It doesn’t take long for us to learn of God’s desire of the first couple in the Bible.
In the first chapter of Genesis, v. 27, the text tells us that God created "male and female." And in the following verse, v. 28 we read “God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth."
The very first words God speaks to the couple we call Adam and Eve are to create a family - "Be fruitful increase in number, fill the earth."
Multiply
Have kids
Have so many kids that your descendants will fill the earth.
Notice God didn’t command them to be good first.
God didn’t tell the first couple get responsible jobs, with good benefits and then have children.
God didn’t tell Adam and Eve enjoy these early years together because once kids come everything will change.
No - the very first words God speaks to humanity are words about starting a family. Sounds a bit like an over anxious parent awaiting the arrival of a first grandchild.
"Be fruitful Adam and Eve
Increase in number
Fill the earth"
Our God has a passion for families.
I kind of wish Adam and Eve would have taken God’s words a bit more seriously because in between God’s words and the birth of their two boys - the parents got themselves in some trouble by eating some fruit from a tree they weren’t supposed to eat from.
In chapter 1 - Adam and Eve are told to be fruitful - to start a family.
In chapter 3 - they eat the forbidden fruit and get side tracked.
And then in chapter 4 - they get around to do what God wanted them to do.
Cain is born
And later Abel - the first family of the Bible.
Though Adam and Eve had had a major derailment in their obedience with the birth of their 2 children. There were back on track. They were fruitful. They just doubled the world’s population. God the grandparent must have been pleased.
And yet 6 verses later in chapter 4, v. 8 we read that Cain kills his brother Abel and does as his parent did when they sinned, (sin repeats itself) Cain tries to hide the reality of his actions to God.
He doesn’t own up to his deed.
It is almost unbelievable isn’t it?
Genesis 1 - everything was pronounced good and by Genesis 3 things have fallen apart. Just when we think that Adam and Eve are heading down the right path anew when they give birth to two children 6 verses later, one is dead, killed by his brother.
And frankly as we read through Genesis, the first book in the Bible, we encounter 3 other major families who are not healthy, who are not functioning well. In the families in Genesis we encounter families whose:
Marriages are in turmoil/couples who can’t conceive children.
Tension related to playing favorites with kids.
Sin related to securing an inheritance.
We have dialogues involving adulterous relationships.
There is drunkenness, greed, and deception.
We would have hoped . . .
We would have expected that the first families in the Bible.
That Abraham and Sarah
Isaac and Rebekkah
Jacob and his 4 wives.
Would have been the poster families of what God wanted in all families.
And yet . . .
The husbands
Wives
Their kids
And their descendants act, talk, think and believe in ways that are more similar to a TV soap opera than anything you would imagine God would be present in.
And friends - this morning as we talk about families. Though the family pictures you may have seen on your way in may communicate
Health
Harmony
And a lack of tension
Our families have much in common with what we read about in Genesis. They are not perfect.
And yet God was present in them all.
God was present in these families that were full of dysfunction.
A family doesn’t have to be good for God to be present. We have a God who works in the brokenness of families. Though sin was corrupting and entering into the first families of the Bible. Though these first families would never be the story line for a Hallmark Movie.
Our God was present in those families in the brokenness of their choices and through all their choices in time gave us his Son through their very bloodline.
The writer Matthew wants to make this clear. In his genealogy/the family tree of Jesus.
He puts at the very top of Jesus’ family these 3 primary and broken families of Genesis
Abraham
Isaac
And Jacob
And says, Jesus comes from them.
Our God in Jesus sends us a Son through the Genesis family line to bring hope to our families.
God doesn’t shy away from family trouble.
God doesn’t try to hide what they’ve done.
Our God doesn’t excuse himself or disassociate himself when a family’s actions aren’t righteous.
A family doesn’t have to be good for God to work. Our God works in the brokenness of families. He enters the mess. Enters our history.
We don’t do this - not us. We seldom want to stay in the mess that families create. Instead, we do one of two things quite often in relation to the brokenness and hurt associated with our families.
We either play the "victim card" blaming all our problems, our issues, our struggles on our parents, our grandma, a brother or sister. Blaming them, holding them responsible for our current state.
Or we play the "I’m over it - it’s all good card."
Saying things like "That’s in the past.
It’s over and done with.
I’m getting on with my life."
These are statements that raise red flags to counselors for as the quote at the top of the bulletin says -
"The impact of the family stays with us our entire lives."
Rather than playing the victim card - "It’s all their fault that I am the way I am." and rather than playing the "I’m over it - it’s all good now card."
I want to propose a third choice.
A third option.
A third way in learning to live with our family background.
This way is modeled in scripture.
This way is modeled by the Apostle Paul and by others.
This third way of coming to terms with our family’s junk and wanting to encounter God in the midst of it is modeled in the Psalm we read earlier. Psalm 78, I’d like us to turn there again.
Rather than playing the "family victim card" and rather than playing the "I’m over it card" this Psalm embraces the brokenness of our ancestry, identifies God within it and keeps it not a secret. This Psalm wants the sin, the misdeeds to be told, known and retold. But at the same time witness is given to the fact that God is present in all of it.
I want to point out some things about this Psalm and then make some applications for you and me.
Notice first this Psalm is long, 72 verses long. In my Bible 3 pages in length. In the pew Bibles nearly 5.
This is a long Psalm. It is a long Psalm because it is a historical Psalm. If you want to read the cliff notes/ the Readers Digest version of the 1st half of the Bible, read this Psalm. It’s all there.
