This is like the biggest thing
that's ever happened to me.
11 year old Tana just spent the
last two years wishing the judge
would make her foster parents.
Her forever parents.
They're just caring, loving.
They take really good care of me.
And then last Monday,
her friend Miss Jackie were just
little friends were just little buddies.
The office manager at her school
walked in with amazing news.
I grabbed her shoulders and I just said,
have you heard the news baby?
Have you heard honey?
You get your forever family.
My heart was so happy.
It was like I was like screaming.
Tana was so happy the adoption was final.
She could not let go of Miss Jackie.
She just kept holding me tight.
She just held me tighter and tighter
and so I took advantage of that and I
just kissed her up one side and down the
other. She's easy to cling onto.
Tana's mom is grateful the security
camera at school recorded the moment.
It just made me feel like oh my God.
Alright, I've seen that 10 times and I
still cry when I see that because it's
the joy and the happiness that she felt.
As we look at the idea of adoption
and I was thinking this weekend.
I know that that is a story for some of
you here that some of you are here as
adopted kids into families and some of
you are here as the families that have
adopted so this sermon may hit close to
you with maybe part of your story and
maybe you're here and no one knows that
side of your story but that the idea of
adoption and the idea of being brought
into a forever family if you will means
a lot about you.
But you look at that little girl's face
and just the joy on her face.
It's really hard to describe so instead
of me trying to describe it I want you
to try to describe it.
Who can put words to what you saw as she
just starts clinging on to the social
worker because of the news that she got
about her forever family.
How did that hit some of you and if
you're new to the church I like to ask
questions and I will wait for responses
whether it's awkward or not I don't
really care.
But understanding how did that, how did
watching just that simple video hit some
of you?
Hope.
Exhilarating absolutely sure.
Others.
Power over overpowering.
Yeah.
From uncertainty to peace.
Yeah.
Others.
A miracle okay.
Pure joy absolutely.
Happy.
Happily ever after okay.
I'm looking for one word I know insert
roll of all your eyes I do this a lot.
It's kind of like a setup but I'm looking
for one specific word and I'm wondering
if any one of you felt the same that I
did when you saw the way that she just
clung on to her with the news.
Any others?
Joy?
Close.
Love?
Okay we're getting farther away.
Relief?
Close.
Tony.
Oh you're right there.
If I was offering you lunch we'd be
sitting down.
We haven't ordered anything.
Yeah.
The law oh you get to combine that.
You said okay.
Okay there you go.
Yeah.
Combining great.
Wholeness.
That there was a feeling of wholeness that
all is right.
That this is the way it was supposed to be.
Which is interesting because in the grand
scheme of the life of someone that is
adopted or a family that is adopting it is
somewhat of a curve ball.
For whatever reason kids get put up for
adoption and for whatever reason families
adopt children is many different reasons
but there is a completeness.
There is a wholeness to this.
And I know for some of you you are in the
midst of that right now.
We have some of you that have gone through
that not too long ago and out of chaos,
out of uncertainty, out of all of these
things that something gets brought and
brought whole in the idea of adoption and
it's a great way to start the A in faith as
that's where we are for Lent.
We're looking at the acronym faith which is
kind of the in reformed conversations the
canons adore was Tulip but I'm using some
curriculum from the late 90s early 2000s
Jim Osterhaus's faith where last week we
looked at a fall in humanity now A adopted
by God in Ephesians 1 3 through 6 says this.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world that we
should be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us for adoption to
himself as sons through Jesus Christ
according to the purpose of his will to the
praise and glorious grace with which he has
blessed us in the beloved meaning in Christ.
So something I want all of us to see this
morning is that you and I were destined to
be adopted by God by God as Father us a
fallen people as we talked about last week
we all sinners in need of a Savior but
before all of that we are brought in to the
family of God regardless of the families
you grew up in.
Maybe you grew up in a church I know for a
lot of our families they're church families
the mom and dad grew up in the church the
kids are going to grow up in the church.
