Our Spiritual Family

Well, thank you, Mr. Jackson. I didn't know you read that proclamation last week, but I know that all of us have, I think, benefited from a focus on thanking God.

There are so many wonderful blessings that He has given us. It is a great privilege that we are, from year to year, reminded of God's involvement in our lives. You know, whenever we think about blessings, we often think of physical things that we have or that we have access to. And yet, the biggest blessings are really God's involvement. I was thinking about how that the Father and the Son, the Great God and the Eternal Word, have always existed. And yet, what is their plan? We often talk about the plan of God. We talk about it being revealed in the Holy Days, and certainly that is the case. But ultimately, the plan of God is simply their vision of what's going to happen, of how the children of God are going to be developed, how they are going to be brought forth, and how they are going to live throughout eternity. So focusing on our spiritual vision is an extremely important thing for all of us. And as I look at each one of you, I know we don't quite have everybody here today. The Robinsons are out of town, and parishes are not here. But I see an extremely wonderful, loving, concerned, warm church family. So even though we are a relatively small group, we've been in bigger settings, bigger groupings at times. But right now we're in a relatively small grouping. And yet, for the most part, we know each other pretty well. At least I know something about every one of you. I may know where you live. I've been to many of your homes. And I am greatly appreciative of this spiritual family that God has drawn us to be a part of. And that's what I want to talk about today. How important is our spiritual family? Even here in our local support group, that's what we really are. We are a group that God has drawn together to learn to love one another, to learn to put up with one another sometimes, because that's in a sense part of what we need to do. If we're going to bear with one another, then that's going to be taking care and even being concerned when you know we have either little differences or we do something that's offensive to each other, which can happen as well. And yet it's exciting to think about our congregation as a local support group. You know, you talk about support groups in a lot of different aspects of the local community, and many times they're dealing with different difficulties or problems that people are laboring with and they need support. But see, it's really, really significant that God has seen fit to draw each of us into a spiritual family.

Here in Matthew 12, you see Jesus ask about His mother and His brothers. Matthew 12, verse 46, it says while He was speaking to the crowd, His mother and His brothers were standing outside and they were wanting to speak to Him. And someone told Him, look, your mother and brothers are standing outside, they want to talk to you. But in verse 48 to the one who had told Him that, Jesus replied, who is my mother and who really are my brethren?

And then in verse 49, He said, pointing to His disciples, pointing to these individuals that the father and the son knew we have a vision for the great spiritual family that is going to be developed. And we are working with these people who don't really know everything they need to know yet, but they are going to learn. Pointing to His disciples, He said, here are my mother and my brothers. And He says in verse 50, whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother. See, He was making an allusion to how it is the Church of God is designed, how it is created, how it is brought into existence, because all of us come to understand something about our responsibility to God. And we go through the clear instructions of the Bible of coming to see the need to repent and to be baptized and to be a recipient of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that will enable us to have everlasting life in the spiritual family of God. But see, that's begun right here. That's begun with us locally.

And I ask this question, how important is that spiritual family to you? Because I would say that most of us, I can certainly say that I have, at least at times over the last 50 years, I have felt that the local support system was either broken or it didn't even exist.

Now, you might find that unusual as a statement. But at least 20 years ago, I was completely distressed. And I think many of you were as well. When we saw a system that we understood, we were committed to, we were devoted to, and yet one that was becoming more and more dysfunctional. And I have to say, as I could no longer teach what we were being told or asked to teach, that that was deeply disturbing. And I recall in the years following that, feeling more and more adrift and more and more without a spiritual family, a spiritual support system.

And see, I don't feel that way today.

Thankfully, God provides a system whenever we are in connection with Him.

See, at the time, I remember thinking, you know, even my parents had died, one of my brothers had died. I have still another brother and a sister. And yet even our family system is somewhat fragmented, at least scattered all over. And yet not only scattered, but not really all heading the same direction. Our children are not really heading in the same direction that we wish, Pat and I wish to go.

