Family First | Jason Gore

Good to see you hope.

Community Church in the house of the Lord.

Those of you joining us online, let's stand together

as we read the word of the Lord.

Romans chapter eight, verse 35 says this,

who shall separate us from the love of Christ

shall tribulation or distress, or persecution,

or famine, or nakedness, or danger

or sword as it is written for your sake,

we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

But then Paul says, no.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors

through Him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels

nor rulers, no things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height, nor death,

nor anything else in all creation, will be able

to separate us from the love

of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can we celebrate the Lord for his word today? Hallelujah.

With us

On

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hey,

before we continue worshiping together, why don't you turn

to two or three people and welcome them

to Hope Community Church.

And if you're joining us online,

why don't you write in the chat

that you are new to hope community

Amazing. We're gonna

continue to worship together today,

and we're gonna learn a new song.

And it's just about how Jesus is everything.

That there is no treasure of this life

that could ever satisfy our hearts like Jesus.

So we're gonna worship together today.

Sing this out. I don't want anything but you.

I don't want

I thought

close to knowing you

now that I'm yours.

I spend forever in.

You can

Just want Jesus.

Come on, look at him. Look at him today.

Gooding this out.

I don't, I don't

eat anything else.

You're, You're come today.

I don't want anyone else.

I don't because you,

you can

I the wonders of

I,

I

have

I

death not

before, before you silence the

heaven.

You

is the,

the name,

powerful

name.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the power

that is in that name, that name that is able

to raise the dead back to life.

God, we thank you for your son Jesus.

We thank you that we get to celebrate, that we get

to praise you, that we get to worship you for all

that you've done, for all that you're going

to do in this time.

Now, we committed to you.

We pray that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,

in the mighty matchless name of Jesus, we pray,

let the church of God say amen and amen.

It's great worshiping with you. You go be seated.

Hello, hope we're gonna have some family time together.

While I'm preparing, if you could find your communion cup,

you know why I'm here?

Those of you want to join me, communion could find your cup

and get started on that.

You know what, top today I want to bring

to your mind the word forgiveness.

When I was preparing for this, I thought, what word

captures this moment?

And I thought forgiveness.

In Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, it says in him,

we have redemption through his blood,

forgiveness of our trespasses

and our sins according to

his riches and his grace.

So when we take this bread

and this wine, we are reminded that we are forgiven.

God loves us. He sent us, his son

and his son gave himself a sacrifice.

And we acknowledge that every time we take this bread

and we drink this cup.

So I want you to join me

and take this wafer, get it in your hands and break it.

Father, we thank you for this bread

which represents the body of our Lord.

We thank you that he forgave us on that cross,

and we're forgiven today.

Take either body,

we have this wine represents his blood, And

as Ephesians says, we are redeemed.

We are forgiving through the blood of Jesus.

So I want you to drink this blood with me.

Father, we thank you for you sending your son,

because we know through that act we are forgiven

and we live under grace today

because of the sacrifice of your son

with his body and his blood.

And we thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Amen. Thanks brother Carl,

We hope it is good to worship together.

As you guys are sounding good, we had a little bit of

that throwback, uh, worship there.

And, uh, hopefully if you're not in the room with us,

you're seeing along real loud at the top of your lungs,

people that are riding along next to you,

wondering what's going on over there.

But anyway, uh, my name's Jamie.

If we haven't met one of the pastors around here,

and hopefully we do get a chance

to meet, especially if you're new.

We wanna say welcome. Uh, hopefully you're getting a,

a taste of what it looks like to hang out with this family.

We call Hope Community Church.

We are a family who seeks to love God, follow Jesus,

and share hope with our community so they might know

and experience the love of God

and the life that Jesus

who Carl was just talking about made,

came to make available.

So we want to encourage you to take a step toward that.

Even if that step is just maybe meeting one person

before you leave, you can do that out

of the next steps area before you head out.

And if you wanna do that digitally, just drop some, uh,

notes there in the chat or in the comment section

and someone will follow up with you before the week is out.

We just wanna say thanks for it being, uh, with us.

Well, we talk a lot about family at Hope Community Church,

and last week we kind of doubled down on that.

Hopefully you were around.

We had our all in fifth Sunday fun day family experience

where we brought all

of the generations together in the room.

We let some of the students take over

hosting responsibilities.

We had a message all about what it looks like

to be an individual part of contributing

to this great big family that, uh, we call the church.

And there was kids city worship team.

It was just such a great weekend to be together,

and we hope that you were able to be a part of that

and experience a little bit of what your students

and your kids get to experience week in

and week out when they're not here in the

room with the grownups.

And so we wanna encourage you, ask them about it,

keep the conversation going at home.

It's always good to share what God's doing in your life

with your family and this family

of families called the Church.

Well, a big part of God living out his mission

through His people is when we all step toward belonging

and discover our purpose.

And there's an opportunity coming up

for guys in our church just next month that we want you

to hear a little bit more about right now,

Men of Hope. Uh,

I believe we have a pandemic.

Uh, the reality is there are men too, many men going

through life, uh, without knowing purpose,

without having hope, uh, wondering where they're supposed

to spend their time, the pressures of being a great husband,

the pressures of being a great dad, the pressures of

what does it really mean to provide for my family,

am I on the right path in life?

