Why God Wants Us To Treat Everyone Like Family
Who’s ‘in’… who’s ‘out’… Are we really called to treat everyone like a part of the family? Or is this more of an expression of how we should try to live, primarily with other Christians?
This week on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’ll show you what scripture teaches and try and convince you that God wants you to treat everyone like they are part of your family.
Treating others like they are family is an extension of the Good News. A place at your table is a place at our Heavenly Dad’s table. Sharing your resources, home, and time is sharing all that God has poured into your life for your pleasure and for his glory. All of this so that the world would know, love, and trust Him.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- A Biblical outline of how God created humanity and sees all of his image-bearers.
- The distinction of what it means to be a “child of God”.
- What happens when we treat everyone like family and let God sort out where they’ll spend their eternity.
- What to do if you were raised with a more “closed” view of family.
From this episode:
“Like in the story of the prodigal son found in Luke, the younger brother never stopped BE-ing a son to the father (in reality), but he lived alienated and separated from the father because of his selfish and sinful choices. In this story we see the father rush to restore his son to full privilege and status within the family.”
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Free Download of the Big 3 For Episode #395
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Get Caesar’s latest book: Bigger Gospel for FREE… Click Here
Transcript
Why do I say constantly and try to live this way?
Caesar:Treat everybody like family.
Caesar:I think everybody's gonna agree.
Caesar:Starting out here that everyone was created in the image of God.
Caesar:And while sin has separated us from God, his image and his glory are never completely removed from his humans.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And they should therefore all be treated with love and respect.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Baseline.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Baseline.
Caesar:I agree now to take it a little further.
Caesar:Genesis 1 26, 27, then God.
Caesar:Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Caesar:So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created them male and female.
Caesar:He created them.
Caesar:So right there it is so minimally.
Caesar:You should treat everybody with complete love and respect cuz they're image bearers, man.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now we also believe that the Bible teaches that all humans people's nations share God as their ultimate father and therefore we see many scripture.
Caesar:Old and new Testament that refer to God as the father of all people and all people as offspring children to God,
Heath:Welcome to the everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of.
Heath:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Heath:This is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Heath:And now here's your host Caesar.
Heath:Kalinowski
Caesar:all right.
Caesar:Good to be here.
Caesar:Hey, I am kind of excited today.
Caesar:I gotta tell you, this will give you a little insight into, to me who I am.
Caesar:I went out and bought a whole bunch of new fishing gear, all kind of getting set up for saltwater.
Caesar:We moved from the Midwest out here to the Pacific Northwest almost.
Caesar:Let's see what I like 18 years ago or something like that.
Caesar:And I have never reset myself up with new fishing gear though.
Caesar:I've been fishing since I was a little kid.
Caesar:In fact, my tackle box is still full of lures and hooks and a bunch of stuff.
Caesar:My childhood.
Caesar:But when I moved out here, it's not that I haven't done no fishing.
Caesar:And when I travel, I fish, but I've always used other people's things, but this was the year.
Caesar:This was the summer.
Caesar:It's been so nice.
Caesar:And I've had some pretty good fishing experiences here.
Caesar:Recently, I went out and I got a whole bunch of new stuff and my son gave me.
Caesar:A fly rod that he had inherited.
Caesar:I got that all tuned up and ready to go.
Caesar:So yeah, I kind of went from having nothing set up for this area of the country to four poles and a bunch of new flies and gear.
Caesar:And also I'm pretty excited, pretty excited.
Caesar:Uh, anyway, some of you don't care about that at all, but, uh, I just, sharing, what's going on in my heart today.
Caesar:So, Hey, do you listen to the podcast on an apple device or an iTunes?
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Caesar:Give us some stars review that it really helps.
Caesar:And I love reading reviews when they come.
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Caesar:I would really appreciate that.
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Caesar:So I'll just thank you in advance for taking a few seconds here to bless me and bless others.
