Intergenerational Relationships

So as I look around at the congregation seated here, and we could actually expand it outside this room to the Church of God as a whole, I would say one of the greatest blessings of the Church is that we are a multi-generational Church. And by that, I mean we have small children, we have newborn children going all the way up then to the elderly, and all the generations in between. And it is a blessing, and I mean that in the truest sense of the Word. It is a blessing that God has given us to rejoice in as His people. No matter what age we are, I hope we can acknowledge the blessing of those among us, of the various generations, and the value that it adds to the congregation. You know, we just have the blessing of the little children, and we rejoice in the children. And to see new life born into the world, to see the joy of the parents and the family, and indeed it's a joy to all of us in the congregation as we watch them grow up. And right alongside that blessing comes a great responsibility as well. And certainly the parents feel the burden of that responsibility, but I hope we all feel the burden of that responsibility as well as the Church of God. A responsibility that requires us to connect across the generational lines. You know, indeed as we come together as a family, the connections must be made, and not just for a sense of an introduction, but real relationships that are for the growth and the benefit of all. This is how God designed His Church. We understand that Ephesians chapter 4, verse 16 shows that the whole body is intended to be joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. And it's talking about each individual being active and participating and involved for the blessing of the overall whole. In that the growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ, not just individually but for the whole, would be the result of that. And so as the people of God were called to be people who relate well with one another across the generations, from the older all the way down to the younger. And you know that takes some time, some effort, right? It takes reaching out, takes finding points of connection that can be made so that you can have a meaningful, beneficial relationship. So building the bonds in every generation of the Church is what God has called us to as well, and it must be a focus of our fellowship. As we come together each Sabbath and then dismiss, we have our snacks, we have our time to interact, we should be reaching across these generational lines and make these connections in our midst. Now many of the older members in the congregation are what we would call seasoned veterans, right, to this way of life.

Some of you have lived this way 30, 40, 50, 60 plus years. I don't recall the exact number of years, but I was listening to Mr. Im's sermon at the feast in Spokane this year, and I think Frida takes the cake, do you not? 60 plus up there, right? And I think in the room at the feast site, she took the cake. So good for you. You know, there's experience, there's wisdom, there's things that these individuals have gone through over the decades, and honestly, somebody who long before I was born was living this way of life. And again, that's a lot of experience, a lot of valuable lessons learned, a lifetime of understanding that can be passed on to generations then that follow. Now we have children in our midst. We have very small children up here. Then we have pre-teen children, and we have teens, and we have young adults, and all those stages coming up in our midst. But we have this bracket then that positions them to be the future seasoned members of the church. If we fast forward 10, 20, 30 years, right? Because where is our future pillars in the church going to come from? Where's our future leadership going to come from? Where are our future members that are solid contributors to the congregation? They're primarily going to come from the young people that are growing up here today in our midst. And so we have a very valuable opportunity to pass on what it is that we've learned and we've experienced ourselves.

And part of what we'll prepare them to assume their future role is lessons and experiences from us. So today I want to talk about the value of intergenerational relationships in the church of God, and that is the title, intergenerational relationships. The value of simply the blessing of them. In fact, we must build them to benefit. Over the last number of years, farmers, insurance, has produced a very clever ad campaign on TV. Maybe you've seen some of their commercials are quite humorous. They usually feature things like animals gone wild and wreaking property destruction, or the cement truck dumping the load of cement accidentally into the convertible park behind it, or just outlandish home claims. And they have their, to remember what it's called, it's like their Hall of Claims. You walk through the museum, and this was the whatever episode of 73 where this happened. You know, and again, they're humorous, they're ridiculous, but their tagline that they put off into their commercials is, at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

And again, it's humorous as it's been built up, but the point of that tagline is, you know what, we've had experiences, and we've seen things, and we've learned lessons, and the point they're making is then you ought to be able to trust us with the insurance that you would need.

But I would just say in similar manner, and like Vayne, it's the same with the seasoned veterans among us, they know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two. They've had experiences which have come with age, experiences that have taught them important spiritual lessons over the years, and again, if some of those lessons can be passed on, if they can be shared and received by the generations that come behind them, indeed it will be a great blessing to all. When we look at the pages of the Bible, we see that God's instructions in multiple ways through the ministry, through parents, through communities, it is a pass-it-on way of life that he has called us to, and he actually commands his people to take up a pass-it-on approach to his laws, his ways, their experiences of living these things unto blessing. And so contained in that transmission of knowledge is also hopefully the experience and the wealth of wisdom that has been developed through a life well-lived. Let's look at a couple of scriptures that show, again, this concept of pass-it-on and what it is that each of us has an opportunity to do to the next generation.

Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 6 to begin today. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and pick it up in verse 4. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4, very important passage. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, or the Lord alone, or the Lord only, as in Yahweh alone shall be your God. Verse 5, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. As in not just head knowledge, this is going to be a part of your character, whom what you are. This must be what you become as you live these words. Verse 7, you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And so first and foremost to the parents, there is a responsibility to pass on to your children the principles of God's Word, the experiences and the lessons you've learned by living it, and the benefit that it will be indeed to their lives. Find opportunities, right? When you sit in your home, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, the point is have it always continually before your focus, and always be willing to teach your children by example. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us of the congregation then get to take off a hands, you know, hands-off approach. You know, they're their kids, they're not my kids. We each actually have a heavy responsibility in this matter, because you see, we get to play a supporting role to reinforce the parents' teachings. Because what should the children among us expect to see when they come to church? If mom and dad have been teaching them about the ways of God and how it's a blessing to your life, and how indeed the people of God should live their life, what should the children see then when they come to church? Well, they must see a reinforcement, right, of what their parents have taught, that actually, you know what? God's way works, and it is working here among all of us by our example, by our words, by our actions. Because, you see, we might think that, well, maybe the kids don't know anything because they're playing or they're, you know, how old do you have to be to start to listen to church? You hear things, and you're absorbing things from a very, very young age. And our children listen, and our children watch, and our children see and hear probably much more than we really even realize. So our actions, our words, each and every one of us, must be this teaching to them, again, by example. Because very few things undermine the confidence of young people more than hypocrisy, right? Adults who say one thing and do another. You know, God's way works, but why did they show up to the party drunk? You know, this is a disconnect. This is a problem. And so we're given the opportunity to play an important role in this process and to back the parents up. Yes, this way works, and it is worth your commitment in this life. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6.

Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6 says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. So again, it's this pass-it-on concept. That which you've been given as an understanding and experience and lessons built into your life is to be passed on to your children with the intent that they'll grow up and they'll say, hey, this is good. I'm going to live it myself. And then I'll say, this works. God's way has saved me from so much heartache. It's been a blessing to my life. Now I want to teach it to my children. Okay, it's the pass-it-on cycle that God built into these relationships. Psalm chapter 78 and verse 1.

Psalm chapter 78 and verse 1 says, give ear, O my people, to my law, and incline your ears to the word of my mouth. God says, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Verse 4 says, we will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. Verse 5, for He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. You know, these are the ways that you will live as my people, His laws, His commandments, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

And so our attitude as adults, again, must be to take the truths of God and the lessons that we've learned by living it and pass it on to our children, and as they grow up, they will pass it on to their children, and it becomes a perpetual process down through the generations. I'm what we call, I use some in-church speak here, I'm what we call a second-generation Christian. Okay, I wasn't called out of the world into the church. I wasn't born necessarily in the church, but my mom came into the church when I was a very young age. So essentially, I grew up in the church of God. The majority of my life, and so there were a lot of school of hard-knock lessons that I didn't have to learn, maybe in the way that certain other individuals did, and I will say that my story is going to be different than the story of others. Those who, again, this is I'm right, living life, and God calls her and her husband from from what they were doing and said, I want to present to you a change of life. And that's what we call first-generation Christians, right, in our in-house speak. It's those that God has called and set them on to a different course according to His way. And so they're going to have a certain set of lessons and experiences as well. You know, how did this change my life? I mean, I was kind of heading down this way and thought things were good, and God said, time for a course correction. I want you to follow me. There's valuable lessons that we can learn from those individuals as well, and they're going to be different than maybe even what you would learn from me specifically. So each generation has an opportunity to do that, whether you're an adult, maybe the older adults pass on to the younger adults. Younger adults have opportunity because every generation looks to the next one as, you know, they're cool.

Little kids aren't necessarily looking at me thinking, I'm cool, but the pre-teens are thinking the teens are all right, you know, and the teens are looking to the young adults and saying, hey, that's cool. And the young adults are beginning to come to the point where they're like, well, maybe mom and dad do know a thing or two after all, and, you know, look to the older. And we do this. We look up, so each of us have an opportunity to pass along to the generations behind.

