Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located
in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship
Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,
discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church
and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your
host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing
to you and bring you closer to God.
Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast or the P.H.S.A. Church.
My name is David Bickford. I am the pastor here in Salmon Arm and today I have a message
entitled The Generational Dilemma. We are going to look at Abraham, Moses, David and
the Nation of Israel. The text we will be working off of is Jeremiah 35, 1-19. Before
we jump into that, it is pretty exciting. I just wanted to give a tentative announcement
that we are going to be changing locations. Once that is all settled, I will be able to
share the new location where we will be holding church but we are going to have our own dedicated
space so it is going to be a big improvement. If you are in the Salmon Arm area and you
want to come out, please do. You can reach out to me. All of the contact information
is in the show notes but I will announce it when it gets a little bit closer to the move-in
date on the new location. It is a pretty exciting answer to prayer so I just wanted to give
you guys that update. Let's go ahead and jump in. Why the third generation always destroys
a family business? This comes from an article from Scott McCollum, Director of Product Marketing
at Blue Mantis Company back in September 8, 2016. He starts off, he says, are you familiar
with the Chinese proverb, you can only keep wealth in the family for three generations?
I experienced the key reason why this proverb is true across cultures while attempting to
buy from a local farmer's market. His reason is apathy. On a vacation in Hawaii, I ran
into apathy buying malasadas, a must-have breakfast delicacy at a farmer's market my
first morning here. Malasadas are the best described as donuts without holes and were
popularized in Hawaii by Leonard's Bakery in Honolulu. The owner, Leonard Rego, started
the bakery in 1952 and control has now passed to the second generation, his son Leonard
Jr. Watch any local Hawaiian TV for more than 10 minutes and you will likely see commercials
for Leonard's Bakery starring Leonard Jr. with his kids politely selling you on their
malasadas. Leonard's malasadas, as you can tell, are a big deal in Hawaii so when I saw
malasadas from a competing baker at a local farmer's market selling for less than Leonard's,
I was curious. I asked the teenager selling the malasadas two basic questions. Tell me
what makes your malasadas unique? Why should I buy your malasadas rather than from the
brand name? Rather than giving me a sales pitch, the teenager gave me apathy. She didn't
really know what made the products she was selling any different than a competitor's
product and she didn't care enough because she didn't have to care. After my first question,
she deferred to the elderly woman standing nearby talking to another local. Grandma,
the teenager said at least five times with increasing annoyance. Finally, after realizing
grandma wasn't going to handle two customers at once, the teen shook her head and told
me they just like our better, you know? Here are my theories about this and most other
small business situations. The grandparents founded the business. Life was likely much
easier for the second generation and the third generation expects the business slash money
to always be there. As we kind of go into this, we can look at society's falling. In
our society today, there is a pervasive thought that assaults us from every side. It is like
a fire that encircles us. As we look in any direction, we see a society that's bound
and determined to convince us all of the follies of our past, even if the direction that those
voices are leading us from are to, you know, from the sea to the rocky shores of destruction.
The siren song of society is one based on apathy and a lack of understanding. When we
look at the word of God, we see a different picture. The Bible is a marvelous gift. The
historical tales show us that human nature is predictable and is regularly consumed by
pride. Every generation has to deal with its own pride. They either had to learn to humble
themselves or they will allow themselves to be carried away by the belief that they know
better than the society that came before them. In Jeremiah 35, we're going to start off in
verses one through two, but we're going to jump around a little bit. So in verse one,
it says the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son
of Josiah, king of Judah, go to the house of the recobites and speak with them and bring
them to the house of the Lord into one of the chambers and then offer them wine to drink.
