Family: Principles and Priorities by Raymond Sloan October 9, 2024 ยท Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN) Kind: teaching Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17, Acts 2:38-39, Ephesians 5:25, 1 Timothy 2:8, Titus 2:1-5, Ephesians 6:1, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/raymond-sloan--family-pastor-and-sister-sloan-10-9-24 Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ well hello University so glad to be here on video with Michelle so good to see everyone or at least um you can see us and so glad to be in service with you even though we're out of town tonight yeah we are on lesson number two of our month of family for midweek University and so we wanted to make sure that we uh spend some time continuing the study hope to be back live with you guys next week but um it's a joy to be with you all tonight continue uh our look our deeper look into the foundational doctrines if you will foundational establishments principles priorities of the family now last week if you will recall we talked about the biblical aspects of creation of humans creation of animals uh fowl fish the Earth we talked quite a bit at length into the Genesis account and the the command given to all of God's creation was to be fruitful and to multiply and replenish the Earth uh to put new people on the Earth through the course of how God had created the man and the woman the male and the female uh we also looked at the reality of that system in today's 2024 culture uh everyone is in a family one person 10 people 50 people extended family you can go on and on many of you probably know some of your genealogy and so all of that concept is is the family okay so we are going to continue into our second lesson for this evening uh we're going to pray first I challenge you all to get your notepads back out make some notes uh maybe write some questions you may have and and hopefully through this series over the next few weeks including tonight we can help to solidify and answer some questions or concerns or just some thoughts you may have on the family let's pray together can we lord we love you and thank you for another opportunity to go to the word for the power of the word Lord the power of the church Church community and family every individual Lord that's in our church everyone God that consists of a family we know Lord that you're you have a plan and you have a a purpose for that help us Lord to know to understand to study the things of God and to comprehend the blessings the goodness and the grace help us tonight and lead us show us Lord your way we're going to love you and serve you forever and we trust you the name of Jesus Lord we want to make sure that you make the difference in Us in Jesus name we pray amen amen amen all right now in this session the second session uh we're going to look at some principles uh that we can live by in the word of God if you have your Bible let's go to the Book of Exodus this is again back to the pentet took the first five books the Bible in Genesis chapter number 20 I would like to begin at verse number one and I will read for you please follow along make notes this is familiar to a lot of you I do hope if not this will be an introduction to you God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage Thou shalt have no other gods before for me Thou shalt not make unto thee any Graven image or any likness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them them that hate me and Shing Mercy unto thousands of men that love me and keep my Commandments Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless and taketh his name that taketh his name in vain remember the Sabbath day keep it holy six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it Thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man's servant nor thy maid servant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day hallowed it continues here honor thy father father thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house Thou shalt not cover thy neighbor's wife nor his manservants nor his maid servants nor his Ox nor his ass nor anything that is Thy Neighbor okay this is what we generally refer to as the Ten Commandments now we we know through Biblical history there were many many more Commandments that God gave his people but the principle here is that every thing that God created has a purpose if God wanted to make sure make certain that as Humanity we understood our place and also that we were able not just to grasp comprehend what God was saying what God was establishing as law as guidelines as principles but also most importantly God wanted us to be able to pass that on to the next Generation teaching and instructing them and then so forth and so on it would go from one generation to the next keep in mind God had given this verbally to his people they he it had been written down and established as the law but this is the one time so it was up to man to grasp the concepts understand the meanings and purposes and then pass those on that's very important to understand that God will even in today's culture in 2 24 God will grasp what he's already said and he will pass that through people to instruct the generations to come now it was all for guidance it was all so that men Humanity would understand where God stood number one on who he was on who God was number two on the things that God had given man dominion over we looked last week and we saw that God had told Adam to take dominion over the animals and the fowl and the fish the things of the earth and and to to have the the power over them okay it is not the other way around now um fittingly many times there are storms there are Mother Nature sometimes it's referred to that that basically overpowers and over overwhelms currently in this situation in in our land today there's a thing that happened and and many lives lost in destruction of properties and stuff but that even in of itself is not the destruction of all Humanity God gave us power and dominion over to rebuild to recreate to make over again and so that we are doing as humans now when we talk about