11-28-10 Proofs of Adoption Pt. 2

Our study of the book of Romans

has brought us to a section of Paul’s letter

in which he is pulling together

the heart of all he wanted us to hear him saying

as we read his description of what it means for us to live with God through faith in Christ.

For 5 chapters

he has been sharing with us

the basic principles of the faith-based life with God.

And then,

here in the last part of chapter 8

Paul pulls his thoughts together

by offering us 5 personal proofs of Christ’s presence within us,

five evidences of the true Christian.

These are not proofs we can use to evaluate others,

they are proofs he has given us

to look at ourselves.

He wants us equipped to defeat the lies and the attacks

that Satan uses to undermine our spirit’s rest in the hands of our God.

We’ve looked at the first of those proofs so far.

1. The true child of God lives with a continual tension between our new, holy heart,

and our ongoing impulses of a physical body that was trained under the leadership

of a spirit in rebellion against our Lord.

OK, we’ll pick up our study right where we left off

and move on to the second of these 5 proofs of our adoption.

It’s found in the next verse, Romans 8:14 where Paul says,

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Simply stated,

Paul tells us that one of the proofs of our adoption into the family of God

is the presence and daily leadership of the Spirit of God in our lives.

2. The true child of God is indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Now we spent quite a bit of time on this evidence of our union with God

just a few weeks ago when we were studying 8:9 and we heard Paul telling us, “...the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

And because we looked at this truth then

I’m not going to go back into it this morning

except to point out

that Paul is simply calling us to look honestly

at that whole range of remarkable works that God’s Spirit accomplishes in us on a daily basis

and recognize them for what they are - proofs of our presence in the family of God.

We find our spirits able to feed on the Word of God, drawing strength from it,

we find a hunger and thirst for a life that honors our Lord,

we find ourselves reaching out to the needs of those around us,

we find our spirits responding deeply to the reality of His love for us.

These things and many others like them

can only exist within us

because we are indwelt by the Spirit of God Himself.

And then, in Romans 8:15-16,

Paul gives us the third personal proof of our adoption into the King’s family.

ROM 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

ROM 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,...

3. The true child of God

has received a spirit of adoption,

a spirit-awareness within us

that prompts us to reach out to God,

not just as the almighty Creator of the universe,

but as our Papa,

our Father.

The word Paul has selected here

with which he describes the cry of the Christian’s spirit to God

is a fascinating word.

It’s the word “Abba!”

It appears 3 times in the Bible.

The first time it appears is in the Gospel of Mark 14:36,

a passage in which Jesus Himself addresses God the Father by calling Him, “Abba”.

And, in fact, it is not in a public prayer,

but rather it is spoken by Jesus at that point of greatest intimacy between Father and Son,

in Jesus’ agonizing prayer to God in the garden,

just prior to His crucifixion.

The other two times

it is used by Paul

to describe the response of the Christian’s spirit to God.

And I want to be sure we do not miss what we’re seeing here.

Paul is telling us that our faith in Christ

results in our entering into

the same intimate Father/child union

between us and God Himself

as Christ Himself shared with the Father

during His time here on earth.

Abba is a word filled with intense feeling.

It is not a word used to communicate formal respect,

it is the Greek word

used by a small child

as that child climbs up into daddy’s lap.

It is a title filled with absolute trust,

intimacy,

familiarity,

and security.

This is not the term used to speak of “the Great Father of Mankind.”

This is the term used to describe...

well, what Paul calls “the spirit of adoption”.

This is when the Eternal,

the All Powerful,

the Infinite

becomes personal,

and accessible,

and intimate,

and real.

This is what happens

when we look not into the mind of God to see what He thinks,

but what happens when we look into the heart of God to see what He feels,

and then discover to our amazement

that what He feels is love...love for each of us.

Any man-made religious system

can peddle to its adherents

the confident assurance

that they can be “saved”

if the followers faithfully jump through

whatever hoops

the system has established.

But only the Spirit of God

can touch us

in a away that assures our spirits that God is our Papa.

His Spirit... “ testifies with our spirit that we are children of God...”

And this truth, by the way,

is one that I consider to be

at the very heart of all truly healthy Christian prayer.

I have sometimes heard Christians talk about our need

to “storm the gates of heaven” with our prayers,

and to rally more and more people

to pray for some great need.

If we ever find ourselves believing

that we must storm the gates of heaven

in order to gain access to God,

or to get Him to notice us,

or if we think we must somehow amass

some huge hoard of people

before God will listen to us,

we have severely misunderstood

the true nature of the Christian’s relationship to God.

Let me try to give it to you in a little illustration

and maybe it will be easier to see.

I want you to picture this gymnasium cleared of all the chairs,

with me standing directly in the center.

And then, over on one side of the gym

are all of you good people,

and, in fact, every person

who has ever been a part of our fellowship.

And each of you are struggling with some question,

or some issue in your life

that you would like my input on.

There is this great chorus of voices...

“Larry, I have a question for you...

Larry, I could use your help...

Larry, what do you think about...”

