FAMILIES NEED FAITH TO BE STRONG
STRONG FAMILIES LESSON 3: FAMILIES NEED FAITH • Sermon • Submitted
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For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
INTRO:
STRONG FAITH IS NEEDED IN EVERY FAMILY
STRONG FAITH IS NEEDED IN EVERY FAMILY
The series is called “Strong Families” because in it we are talking about how to strengthen families and that is because if our families are going to survive in our culture it will need to be strong. And our families will not be strong unless at least two things happen:
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
(1) Unless God is the source of our families strength. We can try to have a strong family and close relationships and hope the world does not do to much damage but if God is the one who watching over it then there are no guarantees.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
Psalm 127:
We may not realize just how true it is that having a strong godly family does not happen by change but instead takes effort. It doesn’t just happen.
H
The beginning relationship of a family; the marriage is a good example of that. I’ll prove it. Those of you who have been married for a while; would you have a good marriage if you did not put effort into it? (Sometimes a lot of effort.) Marriage can be great and it is well worth the effort but it takes fighting for, right?
The same is true when the marriage expands into children as the family gets bigger.
THE ENEMY IS FIGHTING AGAINST OUR FAMILIES:
WE DO NOT NEED STATS TO BELIEVE AND KNOW THAT SO MANY FAMILIES DO NOT MAKE IT. WE HEAR ABOUT THEM AND SEE THEM ALL THE TIME IN OUR CULTURE.
There is a reason for this. We live in a culture that is very toxic to the family that God intended. So many families do not make it because whether we are fighting for our families or not the enemy is fighting against our families.
(ILL:
We need to be careful that we do not make the mistake of thinking: “that will never happen to my family” or “that will never happen to our children.”
(If your family is struggling right now please do not feel alone and please do not feel like everyone else has it all together perfectly. Every family has its struggles, strengths and weaknesses and we all have things that we need to work on and improve.)
We should all be fighting to have a stronger family so we can be a brighter light and greater glorification of God.
We need to be careful that we do not make the mistake of thinking: “that will never happen to my family” or “that will never happen to our children.”
But for our families to be what God intended for them to be and what desire them to be it will not happen by accident. It will take Christ being in the midst of our families as well as our hearts being turned towards our families.
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Luke 18:27
We might not
From our reading this week in
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,
What is a strong family? What do you think of when you think of a strong family?
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
FAITH IS NEEDED IN WHAT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE
FAITH IS NEEDED IN WHAT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE
And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
Mark 9:
And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
Matthew 17:
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matt 17:
What does their life look like?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
We might think of a strong family as being in a nice house and being financially secure. We might think of a strong family as the family that is involved in everything. Where the husband and wife are successful, the kids get good grades, are good at sports or their extracurricular activities. The future seems secure and vacations always happen and so on.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
But many families have all of those things and more physically but spiritually are bankrupt. Even though they are healthy on the outside spiritually they are far from God.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
A strong family in God’s eyes could be like the family in Honduras that is intact and a part of the body of Christ. Even though they do not have a lot of possession or even jobs at times, they are close to one another and close to God hopefully. They are together and serving and trusting in God.
WHAT IF WE FOUGHT AS HARD FOR OUR FAMILIES AS WE DO...
Jesus said in…store up treasure in heaven…(He said this because people then and now and in general focus on working to make this life as good as it can be by storing up treasures now…
We cannot take what we make or our possessions to heaven. But if we are living for Christ and leading our families to Him then it is possible that we have our families there with us. (Let us not lose what we could have eternally for things that are only temporary.)
Spiritual vs Physical mindset toward family (Temporal vs eternal) (When we focus only on (or mainly on) how our families are doing physically (in this life) the best we will do is give them good things for the few years we are here - When we focus on how our families are doing spiritually we can help them have the greatest thing they could ever receive - eternity with Christ (and with us).
We often get so wrapped up with what our families are doing or going through in this life. But no matter what there is nothing in the life our our families that is or will be more important than where
They were building the walls, working and willing to fight to keep their families safe and secure physically.
We need to work and fight to make sure our families are secure and healthy spiritually.