Mustard Seed Family

Matthew 17:20  (ESV) 

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

To move a mountain, we have to have faith like a mustard seed, surely we've got that much faith.  

I actually prayed for a mountain to be moved, and when it didn't moved.  I thought that I did't have that much faith.  I'd like to talk about that.

Jesus was probably looking at the man made mountain by King Herod's slaves.  It's still near Jerusalem today.   King Herod is buried there.  

Man made stuff is pretty impressive, but it's nothing if you'll only have faith in God.  Our faith is not in self but in Jesus. Your mountains will begin to move.  

Let's talk about how faith in God can transform your family like faith in God moves mountains.   

1. When you talk to your family, do you have a sweet spirit?  Does you family have a tough time because of you?  Satan will try to turn you against God because of your problems.  You must honor God with a sweet spirit during your problems. 

2. When your family sees you coming is there joy or sadness?  When Jesus came home, did He bring joy or sadness?  Isn't He our standard?  People waited on a lake shore  just to see Him.  Plant a seed of joy in your family.

3. Do you think about your family, and what their dealing with?  Do you remember what you dealt with at their age?  Wisdom as parents remember what their kids are going through. Their issues to them are just as big as yours.  Put yourself in other people's shoes.

4.  Have you told your family that you are pleased with them?  Jesus's words spoke hope into people (John 4).  Lord, please help us find something positive to say to our family members.  They need to hear words of affirmation.  Tell them that you love them.  

5. Are you so cold hearted that you refuse to listen to the advise of others?  How do you react when others try to talk to you about your blind spots? Is your family afraid to bring up something to you because of the way you react?  God will bring problems into your life because you are selfish and need to change.

6. Are you meeting the needs of those in your family?  Do they know that they are most important to you?  What is the stuff in your life that is most important to you?  What do you think about the most?

7. How often do you pray for your family in their struggles? Can you see God's dream for your family which is greater than what you can see?  God wants to use what you go through for His purposes.

http://healingplacechurch.org/media/weekends-at-hpc-2018/

From Broken to Blessed

We are all from a broken family because we have all been broken by sin.

1. Give me.

Every child starts in the give me stage.  It's all about me.  We start here spiritually too.  God doesn't resent it because He doesn't expect more out of babies.  

We get saved out of selfishness.  We get saved because we want God to get us out of the mess that we're in.  

Marriages start in the give me stage too.  We want our spouse to meet our needs.  Some of our needs only God can meet.  

  

Luke 15:12 NKJV

12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.

Matthew 26:14-15 NKJV

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.

2. Use me.

Some of us want to be used so that we can be seen. We get saved because of selfishness; however, we ask God to use me out of selfish ambition. According to the Bible, ambition is self promotion.    

Philippians 2:3 NKJV

3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Strong’s: Ambition is electioneering for office. A desire to put one’s self forward, a partisan and fractious spirit. A self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means. Selfishness or self-promoting in your heart.

Acts 8:19 NKJV

19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

If another person cannot make us happy, then we do something to make us happy.  A lot of people divorce in this "use me" stage. A lot of times this happens about 10 years into marriage.  

God did not create marriage to make us happy.  God knows that the only way to be happy is to die to self.  God helps us to die to self through marriage.  We must surrender our rights to the other person.  Dying to self makes us happy.   

Luke 15:13 NKJV

13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

3. Search me.

Luke 15:17 NKJV

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

When the prodigal son searched his own heart for sin, he began to change.  If you want a blessed marriage, fix yourself.  I'm responsible for my own actions and  reactions.  God is focusing on what I'm doing not what people are doing to me that's causing me to react.     

Psalms 139:23-24 KJV

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

4. Make me (a servant).

Luke 15:19 NKJV

19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

Luke 15:29 NKJV

29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.

The older son had the same attitude that the younger son had, but never left home. The older son was in the "give me" stage.  

Luke 15:31 NKJV

31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.

It's not what God can give me, but God wants to be with me.  Blessed means happy.  Some people feel guilty when God begins to bless them.  God wants to bless you because God loves to give.  However, He loves to be with you more. Quit thinking why would God want to bless me?  Start thinking why wouldn't God want to bless me because He is a good God? 

Ask the Lord what are you saying to me through these words?  We could be at the Stage 4 "make me" stage, and can drift back to a Stage 1 "give me" stage.  Holy Spirit, please draw me close to yourself.  Lord Jesus, be my Lord and Savior.  

Excerpts taken from Robert Morris, Gateway Church 

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/blessed-families-a-gateway-series/session/2018/10/27/from-broken-to-blessed