But we also need to understand that the one who is doing the teaching is not the only person who should have an active role in this process. Indeed, there's responsibility as well for each of us to reach out to those whom we need to receive the lessons and the instructions from, to be willing recipients in the process and to seek after wisdom. And so to the young people among us, I encourage you to have a willing desire to seek after truth and knowledge and the experience of those who have gone before. Ask the questions and hear the stories. Take time to learn the lessons of the things that they would desire to pass on to you, because it is a benefit.

Proverbs chapter 1, Proverbs chapter 1 and beginning in verse 1, it's a book of wisdom, the book of Proverbs, and it's written very much in the tone of a father sharing experiences and instructions with a son. And he says, hear these words, and actually you take the initiative to reach out as well.

Proverbs chapter 1 verse 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to receive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge, and discretion. Verse 5 says, a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. Okay, he's describing someone that actually must have that desire to reach out and to acquire and to learn. And attaining wise counsel means to go after it, to reach for it, and to acquire it. And again, it's taking the initiative as the receiver of wisdom, not just the one who has the responsibility to pass it on. Verse 6, to understand a proverb and enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. He's saying, if you're going to resist that, if you're going to push away the wisdom and the instruction that could come to you, and that would be a benefit to your life, he says, actually, you're a fool.

And that's a very strong word in the Bible, one that we should pay attention to. Verse 8, he says, My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be graceful ornaments on your head and chains about your neck. You know, it's like gold and silver chains. It's going to be a treasure to you that you're going to carry with you, and indeed will be a blessing to your life. And so, in this life, young people, I'll just encourage you, you're going to be hard-pressed in this life, outside of, perhaps, your spouse that God would bless you with. You're going to be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually cares for your benefit greater than godly parents, people who have poured their heart and soul and desire into your upbringing and desire to see the blessings of God fulfilled in your life. Because you are their legacy. You know, children are what parents leave behind, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. You are the legacy that lives on. And so, the investment there is very deep and and sincere. So, seek out the wisdom of of your parents and having a willingness to receive that is something that God instructs to you as well. And you know who else wants to see the younger people succeed? It's the older people in the church. You know, they have a vested interest in you as well, because you are the future of the congregation. I think I've mentioned it before, when my dad was in the Navy, we lived out at Whidbey Island, which was his last duty station, and as I recall, outside of Oak Harbor, they had this big billboard. It was a Naval Air Station, and it said, pardon our noise, it's the sound of freedom. Because you had these military jets doing touch-and-goes and practicing maneuvers there. They said, pardon our noise. You know, it's the sound of freedom.

And I would just simply say that in the Church of God, pardon our noise. It's the sound of future. You know, we have children, we have babies, we have... there's times where, you know, there's noise, there's distractions. I listen to sermons on the Church website. Guess what?

It's about every congregation has a crying baby. About every congregation has, you know, there's times where there's inconveniences, but those are blessings, and we wouldn't trade them for anything. And sometimes I myself do things that I go, well, suddenly I feel like a child. I went to anoint somebody recently, and I stood there, and I tipped my anointing bottle upside down and poured it on the floor. You know, I mean, isn't that something like a two-year-old would do? And, you know, how embarrassing.

So, you know, we all are growing up, and we're all interacting and learning the boundaries of these relationships, but God called us together for it to be a blessing. So, young people seek out your elders. Older people seek out the young ones among us, and make that connection. Notice Deuteronomy 32.

Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 7, it says, Remember the days of old, and consider the years of many generations, those who have gone before. Ask your father, and he will show you. Ask your elders, and they will tell you.

Go to your parents, young people. Go to the older people in the church. Ask about their experiences. You know, ask your parents about grandma and grandpa, and great-grandma and grandpa, and your family history. Ask the people in the church about the history of the church and the history of their lives. How did they come to be here, and what experiences do they have to share? Winston Churchill, going back, right, some generations now, some of our grandparents' time, Winston Churchill, he was Britain's prime minister during World War II, and he says, Those who failed to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As in, history has lessons, and actually better to learn the lessons without having to go through the school of hard knocks to learn them that way. And those who failed to learn the lessons from history are doomed to repeat it. So, seek those lessons out. Seek to absorb what can be offered to you.