Caesar:Hey, and if you're interested in learning more about the full framework for discipleship and mission that we use to make disciples and develop leaders, we do all that through our.
Caesar:I want to help you with that.
Caesar:If you're interested, I would love to kinda set up a short zoom call with you.
Caesar:Get to know you better get to know your stories, answer any questions you have and tell you about how the coaching works and hopefully, maybe get you started with Tina.
Caesar:And I, soon we coach ask couples and we coach couples.
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Caesar:But if you're married, we want you to do that together as couples.
Caesar:You can go and find all the information on that and even set up that little zoom call.
Caesar:If you'd like, all you have to do is go over to everyday Disciple dot com slash coaching.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So today I wanna discuss a topic that I get asked about.
Caesar:All the time.
Caesar:I think it lately has been the most discussed messaged, emailed, pushed back, brought up live when I'm training topic lately, I just keep getting it and keep getting.
Caesar:And what that's about is people are asking like, Hey, you talk about everybody being family, or you call everybody brother, or we should treat people like family and they kinda push back because the church has wrongly taught that it's only Christians.
Caesar:It's only someone who says a Jesus in your heart, prayer.
Caesar:Who's the family of God and they misquote one verse and I'm gonna talk more about that and they try to build the whole thing, but it's just not the case.
Caesar:And I wanna have the heart of God in how I treat others.
Caesar:And I'll tell you, it changes everything about how you approach people, how your time gets spent, how people view you.
Caesar:Time with you and your home and your family and all that stuff.
Caesar:So would you, uh, take a listen here as Heath and I dig into this and I think you may be a little surprised by what scripture actually teaches.
Caesar:So would you take a listen as Heath and I dig all of this out.
Caesar:We're gonna go deep into scripture.
Caesar:Talk about the whole thing.
Caesar:I kind of wanna give a record of it, cuz I get asked about it so often.
Caesar:I think you may also be a little surprised by what scripture actually teaches.
Caesar:Let's.
Heath:Why don't you tell us where you first got this concept of treating everybody like family
Heath:in scripture?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Well, in fact, I think I see it throughout all the scripture, Heath.
Caesar:It's not like I ha I'm gonna hang my hat on.
Caesar:Like you should treat everybody like family.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:On a scripture it's actually.
Caesar:It's through everything.
Caesar:Would it be okay if I took a few minutes right here at the top of show to unpack some of that?
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:Permission.
Heath:Granted,
Caesar:I'm gonna go a little bit deep because I've actually been challenged on this.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That like, no, no, no.
Caesar:Only Christians are really sons and daughters.
Caesar:So you shouldn't treat, you don't have to treat anybody like family.
Caesar:Sure you treat it more like a target oh gosh, you like a goal or whatever?
Caesar:No one, well, no, some people will say that, but let me, I hope that we all believe that every human, this is where you have to start.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Why do I say constantly, like, and try to live this way?
Caesar:Treat everybody like family.
Caesar:I think everybody's gonna agree.
Caesar:Starting out here that everyone was created in the image of God.
Caesar:And while sin has separated us from God, his image and his glory.
Caesar:Are never completely removed from his humans.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And they should therefore all be treated with love and respect.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Baseline.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Baseline.
Caesar:I agree.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now to take it a little further, Genesis 1 26, 27, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Caesar:So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male, female.
Caesar:He created them.
Caesar:So right there it is so minimally.
Caesar:You should treat everybody with like complete love and respect cuz they're image bearers.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now we also believe that the Bible teaches that all humans people's nations share God as their ultimate father.
Caesar:Therefore, we see many scriptures old and new Testament that refer to God as the father of all people and all people as offspring, children of God.
Caesar:So for instance, Deuteronomy 32 6 is not, he your father who created you, who made you and established you.
Caesar:Yeah, Malachi two 10.
Caesar:Have we?
Caesar:Not all one father has not one.
