Adopted

I feel in my spirit it's time for the word to go forth. Galatians chapter 3. If you make your way back to your seats, remain standing as I read the word of God, please. Galatians 3. Paul writing to the church. Who was Paul writing to? Okay, it's always good to know the audience. So this wasn't to someone was unfamiliar with God. These were people who were professing to be followers of Jesus Christ. So Paul is writing to the church, and he says, verse 26: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ in your Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise."

So he's letting them know who they are. And it is making such an impression in Paul's mind as he's pinning these words, it carries on into chapter four, verse number one: "Now I say that you are the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father." Now what he's saying is, when you're young, you're an heir — you know you're going to be the one who inherits these things, but you don't have controlling power in this moment, because you're too young, you're too immature. Therefore you have tutors and stewards who have been placed in your life to continue your training. So again, remember the setting. He's saying you're an heir, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're brought into this thing, and and the promise belongs to. Verse three: "Even so, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore you're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

And what I've felt for the better part of this week is to preach a simple message today that I've titled "Adopted." God, You've already spoke to Your church. Your Spirit is here. It is moving, God. It will accomplish His purpose if we will be willing to be obedient today. God, I pray we would be obedient in our hearing, it would be obedient in our practice, we'd be obedient in our worship, Lord, that Your will could be done in our lives today, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

I know when I say that word "adopted" that there are quite a few in the room that that word has a different meaning. It's not common. It's not casual. It, it, it is something that you, either yourself, or through your family, or through a circumstance and situation, it has a different meaning than to others in the room. Notice when we read through these there these scriptures I just read to you that there's a lot of language that Paul uses in and around the idea of being adopted, being a child as opposed to being a slave, that you have the ability to look forward to an inheritance in your life. Now this passage, that to me is one of the clearest ones that are in the Scripture, where a Bible — and Paul specifically — is talking about adoption, or God adopting you. He also talked in the book of Romans, and he talks in Ephesians also, using the word adoption. But we're going to look at this because I think this can help us close the gap between where we are and what we can be, what we say and what we actually live out. Because oftentimes there's quite a bit of difference between just saying something and actually living, understanding what is yours, and then fully embracing it with all of the benefits that come along with it.

Adoption was quite different in Paul's day, and so I want to look at how it is different compared to the world in which we live in right now, because I believe this is going to help us bridge that gap in our minds and have a better understanding. To begin with, to be adopted means you have a given future. That alone ought to make somebody — be excited — regardless of what has happened to you, regardless of what you have done, regardless of what the enemy tries to do, regardless of what they try to push on you. You are adopted in Him, and because of that there is a future that is promised to you.

I was a little weak to be an absolute church. I'm just gonna be honest with you on a Sunday morning. For me to tell you that you have an expected future, there'll be some of you that'll be more excited about a touchdown today than you worry about the fact that I just told you you haven't expected in that you have a heaven to gain in the hell to shun in your life. That's a guaranteed that if you'll buy in and stay committed, that this world is not the best it's going to be, that there's something better that lies beyond. For me, in my life, I got a guarantee.

The single most important aspect of adoption in Paul's day was the connection between the adoption and the inheritance. See, here's where it gets a little bit different in our day. We mostly think about adoption, it's something that you do for an orphan, someone who's family circumstances such that they need to be removed from it, or something tragic has happened and left them without a guardian in their life. But in Paul's world, adoption was not about providing a home to an orphan and Judaism, an orphan child would often be cared for by other relatives, but there was no formal legal adoption process attached. You can go look it up yourself. I spent quite a number of hours this past week as this was going over and over in my mind and in my spirit. The Jewish people didn't have a formal way of things being adopted, so Paul is talking about something that would be unfamiliar to the Jewish people except for the fact they were living in a Roman culture.

The Greco-Roman culture was different. It approached it in a completely different way. Adoption in that group, or Roman world, was mostly by the wealthy and the powerful, but it was not about taking care of orphans. It was about passing on the family's estate and the family's line to the next generation. Please don't miss what I just said. It wasn't about taking an orphan and putting them in a better situation. It was about passing on the family's estate and the family's line to another generation. It was done to ensure the survival of the family.

