The Family God is Building

It's good to see you all. And for those who don't may know me, originally from Oregon and have since lived in several different places, got to know Michael and Debbie when we were north of the Denver area and have remained steadfast friends since then. You'll you'll you'll notice some themes in the messages today. This was not planned. Um Mr.

David Jones and I were were talking last night and Mr. Jones is like, "What are you going to talk about, Hansel?" I'm like, "Well, I'm going to talk about family. What are you going to talk about?" He's like, "I'm going to talk about family relationships." And not only I think was was God involved, but I think this is also a testament to the type of man that Michael that this is what he stood for.

This is what he emphasized. This was his exclamation point. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. You know, outside of services, we really don't use the term brethren. Mr. Jones rightly pointed out the fact that brethren literally means of the same womb. And it's a familial term. It's it's an archaic form of English that means brothers.

And when we use it today, you know, when we say hello, brethren, good afternoon, brethren, happy Sabbath, brethren. It's a testament to the fact that we are amongst family here, brothers and sisters of the same faith. And I want to take some time today to to reflect on that because being called by God to be a part of his family is one of the most profound truths of scripture.

You know, because we're we're called to be first fruits. We know that God has given us a special calling now to be part of his spiritual harvest. But we are being called to be God's children, his true family, which is a family that's not bound by blood, but which is bound by something far more powerful, the spirit of God. As 1 John 3:es 1 and 2 tells us, it says, "See what manner or what kind of love the father has given us that we should be called the children of God and so we are.

" So we today, brethren, get to practice being family. Hebrews chapter 10 uh hap chapter 2:10 you recognize that many of you as a memory verse where it talks about Jesus Christ being the captain of our salvation and he's calling what does it say many sons and daughters to glory again a familial term but the question remains and I want to address this today in however long this takes The question is this.

Do we practice this truth that we are brothers and sisters? Do we practice this relationally with one another? And as I've already mentioned briefly, the reason this is a topic today is because when when I reflected back on conversations with Michael over the years, more often than not, it would come back to this topic.

We'd be talking about, you know, uh, people in the church or something we did together or some activity and it would come back to family. He'd say things like, "This is because we're a family. That's what families are supposed to do." And another frequent topic of conversation was food. Both love loved food. But but when I reflected on this, it was never just about food.

Food was the medium that brought people together to bond, to talk, to share. And one of his most frequently uh used sayings, which I believe is a Robin Weberism, uh those if anybody knows different, you can correct me afterwards, but I believe this comes from Robin Weber who said this, "Gather the people, break the bread, tell the story.

" Michael would say that all the time, and it's because it brings back to family, a family relationship. So brethren, I come to you with both a opportunity and a challenge this afternoon. The opportunity is this. We have an opportunity today, a great opportunity to behave and to live as the family God intended. The challenge is this.

We have the opportunity to behave as the family God intended. The difference there is because we can conceptually think of okay family we get that we know what a family is but God has not called us to be just any family. God has called a family that behaves and that acts and that thinks a certain way. If you think about families in general, there's good examples of families and there's bad examples of families, right? Families can be dysfunctional.

Families could be abusive. Families can be a source of neglect. Families can be a source of infighting, right? Those are families. Perhaps some of you when you grew up, maybe you came from a dysfunctional family. So family is family. Yes. But God has called us to be a certain type of family.

a type of family that is defined by godly love. John 13 verse35 says this by this we'll all know that you are my disciples if what if you have love one for another. And so love is not just a marker of our disciplehip. Love in this context, in the familial context, is a mandate. What does Jesus say immediately before that in verse 34? He says, "I give you a new commandment to love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another." So, since we're talking about family, let's let's do a little bit of a a a a background on family. You know how we think about family today is not necessarily how ancient peoples thought about family. What I mean by that is this.

In the ancient world, family, your immediate blood, relatives, was everything. It was your identity. It was your security. It was your future. Always tied to two things. Family and tribe. And tribe is just an extended family, right? 12 tribes of Israel. Guess what? They're all named after 12 sons of Israel. So these are all extended families and you see it all over scripture, right? Like Esther 2:5.

