Passing Along Faith

Main Point: We have been given a privilege to share who God is with the upcoming generation.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. —Deuteronomy 6:4-6

Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. —Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” —John 6:29

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” —Matthew 28:18-20

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. —Luke 2:41-51

Takeaway: When the Church shifts our thinking of adolescence from a problem to be solved to a wonder to behold, we empower our teens to love God.

Discussion Questions
1. What is something about the current teen culture that you don’t understand?
2. What are some ways you are currently sharing your faith with a younger generation?
3. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, What is something that jumped out to you in these verses that you can apply to your walk with Jesus this week?

Table Discussion Question - Can you recall a time when you were younger where an older person invested in you? How did that make you feel?