The Dad, Mom, Kids, and the Saviour

Call to worship

Psalm 40:7–9 (ESV): Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

8  I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

9  I have told the glad news of deliverance

in the great congregation;

behold, I have not restrained my lips,

as you know, O Lord.

Crumbling Home Front Introduction Illustration

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1566 Home Front Crumbling

America’s ambassador to Japan, Douglas MacArthur II, served as Counselor of the State Department under John Foster Dulles. Like Dulles, MacArthur is a hard worker. Once when Dulles telephoned the MacArthur home asking for Doug, Mrs. MacArthur mistook him for an aide and snapped irately, “MacArthur is where MacArthur always is, weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and nights—in that office!”

Within minutes, MacArthur got a telephoned order from Dulles: “Go home at once, boy. Your home front is crumbling.”

This is the nephew of Douglas MacArthur, I can happily report that The younger Douglas remained married to that woman till her passing. The issue here stands, family is not in great state today.

Next week will be looking at divorce and marriage in particular, but I believe God wants us to address the family over the next few weeks. So we are going to do that, here is why

Introduction to this mini-series

As I was looking at this text two weeks ago and have been reading and re-reading this section of scripture and it dawned on me the context of Children and then the talk of marriage and divorce that there is an underlying theme of family in this section of the text.

Let me show you:

You see God say of his son

Mark 9:7 (ESV)

7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

The Beloved son is one of God the fathers center of affections

You see the father bring his son to Jesus. Mark 9:14-29

The action of a parent bringing their kid to the Lord, for aid

You see the value of Children to the Lord in Mark 9:36-37

Mark 9:36–37 ESV

36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

and Mark 9:42

Mark 9:42 ESV

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

and Again in Mark 10:13-16

Mark 10:13–16 ESV

13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Parents, marriage, and divorce

This whole section is about Children and parents and even in the section we are launching from today Mark 10:1-12

Mark 10:1–12 ESV

1 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. 2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Speaks of fathers and mothers and we should listen to what I believe God is pointing out to us in the text.

So I will not be explicitly expository, verse by verse for the this week and the next 2.

Application:

That being said part of studying the word is to notice patterns as you study it. God is trying to teach us something through His word. So like when a word is repeated in the same way when reading a larger chunk of scripture watch out for larger trends!

Family seems to by a theme in these last few chapters. You can only see that if you read large sections of scripture at a time.

So when you’re reading scripture make notes on what you’re seeing. God doesn’t do things willy-nilly. He is an intentional God! We need to reflect that character when we’re studying his word.

So how to do that, get a good bible app, listen to it. Tape some scripture to your steering wheel, mirror. Discuss it with your family. Just keep the word before you!

The Fifth Commandment and the Family

Deuteronomy 5:16 ESV

16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Now the Bible uses the word father to speak of several different things, The political, the ancient, the spiritual, domestic, and natural father. “to paraphrase Thomas Watson”

Briefly the political would be the elected official or in that time period the king. The ancient is those that are elderly. The Spiritual is your pastors and elders in the church pastors in some traditions are called father. The domestic is more akin to your employer, though at time it could have been your master, it can be your commanding officer, and so on. Finally today we will be looking at he natural father, that is the man (and your mother) who raised you.

We can see throughout the above text just how parents and specifically fathers are to behave.

Applications

Men Lead their families

We have some in here who don’t have children, who no longer have children at home, you are still called to father, to lead your homes.

Eve was the first to consume the forbidden fruit, but it was Adam who was held responsible before God. He failed to keep the Covenant and we all suffer because we like him fail in sin as well.

Here is the risk if you don’t Satan will. Because David failed to protect his children his one Son Absalom rose up against him. David failed his job and so Absalom, his son turned against him.

2 Samuel 15:2–6 NKJV

2 Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was, whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, “What city are you from?” And he would say, “Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel.” 3 Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your case is good and right; but there is no deputy of the king to hear you.” 4 Moreover Absalom would say, “Oh, that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me; then I would give him justice.” 5 And so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. 6 In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

2 Samuel 18:14–15 NKJV

14 Then Joab said, “I cannot linger with you.” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart, while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. 15 And ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, and struck and killed him.

