L.I.F.E. WITH GOD #3—FAMILY OF GOD

FAMILY OF GOD

Our series L.I.F.E.:

1/6-7: Loved by God
1/13-14: Image of God
1/20-21: Family of God
1/27-28: Eternity with God 

1. God’s plan for the family.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  Genesis 1:28 ESV

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  Genesis 2:15-17 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  Genesis 2:18 ESV

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Genesis 2:21-22 ESV

Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 
Genesis 2:23 ESV

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.  Genesis 2:24-25 ESV

2. The enemy’s attack on the family.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  Genesis 3:1 ESV

“Did God actually say…” God created the heavens and earth?
“Did God actually say…” Man is created in the image of God?
“Did God actually say…” God created males and females?
“Did God actually say…” God blessed humans to be fruitful and multiply?
“Did God actually say…” God created the first man out of dust?
“Did God actually say…” The man has a job to work and to keep?
“Did God actually say…” The man has responsibility to obey commands?
“Did God actually say…” It was not good for the man to be alone?
“Did God actually say…” Woman was created to be a helper fit for man?
“Did God actually say…” God created the first woman from man’s rib?
“Did God actually say…” A man shall leave his father and mother?
“Did God actually say…” A man shall hold fast to his wife?
“Did God actually say…” A man and wife shall become one flesh?
“Did God actually say…” God’s plan created nakedness with no shame?

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.  Romans 5:12 ESV

3. God’s rescue of our broken families.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Ephesians 2:13-16 ESV

4. God’s blessing for the new family of God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  Ephesians 1:3-4a ESV

In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  Ephesians 1:4b-6 ESV

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  Ephesians 1:7-10 ESV

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV

The best L.I.F.E. has the best family, which is the family of God!