Matt Hagee - It Runs In The Family
Simple is not always easy. Knowing right and doing right is often a difficult difference. How many of you have ever known better, you just didn't do better? I mean, you knew that you wanted to be Mr. Nice guy, but Mr. Nasty showed up. You knew that you would never... Fill in the blank. "I'll never eat that again. I'll never say that again. I'll never do that again. I'll never drink that again. I'll never try that again". And somewhere along the way, you just threw out the, "Never again" and go right back to doing what you vowed you'd never do. Anybody witness or testify? Not you, but somebody you know does that. Knowing better is simple. Doing better is not always easy.
And one of the reasons why that is is because it's in your DNA. We all have DNA. And DNA if you wanna know what it means scientifically, basically it means the genetic material that's in the cell that makes you who you are. So, for example, if mama was tall and daddy was tall, your DNA is probably gonna be... Show you some examples of DNA. This is a picture of my grandmother, Ms. Vada Hagee, who was born in 1913, and my daughter, Hannah Hagee, who was born in 2005. These two are 92 years apart. Tell me it doesn't run in the family. Let me show you another picture. Show you another picture. This one's fun. This is my 7-year-old son, Joel. And the picture next to him is his 7-year-old grandfather, 70 years back.
Now, Joel's picture was taken at the post office. It wasn't his mug shot for his crimes. But we were taking a passport photo, and he went to the camera, and the lady who was taking the photo, she said, "Son, look right here". Well, what did Joel do? Joel went... And she looked up and she said, "Don't smile". And he went... And Kendall was looking at the picture, she's like, "Oh my goodness, he looks so mean". I said, "No, he doesn't. He looks like his grandfather". Now, dad's picture was not in the post office. Dad's picture was in the school yearbook. This was dad's class photo in the first grade. And when you ask him, "Why did you look like that"? He says, "I didn't wanna be there".
But tell me it doesn't run in the family. Now, I mean, one more. Let's look at one more just for fun. This is Hannah and J.W. J.W. is two. We tried to reenact that picture, but we couldn't do it. He's now taller than me. So anyway, he's two, Hannah's four, and then this is Hannah and J.W. In this picture, she's 18 and he's 16. Now, the reason I show you this one is not so you can compare and contrast, but when they have grandkids that are two and four, you know who they're gonna look like? The handsome dude in the middle of picture one. That's how those grandkids are gonna come out because it runs in the family. The thing about DNA is you can't escape it. It's there whether you want it or not.
So, I would propose that DNA does not only stand for deoxyribonucleic acid, but it also stands for did not ask for it. I didn't ask for it. This is what they issued me in 1978. I'm just doing the best I can with it. You didn't ask for your talents. You didn't ask for your gifts. You didn't ask for your tendencies. It's just there. People ask, "How did you learn to do this? Or how do you know to do that"? And you really don't know. And the reason you don't know is because it runs in the family. It's not just height and weight and hair color, it's also behavioral, and it's spiritual.
Look at verse 33 in Proverbs 3. It says, "The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked". There's two houses that Solomon is talking about here. And he says, "If you are in the house of the wicked, the curse of the Lord is upon you". But then he flips the verse, and he says, "But the Lord will bless the house of the just". How many of you see a difference between a curse in one house and a blessing in another? Where you want to get your mail at? This one. Then he goes to the next verse. He says in verse 34, "He scorns the scornful".
What does that mean? He scorns the scornful. When you scorn something, it means you act as if it doesn't exist. A scornful child is the kind of child that when mom says, "Clean your room," he goes, "Yeah, right". So, the scornful person towards God is a person who acts like God doesn't exist. And God didn't say, "Whenever you act like that, I'm gonna have my feelings hurt". God says, "If you act like I don't exist, guess what? I'm gonna act like you don't exist". And since he controls things like your heartbeat and your breath, trust me, you want him to remember you. And then he goes one verse further. He says, "The wise shall inherit glory". The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and it's where knowledge is found.
So, those who are reverent and obedient and have an honor of God are the ones who are promised to inherit glory. And then it says, "And the inheritance of fools is going to be shame". The point is, you have a choice when it comes to your DNA. You may not be able to pick how you physically look, but you do get to pick your nature. Because DNA doesn't only stand for deoxyribonucleic acid, and it doesn't only stand for, did not ask for it, but DNA also stands for developed natural approach. And here's what I mean. Your behavioral DNA comes from how you saw things done when you were a child.
The situations and the circumstances that your family went through, you developed a natural approach about how you are going to take on those challenges. How you saw others do it is how you do it. We call this mentoring. When you go to work at a business, sometimes they'll give you a mentor so that you can learn how that business wants things done, and then you do things like they did. Why? Because you have a developed natural approach. The disciples, they acted like Jesus to the point that they no longer called them disciples of Jesus, they called them Christians because they acted like Christ.
