B.B. Officers Dedication Service - 13th September 2026 - A Multigenerational Mandate for Boys' Brigade Leaders

If you're well, the faces of the boys that God has entrusted to us in the boys brigade across our down battalion.

The pressures they face differ by age, and yet all of them need faithful officers who will point them to Christ.

Anchor boys often encounter unstable or father absent homes, early and unfiltered screen time, confused messages about right and wrong, a lack of secure godly role models at the very stage when the foundations of trust and identity and obedience are being led.

Junior section faced growing peer pressure, the first waves of social media and online influence, increasing anxiety around school performance and belonging, and the early erosion of biblical literacy in a culture that rarely speaks about God.

The company section boys wrestled with deeper confusion about identity and masculinity, the aggressive pool of pornography and social media, mental health struggles and loneliness, academic and performance pressure, and in some communities the real danger of influence with drugs and violence.

All the while, many have never heard a clear compelling account of the living God.

We don't know generally the boys that come to us each company night.

We don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

And into this multi aged mix, God still calls officers, ordinary men and women like yourselves, to serve a future generation.

And that's why I read to you from Psalm 78, and in particular, I want to think about verses four to seven.

Because verses four to seven is not soft nostalgia.

It's a solemn, hopeful charge.

It's a charge for each of us this evening.

The psalmist recounts Israel's history of forgetfulness.

It recounts God's faithfulness and then issues a multigenerational mandate.

And that's really the title of this message this evening, a multigenerational mandate.

So as we dedicate ourselves afresh to that multigenerational mandate, there are three duties that we have gotta perform.

Three duties that are set out in Psalm 78 verses 78.

First duty, we will not hide the Lord's deeds.

The second duty, we will teach his word.

The third duty, we will labor for the Lord.

And let's look at each of these duties one by one.

So first of all, we will not hide the Lord's deeds.

We will not hide the Lord's deeds.

Note what we're told here in Psalm 78 and verse four.

We will not hide them from their children but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.

And the verbs are very deliberate here.

They're corporate.

We will not hide, but we will tell.

And that content is specific.

God's praiseworthy deeds, power, and wonders, That's what we're to come.

That's what we're to bring to the boys each parade night.

Not vague moralisms, not self help.

Asaph, who was the great musician of David roots, the command, and redemptive history as he writes here the exodus, the the wilderness, the the great covenant.

And when we think of, the deeds of the Lord, silence in relation to those is disobedience.

Proclamation, of course, is obedience.

A BB company that only runs games and badges and camps without ever speaking of Christ's cross and resurrection is like a lighthouse with a lamp switched off.

The structure looks very impressive, but the ships are still being wrecked.

And conversely, an officer who simply and regularly recounts what God has done, whether it be talking about creation or the fall, the great promise, the incarnation, the atonement, the empty tomb, the spirit's power, He lights the way.

She lights the way.

And what story are we telling?

On company nights, camps, quiet conversations, do the boys hear the mighty acts of God or only activity schedules.

Dedication means refusing to hide Christ and speaking of him naturally, speaking of him warmly, speaking of him clearly.

Your life and your lip agree.

In his book, Center Church, Tim Keller wrote, the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life, but it's the a to z.

We never move on from it.

We move deeper into it.

And we must tell the deeds of the Lord until the boys see that Jesus is the center of every story worth telling.

We must tell the deeds of the Lord until the boys see that Jesus is the center of every story worth telling.

We will not hide the Lord's deeds.

But then let's move on to the second duty that's set out in this particular psalm.

We will teach his word.

We will teach his word.

We must teach the next generation passing on God's statutes and God's law.

If you look at Psalm 78 again, notice here in verses five and six what it says, he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, and the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children.

God himself decreed the content.

God himself decreed the method.

Speaks about fathers here, which he commanded our fathers.

Fathers, and, yes, by extension, as we bring it into the context of the baby, spiritual fathers, spiritual mothers are commanded to teach so that the knowledge multiplies across generations even to those yet unborn.

The goal is not merely information, but a living of real transformation.

And we all know about the idea of the relay race and the button as the apostolic gospel and the whole council of God.

And, you know, if an officer drops it through neglect of scripture, maybe through embarrassment about a doctrine or substitution of of entertainment, the next runner has nothing to carry.

And boys brigade has always thrived when officers treated drill and uniform and adventure as vehicles, as a means to disciplining boys in the fear and in the knowledge of the Lord.

And you know dedication tonight includes a fresh resolve to open the Bible with the boys and we have scripture courses.

But how do we teach those scripture courses?

Short, clear teaching, memorization of key verses, applying the commandments to honesty and purity and courage and brotherly love.

You're not asked to be a professional theologian, you know that there, but we're commanded to be faithful transmitters of the gospel.

