04 Passionate Love - Peculiar People

For the past couple weeks we have been entrenched in this series called: Passionate Love | Peculiar People where we are looking at what it really means to be the Body of Christ, to be the Church locally and globally. We approach this topic of community asking the question, ―What is primary?‖ What is it that gives us a foundation for what we do and who we are and who we become? We started off by saying that Jesus Christ has got to be our starting and ending point. The church is at its best, and thus is the healthiest, when it keeps "the main thing" the main thing, that is when it makes Jesus primary. The second week we noted that we are instructed to be a church that serves one another with all humility by washing each other’s feet. We are called to serve those that we love as well as those that we struggle with loving. And by doing so we will be “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” Last week we talked about how our church must be marked by unity, megas-charis (mega grace), megas dunamis (mega power), and great care. That when we do these things that there is something about us that the world can’t quite put their finger on but it is wildly attractive. This week we are going to dealing with the question, ―How do we as a church, as a covenant community created by the work of Jesus Christ, be counter-cultural when it comes the children that we have been entrusted with?‖ Now, I am sure some of you are wondering what the difference is between a covenant community and a plain old community. Frank Damazio in his book The Dynamics of Corporate Gathering gives seven characteristics of covenant community: 1. Covenant community exists when people are more concerned with the corporate local body than with themselves. Corporate life becomes more important than the individual’s own pleasure or will. 2. Covenant community exists when individuals are being knitted, built, framed, and joined together. This speaks of close, long-lasting, real friendships. 3. Covenant community exists when the spirit of sacrifice becomes the attitude in which the community meets the needs of all. 4. Covenant community exists when people want to spend more time together in both spiritual and natural activities. This includes church services, picnics, camps, home meetings, sports, family activities, such as baby showers, and so forth.

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5. Covenant community exists when the elderly retain proper godly authority throughout their lives and are cherished and respected by the community. 6. Covenant community exists when the family is in biblical order. This means the husband or father taking his rightful place as head of the home, the wife finding fulfillment in the same atmosphere, the children being well disciplined, happy, and secure. 7. Covenant community exists when humanism, selfishness, independence, and isolation are treated as intruding viruses. They are overcome and destroyed by applying the Word of God so that covenant community may become a reality. So that is what a covenant community looks like. Just this past Monday in an interview on ABC, Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this about birth-control funding as part of the $825 billion stimulus package: SLIDE:

"Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

What? Are children, even children who are born out of the bounds of wedlock an economic burden? She sees them as a cost being incurred instead of blessed benefits. So again here is the question, SLIDE:

―How do we as a church, as a covenant community created by the work of Jesus Christ, be counter-cultural when it comes the children that we have been entrusted with?‖

I think it is safe to say that many of us are deeply interested in seeing the church of Jesus Christ become a healthier expression of the God’s Kingdom. But to see greater health emerge, we must pour greater resources into people rather than programs and buildings. The Church is, after all, nothing more or less than the gathering of people who know, love and serve Jesus. The more I watch my children and dedicate my time to the local church, the more I am convinced that the greatest hope for the local church and the Kingdom of God lies in raising God-fearing, Jesus loving children. Pretty radical statement, huh? Our children must be fully engaged in a community of believers, where they are accepted, instructed, encouraged, supported and held accountable.

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Parents must take the primary responsibility So how do we do it? Here is the first thing: Parents must take the primary responsibility for their child(ren)’s spiritual development. READ:

Deuteronomy 6:4 – 7

This is a daily, ongoing weighty responsibility that we cannot as parents take lightly! This is our God-ordained calling. John Angell James, a pastor from the mid-1800s, said: SLIDE:

―Here fix your center; here direct your aim; here concentrate your efforts, your energies, and your prayers. Remember, their religious education is your business. Whatever aids you call in from ministers or teachers, you never must, you never can, you never should, delegate this work. God will hold you responsible for the religion of your children.‖

During the past several years, some high profile public officials have made a big deal out of the notion that raising a child ―takes a whole village‖. That is not true. It does not take a village, whether that village is tribal unit, a school district or a church. It takes a family that is committed to loving and nurturing children as God intended. Scripture does not call us to put the responsibility for raising our children on the community. That obligation is one that parents accept when they choose to have children. Along with their choice to have children comes the lifelong responsibility to raise them in ways that honor the Creator who enabled them to live and give them children. So hear me say this clearly: The spiritual development of children is first and foremost the responsibility of parents and that the church is best poised to assist rather than lead in that process. Some of you are thinking that you are sitting pretty right now, eh? You don’t have kids or they are all out of the house, or you’re not married and not planning on having kids for a long long time. Well, this is community of believers are covenanting together for the sake of the Gospel to reach this world for Jesus Christ and that includes these children that God has entrusted to all of us. Romans 3:23 says this SLIDE:

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Psalm 51:5 says this SLIDE:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Ephesians 2:1 – 3 says this

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SLIDE:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But I also agree with Josh McDowell when he says: ―Parents... carry more weight—for good or bad—than they give themselves credit for. How a child thinks and acts is still molded by his or her home life, which means the crumbling foundations of the faith among this generation is as much a parental problem as a church problem, if not more so. If we’re going to reclaim the next generation, then the home and the church must join forces together like never before.‖ Ephesians 4:11-12 says, ―And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.‖ This passage says that it is the church’s job to equip parents, especially in this day and age where the family is under attack. Who is this church and whose job is it to do this? It’s yours. It’s mine. It’s ours. We must equip, support, encourage, and join forces with parents like never before, and that is what you are doing. It is about remembering and fulfilling the Baptismal Vows that we take as a covenant community. SLIDE: 1. Do you as members of the congregation, and family and friends welcome these children into the community of faith? 2. Will you seek to intentionally disciple them because of your own commitment to Jesus by your own words and deeds? 3. Will you support the educational and youth ministries of the church so that together we can disciple the children in faith? 4. Will you pray for the children of the church? The covenant community is the people of God configured in family, immediate and extended. God has told the covenant community to train the children in his ways, to pass on the faith to the next generation, and to be a witness to the children of the church. So, how does this work out?

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1. We as a covenant community must be intentional in discipling the children we have been entrusted with. Whether that is a. in the privacy of your own homes – daily talking to your children about Jesus b. being involved in Children’s Ministry c. in house groups 2. We as a covenant community must be intentional in coming alongside parents a. helping parents by coming along discipling their children b. financially supporting the church as we corporately come alongside the parents 3. We as a covenant community must be intentional in praying for our children. The question is… will you answer the call.

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