The title of our series is "Against the Tide", and this series is about family. You see, our families, they are very important to God. I think this has been mentioned many times. But before God created anything else - for example, before He created the government, before He created businesses, before He created any organization, He created family first. That is His first institution. It is very important to God. Family is so important to God, but our families are in danger. Right? And God has a purpose for families. Look at some of the reasons why God created families, and you can find that in the Scripture. Number one is this - of course, procreation and to fill the earth. That is Genesis 1:27-28. That is Genesis 1:27-28. That is the commandment of God to Adam and Eve. "You fill the earth." That is why if you have many kids, congratulations, you are doing your part. But even if you do not have many kids, this is God's purpose. Because through the family, that is the number two, we will understand what relationships are. We will understand what unity is. That is found in Genesis 2, where God told Adam and Eve that "...a man shall leave his father and be joined to his wife and they will become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) That is the commandment of God. We will understand what relationships are - how to love one another, even people who are difficult, through the family. We will understand what unity is through the family. Why? Because not all family members are easy to be with. Am I right? Who among you have difficult family members? Do not raise your hand because you might not have a wonderful time. But that is the reality. All of us, we have difficult family members and God placed them there for a reason - not because God wants us to have a hard time, but for us to understand what relationships are, what unity is. And here is number three. God also created the family as one of His channels to show other people, other family members, what God's love is. We will not understand God's love if we are not part of a community, specifically family. In fact, when you were growing up, your definition of love is being formed at home, right? If you are being taught a wrong kind of love, then you are going to pass it onto others. If you are being shown a wrong kind of love, then you are going to pass it also onto others. But God originally designed family to show that love. And here is the number four - to disciple and what? Pass on Godly legacy. Before Dgroups, before cell groups, before any small groups, the first discipleship is in the family. That is the original design of God and that you can find in Deuteronomy 6. We have read that earlier. And of course, in everything that we do, in 1 Corinthians 10, that is why we are in a family, it is to glorify God. because families are very important. If you are seated beside your family member, can you tell them, "You are so important"? We are so important. Seriously, your family, even if you feel right now that your family is hopeless, it is you know, there are so many challenges that you are facing, it is still very important in God's eyes. That is why, look at the commandment of God to Moses. You know, this commandment in chapter 6 is not just for the entire Israelites. Of course, it is for the entire Israelites, but specifically for each family. Let us read verse 1 of Deuteronomy 6. Let us read this. "Now this is (What?) the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, (And look at the next part.) that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it," (Deuteronomy 6:1) And what is the commandment? Who is it for? "so that you (The barons), and your son and your grandson (That is family, generationally also.) might fear the LORD your God (That is the desire of God), to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and (Look at the blessing.) that your days may be prolonged." (Deuteronomy 6:2) You see, this is God's desire for all families. And that is why look at what He mentioned after this. This is His heart. What is the heart of God? Let us read verse 4. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (What shall we do?) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart." (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) This is foundational. God is telling Moses, "You have to tell the people, they are about to enter a new land, a new territory with a different culture. If you do not love the LORD your God, you will be influenced. If you do not love the LORD your God, you will be swayed to follow other idols. So please." That is why God is telling Moses, "Love the LORD your God." And then look at the next verse. He told the people, especially the parents, can we read this together? "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:7) "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:8-9) And this is not literal. I know the Jewish people today. They are doing it literally. They are putting like signs on their forehead, on their hand. But this is to live out. You are to live out, we are to live out, the words of God. And this is very important. These commandments were very important. This is the central passage of the first five books - 227 00:06:15,108 --> 00:06:17,110 Genesis to Deuteronomy. This is to prepare the Israelites and the families. "You have to be ready." And to be ready starts from the heart. You have to love the LORD your God with all your heart. Why do we need to do this? Like what I mentioned earlier, because our families are under attack. In today's generation, and I know you are experiencing that, we are being swayed to follow different ideologies. We are being swayed to follow different principles and convictions. And it is destroying families. And this is not something new. In fact, throughout history, this has been happening. For example, Adam and Eve, what was the family attack to them? The son Cain killed who? Abel. Because of his jealousy or frustration, because he was offering to God an offering that was not pleasing to the Lord. He got so frustrated he killed his brother who was pleasing to God. Again, this is the original sibling rivalry. So if you have siblings with you today, do not follow Cain, okay? Does not mean that it is there, you follow it. But it just shows that even before it is happening. How about Abraham? Abraham and Sarah - they were frustrated, or maybe they were sad because God promised them descendants but they could not bore a son. So what did Sarah and Abraham do? Sarah was the one who recommended Abraham, "Well, you just get my maid, you make love with her and then she can be your mistress." Imagine? She agreed to that. She was the one recommending it to Abraham. So for those who cannot have a child, please do not follow this. And it was a crazy situation afterwards. The impact of that was generational. How about Isaac? Sibling rivalry as well. They had twins. What are the names of the twins? Esau and Jacob. And there was jealousy. Esau wanted to kill Jacob and Jacob was a deceiver. I mean, this