We have to prepare.

We have to pray.

We have to open the word.

Sinclair Ferguson observes, true Christian education is not merely the transfer of information, but the formation of a life under the lordship of Christ.

Kevin De Jong adds that we must give the next generation a faith that is both deep and clear.

And that's our calling in company nights.

That's our calling when we take the boys away on weekends.

That's our calling as we meet them at competitions and take them to competitions or whatever.

We will teach His word, we will live His word but then our third and final duty we will labor for the Lord we will labor for the Lord and we will labor for the Lord that He might be glorified because when the Lord is glorified, the Lord blesses and the boys are set in a hope toward God.

If you look at what we're told here in verse seven, it's so it says there, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments.

And you know the purpose clause here is vital.

Information serves transformation.

Hope or trust in God, remembrance of his works, and obedient keeping of his commandments.

And the three belong together.

Forgetfulness produces unbelief.

It produces disobedience.

Remembering fuels faith and holiness.

And the ultimate aim is that boys who become men who trust Christ, recall his faithfulness, walk in his ways, and then teach their own children.

We're not just teaching this generation.

We're teaching the generation that is yet to come.

A former BB boy, now a father and officer himself, told me the turning point in his life was when an officer who not only taught the commandments but lived them with quiet consistency and pointed every failure and every victory back to the grace of the cross.

And years later, that boy could still quote the verses, and more importantly, he had set his hope in the Lord.

He had been saved, born again.

And you know that's the harvest that's really envisaged here in Psalm 78.

Our task is not merely to promote attendance and badges and smart drill, and those are good, But by faithful witness, those are to be used as a means to an end because faithful witness is used within them to urge boys to trust Christ, remember what he has done, remember what Christ has done for them, and by the power of the Holy Spirit to come as sinners to the cross and trust Jesus.

And when they feel and they will feel, we point them back again to the savior.

Your own hope, your own memory, your own obedience will either authenticate or undermine the message, and tonight's dedication is therefore first a rededication of your heart.

Paul Tripp reminds leaders that we are instruments in the Redeemer's hands called to help the next generation find their hope in Him alone.

And Alastair Begg puts it so well, He says, preach the word and keep the main thing the main thing.

And you know that's what we have gotta do.

We've gotta keep the main thing the main thing, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So to draw this all to a closer, a multigenerational mandate, we have three linked duties as they're set out here in Psalm 78 and verses four to seven.

Don't hide.

Declare the glorious deeds and power and wonders of the Lord.

Teach diligently the statutes and the gospel so that generations yet unborn may be affected by what we do in God with God's help and in the power of the Holy Spirit now in this day and generation.

And labor for the goal.

The goal to glorify God, that boys set their hope in God.

Remember his works and keep his commandments.

And these are not suggestions for the king.

They're a biblical pattern for serving a future generation, and the issues facing facing boys in the boys brigade from the youngest anger boys to the oldest company section members are serious, but the God of Psalm 78 is greater.

He has already acted mightily in Christ Jesus.

He still appoints ordinary people like you and me to stand in the gap.

And will we tonight refuse to hide Christ?

Will we commit to open the word and pass on, the faith once delivered to the saints?

Will we labor for God's glory that boys would trust, remember, and obey who will one day tell their own children?

And if so, then let's dedicate ourselves afresh.

Serve the boys in in front of us, whether they're four or whether they're 18, and do it with courage and patience and joy.

Do it in the strength of God's supply, fixing your eyes, fixing our eyes on the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, and trust that the Lord who commanded this transmission will also give the increase.

And may the next generation rise up and call them blessed because we were faithful in our day.

Before we finish, there's a question that reaches beyond duty and service, a question for you.

And we have spoken tonight of passing on the faith, but you can't pass on the faith if you've never received it.

You cannot point boys to a savior you do not know yourself.

And I say to you, all the good works, the years of service, all the badges and honors in the world will not save your soul.

Psalm 78 tells the story of a generation that saw the works of God and yet whose hearts were not right with him.

We're told that in verses eight and thirty seven, and it's possible to be surrounded by the things of God, to sit under the word of God, to wear the uniform, to stand in the ranks, and still be lost.

So the question comes to you tonight, have you set your own hope in God?

The same God who acted mightily in history has acted mightily in Christ, who came and lived the life that you could not live, who died the death that you deserved, and who rose again in triumph over sin and the grave, and he offers you freely this evening forgiveness and eternal life.

But you must come to him, and you must come from your sin and trust in him alone.

And I say to you tonight, don't put it off.

Don't assume in another day, and let this be the night you stop hiding from him and perhaps trusting in him.

For then you too will have something worth passing on, and one day you will join the great throng of every generation who rise up and call him blessed.

I say to you tonight, come to Christ.

Let's