Adopted as Sons, Luke 15:11-24

In this sermon, Pastor Aaron Shamp explores the profound themes of the Prodigal Son parable, focusing on the concepts of sonship and adoption in the Christian faith. He emphasizes the significance of sonship as a status that carries blessings, security, and a special relationship with God. The sermon highlights the future hope of being co-heirs with Christ and the transformative power of Christ's obedience in securing our place as children of God. Through this teaching, listeners are encouraged to embrace their identity as sons and daughters of God, living in the confidence and praise that comes from this relationship.

Takeaways

• Sonship is more than a biological relationship; it's a status.
• Being a son of God means receiving blessings and privileges.
• Sonship provides legal status and deep security in Christ.
• Adoption by God is immediate and not based on performance.
• We have special access to God as our Father.
• Our future hope includes being co-heirs with Christ.
• Sonship brings us into a community of unconditional love.
• Christ's obedience purchases the gift of sonship.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Prodigal Son
01:48 Understanding Sonship and Its Importance
04:48 The Status of Sonship in God's Family
07:57 The Blessings of Being a Son of God
10:41 The Role of Women in Sonship
13:55 Legal Status and Security of Sonship
17:03 Intimate Access and Relationship with God
20:02 Future Hope and Inheritance as Sons
22:50 Community and Brotherhood in Christ
25:48 The Gift of Sonship Through Christ
29:06 Living Out Our Identity as Sons
31:41 Conclusion and Prayer

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00.54)
regular attenders, wanna say what a blessing it is to be here with you guys this morning and get to worship with you as we worship together in singing and also as we worship together in the word.

and through the teaching of the word. Right now we're about halfway through a series called At the Father's Table where we're learning about the gospel and we're learning what it means to be a part of God's family and how we enter God's family. And so today we're going to be continuing in that series in Luke chapter 15. So if you have your Bible with you and you want to open it up there to follow along with us, you can do that in Luke chapter 15.

We'll be reading the first half or so of the Prodigal Son parable and then we'll jump in. So Luke chapter 15, I'll start in verse 11 once we're all there. If you don't have your Bible with you, you can follow along on the screens next to me there.

Aaron Shamp (00:59.547)
Okay, so if we're all in Luke chapter 15 and starting in verse 11, we'll start with the reading today.

Jesus also said,

Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food? And here I am dying of hunger. I'll get up, go to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers." So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father told his servants, quick!

Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it. And let's celebrate with a feast. Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.

Aaron Shamp (02:53.694)
So this is our third week looking at this story here, one of the most famous of all of Jesus's parables, not the most famous of all his parables about the story of, as we call it, the prodigal son. And we see in the story that the son asks his father that he wants his inheritance now. He's ready to receive that wealth. And once he gets it, it says, not many days later, so pretty quickly after he gets his share of the estate, he goes away to another country, leaving the family after already putting them in a Christ

by forcing his father's hand to divide up the estate, divide up the property, having to liquidate it so the son can get a share of the wealth. The son then leaves the family after already putting them in that state and goes away to another country. And not long after being there, he loses it all. And he ends up working for someone else in that country, hungry, considering eating some of the pigs food.

When we look at this story, we see that the younger brother, the younger son, the prodigal son, loses a lot in the first half of this story. He loses all of his inheritance that he had gained. But what we need to understand is that he lost something much bigger than just money in this case. And we see that in whenever he's preparing to go back to his father. And he says twice, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

You see, even bigger than the wealth or the money, the inheritance that he lost, something much bigger than his loss was his sonship with his father. He recognized that, which is why he said, you know, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like just another one of your employees, like another one of your hired hands. He recognizes that his actions have lost him that great gift, even bigger than the inheritance that he could have had coming or that he received.

And so, looking at this story of the son who loses his sonship but then is brought back into the family by the father and receives the restoration of that sonship, we can learn some things about, and it brings up the theme of being sons of God. The New Testament says that all those who are Christians who are in Christ are also made sons of God. And so today, that's what we're looking at is what does it mean to be a son of God?

Aaron Shamp (05:15.252)
What does it mean to be a son of God and be adopted as a son of God? Well, first of all, what I want us to see is that sonship is a status.

Sonship before God is something that is a status. When we go back into the world of this younger son and his father and the world that Jesus would have been teaching this story in, the status of sonship was something that was incredibly important and it meant a lot. It was a lot more than just being the offspring of somebody. It was a lot more than just being the biological son of his father. Because when he says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son,

we might read that as, you know, as really an emotional statement, just saying to his father, even though I'm your offspring, you know, I don't deserve to be treated like it because I've hurt you so badly. And in a sense, that's true. Certainly, he insulted his father and the family so greatly that there is an emotional pain there behind the statement that I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. There's actually more than that behind the meaning of what the son is saying here. It's not just an emotional statement, but it's also a statement

in effect because sonship was more than just, like I said, being the offspring, but it was a status. It was like an office. was a it was a privileged position to hold in a family during this time. Sons were incredibly important during this time because the son would continue. We're seen as the ones who were holding the responsibility of continuing the family. They were continuing not just the family name, but also the values of the family, the the beliefs of the family, the culture of the family.

the business of the family. The sons, once they received their inheritance, would have expected to continue growing it for the welfare of the family. So the sons carried on all these things. They conducted the family business. This is why the older son, according to this time period, would have received a larger share of the estate because he was expected to keep it going, to keep that family fortune and wealth continuing. It was in their sons that they had economic security.

Aaron Shamp (07:23.036)
So Sunship.

was more than just a biological statement, it was more than just an emotional relationship, it was an office. And it's particularly that, that this younger prodigal son is referring to when he says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, because he recognizes how deeply he has sinned against his family and lost that privilege of being a son, of holding that status of sonship. So sonship in a family during this time,

see how this is relevant to the church, was an office, it was a status, was something that you held. It was a big deal. And that, that big deal, that special status in the family, is what the son had lost that was far bigger of a loss than any amount of money.

It's all these things behind the meaning of to be a son in a family that makes what the New Testament has to say about being a son of God so impressive. And if you were living during this time, even shocking, surprising. Whenever you read Romans chapter eight, in Romans chapter eight, I'll be referring to this passage several times, so you can turn there if you want or just listen. But in Romans chapter eight,

In verse 14, Paul says this, he says, for all those led by God's Spirit are God's sons. Now that is an incredible statement. He says, for all those who are led by God's Spirit, they are also sons of God. That's an incredible statement because what Paul is saying is, who receives God's Spirit? Is it only men?

Aaron Shamp (09:02.598)
and not women? No, everyone who follows Christ, who has submitted to him as Lord and Savior, we receive all believers, men and women, receive the Spirit of God. Okay, so all the saints, all the believers have the Spirit of God. Paul says everyone who has the Spirit of God, which applies to all the men and women in the church, are also God's sons. Now,

connect that back to the meaning of being a son. That sonship, Paul was not just making, once again, a sentimental statement here saying, you know, now you have God viewing you as his child. It means something even bigger than that. It means that you are now in this office. You are now man or woman. You get to live in this special status in relationship to God, the status of sonship and all the blessings and privileges that come with

sonship. So he's saying something incredible here. First of all, he's saying that whenever we follow Christ, we are not just his subjects, but we become sons of God.

In every other world religion, especially during this time, to follow a king, you don't become the king's son, you're just one of the king's subjects. To follow a god, you do not become one of the sons of that god, right? And having all the privileges that come with that, you just become a subject, a worshiper, a follower of that god. But in Christianity, Paul says we are not just subjects of Jesus the king, we are co-heirs with him because we have

been made sons of God. He is the son of God who has coming to him all of the favor and blessings and inheritance that God the Father has promised to him. Paul says that we are raised to a similar seating where we have the favor of God, the blessings of God, and the inheritance of God the Father coming to us as well.

Aaron Shamp (11:10.92)
That is an impressive, incredible statement for Paul to make. It's something huge to say about what it means to live as a Christian, right? So that's one of the first things that's so impressive about the Christian teaching that in Christ, we become the sons of God.

Now, secondly, it's impressive that he says that we're all sons. Like I said before, he says everyone, man and woman, right? Because if the ladies in here, you might feel like it's a little awkward to be called a son of God and say, well, why doesn't Paul say we are sons and daughters of God? That would feel a little bit more comfortable, right? Well, not exactly.

Because once again, we have to step into the world, into the cultural situation that they were in. And Paul was not just saying, like I said before, something sentimental. He was saying we are all men and women put into that special privileged category, that special status of sonship. And so, yes, even to the women, Paul says, become sons of God. This also doesn't mean that in heaven we're all going to be men. That's not what it's saying, of course, either. What he's saying is,

something that the women would have never ever heard before. You see in our day and age, sons and daughters have equal

status, especially in terms of not just love, but in terms of family inheritance that will come to them, the expectation of carrying on the family, even if in the case of daughters, not with the name, but in terms of values, culture, maybe even participation in the family business. But during this time, the ladies, the girls had never heard that. So whenever Paul said to them,

Aaron Shamp (12:51.74)
If you are in Christ, if you have the Spirit of God in you, then you are in that special status of being a son of God. Whenever the women heard that, you could have tipped them over. It would have been so...

Incredible, so shocking, so wonderful, something that they never considered even possible before. Whenever Paul says that everyone, we are all sons in Christ, it elevated the women to a place that they never had before, had never considered or dared imagine before. So sonship is first of all a status in Christ that we have available to us. Now secondly with this, what sonship means is it is blessing.

To be a son of God is an incredible blessing that is available to us that we do not have when we are outside of God or we are outside of Christ, not in relationship with Him, but a blessing that we receive whenever we come into relationship with Him. Because once again, we cannot water down what it means to be a son of God to just say, well,

All of us are sons of God since we were all created by him, right? It means something more than that. Because the New Testament is clear that yes, we are all created by God, right? We are all his creatures, but whenever we are outside of Christ, we are not his children. Paul says clearly in Ephesians chapter two that whenever we are outside of Christ, before we are saved, he says that we are not children under God, but that we are children under wrath, right? We are like orphans.

without a father. And so we need adoption. And when we are adopted by God, we get all the blessings of being his sons. Let me give you several blessings that come with being sons of God. The first one is this legal status and deep security.

Aaron Shamp (14:37.764)
Legal status and deep security. Whenever you are made a child of God, like I said before, it is a status which means that you get this legal status, this office that you are placed into. And whenever you are made a child of God, you are given that status, you are placed in that position in relationship to God immediately. There's no building stage.

You don't go from not being a son of God to now a little bit and then kind of over time you grow into it more. You attain different stages and levels to where you're really more of a son than you used to be. It's not like that. You are either a son of God or you are not. And when we are blessed by God with adoption, where he takes us from being orphans to being his children, it is immediate. This is a...

analogy that I've used several times before so some of you guys have heard it but whenever you have a wedding and you have the bride and groom and they they are they're engaged right they're not married they walk down the aisle they stand before the people they're still not married right and then the officiant declares them husband and wife they're now married after that even though their marriage might only be five minutes old are they married or not or are they just kind of married?

And then as time goes on and they exit the honeymoon stage and those first early years, then they slowly become husband and wife. No.

Because husband and wife, while certainly we learn how to be a better husband and wife and what it means to act that way, the status of being a husband and wife happens instantly, whenever it is declared by the minister. They go from being not married to married completely. It is a legal status. It is an office, a special privileged name given to them. And it's the same thing with us. Being adopted by God is not something that is gradual in nature.

Aaron Shamp (16:39.236)
that once God declares it, it is done. That means that the saint who has been walking faithfully with Christ for decades is as much a son of God as the brand new Christian who accepted Christ three minutes ago.

both sons of God, because God's adoption of us is a legal standing, a legal status. We go from being outside the family to inside of the family, and this happens by God the Father's declaration. Not by us working our way into that state, but by His declaration that we are His sons. Now just consider what this means.

If becoming a son of God, this adoption, is something that happens by God's declaration, that means it doesn't happen by our declaration. If it happens by God's declaration and choice, then it doesn't happen by our choices. If it happens by His declaration, it doesn't happen by our performance. We tend to think, even Christians who have been walking with God, we know this, we tend to do this, we tend to think that my place

as a son of the father, a son in his household, worthy of having a seat at the father's table, of being in the church or of knowing him is based on my performance. We all tend to think, you know, on those days where we're having a bad day.

Maybe you were not aware of God's presence throughout the day. You were indulgent in sin or temptation or whatever else it may be. Maybe you have a period where you are just not walking with Him as you ought to. And we start to assume that that status that we had, that special place that we had of being God's son is now lost. Or maybe it's not lost, but it's weakened, it's fragile. And that gives us worry, gives us anxiety. It holds us back from prayer.

Aaron Shamp (18:38.076)
and turning back to the Father because we're worried that when we turn back to the Father, maybe He won't see Himself as our Father any longer. That would be true if our adoption was based on our performance, based on our choice or our declaration. But it is not, since it is based on His declaration and on the performance of Jesus Christ. Whenever He declares over you, my son, my child and my family, it is done.

once and for all, which gives you security. We have, because we are adopted by God the Father, incredible, infinite security in Jesus Christ, so that on your best days and on your worst, your status as his child is still secure. It is not threatened, it has not changed. It is stable in Christ. But so often we tend to worry.

The great British preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones, used to ask this question. He said, right now, are you a Christian, a child of God? Right now.

Aaron Shamp (19:43.218)
I hope we're quick to say yes, despite however we feel or whatever our doubting heart says or whatever the accusations of the enemy say to us. But sometimes we hesitate in answering that question because we're afraid that, you know, I really dropped the ball a few times this week or maybe it's been longer than that, right? I haven't been spending time with the father.

I haven't been in his word. I haven't prayed in since I don't know when. And so we start to, we hesitate.

But if we recognize the incredible blessing that we have and that our sonship with God is a legal status that the Father, the Sovereign over the universe has declared over you, then you understand that gives you absolute security. So that in no matter what state your life is in, no matter how far you think you've gone,

No matter how long you think you've gone by with neglecting the Father or indulging in sin, you still have that status waiting for you. The only difference is that you've allowed your sin to withhold you from enjoying that status. But the status, the relationship is still there. It is not threatened. So first of all, we have this legal status and deep security.

but we also have special relationship and intimate access.

Aaron Shamp (21:11.943)
Being a son of God means that you have a special relationship with him. Like I said before, just by virtue of being God's creations, not everyone is a son. This is something that is only for those who are in Jesus Christ, who are following God, who have the Spirit of God living within us. Paul said, if you have God's Spirit in you, then you have the Spirit of adoption. You are God's sons. So once we enter into this and we have God's Spirit in us, then this gives us also special relationship with him.

as parents in here, just as your children have a special relationship and special access to you that no one else has, if you are a son of God, you have a special relationship with God, a covenantal relationship, loving relationship, and access to him that outside of Christ we do not have. Imagine if it's 3 a.m. and your spouse nudges you and you wake up.

half awake out of your dream and you roll over and they say, hey, I'm thirsty. What would you say to them? Well, get up and go get something to drink, right? And then you roll over and go back to sleep. But whenever the door creaks open and you hear the little patter of feet come in and it's a little hand poking you or nudging you and they say, mom, dad, right? It's your kid and they say, I'm thirsty. What do do? You get up and you go get them. Maybe you just say, go back to sleep. But whenever your heart is softest, right?

and you act like the kind of parent you want to be. What do you do? You get up and you go get that for them. Maybe you've seen before how a father or a mother can be engaged in doing something, house chores, talking to another person, whatever else it is, but then the child comes running up and they lift up their arms.

The parent takes their attention away from whatever else it was and gives it to the child. The child doesn't think that they have to achieve something to get that attention. They just run up to their parent and they put their arms up expecting that their parents' face will be turned to them and they will be lifted up. That's special access. Think of how hard it is to get to see certain people.

Aaron Shamp (23:25.809)
You know, even if you're a really important person, I'm sure it's kind of difficult to get a meeting with the president, so to say. Not even presidents. Sometimes it's hard for you just to get a meeting with your boss, right? But if you're a child, you have the direct line. You have direct access. If you're a child of the boss, the governor, the president, whatever kind of important person, if you're a child, meetings get pushed out of the way for you, right? Conversations are paused so they can answer your call.

Similarly, we have that kind of special relationship and access to God. In Hebrews, it tells us that we are, that God invites us to come before his throne and before his throne to boldly and confidently lay down all of our requests. Before the King of the universe, before the Holy God,

In spite of how puny and impure we are, he invites us to come before his throne and to make our request boldly and confidently before him. He invites us to come before him as our children do and raise our arms, expecting that we will be heard, that we will be answered, that we will be received. So we have special relationship and intimate access. Thirdly, we have a future hope.

that also comes with the present reality right now. Being sons of God means that we have a future hope. And we see this in Romans chapter eight. First of all, we have this hope that we will receive an inheritance. In Romans 8 16, Paul says, spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children. And if children also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Isn't that incredible?

Once again, this is so much bigger than just a sentimental statement that we are God's sons. Paul says that whenever we are adopted by God, we become heirs of him and co-heirs with Christ. What does that mean? It means that all of the statements in the Bible about the inheritance that the son will receive.

Aaron Shamp (25:36.933)
at the end of time, whenever God's kingdom is fully established, heaven and earth come together. All the inheritance that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, second person of the Trinity, all the inheritance that is coming to him, Paul says we are co-heirs with him. God says that the Son, Jesus, will rule over the earth in the kingdom one day. And he says to us that we will rule with him.

This is one of those points of theology that I've struggled with over the years because it is almost too great to comprehend. My own doubting heart wants to reject it and say that can't possibly be true. It's too wonderful. It sounds too good to be true. But Paul states it clearly, co-heirs with Christ.

How incredible is that? Consider your life before Christ. Consider your life at times where you've been with Christ. I don't deserve to be a co-heir. I deserve rejection. I deserve banishment from the kingdom. But in the incredible grace of God the Father.

And because of how powerful the work of Jesus Christ is, he is able to take rebellious sinners, idolaters, younger rebel sons, like the son in the story, like you and I, and make us sons in the family and co-heirs with Christ. How much would it change your life today? Like I said, this future hope gives us a present reality. that being co-heirs and receiving all of that is something that we won't get until heaven, right?

But how much would it change your life today? How much would it change your life today if you knew and you believed that you have an enormous inheritance coming to you? It would certainly help us to deal with the setbacks in life. It would certainly help us to know that no matter what happens to me, I'm going to be okay. No matter what kind of setbacks I go through, no matter what kind of sufferings I endure, no matter what kind of losses I face in this life,

Aaron Shamp (27:53.179)
it'll be okay. It doesn't mean they don't hurt, but it means that they don't crush you, right? You can be disappointed, but not despair. You can be broken, but not crushed. If you know and you believe that you are coheirs with Christ, and we have all of those infinite blessings coming to us, you know, I know that I would really like to start operating on that.

Because I struggle with whenever I deal with a setback, I endure a loss, we're starting to fear, we're starting to have anxiety, we're starting to wonder, is everything gonna turn out okay? Well, what if this doesn't happen? What if that door doesn't open? What if this isn't fixed? What if that isn't replaced? And so on, instead of resting in the truth that I'm a co-heir with Christ, and whatever I lose now, I will receive 10, 100, an infinite fold in the future.

Wouldn't that change your life too? We also have the future hope that we will experience the full realization of God's intention for us. We know, you every person experiences the sensation and knowledge within themselves, whether they are in Christ or not, that I am not who I'm supposed to be. No matter how much self affirmations,

and how much self-expression our culture encourages people to give into and to accept and so on, it doesn't change that nagging awareness that I am not who I'm supposed to be. There's something off. I know that I'm supposed to be different than this, that my life is supposed to be different than this and so on. And scripture looks at that experience and sensation that we all have and it has an answer for it. It says, yes, we are not supposed to be this way, right?

dealing with the fragility of our flesh, the imperfection of our hearts and desires and the sinfulness of our actions. We are not supposed to be this way. God created us to be different. But because of sin coming into the picture, it causes these breakdown, this breakdown that we experience both within ourselves and that we see in the world.

Aaron Shamp (30:11.239)
But the gift and promise of the gospel is that one day God is going to restore us to his full intentions for us. If you wanna kinda know what that means, then look at Jesus. Jesus is the only picture of a perfect human that we have in all the world. He is someone who perfectly obeyed God, who perfectly lived out God's plan and intention for him. And God wants,

to make us like Christ so that one day we'll live out the same kind of character that Jesus had. Now, while we're on this earth, we still wrestle with the flesh. We still deal with sin. We still fight temptation and sometimes, unfortunately, we lose in that fight. But one day, that'll not be so. The flesh will be completely.

done away with. All sin that is present in us and that is present in our hearts, minds, and so on will be washed away and we will experience what it means to be the perfect sons of God. In theology, we call this step in salvation glorification. Whenever we go through

We pass through the veil that we call death from this life into the next and God transforms us into who he ultimately desires for us to be. So what if we wrestle against our own foolishness, sinfulness, frailty and so on in this life, then we know that we have that future looking forward to us.

Aaron Shamp (31:49.465)
One last quick point of what it means in the blessings of being a son of God, it means that we are brought into a community. We have a community of brotherly love. We are not made sons of God and we're not only children. Whenever we are made sons of God, we're brought into a big family with others. So what that means is that whenever we're brought into this community of brotherly love, we have an unconditional commitment to one another.

This is why over here Redeemer, we have a membership process that's very intentional and that hopefully the goal there is that when you go through that process of becoming a member, you learn what it means to live as a child of God. To live as a child of God means that we are covenanted to one another. God covenants himself to us. He is committed to us with an unconditional love. And whenever we're brought into the family, we experience the covenant with the father, but we're also covenanted to one another.

where we are committed to one another, where we experience and offer unconditional love towards one another. Now, how is this expressed? Do I just say, well, you know, I become a Christian and I love all the other Christians out there. But if you're never in church, if you're not in community with other believers, if you are not covenanted to a local body, then you're not living that out.

Maybe we're connected to a church, but we're not fully, wholeheartedly committed. We, on paper, have a covenant with our family, but we're not fully living that out. If we are in this community, then there will be unconditional commitment to one another. There will be covenant-ing to one another. This doesn't mean that that love will always be easy, of course, right? Whenever you're in a family, you don't get to choose your siblings.

And it's the same thing whenever it comes to the church. You can choose a church, but you don't get to choose who's in that church. But nevertheless, we are still covenanted together. Now, how is all this possible that we are able to be adopted as sons? And as I said before, against how inconceivable it seems, we have all these blessings given to us, the legal status, the intimate relationship and access.

Aaron Shamp (34:15.366)
the inheritance and the future hope and glory that we look forward to. How is any of this possible? Well, we see it in the life of Jesus. Towards the end of his ministry in Mark chapter 14, we read Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane before his trial and crucifixion. And he's praying to God in the garden. And in the garden, Jesus says, Abba, Father.

Abba is an Aramaic term for, and it's an intimate kind of term that a child would use for their father. It's not formal, it's informal and intimate. It's like saying, like you would say to your father, dad, as a child might say daddy to their father. He says Abba father, using that special covenant term. All things are possible for you. Remove this cut from me.

yet not what I will, but what you will. Jesus prays this before the Father and we can see a few things in it. First of all, we can see how he is the perfect Son, the true Son of God by his obedience. Because even as he faces the cup, the greatest testing, he says, yet not what I will, but what you will. He is the Son of God, not by a gift, but by

performance, by perfect obedience, not what I will, but what you will. He is the perfectly obedient son. And based on that perfect obedience is why he is able to say to the father, Abba, father. But then contrast that with us. You can sum up our lives as making a statement to God, not what you will, but what I will. That's the statement we make to God every time we sin.

Every time we worship an idol instead of him, every time we break one of his commandments or we are not faithful to him, we are saying to God, not what you will, but what I will. And nevertheless, for people like us who have lived our lives under that banner, Paul says in Romans chapter eight that we can cry out Abba, Father. Why? Because Jesus, the perfectly obedient son cried out in this garden, Abba, Father.

Aaron Shamp (36:38.769)
and he did not receive God's blessing, but God's curse. The only perfect son, the only fully obedient child of God, where he cried out to God in the garden, he did not experience that special access and blessing, but instead the father turns his face away as we sing in the song. The father turned his face away and instead of receiving his love, he received his wrath.

Instead of his favor, he received condemnation because he was receiving the wrath and the condemnation that we should have experienced for living our lives of not what God wills, but what we will. But because Jesus took that wrath and condemnation on himself, we now receive the blessing of what Jesus has done. And so Paul says, if you receive the spirit of adoption, then we are able to cry out, Abba, Father.

Because Jesus cried out, Abba Father, and received curse, we can cry out, Abba Father, and receive blessing and love from God the Father. So the third point and our final point, sonship is a gift that is purchased by the obedience of Christ. Notice in verse 15 of Romans chapter eight, Paul says, for you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, instead you received the spirit of adoption.

He doesn't say you earned or you accomplished or you found, you discovered, you claimed. He doesn't say anything like that. It is a passive tense. We received this spirit. We received this adoption. Just as when you are given a gift, if it is a true gift, not like a paycheck that you earn, when you receive that gift, it's something that you don't work for or claim, but you just passively take.

In the same way, sonship is a gift purchased for us by the obedience of Christ. Paul says we receive that spirit. And so if you have faith in Jesus Christ and you have received that spirit of adoption, then it means that all the things that are true about being a son of God is true for you. All the blessings of sonship are yours by God's grace. Go back to the parable. The son has

Aaron Shamp (39:02.606)
recognized the state that he's in, he recognizes what he has done, he has recognized his sin. He knows that he is no longer worthy to be the father's son. And so he says, I'll just be his employee. But whenever he gives his little pre-prepared speech to the father, the father does not accept his deal. Instead, he brings him back into the family by grace. He didn't deserve it. It was the father's gift to bring him back into the family.

And where he came back in, in his rags, and still covered with filth from the pigs, the father takes the best robe and he wraps it around his son. He takes a ring and he places it on his finger and he throws a party. That's a picture of what you and I look like when we go from the outside of Christ to inside.

We, in our filthy rags and in our sinfulness are covered by the best robe that Jesus purchased and earned for us. The ring of the Spirit, a ring that's like a seal, a sign of the status and place that we stand in. That ring that is placed on the Son's finger is the seal of the Spirit that is placed upon us, that we all receive by grace.

So it means that we can cry out Abba Father and know that because Jesus was turned away, we will never be turned away. So just consider it, how can this change your life today? How can this change the way that you make your decisions? How much can it change just the inner peace and confidence that you have when you walk through? How much can it change the...

disappointments, setbacks, and losses that you endure. If you truly live out and believe the truth that Paul said, that if we are in Christ and we have received the Spirit of God, he said, this is not a spirit of fear. But how many of us are operating day to day on fear?

Aaron Shamp (41:01.669)
fear of losing a relationship, fear of losing status, fear of losing a job, fear of losing this and that and whatever else. So often, we're motivated to live our lives based upon fear. Whenever our alarm clock goes off in the morning, we don't leap out of the bed in joy, but we leap out in fear, right? We've got to get ready, got to get work on time so that, you know, this doesn't happen, that doesn't happen, and I keep this job, and maybe I get promoted, and this and that. So often, we frantically live our lives based on fear.

Paul says the spirit of God is not one of fear. It is a spirit of adoption. It's a spirit that whenever we face the trials of life, our response is not one from a place of anxiety. Our response is from a place of being a child of God. When we experience those losses, we don't fall into doom cycles of fear and anxiety, but we fall into crying out Abba, Father.

So how much can that change you today? If instead of living by fear, you live by praise. Because ultimately that's what Paul brings us to. If we have the spirit of God in us, living as adopted sons, we express this and we live it out and we experience it and crying out to the Father, which means praising Him. So let's pray. So Lord, we come before you and we praise you for this wonderful.

incredible gift of adoption. We thank you that we can have absolute confidence and security in our standing before you because you have adopted us by your decree and not by our performance. Lord would you give us the faith to believe what your word says about what it means to be your sons.

so that we might believe and we might trust and we might experience that spirit of sonship that is inside of us, that brings us into that special place and gives us that special access so that in response to the challenges of life, we do not fall into fear, but we respond with praise. We respond with not self-reliance, but with reliance on our Father.

Aaron Shamp (43:19.207)
We thank you that all of these things are promised to us, available for us, and accomplished on our behalf by our King, Jesus Christ. And we pray this in His name, amen. Let me invite you