The Bible has a concept for us regarding a blessed family.

Eph 2:18-22
v19 tells us after we have been chosen, we’re no longer strangers. We’re now members of the household of God. So whether your family is in church, you may be the sole believer in this church, yet this church is the family of God. We’ve all been blessed by God and called into this grace of the Lord. Paul also leaves us a concept: Christians must recognise that when we have been called together, we’re also here to grow together, to be built up and listen to the instructions of God together, to establish the church.

How are we to grow together? It’s through one Spirit we’ve been brought in the presence of the Father. To grow together in the Spirit is our common compass. Our growth must not be divorced from this important benchmark. Put simply, the church must be guided by the Holy Spirit and truth to grow. Each of us has to continue to seek growth in the guidance of the truth and the Holy Spirit.

Eph 4:13-16
“Till we all come to the unity of the faith” means we are united in this common faith and are to grow together in this.

Why does Paul say “till we ALL come to”? Because some grow faster and some slower? But we’re all supposed to grow to the full stature of Christ.

v14 We should no longer be children. Why? That means we haven’t grown. If we haven’t grown, that means we aren’t spiritual adults; we’d be tossed to and fro. With the guidance of the truth, we’ll be able to stand firm.

There’re many Christian churches today who also serve and believe in Jesus. Their churches also grow. They seem to be prospering more than us! But the church there hasn’t been built upon the truth. So even though they might be serving more zealously than we are, from the biblical perspective, they haven’t come to the unity of the truth.

Why is their understanding of the truth come to unity? Because they haven’t been led by the Holy Spirit. Such service is not in accordance to the will of God. But in the True Jesus Church, we have the truth and the Holy Spirit. This is where we can grow and serve the Lord. Since we have such a great grace, can we indeed not come together to grow and serve God?

We have been called and chosen to serve in church. In fact we are similar to the chosen people in the Old Testament, we have the same objective.

Exo 8:1, 20
“that they may serve Me”
One of the reasons God delivered the Israelites was for them to serve Him. The kingdom of priests didn’t just start in the New Testament.

Exo 19:6
God told the Israelites that they would be to Him a kingdom of priests. This kingdom of priests must grow to be able to serve this God. But subsequently we see not all Israelites became priests. Only the tribe of Levite. Why?

Num 18:6-7
At this time, only those specially chosen could do this work because many of the people sinned against God.

Some people have the misconception that the book of Leviticus is only meant for the priests to read. The term ‘Leviticus’ is only used at the time of the Septuagint(?).

Lev 1:1-2
Leviticus wasn’t just meant to be read by the priests but by all people. It seems a dry read, all about how to slaughter this and that animal. What was the whole purpose behind making these offerings? Was it really because God wanted to eat of the animals? No. The whole earth belongs to God, He doesn’t need us to give Him food.

1 Sam 15:22 says obedience is better than sacrifice. The real teaching of offering is hence for the people to be obedient. God established priests so the people can continue to grow and pursue holiness.

Saul didn’t want to listen to the instructions of God and wasn’t submissive. So he was rejected. Because he didn’t lead the Bible to grow and serve God.

In the New Testament, God also chose weak people.
1 Pet 2:5
We are living stones, stones with life today. We build up a spiritual life, so we are to be a holy priesthood. Towards the end of the verse, it says we are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, all of us have to come to God to worship and sacrifice. We are to build up a spiritual house. If we were to build a city, we must be able to connect two parts together. You can’t place one stone in one corner and another in another corner and expect a city to be built.

As Christians today, ask ourselves: is each and everyone of else participating in the building up of the church?

The phenomena we observe today is that not everyone of us is building up the spiritual health. We have no attained the state of the entire family growing together. A blessed family is one that grows. If it doesn’t, the church has a problem and won’t be one that’s blessed.

In the time of the apostles, we find it very different.
Acts 2:46
Where did the apostolic church start to grow from? They went into the houses of believers. The early believers travelled from house to house to break bread and praise God together.

The reason why the All 8 campaign is pushed is because we want the entire family to be saved. Having services in members’ houses have also been pushed by Pr Shim.

Acts 12:12
Peter was in prison. The first thing he did when he came out was to go to the house of Mark. What was so special about this house? It was a house of prayer, where they were praying for Peter.