In the Roman world, the head of the family — in the Latin it had this term, it was called the the powder familia. It was the head of the family. It was the oldest male member of the family. It's where we gain our word word paternal from in our day and age. The the pata familia wanted to make sure that his family, his estate, that his influence would go on into the future. But if he did not have a male heir, that was a problem. It was something that he was going to struggle with. If he didn't have a male heir, then the family, all the inheritance, all the wealth, would go to somebody else. So it was upon him to make sure that there would be a male heir by which the family lineage could pass on through.

Now when he was going to adopt, he didn't go out in the street and look for a kid, and then have anybody looking over. Instead, he was very specific in what he was looking for. He was looking for a young man. He was looking for somebody that would be able to carry on the family name and the family work. He was selective in what he did. In other words, to be adopted in that world was a tremendous honor and a fabulous opportunity. If the patter familia believed in you, if he chose you, if he wanted you to carry on his work in his name, his family was going off — it was a big deal to be adopted by a great and a powerful and a wealthy man like this was like winning the lottery. It was the chance of a lifetime. He was promising to bless you with everything that he had, and that you would carry on his name.

So when we read Paul's words as he's writing here, saying you're no longer out there on your own, but you've been adopted, you've been selected, you have been chosen to carry on the family work, that you will have the name on you — it meant a whole lot different as the church was reading the — words that Paul was writing here, they began to understand the value and the worth that their God was placing upon them. Paul was saying, if you've been adopted by God, you now have a glorious future. That's why Paul said in chapter four, verse number seven: "Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and of a son, than an heir of God through Christ."

Adoption means, no matter what has happened in your past, you have a future. It doesn't matter what else has been tagged on you. It doesn't matter what else you've been dragging around. Those things don't count anymore. You've been adopted, and that adoption has afforded you a great future.

He's letting us know — Paul talking — that adoption meant more than just forgiveness from old debts. Quite often in ancient times, families would get themselves in a little bit of financial trouble. And sometimes this is hard for us to imagine, this hard for us to imagine our society, but in those times, Dad sometimes would actually sell his kids, sell them into slavery, to get money. By the way, this still happens in our world today. It may not happen here in our country, but it happens in our world. Now the situation gets worse, because when that father died, his biological son would be obligated to pay his father's debt. But if that son was adopted by another pad of familia, he was set free, redeemed from the debts that were attached from the old family. And if old creditors come and said, "You have to pay back what the family owes," he could simply point to his new adopted father and say, "Take it up with him, because I got a new daddy."

Oh, I don't know about you, but that makes me real excited, to know that the things that have been attached to me from the creditors of the past, no longer do I have to handle those on my own. But when they come knocking on the door, I can simply say, "I got a new daddy. Take it up with him." Oh, I wish somebody would be excited with me about the fact that you have a bright future ahead of you.

Paul says — now, this is, you look at your neighbor and say, "That's me. Talking about me." You have been adopted by God. And it's not that, since you can look forward to a great inheritance, it means right now I'm free from that debt, that if I'll ask for forgiveness, He is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. According to First John, that lets me know — and you've heard me explain this before — it's not just what I can see, but it takes care of the things I don't even know are on me.

Paul's writing and using language here, and the best way I know to relate it is: when one of my girls was little, they'd come up to me and they'd have something on their hands, and they'd say, "Dad, I need you to to help me get this off my hands," not realizing that they had dirt all over them, because they couldn't see what was going on here. They could only see what was right in front of them. When he says that He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all — and that means the stuff I can't even see. When I say, "God, forgive me of my sins," He just doesn't stop with what I'm thinking about in the moment, but He says, "I'll take care of that, and that, and that, and that, and the stuff you can't even see. I'll take care of it." I don't know about you, but I get excited that my daddy's able to handle this. Don't have to be stuck in that anymore.

