Well, as I said last week, today we're going to be starting a new series. And this series is going to be honing in on Christian community or Christian fellowship within the local church. Geneva reformer John Calvin writes, so highly does the Lord esteem the communion of his church that he considers everyone a traitor and apostate from religion who perversely withdraws himself from any Christian society which preserves the true ministry of the word and sacraments. J.I. Packer similarly states, as we value the health of our own souls and of the Christian church, then we must learn to prize fellowship. Obviously from the two quotes, Packer and Calvin both find Christian community or Christian fellowship to be a very important thing. And I think as we conform our thinking more and more to the Scriptures, we will likewise find it to be very important for us as well. For example, the very first account of the New Testament church underscores the importance of fellowship. Right after Pentecost, Luke describes this early body of believers as ones who devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer." Now, it's probably not surprising to any of us that the early church devoted themselves to the preaching of the Word, listening to the Word of God preached, to prayer and to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. But it may surprise us that it says here they devoted themselves to fellowship. or we could say Christian community, right up there. With all those very important things, they prioritize Christian fellowship, community, as essential. And they should have, because the Scripture makes a big deal of it. And because the Scripture makes a big deal of it, we likewise should make a big deal of it in our lives here today. Before I go any further, though, we need to define these terms that I'm throwing around. What is Christian fellowship? What is Christian community? Well, those two words, fellowship and community, or communion, come from the same Greek word koinonia. It's also rendered as participation, partnership, or sharing. And that last term, sharing, really gets at the basic idea of what koinonia is all about. It is sharing in something. Jerry Bridges breaks down the definition of koinonia, I think, in a very helpful way. I want to spend just a few minutes dealing with how he breaks down this term of koinonia. He breaks it down in two related meanings. First of all, he says koinonia means to share something in the sense of joint participation or partnership. And secondly, koinonia means to share within the sense of giving what we have to others. Now for both of these primary meanings, there are also sub-meanings, two meanings to each one of these. Let me give those to you. First of all, in terms of sharing in the sense of joint participation, it refers primarily to a relationship that we as believers have in Christ. So it's not primarily a social activity, but a relationship of sharing together the very life of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. A believer's union with Christ automatically brings him in union with all other believers that make up the body of Christ. And so what we have here is a spiritual, organic community with many privileges and with many responsibilities. That's why William Henderson says, Quinea then is basically a community relationship. Now a second aspect to this idea of sharing together is partnership. One way that both the Classic Greek as well as the New Testament Greek refer to koinonia is as a business partnership. In business, you have partners who come together in order to achieve their goal of making a profit, of making money. Kunani has also used the New Testament to refer to spiritual goals, spiritual aims, as believers come together for spiritual enterprise. For example, we'll read about Paul and the Philippians partnering together to advance the Gospel and therefore to achieve the ultimate goal of glorifying God. So fellowship isn't just about community relationship among believers. It's also about partnering together for the glory of God. And how is God glorified? Well, in its simplest ways, through the evangelizing of the lost as well as edifying of the saints. And through this, God is exalted. Okay, so the first primary meaning of fellowship is to share together in relationship and partnership. The second primary meaning of fellowship hones in on the idea of sharing or giving what we have to others. And like that first primary meaning, we also have some sub-meanings here as well. First, there's communion. is part of sharing or giving what we have to others. Communicating at a very intimate, personal, and spiritual level our hearts with other believers. In other words, it is sharing your heart and life in Christ with other Christians. It's not just sharing your heart, but it's sharing your heart and life in Christ with other believers. I make that distinction because we can actually share our heart with other Christians and leave God completely out. It is possible for Christians to speak to one another and gloat with great joy over certain delights in their life, and it's also possible for them to share by venting their frustrations and their concerns and their struggles, but leave God nearly out of the relationship and conversation all together. Now, it's possible they may throw some God-speak in there as they go along. They might throw God's name in there, spiritual matters in here, here and there, kind of sprinkle it in. But they're really more or less just throwing in tokens. God is not really central to what they are saying. God is just sort of interjected into the conversation as a sort of good luck charm. So the point is, is just sharing is not enough. Just sharing our hearts is not enough. Biblical communion between believers is sharing how God's word and God himself is at work in our