The Christian Distinction In The Family Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

Watch this message at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/episodes/142734

Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 and the importance of walking a Spirit-filled life. This is all a result of what God has already done for you through Jesus Christ. As a result of God’s blessings, we are called to live in distinction from the rest of the world. In Chapter 5, Paul calls on us to walk in purity, putting away all crudeness and immorality (Eph 5:1-4) (this will become more significant today). He goes on to tell us to be awake in Christ and alive in the Spirit, not giving into drunkenness, but to be people of a lifestyle of worship (Ephesians 5:18-19). And last week we discussed the distinction of a Christian marriage that is based on mutual submission, with the husband and wife each having a unique, God-given role in the marriage and family (Ephesians 5:22-33). Today we continue down this path with the discussion of the Distinction of the Christian Marriage.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1–4)

I find it interesting that when the apostle Paul talks about being Spirit-filled, the first relationships that he develops is marriage and family, and then he tacks on the end how we get along with employers and employees. The emphasis on Spirit-filled living is about marriage and the family.

There are three primary commands that Paul lays out for the family to follow: Children obey, Fathers bring your children up in the discipline of the Lord, and don’t provoke your children to anger (Ephesians 6:4). It is just that simple and that direct biblical instruction. Children have one duty, and that is to give to their parents' obedience and honor. Parents have one duty, and that is to give their children discipline and instruction in the Lord.

However, the family is absolutely devastated in America today. There are breakdowns of the family unit at alarming levels coming in from all sides. It is a satanic movement that seeks to dismember the family unit.

The family had always been under attack by Satan from the very beginning. But it seems since the 1960’s the assault on the family in our Western culture in increased in intensity. The heart of this assault, I believe, is to keep families out of the church and away from God’s grace.

A study once disclosed that if both Mom and Dad attend church regularly, 72% of their children remain faithful. If only Dad, 55% remain faithful. If only Mom, 15%. If neither attended regularly, only 6% remain faithful. The statistics speak for themselves - the example of parents and adults is more important than all the efforts of the church and Sunday school. Junior sports have done more damage to families than most other constructs of society.

There are other things that are leading to the demise of the family.

-The ’60s and the sexual revolution because people can pursue their physical satisfaction without being married, and society doesn’t look down on that anymore.

-The women’s liberation movement, in which women have tried to take the upper hand and treat men poorly.

-The homosexual revolution has undermined the holiness of the marital union.

-We have produced a generation of selfish and self-centered people whose only concern is their wants, rights, and desires.

-The onslaught of pornography has perverted the minds of men and statistically when a man is addicted to porn, children are more likely to become sexually promiscuous.

-Then there is the fatherless epidemic because of all the sexual perversion we allow in our society. Men who leave women alone after impregnating them.

-Women who then wish to abort these children in the name of convenience, because they want the freedom to be sexually active outside of marriage without bearing the responsibility of the results of that behavior.

Forty-four percent of the population of adults in America are unmarried. Only 50 percent of households have a married couple in them. Fifty-six million American adults have always been single, and another 44 percent were married and are now single, by death or divorce. Since the year 2000 - the most common household type in the U.S. is a person living alone. Young adults emerging into the world are choosing to get married (if they get married) much later in life and many will cohabitate with their partner before they do get married. As a result, nearly half of all children born in America do not have both a mother and a father raising them in the home.