03-03-2019 – Nathan Cozort – Fake News Alert: God’s Plan For The Family (PM Sermon)

Good evening. It is a pleasure to be here and to be able to be with you, even though the circumstances are not as I would have wanted them to be. We were planning on being here this weekend and staying through tomorrow morning, and then Ashley got sick. And that was the end of last week. I was like, well, we’ll see what happens.

And then a couple of days later, Lucy got sick and then she got To feeling better. And nobody else was showing signs Of coming down with whatever this little bug was. And so we thought we were in the clear until Friday night and then Holly came down with it. And then there was no way that we were going to be able to be here,

but I still needed to come down and pick up some wood for the fireplace. And so I did and talked to her Saturday after I got here, let her know that I had arrived and find out how they were doing. She said, well, Madison and her were feeling a little bit worse. And I jokingly said, well, I don’t think I want to come back.

And she said, I don’t think you need to come back. So I stayed and then dad said, good. You can preach on Sunday night. Like, okay, you asked for it. I going back to what he said earlier about me being the only one that hadn’t spoken here, they were saving the best for last. And that’s just how I’m going to choose to view it This evening.

Our topic is Vitally important to the particular time that we’re living, right. It, not that it would be unimportant at any other decade in our past, nor will it be any less important in any decade That will follow us. However, where we find ourselves today, this topic is of vital importance. See, I wasn’t even fully prepared to use my old Testament.

So I did put a substitute in here. That’s all right. Our topic for this evening, fake news concerning God’s plan for the family. I received this topic as an assignment last year, spring time for one of our local congregations, They’re in the Kansas city area, they were doing a meeting and it had Different points related to the information that we receive from society and comparing that with the relation or the information that we receive from the world,

God, and laying them out side by side and figuring out which one is accurate, which one is true. And which one is fake news? One of the fastest growing terms to date came out of our most recent Presidential election, 2016, wow. The 2016 election didn’t coin the phrase fake news. It certainly changed our way of looking at information. We now have to scrutinize where this information came from.

We have to look at the context in which the information was given and Certainly the context in which it’s being delivered and received. Well, that’s not very much different than what we should be doing as new Testament Christians anyways. But we live in a very unique time where those who want to do things contrary to the will of the father, contrary to the Bible,

they have a lot of leeway and they have a lot of latitude, especially in terms of<inaudible> and how that is to be interpreted. If we are going to be right with God, we have to sort out what is true and what is fake news. So this evening, that is what we’re going to do. First of all, we need to recognize The first bit of fake news is that authority does not matter.

Society tells us this over and over again. And yet they believe that the louder, they tout this idea that authority doesn’t matter. The longer they say it Going to change. What is really true, the reality of the matter? Well, that’s not the case, but it does leave an impression on certain ones in our society today, Authority is questioned at every turn at every station in our lives.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s in our homes, our schools, our workplace Authority in the church, even with the authority of God himself. So Even 20, 30, 40 years ago begin to ask the question, why does God have the right to say that, Oh, God has every right to say what is to be acceptable and what is not to be acceptable.

And that’s exactly what he did when he gave us his inspired word. Just for a moment. If we were to fix this one area, Authority of God, if we were to recognize the authority that God Has all the rest of those would all be taken care of. None of the rest of those, we would even have to discuss. If we understood principle right here,

that God has all Authority, but The reason our homes and our families Are in a declining state, they’re deteriorating, The relationships are deteriorating Is because we’ve ignored God’s authority. We’ve ignored God’s rule. So we need to look at that. I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter six God As throughout history, given rules, given laws, given An opportunity for man to follow after him.

And in doing that, he has always provided the best means of transferring that law from one generation to another. And that’s exactly what we’re going to see. And if we understand God’s authority and his laws and how they’re supposed to be passed down, we can determine what is fake News and what is the truth. Chapter six beginning in verse one, Moses would write.

