Pictures of the Church - Part 4

 

 This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on  March 2nd 2025 by Colin. For the audio & video please click here.  For the worship please click here. please click here.

CHURCH AS A FAMILY PART 2

INTRODUCTION

Last week, we examined God's heart toward His creation made in His image. His heart always wanted to have an intimate relationship with us. But we saw how sin corrupted God’s perfect creation. Yet God made a covenant with Abraham's family and then with the nation of Israel, who was supposed to be a model to the rest of the world, but the rebellion was so deeply rooted in their hearts.

And then, in the fullness of time, as prophesied in Gen 3, God sent His only son to die for us while we were steeped in our sin. Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father and to make way for an orphaned planet to find sonship through the Cross. We have been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus and brought into His family. God has expectations for each of us. We need to live to please the Lord. The Bible asks us to “find out what pleases Him”. It is not just function but relationship. In God’s family, the master and worker are brothers. The Cross brings down every barrier and diving wall.

Ps 68:4-6 God is a father to the fatherless and places the lonely in families.

The terms brother and sister are used 169 times in the N.T.

We then looked at God’s family. What are some of our features and characteristics? God is our father, Jesus is the head of the family, He is our brother, we are His household, and we are a caring community that seeks to live in harmony and unity.

We ended by asking where you are in the family circle of life: an infant, child, young adult, reproducing parent, or grandparent. 

Today, let us look at how we function as a family and what we do together.

Jesus saved us to reconcile us to the Father. We have been transferred from being orphans into a family, from one kingdom to another. Our salvation has a plan and purpose: to bring those who are not yet saved into the family.

So, after salvation, it is not a time to sit around and sing lovely songs. We are called to co-labour, co-create, and collaborate with Jesus. We have a job to do within the family and then get involved in the family business or mission to seek the lost.

Each member of the family of God has a role to play. There are no spare tires or parts. 

HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?

 FAMILIAL INTIMACY

It is not a formal relationship. Jn13:34-35 We are commanded to love one another. What does this love look like? It means we care for one another in practice, ways to demonstrate love.

1Jn3:18 – Let us not love in words but in deeds also.

• John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
• 1 John 4:7 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

WE FELLOWSHIP AND ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER

Fellowship

• Acts 2:42 – “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
• Hebrews 10:24-25 – “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”

Do we have faithful brothers and sisters who will tell us when we are getting led astray? We ought to do this in a Christian family.

We carry each other’s burdens

• Galatians 6:2 – “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.” V5, each one should carry its own load.

Burdens are crises and emergencies. We must bear each other's burdens, and the church must come together to help. Whose burden are you bearing?

WE PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER

We have seen tremendous answers to prayer as we have been praying every day. This week is when we gather as a church to pray. Let us be faithful in prayer.

• James 5:16 – “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
• Ephesians 6:18 – “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
• Matt 21:13 “It is written,” he said to them, “ My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
  
  

WE GROW SPIRITUALLY TOGETHER

• Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.”
• Ephesians 4:15-16 – “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.”

SERVE ONE ANOTHER

1 Pet 4:10-11. Gal5:13.

Use your gifts to serve others. Use your freedom to serve one another.

Mk10:45 Jesus was our model – He came to serve. We are called to serve our church family.

We will look more into how we live as a family the next time.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.