August 9, 2026 | Adopted Children of God with a Secured Future

Special day for me today as I have uh six of my seven children with us, and I want to share with you that my 19-year-old son, Roman, has just recently gotten engaged.

Can I show you a picture of that?

That's um that's that's not Hot Springs, that's St.

Thomas.

Um her name is Abigail, she's here also.

We're very excited for them.

Uh, he's gonna be a junior at Watchsaw Baptist, and she'll be a senior there.

So I'm I'm really blessed to have them here along with the rest of my kids.

And and I was thinking about this Sunday because I I really want my kids to know um one thing, the most important thing, and I want them to know it, and I want everyone in here to know it.

And the most important thing that I want them to know is that God loves you.

Now I need to explain a little bit because that sounds it can sound very trite.

What do you mean when we say God loves you?

Well, we will say, well, he has unconditional love for you.

Okay, I can I can live with that, but let's let's be a little bit more specific because the unconditional love of the world doesn't seem like the love the Father has for me and you.

Something that's helped me from a counselor in the past is rather than think of God's love as unconditional, how about we understand it this way?

God does not accept me just as I am, he loves me despite how I am.

He loves me just as he loves Jesus.

He loves me enough to make me like Jesus.

And so the rather than the word unconditional love, I'm gonna throw this one out you out to you and see what you think about it.

I like the word contraconditional love.

Contra conditional love.

Contrary to knowing God's love by meeting conditions, he loves me with what is not due to me.

Another way to say is that he loves me not because I feel conditions, fulfill conditions to make him love me.

He loves me because Christ fulfilled the conditions for his love for me.

To say it another way is that I didn't live a perfect life.

And God's not, well, I'll just let you slide.

No, he's he loves me because Christ lived a perfect life.

And I I've sinned and I need I need atonement, I need a savior.

Well, Christ fulfills that as well.

So, contrary to me meeting the conditions for him to love me, Christ met the conditions for me.

And so my father loves me despite me not meeting the conditions.

This is very important to understand.

Because are we living our Christian lives to try to gain the Father's love?

Or are we living the Christian life because he already loves us?

And though summarize what we're going to say this morning will be in the context of something called adoption.

I believe, along with J.I.

Packer, the great theologian, it says adoption is probably one of the most important theological uh themes in the Bible.

That God has adopted you.

And it's not that he looked down and he said, Oh, look how cute they are.

Look how special they are.

No, he adopted us into his family in our weakness, he adopted us into his family in our sinfulness.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And it's and it's at this idea of God adopting you.

He loves you despite you not making the conditions, the meeting conditions, but Christ has met the conditions, and so now we can live the rest of our life, not trying to gain the Father's love, but we can live the rest of our lives because we already have it.

Let's look at this in Romans 8.

Let's look at this in Romans 8.

We're gonna talk about adoption this morning, our spiritual adoption.

It's in the context of the Holy Spirit.

You're gonna wonder, what does the Holy Spirit have to do with adoption?

Well, the Holy Spirit is involved in this adoption process.

And in the context of Romans 8 is also God desiring to make us more like Jesus.

And that requires the power of the Holy Spirit as well.

And this is all connected to love, God's contraconditional love for us.

So let's jump in.

We're gonna start Romans 8, verse 14.

Romans 8:14

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Now, if you've ever read that verse before, you may think it's we're talking about some mystical leading of the Holy Spirit, about making big decisions in life about who to marry and what job to take.

Well, the context, this is important.

The context informs us that this leading of the Holy Spirit is a leading into a life of holiness.

And if you want to see that context, look at verse 13.

Just kind of go backwards to verse 13.

Verse 13 says, For if you're living according to the flesh, you must die.

But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

So the idea here is that the Holy Spirit enables you to kill sin and lead you into a life of holiness.

And those who are led by the Spirit of God, notice again in verse 14, these are the sons of God.

Now you may wonder, well, wait, are there no daughters of God?

What's the deal?

Why does it say sons of God?

