Making Families Christ Centered Followers

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The family is the first institution God created before the government and the church. He Himself builds the family. In fact, “[u]nless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1a, ESV) The command to honor our father and mother “is the first commandment with a promise” (Ephesians 6:2)

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God takes the family so seriously that, for example, He even declared in Leviticus 20:9, “For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.” Though the sentence of death penalty to disobedient children applies to Israel only and not to us, the spirit or intent of the law applies to us also. According to Walter Kaiser, an Old Testament scholar and author of “Hard Sayings of the Old Testament, “the family order was so sacred to the fabric of society… What disrupted one family in the community attacked the whole community.” Remember that it takes a village to raise a child. It’s not just a modern thing. It goes way back to Biblical times. Sin (whether to God or to people) is never personal. It affects the community (immediate context would be the family). 

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Thus, the strength of our church as well as the society as a whole depend upon the strength of the family. So, when our Lord commanded us to “make disciples of all nation” (Matthew 28:19a), we are to start with families in the nation where we are right now and reach out to the families in other nations as well. That’s why we are to reach families as a church. In his “Fulfilled Family,” John MacArthur wrote, “If we don’t preserve the family, society will crumble. The family is the basic building block of society. When it goes, everything goes.” (Source: Grace To You) 
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As we celebrate our 19th anniversary here in Filinvest Community Christian Fellowship, we declare that we will focus more on reaching families. Our theme, “Making Families Christ Centered Followers,” is not just a catchy tagline but, much more, a commitment we make as a church. It defines how we will obey the Great Commission of the Lord together.

Brethren, let’s make families Christ centered followers.

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