Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Coming up next on Abounding Grace: it is not the amount that God has given us, but rather what have we done with what God has given us. If God has given you less, then he expects less. If God has given you more, then he expects more. But it's really how has God been drawing from you with the possessions that you have, and what do you do when he enlarges your border? Do our possessions possess us, or do we possess them for the glory of God?

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace. Glad to have you with us. We're back in the book of Exodus, and we're on the home stretch. Maybe you've heard a thing or two about generational curses and wondered, "Is there really such a thing?" Pastor Ed Taylor will address that as we begin and point out we're not stuck or bound by what others have done in the past. We can experience generational change because of Christ. We'll start off in Exodus chapter 32 before we head back to chapter 34.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Look back at Exodus chapter 32. Exodus 32. When you get there, notice with me in verse 30. Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. So now I'll go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." And Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves a god of gold. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of the book which you have written." But the Lord said to Moses, "Nope. Whoever has sinned against me, I'll blot their name out of the book."

Moses, that's not how it works. I'm not going to accept you as an offering for the sinful people. They're going to have to pay for it themselves. That principle is important because if we then can take the full bearing weight of our sin, and we must, then when we place our faith in Jesus, we understand that he took the full weight of our sin. He didn't take the full weight or the partial weight of our sin and then leave some generational curse in your life and say, "Alright, I saved you, but you're really still in trouble. You're not going to change. You're just going to be stuck because of the family you were born into."

You didn't have any choice in that matter, either, did you? Or the family you were adopted into. I didn't really have much choice in that matter. Or the neighborhood you lived in. You didn't have much choice in that matter, or what food you ate, or all the things that you had no choice, just a little kiddo living life, born. You had no choice. Is God going to say, "I'm going to save you, but the way you were raised and the family you're in, that's going to plague you the rest of your life. There's no way to get out." Does that even sound like God, who is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression?

But of course, he's not going to clear the guilty, the unrepentant. Of course, he's not. The unrepentant even among us now, those hiding sin or whatever you're into, of course, you don't have a peace. Of course, you're always looking over your back. Of course, you're wondering about the future and you're all obsessed because you're not in relationship with God. You've broken relationship. And that's not going to be an easy life to live. God said as much.

Thankfully, my faith in Jesus Christ breaks the cycle of sin. He took the curse upon himself. He did it in my family. My generation—and I pray that in my children as well, my grandchildren—but my generation changed the whole course of my family. I did. God doing a work in my life changed the whole course of my family. It enabled me to serve my family that was older than me—my dad, my mom, the people that were still alive—but it also changed my whole household and how my kids were raised and what my home was and the altar unto the Lord and how we handled things.

We weren't just going to be a moral family. We weren't just going to try to do good for culture. We became a home through the blood of Jesus Christ, breaking the cycle in my life, breaking the cycle of my family. My parents were wonderful, beautiful, wonderful people, but we didn't live a life to honor God. But in my house, it changed. Generational change. It's important. Replace this idea of generational curses with what really happened when you were born again. What really happened when you were born again is God exploded in your family with generational change. That you as a man or a woman of God now following Jesus has brought generational change into your family forever and ever and ever. Amen.

You are not stuck and bound. I've done other Bible studies much deeper than that, but we couldn't get past this because here's the thing: Christians in general, at least in our generation, they love to argue about things and miss the whole point. They miss the whole point. Even the time that I've spent to explain this, I could have just read you a scripture and moved on. That's how you guys are well-taught. You receive the word of God. But I know people listening to me need to be convinced, and I'm ready to convince them. I'm ready to show them right here. You tell me what it means that you don't pay for the sin of your dad. Tell me what it means. I'll tell you what it means. You are set free. That's what it means.

