A Family's Guide to the Church

We're going to be with you to see me. I have looked forward to returning here for quite some time, and it's good to see familiar faces and new ones as well. And I'm excited about the time that we're gonna spend together over the next several days, examining, examining this idea of the family of God, the household of God, and the idea of the church as a family of families, and what these things mean as a pastor and as a preacher. Words are port of my life and one of the things that preachers are always searching for metaphors. You know, how do we how do we find an idea or a word that will help us communicate spiritual truth to individuals in a way that they will understand, in a way that will make it just leap off the page and come alive for everyone. And it's difficult to do that. A lot of pastors love, you know, sports metaphors, and so the pastor will come up with his best sports metaphor, and you know, it's like, you know, it's like a touchdown or like, you know, half the crowd's going, yeah, I know exactly what he's talking about it, you know, and half the crowd's going, I don't even play basketball. You didn't get that, then you're probably one of those people I was talking about. But it's difficult, you know, or some maybe NASCAR, you know, as some pastors and they'll talk about Nascar, and you know, it's it's like drafting, and you know, and there's some people out there and they go, oh, yeah, man, drafting. You know, three quarters of the audience sitting out there just wondering why NASCAR drivers would have to do any kind of drawing at all, but alone drafting. But again, it's tough. But there are some things that are ubiquitous. There are some metaphors that you can use that everybody gets, not everybody, everybody that's beyond everybody. Okay, there's a couple of those types of metaphors. One type of metaphor that I've found, and it's one of the passions of mine, and those of you who know anything about me know that if if I just had to stop preaching somehow tomorrow I just couldn't preach anymore, I'd go up in a restaurant somewhere and cook. I just I would just for the balance of my days still find a way to preach. But if I just couldn't, that's what I'd do. So what of those metaphors can't miss anyone? Food? Amen? Talk about food, and everybody understand that. There's another metaphor that I can't miss, and that's family, because everyone is part of a family. Now we hear that, and some of us recoil. And here's why we recoil. There's a couple of reasons that we recoil. Number One, we recoil because of the destruction and devastation of the family in our culture. And so some of us recoil and we say, no, I'm not part of a family because I didn't have the mom and the dad and the brother and the sister and the white picket fence. And well, you may not have been part of what you considered an ideal family. You're part of a family. Amen. I was not part of an ideal family. I was raised by a single teenage brother, not part of an ideal family. But I am part of a family. Nonetheless, I am. And sometimes we don't get that because, you know, as pator Tom just alluded to, you talk about family, and automatically people think, okay, this is for individuals in one phase of life. This is for the couple who has the boy and the girl and has the house and the white picket fence, and they're you know, before you get to that age of eighteen. Because here's how we define family. A family is a mommy and the daddy and the son and the daughter until those kids reach eighteen. Then they leave and they go start their own families, and that family doesn't exist anymore. That's the way we think of family and our culture. But we talk about the empty nest syndrome. Why don't we talk about the empty nest syndrome. Because in our cold we view family so narrowly that once a child it's that magic age of eighteen, you know, And it says right there in second hesitations, when they're eighteen, you know, your job is over with those kids, and they go and they do their things. Just something magic happens all of a sudden, you know, seventeen years, three hundred and sixty four days, everything's glorious. The next day it's over. That's how we think of family. And so if I'm not sort of in that window, then family doesn't apply to me. News flash. You will always be part of a family, always be part of the family. You have always been part of a family for those of us who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That extends throughout all eternity, as we're part of the family of God. Because when God talks about this idea, this concept of him and his Redeemed people, he speaks to us using a metaphor. And what metaphor does God use when he communicates to us this picture of him and his Redeemed people. First of all, the Triune God speaks to us about himself using metaphorical language God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. Where do you get father and son from. It's metaphorical language, that's family language. So when God talks about himself, he uses family language to talk about himself. When God talks about his people, his Redeemed people, he refers to his redeemed people as the bride of Christ. So we have bride and groom language as it relates to the redeemed people of God when he talks about his Redeemed people as chatologically or from from the from the standpoint of things in the future, when when there's a consummation of time, where there's consummation of this era about which we speak. What does he talk about. He talks about the wedding feasts of the land family, family, the first institution God ever gave the work family. Family. That's it. That's it. And so when you talk about something that is ubiquitous, that everyone is a part of family, is precisely that some of the things we'll deal with over the course of this week. What we're gonna do tonight is we're gonna look at our primary passage here in First Timothy chapter five. But I want to give you a picture of what we're talking about here over the course of these few days that we have to give tonight. We want to look at this metaphor, if you will, this