principles of God we have to understand that not everyone was raised at a home with 15 children or 20 family members Old Testament would have would have leaned to that many families put together in a compound that we would call it or in a home but the fact remains in our current culture families are all over the place I for an example have a brother the family on the west coast I have people down in in Florida I have people in 100 miles away in other towns perhaps some of you are the same maybe there's family that you have in your bloodline if you will that you've not seen in long time because of distance we we do indeed live in a different culture in a different place but the principles the teachings the education that we have obtained from the word of God is for us even today and for us to grasp and to pass along to our children now the reality of the word is given to us for future Generations we received it from past generations and we are responsible for how it moves forward there are principles tonight that I want to talk about in the word of God concerning the family these are teachings first and foremost make note of this please number one salvation for the family has to be important above all else you have to be saved above all other things you have to go to heaven all right uh help me tonight with that point to yourself and say above all I must be saved we have to be saved this world the sin the Disobedience the things that come into our world God wants to have us work through those things and to become what he's called us to be if you're a sinner you need salvation that's if you have sinned and if you have uh transgressions against the law the promise the principles of God then you need salvation now Old Testament let's called Old Testament salvation or Old Testament way of dealing with separation sin and transgression was you would have to bring an animal sacrifice and you can study in the word and you can discover there the different types of animals what they purpose was and how many you'd have to bring and at what points in your life's journey okay tonight's lesson doesn't give us time to go through all the details of that but I will say that when the New Testament came along the Old Testament if you will was then the framework for what was coming through the New Testament Testament of course means there's a new testator there's a new written established way that people would have to follow God's principles and his plans we can read that after the life of Matthew or the the writings of the life of Jesus in Matthew Mark Luke and John we then have the Acts of the Apostles in that acts 2 and 38 there's a message that's giv there in 38 and 39 it says that it's for you and for your children and to all that are far off as many as the Lord Our God shall call listen carefully repent baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost those are Paramount things actions activities that you and I must do in this culture in which we live you have to learn that is God's teaching it's his law it's his ways he wants us to become new creatures okay first of all you have to know that the word of God gives us us what we need to make those correct decisions concerning how we interact with our heavenly father the word of God we know and understand that salvation is Paramount but let me explain it this way you can jot it down we are saved by grace it is the grace of God that has appeared to all men that gives us the right to be able to Humble ourselves before what God has secondly we're saved because we believe we have faith in in the things of God and in the word of God number three we are saved because we confess our sins we re we commit unto God the fact that we know that we're Sinners okay and we are saved by repentance saying Lord I'm sorry I'm turning around from that sin and I'm going to walk towards you now okay we're saved by baptism in the name of Jesus Christ to wash the sins away all right and we are saved by the spirit of God that in filling of his Spirit his power presence in our lives gives us what we need to become sa to become to a place where he can use us bless us and work through Us in passing along to next Generations his plan and then most importantly we're saved because we endure we get up every day we make up our mind we're going to serve God we're going to love God we're we're going to be what God wants us to be we're going to have faith in the things of God and we're going to let him work in our lives all right salvation is a Paramount for all of us you have to be saved your family must know Jesus Christ secondly you have to have quality time in your influences and in the people you spend time with all right this is family stuff want you to understand you have to be saved and you have to influence Ence your family to be saved all right you got to be intentional if you will time together with your family I admonish all of you be in your family's lives be present there okay your parents of little ones build relationships with them they're going to respect you and honor you by what you present to them what you how you interact with them what you explain to them in the word of God get involved in your family's lives don't be absent from that I get life gets busy things happen you're out of town you're working the calendar fills up but make sure that salvation is first second of all that you are spending quality time with your children and with your spouse okay you got to build those personal relationships that's how God created us he wanted us to be connected to others amen your home your dreams your vision your tradition uh there are things about being part of a family that only you can make only you can create listen to me it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing you are responsible for your families Traditions are important why you do how you do how you interact how you accomplish things in your home through the power of the word of God Michelle you want to amen talk a little bit more about about that certainly I want to say as Raymond was mentioning about the family what a beautiful institution the Lord created um the