I Love My Life The A Team Galatians 3:26-4:7 Ryan Heller April 14, 2013

Transcription

1 I Love My Life The A Team Galatians 3:26-4:7 Ryan Heller April 14, 2013 So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [fervently]. Luke 15:20 (AMP) 1. ARE YOU A SERVANT OR A SON? In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:3-5,7 (ESV) 2. ARE YOU INTIMATE OR DISTANT? And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:6-7 (ESV) And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:29 (ESV)

2 If you re excited to be here, put your hands together. It s good to see you. We welcome you this morning, and to kick things off this morning we need to check out this powerful story of adoption. Well this week I had the opportunity to talk to the Jone s family a little about their experience and of course they have been long time friends of Gena and I s. They told me the story on how they adopted this little girl Eliana. You heard a little bit about it in the video, but in China at the age of 14 the orphanages will often times let go of the 14- year-olds; because they have so many kids and they want to take in the younger children. But obviously for 14 you re not really ready to be an adult, and be on your own. And so lots of times these children end up on the streets. They are involved in drugs and prostitution, in all kinds of other things. And they heard about this girl Eliana that was about to be released, and they really felt God prompting them to adopt this little girl. Amazingly enough it was only a month before her 14th birthday in the time before she would be released, and in that one month period of time they were able to raise $30,000 to go over there and adopt this girl; and were able to get all the paperwork done which was just like a miracle from God. But here's what's maybe the most compelling part of this whole story is that that the people in China, that the orphanage did not even list Eliana as available for adoption, because she had a mild form of cerebral palsy and so her left hand is not formed all the way and she walks with a limp. And they really believed that there wouldn't be anybody that would ever want a girl like that, and so she wasn't even listed as a child that was available for adoption, until these final few weeks. But amazingly enough, Bill and Kelly went to a adopt her. She came back to America, and if you can just imagine being in an orphanage being abandoned by your parents for 14 years not having a family not feeling loved, not feeling accepted, having some physical challenges. You could just imagine some of the baggage and the hardship and the hurt and pain that would be in someone's life. And so Eliana came back to the states, and she began to lash out both physically and verbally towards the Jones kids and towards them as parents, to the point that they had to take her to a ranch in Montana where she could get the therapy and the help that she needed to begin to assimilate back into to the American culture; and also just to learn to feel loved and accepted. Bill and Kelly have been telling her about love they have, been visiting her, but also the same time realizing that she needs to be at another place to kind of move forward with her life. It is an amazing story of persevering love, and it is a beautiful picture of the Father's love for us, because the Bible tells us that God has adopted us into his family. That once we were alienated from God, once we were distant from God, but God in his mercy and grace, when we did not deserve it, chose to adopt us into his very own family. And when I hear this story I m reminded of God's love for us. Eliana is doing better today than when she first got to the place in Montana where she's been staying. She was telling the workers there she didn't need a family; that she didn't need a mom and dad, but she has changed course a little bit and now she is recognizing her need for a family, which is progress. And I talked to my friend Bill Jones, the adoptive father, this week, and he said, Ryan, now she thinks she needs a family, because she needs parents to buy her stuff. And I was like, Yes, a normal teenager. That's right. I'm so glad she is adapting. She's moving back here into normal 2

