Our reading today come from the book of Deuteronomy 5:9-10 It says … “for I the Lord your God, I am a jealousy God, punishing the children for the sins of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. ”
Did you get it? What did you hear? The curse of the blessing? The Lord shows loving kindness to a thousand generations of those who love him.
Most of us have visited doctors with health conditions. And depending on the condition, the doctors tend to ask intriguing question like “do you have someone in your family line that has suffered from the disease you have, this question is often ask for diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, asthma; is there a history of this sickness, or that sickness in your family line? They know that it can be passed down from generation to generation.
And in the same way, we can pass down a whole lot of other junk unless we rise up and do something about it. And it is so easy to justify it. You just say well, this is the way my father was. He was always hot tempered and that is why am hot tempered.
Some of us today have all kind of junks in our family lines. It has been there for generations; divorce, poverty, alcoholism, addiction, negativity. Listen, you can rise up and do something about that. Because if you stay passive and just learn to accept it, all you are going to do is to pass it all down to the next generation. And what a shame to perpetuate it when you are the one to put a stop to it by the power of the blood of Jesus.
Saints, the decisions that we make don’t just affect us; they affect people around us. They affect the future generation.
All through the bible, there are many examples where God bless people because of their parents obedience, or because of their grand parents obedience. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
Can God break generational curses? Yes He can! I think about King Soul. He had every opportunity in the world to do what was right. But he just didn’t do it, he didn’t honour God with his life. Eventually, God had to take the throne away from him. But Soul’s son Jonathan, refused to follow in his father’s footsteps. And I know it was difficult for him. It is difficult when everybody around you is compromising and taking the easy way out. But Jonathan refused to give in. He continued living a life of excellence in spite of what he saw his father doing. Unfortunately, he and his father Soul were killed in a battle.
Many years later, David started thinking about his friend Jonathan. And David said in 2 Samuel 9:1, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”.” I believe David thought this because of the covenant of mercy that David had established with his friend Jonathan. When you make decisions that honour God, God will cause people to want to be good to your descendants.
And David said to his servants, is there anyone from the house of Jonathan that I can bless? The servant replied, Jonathan has a crippled son. Then David gave an order for the son to be found and brought to the palace. At that time, the young son of Jonathan descent was living in extreme poverty. But now, he is being brought to the palace to live in royalty. But why? Why did David do that? David did that because of the crippled boy’s father, Jonathan. Friends it pays to live a Godly life.
The scriptures say in Deuteronomy 30:19 “…I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live in the land”.
I love listening and taking notes from this preacher called Joel Osteen. In his sermon, “The Legacy that you Leave”, he says, “Friends, we need to learn to think generationally. What am I passing down; what kind of legacy am I leaving? Is it greed, selfishness, negativity or am I leaving a legacy of giving, a legacy of helping others, am I kind to people, do I have a positive outlook, am I really making a difference with my life?”
I had a story about a man by the name of Alfred Nobel. He was the creator of the Nobel peace prize. It is kind of interesting how it all came about. Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist. And he invented dynamite and some very powerful explosives. And most of them were used as weapons during the war and for other very harmful purposes. And he made fortunes out of this inventions; millions of dollars.
But one day, his brother died. And the newspapers accidentally printed his obituary instead of his brother’s. And in it they described him as the man who became rich by enabling others to kill people in mass unprecedented numbers. When he read that, his heart was troubled, he thought, I don’t want to be known for that. And so he took his fortune and created the Nobel Prize. And still to this day, that prize rewards people for making positive accomplishments that benefit mankind.
So I ask; what difference are you making right now with your life? Well you may say” it is my life, I can live it as I want” yes that is true; but that is a very selfish way of thinking! Why? Because, really, it is not just your life. You may think it is okay to live negative, in self-pity all the time, to watch things that pollute your mind; but those poor choices are affecting those around you.
You see, people are watching you. Your children for example, are taking in every single thing that you do. They will be like video cameras with legs. They will learn more from what you will do than from what you will say. So, for every right choice you make, you are making it a little bit easier for those who will come after you.
But you might say that you don’t believe in this generational staff; that every man is for himself. With all due respect, whether you realize it or not, you are being affected right now by the decisions people made many many years ago. Habits that you are dealing with, wrong mind sets, addictions.
Many studies conducted, show that we produce what we are. In other words, alcoholics produce alcoholics. Negative people produce negative people. Parents with low self-esteem most likely will have children with low self esteem. In other words, most of the time, you don’t just come out having to overcome some form of temptation. Very often, you can look back and see it somewhere in your family line. Somebody gave in to it and now you have to deal with it. And I am not telling you to blame the past, or to use that as an excuse; but I am saying, you need to recognize what is happening and make a conscious decision that you are not going to be the one to pass that down; that you are instead, going to be the one to put a stop to it. That you are going to be the one to choose the blessing and not the curse so that you and your descendants can live.
You see, you need to recognize the schemes of the enemy. If you look back and see a long line of alcoholics, and addictions don’t just sit back and say “that is just how my family is “ No! Instead, remember; if you start making better choice and resisting those temptations, then you are making it so much easier on your children and on the future generation. It might be difficult at fast, you may really have to struggle through it; but if you just keep doing the right thing, you not only will be blessed, but you will break that curse on your family.
In 1974, a man working in Newyork prison board noticed that six people from the same family were serving in one of the Newyork prisons. And he was very intrigged about it to do a study. And he traced their family line back to a man by the name of Max Jukes’.
He was born in 1720, and he was known around the town as the troublemaker. He was an alcoholic, no integrity, no character; he didn’t believe in God. He married a woman that was just like him. They had six daughters and two sons.
1200 of his descendants were surveyed and among them 310 were homeless, 180 wrecked their lives through drugs and alcohol abuse, 160 were prostitutes, 150 of them were criminals that spent time in prisons and 7 of them for murder. They ended up costing the Newyork state a million and a half dollars (about Kshs 195 Million) to take care of them. And not any of them made any noble contribution to the society.
Around that time, another family was studied; it was the Jonathan Edward’s family. He was born in 1703. He married his wife Sara, and together, they had eleven children. He was a devoted family man, he loved God; he was famous theologian, a pastor and the president of Princeton University College.
1400 of his descendants were surveyed. 13 of them were college presidents, 100 were lawyers, 32 were state judges, 65 were professors, 85 worked in the office of president of the US, 60 became Medical Doctors, and 80 held public offices including 3 governors, 3 United State senators and one vice president of the United States.
Do you notice what the difference it makes in what is being passed down? You may be here today and you may not have a great family name behind you. Maybe you were not raised by Godly parents. You might have grown up with laziness, abuse, addiction, negativity; but thank God! You can be the one to pass a Godly heritage to your descendants. You can be the one to reverse that curse.
You know back in the Bible days, they took their family lineage a lot more seriously than we do today. And I think it is interesting, how so often they prayed for the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. What they were doing in a fact, was reminding God, “…you remember my ancestor Abraham and how much he loved you. You remember Isaac and great….grand father Jacob; how they served you and did their best for you.”
You can be the Abraham in your family. You can be the one to set the tone for the next few hundred years. If you keep going the extra mile, then one day when someone make a study of your family line, they may see ten or fifteen generations of mediocrity, but when they come to your name, they will say hay look; this is where it all turned around. Here is where the curse stopped and the blessings began.
I think about David. He had this same promise that someone in his family line will always sit upon the throne. What is interesting is that 23 years after David died, his son Solomon was not making good choices. And God said to Solomon, “I am going to have mercy on you, not because of anything you have done; but because of the life your father David lived.
305 year after David had died, Hezekiah was being threatened by his enemies. In the natural, he could have been wiped out; but God showed up and turned it all around. And He said, Hezekiah, I am not doing it because of anything you have done, I am doing it because of the covenant of mercy I made with David.
