I am always so blessed to have you all here, thank you for joining us.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for my family here today. I ask and pray that You bless them with Your favor. Provide for all of their needs. I ask You to protect them from harm and evil. Surround them in the shadow of Your wing. Go before them and prepare the way for them. If any path is crooked, I ask you to make it straight. Protect them from the schemes of the enemy and keep them from deception. Cause them each to make wise decisions. Bring Your perfect peace to their hearts, minds and families. Cleanse them is the shed blood of Your Lamb, Your Son.
In Jesus name I ask and pray, Amen.
Today, message I've entitled Power of the Word - Breaking Destructive Patterns
because many people are struggling with the destructive patterns in their lives.
Today I want to talk about how to tear down those strongholds in your life.
Many of us have what we call baggage..
It may be emotional baggage from childhood, past relationships.. alcohol dependency or drug abuse.
For some, it may be promiscuity. There's all kinds of baggage we carry with us.
I am so grateful to God I no longer have to carry mine myself!
This message is personal, it's raw and real. It's difficult to relive some of the memories and details I'll be sharing.
But God has called me to preach, to testify and witness to His glory.
He called me to tell someone today, there IS hope!
You are not your past.
You don't have to continue the destructive path you are on...
When we make the decision to hand over our baggage to the Lord, we then begin to walk in what we call the blessings of God. When we ignore God’s laws, when we want to do just what we want, then we will eventually pay the price for that decision.
Some years ago, a study was done about two individuals. These two contemporary men who lived in New York City. This was back in the 1800s. The study found the following “One of the men did not believe in God and promoted a life of free sex, no rules and no responsibilities. The second man was known for being disciplined. He became a pastor and led by a very strong example. He authored several books and preached to many people in his lifetime. The results of the values of these two men upon their descendants could not have been more different.
The first man had one thousand twenty-six descendants of whom three hundred were convicts. A hundred ninety were prostitutes. Twenty-seven were murderers. Five hundred ninety became addicted to alcohol or drugs. Up to the 1950s his descendants had cost the state of New York one point two million dollars.
By contrast, the second man had nine hundred twenty-nine descendants of whom four hundred thirty were ministers. Three hundred fourteen were war veterans. Seventy-five were authors. Eighty-six were college professors. Thirteen were college presidents. Seven were congressmen. Seven were governors. And one was Vice President of the United States of America.
The first man rejected God. The other man partnered with God. The second man was Jonathan Edwards. He made a difference with his life as his descendants followed his example.
As you reflect upon your life, what kind of heritage are you leaving?
If your life were to be studied, if historians were to write a book about you, would you be considered a blessing to the generations that followed you?
My question for you today, is what are you passing on to the next generation?
There are spiritual laws that can’t be broken.
When we break them, we MUST pay the price.
Often, there is a very heavy price!
When we obey God’s laws we walk in his blessing.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer to walk in God’s blessing.
Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life.
I’d rather walk under God’s law.
Exodus 20:1-6 talks about the real top ten list. With all due respect to David Letterman, he is not the author of the concept of the Top Ten list!
Almighty God is the True Author of the Top Ten list. And He wrote down two of the most important, in his eyes, and they’re found in...
Exodus 20:1-6, "And God spoke all these words, saying:
His reasoning:
Alcohol, take my problems away.
You see alcohol became an idol.
And worst of all, it will be an example to your kids that teaches them to live the same way and it will destroy them too. Because they will likely emulate what they see!
We can make an idol out of anything.
We can even make the family and our marriage into idols.
Be careful that you are not finding your value as a person based upon how smart or good looking or how well your kids do in sports.
But I have come to tell you today that whatever issue you may be struggling with there’s a way to break the cycle.
It also had an impact of past generations, I sincerely pray it will also affect future generations!
I am in awe of the power of God.
See for some of us, we can only feel pleasure when we eat certain foods.
It may be over the way you view money.
Break up with those idols and make Christ be the Lord of every area of your life.
We know we are free when talking about a painful past no longer makes us cringe!
We know we have been set free when that persons' name no longer evokes a rage within us!
When we can discuss it freely and share with others for their benefit.
We see evidence of this in Acts 10.
In Closing......
And Jesus goes around doing good, healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God is with him.
He’s here today.
And He can do that miraculous work in your life.
These are the people around us, people who serve as our eyes.
Beloved, I’ve come to tell you today that God can and will do miraculous things in your life!
He has mine!
Reconnect your life, your family, not only for the benefits that you will receive but the impact upon your children and your childrens' children.
If you want to stop the destructive patterns in your life, you are going to have to find those idols that you or someone else has placed in you and you are going to have to remove them.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
I’d rather walk under God’s law.
