Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Well, good warning village. Church east is so good to see you this morning. We are in the middle of a series that we began actually with pastor Paul last, did you enjoy pastor Paul's testimony last week was not amazing. If you miss that, you can visit that. We have that forever online and you can see his testimony, how God changed his life. It's a potential series that we're in right now. We're going to do four Sundays. This is the second Sunday. Last week was the potential of a life changed. And this week is potential
Speaker 1 00:00:34 Of a dedicated family.
Speaker 0 00:00:36 Uh, yeah, so the kids, uh, thanks for sticking around and putting up with us for a little bit longer, have fun out there. Uh, thank you for in the sunshine. You're going to have fun out there. Good to see your kids again.
Speaker 1 00:00:47 All right. So
Speaker 0 00:00:48 We are going to talk about what better day to do it than today as we're reemphasizing our family and open our kids' ministry. Again, we're going to talk a little bit about family. So here's your very first question, right? And it probably figured herself. Craig, it's always an easy question. Just give it to me. Okay. Here it is. And you might think it's easy, but what I would like for you to do is turn to the person next to you and give them a definition
Speaker 1 00:01:12 Of family. What is a family go?
Speaker 0 00:01:29 Some of you are participating. Some of you're waiting the time out, waiting the clock out. You at home can do this as well. Definition of fat. If you, if you don't have somebody to talk to, cause you're alone, people think you smell or something. Just think of a definition of family for yourself. Okay. So was that a hard job to do or an easy job to do?
Speaker 1 00:01:49 It's a little, it's a little weird. Isn't it for
Speaker 0 00:01:52 Me? I'm starting to think to myself. What is the definition
Speaker 1 00:01:56 Of a family? Is it a committed
Speaker 0 00:01:57 Group of people? Is it a mom and dad who have children? Is that the group of people you just roll with through the, through the, through the process of life, is it different people as you move from place to place and you do have different people that mean something to you in this place and then different people. That means something to you in this place. It's surprisingly a difficult question to answer. Now, let me give you some statistics, because if you're watching the watching, if you're listening to the podcast, I have the face built for radio. If you have, if you're watching, listening to the podcast, I'm trying to insert a little bit more statistics in there so that we have an understanding of how our culture is progressing. What's happening. What's, what's changing in our culture. So here's something that I think you will enjoy. All right, everybody, almost everybody in America considers family to be important. 85% of people in America claim that family is the most important thing in
Speaker 1 00:02:58 Their lives. That's ironic
Speaker 0 00:03:00 Considering how difficult it is for us to find a standard definition of family. I like, I like food so I can tell you certain foods. I really like. It's not hard for me. But if people say family is the most important thing up to 85% of the population. And yet we have a really difficult time understanding what a family is. That's a little weird to me. Somebody said having family means having a place to go, having somebody to love
Speaker 1 00:03:32 And having both as a blessing, Winston
Speaker 0 00:03:35 Churchill said, family is where all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of humanity are created, strengthened and maintained. Robert Frost says family is where,
Speaker 1 00:03:45 When, when you get there, they have to take you in.
Speaker 0 00:03:49 George Burton says happiness is having a large loving, caring, close knit family, only in another city. How do we define family? One decade ago in 2010, here's how family was defined. Almost 99% of the population was asked this question in 2010, 99% of people said a family is defined as a husband, wife, and kids.
Speaker 1 00:04:18 That's how they define family. 92%
Speaker 0 00:04:22 Said that a husband and wife without kids
Speaker 1 00:04:25 Still qualify is as a family. However, in
Speaker 0 00:04:29 2021, the majority of Americans believe family is not defined by biology, marriage, or even a common dwelling place. Family. The people families define more so today as the people you feel safe around and you can count on
Speaker 1 00:04:47 When you need them. Now
Speaker 0 00:04:49 I have to tell you, this kind of talk about family is very gray to me. There's not a lot of meat and potatoes in it. For instance, can I be family with
Speaker 1 00:04:59 The people I work with? Can
Speaker 0 00:05:01 I be family with my class at school? What's the difference between a gang
Speaker 1 00:05:07 And a family?
Speaker 0 00:05:08 Why can't I claim my neighbor's kids as my family on my tax returns,
Speaker 1 00:05:14 According to the
Speaker 0 00:05:15 U S government, by the way, the U S government that is supposed to be extremely inclusive. They do not bend on their, on their definition of family. You want to know
Speaker 1 00:05:25 Cause they want your money. The
Speaker 0 00:05:28 Us census bureau has never changed the definition of family since 1930. When they invented the definition to begin with here's the definition they define a family in the following manner, a family is a group of two people or more. One of whom is a household or re related by birth marriage or adoption
Speaker 1 00:05:47 Residing together. The government is clear on this, but the general population seems to be not so clear.
Speaker 0 00:05:56 My big question. Why now? Especially because when we look in scripture at what family means for us as believers, what should family mean to us? What, how should we define it? How should we live it out? How should we protect it? How should we value this thing called family? We need to have a good definition as to what
Speaker 1 00:06:16 Family really means. To be fair. I think we might need another word. I think
Speaker 0 00:06:24 People love the idea of family so much that they apply that word to
Speaker 1 00:06:29 A bunch of different categories. And I don't fault them for that because
Speaker 0 00:06:34 Family is incredibly important to apparently 98% of the population. The problem is we have put that word family in a lot of different
Speaker 1 00:06:45 New categories.
Speaker 0 00:06:47 When reality, we probably need to at least start with God's definition of family. For instance, if God were sitting beside today, which I know he is, uh, but let's say Jesus was actually physically sitting beside you. And you were to ask
Speaker 1 00:07:03 Him that question. How do you do that? Fine family? I wonder what Jesus would say after all. It was his idea to begin with God
Speaker 0 00:07:15 Had a definition for family. It was his purpose in creating that he would create
Speaker 1 00:07:21 Families. My
Speaker 0 00:07:22 Goal this morning is to pull us a little bit out of the culture and give us a moment of clarity to see what the person who invented it. The family
Speaker 1 00:07:33 Intended for family to be and to function like God begins first with Adam. Last
Speaker 0 00:07:42 Day of creation. God creates all of creation. Did you know, by the way I miss so much of this growing up, I have to tell ya, theology is a wonderful thing. It's not boring. It's not dry. If it's taught. Well, for instance creation, God created, you know, the sun and the moon and the stars and the plants and the animals and all of those things. Do you know why God created all those things? Like, was he bored? He just woke up one morning. I think I'll create a planet. Or I think I'll create a universe. He didn't do that. He creates, he does everything on purpose. Do you know why created everything that there is? Because he waited until the last day to
Speaker 1 00:08:20 Create his masterpiece. God created humans. The only thing in his own image,
Speaker 0 00:08:28 Out of all the things that you see around you on a regular basis, only humans are created in the image of God. Do you know why God created everything before he finished with the human? Because everything that he created was for the human. I know this because he said, I've given you all of these things. It literally says that in Genesis, I give you all of these things
Speaker 1 00:08:52 To enjoy.
