Untitled Sermon (9)
ADOPTION—PART 1
Salvation from the Outside-In (What God Does)—June 14, 1992
Ephesians 1:4–8
Ephesians 1:4–8, as if you didn’t know. We are looking for a couple of weeks at one idea, one key concept. It’ll be especially appropriate tonight to go from this teaching into the Lord’s Supper. You always know whenever somebody invites you into their home and lets you eat at their table, they’re treating you in one degree or another as family. We’re looking at the subject of our adoption through Christ so we are children of the Father.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
This is God’s Word
We’re looking here. He destined us to be adopted as his sons. This is Father’s Day, and I noticed yesterday one of the religion writers in the New York Times, Peter Steinfels, had an interesting statement to make. He said with all the flap about family values, people don’t seem to notice it’s not really the question of why there are so many single mothers. He said the real question is why are there so many absent fathers? He comes right out in that little article. It’s on page nine of yesterday’s paper.
He says we need to ask a question. Now I’m not going to answer this question. It’s just a good question. This isn’t our basic purpose tonight. In 1960 one out of every 20 births was to a mother without a father living at home, and today it’s one out of four. He says that’s a cultural earthquake. That’s a cataclysm. That’s a huge change. Why aren’t we talking about it? Why can’t we talk about it without immediately politicizing it? The only reason I’m pointing it out is it proves that to be raised by a loving father is becoming a more and more rare experience.
The reason I don’t like to talk that much about human fathers on Father’s Day, first of all, I am a human father, and I know how imperfect I am. We have human fathers, and we know how imperfect they are. Even those of us who have the best human fathers know they’re imperfect because they die. You know, it’s the worst thing that a really great father can do, but they do. No matter how great your father is, he’s not perfect. He can’t stay with you, and the ones who are imperfect are with you too much.
The point is, on this Father’s Day, the best possible thing to think about is this absolutely radical statement. This particular doctrine of Christianity ought to burst on our culture like a bombshell. No other religion makes the claim (we talked a little bit about it last week). This is Christianity that through Christ, your Creator can become your Father. Through Christ, your Creator can become your Father. Just because he is your Creator doesn’t mean he is your Father.
We talked about Henry Ford being the father of the Model T. That doesn’t mean he had them all around his table every night. It didn’t mean he tucked them into bed. He didn’t get them little drinks of water at 4:00 a.m. when they asked for it. To be your creator is one thing; to be your father is another. Every other religion says you can know the creator and you can be his servant or his student or his citizen or his follower, but Christianity alone has the audacity to say through Christ your Creator can become your Father.
There is a perfect Father, a Father that does not die, a Father who loves you with absolute wisdom and absolute consistency and absolute love and compassion. The word adoption shows us though we are not children of God by nature. Adoption takes a legal action on the part of the Father. To say everyone is naturally a child of God goes completely against what the Scripture teaches.
We know from that greatest of parables … Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The only way we can actually be welcomed by the Father is at Christ’s expense. You remember in the prodigal son … I refer to it so often you must remember the features of it, but let me show you how exactly it bears on our subject tonight. The prodigal son was one of two sons, two children.
The prodigal son took all of his inheritance when his father was still alive and went away and squandered it. That meant everything the father had now belonged to the elder brother. Right? So when the prodigal son came back and said, “I’m penniless. I’m a fool. I’m stupid. Just put me back into the estate by making me a servant. I’ll work for my bed and my board.”
The father says, “No, I’m going to welcome you back to my table, my table. I’m going to bring you back into my family. I’m going to bring you back into my love. I’m going to bring you back into my inheritance. My son was dead and now he’s alive.” But, you see, the elder brother looked at the father and said, “Wait. There is no way that you can welcome this son. There’s no way you can welcome this profligate. There’s no way you can welcome this person without self-control. There’s no way you can welcome this jerk.” (I forget the Hebrew for jerk.)
“There’s no way you can welcome this one back into your family except at my expense because everything you have is mine. When you put a robe on him, when you put a ring on his finger, when you kill the fatted calf, the problem is, Father,” says the older brother, “every robe is mine that you have. Every ring is mine. Every fatted calf is mine. You can’t bring him back in except at my expense.”
Now that’s what the elder brother says in the parable, but don’t you understand? When the heavenly Father says to you, “I can adopt you as my children. I can put your sins behind you. I can make good all your debts. I want you at my table,” the same dynamic is at work. The only way you can possibly enter into your Father’s welcome, into your Father’s arms, into your Father’s inheritance, and to your Father’s table is at the expense of Jesus Christ, your older brother.
Except he’s not like the false elder brother; he’s the true elder brother who says, “Welcome, my little brother. Welcome my little sister. Come to the table. It’s all at my expense, and I pay it out of my own pocket gladly. I died for you. I was torn to pieces for you. Everything you have now at the Father’s table is at my expense, but that’s all right because I give myself for you. I want you here.” Now there’s a brother. The Father is our Father because the Brother is our Brother.
Jesus, when he died on the cross; Jesus, when he poured himself out; Jesus, when he opened not his mouth even when he was slaughtered, was brothering you so God could father you. Adoption is not something that happens naturally. Adoption takes a choice. Adoption takes a legal activity, and that is the marvelous claim of Christianity. Through Christ, at Christ’s expense through the redemption of his blood, verse 7, you can be adopted. The reason you’re in the family is because of the redemption of his blood.
Now what I want to show you tonight is, first of all, I’d like to make some general observations about the doctrine of adoption, and then I would like to begin something I will conclude next week, next Sunday night, I would like to begin to show you what it means to not just know what it means to be children of God but to live as if you’re a child of God, as if you’re a son or daughter of the kingdom.
I want to not just only show you what it means but what it means to live it out. So let me show you what it means, and then let’s begin to talk about how to live it out, but I’ll conclude it next week because tonight we won’t take as long. I just want to set you up so you can embrace this perfect Father over his Table tonight which you can do through faith.
Look, in Greek the word adoption Paul is using here is the word huiothesia. Thesia means to make something and huios means son: to make you a son. Now in the Hebrew culture there was no such custom, but Paul was a Roman citizen. He knew that in the Roman world, adoption was a very, very specific legal procedure, and it usually was not something that was done the way we do it.
