26 Sept 2021 | English Service | Reset The Table: My Part In The Generations | Ps Dinah Lee

[Music] make me [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] no we don't wanna be luke [Music] and only you can set the fire in our hearts again [Music] it's all you ever wanted [Music] it's over you from your bride to come holy fire holy flame of love come with your desire [Music] don't let our hearts be cold stay your fire deep within don't let my heart be cold oh don't let my heart be cold come set your fire deep within don't let my heart be cold [Music] don't let my heart be cold come set your fire deep within don't let my heart be cold don't let my heart be cold come set your fire deep within don't let my heart be cold [Music] my [Music] [Music] we cry [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] the fire in your eyes we want to see the fire in your eyes [Music] burn away the chaff we want to see the fire in your [Music] [Music] make me holy pure if i me i want to be sitting at your feet to rest my head steady on [Music] speak to me [Music] i want to hear the whisper of your voice please tell me lord the secrets of your heart i want to be your friend speak to me lord you've pursued me from [Music] [Music] and this every breath you have my surrender [Music] [Music] i want to hear the whisper of your voice please tell me lord secrets of your heart i want to be your friend speak to me lord [Music] you pursued me from the start oh lord you won my heart [Music] i surrendered [Music] you pursued me from [Music] [Music] morning church very good morning to all of you welcome to our fully virtual service today it almost feels like circuit breaker edition all right uh so yes as you all know we have made a decision to fully shift to an online service and even though it's an online service we believe god is still going to minister powerfully in our midst in our living rooms in our study rooms as we tune in and the the reason for this decision might have felt pretty sudden it's because you know during the week we found that one of the church staff right from the chinese ministry side tested positive for kovit okay now the staff is doing well and is currently recovering at home right but uh as precautionary measures we decided to just convert this service fully virtually online and our church premises will be undergoing this infection and thorough deep cleansing before we make any decision to resume in-person services subsequently okay now if you've been following the news and the numbers over the week all right we see that the cases are rapidly increasing and just friday all right government released a new set of measures on you know social distancing and and home-based learning right and i know i think we know this can be quite unsettling right uh any plans that we make you know are suddenly thrown into to uncertainty all right and amidst all this uh uncertainty and all that it can cause worry and anxiety uh but i thought you know to to lead us in a time of prayer all right the bible tells us in philippians do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to god and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in christ jesus i think at the end of the day the most important part is we got our hearts and our minds all right so why don't you join our faith right join join our faith as a family to pray for the following items all right i'm going to lead us right so yeah actually why not we just you know if you're with someone right i'll just get together with them and let's enter into this time of prayer and petition [Music] allah we want to thank you for for the grace that you have shown to the nation singapore so far a lot farther um but even as the cases are uh are climbing and and things don't seem to be looking too good and different ones of us are anxious about adjusting and and having to make uh last-minute changes like lord we ask for your mercy right uh to be amongst us and lord we just want to lift the nation or singapore up into your hands that your your hand will come and touch us a lot farther and that you will be merciful and that the spread of the virus and of the infections will will slow down or even lift up any individual who might have tested positive uh are in hospital uh on uh irons you know in icu or require supplemental oxygen law we want to pray for your healing hand uh to be upon them a lot farther and now we want to pray for protection especially amongst our young children and our elderly lord i pray lord father that you will keep them safe from harm lord father and lord we know that in the midst of all this seeming chaos lord father uh you know uh it's difficult to make decisions and lord we just want to ask uh and just lift the leaders of our nation up into your hands and we ask for wisdom and strength as they make decisions as they remain faithful and committed in leading our nation through these difficult times and not we also want to commit our health care workers our frontline workers father it's been a tiring battle for some of them mallory asks for strength renewed strength lord father lord we ask for perseverance and not most importantly we ask for your protection as they fight on the front line of this very long-drawn battle [Music] well we know in our mid slot father there are those who are parents of children who are in primary one to five and tomorrow is the start of home-based learning and yeah allah we know that that is another set of adjustments but i pray for all our river lifers to see this as an opportunity for discipleship lord father and what we just pray for wisdom and strength to be upon these families as you guide and care for this uh children who will be at home uh the the next couple of weeks lord father and now i pray that even in in the setting of the home faith faith conversations will start to take place and faith will start to arise in our homes in the next generation and as we navigate through life through this pandemic season lord father lord i pray as the salmon says that our hope and our assurance will be found in lord jesus right psalm 62 declares he alone is my rock and my salvation my fortress i shall not be greatly shaken may we live each day knowing that god is our rock our salvation and our fortress that we can stand firm on his promises and be unshaken by our circumstances lord we ask lord father that you will move in our midst in our in our different homes this morning as we come before you in worship as we commune with you lord father may your holy spirit come and visit us thank you lord i ask all this in jesus name i hope you are ready for a time of worship i'm going to pass the time over to malcolm and simon over to you guys thank you good morning church can i invite you wherever you are in your homes let us come together and worship god in spirit and in