And yet, when you don't have a family support, and you don't have a church support, you feel somewhat alone. And yet, of course, as Jesus said, it doesn't matter if all of you are scattered. He said this to His disciples, because I'm never really alone, because the Father is here with me.

And of course, all of us read that, and we want to understand how our elder brother comprehended a vision of something that no one else on earth really understood. They might have been players kind of in it a little bit, and the disciples were only learning what that was, and what they were going to do in laying down their lives like their elder brother had for the church that God would use to nurture His future children.

So are we truly thankful for the spiritual family, the Church of God, that God provides us, even the United Church of God? Because see, that's where we are today. I identify with that in a way that is, to me, extraordinary, because, like we read earlier, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. You know, I think all of us not only heard that for many, many years, but we believe that that is the foundation that we have. So I think it's good as we think about the things that we're thankful for, that we appreciate what God is doing for us.

And do we realize that God's calling and the relationship that we are able to cultivate with the Father and with the Son, and with one another in our local support group? That relationship is a God-plane relationship. That relationship is a dimension beyond anything physical, beyond anything that exists here on this earth. It is a relationship that is begun by the Father. You know, we are then forgiven through the sacrifice of the Son, and then we are, through the help of the Holy Spirit, growing in a God-plane relationship.

See, realizing that God's calling is not just going to the right church. It's not just showing up here every Sabbath, because all of you normally do, and I commonly do. See, it's more than that. It's a relationship with the Father. A cultivation of a closeness and intimacy with the Father and the Son that empowers us to share that love and care for our spiritual family. And I think we could say that God's purpose for each of our lives is wrapped up in our learning to love and care and share and serve each other. We could apply that to any of our home settings, even as husband and wife.

We have an opportunity to love and care and share and serve one another. But more so, as I'm talking about today, our spiritual family is clearly something we ought to be thankful for. I want to cover a couple of different points on this. I'll see whether I get to three or not, but I know I'll get to one.

And this first one, I simply want to point out how the Paul, the Apostle Paul had a special relationship with the congregations that he wrote to. Now, he traveled around a lot, and he was used by God to begin many of the congregations that you see in Turkey today, in Galatia, in Colossae, in Ephesus, up into Greece, in Corinth, or Athens, or in Berea, or in Thessalonica, or in Philippi.

Those are cities, and later in Rome, cities that he was close to. Some of those, you know, he would even go back to and see how the brethren are doing. And yet, how he wrote about, he emphasized that each of the congregations needed one another in the congregation, and they needed to be united as a whole. That's what they needed. That wasn't what he always found. That wasn't what he corrected Corinth on. You know, he actually had to give correction to Corinth quite a bit. When you read through the two books of Corinthians, you see him giving a lot of direction, and even having to defend the authority that he had to do it.

But how is it that he writes about the people? He even wrote, we read this the other day, so I'm not going to read it today, but in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4 through 10, he said how wonderful they were. That's the way he felt about them. That's the way he looked at them. Let's take a look at the church in Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. How is it that Paul felt about the people here in Greece? I guess it would have been in Greece. I think it's up the peninsula from Corinth and Athens. But 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 2, he says, we always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers.

See, that's a requirement that I have toward you, to pray for you, to love you. This is what Paul was saying. I love you. I give thanks to God for all of you and I mention you in my prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why did Paul do that? Why did he write to? He sometimes needed to give direction to these different congregations, but he certainly is writing in a pretty favorable way about Thessalonica right there because he says in verse 5, we know, brethren, beloved of God, that he has chosen you.

