A Family of Families

Connecting Some Dots. Those who have not been here the whole time I’ve been here need to catch the vision I’ve been casting here and there over the last year.

So today will be some review for those that have been here, and hopefully for those who are newer, you’ll get an idea of where I believe God is taking this church.

1st of all - I want us to think of ourselves as a family of families. This is the tie-in to this sermon series on family.

Family, Both Biological and Spiritual, Must Begin with God.

God birthed the biological family.

Before the state, before the church, God established the family.

Family was to be the building block of the church and then of society.

Genesis 1:27–28 NASB95

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

He created 2 biological sexes - Male and Female

Be fruitful and multiply - Be prosperous and increase greatly in number.

We are to fill the earth with the image of God.

As God’s representative, we are to be good stewards of His creation.

Genesis 2:23–24 NASB95

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

He created 2 distinct genders.

Marriage is between one man and one woman.

Unfortunately, we struggle to see this practically in society as a whole.

All we see now are dysfunctional families and as a result a dysfunctional society.

If we want to see our dysfunctional society improve we need functional churches. If we want to see our dysfunctional churches improve, we need functional families. And if we want to see our dysfunctional families improve, we need to go back to the beginning.

The key to understanding this dynamic is in the phrase that Jesus uses while discussing marriage and divorce with the Pharisees:

Matthew 19:8 (NASB95)

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

Jesus highlights the fact that something changed from the beginning that led people to have a hardened heart and then deviate from God’s original family, church, and societal norms.

What Happened To God’s Original Design?

Satan Broke It Through Adam And Eve’s Disobedience

There is no estate to which Satan is more opposed as to marriage.

Martin Luther

All the troubles men find in marriage they ought to impute to sin.

John Calvin

Now We Live In A Broken World.

We are broken humans trying to live with broken humans.

Love is blind—marriage is the eye-opener.

Anonymous; Croft M. Pentz

But Jesus came to fix all of it.

How?

God birthed the spiritual family.

Acts 2:37–38 NASB95

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repentance - To have a change of heart. To change your outlook. To reverse the direction of your life.

For Forgiveness of your sins - Repent is plural, you and your is plural.

Baptism - Baptism is singular, setting it apart as separate from the repentance and forgiveness clause.

Therefore, it is not a requirement, but it is an integral piece.

Baptism is the public confession of the inner work that God has done and is a symbolic act just like communion.

Peter calls on “each one” to repent and be baptized signifying the personal need for the individual to make their own profession of faith.

Gift of the Holy Spirit -

Acts 2:41–42 NASB95

So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Interestingly enough God compares the marriage relationship to Christ’s relationship to the church.

Ephesians 5:31–32 NASB95

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

The biological family should be a reflection of the spiritual family and vice versa.

Just like biological families live in homes, so spiritual families meet in “homes”, the local church.

Unfortunately, just like there are dysfunctional families, there are dysfunctional churches.

Our goal is to strive to be a functional family of families who reflect the love of Christ to one another and to the world for the glory of God.

Ephesians 5:21–25 (NASB95)

and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church...Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

He came to be our example even when it comes to marital relationships.

Because this is what was broken from the beginning.

Let’s get our marriages right and so many other things will fall into place.

This is possible, because the Word says it’s possible.

We want to be a church that is pro-biblical family unit, and pro-biblical marriage.

Secondly, we are called the Lighthouse Fellowship for a reason.

Our current tag line is “A harbor of safety in a storm tossed world.”

That is great! Families should be a harbor of safety in this storm tossed world, but not all families are.

Obviously I wasn’t here in the founding of this church, but that is a great tag line. But is that who we are as a church?

In most of the church planting, church revitalization, and church growth materials, they have one thing in common. What is the DNA of the church?

Depending on the situation, it’s either what do you want it to be, where have you strayed from it, or does it need to change?

Your DNA is the organism that the church will become, and is the DNA that should be passed on to its members, especially if you are looking at growing and planting churches.

Each church plant carries its parents DNA into it, just like any child has half of the mothers and half of the father’s DNA in them.

In my first year here, I have seen nothing that has concerned me regarding the DNA of Lighthouse Fellowship. However, I think the application, fine tuning, and spiritual growing of that DNA is in order.

