Passing the Baton

Well, thank you. Thank you to the vocal quartet. Appreciate that very much. It's importance of that stillness, listening for that quiet, still voice and the peaceful voice of God, especially in such a frenetic world in which we live, is an important thing. Thank you so much for the message. Appreciate that. I did forget to mention we do have a Bible study today. And the timing of that Bible study, we're going to start at 3.15. As was mentioned, things are with the time change. Things are getting a little bit closer on the dark. And so for those that do want to stay, we want to be able to get you out of here to where you have enough time to at least get home before sundown hits. Sundown's about 4.40 at this point. So it'll hopefully give you a little bit of time to get clear of services and be able to make it back home. People sometimes ask me if there's anything about teaching that I miss. I usually try to give it a little bit of time. So it looks like I'm actually thinking about my answer before answering with an emphatic, no, not really. I'm mostly kidding. There are aspects of the job that I do miss. There are aspects of teaching that was a lot of fun. One of those actually was the opportunity to coach sports. I really enjoy coaching. When I was at Waldo, I had the opportunity to coach track and field. And while I've always enjoyed track and field, it's one of those sports where it's a perfect mix of an individualized sport as well as a team sport. On one hand, you're competing against yourself. You're competing against your own personal records, your own scores, working to kind of beat your own times or distances, so to speak. But then on the other hand, ultimately, the team score is what wins the day. That's what ultimately takes the events themselves, is that event or the team score overall declares the overall winner. I participated in track when I was in school. Well, field wasn't much of a runner. During my time in high school, I preferred instead to throw things. I participated in javelin, discus, and shot put.

And because I was one of the smaller guys that we had on our throwing team, which I haven't changed much since high school, I was one of the smaller guys. One of the other guys was 6'7 and about 350. One of the other guys was about my height in about 325, and just a pretty solid mix of muscle. They both played Division I football, actually. One of them even went on to go and play for the Redskins for a few seasons. But I did get the opportunity because, again, I was one of the smaller guys to participate in what was called the Throwers Relay. And if you're familiar with the Throwers Relay, I think it was originally designed, and it may not even be something that got done in every location. I think it really was designed for most of the people to be able to point and laugh at the big guys running around the track. That's what I think was probably the overall reason for it. But what it was, it would take four of your throwers, and you'd mix them together, and you'd make them do a four by 100 relay, which was hilarious, I'm sure, from the stands as we're hoofing around the track trying to get there before the other team's throwers could get there as well. I did love the field side of things. I really did enjoy that aspect. And during my time coaching when I coached track and field, that was my place. But as much as I love the field side of it, as much as it's fun to watch people grunt and throw heavy things, there's something that's just exhilarating that comes from seeing a well-run race. And so the track side is really where the exhilaration comes in track and field, being able to watch a runner make a perfectly executed start, make a solid turn, a good strong kick, and be able to finish that race strong. And it's fun because you get to kind of watch all those long hours of training come together. For me, it's kind of the pinnacle of the events in track is the four by 100 meter relay. Not the thrower relay. That's a four by one in name only. But the actual four by 100 meter relay, the individuals who have trained for it, it's something thrilling. It's something technical. Most of the time, the race is over in less than a minute. And most of the time, it's very quick, and it's done. But each leg of that event requires a very specific runner. Once you have those runners identified, once you have that person chosen, you get them all firing kind of on all cylinders together as a team. It's a beautiful thing. It really is a beautiful thing. And in the four by one, not only is the speed with which you run your race important, equally important, even honestly, probably more important, is the effectiveness of the handoff. The effectiveness of the exchange, which takes place. And particularly when you reach the Olympic level, you're talking about individuals whose sprint times are only off by hundredths of a second. And so they all run pretty much the same speed. So where you're going to win the race is in the handoff. When everything else is equal, the handoff is where the race is run. Is one, rather. It's run and one in the handoff.

In a perfect world, the outgoing runner and the incoming runner managed to match their speeds inside of this 20 meter box that's known as the exchange zone. So there's a section on the track. It's this 20 meter area in which the handoff must take place. In a perfect world, they make the exchange without any errors. There's no loss of momentum. There's no loss of speed. The outgoing runner is able to grab the handoff and explode and be able to run the next leg. Two more perfect exchanges later. And bada bing, you have a gold medal. Sounds pretty easy, right? Sounds pretty simple, but not so fast. But even among elite athletes, baton handoffs are a source of immense frustration. High school, when you see kids train, often that's the part they train is the handoff. Over and over and over and over again until it can be done instinctually, until it can be done without thinking. There is a certain trepidation that runners have over that little cylindrical piece of metal.

And in particular, the sound that it makes when it falls and hits the track. There is nothing quite like that tink, tink, tink, tink of a drop baton. And so ultimately, when that thing drops down, it is a source of immense trepidation for those runners. Now, there's a number of factors that can manage to converge all in the wrong time in the wrong place to create an absolute disaster. And in the case of the men's and women's 4 by 100 teams in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, team USA is both men's and women's teams were both disqualified by dropping the batons in the middle of the race. They didn't even finish. And these are some of the best runners in the world, some of the best runners in the world. Handoffs are tough. Handoffs are tough. And they're tough not just on the track. Handoffs and transitions in general are difficult regardless of where they take place. In business, for example, many of you run your own businesses. You have your own businesses.

