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Alright guys, please take your Bibles. I'll just make sure this is not on mute. Alright, take your Bibles and go back to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. So, this was sort of an unplanned sermon. You guys know that I've been preaching through a series on the family, okay? And I pretty much felt like I was done as long, you know, building on the foundations of what a biblical family should be like. And then obviously, if you go to the Bible and you can build on that, you know, you can, you know, it was a recipe to have a strong biblical marriage, really. The stuff that I preached on before. But one thing that I did want to cover is the topic of the broken home, okay? The topic of the broken home. Look at Psalm 51 verse 17. Psalm 51 verse 17. The Bible reads, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. So, I want you to notice that in this Psalm, David has a broken spirit. He has a broken and contrite heart. And why is that? Why? Why in this Psalm specifically is he broken hearted? What has happened? Well, if you look at Psalm 51, most of your Bibles should have this. Just at the beginning, there's a header to the rest of the scriptures. I don't know if yours says this, mine says this. To the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Okay? So this psalm was written not straight after that David took Bathsheba, had that adulterous relationship, but after the baby was born and the prophet Nathan came to him, Nathaniel came to him and said, Look, David, you've committed a grave sin. Okay? And we can see it's taken a long time for David to come and realize and accept the fact that he had broken a home. He had taken another man's wife. He had caused a broken home, a broken marriage. And obviously we know that he caused her husband to die as well. All right? But added to his own broken home because King David already at this stage had multiple wives. Okay? So we see David's heart broken. He's got a broken spirit because of the effects of the broken home. Yes, the home that he broke of Bathsheba and Uriah and also his own home, added more problems, added more brokenness to his own house. Okay? Now, I basically, look, the sermons that I preached on marriage and family, if you guys want a sermon on how to get divorced, it's basically, it's the same sermons, you just don't do it. All right? You just take the same sermons that you heard and everything I said, you just turn on its head and you don't do it. And that's how you can have a recipe for divorce. Okay? But look, the reality is, especially in this day and age, and even in the times of the Bible, we see numerous broken homes. Okay? And quite often as a pastor, even before I was a pastor, just as someone that was kind of respected in the church as a mature believer, you know, people come because a lot of people grow up in a broken home. You know, people have been divorced or remarried, you know, maybe in ignorance, maybe not, maybe knowing full well that it was sinful and wrong. And so today, we have many broken homes. Okay? We have many broken families. And the questions that often come up are, you know, so what do I do in my situation? You know, this has happened to me. I've had, you know, children out of wedlock or, you know, I've been remarried or, you know, my husband has left me or whatever, all the situations that come. And it's like, what does God want me to do in my situation? Now, what you'll find in the Bible is that, you know, the Bible is written in a way that, you know, God gives us his ideals. God gives us his commands of how to live a godly life. Okay? He gives us the picture of what a godly biblical marriage should look like, what a godly biblical family should look like. Okay? And he's given us these instructions. He's given us these lessons knowing full well that we're in a sin-cursed world. We're in a sin-cursed fallen world. We all have that sin nature and we all mess things up in life. Okay? None of us are perfect and there's no perfect home. Okay? But one thing you need to understand about the Bible is that it's written to show us the ideal scenario, to teach us the commands of God so we can live righteous and holy lives. Okay? The Bible is not written in a way to cover every possible scenario away from that ideal. Okay? Now, God has given us many stories as well, many situations, many stories, many analogies of faithful men that have followed the commands of God, that are trying to live according to God's will and they're being blessed by God. We see the blessings of God come upon his people. But we also have many stories and many examples of people who do not follow the way of God. Okay? And ultimately, if they're a wicked ungodly generational people, you know, God's curse has fallen upon them. Or if they are children of God, then God brings his hand of chastisement to correct them. My point is the Bible is not written with every scenario, you know, that you can think of. All right? The Bible gives us the ideal and obviously the Bible is written in a way that it's Christ-centric. No matter what is written, no matter what situation it is, somehow the Bible is pointing us to Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. The Bible is