You know what else this happens — what else this adoption does for you? And I, I'm speaking to somebody in this right now. I feel this in in the spirit moving right now. Some of you were dealing with some insecurities, but this adoption gives me a new security — a new security for insecure people. This would involve — this process of adoption would be an elaborate ceremony. It wasn't something that was casual. It was something that was just simply said — "Oh, what just happened over there?" But if there was a ceremony involved, I, I had to, I had to go into some technical terms this week to really get my mind wrapped around about all that really took place there in that Roman Greco world. A man that wanted to do this — the the pata familia, if he was going to adopt somebody, the — word used here — and this is a word that we don't use in our day and age — it's the word emancipate. He would emancipate his son to a mediator, to a third party. The mediator would buy — and I'm reading directly from what I've found in my, in, in my research — would purchase the son from the biological father and then release him back to the biological father. And they would repeat this three times. After the third time, the son would belong to the mediator, and the mediator would then bring the son to his new adopted father, and that father would make his legal son in that moment.

And the reason for this cumbersome ceremony was: the biological father sometimes would buy their son back if they got their self in a financially better position. In other words, "Money's a little tight right now, son, so I'm going to sell you for a little while and promise that I'll come back someday and redeem you back." And this process could go on and on. Now you can just imagine being the child. Some of you may relate to this real well when I'm speaking to speak to you — because those who were supposed to be taking care of you often treated you in this exact same manner that I'm preaching about right now: that when they could, they would take care of you, but if they, if they needed to, they were willing to barter you.

So because of this, the pata familia would go in and he would, he would emancipate the — this ceremony was a way of ensuring for the adopted son that you would never be sold again. Once you were taken ownership by the new pat of familia, it was an irrevocable promise that he could not barter you or sell you or trade you. It brought a new security into your life, regardless of what else has happened to you. This relationship was different than any other relationship you've ever had before.

I'm thankful that I had a God who paid the purchase redemption price on Calvary's hill, and He's not willing to trade me ever again. Somebody needs to grab a hold of that. Paul says this is — you look at your neighbor, says, "Me." God wants you to be secure in Him, no matter the circumstances.

Anybody in here know somebody that's insecure? Don't point — that makes it worse. God says, "I don't want you to face that. You can have security." That everything that everybody tries to engineer security through — mates, that don't work. "If I just have more money. If I just have better health. If I was just better looking. If I was taller. If I was shorter. If I was skinny. If I was fat. Nicer office. Better education." That stuff never gets you secure, because that stuff can fail and leave you in any moment.

But I'm trying to point out to you that Paul's using language and words to a people who would have understood when he said, you were not a slave, but you've been adopted. You haven't been sold with — you've been bought. What was against you has been redeemed. The ceremony has taken place, and it can't go back. It's irrevocable. You can have security in the fact that others may have left you. Your biological father or mother may have not cared two hoots for who you are or anything you ever got into. But there was a God. There was a God who said, "I'm willing to step down and meet you where you are. I'm willing to pay the ransom price to let you know just how much you mean to me."

He loved you enough to reach down where you were, in your worst condition, and pull you out of that mess. God's saying, if you allow Me to adopt you, you can be secure. You don't have to go through a life of insecurity. I'm speaking to somebody right now. Somebody's struggling with insecurity. You're adopted. You're beloved. You belong. And you cannot be taken. I'm going to say that again. You are adopted. You're beloved. You belong. And you cannot be taken.

Are you living that way? Do you live that way, knowing that I have a future? Are you living that way, knowing that I have been purchased? Are you living that way, with security in your life, that it's gonna be okay because my dad's taking care of me? Oh, oh, things may not be perfect right now. You may be facing some things that don't make sense. But do you have it settled in your mind? Do you have it settled in your heart? Then my father knows where I am? And maybe I'm struggling right now to comprehend all that's going on, I have this truth that's settled deep down inside of me: that He's not going to trade me away, that He loved me, He purchased me, He redeemed me, He loves me, I'm valued with Him, I am beloved. Are you living that way? Are you living that way? Are you living knowing that you have that future?

Do you embrace your new identity? You see, adoption means you have a new identity. It means you're not the same. You have a new identity. You're not the same. You're, you're, you're, you're a new creature in Christ. You're, you're a new man. Old things are gone, right? That's what adoption did. It took all that old debt, and all that stuff that was against me, and all those old labels, and all the everything that I used to be identified with and by, those, those have been gone. They have been taken care of. They have been erased from me. No longer do I have to be those things. No longer do I have to conform to what the world says I need to conform to man in it and it amazing?

