God's Family

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. It's my pleasure

today to read the Bible for you. If you have

a Bible and would like to read along. We are

starting in Acts 4 verse 32 to 37. Acts 4 32

Acts 4:32–37

to 37. All the believers were united in heart

and mind and they felt that what they owned was

not their own. So they shared everything that

they had. The apostles testified powerfully to

the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's

great blessing was upon them all. There was no

needy people among them, because those who owned

land or houses would sell them and bring the

money to the apostles to give to those in need.

For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles

nicknamed Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the

island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and

brought the money to the apostles. We are gonna

jump now to Galatians. Galatians 3 verse 26 to

Galatians 3:26–29

29. For you are all children of God through faith

in Jesus. and all who have been united with Christ

in baptism have put on have put on Christ like

putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew

or Gentile, slave or free, male and female for

you are all one in Christ Jesus and now that

you belong to Christ you are the true children

of Abraham. You are his heirs and God's promise

to Abraham belongs to you. This is the word of

the Lord. Thank you, Steph. All right, let's

see if I can do this on the fly. Nope. Not a

one -handed job. Okay. Howdy, everyone. Thanks.

You skipped the next bit. You saved me a thing.

For those who don't know me, I think most of

you in this room know me at this point, but my

name's Tex. I'm one of the pastors here. I am

a husband and a father. and I am ruining these

rugs, man. All right, we're doing great over

here. You, thank you. I'm also going to grab

my water. Why not? Let's start. It's been a bit

loose today at church. Everybody shake it out,

man. We're going to be okay. We're going to hear

the Word of God. It's a good church. That's right.

That's what we want. If we're going to be loose,

let's be loose in the good way. Let's get nice

and responsive today as I destroy these rugs

again. Okay, so most of you know me in this room,

which I'm very thankful for. I genuinely destroyed

the rugs immediately. My name is Tex. I am one

of the pastors here. I am a husband. My wife,

Kara, and I have been married for 17, almost

18 years. We have, yeah, darn right, Wu. We have

three beautiful kids, Cadence, Delilah, and Cecilia.

Now, my middle daughter, Delilah, is obsessed,

and some of you may have worked this out based

on clothing and based on other things. She is

obsessed with the character Stitch from Disney's

Lilo and Stitch. Now, for those of you who don't

know, but I am in a room. I preached at Enfield

this morning, which was a slightly older crowd,

so I really had to dig in pretty deep with the

lore of Lilo and Stitch. But I'm going to assume

you guys are ready to go right the way along

with me. So, I'll still do a brief recap. Film

focuses on a lonely girl, Lilo, being raised

by her sister when an alien experiment, Stitch,

crash lands in Hawaii, and Lilo adopts him basically

as her pet. How am I going so far? Pretty good.

That is a very like fine, right? Basically as

a pet now Stitch is sort of like a hyperactive

space dog He is unruly. He's pretty selfish because

again, he's kind of like this weirdo experiment

dog and He he kind of is just a bit hectic but

through Lilo's unwavering belief in Ohana, which

is the Hawaiian concept of Family, thank you.

We're playing along. We're doing mad libs today.

Let's go. And Lilo's refusal to give up on Stitch.

Stitch's heart kind of begins to open. The penultimate

scene has Lilo kind of... Sorry, has Stitch going

out of his way to save Lilo from impending doom.

And the film climaxes with Stitch choosing to

stay on Earth with his found family rather than

return to where he came from. How'd I go? Pretty

great. That's awesome. Eric's like, I've never

seen it. But if I say great, you will keep on

going. Now... The film has become pretty widely

known for one quote in particular, which is,

Ohana means family, and family means nobody.

This is unbelievable work. Let me tell you, I

did not have the confidence to let that slide.

Katie's reading it from behind me. Yeah, this

is so good. I didn't know how well Ash was going

to play along with me there. Ohana means family

and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.

Now, I think that this is a pretty kind of broad

concept and a pretty beautiful sentiment for

a movie to share, which is effectively about

an ADHD fugitive space dog. And it really does

open up a pretty beautiful thought and conversation

around what is family. What are the core characteristics

that we assign to the type of family that would

cause us to feel that sense of belonging that

sense of ohana that would cause us to feel like

we both belong and want to be part of a Family

that we that will that we want to not leave behind

and that doesn't want to leave others behind

and you know It doesn't want to leave us behind

now according to the AI FS Nobody? No, I'm joking.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies, this

is a legit organisation, government organisation,

they had a study from December 2024. Now what

they did with this study is they did a report

where they wanted to talk about what are these

six, or find out what are the most important

attributes that people respond with when asked

to define what is family. What attribute do you

assign to family? And they came back with these

results. Unconditional non -judgmental support.

common experiences and activities, shared values,

beliefs and activities, and traditions, sorry,

legal ties or obligations, blood slash genetics,

and number one with an absolute bullet was love.

