Family: Families and Church
by Raymond Sloan
October 30, 2024 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Numbers 1:1-3, Numbers 2:32-34, Psalm 141:1-2, Acts 10:34, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 8:9

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/raymond-sloan--family-pastor-sis-sloan-10-30-24
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Hello everybody welcome let's all Gather in for our Wednesday evening Bible study anybody else glad to be at midweek University I am thrilled that you are here thankful for the spirit of the Lord that is with us every day why don't we all stand to our hands turn around to someone and just look at them don't say nothing they'll be they'll be questioning now why so glad to be here it's our final session for family for the month of October next week brother Rob's in the big room what are you talking about brother Rob treasur Treasures all right I'm sure he'll come up with something very very good tonight we are going to of course start with prayer everything we do in the house of the Lord Lord has to be bathed in prayer has to be that keeps us protected keeps us on the right track right because the word of God is powerful anybody keep going keep going so the homework if indeed the Bible the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword used to divide and separate then while we sit in the house of the Lord we're welcome to use that word and some of us might need to slay some of our old thoughts maybe and old thinking that okay start over let's let's pray to begin Lord we love you and we thank you for the opportunity to be together so important Lord in this hour that we gather lifting holy hands to you we love you and we magnify your name you are the king of glory you're everything that we'll ever need and so much more I love you today I love you right now Lord and I'm thankful to be in your presence thank you for our time together here Lord we come in tonight with thankfulness Lord we enter in with praise right now in thankful Hearts anoint us Lord lead us in the way Everlasting show us the path tonight as We Gather in Your Name Lord we're talking about what you started in the very beginning and that is the family I pray tonight Lord that you would bless every family that's represented tonight in this house and online I pray Lord for the families in our wonderful city of Chattanooga I pray the the anointing of the Lord would break the yoke would destroy the Yoke that would have people bound I pray right now Lord into the families in our church I speak peace tonight Lord blessings in each family we'll love you we'll trust you and worship your name help us tonight God to focus on you to draw closer to you to understand the times in which we are living the seasons Lord help us to comprehend what you are doing we'll love you for it we'll serve serve you forever in the name of Jesus thank you Lord would you take now just a moment and love him come on come on get the world out of your mind get the stuff of the day out of your mind the stuff going to happen later out of your mind allow the power of the Holy Ghost Lord I I'm just hungry Lord to be with you thirsty for your spirit and Truth to work in the name of Jesus be glorified Lord I pray be exalted savior I pray in Jesus name thank you Lord Shake somebody's hand and tell them how glad you are to see them and you can sit down few announcements while you're digging your Bibles notepads out uh hyphen and youth bonfires this Saturday what time is that 6: to 9 very well that's at at the East Ridge Church correct all right and then uh all church prayer uh um is the fourth that's here in the big room celebrate recovery of course on Tuesday nights so there is children's church yes Nursery yes is there children's church all right Tim you can go help them oh he's not up for it okay maybe next time so glad you're all here tonight

we are on lesson number five and uh these sessions over the last several weeks we have endeavored to help establish maybe some better understanding on the biblical principles of the family now if you guys have not noticed my wife is the more practical one she's the one that gives some some some good practical advice and Direction the fact Still Remains is everybody in this room is a part of a family of some type that okay you you guys okay with that could be large or small whatever it could be scattered everywhere it could be within three miles of where you live uh the truth remains that the family is so important now we started let me quickly do an overview we started the series on a Biblical view of God's plan for creating man and woman man and woman was to multiply to have children to establish that unit of family again and again and again and again okay God's plan I've said this several times over the last few weeks God's plan God's way then we we shifted gears and we talked a little bit about the priorities of the family number one everybody say it I must be saved must I must be saved it has to be Paramount in your life in fact establish habits at home so not only you but your your spouse your children anybody in your family can be saved okay and you have to work at that that has got to be intentional all right it's not a roll of the dice it's not a let's see how this turns out but you intentionally decide I'm going to serve the Lord because I want to be saved and I want my children and my family whatever is to be saved and you work at that okay and now I'll ask a dumb question and nobody can you don't have to raise your hand is anybody's