Family, Faith & 1000 Generations

Well, thank you, Mr. Antion. And happy Sabbath, brethren! Welcome to the Winter Family Weekend. We are course here to enjoy the Sabbath together and a few exciting days of recreation and fellowship. And many of us are here as family members. We have our families with us. And we understand, because we live in such a wonderful and great nation, that many of the blessings that we enjoy are the result of the obedience of one man.

And his name, of course, was Abraham. And because of his obedience and his faith and his relationship with God, he was told that his descendants would be a great and an influential people. His descendants. And that's what I would like to talk about today. I would like to talk about our descendants and how our lives can have an influence on the next generation, on many generations to come. Have you considered just how powerful your personal relationship is with God? Many individuals think that God had a special and exclusive relationship with Abraham, and that Abraham's descendants were blessed because of his faith and his obedience.

And indeed, they were. Many people think that God blessed David in a special way, a unique and exclusive way, and said, you will always have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel. And indeed, God does keep his promises. But I would like to remind everyone today that God's word states that he blesses the descendants of everyone who seeks him and honors him with an obedient heart. Let's turn to the book of Exodus, chapter 20, beginning in verse four, and read about that today. Exodus, chapter 20, beginning in verse four.

Because when we have a relationship with our Father, we have a relationship with our God, everything changes. Our relationship brings opportunities, not just in our own lives, but in the lives of our descendants. Exodus, chapter 20, beginning in verse four. This is, of course, the second commandment. It says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God says, I want you to love me first. I want you to make me a priority in your life. I want you to have a special relationship with me, God says, and continuing, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. So for those who don't respect a relationship that's possible with me, God says, I visit iniquity on their children of the third and fourth generations. But then there's verse six, it's very encouraging. But showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

I want you to notice the contrast that is presented here between a family receiving a curse or a blessing. When an individual rejects the knowledge of God, the consequences of sin within that family will be passed on for three to four generations. This is a curse that's passed down as a result of rejecting God's law, rejecting a relationship with God. And when a sin or a serious problem becomes part of our lifestyle, when it becomes embedded in us and it becomes a habit, it becomes an iniquity. And this curse can include poverty or depression, anger, addictions, pride, being abusive towards other people. These are the kinds of iniquities that we pass down in our family lineage from generation to generation because of a lack of a knowledge of who and what God is.

But, it says, in contrast, when one has a deep respect for God, build on a foundation of obedience and love, the result is that thousands will receive mercy. The translation God's word for today translates to verse 6 this way, But I will show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments. That's a promise to you. That's a promise to me. Not just limited to Abraham. Not just limited, as we'll see shortly, to David. Let's turn to Deuteronomy 7 and verse 9.

I'd like to emphasize that this is so important, this promise to God, that it is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 7 and verse 9. This is a promise for our generation. This is a promise to you. Deuteronomy 7 and verse 9. Moses was inspired to write, Therefore, know the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. You see, brethren, God makes a promise to every living generation, including ours, today.

He says that if we make good choices in our lives, he will show mercy to your descendants, to your family line. God promises to show mercy to your descendants because of the life that you live. Notice again the contrast. The result of iniquity is passed down three to four generations, but God's mercy will be passed down a thousand generations towards someone who loves him.

Whether you're a physical descendant of Abraham or not, we are all blessed as Americans. We are all enjoying the promises God made to Abraham. Not just physically, but spiritually, because Abraham seed Jesus Christ came to earth to be the Savior of all humankind. We understand about Abraham, but what about an example from King David? I'd like to look at another example of the powerful and important personal relationship that David had with God, and how it influenced his descendants. Let's go to Acts 13 and verse 21. And we'll see a statement made here about King David from Paul in a sermon he was giving in Antioch. Acts 13 and verse 21.

Paul says during this sermon, and afterward they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom he also gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. So he said, David and I had a special relationship. Who will do all my will? Verse 23. From this man's seed according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior Jesus Christ. And of course, Jesus was a descendant of King David. So God recognized David for his faithfulness and his obedience. But did this personal relationship have benefits to his descendants? If you and I make the right choices in our lives, will we allow our descendants to have these kinds of benefits? Even when David's descendants strayed from God and they were not as faithful as David had been, how did God treat them? Well, let's move forward in history and review a few generations after David's death, and together let's see what occurred. We'll begin by going to 1 Kings, if you'll turn with me there, 1 Kings chapter 11. We're going to begin about 20 years after the death of David. About 20 years later, a man after God's own heart. 1 Kings chapter 11. Some comments that are not very complimentary of his son Solomon, beginning in verse 6. 1 Kings chapter 11 and verse 6, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, did not fully follow the Lord as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Verse 9. So the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. And he had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant, my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. God, in essence, says to Solomon, You deserve the have this kingdom, the whole kingdom taken from you right now. He says, I'm really disappointed in you, Solomon, and that's what you deserve. He says in verse 12, Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, but for the sake of your father, David, I will tear it out of the hand of your son rather than you.

