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September 28,2025
Ryan Cathers
Matthew 12:46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48 But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” New American Standard Bible 1995
Matthew 12:49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” New American Standard Bible 1995
“Family is unconditional. Jesus says if you want an unconditional relationship with your Father, you’re going to get unconditional relationships with brothers and sisters.” - Tim Keller
Ephesians 1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. New Living Translation
Ephesians 2:16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death…19b You are members of God’s family. New Living Translation
Ephesians 4:7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ…11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. New Living Translation
Ephesians 4:13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. New Living Translation
Matthew 5:48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. New American Standard Bible 1995
Belief saves us. Belonging changes us.
“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.” - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“Practically, this means that as a Christian you have more in common with a poor migrant worker in another hemisphere who loves Jesus than you do with your own family members who don’t.” - Matt Smethurst
The gospel doesn't call us to renounce all other relationships, just reprioritize them.
Matthew 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. New American Standard Bible 1995
How do we prioritize relationships with our spiritual family? You intentionally make your family your friends.
Ephesians 3:10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. New Living Translation