Breaking the Bondage of an Ungodly Heritage — Don Wilkerson

Jeremiah and Ezekiel Reject Generational Excuses

Jeremiah chapter 31 then I want to take you over to Ezekiel 18 and just you can stay over in Ezekiel for a while. Jeremiah 31 verses. Let me read verse 29 and verse 30. It says in those days. They will not say again the fathers have eaten sour grapes and The children's teeth are shut on edge.

But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats the sour grapes his teeth will be set on edge. Now go with me if you will turn right to Ezekiel chapter 18. We'll read the first three verses and then as I said keep it open.

We'll be staying in the chapter most of the time. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying what do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying? The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge as I live declares the Lord you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore and Then flip down to the very end of that chapter verse 31 it says cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and Make you and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

For why will you die? Oh house of Israel for I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies declares the Lord God therefore Repent and live. Hallelujah. Repent and live. But let me give a subtitle to my message tonight.

Breaking the Chains of an Ungodly Heritage

I want to talk about breaking the chains of an ungodly heritage. Breaking the chains of an ungodly Heritage shall we pray our father. We thank you tonight for The power of your presence. Oh Lord. Our hearts have been lifted up already.

My how you have ministered to us how we feel Lord the quickening of your Holy Spirit how we feel Lord your peoples whose hearts are reaching out to you. But Lord, let your word tonight penetrate and let it do its work in our hearts in convicting power and in liberation.

We thank you we give you praise we give you glory bless the word. We pray and then as we climax it around the communion tables. We break bread together. Oh Lord, let Let your power also be manifest to let great healings take place touch lives save Lord.

Those who need to be saved and I heal those that need to be healed. Those that need to be freed from the chains of an ungodly heritage all Lord tonight We are thanking you For what you are going to do and for what we sense you're doing right now in our hearts in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen, you may be seated now the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel Had a very unpopular task. It fell their lot to tell the nation of Israel the Jews God's chosen people That they were under divine judgment.

The Prophets’ Warnings of Divine Judgment

Listen to just a few of their divinely anointed doomsday messages. Jeremiah said blow the trumpet in the land. Put on sackcloth lament and well for the fierce anger of the Lord has turned back from us he said behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar and Again, I will bring I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins a haunt of jackals and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without habitation.

And then Ezekiel he says behold thus says the Lord God behold I even I am against you and I will execute Judgments among you in the light in the sight of the nations and will scatter all your remnant to every wind.

And we know how that's happened today among the Jewish nation. Now the reason for this message and more importantly the reason for the anger of the Lord was due to Israel's idolatry their backsliding and a careful reading of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the minor prophets.

Fills in the details of the utter depth of Israel's forsaking of the law they're they're apostasy their rebellion against God and They're going into wickedness. But I've discovered Something very interesting as to one of the reason that the children of Israel did not repent and come clean in fact They justified and excused their actions because of a philosophy that prevailed in the land.

This philosophy that prevailed among them, which is very typical of the thinking of today. Is that the cause of their problem was due to their past? Particularly their parental upbringing and their social environment they were saying it's because of our family ties.

They said there's bad blood in our family tree. We've inherited therefore these evil tendencies from our parents and we just can't help ourselves. Now here's how they copped out. Jeremiah said it and Ezekiel said it.

He said in those days they will not say again the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children are left with a bitter taste in their mouth and their teeth are set on edge and Again in Ezekiel 1 in 2 the very same proverb is repeated.

It says then the Word of the Lord came to me saying what do you mean? By using the proverb concerning the land of Israel the fathers eat sour grapes and as a result The children's teeth are set on edge.

The Sour-Grapes Proverb and Personal Responsibility

Now the proverb contained in it an ancient concept used frequently. Yet it was interpreted incorrectly. It was popular throughout the land in those days and it simply meant that a father's or a parent's action Were supposedly to so affect his children.

That if the children turned out badly it was because of the evil influence of the parents. So the child could not be blamed if he also turned out badly. Today we would say like father like son or My father made me do it My mother made me do it and this is often Quoted in order to prove the helplessness of a child or youth because of poor parental influence for example if a man drinks heavily or for that matter if he becomes an alcoholic and If his son falls in his footsteps, which is often the case.

