“MY CHURCH IS MY FAMILY”

CALLS TO WORSHIP

Call to Worship #1:

L: Come with us on this Lenten Journey to the Temple

P: The temple is the great House of the Lord.

L: But sometimes even greed and selfishness can enter the Temple.

P: Be with us, Lord, as we enter this step.

L: The Lord will be asking us to recognize our selfishness.

P: Lord, hear our cries. AMEN.

Opening Prayer: Lord, we come to you this day with so many things laying claim to our lives, our hearts, and our spirits. Open our ears and our hearts to hear your words of healing love. Prepare us to be faithful disciples for you. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.

Offering:BIBLICAL INVESTMENT ADVICE “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:20-21

Matthew chapter six gives us some of the greatest investment advice of all time. In this passage of the Sermon on the mount, Jesus doesn’t warn us against making money, but He does warn us to carefully consider what we’re investing it in. There isn’t anything wrong with retirement plans and investment opportunities, unless you yield to the foolish temptation of preoccupation with material gain, without maintaining an even greater passion for giving away much of what you have to the work of the Kingdom of God. If is often rightly said, that a look at our bank accounts, tax returns, investment statements and giving records, would very much indicate where our heart is. Give today, as your heart tells you to…it’s an investment you’ll appreciate forever.

“My Church is My Family”

Prayer:Lord, Remind us that we need to be bold in our faith; first examining our lives and clearing out the pain, greed and fear. Replace our anxieties with confidence in your all-sustaining love and grace. Enable us to put our service to you and your people above our selfishness. As we reach out to others in need, remind us that we also stand in need of your mercy; for we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.

Introduction > I heard about a pastor who asked a group of children in a Sunday School class the question, “Why do you love God?”

He received a variety of answers such as, God first loved us and Jesus died for us, but the one that he liked best was, “I guess it just runs in our family.”

Does loving God and loving His church run in your family too?

I don’t mean you can inherit salvation but you§ certainly do need to pass your faith on to succeeding generations through living it and talking about it.

It is our job as healthy church members to lead our family to love the Lord and the church for which He died.

Spiritually healthy families make spiritually healthy churches.

Neither will the church ever rise above the spiritual commitment of our families.

Someone once said, “People want to eat steak and potatoes when the preacher gets up, but they feast on cotton candy all through the week.”

There is no spiritual depth at all in their family home.

– in our text –

The Bible teaches that church membership is like a family.

Therefore, in a healthy church, like a healthy family, we are to love and sacrifice unconditionally.

The Scripture emphasizes the need for families to instill healthy church membership into the fabric of their family’s DNA.

Rainer > “These passages remind us that, just as we are supposed to sacrifice and love our families unconditionally, so are we to love those churches where God has placed us. Our family members are not perfect, and neither are the members of the church. We are further reminded of the importance of the family to the church. We are to encourage our family members to be faithful to the church. We should pray together as family members for our churches. Indeed, as we are to strive to love our families more deeply, so should we exhort our family members to love the church more deeply.”

“How to make my Church my church family?”

1 – pray together as a family

Last week, we considered the urgent need to pray for the pastor and church leaders.

This week, consider you and your family joining together to pray for the church, its leaders, and its members.

If you are going to talk about the church, do it in a positive way by lifting the church up with prayer instead of talking it down with criticism.

Rainer > “Part of the opportunity and honor of being a church member is the teaching of our family to love the church. And that teaching often begins by praying together as a family for the church where God placed us.”

In v25 – Paul states, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Here, Paul compares marriage as a living picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.

After all, Christ loved the church unconditionally and gave His life for her.

The Bride (The Church) loves Christ and willingly submits to Him because of the unconditional love that He has shown to her

God intends for the marital relationship between a man and woman to be a witness to the lost world of the kind of relationship that He offers to us.

“How to make my Church my church family?”

1 – Pray Together as a Family

2 – Worship Together as a Family

A family that prays together, stays together and they will worship together in the same church.

Notice in v27, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

That is, “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” because Christ has sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.

This is why it is so important for Christians to work hard in their marriages to represent Christ.

Set the example in your family by serving in the church.

Pray for your church and other matters together with your family.

Church is family. That means that there are church members who frustrate us.

Unless your family is a whole lot different than mine, there is a family member out there who frustrates you.

No family member is perfect. No church member is perfect. No church leader is perfect. And you are not perfect, either.

“How to make my Church my church family?”

1 – Pray Together as a Family

2 – Worship Together as a Family

3 – Fall Deeply in Love with the Bride of Christ

As a church member, I am not to merely like my church.

As a church member, I am not merely to serve the church.

As a church member, I am to fall deeply in love with my church.

The word translated as “love” here is the same word that recurs over and over again in our study of what healthy church membership looks like.

It’s the word agape – a selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional kind of love.

In v29, After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—

Rainer > “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. Unconditional love is not always easy. If someone is perfect and meets our every perceived need, it’s easy to think we love that person. But such love is one way. It’s all about me and my needs. Unconditional love means that I will continue to fall more deeply in love regardless of the response. It means my love for the church will grow even as I may disagree with something or encounter disagreeable people.”

In conclusion, As we grow more deeply in love with our Church, let us do all that we can, in God’s power, to bring our families to Monroe.

If our family gets discouraged or discontent in our church, we will remind ourselves that unconditional love is not always easy.

But we will also remind ourselves that unconditional love has been demonstrated perfectly for us.

His name is Jesus, who loves us, sins and all, so much that Jesus died on a cross for us.

Rom. 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Benediction: Go forth with the Lord at your side, seeking goodness and compassion. Bring the words of hope and peace to all whom you meet. Go in peace. AMEN.