WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION? PART 2: WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE YOU?

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WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION? PART 2: WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE YOU? James 1:22 (NLT) “But do not just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”   In Part 1, we asked a simple but important question: What are you feeding yourself? We discovered that spiritual growth requires spiritual nourishment. We also learned that what we repeatedly consume can influence what we become and eventually what we produce. But there is another important question. What happens after you consume something? This question takes us back to the thought that started this series. A mother eats food. The baby does not receive the food directly. The mother's body processes what she has eaten. The nutrients are absorbed, regulated and used by her body as part of the production of breast milk. The baby receives the nourishment through the milk. The food has gone through a process. That process made me think about our spiritual lives. What ...
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WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION?

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION?

SERIES INTRODUCTION

HOW THIS SERIES WAS BORN

Sometimes, a sermon is born in a church.

Sometimes, it is born in a book.

And sometimes, it is born from a simple question.

This series was born from a question I asked after the birth of my firstborn.

My best friend, Charles, and his wife, Dede, visited us when my wife returned from the hospital after delivery.

As I watched our newborn being breastfed, I found myself asking a question that had been sitting somewhere in my mind:

How can this little child stay healthy and grow by feeding only on breast milk?

Out of curiosity, I made a slight comment, ignorantly wondering aloud:

“How do these children survive by feeding only on breast milk?”

Dede gave me an answer that fascinated me.

She simply said:

“Every kid gets their nutrients from the food the mother eats.”

Now, scientifically, that statement is a simplification. The baby does not receive the mother's food directly. The mother's body digests and processes what she eats, absorbs the nutrients, regulates them, and uses them, together with nutrients already stored in her body, to produce breast milk.

But that simple statement stayed with me.

For days, I kept thinking about it.

I began asking myself: How does this work?

How does what the mother consumes eventually contribute to what the baby receives?

That curiosity led me to research.

And somewhere along that journey, a different question began to emerge, not about breast milk anymore, but about life.

If a mother can consume something, process it within her body, and eventually produce nourishment for the next generation...

What are we consuming, processing and producing spiritually?

If a baby can feed from what has been produced by the mother...

What are the people coming after us feeding from in our lives?

And suddenly, I realized something:

We are all feeding somebody.

Our children are feeding from us.

Our spouses are feeding from us.

Our disciples are feeding from us.

Our communities are feeding from us.

The next generation will feed from what we leave behind.

They may not eat what we ate. But they may live with the consequences of what we consumed.

They may not hear every sermon we preached. But they will encounter the life our sermons produced.

They may not read every Bible verse we quoted. But they will see whether those Scriptures became a lifestyle.

And that is how this series was born.

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION?

This is not merely a series about what we eat. It is a series about what we consume, what we become, what we produce, and what we transmit.

Because what enters us does not always remain in us. Something eventually comes out. And somebody may be feeding from it.

THE CENTRAL QUESTION

As we journey through this series, we will keep returning to one question:

If the next generation feeds from my life, what exactly will they receive?

Will they receive faith?

Will they receive character?

Will they receive wisdom?

Will they receive discipline?

Will they receive love?

Will they receive integrity?

Will they receive a genuine relationship with God?

Or will they receive bitterness?

Anger?

Fear?

Greed?

Compromise?

Excuses?

The answer will not be found only in what we say.

It will be found in what we consistently live.

THE JOURNEY AHEAD

This series will take us through the process of examining our spiritual diet, our character, our habits, our relationships, our parenting, our leadership and our influence.

We will ask difficult questions.

We will examine what we consume.

We will examine what is being produced within us.

We will examine what is flowing from our lives.

And we will examine what we are passing to those coming after us.

Because the goal is not simply to become better Christians for ourselves.

The goal is to become people whose lives can nourish others.

A WORD TO EVERY GENERATION

Parents, your children are watching.

Leaders, people are watching.

Pastors, your congregation is watching.

Teachers, your students are watching.

Older believers, younger believers are watching.

And even when nobody seems to be watching, your life is still producing something.

The question is not whether you will influence the next generation.

You will.

The question is:

What kind of influence will you have?

OUR GUIDING THOUGHT

What you consume can shape what you become.

What you become can influence what you produce.

What you produce can influence what others receive.

And what others receive from you can shape their future.

That is why we must pay attention to what we are feeding ourselves today.

Because somebody may be feeding from our lives tomorrow.

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION?

The journey begins here.

The question is simple.

The responsibility is great.

And the answer begins with us.

God is speaking, are you listening?




Prince Julius Nenebi-Darkson

(EL-PJ God's Penman)

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