Blessed: Made Family

Have you ever committed to something and deeply regretted it afterward?

And if you're married, do not say marriage, don't offer that.

Okay?

Now, have you ever said yes to something?

And then a short time after saying yes, you learned what you were actually saying yes to, and you realized it was a much bigger commitment than you thought, and you're thinking, how can I get out of this?

Is there like, Lord, please give me like the flu so I can say, ah, I'm so sorry.

I know I said I'd be there, but I'm sick.

That happens all the time.

That's actually something we're really good at as Americans.

Our entire financial system is built on us saying yes to things we can't afford and then being stuck in an endless cycle of having to pay it off, right?

And we've all had experiences where we've committed to something and we didn't realize what we were committing to.

And I know I've done that in so many different ways.

I remember a few years ago, there was this young guy that I had spent quite a bit of time with.

He was when he was a teenager, I was kind of mentoring him and working with him, but he had made a series of really poor choices, and he was paying the price for those choices.

And he reached out to me.

It was kind of a busy day for me.

I had a lot going on, but he said, Justin, I just need a ride where I'm staying.

Can you give me a ride?

And I'm sitting there and I'm doing that thing that we all do where I'm like, oh man, this is a bad time.

It's a bad time to help someone, you know?

This is not a convenient moment for me to be a good person.

But but I'm like, yeah, I mean, I've got a lot going on.

I'm uh sure, I'll give him a ride.

And I was thinking in my head, you know, it'd be a great chance for us to catch up.

I haven't had a chance to talk to him in a while.

We'll have some time in the car, we can get caught up, it'll it'll be it'll be okay.

So I said, yes, I will give you a ride.

And then I asked a question that I should have asked before I said yes.

Where are you staying?

And he said, I'm staying in a house just a little north of Waleska.

And I was like, Oh, that's different.

Because I kind of live my life between Canton and Marietta.

Like I got all I need here.

I don't need to venture out.

I'm not adventurous.

It's good.

That land has been explored and settled.

I'm good here, you know?

And so I don't I don't go to Waleska.

I don't go to places like that.

And and I learned two things that day, two very important things, very great lessons to learn.

Number one, I learned where Waleska is.

Never been there before.

My horizons were broadened.

It's a great place, you know.

I don't know if it's a town, if it's uh, I don't know if it counts as a city, I'm not sure.

It seemed like a road, but you know, I was there.

Number two, I learned that the phrase, just a little north, it's a very relative phrase.

Because by this guy's description, North Carolina is just a little north of Oeska.

It ended up being a two and a half hour round trip.

The worst part of it is that he fell asleep about 10 minutes in and slept the entire way.

And the whole thing that I was looking forward to was talking to him.

And so I had some time with God in the car that day, and uh it was a great, great learning experience.

You know, Jesus said not to say yes to something until you know what you're saying yes to.

In fact, he says it really, really well in Luke 14.

Don't begin until you count the cost.

For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

Jesus says, make sure you know what you're saying yes to before you say yes.

Don't commit until you count the cost.

Today we're talking about a commitment that God has made to us.

And we need to understand on the front end that God counts the cost.

So when God commits to us, when he makes a commitment to you and to me, he knows exactly what he's committing to.

There's never a moment where God says yes and then later goes, Oh man, I did not think that through.

Um, I didn't realize they were that messed up.

So, you know, how can I get out of this?

He knows what he's committing to.

Now, for some context, we're in a series right now called Blessed.

We started this a few weeks ago.

We're studying the entire book of Ephesians over the course of the next year or so, but we're breaking it up into a bunch of smaller series, just so it keeps it, you know, new and fresh and exciting.

This specific series is on Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14.

Ephesians 1:3–14

And the writer, a man named Paul, begins this section of scripture by saying this, Ephesians 1, 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

You can see where we got the word blessed from when it comes to this series.

Blessed be God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

And then he goes on to explain what those spiritual blessings are.

That's what we're exploring.

What are the blessings that we've been given?

Now note that he says they are spiritual blessings.

Oftentimes we pursue circumstantial blessings.

We live our life trying to maximize the circumstantial blessings that we can have.

Like, how can I have a better job and how can I have more in the bank account?

How can I have a bigger house?

You know, those things are all fine.

There's nothing wrong with circumstantial blessings.

In fact, the Bible tells us many times that God actually cares about those things.

So if your circumstances aren't great today, God cares.

But Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 6 why worry about your clothing?

