Sunday August 22, 2021 | Greg Boyd
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
As members of God’s church, we are called to share the gospel in every part of our lives. Our family is central to our daily lives, but we often don’t think about how we can intentionally live out the gospel in that setting. This sermon addresses this topic.
The church is a body of people, comprised of all of us, who are sent out to be ambassadors, with the mission of living as Christ’s hands and feet. Whether you attend services or participate through podcast or live-streaming, we all need to be asking, how can I partner with what God is already doing to bring the Kingdom to our families, friendship networks, co-workers, and neighbors?
In this sermon, Greg focuses on being sent to share the gospel in our families. Because the idea of the nuclear family has only been around for less than a century, for the purposes of this sermon, “family” can be anyone you most intimately share life with on a daily basis.
Loving the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind looks like keeping God’s instructions in your heart, and reciting them to your children and talking about them when at home and away, in the morning and at bedtime. It means saturating your family with teachings of God and integrating Yahweh’s teaching into every facet of your life.
In order to discover how families can foster this way of loving God, Greg invited Bill Doherty into a conversation to discuss the importance of family rituals. Through this conversation, you will discover what rituals are and the role they play in family formation.