Our Spiritual Adoption

[0:00] Psalm 19 says that the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. I've never met a single person in my life that doesn't want their soul revived.

[0:14] And God's word promises that it can do that for us. And so what a privilege that we have the time this morning to open up God's word, say, God, you speak, you tell us what's reality.

[0:26] Give us ears to hear, give us a heart to soak that in and then live in the good of that. Revive our souls. May God do that this morning as we open up his word.

[0:36] Let us pray to that very end this morning. God, as much as we possibly can right now, we want to say, God, we believe that your word can actually do that for us.

[0:48] Revive us. Restore us. Put us back together, God. And give us ears to hear who we are and who you are and what the world is like. God, we know that we come in as, you know, many of us redeemed and made whole again in Jesus.

[1:07] But there's a lot of parts of us that are still dark and have all these clunky edges and we need help. We ask, God, that your word would have that effect this morning.

[1:17] So we invite you in the name of Jesus, God, have your way in us. Correct us where we're wrong and where we have wrong views of you, how we have wrong views of ourselves and of the world and what life here in this pilgrimage is like.

[1:31] And God, allow us to walk in the good of who you are and who we are in Jesus. In the name of Christ, amen. Amen.

[1:43] We should have gotten a worksheet, as Mike mentioned. If you have that, I want to invite you to, you can go ahead and put that in the Galatians passage if you have a Bible with you.

[1:54] That's Galatians 4. We're going to get to that in a while. But you can also then put that in Galatians 4 and open up to 1 John chapter 3. We're going to make a couple stops before we get to Galatians.

[2:06] So this morning, I'm not actually going to be walking through just a single passage, more like expository preaching. But I'm going to be speaking on a topic known as the doctrine of election or adoption.

[2:18] I'm pulling an audible here. No, doctrine of adoption or the fatherhood of God. I don't know how you hear that when you, you know, sometimes we can be tempted to think, Oh yeah, I know this stuff.

[2:34] But we always have to come back when we think about rich theology and say, No, I never want things like this to get old. And I want to take the time to slowly think through this.

[2:48] A little bit like my wife and I had a concrete mixer at Culver's yesterday. Those things never get old. Now my kids don't know that we actually had that and they're finding that out for the first time.

[3:00] So they're probably going to ask on the way home to stop for that. But you never go, Oh, I had a concrete last week. I don't want one this week. And you say, Yeah, I'll have another one of those. And then when you eat it, you want to enjoy every last bit.

[3:15] And God's, the theology of the doctrine of adoption, we never want that to become old. There's so much gold here. I think for my own personal life, this theology has probably had the most influence in severing at the root of sin.

[3:35] Particularly, say, of fear of the future or fear of man or many, many others. There's no other doctrine that gives me such a heart of rest and of worship in who God is and what he has done in the gospel.

[3:55] So we really want to take our time as we think through this. But listen to this from J.I. Packer. J.I. Packer is now with the Lord. He's a man that ministered for many years, preaching.

[4:06] He was a professor as well. He wrote many books, one of his classics, called Knowing God. He has a chapter on the fatherhood of God in there. Listen to this man, much wiser than myself.

[4:19] This is what he says. He says, What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways. But the richest answer that I know is that a Christian is one who has God as father.

[4:38] If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father.

[4:49] If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship, his prayers, and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

[5:03] The revelation to the believer that God is his father is in a sense a climax, the climax of the Bible. Now I want to read that last sentence again. Because that is stunning for J.I. Packer to say that.

[5:18] Listen carefully to what he says. The revelation to the believer that God is his father is in a sense the climax of the Bible.

[5:37] That's an amazing statement. We live in a time and we're in this circle where we put a lot of emphasis on justification.

[5:48] We are made right with God because of the cross. And that is, we want to applaud that. I mean, amen to that. Here J.I. Packer is saying there is even something greater.

[6:00] Now when an old man says that, my ears go, whoa, hold on a second. I want to listen carefully to this. And I hope you will see why he says that very thing.