Verse 13, However, I will not tear away the whole kingdom. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant, David, because I had a special relationship with David. He obeyed me. He had faith, and I am giving mercy according to my promise. I am giving mercy to his descendants. And for the sake of my servant, David, and the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. So, brethren, over 20 years after David had died, his son Solomon was not living like he should have lived. Solomon was not as faithful. He was not as committed to God as his father David had been. He sinned greatly, and he should have had the entire kingdom taken from him. That's what he deserved. That's what he earned because of his gross evil and disobedience. But God said, For the sake of your father, David, I will not take this kingdom from you in your lifetime. Now let's move ahead 50 years. That was 20 years. How about 50 years? Let's go to 1 Kings chapter 15, beginning in verse 1. 1 Kings 15 and verse 1.

Over 50 years after the death of David, and let's see what occurs to his great-grandson. It says, In the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijah became king over Judah, and he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Makah, and his granddaughter of Abish-al-am. And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. His heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. Verse 4, Nevertheless, for David's sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by setting up his son after him and establishing Jerusalem. The translation New Century version says this about verse 4, quote, Because the Lord loved David, the Lord gave him a kingdom in Jerusalem and allowed him to have a son to be king after him, and the Lord also kept Jerusalem safe. End of quote.

And verse 5, it says, Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. So here we see the great-grandson of David certainly not living God's way. Over 50 years after David had died, God is giving his descendant mercy because of the faithfulness of his great grandfather. God says, in effect, I'm not doing this for you, Obijah. You deserve to be removed from the throne. Your kingdom deserves to collapse. I'm not doing this for you, but I am doing it because of the faithfulness, because of the obedience of your great grandfather, David.

Now let's go forward in time a little bit more to 300 years after the death of David. 300 years, if you'll turn to 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 32. If you look in the dictionary, how long a generation is. Some folks say a generation is 20 years. Others say it's 25 years. If we were to look and use the example of 20 years, this is 15 generations since the death of David. We're going to read about King Hezekiah. He was a good man, especially compared to his predecessors. He removed many of the pagan idols from the land. He reopened the temple. He was a faithful king, but he was a miserable politician. Kind of sounds familiar with our nation today, doesn't it? He was a miserable politician. He played politics with the mighty nation of Assyria. At first, he stopped paying tribute to them. He challenged them. I'm not going to send you any more tribute.

Then when they marched down and conquered the northern kingdom in Samaria, then he decided to bribe them. And he took the silver and the gold from the temple. He literally peeled off the gold from the door and the doorpost of the temple and sent it to the king. The king of Assyria is a bribe, and it didn't work. The king of Assyria marched his army down to Jerusalem at the gates of the city.

So let's see what happened. Second Kings chapter 19 and verse 32. Outside of Jerusalem, they're taunting the nation. They're taunting God. Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed and asked for God's intervention. Verse 32. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor build a siege mound against it by the way that he came, but the same shall he return. So, in other words, the same way he came is the same way that he's going back to his homeland, in Assyria. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, because I want to, he says, and for my servant David's sake. He said, I make promises and I keep my promises. And my promise to David was that if he was faithful and obedient, that I would bless a thousand of his generations, his descendants. I would cut them some slack, even if they're not as faithful as David was. Even sometimes if they don't deserve it, I keep my promises and I will show them mercy. How is it, do you think, that the United States has existed as long as we have, in spite of all the evil and perversity and sin that exist in our society? We have been living off of God's grace and mercy as a nation for a long, long time, but the string will soon run out. God has great mercy and love, but it doesn't endure forever against continual sin. Verse 35, and it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And I don't know the way that God did that. Obviously, they could have just literally died or it could have been a virus that caused that kind of death. But obviously, a massive death of 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained in of a just like the prophet had said. And soon Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons. Brother Jerusalem could have easily been conquered at this point in history, just like Samaria had been to the north. There had been many evil kings in Judah, just like Israel. Wicked evil kings throughout the history of Judah at this time. They deserved it. It could have happened, but for my servant David's sake, God cut mercy. He cut a little slack, and he allowed the nation to survive. Again, he said, for my servant David's sake. Now let's take a look at chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. And he turned his face towards the wall, and he prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray how I have walked before you, in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And Isaiah the prophet isn't even out of the grounds of the palace. He's still leaving, walking out of the grounds of the palace. And verse 5, God in essence says, Stop, return, and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, Who's he remembering? Whose example of faith, of righteousness, of obedience, is he remembering?

