Family is Everything – Lies of the Enemy #39 – Purity 1051

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the Blue Mountains of Cherokee County, North Carolina comes to us from Fred Dimick, who shared this scene on social media on Monday with the following short poem: Blue are the mountains, the water and sky above, some of the many blessings from the Man above. Just 4 short lines, but within them Fred rightly calls the beauty of this earth a blessing and rightly gives the glory to God, or as Fred puts it, the man above. And considering that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies, I don't see anything wrong with the phrasing. Well, it's Wednesday, and I thought Fred's photo was a good one to visually represent our arrival at hump day. And as I will be going to the Celebrate Freedom growth group tonight, I thought it was also a good visual representation presentation of the hope I have to see mountains move in the lives of those who come to lay down their hurts, habits, and hang-ups and to receive the freedom and victory that the Lord has for them. That's right, where there are people seeking the Lord's help, there is hope. And so I am thrilled to be leading tonight's group where we will cover the material in Recovery— uh, Celebrate Recovery's Hope lesson. It's a good one, and I invite any and all who see or hear this uh, message to join us at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park at 6:30 PM to hear all about the hope for a new life of peace, joy, and freedom that we have in Christ. Of course, the hope we have in Christ is only truly realized when we put our faith in Jesus and make the daily decision to follow him. So the message will encourage us to believe, but it will also encourage us to believe what Christ said and to try to apply its wisdom to our lives. And that's not always as easy as we might think it could be. Some of the things Jesus taught went against the common understandings of life in his day and in ours. Um, but Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if he said it, we know it's true. And should do our best to agree with it and to live it. The world, the flesh, and the devil will tell you to go against what Jesus taught, but as Christians, we are to reject the philosophies and theories of this world when they deny God's truth. And so we must reject the lies of the enemy. And that brings us to our current series, The Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as first-person statements that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. We've decided to end this series as a 40-day devotional, so with only 2 days left, we are going to try to expose 2 of the biggest lies of the enemy that have a great deal of truth in them, but that seek to divide our hearts and to choose some other good things over the Lord. So today's big lie is lie number 39: family is everything. Whether you love your family to them— to the moon and back, or whether you are estranged from them, from them, or don't have a family, this lie of the devil would seek for you to declare that blood is thicker than water and that the loyalty to the family ties you have trump everything else— friends, business, and maybe even God. Like I said, today's lie can easily be made into a truth with a little editing. I would suggest that is that family is important, but God's word indicates that although we should give honor to mother, father, husband, and wife and raise our children in the way they should go, there is one thing, one relationship that surpasses even the love that we have for those who who, who have loved and cared for us when we were but mere helpless little babies. And that relationship is the one we have with God. Of course, there is great security, acceptance, significance, love, and identity to be drawn from our families. And when family is done right, without selfish sin and dysfunction, and with the proper— giving proper thanks, worship, and honor to God, it's a beautiful thing to be a part of. While my immediate family of my childhood wasn't perfect, it is the place where I learned about love, sharing, caring, and was first introduced to the ideas about God and Jesus. No matter what our family believes, I know that in order to be saved, we all must individually decide to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our individual lives. But even Though I struggled mightily with my liturgical church tradition, I am thankful for the truth it tried to point, tried to point to. While I was confused about church at times and didn't really know the love of God, I knew that I was loved by my family, even though it could be a little heavy-handed or overbearing at times. And that's where the enemy loves to spread the lie that family is everything. The church is a little weird and can be cold at times, but most of our families are always there for us. And it is in the love of our family that the enemy tries to shift our focus off of God and onto the idol of family worship. Some people extend their family love, their love of family, to their distant ancestors, claiming it is important to, to know to know where you come from and who your people are, where, where immediate family pride extends into national or cultural heritage pride. Even the Bible is filled with genealogies and could lead us to believe that our bloodlines are of the utmost importance. Beyond blood, there is also the communal or social aspect of families and family tradition. That establishes the days of our lives. Some families meet weekly for family dinners. Some families are neighbors to one another. Uh, family is the place where we do life together, and family can be so pervasive that quote unquote family is everything is a credo of pride and deep affection. However, these individuals, um, indiv— these individuals and families that speak these words are speaking a sentiment that could be twisted to compromise one's relationship with God. Generational Sins are a thing, and as much as good things can be passed on through family lines, sin, corruption, and compromise of the truth of God's word can also run in families. My family doesn't believe in that. We are blank. Insert false religion name or atheistic proclamation here. All my family blanks. Insert sinful lifestyle choice here. It's almost a family tradition. Oh, not only can the things we believe and do, um, things our families believe and do, um, well, let's see, not only can the things we believe and do be influenced by our families, um, our very identities