God Your Daddy
Romans 8:15-17
INTRODUCTION: Fred Craddock, who while lecturing at Yale University, told of going back one summer to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to take a short vacation with his wife. One night they found a quiet little restaurant where they looked forward to a private meal--just the two of them.
While they were waiting for their meal they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn’t come over here." He didn’t want the man to intrude on their privacy. But the man did come by his table. "Where you folks from?" he asked amicably. "Oklahoma." "Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there. What do you do for a living?” Fred Craddock welcomed that question, for whenever a stranger found out he was a preacher, they’d often excuse themselves shortly thereafter. "I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University." "Oh, so you teach preachers, do you. Well, I’ve got a story I want to tell you." And with that he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife.
Dr. Craddock groaned inwardly: Oh no, here comes another preacher story. It seems everyone has one. The man stuck out his hand. "I’m Ben Hooper. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born so I had a hard time. 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 at recess and during lunchtime because the taunts of my playmates cut so deeply.
"What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through you. They were all wondering just who my real father was.
"When I was about 12 years old 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 felt a big hand on my shoulder. 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 on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. "Wait a minute," he said, "I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God. God is your Daddy" With that he slapped me across the back and said, "Boy you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it!"
The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, "That was the most important single sentence ever said to me." With that he smiled, shook the hands of Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends. Suddenly, Fred Craddock remembered that on two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected an illegitimate to be their governor. One of them was Ben Hooper.
>>That truth changed Ben Hooper’s life. If you are a Christ follower, you are a child of God your Heavenly Father. But more than just God THE Father, if you are in Christ, God is YOUR Father. And more than just your Father, God is your Daddy. [READ Romans 8:15-17]
BIG IDEA: In Christ, we have been adopted as children of God. If you are in Christ, meaning if you’ve trusted him to be your life leader, then God is your Daddy!
>>And if God is your Daddy, that has huge implications for your identity—for who you are:
I. If God is your daddy, you are no longer a slave (15a)
A. ILLUSTRATION: Joey is a young boy who had been horribly abused by his mother, Teresa. He said “when she was mad, she would kick me across the room.” When he was 3, sometimes she would lock him in his room or in the garage for hours at at time as punishment for crying. Finally, a few years later, he was taken from his mother and placed with an adoptive family. They loved him well and nurtured him, but he never bonded with them. He was always saying he wanted to go live with Teresa. His behavior became more and more disruptive. He would destroy property, hurt the cat, punch and bite his siblings. His adoptive parents asked him,
“Why are you doing this?” “I don’t want to live here anymore,”
“How do we treat you in this family?” “Good.”
“And how did Teresa treat you?” “Bad.”
“What did she do to you?” “She hit me.”
“What else did she do to you?” “She kicked me.”
“And what else?” “She didn’t take care of me.”
“How did it feel to live with her?” “It was scary.”
“So where do you want to live?” “With Teresa.”
The sadness of Joey’s story is that even though this child has been rescued from a horrible life and brought into a wonderful family, he won’t allow himself to be embraced by their love because of his earlier experiences. He is a prisoner of his early traumas. He is a slave.
B. But if you are in Christ, you are no longer a slave. God’s purpose was both to redeem and to adopt—not only to save us from slavery, but to make slaves into sons & daughters. He achieved this by the curse-bearing death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ.
C. APPLICATION: Think of your own life experience—what are you a slave to?
1. No longer slave to guilt of past failures
2. No longer slave to bitterness over past wrongs
3. No longer slave to sin
4. No longer slave to fear of death or God’s wrath
a. I pastor a church for people who don’t like church
b. I have to constantly tell them “God is not angry at you”
II. If God is your daddy, you are His child (15b-16)
A. This is hard for many of us to relate to, because we are the most fatherless generation in American history.
1. STAT: 1969—9% of births out of wedlock. 1999—33% out of wedlock
2. QUOTE: College student: “My father left us when I was three. I thought it was normal. Neither of my best friends had a father, either.”
3. Many of you can relate to that. And for many more, even if our fathers were home, they weren’t always there, emotionally or spiritually. And the consequence of that is we hear the word “father” and we picture someone distant, uninvolved, uncaring.
B. But God isn’t just our Father in title or office, He’s our Daddy!
1. “Abba” is the Aramaic term for father used here.
a. It was the first word a Jewish baby learned
b. It invokes intimacy, trust, respect, and love
c. It can legitimately be translated, “Daddy”
2. ILLUSTRATION: When I come home, my two sons run to meet me at the door and they yell, "Daddy, Daddy!" How do I respond to them? Why, I slap ’em upside the head and yell "I am the Reverend David A. Ward and I will not be treated in such a manner!" No, no, no! I reach down and hug them and kiss them and ask them to tell me about their day!
3. APPLICATION: prayer = God wants to hug you & hear how you’re doing. No other gymnastics or qualifications needed.
a. Heb. 4:16 “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God”
b. We have high speed, wireless access to our Heavenly Daddy.
4. ILLUSTRATION: My father is a physician. If you go to visit him, you’ll have to sign your name and wait in a waiting room, then wait in another waiting room, then get undressed in an examination room and wait some more until he comes to see you. But when I go to my dad’s office, I can just walk right in, and see him immediately. Why? Because he’s my dad!
5. No other world religion knows God as daddy! Only in Christ can anyone claim that.
III. If God is your daddy, you are His heir (17)
In the first-century world, adoption was generally the privilege of the childless rich. The reason for adopting was specifically to have an heir to whom you could bequeath your goods. Likewise, God’s adoption of us makes us His heirs, and guarantees our inheritance with Christ.
A. God’s heirs must share Christ’s sufferings
1. Once you give your life to Christ, you become an adopted child of God.
2. Following Christ will involve suffering at some level, because you no longer exist for your own comfort and security. You submit your agenda to his agenda for your life:
a. Make difficult decisions with your money & time
b. Risk rejection by others who don’t share your faith
3. QUOTE: Roger Staubach: “If you’re not playing hurt, you’re not playing football”
B. God’s heirs will share in Christ’s glory
1. Making Christ your life leader guarantees your inheritance from a loving, heavenly Father. We have absolute eternal security from Him.
2. We exchange earthly comfort for eternal reward.
3. ILLUSTRATION: In the movie "The Princess Diaries" a high school girl, bored with her life, discovers she is a really princess, heir to a great inheritance.
C. APPLICATION: Don’t squander your inheritance!
1. If you are in Christ, God has given you many wonderful things
a. Spiritual gifts
b. Spiritual relationships
c. Spiritual opportunities
2. If you don’t yet know Christ, God offers Himself to you, to be your Daddy.
CONCLUSION: Yesterday morning I was walking with Taylor to the bus stop. And while he was running down our street, he tripped and fell and skinned his knee. He started crying, and I scooped him up and checked where he was hurt—not a serious injury, but I knew it had to sting. I sat down and held him while he cried and since I didn’t have a band aid, I blotted some of the blood with my shirt. “I don’t want to go to Kindergarten” he sobbed on my shoulder. I said, “Taylor, I know it hurts, but you’re gonna be alright.” We sat there for a minute, before he moved his head to look at me, and a line of snot connected my shoulder to his nose. You know, that’s us—inside we’re wounded, we’re afraid, and we’re gross. But as I wiped his nose with my shirt, and looked into his teary eyes, I realized how very much I love him. Because I’m his Daddy. And that’s the way God loves me and loves you. God loves you deeply and wants you to call to Him, "Abba, Father, Daddy."
