From Servant to Friend to Brother: Your Family Ties With God

Sermon outline

Under the new covenant God no longer treats you as a servant, or even only as a friend, but as family, so you can live, pray and expect as one of His own.

1. Knowledge puffs up: let the Word be your plumb line

   People operate from their level of knowledge and often feel superior, but knowledge puffs up; what matters is how you apply it and how yielded you are to the Spirit. It does not matter what Auntie Susie or Uncle Harry says, only what the Word says. Rightly divide it, locate yourself in it, and meet every challenge with the Word instead of focusing on the challenge.

   Illustration: At a graveside committal years ago, a mourner from a Christian family in his church did something at the casket that showed he was acting on tradition, not on the Word.

   “Understand that the word of God is a plumb line in your life.”

   • 1 Corinthians 8:1
   • Psalm 119:105
   • 2 Timothy 2:15

2. Put Isaiah 55:8 to rest

   'My thoughts are not your thoughts' was God telling Israel that He forgives freely where people hold grudges; it is not a verse for born-again believers to excuse confusion. Now that Gentiles have been grafted in, born again and filled with the Spirit, God's ways become our ways and His thoughts our thoughts. So he 'baptises his day' with confessions and expects God to show him the way in every decision.

   Illustration: With five job offers in front of you, you are not in confusion or darkness; the Lord will show you which one to take.

   “I don't get up in the morning and I'm confused about my day. No, I baptize my day with success.”

   • Isaiah 55:8
   • Romans 11:17
   • Romans 8:28
   • 2 Corinthians 4:7
   • 1 John 4:4

3. Who are you, and where do you live?

   You are a spirit being who has a soul and lives in a body, yet many people worship their jobs and feed their bodies while their spirit man starves. So when he asks where you live, the answer is not a street address in Durban but 'right here', because where you live is where God lives. Heaven is inside you and the Word is near you.

   Illustration: People living on butternut, scones and peanut butter, making sure the body never goes hungry, while the spirit man walks around shrivelled with malnutrition.

   “Where you live is where God lives. Everywhere you go, God goes.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 5:23
   • Romans 10:8

4. From servant to friend

   God called Job 'my servant', which was a great honour in the Old Testament. Jesus changed our rank: 'I call you not servants but friends', because He has made known everything He heard from the Father. The Greek word philos means dear, actively fond of and associate, so there are no appointments and no blockages: you have free access to Him. He chose you and ordained you to bear lasting fruit.

   Illustration: Religion painted God as an old man with a long beard and a big stick waiting to swat you on the head.

   “No appointments, no blockages, free access to the presence of God.”

   • Job 1:1-8
   • John 15:14-16

5. From friend to brethren

   After the resurrection Jesus told Mary, 'Go to my brethren', and said 'my Father and your Father, my God and your God'. The Greek adelphos means from the same womb: we are born of the same incorruptible seed, the Word. Paul prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, calls us God's offspring, and teaches that those led by the Spirit are sons who cry 'Abba, Father' and are heirs. This changes your prayer life and ends your struggling, because your Father provides.

   Illustration: If your Father notices every sparrow and numbers the hairs on your head, why ask who will put food on your table or pay your bills?

   “I used to deal with God as a servant and a slave. Then I dealt with God as a friend. But now he calls me brethren.”

   • John 20:10-17
   • 1 Peter 1:23
   • John 1:1
   • Matthew 28:10
   • Ephesians 1:17
   • Acts 17:28-31
   • Romans 8:14-17
   • Matthew 6:26-30
   • Matthew 10:29-31

6. Blood brothers: He is not ashamed to call you brethren

   Jesus is not ashamed to call you His brother, whatever you are struggling with. Peter denied Him and still became one of the most fiery preachers, so you are a turnaround too. Sin will not have dominion over you, witchcraft and words spoken against you cannot work, and like Isaac you will wax great until others say you are too much.

   Illustration: The Philistines told Isaac to go away because he was mightier than they were: 'you are too much'.

   “Doesn't matter what challenges are visiting you, you are a turnaround.”

   • Hebrews 2:10-11
   • 2 Corinthians 1:20
   • Colossians 1:13
   • Romans 6:14
   • Genesis 26:13-16