family in here anybody represented is all of your family in church loving God I mean all 1,800 of them that's a hard question to answer isn't it because of that we have a job we still have a job to do we just keep working at it all right we then moved into the challenges that uh we face at home addictions lost loved ones divorce uh one who who doesn't believe the way you do every family has challenges every family has things that they work through but it is through the blood of Jesus Christ that we overcome amen we continuously follow the blood of Jesus Christ last week we talked about the beautiful thing called a team how many believes you're part of a team in your family yeah and we also learned that not everybody is a Georgia fan it was the hair had to be the do right but truth is on a team not everybody can be the coach not everyone can be the cheerleader not everyone can be the quarterback the point guard doesn't matter you have to find your place in the family and you follow that place now for this final session and we're going to try our best to stay on the clock what time brother dra do you need to it's a question every week for this final this final session on the families we're going to talk about families and church families and church a community of Believers that have like motives and like methods and like manners okay the Bible is established on principles that literally revolve around family Comm Community being together the teachings that God Gave To His prophets for an example he gave them to them to do what with them what was the what would God tell the prophets of old when he spoke things to them tell the people this or pass this to the Next Generation or teach this to those who you come in contact with right the reason for that is because God knew that the best way to propagate what he is his he is doing what his plan is is word of mouth and you just simply share share share does anybody here know something that no one else in the world knows everybody like well I don't know I don't know a lot the fact is is that God establish with his people how to interact communicate and spend time

we're going to go to Old test is that all right you guys know I enjoy Old Testament in fact we're going to go to numbers Numbers Chapter 1 we'll begin at the beginning of numbers numbers chap 1 verse number one the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tabernacle of the congregation on the first day the second month and the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt saying this is what he said verse two two take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their what families you need to count families okay by the house of their fathers with the number of their names every male by their polls not long ago I did a message on this what did what did we decide polls meant anybody remember all right Conor stand up let's show them come on you got to count all the men every male by their poles point to your hair the hair that's it sorry Seth you don't count I'm you want to move over here next to brother nck you guys can or the on back there y'all can get along right there yeah yeah yeah every male by their po thank you Connor from 20 years old and upward all that are able to go forth to war in Israel thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies and with you there shall be a man of every tribe every one ahead of the House of his fathers now they come out of Egypt bondage is finished with them and God is establishing laws and principles with them at this point in Numbers Chapter 1 there's a reason this book is called numbers anyone want to guess why because it's all about the alphabet sorry the numbers and God was so interested in how he was going to interact with okay I know I'm asking a lot of questions I want to make sure we're engaged tonight how many went into Egypt when they first went in of the children of Israel how many 70 70 went in they went there for the sole purpose of survival is that okay but then years and years Generations later they came out millions and millions all right now God is saying to Moses listen Moses I need you to understand something about my interaction with my people they have never had to fight a war they've never had to do anything like that I've always been there for them they've been in bondage they were brick makers they were slaves they came out of that but now they're having to understand a new life and the way they're going to understand it is the way that families share information that's how they're going to grow so God says to him I want you to count the tribes I need to know how many numbers how many quantity are in each so he goes to nap Dan and Ruben he goes to all the tribes and the numbers are given there 20 years old and up now he told Moses to do this because the men had to find their responsibility in the camp of Israel understand it could no longer be left listen to the preacher it could no longer be left up to Moses and Aaron to fight every battle but they had to get to a place they could stand on their own they're going to face things in the future that they had no idea what was about to happen and God Was preparing them and he was counting the folk so that number one how how many think God knew how many there were so why was God having them count so they would know that all right they would know how many was in each tribe and then what would be required of them now the men had to be ready for war the Bible tells us now in the establishment of the people of God that they would put a tabernacle