center of the family and something I want to talk a little bit about now is our homes our homes to me those are interchangeable in our culture today where we spend the most time with our family is in our homes someone once said a home or you could put in the word family can be the nearest thing to heaven on Earth or it can be the nearest thing to Hell on Earth wow I don't know about you but we would all I believe everyone in this room tonight everyone that's listening to this U message tonight wants Heaven yeah we all want to go to heaven and I know that our desire is to create a home that can be the closest thing to Heaven I know when Raymond and I first got married one of the first things I always wanted and if you've ever been in our home I hope you felt the presence of the Lord because whether or not you were impressed with my home impressed with the decorations impressed with whatever it is uh in my home I my desire is for people to feel the presence of the Lord when they enter our home that is my true desire and I hope that through my actions I've been able to accomplish some of that um for sure I want to go through just a little a few things as we've talked about principles and priorities tonight I want to talk a little bit about the each one of those for each role that can be consisted of in a family so if men it may not be my place but uh one of the things I wanted to speak to you um and as the men of this church you are um Your Role is important yeah everything you do although we are in our marriages we work together in the home I want you to know that for the health and safety of your home your role is so vital that's right and I want you to know that you need to prayerfully prayerfully consider your role and providing for your family what they need a couple of things obviously the scriptures has a whole lot to say uh about men women children all of the different roles in the family um but a couple of them I want to talk about and just highlight tonight men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church we read that in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 and just for the sake of time I'm not going to read all of these scriptures to you I'm really not even telling you anything new that most of you haven't heard all of your life some of you there may be some here tonight that this is new or that you just needed a refresher to hear this I need a refresher to hear these things um back to the other things about men one other thing men that I wanted to share with you men are to pray and worship in 1 Timothy Chapter 2 ver8 it says I will I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting me and you are to pray and to worship you're to love your wives and love your children too of course and you are to pray pray and worship um among so many responsibilities um Raymond just mentioned it a few minutes ago so much going on in life so many things to do um I want you to remember what what's really important when really need to remember what's important women um I'm not going to leave you out um I've got there's so many things in the scripture so many women in the Bible that we could talk about but um I want you to know that you can be the glue that ties everything together in the home you can be the glue that will make a difference and ties That family together I do realize also as I'm speaking to you tonight that there are situations and circumstances in families that are out of our control yeah what I'm talking to you about tonight are the things you can control that's right we can't help it if other people do not follow biblical Concepts we have to be able to um depend on the Lord to help us to do what we need to do in our families priorities or principles for the women a few that I wanted to mention tonight to to you women is women are to respect their husbands there's various scriptures in the Bible that I could uh reference in regard to that but we all know that a man's number one need and I don't think there would be anyone that would doubt that a man's number one need is to be respected and women we are to respect our husbands we are also to be keepers at home teachers working in the home to like I said the glue that sticks puts everything together that's not to say that the woman a woman can't work outside the home obviously we have single women we have women that are single parents uh it's necessary to work outside of the home um it's also a possible to work outside the home and still be able to be that glue that you need things may look different responsibilities may have to be shared but there are all um different styles and types of families and as long as we're following biblical principles right you will make a difference in your family and then lastly and certainly not least for the women teach the younger women how to love their husbands um in Titus um I want you to know that he promoted the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching um and the Book of Titus says this as for you Titus promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching teach the older men to exercise self- contr control I'm reading I believe it's out of the New Living Translation Titus Chapter 1 verses 1 through five to um so no with verse two let me go back to that teach the older men to exercise self-control to be worthy of respect and to live wisely they must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience similarly teach the older women to live in a way that honors God they must not slander others or be heavy drinkers um instead they should teach others what what is good these older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and to love their children to live wisely and to be pure to work in their homes to do good and to excuse me and to be submissive to their husbands then they will not bring shame on the word of God what wow what powerful scriptures to live live by and what an awesome responsibility although it may not always be easy your priority is to be saved women I want to you to I want to reiterate what Randy said your priority is to be saved take care of your husband teach your