picture of the Church of the Living God as the household of God, as the family of God, and why it is that God would choose this metaphor as he speaks to us about himself and his redeemed people. And then we want to look at this picture of the family and how the family is a living, breathing illustration to a lost, turning and dying world of the relationship between Christ and his Church. And we want to look at the responsibilities of family members toward one another. In light of this picture that we're painting of the redeemed people of God and the responsibility of the church towards family members, how do we coexist as a family of families? And what is this reality of this metaphor of the family teach us about what it means to be the church, Because here's just the bare bones facts. We don't know what it means to be family and we don't know what it needs to be church. By the way, there's a reason that we're wrong on both those things, because if you ever get one, you get the other. It's difficult to find somebody who is a born again, blood washed, redeemed Christ following individual who loves Jesus and understands what it means from a biblical perspective to be part of a family but doesn't get the church thing, or somebody saying type of individual who gets it from a biblical perspective what it means to be part of a community of faith of a local body of believers, but just can't quite figure out the family thing. Those things are so interlinked and so intertwined, and when we're off on one, we're usually off on both. And I'm gonna argue over the course of this weekend that because our culture has so downgraded the family, if you will, and because we, as members of our culture have been so infected by our cultures thinking as it relates to family, we have a difficult time functioning as members of families. We have a difficult time understanding the significance of our roles in families, and we have a difficult time functioning as a family of families in the Church of the Living God. So with that in mind, let's look at this principal passage in One Timothy chapter three. Our key verses first Timothy three fifteen will refer back to that again. And there are a lot of passages of scripture that we'll look at multiple times over the course of this weekend, and we'll see them all work together. Let's look here beginning verse fourteen. Let's look at fourteen through sixteen in One Timothy three, all says, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave. And the household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess is the mystery of Godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believe on in the world, and taken up in glory. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. I want you to understand significance of this metaphor in order to understand the significance of this menat for we'll see the things that this family has in common, this household of God has in common with all households. And let me put this forth for you as we begin. We are speaking in ideal terms, and we will be over these next few days. And there are a lot of people sort of get upset about that because you know, we shouldn't be speaking about families and ideal terms because there are no ideal families. Well, let's just let's just switch a couple let's just switch one word there, okay, because people do I've heard that from people. We shouldn't be speaking about family and ideal terms because there there are no ideal families. Let's stake out families and put Christianity. You shouldn't be speaking about Christianity and ideal terms because there are no ideal Christians. We shouldn't be talking about what Christians ought to be. There's nobody is, So let's just talk about the mediocrity that Christians happen to walk in. So Christians can feel better and not have to be measured against the idea all the time. Does that make sense to anybody to speak in those turns? No? No, Let's let's go back to March food metaphor. You you should not speak about nice, juicy. Twelve ounce bacon, rap adium, rare for layman yourn and ideal terms. We all know that there is no such thing as an ideal. Well, now, baking rap medium, rare milk in your mouth. I'm sorry, but you get what I'm talking about, all right. We're talking about families in those terms because that's what we're shooting for. That's the picture that God has painted for us. That's what we're looking for. And whatever you do in your life for the rest of your life, there is an ideal there. If you're an automaker, you're trying to make the ideal automobile. You have a blueprint, and that blueprint that you're trying to get to is the perfect whatever automobile that you're making you. If you put pools for a living, somebody's got to be doing that around here, because I see them airwhere, not everywhere, airwhere? All right. If you do that, there's a picture in your mind of this ideal pool. You may not make a perfect one, but you have a picture in your mind or what you're shooting for, and it's because of that picture that you know how to get better next time. Amen, there it is that we do. As a student, you have the idea, there is the ideal paper, the students in the room to bring that up. You have this picture in your the ideal semester, you know, whatever it is. But just because you haven't gotten there doesn't mean that we stop talking about it in those terms, because that's what pushes us on. So we're gonna talk about this in ideal terms because that's the way we'll understand the metaphor. Here's what all families have in common with what we see here in this passage description number one. All families have this sense of order. We see that inherent here in this passage. As Paul talks about Timothy about wanting to come to see Timothy do soon. But in case he does it, he wants to instruct him as to how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God. Interesting enough, just before this, in verses one through thirteen, he has given us the requirements for overseers, bishops, elders, and deacons order. He's talking about how people ought to conduct themselves in the church, and he's saying