Exodus 20:1-6 talks about the real top ten list. With all due respect to David Letterman, he is not the author of the concept of the Top Ten list!
Almighty God is the True Author of the Top Ten list. And He wrote down two of the most important, in his eyes, and they’re found in...
Exodus 20:1-6, "And God spoke all these words, saying:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
Having Idols is the most dangerous and overlooked type of sin in the Christian world today.
Why?
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
Having Idols is the most dangerous and overlooked type of sin in the Christian world today.
Why?
Because this type of sin is something that we never ever talk about.
An idol is anything we put before God, money, job, car, etc.
An Idol is something that we make a priority for our self, it can even be a person.
Many people believe, it has to be a figure or statue of a god, but that's just not true!
Anything, we place before God in our lives, that keeps Him from being FIRST, is an idol.
You shall not bow down to them – meaning allow or causing yourself to become subject to them.
We don’t hear much about idols – because they are really not very understood by most Christians and seemingly, even many preachers.
But it’s the only sin that talks about the consequence of what happens to us if we break that law. That’s why it’s very important to God.
That sin is idolatry.
The sin of idolatry is what is impacting this nation in a way that many of us are unaware.
We think that an idol is simply a small statue or something.
But an Idol is anything that takes the place of God
Our dependence on God
Our worship of God
Our giving to God
Our love of God
Our reverence to God
He wants to be first in our life.
He wants to be the one we pray to when we have something we require. He wants to be the one we look to when we have a need in our life.
I struggled with this concept when I read this. I asked myself, how is it that God would punish children, innocent children, for the errors of their fathers?
That doesn’t seem just.
And that just does not even sound like God actually.
But then I realized that God is not one who punishes children.
It’s the parents and society that punishes children.
God doesn’t teach anyone to sin.
So who is teaching children to sin?
Their parents and society does.
Why?
Because children are like video cameras with legs.
They go around recording everything that they see.
Children absorb our behavior. That is how that iniquity is passed from one generation to the next.
A child will imitate the behaviors and lifestyles of their parents.
This is not by chance.
This is by design.
God designed us in such a way that we learn how to exist by the behavioral patterns of our parents.
If a parent is righteous...
He will pray, He will worship God
He will attend a house of worship
He will support that house of worship with his time, his talent and his treasure.
God will be his focus
God will be at the center of his life.
When he has a problem, he will trust the Lord with his problem.
When he has stress, and worry and fear and anxiety, he will take it to the Lord in prayer.
But if that same man is an unrighteous man, who cares not care about God or His commandments, he will have an idol.
My father had a huge idol in our home.
This idol was a mean idol.
He wants to be the one we pray to when we have something we require. He wants to be the one we look to when we have a need in our life.
I struggled with this concept when I read this. I asked myself, how is it that God would punish children, innocent children, for the errors of their fathers?
That doesn’t seem just.
And that just does not even sound like God actually.
Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life
It’s the parents and society that punishes children.
God doesn’t teach anyone to sin.
So who is teaching children to sin?
Their parents and society does.
Why?
Because children are like video cameras with legs.
They go around recording everything that they see.
Children absorb our behavior. That is how that iniquity is passed from one generation to the next.
A child will imitate the behaviors and lifestyles of their parents.
This is not by chance.
This is by design.
God designed us in such a way that we learn how to exist by the behavioral patterns of our parents.
If a parent is righteous...
He will pray, He will worship God
He will attend a house of worship
He will support that house of worship with his time, his talent and his treasure.
God will be his focus
God will be at the center of his life.
When he has a problem, he will trust the Lord with his problem.
When he has stress, and worry and fear and anxiety, he will take it to the Lord in prayer.
But if that same man is an unrighteous man, who cares not care about God or His commandments, he will have an idol.
My father had a huge idol in our home.
This idol was a mean idol.
It caused my father to become abusive.
It caused him to neglect his children.
It caused him to eventually walk away from his family.
It caused him to chase women, rather than God.
Do you know what that idols name was?
It was alcoholism.
Beer and liquor, was the thing that brought my father comfort.
A lot of it!
It enabled him to relax
It made him forget his troubles, he couldn't handle things from his own childhood. Some horrible things I later learned.
It enabled him to escape them temporarily, he couldn't fix them, but he could escape them.
It lied to him and allowed him to be someone he wasn’t
He didn’t have to deal with the problems as long as he was hammered. So, he stayed hammered, much of the time.
When he sobered up, he was again faced with the memories
he couldn't handle, so he drank!
Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life Now mind you, God wanted to be the one who my father would turn to when he had a problem in his life.
God wanted to be the one who he would pray to when life got difficult.
A lot of it!
It enabled him to relax
It made him forget his troubles, he couldn't handle things from his own childhood. Some horrible things I later learned.
It enabled him to escape them temporarily, he couldn't fix them, but he could escape them.
