Generational Blessing
Series: Living in the Blessing
November 21, 2010
Summary – We all have a sense of generational breach… but God calls us into generational blessing. God sees something valuable in young and old. (Younger have natural openness and strength. Older have life-giving provision and life-guiding wisdom.) While parents are told of the significance of blessing children… and children blessing parents… more generally we are called as older in life to bless younger in life and younger in life to bless older in life. Gathering concludes with a final stated blessing between each.
Intro – From Generational Breach … to Generational Blessing
Today we‟re concluding our series focused on the blessing God has for us as our eternal Father… and how we can in turn bless others.
We began hearing the central story which Jesus told of a prodigal son… central to the story is the Father‟s blessing… that is what Jesus has come to restore.
But it is also a story of a YOUNGER son… walking away from his family… and an OLDER brother… dismissing and denouncing him in response.
This reflects a great tragedy… which is the blessing that is often lost between generations.
It was the Father who blessed both. And in the household of God… we discover a value that is unique to those of younger years… and to those of older years.
Today we are going to conclude our series with the unique blessing between generations… between those younger in life and those older in life.
To bless is to „affirm God‟s gifts and potential in another.”
Many of us have some familiarity with God‟s call for children to bless their parents… and parents to bless their children. What we discover is that there is a broader blessing that transcends family. There is a blessing of one generation to another. Parents are to bless their children… and certainly have the primary role in doing so… but all of God‟s people were to bless the next generation. Jesus who had no children of his own… yet blessed the children who were brought to him. In a similar way…. children are to bless their parents… but all who were younger were to bless and honor those older.
So today… we are going to consider what is to be honored and blessed in each generation… each stage of life… and then close by sharing in a blessing across the generations.
If we are going to bless what each stage reflects that is special… we are going to have to realize that the other stages are just that… a different stage not a different species.
One challenge we all face is that we tend to identify so much with the age that we are… that we see everyone else as completely different. We become so identified with our experience of life at a particular age that we become separated from others by it.
When very young – older adults like our parents, are caretakers… gods… and often gods that we beckon (… which can beg the question… who really is the god of the system.)
Come into adolescence and our teenage years.. .and we think older adults are still responsible to provide for us… but a bit „behind the times‟… not so quick to understand what‟s „in‟. (My kids call it the „dinosaur age.‟)
Young adult years – now those younger seem a bit silly… and those older need to give us our turn to run things.
Adult years – We begin to see children as a gift…. and our parents generation seems a little wiser than we probably saw before… but those just behind us… a bit more ignorant, idealistic, and impulsive than they realize.
Later adult years – can bring a mixture of peace and regrets…mostly realizing how rich life is and seeing others as missing what maters most.
All of this creates the „generation gap‟ we have all known so well.
We are a human family…but when we are not bound in relationship to God… we are left with a lot that separates us.
There are three issues that tend to separate us.
One issue is that of changing styles and perspectives. When we think about a generation gap… often we think of how styles and perspective change. That really shouldn‟t surprise us. Changes in style reflects something fun… we are always trying to form a sense of style in life. The simple truth is that beneath all our sense about styles… we all really just want to belong… to be accepted and belong. (So many schools have turned back towards uniforms… because it allows kids so much freedom to focus on what really matters…. to save so much energy spent trying to belong. I‟m not going to propose uniforms… God values our creative expression in clothing and music. What will really help us is realizing that belonging comes from having the same source… not the same style.
The second issue that effects how we relate across the various stages of life is CONTROL.
Much of what causes conflict is a desire for control. Parents feel they need to maintain control of their children… then those children emerge into years of trying to individuate and have more control of their lives… and in the latter years we can feel like we are losing control.
In the Father‟s household… it‟s never about our control. Whatever control we have we turn it over at the door… like the prodigal son when he returned to the Father‟s house… and what we are given back is being empowered with responsibility and influence. Everyone has a part to play.