And now you hear me, I, I use this often — how the world loves to stick us in a corner, in a box. It loves to to get us to, to, to, to some place where it can stick a label on us. And we got to be very careful, because that label it puts on us tries to cover up the identity He purchased. See, see, I'm a child of God. I'm a child of God, that, that's who I am. Shirley Kennedy, I'm a child of God. My name is Kevin. I'm a pastor. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a friend. I'm a brother. I'm a son. Those, those are, those are titles, but who I am — I'm a child of the King. That's who I am. I'm not a number. I'm not a color. I'm not an acronym. I'm not a, a sequence of letters. I got to be careful, because those things, even though they may be good, can often misinterpret what's really there. I'm a child of the King. I'm a new creature.

I'm not against those things. I'm not here, go, go find your number, go find your color, put some letters by you if that makes you feel a bit better. But don't let it override the fact that you're a child of the King. Don't let it, don't let it make you anything different than what He desires you to be. Be very careful what label you allow to be placed on you, because you'll put a sticker over where it says "child of the King." You'll identify with something else that was never intended to be placed upon you.

Paul says in 27, chapter 3, in Galatians, reading from the New Living, it says: "All who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes." Those old prison rags are gone. All that old stuff that I got trapped up and entangled with, that stuff has been stripped away from me. When I put Him on, I put on some new clothes. I'm identified by something different. I'm no longer up on appearance the same.

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know — be your own man, be your own woman. I know, I know. Even in Christianity, it's like, well, you know, just it's, He's on the inside. It says, if I've been united with Christ in baptism, it's like putting on new clothes. Putting on new clothes doesn't do anything to my inside. I, I can be sick and put on new clothes. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, if your experience with God didn't change your outside, now, now, I'm just, this for you right now, because there's a couple he's like, I'm going to tell you right now, you can look the part and be rotten inside, all right? So again, I, I can have on the finest suit and, and, and be eat up with cancer on the inside, all right? So it's not only that. I'm just telling you that if you're gonna walk with God, it not only changes your insides, but the insides manifest themselves on the outside. They do. They do. That is good preaching, whoever said that. Amen to you.

Adoption means I have a new identity. Adoption means my resume changed. To be adopted means that I can look forward to a new freedom. It's fascinating to me — five times Paul used the little word — for. "Under, under, under guardians, under stewards." And sometimes he talks about these things in other places in the Scripture, when he says those that are "under sin," or "under the law," or "under the power," or "under bondage," or "under habits" — they were slave to them. But Galatians 4:4 and 5 says: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

Jesus redeemed us so we can be adopted. He paid the ransom price so that we belong to Him. I don't belong to myself. I'm not on my, he, I was purchased with a price. He paid top dollar for you and I. Oh, I'm so glad He didn't pay what we were worth, because that would have just been a little bit of nothing. But He paid the very best thing He could pay. He gave it all for you and I.

Paul says this to Timothy in First Timothy 2 and 5: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." What a price that God paid in His life and in His death on the cross. Jesus paid the whole price. He gave it all. He didn't give part. He didn't give a little. He didn't get three-fourths. He gave everything He had. So that gives Him the right, as our adopted Father, to come in and say, "What I'm asking of you is all — all." Oh, the finished work at Calvary.

You have been adopted. You have a heavenly Father that believes in you. He chose you. He wants to bless you with all that He has. He wants to take and use you. He wants to work through you. He wants to reach through you to the world around you, to use your influence, to use your ability, to use your position in this, in this crazy dark world, so that others can see what He's done in you, so you can say, "I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once didn't have much to look forward to, but now I have a bright future, and I have a hope." And that's not just for me, but it's for everybody to understand that He paid the price for you, all through the finished work at Calvary.

But I come back to you again and ask this question: Do you actually live like this is true? Do you live like this is true? Do you live like this is truth? Do you live like this is your reality, like this is who you are?