Christ-centric, all right? Now, I say that because you're not going to find necessarily an answer to every situation that is out there. Okay? Now, there's a lot of stories. You can take a lot of principles, applications and apply that to your life. Okay? But here's the thing about marriage and I've said this before in other sermons. Marriage is simple. Marriage is straightforward. I'm talking about the biblical ideal that God has given us. You know, God says it's one man and one woman for life. And another important part to that is that you would go into your marriage as a virgin. Okay? That you would give yourself to that one person all your life. Till death do us part. And that that marriage will have children. That the husband and wife would raise a godly generation. That husbands would be the head of their family, right? That they would give themselves sacrificially like Christ gave himself to the church. And that wives are to be submissive to the authority of her husband. And that children ought to obey their parents. We know this. You know, these things are simple. They're not complicated. They're straightforward. Marriage is simple. But the broken home is not simple. Okay? Divorce is not simple. Remarriage is not simple. You create a scenario. You can create environments. And every broken home is different from another broken home. Okay? So to think that there's going to be this magic bullet that's going to fix my broken home or my family. You're not going to find necessarily find that. You might be in a situation where you will never have that ideal home. That ideal biblical marriage that you see in the Bible. That ideal family. Okay? But does that mean I just give up? Does that mean, you know, the Bible is not for me and I can't learn from it? Of course not. Okay? But I do want to cover this topic of the broken home. Just as a general thing. Okay? Just as a general thing. Obviously, if I wanted to go through every possible scenario. This would be its own series of 10 sermons or more. Alright? So we're just covering this in a general way. Alright? Now I just quickly summarized to you guys the biblical family. The biblical marriage. What it should look like. Okay? But do you think if that's what you had. You know, you go into your marriage as virgins, for life, godly children. Do you think your marriage and your family is always going to be perfect? And you know, it's just gonna, you're gonna never have any problems in life? Of course not. That's not reality. Okay? Because we still have that sinful flesh. Okay? We're still going to go through the trials and problems of life. We can't change that. Okay? This is the world we live in. There's going to be difficulties. You know, sometimes men, we're not going to take charge of our family. We're not going to put our hand up and take responsibility. Sometimes, you know, wives will not, you know, be subject unto their husbands. You know, sometimes children will not obey their parents. Or you know, just other, you know, things outside of the family might affect the home. And you know, you're going to go through trials whether they're financial difficulties. You know, just clashes in the marriage. Whatever. Look, you're going to still have problems. Even if you follow the biblical example of the marriage. Okay? So I'm not promising you that you're going to have a perfect marriage. It's no such thing as a perfect, I guess, like Christ and New Jerusalem. Like the marriage of the Lamb. That's probably the perfect marriage. Okay? But I'm talking about husband and wives here. You know, you're never going to have that perfect marriage. But even though you're going to have the trials and difficulties that we all have. Having that framework, the biblical framework of family, is going to help you get through those difficulties. It's the best foundation. It's the best framework that God has given us, to help us as a family, as a couple, to get through the struggles of life. To get through the difficulties of life. Okay? But look, even in a perfect, or I'll use that word loosely. Even in a biblical family. Okay? If you followed all these things, okay? You know, as soon as you start messing it up. As soon as you start rattling the cage a little bit of God's ideal. You're going to add problems. Unnecessary additional problems to that marriage. That you wouldn't have if you just stay true to what God has given us. So for example, you know, you may have that biblical marriage. But you may have not been a virgin going into that marriage. You may have committed fornication. Okay? Now, that's obviously not ideal. But you know what? You're going to realize that through my life, I'm going to be carrying some of those consequences. Through my life, I'm going to be carrying some of that guilt. And some of those, you know, insecurities that come with having given yourself over to another person in your life. Okay? And you know, that might have a bit of an effect. Even if it's subconsciously to your spouse. Knowing that, you know, you did not keep yourself for that one person in that marriage. Okay? So it'll create some additional trials. Some additional problems, even if they're minor. Okay? You know, men and women not following their God-given roles will add additional problems to that family. You know, going through the birth control process is going to add additional problems to your family. Okay? If you're preventing yourself from having children, that's not what God wants for your life. It's going to create some damage to your family. Okay? So my point is, yes, we have the perfect ideal. Okay? Yes, even that perfect ideal will have problems. But if you mess it up, if you start playing around with it, you're going to add additional problems. It doesn't mean you can't have a good marriage. It just means there's going to be additional hurdles to get through. Okay? So that's God's ideal biblical family. All right? Now, the next thing I want to talk about, before I get onto the broken family, the broken home, I want to talk about the blended family. Okay? The blended family. Now, there's two ways that you can have a blended family. One is a biblical model, and one is based on sin. Okay? Firstly, the one that's based on a biblical model, and basically a blended family is where you get, you know, two families that come together and form one family. Okay? The biblical model there is if you're a widow. Okay? You've been married, you've had kids with your spouse, and your spouse passes away. Now you're a widow. Okay? But biblically speaking, you can get remarried. All right? In fact, God says to women that are under the age of 60, he encourages them to get remarried. Okay? To get remarried. But you need to understand when you get remarried, you know, you might be bringing your kids, not just yourself, but your children, into that marriage relationship as well. Okay? So if you're someone that's getting married into, you know, you're getting married, and you're going to walk into a blended family situation, you need to understand I'm not just taking that spouse, I'm not just taking that husband and wife, but I'm also taking, you know, the children that have come with that previous relationship. Okay? So you can see immediately, you're going to add some more complexities. You're going to add some more challenges. Okay? Because these are not your biological children. And you know, you're going to have to learn to love those children. You're going to have to learn to have authority of those children. It's going to be a little bit more challenging than having your own natural children. Okay? But that's a biblical way of having a blended family. If you're a widow, the marriage has been nullified because of death, you can then get remarried. Okay? But it does create the additional challenges. Okay? You just need to be aware of that, that it brings additional challenges. Then you've got the blended family because of sin. Okay? Because of previous fornication, previous relationships. Now I'm not covering our previous marriages right now. Okay? Just out of fornication, a previous relationship, you've had children before, but you've not been married in the past. Okay? This is another situation where if you get married, of course you're going to create another blended family scenario. But this one's not based on a biblical model. It's been blended because of sin. Because of past mistakes. Okay? Now, the blended family, because of fornication, will also have similar challenges to the biblical-based blended family model. Okay? But there will be one other significant challenge, one other significant issue. That is, the other biological parent is still out there. Okay? The other biological parent is still out there. So for example, let's say, you know, let's say I, wait, what's an example of this? You know, I become a widow. You know, and then I marry my second wife. Okay? So she's going to have the challenges, of course, of just a regular marriage, but she's going to have to take on 10 kids as well, under her family. Okay? But you know, she'll know full well that the previous mother is not in the picture. Okay? There isn't this divided loyalty. Let's say. Okay? And then it'll be easier for the children. Because I had mum, she's now gone, this is now my new mum. And this is who I now need to be under, that authority of that new mum. But if it's because of fornication or because of sin, that other parent is still out there. That biological parent is still there, somewhere in the picture. Okay? And so you need to obviously understand, if you're going to get married into a blended family because of sin, yes, you know, you've got the challenges of the marriage, you've got the challenges of these kids that are not your biological children, but also somewhere out there, there's the former or the other biological parent out there. Okay? And so you need to be aware, this is the relationship that I'm walking into. Okay? Now, you say, why are you going through this? I'm just saying, look, the further you get away from the biblical ideal, the more problems, the more challenges, you know, you're adding to that marriage relationship. Okay? And I'm not saying that means it's going to be a hard marriage and difficult. Look, it just means there's going to be additional things that you need to work through. That's what it means. Okay? Additional things that you need to work through. All right. Now, let me talk about, before I get into the broken family, I want to talk about de facto relationships. Okay? This is something