{"id":9139,"date":"2020-07-12T12:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?post_type=message&p=9139"},"modified":"2020-07-17T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T16:49:08","slug":"this-is-your-family","status":"publish","type":"message","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/message\/this-is-your-family","title":{"rendered":"This Is Your Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Below is an automated transcript of this message:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Good <\/i><\/span> morning, everyone! Good to see you here this morning and it’s good to be with you. Those of you that are watching online this morning, we welcome all of you. This morning, we are beginning a new series entitled, \u201cThis Is Us.\u201d We’ll be talking about how God wants to bless your family and how He wants you to follow His design because, after all, the family was God’s idea. And so that’s what we’re talking about today.

\nWe begin today, just in general, talking about the family. Over the next few weeks, we will talk about marriage, parenting and how to leave a legacy. I hope you’ll tune in with us, either in person or online for the next few weeks.

\nHave you noticed how Hollywood has depicted the American family through the years? It’s kind of a way of keeping up with how the American family has changed through the years. Back in the fifties, there was a show on TV called, \u201cFather Knows Best.\u201d I would have you wave <\/i><\/span> your hand if you remember that show. Today, we have, \u201cFamily Guy.\u201d That’s the new father model, right? \u201cThe Family Guy.\u201d Remember, back in the seventies, we had a program called, \u201cThe Waltons,\u201d which depicted an even earlier time. Today, we have \u201cThe Simpsons,\u201d and so, we see how the family is changing. Back in the eighties and into the early nineties, there was a program called \u201cFull House.\u201d Today, we have this TV series that’s very popular, \u201cThis Is Us.\u201d Now, we might try to blame Hollywood for the problems with the American family, but really, all Hollywood does is depict what it already sees in the culture. After all, Hollywood and the news and other media are in the business to make money, and so they often depict that which is most dysfunctional because it could be the most entertaining. I hope that you’re not modeling your family off of the media’s version of the family, but <\/i><\/span> instead, I would offer to you the best way is to model it based on God’s word.

\nConsider the following statistical portrait of today\u2019s family:\n40% of American children live with unmarried parents\nBirths out of wedlock have increased 450% in the last 30 years.\n50% of children who have married parents will live in a broken home before they reach 18\n80% of single parent homes are headed by mothers, of these 40% are living below the poverty line.\nThe divorce rate has tripled since 1960. But has recently leveled off, due to a decline of the marriage rate.\nIn 1962, 90% of Americans were married by age 30. In 2019, only 51% of 30-year-olds had been married.\nA survey was done of just men. And only 35% of American men are married by 30 which is a precipitous and rapid plunge since 2005 when 50% of American men were married by age 30 . <\/i><\/span>

\nSo, right when the Supreme Court has made it possible for homosexual couples to legally marry, the majority of Americans, especially men, are opting out of marriage. Most recently, \u201cpoly\u201d persons, persons who count themselves as either polygamous, which means they would desire multiple partners of the opposite sex, or polyamorous, which means they would desire members of the same or other sex, regardless of gender, are now seeking marital rights. Marriage will continue to decline, it looks like, as it is deconstructed and redefined.

\nMost recently, CBS News on July, the third reported that in Somerville, Massachusetts, they passed an ordinance making it one of the first cities in America to officially recognize polyamorous relationships. The city no longer limits the number of people included in a partnership. The change was unanimously passed by the City Council, and it requires only a minor shift in the language of their previous ordinance. It says, instead of defining a relationship as an “entity formed by two persons,” Somerville now <\/i><\/span> legally defines it as \u201centity formed by people.\u201d And so, we see marriage is being deconstructed and redefined in our nation.

\nToday the family, the American family, is in an unhealthy state. Would you agree with that in the culture today? Not only that, many of us don’t have to look at the media or the culture. Some of us only have to look in the mirror and say, God help us, we need help in our family systems today. For those of you who care about God’s plan, these statistics are troubling.