Small family businesses or even large family businesses. Not paying very careful attention to the handoff can put even a successful business into the ground. It was actually a study that's been done by the University of North Carolina. They examined a number of family businesses as they underwent successions from one generation to the next, from the generation that founded the company on to the second generation to the third to the fourth, if they could find companies that survived to the fourth.

Because what you'll find in this study is more often than not, they don't make it. In fact, the study showed only 30% of family-owned businesses survived the transfer from the founding generation to the next. Only 30% make it from the one who founded that business and handed off to the next generation. Of those 30% that survived, 12% make the next successive transfer, and only 4% of businesses survived to the fourth generation.

The rest of them were lost, somewhere in between, somewhere in the middle, the other 70% that baton was dropped in the very first transfer. One generation, one generation. Did you turn over, please, to the book of Joshua to begin today? Book of Joshua, we're going to turn to Joshua 24. So if you turn over to the book of Joshua, we're going to pick up the account here.

Towards the end of the book, as we see kind of the culmination of these things in Joshua's world. Joshua 24, we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse one. Joshua at this point knows he doesn't have much longer. He knows that he gathers the leaders together ultimately to kind of impart upon them some kind of final words of wisdom. Joshua 24 is where we see those things recorded. Joshua 24, and we'll begin in verse one. Says, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

So he brought all the leadership in at this point, brings them all to him, and they're going to talk. Joshua says to the people, verse two, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham, the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times. Says, and they served other gods. Then I took your father, Abraham, from the other side of the river, led him through all the land of Canaan, multiplied his descendants, and he gave them Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Sarah to possess. But Jacob and his children, says, went down to Egypt. So Joshua starts to walk them through some of their own history, some of the various things that they went through and looked at.

Says, also I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And so they cried out to the Lord, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them and covered them, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And then he says, you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. Maybe a little bit of an understatement. But you dwelt in the wilderness a long time.

Joshua here is reminding them, reminding them of God's unfailing promises, what it was that God said that he would do. And not only what God said that he would do, Joshua reminds the people that God did everything that he said that he would do. He promised them the land of Canaan, and Joshua says, here you are. He said, this is what you would receive. Here you are. God protected them. He kept them. He ensured their safety.

Joshua goes on. We're not going to, you can skim through this if you want, down towards verse 15. He says, all these other miracles that God provided, these promises that he gave them through verses 8 and 13, says he brought you back to the promised land, delivered them from the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites. Says they defeated Balak. He delivered them from Balaam, from the situation that took place with Balak and Balaam. He goes on to say that God gave them a land they didn't labor for.

He gave them olive trees. He gave them vineyards that they didn't plant, wells they didn't dig. In short, what Joshua tells the people is that God was faithful. God did everything that he said that he would do. And maybe this isn't exactly how Joshua does it. This is how I see it in my own head. I can hear Joshua building a crescendo as he states these things, getting a little louder and maybe a little more emphatic, maybe a little more speeds up his cadence a little bit as he gets a little bit closer.

But in verse 14, what we see him say is now, therefore, as a result of all these things, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. He says serve the Lord. Verse 15, Joshua 24 and verse 15, it's one of those memory scriptures. Oftentimes we see this in various quotes on walls, sometimes in homes and in pictures, and things, says if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

Whether the gods, lowercase G, which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. And then Joshua says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua admonishes the people to make the call, to ultimately make the decision.

Essentially, he's asking them point blank, after I'm gone, Joshua says, whom will you serve? He knows his time is short. He knows he's soon to die. After I have died, whom will you serve? Says, will you make the right decisions? Notice the people's response in verse 16. Notice their response in verse 16 of Joshua 24.

Joshua 24 and verse 16. He says, so the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us out, brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.

The Lord drove out from before us the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. He says, we will also serve the Lord, for he is God. So they recognized all the miracles. They recognized all the things that God had wrought. But Joshua still wanted to make certain that they understood what they were entering into. Joshua goes on, verse 19. He said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord.

For he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good. The people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, then, you are witnesses against yourselves that you've chosen the Lord for yourself to serve him.

And they said, we are witnesses. So we see Joshua lay this out for the people of Israel. We see them look at what it is, see that what ultimately is being asked. How long did it last? About two pages. Depending, if your Bible's large print, it might be three or four. But about two pages. Flip over to Judges 2. Judges 2. Now, we see the challenges that the Israelites had. We understand they did not, on the whole, have God's spirit.

They did not have the malleable heart to be able to take his law into their hearts. Ultimately, Judges 2, we'll pick it up in verse 7. Judges 2 and verse 7. Again, two pages in my Bible. If you're using something maybe a little bit more than that, it might be more. But it didn't seem to take long. So the people, it says, serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua.

So there's more time than just two pages. But it says, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. So those that Joshua talked to in Joshua 24, those elders that he gathered to him and check him when they discussed those things, the ones who had seen the miracles that God had done, had wrought firsthand, the ones who knew ultimately and had seen all of the things which had occurred, had seen Jericho's walls fall, they'd seen the deliverance of God with their very own eyes, they continued to be faithful.

They continued to be faithful. Skip forward to verse 10. Skip forward to verse 10. Here, Judges 2 says, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, all that second generation ultimately after Joshua had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after him who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. He did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel.

