From the Pulpitย ~ย ย Shane Bennett
First Baptist Churchย
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like you just donโt belong? Itโs such an uncomfortable feeling of awkwardness. Even worse, though, is when you know youโre not welcome somewhere. The Bible actually describes a strong sense of not belonging that many people feel toward God. In Ephesians 2:12, Paul reminds the people he is writing to of a time when they were like that. He says, โAt that time, you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.โ
Ouch! Paul is describing this group of people who were living their own lives with no knowledge of God, much less care for Him. They were pursuing their own desires, living to fulfill their dreams, and serving whatever they thought would give them the best life. Itโs funny, 2,000 years and 4,000 miles removed from that context, a lot of people are living the same here and now. Paul isnโt describing some extremely awful or ignorant people group, though. Heโs just describing normal lifeโฆ apart from God. So, if you feel like you do not belong, especially with God, you should know that your feelings are normal and natural. But even more, you should know that this can change.
In the next verse, Paul shares the light that breaks into our darkness. He writes, โBut now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.โ Paul reminds these people that God saw them in that condition and cared for them. He recalls how God has given the gifts of belonging, citizenship, promise, and relationship to these people who were strangers and foreigners before. He has done this through Jesus.
Left to ourselves, we would all be wandering through life, pursuing our own desires, living to fulfill our dreams, and serving whatever we think would give us the best lifeโฆ only to come up empty. โBut God,โ as Paul said before this, in verses 4-5, โwho is rich in mercy, because of His great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!โ The incredible news of the gospel is that God has given His son to die on the cross so that He might give forgiveness, citizenship in His Kingdom, and belonging in His family to a people who neither knew Him nor loved Him.
So, if you find yourself adrift, feeling out of place, like there is nowhere in this world that you really belong, you should know that God sees you and he cares. He has even given His Son so that if you trust in Him, you will receive citizenship and take your rightful place of belonging at His table. If you want to understand this better or lean into this kind of life, find your way to a church this Sunday and tell somebody what God is stirring up in you. Only Jesus has what you really need!
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