Love God. Love Family. Love Others. | Edric Mendoza | September 6, 2026

0:00 Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "Am I really loving the people God has placed in my life the way he wants me to?" We all know that we're called to love God, love our family, and love others. But what does that actually look like? Jesus gives us a much deeper picture of what love really means and what it should look like in our everyday lives. So, in this new series on family, let's take a closer look at what it means to love God, love your family, and love others. Watch this video and let's discover together what genuine Christ centered love looks like and how we can live it out. [music] Welcome to CCF family. Praise God for

0:46 this day to worship and go through this series on love. Families growing in love. So what we will be doing in the next couple of weeks is we're going to go through the different core values of the CCF family. L O V E. Very good. And today we start with L. Love God and love others. Are you guys ready? Yes. Now, as I was reflecting and praying about this particular message, I came across a very interesting statistic that says that in the Philippines, for the first time in our history, TFR, total fertility rate, it is now below the normal rate of about

1:32 2.1. It's now 1.7. What does that mean? Basically, it's telling us that if you have dad and mom, Edric and Joy, and we have two kids, the population carries on. If we have more than two kids, the population grows. If we have less, it starts to shrink. In the Philippines, it's starting to shrink. And that means that the families all over our country are literally at risk of becoming extinct at some point if we keep going. are you following? That's what concerned me. And when I saw this statistic, what is more disturbing is it's global. Everything in blue, including our beloved Philippines, these are all the regions in blue that are also below that

2:17 data point, which basically says much of the world's family is also shrinking, is in in danger of becoming extinct. So the question is why? And there are many factors, many factors you can look at. Um, people are having a hard time with finances, so it's harder to raise kids. There's factors like advancement at work, family saying or people saying, "I don't want to get married until later cuz I really want to make a life first, pursue life, enjoy life before I do that." And there's an anecdote from my daughter when she was saying at one point, you know, dad, mom, I don't want to get married. We're like, why? She said, because I don't want to give birth. It's so painful. So those could be added data points that tell me something. And if I was to

3:04 synthesize why families are under attack, whether it's for this or many other reasons, and even as we hugged and smiled at the start, I'm sure that there are families and individuals who are here live or even online that are deeply hurting. It's a very difficult time for families. And so with that thought, I asked myself, Lord, what do you think is the problem? Why is this happening? And then I came across this passage from Timothy. Paul speaks to Timothy. And I want you to see the heart of God here. But realize this that in the last days, difficult times will come. Are we living in the last days? >> Are there difficult times around us?

3:50 What did God tell us about this time through Paul when he speaks to Timothy? People will be what? Lovers of self, lovers of money. As a result of this self, me, myself, what I want, I want to enjoy, I want to fulfill myself. I want to do these things. They become boastful arrogant slanderous disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy unloving irreconcilable malicious gossip, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, and here's the synthesis, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The family is under attack because what is happening is we

4:36 have misdirected loves. It's me, what I want, what pleasure I get, how I can gain. Tragically, that is what's happening today. So, what we need to do as we look at God's word this morning, this afternoon, is we need to say, you know what? It's time to redirect our love. Look at the person beside you. Say, it's time to redirect our love. Go. It's time to redirect our love. What will we be redirecting it towards instead of ourselves, our pleasures, our desires, my future, my school, my career, my work, my life, my body, my gender. Love God. Everyone say, "Love God. >> Love your family.

5:21 >> Love others." That's the message today. One more time. Love God. >> Love your family. Love others. Let's start with loving God. When you read the passage earlier where we see these instructions, it's interesting that the context is this. The Pharisees heard that Jesus silenced the Sadducees. So they got together and then one of them tested Jesus. Now I'll show you how misdirected this is as well. What they were trying to do is in that first century, many of these rabbis had about 613 different commandments that they already added and created on top of what the Bible had, the Torah. So they were now debating, all right, you know what? I think that this is the most

6:07 important commandment. And these guys are like, no, no, I think this is the most important commandment. So were the different views. And what they were trying to do with their selfish agenda is try to prove who was right, misdirected, not me. We're right. And they wanted to sabotage Jesus' reputation because if he sides with somebody, then everybody else will be upset at him. That's the test. Are you following? Misdirected. So what does Jesus do? He redirects it. Let's see what he does. He They asked him, "What is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to them, "Here is what it is. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might." And then he says, "The second, this is the great and foremost command. The second is like it.

6:55 You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments. Depend the whole law and the prophets." Jesus is saying, "You know what? I'm not going to go into any of your things. I'm going to synthesize all of this into two loves. I will redirect it. Love God and love others. Clear? That's how Jesus responds. So as he says love God, what does that mean for us? Loving God. It says here, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Does that mean there are compartments where this compartment I will love God completely here. This compartment I will love him here. this compartment, I will love him

7:41 there. That is not what the Bible is saying. When we look at this particular love, I was so blessed as I learned even for myself that Jesus quotes this line from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Old Testament Deuteronomy was written in Hebrew. Apparently, when you look at this particular line, it is called a meriism. What is a meism? In Hebrew literature, the way that it is designed is they will sometimes use words as an expression of something deeper, not literal. For example, when the Bible tells us in the Old Testament when Joshua was charged, these words, you must meditate on them day and night. Then you will be

8:26 successful. Do you remember that in Joshua Old Testament? So when it says meditate on it day and night, does that mean I will open my Bible in the day? meditate and then when nighttime hits open it again. Is that what it's saying? Not exactly. It was a meism an expression that for that context meant we need to meditate on God's word continually. Are you with me? So in this case I love this and it blessed me because it reminded me that we're not going to say Lord I have different compartments of my life and I will love you with each compartment. It's actually saying we must love God with our whole being. Nothing held back or compartmentalized or off limits. Nothing held back. I like

