John K. Jenkins Sr - The ABCs of Family - Part 1

All right, I’m starting a new series today. Tell your neighbor, «New series, new series on family.» I’m calling this a family series. I want to start talking about the family. Amen! Somebody say, «Amen!» Thank the Lord for family. Today, I want to begin with a message I’m calling «The ABCs of Family.» The ABCs of family. I want to highlight the fact that families are important to God. So much is learned in the family. The family is designed to teach us various things, like responsibility. You learn to be responsible in the family; you learn how to share in the family. Yeah, you learn how to be patient in the family. I can always tell when somebody comes from a dysfunctional family. That 's right, because you bring those dysfunctions to church. When you can’t get along in your household with your family, then you can’t get along with people in the church. Preaching! All right, looks like this is the section I need to be preaching to right here. If you 're in the family, you learn that life is not all about you — there are other people in the ship, not just you. There are other people in the boat, and in the family, you learn how to build relationships. You learn how to love other people, you learn how to forgive each other, and you learn how to treat people right. Family teaches you those things. However, in dysfunctional families, if you’re not taught those things, you will bring that dysfunction to your job, into church, and into the community. You can’t get along with anybody. See, something’s wrong when no matter what ministry you join in the church, there’s something wrong with every ministry, and the only common element in all of those ministries is you. Go ahead, look at your neighbor; I think he’s talking about you. God uses family. It’s in the family structure that God wants us to see His hand moving. He wants us to, you know, it used to be that families would have family dinners, and during those dinners, you talked about God. You taught the children what you saw God do for you that day or that week, and you testified about what God spoke to you and how God answered your prayer. That 's how kids learned that God was alive and well and still functioning because they heard your stories. That 's right! What you had to share-what God taught you, what God did for you, how God responded to you-that’s how our kids learn. We don’t do that anymore. Everybody has their own dinner in their own room, watching their own television. Families don’t get along together because we are stuck on our phones. Right? Let me say that again; I should have gotten a little more amens than that. We have relationships with our phones, but we don’t have relationships with each other. Yes, sir! I’m preaching already; I’ve already started and haven 't even read a verse yet, but I’m already talking and speaking. I think it’s important that we understand that for God, family didn’t start when you got married. In fact, God views family starting with a single person. The first family was a single man, and God viewed that as family. Okay, let me go over here, because they aren 't saying anything over there, but that’s true! God could have created Adam and Eve at the same time, but He did not because He wants to teach us how important and significant it is for us to learn how to function with Him without having someone else involved. Some of you haven’t learned how to function with God by yourself, and so you think you need someone else in the picture. And that’s problematic because if you can’t function by yourself, you’re not going to be able to function with somebody else. Let me go ahead and leave him alone over there; there’s a spirit of non-amens over here in this section over there. So, family starts with an individual, and I think that’s important. That 's the first thing I want you to know; I want to highlight that. Did I tell you the name of this message yet? Did I tell y’all the title? The ABCs of Family. Yes, I have an A, a B, and a C about family. Yes! I want to start off by telling you that God placed Adam right in the garden. Somebody say, «God placed Adam in the garden .» He put him in the garden. It 's important for everybody to understand that wherever you were raised, God put you there for a reason. Now, I know some of y’all are upset, mad, or don’t like where you were raised, mad with who your family was, upset or disturbed with who your daddy was, or didn 't know who your daddy was, or your mama was this, or your siblings were that, or you were raised in a bad environment. God put you in that environment for a reason. Now, I look back over my life, and I know that where God placed me in my family, I learned a lot from the family that I was in. I think about my own family that I have now-my wife and my six kids .