Jentezen Franklin - The Blessing That Outlives You
I wanna talk to you today about passing on a blessing that outlives you. Did you know that's possible? Did you know that it's possible to pass on a blessing that can outlive you? But I want you to look with me in Genesis 12. This is God speaking to Abraham. "I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. Your family name will be great, and you shall be a blessing". That's the definition of being great is when it's not just about you. "And I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you," speaking of the nation of Israel. "And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed".
God blesses you to make you a blessing. Don't miss that. And now, I want to go down to verse, let's go down to verse 10. "And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell, and the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass as he came close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarah, his wife, 'Indeed, I know that you're a woman of beautiful countenance.'" By the way, she was 70 something years old when he said that. And she was. The Bible says she was a gorgeous, beautiful woman at the age of 70. So much so, he says this in verse 12. "Therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say, 'This is his wife,' and they will kill me, but they will let you live.'"
Now, this is the strangest thing you've ever seen next. "Please say that you are my sister". This is Abraham saying this to his wife. "When they come to kidnap you, they're gonna kill me if they know I'm your husband. So, I need you to propagate a lie here for my sake". I want you to see as holy and as mighty and as awesome as Abraham was, his name, his literal name means father. The book of Hebrews, Hebrews 11, the Hall of Fame calls Abraham, "The father of our faith". But I want you to see the other side. The Bible is a brutally truthful book, and it doesn't just give us the successes of people, it shows us in their weakest, worst moments. He's having one. "'Please say that you're my sister,'" listen, "'that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.' And it was when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful".
And I won't take time to read. We'll stop right there, and I'll sum it up in a minute. But the very thing he predicted happens. Abraham is one of the most, if not the most significant men. He certainly is one of the most significant men in the history of the world. And I want you to see patterns. I want you to see cycles. I want you to see something that maybe you've never seen in this, that in our families, the old saying that came from the 1600's, "Like father, like son, like mother, like daughter".
There are traits. And we're not here to beat up men this morning, we're here to build up men. This church is about building up men. And I want to touch some things today of, what are you passing on and what will outlive you? Because God has a plan for our families. In Genesis 12, the text said that there was a famine where they were, and in fear, Abraham makes a decision. Every time Abraham makes a decision in faith, it's a good decision. Every time Abraham makes a decision in fear, "I'm afraid and I'm panicking, and I'm gonna do this, and I haven't prayed about it, I haven't asked God about it. I haven't, I'm just under pressure and we gotta do something. The famine's hitting, everything's drying up. We're gonna go to Egypt".
Did he ask God? No. Did he pray about it? No. Did he seek God's counsel? No. He made major decisions in life out of fear, not out of faith. And when he did, they were disastrous. And so, he takes his wife to Egypt. And just like he predicted, the Egyptian princes saw his wife, how gorgeous she was, they went to Pharaoh and they said, "You want this woman in your harem". And when they come to take her, he says, "Now, honey, I've got this great idea. I know you love me, and I know you don't wanna see me suffer and any harm come to me, so I want you to tell them when they come that you are my sister, and I'm gonna tell 'em that you are my sister. That it may go well with me, and you'll become a part of an evil pharaoh's harem. He's gonna abuse you. He's going to do all kinds of things to you, but take one for the team. It's gonna be fine. I'll be okay. I'm gonna really miss you".
How many of you know this man needs some marriage counseling right here? "That my life may be spared for your sake". Talk about selfishness. If I offered Cherise up to somebody to make myself safe, she would stab me in the liver with a knife. She would say, "You don't need to fear him, you need to fear me. I will cut you. I will hurt you". She would, I cannot imagine this situation. But even crazier than that, I cannot imagine him doing it again. But you're not watch, I want you to see cycles now. Cycles that start occurring. Once you let the enemy into the family, it's a cycle. And I'mma give you the bad news first, and then I'mma give you the good news. Then you go to Genesis 20. It's 20 years later. "And Abram said of Sarah, his wife," it's the old switcharoo, "I'm gonna tell 'em you're my sister. They're gonna come and they're gonna say, 'You're beautiful,' and I want you to go along with the secret little lie".