Someone would explain or excuse the son's behavior in the philosophy of this parable or of this proverb and they will say that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children are left with a bitter taste in their mouth and they end up exactly like the father and This might be called the family tie that binds the family tie that enslaves.

Now there is an element of truth in this proverb. We do inherit Not only the physical features of our parents but likewise their moral and their intellectual characteristics. Both geniuses and fools run in families.

You see a son or a daughter is frequently renowned for the same accomplishments for which the fathers or Grandfathers were renowned for before them. There's a man in this city who has his name stamped on some beautiful buildings.

His name is Donald Trump. Well, his father is a was a great builder in Brooklyn as well. And Donald Trump is out Trump daddy Trump in Jeremiah and Ezekiel's day in Which this proverb was widely circulated it was however misapplied and misused.

They were in a time of national ruin and national disaster spiritual decay and moral failure was widespread and in the midst of this and In spite of the clear message from the Lord as to the reason for God's judgment upon them.

They had the audacity to say our fathers sinned and so we sin also and They hid behind the failure of their parents and in the language of some of the street people today or the drug addicts We would say that they copped a plea and I can imagine that there were humanistic psychologists and teachers and professors and counselors.

Who in that day they soothed the conviction they soothed the messages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel with this concept that they were not personally responsible for their actions because They were the product of their heritage or their social or parental environment.

Going all the way back to the beginning. When supposedly a monkey jumped down off of a tree and we let when he landed he became our great-great-great Grandfather and I read this proverb and it almost sets my teeth on edge.

Isaiah’s Vineyard and the Misuse of Heritage

Isaiah wrote about Singing a song of the vineyard He said and how the owner of the vineyard planned it as a very pleasant vineyard with a very fruitful vine. And this was a picture of God what God's plant God had planned for his people his children.

He said I want you to be a pleasant vineyard but when he looked upon it, he said that it should bring forth grapes and behold it bringeth forth wild grapes and Again it makes me wonder if they didn't hear Isaiah's message and say yes, we would have produced a pleasant and fruit bearing good vine, but Our fathers grew and ate wild grapes and we drank that stuff and now we can't bear good fruit.

Now sometimes this proverb is used jokingly today. We even have a thing where we sometimes attach certain Characteristics to certain ethnic groups and I remember earlier days the earlier generation. They explained all behavior by what nationality came for came from and every nationality had a certain Characteristic about them supposedly and we make jokes about it but most often this proverb is used with despair and How often is a counselor looked into the face of somebody and heard them say look at me.

See what I'm big I've become. But I can't help but I came from a bad environment. My father has eaten sour grapes and my teeth are set on edge as a result. Or another will say why did God allow this to happen to me in my life?

Why am I suffering for my parents sins. Now what is God's answer to this proverb and this philosophy this concept that is espoused? By the philosophers and the psychologists of today. Now the reason the proverb is found in the scripture is due to the fact that it's being denied.

It's found in the Bible because two major prophets are trying to contradict it and expose the philosophy as a fraud as a fake as a counterfeit theory and too long the fallacy of who's to blame has not been properly dealt with and When you consider that a whole nation was under divine judgment and They used an erroneous concept as a reason for not facing the truth.

Then there's good reason for me to address it here tonight. Ezekiel addresses the subject and tells us why the Lord rebukes Israel and he says no more. No more shall you hide behind this proverb. No more shall you say?

It's our family ties that cause us to sin and a backslide. Now Ezekiel received his prophetic Ministry six years before the fall of Jerusalem. He never exercised his ministry within the walls of Jerusalem itself.

But believe me When you hear his warnings They certainly reached the ears of the leaders of Jerusalem and so they sent a delegation out to him the elders came out and they challenged him and they talked to him about his warnings and they used the occasion to quote this proverb and Explain why they could not.

Or why they were behaving and and Ezekiel in turn Countered them and said why you can't use this anymore. You cannot be deceived by it. So go with me now and look in the 18th chapter as we look at his answer to these elders who have gathered around him.