that's very common in our world today, de facto relationships. That's where a man and woman are living together with children. I mean, from the outside, they look like any other family. They look like a married couple that has children, but they've never exchanged vows. They've never gotten married. Okay? Now, biblically speaking, that is not even a family. Okay? Because a family is built on the marriage. That's the very first thing that God asked Adam to do, is to take your wife, you know, he gave him Eve, and then from that you have children. Okay? That's the family unit. If you have children outside of marriage, that is not a family. Okay? That is not a family, biblically speaking. I know probably in our world we call that family still, but as far as God is concerned, that is not a family. Now, so I'll give you an example of this a little bit, and one problem that I hear with de facto relationships, and this is someone that's very close to me, and you know, he doesn't have the best relationship with his partner or whatever, and he'll say things like, you know, she's just not submissive to me, and she won't listen to me, she won't do what I ask of her, and then you know, you'll hear the other side, and she'll say, you know, he just doesn't, you know, do this, she doesn't do that, whatever, and honestly, if you're in a de facto relationship, how can you have any expectations on your partner? I mean, look, you've not exchanged vows. You're not a biblical family. You've not told that person, I'm taking you as my wife till death do us part, and I'm going to be the head over this family, and the woman has not made the vow of saying, hey, I'm gonna be submissive to you, and I'm going to cherish you all the days of my life. Those vows were never exchanged. So how can you then expect in a de facto relationship that your, you know, your partner, the woman will be submissive to you. She's never promised that. She's never accepted that, okay, and so you have no expectations. There are no vows. The only thing that, the only submission in that relationship are the children, that the children should be submissive and obedient to the parents, okay, but it's not a biblical family. Now, if you're in a situation like that, in a de facto relationship, and you've not been married in the past, that's actually quite an easy fix. You get married. You get married, and you know, you can start then working toward having a biblical marriage, the way God has instituted it, all right. So I just wanted to cover the de facto relationships very quickly, but the third one that I want to talk about, and this is the main one, I guess. I guess it's all relevant is number three, the broken family or the broken home, all right. So I'm not talking about abusive households here. I'm not talking about, you know, a drunken father that, you know, beats around his wife. Or, you know, abusive situations like that. That's outside of the scope of this sermon, okay. What I'm talking about, when it comes to the broken family, the broken home, I'm talking about a broken marriages, okay. Vows that were made till death do us part, and that's been broken. As we had in this example here, in Psalm 50, what was it, 50, 51, Psalm 51. The fans bloated away. Psalm 51, you know, where David's action has caused a marriage to break down, and then he's added additional problems to his own life, okay. So, again, now you add additional complexities. You know, you kind of are a blended family, okay. And, you know, there's usually a spouse, you know, an ex-wife or an ex-husband somewhere. You know, you've gone through the process of an unbiblical divorce, and maybe an unbiblical remarriage, maybe multiple times. There are people that have multiple divorces, multiple remarriages, and that new marriage that you have, or the situation you're in right now, the challenges are even greater. The challenges are even more difficult, okay. I mean, this is what I'm saying. If we had, if the Bible is written for every scenario, man, it's gonna fill up a whole library, right, of every possible scenario of how to handle that, you know, God's ideal way. But you add additional problems because, you know, there's still that broken marriage out there. There's that spouse, there's the biological parents somewhere out there. That other biological parents may have been remarried themselves. They might have additional kids. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And when you're walking into that marriage, you need to understand, yes, I'm taking on, well, first of all, you shouldn't be. You shouldn't be marrying someone that's divorced, but I'm talking about someone that's already married in that situation, okay. You need to understand you're taking in a blended family, but there are other people out there that's going to have some effect on your life somewhere, okay. Even if it's just a mental thing, you know that they're out there, it's going to cause additional challenges and conflicts, all right, in your family life. So the question is, what do I do? You know, do I need to hear every example in every situation and give you an answer? Not really. You know, again, God gives us these ideals and we know what the ideal marriage is. We know what it should look like. So whatever