Participants were more likely to respond with

love as the most important characteristic of

what defines for them a family than anything

else. It was actually the most important and

highest rated response of anything as part of

this study. Approximately 80 % leased it as very

or the most important attribute of what they

consider family. The second most important was

unconditional support. Now what I think is really

interesting about this is that when I hear the

word family, I'll be honest, my first thought

went to Kara, went to the kids. For you, you

hear the word family. It may invoke your mum,

your dad, a grandparent, an auntie, an uncle,

a niece, something like that. But only 13 % of

respondents nominated genetics or bloodlines

as variable, which just kind of goes to prove

that 10 of people responding with love, what

we consider family runs far deeper than just

blood. And I think it's because of that that

we use family language a lot in church. Brothers

and sisters. Why don't you make encounter your

home? Why don't you be part of our church family?

I kind of in the past in at different stages

I've often wondered like are these a bit rote?

Like is this a bit much? Is this really what

we need to do? But the data that I've just shared,

which was not from a Christian study by the way,

this was just on a governmental family study,

tells us precisely why we use that kind of language

in church. It's because the people that we choose

to love and that that choose to love us in return

The reason that we feel a familiar relationship

with each other, the reason we call ourselves

a church family, and the reason that we mean

it is because nothing plays a bigger role in

who we view as family than how we love and how

we feel loved. And that is what we do and we

get for each other within a church family. And

I want you to keep that in mind as we dig back

into Acts a little bit, because this passage

that we've just heard from Steph so beautifully

is about community, but it's about family. And

it's about the family we choose and the family

that chooses us, but more importantly as a result,

that passage is actually about love. And as 1

John 3, 18 tells us, dear children, let us not

love with words or speech, but with actions and

truth. Or as Pastor Nadia Mary Church of a church

called Local Church in New Zealand puts it, no

family words without family action. And Barnabas

Action talks to just that. We are in a church

community that is forming in the post Jesus ascension

into heaven. They are focusing on, you've heard

this, this act, this model of this acts church.

They are meeting together regularly. They are

worshipping, praying, learning, sharing in all

that they had, ensuring that nobody in their

community went without. And Acts 432 starts by

telling us all believers were united in heart

and mind. Now let me be really clear here for

a second. This does not mean that magically a

group of 3 ,000 people just started agreeing

about everything. I can't get this room of people

to agree about everything, let alone can we get

3 ,000 random people and agree on everything.

That's not how humans work. But what this was,

was you had these people that had all come from

all over to celebrate Passover. Despite differing

families of origin, homes in different lands,

different languages that were spoken, different

levels of wealth and social status, the one thing

they did all hold in common, the one truth they

all held to, was a belief in the one true God.

Now, at their very core, they were at least united

in that. But now they're learning what it looks

like to live in community with others. They're

learning what it looks like to live in the saving,

in the light of a saving grace of Jesus, and

they have been baptized into a new family. They

need to learn how to do that. And in order to

learn about how to forge a new family, a new

relationship, and learn how to go the distance

in this, you started doing some research, and

I found this beautiful study that Harvard University

did, where they talked with couples that have

been together for 30 plus years. And what they

wanted to know is, much like the study of what

defines a family, it was like, hey, what is the

tip to success for being together for the long

haul? How do we do this and hold together for

30 years plus? The greatest indicator of success

that this study showed was not that that couple

agreed on everything. Praise Jesus. The greatest

indicator of success was that they agreed to

face everything together. Acts 434 tells us there

was no needy amongst them. No needy why? Because

they'd agreed to face the world together. They'd

agree that despite their differing backgrounds,

social and financial statuses, no one was going

to go without. Now the early church was no different

to this room, no different to any room. Some

were very wealthy. They were merchants and business

owners, lawyers and doctors, teachers. I was

just waiting to see the snap -ups from a few

heads be like, all right, there you go. Thank

you. And these people were forming a fresh community,

a fresh family with people who were not in that

same kind of financial stratosphere. They were

forming it with beggars, with servants, with

slaves, people who had nothing to offer financially.

But this is now a family that was forming really

around that idea that there would be no family

language without family action. So possessions

were sold, money was provided, none forgotten,

none left behind. And the bit that I love about

this, and it kind of is like a one line and you

keep on going, is that when all the possessions

were sold, they gave all the money to the apostles,

to the leaders of the church to distribute. Now

I love this, not because I am a leader of a church,

although that's helpful. I love it because it

does actually two things. When you do it this

way, you're doing two things. The first is you

are removing any personal attachment or caveats

to what you want that money to be used for. There

is a trust involved in doing so that the money

will be used to help those that are needed. And

the second is that it removes the preference

for how it is used. When you're not only selling

your possessions, but then handing those funds

to someone else to distribute and use as they

see fit, you are ensuring you're removing any

sense of ego or pride that can come from that.

