Helping Grow Our Family

Introduction

This will be my last Sunday with you for a while at least, as you know, as I’ve been telling you and possibly boring you. I’ve been telling you about my upcoming trip to uh Sri Lanka that begins tomorrow. Lord willing, tomorrow I will fly. Um, and don’t ask me to make sense out of this itinerary, but I will leave Orlando, fly to Houston, kind of back up and get a run and go, and then from Houston fly to Dubai. Uh that’s the longest leg of the trip. It’ll be about a 15-hour flight outbound, and then from Dubai, fly to the Maldives, and then from the Maldives to Sri Lanka, as you see on the map. And I’ve told you and shared pictures with you of my previous trips to be with those brethren.

Uh and as the congregation here now knows, I think we support five men, five gospel preachers uh in this small island country. Uh, and I will spend time with all five of those men as well as some other men uh who work there. Um just wanted, I’ve like I said, I’ve shared some pictures, and I will share a lot of pictures with you uh when we when I get back of those men and the other Christians and the work that we do there. Uh circled there on the map of Sri Lanka is the capital of Columbo. Columbo’s where the airport is, and so I will fly into Colombo, leave tomorrow, we’ll get there Wednesday. And that’s how long it takes to get there. Plus, I’m losing nine and a half hours by flying over there.

And then from Columbo, I will go kind of inland to Nu Aurelia. Uh New Aelia. Columbo is about sea level. New Aurelia is about 6,000 feet above sea level. It’s in the mountains in the clouds. And so we’ll go to New Aurelia where all of the preachers will be kind of meeting in this central location. We’ll have some studies with those different evangelists there for a few days. And then from Nu Aurelia, we will travel just a little bit south to a place called Maskalia and worship there on Sunday. So a week from today I will be in Maskalia with a congregation there. Congregation there’s having some problems.

I saw the picture of me and Eric. I think I showed you last uh Sunday. Uh Eric’s one of the preachers that we support there. And spend some time in Matara. And then I know the closed captioning is covering some of that up there, but then a little further up the coast to the city of Gaul and work there with uh Sager, uh preacher, another preacher that we support there, and then back to Columbo, uh and that. And that last Sunday I will be there in Columbo where Joe, who I’ve shown you several pictures of, Joe is my traveling companion and my interpreter while I’m there. We also support Joe and his work there just outside the capital city of Columbo. All of that in about two weeks’ time, traveling in those different different locations.

And I know you’re looking at that map and you think, boy, you’re leaving a whole lot of the island uh uncovered. Uh, but that’s just the way it kind of works. That’s where the churches and the brethren are and the needs are. Uh that first leg of the trip, that that first arrow that I showed you from Columbo to Nuwar Elia, it’s about 98 miles, about a hundred-mile journey. Uh, but I think I mentioned this to you before. That hundred-mile journey will take us six hours. Uh, and so it’s kind of like going to Tampa on I-4. Uh really slow, uh, really slow. But uh so that slows down some of the travel uh these distant locations because of the uh just sheer amount of time uh that it takes to get there.

But I solicit your prayers uh certainly tomorrow that the flights and all will go well, that all will be safe in our work, and and most importantly, we’ll be prosperous uh in the work there. And I appreciate already the kind words, the prayers that have been offered. Uh, many of you have given me money to help. There will be uh numerous benevolent opportunities uh in this poor country, and many of you have have given me funds to be able uh to help out in some of those benevolent needs, and I appreciate that, uh, and that money will be used and used wisely. And I’ll report back to all of you on the work that’s being done there. But I’ll miss you in those two weeks. Just to let you know, communication’s going to be a little spotty.

And so if you call or text, may or may not respond. Don’t take that as a slight. It may just simply mean that I’m not getting a good internet coverage while I’m over there. But I’ll try to report back to you either by Facebook or different means as I have opportunity to kind of let you know where I’m at and how things are going. But I’ve just been just tickled at your interest in the work there, the brethren there, and my trip there, and I certainly solicit your prayers in that regard as the next two weeks convene.

It’s been our congregational theme, and we tried to focus upon the idea that we are a family.

And all of them speak to different aspects of that word, but by far the most common description is of us as a family. Yes, we’re a body, we’re a kingdom, we’re the vineyard, we’re all of those things, but by far the New Testament refers to us as a family. We’d lose count of how many times just the term brother or brethren is used in the New Testament. And each time, that was not just some throwaway tag or honorary title. Each time that term is used, it carries with it the significance that we are family. And that means something. And we’ve tried to emphasize in this theme set by the shepherds different aspects of that. And so not only have we had a congregational theme, we are family, but each quarter we’re focused on different aspects of that family.

