Family Reboot - Being Part of the Family of God

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Basics for being the family of God in a community of faith

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Family Reboot - Being Part of the Family of God

Introduction

A few weeks ago was Mother’s Day. Before the introduction of Family Day as a statutory holiday, the idea of family Sunday was introduced on Mother’s Day. It never really caught on. Mother’s Day seemed to have worked its way into the Liturgical calendar. However, when I think of Mother’s day, I think of family. I think of the home family and the extended family. I think of families with children, families without children, single parent families and blended families.
We need family because none of us were created to live alone. Right from the very beginning of the Bible, we get a clear picture that one truly is the loneliest number.
God said that it is not good for us to be alone.
We are created in God’s image and this means that we need to be in community - community with God and in community with each other. In order to experience the fullness of life God intended for us, we need to live in community. We call this community, the family of God. It is within this family that we as Christians learn what it means to truly belong. and in which we learn how to build our home families in which each member learns, experiences and live out the kind of family God wants for all.
As the family of God, we don’t often stop long enough to ask ourselves, “What is it that holds us together as the family of God. We often find ourselves building committees and programs and not building the kind of family God intended, both within the local community of faith and the Christian home family.
And so today I want us to do a family reboot.
We have all experienced what happens when our computers, tablets or cell phones start to act weird. The first thing a technician tells us to do is to reboot the computer. A reboot puts everything back to the default settings. This is what we are going to do today - reboot our understanding of the family of God and go back to the default settings.

What does it mean to be part of the family of God? What are the default settings?

F - FORGIVENESS

The first default setting would be forgiveness. Sin means broken relationship. When Adam and Eve sinned, by their disobeying God, they broke their relationship with Him. There was no way that they could fix it. Everything after is God seeking to repair his relationship with us. Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s final example of how far he was willing to go to renew his intimate relationship with us.
We in the family of God need to know that by receiving Jesus as Lord we are forgiven. But here is the problem we cannot completely experience the fulness of that forgiveness if we are unwilling to forgive. I don’t know if you have seen the inside of a sink drainpipe that is clogged. It is really sickening to see. All the gunk that accumulates clogs the free flow of water through the drain. This is exactly what happens in families - church or home when we fail to forgive. Our relationships get clogged.
There is another reason God wants forgiveness to be a default setting in the church and Christian home family. When we resent or hold a grudge against someone it literally affects us physically, mentally and spiritually. It clogs up our whole being. It can actually cause health problems. It damages our relationship with God. And here’s the real kicker - it usually doesn’t affect the person we refuse to forgive. They get on with their life and we end up tied in a knot.
Ephesians 4:32 NASB95
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
NASB95
We need family because none of us were created to live alone. Right from the very beginning of the Bible, we get a clear picture that one truly is the loneliest number.
God said that it is not Good for us to be alone.
Created in God’s image means that we need to be in community - community with God and in community with each other. In order to experience the fullness of life God intended for us, we need to live in community. We call this community, the family of God. It is within this family that we as Christians learn what it means to truly belong. and in which we learn how to build the home family in which each member learns, experiences and live out the kind of family God wants for all.
As the family of God, we don’t often stop long enough to ask ourselves, “What is it that holds us together as the family of God. We often find ourselves building committees and programs and not building the kind of family God intended, both within the local community of faith and the Christian home family.
And so today I want us to do a family reboot.
We have all experienced what happens when our computers, tablets or cell phones start to act weird. The first thing a technician tells us is to reboot the computer. A reboot puts everything back to the default settings. This is what we are going to do today - reboot our understanding of the family of God and go back to the default settings.

F - FORGIVENESS

The first default setting would be forgiveness. Sin means broken relationship. When Adam and Eve sinned, by their disobeying God, they broke their relationship with Him. There was no way that they could fix it. Everything after is God seeking to repair his relationship with us. Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s final example of how far he was willing to go to renew his intimate relationship with us.
We in the family of God need to know that by receiving Jesus as Lord we are forgiven. But here is the problem we cannot completely experience the fulness of that forgiveness if we are unwilling to forgive. Do you remember the Lord’s prayer?
Matthew 6:12 LEB
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
I don’t know if you have seen the inside of a sink drainpipe that is clogged. It is really sickening to see. All the gunk that accumulates clogs the free flow of water through the drain. This is exactly what happens in families - church or home when we fail to forgive. Our relationships get clogged.
I don’t know if you have seen the inside of a sink drainpipe that is clogged. It is really sickening to see. All the gunk that accumulates clogs the free flow of water through the drain. This is exactly what happens in families - church or home when we fail to forgive. Our relationships get clogged.
There is another reason God wants forgiveness to be a default setting in the church and Christian home family. When we resent or hold a grudge against someone it literally affects us physically, mentally and spiritually. It clogs up our whole being. It can actually cause health problems. It damages our relationship with God. And here’s the real kicker - it usually doesn’t affect the person we refuse to forgive. They get on with their life and we end up tied in a knot.
NASB95
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

A - Always remember who we are.