That's just one generation removed from Joshua. You have Joshua, you have the next generation, and then this group here that's being described. Brethren, how does that happen? How does that happen? How do you reach a point where you have a small group of people who were faithful and believed in scripture and then we get to a point where we have a generation that doesn't even know God, or for that matter, the works that he performed?

Somewhere along that line, somewhere in that succession, the baton was dropped. The generational succession was not successful in that situation. Maybe the generation of men that Joshua talked to in verse 24, maybe something happened. Maybe they struggled to get the baton to those individuals for a variety of reasons. Or maybe they did. Make a great hand off. They handed it off.

And that next generation just simply dropped it. Regardless of how it went down, the result is the same. The result's the same. A generation of Israelites that fell away from God into idolatry, and that set the stage for continued national disobedience. Brethren, the importance of nailing the handoff, the importance of successfully passing the baton from one generation to the next, is paramount. What I'd like to do today with the time that I have remaining, I want to take a look at three successful components, or three components, rather, of a successful handoff. And we're going to analyze the implications that has on the Church of God today. The three components are the approach, so the incoming runner is heading for that exchange zone.

The actual exchange, what takes place in the box itself, and then what happens after the baton has been handed off. The title of the message today is Passing the Baton. So let's start with the beginning of this process. Let's start with the beginning of this process. Incoming runner is running towards the exchange zone, and in that exchange zone, a whole bunch of things start to happen. You've got your outgoing runner that's kind of doing their final preparations. They're kind of just sitting there waiting for that person to reach a certain point on the track.

There's a mark that they have in place. And when that individual hits that mark, all the stuff they've practiced and planned for starts to take place. The outgoing runner starts to accelerate. Once the runner hits the mark, they take off, they go, they start accelerating. But up to that point, they have to sit and patiently wait. They have to sit and patiently wait.

They have to wait for that incoming runner to close that gap. Now at the Olympic level, they're not waiting for very long. Middle school level, they tell you what, they could be waiting for a long time. But at the Olympic level, they're only waiting for anywhere from about eight to nine seconds. So it goes a lot faster at that level.

But they're waiting for that person to come in to hit that very specific mark. And then things happen very, very quickly. As that mark gets closed and as that handoff gets closed in, the handoff itself is about one to two seconds, about one to two seconds of that time frame. And so if you think about that and you think about the amount of time that you count off in your head, if you see that person coming in at eight to nine seconds, and then one, one thousand, two, one thousand, it's in your hands and you're gone, there's a lot that can go wrong in two seconds.

There's a whole lot that can happen in two seconds. It does not leave much room for error, especially when you think that all of that has to happen in 20 meters. So it all has to happen before you get out of the box. I want to do a quick bit of audience participation here in a minute. And so all of you young people, listen up. Could you please raise your hand and leave them up nice and high if you're under the age of 30?

Nice and high. Under the age of 30, hands up in the air. Everybody take a quick look around. Leave them up. Leave them up for just a minute. Don't put them down just yet. Hold on nice and high. Everybody kind of take a quick look around. OK, that's pretty significant. So everyone's hands who should be up right now should be 29 years old or younger. Just checking to make sure that nobody's misunderstood the instructions.

So why do we have those hands up? Leave them up for a second. Sorry, you're going to have a little bit of blood loss here for some of you.

The people whose hands are in the air right now have no physical, no visceral, or really any kind of connection to what happened in the church in 1995. Zero connection. They weren't born yet. They weren't even born yet. OK, go ahead and put your hands down for a second. I'm going to have you shake it off. You're going to put them back up here in a minute. Shake them off. You're going to put them back up in a second. The only thing that they have an understanding of with regards to what took place in 95 is what they've been told, what they've had opportunity to read, what they understand of it, or what they've ultimately looked into. We're going to add one more group to that list. So I'm going to ask those of you that had your hands up a second ago to go ahead and put them back up in a second. But I call them. My kids are like, yes, finally. I get to put my hands up. I'm so excited. It's awesome. I love it. We're going to add another group to the list. What I'd like you to do is please raise your hand if you're under the age of 39. So go ahead, raise your hands again. Anybody under the age of 39 now include your hands, please.

All right. Now take a look around the room. All the individuals who have their hands in the air now were born after Mr. Armstrong died. 1986, roughly. OK, look around the room. Now I'm going to stretch that just a little bit. Keep your hands up. Keep your hands up. I want to stretch that a little bit, because some of you are probably like me and were maybe five or six when Mr. Armstrong died and maybe have a memory or two. But really, that's about it. Go ahead and raise your hand now if you're under the age of 45. Increase that a little bit. 44 and under. So those are individuals that were roughly five to six years old when Mr. Armstrong died in 1986. Folks, that's 80% of our congregation. When you take a look at, I mean, of those who are here today. OK, to be fair. Of those who are here today, go ahead and put your hands down. Go ahead and put your hands down. Now we could add to that group. We could add to that group. Ultimately, we could ask for those who have had no real connection as a part of their calling to the worldwide Church of God, who have been called since the formation of United in 1995, right? Individuals who have been brought to the church in that way. But those individuals that have their hands raised in a variety of different ways are folks that have really no real direct personal connection or context, even, to either of those dates. So when we reference 1995 or when we reference Mr. Armstrong at times, they don't have the same visceral reaction. They don't have the same general understanding. They know something academically took place. Perhaps they've heard about it or they've read about it. But they don't have that same visceral reaction. I was 14 in 1995. I was 14 years old in 1995. And it might surprise you, but I was barely there at 14. Really? Some of you know that all too well.

