Build the Family Ep #4
by Raymond Sloan
March 30, 2022 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Genesis 2:18-25, Genesis 1, Ephesians 5:22-33, Ephesians 6:1-4

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/raymond-sloan--build-the-family-ep-4
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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tonight i'll finish up with everybody together family i'll watch the clock it's right here okay um family over the last several weeks two separate locations men we gather in the big room over here as men we talked about the plan of god was ordained by god for men for men to follow right guys if you'll remember we talked about how that there's a design there's a pattern that that god established from the very beginning and something has happened in our culture today as men we talked about the breakdown and also the re-emergence of the position of father and husband in our culture uh i hesitate tonight to mention it but some of you may know just this past week in fact at one of the hollywood presentation programs somebody had their way with somebody and i will be honest with you i probably would be guilty of doing more you speak derogatory about my wife or my children i am obligated on my own account to protect them would somebody say amen i want her to know that all right so now there's question did he have the right now this big discussion is going if you don't know what i'm talking about ask around after church you can find out now there's this big question is that the right thing to do violence is not an answer use your words and go on and on it goes i've still come to tell you men we have to be men we're trying to help the young men to mature and to grow into men of principle men of passion men of faith men of prayer amen you young men say amen amen okay thank you my wife in the meantime she was in the big room here because she deserves it she took time to speak to the ladies about issues in our modern world communication conflict control issues things that women face wives face mother's face so forth conversations that were pointed at the facts that in 2022 we are in dire need of supernatural influence dire need of the presence of god in our homes so society in and of itself uh they're trying to break down in many ways god's family plan and the truth of the matter is they have succeeded on many fronts okay the bible is very direct concerning the power and the purpose of family in any culture the bible is very distinct in this paul i will begin here tonight paul wrote a letter once to the church one that had been planted in the city of ephesus and i spoke a little bit about this to the men last week and paul was writing to the church of that day a letter to try to help them to try to give direction to them for the systems and the things that were going on outside of the church they were now beginning to make their way inside the church and what paul was trying to do to help them and tonight we'll look at a couple of these paul was trying to help them to realize that with god there is always order and there are always principles how many of you understand that if the bible does not say thou shalt not whatever it is that you then have to go to the principles of god and you have to take from the principles in the word of god the instruction that you're looking for for the situation in which you are in i know all of us face this we face questions and comments from people well the bible doesn't say that thou shalt not smoke or the bible doesn't say that thou shalt not do drugs you're absolutely right because the word drugs was not in the vocabulary in hebrew nor greek but doesn't bible say that a little wine for the stomach's sake is good yes my question for you simply is this give the definition of little because to some that's a tablespoon and to others it's a four bottle a full bottle something my dad always told me from the time i was a little growing up i've mentioned it here if you never start you never have to stop that's simple here's the thing i my wife and i had this conversation the other night and i i say you know what we're gonna we're gonna do everything we can to help people as pastor and wife we're going to try to encourage we're going to try to counsel we're going to try to preach teach do what we can do okay i have in my time of ministering pastoring missionary whatever for the gifts and i've heard a lot of folks say to me man i wish i could just quit drinking or wish i could quit doing drugs or wish i could quit this or man if i could just quit that you know how much better i'd be if i just quit doing this right here if i could just get liberated from this thing a lot a lot of times a lot of counseling sessions i would sit through and i would hear people and watch the tears in their eyes as they express their frustration with themselves but the other night my wife and i walking around the school that's our nightly exercise i said baby but i have never heard anybody say i wish i didn't pray so much man if i could just stop praying i'd be a better person but i tell you if i just stopped going to church i bet my life would come back together never heard anybody say that have you church is just ruining me now i will say the enemy is very crafty at his job and he is influencing people to do things they should not do therefore there is conversations being had at the expense of churches i will not dwell on that tonight because it makes me angry to think that somebody is attacking the church when they have no reason nor right to again you do your homework you'll find out so tonight i want to take us back anybody okay with old testament stuff genesis chapter 2. we'll begin reading there and we'll go to revelation 22. it's going to be a long night i'm glad i brought a full bottle of water verse 18 in the lord god said this is god voice it is not good that the man should be alone i will make him and help meet for him and out of the ground the lord god formed every beast of the field every fowl of the air and brought them unto adam first man to see what he would call them and whatsoever adam first man called every living creature that was the name thereof and adam first man gave names to all cattle fowl of the air every beast of the field but for adam first man there was not found and helped meet for him the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the