Right now, you can lay before you. And I know the habits are hard to break. It's an interesting thing, you know. You grow up and go, "Oh, I'll never be like my mom." And then you look in the mirror like, "Oh my gosh, I'm a little bit like my mom." Yeah, you grew up in her home. "I'll never be like my dad." Well, you know, you look and go, "Oh, I am a lot like my dad." But you're also a lot not like him, and a lot not like her. Why? Because of the grace of God, because he's gracious and he's merciful and he's patient and he's long-suffering. That is what you can see now, the fruit of the spirit.

Now you look at your life and go, "Okay, wait a minute. I'm wrestling with some areas in my life and it's because of my family or whatever." But then you look and go, "Wait a minute. I'm loving. I'm gracious. Where did that come from? I've never been loving or gracious." Yeah, but the spirit of God lives in you now. And now you're a man and a woman of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness—all these characteristics that have come in your life because of the grace of God.

And you're going to sit around blaming a generational curse for something that God has already delivered you from? He's already replaced that reckless life with self-control. It's already yours. Live by faith. Trust the Lord. He's intervened in my life. He stopped the pattern. He stopped the pattern. And it would have been, quite frankly, my home would have been much worse than the home I lived in apart from Christ. It already was. It was already a disaster. It was already going to be a divorce. It was already going to be having very little impact on my son's life. It was already going to be that way.

But the Lord is able to do what man cannot do. And he's able even in the brokenness. You sit here today, but you get, you say, "My life is still broken and it's still hard." And I'm sorry. But even in the worst situation that it is right now, there is improvement on the way. There is improvement on the way. You turn your heart back to the Lord, and he'll begin the work of restoration and redemption already. And if it hasn't happened yet, go, "But Ed, I've been waiting for that for a long time." Well, you just keep waiting, because the Lord is faithful.

And in the waiting, your strength is being renewed, your prayer life is stronger, your crying out to the Lord. And even in the worst situations, what's happening? You're becoming a better man of God. You're becoming a better woman of God, and you're watching God work not in the situation. We were just praying—that was one of our prayer requests—get our eyes off of the situation and get our eyes back on the Lord. Let him do that deep work in your heart.

So with that in mind, come back to Exodus 34 verse eight. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And then he said, "If now I found grace in your sight, oh Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your inheritance." If you missed our time in our study last time, you should listen to it. We talked about stiff-necked, stubborn people. And the Lord did a great work. It was a great response. It was really good. So you can have a great response even now to confess that stubbornness and stiff-neckedness before the Lord.

Verse 10: and he said, "Behold, I make a covenant before all your people. I will do marvels such as not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. And all the people among you shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I'm driving out from before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." What was the response to Moses here? Okay, again, I just want to build a little bit so you understand when you're reading the Bible, this is a real response. What was the response to Moses when he hears the character of God revealed? Merciful, kind, and visiting the iniquity upon them for generations. Did Moses say, "No, do not put on us a generational curse! Don't do it!"? No, that's not what he said at all, is it?

It's nowhere. You know what he did? He worshiped. It's like, "God, this is amazing." He—it says right here that as he bowed and worshiped at this verse, at this revelation. He didn't argue about it, create some fake doctrine about it or add a tablet. He's like, "Got to add this one to the tablet, you know. I know I came down with two, but you need to add this one as some do today. You need to make sure you under—" No, no, no. He worshiped because he heard the Lord and he experienced the grace of God. And he had a relationship with God. And he says, "I know we're stiff-necked, but pardon us, Lord. We throw ourselves on your mercy."

And he says in verse 12, "Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you're going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images." Verse 14: "For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and eat—to eat of his sacrifice."

You just pause for a second here. This is a good warning to them because even without the enemies, they already did this with the calf. All it took the first time was no temptation, no temptation with false gods, no sexual sin although they participated sexually, I think, around this golden calf. But they haven't even met the enemies yet. They haven't even dealt with the land yet. And all it took early on, all it took for them was what? Impatience. That's all it took for them. "Hey, can you make this, you know." Impatience with a poor leadership. Those two things led to great sin. That's all it took.

