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Family Matters

Join Marcel Hall in this powerful and heartfelt sermon titled 'Family Matters.' Marcel emphasizes the importance of the church as not just a Sunday gathering but a true spiritual family. He discusses the biblical foundation of being children of God, the family responsibilities, and the family's heart of love and forgiveness. Reflecting on various scripture passages, he calls on believers to protect, support, and invest in the youth, ensuring that everyone contributes to and upholds the values of the family of God. This sermon also includes a special prayer for a member in need and encourages new and long-time members to reflect on their roles within the church. Ending with a focus on communion, Marcel reminds everyone of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the profound privilege of being part of God's divine family.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction

00:37 Family Matters: The Theme of Today's Message

01:52 A Prayer for David Jones, Sr.

03:17 Encouragement and Reminders

03:30 Understanding Our Identity as Children of God

07:14 The Spiritual Family of God

10:03 Challenges and Views on Family

14:43 The Heart of the Family: Love and Forgiveness

16:46 Family's Responsibility: Ride or Die

17:05 Devotion and Honor in Love

17:26 Supporting and Sacrificing for One Another

19:58 Protecting Each Other in the Fellowship

21:02 Investing in the Youth

24:20 The Call to Mentor and Guide

27:31 Family Mission: Sharing the Good News

29:49 Building Up the Family of God

31:03 Reflecting on Our Role in the Family

33:10 Communion and Closing Prayer

Transcript
Speaker:

Good morning, brothers and sisters.

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Good morning.

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I said Good morning brothers and sisters.

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Good morning.

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My name is Marcel Hall and I have

the honor and privilege being able

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to, uh, serve full time in the

ministry here in this wonderful OC

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church, uh, with my wife Karina.

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So grateful.

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We have three kids, uh,

Sanaiya, Desiree and Dominique.

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14, 12 and, uh, as of Thursday,

or was that Wednesday?

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Wednesday.

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Uh, a 7-year-old, so it

is active at our house.

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Amen.

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So if you're ever thinking

about praying, pray for us.

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Okay?

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We definitely need that.

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Uh, we're going to get into

the word of God right now.

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We're excited about the word of God.

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Thank you so much, all who are visiting

here with us in person, and those of

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you who are worshiping with us online.

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So grateful to have you.

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We know we have a number of people

that have been coming out since Easter.

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We're so grateful that you've been

worshiping with our spiritual family,

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and that's what we strive to be.

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Is a spiritual family, not just a,

a church that gathers on Sundays,

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but really be a family that supports

and strengthens one another.

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And in fact, uh, that's the title

of today's message is Family

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Matters because the family matters

and we have some family matters.

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You know what I'm saying?

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The verb and noun sense.

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I know some of you might be

thinking of the show Family Matters.

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Remember that show.

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Amen.

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I know I've dated myself.

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All those who are younger than me, you

have no idea what I'm talking about.

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But there was a show called Family

Matters with a guy named Urkel.

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You remember Urkel?

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Did I do that that?

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There you go.

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You know, it's crazy.

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So I used to get my haircuts

at the same place with Urkel.

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Well, he wouldn't like me to

call him Urkel, but Jaleel White.

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And so I remember going in one time and

I'm like, man, that looks like Urkel.

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And sure enough, it was Urkel.

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You know what I mean?

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And, uh, we had a good time

there, but that was the one I

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used to live in in Los Angeles.

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Uh, speaking of family matters, we

have a prayer request I just received,

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uh, for one of our, uh, brothers.

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He actually was just baptized last year.

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Uh, he's, he's, uh, in his eighties now.

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And that's David Jones, Sr.

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And so right now he's, uh, with

the family in the hospital.

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I don't know any of the details,

but ask for all of us to pray

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for David, uh, and the situation.

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So can you go ahead and pray with me?

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Father, thank you so much for this

time to, uh, gather as a family.

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We're grateful for the chance to worship

you, to be, uh, able to respond to

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your goodness and your faithfulness.

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Thank you for being a God who

provides Thank you for being a

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God who is worthy of our praise.

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We thank you that you not only call us

your friend, but you call us your child.

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Father, we pray right now for

one of your children, David.

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God, as you know, you

know the situation I.

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Don't know the particulars, but I

know Father, that you are present.

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I know that you want to

work in the situation.

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We pray for your grace and

mercy in the situation.