Uh, there's an organization that we have partnered with

that has an experience.

It's called the Extreme Character Challenge,

where you spend 72 hours out in the wilderness,

away from the distractions

and life with other, uh, like-minded men

for the sole purpose of seeking God's desire and God's plan

and God's purpose for your life.

Uh, myself and Pastor Matt Curtis, pastor Sam Cannoli,

uh, had an opportunity.

I extended a gracious invitation to them, which I'm certain

that they're appreciative

or, uh, in the mountains of Colorado earlier in the summer.

And I would love for them to have an opportunity

to tell you about their experience.

So, Matt, Sam, uh,

you went on the Extreme Character Challenge,

spent 72 hours in the mountains of Colorado.

Uh, I'd love for you just to share

with our people here at Hope.

What was that experience like? What kind

of impact did it have on your life?

Uh, significant impact, for sure.

Um, went into it not knowing anything really.

They, that's the way they want it. And, uh, it worked out.

I went into it, uh, burnout though.

I went into it, um, passive

and looking, seeking for a bit of an awakening, uh,

because I was coming home at night spent,

and my family was getting the last of me,

and that didn't feel right or godly.

Um, and showed up not knowing anything,

didn't have a backpack, had to, you know, find a way,

get a backpack, didn't have a tent,

borrowed some stuff showed up.

And, uh, by the end of it came home.

And, uh, I'll tell you, when I, when I processed some of it

with my wife, uh, there were tears.

There was repentance, um, and there was an awakening.

So God moved in a big way.

Uh, and I love doing it with you guys.

Absolutely. You know, for me, obviously, you know,

this brother didn't have any backpack, any boots.

I mean, I didn't, I didn't know

what I was even doing out there.

I know that I answered the call like, Hey,

my pastor says he wants to go on this thing.

Hey, let's, let's go do it. I

Think I remember about, I wanna say 60 minutes,

probably 16 minutes in that first night you looked at me

and said, what, what have I done? Oh,

Oh, I, I I assure you it wasn't 16 minutes.

Uh, I didn't even make it that long,

but I, I will say that one of the things that was

so profound was, uh, a couple things.

Number one, it's so easy for men today to try to get

through life on their own.

That's right. And one of the, one

of the most profound things that I learned was how important

and how imperative it is

to have godly men have in your back.

That's right. Especially when times get tough,

when challenges you face,

and you don't know exactly how things are gonna turn out.

That was what you guys showed me in that moment of, Hey,

I don't have to do it alone and I don't want to do it alone.

Right. Uh, another thing was I got to see just

what was inside this tank that my brain told me

I didn't have enough for.

But through the power of the spirit of God,

and through the encouragement of my brothers, I was able

to do things and experience things

that I probably would not have been able

to experience any other way.

And that in itself was transformational for me.

Praise God, man. Yeah, I, I could go down the whole list.

I mean, for me, um, it man leadership can be a lonely place.

And and for me to be reminded of, no, no, you,

you don't have to believe that lie.

You, you need men around you,

and there are men who are willing to come around you.

And then I think for me specifically, uh,

God used the lesson of, um, you might think

that you have your way figured out.

Um, the reality is life is about trusting in me.

And so being in an environment

where I couldn't rely on myself and my strengths

and my forethought, um, was a great reminder to me

that I do have a loving God that is with me,

even in the midst of maybe not knowing what's next.

So to all of you, minute hope, you're,

you could be thinking, uh, well, how hard is it?

Uh, it's hard enough. How far do you hike? Far enough?

That's right. That's what you're gonna hear.

Um, the reality is you read scripture cover to cover,

and God has a history of meeting man on a mountain.

Uh, whether you're talking about Moses,

whether you're talking about Elijah,

whether you're talking about Jesus himself

or Jesus calling his disciples up onto the side

of a mountain with him, there's something about God speaking

to a man in a place

that is removed from the day in and day out grind.

I want to challenge you, men and and wives.

I, I wanna encourage you, challenge your husbands.

Uh, this is an opportunity to step out of the daily grind,

to be called out of passivity, to, to have a group

of men surround you and,

and walk towards what it is that God might want us

to come face to face with.

And so, if you're sitting here right now,

and you've got that feeling in your chest, is this me?

I believe it's you. And so what I want you to do,

text the word mountain to 7 2 9 8 9.

You're gonna link, get a link set directly to your phone.

And, uh, you'll have all the

information there that you need.

If you have any questions for us,

please don't hesitate to reach out.

Let's take, could you imagine, uh, if the Men

of Hope said no to passivity?

And I'm gonna chase after the plans

and purposes that God has for me, linked arms

with the other men of hope for what it is that God has

for us in our lives, mountain 7 2, 9, 8, 9.

Love you guys. All right.

Hope, uh, listen, I,

I believe the date is October 16th through the 19th.

And so men, uh, you saw Mountain to 7 2 9 8 9,

I wished you guys, uh, could have been there

and just seen some video clips of me and Matt Curtis,

and specifically Sam Cannoli on that trip.

One thing that's always good to know,

if you're gonna do something like that

and you have asthma, you should let

somebody know before you do it.

So next time, hopefully Sam will

be a little bit more forthright.

Uh, look man, take this opportunity. Okay.

