Seeing Myself as God's Child

You know, every once in a while, somebody that doesn't know me, somebody maybe I've met traveling, finds out that I'm a pastor. And that always does something strange to the conversation, right? You know, so it's always kind of interesting to kind of put that out there and have people like recoil or get overly curious. Really? I have an uncle who was a priest or they've tried all kinds of awkward things to cover their shock. But once in a while, people do this. They say, "Oh, you're a pastor?" Well, you know, I don't believe in God. And then they just kind of sit back in the folded arms like, "I just dropped a bomb into this conversation. I bet you've never heard that before. See how you handle that, right?" And then depending on how the conversation is going in the situation, I'll often say something like this, "You know, tell me about the God that you don't believe in."

And they often say something like this, "Well, you know, God, the Christian God. You know, the one who kind of runs the universe is kind of the galactic CEO. And he sits kind of at his CEO desk up in the cloud somewhere with his long white beard. And you know, they tell us that we're supposed to obey all the rules and follow what God tells us to do. But I grew up in that system and I did all the rules and it doesn't work. Because I did everything we were supposed to do and my life still turned out with some really terrible things in it." Or they'll say, "I had an uncle who was the godliest man you ever knew or my grandma. She was a saint." Or they'll say, "I had a little brother or a little sister." And then they were so good and we prayed so hard for them. But that equation they teach us in church, you know, "Believe in God plus do all the right things equals a good life." Yeah, that doesn't work. And so I don't believe in God because the sum of that equation, it just doesn't add up.

And if they say something like that, which is almost always some kind of direction that they'll go. And in fact, if you read why people become atheists, it's often, often a story like that. And I'll say, "You know what? Actually, I don't believe in that God either." If that's what you call God, then I'm an atheist because I actually don't believe in that God. So let me tell you about the God I do believe in. And they're like, "Yeah, well, if that's not God, then what kind of God do you believe in?" And we get into a productive conversation. See, because there's two common ways you can picture God. Now, there's more than two ways, of course, you can think of God. There's a myriad ways. But in our society, there's two common ways. And one of them will always disillusion you. Only one of them will help you. And one of these ways is biblical, and one is not found in the Bible, even though many people who grow up in Christian churches think that this is the model of God that's proclaimed in the Bible, but it's not. And so let's talk about this this morning.

There almost couldn't be anything more important to talk about when it comes to your spiritual life. I want to invite you to grab the message notes that look like this in your bulletins with the logo, "Free" on the top. That's the name of our series in the book of Galatians in the Bible. And this morning, we're going through Galatians 3:26 through Galatians 4:7. As we go through this amazing book of the Bible section by section, this was probably the first book in what we call the New Testament, the part of the Bible that was written after Jesus Christ. It was probably the very first book of that section of the Bible that we've probably written around 49 A.D. And it's got some real important things in this that the early church, the early Christian church was struggling with in terms of its identity, that 2,000 years later, the Christian church is still struggling with today.

Because in this passage, the writer to the church at Galatia, the apostle Paul, talks about two ways to see my relationship with God. And the first way is this, jot these down in your notes, "Boss employee." You see God as the boss, the galactic CEO, and I'm kind of like his employee, his servant. Now, if you see your relationship with God this way, there are some natural corollaries, some extensions of this belief that almost always work themselves out in your life. And you see them listed as bullets in your notes. First is what I call job description religion, where it's kind of like since God's the CEO, I'm his employee, I do what's on the list of rules and responsibilities, the job description, and if it's not on the list, it's not my job.

And consequently, there's an expectation of compensation, right? Because I'm working for the big man upstairs, and so you expect payment from God after you've kept all the rules in the job description, right? And if he doesn't pay you for doing your job, for being a good boy, a good girl, for doing all the rules, then you get bitter. Why was I so good for so long, for so little? And at the same time, you have kind of a constant fear that I'm not measuring up, always slightly afraid of God's the CEO that he's going to fire me, right? And so I'm always thinking, I've got to do better, I've got to do better because I don't know if I'm pleasing him or not, and so consequently there's always simmering anger and resentment.

You get angry, especially when God seems to bless other employees who are not doing as good a job as you're doing. Doesn't he see, shouldn't I be getting a bonus? You know, shouldn't I be getting a raise? And you're treating these people the way you're treating them, they're not doing as good a job as I am. And you start getting mad, and you start judging other people, and this all leads to exhaustion. You get burned out from working so hard, kind of you become a workaholic Christian, and you're obeying simply based on rules. I look at this list on screen right here, and you know what I cannot help but think of? The story that Jesus told, it's probably his most famous story ever. You know it as the parable of the prodigal son. It should be a parable of the two sons, is what we should call it, because here's just a brief recap.

One son is the rebellious son, right? And he takes all of his inheritance, and he squanders all the money on parties and prostitutes, as one Bible translation says. And he crawls back and says, "Father, I'm unworthy to be called your son. I'm so bad, I'm so bad. Instead, let me live as one of your, what does he say? Servants. Put me in a boss-employee relationship. Because I'm unworthy to be a son. So make me one of your hired men." And the father says, "Oh, you're my son." And he puts a royal robe on his son, and he hugs him and he puts a ring on his finger in this beautiful painting by Rembrandt. That's the father hugging the son, who's got a shaved head, and he's probably full of lice, and he stinks, and the father says, "You're my son. I thought you were dead, and you're found." Meanwhile, there's the other son. And the Bible says he is out what? Working as usual.

Not partying, not even when there's a righteous reason to party. He's out in the fields working. When he hears about the party, he is ticked off. And in this painting by Rembrandt, he's represented by the man standing there, judging in the corner. And the father comes out to him, too, just like he runs to the other son. He comes out to the working son. And he says, "Why won't you come in?" And do you remember what the son says? He says, "All these years I've been--" Do you remember what he says? "Slaving for you. And you never threw me a party." And the father says, "But my son, all I have is yours. This is all yours. You're on a party with your friends. Any time you want it, this is all your inheritance right now. You're my son. You're not my slave."

You know, I heard this parable for years before I recognized that the two sons had something in common. Do you see what it is? They both saw their relationship with the father in terms of, they were what? They were servants. They poisoned their relationship with their father. And of course, that's exactly Jesus' point. Both the sinners and the saints had it wrong. They saw God this way in terms of trying to measure up and they thought of themselves as servants, either good servants or either bad servants. And he says, "No, your sons, your daughters." And that's the second way to see a relationship with God, as a father-child relationship.

We've been going through this book of Galatians, fascinating book of the Bible, and again, the writer, the Apostle Paul, what he's been trying to do for this whole book is to move the Galatians, who were Gentile converts to belief in Jesus Christ, from the first way of looking at God to the second way of looking at God. He's been saying, "I want to move you from works to faith, from law to grace." And he's been trying all kinds of different arguments and different metaphors. And here, in this section we're going to study today, he says, "Let me put it this way. You're no longer slaves, but your sons, your daughters." Because there's four elements of this relationship, four results of truly seeing your relationship to God like this. And Paul points out these four in these verses, and I want you to jot these down, because these could change everything.

Number one, it means I have a new identity. I have a new, a totally new identity. Chapter 3, verses 26 and 27. So, in Christ Jesus, if you simply have placed your faith in Messiah Jesus, you are, what does he say? All children of God through faith. He didn't earn it, not through works, not through deeds, through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, placed your faith in Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. Circle that phrase, "clothed with Christ." You know how the prodigal son's dad put a royal robe on him? Well, you have been clothed with royal identity too. You've been clothed with Christ. And what that means is that when the Heavenly Father looks at you, what he sees is his son. You've put on a new identity.

Now, just stop just a second, because some of you are going, "Yeah, I don't know, all children of God, I've heard it before." Stop. Just imagine if you really believed that to be true of you every second of your life. Think of the difference it would make. In fact, right now, just imagine your hand in the Father's hand. You might look at this picture on the screen, and you say, "That's not my hand. That's a baby's hand. That's an innocent hand. That's a clean hand." Right? If my hand was in the Father's hand in that picture, it would be scarred. It would be blood-stained. I got guilt on my hands. I got mileage on my hands. That's not a picture of my relationship with God.

I just got this email this week from somebody who watched one of our old sermons on our website. You've got to listen to this. "René, I could never fully believe God loved me. I know I'm saved. I accepted Jesus. However, I thought he didn't really love me, the real me. I was just one of the people who accepted him, and so he had to fulfill his promise to save me, even though I wasn't worthy. That was my sick impression of God. Then I heard you describe the prodigal son. As dirty as he was, with pig slop on his body, no shoes for his feet, stink and sweat and dust from travel. And his father was filled with compassion for him, and ran to him and threw his arms around him and smothered him with kisses. And you said, 'That is a picture of your father God, and I believed you and it changed my life.' I have found the strength to go on and find help for my wounds, because I know I'm loved." Man, I hope you hear this, and I hope you believe it. Your loving father has clothed you with Christ. You have a new identity, and it gets even better, even richer.

Because second, this means I have a new family. A new family that goes beyond borders. Here's why this is so important. In 1960, you know how many kids were raised without a father in their house? In America? 3%. 3% of kids in America were raised without a father in their house. You know what it is today? 41%. 41% of the kids in America are raised without a father in the household for at least part of their childhood. Now, for most of my childhood, I was one of those 41%. And I know how awesome single moms are. I had a fantastic single mom. Because she did a wonderful job, didn't she? No, that's not what I'm... that sounded weird. But listen, there's something that produces, right? When there's that many people without a dad in the house, you know what? It produces a longing for a family, right? I mean, you look at all these extended families and these families that have all the relatives intact, and you go, "Man, I feel kind of like on the outs."

And maybe you feel like that. Maybe because of divorce or because of death or some other geographical reason. You're separated from your family, and sometimes you feel like you're on the outside looking in. But Paul is saying to the Galatians who were being told that by some false teachers and being told, "Here's what you have to do to really be part of the family." Paul's saying, "No, you're part of us. You're part of a great, big, wonderful, giant family. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female," he says, "for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Now, look at this verse. Can you imagine how radical this was in the first century to say this?

You know what? He's talking about the three major divisions in that world that were cleaving that society apart. Jew and Gentile, come on. That was not just a religious argument. That was a political argument, right? I mean, you would literally cause wars because of that division. Male, female? I mean, there was no women's rights in those days. Women were second-class citizens, slave nor free, same thing. But Paul's saying, "No, don't see those divisions in Christ, clothed with Christ. You're one." This is radical then, and this is still radical today. And let me show you how important this is. A woman named Anna Marie Cox, she is the go-to Fox TV commentator. She's sort of their token progressive, kind of when they want to get a liberal, you know, opinion on something. They ask her.

She is the Washington, D.C. correspondent for GQ magazine. She has a blog post on DailyBeast.com, and it was there on her blog on Daily Beast that she released a blog just a week ago, a week ago Saturday. And the headline was, "Why I'm Coming Out as a Christian." And she talks about this, and I'm going to, it's such a fascinating article, I'm going to read more of this to you than I normally would from an article. This is so good. Look at this. She says, "To be clear, I don't just believe in God. I'm a Christian. Decades of mass culture, new ageism, has fluffed up belief in God into a spiritual buffet, a holy catch-all. Me, I'm going all in with Jesus. I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior. I believe in the grace offered by the resurrection." Now listen to this.

