Exhortation, Fifth Sunday of Lent

The family is not a redemptive institution. It is a fallen institution in need of redemption.

Through the power of the Word and Spirit, God does redeem families. Through the Spirit, marriages can begin to reflect the marriage of Christ and His church; through the Spirit, the entire life of the family can become a living communal portrait of Christ.

Families can be redeemed. Families can also become redemptive. Families exist, in fact, not only to be redeemed but to become redemptive. Your family exists not only to receive the grace of God, but to extend that grace. Your family doesn’t exist only for your personal satisfaction and comfort. Your family exists for the sake of ministry. This is what being redeemed means: Being redeemed means becoming God’s agent for redemption.

In the sermon this morning, we’re going to be looking specifically at how families can serve those outside by brining the outside in. But we’re also supposed to minister by sending those inside out.

The whole point of training and teaching our children is to prepare them for their life outside our family, in families of their own, in the church, in the world.

In this way, redeemed families participate in the fulfillment of the great commission and play a part in the redemption of the nations. Redeemed families participation in the redemption of the world.