The Generational God

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I also want to say my dad, Pastor Robert Morris, will be back next week to continue the series Dream to Destiny.

Hasn't it been a great series, though?

I've heard this series before, guys, and this one is even better.

There's a newness to it, a freshness to it that God is speaking to him right now, and just he's hearing so many more themes that I've not heard before in this series.

So it is a terrific series.

One thing I want to share is talking about my dad is recently Bridget and I we went on a work trip.

So we were gonna be out of town, out of the country actually for a little while.

And so we asked my parents to watch our kids while we were gone.

Anytime we do that, we pray hard for the health and safety of our children, and then we pray hard for the endurance and ability to watch my kids during that time because my kids are high energy.

And so here we are, we were praying for them, we got back, everything went great, but there's always great stories that come out of that.

And so it's one of the stories is that we have three kids, Parker, Mitchell, and Bray.

And Parker and Mitchell, something to know about them is when they wake up, they are ready for the day.

Like, it doesn't take them any time, they're ready.

Bray, our five-year-old daughter, she needs a little while.

She is gonna be the type that is gonna love coffee one day.

So she actually gets up one day, she's moving real slow, and my dad, which is papa to them, is sitting at the breakfast table talking to Parker and Mitchell.

They'd been up for a while talking.

And so Bray, our little girl, wakes up, goes real slow, she's still in her pajamas, and she's barely awake.

She sits in Papa's lap, and my dad's sitting there just telling a story to Parker and Mitchell.

When Bray said, Papa, you have to stop it.

And he said, Stop it, stop what?

And she goes.

He said, Stop talking?

Yes, Papa, you have to stop talking.

Clearly, she needed some time to wake up.

And now I realize I need to work on her on el on being more kind to her elders.

And so we're working on that, and that's what we're doing.

And so I share that because the title of today's message is The Generational God.

God is a generational God.

God is the God of all generations.

And we are going to look at some scripture and see how God is the God of all generations.

This is part of who he is.

And if God is a generational God, shouldn't we be generational people?

If we should be all about what God's all about, and God is a generational God, we can be generational people.

So point number one is there is meaning in his name.

Now, over a dozen times in the Bible, God refers to himself as I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Why did he do that?

I think we would have gotten the hint if he just said, I'm the God of Abraham, right?

We would have known what he was talking about.

But with every one of God's names, he is declaring something about who he is.

He's declaring about his character.

And so when he lets us know that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's telling us something about him.

And that that is, he is a generational God.

I want to give a couple examples of this of just how God says who he is within his name that he gives us.

So God says, I am Emmanuel, which is God with us.

He says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

These are part of who he is.

A couple other names is God of uh God, which is Jehovah Rapha, which means the Lord will heal and restore.

It's good for us to be reminded of the God we serve, and that he is the God that heals and restores, and that his name even says so.

Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide.

Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace.

Now, this one, in order to get this Hebrew word right, I always have to say in my head first, like, sit in a canoe.

That's what helps me memorize this word is sit in a canoe.

So it's Jehovah Sitcanu, which means the Lord our righteousness.

So now, if you anyone asked me, be like, oh, sit in a canoe.

Oh yeah, well, you know, Jehovah sit kanu means, and you guys all have it now.

So it was in all of God's names that he declares about himself actually tells us about who he is.

It tells us about his character.

So God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And I think so often we think that he's saying that I am the God of Abraham, and then I was the God of Isaac, and then I'm the God of Jacob.

But he is the God of all three generations at the same time.

So I'm a visual learner, and so I like to see things.

So I want to go to the board and show you something.

So you have both, or you have all three generations Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So let's see.

Now I am confident in my spelling.

But whenever you have a whole lot of people looking at you, you feel like I'm gonna misspell a name.

And so it's Abraham, Isaac, yep, and Jacob.

Told you.

So you have all three Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now, something that I want to point out to you is that Abraham, when he was born, he was zero years old.

I know that's profound, right?

You're like, that's what we what we came to learn today.

He was zero years old.

He lived to be 175.

Isaac was born, he's Abraham's son, and he was born when Abraham was 100 years old.

So some this is not to scale, guys.

So somewhere in here, when he's around 100 years old, or he is 100 years old, somewhere on this timeline, though, he lived to be 180 years old.

So he was zero.

And then you have Jacob, who is Isaac's son.

Jacob was born when Isaac was 60 years old.

So now you right here, you have at that time Abraham would have been 165.

Nope.

He was 60 years old.

Cut me some slack.

Isaac was 60 years old, and Jacob, also zero, lived to be 147 years old.

Now the time that I want to focus on is right here.

This time period right here is what God talks about is that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

All three generations are living together at the same time for 15 years.

Did I spell everything right?

Spell checkers?

We're good?

So you have this time period for 15 years, you have all three generations alive and there together.

I want to read a scripture.

It's in the Hebrews 11 that talks about this.

It says, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

This is what it's referring to.

God is saying, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Can you imagine just even the way that they all would have influenced each other?

So my grandpa, he's living in well, uh, actually lives with us.

We could spend a lot of time with him.

My grandma passed away a couple of years ago.

My granny on my mom's side is in her 90s and she is super healthy, but her husband passed away when I was 20 years old.

All four of them have influenced my life so much.

But if I'm putting myself more in Jacob's shoes then, I think about my papa, who passed away when I was 20 years old, which is closer to Jacob when he was 15 years old, and there was so much that he had already imparted to me at that time.

So much I had already learned.

And actually later in scripture, God Jesus is questioned, and he said, uh, well, what about this?

And he said, Don't you know I'm the God of the living, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

And that has a second meaning.

One, it is eternity, but two, he's saying all three generations are living together.

I think that in this, God is sharing something about who he is.

He is telling us, I am the God of generations, old and young.

Sometimes we are the Abraham in the situation, sometimes we're the Isaac in the situation, and sometimes we're the Jacob in the situation.

But you have all three.

It says they were dwelling there in tents.

Can you imagine some of the conversations that they would have had?

I could picture them all sitting out one evening outside the tent around a campfire, and Jacob saying something like, Hey grandpa, which is Abraham, even though we call him Father Abraham.

Yeah, hey grandpa, Abraham, tell me the time that you almost killed dad.

Let's hear that story again.

And Abraham would be like, hold on, I'll definitely tell you the story.

But know this it's not the story about the time I almost killed dad, it's the story about how God always provides.

And God provided, and God tested my heart and asked me to sacrifice my son.

When I did, the angel of the Lord showed up and said, Stop, for now I know you fear the Lord.

And then he provided a ram as the sacrifice.

Just to tie this into dream to destiny, destiny, you have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob's son, Joseph.

Think of all the lineage being passed down.

And now Joseph is passing test.

But they could have learned this from their great-grandpa.

And Abraham is able to impart this to them this legacy of faith, this legacy that he carries, he can share that with Jacob.

So point number one is that there is meaning in his name and that God is a generational God.

Point number two is to unite with those who are older.

Everyone can do this.

I'm not saying some of you can do this.

All of us can unite with those that are older.

My wife Bridget, she has a she had a great-grandma named Great Grandma Young.

She was 104 years old when she passed away.

She was well named by having the last name Young.

She was young in her lifestyle.

There was a time that she was in her 90s mowing the front yard with a push mower.

And a little crowd had started to form to watch her mow.

Nobody helped her.

The crowd formed until eventually she shut up the mower and said, if y'all keep watching me, I'm gonna have to charge you.

She was 104 years old.

Nobody gets a pass on this.

We all need to unite with those that are older unless you are like great grandma young in your hundreds.

I'll let you have a pass.

But if you're in your 20s, 60s, 80s, 90s, you can be connecting with those that are older than you.

We all need to be doing this.

I want to encourage you with this scripture.

You ready?

Proverbs 20, verse chapter uh verse 29.

The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

Actually, that's not that encouraging, is it?

It basically says, you know, as you get older, your muscles will fade out and your gray hairs will come in.

That's what, but let me read another scripture.

It says, Proverbs 16, 31, gray hair is a crown of glory.

It is gained in a righteous life.

The more years that we spend with God, the more wisdom, the more knowledge we get.

And we gain a crown of glory.

That is why we need to be cut connecting with those that are older, so that we can be learning from those that have that crown of glory.

They've gone before us, they've seen things that we haven't seen yet.

Now, I don't know if you could see very well in the camera of my I am developing a little bit of a crown of glory.

I would say prematurely, but some would say not prematurely, just getting older.

But I I am getting a little bit of a crown of glory.

Some gray hairs are coming in.

And there's this time that my dad was saying, Listen, why don't you just color your hair?

I mean, your wife, she is not the hairstylist now, but she's now the women's pastor, but she was a hairstylist.

