We set boundaries to protect what is important in our lives and avoid the stress that comes from collapsed boundaries and enmeshment. Children feel secure when they have boundaries. Our goal is to have healthy boundaries. Boundaries keep the bad things out and the good things in. Lori Radun said “Boundaries are essential to helping us identify who we are, what's important to us and how we want to live our lives. Without them, other people will decide these things for us.” The challenge is the tension between being a collective unit with common values whilst still trying to celebrate differentiation and individuality. In this message I highlight different types of boundaries to be set and respected in the family setting. Our goal is to develop healthy boundaries as opposed to collapsed ones or rigid ones.

When people say they have a support structure, what type of support are they talking about? What makes them keep going back to it? Often people protest when they feel like no one is there for them and they feel lonely and abandoned. Sadly, many of them are not able to clearly articulate what they want in terms of support at a behavioural level. In this message I will highlight and unpack the dynamics around three types of support that are crucial in the family context. I will also illustrate the biblical basis for these dimensions of a supporting environment. As we examine these, reflect on your need for them and also assess yourself with regards to the degree to which you are currently practising them.

This message is a message for mothers. For natural mothers, spiritual mothers, adoptive mothers, step-mothers, single mothers, working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, grandmothers, mothers of nations, mothers of entities, any type of mother. It is a message, in fact, for single women and girls too. And more than this, it is a message for men and boys. It’s a message that I hope will encourage you all to see the gift in “woman”. It is a challenge set out before us all to call this woman forth and allow her to function in all that God created her to be.

1 Tim 3:4-5 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full a respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)

This powerful scripture highlights some of the qualifications of an overseer of a church. In addition to this it shows us what we need to pay attention to. If how I manage my family life is part of the criteria used in my spiritual promotion, then I want to pay close attention to it. In this series we are going to share some practical virtues that will help to boost your family life. I have called these, family life boosters.

The Authority of the Bible | Shaun Roberts by Go Church SA

I Choose Jesus | Stewart Bishop by Go Church SA

Often when we talk about habits we tend to focus on so called bad habits. These bad habits are disempowering. Good habits are empowering. A lot of what we talk about is how to break bad habits but ultimately bad habits need to be displaced with good ones. Successful people have habits that average people don’t have. Healthy and fit people have habits that unhealthy unfit people don’t have. When we make disciples we are teaching people to obey the Word and in many ways to displace bad habits with good ones.

People tend to be negative about rules but a lot of good habits are empowering rules (not debilitating rules) that we choose to live by. Habit formation tends to be slow and it requires discipline. Discipline is following through on what you have pre-decided is best for you to do despite your current emotional state. But once the habit is formed it is almost automatic.

So this message focuses on how to develop empowering habits.

As we talk about giving examine your heart and ask yourself, “What is thwarting my generosity?” Conduct that generosity audit on yourself. Is it fear of lack, past abuse, a judgmental mindset or just indecisiveness? What stops you from giving? What stops you from giving in the right manner?

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1Th 5:16-18, NKJV)

• One of God’s universal wills for all of us is to give thanks in everything. Not for everything, but in everything. It is a key He has given us. Do you think He wants us to do it for Him? Do you think the perfect God needs our thanks? Or do you think we need to give thanks for our own benefit?

Rising to new dimensions in Christ | Vimbai Chariga by Go Church SA