Now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord, your God commanded to teach you. And ye might that you might do them in the land. Whether you go to possess it, the Dow minus fear of the Lord, thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I commanded thee thou and thy son,

and my son’s sons all the days of thy life. And that the days in that dye days may be prolonged, Hear therefore O Israel and observe to do it. That it may be well with thee and that you may increase mightily as the Lord. God of my fathers has promised the, The land that flowed with milk and honey hear O Israel. The Lord,

our God is one Lord And thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thine heart and with all thine soul. And with all that I might. And these words, which I command thee this day shall be in Lionheart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou citizen nine house. And when they’ll walk us on the way,

and when now Elias down and wind now rises to now shall bind them for a sign upon nine hand. And they shall be as frontlets between nine eyes. And now shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and unlike Gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought the into the land, which he swear unto thy fathers to Abraham,

to Isaac, into Jacob, to give the great and goodly cities, which now build is not and houses full of goods, which thou fill does not in Wells dig, which thou dig this not vineyards and olive trees, which thou planets not when now sound heavy And be full, then be aware, less Dow, forget the Lord, which brought the fourth out of the land of Egypt from the house of there is a reason why God said that his law should be passed down from one generation to the next too Next was so that generation could prosper to its fullest potential,

but he gives him a warning. If you noticed and picked it up in verse 12, they should not forget, should not forget all of the things that God has done for them. But unfortunately we have forgotten many in our country have forgotten many in the countries around the world have forgotten that God has authority. God gave specific instructions. We could turn over to,

To a couple of other passages in the old Testament judges chapter two. And these I provided I Did for you and me, thankfully, to make it a little bit easier. It says there judges chapter two, beginning in verse seven, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord.

And there arose another generation That He did in Israel. And also all the generations were gathered unto their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works, which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served a Bay loom. And they forsook the Lord,

God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were around about them and bowed themselves down under them And provoked the Lord to anger. Couple of things that we need to bring out in this particular Acids. We normally, when we talk about judges chapter two, we come down on The fathers and say,

This is because they stopped passing down the laws of God from one generation to the next, We can’t lay all of the blame upon those that were giving the instruction. Is it possible that they did stop giving their children the law of God? Absolutely. It is certainly possible that they did, but there is one key word in these verses that we need to look at.

And that word or phrase is that they force sick. The Lord verse 12, they forced took the Lord. This word for, sorry, Comes from the Hebrew word. Azam pronounced Azam. And it means to loosen, to relinquish, leave destitute, The fuse that’s from Strong’s concordance. The use Of this word means that for them to forsake something, they first had to be a part of it.

You can’t leave something behind You are a part of that at one point. Well, how do I know them? Well, we have another expired example for us in Joshua chapter eight, Joshua chapter eight, and in verse 17, the text says, and there was not a man left in AI for Bethel. That was not, that went not out after Israel.

And they left the city open and Pursued. After Israel, You may recall judges chapter six, you had the great taking of the city of Jericho. And then in judges, chapter seven, you had their attempt at taking the city of AI. This is the first time The people of God ever suffered defeat in battle. And it was at the hands of the smallest city,

the hands of the smallest army that they should have had no problem conquering. And as you know, from Joshua chapter seven, the sin of akin, there was sin in the camp. God was not going to allow Israel to win while their sin was still in the camp. And so they lost, But then the sin was found out. You get to the end of judges,

chapter seven, God is now pleased are Joshua chapter seven. And God is now pleased that the sin has been removed from the camp. And in Joshua chapter eight, they go back to them, The city of AI, and they formulate this plan with God’s help. And they take the city of AI. But there’s one word that is the exact same Hebrew word that is used in Josh or judges chapter two.

And in verse 12. And it is the second word left there in Joshua chapter eight in verse 17, Where it says that they went out after Israel and they left. That’s the same Hebrew word used in judges chapter In verse 12. That means forsake. They forced him. So the city of AI to go after the people of Israel, they left a place where they were to go outside.

God is telling in judges chapter two, that those that heard the instruction left it<inaudible>. They ignored it. They knew it at one time, They went away from God’s instruction. Reasons why our homes are in danger today. Consider with me a few things that are not happening in the majority of our families today. That’s not all, this is The majority that unfortunately,

many of these things are happening in the families within the church as well. You look the family and You see that there are no daily Bible studies being done, Done by individuals who claim to be Christians. There are no family, Bible studies being done By families. That claim to be Christians. They wait for Sunday and sometimes they wait for Wednesday to bring their kids and themselves to Bible class so that someone else can teach them.

