Purpose 2: Your were Formed for God’s Family

Day15 - Formed for God’s Family

God is the one who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory.(Hebrews2:10 NCV)

You were formed for God's family.

God wants a family, and he created you to be a part of it. This is God's second purpose for your life, which he planned before you were born. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love him, honor him, and reign with him forever.

Because God is love, he treasures relationships. His very nature is relational, and he identifies himself in family terms: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Trinity is God's relationship to himself.

God has always existed in loving relationship to himself, so he has never been lonely. He didn't need a family-he desired one, so he devised a plan to create us, bring us into his family, and share with us all he has. This gives God great pleasure.

When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family. The family of God includes all believers in the past, the present, and the future.

You became part of the human family by your first birth, but you become a member of God's family by your second birth. God "has given us the privilege of being born again, so that we are now members of God's own family."(1Peter1:3)

The invitation to be part of God's family is universal, but there is one condition: faith in Jesus. The Bible says, "You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus."(Galathians4:7)

Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, often broken, by divorce, distance, growing old, and inevitably, death. On the other hand, our spiritual family-our relationship to other believers-will continue throughout eternity. It is a much stronger union, a more permanent bond, than blood relationships.

BENEFITS OF BEING IN GOD'S FAMILY

The moment you were spiritually born into God's family, you were given some astounding birthday gifts: the family name, the family likeness, family privileges, family intimate access, and the family inheritance! The Bible says, "Since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you." (Galathians4:7)

What exactly does that inheritance include?

First, we will get to be with God forever.(1Thessalonians4:17)

Second, we will be completely changed to be like Christ.(1John3:2)

Third, we will be freed from all pain, death, and suffering.(Revelation21:4)

Fourth, we will be rewarded and reassigned positions of service.(Mark9:41, Matthew25:23)

Fifth, we will get to share in Christ's glory. What an inheritance! You are far richer than you realize.(Romans8:17)

BAPTISM: IDENTIFYING WITH GOD'S FAMILY

Healthy families have family pride, members are not ashamed to be recognized as a part of the family.

Baptism is not an optional ritual, to be delayed or postponed. It signifies your inclusion in God's family. It publicly announces to the world, "I am not ashamed to be a part of God's family.

“Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”(Matthew28:19)

Baptism is pregnant with meaning. Your baptism declares your faith, shares Christ's burial and resurrection, symbolizes your death to your old life, and announces your new life in Christ. It is also a celebration of your inclusion in God's family.

Your baptism is a physical picture of a spiritual truth. It represents what happened the moment God brought you into his family.

Baptism doesn't make you a member of God's family; only faith in Christ does that. Baptism shows you are part of God's family.

Like a wedding ring, it is a visible reminder of an inward commitment made in your heart. It is an act of initiation, not something you put off until you are spiritually mature. The only biblical condition is that you believe.(Acts2:41)

LIFE'S GREATEST PRIVILEGE

The Bible says, “Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why

he isn't ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters."(Hebrew2:11)

 Let that amazing truth sink in. You are a part of God's family, and because Jesus makes you holy, God is proud of you!

Being included in God's family is the highest honor and the greatest privilege you will ever receive. Nothing else comes close. Whenever you feel unimportant, unloved, or insecure, remember to whom you belong.

Day 16 - What Matters Most

No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.(1Corinthians13:3b)

Peter tells us, “Show special love for God’s people.”

Paul echoes this sentiment “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers”

Why do they get priority in loving? Because God wants his family to be known for its love more than anything else

Jesus said “Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples”(John13:35)

The best use of life is Love

After learning to love God (worship), learning to love others is the second purpose of your life

Love will last forever

Love leaves a legacy.

We will be evaluated on our love

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”(Matthew25:40)

When you transfer into eternity, you will leave everything else behind. All you are taking with you is your character.

The best expression of love is Time

Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it.

When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you will never get back.

Your time is your life.

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. "God so loved the world that he gave his Son."(John3:16)  Love means giving up-yielding my preferences, comfort, goals, security, money, energy, or time for the benefit of someone else.

The best time to love is Now

The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is Now.

Day17 - A Place to Belong

God's family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.(1Timothy 3:15b GWT)

The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated from other believers and deprived of fellowship. The Bible says we are put together, joined together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, and held together and will be caught up together.(Thessalonians4:17)  You're not on your own anymore.

While your relationship to Christ is personal, God never intends it to be private. In God's family you are connected to every other believer, and we will belong to each other for eternity.

The Bible says, "In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."(Romans12:5)

For the organs of your body to fulfill their purpose, they must be connected to your body. The same is true for you as a part of Christ's Body. You were created for a specific role, but you will miss this second purpose of your life if you're not attached to a living, local church.

The person who says, "I don't need the church," is either arrogant or ignorant. The church is so significant that Jesus died on the cross for it. "Christ loved the church and gave his life for it."(Ephesians5:25)

God commands us to love the church as much as Jesus does. The Bible says, "Love your spiritual family."(1Peter2:17)  Sadly, many Christians use the church but don't love it.

