Sermon Brief: This is a Good Time for Family!

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Series: GOOD TIMES

Passage: 1 Peter 1:17-25

ONE GREAT TRUTH: In spite of the difficulties of our times, we can celebrate the principle of “family” within our homes and our churches – we all belong!

In the late 1970’s inflation was at an all-time high. Interest rates were up along with unemployment. But a quarter of America’s TV watchers tuned in each week to check out the show Good Times. It revolved around an African-America family of five struggling to survive in an inner city high-rise project in Chicago. In spite of the Father’s bouncing from odd job to odd job to make ends meet, the family managed to laugh and find happiness together because they were… together, so the world tuned in.

The holidays are a mixture of good times and hard times. We’re surrounded with news that makes us tremble, yet in the midst of this, there’s some really good news to be celebrated. God gave the world His Son, Jesus, who grew up to die for our sins and rise again. And there are also some great principles to celebrate during this Christmas season. We’re going to focus on four of them: family, giving, hope, and receiving. Today we’re going to talk about how these are good times for family.

This is a season when families gather together to celebrate togetherness. We will sit down at various meals and partake of God’s blessings. We’ll exchange gifts of love and words of encouragement and we’ll arrange our plans so that we can be with people who are very important to us because family matters. The great truth of God’s Word is that even if we don’t have family with which to gather this holiday season, God wants to include us in His family through a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus. And God also wants each of us to be a part of a local church family as well, where we can receive encouragement and accountability, and where we can serve His Kingdom along our spiritual brothers and sisters.

Peter talks about how the family of God came into being – the Lamb of God spilled His precious and priceless blood so that we could be “redeemed,” or literally “purchased back” from sin and its penalty. Peter goes on to mention three aspects of family life that should be true for every household, but are even more pertinent to the church family to which we belong.

THREE FAMILY VALUES TO CELEBRATE THIS CHRISTMAS…

We Believe Together…

In verse 21, Peter says that by the enabling of God, we believe together that God raised Jesus from the dead, so that our faith and hope might be placed in Him. My church family is a place where my faith and hope are encouraged. We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile toward what we affirm to be eternally true, yet we can run to the shelter of our church family for affirmation of things that are absolutely trustworthy.

The New Testament speaks of the necessity to have a common faith – a set of teachings to which we agree that become the basis of being a church. And baptism is our entrance into this family of faith – it’s how we publicly identify ourselves with the common belief that Jesus died to be our Savior and rose again.

I need my church family because I need a group of people who will love Jesus and His truth with me.

We Behave Together in Holiness…

Another family value to celebrate during these times is the idea of mutual accountability. Peter says that we have obeyed the truth together, resulting in a sincere love for each other (verse 22). We have purified our souls together through obedience. These are tough times in the sense that all around us are a variety of temptations. We live in a self-centered, consumeristic, and sinful culture that is deteriorating all the time. I need a place where I’m encouraged to rise above it all and live a holy life.

Don’t misunderstand, our commitment to holy living doesn’t make us better than anybody – it just demonstrates that we’re all helpless sinners, depending together on the enabling power of God to cleanse and purify us. We need a mutual sharpening and accounability and encouragement to live holy lives. We ought to find that at home, and we certainly ought to find that within our church families.

We Belong Together for Eternity…

In verse 23, Peter says that we are born again into this family by the power of an eternally incorruptible seed called the Word of God. God’s Word, His truth, brings about the conviction and convincing required to bring us to faith in Christ. As a result, we’re born again into God’s family where we belong together for all of eternity.

He presses home the eternal nature of our rebirth by emphasizing that the Word of God, which produces this miraculous life change, is eternal in nature, never failing and never fading away. The Word of God is forever, and therefore its promises to us are forever, so we will definitely live eternally as Gods’ forever family.

My family is very special to me – my wife and daughter mean more to me than anybody on the planet. But it is my brothers and sisters in Christ (which thankfully includes my wife and daughter) with whom I will spend the next ten thousand years as a brief introduction to eternity together.

And the best news of all? You belong! God wants you. He sent His Son to die for the entire world and He knows your heart and your life in particular and He wants you to be a part of His forever family. You’ve sinned and wandered away, but He is reaching out to you right now inviting you to come home to Him! Will you be born again? He wants to adopt you and love on you for eternity – will you accept Jesus as your Savior and God as your forever Father?