The Circus – Family
The Family Circus July 21, 2024 Ephesians 3:14-21 Notes
What’s the answer to the question, “Who dealt this mess?” We did. That’s the answer. That’s why we worry so much about it. Because we know that much of the mess, if we’re truly honest, is our own fault. Yet no matter how hard we try to have the perfect family, we’re still ending up with crazy chaotic and well, messy. And this often leaves us feeling exhausted and feeling like failures.
But what if we’re aiming at the wrong thing? What if we stop aiming at having the perfect family and instead aim at having a family that lives and even thrives under God’s blessing? What if we prayed, “God bless our mess.” In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God’s blessing on the family.
Audio
All right. Good morning, church. It's been a great week. We've spent this week at both of our campuses in Rocky Mount and Wilson serving your children and talking to them about Jesus. And I'd like to share a couple of the details about what happened this week between the two campuses.
We served 214 children and that's pretty awesome, right? 214 kids between our two campuses. And it took over 134 volunteers. And so thank you to all the volunteers who served at both of our campuses. And on Wednesday night, we gave a clear presentation of the good news about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
And we had 32 children indicate that they wanted to pray to receive Jesus as their lord and savior. We gave information for them to carry home to their parents. Plus we sent out emails to inform the parents. So 32 kids, can you believe that? That's awesome.
We talked about baptism on Thursday night and what it means to be baptized. 19 said that they want to be baptized. So that's why we do what we do, right? It's for the glory of Jesus and it's to reach these children. And in reaching these children, we pray that we would also reach those families.
And that's why we started this series today, this five-week series called, “Family Circus.” And some of you are here this morning, thinking, I don't have to come to church to talk about a family circus. I can stay home. I can stay home and have that.
I already have one of those at my house. And you're not alone. I don't care who you are. None of us are perfect and none of us have perfect families. You're not going to want to miss this series.
Today, we'll be talking about the family. Next week, we'll be talking about marriage, “the flying trapeze.” Next, “the lion cage” of parenting. You can't turn your back on those kids. August 11, we're going to be talking about what it means to be single in the family of God – “the tightrope.”
We often hear our singles say, ‘You know, when you do these family series, I always feel left out.’ Well, you're not going to be left out this time. And then here for the very first time, we've been getting requests for this over the years. We're going to be talking about grandparents, what it looks like to be a grandparent in the family of God - “the safety net;” that's who you are.
Whether you're being grandparents or sometimes you are the ones because of a family difficulty, you actually are in the parenting role. But what does that look like? So that's what we're going to be doing over the next five weeks. And we're glad you're here. Now look at this cartoon.
This is from the cartoon series, “The Family Circus.” And maybe you've asked this question, “Who dealt this mess?” Maybe you've looked at your spouse and you said, “That one's just like you,” right? You know, you're the reason, you know, who dealt this mess. But the truth of the matter is, no one has a perfect family.
And we say these kinds of things, “Who dealt this mess?” Well, you probably did. It's probably your fault. It's probably our fault.
The Family Circus cartoon series was founded in 1959 by Bil Keane. Bil Keane was working from his artist studio in his home in Arizona, and he was a self-taught artist and cartoonist and a man of faith. And he had five children. And he decided that that would be the best for the subject matter, just to write stories in cartoon form, to be syndicated newspapers, just talking about his kids. And he said this.
He says,“If there is a philosophy behind the feature, it is that a home filled with love and laughter is the happiest place in the world.” And so that was his vision for the cartoon series. Now, Bil Keane passed away at age 89 in 2011, but the cartoon series continues by his son, Jeff Keane, who continues it to this day and continues the positive family themes that his father first envisioned. Now, let's go back to the question, “Who dealt this mess?” Well, it might be because we're aiming at the wrong thing.
We might be aiming at the perfect family. Everybody wants a perfect family. And when you're single, especially, you've got in your mind, Okay, I want a perfect family. And maybe you want a family different from the one you grew up in. Often that's true.
I want something that's like the opposite of what I grew up in. Or maybe you want a family like the one you grew up in because you had a great family. But regardless, we have to all admit, when we aim at perfection, we always fall short. And what we usually end up with is a chaotic, crazy mess. And even though you have good days, sometimes where it just seems like, well, everything's going really good, all it takes is just one second later and all of a sudden, somebody spills something, somebody punches somebody, somebody starts yelling, there's always something.
I mean, try to have a family devotion around the table and watch; even your dog goes nuts. There's always something that keeps you feeling a little crazy, a little exhausted, frustrated about trying to aim at the perfect family. But what if that's the wrong goal? What if aiming at the perfect family is the wrong aim?
What if there's a better goal? And I would suspect that the better goal is to aim at a blessed family, a family that comes under God's blessing, because there's no such thing as a perfect family. What if we prayed this? What if we prayed, “God bless our mess,” because we all have one? How could we come under God's blessing?
Well, let's look at the book of Ephesians today, where the apostle Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, to the believers there, and he says to them that he's praying for them, that they would come under the blessing of God for their family. And I believe today that we can pray that we will come under God's blessing for our family. As we look at the text, we'll see four steps towards experiencing this blessing of God for our family. So let's dig in.
Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV) 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.” This is God’s word. Amen.
We're looking for four steps on how to experience God's blessing on your family. Here's the first step.
1. Bow to the Father’s Authority.
Do you see that in verse 14, Paul says, 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
He's saying, “For this reason…” That refers back to what he's been talking about, really for the first couple of chapters. What's the reason that he's thankful to God? It’s God's grace. God's grace and mercy and forgiveness, that God no longer is judging us according to the law, but according to the grace revealed through Jesus. And so he's thankful for that.
And he says that, as a result, we ought to just bow to the father's authority. He says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” Now, when he's talking about the family, he's talking about the family of God. But don't you want to have a family that comes under God? That's what he's praying for.
In fact, he says that the origin of the family, the foundation, the idea of the family, was always God's idea. You might miss it if you're just reading it in English, as we just did. But if you could read it in the original New Testament language of Greek, you would notice that the word, “Father,” in Greek is “patēr”and the word, “family” is “patria.” And so it's a play on words. He's telling us something here.
He says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the “pater” from whom every “patria” in heaven and earth are named. He's making a little play on words there, but he's basically saying the family was God's idea. And so in our culture today, we're experimenting with different definitions of the family. Let's try this. Well, let's try this other version.
And there's all these cultural ideas about the family. But what I would say to us today, if you want to come under God's blessing, it begins by saying, “I bow my knees to the father's authority for myself and for my family.” That's the starting point, is to submit your will and say, “God, I don't want my plan. I want your plan. I don't want my will for my family.
I want your will. I want to come under your authority. Because, after all, the family was your idea.” When Joshua was leading the Israelites into the promised land, and as they crossed over the Jordan river and they came into the land of the Canaanite, they encountered all kinds of views about the family. It was all wrapped up in idolatry and wrong thinking about sexuality and wrong views about
everything. And so Joshua was concerned for his people, Israel. And as they were coming into the land, he made a declaration. He said, ‘You need to make a choice, people of God. What kind of family are you going to have?’
