Sermon Tone Analysis

*BREAKING THE CHAINS OF GENERATIONAL CURSES *

 

1 Chronicles 4:9-10

9) Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain."

10) Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!"

And God granted him what he requested.

THE MESSAGE BIBLE - Jabez was a better man than his brothers, a man of honor.

His mother had named him Jabez (Oh, the pain!), saying, “A painful birth!

I bore him in great pain!” Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: “Bless me, O bless me!

Give me land, large tracts of land.

And provide your personal protection—don’t let evil hurt me.”

God gave him what he asked.[1]

Recently, I read a story that both interested me and intrigued my mind; it was a story that elicited both a sense of pity and a profound sense of sorrow and sadness from my heart.

It was a story that reflected the downward spiral of a young man caught in the deadly quagmire of a generational curse.

His name was Robert.

You could say that Robert was born to die young.

You could say that Robert was destined for failure and that his future was bleak at best.

Robert’s parents divorced when Robert was just a little boy.

Robert’s father worked for many years as a pimp – he was notorious for prostituting and abusing women and when Robert was at the tender age of eight (8) his father committed suicide.

When Robert turned 14 years old, he started his very own street gang, which quickly came to be known for its vicious violence and horrendous crimes of hatred and brutality.

At 16 years old, Robert was sentenced to two (2) years in prison for committing three (3) drive-by shootings and armed robbery.

The day he left for prison, his mother was brutally murdered by a rival street gang seeking revenge.

Three (3)-and-a-half- months later, his stepfather was gunned down by that same street gang.

In prison, Robert was introduced to ruthless criminals worse than himself and his bent toward fighting and violence caused him to constantly be in and out of trouble.

Someone decided to search Robert’s family tree and they discovered that Robert came from generations of folks who practiced destructive and violent behavior.

Robert being younger and wiser than they, not only perpetuated this destructive behavior, but he took it to a whole new level.

But the good news today is that unlike most, whose heritage hands them a ticking time bomb of destructive behavior that was passed down to them through their family trees, Robert discovered a way to break the generational curse that hung over his life.

Because, you see at the age of 20, Robert heard the life-changing message of Jesus Christ!

At the age of 20, he invited Jesus Christ to come into his life.

At the age of 20, Robert heard the revolutionary news that you don’t have to stay the way you are.

At the age of 20, Robert heard that there is a power somewhere that can cancel your past, a power somewhere that can conquer your problems, and a power somewhere that can change your personality.

And the good news today is that Robert embraced that power – and with that new found power in his life, he was able to cut himself off from his genetic past and somehow God hooked him up with a new spiritual heritage, a new spiritual identity, and a new spiritual family tree.

But I know what you’re thinking – Somebody right now is thinking, “PASTOR, THAT’S A REAL NICE STORY, BUT, I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT IN THE WORLD THAT HAS TO DO WITH ME?” I want you to know today, my brothers and sisters that everybody in here today came from and is affected by a family tree, and somebody looking at me right now, you’re still dealing with the fruit of your family tree, You’re dealing today with some negative stuff that you inherited from your momma, your daddy, your grandparents and your great grandparents.

Let me ask you a question this morning, WHAT’S ON YOUR TREE?

WHAT DID YOU BRING IN HERE THIS MORNING?

You might as well gone and admit it because all of us have some negative stuff in us that was passed down to us by our family tree, but instead of admitting it and owning up to it, we try to hide and deny those negative characteristics and qualities that we inherited from our family tree.

You see my brothers and sisters, every family tree is loaded and laden with generational curses and so, again I ask you…WHAT’S ON YOUR TREE?

WHAT LEGACY OF SIN EXISTS IN YOUR FAMILY?

Is it alcoholism?

Is it drug abuse?

Is it sexual promiscuity?

Is it physical or verbal abuse?

Is it a welfare mentality?

What legacy of sin has cursed the generations in your family?

Today, in this text, we are introduced to a man named Jabez who had to deal with a generational curse in his life, but the good news today is that Jabez demonstrates for all of us how you and I can use the power of prayer to break the generational curses from our lives.

NOW, LET ME GIVE YOU MY TWO POINTS RIGHT NOW AND THEN I WANT TO SPEND THE NEXT FEW MOMENTS UNPACKING EACH ONE, IS THAT ALRIGHT?

* First, I want you to see THE CAUSE OF JABEZ’S CURSE

* And then I want you to see THE CURE FOR JABEZ’S CURSE

 

First of all, let’s take a look at THE CAUSE OF JABEZ’S CURSE.

Now, if you do an etymological study on the name JABEZ, you’ll discover that the name Jabez in the original Hebrew literally means “PAIN”, “HE CAUSES PAIN” or “HE IS PAIN.”

And we discover in this text, that when Jabez was born, his mother gave him a name that would forever memorialize and identify him with pain, for she gave him the name JABEZ and the name JABEZ means pain.

Now we all know that every baby is born into this world accompanied by a certain amount of pain – all of your mothers in the house this morning can testify to the fact that every baby is born with some pain.

And we know from Biblical research that the pain that comes with childbirth is a direct result of the curse that God placed on mankind because of our sin in the Garden of Eden.