The first quarter, we talked about how our family praises God. The Father is the most important part of this family. It’s great that we are brothers and sisters, but that pales in comparison to the greatness of the fact that we are attached to our Father. And so this family honors our Father and we praise him. In the second quarter, we talked about how a family ought to love. We are to love like a family. And we emphasize that idea about what that love looks like, that familial love looks like. And in the third quarter, we talked about the restoration. We should restore because we are family, because we love one another, we will seek to restore one another. And we talked about that idea and that obligation that we have to one another.

And just like it does, this calendar has quickly brought us to the last quarter. Do you recognize today, October the 1st is the beginning of the last quarter of this year? And this quarter’s sub-theme to our grand theme of We Are Family is that we help our family grow. So I wanted to talk about that idea of growth, particularly as it pertains to our family this morning. We understand that as a family that we are to grow. And so we talk about it, not just this morning, but throughout this quarter, we want to emphasize the idea of how as a family that we honor God, we love one another, we seek to find those sheep who are straying from our family, but then we also work to grow this family.

1. Family Growth Is Essential

And so for just a little while this morning, let’s talk about the idea of family growth. We recognize that growth is essential in a family. If we talk about just our earthly families, growth is just a part of that. In fact, it’s so much a part of that that it’s just assumed that a family will grow. It’s a part of families. Now, while it is true that some will choose not to marry, and some of those who choose to marry either cannot have children or choose not to have children, but we also recognize that the norm is that we would marry and have children. That’s the norm for the family. That we’re going to marry, and every time there’s a marriage, there is growth in that family.

And then children come into that family, and our numbers grow, and then those children find spouses of their own. And then they have children. And this family just grows exponentially. We’ve been talking in our high school class and studying the Pentateuch of the growth of Abraham’s family from 75 when they entered into Egypt to well over probably two million when they left Egypt. That mathematical principle of multiplication as that family grows and grows. And that’s the way it is with our family.

Now, although some may make the choice to do otherwise, but if there is not this type of growth in a family, then that family will cease to exist, won’t it? But there’s other types of growth in a family. We expect our children to grow. From the day they’re born, we’re interested in their growth. I think probably our generation was the first, maybe you can correct me if I’m wrong in that, was the first to have those hyperactive books about your children. I can remember somebody when we had our first child. Somebody gave us a book. Big old thick paperback book, I can still see it, of what to expect every day of their life. And so you would read that book, and it said on day 246, your child should be doing this.

If they’re not doing it, call 911. Something’s wrong. And we would just panic. Our kids running behind, our kids not growing. Our kid didn’t roll over on page 47, like it was supposed to. Our kid’s not holding the bottle. And we’re always concerned about that growth. You get these mathematical terms, even when they’re ingestation. We know the month and the days, and we know the size, and then when they’re grown, you take them to the doctor, and you have those numbers, they’re in the such and such percentile. They’re growing, and all of we’re just so consumed, and we understand that our children are to grow, and we’re alarmed if they’re not growing as they should. But then there’s other types of family growth, isn’t there? Or there at least there should be.

That I’ve matured and gotten better at that. We expect that type of growth out of our children, don’t we? Not just that physical growth that we track as a chart on the wall, but we expect some kind of growth from them. We expect them to mature, to mature intellectually, to mature spiritually. We just expect that. And again, without this type of growth, the family will fail. If someone and you have that right, you can choose not to carry on the family name. You can choose not to marry, you can choose not to have children. But if that’s the case, you recognize that as far as your branch of the family tree, it’s going to cease to exist at some time. And with our physical families, I guess that’s okay.

This world doesn’t need that many more chapmins. That’s okay. But there’s other ways our family will fail if we don’t grow in those other ways. Now we may have successive generations, but so many times if we fail in those other areas of growth, we have successive generations of failure. Because we haven’t grown as a family, as we all.

You’re making a spiritual application to this. That we as a family, we are to grow. And do you recognize that as a family, and again, that’s how we’re described in the New Testament, that if we don’t grow, then this branch of the family tree at least will fail.

If this family is to exist, then we have to grow.

Meets here and has the same name on the sign and maybe even meets at the same geographical location. It is possible, if that other type of growth doesn’t take place, that we’ll have nothing but failure. Because there’s a family, but it’s not truly the family of God. All because we failed to grow. And so let’s talk about that growth and to recognize that, yes, first, family growth is essential. It’s got to happen. It’s not optional. It’s only optional in the sense that if we choose that option, or if that becomes our option by default of inactivity, then we will fail to exist. But let’s also recognize that growth, just like it does in our physical family, growth in this spiritual family takes different forms. Now, you might, we’re going to talk about three different types of growth that this spiritual family must sustain.

