Everyone is Welcome

It has been a while since I have gotten on my blog to share something.  The opportunity presented itself today as I reflected on the message that I gave to a group of middle school students this past Sunday.  We started a new series entitled, Family Matters.  During this series, we are going to take a look at the family we were born into, our Spiritual family (if saved), those people that God has surrounded us with, and those that we should surround ourselves with.  This past Sunday, we looked at a passage that just reading the words that Jesus said sound like He has lost His mind.  After you really dig into what  He has said, you realize that He is proving a point and making a statement that should be reproduced.  The passage that I am referring to comes from Matthew 12:46-50.  To set the scene, Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people inside of a house.  While He is speaking, Mary and his half-brothers have come and they want to talk to Jesus.  A man goes inside to tell Jesus that His family is outside and that they want to speak to Him.  This is where it gets kinda strange.  Jesus replies to the man, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"  Of course Jesus knows who the man was referring to.  Mary, his mother that had given birth to Him and his brothers-James and Jude.  An odd statement, but He was about to point out something that is very important to believers.  Verse 49, says that Jesus stretched out His hands towards His disciples and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!"  What He was saying to all that were listening, these men were His Spiritual family.  Then, in verse 50, He gives the crowd the evidence of His family when He says, whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my family. 

We see how the family or community started back in Genesis 1:26, when God said "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness....  The Creator of the heavens and the earth wasn't alone in the beginning.  God was referring to what we know as the Trinity-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  God made us to be in relationships with others.  Just look at Adam, God saw that he was lonely and made him a wife to live life together.  God created family but sin destroyed it.  In Matthew 12, we see that Jesus has recreated family, a community of men that is doing the will of God.  God has made each and every one of us to be extraordinary, but we cannot be extraordinary outside of a spiritual family. 
I began to think about all of the different groups or cliques in today's society.  Republicans flock together, Democrats flock together, the wealthy stay together, popular stay together.  I could go on and on about the different groups that clique up in society today.  There is only one person that has an open door policy and everyone is welcome, that is Jesus.  Jesus didn't die on the cross for only certain groups, He died on the cross for everyone.  Jesus didn't come to seek and to save those that are good people.  He came to seek and to save those who are lost.  Everyone in the world today is in some kind on exclusive group or club, but only Jesus is inclusive and everyone has been invited to come into the family of God.

The great thing about being in the family of God and be surrounded by people that are doing the will of God, you have a support system that can not be matched.  You have a family that loves you no matter what your past is and no matter your shortcomings.  You have people that are your prayer warriors, and people that are there to keep you accountable.  You can have that in a small group, a group of people that come together and live life together.  I reflected back to several years ago, when my life was in shambles, my marriage was almost in ruin, and I was running from God.  My son was about the age of 5, my wife was determined to get back into church, because that was where we went growing up.  It was important to her and to be truthful with you, I agreed just to get her to shut up.  We began to shop around for a church that our son would enjoy going to.  We began going to Eastside, we had signed my son up to play Upward basketball.  So we decided to check it out.  After a while, God had began working on my wife to get involved in a small group at Eastside.  Of course, I wanted nothing to do with it.  Years had passed, I can remember talking to my wife about that time in my life where I was fighting God.  She talked about how much the people in her small group prayed for me.  The amazing part of it, was several in my wife's group didn't even know me but they prayed for me anyway.  Looking out our small group now, I see the exact same thing that my wife experienced several years ago.  A group that is living life together.  I don't know how many times a week the people in our group call or text.  We look for ways to get together and hang out.  Just this past Sunday, I got all the guys in our small group to come over to the house to watch the football game.  We enjoy the walk that we are taking with our spiritual family. 

Billy Edwards