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Father, for you to instill faith and

peace that is divine during this time.

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And God, we pray that we

can get an update soon.

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But pray that we can be helpful

and supportive to the Jones family.

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We pray uh, for our time in the word

God, that you will speak clearly to

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all of us and that we will come away

with greater conviction, greater

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courage, and greater trust in you.

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It's in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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I want to give you some encouragement.

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Uh, I also want to give you some reminders

and even a, a challenge in our time today.

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And so first let's start

off with some encouragement.

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Amen.

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And it says in John chapter one in verse

12, the what we call the Gospel of the

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Book of John is a letter written by

one of Jesus's followers named John.

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And he writes this biography,

if you will, about Jesus's life.

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And he's talking about how there

was a, a forerunner, someone who

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would prepare the way for Jesus.

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And that being John the Baptist.

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And he gets in here in verse 12, and

he writes this powerful statement

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that says, yet to all who did receive

him talking about Jesus, to those

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who believed in his name, he gave

the right to become children of God.

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Children born not of natural

descent, nor of human decision, or

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a husband's will, but born of God.

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We'll stop right there.

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This passage is rich.

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Just these two verses.

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There's a whole lot in these two verses

right here, we see really captured the

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essence and the reason behind the gospel.

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The gospel being Jesus came, he died

and he rose for your and my salvation

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for the world's salvation to be redeemed

with the great King, God Almighty.

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But it also tells us there is a

response to the gospel message.

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That we can respond in two ways.

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We can respond by not having faith,

or we can respond with true faith that

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responds with a commitment to Jesus.

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And we see the blessing of

responding to this gospel.

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It's to become a child of God and have

eternal life To be a child of God,

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now we have to be spiritually born.

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To be a child of God, and we're reminded

of this in Galatians chapter three.

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Let's go ahead and read that.

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It says, so in Christ Jesus, you are

all children of God through faith.

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For all of you who are baptized

into Christ, have clothed

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yourselves with Christ.

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And so we are spiritually born when

we repent and we ent trust Jesus to

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be savior of our lives, and we get

baptized into the waters of salvation.

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We are now clothed with Christ.

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He no longer sees the sin, but he

sees a son and he sees a daughter.

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Therefore, we are

becoming children of God.

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Did you hear what I said?

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You are a child of the living God.

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Amen.

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That is your identity.

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Now, you may may be the son

or the daughter of maybe Mr.

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Or Mrs.

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Hernandez or Mr.

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Or Mrs.

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Kim or Johnson Smith or whatever it

may be, and that is your identity.

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But spiritually speaking, and first

and foremost, you are a child of the

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God who reigns from heaven above.

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That's who you are.

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You are not just average Joe.

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Or average Susie, you are

a child of the living God.

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That's who you are.

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So you're having a bad day.

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Just go to John chapter one

and say, I'm a child of God.

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When someone gets to trip you

say, do you know who my daddy is?

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That's what you have

the opportunity to do.

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You say what?

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You don't know who I am, do you?

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You don't know my pops.

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Do you?

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And if some of us, especially maybe some

males back in the day, at least, I'm not

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sure if that's the culture now, but when

you would get into, you know, spats and

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competition with your friends and you'd be

like, Hey, my daddy can beat your daddy.

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Every one of us can say that

my daddy can beat your daddy.

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'cause my daddy is the living

king of all the universe.

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Who's your daddy?

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That's who we are.

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Children of God.

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So that means if we are children

of God, that means we are

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part of the family of God.

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You get that logic and connection.

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That means you and I are part of the

family of God, from God's creation,

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from Adam and Eve all the way to

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intergalactic family of believers.

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That's who we're a part of.

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Now, I don't know about you,

but that's a, that's a, that's

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a good family to be a part of.

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That's better than being part of

the royal family in, in England.

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That's better than being

part of the Walmart family.

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I think the Walmart family is like

the richest family in America,

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and so that might be cool.

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One sense.

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But we're part of the God

who has the treasures of all

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eternity.

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That's our inheritance.

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You know this plan has been the

plan of God from the beginning.

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I wanna read this passage

here in Ephesians chapter two.

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Church, are you still with me?

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All right.

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It says, for He chosen us in him

before the creation of the world to

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be holy and blameless in his sight,

in lovey predestined us for adoption

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to sonship through Jesus Christ in

accordance with his pleasure and

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will, what does it say right there?

