Living as Sons and Daughters of the King | Neil Chitty

So this morning we're looking at what it is to live as children of the living God.

Last week we looked at the Father and some of the obstacles and hindrances that we might have.

And the bottom line was basically you know, if you want to know what the father's like, you look at Jesus.

Because Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.

Well done.

So there's a story about a king, which has nothing to do with the story, but um, but there was this king who um had an only daughter, and um he was really keen that that she got married off.

So he gathered all the guys in the kingdom and said, I want to give you the hand of my daughter, but before I do that, there's a little test that you're gonna have to go through.

And he he stood in front of this big swimming pool, and in the swimming pool there were sharks and there were piranhas, there were there were like you know, really deadly creatures, electric eels, and all that sort of stuff.

And he said, if there's anybody who can swim from one end of a swimming pool to the other, then you will marry my daughter and you can ask for anything else.

And there was silence as all the guys looked into the pool to see these vicious animals, and it was quiet, and all of a sudden, there's a huge splash as a guy jumped into the water and like crazy swam with sharks snapping at his heels, electric ills running over him, and everyone's cheering and clapping, and he eventually crawls out the other side with sort of blood and just a complete mess.

And he stands up and everyone's cheering, and then the king says, Well done, says, Here's my daughter's hand, and now ask me for anything you want, anything in the kingdom, and he says, I want to find the person who pushed me in.

Thank you for indulging me.

Um, but to become a child of God, it's not that difficult.

You'll be pleased to know, but I think sometimes as Christians, we have things in our lives which we put in or circumstances put in that stops us from fully entering into all that God's got for us as his children.

What does it mean to be a child of our wonderful Heavenly Father?

Jesus said this at the at that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

He called a little child to him and placed the child among them, and he said, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

And as I said last week, you know, we often allow circumstances and situations and people to shape the way that we view God, but also we allow circumstances and situations to view how we see ourselves, and and hopefully you've got a better understanding of who the father is after last week, I'm hoping.

But I want us to start looking at okay, we know who the father is, but who are we?

And the reality is we can't fully trust our own judgment of how we see ourselves because we all have filters, we all see things through a different lens, and and this morning I want us to allow the Holy Spirit to smash any false views that we have of ourselves.

You see, I know the truth that I'm a child of God, I know it in my head, but sometimes I don't live like I know it.

Does that make sense?

I I still live, and so I want to read out the next part of John 14 that I started last week.

And Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

Who's that?

The spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he lives with you and will be in you.

Okay, if you are a child of God this morning, the Holy Spirit lives in you and will reveal truth to you.

But this is the key thing: I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you.

And I'm actually gonna um stop there.

You see, when we get adopted into God's family, our status changes in heaven and on earth.

Okay, we don't wait to heaven for our status to change, it's changed.

The truth is, right now, if you follow Jesus, you are a son and daughter of the king.

Amen.

All nodding, yes, yes, but and here's the but even though we are royalty and we all have the authority of heaven behind us, we have to change that truth from here to here.

You see, we rejoice and we can celebrate when we're all together.

Yeah, we're children of the living God.

But then when you go home, or when you get up in the morning, suddenly things take a different slant because we still have that filter that we have a wrong view of ourselves, and this morning, I want to I want to smash that, but I can only smash that if you allow it to be smashed, okay.

I can't change you, and actually, God can't change you unless you are willing to change.

Does that make sense?

You can only change to the extent that you are willing to change, and that means putting this word into practice.

And for some of you, you're gonna hear things this morning and go, that's me.

There's other things you're gonna go, oh no, I'm okay in that, and that's good, okay?

It's not being proud, it's you can rejoice in that.

So I've got 18 aspects of the orphan spirit or the orphan heart, and I guarantee that at least one of them you'll think, oh yeah, it's me.

And if it's anything that comes up this morning and you're going, I need to deal with that, then I would encourage you to deal with it on your own, but also you might need someone to help you with it.

Okay, it might be a friend, it might be someone who you look at you thinking, I think they're ahead of me in this area, and it's it's okay to humble yourself and say, Can you can you please speak into my life?

Okay, are you ready?

Yeah, so different aspects of how we are affected by what's called the orphan spirit, because we were all orphans once upon a time.

God was not always our father until he rescued us and saved us, but we still live sometimes in the orphan aspect.

So, first of all, the way that we view God, the image of God, as I said last week, the orphan often views God as a harsh master who must be appeased constantly.

And this may be you.

I've got to pray more, I've got to read the Bible more, I've got to work harder to earn God's notice and favor.

And this may come because you had a bad experience with either a father figure or a mother figure, or it may have been a teacher, it may be someone in authority, and you're striving to please God.

Because if you don't do these things, then God's gonna whack you on the head with a stick, that he's gonna punish you, that he's gonna have words with you, and you need to know that's not my father, that's not who he is, or it may be that you had an absent father, you grew up without a father, and so therefore, it didn't matter what you did, it's kind of like you just did your own thing, and so therefore, your view of God is that he's absent in your life, and when I do pastoral ministry, one of the things I ask first is how who do you relate to in the Godhead?

Do you relate to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit?

Because that tells me how people view God.

Does that make sense?

Because often people say Jesus, because they can picture Jesus as this loving, amazing person, but they can't see him as father because of past experiences, and that helps me to understand.

I think we're dealing with some father heart stuff here.

Okay, and even now, some of you are thinking, yeah, that's where I'm at right now, and I tell you, there is freedom for you because there is a God who loves you, and there's a God who says, I want to welcome you, and you don't have to strive hard, you don't have to work hard to get into my presence because it's all been done through Jesus.

You see, the son knows that the father is a loving father who accepts him unconditionally.

God's love is not based on performance, but on who is giving it to us.

So before Jesus does any public ministry, he gets baptized by John the Baptist, and it says in Matthew verse 10, just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven.

So Matthew 3, verse 10, just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven saying, You're my son, you need to do more, you need to do public ministry, you need to heal people, and then I'll love you and I'll be well pleased with you.

Matthew 3:10

No, he says, You're my son, whom I love, with you I'm well pleased.

And that's what he says to every single one of you right now who follows Christ.

I'm pleased with you.

You're my son, you're my daughter, whom I love.

Period.

So that's the first one.

Okay, because God wants to break strongholds today, He wants to move you from being an orphan to being a son and a daughter.

Amen.

Secondly, dependency.

You see, the orphan is independent and self-reliant, they are convinced that they cannot rely on anyone else.

And you may have this mantra if anything is going to get done right, I'll do it myself.

There's almost a sense that if I can't fix the situation on my own, then I have failed.

And what you do, you end up isolating yourself because you don't depend on anybody else.

Be probably because you've been let down in the past.

You've been let down by those who should have loved you and cared for you and provided for you, and they failed or they were absent.

And one of Satan's biggest tricks is to isolate you and say you could just do it on your own, you'll be okay.

Just trust in yourself, don't trust in anybody else.

However, the son or the daughter is interdependent, they understand that they need the community of love that only God can provide and his body.

And this interdependency allows them to be open for the father's love to throw through them to others.

I've learned this by having a disability.

I've learned that I need people in my life to help me.

And you know what?

People want to help me.

I remember coming home one day, and there were there were builders working next door, and there was no one to get my frame out of the car.

And so there was a builder walking past.

I said, Wait, excuse me.

He said, Yeah, what's up?

He says, Can you just help me get my frame out?

He said, Absolutely.

He opened the door, he got my frame out.

He said, Any time that you need help, go past the house, bib the horn, and we'll come out and help you.

It's amazing, but you have to want it and you need to ask for it.

If you can't do something, don't try and muddle on your own.

This is what church is all about, this is what being a son or a daughter is all about interdependence.

And also, we often rob other people of a blessing by not asking them.

I'm amazed how people they want to help, and you being independent robs other people of the blessing of helping you.

