Seeing Church as a Family | September 7, 2025

Alright.

Hey, thanks guys for

that great sermon bumper.

I appreciate that.

Well done.

Well done.

I think.

I think, Tony, you had my

favorite line of the morning.

You're like, is Alabama like a little

suburb next to Jerusalem or a little town?

Because I have no idea how

you're gonna tie that in to

anything you're talking about.

And I assured him.

I also had no idea how I was gonna tie it

in, but it's gonna be a fun morning and

I'm excited because, hey, I love that for

the last couple of Sundays, uh, you guys

have sabotaged and torpedoed the sermon.

I totally appreciate what you were doing,

and I know that this morning you weren't

able to coordinate as well, right?

Just a few of you shared.

And so, uh, I get a chance to preach.

So kinda excited about that.

Um, no, in all seriousness, I love.

You guys, I love us and I love

what God's been doing over

these last really few weeks.

And, uh, ironically I had a couple

different directions I had planned on

us going, but the last couple of weeks

I think kind of solidified for me, uh,

where we're gonna go this morning if

the Lord allows Sweet Home, Alabama man,

iconic classic rock song, right Skies.

So Blue, sweet Home, Alabama.

Lord, I'm coming home to you now.

It hit me yesterday.

I was like, maybe Lord, I'm coming

home to you, is like, maybe Lynyrd

Skynyrd is using God's name in vain

there, and I'm just promoting that.

That's not what I'm trying to do.

Uh, for me, I always was like, yeah,

man, Lord, I'm coming home to you.

I thought that was the

best part of this chorus.

Um, actually, I don't know if you

know this about this song, but do

you notice that every time this song

kicks on somewhere, there's a part of

you that comes alive and you're like.

I'm pretty sure, like some

of my cousins are in Alabama.

I I got family there.

I know.

Like that's my home, you

know, that's my place.

Right.

And I mean, most of us

haven't even visited Alabama.

Right.

But we're like, dude,

that's, that's, that's home.

Right.

Well, it could be because like the word

home and home and home is like in the

whole course over and over and over again.

Right.

That sweet home, Alabama, it evokes

this kind of crazy iconic feeling

of belonging and being well home.

Right.

And I think that's.

What we've been experiencing the last

couple weeks together as the Church of

Jesus Christ that we've had a chance

to just soak in family in home, right?

And that's been pretty cool.

Our Heavenly Father, the head of the

household and the Holy Spirit been

hanging out with us pretty regularly

and doing some really neat things.

Home is family.

Do you know that?

Like, have you ever moved to

a different house and somehow

home comes along with you?

Right.

It's weird how that works, right?

'cause the house isn't

home, family is home.

And God designed us to be in family.

That's, that's his design.

That's not some cultural,

silly thing like.

Some patriarch, matriarch mess

that our cultures just handed us.

God designed moms, dads children.

He placed us, scripture says,

in families and family, man,

that's, that's where home is.

And you may have, as you reflect

on the idea of home, you may have

a pretty hard home life, right?

And fallen world.

Not everybody has family and home

that really fulfills God's design

for what it's supposed to be and

what it's supposed to look like.

But that doesn't change what God's

design is and that doesn't change

the goodness of our God that he

created this cool thing called family.

In fact, over in one John,

it has this iconic epic.

If you want to go epic,

sweet home, Alabama.

Let's go epic Jesus words.

Rocking it out to us this

morning from uh one John.

See what great love the

father has lavished on us.

John said this, not Jesus.

Sorry if I said that wrong.

Uh, we should be called children

of God, children this techon word

in the Greek children of God.

I did some research on this 'cause I

was like, maybe, maybe it's like, uh.

Second class, or maybe it's, you

know, um, surrogate kids or, uh,

Jesus runs an orphanage and they're

all the orphans who sort of don't

really have legal family status, but

he takes care of them vibe, right?

But here's the crazy

thing about this word.

This word is tied to childbearing, right?

This word is kids, that God actually

literally invites us and transforms us.

Not into his people, not into his

servants, into his kids, right?

