The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: You can't have God on Sunday and the devil on Monday. Lasting change starts when we stop trying to live for two masters. It's time to break the curse in your life, in your family, in your children.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Our children may inherit our hair color, our eye color, or even our crooked teeth. But today, Dr. Evans explains why patterns of sin and disobedience don't have to be part of that inheritance. Let's join him as he begins.

Dr. Tony Evans: What is a generational curse? A generational curse may be defined as curses inherited or passed down from one generation to another due to rebellion against God. You and I pass down to our children a lot of things. Their racial color is passed down through their parents. Various shapes, hair texture, DNA is passed down.

Children look like parents biologically. Just as there are physical things that children partake of from their parents, there are spiritual things that children partake of from their parents. Many of the things that many of us are faced with were passed down. We are the recipients of a spiritual DNA, like we are of a biological and physical DNA that can be good or that can be bad.

I want to walk through this with you looking at a number of passages so that you understand if you are cursed generationally and how to break it. In Deuteronomy chapter 30, God has completed His discussion of His covenant with Israel. The essence of God's relationship with His covenanted people is a relationship of curses and blessings.

If we look in chapter 30, the passage I ask you to look at, He says in verse 15, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity." He says in verse 19, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants."

Blessing is the enjoyment and full participation in the will of God for your life. Cursing is the misery and emptiness of not fulfilling your divinely ordained purpose. He says, "I have set before you blessing and cursing, life and death, prosperity and adversity," and then He says to them, "so choose."

Generational curses are the transfer of negative patterns in the lives of the children through the parents that affect the individuals, their families, and whole nations, if you will, the Bible recognizes as having been cursed. If your family line is characterized by divorce, incest, poverty, uncontrolled anger, spousal abuse, depression, barrenness, you may be living out a curse.

If you can see a pattern. A person can have these problems and they not be tied to a pattern. Then it's not a generational curse. A generational curse is when you can look back and you can see this pattern. My mother was angry and mad and vindictive and evil, and I'm finding inability to control my own emotions. I'm seeing a lot of me in her, even though I said I'd never be like that.

The problem is you may have inherited something. The Bible says that these curses are tied to choices. He said you choose. "I have set before you," that is I've given you an option of life and blessing or death and cursing. Choose life. Leviticus 26:39 says those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of their enemies, and also because of the iniquity of their forefathers, they will rot away with them.

If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers in their unfaithfulness which was committed against me, and also in their acting with hostility against me, I also will act with hostility against them to bring them into the land of the enemies. Or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

How do you break a generational curse? Things that we have inherited that we never made the link to daddy, granddaddy, great-granddaddy. We didn't make the link. He says the first thing you must do is you must confess your own participation in the activity of the curse. You must come to God and claim your own rebellion. You must come to God and repent of your own participation.

Let me tell you what a lot of folk don't want to do. They don't want to do that. What they want to do is talk about how they are just like their mother. Yeah, okay, and your kids are going to be just like you. He says, no, you must be willing to confess your iniquity, that is your participation in the inheritance, even though it may have been how you were raised, even though that's what your mama thought, even though that's what your granny taught. You must confess your participation.

You must confess their participation. Notice what he says. He says confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers. This thing is so big, this thing could include whole races. If I were to ever just do a series on generational curses, it would astound you to see how this thing has affected whole groups of people and how it was passed down. It has implications for slavery or segregation and prejudice and family structure.

God is a generational God. He set up history that way. You say, but my daddy is dead, my granddaddy is dead. Their iniquity is alive. See, the problem is the issue is not whether they are living. The issue is whether their iniquity is living. And you know it's living because it's living in you or me. What you do is to confess the iniquity that you are participating in and to confess their iniquity and their participation in it.

Why am I confessing their iniquity? Because you're breaking a chain. Listen to me. Every time there was a revival in Israel and they were calling on God for a revival, you'll always see them confessing their sins and the sins of their forefathers who were dead. Nehemiah says forgive us, forgive our forefathers, in Nehemiah chapter 9. Ezra says in chapter 9 verse 7 these words, "Since the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt."

On account of our iniquities, we, our kings, our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword, to the captivity, to the plunder, to the open shame as it is this day. He says, we messed up this day because of what daddy did in his day. Could it be you're not able to break through, break out of this cycle because daddy or granddaddy long gone is still with you? It's a generational curse.

Daniel says in Daniel chapter 9 verses 16 and 17, forgive me of our sins and forgive our fathers. Zechariah chapter 1 verses 2 to 4 says, if you turn away from the sins of your fathers and return to God. It starts with confessing your inheritance as your sin, but also their sin as well, and returning away from idols and the iniquity associated with them to the true God. The Bible calls that repentance.

Turning away from evil, which is always wrapped up in idolatry because you're looking for something illegitimate to meet your need. Turning back to God and then God says something staggering. He says when you confess your sins and the sins of your father and when you turn back to me, "I will remember the covenant that I made with your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Wait a minute now. What do you mean, God, you are going to remember?

You are the omniscient God. There's nothing you do not know. There's nothing you can forget. Did you forget? I ignored. I didn't forget, but I did not relate to you based on my covenant with them. I related to you based on your covenant with your new god. I related to you differently. It's not that I don't know my covenant. It's just that I couldn't relate to you based on it because you have chosen another god manifested in the iniquity.

When a person's on drugs, they're looking for drugs to meet a need illegitimately. Drugs becomes an idol. In fact, there are scriptures in the Bible that connect drugs with demon activity. You can look to money to be your god. You can look to an individual to be your god to illegitimately meet a legitimate need. He says but if you turn back, I will remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God made a covenant with Abraham, and the beautiful thing about this is that this was before the law. So this even transcends just what he was doing with Moses because he says it goes back to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. God made a covenant with Abraham and guess what the covenant with Abraham says? "I will bless you."