2 Samuel 18:33–19:2 NKJV

33 Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: “O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!” 1 And Joab was told, “Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2 So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day, “The king is grieved for his son.”

It was because of his failure that a Civil War would break out in Israel, father against son, and David would see his son killed.

It is David’s Lament that we must protect ourselves from and also men put yourself in that place. If you’re not leading your home this is the risk.

The first step for you to begin leading is to repent to the Lord for the sin of your Abdication. This is the sin of Adam, the sin of David.

Your next step is to dust of your old sword(the word) and learn it anew. If you don’t like weapons analogies, that’s put your work boots on.

I want to reassure you that if you’re not sure what steps to take know that you are not alone Jesus says this

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Jesus is the ultimate example of this. In defeating death he leads his bride the church in her mission, he provides for her every need, and for the children of the church he gives them good and worthy things.

So men lead your family. You can do it, and your heavenly father will provide for you to do so.

Ladies and the Family

Let me use a piece of military science for you ladies. You’re what’s called a force multiplier. This is when combat forces are given something to make them multiple times more powerful and effective.

Your truly are a force multiplier. You are given by God to your families to take them to the next level.

You may have heard of Martin Luther but have you ever heard of Katharina Von Bora his wife?

She was a nun, younger then him, who he had helped escape the convent with many others after she had come to faith. He had spent a good effort getting all the girls married but Katharina was not one who he was able to get married. So he married her. Which in german folklore at the time when a priest and a nun got married many believed it would signal the end of the world, yet here we are.

There marriage was one in which they truly loved one another. It could be said that had God not given Luther Katharina the reformation may have failed.

Against all odds, the unlikely union of this runaway nun and renegade monk blossomed over time into an authentic love story. A close look at Luther’s many letters to Katharina during their nearly twenty-one years together reveals the slow but steady maturation of their relationship, from initial reservations, to trust and respect, and ultimately to genuine affection and love. Luther’s letters, as well as snippets of their conversations recorded in Table Talk, also capture the couple’s good-natured repartee and their witty, teasing banter, which reveal the comfortable ease they enjoyed in their everyday lives together.

Luther quickly came to depend on Katharina, not only for her domestic, business, and financial prowess, but also for her companionship. “Kate, you have a god-fearing man who loves you,” Luther wrote to Katharina in 1533. “You are an empress.” “If I should lose my Katie I would not take another wife though I were offered a queen,” he declared later. In spite of the fact that Luther once quipped that he would carve himself an obedient wife out of stone, should he have the chance, it was obvious he both cherished and deeply respected his wife. Capable, industrious, strong-willed, and a gifted caretaker, Katharina was the perfect match for the sometimes-volatile, stubborn, and opinionated Luther, and he knew it.

In addition to her daily workload, which included breeding and slaughtering livestock and poultry for meat, fishing the local streams and ponds, planting and tending the fruit and nut orchards and the vineyard, raising bees for honey, preserving meats, fruits, and vegetables, and brewing her own beer (Luther preferred Katharina’s homemade brew over any other), Katharina also managed the household finances, oversaw the purchase and maintenance of additional properties, and tended to Luther’s many maladies, which included kidney stones, chronic dizziness and shortness of breath, depression, and alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation.

The couple also parented six biological children together (and weathered the deaths of two daughters), as well as eleven foster children—nieces and nephews whose parents had perished from the plague and other illnesses.

She was a force multiplier. A Proverbs 31 woman. You with God’s help can be also, the world will try to tell you that you can’t or that imagine is to much pressure on a women. That is a Godless understanding. The Holy Spirit is greater then you can imagine, your heavenly father is equipping you, don’t listen to the worldly voices that say otherwise.

You must know that you have great power in your family The Bible says: 1 Corinthians 11:7 (ESV) woman is the glory of man.” A king is improved or hindered by his advisors. You Ladies are the chief advisor to your husbands. Remember this.