First John says, what great, incredible,

amazing love that God has for us,

that we should be called children

of God, and that is what we are.

Our identity and our status

is that we're kids of God.

We're God's kids.

Maybe in your house, you remember

being somebody else's kid and you

remember like maybe some stories or

conversations or chats with the people

in charge of your house who were

like, our kids don't act like this.

Our kids don't live like this.

And maybe there's a little application

for us as God's kids, maybe as part

of his household, God calls us to

live differently than the world

around us or the other household.

Anybody ever hear the phrase like,

that's not what we do in this house.

Right.

Jamie told me that the other day, right?

That's for young man.

That's not, I was like, all right, cool.

But in our house, as Joshua said, as for

me in my house, we'll serve the Lord.

Our family is gonna follow Jesus

regardless of what's going on around us.

And you're invited into this crazy

cool, amazing love that God has and

given status as a member of his family.

I don't think there's a more profound

truth in the gospel than that.

We're forgiven for our sin.

We are cleansed and we're made right

before God, and that is an amazing

and important and life-saving action

that Jesus takes on our behalf.

But if you could grasp just a touch of the

magnitude of his invitation to actually

be his family man that is transformative.

That changes things home.

His family and the church

is called the Family of God.

And so if we connect those dots, church

ought to be home where the family of

God spends time together, hangs out,

shares, prays, cries, celebrates,

but is together right as family.

Paul gives these instructions to

Timothy and it's kind of like my.

Church core value life.

Verse says over in one Timothy

five, one, do not rebuke an older

man but appeal to him as a father.

Treat younger men as you would a brother.

Older women as mothers and sisters,

younger ones as actual sisters.

Absolute purity.

This is a picture of the interaction,

not of the clergy and the congregation.

This is a picture of family within

the church that we are moms and

dads and sisters and brothers.

Right.

John Theresa's been telling me

to call her Mother Theresa all

the time and it's weird, right?

But like, I mean women who,

mama Theresa There we, okay.

Fair enough.

Fair.

This, this word rebuke.

I wanna point this out here real quick.

This is kind of an important one.

It's, uh, epi Orso.

What is that?

Hey, uh, cca, come on up here a second.

Would you come join me because

you're here this morning.

You're in college.

Come on up here.

Back here.

Come, you go.

Josiah asked me this morning.

He is like, is there any way

you could ruin my relationship?

And I was like, Hey,

I got a, I got a plan.

So, uh, alright Becca,

thanks for coming up here.

Great to have you.

Alright, so I know you

were super excited about.

Telling everybody how

to pronounce this word.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Fair warning.

Fair warning.

Is that on?

Tim doesn't wanna hear it.

I don't know.

He's Tim.

Whose side are you on?

Oh, no, no, no, no.

It's gonna work.

It's gonna work.

I faith.

Give it a shot.

Hold it.

Are we good now?

Oh, okay.

Fair warning.

I can't read Greek.

I can't, but, okay.

Oh, so you think Josiah

should come up and help you?

Exactly.

No, no, no.

We want you up here.

Okay.

So, um, epi, epi.

Place?

Is that right?

My best guess would be eso eso e

eso.

That looks pretty good if you say so, ESO?

Sure.

I like it.

We're gonna do that.

Okay.

Stay right here with me.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Alright, so this word rebuke,

do you know what it means?

No.

What do you think it means?

No, listen, I didn't just bring you up

here 'cause you're dating my son and

that makes me an older man that you

should treat in a fatherly fashion.

And this is a good chance to

unpack this work, but like.

What do you think it means?

You gotta guess.

Um, that's why you're here today.

'cause you wanted to learn

what this word meant.

It's true.

I'll tell, I'll tell Dr. B that you're

teaching me and I'll get extra credit.

You're here for extra credit.

Perfect.

Hey, give, uh, give Becca a

round of applause before I get

kicked outta my own family.

Sorry about that, Becca.

Thank you for, uh.

We have some fun.

I like watching the two of them

talk about all the Greek words in

the Bible and do Bible studies.

And so, you know, I just wanna

feature how important it is to, uh,

talk about God's word together and

to get in huge trouble with your

wife, your son, and his girlfriend.