Tim at The All In preached on the idea of the

things that we turn into idols. So if you are

a Christian in the room, you've heard a lot about

this concept of idolatry. And when we sell something

and then we want to do, we want to do something

generous like that, but we want the credit for

it. There's a chance that we've either made the

money, the act, or the ego, the actual idol,

the reason. we've done this, when you hand over

those funds to somebody else and say, you go

and do something with this, you go and make this

happen, you are ensuring that what the focus

is, is the result, not you. Now in verses 36

and 37, we hear how Joseph, now Barnabas, sold

a plot of land and gave that money to the apostles

in order to support the community. You're a bunch

of young people in the room who have been looking

at houses and land and stuff I bet you are pretty

confident the fact that if you have a plot of

land to sell that's probably worth a few bucks

That's probably not coming cheap There's no way

that Barnabas selling this plot of land was not

for a substantial amount of money What I love

again about this is it's not actually about how

much that is important It's that Barnabas has

sold something that belonged to him He could

have done so to make himself wealthy. He could

have done so to fill the back pocket just in

case for a rainy day. He could have done it to

do anything for himself. But no, Barnabas chose

to sacrifice any sense of personal gain in favor

of supporting this family that he was part of

and he was working desperately to love. And love

sacrifices preference. No family language without

family action. Barnabas's family action declares

exactly what choices and sacrifices he's willing

to take on for the sake of this family. And why?

Because this is the family he's chosen. It's

the family that in turn has chosen him. But most

importantly is that this is the family that God

has chosen for him because he has been chosen

by God. We're gonna reread. I'm gonna I want

to reread all of that passage from Galatians

that we heard before Which is for you are all

children of God through faith in Christ Jesus

and all who have been united with Christ in Baptism

have put on Christ like putting on new clothes

There is no longer Jew nor Gentile slave or free

male and female for you are all one in Christ

Jesus and Now that you belong to Christ you are

the true children of Abraham You are his heirs

and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Now this passage, this is Barnabas's why. This

is why Barnabas sacrifices personal preference,

gain and ambition. This is why Barnabas chooses

to face the world with his adoptive family, to

prioritize them and to choose love because that's

what God has done with and for him. Because through

baptism Barnabas has been adopted by God into

his family, which means that Barnabas is not

only a child of God, but he now has brothers

and sisters that need taking care of. Because

God's family is his family too. And recognizing

and living out of that truth is now what matters.

No more Jews, no more Gentiles, no male, no female,

no freemen, no slaves, united in Christ Jesus,

adopted into God's family, and families face

the world together. This is God's invitation

but it's also God's blessing to cast away prior

preference, to rid ourselves of our old clothes,

our old identities. All previous titles superseded,

all previous identities replaced with something

better. Barnabas' sale of land and his substantial

windfall all donated as an incredible act of

love, a commitment to community, to family, but

most importantly it was a faithful response to

his identity as a child of God. Now these are

the acts of a man who actually has the confidence

in a God that promises to bless and sustain him.

And how does he know that? How does he know?

How does he get? Where does he pull that confidence

from that God is looking out for him, that he

doesn't have to worry, that he will be blessed,

that he will be sustained? Church, he gets that

confidence because it's already been done for

him. Because Jesus had already been to the cross

for him. Not because of anything that Barnabas

had done, but purely as an act of grace and love,

because this sacrificial act served as his adoption

into God's family, and with this sacrificial

act of God giving his only Son, Jesus Christ,

allowed us to accept that new identity as children

of God, and to put on that identity like a new

set of clothes. Barnabas can live from a position

of sacrificial love, because he himself has been

sacrificially loved. Now, I think the closest

I've ever come to being able to understand that

kind of sacrificial love was the day that Cadence

was born. Some of you will know this story, but

Kara was in labour with Cadence for basically

minutes under 24 hours. It was almost a 24 -hour

labour. Yeah, darn right. And it ended with an

emergency cesarean. resulting in all this trauma

of that experience resulting in cadence actually

ingesting some of the meconium, which is basically

just pure toxins. So as Kara is recovering, laying

now, still in the surgery, still in the operating

suite, literally they're stitching her back up

and I have to give her a kiss on the head and

follow my newborn baby out of the operating theatre

with a flurry of nurses and doctors as they Take

us through a series of hallways and rooms and,

you know, little code, little doorways that need

little scanner things to go through. I have no

idea where I am at this point. I have no idea

where Kara is anymore and I have no idea where

we're going. And I watch as they pricked Cadence's

heels and hands with a series of needles where

they put tube and stuff into the back of her

hands and then they placed her in a humidity

crib and proceeded to keep her on oxygen. And

as I sat there staring at her, this little baby

that had been in my life for literally minutes

at this stage, she had never opened her eyes.