situation you're in, what you really want to strive for is to be like that as much as possible, okay. But the first thing, the first thing, look at Psalm 51. The first thing you need to do is just admit, is just acknowledge that I'm never going to have that perfect biblical marriage. You've just got to put your hands up and say, it's never going to happen. I recognize that. Look at verse number three. Psalm 51 verse three. He says there, David says, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. He says, look, I acknowledge that I've done wrong. The first thing you need to do if you're in a broken home and you feel guilty, you have all the regrets, is just admit, just acknowledge. I've made mistakes. You know, I've messed this up, you know, and acknowledge your sin. Just bring it before the Lord. But notice that he says in the second part, and my sin is ever before me. You know, David recognized that this sin that is committed is always going to be there. And what I mean by that is not that he's going to be, he's not forgiven by the Lord. Because if you look at verse number, sorry, where was I? If you look at verse number seven, he says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. All right. So it's not that God has not forgiven you. Of course he has. He's washed you whiter than snow. You bring these sins before the Lord, he'll forgive you. Okay, he'll forgive you, wash you, make you white. But still the consequences of those sins will be ever before you. Okay, it's just something now that you have to accept that I've sinned, I've done this, you know, I've got a broken home, I've been divorced or whatever, or I've married into a divorced situation. And now I've just got to admit, hey, now it's going to be challenging. There's going to be trials, there's going to be additional challenges than the average marriage. Okay, and you've got to understand this. You've got to recognize this so you can then move forward. Look at verse number 10, Psalm 51 verse 10. He says, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. So the next thing, once you've acknowledged it, once you recognize that there's consequences for the rest of your life, in this life anyway, okay, then you need to ask the Lord to renew and give you the right spirit. Okay, because a lot of these consequences, sometimes, again, you know, they'll bring the guilt, they'll bring the regrets. You know, your mind might travel back and wish you had done things differently and you'll have the wrong spirit. It'll make you bitter, make you angry or whatever. You need to go and ask the Lord, hey, God, give me the right spirit. Help me move on from this situation. Help me just acknowledge and recognize and accept, Lord, you've forgiven me. I'm clean now and now I need to move on. Lord, give me the right spirit and not the wrong spirit of bitterness and regret and anguish. All right, verse 11. What's the next thing you need to do? Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Hey, you know, this is about maintaining a close fellowship, a walk with the Lord. All right, it's not about losing salvation. It's saying, Lord, I'm in a broken home. Yeah, I'm never going to have that ideal scenario. I recognize that I acknowledge that, Lord, but help me be in your presence. Help me walk in your past, Lord. Let me have your fellowship. Let me be a friend to you, Lord. Let me be close to you, okay? Because listen, you might be in a broken family, but there's one family that you are part of as a saved person that will never be broken. That's that you are son of the highest. You are a son of God. There's nothing you can do to lose that position with God, all right? And all it takes is for you to just, you know, clean your heart, ask for forgiveness of sins, and you can maintain that fellowship with God the Father. Hey, that's a family that will never be broken, okay? And if you want to be in the Father's house, what's the house of the Lord? Church, you come to church, and you fellowship with your brethren. You know, you've got brothers and sisters in the Lord. Hey, you've got a family in the Lord. Hey, wherever you go, in whatever parts of the world you come across a saved person, hey, you've got a brother or sister right there. I mean, I don't know if you guys have done this, but it's such a beautiful thing when we've gone on holidays with a family, and we've been able to just walk into any church, right? I mean, not any church. I'm saying a good church, right? That's right in the gospel and all those kinds of things. And you walk in, you don't know anyone. Everyone's a stranger, but they receive you. They accept you. Hey, there's something there we know that we're related, that we have the same blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're part of God's family. It's a wonderful thing that you can walk into a building of strangers and have that, okay? Because you are in a beautiful family of the Lord. So maintain, Lord, help me maintain fellowship with you. Help me maintain the closeness to you because I'm a child of God. Verse number 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Hey, ask the Lord for joy, okay? Again, we talked about the right spirit. Ask the Lord for joy, for happiness, for contentment. And what does David focus