Regenerating Generations
Speaker: Pastor Darin Browne
I was thinking after last week’s message on death and dying and what kind of legacy are we leaving to future generations? Mike and the Mechanic’s song The Living Years starts with these words…
Every generation,
Blames the one before,
And all of their frustrations come beating on your doorI know that I’m a prisoner to all my father held so dear
I know that I’m a hostage to all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years.
What he is talking about is curses handed down from generation to generation. Let me tell you, we don’t have to be held hostage to what affected our parents or grandparents. God talks about this too…
When the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, the first commandment came with an interesting byline…
Exodus 20:5-6 (ESV)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands (a thousand generations) of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Yes, there are generational curses that can be passed in to the third and fourth generation, but there are also generational blessings to the thousandth generation! 250 to 1 in favour of blessings.
REGENERATING THE GENERATIONS
Each of us is born to a particular generation. Each generation has strengths and weaknesses, but of course anything we say is a generalisation. Let me run through the generations in this room so we can learn a little about each of them, and each other.
THE SILENT GENERATION (mid 1920s to 1945)
These people grew up as kids through the Great Depression and World War 2. They tend to have a strong work ethic are are loyal, frugal, often staying in the same job for years. They are risk averse, tight with money and fearful of losing it. I think they are called the silent generation because they were to be seen and not heard!
THE BABY BOOMERS (1946 – mid 1960s)
This generation is optimistic and competitive. They like taking chances, but still value tradition and are carefully with money. These were the people protesting the Vietnam war. They sometimes have trouble with technology and ask grandkids to help, they started dad jokes, and tend to be full of “back in my day” stories of when things were tougher, simpler or better than today.
They prefer printed books and magazines, enjoy lawns and gardening, and love classic rock. Please don’t text them, call them.
GENERATION X (mid 1960s – 1980)
This is many of us here. They tend to be independent and adaptable, embracing technology, relying on themselves and appreciating work-life balance. These were the latchkey kids, sceptical cynics, and they reckon they were pretty tough. They rode bikes without helmets, up jump ramps made of plywood full of nails and they never wore seatbelts…if mum’s arm wasn’t strong enough, you deserved to go through the windscreen.
They made mixtapes from the radio, and love 80s music, even the electronic stuff. There were no play dates and they were told to play outside for the entire day. Cricket pitches were mowed in the front lawn and they played all day. There no water bottles…they had to drink out of what? The hose.
Sadly, they committed several fashion faux pas, notably leg warmers, acid wash jeans, colour change T-shirts and mullets. They once thought faxes and pagers were pretty cool.
MILLENNIALS (1981 – late 1990s) GENERATION Y
Tech savvy and value experiences over long term commitment. They embrace social media. This is the generation who brought us avocado toast, the main reason cited as to why many of them cannot afford a house! They are surgically attached to their cell phones, and love memes, 90s music and TV shows. They embrace diversity, inclusivity, the concept of brunch and designer coffee. Before them we had coffee, and coffee with milk. Now we have an extra tall, extra hot, skinny double decaf latte with a twist of caramel.
One comedian joked that Millennials cannot read cursive writing or paper maps and can’t post a letter (they think post is what you do on Facebook and Instagram), so if the Millennials ever take over the world, we can take it back by writing our battle plans in cursive writing on paper maps and mailing them to ourselves.
GENERATION Z (late 1990s – 2012)
This generation is tech dependent and digital natives, and they value authenticity and genuineness. They love TikTok, reels, memes and embrace cancel culture, cancelling out anyone who disagrees with them. They lose sleep over climate change, Greta is their pinup girl, and they can multitask on multiple screens more than any other generation.
GENERATION ALPHA (2013 – today)
Tech savvy, immersed in the digital world, and who knows? Possibly the most morally confused generation in history!
I believe we are seeing an unprecedented and malicious attack on the younger generations, especially Millennials and Gen Z. How can they possibly withstand this satanic onslaught? They need support, input and truth from the older gens. No generation exists in a bubble.
THE GENERATION GAP
Like it or not, we have a generation gap wider than ever before. I want you to realise that every generation has strengths and weaknesses, and every generation has something to offer in Christ. Every generation is called by God, and God loves them all…
Psalms 100:5 (ESV)
For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
We are not just called to reach our own generation, but to reach all generations, because all generations need Jesus. Old, young, in between, every generation is important to God, and should be to us.