Because our message of the gospel came to you, not by word only, but it also came in power, and it came in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of the persecution, you received the Word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. So he said, it wasn't just me out here preaching, and I happened to be such a brilliant preacher that you all decided to follow me. He said, that isn't the case. You were drawn, you were chosen to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, you became imitators, imitators of us. And in verse 8, the Word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only a Macedonian, a Kaoth, I guess Esalonica would have been in, I think, Macedonia, but in every place your faith in God has become known so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of these regions all about report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait to wait for the return of His Son, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that's coming. So that's Paul's introduction to this congregation that he loved. The one that he said he prayed for, he respected their faith and love and hope. He wanted them to be reminded that they were chosen by God with the vision of the God family, of what He wants for all of us. But through the working of the Holy Spirit and through being engaged in the preaching of the Gospel. See, that's what Paul was proclaiming. He was proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ as the King of that Kingdom. But he says, you're your service to one another and your patience in continuing to the end. See, we don't know when that is. We don't know when Christ is going to return and we don't know when any of us might die. That's all immaterial because we want to continue to grow in the love that Paul describes here. Let's jump over to Colossians. I guess we can jump back a page in my Bible. Colossians chapter 1, he talks in a similar way in verse 9. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we've not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from His glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints and the light He has rescued all of us, including Paul, from the power of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of our sins. In us, the way Paul writes to the congregation in Thessalonica, which he had said was actually a very nice group, a wonderful group of people that the Father was dealing with in a unique way, but here he describes praying for them, understanding the fruit that they are producing, realizing the power that has been made available, and that they're patiently enduring. Let's back up again to Philippians chapter 1. Verse 3, I thank my God every time I remember you. Every time I think about you as a congregation, Paul said, I thank my God constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you because of your sharing in the Gospel from the first day until now.

See, our proclaiming of the world tomorrow, our proclaiming of the world beyond today, our involvement in proclaiming that message of the kingdom, that message of the new government that's coming to the earth, now we're sharing in that because of your sharing in the Gospel from the first day until now. I'm confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. God's going to continue. He's not going to give up on us. We don't want to give up on him, but he's going to bring to completion. He is going to bring us forth as the children of God. He says in verse 7, it's right for me to think about you in this way because you hold me in your heart for all of you sharing God's grace with me, both even in my imprisonment, the trouble, the problems, the trauma, the distress, the frustration, the anguish, certainly that he had to experience both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness how I long for all of you with the compassion of Jesus Christ. And this is my prayer that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless having produced a harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. It was Paul close to the people there in Bill O'Pye. I think he was. I think he knew many of them. I think he prayed for them. I think he saw the progress that they were making and he helped them understand that they are a spiritual support group for one another. In Ephesians chapter 1, I guess we keep backing up here through the Bible, Ephesians chapter 1 we find again a similar thought pattern that Paul had for the loving people that he served in Ephesus. He was there for quite a while. He knew a good number of the people that God had chosen and brought to be a part of the church. He also knew some of the trouble that they would go through. He warned when he met with the elders in Miletus. He warned that I'm going to be gone and I don't know if I'm coming back, but he says you need to be on guard. Don't be separated. Be united. Be together. Watch out for those who would divide you. But here in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15, he says, I've heard of your faith in the Lord.

I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and I've heard of your love toward all the saints. And for this reason, I don't cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. See Paul didn't just say that to one group. He said that to all of them. He says that directly to the congregations that he wrote to and that he knew and that he loved.

I pray that the Lord God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him. So it would appear that we begin a Christian development with the receipt of the Spirit of God, with repentance and forgiveness and the receipt of God's Spirit, but we're continuing to come to know God so that in verse 18, your eyes of your heart would be enlightened.

You may know what is the hope to which He's called you. That we know what kind of hope we have. See, we have hope because God is faithful. We have hope in this life. We have hope of things that we are yet to experience. Some of you are considerably younger than I am. Some of our children are tiny. God's concerned about them. He's concerned about their development and their growth. He's concerned about what we might yet experience in this age before it comes to a conclusion.

And yet we have hope beyond the grave. We have hope in the resurrection, as He's describing here, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints? In verse 19, what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe according to the working of His great power?

