Family

These past few weeks have been awesome for me at Designer’s Way as we’ve just finished a series on family. Family is much more important in the Kingdom of God than a lot of people realize. One of the barriers to this realization is our view of God as Father. If you have accepted Christ and he is your Lord, then God is your father.

So many of us view God as a distant, authoritarian deity ready to GETCHA when you fail. Rather than seeing him as a loving father, wanting to correct you to help you grow. A lot of this comes from the way we have viewed our own fathers. With so many of us growing up without good fathers, our perspective of the heavenly father tends to be tainted as we view that relationship through the lens we’ve used to view our earthly fathers. Some people had fathers who weren’t around, and seemed to have little interest in their lives and they tend to view God that way as well. Some people had fathers who weren’t expressive with their love, they lacked in affection, they never said “I love you”. Those folks often find it difficult to know and understand the deep love of God. They know it in words but haven’t felt it in their hearts. The deepening of our relationship with God starts here!

First understand that Jesus brought the revelation of God as personal “Father”. Jesus often is found saying “My father, Your father, Our father”. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray he begins with “our father” God IS your father. Then understand that the father’s love for you is perfect. It’s not like the love of men. Men make mistakes but God doesn’t. In 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 John says God is Love. The Greek word used their is Agape. Paul uses the same word, Agape, when he writes about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4. So as you read it when you see the word love, realize that’s who and what your father is:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails.

Now we have a relief from the mistakes of our earthly fathers, we can forgive them, and we can walk in the perfection of our heavenly father’s love.

How awesome to have a father whose love is perfect. Now understand that God’s acceptance of you doesn’t come because you do “the stuff” you know, the stuff, you pray everyday, you read everyday, you are sinless…everyday. No, God loves you because you are a son, or a daughter. If you have children, think about your love for them. When they mess up you still love them. You may correct, discipline, or rebuke them, but your love for them remains unmoved and your corrective action is not for your own personal vindictive satisfaction, but to help them grow, and improve. So it stands with God! Hebrews 12:6 says:

the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son”

God doesn’t punish us out of some vengenful rage. He is a FATHER. He corrects us to help us grow, Jesus said our father prunes that we would be more fruitful. So when you are in prayer and you hear the Lord tell you something you don’t want to hear, something that makes you feel uncomfortable…don’t deny it, identify with it, be committed to changing and working on it. When you are listening to the word and your personal struggle comes up, stop ignoring it, admit it, be committed to changing and working on it. God’s loving rebuke, will cause you to grow because he loves you, that’s why you’re being disciplined in the first place, because he loves you.

Understanding God as our father is crucial to our knowledge of Him, but also to our knowledge of ourselves. When we know Him as father, we understand that we can achieve because he accepts us not that he accepts us because we achieve. The greatest example of this is when Jesus is baptized and the heavens open up, the holy spirit descends in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven says “This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased” At this point in Jesus’ ministry he had no ministry. Jesus hadn’t done a thing yet.. His acceptance was based on his son-ship. This is in no way a license to sin. What I’m actually talking about is shifting the focus from the regulations to the relationship. Our obedience to God’s word should have never come out of a desire to follow the rules, but rather a desire to show the love. I want to obey God because I love him, because he loves me. 1 John 5:3 says:

This is love for God: to obey his commands

If I focus on the rules then God’s acceptance of me becomes performance based and Christ died to take away any power that line of thinking might have. Moreover, if God’s acceptance of me is based on performance, then I’m NEVER ACCEPTED and Jesus’ death has no value. What sense does that make?

You are a son, you are a daughter, accepted, sustained, significant, you can achieve…not because you do everything right, but because of who you are and who your father is.

We talked about so much concerning family over these past few weeks. This is essentially the beginning. Family is really important to God, It’s His style of government. The authority of his kingdom is held by his son Jesus, the King, and the maintenance, and expansion of the earthly realm of the kingdom is left to his other sons and daughters…us! That being said, next week I’m going to share with you a little about the Family Business, so don’t forget to subscribe!

Naked

Recently I was having a discussion with a new member of my church. The discussion started with her stopping me to say “Pastor Ron you have messed up my whole dating game”. I was certainly inclined to hear more, after all, this is what I live for, disturbing worldly perspectives with God’s perspective. I was curious to hear just how that was done. What I heard was far different from what I expected. What she explained was this, excuse me as I paraphrase:

“I was so used to relying on my femininity to get over, but since I have been here at D-Way I’m trying to live to please God and so I’m stripped of my usual devices. I feel like I’m left with nothing. Now I’m trying to find out what I have to work with. I’m asking God to show me how to use what’s left.”

As I stood there listening, in my mind I was thinking WOW, what a vivid description of what happens to so many believers in the midst of having their minds renewed and what an awesome request to offer to God. The spirit of God urges us to take off characteristics that hinder us from looking like Christ. When that happens elements of who we are become exposed, where flirtation used to be, there is now exposed conscience, where rudeness used to be, is now laid bare. As worldly character is torn away many of us find that we are uncomfortable with what’s underneath, not because what we find is bad, but because we aren’t used to what’s under there. If I’m out and realize that I left my cell phone at home, I feel uncomfortable. I’m so used to having it with me that without it I feel NAKED!

This is a great place to be in as a believer. Why? So glad you asked, let me give a quick hygiene lesson. Unless you are a college student with a greater struggle than the norm, or a really sad bachelor, you don’t put clean clothes over dirty under garments. To be clothed with Christ you have to be stripped of unrighteousness. You have to take off indifference to put on compassion, you have to take off harshness to put on kindness, you have to take off pride to put on humility. Here is what the Bible says:

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Romans 13:14
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

This doesn’t happen all it once, you don’t pull off all your clothes like you were wearing one of those one piece velcro outfits. Rather you shed the old stuff like you would remove clothing if you were getting undressed, one piece at a time. It’s a process, which means that you are going to be taking off impatience and putting on patience as you go through the process. The end result is worth the discomfort, worth the exposure. In the end you become more like Christ and become a brighter light in a dark world.

I told this sister she was in a good place! In the kingdom of God when the old is gone, new comes. I explained that she can rejoice in the progress of the process, she is becoming who and what God intended her to be. So if you are a believer who is seriously chasing after God, submitting your life to Christ in such away that you are committing to change, you have to realize that the uncomfortable feeling of being “left with nothing” is proof that the Spirit of God is at work in you. As you continue to submit to God, being led by the spirit, you will be clothed with Christ but a little nakedness has to come first.