FAMILY UNDER CURSE

BIBLE PASSAGE: EZEKIEL 18:2-20

• Picture taken from Google
• Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
• Lesson ideas taken from: https://www.desiringgod.org/ tonyEvans sermon

NOVEMBER 13, 2022

 

MEMORY VERSE

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

PSALMS 127:1

 

INTRODUCTION:

All of us bear the DNA of our mothers and fathers. The physical DNA is not the only thing that gets transferred; there is a spiritual DNA that transfers as well. This is unseen reality that passes between parents and children, grandparents’ parents and children that leads to cycle of consequences; it’s spiritual DNA. Parents don’t only pass to their children your good looks (Ehemm) but also transfers or have transferred to us the patterns of sinful behavior. These patterns transferred from one generation to another create spiritual scars in our lives. It’s usually not planned but it is very real to your children. It’s sinful patterns that we’ve picked up across generations. We’ve seen people whose father was an alcoholic and they become an alcoholic. In America, you can see parents got divorce and so are their children.  Let’s talk about a cycle of poverty where people have the mindset that being on poor situation, even you have the capacity to work, is okay; they adopt the fact that’s really okay. If these cycle behavior is unaddressed produces built-in consequences to our wellbeing. Some parents live in debt and so are the children.

Today our lesson is titled, “FAMILY UNDER CURSE” and most of us here our families are not in this category anymore but stay with me in this lesson and be reminded and thankful.

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  CURSES AND BLESSINGS ARE TRANSFERRED (LEVITICUS 26:39-42)

Let’s read Deuteronomy 30:15-16,19. These verses give a great warning for every one of us. There are choices needed to do. Let’s remember that that the life you choose affects you and your descendants. When Adam sinned in the garden the Bible says that it affected the whole human race.  His decisions affected the generations.

 

The things we see in our society today for example the ruthless murder of people. I remember the killing of Percy Lapid. If you follow the case, you’ll see how he was killed. Hiring of gunman, middlemen and look-out men just to kill him and that was shocking.

The random murder of innocent blood – abortion. Let me ask this question, do you want to pass this on? Do you want to pass your alcoholism? Do you want to pass on your drug addiction? Do I want to pass on my lifestyle? Do you want your kids to pick these up?

 

Let’s read Leviticus 26:39-42.

³⁹ And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. ⁴⁰ If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; ⁴¹ And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: ⁴² Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

 

How to break the curse? Come to God and claim your own rebellion. You must come to God and repent your own participation in the iniquity – “Confess their iniquity (your own participation) and the iniquity of the forefathers.”

 

 

2.   THE SINS OF THE FATHERS ARE PUNISHED TO THE CHILDREN THROUGH BECOMING THE CHILDREN’S OWN SIN

Honestly before I have fear of being punished because of what my father or parents did. If my father is “babaero” I thought, I would be the punishment for his sinful acts. Who thought the same way, could you raise your hand? (insert conversation with a Christian who telling God being unfair for giving punishment)

Let’s read some verses:

EXODUS 20: 5-6 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

EXODUS 34:6-7 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

LEVITICUS 26:39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

However, there are other texts that are absolutely differentt what the Bible means in those first texts.

Deuteronomy 24:16: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”

2 Kings 14:6: “But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.’”

Ezekiel 18:20: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

 

We can see based from the verses that the sins of the fathers are punished in the children through becoming the children’s own sin. That is really crucial. So here is the key text: Exodus 20:5: “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.” In other words, the hatred of God is the embodiment of what the father’s problem was. Those who experience the penalty of the father’s sins are those who hate God, according to that verse.

We are not told how the father’s sins become the children’s sins. That is a mysterious thing left in God’s mind. But they do. What we are told is that when father’s sins are visited on the children it is because the children have become sinners like the fathers. The father’s sins are the children’s sins.

So no innocent child has ever been punished for a father’s sins; only guilty children are punished and are guilty of the very sins that their fathers sinned.

So you see how important to be a good example to your children. Your influence matters. If you, as parents, don’t prioritize spiritual matters; you seldom go to church, you don’t use the bible as manual of living as a family, you don’t follow God’s commandments, it will influence your children to do these things as well. Also it’s important to have a personal relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s our own decisions to follow our parents’ path of iniquity or not. If you follow God instead and accept Him to your life, you won’t be punished by the iniquity of your forefathers.