9:15 what this author says about that. In fact, he says, "What does that mean for your life today? Loving God in this way." It means God doesn't want a compartment of your Sunday morning. He wants to be the operating system that runs every area. Everybody say every. >> Every. >> Every area of your life. How you work on Monday, how you speak to your spouse on Tuesday, how you discipline your children on Wednesday, how you handle money on Thursday, how you rest on Friday, and how you play on Saturday. I have a question for all of us. Do we love God all in with everything? Or is there something we are holding back? Maybe for some it's Lord, I love you,

10:00 but this relationship is not really honoring to you. Just don't touch this for now. Or God, I love you with all that I've got, but this part of my business, just don't touch this for now. I just can't. Or God, I love you with all, but this relationship, I haven't really fixed it. I haven't really forgiven or I'm trying, but just don't touch this for now. What are we learning to love God? It must be allin everything. Nothing holding back. So CCF family and friends and guests live and online, ask yourself this honest question. What are you holding back in your love for God? And maybe for some the question is a different phrasing. Maybe it's in loving God, what is holding you back? Maybe you haven't fully experienced his love and

10:45 therefore you have no idea. I I don't even know what this love looks like. It could be that maybe you were burned by religion. Maybe you were traumatized by an experience with someone who supposedly is a Christian or follows Jesus and you're like, I don't want that stuff. You know what? That that's that's why I'm holding back. I don't I don't want that, but I'm open, but it's just I've been burned. Or maybe you've had bad experiences, unanswered prayers, and you're hurting. You're saying, "God, I want to be honest with you. I don't feel your love because something's not happening. It's not right." So that could be what's holding you back. Let me remind you of just what this looks like. The love that you might not be receiving or not yet accept or experiencing. We remember that God says

11:32 we love because he first loved us. We're only able to love if we're able to fully experience this. What does that look like? A little taste of that. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's love towards those who fear him, reverence him, are in a relationship with him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions for us from us. And this is also another beautiful verse. God shows us how much he loves us in that while we were yet sinners. Even at our worst, we don't have to be something for God to love us and be willing to show his love for us. While we were yet sinners, he gave us the solution. Sent Jesus and said, "I'm sending Jesus to pay for yours is because I want you to experience my love. I want to be in a relationship

12:19 with you." So the question for you, if this is you, is why don't you open up and say, "Lord, yes, today I want to start that relationship. I want to receive your love. I want to experience your love. So that from this love I can overflow and love you back and love others and my family. Are you with me? So if this is you the question is have you received God's love? I put this in asterisk because as we end later I want you to remember this. If this is you, I want to give you an opportunity to say, "Today, I want to receive that love and experience it so that it will overflow in me, change me, and I might love God the way he asks me to and love others as well." Does that make sense, guys? So, we'll wait until then. In the meantime,

13:04 let's carry on. Love God. The next is love your family. But why should we do this? Well, first of all, let me just share with you. I love my family. So, we're blessed to have six kids, and we're done. Absolutely done. That's it, baby. Right. Six kids, three boys, three girls. And as we think about our own respective families, it's interesting how the Bible says this. He says in the second part, so the first part is love God. It says here, the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So that word neighbor, who is our closest neighbor? Our family. And so even as we look at

13:50 loving others and applying this, we want to make sure that we start this with our closest neighbors, our family. Loving family because they are our closest neighbors. Let's make this even more practical. So this is a family. Dad, mom, brother, sister. The first relationship here we want to call out is the first family relationship which is marriage. So let me ask how many of you are married? Raise your hands. Raise your hands guys. If you're not sure, do not raise your hands. Raise your hand. Come on, wave at me. Wave at me. Married people. Married people. Okay, great. Online, I see you. Sort of. So all the married people, the way we are to love in marriage, a very unique design of God is to showcase Christ and the church. Where do we see that? Let's take a look.

14:37 The Bible tells us the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church. Husband and then it says as the church is subject to Christ so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. So what is the Bible telling us? It's telling us first of all if I husband am going to love my wife, my closest neighbor, I need to love her in this way. I need to love her as the head whether I like it or not. And what does this look like even more tangibly? It says here, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave

15:24 himself up for her." My goal in loving my wife is to love this way sacrificially, selflessly because that's what Christ did for the church. For the wives, what is their way of loving their husbands? It is to be subject to honor, to respect their authority, to support, to subject. That's what it says as the church is doing that for Christ. So the reason we use the word showcase, if a wife loves a husband like this and a husband loves a wife like this, it's a showcase because I like what Piper says about this. He says it's because marriage is patterned after Christ's covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. Therefore, I love

16:12 this. The highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put that covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. Can you all say display? It's a showcase. That's why marriage exists. If you are married, that's why you're married. If you hope to be, that's should be your dream. What he's basically saying is a reminder that if you have kids at home and they see the dynamic, if they see mom not supportive, not honoring, completely um discrediting, challenging husband, what is that telling the kids? Well, I can be this way towards my authority. I can be this way towards God because the marriage is a showcase. If dad is unloving, not kind, not selfless

16:58 towards the wife the way Christ is towards the church, what is that telling the kids? Well, you know what? I guess God is a mean God. Jesus is a mean. I mean, it distorts that view because it's supposed to be a show case. Are you with me? Let me give you an example of a broken marriage and what God does in this case. So there's a couple I know and I'll keep their names anonymous. So we'll use the names Ephine and Anne for now. Ephine and Anne are married and they are corporate people thriving in their jobs succeeding very well. But in the course of their corporate journey, Ephen, he's traveling a lot, gets tempted, gives in, has an an affair, an

17:43 adulterous relationship with another woman. So he now tries to break the news to his wife that he fell into an affair. And when he tells Anne the news, Anne is devastated. She's so crushed and upset. Ephine and Anne do not know Jesus yet. They have not yet received Christ's love in their life. So she's so devastated. She's so distraught. She becomes extremely vulnerable that in her own corporate journey, she then falls into an affair also. So Ephine has an affair. Anne has an affair and Anne has an affair with a married man. So this married man who she has an affair with is obviously has a wife and what Ephine does because he finds out

18:28 he's infuriated. He meets with all of them and the guy who's married and the wife. And as he's sitting them down, the wife reaches out to him and even makes a proposition. Why don't we get back at our spouses and let's have an affair together? It's crazy. It's like a series. And so as this is happening, not yet known Jesus, Ephine stops it, meets with them, and says, he starts cursing the girl. How dare you? I'm going to try and make this work. So he he threatens them. He says, "Do not take this any further. We're going to try and make this work." And then they try and make it work. But because there's no Jesus in their marriage, it was a very difficult road ahead.

19:13 But by God's grace, as they chose that, they attended by chance a wake service. And in this wake service, there was a pastor who was speaking about the news of what God's love can do and how it can transform you. So in that wake service, Ephine and and an individually chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior by God's grace. What happened is since they chose that, then they had the ability to love each other because they experienced God's love and then they healed and then they restored and then they had more kids and now all of their kids are following Jesus and they're discipling other couples with their families so that they too might experience this love

19:59 and they carry on that message. Only God can heal and restore marriages this way. Praise God. >> [applause] >> So Ephine and Anne's marriage are now a showcase, the healing, the beautiful revival of what can happen when it reflects Christ and the church. So the question for the married folks is this. How can I showcase the love between Christ and the church? Now, who are parents? Let's see your hands. Now parents, raise your hands at me. Wave. All right. If you're not sure, do not do that. All right. So, all right parents, let me see you. Okay, quite a bit here in this service. Great parents, this is for us. How do we lovingly or love our children?

20:48 So, I'm going to give you a couple of things from God's word on how to lovingly disciple using this as our centerpiece. The Bible tells the parents, I want to remind all of us here. It says, this is what Jesus was quoting earlier. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. This is the goal as we disciple our children. How will we know if we're good parents, successful parents? It's if we're able to help our children love God on their own with all they've got. Are you with me so far? Goal. How do we do that? These words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. So this word your, who do you think this is? These shall be on your heart. You shall

21:34 teach them diligently to your children, your sons. So this is parents. So as we know this is the goal. The Bible is reminding the parents here. We must model it ourselves first. We must love God with all we've got. And it must show in order for us to then do this. If this is real, we're modeling it. We will teach them diligently. This is the method so that our children will get to this goal. Are you with me so far? But what does this mean? Teach them diligently. It means in Hebrew, I love this phrase, shaunan. Can you say shaan? Sha. Okay. Shannan. Shaunan. And shaan means sharpened by repeated friction.

22:20 What does that mean? Sharpening by repeated friction. It's like that picture when the Bible says uh like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children, right? So you take this, you aim it and let it go. But it's got to be sharp. So what do we do? We sharpen by repeated friction. Make sure they're ready to do what God has for them as they love him. And so that they might pierce the hearts of many others for the same love from Jesus. So let's look at some practical ways. How do we sharpen? How do we help make sure that our children get to that point? A couple of tips. The first is this. Build Luke 25:52 convictions. What are Luke 252 convictions? Wouldn't it be great? Chuck Swindle says, "If we had a playbook when Jesus

23:06 was 0 to6, this is what Mary and Joseph did. When he was 7 to 8, this is what they but we don't have that. Instead, we have these beautiful this this beautiful one line. When Jesus was about 12 years old, they found him at the temple and then boom, he becomes an adult. It says Jesus grew Luke 2:52 in wisdom." Everyone say >> wisdom, >> stature, >> favor with God. and favor with men. So those four areas are the ways in which we must help our children grow and disciple so that they might achieve the end goal because Jesus grew in those ways. Wisdom, stature, favor, God and men. Now the conviction looks like this. So our son Eden when he was very young, we were teaching our sons guys uh we want to give you a

23:54 practical guide because they were asking us questions like dad can we download this app? Can we play this game? Can we do this activity? Can we buy this thing? We said, "Okay, we need to give them a guide." So they form convictions of their own. So the guide we gave them was this kids. If that app, that game, that thing you want to do, those friends you want to have, whatever, if those things will help you grow in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God, and in favor with men, then do it. But if it doesn't, don't do it. So Eden's like, "Okay." He looks up online. He says ah he downloaded this game called Minecraft and he said initially he thought it was an educational game will help him grow in wisdom. So he starts playing the game. Couple of uh babe, was it weeks

24:40 later? Weeks later, he goes to my wife and he's very sad. He's like, "Mom, you know that game that I thought that was educational Minecraft?" And he starts crying. He's like, "It's not educational." I think about the game even when I'm not playing it. I'm getting so addicted. So, I know that it's not good for me and so I need to d to delete it from my my device and not use it anymore. And my wife was like, "Good job, Eden." So, he removed it and he was able to move on and heal from that addiction. The reason I'm sharing that side story is once again for all of us help build convictions where they can make these decisions and say, "This is not going to help me grow in wisdom, stature, favor with God, favor with men." Clear so far.