She could color your hair, just have her color your hair.

Why not?

Just do it.

Until one day I said, Dad, I think I figured it out.

I don't think you're that worried about my hair.

I think it's just really hard to introduce people to your gray-headed kids.

If your kids are gray-headed, what does that say about you?

I know we're breaking a snarky comment, and now we're both working on it together.

But there is a crown of glory that comes with age and wisdom.

1 Timothy 5, verses 1 says, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

1 Timothy 5:1

Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

I have underlined both fathers and mothers.

We are supposed to be connecting with those that are older than us and treating them with honor and respect as a mother and father.

That's what we are to do.

There's a level of respect there that we need to be offering them.

So I have this mentor in my life that has been very influential named Steve Doolin.

He's an elder here.

And especially in that time frame when I was like 15 to 20 years old, he was really strong in my life to help lead me in such a way to help get my life on path and all that stuff.

And I remember him saying something to me.

He said, James, you know how people say experience is the best teacher?

I said, Yeah?

Yeah, it's false.

Experience is not the best teacher.

Other people's experience is the best teacher.

There's no reason you have to fail to know not to do that.

There's no reason that you don't need to, or that you shouldn't learn from somebody that has already had success in their life to learn how to do that.

Other people's experience is the best teacher.

That's why we need to surround ourselves with mentors that we can be growing and learning and being uh all giving, receiving all that God has for us in that.

In fact, all of us need mentors.

There within our men's and women's department, we have mentors.

Some of you may need to sign up to be mentored, some may need to sign up to be a mentor, but we all need mentors.

Something else Steve told me one time is he said, James, they did like this massive research and took all like the geniuses of the world, the Einsteins, and to see if there's anything that was one like a common characteristic among all of them.

See if any of them had like all the same common character characteristic.

They found one thing, only one common characteristic among all the geniuses.

Would you like to know what it is?

They all had friends that were older than them, and friends that were younger than them, but not that many friends their same age.

That is a weird, random fact, isn't it?

But what it is is that when you connect with those that are older than you and younger than you, it challenges you in the way you think.

It makes, it forces you to see the world from another perspective.

And when we do that, it uh it challenges our mind to be able to see things that it would not have seen before.

And this is one of the reasons why we all need to be connecting with people outside of our generation.

So point number one is that there was there is meaning in his name.

Point number two is to unite with those who are older.

Point number three is to unite with those who are younger.

I want to go back to the same script scripture I read earlier, 1 Timothy.

It says, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

So what this is telling us is we are supposed to connect with those that are older than us and treat them like a mother and father.

But those that connect with you, that are you're the older person in this situation, it does not say to then respond by treating them like a son or a daughter.

That is not the right response.

We are not supposed to be leading with a such authority within their life.

It says you are to treat them like a brother and sister.

So everyone that connects with us, that's younger, you ought to treat them as a brother and sister in Christ.

One thing that has greatly helped my relationship with my dad is there are multiple times you'll call and say, Now, James, when you were young, you were my son.

I had to train you up in the way you should go so that when you were old, you would not depart from it.

But now you're a grown man.

And so I want to ask you something.

I want to ask your opinion on something.

I want to do this, but I want you to answer and know that we are brothers in Christ, that we are of the same level.

There's a mutuality that's there.

And so it changes the relationship.

If you're going to connect with younger people, treat them as a brother and sister in Christ.

Another scripture about this is 1 Timothy 4 12.

It says, Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

It tells us that we are not to despise people because of their youth.

This goes two ways.

One, do not despise somebody because they're younger.

Two, do not despise yourself if you're younger.

Do not think I'm I can't do that or I shouldn't do that.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and you can do it if God's given you the authority to do that.

So operate in that way.

In order to share this point, I want to talk about Job and look at the book of Job.

Job is a fascinating book.

And Job lived in the land of Uz, I think.

So Abraham lived in land of Ur, Job lived in land of Uz, so I guess that was a thing.

But uh Job was extremely blessed.

And he had so much livestock, he had so much help, he had like everything was so blessed in his life.

Well, basically, in a moment's time, he loses everything.

He loses his servants, he loses his uh his livestock, he loses his camels, all that stuff.

But he even loses his children during that time.

Then he loses his health.

And it says from the heels of his feet to the top of his head, he was covered in boils.

And he was given broken pottery to scrape the boils off as he would get them.

He was in complete misery.

