WYC 2013: Always Ready

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC West

WYC 2013 Seminar: Always Ready for Family

Nebblett Family

Prepared to Seek

Prepared to Love

Prepared to Serve, Part 1

Prepared to Serve, Part 2

Prepared to Heal

Prepared to Stand

In Part 1, we shared God's glorious vision for the family, and then we shared some hard realities that The enemy is not committed to our family's success.

And we talked about the effect of individualism, the effect of feminism, and the effect of our hectic lifestyles.

So let us bow our heads for a word of prayer Precious Heavenly Father we are so thankful that your word Gives us all of the material that we need to strengthen our families.

Help us, Father, to take a hold of the truths that are contained therein and to put them to practical use as we seek to strengthen our families and to have families that are God-honoring and families that will be a light to other families, encouraging them to press forward to the kingdom of heaven.

So we are going to begin our second session now with having a message on the solution for strengthening the family.

So what can be done to make a family strong in a society that is bent on pulling them down?

The first thing we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about quite a few different aspects, but the first thing we're gonna talk about is embracing God's order for creation.

Sean went and talked about the Genesis account of how God created the earth, but we're gonna go over that again just briefly, how he created the human family.

The best way to prepare, to serve, to give, as a family, is to step back a moment, rather than just rushing and oh we need to do this, and we need to do that, and we need to do the other.

But to step back for a moment and remember what the image of God is.

And then he came down, and when he decided to make the human family, he made them in that self-same image.

Let's read it in Genesis, chapter 1, 26 and 27.

And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Sean talked about this, a man alone was the first thing God said was not good.

Not that the man was not good, but that the man being alone was not good.

And he didn't just make her out of the dust of the ground like he had made Adam out of the dust of the ground.

And then here comes, when Adam first saw Eve, he reacted immediately and he spoke her name and said that she would be called woman because she was taken out of man.

And if you look at the Hebrew and the words that Adam spoke, their names are so similar, but they're different.

And there's a beautiful picture of what God has done.

Really, how could man reflect the image of God alone?

You know, God is a king, and Adam could be a king just over creation.

You know, He was given dominion over the creatures, over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, et cetera.

So he could extend dominion, but God is also a tender, loving care provider, a caretaker, a provider, a protector, a gentle heart, a friend, a servant, a strong leader that watches over something made in his image.

And Adam couldn't do that for the horses and frogs.

And God made a woman and brought them together.

And that's why the 2 of them together made the image of God.

What resulted, when Adam and Eve were brought together, was a picture of self-sacrificing, life-producing love.

It was a picture of kingly strength, of servant leadership, of protection, of gentleness, of companionship on the 1 side, and on the other side, beautiful love and happy contentment, willing service, joyful following on the other.

Elizabeth Elliot in her book, Quest for Love, she talks about, she's talking about these gender roles and how they're different, but they are gloriously different and how they are complementary at the same time.

And the illustration she uses, well she said that they were in, she and her husband were in Vienna once and they were watching a professional pair of people waltzing.

And she said it was the most beautiful example she had seen in a long time of graceful rule and glad submission.

Because she said, you know, if 1 of them obviously had to lead out, and if both were trying to lead out, what would have resulted?

And that's what, inevitably, we've ended up seeing in our society also.

We have this perfect, beautiful thing that God created where it was to be just glorious and no domineering attitudes, no brushing each other aside, no ignoring 1 another.

But now sin enters the picture, and suddenly we have this selfishness.

We have blame going on, and pride, and abuse.

And all these things immediately come into the human family and suddenly what had been beautiful and perfect is now broken.

And there's wounds and there's bruises and there's hearts that are destroyed and suddenly we are no longer able to be a blessing and you know an abundant help to each other because we're off damaged in our own corner that's where redemption came in and God came down to rescue this race But the first step in being able to then go around and as a family serve a hurting world around us is to find that healing grace ourselves.

Because if we are so busy with our own, you know, strongholds and struggles and abuses, how can we then go and be a life-producing force in the world around us?

So God wants a little heaven on earth for each family, for each home, but the first way to access that is to follow the structure of his kingdom, a reflection of the way God leads and serves his church and the way his church renders adoring submission back to him.

For men, that means letting God build the steel and the velvet, the leadership and the service, the stuff of the kingdom of heaven back into their hearts.

I love the words to the song, A Few Good Men.

Oh, it's a dramatic song, I absolutely love it.

But The first verse and the chorus say, what this dying world could use is a willing man of God who dares to go against the grain and works without applause, a man who holds the shield of faith, protecting what is pure.

His love is tough and gentle, a man whose word is sure.

It says God doesn't need an orator who knows just what to say.

He doesn't need authorities to reason him away.

He doesn't need an army to guarantee you win.

And then the chorus says, Men full of compassion, Who laugh and love and cry, Men who face eternity And aren't afraid to die, Men who'll fight for freedom and honor, Once again, he just needs a few good men.

Gentleness, after all, we hear the term ladies and gentlemen all the time.

We go through the airports and generally, the flight attendant speaks, ladies and gentlemen.

And it's something that we are accustomed to hearing, but we don't actually stop to think what it means to be a lady and what it means to be a gentleman.

A gentleman, a gentleness is after all strength under control.

You cannot be Gentle if you are helpless.

We don't call something that couldn't raise their arm anyway a gentle thing.

Nor do we call something that rushes in and does their own will their own way a gentle thing either.

Gentleness is by its very nature strength that is held under control.

For men that is the grace to lead by love and the strength to lay life down.

That is the magnificence of manhood and a good man will change the world.

The wife and the mother or the girls in the household also, it's all the same.

It's not just, oh, that's for the parents and then we do whatever we want down here until we're off and we get married and then we become parents and then we'll have to do that.

No, it's the same thing all the way along.

We're growing up into the image of God, each of us individually, as the days go by.

So for a woman that means to be the very heart and the joy of a beautiful home with all her creativity on the forefront, to bring a sunny support, careful, intelligent guidance and discernment, and love." That's by Laurel Damsteadt.

A woman who is willing to do and dare and die for the kingdom of heaven.

A girl who is the inspiration of a great man and his motivation to live higher, and a girl that is the sun in the sky of every child around.

He was the chaplain of the United States Senate right post-World War II, and for a couple years before his death.

Listen to these dynamic words that he says.

He says, the modern challenge to motherhood is The eternal challenge, that of being a godly woman.

The very phrase sounds strange in our ears.

We hear of every other kind of woman, beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women.

But seldom do we hear of a godly woman or of a godly man either for that matter.

Series

WYC 2013 Seminar: Always Ready for Family

Prepared to Serve, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Northwest Family Retreat 2023

Identity Crisis

45m

ASI 2012 Seminar: Home & Family

Family INC.

1h 16m

The Family - The Public Enemy No.1

The Family - The Public Enemy No.1- Part 2

1h 18m

Restoring the Home

03 Biblical Principles for Marriage

1h 4m

Plenary

Our Ebenezer

50m

Parenting ~ Heart to Heart

ABC’s

55m

More Media and the Brain

The Family: Public Enemy #1

59m

Breakout Session 1

God’s Farm

1h

Seminars

Family in End-Time Perspective

51m

Love at Home

What’s the Best Thing I Can Do For My Family

1h

WYC 2013 Seminar: Always Ready for Family

Prepared to Serve, Part 1

51m

Sound Doctrine