But their understanding in that situation is purely academic. And it's the same for me with Mr. Armstrong. I was five years old when he died. So I was five years old in January of 86. And I remember him. I remember meeting him once. That's it. I have very little context outside of that. Now, I've gained a great deal of context since, right? I've gone through and I've listened. And I've listened to sermons. And I've watched videos. And I've read old publications and all those things. But I wasn't in a position where I had a personal connection in that way.

And because of you, you knew him personally. Perhaps you went to Ambassador College. Perhaps you had connections in that way. I wasn't in that position. My point, what am I getting at? My point is that there are two very distinct generations within the Church of God today. You have those who have direct connection with Mr. Armstrong, Ambassador College. You have direct connection with the ministry and this benefit of kind of that way of life for a very long time.

You also have a group of people coming up in the faith and the context. One group that was perhaps called out of the world, one group that was brought up in the Church, different outlooks, different life experiences. However, same faith, same goal, same gospel message, but two different backgrounds, two different outlooks, two different contexts. And to a degree, well, we have a generation gap.

And we have a generation gap, right? Just plain and simple. That's what it is. It's a generation gap. And because of that generation gap, the importance of us making sure that we work to close it, as much as we're able to, and pass on that knowledge that we've ultimately attained to that next generation, is important. God is a God of generations. How often, when you look in Scripture, how often do you see him referred in the Bible as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's a generational transfer. He is a God of generations in that sense. And so when you take a look at the importance of making sure that this faith is passed on, this faith is passed on, you know, we're going through the fundamentals of belief with our teens this year in the teen studies, going through and looking at the fundamental doctrines to our faith, to the Church of God, so that they're able to stand up for what they believe. So they're able to understand what it is that they believe.

But how do we as parents transfer on this understanding, or those of you that are maybe past the point of children of your own, how do we as Church grandparents help assist in this process? Turn over Psalm 145. Psalm 145, David talks about this. Psalm 145, he talks about one of the ways that we can do this, and one of the important aspects of how this goes from a congregational standpoint. Psalm 145, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 4.

Psalm 145 and verse 4. Psalm 145 verse 4 says, one generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. It says, I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness.

They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. Now David's clear on this. We ought to be declaring, and in some cases even shouting from the rooftops, so to speak, the mighty acts of God from one generation to the next. Sharing those experiences, sharing the way of life when God's worked those miracles in our lives, when he's given us opportunities you've seen his hand working in your life, bringing you through challenges, making these things known so that the younger generation can see, so they can hear how God works in our lives.

But the other thing that we need to realize, I think at times, is in Psalm 71, if you want to turn over, Psalm 71, we're going to pick it up in verse 18, is the recognition we don't necessarily always have a lot of time to do that. Psalm 71, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 18 here. Psalm 71 and verse 18, we'll pick up the context in 17.

I love it. I know some of you love it when I do that. It says, oh God, you've taught me from my youth, and to this day I declare your wondrous works. Now, verse 18, also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, do not forsake me, do not forsake me, God, it says, until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come.

David realized he had a limited opportunity and a limited amount of time to be able to declare those things. When we look out over the generational landscape of our church here in the US, there you go, not just our area, but other areas as well, we're sitting on a situation where there's a significant amount of knowledge and wisdom in this way, this way of life, that is going to slowly fade over the next 10 to 20 years.

Individuals who have a library of wisdom and knowledge, and I can't stress how important it is that that wisdom and that knowledge is passed on, because there's a vacuum left when it's not. There's a vacuum left ultimately when it's not. I remember after my dad died, my dad died in 2008, those of you that didn't know him personally, I've told stories. Dad was a little rough around the edges, and that's, I guess, probably a nice way of saying it. But he had a gift. He truly did have a gift. He was able to work on and fix anything that had any kind of inner workings, things that were mechanical for whatever reason they just spoke to him. And I don't mean that in a weird metaphorical way, but he just understood how to keep mechanical things working. He was a forklift mechanic. And he was the guy that in the Northwest, they sent all over the place to go and fix these in various areas, because no one else could figure out how to do it. And so he just thought like an engine. I think that was kind of generally how it worked. But he understood how things worked. He could listen to something, and from a distance, almost over the phone, he could listen to an engine and go, here's your problem. This is what needs to be fixed. At times, I could call him up, and I could say, hey, my engine's going clicky-dee-clackity-clicky-dee-clackity, or dank-dank-dank-dank-dank-dank-dank, and he could tell me exactly what was wrong with it. No question. And sure enough, then you look it up on YouTube and learn how to fix it, and it works. I remember after dad passed away in 08, I used to call pretty frequently when I moved out and moved down here when I had a car that didn't like to run regularly. It's kind of interesting when you have a job. There's that little clause at the bottom of the application. It says, must have reliable transportation. My car was not reliable transportation, but we were able to keep it moving and keep it running. But my dad spent so much of my childhood out in the garage. He was always tinkering on something. He was building this or building that. He was turning a sand rail into a front-end loader, or he was fixing this or fixing that, working on this person's car, working on my mom's car. But he was always doing those things. And because he was rough around the edges, I often avoided, like the plague, spending time in that garage to learn those skills. There's a saying out there that says, nothing you can say can hurt me. I've held the flashlight for my dad. Exhibit A, right? When you end up holding those flashlights, that's not the right spot for it. So I don't have that skill set. I didn't stick around long enough to learn that skill set. I didn't want to be there. And so I don't have it. So when I moved out, I was still having problems with my vehicle. I would still call occasionally. And shortly after he died in 08, I was dealing with an issue with my car. And I picked up the phone and I called the house. I actually got the machine. And I started to leave a message before my brain went, wait, dad's gone.

