[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Alright, take your Bibles review and open to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. While we're turning there, I could really use the help of two couples.
[0:14] If I could get two couples to come up here and help me right quick, who would just volunteer to do that without being drafted? Man and a wife, would you come up here and help me? Okay, I count to five, then I'll draft you.
[0:26] Alright, there's one couple, Trent and Stephanie. Stephanie, Matt, your wife's already coming with you. Come on. See there? See, she was volunteering as she walked up here. And Ed, would you come up here? And I want one couple on this side and one couple on this side up here on the platform.
[0:39] We're going to talk about being adopted today, and we are the children of God. We are the children of God. It's probably, to me, one of the most beautiful things. Step over here. You know, are y'all sinners or are they sinners?
[0:51] Who's going to make them? Who's Adam? Are you Adam or are you Christ? I'm just a sinner saved by grace. So what are you? I'm Jesus. You're Jesus? Alright, come over here.
[1:03] Come over here and be in this family. I believe this is the Antichrist over here. Alright, watch this. I want you to go through. There's a problem that we face with who we are.
[1:13] If you were adopted as a very small baby, you might very likely fit into the family and not even hardly realize that you were adopted. But if you can imagine, this kid, he looks up one day and he says, I look just like my daddy.
[1:27] Not quite. But anyway, he says, I look just like my daddy. And then one day, he gets adopted out of this family. And to do that, stop. To do that, this family, he is turned totally away from this family.
[1:42] He is legally not a part of this family. Fact is, before this is over, his last name will be changed, all of his documents will be rewritten, and he will no longer be a part of this family in any way.
[1:54] His records won't show it. Nothing will show it. He won't be their child. And he'll move into this family, and he will become a part of this family, and he will be in that family.
[2:05] But there's a problem that you and I have. And that is, because we got saved at a later date, we often don't understand. It's so hard for us to realize, I don't belong to Adam's family anymore.
[2:19] I'm in the family of the new Adam, in the family of Jesus today. I am a new person. I have a new family. Can you understand that or not? How many of you have any adoption-type stuff close to you?
[2:33] Anybody in your family adopt or anything? Hold your hand up. You know, adoption is one of the most wonderful, beautiful things. So tonight, this afternoon, our two adopted grandkids with two natural-born grandkids will be showing up at the house, and they will be here at church tonight.
[2:46] And this morning, I got a message on Haytale, an app, an Internet app. I got a message from Jacob, our adopted grandson.
[2:57] And he's kind of whispered quiet and low. I don't know why. But he says, hey, granddaddy, all we got to do is go to church. We're going to go to church this morning. And he said, then we're going to come home and get everything ready, and I'll be at your house.
[3:10] I love you, and I can't wait to be at your house. So I called back, and I said, I said, man, I can't wait for you to get to our house this afternoon. I look forward to seeing you. I love you. And you tell everybody else to love you. He goes, I'll tell everybody, granddaddy.
[3:21] And so he's like a 10-year-old, and we've got this little conversation going on. Now, in our family, we celebrate, and it's Chris and Andrea's child, we celebrate their adoption day.
[3:34] We celebrate the day they were born, and we celebrate their adoption day. Those both dates have been celebrated ever since they were small children. They know they're adopted. The other day, Hannah prayed.
[3:44] Somebody, I don't remember who told me. She was in front of somebody. And when they were praying, she said, and I thank you for letting me be adopted. So I want you to realize today some beautiful things about us.
[3:55] Ed, come back over this way. In this family over here, you're going to die. In this family over here, you're going to die. This family represents the flesh. That's because he wanted to be Christ so bad.
[4:08] I just had to disappoint him today. But in this family, you're going to die. In this family, you were born to sin. In this family, you have a lot of characteristics that are just totally rebellious.
[4:18] I mean, this lady went and ate that fruit on that day and brought ruin on all of us. That's her. And then he went and ate the fruit because he loved her. And what happens is, what happens is one day the Lord Jesus brings us into his family.
[4:34] And what you have to realize is you're not a part of that family. We are the children of God. And it's a totally different thing that took place. I want you to take your Bible and read with me.
[4:45] I want you to go down. We're in Romans chapter 8 and verses 12 through 17. But for the beginning, I want to start in verse 16, if you would. I want you to read with verse 16. And I just want you to read the last five words there in Romans 8, 16.