3 teenage stuff; Dad, I need a computer. Mom, I need makeup. You know, that kind of stuff. She is making tons of progress, and you know I believe that with the love of some parents, like Bill and Kelly, that Eliana is going to do great things for God, even though she's got a lot of hurdles to overcome. But you know Eliana got to decide whether she wants to receive the love of her father, and that's a choice that every single one of us has to make every single day. Do we want to walk? Do we want to live our lives as adopted by the Lord, adopted by the Father? God loves us as a heavenly father and he chooses to adopt us into his family, if you will just let Him. We ve been in this series of messages called I love my life, and we've been talking about the greatest life of all is not my life at all. The greatest life of all is the life that we have in Jesus Christ. And listen. When we're in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God's family. We join God s A team. We are adopted into the family of God. In biblical times, wealthy people would adopt men or boys to ensure their legacy and inheritance could not be passed on to daughters or wives, and so if a man died, he had to have a male heir. And so if a man had lots of daughters or if a family was not able to have children at all, they would adopt another man or a boy to be the heir, and they could make sure that their wives and their daughters and their property and their possessions would be passed on. They would not just be taken in and divided up amongst others, and so sometimes people in the age world would adopt adults sometimes they would adopt slaves, but here's what's amazing. Once you were adopted, all of the old identity was put behind you; any debts that you had, any family connections that you had, all of those cease to exist, because now you're a brand-new person. Now, you're under the authority of another father. Now, you have a new last name. Now, you have a new family. Now, you have a new identity. What a beautiful picture of the adoption that we have in Jesus Christ through God the Father and God the son. We see all of this beginning to unfold in the book of Galatians, the final verse of Galatians 3 and then on into chapter 4. We see this powerful compelling story of God's adoption for us. And it is so difficult today to think about God as a heavenly father, because in our culture we are living in a time where fathers don't have the reputation and the background the fathers did in the ancient world. In fact, just even several generations ago, it was reasonable to think that if a child was born in this nation that they would grow up and have, like, a normal dad. But today actually it is normal to think the opposite. It s normal that many children will not know their fathers; will not have their fathers, and many of us in this room have had father issues. Maybe, you never knew your dad, or maybe you knew your dad; that your dad was hurtful or harmful in some way to you. And you've been wounded and damaged by that, and so it can be kind of scary and kind of difficult at times for us to talk about God as a heavenly father. When we have hang-ups and hurts and pains from the earthly father, but today if we can just try peel all of that back for a moment and really understand what the Bible teaches about God as a heavenly father, I believe it would bring tremendous healing into our own hearts. Because this distorted view that we have of God is really not the view that the Scripture gives to us. Who is God? We have a lot of father distortion. Some people see God as a slave master, you know the taskmaster. Others see God as an employer that requires us to just work harder, to put more effort into our lives. Others see God as a grandfather, kind of the sugar daddy, you know, God I need more stuff, bring it on. And still, others see God as only a judge, but the Bible tells us that God is slow to anger and abounding in mercy and grace. God is a heavenly father. I believe the 3

4 greatest passage in Scripture about God as a heavenly father can be found in the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, is the parable of the prodigal son. It s a popular passage. Jesus told the story about the story of two sons and a father. The oldest son decided he wanted to have his inheritance early. He dishonored the father. He took two thirds of his inheritance, of the father's inheritance. He went away and spoiled it on what the Bible calls riotously living. He partied, you know. He lived large, just blew it. He wasn't responsible, and then one day he woke up and had nothing left. So much so he had no food. He had nowhere to go. Then he thought well maybe my father would just take me back into his family as a servant. He would never want me as a son, because I've just dishonored the father. But maybe, there's a slim chance that a father would just receive me back into the family as a servant. And the Scripture says this in Luke 15:20, So he got up and came to his own father, but while he was still a long way off the father saw him, and was moved with pity and tenderness for him. And he ran and embraced him and kissed him fervently. Luke 15:20 And so while the son thought that he would not be received as a son by the father, he believed he would be a slave. The father received him with open arms, and I love that word the final word there in verse 20. It says that he kissed him, and in the language of the New Testament means he kissed them fervently, kissed him all over. There was grace. There was compassion. There was mercy, but the father loved the son. Jesus told this story to illustrate the picture of what God's love is for his adopted children, what God's love is for us. God receives us today with open arms, with affection, with passion, hugging, and kissing and loving us. It s a beautiful thing to see. Here s a couple of questions today that we have to ask ourselves to really understand what it means to be adopted into God's family. And by the way, I believe that this is so important for us to begin to understand who God is, because if you don't understand who God is you, will either despise him, you will hate Him, or you ll be afraid of Him. But if we can begin to understand the picture that is painted of the love of the Father today from the Scripture, it will make us want to love and embrace Him. So here's the first question we have to ask ourselves, 1. Are we a servant or a son? Look at Galatians 4:3-5,7 (ESV). In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:3-5, 7 Many times we see ourselves as a servant, not a son, and as a servant, we see ourselves many times as having that kind of boss employee relationship. God gives us a task. He were to check all the boxes off, and if we do so, that God will be pleased with 4

