{"id":3686,"date":"2020-05-29T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3686"},"modified":"2020-05-29T07:16:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T12:16:02","slug":"church-the-family-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/church-the-family-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Church – The Family of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Scriptures describe the church. So broad is the significance of the church that it cannot be defined by a simple definition. It requires a kaleidoscope of word pictures to even come close to understanding its meaning.<\/span><\/div>\n
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We have looked at the church as the army of God and the Body of Christ.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Today we see the church as the family of God.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Since before the beginning, the relationship of God within Himself has always been one of a family. God is eternally Father and Son with the Holy Spirit dancing between them in an all encompassing love relationship\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
John 17:1,5 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, \u201cFather, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,\u20265 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Before the world was made, God predestined us to be adopted as His children\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Ephesians 1:5 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201che predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,..\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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And when we place our trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are adopted into God\u2019s family\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
John 1:12 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cBut to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Holy Spirit calls us into an intimate relationship with God the Father\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Romans 8:15 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201c..but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, \u201cAbba! Father!\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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The word \u201cabba\u201d is Aramaic, which was the Hebrew-like language spoken by Jews in New Testament times. \u201cAbba\u201d was the intimate term used by a child to address his male parent, similar to \u201cDaddy\u201d in English.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Meditate on this for a moment: So close is the desired relationship by God toward us that we are encourage to call Him \u201cDad\u201d or \u201cDaddy.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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It is the Holy Spirit\u2019s responsibility to bring assurance to us that we are truly now God\u2019s child\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Romans 8:16 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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As the Father\u2019s child, we become heirs to all of the riches of the glories of heaven.<\/span><\/div>\n
Romans 8:17 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cand if children, then heirs\u2014heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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All of the blessings that the Father has chosen to bestow upon His Son, He will in the future bestow upon us as well. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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All of this is made possible because of the love of the Father\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
1 John 3:1 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cSee what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Now, let\u2019s make a few applications.\u00a0 The problem with many Christians is that they have an \u201conly child\u201d syndrome. Some love to say, \u201cIf I\u2019d been the only person on the earth, Jesus would have died for me.\u201d\u00a0 While that may be true, the thought misses an all-important point: you are not the only person on earth <\/span>and Jesus didn\u2019t just die for you, but He died for many others.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Many have so individualized their salvation that it becomes all about them. But, it\u2019s not all about any one individual. It\u2019s about the family. It\u2019s about the church.<\/span><\/div>\n
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As a family, we have certain obligations to one another. The first and foremost obligation is that we love each other\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
John 15:12 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThis is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I know of nothing that makes a parent more happy than to see their children loving each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Another obligation is how we treat each other\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Galatians 6:10 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cSo then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Doing good is one thing. Acting in kindness is yet another. Relationships in our biological family guide us on how to interact with other members of the family of God\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
1 Timothy 5:1\u20132 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cDo not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Recognizing our church as a family is a major emphasis in our fellowship. I have often referred to Sunday as family reunion day. As a family, we cannot rely on phone talks or internet communications. We must connect as family in person. That\u2019s why it is so important to get back to regular, in-person, meetings.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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In our church, I can truly say that we are a family.\u00a0 Many of us have a closer relationship within our fellowship than with our blood kin. That\u2019s because we are \u201cblood kin.\u201d\u00a0 We are a family bound together by the blood of Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In the Bible, the most common term for referring to other believers is brother or sister. If possible, be with a local expression of the family of God this Sunday. Sing and pray and worship with your brothers and sisters in the faith.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are continuing to look at various ways in which the Scriptures describe the church. So broad is the significance of the church that it cannot be defined by a simple definition. It requires a kaleidoscope of word pictures to even come close to understanding its meaning. \u00a0 We have looked at the church as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3686"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3692,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686\/revisions\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}