Bridging the Generation Gap

Bridging

The

Generation Gap

By Martin G. Tharp Ph.D.

Copyright 2013 Martin Tharp Ph.D.

Smashwords edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes; This ebook is licensed for your own personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, King James Version. Copyright 1984, 1991 by AMG International, INC and the Living Bible Copyright 1971, 1986 by Tyndale House Publishers INC

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. How Soon We Forget

2. The First Generation Gap

3. Free From Babylon & the Generation Gap

4. Christian Parents and the Generation Gap

5. A Shared Responsibility for the Generation Gap

6. Multi-generational Ministry

7. Bible Responsibility and the Generation Gap

8. Multiple Services to Deal with the Generation Gap

9. The Cause of the Generation Gap

10. Grandparents and the Generation Gap

11. Young? Old? The Hip Hop Culture & The Generation Gap

12. Is The Younger Generation More Devout Than Parents?

13. The Sandwich Generation

14. Anointing? The Generation Gap? One Negates The Other

15. Destiny To Legacy

16. Generation Gap or Limited Visibility?

About the Author

Introduction

Since the very inception of our ministry, we have always been involved in some way or another with young people. It has been my privilege to be the keynote speaker at a number of youth camps, junior camps and youth conferences.

During the days of what was referred to as the Jesus People phenomena, we were heavily involved in outreaches in parks, conference centers and Churches which drew massive crowds of young hippies, flower children and those from the drug culture, as well as a number of communes where dozens to hundreds of young people clung together, feeling as if they actually had a family for the first time in their lives!

After spending the first nine years in those endeavors in conjunction with our revivals, we launched out in an effort to reach the younger generation while they were still in school. For the past forty-three years of our fifty-two years of full time ministry we have been involved in dealing with the younger generation through providing free concerts in school assemblies, covering all ages from first grade through high school.

Over the years we have also been involved in prison Ministry, for minimum to maximum security prisons across America as well as a large number YDC’s (youth development centers; a fancy name for youth prisons).

After all these years of dealing with kids, I never cease to be amazed at the unfounded idea that age either makes us acceptable, or unacceptable, depending on the crowd we are facing.

However, if there is truly a Generation Gap, we are honor bound to do all that is in our power to bridge it! It is precisely because of those age differences that I have made this statement on a number of occasions;

I would rather be thrown into a den of hungry lions than to face a thousand teenagers without the anointing of the Holy Ghost! The lions will be kinder!

I am fairly certain that many of those who have heard me make this statement, have no idea just how true the statement is or how sincere I am when I make it, but because I have discovered the power of the anointing, we never hesitate to take a school with students of any age.

Whether it is Catholic or Protestant, high school or primary school, makes us no difference, for without the anointing, there may very well be a Generation Gap but if there is, it is our responsibility as Christians as well as the responsibility of the Church at large to concentrate on Bridging The Generation Gap!

Chapter One

How Soon We Forget!

The most astounding fact about the Bible is the ample evidence that regardless of what we face in this 21st century, it is covered somewhere in the Scriptures. While there is an unusual amount of discussion about what is referred to as the generation gap, the book of Judges gives us a historical record of a real, rather than an imagined generation gap!

Judges begins with an overview and ends with a summary. The first chapters of this book in the Old Testament provide us with a brief analysis of why Israel’s great promise was never realized, where the middle section (Judges 3:7B16:31) traces chronologically the history of the Judges and the conditions of their times.

The final section is summarized basically through two case histories which vividly demonstrate the results of Israel’s choice to abandon the ways of the Lord which they had been taught.

The key to understanding the decline of the nation of Israel is that which is recorded in Judges chapter two.

"And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:8-10).

These verses of Scripture clearly testify to the fact that the fledgling nation of Israel had lived in complete disregard for the commandments which were given by Moses through the hand of God and had failed miserably to bring their own children to the knowledge of the Lord!

The peaceful resolution that characterized the end of the Book of Joshua gave way to an ominous future which was recorded in the book of Judges.

The meaning of the phrase; knew not the Lord is simply an indication that the Israelites had deliberately refused to keep covenant or acknowledge the authority of God in regard to their obligation to educate their children in the ways of the Lord. It is not quite as elementary as supposing that they were ignorant, instead, they were simply living like the nations around them.

In an appalling disregard for the God who delivered them from Egyptian bondage and fed them daily with manna from heaven along with water from the rock, here the descendants of those who saw the miracles and endured the wilderness journey were living in total unbelief!

Israel’s rest and blessing were not simply an inheritance that came because of who they were, instead, it was dependent on their obedience to God, however, obedience in turn hinged on them truly knowing the Lord.

The New Testament picks up this same theme in the 14th chapter of the book of John;

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:21).

Obedience to God will always result from a personal relationship that will depend on love. We do not casually choose to obey in order to gain His affection. It is only when we know that we are loved by God and we love Him in return, that love and trust awakens in us the capacity to obey.

In the book of Matthew after the Pharisees saw that Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, one of them who was a lawyer posed this question to Him;

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment (Matt. 22:36-38).

As a result of the disobedience of their parents, the new generation, in the Book of Judges drifted away from a personal relationship with God, having lost the capacity to trust and obey Him.

The promised rest and blessing, which were contingent on their living in obedience to the laws of God were without exception, lost as well. These early chapters of Judges trace the breakdowns of Israel and record a revealing progression of how;

1. Israel denied her heritage,

2. Her identity

3. And her God.

In spite of all the miracles which God had bestowed on them through the four-hundred and thirty year Egyptian captivity and the forty year wilderness journey, they had shamefully failed to teach the next generation the laws of God as He had instructed them to do in the book of Deuteronomy;

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates" (Deut. 6:4-10).

While we point the finger of shame and blame toward the Israelites for their failure to keep the commandments of the Lord, or to teach them to their children, it is also unfortunate that this same scenario is now being repeated in the Churches and families of this present generation every single day!

It would seem that it is extremely easy for the younger generation to fall away from the Lord if the older generations are not faithful to teach them as well as to set the example of obedience to the Lord before them.

The Israelites not only forsook the Lord in spite of all He had done for them, they began to follow other gods! Although the religion of the Canaanite’s was horribly wicked, with practices too obscene to discuss in this context, the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth (male and female deities), plagued Israel throughout her history and once it had influenced their lives, it proved difficult to exterminate and because of their flagrant disobedience, the judgment of God came upon them.

"And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed" (Judges 2:13-15).

When the people forsook the Lord, He forsook them! Time after time, the Scripture informs us that He sold them into the hands of their enemies!

Instead of enjoying the rest which God had promised, the nation of Israel was in and out of slavery for hundreds of years because of their idolatry (Judges 2:14; 3:8; 4:2; 10:7; 1 Sam. 12:9; Joel 3:7), with only occasional periods of rest from the Lord.

On each occasion when the judgment of God which was pronounced on them became so severe that the nation was finally forced to cry out to God, He would send a deliverer called Judges, (Judges 2:16). Note the fact that God was with the Judges He sent, personally, not with the nation collectively.

Sadly enough, the people turned to the Lord only when they were in trouble and once the Judges God had placed over them were gone, the nation fell back into sin again!

Unfortunately, these same characteristics and failures are seen in professing Christians today! At times, instead of overcoming the enemy, like the Israelites of old, the Church compromises, which allows our adversary to drag us down and act as if we have no God!

It is not unusual today for the professing Christian to deliberately, knowingly, disobey the Word of God and on many occasions fail to demonstrate their love for the Lord and cleave to Him by faith. When this