When you get time take a look at Genesis 3:16 for in that verse God said to the woman:

/"I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."/

And so God placed a curse on the woman for her participation in bringing sin into the world, and that curse would be that she would have pain in childbirth.

But what we read about Jabez in this text is more than that; we all realize this morning that all children are born with some pain, but something happened with the birth of Jabez that went far beyond the pain of natural childbirth.

Usually after the child is born, the joy of the product eclipses the pain of the process – but that didn’t happen with Jabez.

Somehow the mother of Jabez experienced such excruciating pain that after it was all over she memorialized the pain of the experience in the name of her son.

THEY CLEANED HIM UP, GOT RID OF ALL THE AFTERBIRTH, PUT SOME BABY CLOTHES ON HIS BACK, BROUGHT HIM TO HIS MOTHER AND SAID…/”WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CALL HIM?...”/, AND SHE SAID /“CALL HIM PAIN!”/

            Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us why she called him pain, so it gives me room to use my sanctified imagination…

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE SHE HAD SUCH A TRAUMATIC PREGNANCY THAT SHE JUST COULDN’T FORGET IT

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE SHE EXPERINCED THE EXCRUTIATING PAIN OF A BREECH BIRTH

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE SHE WAS GOING THROUGH SOME KIND OF EMOTIONAL PAIN

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE HER HUSBAND DESERTED HER DURING HER PREGNANCY

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE HER HUSBAND WAS AN ABUSIVE MAN AND DENIED THAT THE BABY WAS EVEN HIS

* MAYBE SHE CALLED HIM PAIN BECAUSE THEY ALREADY HAD 12 CHILDREN AND SHE JUST COULDN’T STAND THE THOUGHT OF HAVING ONE MORE MOUTH TO FEED

We don’t know for sure, only God knows, but we do know that the pain that existed in her life at the time this baby was born was so acute and so devastating that she memorialized that painful experience in the name of her son, and she called him JABEZ.

Can you imagine what Jabez had to deal with growing up as a little boy?

Every other child on the playground had normal, natural names, but his name was pain.

Every time somebody called his name it was a reminder that his momma never really wanted him.

He got teased and picked on at school because of his name.

Nobody ever wanted to hang around him because nobody wanted to be best friends with pain.

But Jabez had to deal with not allowing his negative name to determine his future.

You see, in Bible times, when parents gave their children names, the name served as a prophecy of what they would become in the future – and so Jabez’s mother prophesied that his life would be filled with pain wherever he goes, she prophesied that no matter what he did with his life, and no matter what direction he chose to go with his life, the end result would be pain.

She prophesied that pain would loom over his life like a dark storm cloud casting evil and ominous shadows on a bright sunny day.

And my brothers and sisters, therein lies the curse.

The text doesn’t explicitly call it a curse, but what it describes is a curse.

Now, let me ask you a question, what are some of the curses on your tree?

Some of you looking at me right now inherited spirit of anger, a bad temper, and a critical spirit.

Some of you looking me right now inherited a spirit of fear and anxiety.

Somebody looking at me right now inherited a lying, cheating, and stealing spirit.

Some of you looking at me right now inherited a spirit of arrogance, stuck-upness, and pride, Somebody looking at me this morning inherited a gossiping and slandering tongue.

Somebody looking at me right now, you inherited a player or a hoochie spirit from your family, Somebody else in this place this morning inherited a spirit of overeating…the tragedy is we don’t know how to break the curse in our lives and the curse we inherited from our tree has caused us problems all of our lives.

Now, I want you to understand today, that what Jabez inherited was a WORD CURSE; it was a curse of words or a curse stemming from spoken words of condemnation.

You do remember that Jesus walked by a fig tree one day, saw that the tree wasn’t producing any fruit and the Bible says that Jesus cursed the tree with a word curse and it withered and died.

And I’ve stopped by to tell you today that just like that happened in nature, the same thing can happen in your life and in my life.

We can speak word curses into people lives that literally become self-fulfilling prophecies.

We can speak words of condemnation into people’s lives that can cause their dreams to dry up and their aspirations to shrivel up and die.

Somebody looking at me right now is still dealing with the sting of a word curse that was spoken over and in our lives by some parent, some grand parent, some coach, some school teacher, or some co-worker on our job and all of your life you’ve been dealing with that word curse.

When they told you that…

* YOU’LL NEVER BE ANY GOOD…

* “YOU OL’ CRAZY FOOL

* YOU’RE JUST LIKE YOUR NO GOOD DADDY

* YOU GONE BE A WHORE LIKE YOUR SKANKY MAMMA…

That’s what Jabez’s mamma passed on to him, it was a word curse.

And there are some folks who have put word curses on this church.

You know what I’ve discovered, not everybody in the church wants to see the church grow and flourish.

There are some folks in the church who don’t want to see the church engage in evangelism and win the lost to Christ.

There are some folks in the church who speak word curses over the church’s efforts to grow and attract more people to the kingdom of God.

Jabez’s momma put a word curse on him by labeling him with negative name, and all of us, in one way or another, are dealing with the curse and the sting of negative labels that where passed on to us by people we loved and respected.