Lord willing their kids will grow up in the
church and it will be a generation of church
family but that isn't all of us that's not
all of our stories for some of you you are
the first churchgoers in your family being
brought into the family of God but
understand that scripture tells us that you
and I were destined for adoption by the
Father a fallen nothing people were destined
for adoption and if we sit on that just for
a minute it really should cause a lot of
emotion in us a lot of maybe what we saw in
the little girl on the clip but that
knowing that we were destined for adoption
means that the family system that we grew
up in the family system that we were born
in the family of system that goes all the
way back you know to our great great great
great great great grandparents Adam and
Eve right if we go back to that that there's
a brokenness in our family system and a
system that we needed that wholeness and we
weren't going to get it in of ourselves we
weren't going to get it in and of of our
families we weren't going to get it if we
just kind of followed that line of Adam and
Eve that something needed to be done a process
needed to take over and that is the process
of adoption and there's a lot about adoption
in both the Old Testament and the New
Testament a couple just snippets of this is
that God selects Abraham right out of the
people of the earth to make a covenant with
him that selection process that adoption
process was seen in Genesis 12. Deuteronomy
7 the Old Testament Israelites are God's
chosen people. Jumping a little bit in the
New Testament in the Old Testament 1 Samuel
16 when Israel desired a human king which
we learned about a couple years ago in three
kings which they had God they had Yahweh
they had but they looked around and said we
don't have what all these other groups have
they have human kings we want a human king
God intervened sent a prophet Samuel to anoint
his chosen. John 15 Jesus specifically
selects his apostles and disciples. Second
Thessalonians Paul exhorts to many churches
that they were chosen by God. First or
second Peter 1 Peter reminds us of our
election and our calling by God himself. Now
a note on that word election we're going to
talk more about that next week but a lot of
times in reform circles which we are reform
church we can use that as kind of like a
status symbol and we learn this in the whose
sermon is it anyway when we talked about
infrolapsarianism and all of the superlapsarianism
that a lot of times people look at this idea
that we are God's elect as some kind of status
symbol and in my opinion you're missing it.
We were elected by God because we needed to
be. It was nothing that we did right when he
called the Israelites he said you're a nothing
people you are stiff neck meaning you're
that's biblical word for stubborn right you
are a stubborn people you were enslaved and
now I'm going to make you mine and a lot of
times we like to claim that ownership and we
do it in a very inappropriate way we need to
do that in a very humble way that we are
humbled by the fact that God chose someone like
me God chose someone like you sinners. He didn't
have to he could have created a holy people
you could have said no they're already holy I'm
going to choose them they're going to be the
A team but he doesn't he chooses us out of
nothing but pure love for us and then Matthew
24 Jesus refers to the elect and how they will
fare in the end days. So this idea of election
can be very confusing it's been debated between
you know you're kind of more Baptist more
reformed Armenian thoughts there is so much
debate about what this means and I I'm not one
to debate this I think it's kind of a fruitless
debate as far as whether we were elected or
chosen or not because it says it many times we
just went through six examples seven examples
but there's many more that God chose you and me
great let's just let that be our starting point
allow that to be our identifier in this world
because what it shows all of us is that we have
a job to do and that we need to do it in a
certain way that if God has chosen us if God has
elected us to be his people not because we were
the A team but we were the C team and he said out
of you the world will know that I am Yahweh
because he's going to work through us really in
spite of us so a question could easily come out
how do I know if I am chosen how do I know if I
am part of the elect maybe you're coming here this
morning go I did some bad stuff this past week I
don't think I think I lost the election right I
think I lost what God if God has called me I I've
run from him every day this week I knew I was
supposed to do that I knew I was supposed to say
that I knew I wasn't supposed to do that and I
decided not to do I was supposed to do and do the
thing that I knew I was not supposed to do I think
that makes sense I think you got it and
understanding that we need to understand
something else and it comes from Romans 8 for all
who are led by the Spirit of God our sons or
daughters of God for you did not receive the
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you
have received the spirit of adoption as sons who
cry out Abba father the spirit himself bears
witness to our spirit that we are children of God
and if children then heirs heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with
him in order that we may be glorified with him
so there is something going on despite any one of
us that God is at work the spirit is at work in
each and every one of you that God is saving and
adopting to bring his family for eternity and our
role is to point people to him that our
understanding in life should be being part of the
family of God is the greatest thing that we are
going to have in our life now I can say that I can
put that on the table and then I can ask and I am