that right after he's talked about what's required of those who will be in leadership in the church. Every household has order, Every household has an authority structure, and like every other household, the household of God has that kind of order. And again, interestingly enough, in our culture, there is a sense of rebellion against authority, which seemed that ever since it sort of came to age in the sixties. Those of you who are around you don't have to admit it, but there is this sort of rebellion against authority in the sixties. It's interesting, and people who grew up in the sixties they had this interesting thought. It was really rather naive. And the thought that a lot of people who grew up during that time had was they hated authority so much that when they had kids, they wouldn't be authoritarian with their kids. How's that working for you. We have this sense of authority. Interestingly enough, there's also a rebellion against authority and other spheres of life. One of the areas where there's been that sort of rebellion against authority to the Church of God, so much so that there are many pastors who sort of skewed the idea of authority and really sort of play down that idea of authority. But there must be order. We just read this evening, this passage in Ephesians five through six, this passage about order in the sense that there must be order. We sort of askewed that as well in many of our homes. The idea of male headship. Oh, that's just so mean, and that's just you just can't be domineering like that. And that's just chauvinistic. And that's just this, and that's this that, and we remel against this idea of authority. New splash anything with two heads as a monster. Either put it behind glass and stare at it, or kill it. There must be a sense of order, must be a sense of order. Now, by the way, when we think about that sense of order, usually we think especially you know, sort of within within the home. You know, we get this picture of you know me, mind, you woman, me speak you do well, we're gonna look over the course of this week what that order and what headship looks like. It doesn't look anything like that, nor does it look like that in the household of God when you look at this picture that's painting for us in these first thirteen verses a first time with EA chapter three. This sense of order that's there, and so the first sense in which we see this metaphor being born out is the sense in which there is order and there is authority in the household of God, just like there there's authority in every individual family, in every individual home. And to the degree that that authority reflects Biblical reality, you have an effective, a well ordered, and a healthy home and a healthy church. But to the degree that that order and that authority does not reflect the Biblical paradigm and the Biblical model, you have an ineffective, a dysfunctional, and an unhealthy home and church. Show me a home that has difficulty with its order and it's structured and it's authority. I'll show you a home that's dysfunctional in multiple ways. And again we'll talk about that when we get to those passages. Show me a church that has difficulty with order with authority doesn't understand what that is. And by the way, when I say that difficulty with order or with authority, I mean both ways. Show me a church where there are people who have authority that is more than the Bible ever intended for them to have. And I'll show you someone who's tyrannical in their home or tyrannical in the church that is dysfunctional. But you show me someone who God's called a man up and lead who refuses to do it. And I will show you a church or a home that is in disarray and desperate for a leader to stand up. And so in that sense we see the metaphor coming to bed. There is this sense of order. Not only is this sense of order, but there's also a sense of proprieme. Look at what he says here verse fourteen. Hope to come to you soon. But I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, how one ought to behave in the household of God. That means there's propriety. There are things that ought to be done, and there are things that ought not be done. In the household of faith, just like in any home, there is a sense of propriety things that you ought to do in things that you ought not do. There is a sense anymore, of almost an antinomianism when it comes to order and propriety within the context of the church, the sense in which anything goes in the context of the church, there is a sense of the church of this type of dysfunction that looks and sounds something like this. The church exists to draw as many people as quickly as possible. Therefore, the church must employ any and every means that is effective at drawing as many people as quickly as possible, regardless of what the scriptures say. And so we have individuals who are doing things that are very effective at drawing crowds the churches very rapidly. And some of these things are actually in direct opposition to what we find in the scriptures. But when confronted with these things, the answer that you get, or the response that you get is you must not love lost people. You see all the people who are coming. Philosophically, there's a word for that. It's called pragmatic utilitarianism. If it works it's right if it achieves the desire is is, it's right. It's the only way we measure things. If it achieves the desired end, it's right. The problem is we start with the wrong premise, and the premise that Paul starts with here with Timothy is there are things that are proper and there are things that are not. There's propriety in our church. There is propriety in our homes. We all have rules about the way that we operate in our homes. Some of the rules in our homes may be slightly different than others. Interestingly enough, the Bible has plenty to say about propriety within the context of the home, plenty to say about what we ought to do and what ought not to be done in the home. We had dinner tonight at a restaurant. It was interesting, and but you know, we just sort of ran across and witnessed some of that impropriety