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon, who just so happened to be the most wealthy king ever, Solomon in all of his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat?

What will we drink?

What will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

But your Heavenly Father already knows your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

So he's saying, look, God sees the circumstantial stuff, he cares about it, he's gonna bless you, but there's a greater reality.

Notice Jesus says, Yeah, that's all well and good, but seek first the kingdom of God.

There's a spiritual reality that supersedes our circumstances.

And you can be the most circumstantially blessed person on earth, but if you are spiritually bankrupt, it doesn't matter.

That's why Jesus later said, What good is it to gain the world but lose your soul?

And so these spiritual blessings that we're learning about, they're everything.

They're everything.

Sometimes in church culture today, when it comes to teaching, we we tend to separate the practical from the spiritual.

Because we see them as different things.

And oftentimes what happens is the spiritual stuff gets ignored because we're so fixated on the practical, and everything becomes about five ways to have a slightly better version of your life than you have right now.

But God doesn't want you to have a slightly better version of your life.

He wants to transform your life, he wants to transform you.

That's a spiritual process.

And I believe that we are spiritual people, that you have a spirit, that it's the most core part of who you are.

And if you believe that you're spiritual, that means that spiritual blessings are as practical as anything in the world.

So it's good for us to understand these spiritual blessings.

Last week we talked about the blessing of holiness that God has made us holy.

That was Ephesians 1.4.

Today we're gonna look at Ephesians 1.5, and here's what it says: this is the blessing we've been given.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

I'm gonna read it one more time, because we're we're focused on this verse today.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

So we have the blessing of being adopted.

We have the blessing of being made family with God.

Has anyone here ever adopted?

Okay, uh, it's expensive, right?

Like adoption's a big deal.

We're gonna talk about that.

We're gonna talk about what it actually means for us to be adopted, but we have to understand on the front end that adoption is not some flippant decision.

Like you don't go, you know what I might do today?

I might adopt someone.

You know, kind of in the mood for adoption today.

And then you go to the adoption store and you you walk away with a child.

You're like, I adopted.

That's not how it works.

I have a lot of friends who have who've adopted.

It's a big deal.

And it's a big deal for us to have been adopted by God because there's two things we're gonna focus on today when it comes to adoption.

Number one, adoption is costly.

And number two, adoption is complete.

And we need to understand the cost of our adoption.

We need to understand the completeness of our adoption to really experience the blessing of it, okay?

But adoption is costly.

So, those of you who raised your hands, I know the expense that you went through.

The average cost of adoption in America today is$40,000.

That's the cost, just the upfront cost to adopt.

The average cost of having a child is everything you have, right?

And so to adopt, you've got to do 40 grand up front, and then everything you have for the rest of your life.

Because that's what that's what kids do.

You know?

I've got four of them.

It's everything.

And if you have one child, one child is everything.

Four children are everything.

That's how it goes.

Adoption is costly.

The interesting thing is it was very costly in Paul's day as well.

And it's interesting for us to understand when when Paul wrote adoption, what did he have in mind?

Because adoption worked a little bit differently in the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, believe it or not.

But but there was actually this huge ceremony surrounding adoption.

Because in ancient times, people didn't really adopt out of a desire in their heart to help someone.

It wasn't really a thing.

People adopted in ancient cultures out of necessity.

Because in ancient cultures, if you did not have a son, you were in trouble.

Like you could have six daughters, and you might love your daughters, but in the ancient cultures, it was all about the guys.

And the Bible records that stuff.

Ladies, we need to understand that the Bible does not condone everything it records, okay?

So God values you immensely.

In fact, if you read scripture, you're the ones who know what you're doing.

Okay?

We're not.

The Bible said that to create Eve, God put Adam into a deep sleep, and the Bible never says that man woke up.

We we are just we're sleepwalking here.

Like you guys know what you're doing, okay?

So you're valuable, incredibly so.

Okay?

But like in ancient cultures, everything went through the men.

And if you were a man and you did not have a son, you had zero control of your legacy, which is a really big deal.

And so we actually see this, for example, even before the Roman Empire, we see this in a man named Abram.

In Genesis 15, God is telling Abram that he's about to bless him.

And so here's what it says.

Sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision, and he said to him, Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.

Like God just told Abram, you're about to get blessed, man.

And listen to what Abram says, he's gutsy.

O sovereign Lord, this is basically his way of saying, with all due respect, what good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son?

