Church School SumUp

Theme: “Family Legacies!”

This week’s Church School SumUp invites us to consider an important question:

What will the next generation know about God because of what we choose to remember and tell?

Israel had experienced something extraordinary.

God had brought them through the Jordan River on dry ground. Another impossible barrier had yielded to the power and presence of God. But once the crossing was complete, God did not want His people simply to move on to the next destination and forget what had happened.

He wanted them to remember.

And more importantly, He wanted them to make sure their children remembered too.

Joshua 4 reminds us that testimony is not merely about celebrating what God has done for us. Testimony becomes legacy when we intentionally preserve the story and pass it to somebody coming behind us.

Our experiences with God should not end with us.

Our children should know.

Our families should know.

Future generations should know:

God has been faithful.

Weekly Lesson: Remember God’s Actions

After Israel crossed the Jordan River, God instructed Joshua to select twelve men, one from each tribe, and have them take twelve stones from the place where the priests had stood in the river.

Those stones were not ordinary decorations.

They were witnesses.

They represented an experience with God that Israel was never supposed to forget.

Joshua understood that there would come a day when children who had not experienced the crossing for themselves would see the stones and ask:

“What do these stones mean?”

That question would create an opportunity.

The older generation could tell the younger generation what God had done.

They could tell them about the river.

They could tell them about the priests stepping into the water.

They could tell them how the waters stopped.

They could tell them how Israel crossed on dry ground.

And they could tell them that the God who brought their ancestors through was still worthy of their trust.

That is how faith becomes a family legacy.

It is one thing to experience God.

It is another thing to explain God’s faithfulness to somebody who did not witness what we witnessed.

Every generation needs its own relationship with God, but every generation also benefits from hearing the testimonies of those who came before them.

Somebody needs to tell the story.

Scripture Focus: Joshua 4:14–24

Joshua 4:14–24 places us on the other side of the Jordan.

The crossing is complete.

God has demonstrated His power.

Joshua has been established as Israel’s leader.

The priests have come out of the river.

And the waters of the Jordan have returned to their place.

But before Israel moves too far beyond the miracle, Joshua makes sure they have something that will help them remember it.

The twelve stones become a permanent reminder of a temporary moment.

The miracle happened on one particular day, but its meaning was intended to continue for generations.

That is significant because human beings can experience something extraordinary and eventually become accustomed to the memory of it.

Time passes.

Details fade.

New challenges arise.

Yesterday’s miracle can slowly become yesterday’s story.

So God gave Israel something visible that would provoke conversation.

When their children asked what the stones meant, the people were supposed to tell them:

God brought us through.

And that testimony had two audiences.

First, it was for Israel’s children. They needed to know what God had done for their people.

But Joshua also says the memorial would help all the peoples of the earth know that the hand of the Lord is mighty.

Their testimony was both personal and missional.

What God did for them was supposed to reveal something about God to others.

That raises an important question for us:

What are we preserving from our experiences with God?

Our memorials may not be twelve stones.

They may be family stories.

Photographs.

Bibles filled with handwritten notes.

Songs that carried us through difficult seasons.

Traditions that remind us where God brought us from.

Prayers we teach our children.

Testimonies we repeat around the dinner table.

Stories of doors God opened, sickness God carried us through, needs God supplied, prayers God answered, and circumstances God changed.

These become our spiritual memorial stones.

But memorials only become legacies when somebody explains what they mean.

A Bible sitting on a shelf cannot tell its own story.

A photograph cannot explain the prayer behind the moment.

A tradition cannot explain why it matters.

Someone must say:

“Let me tell you what God did.”

That is why this week’s affirmation is so important:

I will remember God’s faithfulness, tell what He has done, and pass His story to the next generation.

Remember it.

Tell it.

Pass it.

That is how testimony becomes legacy.

Passing Down More Than Traditions

This week’s small-group activities take the idea of legacy even further by asking participants to explain three familiar practices of the Christian faith to a young person:

The Lord’s Prayer.
Baptism.
Communion.

