Good morning church family. Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. We were ruined. We were ruined in our sin. We were guilty and undone. When your love reached out with sovereign hands beckoned us to come. You sought out the wonders, made the prodigals come home. The lavish fears you welcomed us, you made us your own.

You have loved us like you love your son. We are heirs with Christ bought by his love. Oh how great the love that we've been shown. We're your children, Lord. You made us your own. We are strangers to the world, but no strangers to your throne. We draw near you now with confidence for all our fears are gone.

And when Christ our King returns, we'll meet saints we've never known. And forever we will be your mates that you made us your own. You have loved us like you love your son. We are heirs with Christ bought by his love. Oh how great the love that we've been shown.

We're your children now. You made us your own. You have loved us like you love your son. We are heirs with Christ bought by his love. Oh how great the love that we've been shown. We're your children now. You made us your own. All right, good morning. Welcome to Berean Community Church.

This is what I look like when I don't preach. So we do have a guest speaker that I will introduce to you a little bit later. As you guys know, today is Adoption Sunday. And so we wanted to take this time because it's Adoption Sunday not only in our church, but again around the country and I think possibly even around the world, where the emphasis this week on most, a lot of churches are to kind of give an encouragement to consider adoption.

And again, it's not, for us it's not just about adoption, but just to consider the various ministries that are out there that we can get engaged in and practice our faith and to honor God. And so again, for that reason, we've set aside certain things. But before I get to that, I just wanted to emphasize a few announcements.

One, our college ministry is having a fundraiser next Sunday. And so after the second service, they're going to be outside, I think it says Chipotle bowls, and they're going to be serving that for lunch and so various things. And as you guys seen, our college ministry is very active and there's a lot of things going on with them.

And so they're going to be serving lunch as a fundraiser next Sunday. So if it's possible, we encourage you to stick around and to support their ministry through getting free, cheap, not free, cheap, delicious lunch for the glory of God. Okay, next Sunday after the second service. Other things, I'm just going to leave it up to you to just go on the website and take a look.

But this morning we have several booths that as you were coming in, you probably saw set up outside. And those are, first of all, we have Holt International. And this is a ministry that a lot of our church members have gone through to go through adoption. And so some families now are in the process of doing that.

And so they're here, set up, and if you have any questions, if God plants any desires or seeds in your heart to pursue that. And even if you're not married, even if you're single, and this is something that you may want to consider at least to get knowledge of, their booth is outside so you can go and visit them after service.

Olive Crest, their ministry is in foster care. And so they're located in Orange County. And so they're also here if that's something that you would like to pursue, at least just even get knowledge of, you can go visit that booth and ask the questions that you have for that.

NEDC, which stands for National Embryo Donation Center. And so this is basically to adopt embryos that have been fertilized and yet have been just kind of sitting around. And so this is, you know, I'm not the best person to explain this. I encourage you to go to that table and ask questions.

We have a couple, Jeremiah and Carrie, who is going through that, and she is pregnant with two children through this adoption process. And so if you have any questions about that, I think it's a very unique opportunity that God has opened up through various technologies. And so if that's something that God lays on your heart, they will be out there at the table and you can ask them questions.

And we also have Compassion International who is set up here. And we have 140 children that our church is collectively supporting in a particular area in Ecuador, Guayaquil. So some of you guys have already gone on that trip to go see your children. And so we wanted to--I know many of you guys who are supporting children through compassion may not be in that particular area, but our church has decided to do this together so that when we make trips to go see them, that we can go to the same area and support the same churches that are in that area.

So far we have about 140. They brought about another 50 children that we can support through their ministry. So I don't know how many of them have been picked up for this morning-- after the morning service, but I highly encourage you to go there. And then if God lays that on your heart to go and visit and pick up a packet from them, and then if you adopt a child that way through the monthly support, we're hoping sometime next year when things are back open that we'll be able to take another trip out there to go see our children together.

And so that booth is also out there, so we encourage you to do that. And then after about 30 minutes about allowing you to go and visit these sites, some of the people in our church who have gone through or are in the process of adopting in various stages, they're going to be in a room in the cafe in the back room.