We adopt infants, the younger the better; that’s the idea. In the Roman world, adoption was usually done of an adult. This was the setting: A man who is the head of an estate has no heir. He doesn’t want to see his estate broken up. He sees another man, generally a young man he respects and admires. He goes to him and says, “I’ll make you my son. I want to adopt you so then everything I have will be yours.”
When the rich man would adopt his heir, immediately several things happen legally. Number one, all of the new son’s old obligations are canceled. All debts are canceled. All legal obligations are gone. No longer does he owe anybody anything but his new father. Secondly, this son becomes as wealthy as his father. He immediately gets the father’s name and immediately becomes the heir of everything the father has.
Thirdly, the father becomes liable for everything the son does. If the son does something stupid, the father pays. If the son does something ridiculous, the father makes up. Lastly, the son, of course, now has the responsibilities of carrying on the name and has the responsibilities of honoring that name. So do you see that adoption is primarily not a change of nature, it’s a change of status. It was a legal change, and it’s the highest thing possible.
When Paul talks about God adopting you, there are many other things God gives you in Christ, but this is the highest. You have to see it as the highest. Nothing can be higher than this. You see, some people understand Jesus died on the cross to secure our forgiveness. That’s great. That’s true, but this is higher than that. Some of you know the Bible talks about justification by faith.
Not only does Jesus when he died on the cross get rid of and pardon our sins, but his perfect record is transferred into our account. Not only are we not liable for our sins, but we now stand as if we had been righteous. We talked about that before. In God’s sight you’re righteous. In God’s sight you’re a hero. You’ve accomplished all the things Jesus accomplished. We talked about that, and that’s amazing, but this is even higher. Do you understand why?
It’s one thing for the governor to pardon a criminal and to say, “You don’t have to be executed.” It’s another thing for a governor to give that criminal a medal and a great job in his administration. It would be far greater for the governor to adopt this man into his family, give him his own name. The governor makes him an heir of all his wealth. The governor brings him into his table, brings him into his home, and brings him into his living quarters.
Don’t you see? The highest possible thing God could do for anyone would be to adopt. Now here are a couple of observations about this before we give you some practical implications. First of all, we must realize the Bible insists that our adoption makes our sonship like and yet unlike Christ’s sonship. Like but unlike. Listen really carefully. I’ll be brief.
First, it’s like it. Any of you who have been adopted, any of you who have seen people adopt will know that the whole purpose of adoption is to treat the child exactly as if the child were naturally, biologically, the parents’. We don’t always do it perfectly. Sometimes people struggle, but the purpose of adoption is to bring a child in and to be as intimate, to be as loving, to be as supportive as you would be if that child had sprung from our own bowels, from your own womb, from your own body.
Now some human families do it perfectly. Some human families don’t do it perfectly, but God obviously does it perfectly, and that means the Father cannot love us less than he loves the Son, his only begotten Son. You’ve probably heard me say this before. This is one of those places when I say this I feel like a bottle with a cork in it. I cannot get out what I want to. I try to yell it; it doesn’t matter. It still doesn’t help. I don’t know how to put this. I don’t know how to get this across.
When Jesus says in John 17, “Father, you have loved them even as you love me,” when Jesus Christ says that, when you even see the word adoption (which means to bring a child in and to love the child as if the child were your biological child), this must mean he loves everybody in this room who has really received him as Savior as much as he loves his own heavenly Son, his only begotten Son, with as much power, with as much constancy, with as much joy.
Nobody believes it. I know you don’t believe it, but we should at least think about this. Imagine the welcome the Father gave to his Son when his Son came back from having died on the cross, having been tortured, having accomplished this great work. Imagine how the Father welcomed him. Imagine how wide his arms were. Imagine the power, the tidal wave of love that must have just surged out of the Father’s heart into the center of the Son’s soul. Imagine that.
Well, why am I saying imagine that? Because adoption means that he loves you no less than Jesus Christ’s sonship, and the love he has cannot be anything less than the love the Father has for you. It has to be. What is your real religion? You know what your real religion is? Your real religion is what you turn to when the chips are down. Your real religion is what you turn to when things are going terribly. Your real religion is what you turn to when things look hopeless. That’s what you really worship.
What is it? Is it this? When you’re desperate, when things look bleak, is this what you turn to? If you don’t, you really don’t understand the riches you have here. Why are you turning to the things you do? Why are you turning to ambition? Why are you turning to sex? Why are you turning to bad habits? Why are you turning to fantasizing about what things might be like if only, if only, if only?
This is not a fantasy; this is reality. Imagine the Father’s love for his Son. “Even as” (just think of those words) “even as, even as, the Father loves you even as he loves me.” On the other hand, Jesus’ sonship is different in this. There are a number of places where Jesus says, “I’m ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Do you ever notice how carefully Jesus in the Gospels does not say, “Our Father,” except in the Lord’s Prayer when he’s telling us how to pray?
He doesn’t say, “Our Father.” He says, “My Father and your Father, my God and your God,” to try to show you something you must be careful of. We’re adopted into the family of God, but that doesn’t mean we actually come into the godhead. It doesn’t mean we actually get absorbed and become God. Eastern religions will tell you that. By the way, A Course in Miracles talks about sonship, and it bothers me quite a bit. It talks about becoming a son of God, but it means merging in with the Godhead.
It means the same thing Shirley MacLaine means when she says, “You are God. Create your own reality.” You see, the difference between saying, “I’m adopted into the family of God,” and saying, “I actually am merging into God,” is rather different. A son submits to the father, obeys the father, but if we talk about merging into God … All the New Age books and the books that always talk about becoming God always say things like, “Create your own reality,” which is the exact opposite.
It was the first sin in the garden. That’s what the Serpent told Adam and Eve to do. The Serpent said to Adam and Eve, “Don’t obey God; be your own god. You shall be as gods. Create your own reality.” Therefore, our sonship does not mean we actually come into the Godhead in the sense of becoming merged with God, but rather God’s nature does come into us and turns us into what we should have been all along, sons and daughters who reflect him.
Just like sometimes you see the father’s face, the parent’s face, you’ve seen the children in the genes in the chromosomes. God certainly puts his nature in us. It’s his Holy Spirit, but we do not get merged with him. So our sonship is like Christ’s. On the other hand, it’s not. We don’t merge in, but we really become sons loved even as he is loved.