truth amen [Music] where would i run but to the throne of mercy where would i kneel but at this cross of grace how great the love how strong the hand that holds us beautiful so beautiful [Music] so here i vow to live jesus be glorified in all things for all my life i am yours forever [Music] there is a king before the scars of healing and there is a sun who came in grace and truth how great the love that carries us to kindness wonderful [Music] so wonderful [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] i am yours forever [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] i am yours forever [Applause] [Music] be lifted [Music] god who brought me back to life i am yours forever [Applause] [Music] who brought me back to life i am yours forever [Music] here i vow to lift you high jesus be glorified [Music] i am yours forever [Music] i am yours forever yourself [Music] i don't want anything but you you more than every dream come true and all of the things i thought i wanted don't come close to knowing you [Music] and now that i'm yours and you are mine our love is the secret that i found and i'll spend forever in the pleasure i found looking in your eyes [Music] give me jesus give me give you can have all this world you can have all this world more than silver than gold you are the treasure that i hold now that i've tasted [Music] nothing else will satisfy more than silver more than gold you are the treasure that i hold now that i've tasted your goodness will satisfy give me jesus give me jesus you can't have all this [Applause] [Music] jesus give me jesus you can't have all [Music] this world [Applause] [Music] love you jesus i don't want anyone else i don't need anything else you are my [Music] i don't need anything else you are [Music] i don't need anything else you are [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i don't need anything else you are the one being you are so give me jesus give me jesus you can't have all this have all [Applause] and this me jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i don't need [Music] [Applause] i [Music] [Music] you are my one thing [Music] so give me jesus eyes and give me jesus [Music] you can have all this world you can have all this world but give me jesus [Music] he says you can have all this world you can have this world [Music] just give me jesus [Music] you will always be my first love all my days all my life you will always be my first love just give me jesus oh just give me jesus [Music] first in my life jesus [Music] remind me of the journey that we've been [Music] give me jesus [Music] the mountain of the valley i will respond to you in praise and worship jesus my only one [Music] and i don't need anything else but you are my one thing you are my one thing i don't want anyone else no i don't need anything else lord you are my one thing you are who you're more than enough i don't want anyone else i don't need anything else you are my one thing you are you more than enough i don't want anyone [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i don't want [Applause] [Music] [Music] i [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so give me jesus give me cheese you can't have all this world [Music] you can have all this work [Music] [Music] i'm not my own i've been purchased with the precious crimson blood that washed away my dreams [Music] i would take [Music] you my greatest joy reward my king in my car [Music] [Applause] it all [Music] prepare the way for the lord our king is [Music] [Applause] [Music] fury [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it all [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] you are worth it all until my last [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] my jesus this morning i'm giving it all to you and every crowd laid at your feet [Music] what do i have that's not from you i lose [Music] you become greater i become less what do i have that's not from you i lose [Music] [Applause] [Music] you become [Applause] [Music] i lose is [Music] [Music] lord i [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] lord [Music] [Applause] says jesus you become greater i become your heart you become greater i become less [Music] singing [Music] i become less keep [Music] i became [Music] you are worth it all you are worth it all until my last breath i'll confess [Music] oh just a quiet whisper from your heart to the lord it's just between you and god this morning you are it all with our eyes fixed on him this morning you are worth it all [Music] until my last breath [Music] indeed you are worth it all you are worth it all you are with it all you are our greatest price you are our greatest reward lord father you know in the midst of all that is happening let us learn to fix our eyes on you the author and perfecter of our faith help us look to you our price and our reward lord father and now even us as we wrap up this time of worship lord we feel your presence resting in this place we feel your presence resting on our hearts lord father wherever we are lord we pray lord father that we will always be so sensitized to your presence to your spirit even as we proceed with the rest of the service as we as we hear from your word lord father we pray that your we will be sensitive to your spirit and that your spirit will continue to speak your words to us lord father your words of encouragement your words of wisdom your words of guidance your words of hope lord so lord we want to give thanks for this time that we can come before you in worship and now we want to lift up your name with our lives without ever being lord father nor will not give thanks i saw this in jesus name amen and amen amen thank you malcolm thank you sumin all right okay all right uh a couple of announcements all right are you maybe seated if you were standing right uh so we have a new upcoming sermon series today is the last uh summon uh in in the series reset the table so uh following in the following weeks we will have a new series uh and it will be an end time related summon series and it is titled jesus is coming back all right jesus is coming back and this has been said in the bible many times so this upcoming series is going to unpack the prophecies of jesus in his on the mount of olives right this is in matthew 24 and 25. and hopefully as we unpack this uh these these prophecies it help us gain some insight as to how we should live up live our lives with a greater understanding of the times now the the rhythm for this series is there is going to be the the sunday sermons all right and then during the tuesday prayer night room sessions it will be based on matthew 25 and during the thursday equipping sessions we will uh thursday equipping nights with peter suka hira right more information is available in the digital bulletin you can see