Throughout All Generations

Back to School Sunday

We see our students, teachers, school staff, administrators, homeschool educators, and parents. We are praying for you and want to help you become fully devoted followers of Jesus.

The service opened with worship celebrating new life, freedom in Jesus, and God's worthiness. The congregation was reminded of the elders bowing before the Lord in Revelation.

Revelation

Connecting and Giving

Crossroads invited every generation to connect through Wednesday programming, Spark Groups, classes, and student small groups called Crews.

Children were learning to be zip code heroes, making a difference in their schools and communities. Lauren and Lydia wanted to thank Mr. Sam at their elementary school for helping students feel seen and valued.

The Millbrook campus also invited the church to support three local schools with needed supplies and resources. Generosity includes our time, talents, and treasures. It is an opportunity to join God in what he is already doing.

Students Reaching Students

Rachel Gardner of First Priority shared that more than 250 student leaders had been trained to share the gospel, with about the same number of adults trained to disciple them. That year, 228 students responded to the gospel.

Ariana described helping organize First Priority and learning alongside younger students as they grew in their relationship with Jesus.

The encouragement to parents was to equip their children, partner with the local church, and pray. Students were seeing their friends respond because they saw Jesus in someone at school.

Praying for Our Educators

Teachers, administrators, counselors, coaches, school staff, and homeschool educators are helping shape the next generation.

God, give them wisdom when they do not know what to do, patience when the work is difficult, and protection from cynicism. Help them see the student behind the behavior, the person rather than the problem.

Remind them that their work matters even when nobody seems to notice. Give them strength and joy, and help them represent Jesus well.

A Church That Carries Their Names

Paul thinks about people he loves and wants to see flourish. His first response is to get on his knees and pray.

I think of my grandmother, who prayed for her grandchildren. Before road trips, she prayed for our safety. When we got lost on what she called an adventure, she prayed again.

I did not understand it then as I do now: there is something incredible about having somebody carry your name before the throne of God.

What would it look like for our students to have the power of a praying church behind them all year long?

God's Work in Us

Paul does not begin by asking God to remove every obstacle or make everything go their way. He asks that they be strengthened, that Christ dwell in them, that they know his love, and that they be filled with God.

He begins with God doing something in them, not simply something for them.

• Know him.
• Know his love.
• Make him known.
• Step into his work and entrust the outcome to him.

This prayer is for students, educators, and all of us, throughout all generations.

Know Him: Rooted in Christ

Paul begins with our inner being and Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith.

We often begin with the assignment: What should I do? What should I accomplish? Paul begins with our life with Jesus.

Before there is fruit, there is connection to the vine. Before there is work we do for Jesus, there is our life with Jesus.

Who Gets the Final Word?

Students will hear many voices this year: grades, coaches, teachers, friends, and social media. Those voices can become loud.

A grade can tell you how you did on a test. It cannot tell you how valuable you are. A team can tell you whether you made the roster. It cannot tell you your identity.

Other people can tell you what they think about you, but they do not get the final word over who you are. Jesus does.

Before asking what you will accomplish this year, begin with this: Who am I in Christ?

The Foundation of Our Identity

Adults ask similar questions: Am I doing enough? Am I successful enough? Am I making a difference? Am I good at my job?

Those things matter, but they make a terrible foundation for our identity. Before you are a teacher, administrator, coach, parent, or student, you are somebody who belongs to Jesus.

The work God has for us begins with the work God is doing in us.

Know His Love

Paul prays that we would be rooted and grounded in love and comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ's love.

He wants us to spend our lives discovering a love we can never exhaust.

We may know that God loves us without living as though it is true. Sometimes we picture him standing at a distance, waiting for us to fail. That is not the God we see in the gospel.

Run Toward Him

God did not wait for us to clean everything up before moving toward us. He stepped into our mess willingly.

Students, you will get something wrong this year. You may make a bad decision, say something you regret, fail a test, or experience a broken friendship.

Remember: Jesus already knew, and he still loves you.

This is not a license to sin. Grace does not make sin unimportant. Grace reminds us what to do when we sin: run toward him, not away from him.

You Are Not Unseen

Teachers, there will be days when you feel invisible. You will stay late, worry about students at home, and have conversations that never appear on an evaluation.

You may wonder whether pouring yourself into somebody is making any difference.

You may feel unseen, but you are not. The God who knows you completely loves you completely.