This is fascinating because she goes on in the article to describe her upbringing. She was not raised in church. She was raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother, so she does not have experience in a legalistic church, but legalism is so ingrained in our mentality as humans. Listen to this. She says, "Before I found God, I had an unconsciously manufactured higher power. I spent a lifetime trying to earn extra credit from some imaginary teacher, grade-grubbing under the delusion that my continuing mistakes, missed assignments, cheating, other nameless sins, were constantly held against me. What Christ teaches me is that I am saved not because of what I've done or didn't do, but simply because I've accepted the infinite grace offered to me. Now check this out. Yet, proclaiming my belief in God, the God of the Bible, the God who gave his only son, feels risky. I have not been public about my faith, but my hesitancy to flaunt my faith has nothing to do with fear of judgment by non-believers. I'm not scared that non-believers will make me feel an outcast."

She tells a funny story about talking about her faith at Fox News, and she said, "You should have heard the chill that came over the conversation." But she's like, "I expect that from non-believers. I'm not afraid that non-believers will make me feel an outcast. I'm scared that Christians will. I feel intimidated by a Christian culture that seems intent on creating boundaries around Christianity rather than open doors." Now I want to stop right there. It's a great article that she has to read. But look at this for a second. Do you understand that this is exactly why Paul had to write the words that he wrote? This is exactly why Paul had to say verse 28, because the false teachers from Jerusalem were intent on creating boundaries about who's holy and who's not holy.

I mean, you have all these people from every social class, every political viewpoint, every race pouring into the church so there's potential powder keg situation. There's racial tension. There's gender tension. There's class tension. And Paul is saying, "You need to look at the thing that unifies you past all the barriers, and that's your faith in Christ." I mean, you don't think that, you know, Simon the Zealot and, you know, Matthew the tax collector from two totally different viewpoints couldn't have gotten into a political argument at the drop of a hat. But Paul's saying, "You have to look at what unifies you in Christ." He's saying, "You can be together without being the same. There can be unity without uniformity. Focus on the big thing that makes you a family. And this is something that I struggle with and that Christians have struggled with to fulfill this, to live like this. We've struggled with this for 2,000 years.

But this is why you've got to keep the main thing, the main thing, Christ Jesus, Lord and Savior. And if you have faith in that, then you are one in Christ Jesus. And by the way, this has very practical application because some of you right now, because of a loss in your life, you feel so alone. But you're not alone. You say, "Yeah, I know. God is with me." You know what? We're with you. This room is filled with your family. And part of what church means is that your family has got your back. I can't tell you, I don't know how we would have gone through what I went through in my childhood without my church family. And there were a lot of things that we did not have in common, but what we had in common was our love for Jesus Christ. You have a new family. You've got a new identity. And it just keeps getting better because number three, I also have new riches. New what? New riches.

Verse 29, and for the next several verses, man, this is powerful stuff. Paul says, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Now I want you to circle the word "heirs." That means you have an inheritance. And part of that inheritance is all the riches of heaven, all the blessings of God, they're yours. Now this is emotionally very practical. Wall Street Journal article, look at this. Honestly, this seems kind of sick to me. Counting on an inheritance? Count again. And can you read the small print there? "The bad news, many baby boomers are likely to get less money from mom and dad than they thought." Oh, no. "The worst news, they may have to help their parents financially instead." What? Help mom and dad? Now listen, the article goes on to say, listen to this. "Thanks to longer life spans, most boomers can say good-bye to their big inheritance." Yeah, too bad mom and dad are living so long, right? No, I won't get my money. That's sick. But there's only like nervous laughter going on. Don't you think that that's really like bad? It's better to have mom and dad with you than to get their money, isn't it? Yeah, not too enthusiastic there, but...

But listen, that's the thing with earthly wealth, right? It fades, it's unreliable. But Peter says in 1 Peter, "You have an inheritance kept for you in heaven that can never perish, spoil, or fade." And that's what Paul promises in this verse. You know, you might have somebody in your life, maybe a relative like we have, who has had everything taken away from them by Alzheimer's or some other curse. On this earth, it looks like everything has been stripped away. But they have an inheritance in heaven that can never perish or spoil or fade. And while they might go through some tough times here and some horrible times here, for the vast majority of their existence to infinity and beyond, they're going to be spoiled by their loving Heavenly Father with a lavish inheritance that you and I can't even imagine. And that's part of what it means to be a beloved child of God.

