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Genesis 2
23 And Adam 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 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

From the beginning God ordained the family. From the union of Adam and Eve came Cain and Abel, the first two children that completed the family unit.

In Genesis 5 there are 10 generations of families listed. The families of:
Adam
Seth
Enos
Cainan
Mahaleel
Jared
Enoch
Methuselah
Lamech
Noah

Interestingly that at the conclusion of 10 generations of families pioneering the earth God is ready to destroy all of mankind and begin again.

Genesis 6
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Notice the crisis that brought about the demise of the first 10 generations of families:
• Offering an incomplete spiritual sacrifice
• Murder
• Deception
• Lying
• Immoral practices

The major crisis of the family spread worldwide until it consumed the earth.

The result was the judgment of the Flood.

Following the Flood the earth once again began to be repopulated as God had directed in Genesis 9:1.

The families of the earth were blessed and united until they once again filed in desiring to build a tower to reach to heaven that they might make a name from themselves. God ultimately came down and brought the judgment of confusing their language and thus scattering them throughout the earth.

Finally in Genesis 12 God chooses and blesses a man who He would ultimately bless the earth. The lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob comes into being. It is with Jacob that God blesses the family unit and from Jacob's loins 12 sons are born into his household. I'm talking about the F-A-M-I-L-Y.

The word F A M I L Y occurs 123 times in 76 verses of scripture.

From ancient times the family has been in crisis of one proportion or another.

In our modern times we have witnessed the crisis of families in many proportions.

Consider with me today the last 40 years.

THE SIXTIES

Millions of military men returned home after four years of fighting. A whole new generation of young people were raised on the permissive theories of Dr. Spock, and educated in open classrooms and saturated with rock and roll, and introduced to drugs and alcohol, and the threat of a nuclear holocaust held over their head, and then tell them that GOD IS DEAD you get a "Decade of Rebellion".

It was a decade of Promise: Kennedy's, Peace Corp, Free Speech and the Space Program

It was a decade of Passion: Martin Luther King & the Civil Rights Marches

It was a decade of Problems:

June 15, 1962 - The Supreme Court banned prayer in schools

November 22, 1963 - JFK was assassinated

October 1, 1967 - 55,000 Vietnam protestors stormed the Pentagon

August 1969 - Woodstock

Examples of leaders and nations that fell because of pride:

• PHAROAH AND EGYPT -

Exodus 5
1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

• HEZEKIAH & JUDAH

2 Chronicles 32
22 Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side.
23 And many brought gifts unto the LORD to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.
24 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
26 Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

• BELSHAZZAR & BABYLON

Daniel 5:
22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;
23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

THE SEVENTIES

For America, the 70's were a Time of:
• Defense - Vietnam
• Disgrace - Watergate
• Despair - The 53 U.S. soldiers held hostage in Iran and Three Mile Island
• Desperation

People ran away from commitment and ran to social permissiveness, sexual immorality and drugs.

THE EIGHTIES

The theme of the 80's was Self-interest & Personal Sovereignty

The Eighties was a Time of:

Economic Disaster and Ethical Decay

• A billion seconds ago, it was 1947
• A billion minutes ago, Jesus Christ was walking on the earth.
• A billion hours ago, man was not created
• But a billion dollars ago, it was only 19 hours ago in Washington, D.C.

The government was spending $1 billion every 19 hours, 365 days a year! (1979)

We watched in disbelief in the 80's:

As drug pushers passed around packets of drugs at playgrounds

As AIDS carriers passed down their disease to others

As pornographers turned women into objects of profit

As lawyers litigated everything under the sun regardless of what was right or wrong.

As corporate raiders put thousands of people out of work in order to put a few more millions in their private stash

As mothers terminated their babies lives

As divorced fathers stopped sending child support to kids

As looters helped themselves after the San Francisco earthquake

And everyone was doing that which was right in his own eyes.

THE NINETIES

• A Time of Change - Fall of Communism

• A Time of Crisis - America was splintering politically, environmentally, and religiously

We had now become a secular nation.

• A Time of Callousness

In the 50's and 60's there was something much closer to a moral consensus in America. But in the 90's there was absolutely no moral consensus. Everyone was making up his or her own Ten Commandments.

1. I don't see the point of observing the Sabbath.
2. I will steal from those who won't really miss it.
3. I will lie when it suits me, as long as it doesn't cause any real damage.
4. I will drink and drive if I feel like I can handle it.
5. I will cheat on my spouse.
6. I will procrastinate at work and do nothing one full day in 5
7. I will use recreational drugs
8. I will cheat on my taxes

• A Time of Choice

Joshua 24
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Has anything changed? N O !

We live in a world of Cafeteria Christianity:
• Mix your own morals
• Choose your own values
• Pick your own commandments

Today's society is making the mistakes that Lot made in Sodom:

(1) He placed financial prosperity above spiritual prosperity
(2) He thought he could live in Sodom and not be affected by it
(3) He felt his family would accept his words instead of his lifestyle
(4) He didn't realize how evil society had a pull on his family

If we stress the spiritual aspect of the gospel without the social, we lose all relevance to society.

If we stress the social without the spiritual, we lose our power and effectiveness.

The Issues Attacking The New Millennium:

• Madison Avenue and Hollywood injecting the promotion of atheism, homosexuality, infidelity and liberal lifestyles
• Liberal Press undermining Family Values
• Liberal Politicians and Preachers
• School based "sex" clinics dispensing condoms, giving advise without parental consul, and taking girls without parental knowledge or consent to have abortions during school hours
• Government backed and controlled child care
• A market flooded with pornographic material
• The dark side of the Internet
• Cults in society and religion

I ask you: IS THERE A CRISIS TODAY! I think unequivocally the answer is

Y - E - S!

Is there any answers to the dilemma facing the family today.

Absolutely

2 Chronicles 7
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

1. Humility
2. Prayer
3. Repentance

May I remind us that your family is all you have and that we need to fight like

H-E-L-L if we are going to save our families in this sinful, sick, sordid, society.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?