First - Family

This first month this series of talks are called “first.” We are talking about priorities, things that we should put first.

 

Last week the question to you was; what is your plan to get closer to God this year? The Scripture was Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 

Today the challenge is; what is your plan for passing on the things that are above to our families?

 

Today lets focus on intentionally leading those in your family to Jesus.

 

Family is the first human institution that God put together. It was before there was a church, or a country, or government. The first thing was the family and the home. And the family became the key foundation in his creation.

 

Genesis 2:23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

 

This is the simple description of God’s plan. A man and a woman who leave behind their other primary relationships to begin a new relationship, a new family where there will be a joining together on a level that will never be shared with anyone else.

 

The family is the first structure that God created and it’s a highly important structure. Your family is not on loan to you from the state.

And your family is not your little kingdom.

But your family is something very special that you need to protect diligently because it is the first basic unit where people live their life - mess that up and you get a lot of messed up people.

 

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

 

Tell me about your vision of what you want your family to look like?

Tell me what you want their faith to look like.

Tell me about the people that you’re going to put forward as heroes.

Tell me about the stories that you’re going to tell them.

 

Parents are always the spiritual leaders of their family whether intentional or not.

 

 

It one of the great Old Testament passages we have Moses addressing the priority of leading the family spiritually.

 

Deuteronomy 6:1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

 

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

 

What is being passed down in the family is the greatest thing that you will ever pass down as a parent or a grandparent. We are passing down the greatest story, the greatest news, the greatest heritage, the greatest knowledge, the greatest relationship, the key to all blessing, the key to all knowledge, the key to all living, the key to the abundant life, we are passing down the good news of Jesus Christ.

 

And notice in these verses that the passing down of the knowledge of God is important;

• We are to talk about it when we are in the house.
• We are to talk about it when we walk or work together.
• We are to talk about when we lie down.
• We are to talk about it when we get up.

 

In the family we answer the 4 big questions:

1. Creation – what are we doing here? What is my purpose?
2. Rebellion – what went wrong? Why so much evil?
3. Salvation – what is the solution?
4. Restoration – how do we change the world?

 

 

Being my family’s leader means that I protect them.

Being my family’s leader means that I stay on task.

Being my family’s leader means that they always feel safe.

Being my family’s leader means bringing moral, spiritual and ethical clarity.

 

Have a dinner table.

Turn off the screens.

Talk.

Pray.

Raise up a generation of brave, Jesus following, counter cultural, bible believing, baptized in water and the holy spirit, rationally thinking, well adjusted, polite, hardworking, loving kids who will change the world!

 

I heard a great quote – if you raise your kids, you can spoil your grandchildren. If you spoil your kids, you will raise your grandchildren.

 

So, what is your plan to train up your family?