Family Sermon Series

Synopsis of Sunday’s Sermon - How To Live God’s Plan For Your Family
Text: Gen.1-3

Do you think that God has a plan for your family? If so what is it? Could you verbalize it? If God does have a plan for the family why is it that so many families don’t seem to be doing so good at it?

Let’s answer the question by going back to the basic source – the opening chapters of the Bible. Here is the root teaching about family. Whatever else the Bible has to say about family life is the fruit that grows from this root.

In Gen. 1 we learn that God created man (male and female). The text tells us that the Lord instructed man to subdue and rule the earth as his stewards. Man was also to multiply in number and fill the earth. Here is family life in its basic form. God blessed man and provided all he needed to do this.

In Gen. 2 we see a more personal side of this story. Here we learn about the garden. We see man created by God and placed in the garden to care for it. We also see God create woman to be man’s co laborer and join them together as man and wife. Together they would fulfill the Genesis one mandate. This was the pattern – man would leave his family, cleave to his wife and they would become one flesh. All this lived out in close fellowship with the Lord

So here is God’s simple plan: two people created in God’s image, loving God, working together (marriage/family) in God’s world to achieve God’s purposes. How primal! How beautiful!

So if it is really this simple what has gone wrong?

Gen. 3 gives us the answer. Man and woman sinned. They chose their way instead of the Lord’s way. They decided he wasn’t enough for them. In an instant all the beauty, love, harmony and joy were destroyed. God’s world was perverted. Instead of cleaving there was alienation between the man and his wife and between man and God. Every family since then is dysfunctional in its relationships.

But, God did not write them off. Just as we see him in his role as creator and provider we also see him as redeemer. The Lord promises victory over the serpent and sin through the seed of woman. The rest of the Bible tells this story.

Because of sin your family is always going to be dysfunctional. But it can become increasingly functional, experiencing the joy God's original purpose in greater measure. The only hope for this is God’s grace. Now what that means we will explore in the days ahead but for now let me say to experience the best in your family will take three things: Faith, Hope and Love. All are gifts of grace that we need to make the family experience fulfilling. I hope you will come back in the weeks ahead to see how these three can help your family.