We Are Family

Good morning.

Let's begin our worship with a prayer God, thank you for this morning and thank you for this portion of your family that we get to gather with.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit that you have given to us.

Let it just come in this place this morning, lord, and cover us, and let us worship you and encourage us, and just encourage us through the week as we go out into the world, where we know there is darkness and we know that people need Jesus and it's in your son's name we pray, amen.

We worship the God who was.

We worship the God who is.

We worship the God who evermore will be, the God who evermore will be.

He opened the prison doors, he parted the raging sea.

Our God, he holds the victory.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today.

And we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise there's joy in the house of the.

Lord, our God, is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise, we sing to the God who heals, we sing to the God who saves.

We sing to the.

God who saves.

We sing to the God who always makes a way, because he hung up on that cross.

Then he rose up from that grave, my God, still rolling stones away.

There's joy in the house of the Lord, there's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the.

Lord.

Our.

God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

We were the beggars.

Now we're royalty.

We were the prisoners now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise we were the beggars, now we're royalty.

We were the prisoners, now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

Our God is surely in this place, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

Our God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise, amen.

On Zion's glorious summit stood A numerous host redeemed by blood, they and their King, in strength divine.

I heard the song and strove to joy.

I heard the song and strove to joy While everlasting ages roll eternal love shall feast their soul and scenes of bliss forever.

New rise in succession to their view.

Rise in succession to their view Holy, holy, holy Lord, god of hosts on high, adored, who, like Thee, thy praise should sing.

O Almighty King, holy, holy, holy Lord, holy Lord, god of hosts on high, adore, holy, holy, holy, holy.

This is holy ground.

We're standing on holy ground, for the Lord is present and where he is is holy.

This is holy.

This is holy ground.

We're standing on holy ground, for the Lord is present and where he is is holy.

You are holy God, a perfect and holy God.

And holy God.

We will come before you with hearts made clean by Jesus blood.

You are holy God, a perfect and holy God.

We will come before you with hearts made clean by Jesus blood.

We are standing by Jesus' blood.

We are standing on holy ground, and I know that there are angels all around.

Let us praise Jesus now.

We are standing in His presence on holy ground.

We are standing on holy ground, and I know that there are angels All around.

Let us praise Jesus now.

We are standing in his presence.

We are standing in his presence.

We are standing in His presence.

We are standing in His presence on holy ground Amen.

All right.

The scripture reading today comes from 1 timothy, chapter 3, verses 14 through 15.

1 Timothy 3:14–15

It says although I hope I can come to come to you soon, I am writing these things to you now.

Then, even if I am delayed, you will know how to live in the family of god.

That family is the church of the living god, the support and the foundation of truth.

Ted Hodder.

Ted Hodder yeah, ted, a longtime member here, was a Pirate fan.

He taught we Are Family to our kids in the Bible classes.

Everybody else was learning Jesus Loves Me.

Ted was teaching them we Are Family in the Notre Dame fight song because he was a big Notre Dame fan.

And they went on to win the World Series.

They won games six and seven in Baltimore to beat the Orioles.

And I don't know, have they won a World Series since then?

No, this year, hey, they're only five and a half games out.

I can't believe it.

Usually they're dead in the water by now, but that was a great.

I remember that year.

That was one of the greatest.

Everybody became a Pirate fan that year because we are a family and you know, willie Stargell, who was part of that team, said we decided halfway through the season they were nine games out in June we decided that we had to put aside petty jealousies and pride and selfishness and work together to reach our goal, because that is what families do.

We are family.

I don't think it's any accident that, out of a lot of the ways Jesus described, or God describes, the church, one way he describes it is family.

We are family.

Paul writes to Timothy and he says hey, I'm writing you this letter, timothy, this young preacher.

So if I can't make it there in time, I want to write this letter to teach you how the church is supposed to be like a family.

I want to teach you how the family of God is to behave, because church is family and we call the church family the Stop Nine Church family and a lot of things.