\nIf you’re married with kids, you’re probably concerned about what kind of world your children are growing up in. If you’re a divorced or a single parent, you’re afraid that your kids are going to be another statistic. If you’re a single woman and you still want to get married, there are fewer and fewer eligible men that are interested in marriage, and maybe you’re concerned it may never happen. How can these statistics and these trends be reversed?

\nIs it still <\/i><\/span> possible to live under God’s blessing as a family today? I would say to you, it is. It is still possible!

\nIn the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul wrote that believers would experience God’s blessing for their families. And I believe, today, that we can experience God’s blessing for our families.

\nHow can we do this? As we look at the text today, I believe we’ll see four steps to experiencing God’s blessing for our families. You’re looking at me like, Oh, he’s got four steps today. Well, put your seat belts; we are going to go fast.

\nFour steps on how to experience God’s blessing. Turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV) \u201c14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts throughfaith <\/i><\/span>\u2014that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.\u201d This is God’s word.

\nSo we’re looking, now, for four steps to experiencing God’s blessing on your family. Here is the first step:

\n1. Recognize God\u2019s authority.

\nYou’ll notice, in verses 14 and 15, (we will focus on those two verses on this first step) that Paul says, \u201cFor this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.\u201d This is what signals to us that Paul’s about to give us a written prayer, he says <\/i><\/span>he is going to bow his knees before the Father. So, the \u201c bow my knees\u201d phrase indicates to us that he’s going to pray. Then, you’ll notice in verse 20 and 21, he offers a benediction, which means a blessing, at the end of the prayer. He prays a prayer and then he offers a benediction with an \u201cAmen\u201d at the end. Paul is indicating to the church that he is praying for your family. He is praying specific things and praying for a blessing for your family.

\nWe might, also, consider when we look at the phrase, \u201cI bow my knees,\u201d that not only is this an indication that Paul’s praying; it also indicates that Paul’s submitting to God’s authority. Paul is saying, I bow my will to God’s will. I bend my will to His authority. He makes it even more specific. He says, \u201cI bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named.\u201d

\nNotice a couple of things there. You’ll see <\/i><\/span> the word, \u201cfamily.\u201d If you’re looking at your notes, he’s talking about God’s family. God’s family is made up of your family and my family together; the individual families under Christ make up God\u2019s family, which Christ is the head of. He’s talking about the Father (capital F) so he’s talking about God. The Father is the One who had the power and authority to name the family. Why is this? Well, the Father is the Creator, and He is the One who thought of the idea of the family.

\nThe family is not just a social construct that can be changed \u201cwilly nilly\u201d based on our opinions. No, God thought of the family. It was His idea, and so the Father names the family. In other words, He names what it is. He is the one who said, this is what I want the family to look like.

\nIn the original language of the New Testament,written in Greek, there are two interesting words here that form a kind of<\/i><\/span> alliteration in the way Paul’s writing here. He says, \u201cI bow my knees before the \u201cpat\u00e9r.\u201d If you like to take notes, \u201cfrom whom every patria.\u201d So, you can see the little play on words there. From every father, \u201cpat\u00e9r.\u201d From every family, \u201cpatria.\u201d And so, he’s saying the family comes from God. The Father is the authority. It was his idea. He named it.

\nLook at Genesis 1:27; when God first starts talking about the making, the creation of mankind. He says, Genesis 1:27 (ESV) \u201cSo God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them.\u201d And so, He had this in His heart; this idea that He would make us male and female so that he exists eternally as a Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He makes us in His own image, male and female. So there’s something of <\/i><\/span> that that is to be His image in this world.

\nNow, in Genesis, chapter two, he goes on to describe this in verse 18 \u201c\u201dThen the Lord God said, \u201cIt is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.\u201d Now, if you’re reading the Book of Genesis, you start thinking God has a sense of humor pretty early on, because after He made everything He says, that was good. He put lights in the heavens and He says, behold, that was good. And at the end of everything, He put fishing in the sea, I did good. I’ve made trees and I\u2019ve made flowers, I did good. Then on the sixth day, he made man and something’s missing, \u201cIt’s not good for man to be alone.\u201d And so, He made a woman from the man. In verse 23 it says, \u201cThen the man said, \u201cThis at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she <\/i><\/span> was taken out of
\nBefore there were churches, before there were nations and before there were any other institutions, God ordained the family. It’s His idea. We were made by God and we were made for God. He wants you; He wants to adopt you into His family, but because of our sin, we’ve chosen our own way. But we can turn back to God.

\nLook what it says in Ephesians 1:5 (NLT) \u201cGod decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.\u201d It pleases God. He wants you. He wants to adopt you <\/i><\/span> into His family. As we’re reading this, we’re talking about your family but we’re also talking about God’s family because He wants you to be part of His family. We have a choice to make. Will we follow the forms and systems of the family that we see in the world or will we follow God’s design for the family? We all must choose whether we will embrace cultural relativism, so that there is no truth, or we decide God’s word is true and we want a family just like God intended.

\nWe can pray like Joshua did in Joshua 24:15 (ESV) \u201c… choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.\u201d\nHave you made that determination, that commitment yet in your house?

\nFathers, May I speak to you first? Have you decided to lead your family <\/i><\/span> like a priest, being the one who says, we’re gonna put God first in my house, we’re going to choose in my house to serve the Lord? Will you make that determination today? The minute you make that determination, you’ve said I’m not in charge anymore. I’m putting my whole house under God’s direction and under His leadership.

\nThere’s a real loss of absolute truth in their culture today. Everyone is a law unto himself, just as they were during the days of Noah. There’s an embrace of relativism that’s led to so much confusion in our family system. Cohabitation, adultery, homosexuality and polyamorous relationships have led to confusion . Polyamorous relationships; well, that’s the new one. I’m just learning about new gender roles. There is a confused loss of traditional roles for husbands and wives, a delusion of masculinity and femininity so that they become interchangeable, transgenderism… I could go on.

\nParenting views have changed. There are changing views on discipline, there are fatherless homes, there is a sense of we wanna be our kids friends instead of their parents. Education <\/i><\/span> has changed on what should be taught. No longer is it reading, writing and arithmetic, but it’s sex education and other kinds of education that many of our parents would not want their children taught if they really knew what was happening in our schools. There’s a real shift in our culture today.

\nWhat will you decide? Will you decide, \u201cIn my house, we will serve the Lord?\u201d Which authority will you choose? Will you base it on the latest trend, the latest \u201cself help\u201d family guide book or will you base it on God’s Word? You cannot say, I will base my family on my upbringing because many of us come from broken families. Even in the best of families are all sinners and we all fall short. Let’s base it on God’s truth. Will you do it? That’s the first step. It’s the most important step. It’s the foundational step. On what basis will you build your family?

\nHere’s number two:

\n2. Depend on God\u2019s power.

\nWe see in verses 14 and 15 that Paul is <\/i><\/span> bowing to the Father. He speaks of the family; he speaks of how it’s named. But then, in verse 16 and then again, in verse 20, I want you to take note of the words, \u201cstrengthened\u201d and \u201cpower.\u201d 16 \u201cthat according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.\u201d 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.\u201d Both of these verses speak of God’s power. So the minute you choose God, you choose for your family to come under His blessing. I’m going to do family His way. The minute you do that, here’s what you find out; you can’t do that because everything’s against you, including your own sin nature. So therefore, in order to do family God’s way, we need God’s power to do it. Paul’s praying that for us for verse 16 and he’s praying for us in Verse 20. He prays a benediction and <\/i><\/span> he’s blessing us with it. So, he repeats it the first time. It’s the prayer request in verse 16; the second time, in verse 20, it\u2019s the blessing.