Since you've given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.

You've given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.

In other words, he's saying, hey, great, thanks for the blessings.

Can I have someone to give the blessings to?

And their culture, if you didn't have a son, it was a problem.

Same way in the Roman Empire.

And so adoption was an incredibly intense ordeal.

And the only people who would adopt, like almost exclusively, were people who did not have a son.

And in a world where having a son is everything, imagine how expensive it would be to get a son, right?

And so if you wanted to adopt someone else's child, let's say there's a man that has multiple sons, and so he's gonna use one of his sons as a means to make money, and they they would do that.

It was like it was a whole different world.

You could get someone to pay you a lot of money for your son.

And they had this whole elaborate system of doing it.

So if you wanted to go through this process, there would be this moment, this ceremony that you would go through, and there were these big scales, and you would pay for this other person's son, if you're the adoptive father, you would pay the biological father in copper.

And it was a ceremony that was repeated the same way every time.

You would actually come to the ceremony, you would bring your copper, you would place the copper on the scales, and then the biological father would give you his son.

It was a transaction.

But then the biological father would buy his son back.

And then a second time, the adoptive father would place that money on the scales, and the biological father would give the son to the adoptive father, and a second time the biological father would buy the son back.

And then finally, the third time, that adoptive father would pay the money, would put the copper on the scales, and then this time the biological father would say, okay.

But then after that, you had to go to a court.

You had to go to the praetor in Rome, which is like a magistrate, okay, like a judge, and that person would have to hear you out and understand why you actually need to adopt.

And you would have to plead your case, and you'd have to convince this judge that you should let me adopt this person.

You've already paid the money, that's done.

Now you're just hoping that this judge will say, fine, I sign off on the adoption.

And when that happened, you were adopted.

Now, the reason that it was such a lengthy process, such a big deal, is because adoption in the Roman world was not only costly, but it was complete.

Like I said a few minutes ago, we need to understand that adoption is costly and complete.

When you adopted someone in ancient Rome, that person was a brand new human being in the eyes of the law.

Like when you adopted someone and they became your adoptive son, they were a new person.

The old one didn't exist anymore, might as well be dead.

In fact, it was such a big deal that let's say you were someone that owed a lot of money, you had huge debts, but then you were adopted by someone else, your debts were wiped out.

Completely wiped out.

They didn't transfer to you because, in the eyes of the law, you're a brand new person.

You have zero debt.

The debt that was collected was that other guy.

Adoption was complete, it was total.

And so when Paul wrote that we have been adopted into the family of God, we need to understand that in Paul's mind, when he writes those words, he's saying adoption.

And in his mind, adoption is costly and it is complete.

We've been adopted into the family of God.

We've been made sons and daughters of God.

It's very important for us to understand because it's not a metaphor.

Like this is not the Bible saying, hey, think about it like God's adopted you.

That's a nice thought.

He says, No, God has adopted you.

It doesn't say, you know, kind of think about God like your father.

No, God is your father because you've been adopted.

And that adoption was costly and it is complete.

Think for a moment about what your adoption cost.

Your adoption is the most expensive adoption in the history of the world because your adoption costs Jesus.

Think about that.

We see this as a principle show up in scripture in many different places in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, for example.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Paul wrote, Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?

You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body.

Paul's reminding people, hey, don't lose sight of the price that God paid for you.

Your adoption was expensive because it cost Jesus.

Sometimes we talk so much about Jesus that we have a tendency to forget about who Jesus actually is and how valuable Jesus is.

There's a pastor that I respect greatly, a man named Francis Chan.

I like to listen to Francis, and Francis was talking about the idea that in church culture we often talk about how if you get Jesus, you get all these other things, right?

And that's actually biblical because Jesus described himself as like the gate.

We enter through Jesus and we have all these blessings.

We have a relationship with God the Father, the Holy Spirit, all that, right?

But so so much we focus on those extra benefits, right?

You get Jesus and you get this and this and this and this, and we forget the fact that when you get Jesus, you get Jesus.

Because he's Jesus.

And I don't I don't care if it's PC or not, I don't care if it becomes illegal to talk about Jesus or whatever, because Jesus is amazing.

He is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, He's the greatest human being to ever walk the earth, and He was the price for you.

God bought you by the blood of Jesus.

That's expensive, right?

You've got to realize that.

God did not haggle for you.

Like He didn't look at you and go, I don't know.

Is this the latest model?

