Taking Care of the Family of God

I heard a statement many years ago that said

Every Christian should have a mission in the world and a ministry in the church.

Last week I talked some about being reaching our world with everything turned upside down. I encouraged you to grab some of the truelife cards and get busy passing them out or leaving them places. Or share the info on your FB page. I talked about the 3-circles app and actually found some more tracts that you can pass out.

I’m going to keep developing the thought of our mission in a COVID World, on the following two weeks, but today I want to talk about

TAKING CARE OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. Every Christian should have a mission in the world (Evangelism) and every Christian should have a ministry in the church.

Now when I say “In the church” I don’t neccessarily mean during the time the church is gathered. I want to focus in on how the church takes care of the family of God when WE CAN’T GATHER… WHEN WE ARE SCATTERED. if you will.

Romans 12:10–13 HCSB

10 Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.

Cultivate brotherly love

Romans 12:10 HCSB

10 Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor.

This is family affection. Church is family.

American Christianity seems to miss this a lot of the time.

It’s almost like we see church more like we see a restaurant or a store. We go when we like the sales, or the customer service. It’s consumer driven. And if we don’t like things or we get tired of it we just move on.

But you don’t do that in a family. In a family you stick with one another. You love warts and all. You hope for the best. You show love to your brothers and sisters in real and tangible ways.

Paul adds to it outdo each other in showing love.

We live in an age of competition. Paul encourages us to win the competition of out honoring one another.

How do we do this especially in this season.

Check on people. Make a call. Send a text.

Let people know you love them.

By next week, I will have some postcards available that you can mail to people the old fashioned way.

Cultivate a Positive Disposition

Romans 12:11–12 HCSB

11 Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.

11- Keep going, stay fervent, do what you do as service to the Lord.

12- Thinks looking good? Rejoice.. going through hard times? Patience. Either way keep praying.

Be found faithful.

Do not grow weary in well doing.

You know when everything first shut down several months ago, I saw some awesome things happen.

Kids writing cards and letters.

Deacons keeping closer checks on their families.

Those are the kinds of things we should maintain.

But why do we “fall off” sometimes?

I believe it is an attitude issue. We settle in and grow complacent, and let things slide.

Paul seems to be saying, keep the positive attitude fed and growing.

How is your attitude these days? What needs to change?

Love is an action

Romans 12:13 HCSB

13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.

This week I stumbled upon Catholic radio. I listened for a few days. They were in the middle of making much of the Virgin Mary for some festival.

I was reminded that my theology is much different, but at the same time when they were talking about the cultural issues of the day, I found myself impressed with their boldness.

I say all that to say “notice the word ‘saints’” A saint is not a special class of Christian, but a saved person period. End of story.

When you put your love in action you share with others, especially in your family. your faith family. So much of that has been going on and is going on. Good job family. Keep it up!

and then hospitality- philox onia

friend-stranger. Treat a stranger as a good friend.

A lot of time we think of hospitality as eating. or customer service.

Right now we don’t get close. We aren’t having a lot of visitors to church. There are people who are members here that you don’t know well. This may be true of your neighbors as well. Love is an action. Get to know your neighbors. Talk in the yard when you see them. Notice this this moves us back to our mission in the world. These two often go hand in hand.

The bottom line, open your life up to others.

Part of the Family?

1 Peter 1:3 HCSB

3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

You become a part of your natural physical family by birth, you become part of God’s family by the new birth.