[6:12] But take a look at 1 John. We don't have to take J.I. Packer's word alone for it. 1 John chapter 3. John, starting this chapter, he says, See what kind of love the Father has given to us.

[6:28] Now pause there for a second. He uses this word. He says, look at it. Behold something. And then he says, the ESV translates this as, what kind of love.

[6:42] N-E-S-V translates that. It says, see how great. Because that word is, it's the same word that you find in Matthew 8 after Jesus calms the storm.

[6:53] And you remember what the disciples say to each other? Say, what sort of man is this? Like, who is this dude? They're not just saying like, you know, hey, what kind of guy is this?

[7:04] They are terrified of this guy who actually speaks to water and wind and they stop. And so they recognize they're in the presence of greatness and they say, who is this guy?

[7:15] He is so great that we're terrified of him. And so this is what John here says. I want to show you something. I want you to look at something. The greatness of God's love.

[7:27] Now, what do you think he would say? Well, a very good answer would be to say, look at the cross. There you see the greatness of God's love.

[7:37] Would that not be a great answer? Yes, it would be a great answer. That's not where he turns in this passage. You want to see the greatness of God's love? How great a love the Father has given to us?

[7:51] Well, that we should be called children of God. And that's what we are. The reason why the world doesn't know us is that it didn't know him.

[8:03] Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

[8:15] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Obviously, I don't have time to unpack this whole passage. But I want you to see one more thing there.

[8:27] Notice how he first paints this. The greatness of God's love is that we are children of God. And look at the result. He says, if you hope in God like this, what's the result at the end of verse 3?

[8:38] You purify yourself. You see, this doctrine is so practical that it actually has this holy effect on your life. But I don't have time to unpack that.

[8:51] I just find it amazing and so practical that God uses this everyday relationship that all of us walk into the world in some measure to help us try to understand what God is like.

[9:06] You know, Jesus does this very same type of stuff as he's teaching. Matthew 7 and the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, he's teaching the crowds and he says, Now, hey, if one of your sons comes to you and says, Hey, Dad, can you give me some bread?

[9:23] Are any of you going to look at your kids and say, No, here's some stone. Or if your son comes to you and says, Can I have some fish? Are any of you going to give him a scorpion?

[9:36] The obvious answer is no. And Jesus looks at the crowd and says, Now, you who are evil, If you would never do that to your kids, but you would give them good things, How much more would the Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask?

[9:53] You see what Jesus is doing? He's trying to use this everyday relationship that you walk in life in. And he says, God is like that in some measure, but so much greater.

[10:04] And so that's how I understand how Jesus would have us to look at everyday relationship, Father, child, and then look upward.

[10:16] Now, the hard part is, Is many of us come to the world in all sorts of different settings. For some people, the idea of God being Father is not immediately pleasant.

[10:29] I mean, some probably in this room have had absolutely terrible dads. Maybe they walked out real early. Maybe they did things that are atrocious.

[10:40] And that can make it difficult to begin to think of God expressing himself as Father. But I want to assure you, One of the ways that we can think about this is to look at negative examples and say, God is nothing like that.

[10:56] Because we all know what a good father should be like. And others of us have had good fathers. But even those are failing people.

[11:06] They stumble. And so they can give us good pictures of what God would be like, But God is always greater. Okay, so we're going to just mess around, or not mess around, We're going to look around at this doctrine.

[11:20] First, I want to explain it, walk you through it. And then we're going to simply reflect upon it. So here's how I would define the doctrine of adoption.

[11:31] I would say it like this. Everyone who is justified before God in Jesus, Or every Christian, everyone who is born again, However you want to phrase that, Is transferred into the family of God.

[11:45] Whereby we have a new relationship with God. When is father and child. So everybody who is justified before God in Jesus, Is transferred into the family of God.

[11:58] Whereby we have a new relationship with God. One is father and child. Now one of the key things to that, Is to recognize that when we talk about the doctrine of adoption, Or the fatherhood of God, We're talking about something new that happened.

[12:14] It can be common in the culture, To talk about how God is the father of everybody. Of all people. Now in a sense, You could say, Okay, well God created everyone, So he's master over all.

[12:26] Or the father of all. In one sense you could say that. But when the scriptures talk about the fatherhood of God, Or the doctrine of adoption, It is not talking about all mankind.

[12:36] It is talking about people, That are justified. That have been brought into the family of God. There is something new that happened, That wasn't true of you before.

[12:48] In fact, we just looked at this in Ephesians 2. So why don't we actually turn back there, If you have a copy of the scriptures. I'm not going to look at the whole passage, But just, It's good to see, Who we really were.

[13:05] Ephesians chapter 2, Beginning in verse 1, Read the first three verses only, And you were dead, In the trespasses and sins, In which you once walked.

[13:20] Following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, And the spirit that is now at work, And the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all, Once lived in the passions of our flesh, Carrying out the desires of the body, And the mind, And were by nature, And look at that phrase, Children of wrath.

[13:48] And in case you're wondering if that's you, Like the rest of mankind. Everybody. That means all the little babies that are coming into the world. All your nephews, All your grandchildren, All your own children, And you sitting here, And myself, All of us, Were by nature, Children of wrath.

[14:11] Or Jesus talking to the crowds, Remember he says, Well you are of your father, Who? The devil. Imagine watching Jesus have that teaching.

[14:25] You want to know who your dad is? It's the devil. Lines right up here with Paul. You're children of wrath. Or Colossians 1, That we are under the domain of darkness.

[14:36] Or Romans 5, We are enemies of God. You see, People come into this world, I came into this world, Not just like me and God just didn't get along.

[14:48] We were enemies of God. Ephesians 2 goes on, Without God, Without hope in the world. This is all throughout scriptures.

[15:00] It's not a pretty picture. Can we just say that? And that's a very bad place. Because Psalm 5 and Psalm 11 Declare that God hates the boastful.

[15:17] Wages a sinner's death. This is a terrifying picture That the scriptures actually paint. Jesus describes the place Where people will go, Where the wrath of God is poured out.

[15:29] At a place where there's weeping And gnashing of teeth. I don't know if you've ever seen Someone just so distraught, Where that actually kind of captures A little bit of the flavor.

[15:41] Somebody sobbing so deeply, That it just affects you to the core. This is what it will be like. Utter darkness for those people.

[15:53] And Paul and Jesus And the writers of scripture All agree. That is who we come into the world as. Can you agree with me That that's bad news?

[16:08] Yes. Good. And that is why the gospel Is such great news, right? Because the gospel says That he who knew no sin Became sin for us That we, Who were children of wrath, We would actually be The righteousness of God.

[16:27] That we, Our sins, Though they are crimson, That we will be made Fully clean, Pure, And forgiven. And that, Brothers and sisters, Is the idea of justification.

[16:41] We are declared Right with God. And we are given A righteousness, Not our own, But it comes from outside And is given to us. But that's not The end of the story. That's not Where the gospel stops.

[16:55] It gets even better. So let us go to Galatians 4 And see this Unfold a little more. Hey, that was a rhyme.

[17:07] I got little kids. I read a lot of Dr. Seuss books. So Galatians 4, Let's read that again.

[17:21] He's using this metaphor here Of guardians and children here. He says, I mean that the heir, As long as he is a child, He's no different From a slave.

[17:32] Though he is the owner Of everything. But he's under the guardians And messengers Until the date Set by his father. In the same way, We also, When we were children, We were enslaved To the elementary principles Of the world.

[17:47] He's lining right up With his other letters here, Right? We're enslaved. Which is bad news. But then the good news, Verse 4, But, When the fullness of time Had come, God sent forth his son, Born of a woman, Born under the law.

[18:04] Why? To redeem those Who were under the law. That's justification. Right? To bring us out From that enslavement And to redeem us. And bring us Into this Being declared Not guilty.

[18:20] But look at where he goes. Look at the next phrase. So that. That's an important phrase. She says, We were redeemed From under the law For something.

[18:37] There's a purpose to this. Or in Ephesians 1, It says that this, What he's about to say Was actually Predestined for us. He says, So that We might receive Adoption As Sons.

[18:55] Now, Paul is writing To a community That is aware Of what adoption Is in the culture. There was such a thing Known as adoption In the Roman world.

[19:07] It was a little bit Different than we Practice today, But there was some Similarity. So typically In adoption What happened Then Is if It was typically A very wealthy man Who didn't have Any sons.

[19:20] So, You know, You passed along The inheritance And everything To the sons. But if a man Was very wealthy And he had no sons, What he would do Is go out Into the community And find A man, Usually a younger man, Who he could then Bring into his family And pass everything Along to.

[19:39] Now, When that would happen That young man's Everything that Was true about him Was severed. So if he had any debts They were gone.

[19:50] If he had any ties To anything Totally cut off And he was transferred Into this new family Whereby he had Full rights To the whole inheritance. And so Paul Directing us to this Is saying This is something Of what's happened here.

[20:07] All your ties Have been cut off And now you are Part of this Inheritance. So we practice Something like that Here still, right? So our youngest Child, our son Is adopted.

[20:19] And I remember This was a couple Years ago When On adoption day We had to go To the courts In the city And stuff And I didn't know I was going to be Called to the stand.

[20:30] But the judge Looks at my wife And I and says I want you to Come up here. So my wife Throws me up there. And so I go up And the judge Starts asking me Questions like What my wife's Birthday is And stuff like this.

[20:43] And I don't know If that was like I don't know Why she was doing that And she was trying To trick me or what. But I was so nervous That I could hardly speak. But I got it right. And then she turned And she looked at me And she said Now Mr. Allen Do you understand That if you Adopt Dupree He will have The full rights Of the inheritance Equally As your biological children?

[21:11] And in my heart At that moment I said Yes! That's the gospel! Yes! Yes! Yes! Everything! And that's what's Going on here.

[21:22] You're being cut off From your old family A child of wrath. You're a child of the devil. You're being totally Separate from that And put into this New family Where you have Full rights Of the inheritance Of almighty God.

[21:36] Now The way the gospel Does this Is quite amazing Because now You think in that culture If this man Is wealthy And he's going out To find someone To pass his name Along to Who do you think He's going to look for In the community?

[21:51] He'd probably look for A guy like Mike Or Billy Or Matt And he'd look for The cream of the crop Maybe Mike says no Regardless You get the point Right? You're going to look For somebody That's going to do A good job Now Who does Jesus Run after?

[22:11] He goes into His enemy territory Those who Have no business In receiving Any kind of goodness From God And he goes Right into enemy territory And says Now you're mine And he brings us Right into The family I mean That Is amazing And then he continues And because You are sons God has sent The spirit Of his son Into our hearts Crying Abba Father And many have pointed out That that word Abba Is this term Of endurance Like a Like a daddy Daddy Father Now Some believe That this Even kind of Stating it this way When there was an adoption In the Roman world You had to have a witness Someone to confirm The adoption So it's very possible That's what Paul Is putting this together Like this Now who's the witness Of this adoption?

[23:07] The spirit Who's been given to you The Holy Spirit Who cries out Yes you actually are There has been an adoption Crying Abba Father And so you are No longer a slave But a son And if a son Then an heir Through God So J.I. Packer In his chapter He further says this To raise the distinction Between adoption And justification He says adoption Adoption is a family idea It's conceived in terms of Love And viewing God as father See in adoption God takes us Into his family And fellowship He establishes us As his children And heirs Closeness Affection Generosity Are at the heart Of the relationship

[24:08] To be right with God The judge Is a great thing But to be loved And cared for By God the father Is a greater thing Now I think that's An important point To consider To be right With God the judge That is great Is it not?