And you might, in your mind, rank these in orders of importance. But I don’t know that that’s an accurate way to do it. I think all three of these are probably equally important. Because without either one of these three, we will fail as a family.

2. Outward Growth: Evangelism

Because there’s not like we can choose one and forsake the others. And so let’s talk about the types of growth that must take place here at South Bumby. There is what we might call this outward growth. That’s evangelism. You can just do the math almost. We study the genealogies in the Old Testament. We could kind of study the genealogy here. You could look at the life expectancy of people who live in Central Florida. You could take the age of our congregation, and you could probably, assuming that there is no evangelistic growth, if we’re not adding new souls to the body and the family of Christ, you could probably with some certainty estimate how long it would take for this church to just cease to exist. As we get older.

As some of us leave this life for that better reward, our numbers would diminish and continue to diminish and diminish. Until the last few would just either pass from this life and the church would cease to exist that way, or they would just throw up their hands and quit from sheer discouragement. And so growth is important in this, what we might call numerical growth. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Acts. We’re going to start in Acts chapter 2. We make no apologies in talking about numerical growth and the need and the importance of numerical growth. Because when we talk about this numerical growth, we’re not talking about numbers for sake of numbers. We’re not seeking to become the largest local congregation in the country so we can have that as some place of pride.

We’re not saying that just because we can grow the treasury, we can grow our footprint here in Orlando. When we talk about numerical growth, we’re simply emphasizing that for each one of those numbers, that that number represents a soul. Recognize the New Testament spoke that way. In Acts chapter 2, you know how it began in verse 41. We talked about this not long ago in a sermon on baptism. It says, Then those who were received, gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. 3,000 was the number that they began with. We get over to chapter 4. They’re continuing to work and to preach and to teach and to baptize. In Acts chapter 4, verse 4, it says, How many, however, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5,000.

We start with the number in Acts 2. We grow that number, noticing that now it’s just the men, and so we can multiply that out, and we’ve got a number added to that. But keep reading in Acts chapter 6 and in verse 7. The word of God, Acts chapter 6, the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. 3,000 and then 5,000 of just the men. And now I like to think of it this way. I don’t know if this is this the reason or not, but I like to think of it this way by Acts by Acts 6, we’ve just lost count. There’s just so many that we’ve given up numbers, and we’re just saying they’re multiplying exceedingly.

Growth was emphasized and spoken of in those first early chapters of the book of Acts, those first early chapters of the New Testament church. And so that tells me that numbers matter. And again, they matter only because each one of those numbers represented a soul. A soul that once had been lost but now is saved. Growth was important. And that growth took place because of what we read about in Acts chapter 8. Turn over a couple other pages, and you think, how did this happen? This astronomical growth. Acts chapter 8 is surprisingly, follows after Acts chapter 7. In Acts chapter 7, of course, you remember recorded the stoning, the death of Stephen. We remember him as the first recorded Christian martyr. The Jews, in their anger, lashed out at Stephen and killed him.

And what probably happened, again, we don’t know. What probably happened is after they killed Stephen, they thought, oh, that was against the law. The Romans won’t let us do that. And so maybe they went home and they waited for the knock on the door, maybe not even a knock, the door to be kicked in, and Roman soldiers to come and arrest them and say, you didn’t have the right to do that. But that didn’t happen.

And so you know what happens when bad behavior is not punished, it increases. And so then I think what they probably did is, oh, the Romans are going to let us do this. So let’s get after it. And that’s what happened starting in Acts chapter 8, led by the work of Saul. They began to just increase. The floodgates of that persecution opened. And despite that, notice what happens. Acts chapter 8. Now Saul was consenting to his, that is Stephen’s death, and at that time a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Underline in your mind, at least that phrase, except the apostles. The Christians were scattered. The apostles stayed home, at least for now.

They’ll do their scattering later. But right now, it’s not the apostles, but it’s other Christians who are scattered. Skip down to verse 4, what it says. Therefore, those who were scattered, who’s that? It’s not the apostles, it’s the Christians. Those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. That’s how the church grew. So there’s two conclusions I think we can draw, probably more than two, but two that we’ll draw this morning from that text. Conclusion number one is that it is everybody’s responsibility to help the family grow. Every member of this body, Paul would emphasize, every member of this family has an obligation and a responsibility for it to grow. But the second observation we can make from that text is that the outside forces do not determine growth.

