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00:00 Today we are going to do things a little bit different. You can see there's a five chairs up there. You know, every
00:07 Sunday you hear one guy speaking to you. You must sometimes get outside our comfort zone. Okay, before we go into
00:14 our our program proper, let me just recap a
00:19 little bit of last week. Last week we looked at idolatry and one things what
00:26 idols do. Idols give you an identity and that identity affects how you
00:33 worship. So for example, if I see myself as an athlete, so my idol could be
00:41 something related to health that obsesses me that will distort my worship. But today we're going to look
00:47 at what our real identity is. And today's text and what the reading we just read is our real identity is as
00:55 sons and daughters of God is a critical identity to realize. But more
01:00 importantly in in the text today you find as our speaker will tell us uh the NIV doesn't translate it very accurately
01:07 but in verse 5 chapter 4:5 the King James version RSV the ESV all use the
01:14 word adoption. So the Bible doesn't just look at us as children of God, but the
01:21 Bible looks at us as adopted children is is important point to pick up. And I
01:27 think what we want to do this morning is to get that that understanding of adoption across because there's
01:33 something we we sort of understand here but it doesn't get to our heart. So I'm going to introduce our guest today this
01:40 morning. I think it should be quite interesting. Oops. So, if I can get the Carter clan up.
01:47 Could the Carter clan all come up? Would you please give a big round of applause for the Carter clan
01:55 [Applause]
02:01 sitting here? Mommy.
02:10 Okay. Let me see whether I got this right. Okay. Uh, and I'm going to do a roll call here. If you if I do the roll
02:16 call and maybe you can sort of mention your names here. Okay. We'll do a roll call. Okay. All right. So, we have Crystal. Crystal. And there's mom. Okay.
02:26 And then we have Cameron. Where's Cameron? We have Cameron. Oh, someone gave me a wrong name. Oh
02:32 dear, I got a fire. I have Kaden. Yay. I got Kayen. I got one right. I got
02:38 Kitten. Kitten. Okay. And I really missed the last one. You got to blame Masimo for this.
02:44 Okay. Yeah. And what's your name, young man? Creed. Creed. Okay. Thanks. And then we have uh
02:51 we have Kylie. Key. All right. Key. And we have the latest addition to our family. What's
02:58 your name? Kiara. Kiara. Give her a big round. Okay.
03:06 There's something about American missionary families. I don't understand it. Chris Amnner has five kids. You had
03:12 four until she came around. Some sort of competition going around, right? No competition.
03:17 This kind of guy, some sort of competition going on. Okay, let's let's do a little bit of ice breaker around
03:22 here and then we go to the topic proper. All right. Now, the issue is Chris, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?
03:27 I understand you've been around in Asia a bit. He doesn't realize it. I've been digging up on him.
03:32 Yeah. You've been you've been in other parts of Southeast Asia, right? Tell the church who you are. We want to know who
03:38 you are. Where have you been and how long have you been in Asia? Okay, sure. Well, I'm Scott Carter and
03:44 uh been here uh several times. Uh I've lived in Asia about 17 or 18 out of the
03:52 last 20 21 years. Uh Crystal uh has been in Asia for about the same amount of
03:58 time. um as singles as a single I was serving in Singapore on staff at
04:04 International Baptist Church uh there. Uh Crystal about that same time as a
04:10 single was serving in Japan and we met and married in uh the late 90s while at
04:17 seminary. Uh after we were married went to Australia and spent some time in a in
04:22 Sydney and then we went to Burma, Myanmar and spent six and a half years
04:28 there helping the IMB open up work uh in that country and then in 2008 we came to
04:35 KL. Excellent. And and and I heard you do a lot of sports. In fact, someone told me
04:40 like some people tell me a lot of things about you wrongly or accurately that you run a kids football team.
04:48 Uh, we're involved in children's football. Yeah. Children's football. So, you're a children's man. And your kids play ice
04:53 hockey, right? Yes. Oh, excellent. Who plays ice hockey around here? Wow. And I heard you're really good at it. You play ice hockey,
04:59 too? Yeah. I heard you're in some sort of international competition, something like that. Yes, I played in tournaments in
05:04 Singapore. Wow. Excellent. All right. Okay. We're going to now get down to the serious topic, but today's main attention is,
05:11 tada, is Kiara. Hi, Kiara. So, I'm going to pass the time now to Scott and to
05:18 Crystal. They're going to take over the whole service. They're going to tell the church what led to them bringing Carara
05:27 into the family. I think that's that's very important. I And I pray that as a
05:32 church, we begin to really experience and appreciate this. What made an
05:38 American missionary family with four mouths to feed adopt a little girl into
05:46 the family? I I think this has tremendous uh implications to us and
05:51 then Scott's going to give us the text after that. So, I'm going to pass the mic over to Crystal and you can do whatever you want.