25:27 Next tip, adapt parenting and discipline. So this verse 1 Corinthians 9:22 is when Paul says, "I have become all things to all men that they might get to know the gospel." In other words, Paul adapts his way of interacting with people so that they might get to know Christ and he might be able to share the gospel because nobody's the same. Everyone's different. Yes or no? >> So in parenting, we need to also adapt and I will share with you what that looks like. But also the discipline that is so necessary in the growth and disciplehip of our children. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child, a child in the way they must go, so when they are older, they will not depart from it." It's so important that we enforce discipline in our children so that when

26:13 they're older, all these convictions, all these desires will be like, "This is my own. I will follow Jesus. I have been built and ready to do this." So, let's look at that. What does adaptive parenting look like? I propose three different hats what we've experienced and what we've learned from very brilliant even uh child psychologists. The first hat is commander. Everyone say commander. Commander. What does that look like? This is about 0 to six years old, right? And what you want to be able to do here is establish authority. There's a guy named Dr. John Roseman, one of the foremost child psychologists who's also a Christian. He said when it's early on, they need to see the authority figures in their life. It creates stability for children early on. So, what does that

27:00 look like? Let's say Kaye, my daughter. If uh it's time to eat. Option one is Kaye, are you ready? Let's go. Okay, this is Do you want to go? Are you ready to go? Okay, do you want to finish what you're doing? Okay, let's go. That's option one. That is not commander. Commander will be like this. Kaye, you're done. Come on. It's time for dinner. Obey. I'm not shouting. I'm not angry. I'm not using big violent words. Instead, I am showing an authoritative voice. I am the authority in your life. You must obey me. Don't ask questions because I am the authority. Right? Clear commander. when we move from this stage to this stage. So here there's obviously disciplining that's

27:46 involved but because we don't have enough time to talk about all the disciplining methods. Follow me as far as this adaptive parenting is concerned. When you hit 7 to 17 years old you now have to explain Kaylee. Let me help you understand something. When you eat food what happens to you? Oh I my body will become big and strong. Great. So if we eat the right amount of food every day and you're not late and you eat well what will happen? I will become big strong smart. Fantastic. That's the game plan. So, if you do this well, good job. But if you do not do this well, what is the consequence? Are you following? Like a good coach, tell them the game plan. Explain why. Show them what happens if they get it done and what happens if they don't. And like a good coach, you track that so you see the progress. Are you with me? Good coach. Consultant

28:31 changes. consultant is for example one of my sons slept very late wakes up groggy the next day misses the disciplines instead of being a commander and saying wake up why didn't you do that do you think that's the best thing for you so instead of being a commander or being a coach I shift it I will ask questions hey son how are you feeling today I'm so tired really what happened oh you know last night I was late I I I spent time doing these things okay so do you think that was the best decision no is I'm messing up today. So, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm going to make sure that today I'm going to sleep by 10. Okay. Well, if you do that, do you think you'll get better results? Yes. Good consultant. You ask questions that will lead them to the right direction and behavior. Are you

29:17 with me? So, that's adaptive parenting. So, one, convictions. Two, adapt the parenting and discipline. Third tip, be a fighter jet parent. There's this uh pastor in Virginia. I I forget his name, but he was talking about helicopter parenting. Okay, I'm going to watch everything you're doing. What are you doing right now? Helicopter parenting. That is not good parenting. But he did say something interesting. He said today because of the challenges that our children are facing, mental health, all these plagues that are happening around us, all these issues. He's saying we need fighter jet parenting. And I love that picture. You come in, boom, destroy what is a problem, solve

30:02 it immediately. What is one of the ways that this translates in the world of digital, which all of us are fully immersed in right now? I love how the Bible tells us Philippians 4:8, "Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, if anything excellent and worthy of praise, dwell on these things." Everybody say, "Dwell." Say it again. Dwell. Is it a suggestion or a command? It's a command. The Bible is saying, "What are you dwelling on right now? Are you dwelling on the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise." It's not a suggestion. So, if

30:48 we do that, we are obeying. If we don't do that, we are not obeying. We are sinning. And we will experience the consequences of that. Let me show you what these consequences can look like when we overindulge in digital which many of us are guilty of. The healthy brain looks like this. The damaged brain on addiction to drugs looks like this. The damaged brain on addiction to gaming and pornography is identical. So what do we do when we're addicted? How do we help disciple our children and even ourselves through this? What we've seen from the research of Brad Huddleston is called a digital detox. Can everybody say digital detox? >> Six weeks, no screens. You're like, I saw your face.

31:35 Six weeks, no dig, no no no devices, no screens. So here's what he says, which is practical. He says, separate creation and consumption. Consumption is scroll, scroll, scroll, watching videos, you know, YouTube, whatever. uh checking on social media. Creation is I'm engaging my classmates for school work. I'm checking online to research for a project or for adults I'm interfacing because of business, for work, etc., etc. Are you with me? That's creation productive. Consumption is just mindless entertainment. Nothing wrong necessarily, but if that's what we're primarily doing, if you want to do a detox, remove all of the consumption for six weeks. When we first did this, we were like, what are we doing? It was

32:21 hard honestly. First time we did this, it was around the pandemic. And we realized that when you are not on these devices, there is a world of just laughing, inventing, play, board games, walking outside together, biking. There's a world that is analog, that is not digital. We call it analog time. And in that moment, in the first week, what I asked my kids, kids, how are we doing? Some of them were like, "Oh, this is so hard, Dad." One of them, Titus, said, "I love it." We're like, "Oh, wow. He really loves it." And we said, "Why?" He said "Because now that we're doing this, I'm able to have time with my brothers and sisters,

33:06 with you, Dad, and mom, which we didn't have before." And so I remembered that deeply and it impacted me because this is what can happen if we disciple ourselves and our children as fighter jet parents addressing this world of digital biblically doing more creation rather than consumption and watching our brains reset. The fourth and last disciple tip I want to give you is this. Um when our eldest son Elijah was praying about where to go to college, we determined that the best route for him was in the US. He had peace about it and although it was difficult, he moved to the US. And as he moved and we went with him to get him settled, I said to him, Elijah, change

33:52 the world for Jesus. This is your chance. You know, this is me, first child, going off with all this zeal, right? And I am like that. If you know me, I'm pretty intense. I'm like, "Change the world for Jesus." It's like, "Okay, dad. Okay, Dad." So in his first week, I caught up with him and I said, "How's it doing, Elijah? How was your first week?" He brings me aside and he breaks down and he said, "Dad, I can't do it. It's so hard. I don't understand how to translate that. It's so big and lofty to change the world. I'm overwhelmed with all these new people, all these new systems in another country away from you guys. And I don't know how to do it." Dad, he was very honest with me. So I said, "Lord, please give me the wisdom." what to say because I don't know what to say to my son. And so as the Lord spoke to me, he reminded me of

