Treating The Church Like Family (1 Timothy 5:1-2)

It's so good to be with you this morning. If

you have your Bibles, if you're turning with me the

First Timothy chapter four. This morning, we're returning our study

to Timothy, First Timothy chapter four. Now, I don't know

about you, but I've noticed as I've grown up throughout

my life that I've really throughout my life there are

expectations of me throughout my life, whether I wanted to

recognize them, when I wanted to greet to them. There

were expectations that were put upon me as a young

man growing up in my home, my dad had expectations

of me that I was to do certain things around

the house, help cut the grass, help take out the trash.

As a as a grandson of a pastor, there was

expectations my grandfather had on our family and that we

had an expectation that we're going to be a church

every Sunday, and that was an expectation. And as I

grew up and began playing sports, part of different teams,

basketball teams, I played tennis in high school and many

different things, there was expectations by my coaches, every expectations

I'd be at practice on time. There's that expectation that

I would do as asked upon me. There was expectations

I had as a player, as an athlete, I had

expectations as an employees. I got my job with working

with my grandfather, but after a little bit of time,

I went and worked at my first grocery store when Dixie,

as a stoker and a cashier. As far I went

on to bigger and better things Target. But there at

when Dixie, I had expectations that I would be there

on time, that I would follow the instructions of my supervisor. Expectations.

You know, there's expectations. As I became a pastor, there's

expectations from the church. There's things that the church expects

of me. I remember I was thirty one. I've talked

to you, told you this story before. I went and

visited a little lady. Her name was Mary Ann Elvington,

and she said, Pastor, I'm just I know you're young

and everything, but you would do really good as a

young pastor if you go around and visit. You've visit

some of these ladies in the church. It's what she

was doing. She was explaining me, there's an expectation as

a pastor to visit, to care there's the expectations of

how I live expectations. We all have those, and some

of those are in relation to our family. Some of

those expectations come as a part of being a part

of a team, or maybe as an expectation we have

from our employee. We have expectations as church members. This morning,

as we come to this passage of scripture, Paul was

reminding Timothy of expectations that he has and the expectations

here are relationship expectations. You know, as a child, my

mom and dad has the expectations upon me to do

certain things. But they also had expectations of how I

was to treat my sisters. I had two older sisters,

Mike and Judith. One of the expectations is, don't hit

your sister, don't talk back, be nice to your sisters.

One of the expectations and expectations of how I treat

my mom. My dad would tell me, don't talk back

to your mother right. My mom would tell me, listen

to your father when he spoke to you. When my

grandparents came in, my mom made sure my dad made

sure make sure you say yes sir and no sir.

Make sure you say please and thank you. Expectations that

we had as far as relationships, and how I treated

my sisters, I treated my mom, I treated my dad,

I treated my grandparents. And this morning, as we come

to this passage in Timothy, Paul was explaining to Timothy,

as a young pastor, how he is to treat those

in his church family. And so this morning, as we

went and go back to First Timothy, I want to

remind you where we are in the context of First Timothy,

Paul writes to Timothy. First Timothy, Timothy as a young pastor,

prodigy of Paul. Paul has left him in a church

called Ephesus, there to pastor this young church, this church.

He's a young pastor. And in this letter, one of

the roles and one of the things that he's one

of the intents of writing this letter is to get

Timothy to confront the false teachers that are in the

church in Ephesus, to confront them, confront their teaching. And

in chapter four, as we kind of go back, and

I just want to start in chapter four, verse twelve.

In just a minute, we're going to read he's been

strutting in Timothy, in particular in chapter four on how

Timothy's to be a good minister. If you remember in

one Timothy four to six, he says, if you put

these things before the brothers, you'll be a good servant

of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith

and of good doctrine that you have followed he's been

teaching Timothy. Timothy, you have a responsibility. You have expectations

from the church. The church has personal expectations of that

you are to live what you preach. And then they

have expectations for you professionally you are to be a

good minister and how you care for them. So there's

professional and personal expectations the church has for you. But Timothy,

this morning, there is expectations of how you treat church members.