the link on the screen second announcement is we are going to have an upcoming water baptism class um as of now the plan is to have it in person and it will be on saturday 9th of october right it will be pretty much a full day right 9 a.m to 3 30 p.m so if you have been a christian for a month a year or a decade and you have not been water baptized right we strongly encourage you to sign up for this and to walk in the steps of jesus right as he himself became baptized the next baptism service is on 28th november it's a saturday so online registration for the class is now open uh you can see the link on the screen as well right and of course more details of unique can also be found in the digital bulletin okay uh let's now worship the lord with our ties and offerings let me pray and and then we can give digitally through pain or interbank transfer lord we give thanks for all you have blessed us with um during this period of time lord father for those of us who are you know fortunate enough to still be having a job lord father lord we want to be thankful for your grace and lord we do not want to take any of this for granted and lord you know help us remember that all that we have comes from you and lord we just want to give a portion of what you have blessed us with right and what we as we give lord father we pray that you will take it you will use it greatly for your kingdom's purposes i saw this in jesus name amen okay so you can do the pay now or the interbank transfer now today's message will be given by pastor diner and this will be she'll be wrapping up our current sermon series on reset the table but before she comes up i would like to invite pastor ben to bring us an important pastoral address pastor ben good morning river lifers i wanted to speak with all of you today to address our concern with the rising community cases almost everyone knows someone who is covet positive in fact one of my own colleagues recently tested covet positive and in all these things we can be thankful that most of us are fully vaccinated on friday a stabilization period was announced and our prime minister said that title restrictions will buy time to roll out booster shots for everyone that as a nation we are adapting our response to the virus that such changes can be confusing and also unsettling you know i feel that it's been much like this for the past one and a half years we are all feeling very stressed with multiple changes around us and the joy level is kind of low households have to juggle home-based learning work from home looking after the elderly plus meals and our daily responsibilities young couples are dealing with rising home prices and long delay in bto flats extended families can't even gather and our teachers our healthcare workers those on the front line and certain sectors are overwhelmed and overworked as well our rest and refreshment spaces are also closed during this time many have not come for in-person services our cell groups have not met in person for months so we feel the disconnection because we are isolated and as a church we have to find new ways of connecting the church and pastoring the people we're gonna find new ways of engaging even within our own cell groups spiritually the enemy has always been trying to disrupt relationships to isolate people from god and from each other this isolation during the pandemic is making us more vulnerable to spiritual attacks after all there is a prowling and a roaring lion looking for that one prey that is isolated and not together with a herd so we need to be vigilant it is also important for us to give thanks in this season as well let me share one with you recently in the build up to be 30 i felt very stressed and we were reopening all our services and celebrating our b-30 anniversary at the same time and looking back i was wondering what were we thinking in the midst of all the prep i was asking the lord lord should i include this idea of the nameless and faceless in the sermon is this what you are saying to us as a church and i was rewriting this section several times just nine days before b-13 diana and i were to visit an old friend in the west that night over dinner we were having japanese food our friend used the term nameless and faceless once in that dinner and i got my answer that night we were there late i went home tired but joyful and i realized that the lord always comes true for his people today we are in the uncomfortable space between a pandemic and an endemic the road to the endemic is like a roller coaster and this is going to be like the norm for the next maybe one or two years and we have to learn how to roll with a roller coaster allow me to close with three things as we live with the twists and the turns of this season and the first thing is this is that family relationships are very important pray for your family members hold each one in prayer before the lord and the lord will give you supernatural love for your family educating children about the lord is so important and i want to encourage you guide our children to make god choices secondly stay close with our small group with our cell group we need each other when we struggle to cope share our struggles with someone when we sin we will be tempted to isolate ourselves from our cell group because of shame but i want to remind you what bonhoeffer the german christian wrote when you sin and you are alone in your sin then you are truly alone so i want to encourage you don't isolate the bible in james chapter 5 verse 16 says confess your sins to each other and pray for each other this is the time to bear each other's burdens and number three i want to encourage you to nurture heart to heart relationships and all this takes is two persons when the two of you come together the father blesses and we know this from matthew chapter 18 verse 20 for where two or three gather in my name there i am with them some of you feel fatigued on how to care for cell members in a constantly changing landscape and some of you feel helpless and overwhelmed trying to reach out and help others i want to encourage you in twos and threes come together before the loan and call on his name ask him to fill our cups and he will renew your strength river life is we are in this together and by god's grace we will emerge stronger allow me to pray for you as i wrap this time up father as a church as a people we call upon your name as a people we desperately in a desperate times we look to the heavens and we call upon your name father teach us to intercede teach us to come before your presence each day and to hold the names of precious ones before you in prayer to hold our lives before you in prayer father teach us how to guide young ones to make god choices to fall in love with you even as i and us fall in love with you teach us o lord to walk together