asking myself first how many of us think about
that that I am in the family of faith that I am in
the family of God that I have been adopted into
this family not because I bring anything to it but
because I need to be think about if that little girl
was never adopted that maybe she went to foster
home to foster home maybe she had the interviews
and kind of all the intricacy that is that adoption
process and no one ever took her then she became
eighteen seventeen in some states and just became a
product of the state and never had a family kind of
DNA if you will was never given that her life would
be drastically different and what if the same went
for us with God that if God looked at each and every
one of us right 260 people here this morning like
what if God weighed your life and said I don't think
you measure up friends I love you but none of us
would get in if on our own merit if on our own way
of life and our own way of doing our own thing none
of us would be in that the spirit is the one at work
but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons
by whom we cry Abba father friends this is really
good news yet it can be tough for some of us this
morning and I want to touch on this a little bit
because some of you your families have not played
out in a positive way that sometimes when you bring
up this idea of adoption or family there is a part
of us that really cringe because our family life
either past or present is not going well well pastor
you say that being part of the family of God is the
greatest thing but being in my family right now is
not so I have no idea how to receive it I have no
idea how to receive what positive family vibes or
whatever it is means because I don't have it and friend
to that I say I am sorry about what you are going
through today or what you may have gone through
yesterday but understanding that the family of God
being brought in means so much and it has nothing to
do with the family systems you were brought up in
this is God doing all the work adopting you into a
forever family that sometimes we need to shed those
systems that we were brought up in or those systems
that maybe we currently have and asking God to bring
about a reconciliation to bring about that wholeness
so to help us understand this morning this forever
nature of God's adoption a pastor that I follow and
read a lot John Piper kind of does a nice breakdown
and so I use some of his points along with some of my
own today to help us look at God's adoption in the
right light because there are some of you and I still
kind of feel this way a little bit I don't like this
you know I kind of want to do this on my own any of you
that have ever had kids any of you that have ever been
aunts or uncles or whatever that senior kids grow one
of the most beautiful yet frustrating sides of having
kids is when they develop independence because when
they develop independence it's usually not at the
right times and usually not around about the right
things that's when they start asking and actually mean
that three word that comes from the pit of hell why
that when we give those commands and our kids look at
me and say well why or when all of a sudden it's like
hey it's time for bed and they throw at you well it's
not a school night this isn't debatable it's time for
bed you get your butt in bed but yet as that independence
is starting all of a sudden that independence can
easily turn into defiance and again we always want our
kids to be able to question and learn and go deeper but
at some times you just want them to be quiet and go to
bed and the same thing happens with us in faith and a
lot of us myself included we do this with God God calls
us to do this or God calls us to do that and we ask God
the creator of the universe that same three letter
question why and God can easily say because I'm God
you're not so just do it and even some of us then are
like well prove to me why I have to do this poof gone
God could do that he's not Zeus right but he could he
could easily do that he could say oh you of little faith
why are you doubting me but he doesn't because he has
adopted us into his family and he has taken on that
father role in our life and for us to understand why we
have been adopted what that means for our life we have
to understand a couple things about adoption the first
and this is kind of a link though I have walked with
families that have gone through adoption or people that
have been adopted that has never been anything that
kind of either my family both immediate and extended
have never really done my wife's family not really
either we love when families do that we love the
stories that we hear you know and when you bring on a
dog it is not the same thing and so I'm sorry if you're
offended by that but it's not but understand that there
is a process to adoption and the first is we need to
count the cost of adoption Galatians 4 4 and 5 say this
but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth
his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem
those who were under the law so that meet we might be
received as adopted sons so the idea of redeeming here
tells us that something or someone has set us free into
this family by paying a price now to go through an
adoption process isn't free it costs now in the world
today it costs money and it costs time and kind of
authority and there's courts and legal system and all of
that but when God adopted us it came at a cost you and
I were redeemed by God but because he paid that ultimate
price God said I love this group of sinners I want them
to be a part of my family but in order to fulfill the law
a debt had to be paid a penalty needed to be made clean
and that was the death of his son that Christ died so we
could have eternal relationship with God so let me ask if