05:58 Oh, wow. Okay. Uh basically, here's what's going to happen. For the next few minutes, the
06:03 family will be up here and we're going to interact a little bit. uh regarding adoption. Uh things will probably be get
06:10 chaotic and restless uh obviously and then we're going to spend the second half of our time together looking at
06:15 Galatians chapter 4 1-7 uh which was just read for us. So over the last three
06:20 years, Kiara is now 3 years and two months old. So a little over three years ago, uh the Lord blessed us, really
06:28 blessed our family uh by allowing us to adopt Kiara. So, I'm gonna ask Crystal
06:34 uh some questions uh this morning. Okay. Uh Crystal, first of all, just tell a little bit about Kiara, who she is, and
06:43 uh how we came to uh
06:49 to bring her in. Okay, if I get to hold the microphone, will you share with me?
06:56 Um well, I just want to start with a little bit of background. Um, I grew up
07:01 in a small country town in Arkansas where everyone looked the same. Um,
07:09 never knew anyone from another country even until I was in high school. Um,
07:17 and I didn't think I knew anyone that was adopted until my adulthood. I actually found out that my cousin was
07:23 adopted. But, um, the Lord just really broke my heart for orphans. Um while I
07:28 was in seminary, I spent summers in China and um one of the summers in
07:34 China, we worked with university students and we also worked in an orphanage. And wow, um
07:42 all those difficult stories that you read about in the magazines and the things you see on the news are really
07:48 true. And you know, you kind of just want to push those things out of your mind like, oh, it can't really be that bad there. But it really is. So, I spent
07:55 the summer going in and out of this, it was a government-run orphanage. Um, there were many, many babies uh that had
08:02 been abandoned. A baby with water on the brain that passed away in the middle of the summer. There was a a little boy who
08:09 was almost who was about one and a half and half of his body was paralyzed and
08:14 uh we just showed up one day and someone left him sitting at the door. Um, so
08:19 there actually were some other missionaries in that town who were trying to help this orphanage. Um because it was government-run, the
08:26 workers of course didn't really care about the children. So they would only come in for a few hours each day. They
08:32 would feed the babies, all of them rice grill. They weren't getting they get water, no milk, anything. Um so it was
08:40 just really really harsh conditions. They didn't hold them. They didn't they they laid on there were just wooden
08:45 platforms in the rooms and they the babies would just lay on these wooden platforms untouched and the workers
08:51 would come in for a few hours and then they would padlock the door and leave for the night. Um anyway, so that's um
08:57 where I really experienced uh just the Lord really speaking to my heart about orphans and um just how changed my heart
09:07 so much towards the orphan and how God wanted me to be a part of advocating for orphans and loving on the orphans.
09:15 Okay. What else? Well, how did how did how did we get to the point of Okay. Okay. So,
09:22 so yeah. So, um, so that's just a background about where God really broke my heart for the orphans and, uh, then
09:29 we were married and we began having our own children. Um, so we're just waiting for the right time if God would have us
09:35 to adopt or not. Um, our siblings, Scott's sister, first really felt the
09:40 Lord leading them to adopt and they adopted two children from Ethiopia. So, we were really excited and I felt like,
09:46 okay, that's how God wants me to be a part of adoption, just supporting and loving on their family. And then shortly after that, my brother and his wife also
09:53 felt the Lord leading them. Um, and uh they uh got a son uh from Ethiopia. But
09:60 but for us, um I'd kind of almost given up the dream. The Lord had blessed us with four wonderful children and the
10:06 last one we got a girl. So, I was like, "Okay, God, thank you." Um, so I thought
10:11 I thought we were we were uh I thought we were finished. Um, but the Lord brought someone into our home. We were
10:16 having dinner with a family one night and the wife uh is a social she's an American social worker, but she's also
10:23 working here in Malaysia. And she said, "Do you still have a desire to adopt?" And I said, "Oh yes, I still really have
10:30 a heart for the orphan and still in my heart I would love to adopt." So she said, "You need to you need to pray you
10:36 can adopt here in Malaysia." which we didn't even know that it would be possible. Living in Myanmar, it was
10:42 illegal. They do not allow anyone to adopt their children. Um but she says it's possible. So we just began praying
10:48 and seeking the Lord. Um the Lord brought a lot of people into our lives during that time who were in the process
10:55 of adoption or who had already adopted just randomly. I mean at church, at the
10:60 soccer field, on ice hockey, just wherever. Um the Lord brought a lot of people who began telling me their story.
