The Family of God (Part 1)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. And the title of the message is the household of faith or the family of God. That's what we're going to read in Galatians chapter 6.

Bearing One Another’s Burdens and Personal Responsibility

So go ahead and turn there. Galatians chapter 6, the apostle Paul reminds believers to do good to all, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. To put it another way, just as Jesus holds a place of preeminence, Christians in this sense and who we are to look out for and who we are to care for, Christians should be given preeminence.

Picking up where we left off last time, we talked about what? Bearing one another's burdens, right? In the church, your brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to help bear one another's burdens. And by doing this, we fulfill the law of Christ.

So we ended with verse 5, where Paul says that each one should bear his own load. So we are to care for, look out for, help one another. But then there's also the part about personal responsibility. So just one comment on that before we read from the text, because with any biblical topic, because we want to teach the whole counsel of God, we want to teach everything the Bible says, we don't want to become imbalanced.

For example, the Bible talks a lot about the love of God. And we say amen to all of that. The Bible also talks about the wrath of God. If you ignore one and just focus on the other and ignore this, you're going to become imbalanced.

And what you're saying technically may be true, but it can be even misleading. So when we talk about bearing one another's burdens, helping one another, let's remember we also have to take care of our own things.

So we have to bear our own load in that regard. So Paul here in Galatians chapter 6, these are basically practical instructions about how to live the Christian life, what the Christian life is to look like, and what it is not to look like.

So he says this, do good to all, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. Do we agree with that? That's what the Bible says, amen. But at the same time, to be balanced, it shouldn't always be just a select few doing all the good.

We're all supposed to be involved, right? And it shouldn't just always be a select few being the beneficiaries of the good. Amen? All right, so let's read Galatians 6, 6 through 10. Paul says, let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life.

And let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, and here's the statement, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Upon thinking about this and meditating on this subject, I think we have to consider if things ever went down, if the situation we found ourselves in got really, really difficult, where would we turn?

Where would you turn first? Okay, to the Lord. That's a great answer. But what about your fellow man? Who would you turn to in this world? I think a lot of people would say, well, Pastor, what are you talking about?

It is really bad. Things are really bad right now. Well, compared to other places in the world, compared to what Christians have faced throughout history, we still have things really, really good. So there's that.

But if that ever changed, where would you turn? A person, I think, would turn to immediate family. That's a given. You might turn to close friends. You might turn to a neighbor, or maybe not. But the point that Paul is making in this chapter, Christians should be able to turn to one another.

The church, we should be able to turn to each other in the church. Here's the thing, the church supports the church. Sometimes people will ask, well, what are you doing for your community? And I think it's good to do things for the community.

But our primary responsibility is, look around. This is our primary responsibility. What we do for the community, our primary responsibility with them is not to feed them and clothe them and give them stuff.

What do they need?

They need the gospel. That's our primary duty for them. Food and clothing and that stuff, look around. The ones here get the preeminence in that regard. So if things ever got bad, we should be able to turn to one another.

Why?

Because we're family. This is the household of faith. This is the family of God. And the more we grow in the Lord, the more you should start looking at the church as your family. They say that blood is thicker than water.

You've heard of this phrase? Well, the blood of Christ is thickest of all. All right, let's turn to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, what's the title of the message? The household of faith or the family of God.

And I think with this teaching, we're really getting into the meat of the word. The meat of the word. What does that mean, the meat of the word? Well, you think of someone who drinks milk, a little baby will have milk or soft food, baby food, applesauce, and it goes down real easy, right?

Well, meat is a little different. If you're going to eat a steak, you have to do a little work. You have to cut it and you have to chew it. It goes down a little more difficult, and there's a greater chance that someone might choke.

So I pray that nobody will choke this morning on this teaching. Remember the time that someone told Jesus that his mother and his brothers and sisters were outside, and Jesus, they want to speak to you.

Remember what Jesus said? Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? He turned to his disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers.

That says something.