One more observation. A lot of people are a little bit cagey, a little bit anxious, and a little bit tense about the fact that Paul uses the term sons for both male and female. Some people say, “Well, wait a minute. That’s not fair. Why does he always talk about our sonship, our sonship?” Well, listen, Paul was being very subversive. In the Roman world, women were oppressed. They weren’t allowed to be heirs. The men had the inheritance, and they could pass it on to other men. Sonship meant power, authority, and inheritance.
When Paul takes a word that had a very specific legal meaning in the Roman world, and turns around and puts it on all Christians, male and female, he’s being radical. He’s being subversive. He is saying when it comes to God, God does not recognize gender differences when it comes to the power and inheritance that he gives. So when he calls everybody sons, female Christians shouldn’t be any more upset than male Christians should be when he calls us all his bride. You know, I mean that’s odd too, isn’t it?
You see, the point is the metaphor isn’t the point, the truth behind the metaphor … Every one of us is feminine toward God in some sense when it comes to saying he’s the Husband and we are the bride. Now he’s the Father, and we’re the son. Let’s not get bent out of shape about metaphors. Recognize the glorious reality behind it and inside it, the “subversiveness” of it.
One more observation about this doctrine of adoption. There’s a place in Romans 8, that says, “All of creation, all of nature, the trees and the canyons, and the oceans are groaning under their decay and are yearning for the glorious liberty of the sons of God,” and then Paul says, “We too groan inwardly awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
In Romans 8, it says, “All creation is groaning and waiting for us to be liberated, to come into the glorious freedom of the sons of God.” Then Paul says, “We too groan for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” This is one of the places where you see the Bible tends to sometimes talk about realities as if they already exist, and other times it talks about realities as if they’re not already there. Paul says here we’ve been adopted, but Paul says in Romans 8 we haven’t been adopted.
What’s he talking about? Just this. When I adopt a child, I can give that child everything but my actual chromosomes. I can’t do that. I can’t give him or her my DNA, but the Bible tells us that our heavenly Father will do that. There’ll be a day coming in which we will have the glory as his children, when our inheritance drops on us, (we don’t know what that means) when the glory drops on us, when the power drops on us, when his nature drops on us.
We finally lose all of our flaws, and we finally become people who look just like he does with all of his integrity and his nobility and his wisdom and his power and his love and his greatness. Evidently, on the last day, the glory of our sonship is going to be so great that when it falls on us, it’s going to transform the whole universe at the same time. The universe is longing for our liberation as children of God.
That means the glory that’s going to fall on us is so great that it’s going to subsume all of creation and glorify it. All the decay will be gone. All the flaws will be gone. It’s an astonishing statement. It means there is nothing higher, there is nothing greater than being admitted to the family of God. We have no idea what’s in our inheritance. We have no idea what we’re actually going to get when the inheritance falls on us as children.
We know that when it hits us, it’s going to have such impact, such power, and such glory that it’s going to change the entire universe. The mountains and the hills, the oceans and the trees, Romans 8:18 says, are standing on tiptoe in anticipation for our revelation as the glorious sons and daughters of the King. I don’t know what that means either, but it’s tremendous. I can’t imagine all of what it means, but it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to live off of.
Now just before we go to the Table, I’d like just to give you, just to tease you with what it actually means to live as sons and daughters of the King. In Galatians 4, and in Romans 8, it says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of sonship whereby we cry to the father, “Abba Father.” When the Bible says in Galatians 4 and in Romans 8 that the Spirit’s job is to show us we are his children and to get rid of our fear, I think we have a key to the Christian life right there.
If you have any fears, any anxieties, it’s because you’re not listening to the Spirit who tells you that you are his children. Think of this metaphor, and let me give you a couple tests. The metaphor goes like this. In Galatians 4, it says there are two kinds of people living in the household. There are the servants, the slaves, and there’s the son.
Imagine, you have to remember these big households had lots and lots of people in them. Lots of people. You had all kinds of stewards, and you had all kinds of workers, and you had all kinds of managers. Some of them were slaves. Some of them were servants. Some of them were indentured servants. Some of them were employees. So you had a whole house and there was lots to do.
You can imagine a big plantation, you see. Lots and lots to do, but there was only one son in the household along with all the servants. Now if you actually walked in there with a video camera and watched the servants and the sons working, it would be hard to tell the difference, very hard. Why? Because they were all diligently doing their jobs.
The son, depending on how old the son was, might have a very menial task. You might have a lot of servants who are doing more important and more valuable things than the son, but Paul says in Galatians 4, “You do not relate to the Father as a servant or as a slave. You relate as a son.” In the house, everybody’s busy. The slaves know if they don’t do well, they can be cast out or they can be demoted. Therefore, they work under compulsion and they also know they don’t have authority in the house.
The son, however, knows the father loves him, knows he is absolutely secure, and knows that the house is his. So in the same house, you have people relating to the head as slaves and people relating to the head as sons. Which are you? The Bible says Paul insists in this room there are many of you who are relating to the Father as a feudal lord, as an employer, as a boss, and many of you relating as his children, and they’re very different.
Children relate with freedom. Children experience freedom in life, a sense of authority, a sense of “this is my Father’s world,” a sense that I am accepted and I can’t be condemned, and the Father loves me because of what Jesus has done. A slave is full of anxiety and full of fears. Always afraid of being cast out, always working, not out of love but out of a sense of compulsion, without any freedom, but rather just a slave.
Sometimes it’s not easy to tell the difference when you actually walk in with that video camera because they’re all running about, but they have two very different motives and dynamics inside. Now here let me suggest to you what that means. You’re all here tonight. You’re all listening to the preaching. You’re all in a church building, but are you a slave or are you a son? They’re the only two categories. It doesn’t matter.
Are you a slave or a son? Slaves are up and down emotionally. Why? Because when they perform well, they feel like they’re worthwhile people. When they perform poorly, they feel like failures. Sons are emotionally stable. Do you know why? Because a son knows when he does something well that’s not the reason he’s accepted. He’s glad he did something well. He’s glad he pleased his father, but that’s not the reason he’s in the house.
He’s in the house because of what his elder brother did for him. Therefore, he doesn’t get a big head when things go well. Also, when things go poorly, he’s not afraid of being rejected because he knows he’s in the house because of what his elder brother did and because the father has adopted him and his relationship with the father is strong. A father doesn’t fire his son; a father fires his slave. A father kicks him out.
