“Family, God’s Design” By Brother Andy Giebler October 22th,
2017
That
was a fitting introduction all
the way around, I appreciate that. And, that song? Parrish was nice
enough to
send me a song list, because, usually I pick the song list out. But, he
knew I
was working on a message, so he made sure to send me the song list.
And, this
last song was fitting. Because, it is about the glory of our God. And
we're
talking about family this morning. We're talking about what God says
about
family, but we have to give Him the glory. You part the seas, You move
the
mountains with the words that You say, my song remains, God You reign.
You hold
my life. You know my heart. You call me by name, I live to say, God,
You reign.
His power is above all, and that's why we're here. If it wasn't for
that power,
we could do anything we wanted on Sunday morning and not worry about
it. But,
we're here because there's a mightier power than what dwells in any one
of us.
I count it a privilege to have that heritage. You know it doesn't sound
like
the path that you would expect someone to go through, the things that I
have
done the last twenty-seven years? I don’t know. I don't keep track of
dates and
times very well. But, I know the path that God has taken me on. I've
got the privilege
to be around men and women that love God. And, this church, we're
talking about
family. We have a heritage. We were birthed. Pastor Davis started this
ministry
on the streets, started in hotels and apartments, in a house, whatever
he had,
it didn't matter if it was a glamorous church building, or if it was a
school
auditorium, or just a little office front building. It didn't matter,
it's
about the Gospel, and that's part of our heritage as a family. We’re
Christian
Fellowship Ministries. We're just part of the branch of the body of
Christ;
we're not the entire body of Christ. But, this is where I know God’s
put me.
And, I'm thankful for all the men and the women that I've seen, the
pastors
that I’ve had the privilege to work under, over the years; working with
Pastor
Davis, working with Pastor Paine, some of us have worked with pastor
Bruce
Wilson, some Pastor Dan Lantis, and some other pastors and leaders.
And, if I
went to name them, I wouldn't name them all. But, we carry on the
legacy of
that, knowing that people have gone on before us, and laid down their
lives to
preach the gospel, that we could have this organization. And, I know we
could
pick up and go somewhere else. Every last one of us could make a
choice, what
organization we want to be in. But, if we're doing what God called us
to do,
we've got to stop and ask God, "Where would You have me to be?” I don't
count it lightly that I am in leadership, and I pray that I never do.
But,
another’s got to be in order to things. Whether it's someone picking up
things
off the floor, or someone teaching their kids, or washing windows, or
someone
organizing things, someone that does counseling, someone that's a
listening
ear. In a way, that’s things that a lot of us do, but we're privileged
to have
this organization. And, the things that go on, and, a lot of times, we
ask, how
is it? Why is that sometimes praying is hard? Time to just hit our
knees. We
just had an opportunity where our pastor made it the highlight, across
all of
our fellowships and churches, to get a chunk of property sold.
Something that
should seem pretty simple. And, God has blessed, and God has answered.
We're
not out of the woods on it yet; we need to keep praying, because it's
not over,
but God has a light, and God’s doing something. That isn't even part of
the
message today, that was for free. God's
values, when it comes to
family. Who invented this family thing? We sure didn't. In Genesis,
chapter
two, verse twenty-four, it says: Genesis 2:24-25
Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife:
and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man
and his
wife, and were not ashamed. God
put that together. God formed
that union. And, as we look out across our country, we turn on the
television,
we watch a movie, we pick up a magazine, look at anything the world
wants to
shove in our face, they don't want to acknowledge God; they want to
tell us
everything else. They want to tell us what a family should be, and they
want to
tell us how to raise our kids, or not raise our kids, let them do what
they
want, let them make their own decisions. Yeah, that's part of raising a
kid,
you have to let them make their own decisions, but you've got to give
them what
they need to make that decision. And, that's what we have to be very
careful on
what we take in, what we understand. Do we get into the Word to get our
answers,
or do we just kind of go with, "Oh, yeah, I kind of feel what they're
saying. Yeah, it kind of makes sense.”? No, it's not right. It's not
okay. It's
not okay to go out and do something contrary to the Word of God.
