Feb. 1 – Genesis 26:1-33, “Offspring as the Stars of Heaven”

Feb. 8 – Genesis 26:34-28:9, “He has Taken Away Your Blessing”

Feb. 15 – Genesis 28:10-22, “The Gate of Heaven”

Feb. 22 – Genesis 29:1-30, “Why Have You Deceived Me?”

            

“Family” is one of our core values here at Woodmont. If you come to our Discover Woodmont class, you will hear us talk about how we really mean two things when we say that we value family. First, we want to strengthen and support families. Families are a key part of God’s plan to make disciples through raising children to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Therefore, we invest in kids and youth ministries and resource parents to lead in their children’s discipleship. We pray with grandparents for their grandkids and with parents of adult children who are struggling. We also seek to help married couples reflect Christ and the church through their union with one another. 

            

The other meaning of our “family” value is that we want every church member to fully participate in our lives together as the family of faith known as the Woodmont Baptist Church. The unity of a diverse people coming together to claim the name of Christ together is God’s plan for His church. We have, by God’s grace, saints from various places around the world with many different kinds of life experience. But when we commit to joining this body of believers, we take on the fifty or so “one another” commands of the New Testament. We seek to love one another just as Jesus has loved us in order that all people may know that we are his disciples (John 13:34-35). We rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). We bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). 

            

And we freely acknowledge that being a “family” is not easy. Doing life together, both in our homes and in our household of faith, takes intentionality and effort. I had a counseling professor in seminary who reminded us that we all come from families, and all of our families have their issues. We therefore all carry some sort of baggage with us. Therapists refer to unpacking these issues as “family of origin work,” and it can be a painful and difficult process. 

            

What we will see this month in Genesis 26-29 is that even God’s own special family had plenty of their own issues. Remember, the most important event in between the time of Adam and Eve and the time of Jesus comes in Genesis 12 when God calls Abraham and announces his plan to make a family for Himself. The Lord promises that, through Abraham and his offspring, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The Lord promises land and blessing and innumerable descendants, and Abraham believes him. He buys in to God’s program and thereby plays his part in fathering God’s covenant people. But he almost immediately messes up. He puts his wife in danger to save his own skin. He lies. His faith wavers. Later, he and Sarah try to speed up God’s plan on their own by bringing another woman into their marriage. 

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This month, we’re going to see how Abraham’s family continues to fall short – Esau squanders his birthright, Jacob lies to his father, Rebekah schemes against her husband who loves her dearly. We might be tempted to think that God chose the wrong people for his plan! But here’s the amazing thing – God never gives up on them. He continues to show grace and work out his perfect plan through Abraham’s descendants. He continues to fulfill every promise that He made to Father Abraham. He never leaves them or forsakes them.

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So my prayer for this series is that we all would take heart from God’s faithful affection towards His people. We, too, fall short in our homes and in our church. We often think that we know better than God, that our ways are better than His. And yet He never walks away from our family. And He never changes His mind about us or withdraws His love from us. Why? Because, for Christians, we are His family. He calls us children and leads us as a good Father. Let’s go forth as a family, then, following our Father into His plans for us, knowing that His kindness towards us, in spite of our weakness and failures, will never run out. 

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Grace and peace,