Welcome And Sermon Focus

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We greet each one in the precious name of Jesus this morning. It is good to be here. It has been very good to be a part of the service this far. And the devotional and everything. The title of the sermon this morning is God's Purpose for the Family. Kind of a part two of the series of the family that we had here a few weeks ago. We had the design of the family. And so I'm just going to do try to do a quick recap a little bit of what we went over there. There's a difference between the design of the family and the purpose of the family. You know, the design is, of course, how it's, I guess, in my own words, how it would be, how God was looking at it to set it up, how it should work. But then the purpose of the family is to work it out. What is a family? Just recapping here. It's one man, one woman giving themselves to each other in marriage, being intimate with each other, and having children. That's what we call a family, a man and a woman with children. Genesis 1, 26 through 28 was the mandate for Adam and Eve. Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to every thing that creeps in the earth, everything that has the breath of life. I have given every green plant for food, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning

Design Versus Purpose Of Family

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the sixth day. I apologize. I stuck my pen in my shoe and it's bothering me, so I'm going to pull it out. I forgot about it. Anyway, so here we see the mandate. We see what kind of the um, and later on we want to want to talk about how the Great Commission and the commission to the family, how they are aligned. I've never seen that before, but we want to go through that today later on. Here we see God blesses Adam and Eve and commands them be fruitful, multiply, have children, fill the earth. In other words, don't just stay here, fill the whole earth, subdue it, in other words, have it orderly, take care of it, and rule over it. And just be the rulers over this earth. This is God's original intent for humanity before the fall. Work, family, marriage, intimacy, and kingdom expansion were all intertwined. They were inseparable parts of the same kingdom strategy. And we see today the world wants us to separate those and to try to balance those separately. But God's design is to have those all together for kingdom building. They were all one integrated calling issued to a man and a woman standing together in a garden with a God who said, Take what I have built here and expand it into all the earth. And we looked at how the family has been um has been attacked over the last 400 years, how Satan has attacked the family. And I'm just gonna briefly again go through those phases. Phase one was the enlightenment. Said divine, the enlightenment said divine authority is optional. In other words, you determine your own mean, meaning, your own identity, your own rules for living. There's nothing above you that gets to tell you who you are. Phase two was the industrialization. Said the father was optional in the family. Industrialization told men that the best thing they could do was go out, make money for your family, leave your family, bring earnings, bring your wages, go earn wages somewhere else, send money back to the house. Your value is what you put what you produce out there and not who you are in the home. Phase three was the first wave of feminine feminism. For the first time, the question was on the table. Is this state of difference, in other words, the what we complement the wife and the man, what they complement for

Genesis Mandate And Kingdom Calling

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each other, is the state of differences and roles between men and woman itself our problem? What was designed to complement each other was now questioned as the problem. So the consensus that this distinction between men and woman was natural and good was removed. Then phase four was the sexual revolution. The bond between sex, marriage, and children became optional. Phase five, second wave of feminism, said gender roles were optional. The distinction between men and women is oppressive. The household with a father who leads and a mother who builds alongside him was reframed as a prison. The complementary and distinctive, distinct roles of men and women in marriage, child rearing, and biblical households was removed. Phase six was the homosexual and gender theory. Homosexuality started the next phase by saying sexuality is optional and quickly created a landslide, resulting in gender theory that now says gender itself is optional. Identity is no longer something you receive from God or your created body, it's something you construct from your desires. In other words, you can kind of decide what your gender is. We see how God's design and purpose for the family has been under attack and the culture it created for us now to be raising families in, which is a it's a challenge. I must say, it's a challenge in the culture we live in. So the question is today what is God's purpose for the family? In a nutshell, and in my simple words, it's literally a man and a woman raising their children and giving them back to God. In a nutshell. That's what it is. A man and a woman raising their children and giving them back to God so that he can use them to fulfill the Great Commission, the New Testament Great Commission. We are only caretakers of the children God has blessed us with. Sometimes I forget that. We are only caretakers of the children God has blessed us with. Children are very precious and are a gift from God. The world looks at children as inconvenience. Inconveniences. America has killed millions of innocent children. God's judgment will be on those who have killed innocent people. Every child needs to be celebrated. That is so important. Every child needs to be celebrated. Raising children for God is a very high calling. It's important that we raise our children out of a heart of love that we have for the Father. We shouldn't do it out of a duty, but it should come out of our love that we have for the Father, is how we should raise our children. I did some scrambling a little bit. I just thought the sermon really needed us to bring in the family that Abraham, the promise to Abraham. So I'm going to quickly go back to uh to the garden. In Genesis 3, where the fall of man, where the serpent approached and deceived the woman, we often see this scene depicted as Eve eating alone. But Adam was right there. He was a passive husband, if I may say so. And when God came to look for them in the garden, who did he call? He called for Adam. He didn't call for Eve. Adam was the mandate first had been given to Adam as work. And then the helper was given to him. Eve was his helper. So Adam was the leader here. So God was asking for Adam. But we see here the relationship between man and woman became very

Cultural Attacks On The Family

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uh became full of friction. Work becomes toil because the ground now resists instead of freely yielding. Childbearing becomes painful. And the multiply mandate now carries a sense of suffering. Death enters the picture. And the fill the earth mandate is shadowed by the reality that everything dies. Man is driven from the garden, the place of work God's presence was, or the place of God's presence. But here's what's most incredible: God didn't abandon the plan of working through the family. God doesn't abandon the design of family as his primary vehicle to fulfill the Great Commission. He continues to build through the family. Fast forward to Genesis 12, where he gave the promise to Abram, a man with no apparent prior relationship with Yahweh. I'm not sure why he chose Abram. Um chosen purely by grace, I guess we could say, not because of anything Abram that we can discern from Scripture had done. And the promise he gives him is I will make you a great nation. I will make you a great nation. I will bless those who bless you. And you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Then moving forward to Genesis 18, 19, here God and his angels are leaving Abraham's tent, heading towards Sodom. And God paused. He said, Should I conceal from Abraham what I'm about to do? And then he says, This for I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice, so that Yahweh may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. The way that God will fulfill his promise, the promise to bless all nations through Abraham is through Abraham commanding his children and his household. It's through the family to keep the way of the Lord. The covenants run through the household leadership by God's grace. This is how God chose to advance his kingdom through the family. The line continues: the covenant is sealed through circumcision because the promise is about multiplicate multiplication, family, legacy. Isaac, Jacob, twelve sons, twelve tribes. God is building a family, not an institution. He's building a family. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he's doing this through men that are not perfect, through families, human beings that are not perfect. God is building his kingdom. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then David comes into the picture. Born of the family, line of Abraham, is anointed as king of a kingdom, framed as a household dynasty, a throne that will endure forever and ever. But every one of these men through this line were not perfect. Abraham lied, Isaac was passive, Jacob deceived, David committed murder and adultery. These men were broken, they were not perfect. They needed something more. So that's where Jesus comes into the picture. Paul describes him as detailed as the better Adam. He obeys, Jesus obeys where Adam rebelled. He lays down his life to resist evil. Adam, he kind of just he didn't do anything to resist the evil. He lays down his life to resist evil where Adam didn't lift a finger. And Jesus continues to build his family. The spiritual family.