The God of David, your Father. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears, and surely I will heal you. And on the third day you will go up from the house of the Lord, and I will add to your days fifteen years, and I will deliver this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake, because I want to, and for the sake of my servant, David. What a powerful legacy. What an incredible promise. Then Isaiah says in verse 7, Take some lump of figs, and they took it and laid it on the boil, and it recovered. So again, over three hundred years after David had died, God is showing his mercy to his descendants because of David's obedience and personal relationship with God. He says in effect, Hezekiah, I'm not doing this for your sake. Your prayers are all wonderful about how loyal and faithful you've been, but I'm doing this for the sake of David. And not only that, brother, in approximately fifty generations after the death of David, his descendant, Jesus Christ, was born as the savior of all humankind. What a remarkable legacy that David left. What a remarkable promise that God gives us through his word. How about you, brethren? Do you realize that you can be the Abraham or the David in your family?

If you inherited a family legacy of negativity, addictions, poverty, divorce, greed, selfishness, you can be the one to put a stop to it. You can make a choice that will benefit your family, not only today, but for generations to come. All of us are dealing with issues we acquired from our families long ago, oftentimes from our grandparents or our very own parents. Sometimes the personal problems we struggle with go back many generations in our own family heritage.

But God has given us an incredible force, an incredible power, to say to ourselves, it stops here, it stops now. Because we can use the power of the Holy Spirit to begin the process of rooting those dysfunctions out of our lives and out of our families.

God gives us His Spirit so that we can put a stop to those things and make our lives more productive, not just for ourselves, but for our descendants. Studies show that families tend to repeat qualities they possess and pass them on to the next generation. There are a lot of positive qualities that families have, but there are also negative qualities. For example, sociologists find that selfish people produce selfish children. Overall, alcoholics produce another generation of alcoholism. Spousal abusers produce children who grow up and abuse their spouses. Negativity in a family breeds children who grow up with a negative outlook on life. Studies show that over 90 percent of people incarcerated today in our penal systems either had a parent or a close family member in jail. 90 percent had a family member or a close family member in jail. Talk about a visiting the iniquities of the sins of the fathers upon their children. Habitual problems may go back for generations in your family, but you can be the one to draw a line in the sand and make a difference.

Ask yourself, what kind of legacy am I passing down to my children, to my grandchildren, to my great-grandchildren? Am I leaving a family culture that has positive values, that is a culture of faith and obedience, or are they values of selfishness? Are they values of dysfunction, addictions, excuses? Am I giving them a blessing by the right choices I am making to love God?

Am I making an effort to stop reoccurring family sins? You see, every right choice you make, you make it easier for those who come after you. Every time you go the extra mile, you make an investment into the future. You sow a seed into those in your family who will come after you.

You can be the one to make better choices and to break the cycle, the curse of dysfunctions in your family. But that only can begin when we recognize they exist. Stop living in denial. Stop just accepting things the way they are when we admit it's happening and when we make a conscious decision to use the incredible power of God's Holy Spirit and to begin to put a stop to it.

Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15.

Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15. Scripture, we're all very familiar with. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you will surely perish and shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. Verse 19. I call heaven and earth as witness today against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Those dysfunctions, those negative parts of our families that we pass on from generation to generation. Blessing and cursing, therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. And we're here talking about family. We're talking about our own descendants. These biblical scriptures that we have read today confirm the knowledge that family cultures can be destructive in sins.