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It says, this is God's

plan from the beginning.

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That when Jesus would come, he

would establish his church, but his

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church wouldn't just be a gathering,

his church would be a family.

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And this is powerful, especially for

those reading it back then, because in

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those times you would only adopt sons.

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And so now what he's saying,

he said, no, we're all adopted,

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male and female in the kingdom of

God, we all become part of God's.

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Family.

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And so Jesus established a church

which is the family of God.

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So when you are a part of God's

church, you're a part of his family.

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So now, if we all have the same

dad, we're a part of the family

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of God, what does that make us?

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Brothers and sisters.

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I appreciate those who got

as in class saying that, but

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the logic is simple, right?

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That means you and I are family.

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So guess what?

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We are family.

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Right.

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Let's go pointer sisters.

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We are family.

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Come on now.

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All right, Vicki, I see you.

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I got all my sisters with me, all.

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You know what I'm saying?

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We are family.

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Now, some of you that excite you,

some of you're like, uh, I don't

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know if I like that so much.

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I like so and so, but,

uh, that's my family.

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Can that be my distant fourth cousin?

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But can we keep it 100 up in here?

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This can be viewed in different ways.

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Some of us, we rejoice.

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Yes, we're a family of God.

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Yes.

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Some of us, it, it, it, it doesn't

resonate as well with us sometimes,

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in part because we can have views

of family that are different.

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Some of us, we come in and maybe we

have, well in all families, there's

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some form of dysfunction that I

haven't met a family yet that didn't

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have some form of dysfunction.

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And if you do just wait till next week

'cause your dysfunction will come.

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But we come in and we have this view

and sometimes our dysfunctional view

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or view of our dysfunctional fa, we

place it onto the family of believers.

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So we're a little hesitant about that.

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So we'd rather be church goers.

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What up homie?

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Some of us, our view of family, it's,

it's, it's just a nuclear family.

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It's just my mom, my dad,

and those live in my house.

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We don't really talk to cousins and

aunts and uncles, so that's the family.

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So the idea of this

family seems overwhelming.

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Or does it seem appealing?

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Some of us, hey, hey, we come

from a culture where you're not

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technically family, but you're family.

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If you lived on our block, you're family.

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Some of us are like, if you didn't

live in this house, I don't know, you

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and I don't wanna be close to you.

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So what happens when all

these views come together?

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There can be some challenges sometimes.

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Right?

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Right.

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Because I, my view might

be different than yours.

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And so sometimes what happens is when

we view with things and we see others

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who don't adopt and have the same

philosophy of family, the spiritual

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family that we have, then we think, well,

they're in the wrong and they're in sin.

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Or there's a problem with this

big church because they don't

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view it the way I view family.

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So here's the thing, and here's the

challenge for every one of us, is

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that we have to be careful to not

allow our cultural, our background.

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Views of family distorts our

views of the spiritual family.

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We have to allow God's view and biblical

principles of what the spiritual

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family is like to form and transform

our view of the spiritual family.

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Are you with me here now?

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It's a challenge, but it can be done.

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And I would say this real quickly, for

those of us who maybe can struggle with

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people's view, we have to be patient.

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We have to understand, we come

from different backgrounds and so

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we're all on this journey, and some

of us might be further along than

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others, and we have to understand.

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Sometimes we use the word unity and

we misapply the word unity where

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we say everybody has to do the

same thing in order to be unified.

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But that's not accurate

when it comes to the family.

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I take my family and my, my in-laws,

for instance, we all come together

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on Christmas Eve and Karina.

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She's, she's, you didn't

know she's Guatemalan.

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So there's about 65,000 of us in the house

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and we all come together on

Christmas Eve and we rock and roll.

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We have a great time.

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But on Christmas day, a lot of

us go with the other sides of the

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family and we do our own thing.

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We have different traditions.

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Are we disunified on Christmas day?

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No.

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We're doing different things.

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It's smaller, but we're still unified.

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We're still a family, but we're

doing some things different.

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And the same thing as spiritual family.

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Sometimes we need the whole big thing.

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Sometimes we have the smaller families

together and it's still family.

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Are you with me?

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Church, again, we have to make

sure that we allow biblical

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principles to influence us.

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Here's what I'm gonna say here real

quickly, and this is controversial.

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Here's my controversial statement

for the day, at least one.

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If you don't like it,

talk to Kyle about it.