children teach and nurture your children and nurture other friendships and I don't have time to go into that tonight but I specifically mentioned about your relationship with God your relationship with your husband your children and then your friends and in that order that is biblical order um that we need to keep straight in our lives it isn't always easy and we go through Seasons where that's more difficult but it is possible and it's an important priority right even in the chaos of raising a family you can set a time set aside time for the important things children I'm not going to leave you guys out as the 10 Commandments that rayan just read earlier teach us we are to honor our parents no matter our age that's so I mentioned that to children and sometimes we think of only the small children or maybe the teenagers when they may hear us preach that to them but that is us as adult children as well we are that matters that matters that we honor our parents um Ephesians chapter 6 And1 says children obey your parents in the Lord so we are to obey our parents of course we all know that as we get married and move we leave our moms and dads and we create another family unit um so there's not the need to obey our parents like it is when we're children and teenagers still living under our parents race God has given us roles to fill and what a special place each one of you hold no matter what season in life you're in you are important you are important in the kingdom of God you are important in the institution of family and let's create Just a Little Bit of Heaven on this Earth very good that Segways us if you will into the third part tonight that I want to quickly mention and and and talk about is first of all you must be saved number one second of all the relationships at home wives husbands children family whatever it looks like in your situation thirdly allow me to say this make sure that you keep relationships in church in its proper place God has to be first he has to keep order in your life by being number one but then secondly comes your family those are the ones that are in your privy if you will in your home your family and thirdly is the church don't get those out of order don't try to put the church first don't try to put the family first you're going to miss it make sure God stays number one in your life teach your children whatever age they are teach your children how to respect the things of God it's not going to come from anybody else it's got to come from church family okay respect the leadership in the church respect those that have been put in responsibilities to help not only you Mom Dad Grandma Grandpa but also the little ones they're going to learn how you interact how you communicate with one another how you communicate in the church family and you don't have to disagree with everyone all the time you don't have to agree all the time but it is family so we work through that God has given specific order organized methods to do things the church the body of Believers has been brought together to help help support as a community the individuality of people that God put on planet Earth all right do not allow the church to rise above family and God okay if the family is healthy the church will be healthy if you're investing in your home you're investing in your family time you're investing in groups that are around you and in your and your connect groups if you will uh Healthy Families will produce healthy Church what we need now more than ever before in our world is we need the word and the power of God to actively move in our culture let let me give one more verse here or a couple of verses and then we're going to transition this session tonight Deuteronomy I would be remiss if I didn't mention this to our families Deuteronomy chapter number 6 verse number 4-9 here oh Israel this is directly to God's people the Lord our God is one Lord listen to what it says Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart all thy soul with all thy might and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart these words that God is establishing with his people are going to be in their heart listen to what he says about it Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children shalt talk of them when thou sest in thine house when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down when thou risest up Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and thou shall they shall be as frontlets between Thine Eyes Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy Gates notice what happens here in this instruction in Deuteronomy he puts it in your heart you teach to the children the principles and the concepts the the principles of the word of God you receive it in your heart when you become a new creature Prater God puts these things in you and then you begin to grow and develop then you pass them along to the Next Generation so important families that we allow the possibilities of the promises the principles priorities of the things of God can make our families our homes a lot more stronger and Powerful now I have two special guests that I've asked to be in the lesson tonight uh Lauren and Hannah they are going to take a few moments now go live there in the room and they're going to spend a few moments now talking about how to keep first of all the things of God what they have learned how that they learned them and then maybe speak a few minutes on their personal experiences as preachers kids being raised in a preacher's home and maybe how the lessons they learned affected both positively and negatively their homes and their relationships now sh and I love you guys we are so honored to be with you and thankful that the technology we have is to spend time with you please understand God has a plan for every home and every family sh and I want to see you grow we want to see you mature please take the time to allow the family of God to be strong and to be powerful we love you we believe in you I turn it over to you Lauren and Hannah and I believe God is going to do great things God bless you all until next week love you guys Lord bless you bye