5 us. If we mess up or we miss something or were late, then God will kind of smack us around, correct us, ream us out or whatever. Other times, we believe in the law of karma, which is the idea that if I help my neighbor, God is going to bless me with a new car, but that is not in the Bible. The bible teaches us today that we are not servants. We are sons. We are God's children. We are in God s family. God is tender. Romans 2:4 says that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. It is God's kindness. Love leads to obedience. Relationship leads to obedience. Listen. When you know that God loves you want to serve Him when you know that God loves you want to follow Him, if you see God is angry and mean spirited and is your boss, not your father, then you will resent Him and you will fear Him. So, we got some major father distortion going on today. You know, I paid my taxes to the IRS. I m afraid of the IRS. I mean, those guys are crazy. We may have some people today that work for the IRS. You know, you don t mess with the IRS. I paid the IRS, because I have to. I don't like to. I would much rather use that money for some other things. I could do it some much more fruitful productive things to use my resources for, than pay the IRS; but that is my duty right. That is my obligation. I hope today that your relationship with God is not merely duty or obligation. I hope that you're here today because you love God, you want to know God, you want to experience God in your life; not because you have some sense of obligation or duty. You are a servant, you see yourself maybe rather than the son. God loves us and has mercy upon us and we have to get this straight in our mind to really understand who he is. We have the mindset many times of the servant, but we can have the status of the son. And so, you may be a son of God, and yet you may act like a servant. But, you know what we will never have that fruitful abundant life, as long as we have these distorted views of the Father as something other than what he really is. Here s the second question. 2. Are you intimate, or are you distant? And because you are sons, the Scripture says, God has sent his son, his Spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father! So you're no longer a slave but the son, and if a son then an heir through God. This is such an interesting passage. The Bible speaks of this word Abba Father. It says here, the Spirit of the son cries in our heart Abba Father! Abba Father! ABBA is a word that is in is an Aramaic word that means daddy. It means an intimate relationship with the father. It means, kind of that term of endearment, papa. Maybe what a small child will call the father, daddy. And my kids say daddy. You know, it gets my attention, that it's a term of endearment. It s a term of closeness. It represents intimacy and relationship, not distance. And God has given us a wonderful gift in the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the one that that comes into our hearts at the moment that we bow our need to the Lordship of Christ. And the Spirit of God is the one that assures us and reminds us when we begin to start to slip back into the servant mentality. The Spirit says, Oh, no no no no no no no no! He is Abba Father. He reminds us of our son-ship, not our servant-hood. And so, God is not only given us the objective truth, of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave in order that we could have a new life, but he has also given us the spirit to remind us of the intimacy of the relationship that we have with God the Father. So, are we intimate or are we distant? For some of us, this requires a tremendous step of faith, because this is 5