[24:32] I mean that's the picture You're in the courtroom And you are You are guilty As all get out And the judge Looks at you And says Not guilty Righteous But adoption Then is the picture Of the judge Coming off the bench Coming down To his enemy With his arms out Says And you're coming Home with me You're coming In my living room We're gonna Sup together You're mine Full inheritance Never fear again Never alone again Because you're mine You see this The doctrine of adoption Is meant to spark Thoughts of generosity And God's kindness And God's care And love And support You see In theory In theory at least You could just be Forgiven by God But not actually

[25:33] Cared for by him Right? And that would still Be wonderful I mean to go through life And know that you're You're not gonna be Judged by God That would be fantastic Now that in a sense Would be enough Right?

[25:47] But oh Much better it is To be loved for And cared for By the living God Now there's Something interesting That happens When you come Into the New Testament As well Because this Whole idea About God Being father It's there In the Old Testament It's 15 times Is the numbers That I have That God is father Israel is God's children God's people Are his children 15 times In the Gospels alone Matthew, Mark, Luke And John 165 times This whole idea Really comes flying forward That we are children of God And the way it really flows Jesus starts going around And he starts Doing his teaching And the language He starts using Is I say what my father says I'm teaching What my father is teaching And he starts calling

[26:48] God his father And the people Don't like it Because they're not Used to that Right? I mean how do you pray In the Old Testament? How are the people Thought to pray? What are the psalms?

[26:59] How do they pray? Oh, Yahweh Our Lord Our Master Oh, Yahweh Oh, Lord Our Lord Right? Now when Jesus says This is how I want you to pray What does he say?

[27:12] What's the very first words? Our Father And the people Don't like that Because that's so intimate And then Jesus Not only goes around saying He's my father But then he says That almighty God Sovereign Sovereign All wise All grace All grace Full of grace All knowing He's not only my father But he's your father If you would come Through me What an amazing picture That almighty God Comes after rebels like us And says I want you in my family And I'm going to give you All of me The question we have to ask ourselves Is that the way I live my life?

[28:01] When you woke up this morning Is it more likely That you feel like You're entering into the world As a precious son Or daughter of God Or as maybe one that God is He's kind of putting up with you Sometimes gets sick of you Wouldn't mind sometimes If you kept your distance Truth be told We're all like that at times Right?

[28:31] We think that God Views us like that So what do we do with this? This is where we'll pull out The sheet here I want to give you A couple tools That you can take To try to reflect on this So there's some wonderful material Called the Sonship material Started by Jack Miller Who's now with the Lord World Harvest Mission Puts this out It's called Sonship This is where I get This worksheet from A portion of it And then I kind of Just made it a lot bigger And such But the whole idea of that Is that Jesus In John 14 Looks at his disciples And he says He promises them I will not leave you As orphans Right?

[29:13] But I'm going to send My spirit to you And so this They kind of have this Comparison of whether or not You're viewing life As if God has actually Orphaned you You know Orphan is one That their parents Have left them Or if we're actually Entering into the world Today As people who really Believe that God Is our father And we are children Of God So the way The document is set up Is that There's obviously You know A statement On one side That is This is how children That believe And live in the good Of being children of God Think Then the other side Is these are These are the way People think Of when they When they act As if they're Orphaned by God Now The hard part About doing the sheet Sometimes Is it feels like It's either A or B Right?

[30:00] It's like being At that eye doctor A, B I don't know I think they're Kind of still I don't know Somewhere in the middle And that's what You feel like When you do it And that's okay It's just Trying to set up Two different sides And say Do you lean One way or the other Now You have to know Ahead of time You are going to be On the orphan side Quite a bit If you're honest With your heart And that's This part of the point Of doing this Is to expose The areas In your heart So you can go Before God And say God There are areas Of my life That I actually Act In my heart That you aren't A good father And so I need you To teach me And instruct me And I want to live In the good Of who you are So if you go Through this whole sheet And you are always On the left side It's Probably worth Talking with the people Around you And saying Do I live like this Because they'll Probably tell you That you don't Okay So you will End up on the orphan side Quite a bit And that's okay That's good Like we want God To expose that

[31:00] So let me just Walk you through A couple ways You can do this Because one of the ways I like to do it Is when I find areas That I'm more living Like an orphan I want to think About the natural Family And say God help me To think about The family And give me An illustration Of what a good Father would be like Or a negative Illustration What a bad Father does Because you're Not like that And help me To learn that way So I'll walk Through a couple Examples for you So I'm going to First I'll read it And kind of give you Some illustrations So let's take a look At the first one there People who are living As if they're children Of God Are confident And hopeful In the unknown Tomorrow Knowing their wise And gracious father He's going to be there With complete control But those who are living As if orphaned by God Are generally fearful And they're sidelined By the unknown tomorrow Doubting God Is going to be there In wisdom In grace In power

[32:00] And look at number six Those living as children Of God They regularly take risks For the kingdom They know the outcome Is not ultimately up to them And they're not afraid But those living as if orphaned They rarely take risks For the kingdom Because the weight Of the unknown outcome It's overbearing It's too fearful Now I don't know If you're here And you generally Are anxious over the future Where you don't really like To take risks For the kingdom I would put myself In the camp I am generally anxious About the unknown tomorrow This is one where I tend to Camp out And so my illustration That has helped me Over the years Comes from one of my oldest Tali She was just two And we were My wife and I We were reading with Tali Through the story of Joseph And how he gets You know Shipped down to Egypt And such And he never knows

[33:02] What's going to happen And obviously You know the end of the story And what those Who meant it for evil God meant for good Right There's this whole sense Of trusting God God was with him So we were trying To illustrate this To our daughter And so we put blindfolds On one another And did that Kind of You know I don't know Maybe you call it A trust walk Or whatever So first we put A blindfold On my wife And my daughter Grabs one hand And I grab the other hand And we're walking And my wife Around the apartment And of course You'd think My wife is kind of Like this Right And I mean I've been married To the woman for years And she still doesn't Trust me to walk Around the apartment But whatever I did the same thing When they put the blindfold On me Because it's scary Right We're old If I run into something I might not recover For a couple weeks Right But the amazing thing Happened We took the blindfold off She was now ready For her turn She puts the blindfold on We each grab her hand And the little girl Without She can't see anything

[34:03] Just She has She doesn't have A hesitation In her step What so ever And why is that? Because she is Absolutely confident Without any hesitation That mom and dad Will take care of it I don't have to fear What's in front of me They're not going to Run me into something I can't handle They have this together Because that's her Whole world Right I mean when Jesus Says to kind of Become like children There's something like that Right Kids trust their parents Of course When it's safe to Right If they're in a safe home And it's those moments That I just want to say God whisper that In my ear Constantly Every day That's what you're like That's what you want From me And I can do that I can trust you like that Wouldn't that be freedom If you could enter Into tomorrow like that With that sense of freedom I don't have to worry About tomorrow I don't have to worry About what's going to Happen this week Or next month Or that thing That's on your mind

[35:03] That you're a little bit Nervous about Or about your kids You say God Take me I'll Whatever you want I will do whatever You call me to do Now truth be told Part of the problem Is we think God is pretty stingy We think our fathers Is kind of lazy Or maybe He doesn't have The kind of power That actually says He does Right I mean that's what We think about God We don't want to say That out loud But that's what We think in our heart Right I mean One of my Favorite meals Is like a pasta bake Or lasagna Or something Right Too lazy to make Lasagna So I make pasta bake It's a little bit easier So I make a pasta bake And I love pasta bake When it first comes out Of the oven I mean it is Fantastic Now very few things Are better than pasta bake

[36:04] Right out of the oven But you know what's better Than pasta bake Right out of the oven Pasta bake on day two I love leftover pasta bake Always have Now this is what Typically happens We're having leftovers Of pasta bake And my wife gives me The bigger portion Because I'm the Biggest in the family And one of the kids Looks over at my plate They're done with theirs And they ask me If I can have some of mine Do you know what I do As a dad?

[36:40] You would want me To say that I give it to him But I don't I say no That's daddy's portion Daddy's bigger He needs that I need energy Because I'm I'm kind of stingy And selfish That's what Jesus says Right You even though You're evil You still know How to give Some good gifts To your kids How much more If God is perfect And God's not stingy And God is all powerful Will he not give you Everything you possibly need Because that is the type Of father you have He's not like Dan He is so much better You see how practical Of a doctrine this is If we can really let this Say God Just put this deeper in me I want to live free As a child of God Alright well let's do Another one quickly Let's go down to Number 12 It says If you're living

[37:41] As a child of God Those people are They're free To try at a task And fail Knowing their significance It's not in their performance Their father loves To just watch them try They don't have to Perform anything Those living as orphans They're generally Terribly embarrassed When they fail in a task They fear that people And or God Will be embarrassed To be associated with them I'm going to Number 27 It's linked to this one Those living as Children of God They rejoice In the accomplishments Of others They genuinely Encourage anyone Less successful As they are But people living As orphaned They live ranking Themselves with other people Which produces Either pride Or depression When they're outdone They are miserable But when they're Better than other people Life is good I don't know if you Ever walk into a room

[38:42] And you kind of Rank yourself Pretty quick Judge how you stand Before other people I don't know If you care about The opinion of other people I do I mean Embarrassingly I play a lot of softball I play every day If I could I'm generally Super nervous If my family Comes to a game Now this is sad I just turned 40 This summer And I'm embarrassed If I hit a weak Like ground ball And my kids see it Because I've I've gotten In my In my default mode Is to To think that Maybe my kids Would think less of me If they saw my performance And I want them To be proud of me So I want to shine For them Now that That is sad Is it not I mean to be 40 And still like that I don't want to be like that Now I'm standing up here And like I look out here

[39:42] And I I look at expressions And I'm like I hope these people Like this Because I want them To like me And I hope that They tell me That they like My sermon And And it's sad And now I've kind of Made it an awkward moment Right For afterwards You don't want to say anything But this is how we live Right We We We want people to like us So we're thinking Do you like me Is this good Are you okay And That Is it not that enslaving The things that you will do To get people to like you Or the things you won't do Just so people like you That is enslaving And I think One of the greatest cures Is to really rest And Almighty God Actually views me As his precious child Then that is enough Oh If I could really Just hold on to that This is a couple weeks ago My kid My older Girls are in volleyball My youngest is in soccer I was over watching The girls play volleyball

[40:42] And They're Learning how to Hit the ball Like Serve The ball over the net So they do this Underhand thing So my My youngest Or my My youngest Girl So She's eight She She actually is right handed But I don't know They were teaching her To hit left Lefty So she's She's serving the ball Trying to get it over the net Right And I'm watching this From You have to stand in the hallway And this She She would take the ball And Right into the net Right into the net Right into the net You get the picture Right in the net Right And I'm sitting there Watching this My heart is just I mean I'm loving this This is beautiful I love it And I thought to myself Man I wonder if If somebody Like leaned over to me Right now And said Something like You see that girl Hitting that ball Into the net That is That's embarrassing You know what I I thought You know what I'd say

[41:43] At that time I'd say There is nobody That hits the ball Into the net Like that girl Isn't that awesome I love it She I could watch this All day I love it Right Because I don't care If she's successful Or not It doesn't matter to me She's my girl And I love it I don't care If she's great Like does accomplishments Or not That's not going to Earn my favor At all And so one of the ways We try to teach our kids The youngest almost has this So this is the pattern I'll do with them I'll say Dupree Do you know Do you know That dad loves you He says yes Good Good Dupree What could you do today That would make daddy Love you less As a four year old He generally thinks Well maybe If I'm naughty You're going to love me And I say No no no There's nothing you could do