34:39 this simple principle. And so I looked Elijah in the eyes. I said, "Son, I am so sorry. Will you forgive me for this charge? It was wrong. It's too big and lofty. You're right. Instead of that, here's what I want to give you from the Lord. Elijah, you focus on being faithful today. Do the best you can with whatever God has given you today. And then you watch him do his thing as you focus on faithfulness. God will take care of the fruitfulness however he wants that to be. Said, "Okay, Dad, fast forward." I caught up with him and he's like, "Dad, I think it's really helping me out." Fast forward to the end of his college. By God's grace alone, this year, our eldest son, Elijah, graduated and he graduated sumakumlaude and validictorian

35:25 effectively in that school. And I'm sharing this to you guys only to show the grace of God and my personal lesson as a father because I really did not know what to say. But God reminded me once again, you focus on faithfulness. So for all the parents here and for all of us here, look at the person beside you and say, "Focus on faithfulness." Go focus on faithfulness. doing the best you can today and then watching God do the thing that he does however he wants that to be that fruitfulness. Are you with me? That really spoke to me and helped me. Parents who are married, we ask you, this is for the parents here. And now I'm going to ask everyone a trick question. How many of you are children?

36:12 Raise your hands. If you're not raising your hand, I do not know how you got here. I really don't. I'm sorry. So I'm going to ask you again. How many of you are children? Raise your hands. Yes, we are all children, right? We are all children because we were born somehow. Here is what this relationship looks like. We must lovingly obey. Ephesians 6 1-4 tells us, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord. This is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. So in simple words, and many of you know this, obedience brings >> blessings. >> Obedience brings

36:59 >> blessings. Why? I love how the the Bible tells us not just to obey because I can obey but not show you that I want to do it. I'm just obeying in my heart outwardly. It does not show it but it instructs us to also honor. This is how it becomes loving. We will do it. We will do it with the right attitude. So my wife and I in separate journeys. She was about to go off to college. We did not know each other yet. She wanted to go off to America and she really wanted to because many of her friends were going there. She asked her parents but her parents said no. And so she obeyed them and honored them and went into a blue school in the Philippines. Edric, same journey. Had cousins, new people. I really wanted to go to the US. I asked

37:44 my parents who are here today. And when I asked them, they also said to me, Edric, no. So I obeyed them and I honored them with the right attitude. I applied, got into a local college, a blue school. And in that blue school, because I had obeyed and because my wife had obeyed, I met this amazing girl. And then she asked me out. No, no, I'm kidding. I asked her out. We ended up together and by God's grace, because of that obedience, we are now married 25 years this year by the grace of God with the six children you saw earlier. So, I wanted to share with you firsthand how true it is that when we obey, there is blessing. Joy would have missed out and had a substandard husband. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. If she

38:30 didn't know, just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Serious. Serious. How can I honor and obey my parents? How does this land for all of us here? Whatever the season of our big children, do we obey our parents? Because this once again is the design showcase Christ in the church. We love them that love our spouse that way. We lovingly disciple our children. We lovingly obey him. I'm going to give you a bonus, a family checklist. So for siblings, if you're with your sibling right now or if you're grandparents or any other family relationship, here's a great checklist that Pastor Joby Soraniano reminded me of. If you want a quick checklist, us as a family, we're going through this as our family devotion right now. Quick checklist. Are we patient? Are we kind? Am I not jealous? Am I not bragging, not

39:15 arrogant? Am I not acting unbecomingly? Am I not seeking out my own? Am I not easily provoked? Am I not taking am I not being unforgiving when they hurt me? Am I not am I uh acting according here? Not rejoicing in unrighteousness, right? Am I rejoicing in the truth? Am I bearing all these things? Some of you are going through some very difficult circumstances in your relationships and family. I hear you. But God is reminding you love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. That is a quick checklist for all of us across all of our relationships. So the question once again as we close this second point is, how can I reflect God's love to my family? How can I do this?

40:02 Some other practical things for you guys. You guys all know that there's a CCF family ministry called a cross. And our beloved pastor Omar who heads up that ministry, you heard him earlier. Just a couple of things we want to remind you of. If you are going through some form of mental health concerns, I'll give you a couple of seconds. You could take a photo. This is free and you just go and walk in. It's a two-part series that addresses this. This could be a practical way for you to navigate this and disciple your families and love them better. So, 5 4 3 2 1. Next one. Do you want other resources to help you disciple across a broad range of topics? Because each family is different. You can also look at this site that the team built. Unlock it here. We give you five,

40:48 four, 3, two, one. Finally, if you want to be part of the community, Viber community, you can join, catch up, see what's going on even more real time. You can do that here. I'll give you five seconds. 4 3 2 1 boom. What is our message today? We need to redirect our love from all of this distorted views, self, etc. to loving God. Everybody say, "Love God." >> God, >> love your family. Let's go to loving others. What does this look like when we say loving others? So the Bible tells us right uh love God beautiful mirrorism we looked at that allin we looked at starting with the neighbor as our family and we looked at some practical ways but

41:34 wait there's more we need to go beyond that it tells us Jesus in his beautiful amazing way of looking at things tells us guys when you love others I want to change it a bit instead of what we heard In Leviticus, this whole loving your neighbor as yourself, our self can be a very complicated standard. Instead, I want to raise it higher. He says, "A new commandment I give you that when you love others, it's got to be how I have loved you." We love others as Christ loves us and as Christ loves them. That is how we love

42:23 others, including our families. Are you following so far? Jesus elevates it. And as he's elevating it, he's reminding us that we need to love others like Jesus did. And this means loving them in order to fulfill Christ's mission for us. Now let me ask you after 42 years of celebrating God's goodness, what is our mission? Not just in CCM but for all people who follow Jesus. It is to what? Make disciples of all nations. That's what Jesus said. That's in his heart. And if we are to love people the way Jesus loves them, then we are to help fulfill this mission he has to help them know Jesus, follow Jesus, and then disciple and journey with them in the process. So, let's do a quick checklist.