Which are you? Do you find yourself emotionally going up and down depending on whether you are living up to standards or is there an emotional even keel in your life? Do you find that you really don’t get a big head when things go well, and you really don’t get all discouraged and depressed when things go poorly and you perform poorly? A slave is emotionally up and down over his or her performance. A son is on an even keel.
Let me give you another example. Slaves are critical, judgmental, and gossipy. Do you know why? Because you see a slave is someone who doesn’t feel loved unless they feel superior. Gossip makes you feel superior to people, that’s why you like it. If you find gossip “great,” if you find gossip irresistible to listen to and irresistible to pass along, it’s because you need to believe you’re better than the people you’re talking about.
If you’re critical, if you’re judgmental, if you’re very, very quick to jump on people, and if you control people or you control environments because you don’t want anything to go wrong and reflect on you, it’s because you have a slave’s mentality. A slave’s mentality is if anything goes wrong, if I’ve done anything wrong, I can’t be loved.
A son is someone who has an affirming spirit, who is a good listener, who doesn’t gossip. A son is someone who is affirming, someone who is extremely good at giving compliments and making people feel better because a son knows it’s not his performance that makes him loved; it’s what his brother did for him.
Let me give you one more. I said a slave is emotionally up and down over his or her performance. A slave is critical and judgmental and gossipy and controlling. Also, a slave is somebody who can’t take criticism and can’t repent. Repentance is a destructive thing. Repentance is a terrible thing because repentance means admitting that you haven’t lived up to standards, and if you haven’t lived up to standards, you have nothing to live for. You’re going to be cast out.
A son is not defensive, not defensive at all. A son is easy to talk to. A son doesn’t immediately jump down your throat with lots of excuses when you criticize. A son repents with joy. Which are you? Look, the Bible says the Spirit’s job is to get rid of your fear by telling you (if you’ve received Christ as Savior, if you’ve really made Christ, you might say, your elder brother) you’re a son until the fear goes away.
If you’re emotionally up and down, if you’re critical, if you’re judgmental, if you’re defensive, if you’re controlling, if you can’t take criticism, do you know why? You’re forgetting who you are. You’re not listening to the Spirit. You’re slipping back into slavery. In Galatians and Romans, it says we have not received a spirit of slavery again to fear, but we’ve been given our full rights as sons.
You know, in real-life adoption sometimes the birth mother or the birth father will come back and try to grab their child back, try to put a wedge between the adopted child and the adopted parents. That doesn’t happen a lot, but it happens sometimes. I want you to know that if you are a son of the heavenly Father, it will happen to you. Your old family, the family you were taken away from, the forces of darkness will definitely come to you constantly and say, “Are you really a son of God?”
When the Father doesn’t do things the way you want him to in your life, you’ll hear a voice that says, “What kind of Father is this who would let this happen?” That’s the old family trying to stick a wedge between you and your adopted, your real Father in heaven. Or when you fail, you’ll hear a voice that says, “You call yourself a Christian. How could the Father love you after you’ve done what you’ve done?” That’s the forces of darkness, the old family, trying to stick a wedge in there.
My dear friends, if right now you’re caught in an anxiety cycle, you’re desperately afraid because you’re not doing well, you’re desperately anxious because you’re not attracted to the opposite sex, you’re desperately upset because you’re not doing well in your career, you’re hopeless, and you’re in despair, it’s because … If you’re a Christian and you’re in that condition, if you’re not affirming, and if you’re self-conscious and you’re destroyed by criticism and you’re judgmental and controlling, it’s because the old family is coming along and helping you to forget who your real Father is.
He moved heaven and earth to be your Father. Treat him as your Father. Live as his son. The stability, the non-defensiveness, the lack of self-consciousness, the tremendous security that should be there. We’re going to go to the Table right now, and I just want to say this to everybody. We’re going to confess our sins, but I’m going to tell you who should come to the Table right this minute.
If you know you’re not saved because of being a good person or good works, but surely because your elder brother has brought you into the family at God’s expense, at his own expense, so that your Father now has adopted you. If you understand that, if you have received Christ as Savior and Lord, then you can come to the Table. But most of you (I know because I struggle with this all the time) are not living as his children.
What are you worried for when your Father owns the universe? What are you defensive for when your Father has said, “I love you completely?” Treat him as a Father. Grab him as a Father. As you take the bread, as you take the cup, say, “Lord, I want to live as a son. I want to live as a daughter. I want my full rights.” You are the ones who should take the bread and the cup. You’re the ones who are willing to confess you’ve been living as slaves instead of as sons. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we simply ask now as we do come to the Table that you will enable us to take the cup and take the bread knowing that this means we have been admitted into your very presence. We thank you that you are intimate with us. We would be intimate with you. We would confess to you our fears and we would say, “O Holy Spirit, come and remind us that we are your children, the children of the Father,” until those fears subside. Father, I pray that my brothers and sisters here in this room, as they take the bread and the cup, might have their fears removed by the knowledge of their adoption. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
ADOPTION—PART 2
Salvation from the Outside-In (What God Does)—June 28, 1992
Ephesians 1:4–8
This is the third teaching in a row on the subject of 1:4, of Ephesians. I’ll read 1:4–8, and tonight, for the last time, we’re going to look at the subject we’ve been looking at that’s so critical.
So many of you in the last couple of weeks during this teaching time have been coming to me about and talking to me about the teaching Paul gives here about our adoption. It’s such a life-changing teaching, how it lays bare the foundations of our lives, how it shows you where you really stand. We’re going to look at it one more time tonight. I’m going to read from chapter 1. I’ll just read verses 4–8, but we’re homing in on the doctrine of our adoption.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
The key here is he predestined us to be adopted as his sons. For the last two weeks we’ve been looking at this. We’ve talked about the importance of the doctrine, the cruciality of it. We’ve talked about the fact that everything God in all of eternity has planned, all of his plan (he predestined us), everything came down to this, the pinnacle of everything he wanted to do, the capstone and the climax of all of his plans of history, the whole point of Jesus’ death on the cross and his redemption, and all the things we’ve been looking at for a number of weeks.