Iniquities are passed down oftentimes from one generation to another. You and I are a result of our own family's culture. Some of the strengths, the weaknesses we have are a result of qualities being passed down by our parents or our grandparents' example, sometimes going farther back than that even. And our responsibility is to root out these weaknesses and to set a better example for our own children and grandchildren. I'd like to briefly give you an example from my own family. My maternal grandfather was a fine man who emigrated from Sicily. He came around the year 1900 when there were many immigrants coming into the United States. He was poor, but he had a weak negative family tendency. He could be very petty. He held grudges. If you crossed him, he would remember that a thousand years. He could be very stubborn, petty, unforgiving. And I saw that quality in my hands and the way that they interrelated to one another I saw it with my uncles. I saw it in my very own mother. And that was a family dysfunction. Now, I was very fortunate. I was called by God as a 15-year-old boy. I received my first booklet and began tithing at age 15. By age 17, I came into the church and met a wonderful girl and married her. And she's certainly been a great stabilizing and balancing factor in my life. But I determined as a young man, while I was still young and impressionable, to draw a line in the sand and to say that that negative family quality stops here. It stops now. And I can say that we have not passed on that negative family quality to our children or to our grandchildren. My paternal grandfather emigrated from Wales. South Wales, his name was Thomas Thomas.

When he would introduce himself, I'm sure some people thought he had a stuttering problem.

Thankfully, his middle name was John. Thomas, John, Thomas. A very gifted man. Unfortunately, my grandfather was an alcoholic. I went to a family reunion a few years ago, and my cousin said, yes, someone in town said your grandfather was really a great auto mechanic. When he was sober, what a legacy to lead by generations and generations. And unfortunately, his children, my aunts and my uncles, I had an aunt who died, very young mother from cirrhosis of the liver. My own father was an alcoholic, and it destroyed his life. It destroyed his marriage, and I don't remember much about him beyond the age of five. But again, because of God's great mercy in calling me as a young man, I was able to draw a line in the sand and to say that it stops with me. My generation is going to be different. And again, I'm very pleased to say that my children and grandchildren have not inherited that dysfunction from my physical family line.

I am sure that we all struggle with family weaknesses that we have acquired. If you're like me, you might look up your family tree, and the only thing you see are a bunch of nuts.

Maybe an occasional fruit that no one in a family ever wants to talk about.

But you can be the one who makes the difference and changes the history of your family line. Most of us come from family backgrounds that include defeatism or divorce or negativity, selfishness, greed, anger, laziness, or prideful vanity. And unless we stand in the gap and break the curse, we will pass these traits on to our children. For an example, another statistic. Some American sociologists say that 90 percent of Americans in prison were physically or emotionally abused as children. If you're abused as a child, what happens? You grow up angry. You grow up thinking that you have to lash out, that you have to respond violently the way you were treated as a child. So again, these iniquities are passed on from generation to generation.

I would like to encourage you to think generationally and to consider what your lifestyle and decisions will do for your descendants. If you have a serious problem that you have not confronted, please do so immediately. If it's a spiritual problem, see a minister. If it's a biological function, a problem, an addiction, or something that's serious, see a health care professional. Brethren, but don't let it continue to go on. If you are a parent here today or a grandparent, if you have young children at home, make the commitment to break the cycle of weaknesses and curses that you inherited from your family. If you make a mistake, tell your young children, I apologize. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have reacted in that way. Mom or dad, we are not proud that we reacted that way to you. We don't want you to grow up to be like that. I am sorry. If your children are grown, you can still influence your grandchildren when they come over to visit and spend time with you. You have nieces and nephews and other family members. It's not too late to encourage others, even to encourage the next generation, to break the cycle if you were unable to. If you're a young adult here today, perhaps you have a parent or parents that are in the church. There are no perfect parents, and I'm sure that your parent or parents made mistakes like I did as a father. Perhaps they tried to change your family heritage, who was only able to do it in a limited way. In that case, I ask you to take the baton and finish the job. You can be the one, your generation, that finally has that breakthrough, that changes the iniquity, a weakness, a dysfunction in your family, so that God can bless the next 1,000 generations of your descendants. If you're here today and you have no physical family members, maybe no physical family members at all, I want to remind you and encourage you that you have a spiritual family that includes younger children and young adults and families, and you can interact with them in a positive way. You know, there's no indication that Paul ever had children, but his writings still inspire millions of people every day, many generations after he wrote his epistles.

