Decline of the Gospel

Recently we had a special speaker, Colin Marshall, come to our church and he shared this thought:

1st generation preaches the gospel
2nd generation assumes the gospel
3rd generation denies the gospel

I have been meditating on this since I heard it. The natural flow of human nature seems to be that we decline spiritually from generation to generation unless someone picks up the baton of the gospel and preaches it to their own generation and the next. Every generation stands on the edge of that slippery slope.

The second generation slips when we assume our Christianity. For me that translated this way...
we go to church, we own bibles, we go to "christian" activities, we live in "christian" homes BUT do we ever preach Christ? The temptation might be to assume that because our lives or our children are filled with "christian" things that we are therefore christian.

The reality is that we are sinners prone to wander, prone to feed our flesh. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves, to our families, to our church family, to our friends, and anyone else we come in contact with.

Think of it this way, would we expect to become full of knowledge by just owning (not opening) a beautiful new set of encyclopedias? Of course not. Then how can we expect to become disciples of Christ by just owning a bible and never reading it OR by going to church and never applying what we are taught? It is said that Christianity is not caught, it's taught.

Christianity can be defined this way: being a follower or disciple of Christ. So let's consider thinking about our "christianity"... are we just playing christians - going through the motions, making our appearance on Sundays, and never pursuing Christ Himself? Or are we Christians - reading and meditating on His Word, coming to Sunday morning ready to hear God's Word and learning how to apply it, and sharing the gospel and pursuing Christ.

Let's not assume that our activities or the activities of those around us are equal to a relationship with Christ... let's proclaim the gospel until the Lord comes again... to ourselves and to others to every single generation. Pass it on.