is not a good family situation but it is in the Scripture, that was what was happening. How about Jacob? For the parents who are here, what was his problem? Favoritism. Who was his favorite? Joseph. That is why you have Joseph the dreamer. What did he give the Joseph that he did not give to others? The coat, the colorful coat, right? We know this story. And because of that, they wanted Joseph to die. They threw him in that cistern and they sold him. But of course, God orchestrated everything for his good. But the point is, it was a problematic family situation. And of course, Solomon, right? For the guys who are here, again, I just want to reiterate, it does not mean if it is in the Bible, you follow it because it was problematic. It does not mean it is prescriptive. It is just describing what Solomon did. What did Solomon do? Many wives, many concubines. And do you know that because of these things, because of his desires for many women, it made him worship other gods and it destroyed the kingdom? It separated the kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. So these are the attacks ever since before. And today, these are the types of attacks that we are experiencing. Until today it is happening. Look at some of the attacks. I have separated it in four things. Number one, it is the distraction. The first step of Satan is to distract family members, to distract us. What are the distractions? Materialism. If we are creating a culture of materialism at home, then our family members will love money more than they love God. And that is happening. If people are materialistic, they are just after their career, after their money. Their ultimate goal is just success and therefore forgetting the ultimate foundation that God taught. And we are going to share that in a little while. Idolatry - focusing on other priorities over God, loving others more than God. That is idolatry. Pleasure - sexual pleasure, materialism, and other things that we are focused on, rather on the Lord. Wrong friends. Wrong identity that we hear online, that we see with other people. And how about this? Worldly goals. I am not saying you cannot have earthly goals, but if that is your only priority in life as a family, and some families are like that. "I just want to have a new home." "I just want our families to be okay." That is it. I mean, those are good goals, but that is not the reason why you exist as a family. Unresolved conflicts can be a distraction. People may think, "Because these conflicts are here, my family is worthless." "It is useless." "It is not going to work." "There is no hope for my family." Or differences with family members. I mean, all of us, we have conflicts with our family members. And because of the distraction, here is where Satan comes in. So the distraction is from the outside, distracting us. And then the deception happens inside. What is the deception? Then we are going to feel these thoughts. Well, feelings are - "This is what I feel." "I do not want to be committed to my family" or for some people, like right now, what is also popular today, "I do not want to be committed to marriage. I am just going to live in with someone." Let me try that first. That is one thing that destroys the family today because in the living-in situation, somebody is going to get pregnant. But there is no commitment. There is no marriage contract. So the person will leave if he does not want anymore and it damages the children. So why? Because of the deception. Feelings are the basis of commitment. "If I do not feel it, I am not going to be committed." I mean, I love my children daily. Every day, I love my children, but I do not feel like loving them every day. Now, who among you, you like changing diapers? If you raised your hands, congratulations. Nobody wants to do that. I do not like to do that. But do I do it? Sometimes. I know my wife is the one who does it most of the time, but sometimes I do it when there is no more, you know, she is busy. The others are busy. I need to do it. And I am committed to do it because that is love. But again, the world is telling us feelings are the basis of commitment. How about this one? "Your family is hopeless because of the conflict, because of the misunderstanding. It is hopeless." How about this one? "You deserve better. You deserve a better wife. You deserve a better husband. You deserve better parents." I mean, these are the lies of Satan. How about this one? "If only you leave." Or this one, I heard this from an influencer, let us just say he is an influencer, he or she, this influencer said, "Let go of toxic people even if they are a family member." Have you heard that? Some influencers will teach you, "You just let go of them." But where is the commitment? Where is the love? It is not what God is saying in His Word and you see the effect of that? So the distraction is there, it deceives us, and then the result is what? Division - increasing rate of divorce/annulment. If you chart, if you look at the chart since maybe 1990s, there is a rapid increase of divorce and annulment. This increase with solo parents, and I know some of are solo parents and you get what I am talking about. It is difficult to raise your kids on your own. And then there is this children, once they grow older and they are of age, they prefer to live away from their parents. In fact, some of them might be thinking, "If only I am of the right age, I am going to leave home and start my own life. I do not want my family to be with me." I mean, that is what the world is teaching. And the destruction happens after that. What is the destruction? Loneliness. There was a study with U.P. They said 15 to 20% of young people are experiencing social isolation and loneliness. I know Filipinos are known to be happy, but guess what? This is a new study. 57% of Filipinos said they are lonely. Can you ask your seatmate, "Are you sad?" Okay. I hope not. But 57% are lonely. I think not CCFers, right Pastor Ricky? We are happy people. Can you smile to your seatmate? So we are happy people. I think it was during praying earlier, he said the church should be the the best the best place on Earth, the happiest place on Earth. It should not be Disneyland. It should be the church, right? But 57% of people are lonely. And look at this. And this is also what I realized, there is a strong correlation between depression and unresolved family issues. Whether you agree with me or not, you can check research. There is a strong correlation with depression, suicidal tendencies, and unresolved family conflicts. Why? Because the family is the first place where people should experience love. If they do not experience that, they will search for it somewhere else. That is why there is an increase in teenage pregnancy, because they are searching for love outside. That is why there are more families experiencing financial problems and there are generational problems. Look at this statement. "The number one goal (Let us read this together.) of Satan is to divide (That was his number one goal since