God's covenant with Abraham is real simple. "I'm going to bless you so you can be a blessing. Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I'm going to bless you so that I can do blessing through you." That's my covenant. He's going to remember his promise to bless you. That's what he's going to remember. He will ignore that as long as there are other gods in your life being reflected by the choices to leave the true God and the iniquity associated with it.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will tell us more about what happens when we make the choice God wants us to make when he returns to continue our message in just a moment. Don't go away. There's something about the rhythm of the ocean that quiets the noise of everyday life. Step away from the rush and into rest and renewal on a seven-day Caribbean cruise with Dr. Tony Evans.

Set sail February 28 to visit beautiful destinations in the Bahamas, all while enjoying powerful Bible teaching, meaningful worship, and time to reconnect with God and others. Experience renewal for your body and your soul. Find out more at TonyEvans.org. Before we return to our message, I'd like to tell you about a pair of resources that can help you build a stronger spiritual foundation at home.

The first is Tony's two-volume 13-message series, Parenting on Purpose. In these messages, Dr. Evans shares biblical wisdom for dealing with the real-world challenges families face today, while helping parents raise children who know what they believe and why they believe it. We'd like to send you this complete audio collection as our thank you gift when you make a donation to support the Alternative broadcast ministry.

Alongside the Parenting on Purpose messages, we'll also include Tony's highly regarded book, Raising Kingdom Kids. It's filled with practical insights that can help parents intentionally shape the character, values, and spiritual direction of their children. This special resource package is available when you visit TonyEvans.org, where you can find all the details, or call us anytime at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are available 24 hours a day to assist you.

Dr. Tony Evans: Somebody in here today may be thinking that they don't have to worry about that because it is Old Testament stuff. They're a New Testament Christian. Okay, turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. That's in the New Testament. He's writing to the Christians who are at the Corinthian Bible Fellowship. He references the Old Testament, verse 18. "Look at the nation Israel." So he said look back. "Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? What's this got to do with us in the New Testament?"

A thing sacrificed to idols is anything or an idol is anything? Am I telling you just because you look to something else outside of God to meet your need that that something else actually becomes god? No, I'm not saying that. Let me tell you what I am saying. "I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons." In other words, it's not the thing, it's the thing behind the thing. He says there are demons behind that stuff.

Roaches are showing up because they believe they've been invited to dinner. The things offered offer them. They believe that's them. Guess what they do? They bring their family with them. Nobody just ever had one roach. There are whole families of roaches. You hit one, think you've done something. No, they're behind that wall, they have a nation building. He says you actually sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.

I do not want this New Testament Church and these New Testament Christians to be hanging out with devils. Here's the problem, verse 21. "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." You can't have it both ways. You can't have God on Sunday and the devil on Monday. You can't have God on Sunday and the iniquities on Monday. You cannot have it both ways. Choose.

As long as you want it both ways, you have invited adversity and you have invited the generational influence from you to you and through you. You can't have it both ways. You cannot share in the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't drink out of these two cups. You say you never sacrificed to demons. He said you did, you just didn't know it. Flip over one page to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23.

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.'\" In the same way He took the cup also after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant of my blood; do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me."

As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. God says if you will return to me, putting you in the position of blessing, and really it is because I'm going to remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to go back in history. I'm going to go back in history to folk long dead and I'm going to resurrect from the folk that have been long dead who have the promise of blessing.

I'm going to create a new transfer. I'm going to transfer my blessing. Just like I transferred my curse or allowed the demons to transfer the curse, I'm going to revert back in time and I'm going to transfer the blessings of the covenant to you today. He tells them you can't have the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Then he comes in chapter 11 and he talks about the cup. He says if you eat this bread and if you drink from this cup, you remember me.

What am I remembering about you? You're remembering my death until I come. Don't miss this. He says God is in the memory business. He remembers his covenant to reach back and pull blessings from the past and bring it to the future, skipping over the iniquity of the children who return to him. I don't want you to forget that God does this. I want you to remember that God can reach back and bring blessing to you today.

When am I supposed to remember this? I'm supposed to remember this during communion. Communion is not just about eating a cracker or drinking some juice. It is about me remembering 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross and made me a part of the new covenant. This new arrangement. God says if I come to the table confessing my sin, relinquishing any idols in my life, I reach back to His death that was 2,000 years ago.

When I reach back to His death, I get a resurrection. That resurrection is my place of blessing. If you come to the table and you remember that I am a remembering God and you get things right with me, I walk back 2,000 years to the death of Jesus Christ and cross over iniquity so that I can bring blessing and power and privilege and glory in your life in spite of what your daddy did, in spite of what your granddaddy did, in spite of what your great-granddaddy did.

I will reach back and I will overcome it. It's time to break the curse in your life, in your family, in your children. But you can't do it if you're drinking from two cups.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talking about the only way to break the generational cycle of sin. Today's message is just one installment in Tony's practical series called Parenting on Purpose. This two-volume 13-message collection explores what it means to build a Christ-centered home and raise children who are equipped to stand strong in their faith.

For a limited time, when you make a donation and request the Parenting on Purpose audio series, we'll also include a complimentary copy of Tony's popular companion book, Raising Kingdom Kids. Together, these resources can help you approach parenting with greater confidence, wisdom, and purpose. Find out more today at TonyEvans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are available 24 hours a day to assist you.

When a problem grows unchecked, it can become a crisis. And when a crisis is left unresolved, it can eventually turn into a curse. On Monday, Dr. Evans explains why the epidemic of fatherlessness in America fits that description and what we can do to help reverse it. Be sure to join us for that.