Text Mountain 7 2 9 8 9.

And and lemme say this, I know that that's not a trip

that everybody can, uh, or would go on.

Don't allow that to be an, an excuse

to step into other relationships,

to have other men come alongside of you in your life

and encourage you to grow in your relationship

with Jesus into the man, into the plans

and purposes that God has for you in our life, uh,

across all of our campuses,

we have different men's gatherings at our Apex campus.

I believe it's the third Tuesday night

of every month at our Raleigh campus.

We've got one coming up in October.

But if you wanna get involved, just go to your campus pastor

and say, Hey, I, I need to get connected

with some other men in my life.

I need to take some next steps.

And they would love to point you in the right direction.

We will not be the church that God has called us to be

until we are stepping into the plans

and purposes that God has for us as men.

So let's take those steps. Okay?

Uh, we are kicking off a brand new series this week

that we're calling Family of Families.

If we have not met, uh, my name is Jason. Nice to meet you.

Thanks for spending time with us this weekend.

Uh, could not be more excited about this series.

Now, here's what I know.

When we say the word family, uh,

so many people have a radically different perspective.

Uh, uh, uh, something that comes

to their mind when they hear that word.

Uh, a lot of it has to do with our upbringing

and how we experienced family growing up.

I can remember some 23, 24 years ago before my wife Diana

and I were married, and I took sweet little Diana with me

to my mom and stepdad's house to meet my parents.

And so we went over, we hung out for a little bit.

We, uh, had some dinner.

And then after dinner, my mom and I got into a conversation

and it might've gotten slightly elevated, okay?

And, uh, we continue for a little while, and then

after things deescalate for a little bit, I look around

and I see Diana anywhere.

And so I go in the kitchen, she's not in there.

I go out on the back porch, she's not there.

I go up front, she's not there.

Finally, I go up the stairs, I open my bedroom door

and she's laying on the bed crying.

I'm like, babe, what, what, what's wrong?

What's going on? She said,

I dunno why you guys were yelling

so much. I thought, babe, that

We weren't yelling. That

was just like a normal Sunday afternoon.

We love each other. That's what that is.

Meanwhile, she thinks she stumbled onto the set

of the Jerry Springer show.

I mean, like, our lives growing up were radically different.

She grew up in the small town

of Hendersonville, North Carolina.

God's country or family lives on a farm.

They were teachers in their local

high school until they retired.

Everybody knew 'em.

Uh, they, uh, they were way involved in Boy Scouts

and in Cub Scouts like this,

very different upbringing than I had growing up.

And so, her experience

and expectations on family radically different.

Let me ask you a question. What comes

to mind when you hear the word family?

'cause I know for a lot of us, it's uh, it's warmth,

it's laughter, it's traditions.

It's Christmas morning,

we're sitting around the Christmas tree.

You're open a presents, there's safety.

And then for others, if we're honest, there's pain,

there's brokenness, there's regret.

Like for some family feels like this anchor of strength.

And for others, it feels like this wound, that man,

if we just even show up in the same room as our family,

there's this PTSD and these emotions get triggered.

And so it really depends on our

perspective, how we view family.

And so that's just us based on our lives.

Then you've got culture and man, uh, culture right now,

like we're as confused as ever on the word family.

And I actually looked it up in the dictionary.

The dictionary still says that a family is a group of one

or more parents and their children

living together as a unit.

Okay? So maybe that's close.

But you start scrolling TikTok,

you start listening to politicians.

You start spending time on Netflix,

you will realize quickly, we do not agree on

what the word family actually means.

Some say it's whatever you want it to be.

Some say it's outdated.

It's just a social construct

that maybe we've outgrown as a society.

Some people say that families should be redefined to fit

personal preference or cultural trends.

But we've gotta understand, as a church family, we need

to know there is an agenda around us.

And I, I don't just mean that people are evil

and they're out to do harmful things.

I, I mean, that is true. There are evil people,

but that's not what I'm trying to, to jump into.

I'm not trying to elevate a cultural war,

but we do need to recognize that we have an enemy.

And he has worked for thousands of years

to deconstruct something that was created

to bring this sense of belonging, uh,

to be positively formational in our lives.

And I say positively because we're gonna be formed

by the world and the family

that we actually grow up in and spend time with.

But to positively be formational

and to provide a blessing to us in our lives

and through us, to the world around us.

That's what family is to be.

But the idea of family is being deconstructed.

And so as a brother and as a pastor, um, I have to share

with you, uh, something that's critically important.

And it's this family is God's

idea, period.

Like we have to start there. It's not culture's idea.

It's not hallmark's idea.

This is not just some evolutionary accident.

It is a divine institution that is sacred, that is given

to us by the creator of the universe.

And I'm gonna say that again.

Family is a divine institution that is sacred,

that is given to us by the creator of the universe.

This is like what we talked about when Aaron Nelson kind

of wrapped up our image bearer series.

He said, Hey, God is the one

who actually gives us our identity.

Therefore, we do not have the ability

to redefine our identity in the same way family's the same

way God instituted.

He created family.

We don't have an ability to actually redefine it.

And here's the thing, when families

flourish, life flourishes.

But when families start to break down,

everything else begins to fray apart with it.

I did some research this week

and, uh, I came across some stats.