lord had taken from man made he a woman brought her un to the man verse 23 and adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman capital w this is an indication he was man she would be woman because she was taken out of man notice again capital m therefore verse 24 shall a man leave his mother or his father and his mother shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked the man and the wife were not ashamed this is the account that moses wrote that he included in the first five books of the bible the torah the pentateuch in creation we see here that moses writes the accounts of the voice of god speaking into existence living creatures that all right this is what we have the earth is dirt look at your neighbors say you're dirt all right conversation for the night it was out of that dirt in the earth that god actually formed a man pause god spoke let there and all the let theirs came out of but when god declared in the latter part of genesis 1 i'm gonna make man an image then he formed man because nobody else knew the image of god for those who would try to from the book of revelation or from the book of genesis to the book of revelation that they would try to dictate that there are indeed multiple gods from this point we see that when god made he formed man because no one else could have out of the source god spoke and animals came up birds out of the source water spewed out foul fish all that come when it came to man let us make man he was not referring to the committee he was not referring to the council he was referring to the source and out of that source would come man somebody say in jesus name i know that in many cases tonight i could be found preaching to the choir but i am declaring to you the confusion of our world is trying to stop revival and if you can't settle the beginning you'll never figure out the end hang on to me for just a little while i got the clock we're okay it was that plan that god determined man should not be alone now i wonder why that god spoke that why did god declare that because god knew that if man were alone left to his own devices his image would die with him adam as man had no capability whatsoever to reproduce it was not in him the chemicals needed the organs needed the body parts needed were not in him and it wasn't it wasn't until adam had finished naming the animals that he looks about and he says i don't have anybody there's none equal to me god then said i don't want you alone hear what i'm saying from the beginning god established the principles of man should not be alone because god knew in the heart of a one man things can happen that he has to give an account for and god wanted to make sure that humanity knew if you're made in god's image his image is perfect at this point sin is yet to enter into the scene at this point disobedience has not yet been revealed god has established creation and in that he formed man but when he noticed and adam noticed and god knew at that point now is the time to fulfill the plan he says simply i will make something for him goes to sleep takes the rib instead is the word there seals it up meaning there's a space there but instead of the rib he puts it back as if it were normal again and from that bone god formed the woman adams hear this adam's first response when he sees somebody on two legs that look like him the same characteristics the same type the same everything he says this is bone of my bone question i used to ask bible school students first of all i would say all you theologians did adam and eve have belly buttons it's a question second one i ask did adam have a scar on his side now the point i'm making is simply this those are details that you and i can get sideways on but suffice it to say it was adam who recognized the likeness and it was adam who said i'm going to call her because it's my name or it's my job to call i'm going to call her one man because she came from me understanding hear this understanding that adam knew that god had done a work in him to make her and because of that interesting enough when moses is writing the pentatonic he writes here in chapter 2 therefore man shall leave his father mother cleave to us why is this even mentioned here marriages have not yet taken place weddings have not yet happened why is this mentioned in genesis 2 glad you asked because moses was not there to write this hundreds of years later is when moses went back to pen words that god gave him so why did god say to moses put this down put this down the man will leave his mother father father mother things will be separated and they will become one the indication here is that moses was identifying the fact that there will come a time when separation has to happen and that man and that woman will have to then take the responsibility that his mom and dad had because the whole principle here for humanity was what to be fruitful and multiply hang on to me talking family trying to give you a foundation here for a few moments in creation we see that god made sure that moses put in here that adam's job was to make sure that all the animals had description had identification and in the process he understood i don't have one therefore god took from him the created one formed one and brought woman until this point we don't have indication of days weeks months and years all we know is this a woman could not conceive a child without a man a man could not have a child without a woman it was the design and the perfect plan of god that man and woman union would be the process to multiply and reproduce god's breath formed man and then man took it from there and moved forward with it god did not have to stop back up and punt again isn't that why at the time that noah built the ark god could have destroyed every single human right but what did god decide not going to be i will not step to the dirt and form another man why would that not be the case because by the time that noah reached the point that the earth was going to be destroyed god said the soil has been corrupted i will not start over i will bring through this my creation through the old testament now go hang on to me a moment we're gonna go a little quicker understanding that foundation when we go through the old into the new testament we see the human race multiplying over and over growing tribes families customs families turned