Sermon # 31 - Worship God Alone & Honor Your Parents Series

We are studying in detail about blessings and curses to fathom all that the word of God has to convey about this. There are so many who are held down by several curses that overrule their lives thereby not being able to experience the true blessings that God has envisioned for them. As we delve into the word of God, we will be able to understand how these curses can be broken, so that the blessings of God can flow freely into our lives.

I would like to share a testimony that a brother shared with me last Sunday after the service that I hope will encourage all of you. He told me “ever since you began teaching on this topic of blessings and curses, I found it extremely difficult to sit inside and listen to the word of God. I was literally being compelled to get up and leave, also feeling a kind of a heavy burden on my chest. However, I continued to sit through the service, and as the final prayer was being said, I experienced this great weight being removed from me and sensed a feeling of lightness settle in. The migraine headache which I had been suffering from for a very long time, totally disappeared.” I was overjoyed when I heard this testimony, and give all the glory and praise to the Lord alone for the deliverance that He brought about to this brother who was responsive and obedient to His word.

When we listen to the word of God, and live in obedience to Him, not only will we be victorious, but also be enabled to lead the kind of life that God truly intended for us. While the enemy comes in to steal, kill and destroy all the good things in our lives, Jesus came to give us life, a life that He said would be abundant in every sense.

We reiterate that blessings and curses are words spoken over our lives, and while blessing build us up, curses pull us down. The Biblical perspective of blessings is contrary to the worldly understanding. Blessings are not material possessions, but blessings are the words spoken by God or those in authority, that describe what will take effect in the future, which will eventually build us up. Words have power because God created the heavens and the earth with His words, and it was those words that also made us into His likeness and image. God blessed Adam and Eve and told them to multiply and replenish the earth. They were given authority to rule over all that God had created as well, and this they did by the authority of their words.

There are many who are erroneously taught that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh God who punished sin immediately, and that the God of the New Testament as revealed in Jesus is a God of grace, thereby wrongly inferring there is no fear of judgement. The Old Testament is not just about the law and the New Testament is not only about grace. This kind of flawed teaching emphasizes the fact that since Jesus has completed the work of salvation by His sacrificial death on the cross, we are now in a period of grace, and hence there is nothing left for us to do. The truth of the matter is that we can do nothing to gain salvation or be set free from Satan’s schemes. That can only be attained by believing on the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. This is because Jesus paid an enormous price for us by His atoning sacrifice to save us from all our sins. However, once we have believed and received this gift of salvation, the Lord expects us to walk daily in obedience to His commands.

God’s grace as revealed in the Old Testament

The word of God is explicit that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The grace of God was revealed in the Old Testament as much as it was in the New Testament. So also, the judgement of God was manifested in both the Old and the New Testaments.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they instantly realized that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. This was a futile effort on their part, as the fig leaves would soon wither, and would not be sufficient protection for their bodies. God in His grace made garments of skin for them, because He knew the fig leaves were insufficient for them and that they were incapable of taking care of themselves. This was an act of God’s grace to fallen man. At the same time, God also punished Adam and Eve for their willful disobedience.

We read about the jealousy of Cain over his brother Abel, which led him to murder his own brother Abel. However, when God pronounced his punishment on Cain, Cain realized that he would be vulnerable to be attacked and killed by anyone. As Cain pleaded with God for mercy, we read in Genesis 4:15 that “God put a mark on Cain to protect him.” This was God’s grace shown to Cain in spite of his sinful act.