And honestly, there's more stats than we could even

talk about in our time together.

So I chose three. Um, did you know that kids

who grow up without a father, children

who grow up without a father in their home,

are four times more likely to live life in poverty?

Four times over 70% of imprisoned juveniles

come from fatherless homes.

That's a big deal. And then one

and two adults in our culture say

they struggle with loneliness.

So while culture's telling us, Hey,

family doesn't really matter, do whatever you want,

redefine family, however you'd like.

The evidence around us, all around us is screaming

and saying, when families fail, society suffers.

We gotta spend some time talking about it.

So here's the big idea of this series.

God created the family to be a place of belonging,

of formation and blessing.

Um, if I were gonna make this a good Baptist sermon,

I would make all those words begin with be.

I would say it's a place for belonging,

for becoming and blessing.

But I thought that could be confusing. So I didn't.

So we're gonna say belonging, formation and blessing.

And, and listen to this, regardless of your past

or your brokenness, God has made a way for us

to experience family as he intended through the body

of Christ, through the church.

And this is so important

for each and every one of us who want

to experience the abundant life that Jesus actually came

to make available to us.

And this life as a church, uh, we have this vision.

Uh, we have this dream. We have this calling that's on us,

and it's this for our communities in all the world, to know

and experience the love of God, the radical love

that God has for all the world,

and the life that Jesus came to make available, uh,

that sense of belonging

and purpose that, that so many

of us are longing for in our lives.

And if we're honest, like many of us feel like

that we're actually robbed of the

opportunity to experience it.

It is made available to us through the life, death

and resurrection of Jesus, regardless of

how badly we've messed things up, regardless of

how many terrible things have happened to us,

it is available and it's our role to go out into the world

and to share the hope that we have in Jesus.

Now, how do we do that? How do we take ground on

that vision together as a church?

It's through our mission. And our mission is to live life

as a family who loves God, follows Jesus and shares hope.

Church, that is not just a slogan to go up on a wall.

That is what we believe we believe when we open the pages

of scripture and read this thing cover to cover,

like whether we like it

or not, family is the primary metaphor all throughout

scripture for the people of God.

And you could hear that and be like, man, I don't know if

that's a good marketing strategy

or not if you knew my family growing

up, but it's the reality.

And so we've gotta go to God's word

and unpack what does it really mean to live life

as a family the way that God intended.

So in this series, what we're gonna do,

we're gonna look at scripture unapologetically, okay?

And so what what I'm telling you is we're gonna engage some

topics that you might be tempted to think.

I don't know if that's politically correct to say.

I don't know if that's a safe place to really go

to in today's cancel culture.

Look as a core value as, as a church.

Um, we have a core value that says,

Hey, we stand on the Bible.

We believe that the Bible is the

authoritative iner word of God.

And so that's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna go to scripture unapologetically,

and we're gonna get really practical about a live, about how

to live into God's institution of family, how to live into

that, and how to live it out in the world around us.

And so this week, uh, I'm gonna lay out for us,

Hey, why does family matter?

And over the next few weeks,

we're gonna take a look at marriage,

God's vision for it, okay?

Not the culture around us.

Uh, we're gonna talk about parenting God's way, uh,

our roles and responsibilities to raise godly parents

to make sure that our families are actually the primary

place of discipleship and the lives of our children.

And you might be thinking, I have no idea how to do that.

That's okay. Or to give you some practical steps.

Then we're gonna unpack the roles of men

and women within the family.

And then when we wrap this whole thing up,

we're gonna finish by talking about what it means

to live life as a family of families, all

of us collectively together as the local church.

And so the, this is more than just tips

and tricks for a happy family life.

Uh, this is about stepping into God's vision as a family so

that our communities, our kids, our marriage, our church,

and ultimately the world can experience the love of God

and the life that Jesus came to make available to us.

So here's what we're gonna do. Uh,

we're gonna spend time in two passages.

Uh, we're gonna start out in Genesis chapter one.

We're gonna go all the way to the beginning.

Uh, we're gonna read a bit from there.

We're gonna talk about it. Then we're gonna jump over

to Ephesians chapter two.

So if you wanna go ahead and mark your places,

you can open your up your Bible.

It's really simple to find Genesis chapter one.

You just open this up just like that. Really simple.

Here's the first point that we're gonna talk about.

Family is God's design, not man's invention.

Family is God's design. It's not something that we created.

We don't have the ability to change what family is.

And so let's jump in Genesis chapter one, verse 28.

It says, then God said, let us make man and our image

after our likeness,

and let th have dominion over the fish of the sea,

over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock,

over all the earth, and every creeping

thing that creeps on the earth.

So God did. So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God, he created him, male

and female, he created them.

Verse 28. And God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful

and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, oversee it,

and have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over all the birds and the heavens,

and every living thing that moves on the earth,

right from page one.

In our Bibles family is born, male

and female, husband and wife, fruitful and multiplying.

This is not random. This is not evolution stumbling

into some type of strategy.

It's not sociology, adapting its way into culture.

It's an intentional design of an almighty God.

And I think sometimes we take that for granted.

Can you just listen to those words for a moment?

It's an intentional design from an almighty God

who created the universe.

God created man

and woman equal in

value, distinct in role.

