Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 11:15.
[00:00:07] Good morning. Good morning.
[00:00:09] If I have not met you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here and I have the joy to open up God's Word most weeks. And this morning I'm really excited to open up God's Word with you. I want to take a moment and I want to set up some of the maybe emotional context of our text this morning. And I want to share with you just a little bit about kind of my life growing up. I am grateful to not have experienced generational hatred or generational racism or generational trauma that I'm aware of.
[00:00:48] For example, growing up in my home, I just never heard anybody or group of people being spoken negatively about because of their race or something about themselves that they create couldn't control.
[00:01:02] When we would go to extended family get togethers, if there was ever like a family tension or estrangement, I was happily unaware of it.
[00:01:15] If there were family members who were not speaking to each other or who couldn't be in the same room, that was just something I had no idea was even possibly going on.
[00:01:25] And I'm well aware that this isn't everyone's story, but I think you would agree with me that you would really, really hope that that kind of innocence would be maybe if you have a little bit control over the story of your children and your grandchildren and if you don't have kids that you're like. I would really love for my children to grow up in a place where they're sheltered from some of this unnecessary conflict that they don't need to know about now. It doesn't mean that my parents didn't have to protect us or there weren't hard things going on. What it does mean is that I was just blissfully unaware of the stuff that wasn't really relevant to me at that time. It would come out later that we would have an uncle who was an addict and created a whole bunch of issues in the family. But it was striking to me that I didn't hear about those things until I was older. And it was required for me to know it, to understand what was going on in certain contexts.
[00:02:18] If we're not careful, we can take one generation's conflict and pass it on unnecessarily to the next.
[00:02:29] We can require our children to take sides and to hate even their very own family.
[00:02:40] We have dealt with a whole bunch of this over many years with you at village church and challenges you've gone through. And years ago, my wife shared with me a principle I Wanna share with you. I've actually shared it privately with many of you and I found it to be a really, really helpful concept. She says this. We keep conflict within the generation. It happened.
[00:03:01] But if we need to tell somebody, we go up, not sideways or down. Like if there is a real family conflict, then we go to our moms, dads, grandmas, grandmas, aunts and uncles. The people who know the players, who are wise, who can hear a perspective and not just take sides and hate people because they heard your side of the.
[00:03:24] And don't get me wrong, by the way, there are times where we have to draw healthy boundaries within our own family.
[00:03:30] But before we make such consequential decisions, we go get wisdom from men or women who are trained and wise and godly. Preferably, we don't get our primary advice from our friends because friends don't always know how to give best friends wisdom that we need. We need somebody who's unafraid of us to tell us the truth and help us to really think wisely about generational family conflict and how to.
[00:03:56] Okay, with this setup. Open up your Bibles to numbers, chapter 20. So this morning I wanna do is I wanna tell you two stories.
[00:04:03] One is from numbers 20, the other story is from numbers, chapter 22. And you're gonna notice palpable hostility in these relationships as we go through these stories kind of at the end. I'm gonna help you understand some of the origin story of this hostility. But I'll just give you a little like hint on the front end. It was all rooted in literally centuries old unresolved family conflict.
[00:04:29] Okay, so we're in the book of Numbers, we're in chapter 20. Something big is happening.
[00:04:33] They are the nation of Israel getting ready to move into the promised land. For 40 years they've been wandering in the wilderness. Everybody who rebelled from the previous generation is dead, buried in the wilderness. And now they are going in to receive the blessings of the promised land that God has promised them. Pop quiz, village church. Is it gonna be easy for them to acquire the promises that has set before them? The answer is definitely not. And one of the biggest things to get in the way is their own frustrating sin. So look at Numbers, chapter 20, verse 14.
[00:05:07] Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. And I want you to remember Edom because they're going to be the central focus for this first story.
[00:05:16] Thus says your brother Israel. And notice the familial language here.
[00:05:23] You know, all the hardship that we have met, how our fathers went down to Egypt. And we lived in Egypt a long time. Understatement. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. So right off the bat, here's what you're learning. There are two nations, Israel and Edom. And these nations have fathers who are the originators of their nations. And the original father of the nation of Edom, his name is Esau. And the original father of Israel was Jacob. And so you have two brothers. And now brother nations, Jacob and Israel, or Jacob and Esau, or Israel and Edom. And so these, these are brother nations. They share family history together. And so here's what you find. You find Israel. They're in need of the Edom's help. And so they're sending a messenger saying, listen, we're family, we go way back. Could you throw us a bone? And the messengers continue in verse 16 says this.