Some of you guys may know where the glass room is, that big conference room over there. And so they'll be in that room to interact with you, kind of informally answer any kind of questions that you may have. So around 1 p.m., we encourage you to go there, and then there's going to be a Q&A session over there after you've visited the booths.

And so I think that's about it for the announcements. And I already shared with you that we are going to be taking offering for the adoption ministry that's happening. And so this particular offering is being collected for scholarship for those people who are interested in adopting in the future.

And so once--if you're a member of the church and you've adopted a child, and I know there's a lot of funds that go into that, church wants to come alongside. And obviously it's not going to take care of all of your funds, but it's just to kind of let you know that we're here to support you and encourage you.

And so the offering that you give for that fund will be going for that, for families who end up adopting, and then to come alongside and to give some support for that. And so please make sure that you separate the two offerings, the general offering, and then when you give online, make sure that it's dedicated specifically for adoption offering.

And so our accounting department will be able to distinguish the two. One other thing is after we have our main part of worship, we have a video of testimonies of various families in our church that have gone through this process or are in the process. And so right after the worship, they're going to watch the video, and then I'll come back up and introduce our speaker.

Let me pray for us. And again, we have a physical box in the back. If you have physical offering, you can place it there after the service. Otherwise, we'll give you a minute to give the electronic offering. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your continued grace and love that you pour upon our lives, some that we know, some that we are not aware of.

I thank you, Father God, for the blessing that you've given us, for our community to gather together week after week, where we can share our lives, encourage, and keep each other accountable. And we pray, Father God, especially now as the world is becoming darker and darker, that you would help us as a community to be a brighter light that shines your grace.

We pray today especially, Lord God, that you would anoint this time, that as we understand in a deeper way what it means to be adopted into your kingdom, we pray that you would stir our hearts, stir our church, that may your grace, may your love that you poured upon us be a reflection of all that we do in our lives.

I pray that you would help us to give in a manner that is worthy of your gospel that you've given. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Hi church family, we are currently in Korea, waiting to adopt our son. We're going to take custody in two days. Hi, my name is Lee, my wife Esther, and we have five children.

Hezekiah, Obadiah, Phoebe, Jedediah, and Boaz, our youngest. Ages range from four to eleven, and Boaz is our youngest adopted child. Hi, my name is Jeremiah, this is my wife Carrie. We have two biological children, Azariah, we call him Azzi, he is three and a half, and Alathia, our daughter, she will be two in January.

And I am currently pregnant with two of our children through adoption. We did something called embryo adoption. Hi, my name is Jen Choi, and this is my husband Jason. We adopted our son Ethan from Korea this past January, and he's now a little over two and a half years old.

Hi, my name is Phillip Kim, and I'm one of the leaders at Baran. My wife's name is Marian. I have a college-age son, Jonathan, and my adopted daughter, Ellie, and she's at age twelve right now. Hi, I'm Dean Shin, this is my wife Helen. We're parents to three biological sons, Joshua, Matthew, and Jeremy.

And we have a foster son who is sixteen, who came to live with us about six weeks ago. Hi, my name is Everest. For those who don't know, he's a software developer, and I am Kat. I'm a speech therapist. Our son is two, his name is Caden. Our motivation for adoption is very simply to stay faithful to the calling to adopt that God put in our hearts very early.

We discussed it even during our courtship and throughout our entire marriage. We knew that God called us to adopt, and we felt that it was going to be our youngest child. So after having four children, and they were in school, we knew that God opened a sliver of a window, and we took a leap of faith and asked the Lord to provide the landing pad.

We didn't necessarily talk about adoption right away when we got married, but just over the years, I think God was just really softening our hearts to adoption. And then we saw the documentary, The Dropbox, which was about a pastor in Korea who helped to save abandoned babies, and I think that just opened our eyes to see the need for adoption in Korea.

For us, it definitely stems from the truth of Scripture with the Gospel, and God's adopting and loving us and taking us into his family. For myself, having been part of a previous church that had that culture where I saw the Gospel lived out every day because many families, almost all the families were foster or adoptive families or fostered to adopt.

We were asking, "Why can't we have kids?" There's a lot of kids who are asking, "Why did my mom and dad abandon me?" We know that God has a special affection for those who are needy, orphans, widows, and the poor. So we thought that we wanted to be able to share God's love with someone in terms of bringing them actually into our home, having them see how we live, helping them to become whole.

