You Belong Series

WE BELONG!

Call to Worship - 1 John 3v1 GNB

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children---and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God.

Reading: Ephesians 2v14-22

Read again: v19-20

People need people!

In nature we can see that many animals live in highly organised social groups. Some species live mostly solitary lives, territorial.

Humans are normally social people, we need company, support, encouragement, help, and lots more. We all need relationships.

People who have a good social life tend to be healthier and more successful than those who are loners.

But the pain of long-term loneliness can become overwhelming. Not having any human contact for days or weeks on end can be a great destroyer.

No wonder some people turn to drink, drugs, or other activities to escape the despair of loneliness and hopelessness.

But what about the housebound widow/widower, those with major mobility limitations. How must they suffer without a close family, without friends, or other visitors?

ILLUS Recent, a lady seemingly healthy in her 50’s died alone in her flat. She was there for 2 years before her body was discovered!!!

Ahhh – what an indictment on society – alone, forgotten, isolated; no one missed her or even wondered about not seeing her around.

We all need to belong.

Well, the good news is that you do belong – to the wonderful family of God.

There’s a song, I first heard it in a Baptist church not long after I gave my life to the Lord:

I love this family of God, So closely knitted into one,

They've taken me into their hearts, And I'm so glad to be a part of this great family.

Are you part of the family of God? Are you glad you’re in the family of God?

Being a part of the family of God is the greatest blessing bestowed upon believers and one that should drive us to our knees in humble adoration. We can never do anything to deserve it, for it is His gift of love, mercy, and grace to us. Yes, we are called to become sons and daughters of the Living God (Romans 9:25-26)

We can only respond in faith to His blessed invitation!

In this fellowship there’s a close loving family bond, yet we’re also an integral part of the worldwide church, reaching out with the love of God and the Gospel, the Good News, to those around us. They will perhaps only will get a glimpse of Jesus through us.

Oh, what a special family we belong to!

Children of God

For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ; and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3v26-8 NLT)

The moment we professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe during childhood, or later in life, we became members of God’s family sons and daughters of the Loving Living God.

The old life is replaced by a new spiritual life, just like putting on a whole new wardrobe of clothes. The old has gone the new has come.

We have our natural human family, but now we are born again into the family of God.

Whoever we are, whatever our background or past life history, whatever our differences, we are all one in Christ Jesus.

In John Ch 1 we can read about Jesus coming to his own people but they wouldn’t receive him, they didn’t want to listen, they didn’t recognise him as the promised Messiah. They wanted him to leave them alone.

But in v12 Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God …… born of God.

Various scriptures refer to God’s people as His flock, His treasured possession, even a peculiar people! (KJV Deut 14v2)

The Living Bible puts it in more modern terms:

You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and He has chosen you out of all the nations of the earth to be His own special treasure.

Israel, God’s special treasure; but now Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. His church – you, me – are also His treasured possession.

And what cost that makes this all possible – the cross of Calvary.

Children of Light

All this places a great responsibility on us: to live as Children of God and not as children of the world. But we’re not left alone to struggle unaided; we are new creations: