Daddy Issues 9: Sins of the Fathers

PRAY - My wife had a difficult relationship with her father… Understanding who her father was helper her to understand why he did some of the things he did. If understanding her father, who was imperfect, drew her closer, how much more will having a right understanding of God help us to understand what He is saying and doing, and why.

Exodus 20:2-6 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

God is about giving Moses what we know as the Ten Commandments. He doesn’t start with the rules, He starts with Himself.

What gives God the right to tell me what to do? He’s God and you’re not.

He starts with I am… The name He told Moses when He introduced Himself to him.

I am –
He is everywhere, He has all knowledge, and power.
He is God, we are His servants
He is Creator, we are the creation
He is the Potter, we are the clay
He is King, we are His subjects

Is He past, preset or future? – He is
Is He height, width, or depth? He is
He is the First Cause from which everything and everyone is affected
He is time, space, and reality

He is the Way, the Truth and the Life
God tells us what to do based on His character and track record.

Exodus 20:2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
He is God, the One who brought them out of Egypt. Not just a relocation, but campaign against slavery, bondage, and oppression.
He then goes into the laws, which implies that the violation of these laws would bring them back under slavery and bondage, not to Egypt, but to sin.

Exodus 20:3-4 You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image

Commandments 1 and 2 deal with worship.

As God, He is to be the object of your worship and devotion.
He also defines the mode how we should worship.

We are to worship Him and no one or nothing else, and we must not reduce the infinite greatness of our God to the finite of human construction.

We don’t worship Him through something our hands have made, we are to worship the One whose hands have made us.

This is the heart of idolatry – worship of a god we created. It may not be made of wood and stone, but we worship Gods of philosophy, money, sex, or power. We want to create gods that serve our interest and who look like us and who yield at our preference, rather than a God who created us for His pleasure.

John 4:23 the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

He is God and worthy of worship as He defines it, not simply as we prefer it. He is a God who cares who liberates. He bought us with the high price of His blood and reasonably expects faithfulness, and His heart is broken when we aren’t. Lets look at our text.

Exodus 20:5 (NIV) I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me [bad translation]

Exodus 20:5-6 (NKJV) I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

God is not punishing the children for the sins of their parents
Deuteronomy 24:16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

God is not schizophrenic.
Ezekiel 18:19-20 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity?’ When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

God is not vindictive. 1 John 4:8 God is love 1 Corinthians 13 keeps no record of wrongs

So what is God saying? Listen carefully
Exodus 20:5-6 For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Visiting iniquity, let’s look at what He’s visiting:
Iniquity: pride and rebellion in the soul. The inward condition that allows for and produces external sin. It is a sinful heart that leads to sinful actions and results in consequences – judgement and death.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Visit (Hebrew – paqad): number, visit, punish, appoint

He has numbered or counted the iniquity of the fathers, as well as its effects on their children, and appointed a time to visit the children to give them an opportunity to repent of the sins they picked up from their parents.

Yes, there is judgment for unrepented sin. He is the judge of all flesh who does not bear the sword in vain. He is not a tame lion. But He is merciful and offers an invitation to life and an opportunity to repent.

Exodus 20:5-6 For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me

Hate – love = obedience, hate = lawlessness

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Matthew 7:23 I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
Isaiah 29:13 “…these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men…”

PART 2

Creation – fruit, seeds, trees – reproduce after their kind.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image…”

Adam fell, we inherited the fallen sinful nature

DNA – inherited attributes.
Spiritual DNA - Familiar spirits

Children imitate and reproduce actions and behaviors of their parents, whether they want to or not.

Gen 26 - Isaac's deception with Rebekah just like father Abe with Sarah

Before we think that this is only a male / father issue:

Rebekah- curse fall on me... which would extend to legacy, Jacob anyway.

where did Jacob learn deception and manipulation, and usurping? mom. sins of the mother.

My father had a lot of struggles that I, in turn, struggled with. Alcohol, violence and aggression, sexual sin, these are all things that run in my family – grandpa, father, and I struggled with them as well. I inherited sins and habits.

Generational Blessing & Cursing

Blessing: something for you from God that He says is good.

Curse: the consequence of sin – falling out of favor, death, wrath

Generational Curse: A generational curse is a habit or behavior that has been passed from one generation to the next. Parents strive to make sure that the life they lead will help their children live a better one. Children practice what they have learned on their own and what they have gathered from generations before them.

Jeremiah 31:29 “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

He is saying: stop making excuses”

We are without excuse – my dad may have introduced the sin to me, and illustrated it, but I chose
James 1:15 Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Achon's family aligned with the sin and was also judged as a result.

Adam was judged because he listened to his wife instead of God.

Sin issue and demonic infestation. Whatever is not submitted to God, satan has access to. Whatever is not in the light is in darkness. Cockroaches infest darkness and mess.

familiar spirits - demonic transfers, deepens, magnifies.

Provers 13:22 A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children

What kind of inheritance or legacy are we leaving?
(Turn on the light – God frees us from Egypt)

my dad called because I am called - should have been trained, but it's still my call.

A large part of my struggle in God has been cooperating with the Holy Spirit to deprogram me from learned behaviors and sins that have been transferred down my family line.

When parents are selfish and demonstrate a hatred for God through compromise or flat out disobedience, they children learn to hate God with their life choices as well.

The problem is further compounded when the parents are also religious. Going to church on Sunday while not demonstrating the love of God on Monday breeds confusion and, religion, and even an offense with God.

Pride, sin, lack of repentance, religious covers it up, which leads to more pride
*I’m done

2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power

This is why many rebelled and left the church during the holiness movement. God is all about holiness. We are to be holy as He is holy, but when you place priority on rules and laws, over and above the heart and intent of the Law-Giver, it only brings death, disappointment, and rebellion.

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

The law is good, it is perfect, you need to know it because so you can know where God stands. The law exposes you but can't deliver you from its consequences. – Speed limit
The law is a mirror that shows what's wrong, but you can't fix your face with it

The law tells you the problem but has no power to help you fix it

My daddy and my daddy’s daddy struggled with this sin. The law condemns me and tells me that I’m wrong and shows me the punishment but has no power to deliver me from Egypt or from bondage. It can’t keep me from going back to my sin. So what now?

How do we break the cycle of systemic generational rebellion and hatred for God?

Malachi 4:4-6 Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Remember – obey – they can’t

John 1:17 The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 21-22 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Galatians 5:16-18 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The Spirit’s job is to give grace or power to do what the law requires

Jesus said He didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfil the law. He then gives us His Holy Spirit, which the word calls the Spirit of Jesus Christ in Philippians 1:19, Then the Holy Spirit reveals the law to me - the letter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law – the mind heart and intent of God – He then fulfils the requirements of the law in me, then gives me the power to do the same!

Curse comes from sin – Adam sinned with a tree
The law informs us of the curse and its consequence
Jesus broke the curse of the law on a tree
He now gives us the Spirit to help us do what the law requires

Laws are for the lawless – when you break the law, you are under the condemnation of the law. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus because He has broken the curse, came with the truth that makes us free, and sends us His Spirit to empower us to live lives that are pleasing to God.

How do we break free of generational curses and the sins of our fathers?
Repent of the sin, turn to God the Father through Jesus Christ and walk in the Spirit.

He will change your want to in time, but even if you still want to, He gives you the power to override that desire and to choose what is good.

If we walk in the Spirit, we are not under the law, we are empowered to live holy lives to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

How do we walk in the Spirit? One foot in front of the other, with the Holy Spirit.
Prayer, word, tongues, accountability, practicing a continual awareness of His presence.