FAMILY MATTERS - PART I
FAMILY MATTERS - PART I “THE REAL AND THE IDEAL” OCTOBER 7-8, 2017 INTRODUCTION There are so many dynamics in family and no one prepares you. When it is all done you will leave a legacy…only question is what will it look like? What do we have in common? We didn’t have any choice in your family of origin. 2nd thing we all have in common is no one in our family is as smart as we are! Problem is when we read the Bible we learn about how broken families can be! I. THOUGHTS ON FAMILY Ephesians 6:1-4, “Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord…2Honor your father and mother…4Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them…” Father’s don’t embitter your kids. Ephesians 5:21-33, Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. 22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord…25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her…” Consider how she is doing. Fellow heir at the cross. Jesus said she is your sister you have the same Father in heaven.
II. WHAT ELSE? Nothing else. But it was so against the culture. Sum it up: Submit to each other… o Wives submit to husband o Husbands love your wives o Children obey your parents o Father’s don’t embitter your kids So ideal! Unfortunately we don’t come from an ideal family. There is real and there is ideal and that is the tension. What Jesus says is ideal and what I do are not the same. Jesus never lowered the bar, the ideal. Yet He never condemned those who fell short. III. DEALING WITH THE TENSION Matthew 19:3-11, “…the two shall become one flesh… What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate…Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way...” Verse 3 divorce – Women had no rights. Jesus goes to the tension…at the beginning, the ideal. You are trying to un-one the one God made. So what are you going to do to all the divorced people? I am going to give my life for them. CLOSE Are you willing to embrace what Jesus teaches or change the rules to feel better? We have all failed here…but Jesus doesn’t condemn us He heals and empowers us.
II. WHAT ELSE? Nothing else. But it was so against the culture. Sum it up: Submit to each other… o Wives submit to husband o Husbands love your wives o Children obey your parents o Father’s don’t embitter your kids So ideal! Unfortunately we don’t come from an ideal family. There is real and there is ideal and that is the tension. What Jesus says is ideal and what I do are not the same. Jesus never lowered the bar, the ideal. Yet He never condemned those who fell short. III. DEALING WITH THE TENSION Matthew 19:3-11, “…the two shall become one flesh… What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate…Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way...” Verse 3 divorce – Women had no rights. Jesus goes to the tension…at the beginning, the ideal. You are trying to un-one the one God made. So what are you going to do to all the divorced people? I am going to give my life for them. CLOSE Are you willing to embrace what Jesus teaches or change the rules to feel better? We have all failed here…but Jesus doesn’t condemn us He heals and empowers us.