This is the apex. This is what it all comes down to. This is the highest thing that any, any religion even offers its people, to be adopted as his sons. We saw, for example, this happens because of Jesus’ death and his redemption. The subtle beauty, I think, in the structure underneath the parable of the prodigal son that’s so easy to miss is the only way the Prodigal Son is able to come back after his sin and rebellion into the welcome of the father is at the expense of the elder brother. The father cannot exactly freely bring back the younger brother, the Prodigal Son.
He can’t do it freely, because everything he’s giving the Prodigal Son now belongs to the elder brother. You remember that? The Prodigal Son has wasted his inheritance. He owns nothing any more, and for the father to bring him back into the estate, the only way that can happen is at the expense of the elder brother. In the parable of the prodigal son, the elder brother is angry, and he says, “Every ring is mine, every robe is mine, and every fatted calf is mine. Because of that these things you’re giving him, Father, are at my expense.”
So we have an example of a grumpy elder brother, but the Bible says, “Rejoice. That’s not what you really have.” Jesus is the true elder Brother. He was not at all unwilling, but we’re told in Hebrews 2 he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He was made like us in every way so he could be the firstborn among many brethren. All we looked at meant Jesus Christ willingly and gladly gave up, willingly and gladly paid the price, willingly and gladly knew the only way we could come into the family of God would be at his expense, and he did it gladly, with singing, with joy.
We looked at all that. Now what we started last week, which we’re going to finish this week, is we have to look at the great privileges and the characteristics of people who are children of God and who know they are children of God. What are those characteristics? We started last week, and I’m just going to plunge right into it because we have to finish this week. What are the characteristics of children? What are the marks of people who know they’re children of God and who live it out? We started on this last week, but let’s talk about it now. The marks of sonship are:
1. A freedom or fearlessness
We’re told in Romans 8, “For you did not receive a spirit of a slave to make you fear, but you received the spirit of the sonship, and by that spirit we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ For we are no longer slaves but sons, and if sons then heirs.” Do you hear that? You’re not a slave. You’re a son. If you’re a slave, you’re full of fears. The Spirit of God’s job in life (one of them) is to show Christians they are children of God to get rid of fear. So here it is. If you’re living in fear, you do not know you’re a child of God, or else you’re not a child of God. Those are the only two alternatives.
Here’s why. We began on this last week, but now we reiterate. In most of the great houses, in most of the great families, in most of the great estates, you had a great lord or a noble over the house, and you had lots of people in the house. Most of them were slaves, but you had a couple of children. Now the children took orders from the head, and the slaves took orders from the head. Even though they both had the same orders and they both in a sense obeyed, they obeyed out of different motives.
Ultimately, a slave had to know he could be expelled if he didn’t obey the master. He could be demoted. In other words, a slave lives under compulsion and under fear of expulsion, but a son has a whole different attitude. The son says, “This is my house; I can’t be expelled from it. This is my father. My relationship is sure.” Therefore, a slave and a son obey the same person with radically different motives.
Some of you, if you were here for any of the morning services, you’re recognizing a similar theme: a slave and a son. A slave obeys the father out of fear because the person is not their father. A son knows your acceptance by the father is not based on your performance. Now that leads to a lack of fearfulness. Let me get really, really specific.
A slave is manic. A son is emotionally even-keeled. Why? A slave mentality says, “When I have done well, when I have performed well, when I have lived up to standards, I feel great about myself, but when I have failed, I’m in despair and I’m depressed.” Up and down, up and down. Do you recognize yourself?
A son, a child of God, relates to the Father in a different way. When you have a good week, when you perform well, when you live up to standards, you don’t get all that puffed up because you say, “Hey, my performance is not the reason I’m in the Father’s house.” It’s what Jesus did. When you fail, you don’t go into despair because you say, “My performance is not why I’m in the Father’s house. It’s what Jesus did.”
Do you see the evenness of it? Do you see the reason why there’s not a manic-ness? The manic emotional upswings and downswings over your performance is the mentality of a slave, not a son. Here’s another example, another aspect to the fear problem. A slave is a person who’s critical and judgmental, because a slave is somebody who does not feel acceptable to God unless you feel morally superior.
You don’t feel loved unless you’re morally superior. Therefore, you need to see the faults in other people. You need to listen to gossip and to spread it. Gossip makes you feel powerful. It makes you feel lovable. That’s the reason it’s salacious, it’s delicious, both to listen to and to give, because it makes you feel superior. A slave has to feel superior to other people in order to feel loved. You have to be critical. You have to find fault in people everywhere.
Now the reason, in all fairness, a slave is doing that to everybody else is because you’re doing it to yourself, and you’re just as mean to other people as you are to yourself. As a result, you see, you’re a critical, judgmental person. But a son has a spirit of affirmation. A son has great listening skills. A son knows your acceptance and your lovable-ness do not depend on your performance. Therefore, you have the ability to affirm people wherever in whatever they’re doing.
A slave is manic. A son is even-keeled. A slave is judgmental and critical in spirit. A son is affirming. I’ll give you another one. A slave is defensive and controlling, for the same reason. A slave mentality says, “I have to look good. Unless I look good, I’m not lovable.” Therefore, you can’t take criticism without being destroyed. Therefore, you’re very defensive when someone brings things up against you. That’s another reason why you have to control people and situations. You have to look good.
A son is someone who loves to repent. Not defensive, not controlling. You love to repent, and here’s why. A real Christian, a person who is a child of God and who knows they’re a child of God, the reason you love to repent is repentance is almost like getting saved all over again. When someone points out your flaws, you realize, “Hey, I really am a weak person and a flawed person, but the deeper I see my debts, the deeper I see my flaws, the more amazed I am at the incredible love and mercy of my father.”
See, repentance is great for a Christian, and a Christian eagerly repents. A son, a child, a person with a sonship mindset, eagerly repents. Why? Because you see, it’s like getting saved again. Though, of course, it’s painful. It’s a little bit like pulling a scab off after it’s healed underneath. You pull it off and it stings and it hurts, and underneath you have that beautiful, beautiful-looking baby skin. You wish your whole body looked like that.
In the same way repentance is like that. It’s like pulling that scab off. It hurts yet underneath it’s like getting saved again. A Christian is a person who repents with joy. Repentance doesn’t grind them into the ground. Repentance isn’t something that’s a last resort. Repentance isn’t something that at all costs we avoid. What are you? Do you see what I mean? You have not received the spirit of slavery to fear.