Speaker 0 00:08:55 Is it great to be in a church where, where you hear your pastor say, you know what? You live in this world have
Speaker 1 00:08:59 Fun. Enjoy it. That's what
Speaker 0 00:09:02 It's for. It is your gift to enjoy. God creates six days of creation. For five days. On the sixth day, he creates the
Speaker 1 00:09:11 Human being male individual, Adam. And then he says, Adam, all of this is for you, but there was a problem with Adam. Adam was alone. The
Speaker 0 00:09:24 Only relationship that Adam had was with God. So God looks at Adam and says, it's not good for you to be alone. You need a relationship. Like I have a relationship within the Trinity, God, the father, God, the son, God, the holy spirit. Since you are created in my image, you have a year learning to have relationships.
Speaker 1 00:09:45 God created
Speaker 0 00:09:46 Us in his image, which means he thinks we think he speaks. We speak. He reasons. We reason he loves. We love you understand everything that God does. We do because we're created in his image. God loves relationship. He has that within the Trinity. So when God creates Adam, but there's no Eve, he realizes Adam is a missing thing,
Speaker 1 00:10:05 Valuable relationship.
Speaker 0 00:10:09 And so God creates Adam was not complete on his own. When Adam was alone, there was an absence of family.
Speaker 1 00:10:19 There was an absence of relationship. There was no one-on-one give and take. Adam was not complete. We know that
Speaker 0 00:10:28 Because the worst thing you can do to an individual is put them in solitary confinement. We say COVID Most people. I had a really crummy year last year, because a big part of it is most people were alone. At least once in a while, they were alone with their family in their house. Can you imagine being alone in an apartment by yourself for
Speaker 1 00:10:47 A year impossible,
Speaker 0 00:10:50 Right? We are not built to function that way. We are built to have relationship. Let me insert a moment here. If you're at home and you're enjoying these things, the services at home, in your PJ's with coffee, good for you. But you're missing out on relationships on, on, on seeing one another on bumping into each other, um, on serving one another. And so I'd encourage you to come back to church. Let's fill this building
Speaker 1 00:11:15 Up again. And each week that goes by. It's so good to see it continue to get larger and larger.
Speaker 0 00:11:21 Our goal is to give you an opportunity to live out the image of God in you, by interacting with one another another.
Speaker 1 00:11:28 And we do that in church. We do that
Speaker 0 00:11:30 When we gather them on Sundays anyway, back to this, Adam was alone and it wasn't good that he was alone. Let me pick it up in Genesis two, verse 20, the man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the heavens to the beasts of the field. But for Adam, read this with me church, will you, but for Adam, there was not found a
Speaker 1 00:11:47 Helper for him. You know what that means? He's alone can imagine being alone on a planet. There's no one here for you and God
Speaker 0 00:12:01 Has him name all of these animals. We don't know when exactly Eve was created. It's very hard to figure that out as far as the timeline goes. But what we do know is Adam had long enough to, to look at all of two drafts, to aardvarks, to, you know, to hippopotamus, to, to, to two or more than two at that time. I don't know. There's probably more than two and he's, he's looking at all this. He goes, I'm going to name that in aardvark. I don't know how he came up with that, but super-duper so that's a Platypus. So he names all the animals. At the end of that big long activity, Adam sees 2, 4, 2, 2, 4, 2, whatever, all of these diff, and then he looks at himself and he goes, wait a minute. None of those look like me.
Speaker 1 00:12:43 Where's somebody for me. So
Speaker 0 00:12:47 God makes Adam do this activity where he really
Speaker 1 00:12:50 He's alone. He needs somebody else. Somebody else to make him into a family verse
Speaker 0 00:12:59 21. So the Lord, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, he took one of the ribs and closed up the place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Isn't it interesting how a woman and man are very similar
Speaker 1 00:13:13 Words in the, in the Hebrew.
Speaker 0 00:13:16 That's the same way each and Iisha ISAs of man. ISA is the one they're similar words because we're similar individuals we are made in the image of God. There's nothing like elephant is not made in the image of God. Tree is
Speaker 1 00:13:28 Not made in the only the human being is. And
Speaker 0 00:13:33 It had to be and amazing. Can you imagine God bringing not, not just a woman, but the woman flawless that he has just
Speaker 1 00:13:41 Brings him, brings her to the man, had to be an incredible moment. Verse
Speaker 0 00:13:47 23, then the man said, this is at last.
Speaker 1 00:13:51 Get that. I don't know
Speaker 0 00:13:52 How long it is. We're not told, but we're told it
Speaker 1 00:13:55 Was long enough for Adam. He didn't want to be alone in it at last there's somebody for me, this is at
Speaker 0 00:14:03 Last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called <inaudible> woman because she was taken out of the, each the man, therefore, a man will leave
Speaker 1 00:14:13 His and mother and will hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.
Speaker 0 00:14:19 From this point on a son would grow up
Speaker 1 00:14:22 And get married. We would start a new family.
Speaker 0 00:14:26 This is the beginning of the first family
Speaker 1 00:14:28 Was Adam and Eve without children. First family made up of two individuals who had no other family that they called family like this new family. By the way, when you go to a wedding,
Speaker 0 00:14:47 I don't know if you've ever seen. Have you ever seen the unity
Speaker 1 00:14:49 Candle at a wedding? The unity
Speaker 0 00:14:52 Candle represents this truth in scripture. One candle is lit by one family. The other candle is lit by the other family, a representative of those families. And when those two individuals walked down the aisle, while
Speaker 1 00:15:03 One walks down the other, the one hopes that he'll see her walk down the aisle.
Speaker 0 00:15:08 When they finally do get married, they go up on the platform. The one who takes each child takes the candle represented by their family. They, they put the match in the middle candle. Then they put the candle down and they blow that candle out. That is representation that a new
Speaker 1 00:15:25 Family has begun.
Speaker 0 00:15:29 The two come one flesh. This is what God intends Jesus, by the way, picks us up Jesus, this. And when he preached, when he taught, he said exactly the same thing. In fact, he quoted the same passage of scripture. Jesus answered this way. When he was asked about marriage and family,
Speaker 1 00:15:49 Look at what Jesus said, Matthew 19
Speaker 0 00:15:50 Verse four, he answered, have you not read ours? Love that about Jesus. He always says, aren't
Speaker 1 00:15:56 You reading your Bible? Like you're asking
Speaker 0 00:15:59 Me that you don't know, this is serious. Has been written down for a thousand years. You don't know this, having you read. He always says, haven't you read? Or haven't you heard as it is written. It's always that way. Jesus has always pointed to the old Testament. If you believe that what Jesus says is a whole Ren new rendition of what Jesus came up with and forget the old Testament. You are sadly mistaken because Jesus is always saying, as it is written or haven't you read, Jesus's always referring to the old Testament. You know what that tells me? The whole Bible is inspired by God. And it, all of it
Speaker 1 00:16:28 Is important for us. Jesus says, as it is written, have you not
Speaker 0 00:16:33 Read? He who created them from the beginning? Does this sound familiar? You created them from the beginning, made them male and female and said, therefore, shallow a shell. A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. He's quoting Genesis two. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What they're for God has joined together.