together according to the plan and the purpose of God everybody say the church the Tabernacle was for one purpose and one purpose only it was so that God's people could see him now God didn't simply say build me a place and make it really nice God said I need you to use this material this much I need you to use it make it this much and this long and this wide I need it to be portable I need you to be able to pick it up and move it I need all and God gave explicit details down to everything even the Rings what to do with the ashes what to do with the flesh Hooks and the pots God left nothing up to them listen to this because God was establishing with them him okay I I want to be with you but if I'm going to be with you as your God you need to understand who I am and unless you do it the way I say I cannot come down there figurative speaking and inhabit a place that you build unless I know that you are serious about building it for me so north south east and west the tribes were divided up and they would put their tents up around the Tabernacle can there's a picture that you guys put this image up for me please now of course nobody lived that's alive today lived then right so it' be really hard to ask somebody but this is a depiction of a of a picture of an image of what would be the Tabernacle a lot of detail in the Tabernacle the curtains the the labor of water the altar when you go into the holy place you got to make sure the tables there and the Candlestick all that you go into the holy h of holies there was what the ark The Mercy Seat that consisted of what anybody listen Sunday what aon's Rod that budded cup of Mana Commandments thank you the command given guys believe it or not we're talking family this is a lesson on families families families notice where they're tent doors are facing anybody see that they were required to make sure they understood East that's their point of reference okay but then God told them in their tribes you've got to take up residence on the four sides of listen my presence now the cool thing about this story is this the Levites who were chosen to be the priest they would set up in Perimeter around the Tabernacle they were the closest to the Tabernacle by proxy does anybody know why the Bible says that because what they served in a tabernacle one yeah there's another more important reason actually if they had to very important that's another reason I'm looking for one the Bible specifically says all of you tribes of Israel you will count the men by their poll 20 years old and up and they must be Men of War listen to this but the Lites they shall not be Men of War listen you tribes will protect the ministry it's in your scripture because if the enemy comes in it even goes a far say if an enemy or a foreigner comes into the camp and gets close to the tent the Tabernacle they must die that's what it says so I'm using this image tonight just a as a simple demonstration of families the beauty of this that I want all of us to really

let's go to Numbers Chapter 2 let me show you something here Numbers chapter 2 verse 32 these are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house House of their fathers all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their host were 600,000 and 3,550 listen but the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel as the Lord commanded Moses the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses so they pitched their standards or their banners their representations and so they set forward every one of their after their families according to the house of their fathers every one of the households keep in mind these this is portable this has can be moved the the labor of water had to have what on the corners rings for what staves to go through so they could lift it all the tent post had to be portable all the curtains that went around it had to have rings so they could slide and they could fold and they could carry it from one place to another it's very portable okay the children of Israel were still traveling and traversing trying to find their promise the beauty of this according to the scripture there's there's over 600,000 of these guys that are ready for War and the fact remains is this when they would can you put that image back up please when they would get out of bed in the morning and they they stretch and yawn and the roosters crowing and the sun's breaking through and the men of the tent would step out of their tent door what's the very first thing they would see the presence of God that's how important it was to God you have got to climb out of your bed in the morning and put eyes on me cuz if you don't and you don't spend time with me your family is not going to know that my power my blessings are there you see the imagery there's men standing at their tent doors now again you can go through a ton of the I challenge you go into into your scriptures and find the building of this and what it was for and how the men interacted and the ladies and the children how all this happened on that day of atonement that holy of holies day when the blood sprinkled the god power of God would come down and would accept what they were doing and and it would reside there that's that's that flame right there that you see do you know what was required for the families to do at their tent doors stand and watch and if they the sacrifice was not accepted the fire would not fall and every family in the camp would suffer from that notice in some of this IM the reason I picked this one notice in the imagery you've got what would