\nI pray you have this. You kind of see it as a mirror you’ll see, \u201che may grant you,\u201d in verse 16 \u201cto be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.\u201d Then, in verse 20, \u201cNow, to him who is able;\u201d he\u2019s saying, it’s yours if you want it. The words, \u201cpower\u201d and \u201cstrengthen\u201d come from a pretty cool Greek word called \u201cdunamis.\u201d It’s where we get the word dynamite, dynamo or dynamic. It’s explosive resurrection power. It’s the kind of power that can raise you from the dead. It’s a kind of power that could raise your marriage, your family from the dead. Some of you have experienced it. You’ve had a family that was all but \u201cdead,\u201d but He has raised it from the dead by His power.

\nIt begins with a decision. I’m not gonna do it my way <\/i><\/span> anymore, which is called repentance. The Bible calls that repentance, I’m not doing it my way anymore. Do it God’s way so you put Him in control. You say, I want to do it Your way now. Please help me do it Your way. I can’t do it Your way without Your help. And he wants to help. He wants to give you power to do it.

\nActs 1:8 (ESV) \u201cBut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.\u201d Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the Earth. He promises a spiritual power to live in us, to empower us and to do what he’s called us to do.

\nThere’s a troubling statistic taking place in the church today. I’m not talking about the world. I’m talking about church kids. Do you realize that 70% of American churchgoing kids, when they reach eighteen, in other words, when they graduate from high <\/i><\/span> school, they leave the church and they never come back? 70% of churchgoing kids; 7 out of 10 never come back. Now, why are they doing that? Maybe, it’s because their families made other things more important, higher on the priority. Maybe they chose school, soccer, gymnastics, violin, guitar lessons\u2026. whatever this long list of things could be, over going to church. All of the parents today really want their kids to play in the NBA, the NFL or some famous orchestra. We all have these high hopes for our kids; it’s great to have high hopes. But, how many of us are saying, I hope my child joins me in eternity, living in heaven forevermore with Lord Jesus. How many of us make that our highest hope and say, I’m going to put most of my effort into making sure that my child knows Jesus. We accidentally teach them the opposite of that even when we take them to church, because our own priority systems are so out of alignment. I’m not sure why it’s <\/i><\/span> happening, but can we please be the church where it doesn’t happen? Can we be the kind of church where our kids know the Lord Jesus and they’re brought up in the faith and they don’t leave the church,whether they go to college or wherever they go, they find a church there and they stay involved in God’s family. We need God’s power to do this. That’s the only way we can do it. So we have to recognize God’s authority and depend on His power.

\nHere’s the third step:

\n3. Abide in God\u2019s covenantal love.

\nLet\u2019s look at verses 17 through 19. The apostle Paul prays like this in verse 17 he says, \u201cso that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith\u2014that you, being rooted and grounded in love,\u201d Note a couple of words here; one is the word, \u201cdwell.\u201d He is saying, I’m praying that Christ \u201clives in your house.\u201d It’s an interesting word, \u201cdwell.\u201d It’s in the Greek and <\/i><\/span> literally has this idea, I pray that He \u201ctakes up residence.\u201d I pray that He moves in your house now. We might say, I’ve got the plaque on the wall that says \u201cChrist is the head of my house.\u201d It’s hanging on my wall. So, you have a plaque on your wall. But, for a lot of us, He’s only \u201cfront door company.\u201d

\nHere’s what I mean by that. He is invited into the front room. He can sit in the living room. He can be in the formal dining room, but He’s not \u201cback door company\u201d because we don’t want Him in that closet. We certainly don’t want Him in that back bedroom with that bathroom, because we hadn’t cleaned it up yet. We kind of feel like we need to clean it up first before we can let Him in. But, may I say to you, you’ll never clean it up without His help. Refer to point two: Depend on God\u2019s power. Open up your whole house to Him and let Him go <\/i><\/span> to work. I pray that you’d let Christ take up residence in your family and in your house, every room of the house, especially the closet, that you’ve kept locked all these years. Build a foundation; verse 17 says, \u201cthat you, being rooted and grounded in love,\u201d in other words, that you’d have deep roots down into the love of Christ. You would have a foundation.

