Thicker than Blood

Well, today I want to talk to everyone in the audience and get the attention of everyone that is listening in. Whether you're an older adult, whether you're a young adult, whether you're a teen, whether you're a pre-teen, whether you're married or single, whatever your situation, what I'm going to talk about today applies to every single one of us, and there will be an application to every single one of us.

You know, as we have lived through many things this year and as we will live through many, many more things in the years ahead of us, I think we are all increasingly thankful to God and grateful to God for what He has called us to, for what He provides for us, for what He does for us, things that we can't even possibly enumerate if we were to go down the list.

We would probably spend the rest of our lives enumerating them. God has just been a tremendous father to us. Jesus Christ has done more than we can ever imagine and more than we can ever repay. And He has made us, as we have talked about many times, He has called us and as we have yielded to Him and been baptized, He has made us part of His family. He's made us part of His family. You know, those words just fall off of our mouth and sometimes we don't think about what all that means.

That God has made us part of His family. He is our Father. Every day when we pray, we say, our Father. He's our Father. Jesus Christ is our older brother. All of us, we say, are brothers and sisters, but we are all part of one family and there is some tremendous significance to that when we pause and think about it and contemplate it.

Whenever there's been a tremendous privilege given our way and anything, it also comes with a tremendous responsibility. And it also comes with accountability. And I want to talk about that today because the responsibility that we have to God, the responsibility that we have to Jesus Christ, the responsibility that we have to the family, and the accountability that comes with it is something we should all be mindful of. You know, as we have lived in our lives and all of us, whatever our family situations have been, you know, we had a mother, we had a father, or we had parents, we had siblings that we grew up with, and there was a responsibility and accountability that was in that physical family as well.

When God created Adam and Eve and he said, become one flesh and be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, there was that family, the basic building block of society that God ordained. And he was very wise in doing that because it's a picture of what he is doing with us spiritually as well. So as we're in that classroom that we spoke of a couple weeks ago, as we're in that classroom of our lives and that classroom of the families that we are part of physically, we learn many things.

God defines the roles of that family. There is Dad. Dad is supposed to be the spiritual head of the family. He's supposed to be the leader. He's like the CEO. He's the one who provides. He's the one who makes sure the family has what it needs. He sets the standard and he makes sure that the family is moving forward in that way. Mom is like the operations person, right? She's without a CEO and without a person who runs the operations, businesses fail, families fail.

Mom is responsible. She's the one who keeps the home. The home is a very important place in God's family, in the family that he designed. She's working with the children. She's seeing and carrying out what the family stands for. The religious teaching, the upbringing, making sure the children are developing the traits that they need to be successful adults who can have their own children and raise them to be Christians and raise them to be productive members of society, armed with a character, armed with the sense of responsibility that all of us need to be successful in this world and be successful in our racial relationships with each other.

She is a key and she is a helpmate to her husband in more ways than just keeping the house and just making sure that food is on the table and making sure that the laundry is done and nurturing the children. All those things are so, so important. So, so important. But she's also a helpmate in more than just that. And talk about that a little bit. And then there's the children. The children are like us in God's family.

They're there in the Bible. It instructs them to to be responsive, be responsible to the to the parents, be responsible to the teaching, obey the parents, trust and know that they are giving you the right instruction, that they are giving you the weight to a life that is good and beneficial and blessed. Have that yielded attitude so that you grow up armed with everything that you need that you can function in your family the way that God had intended for all families too, if they are going to be joyful, if they are going to be productive, if they're going to be the supremely happy places that God intended them to be.

You know, with physical families, you know, no matter what our family situation is, there's that tie of the blood, the blood that binds us.

You know, no matter what friends we have and develop, you know, over the years, the blood, the blood of the family is important. It gives us a bond with our family members. We love them. As we're growing up, we watch out for each other. We may have our skirmishes, we may have our arguments, we may have our bouts here and there, but overall, we want each other in the family to to be successful. Brothers and sisters may quarrel a little bit, but they also help each other and they'll defend each other, therefore, each other. There's an old saying that says, blood is thicker than water, and you know that's true. That's true. Blood is thicker than water. That's the way God created it. There are those family ties, and when we have that bloodline between us, it is an important thing and it links us for life. Families have one name, two, generally, a little bit more disparate in the age that we live in today, but there's one name, generally, and the way God created it, all the family would have that one name that they abide by so that, you know, you're the perma-r family and everyone bears that last name, or you're the shabby family and everyone bears that last name, and as people know the family name and know of them, we also identify that name with not just the sound, but with what we see of that family.