But I think sometimes we forget what it is.

Peter tells us, he commands us we are to love the brotherhood, we are to love our church family.

Our spiritual family outlasts your physical family.

It does.

When your physical family stops ceasing to be a physical family, the church family, the spiritual family, lasts forever.

It's going to last on into eternity.

Because it's going to last forever and I'm going to be honest with you, I am closer to my spiritual family than I am a lot of my physical family.

I have a half-brother that's 40 years younger than me because my family puts the fun in dysfunctional and if he called me tomorrow I would be there to help him.

But we really don't have a real deep relationship just because of the family dynamics.

And I love my physical family, I love my cousins.

If they called, I would do anything for them, my nieces and nephews I would do anything for them.

But I'm just going to be honest with you.

I am closer to many of you and the part of my physical family that I am the closest to also happen to be Christians.

They're part of my spiritual family and so, as important as the physical family is, god says that the spiritual family, the church, is just as important.

As a family, we are called to live in fellowship with one another.

Now, the word fellowship.

When we think of the word fellowship, what do you usually think of?

Food, food.

When I hear the word fellowship, I'm thinking about the corn roast two weeks from tonight and we'll all get together and we'll gather around that pile of corn like hogs and we'll slabber it with butter and we'll eat and we'll call it a fellowship In the church.

When we think of fellowship, we're going to meet in the fellowship hall and we're going to have a fellowship corn roast and it's going to be put on by the fellowship committee.

And so when we think of fellowship, we think of eating.

Also, the word fellowship is only used in the church setting.

You don't use that word anywhere else.

You don't talk to your co-workers and say, hey, after church today or after work today, why don't we go down to Bob Evans for a period of fellowship?

They would look at you like you had three heads, I think.

Mom, I'm going over to Johnny's house why I'm going over for some fellowship.

We never use the word fellowship except in a church setting.

And when we use it in a church setting, we talk about fellowship as, yeah, we're the church and we're going to get together for fellowship.

We talk about just going and eating.

But the word fellowship in the Bible is much different than that.

Fellowship in the Bible is much different than that.

It comes from a word, kononia, and it's used in several places.

And in several places Fellowship is loving each other, like Jesus, so the world can see Jesus' love.

I'll give you an example.

Let's see what I got there.

I'll give you an example of fellowship Fellowship.

For example, in 2 Corinthians 9, paul talks about the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem are starving to death.

And so he writes to the Gentile Christians in Corinth and says your brothers and sisters, in Jerusalem there's a famine and they're starving.

You need to give some money to help them.

And he uses the word fellowship you need to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, and I want you to understand, culturally, how shocking that was.

That would be like saying, hey, you members of the KKK, you need to send some money to the NAACP because they're starving to death Because Jews and Gentiles hated each other.

And I want you to also understand this that those Gentile Christians in Corinth would never, are never, going to meet those Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

They only had one thing in common and it was a common love for King Jesus.

And Paul said you need to fellowship.

He's not talking about you need to go over and have a corn roast with them.

He says you need to send some money and meet the needs of your brothers over there that are starving in Jerusalem.

When we send money to Cuba or wherever, it's fellowship.

The Bible, whenever it uses the word fellowship I want you to understand this it talks about sharing and being generous and helping the other Christians.

It's meeting their needs, whether it's physical, spiritual or emotional.

Does that make sense?

And so first thing I want us to understand is we've got to understand fellowship's not getting together and eating.

We're going to talk a little bit about how we can deepen that relationship and look at different ways that we can do that.

Because, see, in God's family there's different levels of fellowship.

If you are a member of this church, you are one level of fellowship.

We call ourselves church family, hey, church family.

Hey, brothers and sisters, and it just becomes a title.

Sisters, and it just becomes a title.

What does it mean to be a part of a church family?

What does it mean and that's what we're going to look at for a little bit this morning?

There's four different levels.

The first level if I want to experience a spiritual family, the first thing you need to do is choose to belong.

Another word that we use a lot is member.