Even today, we may not know how many times God has shown us mercy because we had a praying mother or father or maybe a great great grandfather somewhere that lived a holy Godly life.
I love the story of Rahab in the Bible. She was a harlot. She comes from a long line of immorality. If you study the life of the people in Canaan, you discover they had no regard for God. But one day Joshua and the people of Israel were about to attack the city of Jericho. And so Joshua sent two men to spy off the land. And to cut the story short, they ended up needing a place to stay and Rahab took them to her home and hid them from her county men. In other words, she took a stand for what was right. She made a decision right then, that she was going to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And because of her simple act of faith, not only was she and all of her family spared, but she broke that curse that dragged her family down for so many generations.
And I loved what happened, Rahab ended up marrying a Jewish man, and they had a child named Boaz. Boaz married Ruth and they had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse, Jesse had a son named David. And we know David became the king.
And if you look back today, you will see that Rahab the former prostitute is in the lineage of Jesus Christ. The point I am making today is, no matter what family you come from, there may be a long line of addiction, abuse, bad choices, negativity, but if you would start making good choices, if you will take a stand for what is right, then you can break that curse over your family, and just like Rahab, you will start to see God’s blessings and favour on you and on your descendants.
Just dig your heals in and make a decision to live under the blessing and not the curse.
As I conclude, I want to talk to AMO who are here, listening to me today: To you, the man, the fact is, all of us here may forget you, but your family will never forget you for the good or for the bad. So, what Legacy will you leave for your family? What Legacy will you leave for your sons and your daughters?
Rev. Wale Akinronbi, in one of his teachings, challenges all the men who care to listen. Regarding children, he says they need training, and when you train them, they will become arrows in your hand.
On the contrast, a child that is not trained will become an arrow in your heart. Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord".
He emphasises that a Father's role in a family, and more specifically, to his children, is to provide 3 things namely instruction, correction and affection.
Number 1, by way of Instruction, it is the father’s responsibility to guide the children on how to go about life, teaching them the principles to live by; the principles of integrity, hard work, honesty and respect.
Number 2, a father MUST correct his children. It is only through correction that Children become disciplined. It's not a sign of love if you don't correct your kids because, it is correction that adjusts abnormality in children behaviour. Spiritually, you, the man, MUST be the priest over your home. You MUST provide spiritual covering to every member of your family. May God give us fathers that will go on their knees and agonize in the place of prayer until Christ is found in the heart of their sons and their daughters
Number 3, a father must show his Children affection. Show them love, hug them. Affirm them when they do something good. Praise them. Let them know. Instruction will instruct them. Correction will adjust them. Affection will give them balance in life. So, you, a father, you MUST pass down blessings and not curses.
In Genesis, 35:17, Racheal was about to die while giving birth; but with her last breath, the boy came out. She named an innocent born Benoni, meaning the son of my sorrow. But thank God for a present father! A father that knows his role in the family. Jacob said, No, my son will not be called that! He will not be Benoni. He will be Benjamin. He will not be the son of sorrow. Instead, he is the son of my right hand. Benjamin! The son of my right hand.
Fellow AMO, your words upon your children are powerful. Be positive with your words. Encourage them to love the Lord. Make up your mind that you will take your kids with you to Heaven. Why? Because our children are the only earthly possession that we can take with us to heaven.
Why is it that so much is expected from fathers when it comes to instruction, correction and affection?
• Number one, because a child's view of God is formed from their father’s.
• Number two, your daughter is going to grow up and she's going to get married to a man someday, she needs to know what to look for, and you provide the model.
• And number three, your sons will grow up and get married someday. He needs to know who he's supposed to be. He needs to know what a real man looks like.
Saints, we need to live for God. We need to love Him. We need to serve Him, and then command our children to follow in our footsteps, and when they do, they will be blessed. They will prosper. They will have the hand of God upon their lives, because God's hand was upon your life.
May God bless you.
Sermon Delivered on Friday Vespers 14th Feb 2025 at Mt Olives SDA Church by Elder Timothy Ogada.
