Can God Restore Broken Families?

Can God restore broken families? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We pray that you had a wonderful weekend. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now and we can take your calls for the next 25 minutes or so. At this number, it's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites and you can email us anytime at questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Jeff in Lodi, California. Jeff, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes. Well, thank you for taking my call. I'm going to set this question up just a bit.

So give me a second here. I serve as an elder in a small non-denominational church here and we attract people from various churches with different backgrounds and so forth with a clear gospel message and an all-about-Jesus focus here. Some have asked about our stance on spiritual gifts, focusing on toes, dreams, and visions. We have a need to minister to all these people and we always want to be careful to always point them to Jesus.

My question is, can a stance or position be made or advice given that will always glorify God and point people to Jesus without shutting the door by telling people how or how not to worship? Jeff, I just want to say first, God bless you in your service to the church as an elder and I love just the description that you painted there of the congregation that you're a part of focusing on Jesus, the gospel, and that does attract people from all different backgrounds. When the gospel is central, when Christ is being exalted, the church is going to be this diverse place where sinners who struggle with different things are coming together, people with different backgrounds, and so I love that you're a part of that. The new covenant outpouring of the spirit that was expected by the prophets, and part of that involved dreams and visions. You remember back in Joel chapter 2 verse 28, it says it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Now what was unique about this in the context of the Old Testament was under the old covenant, the spirit of God came upon the prophets and the kings, the priests, but what was pictured here is this democratization of the spirit. That is, the spirit isn't just going to be for the priests and the prophets. Your sons and your daughters, everyone in the church is going to be filled with the spirit, and this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Peter talks about this in Acts chapter 2 in verse 16.

And so you see this very clearly. Now the question is, what's the stance that we take as believers now under the new covenant? There are people who come to churches, to the church that I pastor, who say, well, are we supposed to be having dreams and visions? God has worked in that way throughout redemptive history, but ordinarily, I would say, you know, we shouldn't expect God to give us dreams and visions in order to communicate his truth to us. We have it right in front of us in the Old Testament. In the word of God. So one of the things I like to do is say, look, there are ways in which God works extraordinarily, right, you know, miraculously, and that's just not the common everyday Christian life. And then there are the ordinary ways that God works through faithful elders like yourself, through faithful pastors who are preaching Christ, who are grounding people in the word of God.

That's where we need to focus. I've seen this over and over again as a pastor. We need to help our people be rooted in the scriptures, not chasing after signs and wonders. If God wants to do something extraordinary in an individual's life, that's God's prerogative. He can, and he does, but it's extraordinary.

It's not the normal thing that we expect. And so I would say when you're having conversations with people who are coming to the church, say, yes, God has throughout redemptive history worked in these ways. Right now he's speaking to us through his son, Jesus.

This is what the author of the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two. He's speaking to us in his son, and that's where we need to focus, Jeff. Jeff, thanks so much for your call, and thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, hop on your phone right now and call us at 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the CORE. You know, according to the Bible, what is the meaning and purpose of marriage? We actually have a wonderful little booklet that dives into that topic we'd like to offer you today. Yeah, the booklet is called Why Would Anyone Get Married? And there are a lot of questions that people have today about marriage.

What should it look like? What's the purpose for marriage? How can we have God honoring marriages as Christians in the midst of a society that oftentimes minimizes the importance of marriage, the sanctity of marriage, the beauty of marriage? It's really important for us to understand what the scripture teaches on these things. So head over to corechristianity.com to get your hands on this resource. It's available to you for a gift of any amount by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, that's corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Why Would Anyone Get Married?

It's a great booklet that'll help you, especially in maybe some discussions with the people that have a different view of marriage in our culture. But let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers earlier this week. Hi, my name is Destiny and mine isn't a question. It's a prayer request. I heard on the radio someone else was having difficulty with their mom and stepdad and I'm in the same situation.

All five of my sisters and I have ran away from home because of the conditions at the home. So I just want everyone to pray that God enters my mom's home and into her heart and mind as well as my stepdad. I hope that one day we can all reconcile our relationship and that God just grabs a hold of us all of our lives.

Thank you. Thank you, Destiny, for giving us a call and I definitely want to pray for you and for your mother, for your family, and then I want to try to give you some encouragement from God's Word. Father, we lift Destiny and her siblings up to you. We lift her family up to you. We pray, God, that you would pour your mercy out upon her, that you would provide for her and for her needs, and that in this time, Lord, of being separated from her home, Lord, that you would meet her.

God, I pray that you would surround her with solid Christian community, men and women in the faith who can encourage her and help to care for her and for her family in this time, and we do pray for her parents, for her mother, Lord, that you would open their heart to you, to your son Jesus, that you would be at work in them by the grace of your Holy Spirit. Please be with our sister, Lord. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Destiny, there are a couple of passages of Scripture that I want to go to just to encourage you. They're passages that have encouraged me throughout my life as a Christian, in particular in the Psalms. David, the Psalm is said in Psalm 27, verse 10, For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. God cares for you, and He cares for all those who are uncared for, those who are neglected.