What do you think of when you think of a church member?

When you hear the word member, what do you think of?

Huh, sam's Club.

Exactly right, that's the way we.

I'm a member of Sam's Club.

I, that's the way we.

I remember Sam's Club.

I got a little card.

I show them the card.

I get to go into Sam's Club and buy 50 pounds of popcorn.

My mom what is it about older people that go to Sam's Club and she'll buy 10 gallons of peanut butter and she'll already have 10 gallons.

That's expired five years ago, but I may need it.

When we think of membership, we think of being a part of the Grand Rhinoceros Club and I'm the Grand Puba and we have this secret handshake where we do all this stuff and I'm a member.

Or when we think of member, I'm a member of the Lions Club or the Kiwanis Club or whatever club Member, I'm a member, I'm a member.

I want you to understand that the word member is a biblical word that we've taken out and again we don't understand it.

I'm a member of the church and we take that to mean that I walk in this building, I sit in the same pew and you better not get in my pew and that preacher better entertain me and they better sing the songs I like because I'm a member.

But when the Bible talks about member, he talked about it.

God talked about it within the context of being a part of the body.

For, as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one body in Christ and we are all members.

When the Bible talks about membership, he's talking about being a vital part of the body you choose to belong to, your vital part of the body.

You choose to belong to your vital part of the body.

What happens if you start chopping off part of your bodies?

It doesn't function well, does it?

So my first step, if I want to experience family the way God wants me to, if I want to experience spiritual family, I have to make a choice to belong.

When you were baptized into Christ, when you were immersed into Christ, you were added to the church universal.

You are part of the church universal, but you cannot be a faithful Christian and not be a part of a local church as well, because God says listen, I've added you to the universal church, but now I want you to plug yourself in to a family.

You are a vital part now of the family.

In fact, there are 58 verses in Scripture that you cannot obey if you're not a part of a local church family, all of the one another, love one another, pray for one another, serve one another, admonish one another, spur one another on.

You cannot obey any of those commands if you're just.

Yeah, I'm a member of the church, I'm a church universal, but I just.

You know, I ain't got time for it.

The beginning of experiencing the family of God is choosing to belong, choosing to be a member.

I want you to understand this as well.

The whole idea of church shopping and church hopping is an American ideal, not a biblical one.

Well, I don't like it, that church.

I don't like the preacher, I don't like it that church.

I don't like the preacher, I don't like the singing.

I think I'll go down to Newport.

Where did you get that?

Because it wasn't from the Bible.

That's like saying, well, I don't like my family.

I think I'll just leave them and go find me another family.

I don't like them.

They get on my nerves, they're not meeting my needs, they're not entertaining me.

Because our Western culture of church is I walk into this building.

In fact, we think the building's the church.

We call it the church.

We're going down to church.

We sit in the church.

We call it the church.

We're going down to church.

We sit in the pew, we look at the back of somebody's head and I sit there like I'm sitting in a movie theater.

I walk in here, many of us walk in here, and we sit down here as if we're going to a ball game, and we better be entertained and it better be something I like, and if I don't like it, I'll go somewhere else.

Where else in the family do you do that?

What you don't do that in your family?

Because I want you to understand something Church ain't about you.

It's about being like Jesus.

And the beginning of being a part of the spiritual family is I'm going to choose.

I'm going to find the church family and choose to belong to that.

Now I want to let you in on something If you're looking for a church family, I want to invite you to be a part of this family.

But I want you to be a part of this family.

I don't want you to do it without knowing what kind of nutty family we have.

We have some crazy uncles, we have some people that are a little bit nutty.

Our preacher's a mess and the next one's, but anyway, we're just messed up.

On August the 11th, two weeks, three weeks from today, three weeks from today, at noon we're going to have a class called Discovering my Membership Everything you wanted to know about Stop 9 but was afraid to ask.

It'll be after this service, probably in the small auditorium.

We'll feed you lunch and we'll provide child care For everybody but the Cunningham family.

