There is a story in 1 Kings 18 about Elijah and a famous event on Mt Carmel. This story centers on the prophet Elijah’s bold confrontation with King Ahab and the prophets of Baal during a severe three-and-a-half-year drought that Elijah had prophesied.

The chapter opens with God sending Elijah back to Ahab; along the way, Elijah meets the faithful royal official Obadiah, who has been secretly hiding 100 prophets of the Lord from Queen Jezebel’s purge. Elijah then challenges Ahab to gather all Israel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, to Mount Carmel for a public showdown.
There, Elijah proposes a contest: each side will prepare a bull on an altar and call on their god to send fire from heaven—the god who answers by fire is the true God. The prophets of Baal spend all day dancing, shouting, and even cutting themselves in a frenzy, but receive no response. In contrast, Elijah repairs the broken altar of the Lord, drenches the sacrifice and altar with water three times, and prays a simple, powerful prayer.

1 Kings 18:36-40
36 “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. 37 O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”
38 Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
40 Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there.

Finally, Elijah tells Ahab that rain is coming, climbs to the top of Carmel, and prays persistently until a small cloud appears. Heavy rain breaks the drought as Elijah runs ahead of Ahab’s chariot back toward Jezreel, empowered by the hand of the Lord.

Imagine this for a moment before we move on…
The Spirit of the Lord has moved upon Elijah to the point where even the weather patterns are listening to him, and then in a miraculous moment, not only does God answer Elijah consuming a sacrifice by fire from Heaven that was drenched in gallons of water, Elijah then kills 450 evil prophets of Baal.
That scene alone had to have been the most unbelievable, like I can’t even find a word to describe that moment. Not only the power of fire falling from Heaven consuming the sacrifice, but the slaughter that ensued, it had to leave people incapable of understanding what had just happened. And Elijah - what kind of confidence do you think you’d have if you commanded the rain and now commanded the fire, and even though the Queen had been slaughtering the prophets of God, he, in bold defiance, proves who God really is. His faith in God had to be meteoric at that point. But look what happens next.

1 Kings 19:1-2
1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

How do you think Elijah responded?
Tell that murderous harlot Jezebel: “The God who answered by fire on Carmel declares by this time tomorrow you will know He alone is God and nothing will save you from the coming judgment.” But that isn’t how he responded.

1 Kings 19:3-5
3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

We are still in a series on consuming and how we can get to a place where we are contributing. Consuming takes, contributing gives. We want to be a blessing in the earth because we are called to be a blessing in the Earth.

Elijah has just had a pinnacle moment on Carmel, and the story doesn’t end there. He has some really good moments in the next chapter (you should read it!).

But I want to dwell a moment on the notion of your fathers. Some translations might say ancestors, but either way, we’re talking about the generations in your family who have gone before you.

Let me ask you: what are you leaving to your family?
I don’t mean houses and finances and wills, but maybe a better way to ask: What are you contributing to the generations that come after you? Your children? Your children’s children? You are sitting in a church that was, in part, possible because of my grandfather. He refused to continue the curse and chose to embrace blessing. Because he did, I get to walk in blessing and not a curse.

Elijah had a moment under that tree where he succumbed to a curse and then identified where that curse came from: his fathers. I am a failure like my fathers, rejected like my fathers, worthless like my fathers.

I can ask a lot of questions and develop a lot of learning from this story, but what I want to ask you today is simply this: are you consuming the curse or are you contributing to the blessing?

There are generational curses and there are generational blessings. Generational curses refer to patterns of sin, bondage, demonic influence, or negative consequences (such as addiction, poverty, sickness, divorce, or even pagan spiritual things like demonic involvement) that can be passed down through family bloodlines because of the unrepented sins or idolatry of ancestors. However, they are not automatic punishment on innocent people—Scripture also stresses personal responsibility

Ezekiel 18:20
The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.

Generational blessings, by contrast, are the multiplied covenant favor, spiritual inheritance, and goodness of God that flow to thousands of generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments. When someone comes to Christ and walks in obedience, the Holy Spirit empowers them to reverse negative family patterns and establish a new godly legacy of blessing—freedom, prosperity of soul, healing, anointing, and fruitfulness—that can impact future generations positively.

