HOME- Week 1 Luke 10:25-37

INTRO> My family and I recently went on on a little hike on a Friday afternoon/evening. It was a blast. The kids are getting older and we are able to do a lot more as a family. On the hike, we kinda got lost for a minute, encountered some stray dogs, the kids freaked out. We got lost when on the trail it split and gave us a couple options as to where we could go. Roman kept saying, “I don’t think this is the right way! How do you know Dad!” Everything turned out fine but it was an adventure

APP> As I was preparing for this series, the Lord brought that experience to mind and basically said, “Every person and every family faces that. A fork in the road. And everybody needs to know what direction they are headed.” That’s what we want to accomplish in this series. The holidays are approaching, family functions are happening and regardless if you don’t have a wife and kids, or kids, everybody in one way or another is apart of a family.

CONTEXT> The Bible has A LOT to say about the concept of a family:

• • • • • “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Genesis 1:26– notice “our” Relational
        • “ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it..” Genesis 1:28
        • “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
        • Then Genesis 3, then Cain and Able… Families are foundational.. but they just don’t work right… but still the family language is used all through the bible. “We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” Thats 3 generations of families
        • “For not even his brothers believed in him.” John 7:5
        • “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

APP> Everyone is born into a physical family. Everyone needs to be born again into a spiritual family.

CONTEXT> I think its pretty clear that we have established a brief understanding of what the bible says about family. So today I want to look at a passage of scripture that you probably wouldn’t think of when it comes to family. But according to Jesus, it’s the most important thing any person can grasp. And for the family we are part of asking, “Where are we going?” Jesus gives  us two things today: 1) The Direction 2) The Application

1. The direction. v25-28

• • • • • “lawyer stood up to put him to the test…” This frames the entire conversation that we are seeing. This man isn’t genuine, we say later on the reason why he even asks the question.
        • “How do you read the law?” This is so great, Jesus answers a question with a question. Great rhetorical skill, “the argument to the man”
        • “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms this mans answer and says that it is right! That literally to sum up the teachings of the OT and the 10 commandments themselves, it comes down to this.
        • Jesus in Mark’s gospel actually says that this is the most important thing:”Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 10:29-31

APP> This answer is literally the totally of the human experience! Or to ask it this way:

“Jesus, what is the most important thing for my family?:”

The most important thing for your family is to love God, emotionally (heart) spiritually (soul) intellectually (mind) physically (strength) and to express that love to each other.

• “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18

APP> A Godly vision is vital for the health of your family.

APP> There is a problem with that though right? It’s this, The type of family that we come from affects the family that we are apart of. *ILL> We want to look like the Cleavers but we look more like the Adams Family

4 types of families (*Credit to Mark Driscoll):

• • • Ungodly families that remain ungodly.
    • Godly families who turn ungodly.
    • Ungodly families who turn godly
    • Godly families who remain godly.

APP> You can’t know where to go unless you acknowledge where you are at.

2) The application. v29-37

• • • • “Who is my neighbor…” Translation… “What does that actually look like? Who do I have to love and who can I not?”
      • Then Jesus tells on of the, if not THE most famous parable of all.

Loving my neighbor looks like:

1. 1. Inconvenience. – the two others passed by
   2. Humility. “he saw him”
   3. Compassion – “feeling what they feel”
   4. Action –
   5. Sacrifice
   6. Mercy

CLOSE> How in the world can we accomplish something like this? Well… the answer is.. and its what the lawyer missed…. is that we can’t on our own.

• • • • • The law of God leads us to Christ. (X-RAY Machine)
        • Who did you think you were in the story? The Good Samaritan? or the person in need? See.. if you are focusing more about how your family needs Jesus than you yourself need Jesus, that’s a problem.

Big Idea> The foundation for every family is to know , show and grow in the love of God found in Christ Jesus.

Home-Work

• • • Write out a vision statement for your family. *Show Pic of Ours
      • • • • • What season of life are we in? (young, old, kids, no kids)
              • What are some “inconveniences” that may just be important opportunities?
              • What family has made a positive, Godly impact on you and why?