Can I go to your house and

watch a Colts game today, Josh?

'cause I got nowhere to go today, bro.

Okay.

Alright, let's move on.

Uh, I kind of wanted to make

a big deal outta this word.

And really bring it into the

forefront of your attention.

'cause it really matters.

This word episo, something like that.

It means to strike upon, to beat upon,

to chastises with words, to chide.

Sometimes we hear the word rebuke and.

It's a harsh word.

It's a, it's a strong word, but

in this context, this Greek word,

in this passage clearly speaks

to this idea of aggressively

attacking, striking, being really,

uh, boy derogatory and tearing down

and chastising with your words, chiding.

This is an interesting picture.

Have you ever, have you ever hung out

with an older, like, like somebody who's,

who's talking to an older gentleman,

some younger guy and they're just

disrespectful and it just sort of like

grates on you a little bit, you know?

Um, just 'cause it feels wrong.

Do you know why it feels wrong?

'cause it is wrong.

Right?

That's how it works.

God has called us to be

respectful to our elders.

To show honor and Paul

warns Timothy a pastor.

Do not chastise.

Don't chide, don't strike upon

or beat upon an older man.

Some of your translations will say,

don't rebuke your older man harshly as

though distinguishing that there might

be another way to rebuke, and maybe we'll

talk about that in a minute, but this is

the picture God gives for his church that

we interact and we engage and we deal in

truth and we do all these things, but we.

Do it in a context of

family and relationship.

Do you know that you can take all of the

deep, complicated theological concepts

like eternal security and predestination

and God's sovereignty and man's free will.

You can take all of these kind

of things and many, many more.

And if you can view them through

the lens of relationship, it

transforms how you define and how you

understand and how you walk them out.

'cause see if you're in a

relationship with somebody.

You're not worried about the

margins and the ends, right?

And the extremes.

Well, what if I, what if I denounce Jesus?

Well, what if I, you

know, do whatever I want?

Doesn't even matter.

Like, none of those things are important.

What's important is the relationship.

It's central, right?

When you're in a relationship,

relationship with your wife, guys,

how you treat your wife, how you

invest in that space that matters,

and that affects the health and

the longevity of your relationship.

If you don't live in that space and

you live in the margins, man, your,

your relationship fades, right?

It's the same thing with

our relationship with Jesus.

If we don't have a relationship

with him, that's healthy.

We're not invested.

We're not connected.

We're not walking in a

relationship with him.

Then all these other things, man, they,

they begin to pull us away and we lose

traction and we find ourselves in a mess.

Keep relationship as the focal point of

how you understand church and how you

understand your relationship with Jesus.

If you do that, it'll

transform how you live.

Don't rebuke an older man harshly.

Treat younger men as you would brothers.

So that means you rebuke

them harshly, right?

Not really, but you know, do your

best as a good brother, right?

And older women as your mother.

Be respectful.

Guys are pretty respectful

to their mom usually.

Right?

Let's keep that going in the church.

And this one's tough, right?

Younger women treat 'em as your

sister with absolute purity.

I love saying this to guys who are

trying to find younger women that

they have a romantic interest in.

And I love to say, Hey, man, date 'em

like you're dating your sister, right?

And then the people in

Kentucky are like, yes, right?

It's totally weird, but just kidding.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Um.

The reality is we act uprightly

and in purity with our sister.

So let's make sure that

I'm, I'm moving on.

That's, I'm sorry.

Too much.

Alright, so home is family.

Home is family, and home

is also real, right?

If home is family and the

church is to be family, home is

real, church is to be real too.

Do you know if home is the place?

Where they say to you, you can

walk out looking like that.

Right?

They say to you, uh, they say to

you, did you brush your teeth, bro?

Whew.

Right?

They say to you, well, a lot of things

that are real and genuine, right?

Oh, home is also the place

where you are real and genuine,

right where you are, just you.

No phoniness, no mask.

Scripture says over in Proverbs 13, five,

the righteous hate falsehood, but the

wicked, they bring shame and disgrace.

This Hebrew word shahar is that close.

Kor, that was really close.

You guys didn't hear it.

Don't ask, don't ask for clarification.

Uh, this word in the Hebrew

is a really interesting word.

It ties to the idea of dealing

falsely to trick or to deceive.

I man, I have such a value

for genuine authenticity.

It just matters so much that we're

real in the church and that we're

real in our relationship with God,

with our relationship with others.

Some of us have been taught that

you don't have to be real with God.

You just show up, check some lists.

You get your little traditional

religious actions out and

you're good to go to heaven.

God invites us into a relationship

and relationship is genuine, right?

And as followers of Jesus, we

deal in truth and we deal in

authenticity and in genuineness.

We don't deal in phoniness and masks

and pretend, and too much of our

world has gotten consumed like that.

Right home isn't like that.

Home is genuine.

Home is authentic.

You're not fooling anybody

at the house, nobody.

Yet we step out into what it looks

like to be part of the family of God.

And we try to fool and pretend, and we

do it out in the world, all around us.

See God's people.

God.

Do you know why God is so big on truth?

'cause he is the truth.

Like when he talks about truth,

he's not talking about a concept.

He's talking about his character

When he calls you to walk in truth.

It's 'cause that's who he is.

And if you wanna walk with him,

you're gonna be in the truth.

But if we wanna walk in falsehood and

lies and deception, well, he's real clear.

That's what the enemy rolls with, right?

That's what the enemy speaks.

That's his only language, right?

Lying, deception.

The father of lies, Jesus said.

So, if we're gonna be God's people

and if we're gonna be his kids

who are part of his family, then

walking in truth and reality.

In real, genuine relationship

with each other and with him

is how we gotta do it right?

Truth, home is truth.

Lemme throw the scripture at you.

Therefore, each of you must

put off falsehood, right?

That idea of deception, deceit, phoniness,

and speak truthfully to your neighbor.

'cause we're one body.

Know the scripture, picture right?

Is this body, this community.

But that's what family is as well.

And sometimes in being real.

Speaking truth, we have to

deal and speak hard things.

This scripture over in Luke 17

says If your brother or sister

sins against you, rebuke them

and if they repent, forgive them.

I wanna bring to your

attention this word, rebuke.

We just learned it, right?

Do you wanna come back

up and do this one again?

Beck, are we good?

We're good.

Beck and I are good.

Okay.

Just remember that later, Becca, when

you're mad at me, you can be like,

remember that time I didn't make you

come up to the platform second time?

Not as not as good.

Okay.

This word in the Greek we just

learned means to strike, right?

But that's not this word in the

Greek, it's a different word.

Instead of a pleso, whatever it is, epi,

which is a whole different Greek word.

Still related.

And this word in the, in the Greek

actually means to admonish, to charge

sharply, but to charge straightly.

And this is a significant thing because

what the scripture says is, in the

family of God, we speak the truth.

We don't pretend like sin isn't sin.

We don't go passive aggressive or just

not even directly address anything.

We admonish and we sharply charge

very direct, but very straight and

very clear, and there's a whole

different motive behind this than this

idea of to strike or to beat down.

What Paul warns Timothy about in the

first Greek word is this idea of trying to

maybe reach with authoritarian power and

to beat into submission those around you.

But this picture that we see over

here in Luke is this idea of lovingly

correcting and loving enough to speak

the truth in love, direct and clear.

But not to beat and destroy,

but to call to a different path.

Why?

Why?

Well, I would say it's,

it's a very simple reason.

It's called love.

Because if you don't tell people the

truth, like for instance, if you had

a friend who really loved to drink

gallons of toxic waste every day.

And you knew that was destroying them,

would it be loving to pat them on the

back and say, good to see you, hope

your day's going good, or would it be

loving to say, Hey man, I care about you.

Stop drinking the toxic

waste, it's destroying you.

Which one of those is really

actually a loving act?

Clearly the second one, right?

Clearly.

