Sermon Cloud

  Why did God create the family? What are the purposes behind the family? In our culture, we are driven by a powerful individualism that puts personal happiness and fulfillment as being of the utmost importance. Everything becomes subservient to the goal of making oneself happy. When we take this cultural value and impose it upon a biblical institution like the family, we end up with deep dissatisfaction and the disintegration of the family that we are witnessing on a massive scale.  The problem is not with the institution of family, but with the cultural value being imposed upon it.

Today, we look back to the creation and institution of the family in the bible.

26Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 1:26-28 (NASB-U)

God creates mankind to be his image on the earth, the Imago Dei.

We were created with a function in mind. Mankind is a functional being. God wants you to represent Him on the earth; to spread His glory and reign, reproducing yourself and therefore Him.

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

 Genesis 2:18-25 (NASB-U)[i]

Man could not be what God created him to be or do what God created him to do as an individual. The Imago Dei can only be fulfilled in relationship so God created woman and the family was instituted as God's instrument to fulfill His purposes through and for mankind.

The family was created with a function in mind. Family is a functional institution. God wants your family to represent Him here on earth, to spread His glory and reign, reproducing yourselves and therefore Him.

9Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. 11Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? 12And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NASB-U)

The spiritual family (church) was created with a function in mind. Church is a functional institution. God wants His church to represent Him here on earth, to spread His glory and reign, reproducing itself and therefore Him.

18And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

 Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB-U)

19And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. 20And it was reported to Him, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You." 21But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."

 Luke 8:19-21 (NASB-U)

LAST WEEKS QUESTION: What if you believed that God sovereignly placed you in your family, in your neighborhood, in your workplace as His priest?

THIS WEEKS QUESTION: What if you believed that God sovereignly placed your family, both genetic and spiritual, exactly where He has placed you, to be His Imago Dei?

[i] All Scripture taken from  the New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995, unless otherwise indicated.