YOUR LOCAL FELLOWSHIP

Today's culture of independent individualism has created many spiritual orphans "bunny believers" who hop around from one church to another without any identity, accountability, or commitment. Many believe one can be a "good Christian" without joining (or even attending) a local church, but God would strongly disagree. The Bible offers many compelling reasons for being committed and active in a local fellowship.

WHY YOU NEED A CHURCH FAMILY

A church family identifies you as a genuine believer.

When we come together in love as a church family from different backgrounds, race, and social status, it is a powerful witness to the world. You are not the Body of Christ on your own. You need others to express that. “Together, not separated, we are his Body.''(1Coriainthians12:27)

A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation. The local church is the classroom for learning how to get along in God's family. It is a lab for practicing unselfish, sympathetic love. As a participating member you learn to care about others and share the experiences of others: "If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor"(1Corinthians12:26)

A church family helps you develop spiritual muscle.

Over fifty times in the New Testament the phrase "one another" or "each other" is used. We are commanded to love each other, pray for each other, encourage each other, admonish each other, greet each other, serve each other, teach each other, accept each other, honor each other, bear each other's burdens, forgive each other, submit to each other, be devoted to each other, and many other mutual tasks. This is biblical membership!

It may seem easier to be holy when no one else is around to frustrate your preferences, but that is a false, untested holiness. Isolation breeds deceitfulness; it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us.

The Body of Christ needs you

"A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church."(1Corinthians12:7)

Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; he has promised to build his church.

You will share in Christ's mission in the world.

When Jesus walked the earth, God worked through the physical body of Christ, today he uses his spiritual body.

A church family will help keep you from backsliding.

A related benefit of a local church is that it also provides the spiritual protection of godly leaders. God gives shepherd leaders the responsibility to guard, protect, defend, and care for the spiritual welfare of his flock. We are told, "Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God."(Hebrews13:17)

IT'S ALL IN THE CHURCH

In the book “The Purpose-Driven Church”, I explain how being part of a healthy church is essential to living a healthy life. I hope you will read that book, too, because it will help you understand how God designed his church specifically to help you fulfill the five purposes he has for your life.

He created the church to meet your five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on. There is no other place on earth where you can find all five of these benefits in one place.

God's purposes for his church are identical to his five purposes for you. Worship helps you focus on God; Fellowship helps you face life's problems; Discipleship helps fortify your faith; Ministry helps find your talents; Evangelism helps fulfill your mission.

There is nothing else on earth like the church!

YOUR CHOICE

The Christian life is more than just commitment to Christ; it includes a commitment to other Christians.

You become a Christian by committing yourself to Christ, but you become a church member by committing yourself to a specific group of believers. The first decision brings salvation; the second brings fellowship.

Day18 - Experiencing Life Together

How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony!(Psalm 133:1 TEV)

Life is meant to be shared.

God intends for us to experience life together. The Bible calls this shared experience fellowship.

It is experiencing life together. It includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other "one another" commands found in the New Testament.

In real fellowship people experience authenticity. Authentic fellowship is not superficial, surface-level chit-chat. It is genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level, sharing. It happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

The Bible says, "If we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other.... If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves."(1John1:7,8)

The world thinks intimacy occurs in the dark, but God says it happens in the light. Darkness is used to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.

The Bible says, "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed."(James5:16)

We only grow by taking risks, and the most difficult risk of all is to be honest with ourselves and with others.

In real fellowship people experience mutuality.

All of us are more consistent in our faith when others walk with us and encourage us. The Bible commands mutual accountability, mutual encouragement, mutual serving, and mutual honoring. Over fifty times in the New Testament we are commanded to do different tasks to "one another" and "each other." The Bible says, "Make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."(Romans14:19)

In real fellowship people experience sympathy.

The Bible commands, "Share each other's troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ."(Galathians6:2)

 It is in the times of deep crisis, grief, and doubt that we need each other most.

When circumstances crush us to the point that our faith falters, that's when we need believing friends the most.

In real fellowship people experience mercy. Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren't rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice.

We all need mercy, because we all stumble and fall and require help getting back on track.

God's mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has already forgiven you.

Many people are reluctant to show mercy because they don't understand the difference between trust and forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past. Trust has to do with future behavior.

The best place to restore trust is within the supportive context of a small group that offers both encouragement and accountability.

For over 2,000 years Christians have regularly gathered in small groups for fellowship. If you've never been a part of a group or class like this, you really don't know what you're missing.

You were created for community.

Day19 - Cultivating Community

You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. (James3:18 Msg)

Community requires commitment.

Only the Holy Spirit can create real fellowship between believers, but he cultivates it with the choices and commitments we make. I It takes both God's power and our effort to produce a loving Christian community.

Cultivating community takes honesty.

The Bible tells us to "speak the truth in love" because we can't have community without candor.

Cultivating community takes humility.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don't think of themselves.

Cultivating community takes courtesy. Courtesy is respecting our differences, being considerate of each other's feelings, and being patient with people who irritate us.