Speaker 1 00:16:55 Let not man and separate
Speaker 0 00:16:59 Jesus simply said, haven't you read this before God made to people
Speaker 1 00:17:04 In order to create one family
Speaker 0 00:17:07 To become one is a cornerstone of what it means for a family
Speaker 1 00:17:10 To begin leaving Cleveland and becoming one flesh. And
Speaker 0 00:17:16 They become one flesh. They create the potential of creating more
Speaker 1 00:17:20 Families. This is
Speaker 0 00:17:22 What God intended for family to be since the beginning. I'm not coming up with that. Jesus reiterated it in the new Testament. And by the way, it's reiterated all
Speaker 1 00:17:32 The way through the new Testament.
Speaker 0 00:17:35 Well, Craig can two people not have children and still be a family? Yes. That's
Speaker 1 00:17:39 The point a family
Speaker 0 00:17:41 Is when one male and one female get together to create
Speaker 1 00:17:45 A brand new entity. <inaudible> called a family. They joined in marriage and they create the potential of creating more families.
Speaker 0 00:17:53 Can two people adopt and still be family. Absolutely. Do you know who came up with adoption by the way, God did. It's not something that we invented. God invented it. You remember Eli and Samuel. I was talking to Abby about this earlier. Eli adopted Samuel. When his, when his mother Hannah dropped her off at the temple and you remember this adoption ideas, nothing new. In fact, in the old Testament, when the old Testament Hebrews had slaves, we already talked about this in Leviticus. And in Exodus 20, when they, when the Hebrews brought in, they were to consider them part of their family. They were to treat them like family. They would have get them, make sure that they got married and had kids. And all of those things treat them family. This exception and was put into play by the God who invented families. So adoption is also
Speaker 1 00:18:41 God's invention. Marriage
Speaker 0 00:18:43 Has always been the cornerstone
Speaker 1 00:18:46 Of a new family. It's always been that way. Every family unit begins with two people committing to one another in marriage. It's exclusive in priority. You leave one family to cleave, to another person. You like leave your family, mom and dad. And you go to cleave to somebody else. That's the beginning of a new family. So
Speaker 0 00:19:14 Parents, parents, parents, it's important for you to let your kid to force your kids to leave because if your kid gets married, but has a hard time leaving you, you're going to create problems in that new family. So it's important for kids to leave. It's important for parents to
Speaker 1 00:19:31 Let them go leave as the first, just one number two it's it is exclusive in membership.
Speaker 0 00:19:38 There are two people in this relationship, not four, not six. There are two people that
Speaker 1 00:19:43 Begin this new family. One plus one in this case equals one, one
Speaker 0 00:19:50 Plus one equals one. Again, the closest thing we have to the
Speaker 1 00:19:54 Trinity is marriage
Speaker 0 00:19:57 One plus one plus one in the Trinity equals one, one plus one in the marriage equals
Speaker 1 00:20:03 One. The two will become one flesh.
Speaker 0 00:20:06 It's exclusive of membership. It's exclusive in intimacy. One flesh means sex that you have in marriage becomes the
Speaker 1 00:20:13 Seal of that partnership. You're
Speaker 0 00:20:17 In intimate relationship that you have with your spouse becomes the exclusive activity that dis that shows you belong to the
Speaker 1 00:20:25 Other person and they belong to you. You don't
Speaker 0 00:20:27 Share that with anybody else. That's what it was intended
Speaker 1 00:20:30 For. Leave cleave one flesh. This is all in the marriage context. Lastly
Speaker 0 00:20:38 Is exclusive for a lifetime. I love what Jesus added here. You notice it in Genesis two. It does not say what God joined together. Let no one separate it. Doesn't say in Genesis, Jesus added that. Why did he add that? He added it because he understood
Speaker 1 00:20:52 The sanctity of the new family that begins with the marriage commitment. What God has joined together. Let no one separate. It's a commitment for life.
Speaker 0 00:21:05 Now, if you think that's heavy duty, join the club because after Jesus says this, those people that were listening to him,
Speaker 1 00:21:11 Oh well, uh, who's able to get married. And Jesus says, now you got it. You could
Speaker 0 00:21:19 Read about it. If you, if you'd like to in this passage that we just read, go home and read more in Matthew 19. But Jesus says, yes, marriage is a very serious commitment. I tell people when I do marriage counseling, I said, you got to know my job is to talk you out of this. Because if I can talk you out of getting married, there's no way
Speaker 1 00:21:36 You should be getting married. Your job is to convince me that God is putting you guys together. And on that day, when you
Speaker 0 00:21:46 Take your vows in front of me and his
Speaker 1 00:21:48 Church, before God, you're committing to a marriage, a relationship that lasts a lifetime,
Speaker 0 00:21:59 A sexual relationship between a male and female was evidence that these two
Speaker 1 00:22:02 Were one and they would be one forever. I got
Speaker 0 00:22:07 To tell you, I think one of the reasons we're losing the battle for family
Speaker 1 00:22:10 Today, and we're losing the battle
Speaker 0 00:22:13 On marriage today is because we've lost
Speaker 1 00:22:15 The battle on the sexual relationship. We don't even talk.
Speaker 0 00:22:19 We're not even allowed to talk about that anymore. And you may be sitting here thinking to yourself,
Speaker 1 00:22:22 Greg, I don't think we should be talking about that in church. Boy, do you understand this is a gift from God. It's a really special gift from God. It's
Speaker 0 00:22:33 Meant to join two people together. Like nothing
Speaker 1 00:22:36 Else on the planet. It is powerful.
Speaker 0 00:22:38 That's why every song you ever
Speaker 1 00:22:40 Hear is written about it. Some not so good. Some mistaking, what this act of marriage really means
Speaker 0 00:22:49 In our world today, the sex between a man and a woman has turned into a simple animal desire. It's nothing terribly special
Speaker 1 00:22:55 Anymore. It's just
Speaker 0 00:22:57 Talked about it's it's, it's thrown on the table. Like it's not anything special
Speaker 1 00:23:02 At all, but this
Speaker 0 00:23:04 Is God's gift. If you think about it like a, like a wedding that you go to and everybody brings your toaster or whatever, and puts it on the back table and you get all these wonderful package gifts. So you go, ah, another toaster, you know, the gift that God brings for you, the gift that God gives your marriage
Speaker 1 00:23:20 Is a sexual release. That's his gift to you. You get to express that forever with one person. It is the glue that holds you together.