into tribes tribes turned into villages villages evolved into cities nations were conceived armies were formed to defend what they had possessed and all of this was part of god's plan you can read from the beginning all the way through the scripture and you'll find time and time again that god's perfect plan is being fulfilled when the new testament comes along we see that the word of god became flesh the word the spoken of god becomes flesh and it is a perfect design the process in which god made sure that the supernatural and the natural connected it was for a purpose in the new testament we see that because of jehovah has become salvation the whole reason that jesus came on planet earth was for what purpose to be the spotless lamb to be the example to be the one that would if you will take on the sins of humanity in the life of jesus brought the instruction to the masses every nation and every tongue heard about this jesus we see it on the day of pentecost even when you go through and the languages that were represented were groups that were all outside of jerusalem that come together yet when the spirit of god came spoke in languages that they understood that gives us a clear indication understanding that god's plan from genesis was still working and into the new testament god was establishing one more time his plan to make sure that humanity did not forget god's plan listen if it were god's will for humanity to be wiped away he would have never robed his word in flesh and sent it to earth it would be useless to do so but he did not instead he did not stop there he instead he kept it going through the life of jesus we see that the families now that we see beginning in the new testament things were happening in families units as the churches were being established what do we see we see families who was the husband and wife that sold something and brought part of it and both died why wasn't ananias just mentioned that would have been sufficient because he was the man of the house we have that indication because we need to understand in studying the word that the man and the woman have to make decisions now i realize tonight at 7 40 in the evening i'm going to talk to a church that fully understands the power of being in the will of god but the church that understands that sits in the midst of a world that has tried to annihilate every ounce of family connection they've done it through hollywood they've done it through drugs they've done it through lifestyle they've done it through selfishness and pride and arrogance and all the things and so if we don't understand this church then the family stands a chance to be destroyed i don't want that to happen i've said this multiple times as much as i love to be around all of you guys i love even more when my wife and my kids are around me i'm happier i'm more cheerful i'll even play the board game occasionally i usually lose because steven's too competitive but anyway and i like to lose or at least be the one that they get to pick on because my my lovely bride is usually the one that catches all the jokes and so i have to defend her by stepping in and saying now guys stay with me stay with me in all of what had happened in the new testament we understand that the letters that came after matthew mark luke and john the book of acts everybody understands now the principles of the new testament god's church is being established people are being filled with the holy ghost aren't you thankful people are being baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of their sins aren't you glad and it is the letters then that came from the apostles hands that was giving instructions to the churches that had been living the people that had been living in the world were now coming into the churches paul wrote the the majority if you will of those letters under the unction of the holy ghost through the experience that god had given him this has always intrigued me very much i'm going to get a side note here footnote paul never walked with jesus he was not one of the twelve but yet paul wrote these letters how could that be that someone else would write the letters you would think that luke would be the letter writer because he understood the principle he's the one who wrote acts right what happened in my mind i would think he would write it but no saul has that experience and the spirit of god begins to deal with him and work with him and through the steps and the faith that he had he begins to literally turn the world upside down and it is this paul that is writing chur letters to the churches i would declare to you that if you read history paul could not write many of them because of his deformities keep in mind he'd been stoned left for dead beaten thrown in the deep imprisoned i'd dare say his hands probably couldn't hold a pencil scars would have been all over him bones didn't set back right and so somebody would write for him and under the junction he would speak and they would write the words and he'd say please quickly take that letter to them read it to them make sure they copy it and then go read it to the other churches ephesians the church at ephesus wow the church at ephesus this is this is this has always intrigued me how that paul wrote to one church what he's about to write to the ephesians and yet it rippled through the whole work chapter 5 verse 22 wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body 24 therefore as the church is subject unto christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything 25 husbands love your wives even as christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish 28 so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth it and cherisheth it even as the lord the church verse 30 for we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother shall be joined unto his wife they too shall be one flesh this is a great mystery but i speak concerning christ and the church nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband biblical principles that were established teachings that paul was trying his best to get the church of that day to comprehend knowing full well that the desire of the enemy is to destroy the influence of the word of god in their lives paul knew that paul knew that they had holy ghost experience yes that they were baptized in jesus name yes they had ministers that were there helping yes but he also knew that they were going to be under attack from the enemy and from the get-go paul establishes here in this letter to them men women husbands wives know your place and recognize the principles that god has established in our society our culture has painted the biblical guidelines of husbands and the guidelines of wife under question i mentioned this the other day in fact you can pick any one you want to call it or any way that you want to call who you are you can identify yourself with whatever you want to and in our culture it has to be accepted but that was not god's plan and it still is not god's plan the key point here is submission to god's word if jesus christ is the word of god robin and flesh we should be submitted to the word of god that is jesus and what our world says is it's a hoax it means nothing just love just do this enjoy one another have a good time and see what happens next the key word here is submission paul wrote husbands you have the responsibility like jesus has to the church now for you men there listen carefully for just a moment if jesus takes the responsibility for the church he identifies that with you take the responsibility just like jesus is over the church we understand that nobody questions that then men recognize your responsibility and step into that role with the power of the holy ghost paul wrote that the husband has that responsibility to the mediator and to be an example for the ones in the future to be the one that would be the in between the problems arise is when men do not follow godly principles as they lead their families and in many times please allow me to say this and many times the expectations are not met because of misunderstanding in the word of god men listen carefully your pastor i love you but you are not perfect and quite honestly you are not all that in a box of cracker jacks but you are godly and god gave you the responsibility you cannot negate that because then who will take the responsibility know listen to me carefully i'm going somewhere with this the family what we have to understand is there are times that the wife has to be elevated to a place because the man does not fill in the gap and so what happens discord confusion questions fear doubt all of those things in fact we started with genesis didn't we can we go back for a moment god speaks to adam and says everything in this garden you can have except this tree of the knowledge of good and evil don't touch it we know the story so what happened adam didn't touch it but what did the serpent do bible calls it beguiled he lied he tricked he influenced and what words did the serpent use to confuse eve god's word did not he say this eve standing there saying well um keep in mind there's no bible there's no concordance there's no logos there's no google she is simply standing there looking at this serpent with what with the word that adam gave her and now confusion settles in and so what does eve do it looked good she partook and then what did she do with it supper time i don't know i don't know how she did it and then adam for took what did god say at that point hey guys where are you at we are ashamed now god why who told you that you were uncovered god says then you now have the knowledge of good and evil hear this why didn't god just leave him there because in the same garden was the tree of life they could have lived forever knowing good and evil and been left to their own devices and god said not so genesis back to the new testament church paul and again paul didn't even know jesus but paul had that relationship where the spirit of god came and spoke to him ministered to him showed him things established things with him and when he would write or when he would have somebody write and dispatch a letter it was because the spirit of god was giving him the instruction to do so 2022 i've come to tell you we still have that instruction it's called the word of god somebody say amen and what was established here in the book of ephesians is is when the questions come between a husband and a wife in a family we need to know where to go to get answers allow me just a couple of moments here of lateral movement as your pastor i realize that sometimes it appears unfair and i realize that some of your husbands may not be in church and you feel the whole weight of everything laying upon some of your shoulders i understand that please know something the grace and the mercy of god can still reach and still help it can still do its job you've got to believe that so what happens then to the husband that is not in church the wife then continues to pray for the wisdom that god can give to him because the order is still there this is not just if he's in the same house and believes it is still the order that is there if that's the case then as a church family guess what we do we pray extra hard for those that are struggling with that and i realize that some of us can be very quick to say well it's not fair it's not i don't know what to say what i do know is this god is faithful god is faithful and if you ever think for one moment that you can rise up above the authority that god has given you are going to be mistaken and what do i do pastor you double pray hard you lean on you pour yourself into someone else you speak and understand the things of god to say i know it ain't this way here but this is what god said and so i'm going to believe it come on if you negate that principle of what god has established as the husband wife and children then you might as well negate the whole word of god and you can't do that is it fair i don't think so but i'm not the judge and the truth of the matter is if i may we haven't read the back of the book deep enough to know where everybody's name falls all we know is what the church is victorious we don't have the story between here and there you know what we do have is we know god's victorious and if he's working things out then we've got to believe lord i'm smack in the middle of what you're working out i'm going to love you i'm going to serve you and i'm going to praise you i'm going to bless your name i want to reach out and touch and influence those around me why because that is the will of god now stay with me the church family i have said this multiple multiple times to various people if your family struggles get the church family involved it doesn't mean