Adopted... | Let Grace Be Grace

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.