The Missing Family: The True Cost
I know that I have preached a sermon or two about the family and what it means to God and to our society and I used to think that I couldn’t preach on a subject more than a couple of times because it seem that I would be repeating sermons but I have discovered that this isn’t the case. Some topics are so vitally important to all of us lost people or Christian that there needs to be more sermons on them and not less. The family and its importance to God, our country, and to us as individuals needs to be highlighted more today and not less.
There have been some very disturbing news stories lately and I for one am growing very tired and frustrated of hearing about them. It seems that the very fabric of our country and our society, such as it has become over the past 50 years, is being torn apart thread by thread. We are hemorrhaging our young people at an alarming rate, violence has escalated to completely unacceptable levels, drug abuse and out of wedlock pregnancies have skyrocketed and like the Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome was burning to the ground we find ourselves doing basically the same thing.
God ordained and created the nuclear family to be the basic building block for societies worldwide. Every culture in the world places a high level of importance on the family, granted some cultures more than others. I am beginning to wonder about where America stands when it comes to the importance of the family in our culture. While we say with our mouths that family is important our actions betray of speech.
If you ask most Americans what is the most important thing in their lives most of them will say “family is the most important thing”. But is this really the truth? I believe that America has sold its “family soul” out for a so called progressive family. We are in the process of turning our backs on the kind of family that God ordained and created for one that fits what makes people feel good rather than what will keep our societal frame work in one piece.
We have to go back to Genesis chapter 2 verses 18-24 to see how and why God created marriage in the first place: 18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 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. 20 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. 21 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. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 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.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
It seems that over that last several decades America has chosen to participate in some extremely dangerous social engineering. If you’re not familiar with what social engineering is it is basically this, it’s where people sometimes scientists sometimes politicians change the way the family unit looks and acts to see what will happen. I can tell them what will happen, people will suffer, some kids will be without fathers in the home, some kids will be without mothers in the home, gang activity among young people will rise because there is no real family at “home”.
As with all of God’s many plans for His greatest creation, mankind, there is His way of doing things and man’s way of doing things, which way would you imagine would be best for everyone involved? My vote goes to God. God said that the traditional family should be made up of one man and one woman and that they should leave their own families to create one of their own.
But too many people have been trying to redefine the family and it has taken a HUGE toll on our society and our culture. God made men and women differently on purpose so that they could each fulfill a role that He has created for them in a marriage. It’s a pretty simple recipe, one man and one woman. But some in America have deemed it unnecessary for there to be two parents in a family. And unfortunately for us men, it’s usually the dad that they feel is the most non essential person in the family today.
And I have to say here that I know that there are times when the mother has to raise children on her own and I want to be clear here, I’m not criticizing them one bit for what they have been called on to do. But having said that, I want to address us as Christians here that there is far too much of this situation occurring in Christian families.
Now back to us irrelevant men for awhile. There are manifold problems that occur as it relates to the breakdown of the family when the dad isn’t in the home either by choice or because of divorce. The saddest part of this problem are the millions of so called “dads” that are just absent from the home by choice. The out of wedlock birth rate in America is a growing problem.
There are entirely too many baby mamas and baby daddies out there and not enough real Mom’s and Dad’s anymore. As many of yall know, I’m a stats guy sometimes. Here are the numbers of out of wedlock births in America from 2011 the latest statistics that we have: In the black community: 72%, Hispanics: 53%, Whites: 30%, if you add in the other racial groups in America the average is about 40% and that is totally unacceptable.
I mentioned some things in the news that greatly disturbed me and we need to be aware that there is a direct correlation between the disintegration of the family and poverty, violence on our streets, crime, drug abuse, rampant sexual promiscuity, etc.
Black kids are killing black kids at alarming rate, the black on black on black murder rate overall is on the increase. The latest numbers we have are from 2007 and in that year over 8,000 black people were murdered across the country and 93% of those people were murdered by other black people.
I am not singling out the black community here by any means, but the greatest portion of our society that has absentee dads is the black community. But I want all families to be stable and I want all of our children to have a two parent home where there is enough love and stability enough to go around!
I talked a minute ago about the relationship between the family and the crime rate in this country and the statistics bear me out. When the family fails so does our society. When the family fails our children fail. When the family fails people become impoverished. If the family fails altogether then America will also fail to be the country know and love.
Our children and their children deserve better than this from all of us! The notion that we can make family be whatever we as people want it to be means that we are thumbing our collective noses at the God who created and ordained marriage and family in the first place. Too many progressives and politicians have gotten involved with social engineering and we need to take a stand here.
If we as Christians want to make a difference in this culture war then we have to understand that there are some very real and powerful things that we can do to make a difference.
We can first and foremost stay married as believers! We as Christians have a hard time talking about the family and how important it is to us and God when the divorce rate is almost the exact same for Christian couples as it is for secular couples.
We can engage the culture with our thoughts and conversations. I get told by some people that I like to talk and sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it isn’t but when it comes to speaking my mind on the importance of the family I will say my piece in defense of godly families.
We can volunteer at places like the Boys and Girls clubs and set an example of what a godly family consists of and set an example for these kids. We can become big brothers and big sisters to a child who doesn’t have one or the other parent in their home. There are so many kids in this position today that this organization is begging for help and even asking the big brother or the big sister to consider taking on two kids at a time.
We can vote for politicians who are on the side of godly families that are made up of one man and one woman. Men and women who are opposed to changing the traditional definition of marriage to whatever kind “families” seem right at the time.
I’m telling yall if we don’t wake up and put in some very hard work on this front, we could very well see the demise of the godly family right before our eyes. And I for one am not going to stand by and watch this train wreck happen right in front of me and do nothing. The things I listed a minute ago require work and commitment I realize this. But are our kids and the kids of other Americans worth fighting for?
They are being killed by the hundreds every year because we as adults can’t seem to put our selfishness and pride aside long enough to think about anyone else but ourselves. They are living in poverty because we can’t or won’t stand up to the social engineers among us and demand that this nonsense be stopped. They are growing up without role models to create their own families because some men and women just want to have sex and not be concerned about the children that they help bring into this world.
So don’t leave here today thinking that this is someone else’s problem because it’s all of our problem and the solution comes from God and from us, and we had better get on the ball! Amen!?