Psalm 145, verse 4, says, One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts, again, declaring to the generations to come the blessing of God in your life. And many of those who are older in our midst have incredible stories about how God worked to call them, and how we worked in their lives, and even the struggles and the challenges that they went through to not only starting on this path, but remaining consistent in this way. And even some of the adults among us can tell you stories of how not to do it. And there's value in that as well. Let me tell you what I learned the hard way, and take this as a benefit to then your life, and get valuable lessons that can be passed on. Today is a day of contrasts in some ways, because we have just had the blessing of little children, and the very youngest among us who essentially, their life's a clean slate. And they have so much to see, and learn, and experience, and God's created them for just a full and abundant life. And they're at the start of this. But on the other side of the spectrum as well, we're going to be having a memorial service today after the Sabbath service for my mother-in-law, Darlene Hendrickson. Her race is run, okay? And her time in the flesh is concluded. But again, as I said, this is a day of contrast. There's a saying that goes something like this, when an old person dies, it's like a library has just burned to the ground.

You know, you think of a library full of volumes of books, of wisdom, of knowledge, you can go check one of those out, and read, and learn something. Something that I used to do in a kid, but pre-Google, you know, the library card. But again, when an old person dies, it says it is like a library has just burned to the ground. And the point is, they have a wealth of knowledge, and they have experiences, frankly, that when that point comes, is buried with them. And so there's, we understand, a window of opportunity. You can go ask the question, you can hear the story, you can check that volume out of the library, so to speak, and see what it is that there is to learn while there is time. Because when the library has just gone up in flames, now it's too late to receive back, then, those valuable lessons. And I believe the scriptural principle is, for the young people, chase after those things. And for those of us of age, be willing to pass those on as well. And no matter how old you are, maybe there's even somebody a little older, and some other experience that they can share.

This plays forward into the church relationships as well, and what the ministry are to teach, and teach as a pattern of example in the congregation. Notice Titus chapter 2, verse 1. Titus chapter 2, again, similar to Timothy, Titus was a younger minister who the Apostle Paul was mentoring and given instruction to. In verse 1, it says, Paul, a bondservant of God and the apostle of Jesus Christ, according... I'm getting the right chapter. Titus chapter 2, verse 1, it says, but as for you, Titus, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. He says that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. You see, there's actually a pattern of behavior by which the older men are supposed to be living. You know, they're not showing up drunk. They're not, you know, foul with their language. They're setting an example that is right and proper amongst the people of God. Verse 3, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, and that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Verse 6, likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, and all things showing yourself, Titus, to be a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. So again, we see this as a pass-on-on concept that's established in the church of God. Older men, be an example. Teach the younger men what it means to be a man, and a man of God. And ladies as well, older ladies, you know, I cringe at our society around us, that there's times where I see ladies that in my mind ought to be of an age of respectable conduct until they open their mouth or, you know, their action comes forth. Among us in the church of God, again, we are setting examples for the next generation to be a blessing unto them. Pass it on.

Pass it on. This takes a relationship, doesn't it? And it takes time to build, and it takes effort. It takes communication, again, across the generation lines. And sometimes it's a challenge. Mark Twain, he made this comment about his father that I think sometimes maybe sums up the disconnection we can face at times. Mark Twain said this. He says, when I was a boy at 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. You know, 14, right? He says, but when I got to be 21, I was astonished at just how much he had learned in seven years. Depends on your perspective which way you want to flip that, right? But sometimes there's challenge and connection and relatability between the generations, and that's real. We need to try to work through that process, but sometimes it's even something that time will resolve. Younger people sometimes worry about the older people just looking at them as a kid forever, right? Maybe they're 35 years old now, but well, they'll always be a kid in my mind. And, okay, fine, but they're grown up, they're educated, they have a family, and you know, let's meet on a connection of an adult relationship. That's a blessing God's provided. And honestly, the majority of our young people, their education far outstrips the education of the majority of us older people. So this is something that goes both directions, the ability to teach, to learn, and to grow together. So I'll say, older generations, please make yourself available to the younger people among us. Be acceptable and accessible, please. Be approachable. Be willing to listen. Show them that you're dedicated to contributing to their growth in any way that you can. And again, be prepared to learn something from them as well. And to the younger generation, seek after wisdom. Evaluate yourself to the lessons and the experience that the older members of the congregation have to share with you. There are very valuable things that they can pass on that will be an incredible benefit to your life. Again, God has called us into a multi-generational church, and that is incredible to look around and see. We have the older all the way down to the infants. Brethren, let us never, ever take that blessing for granted.