Well, don't be tripped up by this sonship language, because Israel is described in the Old Testament as the son or sons of God, and Jesus is called God's son.

And the idea is that all of us, men and women, in union with Christ, are sons as well.

Now, in order to put you in union with Christ, you may think a legal transaction of your adoption had to happen.

You could say, okay, that's true.

But don't think about your adoption as God's detached from you.

Okay?

He's not detached from you.

A better way to look at it is God's adoption of you was love that went looking.

Love that went looking.

We've adopted three children.

I cannot explain to you all that has happened, but from 2008 to 2012, I was a man who was consumed, consumed by seeking out the adoption of these three children.

Now, if if you've known me in my past, if you know me now, I'm not a very lovey, lovey dovey guy.

I'm not a kid guy.

You would never imagine in the wildest dreams of people who knew me that I would have seven kids.

No way.

But something came over me in 2008 to 2012, or I I could only call it the filling of the Holy Spirit that I spent hours, days, months researching, praying, phone calls, legal involvement, travel fees, complications.

Nothing was going to stand in our way of getting these kids.

Now, if that's me and my desire to get these kids, think about God's desire to get you and his family.

Exponentially beyond me.

So I can say, well, God adopted you.

Do you know his love went looking, targeting, going after?

He's going to do what he's going to do to get you and his family.

That's love that went looking.

Keep that in mind when you think about his adoption of you.

Look at verse 15.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

So the Holy Spirit who lives in us is not a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.

You do not need to have fear of God.

Of course, there's a healthy fear of God, but you don't have to have fear of your father who's going to see you misstep and cut you off.

You're not going to have a fear that he's going to reject you because he is already, you could say, cut his son off, rejected his son in your place, so there is no fear of rejection for you.

And the reality is we are growing more and more and more to be like Jesus Christ.

And we grow not out of a fear of him rejecting us as his children, but we grow because we already have his acceptance of us as children.

Someone once said that as you grow in the Christian life, you're growing more and more holy, but you're feeling worse and worse about your life.

How many of you would describe your Christian life as just always feeling guilty, always feeling shame, and even having some feel like God's angry at you all the time?

I just want to assure you the Father loves you.

Yes, you can be convicted of your sin.

Yes, you can repent and turn from your sin, but the Father loves you.

He's not trying to grow you in holiness while you grin and bear it in misery.

He grows you in holiness and light of his love for you.

And it's a love that cries from in you.

You can see receive the spirit of adoptions as sons by which we cry, Abba Father.

Now you may know that Abba is an Aramaic word for Father, and Jesus called his father Abba, so we can now interact with God in this intimate way.

We have this intimacy created by the Spirit, or we can say Abba, Father, Papa, dearest father.

Not in a flippant way, but in a way we are we are dependent children.

We are not children that he's going to send back.

We have this close connection with our father, Abba Father.

My daughter Mary, who we have adopted from Ethiopia, we're we have this special connection.

Let me explain to you.

When you bring a child into your family, they take on your last name.

So we can say to Mary, you are a Lancaster now.

But Mary and I have this special connection legally.

Because with regard to adoption in Ethiopia, when you adopt someone there, I mean, this is really, I mean, you maybe never heard of this, but the child on the birth certificate, legally, through Ethiopia coming to the United States, takes on the father's first name as their middle name.

Men, women, boys, girls, doesn't matter.

So legally, my daughter's name is Mary Jason Lancaster.

Now, let me show you a picture of cute baby Mary Jason Lancaster.

Do you think we let her keep that name?

No.

We changed it to Tamara.

And so let me show you a picture of Mary Tamra Lancaster.

There she is.

Now, I had to show that, Mary.

I'm sorry, because she takes about 5,000 pictures of this right here where I'm driving, and she's doing that.

Drives me crazy.

Now, connect this.

Get this.

All of us in here who are believers are brothers and sisters in Christ or part of the family.

But we have a special connection with our Father.

He's our Abba.

He cares for us.