Caesar:God created us notice there's no, has, do we not all have one father if we've prayed this prayer sure has not one.
Caesar:God created us after we, no, it's these are big.
Caesar:I mean, Malachi, this is big global prophetic sort of statements, right?
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:So let's just jump to some new Testament stuff though.
Caesar:Act 1724 to 29.
Caesar:And I'll, I'm gonna move through this a little.
Caesar:I won't read every word, but the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So he made the world and everything in it and does not live in temples built by hand human hands.
Caesar:And he's not served by human hands.
Caesar:Rather.
Caesar:He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Caesar:And then moving on later, it says we are his offspring.
Caesar:Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image that's made by human design.
Caesar:He's saying that we're all offspring.
Caesar:What's offspring.
Caesar:It's not the word for children.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Now he's saying this is a worldwide thing.
Caesar:He's not saying this to like people sitting in a church service or whatever.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:First Corinthians Paul speaking, eight, six here.
Caesar:He says there's.
Caesar:But what God.
Caesar:The father from whom all things come and for whom we all live, same explanation that Paul is giving here is exactly what we saw in act 17.
Caesar:So it's not just an old Testament thing or understanding here's Ephesians three, if you need more.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:I think you need more Ephesians three 14 to 17.
Caesar:I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
Caesar:Now, if that's not a familial.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:What is every family in, in heaven on earth drives its name from what the same father, our father, the father we knee before Ephesians four, six, there is one God and father of all who is overall and through all.
Caesar:And in all.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Notice, it's not just saying Christians.
Caesar:That's a lot of alls in there.
Caesar:That's a lot of alls note.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Paul works really hard here and often to make the case to both Jews and Greeks.
Caesar:That we are to see this one, amazing God is father, and that we are his offspring, everyone.
Caesar:And that God loves all of his offspring.
Caesar:And then I gotta give you one last one.
Caesar:It's one of my personal favorites, Hebrews two 11, but the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.
Caesar:So Jesus is not a shame to call them brothers and sisters.
Caesar:Wow, man.
Caesar:Jesus calls himself.
Caesar:Your brother, bro.
Caesar:. Am I proud?
Caesar:And it's this isn't metaphorically.
Caesar:Cuz when you add all this up old and new Testament from the creation order forward, we have the same dad.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:We're all the offspring.
Caesar:We all bear the same last name.
Caesar:All our last name should be Godson.
Caesar:Right?
Heath:That's incredible news already.
Heath:You know, I would say that
Caesar:and that's why, I mean there's my biblical.
Caesar:There's my biblical like reasoning.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It's a pretty guy treat everybody like family and not metaphorically like cuz we actually are.
Heath:Yeah, absolutely.
Heath:There would be many that would say that the new Testament, there's also this concept of the second birth, right?
Heath:Second birth in the kingdom.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:Whereby those who have trusted in Jesus are adopted and new into God's family.
Heath:And again, they're restored.
Heath:As the children of God.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:What would you say to those people that were, that would refer to the second birth
Heath:aspect?
Caesar:Well, I, I think this is largely the point of the conversation that we see that Jesus had with Nicodemus.
Caesar:Let's look at John three, five to seven and then verses nine and 10.
Caesar:So I'll kind of put 'em all together.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Jesus says truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Caesar:That which is born to the flesh is flesh.
Caesar:So that's part of that human family, right?
Caesar:And that which is born to the spirit is spirit.
Caesar:Do not Marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
Caesar:Nicodemus said to him, well then how can these things be?
Caesar:And Jesus answered.
Caesar:Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you don't understand these things.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Some translations say these simple things.
Caesar:okay.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Now, I mean, here's, what's going on.
Caesar:He's saying, yeah, there is like this second spiritual birth, but it doesn't remove.
Caesar:Your familiar connection to God sure.
Caesar:It's a like physically.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's who you are, but spiritually.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:That's a second birth.
Caesar:That's the being born again.
Caesar:Now the grace of God brought to us through Christ provides those.