And then they ask the question what’s happening to our young people, Ask the question, why did my son or daughter fall away The church? Did you do these things? There’s no sitting around the table talking about spiritual things. As there once was. There’s no attending worship services regularly with the intent Worshiping God that that is there for a reason. Many people attend worship services on a weekly basis,

but it’s not really to worship God. There’s not evangelism taking place. Like there once was inviting folks into your home. In order to, To study the Bible with them, the greatest evangelistic effort the church can undertake is in the home. And it is with the home. It is inviting people over to study the word of God that is going to convert members in the community.

It’s not getting them to visit this building. They won’t work parents taking their children to gospel meetings. And lectureships in the area. Parents, Once again, teaching their children life lessons based on Accounts in the Bible. Well, the school of hard knocks is one way that you can grow up and I’ve done my fair share of that. But if we would take a look at the examples that God has provided for us,

we can learn a lot of lessons that will help us be the people that God wants us to be. Instead, our families are at the mercy of social media, and they’re not concerned with the authority of God. It’s sad, but it’s true. Maybe. I mean, not so much in some of the more rural communities you get closer to the city And I guarantee you that’s the way that it is.

We have that quite a bit up in the Kansas city area, where we are, what is the Bible truth related to how we ought to be and in reference to the authority of God? Well, we find those in acts chapter 17, that Paul talking about there, the Bereans in particular acts chapter 17. And in verse 11, it says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica,

in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so back up to acts chapter two, the establishment of the church, the day of Pentecost after those in verse 41 had been baptized, which was about 3000 souls. It says they continued steadfastly in the Apostle’s doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

And they continued verse 46 daily with one accord Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with singleness and gladness, gladness, and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church, such as should be saved. If we do it, God’s way, we’ll get the result. God wants us to have fake news point.

Number two, family types. Don’t matter. That’s what society wants to tell you. They will. I want to include a lot of family types that God has excluded. Very simply. We live in a society where people want to create and sustain families that God never intended Need to be called families. For example, You have the heterosexual open Marriage type family.

This is a Very small sub section of our population, but it is prevalent in certain communities. No doubt where you Have husbands and wives swapping intimate relationships with others. God never intended for that. To be the case, You have the homosexual type family. God never intended for that to be a sustainable relationship. And in fact is always condemned Whenever it’s talked about in scripture,

okay, You have the living together, but not married, Tight relationship. And this right here is the fastest growing family type. If you want to call it that the fastest among Any subset that You want to look at, this is the one that is growing by leaps and bounds. Look at the statistics. And actually the statistics for divorce are down from what they use Used to be.

But if you asked yourself why the reasons One is because people are doing this and they’re waiting longer to get married, they’re living together instead of Becoming the family that God wants them to be. So yes, divorces are down, but so are marriages. And that’s what the statistics tell you. That’s what the Numbers really mean. This is the most popular relationship in our Communities.

Today. You have single parent family types. Now I have a few things to say here. So don’t automatically question what this is saying that I’m calling single parent family types wrong before God. That’s Not what I’m trying to say here. But then you have a single parent family type that arises in two different ways. It could be the result of a divorce and where there is a divorce there is.

And every time you can’t help that, okay? But it also could be that there is the death of a spouse leaving one spouse to then continue raising The family while that is not a sin in the eyes of God, it’s still not the family type God wanted. He didn’t design the family to be raised by one parent. There’s a reason why we have fathers and mothers.

What does the Bible say concerning the truth about families? Do they really want, Or can they be made up of anything that we want them to be turn with me? If you will, to Romans chapter one in Romans chapter one, Paul is giving a discourse here in this letter to the Romans and beginning in verse 18, and going down through the rest of the chapter,

he has a few very pointed things to say To the vote. Those that are in Rome, Beginning in verse 18, he says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God, has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly open,

are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are not without excuse because that when they knew God, they glorified him. Not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves, Elves, to be wise, they became fools.

God is not going to stop us from being deceived. He’s not going to come down from heaven above and, and tap us on the shoulder and say, That’s fake news. Don’t listen to what they’re saying about family types. That’s not what I had in mind. No, God will allow Us to follow after our own desires just as he did with those in the first century.

And just as he has done with all families throughout all of the world in ancient times, A few things of importance that we need to mention here. Three times in this particular section of scripture, Paul uses the words or the phrase God gave them up. You see that in verse 24, verse 26 and in verse 28. Well, what does that mean?