Family members have a responsibility that that name has honor to it. Every single family member has the responsibility that that name, that when people hear that name, they think of it positively. It's a family that has character. It's a family that obeys God. It's a family that is resolute. There's a family that is hardworking. It's a family that does things the right way. The children are the children are well-behaved. The children are where they need to be. Mom and dad are doing their things, and you have a positive feeling about it. Proverbs, if we turn back to Proverbs 22, and verse 1, we see the we see the emphasis that God puts on having that family name, and there's a responsibility that every member of the family has toward that name that that family bears. Proverbs 22, verse 1, says, A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.

How important is that? Those of us who have lived in lives and as we've seen things that have gone on with other families or even things in the news, and we see family names that we may respect, and then someone moves out of what you expect in that family, and it damages the reputation. So you don't think of that name in the same way anymore. I could come up with another, you know, a number of them probably if I thought about it, but I know when I was putting together this sermon, the one that that came up in my mind was Bernie Madoff. Remember Bernie Madoff? He's the one who had it all. He was there on Wall Street. He had a hedge fund, and he was moving along. Very wealthy man, wife, two sons. Everyone looked up to Bernie Madoff, I think. His sons thought, you know, our father, our dad is a good businessman. He's provided everything we need.

Mom was a socialite, and then Bernie Madoff, you know, the cover came off of what he did.

Look how many lives he destroyed from his Ponzi schemes. Look at how many, how many, well, even his own son, if I recall correctly, committed suicide as a result of what dad was doing. Apparently the sons and the mom had no idea what Mr. Madoff was doing, but when it was uncovered, that name was no longer one that was held in high repute. Everyone that knew that name, he destroyed it. He failed in his responsibility to his family. He failed miserably.

When we look at the word name in Proverbs 22, verse 1, it comes from the Hebrew word shame or S-H-E-M, however it's pronounced, and it means an appellation as a mark or memorial of individuality by implication, honor, authority, and character. So when we hear a name, we think about what that name means. We don't think about how is it pronounced, how is it spelled, all these things, but when we hear a name, there's something that rings in our mind. What do we think about that person? What is their reputation like? It's similar with the Bible. You know, Jesus, when we hear the name Jesus, what do we think of? You know, some people get hung up sometimes on, should it be Jesus or should it be something else? When we think of the name Jesus that God has given us in the English version of the Bible, the English language we speak of, we know what we think of.

Savior, Messiah, sacrifice, perfect, love, the perfect example, wants mankind and gave his life so that mankind could live eternally. That's the reputation he has, and everything that he did while he was on earth, everything that Christ has done since then, points to that. It's a name that he bears well. And our Father, our Father has a name, and he says he'll put his name on us.

That name has honor. That name has merit. That name means character. That name means complete truth, complete commitment to mankind, even in the face of what we've done to disappoint him along the way. Still committed to what his plan is for mankind, still committed to the family that he's calling and he's putting together. So, the name is very, very important. Certainly our physical name, certainly the spiritual name that we bear when we become members of God's family as well. Let's turn back to Joshua. Joshua 7.

Look at a man here in the Old Testament who brought such dishonor, such dishonor to his family name. We've talked about Achan before in Joshua 7. You remember the story about Achan.

Israel has marched into the Promised Land. God has told them they will conquer Jericho. Follow the commands that he says and he tells them, don't take anything from Jericho. Leave it all behind.

Don't take anything for yourself. Wipe it out. And the man Achan decides, oh, I can keep a little bit. Here's some clothes that look very nice. Here's some silver gold. If I just hold this and don't tell anyone about it, isn't that okay? I mean, does God really want all this stuff destroyed? And if I keep a little back for myself, isn't that okay? And you remember the story. You remember the story. It's not okay. It's not okay. If we look at Joshua 7 and verse 12, you know, here they've conquered Jericho and they're marching into this little city of AI.

Such a small city with such a small army that they say, we're only going to send 3000 men against AI. If God conquered Jericho, he can certainly he will deliver AI into our hands with just a few men.

And when they go out to battle, they find out just the opposite happened.

36 men die as AI routes Israel. It would have to be considered if we put it in sports sports terms, the upset of all time, right? The upset of all time that AI could send Israel running. And 36 people die. And God lets Joshua know there's a problem. There's a problem in his family, his family that is called the congregation of Israel at that time. There's a problem and that's why someone has brought dishonor to Israel and what God had intended for that body, that family on earth at that time to be. Let's look at verse 12. Therefore, he says, the children of Israel couldn't stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies because they become doomed to destruction. Someone in your midst, one family, one man, has not lived up to the responsibility that it was to be a member of the congregation of Israel that was to be following God, living by his laws, living by his standards, obeying him completely. One man. And God said, the family's been dishonored. And I'm not, I can't tolerate this. This is not what we are. This is not the family that we're putting together. We go on in verse 12.