in a loving family teach us together to walk together as one in a loving church teach us lord to work together with our cell group teach us to confess our sins one to another and to pray for one another in a very difficult time and lord teach us to nurture heart to heart relationships where two or three of us can come together and call upon your name lord that you renew our cups renew our strength fill our cups during this time and father we know that in a difficult season you're calling us as your church to rise up and be a prophetic voice in this nation and in the nations and to intercede for the people around us and to be the voice of hope and courage in a bleak situation and father we thank you lord that you can renew us we can fill our cup in such a time as this and father we thank you lord that you fill our table with good things and there are pleasures at your right hand ever more and lord we take comfort in that and lord teach us lord to continually live in your presence and lord to have the capacity to receive your love and to share that love with all those around us and to point the way to you lord to a people that's without hope father we pray for our hearts and for our people and we no longer answer our prayers as we look to you and we pray in jesus name lord we pray all these things in in the name of your son jesus amen as sean has mentioned today we complete our series we set the table and i invite our speaker for today to deliver a sermon thank you pastor ben for the pastoral address and before we dive into the world a very big heart to all you ladies out there it has been so long it has been so long and i'm sure looking forward to that day where i don't have to give you air hugs but real big hugs well river life is since becoming 30 we started this reset the table series and we first examined marks of maturity as individuals and last week we looked at the characteristics of a driving home now today we will conclude the series by uncovering our part our part in god's generations we're going to discover what is our part in his big picture for the generations in his church so that we can then experience what god has always had in mind for us now i'm going to show you this picture that has captured my attention for quite a while now this cradle to grave image makes me very sober although it's you know this image portrays in a limited fashion each one of us can find ourselves at a certain point in this continuum of life and i'm reminded of psalm 90 verse 12 where the psalmist says teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom you know one of the first things that happened that really made my heart uh sink and i knew that i was experiencing the signs of aging was when i became a long-sighted long-sighted at the age of 40. it was like what you know i've never had to wear spectacles all my life and i'm not seeing things very clearly i i can't see fine print as i used to do and i finally finally made a pair of reading spectacles only at age 52. that was last year whichever you know life stage you are in folks we are living in an age of individualism and fragmentation in society and increasingly in the family and and this is certainly far from god's plan and god's intention for his people you know the concept of dividing you know ourselves or our church you know into various segments based on uh life stage or your birth years now it's commonly adopted in part from an age targeted marketing strategy it's marketing strategy where it focuses on age related people now this unintended consequences are generational fragmentation the silo mindset and ignorance of all others that is not in my age group making many of us to feel disconnected and perhaps even undervalued so before we discover you know our part in the generations we need to know what god's heart is for the generations so the first part here is god's heart for the generations and the first thing about god's heart for the generations is this that our god sees the generations he sees the generations as a whole genesis 17 7 tells us i will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be god to you and your descendants after you exodus chapter 3 verse 15 moreover god said to moses thou thus you shall say to the children of israel the lord god of your fathers the god of abraham the god of isaiah and the god of jacob has sent me to you this is my name forever and this is my memorial to all generations one more psalm 33 11 tells us so clearly that the counsel of the lord stands forever the thoughts and plans of his heart is through all generations you know these verses reveal and a very important aspect of god's attribute and his character our god thinks in terms of generations he takes a long view a much longer view he is the lord of history who is weaving together the stories of individuals of generations and of nations into his eternal purpose now he sees our lives in the context of his big picture his purpose and his plans are greater than any individual or any one generation it continues from generation to generation and this is so contrary to our natural way of viewing ourselves and our world you know we tend to think of our own life about the here and now the immediate our job our career our family and the next step it preoccupies us and because god sees the generations as a whole it takes all generations collectively to reflect the image of a generational god you know individually each one of us we can reflect god's you know attribute we can reflect his likeness when we are more forgiving we are more loving when we're more gracious and so on but this one attribute of his as a generational god cannot be reflected by us as individuals or one generation as a church it takes all generations as a whole together to reflect him and that is why you know it is always so special and you've experienced that during our pre-covet days when the entire church comes together as one across the generations and so the other point folks on god's heart for the generations is this that god intended disciple making to be intergenerational god intended disciple making to be intergenerational now in biblical times families were almost always extended families you could say up to about 150 people and the bible always emphasized in the old testament that of biological extended families and then and spiritual families is highly emphasized in the new testament cherylin fawcett has this to say the nuclear family is an invention of the 20th century and an unhealthy one for social spiritual and emotional growth because biblical narratives portray the multi-generational disciples and families who make disciples and just to highlight too psalm 7 18 oh god you have taught me from my youth and to this day i declare your wondrous works now also when i am old and grey-headed oh god do not forsake