Raising Children And Giving Them Back

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That is the spiritual family. After the sinless life of Christ, we see here after his death and burial and resurrection, we see how Christ gave the Great Commission. In Matthew 28. So I want us to compare. In Genesis, God said, Be fruitful and multiply. Jesus in Matthew said, Go and make disciples of all nations. Genesis, fill the earth with people marked by God. Jesus said, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded. Genesis says, the presence of God with his people, like it was once before the fall. He promised Abraham that he will be with him, just like he was with Adam before the fall. And in Matthew, it says, Behold, I am with you always. Even unto the end of the age. God promises to be with us through this time. We see here Paul helps us, brings out in Galatians 3, and later on we want to read that portion of belonging to Christ. You are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. The promise that was given to a father, Abraham, about his household is now your promise. The same promise that Abraham was given is now, we can claim that promise. By faith, we are seated at Abraham's family table. It's only through Jesus that this is possible. Only through Christ. Which is the family table of the Heavenly Father, the mandate given to Adam, passing through Abraham, fulfilled in Christ and commissioned to us today. That's just amazing that that mandate is reaching down to each one of us today. Going back to the family again, when us men understand why God designed us for. And later on, we're not going to focus a lot on this sermon, but later on when we focus a little bit more on that when we do the um the role of the husband. But once we understand what we are designed for, and we're faithful husbands and fathers, it'll strengthen our households, which will strengthen the church. Because over the last here, you know, Satan's attack is on the church. It's not as yeah, it comes through individuals, but it's actually on the church, which is the bride of Christ. We are all called into that spiritual family. Doesn't matter what our status is, marital status, whatever. We are all called into the spiritual family. We are all commissioned to fulfill the great commission. Our children, lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. We're going to be focusing now a little bit on the physical family. Trying to put it a little bit more into shoe leather. Um, and to bring out a little bit more what is actually the purpose of the how how does it look to fulfill the purpose of the family. As people pursuing holiness, everything in life takes on a purpose, and that is so true. When we have an eternal view of life of what we do, if everything that we do is done in the through the lens of eternity, it makes a huge difference. Everything is eternally significant. We are created for that reason to fulfill God's purpose and to glorify Him. Everything that we do is here, is, should be for God's honor and glory. There is nothing more important in this world than to love God and to dedicate ourselves to his cause. There's no job. As easy it is for that to become a God, there's no job, no financial opportunity, no education, no romantic endeavor, no marriage. Um how do I want to say is more important than loving the father? So the overarching purpose for life also applies to marriage, and we're gonna talk a little bit about that. And just um I had to think back for myself. Why did I get married? Why would you want to get married? Should ask the boys up here. Looking back, studying this and looking back, why I got married was probably not quite aligned. I thought Monica was beautiful. I wanted to spend my rest of my life with her. There's actually nothing really wrong with that. It should be that way that you're attracted

Abraham’s Promise Through The Household

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to your spouse. I'm not, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to um go different directions here with but what I would like to do is to bring out the real purpose of marriage. And and what sometimes tends for us as humans tend to how we look at that. Some people do it just simply for convenience. Some people do, some people do it obviously because they love each other, some people do it because they want financial gain. Probably not so much in our circles, but there are probably people that where that happens. They might want to do a business adventure together or whatever. Some people do it only for the physical part, and that's why marriages don't last. They get bored with that, so they separate. So there's many different ways how the world looks at marriage. But none of these motives represents the real purpose for marriage. The purpose of marriage is not just to love each other and to enjoy each other. God's real purpose for marriage, He has a plan for it. And it's important that we recognize that plan. Even though it is important that we can help each other emotionally, even though God wants to be our most be there for us emotionally, but we it's important that we recognize we do need each other as well. Um, so but the ultimate purpose of marriage is spiritual. Each new marriage forms a spiritual entity. Could call it a partnership, a family that has spiritual responsibilities to God and to society. This is true with or without children in the family. You know, uh, not all families have children, and and that's uh that's okay. There's no uh we don't always understand what God's plan is, maintaining a relationship. Merely for the sake of having the comfort of your relationship is not God's plan for any family. Just keeping life going is not God's chief plan for any family. That's so easy to do, is to go through life, and we're just trying to get keep the bills paid and just go through life, right? We're just trying to go through the steps. And and it's so easy to lose track of why what our marriage should be about. The family is a place where the ch children can feel safe and secure. A child thrives best when mom and dad are both living together at home with the children. Both partners possess strengths that the other one doesn't, and that are needful for the children. And that the other one cannot doesn't have uh cannot offer, and it's necessary for the development of the children. A child should be able to imitate their parents and it should lead them to Jesus. That's a tough one. A child should be able to imitate us as parents and they would it would lead them to Jesus. More is caught than taught. I think we all know that. More is caught than taught. Raising children biblically involves nurturing their faith through consistent loving discipline, teaching scripture and modeling a Christ-like life. I'm just going to go through some principles that uh are important for parenting. I'm not going to do a deep dive here, but just some uh quickly some principles. Number one is love God first. That makes a huge difference. A parent's relationship with God is the foundation for teaching children, ensuring they see true father rather than true faith rather than legalism. It's in other words, being being um for the word at one, being authentic with your Christian life is very important in as parents. Impart scripture, uh Deuteronomy 6, 6, 6 through 9. And these says, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk with them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And not be afraid to talk to the children about it. They they really and I have no doubt that that is not our desire here. That's not why I'm saying these things. But I'm just going through some of the core principles here. Consistent, loving discipline. This can be tough. I know all about it. Being consistent in discipline. Discipline is the mean is meant to be informative and love, it's meant to be formative and loving. And I tell you what, they're not all the same. I'm sure many of you know that. Children are not all the same, they do not all respond the same to a certain discipline, but discipline is meant to be formative and loving, not out of anger. Aimed at it should be aimed at guiding children toward wisdom and obedience. All discipline should be aimed toward guiding children toward obedience and wisdom. Proverbs 22, 6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 23, 13 through 14 is a tough one. It says, and I'm sure we don't all agree on that, and that's okay. But I'm gonna I'm gonna read what it says. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you punish them with if you punish them with a rod, they will not die. Punish them with a rod and save them from death. And I also