And in this passage of scripture, he instructs how Timothy

is he treats the church body and church members just

as he treats his own father, just as he treats

his own mother, just as he treats his own brother,

just as he treats his own sister. So should he

treat the members of God's family this morning, church family,

Can I just encourage you? Do you recognize these it's

in this congregation with you. Do you recognize them that

they're more than just members of the church. They're members

of your family, your church family. Do you recognize this

morning that as we sit in this body of congregation,

we are a part of God's family. And as part

of God's family, we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we have expectations as part of being God's family,

of how we should treat one another. This morning, Let's

look together, Let's discover together as we read, how God

leads us how we are to treat the church like family.

Let's stand together and let's read God's word His first

Timothy chapter four were to start in verse twelve, and

we'll read through chapter I mean read through chapter five,

verse two. Listen what says here? He says here, This

is the word of the Lord. Let no one despise

you for your youth. But set the believers an example

in speech and conduct, and love and faith and impurity

until I come. Devote yourselves to the public reading of scripture,

to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that

you have, which was given to you by prophecy when

the Council of Elders laid their hands on you. Practice

these things. Immerse yourselves in them, so that all might

see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourselves and

on your teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so,

you will save both yourself and your hearers. Verse Chapter five,

Verse one. Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage

him as you would a father. Young men as brothers,

older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

Let's pray together, Father, God, we thank you that this

morning that you have expectations upon us of how we

should care for other members, how we should treat them

like family. So, Lord, today, may we recognize Lord, that

we're a part of your family. Lord, that we're a

part of your church family, and this is your family. Lord.

So may we Lord, honor you and how we relate

to one another, how we care for one another, how

we encourage one another. Lord, help us pursue godly relationships.

Help us, Lord, honor you in the way we treat

one another. Lord. I pray today, Lord that as we

look to you and your word, Lord, I pray for Lord,

not my words, but yours. Lord. I pray today we

would be encouraged in our role to care for one another. Lord,

I pray that today you would speak through me clearly,

Lord your word. May you challenge us. Lord, May you

draw us to you. Lord, May you use us in

caring for one another. Lord, we love you. We thank

you Lord for this passage. Lord, May you guide us

through your word now and your name. We pray a

man you may be see how we treat the church

like family. First, we treat the church like family. We

must give proper respect to all members. We must give

proper respect to all members. So Paul as this passage

as we looked at Paul's been talking to Timothy about

his expectations or his responsibilities. And we looked over this

the last probably about a month ago when the last

time we were in Timothy and we explain that Timothy,

Paul is one thing to Timothy, that Timoth you have

doctrine or responsibilities, that you're the doctrine to lead the

church in public reading a scripture and exhortation or encouraging

church members through the teaching of the Word. But you're

and you're also to teach, You're to exposite scripture. Do

you explain scripture? So those kind of Pauls, I mean,

Timothy's responsibilities or expectations. Doctrinally, he also had an ethical responsibility,

and that's how you live out the teachings of God's word.

He it was not only to be one who teach

the word or preach the word. He was to live

out what he preached. He had a responsibility, ethical responsibility.

We see in verse twelve to let no one despise

you for youth, but instead of believers, an example right

in your speech and conduct and love and faith and purity.

He's a live out purities, live out faith. He has

a live out in an example of love and conduct

and speech to his congregation. He's just show them how

they should love and be pure and have good conduct.

And he's the big example of faith to them now

this morning. He transitions a bit. In verse five. He

now talks about a relationship responsibility, how he's responsible as

a church member to care for the church members, to

treat them. I think Page Patterson said when I was

in seminary many many years ago, these words, and I

don't think they're original to him. I think they were

from someone else. But I'll never forget those words. The

quote that he gave was people don't care how much

they know until they know how much you care you

know for Paul. He's telling Timothy, Timothy, doctrially, you might

know a lot of different things, you might live an example,

but the people in your congregation need to know relationally

how much do you care for them? So he explains

how is to treat church members. Look at verse one.

