"I Will Not Abandon You!"

Yesterday I logged into iTunes to download the sermon from Brook Hills that I missed last week. I decided that listening to podcasts during work is a fantastic way to pass the time when I'm doing a lot of cutting and pasting in Excel.

Today when I came into work, I went through some old podcasts from Brook Hills that sounded interesting. They're all from before I started attending church there, so it's just kinda neat to go back and hear some of this stuff that the sermons now have been built upon.

The first one I listened to caught my eye because it's a sermon about adoption that was from Easter 2007. After listening to about 10 minutes of it, I knew that I had to share it with anyone and everyone.

I know that I've talked about my extreme passion for adoption (extreme might be a bit of an understatement) before on the blog (see part one and part two). But I thought that this sermon explained the very core truth of why I (and Jason) want to adopt someday. So...here it is:

Click here to listen/watch

Whether or not you decide to listen/watch the sermon is totally up to you (obviously)...but I wanted to share a couple of things for those of you who don't listen/watch it.

Adoption started out as something that I may resort to in the case that I am not able to have kids biologically. I have no clue if I can have biological children, but sometimes it's harder for women with insulin resistance to get pregnant, and sometimes it's impossible. So at a young age, I realized that adoption might be the way I have children.

Over the years, I've learned that adoption is kind of cool thing to do, especially among Christians. I don't want to say that it's "trendy", but it kind of is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that adoption isn't cool or that it's not a beyond wonderful thing that adoption is "trendy" among Christians these days, it's a total miracle! But, for a little while there, my reasons for wanting to adopt became more about me than about the actual reality of adoption.

Here is the reality: adoption is not about us...it's about God. It's a perfect reflection of the relationship between the saved and the Savior.

This is how I know -

“But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the
law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could
adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father [which literally means "daddy"].’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” - Galatians 4:4-8

When we call upon the name of Jesus, God changes our "status" and we become His child, His heir. Just as when we adopt a child, their legal status is changed and they become our child, our heir.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.” - Ephesians 1:4-8

When we cry out to God, confess our sinfulness to Him, and our neediness for Him, we are adopted into His family! His family [the church] changes. We are added. Just as when we adopt a child, our family looks much different that it did before. It changes. A child is added.

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.” - Romans 8:15-17

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.” - Romans 8:23

God promises His children a full inheritance. He doesn't hold out on any one of us who has called upon His name. He affirms us and loves us in all of His glory. Our lives and our future are forever changed. When we adopt, we give that child a full inheritance. We don't hold out on them. We affirm them and love them with all that we have. Their lives and their future are forever changed.

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I am so thankful about the confidence that I have in Christ. I am thankful to know that I am a part of the family of God. I cannot wait to share even an ounce of that love with a child someday. As the graphic above says, "I am in love with a child I haven't met yet."