Family Fight Round 4: Week #1

Introduction:  Today we start our series:  Family Fight

This is round 4 for us…over the next several weeks I’m going to share some very practical things for the Family…not as an expert but as one learner to another learner…

I love what Mike Tyson said in his prime…”Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth…”  

This statement is so true when it comes to Family…so we need to learn how to fight for our family or your spend your life fighting with your family…

Transition:  A few months back one of your Gen. Z’ers said Pastor you look “Drip”  I had zero idea of what Drip was…I thought I knew but I was about to get an education…to look “Drip” is a term for a cool or sexy trend of style…Now they left the sexy out when defining the word to me…but I went and looked the word up in Gen. Z slang…

Another slang word for Gen. Z is – Fam…which you’d think means family and it does…but not in the definition to which we are all familiar with Family…

Fam is it can be used to describe your friends or the way Millennials use “bro”

So as we look at Family fight…you have to grasp the idea…if you don’t control the language in your family…you may be talking about two different things…

HOW MANY ARE READY FOR FAMILY FIGHT ROUND 4

Luke 9:58

 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

ESV

  1. Dirt and Sticks
    1. Headship
      1. I am very familiar with this verse…it is one of my favorite Kingdom verses that Jesus speaks of…
      2. It isn’t saying Jesus is homeless…he is looking for a place to lay his headship…His authority…a Place he can share his thoughts with humanity…the place you are free to be you…
        1. Not your position
        2. Not your title
        3. Not your job
        4. Not even who others think you are…
      3. Home is not where the heart is…
        1. Home is where your mind can find some rest…
        2. home is where you can lay your head down and find some peace of mind…
        3. If rest and peace can be found at home…then you’re heart will be there…if it can’t…you’re heart will gravitate to where Peace and Rest can be found…

Transition:  But my assignment is not to find you a place to have Peace of Mind (Boston) or Rest…but to give you tool needed to make your house that Place….

    1. Dirt and Sticks
      1. Foxes have holes, birds have nests…
      2. I started thinking about this…
        1. Every year I have these Purple Martins that come and nest around my house…to be honest they are a pain…and I’m going to find a solution for them next year…
        2. But I watch as they build their nests…
          1. Using broken sticks and cut grass…using mud even to hold it together…
        3. I thin about the fox who digs into the dirt…to establish a home for the fox and its young….
      3. If Foxes can get past the dirt to build a home and birds can use broken sticks to build a home…why can’t we get past our dirt and build our homes with broken people, broken experiences, broken pasts…
      4. And use all that broken stuff to build…use all the dirt to build…
    2. Listen as I watch these Martins…
      1. It’s not the broken sticks and the mud…those have now become building materials…
      2. All of that is for the building of the baby birds, the baby foxes…
      3. Listen you have to use it all to build the child…
        1. I know the child has issues
        2. I know the husband or wife has issues…
        3. But you’ve got to build the child, build the wife and build the husband….
      4. You can’t build a nest if you don’t learn how to use broken kids, broken husbands and broken wives…
    3. Problem is we want prefabbed houses
      1. Prefab homes
      2. Prefab husbands
      3. Prefab wives
      4. Prefab kids…

Transition:  We are looking for Perfect building materials, we are looking for perfect birds, foxes and people…but Jesus is teaching us…He reside and build his Family with those who know how to take Broken and dirty things…and use as building materials instead of letting it destroy you…

  1. Taking Care of the Family

1 Tim 5:8

8 But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. 

KJV

1 Tim 5:8

8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

ESV

    1. Look at the responsibility laid upon us as people of Faith…
      1. I’m going to get to the three areas today where we need to Provide…
      2. But first look at the severity of those who don’t…
        1. You have denied the Faith and worse than an unbeliever (Infidel)
    2. We got people who want ministry…yet won’t or don’t take care of their family…the bible says “your faith has been denied”
      1. We have people who run around and call themselves Pastor so in so…apostle so in so…Prophetess so in so…and their family is a wreck…
    3. The first Place our Faith is demonstrated is in my Home…
      1. In my wife and in my kids…
      2. When I talk to ministers…I look at their wives, I visit and connect with their wives…
      3. Their wives tell me who they are…not their resume…
      4. I look at businessmen…I look at his family…not the picture on the desk…that is staged, like so many other things in their lives…I want to meet them and talk with them…
    4. When I came out here to interview…one of the folks on the Pulpit committee at lunch took my boys aside at the burger place and started just talking to them.  Having conversation…we had just finished 3 hours of interviewing…but what I knew was…the real interview just started when he started visiting with my sons…
    5. Unbeliever / Infidel
      1. Paul tells Timothy…if you don’t provide for your family…you are worse than an unbeliever…but KJV uses the Word Infidel…which is a more appropriate word…
      2. It doesn’t simply mean you stopped believing aspects of the Faith…it means you completely reject the Offer that Faith Provides…that Believing Provides…
      3. Infidel is where we get the Word Infidelity
        1. It is the throwing away of all that was offered as an Opportunity…
        2. It is the Rejection of what was and could be…
        3. So, to find healing you’ve got to be healed of Rejection…
        4. You’ve got to take care of the House…