How do we know who who the author is talking about? Esther 2:5 for example says, "Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew whose name was Mori, the son of Jier, the son of Shim, the son of Kish, a Benjamite." Notice it's all about family. He's the he's the son of Fes, who's the son of this, who's a son of this who's of this tribe.

That was their identity, right? Jeremiah begins with these words, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkaya. Isaiah begins with the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos. Oh, it's that Isaiah. It's Amos' son. You know, in a little bit of that, the familiar identity comes down to us today as well. I can say I'm Hansel, son of Herman.

And uh those of you who are a little bit older, maybe not so much in newer generations, but you weren't known by your your last name, right? It's like, oh, you're you're of that family, you know, and families come with reputations. Uh a while back there was a song by by Aaron Tippen said, "You got to stand for something.

" Anybody remember that song? Came out in 1990, you know, when country music was good. He said he says you got to stand for something or you fall for anything. And one of his lines was this. He says never compromise what's right and uphold your family name. So the name tied to a family tied to a reputation. But family for us, brethren, is more than a heritage.

It's about belonging. It's about supporting one another. It's about sharing life together. You know, oftentimes when we're getting to know people, we we we talk more about vocation and location, right? Oh, where are you from? Oh, uh, what do you do for a living? Right? But again, in the ancient world, it's about family.

Who are you? Whose son and daughter are you? Who are your grandparents? Who are your great-grandparents? What tribe are you from? God's design for us is to find our deepest identity in his family in familial community. That's what he wants for us. That's what he designed us for us. So, how do we behave as the family God intended? I want to leave you with three things this afternoon.

We must I think understand two things and then practice one thing. So the first thing we must understand is this. We must understand that Jesus's new family redefes belonging. Jesus's new family redefes belonging. Notice and turn with me to Mark chapter 3. In Mark chapter 3, this is this is an amazing passage beginning at verse 31 because it describes Jesus.

He's sitting around and of course he's surrounded by people, right? He's got his disciples all around him. He's surrounded and his his his blood family is trying to get his attention. They're like, "Hey, can you send a message to Jesus and let him know, you know, look over here?" you know, they didn't have cell phones, couldn't couldn't twitter each other or anything like that.

So, they they send a messenger into the crowd to try to get Jesus attention, say, "Hey, your your family is inquiring of you." And verse four, verse 34 here in in Mark 3 is amazing. It says this. He says he turned, he looked around in the circle of those who sat about him and he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother." You know, Mark could have just said, you just quoted him here, but but notice what he added. He he added Jesus's reaction which was to look around at those around him and to say this is my family. This is my family. See our spiritual family is not limited by bloodlines or our backgrounds but is open to all who are disciples of Jesus Christ.

And this is put in so many different ways in scripture. You know, Paul loves to talk about who is a true son of Abraham. Well, guess what? That's a familial relationship. Bible says that Abraham was the father, the father of the faithful. Right? So, he says, for example, in Galatians 3:7, he says, "This is the family of Abraham, those that understand and who believe.

These are the sons of Abraham." Galatians 3:7. So God's family now includes all the faithful regardless of your background, regardless of your heritage. And this awesome truth that we get to live every day is that God is creating actively creating in you and in me a new family. One that transcends every barrier.

So we all come from different backgrounds like I mentioned. Some come from abusive family relationships, some from come from no family. You know, some come into the body of Christ and they have they have almost no outside connections or they've had to leave all in order to come to belief in the biblical truth. So any of us if we've if we ever feel alone or if we if you ever feel like you don't fit in in society at school at work or with your peers know that here amongst the people of God you are part of a family. You are seen you are

valued. You are heard. So that's point number one is we must understand that Jesus's new family redefes belonging. Point number two is is that we must understand that Jesus as the appointed head of this family demands loyalty and allegiance. Jesus Christ as the appointed head of this family again demands loyalty and allegiance.