People come to me and they say, "You preach just like your dad". Well, duh. Who do you think taught me how to do it? "You cook like your mom". I didn't learn to cook in your kitchen. I learned in her kitchen. Now, it's for the good and the bad that you have this developed natural approach. This is why we use terms like, "He's a natural born..." fill in the blank. He's a natural born leader. He's a natural born singer. She's a natural born dancer. They're a natural born liar. They're a natural born con. They're a natural born... fill in the blank.
You see, this DNA of behavior, this developed natural approach, it's something that you can't escape because the way you saw them do it is the way you think you have to do it. And sometimes, mom might've engaged in a stressful situation and instead of asking God for help in prayer, she reached for the bottle. Or dad, he got upset, and instead of taking the time to cool off, he went and put his fist through the wall. I've got good news for you. You get to choose. You can choose between the developed natural approach that was in your DNA, or you can choose the divine nature approach that comes from Jesus Christ. Because 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, "Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new". It says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation". Say that with me, "He is a new creation".
Old things, all of that old DNA, the way mama did it, you don't have to do it. The way daddy did it, you don't have to do it. The way crazy uncle Charlie lived, you don't have to live. That old family curse, it's gone. That old habit, he conquered it. That old tendency, he took it to a cross and he nailed it there. That old burden, he took it off of your shoulders. The anxiety, that you never thought you'd have to fight with like they did, he said, "Cast all of those cares on me". That old fear that you can't shake, he came and lifted it off of you. The yoke that the past put upon you, he came to a place called Calvary, and because he was anointed, he broke the yoke that you don't have to wear it anymore. Church, when he says, "Old things have passed away," it means they are buried and gone in the graveyard of yesterday, and you are free. For whom the son sets free is free indeed.
So, if it runs in the family and you get to choose the natural stuff that you didn't ask for or the divine stuff that you don't deserve, the question is, which family are you running with? It runs in the family. You pick which one you run with. You know what's in the natural one, but Jesus gave you the gift of a new one. Romans 5 clearly defines these two families. It talks about one family that's born of sin. In verse 12, it says, "Through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and this death spread to all men". It was contagious because all have sinned. Say that with me, "All have sinned".
So, when I tell you that sin runs in the family, it's true. So, Romans 5:14, it says, "Nevertheless, death reigned". Reigned is an official term, meaning that it ruled. It literally sat on the throne until Jesus Christ knocked it off. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam". See, understand the language here. It says that death ruled over everything from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned. That's you and i. I know some of you may have been accused of being here when Moses was, but you weren't. Those who were not born yet had not sinned, but it says, "We were counted as sinners because of the likeness of the transgression".
Say that with me. Those words right there in the middle. "The likeness of the transgression of Adam". What does that mean? On the day that my children were born, it didn't matter which side of the family you were on, my side or my wife's side, there were people on both sides claiming the likeness of the child. And so, when this verse says it's the likeness of a transgression, what happens is that whenever a birth takes place here on earth, heaven looks down and goes, "Oh, you look just like that old sinner, Adam. You are just like him. Yes, you are. Sin, sin, sin". Because we've got his likeness. We can't get away from it. It's our developed natural approach. And therefore, because of this, sin and death entered the world.
Now, some people wanna hold God in contempt for this. In their immaturity, they wanna know, "Why was Adam's one act my fault"? I'm so glad you asked. You need to see three attributes of God that help us understand why Adam's problem was our problem. And the first attribute is this. God is consistent. Say that with me, "God is consistent". Now, consistency means that you do something so regularly that you'd begin to develop a habit. And that pattern that you develop gives people the opportunity to build expectation. And then, once they build expectation and you repeat the pattern, they start to put their trust in you.
Why did Solomon tell his son, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart"? Because Solomon had seen such a consistency in God, he knew that if his son would trust in God, the pattern would never fail him. God is a consistent God. You can expect God to be consistent in everything that he does. Now, some of you might not understand what I'm saying. Let me help you see it this way. I have a consistent pattern when it comes to breakfast tacos. And my pattern is so consistent that it might cause you to actually question something. For example, here's the pattern. You show me the breakfast taco, you give me the breakfast taco, and I will eat the breakfast taco. That's the very simple pattern. Show it, give it, eat it.
Now, here's what you might question. Why do they call it a breakfast taco? Because if you gave it to me at 11 o'clock at night, you could show it to me at 11, I'd see it at 11, it would be gone by 11:01. And you would say, "Well, they call it a breakfast taco, but it's almost the middle of the night and he still ate it". I've got the consistent pattern. They didn't ask me what they were gonna call it. I look at it and it's, I mean, what am I supposed to do? I can't look at a breakfast taco in the middle of the night and go, "Oh no, it is not breakfast. Breakfast is not until the sunrise and can only be served till 11 at certain locations".