And he does it again. You would think that they would learn, but he's a man, and that's what men do. You would think they would learn the first time. We had four daughters, Courteney, Carissa, Caroline, Connar, and then Drake came along. And it seemed like all the time Cherise would ask me about Drake. She knew all about, she had a PhD in what girls do, but she knew nothing about what boys do. And she would say, "Is that normal for him to do that? Is that normal"? I don't wanna say all the things that. I would say, "Wait, is that normal"? He'd just be out in the yard. He'd just start peeing, just pee. He'd walking down the mall, pee in a plant, just, I said, "That's what boys do. That's what men would do if they wouldn't get arrested. There's just something about it that is very manly or freeing. And that's how Adam did. And then when we come of age we have to stop, but that's why we start hunting so that we can go back out in the woods and do it again. It's just what men do. Leave us alone. We don't wanna be like you".
And I want you to watch this though. Watch God's amazing grace. This guy does the same thing over, and he's even having his wife enter into a secret lie that is a family cycle and pattern that is doing everything it can to steal, kill, and destroy the destiny and the purpose of his family. And the Bible said that Abimelech took Sarah thinking that she was Abraham's sister. And that night before he could lay his hands on her and violate her, this is what your Bible says, it said, "And the Lord came to Abimelech in a dream and said to him," I love the subtlety of God, "You're a dead man because of the woman that you've taken". And he looks out and he says, "I did this outta the integrity of my heart. I didn't know".
He had more integrity than Abraham had. And he looks out and he calls Sarah in, and he says, "Now, look, I didn't know that your brother or your husband or whatever this crazy thing y'all have got going on, I don't wanna be in the middle of it". And he gives them silver and gold and sends them away. God intervenes again. God intervenes and breaks the pattern and the cycle, and you would think that it's over. You're not gonna believe this. I'm almost where I wanna be. I'm going somewhere and I'm gonna get there quick. But go to one more verse, Genesis 26. Abraham and Sarah, just as God promised... oh, by the way, that Abimelech said, "Get out of my house". And he sent her away, and then she got pregnant. At 99 years old she gets pregnant from Abraham.
And the scripture said in Genesis 26, they had a son named Isaac, and he married a girl named Rebecca who was extremely beautiful. And the son now begins to do... question, was Isaac born when they played those little tricks? When they lied? He wasn't even there. There was a cycle, there was a pattern, spiritual curse that was being passed down and propagated through. And I'm gonna show you that in a moment. And so, Isaac gets in a strange land, and he says to his wife, "Say that you're my sister for I," there it is, "I'm afraid". "I'm making decisions out of fear instead of faith". It's a bad decision. God saved him too, because God had the plan. They would have the son named Jacob that would become the nation of Israel.
The point that I wanna make today, that there seems to be something possible about iniquity and sin that we can so establish a pattern and a cycle that it can be passed from father to son, from mother to daughter, from family to family, from generation to generation. And just as a generational curse can be passed under the new covenant that Jesus established on the cross of Calvary, he canceled all the curses. And he says, "When you receive my blood upon your life, and when you receive my blood upon your family, I break these cycles".
Just as addiction can be passed, so can sobriety. Just as brokenness can be passed, so can wholeness. Just as trauma can be passed, so can the power and the grace of God. It can be passed. And today we need to understand that what God has provided through Jesus Christ, what He has done on the cross, if sin and iniquity can be transferred from children to grandchildren, how much more can the blessing of faith, the blessing of worship, you're not wasting your time this morning, the blessing of honoring God and bringing your family to church and opening the Bible. Every deed produces a seed. Every deed I do to draw closer to God, every deed produces a seed in the next generation. I want to conclude this and share this with you.
In Jeremiah 32:18, this is the bad news, but it's about to get good now. He says, God says, "Under the old covenant," everybody say, "We're under the new covenant". And it's not a covenant of curses, it's a covenant of blessing. But in Jeremiah 32:18, God says, "You recompense the iniquity into the bosom of their children after them". Job 21:19, "God lays up His iniquity for His children: He rewarded Him. He shall know it". In other words, there... it's possible. If the blood of Jesus Christ is not applied to you and your family to lay up curses and iniquities that overtake the next generation. "No man lives unto himself," the New Testament said, "And no man dies unto himself".