What does that mean? We'll talk about it in a few weeks.

God brought them together. In covenant marriage.

God called them to be fruitful and multiply.

What does that mean To make children

and to raise them in a way that they know their creator.

God gave them a purpose. He said

to have dominion over all that's in the earth.

So his blessing would continue to be experienced.

Family is not a human invention. It's a divine institution.

Now, this is where scripture

and culture start to come at odds a bit.

Today. We, we talked about it,

family is being deconstructed, we're told,

and I wanna be careful here, but I I don't,

I don't have the luxury of not hitting his head on.

We're told gender is fluid.

Uh, we're told, Hey, you, you know what?

You don't have to get married. Why?

Why get the government involved?

I mean, you're doing the partnership thing.

It's all good for your tactic

that parenting's just about doing your own truth.

And I want to be sensitive here

because I know these conversations, um,

can tear apart families.

And I know this is difficult, and I know it can bring pain

and it can bring challenges, and there's so much grace

and love and mercy for that.

I want you to know everything I just mentioned.

I have close friends who are walking

through these things in their life right now.

And so, in fact, if that's you, like, like we want

to come alongside of you, nobody wants to judge nobody.

Uh, WW wants to condemn you.

We don't even have the ability to do that.

But we wanna come alongside of you

as your church family and walk alongside.

Um, you can drop us an email. We've got a great care team.

It'll get to our pastoral staff if you send an email

to [email protected].

We would love to follow up with you so much grace and mercy.

But, but we've gotta be honest with what scripture says.

The word of God doesn't budge.

Genesis tells us, he, he made them male and female.

It says, God, it says, marriage is

between a man and a woman.

It says that children are a blessing, not a burden.

We've gotta go to what God's word says.

Like you and I do not get to edit God's blueprint.

We either align with God's blueprint for our families

or we rebel against it.

But I gotta tell you, if we rebel against the blueprint

that God's put in place into our families, we cannot expect

to experience the blessing that God has for us

and our lives through family.

It's like if you're growing a garden, um,

a garden grows best, uh, when you put, uh,

the right seed in the right soil

during the right season, right?

Like, you can't force it to grow a different way.

Like I was talking about this with Aaron Nelson.

He is like, yeah, you should tell people that.

Like if you take some seeds

and put it in a bowl of chocolate pudding,

a tree's not gonna grow.

I thought it was funnier than you guys did. It's okay.

You can, you can laugh at that, but that's true.

Like it's the same with the family.

Like if you try to do it a different way than it's intended,

it's just not gonna work.

You can't, it, it's not gonna happen.

Got got instituted family and he instituted it his way.

Um, I kinda want to go off on, uh, to the side here and,

and talk about, uh, just to the young men, um, across all

of our campuses in this room right now.

And I'll kind of jump back in the text here in a minute.

But I, as I prayed through this

and was spending time in it this week,

just some things kind of fell heavy on my heart.

There is a movement right now where it seems that become,

it's becoming more and more socially normal

to growing into the men that God's called us to be.

Uh, the average age of getting married is backing up.

The average age that we have kids is moving further back.

The length of time that we sit

around playing video games is increasing.

Listen to me, our communities in our world are desperate.

They're in desperate need of men

who will live life as God designed.

And I know this could be controversial

and life is too short right now,

and there is too much at stake for me

to worry about being politically correct on this.

And I, I know

that some people are called to a life of singleness.

We see it in scripture. Uh, there are some people

that can hear my voice right now and think,

I don't wanna be called to life a singleness.

I'm looking for God to bring me somebody along.

And if that's you, I pray

that God will bring you a companion.

But for the vast majority of us, God has created us

to grow up honoring our parents to get some type of training

and education, get a job, start a business, uh, get married,

raise godly children,

and then be on mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ

that we have so freely received.

It's one of the most significant missions

or callings that a life can have

to step into the biblical manhood that we are created

to live into, and to live out the calling

that we clearly see from the first page of scripture.

It was true in creation. It's true today.

Do not buy into the lie from our enemy.

Uh, he wants us to be confused.

He wants us to be slow to step into manhood.

He wants us, uh, to to be boys.

Honestly, boys chasing

around a good time eventually will lead to nowhere,

and it will not bring the hope and the peace

and the strength that our world desperately needs

and that you are created to bring.

Family is God's design.

We have a role and a responsibility

and an opportunity to step into it.

It's God's design, not man's invention.

So God's design, not ours.

Secondly, um, God didn't just create it for it to exist.

He designed it with a purpose.

And so, uh, I'm gonna flip over to Ephesians chapter two.

And if you're not there yet, uh, while you're there,

I'll just kind of give you a quick heads up in this series.

It's almost gonna be like a survey of the book of Ephesians.

We're gonna be in this throughout the whole series.

Um, but we do feel convicted, uh,

to elevate these principles of families

for our church right now.

Um, we know we've got a lot of families in our church

that are struggling with a number

of things we just talked about.

You look out in culture right now.

So we feel convicted to elevate this.

But I'm gonna talk about three verses in Ephesians chapter

two right now for the rest of our time,

I would encourage you this week, go back

and read chapter two in its entirety

throughout every day this week.

If you've got time and you wanna be bold,

read the entire book of Ephesians.