life. I again quote Packer on this score. He says, It is a sharing with our fellow believers the things that God has made known to us about Himself and hope that we may thus help them to know Him better and so enrich their fellowship with Him. You might remember from a few weeks ago when I did that very short series on John Bunyan. Remember those three or four ladies he came across that he overheard? And what were they doing? They were sharing with one another their communion with God. They were sharing their joys in Christ. They were sharing their struggles with temptation. They were rejoicing what Christ had done and was continuing to do in their lives. That is what it's about. That is biblical communion. Sharing something of ourselves with other believers centered in Christ. It is shared spiritual things between believers. But secondly, koinonia also involves a sharing of material things, of our material possessions. And this is one of the most common usages that we find in the New Testament. For instance, Paul urges us to share with God's people who are in need. Why? Because sharing our possessions is a very tangible way for us to express that we indeed have communion with the saints. If another brother or sister suffers, we see that and we reach out to them with compassionate help. We don't see our own possessions or our own money as our own. And this is why we are free to give to others. We understand that we are just stewards of what God has given us. And so when we see another brother or sister in need, we don't hold on to our possessions, we don't hold on to our money, but we say, God has given me these things to be a blessing to the saints. And so I joyfully give my resources, which are God's resources, to them. So taking this all together, these two primary meanings and these two sub-means, we have four components to relationship. One, community relationship. Two, partnership. Three, communion. And four, sharing material possessions. The first two deal with sharing together. The second two deal with sharing with one another. The way we can kind of wrap this up is by saying we share God through Christ in common with one another. So what that means is this. The Lord is the foundation to all Christian fellowship. 1 John 1-3 makes this very clear. The Apostle John writes there, "...that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, and that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Those in the world can indeed have friendships, but they can in no way have fellowship as the Bible defines it. They can know nothing of the supernatural quality that exists between true believers who are fellowshipping in Christ because it is supernatural. John MacArthur highlights this fact when he states. Anybody in fellowship with Jesus Christ is also in fellowship with anyone else in fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is our common ground. It is not social, economic, intellectual, cosmetic, or anything else superficial. Our common ground is that which is pulsing through the life of every Christian, the heartbeat of God. Our common ground is that we possess a common eternal life and our children in the same family. That statement is helpful by MacArthur because he's distinguishing for us what communion or fellowship is and what it is not. To put it in different words, koinonia is a spiritual bond that exists between the various parts of Christ's body. It is a unique, it is a dynamic bond only shared by those who have eternal life through Christ in common. They are in union with Christ and therefore they are participants in His life, death, burial, and resurrection. So, we have communion with other Christians because we have communion with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We have communion with other believers because we share the common gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So I know I'm kind of spending a lot of time to kind of tease this out, but let me sum all of this up, this idea of fellowship, just so we have a definition here by giving you one more definition by a guy named John Loftus. He gives a nice summary of this. He writes, fellowship is participating together in the life and truth made possible by the Holy Spirit through our union with Christ. Fellowship is sharing something in common on the deepest possible level of human relationship, our experience of God Himself. So it's a uniquely Christian relationship we're talking about. This is a relationship that only exists between those who have been truly regenerated by the Spirit of God, born again. Christians cannot have, as the Bible defines it, fellowship with unbelievers. In fact, Paul makes that very clear in 2 Corinthians. He says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what koinonia? What fellowship, what communion has light with darkness? And again, the apostle writes, if we say we have fellowship, that is, koinonia, with Him, meaning God, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So, Christian fellowship only happens between Christians. You may enjoy different activities and conversations, different relationships with unsaved classmates or teammates or co-workers. siblings, even your parents, your children, even your spouse. But if those do not truly know Christ as Savior, you cannot have authentic New Testament koinonia. Common interests, shared viewpoints, shared experiences don't make for fellowship. Talking about your favorite sports team, career goals, children, hobbies, politics may express friendship, but does not express fellowship. And let me take this a step further, because it's not just something that involves a Christian and a non-Christian. As I've already alluded to, just because two Christians talk together doesn't mean they are fellowshipping. They may be socializing, but not necessarily fellowshipping