[4:58] It's right here behind my head. I want you to read that. Starting at that, we're going to read, we are the children of God. If you're a born-again believer, if you're a born-again believer, if you know that you're going to heaven when you die, if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, I want you to read out loud with me those words.
[5:13] Are you ready? One, two, three. Do it again. And Ed, we don't start with that. We start with we. Okay? Are you ready? You're the leader. So let's do it right.
[5:23] Ready? One, two, three. We are the children of God. Now, you know, it's interesting to me. I'm going to read you the whole passage. But it's basically like Paul stopped and said, you guys don't get it yet, do you?
[5:35] You were sinners and you were on your way to hell. But Jesus died on a cross. He was buried and he rose again. And he saves us and he puts us in his family. And he said, we are the children of God. Romans 8 is like over and over.
[5:46] We're the children of God. Hey, it starts out Romans 8, 1. There's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. It ends up the chapter saying nothing will ever separate you from that.
[5:56] You will never ever get kicked out of the family. And here in Romans 8, verse 12 through 17, look what it says to me if you would. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
[6:09] Now, stop a second. Look this way. We'll walk our way through it. But watch this. You see, you're not a debtor to this old family you used to live in. That's not who you are. You don't owe them anything. You're not obligated to live like them.
[6:21] That's not your family anymore. You have moved out of that family. You have moved out of that family. You're into a new family. We are not debtors. We don't owe anything to that old way of living.
[6:32] We don't owe anything to that old way of living. When a young couple gets married, you know, and they're both of them kind of aggravated at their parents. They're about to get married. They're talking to me. And I say to them, you both need to be real careful about talking about the other's parents.
[6:42] Because as soon as you get married, about three months, six months in, you're going to find out that no matter how many things your wife said negative about her parents, she'll take them back and she'll get mad at you for saying them. So don't be talking bad about her parents.
[6:52] She'll find that out. And it almost always happens. Because we do owe our parents. There's no doubt about that. No doubt about it. But this is a whole different situation. This is the flesh. This is Adam.
[7:03] It's who I was. It's not who I am. And I don't owe anything to him. He never did anything good for me. He never did anything good for me but plunged me into hell. But plunged me into sin.
[7:14] I don't owe him anything. Number two, verse 13. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. If you stay in that family, if that's who you are, you're going to die. But if through the Spirit do mortify, kill, put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live.
[7:30] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are, look at what it said, they are the sons of God. They're the children of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage, again, to fear, but have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Daddy, Father, Abba, Father.
[7:48] That's a sweet word. That's what, if you were a Peruvian and you were in South America, you might say, Papi, you're going to have a special word. You've got a Daddy word, a word that's in the house, a word.
[7:59] You know, when you go out in public, you probably don't use that Daddy word that you use at the house. It's an informal word. It's a word we say in the house. Go ask Daddy, go ask Mama, whatever the word is you use.
[8:10] But when you go out, you might call her Mother, you might call him Father, but that's that special little word, Abba, Father. Verse 16, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit. We are the children of God.
[8:22] And if children, if we are His children, then we are heirs. We are going to inherit from Him. We are the inheritors of God. We're going to get an inheritance. We're getting something from Him.
[8:34] And join us. We're on the same level. We're putting the inheritance with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be also glorified together.
[8:45] Father, I pray that today you would take this beautiful passage. And God, that you would excite your children. God, I wish you would help them to go home today saying, I belong to you, Jesus.
[8:56] I belong to you, Father. God, Abba, Father, I love you. Thank you for being my Father. Thank you for putting me in your family. And I pray to God you do a great work. And I'll give you praise for all that you do. In Jesus' name, amen.
[9:06] Amen. The passage is written to and about believers. Those that have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus and what He did on the cross. Understand what I'm about to say. This is not written to everybody.
[9:18] This is a family note. This is a family letter. This is sitting down with Jacob and Hannah and saying, you are in the family. You understand? You are in the family.
[9:29] Let me tell you some things about being in the family. You should in no way think this applies to everyone. It may not apply to you or someone that you love. There could be somebody in this room this very morning and everything I'm about to say doesn't apply to you.
[9:41] You're not in the family yet. You can be in the family. You can trust Jesus. You can believe, but it may not apply to you. You ought to use these same points to check it out and make sure that you're born again.
[9:51] Make sure you're in the family. You should know there are two families, two Adams, and you're part of one or the other. You're either in the old life or you're in the new life. You're either on your way to hell or you're on your way to heaven.
[10:02] You're either part of Satan is the head of your family or Jesus, the father, is head of your family. We can have victory. And we can have victory as a Christian. We can have victory.
[10:13] First thing I want you to look at, chapter 8, verse 12. Write this down somewhere. We owe nothing to the flesh. We owe nothing to the flesh, to the old way of life.
[10:24] Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live out to the flesh. Our old man, who we were in Adam, was crucified with Christ. That old man that I used to be died.
[10:35] Who I used to be died crucified with him. We have no duty, responsibility, obligation, or debt to our old sinful nature to live according to those principles. The flesh only brought us death and separation from God.
[10:50] No responsibilities and no duties to our old family. Now look this way real quick. I'm going to move on to the next verse. You just got to get something straight. He's not really talking about this other relationship yet.
[11:00] We'll get to that in just a second. Do you understand this family that I used to be a part of and what was going to happen to me is not true about me anymore. I'm not a part of that family. I'm not a part of that flesh.
[11:11] I am not a part of that family. I am in the family of the Lord Jesus. I owe nothing to that. I don't have to do anything that family wants me to do. If Satan wants me to sin, I don't have to sin because I don't owe him anything.
[11:23] Can you say amen? I don't have to do anything he wants me to do because he does not have a relationship with me. He had one. I died in Jesus and I have a new life.
[11:34] Can you say amen? I don't know anything to that. Don't you dare say, well, you know, I just can't help myself. That's what they say, not what they say. Did you get that? Hey, look. That's what they say, not what they say.
[11:46] That's what the family of the devil says, not what the family of Jesus. We have all power and all victory in Jesus Christ. Can you say amen right there? Number two. Look at the second thing I want you to write down. We have victory by the work of the spirit in our lives.
[11:58] Verse 13. For if you live after the flesh, if you do the things of Adam, you will die. But if through the spirit you do mortify, big word, mortician, but just write this down.
[12:10] Kill it. If you do kill it, if you do kill it, if you do put it to death, the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So you see, we have victory.
[12:22] I want you to understand something. Sin has no power over you. It cannot make you sin. Doesn't mean that you won't sin. Doesn't mean you won't be tempted to sin.
[12:33] But you are not a slave to sin and you can have victory over sin. We can choose to live a holy life. We can choose to live a holy life.
[12:44] Those of you who walk around all the time acting like you just can't get victory. Acting like you just can't leave the old way of living. You just can't leave who you were and rebellion. This is a system here of rebellion to God.
[12:56] This is somebody who says, no, God, I don't want to do it your way. If you don't want me to eat the fruit in the garden, I will eat the fruit in the garden. I'll live the life my way. I'll do things my way. I'll think about myself and, sorry, that's just the way it's going to be.
[13:07] That's what this family says. On this side over here, we say, hey, I choose Jesus. I choose life and I choose to obey God and do what God would have me to do in my life.
[13:18] You know that flesh and rebellion against God only brought death. We choose. We yield ourselves. That's what we find out in chapter 7. We choose who we'll yield ourselves to. I can yield myself to sin or I can yield myself to righteousness.
[13:31] As we surrender and submit the Holy Spirit and His work in us, we'll put to death, mortify, kill that old way of living. Verse 13. Look at it. Romans 8, 13.
[13:42] For if you live out of the flesh, you shall die. But if through the flesh you do mortify the deeds of the body. Sensual, selfish, natural deeds. What regular people do.
[13:53] Did you know if your whole life was built on what am I going to get? Where am I going to go? What do I want to eat? What do I want to do? How would I want to have? There's something wrong there. Because that's the way they talk. That's not the way they talk.
[14:03] That's the way we did before. And so if sin is your lifestyle, you should doubt your own salvation. Look at this way and listen to me. If sin is your lifestyle and you constantly cannot get victory.
[14:17] And honestly, you say, I really wish I could be a different person, but I'm not. Either you don't understand some basic Bible truths that I hope you'll understand today. Or you're not saved. You need to look at that. You're not saved.
[14:28] You need to look at that. Born again people have been changed. Look at this. Through the Spirit, you do mortify. You do kill the deeds of the body. How do we kill the deeds of the body real quick? First thing you do is this.
[14:39] You recognize that there is sin. Paul said, hey, I've got sin in me. I know. Now look this way. Listen to me. The second you begin to think you've gotten to a place where sin has no effect on you, you're not tempted, nothing's going to happen, you're in real big trouble.
