Predestined for Adoption (Eph 1:5-6)

you can hear me alright well good morning come on in it's good to have everyone here there should be plenty of seats and if you gotta squeeze in go ahead and squeeze in but we've got a good crew here today praise the

Lord ready to worship the Lord together good to be in the house of the Lord isn't it amen we've got some announcements before we officially start our service a reminder that every single

Tuesday morning between 7 and 8 a .m. we open the doors to this building and this is a time for intentional prayer there's a group of us that are that are here consistently but if you can only be here for a few moments before work or you know before school or whatever that may be if you can come in for five minutes come in pray we want to be a people of prayer we want to be a people that go to the source and are constantly reminded of our desperate need for God to work in our hearts and that's what prayer really is prayer isn't changing

God's mind prayer is God working in us to change our minds and so we want to pray for you if you have a prayer request if anything in your life circumstances or whatever that might be let us know so we can put that on the list and we can be intentional to pray for you by name or whatever that circumstance may be so every

Tuesday morning between 7 and 8 these doors are open to anyone also

Wednesday nights if you've not been able to join us for Wednesday night Bible study you have been missing out

I know some of you have work and schedules that don't allow that but if you can at all

I encourage you Wednesday nights are a very intimate unique time as we open

God's word together and we just walk through all of us as adults we meet in this room we have some tables set up and we're walking through the book of Jude looking at how we deal with false teachers and we're just verse by verse

I think we actually just spent two weeks on one single verse didn't we because we're just talking through it where it's a dialogue type of setting and then the youth have been going through the book of first John with pastor

Jeremiah there he is over at the house and so if you know youth that want to be involved in that what a phenomenal teacher

I can't imagine if I would have grown up with a youth teacher like pastor Jeremiah pouring the word into me praise

God for that so take advantage of that time it's 630 on Wednesday nights every Wednesday and then finally we have our

Quintinia feast our fellowship feast every single Sunday please plan on staying we have plenty of food for everyone this is a great time to grow in relationship it's fellowship and men you know the routine we break down the chairs and set up tables immediately after service thank you for for helping us with that but as soon as we're done eating we do every week a sermon

Q &A so the sermon today will be the topic of our Q &A and if you have questions if you have concerns if you have critiques this is a time where we open the floor and be able to talk through that so I encourage you if you're interested in that to be able to stay well before we actually start our service we always pray for another another local body and this local body that I would like for us to pray for today is actually not super local to us but it is a local body of believers in Tampa Florida and the church is named the

Grove and the Grove has actually been instrumental as of late in helping us they have been sending us financial resources because they love what

God's doing here and they're hoping to send teams up this way and pastors and people that work in specific ministries to help us formulate this is a great church

I believe the pastor there Kirk Gephardt I've known him for a long time and I believe he actually was on staff with John MacArthur for 10 years of his life so this church is a very like -minded church they love the

Lord and they love us so we want to stop now and we want to pray for the Grove and pray that God would work in their midst today so if you don't mind pray with me.

Dear Heavenly Father God we come to you this morning and thank you for bringing us together Father we we know that we are not the only saints gathering this morning even in this community there are other saints all over town all over this this region and state and country and world that are going to worship you in spirit and truth and Father I pray that you would be honored in it.

God right now we want to lift up our brothers and sisters at the Grove in Tampa Florida I pray that you prepare their hearts even now as they gather to worship you to love you to adore you

I pray for their elders and their leadership that you would give them wisdom and discernment

I pray that you would allow whoever is preaching this morning to to boldly proclaim the full counsel of God not to not to skip things that are difficult and hard but to address whatever is in the text and address it well clarity and that you illuminate the hearts and minds of the people that are there that they may be molded by your truth by your word

Father I pray that you bring about revival in their midst I pray that you would work within them not a superficial emotional response but true deep life -changing revival one that begins to permeate within to a community change it because it's salt and light.

Father we just lift those brothers up we thank you for them we pray you bless them in Christ's name Amen our call to worship comes from Psalm 96 where we read ascribe to the

Lord O families of the peoples ascribe to the

Lord the glory due his name worship the

Lord in the splendor of holiness say among the nations the

Lord reigns and all

God's people said Amen. Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father we just want to adore your holy name and God we thank you for all that you do we see the splendor of your majesty in the creation all around us and God thank you so much to be able to gather together and to worship you in spirit and in truth.

