INTRODUCTION

OPENING ILLUSTRATION

Last year, $33.9 Billion dollars was spent on movies worldwide!

If the average ticket price is approximately $10/person,

that means that about 3.4 billion people went and saw a movie last year.

That’s a little less than half the world’s population!

There’s something about going to see a good movie in theatres…

the anticipation…

the smells in the air…

enjoying the popcorn…

One of the best things about seeing a movie in theatres is enjoying the experience with others.

There’s something about being watching a movie with others that’s better than watching by yourself.

Even though you don’t know each other, you share the experience of

Laughing together…

Sharing a sentimental moment together… OR

Watching things explode together…

It’s just better with other people!

You share a connection because you experienced it together…

But when the movie ends,

you go your separate ways, and probably never cross paths again.

Your lives intersected for a brief moment in time…

you shared a connection…

but there was no relationship.

Transition

Sadly, that’s how some people treat church.

They come, and experience

the preaching,

the singing,

and the coffee together with others…

but leave and don’t ever get fully connected with the people they’re experiencing it with!

If that’s you, I want you to know that I understand how you feel!

When my wife Jessica and I moved away a few years ago, we didn’t know anyone.

It was intimidating to start new relationships,

but as we did, we had the opportunity to build meaningful relationships.

Our new pastor Jonah, and his wife Valorie and family are now serving here at LEMC as a result of one of those relationships.

So believe me when I say I know how hard it is to open up your life to others.

We’re not mad at you, and we’re trying not to make you feel guilty…

We just want more for you!

The truth is, it’s easier to stay disconnected…

to not have to walk through the messiness of life at all.

We have all experienced enough to know that other people can

disappoint us…

hurt us…

overwhelm us with their problems…

BUT…

There are incredible blessings that come with being connected to others in a church.

That’s because, in God’s design,

the church is meant to function like a family.

The title of my sermon this morning is:

Are You My Family?

1 Timothy 5:1–2 ESV

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Here Paul shows us that the church is function the same way as a family.

Paul is affirming both the family, and the church as God’s means for care and provision.

A family is a group of people that are related by blood.

This brings them together, and is the reason they are committed to one another, helping one another when problems and difficulties arise.

They love and care for one another because of their relation.

A church is a group of people that are related by the blood of Christ.

They are connected because of their love for Christ.

Therefore they care for one another, and are committed to the growth and development of others because of their devotion to Christ.

Transition

This morning we are going to see “God’s Design for Church & Family”.

“Family as Church” and

“Church as Family”.

First…

Family as Church

1 Timothy 5:3–8 ESV

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

EXPLAIN

Paul is instructing Timothy on how the church is supposed to care for widows.

dictionary.com defines a widow as:

widow a woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried

Based on what writings dating back to the 2nd century,

the term widow was also used to describe women who were:

never married; OR

had been divorced.

For this reason, the Lexham Bible Dictionary says…

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Widowhood in the New Testament)

The Greek and Latin terms for widows expanded to include any woman who did not have a husband through death, divorce, or never marrying

Serving your family is pleasing to God

Serving your family is a sign you are a Christian

ILLUSTRATE

APPLY

Church as Family

1 Timothy 5:9–16 ESV

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

EXPLAIN

ILLUSTRATE

Insurance companies…

It often feels like the fine print is a way for them to get out of having to cover your expenses.

Illustration about insurance company getting out of paying someone.

Widow’s Mite…???

Point of illustration

This is not to be the church.

The church does not have a list of rules to try and get out of providing for, and taking care of someone.

The list of requirements are general guidelines to be used in discerning how best to support someone for their benefit, and the benefit of the church.

APPLY

CLOSING APPLICATION

We need one another!

Church is not an experience to be shared, but the sharing of our lives!

Invite someone over

Share your life with others.

If you are worried about it being awkward, invite more than one couple over.

Join an upcoming WND study

Get involved, build relationships with others.

We do this more intentionally on Wednesday nights.

Pour into your family

Pay attention to your wife, children, other family members and find ways to meet needs.

This would be a great witness to unbelieving family members.

Join the church!

If you’re not a member of LEMC, join the family!

We would love to talk about how we can help you in your faith journey.

Partner with us!

Fill out a connect card, and we will pray for you, and connect with you.

CONCLUSION

QUOTES

The Difference Between the “Radical Individualism” of Our Day, and the Emphasis on the Group as Whole in the Early Church

Quotes from “When the Church Was a Family” by Joseph Hellerman

They call it radical individualism. What this amounts to is simple enough. We in America have been socialized to believe that our own dreams, goals, and personal fulfillment ought to take precedence over the well-being of any group—our church or our family, for example—to which we belong. The immediate needs of the individual are more important than the long-term health of the group. So we leave and withdraw, rather than stay and grow up, when the going gets rough in the church or in the home.

Our culture has powerfully socialized us to believe that personal happiness and fulfillment should take precedence over the connections we have with others in both our families and our churches. So we run from the painful but redemptive relationships God has placed us in. The tune of radical individualism has been playing in our ears at full volume for decades. We are dancing to the music with gusto. And it is costing us dearly.

Our uniquely individualistic approach toward life and relationships, so characteristic of American society, subtly yet certainly sets us up for failure in our efforts to stay and grow in the context of the often difficult but redemptive relationships that God has provided for us. Radical individualism has affected our whole way of viewing the Christian faith, and it has profoundly compromised the solidarity of our relational commitments to one another.

The world in which Jesus and His followers lived was a distinctly strong-group culture in which the health of the group—not the needs of the individual—received first priority. And the most important group for persons in the ancient world was the family. It is hardly accidental that the New Testament writers chose the concept of family as the central social metaphor to describe the kind of interpersonal relationships that were to characterize those early Christian communities.

The New Testament picture of the church as a family flies in the face of our individualistic cultural orientation. God’s intention is not to become the feel-good Father of a myriad of isolated individuals who appropriate the Christian faith as yet another avenue toward personal enlightenment. Nor is the biblical Jesus to be conceived of as some sort of spiritual mentor whom we can happily take from church to church, or from marriage to marriage, fully assured that our personal Savior will somehow bless and redeem our destructive relational choices every step of the way.

We must embrace the fact that our value system has been shaped by a worldview that is diametrically opposed to the outlook of the early Christians and to the teachings of Scripture. As church-going Americans, we have been socialized to believe that our individual fulfillment and our personal relationship with God are more important than any connection we might have with our fellow human beings, whether in the home or in the church. We have, in a most subtle and insidious way, been conformed to this world.

Collection and Support

Those who have more come to the aid of those who lack, and we are constantly together. . . . Those who prosper, and so wish, contribute, each one as much as he chooses to. What is collected is deposited with the president, and he takes care of orphans and widows, and those who are in want on account of sickness or any other cause, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourners among [us], and, briefly, he is the protector of all those in need.

We call ourselves brothers. . . . So, we who are united in mind and soul have no hesitation about sharing what we have. Everything is in common among us—except our wives.