It's one letter, six chapters.

Uh, you can get it knocked out.

It's gonna make you more prepared when you

show up here with us on the weekend.

Ephesians chapter two, we're gonna start, uh, in verse 19.

It says this, so then you were no longer strangers

and aliens, but you were fellow citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God, built on the foundation

of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself,

being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure,

the whole family being joined together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling

place for God by the spirit.

You ever thought about that?

Like you're, you're being built.

We are being built together into a dwelling place

for the spirit of God.

We'll get to that in a minute. I gotta start at verse 19.

Uh, Paul starts, he says, you are no longer strangers

and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God.

Paul saying, listen, you used to be outsiders.

You used to not have a place.

And and maybe you're hearing this message right now

and you're thinking, uh, hey,

my family is way past the point

of experiencing life God's way.

There's no way to get it back.

Or, or maybe you're a widow

and your kids are outta the house.

Or maybe you're a college student, you're single,

and you're thinking, look, I don't really know

how this whole family thing impacts me.

Paul's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no.

He's saying you were a stranger left to yourself.

You were a stranger. Uh, but now you, you belong.

You were fellow citizens. You have, you were home.

You have found your place of belonging.

He's speaking to one of the deepest human

needs that all of us have.

It's a place of belonging.

We know every single one of us, deep down inside,

we're looking for this place where we can be known

and where we can be loved.

This is what family is all about.

I don't know if you've ever been to a family reunion,

but, um, for whatever reason, in my family

and in my friend circle, it seems like my house is just the

place that we come to for birthday parties,

uh, for holidays.

But I'm telling you right now, you come to one

of those get togethers at my house.

You can show up in Crocs.

You can eat three pieces of fried chicken,

have grease all over your shirt,

and you're still gonna be loved like a kink.

That's just how it works. Um,

we don't eat a lot of fried chicken.

We eat less stakes. So you, maybe you can have two

or three stakes to yourself,

but you're still gonna be treated like a king

because that's what family does.

You, you're just loved. You're just loved.

You're just welcomed in. And that's what each

and every one of us are looking for.

So family gives us this place of belonging.

What else does it give us? Paul says,

we're not just citizens,

but we're a part of the household of God, a household.

So a household is not just a place that we sleep,

it's a place that we're shaped.

It's where our values are caught.

It, it's where our habits are formed.

It's where our identity actually gets built and shaped.

And parents, you know this, your kids don't learn near

as much from what you say as what they see you do, right?

That happens in the context of a family.

If you pray, they learn prayer.

If you explode in anger, they explode in anger.

If you love Jesus, they grow to learn to lead to love.

Jesus. Deuteronomy six, it says, these words

that I command you today shall be on your heart.

And this is talking to parents.

You shall teach them diligently to your children.

When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way,

when you lie down, and when you rise, he's saying, Hey,

this should be a 24 hour, uh, a day,

seven day, a week thing.

What it means to point our children towards Jesus.

Here's a principle for you.

Formation happens not in lectures, but in life. Together.

We need to be surrounded by folks who are actually

creating an environment where we can be formed to live into

what it is that we were created for parents.

Did you know that the single most significant predictor

of whether kids stay engaged in the church

as adults is whether they saw their faith lived out at home,

not talked about, but actually lived out.

So family gives us belonging.

Uh, family shapes us in formation. Paul doesn't stop there.

He says the household is being joined together into a

temple, which means family actually has a larger purpose.

Now, admittedly, this could be confusing.

Paul's saying, you are growing into a holy

temple in the Lord.

I'm willing to bet not many of you woke up this morning

and said, Lord, just grow me into a holy temple.

Like that's not something we think about.

It could be confusing, it might not sound compelling,

but I don't want you to miss the significance here in, in,

in those days, and especially in Old Testament

times, uh, the temple.

It wasn't just a pretty building.

It was a place, uh, where God's presence dwelt so

that his glory could be seen.

And then the Bible tells us in the New Testament, for those

of us who are followers of Christ, for those of us

who are in Christ, the spirit of God, his presence,

it actually dwells inside of us now, not in a building.

This is incredibly important, especially for those, uh,

in our church family that actually meet week in

and week out in a mobile campus.

Like, and you're like, man, we, we don't have a building.

No, no, no. The spirit of God's not in your building.

The spirit of God is actually inside of you.

And so the glory of God and God's presence and his love

and his grace and mercy and his spirit, that that enables us

to live out his mission has nothing to do

with the physical lo physical location other than where we

as the church actually are.

Families are meant to, to work in the same way.

Your marriage, your parenting, your household,

our church, it's meant to display the presence

and the glory and the goodness

and the love of our God to the world around us.

Remember our vision for our communities

and our world to know and experience the love of God

and the life that Jesus came to make available.

It happens through our families

and through our family of families,

which is the collective body of Christ.

It's the church. If

and only if we do it God's way, we see it in marriages.

Ephesians chapter five, which you're gonna hear from, uh,

either Dave or Doug Stride next

week, they're gonna unpack this.

But what we'll see is, is that marriage is a living picture

of Christ in the church.

When a husband lays down his life for his wife, the way

that Christ laid down his life for the church,

when a husband honor when a wife honors her husband, the way

that she would honor Christ, let's be honest,

even when he doesn't deserve it like that, that's a picture

of the gospel for the world to see.