Now, this next part, Paul kind of goes into high brainiac gear, all right? So kind of put that thinking cap on real snug and hang on, because here we go. He says, "What I'm saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he's no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate, because the heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father." So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental, spiritual forces of the world. He's saying, you know, somebody might be a prince, but when they're a little kid, they're going to be subject to teachers and guardians and trustees, and they're not going to live like they rule the kingdom because they're a little kid. So they're going to be under rules.

And then he says, "So when we were underage, before it could be revealed that we were heirs, we were in slavery under the elemental, spiritual forces of the world." Now, this phrase, "the elemental, spiritual forces of the world," drives Bible scholars bananas because nobody really knows what Paul means by this. But let me tell you what some scholars say, and for what it's worth, I agree with them. I'm sure they're delighted to hear that. Here's what I think it means. The word "elemental" there means elementary, like elementary school, like the ABCs, the basics. And so what Paul may be saying, he may be talking about the elementary, the primitive, the simple, childlike concept of spiritual powers according to the world, right? In other words, the primitive idea of religion is, "I do this, God does that. I sacrifice a goat, God gives me good crops."

He's saying to these Galatian Gentiles, "For a while, even though God knew he had better things in store for you, you were under the guidance of this primitive idea because it wasn't time for Christ to come yet, but at least it gave you some order, right? At least it gave you some rules. You were spiritual children." Now, there's some problems with that view, but that would be the majority view of scholars and what I think Paul is saying, because look at the next verse. "But when the sack time had fully come, God set his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption to sonship." Now, this one verse is a treasure chest that you could spend the rest of your life digging into, but let's just look at a couple of phrases here.

"When the time had fully come," what's that mean? "In the first century Roman era, 2,000 years ago, when Jesus was born, for the first time in human history, some things lined up, universal language, Greek, and so the gospel could spread, there's no linguistic barrier. Amazing Roman road system, it stretched from Britain to Africa. In fact, we were on one of these Roman roads. This is a picture of a road that we were on two weeks ago in Israel. Can you believe that was two weeks ago in Israel? This road that you're looking at right here is about 2,000 years old. Can you imagine what roads in Santa Cruz County are going to look like in 2,000 years? There's going to be nothing left. There will be nothing left for student protesters to chain themselves to. Their cement-filled garbage cans will still survive, but archaeologists will be going, "Why is this sitting here in the middle of dirt? We don't know." Anyway, that's not important now.

Here's what it means. There was, for so many reasons, the time was right for the sun to come, right, to the whole world. To do what? Well, look at the word redeem. To redeem means to pay a price to free somebody from slavery, all right? Now, again, first century Roman world, what did that mean? They literally had slave markets. It was a huge part of their economy. You could go... It was like farmer's markets. They had them on Tuesdays and Saturdays. You could go down and choose your slave. And here's the way they were. This is not imagination. We have contemporary descriptions of what the slave markets were like. This is what happened, according to people who saw them.

They would put slaves up there from all around the Roman Empire, and they would strip them, bear, covered only by a sign that listed their strengths and weaknesses and their race, because what race you were could make your price go up or down. And all the things like the diseases or any other weakness, right? And you stood on a wooden turntable, and they would turn you around so that the buyers could see what they were getting, and they kind of read the sticker that was on you, the label, and they would decide what they wanted to pay for you. But once in a while, a very charitably-minded individual would come up, and they would pay the redemption price that was full sticker price, right? No discounts, so that they could set the slave free instead of owning the slave. That's pretty cool.

But what Paul is talking about is even cooler than that, because what he's saying is that the king shows up at the slave market, and he sees you, and he pays a redemption price to free you. But then instead of just setting you free, which would be awesome enough, what he does is he takes the label that they've hung around your neck your whole life, and he rips it off, and then he clothes you with a royal robe, and he says, "I'm not just setting you free. I'm adopting you into my family." Man, that's powerful. Can you feel the emotion that a slave would have felt in a moment like that? This is why this is so important.