And this really helps explain some of the the hard sayings of Jesus. For example, in Matthew chapter 10, beginning in verse uh 34, when Jesus is talking about family, he says this. He says, "Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, him I also will deny before my father who is in heaven." Oo, sounds kind of harsh, right? But what Jesus is talking about here is loyalty. Where does our loyalty lie? What's interesting and then he goes on to quote Micah 7 verse 34 here. He says, "But do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.

I did not come to bring peace but a sword." He says, "For I've come to set," and here's where he starts quoting from Micah. He says, "I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own his own household," it says. So, what's going on here? Why is he quoting from Micah 7? Well, back in Micah's day, Micah prophesied about the same time of Isaiah, about the 8th century BC.

This was a time of national and political chaos. The northern tribes were on the brink of collapse. You know, Assyri uh Samar Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 7:22 BC, right in the middle of Micah's ministry. Judah wasn't doing any better. So, here you've got you've got a decadent society who has turned against itself. It has turned its back on God.

The situation has degenerated into chaos. And so in Micah's day, even the closest family relationships between father and mother and wife and child and parents was unreliable. Micah puts it this way in Micah 7:2. He says, "There is no one upright amongst men." If we put it in modern parlance, you know, Micah could be saying, "Y'all are crazy.

You know, you've messed things up. You've destroyed every relationship that God has called you to. primarily your relationship you're supposed to be in with God. So Jesus, he quotes from Micah and then he follows it up with this in verse 37. Quotes from Micah 7 and then he says this, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus is saying you need to get your loyalties right. Beginning with your loyalty with him.

Jesus as head of the body, the captain of our salvation. See, Jesus isn't telling us to to hate our our blood relations and families. He's saying that he comes first without exception. Our loyalty to God's family therefore means that sometimes there are sacrifices. We have to make hard choices especially when our other relationships whether it's immediate family, friends, our social circle circle work intentionally or not to pull us away from the biblical faith.

Christ says you have to have your priorities straight. Mr. Jones quoted the greatest commandment in his split summary. Remember the first and greatest commandment is what? to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and spirit or soul. And then equally like it is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 14: 26, there's another hard saying of Jesus. He says this. He says, "If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, wife and children, brethren and sisters, yay, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Notice how disciples used in this familial relationship here. So his point again, he's not saying literally to hate.

He's drawing a contrast, this stark contrast between again where is our priority. And his point is that our devotion to other relationships, as important as those may be, as strong as those may be, should never supersede our calling to disciplehip. Disciplehip, following Jesus, counting the cost comes first. And realizing this, you know, it should help us appreciate, value our disciplehip under the head Jesus Christ even more, realizing that this comes at a price.

But along with that, Jesus also promises that whatever we have to sacrifice, we're going to receive so much more both today and in the life to come as well. Notice Mark chapter 10:es 28-30. Mark chapter 10 verse 28. You know Peter makes this very point. He says Peter began to say to him to Jesus. He says see we've left all and we followed you.

Look at what we've given up Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, "Surely I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and for the gospels who shall not receive a hundfold now in this time." So he's not just talking about future and as resurrected immortal beings in the kingdom of God.

He says, "You're going to get so much more in this life. A hundfold now in this time. Houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands." And he says that because again, he is bringing together a new family. Notice the the one relationship he doesn't mention here that we're going to get more of is is more fathers.

It's because God is our father. God never changes. God is always there. God is always our spiritual father. So if following Jesus Christ in the church of God has cost you in some way, relationships, whatever that is, know that you are not alone. But also realize how much more we've gained. we've gained together. And realize also that because church is family, the church family is here for you to walk with you, to rejoice with you, and yes, to grieve and weep because that's what family does.

Romans chapter 12, actually Romans chapter 12 through chapter 16, Paul lays all this theological groundwork in the first 11 chapters. And then really from Romans 12 to 16, what's he talk about? He talks about relationships. He talks about family. He talks about how to behave as the people of God. And in Romans 12:15, he says this, "Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

Be of the same mind toward one another." See, this isn't a platitude. Paul doesn't say this so that we could be nice Christians. Paul doesn't say this because it just feels like the right thing to do. Paul says this because the family of God, the family that God is building is real and we are part of it. And then one more point I will leave with you.

