Connecting to GodThrough The Family

The family is the best circle of relationships by which God allows people to understand Himself.

God as FatherMatthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Family --- from God’s Perspective

We as the children of GodRomans 9:8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Family --- from God’s Perspective

Christians as sisters and brothersPsalm 133:1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

Family --- from God’s Perspective

How Jesus saw his own familyMatthew 12:47:50 47Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." 48He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.“

John 7:5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

Family --- from God’s Perspective

Acts16:15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord,"

she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.

Acts16:31-34 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.

Households not Individuals

Acts18:18 Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.

Households not Individuals

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Married Couples … Unto Christ

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her … Ephesians 5:33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,

Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Husband … Lead Them

Genesis 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Job 1:5 … Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

Joshua 24:15 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."

Husband … Lead Them

1 Timothy 3:12 A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.

1 Timothy 3:2-5 2Now the overseer … 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)

Husband … Lead Them

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. … Ephesians 5:33 … and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

1 Peter 3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,

Wives … Support Him

“SUBMIT”

Genesis 18:19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just,

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction

of the Lord.

Parents … Pass it On

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parentsin everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 6:2 "Honor your father and mother"— which is the first commandment with a promise—

Children … Listen Up

2 Timothy 1:5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Titus 2:3-5 3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Extended … Help them Out

“My true son in the faith…”

Titus 2:3-5 3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and

children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Spiritual Family … Never Ending