look like in most of them you've got a tall figure then a short one see that hard hard to see details but that's not Sam and Lauren that that's a dad and his child son watch watch he did it again God's with us Jehovah's on our side we are okay again we are clean again you see that son go tell your mom go tell your sisters family stay with me just a little longer then I'm going to turn this to my wife and she can do all the exciting stuff every household had to look at the Tabernacle now question in the morning they would get up and they would step outside the tent door they're already dressed it's not like America where you step out with your PJs on that's not they want to see Mickey Mouse and flipflops you know what I'm saying you stepped out like you were somebody well there's a concept anyway so the first thing they see in the morning is what presence of God

the psalmist said this in Psalm 141 And1 Lord I cry unto thee make haste unto me give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee verse two says this Psalm 141 let the prayer let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice the job for the priest in the Tabernacle is they had two Lambs daily that were sacrificed minimal in the morning when the sun broke the sky the sun rises in the any boy scout you know what they're facing East when the sun comes up sacrifice of lamb is made now they can begin sacrifice they have flame they have fire they have wood now they begin y'all got to understand something this was not pretty I don't have time tonight to go through all that this was not a really fabulous looking place this was a place of blood and death and sque sing and squawking and and mooing and nighing and all the things that animals do H this this is this is a place of of mess if it if it had not been for the incense that burned too it probably yeah you understand what I'm saying and this wasn't one day out of 365 no every day except what day Sabbath somebody said Sunday and I was going to go wait minut yeah Sabbath right because they had to rest okay listen to me the evening sacrifice the as the sun was coming down they were required to make another sacrifice of the lamb and that sacrifice would be given at sundown as an evening sacrifice and it would have to be done so that by the next morning what would happen there would still be coals on the altar listen to me Lord let the lifting of my hands be as the evening sacrifice guys you realize dads listen to me families listen to me when you lift your hands it's what sustains you it's what's there in the morning when you get out of bed Lord let tonight let right now the presence that I see there the glory that's resting there I lift my hands to you watch this the first thing they saw climbing out of bed in the morning was what the presence of God the last thing they saw at night as they turned and went into their tents was what now we don't have time tonight to go through it but Deuteronomy gives it this way hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord what do you do you love him with what keep going oh come on Bible guys and then what do you do with what you've just learned teach it to your children when they lay down when they rise can y'all see this connection when they go about their way when they come in talk about this so the evening time sorry for us 2024 the evening time they would not go in and and get on Xbox and they wouldn't go in and watch the game for one they was too tired I mean know A Hard Day's Work makes you sleep good yeah so they would go in and dad would sit there and talk to them in their home these families would gather together in their tent and they would discuss the law of God the power of God the presence of God

I want you to know that the last several weeks Michelle and I've have tried our best to Simply let you know that Family Matters and it is not halfhazard anytime somebody comes about and they they they flippantly talk about their spouse like their their bother or I I I was don't you recognize what's going on what you are doing is you are tying your tent flaps back and everybody's seeing disorder in your home the scripture we talked about in beginning God created man side one flesh now you're a family I know there are challenges I realize that in our culture and our society there are issues that are much bigger than I I recognize the fact that things can happen in your life in your home in your family that don't seem fair and you wonder I'm I'm just a a victim in this and the fact Still Remains at whatever position you are in you can still rise in the morning and love him you can still turn and go in your home at night and love him you can still talk about him in the way you can rise up and speak about him it doesn't matter if everybody in the house is against you we are families am we are families as we grow we're going to reach our city but the only way is when we are healthy families and we're just simply loving the Lord serving the lord believing that God's doing things how many's ever received a miracle from the Lord anybody at all what did you do to make that happen did you conjure it up did you shuffle a board did you squeeze something out of a box did you make the dice roll your way did you spend the wheel of chance no you know what you did you loved the Lord you serve the Lord you went to the Lord and he heard your cry and you prayed and your hands went up and in spite of all your mess and all your mess ups and all the issues in your home and your family God came in and said if you'll serve me and love me I will be there every single second of the day men fathers you stand at the house door and you watch the presence of God move then you take it with you you recognize tonight where the presence of God would reside in that image it would reside on The Mercy Seat can you put the image back please what other reference do we have in the Old Testament of that flame what what is it used for just the Red Sea what and that day y'all going to get me started up in here when the presence of God moved they moved now I'm just going to say this and my wife's going to come bail me out

