In this session, we want to talk about spiritual families and how that the body of  Christ really does fit together, and how it all works together. I mentioned in past  sessions about my love for different denominations in the body of Christ, and  you have to remember that really, almost every denomination, if not everyone, at one time, was a new movement. It was some started back in the Reformation,  you know, Martin Luther, and of course, the Lutherans and and on and on. And  so they started someplace. And of course, these movements mature and get to  the place where you are today. And with that commerce maturity, and  sometimes with that can come from stagnation. And many my denominational  leadership friends would would tell me that. So they start as movements. But we have to understand is that it all starts. It's all family, it's all spiritual. But in the Old Testament, we find that there were the 12 tribes of Israel, and yet there were  many clans in each tribe, and there were many families in each clan, and that  get down to the individual person. Remember, when they looking for Achan, they found found in the book of Joshua. They went to, you know, the tribes, is this  tribe, and then they went to this clan and this family, and they found him. And so  we need to understand how the body of Christ works together. Now the  important thing is this, we need many different kinds of denominations. We need many kinds of church structures. That's why we believe so much in the  importance of the house church, but right alongside the Community Church and  right alongside the mega church. And as I had mentioned, I I have many friends  who are Community Church leaders, or who are even some mega church  leaders who say we see the need for house churches. We want to help them  plant house churches and they can. We'll oversee them and help them do that.  Let's just give freedom to the body of Christ to be all that they should be. It's not  we should never be threatened by a new church that's going to be started. You  see, I don't believe there should ever be a church split, because a church split is often done because of control on one side of the fence or both sides of the  fence, either somebody who's not willing to wait for the right timing, and they  move too fast, they split a church, they start something new, or this, leaders  who've been kind of stuck in a mother controlling and not willing to release. And  then also, we have the same kinds of splits and problems. But there needs to be so many multiplications. We need to see churches multiply. So that's why  everything with life will multiply. Trees, multiply animals, multiply, people, multiply plants multiply. It's who God is, Be fruitful and multiply. Replenish the earth. But  we must understand how these families really work, any denominational families and these new families, because we're all created for connection. People say,  Well, I'm going to be an independent house church or an independent church. I  don't think we can be independent in the kingdom of God. We're dependent on  the Holy Spirit. We're dependent on the Word of God, and we dependent on one another. Now here's the key. How does someone know where they connect?  Where do they fit? Well, let me read to you. You join me, please in I Corinthians 

12:18. Here's how Paul says it. In fact, God has arranged the parts in the body,  every one of them, just as He wanted them to be so. God's the one who's  arranging the parts in the body the new churches. And one of the things that  when I was a young pastor, God showed me I need to do is begin to love on  other pastors in the area. And I and another pastor of a significant church, and I  sat down for breakfast one day, we said, Well, let's find a way we can work  together in our county, we want to see revival come. There's not one church or  one ministry that brings revival. It's us together, staying together. God loves  unity. He commands blessing on unity, and we know that from Psalms 133 but  see God's one who places people in the body as He wills. And now that works  two ways. Number one, individual people are called to connect in a local church  as their led by the Holy Spirit, to connect. That's individually. But then churches  need to connect with other churches, if I may use the term tribe. There were 12  tribes in Israel. There should be many denominations. There should be many  church movements. There should be older church movements and newer  church movements all working together, because people are all different, and  there's a different type of church structure or denomination or even theological  background that may help one person, that may not help someone else. Now,  when it comes to house churches, they are all so different. As soon as we try to  put them all to one kind of house church, it probably isn't working. As I said  before, most house churches have food that is kind of a staple, but if they don't,  it's okay, but they're all different. Some are house church for older folks, some  are younger folks. Some are mission. More mission minded than others, some  house churches. Maybe we come out of a certain denomination. People have an affinity to certain things in Scripture, where they would grow together. The key is  that we listen to God and allow God to place us in his body as He wills as he  desires. Now let me show you a scripture that really helped. Me to understand  all this. And you can find this scripture in I Peter 2. And the scripture says, As  you come to him, the living stone, rejected by man, but chosen by God, and  precious to him. You also, as living stones are being built into a spiritual house  to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, to Jesus,  Christ. Now, what does that mean? Let's see for a moment. He says he is a  living stone. That's Christ. They says were also living stones when we come to  Christ. So anybody walking down the street of your village, of your town, of your  city, or of your state, of your nation right now. Without Christ, they are walking  but they are walking dead stones. When we come to Christ, Jesus changed our  life. Let's say, for example, here's all these stones, but these stones are lifeless.  Without Christ, when Christ comes into our lives, we come alive. Then the Bible  says, What does God do? He builds us together. There's not any one stone that  should be alone. We are built together into a spiritual house. Now, what is the  mortar that holds us together? It's the mortar of relationship. We're relationship  with God. We're relationship with one another. It's vertical relationship. It's 