Because the
Bible tells me one thing different than what the world says. No, a lot
of
things different. And, we have to be very staunch on that. Not to be
prudes,
not to be odd, I know what you're talking about, but God set this whole
thing
up. If you look these up, read these off the Scriptures, you can write
them
down. Proverbs, one, eight: Proverbs 1:8
My son, hear the instruction of thy
father,
and forsake not the law of thy mother: Proverbs,
six, twenty: Proverbs 6:20
My
son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy
mother: Proverbs,
fifteen, twenty: Proverbs 15:20
A
wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother. That
was long before any of us
were ever around. All these men that were tired of God, that's what
family’s
about, what God’s family’s about. I tell you what I am privileged to
have
family, both of us, my wife and I raised our daughter. She's married;
she's given
us four grand kids. I tell you that's a blessing. If you have kids, let
them
live long enough to give you grandkids, it's a blessing. Yea, I know,
sometimes
it doesn't feel that way. But I got time to spend with the two older
grandkids
yesterday and it's just fun to watch the different things that they do,
watch
them, how they interact with each other, how they interact alone, just
to watch
life grow, and realize the influence that I have on their lives.
Watching their
grandmother, my wife Sonia, the influence that we have on their lives,
God set
that up. Family. We didn't invent that. Like I said, left to our own
devices,
we would do all kinds of other crazy stuff. Let's
start off with our main text,
which is Ephesians, chapter five, verse twenty-two. We have lots of
ideas in
the world. Some are pretty controversial. How do we maintain this
husband and
wife relationship? And, as I say that, I know not everyone in here is
married.
But, this is something we need to know, because the world is going to
challenge
you on it, whether you are or not. And, it will guide you: if you are
looking
to be married, this will guide you down your path. This will show you
what to
look for in your future spouse, how to look for your future spouse.
What do I
want? I'm just going to dive right into this. This passage can be
fairly
controversial in some circles, but I'm going to read it through, and
then I'm
going to make some comments. Starting in Ephesians, five, twenty-two: Ephesians 5:22-31
Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For
the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church: and
he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is
subject unto
Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave
himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing
of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a
glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be
holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as
their own
bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever
yet
hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the
church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father
and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be
one flesh. So,
the writer here, as he's painting
a picture of it, he's making a correlation of the relationship between
a man
and a woman, and the bride of Christ, the church, and God. The church
and Jesus
Christ. More specifically, it references Christ. And, I want to
reference that
as Christ Jesus, Who walked the earth, and the things that He did.
Because, if
we look at upon the fleshy side of things of, wives submit, that can be
arduous. That could be something that if we look at it wrong, that
could be,
really, that could be a downer on a relationship. But, if we look at it
in the
aspect of the church, and, if we look at the aspect of Christ, Who came
and
died, who came to make a sacrifice. He came to teach, He came to do
many things
for us, when we look at it in that light, we realize that, man and
woman, it's
a relationship that works together. Let's go back to the top and let’s
go
through this one more time. Ephesians 5:22-23
Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For
the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church: and
he is the saviour of the body. That's
a pretty tall order, if you
really think about it. That's not a license, men, husbands. That's not
free
rein to say, "Well, I'm the man.” No, that's an admonishment. That's
telling us how we're supposed to live. That's telling us the example
that's
been set for us, as the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ
is the
head of the church, the effective point is, "…Even as Christ is the
head
of the church.” What does that mean, the head of the church? Head of
the
church, Jesus came to earth to teach. He did a lot of things: He taught
us, He
raised up disciples He raised up apostles. Why did He raise up
apostles? To
start churches. What you see here today, this is why. Because all those
years
ago, He sent them out to go out, and teach, to raise up, to organize,
to bring
up church congregations—and that's what we have today—He fed
multitudes, He
healed the sick, He raised the dead, and that's the example we've got
as God
set forth, as the Scriptures set forth, on our relationship between a
husband
and his wife. Pretty tall order. And, I want to reference in this,
Matthew,
eleven, thirty: Matthew 11:30
For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light. If
I'm doing what I'm supposed to
be doing as a husband, what my wife has to go through shouldn't be
something
that's a drudgery. It should be a wonderful relationship, not because
I'm
anything special, but because I'm following the example of Christ.
Jesus said,
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
That
means it's a relationship; it's not a dictatorship. I've said this a
few times,
and I'll keep beating this drum: In different cultures, different parts
of the
world, different states, north, or south, or whether you're from
California, or
you’re from the east coast, you might have a different idea. I've heard
many
people teaching their tradition and use these Scriptures to back them
up, to say
what my wife is supposed to do, what the husband is supposed to do. But
that's
not what it's about. It's not about culture. You look in a most Muslim
culture
and their wives are conquered. We look at some of them they don't
regard their
wives, or their women as needful. Jesus kind of shattered all that. I'm
going
to read on again in verse twenty-four of Ephesians five: Ephesians 5:24-26
Therefore
as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands
in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the
church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and
cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, And
I want to talk about something
else specific: Forgiveness. I'm going to talk more on that later on.
But Christ
forgave. When I was a sinner, when I was at my dirtiest, when I was at
my most
filthy, God was there. He was there knocking, and He did more than
that; He
blessed me. And, we can't let anything that our spouse might do—In my
worst day,
if my wife wants to, she could condemn me for being bad, and lash out
back at
me, or she can be patient and listen. And, that role goes back and
forth either
way. That's part of the forgiveness, that is part of understanding what
Christ
did for us. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. We've
got a few teens in here.
You're not off the hook either. Most of them are in class, but we'll
look at Ephesians,
chapter six, verse one. Ephesians 6:1-4
Children,
obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy
father and
mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it
may be
well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye
fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture
and
admonition of the Lord. The
world wants to tell us, let
your kids go do what they want. But, there's a balance in there. God
has such a
plan for us to be used of Him. When I look at my grandkids and I know
that God
can use me to mold them, and even though my daughter’s out of the
house, I know
that I can still be used to shape and mold her life. It's not the
same—like,
she's not living under my roof, but still I have that responsibility.
Pastor
Paine preached a message on how we're giving up on people that God
doesn't want
us to give up on. It’s real easy for me, when my daughters out of the
house,
she wants to live the way she wants to live, it doesn't mean I give up
on her.
I know I can't walk into the house and tell her what to do, but if I'm
in her
house, and I see something that's not right; ask God for wisdom on how
to say
something about it. If I use my own wisdom, I'm just going to make a
mess of
things. But, when we do that, God has a power that we tap into; it's
bigger
than me, it's bigger than my wife, it's bigger than anything else. But,
we
still have that power to pull on our families. And I want to delve back
into
this forgiveness one more time. In Matthew chapter six verse twelve: Matthew 6:12-15
And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not
into
temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the
power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their
trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not
men
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And
this is something that I had
to learn through marriage. This applies to lots of relationships, but,
marriage
is the closest intimate relationship we going to have between two
people, two
people living under the same roof. It's not like having a roommate.
It's not
like living with your brother or sister. It’s not like living in a
barracks,
you know, in the Navy. You guys can get away with a lot of things. When
we were
in the barracks, I could say things, and do things, things that we
can't say to
each other. Because, maybe a year from now, we're moving on to another
command.
No, this is for life. And, I'm learning the forgiveness. And, I am
learning how
to react, how to stop and think, “Lord, what words am I going to say
next?” You
know, if someone had a bad day, and I breathe down to them, on their
children. The
spouse, they come in, they've had a bad day; they're saying something
that may
be kind of rude. What do I do next? What would Jesus have done? I know
that's
kind of a cliché, “What would Jesus do?” But, what did Jesus do? How
did Jesus
react when people accused him? He reacted with love. He reacted with
truth. He
reacted with compassion. And, that's the point that we have to get to.
We can
take this from our natural families, even our church families. How do
we react
to people? And sometimes I want to extract my pound of flesh. Someone
has wronged
me, someone has said something that I didn’t like, and they probably
shouldn't
have. So, what is my next step? I forgive them. I forgive them, and I
stop and
realize that, if I react in the same way that they do, I'm just feeding
it.