So today is the day you encourage your husband to lead. If you’re the leader in your home it is time, I say this with love to step back. This is the curse of God for husbands, for fathers to not do their job. If you have to do it because of their abdication then please let us know and we will call him to repentance and by being in this church family help him learn to be a man. If you’re just taking reigns then I’d ask you

can also be the destruction of your family if you don’t manage your God given

Children and the Family

The live long in the land is because as you obey the parents you learn to obey your heavenly father. It is no surprise that America has gone off the rails. The saying “trust no one over 30.” Comes out of the hippie era. Those people are now running our country. The living in the land is not going well for this Christian nation. The failing to keep our side of the covenant is rearing it’s ugly head in the destruction of America and Western Christendom. Children your obedience is also necessary to maintain the blessings of the Covenant or we will experience the curses of it as you see in the OT and throughout church history.

So Children obey your parents in the Lord. That is your rightful worship of Christ.

Address the Sin in your family relationships

Sin Kills everything look at this relationship between brothers

Genesis 4:6–9 ESV

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis, Volumes 1 & 2 29. The Mark of Cain: Genesis 4:6–16

We have noted the importance of the word “sin” in this passage. But another vital word is “brother,” which appears six times in Genesis 4:8–11. Cain rose up not merely against Abel, but specifically “against his brother Abel.” With this filial emphasis, the Bible is making a point about the effects of sin when its power is unleashed. Sin began with Adam’s breaking covenant with God. But sin continues by breaking every other bond. Love gives way to envy and trust to resentment. Unless sin is checked, its progress destroys marriages, families, and whole societies. What is the key, therefore, to loving marriages and close family relationships? The answer: to overthrow sin’s power by the opposing power of God’s grace in Christ. While the word “brother” is repeatedly used regarding Abel, it is not written once in regard to Cain. Sin stripped him of brotherhood, destroying his natural family affection.

Sin had so impacted Cain that he didn’t even see his brother as a human anymore

Keep short accounts with one another. Repent, make amends, don’t let the sun set until you do. Sin and pain fester and rot. We’ve all heard and some of us have experienced the death bed stories, we know the regrets.

In Cain’s life we see the sin show up, Him act on the sin, and then the outcome

Genesis 4:12–14 ESV

12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Cain Never repented as we can tell from the story. He would go to the Land of Nod which means of Wandering and live as a vagbond traveler never to get the produce of the earth again.

Sin in the family does the same you will end up destroyed, repent and draw back near to one another.

A NOTE TO Grandparents

Let me give you 4 “T” Of Christian Grand parenting A member told me he loved alliteration and lots of points

Thanks

Proverbs 17:6 ESV

6 Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

This is not a crown you made yourself. This is a gift of God and so with this crown do as the elders do:

Revelation 4:10–11 ESV

10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

You must praise God for your grandchildren. He is the giver of good things. Praise God with that crown put it before King Jesus in priase. He has crowned you, and so remeber who you owe your crown to.

Time

I am not meaning to hurt anyone with this one, but I see in Florida a market of goods that say “worlds best grandpa, grandma.” Those are nice but you need to actually do this. God has only given us so much time and we are accountable to him for how we use it. Today more then ever your family needs you. Barry the hatchet if you have to, seek out yo your family. Maybe your kids and grand-kids don’t call enough, phones go both ways. We’re not told how much time we have with one another. You may never know how much your phone call to your grandchild, your grown child will impact them and you until you get to heaven. I thank God for my Grandma who even though my parents divorced never gave up on my because my mom and her split up. MAybe your blessed to be close use those precious minutes to gloryfy God by enjoying this children.

Talent

Part of being an experienced adult is that you’ve learned a thing or two. My wife’s Grandma Bargar was cookie grandma who baked everything and as a result she taught a lot of that and inspired her granddaughters to bake. My Grandfather is a reader, and is a lover of ideas and so am I. My other grandfather packed his own bullets, but never took the time to teach my brother and I and so I don’t know his recipes as to how he did it and I’ll never know. You can set and share your talents and most importantly the love of God.

Tears

(use birthing illustration for prayer)

Call Of Repentance

Benediction

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (ESV): Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.