Inviting Brothers and Sisters In to Overcome Sin

1/5/2007

If we combine the together-life we were just talking about with what this brother just said, the fact is, he cannot be a good father by himself. I cannot be a good father in my home by myself. It’s not possible. I will not be very good. But if Jeff or Dave is in my home many nights, then those brothers will tell me if I’m not treating my children or wife very well. They will put their arm around me and go for a walk with me and say, “Brother, sin is crouching at the door.”

It’s very important to understand that if darkness is in your home, then you invite brothers and sisters into your home to help you overcome that sin. You will not get it right all by yourself in your home. You will be selfish, prideful, lazy, angry, foolish or disconnected from the eyes of your children or your spouse.

God has not called us to fix things first and then go out. Do not misunderstand this point: we do not fix our families and after they are fixed, we then go out. Because of the Cain that’s in my heart, I won’t get very far in fixing everything by myself in my home. It’s too large for me, and I don’t know my own heart well enough to fix it. But if ten or twelve of Cain’s brothers and sisters are surrounding him in his home with his wife and children, they can help Cain overcome his sins before he kills Abel.

Man says, “Focus on the family.” God says that those of the second-Birth are our Family. Do you remember when Jesus’ brothers, sisters and his mother, Mary, came to visit Him? Someone came and said, “Jesus, your mother and brothers and sisters are outside.” Jesus didn’t say, “Excuse me, I need to go be with them, fix them and then come back.” The Bible says that He looked at those seated in a circle around Him—the people who were following Jesus—and said, “These are my mothers, my brothers and my sisters.” He didn’t say they were two separate things, but that He would pull them both together.

My household is one hundred mothers, brothers and sisters, and not just those with my last name. I don’t fix my family and then go out. I bring the Life of God into my home and they fix me. I need the Jesus in you to help me raise my family. So, we don’t fix our family and then go out. We invite the House of God into our lives every day, and we all help each other push satan out and crush him under our feet.

Where we live, many believers are in my house and in each of our houses every single day and every single night. We help each other know how to raise our children and how to love our wives. If we all waited until after we fixed our homes before we got involved with others, we would never be able to leave our homes. The job of changing my life is too big for me to do by myself. We need each other every day! This Good News of the Kingdom shall go into every nation and then the end shall come. Amen?

Amen.

•  Inviting Brothers and Sisters In to Overcome Sin