Well, Job had three friends, all about the same age as Job, named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

So Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar all were like, let's go check on Job.

Let's go see how he's doing.

So then they go, they look at Job, and Job is laying on the ground with ashes that he's been rubbing on the boils, and they see his misery.

It says that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, looking on him in his misery, went up to him, sat on the ground for seven days and seven nights without a word being spoken.

Could you imagine just going up and seeing your buddy with your other?

And you're like, For seven days and seven nights without a word?

Now, about this.

There are times that I've gone fishing with a friend, and I'll come back, and Bridget would be like, Well, what'd y'all talk about?

I'm like, nothing.

So no, so I was like, What'd y'all talk about?

Nothing.

You didn't say anything.

I was like, I'll think about it, be like, oh, he caught a fish, and I said, What'd you catch that on?

But listen, like.

Ladies, this has been going on since the days of Job.

Sometimes guys just hang out without a word.

This is somewhat normal, all right?

So here you have Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar for seven days and seven nights without a word.

Then Job breaks the silence.

When he curses the day he was born, he had had enough and curses the day he was born.

Well, the thing about Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar is that they were all fixers.

So they wanted to fix the situation.

So then all of a sudden, one would say something and say, Well, Job, maybe it's because of this.

And then the other one would say, No, well, maybe it's because of this.

And then it would go back and forth, and Eliphaz would be like, Well, maybe it's because this has happened in your life.

And Job would be like, Come on, Eliphaz, be a better friend than that.

Now, know that I'm giving you not the new King James word for word right now.

I'm just giving you the James version, okay?

So Job would be like, come on now, be a better friend than that.

How could you say that?

This debate goes on for 29 chapters.

Back and forth, back and forth.

They had been holding up all they wanted to say over those seven days, and then they unleashed it.

So then there's this young man there named Eli who?

This is not Elijah, not Elijah, it's Eli who?

Just this young man that's just sitting there watching, and Eli Who, and all of a sudden he's just like, I can't take it anymore.

I I've tried not to say anything.

I know you are all older than me.

I wanted to honor you.

I wanted to not be the one to speak up.

You guys should be full of wisdom, but I can't take it anymore.

The reason this is happening is because Job, you are filled with pride.

That's Elihu.

He had enough.

He had to say it.

Well, guess what?

Job listens to him.

Then right after that, guess who speaks?

God speaks.

And God gets on to Job.

In fact, there are two different times he says, Job, prepare yourself like a man.

That is not what you want God to say to you.

It'd be like, come on, get your spanking.

No, don't drag your feet.

You're gonna make it worse.

Come on, get your spanking.

And so basically, God then talks to Job.

I just want to read a couple things that God said to Job in this.

Uh Job 38, verse 4.

Job 38:4

It says, Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Who determined its measurement?

Surely you know.

Verse 12, have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?

22.

Have you entered the treasury of snow or have you seen the treasury of hell?

I didn't even know there was a treasury of hell and snow.

There is, God told us.

Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, Job?

Help me.

Answer me, Job.

Does the eagle mount up at your command?

So then God's talking to Job, and then one of things is basically says, Were you there on the day of creation?

I don't remember you, Job.

I remember the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yeah, we were all there.

I don't remember you.

And so then God basically then tells Job, Job, you're struggling with pride.

You have pride in your life.

So then God gets onto Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar and says, My anger is against you as well, because you have not spoken what is true of me.

And so, a couple of things here.

One, it wasn't until a young person spoke up and said it, and Job listened, that God spoke.

It wasn't until then.

And some of us need a voice from God, but are we willing to listen to somebody in another generation?

But it wasn't for 29 chapters until God spoke up.

Then I thought, like, God, how come that, how come you have, you get on, there's only five main characters that's uh in this.

It's Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and then Elihu.

You got on to everyone.

How come you didn't get on to Elihu in any way?

Well, he got onto Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar because they did not represent him right.

But Elihu actually did represent him right.

What he said was actual truth.

And so this young person, God didn't say anything against him.

Here's, I think, part of the lesson to learn.

Sometimes God allows one generation to see something that's a blind spot to your generation.

It works both ways.

Sometimes the older generation sees things that the younger generation needs.

Sometimes the younger generation sees things that the older generation seeds.

And if we don't treat each other like brothers and sisters in Christ, we will miss what God has for us.

God is asking us to all connect together.

We are all part of the body of Christ.