2 Corinthians 12 says, "Children ought not to be laying up for their parents, but the parents ought to be laying up spiritual blessings for their children". What we lay up for our children in one way or the other, right things or wrong things are going to be transferred. That's why when you see a demonic stronghold trying to develop and trying to establish a pattern in your life, it's not just a battle about you, but it's a battle about the purpose and the plan and the blessing of God that needs to be transferred for generations to come. You're fighting for your children. That's why you have to get serious about it.
I want you to understand that the Bible tells us completely in Hosea 4:6, an astounding verse, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge". "My people," He says, "They just go through life and they never open up this book. They never bury the treasures and store 'em up for the next generation. They think that that's something only a preacher does". But I'm preaching to fathers this morning. Listen to what the word of God says. God says, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge because they have rejected me and forgotten my law, my word. That's my book. That's my Bible. Because they ignore it, neglect it, I will forget your children". You better love this word, because how you treat this word is how God treats your children. If you ignore it, if you don't honor it, you can set up generational blessings that can be passed down for generations.
But watch this, in Psalms 103:17, it says that if the curses can be passed, if bad diseases in the genes can be passed, if bad traits and patterns and cycles of sin, if depression was back generations and it can be passed, listen to what the truth of the new covenant is. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, even unto the children's children". And then he said in Luke 1:50, New Testament, "And His mercy is on them", listen to it, "that fear Him". That's what you're doing this morning, honoring and fearing the Lord and revering. Not like I'm afraid, I'm revering, I'm worshiping. I'm honoring the Lord with my family in the house of God. "His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation".
Watch this one. I love this verse. 2 Timothy 1:5, a single mother is raising a champion for Christ by the name of Timothy. The husband, the dad is not even in the house. And Paul sees this young boy named Timothy, and he says, "When I called a remembrance the unfeigned faith and the utter sincerity of the faith that's in you, it dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that I see it in you". What happened? The grandmother started storing up blessings. The grandmother started a prayer life, started a devotion to God, started honoring God. And it got in the daughter, Eunice. And Eunice heard, "Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, love, love, love, God, God, God. The Bible says, the Bible says". And it got in the next generation. And then there's a boy born named Timothy.
And the apostle Paul says, "I see a blessing from yester years. Your grandmother had it. Now your mother had it, and now you have it. It didn't start with you. And the reason you're so blessed, the reason you're the youngest apostle, the reason you will write books in the Bible that will live forever is because not just what you've done, but you've inherited massive blessings from your grandmother to your mother to you". That's a powerful thing. And I wanna close with this. The Bible said that David so please God, that in 2 Corinthians 6, 11 years after he was passed away and dead, that when Solomon dedicated the temple, he prayed a simple prayer, and this is what he said, "Lord, remember the mercies of my father, David".
And when he did it pulled on the heartstrings of God, and suddenly the cloud of God's presence filled the temple. And the presence of God was so outstanding that the priest could not stand to minister. Eleven years after he was dead, what happened? David had stored up so many blessings that even though he was dead in the grave, the blessings were coming on his children. And then in 2 Kings 11, David's been in the grave 23 years. And Solomon, his son marries strange women, and women who are participating in the occult, in Pharaoh and in the religions of Egypt. And God says, "I should take the kingdom from you. Nevertheless, I will not in the days that we are in for David thy father's sake".
Twenty three years after David is dead and gone, God says, "The son deserves judgment. The son has done wrong. He knows better. But you know what? I'm going to bless him anyhow because of the stored up blessings that will outlive him and go to the next generation". In 2 Kings 19:32, the Bible said that David had been dead 305 years. Don't you ever let anybody tell you that faith in Jesus Christ doesn't make any difference. And the Bible said that this guy, his great, great, great, great grandson named Hezekiah was surrounded, and Jerusalem was about to be wiped out.
And God sent a word and He said, "The letter you've received that's saying that you and all the people of God are gonna die in Jerusalem," He said, "I cancel that". And He said, "It shall not come into the city. Not one arrow will be shot. And the same way this enemy came is the same way they'll leave". And that night, God released an angel and it slew 185,000 enemies of God's people. And why did you do that, God for Hezekiah? God said, "For my own sake," listen, "and the man who's been dead for 305 years. He so stored up blessings. For my servant, David's sake, I'm going to bless the great, great, great great grandson". The Bible said, "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children". And it's not just a monetary inheritance, it's a spiritual inheritance that can outlive you.