Mark 3:35 “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”
Someone has said, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” I do not know if that is good news or bad news for you! But in Mark chapter 3, the Lord Jesus said that this was not the case. He said, “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” In other words, you are not born into a privileged relationship with God; you are born again into that relationship.
Jesus was rejected in his own hometown in Mark 6. The people said in verse 2, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James. . . ?” Jude, who wrote the New Testament book, was related to the Lord Jesus-they had the same mother. These folks in Nazareth wrongly thought that Jesus was just the son of Mary. But the Son of God had said in Mark 3:35, “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”
Jude, the brother of the Lord Jesus, could have appealed to folks based on his earthly relationship with Jesus. He could have been a name-dropper. But Jude begins the book of Jude by saying, “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ. . . .” He realized that he was not born into a privileged relationship with the Son of God; he was born again into that relationship just like you and I.
Since it is true that we are not born into a privileged relationship with God, this means we ought to win our kids to Christ. “Believing on the Lord” is something a person-an individual-does. It is not presumptuous to make it a goal for all your kids to be saved. Do you want to know what the will of God is? “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4).” God wants your kids to be saved, and they are saved the same way-by depending on Christ.
My son Wilson has a godly heritage on both sides of the family. Specifically on the Rice side, he has a heritage of preachers. Wilson’s dad is a preacher; his grandfather is a preacher; his great-grandfather was a preacher. But do you think God will give him a pass just because he has a preacher heritage? Not on your life! You are not born into a privileged relationship with God, even if your name is Rice; you are born again into that relationship. And you come to faith the same as everyone else.
Not only should we win our kids, but we also ought direct them in the right direction. Your decisions today determine your fate, and in large measure your kids’ fate if you are a father or mother. Judas Iscariot walked this earth around God in flesh, but the decisions he made cost him dearly. In a very real sense, you define your family now.
Reunions for the Rice family are interesting, to say the least. What you have is a collection of families that have the same link: they came from William Henry Rice, Sr. But we are a collection of families. The decisions you make today determine the direction for your family now and families to come. Your family will soon be a collection of families; what they will be is directed by the decisions you make today. May we do the will of the Father today in our families.
Prayer Requests: – Revival services tonight in Harned, KY
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