Ezekiel 18 and Individual Accountability

First of all Ezekiel lays down this fundamental fact in verse 4 of chapter 18. This is the word of the Lord coming from Ezekiel and he says behold All souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine the soul whose sins will die.

Now Jeremiah said basically the same thing in 31 30 he said Everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Every man that either sour grapes his teeth shall be set on edge. Now listen to me God says all Souls are mine the soul of the father or mother the soul of the son or the daughter.

In other words separately and equally and Individually each of us stands before a holy God regardless of our family ties. You see by family heritage. I am thank God tied to my mother. My mother is here tonight.

For that matter David's mother is here as well. And I'm tied to my mother whether I like it or not. I remember not long ago few weeks ago or months ago. I was sitting in her her up her house her apartment and She said, you know you and David never tell me much what's going on around here, but she says I pray for you.

But she says you know something. She said I still control all of you children. I Still control you all what she meant was on her knees and she's probably prayed David and I out of more things and into things.

But thank God I'm tied to my mother. I'm also tied to my father though. He's with the Lord anyone who knew him. I look very much like my father. But you see when it comes to my spirit and when it comes to spirituality.

When it comes to the family of God, my relationship is to my heavenly father and I stand alone separately and individually and personally responsible for my actions and God declares in his word in Ezekiel That he is not distance from any man by the distance of that man's father your past or your present or your family ties or your culture or.

Nothing else need prevent you from a relationship with God. Rules are mine. That of the father that of the son that of the mother that of a daughter. God is just as near and available to the father as to the son.

It makes no difference. The father can have a close relationship to God as the son. The son has access to God no matter what the father's relationship is to God now this fact is very basic and it's a truth upon which our entire relationship to God is built and So Ezekiel lays down this argument first for if it can be grasped We can break the bondage of a harmful family or parental tie.

You can break the harmful ties of an ungodly heritage if you understand What Ezekiel is saying here all souls are mine. Everybody can have immediate hallelujah and direct and personal and first-hand dealings with God.

If you've had ungodly parents if your family ties are all messed up. You can transcend it all and make a personal appointment with our Lord and have him deal with your situation in particular hallelujah in John 4.

Worship and Direct Access to God

Jesus spoke to a woman told the woman of Samaria. He said to her you're speaking directly to the Messiah. The one she'd heard was to come. And he did so in answer to her question as to where do you find God?

And she said this he said our father is worshipped in this mountain and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship and Jesus responds and he says In every life there is individual possibility of worship.

He said it's not in Jerusalem. It's not on this mountain. It's not at the Catholic Church is not at the Protestant Church. It's not it with Pentecostals exclusively or evangelicals. It's not here or there or anywhere.

It's not there by appointment, but it's where anywhere the Spirit of man goes out to God. There is God. Let us not say that the underprivileged are underprivileged in respect to their access to God. Let us not say that the neglected or abused or forgotten child is forgotten by God because the Bible says If my mother and my father forsake me God will lift me up hallelujah.

You see no man No woman, no teenager is shut off from God by the distance of anyone else from your past or your present and Neither are we brought near to God by the couple link of father or mother all souls are mine.

The soul of the father the Son of God equally we have individual responsibility as well as Possibility to come before God. I was blessed one day and rebuked one day. In our team Salon's Chapel, I went to pray.

And it was one of those occasions where I felt heavy burden on my back. And as I went to pray as we say in Christian circles or whatever we saw the heavens were as brass and As I was struggling in prayer there came along a brand new resident from teen challenge just came in and he knelt down beside me and he began to pray and Very quietly, but very humbly and with a broken heart.

He begins to talk to God he begins to pour out his heart to the Lord and I looked over at him after a few moments and there were tears coming down his face and what I when I first saw when my eyes opened was a little puddle of tears on the altar and Then the Lord showed me an illustration.

He showed me who I was and he showed me who this man was. And I thought to myself if anybody had right or an access to God, it should be me. I've had been serving the Lord for many years. I called to preach when I was 16 years of age.