had been one group or family that was there, and we just really kind of felt sorry for him because of some of the things that were going on. Your heart just throws out to people when they're really struggling and really trying very hard to have some kind of order you know, you're in a place and something's happening that's embarrassing, and mom and dad are obviously embarrassed, and they want the embarrassment to go away, but the embarrassment won't go away. And there's nothing they can do about the embarrassment to make the embarrassment go away. And you see the looks on their faces, that look that says, I'm very embarrassed right now, they won't go away. I'm trying to act like everything's okay and this is really cute, but it's really not cute. I'm sorry. Would you please act like I'm not here because I want to just fit. There's a sense of propriete There are things that are right, and there are things that are wrong. There are ways that we ought to behave, and there are ways that we are never behave. We we know those things when we see them, But just like in any other family, in the household of God, these things have to be established and understood by all. How does that happen? I'm glad you asked. Look to the next part of the test household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, of pillar and buttress of a truth. No none, what Tex says, pillar and buttress of the truth the truth. Every home has standards, every home has a standard. In the household of faith, we have a standards. We don't just have a standard. We are a pillar and buttress of the standard. The standard is the truth of the Living God. I love when Jesus and John seventeen says, sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. Amen, we have the truth, Jude says, contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to these things. Amen, we have the truth. We have the faith that was once for all handed down to these saints. And that is the standard. That's what we're the pillar of. That's what we're the buttress of the truth of God. Notice this, the text does not say that the church is the source of that truth. God and God's word as he has revealed it to us his self revelation, is the source of that truth. And that's a very fine distinction. But it's a distinction that has to be made because here's what's happened historically. Historically there have been movements who have said, for example, in the Church of Rome, and this is why the Reformation happened, folks, the Church of Rome says, we are the standard of truth. And when it comes to the scriptures and us, we win all day, every day, or twice all the sunder. If we say something and the scriptures say something else, guess who's right? We are right. It's not what this text teachers. It's not what this text teachers. The truth about which we speak here is the standard to which church is held, not the standard that the church defines ourselves. It's the standard to which the Church is him. It's the word of God. And if I look up and I'm saying something that disagrees with what's in the words, and just because I have enough people in the church who are agreeing with me, doesn't mean I'm right. Let me give you an example. We have four children for now, you know, and imagine you know, our four children, or you know, one day down the road, our ten children or whatever. They get together and they have a meeting and they decide, you know what Dad didn't kind of I know in the past he has said that this was the standard. There's ten of us. There's only two of them. The way I see it, we got them own voted ten to two. Let's go call them in here. Mom, Dad, the ten of us have something that we'd like to say to you. We understand that. Up until this point the standard has been this. However, we just came to the realization that there are ten of us and only two of you. Therefore, henceforth, now and forevermore, the standard will change to this. If that ever happened, I would from then on be introduced as a man who had ten children. That's what it would look like for the church to redefine truth. We are the household of God. This is God's household. So we represent that truth. We proclaim that truth. We have that truth, we hold that truth, we defend that truth, we live by that truth. But we don't define that truth. That truth defines us. There's a difference between those. We don't define that truth, that truth defines us. We get off on that and we start down the road that we talked about earlier. If you remember, we talked about this idea of propriety. Where do we determine and how do we define what's proper and what's not? What is the standard? Is the standard We exist to satisfy as many individuals as quickly as we possibly can. Therefore, anything that we do that leads us toward that goal is now proper? Is that the standard? No? No, no, no no. That's ten kids saying Dad, we now outvote you. No. The standard is we do God's work, God's way, he will honor his work. Amen, that's the standard. That's what it means to be the pillar and buttress of the truth. We live by that standard. All families have a standard. Perhaps you're sitting here today and you're saying, you know, it's interesting, you know our family really doesn't have a standard, and maybe we need to establish a standard. You're halfway correct. You do need to establish a standard, but you already have a standard. You just need to establish another standard. Did you catch that you have a standard. Not having a standard is actually a standard. Amen, You've established a standard. Now you have to go and establish another standard. You have to acknowledge that the standard that you now have is thereby default and it is not correct, and you have to say, there's a new sheriff in town and a new standard to be established. All of us will live by that standard. That standard comes from the word of God, and over the next few days we'll talk about what that standard looks like. Amen, don't be scared kids not to tomorrow. All families have a standard, and ultimately all families have a founding patriarch. All family something may not be great, but my my family's founding patriarch not great. As a matter of fact. In writing UH, Family Driven Faith, one of the things that that Bridging and I did together was take a long hard look uh at our heritage, at what we've come from a and a long hard look at the dysfunction all around us, tracing it back. And none of this stuff happened by accident, none of them. Last two generations, both sides of our family, us and all of our siblings, our parents and all of their siblings, last two generations, both sides of our families. Twenty five marriage, just twenty two divorces. Here's what's interesting. That didn't just come from nowhere, didn't just happen out a whole claw the generation before, just talking about my side, the generation before, that's my grandparents, my paternal grandparents. A father's mother and father had three children, lived next door to each other, were never married one day. Three kids lived next door to each other, never married one day, not one day. Legacy, None of their children's state married their legacy one of their grandchildren as state married one out of all of their grandchildren state married. Every family has a founding patriarch, and what that family looks like is determined by and large by the legacy left by that founding patriarch, unless there is someone who rises up and intentionally goes in the opposite direction and intentionally runs away from the legacy that was left by that founding patriarch. By the way, now when that happens in a situation like mine, we say, Amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Run in the opposite direction. Here's the bad news that also happens when you have a godly founding patriarch. All of a sudden, somebody stands up and says, I'm not going that way anymore. What about the family of God, our founding patriarch. That leaves a pattern for us as to who we are and what we stand for? Verse sixteen. Great, indeed, we confess is the mystery of Godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory. That is none other than the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Rose of share in the bright and morning star. That is Jesus himself, the Isshua Comasheah. That's who. That is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Messiah, the redeemer of God's elect That's who that is. That is our founding patriarch. That is the one who was slain for us before the foundation of the quart That is the one who establishes for God this people called by his name. That is our founding patriarch. So every family, when it determines what its identity will be, looks to its founding patriarch and does one of two things. It looks to the founding patriarch and says, that is who we are, and we are proud of this. We will walk in this way, or it looks to its founding patriarch and says, I'm tired of that, I'm going in another direction. What do we see? By the way in King's chronicles, all of them will referred to by whether or not they live like their father who David, and he did right in the sight of God like his father David, or he did evil in the sight of God and did not walk in the way of his father David. Either they walk like their founding patriarch or they did not walk like their founding patriarch. That's how a family is defined. Do you walk like your founding patriarch or do you not walk like your founding patriarch. Our founding patriarch is Jesus Christ. And in the Family of God, there is but one question. Do you walk like Jesus or do you not? Is there a family resemblance in you? Because here's the difference between the Family of God and the family from which I come. We don't have too many outsiders claiming to be bacchus. Amen. They look at our family and said, man, Jack, the see right there, I don't want to know. I'm not one of whom no, no, no, no. Matter of fact, we have Backams who claim not to be Backhams, or we don't have the other way around. So we don't have that problem. Church of the Living God, though suffers from that. We tears growing upside by side suffers from individuals who claim to be part of the family when they are not. But here's why many do so. Many do so because they are unaware of the authority, unaware of the propriety, unaware of the state, and unfamiliar with the founding patriarch. So they look around and they see an institution and believe that it's important to be a part of this institution. And because they come to be part of an institution, they miss a family. Do you hear that? There are a lot of people up there, and if you ask them. That's why I don't ask people anymore, are you a Christian? Because most people in this culture answer that question based on the institution. Are you a Christian? What that computes to in their mind is are you remotely related or connected to the institution that we call church. And the answer to that is, of course, I'm a Christian. I go to church several of the year. Of course I'm a Christian. I was raised in the church. Of course I'm a Christian. My parents were Christians and my grandparents were Christians. Of Course I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian all my life. These are institutional answers people. Every one of those answers is an institutional answer. Do you belong to the institution that is known as referred to as church? Yes, yes, I do. I belong to that institution. Why because if it's an institution, there is a completely different standard, and people feel completely comfortable answering that question in the affirmative. But when you use the metaphor that God uses, and you talk about the family, and you ask about a family resemblance, then things change. Are you a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been born again? Have you come to the place where you realize that you were a sinner in desperate need of a savior, that you were hurtling headlong toward hell unless there was an intervention on your behalf? Have you come to that place where you realize that there was nothing that you could do to interpose anything between you and the wrath of God gets to come? And as a result, have you throng yourself on the mercy of Jot Almighty, allowing him to interpose the precious blood