the beginning of time. How does he do it?) by separating us from God (Because of sin, we are separated from God.), separating families from each other (He tried to do that since Adam and Eve.), separating nations (He tried to do that by dividing Israel.), and separating the church, the body of Christ." That is Satan's goal. And this is not something new because Paul also warned us about this in 2 Timothy 3. Let us read this together. "But realize this, in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable (They do not want to be reconciled.), malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." (2 Timothy 3:1-4) I mean, we know this. And that is why our families are under attack. I like what Alistair Begg said, "The world around us is antagonistic to biblical truth and biblical conviction. Therefore, (We need to do our part.) unless we are prepared to stand against the tide (And that is what we are doing. That is our series.), we will drift with it." So our message for today is very simple - Build a strong family. Can you tell your seatmate? Build a strong family. And I know all of us we have that desire. Maybe for some of us we are thinking, "I do not want to build a strong family with my family. I want to create my own family." But before that desire happened, at the start you wanted to. You want to have a strong family. You want to have a family that is loving. You want to have a family that is happy, that will not cause you loneliness. So we need to do that. So how do we build a strong family? Three things. And the acronym is very simple. You will remember it. It is "FAM". That is the acronym - FAM. How do we build a strong family? We need to be founded in God's truth, we need to apply God's truth, and we need to make God's truth known. What is our message again? Build a strong family and the acronym is FAM. So let us look at the first one - Founded on God's Truth. Well, of course we know this already but this is really important. Why? Because a family cannot be strong if its foundation is weak. I mean, we know that if the foundation is not solid, it is not going to be strong. Anything. It is not going to be strong without a strong foundation. In fact, when you say "foundation", this is what influences your decision making. This is what influences how you love your family. This is what influences what you pass on to others. This is also what how you will respond to difficulties. Foundation is very important. If your foundation is not on the Word of God, it is not God, it is something else, then it is going to be problematic. And here is the thing, when you say "foundation", it should not be just individual foundation. It should be the same foundation as a family. What do I mean? If you have Godly foundation, but one of your family does not have a Godly foundation, it is going to affect your family. I mean, you know what I am talking about, right? If 90% of the family members, they have solid foundation in the Lord, and just one member does not have, it is going to affect the entire family. Look at Cain. Adam, Eve, and Abel - they were worshiping God properly. Cain did not. Did it affect the family? Of course. He killed Abel. That was what happened. So that is why we need to have a solid foundation as a family. And that is why God said through Moses, In Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6:4, what is our foundation? "Hear, O Israel! (Here you go.) The LORD (is our foundation.)...." (Deuteronomy 6:4) The Lord is our foundation. And if the Lord is the foundation, let us read verse 5. What should we do with the Lord? "You shall love the LORD your God with all..." (Deuteronomy 6:5) However, if God is my foundation, then I will love Him with my all. In fact, the proof that He is my foundation is my love for Him. If I do not love Him and I love something else more than Him, then that is my foundation. And if I love God with all my heart, let us read verse 6, "These words, which I am commanding you today (What is going to happen? What is going to happen to the Word of God?), shall be on your heart." (Deuteronomy 6:6) Since God is my foundation, I am going to love Him. And since I love Him, His words will be on my heart. That is why God is telling Moses to tell the Israelites, "This is foundational." "This is my truth." They have to embrace it or else they will experience the consequences. In fact, what happens to a person or a family that embraces this? Let us read Psalms 1:1-3. Let us read this together. "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! (What do we do?) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law he meditates (How often?) day and night." (Psalm 1:1-2) And then, he will be, look at the blessing, "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit (It is going to be fruitful) in its season and its leaf (This is a miracle.) does not wither; (And then look at the last one.) and in whatever he does, he prospers." (Psalm 1:3) Not saying you are not going to have problems, not saying you are going to be a millionaire, a billionaire, but it means you have security. A lot of families are insecure today or they have insecurities and they are not secure because they have the wrong foundation. Let me give you one example that we can find in the Scripture of someone who had this, who practiced this. He knew the Word of the Lord and we can find that in Daniel. You know, if we look at the characters in the Scripture, as we were preparing for this series, you can find a lot of good family examples, right? And that is very encouraging as well because it means that even if the family is imperfect, God wants to use you and God wants to strengthen you. But one of the best characters that we can find, someone who went against the tide was Daniel and his friends. Let us look at what happened to Daniel. In Daniel 1:3, let us read this together. "Then the king told Ashpenaz (Because they were conquered by the Babylonian empire.), the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel (The royal family and of the nobles.)..." (Daniel 1:3) So what do we do with the nobles? Let us read verse four. These are young people with "...no impairment, who were good looking, suitable for instruction in every kind of expertise..." In other words, they were excellent and they had "...discerning knowledge, and who had the ability to serve in the king's court..." Because they were nobles. What do we do with these people? Look at the last part. "...teach them (What?) the literature and language of the Chaldeans." (Daniel 1:4) The Babylonian empire. In other words, "These are Jewish people. We have to change their culture. They are worshiping Yahweh, they should worship our gods." Imagine the pressure? I mean, sounds familiar. It is happening today. It is subtly happening today. Of course, that one is just blatantly telling them, "Do not worship Yahweh." And then what is the next one? Look at the next part. Verse 5. "The king also allotted for them a daily ration of the king's choice food..." (Daniel 1:5) Now, why is food very important here? The food usually has a meaning during that time and they explain the meaning to the people. They say, "This food is our cultural food. We eat it as if we are worshiping our gods because we offer this food to our God." And of course, that is against Daniel. He does not want to do it. But these foods are delicious. And then what happened to them? "...for three years, they will be educated... and the king will choose who will enter his service." And who are these people? "...Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah." (Daniel 1:6) What happened to them? Look at verse 7. Let us read verse 7. "Then the commander of the officials assigned..." What? So what is the name of Daniel? Belteshazzar. How about Hananiah? Shadrach, which is familiar to us. What for Mishael? Meshach. Azariah? Abed-nego. Why change the name? To change their identity. "You are no longer a Jew. You are under the Babylonian empire. You are not going to worship Yahweh. You are no longer Daniel. You are Belteshazzar." What is that? It is associated with God, Bel. So it means they know you as someone who worships Bel. Imagine just forcing the person, "You will not worship God. You will worship our gods." I mean, the pressure is real. You know, they had all the reasons to give in. Why? They were there alone. I mean, just these young people, they were conquered by a powerful nation. If I was there, I have all the reasons. "Okay, you can change my name. You can change my culture." Because I am helpless. They could kill me. And not just that, among the four friends, all the other Jewish people, young people who were there, they were giving in. Maybe they were telling Daniel, "You know, Daniel, let us just eat the food." But what happened to Daniel and his friends? Let us read the next part, verse 8. "But Daniel (What?) made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice or with the wone which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself." (Daniel 1:8) Why would not he? Just like what I mentioned, the food was used to offer to the gods so he does not want to defile himself. So he is saying to the commander, "We are not going to do this." Why does he not want to do it? Because he remembered Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6. Now, we do not know who taught him this, but most probably since he is a young person around 17, 18 years old, his family were the ones who taught him to love the Lord their God. It could not be the priests during that time. You know why? Because that is why the Israelites were conquered by the Babylonian empire, the priests were wicked. They were practicing idolatry. Most of the people were practicing idolatry, but some families were not. They were against the tide, and most probably, Daniel and his friends were against the tide. That is why he made up his mind. "I am not going to do this." He remembered the Word of the Lord. He remembered that we are to love God with all of our hearts. How do we know that Daniel is like this? Look at another passage in Daniel 6. This is a different story. This was already under the Persian Empire. Daniel saw that the people signed a law. What is the law? That people can only pray to King Darius for 30 days. If you do not pray to King Darius, what is going to happen to you? You will be thrown to (Where?) the Lion's den. Sounds familiar, right? You know the story. What did Daniel do when he saw the law? "..when Daniel knew that the document was signed, (Look at what happened to him.) he entered his house (In the roof chamber and look at the highlighted one.), and he continued (What?) kneeling on his knees (How often?) three times a day, (You will really get caught. People will catch you praying.) praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously." (Daniel 6:10) This was his practice. This was what it is in his heart. Meaning to say, before they were conquered, he was doing this already. That is why he could go against the tide, because his foundation is God. Look at Hebrews 4. Let us read this together. "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, (And look at the last one.) and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) You know, if you want your family to be transformed, it is not going to happen apart from God's Word. Impossible. It is not going to happen apart from God's Word. You need the Word of God. You need to immerse your life, your entire family. You should be founded on God's truth. If not, you are going to be swayed by the truth in this world. I like this statement. "Immerse yourself in the word and you will say no to the world." Right? You have to replace it. Whatever you are feeding 1111 00:28:33,545 --> 00:28:34,345 your mind today that is not of God, you should replace it by filling your mind with the Word of God. And not just you, but your entire family. Why? Why is this very important? We saw that in Daniel. And here is another example, why we need to fill our minds with the truth. Look at this picture. This is what you call, "The Hitler Youth". I do not know if you are familiar with the World War II history, but in 1922, Hitler became the leader
1133 00:29:02,507 --> 00:29:05,243 of the German Reich, and he decided to take full control of the educational system. So he said, "Give me the educational system. I am going to teach these kids at age four onwards, and these kids will be ready to be military soldiers." So what did he teach this children? He taught this children in the classroom to produce race consciousness. What is race consciousness? That the German race are the upper class. They are the supreme race. The others are just secondary. And then there is a bottom race. Who is the bottom race? The Jews. It was taught in school. Imagine at age 4, that is what you are going to be taught of. Definitely, you are going to embrace those things eventually because every single day you are taught about those things and then you are taught to be obedient. They are taught to be self-sacrificing Germans. To whom are they going to be self-sacrificing? To die for the fuhrer, that is Hitler. And to die for the fatherland, that is Germany. Even their toys, they created toys, they created board games, and the board games would teach them that Germany is the higher race. The board games will teach them, "Jewish are below us. We can kill them. They are just like animals." Imagine it is being taught in school? By 1935, By 1939, sorry, by 1939, eventually Hitler and the German empire was able to raise 765,000 soldiers. And when they were ready for war, he had over 2 million soldiers because of the Hitler Youth. He almost conquered the Europe because of this. Imagine that. That is the effect of being taught worldly things, of immersing yourself over something that is not godly. Imagine if we immerse ourselves with God's Word. It is going to transform your family and this nation. What is our message again? Build a strong family. Tell your seatmate. No, seriously, we need to immerse ourselves in the Word of God. I know you want your families