 

Let’s read Ezekiel 18: 2-20

Ezekiel 18:2-3 “²What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? ³ As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.”

 

Verse 3 reminded Israelites to not use that proverb anymore which is mentioned in verse 2. Don’t blame mother and father for what you do. Mother and father maybe have transferred it, illustrated it, demonstrated it and amplified it but you took it on by choice. In other words, don’t use what somebody else did in a previous generation as an excuse for you to keep it going. Verse 4 means, if you are messed up like your mama and daddy it’s because you chose to adopt their mess.

 

3.  JESUS CHRIST BROKE THE CURSE

Because of God’s grace, which is, of course, finally secured for us by Jesus on the cross, the children can confess their own sins and the sins of their fathers and be forgiven and accepted by God.

Nobody is trapped in his father’s sins — or even in his own sins. We already see it in the Old Testament. Leviticus 26:40–42: “If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers . . . if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. So nobody in the Old Testament or the New Testament is trapped or enslaved or in bondage or under an unbreakable curse because of something the fathers did, or something they did.

 

The precious words of Exodus 34:6–7 are not nullified by generational migration of sin. It says, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands” — and then, as if to get the point across, he gives three words — “forgiving iniquity and [forgiving] transgression and [forgiving] sin.”

I mean, you can’t get clearer at the center of the Mosaic Law than from generation to generation God forgives the sins of those who repent.

None of this should make anyone feel trapped and without hope because of his parents’ sins. Ezekiel 33:14–15 says, “Though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” The blood of Jesus conquers all sin and judgment for those who believe.

 

And you get a beautiful sweeping statement in Acts 10:43: “To him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” So nobody is trapped in anybody’s sin — their own or someone else’s — because of the cross.

No one who has a child who goes bad and forsakes the way of righteousness should feel that it is all his fault.

Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.” In other words, there are real responsibilities in our children’s hearts, and we will not be found guilty because of our children’s guilt if we deal, of course, with our own sins. This means that you can’t be paralyzed by the guilt of thinking, “I guess my children’s problems are all owing to me.”

Finally, when it comes to generational curses, Christians should lay hold on Galatians 3:10-15L Let’s read) The rules of God, the law, that’s the ten commandments, cannot fix your problem, my problem and our problem. The law is good but He says with the law comes a curse. Why? Because all the law can do is show you the problem; it cannot fix it. With the law comes the curse because every time God give a rule, he gives consequence and if your break it something will happen. The law of God is good to expose you but not to deliver you. If committing ourselves to the law can’t make it right, it only tells us what’s wrong we’re doing that we shouldn’t be doing that we got from our parents then passing to our/your children.  What will make it right? Verse 14 says,

“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:.’”

Christ has paid every debt and broken every curse. On the cross God broke the authority (legitimate use of power) of Satan, Jesus broke the curse. The blood of Christ covers all curses.

CONCLUSION:

ROMANS 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

ROMANS 5:15 “… For if through the offence of one many be dead…”

 

The only reason we have to die is because what Adam did that got transferred to the human race. Death was the transfer of rebellion against God but then within time between birth and death are choices that are made – decisions. God said that the consequence of our sin we bear because we make a decision to repeat the practice that may have been transferred to us. Don’t make an excuse for disobeying because of your father and mother. Let’s paraphrase what God had told to Adam “Because you listen to your wife, you should have told her, I love you but we can’t eat that fruit but because you are so in love that you let her cause you to disobey me now the whole family is in trouble.” So no man and woman has the final authority, everybody who names the name of Jesus Christ is under God. The reasons we have all this chaos in families today is we got folk trying to trump God in the relationship. Jesus broke the curse of the law so that we can have the spirit. That’s why it’s important for the family to have the Holy Spirit and the family can only do that if they accepted Jesus Christ into their lives. JESUS CHRIST IS THE KEY!

OFFENDED BY THE WORD

This picture was taken from Google

Memory Verse

Matthew 11:6 (KJV)

⁶ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

OCTOBER 20, 2018

MATTHEW 15: 1 -20;

JOHN 6: 27 - 71

Introduction:

What does offend mean?