\nNow what’s the word, \u201clove\u201d here? We’ve touched on a few Greek words. Here’s a Greek word that most of you know; it is the word \u201cagape.\u201d That’s God’s kind of love. There’s many words for love in the New Testament, the Greek word, \u201ceros,\u201d where we get the word, \u201cerotic.\u201d It’s sensual love. The Greek word for \u201cphileo,\u201d where we get the name of the city of Philadelphia, its brotherly love or conditional love. But then we have the word, \u201cagape.\u201d It’s God’s kind of love; it’s sacrificial love. It\u2019s not, \u201cI love you because of\u2026\u201d which is conditional love . <\/i><\/span> It’s \u201cI love you in spite of; I love You as an act of the will.\u201d It’s sacrificial love; God sent His son, Jesus, as a demonstration of it, to die for our sins. It\u2019s covenantal love; a love that never quits, never gives up or never fails. Covenantal love; that’s a word we don’t hear much anymore. We talk about marriage, that marriage is a divine covenant and that family is to express covenantal love. He goes on; he wants you to understand it. Verse 18 says that you \u201cmay have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,\u201d that you may have strength to comprehend another, to understand how much He loves. He says, \u201cthe breadth and length and height and depth.\u201d He’s talking about this whole huge place called love and then, to know the love and that’s to experience it. First of all, he wants us to comprehend it. And then he says, to \u201cknow, \u201c to touch it, to experience it. And then he says that it’s too much . <\/i><\/span> It will surpass your knowledge; it’s too big. But, you can base your whole family on God’s kind of love, which is revealed to us in Christ and that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He wants to live in your house, and He wants to fill your house with His love so that your house becomes a place of blessing and a place of rest and peace for all of its members.

\nThink of blessing like a covering; like an umbrella from the rain. Let’s say rain is like suffering, difficulty, hardship and warfare. But under the umbrella is safety and peace. God’s blessing is like a covering. Our house should be a place where the fullness of Christ and all of His love dwells. When you open the front door to go out to work, to school or to go to the grocery store,it’s like you are going out into a storm. You must go out there, but then, <\/i><\/span> when you come back in the house, you shut the door back. You are back in the safety of your home, where husbands love wives and wives love husbands. Children love parents and parents love children. However, you may say to me, Gary, the storm is actually at my house. I need to get out of the house to find some peace. Now, if you have little kids, and I’m not talking about childish behavior, little kids are little kids. They’re born sinners just like you were. We all want our own way. Your job is stewarding them, mom and dad. Raise them up to be Christ followers. Now, I\u2019m not talking about that kind of childish behavior, but even in that world, you can have order and peace if you put Christ first and invite Him to every room of your house.

\nHere’s what it says in 1 John 4:16 (ESV) So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.\u201d So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God <\/i><\/span> abides in him. Don’t you want the love of God to be the mark of your home? The mark of your family?

\nThere’s a problem today. The modern perspective on marriage has fallen from God’s plan and has forgotten the whole idea of sacrificial, covenantal love. Russell Moore, in his book entitled, \u201cThe Storm Tossed Family,\u201d writes, \u201cMarriage is increasingly a \u2018vehicle of self-actualization\u2019 rather than a setting for self-sacrifice.\u201d So, people enter into marriage with some kind of romantic sense that this will complete them; I need her to complete me. Well, may I say to you, that if you come into the marriage incomplete, you’ll stay incomplete if you’re thinking the other person’s going to complete you. Why? I want a 50\/50 relationship. That is all you will have; a 50% marriage. What we want and what we should desire as believers, is to find our completeness in Christ, that He makes us whole so that when we come into the family, we both bring 100% covenantal love <\/i><\/span>, not \u201cI love you if\u201d but \u201cI love you because Christ lives inside of me.\u201d Marriage and family is not a vehicle of self actualization, making you feel better about, you know. It’s a place to practice what God has taught us about covenantal love.

