The FamilyMuddy World

The Family in a Muddy World

Your Home: Is It “Dry Ground” in a Muddy World?
by Dr. Edward Watke, Jr.

Introduction:
• Like sand castles on the waters edge in a rising tide, the Christian family stands in a precarious position.

• What started out to be but sporadic spray is now a wall about to destroy everything in its path.

• What was once “safe TV” is full of messages about weak fathers, incompetent mothers and rebellious children.

• Any five year old can talk about divorce, ten year olds are exposed to drugs, and twelve years olds face sexual pressures.

We Face An Eroding Culture:

Can there be any doubt that our society is eroding at a frightening pace?

1. The greatest threat to our nation does not come from any force or power outside our borders.

2. The decay is coming from within, and unless there is a reversal -- we are looking straight into a terrifying abyss.

3. The chasm results from the destruction of the family structure and an attitude that says the traditional family is not only to be looked down upon, but even reviled.

4. The American family is being satirized, ridiculed, mocked, and held up for contempt. . . all for the sake of a few laughs.

5. Research studies done a few years ago concluded that the average person sees 9,230 actual or implied sex acts per year on TV, and from 94 to 81 percent of that sexual activity (depending upon the time of day) is extra-marital. This means the average teenager, watching TV for ten years, say between 8-18 will see almost 75,000 acts of illicit sex. . . and TV is much worse since this research was done.

6. Prior to l920, our society shared a certain God-consciousness, not everyone was a Christian, of course, but people recognized there were absolute standards for human conduct growing out of the Bible. They knew they had to answer to a higher authority -- God - for how faithful they adhered to those standards.

7. The average American 3 grader spends 900 hours per year in the classroom, they spend 1,190 hrs. watching TV, more than 3 hours a day, each and every day.

8. In facts surveys prove that in the teen years, peers replaced parents as the number one shaper of values and behavior.

9. Another one of our society’s sins that has over-whelmed us is materialism... we live in a prosperous nation.. most of us have all the creature comforts we could ever need, even if not as much as we want.

10. Our culture continues to drive home the message that what we are and have already just isn’t enough.

11. Every day, husbands, wives and children are hit with a barrage of stimuli telling them there is much more to life than raising a family -- there is much more to life than nurturing children and providing a solid foundation for a moral life for the next generation-- There are sleek new cars and clothes to buy, credit cards to use and fine wines to taste... is the message.

Think About the Morase In Which We Find Ourselves:

1. We have been sucked in by shifting morals and values. We now think of divorce as a ready option to commitment, and abortion as an issue of personal freedom rather than one involving life, death and responsibility before God.

2. The pace of our society, coupled with the financial pressures that lead to two career families has worked steadily to push us toward abdicating much of our parental duty.

3. Millions of our kids are now turned over to child-care workers, day care centers and the TV. These children receive much of their teaching and their first impressions of life from people other than their parents. They are known as -- latch-key kids --

4. The average father in the U.S. spends less than a half a minute each day in meaningful conversation with his children.. that boils down to three hours a year... the husband, father, and the one who should be the spiritual director of the home!

5. It is sad beyond words, but over one-half of the children in school in the U.S. come from broken homes.

6. It ought to be abundantly clear that this is not a Christian culture.. in fact in many ways the culture of the nation is openly antagonistic toward biblical values, and lifestyle.

What Is God’s Purpose for the Family. . . That It Might Be On DRY
Ground In a MUDDY World?

> From His perspective, what is the purpose of the Family?
> What should be our goals as parents?
> We need to know these things and keep them in mind.We need to see the big picture!

A. Spreading His Image: Gen. 1:28; 1:27;

There are three reasons why God created marriage and the family. --

1. The first we might call procreation -- God told Adam and Eve -- Gen. 1:28; “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

a. in having children - you will create look-alikes of yourself.
b. From God’s perspective, the reason is for the one creature made in God’s image to take dominion over the world.... to fill the earth with creatures who would bear God’s image and live right bringing glory to HIM.

2. God wants us and enables us to have children because He wants the mark of God to be transferred... to exercise biblical dominion -- that is conveying the mark of God from our generation to our children.

B. For Completion -- Gen. 2:18

1. We are different-- male and female -- that we might be the completer one of another.

2. Filling the need of the spouse.

C. To Illustrate the Divine -- Eph. 5:25, 30-32

1. Consider-- the Trinity -- three powerful persons who are distinct and yet one entity. They share the same essence -- the same divinity, power, holiness, eternal existence without beginning or end -- yet they are distinct; the Spirit is not the Father, the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit.

2. God planned that marriage and family are to illustrate the Trinity -- we share the same human essence... both are made from the same clay that God created, and both are made in His image.. exhibiting many of God’s traits -- (personality, will, emotions). When these two come together, out of their relationship is born another who is different from either of them, yet has the essence of both.

3. Your marriage -- life together and the manner of life you live in the place you call home is to be an illustration, an example of what we have in Christ.

D. To Set Forth the Importance of a Covenant - Mal. 2:14

1. How does God view the marriage relationship?

2. Marriage is a covenant -- what is a covenant?

a. It is legally binding agreement between two or more parties.

b. It is based on a personal relationship. It is predicated on relationships... a biblical covenant is divinely established, it is legally binding all who agree to function under a designated structure of authority in accordance with revealed guidelines resulting in long-term consequences.

3. A marriage covenant is a legally binding relationship established by God.

4. God created the people who make up the marriage relationship -- and created the relationship itself.

5. A family’s ability to overcome the world’s destructive pressure is directly related to the position of authority Christ has in the household.

Satan understood this, and that is why he challenged God’s authority in the garden with Adam and Eve. He knew that if they became their own gods, setting their own agenda, their family would be destroyed. The same is truth today.

To day.. in this day of me-ism, no-fault divorces, and live-in relationships, people have lost the seriousness of marriage.... couples want to hedge their marital bets by signing prenuptial agreements... looking for an easy escape hatch without any inconvenience.

6. When we leave our God-given role chaos sets in. I Cor. 11:3.

E. To be Fruitful Plants: Psa. 128:3

1. Your wife shall be like a “fruitful vine, within your house, your children like olive plants around your table..”

2. Husband, you are responsible for the atmosphere in the home.

3. Men, when we come home, we must come home to give, not to get... seek to serve the family even when tired or had a difficult day. Eph. 5:25, vs. 28, 29

4. Make circumstances for growth... for your wife and your children so they become like olive plants around your table. Build the conditions in which they will be raised...

a. to be godly, nurtured,
b. built, giving attention, no substitute for this!!
c. Blessed, a united family, happy, godly... worshiping, serving the Lord... not things, not this world system, etc. I Jh 2:15-17

F. To Walk in Godly Love, Eph. 5:2

1. I Cor. 13:1-7; Love is patient and kind. 4a

2. Never boastful, conceited; never rude, jealous... does not take offense, and is not resentful... with jealousy, pride and conceit which are three deadly enemies of family unity and family love. Too often each seek’s one-up over the other. It is power plays for control and self serving agendas.

3. Love is not loud, becoming a swaggering parent, boasting, etc.

4. Love is quiet... thoughtful, doing, serving, ministering.

5. Love is never rude, or selfish... but instead gentle, courteous, etc.