A Family of Families
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Today as we get near the end of our CORE Church Concepts series we will be looking at the concept of Family and the church as a FAMILY OF FAMILIES.
I felt it would be fitting to introduce you to my family…
[FAMILY PHOTO] This here is our bunch… introduce
[WEDDING PHOTO] Our family started on January 19, 2002
My bride let go of her name and identity of being “Lisa Thompson” and took on the identity and name of “Lisa Johnston”
My children bear this name… and one day I hope to see my sons carry on this name as they leave thier mother and I to start thier homes
One day, my daughter will take on a knew name and Identity and as her father I will hand her off to that man as his bride
To bring this into our CORE Concepts is fitting as it spans time and culture and has such a powerful illustration of God’s love and care for us.
It is CORE to our daily lives
It is at the CORE of how the church is to function
This Concept holds implications that alter how we live and our testimony for the Lord!
As we address this I want to take us to where it all started Genesis 1:26-28; 2:21-24
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 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.”
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 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.
God’s Design & Plan
God’s Design & Plan
God has had a design and plan from the beginning… !!!
Man & Woman (two genders only)
The two will become one (marriage)
God brought her…
From Adam’s side… “A woman was not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side, to be equal to him; under his arm to be protected; and near his heart to be loved.” —Matthew Henry
Be fruitful and multiply (children)
Now… shortly after this mankind sinned… (disobeyed God)
Sin would cause heartache and struggles in marriage
Sin would pose difficulty in bringing children up and into this world
Sin would impact and devastate the family design and plan of God
We would continue to see God give His will, His law, His intensions for marriage and family… and sin would continue it’s devastation.
Jesus Christ came to deal with SIN once for ALL… His death, burial, & resurrection conquered sin!
Now on this side of the cross… God still speaks to the Concept of Family… we now come to JOIN HIS FAMILY!
The Household of God
The Household of God
As Christ walked this earth we see in the gospels that He addresses God as Father… John 3:16 declares Christ as God’s ONLY Son!
In John 1:12-13 declares because of Jesus we can have the opportunity to become His children
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Paul shares with the church in Ephesians 1:5 that through Christ we are ADOPTED into God’s family… verse 13 states this ADOPTION is sealed with the HOLY SPIRIT
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
We read in Ephesians 2:19 how this adoption makes us members of His family…
... You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.
As God’s children adopted into the Family of God, AND as the Bride of Christ…
We let go of our past identity as sinners, enemies of God and take on the identity as His child
We bear His name, Christian or Christ follower
We die to self and live for Him! The Old is gone and now we are made NEW!
This newness changes everything… especially how we live NOW… and it impacts our Families that are a part of the Family of God…
Ephesians 5:20-6:4 addresses our marriages and family…
And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.
Marriage
Marriage
This morning is not meant to be a marriage seminar so let me just point out some things from our passage…
Husbands / Fathers… you are the head of your home. God will hold you accountable for your home.
Head is addressing not equality rather to responsibility
There are roles in marriage as there are roles in God’s church and family
The wife is to submit to and respect her husband
MEN… you love your wife and cherish her as Christ does His church… and she will find this to be joyous
WOMEN… show your husband respect and submit to his headship understanding his responsibility to the Lord and it becomes a joy to love you as Christ loves His church
MEN… we have a high standard set before us
I LOVE THAT OUR MARRIAGES ARE TO REFLECT CHRIST LOVE FOR HIS CHURCH!… I love verse 30 declaring that we are members of Christ body...
Intimacy… Oneness
Intimacy… Oneness
There is a beauty to the mystery of intimacy. In marriage this is in part referencing the marriage bed…
Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Undefiled pure… it is to be a sacred place. NOTICE what can defile it...
Fornication: sex that is had outside of the marriage union (pre-marital sex)
Adultery: sex that is had with another married individual (an affair)
Jesus in Matthew 5:27-28 says we can do this even in our thinking!
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Why is this so bad you ask?… 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 is pretty clear why…
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Not only that I could go on and on how saving yourself for the one you marry one day is so beneficial for your relationship, love and intimacy long term in your marriage.
Swindoll shares, “On a television talk show some time ago the guest was an actor, well-known for his romantic roles on film. Predictably, he was asked, “What makes a great lover?” I am confident everyone watching the show (myself included) expected the standard macho-playboy response. To the surprise of the host and the audience, his answer must have raised eyebrows all across America. It went something like this:
“A great lover is someone who can satisfy one woman all her life long, and who can be satisfied by one woman all his life long. A great lover is not someone who goes from woman to woman to woman. Any dog can do that.”
The typical outcome of marital intimacy is children… and God has something to say to children and parents too!
Fruitful Multiplication
Fruitful Multiplication
God said from the beginning… “be fruitful and multiply”.
To children the command was “OBEY YOUR PARENTS”…
It is the only command that has a promise, “long life and less headache”
Parents if your kids are to obey… then there is instruction occuring in the home
NOTICE: Fathers this burden of responsibility falls to you as head of the home… moms typically do this naturally from the heart
NOT AS DICTATOR… there is a caution to parent with care and courage
There must be “discipline” and “instruction”
Parenting has to be intentional… Proverbs speaks to training a child in the way he SHOULD GO, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
An anonymous piece portrays the family as a garden. It suggests various things we can plant in our family relationships that will result in great benefits. A family is like many things, perhaps most like a garden. It needs time, attention, and cultivation. The sunshine of laughter and affirmation. It also needs the rains of difficulties, tense moments, serious discussions about issues that matter. And there must be spade work, where hardness is broken loose and planting of fresh seeds is accomplished with lots of TLC.
We need to:
Pray constantly
Stay in God’s Word… His family His Word is authority
Encourage, build up, and hold each other accountable as brothers and sisters
This Church is a Family made up of many Families / Marriages / Children / Parents / Grand-Parents
The world is watching us:
Our marriages, kids, parenting and families
to see if our NEW IDENTITY our NEW NAME our ADOPTION has brought about something worth seeking after.
I want to close differently today:
Elders… Mark & Denise Groves (our family)