to be restored, but this is the key. The word of God is the key. Now, it does not mean that we just immerse ourselves, we keep reading it. What is the second one? We have to apply. In fact, the proof that we love God and God is our foundation is through application. If we are not applying it, then all the more we are going to cause a stumbling block to other people. In fact, look at this statement. We did the research before, but look at this statement. "One of the hindrances in building a strong family is lack of integrity." What is lack of integrity? For example, you tell them to eat healthy, but then you eat junk food. Right? I remember before, I was telling my son, "Oh, you stop eating junk food." And then beside my table there was a Ruffles, Lays. So what do I do? I tried to hide it. And then my son said, "What are you eating?" "Oh, this is nothing. Just eat your carrots." That is lack of integrity. Well, I am doing that. Once he saw it, he saw it eventually, he asked me, "Why are you eating that and we cannot eat it?" What is your explanation? "You are still young." I mean, that is not a valid explanation. Actually, they can eat unhealthy food more than we do. Right? We are older. We have higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure, creatinine, whatever that is. It is prohibited for us. It is better if they eat it but of course, we do not teach them to eat that, a lot of junk food. But that is integrity. And look at this, we tell them to exercise but you never do it. That is also lack of integrity. This is one of the best examples, you tell them to attend Dgroup, but you do not. Because I know, there are some parents they will tell their children, "Yes. That is good. You grow in the Lord. That is important." But they are not part of a Dgroup That is lack of integrity. So you mean to say it is okay for them to grow in the Lord, but not for you? Do you know, because of lack of integrity, look at this. A lack of integrity, the result of this, number one - It justifies wrong behavior. Justifies. "Since my parents are not growing in the Lord, I also have the right not to grow in the Lord." "They do not attend Dgroup, I am not going to attend Dgroup." "They do not exercise, I am not going to exercise." It justifies wrong behavior. "They drink alcoholic drinks, might as well do it because they are doing it." "They are smoking but they are hiding it, but I saw it already, let me do it. It justifies wrong behavior. Not just the same wrong behavior, but it also justifies other wrong behaviors that other that maybe your spouse or your children will do. Thais is lack of integrity. Another result of lack of integrity - it destroys trust because you are teaching them one thing but you do not apply it. Eventually, they will lose trust. Eventually they will say, "Well, my family's like this. But you know, it is like that all the time." There are terms like that. "Happens all the time." "They are always like that." That is lack of trust, eventually they are developing that and then eventually they develop bitterness. They start having resentment. We do not want that that is why applying is very important. And that is why in Deuteronomy, we have read this earlier, let us read verse 1 of chapter 8. "All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do..." In other words, you do not just know the Word of God or put it in your heart, but you are to apply it. If you do not apply it, you do not actually know it. And if you do not apply it, you are going to apply something else. And God was warning them, "When you enter the Promised Land, there is a different culture, there is a different mindset. If you are not practicing my values, you will practice their values. So be careful to obey these things." And look at the next part, "...that you may live (There is the blessing.) and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you..." (Deuteronomy 8:1-2) You know what God was telling them? "I tested you for 40 years because I want you to see what is in your heart." You know, our obedience will be tested to show what is really in our hearts. He knows already what is in our hearts, but to show us, "You know, you are not really committed to God." Because if you are committed to God, even if the going gets tough, you are going to apply the Word of the Lord. "...whether you would keep His commandments or not." (Deuteronomy 8:2) And even in the New Testament, let us read James 1, "But prove yourselves to be doers..." (James 1:22) You have to prove it. It is not just when you prove it, it does not just happen when everything is easy. "Okay, I am going to obey when everything is easy." Even when you have challenging situations at home, even if your family member seems difficult to love, "I am going to do my part because I am a doer of God's Word." And what happens when you are a doer or when you are not a doer? What happens? Verse 23, "For if anyone is a hearer (You heard. Like this one. You are hearing the message. "I like the message." "Okay, I know.") and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at this natural face, (Imagine a mirror. And then what happens to you? Let us read verse 24.) for once he looked at himself and gone away, he has (What?) immediately forgotten..." (James 1:23-24) I mean, that does not happen usually, right? Have you ever looked at the mirror and then you forgot how you looked like? No such thing. Of course we remember. That is why we are looking at ourselves at the mirror. "Am I okay?" "Is my fashion today okay?" Right? So we look ourselves at the mirror and we do not forget it because we know what we look like, we know our attire. But James is saying if you are not a doer and it is like you are looking at the mirror and then afterwards you forget about it. Why? Because the Word of God reveals who you truly are, who we are. This reveals our identity. We read it, we hear it. And that is the identity God created you to be. And then we do not do it, then we forget who we truly are. That is why a lot of people are confused with their identity because they do not know the Word of God. If we know the Word of God, then we will have a clear identity. What happens when we obey? Look at verse 25. "But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, (What will happen? Let us read that.) this man will be blessed on what he does." (James 1:25) I know you want your family to be blessed. We all want that. But that is why we need to be doers. Look at what happened to Daniel. So he made up his mind. He said, "No. Can we not eat the food?" And look at another challenge that they experienced. Look at verse 10. "The commander of the officials.." (Look at verse 10.) "The commander of the officials said to Daniel, '(Sir), I am afraid of my lord the king (Nebuchadnezzar), who has allotted your food (for you) and your drink ("And it is delicious. Might be steak, lobster. Why do not you want to eat it?" I do not know if that is the food, but I am just giving an example. This is the reason.); for why should he see your faces looking gaunt in comparison to the youths?" (Daniel 1:10) You are going to be thin if you do not eat this food. And then look at the next one, "...then you would make me forfeit my head to the king." (Daniel 1:10) "I am going to die." You know, if I was Daniel, I could have given in. I could have said, "Poor thing." Am I right? "I feel bad for commander. I am just going to adhere to what he said and still, I am still worshiping the Lord. I am just going to eat this." Right? You can just compromise. But not Daniel. You know, his obedience was tested and that was the test. You could have given in. But Daniel said, "No, no, no." God gave him wisdom. What is the wisdom? "But Daniel said that the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed (to them)..." (Daniel 1:11) Verse 12, "Please put your servants to the test..." (Daniel 1:12) And God revealed this to him. God revealed to Daniel, "Okay, tell the commander, tell him to put you to test, 10 days." "Okay, Lord. Put to test. But the concern is we might, you know, become thin. We will become thin. So what is the answer?" "I want you to tell them, eat vegetables and drink water." Now, who among you, you are going to gain weight when you eat vegetables for 10 days and drink water? Raise your hands. None. What if you want to lose weight? Is that effective? Definitely. You want to lose weight? Eat vegetables for 10 days, drink water. I promise you, you are going to lose weight. But look at what Daniel is saying, "You are going to gain weight when you eat this." If I was Daniel, I could have told the Lord, "Can it be siomai? Steak? Or burger? Why vegetables?" I mean, it is okay to eat it in 10 days, even Lumpiang Shanghai. Could it be another food? Why just vegetable that is bland? Why water? Could it be mango juice? But he stepped in faith. He did not compromise. And look at the test. "Then let our appearance be examined (to you after 10 days)..." (Daniel 1:13) And let us skip, let us look at verse 14 after the 10 days. Look at verse 15. At the end of 10 days, their appearance, let us read this because the miracle is so amazing, "...their appearance seems..." I mean, it makes sense if it looks better because you know, the vegetables, they are healthy. But, "...they were (What?) fatter.." (Daniel 1:14) You know, I really did my research so many times just to check that Hebrew word and it is all the same. They were fat, they were plump, they got bigger. That is a miracle from the Lord. You know, when we obey, we will experience miracles in our life and in our families. That is why God said in Psalm 34, "Taste and see that the Lord is good; (Why?) How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8) We can never taste it, we will not see it, unless we obey. That is why most of God's amazing blessings happen when we obey. You want healing in your family? You want to build a strong family? Then you have to apply the Word of God. I think the challenging part for most families is they know the Word but they do not apply it. Maybe there are hindrances. That is your excuse - so many hindrances in your life. It may be a valid excuse, just like the commander was about to die if they do not eat the food and then they look thin. But you will not experience the miracles that God wants to do in your family if you do not obey. That is why to build a strong family, do not just be founded in God's Word, you have to apply the Word of truth. Now, I have asked one of our workers in the youth ministry to share his testimony together with his wife, how they experienced some challenges but when they started applying the Word of truth, then God restored their family. Let us all welcome Weng and Tiff. Hi, I am Weng and this is my wife, Tiffany. We met up in 2001 at a bar she was helping to manage. I invited her to join a singles community, a church, and we became close while serving God in the morning. But at night, we would drink, we would smoke, and sometimes engage in reckless behavior. And after nine months of dating, Tiffany became pregnant. When I found out I was pregnant, I was hesitant to settle down with Weng. He was unemployed while I was working as a financial advisor. Neither of us had savings to start a family. Weng also had a pending petition for U.S. citizenship and we thought it might be best to stay unmarried. After our son was born, Weng attended the men's retreat in Caliraya where he truly encountered Jesus Christ and surrendered his life to Him. That same day, he called me and proposed realizing it was a sin to live together outside of marriage. Less than three months later, we had a Christian wedding. In a few months of our marriage, I worked as a rank and file employee with a salary that barely supported us. When our second child came, I knew I needed a better paying job. I moved to a new company as a parking attendant and within a week, I was promoted to a supervisor, then a trainer. Despite this promotions, my income still was not enough and Tiffany remained the breadwinner. Being the breadwinner, older than Weng and more experienced, I found it hard to submit to him. I often felt that I had more right to be the decision maker in our family. We frequently argued, and there were times I left the house with the kids to stay with my sister or my parents because I could not stand living with Weng. I felt it would be better to be a single mom than to be with him. But my sister, who was also my Dgroup leader, encouraged me to keep our family together, reminding me of God's will and command in Matthew 19:6 which says, "Therefore, what God has joined together let no one separate." Despite not earning enough, I spent a lot of time volunteering in the youth ministry of CCF Ever and Pasig, later known as JZONE. And after seven years of marriage, while I was out of work and volunteering as a youth coordinator at CCF Taytay, Tiffany got pregnant with our third child. Though it seems like bad timing, it was a time when I heeded God's calling to work full time in the ministry. I applied and was accepted as the first Campus Missionary and Youth Coordinator of CCF Metro East. Tiffany hated the idea because I would be raising support and with three kids it seems impossible to provide for all their needs, especially with the older ones starting in school. As our kids grew up, Weng and I continued to serve in the church, bringing them along on weekends to watch us serve in the youth ministry. But life at home was different. We sometimes had intense arguments that ended in shouting matches in front of our children. There was even a time when I threw a pitcher filled with water at Weng during lunch. Weng did not fight back, instead, he left the house. Our two children cried hard witnessing everything. Little did we know that our son was starting to develop violent habits. He became a bully at an early age while in preschool. He constantly fought with other kids in the neighborhood and even at church. Our daughter, on the other hand, became overly dependent on her nanny, preferring to spend time with her rather than with us. We