Series: The Importance of…

The Importance of Family

INTRO: Continuing in the series, “The Importance of...” I want to look at The Importance Of Family. Having lost another uncle this past week, it brings close to  home just how precious and important family is in our lives.

First, we should understand it is a…

Family’s responsibility to protect

Exodus 1:1-22(KJV) ¹Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
⁴Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
⁵And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
⁶And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
⁷And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
⁸Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
⁹And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
¹⁰Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
¹¹Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
¹³And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
¹⁴And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
¹⁵And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
¹⁶And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
¹⁸And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?
¹⁹And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
²⁰Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
²¹And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
²²And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Exodus 2:1-10(KJV) ¹And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
²And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
³And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
⁴And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
⁵And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
⁶And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
⁷Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
⁸And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
⁹And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
¹⁰And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Family is usually more than one household – 1:1-7

Life is often difficult – 1:8-14

Life is full of hard decisions – 1:15-16

Hard decisions do not always mean universal agreement – 1:17-18

God has given them to us – 2:2

They are special – 2:2c

They are important – 2:2c

They are a blessing to be found – 2:5

They are a blessing to be cared for with love, devotion and wisdom

 We also can know that a…

Family’s responsibility is to prepare

Of course we know it is to…

Feed and nourish – 2:9

Challenge and strengthen

But it is also to…

Teach and train

Deuteronomy 6:1-8(KJV) ¹Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
²That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
³Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Proverbs 22:6(KJV) ⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Isaiah 38:19(KJV) ¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

To correct and guide

Proverbs 13:24(NKJV) ²⁴ He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

Early

Proverbs 19:18(KJV) ¹⁸Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

With love (instead of an uncaring jailer)

Proverbs 23:12-14(KJV) ¹²Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
¹³Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
¹⁴Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

I think with just enough pressure as needed to guide

(like breaking a horse is best when gentle -  but the wild ones were harder)

We also can know that a…

Family’s responsibility is to prop up family (in godliness)

Deuteronomy 4:9-10(NKJV) ⁹Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,
¹⁰especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

As the first example

As a believer

As a joyous family

Deuteronomy 31:11-13(NKJV) ¹¹when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
¹²Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,
¹³and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

As a CORRECT changing force in their lives

So if I were to roll all this into one key thing, I would say…

A family’s key responsibility is to precede in the ways of the Lord

1 Kings 9:4(NKJV) ⁴Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments,

2 Chronicles 17:3(KJV) ³And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;

2 Chronicles 26:4(KJV) ⁴And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did.

2 Timothy 1:5(NKJV) ⁵when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

We as family can help…

Make their footsteps easier

Make their paths clear

Make their way straight

Make their stand strong

Gary Marcum – New Beginnings Church – 032110am