Sermon – Generational Curses September 4, 2005

Intro
Simon’s father stumbles in at 2:30am drunk. This is nothing new to 10 year old Simon. When he hears the banging of lamps and doors, Simon knows the best thing is to pull his pillow tight over his head so he will not have to hear the swearing or his mother being hit. Simon mutters into the darkness that he will never be like his father.

If Simon hates the sin of his father so much, why is he statistically likely to grow up to repeat the sins of his parents? 50% of the children of alcoholics grow up to be alcoholics themselves. The reason for that tragic statistic is found way back in the Ten Commandments:

Ex 20:1-7
20:1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

We are going to focus on verses 5 & 6 today.

How God Feels About the Expression, “Oh my God”
First, may I tangent to mention something about the next commandment? Let’s read it:

7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

For the word “misuse” the original text uses the Hebrew “shave,” which means emptiness, vanity, or falsely. The King James interprets this as vain; do not use the Lord’s name in vain. The Darby translation says, do not “idly utter the name” of God. God does not want us to use His name cheaply. So often we hear the expression “Oh my God.” That is using the Lord’s name cheaply; without a real purpose. I’m guessing some of us didn’t know that was in the Bible, so I wanted to mention it. If we are interested in pleasing God we should know that He has specifically commanded us not to use His name cheaply. Okay, back to generational sins.

The Curse
What I want us to see from the covenant of the Ten Commandments is that in verses 5 & 6 God warns that punishment for major sin effects not only the perpetrator but also his offspring three and four generations later. Let’s look at some examples.

Abraham’s Big Lie

Gen 12:11-13
11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."

The King of Egypt took Sarah as his wife. When God cursed the royal household and the King discovered the truth, Abraham and Sarah were thrown out of Egypt. Abraham’s lie was based in mistrust of God’s provision. It is a sin many of us are pone to today. Much later in Chapter 20 we find him repeating the same error all over again.

Gen 20:1-3
20:1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman."

Fast forward many years and six chapters in Genesis. Turn to chapter 26. Abraham has passed away and his son Isaac is now seeking a place to live.


Gen 26:6, 7
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful."

Does this sound familiar? The nut does not fall far from the tree. Even though God blessed Abraham right up to the end of his life, nevertheless, Abraham’s big error of not trusting God’s provision and resorting to deception was clearly passed on to his prodigy. What we learn from Isaac is there is not some kind of undeserved retribution in generational sins, rather the children themselves adopt and repeat their parents’ errors. Let’s move on to another example.

David’s Big Sin
Like Abraham, David loved the Lord and followed Him. Yet David gave in to his lusts and sinned with Bathsheba who was married to another man. When she sent word their sin resulted in pregnancy, David had her husband murdered in battle to cover up. The Lord was deeply grieved by all this and sent the prophet Nathan to confront David.

2 Sam 12:11-14
"This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'"

13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."

Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." NIV

God in His grace forgave the repentant David but because of the covenant in the Ten Commandments the consequences of David’s sin followed the generations that came after. Not only did the baby die as Nathan predicted, but the son’s born to David later repeated their father’s big lustful sin. David’s son Amnon raped his stepsister which led to hatred from Absalom, a son by a different wife. Absalom killed Amnon two years later and then fled from David. Absalom lived as an enemy of his own father and for a short time captured Jerusalem. Nathan’s prophecy came true when Absalom pitched a tent on the palace roof and slept with 10 of his father’s concubines. Absalom later died in battle against David and his father mourned him deeply. David’s sin of not being satisfied with what God had provided and taking a forbidden woman was repeated by his sons. Even Solomon, the son of great wisdom later repeated this sin when he married foreign women who led him into idolatry.

Again we see David enjoyed God’s larger blessings including heaven, but his life on earth was painfully marked by grief, as were the lives of his children, all because of his big error.

Stronghold of Deceptions
Behind every generational sin is a demonic stronghold of deception that can only be broken by the power of Christ. Listen:

2 Cor. 10:4-5
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Verse 5 uses the words “arguments,” “pretension,” and “knowledge of God.” These are all references to truth. So a stronghold is a lie we accept so deeply that it becomes a strategic entrenchment; territory controlled by the enemy. It is like a cavity of decay on our soul and demonic powers can latch on to that point. By the spiritual power of the covenant in the Ten Commandments, these strongholds of deception are passed on for generations.

An example is when we accept the lie that alcohol or sex will bring satisfaction then pass those deceptions on to our children. The truth is only Jesus brings ultimate satisfaction. Often the sin will be different from generation to generation while the underling lie is the same. For example, the child of an alcoholic may never drink but they become a workaholic or obsessed with food. The underling lie is still the same: something other than Jesus can bring meaning and fulfillment to life.

The New Covenant
Let’s turn now to the New Covenant under Christ. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that God would one day send a cure for generational curses:

Jer 31:27-30
27 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the LORD. 29 "In those days people will no longer say,

'The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

30 Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes — his own teeth will be set on edge.

It is often said the Old Covenant found in the Old Testament is dead and no longer governs us. More accurately, the Old Covenant is fulfilled, not annulled by, the New Covenant. Listen to Jesus:

Matt 5:17-18
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

What we have under the New Covenant is not an escape from the reality of generational sins but a solution. Now we can apply the blood of Christ and satisfy the demand for punishment called for by the Old Covenant.

Heb 9:15
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Gal 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

So Jesus takes the curse of sin, including generationally inherited sins, off us and puts it on Himself on the cross. However, this transaction is only positional: that is in our relationship to God. It doesn’t transfer into our lives now unless we work through three steps.

Step #1
Recognize the deception and repent. Jesus said:

John 8:32
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. TLB

Step #2
Name our errors out loud, confidentially, to a trusted individual. The demons whispering constant untruth have exclusive domain over their stronghold as long as we keep our sin a secret. They lose tremendous power when the conversation is taken out of our heads and brought into dialogue with a loving, honest third party. Confession takes the sting out of a sin. That is why James writes:

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Step #3
Apply the blood of Jesus in prayer.

Heb 9:14
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Prayer
“Dear Lord, my family has sinned, I have sinned. We have given over a special place in our hearts meant for You to __________________(Name the lie you have embraced). Jesus as much as I hate to put one more punishment on You, I have no choice. I am desperate. I cannot remove this myself, so I must ask that Your blood be applied to the sin I’ve named.”