Developing a Lifestyle of Faith, Part 5

If you want to bless your kids, your grandkids, your nieces, your nephews, kids under your influence, the first thing you can learn here from Abraham is you have to be willing to share with them where God has brought you from.

If you want to help your children get where they're going, a good place to start is by telling them where you've been. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. You know every life has a story, and if you want to impact the lives of those around you, one of the best ways is to tell your story.

Not just the high points, not only the part where God pulled you out of the miry clay, but the full story of the time you spent inside it. Transparency and full disclosure are essential because it points to the grace and mercy of God and it reminds us that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Stay with us now, but remember, you can always stop by pastorpaul.net to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net. Here is Pastor Paul with today's message, developing a lifestyle of faith. We are called to pass on goodness and the fruit of the spirit and proper behavior and seeing God move mightily from one generation to another. And so the lesson we are going to learn here is what that looks like, how can we establish generational blessings and then pass them on as we move throughout our lifetime? Now, here's the first thing I want to focus on, jot this statement down, generational blessings are not accidental or coincidental, they are intentionally conferred. What that means is you are not going to lock up on a generational blessing. People don't just say, well, you know, I don't know, my family just, I don't know, somehow God just blessed us all.

There's going to be nothing I don't know. Generational blessings, as we're going to see from this Bible passage, we're going to see that every time people were blessed by God in this family, it was because it was intentionally conferred on them. These people didn't just hope their kids were blessed, they blessed their kids. And isn't that what we desperately need today? I mean, look at what's happening in our world, in our nation, in our cities, in our communities, look at what's happening in our schools, in our churches, and certainly in our families. In far too many cases, what we're seeing passed on is ungodly and unfruitful actions, attitudes, and associations. That's what we see passing from one generation to another, ungodly and or unfruitful actions, attitudes, and associations. What we see in far too many cases being passed from one generation to another is people who don't act right, who have a bad attitude, and who have wrong dysfunctional relationships.

Now think about it, don't you know a bus full, a truck full, a train full, in some cases a stadium full of folk. And you see from one generation to another, they don't act right, they don't think right, they don't react right, and they don't have right relationships. Same mess from one generation to another. It's not like, you know, none of the parents got along, but all our kids, we all straight, we good, we love each other. You don't see that happening very much, what you see most of the time is grandma and them are crazy at their level.

They just dying off, so it's fewer of them to be crazy. But they're passing craziness and dysfunction all the way down through the generations. Just generational craziness, generational foolishness, generational dysfunction, generational fighting, generational jail birds, generational dope addicts, generational alcoholics, that's what we see too much of.

Passing that stuff on one generation after another. And so we need to turn the tide, we who are people of God, we need to understand that God has given us the ability to live under generational blessings. And here's the good news, even if there have been generational curses in your family for four or five generations, you now are saved, you now are in a Bible teaching church, you are receiving the entrance of the word which brings light, you are coming to understand that God has not only sent his son to give you eternal life, he sent his son to give you abundant life, life to the full and that means whatever foolishness has gone on in your family, I don't care for how many generations, it can and should and must stop with you and you need to interrupt the pattern of generational curses and begin the pattern of generational blessings. I need you to open your heart and hear God speaking to you, don't hear Pastor Paul, I need you to hear God on this matter. God wants the mess to stop in your family even if you're the first one to stop it. God wants the junk to stop, he wants the dysfunction to stop, he wants the craziness to stop. Y'all got to stop being known for being the craziest folk in your neighborhood, you got to stop being the alcoholic, stop being the drug addict, stop being the folk fighting all out in the street, stop being the folk 911 is always called on. It's time to stop it in Jesus name. You got to stop it and you got to establish a new pattern.

Not just you have to live right, you got to establish the blessing so that those coming behind you start living right. It's the patterns, it's the patterns. Notice how patterns live in families. Here's the principle, the traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children. The traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children, that's just one of those principles. Whatever the parents do, say, however they behave, however they think, the natural tendency is for those things to show up in their kids. The traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children. Think about the families you know.

In procreation, your kids don't just get any old set of random genes, they get genes from the parents. How many times have we looked at a kid and said, that got to be a Johnson? You didn't even meet him yet, but you see the face. Look at that. Whose child is that?

Oh, that looked like one of the Johnson kids. Because you see the traits in them. Traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children.

You just see it. But I'm here to tell you, not only do we pass on natural biological traits, we pass on all kinds of actions, of attitudes, and associations. Because they learn it from us.

They pick it up from us. There are some people who don't even know what dysfunction is. Because it was just their family. So when you tell them, you know, y'all dysfunctional.

They're like, what you talking about? This is family reunion. It's not dysfunction, it's family reunion. For them, it's normal. For them, it's natural.

We haven't had a reunion until 911 is called. More is caught than is taught. That's another way to put it. More is caught than is taught.

And you catch it, you pick it up. It becomes normal for the kids. So, what God is wanting us to do is to use this principle for good. Since the traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children, since more is caught than is taught, we have to be the generation that says, not only am I going to live under the blessing of God, but my children are going to live under the blessing of God. My grandchildren are going to live under the blessing of God.