If your life is characterized by the fear of criticism, by the fear of other people’s opinions, by the fear of getting close to people because they’ll see your flaws, by self-consciousness and tremendous introspection, constant introspection and looking in, if your life is characterized by the fear, then you, even though you might be a born-again Christian, you might be a child of God, you’re not acting like a child of God. You see?
Do you know what’s really unique about Christians in New York City? By New York City standards, Christians have a moral framework, a set of values, that’s medieval in nature. Christians believe that there are things that are sins that most people just take for granted. They eat and breathe them like air and drink them like water.
When you come across a Christian living in New York City, you find on the one hand you have somebody here who has a moral conscience and has a scrupulosity of conscience that most people would be staggered by, and yet a Christian who is living in your sonship can deal with people who are so violently opposed to you, deal with people who have such differences of opinions and such radically different approaches. You can deal with them with warmth, without defensiveness, and without getting threatened. A Christian is an absolute marvel, and if you’re not capable of that, then you have forgotten that you’re a son.
2. Access to the Father, a spirit of prayer
In Romans 8 it says we do not have a spirit of slavery, but we have a spirit of sonship. We have gotten the spirit of sonship that leads us to cry, “Abba, Father.” As many of you know and you’ve been told, it’s very important to realize that Abba, Father is an intimate Aramaic phrase that really means Daddy.
I must say, therefore, that Christianity alone of all religions has the audacity to offer us an intimacy with the Infinite that no other religion would dare offer us. As a matter of fact, I think it’s fair to say most other religions are appalled and even irritated and disgusted. In fact, I’ve been told by some adherents of other religions that the kind of intimacy we assume with the Father in heaven is blasphemous.
Now audacity, yes. In fact, I’m going to us this word, shamelessness. In Luke 11, there’s a parable told of the friend at midnight. Jesus gives a story about a man who asks a friend at midnight for help, and he says, “The man will get up and give the friend what he asks for for his persistence,” but the little Greek word persistence would be better translated as shamelessness.
Here’s what I’m trying to get at. There is an effrontery, a boldness, that would be impudence in a neighbor or a friend but is natural in a child. What is considered impudence, what is considered shamelessness, what is considered rudeness in a friend or in a neighbor is natural in a child. A child’s attitude toward his daddy is utterly and radically different than the perspective of anyone else.
If your father is the president, if your father is the king of a continent, if anyone else would ask that man at 4:00 a.m. for a drink of water, there would be impudence. It would be sheer effrontery. It would be ridiculous. To demand that level of care, that level of intimacy, that level of involvement would be absolute blasphemy, but if that’s your daddy, he gets up. He may be king to everybody else, but to you he’s Daddy. He may be a hanging judge to everybody else, but to you he’s Daddy.
Now do you have that attitude toward God? If you do, you’ll be a praying fool. You’ll be praying shamelessly. You’ll be praying constantly. You’ll be praying boldly and relentlessly. You’ll be praying about everything. My friends, you are just shadows of what you could be, you are husks of what you could be, if you prayed as if you were children. That’s how children act. That’s how children are.
Come on! You don’t see a 5-year-old say, “Well, I don’t want to bother you, Dad, you’re awfully busy.” When was the last time you saw a 5-year-old like that? When was the last time you saw a 6-year-old come and say, “Gee, Dad, I wanted to ask you for something, but you’re an important person; I don’t know how I could impose on you like this?” When you look at God and you say, “He’s never going to answer this prayer because of what I’ve done. He’s not going to answer this prayer because it’s too small to bring to him,” you have spoken like a slave, not as a child.
Do you realize who he is to you? You see, you’d be a praying fool. This is one of the most important ways you can learn about whether or not you still have the slave mentality or the son mentality. Do you pray like that? Do you think of him that way? Do you cry out, “Abba, Father?”
A missionary told me a story. She had four children and who adopted a fifth child, a 10-year-old girl. Even though she was legally adopted it was months before she would call her new adopted parents “Daddy” or “Mommy.” She called them by their first names. In other words, she was legally adopted, but there wasn’t that bonding. One day she fell down in the yard, and she cut herself pretty badly. She cried out, “Daddy,” and he went running to her.
I want you to see that many of you are in the same boat. You’re legally adopted. Your status is vouchsafed. You have the status of children of God. You’ve given yourself to him, but you’re not crying out to him. You’re not crying out to him shamelessly and boldly and constantly and for everything. That’s the condition you’re in too. Are you a child of God? Do you know you’re a child of God? Do you pray like that? Billy Bray, the boxer, a British guy, last century, used to have a way of talking. When something went wrong, he said, “I have to talk to Father about that.” He had that attitude.
3. A sense of being wealthy
There’s an amazing passage in Romans 8 that we’ve been quoting from, but let me just read this to you. In Romans 8 it says, “Creation itself waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly, and we eagerly await for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
That’s a puzzling passage because it says all of nature is groaning in bondage to decay and can’t wait for us to be adopted, and then Paul says we ourselves await the adoption, “… the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Now how can Paul say here we’re already adopted and then just a little bit later here in Romans 8 say we’re awaiting our adoption?
Because, you see, when you become a Christian, you’re legally adopted, and the greatest thing about adopting a child is you want to treat that child as if that child is your biological and natural child. You want to give that child everything you’d give your natural child. There’s one thing, though, you can’t in the human context give your adopted child, and that is your DNA.
Now in many cases that’s just as well. “We don’t want her to have my nose. We don’t want her to have my ears.” In the human context we’d like to do that, but we can’t do that. What we have here in the gospel is not only do we become legally adopted, but God actually gives us his DNA. He actually puts into us his own nature, the Spirit of God. We have the firstfruits of it, but the day will come in which we absolutely will resemble him.
We’re going to get the family likeness, finally. It’s growing in us gradually, but someday it’s going to come down in fullness. Paul talks about that day in amazing terms. You see, when you look at Jesus, there you have someone with the DNA of the Father. There you have someone, and all you see is moral glory. It says in Hebrews 1:3, “He is the express image of the Father.” He is the radiance of God’s being, and that radiance and that likeness are going to come to us.