Jesus And The Great Commission Link

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recognize we don't all agree on this, but what the important thing is here, that the punishment that we use, that it works. That a child learns discipline, that they know what, that they learn to what no means. And as we think, all this has to do with training our children so that they can be adopted into the family of God. That's what this is all about. Training our children so they can be adopted into the family of God. For that reason, God then wants to use them to fulfill the Great Commission. Discipline is an act of love. Rather than viewing discipline as abusive, we should look at it as a protective measure. It's kind of like a shepherd guiding a wandering sheep away from the danger. Shepherd takes a sheep away from the danger. That's what we're doing with our children when we discipline them. Preventing long-term ruin. The mention of the child not dying from the rod that underscores that firm temporary discipline is meant to deter them from disastrous choices down the road. Model grace and repentance in your family. In other words, we as parents working with each other should be able to, they should show uh humility between parents uh as we work together. It can get being a parent, it

Marriage Purpose And Parenting Practices

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can get pretty intense sometimes, and we don't always agree on how we should handle the situation. And what do you do? You're right in the middle of it. The child's worked up, you're worked up, what do you do? You get you get through it. It's not always spelled out, but you do need to get through it, and you do need to talk through it. Maybe, maybe it's handled in the wrong way. It happens, but we do need to talk then and come through it and be on the same page. Parents are called to provide for their households and to protect their children, guarding their hearts and influences. In other words, we're the safe haven for our children. Children need to feel secure. Us as parents, the family is the security of the children at this point. They need to feel that security. Focus, cultivate heart transformation, focus on shaping the heart, heart's motivations rather than merely changing outward behavior. In other words, we talked about discipline. That should all be, the focus should all be in that heart transformation. That's why we are, that's why it's important. We're leading our children towards the family, towards the family of God. That is the whole reason for all this. One thing it should not do, discipline should not lead to resentment toward parents. We can be careful with that. It should not lead to resentment with parents. Colossians 3 21 says, for some reason they say, Father, do not, do not, I know some translations say provoke, but here it says, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. Do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. This is a huge one. Pray consistently. Pray for your children every day. Every day, pray for your children. And trust children to God, recognizing that ultimately they are gifts from the Lord and their transformation relies on His grace. Yeah. Every day they need to be prayed for. The last one on the list, and probably one of the most important ones, is prioritize your marriage. Prioritize your marriage. A strong loving marriage is one of the best examples of a Christ's love for the church. I don't know who Dr. John Gottman is, but I found him online and he studies marriages. I don't think he's necessarily a Christian, but he studies marriages. And I'm not bringing these four points out that are as that he sees in divorce situations. I'm not concerned that anyone here is ready to get a divorce. What I'm saying is sometimes we do things and we don't really quite see what maybe could happen with that. And so, and I've I've been guilty of at least one or two of these in this list. So I'm just gonna uh he is a he he is known for his, I guess, five days, decades of research on relationship stability, divorce prediction, and couples interactions. And so here are four, what he calls four horsemen of divorce. The number one is contempt. In other words, when a partner is feels he's superior to his, when when one of the feels they're superior to the other versus the other one. This is the deadliest behavior characterized by acting with superiority, disgust, or disrespect. In other words, sarcastic or mocking, eye rolling, and things like that. Number two is criticism. Here he says it's better to complain than to criticize. If you really are not happy with what your partner is doing, complain about it. Let them know. But don't criticize. I had to think through this one, it's really close the same. Criticism, you're actually go putting them down. Complaint, you're telling them, hey, I'm not happy with you, what you're doing. You know, why didn't you wash the dishes? Things like that. Criticism is like, you always forget. You're so selfish. What did I do wrong? Well, I didn't tell you, I just criticized you, right? So that's criticism. So that was number two. Criticism was number two. This is the one I found myself guilty. Defensiveness. When you when you kind of get into something that might have happened and you defend yourself. This is can be a way of blaming your partner. I've done that. This is a way of blaming the partner where the individual plays the victim. To avoid accountability, it essentially says, the problem isn't me, it's you. That's wrong. So to do that is wrong. So number three is defensiveness. Number four, stonewalling. This occurs when one partner shuts down, stops responding, and withdraws from the interaction, giving the silent treatment instead of dealing with the conflict. I would highly recommend. Let's try to avoid that one. Let's avoid any of these. Let's avoid any of these. I found my guilty in a few of these already. The most successful marriages are those where both husband and wife seek to build the self-esteem of the other. You do whatever you can to build the self-esteem of the other. That's a daily thing. That's a daily thing. Nothing contributes more to closeness and stability than to convey respect for the personhood of one's spouse. James Dobson says, When you reveal your feelings honestly, that's so important. Sometimes it's so hard to do that, but it's important that you reveal your feelings honestly to your partner. With pure motives, that is. With pure motives, that's key. Reveal your feelings honestly, with pure motives, and continually reaffirm your commitment to your marriage. Your spouse will become your most treasured confident and protector and advisor

Protecting Marriage And Closing Prayer

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and friend. It's when we're open with each other on an honest basis, on an honest level. Even becoming vulnerable with each other, and that builds trust. And once that trust is built, then you will have the most strongest relationship where you can be confident that when you complain to her or to him, he'll still love you. Takes time to get to that point, but it's possible. It's very important that we get to that point. So, as was mentioned before, the purpose of the family. I want to end, come to a closing here. The purpose of the family is to teach and train our children and lead them to be adopted into the family of God so that he can use them in a mighty way to fulfill the great commission that Jesus taught in Matthew. It doesn't matter to God whether we are raised in a Christian family or not. If you have confessed your sins and have given your life to Him and accepted His love to cover your sins, then He has adopted you into His family. We can't help from where we come from. That's beyond our control, but we can control on which family we are in as we become adults. Galatians 3. This is Paul here. Galatians 3, verses 23 through 29. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew, Jew, nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. This scripture here is a unity in Christ. Cultural, social, and gender barriers are broken down in the family of God. All who belong to Christ are united as one family and are equal heirs to God's promise. I'm so grateful for that. It doesn't matter are you married or not. Honestly, and we all know in Corinthians, Paul would suggest maybe we shouldn't get married. It distracts from the Great Commission, he says. So we all have our callings. If you're married or if you're not married, we're all called to fulfill the Great Commission. Let's bow forward of prayer. God, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for your love, your mercy. We thank you that we can be adopted into your family. That we can all experience your love and your peace. May your blessing be upon us as a congregation as we go from here. Just help us, Lord, in whatever role we have, that we can fulfill your great commission for your honor and your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.