you're here this morning you're a mom a dad a grandma
and grandpa an aunt or an uncle and in order to get your
family out of a debt you needed to give up one of your
children grandchildren niece or nephew their life in order
to make it right could any of us do it my guess is no and
if you said yes right away I think we probably need to
have a conversation and so I have office hours on Tuesday
and Wednesday but understand kind of what's going on here
God knew this was going to happen God knew that the need
for a penalty a need for a death was going to have to
take place so we could be the adopted sons and daughters
of God he was counting the cost and Jesus' life paid our
debts the penalty for our sin so there's a legality of
adoption and so we're going to continue on in verse 6 so
we have Galatians 4, 4 and 5 I just read but verse 6 says
and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his
son into our hearts crying Abba Father you see there's a
legality there's a righteousness that comes to being a part
of the family of God that when Christ died on the cross his
righteousness were given to us imputed is the theological
term placed over us because there was no good in us to be
in the family of God none of us were good enough to be
righteous enough to be in the family of God righteousness
was required for this process because of the legal realities
of the law that God created those and those needed to be
justified and dealt with the law demanded that we would be
punished because of sin and we would be excluded from the
presence of our Father of the creator because of that sin
that in our sin we cannot be in right relationship with God
think about that in your day to day that if you are living
your life and even linking a pinky with active sin that we
cannot be in the presence of God and a lot of times we
struggle with that because we're saved so if we're saved
and some of us once saved always saved and all this stuff
that we can just kind of play in the playground of sin and
think that God is going to just forgive us because you know
what that's what a dad does that's called cheap grace
that's not understanding what happened you see work needs to
be done by the spirit to work in our hearts to be convicted
that if you are living today a life of sin and there is zero
conviction going on in your heart then I would ask that you
do intake on your relationship with God.
A lot of you know because I talk about it most Sundays that
Carrie and I we have three boys right and if they were
constantly okay with just sinning against mom and dad I
don't think anybody would look at that relationship and go
parent of the year no that there is an understanding when
something is broken it needs to be fixed when laws are broken
or I mean maybe not laws we don't call that in the
holland owner house but understand when rules are broken
there needs to be a conversation at times there needs to be
a punishment that there needs to be a reconciliation this is
the legality of sin and this is something that God did for all
of us.
Think about the process without the cross if the spirit
wasn't there to regenerate a fallen person's heart then the
bounty of sin would just be all over their life and maybe you
know those people maybe you know those people that claim to be
Christians but then live out a life that is very contradictory
to the Bible and sometimes they preface it with this idea of
love that you know what as a believer I am called to love
even if you are sinning I am going to love you but there is
an opportunity for all of us to say but hey you got to follow
dad better we all know people like that because we all are
like that because I am sure there are people that can say
the same thing about us and hey I hear you I hear that you are
a believer but I don't see this you seem to be okay with this
how does that work it is saying that you love God yet in your
actions you don't right it is like saying man I love my wife
when is the last time you talk to her I don't know it has been
a minute really when is the last time you spend time with her
I don't know I try not to this is an example this is not
actual you can ask my wife I am obsessed but understand that
people in faith do the same thing now this isn't to brow beat
any of you but for some people it is why I love the Lord I just
don't go to church why we are called to be in the fellowship
of believers we are called to come and fellowship and I know
some of you are rolling your eyes because it is a pastor
saying this and my livelihood comes out of this church but I
think I would say that if I was a car salesman which I think I
would be good at but understand that part of when we say that
we love God but we don't act like it there is a contradictory
there that doesn't work and understanding that we don't have
an understanding of the adoption process if we don't learn from
that we don't grow from that because the adoption of God is
the beginning of the transformation in our life I
guarantee you that little girl was never the same when her
forever family was established that she is now a part of
something she went from being lost to found she is from being
a kind of an individual in no man's land to a family that is
powerful and that is the transformational process of
adoption Romans 814 for all who are led by the spirit of God our
sons and daughters of God as we live as sons and daughters of
God God doesn't leave us without the help to bear the attacks of
our own selves maybe you have this I don't think we have yet to
have this in our family but it is probably coming like a freight
train because I know I did it I remember I did not want to
practice my French horn and my mom told me that I had to and I
said in my mind I am going to run away I am going to run away
because I do not want to practice my French horn I say this out
