Food and Family

In this sermon, we explore the significance of family—its joys, challenges, and how it shapes us. Yet, family is not the ultimate goal but points us toward a greater purpose in God’s Kingdom. Learn how to navigate the “mountain” of family while keeping a higher calling in focus.

Society tends to take one of two views on family. It is an old, antiquated custom that needs to be done away with or that it is the highest value and goal for us as human society. Is there a third way that God is calling us to?

John 2:1-5 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

The Power and Importance of Family

Wedding at Cana is one of the most “real” depictions of Jesus. Celebrating with family and community. Family was part of Jesus’ life, the Gospels even record Jesus taking care of mother at the end (John 19:27).

Scriptures depicting the blessing of family relationships:

Psalm 128 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!

Psalm 127:3-5 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!

Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband

Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels

But there is a higher mountain. We don’t want to stay on this mountain top as there is something greater that family points us towards.

“One of the acceptable idolatries among evangelical Christians is the idolatry of the family.” Kevin DeYoung (pastor, professor and author). A powerful and provoking statement.

Family as an

Ways we make family an idol and a high place:

Time spent: As we mentioned earlier, we support our kids….

Parents who go missing from church for entire seasons because of Billy’s youth soccer league or Sally’s burgeoning volleyball career.

The, “It’s all about us” syndrome:

Committed Christians who would never dare invite a college student or single person over for a holiday meal because “the Holidays are for family”.

Longtime members who can’t be bothered to serve on Sundays or reach out to visitors because the whole family always gathers at grandma’s for lunch.

Matthew 13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

The answer: worship the higher

Maintain the correct order: 1) Relationship with God 2) Relationship with Spouse 3) Children 4) Work 5) Ministry

It’s in maintaining this order that we realize that family is not the ultimate, but points towards the ultimate

John 2:3-4 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

If anyone had an inside track to Jesus and his Kingdom, it was his mother. Yet Jesus showed commitment to something higher than his mother and his earthly family- it was to His father in heaven and his plans and purposes.

Mathew 12:46-50 While he was still speRevelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; aking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 10:29-30 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.

Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

True joy in life comes not from rejecting family or worshipping on the mountain of family, it is found in inviting God into our family relationsips and worshipping God and the true family and welcome that awaits us in His Kingdom