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Hoshea 4:6 - My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. I have used this text in various ways, but in this message, I want to use the text in speaking about families, and what is happening to them in this present world. The Israelites had forgotten God’s laws. And they will reap the consequences. God never intended his laws to be restrictive, he intended them to set the people free to enjoy this life as they never could by breaking God’s laws. But God and his laws have been rejected, therefore families are being slowly eroded away. Families are being destroyed today at an alarming rate. The failure of this nation is a direct result of the destruction of the family. The grass roots that hold the whole in place is being slowly destroyed because people just don’t know what a family is, or what God expects. The census bureau has estimated that in the year 2002, 50% of people that marry will divorce. This is all because the laws of God are forsaken. Bibles are not being read, although Bibles are being bought. Premarital sex is rampant, and families are destroyed before couples marry. The world has perverted what real companionship, fellowship, friendship, and love are by its songs, its movies, so forth. The Bible has been rejected, it is not read, therefore not heeded, and families are forsaken for the sinful pleasure wickedness offers. Movies, books, television and many other sources are perverting the true meaning of life, health and happiness. When people do not read their Bibles, they are rejecting the knowledge God has given them. Many are seeking knowledge from other sources rather than the Bible. When the Bible isn’t mediated on, and sought to be applied to everyday life, families are being forsaken for the sinful pleasures of wickedness. There is no restraint placed upon sexual lusts, and no intention to restrain evil feelings. Lustful feelings are said to be normal, even healthful, and ought to be encouraged. Certain people have declared that not fulfilling sexual lust will lead to mental deficiencies and other such nonsense. It is openly declared that a couple must be "in love" before they marry, and the kind of love spoken of is sexual attraction. The truth is that couples seldom know what love is when they marry. They do know what lust is, however. Love grows over the years, and real true love comes later – after children, after midnight feedings, after health problems, after heartaches, after job failures, and many other such trauma the couple goes through together, staying together because that is what God wants them to do. I totally and completely reject the notion that love is a quivering in the stomach (butterflies), the lack of desire for food, and the mind thinking only of the other person. This "feeling" is not what holds a couple together. What holds a couple together is what put them together in the first place. If it is lust that joins a couple together, when lust grows dim, the couple will separate. But if it is a desire to do what God wants them to do that puts them together, they will stay together because they know them being together is God’s will. When a couple marries, they marry because that is God’s will for them, and they know it. They stay together, have children, raise those children, and devote themselves to each other because they know that is what God’s will is for them. There are three points to this message:
When everything is said and done, God’s will for the right kind of family is still the same as it has always been.
The following file contains the remainder of the message: Parental obligation toward their children.doc |