[00:06:16] And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. We're not attacking you, we're not threatening you.
[00:06:30] We have not assembled an army against you. We have a request of you. Would you just listen to Our request? Verse 17, please. And if it was in the Hebrew, I guarantee, with sugar on top of.
[00:06:43] Let us pass through your land.
[00:06:47] We will not pass through field or vineyard or drink water from a well. We will go along the king's highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or the left until we have passed through your territory. Like we're telling you everything we're gonna do. We're telling you the road we're going to go on. And here's the deal. And they didn't say this, but if you know the geography, here's how it lands.
[00:07:08] If we can't go through your land, we're gonna have to take a million people 120 miles on foot out of the way.
[00:07:18] What would you rather do? Have a hard conversation with a long lost cousin? Or would you rather take 120 people, a million people, 120 miles out of the way?
[00:07:27] Believe me, you're gonna go for the conversations. This is what they do. Verse 18.
[00:07:31] But Edom said to him, you shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.
[00:07:44] Can we agree? That's a pretty strong response.
[00:07:47] Do you sense there might be some unresolved past familial conflict going here?
[00:07:51] Verse 19.
[00:07:52] The people of Israel said to him, another try here, listen. We will go up by the highway and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock. Then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, Nothing more. Verse 20. But he said, you shall not pass through.
[00:08:12] And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force.
[00:08:21] Verse 21. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory. So Israel turned away from him.
[00:08:30] Unresolved generational grudges turn reasonable requests into potential wars.
[00:08:38] Have you ever had like a major relational issue with somebody and then they go to ask you a favor and maybe you're tempted to be like, how dare you?
[00:08:48] We haven't even worked out this issue and now you're coming to me and asking me for help. Who do you think you are? You can understand how unresolved issues can take otherwise normal requests and conversations and turn them into all out wars. Now one of my questions is, I was reading, this is Israel. They are literally, they have an entire army they're bringing out against you. You know, you have Yahweh on your side. You gotta get through. Why not just go to war with them? And this brings us to Deuteronomy, chapter two. I'll put on the screen. God actually gave them very clear direction for what they were to do and not do. When they came near Edom, they it says this. Then the Lord said to me, you have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward and command the people.
[00:09:32] You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir.
[00:09:40] And they will be afraid of you, so be very careful.
[00:09:46] Fear, when people are afraid of you, it causes them to do very unpredictable things.
[00:09:50] And so in verse five, he says, do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land. No, not as much as for the sole of the foot to tread on. Because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. So, number one, this isn't your land. I never intended to give this for you and your people. I set this land aside for Esau and it's theirs. They're afraid of you. Watch out, they're going to probably do something crazy. Be really careful. And here's one of God's principles, right? I do not desire for my people to wage war with their own family.
[00:10:30] You cannot control what your family does.
[00:10:34] Can I get a hearty amen from village church on this one?
[00:10:38] You can't control who shows up ready to fight.
[00:10:44] You can only control what you do.
[00:10:49] And for once, Israel does what God told them to do. They turn around, they Walk away. And they take the long journey, 120 miles. I can't believe it. The children of the rebels obeyed. Praise God. But here's what Yahweh knows.
[00:11:07] You cannot rationalize with someone, especially if they're family, who are willing to destroy you, because if you engage and you win, you still lose.
[00:11:25] So we, as the people of God, we do everything in our power to not engage in warfare with our family.
[00:11:34] Now, story number two comes from Numbers, chapter 22. So just turn over two chapters, verse one. And we're going to be going more to this next week, but I want to just spend a few minutes on these verses to show you another illustration of this.
[00:11:48] Says this, and the people of Israel set out encamped in the plains of Moab. So now we have the Moabites beyond the Jordan of Jericho. And Balak, the son of Zipporah, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, which, by the way, Israel won. And Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many.
[00:12:08] Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. Now, verse four. Watch this. Moab said to the elders of Midian, let's just pause for a moment, who was the adopted son of a Midianite, Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite woman, the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest. And so now you have two parts of Moses family conspiring together against him.
[00:12:38] Moab said to the elders of Midian, this horde will now lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. So Balak, who was the king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to Balaam. We'll deal with more with him next week, saying, behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite of me. Now, whatever Moab does next, whatever they do next, God has given Israel a very clear directive about their relationship with Moab. And it came also in Deuteronomy, chapter 2, verse 9. The Lord said to me, do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle.