Psalms 78:5-7 (ESV)
he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
As parents, we must recognise that every decision we make has consequences, for us, but also for our children and their children. That’s why Moses urged the Israelites to make wise decisions as they were about to enter the Promised Land…
Deuteronomy 30:19 (ESV)
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring (descendants) may live,
Future generations of your family, your descendants, depend on you making the right decisions now. If you resist God now, you not only affect your life but potentially the lives of your own flesh and blood for generations!
SPIRITUAL DNA
Just as DNA is passed on from one generation to the next, might be a disease, or could be a talent, so spiritual DNA can be passed on, either good or bad.
Ezekiel 18:2 (ESV)
“What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
Generational curses are promised for those who reject God to the third and fourth generation, but a thousand generations of blessing come to those who seek the Lord.
What spiritual DNA are you passing on, and what spiritual DNA have you unwittingly inherited? You may have had parents or grandparents who were disobedient, rebellious, or abusive. You might not even know about what they have passed on to you. So often the sins of the father are passed down to the offspring. A girl who had a child at 16. Her daughter is pregnant at 16, and then her daughter, and so it continues. Alcoholics begat alcoholics, addicts begat addicts. We see it all the time, because there is a spiritual generational curse the manifests through the offspring. But remember, curses to four generations, blessings to a thousand!
Here is a true-life example from history…
Two families from the state of New York were studied very carefully. One was the Max Jukes family and the other was the Jonathan Edwards family.
TWO DIFFERENT GENERATIONS
Max Jukes was an unbelieving man, and he married a woman of like character who lacked principle. And among the known descendants, over 1,200 were studied. Three hundred and ten became professional vagrants; 440 physically wrecked their lives by a debauched lifestyle; 130 were sent to prison for an average of thirteen years each, seven of them for murder. There were over 100 who became alcoholics; 60 became habitual thieves; 190 public prostitutes. Of the 20 who learned a trade, ten of them learned the trade in a state prison. It cost the state about $1,500,000 and they made no contribution whatever to society.
In about the same era the family of Jonathan Edwards came on the scene. And Jonathan Edwards, a man of God, married a woman of like character. And their family began, and they became a part of this study that was made. Three hundred became clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors; over 100 became college professors; over 100 became attorneys, 30 of them judges; 60 of them became physicians; over 60 became authors of good classical books; 14 became presidents of universities. There were numerous giants in American industry that emerged from this family. Three became United States congressmen and one became the vice president of the United States.
The decisions you make now really matter, not just in your life, but for your children and their children and their children, generations to come.
BREAK THE POWER OF CURSES
Here some great news when it comes to generational curses. When you give your life to Jesus, the Bible says,
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away (Greek PARA-CHOMAI, to perish); behold, the new has come.
If your parents messed their life up, you don’t have to wear that! You can be set free from the spiritual curse that’s been handed down to you. Our inner healing team can walk to road with you and set you free. All it takes is coming to Jesus, seeking Him, praying, and breaking that curse and deciding to change your life. Don’t settle for a curse, seek God.
In the same way, the positive spiritual heritage of your forebears could be yours, but only if you make the right decisions. God is ready to bless future generations, starting with you!
RELATIONSHIP NOT RELIGION
So often we pass down traditions. The woman who cuts the end off the roast lamb. Her daughter said, why do you do this Mum? So, she went and asked her mum, who asked her mum. Turns out the great grandmother started this, cause her pan was too small! Tradition is like this. It’s not bad, it’s just tradition.
But passing on tradition to our children isn’t going to help them. Passing on our religion won’t help them either. Passing on relationship will! Christianity is not about religion, it’s about relationship, and we need to share the gospel and disciple the next generation in their relationships with the Lord.
Psalms 145:4 (ESV)
One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.
We talked earlier about the different generations, what they want, how they think, what’s important to them. If you are a silent generation, or Boomer, or Gen X, this is your chance to bring a positive influence to the younger generations. To commend God’s works and God’s laws and His mighty acts to another generation. We can’t afford a generation gap; we need to be Selly’s generation gap filler.
WHAT DO THE GENERATIONS SEEK?
So what is it that each generation seeks? I was at a conference, and they got four millennials up on stage, one from a country church, one a city church, another suburban and the other a house church. They asked each of them what they looked for in a church. I thought they’d say loud, modern music, flashing lights, smoke and video walls.
Every one of them said…community. Relationship, with God and with like-minded believers. If we are to win the other generations to Jesus, your generation has to give the young what they are looking for…relationship and community.
So church, how are we going to win our generations to Christ? Doctrine or dogma won’t cut it. Rules and religion won’t win them. We have to love them, even those we don’t like, or we don’t agree with. You can’t hate a homosexual into the Kingdom. You can’t trash a transgender into church.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (ESV)
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
AN ENTIRE GENERATION
There was an entire Jewish generation that, because of the sin of unbelief, God condemned to perishing in the desert, instead raising up the next generation to fulfil the promise of inheriting the land.
Numbers 14:22-23 (ESV)
none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
There were two exceptions, Joshua and Caleb…
Numbers 14:30-31 (ESV)
not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.
Caleb and Joshua’s faith transcended a generational curse, and in the same way your faith and my faith can transcend a generational curse that is even at this moment being spoken over the lives of this generation.
WE ARE A BLESSED GENERATION
We know when we look around the world that this generation is a mess. Covid, vaccines, abortion, sexual issues, poverty, homelessness… Australia is a mess, and if God doesn’t judge Australia, He will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah!
Yet we as believers are the most blessed generation! We can be blessed and bless a generation by being faithful to God’s truth, shining for Him when all around is dark.
The proverb writer Asaph wrote this I believe looking at the end time generation:
Proverbs 30:11-14 (ESV)
There is a generation who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. There is a generation who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. There is a generation – how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! There is a generation whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.
He is describing our generation right now! We live in a godless, angry, self-centred, Christ rejecting generation, but what a privilege! Don’t get down about it, and don’t get distracted by evil, get motivated and get about the Kingdom’s business! We get to stand for Christ and we have the honour of reaching out to this wayward generation that’s destroying itself. This is our moment in history! We are blessed as a generation of believers, raised up for such a time as this!
CALLING ALL GENERATIONS
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
But you are a chosen race (Greek GENOS, tribe, stock, offspring, generation), a royal priesthood (priests and kings combined), a holy nation (set apart), a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
We can proclaim truth to this generation and our faith can change the course of history by changing the spiritual DNA of this generation.
Proverbs 20:7 (ESV)
The righteous who walks in his integrity – blessed are his children after him!
Right now, God is calling each one of us to take an active role in the drama of the ages. Our faith for our generation will change the course of history!
REACHING THE GENERATIONS
We can reach our generations for Jesus, X, Y, Z, Boomers, whatever! What do we need to do?
1: GET SERIOUS ABOUT OUR LIFE RIGHT NOW
This is not a dressed rehearsal. It’s not a computer game where you die and then start again. It’s real…
Hebrews 9:27 (ESV)
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Appointed is in Greek: APOKEIMAI…meaning reserved, from a KEIMAI meaning laid up or accumulated, like a pile of grain. The decisions we make are laid up for a time reserved for when we will die once and be judged. Don’t you want to use this one life you’ve got for good, for God, to lay up righteous decisions for you and future generations? So, let’s give complete control to Christ right now.
2: MAKE A COMMITMENT TO LOVING AND REACHING ALL GENERATIONS
The younger generations need your love, support and guidance, they don’t need your condemnation, or to be told that they’re lazy, or you had it tougher.
Psalms 78:6-7 (ESV)
that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
3: GET FREE FROM GENERATIONAL CURSES
You cannot fulfil your des into in your generation if you are struggling to live a victorious life. You may need to be set free from adverse generational spiritual DNA effects. If you have bitterness, pain, regrets in your past, or if your parents were actively against God, maybe witchcraft, alcoholism, atheism, freemasonry, then now is the time to clear that stuff out, and our team can help.
We can have a new DNA starting today because we are in a new family…
Romans 8:14-15 (ESV)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Your true spiritual DNA is as a child of God, so don’t grapple with the past any longer. We can make the past past at last.
If you struggle to forgive or forget. If you look back with regret to your something that happened in your past…then pray.
If experience a lot of negativity, or if something in your past is holding you back with God. Is some regret or pain is affecting you? Do you want God but just can’t break through? I want you to have to faith and courage of Caleb and say yes to the Lord today.