Ultimately, our desire is to be able to share the love of Christ in a concrete way. When we found out about Embry Adoption through reading through a book together, we sort of individually just researched on it. Through the months of researching about Embry Adoption, God really took me down a different path.

And even in my own heart and my own thinking, he revealed a lot of inconsistencies in what I profess to believe and just the way I actually live. So our children that we adopted, they've actually been frozen for 10 years. So these children are the remaining children from another couple's IVF cycle.

They were not able to be transferred into their genetic mother's womb. And thankfully, because now this type of adoption is available, instead of being killed, discarded, or donated to science, these children are able to be given a chance at life through their adoptive mother's womb, which is me. And just to clarify some things, when we adopted these children, they are genetically complete, their DNA is complete, and their gender has already been determined.

So we did not adopt a sperm, and we did not adopt an egg. We adopted children five days post-fertilization. And if you Google what children look like at five days post-fertilization, they look like clumps of cell, but that's exactly what you and I looked like five days post-fertilization. One of the things that we think about are his experiences to come regarding trauma, because he would have been removed away from his birth mom and then foster mom and then with us.

So he's been through a lot of changes. I think some lows or difficulties were just really seeing how hard it was for him to transition because he was already almost two years old. He was 23 months when we adopted him, and just him going through all these changes and I think realizing that we weren't just on a play date, but that we were going to be together longer.

And there were times where we could tell he was really grieving. I think the most tangible fear is just a miscarriage, these babies not surviving. I mean, we know at the end of the day, God has already been honored through just this whole process of giving them a chance at life.

But obviously, yeah, we've already started bonding with them and I've already started bonding with them in my womb. And if they don't make it, even though we can still say, you know, they were given the dignity to pass away in a womb, you know, they weren't discarded like objects.

Our worries were simply, first was logistics, obviously, financially. Are we going to have enough? And God was so incredibly faithful. We can share so many stories of when we needed to pay a certain payment, literally the check would arrive in that amount in the mail. So there were some concerns of how are the four young, still very young children going to transition with a toddler walking into their lives and taking the youngest spot.

Still to this day, we believe firmly that it was extremely helpful to have siblings that love on them. We were absolutely caught off guard at how effortless, effortless this love came from the children. You know, it literally was just assault level affection and it continues to be. I mean, we literally have to peel them off.

And when we first adopted her and brought her to the United States, I still remember it was May 1st when we brought her in and she was just past age one. Just like meeting Caden, our first hour with him was just very sweet. Didn't really know what to expect, but he loves being thrown up in the air.

So we did that a lot. But just hearing his laugh, seeing him for the first time, being able to hold him, those were all really special. First reaction when we... Oh my gosh, he's pale. He's so pale and squishy. It's been almost 10 months now since we've been home and just seeing how much he's changed because we were still getting to know each other initially and now just seeing his personality come out more.

He's just like a really funny kid and just loves having fun and very social, super extroverted. So for those of you who might be considering or wanting to know about fostering, there are multiple ways that you can go about it. You can either go directly through the county in which you receive training.

We actually chose to go through an agency, through Bethany Christian Services, and we did appreciate that the training was coming from a Christian perspective, although there are certain requirements from just the county in general. It's arduous. It's long. The process was exhausting. I'm not going to lie, there's been many times when I personally said, "This is why people don't adopt." For us, it was definitely very long, especially since this is how we're choosing to start our family.

What we thought would be an 18-month period and then through the pandemic and a lot of different things that happened over that period. It's like a moving target and trying to hit that moving target. Laws change, rules change, different trainings are required out of the blue. Now we are three years into the process.

Whatever your adoption is, it's got to be strong. It can put a lot of strain in your marriage too because it's very, very time consuming and like I said, it's very invasive too. The process is truly worth it. There's a lot of reasons behind, good reasons why it is that invasive and that thorough.

A few years ago, Ellie actually brought up about her wanting to find her biological mom. I guess she thought about it for a while and she said at a different time, "No, she doesn't want to find her biological mom." Because she had this thought that if she did, that she would have to go with her biological mom.

So she was rethinking things and said, "No, I don't want to find my biological mom." I thought that was cute and also that she feels at home with us. She feels like she's our daughter, whether she's biological or not. We're first time parents and we're a little bit on the older side.

So it's been a tremendous joy for us to just be a mom and dad to this child who wanted parents. For us, we looked at adoption and it was such a beautiful thing. We were encouraged because we saw others adopting. Hopefully as our church is seeing others in our church adopt, that stigma or maybe the fear of adoption sometimes would subside.

That's kind of what happened with me as I saw a friend adopt because it was such a beautiful thing. Hopefully this will start others to take the leap in a sense to adopt, look into it. Because we did take, Mary and I did take a journey. We're thankful that we have our church family to be alongside us.

We're glad that you guys are walking with us. We've been thinking about adoption for about 10 years now. So it's great that it's finally coming to fruition and God has been faithful every step of the way. We're looking forward to Caden being able to meet you all and we miss you and we hope to be back soon.

Bye! Again, just to kind of remind you, all the people who are on the video, they are going to be at that room at about 1pm. So after you visit the booths and say hi to your friends, if you have any further questions, you want to just interact. It's going to be an informal time, maybe about 40 minutes, 30-40 minutes.

You can just head to that room in the cafe area in the back and they'll be there to kind of interact with you. But along with that, there are tables that are set up outside and Jeremiah and Carrie are at that booth representing that ministry that they've gone through.

And so you can go and ask that question over there as well. Well, this morning I want to introduce to you our guest speaker, Pastor James Lee, his wife who's sitting with him, Sandy. And they have three children, Toby, Piper, and Kristen. They're in the education department right now.

But when we thought about who to invite for this day to speak to us of God's Word and particularly about the process of adoption, in my mind, he was the first one that came to my mind because I've known him for many years. All the way back to college, we were in the same campus ministry.

And so again, it goes back decades. And I've seen him and his wife, Sandy, just journey through the foster care system, the heartaches that come with caring for a child for a period and then having to send them back to their biological mom. And I remember just asking about that process and the tears that they shed through that process.

But despite all of that, how they persevered and continued to be faithful to the convictions that they had. And at the end of the day, they ended up adopting their daughter, Kristen. And so through that process, I said he'd be a great person to open the Word of God to us and speak to us about this adoption and their personal experiences through that.

And again, I've known him for many years. He was the senior pastor of Orange County, sorry, Lighthouse Bible Church of Orange County for 18 years. And then recently, they moved down to the Lighthouse Bible Church of San Diego to be the biblical counseling pastor over there. And so they join us today.

And again, he's actually been with us for a short period, the very beginning of our church for maybe about seven to eight months. And so again, our lives have interacted, intertwined for many, many years. So again, he's been a good friend through that process and just seeing that whole thing.

And again, this is our second service, and I was very blessed by his message and also the testimonies that came through. And I hope that you guys will be blessed as well. All right, let's welcome him up. Good morning. Greetings from the saints at Lighthouse San Diego. Peter is a dear friend and my mentor.

And I remember those of you old school folks when we were like 30, 40 here. And just to see what God has done, huge encouragement to me. And so it's a great privilege and joy to be with you for many reasons, but especially because of this topic that I would like to address.

Even as his people, it's a subtle temptation to allow the wonder-provoking, deeply personal truth of our adoption in Christ to become kind of like some mere fine print of our great salvation. It's to our contemporary joylessness and ineffectual pursuits and missionary complacency that we either forget or functionally fail to believe that God our Father, by his unstoppable grace, pursued us, forgave us, embraced us, loves us, cares for us.

See, it's not at all enough to have heard that Christ died for sinners. It's not salvation at all to merely give intellectual assent to the truth that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Even demons and enemies of the cross of Christ know that, James 2, 19. It is nowhere close to being born again to only say that we really, really respect Jesus and we're trying very hard to live a good life.

Such are grossly insufficient in of themselves and by themselves. And so it's possible to believe, even sincerely, that one is going to heaven because of one's church attendance or one's moral performance or baptism or coming to the front or some past emotional experience or by one's friendly association with many Christians.