That God gave Them up? Well, Albert Barnes Had this comment to make concerning this particular phrase and it says he abandoned them, or he sees to restrain them and suffered them to act out their sentiments and to manifest them in their lives. This does not imply that he exerted Any positive influence On inducing them to sin. God simply will allow us to follow our own desires.

We Are going to be deceived. If we are going to ignore Or what God has said, then it’s not God that moves. We separate ourselves from God, Isaiah 59 verses one and two, without God. Our tendency is to please the flesh in the first century, we see this very clearly is promoted in self-service. They did those things that, what they wanted to do.

That’s exactly what Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter There one, God will allow us to seek the evil desires of the heart. Does that mean he loves us any less? No. Does that mean, I mean, he didn’t give us every opportunity to know what his will for us is no, God has provided us everything that we need. We simply have to follow it.

No miss would write in Psalm 81, beginning in verse eight and going down through the rest of the chapter, a very important set of verses here. It says here, Oh my people, then I will testify unto thee O Israel. If thou will hearken unto me, there shall be no strange God. There shall be no strange God be in D neither shall thou worship any strange God.

I am the Lord, thy God, which brought the out of the land of Egypt, open my mouth wide and I Will fill it. But my people Would not harken to my voice and Israel, None of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, and they walked in their own counsels. See, this is what God has done in times past and what God will continue to do for us today.

We need to get back to what God designed when it comes to marriage. The Hebrew writer would say, Hebrews chapter 13 in verse four, that marriage is honorable before God. And the bed is undefiled, but whoremongers and adults. That’s where the problem is. They’re the ones that are destroying marriages. Today. We could Look at the requirements that God has established for marriage and how those relationships are supposed to grow and to flourish.

And we talked about those somewhat This morning in our Bible class. We won’t go through those verses again, but I provided them for you. If you want to look at them later, Hebrews chapter five or Roman fees, Ephesians Chapter five, I’ll get the right book out here in a minute. Okay? If fees, it was chapter five beginning in verse 22,

going through verse 23, the end of the chapter there, Paul is going to give us a Inspired Look at why God designed the church After the family or why God designed the family after the church, figure out which way you want it. And it’s going to be right. They’re both true, But why was one pattern after the other? Because the relationship Ships are so similar.

If you have a healthy family, you can have a healthy church. If you don’t have a healthy family, you won’t have a healthy church. Either. Genesis chapter one. Yeah. Verses 26 through 28 time does not allow us to look into these verses, but this is where God established the family. What is it, Family, by the way,

let’s ask that question. An accepted Well, marriage to God is one that follows the pattern that he established a family. Is this a family is a group of people under the same roof, usually consisting of parents and children. And it is a natural result of marriage. Thus, the structure that God has provided, we need to follow it. If we want to be pleasing to God,

we need godly families today to prove to the world that God knows best. And there’s only one place where we can find these godly families there in the church. What does that mean? That means those of us that are in the church. They make up some portion of this family, whether it’s Husband, wife, father, child, It doesn’t matter where you fall in this category or this grouping.

We have to do our part and we have to do it better than the world does theirs. Lastly, Our last bit of fake news is that God given Walls do not matter. God, given don’t matter. If you Want to destroy the home, then all you have to do is change the responsibilities Of what takes place in the home who has accountability in the home.

Should there be any oversight in the home? Our society wants to emphasize and expand the role of women in simultaneously DM Size and disparage the role of the husband of the father that is in the home. We see this in the secular world. The business industry is, is full of this particular tactic. Corporations are. We see this also unfortunate, Certainly growing in the church.

Why? Because many have refused to understand, can refuse to consider what God has said concerning who has the authority to rule in the church who has the authority to lead in the church. And trust me, it has nothing to do with God preferring men over women or loving men more than he loves women. That’s not the case at all, but God set the orders and we have to follow them.

Our society wants to do away with the children or young people being subject to parental authority. Let them think for themselves, let them go and do their own thing. Let them so their wild oats, just let them go. They’ll come back. Eventually. How’s that working out for society? Not very well. Our society does not want to recognize that everyone has a role in God’s plan for the family.