Spiritually, his descendants are inspired by the choice that he made to accept Jesus Christ and become part of the Church of God. Allow me to provide an example of families living with the contrast of either curses or blessings. A little bit of history. In 1874, a member of the New York State Prison Board noticed that six members of the same family were in New York State prisons at the same time, so this board member decided to go back a few generations and find the original couple who began this family, and they researched back and they found a man born in 1720, and his name was Max Jukes, and he was a godless man. He was shiftless. He was known in town to be lazy, to be a troublemaker. Sadly, he was also an alcoholic. He was a man of very low character in his community, and he married a woman who was very much like himself, the report found, and together they had six daughters and two sons, and here's what the board member discovered about the approximately 1200 descendants that Max Jukes and his wife had by 1874. 310 were homeless, 160 were prostitutes, 180 suffered from drug or alcohol abuse, 150 were criminals who spent time in prison, including seven for murder. The report found that the state of New York had spent over 1.5 million dollars, that's today's money, today's evaluation, to care for this family, and not one member by that time had made a significant contribution to society. The iniquities of the fathers being passed down from generation to generation to generation. Now, in contrast, this board member decided to study a man who had a great reputation in his community. His name was Jonathan Edwards, and he was born in 1703. Now, Jonathan Edwards, if you know anything about American religious history, he was a deeply religious man who indeed loved God and lived a life of strong moral values. Now, I don't agree with Mr. Edwards' theology. He was also the fire and brimstone type. He loved to make people fear God. That was his style and his approach to his sermons, and I don't agree with his theology, but he was certainly a religious man with what he knew and understood, and he was a dedicated family man. He married a fine woman named Sarah, and together they had 11 children. Eventually, Jonathan Edwards became president of the University of Princeton, Princeton University, and here's what the report discovered about the approximate 1,400 descendants of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards by 1874. 13 were college presidents. 32 were state judges.

65 were college professors. 66 were physicians. 85 were authors of classic books.

80 held political office, including three governors, three state senators, one vice president of the United States. And just to show that there's still a little bit of sin in every family, 100 of his descendants were attorneys. I'm just kidding. That's a remarkable career. Just teasing.

Can you edit that out?

Do you notice the difference it makes in the kind of example, in the kind of values being passed on and passed down from one generation to the next generation? Do you notice that a serious relationship with God can bring blessings and opportunities for our descendants, for our children? Brethren, if you do what's right and love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, you leave a powerful legacy in your very own family line. And if you come from a family that has a history of negativity and addictions, abuse, a lack of self-worth, whatever the issues and problems are, you can be the one that says, it stops here, it stops now, I have a birthright, and I am going to begin to stop this through the power of God's Holy Spirit. And if you need help, don't let pride stand in your way. Get the help that you need, please. Think about it, a thousand years from now in the kingdom of God, your descendants will look at their lineage and say, they'll look at that lineage and come to you and they'll say, it all stopped right here. This was my ancestor who drew a line in the sand. This is the one who determined to use God's Spirit to the full measure and overcame a sin and iniquity, a problem that our family had had for generation after generation. He or she was the one who said, it all stops right here and it stops right now. I want you to think of the example of Rahab the harlot. Let's go to Joshua chapter 2, Rahab the harlot. I don't even know if I'm allowed to use that word anymore in our politically correct society. Let's call her Rahab the monogamously challenged. I think that's politically correct.

She was an innkeeper and she was a woman who obviously was immersed in a pagan culture. She had her own personal problems, but she also came from a pagan culture that included incest and sodomy and some of the most despicable sins and iniquities, idolatry, on and on and on within this culture that she lived in. But she had heard about Israel's God and she decided to embrace him and reject her own lifestyle, to reject her family's culture, and she decided to make a change.

She hid two Israelite spies on her roof to protect them. Let's pick up the story in Joshua chapter 2 beginning in verse 8.

It says, now before they lay down, chapter 2 and verse 8, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for when you came out of Egypt. And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon-Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord, Yahweh, the Lord, your God, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. Now therefore I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you will also show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. So the man answered her, our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours, and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land, we will deal kindly and truly with you. She kept her bargain, part of the bargain. They kept their promise. Rahab decided to make a change for her family and her descendants. She acknowledged the Lord of Yahweh as the God of heaven and earth. Did it make a difference? Well, she's mentioned in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes of faith. If you go to the Gospel of Matthew, you will find that Rahab is listed as an ancestor of King David and Jesus Christ. So were her descendants blessed? Because of the decision she made and the right choices from a very sick culture, her descendants were able to receive great and wonderful blessings for many generations. Brethren, this isn't just limited to the influence on our physical family or our descendants. It's also true of our spiritual family.

For example, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the Apostle Paul came to a time in his life when he drew a line in the sand, and he said, I am tired of being a smug, self-righteous Pharisee.

I am tired of being judgmental. I am tired of condemning people all the time. And he was converted.

And his writings, though he never had any physical children that were aware of, his writings have had a positive, inspiring influence on a hundred generations since his death.

Because he decided to make a difference. He decided to change himself and stand in the gap.

And though his physical descendants who, you know, may not exist were not blessed, we, you, and I, and generations to come, they'll be reading the writings of Paul throughout eternity because he made a difference, and he drew a line in the sand. God promises to show mercy to your descendants because of the life that you live. If you decide to stay true, to stay faithful, and be the Abraham or the David or the Rahab in your family. Remember what we read in Exodus chapter 20. It said, sins and dysfunctions are passed down for three or more generations, but God says that I will give mercy to a thousand generations of your descendants of those who love him. God will still show them mercy, even if they don't always do what they should do. So how can we begin to leave a positive and inspiring legacy that will influence generations to come? How can we better understand God and make the lifestyle choices necessary to become a blessing for our future descendants? You may be asking yourself, well how can I even start this? You can only talk about so much in a single sermon. So I just have one powerful godly quality that I want to desire to speak on for the rest of the sermon today. One powerful godly quality. This is essential if you want to have a breakthrough in your life. If you want to know God as God wants to be known. If you want God to know you and love you and have the right kind of relationship with God, this is essential. It's a beginning, and it's contrary to the way that you and I are wired. This is unconditional love. This is the kind of love that occurs first without any expectation to receive anything in repayment, to receive anything in return. Human nature does not typically love unconditionally. I grew up in a family with conditional love. It says, I will love you only when you do what I want. Or it says, I will love you when you become a clone of me. I will love you when you believe everything that I believe.

Then I'll show love towards you. And, brethren, this distorted perception of love is not right, and it is not an example of godly agape love. Let's see how much God loves us by turning to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Did God love us first? Does God have unconditional love towards us even before we ever responded? Before we ever even acknowledged there was a god or cared?

Romans chapter 5 and verse 6. For when we were still without strength, when we were nothing, didn't have God's spirit, wasn't called of God, were carnal of this world. When we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die, because someone would say that person is of quality that is worth me giving up my life for them. Soldiers do that all the time.

But, he says in contrast, Christ died for people that were not worthy, for the lowly, for those laden with sin. Verse 8. But God demonstrates his own love towards us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled shall we be saved by his life. I want you to notice that while we were enemies with God, notice that word that Paul uses, before we responded to his calling to our conversion. He loved us first while we were still in our sins. This is unconditional love. Paul is saying here that a healthy relationship, truly understanding who and what God is, begins with an understanding and acceptance of unconditional love, because it leads to reconciliation and it leads to healing.

What then takes place is the ability to heal and change your life and influence other people for the better. I'd like to give you a little analogy here. In contrast, human carnal nature says that when you do A, B, C, and D, then I'll love you. And God says, first of all, A is that I love you even if you don't know how to respond to that. Now together, let's work on B and C and D. So there's a big difference between the carnal human love that we tend to have. That is conditional. It's an exchange of favors in contrast to unconditional love. Let's see another example in Luke chapter 15 and verse 11. Another example of unconditional love through this parable. Luke chapter 15 and verse 11.

Jesus is speaking this parable. It says, then he said a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

Now, first of all, his father didn't need to do that. His father wasn't on his deathbed.

He had no right to come to his living father and say, you know, give me my share of the inheritance in advance before your corpse is even cool. But the father says, okay. And he divided it into his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together. Everything his father had given him all his belongings, and he journeyed to a far country. I want to get as far away from you, as far away from here, as I can travel. And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal wild living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. And then he joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Can you think of anything lower than a Jewish person feeding swine, violating the Mosaic law, feeding hawks? How low can you go? And so hungry, you're ready to eat the hog food, because even they're eating better than you are. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, but no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, when he said, I have been foolish, I am dysfunctional, I need to change my attitude, I need to change who and what I am. And he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bred enough and despair, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So here's the example of someone who rejects the right way, modeled by his own father, and he sows his wild oats. And in time, he comes to see that he needs to begin making the right choices. He needs to change who and what he is. He repents, and he wants to heal the breach with his father. He's ashamed of his conduct, and he wants to come home. Notice verse 20. And he arose, and he came to his father, and when he was still, a great way off. So far off, his father can barely make out the figure coming towards him. But just enough to recognize it's his son. And his father saw him, and he had compassion, and he ran, and he fell on his neck, and he kissed him. Of course, I'm sure you understand that this parable is a spiritual lesson about the love of our heavenly father towards his children, but I want you to notice the father's response. He runs towards his son. He doesn't know what his son's attitude is yet. He doesn't know if his son is coming home to stay. All he knows is that his son who had rejected him and his values is coming home, and he runs to his son with unconditional love. This is the only scripture or parable in the Bible that pictures God running to something, and what's he running towards? He's not running there to say, you're condemned. He's not running there to say, I told you so. He's running there to say, I love you.

Welcome home. That's what he's running for. He runs because he wants to go more than halfway to meet with his son. So, brethren, the first instinct of unconditional love is reconciliation.

It's forgiveness. It's a chance for new beginnings. Verse 21, and the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring in his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us be merry, for this my son was dead, and he is alive again. He was lost in his found, and they began to be merry. He didn't even have a chance to tell his father that he would be like one of the servants. His father cut him off. So, again, an example of unconditional love. This doesn't mean that we condone bad behavior. It doesn't mean that we condone sin. It doesn't mean that we just accept dysfunctional, harmful behavior. It means that we're willing and able to first love unconditionally, and that will create an environment in which healing and positive change can begin in our lives. Unconditional love means forgiving those who hurt you in the past, especially if it was a grandparent or a parent, someone who offended you or hurt you in the past, or maybe even made you what you are today with some of the problems that you struggle with.

Unconditional love means forgiveness. Unconditional love means forgiving yourself after you have repented of your sins and your own problems. Carrying perpetual shame and guilt only stunts our potential growth. If God has forgiven us, if we have truly repented and God has forgiven us, who are we to be angry with ourselves or with other people? That anger, that shame that we harbor, that guilt, only closes the door and stunts our ability to change and grow. Unconditional love means allowing our spiritual Father to love us. And that's hard for a lot of people. You know, too many of us think that God is always angry with us because of our weaknesses. God isn't mad at you. God is mad about you. He's your greatest advocate and supporter. His Son died when you were still in your sins. He died for all of us. He's crazy about you and wants you to be in his family forever. He is our advocate. And we have to allow God to love us and take down that wall and take down that barrier because we're so used to conditional love. Let's see a final remarkable example, final scripture today of unconditional love by, of course, Jesus Christ. A remarkable example to me when we consider what was on his mind. John chapter 19 and verse 25. John chapter 19 and verse 25. John was inspired to write, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother.

His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clophis and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. And said that the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put on a hyssop and put it to his mouth. And when he had received the sour wine, he said it is finished and bowing his head, he gave up the spirit. So shortly before he dies, he makes this statement, Woman, behold your son. He said that the disciple, behold your mother.

Have you ever considered the unconditional deep sense of love that Jesus Christ has for his physical mother? Here he is dying with the sins of the world on his soul. Six thousand years of human sin burdened in his life. His lifeblood is draining out of his body. The anxiety, the fear of death, all that he's thinking about, all that he has in his mind. For a brief moment, his own father has to turn a glance from him because of the stench of human sin. He says, My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me? And in spite of all of these things in his mind, he says, John, take care of my mom, will you? Make sure she's all right. Take her into your home, love her, and care for her. This is the kind of Savior, the kind of God, that we serve.

Unconditional love is a Christ-like love, and it's an example that we need to demonstrate to our families. It's a seed that begins the process of healing and forgiveness and nurturing. And with unconditional love, we begin to understand and think generationally in our lives. We begin to understand it's not just about me. It's about so many generations that are counting on me, my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that are counting on me to make the right choices, to have the right kind of relationship with God and with our family. We do worship the God that it says in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 9, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations.

So promise yourself that whatever negative family qualities you have, whatever harmful attitudes or behaviors you possess, to put a stop to them, to stop them right now. Determine to become the David or the Abraham or the Rahab in your family line. If you need help, please don't let pride or shame stand in your way and allow that to continue to affect your family and generations to come. Get the help you need because your spiritual father loves you more than you can even know. And finally, one final assignment during this winter family weekend, I'm going to ask each and every one of you this weekend to make sure that you tell your loved ones who are here just how much they mean to you. So, brethren, we can make a difference. We can be an Abraham or a David or a Rahab in our own family line. We can make the right choices and change the rest of history.

Let's make those choices because we worship a great God and because He gives us the awesome, incredible power of His Holy Spirit. Be an Abraham.