How do we become the church family that God intended? Well, we have to practice it. We have to practice it. So in in this section, I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through all the verses which you you know very well about how we are to behave. But I want to call your attention to a few things because we do have to practice living as the family God intended.

And one of the ways we could do that is practicing brotherly love. Practicing brotherly love. Romans chapter 12 again says that we are to be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. Kindly affectionate with brotherly love. And there are two Greek words here going on.

Philadelphiaos or Philadelphia which means brotherly love and filos which is that kindly affectionate piece. These are both very very familial terms. They speak of a deep familial affection for one another. And as Mr. Jones also brought out, sometimes that's easy. People you're just naturally drawn to, people that you share hobbies with or likes and music or food or what have you.

And some are not so easy. The point is that we we we practice it. We continue to work at it. We are to, you know, spend time with one another, honor one another, pray for one another, share with those in need, and rejoice and weep together because that's what family does. Bible also talks about family as being a household.

This is one of Peter's favorite terms for family. He talks about us being of the same household. For example, in 1 Peter chapter 2:es 4 and 5, he says, "We come to him, Jesus Christ, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. And you also as living stones are being built up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.

" Now, a spiritual house in this context is is yes, it's talking about being built up into this metaphorical temple in which God's spirit dwells. We're all bricks in that temple. That's true. But Peter also uses the term spiritual household to describe family because in in his day the the the house or the household which is oos in the Greek was all about family.

Where did a family dwell? Well, they dwelt in a house together. And so when Peter writes his letter to all of the brethren who are scattered abroad, calls them strangers and sojourners in the land all across Asia Minor, both Jews and Greeks from all sorts of different backgrounds who were being, you know, living where God called them throughout the vast Roman Empire.

He calls them a household. You know, you are a house together for God, he says. So this implies several things. It means that Christians are not to be isolated. We're not to just stray off on our own, but we are to be part of a structured, supportive community. Another implication is that because the church functions as a household, we are to offer hospitality, care, mutual obligation and stability for those who are in that household.

And so Peter pulls in this this terminology which his audience would have been very familiar with to emphasize again our our shared common bonds within the body of Christ. Again it's an alternative family than simply blood relation. And it's based on a shared faith rather than on blood or status. Verse 9 in 1 Peter chapter 2 continues on this theme.

What does he call this household? This household that's being built up together. He says, "But you, you, this household," he says, "art a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, his own special people. that you might may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So you and I are are individuals who because of our calling because of God's grace and we called together out of the out of the cold and darkness of society into the warmth and light of the family of God where the there's always a fire on the hearth. The light the candles are always on.

The welcome sign is always up and nice warm blankets are always avail. Speaking of cold nights, back in Kansas City where we came from, it was about 2 degrees this morning with a windchill of minus7. So warm blankets are are on the brain right now. So, as we wrap this up, brethren, what does it mean to live as the family God intended? Well, it comes back to our identity as the children of God.

You know, behold what manner of love the father has given us that we should be called the children of God. It comes back to our identity as God's children or as Peter would put it, God's spiritual house. It comes back to our calling as disciples under the great shepherd being tutored together around the feet of the great shepherd Jesus Christ.

And it comes back to our duty, our obligation as brothers and sisters who are united by the same spirit. Going back to John again as we conclude, he John has a way of putting things in 1 John 3:8. 1 John chapter 3:18, he leaves us with this exhortation. And he says, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

" Brethren, that's what you and I have been called to, to love in deed and in truth. So, brethren, let us live intentionally as part of this family, this great calling that you and I are part of. And let us use this time that God has given us, however long or however short that period of time is, because none of us knows the days and hours we have left.

Let us use this time God has given us to reach out to those in need. pray for one another, share together, break bread together, and let's spend time together celebrating and yes, grieving together. Because at the end of the day, that's what family does.

Made with ❤️ byGlasp