If you don't understand your adoption as children by God, listen, this is so common. You will only see your salvation as something negative, like something, getting saved means God took something away from you. You know, he took your sins away from you. But it wasn't just that something was taken away from you. Something was added onto you. You became a full child of God, adopted as royalty. And in the Roman world, adoption meant even more than it means now. People could be adopted as adults. It meant instantly all their old debts were wiped clean. Instantly they had a new name, a new identity. Instantly, literally records of their past were wiped away. Their birthday from then on was that day, the day they were adopted. You see how powerful that is? And Paul is saying this outrageously generous thing is something that God has done for you. And he's given you the inheritance, the same inheritance that Jesus Christ has only begotten Son has.

You imagine the riches, the glory that Jesus Christ has in heaven. Somehow, in a way, we don't understand. We now share in that inheritance. I mean, this is so huge and so it's such an emotional picture. Paul is painting, you can feel the emotion, you know, jumping out of these words written almost 2,000 years ago where he's saying, "Galatians, you were in slavery to this primitive, you know, barter idea of God. But God has come to set you free from that and take you from the boss employee idea to true father beloved child relationship. And finally, that means there's a new intimacy I have with God. I have new identity, I have new riches, I have so much in Christ, but I also have this new intimacy with him.

I love this. Verse 6, "Because you are his sons." Because you are his sons. And it's true that Paul uses the male noun here, sons, but clearly he has just said that there's no male or female in Christ. So he means gender inclusive here. He says, "Because you're his sons, his daughters, his beloved children," and by the way, I love that that's past tense, it's already over. The transaction's done. You don't have to earn this right. Because you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, "Abba, father." You may know the word "Abba" is Aramaic originally, the language that Jesus spoke when he was a boy. The word "Abba" would have been the first word that most Aramaic-speaking children would have learned there. Close to our word, "papa" in English, isn't it? "Abba," "papa," "dada" serves the same function there. It's an intimate, personal word that children could use for their father.

But Paul is making such a beautiful point here. Because when I tell you that God is your father and not your boss, for many of you, that's really good news. It's like, "Oh man, that makes sense." But for many others, that's not so good. Some of you are going, "Um, you know, actually I'd kind of like rather have God as a boss than a dad because I've had good bosses and I had a bad dad." So René, when you're telling me that God is my father, that means angry dad, absent dad, unpredictable, unpleasable dad, is now all-powerful dad? That's a nightmare. I am reading this interesting book that I just happened to pick up in a used bookstore. It's Billy Crystal, the comedian, Billy Crystal's autobiography.

But in it, he talks about how he became best friends with, of all people, Mickey Mantle. Now, if you're young and you don't recognize the name, Mickey Mantle was recognized by a whole generation as the greatest baseball player ever, defensively, offensively, the greatest skill set ever in baseball. So Billy Crystal writes about how he got to know Mickey when he was older and he found out a lot about Mickey's relationship with his father. He says, "One night we started talking about our dads. Mickey's dad had taught him how to play. He loved his dad. His whole motivation in life was to please his dad. But his dad was unpleasable. His father never told him he loved him. And when his father died, when Mickey was just 19, he was crushed." Listen to this. "Because he always felt he failed his father, that he'd never been as good as his father thought he should be. And now, he never could be."

When Mickey Mantle was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 in Cooperstown, he confused the whole baseball world by thanking everybody and then walking away, never walking into the museum. In fact, Mickey Mantle never walked into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame Baseball Museum where he was enshrined not one time until he went once about a year before he died, when Billy Crystal finally forced him to go. "Why didn't he go?" Well, listen to this. He told Billy Crystal, "I don't belong in there. I wasn't good enough. I should have been so much better." Do you hear what's happening? Whose voice is he hearing? His dad's voice. Saying, "Why? Couldn't you be better? Be better. Be better. Be better."