ELDERLY MAN SITS DOWN WITH WILD BOY AT CHURCH
Bill is wild haired; his wardrobe for college is jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it. He recently became a believer while attending a campus Bible study.
Across from campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. One Sunday Bill decides to go there. He walks in late and shoeless. The sanctuary is packed. Bill heads down the aisle looking for a seat. Having nearly reached the pulpit, he realizes there are no empty seats, so he squats down on the carpet. The congregation is feeling uncomfortable.
Then from the back of the church, a gray-haired elder in a three-piece suit starts walking toward Bill with a cane. The worshipers don't expect a man in his eighties to understand some college kid on the floor. With all eyes focused on the developing drama, the minister waits to begin his sermon until the elder does what he has to do. The elderly man drops his cane on the floor and with great difficulty lowers himself to sit next to Bill. "What I'm about to preach," the minister begins, "you'll never remember. What you've just seen, you'll never forget."
The most important issue I want to focus in on today… is seeing the unique gift that comes in the various stages of life. The real issue is whether we can we see the gift of those younger… those older… and really bless it.
God says he blesses „from generation to generation.‟
Each generation has a unique testimony of how God has helped them.
We need to discover that there is power in the very nature of generations.
The word „generation;‟ is not just about a set of lives that share a period of time… but comes from the power to generate such lives. The word comes from the same root as that of „generate‟ or „generator.‟ It reflects the power of every life having come from what others generated… and then carrying on that generating.
Isaiah 51:8 (NLT) “My righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”
It would be prideful if we think our generation is the only one to understand God or to see Him at work.
When we dismiss those younger or older… we lose what God has given to us.
God sees the blessing of each…
Joel 2:28 (NIV)
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
> The Spirit of God is working in young and old alike… and every age in between.
And he sees how each holds something of greatness for the other.
Proverbs 20:29 (NLT) The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.
„Glory‟… „splendor.‟ These qualities are not simply a gift between parents and children… but across generations.
Sociologically, there are more than two generations among us. At the very least there are what have become popularly referred to Builders, Boomers, Busters, and Bridgers.
Today for simplicity‟s sake, I will only refer to the younger and the older.
That may leave some of us feeling in between… but understand it is not being lost in between the blessings we are engaging today… but rather the double blessing and double responsibility… because you are the older to some and the younger to others.
Lets first consider the blessing that those older are to extend to those YOUNGER.
I. Seeing the Special Quality of those Younger in Life
(This section developed by Brad and Marlo / Presented by Marlo in Sunday morning services)
When we consider that the older are to extend a blessing to those younger… our thoughts are taken naturally to parents blessing their children. And how important this is…we see it throughout Scripture, that as parents we must extend the blessing to our kids….in formal ways and informal
everyday use of our words and touch. I know that there are many parents in this room that honor and praise their kids on a regular basis and their kids…young…teenaged or even grown and out of their homes live wrapped up in that blessing….But some of us with kids wonder if we have missed giving our kids the blessing they need….and you may have a deep desire to give your children the life giving words of worth and acceptance-but for whatever reason, you don‟t know how.
We‟ve got some resources for you in the back of the room that you can take home and read through and make blessing your children, no matter how old they are, a part of life.
But the blessing that we want to present to you this morning transcends parent child relationship. We are talking about the older generation blessing the younger…
Mark 10:13-16 (NLT) 13 One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. 14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don‟t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn‟t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.
These were not Jesus‟ children…but the Word says they were brought to him and he brought them into his world… they were clustered around him and clamoring for his attention and he blessed them and in doing has placed high value on children for the ages since…
The Disciples thought they were trying to protect Jesus and they were sharply reprimanded…stop it…let them come…get out of their way and let them come.
Jesus loved the younger, not only the children who climbed on His knee, but many children he healed.. a young boy whose lunch he used to multiply and feed thousands…his closest disciple John. He highly honored the younger generation.