But now he's warning them, "You're going to go into the land. I'm going to drive these people out, but there's still going to some remain. So when you get there, no covenants with them. No covenants. No covenants." Why? Because their idols will entice you. It will be very tempting what you see in the land. Isn't it sound like a conversation with your kids? It'll be very tempting what you see in this world. It'll be very tempting when you have that phone or that browser open. It'll be very tempting when you go off to school. It's going to be very tempting. But here's what's going to be best for you: stay true to the Lord.

With all that you see, stay true to the Lord. And what would you say, parents, with your kids? You'd probably also add, as we did, "And talk to us. Come and talk to us. Just come and talk to us. It'll be hard, you'll be scared, but just come talk to us. We'll help you navigate through it. We won't pounce down on you because of temptation. We'll help you, and even if you have big failure, come to us because we're the ones that can help you get out." And can't you hear God say, "And okay, if you have temptation or whatever, you just come to me. We'll work it out. Let's talk about it. Let me show you. Let me reveal your heart to you, because you don't even know your own heart. So just come to me."

I could just hear a father say, "Just come to me." I can hear Jesus say, "Just come to me if you're all weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give you clarity." I can just hear God say, "Trust in the Lord. Trust in me with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. Don't try to figure your way out of it, try to cover it, just trust in me with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. And just acknowledge me in all your ways, and I'll direct your paths. I'll help you out." Can't you hear God saying that? Oh, he did say that. Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six. He did say that. That is the pathway to help and strength and wholeness.

So he's warning them. And it's a good warning because they've already done this without the temptations. Verse 16: "And be careful," he says, "that you not take your daughters for you and take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods." That's "Do not be unequally yoked" in the Old Testament, because it will have an effect on you. Evil company corrupts good habits.

Verse 17: "You shall make no molded gods for yourselves." That's a given. That's a slam dunker. Don't do it. You just drank the last one you made, so don't do it. Verse 18: "The feast of unleavened bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. All that open the womb are mine," verse 19, "and every male firstling among the livestock, whether ox or sheep. But the firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty-handed."

Verse 21: "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. And you shall observe the feast of weeks, and the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of the ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel." Who is the Lord God of Israel, by the way? Who is that? Gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Remember that. That's the God. He says, "I want you to come with me and the men need to come three times a year and worship and remember me." Verse 24: "I'll cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders."

They came out of Egypt with literally nothing. They didn't have any land, no real estate, nothing. They came with the plunder of the Egyptians, of course, but they didn't have anything. They came out with nothing. And now God says, "No, I'm going to enlarge your borders. You just follow me, stay close to me, obey me, and it's going to be a blessing. You're going to live a blessed life. It's not going to be without battles or temptations. You're going to see bizarre, weird things. You didn't ask to see them, but you're going to see them. There're going to be people going after you, going after your kids, there're going to be people discouraging you. You're going to see some stuff," God says.

But remember me and you're going to be fine. Obey me and you'll be blessed. And isn't it true? There's always blessings for obedience and consequences for disobedience. It's always that way. And so he says, "I'm going to cast out the nations. I'm going to enlarge your borders. Neither will any man," verse 24, "covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left until morning. The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

And the Lord said to Moses, "Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So it was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote on the tablets the word of the covenant, the ten commandments. So he's basically saying when you guys get into the land, in your prosperity, remember me. It's a powerful way of checking our own personal dedication to the Lord is seen with what we do with what God has given us.

It is not the amount that God has given us, but rather what have we done with what God has given us. If God has given you less, then he expects less. If God has given you more, then he expects more. But it's really how has God been drawing from you with the possessions that you have, and what do you do when he enlarges your border? Do our possessions possess us, or do we possess them for the glory of God? Are they distracting us from the deeper things? Is that what we're sold out to, for the things? When I give God the first, my heart will follow afterward.

It's a silly thing, I know. It's not too significant, but I remember how important the first iPhone was to me. I had this clunky little thing with a keyboard on it, and one of the brothers here came in—one of the elders at the time came in—and was showing off, he was the only guy in the church that I knew that was showing off his iPhone. And I remember I'd made fun of it and—only because I didn't have one. And we were bantering back and forth, and he wrecked me by bringing that thing in the building because from that moment on, I wanted one.