bring them over there with a stick it means wrap yourself around the church family that can come in and help and support because there's a lot of times that things are not fair agreed but yet in the family of god god that's what paul is telling do you realize the atmosphere in which paul was writing to the church at ephesus that church was right outside the doors of the temple of artemis of the temple diana the goddess they were sacrificing babies there generations were dying on the steps there young ladies and young men were prostituting themselves on the steps of that temple i'm telling you and paul's got a church right in the middle of it come on guys you've come into the house of god but understand there is order here and there's a way to do things and god established this plan from genesis and just because culture has changed it does not mean god has altered his word he was establishing that with the church and you and i are here listen uh last week in our men's session i told them come on look outside the four walls what's going on the confusion all the idolatry and things going on in our world it's the same situation we're in right now but i refuse to say well lord that was for them but here we are today i'm not sure how we're going to make this i refuse i'm going to still say that it is still right for men to be principled for men to be prayer warriors now every apostolic church that i've ever been to except for maybe a few the majority of their members were women and and i i don't know that i truly understand that why but i think i have a little bit of insight on some of that it's because men by and large are under a heavy attack from the enemy and a man a man understands cleaving to his wife but a man does not understand if he's not in control of the situation and he struggles with that and there's a whole lot of things as a man i will tell you in this church that i can't explain and that frustrates me i wish i knew a plus b equals c but there's a lot of times i don't even know where c is and b don't even look like a b and i'm trying to figure out and then somebody throws algebra at me and calculus and trigonometry and i'm like i got nothing i got ten fingers as far as i can go um i'll tell you there's a lot of times i'm sitting there saying lord god i wish i knew because if it were up to me you don't even know but this ain't my church this is not my church this is his and there are things that are working in your lives in my life and the lives of people in this world that only god knows and there's no way ever that you would know the details of the intricacies of how god is working things out that's why does anybody understand intercessory prayer come on identify you understand that what is intercessory prayer it's what when you pray and you don't know what you're praying for come on the spirit moanings groanings that you can't even utter things are happening what do you think you're praying for you don't have a clue and you better be glad you don't know because some of you would stop praying oh that's that's bum under the bridge or that's that one lives in a in a palace or that's that one in the white house or that's that one you don't know and therefore the spirit says i don't want you to know i want you to trust now pray and through that intercession god is working something now and we don't maybe even know the result but i do know this firsthand experience there have been times when my life was in danger but god stepped in on the scene and i know somebody was praying i know that i know that two o'clock in the morning phone rings in la paz bolivia there's a lady in the in the church brother raymond you okay are you all right yes ma'am i don't know why the lord woke me i've been on my face 30 minutes for you and then the lord said call and let him know you prayed for him thank you sis i appreciate that greatly i went back to bed and said my wife said baby who was that that was sister at the church what does she want she's praying for us why i don't know aren't you glad yes guess what i did went back to sleep why would i worry about a battle that she'd already won now that next day that next week things happen and i can't even tell you why if you've never been to bolivia you don't understand the curvy roads that are this wide with a big bus on it and the lord kept us the time that we're sitting in a vehicle and we were about to be swamped by a bunch of drunks literally but the lord somehow saw our vehicle through it or the time the times here in chattanooga that god has come through and i know that i should have died and the hand of the lord pushed and moved and i don't even somebody was praying understand where i'm coming from i'm telling you that because it's important for you to understand you might not know why the separation or why is this one going that way and that one going that way you just keep trusting god and if you'll submit yourself to the things of god guess what i am convinced that god has your interest in mind and he will fill in the gaps men and women in our modern culture they're trying their best to confuse to do away with the distinctions understand holiness godliness is about distinctions that's your word for the day distinctions if you can blur the lines and take away the distinction then you have done the work of the enemy that's exactly what our culture is trying to do dress this way look that way wear this thing that way there's no distinction between it we know the power of distinction the woman at the well i haven't even heard you open your mouth but i know that you're a teacher of the jews jesus looks at her i expect she knew that come on you apostolic women you dress a certain way anybody in this world look at you and go i wonder sometimes why don't they do this to men oh god don't get me started on that we expect the ladies to do this that and everything else and us men do what we want to shame on us in like manner without wrath or doubting i trust you god in the midst of it all i love you man you're standing in walmart you better believe it you're staying in the parking lot you better know it you're on the job yes i am but i believe that god's in control and if they're going to have to dress holy men should too i don't mean a holy dress that means a holy understanding i can't wear my wife's clothes she would look terrible in my clothes honey you can't just do