Introduction
Remember last week how I mentioned the “Connect the Dots” Activity, where you draw a line from dot #1 to dot #2, then to #3, and so on. And when you’re done, a picture is revealed. And then. I shared how, through our lives, we get “dots” of spiritual information about God, but we sometimes fail to “connect the dots” with God the way He wants us to.
Today I want to talk about “Connecting the Dots with God’s Family.” You see, today, if people are going to attend church, they are going to go either where they already have a connection with someone, or where they can quickly develop a connection, or friendship. And if they don’t develop a connection, they will likely look for another church. And if it happens often enough, they will stop going to church altogether.
So, it’s important to connect the dots with God’s family.
We like to be a part of a group, don’t we? We like to be accepted. How do high schoolers introduce themselves? “I’m so-and-so, and I’m a junior or a senior.” We sometimes introduce ourselves by where we work. “I’m so-and-so, and I work for the electric company, or the phone company.” If you’re at a family reunion, you may say you are part of a certain branch of the family tree.
Spiritually, the same thing is true. Whenever a minister meets people out in the community, do you know how they introduce themselves? “I’m so-and-so, and I belong to the Baptist church, or the Methodist church.”
We like to be known by the groups of people we interact with. God made us that way, and He did so, because He ultimately wants us to become a part of His group—His family—the church.
1. God Made you to become a Part of His Family
Ephesians 1: 5, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. (NLT)”
Look at some of these phrases:
“his unchanging plan”-This is what God has always wanted.
And then He uses the powerful concept of “adoption.” We understand that through some set of circumstances—maybe death, or rejection or other things which show that the natural parents may be unfit—a child has lost the his or her parents. And yet, someone comes along and takes that child in to be a part of a new family, where this child will be loved, cared for, provided for, protected, taught, even disciplined to train the child. God has always wanted to bring us into His family. So He provided a way—through His Son, Jesus. It brought God “much pleasure,” or joy, that, even through the death of His Son, He was making a way to bring sinful man into His family. You see, it’s through faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord that we begin to “connect this dot” with God’s family.
Sadly, not everyone will choose to become a part of God’s family, because they refuse to confess their sin, and surrender their lives to Jesus.
But for those who do make this connection, there are some...
2. Benefits of Being Active Part in God’s Family
A. Grow Together
Rick Warren, in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, says this:
You will never grow to [spiritual] maturity just by attending worship services and being a passive spectator. Only participation in the full life of a local church builds spiritual muscle.
The Bible agrees with that. Ephesians 4: 16 says, “Under His [Jesus’] direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (NLT)”
We grow together. Last week I talked about “Connecting the Dots with God,” and I mentioned how we connect with God by talking to Him through prayer and listening to Him by studying His Word. If we are making that connection with God, then God will be teaching us things, and He will be showing us how to apply them into our lives. Well, if we are “Connecting the Dots with God’s family,” one of the ways God will use is to share what He’s teaching us with someone else. This may be the very thing they need to make the next spiritual step in their lives to a deeper commitment to Christ.
We can grow together in our faith when we are connected and active in God’s family.
B. Help One Another
Last Sunday night, I talked about ministering within the church to other believers. One of the verses I used was Galatians 5: 13, “For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.” Paul even wrote in 1 Corinthians 12: 7, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church. (NLT)”
You see, we are not able to accomplish individually everything that God wants to do in the world. We are not all physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, socially, or relationally capable of doing everything.
Every now and then, I will have a home repair project to do. I don’t mind trying to do some of these things. When we lived in South Dakota, there was a time when the toilet got clogged up. Well, the first thing I did was use a plunger, and it cleared it. But the very next time we had to put toilet paper in there, it clogged again. It happened two or three more times, and I thought, “something’s clogged further down or something.” I bought one of those snakes that you stick down in there and turn the handle, and it’s supposed to “roto-root” everything out. And it seemed to work, but it clogged up again the very next time. So I thought, “It’s got to be clogged down in the pipes.” Now, I had never removed a toilet bowl from the floor before, so I was in new territory. I unscrewed the bolt that were holding the toilet in place, turned off the water, disconnected the water line, and flushed to make sure the water got out of the tank. Then I picked up the toilet and put it in the bathtub. If you have never done this before, it’s GROSS! I look down in the pipe; I can’t see anything. I use the snake and go as far as it will go. Seems like it’s all right. I had to replace the wax ring (it’s about this big around, this thick—looks like a big ol’ doughnut). I put the toilet back in place, bolted it down, connected the water, turned the water on, and it clogged again the next time we used it. I went through this whole thing two more times. Finally, a couple of guys from the church said they’d come look at it; they did the same thing I did, only they took the toilet outside, turned it upside down, and sprayed water from the hose through the bottom. Out came a pen that had been trapped in the toilet. It would cause the clog, but could be cleared the paper was wet enough to break apart.
But I needed help, and I got help from some guys who are part of God’s family. God has made us all different, and has given us different abilities, gifts, and experiences that have prepared us to be a help to other believers in God’s family.
C. Encourage One Another
Hebrews 3: 13, “But exhort [or, encourage] one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (NKJV)”
Life is hard. Things are changing, and a lot of times, we’ll say it’s getting worse and worse. Many things that are considered sins in God’s Word are accepted by our culture and openly practiced. Attitudes of materialism and greed are promoted by TV, movies, radio, and magazines. Even people who claim to be Christians fail to see these things as wrong because of the messages we’ve heard from non-Christian media.
It’s getting easier to give in to temptation and sin. Some temptations we may be strong enough to withstand, and some we may not. So, we need to be connected with God’s family, so that someone can encourage us not to give in to sin.
I’ve never had personal experience with an organization like Alcoholics Anonymous, but it’s my understanding that if you go there and want to stop drinking, someone will come along side of you, partner with you, to be an encourager. And when the temptation to drink seems too strong to stand, you can call and talk to that person any time day or night.
That can be one of the same benefits of being connected with someone in the church—finding that encouragement as we need it.
There are other things we could probably mention here, but the idea is that most anything going on in life that you would share with your family, you can share those things in God’s family, when you’ve connected that dot with someone in the church.
3. Ways You Can Connect the Dots with God’s Family
Worship Service Attendance is a great place to start if you don’t regularly get together with other Christians. We have a brief greeting time, so that people can get around and say, “Hi,” and introduce themselves to visitors. Now, it’s not the best place to connect with God’s family, because you don’t get to know people on a deeper level or share that spiritual family experience together. So you really need to take another step, and get involved in a much smaller gathering of believers.
We have several opportunities to get together in smaller groups: Sunday School, Discipleship classes, Women’s Ministry, Men’s Ministry, and so on. Some churches use home study groups exclusively as a way to help people connect with other believers.
Finally, if what we offer on a church-wide scale doesn’t fit what you need spiritually, there’s another option. Invite a few other believers over to your home or to some central place for a time of study and discussing what God’s Word says, and fellowshipping together.
Conclusion
The key thing for us here is to realize that when we have trusted in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are not to live the spiritual life alone. We need to connect with other believers. It takes commitment to work at making that connection.
I urge you, don’t be one that just comes to a worship service and leaves, and that’s the extent of your spiritual life. Make the commitment to get involved in the lives of other Christians.
I’ve talked this morning about making a connection with God’s family. It may be that there is someone here who hasn’t yet become a part of God’s family. God loves you and wants you to be connected to Him and His family, but our sin keeps that from happening. God sent His Son, Jesus to die for our sin, so that we wouldn’t have to face the eternal punishment for our sin. And as we confess our sin to God, and believe what the Bible teaches about Jesus, and commit our lives to let Him be in control, He adopts us into His family. If you need to do that, you can pray right where you are, or I’ll be standing here at the front in a moment when we sing, and I invite you to come forward and say, “I know I’m not part of God’s family, but I want to become a part of it today.”
