Child of God

This is week 4 in our series Who am I?

Week 1 - You are made in the image of God - masterpiece

Week 2 - You are a sinner saved by grace - cure

Week 3 - You are a Citizen of Heaven - easter eggs in the Bible

Week 4 - You are a Child of God

Let’s stop and think about that for a minute. You are a child of God.

What does that even mean?

My maiden name is Brady

Marsha

Brady Bunch

Big family

But for real, what does it mean to be a child of God?

Let’s look at scripture

2 Corinthians 6:18 NLT

18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

This is fact - a fact I can grasp with my head, but what about my heart?

Becoming a parent helped me to understand some of this - my love and care for them… down to even letting them make bad choices so that they could learn in a safe place how to get back on their feet and shake off the dirt.

Relationships with dad

some are good, some bad, some non-existent

My dad

distant, alcoholic until I was 5, hard worker, didn’t have much money - but took us to Dairy Queen and got me a hot fudge sundae, not many words to say but soooooo wise, worked with him as an adult, got cancer, died

It was when I lost my dad that I began to understand what a good father was and therefore what God wanted to be for me

I was able to look back and appreciate all that my dad was. I missed him and all that he did for me

But in his absence, I realized God was my father and would never stop being so

God wants best for me

God gives me wisdom

God looks out for my needs/provides

God shows me His love by showing grace, and even when I go against Him, He still has the same amount of love for me.

Now, I am going to be honest: being a parent isn’t easy, I don’t always get it right, just ask my kids

My dad wasn’t perfect either

Even when he was right, I didn’t always like it

Here’s the thing that I know and understand about what is means to be a child of God

It doesn’t mean that at every moment I have loved everything that God was calling me to do.

It didn’t mean that at every second I was super excited

But what it does mean is, wow, I know God loves me and there’s nothing He wouldn’t do for me.

The decisions that God made were for me

They had my best interest in mind

And, being a child of God is a choice, it’s a decision that we have to choose to live out to say, Father, you are good. You do love me, that you do care for me, and I have to choose to embrace that, to take that on.

This is about a relationship - not one-sided

The Father talks to us and we need to talk to Him

Talking to the Father can be intimidating - talking to my dad sure was

Even in the Bible, people weren’t sure how to talk to the Father

As Jesus was walking among them, people were learning that God was different than they had learned in some ways

They asked Jesus how to talk to the father/pray

He said in Matthew 6:9-13

Matthew 6:9–13 NLT

9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

remember the perspective is that God is our Father and we are His Children...

“Pray like this: “Our Father”, yes our Father, “in Heaven”

“May your name be kept holy”

“May your kingdom come soon”

“May your will” because he has our best will in mind, cuz he has our best interest, and he knows cuz he is God “Be done on earth as it is in Heaven

“Give us today the food we need,” As our Father, if we are His children, he is our provider. Whatever we may need, our God provides. And so we can go to Him in the same way that one of my kids comes to me and I would meet their needs.

“And forgive us of our sins” in the same way that God realizes that we make mistakes. God is the one who can forgive us of our sins and our mess ups, and our mistakes cuz He’s our Father who loves us.

“as we have forgiven those who sin against us” God’s wisdom for keeping us from being held down by unforgiveness - another sermon...

“And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one” - God protect us from these things - Like I would protect my children - God is the same way for you - as His child, there’s nothing that he wouldn’t do to love you, to protect you, to take care of you.

The question I have for you today is will you embrace that prayer as a Christ follower? Will you embrace, will you understand that you are child of God?

there’s nothing more precious, nothing more special than that.

Romans 8:15–16 NLT

15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

We can rejoice in knowing that we are God’s children

I want to pray, and I would like you to pray - to God, our Father

Maybe you have never invited God into you life

You can talk to Him and invite Him in

Maybe you have not looked at God like a good Father - talk to Him

Pray - We love you and thank you that we are your children

God, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us!

you have adopted us, our lives have been forever changed and we get to be your children

You protect us, you love us, you provide for us - you know just what we need

I pray that we would embrace being your children.