Many of us grew up hearing, seeing, or participating in these practices.

But familiarity does not automatically create understanding.

A child may know the words of the Lord’s Prayer without understanding why Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

A young person may witness Baptism without understanding what it represents.

Someone may receive Communion without fully understanding why believers remember Christ at the Lord’s Table.

Faith formation requires more than saying, “This is what we do.”

We also have to explain:

“This is why we do it.”

That is part of spiritual legacy.

We are not merely handing the next generation religious routines.

We are helping them understand the God those practices reveal.

Joshua understood that children would ask questions.

Rather than treating their questions as interruptions, Israel was instructed to use those questions as invitations to teach.

Perhaps our children’s questions can become invitations too.

Why do we pray?

Why do we go to church?

Why do we take Communion?

Why do we get baptized?

Why do we read Scripture?

Why do you trust God when things are difficult?

Why do you keep talking about something God did twenty years ago?

Those questions create opportunities to say:

“Come here. Let me tell you what this means.”

Hymnology: “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

This week’s closing hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” beautifully reinforces the lesson’s emphasis on remembrance.

British Baptist hymn writer Robert Robinson wrote the hymn in 1758 following his own life-changing conversion under the preaching of George Whitefield.

Robinson’s journey, from a troubled youth to pastor and scholar, became part of the testimony reflected in the hymn.

One of its most memorable expressions is:

“Here I raise mine Ebenezer.”

The language comes from 1 Samuel 7:12, when Samuel raised a stone and called it Ebenezer, “Stone of Help”, as a reminder that the Lord had helped His people.

That image connects beautifully with Joshua 4.

Samuel raised a stone.

Joshua established stones.

Both memorials declared essentially the same thing:

God helped us here.

The memorial gave God’s people a place to look back and remember His faithfulness.

And sometimes we need our own Ebenezers.

We need reminders that say:

God kept me here.

God provided here.

God healed my heart here.

God opened the door here.

God carried my family here.

God answered me here.

God did not fail me here.

Remembering yesterday’s faithfulness gives us confidence to trust God with tomorrow.

And when we tell somebody else the story, our Ebenezer becomes more than our memory.

It becomes part of their spiritual inheritance.

Key Takeaway

God wants us to remember His faithfulness, preserve the stories of what He has done, and intentionally pass those testimonies to future generations so they will know and trust Him.

Israel’s stones were never supposed to become meaningless monuments.

They were conversation starters.

They were teaching tools.

They were testimony preserved in stone.

And our lives should contain some memorial stones too.

We ought to be able to point backward and say:

“That is where God brought me through.”

“That is where God answered prayer.”

“That is where I learned He could be trusted.”

“That is where our family saw the hand of God.”

But then we must do something else.

We must tell the story.

Because if we experience God but never explain His faithfulness to those coming behind us, important parts of our spiritual history can disappear with us.

Legacy requires intentionality.

Somebody remembered God for us.

Somebody prayed before we knew how to pray.

Somebody taught us Scripture.

Somebody told us what God had done.

Somebody explained why faith mattered.

Now it is our turn.

Application Prompt

Take a moment this week and identify one of your own memorial stones.

What has God done in your life that you never want to forget?

Perhaps He carried you through a difficult season.

Perhaps He answered a prayer.

Perhaps He provided when resources were scarce.

Perhaps He restored something you thought was lost.

Perhaps He protected you.

Perhaps He redirected you.

Perhaps He simply sustained you when you did not know how you would keep going.

Now ask yourself:

Who knows that story besides me?

Have you told your children?

Your grandchildren?

Your nieces and nephews?

A younger believer?

Someone you mentor?

Someone who needs evidence that God is faithful?

Do not allow the testimony to stop with you.

This week, intentionally tell somebody what God has done.

Explain the stone.

Tell the story.

Name the place where God helped you.

And then give the next generation something worth remembering.

Because one of the greatest inheritances we can leave is not simply a record of who we were.

It is a testimony of who God has been.

I will remember God’s faithfulness, tell what He has done, and pass His story to the next generation.