There he begins by explaining to Timothy something that Timothy

is not to do. He starts with maybe a negative here,

or that's something he's not to do. Do not rebuke

an older man. The word rebuke there is epy plaso.

It's the word means to express strong disapproval in form

of rebuke, a reproach, or denounce. We would maybe think

of someone chastising someone or reprimanding them. I was thinking

that this word. And I don't know if you've ever

been in the grocery store and you saw a mom

reprimand or a father reprimand their child and just scold

them in front of everyone. We all probably have seen

that at some point. That's the idea, is that it's

a scolding. It is to rebuke them publicly or harshly.

Paul is saying to Timothy, and you're treating other church members. First,

you should not rebuke them, chastise them, reprimand reprimand them.

But look who he talks about there, do not rebuke

and an older man the word older man, there's presbyteria.

So that's the same word that we have in earlier

in chapter three for the word for overseer elder. Some

would would think, is he talking about don't rebuke and

an elder talking about someone who's in the office of

elder or overseer. We we know that this term presbyteriois

is actually used interchangeably. It can be used to talk

about the office of overseer of elder, but it also

can be used to describe older men, older men in

the congregation. I remember I was at a church one time,

and I think I could think of it. I could

see the man right now, and he would come up

to me and he say, Pastor. He said, you know,

I'm one of the oldest men in this church. He says,

the Bible calls me an elder, and he's using that

right correctly. He is right, he is an elder. He's

one of the older men in the church. But he

confused that idea that just because he was the oldest

man in the church. That man he had the function

of an elder or an office oversea. Actually the term

is used describe both. But it's not just because you're

the oldest man in the church doesn't mean you're automatically

an elder or overseer. But that's the way he understood that.

But here, Paul, you would say, is Paul talking about

the older Is he talking about the office or he's

talking about just someone who's older in the congregation. We

understand he's talking about someone's older in the congregation. Why

because he uses these relational terms of family, terms of father,

younger men, brother, older He's talking about a family relationship here.

So we talk. We know we were talking about an

older man. One of the things that he explains to

them here is he's not to rebute this older man,

but in turn, he's to encourage him, and he's encourage him.

Listen to this as you would a father, a younger

man as a brother, an older women as a mother,

and younger woman a sister as you You're not to

rebuke them harshly, but you're too you're to treat them

like family. If you remember, go back with me the

verse twelve of chapter four, Let no one despise you

for your youth. You know, if you remember back when

we first looked at this passage, one of the things

we understand about the context of this passage is that

there was a habit of Paul as he put pastors

in churches, that he would put older pastors in churches.

But here in Ephesus he doesn't do that. He actually

puts young Timothy as the pastor of the church at Ephesus,

and as a result, there were older men in the

church who are much older than Timothy, and many of

them were looking down upon Timothy because of his youth.

I told you the story and when we first looked

at that the first time I became senior pastor of

a church, I was thirty one years old, and I

told you the story about one lady who had always

come to me every time, almost every time she see me,

and she would say, you're so young, you're so young

to be my pastor have children who are older than you.

And I always felt, like Timothy here that she always

looked down upon me because of my age. And here's

this imagery that Paul is saying to Timothy, you have

older men who are looking down upon you. Maybe they're

not treating you fairly, or maybe giving you the respect

that you deserve. And how are you to respond to them.

You're not to rebut them or reprimand them, or retaliate

to them. But instead, Timothy, you are to treat them

like family. You're to care for them. You're to treat

them like your father. You're to treat them like your brother.