And then, over on the other side of the gym

there stands just one person,

my daughter, my Joni Sue,

and she is saying,

“Papa, could you help me, please!”

Where do you think my mind and my heart will turn?

1PE 3:12 "For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer...”

To which you say,

“But I’m not righteous!”,

to which I respond,

“Then you’re telling me that Christ’s death

was not a sufficient payment for your sins,

and He did not really remove your sins from you as far as the east is from the west?”

The healthiest prayers we ever pray

are those that begin with the truth,

those that begin with our spirit crying out, “Papa! My Papa! I need You - thank you for being here with me and for always hearing my prayer.”

I know it is sometimes very difficult

for the Holy Spirit to break through

all of those fears and misconceptions we bring with us into our union with God

so that we can hear Him calling us, “My beloved child.”

And I know we can so quickly

and so easily forget our Papa/child relationship with Him.

But I know, too, that it is this truth to which the Spirit of God is ever moving us.

And when you find within yourself

that Papa-response to God within your spirit,

recognize it and embrace it as the truth it really is.

But having said that,

I can’t just leave it there

because all of us are going to run into a problem

when it comes to our resting in the Papa love of God for us.

The problem we run into with this image

is that, with all of us,

our concept of “Papa” begins with our human fathers.

And the truth is, every human father who has ever lived

has fathered imperfectly

because every father who has ever lived

has been an imperfect being.

Obviously there are a few fathers in our society

who have been hideous in the way they have related to their children -

some who have abandoned their sons or daughters,

or who have physically,

or sexually,

or emotionally abused them.

But even with the many

who have longed to parent with love and wisdom,

there are times when our fathering

falls far short of what is right.

Which means, of course,

that every one of us begins our Papa relationship with God

with a flawed Papa image in our minds.

I mention this not because I can teach us into an instant solution,

but simply because it is healthy for us to know that one of the things God’s Spirit does within us

is to help us reshape our Papa image of God

in those areas where it is flawed.

There will be points in our lives,

sometimes when we least expect it,

when our God will pick us up

and hug us in a way that allows us to see into His heart and gain a glimpse

of the depth of His love for us.

But a big part of the problem we run into with this whole thing

is that our ability to accurately hear the voice of our God communicating His love to us

is so deeply damaged.

The truth is,

most of the things we think would communicate His love to us

simply would not do what we think they would do.

We may find ourselves thinking,

“If God wants to tell me He loves me in a way I can hear

all He has to do is to let me win the lottery,

or pour some huge chunk of money onto me so that I can pay all my bills.

Or He could give me a relationship with that person I know I just have to have in my life right now,

but who doesn’t even know or even care that I exist.

Or He could instantly heal this illness,

or this weakness,

or this deformity in my life.”

In other words,

we begin our thinking

by believing what God does for us

will communicate His love to us.

And what we want Him to do for us

nearly always involves

our success,

or comfort,

or status,

or our emotional security within the immediate context of the society in which we live.

About 10 years ago I began a very enjoyable correspondence

with a young man In Ghana, West Africa

who purchased a copy of The Grace Exchange

from some floating Christian book store

that put into port where he lived.

He wrote to me, thanking me for the book,

and asking some questions about what he’d read,

and we began to exchange letters on a regular basis.

But somehow my name and address

was taken by the postmaster in that village in Ghana

and made available to dozens of other church people in the area.

And for a considerable length of time, every few weeks I’d receive another letter from some young Christian

greeting me in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

wishing blessings upon me,

and then asking me for money,

or for footballs,

or for books,

or for school supplies,

or for any other gifts I would be willing to send.

I finally got to the point where I wrote up a little form letter I sent back

telling the young Christian

that the only thing I really had to offer them

is a better understanding of who their God is,

and that, if they contact my friend, Joseph Gyebi,

he will loan them a copy of a book

that will help them discover the truth.

I then encouraged them to write back

if they found things in the book they didn’t understand,

or things they wanted more help with.

And guess what?

When they found out I wouldn’t just send them money or gifts

they never wrote back.

At first, as this flood of letters began to arrive,

I found myself getting irritated with those who wrote,

until I realized these baby Christians were simply relating to me

the same way we all relate to our Heavenly Papa

as we try to understand His love for us.

They all brought with them

the belief that true Christian love

would motivate me to give them

the things they believed they really needed in order to be happy.

And when I didn’t send them what they wanted,

they stopped writing.

And what most of them will never know

is that I was more than willing

to give them

not what they were asking for -

a few American dollars that would have made them feel good for a day or two

but never have changed their lives,

but what their spirits really longed for,

a better understanding

of what it means for a human being

to live in the presence of the love of God through Jesus Christ

every second of their lives.

And what none of them except Joseph ever discovered

was that if they would have built a friendship with me

in which I could have shown them their God,

I would also have reached out to meet their physical needs as well.

In the years that followed,

as my friendship with Joseph grew,

Sandee and I eventually paid for his college education.

He is now a teacher in Ghana,

and when his first son was born he named him “Huntsperger”.

My point in all of this

is simply that

just as some of my African brothers and sisters approached me

with a rigidly defined concept

of what they thought I should give them

in order to communicate love to them,

so we often find it difficult

to hear God’s Papa voice of love for us

because we bring to Him a rigidly defined but deeply flawed concept of what “love” means,

and how we think He must communicate that love.

You see, we nearly always begin our thinking from the wrong direction.

We believe happiness and joy enter our lives from the outside.

We believe they are the result

of what happens to us,

the result of what God has given to us or withheld from us.

I mentioned a few minutes ago

that we might find ourselves thinking,

“If God wanted to show me His Papa love

all He would have to do

is to plop a bunch of money into my life

so that I could pay all my bills.”

And certainly there are times in our lives

when our King knows that doing just exactly that

will be a very effective way

for Him to open our spirits up to a much deeper discovery

of the depth of His love for us.

But the truth is, it is also true that

many of us have those bills

because we have been spending money compulsively

not because we are trying to meet legitimate needs in our life or the lives of our family members,

but rather because we feel desperately empty,

and insignificant,

and unimportant,

and lonely inside,

and we’re trying to bolster our self-concept

with more and more things.

We look to the externals,

hoping there is something from the outside

that we can cram into our lives

that will quiet the agony within.

But when God begins speaking His Papa love to us,

He begins with the knowledge

that our discontentment

does not come from what is happening to us,

it comes from what is taking place within us.

He starts by speaking to our spirit

about who we really are.

He tells us we are His holy ones

whom He loves with an everlasting love.

He talks with us about the true source of our value -

not the value our society places upon us

on the basis of our personality,

or our IQ,

or our possessions,

or our appearance,

but the true, eternal value we have to Him,

personally,

individually,

a value so immense

that He was willing to remove our sins from us

through His own death in our place

just so that we could live with Him in His presence forever.

We think true happiness can be found through what we possess,

but our God knows us perfectly,

and He knows that true happiness

can only be found in our understanding who we are in the light of His love.

That does not mean He will necessarily

have to take our “things” away from us

before He can give us eyes to see the truth.

But it does mean we are never truly free to enjoy the things we possess

until He has shown us

we do not need to possess them in order to be happy.

If my spirit is not at peace when I possess nothing, or little,

it will certainly not be at peace when I possess much.

The same thing applies to our relationships with others.

God has designed us in such a way

that we need healthy love relationships with other people,

both male and female.

But our ability to love others

and to receive love from them

begins first with our having heard and accepted God’s love for us.

If we have not yet entered into a personal love exchange between us and our God,

we will be driven to use others to validate ourselves,

or attempt to use their love

to fill our vacuum for God’s love within us.

No human relationship can fill that God vacuum within us,

and if we try to make it do so

we will end up clinging to those around us

in a desperate attempt to draw from them

what their love can never deliver,

or we will eventually turn against them

when they fail to meet our deepest needs

and move on to someone else

in a never-ending search for some other human being who can fill the void.

Only when we have first heard the voice of our God

telling us He loves us,

and in that love confirming our eternal worth,

and significance to Him,

only then are we able to love others

without clinging to them for our own validation,

or crushing them under the load of our unmet love needs.

I certainly do not want to suggest

that we do not need strong, deep human love relationships in our lives.

God Himself is the one who said to Adam,

before any sin had ever touched this world in any way,

GEN 2:18 “It is not good for the man to be alone...”

And Christ Himself told us

that the two greatest needs in our lives

are the need for a love relationship with God,

and the need for love relationships with those around us. (Matt. 22:37-39)

But what we so often fail to realize

is that it is our entrance into the Father love of God

that provides us with the entrance into all healthy human relationships as well.

Only when I know who I am in the light of His love for me

can I reach out in love to you

without destroying the relationship under the weight of my own needs.

And only when I have first begun to trust

the Papa love of God

can I then trust Him to show me how to love others.

No human being is born

knowing how to love.

We are born needing love,

but we must learn how to love.

And God alone can give us

both the guidance

and the courage to break out of our isolation

and risk touching another human being at the spirit level

and allowing them to do the same to us.

But we will only follow His lead,

letting go when He says we must let go,

and moving ahead when He says we should move ahead,

when we trust His love for us.

Throughout these first 8 chapters of Romans

Paul has been preparing us for this truth -

that the work of Jesus Christ for us on the Cross

has profoundly altered our relationship with God.

And nowhere does the depth of that change

come through more clearly

than in his description of God as our Abba Father.

And where our human fathers modeled well

our Heavenly Father’s relationship with us

it can serve us well.

But if you find yourself reacting to the thought of God as your Abba Father

it may be because you are attributing to God

some flawed parenting approach that you saw in your dad.

To understand the Abba Father love of our God for us

is to understand that relationship with Him

within the context of His absolute and total GOODNESS.

MAT 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

And we will know we have finally gained a tiny glimpse of the way He really is

when we find within our spirit

a cry welling up that says,

“You, oh Lord my God, Abba Father,

You are what I have been longing for from the very beginning.

You, and what You choose to give me,

is all I will ever need.”