Building Family Gods Way Part 3
Building Family Gods Way • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 11 viewsNotes
Transcript
Eager for Father
Eager for Father
While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
I am not a pastor who just does sermons for wages. I am not a pastor who preaches for the sake of his ego. This is evident by the way and often the tone in which I preach, or the length of it. I am a maturity, responsibility, accountability preacher. I preach from both a prophetic and apostolic model. I am a family preacher. I preach as a father to a family. I am a preacher preparing the Bride of Christ for His return.
In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus was not denouncing his mother and brothers of whom he had grown up with. Nor do I believe he was seeking to throw them under the bus implying they were rebellious heathens. Jesus was speaking as a father for the Father. Jesus was making a teaching point first about family identity in the Kingdom of God. Second, about the priority of doing the will of the Father.
Throngs of people were constantly gathered around him pulling from him. The implication is that Jesus is taking no time to rest or even eat. Mary and her other sons were ready to head back to Nazareth. As well, Mary sought to take Jesus home for some rest and refreshing. Instead, he is eagerly about the Father’s business. Are we so eager for the Father’s business? The word eager means to want to do or have something very much. So much that it consumes you, your interest, your focus, your attention, your enthusiasm, and your efforts to possess or fulfill it. It may be something that you become “gung-ho” about. There are many things throughout my life that I became gung-ho about only to eventually lose interest with maturity and discover that they had stolen precious time and energy from things I now view of higher priority and value. What things in your life do you get eager about?
Most things we do or pursue in life are because we want something. Jesus pursues, not something, but someone – the Father. Most religions and even Christianity today is not about pursuing someone but something. Be it prosperity, an escape from punishment, or some hope of personal benefit or gain. Jesus eagerly pursued the Father and the Father’s family.
Eagerness is driven by want, desire or ambition for selfish gain. Some people are obsessed with physical fitness, not because they want to be healthier, but because they want to look good. Some people are eager for recognition or promotion and will do anything to get it.
People are eager to believe. People are designed to believe or believe in something. Some only believe in themselves. Some believe in government. Others believe in a religious ideology. Some only believe in science. Even in Christianity people are eager to believe in signs and wonders. Some run from one experiential fad to another. But their focus is never simply learning to follow Jesus Christ alone. Others are eager to gain knowledge for knowledge sake or for the accolades of men. But Father simply desires sons and daughters. Jesus, in his response, qualifies those Father deems as part of his Kingdom family – those who do his will.
Father cannot make you do his will nor will he bribe you to do his will. I cannot force my children to do His will. They have to choose it. But if I never show them what His will is, the fruit of following His will, or the repercussions of following my own, then they are sure to not choose His will for their lives. Father is looking for those who willfully want to do his will. Slaves do the will of the master because they have to. Servants do the will of the master because they are told to. But sons and daughters do the Father’s will because they want to.
In John 15:14 Jesus states,
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Hebrews 2:11 tells us,
For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Again, in Matthew 7:21 Jesus stresses,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
And finally, Jesus tells us in Luke 11:28,
But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Blessing here refers to the transfer of inheritance that only comes from a father to those who are his sons and daughters.
The family that truly follows Jesus in an anti-Jesus culture is considered a freaky family. I want the Barham family to be known as a Jesus Freak Family. I want the Jubilee family to be known as a Jesus Freak Family.
Throughout history no one has had more influence on family than Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who defines what true family really is. Many have a doctrine of Jesus but do not know the Spirit of Jesus. A family without Jesus is a family without a future. Jesus alone is the model of the functional family.
In a godless family, selfishness is the only virtue. In an Islamic family, abuse, oppression, fear and death are the tenants of the family faith. In the Hindu family mysticism is the foundation of any hope. In the western religious family it is all about pious image until we get home. But in the family that follows Jesus, its virtues, its tenants, its faith, its hope, its strength and foundation is sincere love for the Father as sons and daughters raising sons and daughters to be and raise sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father by His great love.
In the Greek concept, to do the will of the Father means to fulfill the purposes of God to bless mankind through Christ. In the Old Testament, in Hebraic concept, the term most associated with the will of the Heavenly Father was the word “covenant” (berith בְּרִית). It means to make an eternal alliance. Alliance means to permanently align yourself with another. The desire of the Heavenly father was expressed in the covenant he made with men. So, one who lived out the covenant made by Father, did the will of the Father. Those who broke the covenant, did not the will of the Father but instead did their own will which was rebellion against the Father. This is why the breaking of covenant is the same as adultery or idolatry.
In Genesis 6:8-9, God preserved the family. He chose this family for a reason. It says that
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
The word favor in Hebrew is chen חֵן and means grace; acceptance; that God received his prayer and supplication and showed him mercy.
The word righteous is tsaddiq צַדִיק and means lawful; just; correct; justified. In other words, out of all the peoples on the earth, only Noah remembered the Law of God (Torah תּוֹרָה meaning direction, instruction, law). There was a law that had been handed down since Adam. This is how Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch all the way to Noah knew about building altars to God, offering sacrifices, benevolence, family, purity, and other ethical laws by God’s righteous standard and responded in a moral manner acceptable and pleasing to God. It says, and Noah walked with God. The word here is halak הֲלַךְ which means a manner of life. In other words, Noah’s manner of life was in accordance with that which was the covenant will of the Heavenly Father.
We are living in a day when only evil intent fills the hearts and souls of so many men. Godlessness abounds and the Spirit of the anti-Christ is alive and well. Perversion is rampant and truth is rejected. Men seek to remove all divine and moral restraint and exalt themselves as gods. While yet other men religiously justify their disobedience and others pride themselves as having learned all they need of God and need no one to teach them further. We have Christians who are Facebook or YouTube Bible scholars.
How eager for the Father are you? Noah was found in God’s favor? Either God embellished or Noah had some level of deep relationship with the Father of Heaven. If God looked down today to find a Noah, would you be found by God as a Noah today? Are you building an ark for the Lord? A place of safety for the lost and hurting to be saved and restored to the Father? Could God say of you that you are a righteous man or woman, blameless in your generation and have found favor in His eyes?