As God’s family we are learning how we are fully known and fully loved. This awakens something healthy within us to help us be fully loving. Our families and our households should be influenced and blessed by God’s love as our first priority.
Neh 4:14…Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” NIV
Love has a fight that is harnessed by God to release God’s Kingdom through our surrendered available lives. In this place of surrender the Bible teaches us that the fullness of God shows up!
Eph 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ESV
God doesn’t merely conquer our emptiness. He fills us with all the fullness of God so He can overflow from our lives into the lives of those around us. (Eph 3:19) #destinyokc
Phil 3:10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... (AMP)
BIBLICAL FAMILY:
Do you have a Biblical family? If we pause for a moment to consider any Biblical family we might pattern our lives after we quickly see glaring weaknesses.
Adam and Eve were the first family and things didn’t work out so well for them or for any of the rest of us because of them. In fact they experienced child-on-child homicide! Later we find a family that was very significantly used by God, Abraham and Sarah. Abraham had a son by Sarah’s maid initiating a conflict that is still in existence today.
Moving on to more of a sure thing, King David. Surely a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) would provide us with a stellar example to follow. He lied, lead a conspiracy to have a friend murdered after having sex with the guy’s wife and his children wound up being murderers, adulterers and liars as well.
Let’s just move straight to Jesus Himself! Surely the family God chose for Jesus to come through would be impeccable! Well actually these people I’ve mentioned are the family through which Jesus came and there is much more to see. Jesus great, great grandma, Rahab, was a prostitute!
It actually goes on and on and I believe it does so on purpose! Rather than hiding the dirty laundry about God’s family He revealed it right up front so we could all feel right at home with God as part of his crazy imperfect family.
1 Cor 1:27 God chose the “foolish” things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. NIV
The Greek word used in this text for “foolish” is “moros”. This is where we get our word “moron”. How liberating! God is looking for morons! God’s not looking for perfection. In fact it was the pursuit of perfection that was the original sin of humanity. God is looking for imperfect people who help others realize God isn’t purposing to disqualify us. God is purposing to qualify us through Jesus!
Even if you don't have much to work with, realize God showed us in the beginning he could create something out of nothing. #destinyokc
There is no perfect human family. Not even in the Bible. Biblical families aren’t blueprints for how we ought to be. Biblical families remind us we are all fallen people in need of redemption and grace. Let yourself off the hook and be a Biblical family so others can feel the same sense of relief you’re feeling right now hearing this!
The answer isn’t in some grand achievement. The answer is an imperfect yet sincere pursuit. Recently a family watched two messages I did years ago. These two messages are entitled, “So You Want To Date My Daughter” and I actually prepared two messages to help young people trying to find their way through the cultural ideology of dating relationships that are based on so many wrong perspectives. For instance, which of the two verses is actually correct?
Gen 29:20 And Jacob worked seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him like just a few days because of his love for her. NIV
Or: Gen 29:20 And Jacob worked seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him like forty years because of his love for her. NIV
If you are totally in love but not able to be together for 7 long years it makes sense you would be miserable. Actually the first verse is correct. There’s a difference between infatuation and love. Clearly we see cultural ideas in conflict with Biblical ideas. The cultural idea of dating tends to be based on infatuation and seems to be great practice for divorce!
We can’t put the pieces of our lives together if we keep looking at the wrong examples. Once a friend of mine played a joke on me by giving me a puzzle that had the wrong puzzle pieces in the box. It wasn’t until later that I began trying to put the pieces together. Staring at the lid over and over trying to make sense of these pieces that didn’t seem to match at all I only grew more confused. Finally I realized he’d pranked me and I was looking at the wrong lid. This is what most Christians are doing with their lives.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Watch Date My Daughter as family this week making note of highlights then discuss.
So You Want To Date My Daughter: Infatuation
So You Want To Date My Daughter: Friendship & Romance
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
Click here for a downloadable pdf file of this guide.
LEADER’S NOTES: In this season we are addressing how being fully known and being fully loved awakens something healthy within us that makes us fully loving. Our families and our households should be influenced and blessed by God’s love as our first and foremost priority.
THE POINT: God isn’t just wanting us to conquer emptiness. He desires to fill us with all the fullness of God so He can overflow from our lives into our world and this should start in our home. Eph 3:19.
Fully known. Fully loved. FULLY LOVING FAMILY.
Neh 4:14 …Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. NIV
Let people know that you intend to conclude by asking everybody to pray a prayer over their family and other families if they would so desire.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Before hearing Sunday’s message how would you have responded to someone asking you the question, “What is a Biblical family?”
How would you respond now?
When reading the Bible we see some of the most bizarre family situations. The first family in the Bible had a child kill his brother. Lot was seduced by his daughters into a drunken act of sex with them. King David truly was a man after God’s own heart yet he lied, committed adultery and murder and his children did the same.
It really is nothing short of miraculous that we and our families can be fully known and still be fully loved. When we fully realize God’s gracious embrace it really does unlock something significant in the way we love and care for others.
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What stands out to you as you read the following verses?
Eph 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ESV
Conclude by taking time to pray over the families represented in your group reiterating Nehemiah 4:14:
Neh 4:14 …Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. NIV