Transition:  Let’s look at three things and areas…we will need to work on this morning if we are going to build the House…

  1. Support
    1. I know care who you are…we all need some support…some help…some assistance…
    2. If I had time I’d talk about David and the Places he was faithful before he ever became King…
      1. We want a throne…but can’t be faithful with practical things…
    3. You Need Economic Support
      1. To build a Home…you’ve got to have finances…
      2. You have to learn to manage finances…
      3. Listen to me…Tithing doesn’t fix bad choices and poor management…
        1. Yes, you should tithe…but then don’t be stupid with the remaining 90%…
        2. The whole 100% is a stewardship, management issue…
      4. You can’t pray away bad management and poor stewardship….
      5. I was talking to Jonna several years ago as we were looking at Life Insurance…and she said I don’t want to think about it…I don’t want to think about you dying…
        1. I know you don’t…but after the mashed potatoes and fried chicken are gone at the end of my funeral…
        2. You’ll be glad we talked about it and found a solution…
      6. See that is why we offer Free To Give here at the church each year…
        1. I want you to be able to build a house…
        2. To build your legacy
        3. Not just be Free to Give to the Church
          1. But free to give to your kids
          2. To your grandchildren 
          3. To whatever you want to….
      7. vii.Listen you can’t just rebuke the devil…you’re going to have to be Free from Amazon…
    4. Social Support
      1. We pray and tell God we’re ready for the next level…but if your family ready? 
        1. You can’t take Old Support into New Levels…
        2. You can’t just have the Vision and Dream…you’ve got to have the Support….
        3. It’s about everything Connected to You…
      2. The Higher You Go the Smaller Your Circle
        1. Also, the more intentional your circle…
        2. Show me your 5 Closest friends and I’ll show you your values and your future…
      3. When you’re building your house, you better be paying attention to who your kids and spouse are spending time with…

Transition:  Every pro athlete has a Coach…Tiger Woods has a Golf Swing Coach…you need support…a coach so to speak

    1. Spiritual Support
      1. I want you to take a moment and look around this room…just look down your row…
      2. Every person you just looked at has cracks in them somewhere…
        1. I know they look good this morning…
        2. They look like they got it all together and I’m not saying they don’t…they just have cracks…
      3. Every family is dysfunctional in some way…
        1. So don’t compare your family, your marriage, your kids with others…
        2. You just don’t see their cracks…
      4. In our Culture today we have this saying….
        1. Keep It Real…
          1. Where people just speak whatever is on their minds and then say…I’m just keepin it real
          2. Where they are true to their own values, their own opinions, their own voice and though… at the expense of other people’s values…
        2. Listen to me…sometimes you don’t need to keep it real…you need to keep it running so God can fix it…so God has time to take the broken sticks and the mud and make a Home out of It…and if you Keep It Real you’ll destroy what God is trying to do…

Transition:  “Call unto me all you are weak and heavy burdened and I will give your rest…casting all your cares upon me for I care for you…” 

  1. Closing

John 5:1-9

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews 

this feast is potentially the feast of Tabernacles…which was a time when families remembered How God brought them out of Egypt and then How God provided for those families…the families would end the feast by going to Celebrate in Jerusalem

, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda,* having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.*   5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity (the Loss of Strength…caused by a disease or malady) thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

NKJV

    1. The Only thing I want to pull out of this text this morning to close with is the mans Age…
      1. 38 years old…
      2. Throughout the bible…we have differing definitions of a generation…and one of those defining length of a Generation is the Number 40….
      3. The scripture says…the man is 38…scripture says…they are at a feast time…where families are gathered…but I have a member of one family that has an infirmity (a disease or malady that has caused him to lose his ability to progress…)
      4. Here me…we as a Nation as a Church, as Families are on the verge of losing a Generation if We Don’t Learn to Fight For Our Families and Bring Jesus into the Picture…
    2. Death Beds
      1. I’ve had the Privilege of being at many death beds of those who are about to leave this world and enter into eternity…and on each occasion they want to know two things:
        1. Their standing with God
        2. Their standing with Family
    3. My question today is where do you stand with both…? 

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