You're to treat the older women as your mother's. You

to treat the younger women as your sister. Not only

is he to treat them like family, but he is

to encourage them. Look at the word there, Parcoleo. It

means to encourage, instead of reprimanding them and treating them

harshly or retaliating them. You are to treat them like family.

But you're also to treat them like family with the

go of what encouraging them. The word there is to encourage.

It's the same word Paul uses an Acts and Acts

fourteen as Paul goes and visits the churches and he

encourages them in the faith. In Colossians, Paul talks about

sending one of his fellow ministers to the church their colossy,

and he sends them for the sole purpose to encourage

their hearts. And first Thessalonians, Paul tells the church to

encourage one another and build them up. And Hebrews, the

writer of Hebrews tells the church, don't neglect the gathering

of the church body. Why that you might encourage one another.

You see, as a church body, one of our functions

as a church is to encourage one another, to encourage

one another in the faith, to courage others in their hearts,

come when their hearts are discouraged, to encourage others when

they're down and dismayed. Reality is, let's be honest about

good Southern badtists. We have a reputation, don't we. One

of the reditation Southern bat has heard it, just heard

it this week, is that we like to argue. We

like to fight. I read an article was written by

Tom Rayner and by in The Christian Post many many

years ago. It was twenty five silly things that church

members fight over for the second time. I'm not gonna

write all twenty five, but here are my top five

from his list, and you can look up the list

and read them off you would like. The first one

is a church argued over the appropriate length of the

worship pastor's beard. One church fault over a forty five

heated argument over the type of filing cabinets to purchase,

black or brown, two or three or four drawers. One

church fought over whether the worship leaders should have shoes.

This is for you, Tanner, the worship leaders should have

shoes on during the worship service. One church fault disputed

and it was argued because the Lord's to see whether

they should change the juice in the Lord's Supper instead

of grape juice to cram grape juice in my favorite,

my last, but number one on my list. One church

argued over what type of green beans the church should

serve at the church function. We as Southern Baptists, at

times have been known to not treat each other fairly,

to argue over trivial things. I've seen it in churches

throughout well, actually, I'll be honest with I was thinking

through this this morning, and God's been gracious to me.

I've heard stories of hard stories of things that's happened

in churches. Arguments in the parking lot, church member pulling

out of pastor's hair, church members fighting, and parking lot

shooting guns in the ground. I've heard all kinds of

stories in the past. God's grace has been gracious to me.

I've never seen that in the churches I personally served him.

But we see these issues. But we as a great

commission so that Baptist Church should be a church that's

not known for how we fight. Maybe we be known

for how we encourage, but church known for how we

care for one another, how we treat each other like family,

how we love one another. Just yesterday, I got a

call from my daughter. She left out on Friday, very

very early to serve as a missionary in Mexico for

five weeks. Yesterday she was kind of having a hard

day and I think jet lag like a sleep and

no air conditioning in her room kind of compacted and

made things a hard day. She reached out to me

and her mom and you know when when she was

down and discourage, what do we do? I called her,

I sent her messages. Brandy as her mom called her

and sent her messages. Chloe heard about it, and Chloe

called her and sent her messages. Calling heard about it.

He's words of encouragement. Once we see someone's down, what

as a family, what do we do. We don't step back.

We rightly too, right if and I want you to

hear that's the imagery of this passage. Paul is saying, listen,

there's people in the church here today or discouraged. They're

down and they need a brother. They need a sister

in Christ. They need a godly older woman that's like

a mother figure to them. They need a godly older

man as a scene, as a father who comes alongside

and says, hey, I want to encourage you. I want

to encourage you in your faith. I want to encourage

you when you're down. I want to lead you and

care for you. May we be a church that understands

that part of our role as a church is to

give proper respect to all members, to encourage them, to

treat them like family. As you think about this passage,

you to remind you of one thing. Go with me

to the very end of this passage, chapter five. If

you'll go to verse twenty a chapter five, actually go

back to verse nineteen one verse over. You have to

remember what was the purpose of this letter Paul wrote

to Timothy to confront the false teachers, who are the

false teachers in the church. Older men you have to understand,

as Paul was thinking to Timothy and instructing how he's

to treat these older men who probably have looked down

upon him because he's young. He's to treat them like family.