See, what kind of power has He made available? Well, we know the Scripture, but do we think about the incredible power? He says He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. That's what unites us, brethren. That's what causes us to have love for one another. That's what gives us a common purpose. He says in verse 20, God put this power to work in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

So where is the head of the church today? He's seated at the right hand of the Father. He says the incredible power of God raised Christ from the dead. And He now sits at the right hand of the Father. He, as He goes ahead to say, He has been given all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but in the age to come.

And He, meaning God the Father, has put all things under His feet and has made Him to be, talking about Christ, to be the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. See, brethren, this is how Paul wrote about the congregations that he knew and that he loved and that he cared for and that he comprehended that they had been drawn together for a special reason, a special purpose, a purpose of the vision of the great God for what He is doing.

So this is not just going to church each week, because it's not just showing up on the right day, which is obviously the Sabbath, but it is coming together to grow in a divine nature, coming together to share and love one another and to support one another as we need to. See, as we get older, we have more and more people that need more and more help, and we have less and less people to give it.

You know, that's just reality. And yet God's aware of that. He knows what He's doing. He knows what He wants to achieve in every one of our lives.

So the first thing I wanted to point out is simply, you know, Paul continually emphasized to the congregations that he loved, what he wanted them to know, to identify with, that you have been drawn by the Father to the Son, and that you make up the body, that He is the Hiddah.

The second thing all of us are very much aware of, whenever God brought us into the Church of God, He told us to count the cost. He said, I want you to count the cost. We're aware of this in Luke 14.

Luke chapter 14.

See, the fact is, we didn't know what the cost would be.

We didn't know exactly what God might allow us to go through. Let's see, we did know that God had drawn us into His Church and into His family.

In Luke 14 verse 25, large crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and said, whoever comes to me and doesn't hate or love less by comparison, his father or mother or his wife or children, his brothers, sisters, yes, even his own life, he can't be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. And so he goes through several illustrations of counting the cost. And again, this is not something we're unaware of.

Let's say, could we ever imagine what we've gone through in the last 20, 30 years? I don't know that we could. But it didn't change the fact that we're committed to the father and committed to the son. So he says in verse 33, therefore none of you can become my disciple if you don't give up all you have. Give up your whole life. Give away everything we might have at that point, but be willing to do that to truly count the cost. Matthew 10, you see Matthew recording in chapter 10, direct commission to the people who would make up the church of God. Now we know at that point he was talking to his disciples. He talked to them about how they were going to go out and they had a limited ministry at the time. It was later going to expand to the whole world. He talked to them in verse 16 about realizing I'm sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Realize what you may be up against, but see you counted the cost. When you said, or when I said follow me and you followed, you were counting the cost.

Down in verse 26 he says, don't be afraid of those who can just kill you. Don't be afraid of those who can kill the body.

Verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body, who cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Therefore, in verse 32, anyone or everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my father, but whoever denies me before others, I will deny them before my father as well. See, this is his training or mission or directive to the Church of God, not just to the disciples, although obviously the mission would be expanded. These same things we are facing today. And in verse 34, see this will be disputed in the next month. Many people will think Christ came to bring peace on earth. And that isn't the case. According to verse 34, do you think that I've come to bring peace on earth or peace to this earth? I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. One's foe will be a member of their own household. Whoever loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. But he actually says in verse 39 the answer, you know, if we learn to give our life away, then we will save it. If we try to save it ourselves, then we'll lose it. Verse 39, those who find their life will lose it. Those who are willing to lose their life for my sake will find it. He tells us that we've made a commitment, we've counted the cost. He also says, if we turn on over to chapter 19 because he's talking to the same disciples here, in chapter 19 he'd given a parable of the rich young man who needed to, who wanted to know what do I have to do. Christ told him what he had to do. He says, you know, obey the commands. Verse 17, if you wish you enter life, keep the commandments. It enumerates quite a few of them. He says, you've got to follow me by putting me before everything. And in verse 27 Peter said, look, we've left everything and we followed you while we have. And he says, truly I'll tell you in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So obviously that was specific to those 12 men who were being talked to at that point.