together. For example, we have a room out here that we call the fellowship hall. And we all enjoy it. But just because we have a fellowship hall doesn't mean every time Christians are in there talking, fellowship is actually occurring. It could just be socializing. And I don't want to knock that because socializing is an important part of being a Christian. It's an important part of just being a human being. We need to be social beings. But the point I'm trying to get at is there is a distinction between socializing and fellowshipping that we need to make very clear. The fact is, you could even have two Christians who are married to one another, and yet they may lack authentic communion with one another in Christ. Again, socializing should be a part of our life. but we cannot allow socializing to totally replace fellowship. We ought to have both fellowship and socializing, but we should not confuse one that replaces the other. Because here's the problem. When the natural activity of socializing dominates Christian relationships, Christians rob themselves of the supernatural activity of fellowship, the activity of sharing spiritual life with one another. Along these lines, Don Whitney writes, I'm not arguing against socializing. It is a gift of God. It is a part of being human. The church needs socializing, and so does the individual Christian. But in practice, the church has often accepted socializing as a substitute for fellowship, almost forfeiting our spiritual birthright as children of God for something far less valuable. So I'm not suggesting here this morning that every time you talk to another believer, that conversation has to eventually get into a very long, involved theological discourse. I'm not saying that every time you have a conversation with another believer, there has to be this very intimate, heart-to-heart conversation, but I am saying some of that needs to happen. How is it that two believers, two or more believers, can talk for hours about politics, or the weather, or sports, their children, a hobby, and yet they rarely or never talk about spiritual matters at a heart level. I ask, how is that possible? If eternal life, and if communion with Christ is as great as the Bible says it is, what's wrong with that picture? Christian communion is a wonderful privilege, is a wonderful joy for believers because it can happen between two believers no matter where they're at or what they are doing. They are able to share their spiritual life in Christ with one another. And Christians find great joy in this. Why? Because they have tasted. They have seen that the Lord is good. They have become participants in what God is doing in the earth. They know what it is to have eternal life. And so God has done a miraculous work in their heart. He has risen them from spiritual death to spiritual life. And this stirs their affections for Him. and therefore they like to talk about Him. They find it sweet to speak of the Lord Jesus to other believers, and they find it sweet to listen to other believers speak to them about Christ and what He is doing in their lives. I really believe if you're a true believer this morning, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And yet, even true believers can often shy away from true fellowship, true communion with their brothers and sisters in Christ. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, there may very well be a believer who does have sweet fellowship with the Lord, who dwells and meditates on the Word of God, who does have his or her affections stirred by God's grace as they reflect on all that God has done. All these realities are in their life. They are so thankful for God's grace, and yet they have a very difficult time sharing that with other believers. Why is that? Why is it that even true believers fear letting down their guard and allowing other believers to come into their life? Why is it that they fear sharing what Christ has done and continues to do in their life? Why are they fearful of transparency? Well, the answer to that is a very short answer, and it can be summed up in one very short word, and that word is sin. That is why they struggle. I don't say that in a pejorative way. I don't say that in a demeaning way because here's the reality. The image of God that is stamped on every one of us has been disfigured in this regard in all of us. And therefore, all of us struggle to really express and receive true Christian community You see, God created all of us to reflect Him in all things, including true communion. That's how He created us. Why? Because within God, true community exists. Ultimate community exists. Perfect fellowship exists within the Trinity. And therefore, at creation, Adam and Eve reflected that perfect communion with one another and with God. But something horrible happened. What happened? The fall happened. That's what happened. And that perfect communion was fractured. Fractured between God and man and man to man. For the first time, husband and wife felt estranged from one another and from God. And yet, thankfully, God in His grace, through the work of Christ, came to reverse the curse, including a reversal of that fragmented community. In other words, Christ came to redeem and restore true community between God and His children and between His children, Christian to Christian. Now, what I've just given you is basically a rough outline of where I'm going to go with this series. In order to redeem and cultivate true Christian community, we have to understand four major doctrines. We have to understand the doctrine of God, creation, fall, and redemption as it relates to human relationships, and more specifically, Christian relationships. So the main goal I want to accomplish in this series is to talk about the redemption of Christian relationships primarily in the local church