He loves us.

He has put his spirit in us.

And here's the deal.

It's not just that you can intellectually believe that he loves you, but I'm here to tell you you can experience it.

Look at verse 16.

Look at verse 16.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

So if you are a believer, the Holy Spirit ministers to your spirit that you are a child of God.

It's not a ministry of fear, but one of confirmation and assurance.

This is something you experience.

Maybe you experience it when you're praying, when you're reading the word.

The Holy Spirit ministers to your spirit.

Maybe when it's when you're worshiping, you have these little, not all the time, but these little experiences where the Holy Spirit ministers to you and says, Yes, you are my child.

And in an adopted child, you have a variety of rights as an adopted child.

And this is gonna be amazing.

As an adopted child, you have the inheritance of the family.

Look at verse 17.

And of children, heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

So he says that we says that we are called fellow heirs with Christ.

So we're in union with Christ.

We share the inheritance that Christ has gained for us, and it's life, death, and resurrection.

And you may wonder what that inheritance is.

Uh, it's eternal life, freedom from sin.

And we talk about the meek will inherit the earth and all the promises of God.

So we have this great inheritance in Jesus.

Now, I don't know if any of you ever received an inheritance, and if you have, it's pretty exciting.

The first time my wife and I received an inheritance was many years ago.

We were having car problems, and someone in part of my wife's family in Nebraska passed away, and somehow, someway, they gave us their old uh Olsenville.

Oh, was it old, yeah, it was an Olsenville?

It's like, wow, that's crazy.

And so several years later, we're having car problems again, and another relative died.

I'm not joking.

We didn't plan this at all in in Nebraska, yes, and so they gave us uh a Buick.

So anytime we have car problems, her relatives in Nebraska get nervous.

But we were excited on Ozilbill, Buick, yay! I mean, it really wasn't a big deal, right?

For us, and so we we have this inheritance, it's exciting, and then we got look for this inheritance from the Lord.

But get this, get this.

I want to make sure you don't miss this.

Look again at the verse.

Look what it says in verse 17.

It says, and if children heirs also heirs of God.

If I'm reading that rightly, it's saying that we're gonna inherit God Himself.

That's what it's all about.

I don't want to say everything else in the heaven is just Buick's and Oval Bills, but we get God.

But you know what I mean?

Being with God is the point.

He is the inheritance.

I know some people say, well, we're gonna get to heaven, we're gonna be so bored.

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna get?

Get God.

Greatest joy is in him.

That's the inheritance.

That's the point.

And if you don't feel that, you kind of wonder, well, what is that?

What does that look like?

Well, I want to show you what it looks like by um introducing you to um my uh two-year-old grandson.

Can I see a picture of him?

Now, some of you ladies have said you want to gobble him up.

Don't eat my grandson, all right?

Here's his naked picture of him.

Now he's too his name's Trip, by the way, and he's he's two now.

Get this.

He has toys, he has stuff to play with at his house, at our house.

But that's not really what he wants.

This is what he wants.

Let me show you a picture of their family.

That's the family, okay?

They're here today, too.

It's Terrence and my daughter Caris.

Now get this.

I'm not joking.

Triple play with the toys, but he doesn't really want the toys.

That's fine.

He wants mom and dad.

I guarantee you that is the point.

If mom and dad are not there, he's often not happy.

He'll go to school, he'll do that thing in the preschool, but he wants mom and dad because that's the point.

You get what I'm getting at here?

We inherit God.

We can have the stuff, we can have the inheritance, it's wonderful, but we want God.

Now, the problem with this inheritance and inheriting God is that you don't always feel it because you're experiencing something on this earth called suffering.

I guarantee you, here's the reality in here.

Everyone in here, you are either in suffering, coming out of suffering, or about to go in suffering.

That's the reality.

And when you suffer, you feel like, is God real?

Am I really his child?

Is inheritance real?

Did he reject me?

And that's why I want you to look at the end of verse 17 again.