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Here's the thing, the church is a

family and not just a community.

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I know that's been a cool

phrase in Christianity.

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Hey, we need to be a community.

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And that is true, but that's limited.

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See, here's the thing.

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We're all part of communities, but we're

not all part of a spiritual family.

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How you view your community is

different than how you view your family.

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It's so easy to leave a community,

but it's hard to leave a family.

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There's a difference in commitment

and understanding and values with

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a family than there is a community.

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And so God wanted to establish his

spiritual family in the church.

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And so let's talk about some of these

dynamics, these values and expectations.

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Again, here's a reminder for all

of us, or maybe perhaps for some of

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us this might be new information.

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First off, here we see the family's heart.

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We love and forgive.

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This is the family's

heart we love and forgive.

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Look at his passage.

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The Apostle Paul wrote this to the church

that met in the city of Colossae, and

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it says, therefore, as God's chosen

people wholly and dearly love, clothe

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yourselves with compassion, kindness,

humility, gentleness, and patience.

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Bear with each other

and forgive one another.

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If any of you has a grievance against

someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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And over all these virtues put on love,

which binds them all together in perfect.

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Unity we love because our father loves,

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we love the family because

our father loves the family.

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He has set the president an example for

us, so therefore we're part of his family.

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We're like our dad, so

therefore we love one another.

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Even that sister who is hard to

love, you know who I'm talking about.

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But here's the thing, you might be that

person too, and you probably are for

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someone else, but we love one another.

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We also forgive one another.

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The F word,

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forgive.

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Y'all better stay with me.

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We forgive.

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Now if you forgive, what does that imply?

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What does that mean if

I have to forgive you?

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That means what?

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You hurt me or you sinned against me.

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So it's implied.

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No, it stated it is a hundred

percent and abundantly clear.

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You and I are going to hurt one another,

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but we forgive.

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You

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see, in God's family, love isn't

optional, and forgiveness is

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what keeps the family together.

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Let's move forward and let's talk

about the family's responsibility.

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We ride or die.

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Come on.

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Here we go.

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All my fast and furious friends, come on.

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Ride or die family.

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That's how we decorate family.

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That's okay.

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We ride or die with and for one another.

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Look at what it says in Romans chapter 12.

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It says, be devoted to

one another in love.

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Honor one another above yourselves.

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Never be lacking in zeal, but keep

your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

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I think James read this passage earlier.

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Be joyful and hope patient and

affliction faithful in prayer.

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Share with the Lord's

people who are in need.

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Practice hospitality.

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We ride or die for one another.

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Yeah.

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That means we're faithful to one another.

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We support one another.

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We serve one another.

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We protect one another.

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We're compassionate with one another.

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We sacrifice for one another.

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It's who we are.

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It's what we do.

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That's what our father was like.

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That's what Jesus is like.

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They're our role models.

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This family affair.

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So therefore, this is who we

are and this is what we do.

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We stick together, we support

each other through the challenges.

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We support it.

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We sacrifice.

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That's what we're doing

with our special message.

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We're supporting locally, our family,

and we're supporting those across the,

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the, the border, our spiritual family.

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We're sacrificing to give why

for the greater good of the

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universal family of believers.

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We're there for one another

through thick and thin.

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I know we can raise hands to a t and

those who have been members longer than

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a week, you can say, I've had people

in this room who have served and helped

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me through some hard times, or just to

get over the hump to make Jesus Lord.

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I'm so grateful for the many

people just in this room.

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I could think about, uh,

uh, you know, Kenny Barber.

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I think about Chris Glossy, uh, I

think about Martin Chare, uh, uh,

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uh, I think about Daniel Samo, uh,

uh, wan, I, I I, I, I can go on.

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I know I miss some people,

so please forgive me.

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That's where you forgive.

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I think of all those.

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I can think of memories, recents.

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I can think of those in

the last couple of years.

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Who have helped and prayerfully

I've been able to serve and

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be a good friend in return.

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You know, in when we ride or die

together, that means everyone contributes.

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You go to a family meal, a family

gathering, who's supposed to bring food?

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Everybody.

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Everybody.

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Somebody's like, yeah, I got a

cousin that don't bring food.

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Think about that.

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Let me ask you, are you that

cousin that doesn't bring food?

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We're all coming together.

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We're all contributing our talents,

our recent, our experiences.

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You're going, uh, I just came

here to get some free corn bread

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or some macaroni and

cheese, so I got hungry.

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All of a sudden.

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In a family, we protect,

we protect each other.

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That impressed me so much when

I came into this fellowship.

393

:

I got, I got baptized in Washington

DC and it was part of the DC church.

394

:

It was part of our church in New

York, and then part of our church

395

:

out here in the Los Angeles area,

and then moved down to Orange County.

396

:

And that's one of the things that,

that just wowed me because I had went

397

:

to church for most of my life and,

and it was church goers, but when

398

:

I saw the spiritual family, I saw

those who were protecting each other.

399

:

I saw brothers who would

protect the sister.

400

:

They weren't for any jokers to

come in and swindle their way

401

:

and try to take out a sister.

402

:

I saw sisters who were mindful of

the brothers who cared about the

403

:

brothers who saw little Susie walk

in and said, don't worry, bro.

404

:

I'll talk to Susie for you.

405

:

I hope we still have that going on.

406

:

Well, we're protecting one another.

407

:

Danger.

408

:

Danger.

409

:

I got you bro.

410

:

Sis.

411

:

Let me help you out here.

412

:

I know that's going on and I hope it still

is going on beyond even my understanding.

413

:

You know, in a family also, everyone

in a family looks out for the youth.

414

:

Think about your family.

415

:

Think about your family gathering.

416

:

Does everybody look out for the youth?

417

:

If a little kid is about to run off, not

just the parent, and go, Hey, hey, you

418

:

better go get 'em, that you snatch them

up and depending on your family, you

419

:

might have the authority to discipline.

420

:

You know what I'm saying?

421

:

I don't know how it goes for you.

422

:

But we all look out for the youth.

423

:

We all come in, Hey,

how's my nephew doing?

424

:

How's my niece doing?

425

:

You engage with the youth?

426

:

Hey, what's going on?

427

:

Hey, gimme a hug.

428

:

Hey, don't you come out here

without giving me a hug.

429

:

Hey, I got a little gift for you.

430

:

Hey, we're doing this.

431

:

You look out for the youth in your family.

432

:

So what's it happening in the church?

433

:

Oh, that's just Daniel and

Savannah and some teen leaders.

434

:

Is that a family or is that.

435

:

Community.

436

:

See in the community you can do that.

437

:

In a family you can't because that youth

you care about as if it was your own.

438

:

You know, I, I wanna mention

this here real quick.

439

:

I, I wanna take a second

here to talk about the youth.

440

:

You know, OC has traditionally,

and, and our Fellowship of

441

:

churches has traditionally been

great at investing in the youth.

442

:

And I've been here now, it's going

to actually just hit 10 years.

443

:

Uh, no.

444

:

July.

445

:

It'll be 10 years, right?

446

:

10 years we'll be here and, and, and

man, OC has a rich tradition of investing

447

:

time, resources, money for the youth.

448

:

And you see the fruit of it today.

449

:

I mean, Kyle was up here.

450

:

Kyle leads our campus

ministry with his wife.

451

:

Guess what?

452

:

They were both teens in the church.

453

:

Daniel, Savannah, SMO.

454

:

Teens in the church that, that, that,

that cool dude that was singing up here.

455

:

Dallas

456

:

Teen in the church.

457

:

In fact, several people in the

worship team, teens in the church.

458

:

We have family group leaders

who were teens in the church.

459

:

We have many servants who were teens.

460

:

Church that was from years of a

collective investment in the youth.

461

:

And some of you can testify you, I'm

looking at little Kylie over here, and you

462

:

can remember when little Kylie was running

around in the little kids' classes with

463

:

just a diaper on yelling and screaming,

or when Derek Lale was doing his thing.

464

:

And we all know, oh look, oh

Derek, Derek is notorious.

465

:

Oh boy.

466

:

That was something else.

467

:

But now Derrick's a

faithful disciple of Jesus.

468

:

I love Derrick.

469

:

I can be, I can say that the

lales know it is all love.

470

:

But what happened there was an investment.

471

:

People decided I will sacrifice some

of my worship so I can be with the

472

:

children's classes so that these kids can

have an opportunity to know more about

473

:

God, so that later on they can make a

decision to follow Jesus for themselves.

474

:

I want to give you a

stat here real quickly.

475

:

Daniel told us this the

other day, starting in June.

476

:

So what are we, three weeks, four

weeks from June, we're gonna have

477

:

about 58 60 teenagers here in Orange

County, just in our fellowship.

478

:

That's a lot.

479

:

And we have what we

call, uh, teen leaders.

480

:

These are our, our adult mentors who

mentor teens and, and help put on the

481

:

events every week for the teenagers.

482

:

And so we've always had a model

in which we've had teen leaders.

483

:

And so starting on June for

those 60, about 60 kids, we

484

:

will have three team leaders.

485

:

And you don't have to be great at

the math, but that's one per 20.

486

:

Is that sustainable?

487

:

How's that gonna work out by July?

488

:

And so what we need is what?

489

:

She already said it.

490

:

You quit, girl.

491

:

Thank you.

492

:

We need people to invest in not just the

next, but I call it the now generation.

493

:

We need people in here.

494

:

Yes, you.

495

:

We need you to be able to invest.

496

:

We need some, we know we can't have

35 of you guys become team leaders,

497

:

but we can have 35 mentors for kids.

498

:

We can have people decide I can get

together on a consistent basis and

499

:

engage and build a relationship.

500

:

Studies have shown that those who

grew up in a church who have made

501

:

it and stayed faithful to God in

their thirties and forties, they had

502

:

on average five adult relationships

through the years growing up.

503

:

And that's excluding mom and dad.

504

:

And so what are we gonna

do for those 60 plus?

505

:

We have about 30 or 20 something junior

high students coming up right after them.

506

:

Brother and sister, this is a

call for you and I to ride or die

507

:

with and for each other that we're

gonna all care for the youth.

508

:

We're gonna protect one another, and

we're all gonna have some form or

509

:

fashion in which we help the youth.

510

:

When we got married,

Kareem and I got married.

511

:

Uh, and, and I think this is,

is common beyond just, uh, uh,

512

:

Guatemalan culture, but there's

a, a, a thing called Pinos, right?

513

:

I think that's how you say it.

514

:

Hopefully I said my, I

wrote my R correctly.

515

:

Alright, you're nodding in your head.

516

:

Thank you, sis.

517

:

Okay.

518

:

Thank you.

519

:

Alright.

520

:

And so what happens here is when we got

married, part of the family, every part

521

:

of the Corina's family decided, Hey, I'm

gonna be a, you know what I'm saying?

522

:

That I'm gonna be that for you.

523

:

So one person's like, well,

we'll get the cake for you.

524

:

Well, we'll help out with this.

525

:

We'll help out with, with

some of the decorations.

526

:

We just, we had about 25 family

members helping contribute.

527

:

We didn't have any money, so

we're like, hallelujah, thank you.

528

:

But they all found a way to contribute.

529

:

Brother Sisters, every single one

of us can find a way to contribute.

530

:

We could be their spiritual

pacinos for our youth today.

531

:

And maybe that's being a mentor.

532

:

Maybe that's providing your

resources, your expertise,

533

:

maybe that's Amen's mission.

534

:

We share the gospel.

535

:

Here's what it says

here in John Chapter 20.

536

:

Jesus, he says, peace be with you.

537

:

As the Father has sent

me, I am sending you.

538

:

We have a family hearts we love, we serve.

539

:

We have a family responsibility.

540

:

We ride or die together and

we have a family mission.

541

:

We share the good news.

542

:

We share it with those we live with, we

share it with those that live next to us.

543

:

We work with, we go to school with that.

544

:

We meet at the grocery store.

545

:

We have an opportunity to join our father

in his mission, to redeem his creation,

546

:

to go from creation to child of God.

547

:

And so we have that opportunity.

548

:

That's our mission as a family.

549

:

And just like Jesus, we follow the

family and sharing the good news.

550

:

What an opportunity we have and

why are we talking about this?

551

:

Why is this important?

552

:

Well, it, it does go with our special

missions because we're giving to

553

:

help build the family of God again,

locally and across the border.

554

:

But really the main thing here

is that family, the family of God

555

:

is at the center of God's heart

and the center of God's will.

556

:

It's at the center.

557

:

Jesus came to establish his

family and so that others.

558

:

Enter and become children

of the most high God.

559

:

And we have to avoid the trap of

letting worldly and cultural views

560

:

distort our view, and therefore misalign

us with God's will in his design.

561

:

But if you think about this,

this is our desire as well.

562

:

We wanna be a part of something special.

563

:

We wanna be a part of something that's

filled and established and rooted in love.

564

:

We wanna be a part of something

that's bigger than us.

565

:

We all desire to be a part of something

that leaves and impacts upon this world.

566

:

We all desire to be a part of something

that's eternal and divine, and that's

567

:

what we have in the family of God.

568

:

It's who we are and it's what we do.

569

:

And so how do we respond?

570

:

I believe it's real simple.

571

:

We build up the family of God.

572

:

We have to own our particular role

in the family and help build up the

573

:

family of God The father is working.

574

:

It's what his children

join him in building.

575

:

And I know we have so many that are, but

I'm afraid some of us we're not building.

576

:

It's a call for every single one

of us to continue to build or for

577

:

some of us to get back up and build.

578

:

Because you are a child of God, therefore

you have a role in the family of God.

579

:

Every single one of us is needed,

just like every single one of

580

:

your family members are needed.

581

:

And I wanna say this for those who may be.

582

:

You don't know her, it's clear you're

not a member of the family of God.

583

:

I wanna encourage you to make a decision

today to become a family member.

584

:

I wanna encourage you today to

make a decision to join the family.

585

:

God.

586

:

See, Jesus didn't invite you

just to believe Jesus invited

587

:

you to belong to his family.

588

:

Enjoyed him in building

something that's eternal.

589

:

And so I wanna encourage you today to

study the Bible and get help 'cause

590

:

we've all done it and make a decision.

591

:

To follow Jesus for those who

have been members for many years.

592

:

Here's a question.

593

:

What kind of family member am I

594

:

and what kind of family

member does God want me to be?

595

:

Reflect on that and

then make some choices.

596

:

You can give to the youth, you

can mentor a single professional.

597

:

You can help an an older and

elderly brother or sister in Christ.

598

:

You can protect a sister,

whatever the case may be.

599

:

But go ahead and do your role in

building up the family of God.

600

:

And if we were to do this, we will

fulfill the father's vision and the

601

:

father's will for his family picture here.

602

:

Real quickly, what would this picture

look like if we were all committed?

603

:

Every single one of us to

building up the family of God.

604

:

What if we all lived

out the family's heart?

605

:

What we love and we forgive

606

:

picture, what it would look like

if we were all devoted to the

607

:

family's responsibility where

we ride or die for one another.

608

:

We protect, we sacrifice, we serve.

609

:

Picture what it would look like

if we all joined the family

610

:

mission in sharing the gospel.

611

:

What kind of spiritual

family would that be?

612

:

Would you like to be part

of that spiritual family?

613

:

What kind of spiritual

family would that be?

614

:

Would that be a spiritual

family that you would.

615

:

Give yourself over to that you

would contribute to would others

616

:

see the glory of God and therefore

wanna be part of that family of God?

617

:

Here's the thing, brother sisters,

that's who we are, and that's what we do.

618

:

So let's be who we are and let's

do what we're supposed to do.

619

:

Let's close out here as we take communion.

620

:

This is where we take the emblems,

the, the juice, and the bread

621

:

symbolizing Jesus's body and blood

that was sacrificed for our salvation.

622

:

And it says here in John

chapter one and verse 12, we'll

623

:

go back to where we started.

624

:

Yet, to all who did receive him, to

those who believed in his name, he gave

625

:

the right to become children of God.

626

:

Children born not of natural decision,

nor of human decision, or a hu

627

:

husband's will, but born of God.

628

:

If we get a chance to be the children

of the most high God, part of God's

629

:

universal, intergalactic divine

family because of Jesus' life,

630

:

death, and resurrection, let's pray.

631

:

Father, thank you so much for Jesus.

632

:

Thank you that he is

the center of our faith.

633

:

He's the focus Father, he's the example.

634

:

We thank you for your love.

635

:

We thank you that you've had a design.

636

:

From the beginning, before the creation

you designed that those who would choose

637

:

to respond will be a part of your family.

638

:

We thank you that we have the opportunity

to be called a child of yours.

639

:

Thank you for the

brothers and sisters here.

640

:

Father, we thank you for your grace

and mercy that has been lavished upon

641

:

us every single day of our lives, and

we wanna respond with faithfulness to

642

:

you, faithfulness to your plan, and your

desire and your will, and to your people.

643

:

We thank you again for Jesus,

the author and perfecter of

644

:

our faith in his name, amen.

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