There we go. Amen. We are going to be reading from Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six in a few minutes. If you wanna find Deuteronomy six.

I'm gonna start this morning by reading from our church covenant. About every three years, I guess, probably ought to do it every year, we read through our church covenant. But I also like to spend some time in the word of God looking at some of these things that the covenant reminds us of. The third heading, if you happen to have with you, says, as Christian stewards, and this is what we read last week and we started on three points from this. As Christian stewards, to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions to religiously educate our children to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity you have given us here in this place to unite together in one purpose, to bring glory to our heavenly father and to our savior Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for that opportunity together with these your, our brethren, in the Lord today, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage one another, to lift up our savior, and to point the way to salvation in Jesus Christ to all who might join us today. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege of testifying the grace of God and of Jesus Christ in this place today and each and every week.

We thank you, Lord, for those who faithfully come and support this ministry and grow in the faith of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege of prayer. We pray, Lord, for your guidance, direction, and understanding, enlightenment, Lord, as we look into your word today and as we are reminded of a very important responsibility that we have to our Lord and savior and to one another. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.

Jules, would you like your copy back? Yeah. Yes. You can make more notes on it. There you go.

What is required of stewards that a man be found what? That he be found faithful. As we are stewards of God's church, this local congregation today, so the Corinthians of their church two thousand years ago. God expects the same things of us today he did of them, to be faithful, to be faithful stewards of one another, the ministry of this church, including the gospel and the testimony of Christ in the world. Yes, to a large degree, Christ has entrusted us, his church, with his word, his ministry, and his testimony.

Wow. What trust he has put in us, his church, to be its stewards of his word, his ministry, and even his testimony before the world. So in our church covenant, we address several areas of stewardship. Last week, we discussed the stewardship of the local church being being one another in this congregation and its ministry and preaching of the word. God is depending on us to contend for the faith and keep it pure and right and enduring.

We need to preach the word of what? The word of God and not the word of men. God is depending on us to support the local church by regular attendance and participation and prayers and fellowship. God is depending on us to support the local church with our provision and time and effort. We saw last week this exemplified in the first church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two as they continued in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread, as they supported one another, as they praised the Lord and worshiped him, and the church grew.

Also, we looked at the stewardship particularly of the gospel. God has entrusted us with the gospel message to proclaim it here in Clearwater, Florida from the pulpit, from door to door, on the street, at our workplace, in our homes, our neighborhoods, and around the world from this place. Praise God. There are 11 missionaries that God called that we have the privilege to support in their, indicated where they're ministering on that map on that back wall. Praise the Lord.

We have been privileged to partner with them. And as we preach the word of God here, they're preaching the word of God there. And we are we are a part of their ministry, and they are a part of ours in fulfilling the great commission that God has given to us along with passing out those tracks and talking with our neighbors and talking with our friends. Telling them about who? About Jesus Christ.

For salvation is not a formula. Salvation is not a denomination. Salvation is in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ who died for your sins and rose again from the dead that you might be saved. And it is God's commission to us, his church, to take that message and to spread it to our neighbors, our friends, and all around all around the world. The third stewardship that I wanna look at this morning that we didn't get to last week is the stewardship of the family.

The stewardship of the family. That's mentioned as I read in the covenant, speaking of family devotions and religiously, spiritually educating our children. Someone once said, as the home goes, so goes the society. The same is also true of the church. If our homes fail and we fail as parents, then our churches will fail also.

First Timothy five eight says this, if any provide not for his own home and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. What is an infidel? An infidel is a an unbeliever, a denier of the Lord. Pretty strong words. The stewardship and care of one's family is vitally important to the success and strength of the church and the testimony of Jesus Christ in the world.

You might say, what business of the church is it? How I run my home. Or why is it important? It's so important as to find it written or mentioned in the church covenant. Because if our families fail, our church fails.

For the church is made up of families. If they fail financially, so will the church. If they fail institutionally, so will the church. If they fail spiritually and doctrine, will so will the church. It is only fitting that we should be reminded of this responsibility in our church covenant.