Two qualities of youth that seem especially fitting to bless…
1. A source of natural openness
As we just read… Jesus said… “the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.‟… who „receive the Kingdom of God like a child.‟
Jesus blessed them… because each and every one of them were His Father‟s… each and every one was created to bear the image of God. Not only that… but as those younger… they have a quality that makes them MORE reflective of God‟s children… an openness to be loved by God… an openness to His goodness and power to rule over all.
This world tries to tell us that others control everything, or that we can control everything. When we are younger… we are smarter than that… we have a more natural understanding that we don‟t control everything.
Jesus sees that great quality and calls for everyone to see it…. and to bless them as those who must remind us all that none of us are in control.
This openness allows the younger years of life to more naturally be visionary.. and innovative.
2. A source of strength
Proverbs 20:29 (NIV) “The glory of young men is their strength…”
Life involves vitality and strength and endurance… and that is naturally grows in younger years. It is a quality that we turn to those younger to bear most.
Those younger bear the openness and strength… on which God builds the future.
Those of us who are older, today we have an opportunity to bless that future.
Adults, hear the cry of Esau in Genesis 27:34: “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
Do you hear his heartache? Do you hear his desire? He was crying for a blessing he had once taken for granted. He was crying for a blessing that rightly belonged to him. The cry of Esau is the cry of the younger generation: “Please, bless me too.”
Like Esau, the younger generation longs for the blessing they have once taken for granted. Many young people are starting to realize that they are part of something much bigger than themselves. They want to look up from the battles they face every day at school and often at home… and know someone in the “great cloud of witnesses” is blessing them and believing in them.
Now lets consider the blessing that those younger are to extend to those OLDER.
II. Seeing the Special Quality of those Older in Life
Proverbs 23:22
“Listen to your father who gave you life, and don‟t despise your mother when she is old”
1. A source of life-giving provision and sacrifice
The most basic thing we can all recognize is that parents are a source of life. Whatever has been provided for us to eat and sleep and survive in our youngest years… came from those who were older… fathers and mothers and other lives who provided and protected… who sacrificed and who served.
No one wants to feel obligated to others… and be reminded of what others have done for us. But we really miss how loved we are if we don‟t see how much has been given up in sacrifice for us. We may think those older just want to control us. But often they have given up their own freedom because they value the special place you have in their life.
2. A source of wisdom
Those of you younger may have some mixed feelings about what older people represent.
When we are younger we tend to know that older people are important to our life… but we also sense that they live in a different world… and that they don‟t understand what is really going on.
Often, when we‟re younger, we don‟t think those who are older can understand what we are going through in life…what we face… what we feel. But remember what is recorded in
Ecclesiastes 1:9: “…there is no new thing under the sun.”
With whatever troubles you are facing, rest assured that someone else has faced and overcome a similar problem.
In truth they are a source of wisdom.
Job 12:12 (NIV) “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
Wisdom and understanding.
They may not sound like exciting qualities… but they are the most valuable qualities one can have.
When we are young we are focused on gaining knowledge… we have a lot of facts we need to learn. But with more years we have more experience… more to reflect upon.
Wisdom means we know more about what really matters… about how to find what really satisfies… about what doesn‟t work and what does work.
Job 12:12 (CEV) “Gain some wisdom from those who have lived a long time.”
While you must venture into a future that is new… it is rooted in the wisdom that does not change… and those older are your source.
The charge to those younger is reflected in what Paul said to Timothy…
2 Timothy 1:13-14 (NRSV) Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
Paul‟s challenge to Timothy was to “retain the standard” and “guard the good deposit.”
Today‟s young people can stand tall only because they are standing on someone else‟s shoulders.
To those younger… you are the future… and you are building upon the investment that has been made for you.
Those older have failed to invest in you in many ways… but many sacrifices have been made. Many have given their lives … their time, money, and ultimately their control… to invest in you.
In a moment I want to invite you to bless those older for their investment… their sacrifice and their wisdom that is an investment into you.
We hear in Paul‟s words…
Life is a relay we are running together… and that includes a passing of the baton… we invest our strength and then align with the next one who is waiting with fresh strength.
