us faithful." May it be so as we seek the Lord.
Father we bow before you and ask that a revival of faithfulness would sweep across us so that we would be faithful in this generation but in doing so we would see a generation that is not yet created give praise to God. In Jesus Name, Amen.