Speaker: Nanay Sy-Head

As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, when God created humans, He designed us to live in families. God made it clear that He wanted man and woman to come together to build a family:

Genesis 1:26 New King James Version (NKJV)

“26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion….So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’ ….” (Genesis 1:27-28).

GOD’S DESIGN FOR EARTHLY FAMILIES

The family as God intended, is to:

  • Bring us joy and ongoing happiness
  • Be our support system in life in ways no one else can or desires to be
  • Teach us correct principles and disciplines in life
  • Prepare us for eternal life
  • Teach us a pattern for how we must live and relate within the family of God
    • The marital and family relationships humans are privileged to enjoy are but types of the spiritual family of God and the coming marriage of Jesus Christ to His transformed people (Revelation 19:7).
    • “7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  Revelation 19:7 (NKJV)
  • Therefore, the ultimate purpose for the family on earth is to prepare and provide a great spiritual, divine family for God forever.
    • This is why our family is so vitally important to God and to us.

For the family to accomplish its purpose, God gave it structure and responsibilities for each member of the family:

BASIC FAMILY STRUCTURE

  • The basis of a family is a man and a woman coming  together in marriage first
  • The new couple must leave their parents to be joined to each other – Gen 2:24
  • God desires that the family reproduce and multiply – Gen 1:28
    • Children –  Siblings

BASIC RESPONSIBILITIES

  • The couple must choose to build their family under the Lordship of Christ
  • Their relationship must be built on biblical principles of submission and love
    • Ephesians 5: 21-25, 32-33
  • Parents must teach/ train/steward their children to follow Jesus and live by His gospel
  • Children are to obey and honor their parents- Ephesians 6:1-3
  • Each member is responsible to strive for family unity
  • By responding not based on what others do but based on your own
    • relationship with God

GOD’S DESIGN FOR CHURCHES AND HIS SPIRITUAL FAMILY

When we received God’s Spirit at salvation, God designed us to be:

  • Members of the universal body of believers, the church, with Christ as the head, which is also called the family of God – Eph 3:14-15
  • His own sons & daughters by adopting us into His spiritual family through Jesus Christ – who calls us His brothers and sisters  Eph 1:5, Eph 2:18-19, John 1:12, Rom 8:14 Eph2:6
    • “10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. “                                Hebrew 2:10-11 NIV
  • “10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”,  Ephesians 3:10  (NKJV)

Being committed to a church family is very important to every believer because by it:

  • We grow and mature by :
    • studying God’s Word together —consistent Bible teachings and training
    • We honor God together through worship
  • We form healthy relationships & disciplines  needed for fulfilling our calling and destiny
  • We receive  accountability
  • We find support in times of trials and  hardships
  • We gain opportunities for service
  • We make disciples

MAIN POINT:

God’s design for our physical family must happen first, so that His design for our spiritual family, the church, can come to pass; and having the right family spirit, we then can really move forward to accomplish God’s plan towards the expansion of His kingdom.

MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A FAMILY SPIRIT  IN OUR CHURCH

  • MEANING= HAVING A FAMILY SPIRIT MEANS -That people does not feel that they are just a
    • member of an organization, but rather they feel and experience that they are
    • really members of one another in one big  family of God and enjoying its divine
    • intents as God has designed it to be.

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A THRIVING FAMILY SPIRIT IN OUR CHURCH

  • It facilitates growth in our relationships with God and one another
  • It will be the strongest bond that will hold the members to remain
  • It helps a lot to make us victorious when we face trials & temptations
  • It helps secure the marriage relationships & family units within the church
  • It gives us joy in serving God and others
  • It will give us zeal to evangelize and make disciples

 

KEYS TO A THRIVING FAMILY SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH

  • Obey the greatest commandment – Matt 22:36-40
  • Let us keep the covenants we have in the cell group
    • Covenant of Affirmation (unconditional love, agape love)
      • “There is nothing you have done or will do that will make all I can me stop loving you. I may not agree with your actions, but I will love you as a person and do to hold you up in God’s affirming love”. (Luke 23: 34)
    • Covenant of Availability (I am here if you need me)
        • “Anything I have – time, energy, insight, possessions is at your disposal if you need it to the limit of my resources. I give this to you in a priority of covenant over other non-covenantal demands. As part of this availability, I pledge my time on a regular basis, whether in prayer or in an agreed upon meeting time”. (Mark 3: 14)
    • Covenant of Prayer (“I have prayed for you”)
      • “I covenant to pray for you in some regular fashion believing that our caring Father wishes His children to pray for one another and ask him for the blessings they need”. (Luke 22: 31-32)
    • Covenant of Openness (“I need you” )
      • I promise to become a more open person disclosing my feelings, my struggles, my joys, and my hurts to you as long as I am able. The degree of which I do so implies that I cannot make it without you, that I trust you with my problems and my dreams and that I need you. This is to affirm to me your worth as a person. In other words, I need you”. ( Matthew 26: 38 )
    • Covenant of Honesty   (“You have hurt someone”)
      • “I will try to mirror back to you what I am hearing you say and feel. If this means risking pain for either of us, I will trust our relationship to take that risk, realizing it is in speaking the truth in love that we grow up in Christ who is the head. I will try to express this honesty in a sensitive and controlled manner and to meter it, according to what I perceive the circumstances to be”. (John 21:17 )
    • Covenant of Sensitivity (“I know where you are”)
      • “Even as I desire to be known and understood by you, I covenant to be sensitive to you and to your needs to the best of my ability. I will try to hear you and feel where you are and to draw you out of the pit of discouragement or withdrawal”. (Luke 7: 37-39, 48)
    •          Covenant of Confidentiality   (“You can trust me”)
      • “I will promise to keep whatever is shared within the confines of the group in order to provide the atmosphere of permission necessary for openness”(John 13: 21-29 ).
    • Covenant of Accountability
      • “I consider that the gifts God has given me for the common good should be liberated for your benefits. If I should discover areas of my own life that are under bondage, hung-up by my own misdeeds or by the burn inflicted by others, I will seek Christ’s liberating power through His Holy Spirit and through my covenant partners so that I might give to you more of myself. I am accountable to you to become what God has designed me to be in His loving creation”. ( Matthew 26: 39 ) 

 

  • Let us keep on doing the biblical “one anothering “ principle towards the whole church.

THE “ONE ANOTHER”  RESPONSIBILITIES  of a  JIA MEMBER

  1. Love each other ( Mangag-ibigan sa isa’t isa) (John 15:17)
  2. Pray for each other ( Manalanginan sa bawat isa.) (James 5:16)
  3. Encourage each other ( Magpalakasan sa isa’t-isa.) (1 Thess. 5:11)
  4. Admonish each other ( Magpaalalahanan sa isa’t -isa.) (Rom.15:14)
  5. Greet each other ( Magbatian sa isa’t-isa.) (Rom. 16:3-6; 16)
  6. Serve each other ( Maglingkod sa isa’t-isa.) (Gal. 5:13)
  7. Accept each other ( Mangag-tanggapan sa isa’t- isa.)  (Rom. 15:17)
  8. Honor each other ( Magpahalagahan sa isa’t- isa.)  (Rom. 12:10)
  9. Bear each other’s burden ( Magdalahanan ng pasanin ng isa’t- isa.)  (Gal. 6:2)
  10. Forgive each other ( Magpatawaran sa isa’t-isa.)  (Luke 11: 4; Col. 3;13)
  11. Submit to each other ( Pasakop sa isa’t-isa.)  (Eph. 5:21)
  12. Bearing with each other ( Mangagtiisan sa isa’t-isa.)  (Eph. 4:2; Col. 3;13)

CONCLUSION:

Let us strive for our family to be what God has designed it to be so that we all can become a vital part of the church, the spiritual family of God. Let us fulfill God’s intent for His church, that through us, His manifold wisdom can be made known and that God will have His spiritual family to enjoy.

Let us, therefore, promote and maintain a thriving family spirit which will propel us to really move forward towards the expansion of His kingdom.