What is a cycle?

A cycle is defined as a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order.
Examples: starting school, starting a new job, voting in a new President.
We have good cycles but also some bad ones. The bad ones have to be broken.

OPENING SCRIPTURE:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)

• A spiritual cycle. When you give your life to Christ, you have started a new cycle. The old one is gone!

IT IS FOR FREEDOM THAT CHRIST HAS SET US FREE. STAND FIRM, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

• A spiritual cycle. Breaking free because of Jesus – The Cycle- Breaker.
• An old and unbroken cycle can become a yoke of slavery.
• That’s why Paul warns us to stand firm and not to allow us to be burdened again.

If a cycle is not broken in your generation, you will carry that mess into the next one.

The Book of Judges. 21 Chapters with the same theme: Cycles. Cycles of disobedience discipline, repentance, and deliverance.
The Israelites did EVIL IN THE LORD’S SIGHT. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. (Judges 6:1-5 NLT)

• Sin is always an open door for the enemy.
• The enemy’s agenda is very simple: steal, kill and destroy. That’s his cycle.
• But the enemy’s cycle can be broken.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10 NKJ)

• Jesus came to not only break that cycle but to give you abundant life!

So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. THEN THE ISRAELITES CRIED OUT TO THE LORD FOR HELP. (Judges 6:6 NLT)

• The Lord is always a cry, a prayer away.

CALL TO ME, AND I WILL ANSWER YOU, AND SHOW YOU great and mighty things, which you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJ)

If you find yourself in a cycle where the enemy is attacking Cry out. Speak out. Find help.

When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. (Judges 6:7-8 NLT)

• In this situation, God chose to speak through a prophet.

He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.” (Judges 6:8-10 NLT)

• God is never silent. Perhaps we are not listening to what He has to say.
• Here God is rebuking his people for not listening: “But you have not listened to me”

The reason why Israel found itself in that situation is found a few chapters earlier: They forgot about God

After that generation died, ANOTHER GENERATION GREW UP WHO DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORD or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:10 NLT)

The responsibility to teach the next generation about God is ours.

TRAIN UP a child (THIS GENERATION) in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6 NKJ)

• We have an obligation to ensure that this generation knows God: That’s how we break the cycle.

The position of your heart will determine where you stand and define the course of your actions.

DON’T TEAR YOUR CLOTHING IN YOUR GRIEF, BUT TEAR YOUR HEARTS INSTEAD.” RETURN TO THE LORD YOUR GOD, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. (Joel 2:23 NLT)

I WILL GIVE THEM HEARTS THAT RECOGNIZE ME AS THE LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.” (Jeremiah 24:7 NLT)

• We break the cycle by turning our hearts to God

CONCLUSION
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?