Family: God's Original Plan That He Never Gave Up On

Introduction

Why do marriage and family make you dream so much and, at the same time, scare you so much? Etienne opens this sermon with a clear-eyed observation: demographic studies confirm what you see around you. People enter relationships already holding a plan B. Fewer children are being born. Commitment gets pushed back. And yet, if all of this is so fragile, why don't people give up on it for good? Because deep inside you, there remains a profound, positive desire that resists in spite of everything. That desire is no accident: it is your connection to God's original plan for the family. The Bible does not only give you the keys to understand your frustration; it also reminds you of the positive reason behind that frustration in the first place. In Genesis 1-2, you will rediscover this plan that is so good. And you will see that God has never given up on it.

Outline

1. If his plan is so good... (Genesis 1 and 2)

• Etienne sets out a key concept for measuring the goodness of God's plan: relationship. God created you to live in perfect relationship with him, with others, and with all of creation. A relationship of harmony and joy.
• The first place to live this out and to see it is the family. From the very beginning it is given three callings: to reflect God's glory, to serve God under his good authority, and to rejoice in complementarity.
• An invitation: before measuring everything that is dysfunctional today, take the time to see the beauty of the original plan. It reframes how you read reality.

2. The family, made to reflect God's glory (Genesis 1:27-28)

• "God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them." God placed his glorious image within humanity so that through every human person, we could see a reflection of his beauty.
• "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth." God is the source of life that multiplies in the beauty of his glory. The family is the place, above all others, where this blessing is celebrated and lived out.
• Concretely, in a family shaped by God's plan: this is a place of dignity ("you are made in God's image, my child"), of an identity received rather than earned, of security. Etienne recalls what his wife Laurence, a marriage and family counselor, observes far too often: children who feel unworthy and unloved within their own family. God's plan is the opposite.
• And yes (Etienne says this with humor, referencing debates about population decline), you only have to read Genesis 1:28: have children, fill the earth with men and women who grow up in the context of the God of life and love.

3. The family, made to serve God under his good authority (Genesis 2:15-17)

• A close look at chapter 2: God takes the man and places him in the garden of Eden "to work it and take care of it." A responsibility, not a possession. To care for, not to mistreat.
• The command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil reminds us that God is the source of authority, and good news: he is the author of what is good. The source of good exists because God established it.
• To serve God under his good authority means caring for what he places in your hands, building up your own household within this blessed unit, and passing on what is good, right, and important, to your spouse, to your children.
• Etienne says it plainly: many broken relationships with authority come from bad exercises or bad experiences of authority within the family, whether an absence of authority or an oppressive one. Founded on God's good authority, a restored authority becomes possible.

4. The family, made to rejoice in our complementarity (Genesis 2:18-25)

• "It is not good that the man should be alone." Etienne applies the verse to himself: "It is not good that Etienne should be alone." No one can reflect God on their own. Man and woman together are made in God's image.
• "I will make him a helper comparable to him." The word "helper" (ezer) is the same word God uses elsewhere in the Bible to describe his own help to his people. So this is not a lesser helper: it is support equal to the mission at hand.
• Genesis 2:23 is the Bible's first poem: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Two beings truly different in their makeup, yet perfectly matched to reflect God together.
• Genesis 2:24-25: "Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Faithfulness, stability, permanence, and the other person was never a threat. This is the beauty of otherness as God intended it.
• God's verdict in Genesis 1:31: "Behold, it was very good." This plan deserves to be lived out with gratitude, worship, and trust.

5. God did not give up on it (Genesis 12:1-3)

• What follows in the Bible is brutal: rebellion, the flood, the tower of Babel, the families of Abraham, Jacob, and David, all dysfunctional. The Bible does not hide the wreckage.
• And yet, in the middle of a humanity that had drifted away, God calls Abraham: "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed." One family, to bless every family.
• A point of application: God is more determined than you are. He has not given up on his plan. When you are tempted to lose heart, to give up, to carry the pain of a broken family, keep going. Keep hoping. If he has not given up on his original plan, he will make you able to keep seeking his will in your family and in your marriage.