He's to encourage them not to rebute them. But he's

foreshadowing a time and not along from now, that Timothy

is going to have to go to some older men

to the church who are false teachers and confront them,

Confront them and their sin, confront them and their false teaching.

And he describes this in this passage in verses nineteen

and twenty kind of the steps upon doing this, It says,

don't admit a charge against an elder. This is the

office there. It's setting on the evisis of two or

three witnesses for those who persist in sin. Rebuke them

in the presence of all, say God, so that the

rest may stand in fear in the presence of God,

in Christ, Jesus and the elect angels. I charge you

to keep these rules without prejudging. Do nothing from partiality.

He's strutting Timothy how he's to practice church discipline on

elders who have strayed away from truth. Timothy is going

to be charged with doing this. You know, as I

was thinking about this message, I thought about last week.

Last week we talked about the issue of sexual morality

that's plaguing our church today across America. And one of

the challenges I gave you, and one of the challenges

I believe that we saw in Ephesians five was that

we as a church are to confront we confront those

who are in sin. Where to confront those in sin?

Just like Timothy is going to confront these are in

teaching false doctrine in Timothy, and I think it's important

that you understand. In first, I mean the Ephesians five eleven,

he says, no part in the fruitful work of the darkness,

but instead expose them. That's the idea we looked at.

Expose him. Where to confront? Matthew eighteen fifteen says, if

your brother sends it gets you, go and tell him

his fault between you and him alone, and if he

listens to you have gained your brother. In James five

and in nineteen and twenty, he says, my brother is

anyone among you wonders from the truth, and someone brings

him back, let him know whoever brings back a sinner

from his wondering, will save his soul from death, and

will cover a multitude of sin. You know, I really

believe this. As a pastor of church, There's gonna be

times where God calls me to confront sin. It's one

of my roles, one of my responsibilities, one of the

things that God's entrusted me, just like he didn't trusted Timothy.

But listen, that doesn't lie only on my shoulders. There's

times also that God is going to call you as

a church member to go to someone who's in sin.

And I think this passage and only allowed lines for

us how we are to encourage one another as family.

But I also think it outlines for us how we

to go, how we to confront sin. When we confront

sin and we confront others who are in sin, listen,

we are to not to do it in a way

that's rebuking. There's reprimanding that's harsh or scolding. We or

should do it in a way that encourages them to

turn back to the Lord. There's two times in my life,

probably the hardest things I've ever done in my life

was go to my mom and my dad at different

times in their life. And no parent is perfect, right.

I'm not a perfect parent. None of us here are perfect.

We all fall short, right, And thank the Lord that

God given us family and brothers and sisters and Christ

who come alongside of us and lead us in ways

that we need to grow across the Lord. And there's

times in my life that God's called me to go

to my mom and dad and say, hey, I love you,

but I don't think this is right in the eyes

of the Lord. And I'll never get in. Both of

those moments I never got in. It came to my parents,

and I never expect to them harshly or scolded them

or demeaned them. But as I went to them, I

did it in love. I did an encouragement and I

did it with compassion. Why because it was my father,

it was my mother. Can I say to you, when

you God leaves you to go to a brother and

sister in Christ and that's in sin, do it in

a way that's encouraging, loving, gracious, that encourages them to

turn back to the Lord. You see that in this passage.

Just think it's beautiful versus here Paul, commend Timothy treat

him as you would I want you to know Timothy's

father was unbelievered. You know that. I wonder he's reminding

Timothy just as you would go to your father and

confront him in his sin. May you do it the

same way to your brothers and sisters in Christ? Can

I encourage you today? Church? We are to treat the

church like family. May we give proper respect to all members?