me until i declare your strengths to this generation power to everyone who is to come and in the new testament we have second timothy chapter one verse five where paul tells timothy when i call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you which first dealt in your grandmother lewis and your mother eunice and i am persuaded is in you also we truly need to recognize the need for intergenerational disciple making because god places a joint responsibility on us as a church for the care and nurture of one another and hence we don't say things like you know i am only accountable to god or i am not responsible for them you know this brings to mind years ago when i was in uh in my early 20s this was way back in 1991 even when river life was planted at about the same time i recall my you know church planting experience as a young as a you know part of a team of fresh young graduates we were fast we were energetic you know i'm not proud to say we were even cocky we were not too patient with families and we were so entrenched in in doing what we did well but we were so deficient and so narrow in our perspectives of what is on god's heart for his church and that wasn't healthy that wasn't holistic that's what god intended and so you see an intergenerational community sets the foundation okay where the young are spiritually formed through generations that's through relationships that spans the generations we need both model and have models of inspiring spiritual maturity and so you and i need spiritual fathers mothers and we need spiritual siblings who will disciple the next generation you know it's been said that the transition to adulthood today is even more complex more disjointed and confusing than it was in the past few decades besides you and i know that many of our young today are discipled by their screens and their phones and that is the only world that they know of developmental thinkers describe those in their 20s as a somewhat chaotic season of high-stakes decision-making about jobs lifestyles and relationships with all its confusing options and those in their 30s are moving to focus on personal impact and they're asking questions like you know given the demands on my life how can i make a purposeful impact or contribution it is in an authentic intergenerational community seeking to walk with christ together that the young will learn to confront their immaturities and the growth that results from this learning in such a community you know is that it will teach them humility and it will teach us how to love proactively and maturing in the capacity to trust god surrender to his leadership his will his guidance will prepare them to fully to enter fully into god's mission for their lives but it takes a mature and older caring disciple maker to enter into the places of failure disappointments disillusionment discomfort of the emerging adult and steering them away from navigating their life you know this this line shaping is purely based on their personal or the experiential truth but instead the older mature caring disciple maker challenges and support them to be guided in biblical truth and the next you know part of discovering our part in the generations is this we need to know the distinctions in the generations you know the generation gaps that you've heard this term it often refers to a perceived difference beginning with you know betweening between the younger people and their parents or their grandparents and the adults that they know played out in the differences in their values their opinions and their beliefs and so i'm going to quickly spell out the dominant distinctives of each generation as you can see in this chart here here's a test i bet the moment you saw this chart the first thing you did was to see where i am right it's not about looking about other generations yes but let's uh you you can see wherever you are in this life stage whether you are a traditionalist you can see that you are hard-working you are loyal you value traditions and this one is is key you value face to face interaction but you might not be very tech savvy a large number in our church are boomers are committed you're loyal you're good mentors listen to that you value relationship too you prefer structure and discipline but you're a little less you know welcoming of change and you use technology but it is a means of productivity and exer that's me right we might be adaptable and resilient we are the generation that begins to value family time and and work life balance because this is the generation where you would have heard we experienced what it means to have latchkey kids we are tech savvy but we are not as dependent on technology as our neighbors which is the millennials which is also a sizable group of river lifers here you're innovative you're creative and this is has been said repeatedly of the older generation to you you have a strong sense of entitlement you grew up in you know technology you want to be heard and you you know you're accepting of diverse cultures and tech is a means of connectivity to our next is arjen zee which are many of our children of our river life is today independent ambitious entrepreneurial open-minded multi-taskers so many a times it frustrates your parents because you know it appears as though you're not giving due attention whenever we speak you value authenticity you welcome change you are so fast in processing information and the older ones just simply cannot catch up with you you want to be heard and you are a digital native so folks there you are and and you know in in this last few months our staff team um we haven't been able to gather as one you know large staff team and so we've broken ourselves up into smaller groups and it's been so you know it's been so good that in my staff a small group my group spends the generations there are three millennials in my my no two millennials in my group one gen xer and three boomers and we've learned so much in our interactions together because we have learned how the young ones are communicating and and one of them actually said you know these boomers and gen x's are learning how to parent through us and and you know to the two millennials you know who you are we want to thank you for that and i trust that you learn a couple of things where the boomers and the gen x's are coming from when it comes to you know our challenges in in communicating with the young and so we had so much fun and that my friends is the beauty of intergenerational relationships we get to learn from one another we get to know one another we get to understand one another and in turn we're beginning to grow and mature ourselves and because we're all living longer today folks social scientists see the intergenerational landscape as even more complex because we're involving relations and relationships