Caesar:Who have forsaken their spiritual father, like the, like say the prodigal son.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:A way to be adopted anew spiritually as children of God and thus heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, like Romans 8.
Caesar:Absolutely.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:So again, just like the prodigal son that we see in Luke, the younger son never stopped being a son to the father.
Caesar:In reality, he was still his son, but he lived alienated and separated from the father because of his selfish and his sinful choices.
Caesar:In that story, we see the father restore his son to full status in the family, the status that he always desired, that he'd have.
Caesar:In fact, in his heart, it never changed for him.
Caesar:He was broken-hearted that his son was not living his identity and his authority and his privilege within the family.
Caesar:So now in many ways we see the exact same picture with the older brother who all he was living physically close and in proximity to his father.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:He had a heart issue and a relationship that was far from the father and he felt like he had to earn his father's love.
Caesar:So John one 12 to 13, yet to all who did receive him to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the spiritual children of God, children born, not of natural dissent, that's our physical birth and our physical family aspect, but sure.
Caesar:Nor of human decision, but born of God.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So notice that last line is really a Gospel presentation.
Caesar:Children born, not of natural dissent nor of a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Caesar:So wait a.
Caesar:God does it.
Caesar:God did it.
Caesar:God was the one who runs out down the driveway to grab the son, put the ring in the on and remind him of what's already true of him.
Caesar:Restore him to full status in the family.
Caesar:Always a son, but he wasn't living like he was.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:That was a beautiful thing.
Caesar:Now, by the way later in John 11.
Caesar:John's reporting on the religious leaders in their plot to kill Jesus.
Caesar:And he says, uh, then one of them named cephas who was a high priest that year spoke up and he said, you know, nothing, you not, you don't know anything at all.
Caesar:You don't realize that it's better for you.
Caesar:That one man died for the people than the whole nation would perish.
Caesar:John speaking then says, he'd not say this on his own, but it's high priest that year.
Caesar:He prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation.
Caesar:And not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of.
Caesar:To bring them together, make them all one.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:It's more LA I mean, it's just, it's all through it, bro.
Heath:It's riddled with this family.
Caesar:Time's super all through it.
Caesar:So we see here, this term is used both to refer to those who have been born again of the spirit, having put their faith and trust in Jesus.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:But it's also this idea of family or children's also referred to the larger children of God, of the lost humanity.
Caesar:Huh?
Caesar:It, it is.
Caesar:It is.
Caesar:And I think what's most interesting here is that all of the new Testament writers focus.
Caesar:One familial language again and again, mm-hmm, , they're always using family language, brothers, sisters, father, I'm your brother.
Caesar:He's your, dad's the same last name, all that.
Caesar:And secondly, who God is and how he sees us.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And then third, the focus on what God has done in and through Christ.
Caesar:To sort of bring us back into the fold so we can enjoy all the stuff.
Caesar:That's ours,
Heath:dude.
Heath:I've never seen this so clearly laid out before, like it's so
Heath:convincing.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:So now the question is if you believe that to be true yourself, bro.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And everybody listening, then you have to believe it to be true of everybody else.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And so that's why you go like, oh, we wanna treat everyone like family.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:And as someone who knows you and Tina and the family, like, I know that this isn't just stuff you pedal on a podcast, but it is truly the way you live.
Heath:I see it in our friends and people have history with
Heath:you guys.
Heath:What,
Caesar:by is grace man?
Caesar:But like now we know no other way to live.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:We just, we don't.
Heath:Where did this start for you?
Heath:Like what changes, uh, were necessary for your family to start moving toward believing and treating everybody else as
Heath:family?
Caesar:Well, I think before our theological understanding caught up with our practice.
Caesar:God had led us early in our marriage.
Caesar:We always had people around.
Caesar:We just did.
Caesar:I don't know.
Caesar:There was always someone kind of either living on the couch or living in the basement on an mattress or, yeah, sure.