We'll provide childcare and I'll be looking for volunteers, but it's just going to be a class where we can let you understand what we're about and then we'll invite you to be a part of this family.

Because I'm telling you, if you are a Christian but yet not part of a church family, you're missing out on a lot of stuff, a lot of blessings.

You really can't grow in Christ-likeness until you become a part of a family where you have to learn to love these nutty people like Jesus.

The beginning is I need to choose to belong.

Then, secondly, I need to learn to share.

The next level okay, I'm going to choose to belong.

The next level is I need to choose to share.

It says in Acts 2 that when the church started, they shared and they had everything in control.

By the way, hold it, go back.

If you're interested in Class 101, here's what I need you to mark on your card Write Class 101.

Write down how many people we need to feed and write down how many kids we need to watch, and just write it on your card.

You can call Angie and give her, because we'll need to know in two weeks when we'll do it for three weeks, okay, but we just invite you to get the information so you can choose to belong.

But once you belong to church, you really can't understand the importance or grow until you go to the next level, which is learning to share.

Notice it said all the believers met together and they shared.

They met together and they shared.

These were Christians who were brand new Christians who came from all parts of the world, who didn't even know each other.

Obviously, the more you meet together, the deeper your relationships become.

If I only see people once a month, I'm not going to become close friends with them.

It takes time to build relationships and I want us to understand this that the way we do church on Sunday morning here anyway, really fosters loneliness more than it fosters community building.

It really does.

Just as important as you sitting here, probably just as important, if not more important, is the 15 minutes before we start singing and the 15 minutes after, because that's where we learn to share with each other.

That's where I learned from Joanne how things are going and that's when family begins.

Those of us who are walking here sit and look and then leave.

We really don't understand the importance of family.

We live in a society where we have no concept of friendship.

We say I got 8,000 friends on Facebook and we call them friends.

I probably got 1,200 Facebook friends.

I'm trying to delete them.

If I don't know them, I'm going to try to delete them.

I call them friends, I don't know them.

Yeah, I got 8,000 friends on Facebook.

How many of them can you call in a crisis?

That's how far we've dumbed down friendship.

We live in a society where we call people on Facebook.

We've never seen our friends.

We live in a society that's mobile, where we really people on Facebook.

We've never seen our friends.

We live in a society that's mobile where we really can't build relationships.

We live in a society where we put up our garage door, pull in and shut it, where we don't have to talk to our neighbors.

We live in a society where I can literally order anything I want and not talk to a human being, and we live in a society where people are lonely and they long for community but they won't do anything about it, they won't invest.

It's like being starved.

You're starving, you're hungry and you go to Bob Evans or you go to Denny's or you go somewhere and you look at the menu and you say, boy, don't those fried eggs look good, man, they look delicious.

Boy, that bacon really looks good.

Boy, look at those pancakes.

And the waitress comes up and says you want to take an order?

No, I just think I'm going to look at the pictures.

And then you leave just as hungry because you're not willing to invest in order to get what you need.

It's the same thing with friendship.

The way you build friendship is you learn to share with each other.

It's built when we share, and there's two things we are called to share.

We're called to share our stuff.

In 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter's written to a group of Christians who are being scattered because of persecution, and so Peter's writing to all these Christians and he says listen, I know you're away from home and I know you don't know who each other is, but you need to practice hospitality.

The word hospitality, it literally means love strangers.

You're to love strangers.

You're to love your brothers and sisters, even if you don't know them.

One of the first times I went to Cuba, I went and met Roberto and I remember going to his house and he gave me a piece of bread to eat.

I ate that dry old piece of bread.

I learned later that that was the only piece of bread he got, because in Cuba every morning.

You get one piece of bread brought to your house.

They set it on your windowsill.

Whether you want it or not, you get one piece of bread and you get two pounds of rice a month.

And he shared with me, even though he didn't know me, his last piece of bread, and the only thing we had in common was we loved King Jesus.

That's how you build community.