In the church, we tend to be, and in the

family of God, we tend to be reluctant

because we don't wanna be condemning and

judging and we shouldn't be condemning

and we're not the judge, but good grief,

we can see the fruit of people's lives

and we can see clearly what Jesus said.

This is how we ought to live.

And when we choose willfully to

walk in disobedience to that, if we

don't love people, then let's just

stay silent and not say a word.

And.

Not admonish one another or encourage one

another or sharply address the truth in

love, but sharply address the truth and

warn, you know, Jesus warned us enough

or loved us enough to warn us, right?

Like he, he literally was

like, Hey, listen, bear fruit

and keeping with repentance.

If not, my father's got an ax on

the base of the tree, it'll get

chopped down and thrown in the fire.

It's a very complicated metaphor

that basically means burning right.

Bear fruit or burn.

It's pretty basic and it's not some

fancy church slogan or some little

cartoon somebody came up with in

a, in a magazine about Jesus stuff.

It's just what Jesus said, but he

didn't say it 'cause he's a jerk.

He didn't say it 'cause he's a mean

God who doesn't want you to have fun

bearing whatever fruit you want to bear

or just forget the fruit and go have

fun, goof off, do whatever you want.

He loves us enough to know, hey,

this is how you get to eternal life.

This is the path through the minefield.

This is the path through this world of

fallen debris and mess and destruction.

The war zone, like we talked

about yesterday, right?

It's not the Department of the Defense.

It's the Department of War and

Spiritually where the Department of

War, not the Department of Defense.

We gotta be paying attention and

engage and live in this crazy, fallen

battlefield world that we're in.

And Jesus loves us enough to say,

Hey, do this, follow this path.

That's love.

Jesus rebukes us Scripture says

that he disciplines those he loves.

He's treating you like

legit sons and daughters.

He says, 'cause if you don't

get disciplined and there's no

rebuke, you're probably not legit.

You're probably not really in

authentic relationship with him.

Now you guys are probably

doing life way better than me,

that Jesus never rebukes you.

I'm pretty good at getting rebuked, right?

Because I do enough things

for him to be like, Hey, Andy,

let's, let's straighten this up.

Let's tighten this up.

Let's change this behavior.

Let's address this.

Let's, uh, you know, and then

it's on me on what I'm gonna

do in obedience or not, right?

But make no mistake, this picture of

rebuke in this scripture, it's about love.

And man, that's what home is.

It's a place, right?

Where are we going with this?

Oh, yeah.

Well after, forgot, tell

you this good part, right?

This is the best part.

If they repent, remember what repentance

is biblically, it's 180 degree turn right.

I was walking this way.

I stop and I turn and I

walk the other direction.

That's the biblical picture of repentance.

Our version of repentance

is what I'm walking towards.

Destruction.

My bad God.

Oh, sorry.

Oh, I gotta do better.

Got you.

Grace, grace, grace, grace.

Woo-hoo.

Grace, grace, grace.

Right?

That's what we do.

And we call that repentance.

That's not biblical repentance.

It's not.

It's saying some words like, I'm sorry,

but if the behaviors don't change and we

don't course correct and get back on the

path we're supposed to be on and walk the

path that we're supposed to be on, Jesus

is real clear that that's destruction.

Right?

Anyone who repents forgive him.

Right?

And the next verse, just in case

you're confused, even if they sin

against you seven times in a day

and seven times come back and they

say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I repent.

And they really genuinely

repent biblically.

You must forgive them.

That's a bummer.

If you don't wanna

forgive people, I get you.

Maybe you love the hard

heart kind of thing.

You probably need to work on that, right?

Maybe you need to do

that forgiveness vibe.

But at the end of the day, we are

supposed to be people who love, who

call to righteousness, who call sin

sin, who walk in the truth, who call

each other to walk in the truth.

And whenever somebody, it doesn't

matter how bad we're hurt or how much

pain they've caused, when there is

genuine repentance, God calls on us to

be agents of mercy, to say, I forgive

and let's just keep walking together.

But you know why he does that?

'cause let's be honest guys,

that's what he does with us.

We have, we've been forgiven much, right?

So we can forgive.

