Romans: Who’s Your Daddy?

Okay, we are, it's crazy sometimes up here preaching.

My greatest fear is that you would think, wow, he has his act together because he's

up there teaching God's Word and realizing that I'm probably the most broken person in

here and need to have grace more than anybody else.

What a privilege to talk about God's Word and share it with God's people.

Well, as a dad, I'll tell you, I'm very, very, very, very, very teachable right now.

I have been reading books after books on parenting and trying to figure out what I'm doing, what

I'm not doing, how to do it better, how to not do what I'm doing better.

And I just finished one a month ago, and it was really, really, really good.

And he said at the end of his book, he said this, he said, if you could send your kids

out with a few truths that they must know.

If you could give your kids a few truths they must know to survive, to thrive, to be who

you want them to be, when they leave home, what would those truths be?

What would you want them to know about themselves?

And what would you want them to know about your family?

And what would you want them to know about your God?

And I thought about that.

I was like, okay, what are the truths I want my kids to live with?

What do I want them to leave with?

What is it that I have to do?

So we have this tradition in our house.

We have this family dinner.

And at dinner, we eat, and we laugh, and we usually play cards at the end of it.

But we ask questions.

We ask questions like, what's your highlight for the day, and what's your low point for

the day?

But this time, I thought I'd be clever.

And so I changed the question, and I said to them, what is a Miller?

What is true of a Miller?

How do we want Millers to be remembered by the people around us?

Thinking that I'm going to impart with them this truth, that they're going to go out there,

and they're going to have this, and this is going to be the thing that's going to keep

them.

And the answers came, Millers are tall.

Okay.

Another kid asked, Millers have blue eyes.

Millers love to laugh and play games.

Millers live in Hong Kong.

And all the while, I was just sitting there with this kind of, okay, okay, oh, yeah, I

just want something more.

And then my little one, KK, sees me, and she realizes that we haven't given her, given me

the answer that I was expecting.

And as any great pastor's kid would do, she says, Jesus.

It just seems like, when in doubt, if you're a pastor's kid, and your parents ask you a question,

the question is Jesus.

The answer is Jesus, right?

And so I just kind of laughed.

You know, what I wanted my kids to say, I wanted them to say something profound and amazing

like this.

I wanted them to say, you know, a miller is someone who loves and serves God, and they

love and serve other people.

But what I got was Jesus.

Well, I think that's pretty good, you know?

And I realized as we came to this passage, and you probably listened to this passage,

and you go, wow, this passage is terrible.

If you're an English major, you're trying to parse what he's saying, and what connects

to what, and it's disjointed, and you're like, oh, what's going on here?

But when we come to this passage, this is what Paul's doing.

Paul is about to leave chapter 5, and he's going into chapter 6 of Romans, and he's going

to go on a different tangent.

He's going to talk about what does it mean for us to become more and more like Jesus.

And so at the end of chapter 5, Paul has this dinner table gathering with his friends

and us, and he wants to give us one last lesson, and the lesson is, what does it mean to be

a child of God?

What are things that we want to be true of us?

What are things that we must know?

What are things that we have to remember so that when we go on the journey of life, we're

going to do okay?

We're not going to face troubles.

Or that when we face troubles, we're going to survive them.

So up until this point in chapters 1 through 3 of Romans, what we've seen is that you

and I are lost.

Paul basically says that we're wandering from God.

We thought we were close.

We thought if we just did the right thing, if we do not enough bad things, if we just do

something good, then we'll be in right relationship with God.

But Paul says actually in Romans 1, 2, and 3 that you and I are far, far, far away from

God.

He actually says that we're not even at peace with God.

He actually even says that we are in enmity with God.

And that we're under his judgment.

We're under his wrath because of our selfishness and our self-centeredness and our sin.

He actually says we're blind to our blindness.

You ever thought about that sentence?

I've been thinking about that a long time.

We're blind to our blindness.

Then in chapter 3, in chapter 4, what Paul shows us is he shows us how we can be saved.

How we can be made unblind.