Speaker 0 00:23:29 The system that God created for us, however, is become messed up. And now there are family units everywhere
Speaker 1 00:23:36 Because that act made to be B B uh, uh,
Speaker 0 00:23:42 Indulged in, in the marriage context
Speaker 1 00:23:45 Is indulged in everywhere.
Speaker 0 00:23:48 Children now are conscious, certainly growing up without fathers and mothers, they're being raised by grandparents. If they're lucky, sometimes they're not raised by friends at all. Children are constantly given up for adoption. Children are constantly aborted from the womb. Most unsafe place to be in the, in America. Today is inside a mother's womb. You know, last year we killed more babies in the womb than in every war we have ever been involved with as
Speaker 1 00:24:15 Americans. We,
Speaker 0 00:24:17 We, we don't talk about that anymore because that's, yeah, it's a battle. We lost at something we shouldn't talk about in church anymore. I beg to differ because if we regarded the sexual relationship, as what God intended, we wouldn't have this issue,
Speaker 1 00:24:33 But we don't. And in church, we,
Speaker 0 00:24:36 We don't talk about it a whole lot because it's, it's something that's almost passe in church. So we don't talk about it. And the world sells it as a commodity. And when it happens, the family unit loses its place
Speaker 1 00:24:48 That God tens. The family unit is degraded. The church simply stopped preaching on the sanctity of sexuality. And this is I believe where we lost our battle for marriage.
Speaker 0 00:25:02 I believe families are in jeopardy today because marriages
Speaker 1 00:25:05 Are in jeopardy today. Here's a historical view of the family. Societies have always been built on families.
Speaker 0 00:25:12 It's not always like it has been in America, but there was always a route, a name that you clean to, uh, for us in the Jarvis family, it's Jervis, we came from the Vikings.
Speaker 1 00:25:23 I know you probably can tell that by looking at me.
Speaker 0 00:25:26 Uh, but we came from, we came from the Vikings. The root of the jerk Jarvis name is Jervis it's, uh, it's sometimes in, in history, they were called rods or stem. Some people believe that that, uh, the people, uh, the, the ancestors would carry around staffs with symbols on them. That would, that would designate their raw. This rod would designate their name, like the kilt in, uh, in Scotland. You know, those all designate a name. Did you know that kilts are all different from different areas of Scotland? These were the names it's been like this all throughout history. Your name gives you clout.
Speaker 1 00:26:03 It was the name that you carried
Speaker 0 00:26:04 Around. It was your, your rod or your stem. The individual family is found in this root. That's why in the old Testament, you'll read that, um, uh, that Jesus is from the root of Jesse. You remember those, those conversations in scripture, you always have from the root of Jesse or, or bait AB you probably don't recognize that, but that's from father's house. So my bait AB would be Daryl Jarvis.
Speaker 1 00:26:31 My father's house is Jarvis, the father's
Speaker 0 00:26:34 House, which was the nucleus of the subtribe making up the entire tribe and your, your family unit, the stronger you could make your family unit, the stronger your tribe became, and the stronger your tribe became, the stronger your,
Speaker 1 00:26:47 Your nation became. So the family
Speaker 0 00:26:50 Was a part of your clan. The clan was a part of the tribe and the tribe was a part of the nation. Every family was responsible to make sure your family did what it needed to do. Be a strong family, have kids that grew up to be that would be helpful in society, not
Speaker 1 00:27:07 Loser kids. You want
Speaker 0 00:27:10 To make sure that your kids are hardworking, that you're hardworking and, and the, and the more you did, the stronger your clan became the stronger your tribe became and the stronger your
Speaker 1 00:27:19 Nation would become. The family was the key to these groups of people and every
Speaker 0 00:27:25 Person, fathers, wives, husbands, uh, uh, mothers, children, everybody
Speaker 1 00:27:32 Had a job to do, and everybody needed to make sure they did their job really well. And when you did, your nation would prosper in the Asian culture I have in my, uh, in my,
Speaker 0 00:27:44 Uh, study at home, I have a door hanger and, uh, apparently on some homes in the Asian culture, when you go up and you knock on the door, uh, either the, the, um, the, the, uh, door handles that opened the door or the door knocker
Speaker 1 00:27:58 Will have all kinds of pictures on it. And those pictures would depict the history of the family behind. And that door family was legacy family added to the nation, and then
Speaker 0 00:28:14 Every person had to play their role. Well, in order for their families
Speaker 1 00:28:18 To function well, this is, I believe a God thing. It's always been like this
Speaker 0 00:28:25 Without families define an operating God's way. Society will
Speaker 1 00:28:29 Crumble,
Speaker 0 00:28:31 And you can read through history. If you're a history buff, you will find families crumbling,
Speaker 1 00:28:36 And then nations falling.
Speaker 0 00:28:40 No wonder why Christians are so protective of their family
Speaker 1 00:28:44 Units. We
Speaker 0 00:28:46 Recognize family is God's invention, and it's a gift from him to us. And so, if we are married, begun our own family, we protect that. If we have children, we protect that family unit. We don't want our kids to grow up like, like moochers of, of society. We want to make them contributors helpful. It begins by them helping and contributing
Speaker 1 00:29:08 In the home. That's
Speaker 0 00:29:10 Why the only command given to children is
Speaker 1 00:29:13 Honor your father and mother, because if
Speaker 0 00:29:15 You don't honor your father and mother, you ain't going to honor anybody
Speaker 1 00:29:18 Else. When you get out of that house,
Speaker 0 00:29:21 We have to teach our children to honor to obey, to do what they are. And the children have to recognize while they are in that home. In that family, their sole responsibility
Speaker 1 00:29:31 Is to honor their parents.
Speaker 0 00:29:36 Husbands. We are called to act a certain way. We get to this next week when we get to father's, I always love father's day mother's day. I have to massage the moms and tell them what a great job they're doing. Fathers. I get to kick in your pants. So wait till next Sunday, it'll be a lot of fun. No dads are ever going to show
Speaker 1 00:29:52 Up. Next Sunday.
Speaker 0 00:29:54 Family was a base of operations for the kingdom to be seen in our culture for God, to be seen in our culture. God created it that way. That's why in our church constitution, we write it right there for you to see. Here's what it says. Just in case you haven't read it. This is one of our values at village church. We believe that God's primary building block for culture in his church
Speaker 1 00:30:13 Is the family. This is right in
Speaker 0 00:30:16 Our constitution. If you're a part of village, you should know, this is what you're signing up for. God instituted the family to work correctly. When it functions on the principles of his word, though, though, both husband and wife are equal in value. They have different primary roles. The husband has a primary primacy of responsibility, not sole responsibility to lead, provide for and protect his family. Thereby uniquely imaging. God, the wife has a primacy of responsibility, not sole responsibility to and nurture thereby uniquely imaging God together. God has designed them both to collaborate in raising children who are brought up in the nurture
Speaker 1 00:30:54 And admonition of the Lord.