[00:13:25] Why would they ever be tempted to harass Moab?
[00:13:31] Well, because Moab are harassers, because Moab are antagonizers, because Moab will just poke at him. And so he knows this, and he's like, listen, whatever they do, you don't harass back. And if they go to war with you, or if they contend with you, whatever they do to you, it's to get under your skin. Don't contend with them. Because even if you win, you lose. And then he says, I will not give you any of their land for possession because I have given ar to the people of Lot for a possession a long time ago. Israel, I gave. This is their land. It's not yours. If they're not gonna let you through, they're not gonna let you through. Whatever happens, don't harass them, don't contend with them, don't fight with them. Leave them alone. Verse 6. Here is Moab's heart toward their extended family.
[00:14:14] Come now, curse this people.
[00:14:18] For me, Moab wasn't dumb enough to go into physical battle with Israel because he would lose. So what Moab did now is he went into spiritual battle, battle with them.
[00:14:31] For those of you, some of you know me pretty well. Some of you, like, the only kind of way you know me is from kind of preaching. And when you hear somebody preach week in, week out for a long time, you do pretty much get to know, like, so much of their personality, et cetera. But people have this funny thing with preachers and pastors. If you don't totally know us, you take the temperament of maybe some pastor you knew that we remind you of, and you often just kind of like, imagine we're like that person. So let me just give you a moment and kind of describe a little bit of myself, and I think this will help you make sense.
[00:15:03] Some people in our leadership and some of our friends describe me as a golden retriever.
[00:15:12] Okay? So I know.
[00:15:15] So good. Woof, woof.
[00:15:18] So, okay, there are.
[00:15:21] There's a small handful of people in the world I don't care for. I don't like them. If I never saw them again, I'd be happy. Do you guys have, like, people in your life like that?
[00:15:30] Yeah, everybody does. You live life long enough, and there's eventually gonna be like, one or 10 people that you're just like, eh, we're good.
[00:15:37] But by and large, I like everybody.
[00:15:41] Like, I meet you and I'm like, oh, a new friend. Oh, you're weird. The weirder the better. This is so fun. Like, everybody I meet, I'm just curious about. And you're like a potential best friend that I didn't even know I had. Okay? So, like, there's like, this thing in me when I see people, I'm like, oh, I see the best in you. I see who you could be. Like, that's kind of my default kind of posture towards life, okay? And so, like, I need people to help protect me from. Just. But, like, that's kind of my general vibe. So if I don't like you, there is something really specific that has probably happened.
[00:16:14] What has probably happened is that you have done something ugly and vile to me, my wife, my kids, or my church, or a combination.
[00:16:27] And you are unrepentant.
[00:16:29] So, like, it takes a lot to get on my, like, bad list. Like, that's kind of how golden retriever ish I am. Okay?
[00:16:36] So years ago, there was this person who. They did something to me that fell in the category of ugly, vile, unrepentant. And it was a combination of me, my kids, my wife, my church, and I won't tell you which combination.
[00:16:51] I was angry. And the Bible says, be angry and do not sin. So there are some things, by the way, you should be angry at. And the challenge is that anger is a hot emotion and wants to control you and cause you to sin, but be angry and do not sin.
[00:17:02] And so I was in a position where I was in the same room as this person, and every fiber in my body, every emotion, everything in me said, go give them the speech you rehearsed. You guys ever rehearsed a speech for anybody? Yeah, it was good.
[00:17:28] I was going to curse them. Not curse them out or put a demonic curse in them, But I wanted to rebuke them, curse them. And I was going to give them the most rational, logical, emotional, pointed, exposing, you name it, and they were gonna repent. And it was gonna be incredible, guys, okay? This is not, by the way, like, gonna make me look good. I'll just try to be as transparent. I'm not the hero of this story, okay? To be clear.
[00:17:55] So I see this person, and I am ready. I am ready to confront them and the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:04] So clear.
[00:18:06] Hey, Michael, do you really want to upset me?
[00:18:11] Your wife is gonna find out. The father's gonna know, the son's gonna know. I'm gonna know. Your kids are gonna find out. Like, this is what you're gonna do right now. Shush, shush. Holy Spirit, be quiet. I'm trying to do something right now. I got a really good speech, and I'm gonna give it, and this person needs to hear it. I don't think you know what you're talking about. Okay, Holy Spirit, just on me, just like.