And what he says is it's not by our works.

It's not by our morality.

It's not by our goodness.

It's not by our righteousness.

But it's by grace.

Purely a gift of God.

He sends us his son.

And Jesus comes.

And we're told in chapters 3 and chapters 4 that Jesus makes all things right.

He makes all things new.

Jesus is what you and I could not be.

Perfect.

Perfect.

And so by faith now we trust in him.

By faith we trust in his life.

By faith we trust in his work on the cross.

And so now we have a new relationship with God.

Whatever is true of Jesus now is true of you.

Have you ever thought about that?

Whatever is true of Jesus is true of us.

Last week in Romans 5, 1 through 11 we saw five things that are true of us.

Five things that God wants us to know.

Five things that Paul is trying to teach us as his children.

He wants to give us security.

He wants us to go out on the journey when we leave the dining room table.

When we go off into our world.

When we leave our home and our sanctuary in a place of peace, the church.

He wants us to understand what's true of us.

And he says five things and we only talked about one of them.

And we talked about security.

We talked about security in the midst of trials and tribulations and difficult times.

We talked about what those were.

We said a trial was anything that tempts us to turn our eyes away from God.

Anything that tempts us to think that God isn't good.

Anything that tempts us to think that God isn't enough.

And that's what a trial is.

And he says in the midst of these trials God is working.

He's taking care of us.

And he ends up with a statement.

And he says if God loves us so much to send his son to die for us when we're his enemies.

How much more will he take care of us as his children?

How much more?

Today is the last part of Paul's instructions to us before we leave.

And he's basically, he knows we're going out.

And he basically has one more thing he wants to teach us before we start talking about sanctification.

He wants to teach us one more truth about what does it mean to be secure in him.

And he's going to do that by using a very interesting illustration.

He's going to talk about two families.

Two families that exist in the world.

So he has this one family right here.

And he has this other family.

And he says there's two families.

And there's two heads of these families.

And he says that everybody from past, present, and future is going to be measured by these two families and these two leaders.

So for one family, I'm just going to give an apple.

I guess you can guess whose family that is.

For another family, I'm just going to give this pine cone.

I thought it was really neat.

I was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the hill where Jesus, somewhere in the vicinity, spent his last night.

And I saw all these trees.

And some trees are 2,000 years old.

And there's this pine cone just laying there.

And I picked it up.

Because for me, it's a symbol of life.

Inside was the seeds.

And the seeds busted open.

And they spread out.

And they gave all these trees.

And so he's going to talk about these two families.

Now, in 2009, the Society for Linguistics of America said there were 6,900 distinct languages in the world today.

6,909 distinct languages in the world today.

Most anthropologists are going to say that there are at least three to four basic races of people in the world today.

With maybe 30 subgroups.

31 if you count Texans.

And 32 if you count Aussies.

But there's at least three or four races of people.

But in the passage today, Paul says there's only two races of people.

He says as you go through your world, as you look around, there's only two races.

There's only two families.

And everybody from the past, present, and future, they are going to find their identity.

And they're going to find their future in one of these two families and one of these two fathers.

Is that easy?

Trying to make it as easy as possible.

This is the only way I can understand it.

So I'm trying to make it as easy as possible.

So we have two families, two fathers.

And all of us are going to find our future and our identity in one of these two families.

He starts off in verse 12 and 14 and this is what he says.

He says there's a family name in the first family.

And its father is Adam.

And Adam is the representative.

And Adam was created.

And the word we actually use in theology is federal head.

The Adam is the head.

He's the representative.

He's like the president.

He's the ambassador.

He's the person who's been elected to represent us.

And it says that Adam lived in a garden and he was given one command and he failed that one command.

And when he failed that one command, verses 12 and 14 basically say that sin entered into the world.

And when sin came in, death came in.

So sin came into the world because of disobedience.

Death came into the world because of sin.

And it all comes back on this idea of our Adam, our family, our leader.

He was there.

Now the idea in theology, this is called original sin.

Now I know some people hate to hear that terminology.