this huh and yet when there's questions about it in our modern culture what do they say don't worry about that yeah do away with that as long as you just love the lord he just looks on the inward he don't look on the outward shame on you that's not true at all you look on the outward and the inward come on mom and dad you can look at your child he might look all sweet and pretty but you can see right through him oh no you oh did you oh why it matters positions have shifted for whatever reason and now hear me where the mom the dad and the mom were the ones that set the rules and the things in the in the family and the thing like that now it has been so confused that the children are running the households i don't understand that and the fact of the matter is children are being lifted up to a place of leadership that they don't know anything about they don't understand that you can't depend on them to call the shots because you know what they'll call cookies now i'm gonna embarrass nobody drawn what did a little man say a week or so ago yeah what'd he say i'm mad at you i'm done all right so what did you have to do you're afraid right you're afraid not embarrassing you're afraid here's what okay little fella go do fun blanket and passy the world is right in front of me so here he takes off in the front of the church how far you think he got how many feet 100 feet and the whole weight of the world went see oh yeah yeah see y'all yeah dad's sitting there going come on get in here you never have a talk walk 100 feet up you should have done this at 70 feet what's the thing you're trying to teach them you are not the boss of what are they trying to learn their place they're trying to understand the envelope i say this every week almost children are born an envelope you put in them you put in them you put in them and they are going to test the boundaries of the envelope children hate hate having no limits and no boundaries they hate they don't know how to function in that they don't they don't they don't know how you put limits on it and guess what they begin to feel safe notice what paul did in ephesians six children obey your parents in the lord hear what this is what i talked about last week with the men this is right this is the norm obey your parents in the lord honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth verse four your fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord what we talked about last week guys if you recall is that it is right for children to honor their parents in the lord the reason again that paul mentions this to the church of ephesians is because some of the parents were no longer even alive and so they were having to depend on the parental guidance in the church and what paul said was this is right this is right you honor them honor them it's the commandment that comes with promise you're gonna things will be well with you you'll live long on the earth there's a promise that comes children listen to me when you honor your parents honor them in other words be submitted and subjected to them they are given an account for your soul honor them and then he goes on and says but fathers listen carefully provoke not your children to wrath that doesn't mean meanness spite no it means do not follow the translation if you went to the niv or the new king you would find out what that means is fathers don't cause your children to follow other gods but lead them in the nurture and admonition of the lord capital l because if you'll let them fall in love with jesus it won't be too long they're going to have their own children and this cycle is going to continue men women children they are very distinct and very different in all ways i'm watching my clock and i'm bringing the wheels down brother jerome come on but here's the fact in the family what my wife talked about to you ladies and how you deal with things how you interact with those how you take care of conflict how you deal with control how you deal with things that that she spoke of with you men what i spoke to you about was how that in our world your position is being done away with or minimized the fact of the matter is this i don't know if you realize this if you're a bible scholar you might know this the word family is written 122 times in the old testament the word family 122 times the word family in the new testament is written one time and that's in ephesians 3. so you're going to tell me that you're not going to follow and submit to the old testament ways when that's where all the instruction is for the family the fact of the matter is in the jewish home in the hebrew it was all understood that men you would get your direction and guidance from the lord god and in doing that you would in turn take care of your family in that that's why in the 600 plus laws that were written if you transgress one of them you trespassed all of them because the man understood that he was brought up that way it was in him he would not even take a moment listen to it in deuteronomy it says that when you get up when you lay down when you go in when you come out when you sit there when you do you make sure they understand one god and you get that in them and then you begin to instruct them on the ways of that one god don't worry listen to this do not worry yourself with idols do not worry yourself with the things of this world if you'll get this principle down then when you face the enemy of this world you'll know exactly how to respond and how to react our modern culture wants to remove the effects of the old testament and wants to say to you you know what those foundations are old they're rooted into old teachings we need this is a new thing this is all new understand something when the holy ghost was poured out the spirit of god blew into our world in the new testament he did that to every creature that would respond man woman child agreed it even says to those who are far off as many as the lord our god will call so generations to generations this works the problem is is again in our culture we have to make sure that we understand those principles because if your home is going to be a godly home men women it's going to be because you established it as such whether by yourself or with 45 kids in the house you cannot simply allow it to happen but you have to be deliberate if kids are going to know how to pray mom and dad it's because you pray