As God reminded the children of Israel and his covenant with them. That's why I ask that you turn to Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six verse four. This is Moses' recounting of the covenant given to Israel at Mount Sinai. We could look at several passages having to do with the family, but this is the one I want to focus on as it relates particularly to our church covenant.

It says, here, O Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Have you ever heard those verses before? Does that the first and greatest commandment Jesus said in in the New Testament where most of us are familiar, if we know the word of God at all, with that particular verse. And usually, that's where we stop.

Okay? Yes. It's important. Yes. God wants us to love him solely.

He is the one and only God, the one and only Lord, and he should have all of our allegiance, our worship, and our and our love. But the passage continues. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Not church members, though, obviously, that is expected too. But also here, children.

Thou shalt them diligently unto thy children. Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house. Now, is that talking about the house of God? No. That's your what?

Your family home. He continues on, and when thou walkest by the way, when you're going throughout your daily tasks, especially here regarding if your children are around. And when thou liest down and when thou risest up, when you go to bed at night, when you get up in the what? When you get up in the morning. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Now I don't know that Christ was speaking literally here if maybe more metaphorically concerning writing it on your hand and putting it between I mean, if you put it between your eyes, literally, you you can't see it. Okay? But some of the Jews took this, actually, quite literally. They wore things around their wrists with a box that had verses in it or one around their forehead with a box that had verses. I I don't know that that's what God intended, but but, boy, they they took it seriously.

And it should be taken seriously, if not literally. Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. They did that too. They on their doorway when they went into their house. This is the concern of God for his children, his people, that they stay true to the Lord.

And how are they gonna do that? It starts where? It starts at the home. It starts with your own personal spiritual walk in life with God and that which you teach your children and that which you participate in with your spouse. It begins at home.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs twenty two six, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. He's not talking to the priests. He's talking to the what? To the parents.

Train up your children the way they should go. In Ephesians chapter six, he says to fathers, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Home is key to society and also to the church. Today, the family is under a terrible assault outside and inside the church. There are many political and religious organizations which are bent on the destruction of the nuclear biblical family unit as ordained by God.

Why is that? Why is it that our organizations that are actually have it written in their purpose, the destruction of the nuclear family? Nuclear meaning biblical. That is the nucleus, okay, of society. Why?

Because Satan wants to destroy the testimony of Jesus Christ in this world. And how is he gonna do that? Well, he goes at the pulpits, but he also goes at the families. He wants to destroy the family because families are one of the greatest asset in winning people and souls to Jesus Christ. As children are brought up under the teaching of scripture, as families unite together in churches to support one another in that endeavor.

Homosexuality and unmarried cohabitation are on the rise. They are celebrated. They are celebrated as signs of enlightenment and freedom in our world today. But they are instead signs of a world that has turned its back on God. They are signs of a world that has lost its mind.

Signs of a world that is going pagan rather than Christian. A world which will destroy itself and if allowed in the church will destroy it and its testimony and effectiveness for Christ as well. Consider the words of Paul from Romans chapter one. If you wanna turn over to Romans, I wanna read several verses. Can't fit them on one slide up there on the screen, but Romans one twenty two.

You say, well well, these are no big deal and God doesn't care and they were made that way. God begs to differ and he's the one that made them. Okay? Made us. Speaking of this this downhill slide of humanity into reprobation, we read in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became what?

Fools. Is that what people do that are pushing this today? The world pushing it? They are proclaiming themselves to be wise, but instead, God says they are becoming fools. And change the glory, verse 23, of the uncorruptible God into an image made like two corruptible man into birds and the four footed beast and creeping things.

Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. What is he talking about? He's talking about immorality. He's talking about sexual immorality. Goes on.

Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. What is that speaking of? Humanism and evolution that teaches that there is no God, but this world is all there is and you are your own what? You are your own God.

You own your own master. There is no higher authority than yourself. Thus, we have Earth Day. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the man leaving natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another.

Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. Does that not describe our world and our society today? We can only do so much about the world that is out there. We do so primarily by giving them the what? The gospel and praying for them and showing them the love of Christ.

