How Do You Spell Family?

How Do You Spell Family? We could say:

Today is Father’s Day, but instead of just concentrating on fathers, let’s look at how it all fits together as God gave us families.

F is for Father
A for the And
M is for Mother
I is for “in”
L is for Love
Y is for yes,

And we’d have “Father and Mother in love, yes!” That’s the beginning of a family, but this morning, we rather associate a different set of words with those letters:

F is for “Faithfulness”

Body

I. F is for Faithfulness

A. Faithfulness to God – Mother and Father.

1. Paul says that we as Christians are to marry Christians.

(2 Cor 6:14 NKJV) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

2. Paul says if we re-marry it is to be only in the Lord.

(1 Cor 7:39 NKJV) A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

B. Faithful to each other.

(Mal 2:14 NKJV) Yet you say, "For what reason?" Because the LORD has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously¹; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant.

¹898. bagad, baw-gad'; by impl.--deal deceitfully (treacherously, unfaithfully)

II. A is for Acceptance.

Home is the place where we are accepted.

1. It’s here that children are loved and encouraged.

2. It’s here that we can share our hurts and our problems.

Sometimes we take advantage of our acceptance.

1. We become unkind to those who love us the most.

2. We say things to members of our family that we could not say at work and still keep our jobs.

3. These attitudes and habits should not be.

4. It reminds me of the man who came home and took out his frustrations on his wife. She took out her frustrations on the kids. The kids took out their frustrations on the dog. The dog took out his mistreatment on the cat, the cat ran up the tree, and that was the end of the story—or was it? Look at the trail of hurt people that could have been closer instead of angry and disappointed with each other.

III. M is for Morality.

God’s laws of right and wrong give a foundation to our family.
Our faithfulness to God and to His laws gives us a moral foundation for our families that we take for granted.
The mother and dad being faithful to each other.

1. Jesus spoke of the legal tie that God looks at.

(Mat 19:3-6 NKJV) The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" {4} And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' {5} "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? {6} "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

2. Paul looked at how we should make this work.

(Col 3:18-21 NKJV) Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. {19} Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. {20} Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. {21} Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Our homes are where we can leave our wallet and check book without fear of someone taking what is ours.
Our homes are where there is something in our wallets because we work to earn an honest living.

(1 Tim 5:8 NKJV) But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

When our children are grown, we trust them to live by the rules we have lived by.

That they will be moral an upright with members of the opposite sex,
That they will prepare for a career and provide for their own.

IV. I is for intimacy.

God began the home with the greatest of intimacy.

(Gen 3:7 NKJV) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

It is in the home that we are “naked” with one another in many ways.
We share our hurts and our dreams.
We share our faith and our fears.
God intended for us to be close to each other in our homes.

(Mat 19:5-6 NKJV) "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? {6} "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

V. L is for Love.

A. Paul spells out for us the greatness of love in I Corinthians 13.

IF I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no 1 love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not 2 only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that 1 3 possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience‑it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. 5 Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. 6 It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. 7 Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. 8 It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen. – Phillips Translation.

VI. Y is for yielding.

First of all, yielding to God.

(Rom 6:16-19 KJV) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? {17} But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. {18} Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. {19} I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Wives yielding to husbands.

(Eph 5:22-24 NKJV) Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. {23} For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. {24} Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

We are to have a yielding attitude toward each other.

(1 Pet 5:5 NKJV) Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."

Have you been submissive to God?

Conclusion

F is for Faithfulness: To God, and to each other

A is for acceptance, but let’s not abuse it.

M is for morality: Honoring God’s laws, and helping our children.

I is for intimacy. The closeness of a family

L is for Love.

Y is for Yielding: To God, and to each other.

Families: The backbone of the church and our country. May God bless us with good families.

In a much larger sense, are you part of God’s family? Have you been born again?

Bible Study with Harley Sermons I have Preached

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