Family Matters Part 2
Genesis 1:27-28 (NLT)
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Ephesians 2:19 (NLT)
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.
The foundation stone of all society is the family. Before there was a community, school, or government, God created the family. As believers in Jesus Christ, we also have a spiritual family. We call it our forever family.
In our families, we discover our identity; the most influential voice in the life of a child is its family. (Parents, Grandparents, Siblings) Identity is the well from which we draw our self-worth.
In our families, we define our
Psalms 11:3 (NKJV)
3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
Family matters because our
Titus 1:15 (NLT)
15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.
In our natural families, we learn to
God/Church
People/
Love/Respect/
Honesty/
Cleanliness/
1 Kings 11:1-4 (NLT)
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites.
2 The LORD had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway.
3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the LORD. 4 In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the LORD his God, as his father, David, had been.
2 Corinthians 6:14 (NKJV)
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT)
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
In our spiritual family, we learn to
God - Father,
Word of God
Worship
Evangelism
Ministry
People -
Family matters because our
2 Timothy 3:1-6 (NLT)
1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.
2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.
3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.
4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
6 They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes (families) and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires.