Pastor John Koe shared that in 2005, he was invited to Germany and Switzerland to minister to the pastors. He found out from these pastors that the number of born again Christians in Germany and Switzerland were 2% to 1% respectively. These were the birthplaces of the great Reformation movement in the 16th century! Pastor John learnt that the decline of the churches in these European countries were due to the breakdown of the family unit. In Bern, 70% of the people they met on the streets lived alone, not with their families. They usually co-habit with their partners unmarried. Pastor John shared that Satan’s strategy to destroy the family unit comes through the push for same sex marriage, immorality, rampant divorce, children born out of wedlock and unwedded partnership.
In Genesis 2:18, after creating Man, God declared that it is “not good” for man to be alone and proceed to create a help mate and wife for him. This was the beginning of a family. Family therefore plays a crucial role. It is an extension of God’s rule to reign over all the earth. Our families, both natural and spiritual, are a testimony to the unsaved. In Matthew 19:5, Jesus underscores the sanctity, sacredness and permanence of marriage. Through the union of Adam and Eve, God shows the pattern of love for every marriage and family to follow. In this first marriage, there was perfect love, harmony and fellowship. Satan sought to destroy this union to undermine God’s earthly rule. He did this by overturning the sequence of a divine order of God, man, woman and animal. The reverse happened when the serpent (an animal) deceived a woman (Eve) to act independently of her husband (Adam) and together, they disobeyed their Creator (God). Satan continued his destructive masterwork by causing Cain to kill his sibling Abel. Even in the story of Lot, his family had adopted ungodly family-life while living under the influence of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife, who had embraced such a perverted lifestyle, was reluctant to flee from the city thereby turning into a pillar of salt. His sons-in-law mocked and scoffed at his warnings. Lot, too, was reluctant to abandon his home. Even his daughters committed incest with him after making him drunk. All these show that this family was not brought up in an environment in which God intended it to be.
Today, there are special interest groups with insidious agenda working to tear apart the family unit through aberrant sexual relationship and legalization of deviant sexual conduct. Once a family unit is destroyed, man suffers. The Church will then crumble and ultimately, society will disintegrate.
Pastor John Koe went on to share that through the media, lies and ungodly philosophies on family infiltrate the family. Modern films, dramas and sitcoms such as “Sex In The City” and “Desperate Housewives” portray families as dysfunctional households fraught with infidelity, adultery, divorce, absentee fathers and cheating mothers. All these seek to undermine and distort our sense of love, fidelity, order, authority and righteousness.
Pastor John Koe concluded by re-iterating that the story of Lot is an example of how easily our minds can be polluted and corrupted by deception and lies being brought to our homes via the TV, radio, internet and newspapers. Have we taken a closer and good look at our family lately? Have the evil one been “infiltrating” our homes? It is time we stand up to set the example of strong homes and healthy families to the world. We need to go back to the scriptures, live out our godly beliefs and be the family God designs!
Discussion Questions
1) How does a godly family affect the society? Ultimately, what is God’s kingdom purpose? [10 min]
2a) As a parent, discuss ways to pass down Godly values to your children? [5 min]
2b) What are the excuses/ reasons commonly used by parents when their Christians values are not being passed down to their children?[10 min]
3a) Discuss the ways in which media is propagating wrong and ungodly beliefs to your children. [10 min]
3b) Share and suggest ways on how you prevent these beliefs from being propagated to your children. [10 min]