The Oxford dictionary defines the word 'offend' as 'to cause to feel upset, annoyed, or resentful'

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as 'to cause (a person or group) to feel hurt, angry, or upset by something said or done'

Have you experienced being offended? Many of us would say yes but the great thing is we still here. How about being offended by men, leaders, and pastors of the church? I had an experience wherein a pastor was assigned to be the speaker and people were blessed with the sermon. After the worship service, few leaders, pastors had the chance to have a short talk. I heard the speaker talked about his preaching. He said he was not really cried in the sermon, he had a cold and pretended to cry. I was offended not because some members went forward to surrender but because the sermon is a serious matter that needs more focus and prayer to the Lord; it’s a time to share God’s message through you. This kind of offense is different from our topic today; Offended by the Word is quite serious and needs spiritual discernment from the Lord.

Have you thought about being offended by the Lord Jesus Christ?

I’ll give some situations from the Bible and try to personalize them:

a)       A rich young ruler liked Jesus and agreed with what He taught ("Good Teacher") and clearly wanted confirmation that his good behavior would result in eternal life. But Jesus' response offends his own sense of worth, and he walks away from Jesus saddened, and unchanged.

b)      ²¹ Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

²² And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

²³ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

²⁴ But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

²⁵ Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

²⁶ But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.” (Matthew 15:21-26) [emphasis mine] The Jews regarded Gentiles as 'dogs' - a deeply offensive term in their culture (Matthew 7:6) And Jesus has just publicly referred to her daughter as a dog!  How offensive was that? But listen to her reply. “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (v.27) Now listen to the response from Jesus. “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” (v.28) And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

                        Matthew Henry's commentary on this event.

Many methods of Christ's providence, especially of His grace, in dealing with His people, which are dark and perplexing, may be explained by this story, which teaches us that there may be love in Christ's heart while there are frowns on His face; and it encourages us, though He seems ready to slay us, yet to trust in Him. Those whom Christ intends most to honour, He humbles to feel their own unworthiness. A proud, unhumbled heart would not have borne this.

c)       He was speaking the truth from 1 Kings chapter 12 and 2 Kings chapter 5, but the people in the synagogue were so offended by the implications of His words they threw Him out of the the synagogue, out of the city and then tried to throw Him off a cliff.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way. (Luke 4:28)

d)      Imagine you are in the temple when Jesus arrives with a whip of cords (John 2:13-16). If that happened at our church would we be offended by His behavior?

e)       For instance how many of us have heard these challenging and potentially offensive words of Jesus preached to us?

"If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. You should lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right-hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. You should lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Matthew 5:29-30

Then another of His disciples said to Him "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father" But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead" Matthew 8:21-22

“If any come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26.

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If a man abideth not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (John 15:5-6)

So then, because of thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Revelation 3:16

These are just some of the situations wherein the sayings of our Lord are offensive. Now let’s study the lesson titled “OFFENDED BY THE WORD.”

LESSON POINTS:

   1)   THEY’RE OFFENDED POSSIBLE BECAUSE THEY NEVER TRUST CHRIST AT ALL, OR ACCEPT HIM AS THEIR SAVIOR (JOHN 6:42).

-      What comes to your mind with our first point? (let few people answer)

-      Proofs that they were not accepted Christ as Saviour:

a)   Looking for Jesus for the wrong reasons (6:26)

b)   The Work of God—Believe (6:28-29)

c)    Requiring another miraculous sign (6:30-31)

d)   The True Bread from heaven (6:32-34)

    2)   SOME JOIN THE CHURCH WHO, AFTER TIME, ARE OFFENDED (PROFESSING CHRISTIANS) (John 6: 66-67)

Now, why is it that some, who profess to know Him are offended with Christ?  Well, with some it is because the novelty wears off. Very earnest services were held and they were greatly affected. They thought that they repented and believed, so they joined the church. Now the good men who held the services are gone and everything seems rather flat after such excitement. And so, they have gone back again. They jumped into religion like a man into a bath, and they have jumped out again, put on their clothes and gone back to the world and to what they were before.

When we visited the USA a few months ago, we noticed that we hadn’t seen any lizard in my sister’s place. We just ignored it until one time, a blogger sited an example to his sermon about lizards then I started to search about them. The explanation about lizards was answered:

(explanations are taken from http://lizardsandfriends.org/?p=596

In spring and summer in Texas, we see lizards everywhere we look.  They’re climbing on the trees, crawling on the ground, and running around the walls of our houses.  If you watch a lizard for a few minutes in the summer, you’ll probably see it catching an insect to eat, or chasing another lizard out of its territory, or sitting in the shade to stay cool.