May we treat them like family? May we commit to

encourage one another? Won't you see the second part of

this passage scripture and all we must give proper respect,

but we must maintain proper purity in all our relationships.

Notice the end of verse two he describes how is

to treat each member as his own father, as his

own brother, is his own sister, is his own mother

as his own sister. And then he adds this ending

in all purity and all purity. It's interesting that same

word purity there is also the same word that she

choose in One Timothy four twelve. Listen to that passage.

Remind you of that again I read it earlier. Let

no one despise you for your youth, but set up

believers an example right and speech and conduct and love

and faith and impurity. Timothy as a passion of the church,

as a leader of the church, is the setting example

for the believers to follow, to show them how they

live for Christ. In one of the areas in which

he is to illustrate or give an example to the

church is in his own personal purity. We looked at

at a few months ago and are about a month ago.

How he's to be a one woman man. He's committed

to fidelity. He's committed to have eyes that only have

eyes for his wife. He's committed to his personal purity

and how he handles other things. Here Paul applies that

not only is he's personally to practice purity in his

personal walk with the Lord, what he sees, what he

looks at. Here he discusses how Timothy is to be

pure and how he has relationships with others in the church.

You know, we see here and we also see this

in One Timothy five point twenty two. He says, don't

be hasty on the laying of hands talking about elders,

but take no part in the sins of others. Keep

yourself pure. It's to be a man of purity in

his personal life, but also in his relationship with others.

Reality is if we're we've got to be honest to

think about what's happened in the church through history. We

have a church have also had a history of not purity.

In the nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties, the Catholic

Church was plagued with accusations of sexual abuse. It happened

also in two thousand. Came out early two thousand scandal

that came out by the Boston Globe that explodes that

widespread abuse in the Catholic Church. We look at that

what's happened at the Catholic Church and we say shame, shame, shame.

But in twenty nineteen, February twenty ten, twenty nineteen, the

Houston Chronicle came out with an article about the Southern

Baptist churches. The article was titled abuse in Faith and

in that article it did a survey or a study

that found for over twenty years that found roughly three

hundred church leaders, lay leaders, volunteers, faith allegations of sexual

misconducts over a twenty year period, over seven hundred victims,

many of who were children. We have to recognize our

own churches have had a history of not being pure

in our relationships. This should grieve our hearts, should break

our hearts that this is even mentioned. That's what Paul says,

we looked last week. It shouldn't even be sexual morality

should not even be named among you, and it should

grieve our hearts that this is being named among us.

As Southern Baptists, grieve us, but I should grieve us.

What happens in our convention, what's happened in churches all

across the United States should should grieve us. What happens

in many churches. I remember witnessing as a young pastor

being in a church one time where a young man

in the church making inapropriate comments to a woman. I've

seen it in the churches that from young men to

old men who've made inappropriate comments. And we've seen issues

at time in churches where men who've been inappropriate with

women in the church. It should not be named among us.

We've had issues with inappropriate conversations, inappropriate things happening. We've

had issues with adultery in the church, Pastors having fair

with church members, church members having affairs should not be

named among us. Should grieve our hearts, should break our

hearts I think we need to, as this passage says,

we need to be individuals in a church who says

we are committed in purity in our relationship. What does

that mean? You know? Job says in Job thirty one

to one, I've made a covenant with my eyes. How

then shall I gaze at a virgin? What does that mean? That?

Here the Job is saying he makes a covenant, That

means he made a prominence agreement with his eyes. He

was not going to look upon a woman. I think

we as church members, as individually members of it, we

must have to make safeguards in our life that we

are going to protect ourselves. We're going to protect our actions.

We're not gonna put ourselves in situations. We're not going

to say certain things, We're not going to do certain things.

Is never okay in any shape, form or fashion. I

encourage you this morning, we as I would say to me.