43:10 How do we make this real? Loving others checklist with that in mind. Question. Do you and I show Christlike love and care to others? If you're in business colleagues, in your own companies, in the way you're interacting with people, do they show see that you are a Christian because you generally care for people? And in this AI world, one of the most powerful statements I've had in one of the conference I attended said the most human company wins. Why? What AI cannot do is this to care and love and genuinely show people what Christ's love looks like. That is unique to us as humans. So we need to show that. Do I share the gospel wherever possible? Am I making disciples as I go?

43:56 Do I rally my family to do the same? And one last one, we need to remind our children early on. Children, and I've said this to my kids, I don't know why I'm getting emotional. Maybe because I miss my son, but I like to remind them, kids Eden Titus Tiana Catalina Kaye, and Elijah, if you're watching this online, we are all on a mission. We need to let them know this early on. Do we serve Jesus together as a family? That is so important. Together. Everybody say together. I like to call this the great co-mission. It is a mission we individually share, but we're doing together. And I shared this in the last service. One of my greatest joys in

44:43 this life has been being able to serve Jesus with my wife, with my kids, with our spiritual family. I call it a taste of heaven. It is such a deep joy that if you've experienced this, you know what I'm talking about. But if you have not experienced this, you need to do it because that's what we were made for. Loving others fundamentally entails. We stay on mission and we mission together. Does that make sense? Do it and you will experience what I'm talking about. Dgroup project is another practical way of undertaking that. So as we wrap up this point, I want to remind all of us that Jesus has some very strong words, some very strong words that are not frequently preached when it comes to

45:28 family. Let's close with that thought. He reminds us that love for family should not, everybody say not, should not stop us from pursuing his disciplehip mission. What does that mean? He tells us, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Strong words. So, Edric, wait. Is Jesus contradicting everything we've just talked about where he said, "Love God, love others, but I will hate." No. No. Let me call this out. This word hate does not mean, "I hate you, dad and mom. I hate you, siblings." Jesus is saying there is a

46:13 greater love that should not have any others competing with it. How do we know this? He says it in Matthew. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. So what does this practically look like? There may be some parents here who are guilty of child centric parenting. I'm so focused on my family, my kids that I'm not able to even spend time in the word with the Lord anymore, my mission. I'm not able to come to Sunday to honor God and worship him because I'm busy with the kids. I cannot disciple others because I'm busy with the kids. I cannot be faithful and journeying with

46:58 others in disciplehip because I'm busy with the kids. Child- centric parenting sounds nice, but once again, love of families is not the endgame. Love of families to reflect Christ so that we will all stay on mission together, co-mission. So, please be aware that this is why Jesus gives this reminder. So, as we wrap up the final question, how can I ensure that me and my family stay on mission? What is our main message CCF family? Three simple thoughts to redirect our loves. We must >> love God, love your family, love. >> As a great powerful synthesis of what this looks like real world, such a

47:44 blessing to hear this story, I want to invite some dear friends, Pastor Vince Moral and his wife Bea, to come share. Let's welcome them guys as we wrap up. Let's go. [applause] I grew up in a broken home. My parents separated and eventually their marriage was analled. This affected me in such a way that I thought I was the reason why they separated. Because of this, I rebelled against my dad, lived an aimless life, and looked for love and acceptance in places that could never truly satisfy me. I entered romantic relationships believing that love was about what I could get from another person. And when I I didn't get what I wanted, I would simply move on to the next. >> Understanding love for me was difficult

48:30 growing up. My father had four families with 10 children, while my mother chose to live with her boyfriend. So, I grew up with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They did everything they could to make me feel loved and secured. But deep inside my heart, I knew something was missing. To fill this longing, I began looking for love and security in other people. I entered my first relationship at 13. Since then, I became involved in relationships that were unhealthy and outside God's design. Two of these relationships particularly showed how distorted my view of love was. One relationship I had was with a married man older than I was because he gave me the attention and love I had

49:16 been longing for. I thought this must be love. But eventually I became tired of us always having to hide and I walked away. After that in 2008 I fell in love with a guy and got pregnant at 18 years old. I thought this is it. I will start my own family and from now on I will be happy and complete. But when I learned that my boyfriend and his family were migrating, I was honest that I could not raise the child on my own. So, I made a painful and sinful decision to end my pregnancy. At that time, I didn't fully understand the weight of my con of the consequences of my decision. And since we could not work on our long-distance relationship,

50:02 we eventually ended our relationship in 2010. The termination of pregnancy was unmedicated and was performed by a quack doctor. I was broken and overwhelmed with fear because a week after my procedure, I learned from a friend that someone had died because of an incomplete abortion. And I immediately thought I might die next. It was during the time that I started calling on the Lord. I had no one to talk to and no one else to turn. And then I remembered that one of my college friends had brought me to CCF years before. But back then, I felt I didn't need God. But because of what happened and fear and the fear of what might happen to me, I decided to seek God. I came back to CCF alone

50:50 simply looking for comfort. And even though I had no one with me and in the midst of my fear, brokenness, and uncertainty, I began to realize that I needed him. And that is when I surrendered my life to Christ. >> I had learned about Jesus through my mom when I was 11. Yet, it wasn't until a lifealtering moment in 2003 that my faith truly transformed. I was in a serious car accident and many people believed I had died. Miraculously, I survived. In that moment of crisis, I experienced God's presence and love profoundly. It was at the time that I fully surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and everything began to change. The things I once chased no

