I. Increasing the Pressure
My brother turns 40 this week - 40 years old..amazing. This is gonna be a great week, because I will continuously remind him of how much older he is than I am..and I will gently remind him that his best years are probably behind him and I will give him Geritol as a birthday gift..This is gonna be a great week.
The problem is I am not that far behind him, and that got me thinking this week..30 years ago I was 7 and it was 1973 and my life was perfect..I had parents who loved each other and loved us - 3 brothers to fight with - horses to ride - guns to shoot - cattle to watch, and work to do..friends and family and community and church were all we knew. Those were our influences..and life was simpler somehow (not so complex).
You know, that's part of the reason I love Country Weekend here at Lakeview - it takes us back to our roots a little bit and gets us thinking differently about life. I hope this will be that kind of time for you.
I read a great book this week that talked about "The Shelter of Each Other" (by Mary Pipher). There's a story at the start of the book that really got me thinking..I believe God used that story to propel this message and next week's as well.
Those 2 families got me thinking about our family growing up on the farm in Archerwill, SK..(3 ½ miles north down the only grid road that went north out of Archerwill to be exact about it)..Pretty sheltered life you might say if you had seen it - but we knew who the enemy was..and we knew what influenced us - friends, family, community, and church. After that it was a short list..No daily newspaper, not daily radio - because we didn't drive to work. We walked to the barn to work, or to the tractor, and my dad's tractor didn't have a radio. The news came on at 11:00 at night and you trusted the guy who was talking to you.
Our favorite TV family was the Cunninghams on Happy Days. Ritchie and Joanie..Marion and Howard. He owned a hardware store - she handled the home -and they loved and nurtured and disciplined their children into adulthood together. The only concern our parents had when we watched Happy Days was whether the Fonz would make the right moral choices with his life as he slowly became a member of the Cunningham family..or whether Chachi would actually kiss Joanie on TV in front of me and my brothers.
30 years ago, family values in our culture were pretty definable and pretty intact, even on TV..And some of you can think back farther than that to when "Father Knows Best" was the picture of morality and family. Today if my kids turn on the TV the "family" they get to see are the Osbournes.
The "real life" of a burnt out rock star and his family.. and how incredibly screwed up they are.
Now if you've seen it - the show is pretty funny - and really sad (funny but not hilarious..if you know what I mean). Our culture certainly has changed in the last 30 years..and lots of that change has been a brutal and clearly frontal attack on the family. Negative and downward pressure has been the constant, moving our culture further and further away from God. And the pressure seems relentless. What did the news tell us this week? What's the biggest political issue of the day? What is our great Prime Minister's final hour going to be about? "Redefining marriage in our constitution." You'd think there aren't any other issues a leader could focus on - what a brutal legacy. Our next federal election will be fought on the issue of same sex marriages becoming mainstream. Redefining marriage - how arrogant do we think we are - to take what God has created and twist it..to think we know better than He does with something as precious as marriage. You know, someone once said..Nations that refuse to look at the past will only at best repeat history..and they will fall into the same holes and failures and will never create something new, innovative, or great..and will never create a greater world.
See, I believe our culture and government believes it is doing something new and freeing and innovative by opening up this discussion.. and further walking away from biblical values with our country's constitution. We think our country is forward thinking with all of this..
Well I would have to say I agree with the wisdom of Solomon where he said in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.."There is nothing new under the sun." The direction our culture is taking on issues of marriage and family becoming "redefined" - whether it's by government regulation or by the Osbournes on TV - has happened dozens of times over the course of history - the redefining just looked a little bit different.
The Old Testament of the Bible is filled with examples of nations and cities who followed God's ways for a season - or for a generation or 2 or 3 - and they felt the blessing of God on their lives and families. But then a change began and they decided to twist or change or redefine God's plan so that they could live the way they chose. Time after time - the people would walk away from God and would bring hardship and destruction on themselves..And God would watch them and wait for them to come back...
There is nothing new under the sun..I bet I wouldn't have to walk very far into this crowd to find someone who has had pain in their life - whether by outright abuse in a family or by a more subtle family dysfunction. And that dysfunction which clearly stems from walking away from God's plan for families..has caused incredible pain. Many of you have been hurt by anger unbridled or physical and sexual abuse..or simply growing up with no spiritual base being taught or mentored into your life..And all that has left you in a deficit position, or worse..What's worse? Well maybe that hurt or dysfunction has caused you to do damage to another generation whether through divorce or parenting or some other way..Any way you stack it, the pressure on what the family is or what values we are to pass on to our children within our families - that pressure has intensified greatly over the past generation or 2..and it seems that the sway of our culture is to have our values move around and change by that pressure..and therefore Ozzy is now the father who knows best..And is that crazy or what?
Now that I've got that off my chest, I can get back to what I'm supposed to be saying..Pressure is real on our families and outside of family pressure, there's a thousand other pressures that can create stress cracks in our lives as well..
(I need to remind you of something you already know.) All this pressure has created huge cracks in the infrastructure of our lives and our families..and that's why we're talking about this stuff for 3 weeks at the beginning of another ministry season at Lakeview Church. That's why we're gonna take all of September to speak truth to families and to strengthen our families..because we all know the pressure is great in life and that the road we're walking as parents is kinda foggy sometimes..and the church is here to strengthen families.