I remember, as my Ordination Council, I had pastors who

were commending me or really encouraging me on this. And

I remember one of the encouragement in more Nation Council

was that pastor never put yourself. Never, never put yourself

while you're alone with a woman by yourself. It's one

of the encouragements. There's something I've practiced all my ministry,

something that we practice as a staff. I asked all

our staff members make that commitment. Why that's to because

to be above approach and we not only listen. That's

not only for me, that's for all of us. We

need to put safeguards in our in our relationships that

we don't husbands. You should not have any text thread

with any other woman. Your wife should be the only

person that you have a relationship with other women that

you should have a relationship with wives just the same

way we might have safeguards where were practicing protecting our

relationships handling relationships. If you think about this, just idea. Listen,

you are to treat look at the passage older women

as mothers and younger women's as sisters in all purity.

You would be pure in your conversations with your sister.

You would be pure and how you handled your relationship

with your sister, And so should you treat others in

the church as you would treat your own family impurity,

So our conversation church, But we need to be honest

about how important it is that we practice purity as

a church in our relationships and how we care for

one another. As we finished this morning, I want to

encourage you. How are you treating the church like family?

We are to give proper respect to all members. I

want to challenge you today. How are you treating others

like family? How are you encouraging one another's Can I

encourage you today? How are you practicing purity in your

relationships with others? Safeguards or you've established in your life

to practice purity in your relationship with others? As we close?

When you think about the word family a special word,

isn't it If you think about the word family, Yeah,

I asked the band. If you want to make your

way up, it means something, doesn't it. It means you're

not alone. There's someone to care for you. There's someone

there to encourage you. There's someone there to comfort you.

There's someone to forgive you when you've fallen, to pick

you up when things have fallen apart. There's someone who's

there who loves you. And that's what family means. When

we think about the family God gave us our moms,

our dads, our sisters, our brothers, our cousin, our aunts

and uncles. When we think about our family, we think

we're not alone. We are loved, we're encouraged, We're cared for,

We're comforted, we're forgiven, We're loved. You know. There's a

old song by Bill Gaither and he talks about his

church family. He says this, I'm so glad I'm a

part of the family of God. I've been washed in

the fountain, cleansed by His blood. Join heirs with Jesus

as we travel this sod for I'm a part, a

part of the family of God. I wonder today if

there's anyone here that's not a part of God's family.

Can I tell you, as part of God's family, you

are loved, you are careful, and you are not alone.

You're not alone because God loves you. God cares for you.

Bel you're not alone because God's given your church family

to walk with you today. If you're not a part

of God's family, listen passage of scripture in John one

twelve through thirteen. But all who did receive Him, who

believed in his name, he gave the right to become

children of God, who were born not of the blood

nor the will of the flesh. Nor the will of man,

but of God. Listen today, can I tell you if

you're not a part of the family of God, Listen,

there's the invitation from the Lord today. If you receive

him and you believe in his name, he will make

you a part of his family. You'll become today one

of his children. Will you accept his invitation to become

a child of God? Today? Would you pray with me?

Every head bouty, every eye close. Lord, We thank you

Lord this morning, that God, You God, you have expectations

of how we are to care one another our Lord.

We are to Lord, how we are to give proper

respect to everyone, to treat each other like family, to

encourage one another God, how we are to be pure

in our relationships with one another. God. We thank you,

Lord for your encouragement to us today. Lord, I pray today, Lord,

our hearts would be heavy about our personal responsibility in

caring for one another. Lord, I pray today that if

there's someone here today that's not a part of your

family God, today, that they would receive you. They'd put

their faith in you for salvation and what you've done

for them on the cross. And today Lord, you will

Lord make them a child of God. Lord. So today,

if there's anyone here, Lord, may they put their faith

in you for salvation and enjoin Lord your family. But

we love you. We thank your Lord for this morning.

We thank you Lord for your word. Lead us now

into response. In your name, we pray Amen, Jesus, pain

and all to him