My great grandchildren are going to live under the blessing of God. We're not going to have foolishness characterized in this family. I decree it in Jesus' name. We got to make up in our minds, that's the way it's going to be.

You a shepherd, you're going to be blessed. Period. End of discussion. Because we are a household of faith. That's the kind of decision we have to make. We got to make this principle work for good.

God wants us to live under an open heaven of favor and blessing. How then can we establish it? You know me, I am not a what preacher without a how preacher. I hate being preached to with the what and nobody gives me the how.

Can't stand it. I sit under some of my colleagues and they're making some really good points. We have to do this, we have to do that, and we have to do the other. And I'm sitting there saying, okay, how? And then he says, let's stand. And I'm frustrated.

I'm like, wait a minute, you didn't tell me how to do this. You have a pastor whose job is to be a teacher. Inspired teaching is what I'm into. I could hoop and I could have you all running out of here thrilled every Sunday, but not until I tell you how to live the way God wants you to live. That's my job.

I tell you all the time, my job is to do permanent damage to your ignorance. You're not supposed to come to this church and not know what God wants you to do or how to do it. So, okay, pastor, I brought in generational blessings. Yes, I want to establish them and I want to pass them on. Yes, pastor, I'm in.

How do I do it? Glad you asked. It begins, jot this down, it begins with us personally. We must live the blessed life before attempting to confer blessings on others. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd. To listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent broadcasts, be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net any time to listen on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net where you can contact us for prayer or make a safe and secure donation to the ministry online. Pastor Paul has a special request for you, so stay tuned after the message when he'll join me in the studio. But first, let's join him for the rest of this message, developing a lifestyle of faith. We must live the blessed life personally. In other words, you want to establish generational blessings, first thing I want to know is are you living under God's blessings? You personally. Are you living under God's blessing or are you still living under some stuff that you need to break before you try to break it off for the next generation? So the first point is one of self-examination.

You cannot confer blessings you're not living in. Parents and those who influence others, I want to broaden this concept. Even if you're not a parent, I want you to know that God's given you a sphere of influence. There are people who are looking to you as a model. You don't know it, but there are people looking to you as a model. Remember a couple decades ago when Charles Barkley was still active in the NBA and he did some commercial and he said, I am not a role model.

And it caused a whole lot of controversy as people were trying to decide whether sports figures and Hollywood personalities and all that should be considered role models and people did all these talk shows and stuff on that. Listen, you don't get to pick whether you're an influence or a role model. I mean, you can intentionally put yourself in a position to try to take advantage of the influence, but the fact of the matter is anybody you have influence over, you are a key model in their life. They signed you up.

You didn't sign yourself up. They decided you're important. And so we all have to understand, even if you don't have a single child, if you have a sphere of influence, if you have nieces or nephews, if you have co-workers, kids, if you have people in your community, if you have people in the church whose kids kind of look to you, anybody from the next generation who kind of is inspired by you and is taking a look at your life, you must understand this principle as well. You can't bless people when you're not blessed yourself.

It starts with us. Notice that Abraham, see the text talks about Isaac, talks about Jacob and Esau, talks about Joseph, and talks about Joseph's sons being blessed. It talks about several generations in this family just in those three verses of Hebrews chapter 11. All of that started with Papa Abraham.

And the Bible says about him in Genesis 24 and 1, Abraham was now old and well advanced in years. And watch this, and the Lord blessed him in every way. How did this family become blessed, even through all their stuff, misdealings and wrong moves and all of that? How did this family end up being blessed? Because God blessed the patriarch. God blessed Abraham in every way.

Abraham was able to confer blessings because Abraham was a blessed man. I came to ask you, are you blessed? Oh, I know you say that when people ask you how you are. Oh, blessed.

I know you say it. I want to know, do you live it? Are you living under the blessing of God? Put another way, have you cast off the curses that the enemy has tried to put on your life to keep you from being all you're supposed to be?

Have you gotten sick enough of bondage in this area or that area of your life where you've thrown it off, said I will not live underneath my privilege. I'm going to believe God for everything he has for me. You must understand, our God thinks in generational terms. It's not just about us, that's what messes this generation up, because we think it's all about us.

And the reality is, it's really not just about you, it is about those coming behind you. That when God blesses you, he's got his eye on two, three generations. He's thinking about people who aren't even born yet. He's thinking about the people who are going to come through your lineage or through your influence until Jesus comes again. So God is thinking, you're included, but he's thinking way past you. Abraham understood that it wasn't just about him, and as he lived his life, he lived it with a consciousness that he had to walk under the blessings of God so he could pass on those blessings to others. He understood that God cares about the generations following. And if we don't intentionally bless those generations, they will be the worst for it.

If we don't intentionally pass on blessings, we're putting them in a precarious situation. Now, what I want to do in the remaining time, then, is to talk with you about three ways that Abraham blessed his son, Isaac, because this passage opens talking about Isaac being one who blesses his kids. So let's start with Papa. Let's learn three key lessons from Papa that can be translated not only through their lineage, but through our own. Three ways God blessed Isaac, and these are principles that will help us. The first way he blessed him is by disclosing his testimony. Abraham blessed his son by letting his son know how God had blessed him throughout his lifetime.