And we jump to verse five, then I set before the recobites pictures full of wine and cups
and said to them, drink wine. But they answered, we will drink no wine for Tehanadab, the son
of Reqab, our father commanded us, you shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons
forever. You shall not build a house. You shall not sow seed. You shall not plant or
have a vineyard. You shall live in tents all your days that you may live many days in the
land where you sojourn. We have obeyed the voice of Jehonadab and the son of Reqab, our
father in all that he has commanded us to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our
wives, our sons, our daughters, and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard
or field or seed, but we live in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jehonadab, our
father commanded us. So then in verse 12, it says, then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, go and say to the people of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will you not receive instruction and listen to
my words declares the Lord, the command that Jehonadab, the son of Reqab gave to his sons
to drink no wine has been kept and they drink none to this day for they have obeyed their
father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. The recubites
were honored by Jeremiah because they continued to honor their forefathers and show humility
in the teachings of the past. They chose to honor the wishes of Jehonadab, the son of
Reqab. Then this meant that they gave up drinking alcohol and even building permanent housing.
They were rewarded for these acts of faith and used as an object lesson to the entire
nation of Judah. We could see other examples of this in scripture. And this brings me to
my first point, which is generations of growth. And so we'll look at Abraham, Moses and King
David, the phenomenon of the third generation. This is an excerpt from an article written
by Dennis Bracker. Historians and sociologists have observed an interesting trend that occurs
with groups of people or in communities or even families. It's called the phenomenon
of the third generation. Simply put, they have observed that there commonly occurs deterioration
within a community that tends to climax with the third generation. The process begins with
a period of dynamic activity, usually stimulated by a strong leader or by some significant
event in the life of the community. This is the first generation. It is characterized
by a great growth, materially, intellectually, socially, and even spiritually. There are
new ideas around. There is a dynamic to living and excitement because new things are happening.
There is expansion and growth on all levels of human endeavor. The first generation is
marked by growth. There are many important figures in the Bible, but besides Christ,
there are a few more influential than Abraham, Moses and King David. These men are the patriarchs,
are the foundation of our faith. These men are far from perfect, but they each share
an important similarity to one another. Each of these men was bound to a covenantal relationship
with God. Abraham is the first father of our faith. The Abrahamic covenant is the beginning
of the formal revelation of the covenant of grace and God's decision to reach into humanity
and specifically save people for himself. This covenant is revealed to us in Genesis
12 via God's promise to Abraham. In Genesis 12, one through three, it says,
Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country, your kindred and your father's house
to a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you
and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those that bless
you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in all of your families of the earth shall
be blessed. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In Hebrews, this
covenant is highlighted by the author because of the importance of Abraham's faith. In Hebrews
11, 8 through 9, by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out to the place that he was
going to receive an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith
he went to live in the land of promise and as a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac
and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
We see a similar storyline with Moses. We see the same call being placed on the life
of Moses being an example for his people in Exodus 3, 7 through 10. Then the Lord said,
I surely have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry
because of their task-masker. I know the sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of
the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land,
a land flowing with milk and honey to a place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites,
the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel
has come to me and I have also seen the oppression with the Egyptians, or which the Egyptians
oppressed them. Come and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the
children of Israel out of Egypt. So also acting in faith, Moses dedicated himself to the covenant
of the Lord. He placed nothing before his relationship with God the Father. In Hebrews
11, 23 through 28 it says, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months
by his parents, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of
the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called son of
the Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than
enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater
than the wealth than the treasures of Egypt. For he was looking to the reward by the faith
he left Egypt, not by being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing
him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the
destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
So we can see with both Abraham and Moses that they had to act with faith. They had
to move towards God in faith and in doing so there was a tremendous blessing in their
lives and the lives of those that they were responsible for. So now we look at King David
and we have another similar story. A man who was plucked out of obscurity. God's chosen
man to replace King Saul. He was a humble shepherd but a man after God's own heart.
In 1 Samuel 13, 14 it says, But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out
a man after his own heart. The Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because
you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
This is the end of the story for Saul. He's being put to the side because he had failed
to live by faith and we're being told of a new man with a heart that seeks out God.