And he says, in connection with that, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers or children and friends, or fields, excuse me, for my name's sake, will receive a hundred thrones and will inherit eternal life. See, brethren, that's the journey that we have been set on, the path that God has given us in his divine word. He wants us to be incredibly grateful for the spiritual family that we have in our local congregation, in our local meaning. I guess we shouldn't be local, our collective body. Even though we're scattered around the world, we're scattered in different places, we can still have love and concern, we can pray for one another, we can share. And even though we are a small group, God is working powerfully in us.

And so amidst all the thinking of what am I thankful for, many times we think of things that we can easily see and identify, but the really rich things that we are to be thankful for are spiritual. Our calling and our blessing from God for what he is doing. Because he's doing something far bigger than I surely understand. I'm sure. Surely it's not limited to me. I'm sure it's far greater than that. And he wants all of us. You know, he talks about, and we can read verses about how that, and I think most of these are Psalms that David writes about, well, even from my youth, oh God, you know, I trusted you when I was young. As I get older, please don't forsake me. I know, and of course he goes ahead to write, that well, he's going to produce fruit even in our older age. And how can that be possible? Well, because God can do anything. He is the one who is able to achieve the impossible. And he's the one who knows over a period of time, even as Mr. Barnett read today how that Abraham was honored by God for his response, his complete devotion, seemingly his quick response in obeying. And he says, well, I'm going to bring about something way down the line here in several thousand years, but I'll bring it about. I will achieve it. See, that's who we're dealing with, brethren. We're not dealing with a limited God in any way. We are dealing with a great God who has a plan, and he has given us some insight. You know, in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the limitation that he had, whatever it was, the thorn in the flesh, some type of limitation, whether it was vision or something else. And he said, I prayed. 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, I prayed that you would take that away three times, and you didn't. Maybe we better look at it so I can remember. But here in 2 Corinthians 12, God makes an emphatic revelation here through Paul. He says, verse 8, three times, I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me. But he simply said, my grace is sufficient for you, my power, for power is made perfect in weakness. Even when we're weaker physically, he said, you can be stronger spiritually if you simply look to God for help, that you simply trust God. So he says, I'll boast a little more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. See, that's the power that we want. That's the power that we need. That's the power that isn't limited, except by my own not thinking about it, getting distracted, getting off track, looking at the physical like Peter did. You can't walk on water. You can live by faith and become the children of God. So with this Thanksgiving Day, I hope that we can also think about the incredible blessing that we have of our spiritual family, of our spiritual support system that God has set in place, that He has designated us to be a part of, and that He wants us. He tells us here in Luke 12, our final verse, Luke chapter 12.

In this section, Luke is recording even some of what we read in the Sermon on the Mount. So you find that written more so in Matthew, but then it's kind of scattered in other parts of Luke and in Mark, I believe. But he says in verse 33, don't be afraid, brethren. Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He wants us to be a part of the kingdom of God. He wants us to not have the limitations of the flesh, but to be a spirit body, a spiritual body in the family of God. So he's not concerned so much if we're a small flock, but he is concerned about us growing spiritually, and that's what, of course, we have as an objective, as a directive from our Father. So again, I can say to all of you that I appreciate you being here. I appreciate your involvement and your growth, your development. I thank God for that. I could thank you for it, but I'm hoping God is the one who's producing it, and I think that that's the right thing to do. And yet he's drawn us together to do an impossible work in a, as was described earlier, an increasingly difficult world that Satan is going to turn upside down and even trying to trip up the proclaiming of the kingdom and government that will work. But see, that's what we're called to do, and so we are supporters of the world beyond today, and I thank you. Thank you for doing that.