You and I are walking on this narrow

road trying to follow Jesus, and

we trip and fall down all the time.

We dishonor the Lord, we screw stuff up.

We make a mockery of our

family name as his kids.

We all make mistakes, all sin and

fall short of the glory of God.

But God says, take my hand.

Right?

Jesus is like, let's go.

Just get up and let's

just keep moving together.

So we have no place to not be people

who do the same, for anyone who wants

to join us in that path, who wants

to walk with us in that path, right?

Home is love and the church is

to be the family of God that

loves a place that's family.

A place where you belong.

I don't mean like you have to come,

I mean you wanna be, 'cause you got

a spot at the table and when your

chair's empty it's like we're missing

part of the family hanging out.

'cause we're family and we love each

other and you want to be with your family.

This family.

I get you right.

At the end of the day, God invites us

to be in an amazing experience together.

You guys are walking that out.

Our friends, Lynyrd Skynyrd

who know this all too well now.

Sorry, it's probably harsh, um, this

phrase, Lord, I'm coming home to you.

Just remember, Jesus loves you.

He invites you into a

relationship with you.

There's a day where you're gonna get

invited to your eternal home, right?

A heavenly home.

And there's really only two addresses.

Two addresses.

And he invites you to be his kid who

shows up with a place at the family table

because of your relationship with him.

It's better than Sweet

Home, Alabama, right?

It's sweet home.

Heaven, sweet home, eternity, sweet home,

no pain, suffering, just glorious joy,

unspeakable and unfathomable to the mind.

That's where he invites

us for all eternity.

And in the meantime, we do this thing

in this fallen world together with

trace amounts of what's coming one

day in a glorious reunion with him.

So I don't know where

you're at this morning.

I don't know if you're newer

to White Rock and you're like,

what's up with these crazy people?

It's a good discernment on your part.

I don't know if you've been around

for a long time and your, your

old, your OG family members.

We have some small groups

that are launching tonight.

Super excited about those.

Man.

I'd really encourage you to plug in nine

weeks of talking about parables that Jesus

taught and why it matters and encouraging

one another, almost like family getting

together and having a chat about stuff

that really matters instead of football.

Football really matters to some of us,

but I would encourage you to plug into

one of those groups and we have a creation

group going on, a finance group going on.

Those are all family gatherings that we're

gonna do over the next nine weeks to give

you opportunity to grow, to be encouraged,

and don't miss this, to encourage others.

It's not always about what do you get

outta something, it's about what you give.

To those around you as well.

So I definitely encourage you to check

out that board in the back today and

plug into something that you can maybe,

uh, have some good family time with the

people who make up this temporary home.

But one day are gonna be hanging out,

like, look around this room real quick.

If these people know Jesus, you

hanging out for all eternity together.

Right.

So we could do like one more night a week.

We could pull it off.

Right.

I was kidding.

That was a depressing thought.

Dex, why don't you look

at me and roll your eyes.

Okay.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much

for your love for us.

Thank you for the last few weeks

here that have been so, uh, just kind

of special as your family, as we've

been encouraged by people coming and

sharing and affirming our love and

the way we're trying to walk together.

Uh, and then last week, Lord, talking

a lot with burdens and heartache and

praying together and, and watching you

begin to break down walls and move.

In response to that.

Lord, I'm thankful.

I'm not part of a performance or a

presentation, but just part of a family.

It's just fun to get to be with

you and be with your people.

And Lord, I pray that you would encourage

our hearts to live out the kinda love

we talked about this morning, to not

be afraid to talk about truth, not

to be people who beat each other up

or tear down or try to look better.

That's never the goal of family.

We wanna love well, and we want everybody

in our family to be healthy and strong and

be able to navigate the world around us.

So I pray you help us with that.

Pray you bless these groups that are

gonna be meeting this week as we launch

into some really cool opportunities for

your family to gather and be encouraged.

I pray that you would enrich our

experience and our understanding that

you grant us wisdom and discernment

in some ways that are just super cool.

Uh, and I just pray you just give us

an awesome day in you and help Becca

to keep talking to me after this.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.