\nHave you heard this word, \u201cadulting?\u201d It’s a new verb adult thing, especially among the millennials and Gen Z. We’re about to run out of the alphabet, by the way, on our generations. They are speaking of \u201cadulting.\u201d \u201cAdulting” apparently means when young people start acting like adults, but they’re not actually being adults yet. I went and got a driver’s license. I’m adulting. Millennials view marriage as the climax of \u201cadulting.\u201d They spend all of their twenties just, you know, having some fun. But then somewhere, maybe in their thirties or later they’re thinking <\/i><\/span>, oh, the climax will be I’ll finally get married.

\nWe see this in Mark Regnerus\u2019 article, \u201cCan the Church Save Marriage?,\u201d in Christianity Today, \u201cMarriage, even in the minds of most Christians, is now perceived as a capstone that marks a successful young adult life, not the foundational hallmark of entry into adulthood.\u201d There used to be a time when we thought marriage was something that marked the beginning of adulthood and we grew old together and we grew up together. But now people are putting it off, putting it off, putting it off many times or not entering into it at all.

\nA woman named Rachel has changed her view of marriage after becoming a Christian. Can I share a bit of her testimony about marriage? This is Rachel. For Rachel, the educational phase of her life was all about freedom, independence and no commitments. She met plenty of men, she says in her twenties, but none of them was <\/i><\/span> ready for a serious relationship. She doesn’t entirely blame them. She says, \u2018Men have gotten rightfully confused about what the heck women want and aren\u2019t really sure how to date women.\u2019

\nI keep hearing that from the younger women today; men don’t know how to date. They don’t know how to even be men anymore. Rachel met her husband on the dating site, OkCupid. I looked that one up; it’s really a dating site. Don’t take that down in your notes, ladies. OkCupid She said, \u2018The reason why I picked OkCupid was because I’m cheap,\u2019 she said, \u2018and it was free.\u2019 Her marriage preceded her conversion. In other words, she got married before she got saved. Yet the two events, she said, felt like a package deal because they happened so close together. Before becoming a Christian, she wrote, \u2018Sex was less meaningful. Cohabitation was <\/i><\/span> defensible, and marriage was just a piece of paper issued by the state.\u2019 After coming to faith and joining a church, Rachel now believes that marriage is a covenant before God in a sacred relationship.

\nDo you see how Rachel has changed because she’s put God on the throne of her family? If we’re going to keep teaching teens \u201cTrue Love Waits,\u201d then I think we must also teach them that marriage doesn’t have to. Perhaps, we’ve been accidentally telling them that true love waits and they are thinking that they need to wait until they’re 50.

\nWe need to understand that the capstone of \u201cAdulting\u201d is not marriage. It’s actually one of the cornerstones of getting started as an adult, but at the same time, with all of this talk about marriage, I want to respect those of you that still are single or single again. We all start out, single. Many of us return to singleness. And so, I would say to you <\/i><\/span> what Paul says, 1 Corinthians 7:7 (NLT) \u201cI wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or another.\u201d Whether you’re married or single, if you are in Christ, you are in God’s family and you are a member of this family. Often, according to Paul and I’ve seen this, it’s our singles in our church who are the most devoted and the most concerned about the family of God. Have you made the decision to abide in God’s covenantal love?

\nNow here’s number four; here’s our fourth step:

\n4. Reflect God\u2019s glory.

\nRemember how we started? You begin by recognizing His authority. You depend on His power. You decide, I want to abide in His love. And then finally, the purpose of the family, the blessing that Paul closes with is that we reflect God’s glory. We are at the benediction now in the prayer, in verses 20 and 21 Paul’s closing with the <\/i><\/span> blessing. If Paul were standing here, this would be the part where he lifts his hand and he says the benediction. He prays the blessing on us in verses 20 and 21. 20 \u201cNow to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.\u201d It’s a beautiful benediction.