In 1 Samuel 16, 11-13 it says, Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here? And
he said, There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel
said, Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And he sent
and brought him in, and now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the
Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and appointed
him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from
that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
All these men had their failings, their weaknesses, their sins, but despite their shortcomings,
they all maintained a deep connection with God and oversaw tremendous growth for the
kingdom of God. Through their faith, they changed kingdoms, defeated kingdoms and created
kingdoms for God. But as time goes on, there's always a need to pass the torch to the next
generation. And there's always a hope that your progeny will continue in the same faith
that we hold so dear. Abraham, Moses and King David are no different. They had a burden
to see the next generation succeed and to go even deeper into covenant with the Lord.
So let's go back to our article and we'll go get on to my next point, which is generations
of entrenchment. Then time passes and the second generation
takes over. They have not directly experienced the dynamic events of the first generation.
They have inherited good times and prosperity. There's no longer the drive to accomplish,
to create new ideas, to grow. The second generation is usually content to preserve and consolidate
the gains of the first generation. They know the triumphs of the past and sometimes
wish or dream for them. Yet because they are content with what they have inherited, there's
little motivation to put forth a genuine effort to sustain the dynamic of the past. So the
second generation is content with listening to the stories of the old ways, wishing for
them, but it's too involved with preservation and success of the present to continue the
growth of the first generation. They work hard to preserve the status quo, fearing that
any movement will risk losing what they have received. The second generation is marked
by entrenchment. So now we move on to Isaac, Joshua, and Solomon.
Isaac the son of Abraham, the promised child, followed in his father's footsteps, but he
is most notably remembered for being the would-be sacrifice saved by an angel. He is important
because he was the culminations of God's promise, but honestly, there's little more to the
story of Isaac. He had great faith, got back up when he stumbled and trusted God's promises.
Every Christian can look at Isaac as an example of a simple man whose life was important because
of how God used him. That being said, he did not push the kingdom forward in any real significant
way, but rather enjoyed the blessings of his father and maybe was a bit too complacent
in raising his children. Then with Joshua, we could see that carrying on the next generation,
there's some issues. Joshua took over leadership of Israel after Moses. Joshua saw miracles
during the time of his leadership. He conquered 31 kings while taking over the land of Canaan.
He saw miracles in battle and continued to carry forward in the same faith as Moses.
Joshua was not truly of the generation that he ruled over though. Joshua and Caleb were
the only two that made it out of the desert. They lived righteously and faithfully to the
Lord, but the next generation quickly showed they were not of the same spirit. In Judges
1, 20, 17, 34, it says, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and its villages
or Tanak and its villages or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages or the inhabitants
of Iblim and its villages or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages or for the Canaanites
persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to be
forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who
lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. Zebulim did not drive out
the inhabitants of Kittron and the inhabitants of Naholo, so the Canaanites lived among them
but became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko and
the inhabitants of Sidon or of Alab or Aqzib or of Helba or of Afik or of Rehab. So the
Asherites lived among the Canaanites and the inhabitants of the land, so they did not drive
them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh or the inhabitants of Bethanath
so that they lived among the Canaanites in the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless,
the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and Bethanath became subject to forced labor for them. The
Ammonites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, but they did not allow them
to come down to the plain. So what we see here is we see that when you consider the
man Joshua being the right hand of Moses being trained by him, but governing the next generation
of Israel, the ones that actually made it out of the desert, they were quickly willing
to just live and try to maintain what they'd already achieved. There wasn't this push for
success anymore. There wasn't this push for going forward into God's blessing or even
following God's word. There was just this protectionism mindset that they fell into.
We see something similar with Solomon. Solomon might have been the wisest man, but he was
not the most devout because of that he did not live up to the ideals of his father, King
David. In 1 Kings 11 through 4 it says, For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away
his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as
was the heart of David his father. This generation is known most for holding or benefiting from
the previous generation. They did not blaze a trail. They did not hold the same standards
that made the previous generation great. This poses a big problem for the next generation
because now their example is one of stagnation. I know that Solomon built the temple, but
who started the temple? Who planned for the temple? Who funded the temple? All these things
were set in place by King David. Solomon was just acting upon what was already established
by his father. In the next picture we see the tragedy of not striving to move forward
wholly with faith in the Lord and the direction that God has for us.
Let's get to the final point which is the generational choice, renewed covenant or decline.
Time passes again and the mantle falls on the third generation. They have only heard
about the dynamics and the vitality of the first generation secondhand. They have not
seen that kind of vitality. They have only seen the process of preservation and entrenchment.
They have heard stories of the past, but they are far away and unreal. They find no compelling
reason to be driven by the vision that drove their grandparents. They are freed from the
need to fight for recognition and security and are even freed from the worries of preserving
what was originally hard won. They are idle with no vision that drives them, no passion
that inflames them and no purpose that gives them meaning. As a result, members of the
third generation usually begin to question their identity and their belonging. Why even
be part of this group, of this community, of this family if I serve no purpose and see
no future? Here is the tragedy of the third generation.
The third generation is often a people lacking a strong sense of identity and belonging and
so are uncommitted to the group. A people without a driving passion because they are
fired and they are fired by no vision. A people not sure of who they are, what they believe
or what they should do. The third generation is marked by decline.
And so now we look at Jacob, the judges and Rehoboam. By the time Jacob came on the scene,
we already saw some cracks in the relationship between God and Isaac. Jacob himself was very
far from a faithful man that Abraham was. He was a trickster and at the same time he
was prone to running away when things got tough. This doesn't discount how immensely
used he was by God. I still can't shake the feeling that God was with Jacob and Israel
more out of his commitment to Abraham than to Jacob. The family dynamics of Jacob's
family were far more from honorable and within his life God had to rescue them by sending
them into captivity into Egypt. In Genesis 42-50 it tells the story of Jacob's family
and we see this experience of Jacob and yes he wrestled with God but even that is different
than just actively living by faith in God. And yes there is a generational choice in
this third generation where it's you are going to either continue the decline or you're
going to make a new stand and a new covenant. And we see a covenant being made with Jacob
but it's not the same kind of forceful covenant that Abraham made. And so that's why whenever
we look at the patriarchs of the faith it's always the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
but it's always Abraham first. There is a certain difference because we can see with
Jacob's children, his children were willing to sell one of their brothers into slavery
out of envy and jealousy. So there was obviously issues going on within the family of Jacob
that we could see a certain decline that wasn't apparent during the time of Abraham. In Judges
we similarly see Joshua and the nation of Israel going into this period of constant
upheaval. The next generation did not take God's command seriously and God graciously
had to raise Judges up to get them out of a pickle consistently. Just different problems
that would keep rising themselves up. They kept placing themselves into these problems
because of their disobedience. The book of Judges sets the stage for the time of the
Jewish kings but it's an illustration for us to see that our kingship was always meant
to be heavenly and not earthly because the Israelites during the time of the Judges,
after the time of Joshua were consistent in their disobedience and consistently falling
and then having to repent and come back and then falling and having to repent and come
back to their relationship with God. We see a total decline of the nation of Israel and
that's what sets up the stage for their clamor and their desire to have a king of their own
which we're told by Samuel is a refutation of God and his relationship with him because
we were never meant to have any other king other than our king in heaven. Then we come
to Rebohm. This is the saddest of the generational tales to me. It's the tale of Rebohm. Here's
a guide that had it all. King Solomon was the wisest and richest of kings. The nation
of Israel was secure but poor young Rebohm did not have any hand in building this mighty
kingdom of Israel and this Davidic dynasty. The grandson of the great King David should
have been able to build up upon that great legacy but unfortunately that didn't happen
and instead he ended up with the destruction of the unified Jewish kingdoms and 10 of the
12 tribes of Israel turned rapidly to idolatry in the kingship of Jeroboam. You can read
about that in 1 Kings 12. It's such a terrible, terrible story because here's a man who could
have taken the wise counsel of the counselors that were left over from his father Solomon's
time and they probably would have been able to mitigate some of the concerns of Jeroboam
and the other tribes but instead he took the advice of his friends, these new counselors
who did not understand how the world works, did not understand what was righteous and
what was wrong and gave bad advice and ended up causing the destruction of the unified
kingdom and ended up leading 10 of those 12 tribes directly into idolatry through their
King Jeroboam and his golden calves. It's such a terrible story because we know from
the rest of the Bible that there were no good kings in the northern kingdom. So how many
souls were lost because of this decline from Rehoboam? In closing, our covenant is in Christ.
