What Family Is For
We are beginning a new message series today about the family called Family Portraits. It’s going to be for the people you love the most and for the people who annoy you the most; for those who make you laugh the hardest and with whom you probably fight the hardest. Family. Family is difficult. Some are big, some are small, some are good, some are troublesome, but very difficult to make a good family really function.
Winston Churchill once said, “We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills.” If this reminds you of your last family vacation, then this sermon series is for you.
We also know that not everyone has a family unit, so to speak. Maybe you're not married, or you were, and your husband or wife has been deceased. Maybe you don't have children. But I want to let you know this series is for everybody, even if you are single, because we are part of God's family. The church is God's family. And so the principles that we're going to be sharing, I want you to think about how I could apply these principles even to the church.
Several years ago, Campus Life ran a story that went like this: It started with Rent A Wife, a small Petaluma, California company created by Karen Donovan to help clients decorate their homes, balance checkbooks, run errands, and so on and so forth. Donovan, who launched her business through a small ad in the local newspaper, is already thinking big. After four months of operation, she wants to hire her father to initiate Rent A Husband and her two teens to start Rent A Family. “We can do what any family does,” the newfangled entrepreneur joked. “We can come over and eat all your food, turn on all the lights, put handprints on the walls, take showers, and leave towels on the floor. When clients are finished with Rent A Family, they'll have to call Rent a Wife.”
One thing is certain, and that is families are important. Families are important. It's who we are. It's where we come from. Without our family, we wouldn't be who we are today. Some are good, some are bad. And I hope, I just pray that every one of us has grown up in a good family. And if not, I hope to encourage you.
Throughout this series, we're going to look at what God has to say. And right now, just go back to Genesis chapter 2. At the beginning of time, in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, it says, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.’” Down in verse 24, a few verses later, it says, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife and they become one flesh.”
And I want you to notice two things here.
Number one, family is God's idea. God instituted the family. He brought it together. It will always be around because the family is the building block of society. Without family, we don't have society.
Number two. God made us to be in relationship with other people, with one another. Remember at the beginning of time, Adam had everything he needed. And what did God do? He came along and he said, “You know what? This is not good. It's not good for man to be alone.” And so God creates Eve. And what's he say next? “Now it's good.” So God made people for people.
Maybe for some, family is as simple as it's just a bed and breakfast. I hope not. Maybe it's an economic necessity for you just to live together, or a tax break. Or maybe it is just a way station for sleeping and eating. I hope that's not the case because what we learn in the Bible is that God says there is so much more in my plan for your family. And that's what I want to discover over the next few weeks.
Today, I want to give you just four ideas of what family is for, what God has instituted family for.
1. A family is to be a shelter in the storms.
There's no doubt that your family will go through the storms of life. They happen. Some of you may be in the middle of a storm right now. You're struggling financially. Maybe your relationship is stale. Maybe your spouse wants to leave you. Maybe you want to leave your spouse. Maybe there are some health issues you're struggling with. We go through all kinds of storms in life. And the family, especially a Christian family, ought to be the one place where we can find protection, stability, and security.
Proverbs 14:26 says, “In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence and his children have a refuge.” Is your family a place of refuge? Is your home a secure place for your children, for your husband, for your wife, for even your friends that you invite over to spend time with you? Is it a place of refuge where people can find strength in times of storm?
There are a lot of different types of storms that pop up in life. I want to give you just three types of storms that happen in life very generically here.
One storm that pops up in life all the time in families is change. We constantly are going through changes, aren't we? Graduations, jobs, Relocations, illnesses, deaths, this sport, that sport, you know, on and on. There's a lot of change. So there needs to be a place that no matter where the house is, there is a family inside that I know I can count on. It ought to be a safe place, right? Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” And so if our family is centered around God as our rock, then God can hold us steady in those times of change that come our way. I pray the Lord is the center of your life, the center of your family, so you can get through changes.
Another type of storm is failure. This is a tough lesson to learn, but we can't always be winners in life, can we? Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we get turned down for the promotion at work. Sometimes we fail a test at school. Sometimes we don't get into the college we want to get into. Sometimes we don't make the team. Sometimes our team has a losing season. Sometimes things don't go as planned, do they? We fail. Failure happens. But we could handle a lot of failure in life if we could come home and find shelter in that storm. Ecclesiastes 4, many of you are familiar with it, says, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift his up, but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.” So family members are fans even when we have a losing season, so we can get through failure.
The last type of storm is rejection. This is probably the most difficult storm to handle. Possibly it's what leads to divorce and disjointed families and kids not feeling like they fit in. Things like that. No one wants to be rejected. No one wants to be put down or ridiculed or criticized. I came across U.S. News and World Report article from last year, 2024. This is sad. They reported the suicide rate among kids ages 8 to 12 is rising at a rate of 8% per year. Our kids are in trouble. And they say it's especially among girls 8 to 12 years old. Why is that? I don't think it takes a genius to figure this out. Someone rejected them. Someone made fun of them. And maybe they didn't know that family was supposed to be there for them. Maybe they forgot that family is supposed to be a shelter in a time of storm. Maybe they didn't have that kind of family where they actually could go to for that kind of support in their storm rejection. It's tough if you're not doing it now. Help your family become a shelter in times of storm, please. Everyone in your family needs that. We need each other. We need someone who can care for us. Have that in your family.
So the response to having a shelter in time of storm is to demonstrate my love. I need to love my family. How? Hear, hug and help. That's pretty simple, right? So hear, listen to their hurts. Listen to their feelings. Just hear them, hug them. Give them appropriate touch. Your kids need hugs, folks. I'm telling you. Husbands, your wives need a hug. Wives, your husband needs a hug. I mean, seriously, we need appropriate touch in the family. And then help lend a hand. Figure out how you can help each other out.