But there may be a thing inside you said, I can't possibly ask.

I'll do it my own, I'll muddle through.

As shelves are falling off the wall with blue tack.

Do you understand?

We are a church of people who need to be dependent on God ultimately, but on each other.

Okay.

Oh, we've got to scare through.

Theology.

See, the orphan loves the law, they they love that boundary because they've never really had it themselves.

So they love rules and regulations, and they therefore they love to judge other people.

I'll let you into a secret.

I could be a bit judgmental.

There have been times where I've been in worship and I'm just lost in worship.

And I look round and there's someone just sitting there, like passively.

And I think, that's not so good, is it?

Why aren't they raising their hands?

Why aren't they getting excited?

And I judge them because that's the orphan spirit.

Because we we sit, it's like the older son in the story of the prodigal son.

He judges the young son.

And there could be that judgmentalism in us, and that comes from the orphan spirit, as opposed to we need to love people no matter what they're doing, no matter how they're appearing.

I remember one time I I did this judging thing, and I remember speaking in a group, and that person was there, and they said, Oh, worship was so great on Sunday.

I was just lost in worship, I just couldn't stand up.

I was sitting down, just enjoying God's presence.

Conviction fell.

We're not called to judge other people.

Okay, it's the orphan spirit.

You see, the sons live by the law of love.

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.

I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people.

We need to allow the law of love to be written on our hearts and not use it as a weapon.

Okay, anybody feeling God speaking to them?

Anyway, I won't ask for hands.

And no one's judging you.

Okay, security.

The orphan is often insecure, but they try to cover it.

They don't have a lot of inward peace and rest.

And the life for the orphan is filled with uncertainty, they they fear of trusting people, they feel abandoned, they feel a lack of intimacy with the father and others.

And it may be that you have been let down by those who should have been trustworthy.

And I'm deeply sorry that that's happened to you.

I'm so sorry that you have been basically sinned against in that way.

When you should have been cared for and loved and had that sense of security over you, that was robbed from you.

And therefore, you live your life in insecurity.

I know people who have that spirit of rejection that you can't get close to them because they reject you because they don't want to be hurt again, they don't want to be pushed away again because that's been their experience, and therefore they live with this insecurity.

Does that person really love me?

Is he really sincere?

And and the reality is we have a father who is 100% trustworthy.

The father will never, ever let you down.

He will never ever suddenly go, Well, I've got what I wanted from you, then I'm rejecting you.

But if you don't know that, if you don't experience that, then I want you to know there's freedom for you.

God wants to transfer you from the orphan spirit to being a child of the living God where you can run into his arms knowing that he'll never push you away.

He'll never be behind his newspaper saying, Not now, son.

Not now, daughter.

I'm watching the match, I'm watching the news, I'm fixing the car, I'm doing this.

He will never say that to you.

He will stop what he's doing and say, Come, come.

I remember reading about Billy Graham, and sometimes he'd be on the phone to the president, and then someone will come and say, Dad, dad, I need you.

And Billy Graham would say, Hold on a moment, I'm I'll call you back.

And he'll put the phone down and says, What is it that you want?

And that's just a little glimpse of what the father's like.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight.

Look at Jesus in the boat when the storm was happening.

What was Jesus doing?

Sleeping.

Why?

Because he was so secure in the father's love that he knew that nothing could write him off, nothing could stop him.

And that's how the father is with you right now.

He'll never let you down.

Okay, fifthly, the need for approval.

This is a huge one.

We all want approval, don't we?

We all want someone to say well done, we all want someone to kind of just say, you did great.

But the the orphan spirit, what it does, it kind of makes you crave it with the wrong motive.

It may be that you never had affirming as a child, or from anyone.

It may be that all you ever heard was criticism.

Why didn't you do this?

I said this last week.

You know, you get an A in your exams, and all you hear is, what happened to the A star.

Or you play sport and you score a couple of goals, and all you hear is, yeah, but what about the one you missed?

And so we live in this land where we we don't get approval, or that it may be that you didn't hear anything positive or negative, so you never knew if you did anything right or wrong, and so you start craving for someone's approval, and you'll find it wherever you want, and that's how addictions start because you're trying to fill a void that actually someone else should have provided.

Does that make sense?

So you fill your life with different things, it may be addictions, it may be striving in your workplace, but you're always looking for someone to say, hey, well done.

As I said last week, I know people in their 70s and 80s who are still trying to please their mums and dads, even though they've been dead long gone, because it's this need in them for approval.

There's times that I've been at home and I've done the ironing, I've done the washing up.

And I'm looking for thanks.

I'm looking for someone to say, ah, well done.

Because there's this desire in me to be affirmed.

Now I'm not saying that's necessarily a wrong thing, but actually, when it becomes something that you're always looking for, always wanting, the reality is it.

It's not always going to happen.

Social media is one of the biggest issues amongst people.

That people get a real dopamine rush when they get so many likes or positive comments on the post that they posted.

But when they don't get any likes or they get negative comments, the whole world falls apart.

And people are addicted to the dopamine rush.

But we need to know that we are accepted by the Father.

Before we do anything, he approves us because we're in Christ.

And when you're in Christ, He looks at you and He sees Christ in you.

The hope of glory.

You need to know that God accepts you right now as you are.

You are enough as you are.

You don't need to prove anything to God.

You don't need to seek and strive to get his approval.

Acts 15, verse 8 says, God who knows the heart showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

Acts 15:8

If you know you have the Holy Spirit, it's because God accepts you.

Amen.

You're accepted.

Wow, gonna run out of time.

We're on six.

Right, motives behind the Christian disciplines.

What I mean by that is what motivates you to pray?

What motivates you to read the Bible?

Is it duty because that's what you should do as a Christian, or is it because you just love to get into God's presence?

You just long to read His Word because you know that it changes your life.

You see, the orphan spirit are driven by duty.

They're told that's what you must do.

I know growing up in the 80s, that was the thing.

You've got to have your quiet time, you've got to read the Bible, you've got to pray, you've got to do this, you've got to do that.

And all of a sudden you're thinking, I don't feel very free anymore.

Does that make sense?

God loves us and he wants to hang out with us.

Okay.

I remember feeling so guilty.

I used to what I used to do, I used to come home from work as a teenager, and I think I'll just kneel by my bed, I'm gonna start praying.

So I knelt by the bed, and then I thought, I'll just put my head on on the on the pillow because it's a bit more comfortable, and then suddenly it'd be neil, dinner's ready, huh?

But I feel so guilty, I feel so bad, I feel shame because we get it wrong.

The father just wants us to hang out with him.

See, how did Jesus teach us how to pray?

Does he say, start with, forgive us our sins?

Because that's what the orphan does.

When you start your prayer saying, God, I'm so sorry, I've done this, I've done that, I've done this.

And by the end, I'm thinking, what's the point?

I'm just a sinner.

How could he ever love me?

Or we start off with God, give me this, give me that.

We come with our huge shopping list.

No, Jesus taught us to pray, our Father.

It starts with relationship, it doesn't start with worry is me, it doesn't start with give me, give me.

It starts with you're my dad.

I love you, I want to spend time with you, I want to get into your presence.

I just want to talk to you and hear your voice.

Okay, and by the time you've done it, you suddenly realize how wonderful God is.

So when it comes to God forgive us, we think, yeah, He's a good father, he wants to forgive me.

Does that make sense?

Okay, right, let's move on.

Okay, motive for purity.

Again, it's all about the orphan spirit, they want to be pure because they don't want to be punished.

Does that make sense?

So if you're a child growing up and you're told to clean your room, do you do it because if I don't do it, I'm gonna get punished?

If I don't do it, there's gonna be a bad consequence for me.

Or did you do it because you just love your parents and you want to do the right thing?

Yeah, some knowing faces there.

You see, our motive for being pure, our motives for being free of sin shouldn't be because we're worried God's gonna suddenly punish us and wipe us off the planet.

It should be because God, I love you.

You are an amazing dad, and I want to put a smile on your face.

I want to do what's right because because we have this relationship.

I would hate it if my children did things because they're scared I was gonna punish them.

Because that's not a relationship, that's a dictatorship.

See, punishment is all about control and bringing shame and bringing that sense of um coercion into someone's life, but there are consequences.

Does that make sense?

Consequences are different to punishment.

God says, if you do this, then this is what's gonna happen.

And when you do that thing, he says, Look, I told you that that would happen.

There are consequences now.

In future, don't do that because the same thing's gonna happen.

That's learning, it's discipline.

Punishment is you never know what's gonna happen next.

It's suddenly out of the blue and it can come out of anger.

And for some of you, that's how you were raised.

That you never knew when the next punishment would come.

And your punishment may have been because you did it at an accident.

I remember one time when one of my children spilt cereal all over the floor.

Now, they don't need to be punished for that because it's an accident.

Inside, I'm thinking, oh no.

But consequences are okay, look, let's tidy it up together, let's clean it together.

And it was a bit of hard work for them, but they knew in future, okay, I need to be careful what I do.

Does that make sense?

This does this okay, right.

This is another huge one.

Self-image.

Often the orphan spirit has a low self-image, they have self-rejection.

You see, we're bombarded by all sorts of images with regards to beauty, with regards to the perfect body, with regards to what kind of car you should have, or what, and all of a sudden, because you don't feel that's where you're at, you have a poor view of yourself.

And I know for myself growing up with a disability, I had a very poor image of myself.

I would go to swimming pools and dread it at school because people would look at me in a certain way.

I would wear t-shirts into the swimming pool because I was embarrassed of my body.

And you may have different situations like that, but actually, all that matters is how does God view me?

You see, God says I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, God says I knit you together in my mother's womb.

Actually, you're created in my image, and I've said this before: if you have a poor self-image, you're basically pointing at God and saying, You didn't do a great job here.

Did you not?

I thought you did a perfect job because you're fearfully and wonderfully made.

So God wants to deal with that part of you and says, You are wonderful in my sight, you are amazing by sight, and I know at the moment I'm hitting some things here that God wants to change.

He wants you to see yourself how he sees you.

At the moment, your filter is wrong if you have a wrong view of yourself, or we compare ourselves, or people compare us to other people.

Why can't you be more like your brother?

Why can't you be more like your sister?

And so we're bombarded with lies and lies and lies to the point where we don't know who we are, and God says, I want to tear those lies down.

I remember being in Luton when I lived there, and I have to go up some steps, and I look awkward going up steps, and I thought, oh, and I just kind of wait for people to go past and stuff like that, and then I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, but you're a child of the king.

I thought, hang on a moment, I'm a child of a king.

That's how God sees me.

God doesn't care how I walk up the stairs, and so I went up the stairs, held my head up high, and just thought myself, yes, I'm a child of a king.

I didn't give a monkeys what people think about me because God thinks I'm his son.

That's all that matters.

Amen.

And that's who you are right now if you're in Christ.

He gives a stuff what other people think of you.

It what matters is what does God think of you?

What God thinks of you is that you're fearfully and wonderfully made.

Okay, number nine, source of comfort.

You see, often the orphan will go after counterfeit affections, addictions, compulsions, escapism, busyness.

The busier you are, the happier you are.

I remember someone said to me the other day, what do you do so you don't have to feel?

I wow, that's an interesting question to ask.

What do I do so I don't have to feel?

And what he meant by that is so often we fill our lives with stuff so we don't have to face some of the things that God wants to deal with.

So we fill it with stuff.

So my question to you today is what are you doing that stops you having to feel?

Because maybe you need to stop doing those things to give space for the Holy Spirit to deal with some of these ouchy areas, these areas which are painful and difficult.

God wants to clear the decks, He wants to bring freedom to you, He wants you to know that you can rest in the Father's love, that his affection is on you.

The word comfort is the Greek word paraclesis, and it means consolation, comfort, solace.

True comfort comes when you just fall back into the arms of a loving father who says, You are enough.

I love you, I'll never leave you, I'll never depart from you.

How are we doing?

Are we okay?

Happy for me to keep going?

Yeah, good, thanks, Pete.

Okay, tenthly, peer relationships.

Okay, so the orphan spirit ends up in competition with their peers.

There's rivalry, there's jealousy, there's fighting and scrambling for every advantage.

Satan was the ultimate orphan.

He was jealous of God and wanted his position, and as a result, he was thrown out of heaven.

He was also jealous of Adam's relationship with God, so he did all he could to wreck it, and that's what he does with us.

He will do all he can to get in the way of your relationship with the father because he's jealous, but often we can be the same.

What happens when you're at work and one of your colleagues gets handed the promotion that you think you deserved?

You go into competition with them.

What happens when your brother or your sister get the thing from your parents that you always wanted?

It's painful, it's difficult because you suddenly equate it in the same way that's how God treats you.

God gives the blessing to that person, but what about me?

What about me?

They seem to be getting all the goodies, and I'm struggling in life, I'm I'm finding it difficult, and this is reality.

Life isn't always easy.

I know that.

Growing up watching all my friends play football, well, I couldn't play football, and God took me on a journey, and I had to learn to become content in every situation because ultimately this is all temporary, ultimately, this is all gonna pass, and one day I'm gonna enter into a kingdom where there's no tears, no pain, no suffering.

But you know what?

I live life to the full now, okay?

It's tough at times as I'm trying to pull my trousers up and it's not happening, and I'm remonstrating with my trousers, and it's tough.

I think, God, you could just make it all go away in an instant.

Does that mean God's a bad father?

Does it mean that I'm not blessed compared to the person next to me?

No, because I'm learning that if I can overcome every situation, there's huge blessing for me.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, so whatever you go through, okay, if it's tough times, it's not because the father doesn't like you or he's overlooking you, he wants to develop you and grow you and shape you and become.

I I believe that I am who I am today, largely because I've had to go through tough times, and it impacts many people's lives, and I glory in that, but it doesn't mean there's not pain, doesn't mean there's not tears, doesn't mean it's not difficult, but it doesn't view the way I see God because he's amazing.

In fact, I don't deserve anything anyway, and yet by his grace, he's given me everything.

Okay, I'm gonna skip that one, I'm gonna go to number 12.

Okay, the way that we view criticism or discipline, and uh, this is something again I've had to learn.

See, the orphan spirit doesn't receive criticism or discipline well because of experience in the past.

They see criticism or discipline as rejection, and therefore they would rather blame other people and try to justify themselves than actually say, Do you know what?

You're right.

Yeah, I was wrong.

I got it, I messed up.

You see, the son or the daughter is secure in knowing that when someone speaks into their life, they go, Yeah, it's because they love me.

Because they want the best for me.

But often people haven't received that because they haven't had that kind of foundation of love.

Does that make sense?

So people can be critical or disciplinarian, but there's no love involved, and therefore you say that's how God sees me.

You see, Hebrews 12 says this it says, My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline and don't give up when he corrects you, for the Lord disciplines those he loves.

You see, God loves you, but with it comes his discipline.

It doesn't feel pleasant at the time, but it's good for us.

Okay, 13, expression of love.

And I think this is probably one of the most painful areas for so many.

It may be that you were raised in a family where demonstrative love was never experienced.

You see, both of my parents grew up with parents that didn't give any physical or verbal affirmation, so my parents' experience of their childhood was no physical or verbal affirmation or love or affection, and because of that, they didn't really know how to love me physically or verbally, and therefore I don't remember.

So I could my parents are great, I love my parents, okay.