Neither will I, God says to Joshua, neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Well, that says a lot about what God expects of you and me.

That says a lot about the responsibility that you and I have when we become members of God's family, whether we're baptized or not, whether we're one year old or 18 years old, still living at home, or older than that, living at home, when we're members of God's family, he has a, there is a responsibility that we bear. He opens our minds to truth. He opens our minds to eternity. He gives us the door to eternity. This is what you do to follow into it. You will become my family. And the honor that is associated with that is beyond anything that compares on earth. But there's a responsibility. And we see here there's an accountability that goes on with it. Achan, Achan brought death to Israel. He brought embarrassment to Israel. He didn't live up to the standard. He was the weak link. And God said to Joshua, unless this is removed, unless you deal with this, I won't be with you anymore. That's what our father, who has the right and who has set the family rules in place, says to us because to be a member of his family.

Pale is beyond anything that we could compare it to. And that's what he sets, just like physical fathers will say, these are the standards of this family. We live by the Bible. We live by the Word of God. God is our leader. God is our standard. He is the one we look to. And nothing comes before him and obedience to him. So Achan, as you go down through the story, you know, they don't know at this point in verse 12 what is going on. But it comes down to Achan. Achan is the man that God shows is the weak link. Achan has done something that has disrupted the entire family of Israel. We drop down to verse 19. We see something that God says here that is an interesting thing. He says, Joshua said to Achan, my son, speaking to Achan, I beg you, give glory to the Eternal.

Give glory to the Eternal. You know, our lives are to bring glory to God. What we do, what we say, how we behave in the workplace, at school, in the neighborhood, with each other, is to bring glory to God. We don't need to turn to 1 Corinthians 10, 31. It says, in everything you do, give glory to God. Bring glory to God. And here we have what Joshua is saying, as Achan is brought forward as the man who has dishonored the family name, my son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him. And tell me now what you have done. Don't hide it from me.

Bring glory to God. Confess your sin. Acknowledge your sin.

Turn back to God. Don't try to hide it. Don't try to cover it. Don't try to justify it.

Don't make excuses. Just acknowledge it. Acknowledge, Achan, what you have done and that you have transgressed against God. It tells us a lot about God. How is he glorified?

He knows our frames. He knows our minds. He knows we're weak. He knows we're sinners. He knows what our lives have been. In the past, he knows the intents and the motives of our hearts.

He knows those things. It doesn't excuse us that he knows those things, but he is glorified when he sees us acknowledge and turn to him. Sacrifice self and not cover it up with the way of Satan, with the way of the world. Oh, this. Oh, that. I can justify it by this. I can take this and I can give you every excuse on the earth why I didn't do what you said.

God is glorified when we acknowledge and we turn to him. It's a responsibility of every member, young and old, of the family of God. And there's accountability for it. Achan faced the accountability from God. God made it known. And Achan and his family paid a steep price, stated a steep price for deliberately going against God's will. So if we keep that in mind, that we bring how we bring glory to God's name, we sing praises to him, we worship him, we obey him. Jesus Christ said several times, if you love me, keep my commandments.

The Father, our Father, who is literally our Father, he says, obey me and I will give you and I will put you on the high hills of the earth. He will give us his kingdom.

If we follow him, if we yield to him, if we sacrifice self to him, if we become members of his family. And so we can take the physical families and we can take that the step further of what you and I have become. God, the Father of the family, has called you and me. And everyone that is listening to this, and the children that are listening to this, that are with their parents, and the young adults who grew up in the church, whether they're living at home or whether they're living on their own. Whether you're young, whether you're old, whether you're single, whether you're married, whether you're whatever.

God called. I want you to be part of my family and all that means. And we said yes.

We said yes. And when we said yes, there's a responsibility that goes along with it.

We did it if we had been baptized. We did it. And we said, I'd bury the past self. I'll bring glory to God by rejecting self and choosing to follow your way, counting the cost and determining in my heart I will follow the law and the way of life of my Father. If I'm going to be in his house, in his family, I will do his will and submit to that.

And even if we haven't been baptized and we know the truth, there's a responsibility.

There's a responsibility that comes with the truth. There's an accountability that comes with knowing the truth when God has opened our minds and he has certainly opened our minds.

He expects his family, which would include the congregation here in Orlando, the congregation in Jacksonville, the congregation of wherever you attend, of all those that were listening around the world, his greater family that is in different locations where he is working with families, his families in those areas. He's training us, he's rearing us, he's got us in a classroom so that when we become adults and when we are ready to take over what he has in mind for us is our ultimate responsibility. We're learning that now just like our children.

As we're yielding to our Father, as we're allowing him to discipline us, to correct us, all out of love and bringing glory to his name when we don't fight back, when we don't irritate him, I guess, when we make excuses and justifications for why we don't do what he says, that's what he would have us do just willingly yield to him. As good sons who have said, we would do that, though we will do that, we want to be part of your family. So there's a collective responsibility, just like there was for ancient Israel and the family that God has put us in, but there's also the individual responsibility as Achan learned in a painful way. In Philippians 2, Philippians 2 and verse 12, Paul says this. He says, therefore, remember when we read the word therefore, go back and read the verses ahead of it, see where the conclusion he's coming to is, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

There's a responsibility and there's an accountability that each of us have individually to do those things, to be what God wants us to be. We have a responsibility to each other as part of the family. We don't want to be the weak link like Achan is. We don't want to be the cause of God's family being held back because God is displeased with what some members of the family are doing.

We have an accountability, and sometimes that accountability may be brought to you if there is something going on that is apart from the standards that our father, the head of this family, has brought to us. In Romans 14, verse 12, Romans 14, verse 12, Paul writes, Each of us, each, that's me, that's you, that's every individual out there, each of us, shall give account of himself to God. Each. That's part of what we've been called to.

That's part of what we do. That's part of what we're doing every day. We're not in this as a Sabbath only attempt of church, but a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week family that we're part of.

When God, if we've been baptized, put his DNA in us, as we talked about a few weeks ago, when his Holy Spirit was put in us, that made us part of his family. It gave us his mind. It gave us the power, the love, the sound mind that God wants us to have, that we could understand his things and have the strength to obey him and be part of his family, a productive, growing member of his family that has the goal of being born into the kingdom of God and serving God in the way that he has determined and serving whoever it is that he wants us to serve for eternity in however he determines. He's made his, he's put his spirit in us, and that spirit binds us together.

I mentioned the saying that blood is thicker than water. The Holy Spirit is thicker than blood. The Holy Spirit is thicker than blood. We are the family of God. We are his children. And when we, and we obey our Father in heaven first, we all have the blood ties. We all have those family ties that we have, and we go out of our way many times to do what our family wants us to do. And that's good. We should have good relationships with our physical family. They should see the type of Christian you are, even if they don't agree with your beliefs, even if they think that you've gone off the deep end because of what you do and how you live. They still should see us as the people in Jerusalem looked at that Acts 2 church and say, you know what? They're good people. They're good people, and I hold them in high esteem. I hold them in high esteem, even though they do keep a day that I don't want to keep, and holy, and other days that I don't understand. That should be our reputation that's out there. Those ties are deep. The ties to our spiritual family are thicker.

And if God our Father says, do something, it transcends or it supersedes anything else.

We do what our Father says first. The Holy Spirit is thicker than blood.

We know what we do. We're part of the same family. We have responsibilities to each other, and there is accountability that goes along with it, just like accountability in the classrooms that we talked about a couple weeks ago that we went to in elementary school.

You had attendance lists. You had tests. You had scores. You had report cards. Your parents knew what you were doing. If you were sloughing off on the job and your report card didn't come home the way you want, you knew you were going to pay the price. You were going to get a lecture or worse because we always adhere to the highest standards to uphold the family name.

How much more, when you and I have taken God's name, when we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, when we've taken His name and God said, don't you take my name in vain? Don't you take it lightly? You make sure that you are paying attention to the family that you've been part of, and you understand your responsibility to the Father and your accountability to Him, to Jesus Christ, and to each other. Just as it is in a physical family, we have the physical, we have that responsibility and there are accountability toward each other.

Turn back to Ezekiel 14. Look at a few examples here. This first example will be about children.

Ezekiel 14, we're going to pick it up in verse...

Now let's pick it up in verse 17.

It begins in verse 12. Any time God repeats things many times, it does bear our attention.

But you can go back and you can read verses 12 through 16 and see what He's saying. In verse 17 of Ezekiel 14, He says, Or if I bring a sword on that land, and I say, Sword, go through the land, and I cut off man and beast from it, even though these three men were in it. As I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

What He's saying there is, each will give an account of himself before God.

If these three men, verse 19 or verse 20, we see in verses before that, that's Noah, Daniel, and Job, three men who are very good examples of physical fathers, and obeying God, and giving their lives totally and wholly over to Him.

I know one of those men, I'm going to read verses 19 and 20 to finish this section up. Verse 19, it says, Or if I send the pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury on it, in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter, they would only deliver themselves by their righteousness.

What does it tell you, young people? What does it tell us about the way God works? Each will give an account to Himself. Each has the responsibility of living up to the family standards. Each has the responsibility of bringing glory to God's name, the family name, by the way we live, and by when we mess up acknowledging it and turning to God more and more completely as we grow up and understand more of what our Father expects.

You know, Job is interesting. If you remember back in the first chapter of Job, God said Job was blameless. He obeyed what God said. He was completely committed to God, but He had these sons and these daughters. And you remember in the first chapter there, he would talk about they would do these feasts, they would do these feasts, and they would go on, I guess, for days or whatever, and Job would take the time to sacrifice for those sons and daughters in case they did something that displeased God. Job was doing what any of us as physical fathers would do.

We would very much like to give our lives for our children. If we could say, God, do it for my son, do it for my daughters, have them in your kingdom, I'll sacrifice my life for them. We would do it. We would do that in physical situations as well. God says it doesn't work that way. Each one by His righteousness. It's tremendous if you have a mother and a father who are committed to God and you have that example. But even if you don't, you have no excuse. You know the truth of God and you know what His standards are.

And as much as we would like to do it for our children, as much as children would like to say, I could just ride on my parents' coattails, it doesn't work that way. As we become older, as we grow up, there's a responsibility to live God's way on our own. There's an accountability to live God's way on our own. To be committed, we have to develop that same character. We have to develop the mindset of God.

We have to commit ourselves, sacrifice ourselves, and do the things that God wants us to do. It's just part of the way the family works. So, children, those of you who are still at home, listen to your parents. Use that classroom at home. Understand what God's will is. He wants to give you eternity. He wants to give you everything good. Don't neglect it. Don't resist it. Don't look at the world and say, oh, it looks so attractive. It's not. It's not. Take the blinders off and let God take the blinders off and look at things from God's eyes, your father's eyes, and your parents' eyes if you're young.

Young people, it's great that you come to church. Come to church. But understand, understand there's a responsibility. God is looking for us to become part of his family and to be accountable and be responsible for what he has opened our minds to see. Let's look at another example in Acts. Acts 5. You know, as we've been going through the book of Acts at Bible studies, there's things that we're learning about the New Testament church. In chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, we've talked about that New Testament church and what God is looking for as he builds that family, things that you and I can look at today and say, is his family today doing things the way that the family did then that God said he was very pleased with?

As it did then when the people from the outside that weren't part of the family looked in and said, you know what, they are good people. They were held in highest aim. They were bringing honor to God's name by the way they lived and the way they were able to be in one accord with one another. We came through to chapter 5 and we find this lesson of accountability and responsibility come our way in the form of Ananias and Sapphira.

As God shows, there is a responsibility and there is an accountability for what we do in his church, in his family, their standards that we adhere to. I'm not going to read the whole story of Ananias and Sapphira.

We did that on Bible study. You know the story. Ananias and Sapphira looked at what the people that were doing. Others were selling their land that they were giving it all and laying it to the apostles' feet. They wanted to be seen in the same guise. They had some kind of motive, some kind of intent, only God knows what that is, but what they did together was conspire to lie to the family.

God is not about lying. God is not about game playing. God is not about hypocrisy. God is about the truth. And what he says, ideas are truth in the inward part. But here comes Ananias and Sapphira, and interestingly enough, they come individually, not together as a team.

Ananias appears, lays down the money. Peter looks at him. Is this what you sold your property for?

Ananias, who has conspired with his wife, says yes. Peter, under the inspiration of God, knows you brought dishonor to God's name. You're sitting here. You've been baptized. You have God's Holy Spirit, and you're lying to God? That's not of the family. That's of the other family of the world. Ananias pays a steep price. He dies. Three hours later, his wife comes, Sapphira.

She doesn't know her husband has died. And so Peter asks her, is this what she sold the land for?

Well, she remembers the agreement she made with her husband. And perhaps, perhaps... Well, I won't say perhaps, because we know what she did. She said yes. She lied too.

She lied too. And the same thing befell her. And Peter told her, how could you conspire to lie against God, lie to the Holy Spirit, lie, lie and think you could get away with it? That's not the family that you are in now. And she dies, and she's carried away. There's an accountability. There's a responsibility that we do what God says. But Ananias and Sapphira failed each other as well. Husband and wife conspired together whether it was Ananias's idea who said, you know what, let's just tell them we're going to give half or whatever the percentage was, and let's just tell them it's everything to make us look good, to make sure we are on the same level as everyone else. Peter tells them that wasn't required. You didn't have to give anything. You came forth with it. If it was Ananias's idea, Sapphira had the responsibility as a helpmate to her husband to say, Ananias, we're not going to do that. If we're going to give half, we're just going to tell them, you know what, this is what we're comfortable in giving right now, and it'll be okay. You know, helpmate means more than just, I'm keeping the house well, I'm taking care of the kids, and I got the groceries in the store. And even the spiritual education, when you see husband, or if it was Sapphira whose idea it was, it was Ananias's responsibility to say, no way.

No way. We're going to keep this straight. This is what God said. We have to do it his way. And if we decided not to give it all, we're going to be upfront and say, we're not giving it all. It would have been fine. Husbands and wives, you have a responsibility to each other. If one is seeing things incorrectly, you have a responsibility to say, no, we're going to do it God's way.

I'm not going to reason with you. I'm not going to agree with you. Remember, it's our father first, his way first, not husband's way first, not wife's way first. Father, our Father in heaven's way first. That's what a good helpmate would be. That's what a good leader would be. No, we're not doing it that way. We're doing it God's way. Adam and Eve fell into the same trap, didn't they? Back at the beginning of human history, we see the pattern of what could happen. Here's Adam and Eve. You know the story so well. They're in the Garden of Eden.

Satan, in the form of a serpent, comes and he begins sweet-talking Eve. All the clever and charming little things that he would say. All the way that he appeared is just this angel of light, this very friendly person who is going to try to help her feel good and help her to see what she had the opportunity to do. The Bible tells us that Eve, it worked in her mind, worked and worked on her mind until she finally took of that forbidden fruit. She bit it. She bit it. She didn't have the strength to say no. She didn't have the strength to say no, even though she knew God, even though she was walking in the garden, even so they saw the beautiful things that God had provided for them. Adam wasn't with her at that time. Or if Adam was, Eve didn't take the time to consult with Adam and say, what do you think about this, honey?

The serpent has some interesting things to say. Do you think we should take of the fruit, or should we reject it and follow what God said?

She took it up on herself. She made the decision for the family. We reject God. We choose Satan.

The pretty big decision, wouldn't you say? Something she should have consulted, and Adam and Eve, they should have talked together about it. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy, I think 1 verse 14, Adam wasn't deceived. He knew what the truth was. It was leave who was deceived.

He knew better. But in Genesis 3 verse 17, we can turn back there, Genesis 3, 17, we see what God said to Adam. To Adam, God, our Father, he said, Because you have heeded, or listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat, and then all these curses are going to be upon you. Life is going to be difficult.

What was Adam's sin? He put Eve before God. Family ties are great. God wanted Adam and Eve to be one. He wants every man and woman that gets married to be one flesh. He wants you and me as family to become one in accord.

But Adam chose Eve over God. I'll follow her instead of you, God. That was his statement. Eve said, I'll follow Satan before I follow you, God. Adam said, I'll follow Eve. I'll choose blood over what should have been thicker than blood, the relationship with God. They both suffered.

They both got ushered out of the Garden of Eden. They all lived much more difficult lives than probably they could have imagined. But they were cut off. They were cut off from God.

They simply did not do and live up to the honor of living by God's standards.

Maybe you and I have done some of those same things. Maybe you and I have transgressed, decided to follow someone else or something else and put it before God. It's something that we've all done at some time in our lives. Hopefully as we grow older, we realize and we stop and think, I honor our Father in heaven before my Father on earth. If my Father on earth is asking me to do something that's different or that would transgress the will of my Father in heaven, something we might want to pause and think about every time we're confronted with that. Because we know what the standards of the family are. God makes no bones about it. It's crystal clear what he wants. We just have to accept it, acknowledge it, work toward it. If we're going to be part of his family, he's made it clear, as we read back in Joshua 12 and as he makes today, as he tells us in the New Testament, to be part of his family, we need to become like Jesus Christ.

Who was Jesus Christ? He obeyed God in every form, even to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his life. Because that was the will of his Father for us.

If we, over the course of our lifetimes, don't show God the same willingness to follow him in whatever we do and to sacrifice what this one wants or that one wants or what our heart wants or what our desire wants or what we're led to. If we aren't looking and using God's Holy Spirit in our minds to discern good from evil, right from wrong, to give us the strength to say, I choose God, even though I really want this. Before I turn from Acts 5, we should have read Acts 5, verse 29. You know the lesson of Ananias and Sapphira.

As Peter says, as they're even confronted, as Peter and the apostles, as we've talked about in the Sanhedrin, the powers that be of that day said, we don't want you talking about Jesus Christ anymore. Forget his name. Modern day, cancel. Cancel his name. Cancel his message. We don't want to hear it. Peter rightly says something we should all understand is part of our responsibility and we will be accountable to God for. Verse 29, Acts 5, we ought to obey God rather than men.

No matter who those men are, no matter what office they hold, no matter what line in our physical families they might be, we ought to obey him rather than God or rather than men.

That's our individual responsibilities. But you know part is a family. The family that God has put you and me in, here in Orlando, here in Jacksonville, here wherever you are, is we have a responsibility to each other. He makes that very clear. I'm not going to turn to Hebrews 10, verses 24 and 25, because you know. You've heard me say that so many times. He says, consider, don't forsake the assemblings of yourselves together. Consider one another to stir up love and good works. Be there for each other. Encourage each other to honor your father. Bring glory to his name. To do the things that God wants you to do. To be accountable for that. Accountable would be. Where does God want you to be? At the times he says to be there. How does God want you to handle this situation? Who do I choose to obey first? Man, family, employer, neighborhood, school schedule, whatever it might be. Who do I choose to obey first? Acts 5, 29 tells us.

Very straightforward language. Can't confuse it. Can't make any excuses for it. God doesn't give us a list of excuses. Well, you don't have to do this if xyz happens. No, he's pretty clear.

If you are going to bring glory to my name, if you're going to bear my family name, don't take it in vain. Do what I say.

In the book of Galatians 6, it lets us know that we have a responsibility to each other. We have a responsibility to God, of course. We have a responsibility to Jesus Christ, of course. We will be accountable to Him. Each one of us will give account to God. In Galatians 6, we see that we're responsible and accountable to each other, too. We're building the building that God wants, the temple He wants. He wants us to be strong links. No one wants to be the weakest link. I hope, I hope, that's what we're here for.

Galatians 6, verse 1, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. If we see our brother failing in some way, if we see the laxity, we never approach anyone with a sense of judgment or superiority. But in gentleness, how are things going? We missed you. I've seen this or I've heard this, and I'm concerned about, I'm concerned about you because you don't seem to be doing the things that you need to do. And you may hear a litany of excuses. Hopefully you would hear someone who's converted and with God's, led by God's Holy Spirit, who would acknowledge it and say, you know, you're right. Thank you. Thank you for helping me to see what I'm doing and help me to get back on the track. In fact, maybe you could help me. If you see me doing this again, call me. Email me. I need someone to work with me to help me do what I know that I should be doing. Sometimes I need, and I know God is with me and I know his Holy Spirit will be there, but sometimes I need someone else to just give me that pride to be accountable for. You know, I would say that to you of myself. If any of you ever see anything that is not right in your eyes, if we're ever doing anything or I'm doing anything that you say or think, you know, that shouldn't be done that way. Let's look in the Bible. Please bring it to me. That's part of your responsibility and part of my responsibility to you. It's not pleasant. It's not pleasant, but I can guarantee you, I can guarantee you if you bring something to me, I'm not going to jump down your throat. I'm not going to be mad. I'm not going to cut you off and not talk to you anymore. I'm going to be thankful. We will sit down and we will look at it and we will do it the way God says. None of us are perfect. All of us can make mistakes.

And I don't mean mistakes doctrinally, but even if you have a question on that, we go back to the Bible and look at it. So don't ever be afraid to bring something up.

We are part of the same family. We are all working toward the same for, we're all in the same family that God the Father, our Father, has called us to. You know, as you look through the Bible, you know, verse 2 here, I'm going to read before I make this next comment, it says, bear one another's burdens. Bear one another's burdens. Contemplate that for a while and what it means, another familiar verse, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. It's part of our responsibility as family members, as members of the family of God, part of our responsibility to do that. Watch out for one another, consider one another, to stir up love and good works, look at what other's needs are. Physical, yes, but spiritual as well.

You know, what's interesting is you look through the Bible and you see God working in groups of two's so many times. As he used Moses to bring lead Israel out of Egypt, he had Aaron right there by his side. Moses was the commander, if you will. Aaron was the high priest. Down through the nation of Israel, you had a king and a high priest. You had two that were working. They should have been working with one another so that the law of God, the way of God, would always be there. King might have an idea. High priest would say, that's not in the way of God, we can't do that.

High priest might take some interpretation, but King would be like, wait a minute, is that the way God the Father, our Father, would have it done? Because sometimes we need that ironing, ironing, the sharpens iron. And we need each other to say, what about this and what about that? Let's go back to the Bible. Let's do it good God's way. That's good. You see Moses and Aaron. You see Paul and Barnabas. You see Paul and Timothy. You see Jesus Christ when he was sending out the disciples of 70 and then 12. What did he do? He sent them out two by two. He didn't send them one out because sometimes one making a decision all by himself can go totally off of the deep end. If we just keep our things to ourselves and we make all the decisions by ourselves without any kind of input from anyone else, we can be deceived even if we think we're praying to God. And we think we think he's leading us. We sometimes can confuse our will with God's will and justify what we would do. But two working together, or three as it says in Ecclesiastes 4, the threefold cord cannot be broken.

Understand we have responsibilities to each other. And to do those we need to know each other. We need to understand each other. We need to know that and we need to know that each other loves us. Let's look at James 5. In James 5 here, there's in the last chapter here of James, there are some interesting verses along this way. In verse 16 of James 5, as he's wrapping up the book, James, under the inspiration of God, says, confess. Confess your trespasses to one another.

Remember what Joshua said to Achan? Glorify your father. Glorify the Lord God by confessing your sins to confessing your sins. Confess your trespasses to one another. Doesn't mean we need to tell them to everyone. We certainly confess them to God. Sometimes we might need to ask someone else to help us in something confidentially. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. And that healing isn't just physical, but it's also spiritual and we all need. None of us are completely spiritually whole. We all have a ways to go. There are healings in our life that you and I are going to have to face going forward. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Down in verse 19, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the era of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Does God ever give us the opportunity to be responsible for our brother?

He does. He does. He gives us opportunities all along the way to fulfill what his will is.

Our Father has the standards and He wants His children working with one another, learning to trust one another as the Spirit leads them, working with one another to keep us all on the path of what our Father's will is. And sometimes He gives us that opportunity. How do we handle it? You know, in the millennium, the very first thing the bride of Christ will do is work with people who have to be told, that's not the way to do it. That's not the way to do it. Got to be done this way. Now's the time for us to be learning how to do that, right? With gentleness, with humility, with love, with concern, literal concern, and not a superior attitude like, I saw you doing this, therefore I know you're wrong. No, out of concern for that person, because you want them to be born into the kingdom of God as a Spirit being, just as you would want your child, your physical child, to do that.

God gives us the opportunities. It is part of our responsibility. It is part of our accountability to each other. We're all here to ask God and to yield to Him that His body would be as strong as He wants it to be. I turn from James. You're still there. Look at verse 9. James 5 verse 9.

Verse 9 says, don't grumble against one another, brethren.

You know, don't talk about one another. Not one of us is a judge. Not one of us has the right to say, oh, look what you did and look how you're doing it, and I'm so much better than you. Every single one of us has things we need to work at, work on, and every single one of us could have someone coming to us and saying, do you know this? Do you know, do you do this? Or whatever.

Don't grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Let God be the judge. Let us not be the judge. That's His job. Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28 and verse 13.

Says, he who covers his sins will not prosper.

Now, there's a responsibility. If we're having trouble with something, you know, ask for help. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned counseling. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Believe me. Believe me. We are here in the Church of God is ready to help.

We're ready to pray. We're ready to use the Word of God to help in whatever way we can, because we want everyone that God calls into his family to be there when Jesus Christ returns and to inherit that inheritance that he gives us if he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Sometimes to God, sometimes we need each other. We know how to help each other, and maybe we need a friend who we can talk to about things. And just, again, not judgment involved, not judgment involved, but genuinely helping each other and those who would have something brought to them to handle it in the correct way as Jesus Christ does, not in a condemning way, not in a superior way, not in a judgmental way, and praying for that purpose, praying for that person and working with that person and helping them to be accountable, even if they say, could I call you every week and talk about something, whatever we need to do to help each other along the way. Well, I think that we see what it is that God wants us to do. We have a tremendous responsibility as fellow members of God's family. Tremendous accountability.

You know, we are our best, I think, as humans when we're doing something for someone else.

Jesus Christ lived his life for you and me. We are at our best when we are serving and living our lives.

And as Paul said, a steaming each more highly than ourselves, willing to sacrifice so that the body is edified.

Let's keep some of these things in mind. Let's remember who our Father is and that the Holy Spirit is thicker than blood. It binds us together. And God's will is, we are one, in his name. And that name you and I have a responsibility to uphold and to glorify in every way that God says to do it. In the things that we do, in the way we present ourselves, and even in the way we are willing to confess and acknowledge our sins because God is glorified when he sees a sinner turning from his sin to the way of God. Let's conclude in 1 John 4.

1 John 4, 21. Christ said, we are our brother's keepers. The apostle John said it this way in 1 John 4, verse 21.

This commandment we have from him, our Father, that he who loves God must love his brother also.

That he who loves God must love his brother also. Family. The responsibilities, the accountability that go with it. Let's be about our Father's business. Let's be the responsible, accountable family members that God would have us become.