The cross is central: Jesus became a curse for us so that believers are no longer under any curse but are redeemed into blessing. So if that is true, then why do we even need to address this issue? Because while the curse might be broken by the Cross, it doesn’t mean that you are immune to the attack. Satan knows generational curses are a thing and even though the Cross was enough to break them, he knows that you are going to have a natural weakness towards those curses from your family of origin. He’ll test the door knobs to see if he can get you back into bondage.

Hear me: what you consume is what will come out of you, and when you consume the curse, you are unable to contribute the blessing.

We are free from the curse. Galatians 3:13
Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.
but hear me: if you consume that curse again, it takes breaking it.

So let me give you a clear view of what I am telling you this morning with just two points:

1. Consumers live in the curse.
Remember, consuming in the context of this series is all about you getting, taking, receiving, and while we talked about the benefit of consuming the right things week before last, consuming is most often very selfish and greedy. You just want to take. This is precisely what a curse does.

Imagine a curse like a black hole in the middle of a galaxy sucking every photon of light into it.
- Alcoholism doesn’t just want you defeated. It wants your kids and their kids in it, too.
- Fornication doesn’t just want you defiled. It wants everyone around you to be defiled, too.
- Rejection doesn’t just want you feeling worthless. it wants to drag the people around you into it as well.
Like a black hole consumes space and matter, generational curses consume your purpose, your value, your life.

Think about it like this: have you ever wondered why satan is still fighting?
He’s already defeated, and he knows he end because God has already decreed it. The reason is that he is angry at one thing: we get to be forgiven. Angels don’t get the grace and mercy God offers us, so those who fell are condemned, and all satan wants to do is bring as many people down with him as possible. This is why he uses generational curses. When you have a natural proclivity towards a certain action or sin, it is easier to get you into it, and as a result, disconnected from God.
It really is that easy.

So you have to ask yourself two questions:
What are some generational curses that have come down my family line?
Have I done anything to activate those curses in my life?

Rejection in your family? Drugs? Alcoholism? Lust? Greed? Selfishness? Arrogance? Anger? And not just, “I got drunk once, or I did get mad at that lady that day.” I am talking about a lifestyle here. These are common in you. If so, friend, you living under a generational curse, and worse, you’ve agreed with it. This is rough, but to satan, you are no better than your ancestors.

How do you want to be remembered?
I want people to know I loved well, worked hard, did my job, that I really loved Jesus and my wife and my family, that I made a difference in peoples’ lives. Do you know what stops all of that? Being a drug head or an alcoholic. Being incessantly angry or selfish. Wallowing in arrogance or rejection or lust. Nothing kills your potential for impact like unbroken curses.

Elijah sat under that tree victorious in one sense, yet defeated in the other, wanting to die, confessing that he was no better than his fathers before him. Yet that isn’t where the story ends.

An angel appeared as he slept there and woke him twice to get him to eat because the angel was telling Elijah to go 40 days and nights to Mt. Sinai, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19:9-13
9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.

Let me just say to you that if you feel the weight of the sins and decisions of your ancestors and you are struggling beneath the weight of those curses, the first thing Elijah did was to eat something. Here we go again with God leaving a gold nugget in the text. He consumed. But he didn’t consume just anything. The angel gave him specifically:

1 Kings 19:6
beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water

Bread and water. Bread of life. Living water. That bread and water gave him the energy needed to traverse 40 days and 40 nights of wilderness. Because he consumed the right thing, he was able to get to the mountain of God. If you feel the weight of those curses in your life, let this message today be bread and water to you that gives you the strength to move towards God.

1 Kings 19:9-13
9 But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Let me ask you child of God, what are you doing here? What are you doing in this place of being crushed beneath the curses of your ancestors, beneath the weight of the sin that has come down your line? What are you doing here with rejection and bitterness and addiction?

Remember, Jesus was crushed so you wouldn’t have to be, cursed so you could obtain the blessing from the Father.

1 Peter 1:18-19
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

Listen to me - the generational curses that have plagued your family for years can stop here and now, it can stop with you. Rejection, shame, guilt, addiction, divorce, sexual sins, anger, disease, it can end today!

Isaiah 53:4-6
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

All of the sin and the iniquity and brokenness that came down your family line Jesus bore upon himself when he died on the cross. He was cursed, so you could be blessed. His cross cancels the curse!

