The Life of Jacob Part 3: Breaking the Cycle of Generational Sin | Rev. Michael Fredericks

on the life of Jacob that Chad started

uh a couple weeks ago.

I want to start with this. You know,

we've had a lot of babies born in our

church over the last couple of months

and uh more on the way. And I know that

we do have some babies here for the

first time. Baby Luca's here for the

first time this morning. And I think

that uh Victor and Monica are here with

their baby for the first time as well.

And I forget your baby's name.

Yeah, that

>> and there's a short version too, right?

The nickname version. What's that?

>> Carrie.

>> Carrie. Car. We'll just go with Carrie.

Um, whenever I meet a new baby, one of

the first things that I usually do is

comment on which parent they look the

most like. And when I met Luca on Friday

night for the first time, I I said, "Oh,

it's chubby Nathaniel.

Looks just like his dad." When I was

younger, I looked a lot like my dad. As

I'm getting older, I'm starting to look

a little bit more like my mom, I think.

But it's not just our looks that we

inherit from our families as well,

whether we like it or not. Um, we have

some of our parents' attributes,

characteristics, personality habits

ingrained in us. Uh, just last week when

my dad was here playing bass guitar, uh,

he made some dumb joke and I said to

Serge, I said, "Well, Serge, the apple

doesn't fall far from the tree, does

it?" Um,

in the series that Chad has been

preaching so far on the life of Jacob,

he's quoted this phrase from author Pete

Scazero says, "Jesus may be in your

heart, but grandpa is in your bones."

And I'm going to keep with that idea

today. Um, you know, as Christians, we

invite Christ into our hearts. Jesus is

in our hearts. But that doesn't mean

that everything in our lives is

immediately changed for the better,

right? We are all long-term works in

progress, aren't we? Right, if we're

being honest. And one of the things that

typically sort of carries on in us is

our generational history.

Like it or not, we have grandpa in our

bones. And we see that in the life of

Jacob as well. Jacob encountered God in

many significant ways over his life.

Chad spoke on some of these things like

the time that God gave Jacob a dream of

this ladder to heaven and he encountered

the Lord in that or this other time when

this mysterious person maybe an

incarnation of God or an angel uh

wrestled with Jacob and gave him a new

name Israel.

That was last Sunday. But even though

Jacob had been involved in a lot of

deception and mischief, God just kept

meeting him, kept showing up, kept

working on him, and didn't give up on

Jacob. Jacob knew the Lord, right? God

was in his in his blood. But grandpa was

in his bones because despite his many

transformative experiences with God,

there was still a lot of stuff, a lot of

stuff in Jacob's family tree that just

stuck around even into his old age. The

dysfunction of his family kept rearing

its ugly head and it passed on to the

next generation.

So, as we finish out this three-part

series today on lessons from the life of

Jacob,

as I look at the last part of Jacob's

life and even his death, I want us to

see how easily dysfunction can pass

through generations, how unhealed wounds

and untreated trauma tend to just keep

multiplying,

and how each of us with God's help can

find a different path and break the

cycle. and write a new story of healing

and hope for those who come after us.

So, we're going to frame Jacob's story

in three in these three parts. Jacob

comes from a very messed up family.

We're going to talk about that. The mess

is passed on to his kids and multiplied,

but one of them is able to break the

cycle.

So, let's remind ourselves who Jacob is,

where this guy fits in history and in

our Bibles. We're going way back in

human history when we talk about Jacob.

We think about Jesus, right? Jesus lived

2,000 years ago. The story of Jacob was

about 2,000 years before that. So, we're

going in the ballpark of 4,000 years

ago. This is ancient history. In the

Bible, we have the story of creation. We

have Adam and Eve. We have Noah's Ark.

We have the Tower of Babel. And then

this guy named Abraham comes along.

Abraham, who God calls to the land of

Canaan and makes a covenant with him.

