America: A Christian Nation Series
Where We Are: “As the Family Goes”
Malachi 2:15-16
Introduction
If you haven’t noticed (I’m sure you have) the family has been under attack for a long time in America
If America is going to survive and thrive, it will require a moral revival of the American family
I truly believe the expression “As the family goes, so goes society” because the family unit is the heart of our society
Whatever hurts the family hurts society
The government should get out of the way and let the family do its job – with exception to genuine cases of child or wife abuse
It’s important for America to get back to the tried-and-true biblical principles of family relationships
My message is entitles “As the family goes” and we will explore how important the family is in the decaying of our nation
Read passage / Pray
TRANS: One of the first things we have to do is to get back to…
1. Honoring Our Parents
The fifth commandment says in Ex 20:12 “Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord you God is giving you”
This is called the first commandment with promise…there are actually two promises
In Deut 5:16 “…that your days may be long AND that it may be well with you”
There is a quick story I want to share with you from a book called Grimm’s Fairy Tales and you may have heard it before
There was an older man that had gotten where he couldn’t take care of himself so his son brought him to live with him and his family. The son’s wife wasn’t too happy about that but she tolerated it. His hands were very shaky and at times was so bad that he would clink his silverware against the dishes. The wife got very upset and said she shouldn’t have to put up with that in her own home. So she went out and boat a wooden bowl and put the older man’s food in it and sat him in a chair in the corner to eat. The older man would sit every day in the corner and eat while the family sat at the table. One day his hands were shaking so bad that he dropped the bowl on the floor and spilled his food all over the carpet. The wife got very upset and said “That does it…you want to eat like a pig, we’ll feed you like a pig.” She made him what looked like a pig trough, put in on the floor and told him to kneel down to eat. And so he did. So one day the wife called all the family to the table to eat but their son did not come. So the wife called to her son again and said it’s time for supper. Tommy came in with something he had made out of wood. “Look Daddy” he said, “I am making a trough to feed you and Mama when I get big.” The husband and wife looked at each other with tears in their eyes and without a word went over and picked up the older man and led him to the table. And, it didn’t matter anymore how much clinking he made with his silverware of how much he spilled.
That’s a story that has a great lesson to it and I think we need to hear it again
We teach a little by what we say, more by what we do, but most by who we are
We all will walk the path of aging and we need to honor our parents even at the later stages of life
There was a time when this nation actually adhered to this 5th commandment
There was a young man who wanted to join navy...see the world…may be become a captain of a ship
Mom was not too thrilled…son of 16…going off to sea…still she walked him to the port
As he said goodbye…Mom not happy…have no peace…really wished you wouldn’t go
How do you think he responded? He got his stuff…said he couldn’t go and break mother’s heart
Well he never became a captain of a ship but he did command the entire navy, as well as entire armed forces
Who was he? George Washington who had been taught the 10 commandments as a child
As he honored his father and mother…God kept his promise that it may go well with you as he was honored himself as the great father of our nation
Daniel Webster, 19th Century senator said this “America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind”
What was the well-spring of his character? He was a man who took the Word of God seriously, as taught to him by his parents
TRANS: Well what about today? Where are we? We have become…
2.. A Nation of Individuals
Remember last week we looked at Romans 1:18-32…well verse 30 says “…they disobey their parents”
Most homes now are raising children that have zero respect for the parents
And don’t think I am talking about non-Christian homes because sadly there is not a lot of difference between the two now-a-days
Eph 6:1 Paul said “Children obey your parents in the Lord, FOR THIS IS RIGHT
In our permissive age, some parents are saying that they don’t want to force their children to attend church
Instead they allow them to decide for themselves…DO WHAT? Since when does a child know what’s good for them?
There is no where I find in scripture that says we are to let our children decide for themselves about anything
As a matter of fact look what Galatians 4:1-2 says
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
A well-known secular pediatrician and author Dr. Benjamin Spock said “children should do whatever they want to do…parents don’t tell them what to do…the important thing is to let it all hang out…self-expression is the rule.”
And with that he has helped produce the most rebellious and disobedient generation of the history of our nation
In his old age, before he died, he actually admitted he was wrong and apologized
Saints when a child does not respect their parents at home then they are not going to respect their teachers in school or anyone else in authority
If we will teach them at a very young age that they will respect their parents, it will carry over into all walks of life
Ignoring our role as mother and father has caused a catastrophic breakdown in the family and society
Parents don’t want to be hassled to be parents anymore…parenting isn’t for cowards…it takes courage to raise a child up right in a backwards society
TRANS: In our society, it seems…
3. Parental Roles are Under Attack
Motherhood is in total disrespect today…it used to be a good thing to be like June Cleaver…a stay at home Mom…taking care of the family
It was considered an honorable and respected thing to do
Psa 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.
Prov 31:10-12 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
But today, motherhood is considered a lowly job…can’t do any better
Yet look what Theodore Roosevelt said about mothers “Mother’s are the most precious asset of any nation. They are more important than statesmen or businessmen or any occupation on this earth”
The most important thing a woman can do in this life is to pour herself into her children…teach them the ways of God…so they grow to be respectable Godly members of society
But what about Father’s? Well it doesn’t take a whole lot of smarts to become a Dad…any man can do that
One of the most important parts of a families ability to survive is having a father in the home
God made woman and man to be together…to be helpmates in raising children and stabilizing the family
In our society today…60% of homes are without a father…abandoned responsibility
What are the results of a fatherless home?
Gang membership is on the rise with over 100,000 teenage boys in gangs in the city of Los Angeles alone and most of them armed
This is true all over the country
70% of teenage criminals come from fatherless homes…everyone pays the price for fathers abandoning their responsibilities
Another terrible phenomenon that has happened in America because of father’s leaving their families is the “gaying of America”
At the age of two – three years, which most psychologists called the “gender identity period” every male child begins to reach out to his father
Why: because of the inner drive to bond with the male species.
But if the father is not there…what does the boy do? Turns to his mother
Boys need the masculine influence in their lives…they need to bond with their like gender and receive the love and care only a father can give
I believe this has a great deal to do with the origin of male homosexuality in our country today
Some psychologist have said that gay men are little boys running around looking for the love of the father that they never had
Homosexuality is so rampant today and yet it is just another symptom among many of the breakdowns of the family
I could go on and on but I will stop here.
Conclusion
Our nation used to be one that valued the family and respected the roles of mothers and fathers
We used to be a Leave to Beaver society where the value of motherhood was priceless and seen as a vital necessity
We have now gone from a society that didn’t believe in divorce to a divorce rate of 65%...o yes…this is also true in the church
We have now become a society of beavis and butthead…bart simpson…shows that make our parents out to be bafoons and clueless idiots
A nation that does not value family life…a nation of fatherless homes
A nation that calls an unborn child a fetus that has no rights…aborting 50 million children since 1973…some by sucking their brains out in partial birth abortions
This American holocaust is 8 times greater than the Jewish holocaust of Nazi Germany
Well, this is where we are today? How did we get here?
Next week we will explore the “Dumbing Down of America”