We must speak the truth. We must also speak the truth in what? In love. For Christ loved us when we were sinners. We must share with them the love of Christ too.

However, we have a greater responsibility with what goes on in the what? In the church and in our homes. That is vital and that we are held accountable for. In regards to these things we read about in Romans one, nonmarital cohabitation and promiscuous living are a growing problem, and it is a problem in that it is a sin that God concerns himself about. In Hebrews 13 verse four, it says, marriage is what?

Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Adulterers, those who do not keep their vows made to their spouse. Whoremongers are promiscuous people who jump from bed to bed. That is what those words mean. What does God honor and reward?

Marriage. Marriage. Why? Because, well, God God ordained marriage. It was whose idea?

It was God's idea. God created Adam. He made Eve. He brought them together. They too became one flesh.

They were married. In first Corinthians six eighteen through 20, God's word says this, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. The number of adults who live together outside of marriage has more than doubled in the last thirty years. Many of these have children, as one would expect, And the likelihood of such couples remaining together is far less than married couples, resulting in children with absent fathers or mothers and sometimes boyfriends or girlfriends coming and going throughout their childhood. This has also contributed to an increase in child neglect, in child abuse, in molestation, as children are more often living with adults who are not their parents. And that is a very supportable stat.

It has led far more to these problems. No. God does not care so much about the piece of paper as people. Well, God does it. It it doesn't matter about the piece of paper.

God doesn't care so much about what the state thinks. But what does God care about? That before witnesses, covenant vows are made and kept between husband, wife, and who? God. Marriage is not merely a contract.

It is not merely a ceremony. It is a covenant made with two people and the God who made them even if they don't realize it. And it is important because the home is important, because family is important, and a family starts with a husband and a wife. This is important to God for the health of the church, the testimony of Christ in the world. He has deemed it to be so regardless of how the rest of the world feels about it.

The fact is the number of adults who cohabitate unmarried is far less than those who are living promiscuously, thus sleeping around, especially among our youth resulting in unwanted pregnancies, hundreds of thousands of abortions a year, which is child murder, and children born to unwed mothers who are ill equipped to care for them alone. This is considered normal by the world. It must not be considered normal within the what? Within the church Because it is not. It is not even frowned upon in the eyes of many today when sometimes what frown is frowned upon is people who wait for marriage.

They're the odd ducks. They're the weird ones. This is a plan of the enemy, the enemy of the family, the enemy of the church. And Christians must not give an inch in the battle, either in our personal behavior or in our spoken and heartfelt convictions and our preaching from the pulpit. And, yes, there are issues.

These are issues which are increasingly present within the what? Within the church. Because churches have not taken a stand upon it, and it should. Of course, these sins can be forgiven, but consider the words of Samuel to king Saul in first Samuel fifteen twenty two. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is what? Is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. What is better, to sin and get forgiveness or to not sin? Which one? Which one does God prefer?

Which one does God desire? He desire he desires that we flee, as he says, fornication. That we avoid sin. And if we do sin, to repent of it. But it is always best to avoid it in the first place, especially when it affects something as important and valuable as the family.

And that's why Satan is attacking it. Does this mean the church has no obligation to minister to those who find themselves in these kind of predicaments? No. Of course, we are. But churches should not be condoning or justifying such behavior, particularly within its own membership.

Rather, it should be called out as sin to be avoided, and repentance should be the prescribed solution. Not just, don't worry about it. We wouldn't say that about many other sins. Why would we say that about this one? Why does God talk about it to the extent that he does in the word of God?

Because it's important to him. Because the family, the home is the the nucleus of our society and of our church. Then there is divorce. Malachi chapter two. Malachi chapter two.

Does divorce affect the family? Well, obviously, it does. Malachi chapter two, and I'm gonna begin reading in verse 13. I don't have it up here on the screen. You follow along or listen.

Malachi chapter two in verse 13. And this, you have done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, with crying out insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore or receive it with goodwill at your hand. Yet you say wherefore, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy, what, covenant. And did not he make one? God make one when you joined in marriage, He says, yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed?