6. Its perfect fulfillment in Christ (Mark 3:31-35)

• Etienne admits it: the rest of the biblical story is not much better. A rebellious, divided, exhausted people. But it is within that very story that God gave us Jesus, his Son, to fulfill his original plan through him.
• Mark 3: Jesus' mother and brothers call for him from outside. Jesus looks at the crowd sitting around him and declares: "Behold, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother."
• This is not a call to live in some family monastery. It is a powerful declaration: the church does not abolish the individual, the couple, or the family, it enriches them. Father, mother, children, the immediate family, none of it is done away with; it is restored because it is drawn into God's big family.
• Two consequences follow. First, the church is the place where those who have been wounded by their own experience of family can find in Christ love, dignity, identity, restoration, forgiveness, and hope. Second, no family can afford a "me, us, and our family first" outlook: every family is called to serve the big family Jesus is building.

Key takeaways

• Your frustration with broken families is not a flaw of your generation: it is a sign that you still carry the memory of a plan so good that God set it in place from the beginning.
• Genesis 1-2 gives the family three callings: to reflect God's glory, to serve God under his good authority, to rejoice in the complementarity God intended.
• "It is not good that the man should be alone." The helper given to the man is not a lesser one: she is support equal to the mission, essential for reflecting God together.
• God has never given up on his plan. Despite rebellion, the flood, and dysfunctional families, he calls Abraham to bless all the families of the earth.
• In Jesus, your immediate family is neither erased nor made sacred in itself: it is drawn into God's big family, where whoever does the Father's will is brother, sister, mother.

Personal application

1. When you think about your family, is your first reaction nostalgia, disappointment, or gratitude? Take a few minutes today to list what, in your family history, still reflects God's good plan.
2. Of the three callings Etienne highlights (reflecting God's glory, serving under his authority, rejoicing in complementarity), which one feels weakest for you right now? What concrete decision can you make this week to strengthen it?
3. Who in your household do you need to tell today: "You are wanted by God, your dignity comes from him, you are made in his image"? Write it down, say it, send it.
4. If your family carries the marks of breakage or disappointment, which side of God's character do you struggle to believe right now, that he does not give up? This week, take a passage like Genesis 12:1-3 and meditate on it as a personal word to you.
5. What place does the church hold in your personal plans, your marriage, or your family? Are you ready to move from a "family first" outlook to a "family in service of God's big family" outlook? What is your first step?

Verses cited

• Genesis 1:1-5 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth
• Genesis 1:24-31 - God created man in his own image, male and female he created them
• Genesis 2:1-3 - God blessed the seventh day and made it holy
• Genesis 2:15-25 - It is not good that the man should be alone
• Genesis 12:1-3 - In you all the families of the earth will be blessed
• Mark 3:31-35 - Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother
• Ephesians 3:20-21 - To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think

Frequently asked questions

Why start thinking about family with Genesis 1 and 2?

Because Genesis 1-2 reveals God's original plan, before the fall, before the wounds and the dysfunction. There you discover that family is not a cultural invention but a divine intention: a place designed to reflect God's glory, to serve God under his good authority, and to rejoice in the complementarity between man and woman. Without this starting point, you would understand neither the depth of your frustration with broken families nor the persistence of your desire for harmony. Etienne calls it "the plan that is so good," a plan that remains the standard by which everything that comes after is measured.

If God's plan is so good, why is the reality of families so hard?

The Bible does not hide the wreckage. After Genesis 1-2, the rebellion, the flood, the tower of Babel, then the families of Abraham, Jacob, and David (all of them dysfunctional), show that sin disfigured the original plan. But God did not abandon his project. He chose Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless all the families of the earth, and he sent Jesus to restore what sin had broken. Family suffering is real; Christian hope is even more real. That is why Etienne insists: when you are tempted to give up, keep going. God is more determined than you are.

What is the church's role when my family is wounded or broken?

In Mark 3, Jesus broadens the definition of family: whoever does the will of God is his brother, sister, mother. The church does not abolish your immediate family, it enriches it. It is also the place where those who have been hurt by their own family can find in Christ love, dignity, identity, restoration, forgiveness, and hope. Whether you are married, single, divorced, or widowed, you have a place in God's big family and a mission to fulfill there. No Christian family can afford to turn inward on itself: it is called to serve the big family Jesus is building.