The Family's Value

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Title: The Families Value

Family

Full Vision/Mission Statement (What do we see?)

By the grace of God we are a diverse family renewed and reconciled together with God by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins. Because of the love of Jesus we are compelled to share His message of reconciliation and renewal so that everyone in our community would experience the love of Jesus and be empowered to follow Him into eternal life.

Mission Tagline (What are we about?): Working together for the reconciliation and renewal of all people in Jesus

Vision Outcomes/Values

New Birth

Spiritual Maturity

Healthy Family: Leveraging godly wisdom, counsel, and instruction for building healthy family of families.

Authentic Community

Gospel Saturation

Introduction

Bob Dylan sings these lines in His song "Bob Dylan's Dream"

While riding on a train goin' west

I fell asleep for to take my rest

I dreamed a dream that made me sad

Concerning myself and the first few friends I had

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room

Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon

Where we together weathered many a storm

Laughin' and singin' till the early hours of the morn

By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung

Our words were told, our songs were sung

Where we longed for nothin' and were quite satisfied

Talkin' and a-jokin' about the world outside

...

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain

That we could sit simply in that room again

Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat

I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that

Introduction

I remember a ton of stuff from early in my life. My brother Josh says I make stuff up and I’m sure he is partly right. Memory as we now know is not a perfect snapshot of the past. However one big part of my story was a theme which emerged as I matured. It came from my dad’s stories about his life “before the cross” These stories probably didn’t have the desired effect on me. My dad would share a good story about dirt bikes, or stealing his dads car, etc. and I would listen until the fun story had the sad ending of but that was before the cross. It made me think why did I have to be born a Christian and not get to have any fun? We were part of our Churches growing up from AWANA, to volunteering to helping people my parents served their church. I began to believe this idea that the family and Church were holding me back from really experiencing the fun I imagined my dad having. I decided to go and find something better, something different I didn’t know what I was looking for but had some ideas of where to start. Long story short I failed, and the world failed me. I couldn’t escape the truth and Jesus called me back to himself. It started with truth. I remember a night I came full circle. It was a dark winter camp with a youth group my brother had asked me to help with. My parents had come to make dinner one night for the group. We gathered in a big cabin kitchen place with a fire and dinner and it hit me as we joked and talked. I looked at my parents and my brothers, I think my whole immediate family was there. God opened my eyes I found it, that thing I thought was out there the truth not just in my head but in my heart, I was looking for Jesus, and found reconciliation with my family in the larger family of God. I was reconciled to my blood family and gained an understanding of the family of God. God slowly and thoroughly tore away the lies which had blinded and confused me and I could see clearly. I have been pursuing that ever since, by God’s grace.

Our true self is found in Christ. It emerges in a participatory relationship with God in the Son by the Spirit. David Benner points to this reality when he writes, “We do not find our true self by seeking it. Rather, we find it by seeking God.”1 The parable of the prodigal in Luke 15 illustrates this truth.

Plass, Richard. The Relational Soul: Moving from False Self to Deep Connection (p. 84). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Family is a place of relationship. We call them relatives. Some families have broken relationships some not so broken but all families have struggles. Today I want to look at the fact that God designed the family for us to know him and fulfill His great commission. God is inviting everyone here to a deeper relationship with him through His family, His household the Church.

Genesis 1:27–28 NLT

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

In creation we understand that God sees this relationship as a father to his children.

Isaiah 64:8 NLT

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

God desires a family relationship with His people.

Jeremiah 3:19 NLT

“I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me.

It is in the experiential knowledge we have of being part of a family that we can begin to understand The Father.

I remember becoming a father, the sense of connection and love I had was powerful, and it remains so. I am connected to my daughters like no one else on earth. This is the connection The Father has and feels with each one of those he has created. He established their times and place so that they would seek Him and find Him, He does not wish that any should perish.

God wants us to know Him the perfect father, that we can go to him any time, with anything. As a Father he is involved in our maturity and desires the best for us even when we don’t see or understand it. It is the family environment which he designed to teach us about himself.