It’s going to fall on you on the last day. It’s going to come down on you. Here’s the amazing part. Paul says the day we actually come into the fullness of our sonship, all of nature at the same time is going to be changed. How can that be? Why would nature be waiting for us? It means the glory that’s going to hit us is so powerful we’re going to bring all of nature with us when we’re changed.
Here’s the reason why. We were built to be gardeners, we were built to take care of nature, and we were built to take care of creation. The environmentalists can tell you what a lousy job we’ve done. When we fell into sin, somehow we took nature with us. When we come into glory, somehow we’re going to bring nature with us.
Paul says, in that context, in this passage, talking about this glorious liberty, “In this hope we are saved, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” What does he mean when he says, “In this hope we are saved?” Listen, this is the most practical thing you can possibly understand right now.
We hope for our sonship. We hope for the glory. We think about the inheritance. We think about the glory that’s going to come down, and it’s going to be so incredible that when it hits us, when the glory hits ground zero, it’s going to transform all of creation into perfection. There’s no more decay any more. We’re going to have a new heavens and new earth, and we’re going to be in charge, where every blade of grass is so beautiful and so clear. It’s beauty that will break your heart. It will lead you to kneel down and worship at the glory of the One who created it.
That’s all going to come to us. Paul says, “My hope for that saves me. Now it doesn’t save me in the sense that it forgives my sins, but it purifies me. My hope, my thinking about my inheritance, my wealth, the glory that is mine, and the glory that is guaranteed to me, and the glory that is coming, that’s how I deal with my sufferings. I reckon them; I think them out.”
Paul says unless you’re hoping for your inheritance, unless you know you’re wealthy, unless you know you’re going to come into your inheritance, you cannot live a life of stability and of peace. I have a couple of friends, you probably do too, who like most of us are living off of the income they make from year to year, but they know someday they’re going to come into a fortune. They’re not totally sure when it’s going to be, but it won’t be far. As a result, they don’t have the same worries the rest of us do.
They try to save, they try to get things done, they think about the future, and they think about their kids, but they don’t have the same worries because they know they’re going to come into a fortune. They have stability, and they have … You see, there’s an overarching comfort. They know they’re wealthy even though they can’t touch it right now. They have a whole different attitude.
Paul says unless you have this hope, unless you’re able to reckon it, unless you’re able to remember it, unless you’re able to live as if you’re wealthy even though you can’t touch it right now, you will not be able to handle the problems of life. You will not be able to face them. You won’t be able to see them out there. You’re like a newborn king in a cradle. Here you are fussing because somebody took your rattle away from you, but wait until you see what’s really yours.
Infant kings have no idea of the glory that’s waiting for them. All they’re upset about is, “Nobody got me my toy.” All they’re upset about is, “Nobody’s fed me now.” Oh, they’re so upset. Can’t you identify with that? I can identify with that. What am I so upset about because this hasn’t gone right this week and this hasn’t gone right this week? Somebody took my rattle. So what!
“In this hope we are saved, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing.” The rattles that are being taken away from me are nothing compared to my inheritance. I’m going to be rich. Rich! That’s how a son of the king talks. Samuel Rutherford, the old Scottish preacher, said, “You feel like you have a bad life? You feel like you’re grieving for the things you seem to be losing?”
“Keep a record,” he says. “Go ahead. Keep a bill and on the last day, go to your Father and give him that bill and watch how he makes good on that bill. One instant of glory will outweigh all the debts you think you’ve been accruing.” You’re rich! A son is free. A son has access and lives as if he has access. A son knows he’s wealthy and lives as if he’s wealthy and deals with life through the knowledge of his inheritance. He’s hard-nosed about it.
4. The graceful handling of trouble
A son handles suffering as discipline. Hebrews 12 says, “Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline because he chastens all those he accepts as sons. We had human fathers who disciplined us, but God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his righteousness. No discipline is pleasant now but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.”
The minute you realize you’re a child of God, you have a completely different attitude toward the suffering and the tragedies of your life. A child of God sees the suffering and would never, ever say, “I’m being punished.” You don’t say that, because God isn’t a magistrate.
A child of God says, “God is not a civil magistrate. He’s not a policeman. He’s not a judge of me. He’s not punishing me for my sins and exacting retribution, because my elder Brother got the retribution. He’s paid all the penalty. Therefore, if there are troubles in my life, it’s my Father’s discipline. My Father is not just trying to take out of my hide revenge for my sins. No. Because I’m a child of God, I now see sufferings in a whole different light. My Father is humbling me. My Father is showing me what my heart is really made of. My Father is showing me what’s really important. My Father is trying to make me like my elder Brother.”
Listen, do you handle the troubles of life as a child or as a slave? Do you know what it means to handle suffering as a child? First of all, a child knows they’re a child. Some of you say, “I can’t trust God because this came into my life.” I say to you, “But why can’t you trust God?” “Because God’s not explaining to me why.” In other words, “I don’t want to act like a child. I don’t want to think of myself as a child. I want God to explain why this is happening or else I will not trust him.” That a refusal to be a child.
Children are constantly being told by their parents, “Honey, you can’t understand. Later you will.” You try to explain to your children, but they don’t understand. Children constantly complain because they don’t understand. You say, “Honey, you can’t do that. Honey, you can’t go there. Honey, can’t do that. Dear, you can’t. You have to come in. We have to pick up and move. You’re going to lose all your friends, but it’s more important that we move right now than that you stay with your first-grade friends. It’s not the end of the world.”
So the child says, “I don’t understand. I don’t understand.” You try to give a first grader perspective, and it doesn’t work. Even though they complain, there is another level at which they know they’re not supposed to understand. They know they’re children. They basically understand that. Most children do, not all. For you to treat the suffering of your life as if your Father is the Father and as if you are a child, it means you have to be willing to say, “Father, you don’t have to explain everything for me to trust you.”
Until you’re willing to say that, you are resisting the very idea of sonship. You’re refusing to be a child. Until you say, “Father, you don’t have to explain everything for me to trust you because, after all, I am a child.” Also, to handle your suffering as children means you have to say, “I see and I realize God does not mean me any ill. He is not out to get me. He is not out to harm me. He is out to somehow change me and build me up, and he knows what’s best for me.”