I'm going to get some questions, ask Paul anything because it is a difficult, difficult idea to think about.

But what he's saying here is that Adam's sin brings a curse.

And because of his sin, death reigns over all the world.

In fact, he's going to say that even before the law, even before people broke the law,

the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, Exodus 20, 1500 B.C.

that even before the law came, people were dying because of sin.

And whenever they sinned, death entered into their life.

Now, I don't know what you think about sin.

I know that a lot of people don't like to talk about that.

And I'm pretty sure if you start talking to that with your colleagues at UBS or Morgan Stanley or Citibank

or in your school with the teachers or as your students,

and you start talking about this idea of sin, people are going to be,

they're going to have one or two reactions.

They're going to go, uh-huh, yeah, okay.

Or they're going to be very, very, very offended.

As I talk to people, what they usually say is, you know, sin isn't real.

Sin is just an imperfection.

Sin is something that we're going to evolve out of.

Sin is not being where we want to be yet.

But one day, because of technology, because we're going to evolve,

one day we're going to get rid of all sin,

one day we're going to get rid of all death,

and we're never going to have to worry about those things ever again.

Man, one person told me that sin only means that you're not where you hope to be yet.

But one day you're going to be there,

and there's going to be no more sin and no more death.

But what Paul says in Romans 5 is,

what the Christian worldview says,

is that sin entered the world because of disobedience,

and death followed.

It says that death is not a natural thing.

It says death is not part of God's plan.

But death came because our leader, our federal head, Adam,

failed the test.

How do you feel about that?

Because when he failed,

the curse of his failure went out into every one of us.

And now not only are we sinners,

but we also sin because of this curse.

How does it make you feel?

When I first heard this, I was angry.

I was like, no way!

That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I didn't pick Adam.

I didn't choose Adam.

I mean, if I was going to pick somebody else,

I would pick me.

Put me in the garden.

I'm going to do well.

I'm not going to mess up.

My wife's over there going, laughing, right?

But what it says here in the passage is that because of Adam's failure,

you and I, in his family, at this time,

experience all the sin and death because of his disobedience.

We have no hope.

That's where we are.

But he says something interesting.

In verse 14, I don't know if you caught it.

He says this.

Adam not only represents us,

but Adam represents a type of him who is to come.

The second Adam, Jesus.

And he says there's going to be another father who's going to come,

and Jesus is going to come,

and he's going to do everything perfectly.

He's going to obey.

He's not going to sin.

He's not going to have any troubles.

And he's going to do this so that one day,

2,000 years in the future, next Friday,

he's going to be able to come to a cross in Jerusalem

and die for our sins.

So Adam is our father.

He messed up.

He did all these things, but he's just a type.

Because our true father is coming,

and our true father is Jesus,

and Jesus is going to start a new family.

And Jesus is going to do everything that Adam didn't do,

and he's going to do it all perfectly.

And so what Paul says as he looks in the world right now,

he says we have a choice.

And a choice is what family are we going to be in.

Are we going to be in the family of Adam and under Adam?

Are we going to be in the family of Jesus and under Jesus?

But there's not another family.

There's only two families.

And each one of us needs to make a choice.

And in the rest of the passage,

all Paul does is he basically looks at both families,

and he makes some comparisons with them.

I mean, if you open up the passage, it's pretty easy.

You're going to see a lot of buts.

You're going to see a lot of not likes.

And you're going to see how Paul compares the family of Jesus

to the family of Adam.

He's going to say usually, in almost all cases,

God deals with his family very differently.

He deals with his family in grace, in mercy, in peace, in redemption.

He deals with his family in sin, in death, in heartaches, in worry, in fear, in guilt.

And the choice is what family are we going to be a part of?

You look at verse 15.

He basically says this.

Everybody who's in Jesus' family, they've been marked by the act of grace.

The word there, act, is what he's talking about is the cross.

And so what he's saying is that on the cross, because Jesus was obedient,

that every one of us had a mark put on us.

We were given God's grace.

