Families Matter

Pastor has mentioned this here at Life Song and Pastor Jack Hibbs mentioned this in one of the videos on
Wednesday night, families are under attack. The enemy and the culture want to tear down or redefine the christian
family or families in general.
In the beginning God created Adam and God decided that Adam should not be alone, look at Genesis 2:18-24
Genesis 2:18-24
This in my opinion is the start of the family. When a man and women are joined in marriage they become a family.
After Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden they started their family, first Cain was born then Abel, look at
Genesis 4:9
Genesis 4:9
I think Cain is kind of back talking to God, but what I want to take note of here is that God expects us to watch over
one another especially family. Cain was to watch over Abel and Abel over Cain. After a period of time Adam and
Eve had another son Seth.
Genesis 4:25
I thought about this when reading through Genesis, Noah is a descendant of Seth, but Cain’s descendants are never
mentioned again after Genesis 4:16-24. Jump ahead to Genesis 6:18 and we find Noah right before the flood.
Genesis 6:18
When God saved Noah from the flood, the covenant was with Noah, but it wasn’t an individual case salvation, but a
salvation for him, his wife, his sons and his sons’ wives. Look at Genesis 12, here is Abram before God changed his
name.
Genesis 12:1-5
Jump down to verse 7
Genesis 12:7
The covenant God made with Abram wasn’t just with him, it was with his family and not just his immediate family,
but many, many generations to come. Families must be very important to God.
Families come in many shapes and sizes, a man and wife may be called a couple, but I believe they are still a
family. A man and women with children are what most people think of when you say family, but you could have a
blended family, where the man or women has children from a previous marriage. A single parent with children is
also a family. We have our extended family, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
etc. Then we have our church family, we are family here. I have said this before, because of Jesus I have spiritual
brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. As Christians if we want our way of life to prosper we have a job to do, and it
starts with our children.
Proverbs 22:6
This verse tells us about our responsibility as parents, we are to teach our children, show them the way, remember
they are always watching and learning. They will pick up our habits both good and bad, I pray they learn from both,
but keep the good and discard the bad.
A couple of other verses about direction for children
Ephesians 6:1-4, Colossians 3:20
One way that we can help them and start their journey as parents is how we treat our spouses in the home, in the
church, and in public
1 Peter 3:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-33
These verses outline how husbands and wives should treat one another. Men remember just because your the head
of the household, this does not give your authority to lord over your wife and family. This is God’s structure for the
family and you will be held accountable as the head. If you lead in love, your wife and children will follow, believe
me I am not the perfect husband or father, I am always learning, but these verses are for our guidance as how we
should lead our families and children. One other verse that sums up how to treat our spouse and others is Ephesians
4:32.
Ephesians 4:32
We did a marriage small group once and this was one of the key verses from the study, it’s great for marriage, but
can also be used in our day to day lives.

When God gave Moses the ten commandments at Mt Sinai, they are biblical principals meant to help the people
live together in harmony. Two of the ten commandments are about the family, the fifth was also in Ephesians 6:2,
Honor your father and your mother. The fifth commandment regarding honoring parents is meant to preserve the
authority of parents in family matters, The seventh commandment, Thou shall not comment adultery. The seventh
commandment prohibiting adultery protects the sanctity of marriage. All you need to do is look at our world and
you can see how the enemy is trying to destroy our families by coming against these two commandments.
I believe one of the greatest things you can teach your children is respect. Respect for their elders, parents,
grandparents, teachers, other children and themselves. Some people have a different view of respect than I have,
they seem to believe they deserve more respect. Let me try to explain what I am saying, everyone deserves a certain
amount of respect just because their human, but I believe beyond that you earn respect through how you treat
others. If I just meet someone I will give then respect, but it’s not the same amount that I may give someone that I
have developed a relationship with over years. A lot of respect is earned. You may have heard what is referred to as
the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Two verses that talk about this are these.
Luke 6:31, Matthew 7:12
There are a few groups of people I give a lot of respect to when I first meet them, fellow veterans, law enforcement
and fellow Christians. I have a little story about respect, this was a great teaching moment for my boys. There was a
time I stepped out of leadership for a while, I still plowed the snow here at the church though. At Christmas time we
give each leader a card with a small gift of appreciation, this particular Christmas time I received a card, it was
from Pastor Mike. I opened it and inside was a gift of appreciation, not cash like we give the leaders, but a check
from Pastors personal account. My boys were standing there with Kim and I asked Jacob if he knew what this was?
He answered a check, wrong. I asked Austin, and he said respect. Correct answer.
I am going to wrap up with a couple of verses, I have used both of these verses during offering messages about
serving, I know what your thinking, he is going to talk about serving again. I make mention to serving a lot because
it is an important part of my life, you may disagree with me, but I believe everyone should serve whether it’s in the
church, or the community, or with people. Each and every person here has gift to give, plus if your children see you
serving this will help fulfill Proverbs 22:6
Galatians 6:7-9, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 Peter 4:9-10
One more story, some Sunday’s while I am at the door Laytham comes out sit and talk. I always ask if his parents
know where he is, as long as they know I don’t mind if he stays and talks. Last year when they had the one day
VBS, I was here finishing the mowing. He comes up to me and tells me I was in a dream he had. He told me about
it and I kind of made light of it. As the day went on and I chewed on what he told me. The next morning I asked
him about it again, he explained it again, this time I was more attentive, see James 1:19, I listened closely and
encouraged him. You never know what your children are seeing when they are watching you or for that matter what
other children are seeing. I keep coming back to Proverbs 22:6, but there many verses we can use to help lead our
families. I use myself a lot for examples, but I believe each person here could tell me a story about they made a
difference in their family. We need to work together to pass on our Christian heritage.