3. Upward Growth: Spiritual Growth

They were being persecuted. Now, they probably thought, and that’s kind of the advice that they were given, they probably thought that this persecution was going to squash this new movement known as Christianity. But it had the opposite effect. We get so down and out about our world, our culture, and how difficult it is to maintain our faith and to live as a Christian in this dark and perverse generation. But recognize this, that then nor now will our growth be determined by what they do. Our growth or our lack thereof will be determined by what we do. And so numerical growth is important. But there’s other types of growth that are essential to a family. There’s what we might call upward growth or spiritual growth. It’s not enough to just teach the word and baptize new believers.

Those new believers, as well as us old believers, need to grow.

And failing to grow as a husband and a wife and a father and a mother and even as children. We can fail as a family if we don’t grow spiritually. And the New Testament emphasizes that over and over again. Look with me in the book of Colossians, chapter 1. You remember, as we turn to Colossians chapter 1, you remember another text in the book of 2 Peter, where Peter would conclude his epistle by encouraging them to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord. But I want us to go to Colossians chapter 1. Paul to the church at Colossae says this in verse 9, Colossians 1, verse 9. For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing, increasing in the knowledge of God.

Paul says, we’re so commended by your faith and the work and the things that you’re doing. And as soon as we heard about that, we started praying. And what did we pray? That we prayed that you’d keep it up. And that you would increase and you would grow in that. Spiritual growth, spiritual growth of each individual family member, and therefore spiritual growth of the entire family is absolutely essential. Or this family will fail.

If we don’t have that spiritual growth, if we’re not increasing in the knowledge of God. Recognize the way the New Testament often uses the word knowledge. That doesn’t mean you learn more facts about God. Well, that maybe that’s a part of growth. But increasing in the knowledge of God means in you increasing in your relationship, you’re knowing God, not just knowing about God, but in knowing God as we’re drawn closer and closer to God. And I want to challenge every member of this family to make growth an absolute essential part of your Christian life. Make it a goal. Have different check marks. Maybe we need to write a book. A book like that child rearing book. That says the first year you become a Christian, here’s some things that ought to happen.

By year five, this is what you ought to look like. By year 10, by year 20, these are some things that you need to go. I don’t know that we could write that book, and I know where you’re going. God’s already written the book. But don’t we see that just like those expectations for growth in our family, that there ought to be expectations for growth for me as a family member? Am I a better husband today than I was the day of my wedding? Am I a better Christian? Growing stronger, closer to God, Christian, today than I was the day I was baptized. Or five years ago or ten years ago. You get the point. Growth is important, and those benchmarks for growth are so important.

4. Together Growth: Grow Closer Together

Lastly, another growth that must take place in this family, or we will absolutely fail, is that we grow out in numerical growth, we grow up in spiritual growth, and we grow inwardly. That means that we have this, what we might call together growth, that we grow closer together. If not, we will fail.

I think we do. Maybe not fully as we ought to, but we understand how what we’re doing here fits into the eternal grand purpose of God. We’re not just playing church. We’re not just doing something that puts us together in this little group. We are a part of God’s eternal plan that made known his manifold wisdom. Paul describes that in Ephesians chapter 4, when he talks about the Jesus who descended and then he ascended back to the Father, and when he ascended back to the Father, having completed his part of this mission, entrusted that mission to us, and therefore gave, what does he say there in Ephesians 4, verse 11? He gave himself some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should be no longer children tossed through and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but grow, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Did you see the emphasis there upon growth in this body? That if we’re to carry on God’s eternal mission and purpose and plan, we’ve got to grow. We’ve got to grow numerically, we’ve got to grow spiritually, but also the emphasis here is upon the idea that we grow together. That we, as the apostle Paul would say to the Roman brethren in the midst of their differences, he would say that you all be of the same heart and of the same mind. We’ve got to grow together. We have to be closer to one another. We’ve got to love and forbear and forgive and show grace and mercy and love. Because you know. You know that without that a family fails. You’ve seen it. You may have seen it in your own family.

Conclusion

You’ve certainly seen it in other families that were just absolute abject failures. Because they did not grow in their love for one another. You’ve seen it in churches. Maybe the church you’ve attended in the past. Or maybe some other church that you’ve heard about. You’ve seen and heard failure. Because a group did not grow. Did not grow outwardly, did not grow up, and did not grow together. May God bless us as a family to grow in every sense of the word. We’re going to have a lot more to say about this type of growth, these types of growth in the upcoming months as we close out this theme that we are family. Are you a part of the family of God this morning? Then why not become a part of that family?

Part of that family because of God and of Jesus Christ, who is our elder brother. Become a part of that family. Repent of your sins, confess your faith, and to be baptized this morning and begin that wonderful life of growth in this family. If we can help you in that or in any spiritual way, let it be known right now. As together we stand and sing.