It's a chain reaction. It's like putting gasoline on a fire. And, I've
seen
people here do it. I've seen my brothers and sisters do it. And, I've
seen them
do it when I was in the wrong. When I've said something that I knew
wasn't right,
because, I knew, as soon as it came out of my mouth, because I saw the
reaction
on their face, I knew I had said something that was way out of line,
but they
didn't snap back at me, no, they chose their words properly. And,
that's how we
affect people, and that's part of family, too. Whether that's with our
kids, even
kids to our parents; we have a bad day. Jo-Jo, did your dad ever have a
bad
day? I know he's having fun, because they are expecting a child very
soon, plus
different shifts of work. That's just part of being in the flesh. But,
you, you
sons and daughters, when your parents have a bad day, you may think
it's your
right, “They should know better. They can't talk to me like that.”
Okay, and
I've seen my granddaughters do this, and they don't even know what
they're
doing. Sometimes, I just say something kind of cross and it just goes
over
their head. And, as I realized what I said, I realized they didn't even
pay any
attention; they just went on about whatever it was that we were doing,
in the
very childlike state of their heart, it’s just, gone, and I'm like,
“Wow.” Then,
I knew as soon as I said it, I should have made them mad, but it
didn't. And,
that’s the innocence we need to have. And
I'm going to go back into the church
family one more time. So, what makes us family? What makes us brothers
and
sisters? We have something special. We talk about our natural family.
Sometimes
we could call this our unnatural family. Because, it is not natural in
the
flesh. You know, we were born into our families, not by choice. But we
have
something bigger we have another family to be born into, to be adopted
into, grafted
into. In Romans, it talks about the wild olive branch being grafted in
(Romans 11:17-20).
And I would like to read from Romans, eight, eleven: Romans 8:11-18
But
if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his
Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors,
not to
the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the
flesh, ye
shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye
shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the
sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again to
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba,
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are
the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,
and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified
together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We
have a family name. When we
take on His name, we're baptized into Christ, we take on that family
name, and that’s
a spiritual birth. And, that's something, we have a spiritual bond that
goes
beyond our fleshly bonds. It's a spiritual bond, because my mom, my
dad, my
brothers, sisters, whoever, my aunts, my uncles, they're my flesh and
blood. I
love them. But, they're all going to make their own choices on who they
serve,
how they serve, what they do. It's still a family bond. But, we've made
a
choice in here. We've made a choice in here that transcends all of that
because
I know that we have the same interests. Yeah, we have family. You've
heard
brothers talk about how they fight like cats and dogs but, let someone
from the
outside pick on one of them, it's on. You know? If somebody messed with
my
sister, forget about it. Somebody mess with me, then you better watch
out for
my sister; she might jump in, too. My sister’s eleven months younger
than me.
And, she was always mad at me because she could never get a date in
high
school. She was the manager of our wrestling team, and I think we got
her a
shirt that said, "Gieb’s little sister.” Yes, she was pretty much
branded,
and she still hasn't let me live that down. But, I also know that I've
got a
family here, my family here that’s got my back, my family here that,
yeah, we have
differences, we come from different backgrounds. We come from different
places
in life. We've got people that are retired military, active military,
people
that are young, people that are old, people that are in all walks of
life, but
I know that we have this one bond in common, we have this Spirit in
common. And,
I would offer that up today, for anyone that doesn’t know that, for
anyone that
doesn't have that bond. I want to make sure that we know that we can do
this.
We have a path. The Bible says that we need to be baptized in His name,
we take
on Christ and that's something that we do here. We've talked to
different
people about it. We don't have a tank, here, yet. I am looking forward
to that
day. But, you know what? I don't care if we have to go to an apartment
basement,
I don't care if we have to go down to the lake, I don't care what it
is. A tank
in an apartment building is what we use right at the moment, and I'm
proud to
have it. I'm excited about ministry. I'm excited to be part of this
group. And,
I know this has been short and I'm going to ask Parrish to come back up
here in
a second, but it's about our family. It's about our natural families,
because, without
our natural families in here, we don't grow, we leave, we go back home
with our
natural families. And, we come together as part of this not so natural
family.
We bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is Christ. We live in the
likeness of His
sacrifice for us. Amen.
Thank you.
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