It lied to him and allowed him to be someone he wasn’t
He didn’t have to deal with the problems as long as he was hammered. So, he stayed hammered, much of the time.
When he sobered up, he was again faced with the memories
he couldn't handle, so he drank!
Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life Now mind you, God wanted to be the one who my father would turn to when he had a problem in his life.
God wanted to be the one who he would pray to when life got difficult.
But instead of praying at an altar of God, my father prayed at the altar of the tabernacle of the local bar, and worshiped alcohol.
His reasoning:
Alcohol, take my problems away.
Alcohol make me feel better
Alcohol make me feel better about myself and the wrong things that I am doing and the way I am treating my family.
You see alcohol became an idol.
Alcohol became his God.
Something man made that took the place of what God wanted to be in his life.
You may ask what does idolatry have to do with this?
For some, it's social media..
Let me just say this, “You better be very careful when you are playing with fire.”
Because if it’s what you have to have every evening in order to be able to sleep or rest or tolerate your life or your family, then yes it has become an idol.
Is it ok to take a vicoden if I have a toothache?
Sure it is ok as long as your dentist has prescribed it to you.
You may ask what does idolatry have to do with this?
A lot of people tell me, but I don’t have any images in my house.
I don’t have these statues in my house.
I don’t have images or idols in my house.
Beloved, an idol is whatever we habitually seek in our time of need, instead of seeking God!
If that is truly an idol, that which fills that void in our heart in our time of need, then a glass or several glasses of wine on a regular basis can become an idol for the alcoholic.
And porn can become an idol for the porn addict.
Because it begins to fill a void that they seek instead of seeking God.
Cocaine, heroin or meth becomes an idol for the drug addict.
For some of us perhaps our idol might be food.
You say is it sin or is it an idol if I only have a glass of wine with my meal on rare occasions? I don’t have these statues in my house.
I don’t have images or idols in my house.
Beloved, an idol is whatever we habitually seek in our time of need, instead of seeking God!
If that is truly an idol, that which fills that void in our heart in our time of need, then a glass or several glasses of wine on a regular basis can become an idol for the alcoholic.
And porn can become an idol for the porn addict.
Because it begins to fill a void that they seek instead of seeking God.
Cocaine, heroin or meth becomes an idol for the drug addict.
For some of us perhaps our idol might be food.
For some, it's social media..
Let me just say this, “You better be very careful when you are playing with fire.”
Because if it’s what you have to have every evening in order to be able to sleep or rest or tolerate your life or your family, then yes it has become an idol.
Is it ok to take a vicoden if I have a toothache?
Sure it is ok as long as your dentist has prescribed it to you.
But if you’re taking handfuls of these things on a weekly basis, not because you have
a toothache, but because you have an addiction, then you have an idol in your life.
And that idol will eventually keep you from a right relationship with God.
It will eventually destroy your marriage,
Your family,
Your life
And worst of all, it will be an example to your kids that teaches them to live the same way and it will destroy them too. Because they will likely emulate what they see!
Children do not forget. We think they will, they're too young to remember...
They were in bed so they weren't listening or watching when that happened.
WRONG!
Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life
We can even make the family and our marriage into idols.
Our children can become idols.
I know mothers who base their self-esteem and their self worth on how well functioning their family is.
Be careful that you are not finding your value as a person based upon how smart or good looking or how well your kids do in sports.
Be careful that you don’t let your family become an idol.
But I have come to tell you today that whatever issue you may be struggling with there’s a way to break the cycle.
There’s a wonderful way to break the cycle.
Like I’ve said to you before, I came from a pretty dysfunctional family.
My parents also came from a pretty dysfunctional family.
My father was an abusive drunk.
My parents divorced when I was young, around 12, shortly after the birth of my sibling.
The time when most boys need their father most.
When he left our home, his dysfunctional, and abusive father, told him to be sure he cut off our electricity, our heat, our phone.
Which he did.
My father married several more times before he finally stopped drinking.
Alcohol, his idol. his god destroyed his marriages.
You see, a new wife and family didn't fix his problems!
Why?
Because his first wife, his children wasn't the problem, it was his idol, alcohol!
My mother later also remarried, my step father was an alcoholic.
It started out really well.
My step father and I were very close.
He was the dad I didn't have and at the time I needed one.
I finally felt valued, I felt loved.
Then, the worship of the idol increased.
It nearly destroyed their marriage, thankfully it didn't.
It lead to adultery.
It caused many arguments.
Once again, family life in our home had become unbearable.
When you go back into our families heritage, it appears
that ours was not the only family in the family tree with these same
issues.
Apparently this thing goes all the way back to the early roots of our family.
Apparently this thing goes all the way back to the early roots of our family.