God I just pray that you would help us to remove all distractions and all of our focus would be on you Jesus. We pray this in your name.

Amen. where King David cried out hear my cry

O God listen to my prayer from the end of the earth I call to you and my heart is faint lead me to the rock that is higher than I for you have been my refuge a strong tower against the enemy let me dwell in your tent forever let me take a refuge under the shelter of your wings say

La. For you O God have heard my vows you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name prolong the life of the

King may his years endure all to all generations may he be enthroned forever before God appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him so I will ever sing praises to your name as I perform my vows day by day.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father God I just pray that our hearts too would cry out to you that we would recognize who you are you are the everlasting

King may your name forever be magnified and exalted. Lord we simply confess before you that we are people in need of a

Redeemer a Savior that was long prophesied ago and God we know your word does not return empty but God your word is truth and so when you say something it is going to happen so Lord we just pray for your power this morning we pray that your spirit would illuminate our hearts to the preaching of your word.

We pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen. Your name is great as air

As a sinless Savior died My sinful soul is counted free

For God the justice is satisfied

To unchain

His love I can preserve

My soul is purged by His blood

My life is free With Christ on high

With Christ my Savior, Lord With Christ my

Savior, Lord And He the

Father of all He shall give

His only Son To match

His trinity Of saving the

Father's sons His faith has made the chosen

His sons to notice

Upon His shoulders My sin that held

Him there Until it was accomplished

His faith I will not forsake

And I will boast of Him Why should

I keep from His reign? Why should

I kiss on His wings?

Amen. Father as we continue this time of worship this evening I would pray Lord that your

Holy Spirit would illuminate this place God we thank you for the word that is present here in song as we sing these songs back to you

Father God as you have given them to us and I just pray that you accept this offering of praise Lord I pray that each person here is ready to receive the word that you have

Lord God we know that your word does not return void and we expect that this morning

Father we thank you for it Jesus we thank you for it This we know with all our hearts that His wounds have paid my ransom

What a beautiful poetic truth His wounds have paid my ransom

This is why we gather today Amen We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter 1

Ephesians chapter 1 I believe we're now coming into week 7 and our primary text for today is going to be verses 5 and 6 however as a reminder for those of you that have been with us in this study you know that in the

Greek starting in verse 3 all the way to verse 14 is one long run -on sentence meaning that that entire section is one continuous thought from the

Apostle Paul and so even though we're going to focus on just a couple of verses I want us to read it as a whole as we gather every week going through these so we get the understanding and we kind of get a well -rounded context of what

Paul is getting at so let's start reading there in verse 3 of Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul says blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love

He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace with which

He has blessed us in the beloved in Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which

He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which

He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to Him things in heaven and things on earth in Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory in Him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory

I don't know about you but every time I read that one long sentence from the

Apostle Paul it gives me peace and it makes me excited all at the same time so let's pray, let's go to the

Lord in prayer once again let's ask that He would illuminate our hearts and minds to this immense truth

Dear Heavenly Father, God, we come to You once again and we acknowledge our frailty in understanding the deep truths that You've given us in Scripture even though those deep truths are clear and precise

Lord, I ask now for all of us here that You would, through the indwelling and the illumination of the

Holy Spirit help us to understand God, guard my lips from error that I may speak only truth from Your word

Lord, I pray that You prepare our hearts that this word just as You promised

Your word does not return void it always accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish and we ask that it would do that sanctifying work in our hearts this morning in Christ's name,

Amen Well, two weeks ago we saw there back in verse 4 of this section how the creator of the universe, the triune

God chose us in Christ and He did so before He had ever even created anything before any of the universe was created it was the triune

God alone and He chose us and how this choosing was not based on anything in or of or from you and I had nothing to do with us, there was nothing about us that made us more appealing than any other person to God there was nothing in Nathan that made me more appealing to God than someone else nothing about you that made you more appealing to God than something else meaning that we were not smarter, we were not wiser, we were not more lovable we were not more forgivable than any other created image bearer this choice was based solely on the sovereign perfect counsel of the triune

God God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit alone this

God that was in perfect union and perfect oneness throughout all of eternity that took counsel only in Himself has chosen and the purpose of this choosing was what?

it was to make us holy and blameless before Him we weren't wise, we weren't lovable, we weren't good we were dead and we were sinners but He set

His love upon us and chose us so that we may be holy and blameless and how did

He accomplish this? how did He accomplish setting out, choosing us and making us holy and blameless before Him?