You know?

Like it's a little dinged up.

Doesn't look like it's been maintained very well.

You're not some bargain bin purchase.

You're not like a Nicolas Cage movie in the bargain bin at Walmart.

Go to Walmart.

There's there's gonna be a bargain bin full of DVDs.

I guarantee you there's a Nicolas Cage movie in there.

You're probably not gonna have to dig very deep.

That's not you though.

You were bought at the highest price possible.

You were paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, divine.

That was the price for you.

You're expensive.

And your adoption is complete.

It's so hard for us to understand this because we're still in process.

Like we're still works in progress.

The Bible says that when we give our lives to Jesus, that we are a new creation and the old has gone and a new life has begun.

It's descriptive of a process.

Something has started in us.

The Holy Spirit begins a process inside of us, begins to change us from the inside out, make us the version of ourselves we're supposed to be.

And it takes time.

And sometimes like I look at God and go, hey, you need to like speed this up, you know?

Make me better.

And so we see ourselves as in progress, and we should, because on this side of heaven, we've got a lot of growth to do, but but we forget the fact that in God's eyes, our adoption into his family and our status in his family, that is done.

That is complete.

That is not a work in progress.

Like the line has been signed.

There's a man named J.I.

Packer, who's a very well-known Christian author and teacher, really respected guy, very brilliant.

And he once wrote that father is the Christian name for God.

And what he's talking about when he said that is that it's actually a very unique concept in the history of the world to see God as your father.

Very, very unique concept.

Because in most religions, in virtually every religion, and sometimes people try to turn Christianity back into a religion, which it's not, it's a relationship.

But in religion, God is always a distant, demanding ruler that you have to please and you have to placate.

So you've got to do enough good stuff and avoid enough bad stuff for that God just to tolerate you.

That's been the traditional view of God throughout human history.

You look at the gods of the Egyptians, you look at the gods of the Romans, these false idols that were created.

They don't like people.

They don't care about people.

In fact, it's interesting, in the Roman culture, there was not a god, but a titan, which was kind of like a half-god or something, you want to think about it that way, named Prometheus.

And Prometheus was famous because Prometheus taught human beings how to use fire.

And by teaching human beings how to use fire, we were able to make civilizations, we were able to progress, and the gods punished him for all eternity because he helped people.

That's the world that Jesus entered into.

God is a distant, demanding ruler, and if you do enough good, if you get on his good side, maybe, just maybe he'll tolerate you, but don't think for a second that he actually cares about you.

And Jesus had the audacity to call God father.

He didn't just use the formal word for father either.

Every time Jesus talked about God, he used the word Abba, which in their language would have been like us saying daddy.

In fact, if you read scripture, anytime you see Jesus say father about God, he is saying Abba.

The only time he does not refer to God as Abba Father is when he's quoting Scripture.

It's when he's quoting Scripture from the Old Testament.

So when he was on the cross, he quoted Psalm 22 many different times.

And in that we see Father used in the formal sense, like father, but that's because he's quoting something that had been said.

When Jesus was talking about his relationship with God, he always called him daddy.

And this drove the religious people nuts because you just don't do that.

Who are you?

They would look at Jesus like, who are you to call him daddy?

And Jesus would say, I'm a son.

That's who I am, right?

And it's so easy for us to be like, well, yeah, but that's Jesus, you know.

Like he is the son, and I'm I'm not.

But listen to what Romans says.

Romans chapter 8, verse 15.

Romans 8:15

You have not received a spirit of fear that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba Father.

For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

We call him Abba.

We get to call him the same thing Jesus called him.

Raise your hand if that doesn't seem right.

You know?

Seriously, like our adoption is complete.

That's what we've got to understand.

Our adoption was costly.

You were expensive.

And that adoption is 100% complete, so much so that you can call God the same thing that Jesus called God.

Your adoption is so complete that God sees you the same as He sees Jesus.

It's so hard for us to believe that.

Anyone have the audacity to raise your hand and say, I believe that I'm just as valuable to God as Jesus Christ?

Yeah, good.

Good.

I know that 25% of you are doing that because you think it's the right answer, and you're just overachievers, and that's fine, but like not many of us raise our hands, and I also know that a certain percentage of us are just like, I don't raise my hand in church.

Cool.

But you gotta fully participate if you want maximum value.

Okay.

I said, do we see ourselves as equally valuable as Jesus?

