Reflections: A Fruitful Family
Pastor Rollan Fishe
Songs of ascents are particularly referring to a group of songs that are found in Psalms 120-134 which were sung by worshipers on their way up to Jerusalem for annual festivals including Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles.
They were songs of reflection on the goodness and faithfulness of God that inspired hope and joy at the prospect of reuniting with God and experiencing his full redemption.
In between now and Pentecost (which this year we will celebrate June 9th), it is a good reflection as we meditate on the implications of the hope we have in Jesus.
A Song of Ascent
Psalm 128:1-6 ESV
“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel!”
Focus: What Once Was Lost Can Be Found In Christ
Those Who Fear of the Lord
Model Family
Unto the Peace of God
Those Who Fear of the Lord
The fear of the Lord is what leads to blessing and life.
What is our hope?
Psalm 128:1-4
“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
Hebrews 8:5
Build according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.
As parents, we are the example that is being set.
*If you are a parent, the most important disciples that you will ever make come out of your home.
If you are a spiritual mother or father in the faith, your example is just as powerful.
The question that I need to ask is:
What pattern do I need to model for the children that is not only permissible, but is best as seen in God’s word so that they might be arrows in the hand of the Lord that hit God’s target?
Romans 12:1-2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world….
We need to set the example for the arrows for what is not only permissible, but pleasing to God, not just what is culturally acceptable, but established as best as a pattern from the mind of God to fulfill God’s purposes.
Model Family
No family is perfect, but we have a perfect Savior who can redeem the people who make up these imperfect families.
With whom do you most identify?
*If we are not careful, following the patterns and identity of your blood family can make us deviate from the person and principles of Christ.
Jesus is to be our ultimate standard, not our family of origin.
Modeling = Reflections
Model family
It’s not that you would be a perfect family, but that you would model a godly, Christ-centered family growing in the grace of God, in your relationships with your children in the home and in your relationships with the church community.
When you don’t have the example of a godly family, God rebuilds your image of it in the city of God, the place of worship.
This is why Zion is important - from which comes the laws, commands and wisdom of God.
Psalm 128:5
The Lord bless you from Zion!
What does God want your arrows to look like?
What happens if you’ve grown up without that godly influence in your home?
The beauty of the gospel is that he puts you into not just a natural family, but a spiritual family, where you have the opportunity to have mothers and fathers in the faith who will help encourage, mold and guide you into all that God has for you, just as God intended.
Mark 3:31-35 ESV
“And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you." And he answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."
The great news of the gospel is that your family of origin does not determine your future. God does! We are not only forgiven but freed from the power of sin present in our families over generations. God’s very life - in the person of the Holy Spirit - now resides within us. We receive a new heart, a new nature, and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
When we place our faith in Christ, we are spiritually reborn by the Holy Spirit into the family of Jesus. We are transferred out of the Kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. What determines our new identity is no longer the blood of our biological family but the blood of Jesus. It is a radical new beginning.
The most significant language in the New Testament for becoming a Christian is adoption into the family of God (Romans 8:14-17). The apostle Paul used the familiar practice of Roman adoption to communicate this profound truth, emphasizing we are now in a new and permanent relationship with a new Father, God. Our debts (sins) are cancelled. We’re given a new name (Christian), a new inheritance (freedom, hope, glory, the resources of heaven), and new brothers and sisters (from around the world).
The New Testament assumes that growing into maturity as a disciple happens within the context of a healthy local church. God’s intention is that our local churches and parishes are the communities where, slowly but surely, we are re-parented in doing life Christ’s way.”
-Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Discipleship (pp. 167-168)
Unto the Peace of God
Through Christ, both we and our families can know the peace of God.
Psalm 128:5-6
The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel!”
What happens when we’ve done our best and children go astray?
We continue to fight for them through persevering prayer, loving, but firm interactions and through faith along with the people of God from Zion, the place of worship.
What was lost can be found in Christ.
Remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
As we build our lives around the worship of Christ, peace with God and peace within our families is God’s desired end for us.
However, because not everyone will follow Jesus, we must know that God still offers peace with himself and a spiritual family within which you can find that eternal peace through Christ.
Mark 10:28-31 ESV
“Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
As you receive from those in the spiritual house, you then mature and become that for others as well as we wait in hope for Christ’s redemption.
Because we all like sheep have at one point or another gone astray, we know what it is to need to be found by God.
Jesus is God who took on flesh, the good shepherd who came looking for his lost and wandering sheep.
He came on a rescue mission to live the perfect lives that we should have lived, on the cross die the death that we should have died, in our place, and three days later rise from the dead for not only our forgiveness, but our redemption.
No matter what your family of origin or present family state, God calls you into the family of God where Jesus can both heal and restore your broken heart as you turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus.
He will make you a new creation with a new name and help you to build a new life within the family of God.