Verse 17 says, If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

As we are associated in union with Christ, we will suffer on this earth in a variety of ways.

And I want to assure you that the suffering doesn't nullify the inheritance.

The suffering does not nullify the inheritance.

It doesn't mean when you suffer that God has rejected you.

Does it mean that when you suffer that He is done with you?

And you may think, well, I've never thought that before, but you may.

A few weeks ago I went to go visit a woman in her home who was in hospice.

She's now with the Lord, and it it was, I mean, she's a solid woman of the word and of faith, believes in Jesus.

But as she was in hospice knowing that she was about to die, she was struggling.

I mean, just like you could see the despair.

It's like, does he love me?

Is he gonna reject me?

What's gonna happen?

And you know, me and her son that was there, we kept rehearsing the gospel.

He's not rejected you.

He loves you, he cares for you.

Get this, he's not gonna reject you because he's already rejected his son for you.

When you have these experiences of suffering, it's not a rejection.

It's not a rejection.

It doesn't have the inheritance, and it's part of our reality here on this earth.

We suffer.

Look at verse 18.

Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compare with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Paul's so sure to future glory that the present sufferings are just a I guess you can just say they're a blip on the screen.

He says something very similar in 2 Corinthians 4 17, for this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, that this suffering has an expiration date.

It's just a blip.

There is greater glory coming.

Now he's not diminishing suffering because sin has tainted everything in this world, even creation.

But I'm telling you, God is with you preparing a kingdom greater than what we're experiencing here.

Now, I don't, I just want to make sure I don't fly by this.

Because I think you can get this physically, because some of you have chronic pain.

I am sorry.

And I know that will be relieved soon and very soon.

But some of you, I think it's even greater than chronic pain is your relational struggles that you have, whether it's with wayward kids or your relationship in your marriage.

A woman once went to go see her pastor about her marriage who was not doing well.

And the pastor said, Well, the good news is you only have to do this for 40 more years.

That's not helpful.

It's not helpful at all.

Well, we think, how long do I have to do this?

And I want to tell you right now, if you're in a relationship thing that is just messed up, something with your kid, I don't know what it is.

You need to know this.

You don't have to do it for years upon years upon years.

And this is helpful for me.

You just have to do it for today.

Don't worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow will take care of itself.

I always wondered how can I endure suffering?

How can I endure pain in the body or relationship?

Just deal with it today with your eyes on the future.

The future with the Lord.

Look at verse 19.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

That the creation itself also be set free from its slavery to corruption and to the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

And this is very interesting.

This is a like a figure or personification of creation.

The imagery here is of creation longing to be free from the presence of sin and to be with the Lord forever for us in resurrected bodies.

So basically, what we're saying is that when you look around, I know the village is beautiful.

I I get that, but things still die, right?

Trees and animals still have issues with other animals.

I know it's beautiful, but creation is groaning as we groan, and we have we have hurt uh creation through our sin.

Uh eight years ago, eight years ago, uh this week, eight years ago, we moved from Chicago here to a farm outside uh of the village.

And I'm I'm I've always been a city boy, Dallas, LA, Chicago.

So why not move to a farm?

How hard can it be?

So moved to this farm.

And my oldest son, he he just he really enjoyed you know getting the chicken coop ready for all those chickens.

And at one time he he built uh this little garden.

Let me show you this picture of this garden.

I mean, I don't know if you can see there's like a trellis there.

He made it, it looks pretty sweet.

And you know what?

Stuff started to grow there.

It was it was amazing, but being Arkansas, it didn't last very long.

Didn't last very long.

And you know what?

Those chickens we had, uh, raccoons dug under the fence and slaughtered them all.

In fact, most of the animals on our farm, from goats to oh my goodness, so many, but most of them were killed.

Most of them are killed.

Basically, I lived on a murder farm.

I mean, for real.

Thankfully, we don't live there anymore.

Um I'm a terrible farmer.

But uh, but here's the idea.

That's our fault.

Our sin did that.