And uh, before I jump to like

how this impacts the church family, I do wanna say this, it,

we have a class here at Hope.

It's called Reengage. And it's not even really a class.

It's, it's a 10 week experience where you come together

and there's, there's teaching and there's learning,

and then you come together and you're actually put in a

small group for that 10 week period.

And there's marriage mentors.

It's not just for people whose marriages are falling apart,

but if you're hearing this stuff

and you're like, man, I'm pretty sure my marriage

is not where it's supposed to be.

Or even if it is, and you just wanna safeguard that thing,

go to get hope.net/classes reengage

starts in a, in a couple weeks.

Um, we have marriage mentors and table seats that are open.

I want to encourage you, I, it would be my desire for,

for every family,

every married couple at Hope Community Church to actually go

through, reengage at some time during their life.

Take that step. So that's,

that's in our marriages in our church family.

I want you to know, when the church operates like a family

caring for one another, bearing one another's burdens,

celebrating victories,

the world actually gets a preview of heaven.

Um, we saw an example of this, um,

over the last couple weeks.

Um, two Sundays ago.

I, I got a phone call, um,

around seven thirty, eight o'clock in the morning and,

and found out that, um, one

of our family members here at Hope, um, uh,

his name was Daniel Ray, um, one

of the best men I've ever met in my life.

A friend of mine, um, passed away, um,

shockingly unexpected.

And, um, very close to so many people here at, at Hope.

And while it's a tragedy, and Marcy, his wife

and the kids would say it's a terrible tragedy, um,

they would also want you to know

that she called 9 1 1 at 7 45.

And by eight 15,

there were people from the church already flooding her home.

Um, she had a conversation with Erin Nelson earlier today

or, or last night,

and she told 'em like, I don't even know how to ask for help

because there's so many people

around loving our family, caring for us.

She said, before I can even realize that I'm thirsty,

there's a glass of water in front of me.

My laundry's getting done.

Uh, my floors are being swept

and my my floors are being mopped.

Like, when the church gets this

and comes together like family, it is a beautiful picture

that I'm gonna be honest with you.

I don't know where the rest of the world would turn.

It's a beautiful picture of the kingdom of heaven.

And so, uh, another principle here,

your family isn't just about your happiness,

it's about God's glory.

So that's the purpose of families, for belonging,

for formation, for purpose, for blessing.

That's why family ma matters, okay?

That's how God designed it.

But it's also why culture's attacking it.

'cause we have an enemy. And the enemy knows if he can take

out a family, he can weaken the church.

And if he can weaken the church, he can blind the world

to the glory and to the goodness, and to the love,

and to the grace and to the mercy of our God.

That's His game plan.

It's been consistent since the beginning of time.

We started in Genesis chapter one.

You don't get two chapters in until you see the attacks.

And so I'm gonna wrap this thing up,

and as I wrap it up, I'm gonna give two invitations,

two invitations this week.

Number one, join the family of God.

Maybe your earthly family is fractured.

Maybe you've been hurt. Uh,

maybe you've never known the belonging and the formation

and the blessing, the purpose

that we talked about, but here's the good news.

Um, and Christ, you can, And Christ you can.

I I wanna read eight verses really quickly from

Ephesians chapter two.

Um, I told you we're gonna be all over the

place in, in this letter.

Um, I read from verse 19 through 22 earlier,

I'm gonna go back to verse one and I'm gonna read it quick

'cause I think it speaks for itself.

So remember, we're talking about joining the family of God.

Verse one, it says, and you were dead in the trespasses

and sins in what you once walked.

So he's actually talking to believers at this point,

but he says, in, in the,

in the sin in which you once walked, following the course

of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work

and the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and word by nature, children of wrath just like the rest

of mankind, that's life outside of the family of God.

That sounds very difficult to experience the blessing.

But, uh, Gary vet, one of the pastors here, he talks about,

he said before, um, you've always gotta pay attention

to the big buts in the Bible.

This is a big one right here. All that is true.

All of these are true. Um, all of that is true

for those who are not in Christ.

But look at verse four. But God,

but God being rich in mercy

because of the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together in Christ.

And by grace, you have been saved and raised.

He raised us up with him

and he seated us with him in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the coming ages,

he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace

and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Listen for grace, for by grace,

you have been saved through faith.

And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God.

God invites you into his family.

And you don't have to earn your way.

You don't have to have the perfect family.

You don't have to have it all figured out.

We are adopted in by grace.

Grace is an undeserved gift that God offers to any

and all of us who would call on the name

of Jesus into a relationship with God

and into the family of God.

And if you have never made that decision to accept

that free gift through calling on the name of Jesus,

I wanna encourage you do that.

It's the best decision

that you could ever make in your life.

You can tell somebody that invited you.

You can tell somebody that you came with.

Uh, you can go to next steps and let somebody know

and say, man, I'm ready to give my life to Christ

and I wanna be a part of the family of God.

Number two, second invitation.

And this is for all of us who are actually in Christ.

Those of us who are following Jesus to call today as simple,

recommit, recommit to the family as God designed, end

recommit to your spouse, recommit to your kids.

Maybe you're single. I mean, I don't have any kids.