And the answer, even if we raise our hand, naturally, like logically, is no.

Right?

Think about it this way.

If I asked you to give Jesus a letter grade for life, you know, think school days.

A, B, C, D, and F.

Now I don't think they have Fs anymore.

I think it's like an N for needs improvement, which is the same as an F.

As if children are like, well, at least it's not an F.

You know?

Like kids, it's just that's the same.

All an N is to a child is what an F was to us.

They don't realize the history of Fs and all that.

But whatever.

If you could give Jesus a letter grade for life, what would you give him?

A plus, right?

Is there someone here who's like, yeah, I guess C.

You know?

Be honest if that's you.

That's all that's good.

We'll have that conversation.

Interestingly enough, even people in history who do not believe in the divinity of Jesus, just based on his teachings and the power of what he said, have recognized the incredible uniqueness of Jesus.

In fact, there was a philosopher named John Stuart Mill, and John Stuart Mill was an atheist.

And much of our American legal system is due to the writings of John Stuart Mill.

As an atheist, Mill wrote that there has never been a human being in human history that shows us what humanity ought to be as much as Jesus Christ.

He didn't believe Jesus was God, but he looked at the life of Jesus and said, That dude's special.

So even though we may not have faith in Jesus as God, if that's you, you can at least recognize that, yeah, like it's hard to find fault in Jesus.

So we give Jesus an A plus.

What would you give yourself?

How many of us would say I get an A plus?

Ah, yeah, that guy.

But you're like, you're fairly young, so everyone around you is like, he doesn't know yet.

But can I tell you how how old how old are you, young man?

How old are you?

Twelve?

You're right.

Everyone around you is wrong.

So thumbs up.

Okay?

There you go.

Right.

So, like, how many of you would give yourselves a B?

You're like, not an A, but I'm just saying I've done pretty good.

You know?

A couple people.

Couple people.

How about how many C students in the room?

Okay.

How about D's?

How many needs improvement?

How many F's?

How many, hey, I'm incomplete, right?

It's not done yet.

Alright, so give me some more time.

Okay.

Yeah, it's hard for us to see ourselves on equal grounds with Jesus.

And based on our own merit, that would be ridiculous, but we don't live based on our own merit because this is not religion.

If this is religion, then yes, the only way for you to be on equal ground with Jesus is to live a life as good as Jesus.

Good luck, you've already missed that boat.

Okay?

And that's why, even like as Christians, many of us are hypocrites, but that's why we're Christians, because we need help.

You know, when people criticize people in church for being hypocrites, I'm like, where else should we go?

You know what I mean?

Like, we're here, we know we have stuff to do, that's why we're here.

Right?

But see, in religion, you would have to be on equal ground with Jesus based on your own merit, but this is not a religion.

This is something that God did to you and for you.

He adopted you into his family, which means you were made co-with Jesus.

Paul talks about this as he continues in Romans chapter 8, verse 17.

Romans 8:17

He says, Since we are his children, because we've been adopted, costly and complete, since we are his children, we are all his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

But if we are to share in his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Sometimes it's hard to be the son or the daughter of God, but ultimately there's a great blessing.

You are co-heirs with Jesus.

That means you have the same inheritance as Jesus.

So if Jesus has an A plus, you have an A plus.

Think about it like Jesus cheated and took your test for you.

And let's be honest, how many of you cheated on a test?

Liars.

You are on equal ground with Jesus because he lifted you up.

See, it's very easy for us to recognize that Jesus belongs lifted.

Because he earned it, because he did it, because he crushed it in life.

So, yeah, Jesus is awesome.

We can put him up on a pedestal and we can point to Jesus and we can say, He's amazing, he's awesome, he gets an A.

But we forget so often that we've been lifted up with him.

That he gave us his holiness.

We talked about that last week.

He didn't just take away our sin, he gave us his righteousness, he gave us his holiness.

So we are co-heirs with Jesus.

We are just as much the sons and daughters of God as Jesus is the Son of God.

Because when Paul wrote the word adopt, in their understanding, in his world, adoption, when you were adopted, you had the same rights as a biological child.

God has the same love for you that he has for Jesus.

He is just as excited about you as he is for Jesus.

You've been adopted.

And here's where it gets really cool, and we're gonna wrap up with this.

Why did he do it?

Why did he adopt you?

In ancient cultures, you only adopted someone because you had to.

You didn't adopt because it was like a good thing to do.

You adopted because you didn't have a son, and if you didn't adopt someone, you were in trouble.

Well, God was not in trouble.

God had a son, his name's Jesus.

His son is awesome.

We'll go back to Ephesians 1.5.

It says God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he had to do, it was his only choice.

No.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

God took pleasure in paying full price to completely and totally adopt you into his family.

You are not like the Son of God, you are not like the daughter of God, you are the Son of God, you are the daughter of God.

Live like it.

Enjoy that.

Worship team, you guys can make your way out.

There's this story in Luke chapter 15, a very famous story that Jesus told called the story of the prodigal son.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And a lot of us know that story because we feel like we're the prodigal son.

The prodigal son is the jerk, younger brother, who says to his father, I wish you were dead, giving your inheritance.

Then he goes off and he spends it all on wild living, right?

Something that none of us in church have ever done.

And then he comes back when he has nothing left and he says, Dad, I'm rock bottom, will you at least just take me in?

And his father runs to him, wraps his arms around him, says, You're my son, and he throws this huge expensive party for the prodigal son.

And a lot of us relate to that story because we feel like I'm the prodigal.

I'm the one that left, I'm the one that went away.

And it's hard to look at the prodigal son and like him, you know, because you're like, you just wasted so much time and you're such a jerk, and your dad's clearly awesome.

Like, what's wrong with you?

But when I read the story of the prodigal son, I don't feel sorry for the prodigal son.

I don't feel sorry for the younger brother.

He's a jerk, yeah.

But he gets a party at the end.

Like it works out really well for him.

Okay?

It's the older brother that I feel sorry for.

Because if you know that story, the older brother, he doesn't leave.

He stays, he's faithful, he's true, he works for his dad, he busts it for his father.

And then when that younger brother comes back and he sees that his younger brother's having this giant party, an expensive party thrown in his honor.

He goes to his father, the older brother, and he says, What's wrong with you?

I have worked for you my whole life.

I've given you everything, all my blood, all my sweat, all my tears.

Never once have I even asked for a party.

Never once have you thrown me a party, but you throw one for him.

And the father looks at his son and he has like a broken heart and he says, Son, everything I have is yours.

It's you that's been choosing to live like a worker, not a son.

His son could have had a party at the snap of his fingers.

His son could have walked to his father and said, Dad, celebrate me.

And his dad would have done it.

But this son was living like a worker, not a son.

He lived like a servant, not an heir.

So he missed out on all the blessings that come along with sonship.

He missed out on all the blessings that come along with being family.

It's time for us as Jesus followers to know who we are.

You are the family of God.

You've been adopted.

You were expensive.

And he would say you're worth it.

And that is a spiritual blessing that we could not put any dollar number to.

To actually live with the knowledge that I belong to God and He adopted me.

He picked me.

You know, adoption, you get to choose.

Biological children, roll the dice.

You know?

That's why we keep having them.

We're like, you know, the more we have, the greater chance that at least one of them's gonna turn out well, right?

So let's just keep it going.

But you know, those of you that have a biological children, it's like you, you're you're stuck with them.

You know, you get one of them, you're like, I don't know why they're like this.

I gotta figure this out.

And sometimes, if you're honest, if you had been given a choice, you would still obviously choose your child.

You would have just made some adjustments, right?

God knew exactly what he was doing when he picked you.

He made a choice, and he doesn't regret it.

So walk out of here today and know that you belong to God.

I know that may not seem super practical, but you should lift your head high.

And you should recognize how important you are.

And you should treat the people around you with a kind of respect that comes from someone who's been blessed so deeply.

And you should live your life in such a way that you show other people the beauty and the blessing that comes from being family with God so that they desire to have that same relationship because it's theirs too if they want it.

But you are blessed.

You've been adopted, you are a son, you are a daughter.

So enjoy the relationship that God has won for you.

Live like it.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Lord, for adopting us.

Thank you, Jesus, for choosing us.

And Lord, I pray that as we, you know, as we worship, as we sing one more song, fill our hearts with the weight of your decision.

Help us see the price that you paid.

Help us believe, not in our minds, but in every fiber of our being.

Help us believe that we are worth the price that you paid.

You're amazing.

You're awesome.

You are worthy of praise.

You are the God of this universe.

And it is incredible for us to sit here, to stand here, not as followers, not as believers, but as sons and as daughters.

We love you, Lord.

Thank you for your blessings.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Love y'all.