Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Is there such a thing as generational curses? Here to touch on that is Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Whenever generational curse is brought up. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. That's it. That settles it. God's Word says it, that settles it, and then I believe it, and it changes my life.

Because whether you believe it or not, it's still settled. God's Word is settled in heaven, and generational change starts with us that are believers.

Guest (Male): Welcome to another Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're developing a study in Exodus right now and just digging into the Ten Commandments.

The first command is a command of exclusive worship and has to do with the worship of false gods. The second refers to the false worship of the true and living God. Before you think you're above that sort of thing, you might want to give this a listen. Here's Pastor Ed in Exodus chapter 20.

Pastor Ed Taylor: I'll read it to you from Isaiah 42, verse 8. "I am the Lord, that is my name; and my glory I will not give to another, my praise to carved images." No other god. Which tells me a few things. Number one, there are other gods, little g.

There are other gods. Men and women worship all sorts of things and people and philosophies and thinking and false gods. To the children of Israel, he says, "I've delivered you. I've fought for you. I've won the battle of the gods. Now worship me alone."

You remember the battle of the gods? Each time a judgment came on Egypt, one of the gods that they favored was being judged at the same time. "I've won the battle of the gods. I've proven to you through the plagues and through my mighty hand. No other god is worthy of your praise."

God has the right to demand this in your life as well. He has the right to demand exclusive worship. He's done the same work for you and me. He's delivered us, renewed us. We're born again. We're changed. He sustains us.

God doesn't exist to serve us, so that anything he does for us is gracious and benevolent. He's just been so good. He's a giver. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

Not only is God a giver and demonstrates generosity toward us, but he gives us his best—the best of the best of the best of the best. You don't have enough words to describe the gift that Jesus Christ is to us, the rescuing work he's done in our lives, the work that he's doing in leading us forward and sustaining us and keeping us and receiving us.

He doesn't exist to serve us, though. I know that might be difficult for some churches or ministries today to hear, but it's the truth. Sometimes you hear people say, "God just wants me to be happy." They're using it to justify some behavior. "God just wants me to be happy." Really?

Where is that, exactly? Where did you pick that up? "God just wants you to be happy." Are you not happy already with what God has done for you? "God just wants you to be happy; I'm going to do this sin or break this law." That's not a true statement.

I don't want to misspeak on behalf of God that he isn't interested in our happiness. He loves when his kids are happy. He gives us the Bible, which would say in James that he gives us all good things richly to enjoy. That's not the point I'm making. The idea is that his desire is for us to enjoy life and to enjoy this life to the best that we can and to experience happiness, but that's not his goal.

His primary goal is not for you to be happy, and it's certainly not for you to be happy so you can make whatever decision you want. He says this: This is the pathway of happiness. Are you ready? Obey me, and happiness will follow.

You have a greater chance of experiencing happiness through obedience than you ever will find through disobedience. Disobedience is described as pleasure for a season. Sin will bring pleasure just for a little bit and then great consequences that some might even last forever.

God's primary objective is not to make us happy but to make us holy, which is like him. He's conforming us into the image of Christ, not the image of what might be propped up in the world today.

God is separating us, which is why the law was given. He says, "You guys are going to be different than the rest of the pagan world." This is how you're going to be different. We'll go through and you'll see all the dietary restrictions and clothing restrictions. He's telling you you're going to be different where people can see it.

You're going to be different where people watch you eat. You're going to be different when people see your clothing. You're going to be different by how you take care of yourself, your hygiene. You're going to be different in that you're singular, exclusive worship of me. They're going to be different when they see you trust me when you don't freak out. On and on the list goes.

Psalm 16:11 says, "You will show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Everyone has a god, little g. We don't call them that. We don't necessarily identify them in our day and age as carved little images, although some do worship little carved images and have a lot of representations of their god.

But truly, what man has is a driving passion or a directing philosophy. For some, it's the god of pleasure. You see people worshipping the god of pleasure. That's what they're into. That's what they spend their money on. That's where they spend their time. They're worshipping the god of pleasure.

In the Old Testament, that would be the god known as Molech. If you ever read of Molech in the Old Testament, they were worshipping the god of pleasure like those worshipping the god of pleasure today.

Some have a god, their god is intellect. In the Old Testament, the god of intellect was Baal. Some worship the god of sex. Do you see that in culture today? Do you see the worship of sex and perversity and twistedness and rotten to the core sin perpetrated on innocents?

In the Old Testament, you would see the worship of Asherah or the Asherah poles. That was the god of sex. In the Greek, the goddess Diana, the multi-breasted goddess, was the object of worship. It wasn't the actions taken on a statue, but they would be living out their sexual acts with one another and say that they were worshipping their god or goddess.

Still others worship power, money, prestige. Today you'll see men and women worshipping gods failing at the first commandment because they want more power, more money, more prestige, more of what the world has to offer. You hear ringing in the ears of men and women throughout the ages: "You shall have..." This is the path of righteousness and holiness. This is the path of peace, God says. This is where relationship comes in. "You shall have no other gods before me."

It's a command. If you and I choose to cross the command, there is always a price to pay. Many gods, but only one true living God. The many gods control you; the God of the universe, he loves you. It's a big difference.

Number two, verse 4: "You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on 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 on 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."

Number two, no carved images of which become objects of your worship. Do you see that? No carved images to bow down to or serve them. No carved images. The first commandment forbids worship of false gods; this one refers to the false worship of the one true God.

Immediately some will come here to think, "Wait a minute, I have a picture that represents Jesus that hangs in my front room. Is that a violation of this commandment?" I would say if you ask that question, I'd say it might be.

I don't know. It all depends on what it represents to you. If it is an image that you bow down to, that you believe is the absolute representation of Jesus, it probably should go. It probably is not helpful to you.

Certainly, I believe anyone with a crucifix should not have a crucifix. That is an improper representation. He is not on the cross anymore. Did you know that? He is risen and at the right hand of the Father. He's alive today. He's not crucified. I would say there are some that are more obvious than others.

But if it's stumbling to you, just put it away. The idea here is not a picture; the idea here is false worship, a false representation, and false worship of the true God. Why no images? Because an image dishonors the glory of God. It doesn't tell the whole story of who God is. It's one-dimensional. It's a snapshot in time.

Images have a tendency to mislead people, taking a person away from reality. As Paul would tell the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 5, "He's prepared for us this very thing, who's also given us his Spirit as a guarantee, so we're always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight." Images take us back to the sight instead of the faith.

He says in verse 5 that he's a jealous God. Do you see that? He's a jealous God. Now don't be stumbled by that. Jealousy certainly can be a sin, can be sinful, but here is an example of jealousy in a good sense, out of love and concern.

It's defined as, in the Hebrew, zealousness for what is right. It is an utter, total, burning, consuming commitment to hold on to what is right. God's heart is that he doesn't want to see you stumbled and your heart captured by something false. So don't do it. Don't create a bunch of images where the images become your object of worship, which religions today, that's exactly what they're doing—a complete disobedience to the second commandment and teaching the people to do so, which is what the Pharisees did, which made the blind leading the blind. Somebody has to open their eyes and see the Bible is very clear.

Now be careful. I do want to speak to this at the end. Be careful of this phrase in verse 5 that God is a jealous God in his righteousness. You also have an example of anger. Anger almost always is sinful in our lives, not exclusively. There is an anger without sin, for sure, but I don't know how often we really hit that mark. But I'm sure occasionally we do.

Anger has a place where it can be sinless. Certainly, God alone can exhibit, Jesus can exhibit, a righteous indignation. A righteous indignation. The big distinction, if you look for anger in your life, is anger that almost always is sinful is a self-centered type of response where anger that's righteous has a desire to honor God, where God is dishonored and it stirs up an anger.

I think of you seeing the news and some of the things with children being hurt and violated and you're angry. That begins, I believe, with a righteous anger. But if you're not careful, that anger will continue on into anger taking you into places that may not be so righteous. It starts with, "What is going on? Someone needs to stand up and protect them."

But if you nurture that little spark of righteousness, if you're not careful, it can lead to all sorts of ways because the flesh is so quick to want an outburst of wrath. Just so quick. Our flesh is so quick where we're wronged—take another example—we're wronged and we take a hit and we're like, "Man, I'm angry." But then immediately, you breathe in anger and then you breathe out vengeance. That's not righteous anger.

You're angry you got punched; that's probably closer to righteousness. I don't know if you got punched in the gut, the immediate thought would be, "I can't believe this person has dishonored God." I don't know how you're going to feel that way. But like, you'll be angry for injustice at something, which your sense of injustice comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, so I can see that. But if you're not careful, you may find yourself in behaviors that cross the line, cross the law, and it's not righteous.

So here in the righteous jealousy, coming back to this, God then says he visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations. To some, they have created a false teaching out of this verse and a few other verses. Again, I've developed this in other Bible studies, but it's enough just because we're here to make sure you understand. Are you ready? Mark this, write it down. If you've ever heard it, I'm going to correct it for you. Ready?

There is no such thing as generational curses. None, zero, doesn't exist. Man-made doctrine. It doesn't exist. Jesus himself has taken the curse upon himself, and he has fulfilled all the pain and penalty for all of our sins when he shed his blood on the cross and rose again. He has taken it all.

There are no generational curses. Be careful. There are many variations to this, but basically they have taught you that you are doomed and that you are under your father's and grandfather's sinful mistakes, so the demons of the past must be cast out of you so that the generational curse must be broken. Not so. It's not true. It's not true at all.

God is warning the children of Israel here to break the cycle. That's why he's giving the commandment. Break the cycle. Break the cycle that sins bring generationally. Of course, when a third and fourth generation sins and they learn that sin from their fathers, of course God is going to visit that iniquity. Of course he is. But it's not the curse of the fathers; it's the sin of the kids. It's the sin of each successive generation.

It's not because of generations past. Now God is warning them. Break the cycle. This is how you break the cycle. You're a new people, you're in a new land, you're not slaves anymore. This is it. I'm warning you: Don't follow this path.

"I'm going to show mercy," verse 6, "to thousands." To the thousands who? The ones that repent. The ones that change. As much information as in many segments of the church today generational curses get a lot of attention, I've just made it a point in my own ministry and my own teaching that instead of that phrase, I'd like to see generational changes take root in people's lives. I'd like to hear more about generational change than I will anything about the false teaching of generational curses.

It's really just a money-making scheme by false teachers. It's not true. A simple reading of the Scriptures would say, why would a new creation in Christ be under a curse? It sounds pagan. It doesn't sound like freedom in Christ at all.

Now listen. He's giving the instructions to not make the sinful mistakes of your fathers, because if you do, you'll suffer the same consequences that your fathers did generationally. Someone's got to repent and change. Then the question comes, "But you don't understand, Ed. Pastor, maybe you don't understand. I don't agree with you right now because you don't get this. My grandfather was an alcoholic, and my great-grandfather, he was an alcoholic too. And my dad—you didn't grow up in the house that I grew up in—but my dad, he was a worse alcoholic than his grandfather and great-grandfather. And if that's not a generational curse, then what is it?"

I'll tell you what it is. It's a bad decision your granddad taught his son how to do, his son taught his son how to do, and you suffer the consequences in your own life. But I'm hopeful if that's the conversation you're having with me right now, that the generational line of bad habits that have been passed down throughout your house has been broken by you. You are the one that God has saved. You're the one that's sober. You're the one that's ministering to your dad. You're the one that's forgiving your mom. You're the one that's pleading with them to come to know the Lord.

Of course bad habits are passed down. Of course we learn bad habits from our parents. Yes, of course we were taught wrong. We were instructed wrong. We were just kids, just teenagers. But to be brought into a theological or a false theological teaching that you're cursed and you don't have any way out of it as a Christian, now you've got to get away from all the demons—no, you just come to the Lord and the curse, whatever it might be in your life, is broken. It's broken.

We praise God through the grace of Jesus Christ that we can break any cycle of the past, any mistakes of our parents. You don't have to repeat any mistakes of your parents. In Christ you have the power to be a different person. In Christ you are a different person.

One of the mistakes that I made as an early parent was I was very legalistic. I was very legalistic as a new believer because I was extremely afraid. I was afraid that my son Eddie, if I didn't parent him right, if I didn't do what was right, if I didn't have a holy home and all the ways that that got lived out, that he would turn out like me. And I was very fearful of that.

So a lot of decisions in the early days as a believer were very fearful, very rule-based, very "This is the way it needs to be." And I don't know, a young guy, when I started explaining to him why I was doing it until the Lord brought me away from it, but eventually the Lord revealed to me, "Ed, Ed, Ed." It's almost like you have to get someone's head and just talk to them. "Ed, listen." The Father has me. He says, "Listen to me. Your son will never be you because he's not you." That's freedom. He will never be me.

And I don't need to be fearful of everything that's going on. Instead, I can be a discipler. I can train my son. I can be an example to him. I can help him process his mistakes. And so each successive child in my home got to benefit in my life of better parenting, I hope. I hope they would say that. We became better parents. I'll speak for myself. Marie's always been a better parent. But I'll speak for myself where I think successively with each child we get better and better.

And ultimately though, my kids all came to an age, whatever it may be, 15, 16, 17, where they had to make their own decisions. It wasn't my—it wasn't me anymore. It wasn't me; it was them. They had to be accountable. It's not 18 where the age of this world; it happens much earlier than 18 where a young person understands their responsibility toward God, where a young person understands the love of God, where a young person understands, "You know, I'm not under the shadow of my parents anymore. I have my own life, my own walk, my own responsibility." And then they then take the accountability and responsibility of their life.

Of course at different ages, they're still living with their parents for sure, but the reality is that if you continue the sinful patterns of the generations before you, you will experience the same consequences of generations before you. But God's ready to show mercy to the thousands that repent. That's what that is. No such thing as generational curses, okay? You got that? No such thing. Don't receive it.

Here's one verse just to lay it out. Like I said, I've done it in much depth other places, but here, one verse that will just clear out the complete teaching 100%. Just one verse among many. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. This is the answer whenever generational curse is brought up. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." That's it. That settles it. God's Word says it, that settles it, and then I believe it, and it changes my life. Because whether you believe it or not, it's still settled. God's Word is settled in heaven, and generational change starts with us that are believers.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor is leading a study of Exodus right now. You can hear these radio programs on our website anytime at aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. Another way to go and grow in the Word is by downloading our app. Search for Ed Taylor. This is a great way for you to take in the Word of God wherever you may be.

Do you struggle with anger, as so many do? We'd like to recommend an excellent book on the subject from Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. It's titled Anger Is a Choice. Whether you're dealing with the rage of others or battle it yourself, you'll discover how to keep anger under control instead of it being in control.

Request a copy today when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE. And I should also mention the book is available online at our e-store. Take a look at calvaryco.store. Calvaryco.store. Again, the toll-free number: 877-30-GRACE.

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Well, that will do it for today. Come back tomorrow when Pastor Ed Taylor will pick up where we left off in Exodus here on Abounding Grace.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.