He does so by the work of that triune God the work that only a triune

God could accomplish no outsourcing of any way from a created being it was all in Himself, the

Father chose us before the foundations of the world the Holy Spirit regenerated us that new birth that we've talked about recently that we've been brought from death to life

Paul says we are dead in our trespasses and sins and we need life just as Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and He said you must be born again the

Holy Spirit sets out to regenerate us and bring us into life so that we could see what the second person of the

Godhead did Jesus the Son, what did He do? He purchased us He purchased us through His life through His death and through His resurrection and subsequently justifying us making us righteous making us holy and blameless and bringing us created beings into union with that perfect triune

God that was perfectly self -sufficient it's amazing right?

What a beautiful truth this is, what a magnificent truth that we can now rest in as Christians this gives us great hope and courage moving forward this gives us a view of the

God of the Bible in a way that the human mind can't even begin to comprehend to be chosen, to be sought after and redeemed by the

Creator don't fall asleep Christian, hold on think about that for a second don't let that become just white noise in the background because you're so used to hearing this in church the

Creator of all things chose you sought you and redeemed you to make you holy and blameless before Him what a beautiful truth but wait there's more there's more you say more?

more than that? How could there possibly be more? the idea of just that alone causes my heart to just burst with joy and gratitude because my

Creator purchased me at such a cost He purchases me at the cost of His own Son and He buys me and I will gladly serve

Him and I'll serve Him as a slave I will serve Him as I feed off of the leftovers and the crumbs from His table that's what my heart desires because I think how could there possibly be more?

but it turns out that He didn't choose me for that He didn't choose you for that even though we didn't deserve

Him chasing after us and redeeming us He has prepared so much more than crumbs and leftovers for us so much more look at verse 5 as a matter of fact look at where verse 5 is and then jump back two words the verse headings are unfortunately placed wrong here but Paul says in love

He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ this choosing even though it was not based on anything lovable about me it was not arbitrary it was intentional and it was because He loved me

He loved me He loved you in love

Paul says in love because of His great love rooted in His agape love a deep rooted forever abiding love that will never end because of this love

He predestined I know this is a scary word for many

Christians today I've actually had I've actually had professing

Christians say you know what I don't believe all that predestination stuff Paul sure seems to believe it he uses this exact phrase four times in his writings

Luke even uses it over in the book of Acts himself it's hard to deny something when you see the very word in scripture isn't it this word simply means determining beforehand ordaining deciding ahead of time so when

Paul uses this word predestined it means that God has determined certain things to occur ahead of time to deny this truth or to try and make it mean something other than that is to deny scripture

I'm sorry words have meaning and those words are used very intentionally here by the apostle

Paul He chose us and He predestined us beforehand and He does so for us for you and I those of us that are in Christ for what?

what did He predestine us for? what's Paul say? adoption adoption adoption is a beautiful thing isn't it we actually have some adopted children in this room right now man praise

God some of you may have been adopted raised by parents that loved you and cared for you and provided for you when

I think of adoption I can't help but think of a friend of mine I want to share a story, I don't share many stories on Sundays do

I but I like how this story connects to this concept of adoption there was a friend of mine who he and his sister were both adopted and they were adopted out of unthinkable circumstances

I remember hearing his story and as he's sharing it I remember tears running down my face

I saw such a beautiful picture of the gospel here I was just overwhelmed by it, it stuck with me he and his sister grew up as young children in Russia they were both very young, very small children yet he was pushed out of the house and left to fend for himself on the streets stealing for food and living in the cold trying to provide for himself and when

I say young I mean very young his sister had it worse than him his sister lived in a one room flat with her mother and I'm not even going to go into detail but was exposed to things that you and I could not even imagine praise the

Lord they were eventually brought into an orphanage and it was found that they were siblings and so they were paired up and that is until an

American couple came to that orphanage and specifically chose them looked at them said

I want them I want to love them and he tells the story he says on the way to the airport when all the adoption was going through they asked them what would you like to eat, you can eat anything and he recalls always seeing those golden arches and never tasting it and being drawn to it and so he chose oh

McDonald's and he realized oh things are about to change when he got to order anything he wanted to and he got to finally taste