6 not the concept that we have normally thought of God. Maybe it s a little outside the box for us today. When many people think of God, they think of disapproval, judgment, vengeance or anger. They've heard a few verses here and there, and they see God is a one dimensional deity. But, what God is, is multifaceted, and the Scripture tells us that he is slow to anger and abounding in grace, and he is Abba Father. He is one that wants to have this intimate relationship with us. And I love it when my kids crawl on my lap, and say daddy. That just melts the heart, especially if you have a daughter. When I'm playing with my son and my little girl wants some attention, she ll come up and put her arms around my neck and squeeze, and that means, daddy, you need give me some attention and quit playing with little brother. She says, daddy, and my heart just melts. I love that it s such a sweet thing as a father to have that. My kids are into different things. My little boy, he s 5. He s into the ninjas. He s into Power Rangers. Loves that! I d never watched Power Rangers. I didn't know anything about ninjas, until I had a little boy, and now, I'm all about it. I love ninjas. I'm all about the ninjas. My little boy is into ninjas. I m into ninjas. We love it. My little boy loves to wrestle. There s something in little boys heart. They love to wrestle. If I wrestle with my little girl, if I just look at her wrong, she starts to cry. That's not cool with her, but my little boy, he loves to wrestle. He loves to play soccer. He loves ninjas. I m into all of that! My little girl, on the other hand, she s into totally different things. She loves tea parties. I've never been to a tea party in my entire life, until I had a little girl. But I m telling you, I can drink tea with the best of them, pinkies out, all that kind of stuff. We do that at the Heller household. Gina s got little tea sets for Bryn, and we have the sugar, the milk, and the different flavored teas. And we drink together, because my daughter loves to drink tea, so I'm a tea drinker. We have tea parties. We go to restaurants and we have seen parties, because that's what my little girl loves. She loves Angelina ballerina, the cartoon. Now I don't know anything about ballerinas, but I love ballerinas, because I love my little girl. And so we've got leotards and tutus and all kinds of things around the house, all because that's what my daughter is into. And I love my daughter, and I love my son. And that s intimacy, and I believe that this is perhaps the most profound image of God. The thing that could ignite our heart for God more than anything else is to understand that he is Abba Father. You may have never had a relationship with your father here on earth, but I want you know the love of the heavenly father is for you. It s life changing, and I believe that God become the father that many of us have never had before, because he is Abba Father. He is one that is to be known, to be loved, and to be enjoyed. And I love that part of God, because it just helps us to understand our relationship with Him. And it's so important for us to put this into perspective. God wants us to be intimate with Him. God wants us to know Him. God wants us to love Him. He wants us to do so as an affectionate child, loving the father. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:29 (ESV) So what shall we do with this father stuff? Where do we go from here? I ll give you a couple things there's not on your outline. You can write these down. First of all, we have to cultivate time with the Father, spend some time reading the Scripture, praying every single day. That time with the Father is powerful, it s intimate. You can't be intimate with 6

7 someone that you don't know. You can t be close to someone you never spend time with. So we need to get along with the Father. I've been reading the Bible a long time. I've been a pastor for a long time, but it just never gets old because God is always saying something new to me. I need to be encouraged. I need to be lifted up. I need to be corrected, you know. I need it to learn something new. I need some piece of wisdom. God is doing all of that in the time that I just get along with Him and enjoy the scripture, pray and let my heart connect with God. And I want God to do that in your life too. In your life too, the more you spend time with God, the more intimate you will become with him, the more you will know him, and the more you will love him. The second thing is follow the example of the Father. You know, Gina was a schoolteacher for a long time before she joined our church staff, and she used to come home and say Ryan I got these kids in my class, they are crazy. Where did these kids come from? And she would do a parent teacher conferences and she would come home, and she would say, I know why that little boy is the way he is, because I met his mother. I met the father, and when I met the father, then I understood the son. They are all crazy. Amazing isn t it, that sometimes we look and act like our parent from a lot more than we want to admit at times, right. Funny isn't it, but spiritually speaking we ought to exemplify the character of God. We are God's son, Gods daughter. We ought to have God's attributes and pieces. Ephesians Chapter 5 gives us a bunch of omission just a few. Number one, we walk and love. Ephesians 5:2 says love is the crowning virtue of the Christian life. We ought to be the most loving people on the planet. So, we have to love one another. We ought to love God. We love our family. We ought to love others, the Bible says. We have to walk in the light. Ephesians 5:8 tells us that living in purity, living in integrity, living in honor we should give thanks to God. Ephesians 5:4 says we have a heart of gratitude. We gotta be grateful to God for all of his blessings, gotta be grateful for other people and have a spirit of thanks-giving. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:18, we got to be filled with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is one that enables these things to take place in our lives. So, we have followed the example of the Father. Ryan Chapelle is a theologian, and he wrote a little commentary on this particular passage that I thought was so interesting. He was talking about how he had a son that he was trying to raise, but the son did the opposite of everything that the dad told him. The dad told him to do A, and he would do Z. Some of us in this room know what I'm talking about today. And he was so frustrated trying to raise this child, because it seemed like everything he tried to do to instruct him in the right way was not working. And one day he was reading the Scripture, and he was reminded of God's love for us, the fact that he's a heavenly Father. He thought, I m going to change my approach, to do something a little bit different. I m going to do something a little bit out of character for me. I m going to begin to tell the son how much I love him unconditionally. I m going to start telling the son that he could never do anything to make me love him anymore or less. I'm going to begin to teach him to live like a son and not a servant. And he said amazingly enough, that the son began to change the direction of his life and follow the leadership of the father, because he began to experience the love that his father had for him. Isn t that a great picture today of God's love for us? If you experience God's love, you will want to serve Him and know Him. If you never experienced God's love, you will fear Him. You will think God is silly in some way. What a waste of time, you ll be frustrated with God. And it s so important for us to follow the example of the father, to follow that example. Here s 7

