There Is No Curse Without a Cause: An Encounter Night

Sermon outline

The proverb of the sour grapes is finished: a son who turns from what his fathers did shall surely live, so believers break with the past through repentance, forgiveness and consecration, and change the conversation in their homes until their children's children walk in the victory.

1. What was opened on that day can be closed

   There were things in his life he could never get past until God revealed where they came from and broke them, and after that they could not attach to him again because the hedge was closed. Things done to us when we were small, words declared over our lives and relationships never healed can still rule us, and God can break them. It is not the pastor who heals but the Lord, so put the phone away, go and be alone if you need to, and give it all to Him.

   Illustration: The burn took about a year and a half to heal and his right foot is still a little smaller than the left, but the attachment from the ashes was only broken when the Lord took him out of his body at an encounter evening and showed him himself crying on a park bench that day.

   “I am a product of encounters.”

2. The sour grapes proverb shall no more be used

   Israel said the fathers ate sour grapes and the children's teeth were set on edge, and God said that proverb would no longer be used, because all souls are His and the soul who sins shall die. Even in the Old Testament this already pointed to Calvary. We may have come from brokenness, but we no longer have to be the apple that did not fall far from the tree. He never knew either grandfather, and it does not matter where we came from; it matters who God is.

   “We no longer have to be the apple that didn't fall far from the tree.”

   • Ezekiel 18:1-4

3. The son who sees and does not do likewise shall surely live

   A righteous man who keeps God's statutes shall live, and a violent son who does the abominations shall die. But a son who sees all his father's sin and does not do likewise shall not die for his father's sins, and a wicked man who turns from his sin shall surely live. That is the key: we cannot do what they did and expect things to be different, and we cannot be idol worshippers or carnal people. The standard is Jesus Christ, and in Him whatever ran in the family bloodline means nothing, because you are a new creation, one new man.

   “We can't do what they did and expect things to be different.”

   • Ezekiel 18:5-21
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17

4. Carry the presence home and change the conversation

   However you came in, you leave set free and carry the presence of the Lord into your house, where you speak life, healing and reconciliation and say peace be still. You are the seed for that house. If someone at home is not working, sit down with paper and a pen and write down specifically what job, what pay and what it will be used for, and set the order before the manifestation. Plot a path for your children, so that when they ask to go to the party you can ask how far it takes them from the plan. A different conversation at home means you will not join the gossip group at work. Double blessing and great grace start with a conversation.

   Illustration: A bamboo seed is watered for five years with nothing to show, then grows to twenty-seven or twenty-eight metres in a few months. He and Pastor Yajhna do not make a budget; they have a conversation about what they want to see in five years, because if you are comfortable you are not growing.

   “We're not governed by the crisis, we're governed by Christ.”

   • Mark 4:39
   • Psalm 68:19

5. If He did it in our family, He can do it in yours, faster

   What God did in his family over almost fifty years, from his parents to him and his brother to their children, He can do faster for others, restoring what the cankerworm and palmerworm have stolen. His father heard the audible voice of God telling him to find a pastor who would show him the way, and when he told his own mother they were Christians she slapped him and said they would be Hindus till they died; she was the next to be saved, and loved the Lord until her dying day. You are placed in your household so the unsaved can receive Christ.

   “If He did it in our family, He can do it in your family.”

   • Joel 2:25
   • 1 John 4:17
   • Romans 8:31
   • 2 Kings 6:16

6. Repent, forgive and close the hedge

   Every knee shall bow, and nothing is unforgivable. He leads the church in repentance from addictions, secret sin and serving God while reading the signs, and repentance means turning away and choosing God as the standard. Then forgiveness by name, even of people long dead, because unforgiveness is the blessing blocker. He prays for marriages where the couple fight more than they love, has spouses hold hands and speak love and honour to each other, and prays for prodigal children, telling how a traffic policewoman's son, gone for twelve years, came home the same day he prayed for her.

   Illustration: Next time you see the relative who once denied you a cold drink in a restaurant, go and buy them the Snowball and the Coke.

   “We cannot afford the luxury of unforgiveness.”

   • Philippians 2:10-11
   • 1 John 1:9
   • Hebrews 12:1
   • Ephesians 4:26

7. There is no curse without a cause: a life of consecration

   Through culture we have let rituals be done over our children, lit the lamp and incense, gone for blessings, fortune-telling and funeral rituals, and eaten what was dedicated to idols, sometimes innocently, and difficulties followed that we could not explain. There is no curse without a cause, and God can break it. Consecration means setting apart with no compromise: standing for what you believe even when people are offended, consecrating your marriage and your children, and living as children of the light. There is a power that comes no other way.

   “There is a power that is made available to you that cannot come any other way but consecration.”

   • Proverbs 26:2

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