They love me in many ways, but the area where they didn't was through verbal or physical affirmation because they didn't have any role models, and so growing up, I never heard my parents say to me once, I love you.

Or they gave me cuddles or they gave me hugs.

It's only since I became a Christian when I lived with a Christian family, when I did a year-out team, my parents came and these guys just hugged them and they didn't know what to do.

Like my dad was like a frozen bunny.

But since those times, he hugs me whenever he sees me, and so does my mum, and they've been a lot more, they're not Christians, but they've been affected by Christians, but I had to deal with stuff.

I had to, as I said last week, I had to go through some deliverance, I had to go through some freedom stuff.

And let me encourage you, if you're in that situation where you have never had that physical affirmation or that verbal affirmation, and you know that it's something which is painful because you find it hard to be loved, and sometimes you find it hard to love other people, then I believe God wants to break in and change that, amen.

But as I said, you can only be changed as far as you will allow yourself to be changed, and for some of you, you've been living for years and years and years where this is hard and it's difficult, and it's a journey.

And I'm not expecting everything to be sorted in a moment, it might be, praise God, it it'll be great, but it might be a journey, okay?

But you need to start somewhere again.

For some of you, you may not have had a father in the house or a mother in the house, so again, there's this sense of absence, and that's how you see God.

But God is shouting from the rooftops, He loves you.

He's shouting from the rooftop, I want to just put my arms around you and love you.

Okay, 15.

What is that condition?

See, we say we're free, but it may be actually we're slaves to fear still, or we may be in bondage to something, or we have mistrust or independence or self-reliance, and I believe again God wants to realign you, He wants to move you from that place to a place of freedom where your chains fall off.

Jesus said, if the sun sets you free, you will be.

We say it, but do we actually sense it?

Do we know it?

And I believe that for a lot of us, God wants to take you on a journey of freedom.

He wants you to be free, guys.

You are free, he wants you to understand what that freedom looks like.

16 opposition.

You see, the orphan live as if they don't have a home, they don't have a family, they live in this world where they just feel isolated and alone.

Whereas a son and a daughter are at rest and at peace in the Father's love in every circumstance.

1 Peter 2, verse 9 says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:9

Brothers and sisters, you are God's special possession.

That is your position right now.

Right now, okay, not in the future, not oh, it used to be that way when I was going on with God.

Right now, your status is you're seated in the heavenly position with Christ on his throne.

That's where you are.

How do I know that?

Because it's in God's word.

That is your position right now, and God wants you to have your eyes opened to see that.

Okay, we've got two more, and then we're gonna get into God's presence and allow him to do some surgery.

Okay, your vision see orphans.

Are often fired either by selfish ambition where their whole motive is to prove themselves to everybody else.

And so they're driven, they're driven in every single area, driven to be accepted by other people.

So your vision is always I can do better, I can get more, I can accrue more, I can I can make people love me more.

I want to be noticed, so therefore I'm gonna do all I can to be noticed, and you're driven to be noticed by others at any cost.

But on the flip side of this, maybe the opposite, that you've almost given up trying to be noticed because it's never happened, and therefore you're visionless, you don't care, you just muddle through life.

Whereas the son and the daughter, you don't need to prove yourself, you don't need to strive, you don't need to be ambitious to get into God's presence because He loves you, He sent His Son to die for you so that you don't have to go through any of this.

You don't deserve it, you didn't earn it, it's free, it's a gift, and God wants to take you to the place where you can run into His arms without Him to do anything because He loves you.

Amen Okay, I've got one more and then I'm done.

It affects your future and the way that you view the future.

You see, for the orphan, the future is uncertain, they don't know what's coming next, so they fight for everything they can.

But for a son and a daughter, they're willing to wait for an inheritance because they know their future is bright and certain.

Romans 8 says that we are adopted as his sons and we have an inheritance, and we are co-heirs with Christ.

That is our birthright.

We are co-heirs with Christ.

Whatever Jesus is going to inherit, you're gonna inherit.

Amen.

