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The Role of the Christian Family in Our World Today

Colossians 3:18-21    
¹⁸Wives, be subject to your husbands [subordinate and adapt yourselves to them], as is right and fitting and your proper duty in the Lord.

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives [be affectionate and sympathetic with them] and do not be harsh or bitter or resentful toward them.

 ²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

²¹Fathers, do not provoke or irritate or fret your children [do not be hard on them or harass them], lest they become discouraged and sullen and morose and feel inferior and frustrated.  [Do not break their spirit.]

Today, more than ever it is a truth that as the family goes, so goes the church.

As the church goes, so goes the community.

As the community goes, so goes the state.

As the state goes, so goes the nation.

While our secular, godless society continuously attacks the sanctity of marriage and the family, God continues to tell us that the Christian family is the key ingredient to a revived world.

For the family to influence culture in a Godly way, two major behaviors must be activated: selflessness and caring

When we are willing to look beyond ourselves and care deeply for others, our families will be strong in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Caring is the closest identification we have with the cross of Christ in our marriages.

To care means I am with you and for you no matter what the circumstance.

Caring rids us of selfishness.  It means I cherish and appreciate my family and I commit my energies, myself, my time, to their fulfillment.

It is in the caring relationship that we are sustained.

The family is a portrait of community. 

Families are to exemplify the Christian style of relationship.

Will you share and practice this with your family?

The Marriage Covenant

Matthew 19:4-6

⁴He replied, Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female,  ⁵And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be united firmly (joined inseparably) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (separate).

Around the world in every culture, there is no more beautiful picture of life than to see a bride adorned for her husband-to-be.

The scene is one of merriment, joy, excitement, and celebration.

Human life began in a garden with the beauty of nature looking on as Adam and Eve were joined together by God.

Paul calls this union a mystery and compares it to the relationship of Christ with His Church in Ephesians 5.

God’s Word teaches us that marriage is honorable and it is to be honored.

Unfortunately, because of sin and the hardness of human hearts (and selfishness as well) divorce has often caused the marriage covenant to be dishonored.

In America in 2005, there were 2.23 million marriages and 1.17 million divorces.

Only 63% of American children grow up with both biological parents – the lowest figure in the western world.

It is the business of the church and of all Christians to uphold by word and life the God-ideal of marriage – one man for one woman.

Family life must be safeguarded as the foundation stone of social stability.

The very purpose of making a male and a female was so they could become one.

The unique plumbing of each – different in body and in soul but the same in spirit – gives opportunity for intimacy and procreation.

Biologically and psychologically men and women are different but spiritually they are identical.

The marriage covenant is instituted by a commemorative service.

Each specific part has Biblical covenant significance.

• A marriage covenant is based on trust in God.
• A marriage contract is based on the distrust of each other.
• A marriage covenant embraces unlimited responsibility.
• A marriage contract accepts limited responsibility.
• A marriage covenant cannot be disannulled by man.
• A marriage contract can be voided by mutual consent.

You become intimate with the one to whom you pray, the one for whom you pray and the one with whom you pray.

We must pray for the sanctity and sustainability of the marriage covenant.

What Kind of House are You Building?

From your Bibles, read Luke 6:46-49.

You and I are witnessing perhaps the greatest building boom in the history of the world.

Houses, stadiums, sports complexes, shopping malls, skyscrapers, cities and roads are all being built to accommodate an ever-increasing populace.

Man has always been a builder.  History, as well as the Bible, records the attempts by man to build something that lasts forever such as the tower of Babel, the hanging gardens of Babylon and the palaces of King Herod.

The Bible speaks of Jesus preparing a city called the New Jerusalem – 1500 miles high, 1500 miles wide, & 1500 miles deep.

Scripture tells us in building we should count the costs, build on a solid foundation, use proper materials, build with living stones and build carefully and consistently.

The Bible uses the word “house” as a metaphor for a life or a soul.

In Jude 20, we are told to build up yourselves (founded) on your most holy faith (make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher) praying in the Holy Spirit.

Building our lives is an hourly, daily process. It proceeds with every thought we admit into our mind, with every feeling we cherish in our heart, and with every purpose we form in our soul.

That which we are today is the whole result of all that we have been doing, of all our invisible thoughts, words and deeds up to this present moment.

We are all builders; we are all planning, preparing, laying our foundation, erecting our walls and finishing the cosmetics.

According to this story, you are either a wise master builder or a foolish builder.  You are either building on a sure foundation or building on the earth (sand).

Both men built a house, and perhaps both super structures were sound and beautiful.  The difference is in the foundation.

As in building a building so also in building a life, it is the foundation that matters most.

What is the foundation upon which you are building your life today?  …Your home, your marriage, your career or your business?

In Matthew 7 and Luke 6, we find this story.  Each man records it with a slight difference in words.

Matthew says the wise man built upon a rock.
Luke adds the intensifying line, “he dug deep.”

Architects and builders are guided by a simple rule – in order to build high, you must dig deep.

To build a life without Christ, His Word, His power is to build on sand, earth.

When we are obedient to His precepts, submitted to His authority, devoted to His commands, we are building on a rock.

All of us are building our lives right now for eternity and all of us will live the life we build.

Some are merely building a shop, a business, giving their whole lives to it and their entire strength to make it strong.

Some are building a prison in which, by the power of their own evil deeds – alcoholism, drugs, immorality, perversion – they will suffer eternal imprisonment.

We are called to build and to be a temple of God, a life in which God can dwell and fill with His presence and power.  A temple can only be built upon the Rock which is Jesus Christ – His Word, His blood, His life.  So, what kind of house are you building?  

Love The Lord!

Matthew 22:37

And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

Jesus gives us the greatest of all His commands – an ideal for life.

An ideal is a model we hold in our minds, a standard we reach for.  Ideals determine our priorities.

Ideals are powerful because what we love, desire and focus our beings on is what we become.

The greatest revelation in the history of the world is that God is love and God loves us.

The sweetest of all human emotions is love.
The greatest of all possible human experiences is love.

God has unimagined blessings for those who fully love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9
…Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and neither has it entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him.

Our love for Him must be proven by the involvement of our entire being.  It is the highest kind of love for it motivates you to do what is right and noble regardless of what you may be feeling.

This love Jesus commands is the noblest, purest and highest form of self-sacrificing love.

We are never totally right with God until our heart, soul, mind, and strength manifest our love for God.

Love for God must be more than a confession.  Our entire being must manifest that love.  Love like this is manifested through obedience to His commands.

Love is always the first step.  God keeps covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

When we are troubled, when we don’t have an answer, when we don’t know what to do, when our resources are not sufficient to meet our need, when we are frustrated, confused – just start with God and love Him with your entire being.

When we start with our circumstances, our challenges, our lack, and our doubt we are so limited.

Our problems are solved by responding to His love.  Start with God and then go to your need, your lack, your challenge, and your circumstance.

The whole purpose of life is to lead us to the final and ultimate truth that God is the one who loves us and can fully satisfy us.

When we start with God and loving Him with our entire being – presenting our bodies (all of us) as a living sacrifice – then we love our families, we love our neighbors, we even love our enemies, and we lead them to Christ.

We must renounce every competing affection, and be willing to lay down our lives for the advancement of His kingdom.