She'd never done anything. She'd never cuddled

me. She'd never sidled up to me and said her

first, I love you, dad. But I remember thinking,

I remember looking at this little baby and just

thinking I would give anything to trade places

with you right now. If I could make all of this

go away, if I could take your place, I wouldn't

hesitate for a second. In that moment, I loved

her in a way that redefined what I thought, previously

thought love was. What I previously thought love

had meant was a blip. She was mine. I was hers.

Nothing else mattered. She was my daughter. I

was her father. That was it. And that That is

the kind of love actually that Barnabas was acting

out of. Because that's the kind of love that

God had for him and that is the kind of love

that God has for you. Because you and me, we're

His. He's ours. He is our Father. We are His

children. And no matter how well we think we

understand that, we don't. We really don't. Our

lives as children of God are really just us trying

to reconcile and get an understanding of that,

try and get a glimpse of it. To receive a love

like that, a love in which nothing is needed

of us, in which we don't need to do anything.

A love the kind of which God is just a father

who simply wants to love his sons and daughters.

Now, this is normally the part of a sermon series,

or sermon, sorry, where I give you something

to go and do. Here's your practical response

going. Here's the action. Not this week, not

in a big way. Not like that, not like normal.

We're about to start Word Week, which I'm assuming

everybody signed up for, and if you haven't,

it's not too late. Now as you engage with your

Bible this week, as you pray, as you reflect

and as you read, every time you read that Bible

passage and it uses language, you're gonna have

to use a little bit of your kind of power to

kind of deduce if it's appropriate here. But

you're gonna see lots of talk of you, us, we.

And every time you see that in context, I want

you to replace it with your own name. I'll give

you an example from 1 John which we're going

to read so like spoiler alert 1 John 4 starting

in verse 9 says this is how God showed his love

among us he sent his only son into the world

now here it says that we but he sent his only

son into the world that come and might live through

him this is love Not that Steph loved God, but

that he loved Steph and sent his son as an atoning

sacrifice for Texas sins. Dear friends, since

God so loved Joe, we also ought to love one another.

We also ought to love Amy, we also ought to love

Emma, we also ought to love Charlie and Eric

and Dan and Josh and Ashley. I need you as you

engage with your Bible this week to think of

how the word is speaking to you directly. The

Bible is a loving father, father placing words

in front of your eyes. into your ears and onto

your heart. The Bible is a personal story because

ours is a personal and relational God. I want

His truth to speak to you directly because I

want you to reclaim your identity as a child

of God. Because it's in response to that truth

that Barnabas sells a field and donates the money

to help support his new adoptive family. It's

in that moment that Barnabas makes a trade of

worldly possessions for kingdom -centered love.

It's in that moment that Barnabas chooses on

earth as it is in heaven. Barnabas action being

one that speaks to his confidence in God's love

for him as his son. Old titles, Levite, Cypriot,

wealthy landowner, sinner, all replaced with

the only title that matters. Beloved child of

God, loved like a tiny baby in a humidity crib.

Nothing to offer, but nothing required to receive

a love beyond comprehension. An unimaginable

sacrifice of a father sacrificing his only son

so that we too could be his sons and daughters.

The reason we do all of this, the reason we gather

here on a Sunday, if you're part of the team

here and you serve, if you ask somebody that

is in any of our ministry areas and you're doing

this, the reason we do any and all of it is because

of that identity. It's not about what we do,

it's about how we're loved. We are loved because

we are children of God, because that is our identity,

because that has already been done for us. And

it is about time we remember that and live out

of that. So that's what we're going to pray about.

I'm going to pray now. And if you'd like to,

you can stand now ready to worship. If you're

someone who goes, man this has stirred something

in me today, I would love to pray for you. We

have our prayer team at the back of the room,

they would love to pray for you. I said it today

to our team earlier, we are a praying church

and we're gonna live like that. We are gonna

act like that. This is a church that does not

do family words without family action. If you

are not sure where you have a home, if you are

not sure where your family is, if you are not

sure about your identity, it is here in God with

us, in this family, in this house. Nobody gets

left behind. Nobody goes without. Nobody has

a need that we can fulfill that we don't fulfill.

That is family action. Heavenly Father, we thank

You so much for the fact that You love us so

much that You went through with the most unimaginable

sacrifice of all time. that You allowed Your

Son, that You loved to come here, that You loved

us so much, that You allowed Him to come here

and take our place. Father, we thank You so much

that in doing so, that You adopted us into Your

family as Your sons and daughters to become each

other's brothers and sisters, Father, all united

under the love of Christ Jesus. That we are able

to slip on our new identities of child, children

of God, because of that act. And I pray that

we never forget. And I pray that when we lose

our way, that that is where we remember to come

home to. In the heavenly name we pray. Amen.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram at encounterhenley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.