This past Sunday at The Family Church in far western Gainesville...2022 SW 122nd Street...senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his thoughtful series focusing on the book of 1 John, found near the end of the Bible in the New Testament. The passage on this day was Chapter 2, Verse 29 through Chapter 3, Verse 10...here is a link to it via Bible Gateway so that you can read it, too: [link]. The title of the message, Born of God, refers directly to that opening verse...
In laying out the framework for this message, Pastor Philip stressed that faith comes first...then good works...not the opposite. Then what are the effects and expectations when I become born of God through faith? Well, there are four: I am in his family, have a glorious future, will be pursuing holiness, and am empowered to live a holy life. As for family, Philip gave the analogy of someone, when adopted into a new family, having his or her name changed to conform to that of their new father...in this case it's the heavenly father. With the future, having the confidence that we belong to Jesus, who will appear and with whom we will live forever...plus knowing him as he really is, is in stark contrast to what our pastor said about others: "People who don't know what they ultimately will be don't know how to live now". With holiness, the message went a little down the road of theological details...as far as I see it, at least...by explaining that Jesus purifies us through justification and we ourselves through sanctification: dual purification. Finally, as the discussion went to living a holy life, Pastor Philip contrasted the tendencies of many to either live with truth and no love (legalism, judgmentalism) or love and no truth (permissivism, no consequences). He gave as an example of the Gospel of John story of the woman condemned for adultery. Jesus showed both love and truth when he rescued her from stoning while at the same time telling her to go and sin no more...
I think the point of all this goes back to the beginning of the message: first comes faith and then flow the good works. But the author of 1 John was speaking to fellow Christians when he was in effect exhorting them to good works and not to sin. And many people who are not Christians live virtuous lives full of good works. But maybe here we're assigning our own designations to exactly who is in God's family and who isn't. After all, there is the truth and then there is "our" version of the truth: our heavenly father, who exists in the past, present, and future, knows who is in his family...are we really better informed than him?
The Sunday morning sermons at our fellowship can be viewed on YouTube through the Family Church channel there...here's a link to this day's: [link]. The services are held at 9:30 and 11, with inspiring praise music before each message. And the church offers family groups along with discipling and leadership training...and there's that precious coffee they offer as well...along with some pretty friendly folks...
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