The Family Institution

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The Family Institution

• Part 1 of 5 Family series

Pastor Dave Martin Cross Creek Community Church
Feb 4, 2007
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Family

• Marriage is a sacred institutionthe most basic
  and essential building block of a healthy
  society. The design of the family was instituted
  by God and rests on the marriage covenant and a
  vow of commitment between a man and a woman to
  live together in love and unity for a lifetime.

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1. Marriage Family are defined by God not man.

• Mark 106-9 6 "But at the beginning of creation
  God 'made them male and female.' 7 'For this
  reason a man will leave his father and mother and
  be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become
  one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9
  Therefore what God has joined together, let man
  not separate."

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• "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our
  children to believe in human potential, not God."
  Gloria Steinem
• She would like to eliminate all sex, marriage,
  motherhood, and love marriage is legalized
  servitude and family relations are the basis for
  all human oppression Ti-Grace Atkinson

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2. Gods Word (Bible) must be our Blueprint.

• Deuteronomy 61-2 These are the commands, decrees
  and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach
  you to observe in the land that you are crossing
  the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your
  children and their children after them may fear
  the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping
  all his decrees and commands that I give you, and
  so that you may enjoy long life.

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• "Every child in America entering school at the
  age of five is mentally ill because he comes to
  school with certain allegiances to our Founding
  Fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his
  parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being,
  and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a
  separate entity. It's up to you as teachers to
  make all these sick children well - by creating
  the international child of the future."     --Pro
  fessor Chester M. Pierce, M.D., Professor of
  Education and Psychiatry at Harvard

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• "The schools cannot allow parents to influence
  the kind of values-education their children
  receive in school that is what is wrong with
  those who say there is a universal system of
  values. Our (humanistic) goals are incompatible
  with theirs. We must change their
  values."     --Paul Haubner, specialist for the
  N.E.A.

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Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

• I sought for the greatness and genius of America
  in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers -
  and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields
  and boundless forests and it was not there . . .
  in her rich mines and her vast world commerce -
  and it was not there . . . in her democratic
  Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it
  was not there. Not until I went into the churches
  of America and heard her pulpits aflame with
  righteousness did I understand the secret of her
  genius and power. America is great because she is
  good, and if America ever ceases to be good,
  America will cease to be great.

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3. Godly Families are Critical for every
Generation.

• 1st Generation - Joshua 2415 But if serving the
  LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for
  yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether
  the gods your forefathers served beyond the
  River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
  you are living. But as for me and my household,
  we will serve the LORD."

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3. Godly Families are Critical for every
Generation.

• 2nd Generation - Judges 27-13 7 The people
  served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua
  and of the elders who outlived him and who had
  seen all the great things the LORD had done for
  Israel

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3. Godly Families are Critical for every
Generation.

• 3rd Generation - Judges 210-13 After that whole
  generation had been gathered to their fathers,
  another generation grew up, who knew neither the
  LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
• 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of
  the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They forsook
  the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had
  brought them out of Egypt. They followed and
  worshiped various gods of the peoples around
  them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because
  they forsook him and served Baal and the
  Ashtoreths.

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• This is not just a cultural war
• its a spiritual war and were in it
• Judges 2125 In those days Israel had no king
  everyone did as he saw fit.

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4. Examine our Hearts before God.

• Lamentations 340 Let us examine our ways and
  test them, and let us return to the LORD.

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Examine our Hearts

• Remember?
• Hows my relationships?
• Where do my priorities lie?
• What am I teaching my family?
• Am I willing to get serious with God?

1 John 19 If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and purify
us from all unrighteousness.
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The Family
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Adapted from some of the following resources

• The Heritage Foundation - http//www.heritage.org
• Family Info Sites - http//www.familylife.com and
  http//www.familyfacts.org
• Successful Christian Parenting, John MacArthur
  Word Publishing 1998
• The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman
  Northfield publishing 2004
• Starting Your Marriage Right, Dennis Barbara
  Rainey Nelson Books 2000
• Battle Cry for a Generation, Ron Luce Cook
  Ministries NexGen 2005
• Bringing Up Kids Without Tearing them Down, Dr
  Kevin Leman Delacorte Press 1993