And that's the beginning of the story of

the Hebrew people. If you want to put up

this graphic, you can see at the top

there, Abraham. Okay? Abraham has a son,

Isaac. Isaac has a son, Jacob. And Jacob

is the guy we're talking about. So,

we're way back in in the book of

Genesis. Jacob's an important figure in

history, especially Jewish history,

because his 12 sons that you see along

the bottom there. Uh these are the uh

sons where the 12 tribes of Israel come

from. The 12 tribes of Israel are

literally traced back to the 12 sons of

Jacob, aka Israel. He's given a new

name, right? Israel. So the 12 sons of

Israel be formed the 12 tribes of

Israel. So very significant person in

history. But as I said, Jacob came from

a very messed up family.

In his family of origin, if you go back

through Isaac and Abraham and all the

people involved there, uh you're going

to read about multiple marriages, sexual

sin, sibling rivalry, parents showing

favoritism, lies, and manipulation.

And some of you are thinking, "Well,

that sounds like my family."

Yeah, let's do a little rapidfire

snapshot of some of this dysfunction in

Jacob's family. Going back to grandpa

Abraham.

Abraham was a man of of God, but he

didn't do everything right. He and his

wife Sarah got impatient that they

couldn't get pregnant. So, they brought

in Sarah's servant Hagar as a concubine

for Abraham to have a baby. And baby

Ishmael was born from Hagar. But then

later Sarah did get pregnant. That's

when Isaac came along. All kinds of

emotional drama uh around that messed up

scenario. And there was conflict between

Isaac and Ishmael. As you can imagine,

Isaac was the clearly favored child um

at the expense of Ishmael. Young Isaac,

you might recall, had a very traumatic

experience where his dad almost killed

him as a sacrifice to God. That's a wild

story. Um, and Isaac grows up, gets

married to Rebecca. Only has one wife

that we know of, which is unlike uh

unlike his dad. So, that's positive.

Good for Isaac. They have twins, Jacob

and Esau. Chad's already told us about

Jacob and Esau. The twins. They fought

with each other, harbored deep

resentment, and for most of their lives

were estranged,

and the parents took favorites. Dad

preferred Esau, and Rebecca preferred

Jacob.

This led to lies and manipulation

becoming a big part of their family

story. Jacob grows up and his uncle

Laban deceives him real bad. Makes him

marry Leah, a cousin he doesn't want to

marry. Jacob ends up with two wives

actually, Leah and Rachel. Both his

cousins, one who he loves and one who he

doesn't love. And then on top of that,

he takes each of their servants as a

concubine. Does that sound familiar?

Yeah. Cuz that's what grandpa Abraham

did with Hagar. So you can see here it's

all a big mess. It's all a big mess.

Here's Jacob's wives and concubines and

all the children except for it's missing

Dina the daughter as well who was born

of Leah.

As I said, multiple marriages, sexual

sin, sibling rivalry, parents showing

favoritism, lies, and manipulation. This

is some of the fruit growing on Jacob's

family tree.

And so it should come as no surprise

that Jacob's children, these 12 sons,

carry on the dysfunction.

Jacob comes from a very messed up

family, and that mess is passed on to

his kids and multiplied.

We see it. We see it with the oldest

boy, Reuben, for example.

You can read this in Genesis 35.

You can prepare yourself for some real

Jerry Springer stuff here. Okay,

it says in verse 22, while Israel,

that's Jacob, was living in that region,

Reuben, that's his oldest boy. Go back

to the graphic if you don't mind so we

can visualize this. Okay. Reuben, the

oldest son of Leah.

Um, uh, uh, Reuben went in and slept

with his father's concubine, Bilha,

and Jacob heard of it. And that, of

course, leads to a whole bunch of stuff.

Yeah, you heard that correctly. Not

quite uh what you were taught in Sunday

school,

right? I mean, this is just terrible.

All sorts of indecent stuff going on

there. So that's Reuben, Jacob's oldest

boy, a real winner.