[00:18:32] And then I start playing out all the people that are gonna find out if I do this. Cause it's not a private. This is not a private situation, okay? And my words aren't exactly subtle that I have for this person. And so I make a decision in that moment. And in that moment, I decide to turn around and walk away.
[00:18:49] And the reason I could do that was because I have something that the Bible calls.
[00:18:56] And by the way, who else has it?
[00:18:58] Every single person listening right now.
[00:19:01] We have the, rephrase this, the ability, the power to control ourselves.
[00:19:08] We have a will. And at any moment, no matter what our flesh wants, our emotions, wants, our impulses want, at every moment we have the full capability of looking at every impulse of our body and saying, no, I will actually go and do the opposite.
[00:19:25] And what's interesting is when I turned around and walked away from that almost conversation, something positive broke in me and healed. Don't get me wrong, right now I'm still angry thinking about it. And I would probably be angry for the rest of my life at this thing. But the anger doesn't control me.
[00:19:43] And if I see them again, I am confident that I will be under control. Because in that moment, it was like a Kadesh decision. If you were here last week, it was like threshold moment where I'm like, I'm either gonna move toward Jesus or I'm gonna move away from him in this moment. And in that moment, God healed just a piece of me that I didn't even know needed to be healed.
[00:20:04] Now I also wanna be clear.
[00:20:07] If I didn't have the Holy Spirit, if I didn't have a God that I actually cared about what he thought of me, I 100% would have gone and rebuked that person without regret and taking the consequences.
[00:20:23] And this is one of the beautiful things about the Holy Spirit is they teach us how to restrain our desire for vengeance or justice, or rebuke or curse, et cetera.
[00:20:34] And here's what's so striking. No matter what Moab is going to do, no matter what the physical warfare, which they didn't do, but the spiritual warfare, and invokes a curse or tries to invoke a curse against the people of God.
[00:20:47] We have the ability to not, as he says, do not harass them, do not contend with them, turn around, walk away. And because of the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of our will, we can do this.
[00:21:00] So numbers, chapter 20.
[00:21:02] In chapter 22, they're not just Israel marching through nameless lands, they're marching through family territory. And what happens when Israel asks for something just as simple as can we pass through age old, centuries old, generational wounds and conflicts are reopened. So what I wanna do is I wanna take a moment and I wanna kind of go to the origin story of these two conflicts. So I wanna talk about Edom first. And again, here's what you need to know. If the word in the Bible ite is after it, it's probably a bad group of people unless it's an Israelite. But it's hard to keep all these straight. So I know we said it earlier, but I'm not expecting you to remember all the details of all the ites. Okay, so first we have the Edomites. And the Edomites descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob.
[00:21:46] The Edomites, as we said, these are two brother nations. From Jacob came Israel, from Edom came Esau. And if you read the story of Jacob and Esau, it is a gut wrenching story of brother conflict. It is ugly, it is hard to read. It culminates with them almost completely destroying each other.
[00:22:06] And what you see with Esau, where Edom came from is. What you see is this core root sin of just bitterness and hostility and hatred to his brother. Don't get me wrong, if you read the story, did Jacob kind of like, I don't know, treat him poorly? Yeah, he did like, and probably Esau should have been mad about it, but he made some also pretty terrible decisions in the process.
[00:22:29] And so what you find though is that this entire nation has a spirit of bitterness towards the nation of Israel. And what happens in Esau is handed down these sin issues and these generational sins from are handed down to esau. And for 400 years as Israel is enslaved and as Edom kind of grows in their territory, what you find is this bitterness is growing and growing and growing. Now after numbers chapter 20, you fast forward seven to eight centuries. And do you know who is still angry and bitter and spiteful and vengeful towards Israel? Edom is. I want to just read to you a handful of prophecies that happened again 7, 800 years, 7 to 800 years after Numbers 22. And I want you to see this. Obadiah, chapter 1, verses 10 to 14. Edom, condemned for violence against Jacob. That's Israel. And for gloating when Jerusalem suffered. Ezekiel 25:12 to 14. God promised to stretch out his hand against Edom for their vengeance, specifically toward Israel. Ezekiel 35, 1:15. Mount Seir, which is in Edom, is judged for perpetual enmity against Israel. This is perpetual bitterness, hostility and harassment. Isaiah, chapter 34, 5 to 15. Edom is described as a land of burning pitch, destined for desolation. Why? Because they never ever stopped antagonizing out of bitterness the people of Israel. This coarse sin that the father that Esau had towards Jacob was handed from one generation to the next. Do you by chance know who the most popular Edomite is?
[00:24:09] It's a guy named Herod the Great, who hated Israel so much that when there was even the possibility of a king in Bethlehem being born, he sent his guards over to Bethlehem to kill every single boy two years old and younger. That was the level of hatred and spite and bitterness that the Edomites had toward Israel.
[00:24:33] Hatred passed through generational bloodlines.
[00:24:36] Doesn't go away until one generation chooses to repent of it and break the cycle.
[00:24:46] Now let's look at the Moabites. Who were the Moabites?
[00:24:49] They have a dark history. The Moabites descended from Lot's older daughter, Lot's older daughter. She had a bright idea. She wanted to have kids. So she got her father drunk, sexually violated him, and became pregnant with her father's child. His name was Moab. And then her younger daughter the next day had a bright idea. It worked for her. I'm gonna do that also. So she got her father drunk, took advantage of him sexually, and then she had a child. His name was Ammon. And so you have the Ammonites and the Moabites, both birthed out of rape and incest. Really unfortunate. But what you find is that these core sins from these girls, like mother, like daughter, they were in them. And what happened is, over time, this sexual sin, this deviancy, grew from one generation to the next, in case you didn't know. Do you guys know where Lot's daughters were raised?
[00:25:41] Sodom and Gomorrah. The most evil place on the planet. So vile and despicable that the only response that God could have would be to wipe them off the face of the planet. And so Sodom and Gomorrah were deep in their soul and their bones. And then generation after generation, they give this sin to their children and grandchildren. By the time you get to numbers, chapter 22, they are sacrificing their children, participating in gross sexual immorality, worshiping this God. His name is Chemosh. If you've ever heard of Moloch, it's basically the same thing. But over in Moab, deeply, darkly, pervertedly sexual, they would offer up their children, burn them alive, their firstborn children. It was just one of the most dark cultures you can imagine. And the question needs to probably be asked, so then why did the Moabites hate the Israelites so much? And the answer is actually right in front of your face. So Deuteronomy and The book of 1 Corinthians both acknowledge what these pagan tribes worshiped were nothing short of demons. And so you have one literal tribe, ancestors related to Abraham who are raised being controlled by Satan and demons. Their entire culture, their entire religion, all of their practices, the way they interact with each other. And then you have the people of God. Okay, do you think that a religion devoted to demonic and Satan worship is going to be super pumped about the people of God?
[00:27:09] No. In fact, Satan, the New Testament says, is committed to steal, kill and destroy. Don't get me wrong, he'll take stealing, killing and destruction anywhere you can find it. But who does he really love to steal, kill and destroy?
[00:27:21] The people of God. Not just the image bearers of God, but the people who are called by his name, purchased by the blood of Christ.
[00:27:29] He hates them. And so you have the people of God and you have Satan's people filled with his power, filled with his hatred, filled with his immorality. And what happens when the people of God come near? Of course he is going to attack them because he hates them. Everything Satan leads, he tries to destroy the people of God.
[00:27:50] All right, let's bring this home.
[00:27:52] How do these millennia old conflicts, family conflicts, apply today? Number one, two quick things.
[00:28:00] Every single one of us are setting generational trajectories for worse or for better.
[00:28:09] I think you probably all agree with me. It's hard to watch people, children, families, communities and nations reap what their predecessors have sowed.
[00:28:20] But this is, by the way, everyone's story.
[00:28:24] You cannot control what the people who came before you in your nation and your community and your family and your church, your parents.
[00:28:32] You cannot control what they did. You can't control the legacy you receive.
[00:28:39] There are two things that are in our control.
[00:28:42] And we can victimize ourselves and we can pout all we want and be upset and let that steal years and decades of our life. I don't find that to be the most productive.
[00:28:52] I think there are two productive things that we can do with the legacies we've received. Number one is to repent of the sin that we have received.
[00:29:02] There are generational patterns and struggles that we are made that when we watch our mom and dad, there's something really weird and broken about it that we repeat their sins and typically we don't just repeat them, we amplify them.
[00:29:14] But, but it's not all negative. We also have the privilege to repeat the virtues.