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

As much as I need you to understand that there are generational curses that come down the line from your family of origin that are designed and being used by Satan to keep you trapped into the same iniquities your ancestors struggled with, there is also a generational blessing that comes when you were adopted into a new family. The reason it was the Lord's good plan to crush Jesus and cause him grief was because when he made an offering for your sin, including the sins of your fathers, he will have many descendants.

What does that mean?
That means you have been grafted into a new family with your confession of Jesus as Lord. You get to embrace the blessings that come from his family, God's family. You get to walk in the goodness that he created you for and that's why you can actually enjoy life in the blessing instead of hating it in the curse. That's why this isn't a prosperity message. This is a biblical message of blessing that comes from your being adopted into a new family. HIS family.

Satan wants you to consume because consuming keep you in the curse,
it keeps you in selfishness and greed, it keeps you thinking what's good for me, how can I get mine, how can you benefit me.

It keeps you as the victim, you always having the short end of the stick, you always broken, you always addicted, you always full of shame and guilt and iniquity.

But there is a better way. A much better way. Consumers may live in the curse, but…

2. Contributors live in the blessing.
Psalm 1:1-3, 6
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers. 6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

You don't have to live in that curse. You don't have to walk in the rebellion of your ancestors. You don't have to be consumed by the sin or brokenness or addiction of your fathers and mothers before you. You don't have to keep consuming like the generations who went before you. Your birthright in the Kingdom gives you access to the blessings of our Father in heaven.

Ephesians 1:3-7
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

He delights in forgiving you, in pouring out kindness and mercy upon you.
He delights in giving you grace. And he takes pleasure in adopting you into his own family. And because you are adopted into his family, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. But look at what Paul tells us as to why:

It's not because of what we do, it's not what we can bring to the table, it's simply through our being united with Christ.

How do you do that? You make him, Lord! You pursue him, you follow him, you grow in your relationship with Jesus, you grow in your discipleship, you seek out development, and yes, you give and you serve and grow and read and pray. Why do you do these things? Family traditions!!! Imagine if Hank Williams Sr had left it at the cross…

Now, because you are living in these blessings from your heavenly family, you can be effective in releasing generational blessings in your own family rather than continuing the line of generational curses. When you stop consuming the curse, you can start contributing the blessing to your family. Better than generational wealth. It is generational blessing!

Let me sum it up in a nice big bow for you:
You were not made to live under a curse. You were made to walk in God's blessing. The kingdom of darkness has come against your family for generations with the sinister desire that you succumb to the same sin and iniquity, the same depression and rejection and the like that your family has been living under for generations.

But because of the blood of Jesus, the cross of Christ, because you are consuming the bread of life and the living water, because you've confessed Jesus as Lord, you've been adopted into a new family, and with that new family comes, not only generational curses broken, but generational blessings enacted.

But you are gonna have to make a decision on whether or not you are going to consume the curse and keep it going in your family, or whether you going to step into the generational blessings of the family of God. Let me give you a really good reason to break those curses: because what you leave the cross, your kids won't have to deal with.

And remember, there were generational blessings planned for your ancestors, too, that you have access to through the blood of Jesus. When my grandfather broke the curse, I stepped into the blessing that I am the 6th generation church planter in my family. Satan would have loved to have ended that.

What curses do you need to leave at the Cross today?
It may be your old life. Maybe you need to get in God’s family to begin with by confessing Jesus as Lord. You don’t get the blessing without the cross. This isn't some moment where, moved by emotion, you ask Jesus into your heart. This is you surrendering your death for his life, your sin for his righteousness, your will for his will.

Jesus I confess you as Lord. I am a sinner and I need you Jesus.
Forgive me of my sin. I repent. I believe in you and am yours from now on.

Maybe you need to break the curse. What generational curse is alive and active in you today? Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

Now let’s break it:
Lord, I thank you that I have been redeemed | from generational iniquity and patterns | with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. | I will no longer be a victim | of the generational curses of _____________ (name them).
I fall out of agreement with these lies from the enemy. |
Generational patterns of sin and iniquity | are broken through Your death on the cross. |
I leave these curses at your Cross Lord. | I receive my freedom in Christ | to fully live out the destiny you have for me | and choose to live in the blessings | that come with being a part of your family. | Thank you for breaking the curse in me | and releasing your blessing upon me and my family | In Jesus Name.

Let me pray for you.