11:06 And you know, every adoption story is so unique. Each one is so different. No two stories are ever the same. But they
11:12 began just uh giving me some contacts. I got in touch with the KL adoption support group, which is a group of
11:18 internationals. It's some local and some internationals. And from that group, I found out more about the processes about
11:24 um how adoption happens in Malaysia. But the biggest and most daunting thing is finding the child because Malaysia does
11:30 not allow adoption agencies like like we know as Americans in America we have agencies where you just go to the agency
11:36 and they they connect you with a child but that doesn't happen here. So uh for us as we heard the stories u people
11:42 connected us to shelter women's shelters um I called girls homes um churches just
11:50 um anywhere just started and a lot of prayer just praying praying praying uh that the Lord would lead us to uh the
11:57 right connection um so am I going on well you know we we get we get asked a
12:03 lot of very interesting questions as you can imagine uh so I'm going to ask
12:08 Crystal Uh, now with four children already, why would we adopt?
12:16 That question is asked me all the time. Why? And I ask, why not? Why not? The
12:22 Lord has blessed us with a family. Um, and why not? Why not add one more to
12:29 the already ongoing chaos, as you can see.
12:35 Right on quue. Right on queue. That that that was great. Um, the picture that's on the screen right now is taken uh on
12:43 April 15th of 2012. It was Kiara's uh first day at church with us. Uh, at this
12:49 point she was uh 15 days old and we had had her seven days. We we took her home
12:55 when she was 8 days old. Um, what do we know about her background?
13:06 Like how Why was she even available for
13:13 adoption? Okay, we know that her mother went into
13:18 a clinic to have an abortion and uh the clinic requires that you be counseledled
13:24 before you have an abortion. And someone came and
13:30 someone came and talked to her mother and asked her please save her life.
13:35 Um so her life was spared and the lady who counseledled her um said that she
13:41 would help her birthother to um find a home for her. Um the mother was Tamil,
13:47 the father was Telugu, the mother was unmarried and it was very shameful to the family. Um so especially the
13:53 grandmother, the birthmother's mom was like please just quietly get take care of all this and move it on. So that's
14:01 what we know about. And so we had made we had made contact with this third party already. And so
14:06 she called us uh on uh Carol would have been about 5 days old when she first
14:12 called us to say, "Are you still open to taking a child?" And uh that was a
14:17 Thursday. And on Easter Sunday, April 8th, 2012, uh we uh drove down the road
14:24 and uh and came back home two hours later with an 8-day old uh baby. Um how
14:33 many orphans are there worldwide? Do you know? Anybody know?
14:39 Worldwide, how many orphans do we know of?
14:44 Okay, mommy knows. There are 147
14:50 million orphans around the world and that's just what we know of. In a
14:56 country like Malaysia, there are probably many more than what is uh than what is officially reported.
15:02 And of course uh because of the uh religious diversity here, there's
15:07 certain laws regarding who can adopt whom uh which also makes it uh very
15:13 tricky. What? Okay, we had a little tear session. Now, let's do What are some of the funny What are some of the
15:19 questions? What are some of the common questions we get? Crazy, funny, annoying.
15:29 Anybody?
15:36 Okay. Well, we were in the Cameron Highlands about uh three or four weeks ago, and we were at
15:42 dinner one night. Do you remember what the guy turned around and asked us? Do you remember, Mommy?
15:51 It's the one we get most often. Why is she
15:57 Why is she brown? Because here we are obviously
16:05 and and uh even day one, the first day we had her, Crystal took her to the doctor to get a medical exam done to
16:12 make sure she everything was okay. And uh even there you were Crystal was there
16:17 alone without me. And what what did the lady in the waiting room ask you? Everyone always askked is my husband
16:22 Indian?
16:30 I'm almost as honky as they come. Uh,
16:36 what else? What are some other How much does she cost?
16:41 Where did you get her? Yeah. Is she really yours? She's not really yours, is she? So, we
16:48 uh we are almost at the point we're going to go home on furlow, but we tried to go home two years ago on furlow and
16:56 we had we were we were having we've been having issues with uh Kiara's immigrant visa to immigrate her to the US to
17:01 become a citizen and uh but as we were preparing to leave two years ago um we
17:09 we got we continually got the question now will you take her with you?
17:16 Yes. I mean, her birth certificate has our names on it. She is our daughter.
17:22 She is legally our daughter. Will you take her? Yes, we will take her with us. We're not going to leave our daughter in
17:28 Malaysia while we go uh to to United States. Um and uh so we we yeah, we we
17:36 we we get stared at a lot anyway because we're a large family. Uh in fact, people
17:42 will often ask us, "Are you sure you're not Malay? because we have so many children. Uh
17:48 when we're walking through the mall or wherever as a family, we get stared at even more. Uh as you can imagine, um
17:57 what are some of the Let me let me ask the kids a question. Uh Kaden,
18:07 what have you learned in adoption or how has it affected you? Um, I think it's affected our uh just
18:14 our family in general a lot. Um, she's definitely been a wakeup call to
18:20 the family and uh she's changed a lot of things, but um
18:27 she's helped us see what adoption truly is and so that's been really good.
18:35 Okay, this photo was taken on the day that we uh that the Malaysia court
18:40 process finished uh August 16th of 2012. Uh everything was signed, sealed, and
18:46 delivered with the Malaysia government. Katon,
18:54 what about your experience? How have you been affected in this adoption process?
19:00 Well, uh, for me, I just accepted it, I guess, and just rolled along with it.
19:12 Well, was this a process we went through as a family, did we pray as a family? Yes. Yes, we did.
19:17 Do you remember in the several months leading up to adopting Kiara every night
19:23 praying that that God would lead us to the child he wanted? Do you remember that? Yes, I do. Yeah. So when you see Kiara, do you
19:30 think of her like you do your other siblings? Is she your sister? Yes. I don't look at her any
19:36 differently. I still love for her and uh care for her.
19:42 Okay. This is when K on her one year one year birthday.
19:51 Okay. So uh what are some of the joys of adopting? This can be for anybody, especially
19:57 mommy. But what are the joys of adopting? Key, what was your joy? You had a joy.
20:04 Uh, like I didn't like being the youngest and I didn't like being the only girl.
20:11 It's It's not fun. Okay. So, now you're not the youngest
20:19 and you're not the only girl, huh? Yeah. Okay. What are some other joys? Anybody else?
20:28 Pass it to mommy or Kaden. Did you? Okay.
20:34 Um, it's just she is such a bundle of joy as you can see. She is full of life, full of energy,
20:41 full on. Um, she makes us laugh all the time. She has a great sense of humor.
20:46 Um, great she loves to entertain. Um, it's fun going out with her because she
20:53 likes makes everybody else laugh, too. So, she loves to sing. She's just playing with toys and she's always singing
21:00 hymns, Disney songs, uh, whatever. But, she's always singing and dancing.
21:06 What other joys? What are
21:19 Everyone's speechless. Okay. Well, then let's go to What are some of the pains? What are some of the pains we've experienced?
21:29 [Laughter] Well, it's just more tough to have more
21:36 siblings. Like, we're usually fighting
21:41 every once in a while, so it's just more more hard. And She she likes to pull
21:49 hair. She does that to me all the time. So that's that's the pain.
21:56 So there's physical pains. Okay. What are some of the emotional pains?
22:03 Uh well, the greatest pain for me has been the waiting. Yeah, it's been really the waiting time. Of course, we're so
22:09 excited, such a joy to have her, but we really wanted to be able to take her back to America and to introduce her to
22:16 the cousins and the grandparents and all the family back home. Um, so it's uh
22:22 been really uh challenging and difficult. Um, having such a long wait.
22:27 It's been five years since I've been to America. Um, so the wait has been hard.
22:32 The weight is the US government. Uh, people always assume it was the Malaysia government that we've had trouble with. The Malaysia government process was very
22:39 simple, straightforward. It was four months we were finished and we've been in the US process now two and a half
22:44 years and uh we think and you've picked this was a good Sunday. We think that
22:50 we're going to be able to go to the embassy this week at later this week at the end of the week for our appointment
22:55 and that we will be able to travel in the next two to three weeks. So, some of you have been praying with us for two
23:01 and a half years about this process. And we're going to ask the you and then we're going to ask the rest of you,
23:06 would you pray us through this finish line? Like the finish line is if if if you've ever run a race, the finish line
23:12 is just ahead, but you don't you don't stop when you see the finish line. You have to finish. Would you pray us
23:19 through the finish line that we would be able to travel on time to go to Well,
23:24 Art, this is our time. Obviously, God's time has been much different than ours. We're coming into a line with that now.
23:30 But would you pray with us today and through this week that the embassy would allow us to just get through the finish
23:38 line to get through the tape and that we'll be able to travel uh in June to
23:43 the US. It has been a painful process with the US uh with the bureaucracy of
23:49 the US government. Um, so all right, Crystal had one final thing she wanted to share uh regarding uh adoption and
23:57 then Key is going to read a Do you want Key to read first? Okay, Key is going to
24:02 read a scripture for Crystal and then Crystal wanted to share one more. Mommy can hold the microphone while you read
24:09 that way you don't have to. Okay.
24:16 Ephesians 1 3-6.