The beautiful thing about Christianity is that every single person who comes to Christ
can be saved by grace. This is a miracle in and of itself. Each person is the first generation
to renew their covenant with God. Salvation is the greatest gift and that is why it is
still the best tool for sharing the gospel. How good or bad your father or grandfather
may have been doesn't matter. We all have an opportunity to start a new generation of
growth. We can live eternally in a growth period because of salvation. I'm not pretending
to proclaim that just because you get saved your kids will immediately fall on your foot
steps. Each individual has to make their own choice in life. What I am saying is that if
you do not succumb to the belief that your life is on a downward trend because of this
or because of that, Christ has grafted all of us in as direct sons and daughters to the
Father. This means we can all have faith like Abraham. We can all be used by God like Moses
and we can all have a heart like King David. We do not have to live in the shadow of those
who came before us and we do not have to fail like the third generation. In John 20, 31
it says, but these are written so that you may believe in Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. And in John 4, or 1
John 4 verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus the Son of God abides in him and he in God.
So with that if I could have every head bowed, every eye closed just really quickly as we
change the order of this message to the invitation. We all have the same opportunity to come to
Christ to give our lives up and accept him as our Lord and Savior. And if God is convicting
you right now, if you feel like you are on the decline, if you feel like you are alone,
you feel like your parents did nothing for you, you feel like you come from, or you know
you come from a broken house, a broken family, you have a broken heart, God can help you.
God can mend these wounds. God can create in you a new heart and you can step into a
new family grafted in with the Lord Jesus. And you can be that first generation again
with the growth, growth in your relationship with Jesus Christ and he can put everything
back together into your life, into your soul. If that is something that is speaking to you,
resonating with you and you are feeling a spirit convict you, then you want to signify
that with an uplifted hand. I can't see it, but God sees it. And if you did that and you
meant it, I just want to lead you in a quick prayer. Dear Lord God, I know that I am a
sinner, but I know that you sent your son Jesus Christ, that he died for my sins and
that he rose from the grave. I accept him as my Lord and Savior and I thank you for
salvation that comes by way of grace. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So with that simple prayer,
you have repented of your sin, which means you turn away. You're going to, you're going
to strive to sin no more and you're going to live a life honoring, praising and worshiping
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That sets you apart and it sets you on a path of
great growth in your life, in your spirit. And I want to commend you on that choice.
So the next thing is you need to get, you need to get in the word. You read the Bible,
read the New Testament and start with the gospels because that'll help you to understand
the power of what you just tapped into and pray. Cry out to God with your problems, cry
out to him, glorify him with your praise. And then lastly, like lock, find a Bible believing
church and lock into it to serve others. Come into it humbly with a desire to serve because
God is working a miracle in you. Even as we speak, if you live in Sam and our common,
visit us for church. We'd be happy to have you. If you don't live in Sam and arm, reach
out. We have 3,500 churches globally. I can help put you in contact with the Bible believing
church and I just want to thank you for listening to me this long. And again, if, if you can,
if you've listened this long, I just pray that you like share and subscribe to this podcast
so that we can help grow the message and get it out to as many people as possible. It tremendously
helps and you spread it out to everybody. And if you want to, if you want to give to
help support this, this ministry, there's links in the, in the, in the podcast notes.
You can, you can find that and you can help us as well. And I just want to thank you again
and get, and I want to give God all the praise and glory and I look forward to you coming
back next time. God bless.