[14:52] The second you think sin's totally gone, you're in big trouble. You need to realize sin can disguise itself. Sin can hide itself. Sin can fool you and mess you up.
[15:05] That's why the psalmist prays, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me. I want God to help me see myself. So here's how we put to death sin.
[15:18] We ask God, God, show me what's wrong. God, show me what's wrong in my life. I pray and ask you to show me from the Word of God what's wrong in my life. And then we fix our hearts on the Lord.
[15:30] Now listen to what I'm going to tell you. Listen, Christians, there's not a series of do's and don'ts that you follow. Are you listening to me? There's not a series. There's not a method you're going to use. There's not a magic.
[15:42] I'm not fixing to give you ten things you do to kill the things in the flesh. There's no list. There's no list. There's no, if you do this, this, and this, everything will be okay. There's none of that involved here.
[15:53] What changes you is God working in you. There's no system that will give you victory. There's no special manifestation of the Holy Spirit that will do it. You're not going to get along with God and pray.
[16:05] You walk in there kind of wicked. Oh, God, take over. I got it. Walk out. You're a new man. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. That's not how it works. That's not going to happen. You remember this.
[16:16] It's a daily loving him and spending time in his presence. Have you ever noticed how a husband and wife almost begin to look like each other? Have you ever seen that before? If you have, say amen.
[16:28] You haven't? Okay. How about this one? Have you ever seen how a man and his dog look alike? Have you ever seen that? Now, here's a guy who got a dog. And if you take a picture of the dog, take a picture of him, you're like, uh-oh. They look alike.
[16:38] Have you ever seen that? Say amen. When you hang around each other, you start getting to think like each other. Betty was a Ferguson and I was a gardener. We're not gardeners and we're not Fergusons. We're Austin and Betty, we got our own ways of doing things.
[16:51] It's been 40 years almost and we have learned by being together. We didn't start out with a system. We didn't start out with a method. We didn't have some drastic thing. But when you live together, you grow together.
[17:03] Victory comes when you bring God into the equation. Or God brings himself into the equation. Do you remember the story of a guy, a false god named Dagon? The Philistines conquer Israel and they bring the Ark of the Tabernacle and they bring it in.
[17:18] And they put it in the presence of Dagon. And oh, this old false god, he's sitting on his little thing. And he, boom, he falls off on his face in front of the Ark of the Covenant. And the next day they set him back up and he falls again. And this time he's broken.
[17:30] He's broken. Here's the key. Here's the key to how you mortify the deeds of the flesh. Don't look for a list of do's and don'ts. But know this. You spend time with God and old Dagon will fall on his face.
[17:42] You spend time with God and old Dagon will lose power over you. Old Dagon can't stand there in the presence of God. Sin can't stand if you'll stay in the presence of God. How do you do that?
[17:52] Well, get in the Bible. Read this book. Learn this book. Get it in your heart. Learn the Word of God. Spend time in prayer. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
[18:03] As you read the Bible and as you pray, let the Holy Spirit deal with your heart and teach you. Obey. I read this morning where a guy said, it's not trust and God will bless you. And it's not obey and God will bless you.
[18:14] It's trust and obey. And that's how the song comes about. We have the power of God in our lives. It is the power of the Holy Spirit, not us and not our effort. I just want you to understand something.
[18:25] I spent a lot of frustrating years wanting victory over sin. And so I spent all these years. Man, I had this whole list. And I even used to figure out ways to get around my list. I'd write down these 25 things I should do or not do in my life.
[18:39] And oftentimes it just frustrated the fire out of me. But you'll bet it. I've been married all these years. We've never had that list. There's never been a list. You will, you will, you will. You won't, you won't, you won't. I will, I will, I will.
[18:50] I won't, I won't, I won't. We just loved each other. And by the way, a lot of wills and won'ts got fixed. We just loved each other and stayed in each other's presence. You say, what's the secret of a long marriage?
[19:00] Staying together. You say, do y'all ever have any issues? Yeah, we have. All my fault, but we've had plenty of issues. But what happens?
[19:11] And I said that so that we wouldn't have another issue at church. Amen. See, what happens is when you stay together, you get a long marriage. Can you say amen? And you'll learn to know each other.
[19:22] Now you have to know that you have spiritual weapons in this war. And here's some verses for you. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 and 5. You can write that down.
[19:33] They'll put it up for you. You can look up here. It says, I learn more about His Word.