We were identified with Jesus if we were in his family.

And this gift doesn't just mean that we have eternal life,

but it means that we have freedom and victory in life right now.

It means that we don't need to worry.

We don't need to fear.

We don't have shame.

We don't have guilt.

We don't have doubt.

Because all those in Jesus' family, Jesus took away all those things.

Because he was perfect.

He did everything perfectly.

And on the cross, he died, and he started this new family.

And the question is, which family do you want to associate with?

He goes on and he says, if you're a part of the family of Adam,

well, you're going to be marked by selfishness.

You're going to have shame.

You're going to have guilt.

And this sin is going to bring death.

And so the question is this.

My kids leave the home.

And you're walking out.

You say, I'm in the family of Christ.

You're walking through your day.

And all of a sudden you start feeling guilt.

And all of a sudden you start feeling sin dragging you down.

And all of a sudden you start to fear.

What's happening?

This family that you were once a part of is dragging you back.

And what Paul says is, don't let it happen.

Because this is no longer your family if you're in Christ.

But this is your family.

And those things that you're experiencing are not true of this family.

They're only true of that family.

Does that make sense?

Look at verse 16.

He said, everybody in Jesus' family,

we can think about all the great decisions that Jesus has made.

We can understand that he is perfect.

He had perfect obedience.

And because of his perfect obedience,

we're justified.

His actions were not selfishness.

His actions were selflessness.

And on the cross, because of his obedience,

because of his selflessness,

Jesus, the new head of this new family,

he wipes out all the guilt.

He wipes out all the shame.

Millions and millions and millions of transgressions.

He wipes them out.

He cleans them out for his friends and his family.

Those in his family.

And not just for now, but forever and ever and ever.

We never have to worry about this because he wiped out all those things.

Paul says, but you know, the people in Adam's family,

Adam's clan,

they struggle with selfishness.

They struggle with sin.

They struggle with doubt.

They struggle with fear.

And those things are always going to be true of those in Adam's family,

but not true of those in Jesus' family.

Because Jesus' obedience frees us from all those things.

He makes everything new.

And so that you and I can rest and walk in mercy and grace

because of his obedience,

not our obedience.

You're walking through your day.

Everybody's being laid off in the office.

Starting to worry.

Starting to fear.

Starting to doubt.

Starting to think, oh, what can I do?

What can I do this?

What should I do?

How do I do these things?

You wonder, am I next?

Is God good?

Is God going to take care of me?

What's happening?

We're in this world

that will continually drag us back to this family.

And unless we remember who we are

and what does it mean to be his children,

we're going to find ourselves going back and forth.

Back and forth.

And Paul says to us before we leave the house,

don't do it.

Remember who you are.

Remember who died for you.

Remember the obedience and the faithfulness of the one.

Remember that nothing can take it away

because you didn't do it.

You didn't earn it.

He gave it to you.

And Jesus never changes.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

We see that in the family of Jesus,

we don't have to fear.

That the power of sin

and the power of death had been broken.

Why?

Because Christ was obedient.

We actually,

he says that we are going to reign over death.

That we will reign in life

and that one day when we come back,

when Christ comes back and we're with him,

we're going to reign in life.

We're going to reign over death.

All these things that we worried about,

we're going to control them.

Because of what I did?

No.

Because of the head of my family

who did everything perfect.

You're going to go through your day.

You're going to get sick.

You're going to start to wonder

because you can't do those laps like you used to

and lift those weights

and do all these things you used to do before.

You're going to find a lump.

You're not going to eat like you used to.

You're going to lose weight.

You're going to start to wonder and fear.

You're going to wonder,

is God there?

Is he in control?

Is he in my life?

Is he going to take care of me?

What's happening?

The world is taking us from this family

and in our mind and in our heart

is trying to convince us

that we're still back in this family.

We were living in China.

It was my first year.

It was like one of the worst years of my life.

Personally, a great year in ministry,

but a terrible year in life.

And the reason was that I had this landlord.

And this landlord was like the landlord from hell.

I was just learning Chinese.

I mean, literally, I was just learning Chinese

and I was trying to figure out these things.

I was trying to provide for my wife.

We just got married.

This is the first home.

We're trying to do all these things right, you know.

And I found this place outside university

and it's this great place.

And I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to do this.

It's going to be great.

But the landlord was terrible.

I mean, he was mean.

He was greedy.

He was always coming back asking for more money.

I mean, I just walked around in fear

in tension for almost a year and a half.

I mean, it was really,

I thought I was going to have a heart attack then.

It was terrible.

You know what happened?

One day we found a new apartment.

And we moved out of that old place.

It was only like 10 yards or 20 yards away

in another building.

But I feel this incredible relief

and this incredible great feeling

and this incredible peace.

And then one day,

the old landlord knocks at my door.

He goes, you owe me money.

What about this?

And what about that?

And also I start feeling this tension

and this, oh my gosh.

And I said, wait a second.

I don't live there anymore.

I don't have to respond to that.

That's not who I am.

I live here now.

This is my home.

This is my family.

I kind of smile and say,

okay, yeah, and I shut the door.

I had a pon pon.

It was really strong steel doors.

He just, after he held bang for a while,

then he just left.

He gave up.

He never came back again.

But you see what Paul's saying here?

He's saying, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Death in the grave,

it should bring you sadness.

But it should never make you feel hopeless.

Because you're in a new family now.

And the head of that new family,

he's done everything right,

everything perfect,

and he's saved you.

Don't go back to this family.

Because this family,

you're only going to feel doubt

and fear and shame and guilt,

and it's always going to be dragging you down,

and it's always going to lead to sin,

and it's always going to lead to death.

Stay in the family you're a part of.

Stay with Christ.

Paul concludes his conclusion,

and he says something very interesting

in verse 18 and 19,

and this is what he says.

If you're in a family of Christ,

you have this assurance.

And this assurance is this,

that Jesus' actions are true,

and they're so much greater than Adam's.

So much greater than Adam's.

He uses these Greek words,

it's massively greater than Adam's.

He says,

Jesus' actions are true,

they're so much greater than Adam's,

you don't need to worry about this.

Yes, Adam messed up,

he sinned,

death came in,

things are a mess,

but you know,

Christ came,

and his actions are so much greater,

so much more powerful,

so much more complete,

and you don't need to worry about those things anymore,

because that's the old life,

and this is the new life.

And the second Adam,

Jesus comes in,

and he makes everything right.

And he not only forgives our sins,

but he gives us power over sin,

and his control in our life.

The best way I can understand it is this,

we were eating that last night,

dinner Sunday at the McPherson's,

and Andrew showed me the picture of the container ship,

you see the container ship?

That's where we practice rugby on Saturdays,

and the container ship almost ran into the Sandy Bay rugby grounds,

it was out of control,

you're like,

what's going on there?

This is how I understand verses 18 and 19.

Adam,

the captain,

of a large oil-laden vessel,

an oil ship,

he's supposed to be following his guidelines,

but he doesn't follow the rules,

and he grounds the ship,

and the oil leaks everywhere,

and it contaminates,

and it destroys,

and it hurts everything in the environment.

Jesus,

is the head of the cleanup crew,

Jesus' job is to come in,

to clean things up,

to make things better,

to fix everything,

to make it better than normal.

Question,

whose job is easier?

Well, the captain's,

right?

The captain,

all he did is disobey one time,

and humanity's a wreck,

and everything's dirty,

and there's oil-laden everything.

But Paul says,

don't worry about it,

because Christ is the cleanup captain,

and what he's going to do is so much greater than the mess,

and his power is so much greater than Adam's power,

and he's going to fix everything,

and he's going to make all things new.

So when you go through your day,

you're not going to have to worry about your guilt,

and your shame,

and the things that you've done wrong,

because these things are going to continually drag you back,

but your new head,

who never failed,

who is sinless,

who is perfect,

has taken care of you.

And the question is,

are you going to trust him?

Does that make sense?

I mean, that's the way I can understand it.

I've been trying to understand this passage for like 30 years,

and some theologians say this is one of the hardest passages to understand,

because it's just,

but for me,

the oil thing is the thing that makes the most sense.

Why is this important?

Why does Paul end chapter 5

before he gets into 6, 7, 8,

about sanctification,

how we grow,

how we walk with the Lord,

what does that look like?

Why is it important?

Because he wants to lay a foundation in our life.

He wants to show us what family we were a part of,

but then when we come into this new family,

he wants to show us all the things that are true of it,

because he knows that we're going to walk through our life,

we're going to experience trouble,

we're going to experience tension,

because this captain,

this leader,

he messes up everything.

And there's no way we're going to get away from this

until we get to heaven.

There's no way you're going to not stop sinning.

There's no way you're going to not stop feeling tension.

There's no way you're going to not stop feeling the brokenness.

You're never going to not feel that

until you get to heaven.

But you don't have to let it control you.

It's not your identity.

It's not who you are.

Because when you came into this family,

everything is perfect.

So what Paul wants to do is he wants to lay this foundation for us

so that we never forget who we are,

we never lose our identity,

because he knows that this journey is difficult and hard

and things are going to drag us away,

but he wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus

because he's in control of our family

and we don't need to worry about anything.

Is that helpful?

I mean, hopefully it's encouraging.

To me, it's like one of the most encouraging things

as a child of God.

Can I share with you just a couple thoughts

and we're going to end

because we have a baptism today

and we want people to get to the baptism.

And this is just how I think.

The passage says that sin is very bad.

The passage says that sin and God

takes sin very seriously.

The passage says that the consequences of sin

are incredibly seriously.

In fact, the passage says that sin

sin is the problem of the human race.

Do you know that?

I mean, he's not saying the problem,

I mean, sin is greater than hunger.

Now, we can fix hunger

and we should be fixing hunger,

but hunger, if we fix it,

it's not going to take care of sin and death.

Sin is greater than disease.

We can inoculate everybody,

we can take care of everybody,

but it's not going to get rid of sin and death.

Sin is greater than war,

it's greater than lack of education.

We should educate everybody,

we should make everybody

where they can get good jobs

and that's what God has called us to do

because we're in this family now

and we're renewing

and we're making all things new.

But what he wants us to remember

is that that's not going to fix the problem.

The only thing that's going to fix the problem

is getting transferred from this family

to this family.

No matter how much you feed people,

no matter how much you educate people,

no matter how much you redistribute wealth,

the problem is sin.

And God takes it really seriously.

So here's my question.

How come we don't?

How come I don't?

I look at sin and I justify it.

Like, oh, this is my sin.

It won't affect anybody else.

But the passage says that sin is never done

in isolation.

It doesn't just affect you,

but it affects everybody around you.

What would it take for us to see sin

the way God sees it?

What would it take for us

to help each other in a community

see sin the way God sees it?

What would it look like

if we were a community

instead of

sending and giving the community

and people and our family a curse,

we obey,

we give our family life

and blessings.

What would it be like if we were a church

of people who gave people blessings

because we realized how bad sin was

and how terrible it was

and how bad God saw it

and we said no.

Because God is holy

and he's just.

and everything that is true of Jesus

should be true of us.

Just a thought.

Second thought.

If sin is the problem,

if sin is the universal problem,

if it is the thing that people are struggling with,

it is what causes death,

then the only answer

is Jesus.

It's the only answer.

So the question is,

is that what we're giving people?

Are we talking to them about Christ in our life

and what he's done

and how he's a great head for our family

and he takes care of us

and he never forsakes us

and he never leaves us?

Or do we talk to them about other things?

If sin is the problem

and we can fix everything else in the world

but there's still going to be sin

and there's still going to be death,

then the only way we can help people

is we can help them transfer from this family

to this family.

Because only in this family

are they going to feel peace,

grace,

mercy,

love,

joy,

and not doubt.