But I knew that it was a clunker and they needed a few more to improve because it was brand new and I knew it wasn't all that it could be and it was just they were testing things and it would be better to wait a few versions. It would have been better to wait a few versions. So what did Ed do? He didn't wait a few versions. He saved, he saved, and toward the end, not even really knowing—I didn't really even know the process. Even though I'm not a dumb man, I had still something to learn and I didn't know the process. He bought it early and I bought it maybe six months later.

Oh, guess what? The new one came out nine months or whatever. I'm like, "Huh." Well, guess what my brother did? Got the new one. And now he's got a better one than me. And I'm like, "Well, this one's a clunker. I knew it was a clunker, but that one—that one has internet connection," whatever it was. And how many years are we? We're not even 12, 13 years later, and I've got a couple of those in my drawer. They don't work, they're not charged, it's nothing, just a hunk of metal.

Do your possessions possess you? Is that something simple like that as an indicator? Is that what you really want? Is that all you're going to be thinking about now? Is that what you want? You're saving up, got to get it. Or maybe not even saving up. We live in a culture where, nah, don't even save. Just you got a credit card, just do it. I know it's 45 percent interest, but we'll deal with that later.

And the world has just taught us and influenced us to not think of the Lord when we make purchases. To not think of the Lord when we're blessed. To not think of the Lord. One of the temptations of our culture—it's the bizarre things we see. It's one of the bizarre things that we see in our culture is that our culture teaches every single one of us not to think of others more highly than ourselves. I know there're some benevolent organizations and some charities out there. I commend them and appreciate them for their love of our community. But they're the exception, not the rule. They exist because most of the culture doesn't care. That's why charities exist. Much of them, they want to help because they don't see help.

And yet the church has totally different motives. We help because we see need, but we also help because we love God and we love people. We love God and we love people. I think of how much benevolence is in the room right now that nobody else in the room knows because you didn't do it to tell us. You didn't do it to announce it. You didn't send out a blast email: "You will not—for me, amazing weekend. What did you do? Well, I gave out 322 and a half burritos. It took me 72 hours to make them. I actually had 1,300 beans." And you're just letting us everything you know. You don't do it that way.

You make a batch of burritos, you go downtown, you love people, go home, pray for them. Why? You're not blasting on Instagram so everybody can know how good of a person you are. You're not letting others—"Look what I did." No, because the Lord—you did it for the Lord. I think of this church in general, not only us individually, but also this church in general. We don't blast on the screens all the things this church does in the community. We don't want you to go, "Look at this, look at us." They just know that the church as a whole—not only individually, but the church as a whole—we do what the Lord leads us to do in the community.

And it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. It's a beautiful thing just to step into someone's life and say, "Hey, I know this is going on, but just if anybody asks what happened, just tell them the Lord did it. Because he did. You tell them the Lord did it. You just point them back to the Lord and his faithfulness. It doesn't matter how it happened." Personally, we'd love to do things super anonymously, but it's not really possible that way. But for the most part, we aren't going to draw attention to ourselves. It's not about us. It's about the Lord taking territory and enlarging borders and helping.

Guest (Male): Thanks for studying the word with us here at Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing this program again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Another option is the Calvary Church app. You know, storms come and go in our lives, and when the storm hits, there's something you need to know.

Pastor Chuck Smith unveils that for us in a book we'd like to get into your hands. It's aptly titled, "When the Storm Hits." When you give a donation of 25 dollars or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of this helpful book. Give us a call at 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. You can also make a donation to the ministry online at aboundinggraceradio.com. And thank you in advance for helping us reach people with the love and truth of Jesus Christ here on the radio and the internet. Glad you've taken time out for our study in Exodus. Join Pastor Ed all this week as we continue to learn how to live by God's abounding grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.