And I hung up in the middle of the call. Like, I just didn't know what to do. It was kind of like all of a sudden just disconnect, right, in that sense. I was on autopilot, just complete autopilot.

Car breaks down, call home, get help. That was the process. That was the system that I had used. And I realized partway through that call that that resource, that wisdom, that library of knowledge was no longer there. And I had not taken the time to learn or to access that library at the time. Brethren, I don't want us to reach a point in the church where we look back and we realize that we let that wisdom and that knowledge fade quietly away. We have to bridge the gap. We have to impart that knowledge.

We have to impart that life experience. We are very blessed to have a huge, huge youth population in this area. It's a blessing. It's an incredible blessing. You look around the landscape of the church in other areas, you don't have this everywhere. There's about three, four, five congregations that have the kind of numbers of youth that we have. As you go across the nation, most of them, there are no youth. There's no one, no young people in some of these areas.

A number of years ago, we did a kind of a church grandma or grandpa kind of thing. A number of years ago, we had a grandma grandpa kind of adopt a grandkid pen pal sort of thing. We would have youth that wanted to participate. They would sign up. Those that were older that wanted to participate would sign up. You do a little bit of a matchmaking thing, and then you could write back and forth to each other and have the opportunity to connect and get to know one another in that way.

I'd like to start that back up again. I'd like to do that again. And so we'll start working towards getting that set up here in this coming year for the youth that are interested, for the older members that are interested, kind of have that purposeful cross-generational connection. The second thing that happens, though, in this handoff and in this process is the exchange. And that's the fun part of the race to watch, because one person's coming in flying top speed.

The other person's starting from dead stop, and they have to somehow match their timing and get that thing handed off in the time frame to get out of that box and go. It's so neat to see a perfect exchange. It's so neat to see when that incoming runner hits that determined mark on the track and that process begins.

And the outgoing runner just takes off. They're gone. They just go. They're matching the speed of that individual coming in as they hit that box. And if one's going too slow and the other's coming in full speed, they're going to collide. If one's going too fast, the other one's not going fast enough, they can't get them with the baton. It has to be perfect. Well, what's interesting is if that baton's not transferred in that finite period of time, they're disqualified. Race is over. They didn't get it done.

They didn't transfer the knowledge, in this case, in our analogy, in time. Now, what makes this interesting is when you get to the Olympic level, the handoff is silent and it's blind. Silent and it's blind. Now, what does that mean? At our level in middle school, when we did this, the incoming runner yells, hand. You could hear it from across the field. As they come running in, the other person takes off. They hit their mark. They run. They get their match thing.

And the person in the back goes, hand! And that's when the person puts their hand back. They're yelling for them to do that. And the Olympics is blind. They take off. They go running. And what that means is they reach a certain point. They know in their step, this is when my hand goes back. And they hand back. And that baton has to be there at that moment when they reach back. One, 1,000, two, 1,000. Hand and gone. That's the pattern. It doesn't always go that way, but it has to almost be instinctual. And as you might imagine, it takes an incredible amount of coordination. It takes an incredible amount of practice.

You're not going to take two runners who have never run together ever in their lives and put them on a track and expect that it's going to go well. It's not going to go well. I can attest to that because it never went well when we did it. What ends up happening is you have a relay runner that doesn't show up that day for school. And now you've got to sub somebody in. Well, sometimes it works.

Sometimes it doesn't. We have a term for this, practice, this coordination, this exchange today in the working world. We refer to it as mentorship. Mentorship, two people that are working together ultimately on the same goal. And it involves an incredibly close relationship between two individuals that trust one another implicitly. And as time goes on, there's an increasing transfer of responsibility from one to the other. In teaching, we used to call this GRR, stands for gradual release of responsibility. But we used to this idea that eventually you would release this to the other person. And as that releases, the individual supports that person in the process of them being able to go forward.

And we see this example in Scripture. If you turn over to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. Now, there's examples in Scripture of these relationships that we see. One of those is in 1 Kings 19. That's the one I'd like to look at today.

1 Kings 19, what we see is God instruct Elijah to anoint Elisha as his successor. And so Elijah goes to Elisha. He comes up upon him as he's following a field. With a giant team of oxen. Walks up to him, and he places his mantle on him. So he places this item of clothing onto him in that sense. And as they go forward in that relationship, Elijah and Elisha work together for a time as Elisha kind of learned the ropes. Now, he was prepared for that. He was kind of had the fundamental skills necessary. There was a reason that God told Elijah to choose Elisha. But ultimately, Elijah goes. He places his mantle. They work together for a short period of time as Elisha learns the ropes. And eventually, Elijah's taken up. He's gone. And Elisha walks on his own from that moment forward. He'd been prepared, however. He was ready. Because you imagine the same story if Elijah tossed his mantle on Elisha and then just promptly keeled over. Now suddenly, Elisha's going, what? What now? What do we do now? He looks at the mantle. He looks at Elijah. He looks at the mantle. He looks at Elijah. He thinks to himself, now what? What exactly do I do? What do I do here? Mentorship was a crucial aspect of Elijah's preparation. And the time that he spent with Elijah was very important to Elisha's development as a servant of God. He looked at an example of Joshua earlier as he was passing on his wisdom to the elders of Israel before his death. But how did he get there? How did he get there to that point? Was Moses just hand off to Joshua and then disappear from the picture? No. They worked together for quite some time.