Alcoholism goes all the way back 4 and 5 generations that we know of and probably
a lot further back than that if we could talk to those people.
Now I’m don’t mean to harp solely on alcohol, I can best speak to that idol because it is the one I grew up around.
It is one I myself, began to repeat!
But some of you have family idols that I haven’t even
mentioned here today, but you could tell us what they are
couldn’t you?!
You see, if we're are honest with one another, very few of us had a perfect life.
If were are completely honest, we ourselves haven't been perfect examples to our own children.
Whether we share our stories or not, God knows the truth. He is truth!
Fortunately for us, even knowing the truth about us, He loves us!
He doesn't hold grudges, He is a loving and a forgiving God.
Can I get a witness?
But thank God that I became reacquainted the God, my grandmother introduced me to when I was younger. The God who changed her life!
The God who was bigger and stronger than my past, than the idols my parents grew up with.
Thank the Lord that I found the God who is truly the Lord of Lords.
"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."
When this scripture went off in my life...It was like an atomic bomb, an atomic bomb in multi-dimensions.
Because that not only affected my life, it affected how I saw my children, the man raising his children, how they in turn would conduct and live their lives before God.
Because that not only affected my life, it affected how I saw my children, the man raising his children, how they in turn would conduct and live their lives before God.
It also had an impact of past generations, I sincerely pray it will also affect future generations!
It has affected the lives of many I've had the honor and privilege to share God with.
It has affected the many lives of those people who gave their lives to God, it has affected their childrens' lives.
Oh what a Great and Wonderful God we serve!
Isn't that true?
I am in awe of the power of God.
I will tell you today that the only way to break the destructive cycle, is to make Jesus Christ Lord of every area of your life.
Your past, your family, your finances, all of it!
Jesus Christ must become Lord of every area of your life.
If you are struggling with a food addiction and maybe you’re carrying an extra fifty pounds, you don’t need to be on a diet.
You need a paradigm transformation.
You need a paradigm transformation.
You need to view food as fuel and change the way you view pleasure.
See for some of us, we can only feel pleasure when we eat certain foods.
For some others, it's the obsession of not eating.
The fear of gaining weight, anorexia, bulimia.
For some, it may be an obsession over a destructive relationship that has become an idol.
The list goes on and on...
It may be over the way you view money.
Many people have so much baggage when it comes to money.
Some people say I don’t have a problem with money.
Someone once said to me. “Money always talks to me. It says Good bye. See you later!
If the only thing your money is saying is “Good bye”, you might have an idol in your
life.
We need to change the way we view of of these things.
We need to re-define pleasure.
The Bible calls this the mind of Christ.
We need a transformation of the mind. Break up with those idols and make Christ be the Lord of every area of your life.
Then we will be truly free.
We know we are free when talking about a painful past no longer makes us cringe!
We know we have been set free when that persons' name no longer evokes a rage within us!
When we can discuss it freely and share with others for their benefit.
We see evidence of this in Acts 10.
"The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree."
This is Jesus’ declaration of His mission, his mission here on earth.
Beloved, if you are stuck in survival mode, barely getting through a day, if you’re just
barely surviving life, there’s no Bible verse that says that God has called us
to just survive this life.
He wants you to live.
And live abundantly!
And live abundantly!
And the only way to live is to be free.
In Closing......
If You Are Looking For The Power To Break the Destructive Patterns in Your Life, It's Jesus!
He’s here today.
And He can do that miraculous work in your life.
Open your heart to him.
Break bondage of those chains deep inside.
Break free of those idols in your life.
Say to yourself, I want to be free.
Then cry out to God, I want to be FREE!
I want to be transformed.
And finally God will give us a tremendous gift, because we need this gift.
These are the people around us, people who serve as our eyes.
We need these people.
We need people who will help to pull us up instead of tearing us down.
God desires that you experience people and have people in your life that will pull you up.
You are here today because of the grace of God.
A drunk driver didn’t kill you on the way, by the grace of God.
You live, you breathe, you eat because of God’s grace.
God has not poured out wrath upon this nation because of His grace.
Even upon all of humanity, because of His grace.
We exist because of his grace.
That’s what the Holy Spirit does.
If we obey God’s law, He promises a blessing for a thousand generations.
Beloved, I’ve come to tell you today that God can and will do miraculous things in your life!
He has mine!
You can start the blessing that goes on for a thousand generations.
You need a fresh start, to begin your life all over again.
Free of the power of destructive patterns
You want to experience new life.
Reconnect your life, your family, not only for the benefits that you will receive but the impact upon your children and your childrens' children.
If you want to stop the destructive patterns in your life, you are going to have to find those idols that you or someone else has placed in you and you are going to have to remove them.
"Behold, I
give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over
all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries