Hello, hello, hello ladies and gents, it's your girl Kirby Kelly back at it again with

another podcast episode here on bottom below it and I'm so happy that you are tuning in whether this is your first time listening and you are subscribed and you're tuning into when these episodes drop every single Wednesday or if this is your first time, I am so glad you're here and that you're tuning in. I actually had the distinguished honor of preaching this past week at Gateway Church is the church that I attend. I was speaking to the youth group there and they were doing a series on the

different core principles and just the heart behind Gateway Church which is to believe in Jesus belong to family become a disciple and build his kingdom. We were in the midst of doing that series and they wanted me to talk about belonging to family and as I was writing this and I preached it, I was thinking about it more about what I was going to talk about this week and there were just so many good nuggets. I feel like in the in the message and the sermon that I spoke that I really

wanted to preach it here on the podcast today because I know that there are many people who are tuning in who are in different stages regarding their walk with Jesus. There are people who are listening who have just given their life to the Lord. There are people who are listening who have been faithfully walking with Jesus for decades and it's just really cool that you know I feel like anybody whether you are a new believer or just hearing about Christianity for the first time and exploring the faith even or if you've been walking

in the faith for a while that you know you can glean something from these messages that are here on bottom beloved and this week I wanted to talk about that about what it really means to belong to the family of Christ. I also ask that you excuse me if I sound really, really congested and it's because I'm getting over being sick. I literally don't know what's going around maybe your sick or sickness has been going around where you live but I think there's like a cold or something going on.

Here in Texas at least because a bunch of my friends are getting sick because of back to school and I am sadly one of them. So if I sound really congested and like terrible that's why and if I cough for whatever reason that is also why because I'm finally working through all this stuff but I want to talk about the significance of family because the reality is is that we as Christians as believers when we give our life to Jesus when we are saved.

It's that free and delivered and we make him the Lord of our life. We now belong to the family of God. Here's the thing. Not everybody is a son and a daughter of God. Everyone is made in God's image. We were all created. Humanity is created in God's image but only those who have received Christ as their savior have been adopted into the family of God and can be called children of God can be called sons and daughters of God.

So that opportunity is there for everybody to receive that title, to receive that placement, that relationship in the kingdom but it is by someone making that decision.

So when receiving the invitation to be a child of God and for those of us who have received that invitation who have received the free gift of Christ that is salvation we now belong to the family of God.

In family matters belonging to the family of Christ matters because family in general I mean not just in the kingdom of God but in different cultures and countries and regions and nations.

Family matters because it gives us a sense of identity. It gives us a sense of belonging. It gives us a sense of purpose. It gives us a sense of comfort. It gives us a sense of grounding.

And that's important because I think it answers some of life's biggest questions. We wonder who am I, who are we and family helps to shape our identity in that.

We want to know where is that we fit in and family answers that with a place of belonging. We want to know why we matter and family supplies that purpose to us.

We want to know, hey, like am I safe? Am I okay? And family and community gives us that sense of comfort as well as that sense of grounding of knowing that yes, I am stable. I'm good.

And now maybe your family at home, it doesn't look like this. Maybe the community around you right now doesn't look like that. You don't feel like you fit in or you don't feel like you're safe or you don't feel like it's stable or that you matter or that you even know who you are and they're helping to shape you in that way.

But the family of God does affirm in all of those things our identity our belonging our purpose our comfort and our grounding and not only is that what the family of God does, but us as people who belong to the family brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to cultivate that environment.

We're not only meant to belong in a place like that, but we are meant to be the people who build up a place like that.

A place where we know who we are and whose we are, where we fit in what our purpose is knowing that we belong to God and our purpose is relationship with him, but also vocationally and spreading the gospel that we're safe and showing up and being vulnerable about what we're going through and that we are in a place full of people that are trusted and that there is stable solid truth to be grounded upon with that.

Having a family, having a sense of belonging, it matters community, it matters to the believer and we're going to dive into what that means and today's podcast episode and I'm super excited for that so the first thing I want to talk about is human nature.

So there are two things I want to talk about the first one being that we as created humanity made in the image of God, we are relational by nature.

In Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, it says, then God said, let us make mankind an hour image, an hour likeness so that they may rule over the fish and the sea, the birds and the sky over the livestock and over all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

But I want to focus on that first bit there. Then God said, let us make mankind an hour image, an hour likeness.

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