between five generations that you've just seen trying to find ways of living and working together but the big question to us is this yes we know the distinctives of each of the five generations but how then will we learn to you know to relate to live and and to even to work or serve together in ways that we can recognize and affirm each other's distinctives each other's gifts and strength of the generation and all this the relational foundation has to be set before any intergenerational disciple making can even happen and that is why you and i need to know what we are up against and that brings me to my third point we need to recognize our heart posture towards the generations my question to us all this morning is this do we find ourselves avoiding people from other generations after all it's much easier to relate with our own kind so to speak if we have to relate with those of another generation being at home or not in wider setting in in in our spiritual community or in church what is our attitude how do we speak to each other how do we talk about the other generation amongst ourselves how many times have you rolled your eyes either physically or maybe in your heart when you're relating with someone in another generation folks we need to stop the divisive speech or attitude that we might have it might be unseen but it's all in there we can't afford to you know talk down or degrade or dishonor another even internally you ever heard of how millennials i mentioned before the older you know the older generation perhaps have often described the millennials as entitled but to the older generation when you were that age in your younger days there were other things said of you too many of you would have lived through the generation of the hippies and the free love you could have been described as loose but you see that's the spirit of the enemy he will seek the robbers to kill steal and destroy and fight against the purpose and plan of god because cultivating intergenerational relationships is essential in passing spiritual legacy and so the need for intergenerational relationships within us as a community as a church has never been greater because time and again surveys have shown that young the younger ones who are connected with other adults in church have a much higher percentage of remaining in the faith yet such relationships are lacking the younger people need to experience that the church is a family and not an institution but yet most of our younger people aren't experiencing that they don't get the fullness of what the church has to offer simply because they don't know that the older adults are on their side let me first address the heart posture towards the generations of the young to the younger ones what is your heart posture towards those who are older you know in preparing this message there have been a few key words which i'm going to spell out for you in this next few minutes that i believe is so fundamental for us as a family because if we can't get past this few hindrances or this few heart posture the relationships are not going to happen and so the first one to the younger folks here listening and tuning in your heart posture towards those older a very key word is honor you know rather than adopting the common refrain that those older are irrelevant burdensome or even expandable and flow with the culture that is obsessed with elevating the young god's word urges us to show older ones honor as full image bearers of god they are filled with a kind of wisdom that only the passage of time can impart and by seeking by seeking out and valuing that wisdom and honoring them to the younger folks you are honoring god the giver and you're gaining from the gift which is from those who are older all of us know the faith commandment honor your father and your mother that he may be well with you and you may live long on the earth but may i add first timothy chapter 5 verse 1 to 2 as well do not sharply reprimand an older man but appeal to him as you would to a father to younger men as brothers to older women as mothers to younger women and sisters in all purity you know i learned this lesson uh very in a very raw fashion remember how i i described earlier you know in in the first couple of years when we were church planting and and so i was in my i think by then i was about nearing 30. and you know as a young bunch then we had to lead people older than us there were not many in our church then just a few and i remember writing this very uh almost very rude email because you know this gentleman who was then in his mid forties one of our leaders you know i can't even quite remember what he did and and those things the only you know form of communication there was was email and i remember writing an email to him saying this must not happen again in capital letters folks when you do that it was as good as i was i was rude not proud of it and and obviously he took offense and and it took quite a while you know before i had to apologize and we mended our relationship that was a hard lesson to learn it was so brash of me and i did it in words i may not have said it i may never spoken it that was it it wasn't hidden but it was in the written word leviticus chapter 19 verse 32 tells us show respect to the elderly and honor older people in this way you show respect for your god i am the lord and so it's not just about our biological parents we honor but those who are older in general that is in our community to those who are younger honor the generation before you the way you speak to them the way you look the attitude of your heart towards them and perhaps for some of you as you're listening in and you say you know there are some who are older than us but all that we know and experience is injustice it's harm it's abuse it's abandonment maybe in a home or when you know the older generation don't exactly model but they stumble and to this may i encourage you that we must ask god for grace to show honor as far as it is possible with us and sometimes in situations like these we honor our parents or those who are older by demonstrating forgiveness in what we live unsaid you know our heart posture towards the generations towards those who are older the other word that keeps ringing i think in my heart is this reach out and receive reach out and receive in titus 2 you know verses 1 to 8 it talks about how older man teaches the younger you know men and older women teaches to younger women now there's something beautiful when a young person reach out to an adult instead of the other way around it it mitigates the awkwardness that builds and this reaching out it just helps you build an invisible bridge between the generations tell you what on the adult side we care about the next generations we care about the young but we just don't know how to get there