I was a director of the center. I had I could have laid down my minister's papers on the altar if that wouldn't impress God. I don't know but you know what blessed me as well as rebuked me here was this young man.

I don't know where he had been in the last 24 hours. I Can only imagine what he had done in the last 24 hours because he was a drug addict. But there he was next to me and he had as much right and he had as much Access to come into the presence of God as I did.

And I stood on no higher ground or he stood on no lower ground than I did at that very moment. Because he opened his heart unto the Lord. Hallelujah. But then Ezekiel deals with this matter of heritage heredity and family line and descendancy.

Heritage, Family Influence, and Generational Responsibility

Which as you may know was very important in the Old Testament. The Hebrew people in an Eastern culture understood a great deal more About the solidarity of race and culture and heritage and family than we do.

One of the tragedies of the American way of life is that we are so Individualistic the thing to be a man is to grow up and to leave your parents and the family life is broken. And it's a blight upon our culture.

But they believed in the particular continuity of the family that ran from the father to son down through the generations and they realized that a son is linked to that which has gone before and he's also responsible for which is to come and This is a very important truth a great truth there is much scriptural teaching as to our Responsibility to our children and the kind of example and heritage that we give to them.

My brother spoke Thursday night on bearing fruit and he gave that illustration that we are to abide in the vine. But then he said we are the vine. We are the branches and we abide in Christ. But then each of us especially as fathers we have branches.

And if we are polluted if we enter into sin, then we can pollute our children and our grandchildren and others and There so there is a responsibility Handed from generation to generation. In fact in the Old Testament God dealt with people as family units but because of this this was a truth that was abused and the Jews were doing that and It's abused today, especially in humanistic philosophy and it's even crept into the church now and I am appalled by what I read from so-called Christian counselors who are more psychologists than they are Christian and they teach more of the laws of heredity than the laws of God and completely completely set aside individual responsibility and.

Ezekiel’s Case Studies of Righteousness and Sin

And notice how the Prophet addresses this question and this problem or this argument again look in the 18th chapter verses 5 he says if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness. And then verse 6 and 7 he lays down a certain Examples of what it means to be a righteous man.

He doesn't go to the mountain shrines. He doesn't commit robbery. He does not. He executes true justice in verse 8 between man and man and it says and he walks in my statues and my ordinances so as to deal faithfully he is righteous and Will surely live declares the Lord.

But what he says in effect is this he said here is a good man. Here is a righteous man. He lives for God. But this same man has a son and The son is evil in verse 10. It says then he may have a violent son who sheds blood and Who does any of these things to a brother?

And so here's the son he's turned from his father's way of righteousness and What the scripture is says is that when he is judged? He will be judged by his own actions not his father's. Verse 13 says.

In the latter part it says and he will surely be put to death his blood shall be on his own head. But on the other hand note Ezekiel has another illustration in verse 14. He says now behold. He has a son who has observed all of his father's sins, which he committed and Observing them does not do likewise.

Here's the opposite picture. And so here we see the argument like father like son does not have to be true. Yes in some cases heredity is passed an Ungodly heritage is passed from one generation to another.

But my friend I tell you it does not have to be so God says however true that like begets like there is another truth in. That is that every single one of us stands in immediate relationship with God and we rise and fall Upon our event individual dealings with God if you don't get anything else tonight get this.

Christ can break into an ungodly family and He can plant a new seed in it and he can establish a godly line. So that just as there once was an ungodly generation of a grandfather who was ungodly and he handed it to His father and to his children and children just as there were succeeding generations of ungodliness.

God can break into your family tree. He can break into your life and he can establish a new line of righteous Men and women that will affect succeeding generations. Hallelujah. I will be judged ultimately.

Not by the things I inherited but by my individual choices and decisions and by the fact that I either brought God into my situation or I cut him off. A Righteous man or woman is righteous because he or she has chosen to be made righteous by their dealings with God.

Personal Choices, Righteousness, and Repentance

Proverbs 11 5 says the righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way. But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. Now listen to me. If you have or had ungodly parents You can't hang on to or hide behind them.