Speaker 0 00:30:56 When the family functions God has gotten intense success is not guaranteed,
Speaker 1 00:31:02 But it can be expected. Let me say that one more time. When the family functions X got intense success is not guaranteed, but it should be expected.
Speaker 0 00:31:16 Harmony in the family was important to have harmony in the nation. When these roles were thrown off, the risk was to the entire nation, not simply the individual in that family
Speaker 1 00:31:26 Or the clan. So it was essential.
Speaker 0 00:31:29 These roles would be lived out together. Husbands. Your role is to,
Speaker 1 00:31:34 Oh my
Speaker 0 00:31:34 Goodness. Husbands, your goal, your role in the family and Ephesians five. Your role, your role is to starts with an L ends within the, has an OVI in the
Speaker 1 00:31:42 Middle of it. Okay? Husbands, your responsibility is to love your wife, wives.
Speaker 0 00:31:48 Your responsibility is to respect and honor your husband, children. Your responsibility is to honor your parents. By the way it says in Exodus 25, listen to the exact words, honor, your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land. The Lord your God has given to you. In other words, children, there's a promise matched to
Speaker 1 00:32:07 How well you do here. And the old Testament.
Speaker 0 00:32:10 This clearly referred to the promise land that they were going to, but for us in the new Testament, there's a longevity plan, a plan, a longevity promise that is given to children that do this well in the home. And that is you will have, should have
Speaker 1 00:32:25 Success in life. If you do this
Speaker 0 00:32:28 Well, fathers don't exasperate your
Speaker 1 00:32:30 Children to wrath. That's another good one in Ephesians.
Speaker 0 00:32:36 Emphasis is always on the family legacy. Every completes their role so that families can be strong. Job is disobedient. It didn't just become a threat to the family.
Speaker 1 00:32:50 It became a threat to society. Now, these days, families are under attack. They always have been, but these days, perhaps rarely in my life, I've never seen it. This way. Families are strained and even broken apart. Like I said, it's always been this way. Uh, who, who sinned first? Susan. It's okay. You can say it if it was
Speaker 0 00:33:17 Easy. Yeah. Okay. So Eve sinned, first, she ate from the tree she wasn't supposed to. Then she gave it to Adam sin. Second Adam, by the way, Adam was with her at that tree, read it carefully. And you'll find that both of them were together, Adam and Eve, both sinned.
Speaker 1 00:33:33 And as soon as they sinned, what happened, their relationship was strained. In fact, it changed forever. When that, when they've sinned, it
Speaker 0 00:33:47 Affected their relationship.
Speaker 1 00:33:50 First of all, they hid from God. And then they hid from each other. You ever find that and you sin.
Speaker 0 00:34:00 Isn't the first thing you want to do. And you're found out isn't the first thing you want to do is to get to the darkest place possible. Nobody could find me. Nobody could see me. I got to go somewhere where I always know this. Once in a while, people will stop coming to church for a while. I always think to myself now they're probably struggling with a sin,
Speaker 1 00:34:20 Got out of the closet for some
Speaker 0 00:34:22 Reason. Other people see it, and now they're embarrassed.
Speaker 1 00:34:26 They hid from
Speaker 0 00:34:26 God and then they hit from one another and then they blamed it each other.
Speaker 1 00:34:31 And then what happened? What is the next event that happened in scripture? Their son killed their other son. You see, when sin comes into a relationship, it affects the primary relationship. First that's you and your husband, you and your wife. And then it will bleed down to your children.
Speaker 0 00:34:55 And it's not a mistake that the first thing that they experienced was
Speaker 1 00:34:58 The breaking, uh, family, their sin Brecht, the greatest gift God gave them.
Speaker 0 00:35:09 The punch of sin, always lands squarely on the chin of the greatest relationship. God
Speaker 1 00:35:14 Blesses us with sin causes
Speaker 0 00:35:16 Husbands to stop committing to their work wives,
Speaker 1 00:35:19 To break their commitment. Sin causes wives to resent their husbands. Sin causes children to rebel. Sin ultimately
Speaker 0 00:35:27 Leads to physical death, which breaks up family
Speaker 1 00:35:29 Phase for our life here on the planet. I got to tell ya, my dad
Speaker 0 00:35:34 Passed away a couple of years ago and I miss
Speaker 1 00:35:37 Every day,
Speaker 0 00:35:39 That kind of thing is not supposed to happen. Did you know that death is not supposed to break families apart? Death came
Speaker 1 00:35:46 Because sin came, sin destroyed everything. The thing about family,
Speaker 0 00:35:54 Some of the sadness, people walking the planet are people who've been married and had great marriages for 30, 40, 50, 60 years. They lose their spouse. And for the first time and they're alone, they understand the pain
Speaker 1 00:36:06 Of sin and bring sin,
Speaker 0 00:36:09 Wrecks, everything it touches and make no mistake. If the greatest blessing we have, according to 98% of people, if the greatest blessing we have, according to people who love God and people who don't care about God whatsoever, if the greatest blessing we experienced on this planet is family make no mistakes. Satan will go after that blessing. First
Speaker 1 00:36:34 Families are under attack because Satan is alive and well, and he wants nothing more than to destroy your family. His
Speaker 0 00:36:43 Goal is to make sure your worst moment is coming home to your family.
Speaker 1 00:36:47 At the end of the day, I've talked to two dads who have been, who've been caught in
Speaker 0 00:36:52 Sin and just they, they express this to me and I never understood it because I've never experienced that for me. The smile at the end of my day is coming home to my family. Some, some guys will avoid
Speaker 1 00:37:04 Their families. And the reason
Speaker 0 00:37:06 Is because they've allowed some sin to creep in and destroy
Speaker 1 00:37:10 The greatest blessing God has given to them. I
Speaker 0 00:37:13 Read to you again, Matthew 19, listen to what Jesus said. He answered. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning, made the male and female and said, therefore, a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What? Therefore God has joined together. Let no one
Speaker 1 00:37:31 Separate. Where does Jesus go to for his definition of families, right back to the beginning of time
Speaker 0 00:37:40 Made males and females to create a new face
Speaker 1 00:37:43 Family. God did. Who brings these families together? What God has joined together, who breaks families apart humans one way or another, by letting sin come into their relationships. Less than 20 years ago, maker's
Speaker 0 00:38:05 Tried to pass an amendment called the marriage amendment. They knew the value of marriage
Speaker 1 00:38:10 And the family. Here's what the
Speaker 0 00:38:12 Amendment said. Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. That
Speaker 1 00:38:17 Was, that was just about 20 years ago. Marriage should have an
Speaker 0 00:38:22 Exclusiveness is what they said in this relationship. And exclusiveness to this lawmakers wanted to protect it, pushed the amendment through the Supreme court, shut it down.
