Parenting

Intro

Last week we started a series on idolatry. Specifically, in the first message I shared about the dangers of idolatry. We looked at Paul’s assessment of people in the book of Romans who had been given over to a depraved mind.

And we said that what led to people to developing a depraved mind, or a mind that is incapable of discerning between righteousness and wickedness was idolatry.

Romans 1:21-24 NLT 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.

I also said that idolatry is about much more than statues or carvings. We said that Idolatry is looking to something other than God to give what only God can.

It is elevating anything in our lives above God. And it is really easy to do. In fact, we all struggle with idolatry more than I think we are aware of or willing to admit.

So this morning I want to do a little thought exercise with you. I am going to say a phrase and I want you to fill in the blank.

There is one caveat and it is that God is not going to ask you to sin, so the answers you fill in the blank with shouldn’t be sinful acts.

“If God asked me to _____, I wouldn’t do it. If God asked me to give up _____, I wouldn’t give it up. I would never, ever ______, even if it was for God.”

Thought exercises like this are one way to identify areas of our life in which things, people, or even values are being placed before God and have become an idol.

I don’t know what things came to mind as you were doing this, and maybe you are thinking to yourself, “there is nothing I wouldn’t do or give up for God”.

I hope you are right, but the reality is, there are things in our lives that would be very difficult for us to do or give up.

I often think about Abraham’s test to sacrifice his son Isaac and whether or not I would trust God enough to do it.

Or more practically, what if God asked me to quit my job, pack up my family, and move across the country or even to another country for some specific calling?

These are difficult questions. This morning I want to look specifically at one area of our lives that has the potential to become an idol if we aren’t careful.

I want to talk about family. My question for you is “is your family more important than serving God”?

Power in the Text

The family can become an idol. Family can become a barrier to our worship of God. Family idolatry can have destructive consequences, as seen in the family of Isaac, Rebekah, and their two twin sons, Jacob and Esau.

Esau was the firstborn son(by a few minutes) and the favorite of Isaac, while Jacob was loved by Rebekah (Genesis 25:28).

By all accounts, Rebekah was the original helicopter mom.

When the time came for an aging and dying Isaac to pass his blessing to the firstborn son according to tradition, Rebekah decided to do something about it.

The blessing of the oldest son was a big deal in the culture of the day. It was special, and it was permanent.

Genesis 27:1-4 NLT One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, “My son.” “Yes, Father?” Esau replied. 2 “I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and I don’t know when I may die.

3 Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 4 Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.”

The Bible tells us the Rebekah, overheard this conversation, so she came up with a plan.

She had Jacob go and gather the food so she could make Isaac’s favorite meal and then had Jacob dress as Esau and lie to his nearly blind father about his identity so he could receive the blessing instead of Esau.

Genesis 27:18-24 NLT 18 So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said. “Yes, my son,” Isaac answered. “Who are you—Esau or Jacob?” 19 Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.”

20 Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” “The Lord your God put it in my path!” Jacob replied. 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” 22 So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said.

23 But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob. 24 “But are you really my son Esau?” he asked. “Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.

We see here that not only was Rebekah willing to deceive her husband and steal her oldest son’s blessing, Jacob too didn’t seem to have any problem doing the same.

Genesis 27:27-29 NLT 27 So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the Lord has blessed!

28 “From the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, may God always give you abundant harvests of grain and bountiful new wine. 29 May many nations become your servants, and may they bow down to you. May you be the master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. All who curse you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be blessed.”

The deception works and Isaac blesses Jacob instead of Esau. And the thing about these blessings is that once they were given, they were binding and could not be revoked.

Well as you can imagine, when Esau returns from the hunt and prepares the meal for his father, he is shocked to find that his father has already given the blessing.

The result of this deception was tragic for everyone involved. Isaac was distraught because he had not been able to bless his firstborn son and his wife and other son had deceived him.

Esau felt robbed because he had not received a blessing from his father.

Jacob was afraid of what Esau would do to him, so Rebekah sent him away (vv. 41–45).

Big Idea/Why it Matters

We don’t often think about our Biblical families as being so dysfunctional, but the reality is that they were extremely dysfunctional.

Here you had a mother who clearly favored Jacob over Esau, so much so that she was willing to see Esau suffer so Jacob could be blessed.

Years earlier, Esau sold his birthright as the firstborn son to Jacob for a bowl of stew, showing that his birthright meant very little if anything to him.

Isaac is this blind old man at the end of his life and was taken advantage of by his own wife and son.

It was a mess. And the real kicker here is that back when Rebekah was pregnant, God had spoken to her and made her a promise that Esau would one day serve Jacob.

But rather than waiting for God to fulfill that promise, she took matters into her own hands and in a lot of ways ruined her family because she had made it an idol.

She made Jacob and his success her idol. In the end, she got what she wanted and Jacob received the blessing, but not without a great cost.

The Bible says that she sent Jacob away to avoid being murdered by Esau. Jacob ended up leaving his family and being away for forty years, and sadly, he and his mother never saw one another again.

Rebekah’s love for Jacob went beyond the healthy love a parent should have for their child. (This was probably also true of Isaac’s favoritism toward Esau.) These dysfunctional family relationships of misplaced adoration robbed a blessing from one son to give to the other.

In this, Rebekah was placing herself before God; rather than trusting that he knew what he was doing with the birth order of their children, she decided that she knew what was best. The consequence was a family torn apart.

I want to bring this back to the question I opened with, “is your family more important than serving God”?

Or, “do you trust yourself more than you trust God when it comes to caring for your family”?

Application/Closing

This something that I think all parents struggle with. We all want the best for our children and we want to protect them. And we should. But there is a limit to our ability to do so.

There has to be a point where as a parent you let go and let God. There has to be this level of trust that God knows what he is doing, even when we don’t understand.

But it isn’t just about trusting God. Sometimes our families can get in the way of serving God

Perhaps you have placed family functions and activities over being consistent in being in Church and serving the Church and being actively involved.

If it is more important to you to have your kids at a birthday party than it is to teach them that sometimes we have to sacrifice things we want to serve God and be at Church then maybe you have made family an idol.

If it is more important to you to run your kids all week to the various plethora of activities they are involved in but then are too tired or busy to come to Church, then maybe you have made your family an idol.

If you get more excited about watching your kids open presents on Christmas morning then seeing them sing carols at a Christmas Eve service then maybe you have made your family an idol.

If you are willing to drop thousands of dollars on a family vacation but won’t give what you know you should to your local Church, then maybe your have made family an idol.

If you are willing to lie, cheat, or steal just so your kid can get ahead, then maybe you have made family an idol

The reality is, there are many ways this can manifest itself. We have to be very careful because idolatry more than just about any other sin will lead you down a rabbit hole that is very difficult to climb back out of.

It is all about perspective. So let’s keep ours. Our family is a gift from God to be enjoyed but not worshiped.

Let’s teach our families how to worship and serve God alone instead.