II. Spiritual Pressure
Let me take this a step or 2 further and say this..That all this pressure on the family is part of a much bigger picture - a cosmic spiritual picture. Now stick with me on this one.
Next week, we're gonna talk about family values and where a base or a foundation of truth for our families can come from..Let me introduce that with some thought from the Book of Deuteronomy in the Bible - written thousands of years ago.
This part of the Bible is the key to these next 3 weeks we're gonna spend on family. I think it outlines why there is so much downward pressure on the family..
The speaker here is Moses, or actually God through Moses to the people of Israel - God's chosen people in that day..And God has just given them the 10 Commandments - rules to live by in a spiritual community. God says - these are the things that I value and here is a path - a direction to walk in life that will lead you as a people to life, to blessings and to heaven. Follow this path. And then Moses gets up and says this:
"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
Now next week we'll talk deeper about this but let me only say this today..God's clear plan of how the message of His love and grace and direction for our lives and future was to be passed on - God's way of passing His message to the world is through families..Let me say it clearly - The family unit is the means by which God desires to pass His message of love and hope and grace to the world and to future generations in the world. That's God's plan - that parents would know God intimately and follow Him closely and then that they would teach and lead their children to know God intimately and to follow Him closely and so on and so on and so on.. Generation after generation - family after family - community after community - city after city - nation after nation..
Pretty good plan actually. Simple but good..and I think it works. The only trouble is - it's really hard to defend spiritually. I mean, think about it - the Bible teaches that there are dark spiritual forces at work around this world as well - and that the enemy of our souls clearly fights against the light of God within us.
So really, all the enemy has to do is get one set of parents off God's track and then another and another and keep them off track for a generation, and pretty soon he's got a whole community walking away from God and then a province and then a whole country..And you know what? The enemy is extremely patient. He has no trouble waiting a few generations in order to take a whole nation.
Folks, I guess I wanted you to be aware of the stakes - of how vital this whole family thing is..The stakes are high in this game - and the playing field is eternity. And good and evil are on opposing sides and the family must win the day and follow God - or all will be lost. It's a really big deal and I guess I just wanted you to be aware of that as we gently ease our lives into another year..being a parent is a huge responsibility - and being part of a family is a huge honor. And the future of God's message of love and hope rests around our supper tables. Amazing. And that is exactly why there's pressure on family - because the enemy hates to see a family flourish.
III. The Truth About Pressure
There are only 2 things that pressure is good for - the first is breaking things apart - like the pressure of a hammer on a piece of ice..or the pressure of a bomb going off inside a building - or
The second thing pressure is good for is making things stronger. My dad and I jacked up a granary (a bin) on the farm one time - dilapidated and old - sagging in one corner..but simply applying the pressure of one jack on one corner of that granary made the whole building straighten out and be stronger and 10 years later, that building is still standing and useful. The added pressure of a cane props up a lot of people and makes them stronger. And the pressure of millions of pounds of dirt can turn a piece of coal into a diamond. The most sought after jewel is ours because of only one reason - pressure applied over many many years.
Folks, my point is pretty simple..When the pressure of life comes on you - whether it's in the form of life overload and the dozens of ways that can happen..or whether it comes in the form of a relational stress - or a marriage that seems like it's coming apart at the seams or whether it's just the relentless battle to try and instill godly values into our kids when our culture is moving so rapidly away from God..
However, when the pressure comes on you or your family, it will do one of 2 things..It will break you apart or make you stronger - and both of those results have to do with choices..Or from what I can see a single choice - to either stick it out and battle pressures every day until you win..or to throw up your hands and walk away.
And folks, sometimes walking away is what's needed - walking away from a job that is killing you is not yielding to pressure. It may be the wisest thing you've ever done in your life - it may make you stronger.. Walking away from an abusive friendship or relationship is not cracking under the pressure - it's making a choice to become stronger and healthier. Married people - if your marriage is hard - good. Use the pressure to make it great. "Falling out of love" or "leaving because it got really hard" don't hold water. Get some help. Come to the church and let's figure it out together. Don't let the pressure bust apart what God has designed for greatness.
Throwing up your hands and saying "I can't do anything with them" about your 9 and 11 and 15 year old kids is quitting. Parents, I gotta tell you the horrible honest truth. Once you're a parent - you're a parent until you die. And then you become a grandparent as well.
Here's what the Apostle Paul said:
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58)
Parents - grandparents - children - family members - stand firm.. let nothing move you. Bring on the pressure because it can make you stronger. Let me remind you again - parents, grandparents, children, husbands, wives - your family is the deal.
For God, your family is the means by which he has chosen to pass on His love and hope and grace to future generations.
Hear this - by being the best family you can be under God's direction and leadership is a worthy enough goal to give your whole life to. By doing that you are doing the work of God - much more significantly than some pastor in a church. So give yourselves fully to it. Stand firm - let nothing move you - work hard under pressure to follow God and build a great family, because your work done in family is not in vain - ever..God will use your efforts and multiply your efforts many times over into future generations. See, I believe God wants to use your family and yours and yours and yours to change this city and this province and this nation and the world. |