24:25 Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in
24:31 Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
24:37 Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should
24:44 be holy and blame us before him. In love he predestined
24:52 us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his
24:59 will to the praise of his glorious grace which
25:05 with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Thank you.
25:12 So even before the foundations of the world, it was God's plan that we be a
25:17 part of a family. A family. We as his family of Christ as sons and daughters,
25:24 but also physical family. God wants us to be a part of the family. And um as as
25:29 I continue to advocate for the orphan, I also just would you want to put your child into an institution? Um, I just
25:37 feel so strongly that we as the body of Christ have so many opportunities to reach out and to love. And it's easy
25:44 just to say, "Oh, they need to go to the orphanage or we'll give some money here." But what is God speaking to our
25:50 hearts as the body of Christ to to help these children to know what it means to
25:57 be a part of a family? So I just urge you, we every day we have opportunities
26:02 to share testimony of God's faithfulness to to us um and what he has done and in
26:09 bringing Kiara to us. So pray that we'll be faithful in in sharing that testimony and in the opportunities that we have of
26:16 of of God's plan, God's plan for us to be a part of his family and to be that
26:22 family to one another. Okay. All right. We're gonna transition
26:28 now.
26:35 Yeah, we're good. All right.
26:44 If you have your Bible, I would ask that you would open to Galatians chapter 4.
26:50 Now, Kiara is
26:56 fascinated by the tomb and has been all morning since we
27:02 arrived. Yeah. Join me in Galatians chapter 4.
27:08 And as you're turning there, let me just make this statement. Every
27:16 day, every day
27:21 when I look at Kiara, I have a visual reminder
27:29 of what God has done for us in our salvation.
27:34 We read the scripture a few a few moments ago and we we and then uh Ephesians chapter 1 also uh uses the
27:41 phrasiology adoption. Every day I can look at Kiara and I'm
27:49 just reminded of what God has done for me in adopting
27:54 me as his son in saving me.
28:00 Adoption shows up in three passages uh in the New Testament. uh Ephesians 1:5
28:08 which we just read. From the foundations of the world, God predestined us for
28:15 adoption as his sons. Romans 8:15-17
28:21 also speaks of adoption. And then the passage we are in this morning, Galatians 4 1-7.
28:30 While the doctrine of adoption, while the idea of adoption is a part of our
28:36 salvation, let me say this, adoption is not actually the picture of our salvation.
28:42 Adoption is an illustration. It is a picture of the effects of our salvation.
28:49 Let me say that again. The picture of adoption does not simply illustrate our
28:56 salvation. The idea of adoption is an effect of our
29:02 salvation and we will see this in the passage this morning. First of all, uh
29:09 we we have three basic uh divisions to this very short passage. And uh I want
29:16 to make sure we hit all three though the main emphasis will come in the second and in the third because this first one
29:23 the idea of being enslaved to the elementary principles of the world is
29:29 something that you talked about last week when Arnold I believe was coming
29:34 from the passage that just follows this one. We had to rearrange the Sundays due
29:40 to our availability. So that's why so you you talked about this last week the being enslaved to elementary principles
29:47 of the world. Now the picture here I mean that the heir as long as he is a
29:53 child is no different from a slave though he is the owner of everything but
29:58 he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. Here's the idea.
30:04 There is a son, a young son who is set to inherit
30:11 his father's estate, his father's fortune.
30:16 And technically, the son owns everything. What is the father's is the
30:22 sons or what is the father's will be the sons. But as long as he is a minor
30:28 and and in in in this day and time, it would have been until he was approximately 25,
30:34 maybe a little bit younger. But as long as the son was a minor,
30:39 it was not his yet. He was not inheriting it yet.
30:46 It was a future hope. He had to come of age.
30:52 So at this point, the son is no different from the slave
30:58 in the household. He is no different from a slave, although he owns everything. In fact,
31:05 not only is he a slave, the the heir, the future heir, the son,
31:11 has guardians and managers over him.
31:16 So he's not just like a slave. He has slaves over him to guard and to manage and to protect him until such a time.
31:25 And Paul likens this to us spiritually being enslaved to the elementary
31:33 principles of the world. And Arnold talked about this last week,
31:38 the elementary principles of the world in the immediate context of Galatians
31:44 because Paul is talking to the Christians in Galatia. That they would not fall back into this salvation by
31:54 works mode. That they would not fall back into slavery to the Mosaic law,
31:59 which is what the Judaizers were leading them to do.
32:05 And then of course and what Arnold was told you last week was that the elementary principles of the world then
32:11 broaden out in our context. And this can take the form of if you are
32:18 if your background is some other religion other than Christianity.
