[SUB12] SERVINDO A DEUS EM FAMÍLIA - Luciano Subirá

Guys, I’m here at Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina, a famous spot in the south coast to bring another word to your heart. In Joshua 24:15, he makes the following declaration exhorting the nation of Israel: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Wether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the amorites in whose land you are living.

”, and he says “but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. " In the next few minutes I want to speak to you specially about this declaration of Joshua, of serving God and doing it with our families. The Word of God shows us in a very clear and convincing way, that there is no way to disassociate the christian life from service.

Actually, of all we received from the Lord, we have the responsibility of sharing, of passing ahead. I usually say it is a great challenge to bring christians an understanding of responsibility and service. I have been saying that we need a true reformation in our service theology because serving in the christian life is not optional.

Today making christians understand and to practice service in the christian life, that I’d classify as a great challenge already, but Joshua’s proposal brings us to a even higher level. He didn’t only say he would serve the Lord, it’s interesting that he didn't choose the word “me and my household will adore the Lord, me and my house will obey the commandments of the Lord," although I believe all of it is included in the package. He uses the word “me and my household will serve the Lord".

This word in the original translated as serve, speaks literally of work. Joshua’s focus was: are we going to worship God? Of course we are.

Will we obey His Word being faithful to Him? Of course we will, but me and my household will serve the Lord. So if on the one hand the life of service to many is already a challenge, what Joshua proposes is a even greater challenge.

It is not only serving, it is not only working, but deciding to do it as a family. I like to say that although salvation is something individual, God’s plan is for the whole family. We need to realize that when God says to Abraham: “And in you all families of the earth will be blessed.

" God thinks in family terms. But God does not only want families to be blessed, God is saying: “in you, Abraham. " Was not uniquely his person but God was saying: “through you, through your offspring, through your lineage, through your own family I want to bless other families in the earth" So the God that thinks in family terms, wants to use families to bless families.

And we must understand that facing this challenge, of serving God as a family, many times we’ll deal with some extremes. One of the extremes, is the type of people that, in the name of service to God, are being negligent with their own household. This is a mistake that sadly many are committing.

I look not only yo history, I look to the word of God and I see people failing this way. Someone like king Hezekiah, that was a man of faith in his days, a man of revival, someone that shook his generation but that didn't pay attention to God’s orientation to put his house in order. He didn’t care for his family the proper way.

And the next generation that succeeds him, after Hezekiah comes Mannasseh, and Mannasseh lived to destroy everything his father built. And actually, Mannasseh also tried to rebuilt, in idolatry terms, of the pagan cult, all that his father had destroyed. Hezekiah didn’t give his household the proper attention and that caused a huge, enormous prejudice.

When he is adverted by the prophet Isaiah, after receiving messengers the king of Babylon had sent, Isaiah said: "look, all that you have gathered in your entire life, all the treasure you inherited from your parents, all that got to your hands material and financially," he said "all being taken, all is going to Babylon, nothing is staying. " This was a bad new itself. But there, in 2 Kings chapter 20, we read the he said “and your children, that you fathered, will be taken to Babylon.

" He was not only saying that the children would be exiled, not only saying they would be made slaves, he affirms “they will be made eunuchs in the palaces of Babylon. " This means that even the lineage of Hezekiah would be compromised, according to that word. However, what we read in the Bible is that Hezekiah’s reaction is answering: “good is the word from the Lord.

" How can someone her that will lose all his riches, how can someone hear that all of his lineage, and generational continuity will be compromised and concludes saying: “this word is good”? The passage says: because he thought this will only happen in the future, in other words, I don’t even have children yet I haven’t begotten, if this will happen, it isn’t now. Basically it is like someone was saying: the important is that I’m not the one in trouble.

Hezekiah’s attitude is not different than many people today, that are determined to pursue, reach success, that wants achievement and sometimes even people that are influencing the Kingdom of God, but that will end with a story where the familiar trail was a disgrace. We can't commit this type of sin, we need to understand that ministry begins with family itself. When that former demoniac gadarene form Mark chapter 5, after being delivered goes to Jesus and says: “let me follow you, I want to serve you, I want to be with you.