And here's what he said. He said, Joshua 24:15 (ESV) “... choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” You have to decide who's going to be in charge. And I'm not saying that you should say, “Well, I'm going to be in charge.”
No, quite the opposite. I'm saying to say, “I'm going to surrender to let God be in charge.” Who remembers this tv sitcom called, “Who's the Boss?” Do you remember that it came out in 1984? It ran about eight seasons up through 1992. If you were a child who grew up in the eighties, you remember it.
If you were a parent during that time, you're probably thinking, Well, that was a silly show. What was the show about? Well, it was just as the title implies. It was about who was the boss.
Who's going to lead the family? Is it this person? Is it one of the children? Who is it? And that's the question that you are asking today, that you must answer.
Who's going to be the boss of my family? Who's in charge? And if it's you, well, there's the reason for the chaos. Because we are all a mess. The Bible says we're all sinners, and so we bring our mess to the family.
We bring our baggage in. If you want to leave the baggage behind and have a family that's under God's blessing, it begins with bowing your knees to the father's authority and saying, “God, I want you to be the boss. I want you to be in charge of my family.” Have you done that? Have you given your life to Jesus?
Have you bowed your knees to the father? That's the first step. Here's the second step:
2. Depend on the Spirit’s Power.
Depend on the spirit's power. If you want to come under God's blessing for your family, depend on the spirit's power.
We've looked at verses 14 and 15. Now we're looking at 16. He says, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,” And then in verse 20, he mentions the word, “power,” again. He says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”
So that word, “power,” is in the text twice. It's an interesting word in Greek. It's the Greek word, “dunamis.” It's where we get the word, “dynamite” or “dynamic” when we see the scripture talking about how God raised Jesus from the dead by his power. It's the Greek word, “dunamis.”
So “dunamis” is resurrection power. It's dynamic power. And so we need God's power in order to have a family that lives under God's blessing. Remember how I was mentioning earlier that one of the things that so many parents come to me and say is, ‘Pastor, I'm just exhausted and I'm just worn out. I've got such a busy schedule.’
If you have three or more kids, I hear this with two parent families, and they're outnumbered when they have three or more. This one's got soccer, this one's got gymnastics, this one's got violin lessons, and they're all tag teaming, trying to get them everywhere. Plus, they work, both mom and dad both working jobs, and it's go, go, go all the time, and they're just tired and frustrated. Or maybe you're a parent of a toddler and you say, “It's not go, go, go. It's me saying, no, no, no, all the time.
I'm tired and I'm frustrated. I don't know if I'm doing a good job.” Who tells you if you're doing a good job? Are you doing it in your own strength?
You've surrendered your life to God, but then you're living like a “christian atheist.” You believe it, but you're not receiving the power. You're doing it in your own strength. And so we need to depend on the Holy Spirit's power. In the book of Acts,
this is Jesus speaking to his disciples. He says, Acts 1:8 (ESV) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” You will receive power. “Dunamis” power. The power to be a good mom, to be a good dad, to be a good uncle or aunt or grandparent, or to be a child that supports your parents. To be a teenager, to live for God in your family, it requires spiritual power to live under God's blessing, and he offers it.
And Paul's praying that the church at Ephesus, the family of God there, would have this kind of inner power. In the book of Psalm 127, it says, Psalm 127:1 (ESV) “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Do you feel like your work's in vain? Feel like you're working with not getting anywhere? Give your house to the Lord.
Say, ‘Holy Spirit, empower me.” Now, I've been doing a lot of Greek with you today. I've got a little bit more. And the Greek word for “spirit” and the Greek word for “breath” is the same word, “pneumatos.” It's where we get the word, “pneumonia,” which has to do with the breath or the lungs.
It comes from the Greek word “pneumatos” and it's the same word. And so spirit or breath. And in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, it's the same spirit and breath, same word. That's of interest, I think, because let's say you wanted to improve your physical health, and you say, ‘I'm going to start doing more push ups, or I'm going to do more sit ups, or I'm going to swim laps at the pool.’ If you want to grow in your health, to be able to do these kinds of exercises, proper breathing is a necessity.
If you don't breathe, you're not going to swim many laps with your head underwater. You'll have to breathe. You'll have to learn to breathe. And so breathing, we know this, right? Physically, we know we must breathe in order to have energy, in order to move and be and “do the things.”
But we neglect to recognize we must breathe spiritually, that we must draw in the holy spirit and depend on him. It's available to us as believers, yet we live as if we can do it on our own. We believe in our heads, but we don't depend on the spirit's power. I would suggest to you that spiritual breathing might be a good idea for your spiritual life. You might think, What does that look like, Gary?
Well, what if you confess your weakness? So you exhale, which means you let out the bad air. You confess, “Lord, I'm frustrated, I'm exhausted. I just feel like I'm getting nowhere.” You just confess your need, you exhale and then you pray.
”But, Lord, you're good. Lord, you're awesome. I draw on your power because you promised in your word. You said, as Paul prayed here, you said that according to the riches of your glory, that you would grant strength with power through the spirit in my inner being. You said that you'll do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us.
You said that, Lord, I'm breathing that in.” Well, how often do you need to do that? I don't know. How often do you need to breathe? The Bible says to pray without ceasing.
Dial him up in the morning and leave it off the hook all day. I mean, just talk to him all day. All day long. Hey, Lord, help me. Help me with little Johnny right here.
He's throwing a temper tantrum and I'm so tired. I've told him “no” a hundred times. And there he goes again. But, Lord, would you work on this little heart? And would you work on my heart?
Because I'm really frustrated right now and I just want to knock him out, you know? And I know that's probably not the right thing to do. And so you're drawing on the spirit. You're having this ongoing conversation. It's almost like spiritual breathing, that kind of constancy in walking in the spirit.
So we bow our knee to the father for his authority over our lives. We come under his blessing. We draw on his holy spirit that comes to dwell in us, and we say, “I'm going to live according to that.” As the apostle Paul learned when God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for in weakness, I am strong.” Paul said, and so we admit our weakness, and we depend on his strength.
Now here's the third step:
3. Dwell in Christ’s Love.
Dwell in Christ's love. We're at verses 17 through 19. We're just working verse by verse through our text today, right?
These are not my thoughts. These are God's thoughts from his word. And we're just “unpacking” it together. And so we see the word, “love,” here two times in verse 17, and then we see it again in verse 19. And he says,17 “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”
And so that your house, he says, first of all, you personally, your foundation that roots you and grounds you should be love. And what kind of love? The love of Christ. And so that you dwell in it, you live in it. And then he goes on to say, down in verse 18, he begins to describe its dimensions, of how high and how deep and how wide and how long.
And it seems to be that he's describing something that has no limit, this limitless love, this kind of love. And then he says, ‘I pray that you would know the love of Christ, that you would comprehend it, that you would receive it and know it, and be, if you will, that you would be bathed in it, surrounded by it, rooted in it.’ And this is what he prays for. Paul prays for the family of God, and I pray for you right now, and I pray for my family, that that would be your family, that your family would dwell in Christ's love.
Now, what kind of family did you grow up in? Would you characterize your family atmosphere as one of love? Now, I'm talking about God's kind of love. It's the Greek word, “agape,” both times, there's several Greek words for love. We've only got one “love”in English, but Greek has several.
But here we're talking about God's kind of love, which is unconditional, sacrificial love. Or did you grow up in a family that was more characterized by anger or addiction or the unpredictability of your parents or of your siblings? Did your house feel dangerous, like you didn't know if you could talk or not? Or if you would get swatted. Was it a legalistic house or was it a house of freedom? Because a house of love is a house of freedom.
What kind of house did you grow up in? What kind of house do you want today? Oh, I want a house ruled by love. Now, those of you that have been coming to our church for a while know that my daddy died when I was eight years old. I'm the oldest of four children.
I grew up in a single family home, primarily. We had a daddy for my first eight years. He was a wonderful, wonderful man. But he passed away.
And so my mother raised us and we didn't have a lot, so we wore a lot of “hand me downs.” We wore our cousin’s “hand me downs;”our cousins would pass down \clothes. We had “hand me down” furniture and “hand me down” cars. We couldn't wait till the third day of the month when the Social Security check came in. We didn't have a lot.
But my mama loved the Lord and she had the love of Jesus in her. And we didn't have a lot of material things, but we had love. I wouldn't do it over for anything. I wouldn't change it.
You might have grown up, you had a lot of material things, but you didn't have love. And I guarantee you'd change it. You'd say, ‘I wish I hadn't had all that. I wish I'd had love.’ Dwell in Christ's love.
Do you have that love and that freedom? Is your house rooted in that? There's this consistency. You don't have to guess what kind of mood your parents are in or so forth. You know that they are going to respond to you in love.
Now, they're not perfect, but they're going to respond to you with the love of Christ. Because the love of Christ roots your family and it roots your mom and your dad. And it's the part of you. What is this? Here's what we read in
1 John 4:10 (NLT) “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” So this “agape” love that we're talking about is sacrificial. It's a giving kind of love. You know that famous verse, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave…”
It's a giving love. It's not a taking love. It's the kind of love that sacrifices; it gives. And Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians what this love is like. He says, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV) 4 “Love is patient
and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”Is your family marked by this love? Oh, I pray that it's so. I pray that you know the breadth, the height, the length and the depth of Christ's love for your family.
It'll change everything. If you could only have your family bathed in the love of Jesus, it'll change everything. Remember what Bil Keane said about his philosophy for “The Family Circus?” He said, “A home filled with love and laughter is the happiest place in the world.” It just so happens that Bil Keane was a believer, and he said he didn't want to be a preacher, but he did want to be salt and light and just let his faith kind of leak into his cartoons.
I like this cartoon here. This is a good one. He's reading from the Bible here. “What does that story of Adam and Eve teach us?” And little Jeffy here says, “Not to eat fruit.” That's pretty good.
Right now. I don't have to eat fruit. Can I just eat candy bars? Now, “Jeffy,” by the way, was Jeff, and he always said that he thought he was the star of “The Family Circus.”
And at any rate, he is the Jeff Keane that now continues his father's legacy of doing these little cartoons that are in the newspaper and other places. He has done the cartoons since 2011, and he still has that same impetus to do these cute little cartoons about the family that from time to time, he just allows his faith to find its way into. That's a family of love, isn't it? You can kind of feel it. I think that's the reason that this cartoon has been so successful through the years.
The love kind of leaks out. Is that the mark of your family, or is your family marked by bitterness, anger, unpredictable addictions, brokenness, resentful? Or is it filled with love? Oh, I pray that you would have the blessing of God's love of his son over your family. Now here's the fourth step.
4. Reflect God’s Glory.
Reflect God's glory. To experience God's blessing begins with bowing your knee to the father, coming under his umbrella of protection, of blessing, and then asking the Holy Spirit to energize you so you have the energy and the power to do what he's called you to do. And then you pray that the love of Christ would be the mark of your life and the mark of your family. And then finally, you recognize that the purpose of your family is not just to have a great family, not just to have a blessed family, but that your family would give glory. It would reflect God's glory to a world, to a darkened world.
In other words, God wants your house to be a lighthouse for him, reflecting his glory to the world. We're down to verses 20 and 21 now in our study today, and really what we have in 20 and 21 is a benediction. And Paul enraptures us with these beautiful words. He says, 20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.” He climbs to the heights with this benediction, and you can almost see it's a “two-hander.” He's got both hands up as he blesses the church of Ephesus. The family of God, may we give glory. See, this is what God created the family for, is that we would be a lighthouse to this world, that we would reflect his glory when he made us.
It says in the book of Genesis that he made us in his own image, in the last Imago Dei. He made us so that we would be image bearers. And then the family is to put on display his glory. This is the calling, the glory of God and to all generations. Do you see that?
Throughout all generations. Oh, my goodness. I've lived long enough now and we have ten grandchildren. And so I began to see God's calling. Is that my goal now, and my job as a grandparent is to give God glory in such a way so that my children, that the generations that follow me even after I'm gone, after the Lord calls me home, that there would be a family that continues to serve God, a family that continues to give God glory.
God wants your house to be a lighthouse, to shine as stars, as lights in this darkened world. It says in Philippians 2:14-15 (ESV) 14 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
Maybe you're starting to see the changes in your family. Maybe you're one of those families; you've come under the umbrella of God's blessing. You came out from where the world was beating your family to death, and you've bowed the knee to the father, and you've started seeing the change in your marriage and in your parenting and in the way your kids behave. And somebody comes up to you, maybe they saw you at Walmart and your kids were behaving for a change, or maybe they saw the way that you and your spouse were caring for one another, and they ask, “Where did you get a family like that?
I wish I could have a family like that.” Do you say, “Well, we went to a seminar, we read a book, we go to church.”You could say any of those things, but none of those things would give God the glory. Here's what you say. “We don't deserve it, but God's been merciful.
And we just decided to bow our knee to the father and put him in charge and give our lives to Jesus. And he's done this work in our family. We're still kind of a mess. You just saw us on a good day. But if you were to see what we used to be and where God has brought us, then you'd know that he deserves all the glory.”
That's what God's calling us to, to give him the glory. If you look up in the sky at night and you see a full moon, it looks like the moon is lighting up the darkness, doesn't it? But the moon has no light of its own. It only faces the sun. And as it faces the sun, it reflects the light of the sun onto the darkened earth.
And that's who we are as a family. We have no light of our own. We're kind of a “family circus,” aren't we? We're kind of a mess. But when we have Jesus and we have his light shining on us and we're just willing to reflect it, we become like lights in the world.
That's what God calls us to when we heed Paul's prayer. We don't end up with perfect families, but we do end up with blessed families. Don't you want your family to experience God's blessing. Here's what Paul said in the first chapter of Ephesians as he opened up this conversation about God's family. He said, Ephesians 1:5 (NLT) “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Can you believe that? God wants you, and it gives him great pleasure to offer you a seat at his table, to be a member of his family, of his household. He wants to adopt you into the family through faith in Jesus Christ. The whole idea of the family was God's idea.
Would you bow before him? Would you depend on his spirit to energize you to be what he's called you to be? Would you ask that the Lord Jesus would bathe you in his love so that the atmosphere of love permeates your house? And would you say, “God, we give you all the glory for all the blessings you put on our lives?” Would you give your life to Jesus afresh today and depend on him?
Let's pray.
Lord, I first of all pray for that one that came in today. And they've been hurting. They've been frustrated.
Their family's a mess. They're a mess, and they're willing to admit it, “Lord, my life's kind of messed up right now, and I'm tired of trying to run it myself. Lord, I surrender, and I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me. I believe that.
I believe that he was raised from the grave and that he lives today. And I'm a sinner that needs a savior, and I trust him right now. Lord Jesus, I trust you to save me. Forgive me of my sin. Come into my life, fill me with your holy spirit and adopt me into the Father's family.
I want it. Would you come and save me?” Now, if you're praying that prayer by faith right now, the Lord says he'll save you and he'll adopt you into his family and make you a child of God. Others are here, and you're a believer.
You're a follower of Jesus, but you haven't been living under God's blessing. You're a believer, but you haven't been depending on the spirit or you've given up to frustration or to anger, and you haven't been experiencing the love of Christ in your life right now. Would you just confess that and say, “Lord, you know I'm a follower and that I love you, but would you forgive me right now, afresh, of the way I've put other things ahead of you. I want to live under your blessing, Father. Bless my family.”
I pray it now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Audio
All right. Good morning, church. Y'all like that good transition from, like, this deep moment to do that felt great, man. I'm so proud of the kids. That scripture verse is not short, and that's the gospel in a nutshell, man.
I'm so impressed with them this morning. We. We had a wonderful week with your children. If you brought them this week, it was a wild week. We had 48 kids attend over four nights, which I believe is the most we've ever had.
And so it was a great week for us. A lot of work, 34 at least, plus probably more. 34 people volunteered this week. We had ten kids respond, I want to follow Jesus, make him lord of my life, and accept his forgiveness for my sins. So ten kids, that may mean that they are maturing in their faith, or it may mean they're understanding this for the first time.
We're nothing sure about that. However, parents just know there's a conversation that got started this week that you need to continue with them. Ten other kids responded. I want to talk to someone about what it means to follow Jesus or more about baptism. So that's some just wonderful stuff that happened this week.
That's the primary reason we do this. Sure. It's fun, it's entertaining, and we want the kids to have a good time and I hope have an experience with the church and with God's people that makes them go. I like being around believers. That's.
That's great. But more than all of that, I want them to have an encounter with the living God. I want them to have an encounter with Jesus. And so I think we did our best with that this week. I'm really proud of you.
Volunteers, a couple of special thank yous, and I could have thanked all 34 of these people. That would take most of my sermons, so I'm not going to do that. But a handful of people, Kendra and Michael, as always, did way too much. You could ask for more help next time. Just a news flash, but they did a lot.
Rich, I don't know how much of the stuff you wrote. I think it was a lot of it. You wrote it, you directed it, you performed the major part. Wow, brother. Good stuff.
Marcus and Izzy, thanks for inviting everyone. I think. I don't know how many of the guests were yours, but it was a lot of them. So thank you so much. Thank you to our teachers.
We couldn't have had any of these results without your hard work. So Amber, Evelyn, Izzy, and Derek. Evelyn stepped in last minute. Derek, it was his first time serving with us, and I know, it was a blessing to him to see kids make life change and think about some deep things for Mark. I don't know if you've served before, but you brought some crazy that we didn't know you had in you.
So, so many more people. I'm so thankful for you. People were serving everywhere. I'm blessed by this. We're starting a new sermon series this week called Family Circus, and we've got several weeks of this together.
And you might be thinking to yourself, why should I come to church and hear more about a family circus? I already have that. I'm already doing that very proficiently. And the reason that we've named it, this is on purpose, because guess what? You're not alone.
None of us have a perfect family. Certainly not me. If you've ever tried to study all the pastor's kids, just watch them for 5 seconds. They're wild. They're a mess.
All right, so none of us have a perfect family. We're in this together. In fact, perfection is not exactly what we, we were called to. The family circus. Where we're gonna start today is just talking about the circus itself.
But stick around for a few weeks. I know for some of you, you're thinking, I don't know how this is gonna apply to me. Maybe I'm at a different stage in life. Maybe I'm before I'm pre family or I'm post kids. You might be thinking this.
No, I pray there's something for you all through this. Certainly today, you could simply apply to your life. You can apply it to the family, as I will. But these are helpful tips from the book of Ephesians, helpful advice for just your life. But over the next five weeks, here's where we're gonna be today, of course, the circus, which is the family.
Next week, we're gonna be talking about the flying trapeze, which is marriage. And then the next week, the lion cage, which is parenting. And then I've got some new stuff. This year, we're doing the tightrope, which is a study on singleness. All right, so, singles in the room, please stick around.
And then something new, the safety net. Grandparents. So, grandparenting in a biblical way. I pray this is something that will really speak to you over the next few weeks. Now take a look.
Take a look real quick at this cartoon. This is kind of my, our theme, if you will, for the whole series. You may, some of you don't remember this, perhaps, but if you got newspapers for the longest time, you remember the family circus. This cartoon was common in newspapers and no one gets those anymore, really. But they're actually still making these.
They're still coming out and they're wonderful. If you've ever asked, as he's asked, who dealt this mess, and maybe you're looking at your family going, who in the world dealt this card? These cards, if you will, this cartoon series, the Family circus, was created by a guy named Bill Keene in 1959, and they're still going today. He was cartooning in his home office with his family around his five kids, and he was inspired and began drawing the family circus. Here's what he once said, that if there is a philosophy behind this feature, it is a home filled with love and laughter, the happiest place in the world.
And I think you may have experienced this. If your home has ever been filled with love and laughter, you know that that's a happy place to be. That's a wonderful place to be. He's passed away since Bill Keene. He died at the age of 89.
His son continues the wonderful artwork. But this one, this one cartoon, and I'll be giving you a couple of cartoons every week just to kind of get you thinking. But this cartoon makes us ask, who dealt this? Where did this come from? And the answer is the hardest part, and it's the reason you really worry about your family and about what's going on.
It's because when you think about who dealt this mess, if you're honest, you know it's you. That the answer to the mess is us. That when you put two broken people together, they make more broken stuff and all the good stuff. You'll look at your children, you'll look at what's going on there and go, huh, I see a mirror and I wish that wouldn't have been passed on. You'll maybe even see a mirror of your spouse and go, those aren't the things I love most about him or her.
And yet there they are in the children. Even just as husband, wife, you'll say, who dealt this? Well, certainly you said yes. And so if you're honest, it's us. No matter how hard you try, if you're aiming for perfection, you're going to find you keep falling short.
You can't quite hit. Whatever it is, it always ends up with a bit of crazy, a bit of chaos, a bit of mess, and it leaves you, probably, and maybe you feel this way this morning, and if that is in fact how you've shown up, then this message is for you. If you're feeling exhausted, if you're feeling like maybe, I don't know, if I'm doing a good job, maybe you're aiming at the wrong thing and this will be an encouragement to you that our aim is not perfect family. Our aim is having a family that lives and thrives under God's blessing. Perfection is in his hands.
Holiness, redemption, sanctification, it's all his work. The question is, will we start praying? Has so many saints before us. God, please bless our mess. All right, so that's what we're praying today.
Together we're going to be in the book of Ephesians. Here the apostle Paul prayed that believers would experience God's blessing on the family and we can experience this blessing. I pray the text will show clearly four steps to experience the blessing of God on your family. Here we are. Ephesians, chapter three, verses 14 through 21.
Here's what it says. For this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit and your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Amen to that.
How to experience God's blessing on your family I could substitute how to experience God's blessing, period. But certainly on your family. It starts here. Bow to the Father's authority. This is where life begins for you, believer, not just for your family, for you as an individual.
This is where Paul begins. In fact, he says, for this reason. Now for this reason is a repetitive phrase he's used throughout chapter three, and he's really referring to everything from chapters one and two. This gratitude that he's talking about, about the grace of God. He says, because of this outrageous grace and mercy of God, I bow my knees before this father, the father of all things.
I bow my knees before him, knowing that he is the founder and sustainer and the one who causes all this to stay in motion. The father of the family. He says, for this reason, I bow my knees. This is, I'm putting authority where it belongs. I'm not trying to lead my life.
I've made a decision. Paul says that he's in charge now. This is a decision you have to make both individually and corporately as a family. And this is a challenge for you early in marriage or early in parenting. The challenge is, do both mommy and daddy conclude we're bowing the knee to the father?
Because if just one of you does it, there's always going to be a little bit of tension there. Or if one of you thinks, you know what? I think the Lord's in charge. And the other one thinks, well, I think I'm in charge of. That's gonna be a bit of a rocky mess.
And so this is a very important step that Paul is taking. I bow my knees individually. I know who's in charge. Before verse 14, it says, before the father, the pater. That is the first person of the Trinity.
Now, there's a bit of a play on words here. Some of you like this stuff. I do. That's why I'm gonna share it with you. In verse 14, he says pater for this reason before the father, pater from every family, Patria.
So there's actually a rhythm to the Greek here. That is from the father and then from the patriarchy, which is a word we don't love. But technically, here in the Bible, that's the closest meaning here, is the family comes underneath the father. And we could talk about how that works itself out in the human household. But what Paul is talking about is how all the human families come underneath the ultimate father.
If you dislike the word patriarchy, there's at least one type of it you need to love, and that is he's father and he's in charge. That's at least one that you got to say, well, I love that piece of it for sure. I think, in the right way. You would love all of it if you would understand rightly what the Bible is teaching here. And we're not getting into all of that today.
That'll be for the next few weeks together. As we dig into parenting and things, he says, every Household, every family, comes under the father, and they're named. In fact, this is an amazing thing, that the triune God now paints the Family in his image, that this is this wonderful thing he's doing here, naming all families, putting them under his authority. This is something, in fact, that if you go into the Old Testament, all the way through the New Testament, you'll see this common theme of every family putting this foundation of God underneath JoshuA 24 would be an example of this. I could have listed many, but JoshuA 24, it says, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell.
But as for me and my house, again, this theme of family, household, we will serve the Lord. Now, Joshua says, well, what every single one of us have to say on a daily basis, you know, I have the option to sell the gods, to serve the gods of this world. And they're very obvious, and they're very easy to serve. They're very much in your face. And it's easy to say, well, I'm going to do whatever the culture says about this.
I'm going to let my kids do whatever every other kid is doing. And I don't want them to feel left out. I want them to all have. And I want him to have an iPad. At three years old, everybody gets an iPad at three, right?
I mean, all these decisions, we're saying, well, either I can serve the culture and I can serve what's going on around me, or I can make the decision, as Joshua did, and many of the saints of old, we will serve the Lord. It really rings into this ultimate question, who's in charge? That's the building block of your life and of the family. You have to ask this first question. Who's the boss?
Who's actually in charge of my life? And then who's in charge of my first my marriage, then my parenting, then my singleness, my grandparent? And who's the boss? Now, I want to pop up this image because, of course, as I'm asking that question, I thought of another series that dates me a little bit, but not as much as, you know, some of you could give some other older sitcoms. I love you.
You're. You know, there's some stuff y'all watch growing up that I have no idea, but I grew up watching who's the boss? Okay. And everybody loves Tony Danza. If you don't, you're wrong.
I mean, Tony Danza's awesome. And the premise of this show really was very much about this idea of who's in charge. Sometimes if you watch the show, sometimes it seems like the kids were kind of rolling the roost. They were trying to figure this thing out. But Tony Danza was often the one who really didn't seem to have a good grip on the control.
All right, so this show, who's the boss? Who's the boss of the family? A lot of chaos ensues as a result. If you go back and watch that old show, it's probably terrible now. I don't know.
I haven't watched it since I was. I mean, 92, I was seven. And so I remember watching it then and thinking, this is pretty great, but it's probably terrible now. If you go back and watch a lot of those shows we grew up with Orlando, maybe you were in middle age, you know, watching these. They're terrible now.
But anyway, you'll watch a lot of chaos there. And that question really does apply a very important question to your life. Which authority will you choose? The culture, the latest trend? Your own upbringing?
As we get into parenting in a few weeks, that's, I think one of the most challenging thing as a couple is to say, all right, but I like the way I grew up, and I like the way my parents did things. That's how we ought to run stuff. And when you approach it that way, you'll find that the other party starts going, yeah, but I don't like the way you do Thanksgiving. I don't like the way y'all do Christmas. I don't like the way.
Or maybe it's holidays. Maybe it's something else I don't like. Here's something from my house, and I'll get into more of this on parenting. I don't like toys and clutter in my living room. I didn't grow up with that.
The kids played in their room. My wife, however, I think, grew up different. I think, I don't know. You could ask her later. But we seem to disagree on this, because every day I have the same argument with my kids.
Like, y'all have a room like this. This isn't your room. This is the family room. And I have a problem. I can't enjoy a room that's cluttered and messy.
I just can't enjoy it. And so that's why I go upstairs.
And if they come up there with their clutter, they get, you know, they get something different. Who's the boss? Who's in charge? Who's in charge? First of your life.
Paul says, I bow before the father who's creator of all, sustainer of all. If you're coming in here exhausted, feeling frustrated, I wonder if it is already just first, a personal thing. You're feeling frustrated. Like, I feel aimless at times. I feel like I'm not.
I don't have a true guiding principle in my life. I feel like. I feel like I'm unsuccessful. I feel like I'm not doing well as a mom, as a husband, as an employee, employer. I mean, you fill in the blank.
Maybe this morning you're feeling a sense of exhaustion and uncertainty. Perhaps it starts right here with at some point you say, well, I'm the boss. That's a lonely place. It's no wonder you feel exhausted and lonely because you've chosen to take on a job that you weren't created or built for. You weren't built to be in charge.
He was, he is and will always be. He's the authority. So first for you and then for your family, bow to the gods, the father's authority. Here's the second. You really can't move on.
These are steps for a reason. If you don't bow first, you certainly can't do number two, which is depend on the spirit's power. The spirit's power comes underneath the Father's authority. When he's in charge, the spirit's power is supplied. You can't have one without the other.
He says, depend on the spirit's power. This is very plain in the text. In verse 16, it says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit. This is something God the Father must grant, that the spirit is given, that strength is given to you through the Holy Spirit of God. So how do you depend on it?
First lean in and say, God, you're in charge. And now ask and pray for it. As Paul is praying, he says, I'm asking according to his glory, that he would grant you this, that Christ would dwell in your hearts.
Strengthened. Here is this word that means to empower. In fact, it goes on there with this word, strengthened with the power of the spirit. This word is dunamis, which means power, ability, strength. I heard it said in seminary many times to help us try to remember.
It's like dynamite. Dunamis is like dynamite. It's this kind of power. That's not totally true if you really study the Greek, but don't worry about that. If you're looking at this, this has the idea of dynamic power, which means it's power that is available to you, that you have to receive and use.
It's not this other kind of power, which is more innate, that you just, you have it. No, this is power dynamic that could be given. And twice here it says that you would be able, that you would have the power through the Holy Spirit. Now this is amazing, because what we have in this one text is the trinitarian God in full color. He says, bow before the Father.
That's where it begins. I'm coming under God's authority, and now I'm praying and living into and depending on the Holy Spirit's power. Now another person of the Trinity. And then we see right here, as this thing comes to a close, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. We have in full color what Christ and God the Father and the spirit are doing in his people.
The spirit is the power. The spirit is the encouragement. He is the encourager, the helper. Jesus promises to give us this when we first say yes to him. When we come to the Lord in faith, when we bow our knee to God's authority, the spirit is given acts, chapter one.
It says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. We can't depend on our own power to build the family. In fact, I could go many places, but one place is psalm 127, where it says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
At times I think this is why I'm so frustrated, why I'm so exhausted. I bet you feel this way, too, that I'm working really hard to try to make a good family or just really hard to just be a good man. I try really hard just to be a good pastor, if you will. You fill in your blanks, you know, I try really hard to be a good worker, a good employer. I try really hard to be a good mom.
And maybe you feel war slam out, and perhaps it's because you're trying to build the house by your own strength, by your own power. Maybe you've said, yeah, I know God's in charge. I know that. But I don't come back to the well, ever. Do we do this in life?
You can remove the family element altogether and just think of this as an individual. This is something we consistently do. Oh, I'm saved. Oh, I believe in Christ. Oh, I know that God's in charge, but I forgot to talk to him today.
And I'm just going to go ahead and face Monday in the power of Jonathan. And then I find out that day really stunk. That was not great. Seems like every conversation I had was a hot mess. I mean, you can do this.
Trust me. I do it all the time. I try to face my days in the combs power, all right? And it doesn't work. The Jonathan Power.
No, no bueno. The spirit's power. It doesn't just come by me just waking up and saying, here I go. I'm one of yours. No, it comes with first.
Starting in conversation with the Lord saying, yet again, Lord, today I'm yours. Where are you going? Where are you leading? How would you like the spirit to move in my life? How would you like today for me to be a godly father, a godly man?
The spirit's power has to be consistently accessed. That's why I think Paul says, I beat my body daily and make it my slave. This is why there's this habit of. Of discipline, spiritual discipline and devotion. It's because I want the spirit's power in my life.
I don't want to face the day in my strength. And you can do that, believers. I know that's true because I've done it a bunch. But he says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. I want to give you kind of a thought on this that might help you.
Did you know the greek word for spirit is pneuma? Pneumas. It also could easily be translated, and is most often translated breath or wind or air. But breath, that is, when you see the numas hagias, the Holy Spirit. It's literally the holy breath, the sanctified breath of goddess.
And I think, I don't know if this is true, but it's helpful to me to consider it this way, that perhaps one of the reasons he's called that is because breath is so essential to life. And I'm just kind of going out on a limb on that. But it helps me a little bit to think about this. If I decide I'm just not going to breathe anymore, I'll only exhale. I can't do that for very long.
And, you know, some of you can hold your breath underwater a lot longer than some others. And, hey, we only have a limited supply there. If we try to hold our breath for too long. I like to kind of run this illustration a little further for myself to think, well, he is. He is the holy breath.
He's the breath of God. And if I want to have an activity of spiritual breathing in my life, if you will, then this has to be something like oxygen for me. This has to be the. Well, the person of God who wants relationship with me, which is its own thing, this fascinating thing, that the God of the universe would create me and create us with the intent of being with him forever, and that he wants fellowship and relationship is a baffling idea. I don't deserve that.
I really don't. And yet he loves me that much and loves you that much, that he wants eternal relationship with you, but he doesn't want to wait. He wants it now. He's jealous for your affection. The Bible says he wants you.
So if I'm going to access the spirit's power, I need to treat it like breath. That I'm not trying to start my day without him. I'm not trying to go on my day without breathing. I'm terrible at this church. I think so often I'm frustrated, primarily because I'm trying to do things in my power.
Oh, I know what's right. I've done a lot of study. I've studied his word a lot. I've been to seminary, y'all. And guess what?
I can still totally botch it if I try to do this stuff just on head knowledge and personal power. Now I need to be prayed up.
Prayer should be just the breath of my life. Do you understand what I'm saying? I want the spirit's power, don't you? Well, the access point to that is community relationship with God. It doesn't just come.
It's dynamic power that's available, but it's available through him. The same is true in this christian life. When we're bringing our family under God's blessing, we need to learn to breathe, to depend on the spirit's power for wisdom and strength. Sometimes you guys, you come to me asking me, how do I deal with my kid? He's angry.
How do I deal with my kidney. You want to obey me. I've tried all these disciplinary things. I wonder sometimes, did you at least start with prayer? Did you start there?
Have you really inquired of the Lord for a while what you ought to do? Cause I'm getting better about this. If you've talked to me lately, I'm less and less just telling people what I think more and more. When people call, say, I need help with such and such. I'm trying to build this in.
All right, I didn't know about this. Let me call you back. And some of you have seen me do this lately. It's because I don't wanna just answer you without first inquiring and talking to the Lord and going. Cause I could tell you some stuff that I think is true, but that's irrelevant, isn't it?
I wanna talk to him. Have you put some spiritual breathing into the way that you parent your kids, you treat your spouse, and the way that you go on through life? Here's the third step. Bow to his authority, depend on his power and then dwell in christian love. Dwell in Christ's love.
This is where he's at in verses 17 through 19, he says that Christ may dwell in your hearts. How? Through faith. And this is the thing that grounds you. It roots you.
This word dwell, again, is this common word we're seeing through here about making a family, about making home. It's literally Kata Oike. Oikos is house or city or dwelling. He's saying, you want to know what it means to be a family? Dwell in the love of Christ.
What do you want to be grounded and rooted in?
Here's an exercise for you today. If it's just you and a spouse, or if you're the kid in the family right now, you're still single, do this exercise with your family today over lunch or over dinner. If you could say, our family is grounded in one word, like we're rooted in one word, what would it be? And get all the kids to say, too. And the kids might say, fun.
That'd be cool. That's not bad. Yelling, that's not great. We do a lot of that chaos. My son would probably say, too many girls.
That's three words, estrogen. But I don't even know if he knows that word.
What would the word be?
The Bible says the word that you're looking for is love. Christian. Christ's love. That when you have that, that's the happiest place on earth. You know, I think Bill King got that one right.
The happiest, the most joyful place on earth is the place where Christ's love, the center, is root, and it'll impact everything about the way you do family. All of a sudden, when there's love, there's forgiveness. When there's love, there's patience. When there's love, there's grace, there's mercy. Love, really, even in the character of God, is kind of at the center of his character now.
He's got all of these characteristics and balance as we talked about over the last eight weeks. But his holiness, his justice, his grace, his mercy, all of that really is centered in love. And when your family is grounded and rooted in love, you'll find some fabulous things start occurring in your life that some of the chaos and some of the cause. My kids, I have four children, y'all, and they fight a lot. And it worries my wife more than me sometimes.
It worries me. I think. I wonder if some of us can't remember our childhoods very well, and we look back and go, there's just no way. I fought my siblings like this. But I remember, and we were trying to kill each other for a lot of time.
So I'm not sure. My kids are more broken. I'm not saying they're not a mess. And they do fight a lot. I don't think it's an uncommon amount.
However, it's exhausting in the household, and you feel a sense of tension. You don't feel love. So we can have arguments here in the church. We can have arguments among our coworkers and among friends and family. But if those arguments are rooted in love, they're a lot more pleasant, because you know that at the end of the day, the outcome you're looking for is reconciliation.
The outcome you're looking for is christian love and so much in our houses. What is the goal? Do you ever ask yourself this, what is my goal in fighting with my husband or my wife or my son or my daughter or my dad or my mom? What is my goal? If it's not love, what is it?
Is it my way? Oh, I bet so often it's my way. It's selfishness. No, a house rooted in love is not selfish because that's not true love. That's not how love works.
I'll give you a verse. It's a little out of order, Jordan. I'm sorry. First corinthians 13 describes love as well as most any passage in the Bible would describe it. This is your famous marriage passage.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things, endures all things.
Oh, I want that. That's what I want in my house. And that means I have to change. That means it starts with me being rooted in Christ's love. Because now it's not about my own ambition.
It's not about my way, because again, I'm not in charge of. He's in charge. Love then impacts me to be patient, which is something I don't know, I have in spades. I don't think I have a ton. It doesn't envy or boast.
It's not arrogant. Oh, that's such a great verse to tell me what I want in my family and what I want in my ministry, what I want personally in my life. I want that kind of love. This kind of love. That verse 18, it says that you might have the strength to comprehend it and to know it.
In verse 19. Oh, if you could just get a taste of the love of Christ. He says it surpasses knowledge and you may be filled with all the fullness of God. There's some wild statements right here in the book of Ephesians. I like what Chuck Swindall says about this.
He says Paul continues to set one impossibility after another. He says unconditional love, unknowable knowledge, and now filled with an infinite God. These are amazing things that we are trying to, we are trying to really comb the depths of, if you will, and you'll never hit the bottom, that God's love for you is unconditional, that this knowledge, he says it surpasses it and then that we would be filled with the fullness of God.
This is what real love looks like.
Jesus, in fact, puts it this way. In one John four, he says this is real love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. You want to know what real love is? It's the sacrifice of God for you. It's Christ Jesus for you.
That's real love. You want to apply that to your family. That means Christ is the center. That means his love is the center. It's not the icing on your cake.
It's the batter. It's everything.
I want to give you another cartoon that reminds you of something. Bill's philosophy. He says a home filled with love and laughter is the happiest place on earth. This one's kind of great. What does the story of Adam and eve teach us?
It teaches us not to eat the fruit or not to eat fruit at all, which you'd be wrong about. I've loved fruit since I was born. Anyone who doesn't love fruit, I'm not with you. I don't know what happened to you. Who hurt you.
I mean, come on. This idea that a home filled with love, then your kids start asking you the craziest kinds of things. They'll start telling you, just start injecting the love of Christ into your family and see what happens. There's a conclusion, I think, that happens not just in your family, but happens in culture. I'll give you an example.
Here's a wild example. Recently, atheist Richard Dawkins came out. I don't know if you've ever heard this name, but he came out recently and said, I really long for the cultural Christianity to be reintroduced in Britain. I think he was talking about, he may have been talking about America, that we need more cultural Christianity. This is a guy who does not believe there's a God has been very much opposed to Christianity, but he says, I really like the culture that it makes.
Why? Because where Christ is king, where his love rings true, guess what happens? Freedom. Real freedom. Because freedom is this, like, balance between legalism and license.
That on both sides of those ditches is not freedom. But in the middle is this road of love which is free. Why is it that America has been so free? It's because primarily we had some christian values to begin. It was imperfect.
A lot of these early founding fathers were deists. They weren't believers. However, there was this through line that causes wherever Christianity rings true, there is freedom, there is grace, there is justice, there is mercy. Because the economy of God, guess what? The way he operates, it actually works.
It works in human governments, but it works really good in the most basic building block of any civilization, and that's your family. Guess what destroys every civilization? The destruction of the family. Go back and study any civilization that's ever existed. You will see the breakdown of the family, and it will happen here.
It doesn't have to, and certainly doesn't have to happen in your home. That where Christ's love is obvious, guess what your kids will experience. Freedom, justice.
I think this is true. Will you let Christ's unconditional love be the root and the thing that holds your family together? Here's the last and final step. Reflect God's glory.
Now, again, I would say, just on an individual level, when people observe in your life as a person that you're walking with God, that he is your savior, he is your lord, when they can see that the spirit's power is on your life, even if they're not believers, even if they don't understand this whole christian thing, maybe it's just totally a mess to them. They could look at your life and say, there's a hope I don't understand in you, there's a love that's like a through line in your life that you don't let stuff get to you, you're good to people, and you know in your heart it's not me. Because if you're anything like me, I'm an introvert. I don't even want to be with people, much less be good to them. The through line, if I'm loving, if I'm compassionate, if I'm faithful, it's the spirit of God in me.
I'm leaning into that. So people will look at this, just you, as an individual, and they'll say, hmm, there's something different about him, about her. It's the reflection of the glory of God in your life, and God wants to do this in your family. This is, in fact, a major reason for the family. I know this to be true because he even argues later in Ephesians that marriage itself is meant to be a reflection of what God is doing in his church, that these things are supposed to be a mirrored image, that the way that a husband and wife treat one another is supposed to model the church and its relationship with the Lord, that the way in which children are obedient to their parents models our relationship to God.
This is meant to be a reflection. God wants your house to be a lighthouse, shining this bright, glorious light about who God is. This word here in verse 16, and then in verse 21, where he finishes it, that the glory to him would be the glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, throughout what all generations, forever and ever. This glory, this word, doxa, this praise, this honor.
Sin caused the image of God to fall. It caused this glorious reflection of God to be tainted. The intent from the start was that we were made in his image and that we would model very well. We are like the father, we are his, we are sons of the king, and that was supposed to be the model. But sin has really caused us to be downcast from that image.
But in Christ, we're coming back. We're returning to the reflection of the glory of God. He wants to make your house this, your family, should shine like a light in the world. He says in Philippians chapter two. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Now he's talking there individually, but your family should model this as well. That as an individual, you shouldn't look just like your neighbor. If you work just as unhard as your co worker, you're not modeling the, you're not shining light. Oh, but, you know, he checks in late every day and checks out early every day. And me and him make the same amount.
Does God care about that? Oh, he's in charge of the lilies of the field. He'll make sure you have food on your table you're worried about. I want to work as little as possible. No, no.
The concern here is I want to. I want to do all things without disputing. I want to be blameless and innocent. If my employer says, be here at eight and check out at five, then the blameless thing to do would be to do that. I signed up for this.
I didn't know when he said eight to five, he meant it.
I bring that up because it used to frustrate me to death when I worked in the pharmacy. I worked in a pharmacy for years, and there were times where I was like, Lord, my life would be easier if I wasn't a believer. And that's not true, by the way. That's not true because there's something that happens in Christ that brings joy and hope and purpose to my life that I would not have, but in one sense, if I wanted to be a lazy bum. Being a Christian does kind of stink, because in Christ, I can't do that.
In Christ, I'm meant to be holy and blameless. In fact, the Bible says in colossians that I'm working as unto the Lord and not unto men. That means his approval is all I'm looking for. That's just as an individual now, as a family. Guess what?
Whatever it is you thought you needed your marriage and your kids to look like, you need to set that aside and say, God, what is it that you want for us? Because I want to be a lighthouse and reflect your glory to this world. I want people to see Jesus. I hope and pray when people see the way that I treat my wife and the way that we interact as a family, that they would see Jesus. And I can honestly say they wouldn't see it.
Every day you spent, you were a fly on the wall at my house. Sometimes you go, hmm, I don't know if we really should be coming to church there. You know, people are wild. Sometimes we yell, sometimes we disagree, and sometimes love is not the root, and I'm ashamed of that, but I'd like to change it. And it's going to start with me saying, all right, God, I'm not the boss, and I don't have the power.
And this love thing, this unconditional love, I don't know how to attain it without you and your power.
I hope this is making sense to you. We're more like the moon in the solar system, you guys. We're not the sun. We're not the bright shining star in the galaxy. We're more like the moon.
We have no real innate power of our own. We're pretty good at just kind of hovering around this one planet. Like, we can do that, but we don't shine any light. But just like the moon, we can be a reflection. When we look to the sun, we can reflect his glory.
Does your family reflect the glory of God, does your life reflect his glory? Let me close with this from the word of God, that God, he wants more than just a simple blessing on your life. He wants to be and wants you to be a part of his family. That's the ultimate purpose, is that he desires to adopt you into his family through Jesus Christ, his son. Ephesians one says that God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do. Wow. And it gave him great pleasure. I want to be a part of the family of God. It's going to start with bowing the knee to him, depending on his power, dwelling in his love, and then prayerfully reflecting the glory of God.
Let's pray now together. Church heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your great love and compassion for us. I thank you so much for this final verse that says, God above all things. The family, this little family I have is meant to just be a puzzle piece in this greater family that you have, have created. That you desire to adopt us into your holy family.
And you've done that by your sacrifice. That the payment that was necessary for us to be grafted into your kingdom. That payment you paid. All I can say this morning is thank you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your love, your unconditional love for us.
Thank you for your mercy and your grace. I did not deserve it. I know that personally and confidently. I was not worthy of it and none of us were. Oh, you didn't save us because of our goodness.
You saved us because of your goodness, because you love, because you're perfect, because you're holy, because you're mercy, because your grace. That's why you did it. I'm so thankful this morning. If nothing else, Lord, I pray that you would receive that from me. My thanks and my gratitude, if nothing else, that's my worship for you today, is that you are worthy and I am not.
So I'm praying now, Lord, would you really inhabit this place? Let your presence be obvious to us as we're acknowledging some things. As we study your text today, Lord, acknowledging just how far we are from reflecting your glory, how far we are from doing well at being a light in this fallen world. I'm praying first for each and every one of us personally, for myself. Lord, help me to truly bow my knee to your authority, not just today when it's convenient at church.
Oh, everybody's bowing today. God help me tomorrow. Help me as I face my work week. Help me as I face my family this afternoon. Help me as you fill in the blank, my friend, help me to be under your authority and to continue to put my yes there.
Yes, Lord Jesus, I'm yours and you're in charge. Who's the boss? You are, Lord. You're in charge. You are Lord and savior.
God help us there that we would confidently and daily give you the keys as you already have them. We're just acknowledging what is true. God help us to depend on your power. I repent, Lord. I repent personally.
I can't speak for everyone here, but I'm sorry for all the days that I try to run my life by my strength. I'm ashamed of that. And it doesn't. It doesn't give good results, Lord. And you know this.
You're not surprised at all by that. That I've tried to do things jonathan way again my way. And they don't go well. God help me to focus and to come back into relationship and to fellowship and community with you. This is what you want.
This is what you made me for. And that's why your spirit's power rests there. God help us. I repent there and I pray, Lord, that you would embolden me with your holy spirit. Do that in your people, that the church would be known by this holy spirit's power, that we would dwell in your love.
I pray we model that well here as a church, that christian love would be obvious. I pray that you would begin to just inject that into our families, that as we focus our attention on you and bow the knee to you as father, that your love would just be obvious. Let your love be spoken through your word. And the prayers that we have with our kids and with our wives and with our. With you, Lord, that love would be obvious.
God, doing us as you please. We now today above all things we say, God, you are Lord. You are in charge of me, of my family. Do as you will, Lord Jesus, we pray today in Jesus name. Amen.