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“Marriage and family are temporary for this age; the church is forever. I am declaring the radical biblical truth that being in a human family is no sign of eternal blessing, but being in God’s family means being eternally blessed. Relationships based on family are temporary. Relationships based on union with Christ are eternal. Marriage is a temporary institution, but what it stands for lasts forever.”
—John Piper
“We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“You see, there is prayer, and there is God-given prayer. The former is superficial, the work of orphans, who may be religious people but are unwilling to surrender human independence to the leadership of Christ. God-given prayer and praise have as their essence a waiting on God, a willingness to be wrought upon by the hammer and the fire of the Almighty until the chains of self-centered desires fall away from the personality, and the love of Christ becomes the deepest hunger of the inner life.”
—Jack MIller
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
—Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Please note: due to a microphone issue, the last several minutes of the sermon were not recorded.
“There are no natural guarantees for the future and no way to secure the inheritance of the family. It must trust only to the power of God. Period. Period promise requires an end to grasping and servitude and an embrace of precariousness. It is only God who gives life. Any pretense that the future is secured by rights or claims of the family is a deception.”
—Walter Brueggemann, Commentary on Genesis
God commands us to honor our Father and Mother. Jesus says the church is our new family, and ultimately helps us to heal and bring love into our own family.