\nHere’s what Paul says God wants your house to be; He wants your house to be a lighthouse. God wants your house to be a lighthouse in a dark world, reflecting His glory to the world. As the world grows darker, and indeed it appears to be growing darker, then one little light makes all the difference. You know, if you’re in a dark room, one little candle really seems to light up the place. Let your house be a lighthouse. God wants that.

\nNotice, in verse 16 and in verse 21, the word \u201cglory.\u201d He prays it as a prayer request in verse 16 as we’ve said before. And then, in verse 21, he says, \u201dto him be glory in the church.\u201d That’s the word, d\u00f3xa. In <\/i><\/span> the Greek, d\u00f3xa is where we get the word doxology. You may remember the doxology back when you went to an earlier church; maybe during the time the deacons would carry the offering plates up. I remember the first time I went to church that had a doxology; it wasn’t in the bulletin. Everyone just stood up and started singing, \u201cPraise God, from whom all blessings flow\u2026\u201d They just started singing the doxology; doxology means to give God the glory, to give Him a word of glory. That’s the word we see in verse 16 and 21.

\nHere’s God’s idea; He wants you to put Him first, depend on His power and build a foundation of love that dwells in your house so that your house starts to give glory to Him in such a way that a lost world wants what you have. How’d you get what you have? Your reply would be, \u201cIt’s Jesus, it’s Jesus in me. We’ve depended <\/i><\/span> on Him. Whatever you see here is a blessing. It’s not as a result of our own effort.\u201d

\nNotice in Verse 21, it says, generations. That speaks to me, at my age now, of my grandchildren. Now I love my children, but I really love my grandchildren. At night before we go to sleep, my wife and I, before we cut the light out, we pray for our kids and we pray a whole lot for our grandkids because we know our kids and they’re the ones parenting our great kids and we love them.

\nWhen you become a parent, you learn to pray because you realize you\u2019re not in control. You can decide if they get fed and if they get clothed but you can’t decide if they come to <\/i><\/span> Jesus. You need to pray and to model a Christian life. You need to pray that they would come to Christ and that they would make Him Lord of their life. But you, at least, have them in your house. When you become a grandparent, they’re not even in your house. Well, sometimes they are, but they’re not all the time. Even the illusion of control is completely gone so what you have is prayer. You pray. You pray for the generations and you pray that they’re not part of that 70% that leave and never come back. You pray that they will grow up and give God the glory.

\nDoes your house give God the glory? If you study the biblical purposes for the family, one of the main purposes is to mirror God’s image. We’ve read this earlier in Genesis where God created man in His own image, the image of God. He created them male and female . <\/i><\/span> He created them. God wants you to mirror His image to the world. Secondly, he wants you to mutually complete one another; that’s what the family is about. I said earlier that Christ is your completer; there are certain things that you can do better if you’re in a family. If you’re by yourself, you have to do everything yourself.

\nIn Ecclesiastes, it says, \u201ctwo are better than one.\u201d There is a reason for that; you can divide up responsibilities and work together. In Ephesians It says this, Ephesians 5:31-32 (NLT) As the Scriptures say, \u201cA man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.\u201d This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.\u201d This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. In fact, if you keep reading in Ecclesiastes, it says, \u201ctwo are better than one, if one falls down, the other can help him up. If one gets cold , <\/i><\/span> the other one can keep him warm.\u201d The passage closes with surprise. \u201cA cord of three strands is not quickly broken.\u201d That’s what it says in Ecclesiastes. Cord three is Jesus. I think that’s what I’m seeing here.

\nThen here’s the third Biblical purpose; multiply a Godly legacy. I had the word, generations, in my head when I wrote this part. Multiply a Godly legacy. Malachi 2:15 (NLT) \u201cDidn\u2019t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.\u201d God wants you to raise up kids that love Him. He wants godly children, so parents and grandparents, we’re in this together as the family of God. We want this church to reflect God’s glory and we want your house to reflect God\u2019s glory. Those at home today, together we make up the household of God. So we gather like this for <\/i><\/span> power and encouragement and to worship and hear God’s word. We scatter here in just a little bit; we go back to our various homes and neighborhoods, and we become lighthouses of God’s glory so that people see what it looks like, what it means to follow Jesus in your house.