I know environmentalists talk about how we're destroying creation and we're ruining the environment.

They have no idea.

They have no idea.

Adam and Eve were the first polluters.

We ruined it.

It's our fault.

No amount of biking, EV cars, recycling, none of that's gonna get fixed.

I mean, we can care for creation, sure, but we can't fix it.

Things are broken, and creation groans.

And not only creation, but we groan as well.

Look at verse 22.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

So there's these labor pains.

Verse 23, and not only this, but ourselves, we also groan, having the first fruits of the Spirit.

Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

Oh, take this backwards, okay?

Take it but take this verse backwards with me, verse 23.

This is what's gonna happen in glory.

Not only is it gonna be a new heaven and new earth, but also, do you see it?

We're gonna have the redemption of our bodies.

When we die, our souls go to be with the Lord, but our bodies remain on this earth.

And at the second coming, our our bodies are reconnected with our souls, and we're with the Lord and glorified forever.

Now, I'm gonna tell you that when this happens, when there is this coming of the Lord and we're with him forever, that is the finalization of our adoption.

Did you see it there?

Waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons.

And you're gonna be thinking, wait, wait, wait.

I thought you said we were already adopted.

What do you mean there's gonna be this other adoption?

Well, here's the idea.

We're adopted now, it's we're permanently in the family, but when we're with the Lord, that is the finalization.

And so I can see this easily in the adoption of our three children.

When we adopted our three kids, we jumped through all the hoops, we did paperwork.

They were they were our children, they were our sons and daughter, but the finalization did not happen until the court, before the judge.

And in Chicago, we had to stand before the judge for all three of them to make the adoption, which we already knew was real.

There already are our children, but there had to still be this finalization.

And once there was a finalization, there was a celebration.

When we were finally uh finalized and adopting our son Darion after he was with us for five years, thank you, court system, social welfare system in Chicago.

It took five years to have this thing finalized.

But we knew he was our son all along.

But when that was finalized, we threw a party and we invited tons of people, lots of kids.

It was a Spider-Man party.

Let me show you a couple pictures.

Uh, the first picture, that's Darion, our son, when we've adopted.

And next picture of us uh two Spider-Mans.

Look at that.

There's this great, great finalization.

That's coming for all of us.

We're his kids.

He's adopted us.

The finalization will happen in the redemption of our bodies.

It's coming.

And you may say, how do you know it's really gonna happen?

Well, once again, verse 23.

It says, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit, just as a farmer has the first batch of his crop with the promise of more to come, so we have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, which is the pledge that it's coming, the redemption of our bodies.

But now we groan.

I would ask the question, how many of you groan?

I know a lot of you groan.

Just getting up, you groan.

But it's a double groan, it's a groaning to be away from these bodies, and it's a longing for the Lord.

You get that?

It's a double groan.

You you you want to be out of this body, and you also groan because you long for the Lord.

Now, when you have a kid or your wife has a kid, your grandkids have kids, you you don't show pictures of the woman in labor.

Like, I got a new picture, look at this, look, she's in labor.

Isn't that awesome?

If you do that, guys, that's could be part of your problem.

But don't don't do that.

We show the picture of the baby and the mom holding the baby right now.

We're groaning, but this is not the end.

This is not it.

It's coming a time where we're gonna be with the Lord.

And yet we don't see it and get this we wait what for it with patience.

Verse 24 and 25 says, for in hope we have been saved.

But hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he already sees.

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

So we're we're look forward to this hope in the return of Christ, the transformation of creation, the glorification of our bodies, and presently we don't see it.

We don't see it.

And yet he still loves us, even when we don't see it.

My daughter, Jordan, and I have a conversation often.

Let me show you a picture of Jordan and her boyfriend Drew.

They're both here today back there.

You can go attack them later and meet them.

But Jordan and I have this conversation, and she says this, and we don't know if this is really gonna happen, but we like to think about this, that when we get to heaven, Jesus will say to us, Did you believe that I love you?