on? His salvation, right? His salvation, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He knows that he can only be happy if he starts and remembers, I'm saved. I've been delivered from my sins. I'm not going to hell. I'm going to be in heaven with the Lord forever. And he asked the Lord to return that joy to him because if you've forgotten the joy of your salvation, you're not going to find joy in anything else, okay? That's where your joy starts. Remembering what the Lord has done for you, the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal home. Look at verse 13. And this is, we have to throw in soul winning. It's in every chapter of the Bible, verse 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. You know what the next thing you do? All right, I've got a broken home. You go and you go soul winning, right? You go and teach transgressors the ways of the Lord. Who's the way? Jesus Christ, right? And you see, you know, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Hey, this is what you do. If you're in a broken home situation and this is what everyone should be doing anyway, right? But even in a broken home, you should be someone that goes out. You know, once you've been forgiven by the Lord, you want to move on, you've got the joy, the right spirit, go soul winning, okay? Go soul winning because hey, you know what's worse than being in a broken home? What's worse than that is obviously going to hell, okay? What's worse than that is that there are people right now that want to know the way to heaven, want to know God's gospel, but there's no one going out there and giving them the good news, all right? And look at verse, let's drop down to verse 15 just very quickly. Oh Lord, open down my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. So we sing, see here that I was singing praises to the Lord, all right? Look at verse 17 and this is what we started with. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart of God that would not despise. So he comes broken about the sins, right? But look at verse 18, look what he says. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. So we see King David was concerned, you know, that I've done such a great sin before the Lord that it's going to stop Jerusalem from being blessed. It's going to, you know, the walls of Jerusalem, we're there to protect them from the enemy. You know, David was concerned that because of his sin, maybe the enemies might calm down and overtake Israel because of his doing, right? He says, Lord, you need to rebuild, you need to build the walls of Jerusalem, you need to make us a strong nation, you know, Lord? And I want to apply this, you know, we don't have the walls of Jerusalem in our lives, but I want to apply that to those that are in a broken home situation. You know, you may have been, you might be remarried right now or whatever, you know, divorced or whatever. You've messed things up, you know, but you come before God, that contrite heart, and you ask the Lord, look, this is the situation I'm in now, there's nothing I can do to fix it, you know, I mean, this is what it is. And ask the Lord to rebuild, to build the walls of your family, okay? Whatever you've got right now, ask the Lord to build the walls to strengthen that marriage. If it's your second marriage, ask the Lord to strengthen that second marriage. Lord, I don't want to be divorced again, I don't want to go through that process once again. Lord, help me overcome this sin, and Lord, you please build this wall, so I don't have to go through this again, I don't have to drag my kids through the dramas once again, okay? So, you know, you need the Lord, you know, you need the Lord, you need to recognize, guys, again, it's never going to be perfect, it's never going to be that perfect biblical marriage, that's okay, all right? And recognize there's going to be additional challenges, all right? And that's why you need to be closer to the Lord than anyone else, because you're going to have those difficulties in life, okay? And you want the Lord to rebuild those walls. Turn to Matthew chapter 1, please, Matthew chapter 1, saying that it's almost Christmas time. I want you to say this, because I think it's already challenging for fathers to take authority in their homes, to take ownership, to be the man of the house, to take charge and command that respect and obedience that they deserve, right? But that's already in a natural home, there's already those challenges, there's already, you know, you've got to work toward that, right? But we also see that it's going to be harder in the blended home, it's going to be harder in the broken home, okay? But let's look at Matthew chapter 1 verse 19, I just want to show you this, Matthew chapter 1 verse 19, So we know the story, Mary was found to be pregnant, he obviously did not know it by the Holy Ghost, he assumed here that it was of another man, that she had been unfaithful toward him. Verse 20, But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all of this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of by the Lord, by the prophet saying, of the Lord, by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Look at this, And Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and he took unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had brought forth her firstborn son. And look at this, And he, that's Joseph, and he called his name Jesus. Okay, so we have an example here, not so much of a broken home, but we can see the principle here, is that Jesus was not the biological child of Joseph. Okay, in a sense, he was walking into a blended family. Okay, in a sense. Okay, but still, even though Jesus was not his biological child, you see what the angel asked him, says Joseph, you're the man of the house, you're the head of your home, and you need to take charge, and call his name Jesus, even though it's not your biological son. Okay, and we see him in obedience, he does, and he calls his name Jesus. He takes ownership for his family, even though it's not his biological son. Okay, and we see, we won't go through it, but chapter two, we know the story of how Herod was trying to kill Jesus Christ, and that God called them to Egypt to flee from that, and then to bring them back. Hey, God was going to Joseph. You know, God went to Joseph and said like, you've got to take your family. Hey, you're the head. I'm coming to you, Joseph. You've got to protect your family. You've got to own this child, even though it's not your biological son, but hey, you're the head of your family. You need to take charge. Okay, so let me just encourage anyone that's part of a blended or broken home. If you're the father, if you're the husband, you're still in charge. Okay, you're still calling the shots. If those children are under your house in your family, you need to take that with both hands. Okay, and it's going to be more challenging than the father with the biblical-based model of a family. Okay, but still, you're still the head of that house, and you know, if you're a wife in that situation, you've got to allow your husband to take control. Okay, your second husband or whatever it is that you might have. You know, you need to allow him to be the head of his house and to be in charge of his wife and to order the children, order the household. All right, so let me wrap this up. If you're someone in a broken home, you know, it's not my intention to, you know, make you, you know, bring you back the guilt or to make you, you know, lament the fact that, you know, you're never going to have that perfect biblical marriage. That's not my intention, you know, to bring sorrow back, because if you're already brought that to the Lord, He's already forgiven you. You need to move on from that, okay? But I want you to realize that even in a family that's broken, God can use you. God can use you in an amazing way, okay? Now, I just quickly wrote down a list of people that in my mind that had broken homes. We have Abraham. Hey, he had two wives. He had two wives. And if you remember, those wives were at it with each other. They didn't like one another, okay? It created conflicts and problems in his house. I mean, there's many like this. There's Jacob. Jacob took two wives, Leah and Rachel. And if you remember, they had the two sisters. There was insecurities within themselves, okay? Obviously, David, we're speaking of David. Gideon. Gideon was another man that had multiple wives. You know, you know the story of Elkanah, who was Hannah's husband. And, you know, the father of the prophet Samuel. Hey, he had two wives and Hannah couldn't fall pregnant. And obviously, she felt conflicted because his other wife was able to have children. Hey, but look, even in that broken home, even as Hannah, as a barren woman, you know, who had, you know, her husband's affections to another woman, you know, even she was able to bring forth a son Samuel who became a mighty man of God. You know, the names I'm giving you here are people that we look back in the Bible and think, man, these were great men of God. Look at their great faith. Look at how God used them in a powerful way. And they had broken homes. And of course, Solomon, you know, Solomon, not only his multiple wives and all his concubines, but he grew up, you know, with Bathsheba. Bathsheba was his mother, you know, and he grew up in a situation where there were multiple, you know, women, multiple wives of David, and obviously half siblings and step siblings and all that kind of situation. And yet God used Solomon in such a mighty way. I mean, he wrote so much of the scriptures. You guys are in Matthew, right? Say in Matthew, go to chapter, verse number one. Matthew one, verse one. Because we started with David. We started with Bathsheba. We started how, you know, they had broken homes, you know, and we see that David then comes before the Lord and confesses all those issues to him. But look how God, this acknowledges Bathsheba in Matthew chapter one, verse one. Matthew chapter one, verse one. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. I mean, these are great names. David and Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren and Judas begat Phares and Zara Othema and Phares begat Esrom and Esrom begat Aram and Aram begat Amminadab and Amminadab begat Naoson and Naoson begat Solomon and Solomon begat Boaz of Rekab and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth and Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David the king and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias and Solomon begat Reboam and Reboam begat Abiah and Abiah begat Eson, etc. And we see, look, who's the woman? Who's the wife, the former wife of Urias? That's Bathsheba, okay? The adulterous woman, okay? Who had the broken home. And yet that God names her amongst the descendants, not descendants, ancestors of Jesus Christ. What a great honor to be named, and I know they don't give her a name, but we know who he's talking about amongst all these other great men, Jacob and Isaac and Abraham and you know, etc. I mean, it's such a great honor because here's what happened with Bathsheba. You know, yes, she messed up. Yes, she did wrong. But whatever the situation she found herself in, as a wife of the king, she still was able to raise a godly man in Solomon. You know, she was still able to say, look, God, this is not the perfect situation. You know, now I'm one wife amongst many when I was just one wife of one man before. But Lord, I'm going to use my situation and I'm going to raise a godly seed. I'm going to raise Solomon, Lord, to serve you, you know, all the days of his life. And even though Solomon messed up, but still he was known as a great man of faith of the Lord, okay? So look, it doesn't matter how messed up things are. God can still use you and God can still honor you the way God has honored Bathsheba here. Turn to 2 Samuel 7. 2 Samuel 7. I'm almost done now guys, but 2 Samuel 7. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 31 verse 1. And we all know this, but I just want to, you know, Bathsheba, she did great. She did great afterwards, you know, in Proverbs 31 verse 1. The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. You know, we have the words, the instruction, the wisdom of Bathsheba recorded for us in the Bible. Why? Because she decided to, you know, put the past behind her and move on and serve the Lord, right? It says, What my son, and what the son of my womb, and what the son of my vows, give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. Solomon, don't make the same mistakes your father did, all right? Don't give your strength unto women, nor the ways which destroy of kings. And we know that's talking about alcohol when you read the rest of it on. But we see, hey, a godly mother instructing her child, even in a broken home situation, okay? And the Lord honors that. That wisdom came from the Holy Ghost, and it's been recorded for us in the scriptures. It's a great thing. You guys are in 2 Samuel 7. Look at verse 12. 2 Samuel 7 verse 12. And this is awesome. And when thy days be fulfilled, sorry, this is the context here is King David's going to pass away. King David's close to death. And this was words that God was speaking to him. It says, And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thine own boughs, and I will establish his kingdom. And we know the primary application to this is Solomon, okay? The son of Bathsheba, we know that. But look, let's keep reading verse 13. He shall build an house for my name. So that's the temple. We know that Solomon built the temple of God. But look at this. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Hey, what are we talking about now? Are we talking about Solomon? Is he going to be the king of Israel forever? No. Now we're starting to move on, all right? To a double application. That it's through the kingship of David and Solomon that Jesus Christ is the seed of David, as the offspring of David is going to raise up and take that kingdom and rule forever. Verse 14. Back to Solomon here. And I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he committed iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And verse 16. This is the best. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. What's that about? You know, does Israel have a king today? No. And has this line of kings continued on to this day? No, we know that's ended. But does that mean there's an error in the Bible? Is there a conflict? No. Because we know who the king of the Jews is. We know who the offspring of David will be. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. His kingdom is forever established. His throne is forever. And notice that in this great blessing, in this great prophecy of Christ, we have Solomon there. You know, the son of an adulterous, well, I guess he took him as a wife, but still a son of a broken home, you know? And we see that God is blessing ultimately Jesus Christ through the lineage of the kings that would go through Solomon. So I just want to show you that, guys. You know, broken homes, it's a sad thing. There's additional challenges. You have to be prepared for that. You have to know that. Know it ahead. Just admit it. Yes, there's going to be additional challenges. There's going to be more problems. But God can use you. It's not for you to give up. You know, you shouldn't be giving up. You shouldn't be, you know, lamenting that you're not going to have that perfect home. But God can still use you in an amazing way, okay? God can still work through you. Just accept the situation you're in. Admit your faults. Confess your sins to God if you haven't already. And move on. And let the Lord build those walls of Jerusalem, you know, as we saw in Psalm 51. All right, let's pray.