Family matters 1

FAMILY MATTERS

"Home Under Attack"

Gen 2: 24 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

This verse reveals the birth of the institution of the family, which I want to talk to you about for the next few weeks.

I'm first going to give us an overall view of how God put the home and family together.

Then next time I want to share some principles for experiencing peace and victory in the home.

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According to the Bible, God has ordained three basic institutions...

First, the HOME

Second, the GOVERNMENT (Gen. 9, Rom. 13).

And Third, the CHURCH--"Upon this rock I will build my CHURCH."

The GOVERNMENT was given to insure that we could live in domestic peace, safe from harm.

The CHURCH was designed to raise up mature Christians, send the gospel to the world, and to undergird and strengthen the home.

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But the FAMILY was the first and only institution established by God before the fall of man into sin, and its purpose was to be:

-the bedrock of society,

-the place where children are trained in the ways and wisdom of God, and...

-the place of strength from which man would exercise dominion over the earth.

FACT: The family is at the center of all we do that is eternal, godly and lasting.

The home is the hub of our strength as a culture!

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Most people don't realize the spiritual and psychological importance of the home for the individual...

ILLUSTRATION: A University of Oregon professor did a 25 year

study of stress inducers, placing them in order from greatest to least by giving them points, starting with 100 points given to the greatest stress inducer and going down from there...

He awarded 100 points to the death of a spouse as the greatest stress inducer...followed by:

2. 73 - divorce

3. 65 - separation in family

4. 63 - jail sentence

5. 63 - death of close family member

6. 53 - illness or injury

7. 47 - fired from job

8. 45 - marital difficulties

9. 45 - retirement

Now Notice: Six of the nine top stress inducers are directly related to the family in one way or the other.

This shows how powerfully our home life affects us in virtually every way!

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But further, A NATION is no stronger than its families...

Someone rightly said, “…as the family goes, so goes the nation.”

FACT: When the home fails the government and church fail and fall right behind!

Even the non-Christian historian Edward Gibbon wrote in his classic “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” that,

“The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society, was one of the five major factors contributing to the fall of Rome."

So is it any wonder that marriages and homes are under intense spiritual attack, both in America and around the world?

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Now, I want to look first at how God's plan for the family unfolded...

We see in Genesis that at the creation of man:

I. God created two distinct genders...

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27).

In Genesis 1:27 the Hebrew terms "male and female" are emphatic--the "one male" and "the one female."

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When God created human beings, He created Adam and Eve, man and woman--the Hebrew is Ish (man) and Ishah (woman).

There were no spares, no options, and no alternatives.

This was the divine intention from the very beginning...one man (ish), one woman (ishah)!

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Then next, the Bible reveals...

II. WHY He created two distinct genders...

The Bible says that God made Eve out of the rib of Adam and brought her to him.

When Adam met Eve, he said:

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (Ishah), because she was taken out of Man (Ish).

You can't get more intimate than this!

The Woman was fashioned and made out of the rib of Adam, placing her forever at his side!

I believe this is why a man longs for a woman to be at his side, next to him, beside him, with him in his work...

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So what Adam says next makes total sense:

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen 2:24).

He created man and woman to be joined together in His Presence, and to become one flesh in marriage, that they would "CLEAVE" to one another.

--The word cleave is a very strong word...

It means "to bind together; to be glued together."

It signifies deep intimacy and commitment.

God's design for marriage was the contracted union between two people who become one entity--"one flesh."

They are not to be considered two, but one!

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This is why, according to the Bible, same-sex marriage is a perversion of God's plan!

Perversion means, "the alteration of something from its original purpose to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended."

God didn't design marriage for Ish and Ish, or Ishah and Ishah...

He designed it ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY for Ish and Ishah, man and woman.

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And Jesus agrees!

In Matthew's gospel, we have the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of marriage.

When Jesus was asked about grounds for divorce, his response affirmed God’s original and perfect blueprint for marriage...

"And He answered and said, 'Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man separate.'” (Matthew 19:1-6).

So God's divine order, His perfect purpose and plan according to Moses and Jesus, was that a man (Ish) and woman (Ishah) should one day leave their parents and CLEAVE to one another.

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Interestingly, in the Jewish language the word for marriage is the Hebrew word kid'dushin.

Basically kid'dushin means "consecration or sanctification."

To consecrate or sanctify means "to set something apart to God."

So when a Jew said something was kid'dushin, they meant that it had become the personal possession of God.

And that is their word for marriage!

So, marriage is a consecration of two people--Ish and Ishah--who say to each other, "I am totally separated, apart from anything else, unto you."

Our union is "kiddushin," the personal possession of God.

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Then THIRD, God revealed

III. His PLAN for the family...

He then said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).

Here you have the beginning of the family...

"Be fruitful, multiply,"--bring forth children and fill the earth with families!"

From this union between a man and woman are to come children...and listen to what the Psalmist says about this:

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward" (Ps 127:3).

So the children resulting from the cleaving, marital covenant between a man and woman are a heritage, or "inheritance" from the Lord.

And they are a reward, a blessing from His hand!

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But Now watch closely:

The purpose of children is not just to be a reward from God, but also to stand with the parents in spiritual warfare...

Two verses later, the Psalmist says again:

Ps. 127:5 "Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them (children); They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate."

Literally, "They will confront the enemy in the day of conflict."

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Remember, when God commanded the first couple to "be fruitful and multiply," He also said, "...and govern the earth."

Bringing children into a covenant relationship dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ PRECEDES subduing the earth."

The Psalmist places the children of godly parents at the gate of the city driving back the enemy!

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In OT times, battles occurred often in the gate of a city, because the entrance to a city was so important to conquering the city.

The Psalmist says that The children of godly families will stand at the gate and help fend off attacking enemies.

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In other words, the children of the godly will one day rise up to join the battle with the parents against the forces of darkness!

A godly home will reproduce children that will grab the baton from the parents and continue the "good fight" against Satan and his minions!

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A study was done of the great preacher, Jonathan Edwards, offspring.

It was found that The Edwards’ descendants included:

1 U.S. Vice-President,

3 U.S. Senators,

3 governors,

3 mayors,

13 college presidents,

30 judges,

65 professors,

80 public office holders,

100 lawyers and

100 missionaries.

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This same study examined a family known as “Jukes.”

In 1877, while visiting New York’s prisons, Richard Dugdale found inmates with 42 different last names all descending from one man, called “Max.”

Born around 1720, Max was a hard drinker, idle, irreverent and uneducated.

Max’s descendants included:

-7 murderers,

-60 thieves,

-50 women of debauchery,

-130 other convicts.

-310 paupers, who, combined spent 2,300 years in poorhouses, and

-400 physically wrecked by indulgent living.

-The “Jukes” descendants cost the state millions of dollars.

No wonder the Bible says, "We have happy memories of the godly, but the name of a wicked person will rot!" (Prov. 10:7)

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Let's stand and repeat with me:

God created the two genders--male and female.

To come together in a cleaving, marital union.

To produce children who carry on the good fight.

LET'S PRAY