51:35 longer had the same hold on me. I also began to understand something I have never really understood before. God's love. It was also during this time when God led me to ask for forgiveness from my dad and committed to love him with a love from God. After the decision to end my pregnancy and I as I look back on my broken past, I cried to the Lord, Lord, why did you allow these things to happen to me? You said that you loved me, but why did you allow my father and my mother to leave me? The Lord spoke to me through Psalm 27:10, which says, "Even if my father and mother abandoned me, the Lord would hold me close." That's when I realized that God was not only my creator, but he

52:20 is my father. I began to understand how he loves me so much that even if my earthly father and mother abandoned me, he is there to hold me close. For the first time, I understood that I didn't have to spend my life looking for other people to fill my need for love and security. In God, I am completely loved. >> In 2011, BA and I met at a school where we took our nursing degrees and eventually fell in love. But even though we were both already walking with the Lord, we made mistakes and gave into temptation. We realized that loving God also meant learning to surrender our relationship to him and allowing him to change us, which includes loving each other the way he loves us. We both made

53:05 a commitment to stay pure until our marriage. >> Vince didn't know about my past until months before we got married. I did not tell him because I was afraid that he might leave me once he knew the worst I had done. But one early morning, the Lord woke me up and told me to call Vince and tell him about my past. And if Vince decided to end our relationship and call off our wedding, God assured me that I had nothing to lose because in him I am already complete. So out of obedience to God, I called Vince and told him that I terminated my pregnancy when I was 18 years old. When I called Vince, I was preparing for the worst that he would leave me. But I will never forget what he said. There's nothing

53:50 that you did and that you will do that will make me stop loving you. >> I didn't Praise God. I didn't say that because I believe that what had happened was okay. I said it because I knew what God's love had done for me. I had experienced God's forgiveness first. I knew my own failures and I knew that I didn't deserve God's grace. So when Bea shared her past with me, I wanted to extend to her the same kind of love and grace that I had received from God. I knew that her past was not the whole story of who she was. She was someone whom God loved. >> That moment changed the way I understood love. I had spent so much of my life

54:36 afraid that people would leave me when they discovered the real me. But God's love through Vince showed me that I could be known and still be loved. This is what God also began teaching us about loving others. We don't love people because they have perfect stories. We love because God first loved us. >> We learned that loving others sometimes starts with people closest to us. We cannot control the past or change the decisions our parents made, but we can choose how we respond today. God's love gave us the ability to forgive, to extend grace, and to continue loving. >> In 2013, Vince asked my parents for their blessing for us to get married. I remember my mom said that she did not deserve to be asked because she was not

55:23 the one who raised me. But Vince still honored both my parents because he values them no matter what. And he even asked the blessings of my aunt and uncle who raised me. Because of this, it opened doors for us to share the gospel with our family. We continue to show love to our family members, pray for them, and care for them. My family are a work in progress and still seeking the Lord and are attending CCF online. And by God's grace, two of my halfsisters have already surrendered their lives to Christ. In February 2014, when it seemed impossible for our broken families to come together and witness our wedding, God made a way. What seemed impossible

56:08 to us, he made possible. Before God and our loved ones, Bea and I were married. And today, by his grace, he has blessed us with two wonderful children in Elana and Nathan. God's grace has been powerfully at work in our family. After many years of estrangement, my fam, my relationship with my dad has finally been restored. It is a beautiful reminder that no heart is too far for God to reach and no prayer is ever wasted. We're also grateful to the Lord that one of my sisters and her husband are currently part of our disciplehip group and are faithfully leading their own couples DGroup. We are currently serving as a family with Vince leading the NextGen Children's Ministry. We are

56:55 we also have the privilege of leading couples through our disciplehip group. Through this opportunities to serve and disciple others, we are blessed to see how God can use our own story, our marriage and our family to speak his love and grace into the lives of others. Especially in marriages, parenting and families. >> What God has done in us is not meant to stop with us. He allows us to become channels of his love to others. So please pray for our family as we continue to grow in our love for Jesus, for each other, and for the people he has entrusted to us. May our marriage and our family always point others back to him. To God be the glory. >> Praise God. Praise God. The closure here once again, look at the person beside you. Say, "Love God. Love your family.

57:43 Love others." is this we said that there are some people here who need to be able to receive that love and respond. So I'm going to close with two prayers. One is for all of us that indeed as we saw Jesus has redirected our love to love God, love others starting with our families. But we will also pray for some of our friends and guests here who have never fully experienced God's love. This can be the day. This was the asterisk I was mentioning for you. So the way you can respond is this. God loves you so much. He gave you his son Jesus. Your response is to believe. That word believe in

58:29 simple English when you go back to the Greek is to trust that what Jesus did for you is complete. There's nothing you can do to earn that relationship and your place in heaven. And then to entrust your life completely to him. all in. That's the prayer. That's how you can respond. So, let's bow our heads and pray. Father God, we thank you once again for being all of our father. We thank you that you've designed family and you've reminded us this day to redirect our misdirected loves into really just two loves. A love of you, our father, and our love for our families and others. And as we pray this together and whatever application you

59:15 have for us, we want to pray for some special groups of friends who are here and are saying, I I want that love. I want to experience that. If that is you, you can make a prayer like this. Dear God, today I choose to believe. This is my response. I choose to trust that what Jesus has done for me by paying for my sins on the cross is complete. there's nothing I [music] can do to earn my way to be with you or to be in heaven. And it's humbling, but I thank you, Lord God. And as I receive this in my life, I choose to then make Jesus the savior of my life, but also the Lord. And so I now entrust my life to you. I give you all, all of me. I want to go allin in my love