Now, the ideal is when your family is actually part of the church as well. That's the best of both worlds. But this teaching is something that a lot of Christians, a lot of churches don't really stress.

Understand, in the early church, this was absolutely vital. They had nowhere else to go. They had no one to turn to. But yeah, this is kind of ignored these days to some extent. And here's the part that people choke on.

The brethren come first. How many of you have heard this before? The brethren come first. Here's the part that is difficult, and we're going to go through the verses where this is clearly the teaching of Jesus, that the heathen come second.

Our spiritual bond with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our spiritual bond is greater. It should be greater than our biological bond. Is anyone choking yet?

Why?

Because that biological bond, that's in the flesh, and the flesh is going to pass away. But our spiritual bond, the fellowship that we have with one another in the Holy Spirit, my friends, that's for eternity.

Look at Matthew 10, 34. Jesus says, not me. This is what Jesus said. This is the man we profess to be followers of. Jesus says, do not think that I came to earth to bring peace. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Now that last part, you can probably say, okay, I can see that one.

That wasn't very nice on Mother's Day.

Sorry, Lord.

And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Now this is difficult, admittedly, right?

The New King James Version titles this section, Christ Brings Division. And don't you know that's true. Christ, although he is called the Prince of Peace, he will bring peace to this earth during the Kingdom Age.

But when he came, and even to this day, Christ, the name of Christ, brings division. See, Jesus knew that many of his followers, especially the early followers who were Jewish, he knew that a commitment in following him would mean that they would be shunned by their family.

That's what happened.

The early disciples of Christ were mainly Jewish, and they were shunned by their family. This still happens today. If someone is brought up in a religiously Jewish household and they convert to Christianity, that doesn't go over so well.

Throughout history, many people have been disowned, and worse, because they chose to get baptized into Christ. I think we're aware that in Islamic countries, family at times will kill family if they convert from Islam to Christianity.

Here in the United States, it's not really like that, thankfully. You just might be seen as the odd one who doesn't get invited to family get-togethers because this guy might end up talking about Jesus in the Bible, and we can't have that.

And by the way, I want to be clear on this. We're not talking about someone converting to Christ and then shunning their family. That is not what we're talking about. It's the world that turns against us.

That's what Jesus is saying. So when someone converts to Jesus Christ, we don't shun family. That's not it at all. That's what the cults do. That's what a cult will do, try to isolate people from family and friends.

What do we want to do? We want to reach people, right? We want to tell people about our gift of everlasting life. We want them to share that same gift of eternal life. But at the same time, Jesus is being very honest and upfront with his followers about the cost of discipleship.

If you take notes, write this down, underline it. There is a cost of discipleship. In 2 Timothy 2, the apostle Paul talked about the gospel. Sometimes it's in season. Sometimes it's out of season. But preach the word either way, in season or out of season.

Do you think the gospel, the word of God, is in season right now or out of season? I think it's a rhetorical question, right? Here in the United States, starting sometime in the late 1950s, 1960s, and it ran through the 1980s, America went through what some people call the fourth great awakening.

And people were flooding into churches. In this term, born again became a catchphrase. Even one of the presidents in this time period called himself a born-again Christian in the first presidential interview in Playboy magazine.

So even Playboy magazine was talking about born-again Christians, if you can believe that. But people were flooding into churches. Churches were full. Churches were full. Some of you can remember those days.

We have a pastor's meeting that gets together once a month and people lament the state of the church and how things were just so much better back in the 70s and back in the 80s where churches were full.

Why were churches full? Because it was in season. It was being a Christian, going to church, was, quote, the thing to do. Well, that buzz, that excitement has kind of wore off. And thankfully, during that time, a lot of people were converted and many of those conversions were real.

Praise the Lord. But a good number of those conversions were not and the people fell away.

Why?

They didn't count the cost. Being a Christian, going to church, was the thing to do. It was popular, so everyone was doing it. Now, being a Christian is not seen in the same way. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornetchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, with the grace of God, be with you.