[42:43] That would make me love you less Nothing at all But Dupree What could you do today That would make me love you more Again He's four He thinks Well if I obey If I do good No no no There's nothing you could do That would make me love you more So Dupree Why do I love you What's the answer Because Period Because That's it I love you Because I love you And that's exactly how God speaks to his people In Deuteronomy I love you Because I love you There's nothing else I love you Because you are in Christ And you are my son Or my daughter That's it Don't try to add to that There's nothing more to put into that bucket I love you Because I love you And I'm crazy about you And I love to watch you Like you like to watch your grandparents Or I guess you could love to watch your grandparents

[43:45] Your grandchildren Or your kids You just You just delight in them Because they are They are yours Do you know That if you are in Christ That's the way God views you this morning You With all your flaws God is not disappointed That he called you into the family of God He's not wishing That he would have chose somebody else Yes He knows about your flaws You are beautiful in his sight Wouldn't it be freeing If you could really hear that from God Wouldn't it be freeing To walk into a room And not have to rank yourself with people Oh I think this doctrine can help Move us in that direction Now I got to start wrapping up here So I just got to close with this If you take the time And have you know

[44:45] Over the next week Or couple weeks To work yourself through this sheet I do have to point you to one Because this can be dangerous If you kind of Mishear some of this stuff I want to show you number 34 There's a reason why that one is At the end there People living as children of God They move toward God After they sin Knowing that their father's arms Though God may be grieved by our sin His arms are open wide With forgiveness And grace And power to help But those orphaned by God They keep distant from God After they sin They hope that their self-pity Will pacify God Afraid that running to God That might be abusing God's grace Or he must be annoyed by them Now this one is worth reflecting One of my children lied to me It was so painful To realize That this precious little girl

[45:46] Could lie to me And I remember When she You know I didn't Force her to To tell me the truth I just knew that she lied And she wasn't confessing yet And she went up to her room And you know I was hoping that she was Sulking up there Of course not Right But that's the way we treat adults Right We want adults to pay like that But you don't to your kids As a parent There's a longing in the heart That says Come on honey Come back Come confess I am waiting And I am willing And I am longing For that restoration Of relationship Don't think my arms Are giving you the stiff arm No They're wide open Come to me I'm your daddy I have love for you Only love for you Restore it

[46:46] Come on Come on Now you go through this sheet I hope you hear that To be free That it's okay If you're on the orphan side God is saying Come It's okay I know who you are I'm mindful of your frame That you're but dust Bring it to me I can handle it Let us walk this road together Imagine Your world Tomorrow This week If you could just enter into it Say God is my father He's crazy about me Crazy about me There's things coming up That I'm a little bit nervous about But God can handle that There's situations That make me deeply sad But God is with me And I can handle He can handle this Imagine your church Filled with people Like that And growing in that And ministering this truth To one another Saying No, no, no No God can help us through that What would God do In our life In this pilgrimage If we could just Each day Get more and more May God do that

[47:46] For us By his grace And kindness Let us pray Together God what mercy You give us In the doctrine of adoption Just a few moments We had to kind of Meditate over that God And I ask that you Would allow it To bear fruit In our hearts God would you In kindness Give each of us Just one step forward Even To say Okay I think I hear you And I want to embrace That more God That you really are A father to me You really care And you can really Hold me And you really Run after me Even when I go Astray I pray for anyone Here who Who actually Doesn't know you As father Who has never been Brought into the Family of God Would you now Open up their eyes To see that There is Hope There is a love

[48:47] That you provide As father That nothing In the world Can provide Nothing we want To chase Can provide The love And care That you give Would you bring Them redemption Open their eyes To the gospel Of Jesus And bring them Into the family And for us God Prepare us For the week Ahead That today And tomorrow We would walk As children Of the living Reigning God In Christ's name Amen