[20:05] As the Holy Spirit deals in my heart, I grow and mature and become who I'm supposed to be. We're led by the Spirit of God. It's God at work in us. And it's a gentle, slow guy.
[20:17] He knows exactly how fast to take you. He knows exactly what to show you. And He will slowly lead you. You ought to just open yourself up and say, Lord, in the Word of God and in prayer and in preaching and all the time with you, I just want you to build me.
[20:29] Just keep loving Him. Keep looking at Him. And He will work a work in your life. In Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 5, the Bible says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
[20:39] Lean not unto your own understanding. In all your paths, acknowledge Him. Make known, Hey, I know Him. I think about Him. And He shall direct your paths. The psalmist said, Show me thy ways, O Lord.
[20:50] Teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth. Teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. Teach me to do thy will. For you are my God. Thy spirit is good.
[21:01] Lead me into the land of uprightness. He leads us by causing us to understand His Word. Now listen to what I'm going to tell you. This is your nutrition. Are you looking at me this second?
[21:11] This is your nutrition. This is the Word of God. And here's what you do. You get in it. And by the way, you read the Bible and on some days you're going to find it dull and dry and you're not going to get much out of it. Well, that's okay.
[21:23] That's really okay. You know, not every shower is a bubbly, a bubbly, a bubbly, a bubbly bath. Whatever you call them things. You know, don't laugh at me. What?
[21:34] A bubbly, bubbly bubble bath. You got that. That was three B's in a row. Man, I can't believe myself. Not every time is a great meal. The other day, the other day, this past week, man, I got, I mean, I've been treated like royalty.
[21:46] I got taken out to eat twice and then Betty fixed the steak at the house. The steak at Longhorns wasn't near as good as the steak. I'll just tell you, it was better at the house. Now watch this. Watch this. Not every meal is a great meal, but I still keep eating.
[21:59] How about you? It's not like you wake up in the morning and say, if I don't have a really special breakfast today, I'm just not going to eat. You eat ramen noodles sometimes if you're a college student. Amen. And if you're a young, poor student, man, you know, I mean, honestly, if your wife can't boil water yet without burning it, I mean, you might eat Pop-Tarts.
[22:15] Say amen. But you see, you eat. And what you're going to do is you're going to get in a book and you're going to wait on God. God helps you to see it. You're going to come to church. You're going to open your Bible. You're going to have an ink pen and a pad there and you're going to take some notes and you're going to be listening and the Holy Spirit's going to open your eyes and you're going to see things.
[22:30] You're going to say, wow, look what God's Word says and it's going to do a work in your life. He's going to place a desire in you, a desire to do right, to obey Him. You're not obligated.
[22:41] You just want to. God makes this want to happen. You know, Betty and I were just little kids when we got married. I mean, I was 18, three days before I turned 19, she was 19 and we didn't know anything about marriage.
[22:53] When we went in for marriage, she got them to see the pastor. We walked in to see the pastor. I was 18. She was still 18 and we walked in to see the pastor. I said, Pastor, we'd like to get married. I was wondering if you'd counsel us. He said, sure.
[23:04] What day do you want to get married? How about August the 18th? He said, when do you want to have a rehearsal? August 17th. He said, good deal. See you then. God bless you. Y'all are going to make a fine marriage. That was our counseling. We walked out the door.
[23:15] I'm like, I wanted some counseling. I even told him I wanted counseling. He said, you'll do fine. We got married. We didn't know anything. Nobody helped us with anything. But you know what happened? Love helped us overcome junk.
[23:26] Staying together helped us overcome stuff and to grow and to become the family. That's what you end up doing. I want you to go with me to verse 15 now. Verse 15. You should have seen by now.
[23:37] The first thing is that we don't owe anything to the flesh. And the second thing is that we have victory in the spirit. We can put to death the sin. We can live. Now, the next thing is we have the spirit of sons, not slaves.
[23:49] We have the spirit of sons, not slaves. You got to understand what he's saying. Look at verse 15 with me. You got Romans 8, 15 open. Look what it says. Well, you have not received the spirit of bondage or slavery or chains.
[24:02] Again, to fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, now watch this. Listen to me. What did the law do?
[24:13] The law said, you're going to die. We have lived much of our life. Now, to understand this, you know what? We, we, we, we've been all of our lives. I'm sure I want to face God, you know, kind of rough guy. He's going to open the books.
[24:24] I'll look at everything I've ever done. And we've lived in this bondage. He said, whoa, whoa, whoa. You got to understand over here in this family, there might be bondage. And over here in this family, there might be fear. And over here in this family, there might be all this rules and you're going to die.
[24:35] But you joined a whole new family. And over on his side, you're, you're in a new family. This is a wonderful, sweet, intimate relationship. This is Abba, Father. This is Daddy, Father.
[24:46] That's a Greek word for like, really, it's like Daddy. It's like the sweet stuff. Boy, I love you. You're my dad. You're Daddy. You're Poppy. Whatever the word is, you use at your house. That's the word.
[24:57] You know, you've ever noticed, man, grandmamas and granddaddies and mamas and daddies sometimes have the weirdest names. You'll say, well, I'll say, go tell your granddaddy. You look at them, they're like, they don't have a granddaddy.
[25:08] They got a Papa. Somebody got Omi. I mean, I'm like, where in the world did you get some of these names you guys come up with for it? Papaw. But he said, it's a special name. He said, it's a special name.
[25:19] So know this, we have an intimate, permanent relationship with, to God as his child. Listen just a tad about adoption. In verse 15, it says, the spirit of adoption.
[25:30] You see, there's a spirit of bondage, there's a spirit of fear, and there's a spirit of adoption. And Paul's talking to Romans, and he's probably got in mind what Romans do. And when you have an adoption in a Roman family, there's a change of family.
[25:44] There's a change of family. The family goes out, they find somebody they'll adopt. Not long ago in Peru, my grandkids were there, and some of the kids in the school found out that Jacob and Hannah were adopted.
[25:57] And they began to mock them and say, you are adopted, you are adopted. So they went home, and they told their dad, our son, they said, they're making fun of us for being adopted. And he said, well, you go back to school and tell them that their parents didn't have any choice.
[26:10] They were stuck with what came out. And your mom and daddy chose you. A few days later, the teacher called and said, would you please tell them to quit sending it? All the kids are upset because they're not adopted. But that's exactly what goes on.
[26:22] You've changed families. The adopted person loses all rights to his old family. Now listen to me. That's not who you are. That might be who you were, but you've lost all rights, and they've lost all rights over you.
[26:37] They've lost all rights over you. They no longer have any rights. They signed away those rights. If they come and say, that's my child, the judge will say, oh no, that's not your child. You don't have any power over that child.
[26:49] You are not in debt, obligated to the flesh. It's not who you are anymore. The adopted person gains all the rights of the new family. Legally, he got a new family.
[27:00] Legally, he becomes an heir to his father's estate. Legally, his old life is wiped out, and his debts are canceled. His old life is wiped out, and his debts are canceled.
[27:13] Truth, I don't know what Jacob and Hannah's last name was. Jacob's name was Jacob, but we only changed one of his names. They only changed, my kids only changed one of his names.
[27:24] Hannah, Nicole, I'm not even sure, I don't think that was her name at all, was it? She was so young, they just gave her a brand new name. But if you go check out the birth certificate, it says on the birth certificate, mom is Andrea, dad is Chris Gardner, and they weren't even there when they got, when they were born.
[27:41] And here's what Paul said, guys, we're the children of God. We don't live in this legalism, we don't live in this bondage, we don't live in this fear of death. That's not the relationship. We have a sweet spirit, Abba Father.
[27:54] We are in a new family. The adoption process was carried out in front of witnesses, and was legally binding. They used to, I understand from books, commentary is all, I can tell you this, they used to bring the old dad out, and the old dad would give his kid away, and they'd say, no you can't, and he'd give his kid away, and they'd say, no you can't.
[28:14] And then they'd say, give your kid away on the third time, and he'd say, all right, that's it, you've given away too many times, you lost your kid. Then they'd take that kid, and they would remove all about this dad out of the way, and this new dad would be put into his place. And they did it in front of seven witnesses.
[28:27] So if the dad or anybody ever came along at any time to say, that's my kid, the witnesses could step forward and say, oh no, that's not your kid, if you legally gave your kid away, the kid belongs here.
[28:40] You are adopted, you're in a new family, you have a new family. I don't have time to show you, there's one by Old Testament adoption type story, that's really interesting, there's a guy named Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, he is the son of the enemy of David, grandson of the enemy of David, David's enemy was Saul, Saul tried to kill him, David loved Jonathan, who was Saul's son, and Mephibosheth is crippled, and David goes and finds him, and rescues him, and brings him home, and gives him his lands back, and everything that was in his daddy's name, and sets him at the king's table, and lets him eat at the king's table.
[29:17] He was, he had nothing in his hands, he had nothing he could do, but David returned it all to him. And this, here's what he said, he said, there's a relationship here, of intimacy, of tenderness, of dependence, no fear, no anxiety, he's a son, and he cries out, Abba, Daddy, Father, you'd be surprised, but in the Old Testament, they never talked to God like that, they always used the big, some of the Spanish people, friends of mine, when they pray, when I taught them to pray, back when they first got saved, I always used the intimate form, when we talked to God, because that's what's found in their Bible, but a lot of them, when they talked to God, they used the formal form, they say, he was dead, and I always taught them to say, tu, so you don't understand it, but it's like, there was like, they talked to Father, and I tried to talk to Daddy, you understand who he is?
[30:04] He's Daddy, we have this super sweet, special relationship, special relationship, not based on what I did, not because I got baptized, not because I joined a church, but because God birthed me, into his family, birthed me into his kingdom, we do not live in fear, or slavery like we did, in 2 Timothy chapter 1, in verse 7, the Bible says, for God has not given us, a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a sound mind, listen, Satan's whole kingdom, runs on fear, God's kingdom runs on love, you're in the family, you're in the family, you're a new creature, you're in the family, and he's going to say to them, you are the sons of God, we are the children of God, we're the children of God, in 1 John 4, 18, there's no fear in love, but perfect love, cast out fear, because fear hath torment, he that feareth is not made up, perfect in love, watch this, imagine with me, just a second, step back from the story, and look at the story with me, look at the story, of this guy, who used to be in this family, who's now in that family, listen to the father talk to him, in that family, there was condemnation, and he starts off in Romans chapter 8, verse 1, he says, there is now no condemnation, there's nothing against you, nobody's ever going to attack you, you don't belong to that family, there's therefore now no condemnation, in which you're in Christ Jesus, not happening son, you're mine, not happening, if Jacob were to come to me today, and say, granddaddy do you love me, granddaddy, you're not my real granddaddy, break my heart,
[31:37] I am his granddaddy, that's exactly, what it's saying here, we do not have a spirit of fear, perfect love, cast out fear, fear has torment, the law brought fear, death brought fear, judgment brought fear, but Jesus brought victory, and freedom, from all of that, we are the children, we are the children of God, if you're born again, there's something inside of you, all to say, wow, yes, something inside of you, all to say, and see here's the problem, I really think it has a lot to do with, we don't understand what the Bible says, and we've lived our entire life, we think too much like this guy over here, that's why you have to, Romans chapter 12, verse 2, you don't want to be conformed to them, you don't want to be like them, but you want to be transformed, you want to change the way you think, so you think like this family, we think too much about the fear, we think too much about the torment, we think too much about the death, that's the way they used to think, when you've got a Bible mind, you're like, man, I'm saved, I'm on my way to heaven, I'm in a new family, I've got everything new, hey, from my dad, I was going to go to hell and die,
[32:38] I was going to die and go to hell, and from my dad, I've already died, and I'm going to heaven, it's a whole new family, we are the children of God, we are the children of God, and far more than you would ever love your family, and far more than you would ever take care of your family, the Father takes care of us, somehow we have this concept, that our God doesn't love us very much, that's ridiculous, you are not a good dad, compared to the good dad, my daddy's a lot better daddy than I ever was, and I love my kids, my daddy, my father, my heavenly daddy, is a lot better than God than I am, last verse, and then we quit, look if you would, at Romans chapter 8, 16 and 17, two verses, the spirit, the Holy Spirit himself, bears witness with our spirit, that we are, the children of God, hey son, you're in the family, sometimes I call Jacob, and hand up, and I say, hey, did anybody ever tell you, that your granddaddy loves you, and Hannah will say, oh granddaddy, you've told me a million times, you've told me a million times, and here's exactly what God said, the Holy Spirit, bears witness with our spirit, the capitalist spirit, bears witness with our spirit, inside my heart, he says, you belong to me, you belong to me, you're mine, you're in the family, we're the children of God, and not only children, we are heirs, heirs, that means when the will is written, they won't write us out,