[00:29:20] There's also something really beautiful that when a mom and dad do healthy things and create healthy aspects of their home. Whether it's through traditions or through different ways they communicate, there's actually something really powerful. We love the experience of healthy relationship. And so what we want is we want to repeat those healthy things as well. So here's what happens. The mature Christian has to really sometimes take stock of the family we grew up in, the generations that have come before us. And we kind of have to step back and go, I think I need to give vocabulary to maybe some of the sin struggles that seem to be in my great grandparents and grandparents and parents.
[00:29:57] And you know what? I want those to die here. I want to be the generation that breaks that cycle.
[00:30:02] And I have good news for you. We also should step back and be like, what are the amazing things about our family and our heritage and our history that are good and virtuous and God glorifying? And I want to give vocabulary to those, because sometimes the hard stuff is just so loud that we forget to actually look at the good stuff. There are many so, so many incredible things that you have learned and gained that you want to repeat for the next generation from your mom and dad and your grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. And so we don't just look at the bad. We look at the good and say, let's give vocabulary to this. And one of the best ways to take virtues and reinforce them is through tradition. It's through regularly doing things that reinforce the things that you want to make sure you hand off to the next generation. Now I want to talk to parents for a moment.
[00:30:48] No parent has ever been able to repent of every sin that they have inherited, or no parent has ever been perfect. Could we just get an amen on this?
[00:31:02] Like, it's not like you're like my generation. We have broken all the cycles. We have nailed it and really just be like us, and there's no more progress to be made. It's not the way it works.
[00:31:12] Every generation of parents have flaws. We've inherited the flaws, and we hand down the flaws. And our hope as moms and dads is that we did better than what came before us, just like them.
[00:31:24] Now let me talk to the kids for a moment.
[00:31:27] There's going to come a day when, if you haven't done it yet, you might do it later.
[00:31:32] You might want to sit down with your mom or your dad or both and say, could I share with you some of the generational patterns that hurt me?
[00:31:39] Maybe you need to get it off your chest. Let me give you some encouragement.
[00:31:43] Go talk to somebody really wise before you have the conversation, and I hope they'll tell you something like this one day, statistically speaking, you're going to have kids and you're going to hand to them all of your generational sin struggles that you didn't overcome. Some of them you're not even aware of yet because you don't know how sinful you are until you get married and have kids.
[00:32:10] One day your child is going to sit down with you and they're going to say to you, can I tell you about some of the things that were really hard for me growing up?
[00:32:20] And you're going to want them to be gracious because, and this applies to 99.9% of parents, most parents are doing the best they can with the limited resources they have.
[00:32:34] And so in the same way, you're gonna need your kids and desire them to be kind and honest and gracious with you.
[00:32:40] When you talk to your mom and dad, I want you to remember that, and I want you to remember you have a mom and dad. Statistically speaking, if you're able to have that conversation, maybe it's a grandma or grandpa or whatever it is that did their best that love you.
[00:32:53] You can't control how they're gonna respond. So, parents, if you ever find yourself in this sacred situation where a kid benefit the doubt, lovingly has some hard things to say, listen, take it seriously. You might need to say to them, can I have a week to think about this? Because I've never processed this before. I don't want to blow you off, but there is a powerful, powerful thing.
[00:33:15] It's this practice where parents confess sins, even little things. Hey, I yelled. I shouldn't have done that. And what happens when parents confess things is it breaks the power that those things had over their kids.
[00:33:28] Which is why part of being a parent and being a good parent, I think, is just to learn how to apologize to your kids young when you mess up, because we all mess up. But when those big moments happen, there is, if it's real and it's legitimate, there is an opportunity in those moments to break some of those generational patterns. And God willing, by the Holy Spirit, you're gonna have gracious children who want to heal so that when they have kids or grandkids, it stops with that generation. Amen. But guys, whatever you do, before anybody has that conversation, go get wisdom. Go get wisdom.
[00:34:04] Number two, Jesus can forgive Moabites and Edomites. Praise God, the people who grew up in crazy cultures, bitter cultures, hostile cultures, perverted cultures, God, the blood of Christ can cover even them. Do you know who the most famous Moabite was?
[00:34:29] Her name is Ruth and she's in the very lineage of Jesus.
[00:34:34] I also want you to see this about Edomites, and this is again seven to eight centuries after numbers 22. But I want you to just hear this. It's from Amos 9, 11.