context. Why? Because the local church context is the Christian community. Now, I'm going to even today and throughout the series, I'm going to weave into some of this other basic levels of community. For example, the marriage relationship. and also the nuclear Christian family, because these are the most basic levels of community. In other words, if we're going to talk about the church family, we've obviously also got to talk about the Christian family. I think it's very appropriate, because like the marriage relationship, the church relationship, the community of believers, is based on what? It is based on covenantal commitment. So there are parallels, is all I'm saying. There's parallels between life in the home and the community life in the household of God, the church. And thus, there are parallels between how community in the home must be redeemed and parallels to how community in the church must be redeemed. And why do these parallels exist? Well, it goes back to what I said a moment ago, because they have the same problem. And what's that problem? Sin. And what does sin do? Sin pulls apart unity and therefore erodes community, communion, both with believers in the home as well as in the church. It pulls apart, it erodes, it decays. So that's what this series is going to be about. It's going to be about redeeming Christian community, primarily in the church context, but in a secondary sense in the home as well. All right. Well, that sounds good. But where do we start? Where do we start, as it were, to reverse the curse of fragmented, imperfect community that has resulted from the fall? Well, we need to start where we start on any problem that we're dealing with because of sin. We need to start with God Himself. We need to look at He who has perfect community. We need to look at, therefore, the divine family. if we were to see in our own nuclear families as well as our church family true communion. Earlier I quoted John MacArthur and part of that quote says this, our common ground is that which is pulsing through the life of every Christian, the heartbeat of God. The heartbeat of God. That is a key statement because it lets us know the foundation of fellowship is found in God. It lets us know that the cause of all true communion is found in God himself. Again, because he is ultimate community, the Holy Trinity. It was out of this ideal divine community that ideal human community at creation sprung forth. In other words, God is the reason why you and I today long for spiritual intimacy both with God and with one another. We long for this. We crave for authentic community because God stamped that upon us. Because in God resides perfect community. That is why you have that longing that you do. We are made in His image. Our created being reflects His divine being. As I alluded to earlier, of course, sin has marred this in us. And this is why people in general, and even Christians more specifically, are often looking for substitutes for that true communion through idols. But the fact is, we are made in the image of God, and that's why there is this constant quest by humans for authentic community, intimacy, acceptance, Family, true fellowship. I'm sure we could list many other synonyms. You say, I don't feel that way. Well, that's your sin speaking. That's not who God made you to be. Consider the words of God in Genesis 1.26. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Notice there, God, who is singular, expresses himself in plurality. It's a plural self-consciousness. He uses the word us and our. Genesis in that verse is recording for us an amazing conversation, is recording for us a conversation among the members of the Godhead. They are the words of God's eternal decree which express His purpose for creating mankind. I mean, it's really an amazing, amazing statement when you ponder it. Here we are. We are granted the privilege, as it were, to get a peek inside the inner workings of the Creator God, God 3-in-1. Now earlier in Genesis, in fact the very first verse of the Bible, We read in the beginning, God, singular, created the heavens and the earth. So God is referred to, I mean, right out of the gate, as soon as you open your Bible, the first thing you are hit with is the fact that God is one. But then you read the next couple of verses. verses 2 and 3 of that first chapter. Let there be light, and there was light. And so now, in these verses, we are seeing the plurality of God. In verse 1, we saw God the Father. In verse 2, we now see the Spirit of God. And when we come to verse 3, guess who we see? We see the Son of God. You say, where? We see the Son of God in the speech of God. In fact, the Gospel of John makes this point very clear. This connection between God's speech and God's Son. John 1, 1-3, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing that was made." Later on in that same chapter, verse 14, the Apostle John states, "...the speech or the Word of God is the Word become flesh and dwelt among us." All this to say God is a triunity that is explicitly reflected at creation. Now, why is this important? It is vital for us to keep this in mind because we are in God's image, in His triune image. And so if we're going to understand who we are and who we should be, we first of all got to start with knowing who God is. Genesis 1.27 goes on to state, that both male and female unveil the image of God. So God created man in his own image and the image of God created him. Male and female he created them. So here in poetic form under the Spirit's inspiration, Moses repeats himself on purpose. And why does he do that? That happens a lot of times in Hebrew literature. Why? In order to emphasize a point. He's saying, I'm saying something very important here. What are you saying that's so important, Moses? Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying that both male and female bear God's image. Both genders marvelously reflect the actual being of God. You see, marriage between husband and wife tells us something about the very being of God. What does it say? It says that two become one. And in that union, they are actually mirroring the one God who is also plural. The two, a plurality, become one, a unity. God is both plural and one. This is so important. It's important if we are going to begin to understand what true communion in the church should be. What true communion in our homes should be. In our marriage relationships. Genesis 2.18, And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. So the human need for intimate community springs from the intimate divine community of Father, Son, and Spirit. So let's understand this very clearly here today. The desire and the longing that you have and I have in my heart for authentic fellowship with God and man isn't the result of the fall. It is not a weakness that has come about by sin. It is there because we are in the image of God. We are reflecting God. particularly the marriage fellowship. It is emblematic of Trinitarian fellowship. The plurality of man and woman who become unity is a reflection of God's plurality and unity. In Genesis 2, 24 and 25, Moses states, Now notice from those verses, there is a leaving and there is a cleaving of husband and wife. They become one in every possible way. Mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and yes, physically. It says here they become one flesh. It notes that they were both naked and were not ashamed. What's Moses doing there? He is discreetly pointing out the sexual union of the first couple. A physical intimacy without shame. Now you say, why do you mention that? Why do you mention that in relation to God who is Spirit? There is no physical aspect to His union within the Trinity. Why mention it? I mention it because there is a union in a divine way that is beyond our ability to fathom. There is a oneness, a perfect oneness. In fact, Jesus uses this kind of oneness language between Himself and the Father. He says, I and the Father are one. And so what you have there is a mutual permeation of persons in the Godhead. Now I make this parallel between Adam and Eve and God because when Adam and Eve were first created there was a complete and total transparency between the two. There was nothing between them. And therefore they were reflecting perfectly the complete transparency of the Trinity. Their unified transparency glorified God because it pictured how there is complete oneness and transparency between the three members of the Godhead. In other words, they were open book to one another. There was nothing between them, between husband and wife. And this is how humans were made. This is the kind of unity, the kind of transparency, the kind of authenticity that we were created to have with one another and with God. This is how it ought to be in our marriage relationships, it's how it ought to be in our homes, and how it ought to be in our marriages. In our church family. It's all rooted in God Himself. And we've got to understand this. If we're going to eventually see how the fall fractured this, and by God's grace, how it can be reversed and redeemed, we've got to understand how it is, first of all, perfect in God Himself. Think of it like this. Say there are two beautiful, ornate vases. One is complete, it's perfect, it's intact. The other has fallen off the mantle and it's shattered in a million pieces. How are you going to put that shattered one back together? You're going to have to look at the perfect one, the whole one. God is the perfect and whole vase, as it were. He is perfect community. We, though, on the other hand, are the shattered vase. We are shattered community. Since the fall, that has been the story of humanity and all the king's horses and all the king's men have tried to put back shattered humanity and community back together again. But they can't do it. They can't do it through psychology. They can't do it through education. They can't do it through economics. They can't do it through anything else. Why? Because humans cannot achieve this. God must put together this shattered community. This is why Christ came. to put back the pieces between God and man, and man to man. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross where He experienced for the first time in all of eternity this rift, this perfect communion was broken between Him and the Father as He bore our wrath. in our place on the cross. And he did this in order to bring and elect people back into fellowship with himself. He, the second Adam, came to put back all the pieces from the first Adam's fall. And so on earth, the church The truly redeemed community is a picture of God putting the pieces back together. There's a song we sing around here occasionally, I think, that really captures this. It simply says this. We are the broken. You are the healer. Jesus, Redeemer, mighty to save. We ought to praise God here today that Jesus, as Redeemer, is mighty to redeem shattered community. Now, we understand the church is never going to perfectly reflect that here on earth, right? It's just not going to happen. And yet, as we progressively conform more and more to the ultimate community that we see in the Trinity, God is going to use us to show to the world how He can reverse the most shattered and broken and sinful people The world will see a people, the people of God, reflecting more and more what God created us to be. Ones who have proper communion with God and proper communion with one another. This is why the early church devoted themselves to fellowship. At the end of the day, this is about something much, much bigger than just us getting along. Ultimately, it is about the glorification of God. And this is why we exist. We exist for the glory and enjoyment of God. And that happens in large part through real community displayed through the church. Therefore, the professing Christian who refuses to fellowship in a biblical way The person who says they know Christ but refuses to give of himself or herself to the brethren is not doing what they were created and redeemed to do, which is to reflect the image of God through fellowship. The Bible is so emphatic on this point that it essentially says, you can't have true communion with God unless you are having true communion with the brethren. We can say all day long that we love God, but if we're not showing that love to the brethren, we're lying. I know, just as well as you do, that our culture and our own flesh makes this very difficult on us. Our culture encourages individualism and isolationism. And I just want to say, that is sinful thinking. It is deeply woven into our own flesh and is deeply woven into our culture and it finds expression, in fact, celebration in our culture, individualism. And I just want to say, that might be the American way, but that is not the Bible way. And we must be willing to repent, we must be willing to fight against that sinful impulse of individualism. We've got to look to God's communion within Himself as the example of how we are to increasingly look in the church, in the body of believers, communion with the brethren. That's the whole point of the illustration I gave you there with the vase. We've got to look at God, who is the template of ultimate communion, if we're to have any idea of what we're supposed to look like progressively and increasingly in our Christian lives together as we journey together. Jesus says something very striking in John 14 that I think helps us to understand what communion ought to be in our marriages, in our homes, and in our church family. He says, At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." So Jesus here is speaking about the Christian's communion and joy with the Father. It is a communion that is reflective of the communion and joy between the Father and the Son. Jesus speaks of the Father disclosing Himself to us and how we will also know a mutual indwelling with Him as Jesus says, you and Me and I in you. Again, that idea, that theme of unity and plurality. The Father and Son through the ministry of the Spirit will live with us in intimate unity and fellowship. The triune God, think about this, the triune God and the child of God become one. The Lord indwells His children. And so, what happens here? By sovereign grace alone, we receive God's transparent love, and then we respond back to Him with transparent love toward Him. John has some things to say about this. 1 John 3, 1. Behold, what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. He goes on later, we love because He first loved us. But John doesn't stop there. In the next verse he goes on to say, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." So here's the point. Transparent fellowship, fellowship, communion, true love comes from God to us sinners. It transforms us. And as it transforms us, we respond back with an authentic love and fellowship toward God, and that finds expression and evidence by our transparent love and communion with other believers. I want to ask you a question. I want you to be real before God and with yourself. Does all of this talk this morning about being authentic and real and having genuine community and transparent love, does it make you feel uncomfortable? Honestly? I think if we're all honest, it probably makes all of us at some level feel a little uncomfortable. We are talking about a sort of soul nakedness before one another. A transparency. And I know that might sound shocking, but we've got to understand, the problem is not with God or with God's Word on this score, the problem is with us. That is why we put up the walls. That is why we withdraw ourselves and hide in our little shells. The problem is not with God, it's with us. We fear. We're the ones who ran and continue to run from God and from each other. We're the ones who cover ourselves with the fig leaves of isolationism. Because of sin-guilt, our souls fear communion with God and communion with one another. Fear has replaced trust and transparency. Sin and its residual effects keep us apart at a heart level. But the good news is God's redemptive grace brings His people back together. The Spirit of God, by grace alone, can, as it were, unzip our hearts and allow us to have that free, vulnerable, transparent love towards one another. As we yield to His redemptive grace, God removes the coverings of shame and the barriers to our fellowship in Christ. By virtue of being in union with Christ, we are in union with brethren, and by virtue of both of those unions, we can have communion with both in our Christian marriages, in our Christian homes, and in our Christian community called the local church, as we seek to portray the being of God Himself. Let's understand Family is God's idea. It is God's idea. Family was created by God. It was exampled by God. It's sustained by God, instructed by God, and redeemed by God. It is the idea of the divine family, Father, Son, and Spirit, in order to reveal Himself to humanity. He uses family terms. Royce Money states, And of course, I'm speaking more than just a nuclear family, a Christian nuclear family, but also the Christian family in the church. So as we embark on this series, I want to encourage all of us to examine ourselves and even be vulnerable enough to allow the help of others. To help us see how we can more faithfully reflect God's ultimate family. God's ultimate community. Ken Hempfel writes, in Christ, we are family by birth and adoption. We're going to live together for all eternity. It is high time we begin to behave now like God's forever family.