Ultimately, see all those individuals that were trained by them remain faithful. Exodus 17, if you want to turn over there, we see the example in Exodus 17 of the relationship that Joshua and Moses had, the relationship ultimately that Joshua and Moses had. Elijah 17.

I said Elijah 17. I meant Exodus 17. Another word that starts with an E. I'm actually turning back to Exodus going, Elijah's not here. So weird. Exodus 17. Turn over to the book of Habakkuk. Oh, wait. That one works. Turn over to the book of Hezekiah.

Exodus 17. We see ultimately a delegation of an incredibly important task here. Exodus 17. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 9. Exodus 17 and verse 9. Says Moses said to Joshua, choose a cement and go out. Fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. And so Joshua ultimately did what Moses told him to do. Said he did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek.

And Moses, Aaron, and her went up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Joshua at some point may have looked back like, come on. Get those hands up.

We're losing guys left and right. Come on. Get those hands up. Hold those hands up there. At some point we see that Moses' hands become heavy. Verse 12. They took a stone. They put it under him and he sat on it. Amalek, or Aaron, sorry, and her, supported his hands one on one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And so Joshua, verse 13, defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. We see ultimately in verse 14, the Lord said to Moses, write this for memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

So Moses built an altar and called its name. The Lord is my banner. Before he said, because the Lord is sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. You know, this shared experience would have strengthened their relationship significantly. Think about Joshua and Moses and the relationship that they had in this. We see in verse 14, he was specifically told to record it as a memorial, to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. And so Moses kind of undergoes the process to see how generally it works.

A little further on in Exodus, we'll see another example. Exodus 24. I'm going to turn over there. Exodus 24. Exodus 24, we'll pick it up in verse 12. We see the example here of Moses going to meet with God on the mountain at God's invitation. So Moses heads up the mountain. Exodus 24 in verse 12, the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and be there. I will give you tablets of stone and the law and the commandments, which I've written, that you may teach them. And so Moses arose. Now we see Joshua labeled as Moses' assistant. It says, with his assistant, Joshua.

And Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and her are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them. So Joshua is included in this process. It wasn't a thing where Moses says, hey, Joshua, you stay here. I'm going to go do this and I'm going to come back. Moses went up to the mountain of God. The elders remained back. It says, wait here for us, not wait here for me.

Wait here for us. Till we come back, it says. Verse 13, again, Moses and his assistant, Joshua, they went up. And in verse 14 says, we will come again to you. Joshua is included in this. He was included and he was invited to this very personal meeting. Now he went up the mountain with Moses. It's not clear. I don't know that he necessarily went up as far as Moses did. But he went further than those who were left back. He went further with Moses than those who were left back.

He wasn't left behind necessarily with everyone else. Having God work with him and having Moses as a mentor made Joshua into an extremely powerful leader, a great leader that was ultimately able to have such influence on those generations as they went on.

And that relationship developed him into a strong leader, gave him a relationship with God. You know, there's a passage in Joshua that's so interesting. We see him constantly being admonished to be bold, to have courage. Have courage, Joshua. Be bold, be bold, be courageous. And then we see eventually him go to God, stop the sun!

And God goes, whoa, Joshua. Hold on a second. He did it. Let's talk a little bit about that boldness and that courage there at that point. Having God work with him, having Moses working as his mentor helped him to become a great leader. And we see this throughout scripture, Paul and Barnabas, Paul, Timothy, Ruth, Naomi, Christ, and his disciples. You know, a list of individuals that work with people in a mentorship relationship goes on and on and on. And so the question I have for you is how can we in the church cross that generation gap and work on that exchange?

I wish I could tell you I had a great answer. I wish I could tell you I have a great answer of what this looks like. In some ways, I'm almost throwing that out to you as something to consider. How do we cross this generation gap and establish these mentorship relationships with one another?

We have to be willing to commit to developing the next generation, kind of praying for opportunities to assist in this and increasing our focus on service. And I think that's the place where we can start, intentional cross-generational connection, intentional, purposeful, ensuring that we're doing everything that we can to connect with everyone, not staying in the groups that we are comfortable with, necessarily, the individuals that are the same age as us, necessarily, or have the same experiences, but having those opportunities to talk with one another, to ask questions of one another.

The final thing in the handoff, the last thing that takes place, is the next leg. Once the handoff has been done, the next leg is the exchange is made, the baton is firmly in hand, and that next leg is all on the outgoing runner. It is all on the out. The runner coming in ain't helping anymore. They've handed it off, and it is on them. They're gone. Either they pass it on to another leg, they give it to somebody else, or they get to be the one that crosses that finish line to, hopefully, a new world record and a gold medal. Those of you that had your hands up earlier today, those of you that had your hands up earlier today, that's where you find yourself today. That's where you find yourself at this time. We're in the process of spiritually preparing ourselves and growing into and understanding and establishing relationships with God in this life. Now, we can't wait for the baton to get to us any faster. We're in the exchange zone. We're waiting for the handoff. It's going to get there when it gets there. That baton will show up when it's ready.

