Notes from this week's podcast: "Remember Whose You Are!"

I not only have a physical family, but I have a spiritual family. God is my Father. He is my authority. He's at the head of the table. I look up to Him. He imparts wisdom to us because He wants to take care of us. He wants to keep us together, unified. 

God reminded me:

• I do have value, that I am a child of the King. 
• I have been accepted in this family (with Brothers and Sisters) and I belong -- I have a place at the table. 

This vision of my family generated within me such a love for all believers, even those I'm not close to. 

The world is hungry to see true life--life with meaning. And we, as the family of God, we've got that, but we've got to see it and believe it, joining with one another. 

I believe this is the answer to unifying the body of Christ: first seeing who we are in Christ, together as a family -- Brothers and Sisters and God our Father. 

We know whose we are, who we belong to, and we trust that God knows the right thing to do. He is growing us up to know how to behave righteously. He's imparting His principles, His precepts, His commandments. He's teaching us along the way. 

Our Brothers and Sisters are helping to protect us. Why? Because we're looking out for one another. We're family. We've got a name and identity to protect. 

We may not always agree, but we're family. And, we're all in for one another. We're not all about self. We're about our identity in Christ. 

We all come and eat from the same table. What is that? We've got the Word of God. We want the world to see how blessed our family is through Christ -- that they would want to join us (our family). 

We realize that each one in the family is specially gifted. We embrace these. We don't have to be jealous of one another We can cheer one another along because everybody has a seat at the table. We're maturing at different levels, so we respect that. 

God wants us to be patient with one another. We're on the same pilgrimage together. No one has arrived. 

We walk with a much higher standard. We don't want to look like the world or be the world. We want to be Whose we are. We help bring each other along. Our standard is holiness. As our Father is holy, that's the standard we want to pursue - the whole family of God. We want to bring them along to be holy, not write them off. 

We're to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. We live that way day in and day out pursuing it. We all fall short of God's glory. That's why we need one another. Praise God we don't all fall at the same time. 

We should get concerned when [our Brothers or Sisters] don't show up. We should wonder where they are. Let's find them and bring them to the table. 

A true Brother or Sister misses being around the table with the family. They would love the joy of the Lord in their heart, if another Brother or Sister would just reach out to them. 

See, a family takes care of one another. They protect one another. We serve one another, not discredit one another. We don't have the same assignments at the same time. We cheer one another along. 

We imitate our Father because He knows the way. He knows. He laid the foundation. 

In Christ, we have a heart for one another. The enemy makes sure we see the things we don't like about another Brother or Sister. We want to honor our family. 

Application: 

1. Spend some moments praying about your spiritual family.

a. How can we encourage, love, protect, help grow one another up?  

b. We look for how we can influence the world by the way we unify our hearts. 

c. We accept the discipline of the Father. We want to honor Him. 

2. Ask God to give you a vision of your spiritual family and begin to respond in that way. 

3. Pray for those outside the family to come into the family. There's room at the table. 

Scripture for further study: Psalm 119:54, 1 Peter 1:16, Ephesians 4:1, Romans 3:23