In the original Hebrew translation this Psalm is composed of 6 stanzas/or paragraphs. After the introduction in verses 1-8, 6 stanzas/paragraphs begin and each paragraph has the same theme.
The theme?
-the sin/misdeeds/wrong decisions errors/poor choices of God’s people.
-and God’s gracious/merciful response.
Over and over again in 72 verses
Using 6 paragraphs the writer tells the unglamorous story of God’s people.
He doesn’t play the "victim card."
He doesn’t play the "I’m over card."
No - he says - admits - makes it known and wants to remind people, this is who we have been. This is our track record. This is the broken lineage, the disfunction from which we’ve come. But he also pauses and points out who their God has been through it all.
The writer will not create a cesspool of stories - highlighting the brokenness of their family history.
No - the writer recognizes.
The writer has realized that God - the Almighty God has not abandoned, deserted, betrayed nor left them alone.
In each of the 6 paragraphs that tell the story - a past transgression/misdeed is described but surrounding that sin are the ways God has been gracious
Attentive
Restorative
The sin has not cast out God - but has been the impetus for God’s broken families to receive his grace and mercy.
As the writer tells the truth about the family history - he encounters God.
You see, when we play the victim card we leave no room for God.
We assume he didn’t
Can’t
And won’t work in our family. We believe ourselves and our families to be ir-redeemable.
And when we play the "I’m over it card" we act as if we don’t need God. I got over it, through my family history all on my own.
But Asaph, the writer of this Psalm won’t let the families in his church do this. This is our past. This is our history - this is how we have tended to be in error. And this is our gracious God through it all.
72 verses long of it.
6 stanzas.
And his request of his congregation,
v. 1 "oh my people - hear my teaching"
Azan Torah
Hear, listen with understanding to the Torah.
"Listen to the words of my mouth"
Natah
Incline, stretch out
Pay attention
Catch every syllable of my mouth
V. 2 - "I will open my mouth in parables" - My method of telling you our history won’t be chalkboard and chalk. The method I will use to tell you our history - isn’t going to be lecture with handouts. No I will tell you the history - our history in story - in parables.
Why? Guess? Stories are memorable.
Stories capture our attention.
"Once upon a time" always does more than "take out a pencil and take notes."
He continues, "I will utter hidden things, things from of old what we have heard and known. What our fathers told us."
v. 4 "We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done."
Asaph the writer is imploring his families - don’t hide the past, don’t hide the hidden things. Let those experiences, situations, struggles and sins be the fodder from which you tell of and look for God’s hand
God’s presence
God’s Spirit being at work.
Rather than trying to cover over the past.
To pretend like that divorce
Bankruptcy
Abortion
Addiction wasn’t there - look closely, pay attention to how God used those tragedies, those broken experiences to extend grace, forgiveness, mercy and himself. And then Asaph tells us;
Tell what God has done.
Tell of his powers.
Tell of his deeds - don’t glamorize your past errors and wrong doings, but give glory to how God has brought you through them.
You don’t have to be a victim.
You don’t have to lie, "I’m over it."
Tell the story, tell of your experience - don’t hide the ways God worked in your broken past. Tell of them.
For as we do, we bring and give hope to our families and our community that they don’t have to be good for God to work. Our God works in the brokenness of families.
When we fail to tell our children of God’s work in our past. When we fail to take the time to recognize god in our broken lives, we live indifferently to His gracious hand. And if there is anything others need to know more of - it would be to know about God’s gracious hand.
Tell them/teach these laws to the kids.
Why do we do this?
So v. 6, the next generation would know then, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Do you want to see God shift your family - transform your family? Share your story of those times God was present to you.
v. 7 - "then" - when we do this.
When we make this our habit
"Then (v. 7), they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God whose spirits were not faithful to him."
When we tell our stories, our family status,
we will grow in our trust in God
we will keep his commands.
Stubborness/rebelliouness will have a lesser hold
Loyalty to God will increase.
Parents you can’t just drag your child to church for them to hear my stories and Pastor Andy’s stories. They need to hear of your stories, of your experiences. They need to hear how God caught up with you,
Forgave you.
Taught you.
Was close to you for when they do, they will be on the look out for God in their own lives.
Do you want to make a Shift as a family?
Are you in a spiritual rut as a family?
Stop hiding your past, look for God in it and then tell it. Tell it strategically. Be intentional and those around you will be blessed.
Perhaps you could use phrases like,
When I was a little child I felt God’s presence when . . .
During a really hard time, God was
A place I go to be near to God is
I felt God leading me to do . . .
Growing up in my own house, I heard stories of my mom’s church praying for four young men heading off to war. As a young girl she remembers the adults praying for these boys. And she tells of all 4 of those boys returning from the war alive. I remember that story. It gives me a personal example of prayer and of God’s sovereignty.
Growing up, I hear stories of dad studying hard for a test because if he got 100% on it he wouldn’t.
He had all but 1 answer - He prayed and remembered the last answer.
I have the story of my grandpa dying - it’s beautiful. I’ve told it to Luke.
-thank you
-All follow
-In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I have the story of our pop-up trailer hitch almost breaking through and how God revealed himself there.
Deb and I have told each other stories of our own brokenness and pain and testify to God transforming that, being present in it.
Tell of how God has worked in them.
Because ultimately, I want my 3 kids, Luke, Benjamin, and Emma to be able to recognize God in their lives.
I desire my kids and our church’s kids to be able to see God at work in their day.
They will when we tell of the Almighty God at work in our lives.
Amen