In the evaluation stage of a church it’s helpful to consider Scriptures like: Revelation 2.1-8

vs. 4-5 - Many times, the first love referenced here is considered one’s devotion to Christ and losing that focus amongst the busyness of doing “church business”, and I would concur that that is it’s emphasis, especially in light of His warning to them in Acts 20:28-30

Acts 20:28–30 NASB95

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

look at what Jesus says to the church of Ephesus in vs. 2-3.

But the specific wording of the statement “left your first love” in verse 4, does allow a broader understanding of the first things you did after coming to Christ.

Hence the third imperative given in verse 5 - Do the deeds you did at first.

In other words, it’s time to get back to the beginning. It’s time to do what you did at first.

For the Lighthouse, I think in the beginning you probably did more evangelism and outreach. I could be wrong, but that’s what God laid on my heart.

For the church in Ephesus, we see an example of those first deeds in Acts 20.17-38. Paul’s final words in person:

Acts 20:35 (NASB95)

“In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Paul’s exhortation to them from prison:

Ephesians 1:15 (NASB95)

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,

Ephesians 3:17–19 (NASB95)

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 4:2 (NASB95)

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,

Ephesians 4:15–16 (NASB95)

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:32–5:2 (NASB95)

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Ephesians 5:25 (NASB95)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

Ephesians 6:23 (NASB95)

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It can be taken that they did a great job of ferreting out false doctrine and false teachers, but that focal point took them away from what they should have been doing. When one begins to focus on knowledge only, something unfortunately happens.

1 Corinthians 8:1 (NASB95)

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

What should they have been doing?

Helping the weak

Being generous

Loving the Saints

Being rooted and grounded in love

Knowing the love of Christ

Showing tolerance for one another in love

Speaking the truth in love

Building the body up in love

Forgiving in love

Walking in love

Following Christ’s sacrificial example of love

Loving our wives as Christ loved the church.

Loving with faith

The work of protecting the flock from false teaching and teachers should never be done at the expense of loving the flock and teaching the flock to love one another.

It is a both/and proposition.

Neither should loving one another be done at the expense of doctrinal purity. It is through our understanding of God’s love for us that we are even able to love others. We speak the truth in love. We love as Christ has loved us, we love our wives as Christ loved the church.

So, combining both possibilities of what first love could mean, you get the following:

You have left behind your primary love. Loving God and Loving Others.

In our efforts to be a family of families we want to love God better and love others more.

We want to embrace the Gospel of Christ and be the Gospel of Christ.

We want to believe in Jesus and be the hands of feet of Jesus to a dying world around us.

To that end, God brought me 3 “H” words that He wants us to be.

Hope

Healing

Healthy

Hope in Christ - future; there’s gonna be a brighter day

Healing of Christ - from the past - By His wounds we are healed

Healthy with Christ - in the present - spiritual growth and maturity

We want to be a church that gives hope to one another and to a lost and dying world. Hope to those suffering and in despair. Hope to those who are hopeless.

We want to be a church that brings healing through forgiveness, reconciliation, and encouragement. Who prays for healing of mind, body, and especially soul.

We want to be a church that is helping you become healthy spiritually and growing in maturity by preaching and teaching the uncompromised Word of God.

After Loving God and Loving Others, that comes down to one thing: Speaking the Truth in Love.

Individually: It means embracing the promises of God and what He says about you.

We’ve got to speak the truth to ourselves.

Corporately: That implies encouragement and exhortation, but also correction and rebuke

We’ve got to speak the truth to other believers in the church.

To the World: It means sharing His truth with the world around us through evangelism and outreach.

We’ve got to speak the truth to those outside the church.

unbelievers

seekers

disenfranchised

Go on a prayer walk around your neighborhood and pray over each house as you walk by.

Ask God to lay someone on your heart to reach out to.

As he does so, pray for God to give you an opportunity to pray for them

Maybe give the Gospel

Maybe invite them to church

Let’s be a hope-filled church

Let’s be a church where people find healing

Let’s be a church where you are able to grow and mature in your faith

Let’s be a loving family of families where we can be a harbor of safety in a storm-tossed world.

Let’s love God, love others, and speak (share) the truth in love.

Closing Song: The Blessing.