FAMILY MATTERS 

Part One: beginning June 7, 2026 

Good families don’t just happen; they must be built by people who are committed to truth and love.   

How does God want families to begin? 

• God wants families to begin with marriage. 

1.  God used marriage to create the first family. 

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  So the Lord God caused the man (Adam) to fall into a deep sleep.  While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.  Then the Lord God made a woman (Eve) from the rib, and he brought her to the man.  “At last!” the man exclaimed.  “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!  She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ”  This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.  (Genesis 2:18, 21–24, NLT)  

After He created Eve for Adam, God unified them through marriage.  God joined Adam and Eve’s single lives together through marriage to create the first family unit. 

2. God wants a couple to get married before having sex and children.   

The Bible condemns premarital sex (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:1-5), so obviously He does not want couples to have children before marriage.  Listen to what the Apostle Paul said to singles.  

“Now, regarding the questions you asked in your letter.  Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations.  But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.  The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.”  (1 Corinthians 7:1–3, NLT)  

God married Adam and Eve before they could have sex and produce children, and He wants couples to get married before they have sex and produce children. 

3. God wants children to be raised by a married father and a mother.   

“Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.”  This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, 'things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1–3, NLT)  

God wants every home to have both a father and a mother because He commands children to honor or “give great weight to” their parents' instructions (Colossians 3:20). 

How does marriage begin? 

• Most singles find a mate through dating. 

Unfortunately, most singles diving into the dating pool today have never learned how to date effectively and efficiently.  Sadly, most singles swimming in the dating pool are drowning! 

What do singles need to know before they begin dating? 

1st - Singles need to understand that dating is not a game; it is a tool. 

Singles who view dating as a game waste their precious time, energy, and money, dating the wrong people in the wrong ways.  Dating is not a game; it is a tool to help singles get what they want in life.   

2nd - Singles need to know what they want to accomplish with dating. 

3rd - Singles need to know how to use dating to get what they want in life. 

A tool is only helpful to those who know how to use it.  Singles who dive into dating before they know how to use dating hurt themselves and the people they date.   

4th - Singles need to know the three purposes of dating. 

Every tool has at least one purpose.  Hammers pound things.  Screwdrivers drive screws.  Wrenches tighten nuts and bolts.  Well… 

• Dating is a tool that can help a single person add fun, love, or a mate to their life. 

The $1,000,000 question a single person needs to answer before they begin dating is, “What do I want to use dating for?”   

Before you throw out an answer to the $1,000,000 question, you need to understand that… 

• Your purpose for dating must match your season of life.   

“There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: A right time for birth and another for death, a right time to plant and another to reap, a right time to kill and another to heal, a right time to destroy and another to construct, a right time to cry and another to laugh, a right time to lament and another to cheer, a right time to make love and another to abstain, a right time to embrace and another to part, a right time to search and another to count your losses, a right time to hold on and another to let go, a right time to rip out and another to mend, a right time to shut up and another to speak up, a right time to love and another to hate, a right time to wage war and another to make peace.”   Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, The Message 

According to Solomon, we must take the right action at the right time to get the right results.  If Solomon was right, and I believe he was, a single person must date the right way at the right time in their life to be successful at dating.   

5th - Singles need to know the rules for dating. 

Most people think of rules as barriers that keep us from doing what we want to do in life.  But rules don’t hold us back; they help us achieve our goals.  Dating rules are like the white and yellow lines on a road that keep us in the proper lane so we can arrive at our destination safely.   

Singles need dating rules to keep them focused on why they’re dating, to help them determine how much time, energy, and money to invest in dating, and to protect them and the people they are dating from physical, emotional, and spiritual harm.