We are Family! - Eph 3:14-15

 We are Family!

August 7, 2011
Eph 3:14-15

Introduction

• We have maybe 45 adults here this morning
• We probably have roughly that number of different ideas of what a family looks like
• How would you describe the family, in one word?
• God reveals Himself to us as a family
• Many of the attributes we see in a family are true of God
• We can learn from the way God relates, how we should relate within our family unit, and within the church
• Our identity as a Christian family, stems from God
• Eph 3:14-15
• There is a connection between our family and God

God is a family – Father Son and Holy Spirit

• Gen 1:1 – Elohim – various meanings, most often translated as God - a plural word – implies more than one person
• Verse 26 – Expresses the plurality of God
• Deut 6:4 – Yet the Lord is one – expresses the oneness of God
• John 1:1 – Expresses the plurality of God and the oneness of God
• Matt 16:16-17 - Jesus the Son of God, saw God as His Father
• When we accept Jesus into our life, the whole of God comes to dwell in us
• John 14:16-17, 23 The Holy Spirit, the Father and Jesus will make their home in us
• The trinity is a fact, though we do not understand it
• The three persons of the trinity act in perfect unison
• Jesus did what he saw the Father doing, he was led by the Holy Spirit, he was in constant touch with his heavenly Father
• There is no separation or division in God
• Jesus did not decide, I’m going to do things differently now
• Father, Son and Holy Spirit worked together in absolute unity

We are part of God’s family

• John 3:3 – We cannot see the Kingdom of God unless we are born again!
• We must be born again, into a relationship with God
• When we are born again, we become God’s children in a spiritual sense
• This does not mean that we become little gods, as some cults believe
• But it does mean that we are now adopted in as God’s children, with all the rights and privileges that go along with being a child of God
• 1 John 3:1-3 We are, right now, children of God!
• As God’s children we are all part of that family
• Eph 3:14-15
• This family is not closed to only the trinity, though we will never be God in the same way as the Father Son and Holy Spirit
• The family includes all God’s children, and by this we mean the Church, the body of Christ

So what kind of relationships do we have in God’s family?

• If the trinity lives in absolute unity in the way the Father Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other, so should the rest of the family, the Church
• The overwhelming aspect of God is love
• Everything God does, is done in love
• Romans 5:5 God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us
• The Holy Spirit then expresses that love in our lives, in the fruits of the Spirit
• Galatians 5:22-23 – Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
• The way in which God relates within himself, and with us, is described by these attributes
• The way in which we relate to God is not out of fear, or anger, but out of love
• The way in which relate to each other will also be motivated by these attributes
• Not by fear, anger, rejection, and the other fruits of the flesh that we discussed last week
• The fruits of the Spirit should describe the Church in a growing measure, as Jesus cleans us out and replaces the flesh with himself.

Conclusion

• So we see that God is a family, not a closed family which is taught by many cults, but a family of all those who accept his rulership in their lives
• We have the privilege of being a part of that family
• As such we are growing more and more to be like him
• And expressing His attributes in our relationships with each other is a part of this!