Coming Back to God / Week 3 - FAMILY (Morning Star Church)
GOD CREATED MARRIAGE
Husbands: love and sacrifice for your wife
Wives: love and respect husbands
Children: honor and obey parents (5th commandment)
Parents: raise kids to worship God.
Love God First and with the Most devotion of your Heart (Priority)
"Whoever loves his father or mother MORE THAN ME is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter MORE THAN ME is not worthy of me."
~ The words of Jesus, Matthew 10:37
Family is important, however it is not the most important Love of your life.
God commands us to love and care for our family; however, Loving your family more than loving God, makes your family an idol.
Idols in your life (money, job, house, )are the number one reason that people get separated and stay separated from God. Idols are things that rob you of your joy and peace, and prevent you from achieving the life that God has set for you.
GOD HIMSELF WILL PROVIDE
When We place God First in our lives, he provides for us and all of our other needs.
"We re intended to love our children,
parents, siblings, and spouses whole heartedly,
but always in the context of our primary,
foundational love for God.
Worship is for God alone.
He must be our deepest love -
actually the source of every other love.
For only when we love God properly can we begin to love others properly."
~Kyle Idleman, Gods at War
1. See your FAMILY as a Gift From GOD.
They are not yours. God have given them to you, and you are a steward of their love and care. We are called to love our family, and loving them as a precious gift helps us to better love the giver of the gift. Be thankful to the giver of that gift, God.
2. Honestly assess FAMILY TIME.
What activities are getting your attention, and are therefore being placed as most important to you?
Are you giving love to all of your family, and taking care of them?
3. Look to God as the source of your LOVE, WORTH & SECURITY.
Place God at the top of your concerns and priority. Think of God as the top button of your shirt. If you get the first button placed into the correct hole, the rest of the buttons will all fall into their correct places.
It is good to love your spouse, and your children, but if you look to them to be the source of your identity, and feelings of loving or being loved, you will never be satisfied with the amount of love you experience in your life. You will always feel incomplete. You will feel as if you have lost your love.
Most of us become unrealistic and expect our spouse or family to give us what only God can give us.
Your husband or wife's words of encouragement are important, but they should not be the source of value and worth and significance.
Your spouse's job and paycheck help pay the bills and provide for the family, but they should not be the ultimate source of your security.
The kids should not be the glue that holds the family together. Too often we sacrifice our marriage and our attention to one another for the ideal of the "perfect family" or some fantasy of what the perfect spouse, child, or family should be. This will always result in feelings of disappointment and feeling let down.
Ultimately, those in your family are not designed and meant to meet the needs of your sense of love, worth, and security.
That's too much pressure to put on anyone. They will ALWAYS fail. Ultimately, those things MUST come from the Lord.
4. Trust God's ability to MULTIPLY YOUR LOVE.
Love the Lord whole heartedly. If you are investing your love in God, he will return that love in abundance.
Our love on its own is finite. Love from God is infinite.
Our love will run dry, and we will fail to love and be loved on our own.
When you love God first, his love invested back to you will be more abundant than any amount of love that you could have put into your family on your own, or that you could receive from your family.
Message by, Mike Schreiner - Lead Pastor
Husbands: love and sacrifice for your wife
Wives: love and respect husbands
Children: honor and obey parents (5th commandment)
Parents: raise kids to worship God.
Love God First and with the Most devotion of your Heart (Priority)
"Whoever loves his father or mother MORE THAN ME is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter MORE THAN ME is not worthy of me."
~ The words of Jesus, Matthew 10:37
Family is important, however it is not the most important Love of your life.
God commands us to love and care for our family; however, Loving your family more than loving God, makes your family an idol.
Idols in your life (money, job, house, )are the number one reason that people get separated and stay separated from God. Idols are things that rob you of your joy and peace, and prevent you from achieving the life that God has set for you.
- PERSONAL NOTE: I have been so afraid of anything related to Church, or devotion to the Word of God, potentially being something that could push Karen or my Kids away from me, that I have failed to devote myself to God and thus failed us all.
- We do not go to Church and worship together.
- We never read or hear the Word of God together.
- I pray for my family each night, and pray at the door of my children's rooms each evening, but we do not pray together.
- I pray for my wife every day; but she has never heard my prayers of thanksgiving, prayers for her prosperity and health, prayers for her happiness, prayers for her success in her job, and prayers for her gift of motherhood.
My job was never to convince them of their faith, or to convert them to any religious ideology. My job was to lead them to the Word of God and to allow the Holy Spirit to lead their heart to their own understanding of Faith.
I HAVE FAILED MY FAMILY!
GOD HIMSELF WILL PROVIDE
When We place God First in our lives, he provides for us and all of our other needs.
"We re intended to love our children,
parents, siblings, and spouses whole heartedly,
but always in the context of our primary,
foundational love for God.
Worship is for God alone.
He must be our deepest love -
actually the source of every other love.
For only when we love God properly can we begin to love others properly."
~Kyle Idleman, Gods at War
1. See your FAMILY as a Gift From GOD.
They are not yours. God have given them to you, and you are a steward of their love and care. We are called to love our family, and loving them as a precious gift helps us to better love the giver of the gift. Be thankful to the giver of that gift, God.
2. Honestly assess FAMILY TIME.
What activities are getting your attention, and are therefore being placed as most important to you?
Are you giving love to all of your family, and taking care of them?
3. Look to God as the source of your LOVE, WORTH & SECURITY.
Place God at the top of your concerns and priority. Think of God as the top button of your shirt. If you get the first button placed into the correct hole, the rest of the buttons will all fall into their correct places.
It is good to love your spouse, and your children, but if you look to them to be the source of your identity, and feelings of loving or being loved, you will never be satisfied with the amount of love you experience in your life. You will always feel incomplete. You will feel as if you have lost your love.
Most of us become unrealistic and expect our spouse or family to give us what only God can give us.
Your husband or wife's words of encouragement are important, but they should not be the source of value and worth and significance.
Your spouse's job and paycheck help pay the bills and provide for the family, but they should not be the ultimate source of your security.
The kids should not be the glue that holds the family together. Too often we sacrifice our marriage and our attention to one another for the ideal of the "perfect family" or some fantasy of what the perfect spouse, child, or family should be. This will always result in feelings of disappointment and feeling let down.
Ultimately, those in your family are not designed and meant to meet the needs of your sense of love, worth, and security.
That's too much pressure to put on anyone. They will ALWAYS fail. Ultimately, those things MUST come from the Lord.
4. Trust God's ability to MULTIPLY YOUR LOVE.
Love the Lord whole heartedly. If you are investing your love in God, he will return that love in abundance.
Our love on its own is finite. Love from God is infinite.
Our love will run dry, and we will fail to love and be loved on our own.
When you love God first, his love invested back to you will be more abundant than any amount of love that you could have put into your family on your own, or that you could receive from your family.
Message by, Mike Schreiner - Lead Pastor