In particular here, I mean, it sounds to me like there's some really difficult things going on in your home, like your parents have not been there for you, like they should have been there for you. And so I would say go to those passages, go to that passage right there, Psalm 27, verse 10, to know God's grace and God's kindness toward you. Another passage of Scripture that I think you can derive comfort from is Psalm 68, verse 5. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God, as He's seated upon His throne, looks out for the fatherless, those who are in need.

And it sounds to me like you're in that situation right now, Destiny. I want you to know that the Lord sees you and that God is able to bring healing in broken families, in situations like this. I just this last week, yesterday, preached on the restoration that Joseph experienced with his brothers in Genesis, chapter 45, where after being basically left for dead by his brothers, abandoned, forsaken, God worked this amazing miracle, this amazing reconciliation. And so always, always have that hope that the Lord is able to work, continue to pray for your family, trusting that the Lord is working in these circumstances and that He's going to draw you near to Himself through these difficulties. And so may the Lord be with you, sister, and thank you for giving us a call.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Here's the number. It's 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THECORE, if you want to spell it out on your phone. Let's go to Charlie in Carlock, Illinois. Charlie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes. Can you hear me? Hey, Charlie, I can hear you.

What's your question, brother? Oh, hey, my question is how do we use God's name in vain? Of course, if we're, you know, say Jesus Christ in anger, I'm certainly using it. But I watch these shows on TV with remodeling places and then the people come in and go, oh my God, it's so beautiful. Isn't that using God's name in vain?

And plus, not only that, but what are other ways that I can teach my children and grandchildren to be careful not to use it in other ways, too? Do you have other examples and what do you think of that? Yeah. You know, it's one of those commandments that, I mean, typically when I hear people talking about taking the name, the Lord's name in vain, of course, this is something that's forbidden. You think of Exodus chapter 20. They're thinking about just what you said, you know, those sort of, you know, one line phrases using the name of God. Anything, Charlie, I think that minimizes the majesty and holiness of God and those things associated with the true and the living God, the worship of the true and the living God, right? Those are ways that we take God's name in vain. I mentioned, you know, I've been preaching through the book of Genesis.

When Jacob is deceiving his father and he's dressed up as his brother Esau, one of the things, you know, that his father asks him is how, you know, how were you able to catch this game so quickly, this food for me? And he says, well, God helped me to do it. He's invoking the name of God and yet he's taking the Lord's name in vain as he does it.

He's lying about God. He's minimizing God's glory, God's holiness. And so insofar as we do that, whether it's through the way that we speak or how we live our lives, minimizing things like the importance of Christian worship, gathering together with the saints, anything associated with God and his name, if we're not treating it with the reverence that it deserves, we're taking the name of the Lord in vain. And so I think that the big thing that we do and that you can do for your children, for your grandchildren is set an example for them by treating God's name with reverence. I mean, it's what we pray in the Lord's prayer. You think of how Jesus taught us to pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. God's name can't be any more holy, if you will.

God is holy in and of himself. But we're praying that in our own lives, in our own hearts, we would give God's name, the reverence, the glory that it deserves. And so I would say pray that and mean it when you pray it and teach your children to pray that.

Hallowed be thy name, lest we take God's name in vain. So may God give you the grace, brother, to do that, Charlie, for yourself and for your children and your grandchildren. And I love that you're thinking about them as well. Charlie, thanks so much for your call. I really appreciate your sensitivity to God's name and what the word commands us.

That's really wonderful. We appreciate that and all of our listeners who really dig into the scriptures. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, doctrine, theology, or maybe you're somebody who has some doubts about Christianity, we'd love to take your call as well. Here's the phone number.

It's 833-THE-CORE, 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Cameron who's calling in from Texas. Cameron, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Howdy, brother. I appreciate you being able to take these calls.

This is a great way to serve the body. I was actually just looking for some insight. I'm in a stage of life. I've got a really good community of believers around me that I've been able to pour into and sharpen. And in the next year, I'm foreseeing that God's calling me out of that. So in this final stage within this community, I'm just looking for some insights into how I can practically ensure that while I'm doing life with people and demonstrating Christ's love to the congregation around me, that I'm guarding their hearts against them, misattributing my actions to myself rather than to the Lord. What are some ways I can ensure that I'm simplifying Christ and not distracting with myself or with my own character? If I'm phrasing that correctly, do you understand what I'm asking? Yeah, I think so. God bless you as you seek to serve the church as well, Cameron.

So a couple of things. You know, the Apostle Paul does say in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1, Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And so the life that we live as Christians and in particular as leaders in the church should be an imitation of the Lord Jesus. He'd call people along and say, hey, follow Jesus alongside of me. But we're following Jesus. We're not making followers of us. In fact, this is what the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, as he's speaking to the Ephesian elders, warned against.

He said there are going to be savage wolves who come into the flock, not sparing the flock, seeking to draw people away after themselves. It's one of the signs of false teachers that they want to make disciples of themselves, not disciples of Jesus. And so I think, I mean, this is a really important question, and the way we go about it is continually putting the focus back on Christ. It's not me. I'm not the Savior.