If you want to bless your kids, your grandkids, your nieces, your nephews, kids under your influence, anybody who's looking up to you as you're that big brother, that big sister, anybody, let's spread it out beyond children. If you want to be a blessing to those coming behind you, the first thing you can learn here from Abraham is you have to be willing to share with them where God has brought you from. You say, where are you getting that? I'm getting that from the fact that Isaac was aware of the backstory to his own birth. You do know the backstory. You do know the broader context of how Isaac got here.

He got here first because God promised his parents in their old age that they were going to have the son of promise, who was Isaac, and the parents responded improperly. And they came up with Ishmael. We've already talked about that. I can't go back there. I've got too much ground to cover.

We've already talked about that. They came up with Ishmael. You have to be willing to tell the generations as you walk under blessing if where you are now, you finally are living under the blessing. You've thrown off your mistakes.

You've thrown off the stuff that would bind you and keep you from being what God's wanted you to be, and you're now walking in victory and in the blessing of the Lord. You have to be willing to share with them the testimony, and the testimony can't just be your high points. See, some of you all want to tell your kids and grandkids and all of them everything you did right. That's not your testimony. That's your bragging and your tripping. Your testimony has all kinds of components in it.

Come on, somebody. If you don't say amen, I brought my own in my back pocket. Brought my own. I'll pull one out and say, preach, Pastor Paul. Pull another one out. Go ahead, doc.

I'll encourage myself through this. Isaac knew the story behind and surrounding his birth. He knew that his parents got it wrong before they got it right. You say, how Isaac know that? Where your proof that he knew that? Because Isaac knew Ishmael.

You say, uh-uh, uh-uh, I know the Bible. Ishmael and Hagar were cast out when Isaac was two or three years old right there in the Bible. Go to Genesis 25, verse 9.

Here's what you'll see. After Abraham died, his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him. If the other son comes to help bury daddy, even though he hasn't lived in his household for decades, that's because Isaac, as he grew up, knew about his brother Ishmael. And wherever he and his mama Hagar were living, they got together every now and then and hung out. So much so that when Abraham dies, Isaac knows Ishmael's cell phone number and he calls him up and said, daddy has died.

Come on, let's bury him. And Ishmael said, I'll be right there. You can't know Ishmael as your brother without knowing the Ishmael story. How come Ishmael isn't raised in our house? Sit down, son, let's talk.

That's your testimony. See, you all want to be cute and you can't be cute and bless the next generation. To bless the generation, you have to be able to talk about what you did wrong and how God helped you by his grace and by his power.

Get your life together. Thank you so much for being here for today's Destin for Victory message, developing a lifestyle of faith. Pastor Paul Shepherd joins me now from a studio in California. Pastor, looking ahead into this new year of 2021, one of the things we like to do from time to time is share stories of how God is using this ministry. I'm excited about that.

And I know you are as well. So let's encourage people to tell us some of those stories about how God is using this program. Yeah, I would love to hear from our listeners. You know, Destin for Victory exists to challenge and inspire people everywhere to know God's son, to apply God's word and to fulfill God's purpose. That's our mission statement.

We're serious about it. And I want to know that all three things are happening. So if you're a listener and as a result of listening to Destin for Victory, you have come to know Jesus for yourself or you're finding application of these messages in your everyday and you're finding your purpose in life. What God wants to do in and through you. I would love for you to drop us a line and share your testimony. It can be one or two paragraphs.

It can be a full length letter and then we'll just pare it down. But please share with us what God's done as a result of your being a listener and give us permission to share it because we may find ways that we can share your story. We don't have to call your name if you don't want, but we can share your story. And by doing so, others can be blessed as well. So please consider getting in touch with us, letting us know the difference that Destin for Victory is making in your life. You know, one of the best ways to bless others is by sharing with them what God has done for us. If you've been blessed by the Destin for Victory broadcast, we'd love to hear from you. Visit PastorPaul.net and use the contact feature at the top of the home page. We look forward to hearing what God has done.

We also have a special gift to share with you this month, yours by request for your generous donation to Destin for Victory. Introducing Pastor Paul Shepherd's booklet, Lessons from the Cocoon. You know, butterflies don't enter this world with wings.

They don't even enter the world as butterflies. Their transformation takes place over time, and that's how the life of a believer in Christ works. In Lessons from the Cocoon, Pastor Paul helps you understand that God is doing good things in you even when your life seems somewhat stagnant and unremarkable. And he reminds you that eventually you will have wings because you were born to fly. That's Lessons from the Cocoon, our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. Just call us at 855-339-5500 or visit PastorPaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538.

Again, our address is Destin for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. Because the traits of the parents become the tendencies of the children. He's seen his daddy unquestionably follow God, and now here's his first chance to do it.

And what a first test. Son, God wants you to get on the altar. That's tomorrow in a message about unconceivable sacrifice, unwavering faith, and God's willingness to redeem our past mistakes. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.