Siri's trying to talk to me here sorry he got to taste this amazing

McDonald's and so again he knew his life had changed but the magnitude of this change did not reveal itself until he got into the states you would think that first class seats on a plane would have set it off but he had no context for any of that it turns out that this couple that adopted them was extraordinarily wealthy even according to American standards and my friend he recalls pulling up to the gate of an estate and there's a gate there and on both sides of the gate is engraved the first letter of the initials of this these new parents name and and the father the new adopted father turns around to these two children and they can barely understand but he turns to them and he says all of this is mine and now from here on out it is also yours and he said those initials on that gate those are now your initials and my friend said it just got better from there he drove up this driveway and I've seen this house so I know exactly he's telling the truth he drives through the gate and drives up this driveway and sees the horse pasture with a beautiful barn and all these beautiful horses and trainers and people taking care of them and he looks over and he sees a private lake that belongs to them alone he sees the tennis courts he drives up to the 23 ,000 square foot mansion in the dead center of this estate and best of all he said there was family if there was ever a modern day picture of the magnificent doctrine of adoption this is it isn't it what a beautiful picture of what it means to be brought into the household of faith as a child but you see that story is as moving as it is and as beautiful a picture it is still falls so short falls short because you and I were not lovable seemingly innocent little children we were children of wrath just like the rest of mankind we were enemies of God Paul says later in Ephesians chapter 5 he speaks of the sons of disobedience that at one point we were disobedient to God we hated the creator we railed against the creator and then realizing this brings deeper meaning to being adopted as sons doesn't it something far greater than a mere estate with horses and lakes and tennis courts my favorite theologian a man by the name of John Owen he described adoption as the great and fountain privilege of salvation in Christ the great and fountain privilege you can hear the poetic nature of those words ringing true is this beautiful fountain not only did

God redeem us from our enmity with him but he does so in order to give us the privilege of sonship and this is accomplished as Paul said there in verse 5 when he says in love he predestines us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ we see this truth clearly in Paul's writing in Galatians chapter 4 as a matter of fact turn your

Bibles over there with me I want you to see it Galatians chapter 4 and we're going to be looking starting in verse 4

Paul says there in verse 4 of Galatians 4 but when the fullness of time had come what is

Paul meaning that perfect timing of God's ordaining purpose God had aligned even the stars were aligned up for the very birth of Jesus and that life of Jesus lived out exactly the way it should until God had ordained for Jesus to be hung on the cross and then three days later the perfect timing of him raising from the dead and defeating that death claiming that it has no victory over him or us those that he brings in that's what

Paul's saying but when the fullness of time had come he said God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law just like you and I right except different we're born under the law we're born under that judgment but Jesus didn't have sin because he was born of a woman he didn't have an earthly father right we all have an earthly father that's why the virgin birth is so important he's born of a woman born under the law he is sinless but he is still there to fulfill the law that's what

Jesus did he fulfilled the law he lived under it so that he could fulfill it to its perfection in verse 5 he says he does so to redeem those who were under the law who's that?

it's you and I we're the those we're the ones that were under the law so that we might receive crumbs and leftovers as slaves is that what it says?

no it says so that we might receive adoption as sons what does that all mean?

what does he mean by this? what does that look like? well look at verse 6 and because you are sons

God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying

Abba Father what's Paul talking about? he's talking about the fact that our

Savior Jesus Christ is interceding on our behalf the Holy Spirit is interceding he is crying out

Abba Father we are held by Christ we are adopted we are brought in we are made sons and Christ himself is interceding to the

Father for us look at verse 7 so you are no longer a slave you're no longer eating crumbs and leftovers you're no longer a slave you're no longer a slave to sin you're no longer a slave to death you're no longer a slave to self you are but a son a son and if a son if you are a son if you have been brought from being a slave that was dead in his trespasses and sins you are now a son and if you are a son what does that mean for you and I?

that we are now heirs through God you and I are heirs through God I have to address something here a lot of people like to say you are no longer a slave but a son or a daughter and if a son or a daughter then an heir through Christ the problem is they're missing the point that's not the purpose of what

Paul is saying here you see back then only the son is an heir only the son the daughter was not an heir does that mean that only male

Christians are the heir to whatever this inheritance is?

absolutely not of course not this is imagery of the spiritual position that all believers male and female

Jew and Gentile every single believer are beneficiaries of we are sons because we inherit we are heirs

I had a friend ask me today actually in light of this very topic he brought up this hypothetical he says doesn't an heir only inherit whenever the father passes away?

you see his line of thinking he's like because our father never passes away we never actually inherit anything and so he got stuck in this vortex this cycle of the cyclical thinking but that question implies though that we as sons don't have access to the father's wealth until he's gone and that's just not true here's the way to think about it we don't control it it's not ours to do with as we please we simply have access to the cattle on a thousand hills and that access that we have to the cattle on a thousand hills is based upon our good and gracious all -knowing wise father seeing fit to give us access it doesn't mean that it's not ours it just means that our father knows us and he gives us what we need when we need it it goes back to what we mentioned earlier on in this study when the apostle

Paul said blessed be the father and God of our Lord Jesus God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing we have access to all of it every spiritual blessing but he gives us as we need and we have no need we are heirs our father is the one that keeps it and he shares with us his children look at verse 7 of that passage in Galatians there so you are no longer a slave you see this phrase would have resonated with these

Christians back then most Christians during that time were at a lower economic status not many rich, not many noble or called and Christians struggled during this time most of them and they could understand this concept of being purchased they understood being bought into servitude they understood that far greater than we can today it's hard for us to get our minds wrapped around it we have so much freedom but for them they knew that was a great possibility for them in their lives and in some cases probably the best case scenario that they get crumbs and leftovers as a servant because someone has purchased them but Paul doesn't leave it there he keeps mentioning this word adoption doesn't he and we've already talked about a beautiful picture of adoption that we've seen even in our culture today but they understood adoption differently than we'd even do for them adoption and I think this is why

Paul refers to it often within the Roman culture of that day adopted sons had actually more rights than biological sons if you went through the process of adopting someone you were actually purchasing them so it was rare in the

Roman culture for children to get adopted they saw that as just a burden on the family and it's unfortunate their purpose for adoption was a legal purpose what they would do is let's say you had a son and your son's probably not really good with money and resources and you know if he takes over the family name that son is going to squander the family wealth and everyone's in trouble and so what they did was they said okay well we can find the child of a servant or we can find a lower income family that has a son that has an aptitude towards these things that I can train and he is gifted in these areas and I can then adopt that son and sometimes they would pay a great price for these men and it was usually someone in the range of 16 to 20 late 20s and they would purchase these men and what they would do is they would adopt them into the family and they would then give them their name and they would then place them over the household when they go when they're gone and this was a way to protect the family name it was a way to protect the family wealth it's interesting right very different reasonings for adoption in that culture and the reason that they would do this is because they knew by law that when they brought that young man in they could never remove him they were legally never allowed to disown him they were legally never allowed to cut him out of the will no matter what he did he was permanently secure and they were not allowed to disavow him at all it's pretty secure right so think about that for a second this is how these

Christians were thinking about adoption as Paul keeps using this word and he correlates it with a slave a slave is purchased but a slave is purchased as a slave an adoption was a purchase but an adoption was secure and was given the name this context in which

Paul is writing it changes the whole dynamic doesn't it you can see it from their perspective and so when he says there in verse 7 so you were no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir through God this heir through God can never be disowned can never be cut out of the inheritance this idea that they had been brought into the household of God through adoption was transformative to them this must have blown their minds as they were looking at this going to simply be a slave of a good master was still a slave that's a good thing to be purchased and made a slave of a good master that's a good thing in their minds because my life is going to be better right leftovers and crumbs are better than starvation but they also saw that even a freed slave someone that has actually been freed by their master in that culture were still considered only slightly better than a slave that was in bondage they didn't have the rights and the privileges they didn't have the name so when

Paul says that we're not simply freed we're adopted that's a game changer and remember

Paul's using this in a spiritual sense but to the people he's writing this is how they would have understood this

God didn't purchase us so that we could be indentured servants that wasn't the purpose of Christ shedding his blood for us he did so to give us a seat at the table a seat that can never be dismissed we'll look back at our passage in Ephesians in verse 5 again in love he predestined us for adoption to himself and remember

God doesn't change does he God doesn't change his mind God doesn't regret when he does something the way a man would regret he knows all things there's nothing that we can do that will shock him and cause him to disown us our adoption is secure because it's through Jesus and to the

Father this adoption is far more secure than any earthly adoption all shadows of things fall short don't they of the substance in 1

John 3 John writes see what kind of love the

Father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are see what kind of love the

Father has given to us this is what God has given us and with God there are no take backs are there praise