now i believe in the day and age in which we live that there is indeed a generation that's coming up that are going to be world changers i am certain of that but it's not going to be because moms and dads have poured their lives into them it's going to be because they did not have moms and dads who would do that and the lord sent them families that would give them opportunity it gives pastor no greater joy than to watch our children sit here on sundays with their hands up eyes wide open just talking and even occasionally gives me no greater joy now i'm probably the weird generation but when i was a kid we used to play y'all still play kids still play today we used to play church i was the song leader and the offering taker upper i get a mean offer for my sister to beat it out of her but i'd get it my brother would sing and occasionally expound upon the propagation of the gospel of christ you all want to know how we played it we played my little granny over there we prayed played sister francis over there we we was one of us would play brother sam over there they wanted to play brother paul over they want us to play yeah that's how we do it my grandfather up there playing guitar just like this back four back four back so when i played guitar while he's playing church guess what i did i don't know if he was right wrong good bad or ugly but i was having church my uncle fred would get up there and play up here so guess what my brother would do today today some would say well that's foolish that's just silly y'all don't be making fun of them old people come on it's better if i hand you a cell phone and let you go bake your brain on something the world has produced that has no godliness whatsoever into it y'all want to know why there's issues with our kids today have them take medications for things and all this stuff going on it's fun it's amazing i'm just figuring this stuff out again i'm a little slow on some things to get a driver's license you have to read a book you got to study you got to go take your driver's test agreed and you can fail it to carry a gun you have to go through your classes be able to fire the gun they're right sam but i've seen parents hand their ten year olds a telephone cell phones that go to your room busy yourself there and they shut the door and the entire world of sin comes diving into their bedroom and you wonder why you can't control them if we will allow god's plan god's principles husbands fathers sons wives mothers daughters god established limits and boundaries for us to live by and if we will do that hear me we will thrive on earth i say this often in here some of you have jobs that you do not deserve you're not smart enough you're not qualified enough but you're god's children and god's provided it for you some of you ladies are working two and three jobs you're doing all this stuff and for some reason you still have the strength to pray because god is doing that for you you hear what i'm saying i wonder sometimes how does a backslider even happen i wonder that don't you how is that even possible to walk away from god and then sometimes i wonder if the whole story of the prodigal in the old testament was not for the prodigal it was for the dad it was for the older brother i'll tell you as a father i would have a hard time standing there every day ain't here yet the son good he ain't here yet every day it's almost don't let me get distracted it's almost a test of wheels the dad wanted him home the older brother what finally the boy comes back and dad says put the robe on him put the ring on him i mean the one that was dreaded the whole trip most was the fatted calf stand with me church we build the family by following the principles of the word we build the family by holding on to the promises of the word of god you get them in your heart you get them in your mind you let them roll through your spirit you allow them to do their work in you and when you do that god will begin god will finish the whole process of the family would you pray with me right now ask for god's help lord help me to be what i need to be come on me and pray for strength god help me to be the husband and the father i should be come on ladies you pray for god help me to be the mother and the wife that i need to be come on kids help me lord to learn the way of god so that i can follow after you come on pray pray right now lord jesus in this crazy chaotic world i'm gonna hold on to you you made it in the beginning you established the principles therefore god i am going to establish in my home in my life in my family the ways of god i am lord i'm going to decide every day lord that i will follow after you i refuse lord god to be taken over by the enemy i refuse the lies of the adversary i refuse to hear those i am a child of god my family will walk with you i declare your glory in my home i declare your glory lord god in our car i declare your glory lord in our health and in our finances i declare the good things of god i believe you for it lord the whole word the whole counsel of god i believe you for it lord i can't dear god deny the fact that you are still on the throne exalted above everything now just lift a voice of praise right now all across the room all across the room lift the voice of praise i love you jesus you alone are worthy you alone are worthy you alone are worthy i bless your name i bless your name i worship your name great is thy faithfulness oh god great is thy faithfulness oh god i plead your blood over the church today i plead your blood over every man woman and child i plead the blood of jesus right now i rebuke the enemy in the name of jesus in the name of jesus we take dominion right now over the enemy devil you're a liar you will lord god bring the backslider home you will lord god bring that backslider home they will come down the road lord of forgiveness and you will one more time meet them at the place of sacrifice in the name of jesus christ yes yes yes jesus we declare it in this place hallelujah to the lamb of god hallelujah to the lamb of god jesus go with us lord as we leave this room today bless every family lord god breathe into their homes life lord i pray come again lord god bringing praise and worship unto you believing your lord for great things in the name of jesus come on say it in the name of jesus speak that name jesus there's power and authority in that name