8 the third thing that teaches our kids to love the Father, right? We ought to teach our kids. If you're a parent today, teach the kids to love the Father as a parent. We have one of the highest callings on earth to raise children in the ways of the Lord. What a great privilege, what a great opportunity, but listen many times, children make a lot of their judgments on what they believe about the heavenly Father based on what they see in the earthly father. What a responsibility? What an opportunity? And listen dads, when you begin to love your children as God has instructed us to, you open the door to the message of the Gospel to take root in that child's heart. Because they're like, Oh, the love of the heavenly father? Oh, I already have that at home with the earthly father. That totally connects with me. I understand that. That s why Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6 fathers should not provoke their children. We should love them, and train them in the ways of the Lord. Here s the fourth thing you were once a slave, and now you re a son. So, it's silly to go back to slavery. Don't think the way you used to think. Don't believe the way you used to believe. Don't act the way you used to act, because now you re a son. Now you re a part of God's family. Now your intimate with God. I want to give you an opportunity this morning to just open your heart to Jesus Christ, in just a moment. Maybe look at your life and say man this is all cool, and that this is amazing that God is a heavenly Father. And I d like that know Him but I've never joined his family today the Scripture says you can sign the adoption papers this morning. In this hour of worship you can commit your life to Him. Bow your knee before the Lordship of Christ, and invite Him in your life. And you can begin to know God not as a taskmaster, but as an intimate loving father. I want us just to just bow our heads and our hearts for just a moment, and just have a word of prayer today. Let s just do that. Let s just bow together for a word of prayer. I want to pray for you today for God to come into your heart and your life and maybe you would say, today Ryan, I want to ask Christ into my life. I want to know the Father. The Bible says Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the grave in order that we can experience the life, and that new life comes when we commit our lives to Him and Christ comes in and makes us new. And we are adopted into the family of God. And if you d like to make that decision this morning I want to just lead you in a word of prayer, and in this prayer you ll be saying, I want to follow Christ. I want to invite Him into my life. Just pray this with me in this moment, in the stillness of this room while no one is moving around. Lord please forgive my sins. Lord please forgive my sins. I m putting my faith in Jesus and what he did at the cross. I m putting my faith in Jesus and what he did at the cross, for the forgiveness of my sins. I m putting my faith in Jesus and what he did at the cross for the forgiveness of my sins. And now, Lord, help me to walk with you each day as I join your family And we pray this all in your wonderful, wonderful name. Amen. 8