attended several parenting seminars during the early years of our marriage and tried our best to apply what we have learned. However, we struggled to raise our kids in a godly manner and often ended up disciplining them out of anger and frustration. Our approaches were inconsistent, leading to our children picking up of our negative traits. It was only when we saw the effects of our poor parenting that we realized our mistakes. We admitted to ourselves and to the Lord that we could not discipline our kids on our own. We needed His help. In 2014, I gave birth to our youngest child. With four kids, parenting became even more challenging. Our marriage was greatly affected as my focus was on the children while Weng spent more time in the ministry work. During this time, I felt no love for Weng and prayed to God to help me love him again for the sake of our kids, our ministry, and our faith. By 2016, we experienced our biggest financial struggle yet. We had to move from Quezon City to Angono, Rizal so that our three school aged kids could avail of scholarship and continue their studies. This major shift broke and humbled us, but also led us in an unexpected blessing. Tiffany's long-time prayer was answered when she began working at Gabay sa Landas foundation, a temporary shelter for impoverished, neglected, and abandoned children in Angono. I was re-assigned from being a youth coordinator of Metro East Hub to work at CCF Center, leading a program now called #NotAlone. Unknowingly, this was when God began to put our family dynamics in order. I became the breadwinner and Tiffany became more intentional about improving as a wife and a mother. We continued serving in various church ministries, faithfully attending our upline Dgroups, organized and participated in couples retreats and seminars, and even took part in family break-through retreats. And during the pandemic, we started having a weekly family devotion and processed Sunday worship messages together, which greatly contributed to our families healing. We eventually learned how to control our temper and discipline our children properly, focusing on modeling God's love for them. Tiffany and I became more loving toward each other, embracing the roles of husband and wife as God designed them. We now humbly and regularly ask our children how we have hurt them, how we can improve as parents, and we have learned sincerely to say "Sorry", "Thank you", and "I love you" to each other. Admittedly, our first two kids still experience character struggles due to our past parenting mistakes but we can now openly talk and journey with them in their Christian walk. We praise and thank God for giving us a second chance at Godly parenting with our two younger daughters. We are an example of a family
1906 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,322 that is work in progress, facing ongoing, Praise God, facing ongoing challenges and struggles but we thank God that each member of our family is now more open to forgive, more intentional about growing as Christian and more willing to please God. And as we learn to fully surrender to Christ, grow in our relationship with Him, obey His commands, and tirelessly serve Him, we experience this amazing and supernatural work in our lives. All of this for His glory alone. I am Weng, and I am Tiff, all praises and thanks to our God who transforms lives! To God be all the glory! Praise God, Weng and Tiff. Why don't we pray for them? Now, this is one example that even though they are full time workers, the family can still be attacked. Their children can still be attacked. That is why we need to constantly immerse ourselves in the Word of God, apply that, grow together as a family. So why don't we pray for them? Let us pray. Father, thank You so much for Weng and Tiff. Thank You because your placed them in a situation that they can depend on You. And thank You, Lord Jesus, for restoring their family, for giving them strength. Thank You, Lord, for allowing them to learn. And we pray that You will protect them continually, that You will establish them, strengthen their relationship. May You always be the center of their relationship, especially their kids, Lord, that they will all grow up fearing You, loving Yo, and honoring You. Please be with them, provide for them, protect them. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Thank you, Weng and Tiff. What is our message again? Say it one more time. Build a strong family. So what have we been learning? Number one, we are to be founded on God's truth. You cannot grow as a family without the Word of God. You need to apply this. You have been hearing this already many times. I mean, the principles of family, when it comes to the Word of God, we have heard that so many times, application is the key. And then it does not just end with us applying it, we are, that's why it is "FAM", make God's Truth known. What does that mean? It means you have a purpose as a family. If God told Isaiah in our passage last week that God was sending him, guess what? He is also sending you, us, as a family - our families to be a blessing to other people. And this is not something new. Because even Abraham, this was God's command to him. What was the charge of God to Abraham? "I will make you a great nation," Genesis 12. "...and I will bless you," Because he was faithful to the Lord. "...(I will) make your name great; and you shall be a blessing (You and your family.); And then I will bless those who bless you..." "...I will curse those who curse you." And look at the last one. "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3) Because through his generation, of course, Jesus came. And Jesus was the greatest blessing to all of us. And we are to use that to utilize what we have, to share it to others and be a blessing as well. In other words, we are to serve God as a family. And that is why God told Moses, "You have to tell the Israelites that they 'shall teach this diligently to their sons. They are to when they sit down, when they walk, when they lie down...'" (Deuteronomy 6:7) In other words, in all the aspects of their lives as they lived their life, it should be seen in their life. "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:8-9) In other words, people, not just your family, other people should see that your family is centered on Christ. You see, when your family is centered on Christ, other people will be blessed. When your family is centered on Christ, God will bless you. And other people will see, "That is the family that I want." But it starts with you first. That is why the greatest inheritance for the parents who are here, the grandparents who are here, the greatest inheritance you can pass on is to teach your children, your grandchildren, to love the Lord their God with all their heart. Once they have that, once you have that as a family, then God will bless them. It is not the money. It is not the piece of property. It is not the education. The best inheritance is to teach them to love the Lord their God. Look at what Joshua