[00:34:43] God says, in that day I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess. This is an important line here. The remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord, who does this.
[00:35:06] The remnant of Edom are the people who grew up in that culture and said, we're not going to play your hate game.
[00:35:14] We're not going to take your generational sins incarnate them and then amplify them for the next generation. The remnant of Edom are the ones who said, this stops here.
[00:35:24] We're going to be faithful to Yahweh and we're going to repent of the sin sinful practices we've inherited and we're going to repeat the honorable things that we've learned from God's people and God's word.
[00:35:37] I think this is great news because no matter how vile or evil your family culture or your culture that you live in is, it actually doesn't need to be your destiny.
[00:35:51] Like you have self control, the ability to control yourself. You have a will.
[00:35:56] You can actually say no to those patterns that are deep down written. Sometimes it feels like in the fabric of your soul, you actually have the freedom, the, the ability to do something different and to cut this off. And if some of these Moabites and Edomites, given the culture and context that they grew up in, if they can get out of this through the power of Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, you can be a generation that says, you know what, I'm gonna shift and I'm just gonna do some things differently. One of the things I appreciate too is that there's ancestry, their heritage, their name, Moabites, Edomites. It's never ignored, it's never changed. Like they're still called for what they were, almost as this perpetual reminder, like, wait a minute, an Edomite, a Moabite can actually be part of the people of God? Absolutely.
[00:36:46] Why do they keep their names? So that people for generations know that anybody who comes to God on His terms can experience healing and redemption and stop these crazy generational patterns dead in their Tracks.
[00:36:59] And so we have entered this year into.
[00:37:02] Said it multiple times. A season of confession and repentance and making hard decisions. And I think that some of the hard decisions that many of us have to make are probably. We've realized some of these patterns that we've inherited. And the hard decision is to draw a line in the sand and say, I'm going to take a next step so that I do not incarnate this sin pattern anymore. And I stop it here, here and now. Now, the nature of a sermon like this is. A sermon like this can't fix anything. A sermon like this is made to kind of rile up those things inside of you so that maybe you're aware of them in a way you haven't been before.
[00:37:37] But if there's gonna be healing, it's gonna happen because, number one, you come to Jesus and you trust in him for forgiveness of sins.
[00:37:45] It's gonna happen when he gives you the Holy Spirit, and it's gonna happen when you take the next steps that the Holy Spirit is prompting you to take to be able to deal with that issue. But here's what I know. I know that Jesus desires healing for each one of us, that his desire is that we would flourish spiritually. And what you learn as you kind of go through life and you grow as a Christian is that if we're going to be people who flourish spiritually, it means that we're going to have to look at the hard stuff directly, call it for what it is, and give it to Jesus so that he can begin to transform us from the inside out.
[00:38:19] Now, Villa, Church is transformation when it comes to hard issues and generational sin.
[00:38:25] Quick or slow?
[00:38:27] Slow.
[00:38:28] But it's worth it. It's worth it. And so if you're expecting him to get rid of something immediately, statistically, probably not gonna happen. But if you want to experience flourishing, walking with Jesus and letting him help you heal is one of the greatest things you can do, not just for your own soul, but for the generations who come after you. I don't know about y'. All. I want to raise a generation not of perfect people, but of people who are. Who are watching humility and repentance and confession and making hard decisions modeled so that when they grow up, they can look at the generation out of them and they can take that virtue and amplify it for that generation. Amenville Church. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I want to thank you for the fact that the blood of Christ can cover even the dark sins of a Moabite, Edomite, or really any that any person listening to this message brings to you. The blood of Christ is potent. It is powerful. And I thank you God, that you have saved people from every tribe, tongue, nation and language. And you haven't just saved them, you have brought about redemption and family after family after family.
[00:39:32] We all confess, God, that we are sinners, that there are parts of our life that we inherited. Maybe we haven't even seen them. So Lord, would you show us some of those things that we need to repent of? Would you also encourage us and show us the really incredible things that we've received from mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and for generations, Lord, so that we could give them a name and repeat them for the next generation? So Lord, our desire is to bring you honor and glory. And we pray, would you help us? And right now it is our joy to celebrate what you have done for us on the cross through communion, because had you not done that, we would still be in our sin and, and there would be no hope for healing, there'd be no hope for restoration. So God, thank you that everything we have is given to us through faith in Christ. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