Wrong. I have a pattern. I see it, you give it, I eat it. Now, God is so consistent that whenever you see his pattern, what we try to do is come up with the one exception to the pattern. And guess what? There isn't one. When he sees sin, he treats sin the same. When he sees obedience, he treats obedience the same. When he sees need, he treats need the same. When he sees sickness, he treats sickness the same. When he sees powers and principalities, he treats them the same. When he sees his children, he treats his children the same. He is a consistent God. He's consistent in how he behaves.
Look at Genesis 1:1. It says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". How consistent is he? What is he doing in Revelation 21:1? John the Revelator says, "I, John saw a New Heaven and a new earth". He was creating back in Genesis: he's creating in Revelation. The first heaven and earth had passed away. It's not like God said, "Oh no, I'm not gonna give them any more heavens and any more earths. I already made them one. They ruined that one. I'm not making another one". No, he's consistent. He made one in Genesis, he's bringing one back in Revelation. And it says, "The old had passed away and I saw a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven prepared like a bride for her husband". The promise that he has in the new one is it's gonna be better than the old one.
Now, why is he creating it? He's creating a perfect dwelling because he's a consistent God. God never creates something and then tries to figure out what to do with it. Listen, this is important. It's simple stuff, but when you see it, you go, "Wow, there it is". Right? In the beginning, God created what? Go ahead and say it like you've read it, and if you haven't read it, hold hands with somebody who has, and it'll transfer over. In the beginning, God created the (heavens and the earth). So he did not create the sun, moon, and stars until he had created the (heavens and the earth). Because the sun, moon, and stars belonged in the (heavens and the earth). You get it? It's not like he created stars and went, "I wonder what I'm gonna do with those".
He created the heavens and the earth, and then he filled it with the stars and the sun and the moon. And then, he told all those things how they should operate. He created the ocean, and then he created the fish because the fish belonged in the ocean. He created the land, and then he created the trees and the plants and the animals because the trees and the plants and the animals, they belonged on the land.
Now, after day five, when he got all of this created, on day six, what did he create? Man. Why? Because man was supposed to be in the environment of the earth, and we were supposed to have dominion over the earth, and we were supposed to rule the earth. We were not supposed to ask mother nature for permission to borrow the wind to fuel your car, you were supposed to have dominion over the earth and subdue it and use it for the purpose that God created it for, which is you. But we threw all that away.
And so, what is God doing in Revelation? He's creating a New Heaven and he's creating a new earth and he's creating a new Jerusalem. And it's gonna be better than this heaven. And it's gonna be better than this earth. And it's gonna be better than anything that you've ever seen. Why? Because the people who are gonna get to go into that heaven and that earth and that Jerusalem are gonna be redeemed by Jesus Christ. And we're gonna get to live with God forever and forever and forever. And he's not going to have to destroy anything.
Proverbs 3:35, it says, "The inheritance of the wise will be glory". In Revelation 21, he's told you what your inheritance is, a New Heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, all things become new. But the legacy of a fool is shame. Which house do you wanna live in? Which DNA do you want to choose? I told the first service, I reserve the right to come back to this topic because this was supposed to be one message, and I'm not even halfway through it. But some of you need to understand that you've got a choice to make. And it's the choice between righteousness or wickedness. It's the choice between blessings or curses. It's the choice between glory or shame. And it has to do with what DNA you wanna live in, what family you wanna run with.
There's things in your life and in your family that you wish you didn't have to struggle with. Good news is Jesus Christ is the free gift of salvation. When you go read through the rest of Romans 5, you find out just how good God and just how good Jesus is. Because there it says, "If by one man, sin entered the world, then so much more by one man were all made righteous". And then, it says, "If by one man, death came and we were condemned, then by that same man, Jesus Christ, not only was death conquered, but we were justified". And then, it says, "If all of these transgressions were gonna cost us eternity," it says in verse 20, "Where sin did abound, grace did that much more abound".
So, you get to choose that developed natural approach or that divine nature approach. That did not ask for it situation or the new creation in Christ Jesus. But pay attention, God is not mocked. Verse 34, in Proverbs 3, "He will scorn the scornful". You mock him, he'll mock you. Which means you can't have a slumber party at the house of the wicked all week long and brush your teeth in the house of the righteous on Sunday morning, and walk into church smiling at God, going, "See, I smell good". He says, "No, I know where you've been. Don't act like you eat there and sleep here". You got to choose. So, I want you to stand right where you are. Would you bow your heads and lift your hands with me?
Lord Jesus Christ, today I thank you for being obedient, even unto death that I might walk in this new life. Today I receive the divine nature that you gave as a free gift so that I don't have to struggle with my old DNA. I don't have to deal with what I didn't ask for. I don't have to carry that old burden anymore. I have a new life, and it is found in you. Thank you, Jesus, for making old things pass and all things new. Thank you for new strength. Thank you for new joy. Thank you for new hope. Thank you for new peace. And thank you for a new song. In Jesus' name, I receive this blessing, amen.