And then another time, Jacob and Leah's

daughter, Dina, is raped by some guy

from a neighboring town. So her

brothers, Levi and Simeon,

they enact revenge. You can read about

that in Genesis 34. And they go and they

murder all the men in this town. And

then the other brothers join in and

plunder the town and kidnap the widows

and orphans of the men they killed. I

mean, this is terror. This is pure evil,

mass murderer behavior.

These are Jacob's kids. Lovely family.

And it continues when we get to the

story of Jacob's son, Joseph, the one

down there with the coat of many colors.

Uh Jacob carries on the family tradition

of favoritism and has a favorite son of

the 12, Joseph.

This is the teenager with the amazing

technicolor dream coat. There's Donnie

Osmond with his amazing technicolor

dream coat. Some of you remember that.

Some of you were there for that. I

wasn't there for that. Some of you were.

Um, yeah, if that was you, you probably

need to go get a test of some sort. Um,

you know, anyway, um, Joseph's brothers

are jealous and annoyed by young Joseph,

maybe for good cause. He was annoying.

So, as younger brothers tend to be. Um,

so they decide though, I mean, what some

brothers would just pick on him, but

they decide Joseph annoys us so much,

we're going to kill him. That's what

these boys decide they're going to do.

Then they change their minds and decide

to just throw him in a big pit. Oh, how

nice. And then they change their minds

again and decide to sell him into

slavery. So that's what they do. They

decide human trafficking for our

brother. That's the option we'll go

with. So they do that and then they go

home and they lie to dad Jacob. They

tell Jacob that he was killed by a wild

animal. So these are grown men who

literally traffic their little brother

into slavery and then lie to their

father about it who ends up thinking

then for decades that his favorite son

is dead.

Are you getting the picture of how

treacherous these children of Jacob are?

When I think about what these brothers

did to Joseph though, it reminds me of

the potential for great evil within

every human heart. I heard this sermon

preached years ago at a church one

Sunday night. I was at a service and

listening to the pastor and he was

talking about the brothers and what they

did to Joseph, selling him into slavery

and and we were all feeling really angry

about these brothers and how evil they

were. And he built that up. And then he

said, "By the way, this potential for

evil exists in all of us." And it was

like, "Oh, yeah. Before I before I

judge, I need to remind myself that I

can do evil just like that, too. It's

not that hard to be that evil." Uh,

listen to these passages of scripture.

Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful

Jeremiah 17:9

above all things and desperately sick."

Who can understand it? Genesis 8:21,

Genesis 8:21

"The inclination of the human heart is

evil from youth." Psalm 51:15, "Surely I

Psalms 51:15

was sinful at birth, sinful from the

time my mother conceived me."

Ecclesiastes 9:3, "The hearts of people

Ecclesiastes 9:3

are full of evil, and madness is in

their hearts while they live." Jesus

says it, too. Mark 7, for from within,

out of a person's heart, come evil

thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,

murder, adultery, greed, wickedness,

deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander,

pride, and foolishness. All these vile

things come from within. They are what

defile you.

So just a reminder to us here that we

are depraved as human beings. We have a

sinful nature. So we need to be careful

not to be too judgmental. We all need

the grace of God.

But we see here this picture of Jacob's

son

sons growing up in a home where love

feels earned and resentment is

normalized

and the result is sexual immorality.

Violence disguised as justice. Hatred

and jealousy. Abuse and lies layered

upon lies layered upon lies. What a

mess.

Is there any hope?

Well, as I said, Jacob comes from a very

messed up family, and this mess is

passed on to his kids and multiplied,

but

one of them is able to break the cycle,

and that is Joseph.

Now, I won't tell you Joseph's whole

story, but it really is quite dramatic.

It's a page turner. I mean, it's one of

my favorite stories actually in the

whole Bible. It's just awesome. It's a

there there is a move there are movies.

There are plays, right? Uh it's a good

story. Read it if you haven't read it

before. Um after Joseph is sold into

slavery by his brothers, he ends up in

Egypt.