I want to stress that family is not an end in itself. So many times in the Church Large we stress family to the exclusion of a large part of our culture who God has called to be single. The highest expression of devotion to Christ is not a nuclear family, Some will not be called to be married or have their own biological children. However they are called into God’s family into relationships supernaturally unified by the Spirit of God. Remember we are called to follow Jesus who was never married never owned a house and laid down his life in obedience to the Father. We understand that God has prepared a special relational picture and structure to bless us and to know him but the family has a purpose, a mission.

Knowing God leads us to understand that He has a plan. He has a purpose, he gives meaning to the family it has a job, a mission.

Ephesians 3:9–12 ESV

and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

The body of Christ, the household of God, The Church, The Family of God...

This is the relationship we are called to prioritize in following Jesus. This is where the manifold wisdom of God comes to life, a place where the walls of hostility are torn down through the costly sacrifice of Christ, a place where all categories of people are called to be one diverse family. This is a family of widows and orphans, of foreigners and natives, of rich and poor, married and single, immature and mature, old and young... A spiritually united people who do not see the nuclear family as the end all or an idol, but understand Jesus calling and teaching that those who do the will of the father are His family...

Matthew 12:48–50 NLT

Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

That our family is the family of God we have adoption as sons and an inheritance.

The Family is also a place to multiply image bearers of God. Be fruitful and multiply implies that Parents are raising up children who know God’s mandate and will seek to carry it on. God brings a man and a woman together as one, to function in an intimate relationship which reflects God’s glory. And this relationship can bear fruit to fulfill God’s plan of covering the earth with image bearers.

God designed one of our most fundamental realities to be a cooperative community of mutual love and support. We fall short in so many ways. But it points to the reality of the trinitarian God revealed in scripture.

The family then is the primary environment God designed for learning to observe everything Jesus has taught. I want to mention the number one most effective practice in making disciples in the family of God and in a nuclear family - Being present, being together.

Looking back on our lives and knowing what we know about the relational reality of life, we have come to this conclusion: The greatest gift any of us can give another is a transforming, receptive presence. Programs, policies, strategy sessions, staff meetings and even sermons will be long forgotten. ...What will bear fruit and be remembered no matter who we are or what we do is a presence that bears the receptive presence of Christ. In other words, the best thing we can do for anyone is to live in and from our true self.

Plass, Richard. The Relational Soul: Moving from False Self to Deep Connection (pp. 87-88). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

This has been expressed in so many ways I want to emphasize this. There are many ways for families to be, there are many forms that families take but the reality is that intentionally spending time together seeking to relate in healthy ways to God and one another will bear fruit.

We learn in scripture that marriage is meant to accomplish God’s purposes, not fullfill us. It is submission and relationship with Jesus that we have the strength to be pruned so we can bear more fruit (Godly character) in our lives and become the true self God intended when he designed us.

God designed the family our first and most permanent relationships to teach us about His nature and character so that we would grow in our understanding of His purpose for our lives in His family. God desires that His family would be fruitful and multiply filling the earth. Jesus reiterated this mandate in the Great commission

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

While you are going disciplize people, teaching them to observe/obey and immersing them in the Name… This is what a family is made to do, this is the purpose of a family and so this is where you will find the greatest meaning in the life of your family.

Understand that God’s family is seeking to adopt anyone who will put their trust in Jesus work on the cross and ongoing lordship in our lives. Anyone who believes in the name of the one He sent is called a child of God and receives the Spirit God’s empowering presence which leads you to your place in the body, the family.

The family needs attention, constant work, cultivation. Just as God designed the family to be a discipleship environment so is the Church. A network of relationships meant to make you more like Christ.

Young man talking of his honeymoon - training wheels. Family relations will just happen because we live in proximity but they need work. Just letting them happen is letting them stagnate.

Husbands & Wives Marriages - need ongoing work

We would like to do a marriage check up for every marriage in this church

Parents - Advent study - Family devotions guide - parental mentorship (older teach younger) - training

Children - Sunday school - discipline and intruction

- traditions

- New City Catechism, What is in the Bible?

I would like to conclude with a reading from Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:21–6:4 NLT

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

Prayer

Father, Creato r of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from your glorious, unlimited resources yoiu will empower Harambee Church with inner strength through The Spirit. I pray that Christ will make his home in our hearts as we trust in him. That our roots will grow down into Your love and keep us strong. Grant us the power to understand, as all Your people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love is. Help us experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Father complete us with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

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