But in the fall and winter when the temperature drops, we don’t see many lizards anymore.  What are they doing when the cold wind and rain come?  The answer is, they’re not doing very much!  Lizards are a type of animal called ectotherms, which means that their body temperature is the same as the environment around them.  So when the air outside is cold, lizards are cold too.  On the other hand, humans (along with other mammals and birds) are endotherms, which means that our internal functions keep our bodies at a warm temperature no matter what the weather is outside.

When lizards are cold, they don’t need to eat very much to stay alive, so they don’t need to be active.  Instead, they try to find a warm place to hide.  They might burrow under leaves, or dig a hole in the soil, or find a hole in a tree trunk.  In general, lizards will sit very still in these safe places and wait for warmer weather, when they will come out and sit in the sun to warm themselves.  Once they’re warm, they’ll start running after food and chasing other lizards again!

Not any of the twelve apostles, for they are distinguished from these in the next verse; nor any of the seventy disciples, but some of the a multitude of the disciples, who followed Christ, heard him and professed to believe in him, and were baptized in his name, but were not true disciples,

    3)  SOME WHO WERE OFFENDED BY THE TRUTH BUT DID NOT WALK AWAY (JOHN 6: 36 – 71)

-      What were the lessons mentioned:

a)    I Am the Bread of Life (6:35-36)

b)    A Passage of Promise (6:37-40)

c)    No-one Can Come Unless the Father draws Him (6:41-47)

d)    The Bread of Life that Comes Down from Heaven (6:48-51a) Now Jesus repeats His claim that He is the Bread of Life (6:33,35).

e)    Eat My Flesh (6:51b-52

f)     Flesh Given for the Life of the World (6:51b)

-      The earliest New Testament believers were 'messianic Jews'. Men and women who were raised in the Jewish religion, the Jewish traditions and Jewish culture.

Scripture states that 'life is in the blood' (Lev. 3:17 & 17:11) and so eating blood was (and still is) a deeply offensive thing to a Jew. Hence their ritual slaughtering of animals which allows the blood to be drained from the meat.

When gentiles - who knew little of the Jewish culture - began to flood into the Kingdom some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees wanted them to be circumcised, and this issue, in particular, brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute with them. (Acts 15:1-3)

Eventually the apostles and elders met at Jerusalem to decide what wise stipulations they should lay upon the rapidly increasing numbers of gentile believers. After much debate, James - the step-brother of Jesus - stood up and addressed the council saying,

“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from the blood. Acts 15:19-20 [emphasis mine]

Thus the 'original Christians' from within the Jewish culture were agreeable to drop the issue of circumcision, and didn't mention Sabbath-keeping, but asked them to abstain from food offered to idols, sexual immorality, meat from strangled animals and blood. Why these four stipulations?

One commentary on these verses said,

Circumcision was not required but four stipulations were laid down. These were in areas where the gentiles had particular weaknesses and where the Jews were particularly repulsed by gentile violations. It would help both the individual and the relationship between Gentile and Jew if these requirements were observed. (The NIV Bible Study) [emphasis mine]

So with this background information it is not hard to understand how deeply offensive the idea of flesh being eaten with the blood still in it would be, even to a messianic Jew.

We get that.

Jesus was Jewish, raised in a Jewish home, in a Jewish land with Jewish traditions and a robust Jewish culture. He knew flesh with blood was offensive.

With that understanding, listen to Jesus addressing Jewish listeners in the synagogue in Capernaum.

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said unto them, “Verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed". (John 6:51-55)  [emphasis mine]

What offense! And the crowd was offended. Very offended. So were His disciples.

With great understatement many of His disciples said,

“This is a hard saying; who can hear it? (“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”) (Luke 6:60)

To which Jesus replied,

“Doth this offend you?” (or “Does this offend you?)  (John 6:61)

So the offensive was His words that we read,

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, “Will ye also go away?”  (John 6: 66-67)

Simon Peter answered him on behalf of them all,

“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”(John 6: 68-69) [emphasis mine]

In other words, the disciples who did not walk away - were definitely offended by 'the truth' but did not walk away as others did because they had truly come to believe and to know that He was indeed, the Christ, the Son of the living God.