We Are Family!

Our lives are a bicycle wheel.  The spokes in the wheel represent all of the relationships in our lives.  Family, friends, acquaintances, even enemies.  All of spokes are held together at the center of the wheel.  

Sometimes we try to be the center - holding everything together.  Sometimes we allow others or put others in the center and expect them to hold everything together.  Every single relationship we have can be represented in the bicycle wheel. 

The problem is that God is not interested in being just another spoke on the wheel.  God is to be the center of the wheel - He is what holds all our relationships together.  Without the center of the wheel - everything falls apart.  The wheel won’t work.  God is essential to all of our relationships - family, friends, even enemies.

Check out what Jesus says in Luke 14:26.  He tells us to hate our other relationships. Something about this doesn't seem to fit into the character of God - isn't one of the commandments to honor our father and mother?

So what is Jesus getting at?

Our primary love has to be for God.  This doesn’t mean that we stop loving our parents, siblings, children, spouses, or friends, but we cannot allow these relationships to rule our lives.  They cannot become idols.  

"Loving God supremely is a “top button” truth.  Have you ever put on a shirt with buttons and didn’t line up the top buttons?  The rest of the buttons look like a mess because nothing lines up.  If you get the top buttons lined up, everything else falls into place." - Kyle Idleman in gods at war.

This is how our relationship with God works.  If God is our primary relationship all others will fall into place.  This doesn’t mean that life will be great and that there will be no arguments but that we have the power to live in relationships with God at the center.  Our dealings with people ought to reflect how God has dealt with us - in Christ.

We see an example of this in Genesis 22 with Abraham and Isaac.

Consider the love that Abraham and Sarah had for Isaac.  He was the one who was promised to them in a hopeless situation.  He was the one they named after “laughter” - he brought so much joy to their lives.  They were able to see him grow up and learn and say cute things.  They were able to teach him, play with him, and love on him.  Isaac had the ability to become the world to Abraham and Sarah.  That is when God comes to Abraham with a message.

God tells Abraham to travel to a mountain and sacrifice his son.

"God knew what He was asking.  He is not some remote cosmic deity who doesn’t understand the feelings and thoughts involved in sacrificing his son.  He sees past, present, and future at the same time and fully knew that one day He too would have to sacrifice His own Son whom He loved." - Kyle Idleman in gods at war.

God doesn’t ask us to do anything He has not already done.

Who do you love so fiercely and protectively, so desperately that you would lay down your life for that person?  A parent, spouse, friend, sibling?  The more we fear losing something, the greater capacity that thing has to become an idol.

When God gives us the gift of children, parents, friends, and siblings He asks us to love them without worshipping them.  Instead as we love _____ we ought to be engaged in worship of the giver.  Thanking Him for the family and friends He has given us.  Praising Him for creating us to be relational and giving us the ability to love and connect.

As Abraham approaches the base of Mt. Moriah, he tells his servants to stay behind as he and Isaac to up to worship.  This gives insight into the heart of Abraham and we realize the choice has already been made.  Abraham also uses the word “we” - as in he and Isaac will worship and return.

Abraham believed God and was counted righteous.  Hebrews 11:17-19 gives us a little more insight into what Abraham really believed.  He believed that God kept His promises.  He believed that God knew what He was doing.  He believed that God would bring his dead son back to life.

Abraham made a choice.  He would not this relationship with his son direct his life.  It would not control him and he would not love Isaac more than he loved God.

Do you have a relationship that controls you?  One that directs how your day goes?  If that person is happy, you are happy.  If they are upset, you are upset.  If they are mad at you, does your world fall apart?  Does that person fill you with anger, joy, peace, or disappointment?  Do you order your life around a specific person?  

Parents: Do your children run your lives?  Does their schedule dictate everything about your day?  If you were to look at a week of your life - what does it revolve around?

Students: Do you feel pressure to succeed or perform a certain way because of the expectations of your parents?  

By comparison, our love for God must be far greater than our love for anyone or anything else - including our family.  Perhaps you feel the burdens to living up to a certain standard that has been set for you.  You have goals you are expected to reach.  Parents get caught up in the thrill of comparing the achievements and successes of their children.  They push them to the edge of greatness.

Because we are relational, we want relationships.  This looks different for different people, but the void is the same shape in all our lives.  We must take the relationships we have and remove them (parents/children; children/parents) from the center of our wheel.  That place only belongs to God.  We cannot let others determine our worth and value - because that has already been determined by Jesus when He died for us.

In Jesus, you are chosen to be valued and loved.  You now have to choose to make Him the source of your worship.