God he's not going to bring us into the household of faith and adopt us just to strip that from us because he doesn't like our actions because he's mad at us because we didn't live up to his expectations he already knows he knows that failure that you had yesterday he knows that failure that you're going to have again today he knows the failure that you're going to have next week and guess what he already paid for it it's done and you're secure and you can rest in this beautiful truth of adoption and we see that in our passage in verse 5 in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will again no outside source

God does not come to us and say what would you like what would you like to do let's counsel together let's rally, let's brainstorm here guys what's best for you no

God does what he sees fit and everything that he sees fit is good because all things that God does is good and he doesn't reverse it so we've seen that he has chosen us before the foundation of the world and that in love he predestined us to adoption as sons but why?

why has he done so? we know it wasn't because we were lovable we know that it wasn't because he was lonely and needed our companionship we know that he was self -sufficient in and of himself perfectly the triune

God in eternity past and had no need of even worshippers to worship him he had no need he was sufficient so why?

why did he choose us? why did he love us? why did he predestine to adopt us? look at verse 6 all of this is to the praise of his glory with which he has blessed us remember

Paul started out this whole sentence praising God in verse 3 right? blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ he started with praise because he has chosen us he started with praise because he has loved us he started with praise because he has adopted us and he is the one that did it he is the author he is the finisher of our faith and he is worthy of all praise he is the one yes he could have left us to ourselves at enmity with him showing us his creatures, his great justice and his great wrath and he would have been perfectly righteous and just in doing so but since he is worthy of all praise he has chosen some of us as instruments of grace so that all creation could see how merciful how kind how patient how loving how magnificent in his fullness you see

God God has all of these attributes about himself there is this massive spectrum of them and we think of them kind of on a timeline we think well there is

God's wrath over here and then there is God's love over here we can't think in those terms

God is one all of it is one all of it is together as a whole within the triune

God and he has created worshippers that can see the fullness of God how would we see the fullness of God if we didn't get to see the wrath of God and the justice and the righteousness of God and how would we have known the love of God without seeing that sight how could we know who

God is in his fullness without him revealing these things to us and now because he has chosen some of us to be a vessel for grace and mercy and adopted us as children we desire to praise him because of that glorious grace it all goes back to praise doesn't it it starts with praise and it's just a continual cycle of praise as Paul is laying out this beautiful foundation of what

God has done in salvation this grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved and even though we are made sons we are sons that desire to serve our good and gracious father that's the beautiful part this is what makes

Christianity so vastly different than religion so vastly different all other gods create servants think about every idol in your life everything that you fall prey to serving what does it do to you?

it makes you a servant to it it breaks you down and takes and takes and takes but the one true

God the triune God God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit the three in one he doesn't create servants he creates sons and as sons we desire to serve him

I think this is why Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden all who are carrying the servant burden of those other gods and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now

Christian you may understand the great doctrine of regeneration it's a beautiful truth isn't it?

death to life you may affirm the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone and you should and that is a tremendous truth that causes us to worship but I'll tell you right now until you comprehend this doctrine of adoption those words of Jesus will not be fully realized for my yoke is easy and my burden is light because we are not mere hired hands we are not simple indentured servants because of the price that he has paid for us we are co -heirs co -heirs with Christ and it's all because he loves us he has made us his sons well in light of this great truth let us now celebrate and express that sonship as we do every week through the ordinance of the

Lord's Supper this is but a foretaste of the feast to come that great feasting table that's only for family so today as we prepare our hearts for this if you are in Christ if you have put your faith and trust in Christ in Christ alone and it is not anything that you have done that you acknowledge oh it's

Christ Christ alone and you have been baptized and you are an active participating member of a healthy church or searching for that in the moment but in good standing with an evangelical church you are welcome to this table but I challenge you take this seriously this is but a picture of what we're identifying as as a people a people that have room at that table we're looking at each other as we partake of these elements and they are but a taste but it is a taste so that we can look around and be encouraged that you identify as being in Christ and you identify as being in Christ I identify as being in Christ and we are in obedience to that wonderful Savior and we take part in Him because He has paid the price for us so let us pray now that God would be honored in this time of worship dear heavenly

Father God we thank you for this beautiful truth of adoption God help us to rest in this sonship

God knowing that your yoke is easy and your burden is light

God knowing that you you have brought us into the household of faith through the merits of your son