And when it gets there, we need to ensure that we're ready to take it. We need to be ready to reach back and grab that baton and take off. Now, we are all called to be leaders. We're called to be kings and priests. You're being prepared in this life for a role as a leader in the kingdom, the leader in your families, as a leader in your congregation, in your schools, in your workplace. You're being developed by God as leaders, ultimately. And sometimes we hear this whole thing. I think sometimes we're just like, well, if I could just be a doorman, you know, just a doorman in the kingdom would be OK. Kings and priests. Kings and priests. That's what you're being developed into. We have roles. We have leadership in families, in schools, in work. And you never know where those opportunities for leadership or service, which is really what we're talking about when we talk about leadership, service, you never know where those are going to find you. But opportunity will find you. And we have to make sure that we're ready to do that. I mentioned this before. It may be a request to give the opening prayer. Mr. Rogers, you got off easy today. It's been Mr. Rogers for a little while there. But maybe it's a request to give the opening prayer. Somebody comes up and asks if you're willing to do it. You know, oftentimes our song leaders are told no. They're told no when they're asked.

You know, maybe opportunities to lead a Bible study. Part of the chair setup crew. Sound crew, as I smack something up here on the Electron. Sound crew, setup crews, whatever it might be. Maybe you'd be asked to suddenly be a counselor at summer camp, even though that's not what you signed up for. Did that to somebody this summer. They went, wait, I didn't sign up for a counselor. I know. But I need a counselor. How you feeling about that? Hand. Here's the baton. So these opportunities for service, they find you. Ultimately, maybe it's keeping an ear to the ground and taking care of a need for someone. Could be called into the ministry at some point. Opportunity finds you. There's a laundry list of ways that you can serve. And so the question I have for you today as we think about this next leg of the race, so to speak, and having that baton in hand and taken off, is what are you doing today to prepare yourself for service 15 years in the future, five years in the future, 10 years in the future, tomorrow? What are you doing now to prepare for that? And when that baton arrives, will you say yes? Will you take that baton and will you run? I think it's interesting to think about sometimes this faith that we're a part of as something that was given originally by God, and it was passed on from generation to generation throughout the ages. You know, like went from Adam to Seth. Then on down the line, it went to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Judah. On down that line, to Christ, to the disciples. It's been preserved. It's been handed down for us to keep this way of life. And honestly, I think looking at our lives right now as just another leg in that race is kind of an interesting way to look at it. That we've been called to be a part of this greater race, and that baton has been handed down. And to think about the number of hands that baton has been in is incredible. As you think about the way that this has been passed on down the line, that baton was in the hands of Abraham. It was in the hands of Christ. It was in the hands of Paul. On down through the ages. Brother, I don't want to be a part of the generation. I don't want to be the generation that drops a baton. I don't want to be the generation that gobbles that handoff. As we look at world events in the light of prophecy, it kind of seems like the events that are prophesied in Matthew 24 are getting pretty close. You take a look at the world around us, you see the various descriptions. Are we in the anchor leg of this race? Is this the final leg of the race? Is the finish line nine seconds ahead of us? Somewhere. All right, 15 to 20 seconds for myself. Running 100 meters in nine seconds. Honestly, 20 seconds is probably generous.

But are we in the anchor leg of that race? Are there more legs to come? Are we going to hand off to the next, and to the next, and to the next? We can't hold anything back. It's a one-way race. You don't turn around and run backwards, right? We've got to give it everything. And so as a result, our spiritual preparation is so unbelievably important. So that when that baton does arrive, we're ready. When it shows up, we're not surprised by it. We're able and ready to pick it up and go.

And so as we think about that, can we explain the fundamentals of our faith? Can we explain why we believe what we believe? Are we able to provide an answer for the hope that lies within us? Are we living what we profess to believe? Are we a light to the world around us? Do we show love? Do we show love? Do we flee sin? Do we work to overcome it? If that baton showed up today, would we be ready to run the next leg?

Is our relationship with God solid? Let's turn over to Revelation 19. Revelation 19. In this chapter of Revelation, we begin to see the victory of God coming to be after the fall of Babylon in the prior chapter. Revelation 19. And we're going to pick it up in verse 6. Revelation 19 and verse 6. We can see the importance of our work right here and right now, the importance of what it is that we're doing while we're here now.

Revelation 19 and verse 6. Says, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, hallelujah for the Lord God, omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her, it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. The marriage of the lamb will come.

We see that the time period it's available during the period of judgment that we've been given at this time, that the bride is working to make herself ready. That we're undergoing the necessary aspects of building that relationship with God. We're continuing the spiritual practices that we've been given, the prayer, study, meditation, fasting. And so while this is kind of the fulfillment of the story, so to speak, while it is sort of the end of the story in some ways, there are opportunities and responsibilities that we have now as a result of this.

Matthew 22 illustrates these using a short story. Matthew 22, and then he uses a short story and ultimately drives the principal home. Matthew 22, and we're going to pick it up in verse 1. Verse 1, talking here about this particular supper, kind of an analogy and a parable here about this particular supper. Matthew 22 in verse 1 says, Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.

Sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come. So they sent out the invite list, and they said, nah, I'm good. Again, he sent out another servant saying, tell those who were invited, see, I've prepared my dinner. My oxen and fatted calf are killed, or fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready come to the wedding.

So this is all prepared. It's ready for you. Come. But it says in verse 5, they made light of it. They went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to the servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited, it says, here are not worthy.

Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. Servants went out into the highways, and they gathered together, all whom they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.

So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. The king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness, or he'll be weeping and ashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. And speaking here about our calling in general, speaking here about the opportunity we've been given to be a part of the kingdom of God, it says those that were invited to that marriage supper that we just saw in Revelation 19 made light of it.

They didn't take it seriously. They went to their own farms, and went to their own businesses. Some even seized the servants that were sent out to notify them, treating those servants spitefully. Other parallel passages actually talk about the excuses that came up as to the reasons why they needed to be excused. The other parables illustrate that God will fill his table. He absolutely will fill his table, regardless perhaps of the reasons why we feel that we shouldn't.

We see as we go through the Pharisees, we see the Sadducees come up, they test Christ, as Matthew 22 continues, and he handles them mightily. Then a lawyer comes and asks him a question. Verse 37 of Matthew 22, he kind of brings the point home and drives the point home here. Verse 37 of Matthew 22, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, sorry, 36, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law.

Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This relationship that we work to build with God is imperative. That's where it all begins, because it's that relationship that defines how we relate to God, it defines how we relate to others.

It's that relationship which enables us to build rapport and trust as we kind of train for the exchanges of life and prepare for transitions and mentorship. We need to be communicating regularly with God. You need to be listening to what it is that he says. Right here in scripture, the things that we see. You need to let him guide our life. You need to let him prepare us to give us opportunities. That's how we're prepared sometimes, is opportunities that we aren't sure we're ready for. But God gets us through those things.

We have to submit our own will. That's a hard one. Being willing to say, OK, not my will, but yours. You know, we see scripture, Lee, Moses and Abraham were referred to as a friend of God. Enoch and Noah were said to have walked with God. David was a man after God's own heart. These are terms of endearment. These are terms of endearment. These are terms to describe someone who had a close relationship with God. Do we ensure that we're building that relationship? That the practices which we go through are focusing us in that direction toward ultimately what God has called us to? Because once that baton is passed, it's our race. It's all on us at that point. We want to run in such a way that we'll obtain it. One of the most difficult components of the 4 by 100 meter relay is the handoff. Even the most elite athletes in the world struggle with the speed and aspect of that handoff. But when you're dealing with similar sprint speeds, when you're dealing with all these people across the field that run within tenths and hundredths of one another, passing that baton successfully is usually what separates gold from silver. 2008, the Jamaican relay team had a gentleman you might have heard of called Usain Bolt. He's the fastest man in the world. And watching Usain run is just something to watch. I mean, he just makes it look effortless, just absolutely effortless.

In 2008, in Beijing, the US team almost got them. They were so close. They were so, so close.

They narrowly missed beating them. Jamaica came back. They won in 2008, well, they won in 2008, but they were disqualified. One of the teammates on the relay team was caught doping, and so they were disqualified. 2012, they won it again. 2016, they won it again. And then Usain Bolt retired from running.

And they haven't been back since. So there is something to be said for the speed in that sense.

But the transition is what enabled the US to get close. They weren't as fast, but their transitions were crisper. And so they were able to come within a very, very narrow margin of being able to do it. When they hand that baton off, can it be done without losing any steam? It can be done without slowing down, because even if you're the fastest man on the planet, if the handoff is bobbled, your team loses. It doesn't matter how good of a runner you are individually, if you bobble the handoff, the team loses. It's actually been said that a good 4 by 100 team's overall time can be faster as a team than their individual sprint times combined. If you get the right handoffs, and if you're able to get it done in such a way, it is faster together than it would be if you added up all their individual running times. Just kind of incredible to think about, as the seamlessness of that transition allows for a faster and more efficient race. But we can drop the baton if we don't approach it in the right way. We need to ensure, as we approach the handoff of leadership, whether it's in our families, whether it's at work, wherever we may lead, whether it's school, whether it's in the church, that we're actively doing what we can to make that approach smooth, and that we're working really hard to make sure that that baton is where it needs to be, when it needs to be, that we're getting what we can do to be in that spot. We need to ensure, as we enter into that exchange zone that we're identifying and working together with the next generation, we're doing what we can to prepare them for the challenges that will confront them in leadership. We also need to ensure that we're doing everything that we can to pass on the wisdom and the collective experiences of our years in the faith. You know, I'm always sober, I'm always sobered, sobered, that's the right term, I guess, by the recognition that some of you have been living this way of life longer than I've been alive. That's incredible to me. The amount of wisdom, the amount of understanding that you have, having gone through this for so many years, now collective wisdom is important. Sometimes you may not think it is. It really is. Incredibly important wisdom that we need to find a way to mine appropriately. You need to ensure, too, young people, that you and teens and young adults now, you're focusing on the spiritual preparation needed so that when that baton is passed, when that baton gets to you and that exchange takes place, that you're ready to spiritually turn and burn, that you can get out of that exchange zone and take off. When it's ready. So, brethren, let's be ready. Let's do the preparations necessary, because regardless of whether it's five years, 10 years, 15 years, or tomorrow, that baton is coming.