horizontal relationship. So we are living stones being built together into a  spiritual house. So a house church or a community church or a mega church is  called by God to be filled with living stones, but built together into a spiritual  house. Now the reason I love house church is because we can really know  everyone you know for many years, even when I pastor, people are coming to  our local churches. I speak to, you know, 1000 plus people at a service, and  what would happen people sit there and see the back of somebody's head. But I knew they had relationship in the house to house ministry. I knew that they were  connected to other believers, and when they were not, guess what happened,  that the devil could really knock them off course. But we stand together against  the powers of darkness. We resist the devil and he please, according to James  4:7-8 however, if we can do that together, there is power in agreement. So living  stones being built the other into a spiritual house. That's why I believe so much  in house church. I've said this many times. I've said it to our churches, places  I've preached. Said, you know, we say we're a local church here with 100  people, or 500 people, 1000 or more. We say we're church family, but we're  really not. We are a weekly reunion. Now I understand reunions. My father grew  up in a family of 14. There were 12 who were living and get all their families and  families together. You had all these people. I didn't know most of them. You  know my wife's family, my wife's mother's family. She grew up in a family of 19.  They grow them really big in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 19, when they all  came together, I knew a few people. It was a reunion, weekly reunion. And you  know what happened? We'd often hang out with the people we really knew  anyway, people in our family, so that, if you have a ministry, there's many people ask God to show your way. It can be broken down, where people can be in  relationship with one another. House church is a perfect way to do that, and you  house churches if they get too big, that's what we should encourage, starting  more house church. Now people say this to me, how large should a house  church be? Well, Jesus had 12 disciples, or 13 of them, Moses, we just read in  the last session, last few sessions, Moses had 10, groups of 10s, 50s, you  know, and and hundreds and 1000s, and, but here's what I found. It's not so  much the amount of people, the number you don't multiply, you don't send  people out to start a new house church until there are leadership. Leadership  has been proven, leadership has been trained, and leadership is prepared to  send them out. So I know of house churches of 85 people. I know of community  churches have a big building. Have 20 people. It doesn't make sense, does it,  but if that's what God's called them to do, that's what they should do. What I love about house church is built by relationship. These relationships, they work  together, and you can only see this here, living stone, can only have so many  other relationships close to it, even this one is one relationship away. So what  happens is relationship with these four people, you can be in relationship with a  few. Let's say these represent families. Even you can with a few, but you can't 

with many, and that's why we need to continue saying, Lord, how do we train  leaders for the next generation? How do we train leaders inside another house  church and another house church and another house church, even though the  new house church might look a bit different than our house church now, given  these here living stones, they all look pretty much alike. They really do, but in  reality, in the body. Christ, these people all do look different, and every house  church will look different. The vision for your house church will be different than  the vision for somebody else's house church. And that is a good thing, as long  as we're loving Jesus, loving the scriptures, and being the spiritual fathers and  mothers that our God has called us to be. I've often said, you know, it's  interesting in the military, you know, whichever country you're from, some of our  countries have military. Others do not. Our country. Here in the United States of  America, we have the military, broke it up into many different areas. We have  the Marines. We have the army. We had a navy, Navy with the Air Force Special  offering. Go on and on and on. And you know, each of those learn how to work  together within their own sphere of influence in a powerful way. Now they're not  all the same, but we need all of them to keep our country secure, and that's the  same thing in any country of the world. So all I'm saying is there's room for  diversity, and what this looks like. That's what we need. Many different  denominations, many different spiritual families, many different kinds of house  churches, many different kinds of churches. But let's be clear, what has God  called us to walk in? What is called us to do? Who is he called us to be? And we only get that as we pray, and then we are united together. The scripture says in  Galatians 3:26-28 says this, you're all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you all one  in Jesus Christ. So we are all one in him, even though we all may be very, very  different. But God is the God of spiritual families. You know, when Gideon was  called by God to deliver the people, the people of God, the people of Israel. His  response was, Lord in Judges 6, my clan is the weakest, and don't call me, you  know I. He said, I can't do this, because God said to him. He said, Go to  strength. You have save Israel out of Midian's hand, I'm sending you. And he  said, Who me? How could you ever call me? And that's the way many people  feel when God calls them to start a house church. You might say, I could never  do that. How in the world could I ever lead a house or the hand of God is all in  your ways, you're really because a little bit of insecurity is good, because our  security then comes from trusting God and trusting him. You know, Moses said, I can't lead the children of Israel. He said, I can't speak. I need Aaron. I can't  speak very well. God said, I've called you. Jeremiah, and Jeremiah was called to be the Prophet his mother's womb. He said, I'm too young. But God said, I've  called you. And Gideon said, God told him, you're called to lead the children of  Israel, and you're called to defeat the Midianites. He said, How could God ever  use me? Nobody in my family every did, I understand that, because nobody in 