And years pass and all sorts of terrible

and unjust things happen to to Joseph.

But he finally does succeed in Egypt. He

does well and and becomes a very

powerful political leader alongside

Pharaoh. Some have said maybe the like

the prime minister, like second in

command to Pharaoh.

All while all while his father Jacob

believes he's dead.

To make a long story short, again, I'm

not going to tell you Joseph's story.

This is a Jacob series, but uh a long

story short, all the other brothers end

up in Egypt with Joseph. And elderly

Jacob ends up there, too. And then Jacob

in old age dies.

And we're going to read that now from

Genesis 50, the last chapter in the book

of Genesis,

verses 1:3.

It says, uh, Joseph threw himself on his

father and wept over him and kissed him.

Jacob has just died. Kissed him. And

then Joseph told the physicians who

served him to embalm his father's body.

So Jacob was imbalmed. The Egyptians

were good at that as you know. The

imbalming process took the usual 40 days

and the Egyptians mourned his death for

70 days.

So this Jo Jacob dies. He has all these

celebrations in Egypt. He's Joseph is a

man an important man. So his father is

honored by the by the country. And then

Joseph leads a delegation back to the

land of Canaan to have Jacob buried in

the promised land in keeping with his

wishes.

In verse 14, they do that. And then it

says, "After burying Jacob, Joseph

returned to Egypt with his brothers and

all who had accompanied him to his

father's burial."

So after this period of mourning and

this trip to Canaan to bury Jacob with

his ancestors and the trip back, it's

been about 3 months since Jacob died.

And the question is, what's going to

happen now between Joseph who's in a

position of power and authority

and his brothers who are really at his

mercy who all those years ago betrayed

him, sold him into slavery, human

traffked him. If any of Jacob's son 12

sons had a permission slip for revenge,

it was Joseph. If any of Jacob's 12

sons,

you could understand his behavior of

treachery towards people, it would be

Joseph towards these other brothers who

were so awful to him for all those

years.

And so Joseph's brothers, they're

thinking the same thing. Uh-oh, dad's

dead now. We're in trouble. And they

start to worry, what if Joseph decides

to pay us back for all the evil we did

to him? Verse 15. But now that their

father was dead, Joseph's brothers

became fearful. Now Joseph will show his

anger and pay us back for all the wrong

we did to him. They said, so they sent

this message to Joseph. Uh before your

father died, he instructed us to say to

you, uh please forgive your brothers for

the great wrong they did to you. for

their sin and treating you so cruy. So

we, the servants of the God of your

father, beg you to forgive our sin.

When Joseph received this message, he

broke down and wept.

Notice that Joseph hasn't threatened

them,

but this is how people raised in

dysfunction think. When you grow up in a

world of favoritism,

retaliation,

and conditional love,

you assume punishment is always just a

moment away.

So the brothers do what they've always

done. They manipulate. They lie again.

They send word to Joseph saying, "Oh,

before your before your father died, he

he gave us this instruction." There's no

evidence that Jacob ever gave them that

instruction. They just made this up.

They're just trying to save their own

skin. Just the same old family playbook.

And when Joseph gets this letter, he

weeps. Why? Because even after all these

years, his brothers still don't know his

heart. They still don't trust him.

But then comes this moment. The moment

when Joseph breaks the cycle of his

family tree. Verse 18 of Genesis 50

says, "Then his brothers came and threw

themselves down before Joseph. Look, we

are your slaves. They said, "But Joseph

replied,

don't be afraid of me.

Am I God that I can punish you?

You intended to harm me, but God

intended it all for good. He brought me

to this position so I could save the

lives of many people. No, don't be

afraid. I will continue to take care of

you and your children. So, he reassured

them by speaking kindly to them.

This is the moment the cycle breaks.

Joseph refuses to play God.

He refuses to become what his family

trained him to be. He refuses to answer

evil with evil. Joseph says, "It stops

with me."

And he shows his brothers mercy.

Beautiful

mercy.

He doesn't deny what happened. He

doesn't just sweep it under the rung.

you intended under the rug. He says,

"You intended to harm me." He calls it

out. He names it on honestly. He doesn't

minimize it. You intended to harm me.

But he also sees something bigger. But

God intended all this evil that you had

for me. God intended it for good. And

God worked through it all to do

wonderful things. I love that

perspective.

all the trauma that we have in our lives

and all of us have trauma to one degree

or another. But to have that perspective

to to look back and say, "Yeah, people

people did a lot of wrong to me. They

intended a lot of evil against me,

but God was able to use it for good."

Like Romans 8 says, right? God works all

things together for good for those who

love him and are called according to his

purpose. What a good perspective.

And then Joseph, son of Jacob,

son of Isaac, son of Abraham, takes it

one step further. He doesn't just show

mercy to his brothers.

He doesn't just say, "I'm not going to

hurt you. I'm not going to punish you.

Don't worry." He takes it a step

further. And he offers to care for them

and their children.

This is grace. This is unmmerited favor.

This is the next step, right? Mercy is

I'm not going to harm you, but grace is

I'm going to actually do good to you

even though you don't deserve it.

Yes, grace. So, Joseph breaks the cycle

here. Generational sin finally loses its

grip on this family and the secret

ingredients are mercy and grace.

And in the psalm that I read this

morning, the start of the service in

Psalm 47

verse4, it says, "God loves the

descendants of Jacob."

I mean, think of that. These treacherous

men.

It's an entire nation founded on these

12 guys.

And yet God has shown them grace. He

loves them. He loves them despite their

evil.

Well, that's a cool story. What's in

here for us now? What's the application?

What's the takeaway? Well,

some of you, I know, were raised in

families where wounds were passed down

like heirlooms.

And without God's help, we can't rise

above those patterns. In fact, we will

repeat them.

Maybe today the Holy Spirit is putting

his finger on something in your life.

Some nasty fruit that's growing on your

family tree. Maybe you can trace it back

generations.

A pattern of behavior that's been

inherited from your parents. A habit. An

addictive tendency that runs in your

family. a way of relating that you

learned long before you ever chose it

or whatever it is.

This applies to all of us, by the way.

You don't need to come from the trailer

park for there to be messiness in your

past or present.

>> Amen.

>> But there's good news. There's hope for

change.

The good news is not that you can

magically fix yourself with with

self-help techniques if you just get

enough books from the self-help section

of the bookstore and you can listen to

enough podcasts

that you'll get your life figured out.

That's not the answer. Therapy is part

of the answer. Okay, by the way, therapy

is good. You might need to go to

therapy. In fact, some of you do need to

go to therapy

because I know you.

But the real answer

is that God is really powerful.

God is really big. And because Jesus

bore our sins, we don't have to keep

bearing the sins of our grandparents and

our parents.

We don't have to keep bearing the same

patterns.

And if you will invite Christ into your

life and allow the Holy Spirit to get

into those deep deep places

and you give more and more of yourself

over to the Holy Spirit within you, then

new fruit, fresh fruit is going to start

growing out of your life. The Bible

calls it the fruit of the spirit. And

it's love. It's joy.

Peace,

not conflict. Peace, patience,

kindness,

goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness,

and self-control.

If those words don't describe your

family of origin,

but you wish they did, then you need

more of the Holy Spirit in your life.

That's the answer ultimately.

>> Amen.

>> You are not trapped by your family tree.

If you are in Christ, the Bible says

you've been grafted into a new tree.

Abide in the vine. Abide in Christ. He

is the vine. We are the branches.

And by God's mercy and grace,

what wounded you does not have to define

you. And it does not have to be passed

on.

>> Amen.

>> Because God doesn't just save souls. He

rewrites families stories.

I have seen it.

I've seen it and it can be true for you,

too. Amen.

>> Amen.