Are you able to handle that? Are you able to handle your suffering as a child? Until you fill your mind with the greatness of God’s wisdom and the fact that he’s a Father and you’re a child, all you’re going to do is go all through life bitter as all get-out. Some of you are, and the reason is because you will not see you are children of God or you refuse to give yourself to Christ to become a child of God. Therefore, your bitterness ultimately rests on your shoulders.
One more thing about this. It says the Father disciplines us so we might share in his holiness. One of the things I’ve always noticed is unless you as a child of God yearn for your Father’s holiness, you will never be able to handle suffering. If you sit down with a child of God, and you say, “This is really hard but somehow or another, if you obey and trust him in this, God’s going to make you more like him. You’re going to be growing in grace. You’re going to become more like Jesus. You’re going to grow in holiness.”
That settles down a child of God, and the child says, “Yeah, all right. I do know being holy is more important to me than anything else, to be like my Father.” When you sit down with a person who’s a moralist, not a Christian, a person who is being religious as a way of getting favors from God, a person who did not get into Christianity to serve God, but to get God to serve him, a person who’s religious but thinks, “Because I’m religious, therefore, God ought to be giving me a great life,” who does not yearn for holiness and does not yearn to be like the Father, but basically wants a sugar daddy, which is not the same thing as a Father, and you say to a person like that, “Well, we don’t know all the reasons God is letting this happen to you, but one thing is for sure. If you trust in him, it’ll make you holy,” and they say, “So what?”
You see, if you don’t yearn for holiness above everything else, you will never handle suffering … ever … because you won’t be comforted when it says, “All discipline for the present is unpleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness that you may share in his holiness.” That won’t comfort you a bit.
We’ve seen to be a son, to know you’re a child of God, will bring you into freedom. To know you’re a child of God will bring you into access and dependence on him in prayer. To know you’re a child of God will make you feel wealthy and give you a stability, an ability to handle life in a way you couldn’t otherwise. To know you’re a child of God means that you look at suffering in your life with completely different eyes. Lastly …
5. You have complete assurance of his love
I know in some ways this runs through everything else, but let’s close here. It says Jesus is not ashamed to call you brothers. The Father is not ashamed to call us children. That means fundamentally there should be a security in your life, a knowledge God loves you no matter what.
I know a lot of you don’t have that, but here’s where it is. I’m a human father. I’m a mighty imperfect father, and yet my desire for my children’s happiness is unbelievably strong, with all of my flaws and with all of my selfishness. Everybody in this room who’s a parent, you know what happens. The minute a child is born you will never be happy again. Do you know why? Because your heart, you will find within days, is so completely bound up with that child’s happiness.
You will never, ever, ever be able to be completely happy unless your child is completely happy, and he won’t be any more completely happy than you are. I can tell already when my children grow up and they go somewhere else, it’s going to take tremendous self-control for me not to be completely involved in their lives. I’ll want so much to still control their lives so they’re happy.
Do you know why? I won’t be happy unless they’re happy. Even in our fallen condition, even in this most incredibly selfish of hearts, I see an image of the Father’s perfect love. Parents are relentless, dogged, in their support for their children. How many times have you heard somebody say, “But she’s still my daughter?” That means no matter what the heck you do, your mother is going to say, “She’s still my daughter.” No matter what the heck you do, they’re going to say, “That’s still my son. That’s still my daughter.”
That’s in us … imperfect people. My wife and I sometimes just weep over our children’s faults because we say, “It’s not bad now, but I’m just afraid if they don’t overcome that 10 years from now, think of the trouble.” We want our children to be perfect. We want our children to be perfectly happy, but we can’t bring it about.
Now if logically I know my Father in heaven must have more desire for your perfection and your complete bliss than I do for my children, if logically I know he must have a more perfect and more powerful passion for your bliss and happiness than I have for my own, and yet I know my own is unbelievably strong … it’s uncontrollably strong … then his love for you must not only be incredible … But don’t you understand? This is an omnipotent Father.
If I had it within my power, what would I do for my children? Everything. Your heavenly Father loves you more than I love my children, and he has the power. Therefore, it is infallibly sure his love for you will not fail but instead will bring you into perfection of being and into perfection of happiness. It has to be. To know that and to rest secure in that is the foundation for everything else I’ve been telling you.
If you know because you’re a child of God he loves you infallibly and unconquerably, his love will triumph for you and his desire and passion for your holiness and perfection will triumph. If you know that, then everything else falls into place. You will not be a person of fear, of judgmentalism. You will not be a person who’s afraid to pray. You will not be a person who feels poor. You will not be a person who can’t handle suffering.
Are you a child of God? Have you seen Jesus Christ has died for you and you’re resting in that? Are you recognizing only because your elder Brother has paid the expense you could be in the family? On the other hand, how many of you know you’re in the family and you’re not living it out? Are you living in freedom or are you defensive, driven, nervous, controlling, and critical? Are you living in prayer or are you worried, powerless, and anxious?
Are you living in your inheritance and your wealth or are you bored, self-pitying, and hopeless? Are you living with courage in suffering or are you in despair or repressed? Are you living in the security of God or are you nervous and overcome with a sense of inferiority? “Behold, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us.”
Behold is a command. Behold. Look at it, hold it, grab it. Behold. The whole reason you’re not living in the way we’ve just described is because you’re not beholding. Well, do it. “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should become the children of God.” Let’s pray.
Now Father, we thank you for this most basic of truths. In many ways it’s at the foundation of what you want for us, and therefore, it’s at the foundation of the life issues of our week, the life issues we’re grappling with most. Father, I pray two things.
First of all, I pray the individuals who are listening to these word here and maybe also through the tapes might suddenly have a revelation through your Holy Spirit that their fearfulness and their poverty and their boredom and their cynicism and their critical spirit and their defensiveness and their controlling nature and their prayerlessness and their inferiority feelings are all because they’re not listening to your Spirit who tells them that you’re our Father.
Father, enable everybody here individually to behold the manner of love you’ve given us that we should be your children. I also pray we might become a church that’s characterized by this teaching. I pray that we’d become a church where everybody understands this and knows this and talks to each other about it and preaches it to one another.
I pray we might become a church of people who are so bold and yet at the same time so humbled because of this teaching that no one can figure us out, but everyone would be attracted to you through us. Now Father, we pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.