Speaker 1 00:38:32 You know, this, this is all history. Within 10 years of that move same-sex marriage became the law of the land and the rolling ball has not stopped. Now. Relationship rights
Speaker 0 00:38:45 Between two individuals are now called family,
Speaker 1 00:38:48 Right? This is on purpose. Relationship rights are defined
Speaker 0 00:38:53 As marriage rights. This is why those same sex relationships now have turned into same sex
Speaker 1 00:38:59 Ex marriages. Before long,
Speaker 0 00:39:02 We will no longer be able to identify what a family is. Define it
Speaker 1 00:39:06 According to the way that God defines it, because it will become too. Counter-cultural. Even for me,
Speaker 0 00:39:11 Reading Matthew 19 from the lips of Jesus himself
Speaker 1 00:39:16 Sounds out of touch. Why do you
Speaker 0 00:39:20 Think Jesus started with having you read from the beginning? God created them, male and female. Why didn't he just start with, you know what marriage is? You leave one family, you cleave to another family. You become one flesh. Why don't we start there? That's marriage. Why did he go all the way back to having you read? This is why God created males and females. Jesus was not mistaken, but people in our world are today.
Speaker 1 00:39:47 Males are created for females and females are created for males that begins families. I did a message on family. About 15 years ago,
Speaker 0 00:40:01 As the Supreme court was going through their motion of trying to figure out how to handle the same sex marriage issues. And I got to tell you, it was a lot easier to define family back then. It was a lot easier to have conversations back then, but even now as I'm on camera being broadcast all over the place, and as you and house are listening to this, even you are thinking to yourself, Craig, I think that's a little out
Speaker 1 00:40:24 Of touch. Isn't it amazing how times change so fast. I'm
Speaker 0 00:40:31 Giving you a definition of family from the one who invented
Speaker 1 00:40:34 It. And it sounds like I'm a bigot.
Speaker 0 00:40:40 When I tell people about history, even in their own lifetimes, I simply don't
Speaker 1 00:40:44 Believe it when I tell them Hillary Clinton. And when I tell them Barack Obama both ran in there initially,
Speaker 0 00:40:53 Well run of presidency, both ran on the premise that they would hold up. That legislation marriage is between a man and a woman. They were not embarrassed to say, you can, you can look it up on the internet. If it hasn't been raised based, it's all over the place. They ran on that.
Speaker 1 00:41:10 It's amazing what happened in the next 15 years. This
Speaker 0 00:41:15 Is the only aside in all of recorded history that is messing with the definition
Speaker 1 00:41:19 Of fear. Emily,
Speaker 0 00:41:23 Let me say that one more time. This is the only society
Speaker 1 00:41:27 In the history of the world that is messing with the definition of family. And as on purpose,
Speaker 0 00:41:37 Remember those things I told you, you know, you carry a staff, you've got your two little kilt yet. This is my family family. Everybody knew what family was. Didn't matter what culture you were in. Doesn't matter what indigenous tribe you find. Every person had an intrinsic knowledge of what family is in our culture. Today. We are not messing just with a sexual relationships. We are messing with the definition of family. And because of that, we're sitting here thinking to ourselves.
Speaker 1 00:42:01 I don't think we should be talking about this church. The problem here begins when the act of marriage is taken out of context and we'd be in to treat sexual relationships like they're not important. And the ball rolls.
Speaker 0 00:42:19 It's inevitable. When the act of marriage becomes an activity and nothing
Speaker 1 00:42:22 More, you need
Speaker 0 00:42:24 To protect this activity. Within the confines of marriage, we need to teach our children. Now you have a group of people identifying themselves with nothing more than that activity.
Speaker 1 00:42:39 Listen, if
Speaker 0 00:42:40 You identify yourself as something that by the color of your skin or by your sexual preference or by anything else, the world tells you, you must identify as
Speaker 1 00:42:50 Please don't put yourself in a bucket like that. You are way too important to God. You are created as an image of God first and foremost, nothing else has that privilege, but you, you are, you, there is not multiple races. There is one race that race was created by God. And we are all part of it. If we are humans
Speaker 0 00:43:15 Plan for the potential of our lives is directly attached to the health of our family. So individually, when we must guard our male female families, as a, as a building blocks,
Speaker 1 00:43:26 God created families to be exclusive. And the marriage covenant was meant to be the exclusive
Speaker 0 00:43:31 Beginning relationship upon which
Speaker 1 00:43:33 Every fan family stands. The
Speaker 0 00:43:37 Potential for your family depends on you
Speaker 1 00:43:39 Getting this right, to be very honest with your kids. This, you got to teach us at home.
Speaker 0 00:43:48 Very counter-cultural you'll sound judgy. I know more and more every day. I
Speaker 1 00:43:53 Know, but the question is, are we going to look through scripture through the eyes of culture? Are we going to look through culture through the eyes of the scripture? One changes constantly. One never does Malika. Two 15 says this. Did he not make them one? The speaking of God,
Speaker 0 00:44:15 Did he make them one with a portion of spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? What was God seeking? When he created marriage? When he created males and females to come together to be married, what was he seeking?
Speaker 1 00:44:27 Church? You can say it it's right there. What was the one God seeking,
Speaker 0 00:44:35 Godly offspring. So yourselves in your spirit and let, none of you be
Speaker 1 00:44:39 Faithless to the wife of the, of your youth, a dedicated
Speaker 0 00:44:42 Woman and a dedicated husband, wife, and man is the building block for every family unit. Listen, in our efforts to live in this culture. We cannot pretend that broken marriages, broken relationships.
