Skip to content The Greatest Generation | Pastor Josh Dotzler | Matthew 18 Oct 26 · 36 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
98.3K followers
Love Church exists to help people experience God's best for their lives by loving God supremely and loving people supernaturally. We are surrendered, surrounded, spirit-led, self-fed, and sent.
98.3K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
0:01 We'd love to connect with you afterwards at the welcome center, in the lobby and get some of your information, give you a gift and then get you connected to a lot of the great things that are happening0:12 here at our church. Well, know, in a second, I wanna get into our message, but, on this orange Sunday, I know we have a variety of generations represented in0:24 here today. And, if you are from 1 of the generations that I'm gonna communicate and share about here in a second, I just want you to make a little bit of noise. Is anybody here from the builder generation?0:39 Crickets. That's 19 28 through 19 45. We've got 1, a couple from the builder generation. Come0:51 on. We love you guys. We're thankful for you. I know I I talked to her earlier. She wore orange just for orange Sunday today. Come on.1:03 That is the builder generation. This generation, just for context, raised during the aftermath of the great depression, world war 2,1:15 many started to build around values, stability, loyalty, duty, respect for institutions. Are we grateful for the builder generation? Come on.1:27 How about any boomers a k a baby boomers in the house? Come on. We got a few boomers, baby boomers in the house1:39 born during or during post war baby boom, known for social activism. I love that about that generation. Economic expansion. Come on. We're grateful for you. An1:50 emphasis on optimism, work ethic, strong influence of culture, institutions, and politics. Come on. We're so grateful for the baby boomers. How about Gen X? Any Gen Xers in the house?2:02 Come on, Generation X. 19 65 to 19 80. Come on, Gen X. We got a good group of Gen Xers2:14 sometimes called the middle child. Sorry about that, Gen X. They experience shift in family structure. It talks about the rise of personal2:25 computers, MTV. Anybody watch MTV, generation x? Come on. The early Internet often stereotyped as independent, skeptical, adaptable.2:37 They value work and life balance, and we love our Gen Xers. How about millennials? Let's go. I2:49 like the I like the energy from my millennials. Come on. 19 81 to 19 96, they tried to3:01 talk about us millennials. They said we were what was the word they used? Lazy. Come on. We've taken over the workforce. We're just getting older.3:13 That's all that means. The millennials, gen y, first generation to come of age during the Internet often face high educational debt. Well, economic uncertainty, globalization, and3:24 rapid tech change known for I I read this, and I was like, man, this is so crazy. Known for valuing purpose, flexibility, diversity, and digital connectivity.3:37 Come on. I love my millennials. How about generation z? Let's go. 19 973:48 to 20 12. We know where y'all at. Y'all got the energy we all want. Come on, Gen z, often4:00 called digital natives, born into the world of smartphones, social media, streaming, more globally connected, socially conscious, and I love that about y'all, comfortable with multiple4:11 identities and change. I don't know what that means, but we're gonna celebrate that this morning. Come on. We love Gen z. We don't you know what I'm saying? That's that's4:23 without Christ. In Christ, we got 1 identity. Come on. That's without Christ. How about anybody from generation alpha? Come on, generation alpha.4:35 They're like, I don't know if we should be loud in church or not. 20 10 to 20 24, I think all my kids are the alpha generation, first born generation entirely in 20 first century, expected to4:47 be the most technologically immersed, raised with AI, smart devices, and heavy digital integration in learning and socializing. Generation4:59 alpha. Anybody here from generation beta? I think we got, like, 1. They're born in 20 25. They5:11 are being born from now on into this next generation and words to describe them have not fully been developed yet. But we're so how many are grateful for all the5:22 generations? Come on. So thankful for all the generations. Fun to see some of the descriptions. How many know too that a lot of times our generations are5:34 defined and described, by monumental cultural events? Some may be negative and tragic, some like technologies and breakthroughs, but our5:46 world is trying and does define every single culture in every generation. How many know that we serve a God that defines who we are? We're not5:58 just split in multiple personalities. No, there's an identity that we live with and under Christ. And so today, as we have some of our love kids6:09 in here, and as we get into the orange bible and use this as our text this morning, we're gonna talk about this idea of building the greatness6:21 and greatest generation. We believe God's called this generation to be great, And we all have a part to play in what that looks like in our scriptures6:33 today in Matthew, were actually a part of our our reading this week. And Jesus talks about children. He talks about the power of children. In the orange bible, if6:45 you came in and and and you're with some kids, love kids, you should have received an orange bible. If you didn't get 1, make sure you get 1 on the way out. But in the orange bible, you can actually just go to the6:56 date and the date actually has the scripture