Caesar:You know, we kicked the kids out of their room and now it's this guy's room.
Caesar:And one time we was like, son, we're giving up your room and there's a whole family lived in there for like, I don't know, six or nine months.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Multiple times.
Caesar:So our kids really didn't know a life without someone else being with us.
Caesar:And we'd always say like, well, they're part of our family.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:And so that means, yeah, we're gonna bear with one another and sometimes they're gonna be in the bathroom first and sure.
Caesar:You know, they're gonna eat up some of your favorite snacks and you're gonna have to share your stuff differently.
Caesar:It was the best possible thing to see and treat other people as family, even before we understood the theological part of it.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:For what it exposed of our own selfishness and fear and weirdness all that.
Caesar:And so little by little though, as we then started seeing, oh, wait a minute, discipleship happens in all of life and I'm gonna treat people like a brother or sister.
Caesar:And we started asking questions like, you know, that single mom that lives down the street, his house is just like a dump and a mess.
Caesar:And she's just angry all the time.
Caesar:What if that was your actual sister or aunt or something?
Caesar:Would you just be like, yeah.
Caesar:Walk the other way or would you try to do your best to see is it possible with, within what I have.
Caesar:To treat them like family.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Is it possible?
Caesar:Could we, and so that's how it started moving there.
Caesar:And I, I mean, we could spend, we could do a whole series of separate podcasts called you know, people who lived with us and what it taught us, you know?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Cause it's just, once you start living that way and you see need you just, and you see what, like what you benefit, it's like, it's like experiencing, God's treating you like family when you treat other people like family.
Caesar:It really is.
Heath:It is beautiful, man.
Caesar:I can remember.
Caesar:I can remember one time a guy came, uh, he.
Caesar:So, this is, this is a story of, of a Christian Guy, but he was, um, He was, I think from Sierra Leone.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:He was huge, huge black person.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Big black guy.
Caesar:And he was head of a big ministry over there and he was in the states for something.
Caesar:I had known him from doing work over in Sierra Leone.
Caesar:And he was I'm not kidding you.
Caesar:He was like six, four or something.
Caesar:And like very, very, very dark skin.
Caesar:A very deep voice he was just like a beautiful, awesome dude.
Caesar:And he came and stayed with us for a little bit.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And I can remember never being so proud of what God was doing in our family.
Caesar:We were starting to kind of get to both, both in practice and theologically, but now sure.
Caesar:When Kristen, uh, our second oldest and our first oldest daughter was probably about.
Caesar:Seven or eight at the time.
Caesar:And we didn't have a spare bedroom at that point.
Caesar:So she was given up her room for him to stay with us.
Caesar:She took him by his giant finger and walked, can I take you up and show you your room?
Caesar:No way.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And walked, he came down nearly in tears and said like, Hey, usually.
Caesar:Like kids, especially little white kids.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:They're just afraid of me and your daughter like blessed me so much.
Caesar:She took me upstairs and said, here's where this is.
Caesar:And here's where some towels are.
Caesar:And we didn't say, Hey, like not wait any gets here, you know?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:She just saw him as like, oh, you're part of this family now.
Caesar:That's how we roll.
Caesar:Yeah, man.
Caesar:And he, then while there living with us.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Not that long, but then he, he made this deep connection with my son.
Caesar:Was just like a couple years older, so maybe 10 or something, 11 or 12 at the time he wrote my son for years, they wrote back and forth.
Caesar:Oh yeah.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:It was just beautiful.
Caesar:That's right.
Caesar:And so when you live like that and you treat other people like family, then you experience like yeah.
Caesar:We're part of God's family and look how we get to share.
Caesar:And there's always plenty in God's economy, so yeah, we'll sort, it we'll work it out.
Caesar:My kids don't look back at that time.
Caesar:Good.
Caesar:You kicked us out of a room that time for.
Caesar:Oh, what?
Caesar:It's the opposite and you know what?
Caesar:They all live exactly the same way now.
Caesar:Yeah, they really do.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:They're good.
Caesar:Kids are, they really lived exact same way.
Caesar:There's people just floating in and outta their life all the time.
Heath:all right.
Heath:So this next question I'm gonna ask.
Heath:I know I'll get, I have a couple friends that are, it's gonna ruffle some feathers and, uh, but I have to ask, I know a guy who knows this, I know this guy, I've got some close friends that are gonna go like you asked . That because you wanted me to listen to the podcast right.
Caesar:Lay it on me.
Heath:Lot of families will use the excuse.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:But you know, we're really a private family or.
Heath:Something along those lines, like we don't, we wanna be really safe.
Heath:We don't want to put our kids in a weird situation.
Heath:Would you get that?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:There's weird.
Caesar:Scary people out there.
Caesar:Yeah, sure.
Caesar:You can do life is full of me.
Caesar:There's a lot of it,
Heath:but there's a lot, but, but we often are taught to mind the thing behind the thing.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:And, uh, and so I think, I know we're gonna go with this, but what would you say those people who go like, that's really great for some families, but we're really private.
Caesar:Well, I think start by asking yourself why you're so private in your family life.
Caesar:Like, you know, are you, maybe you inherited that?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Maybe there was such levels of dysfunction or self love and selfishness or fear that you inherited it, or maybe that wasn't how you were raised, but for whatever reason now you see like, my home is my sanctuary.
Caesar:My sanctuary's not Christ.
Caesar:It's my home.
Caesar:You know, it's my, my, my, this my time.
Caesar:My, so ask yourself, why are you so private ask yourself, are you afraid to let your redemption show.
Caesar:Meaning we're not perfect.
Caesar:And we're just fighting it'll.
Caesar:Yeah, exactly.
Caesar:People.
Caesar:I mean, all you have to do is hang out with us a little bit.
Caesar:Like we just had a house full of people for three or four days.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Everybody probably saw Tina and I disagree not get along, maybe short.
Caesar:With her, her to like send me away.
Caesar:But then they also see us like forgive and like, love on each other and you know, all of that.
Caesar:And then, or, you know, ask for forgiveness in front of people.
Caesar:Like when you blow it in front of people, you should like fix it in front of yeah.
Caesar:So ask yourself, like, are you afraid of that?
Caesar:So often I think in the church and I've actually had not yet believers.
Caesar:Tell me, yeah.
Caesar:All you Christians.
Caesar:I know.
Caesar:You're all perfect, but I'm not like, yeah.
Caesar:So like I want people to know I'm not.
Caesar:Yeah, because I want them to know the only hope to have the life we.
Caesar:You created to live and to have kids that do grow up and love God and love people.
Caesar:Well, sure.
Caesar:The only hope we have is in Christ.
Caesar:It's only, the only hope is to be restored back to believing like the prodigal son.
Caesar:This is my dad and nothing I can do can separate me from it and he's waiting to love on me.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And so Jesus gave his entire life for us.
Caesar:His entire ministry was all in light of him heading to a cross.
Caesar:And that was costly.
Caesar:And so, yeah, there's gonna be weird people in your life.
Caesar:We've had people staying with us that's like seriously or like who come around a lot.
Caesar:Mm-hmm where literally we'll sit and talk and go.
Caesar:Would not surprised me if that guy like showed up with like an ax and just killed us all, you know, like that might be how God takes us back, you know, home seriously.
Caesar:There's been those kind of people, you know, we've had homeless people staying with we've had people showing up and then just in there and then boom, then in the morning, where'd they go?
Caesar:All of it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I've had stuff stolen outta my house.
Caesar:I still can think of like my favorite leather jacket, it's gone, you know?
Caesar:Oh.
Caesar:And all that stuff.
Caesar:But then I think about like, but I've never had anybody rip out my beard and spit in my face and hand me to a cross and all that.
Caesar:But my, my, my brother, my Lord, he did that for me.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And so, so like, why are we living so private?
Caesar:Yeah.
Heath:And I think one of the things that you're not saying, though, somebody might be able to like misinterpret it if they're not paying attention.
Heath:Okay.
Heath:Well, you're just saying never to be alone.
Heath:And it's very easy to look at the life of Jesus and go, no, he, he, he didn't invite everybody to everything.
Heath:That's right.
Heath:He still included everyone in his family, but he had things that he went off to pray alone.
Heath:He took three disciples at the mountain alone.
Heath:I mean, it wasn't, everybody's coming to everything.
Heath:So
Heath:maybe clarify that a bit.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Well, just like with my own, my nuclear family, part of it, like there's times when I'm just with my son.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Or there's times when I take my daughters on date.
Caesar:Or Tina and I are a lot without our kids now, cuz they're grown.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Still a family house has still got people floating in and out all the time.
Caesar:So yeah, that's right.
Caesar:It it's very easy and I'm glad you brought it's very up to think like, oh, if you're gonna live like this live, like with an open home and treat everybody like family, like family, like really treat 'em like family then.
Caesar:You can't say no to anything, and they're always gonna be like in your refrigerator and all your stuff's gonna be broken and gone and all that.
Caesar:And I've told the story about a couch getting shot, literally with a 45.
Caesar:And you know what I mean?
Caesar:All kinds of crazy stuff.
Caesar:That's not what it means because you know what part of being a family and living openly is, is.
Caesar:You could call me or you could stop by at any time, you know, I'd be fine with it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:But if I was doing something, I'd say, you know what else?
Caesar:I'm fine with.
Caesar:Hey, now it's not a great time.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:See again, because see, I'm not living for your approval and I'm not, I'm not treating you like a family to.
Caesar:Manipulate you into liking me or earn something from you or prove to God that I really love people, you know?
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Like I'm trying to live it out of a genuine, like God loves and treats me this way.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Like he loves and treats me like that.
Caesar:Even when I am prodigal, he's more prodigal.
Caesar:He's like more radically invested in me.
Caesar:And so since I'm not trying to earn anything from God or you, yeah.
Caesar:I can also live openly and say, now it's not a great time.
Heath:Yeah.
Heath:thats great.
Caesar:You get to,
Heath:so how would you say we often talk about the up in out of this?
Heath:So as we're looking at being representatives of Jesus to this world, how do you think the openness of our family and the way we construct our family speaks to outsiders or people that don't know Jesus as good news?
Caesar:Well, I hope it's already become apparent and obvious, you know, as we've talked about this, but.
Caesar:If for instance, people think God is distant.
Caesar:God's this big mean God, or God's not knowable, you know, like he's like a totem pole or something.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:He's not a personal God.
Caesar:He's not a person.
Caesar:Even the Trinity.
Caesar:It's not a person.
Caesar:God has a father.
Caesar:God is a son.
Caesar:God is a living, breathing human spirit.
Caesar:It's a person, there's a personality right there.
Caesar:If people don't see God that way, but you treat them like family.
Caesar:Because God treats you like family right now.
Caesar:It starts to shift their, be their unbelief.
Caesar:That God is distant and he's not really like a, oh, he's like a father.
Caesar:Cause he up in the cosmos, he, I guess, big banged, everything to existence.
Caesar:So in that sense, it's like mother earth, mother nature.
Caesar:No.
Caesar:When you treat people like a family, like a brother, like a sister, when you share the things you have, when you let your redemption show, when you open up.
Caesar:Goodness and your flaws to people and you're okay with it.
Caesar:When you seek forgiveness, when you're open about that, all that, then you're showing people like, maybe there's good news for me too.
Caesar:Like if you get to live that way, and part of your story is that's not how you always were.
Caesar:That was not my bringing up by the way.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:At all.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Like my mom had a couple of friends.
Caesar:She had like a sewing club and we had, I'd see those people, like once a month, like six or seven times a year, my dad only had one friend that I knew.
Caesar:And a half sorta see them about once a year.
Caesar:That's just how it was.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:There was nobody around from my parents.
Caesar:There was nothing I can remember.
Caesar:One time a family member staying with us.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:One time, very different than where you lived all.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And so I didn't always live this way.
Caesar:, you know, just for my own heart response.
Caesar:And so when we live open, when we see everything we have is actually dads, who's given it to us for our benefit and pleasure, but also for his glory and to show the world what he's like, he's generous.
Caesar:He's patient he's open.
Caesar:There's always a place at his table.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:When we live that.
Caesar:I think that's helping people move from unbelief to believe about what God's like.
Caesar:ie glorifying God.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:We get to, yeah, we get to, Hey, let's get to the big three takeaways from this episode.
Caesar:If nothing else you don't wanna miss these three things sort of like the big three things not to miss.
Caesar:It's why we call 'em the big three.
Caesar:And as always every week, I'll send you the printable PDF of this.
Caesar:If you'd.
Caesar:To big three, y'all print it out for you.
Caesar:It's a downloadable PDF.
Caesar:All you have to do is go to everyday Disciple dot com slash big three that's everyday Disciple dot com slash big three.
Caesar:And we'll send it right out to you.
Heath:Caesar.
Heath:What are the big three for this week?
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:First one, God has always seen you as his beloved child and part of his forever family.
Caesar:Hm.
Caesar:He's always seen you that way.
Caesar:He created.
Caesar:Eternal, you will live forever with him or separate.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:He is your perfect father and Jesus is your brother.
Caesar:So do you believe that regardless of how imperfect our earthly families may have been or are we have a perfect eternal family and our position that family is now secured by Jesus.
Caesar:We have a perfect father.
Caesar:We're that's our family forever.
Caesar:Secured, not by us, not by our good works, but by Jesus.
Heath:It's good news, man.
Caesar:Super good news.
Caesar:Super good news.
Caesar:Second being a part of God's family comes with authority and privilege.
Caesar:I really believe that.
Caesar:And I think scripture teaches that live your life, like a son or daughter of the king.
Caesar:Yeah, like, think about that.
Caesar:Your father owns everything.
Caesar:He holds nothing back from you.
Caesar:And this also allows you to live outrageously generous lives with others.
Caesar:And just as God shared his greatest, most valuable asset of his son, Jesus, we too can share all of life with others, trusting God for our safety and our stuff, and also trusting him for every outcome.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Remember Romans eight 28.
Caesar:All things work together for the good of those who love him.
Caesar:Those are being called according to his purpose and you've been called his child.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Already have love that third treating others like their family is an extension of the good news to others.
Caesar:Like we just talked about that.
Caesar:Don't miss that a place at your table is a place at our dad's table.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Our heavenly father's table.
Caesar:Sharing your resources, your home, your time is sharing all that God has given you.
Caesar:We're all born naked with nothing.
Caesar:So sharing all that stuff is sharing God's stuff for your pleasure, cuz he loves you.
Caesar:But also for his glory, he said that the world would know him and love and trust.
Caesar:Oh, those are great takeaways, man.
Caesar:That's big three, man.
Caesar:Don't miss those, if nothing else.
Caesar:So thank you.
Caesar:You're welcome, brother.
Caesar:I hope those are encouraging and challenging to folks.
Caesar:Now let me ask everyone, do you have certain people in life that you seem to worry about what they think of you or your opinions or your performance or your choices?
Caesar:Some people even more than.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Well, next week, we're gonna explore why we're so caught up with what others think of us and why maybe we need to stop worrying about it so much.
Caesar:I think you'll find freedom in this and I hope you'll be there.
Caesar:I'll talk to you soon.
Heath:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday Disciple dot com.