Family in the Season of Shining Light – John 8:1-12

With Jesus’ love, I warmly welcome you to our Family Sunday in our Season of Shining Light. A family Sunday is where God teaches us the basic principles we need in our journey to becoming like Jesus and shining lights to families around us.

A family is a group of two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption who live together; all such related persons are considered members of one family. The meaning of FAMILY is the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children. Family is a people or group of people regarded as deriving from a common stock. A family is a group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation. RCCGLCA is a family by the grace of God.

A nuclear family is made up of father, mother and children. They all have a unique role to play in God’s plan for man. We are called to be light to our world. Hence, Matthew 5:14-16 says, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The man, woman, and children (Family) are called to be light. Is your family a light?

Individuals make up the family unit and God has bestowed His light on us. Coming together as a family unit is to harness the different lights within us for the benefits of our larger family, community, church and nation.

Examples of Shining Light Family in the Bible.

Abraham and his family are a good example of a shining light family. In Genesis 12, God gave Abraham an instruction (which could be difficult for others to obey) to leave his native town and his people and go to a place He would show him. The Bible does not tell us that God had a meeting with Abraham and his wife Sarah. Rather, the message was given to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Abraham had to relay the message to his wife and family and no one said to him, “Are you sure you’re okay?”. “Hope you’re not losing your mind?” Instead, Genesis 12:4-5 says, “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.”

Abraham and his family were a shining light and God had to renew the covenant He had with this special family. Genesis 15:1 says, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Genesis 18:17-19 says, “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Mary, Martha and Lazarus are another example of a shining light family. If you read Matthew 10:38-42, the Bible gives us an account of when Jesus visited their family. Mary was busy preparing food for the master while Martha was at the feet of Jesus listening for the word of life. In John 11:1-44, we read the account of Lazarus’ sickness and death. When Lazarus was sick, the family sent words to Jesus because they had been part of His ministry but Jesus delayed and stayed back for 4 days. When He eventually came, Lazarus died and was buried for four days.

Now, how do we know if my family, your family, or our Church family is a shining light? We shall examine some characteristics of light in relation to our family. (Characteristics is a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify them). Those identities need to be made manifest in our families before we can say, we are a shining light family.

• Light interfers. Interference is when someone tries to interfere in a situation. Light will interfere where there is darkness. As a family, we are to take action and let our light bring illumination to families who are in darkness. Matthew 5:14-16 says, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
• Light reflects. A reflection is an image that you can see in a mirror or in glass or water. James 1:22-25 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” What are we reflecting as a family?
• Light has Value. Values mean the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something. Consider to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of. Do we have family values and what are we doing to maintain such values? As we learn from the Scriptures, a command was laid over 2,700 years ago upon the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that they should drink no wine, neither they nor their sons forever; and the injunction has been obeyed to this day. Jeremiah 35:1-19 gave us an account of the Rechabites with Prophet Jeremiah. God instructed Jeremiah to test the Rechabites by bringing them to the house and setting wine before them. See their response in verses 6-9 says; “But they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever. You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.’ Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed.” Ambient or general lighting, Task lighting or Accent lighting.
• Light diffracts. Diffraction is the process by which a beam of light or other system of waves is spread out as a result of passing through a narrow aperture or across an edge. Nothing can stop light from shining, in the same vein no obstacles is able to stop our families from shining. No matter the challenges on our way, we must continue to shine the light of Jesus Christ. Matthew 7:13-14 says, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” We must always be prepared to go through the eye of the needle in our journey of becoming a shining light family.
• Light travels in a straight line. Light can have an impact because it travels in a straight line. If we and our family desire to have an impact, we must travel in a straight line. Matthew 5:33-37 says, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. We must be transparent.
• Light gives direction. Direction is defined as the path that something takes, the path that must be taken to reach a specific place, the way in which something is starting to develop or the way you are facing. Your family, my family and our family are to take the lead and give direction to other families around us. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” Isaiah 30:21 says, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”