We are to forgive and the second default setting is to always remember who we are. Wherever we are, we need to remember - We are Kings Kids.
God has adopted us back into his family. We are brothers and sisters. We are family, God’s family!
NASB95
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

M – Make Disciples

We are a family that forgives, a family that knows who we are and third default setting is that God’s family makes disciples. This is a fancy way of saying that we work together to help each other walk the way of Jesus, understand the truths revealed by Jesus, and experience the glorious, renewed life he intended for us from our very beginning.
God wants to work in us and help us grow into his child that he can work with to fulfill his purpose. But we have to do our part. This is why God calls people into communities of faith, so we can work together to put ourselves in a place where God Spirit and our spirits are in tune.
NASB95
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
It is then, as we work to have our spirits and God’s Spirit in tune, as Scripture says,
NASB95
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

I - Intentionally be independently interdependent.

The family of God is a family in which you know you are forgiven and in which forgiveness reigns. A family where you are bound together with spiritual brothers and sisters because you know who you are in Christ. It is a family in which you know everyone else in the family wants you to grow so that you can be all God created you to be.
And the fourth default setting of the family of God is that each member of the family is intentionally independently, interdependent.
Individually we need to learn how to walk the way of Jesus, understand the truths proclaimed by Jesus and live the abundant life that is ours in him.
Listen to these verses in scripture
LEB
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act courageously, be strong.
NASB95
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
We are to do everything we can so that we can be strong in our personal faith. It is then we can best participate in the family.
But, we are also to be interdependent. Right from the beginning of creation, God said that it is not good for us to be alone.
In a program called the Bethel Bible Series, which is an in-depth overview of Scripture it says this about our need for interdependence.
“We are made for fellowship. The testimony of both scripture and human history bears out the truth that life becomes something less than it was designed to be when any on earth attempt to live as if they were hermits. Related to heaven, we need God. Related to earth we need the people around us. But we crave more than just fellowship. We look for qualitative relationships which are peaceful, unstrained and rewarding.
Eden promised such coveted relationships to its people. For those in the garden were meant to live in harmony with God, with self, and with others.”
The reason God seeks to adopt us back into his family is so we can live in harmony with each other. So, we can to be of one mind with each other.
In Scripture there are a number of what we call, one another sayings. These sayings outline the kind of support God wants us to show to each other.
Listen to just a few of the kinds of support we are to extend to each other
Accept one another; Strengthen one another; Help one another; Care for one another; Bear one another’s burdens; Spur one another on towards love and good deeds.
There are around 40 such sayings that if we began to intentionally implement them in our communities of faith, those who look at us would be amazed at the depth of our community. (https://ncdhiley.blogspot.com)

L -Love

Forgive, always remember who you are, make disciples, intentionally be independently interdependent, and then the fifth default setting is love.
When the Bible talks about love, it is not the kind of love that is written in a Harlequin romance novel. This agape love of God is a love that seek the best of the other person. A sacrificial love that is always seeking to help the other person become all God meant them to be- including be in a personal relationship with him. Its a love that demonstrates to the other person they matter, they are valued.
NASB95
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
But this love, this love that God has demonstrated to us by coming among us in Jesus and that we are to show each other, we are also to show to our neighbour and our enemies. Why? Because this kind of love breaks barriers, and opens people to God. And God wants everyone to receive his forgiveness and enter again into a love relationship with him.

Y - Yahweh

Then the last default setting - know that Yahweh God is the one who holds his family together. Its the sustaining power of the Father, the life-giving power of the Son and the life engaging power of the Holy Spirit that provides the glue that holds the family of God together.
Why do we even talk about building strong church families? We do it because Jesus has made it clear that we are to demonstrate to the world the difference that Yahweh our God makes in human lives and families.
Our church and Christian homes are to be captivating examples of the life that is ours in Jesus. Do you remember Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life? He was saying, look at me, I will show you the way to live in this world, I will reveal the truth about Yahweh our God and life, and I will help you experience life in me the way Yahweh our God intended from the beginning. This is who we are - the family of God demonstrating real family and inviting everyone into his exciting life changing family.
Alleluia and Amen
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

A - Always remember who we are.

We are to forgive and the second default setting is to always remember who we are. Wherever we are, we need to remember - We are Kings Kids.
God has adopted us back into his family. We are brothers and sisters. We are family, God’s family!
NASB95
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

M – Make Disciples

We are a family that forgives, a family that knows who we are and third default setting is that God’s family makes disciples. This is a fancy way of saying that we work together to help each other walk the way of Jesus, understand the truths revealed by Jesus, and experience the glorious, renewed life he intended for us from our very beginning.
God wants to work in us and help us grow into his child that he can work with to fulfill his purpose. But we have to do our part. This is why God calls people into communities of faith, so we can work together to put ourselves in a place where God Spirit and our spirits are in tune.
NASB95
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
It is then, as we work to have our spirits and God’s Spirit in tune, as Scripture says,
NASB95
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

I - Intentionally be independently interdependent.

The family of God is a family in which you know you are forgiven and in which forgiveness reigns. A family where you are bound together with spiritual brothers and sisters because you know who you are in Christ. It is a family in which you know everyone else in the family wants you to grow so that you can be all God created you to be.
And the fourth default setting of the family of God is that each member of the family is intentionally independently, interdependent.
Individually we need to learn how to walk the way of Jesus, understand the truths proclaimed by Jesus and live the abundant life that is ours in him.
Listen to these verses in scripture
LEB
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act courageously, be strong.
NASB95
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
We are to do everything we can so that we can be strong in our personal faith. It is then we can best participate in the family.
But, we are also to be interdependent. Right from the beginning of creation, God said that it is not good for us to be alone.
In a program called the Bethel Bible Series, which is an in-depth overview of Scripture it says this about our need for interdependence.
“We are made for fellowship. The testimony of both scripture and human history bears out the truth that life becomes something less than it was designed to be when any on earth attempt to live as if they were hermits. Related to heaven, we need God. Related to earth we need the people around us. But we crave more than just fellowship. We look for qualitative relationships which are peaceful, unstrained and rewarding.
Eden promised such coveted relationships to its people. For those in the garden were meant to live in harmony with God, with self, and with others.”
The reason God seeks to adopt us back into his family is so we can live in harmony with each other. So, we can to be of one mind with each other.
In Scripture there are a number of what we call, one another sayings. These sayings outline the kind of support God wants us to show to each other.
Listen to just a few of the kinds of support we are to extend to each other
Accept one another; Strengthen one another; Help one another; Care for one another; Bear one another’s burdens; Spur one another on towards love and good deeds.
There are around 40 such sayings that if we began to intentionally implement them in our communities of faith, those who look at us would be amazed at the depth of our community. (https://ncdhiley.blogspot.com)

L -Love

Forgive, always remember who you are, make disciples, intentionally be independently interdependent, and then the fifth default setting is love.
When the Bible talks about love, it is not the kind of love that is written in a Harlequin romance novel. This agape love of God is a love that seek the best of the other person. A sacrificial love that is always seeking to help the other person become all God meant them to be- including be in a personal relationship with him. Its a love that demonstrates to the other person they matter, they are valued.
NASB95
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
But this love, this love that God has demonstrated to us by coming among us in Jesus and that we are to show each other, we are also to show to our neighbour and our enemies. Why? Because this kind of love breaks barriers, and opens people to God. And God wants everyone to receive his forgiveness and enter again into a love relationship with him.

Y - Yahweh

Then the last default setting - know that Yahweh God is the one who holds his family together. Its the sustaining power of the Father, the life-giving power of the Son and the life engaging power of the Holy Spirit that provides the glue that holds the family of God together.
Why do we even talk about building strong church families? We do it because Jesus has made it clear that we are to demonstrate to the world the difference that Yahweh our God makes in human lives and families.
Our church and Christian homes are to be captivating examples of the life that is ours in Jesus. Do you remember Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life? He was saying, look at me, I will show you the way to live in this world, I will reveal the truth about Yahweh your God and life, and I will help you experience life in me the way Yahweh your God intended from the beginning. This is who we are - the family of God demonstrating real family and inviting everyone into his exciting life changing family.
Alleluia and Amen
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