And we became he became like my grandfather, and it began with him just giving me his last piece of bread.

Sharing your stuff is how you build community.

You don't build community by walking or sitting down.

You build community by sharing your stuff, by loving each other, and then you share problems.

Notice in Galatians 6, it says carry each other's burdens.

Now I want you to notice something.

It doesn't say fix each other's burdens.

He's not telling you to fix them, but he says be concerned with each other's burdens, pray with each other, encourage each other, help each other.

That each other help each other.

That's how you build community by sharing.

It happens all through sharing and that's the only way.

And you're not going to build that by sitting here in this building from 1030 to 1130 and that's all you do.

You cannot build community by sitting in a group of four or five hundred people.

It can only be built in small groups.

That's why we encourage you to be a part of a small group.

That's why we encourage you to be a part of a small group.

That's why we encourage you to be a part of a discovery Bible study those people.

That's why we encourage you to be a part of a SIG, which is common common interest groups.

Common interest groups.

We and we've got some of them doing it we got it's just a group of Christians that enjoy doing the same thing and they do it together.

We got a board game common interest group.

They get together once a month and play board games.

They play these weird games Like what is it?

They play Munchkin or something.

You know all these games like that.

But you know we have this group, this golf group.

We got some guys not here today because they're out motorcycling somewhere.

We're in West Virginia, somewhere Welsh West Virginia, a group of groups somewhere Welch West Virginia, and so I would encourage you to start a common interest group or be a part of one.

Go see, jeff.

Now some of them aren't going as smoothly as others.

In the summer it sort of slows down.

Life groups slow down in the summer, but they're going to be starting back up.

I'm just telling you, if you want to feel like family, you've got to get out of this situation because it's not going to happen here.

You have to share.

Does that make sense?

You have to learn to share.

Alright, real quickly.

We've got to move along.

I need to do my part If I want to grow and feel like this is my church family.

I need to do my part If I want to grow and feel like this is my church family.

I choose to belong.

Okay, I'm committed.

I'm committed to this family.

I'm here, come hell or high water, I don't care what's going to happen.

I'm here.

I learned to share.

We're going to be practical here in a minute and then I do my part.

I'm going to decide to do my part.

Did you have chores growing up?

What were some of your chores?

Huh, feeding the cows, laundry.

You had a mean mom.

What Feed your bunny, your pet?

Yeah, take out the trash.

You know, I ended up cooking supper.

Believe it or not, I ended up cooking supper a lot for my siblings.

Now, it was usually fish sticks and mac and cheese.

Those nasty fish sticks your breath would stink for a week after the fish sticks.

But we all had chores to do.

We did our part and looking back, I realize you know what.

That's just what makes family work.

Everybody sort of does their part and we are called to be a part of the family.

We have a part to play Love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, spur one another on.

Paul says the reason that we have church leaders, the reason why you have elders and preachers, is so that you can learn to serve others, so they can teach you to do your part.

My job is not to do your work for you.

Josh's job is not to do your work for you.

Our job is to train you so you can go visit the hospitals.

I don't go visit the hospital because I'm a preacher.

I go because I'm a Christian and you're supposed to go.

You didn't pay me to do your job.

If I want to raise spoiled rotten kids, what do I do for them everything?

If I want to raise a spoiled rotten church, what do I do for them everything?

I ain't doing it, and you know.

If I want to raise a spoiled rotten church, what do I do for them Everything?

I ain't doing it, and you know what.

I didn't do it.

And our church is pretty good.

We are called to be a part of the family.

We are called to do our part and you don't need permission, you don't need a program to do it.

We are called to be the hands and feet in Jesus.

We are called to help build up the church, not soak in the stop nine spiritual spa, which I heard we almost had out on the carpet last week.

So here's your homework, part of it.

Who do you know that needs some encouragement this week?

Who do you know in this family that needs some help?

Look behind you.

That wasn't a request.

We'll sit here until Bob Evans closes.

Look in front of you, yeah, look to your right, look to your left.