Why? That he might seek a what? A godly seed that has to do with your children that are the offspring of the marriage. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel say saith that he hateth putting away.

What's putting away? Putting away is divorce. For one covereth violence with his garments, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. God hates divorce.

Does that mean it never happens? No. Does that mean it never happens within a church? No. It doesn't.

But the fact remains, God did not did not ordain divorce. He ordained what? Marriage because he ordained the family, The family that is supposed to be a unit that stays together and keeps their vows to one another. Not quite half, but more than a third of marriages in The US end in divorce. I heard the other day the average first marriage is about ten years, and the second marriage about ten years, and the third marriage about nine years.

Should we go to fourth? There should not be such a phrase as first marriage because there should just be what? There should just be marriage. That is the way God intended it. This is this is terrible, and it is not uncommon among believers or among the membership of bible believing churches.

Why? Because of foolish choices, unequal yokes, marriage chapels in Las Vegas, drive through and get married, half drunk. And I know most Christians probably don't do that. The world obviously does because they keep those things open. That's how how lightly they treat what?

They treat marriage. A lack of commitment, just saying the words, not meaning them. Selfishness in general. So I think selfishness is probably the biggest reason. I want what I want.

If you won't give me what I want, then we'll just go somewhere else. A lack of morality and contentment leading to infidelity. The other day, I saw a a portion of a video put out by a Christian mother who announced that she had decided to divorce her husband of over a decade. Not because of infidelity, not because of abuse, not because of abandonment, she made that very clear, but because she just didn't feel happy. Is a lack of happiness now considered a biblical reason for divorce?

No. It isn't. Marriage is not the same as an employ employment contract or a building lease that can just be undone for any reason. It is a covenant between husband, wife, and God. What did Christ say have to say about it?

Well, if you're in Malachi, next book is Matthew. If you wanna turn to Matthew chapter 19, we'll see what Christ had to say about it. It was a fairly common practice, it would sing, among the Jews in Jesus' day to divorce their wives. And so they had questions. And so they asked Jesus.

And Jesus gave the answer. He says in Matthew nineteen three, the Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Again, put away means to divorce his wife. And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And he said, for this call shall a man leave his father, leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain, two shall be one flesh.

Wherefore, there are no more twain or two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder. They say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and put her away? Well, if that's the case, then why did Moses make a way for people to divorce their wives? He say it unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so.

In other words, you were already practicing this and you weren't gonna stop God. Moses made a way to protect particularly the widow by the writing of divorcement. They had to have a reason and it released the widow the not the widow, but the unmarried woman who was now divorced so she could get remarried. But it was never God's what? Not God's plan.

Never God's intention. Sin makes a mess of things, doesn't it? It sure does. And some of us have to deal with that in varying ways. That's why it's always best to do things God's way from the beginning.

To obey is better than sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice is needed, but it's always best to do it God's way if we can. He goes on to say in verse nine, and I say unto you, whosoever shall put away divorce his wife except for fornication and shall marry another committeth adultery, and whoso marrieth her that is put away doth commit adultery. I I like I I find verse 10 interesting. His disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

Their conclusion is, okay. If it involves this kind of commitment, if I'm stuck for the rest of my life, then it's better just not to marry. That would be easier. Well, it might be easier in some respects, but but it's God's will for most people to marry. And most people prefer that as well.

But it does come with responsibility. And it does come with with commitment. A commitment that is vital to the growth of the church and of the testimony of Christ. It is absolutely detestable that divorce rates among professing Christians is not considerably lower than the world in general. This ought not so to be.

Can God forgive it? Yes. Does that make it right? No. Is it a sin that should be avoided and repented of?

Yes. And would it not be better for the children, the church, the testimony of Christ if we were more careful to whom we married and were more personally responsible and faithful to mean and keep the vows that we make? The answer to that is yes. That is better. Paul equated marriage between a man and a woman as illustrative of the relationship between Christ and the what?