how long's it been since you moved for the Lord presence of God is moving are you planted so deep that God couldn't pick you up and move you we have to have a desire to want the power and presence of God in our homes and our families I can't give you enough advice I can't give you enough books to read and all to save your family I can't but I promise you if you'll love Jesus and serve him with all of your heart mind and soul and spirit if you'll just worship and love him and be connected to him hey if you'll die daily if you'll repent if you love him if you'll speak in tongues every chance you get if you'll believe him for the miraculous I'm here to tell you God will move and he will bless your family right I can't counsel you out of an issue that's right I can't counsel you into another better marriage or another better relationship I can't do any of that what I can do is tell you this what my wife and I are trying to do is we trying to get you to understand that your home somehow has to be connected to the presence of God that's right I did not say ever it had to be perfect I simply said that you need to want to be in the presence of God serve him with gladness come on sweet people sh's going to close this out for us thank you save me

well praise the Lord there's something uh exciting and and a little bit of sadness thinking about wrapping this up um I've enjoyed this series and I'll just be honest I've enjoyed teaching uh with Raymond there's something about team teaching my session is a lot shorter and than having to do the whole session first of all and second of all it is good to to combine our thoughts on the same subject and to share them with you thank you guys so much thank you for being here um for those that were able to be here I didn't keep attendance but those that were able to be here every Wednesday night thank you for participating in the class during the month of October just being here means you care and you're trying so just know that that that is the important thing pastor's already said it there's no perfect family but if you're here and you're trying and you're willing to grow and to learn that says a lot that says a whole lot I'm going to start out because probably as we get closer to the end of our time I might run run out of time so I'm just going to go ahead and start out at the end and talk a little bit about resources one of the resources and we gathered our information from a lot of different sources prayed about a lot of prayer um in coming up with the titles and the things that we felt like God was giving us but as a resource one of the best resources and we were not able to use all of it and the apostolic family if you've never read this book it is a great book Insight for Living in the 21st Century it is edited by David Johnson but because each section is authored by different authors there's the Bernards in here there's some of our Apostolic counselors that have written in here some of our Apostolic pastors have written different sections in here and there is a section in this book for everyone and so like I said we didn't we not able to touch everything on this but it is a great book and a great resource for you guys to have there are many many other resources and things and if you've been in any of my classes you already know that I very highly recommend dear young married couple I know that that is very geared toward marriage but not always they've been having lots of sessions lately about single adults and lots of other subjects that involve the whole family um parenting marriage all the above so if you've never heard of dear young married couple please see me they do have some wonderful weekly podcasts that you can enjoy as long as as well as lots of other resources um and then I have not been as faithful of listening to it of late but focus on the family has always been a great resource all throughout my um my married life all throughout my parenting life and they have always had lots of good books resources P Now podcast and and uh different sessions we are become I'm so thankful we are getting more and more more Apostolic material out there and there are a lot of resources probably more than we even have time to to research and listen to which is a good thing that means there are lots of um possibilities out there and of course last and certainly not least the Bible when it all comes down to it this has your answers I'm thankful for men of God women of God who write books who put out podcasts and do all of those things but if they're not based in this then we don't need to be listening to them anyway so um the Bible has been our greatest resource and I'm so thankful for that someone a a few of you have asked about our notes I will try my best it may take me a little bit but I will try my best to compile our notes because Raymond has his notes I have mine and um so I will try to compile those and put those out there in a way that you are able to um access those probably on the app um