Did you believe that I loved you?

Did you believe it?

And I say to you now, who are still on earth, do you believe that he loves you?

I mean, in this moment I'm supposed to sing Jesus Loves Me, this I know, and you're supposed to sing along, but we're not going there.

I just want you to know, do you believe that he loves you?

Contrary to what may appear to be non-love and the suffering in your life, that he loves you.

That no matter what you're going through, you can wait patiently not to gain love, but because you already have it.

No matter what problems you're having in life, you don't need to perform for God because Christ has done his perfect performance, his life, death, and resurrection.

He he loves you.

Do you believe it?

Now, some of you, and just be honest, some of you watching, and some of you here today, you may you may not know the Lord.

You're like, I want to experience this love.

And you go, okay, so what do we do to experience this love?

So traditionally we've said, okay, you've got to repent, put your faith in Jesus.

And so we we look at repentance like this.

Okay, I'm going toward the world and toward sin.

I turn from my sin and I go towards Jesus and put my faith in him.

And that that's that's good, but I want to add a little wrinkle to that.

If you're in here this morning and you don't know the Lord, you're going towards sin.

And if you want to come to the Lord, you're so convicted of your sin, you want to experience this love.

It's not that you leave your sin there, of course, you want to turn away from it, but you take all your sin, you turn toward Jesus, and you say, Here you go.

That's the gospel.

He takes all of your sin upon him.

And he loves you.

Not because you met the conditions, but because Christ did.

Perfect life, death, resurrection for you.

And you can trust in him today.

I really want everyone in here, including my kids, to experience the love of God.

And when things get hard, they're gonna get hard, I guarantee you, it's not God's rejection of you.

I I want to say it over and over again.

God's love for you, he loves you so much that no suffering can touch his love, and no failure can cancel his love.

I probably want to say this 20 times in a row.

His love for you is so great that no suffering can touch it.

No failure in your life can cancel it.

He loves you that much in Christ Jesus.

Okay, I'm I'm I'm done after this.

I've got to tell you this story.

Heard this this morning.

This is gold.

Listen to this.

So this guy, he's probably about, I don't know, 10 years younger than me.

He took his three sons and their two friends to Seattle to see a Mariners game for it's baseball, for uh two nights.

And when they were in Seattle, they did a lot of other things.

They they went to an arcade, played a lot of games, had a lot of fun, they went to top golf.

That was awesome.

And then when they went to the Mariners game, they got to um go on the field for batting practice.

And for dinner, they ate in the concession stands.

It was such a great trip.

And so the dad, the guy said, you know, but there is one moment that is the most memorable of the whole trip.

It was the second night.

He said he was sleeping with his four-year-old son in bed, and everybody else is sleeping in the room, and and the dad's asleep, and something wakes him up, and he wakes up, and his four-year-old son is asleep holding his dad's hand.

He said, That right there is the most memorable part of that trip.

And I believe our father feels that way about us.

He has such affection for you and love for you, and he'll bless you with lots of stuff, he'll bless you with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm.

But he delights in you, and I would say he especially delights in you when you delight in him.

This is amazing love, and there's no amount of suffering that can touch it, there's no amount of failure that will cancel it.

May you experience his love today.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this amazing love.

You loved us.

We didn't love you first, you loved us first.

Your love went looking, went searching.

And you found us.

We didn't find you, you found us.

And you love us.

Not just as we are, but you love us despite how we are.

You love us as you love Jesus, and then we know you love us enough to make us like Jesus, and contrary to every condition, because your son fulfilled the conditions, we are yours.

Help us really believe, especially for those who are suffering here right now.

There's no amount of suffering that can touch it.

And and and in those who have just totally blown it, maybe blew it big time even last night.

There's no failure that can cancel this love.

And may we keep turning to you, turning to you with this sin of ours and saying, Lord, we just want you.

And may we see you as the goal, the point, the inheritance.

You are our all in all, and we want you, our Abba, our Father.

In Jesus' name, amen.