Christ and the church. What kind of message does it send to the lost world when God's children cannot honor their commitments to one another? It sends the wrong one. Paul told husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. For wives to honor their husbands and submit to their leadership in the home and children to honor and obey their parents, if we would get back to doing things God's way, we wouldn't have many of the problems in the home that we do.

Another problem, an issue, kind of dovetail with this, is fathers who do not undertake to provide for the needs of their family, their children, who do not love their wives as they ought. What did Paul have to say? If any provide for not not for his own and especially for those of his own health, he has denied the faith and is worth an an infidel. Fathers who are present but do not provide for the needs of their family, most obviously their physical needs, but I think also their their spiritual needs and emotional needs are not are not obeying the Lord. Absentee fathers who divorce their wives or neglect their children, God will hold accountable.

Sometimes fathers are too lazy. Sometimes fathers are too drunk. Sometimes fathers are just too busy to provide what their family needs. In this world in which both parents often work, parents must be very careful to make sure their children are getting the time and love and spiritual training they need. As a result, children are not following in the faith of their parents.

All of these things, including hypocritical parents whose lifestyle at home does not match their presentation at church results in children who do not embrace their parents' what? Faith. And that is a problem. Is that a problem with the church? Does it affect the church?

Certainly, it affects the church. Churches are full of people of retirement age and not so much young people. It is a problem. Parents who prioritize other things above faithfulness to God, parents who push ball or art more than church. I have no problem with ball.

My kids played ball in school. I was a youth pastor for twelve years, and I I saw year after year kids that dropped out of church entirely in high school whose parents came to church because ball was more important than church. Parents who are permissive and make excuses for their children rather than teaching them self discipline. And this is why family devotions, meaning a prioritization of time spent with God and his word, encouraging faith, and teaching children the way of the Lord and of salvation is mentioned in our church covenant. Because if the family falls apart, it affects the church, and it has.

What happened to Israel is in danger of also happening to the church and is why secret and family devotions and spiritual training at home are mentioned in our church covenant. What happened to Israel? Judges two ten. And also all that generation were gathered under their fathers. And there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Why did God tell them in Deuteronomy six? He said, you teach this to your, what? Your children. You make it part of your daily activity. When you get up, when you go to bed, when you eat, when you, you put it on the doorposts of your house, you put it on the walls inside your house, you put it before their eyes at home.

Because if you don't, what we read right here, God said would happen in Deuteronomy. We didn't read the verses after that verse verse eight that that warned that this is what's gonna happen, and it did. And it did. They've failed to train their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We must not fail to do the same, or the church in America will end up like the churches in England, empty.

There are dozens and dozens of churches in England today, beautiful churches with nobody in them. There is no real church. There's just a what? There's just an empty building. England was once the the missionary sending capital of the world.

They sent missionaries all over the world in their day. Now, we send missionaries to England. What changed? Well, there arose a generation who knew not the Lord. The family failed.

The church failed. And now we send missionaries to England. We have looked at three means today of teaching the goals of advancing God's kingdom, by advancing the local church, by giving of ourselves to assist each other and provide for the needs of the church, by giving and going with the gospel to a lost world to bring them to Christ, and by sustaining our own spiritual growth in Christ and training as well those in our home, protecting the next generation. The next generation not just of your home, but the next generation of the church. How are you doing?

Is one of these lacking in your life, your home, or our church? If God speaks, we need to what? We need to listen. There are some things we can't go back and undo. Okay?

But sometimes there's more we can do than we think, beginning with prayer, beginning with being the example in our home by making the right decisions today and tomorrow so that we don't fall prey to the same problems of the past. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior. For you, thank you for the second chance that we have been given in Christ, to know you through faith and salvation. Lord, we pray if there's one in here today who's never received forgiveness for their sins.

Through faith in Christ that they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation. We might show them today how they might be saved in Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray for your people that we would be challenged in your service to be the kind of parents and grandparents and wives and husbands that we are called to be, not only for the strength of our home, but for the strength of our church and for the testimony of our savior that we are called to be. Lord, thank you for the gift of family, for the gift of children. Lord, help us as your servants, as the stewards of our homes and of our church to be faithful in fulfilling our calling in those places.

In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen.