1. A New Generation: For What Will You Be Known? Billy Baden

2. Three Generations The First Generation After the Exodus The Second Generation After the Exodus The Third Generation after the Exodus

3. The First Generation Who Were They? Descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Led by Moses, set out to return to promised land of Canaan –Along way, were eyewitnesses of many of God’s miracles Ultimately failed

4. The First Generation The Call Exodus 3:6-8 (Moses at the burning bush) 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

5. The First Generation The Hand of God

6. The First Generation The People’s Response Numbers 14:2-3, 6-10 (After the spies report about Canaan) 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?"…6 Joshua … and Caleb … tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into … a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 …Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them." 10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

7. The First Generation God’s Response Numbers 14:22-23 The first generation failed because they didn’t trust God 20 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.”

8. The Second Generation Who Were They? The children of the first generation, 38 years after the first generation failed Led by Joshua, set out to return to promised land of Canaan –Eyewitnesses of many of God’s miracles in their youth –Eyewitnesses of their parents failures Did return to Canaan, but didn’t take all the promised land

9. The Second Generation The Call Joshua 1:1-5 (After Moses’ death) 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

10. The Second Generation The Hand of God

11. The Second Generation The People’s Response Joshua 12:7-9,24 (After the Israelites had settled the land) 7 These are the kings of the land that Joshua and the Israelites conquered on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir (their lands Joshua gave as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel according to their tribal divisions- 8 the hill country, the western foothills, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the desert and the Negev—the lands of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites): 9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai (near Bethel), one; … 24 the king of Tirzah, one; thirty-one kings in all.

12. The Second Generation God’s Response Joshua 13:1 The second generation entered Canaan, but didn’t take all the land –God didn’t want them to take it all at once, but He did want them to persist in taking the land 1 When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.”

13. The Third Generation Who Were They? The children of the second generation, in their tribal families Without a single defined leader, needed to take their inheritance –Had to rely on parents for accounts of many of God’s miracles –Unwilling to do God’s work Ultimately did what was right in their own eyes…

14. The Third Generation The Call Joshua 23:1-7 (Joshua’s final address to the people) 1 After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, 2 summoned all Israel … and said to them: "I am old and well advanced in years. 3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west. 5 The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you. 6 "Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain…; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.

15. The Third Generation The People’s Response Judges 2:10-13 (After Joshua’s death) 10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

16. The Third Generation God’s Response Judges 2:14-15 The third generation didn’t take the land, and they didn’t keep God’s commands either 14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

17. Your Generation Who are you? The first generation never learned to trust God in all things. The second generation didn’t continue their growth because they didn’t persist in doing what God asked of them. The third generation never developed a faith of your own. Which do you most relate to? Why? Have you experienced God in your life or do you rely on your parents’ faith to shape your understanding of who God is? Do you just come to church because your parents make you, or do you see God active and working in your life? Is your faith your own? Seniors especially, what is your charge? Where do you go from here? How do you continue to honor God when you are no longer under your parents roof?