with you and perhaps sometimes we might even feel kind of a tad intimidated but for you younger ones when you bear that heart posture to to to initiate to reach out and to receive that reaching out often begins with the invitation to hear stories that convey important experiences in ways no other form of communication can you see when paul tells timothy the story of his journey from hate to redemption and to and to gratitude he had stopped instructing timothy and he had begun a deeper and more valuable form of teaching and there was sharing his story and people of every generation they have stories teaching stories to tell to the young and zealous the passionate you will benefit from the wisdom and the insight of those who have traveled further in life's journey and this really brings to mind you know as naive then as i was all this was happening about the same time i was 29 when um you know i was attending a a course on you know about on family council counseling i i believe and and and in that course i happen to be the youngest and and of the course of uh you know in that for many months we met together 20 30 of us one of that group seven of us six or seven of us kind of we we stuck together and interestingly since i was 29 for the last 24 years we would meet every quarterly and here's what's interesting i'm in our early 50s now together with pastor ben in a group there are four that is in their 60s now and there's one in her early 70s we have literally over the 24 years matured and grown all together and i described you know and we call this the body's group because you know you know as the youngest i was always hungry to kind of initiate this then and kind of have this get together so that i could glean i could hear from those who have gone before me and it's given me so much insight into what it means for people to have gone before and ahead of me what are some things that i need to look out for what are some things that ah okay i'm gonna face when i get to that age and these are invaluable because we would share stories and we would tell you know about war stories of ministries because we were all you know in in in church ministry in one form or the other and so folks you're reaching out can develop an organic mentoring relationship in which your experiences and wisdom are shared through close up observation collaboration and reflection but this will only happen through close interaction with the older person who is willing to let you into his or her life and the arenas and the subject matters can be far-ranging from ministry from our walk with god to our career our life skills our marriage our family and so on and such relationships just provide us you know with people who are mature who can help us to journey in life to share wisdom and have good accountability let me now speak to those who are older what is our heart posture towards the generations for you as an older person towards those who are younger there are few key words here and there are two the first one is this humility to the older folks humility my question to us those who are older is this are we prescriptive whenever we interact with those younger do we talk down to them without even realizing that in that interaction is such a put off to them that there's such a emotional barrier to receive from us to the over older folks do you struggle to be led by leaders younger than you do you have a posture to learn from younger generations in matters and areas in which you have no experience or you don't have the knowledge or expertise proverbs 22 verse 4 tells us so clearly the reward of humility that is having a realistic view of one's importance and the reverend worshipful fear of the lord is reaches its honor and its life there is a there is enough you know of pride of strife all around but when the younger folks are able to see that simple godly humility in our hearts death is life-giving that is so refreshing in fact the old testament closes with malachi chapter 4 6 that he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers which is a reconciliation produced by repentance and here's my point to those of us who are older we may not have always got it right in fact the fact that we're much older we probably would have made you know a lot more mistakes but the younger ones need to learn from us to learn where we have gone wrong where we could have done better and may never never be the case that our pride or insecurity would hinder us from being you know vulnerable from being humble to share to ask for forgiveness because when that happens it breaks down every barrier because without rich or young if there is any unseen or unspoken barrier of something that was done something that was said whether it's you know in the family in the in your church community between the young and the old would the lord today reveal to you what needs to be resolved what needs repentance where is where apology is needed to the older folks this other word about our heart posture towards the younger generation is this remain rooted in christ a being there done that kind of attitude for the older ones is very dangerous and i think dangerous because it can easily you know make us drift to becoming a older adult a father or mother within the family or to the brother community in the church perhaps with a humanistic or a whirling value that is called to our being without even us realizing it a true spiritual father or mother bears godly very godly values and fruit because you remain rooted in christ first corinthians chapter 11 1 tells us simply imitate me just as i also imitate christ you are worth imitating when you remain rooted in christ when you abide in him and he in you and christ remains your center no matter how rich your experiences are no matter what you have done no matter where you have gone only then can we begin to model godliness only then do we have the reservoir of godly values that we can impart that we can impact and pass on truly a godly legacy and to pass on what it means to live the kingdom life an effective disciple making with the younger folks and or the emerging adults is not based solely on your age your career achievements or your marital status but rather your effectiveness is rooted primarily in your submission to christ how submitted are you to christ in all areas of your life and the word to our older folks you know when our young do not follow despite all that you have sown or perhaps all that you have said god is not done with you god has not done with us yet and that is why it calls for us to remain deeply rooted in him and to continue reflecting that unconditional love of the father to love them to pray for them regardless so harness the power of prayer be a prayer champion for those who are younger be in your family or in our midst as a church pray scriptures