Acts 8:1
“At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

They were all scattered. The households of believers can play a very important role.

We all need to be involved in this spiritual building. But if we don’t have this current framework, how are we to grow together? Besides coming to this church premise to worship, we must also be able to connect with one another in our families.

“God added to them daily those that were being saved.”
The family also works as a medium where the gospel can be preached.

When children grow up into teens, parents realise that they don’t listen to them so much already. They used to follow you everywhere you go and do whatever you say. But how come they don’t anymore? It’s because they’ve grown. Oriental families tend to have the misconception that their children must always listen to them. But they don’t because they’re growing, they’re growing but their growth is still immature. They’re at an awkward stage because even though they are still young, they may be taller than the speaker, they have the body of a man. Then their parents still want to hug them in front of their friends and they find it embarrassing. The parents neglect that they have grown up already. They’re at a stage of growth where they make alliances. They always travel in cliques.

2 Tim 2:22
“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
After passing the stage of forming alliances, we go into another phase: an independent phase (17-18 years). They’ll probably just choose 1-2 friends. Parents worry again. “Why’re they always whatsapping?” They start to think about the opposite sex. Later they get married. But another phenomenon is that after getting married, they stop attending youth activities. When they later bring their children to church, you don’t see middle aged people clique-ing together anymore. Everyone sits in their own corner.

The phase of alliance when they’re 13-15 years old is what we need. Let our church be one we can build up together.

Why did Jesus tell His disciples to love one another? Because He knew they may not be able to be united as one when He departs. Growing up and being mature is a good thing. Forming alliances is not easy. There may be conflict. Even when 14 year olds disagree, they make up after fighting. But it’s not so easy between 40 year olds. “You look at me I look at you. We both know…”

But if the church is to be a place we grow together, we must know that as we interact with one another as human beings, we will have different opinions. Don’t even talk about friends, sometimes we can’t even tolerate our children.

To those who have teenager children now, Paul says to those treat them with loving kindness like Jesus did. This teenage phase will pass by.

If we don’t forgive our brothers, God won’t forgive us either. Let this not be a hindrance in our church growth. Loving one another must also grow. Also pursue the words of the Bible.

The speaker attended the Hougang Bible study and a brother said, “It’s good we gather! We’re able to share in Bible study. I didn’t understand these passages last time but now I do! My faith and service to God grows now that I understand.”

Our family must be coordinated with the church in growth.

Nehemiah
Only about 50,000 people returned to build the temple. Halfway through, the people lost faith. Prophets like Haggai were raised to rebuke them. “You all build your panelled houses but not the temple of God. Your building will come to nothing.” But when they were willing to be near the temple, God blessed them.

Our family lives must be coordinated with our church life.

A beautiful testimony:
The speaker was able to visit churches in Malaysia with the evergreen fellowship. The church in Air tawar was the first church established in Malaysia. The church building had 4 stories: preacher’s room, REU room, a large church hall. But there were just 6-7 people. He thought perhaps the youths were working. He asked the church leaders and they said, “Because this place is rural, as the cities developed, people have moved to the city to work. There’s not many members who gather for Sabbath Day worship.”

“How many members do you have here?”
“6. Including some truthseekers, maybe 12.”

There was a brother who used to be from Malaysia who moved to Singapore to work. When he saw this, he said he needed to go back to help the church grow.

Whenever the speaker asked the members to visit Singapore, he was given the same response multiple times. “Singapore? No no no” LOL because the currency 3:1

The brother who returned gave Singapore up despite the SGD currency being stronger. He was willing to give up what he had in Singapore to go back to lead the church back in his hometown. His family and church didn’t get disconnected.

We have too good an environment today. If we don’t come together to build up, if we don’t have the concept the house of God is our house, when the house of God requires us to build to grow, will we come?

We need to consider whether we have the spirit to grow together as a family. When the church needs to grow, will we push its needs away? If it was our house, would we say no?

In conclusion:
Have our children experienced God? In their lives, have we helped them to serve and experience God? Serving God will lead to growth in their faith. If there’s nothing that allows them to interact with God, it’s difficult to have personal growth. When individuals don’t grow personally, it’s hard to have church growth.

Are we able to understand what it means to have a blessed family? May God guide us. Whether it’s our family and us, or the church and us, that we’ll be able to grow together.