[34:18] I should confess, a major bad sin of mine, and my family, when Andrea got pregnant, with her third child, their first natural born child, I was scared to death, so I talked to Chris and Andrea, and I said, I just want to know, are you going to love the adopted kids, like you love the natural kid, or is there going to be a kind of a second, are they going to be step children, or how are they going to be loved, because if you're not going to love them, I'll take them, and your mom and I'll raise them, because I don't ever want them to feel like second class citizens, my son almost punched me, and Andrea said she couldn't believe her father-in-law would talk to her like that, but I love that, that they thought that, they said we're going to love our kids, here's what the whole chapter is about, there's no condemnation, and nothing will ever separate you, we are the children of God, we have eternal security, we don't even live in fear, that we're going to lose our salvation, how could we, the spirit of God tells us, we are his children, we're heirs, we're heirs, we're going to receive an inheritance, joint inheritance, with Christ, the spirit bears witness with our spirit, in 1st John chapter 3 verse 19, hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him, we will assure our hearts before him, for if our heart condemn us, our heart knows, where the Lord speaks to us, he leads us into holiness, he replaces our fear with freedom and love, he gives us a desire to pray, he makes it clear, we are the children of God, we're the children of God, we're also his heirs, we're joint heirs, do you understand what happened,
[35:51] Andrew and Joshua, will never get from their dad, all they would have gotten, if there weren't some adopted kids, but Jacob and Hannah are joint heirs, two adopted kids, two natural born kids, all four kids now, they're adopted kids, joint heirs, equal heirs, not going to be left, not going to be abandoned, last thing in the verse, I'd like you to see is this, you see when you find out you love him, you know what you'd say, you'd say I'd rather suffer with Jesus, than I would enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 24, the Bible says by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and he chose rather to suffer affliction, to be hurt with the people of God, than enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, because he found, he esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches, than the treasures in Egypt, he had respect, under the recompense, you know what happens, you know what happens, he's one of us, he put me in his family, and I'll be honest with you,
[37:02] I choose Jesus, I'd rather die with him, as live with him, something happened in me, I'm in a new family, I'm in a new family, I'm not in the old family, let me just sum it up for you, you don't owe anything to the flesh, to your past, to your old way of living, all it ever brought to you, was fear, and pain, and suffering, these verses are good, to check out the work of grace, in our life, if you have not found these things, to be true in them, in you, then you should trust Christ, you look at these verses, you ought to be saying, I do know I belong to him, doesn't mean you don't mess up, doesn't mean you don't sin, doesn't mean you don't have sin, you got to confess, but it does mean sin, doesn't control you, it doesn't control you, quit using that excuse, we should be extremely happy, and blessed, that he's given us, the spirit of adoption, knowing what Jesus has done, so I have two questions, to end with, do you have the witness, of the spirit, can you say sitting there, you're right, we are the children of God,
[38:11] I know I've seen him, working in my life, I've seen him working in me, we're the children of God, I'm the child of God, do you know that, I didn't say were you perfect, I didn't say did you deserve it, I said do you know, God's been working in your life, if you do thank him, if you don't today, you can be saved, do you love him so much, that you would say, I love Jesus enough, I'd rather suffer with him, than enjoy the pleasure of sin, I choose Jesus, I choose Jesus, very basic, super simple comparison, but you know, I've chosen Betty for 40 years, nothing else, no place I'd rather go, no person I'd rather be with, I choose Betty, and that is nothing compared to this, I know I'm in his family, and every day I wake up, some days I wake up, I'm discouraged, and some days I wake up, and I'm depressed, and some days I wake up, and there's a bunch of problems facing me, but I know this, he loves me, he loves me, and I choose Jesus, he saved me,
[39:21] I'm in his family, and I can enjoy, the spirit of adoption, the spirit that says, you belong, you belong, not because of what you did, but because of what Jesus did, could you say, his spirit works in me, and I can say, because of his spirit's work, we are the children of God, Father in heaven, I ask you to work today, I pray you'd show your power, and your wisdom, I pray God that you would save, somebody who's not saved this morning, and I pray God that some Christian, that's been struggling with their position, and their relationship with you God, that they would just trust you, and what you did on the cross, and I pray for somebody, who doesn't know you, that today they'd realize, they've sinned, against the holy God, and today would be the day, they'd put their trust in you, and I'll give you praise, for what you do, God show your power please, this message was recorded, at Vision Baptist Church, in Alfredo, Georgia, for more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find, our service times, location, contact information, and more audio, and video recordings,