but I'll let you know once I get it once I get around to that okay and if you haven't seen it in a give me a few weeks but if you haven't seen it in a few weeks feel free to ask me because obviously it can fall off of my radar when other things come around all right final thoughts and things I want to share with you tonight I want to thank Raymond for his teaching tonight such a good foundation in how right all of his teaching you can go ahead and go ahead he did a great job especially tonight um I'm really thankful for that because it helps us to kind of get an idea of how important the church is to our families to us as individuals but to our families in the Jewish culture and I love I wish I'd had more time lately to study about the Jewish culture I love so much of their practices and the things they do in the Jewish culture the rabbi would refer to the home as a small Sanctuary or a miniature Temple and that I think that's very uh true and accurate the home should be dedicated to study training worship and prayer those are very very important and I want to say right now that that doesn't come from the church to your house we try to give you some tools to help you along the way but the most powerful churches and I believe that that CAC is headed in that direction the most powerful churches are when those things are happening to the home and you bring them to the church that's when we're going to see Revival that is when we're going to see a a move of God like we've never seen before in Chattanooga that's what's going to make a difference in Chattanooga is when all of us in our individual homes are providing those foundational things and we come here and all we have to come here for is to see people receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost and be filled with his spirit and be baptized in his name in jesus' name I'm proclaiming that in the name of Jesus um unfortunately as I look through you know you guys know me many of you know that I'm a one two three The Ten Commandments you know all the the numbered things there are no Ten Commandments um for how to raise your family or how to interact with your church family but there are a lot of scriptures although we have the Ten Commandments and those Ten Commandments are good practices for us to start with there is no you know God didn't say here are the Ten Commandments for having a peaceful home or here are the Ten Commandments for having a successful home but there are scriptural principles that help us build strong families and a strong church family and we've been talking about some of those tonight unfortunately we don't have time to do a year-long series but I think we could talk about the principles in the word of God for a year and there would still be something else to talk about that we could incorporate into our families we've tried to pick out some of the most important Concepts and principles and helpful tools to help you move along um in a positive way in your family

remembering our vision here at cic is so important so I want to talk to us just a few moments about how you in individually think about your family and what your family's made up of and how do we come together I mean I know I just mentioned one of the most important things are is that we're going to be studying training worshiping and praying at home and so we're going to bring that into the house of the Lord but how do we I think I look around and God made us all unique we've all heard pastors say we all have unique fingerprints because God made each one of us special each one of us has a different personality we have things we like we have things we don't like we have preferences all of those things how do we come together as a body of Believers and make a difference in our world so that's what I want to talk to us just briefly about remember our vision here at CAC is to have a multigenerational multicultural Church that means everybody's not going to look like you everybody's not going to be the same age as you everybody's not going to maybe talk like you or look like you we're all going to be different and unique if we're truly going to have a multigenerational multicultural church we are also dedicated to have some diversity um when it comes to economic background and education levels we should see people of all walks of life and we have a we have a good diverse group here even tonight and and even more so on Sunday but we it it should be our desire for every person in Chattanooga to be welcome here and to come here and grow and to receive salvation every Walk of Life not just my Walk of Life not just your Walk of Life so we have to figure out how how do we do that how do we come together and be able to build a powerful uh force a powerful Institution for the things of God to do so means sometimes we have to learn how to work together we must have a growth mindset in the kingdom of God our families must have a growth mindset individually we must have a growth mindset where where there is the Bible says where there is no vision the people people perish so if we just picture coming in here every Wednesday and every Sunday and sitting with our people then that's exactly what we're going to do is come in here and see here with our people but we've got to have a growth mindset we've got to have Lord help me to change my mindset so that I can reach other people that I can incorporate things into my life that would help us to work together in unity a few things that I'd like to share and by no means is this list exhaustive um there would be many many many and Brother Don would never get to get up here with his music team to lead worship so I'm going to keep it to three first of all God loves all of us and so so should we God loves everyone and so should we

in Acts chapter 10 verse 34 I'm going to read it in the God's word translation I'm not sure which translation they're going to put on the board tonight then Peter said now I understand that God doesn't play favorites God does not love you more than he does the person sitting beside you God doesn't love you more than he does the homeless person out on the street God doesn't play favorites we're all very very important I want you to point to yourself and say I'm important and to the person next to you you're just as important you are just as important so God loves all of us and we should love everyone as well all right let's REM number two remember all members of the church family are important we all have our preferences right we all have our likes and dislikes our preferences but sometimes our preferences had to be laid aside for the good of the entire body we have to remember that when we're bringing our family now when I'm at home what's most important for my family is what needs to happen right well how do we take that and we all come in here with our our family being the most important one in the world right and how do we become one great big family in the family of God we have to realize that we have to sometimes put aside our preferences in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 I'm not going to read that entire chapter that teaches about the diversity of people and the diversity of gifts and the diversity of different members of the body of Christ and we all are needed in the body of Christ I'm going to leave that for you to take home as homework to read 1 Corinthians chapter 12 the scriptures also teaches us not to be a stumbling BL block excuse me stumbling block to someone else in 1 Corinthians chap 8 ver9 but take heed lest by any means this Liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those that are weak so we we want to love everybody and we don't want to be a stumbling block I just want to show share this for an example um one of the principles that I try to do when I am thinking about whether or not and I tried to use this when I was doing it with my family but when I'm in the house of God when I am deciding on whether I'm going to do something or not whether I you know let me use an example I may be sitting up here on a Sunday morning and I may be trying to decide H do I need to I need to go to the bathroom maybe I need to go to the bathroom and I have to stop and think and one of my principles is if 10 people were to do what I'm getting ready to do would that be A disruption so I stop and I think hm do I really have to go that bad because if 10 of us get up and go to the bathroom at the same time that may cause A disruption and I'm just using that as just a brief example so think about that sometimes when you're trying to decide if you should do something should my family do something should my children do something if 10 or 20 people did it at the same time would that be a distraction another example is elderly people we don't have a tremendous amount of elderly people in our church I'm thankful for us that are older and I'm thankful for you that are younger but if we wait to teach our children how to treat elderly people or not to run in church because they might knock down an elderly person we don't wait until the elderly people come we train them now so the elderly people will come right so those are just some examples of how we have to remember that we are looking at out for the entire body of Christ and last and certainly not least

teach your other family members how to respect authority and the order God has placed in the church Unity is not always agreement but we've learned in our in our sessions how to deal with disagreements we've learned that instead of complaining or getting angry that we use the Matthew 18 method right so we're going to use the Matthew 18 to deal with our disagreements and the things we don't agree with but we're going to teach our family members to love and respect the house of the Lord to love and respect the authority in the house of the Lord thank you CAC you guys were so kind Brother Don if you guys would come you guys were so kind to honor um Pastor on Sunday and our pastoral team I'm so thankful for all of them so grateful ful for the men and women of God that he has given us in leadership in this church we are blessed we are so very blessed thank you Sunday school teachers for teaching the young people I really enjoyed going home and reading pastor's book where the kids wrote things about him and wrote Things um and what they were thankful for it was really meaningful let's

let's go ahead and stand I am so thankful for a church family you guys are the backbone of CAC you are the ones your families are making the difference here and if we all bind together and all of our families together we're going to see a difference in Chattanooga pray with me right now as we begin to thank the Lord for what he has done and what he is going to do in Chattanooga Lord thank you so much you are good you are Mighty God and I am so thankful thankful for the opportunity Lord to learn to grow Lord help me Lord Lord Jesus help me Lord to reach Lord this city Lord help my example Lord Jesus to affect and light someone's world I pray right now in the name of the Lord hallelujah Hallelujah in Jesus name let's worship together