of Jesus Christ and wash you and cleanse you and make you whole? And therefore, do you now look in the mirror and see something that looks untattily like Jesus every time you look at what used to be your meager, old, sinful, nasty self. That's the question. No institution can give you that you were born into your fleshy family. You have to be born into this family. Ask you and Elijah were adopted into our earthly family. They're going to have to be adopted into another family as well, not an institution a family. This metaphor is incredibly import important in our day. It's incredibly important in our culture because institutional quasi Christianity is running rampant among us, and there are people who have absolutely zero family resemblance to our founding Patriarch Jesus. They looked nothing like him. They are not under the authority that he is established. They do not understand propriety as he has set it forth, because they do not know the standard that he has left for us to follow, because they have not come face to face and had their lives utterly transformed and come to a saving knowledge of our founding Patriarch Jesus. And they are lost and do not know. They are pitiful and riched and blind and naked. As Revelation three, he says, in the Church of lad to see it, they don't know it. They don't know it. Why because there is a pragmatic, utilitarian institution masquerading as the church, and many are being deceived hear me to that. Don't ask yourself if you belong to an institution. Ask yourself if you see the family resemb which test yourself to see if you be in the faith. Is there any evidence that you are connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, not institutionally. That's not what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you what your mama and your grandmother, but you don't belong to an institution, and therefore somehow your grandfather into the institution. That's not what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you if you were dragged into the church house so often when you were young that you just assumed that you were part of the institution. That's not my quest question to you. I'm not asking you if guilt comes over you at Christmas and Mother's Day, in Easter and a couple other times a year, so you have to go to the church house because you think somehow your mother, who desperately wants church for you, may call you and you have to admit that you didn't go. That's not my question. My question is have you been overcome and overwhelmed and overtaken by a founding patriarch who passionately loves his own shower is his grace spundor, and lotentimes rescues them from the institution in order to make him part of this family. Here's what's interesting. When you look the family, you despise the institution. You despise it why cause it misrepresents a founding patriarchy. We love him so much because it leads people astray, and we love to see the family grow legitimately, so we're no longer comfortable with the institution when we've experienced the adoption into the family. It's an incredible metaphor that God uses. Every family has some sort of authority, Every family has a sense of propriety, every family has a standard, and every family has a founding patriarchy. Over the course of this weekend, we'll look at what that means for this organism called the church, and we'll look at what it means for this for this codependent, symbiotic organism called the family, and we'll see the beauty of that symbiotic relationship, what it looks like when the church sees herself as a family of families, not an institution. Something more. Here's my admonition to you tonight. If you don't come to anything else that we do over the course of these next several days, when you examine yourself and just be honest. Please, I thank you, just be honest. Have you been institutionalized? Is that all you have? Just the institution? And by the way, you know you know now you sit here tonight and desperate need of an authentic, la changing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the institution, you justify your sin. In the organism, you're humiliated by it. In the institution you try to make up for your sin. From the organism, you're washed clean of your sin the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, a righteousness that is alien to yourself because in the institution you look down your nose at others because you do things that separation. But in the organism you'll look down at anyone because you're really lies. But for the grace of God there go Hi. Please don't settle for an institution when you could be adopted. My prayer for you is that God would bring you to the place when you see yourself as He sees you, where you are just about to be crushed under the weight of your own sin, and then realize that Jesus has interposed his precious blood, not so that God could continue and finish crushing you, but so that you could be redeemed and rescue and made whole and free. That's my prayer for you. Would you just consider that tonight. Would you consider institution family? Which one is it? Where's your trust? Will you just look into the mirror mirror spiritually speaking tonight and just answer me a very simple question. When you look at yourself in the spiritual mirror, do you see the reflection of our founding patriarch, Jesus Christ or are you still looking at the one who said the woman made me? Do it? Excuse me? The bad manners. The founding patriarch for all of sinful humanity, by default, is the first app and all of us will mean in the mirror we see his sining reflected in our lives. And it's only through that adoption, through repentance and faith, that we were born again. All things pass away, new things come, and that was the reflection of the second now founding patriarch of the Family of God. My prayer for you is that if you don't come to another thing over the course of our time again you hear that and you just take an honest look at yourself, and if need be, you'd come to that place of repentance and faith. And I pray that God radically, radically say you transform you from the inside out.