Building Family Gods Way Part 4
Building Family Gods Way • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Family Values
Family Values
Family Values Still Matter to God
Pastor Marvin Barham, D. Min
Family Values Today
It seems that the only perspectives on family values left today are either social or political. Have we abandoned the Biblical perspective of family values and virtue? If you search the internet for “biblical family values” you will get an onslaught of attacks on God and His covenant of family values. Anything void of God’s perspective of value becomes of less or no value at all. Even our churches... often advocate universally acceptable “family values” but we dare not speak to the issues in our families that contradict biblical family values.
When I speak of family values I am not suggesting that there need be a stronger focus on the family. Instead, I suggest that families need stronger focus on Christ as the core of the family’s identity and purpose. The Body of Christ is only as healthy as our families. Our families are only as healthy as our willingness to lead them as God says instead of our cultural norms.
I want to say how blessed I am with such an incredible church family. I am so amazed how God can bring people together through His great love. I am so blessed as a Pastor to have a church family that loves me and my family and invest their lives and the lives of their families to further the vision of taking the gospel of Christ to the lost. I am blessed with a family that truly loves Jesus and seeks to place Him in the center of their lives and as the hope of their calling. Jesus said, “They will know that you are My disciples by your love for one another.” This is indeed my church family! Thank you each and every one of my church family members. I love you all and it is truly an honor to serve you and serve with you as we glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Family Vision in a Time of Crisis
In these days of cultural crisis our families must be built on strong vision. For families perish for lack of vision (chaza חָזָה beholding of God’s instruction).
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
(Matthew 27:55-66)
You could easily get overwhelmed with concern for daily news of our world around us. People dying, a national debt that is astronomical, rouge nations with nuclear weapons, arsenic in our orange juice and baby formula, diseases in our foods, adult teachers having sex with our school children, society forcing sexual abominations as now normal, our entire social moral fabric falling apart all around us. Things you thought you could trust and hope in, you can no longer. We are finding out every day that we have been deceived by some diabolical sociopolitical agenda.
But know this, this is your hope, this is your peace, this is your security that JESUS CHRIST, the Son of the Living God is ALIVE! God the Father is still on the throne and is as sovereign today as on day one. The Holy Spirit is REAL and is your ever present HELP in time of trouble. FEAR NOT! And the greatest part is that HE LOVES YOU! In a moment God can shake things up from top to bottom. He can break open the chains that bind you and bring life and hope to a holy people. Remember, we serve a RISEN SAVIOR! “Surely He is the SON OF GOD!
Good Fathers are Good Judges
Regardless of the world around us in total contradiction to the way of God, my Father still rules. In fact, He made the rules and no one can change them.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
In Amos's time, the people of Israel were prosperous. But with that prosperity they lost their spiritual edge. God was furious with them for compromising his principles in order to make a buck, be entertained, or socially fit in. In this passage, Amos tells the people to 'straighten out their act' and seek good, not evil [vs. 14-15].
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Being familiar with Biblical truths and failing to live by them is extremely dangerous. That's the line Amos's contemporaries had crossed.
Jehoshaphat [Jēhŏsh'aphăt] יְהוֹשָׁפָט — Jehovah is judge. (2 Sam. 8:16;1 Kings 4:3;1 Chron. 18:15) A son of Asa, king of Judah, who succeeded his father. The man with a good record because he carried out the religious reforms of his father, history gives Jehoshaphat a good name. What a beautiful expression that is “ . . .he walked in the first... ways of his father David”—meaning in the former or earlier ways of David, as contrasted with his later conduct. Because of his god-ward bend, “the Lord was with Jehoshaphat.” Negatively, he “sought not after Baalim.” Here was a man who in every point was equally strong, a man of foresight, a man of reverence, a man of an honest heart, a man who felt that idolatry and true worship could not coexist in the same breast. He did not concern himself with “the doings of Israel.” His was a blessed, spiritual singularity. He laid down a clear program for himself, and followed it out with patient and faithful endeavor. He did not seek riches and honor. No wonder the Lord “established the kingdom in his hand”! WHERE ARE YOU MEN OF GOD! Do not listen to the LIE that we are not to JUDGE. We must judge what is righteous and what is unrighteous in the eyes of Yahweh.
“Judge not, that you be not judged.
The word for “judge” here is sapat שָׁפַט meaning to condemn; to punish; to say they are worthless and non-redeemable. Which means, you put yourself in the place of God or declare that God cannot redeem them. Luke wrote it this way:
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
The Scriptures also say:
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
If the Word of the Lord in righteous men is silent then evil is called good and good is called evil because of the enmity of men's hearts. We must be vessels of His justice or wickedness will run-a-muck. Let the Word of the Lord speak as a voice to our nation through those who fear Jehovah who is a good, righteous, and a just judge.
Therefore keep watch
Keep watching and preparing because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns" (Matthew 24:29-51).
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Blessed are they who hope for His return. Are you ready? Are you sure? There is not much you can count on these days but you can rest assured that He is returning. Is your house in order? Whose values are defining your family? If He returned today, would you be found a good and faithful servant bearing fruits of His righteousness? Lord, make our hearts ready to receive You at Your coming. Come soon Lord Jesus! As we await the Master’s return, let us return to an ancient path and live by the Father’s Family Values. Amen.