Cultivating community takes confidentiality. Only in the safe environment of warm acceptance and trusted confidentiality will people open up and share their deepest hurts, needs, and mistakes.

Cultivating community takes frequency. The first Christians met together every day! "They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness."(Acts2:46)

We will share our true feelings (authenticity), encourage each other (mutuality), support each other (sympathy), forgive each other (mercy), speak the truth in love (honesty), admit our weaknesses (humility), respect our differences, (courtesy), not gossip (confidentiality), and make group a priority (frequency).

it prepares us for heaven.

Day20 - Restoring Broken Fellowship

God has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.(2Corinthians5:18 GWT)  

Relationships are always worth restoring.

Because life is all about learning how to love, God wants us to value relationships and make the effort to maintain them instead of discarding them whenever there is a rift, a hurt, or a conflict. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has given us the ministry of restoring relationships. For this reason a significant amount of the New Testament is devoted to teaching us how to get along with one another.

Paul taught that our ability to get along with others is a mark of spiritual maturity.(Romans15:5)

If you want God's blessing on your life and you want to be known as a child of God, you must learn to be a peacemaker. Jesus said, "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."(Matthew5:9)

Peacemakers are rare because peacemaking is hard work.

Because you were formed to be a part of God's family and the second purpose of your life on earth is to learn how to love and relate to others, peacemaking is one of the most important skills you can develop. Unfortunately, most of us were never taught how to resolve conflict.

Peacemaking is not avoiding conflict. Running from a problem, pretending it doesn't exist, or being afraid to talk about it is actually cowardice.

HOW TO RESTORE A RELATIONSHIP

As believers, God has "called us to settle our relationships with each other." Here are seven biblical steps to restoring fellowship:

Talk to God before talking to the person. Discuss the problem with God.

Always take the initiative. Jesus commanded that it even takes priority over group worship.

The success of a peace conference often depends on choosing the right time and place to meet. Don't meet when either of you are tired or rushed or will be interrupted. The best time is when you both are at your best.

Sympathize with their feelings. Use your ears more than your mouth.

Before attempting to solve any disagreement you must first listen to people's feelings. Paul advised, "Look out for one another's interests, not just for your own."(Philippians2:4)

The phrase "look out for" is the Greek word skopos, from which we form our words telescope and microscope. It means pay close attention! Focus on their feelings, not the facts. Begin with sympathy, not solutions.

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”(Proverbs19:11)

Patience comes from wisdom, and wisdom comes from hearing the perspective of others. Listening says, "I value your opinion, I care about our relationship, and you matter to me."

The cliche is true: People don't care what we know until they know we care.

It is a sacrifice to patiently absorb the anger of others, especially if it's unfounded. But remember, this is what Jesus did for you. He endured unfounded, malicious anger in order to save you: "Christ did not indulge his own feelings. as scripture says, The insults of those who insult you fall on me.”(Romans15:3)

Confess your part of the conflict. Confession is a powerful tool for reconciliation.

Attack the problem, not the person.

God tells us, "A wise, mature person is known for his understanding. The more pleasant his words, the more persuasive he is."(Proverbs16:21)

 Nagging never works. You are never persuasive when you're abrasive.

Cooperate as much as possible.

A paraphrase of Jesus' seventh beatitude says, "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family."- Matthew5:9-

Emphasize reconciliation, not resolution.

Reconciliation focuses on the relationship, while resolution focuses on the problem. When we focus on reconciliation, the problem loses significance and often becomes irrelevant.

We can reestablish a relationship even when we are unable to resolve our differences. Christians often have legitimate, honest disagreements and differing opinions, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. The same diamond looks different from different angles. God expects unity, not uniformity, and we can walk arm-in-arm without seeing eye-to-eye on every issue.

But when you work for peace, you are doing what God would do. That's why God calls peacemakers his children.(Matthew5:9)

Day21 - Protecting Your Church

Most of all, let love guide your life, for then the whole church will stay together in perfect harmony(Colossians3:14)

It is your job to protect the unity of your church.

Unity is the soul of fellowship.

It is the essence, the core, of how God intends for us to experience life together in his church. Our supreme model for unity is the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are completely unified as one.

Jesus prayed passionately for our unity in His final moments before being arrested( John17:20~23)

It was our unity that was uppermost in his mind during those agonizing hours.

Paul said “Let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony, and on the growth of one another’s character”(Romans14:19)

As believers we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, One Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love, the same salvation, the same life, and the same future.

We must remember that it was God who chose to give us different personalities, background, races, and preferences, so we should value and enjoy those differences, not merely tolerate them.           God wants unity, not uniformity.

Every church could put out a sign “No perfect people need apply. This is a place only for those who admit they are sinners, need grace, and want to grow”

Bonhoeffer said “He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself become a destroyer of that community”

Support your pastor and leaders

Pastors will one day stand before God and give an account of how well they watched over you.

But you are accountable too. You will give an account to God of how well you followed your leaders.

We protect the fellowship when we honor those who serve us by leading.

Pastors and elders need our prayers, encouragement, appreciation, and love.