But I want to say something else if you have had godly parents You can neither hang behind or hang on to their robes of righteousness either and be safe. I see too many kids who have Christian parents and they ride coattail on mom and dad spirituality.

You've got to dig your own spiritual. Well, we're judged by our own righteous pursuits. You fall by your own choices. But if you have inherited things Taught to you by wicked parents and you follow their footsteps.

You'll die in your sins not because of your parents in but because of yours. That's why both Jeremiah and Ezekiel state the soul that sinneth it shall die. Look at verse 20 21. The person who sins will die.

The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity. Nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and Observes all my statues and practices justice and righteousness. He shall surely live. He shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him because of his righteousness which he has practiced.

Hallelujah, he will live glory to God. Now Ezekiel goes even deeper. And he probes even a little more personal matters. The elders heard all of this. After hearing all of this, here's what they say in verse 25.

Because he's equal admits. Yes. There is a passing down from one generator. We do inherit tendencies and so the elders Shoot back at Ezekiel and they say yet you say the way of the Lord is not right. Here now Oh house of Israel is my way not right.

Is it not your ways that are not right? Now the reason that Ezekiel gives us this quote from the lips of these Israelites is that they were saying God's not fair because all children are affected by the sins of their parents.

Now this is true. And I can hear someone say I'm and I'm handicapped in life because of my parents sins and They may say I don't blame them. But the fact is that I'm left with deep scars and deep hurts by the sins that they committed and for which I'm a victim.

And it haunts me day and night. I can't forget I can't forgive. I Read the story. I received a report from a young resident of one of our programs. Young teenage boy, and this is what he said. He's got this handed to me yesterday.

Addressing Abuse, Trauma, and Spiritual Wounds

He said my father was too busy and drugged 30 to 40 years and My mother who was hurt and mistreated by my father used to beat me so badly due to the anger that she had for for his father and He said I couldn't take my anger out on her because I was scared of her.

So he said I went and I picked on bigger kids. And he said every time I would see their face the face of my mother would flash upon their face. And I'd literally go blind with rage as I would try to beat at them to get to vent my anger towards my mother and We should never be insensitive to the years that the canker worm has eaten.

Every week I hear another story of child abuse. And listen, my friend incest is at epidemic proportions in our society. And I hear it and it touches my heart and it breaks my heart. And there are parents who do and God if you've been raised in a Christian home, you can't even imagine What goes on in some homes and some families you could never even imagine it and if you're that one tonight and by the way I'm not only talking about physical parents if you have been let down or hurt or abused by a Spiritual parent a leader a pastor.

Somebody that you put your faith in the principle is the same and If you're haunted by such a past if you can't seem to shake the skeletons out of the closet of your mind or your past. Then I want to tell you that the Lord has an encouraging word for you tonight.

God says this he said I will put myself Between you and your past. And if you will turn from that past and do right you shall live hallelujah verse 27. Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness, which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness.

He will save his life. Look at verse 28 because he considered Let me stop there because he considered considered what. Now if you consider your past. If you dwell on what parents did or did not do. If you carry the hurts Done to you by others whether in the physical realm of your family life or in the spiritual body of Christ.

If you carry those hurts and if you're looking and considering that then you're looking in the wrong direction for help. And if you allow counselors Even Christian counselors to walk you back into your past without considering considering your own individual responsibility for repentance and the Responsibility to walk righteous and holy before God in the here and now you will never be healed.

That is what is missing. I listened to the Christian counselors on the radio I've read their books and what's missing from it is truth. Ezekiel says because he considered and turned away from all his righteousness, which he had committed.

He shall surely live he shall not die. He shall not have to be haunted by that anymore. Hallelujah. Now there's something Ezekiel doesn't miss anyone. He also says there is one who says I used to be righteous.

Therefore I'm still righteous and God says no. He said you will be condemned regardless of what good you did yesterday because of your sins today. Now if you weren't here last night Or the night before please get the taste by the way.

There will be tapes from all of these people have asked me be sure and get the tapes because a lot of you weren't here last night. But verse 26 go back one verse from 27 where we just read it says when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and Commits iniquity and dies because of it for his iniquity which he has committed.