And if there is a blindness in one person's generation, they may need another generation to speak into it.

They may need that.

This has been happening for long, many years.

When I was a kid, my dad would all, like, everyone, it seemed like would uh my dad's generation would say, like, don't talk to strangers, don't talk to strangers.

And it'd be basically something on the lines of this.

Basically, what will happen, they're gonna offer you candy, then whenever you go to take the candy, they're gonna throw you in your car and still and steal you.

So, like, don't nobody ever offered me candy.

But now that same generation that was told that is now telling their parents' generation, stop talking to those people on social media.

That's a scam.

No, just because you wired them$500 doesn't mean they're gonna get$5,000.

That's a scam.

We need each other.

We can see things that the other can't see.

We have to have each other.

Listen, God didn't ask Gateway to be an old church.

God didn't ask Gateway to be a young church.

We are called to be the church, the body of Christ.

That is who we are.

Male, female, every ethnicity, every everything, every generation.

That is what God asked for us.

That is what God wants of us.

If God is a generational God, let us be generational people.

I want to close with this story.

There was this taxi driver.

I read this story about, and this taxi driver wrote it.

So there's this taxi driver, he got this address to go to.

He goes to the address, hunks the horn, and nobody came out.

They said he looked up, there's only one light on.

So he said most taxi drivers would have just pulled off and left.

He said, Well, that's not the way my mama raised me, so I'm gonna go check on him.

Goes up to the front door, knocks on the door.

He hears this small, frail voice that says, Just one moment, please.

So he waits.

He waits, and then this older lady comes out with one bag and a cane.

He goes and he helps her to the car and gets her all loaded up and everything.

And then says, Where are you going?

She gives him the address.

And then she says, Do you know what?

Do you mind going through the city first?

He looked at her and said, The city?

That's nowhere close to being on the way up here.

And he turned around and looked at her.

He said he could see her eyes start to fill up with tears.

And said, Yes, I know.

But I'm going to an assisted living right now.

I just said bye to my home.

I don't have any family left.

It would just be nice to see the city one last time.

He did what all of us would have done, right?

He turned off, he turned off his timer and thought, sure, absolutely, we'll go through the city.

All of a sudden they go through the city and they're driving down memory lane where she's sitting there going, oh, look right there.

That's where my very first job.

I was an elevator operator right there.

That's it, that's it.

And then, oh, turn down the street.

That was my school.

That's where I went to school.

Oh, please keep on going two more miles and then turn right over there.

Yeah, right there.

That's where me and my husband had our first date, right there.

You know, keep going a little bit.

Right over there is the church we got married in.

I was baptized in that church.

And here she is sharing all of these great stories of her life.

Till she said, You know, I'm tired now.

I'm ready to go home.

It had been two hours of driving the city.

So they he takes her to the assisted living.

He said, There's two guys out there as if they've been waiting for her for a while.

Probably so.

And all of a sudden they come out and they help her.

And uh he gets out and she says, How much do I owe you?

Absolutely nothing.

She said, You gotta make a living.

And he said, That's what other customers are for.

It's not, it's free.

So then all of a sudden she goes and she grabs him and hugs him, this big hug, and he said, It's like she just didn't want to let go and squeezed me so tight.

Then she did.

She walks in, he said, the door is shut, and it was like they echoed through my ears of her chapter ending in her life.

So I went back to the car, I sat in the driver's seat, and I didn't go anywhere.

I didn't, I just sat there for so long.

And I think so many people would have said, Wow, how great that you did that for that lady.

And he said, But the thing is, it will never never, ever, ever compare to what she did for me.

That time changed my life.

It changed the way I see things, it changes the way I connect with people.

It has changed every decision of my life, and I'm so grateful for that moment.

Some of us may think, I don't know if I have time to go mentor somebody like Steve did for you.

I don't know if I have time for this.

Maybe it's just one divine moment that you need to be looking for.

What is it that God is doing today in your life that you can connect with somebody?

Can we all make that commitment that we will be open to every generation?

No matter what, no matter where we are, no matter what God's doing.

We are all parts of the body of Christ.

And if we isolate ourselves from parts of the body of Christ, we could be missing something that God has for us.

Let me pray with you.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you that you are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There is meaning in your name.

Lord, help us to connect with those that are older and those that are younger for your kingdom's sake, that your kingdom will be experienced here on this earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, thank you for what you're doing in Gateway Church.

We love you so much.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.