Love That Keeps Reaching Out

When my family moved to Virginia, our friend Kim welcomed us as family. She paid attention and kept checking in.

During a stressful season, I kept postponing her calls. When I finally answered, I heard relief, not correction. She simply wanted to know I was okay. She told me that if I had not answered that day, she was driving to Raleigh.

Her care helps me understand something of God's heart. He is not waiting at a distance for us to get ourselves together. He moves toward us.

We do not serve to become loved. We serve because we already are.

Make Him Known

Paul prays that we would be filled with all the fullness of God.

God does not fill us simply so we can be full. He intends us to overflow, so that his life becomes visible through ours.

In Philippians, Paul describes shining as lights and being poured out like a drink offering. We are filled by God and poured out for others.

Faithfulness at School

Living for Jesus does not mean turning the cafeteria into a church service. Often it looks ordinary:

• Noticing someone others overlook.
• Choosing whom you sit beside.
• Refusing to join in when people tear someone down.
• Telling the truth when lying would be easier.
• Responding to hurt and competing in athletics in ways that reflect Jesus.
• Being the same person on Monday that you are on Sunday.
• Being willing to say what you believe about Jesus.

What if someone encounters something of Jesus through how you show up this year?

His Presence in Your Classroom

Educators teach through who they are as well as through the content they deliver.

Students are learning what patience, integrity, dignity, and grace look like. They watch how you respond when you are frustrated or when someone fails.

You do not have to force Jesus unnaturally into every moment. Let his patience be experienced through yours, his compassion through your compassion, and dignity through the way you see, treat, and speak to students.

God fills us with himself so our lives point beyond ourselves.

A Prayer for Our Students

God, be with these students as they enter schools, talk with friends, and interact with people we may never have access to.

Help them know who you are and be confident in their identity in you. Let them know your love, even in their brokenness.

Fill them with your Spirit so they make you known. Work through them here in Raleigh, and help us step into the work you have for us.

Trust God With the Outcome

Paul closes his prayer by pointing to God, who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, according to his power already at work within us.

We are not simply waiting for God to begin doing something. He is already at work.

We entrust the outcome to God while remaining faithful to the responsibility he has given us.

Trust God with the outcome. Be faithful with the opportunity.

Step Into the Work

Perhaps God has put someone on your heart, a conversation you need to have, or something you need to step into. Be faithful to that opportunity.

For some, faithfulness means continuing to show up: keep praying, loving, and serving. Keep doing what God has put in front of you.

God has prepared good works for each of us. Sometimes the preparation itself is the work.

Faithful in the Waiting

It may be a season to grow, learn, listen, develop skills, know Scripture more clearly, and let God work on your character.

When we ask when God will use us, he may already be doing the work needed for what comes next.

Waiting is not passive. There is courage, faithfulness, and preparation in waiting.

The work God does in the waiting prepares you for the work he will do next.

A Question for the Whole Year

God, where are you working, and what would faithfulness look like for me right now?

Students can ask at school. Teachers can ask in their classrooms. Parents can ask at home. All of us can ask at work, in our relationships, and in our neighborhoods.

We do not have to know exactly how things will turn out or manufacture results. We trust God and step faithfully into the opportunities he gives us.

Throughout All Generations

Paul's prayer ends with glory to God in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

This is more than a back-to-school wish for a good year. God calls his church to care about what he is doing from one generation to the next.

We do not send out the next generation and hope for the best. We go with them. We pray, encourage, disciple, learn their names, and ask how they are doing. We support parents, encourage teachers, and show what following Jesus looks like throughout life.

Keep a Name Before You

The congregation was invited to write the name of a student, teacher, or school in the blank on a prayer card.

Place that card somewhere you will see it every day, such as your refrigerator or car, and let it prompt you to pray.

It does not have to be complicated. Ask God to help that person know him, know his love, and respond to others with kindness.

Keep that name in front of you, and keep bringing it before God.

Becoming a Praying Church

The answer to our opening question is not something we do for three minutes today. It is the kind of church we are becoming.

God, make us a church that prays. Root us in you. Fill us with your fullness, and help us make you known in every generation.

Keep us discovering the depth of your love. Help us recognize your work and trust you with the outcome.

Secure our students in their identity in you. Keep us faithful in praying for them and their educators, and let us celebrate what you do through them.

Closing Worship and Blessing

The service closed in worship celebrating cleansing, redemption, and the victory Jesus has won, followed by a blessing from Numbers.