Your Family is a Blessing

Opening story/Illustration

At the start of this series, we began by looking at the story of Joseph and his brothers and their family history. You may remember the giant whiteboard on the stage and the 12 kids from four different women in Joseph’s dad’s past. If you missed that sermon and just got shocked all over again by that fact, ask a friend to share their notes with you. In that first week, we saw that no family is perfect.

Then, in the second week, we had a student takeover service—which was amazing—and one of our high schoolers, Caroline Montague, shared with us about the role that forgiveness plays in our families! She showed us how Joseph redeemed a really broken situation with his family through the power of forgiveness and how we all as believers are called to extend forgiveness just as we have received it in Christ.

This principle of forgiveness is really key because our families aren’t perfect and neither are we. We will be hurt and we will cause hurt within our families. Because of this, we all need to be about extending forgiveness. This also plays directly into what Tyler shared last week about honoring our parents.

And tonight, we are going to see how all of these pieces come together. Tonight, we’re really looking at the purpose of family—why did God create the family unit? What is his goal? What’s he getting at? And how do we play our part within our families to see God’s vision come alive?

But before we get ahead of ourselves, I’d love to [PRAY] and ask God to be with us as we study his Word.

God put you in your family on purpose for a purpose.

Let’s revisit the life of Joseph and his family and see what purposes God had in mind for him and for his family.

“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?’… But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them,” (Genesis 50:15, 19-21).

You are in your family to be blessed and to be a blessing.

This reminds me of what God said to Joseph’s great-grandfather so many years before Joseph was ever born.

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,’” (Gen 12:1-3).

Abraham was blessed by God to be a blessing.

- Abraham’s first calling was to be a blessing in his family. He did this to varying degrees of success as only an imperfect human and imperfect father could.

- He passed down a legacy of faith to his children and grandchildren. This legacy was the first blessing to his family.

o Ultimately, as God promised Abraham, “all peoples on earth [were] blessed through [that family]” because that family line went on to become the nation of Israel—God’s chosen vehicle for bringing his Messiah to the world.

o That’s right, eventually Jesus is born into this very family. A family that was started thousands of years before Jesus came in the flesh, God had a plan to use this family.

§ It didn’t always make sense and it wasn’t always pretty, but God was always doing something

Joseph was a blessing even though his family was messy

- Joseph treated his brothers kindly, he forgave them, and he used the position of influence he had in Egypt to provide for and care for his family when they needed it.

- Joseph didn’t use the baggage and the hurt that he had picked up from his family as an excuse to treat them poorly or to neglect his role within the family.

o Note on abuse and reporting: There are some situations where you might be getting legitimately harmed by a member or members of your family. If that is the case, please do not mishear me: we do not condone or excuse acts of abuse or violence, whether they are physical, mental, verbal, or sexual in nature. If that is happening in your family unit, please tell a trusted adult and do not suffer silently in an abusive home. We want to get you the help you need.

o More often though, many of us do not find ourselves in homes that are truly abusive or unsafe, but we do experience hurt, frustration, and disappointment within our family unit.

We fight with our brothers and sisters, we argue with our parents, etc.

o Rather than using these instances that naturally and normally occur within families as an excuse to distance yourself from your family or to bypass the role you could play in being a blessing within your family, we want to suggest that you take the approach that Joseph did and ask God to help you be a blessing to your family. Because remember…

You are in your family to be blessed and to be a blessing.

3 Practical Ways that You Can Be a Blessing to Your Family

1. Pray for your family

a. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” (Phil 4:6-7).

b. Some of you in the room are praying that your family members would be saved. You are praying along with Paul in Romans 10:1, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

c. Some of you may just be praying that your family would begin to take steps toward making their relationship with God more personal and real.

d. And others in the room have families that are centered on God and are thriving in relationship with him—praise God for that! That’s wonderful. How committed are you to praying for your parents and your siblings?

i. Speaking as a parent—parenting is not for the faint of heart. It is the hardest job in the world; your parents need your prayers. And they’re probably never going to ask you to pray for them specifically, but what if you got in the habit now of praying every day for God to give your parents wisdom and discernment as they lead your family? Think of the kind of difference that could make in your family unit!

2. Spend time with your family

a. [SHOW OF HANDS] How many of you came straight to FSM tonight from school or practice or rehearsal? How many of you leave the house regularly before school starts to make it to a morning workout or practice or something? How many of you travel on the weekends for sports or band or theatre or choir or another extra-curricular?

i. Our lives are jam packed with a million things that fight for our attention.

ii. Our calendars are full of events and practices and more.

iii. Think of the amount of time you really have left to spend with your family before you leave the house—it’s not as much as you think.

b. Take steps to minimize the clutter in your schedule so that you can spend more intentional time with your family. Maybe work with your parents on creating weekly/monthly rhythms for your family to be together where no events get put on the family calendar because you are saving that space for family time, like…

i. Family meals

ii. Game Nights

iii. Bible study

iv. Movies + Popcorn

v. Etc.

3. Worship with your family

a. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps 133:1)

b. This could also be said of your family! How beautiful and good and pleasant would it be to be able to worship alongside your family members?

i. Practically speaking, do you go to church with your family?

ii. If you do go to church with them, do you sit together or near each other?

iii. Do you talk about church outside of church?

iv. Do you worship together as a family outside of a Sunday morning church service (e.g., family worship nights, family Bible studies/reading plans/worship music sing-a-longs on long car rides)?