said. Joshua got the principle. When he was about to die, he was telling the Israelites, "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, you choose..." (Joshua 24:15) If you serve the Lord, serve the Lord. If you do not want to serve the Lord, do not serve the Lord. You want to serve other gods, it is up to you. And then look at the last part, it says, "If you want to serve the gods of the Amorites in whose lands you are living; (Go ahead. But what did he say? The last part. Let us read this together.) but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15) You know, that is really my prayer for all of us. I know for the families who are here, that is also your desire. But it is not easy. I know you have been trying to do it. You have been praying. But do not give up because God is on your side. He really wants to bless your family. I am going to end with this story, but before that let us read this statement for us. "Our family cannot go against the tide if we are busy flowing with the tide." The world will give you certain purposes, goals in life. Not saying it is completely wrong, but if you are just headed to that direction and you do not know God's direction for your family, then you are missing out. You are just flowing with the tide. You are not going to be a secure family or a strong family. To be a strong family, the truth is, we have to go against the tide because God's work, God's Word, is somehow against the principles we are seeing today. I will end with this story. So my in-laws, father-in-law and mother-in- law celebrated their 50th year wedding anniversary this year. Yes, let us give a clap offering to our Lord. He is really faithful. It is all by His grace. So these are my in-laws. That is a picture of the kids and their spouses, and of course, the grandkids. Not all the grandkids, some of the grandkids are there. So after that celebration, my son, Noah, my eldest, asked his mom, my wife. He asked, "Mom, how can a couple be married for 50 years?" I mean, it was just a very interesting question. Maybe he was amazed. How can a couple be married for 50 years? He was just so curious. And then my wife said, "You know, Noah, it was not always like this. In fact, at the early part of their marriage, so my wife told the story, at the early part of their marriage, they almost separated. Because of conflicts. They were already planning because they have four kids, who was going to stay with the husband and who was going to stay with the wife. They were already planning. But then her mom, my wife's mom, eventually came to know Jesus. She attended a Bible study, Auntie Deonna shared the Gospel to her, and then she came to know the Lord. And then the changes happened. My dad, my father-in-law, started becoming curious. "What is happening to my wife? I am trying to fight but she is not fighting back." You know the term in Tagalog? What did she take in? He really said that. "What is happening to my wife? What is she drinking or something? What is she taking that is changing her?" So eventually, he started driving my mother-in-law to the Bible study. Just drive there, drives there but stays at the parking lot. He does not want to go. And then eventually he decided, "Let me just try what is happening here. What are they doing in this Bible study?" And then it was Pastor Peter teaching the Bible study, and eventually my father-in-law gave his life to Jesus. Accepted Jesus. Since then, their relationship was not the same anymore. Yes. Let us give a clap offering to the Lord. Since then, they started serving the Lord and they never stopped serving the Lord until today. Until now, they are still serving God. And the impact of that, the children started also serving the Lord when they were in high school, when they were in college. Eventually, even the spouse started serving there. Of course, our goal are the grandkids, our kids, that they will also serve the Lord because that is the goal of every individual, every family. You know, the family that serves together grows together. God wants your family to grow. My family to grow. But God should be our foundation. And for Him to be our foundation, we need to apply His Word. And when we apply His Word, we will serve Him. We will make Him known. We will bless other people. And the impact of that is we grow as a family. What is our message again? Build a strong family. How do we do that? Three things - FAM. founded on God's Truth, Apply God's Truth, and Make God's Truth known. Now as we pray, I do not know where you are as a family. I do not know your struggles. I do not know your difficulties. But I know in your heart of hearts you want to have a strong family. I do not know what is happening but God loves your family. God loves you. God wants to restore it. God wants to strengthen it. There is hope. Do not feel like it is a hopeless case. There is hope. Be founded on God's Truth. And it starts with you. Do not wait for the others to change. You change first. Even if it is going to take time. You are tired already because other family members are not changing. It is okay. That is the test. Stay in the right course. Apply the Truth of God. Keep loving even if they are not changing. And I promise you, your family will experience breakthrough. I want to pray for you. Can we just bow down our heads? I want to pray for all the families who are here. And this is what I am going to challenge you. If you want, or somehow God is speaking to you today, and you want healing for your family, you want breakthrough for your family, you want God to restore any broken relationship in your family, I want you to stand up. I want you to stand up where you are. If you want breakthrough. I see these people. You want breakthrough in your family. You want God to strengthen your family. You want God to restore any relationship. You want to grow as a family. Just humbly stand up. And I want to pray for you. Anybody else? Let me pray for you, Father God, you see all of these people standing up, including myself, Lord, because we want all our families to be strong. I thank You because that is Your ultimate desire. You created family for Your Honor and Your glory. For it to be a blessing to others. But You know the situation of every family that is here, You know the brokenness that they are experiencing, You know the challenges, You know the pain, the frustration. But thank You for the comfort that You are giving us today, that there is hope and hope is found in You. Please teach all of us to be founded on Your truth. Help us to make Your truth our ultimate foundation. And I pray, Lord God, that we apply it as well. Even if other family members are not doing it, help us to apply to apply Your Truth and help us eventually learn to make Your truth known to our family members, to other people, and hopefully restoring our family and serving You, just like what Joshua said. Please, bless our families, transform our families, for Your honor and for Your glory. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. God bless you guys.