32:24 If you came to Christ out of a traditional Chinese religion which is that hodge podge that rojo mixed up
32:32 religion of everything from Dowoism, Confucianism, funue Buddhism
32:39 etc etc where idols were involved or if if it's a Hindu background where
32:45 multiple idols, multiple gods or secularism, materialism
32:52 just selling out and and the gods of the world being stuff,
32:59 cars, houses, riches, fortunes, success.
33:06 And it looks different for each one of us. And I told you when I was here uh just a
33:12 month ago, for me coming uh coming coming from a Christian background, but coming from a Christian background that
33:17 that was very much about moral conformation, conforming to a moral standard that is
33:24 salvation by works.
33:29 And we are all susceptible to reverting back to
33:35 the gods that enslaved us. Whether it was idol worship, ancestor worship,
33:42 secularism, mosaic law,
33:48 a traditional Christianity that was moralism, we all are prone to fall back into to be
33:58 enslaved again by these elementary principles of the world.
34:04 So Paul likens this son who is heir to a fortune but still under slavery so to
34:13 speak. He likens that to our condition before salvation before our coming to
34:19 know Christ. But in our slavery
34:25 we are dead. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are dead in our sins. enemies of God,
34:33 under the wrath of God. We are hopeless. We are helpless.
34:40 We are destined for an eternity in hell, suffering God's wrath and punishment.
34:53 We're enslaved and that slavery is hopeless.
35:00 And I think about Kiara, an innocent
35:07 baby conceived out of wedlock, conceived in sin,
35:15 but not a mistake, mind you, in the womb.
35:22 And in order to escape shame and embarrassment for the family, the mother tries goes to the clinic to seek an
35:29 abortion. And for some reason, the clinic would not do it. Rather calls in a third party
35:37 to talk to the mother. Snatched out of the jaws of death, if
35:44 you will.
35:51 We are in that same state without Christ
35:58 within the jaws of eternal death and punishment.
36:06 Galatians 4:4 to5. I love the way Paul uses but.
36:12 Ephesians 2 he uses it. dead to sin,
36:18 under the wrath of God, enemies of God.
36:24 Verse four, but God. So, we're enslaved. We're helpless.
36:31 We're hopeless. But God, when the fullness of time had come, and what this
36:39 means, this simply means at just the right time, in God's timing, in his predestined,
36:47 chosen timing, God sent forth his son
36:53 born of a woman. And right here we have a picture of the
37:01 deity and the humanity of Christ. Jesus was not 50% man and 50% God. Jesus was
37:09 100% God and 100% man. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, the
37:15 deity of Jesus. Right there, born of a woman, the humanity of Jesus, born under
37:23 the law. to redeem.
37:30 To redeem those who were under the law
37:35 or to redeem those enslaved to sin. To redeem those who are enslaved
37:43 to the elementary principles of the world that we might receive adoption
37:51 as sons.
37:60 dead in sin, enslaved, hopeless, helpless, within the jaws of death.
38:09 And at just the right time, God sends forth the Messiah into the world.
38:18 a time determined before the beginning of time, before creation.
38:24 And if you're a follower of Jesus here today, God saved you at just the right time.
38:35 I shared with you last time I was here, 10 years old, about to turn 11,
38:41 saved, baptized. That was God's moment. At just the right
38:47 moment, God reached down and saved 10-year-old Scott. And you have your story if you're
38:55 a follower of Jesus. At just the right time,
39:02 God reached down and redeemed you, saved you
39:08 that you might receive adoption as sons.
39:15 God adopted you. God chose you. God saved you
39:21 in spite of you and me.
39:30 We were within the snares of death, lost, hopeless, helpless.
39:40 Kiara was in the womb, helpless, hopeless.
39:48 Praise God that he used non-believers even to save her life. And at just the right
39:57 time, we received a phone call. And at just
40:02 the right time, we went down to see her and to take her home. You know what?
40:08 When we arrived to Saramon that evening, Kiara was not waiting at the door for
40:15 us, waiting on her daddy and mommy to come and take her.
40:21 She wasn't asking for it.
40:27 She had no say in the matter at that moment. She had no idea
40:36 that she was being redeemed, adopted.
40:43 Just a few months earlier, she was almost aborted.
40:50 And that's the picture of our salvation, hopeless and helpless. And God shows up
40:58 and he redeems us. And every one of us needed needs that. If you're a follower
41:04 of Jesus here today, you needed that. If you call yourself a Christian and
41:09 think you know Jesus, you need that. And if you're here today and don't know
41:15 Christ, you need his salvation. And today might be just the right time
41:22 for you that you would place your trust in him as he calls you out today.
41:36 It's rescue. It's rescued from the enslavement to the
41:42 elementary principles of the world. It is rescue from eternal death.