And that goes back to our point on the very first slide. You don’t recognize God. They would recognize God. They would recognize God’s role, that he has a role for the family, our system. He says, parents should not act like parents. They should act like the best friends of their And the transportation to make sure they keep up with their social calendars.

That’s not what God has established. When he established the family. What does very quickly the Bible say concerning the truth about our families. They’re made Up of children. First of all, Or that’s the ones we’re going to talk about first. They don’t come first, but they do rule the house. There’s no way around it. Our children have, I have a responsibility to learn,

to receive instruction. I would encourage you to take the time to go to Proverbs chapter one, read verses one through nine Time to do that this evening. But the why Man there that wrote the Psalms, the Proverbs had some very important notes Concerning instruction and how it is to be received by children. Yeah. Fijian chapter six verses one through three. We talk about these quite often,

how children are supposed to obey their parents in the Lord. Here’s a definition of what a child is. Young human being below the age of puberty, puberty, or below the legal age of majority and immature or irresponsible person, a person who has little or no experience in a particular area of person or thing influenced by specific Environments. And you want to turn them loose on their own.

You want to Say they don’t need any parental oversight. And you want to say they don’t need to be subject to parents. When the very definition insists that they do have what is a child fathers? It’s hard to speak to ourselves sometimes, but fathers, we need to man up society. Eddie is telling us that we are down for the count, Counted us out.

When it comes to organizing families. When it comes to, To being the leaders that we are supposed to be society, You can’t do it. Society has said, we don’t want you to do it, but God is counting on us to succeed. And we have to be the fathers that God wants us to be. It has cast us out. It says basically we’re nothing more than a sperm donor,

but God has told fathers to raise their children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, Ephesians After six and verse four. And if we are not active in the development of our children, we cannot fulfill this admonition from God. How can we bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. If we’re not a part of their lives,

Proverbs chapter one, verses eight and nine, Your son hear the instruction of my father and forsake, not the law of thy mother for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains Dynamic showing the favor within the family when instruction is received and adhered to from the fathers, we’ll end with speaking concerning mothers this evening. It’s time to understand that society is Not doing you mothers,

any favors, The, the women’s movements, and they’re not helping The image of women in the sight of God. The society wants you to focus on your strength, your power, your assertiveness, whether it’s in the workplace or whether it’s in anything that you undertake at home. We’ve talked about submitting already this morning. Society says you don’t need to submit to anybody you’re stronger than they are proven.

God says we all have a job to do. We all submit. We all have to submit before him the greatest Successes in the life of a woman or a mother are not going to be in the workplace. They’re not going to be the number of degrees that they can put behind their name. It is going to be like John mentions here in second,

John in verses one beginning when he’s writing here, it says the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love and the truth and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth for the truth sake, which dwell in us and shall be with us forever. Grace, be with you mercy and peace from God, the father and from the Lord,

Jesus Christ, the son of the father in truth. And in love, I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth. As we have received a commandment from the father, what is going to give a mother the greatest joy it is that her children follow after the Lord, that should be what our mothers are seeking to accomplish with their strength.

Would their power would their assertiveness, do they Have all of those things? Yes. Can they use all of those Things? Yes. Keep them in the order that God has provided. God is pleased when children received sound biblical instruction, I’ll leave you with these words apart of the poem, by William Ross, Wallace women. How divine your mission here upon our natal sod keep,

Oh, keep the young heart open, always in the breadth of God. All true trophies of the ages Are from mothers, from mother Love in pearled for the hand that rocks, the cradle is the hand that rules the world this evening. This lesson was not designed to show us the steps in God’s plan Salvation, but God’s plan of salvation is open and ready and offered at any time.

Okay? You may be here this evening, a member of the body of Christ, but you have allowed yourself to be deceased, Saved by the fake news of the world concerning God’s plan for the family. It’s not too late. God’s plan is for all to come to a knowledge of him. God’s plan is that all men everywhere be saved. There may be one here this evening,

not a member of the body of Christ. Like I mentioned, a moment ago, this lesson was not designed to show you how to get into the church, But God has provided that information too. You have to hear the word. You have to believe it. You have to repent of your sins and confess name before The brethren and before the entire world for the rest of your life.

And you have to be willing to submit to a watery grave of baptism and come in contact with his saving blood that will wash away your sins. Are you willing to do that tonight? We can assist you in any way. Please come as together, we stand and see.