“husbands – Wives – Oneness” Part One

“Husbands – Wives – Oneness”

OPEN: Today we are going to be talking about husbands and wives and the issue of oneness. I can think of few topics that has more relevance for us - in our age and in our particular location than the topic of how God wants marriage to work. In one survey (Harris poll) college students were asked to agree or disagree with a number of statements - 97% of college students agreed that having a close-net family is the key to happiness. Interestingly – that number was up 15% from the same survey one decade earlier. The unfortunate reality of course is that for most of those students who intuitively know that the one of the key factors to living a fulfilled life is a happy family most of them haven’t experienced that nor (if the cultural trend continues) are they likely to experience in their own lives. Today as we speak – less than 25% of all the families that exist in America are made up of a mom and a dad married to each other who have off-spring in their home who come out of that union. 60% of all the people who might eventually get married live together. In Europe they are totally dismissing marriage as a needed cultural institution. They’re just blowing it off – saying it isn’t even needed any more.

The highest predictability for the most devastating things happening in our culture is children coming out of a home this is a broken home and more specifically children who come from a father-absent homes. Poverty, violence, future felons, depression, teen suicide (ages 10-14 teen suicide is up 120% - we’re talking 10 11 year olds - as the family implodes kids are saying life isn’t worth living.) Domestic violence, promiscuity, gang involvement, drug use and sexual abuse in the home – all related to coming out of a broken home. And it’s not isolated to the world versus the Church. In the latest Barna and Gallup surveys that have been taken, we are told that the divorce rate among Christians has now surpassed the divorce rate among non-Christians. We’ve got a major problem.

Karl Zimmerman – a sociologist from Harvard wrote a book that detailed the rise and fall of every major civilization in the world – more specifically how the family related to the rise of the each civilization. He concluded that families go through three phases – the last occurring before each major empire fell. In his book, “Family And Civilization” he listed the characteristics of families in the final stage. Listen closely see if you hear some similarities – see if you need jolted into the realization of the critical status of the family in our culture. Marriage lost its sacredness – alternative forms of marriage were advocated. Feminist movements flourished. Parenting became more difficult. Adultery was celebrated not punished. (by the way 94% of all sex depicted on television is of two people outside of marriage.) Sexual perversion abounded, including beastiality, but especially incest and homosexuality. This by the way is a book that was written in 1947 - long before our country saw the reality of all this coming upon us.

We’re not facing bad times when it comes to marriage in our culture – we are facing an absolute all out full-scale crisis. The politically correct leftward swing of our culture is not just trying to redefine marriage – it is trying to destroy it completely. (in fact in California some are trying to introduce legislation to do just that)

Now listen to this very closely – there is no greater threat on the horizon of our future as a culture, as a nation, as a people of God than the war that is being waged against the family.

Ill – When it was discovered that Wall Street was about to send us into another depression and the banking and the real estate market and the auto industry were going into the tank – absolutely every effort was extended in response to it. It was like the announcement you hear when you visiting the hospital “Code Blue!” and everyone drops what they are going and comes running. “Our economy is going south – let’s print money and start giving it away.” Let’s give money away for clunkers – let’s give thousands away to home buyers – let’s give millions to the bankers to keep them solvent. We can’t let the economy go down hill!” The tragic reality is that we are to that point and beyond when it comes to the family. The threat to the well-being of our nation is far greater with the demise of the family than what is represented by a downward economic swing. .

It’s easy to lament over what is happening in our culture – but what are we to do about it? We’ve got to get back to the basics. God designed marriage to be the very best that life has to offer. But since the fall of man, it is anything but the best for many. Since the Fall it has not been an easy road for marriage. The woman, as a result of the fall seeks to rule and not submit. She wants control. That is the fallen woman