Loving our God-Given Family Responsibilities

1. Read: Titus 2:1-8

2. About the Text:

1) Each member of the family has a different role that God has given.

2) Husbands have responsibilities; wives have responsibilities.

3) Fathers have responsibilities; mothers have responsibilities.

4) Children also have responsibilities.

5) The future of our families depends on our properly exercising our responsibilities.

6) If we love God, we will love the responsibilities that God has given us for the family.

7) So many today, however, do not love these responsibilities.

8) What can we do to embrace our God-given family responsibilities?

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Many in society say, “Let each individual choose his gender and gender behavior.”

1) This is a denial of reality; it is not real.

2) This is causing many problems in medicine, athletics, public services, education, the military, etc.

3) This thinking occurs because of cultural relativism, the notion that society sets the standards for what is right and wrong.

2. God wants men to behave as men and women to behave as women.

1) There is a way for a man to behave as a man.

2) There is a way for a woman to behave as a woman.

3) 1 Corinthians 11:3-9.

3. We have an opportunity to be a light to the world here.

1) Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

2) We must show the world what real men and women look like.

3) This means embracing our God-given roles.

4) God knows what is real and what isn’t.

4. Our families will be real when we accept that God has made us men and women.

1. God has a plan for the family!

2. He has a plan for husbands/fathers.

1) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her . . . So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:25, 28).

2) “Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them” (Colossians 3:19).

3) “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

3. He has a plan for wives/mothers.

1) “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-24).

2) “…that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed” (Titus 2:4-5).

4. He has a plan for children.

1) “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth’” (Ephesians 6:1-2).

2) “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord” (Colossians 3:20).

5. Our families will be well ordered when we accept God’s plan for the family.

1. We must put away “need-based” thinking because we have a choice.

1) Story of woman I met on the soccer field one year.

2) We get to be what God made us to be!

3) We are blessed to be what God made us to be!

4) “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

2. We must desire to be what God wants us to be.

1) I want to be a Christian wife/mother, husband/father.

2) I want to be an example to my children of who this is.

3) I want society to see my Christian example.

4) Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind means desiring what God desires!

5) Matthew 22:37-40.

3. We must practice with these things with alacrity, a good attitude.

1) Psalm 95:1-3 sets the standard of attitude toward God.

2) We must have that same attitude toward our family responsibilities.

3) When I look at a sink full of dirty dishes do I grumble? Do I rejoice?

4) When my children ask me questions, do I put them off? Do I relish the opportunity to teach?

5) When my spouse has had a hard day, do I seek distance? Do I seek to comfort?

6) “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8a).

1. When we love our God-given responsibilities for the family, we will . . .

1) Accept how God has made us as men and women.

2) Receive God’s plan for the family.

3) Embrace the family responsibilities that God has given us.

2. Invitation