can be defined by what group we are born into. I'm a blank, insert earthly family name here, uh, natural or adopted. That's my family. I'm a— me, I'm a Clark. That's my family. But Jesus had some, some things, uh, some things to say about family that are quite surprising and show that the idea of family first is another lie of the enemy, as God wants us to choose him and his royal family over all others, including our families. One time Christ was teaching his disciples when his Blessed Mother— that's, that's right, Mary— and his brothers came and were waiting, expecting an audience with Jesus. Much to the shock of those who would put family first and who would declare family is everything, Jesus indicated that faith in him was more important than familial ties, that faith in his blood and loyalty to his, to him, should be thicker than the very blood of your family. Jesus indicated that the spirit was, was more important than any family ties, as he said in Matthew 12:48-50, 'Who is my mother and who are my brothers?' And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, 'Here are my brothers and my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is is my mother, my brother and sister and mother. Knowing God and doing his will surpasses the people we have known all our lives on earth and their ideas and plans that they have for us. Jesus knew this shift from family loyalty to answer his call to discipleship would be hated, and he described perilous times for Christians where families will turn against those who choose him over them. Matthew 10:21-22 says, now brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. And that's it— to the end. That's what matters. While we think our family will Families have known us from the beginning. God has— God knew us and chose us before then. Ephesians 1:4-5 tells us, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 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 gave him— and it gave him great pleasure. God knew us and chose us before the foundation of the world, and we are to love and serve him above all others, including family. Now don't get me wrong, family is a wonderful thing, or it can be, but if those you have biological ties to are not following the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be separated from you forever. As they chose themselves or the things of this earth over the one who created them. So although our earthly family is or can be a good thing, it certainly is not the only thing or everything and never was supposed to be, as God is our Heavenly Father and calls us to believe in his Son Jesus to be a part of a family that lasts for all time. So don't believe the lie that family is everything, and instead love and protect those nearest and dearest to you by encouraging encouraging them to put their faith in Jesus and to become members of God's royal family who would always give God the glory and seek to do his will and share his traditions of love and holiness and to identify with him. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Philippians 1:6, and the word of God says And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Today's verse contains, contains so much hope, it's not even funny. It assures us that God is working within us to make us the people that he created us to be, and that he will complete his work in us. So we should get with the program by renewing our minds with the word of God by repenting of our worldly ways and by making the continuous decision to live for God's kingdom's purposes. Secondly, this verse tells us that Jesus is coming back. Our universe's history will seismically shift when God comes back to reclaim what is his and to establish his government on the earth for a thousand years before making a new heaven and a new earth, a new heaven. The Lord has a plan for the future, and today's verse assures us he will work it in us and will one day come back to finish it. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we're continuing in chapter 3, which is on the deity of the Holy Spirit. And, um, today A.W. Pink provides the proofs of, uh, the proofs of the Spirit's deity. So if you want some Bible verses that prove that the Holy Spirit is God, um, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage people to check out our discipleship teachings that we've put on the blog and, uh, well, on the podcast and the YouTube channel. For Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and, um, and the word of God, of course. Um, so we, we encourage you to check that out because it teaches you all about who you are in Christ and about the spiritual forces of darkness and how to overcome and have your freedom in Christ. So check those out on the podcast or YouTube. We also encourage Bible study. That's what we do on a daily basis, and we encourage it on the podcast by presenting a Bible study of sorts, a topical discussion on the things of the Lord that we do with Arthur and Susanna Cincotti once a week. So if you want to be a part of a Bible study, you can join ours, and you'll be able to find those messages on the podcast and the YouTube channel by searching under Bible study with the Sankatis as we have them going all the way back to, um, I believe it was March or April of 2021. So we invite you to check that out. Well, today is another day of work in the kingdom, uh, as I got to go to my day job and then immediately go to, uh, tonight's growth group meeting. But, uh, you know, God, you know, it might be a busy life, but it's a good life when you're walking with the Lord. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us, um, and what you've made us to be as part of your family. When you adopted us through faith in Jesus Christ, you made us brand new creations, and now we want to just live and represent you here on the earth. We want to do the family business of sharing the love of God. And so, Lord, we need your help because we're not perfect. I know you're going to finish the work in us, but we're still a work in progress. So we ask for you to come alongside us today, uh, Lord. And then we pray for you to bless anyone who's listening or reading this message, Lord, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer request and their walk of faith and, um, help them as we also ask you to help us. So Lord, as we enter into another day on this earth, we just pray for you to go before us and to lead us into the things you would have us do and open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.