Illustration - Until 1996, the U.S. men‟s Olympic 100-meter relay team had never failed to win the Gold. In 1996, they shocked the world with their first loss. The team did not lose because of untrained, out-of-shape athletes; they were the greatest athletes in the world. They lost because of a mishandled baton. (Image on screen)
Lets pass the baton well. (Image of baton passing)
God says we must pass on from generation to generation… and the exchanging of a baton involves both the hander and the receiver… both must become aligned and find a common pace.
It begins in the humility that we are equals…who need one another.
The good news of Jesus is that you are never too old, you are never too young, you are never too middle-aged, for God to love and to use you for his great purposes and kingdom.
He used Moses, an 80-year-old fugitive shepherd to free his people from the bonds of slavery. And he used David, a 12-year-old shepherd boy to destroy the most fierce enemy Israel had seen. He used Sara, a barren, post-menopausal woman to fulfill his promise of a child for Abraham. And he used Mary, a peasant teenage virgin to carry in her womb our Messiah, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, who is God with us.
CONCLUSION:
We will all fail at times to be what we should be…. but God knows that we can rise best when we are encouraged.
That is why He calls us not to be critics but cheerleaders.
He calls us to BLESS what is so valuable in others whenever and however it seen.
Lets affirm God‟s gifts and potential.
Every younger life has a natural openness… but only some really know it.
Every younger life has strength… but only some really know it.
Every older life has sacrificial care… but only some really know it.
Every older life has wisdom… but only some really know it.
We are going to conclude with a time of older blessing younger … then younger blessing older.
All children and youth come up on stage (youth have their own side to give them a distinction from children) and a representative group comes up to lay hands on them (could be chosen people, or those over 60 or elders and home church leaders) and prayers are either offered by a few representatives or open to floor of adults.
(One child and one youth as representatives lead in prayer for all who are older who stand. (If youth are in their section, they should come up to one side of stage near youth rep.)
Blessing from older to younger
(First Reader)
We who represent the older years of life want to bless you who are younger.
Each of you is a fellow child of God our Father. He designed you. He desires you. He destined your life to be His forever.
We want you to know that God has given you a special role in our lives.
We bless that you are open to what God can do in this world. You have the openness to be loved by God. You have the openness to His goodness and power to rule over all. When this world tries to tell you that others control everything, or that you can control everything, we encourage you…don‟t
believe it. We need you to remind us all that we are not in control of everything… only God is. In your openness, receive God‟s vision for life that is always lived in relationship to Him.
(Second reader)
We also bless your strength. You have the strength to fulfill the vision that God gives you. There is no battle that God cannot lead you in.
We bless your future. You are the future of God‟s work in this world. We will be committed to you; to offer our guidance and encouragement. We have not always acted like God our Father wants us to. Please forgive us when we have not given you the attention you deserve. Please forgive us when we have been too critical or not encouraged you as we should have.
We commit ourselves to the future God has for you because we know God has a calling for each of you. He is calling each of you to be His sons and daughters in a world where so many do not really know who they are.
We pray you would guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.... guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Blessing from younger to older
(First Reader)
We who represent the younger years of life want to bless you who are older.
Each of you is a child of God our Father. He designed you. He desires you. He destined your life to be His forever.
We want you to know that God has given you a special role in our lives.
We bless all the ways you have provided life for us. We bless you for the sacrifices you have made for our lives; for the time and talent and treasure you have given to help give us a future.
(Second reader)
We also bless your wisdom. You have lived longer and learned more than we have. We know that we don‟t always listen or want to hear what you think. Forgive us when we think we know everything. Forgive us when we don‟t try to learn from you. We need examples of how to live as God‟s children. We need you to help us make good choices and learn from the times we don‟t. We need you to help us know how to choose what is really going to help us live right with God and others people.
We bless the investment you have made in this world. We bless the work that God has done through you. We commit ourselves to: “Guard the treasure which has been entrusted to us.”