I'm not, you know, this spiritual guru who's going to transform your life. It's Christ. So our focus as leaders in the church has to be the cross.

I mean, the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And one of the things I love about Paul, Cameron, is he wore his weaknesses on his sleeve. He made it very clear that he wasn't this superstar Christian. He talked about his thorn in the flesh. He talked about the weakness, the fear, the trembling that he oftentimes had. And it was something that you could see in his life. He was a real person who was clinging to Jesus. And that's got to be us, I think, as leaders. We're real people. We're honest about the fact that we're not the Savior.

I mean, you think of John the Baptist. I'm not the bridegroom. I'm sent before him. He's the one who needs to increase.

I have to decrease. And so throughout your service to the church, as you're doing life with other people, as you said, and as you're caring for members of the church and talking about the Word, opening up the Scriptures together, I think it's being vulnerable and it's also keeping the focus on Christ as the one who really is going to transform the lives of people. And so may the Lord bless you as you do that, as you seek to follow Jesus and make disciples, not of yourself, but of Jesus. And may God help us all to do that. Some great counsel.

Thanks for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. A reminder, we have that wonderful booklet available for you today.

It's basic on what is God's view of marriage, and it's called Why Would Anyone Get Married? And you can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Also, you can call us if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, or maybe how your faith intersects with what's going on in today's culture.

We're still taking your phone calls at 833-THE-CORE. We also have a YouTube channel, by the way. You can watch Adriel on YouTube in the studio every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time.

Eduardo sent us a message through our YouTube channel. Adriel, here's what he says. Is lack of assurance a sin?

And then he gets specific here. He says the canons of dort seem to make assurance more essential than the Westminster Confession does. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, I think that you're talking about some of the historic confessions, confessional documents coming out of a particular Christian tradition, and documents which I happen to really appreciate and use. But specifically, and this is a question that every single one of our listeners can relate to, is the question of assurance, having assurance that I am indeed a child of God, is it a sin when I doubt that? Do I have to have perfect assurance?

Can I have perfect assurance? I think it's very clear that we're called to have assurance. You think about what John says in 1 John, I believe it's chapter 5, I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life. God wants you as a Christian to know that you have eternal life. And yet assurance is something that many of us as followers of Jesus struggle with in the Christian life. You know, we wonder, well, am I really the Lord?

I still wrestle with sin. I wonder, is my faith real? Or am I just deceiving myself, that kind of a thing. Not having assurance doesn't mean that you aren't a Christian necessarily.

I think that's an important thing. Sometimes people think, well, I don't have assurance, maybe I'm not a believer. No, true believers can struggle with this question of assurance. And you can have real saving faith and still have doubts at times, especially if you're really struggling with sin, walking with the Lord, and you just look at your life and you think, oh man, I messed up again, I really belong to Jesus. That's why it's so important for us, Eduardo, to get our assurance from what God has done for us objectively.

The best thing to do when you're struggling with assurance is not to dig deeper inside and to look further within the caverns of your heart to see how much love you have stored up there. The reality is all of us struggle and fall short. The best thing you can do is look away from yourself and look up to Jesus. Set your eyes on Christ and Him crucified for the salvation of sinners. I love the encouragement that the apostle Paul gives to the church in Rome in Romans chapter 5, where he says God demonstrated His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And if God loved you, sent His Son into the world for you as a sinner, then do you really think that the fact that you still struggle with sins as a believer is going to change his mind?

He's going to stop loving you? So these are some of the ways that I've comforted myself over the years, and I think it's just important for us to have that sure confidence in the work of Christ objectively for us. Jesus lived, died, rose again from the dead. That's what we sink our teeth into, our hope, our faith into, and that's where assurance comes from. And so I appreciate your question. It sounds to me like you're digging into the word and the history of the church, and may the Lord bless you as you do that, Eduardo.

Thank you, Eduardo, for your question. And Adriel, that just brings back that point that so many of our listeners struggle with, circumstances and feelings versus the objective, finished work of Jesus on the cross. And we always need to look outside of ourselves to God and what He has done for us, not what we're feeling at the moment, correct?

Absolutely. Yeah, God wants to teach us, I think, oftentimes to rest in His word as opposed to our emotions. We typically, you know, we go to our emotions, to our feelings. We need to go to the word and rest in what God has said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Cinch.

He's got a quick email here from John. He says, if we're saved by His grace and our sins are wiped away by the blood of Jesus, then why do we always have to repent of our sin that we have committed? Yeah, that's a great question because we do often talk about the fact that, you know, the work of Jesus on the cross for us, the salvation we've received, you know, all our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. And so then why do we keep on confessing our sins?

Why do we need to? Well, I think a great text to go to is in 1 John, 1 John 1, verse 5. This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think your answer is right there. We are called as Christians to walk in the light.

And what does that look like? It looks like that is parallel to this idea of confessing sins. We are called to walk in the light. We are called to confess our sins. And as we do, we have not just fellowship with God, that sweet communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but we have fellowship with each other as believers, peace within the body of Christ, because all of our sins have been washed away.

And so we continue to confess. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.