OPEN: One woman shared a story of her childhood as a victim of polio. She said, “When my mother left me in Sunday School I always asked to wear her locket. She thought I liked the locket, but that wasn’t it at all. I knew I wasn’t worth coming back for, but
I knew she would come back for her locket.”
APPLY: What was that little girl’s afraid of? She was afraid that she wasn’t wanted. BUT, she felt that if she had something with her that was valuable… that her mother would always come back for her.
What Paul is telling us in Ephesians 1 is this:
God believes we are valuable.
God believes we are worth coming back for.
And so God has used some very specific and very emotional language to describe how valuable we really are to Him.
Look again at vs. 4 & 5
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy & blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
We’ve been chosen
We’ve been pre-destined
And we’ve been chosen and pre-destined to be adopted
I. We’ve been adopted…
I was adopted when I was 11 years old. I lived with my biological parents from the day of my birth until I left for College… but I was adopted when I was buried with Christ at the age of 11.
But, did you know that there are men and women - who were adopted when they were younger - who can’t seem to get beyond the feeling that they weren’t wanted. That they’d been rejected and abandoned. God doesn’t look on adoption that way, however. In fact, throughout Scripture some of the greatest men and women of all time were not raised by their birth parents…
Moses - wasn’t raised by his parents… he was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in the courts of Egypt.
Samuel – he was a miracle baby. His mother was barren and she promised God that (if He gave her a son) she would give him to the Lord all of his days. And so Samuel was raised by the priest Eli.
Esther – when her parents died, she was raised by her uncle Mordecai. And because of the faithfulness of her uncle she became one of the great queens of her day.
Jesus – raised by his step-father Joseph.
Every individual who was raised by people other than their biological parents were successful. In fact, we NEVER hear of a man or woman in Scripture who was “adopted” who grew up to be a loser.
That’s because God never looks on adoption as a curse… it’s an opportunity. It’s a declaration that we are wanted – we’ve been chosen. That there can be a direction and a PURPOSE for our lives.
This is particularly true when it comes to our adoption as the children of God.
John declared: “HOW GREAT is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! ...” 1 John 3:1
How did we become adopted as children?
“… to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12
In Galatians 4:7 We’re told:
“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
II. Now… being adopted by God has one major difference from secular adoptions
If you or I were to adopt a child WE WOULD be MAKING the choice.
Most of the time, it’s not until later that the child gets to decide to choose you.
But in order for us become Children of God – we MUST accept God’s choice. We MUST choose Him. That’s what John meant when he wrote:
“… to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
You cannot become a child of God because you were born into it.
Jews were Jews because they were born of Jewish parents. That’s natural descent. But to become a Christian… we had to make a choice. We had to believe… we had to receive’
(pause…)
AND you couldn’t become a Christian because you just decided you were good enough.
That’s the “human decision” part of the equation. You’ll never be good enough to become a child of God. But… if you’re willing to BELIEVE/ REPENT/ ACCEPT Jesus as your Lord and be BURIED in the waters of baptism… then God simply gives you what you didn’t deserve… a place in His family.
(pause…)
AND You can’t become a Christian because some member of your family decided you should. This is what John meant by a “husband’s will.” Nobody else could decide for you to become a follower of Christ - only you could make that decision.
ILLUS: Rod Cameron told of the time he was a missionary in Africa. John - a leader in a nearby African village - asked him if Rod would baptize his 2 children. When asked how old the children were, the man responded “ages 3 and 5.”
Rod thought on that a moment and replied, “John, why do you want your children baptized?”
John responded “My wife and I have been reading the Bible and we believe that we need to have our children ready to go to Heaven.”
“Oh,” said Rod, “well then, why don’t we just baptize everyone in the village? You’re a strong man, we’ll start with the oldest and work our way down, we’ll drag them down the river one by one and put them under water.”
Puzzled, John asked “Why would we want to do that? They may not want to be baptized!”
“That’s right,” said Rod, “you really need to want to become a Christian to be baptized, and your children aren’t ready for that yet. Now, how about you and your wife? Are you ready to make that commitment?”
Some time later, John and his wife were baptized and raised their family to love God.
You see… these parents meant well.
They wanted to make a good decision for their children.
But they eventually realized they couldn’t make that decision for their kids. They could only make the decision for themselves.
III. Now, when parents “adopt” do they generally adopt a teen, or a child?
Well – they almost always adopt a child – and the younger the better
Why do they do that?
Because they want to be able to form and shape that boy or girl’s life. They want to place within them THEIR values and THEIR dreams.
NOW, when you and I became Christians, God did that with us as well.
When we surrendered to Jesus, confessed Him as our Lord, repented of our sins and were buried in the waters of baptism - We were reborn. We became a newborn child.
Jesus said:
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3
So when we became Christians we were BORN AGAIN. We became an infant. A child.
And now, because we have been reborn… now God can place HIS own values, His own dreams into our lives. Like a newborn babe – we are like clean slates God can write upon.
What are these dreams, these values that God wants to write upon our souls?
According to Ephesians 1:9-10 = when we became Christians God
“…made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment— TO BRING ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH TOGETHER UNDER ONE HEAD, even Christ.”
THIS is the dream… this is the value God wants to place into our hearts: The mystery of His will is that ALL THINGS in heaven and earth should be brought together under Christ.
And God has shared that dream with us because He wants us to help make that happen.
That’s such a grand and sweeping vision that it should fill us with delight and expectation.
And that God should want to share this with us tells us how much we mean to Him.
• every time we invite someone to church we share in that vision
• every time we bring a child to Sunday School or JAM
• every time we send money to a missionary
• every time we find a way to encourage and lift up a fellow bro’ or sister in Christ
Whenever we do something like these we are working at bringing everything within our sphere of influence under the leadership of Christ. AND we show that we understand what it is - to be a true Son/Daughter of God because…
by INVITING,
and GIVING,
and ENCOURAGING,
and in BUILDING UP God’s church
...we are sharing in the vision and the dream of our adoptive Father.
CLOSE: You see God believes you can make this happen. He believes that you can help Him attain His goal of putting all things in heaven and in earth under the headship of Christ. No matter what the world may think of you or say about you, He believes that of you… because you have been made in His image and in His likeness
ILLUS: Ben Hooper, who was twice elected governor of Tennessee, told this story about his childhood. “My mother wasn’t married [when I was born]. When I started to school my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name.
I used to go off by myself both at recess and during lunch time because of the taunts of my playmates, which cut me deeply.
What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through you. They were all wondering who my real father was.
“When I was about 12, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door,… I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me.
“‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’
“I felt the old weight come upon me. It was like a big, black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down, I thought.
“But as the preacher looked down at me, studying my face, he began a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said, ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You’re ah… you’re ah… why you are a son of God!’
“With that, he slapped me across the back and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’
“That,” Ben Hooper said, “was the most important single sentence anyone ever said to me.”
When God told us that He loved us so much that wanted to adopt us as His children He placed before us a great inheritance. A great dream and vision. He placed before us a purpose for our lives. We’ve got a great inheritance… now it is up to us claim it
The others sermons in this series are:
1. Irreplaceable - Genesis 1:24-31
2. Shaped to be a Servant - Ephesians 2:3-10
3. Making God Smile - Psalm 51:15-19
4. Formed to be Friends of God - John 15:9-16
5. Adopted for a Purpose - Ephesians 1:3-14
6. A Purpose Filled Love - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
7. Purpose Driven Worship - Romans 12:1-8
8. Purpose Driven Strength - 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