41:53 And God redeems us so that we might receive adoption as sons.
42:04 And because you are sons, now let me pause for just a moment.
42:10 Paul is very deliberate when he uses the word sons.
42:17 He doesn't use the word children right here, although we're about to see it in Romans. He doesn't use the phrasiology
42:23 sons and daughters. And thankfully, the translators have not translated it sons
42:29 and daughters. In this day and time, Bible day and
42:35 time, daughters had no right to inheritance.
42:42 Daughters were not heirs,
42:48 sons were. It's not good news if Paul says you are
42:55 adopted and receive daughtership. There's no hope in that.
43:02 The hope is in the fact that whether you are male or female, then this would have
43:09 spoken strongly to the Jewish people
43:15 and it should speak strongly to us today. Therefore,
43:21 that God regardless of whether you are male or female
43:27 or Chinese or Indian or American
43:32 or I won't go around the room and start naming them all. You receive inheritance
43:40 as sons. Yes, there still is Chinese and Indian
43:46 and American etc. But in God's salvation, there is not. Salvation is
43:53 open to all. And the heir, the inheritance being an heir is open to
43:60 all, male and female, and therefore we are sons
44:05 of God, not the son of God, though sometimes we have that complex.
44:13 We are little S. Thank you. Sons of God.
44:19 And because you are sons, God has sent
44:26 the spirit of his son into our hearts.
44:33 Why? That we might experience
44:38 sunship. by being able to cry out aba
44:44 father. So you are no longer a slave but a son
44:50 and if a son an heir through God.
44:59 Romans 8 adds just a little bit to this airess. He he Paul writes just a little bit more
45:05 in Romans to expound upon it. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Okay, that's what
45:12 he's saying in Galatians 4:1-3. But you have received the spirit of
45:19 adoption as sons by whom we cry aba father. The spirit
45:26 himself bears witness with our spirit
45:31 that we are children of God and if children then heirs. heirs of God and
45:37 listen fellows with Christ. Why? Ephesians 2. That we
45:46 might for eternity enjoy the fullness of his riches.
45:52 That's the inheritance. that for eternity we would experience
45:59 and know and have the fullness of the riches of God in heaven co-airs with
46:06 Christ. That is amazing. That should move you.
46:14 That should go from this knowledge of salvation to this
46:20 experience in the heart, the experiencing salvation. Let's look at
46:25 this. This abba father. Now, a lot of times you'll hear or read
46:33 a little bit of a flippant interpretation. It means daddy
46:39 and we get this sense of casualness. Now, it does mean daddy,
46:45 but we dare not be too casual with it. If a Hebrew
46:53 child approaches their father with aba,
46:59 daddy. It is not just this casual, hey man, what's up? Can I have the car keys?
47:10 This this abba father denotes authority
47:18 but not a casualness. It's more of an intimacy.
47:24 It is access. Access. And in your bulletin today on
47:29 the front is the illustration of JFK. I'm not going to rehash it. Don't read it right now. Put it down.
47:36 Put it in your Bible. read it later to refresh your memory on the sermon.
47:42 Okay, it's it's it's a beautiful picture. This morning at 2 am,
47:48 Kiara provided me with a very similar picture. It took me a while to go to sleep last
47:53 night. I don't know if it was caffeine or uh the steak we ate or what it was. Couldn't go to sleep,
47:60 but trying to be in bed early. I always try to be in bed early on Saturday nights if I'm preaching on Sunday. So, I'm kind of this fight, right? Finally,
48:07 I mean, I'm sleeping hard. At 2:00 a.m., my door opens.
48:14 And between 2 and 3:00 a.m., you kind of know who it's going to be. All right? And it was Kiara.
48:22 So, I kind of half opened one eye just to be sure that it was Kiara.
48:27 And she closed the door and she walked over and she stood beside the bed. My
48:32 side this time, not Crystal's. It's always a relief when she goes to Crystal's side.
48:40 And I could just see a little bit that it was that the look on her face was a little bit different. And I don't know what it was. Maybe she had a bad dream
48:46 last night. And so I picked her up and just kind of rolled her over into bed that she could
48:54 finish the night of sleep. Listen,
48:59 if any of you walked into my room at 2 am,
49:06 I'm going to beat you with a club and ask questions later
49:14 because you don't have the right. You don't have the access.
49:19 If Kiara walks into my room at 2 am,
49:25 she can do it. And I will put her in bed and make sure she's comfortable and has the security she needs. And the same
49:30 goes for any one of the other children. Now, it'd be weird if it was the 15 or
49:35 13year-old,
49:42 but they have that access. That's what it means to have the spirit
49:49 of sunship because we are adopted.