He will die. It doesn't matter. You can't stand on a past record. You know, it's interesting. I noticed in teen challenge we get the drug addicts off the street and you know The hardest ones to deal with are the religious ones.

It's amazing how a little bit of knowledge of God a little bit of past a little bit of good record. Will blind somebody from the present and the Lord speaks to those in his house and he says this verse 30.

He says therefore I will judge you Oh house of Israel each according to his conduct declares the Lord God Repent and turn away from all your transgressions so that iniquity may not become a stumble stumbling block to you.

Let me tell you let me quickly give you a personal testimony as I said, I have a godly heritage. My grandfather was a my father was a preacher. My grandfather was a preacher. I'm the youngest of five.

And I want to tell you there is a tremendous. There's there's such Tremendous blessings and glory growing up in a godly home. But I as I said, I would. I was the youngest and that has certain advantages and disadvantages.

Now some people have the audacity to ask me if I'm younger than my brother David. Well, I am and as a fact they don't know that I don't understand and that has some advantages and disadvantages. One one disadvantage is that you're always introduced as the baby in the family and mom.

That was all right when I was two months and two years, but 16 that that is just going too far. But they also had the advantage because I I could learn from mistakes of my older brothers and sisters. I have another brother Jerry who's here.

He's one of our ushers tonight. And every time we get together. Always every time we get together. Eventually, they got round to me. When we would even now if we have a reunion or a family gathering, they always pick on me and say you were spoiled.

You got away with things that we never got away with. And I sit there and I just say hmm. I Can't help that. I was so good, but I want to tell you I've learned something. There's something bad about being good if it blinds you.

Religious Heritage Cannot Substitute for Conversion

I used to preach. I Started preaching in my room preaching to imagine a imagining crowds imagination crowds. And it dawned on me one time. I I almost did what I heard another fellow who did the same thing.

He grew up in a religious background and he was gonna become a preacher. And so he'd preach his sermons and one day he got under conviction. He realized that he wasn't saved never he never got saved. So while he's preaching to his imaginary crowd.

He goes out and sits in the audience and he comes forward and gets saved under his own minister. There's something bad about being good. If it blinds you if it blinds you. To blind spots or iniquity in your own life.

And you've been hearing that message through these nights. And Ezekiel addresses himself to that and finally and I close with this Jeremiah and teaching against the concept that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and The children's teeth are set on edge when he introduced the proverb go back with me to Proverbs 31.

He begins by saying in those days. Verse 29 in those days you will not say again the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge and He then introduces the solution to this problem by making reference to the New Covenant.

Jeremiah, what did I say? It's Jeremiah sir. Oh, I just seen if you were alert. I just seen if you're with me. Boy, I tell you you're with me. I'm glad to find that out. Jeremiah 31 verse 29 When he introduced the proverb he said in those days you will not say this again and.

The New Covenant Written on the Heart

So he introduces the solution to this problem by making reference to the New Covenant. Whereby the law shall be written on the hearts of men. Verse 30 but everyone will die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats the sour grapes his teeth will be set on edge.

Behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with the fathers in the day. I took them out By the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant which they broke although I was husband to them declares The Lord but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after these days. I will put my law within them and on their heart.

I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people now. Listen to me as I close. The reason God is going to put and can put a distance between us and our past. The reason he is able to remove his sins for which we are personally responsible is because of the New Covenant and Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to Israel and We're going to observe the emblems of that New Covenant tonight.

Christ, New Creation, and Freedom from the Past

And The answer to inherited the problem of inherited sin. The solution to having been born with bad blood in your system is found in Jesus Christ. 2nd Corinthians 5 17 says therefore if any man is in Christ He is a new creation or creature.

The old passes away. Hallelujah. Behold new things have come. Nobody needs to say I cannot help myself. No one needs to say somebody set my teeth on edge and I hate sour grapes at my dinner table. My parents served them up to me.

Yes, that may be true. There's no denial of the fact that we inherit sour grapes. There is no denial of the suffering that goes on because of what others may have done to us. There is no denying that the devil will use those within his own household and your own family.