Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC) Jul 6, 2025 ========== July 6 - These Words Changed My Life Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at [email protected]. We glorify God by making disciples of all nations. ========== Connection Card https://istrouma.org/myinfo The Church As Family Mark 3:31-35 (CSB) Mark 3:31-35 (CSB) 31 His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him and told him, "Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you." 33 He replied to them, "Who are my mother and my brothers? " 34 Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said,"Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." I. We Are Members of God's Family Through His Obedient Son Ephesians 1:3-6 (CSB) Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. Dietrich Bonhoeffer — "Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community or more or less than this…Without Christ we should not know God, we could not call upon him, nor come to him. But without Christ we also would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego." II. As Members of God's Family We Have a New Father and Belong to a New Household A New Family Salvation is a community creating event Matthew 13:54-55 (CSB) "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? 55 Isn't this the carpenter's son? A New Father Displays the Authority of God has over His Church Matthew 23:8-9 (CSB) "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven." A New Father Displays the Care of God for his People Matthew 7:10-11 (CSB) "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him." III. This Family Language Establishes How We Should Relate to One Another in the Church Acts 9:13-17 (CSB) 13 "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." 15 But the Lord said to him,"Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." 17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." How We Relate as Family 1. Commitment 2. Conflict 3. Care 4. Cost IV. The Church is a Real Family Not a Perfect One Trevin Wax — "It's paradoxical but true. You can only truly benefit from the community of faith in its healthiest expressions when you don't expect something from the church that God alone can give. The church doesn't solve loneliness. Only God does that. Yes, often he does that through his people. But the way he accomplishes this work is by putting you through the difficult, sanctifying process of loving people who don't seem to love you back and remaining fiercely committed to people who may be a source of heartbreak in your life. This is the hard part of seeing the church as family: bearing with your siblings through thick and thin, recognizing Jesus in them but also realizing they're not Jesus. That's the only way we can live and love as the family of God, without idealistic expectations crushing our spirits."