In this sermon titled 'Families - Perfectly Designed Institutions for Spreading the Gospel', Paul Washer talks about how families are powerful tools for sharing the gospel by giving us a chance to live out the gospel where it really matters. He explains that a family that reflects genuine love and care for one another has more impact than some miracle or supernatural miracle one might pull off. Washer also discusses the error made by missionaries in the modern missionary movement and the functional use of a family in the world according to the speaker.

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth, join us in October for White Under Harvest. Let's talk about families for a minute. Families are perfectly designed institutions to spread the gospel. How so?

Well, first of all, it gives us a chance to live out the gospel where it really matters. You know, it's so much easier to love someone that's ten thousand miles away. But to be able to show a Christ-like spirit among the very people who are living in the closest relationship with you, that is proof of the power of God. And, you know, if I want to be able to at least show how does Jesus love the church, how does Jesus love his people, I can show that in my life and my relationship with my wife. How does God the Father love his children?

I can show that in the way I love my children. And so a family is one of the most powerful tools for sharing the gospel. Because let's just face it, almost every culture in the world realizes that their marriage and their family is at best not what they would hope it to be, and at worst it's an utter disaster. So when a group of people, a people group or a neighborhood, sees a family move in that seems to reflect a genuine love and care for one another, forgiveness and humility and all the things that make a family, they're going, what is this? We've never seen this before.

This has more of an impact than some miracle or supernatural miracle you might pull off. So Paul, how did it happen then that in the modern missionary movement, missionaries were encouraged to leave their families. Right. I think it's just one more case of pragmatism, of men, especially mission administrators, looking for a way that they thought was best to promote the gospel. They were sincere men.

They honestly wanted to promote the gospel, but they made the error in thinking that the scripture was not sufficient, that there is a better way. And we see that today. There are sincere people who would defend to the death, they would defend the inerrancy of scripture. But at the same time, they do not see it as sufficient. And if those men had simply stuck with the scriptures, they would have sent out families.

They would have. Now we all know that there are cases where, you know, because we are men, we may have to go into extremely dangerous situations in which we would not take our wives or our children but for only a momentary time. You know, Hebrews warns us not to be separated, you know, but but in in most places in the world now it The family is one of the most productive means of sharing the gospel. So what about large families? I mean Our large families a hindrance on the mission field?

Well, I figure God moved about 600, 000 people out of Egypt and took them through a wilderness. He can take a family of 10 and take them to Africa, can't he? And here again is the thing. We live in a culture that has learned that families ought to be one child, two children, and families that have that number of children but are not biblical families, they find they can't even control that. So When they see a family come in that has ten children and there's harmony and there's mutual esteem and everything else, again, it's a tremendous manifestation of the power of God.

You see people loving one another. You see a husband loving his wife, honoring and obeying her husband, which is a picture of Christ in the church. So the family is actually designed by God to do that. That's its functional use in the world. Its functional use isn't to have a nice family, but it's to declare the goodness of God and His love by the way that that love interacts in the family so that it's a mouthpiece of the love of God in the world.

Here's the thing that a lot of people forget about. If you have a biblical family, everyone knows it is by the grace of God. It is a gift of God. All right. Now, to whom much is given, much is required.

The more biblical your family is, the more you are required to make that same truth known to others so that they might experience the same joy.