Sunday, June 09, 2019 - 9 AM

Abba Father – Romans 8:14-17 Bascomb UMC / June 9, 2019 / 9 AM & 11 AM Focus: The work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into a family around the person of Jesus Christ. Function: To challenge disciples to consider both sides of the inheritance coin – not only the glory of an intimate relationship we enjoy with God our father, but the hope God has put in us to GIVE ourselves like Jesus did for the sake of the kingdom here. 5 Purpose Outcomes of the Church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service Romans 8:14–17 (CEB) 14 All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters. 15 You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. 17 But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him. Children's sermon - Romans 8:14-17 - Day of Pentecost - C Object: a family portrait or picture This is a picture of my family. Here I am, and these are some of the different people in my family. I have other family members that aren't in this picture. You may have a picture like this of your own family too. We all are a part of a family in one way or another. Some members of our family live together, and some of us have families that are spread far apart. No matter where everybody is, we all belong to a family in some way or another. The Bible tells us that we are a part of another family -- God's family. When we become Christians, we are joined together with people all over the world in one great big family. We may not all be related in the way you normally think, but we are connected by our love for Jesus Christ. In this family God is our Father, and we are all brothers and sisters. Did you know that you are all brothers and sisters? Well, you are! After Jesus went back up to heaven, God sent his Holy Spirit to be with us and help us know the right way to live. The Holy Spirit does a lot of things. This week the scripture tells us that one of the Holy Spirit's jobs is to remind us that we are a part of God's family. The Spirit whispers to us all the time that we are special to God. God wants us to know that he loves us and will take good care of us. All we have to do is trust in God and love him with our whole hearts and minds. God is a Father unlike any other. There's nothing that God cannot and will not do for us. In fact, he loves us so much that he allowed his son Jesus to die for our sins so that we could live in the love of God forever. That was a tremendous sacrifice, but God loves us that much. So, the next time you see a picture of your family, try to remember your other family too -- God's family. Thank God for loving us and making us his children. Prayer: Thank you, God, for making us part of your family. Help us love you with our whole hearts and help us to love our brothers and sisters too. Amen. Ah, family! We all have stories of family disfunction, sibling rivalry, the horrors of sharing a room or bringing a date over to the house. We fight together against our parents but then entice our parents to side with us against our sibling. SNL ran regular skits about quirky families for humor’s sake: the LOUD family, the dysfunctional family (I reviewed one of those and found it hard to watch – too close to actual realities). Most of us are born into our families and it doesn’t take permission or a special license to start a family. I remembered a scene in the movie Parenthood, and I found that clip, but I can’t play it because of the language. Suffice it to say that the scene makes it clear that you need a license to drive or to even going fishing, but there’s NO license to be a parent. So why is Paul so “gung-ho” to compare family to life as a Christian? Well, even at its worst – family goes deep into who we are. Psychologists tell us that the most basic human need is for security. Children need to know whom to trust, whom to call “Mommy” or “Daddy,” and where they can feel safe. You’ve heard about studies where orphan babies died from lack of human contact. Even with excellent food and care, they don’t have the basics: a family, someone hold them, the presence of a loving parent. We all have the same basic need for belonging: people to call friends and family, relationships that are safe and rewarding, places that feel like home. Is that a spiritual thing? a phycological thing? Is it just chemicals in the brain?  TV clip….Brains and Souls….Stephen Colbert. I agree with Stephen that it’s bigger than nerve endings and chemicals (science tells us HOW – but faith tells us WHY) – why does this matter? Why is home important to us? Robert Frost is famous for his poems and one poem is about Old Silas, an unreliable farmhand who had abandoned the family when he was most needed. Knowing that he was about to die and even though he was probably no longer welcome, he still returned back to that farm to die. The farmer’s wife told her husband that Old Silas had come home, but the farmer said NO – he didn’t want the man back, this was not his home! The wife countered, “Honey, home is the place where, when you have to go there, they HAVE to take you in.” Think so? Maybe not… but we’d like to think so, wouldn’t we? Well, for good or bad, when you start out, you don’t get to choose your family. But then you might marry – you begin to choose the ones you want to help build YOUR family. I did find a clip from Parenthood that describes the “ups & downs” of living in a family. Steve Martin wants “a sure thing” with family, but grandma knows - it’s not a merry-go-round, it’s more like a rollercoaster: movie clip: “The Rollercoaster Now I was adopted, and mother always emphasized that they chose me! Choosing is part of God’s family plan as well. Pam and I have been watching a show called “Sneaky Pete.” Now Pete is a con man in trouble with some BAD people just waiting for him to get out of jail – he’s a confidence man for real and he is not really a member of their family. He was just in the same jail cell with the REAL Pete who could not stop talking about his childhood family. Family was all that guy could talk about - day after day - until our con man get released – months or years before the real Pete gets out. Since the family never knew the grown-up Peter, they become the perfect place for a con man to hide out. But then they show him love and he begins to return that love. The most self-centered guy in the world starts making sacrifices for his chosen family. One of our most basic needs is to belong. Everyone needs to know where they belong. Jesus, who knew no permanent home, surrounded himself with people he chose and created a home. He even assigned them nicknames (James and John were the Sons of Thunder) and spoke to them like family: “Get thee behind me Satan.” You say that every Thanksgiving – right? Hahaha…. The real point is - He drew them (warts and all – with all their shortcomings) into the most intimate relationship Jesus had - the relationship he enjoyed with Abba - Father, to same God we pray to today. It was such a fitting way to speak about the parental nature of God that the earliest followers of Jesus used it too. Now Paul is all about inheritance – that what Jesus has gained for us will be ours one day. When Paul speaks of the family of God, he says that by the Spirit, WE ALSO “cry, ‘Abba!’ ” When we do this, “The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16 (CEB). Oh….there’s that spirit stuff again! Now the benefits of this relationship are that we become heirs of all God has to offer, even fellow heirs with Christ. Paul has identified a certain identity we can know and participate in that has nothing to do with what we wear or how we decorate (or mutilate) our flesh. In fact, when we are in the Spirit, things of the flesh—fashion or food, self-expression, sex—are put into perspective. The basic things of life—food, clothing, relationships—are needed and enjoyed by all people. But they should not define or consume us. Christian identity is found in relationship to Abba-Father, to God. But this is a family you choose, a family you develop. Do you want to be in God’s family? The Holy Spirit must be allowed into every part of you (coke bottle description). The greatest work of the Holy Spirit is transformation. You know, some family members are more mature, more invested than others. Don’t you imagine they get the deepest fulfillment and yet, they feel the deeper hurt? When Paul speaks of suffering with Christ, I imagine that same depth of empathy with our church family. After 30 years with my chosen family, it’s our history together, the good times – but especially surviving the bad times that define who we are – that is a blessing I’ve chosen and the suffering I am willing to experience because we are family. (“students who teach” story) – we need mature family members to build this family. Whatever believers may suffer, it pales in comparison with what believers ultimately stand to gain. So, let the Holy Spirit do its work! Open every door of your life to God’s control and let’s build a family of God together here at Bascomb…..let us pray…..