Family Matters, Week 1

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

We are also a Church Family- The Kingdom of God is a family

In fact, God chooses to express his relationship with us in terms of a family. He calls us sons and daughters.. We see that Jesus, fully God, fully human, calls God “The Father” Abba- Daddy.

Some church traditions call each other brother/sister

Holy Momma – Example

So here’s the question for today: How can we experience the joy and blessing of a functional family? How can that be true for your home and mine?

The answer to that question involves everyone in this room, whether you’re a young family just getting started or a senior adult living by yourself. It includes families with no children and those with a houseful and single adults.

It extends to children and teenagers who live with parents who don’t attend church and those who worship together as a family unit.

This message is for you because everybody is involved. Everybody can have influence on making whatever family unit you have to be a functional family.

Doesn’t do us any good for us to gripe and complain about what everyone else in the family is or isn’t doing, but never deal with ourselves.

So today I want you to study with me from Ephesians 4 as we seek to gain some insight into how the family of God is supposed to operate, and how it spills over into the family that stays in our home.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

Heading for this section of Scripture- To Be Mature

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

Take this verse by verse and look at the implications for us as a family AND as a family of God.

Look again at this verse- There’s a nuance here-

As a prisoner for the Lord, then,

The letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon are called the prison epistles because Paul wrote them while incarcerated in Rome. He was chained between two Roman guards and held as a prisoner for preaching the gospel.

But notice, Paul doesn’t say he’s writing as a prisoner of Rome. You’d think that’s what he would say. „I, therefore, the prisoner of Rome, beseech you,“ because that’s where he was.

He was a prisoner in Rome, but he doesn’t look at it like that. But he’s not whining about it. He’s not excusing himself so he doesn’t have to walk worthy of his calling.

„I may be held in Rome, but I’m writing to you as a prisoner, a captive of the Lord because He is the One Who is in charge of every circumstance in my life.

The Romans don’t have charge over me. God has charge over me. And even though I’m imprisoned, I’m walking worthy of my calling, and I’m writing to instruct you to do the same, regardless of your circumstances.” (so good!)

Listen: anything and everything that happens in your life, God is over it all. That doesn’t mean that God causes it.

God is not the author of child abuse. He’s not the responsible for sexual abuse. He’s not the author of domestic violence or disease or sickness and death. God hates those things. Those aren’t the will of God.

2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Lots of Keywords in that verse

The word love is in there. Now most of the time, we use those words and this verse and others like it to talk about our relationships in the church. And I’m not against that.

I think all of this should be true of us as brothers and sisters in Christ. But let me remind you of something about Christianity and the church. If it doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work.

Understand what I’m saying? The church has more than enough members who put on a show at the church, but they are not the same at home as what they are in public.

Anybody can clean up and dress up and put on a smile and everybody will think you’re really something down at the church. Lots of people fake it for a couple of hours on Sunday.

But what we are at home is what we really are.

Had a cross country coach- “How you run when no one is looking is who you really are”

And first and foremost, God wants to make a difference in our home. If we will ever know God’s blessing and approval in our outward lives. We have to learn to be the people God wants us to be… at home. (AMEN!)

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In the original translation of this verse- it actually says instead of being completely humble- “ With lowliness and meekness…. It’s interesting that the Greeks didn’t even have a word for Humility but Paul used the word lowliness as a way to describe the attribute that He saw in Christ the most- translated to humility over time.

Now, we need to understand, humility is not thinking less of ourselves than we should. It doesn’t mean you walk around with slumped shoulders talking about how terrible you are. That’s not being poor in spirit; that’s just poor posture!

A humble person is simply someone who doesn’t have to be first all the time. They don’t have to win every fight or always think of themselves before they think of anyone else. A humble person is someone who thinks about other people and their needs and feelings. Humble people aren’t selfish.

And I know it will come as a shock to some of you, but everything doesn’t revolve around you! Life is not all about you! That is the attitude of a selfish, spoiled brat.

And unfortunately in far too many homes, we’ve got grown men and women, husbands and wives acting like little children.

I ran across this little piece called „The Property Laws of a Toddler: Evidences of Original Sin.“

It’s what a little toddler would say if he knew how:

„If I like it, it’s mine. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine. If I can take it from you, it’s mine. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine. If it just looks like mine, it’s mine. If I saw it first, it’s mine. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine. If it’s broken, it’s yours.“

That’s a little kid. But we’ve got full-grown, educated adults still trying to operate by the toddler’s rules.

Especially when it comes to sex in the marriage – Selfishness on both sides- asking too much or demanding OR withholding out of selfishness or resentment- OR how money is spent- who’s hobby gets funded first.

Listen: You will never fix your family and function as God designed if you are full of pride and selfishness. So here is what you do.

Treat your family members as the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.