Who do you know that needs some help this week?

Who do you know needs some encouragement?

Now do it.

You want to feel like part of this family?

Do it.

You want to feel like part of this family?

Do it.

Hazel, how are you feeling?

Okay, she was pretty sick last week.

Had to go with the kids, lyric, crazy as ever.

Where's Shauna, florida?

So he needs somebody to fix him supper or something You're doing.

Good, I mentioned a pie at 8.30 and got one at 8.30.

It was amazing.

Don't let me forget Amy, it's in the office.

It was in the office who said that.

Who do you know needs some encouragement?

Maybe it's somebody in your life group.

Do your part.

Do your part, be a part of the body.

And if you do that, three things will happen God will be glorified, you will have strengthened a relationship and you've strengthened this church by just doing your part and all doing.

Your part is just go serve somebody.

It could be a text, it could be a hug after church.

I'm not asking you to go out and build the Great Wall of China, I'm just asking you to be a part of the body.

And then you'll feel like, hey, this is a family, identify a practical need and meet it this week.

It could be a physical need, an emotional need, a spiritual need.

Just do it.

Then the last thing if you really want to go to a deeper level in church membership, love them sacrificially.

This is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down his life, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers, because that's just what family does.

When Phil was in college up in Cleveland, he called and his car wasn't running and he said Dad, what do I need to do?

I said I'll be right there.

I drove up.

Now his battery was dead.

You've got to understand.

I don't know a battery from a buttercup.

So we're up there dealing with all of that and finally got it done.

And he said, dad, what did you do?

I said, well, that's just what families do.

When Amy was in college at Ohio Valley University, she never spent a weekend away from home.

Her dad would come every weekend.

He would come every weekend.

If it was six feet of snow, he would drive four hours round trip pick her up.

That's just what families do.

Families are there for each other.

I remember one time I brought my mom.

I took home.

I called mom, said I'm bringing some kids over to spend the night.

I brought 22 teenagers on a church bus to spend the night.

I didn't bring home stray pets, I brought home stray 22 teenagers on a church bus to spend the night.

I didn't bring home stray pets, I brought home stray people.

I remember bringing home three runaways one time.

They stayed with us for six months.

They were from Michigan and my mom got up when I brought those 22 kids made over 100 pancakes the next morning.

I said Mom, thanks.

She said that's what families do.

You just love sacrificially.

And I know compared to what Jesus did, that doesn't mean anything.

And I know this verse for us.

I want you to know that in China and the Middle East.

It's taken literally because people are literally laying down their lives this morning because they're Christians.

But if we really want to have a church family we love sacrificially.

Listen, I've seen a lot of people die over the years and when they're dying, I've never had them ask bring me my trophies, bring me my checkbook, we'll see what my balance is, bring me my accomplishments.

They ask bring me my family.

I've seen people hang on for weeks waiting for one family member to get there, because at the end, all that matters is family.

The Bible is summed up in five simple words Love God and love each other.

And if you haven't figured that out yet, I feel sorry for you, because that's what life is all about Loving God and loving people.

One day we'll figure it out that life is not about accomplishments, possessions, power, position, but relationships.

One day we'll figure out that the only thing that matters is loving God and loving others.

Jesus said in John 13, 35, that the whole world will know that we are his disciples by our love for each other.

The people don't know this.

I don't want Stop 9 to be known as the biggest church in the county.

I don't want it to be known as the biggest church of Christ in three states.

I don't want us to be known for our youth center, our youth ministry, our praise team.

The world knows that Stop 9 are followers of Jesus by our love for each other, and we love each other by sharing and by sacrificing and by meeting needs and by getting out of our comfort zone.

Now listen, I understand some of us who are members here have fallen through the cracks and I apologize for that.

I know there are people here who say you know, I just don't feel like I'm part of the cracks and I apologize for that.

I know there are people here who say you know, I just don't feel like I'm part of the family and some of that is our fault.

I understand that, but I also understand that we need to do better.

But I also understand some of us like that because we have chosen to be disconnected, we have chosen not to be a part of a life group, we have chosen not to be involved in ministry, we have chosen not to build up and I'm just letting you know you are missing out on blessings and church membership is boring if you're not part of the family and the only way to become part of the family is to share and become close.

You can't become close with 500 people.

You can become close to five or six, there's no way.

But we can all be close to some and we build that relationship by sharing and loving and encouraging and looking for needs and meeting them.

And as you dig deeper down these four levels, then you begin to understand family.

Then when we say, hey, family it means something, it means something and that's what God's called us to do.

So, real quickly, which level are you on?

Circle the next level you want to get to.

Maybe you're not on level one at all, but you say you know what I want to choose to belong and what step are you going to do this week?

That step could be I'm going to sign up for class 101.

I'm going to commit to this family.

I'm going to commit, I want to find out what it's about.

So maybe it's that.

Or maybe you need to say you know what.

I've already chosen to belong, I'm here, but I need to learn to share.

And so you circle number two and say you know, I'm going to learn to share.

I'm going to find a need this week and meet it.

I'm going to find a need this week and meet it.

I'm going to find somebody.

I'll call Angie and find out who has a need this week.

I'll talk to her.

I'll find a need this week.

Or maybe you're saying you know what I share, but I need to do my part.

And so you circle three and say, okay, what can I do this week to do my part?

You know I'm going to do something, or maybe it's for and I need to learn to love like Jesus.

We need to love, to love.

We need to learn to love each other like Jesus so we can show the world what Jesus' love is like.

And so you say you know what.

I'm going to do something, I'm going to sacrifice something for somebody this week.

Stop playing around, throwing the word fellowship, member and family around.

If we're not being family.

I want to let you know that if you're not a Christian, one of the greatest blessings is you become part of a spiritual family.

It's an imperfect family, but it's a spiritual family that will love you.

What heavenly music steals over the sea, entrancing the senses like sweet melody.

Tis the voice of the angels, born soft on the air For me.

They are singing their welcome.

I hear here, gazing.

I stand and earnestly longing.

I stretch forth my hand.

Send a convoy of angels.

Dear Jesus, I pray, let me join that sweet music.

Come take me away.

Though dark are the waters and rough is the wave, if Jesus permit the wild surges, I'll brave For that.

Heavenly music hath ravished me, so I must join in that chorus.

I'll go, let me go.

Let us pray.

Let us pray, dear God, we thank you so much for this beautiful morning and another day of life.

And, father, I thank you so much for this church family and for the blessing and impact that they have and have had on my life.

And, father, you have blessed us so much, father.

Our prayer as a church family Is that we'll take those blessings and we'll look every day To bless others With what you have blessed us with.

Help us to continue to encourage and love and support each other and strive to be more like your son and Father.

Vacation Bible School is coming up this week and when you look around at the decorations, so many folks have put so much time, the decoration, so many folks have put so much time and are using their blessings to bless our little kids and I just thank you for each one here that is serving our little ones this week and just let everything be pointed and be blessed by being pointed to your son and I thank you so much for those working VBS and and bless our little kids and we thank you for them.

Be with us as we go home and uh, and start a new week and uh, we just thank you so much for everything you do for us and for our church family.

It's in your son's name we pray, amen.

There is an endless song that goes in my soul.

I hear the music ring and, though the storms may come, I am holding on.

And to the rock I cling.

How can I keep from singing your praise?

How can I ever say enough?

How amazing is your love.

How can I keep from shouting your name?

I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart want to lives and I will walk with you, knowing you'll see me through, and sing the songs you give, give.

How can I keep from singing your praise?

How can I ever say enough?

How amazing is your love.

How can I keep from shouting your name?

I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart.

How can I keep from singing your praise?

How can I ever say enough?

How amazing is your love?

How can I keep from shouting your name?

I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart want to sing.

Amen.

God bless you everybody.

Have a great week.