God's Family - The Ideal Family

Pastor Stephen discusses the spiritual journey of discovering one’s divine purpose by surrendering personal talents to the family of God. He traces the history of this community from biblical figures like Joseph and Moses, illustrating how God intervenes to rescue and grow His people. A central theme is the holiness of God, symbolized by the burning bush, which highlights the vast separation between a perfect Creator and sinful humanity. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he explains that believers are now granted access to this holiness, enabling an intimate relationship with the Lord. Ultimately, the message serves as a call to live distinct, righteous lives by reflecting God’s character in a secular world.

Transcript

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It's in God's family that we find people understanding their purpose. Yes, you have been uniquely created. Yes, you have been created with certain gifts that you enjoy using, gifts that produce beautiful things, qualities that you and I possess that nobody else has, or skills that you might have that excel above everybody el above everybody else. We find purpose in these giftings, but could you imagine that the use of your amazing giftings and the qualities are only a small part of what God has intended them for. You can find employment, you can make a beautiful house, you can make a beautiful family and have a beautiful group of friends, and it's because you've put your giftings to work. But when you surrender your giftings over to the Lord and to the family of God, you're gonna find that there is so much purpose. Ephesians 2, chapter 2, verse 10. Read this with me, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we could walk in them. Can we say amen? First Corinthians chapter 12. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, what would be the sense of smell? But now God has arranged the parts, each one of them in the body, just as he desired. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But now there are many parts, but how many bodies? Say it, there is one body. One body. Look to the person next to you and say, we are a part of one body. We were not created to exist all by ourselves. But we were meant to be part of a body, we were created to be part of a family, God's family, where we are putting our best forward, surrendering our best to the Lord, not saving the best for the world and the things of it, but giving your best and your first fruits before the Lord, surrendering who we are to the body of Christ, working together to accomplish his will, his purpose for our lives. We've had a great time going through the history, through our history, God's family. We started in Adam and Eve all the way, went through Noah, Tower of Babel, and then we get to the sons of Israel, the sons of Jacob. Pastor Mike did a wonderful job preaching about Joseph last week. Praise the Lord. I know many were blessed. But we have seen various aspects about how God's family is structured and how it operates. Ultimately, how God operates through his family to his sons and daughters. Abraham stepping under the covering of a heavenly father, Isaac enjoying the benefits of his obedience to God's instruction, Jacob showing the passion and fervency of chasing after the benefits of God's family. We see all that. And then last week with Joseph, the family favorite, at least to his father Jacob, or Israel now that we know. His brothers hated him, sold him into slavery. People were accusing him. Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he's just trying to live the best that he can, blamelessly and righteously. But it didn't matter everybody else's destructive, ungodly, and even painful choices that Joseph had to walk through. Joseph refused to step outside of who he knew he was created to be. And that's an encouragement to you all. Don't step outside of who God has created you to be. Lest you do, you lose purpose. Oh, you can make some pretty things, but very quickly, we've seen it before, they all just wash away. But when you are using your giftings and staying in line to what God has really created you for, you're gonna find that the things that you build are on a solid foundation and they'll continue to flourish and to grow and be even more than you could have ever imagined for yourselves. We can find ourselves in the same situation, especially in the world we live in today. It's tempting to get caught up in what everybody else is doing, even if we know it's the most beneficial, it's the most beneficial for us in our spirit man to keep on the spirit walk. It's tempting to join in on the unloving, on the reckless, on the selfish. Even believers so easily get caught up in all this stuff. But we have options this morning. Are we gonna go with the crowd, or are we going to stand up and we're going to stand out and believe that God has called us for a specific purpose, and it's okay to be different. Joseph chose to be different, to stand up for righteousness. He stood out amongst the rest. He wasn't going, he wasn't going to be a second-rate son of God. Why? Because he knew the family line that he was a part of. He knew the family line that he was a part of. You see, Joseph, when he stands before Pharaoh and interprets Pharaoh's dream, Pharaoh says to Joseph in chapter 41 of Genesis, I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it. And I have heard it is said about you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, It has nothing to do with me. God will give Pharaoh an answer for his own good. God was working through Joseph. What you have here, a reverence, a respect. What you have is a God-honoring spirit about Joseph, a God-honoring attitude. And because of Joseph's commitment and doing right in the eyes of the Lord, what happens to Joseph? We saw it, we read it. Joseph is lifted up to second in command over all of Egypt during a great famine. Being in that type of position, he's able to save countless lives. Could you imagine the purpose that is unfolding? Even his own family, who threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery, he was able to save them. As his father Jacob is getting ready to bless his 12 sons, what does he do? He gives Joseph a double portion, blesses his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. I don't know about you, but I desire a double portion of what God is giving out. I want a double portion of what God is giving out. I want his blessing. God, I want your protection. God, I want your peace. God, I want your joy. God, I want your purpose over my life. I'm not going to forfeit anything or get second best. I want first in what God has for his children. A blessing that has been made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm so excited you decided that you were going to come to church today. I'm so excited that you decided that you were going to watch from home today because God wants to speak to you. God wants to remind you of something that you were created to be. And as we continue through God's family, we see in Genesis that Joseph, his brothers, and his family all moved to Egypt and they were safe from the famine. While they were there, and if you read in Genesis, and you can read it outside of what we do on a Sunday morning, but you're gonna see that the Israelites grew in number. In fact, in Genesis it says, Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. But now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Could you imagine Pharaoh saying, they're becoming too many in numbers, they could overtake us. That's God's family. So the Egyptians began dealing harshly with the Israelites. But the more that they oppressed the Israelites, the Bible says the more that they grew in number, could you imagine? That's God's family. Pharaoh became so concerned, he ordered that all the newborn sons of the Israelites were to be thrown into the Nile. How sad. The Israelites were in Egypt for over 400 years before God calls one person to stand up, to stand out, and lead his people out of Egypt and into the promised land. There were 70 people when Joseph went second in command to Pharaoh. There were 70 people in the family of Jacob. That was the 12 sons and all their families. There were 70 people that went into Egypt. When the Israelites walked out of Egypt, the Bible says that there were 600,000 men besides women and children. And that doesn't include the others that left with the Israelites. As the Bible makes mention, some estimate that there would probably be between 2 million and 4 million people walking out of Egypt that day with Moses. Do you see the numbers growing in God's family? And this is just part of God's promises unfolding because we said, we saw when he said to Abraham, your descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky. Who would lead them out of the hand of Pharaoh and into the promised land? It would take a courageous mother, if you read, who would put her son into a basket. And by God's grace, her son would be drawn from the Nile by Pharaoh's house. That baby in the basket, we know his name was what? Moses. And if you follow the story of Moses in the book of Exodus, you find that his life was spared for a purpose. When he grew up, he noticed the mistreatment of the Israelites in Egypt. He kills an Egyptian, runs to the land of Midian, and it's there God calls him to take God's family into its next season. And while God reveals himself in a new powerful way, and I really want you to tune in. In Exodus chapter 3, it says this. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside and see this marvelous light. Why the bush is not burning up. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am. I don't know if you've ever seen a cinematic movie or something of this, but all of the different uh description and the different visuals there are powerful looking, but I bet it's not even as close to what Moses experienced at that moment. God is revealing himself to Moses and to God's family in general in a whole new way. Before this, if you read all through Genesis, how does God reveal Himself? God reveals Himself as a messenger, as an angel, as a voice, in a dream, in a vision. But here on Mount Horeb, with the roots of God's family getting ready to take a deeper hold, God's family ready to start marching forward. God chooses to reveal himself through what? A burning bush. A marvelous, spectacular sight, a bush that was burning with fire but could not be consumed. And in verse 5 it says, Then he said, Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Can you say holy ground? And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses hit his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Why a burning bush? Why fire? Why is God revealing himself in this mighty way? It's because this God is showing humanity, God is showing Moses, God is showing his family, God's family, God is showing us that he is a holy God. He is a holy God. It's as if God is telling Moses in this picture right here. Moses, listen, there's a difference between you and me. God says, I am holy. And Moses, you are not. I am holy, God says. Moses, you are not holy. Fire represents purity. Fire represents power. God says to Moses, do not come near here, Moses. You can't come near here, Moses. You must remove your sandals for the place in which you are standing. Forget even touching or getting close to the burning bush. Even the place that you're standing is holy ground. Take off your sandals, Moses. You're not holy. This morning, I want you to rem I want to remind you that the creator of everything that you see, the creator of everything that you see, including you and me, our God is holy. And listen this. And because he is holy, and because man is not, it's it's our sin that separates us from God. You know what happens because of sin? It creates this ocean between us and God where we do not even have the right to step near to where God is. Could you imagine? God creates man, God forms man, a beautiful creation around him. Man sins, and because of God's holiness, man cannot even come close to the fullness of his presence. Man cannot even come close to the fullness of his majesty, to the fullness of his glory, for we're not holy, we are sinful people. God saying to Moses, I am the God of your father Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and I am a holy God. In Hebrews it says, For our God is a consuming fire. A God that cannot be sized, a God that cannot be counted, a God that is way out of our league. A God that could knock you and I out as fast as we were brought into the world. I want you to realize the God that we serve. And you might have thought at one point, I could never get close to God. I'm so far away. God, I am so outside of who you've created me to be. But the truth is, is that even though God is holy, God is a consuming fire, God is way out of your league. It's in this encounter with Moses on Mount Horeb through a burning bush that God says this to Moses in chapter 3, verse 7. And the Lord said, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So watch what our holy God says. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians. And to bring them up from the land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. I have certainly seen the oppression of who? Of my people. I have seen the oppression of who? Of my people. This is the first time in biblical history that God recognizes the Israelites as my people. These are my people. As great as a distance we are apart from their sin and my holiness, God is saying, These are my people, and I have come down to rescue them and to bring them to a place flowing with milk and honey. They are God's people, they are God's family, they are God's possession. Moses removes his sandals, and God reveals himself even more than ever before. In Exodus 3, 13. Then Moses said to God, Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, What is his name? And what shall I say to them? And God says to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent you. I am, has sent me to you. God furthermore said to Moses, This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel. The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is the name of all generations to use to call upon me. God reveals to Moses that He is I am. Can you say I am? He says, I am who I am in this. God reveals Himself as the self-sufficient, self-sustaining God who was and is and always will be. You see, at this moment, and we've already talked about all these other times in Bible history and in the book of Genesis, but in this moment, God is revealing himself in a new way like never before. If we look a few chapters later in chapter six, God spoke to Moses further and said to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but my name, Lord, I do not make myself known to them. I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as strangers. Furthermore, I have heard their groanings of the Son of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, for I have remembered my covenants. Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the labors of the Egyptians, and I will rescue you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you as my people. Can you say my people? And watch this, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the labor of the Egyptians. I will bring you to a lamb which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as possession. I am the Lord. You see, this is a new season that God is ushering in when the power of God is going to be revealed in a whole new way. Look at the plagues of Egypt. Nothing like this has ever happened before. God is revealing himself in a new way. God will not just be known as the El Shaddai, which means God Almighty, who reigns supreme over everything, and who is sovereign and creator and Lord of Lords. But guess what God reveals himself as? As Yahweh. And to see his creation flourish in the freedom that they were created to live in. A God who would even be daring to call this people my very own. Do you understand what's happening here? God is revealing himself in a new, fresh way who desires to have a relationship with you. I am holy, and you are not. But I want to have a relationship with you. How can a people so sinful, so easily given into the desires of the flesh? How can a people who are so prone to making mistakes over and over and over again, how could such a people have an intimate, redeemed, restored relationship with a God who is so holy, so perfect? How could such people become his very own? The answer is easy. They would need to be holy as he is holy. As he says in Leviticus, be holy as I am holy. God would reveal through the Israelites' journey how difficult it is to truly be holy. And we'll recount some of that in the future weeks. He reveals to the Israelites how difficult it is to be worthy enough to stand, to even stand in the presence of God, to approach his holiness, to even sit at his feet. It was impossible. So God does this, and you see it in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians. But it is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And then turn to 2 Corinthians and 5, chapter 5, 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Or the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. God says this: be holy as I am holy. The only way to holiness, the only way that Moses would have been able to run to the presence of God, it wouldn't happen until Jesus Christ comes on the scene. It wouldn't happen until Jesus Christ comes on the scene. And because of his death and resurrection, now there is a way to holiness. Because now through our belief in Jesus Christ, everything that belongs to Christ now belongs to us. And because Jesus is holy, guess what? We can be counted as holy. We can be sealed with the Holy Spirit. We can be found worthy to walk even into the holiest of holies. Where men and women, as we see in God's word generations before, they could never even dream about standing in the presence of God. They would have been consumed, they would have been burnt up. They would have fallen dead, as we see later on. God says this be holy as I am holy. Because the only way that we can be the family that we were intended to be is if God is holy and we his people are holy. That's the only way for God's family to be restored. For us to be counted as his people, as his children. In 1 Peter 1, 13 through 19, therefore, prepare your minds for action, and I'm almost done. Keep sober in spirit, set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Listen what it says. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which you which were yours in your ignorance. Now you know. Now you've been introduced to Jesus Christ. You're no longer living ignorantly anymore. So stop blaming it on your ignorance. But like the holy one who called you, what does it say? Be holy yourselves. Also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. If you address as Father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, watch what it says. Conduct yourselves in fear, in reverence. During the time of your stay on earth. We're only here on assignment. Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblessed and spotless, the blood of who? Jesus Christ. Listen, there is a holy God who reigns supreme. There is a holy God. Listen, He is way out of your league. But He desires to have a relationship with you. He desires to bless you. He desires to bring you fulfillment and life more abundantly. He desires to restore all of those broken parts. He desires to straighten out all of the voices and all the confusion that's going on in your head. He desires to release you from that bondage and that addiction. There's a God who loves you and desires, even though he's way out of our league, and our sin makes it so far of an ocean across, but yet he sends his son Jesus Christ to close that gap. And now he says, just as Jesus is holy, would you follow in his footsteps? Oh, you'll we'll never be we'll never come as close, but we can follow Christ, and we can live by his example. No longer being an ignorant people, but people who have studied God's word, who have looked at the life of Christ, who have seen how can I get the most out of, how can I truly be holy as God is holy? There's three questions I want to ask you as we close. We'll close very quick. The first one is this do you recognize that God is holy? Because that's important. Do you recognize that God is holy? Honestly, we're living in a world where they're trying to take God as not being as holy as He was. And they're trying to put God in all these places, in all of these scenarios, as if God is just like everybody else. No, God is holy, but He came down to say, get out of there, get out of there, get out of there, even to the adulterer of woman, go and sin no more. Step away from your sin, step out of it, for God is holy. Do you recognize that God is holy? Number two, do you understand that it's only by his grace and his mercy that we may even abide in his presence? It's only by his grace and his mercy, God, how is it that you would be mindful of me? It's only by your grace that I can even have the opportunity to even approach you, God. And then, number three, do you desire to reflect His holiness? Do you desire? Do you actually desire to reflect His Holiness? Because I believe that there's a lot of people who could care less. Jesus is already done on His work on the cross, so I'm all set. That's not the Bible that I read. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him, and when you believe in Christ, it means that you believe not only on the work of the cross, but the example that he led while he was here. You believe in the words that he said when he said to come out of the darkness and into his marvelous light. It's the answer to these three questions that show where your relationship is with God right now. Do you recognize God as holy? Do you understand that it's only by his grace and mercy that we abide in his presence? And do you even desire to reflect his holiness? Because that shows where your relationship is with God right now. He desires for you to be his sons and daughters. He desires for you to be his people. He desires for you to call you his own. But listen, sin and holiness cannot abide in the same place. Abide. Where we're just living in sin. Therefore, we need to recognize his holiness. We need to understand that it's our need for Jesus Christ to stand in the gap. I gotta give my life to Jesus. Therefore, it's desiring to be transformed into the image of Christ, to the way that we live our lives, these things confirmed that we are truly God's people. That we are truly God's family. Listen, as we close this morning, I'm gonna ask you this if any, if you answered any of these questions with a no, or I don't know, or I don't, I don't think so, it's time to run towards God's holiness. He has given you access to run into the holiest places, to want, to run into where the outpouring of all the good things that God has, it just automatically belongs to you. And you walk in victory, you walk in confidence, you walk with your hands head, your head, your hands raised high, a smile on your face with the joy of the Lord, and everyone's confused because you've entered into the holiness and the holy of holies, in the presence of God. Listen, it's time to run towards his holiness and recognize who he is and watch who you were created to be. Who were you created to be? You were created to be holy. You were created to be holy. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this people that you've called your own. God's sin puts such a gap. Oh, and we could continue living in it. We could continue trying to make the best out of this fallen humanity in this world. And we can create our lives and feel like we're doing something really important, and then all of a sudden we take our last breath and we realize how meaningless it all was. We realize we we have all these possessions just for the family to fight all over it, and we realize how meaningless it really was. But God, you saw our suffering, and so you said, No, no, no, those are my people, that's my creation. And I know sin has separated us, I am holy, and they are not, but let's make them holy. So Jesus is sent to close that gap as a way to reconcile what was lost, and now through His holiness we are made holy, praise the Lord. But do we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's not what Jesus says. God, it's our desire to be holy as you are holy. So, God, all those things that don't belong in our lives, all those things that we're choosing to be ignorant about, God, I pray that you would give us the confidence by the Holy Spirit to throw them in the trash once and for all. They're not a part of who we are. God, those thoughts that try to trickle into our head that we know are not from you, they couldn't even stand in the presence of the Almighty God. I pray that they would know they would be disconnected, ejected from our minds, and thrown into the trash once and for all. God, that you would wash us new, that you would help us to recognize who we have been created to be, and that's holy. Reflecting your holiness. We thank you for the clean slate, we thank you for the start over. Lord, we thank you for your grace and forgiveness. We know that we're not perfect, but Lord, we're gonna present our very, very best to you and say, God, transform me into your image. Oh, I might mess up sometimes, God, and I'm sorry, but I'm gonna do my best.