I was trying to think about how to to tie this together, so I got this goofy story, but I think it makes the point. There were four brothers, wealthy brothers. They decided that the mom was getting older, and they wanted to give her a good gift to show their appreciation for their raising, and that her dedication to them and their young life meant so much to them. So brothers being brothers are not going to be outdone. The competition ensues. First one said, "I decided to build Mom a big house." Second one said, "Well, I took that big house, and I'm gonna put the finest home theater system" — and I spent a hundred thousand dollars building this home theater system in this house. The third one said, "I had my Mercedes dealer deliver her in S.L. 600." The fourth one said, "Well, you guys are so caught up in all that" — he was going to be the religious one, so he got to talking to his pastor, and his pastor let him know about this parrot that had been trained. It took 20 preachers 12 years to train him to be able to recite the entire Bible. He paid a hundred thousand dollars for this parrot for his mom, because they know how much Mom loves the word of God. They gave all the gifts to Mom. The brothers were impressed. They felt good about themselves.

After the holiday, Mom sent out thank you notes. "Dear Milton, the house who built me is so large. I live only in one room, and I have to pay somebody to clean the whole thing. Thank you anyway. Dear Marvin, I'm too old to travel. I stay home. I have groceries delivered. The Mercedes sits in the garage. It was a nice thought. Thank you anyway. Dear Michael, the expensive theater that holds up to 50 people is great, but all my friends are dead, and I can't see well enough to use it. Thank you anyway. Dearest Melvin, you're the — only son that had any good sense, put thought into your gift. The chicken was delicious. Thank you. Love, Mom."

Now you may be saying, "Pastor Kevin, why did you tell that crazy story?" Are you like the mom, and you don't understand the gift that's been given to you? Are you living beneath your privilege? I'm, I'm ending. The musicians can come. And God wants to do something here. He's already stirred the water, and I agree with what went forth. There's miracles in this place. But are you living beneath your privilege? Because you have received a fabulous gift. The gift of adoption belongs to you. It was purchased. It's, it's for you, for you.

Paul says you have this great promise. If you're a son or a daughter, then you are an heir. The pata familia has selected you. He has chose you, and in doing so, has given you, has guaranteed, has promised you a great inheritance that belongs to you.

Here's the deal. The promise, the inheritance, is not just something that's going to come to you after you die. Galatians 4, verse 1 and 2, says: "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is a master of all, but is under the guardians and the stewards unto the time appointed by the father." But he goes in verse 5 and says this — because Jesus has come, God sent Him — to buy, the reading from the New Living, freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children. He came to buy freedom for you and me, to free us from the things that we've become entangled with. He purchased that. And what we really want is love. We want love. We do. Everybody wants love. They want joy. They want that peace inside of him. And then when we think and act like the circumstance will get us there, but they don't. You can't figure this out. You can't buy happiness. Not long-term happiness. You can't. It may make you happy for a minute, but what we're looking for comes through the Spirit. His Spirit. And His Spirit is available to you, because Jesus paid the redemption price.

I'm asking you: are you living this every day? Do you live the reality that you are a blood-bought child of the King?

Last thing for you — and I just noticed that this week. As with a lot of things in the Scriptures, you read it so many times, you skim over, and you read through it, you just don't. And there will be one day that, that, that all of a sudden it pops out at you, like, how did I miss this, this? Look, I'm going to take you back for one last thing. Galatians 4, verse number 6: "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father."

Paul didn't say you would cry out. Paul didn't say you and I would cry out "Abba, Father," but that His Spirit — do you understand that He loves you so much that He puts His Spirit inside of you, and that that Spirit is crying out for you, to remind you who you are? He wants so bad for you to know Him, that He put His Spirit inside of you to constantly cry back to Him. Think about that. In other words, even when you can't, He can. Even when you can't. Because sometimes we can get so beat down, we can get so discouraged, we can get so worried, we can get so wound up, we can get so consumed with everything that's going on, that we don't have the ability to cry, because shame has placed us in a deep dark hole. But He says, "I'll put My Spirit inside of you, and even when you can't mouth the words, My Spirit will cry back out, 'Father, I need You.'"

Is anybody crying out today? Oh, this altar is open. Does anybody want to make some changes in their life? Does anybody want to start living like, "I understand that I am a bloodball child of the King. I have been purchased long ago"?