readings for the day and there's a little description. And so we're gonna go through that here together this morning. And speaking of7:08 generation great and the greatest generation, I wanna invite up some helpers who are gonna help me this morning. Can we make some noise as I invite some of my helpers to the stage?7:19 Generation great, come on up here ladies, Joshua. Come on. I had to have some young leaders up here this morning7:31 help me out. They're gonna help us as we go through our message today. And, don't they look good? Come on. They look7:43 so good. Julianna, first thing I want us to do is I want you to introduce yourself and tell everybody what grade you're in. Alright?7:52 My name is Julianna, and I'm in sixth grade.7:57 Can you pass the mic?7:59 My name's Savannah, and I'm in the fourth grade.8:02 Fourth grade. Come on. My name's Jada, and I'm in second grade. Yeah.8:11 And my name's Joshua, and I'm a sophomore in high school.8:14 Come on. You guys feeling alright? Feeling good? You guys look good. First thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna get into God's word, and we're gonna be reading from8:26 Matthew chapter 18 verse 1 through 9. So if you have your bible, if you have your orange bible, if you have your phone, it should also be on the screen. We are gonna read through that, and these ladies are gonna8:38 help us do that. Jada's gonna start here with the first verse. Starting right there. Right here? Yep. The disciples came to Jesus and asked, who is8:50 greatest in the kingdom of heaven?8:53 Come on.8:55 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, I tell you the truth. Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.9:07 So anyone who becomes as humble as a little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And9:17 anyone who who welcomes a little child like his own on my behalf is welcoming me. But if9:29 you cause 1 of these little ones who trust in me to fall into sin, it would be better if you have a large9:40 millstone tied around your neck and be through drowned in the depths of the sea.9:47 Come on. Alright, Joshua.9:53 Because it tempts some peep wait. What sorrow awaits the world? Because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting? So10:05 if your hands or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It's better to end it's better to enter eternal life with only 1 hand or 1 foot than to be thrown into10:17 eternal fire with both your hands and feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to enter eternal life with only 1 eye than to have 2 eyes and be10:28 thrown into the fire of hell.10:30 Come on. I'll take that. After after the verses for that day, they share kind of a little synopsis of what those10:42 verses are. And so, as you continue to read in the orange bible, it says Jesus told his disciples that you get to be the best in the kingdom of God by being humble, like a little child.10:55 A child is completely dependent on adults to provide his or her basic needs like food, a home, and clothing. In the same way, we as Jesus' followers need to11:06 be completely dependent on him to forgive us and to save us. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. I love how we get this11:18 synopsis of the scriptures that we're reading, and we're gonna talk about these verses and what they mean to us. And and the first thing that we see here in these verses that Jesus is is saying11:30 as he's talking to his disciples and he's talking to these religious leaders, is he's saying, we've gotta be like little children. Just go ahead and say, you know, turn to the person next to you and say, you gotta be11:39 like a child. I didn't say be childish, I said be childlike. You you've gotta be like children and there's something about children as11:51 we see in this scripture that Jesus is encouraging us to be like. And so I thought it would be fun as we get started to really, embrace our childlike12:03 behavior. And so we're gonna play a game of Simon Says. Anybody know Simon Says? Come on, we're gonna play Simon Says. Actually, we're gonna play Jada Says. Alright. Jada's gonna help.12:15 Jada, can you stand up right here? Jada's gonna help us. Jada says, and as we know how the game works, you can only do what Jada says. And and so Jada's gonna help12:27 lead us in that. Just to get us started, can I have everybody stand up? If you stood up, you're out because Jada didn't say to12:39 stand up. I apologize. There was some that stayed seated sitting. Alright, Jada. What do we got?12:51 Jada says?12:53 Touch your head.12:54 Touch your head. Alright. Jada says?12:58 Touch your nose.12:59 Jada says?13:04 Touch your ears.13:07 What else?13:09 Touch your legs.13:13 Jada didn't say. Alright. We're gonna go faster now. Jada says?13:19 Touch your head.13:20 Jada says? Smile. Smile. Oh, if you're not smiling. Jada says?13:27 Put your hand on your nose.13:28 Put your hand on your nose. Alright. Can hey, can we make some noise? Come on. Jada didn't say. Come on. Alright.13:40 Good job, Jada. Come on. High 5 girl. Great job. Great job. Sometimes it's just fun to embrace our child like nature. I wanna ask each each 1 of you guys or whoever wants to13:52 answer, why does Jesus tell us to be like a child? Why does Jesus tell us to be child like? Anybody wanna answer?13:58 Because kids are the best.14:02 Kids are the best. Anybody else? Savannah, how about you?14:07 We're just a child. We're not, like, grown up yet. We still have lots to learn.14:14 We still have lots to learn. That's right. I love that. I love that. Come on. Anybody out there, why would Jesus tell us to be childlike? Full of14:26 wonder. Innocence. Pure. Trusting. Trusting. Curious. Dependable.14:37 What'd you say? Humble. Humble. There's something about the mentality, the my mindset of being childlike. Jesus is14:49 pointing us. He again, he's talking to adults here. He's not talking to children. He's talking to adults and he's talking to people that actually15:00 understood the scripture and understood the laws. And he's telling them that's great that you understand over 300 different rules and laws that you should live by, but this is how I want15:12 you to be. If you're actually gonna inherit the kingdom of God, you're gonna have to take on this childlike posture mindset and mentality.15:25 There's an innocence. I I remember when when our kids were were younger and 1 day at our house we were having this time where they were singing and dancing and and just being free, being15:36 kids. And they were they were performing for us. And there was a couple of times as performing, they're like, uh-uh, I messed up. Oh, I And and they were a little sad and upset that they messed up and wanted to start15:48 over again. And I just remember thinking as a parent and watching them, they can't mess up. If you've ever been to a kid's dance recital, the mess up is the best16:00 part. Going off script is the best part. When when when when children carry the innocence about them, man,16:11 it speaks to the heart of a father, of a mother, of a parent. Children have this curiosity, they have this innocence, they have this openness. What happens to us as16:23 adults? We go through life. We start to lose our sense of curiosity. We know everything. We have all the answers. We get hurt.16:36 Things happen. Our heart starts to get hard. We're wounded. We're walking around with these scars. We're not as trusting because we've been hurt by other people.16:48 Children are trusting when it comes to their parents. And so there's there's these these principles, there's these values that children embody that16:59 every single 1 of us can learn from. That's why I think it's so important that, we're around children or around the next generation. And and and I tell people, hey, if you17:11 wanna grow in who you are as a leader, if you wanna grow in who you are as a person, number 1, get married because you start doing life with somebody else and you become a little more17:23 selfless. If you wanna keep growing and you wanna keep developing, have kids. Because kids teach you things. Kids as we see in the17:35 scripture at the heart of God. The more we're around kids, the more we get the the the heart of God and the more we see things through the heart of a father. And so it's so17:47 important that first and foremost, we take on this posture, we take on this mentality of being childlike. The second thing, that we do and that we see here in this scripture is this17:59 idea of of of we've gotta be humble. Somebody say, be humble. Be We we see this picture in this scripture where Jesus talks about being like a child and then he talks about18:11 this idea of being humble. Referring others over ourselves. And so I thought for the activity for for being humble, we're gonna have a little challenge. When I played sports and18:22 athletics, my coach would just yell at us and he'd say, he'd say, a stance. And when he would say, stance, we had to get in this stance. And this was the defensive stance where we can move18:34 back and forth and so we're gonna have a squat challenge. And we're gonna see who can hold the squat the longest but we're just gonna have it with with with our young people. So if you're a young person, I want you to18:44 stand up right now. Go ahead and stand up. Come on. And adults, I need your help to make sure nobody's cheating. If they're standing up too tall, then they're out.18:57 And so the squat challenge, when I yell stance, you're gonna get down in a stance like this and you're gonna hold this as long as you can. Alright? And we're gonna see who can hold it the19:09 longest. Alright. Here we go. You guys ready? Alright. You guys gotta be low. You guys gotta set the temperature and set the tone because you guys are up here. Alright, here we go. 1, 2, 3, stand.19:21 Come on. You gotta get lower than that man. Come on. Come on. You gotta get low. Hands up. Hold it as long as you can. Come on, Jada. You gotta get get down, Jada. There you19:32 go. Back straight. Bend those knees. Here we go. Come on. Let's see who can hold it the longest. Let's see who can hold it the longest. They're feeling it. They're feeling19:44 it. Here we go. Come on. Who we got? Who we got? Dominic, are you doing it? You look like you're sitting on the chair. Alright. That means that means you're in a good stance. Come on, good job. Oh19:56 yeah. Oh, look at my girl right here. Yeah. Come on adults, let's encourage them. Let's encourage them. We're gonna20:08 count them down. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Aim.20:26 We gonna let everybody be a winner and if you're a kid, you get 1 of these. These were handed out to all the kids when they came in. A little cup with some candy and some some snacks in it. My coach would always20:38 yell. He'd say, he'd say, get low, get into your stance. And we'd have to get into this stance and and and what he would help us understand is that the lower we got, the more we're able to slide, the more we're able to20:50 play defense. He says, the lower you get, the stronger you are. The lower you get, the more leverage that you have. And and and I love talking about this concept21:01 because so often we think, man, the more I know or the higher I go, the better I am. Jesus shows us and gives us21:13 a picture that the lower you go, the better you are. The lower you are, the more leverage you have. You wanna you wanna go up in21:25 life? You wanna advance the kingdom? You want to experience the kingdom of God on your life? Jesus says, get low. He says, take on the the posture of a servant.21:37 He says, be so humble that there's nothing you can't do. Guess what? Pick up trash after church. I can do it. Welcome people when they're coming in in21:49 the morning. Get here early to set up. Help mow my neighbor's lawn. There's something about being humble that gets at the heart22:01 of God and is represented in our kids. If I were to ask you guys, why do you think Jesus wants us to be humble? What would you say? Why is it22:12 important to be humble? Because22:17 you can get prideful.22:20 Somebody say, well. She said, you can get prideful. Pride is the opposite of being humble. Why does Jesus encourage us? Somebody from the audience, why22:32 does Jesus encourage us to be humble? To be like him. We serve a god to be dependent.22:44 That's right. We serve a god who created the universe. He controls the heavens. When he spoke, storm22:55 stopped. When he spoke, healing happened. When he spoke, people were set free. And the same God that did that right before he23:06 goes to the cross, right before he's crucified, he puts a towel over his shoulder, he gets down on his knees and starts to wash the feet of his disciples.23:20 The scripture decide describes his disciples just kinda being in awe. Why would our teacher, why would our Lord get down on his knees and23:31 start to wash our feet? Jesus is describing what it looks like to be great. Man, if we're gonna be great as individuals, as leaders, if we're gonna23:43 develop a generation of young people who are great, we are gonna make sure that we're intentional about first and foremost modeling what it looks like to to be humble,23:55 to walk with humility, and then to invite this next generation to do the same thing, to walk with this sense of humility. We're gonna24:07 be childlike. Somebody say childlike. We're gonna be humble. Somebody say be humble. Humble. And then the third thing that we're gonna do is we are gonna be intentional. Somebody say intentional. Intentional.24:18 We're gonna be intentional by the way we live, by the way we act. As the scripture goes on, I mean the scripture gets a little harsh24:30 after we see this idea of being childlike and and we see anyone who welcomed a little child on my behalf is welcoming me, but then it transitions. Verse 6, but24:42 if you cause 1 of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large24:54 millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. Can I tell you as adults, we have a responsibility?25:05 We have a responsibility to be incredible, incredibly intentional with how we're developing and raising this generation. We're gonna be held25:17 accountable for the way we live, model, and lead our young people. 1 of the things that I've heard my parents say over and over, and when parents who have raised 14 kids25:29 speak, you should listen. And and and I've watched them on their journey in in in in raising and developing our family and 1 of the things that my dad has said many25:41 times over and over is that parenting is more caught than taught. It's more caught. How many people you grew up, adults you grew up and say, man, I'm not gonna be like my25:52 parents. I'm not gonna be like my daddy was. I'm not gonna be like my mommy was. And and and but over time, you find yourself doing the same things. I'm not gonna be like this person or that person, but26:04 over time you find yourself following falling into the same trap because ultimately what you caught all those years was bigger than what they were trying to teach you. Or,26:16 and I can relate to this as a parent, hey, do what I say, not what I do. I I I want you to listen to my words but don't watch my actions.26:28 I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I can preach better than I live. Sometimes I bet you guys like, dang, that brother, man, he can preach good. He must got a good lifestyle. Then I go home, I'm like, oh, I can preach better26:39 than I live sometimes. My my goal in my heart is that the way I'm living is always better than my preaching. And as parents, that should be our heart.26:52 Man, what the way I'm living and what I'm modeling before my kids is is so much better than even the words that I'm saying. But I can tell you this,27:04 we've gotta be incredibly intentional. We've gotta make sure first and foremost, man, my kids aren't gonna wanna do self fed if I'm not doing self fed. My my my kids27:16 aren't gonna wanna show up at church and serve at church if I'm not showing up at church and serving at church. Everything I'm doing, they are watching.27:29 Everything I'm saying, they are listening. And none of us, myself included, are ever gonna be perfect. Can tell you that.27:41 But we can constantly go back to the word of God and invite him to change us and invite him to grow us and develop us and shape us and we can be honest about our27:53 shortcomings, our mistakes, and they can see what it looks like to bounce back, we have to be incredibly intentional with the life that we're creating. 