" Jesus, in other words answers: “I have a better proposition for you, go to your folk, to your household, announce all that God has done to you and about his Mercy towards you. " Jesus was saying: “before thinking about winning the world, begin with your household. Not only they are the priority to be reached, but after they are, they can cooperate with you inside this vision.

" Any work edified upon the blood of children can be seen for example as a portrait of a blessing, in the Bible it is a picture of curse. Joshua declared: “cursed before the Lord is the man who rebuild this city Jericho with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay the foundation, and with the loss of the youngest he shall set up its gates, the completion. " And the Word of God says in 1 Kings regarding a Bethelite disobeyed the order given through Joshua and the Bible says that he loses his firstborn when he lays the foundations and he loses the youngest when it is finished.

Every work edified at the cost of blood of children is represented in Bible as a picture of curse. We should look at it with fear, saying: this is not the way I will edify, that I’ll build, that I will live my life and not the way I will accomplish the work of God neglecting mu household. On the other hand, we have another extreme.

People that even by looking to the mistake of others, of neglecting their families in the name of work, they now go to another extreme. And they begin to neglect work in name of the family. They use the fact that they need to spend time with their families as an excuse and end up not doing anything dor God.

I want to tell you, when I look to the word of God I realize that the strength of our teaching is the example. And I want to advert you: the best way of educating your family, specially your children, is involving them together with you, mobilizing them together with you in the service of the Lord. They will be learning by the example and not only by what they listen.

For example, a child that sees his father saying on Sunday: “I'm tired, I don't feel like going to church, I don’t want to go anywhere" and choses to stay home, but sees the same father in a Wednesday night sometimes late in the evening, and like in the south where we are, sometimes facing rain and cold, paying, spending money to many times see a soccer team losing, what is the comparison and the analogy he is making? This thing that dad sacrifices for must be really important. Going to church, being with God, no.

We need to understand that God wants us to mobilize our families in favor of serving God. We can't neglect family because of work, but we also can’t neglect work because of the family. Through Joel God declared: “and afterward I will por out my Spirit on all People" and God says: "Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

” God was saying: “I want to visit your family, I want your children to be my mouth, my voice on this earth, I want to use their lives. " This was God’s declaration. The breakeven is when we don’t neglect our families in the name of service, and neither service in the name of our families.

It is when we understand this balanced place, that is serving God together with our family In 1 Corinthians 9:5, Paul the Apostle says: "is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? " Later he says: "Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? " What was he saying?

Is that although we don’t normally see the apostle’s wives preaching, they accompanied them, they were involved with them in the accomplishment of this ministry. We can see in the book of Acts as well, when in the narrative of Luke, there is a description of when they got to Caesarea Philippi and stayed in Filipe’s house, the evangelist. The Bible says: “this had four virgin daughters that prophesied.

" Two things that we can understand from this passage are. One, Filipe educated his daughters to wait for the right moment after marriage, and to keep themselves for intimacy inside marriage like God planned, he had eyes for his household. But the Bible says that each of them prophesied, they were all full of the Holy Spirit.

They were all instruments of God to bless other people. There we have an example of someone that didn’t fail with one extreme, or another. That didn’t neglect work in the name of family, neither work in name of family, but decided to serve the Lord with his family.

I am really inspired by a declaration of the apostle Melvin Huber, that is the father of my pastor, he used to say this: “I don’t want to be like Noah, that won his family but lost the world, but I also don’t want to be like David, that won the world and lost his family. " He said: “I want to won the world with my family. " When this man died he left all of his children serving the Lord and in ministry.

All of his grandchildren that are old enough are already involved with the work of ministry. He left for us a trail and a great example, that we shouldn't only live a life of service, devotion, dedicated to work and the Lord’s sake, but we should mobilize our own household and family, that we may do this together. May God give you grace and eyes for you household and for the service of the Lord together with your family and to join forces to build something that is eternal and something lasting, the work of God.

May the Lord bless you.