What would it look like

for us to be a church

that had an integral part

of who our DNA is?

That we realize

that sin is the problem

and we need to help people

come from here

to here.

Because that's why God

left us here.

God didn't leave us here

so that we can accumulate

all these things

and be happy.

But why he left us here

is because he wants us

to tell this broken world

that there are only two families.

And identity is everything.

And the final question

of this passage is

who are you identifying with?

Do you identify with Adam?

His family?

His life?

Maybe ask a friend.

Am I anxious?

Am I arrogant?

Am I selfish?

Am I greedy?

Do I just think of myself?

Do I love?

Do I have peace?

Do I have joy?

Do I have patience?

Do I have gentleness?

Self-control?

Now you can't do these things

on your own.

The only way this happens

is that you get transferred

from this family

to this family.

The Bible calls that

being born again.

Because our problem is birth.

we all have a birth problem.

We were all born in this family.

We were all born into sin.

We were all born into death.

And our only solution

is to be reborn

into another family.

What would it look like

if we were a people

in the community

to talk that message often

and gave the hope

that only our Father Jesus,

the second Adam,

could give?

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you

for this day.

We thank you

for these amazing words

in Romans 5

which are sometimes

so difficult

to understand.

But you make them

so clear

as we look at your heart.

You make them so clear

as we look at your mercy

and your grace.

Father, I pray for those

who are in this church setting

right now

who are stuck

in the family of Adam.

That Adam is their head.

They're ruled by their desires

and their temptations

and their fear.

And sin has control over them.

And ultimately,

it's going to lead to death.

And if they're honest,

they know it

because they see it

in the people

who've gone before them.

They see unhappiness

in the acquiring

of whatever they're looking for

and it realizes

it just means they need more

and more and more

and still there's unhappiness.

Lord, I pray for those of us

in here who are

in that family right now

that you would open

their eyes

to your son Jesus

and they would see him

as he truly is

and they would see

this Sunday coming up

the second Adam

who was obedient.

Help us to be a church

that points people

to your son.

And what I pray for

the rest of us

who are in this second family

because there's only two families.

What I pray for us,

I pray for our hearts.

I've realized in Hong Kong

in the busyness

and in the craziness

and the fatigue of life

that it's so easy

to forget

what family

we're a part of.

And before we know it,

we're acting

impractically back

into our old family

and we've forgotten

that you had adopted us

and that you made

all things new.

Father, we need your mercy.

Lord, we need your grace.

Convict us of our sin.

I think more importantly,

convict us of our righteousness.

Convict us when we were proud

and well done

and I did a great job.

Because the only reason

that could happen

is because you

poured your mercy

and grace out on us.

And you saved us

from a family

that's controlled

by sin and death.

And you brought us

into a new family

of life

in abundance.

Father,

this is Palm Sunday

and your son came

to fulfill

what the first Adam

could not obey.

Lord, we pray

as we go through

our week this time

that we would see people

in these two families

that would realize

the problem is sin

and we realize

that the only cure

is the gospel

and your son on a cross.

Lord, we pray

for Cyberport this week.

We pray for the outreaches

on Easter.

We pray for all the things

happening around us.

It's not about us.

It's about you.

May your name

be made great.

May eternity

be different.

Father, I pray

for this school

right now.

West Island,

I know that there are

factions of Christians

in it and there are

some who are

totally opposed.

I pray for hearts

that change.

I pray for revival.

Thank you for letting

us stay here.

I don't think it's

an accident that we're

able to be here

and to do the baptism

in a couple minutes.

I think it's because

you want your people here

and you want us

praying for these things.

Father, I pray for ISF.

We're there.

And I don't think

it's an accident

that you've allowed us

to be there

because you want

your people there

and you want them

praying for these things

because you want us

to see as we go

through life

that we're either

in one or two families

and which one

we are a part of

will affect us

for eternity.

So, Lord,

we pray for this

west side of Hong Kong

that it would be

different because

your people are

different.

We love you

and we need you.

We pray these things

in your son Jesus' name.

Amen.