Made To Be In God's Family Series

Families are great things! In fact one of the perks about coming to Sandridge was moving closer to my extended and immediate family. And some of My greatest and fondest memories are of Sunday afternoons at my grandparents house- Squeezing all of us in a compact car to ride into the country or all of us piling onto my grandmothers bed, and just talking, or eating piping hot bubbly macaroni and cheese and eating heavy crusted fried chicken. I could go on and on and I bet you could too. Family is important. Our families are something that we all treasure and value. As we make our way through our journey towards a life of purpose and focus we come upon purpose Number two: “You were Made to be in God’s Family!” Listen to what Ephesians 1:5 says:

The Bible says, “His (God’s) unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.”

The word adopt carries a lot of power. Sometimes children are born into families where they are unwanted, but seldom is a child adopted into a home who is not extremely wanted. Many families jump through many hoops and much red tape and gut wrenching risk just to adopt. God desired a family and the entire theme of our Bible is the story of God drawing us to that family. But just as adoption is a choice we have the choice to claim this adoption or not.

And while we flesh out and live out our life within God’s family. God has created another spiritual family on earth to connect with and it is called the church. I Peter 2:17 in the message translation says to: “Love your spiritual family.”

God wants us to be about loving our spiritual brothers and sisters- our fellow church members. He wants us to connect with his church and thus connect to our spiritual family.

So how do we do that? This morning I would like to share four action points that will help you connect to your spiritual family, His church.

The first action is to Choose to belong, choose to connect

Ephesians 2:19 says: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”

In order to take this action you must CHOOSE to get involved- To Belong- But what does it mean to Belong

You need to envision yourself as a puzzle piece- just one piece of perhaps a 50, 100, or larger piece puzzle. And You need to choose to allow your piece to be placed into the bigger puzzle. How many of you know the frustration of putting a puzzle together only to find out that a piece or two is missing? You, even you, are needed and necessary in this your Spiritual family.

Romans 12:5 says: “In the same way, even though we are many individuals, Christ makes us one body and individuals who are connected to each other.”

We must be connected to each other before we can have any depth in our family and to order to be connected we must choose to belong!

But practically what does this mean:

It means if you are an attender and have never chosen to join this church and become a member then you need to do it.

It means that if you are a member but attend irregularly then you need to attend more regularly.

It means that if you seldom contribute to the finances of the family by tithing 10 percent of what God has given you in the form of a paycheck, you need to do it

It means if you don’t attend a bible study class then make an effort to attend

It means ask the Lord to show you and whatever he says to do, Do it.

Make the choice today to Belong.

A second action needed is to learn to share.

Acts 2:44 says “All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other.”

As many of you know I have a toddler and a baby in my home and sometimes for whatever reason they don’t like to share. Even at an early age unable to speak many words Caleb clearly lets you know that something is his we he holds it tightly to himself refusing to let it go.

Many of us have so much to share, but just like Faith we clutch her stuff tightly and yell Mine.

As a church family we must share…

We must share our physical means

Right now if a stranger came to your door and asked to borrow you car, or needed money, or a place to stay you would most likely not say yes.

But if a family member were to come to that same door our attitude would change. If it was possible we would share what we have. In fact some of you who are parents would choose to do without just to make sure your child was taken care of.