Then His mother and brothers came to see Him, but they could not meet with Him because of the crowd.  He was told, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”
But He replied to them,  “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”  Luke 8:19-21 HCSB

If you are not from south Louisiana, you may be wondering what my title for today says.  Translated it says, “how are you mother and the rest of your family doing?” Here it is a common form of greeting and a way of being nice and asking someone about their family.

Now in this scripture passage, Jesus is dealing with a large crowd when his biological mother and brothers come to see Him.  When He is notified that his mother and brothers are there, you might expect that He would say, “great, bring them to me” or perhaps go to them.  But, instead, he gives a response which sounds as though He is totally dismissing his biological family.  His response is “my mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

Before I committed my life to God, I might have read that scripture passage and thought, “how awful for Jesus to treat his biological family in this way.”  But since I have dedicated my life to serving the Lord, I have come to know my real family.  By my real family, I mean my church family.  I am speaking of the brotherhood and sisterhood of believers.  Some of my biological family is also in my church family and that is awesome.  I am praying that someday all of my biological family will be in my church family.  Now let me clarify and say that  by my church family, I am not just speaking of people that specifically go to my church but as the scripture passage says, “those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

I have had a rather unique experience in the last couple years.  I have had a split in my biological family and a split in my church family.  For a while there both battles were raging at the same time and let me tell you, that is not fun.  But praise God, He was with me every step of the way.  I learned during that time that just because people attend church doesn’t mean that they always do what is right or what God would have us to do.  They don’t always love as God would have us to do.  They aren’t always nice as God would have us to be.

There is an old saying that you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.  This is so true.  I don’t feel that I have chosen my church family, I feel that God has put us together.  I am excited about the many additions to my church family that I have experienced in the last couple of years.

If you are reading this and don’t have a church family, then I strongly encourage you to find a good Bible teaching church and join their family.  Even though there were problems going on with my church family at the same time as there were problems going on with my biological family, I gained so much support from my church family.  There were times when I felt I just couldn’t go on, but my church family was always there to support me.  It is also wonderful to have a pastor for support.  If you don’t have a church family, you don’t know what you are missing.  If you think that you just can’t make time to commit yourself to getting involved in church, you are wrong.  God will work all that out for you.

The love and the unity that comes from a church family is something that we all need.  If you have not yet realized that need, I hope you do soon.  There is a bond that is formed between believers that is like no other.  We are all working towards a common goal, winning others to Christ.

You may have nothing in common at all with some of your biological family members, but you will discover that you have a lot in common with the family of believers.  Acts 2:42 says “they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers”.  That’s what our family of believers is all about.  Won’t you join us today?

Have a great weekend!