I Will Lead My Family to Be Healthy Church Members

We all likely feel like Paul in Romans 9—My hearts desire and prayer for them is that they might be saved.

I can’t make my children love the Lord or his church, but I can make them see how much I love the Lord and his church.

Family is Key to How We Understand Church

Ephesians 5:22-6:4—Learn in family how to be the church.1 Timothy 3:14—Behavior is learned for life in the church.

“By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household” Heb. 11:7.

How can we build an “ark” for the saving of our families?

1. Pray without ceasing—1 Thess. 5:17

2. Set the Example—Acts 20:18-19; Hebrews 10:24-26

3. Guard Priorities—1 Timothy 4:8

4. Be the Example—Matthew 5:16

5. Be the Teacher—Deuteronomy 6:4-7

6. Loving MY (un)lovable(?) Congregation

As a church member, I am not merely to like my church or serve my church well. I am to fall deeply in love with my church. Christ is the bridegroom, and the church is the bride. My commitment is to love that bride with an unwavering and unconditional love. (Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member, 62). Romans 5:8, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

7. Do be the Leader—notice the “household” conversions:

Acts 10:2 ESV

a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

Acts 11:14 ESV

he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

Acts 16:31–32 ESV

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

Acts 18:8 ESV

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

1 Corinthians 1:16 ESV

(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

1 Corinthians 16:15 ESV

Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—

Philippians 4:22 ESV

All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.

1 Timothy 3:4 ESV

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,

1 Timothy 3:12 ESV

Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.

8. Take the stand—Ezekiel 22:30-31, “I looked for a man to stand in the gap.”