Speaker 1 00:44:53 All of a sudden, they're not just acceptable, but they're actually good for our that's crazy talk. Every single
Speaker 0 00:45:01 Stat that you will look at, every single one will tell you the truth. It is better for kids to come from a healthy father, mother
Speaker 1 00:45:08 Relationship where two spouses are at home. Children will only benefit from having a healthy family unit that begins with a mother and father only 64%,
Speaker 0 00:45:20 Unfortunately, of children today,
Speaker 1 00:45:22 Living homes where two parents are present, married and re and present in their lives. I could give you statistics. There are hundreds of these, but poverty,
Speaker 0 00:45:34 Teenage pregnancy, dropout rates, suicide rate, emotional challenges, economic status, prison, prison, attendance, all of these rise. When you only have one spouse
Speaker 1 00:45:43 Or no spouse raising children. Now again, we could not
Speaker 0 00:45:48 Talk about this because it's very uncomfortable or we could tell the truth to our children so that they don't make the same mistakes. Sin lives to ruin all good
Speaker 1 00:45:58 Things. No one
Speaker 0 00:46:00 Gets married, ever hoping that their marriage will break apart someday. That's ridiculous. Why are you getting married? Well, I hope my life will fall apart in five years, nobody ever gets married. Hoping their marriage relationship will break apart, but it happens. Sin creeps in one spouse. The other spouse, somehow the onslaught of life sometimes breaks those marriages apart. Yeah, same time. Those parents desperately wish their kids. I'll never go through the same pain, right? We need to speak about family. Family is God's gift to the world. It's no wonder Satan can do everything he can do to confuse it, damage it. Get us not to talk about it. Finally
Speaker 1 00:46:42 Destroy it. And I think in our efforts to not offend we're falling, victim sane has been very successful in blowing up marriages and getting us to not talk about it. Now we
Speaker 0 00:46:58 Talked about a lot of different subjects here this morning, and I want to give you a reference, a resource. All right, here's the resource. If you want to look at it. Um, I talked with Michael before I did this message and he reminded me, we did this Q and a it's number 0 3 7 0. You can go on our website. You can download it. It's that one in the next one. Actually he and I were talking about families and what it means to be families and some of the changes four
Speaker 1 00:47:19 Years ago, I had a conversation with him. So you can check that out. If you'd like to,
Speaker 0 00:47:26 I spoke on, on fan was like I told you several years ago, and I can remember it was just a difficult conversation like it is this morning. I'm not having fun
Speaker 1 00:47:33 Up here. It was a difficult
Speaker 0 00:47:35 Conversation because I know there are a lot of different ears listening to this. A lot of people have gone through divorce. A lot of people are watching that have children that are, are wandering away from the Lord. A lot of parents have really tried to do the best they could in there. Their children have not turned out. Like they had hoped
Speaker 1 00:47:50 A lot of children hate their parents. I know that I live in the same world you do, but I got
Speaker 0 00:47:56 To preach the whole counsel of God and a family is important to God. It's got to be important to us. So I preached
Speaker 1 00:48:02 It several years ago, different church. There's
Speaker 0 00:48:07 This one lady in the church. She was an elderly lady. I love her.
Speaker 1 00:48:12 Like nobody's been, she'd been divorced a few times. She'd
Speaker 0 00:48:17 Come to know the Lord. She'd realized the damage that those divorces that had caused. And I could see her out there as I was preaching this message on the sanctity of marriage and marriage for a lifetime and dedication to one another and what God intends. And I could see her and I'm thinking to myself, how is she hearing me now?
Speaker 1 00:48:34 So I went to the back, like I always did. And I waited and sure shooting. As soon as the service was over, like a beeline, she moved right toward me. She
Speaker 0 00:48:43 Grabbed my hand and I prepared for the worst. She grabbed my hand and she said,
Speaker 1 00:48:47 Craig, you did a good job this morning. That's it?
Speaker 0 00:48:52 Thank God. All right, good. We're starting off on a good, good, good. She said, you know, I've been divorced a few times in my life. Nobody will know how painful that was for me.
Speaker 1 00:49:04 So more than anything, the next generation needs to not make the same mistakes. Good.
Speaker 0 00:49:10 So this is in church. We we've, we've got to keep this family thing
Speaker 1 00:49:15 Where it belongs. It is the first thing God came up with. God literally brought a marriage gift
Speaker 0 00:49:24 To each of us that we are supposed to enjoy for
Speaker 1 00:49:26 A lifetime. Is it hard? Yes.
Speaker 0 00:49:32 Anyone who has a good marriage will tell you it's hard.
Speaker 1 00:49:37 Beth has had a really difficult time. It's hard, but I want to tell you we've got to protect it. So the next generation doesn't make the same mistakes we do. They've got to see a good example in us. If
Speaker 0 00:49:52 Your kid wants to learn forgiveness, they need to see it in the way you
Speaker 1 00:49:55 Treat your spouse. If your kid,
Speaker 0 00:49:58 If you want your kid to learn patience, they need to see it in you. If your kid needs to know how to keep their words in check, they need to see it in you. If your kid's got an anger issue, teach them how to be kind and considerate in the
Speaker 1 00:50:12 There's a lot. Riding on families. The strength of our nation is the least of it.
Speaker 0 00:50:19 We must be vigilant on highlighting the potential of families. There are pathways of success. We can lay down for the next generation and we
Speaker 1 00:50:26 Need to tell them about all right. I am totally
Speaker 0 00:50:30 Out of time. Shoot. And I wanted to tell you a little bit about how Jesus changed family around in two weeks. We're going to talk about the potential of a
Speaker 1 00:50:39 Church led by Jesus Christ.
Speaker 0 00:50:42 And, um, I'm going to, I'll pull this stuff
Speaker 1 00:50:44 Over there because it's, it's pretty good stuff and I'll make reference to it. All right? Here's some so watch for you today. Number one, you
Speaker 0 00:50:54 And your family should become a part of God's family.
Speaker 1 00:50:56 While you still can. If you want the gas in your engine to be high octane, you have got to surrender to God. Personally. First, you will
Speaker 0 00:51:09 Never be able to do this on your own. You need the power of the holy spirit. Satan seeks like a roaring lion people to devour,
Speaker 1 00:51:16 But Jesus has given us the ability to overcome. In fact, we are more than overcomers through him who loved us greater is he, that is in you than he. That is in the way you need to become a part of God's family. While you can, you may look around
Speaker 0 00:51:34 You and say to yourself, all these people have it together. You haven't met the people I've met. We don't have it together. We just
Speaker 1 00:51:41 Have extra help as we go through life. We're
Speaker 0 00:51:45 All, we're still struggling to pay our bills. Keep our marriages together on our parents, discipline our children correctly. Live lives of purity. Control. Our thought lives control our tongues control. Our anger control the need to be in control. We all still
Speaker 1 00:51:57 Fight with this. You're not in this on your own, but the family of God is for this purpose.
Speaker 0 00:52:05 It's so that if you have, if you need a good example of a struggling family, that's growing closer to God as the years, go on, find a good church
Speaker 1 00:52:14 And get together and see how these families are
Speaker 0 00:52:17 Surrendering to God. And God is growing them into the family
Speaker 1 00:52:20 That he wants him to be. Number two, followers
Speaker 0 00:52:24 Of Jesus should be vigilantly thriving families
Speaker 1 00:52:27 In this culture. This is how
Speaker 0 00:52:29 We are salt and light. At the same time, the battle lines are being drawn. Families are crumbling all around
Speaker 1 00:52:35 Us. How are you doing with your family? Don't succumb to the pull of culture.