1:00:02 for you. Surrendering all of my dreams, my hope, my fears, my challenges, my pains, bringing them [music] to you and trust and trusting all of these to you. Looking to you to guide me forward. And so as I pray this prayer now, I thank you that today I can receive your love and I can now love you back and love others and my families. [music] In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless everybody. Good day CCF family. Welcome to Sunday Fastrackk where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical truths. I'm Jared de Jose from the Womento Women Ministry and we're here today with our speaker Pastor Edric Mendoza to answer some of your

1:00:48 questions. Hi Pastor Edric. Happy family month. >> Thank you. Happy family month to you. >> Thank you so much. We are so excited for your answers to these questions. Are you ready? I am as ready as I can be. [clears throat] Let's go. >> Let's go. So, you mentioned that the parents should disciple their children, but there are families where the children are believers while the parents are non-believers. Does it count as disobedience to the biblical structure if the children end up discipling their parents? >> Super good. So, let's break down the biblical structure, right? I think the great commission is for all of us as individuals to make disciples of all nations. So when Jesus gives that great commission, he doesn't say make disciples of all nations only if it's [snorts] to dad and mom. The other structure is the ideal way that disciplehip is passed on. And the ideal

1:01:34 way which we looked at in Deuteronomy 65 as well in other passages like Psalm 7, it talks about how parents pass it on to the generations. So by no means is this a contradictory move. If you are a child, whatever the age, and your parents are not yet believers, then by all means make disciples of all nations. share the gospel and we like to call this reverse disciplehip which could happen right. Um so uh no means is this a way to stop you. I would encourage you to do that and we've seen many stories of that happening and then what could happen is a natural reset happens. Parents share the gospel to uh children share the gospel to their parents and initially disciple them. But when the parents fully come to that point then the parents now start the discipling uh normally if you will. So go ahead, go

1:02:21 for it. And we'll be praying that you're able to get that done. >> Awesome. And for our next question, what does it look like to love a family member when you strongly disagree with their choices, beliefs, or lifestyle? >> Great. Because it's very broad, we'll make it very specific, right? So we know of a family, for example, where they they love each other, but one of the family members, the children is deep into drug addiction. So what do you do? You disagree with that. You know that it's against the Bible. The Bible tells us when Jesus says, "Love others as I have loved you." Our question is, how would Jesus love this particular family member? What is best for them that they might get to love Christ and show it in their life? So, practically speaking, if that was the scenario, the loving move and in many occasions where there's

1:03:07 disagreement, it can be hard honestly, right? It can be difficult. So what we've seen effective in cases like that, that very specific example is then they look for a good godly Christian rehab facility that can help that family member deep in this drug addiction or whatever addiction to then be freed from that. And there are some CCF programs also that allow that. Um so that's what I would do. If you see a family member and you have this uh burden because they're not doing things aligned with what God wants them to do, that's one practical thing. Do the difficult thing. Help find an environment, a solution. so that they might do what is honoring to God and they too might see God and we've seen that happen in families as they choose to do that. So good, Pastor Rodri. For our third question, one of the hot topics in social media is if the

1:03:53 children are obligated to financially support their parents. Up to what extent should children do so? >> Yeah. First of all, let's call it out, right? What is so beautiful about the Filipino families is we love each other this way that even the children will help find ways to provide for their parents financially. But what I want to encourage all of you, right, is in the Philippine context, there's now what's called a sandwich generation where what's happening, Gyra, is you have children of parents, but these children now have kids of their own or they're about to get married or they're in that situation. So where they're now taking care of their own families, they're right in the middle of the sandwich. They have to take care of their parents financially, but they're also taking care of their own families. And the reason this is not a good model is

1:04:38 because if this is not fixed, what's going to happen is, let's say I'm that child. I'm taking care of my parents, but I also have kids. What's going to happen to me is I will now become dependent on my kids. It bumps up and we perpetuate that cycle. We do not give the next generations the opportunities to then break that cycle and allow that generation to be responsible for their own families, which is the biblical mandate. The biblical mandate is for me as a husband to take care of my family. So practically speaking, up to what extent should children do? So you need to be able to come up with some form of what can I reasonably sustain in supporting my parents or let's extend it

1:05:23 any other person. It could be siblings etc. Assuming I have a family, right? And that number becomes then something you can say all right this is what's reasonable. you'll have to find a way to work towards that because obviously it could be very drastic, right? So, so that's what I would uh appeal you to do. It's good that you want to be able to do that, but it's also good to remember that our obligations to prevent this sandwich from perpetuating is to focus on our own families that God has allowed us or entrusted us to steward. Come up with a number and work towards that and then you will see the sandwich generation um not perpetuate itself anymore. So, I hope that that's helpful. >> Praise God for that answer, Pastor Red. And last but not least, the Bible tells wives to submit to their husbands. But

1:06:10 today, especially in popular media, we are seeing the weaponization of this verse against wives. How do we ensure that we practice this verse as the Bible truly intended? And what is the biblical role of husbands in a marriage? >> Yeah, I think weaponization of verses in any context is absolutely wrong and horrible, right? We don't I mean Jesus even calls this out then people will distort it as you saw in this example of the message where they tried to test him. Right? So everyone's got an agenda. So I would encourage um all of us and I'm speaking to husbands and wives when it comes to this very sensitive issue of weaponiz weaponizing um what a wife should be doing being subject being submissive to their husband by reframing it. All the husbands let me speak to you from my heart. We can only control our roles

1:06:56 when we start forcing or enforcing what should be done by the other party. Yes, we will try but our focus should be on us. And what does the Bible say to us as husbands? It says our role in marriage is to be ahead but as Christ is to the church. What does that look like very specifically in that verse in Ephesians 5? It says we must love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. And there are many other verses that follow that exact line that show exactly how Christ loves the church. So for all the husbands here, including myself, it's a great fresh reminder to ask ourselves instead of is my wife doing the role that she's doing and forcing or enforcing that and maybe even abusing that, which is really,

1:07:42 really horrible, we ask ourselves, am I

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