And I want to say this. God is not like Mickey's dad or like your dad if your dad was like that because he knows all about your shortcomings, your shame, your sins. And you know what he did? He threw a robe on you and a ring on your finger and he threw you a party like the prodigal son's father threw for him. Imagine yourself in this picture. That's not unpleasable dad. That's dad who despite all of the things that that prodigal has done, embraces him and welcomes him into the house again. And then Paul wraps all this up in verse 7. He summarizes what he's been saying. And so let's read this together. And listen, if you have a hard time believing this, I want you to hear the voice of this church, kind of like as the voice of God on the authority of Scripture speaking this truth to you. Let's read this together. "So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has also made you an heir."

I want you to ask yourself totally honestly, am I living like a servant or like a son? Look at that chart in your notes. Servants are accepted based on what they do. Beloved children are accepted based on whose they are. Servants are insecure, worried that master will be displeased. Beloved children are secure in the love of their father. Servants always feel they must prove their worth by work, nervous their boss is going to discover their shortcomings. Beloved kids know nothing can change their status because ultimately servants have a performance-based relationship while children are in a love-based relationship. So which side of the chart do you honestly live on? I'm telling you on the authority of God's word that God wants you to move from the left side of the chart to the right side of the chart. He sends his spirit into your hearts to teach you to say. That means he wants you to say, "Abba, Father." See yourself as the unconditionally loved child of God because that's what you are.

I'll close with this before communion. My wife Lori and I saw an amazing movie this week called "Drop Box." It's a documentary about the fact that hundreds of babies are abandoned on the streets of Seoul, South Korea every year. But one pastor has made it his mission to save them. Pastor Lee Jong-Rak built a box like a mailbox for people to drop unwanted infants in. And to date, this little compartment has received over 600 children. And he personally has adopted about 20 of them and the rest have gone to foster homes and adopted homes there in Korea. It's an amazing story. I want you to watch the two-minute trailer for this movie. Look at the screen. And then I was weeping. I always cry when I'm angry. And she said, "Why are you crying? It's only orphan."

This is... The baby box is South Korea's first and only box to collect a van and infant. Hundreds of unwanted babies are abandoned on the streets of Seoul, South Korea every year. The tragic loss of life moved a pastor's head to set up a way for saving unwanted babies. When I was a child, I was very happy. I was very happy. I was very happy when I was a child. I was very happy when I was a child. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was very happy when I was a child. I'm very happy when I was a child. I'm very happy when I was a child. Everything feels just one person that really cares about children. It makes such a difference. They're just human beings, just like anyone else. They have the right to live. But these children, they're helpless, they're voiceless. Who's going to speak for them? I'm very happy when I was a child. I'm very happy when I was a child. I'm very happy when I was a child.

Isn't that powerful? Wow. What an example he is for all of us. If you're motivated to find out more about adoption, by that I put a little contact info about a meeting that's coming up at Santa Cruz Bible Church. But let me just say this. The pastor in that film, he says this, "The reason I decided to become their father was, 'God has adopted us.' And you feel God's hands cradling your face as he says, 'You're my beloved child.'" I want to suggest that you respond with this prayer of grace. Maybe even fold up your sermon notes, put it on your dashboard or your fridge, and pray this throughout the week just to remind yourself of this truth. "Father, I am your child by grace through faith. Help me to live and feel and think like one." Let's pray that prayer right now. Would you bow with me?

With heads bowed, maybe today you're like that first son, the rebel. Just come home. Even during communion, pray, "Father, I've sinned, yet I come to you and I know you receive me with open arms. And though your grace is free to me, it costs you everything, your son's life on the cross. I don't understand it, but I receive it." Or maybe you're the older son. Stop thinking you've got to slave, to earn grace. Say in your heart, "Father, I am your child by grace through faith. Help me to live and feel and think like one." In Jesus' name, amen.