and god's promises over them because when we are long gone the prayer that we have been praying and sowing they don't go away because they're not rooted in us they are rooted in the power of god's word and there's really something powerful when we pray when we pray for the younger ones it's clearly supernatural because each time you know we pray for someone we pray for the younger folks god is not just changing them but god is changing us and lives are radically changed and transformed in faithful prayer so to the older folks we are just saying that you know it's really oftentimes it's we might perceive that the younger generations only want to be with people their age but indeed that's far that's probably not true because many are yearning for quality time with loving mature adults and the truth is we need each other understanding the unique challenges of you know each life stage and each generation enables us to just carry one another's burdens the pressures of this world is just far too great for a nuclear family to handle because that was never god's plan and god is calling us to be part of that extended family together how might you know intergenerational disciple making look like practically just a couple of things perhaps there is you know their their members you know you and i will begin to have deep spiritual friendships perhaps with another family another couple a few individuals from a different life stage and generation how my intergen disciple making look like when the younger ones feel safe and they feel like they are welcome to share dreams their opinions and communicate their ideas or feedback to older ones or leadership figures but they are humble and they are honouring of the older generations as they do so or perhaps there is such a a massive coming alongside like how you know elijah the gift of elijah to elisha or paul to timothy the opportunity for them to come alongside was critical for a few years in which they were able to grow from being disciples to now becoming trusted co-laborers how am i intelligent disciple making look like people don't just have one spiritual parent but perhaps they have two they have three let me just bring this to a close today folks no season in life will escape us remember that image earlier right at the beginning you know 30 years ago boston and i were young energetic we were like the next gen you know leaders then with a vision to change the world since then our bodies have changed dramatically slower the world in which we you know live and serve has changed even more drastically faster but our hearts however have remained the same our hearts have remained the same excited to see the relational the same promise of relational impact today as we did in the 1990s because shaping the generations behind us through disciple making remains by far the most powerful strategy that christ has left us as a church to establish his kingdom here on earth it may be said of us like in psalms 145 is for one generation commands your works to another they tell of your mighty ex because it is not an individual sprint it is a team relay we have people running ahead of us we have a generation and people running behind us but we do need to pass the baton successfully so that you know those behind us can begin to run their race faithfully river life is you know playing our respective part in the generations is responding to a call to becoming the antioch church in which the young and old have an incredible love for each other setting the you know the relational foundation whereby every nameless and faceless person across the generations can make disciples shall we pray abba father we thank you we thank you that you are a god of the generations we thank you that you are unchanging you are an unchanging god that is the same yesterday today and for the future you have gone before us [Music] and then you stir something amongst us today for us to move lord into the future so holy spirit i pray enable us enable us to posture our hearts [Music] towards the generations cause us to posture our hearts lord with honor with a teachability to reach out to receive to glean from those who are older holy spirit enable us to posture our hearts towards the younger [Music] with humility and a commitment a commitment to always abide in you to remain rooted in you so that we can impart from a deep spiritual well [Music] so father i pray [Music] father i pray for every young person here in river life i pray for all our young adults to pursue to desire to pursue a radical christ centered in a in a kingdom-mindedness in how they live and father i pray for every older person here in river life the mature adults in our midst to arise as spiritual shepherds who are committed committed to to pray committed to invest relationally for the spiritual vitality of those behind us but always always remaining so rooted in you in your word your ways first in our lives so father i pray cause each one of us to play our part in the in the generations with an uncompromising faith with an unwavering hope and a relentless love for each other so father i pray and ask all these things in jesus most precious name amen thank you pastor dina diner for sharing the word with us today and i hope you know whether we are young whether we are old this message speaks to the depths of our hearts and if you know we have been perpetrators of divisiveness there's grace right there's grace and you know we repent and i think let's bridge that divide um yeah the faith that we have is a faith that has lasted the generations and has been handed us down to us okay uh so thank you pastor diner for this message all right and we hope that this time together has strengthened us right couple of important announcements don't close your web browser yet i am not a youtube advertisement okay i know online service right so in view of the recent uh announcements about the stabilization period from now till 24 october the church leadership will be reviewing our in-person services so temporarily the booking booking of ticket services right or for in-person services is temporarily suspended but stay tuned we will we hope to give you more updates during the week all right so before i close let me just pronounce uh the blessing the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you the lord lift up make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his countenance upon you and in this very trying times may the lord give all of us shalom peace amen amen thank you for joining us have a blessed sunday and we will see all of you out soon feet and oh just to drink from the cup in your hand jesus [Music] after and all just one look of your eyes and mind turn just one glimpse of your face in mind changed you

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Published: Sat Sep 25 2021