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On Sunday I mentioned that there was a biblical issue that I have been wrestling with for several years.
Let me explain a little more about that.
Over the years I have had parents come to me because they were having issues with their adult children.
Before anyone here starts thinking this message is just for them, let me assure you that this has been happening long before anyone in this room was attending here.
However, there have been some of you who have brought these kinds of questions to me.
My goal tonight is not to preach at you, it is to explain what the Lord has shown me in Scripture.
My goal is for all of us to have a better understanding of Scripture and how we are to live in light of what it reveals.
The complexity and difficulty of the questions believers have about their adult children has often brought pain, heartache, and division to families.
In these difficult circumstances I have given counsel and advice to the best of my ability.
With several of these situations, I even sought the advice of Godly men I trust.
Pastors, counselors and friends.
One of the struggles I faced can best be expressed in the form of a question.
Does Scripture ever give us permission to treat our believing adult children differently than we do other Christians?
The answer to this question lies at the heart of what we are going to study tonight.
As we begin, here is what I need from all of you.
I need grace.
I need to admit and own right up front that based on what the Lord has shown me in His Word, some of the advice that I have given in the past was wrong.
I also want to be clear that what we look at tonight will not answer all of your questions, nor will it bring clarity to every situation.
It is my prayer and desire tonight to open the door for all of us to have a better understanding of what God has reveled in His Word about how we interact with our families.
PRAY
Have you ever had something revealed from Scripture that immediately changed your entire thought process about a particular issue?
That is what happened to me on Friday morning at 4:00 a.m.
God helped me see the issue of family relationships clearly for the first time.
I want to begin our study with a question.
This question is printed on your handout.
Why does it matter that we are children of God?
Please think about that for a moment, then tell me your thoughts.
We could sum all that up with this sentence.
Being children of God gives us a special relationship with God.
That relationship comes with special privileges, special access, and special treatment.
This is actually something we know intuitively.
If I see Tobias misbehaving, I will respond to that differently than I would with my own child.
Okay.
Here is what we are going to talk about tonight.
Message title: Children Of God
Subtitle: Why our status as children matters and what it means for family relationships
Children Of God
Why our status as children matters and what it means for family relationships
We are going to go to a number of passages tonight.
Hopefully we will get through everything.
Our first stop is actually in 1 Corinthians 15:7.
Go there please.
1 Corinthians 15:7
Why did Jesus make a specific and special appearance to James?
Anyone?
Who was James?
Jesus, of course, knew that James would be influential in the early church.
However, part of that influence was because Jesus appeared to him and changed his life!
After pondering this, here is my conclusion.
Jesus appeared to James because James was His brother.
On to our second stop.
John 19:25-27
There are 4 women, all followers of Jesus, standing by the cross.
Matthew 27 says there were “many women” as does Mark.
Luke says that all His acquaintances watched what happened on the cross.
Here is my point.
Out of a crowd of women, Jesus singles out Mary for special treatment.
Why?
Jesus told John to care for Mary because she was His mother.
When Mary asked Jesus to do something about the wine at the wedding, he did.
Jesus goes out of His way to preserve and protect His relationship with His mother.
From these two interactions, we come to the following conclusion.
Jesus treated His family differently than He did others.
What does everyone think of that statement?
Do we agree or disagree?
Our next question is, why?
Why does Jesus treat family different than followers?
Because family is different.
The relationship between parent and child, between biological siblings, is different.
Do we have any Biblical evidence to back this up?
Yes.
Yes we do.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Go to
Matthew 17:4-5
Notice what the Father says, “This is my beloved son.”
There is significance to the father-son relationship in the trinity!
Hebrews 1:8
The Father says this to the son.
Why?
Because there is a unique and special relationship between a Father and Son.
Let’s stay in Hebrews for a minute and go to Hebrews 12:7-8.
Hebrews 12:7-8
For our purpose tonight, I want to set aside the discipline aspect of this passage.
Instead, I want to focus on two phrases.
First, “God deals with you as with sons.”
Second, “then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
What these two phrases tell us is that there is a special and unique relationship between those who are God’s children, and those who are not.
God’s relationship with His children is special.
If this is to be a mirror of our own relationships, then our relationship with our children is special and unique.
What does that mean?
We do not treat biological family the same as we would other believers.
Just in case you are still not convinced, let’s talk about few more passages before we make some application.
We’re not going to go there, but in Joshua 7 there is a negative example in that all of Achan’s family is stoned with him for his sin.
Repeatedly in the Old Testament there are curses or blessings pronounced to x number of generations.
3rd and 4th or 10th.
In 1 John he repeatedly addresses them as “my little children.”
Scripture calls us brethren or brothers and sisters.
Why do these expressions carry any weight?
If there is not a special relationship between parent and child and between siblings, why use these expressions?
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