That is your future, but you can enjoy a deposit of that right now by receiving the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit comes and says, Woohoo! You're a child of God, you've been adopted, and adopted people have been chosen.

That's what adoption is.

It's a mum and a dad looking at a bunch of babies and saying, Wow, look at that one! I want that one, and the father looked at you and said, I want that one.

Look at that dierk, that dierk's great.

I want that diurk in my family.

Look at that Veronica, that Veronica's amazing.

I want her in my family.

Look at Tracy, Tracy, wow, I want one of those in my family.

And he comes up to each one of us and says, I want one of those.

That's adoption.

That's adoption.

That's who we are.

So let me ask you a question.

If he chose you and adopted you, why would he ever reject you?

Why would he all all of a sudden go, do you know what?

I'm done with that diurk now.

I want a new diurk.

He's never gonna do that because the eark's name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life and it cannot be erased.

Every single one of you, you're safe.

Jesus said, No one can snatch him away from my father's hand, and that includes you.

You can't snatch yourself away.

No matter how far you run, he's gonna be waiting for you.

You can go to Australia to get away from God, he'll be waiting for you.

If I make my depths in the ocean, he'll be there.

Do you understand?

Yeah, the father loves you, he wants time with you, not out of duty, because he loves you.

Let me finish with this story.

I've gone on a bit longer than I normally do, but I don't care.

Because this is good stuff.

In Armenia in 1989, there was a devastating earthquake.

It was 8.2 on the Richter scale, and it killed 30,000 people in less than four minutes.

And the incident took place in a place called Gurmery or Spitak, in it, and um, those were the areas where it took the brunt of the loss.

And in the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife securely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building had been flattened as a pancake.

After the traumatic initial shock, this man remembered the promise he made to his son.

No matter what, I'll always be there for you.

And tears began to fill his eyes as he looked at the pile of debris that once was the school.

It looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his commitment to his son.

He began to concentrate on where he walked his son to school each morning, remembering his son's classroom would be in the back right corner of the building.

He rushed there and started digging through the rubble.

As he was digging, other forlorn parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying, My son, my daughter.

Other well-meaning parents tried pulling him off what was left of the school, saying, It's too late, they're dead, you can't help, go home.

Come on, face reality.

There's nothing you can do.

You're just going to make things worse.

To each parent, he responded with one line, Are you going to help me now?

And then he proceeded to dig for his son, stone by stone.

The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off the school's debris, saying, Fires are breaking out, explosions are happening everywhere, you're in danger.

We'll take care of it.

Please go home.

To which this loving, caring Armenian father asked, Are you going to help me now?

The police came and said, You're angry, distraught, and it's over.

You're endangering others.

We'll take care of it.

Go home.

No one helped.

Courageously, he proceeded alone because he needed to know for himself, is my boy alive or is he dead?

He dug for eight hours, 12 hours, 24 and 36.

And then in the 38th hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son's voice.

The man screamed his son's name.

A man.

He heard back, Dad, it's me.

I told the other kids not to worry.

I told them that if you were alive, you'd save me.

And when you saved me, they'd be saved.

You promised, no matter what, I'll always be there for you.

And you did it, Dad.

And there are 14 of us left out of 33, Dad.

We're scared, hungry, and thirsty, and thankful you're here.

And when the building collapsed, it made a wedge like a triangle and it saved us.

Come on out, boy.

No, Dad, let the others come out first because I know you'll get me.

No matter what, I know you'll always be there for me.

We have a father who will always pursue us, always go after us, always delve into the rubble of our lives and rescue us.

Because he says, I'll always be there for you.

No matter what, I'll always be there for you.

But our response has always got to be, Father, Dad, I know that you'll always be there for me.

And if that's something you can't say at the moment, if that's something where you struggle, there may be something I've said this morning, there may be a number of things I've said where you're going, I need to deal with that area that resonates with me.

Then I'm gonna ask you now just to maybe close your eyes and just picture the father in front of you with arms open wide.