\nDoes your family reflect God’s glory? In an article, \u201cCan the church save marriage?\u201d written by Mark Regnerus, he says this, \u201cFor the foreseeable future, then, matrimony will increasingly come to be associated with the world\u2019s most religious citizens\u2013\u2013Muslims, orthodox Jews, and conservative Christians.\u201d He’s saying that marriage is becoming the M word, where the culture more and more will reject it as a way of life. If you say you’re married, especially at a younger age, they will assume immediately, you must be religious. That’s what’s happening in our country today. Is that a problem? Well, it could be an opportunity. Certainly it looks like a negative thing , <\/i><\/span> but it could be an opportunity to show forth God’s glory even more. Yeah, I’m not really religious, but I do have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And he has changed my whole family. And it might be a chance for us to be the lighthouse that God wants us to be, as the world seems to be growing darker.

\nDid you know you can ask for God to bless you and that He will? Did you know that God wants to bless you as long as we choose His way? Remember, blessings are like coverings as long as we’re not out there on our own. We’re the ones who have chosen not to live under God’s covering, under God’s protection under God’s blessing. Yeah, I believe most of what this word says. But this over here, I’m gonna do this myself. Well, that’s the very thing you’ve done now to move your family out from under God’s blessing.

\nWill you come under His authority? Will you depend on His power? When you decide to live in the fullness of His <\/i><\/span> love and reflect His glory, God wants to bless you. He wants to bless you, my friend. He wants to bless your family. Why don’t you let Him? Let Him bless you.

\nLet’s pray. Lord, thank you. for Your word. Today, I pray for the person, first of all, that may have come in this morning or maybe watching online that has never turned their heart over to you. They’ve never turned their life over to you. If that’s you, my friend, right where you are, if you are watching from home or maybe you’re sitting in this room. Would you pray like this, believing in your heart? Dear Father, I\u2019m a sinner. I’ve been trying to live my life according to my own rules and my own vision. But now, Lord, I admit to you I’m a broken person. I need help. I believe You died on the cross for me, Jesus, that You were raised from the grave and that you live today <\/i><\/span>. Would you come into my life? Forgive me of my sin and make me the person you want me to be. Oh, Lord, I pray that You would save me. I want you to be my Lord and Savior. If you’re praying that prayer right now, believing He will save you, He’s ready to bless you. He’s ready to change your whole house. So let’s pray about that; no matter where you’re at today, whether you’re a believer or you’re just coming into the Kingdom; bless my family, bless my parents, my mom, my dad. Lord, bless my children, my grandchildren, my sons and my daughters. Lord, bless my husband. Lord, bless my wife; bless me. We bring our families under Your covering of blessing now. And we know You are able to do abundantly beyond anything we may hope for. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The definition of marriage and family are being deconstructed and redefined. For those who care about God\u2019s plan for the family, these are troubling statistics and trends. If you\u2019re married with kids, you\u2019re probably worried about your kids\u2019 future. If you\u2019re divorced and a single parent, you don\u2019t want your family to be another statistic. If you\u2019re single, especially if you\u2019re a single woman, and you want to get married, you\u2019re starting to panic that it won\u2019t ever happen because of the decline of available, marriageable men. How can these statistics and trends be reversed? One heart and one family at a time.<\/p>\n

In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God\u2019s blessing on the family. We can experience God\u2019s blessing on our families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9140,"template":"","tags":[2037,2044],"series":[2804],"scripture-book":[1316],"scripture-chapter":[1336],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-9139","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-family","tag-marriage","series-this-is-us","scripture-book-ephesians","scripture-chapter-1336","speaker-gary-combs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/9139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/9139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=9139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}