loud I am going this is a terrible example so what did I
do I left a note I broke my French horn and I got a couple
granola bars and I went to a I went don't be shocked I did not
like crack it in half I just undid the valves it is a terrible
thing and I went a block away and said I was going to live in
this tunnel slide at a park I was home in 45 minutes because I
had eaten all the granola bars I drank the Capri Suns and I
thought I was going to die you are like wow Pastor Jim soft and
you are right but understand that you probably maybe have had
that in your family or your situation with your kids or
someone in your family well I don't want to be in your family
anymore friends we say that to God all the time when we choose
to actively sin that is what we are saying to our parent the one
that brought us in the one that did the work that is what we
are actually saying so one of the final one of the last things
I want to bring up today is do you love the fact that you have
a forever family do you love the fact that God the father of
you and me has brought us into his family and what he asked for
us is to point people to him or are you just like oh I don't
want to do that well then friends I think what we are I think we
struggle with that then I don't think we fully get it then what
it means to be in God's forever family because there is
something that we have to remember at the end and it is the
inheritance of adoption Galatians 4 says and because you
are sons God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts
crying Abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son and
if a son then an heir through God then Romans 8 says the spirit
himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of
God and if children then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may
also be glorified with him.
I am not sure how many of you have made up wills in your
family but when we started having kids we had a brother in
law who does insurance and we did the whole life insurance
thing and we knew we were going to need a will because a will
helps figure things out when mom and dad are gone and as a
pastor I have sat down in contentious meetings when all
of a sudden a family member is gone and it is all about what
am I going to get.
I have stories I am not going to do too many to name and to
recount right now but they have been really ugly that you have
people that are just waiting for mom and dad or uncle Remus to
die so you can get all of the stuff because there is a
conversation around adoption that has to do with inheritance
and for some of you you know what you are going to get.
You are going to get a hug.
You are going to get a high five or maybe you got her eyes.
I don't care but understand not physically but that you look
like them just so we understand.
Hopefully when someone dies you are not given eyeballs.
That is weird.
But understand that we are inheriting something being a
part of God's family.
That being a part of the family of God there is an inheritance
and you want to know what the inheritance is and allow this
to blow your mind as my mind is blown.
Our inheritance from God is forever.
For eternity.
Eternity with God is our inheritance.
And for maybe 11% of us we are like yeah I think I would like
money.
No you don't because that will pass away.
The inheritance we get from being adopted by God is a
forever eternal life with God in heaven.
If that doesn't blow your mind, if that doesn't excite you,
I am sorry but you might be dead inside or you might not fully
understand because what you are doing is living for however many
years you have on this earth.
Friend, that is a speck of sand on the beaches of the dunes.
That the inheritance we get is everlasting life with God.
And I don't know about you but that is good news.
But here is the thing and we will get more to this next week.
As we go through this life we will suffer.
There will be groaning, Romans 8 and I close with this says this.
For now we know that the whole creation has been groaning
together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first
fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for
adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul reminds us that there is pain in the adoption path.
In the process.
John Piper writes this.
That for some of us who have kids or maybe adopted kids or family.
That we are going to go through situations in your family and in
the family of God where we won't be able to see that life continue
because we will lose kids in the process.
John Piper writes, whether adopted or not,
watching your kids hurt, paralyzed or even die, there are groans.
In this life we were told all these things will happen but that
does not stop the adoption of the individual.
No, we know the best is yet to come.
There is much groaning in the path of adoption on the way to full
salvation, Piper says.
But the outcome is glorious.
It is well worth it.
This is especially relevant for parents who experience real groaning.
A child with a disease, a handicap or some other consistent issue.
It does not make them loved any less but the groaning is real.
So what is he telling us as we go into the next section of this lent
process, the reality that some of us who outlive our kids, see our
children, whether in our family or the family of Munster Church,
struck down by war, accident or disease, the groaning is done in
hope because we are adopted by God and destined for a resurrection and
an eternal future of health and wholeness and never ending joy.
So is the adoption process hard?
You bet it is.
But friend, the work has been done.
That if you have claimed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then
you have been adopted into God's family and that means something very,
very intentional.
More on that next week.
Let's pray.