Speaker 0 00:52:44 Don't succumb to culture telling you how you should raise your family. Go to the one who invented families and figured out in scripture. God doesn't hide anything from us. If you want to know how to grow your kids up. Forget reading the books at Amazon. Start reading the book from God. Same as crafty. Never be ashamed to find your definitions and your help from the God who created
Speaker 1 00:53:10 Families to begin with the potential that the potential
Speaker 0 00:53:14 That we have as families is to demonstrate to a confused world. What reality of family is all about? So church begin by living out
Speaker 1 00:53:23 Your marriage vows. If you've got
Speaker 0 00:53:25 Something to fix between you and your spouse, fix it. There's more riding on this than just their bad attitude about a new
Speaker 1 00:53:31 Habit. Fix it because your relationship with your spouse, Satan
Speaker 0 00:53:37 Will go after that. I can tell you Beth and I we've had some fights. And it's like, how did we ever get from zero to 10? So fast is because the minute there's a crack in the door, Satan will push himself in. That's all he needs. So if you're a godly person, man, or wife, and you get into that point where it's going from zero to 10, be the spouse, God called you to be and shut
Speaker 1 00:53:58 Down. The easiest way to shut it down is to humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord. And he will lift you up. Now,
Speaker 0 00:54:06 Easier said than done. When you're in the middle of, in the you're in the heat of battle, isn't it
Speaker 1 00:54:12 Live out your marriage vows. Men love your wives. As Christ loved the church, wives, respect your husband. Love
Speaker 0 00:54:21 You. <inaudible> with a godly kind of love procreate. Fill the earth with God-fearing children. Raise your children as
Speaker 1 00:54:27 A family, God would be proud of.
Speaker 0 00:54:30 They're not always going to pull it off. They're not always going to be as perfect as Michael standing up here this morning.
Speaker 1 00:54:36 They're not going to always be the ideal. All children. You can't do a lot. I'm sorry. You can't guarantee the success of your children to grow up, to be lovers of God, but you sure can put a lot of obstacles in their way. Remove the obstacles, teach your children to value and love God, God, and God's family. Make sure they understand the value and make sure they understand where family began is God's business. Not cultures. God created it.
Speaker 0 00:55:14 Not culture. God will protect it. Not culture. God will give you the tools you
Speaker 1 00:55:20 Need to grow it. Not culture. Let's go back to the guy that created it and figure out how to do it, right? Let's pray father and grateful for, uh, this
Speaker 0 00:55:33 Conversation this morning on family. It's really hard in this culture because families are just
Speaker 1 00:55:39 Crumbling. It seems like all around
Speaker 0 00:55:43 And yet down in each one of our hearts, we know family is incredibly
Speaker 1 00:55:48 Important. So father help us to live out our role in our family. As you've called us to live it out. I was to always, no matter what age we are, I was to always honor our mothers and fathers help us to love our spouses, help us to submit to one another. As you submitted to the father, to be an example in our church with our children, help us to be an example of those who would live out in obedience, a life of, of childhood so that the world will round us would understand what a family should look like.
Speaker 1 00:56:39 I'm almost scared to think of what's going to happen in the next 15 years. So father help us to be diligent in this, help us to teach it to the next generation. And that was never to be shamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God that brings salvation. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. So it's a hard one, right? I think so. Maybe you don't, you should have wrote it. The difficulty is the way the culture changes. The difficulty is how things are heard, not necessarily how things are written. The hardest thing for us as individuals in a world of broken families is to understand that God is our father. So let me just
Speaker 0 00:57:35 Say this. If you grew up in a crappy family,
Speaker 1 00:57:39 You're unfortunately a growing majority. If you need a good example of a father or a good example of a parent, I encourage you to look at Jesus and encourage
Speaker 0 00:57:51 You to look at the one we're supposed to call our heavenly father. God wants nothing than our best and his glory. When we give him his glory,
Speaker 1 00:58:01 We find out what's our best. When
Speaker 0 00:58:05 We come to communion, it's a reminder to us that our natural instinct is to rebel against the one
Speaker 1 00:58:11 Who loves us, just like
Speaker 0 00:58:13 In this world. Our natural re our natural action is to rebel against even those who love
Speaker 1 00:58:18 Us here. We have a hard time submitting, especially when we know we're wrong in our relationship with God, the father, we were wrong. Our sin created
Speaker 0 00:58:31 A chasm between us and God. There's no way we could get there on our own,
Speaker 1 00:58:36 But God loved us so much that he created a bridge for us. He created a way for us to be right with him. And the only way he could do it was he had to kill his own son. You want to know who killed Jesus? God did God. The father brought Jesus to us for the purpose of his death so that we could be right with him. Now that blows me away. Our sin was what caused Jesus to have to die. His
Speaker 0 00:59:10 Perfect blood was shed so that our
Speaker 1 00:59:12 Sins could be covered. It was the only sacrifice that could ever suffice the only sacrifice that could
Speaker 0 00:59:18 Ever do it. So God gave Jesus to us
Speaker 1 00:59:21 As a means for us to be right with him in a very real
Speaker 0 00:59:25 Way. Railway church, we crawl to a relationship with the father, the back
Speaker 1 00:59:30 Of a dying, the savior, but the good thing, the good news is death could not hold him. We just sang that this morning death couldn't
Speaker 0 00:59:41 Hold him. God raises his son from the dead. And when that happened, we know that we too will raise from the dead center. We have been given just incredible
Speaker 1 00:59:49 From God heavily. We are the rebels. He's the one that came for us. We are the ones that offended him. He is the one who loves us. It's
Speaker 0 01:00:00 Incredible story. And we celebrated every time we get
Speaker 1 01:00:03 To communion, if you're at home, I encourage
Speaker 0 01:00:06 You to join us for this. Grab some juice or something out of your fridge, grab a cracker or a piece of bread, share it with your family at home, hang onto it for just a minute. We're all going to partake in a moment together. The bread represents the body that was pierced for us. The blood is represented in the juice that we drink. All of this is because we do this every Sunday
Speaker 1 01:00:26 To remind ourselves what it took for us to be part of the family of God. We were once enemies of God. And now we are called sons and daughters of God. It's great. It's great pride. You get more of that in two weeks. Every time we do communion, as a reminder to that. So
Speaker 0 01:00:42 Join us at home in house. You can go forward. There's a, um, a tray up front, just grab
Speaker 1 01:00:48 One of the cups in there. There's bread
Speaker 0 01:00:50 On the top. There's juice on the bottom. Hang on to it. Just come up and grab it while we're, while we're singing. Hang on to it, go back to your chair and then I'll come up. I'll read a verse of scripture and then we'll all eat and drink together. The reason we all do this together is because it's a reminder to us
Speaker 1 01:01:03 In the same boat. All of us need Jesus as our savior, all of us need the sacrifice to cover our sins. So
Speaker 0 01:01:12 You'll see the band come up and when they play, you'll have
Speaker 1 01:01:14 A chance to come up and grab these items, take them back to your chair, and then I'll finish up for us before we do any of that.
Speaker 0 01:01:22 I want to encourage you to just spend a moment with the Lord in your chair, at home and the silence of your chair at home. And if you would just pray to God and maybe God's spoken to in a way that you weren't planning on this morning, maybe he has challenged you in some way this morning. Maybe he has kind of picked apart some of your views of family this morning. Would you just take a moment and just
Speaker 1 01:01:45 In humility, say, God, teach me what you want me to teach to know and how many to receive it in humility and just wait for God to continue the, the teaching process. However, God has spoken to you this morning. Would you just spend a moment thanking him for that and asking him to continue.
