God’s Pattern For the Family

Family Structure Diminishing in USA

• Between 1990-1997 the percentage of births out of wedlock increased 16%; between 1960 and 1997 it increased 511%! Currently more than 2/3 of children are born out of wedlock, a first in American history.

• Between 1990-1998 the number of families headed by a single parent increased 13%. Between 1960-1998 the number of families headed by a single parent tripled!

• 80% of African-American women will be the head of their home at some point in childbearing years.

Family Structure Diminishing in USA

• Since 2005, the majority of US households have not been headed by married couples. The number of non-married-couple households continues to grow (ACS 2005-2007).

• There are more than 51 million households headed by unmarried Americans, representing roughly 44% of all households and the majority of households in 23 states, plus the District of Columbia (CPS, 2007).

• Only one-quarter of American households consist of what most people think of as a "traditional family,” i.e. a married couple and their children (National Opinion Research Center (University of Chicago), 1999).

Many See No Value in Marriage

• 68% of Americans who have been previously married, but are no longer married, plan to remain unmarried (Gallup, 2006).

• 57% of Americans consider an unmarried couple who have lived together for five years just as committed in their relationship as a married couple who have lived together for the same time (Gallup, 2008).

A Pattern For A Home With Biblical Family Values(Deuteronomy 4:9) "Only take heed to yourself, and diligently

keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart

all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and

your grandchildren, (NKJV)

(1 Corinthians 16:19) The churches of Asia greet you.

Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

(NKJV)

A Pattern For A Home With Biblical Family Values

(2 Corinthians 6:14-17) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what

fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ

with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the

temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I

will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." Therefore "Come out from among them And

be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you." (NKJV)

Refusing to Be Unequally Yoked to Those in the World

A Pattern For Income

Husbands:(1 Timothy 5:8) But if anyone does

not provide for his own, and especially for those of his

household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an

unbeliever. (NKJV)

A Pattern For Managing the Home

(Titus 2:3-5) the older women likewise, that they be reverent in

behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of

good things-- 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. (NKJV)

Let Women be Virtuous!

• (Pr. 31:13, 19, 21-22, 24-25) She willingly works with her hands from the wool of the family flocks or from the family flax fields to produce cloth for her family (and possibly to sell to provide for the family)

• (Pr. 31:14) She does the shopping• (Pr. 31:15) She rises early to cook her

family breakfast• (Pr. 31:16) She works in the family

vineyard• (Pr. 31:18, 27) She cares for her house

works into the late night hours

A Pattern For Family Roles

Husbands(1 Timothy 3:5) (for if a man does

not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of

the church of God?); (NKJV)

A Pattern For Family Roles

Wives(Colossians 3:18) Wives, submit to

your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. (NKJV)

A Pattern For Family Roles

Children(Ephesians 6:1) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this

is right. (NKJV)

A Pattern For Marriage

(Ephesians 5:31-33) "For this reason a man shall leave his

father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the

church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects

her husband. (NKJV)

A Pattern For Marriage

(Hebrews 13:4) Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

(NKJV)

A Pattern For Marriage

(1 Corinthians 7:2-4) Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each

woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the

affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but

the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over

his own body, but the wife does. (NKJV)

A Pattern For Marriage

(Proverbs 27:1) Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not

know what a day may bring forth. (NKJV)

Man’s Ideas About Relationships

• 55% of Americans approve of men and women living together without being married (Gallup, 2007).

• The number of cohabiting unmarried partners increased by 88% between 1990 and 2007 (CPS 2007).

• Couples that cohabitate before marriage are 75% more likely to divorce than those who marry before living together.

Man’s Ideas About Relationships

• The majority of couples marrying today cohabited first (Larry Bumpass and Hsien-Hen Lu, 2000).

• Divorce rates over 50%… the highest ranking among the top 34 industrialized nations surveyed! (nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/peo-people)

• The majority of Americans aged 18-64 consider living in unmarried households as having either no effect or a positive effect on children (Gallup, 2008).

Man’s Ideas About Relationships

“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning

'made them male and female, man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but

one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man

separate." (Matthew 19:4-6 NKJV)

Man’s Lack of Respect For Family

Fathers: Fulfill your God-given roles!• In 1990 one-third (36%) of American

children will be raised apart from their father

• 40% of the children who are raised in fatherless homes have not seen their father in over a year!

• 72% of Americas adolescent murderers, 70% of prisons long-term inmates and 60% of rapists come from fatherless homes.