128:05 of the things that I've learned over the years is I've gotta be willing to give up things that I wanna do for the sake of investing in things that they wanna do. Man, there's been times28:16 where my kids, they they wanna do things or or they have a heart for something and I've had to really ask myself, man, Josh, what are you willing to give up? Are you willing to give up your workout time28:28 for their workout time? Are you willing to give up your quiet time to spend intentional time with them?28:40 And I know every season can look different, but the question is what am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of my kids? I I wanna28:52 encourage all of us. Our kids are result, of parents and our investment in them, but also it takes a village.29:04 It takes a community. That's the power of church. That's the power of community is, is my kids are going to hear stuff from you that they couldn't hear from me. And they're going to be able to hear29:16 encouragement and, and, and they're going to hear vision and prophetic words and and and they're gonna be a challenge to take a step in their faith in a way that I couldn't challenge them in. I need your29:27 voice to be a voice that speaks on behalf of and to my kids, on behalf of God. In the same way, I need your voice, you need my voice. We need each29:39 other. And so as a church, as a community, guess what? I believe we should all play a role with Love Kids. I think we should all play a role.29:50 Nobody's off the hook. Not just those who have kids, but those who don't. Because we need every single 1 of us. Just go ahead and look at the person30:02 sitting next to you and say, wanna see you in Love Kids next week. We're gonna show up at church. Nobody's gonna be in here. Everybody's gonna be at Love Kids. We can all play a role30:15 in helping develop the next generation. 1 of the first places I served when I was younger, 10, 11, 12 years old at the church we were a part of was in the kids. I can still smell30:26 the diaper that I changed that day. They probably didn't want me changing no diapers. But I still remember being in that environment. And when we started this church,30:39 I still I I was able to serve on 1 of the Sundays where I wasn't speaking and teaching. And every time I was there, man, I was serving and I was like, is the pastor really gonna go over this long?30:51 Gave me perspective. I was back there, man. I had kids doing jumping jacks and push ups and I was trying to do everything I could. But it reminded me. Man, those31:03 who are serving, they're giving something so powerful to the next generation of young people that we're raising up. And so I wanna encourage us. We gotta be intentional.31:15 A year ago, our oldest son Joshua, he he, was at school and they went on a little retreat for a couple days. They called it the freshman retreat. And after this31:26 freshman retreat, the parents all come and the students are there, and each of the the students are a part of a team, and those team teams have a couple of team leaders. And so we were there31:38 and tons of parents and students are on the floor with their teams, and they start to show a picture of every single student on the screen.31:50 And they would show a picture of the student and it would show their name, and so we're talking several hundred students are being shown on this screen. And every single time32:02 a student's face would show up, the the 2 student leaders that were a part of that team that were leading that student for a couple of days,32:13 they would stand up and with everything they had, they would yell, that's my freshman. And every time a32:25 student's name would pop up, Josh Dodzler. 2 2 kids, 2 young leaders would stand up and say, that's my freshman. Then they would go on to the next kid and they would say, you know, Juliana, that's32:37 my freshman. They would go to the next 1, David, and these these kids would stand up. That's my freshman. Kid after kid, hundreds of kids,32:50 these student leaders would stand up and make this declaration that that is my freshman who I was a part of speaking into his life over the course of the last couple33:02 of days. And as I'm sitting here watching this, I couldn't help but think that's the type of attitude, that's the type of posture33:14 we need to have for our own children. The type of attitude, that's the type of posture we need to carry when it comes to being connected to God's people. That's my33:26 child. Can I tell you that's the type of posture Jesus has over us? When he sees us, man, he he sees33:38 the childlike nature he created us with. He looks at us and says, that's my son. That's my daughter. Those are my33:49 children. And as a community, we can carry that heart. As parents, we can carry that34:00 posture. This is what I want us to do. I'm gonna say 1, 2, 3, and if you're a parent, I want you to say that's my that's those are my children. Oh, that's my son.34:12 That's my daughter. I want you to say it like you believe it. Come on. 1, 2, 3. That's my children. Come on. 1 more time. Say it34:24 and just point to them. 1 2 3.34:36 Bless child. Come on now. Everybody together. If you don't have a child, just find 1 and point to them. 1 2 3. Come on. What if we live with that mentality? That's my kids. Those are my children. What if we live that way34:46 when we're in our communities and in our neighborhoods, and we see kids on their own playing by themselves without the support, without the encouragement, and we we embrace them, we love on34:58 them, we high 5 them, we say those are my children. I love them. I care for them because we know God's heart.35:11 Children are at the heart of God. Can we make some noise to our young leaders who helped us today? Thank you, guys. You can go down to your seat.35:22 Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much. Awesome.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.