my family that I know of back generations was ever involved in church  leadership. But I knew God had called me, and it wasn't what happened in the  past, is what's happening now, what's happening in me and what's happening in  you, is God calling you to lead a house church? Is he calling you to love the rest  of the body of Christ? Is he calling you to be a spiritual father, spiritual mother?  Have a spiritual family and expect that the house church you lead will look  different than any other house church, or different any other any other House  Fellowship, and we have found those great blessing come when we simply get  free in our own skin, so to speak, to be who God called us to be. There's just  grateful film and blessing that comes to that stop trying to be somebody else.  We can learn from others. I've learned from the best. I mean, I've gone to Korea. I learned from Dr Cho. Years ago, we had Dr Cho come and help us with some  of our cell books years ago, and training on that, and I appreciate that. I've gone  all the world to see what God has been doing. But you know, every time I try to  copy somebody else or copy their methods, it really wouldn't work. We need to  do is learn from others, but then say, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me?  What is the kind of church you're calling me to be involved with? And you may  not be called to start or lead a house church. Maybe you're called. Many of us  are called to help somebody else start a house church. You know, most people  in the world have heard the name Walt Disney because they heard of Mickey  Mouse. They heard of Disney World. Walt the founder. A few people heard of  Roy Disney. Roy Disney was Walt's brother, and every vision Walt had, Roy  made it happen. He was the guy behind the scenes that made it happen. So are you a Walt Disney? Are you a Roy Disney? You may not have been called to  start a house church, but you might be the best person in the world to stand  alongside somebody else when they start house church, because you have the  gifts that they need so that together you can see the kingdom of God advanced  through the house church and house churches that you that you will plant. I love house church. Ministry, small group ministry, I love it. You know our daughter.  Oldest daughter is a Katrina. Was 15. She was an assistant leader in house  church. It trained her for her future. She now serves with her husband as elders  in the local church. And and as a it is love Jesus and their family serving the  Lord. It's just an amazing thing. But started with she was very, very, very, very,  very young. And so I, I would simply say, to end this session, this God is a God  of family. He loves spiritual families because of who he is, and we need to find  our place in whichever spiritual families call us to be. Maybe start a new spiritual family and then connect with the rest of body. Christ, don't be out alone.  Connect, have a sense of authority, accountability. There are people my life who can speak into my life. I always ask people who can fire you. If you get go crazy, do something stupid, who can fire you? Well, there should be people who can  speak your life, not control us, but the same time, they were accountable to the  Word of God. We're countable others outside of ourselves. I've seen too many 

shipwrecks in the kingdom of God because people were had an independent  spirit to want to go their own way. They didn't want to connect with the rest of the body of Christ. They want to connect with people who could speak into their  lives. So the call of God is on your life. Just don't do it alone if you're a Walt  Disney, find a Roy or some Roy's to help you. If you're a Roy Disney, find some,  then find a Walt. You can help and follow and you can walk with because we are living stones being built together by relationship and a commonality of vision into a spiritual house to see the kingdom of God advance in the days we live in, and  God is going to use you in ways that's beyond anything you could imagine 



Last modified: Monday, September 16, 2024, 8:37 AM