Maybe you've got a parent

that you haven't talked to in a while.

Maybe it's time to pick up the phone.

Maybe it's time to see what God can do in that relationship.

Recommit to this church family, Recommit

to living in God's design,

even when culture says it's outdated or it's inconvenient.

So, okay, Jason, I'm ready to recommit.

What does that look like? I'm glad you asked.

We're gonna spend the next four

to five weeks talking about it.

So I want you back here, a man,

if this is your church family over the next four

to five weeks, you do not want to miss being here.

Uh, I want you to do anything you can do

to get your friends here, get your family here.

I do not believe there's a better way to spend your time.

Because regardless of how far gone you are

or regardless of how far you believe your situation is,

or regardless, if you think, hey,

everything's going okay in my life right now,

family still matters.

It matters to your kids, it matters to our communities.

It matters to the mission of God.

And most importantly, it matters to the glory

of Jesus Christ, our king.

This is how I wanna close out this service.

Uh, I wanna invite everybody in this room

and across all of our campuses, I wanna invite you to stand

and I'm gonna pray for us.

But I want you to stand, and we don't have a lot of time.

So you gotta stand fast, okay?

Uh, and then, and then just slide in.

If there's room, I wanna encourage you, just slide in.

You'll be like, what about my coffee cup? That's okay.

It'll be there when you get back. Just slide in

And then I'm gonna ask you to do

something you might not wanna do.

And you don't have to do it, but, but if you would,

if you're comfortable, I wanna encourage you

to take the person's hand next to you.

Now, if you don't wanna do that, you're like,

I don't wanna get sick, just give 'em one of these.

It's okay. That's like the universal sign.

Like, ah, they'll know what you mean. It's okay.

Just family is God's idea.

Family is God's design.

Family is a place of belonging, of formation.

It's a place of blessing.

I want you to look around this room.

Look around the room that you're standing in right now.

If you're in your home with your family, listen online.

Just look around. This is a

godly, instituted, sacred institution,

a family of families, the church.

This is who we are. Would you pray with me?

Father, I want to thank you for the men and women

and students in this room across all of our campuses,

for those who are listening in.

Um, you created us to experience belonging

And to be formed and to,

and to experience blessing in our lives,

and to be able to share that blessing with the world

around us, through what you created as family.

Lord, family is under attack in our world.

Father, I pray that as a church family, that we would,

you would convict our hearts to just go to scripture

and say, God, I'm not gonna,

I'm not gonna listen to the news.

I'm not gonna listen to social media.

I'm gonna go to your word as to

what you say is true about me and how I'm called to live.

Father, I pray against the plans

that the enemy would have on our church family

to create a lack of unity, to create the ascension,

to tear apart families, to go after our children.

Lord, we pray against our enemy in the name of Jesus.

And I pray of prayer, of blessing over all

who call hope Community Church home,

and on all those who would call on the name of Jesus.

Father, I pray that you would be at work in our hearts,

that you would be at work in our lives over this series.

Father, we're gonna cover some tough stuff, father,

would we be, um, hearers and doers of the word Lord?

Would we not be as James talks about as one

who hear your word in the look in the mirror, and walks away

and forgets, Lord,

would our lives be changed ultimately for your glory?

Lord, we love you and we pray

these things in the name of Jesus.

And everyone said, amen. Amen.

Listen, as we finish, strong families build strong churches

and strong churches become strong families.

And so hope across all of our campuses, across all

of our communities, let's be that church.

Okay? Love you guys. See you next week.

Go, go ahead and stay standing.

I I'm gonna try to get you outta here pretty quickly here.

Some of you showed up and you tuned in.

You didn't realize you had a big old family.

So welcome to that. Uh,

here's what I would encourage you to do.

Uh, if you're online chat, comment

and like learn a name or two.

And before you leave, if you're in the physical building,

be sure to learn a name or two before you leave as well.

Uh, Jason mentioned if there's something going on, maybe all

of this is hitting in a way you were not expecting,

uh, stop by next steps.

Talk to someone, drop an email to [email protected].

We'll be there. We'll connect with you.

We wanna encourage you, uh, to do that.

Uh, one thing that's happening

as we speak is our middle school students, 300

of them are hanging out

with their small group leaders at camp over by Lake Gaston,

and they're experiencing a spiritual next step on a level

that is usually not experienced any other time of the year.

It's one of the best weekends of the year.

So we just wanna celebrate.

We wanna thank everyone who gives it hope.

You're a part of making that a reality, making that happen.

Such an awesome experience for our students, uh,

over this past weekend.

So we're glad that they're having that opportunity.

High schoolers, or if you know a high

schooler, your turn's coming up.

We got high school retreat coming up in October.

There are still some spots you can register,

so if you want more information on

that, be sure to drop into the app.

Check that out. Let your high school students know.

Sign up for HSM camp or HSM retreat.

You do not wanna miss it.

As Jason said, be sure to share this message with someone.

I'd encourage you if you missed out on any

of the image bearer series, go back

and watch or listen to that.

That's all about who you are in Christ Jesus.

This Family of Family Series all about

who we are as the church.

Together, they pair beautifully together.

You'll need every bit of it.

Share the messages with some friends.

Bring them back with you next week.

We love you and we'll see you then.