©2010 Larry Huntsperger

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.”