49:57 Because God has saved us and given us the spirit of adoption, we have access to the creator of the universe. And
50:03 listen, at 2 a.m. He doesn't sleep. We have access to the creator of the
50:10 universe, our savior, our rescuer.
50:16 We have access. We have intimacy
50:21 because of what he has done for us.
50:29 Growing up, I have a I have a sister. She's two and a half years younger than I am. Her name is Candy. And we were
50:34 typical siblings. I mean, we were we were best friends, but we were also kind of worst enemies.
50:40 Okay? We fought, but we also played. I mean, it was just a typical relationship, right? But when we were
50:47 younger, one of the ways of insulting her was to try and convince her that she
50:53 was adopted. It was kind of a weapon.
50:59 You know, you're adopted, right? And at one point when she was I don't know, she was probably six, I had her
51:06 convinced. I had her convinced it was funny then, but as I was
51:13 recounting that last night, I realized it wasn't funny at all. What was I telling her? I was trying to convince my
51:19 sister that being adopted meant that she had fewer rights in the family, that she
51:26 was not a joint heir, she was not equal with me. Now, I still try to convince
51:31 her the same thing at the age of 40 and 43, but but listen,
51:37 that's not it's it's not it's not funny,
51:43 we have and thank God, the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus
51:50 from the dead is the same spirit that indwells us and
51:57 grants us access to the creator of the universe. verse. We are not the son of
52:04 God and we are not deity but we enjoy the inheritance the future inheritance
52:10 as a co-air with Christ
52:18 and that is good news.
52:23 And here we go. We must understand
52:30 up here this doctrinal truth of where we
52:35 stand with God in our salvation. It's not just a get out of hell free
52:43 card. We enjoy the intimacy with the creator of the universe and our
52:50 redeemer and our savior because he has granted us through his adoption of us
52:56 the spirit of adoption granting us access to him and to enjoy the fullness
53:02 of his richness forever.
53:08 And if that does not move you in your seat today, you are probably not saved.
53:17 So takeaway number one, if you're a follower of Jesus, we need to understand
53:24 deeper and richer and more full
53:32 the richness and fullness of our salvation and all that it encompasses.
53:38 and not just understanding it here but applying that and experiencing that in
53:43 our lives. And if you are not a follower of Jesus and you are here today
53:52 or if you fall that category that I've referred to a couple times as Christian but probably not saved,
53:59 this same offer of salvation is open to you today and the family of God. The
54:06 brothers and sisters in this room right now want to see you walk into the family.
54:15 Join the family in adoption that we might enjoy
54:21 the fullness of God together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
54:32 Secondly, when we you when you we adopt orphans,
54:43 we are expressing the gospel in a tangible way.
54:50 Why adopt? Why not why not step out in faith? Why not walk
54:57 into the to the girls' homes and women's shelters
55:03 where single young teenage mothers are residing waiting to give birth but
55:09 waiting for somebody to come and adopt? Why not? Why not express the gospel to
55:14 the entire world by adopting an orphan?
55:27 And when we adopt the orphans, we are obeying God's command to care for
55:35 the orphans. You see, our salvation and our adoption is not
55:41 just something we know and it's not just something that we hold
55:47 on to and kind of all sit around feeling good about. If we are understanding at the deepest
55:54 and the deepest craters of our heart and we're experiencing
56:00 the sunship of God through Jesus, we will be moved
56:10 to orphan ministry. Whether that means caring for the orphans or helping others to care for
56:18 the orphans. And again, that's like Crystal said, not just writing a check to the women's homes,
56:25 but helping a family adopt. And I'll take it even a step further.
56:31 Yes, in you adopting. Why wouldn't your family adopt? But the church also needs
56:36 to be involved in something sooner. What can we do among ministry to the
56:44 poor? who are the main
56:52 where orphans come from mostly, but also in in in youth ministry and
56:60 young adult ministry. And I'm not talking about ministry that happens downstairs within the walls, but
57:05 ministries that are working publicly in prevention.
57:13 Poor mothers have to give up children because they can't afford to feed their mouths and the men have simply gotten
57:20 them pregnant and run off. What can we do to ensure that the poor
57:27 mothers are taken care of that they could keep their children, provide a home and still support?
57:35 It's a multiaceted idea. But my primary challenge this morning is
57:42 number one, it's twofold. Number one, your salvation. You experiencing the adoption yourself in Jesus. Secondly,
57:50 adopting. The challenge is there. Go seek it.
57:58 Just begin by praying. God, would it be us? Would it be our family?
58:07 If it's not our family, show us the family it is and we will help them do it.
58:20 but to put feet to the experience of your adoption in Christ.