And yet, sadly, still be as lost as lost can be. No, instead, because of Christ's love, God's children will believe and say with every fiber of their being, tears welling up in their eyes for sheer gratitude and for the elation of being in relationship with the Father. That his Son died for me.

Save me, is merciful to me, disciplines me, is transforming me, cares for me, is for me, me of all people, this most unworthy sinner. Adoption is doubly personal to me. First, because my wife, Sandy, and I have three precious children, Tobias, Piper, and Kristen, whom we love with all our hearts.

I'm so proud of my children. Especially my older two and how they have embraced our youngest. I am humbled by my wife, her compassion. She's really the force behind this. And a part of our family's story, though, is our youngest, of course, was adopted by us nearly eight years ago.

The day of our adoption concluded our joyful yet difficult journey of three and a half years as foster parents, actually with Olive Crest here in Orange County. Prior to her, we had the blessing of caring for four other children of varying ages and varying needs and trauma. Elena, Ignacio, Jose, and Isabella.

It was no romantic journey, at times extremely humbling and painful, because of what we've seen these children go through, because of the way our own sins and weaknesses were exposed as a married couple, because of the frustrations and fallenness of our foster system, because of the way family, friends, and even church members criticized us or opposed us, let alone the plight of these kids coming out of the brokenness of our very own local communities.

So at times in the process, let me be honest, there were moments we felt abandoned, like the ones that we were caring for. Then when those children were reunited with their birth families, we were simultaneously rejoicing as well as devastated that we had to let them go. However, we were more concerned what it would cost them to not be cared for than what it would cost us to care for them.

It was devastating to lose them, but it was totally worth it to have the opportunity to love them. We had Ignacio for almost six months, and we wept for days after he left our home. Even saying his name is emotional for me, even, you know, almost a decade later.

And I remember falling into a season of depression, but through that the Lord was working in our hearts, and I was reminded of something I knew in my head but did not remember in my heart, that the pursuit of adoption, like all godly parenting, is not about me. It is not about fulfilling the desires of dad and mom.

It is about the glory of God and loving others, that Christ loves us. So we were happy to see their lives and homes become whole again. Therefore, it was a joy, and is a joy, to be a part of that. Yet, to now, Kristen, as our precious daughter, is grace, undeserved grace beyond words.

Some have said to us, well-intentioned, "Kristen is so blessed to have you." But we don't ever think or feel that way. No, we are the blessed ones. We get to be her parents and her family. I get to be daily confronted with the things that are disease-ridden in my own soul, thus with my own need for God, my Father.

I get to hold her in my arms as her daddy and point her to Jesus. We are the blessed ones. A second reason it's super personal to me is something that most people who meet me don't know, that I too was adopted. That might be a surprise to some, but it really shouldn't be.

The thing is, I wasn't an orphan in the way that most people think. No, I was in a condition far more serious, horrible, and desperate. I was a total stranger, a willful outsider, a slave of sin, an enemy of God, a zealous, rebellious, blasphemer. An object of the just wrath of God.

I had no desire for Him. At times, I intentionally expressed my hatred for Him. At other times, I only mechanically conformed to people's expectations of what a good boy should be. But then, God mercifully, mercifully interfered, intervened. He intercepted me on the path that I had been on, and I heard the good news of God's grace in the gospel.

And as I listened, God regenerated my flat-lined, dead heart to believe. He convicted me of my sinfulness, my cosmic treason, my spiritual bankruptcy, my utter inability to save myself, and I stopped running away from God, and I ran to Him. Up until my conversion, I hadn't ever known happiness like that my entire life.

And so I wanted to tell people, I had to tell people, what happened to me and for me, how God had loved me and how God still loves me, not because of me, but despite me. And so I did tell people. And though I was not conscious of it yet at the time, I was also welcomed, to heaven's praises, into a new family.

Where God the Creator, the righteous judge, became instantly, eternally, and only my perfect Father. It's precisely because of the privileges of God's adoption of us in Christ, that my wife, Sandy, and I were strongly compelled to pray, ponder, plan, and pursue adoption, even in our dating fellowship time, in our engagement, and into our marriage.

It has only served to deepen our understanding of the gospel, fueled our zeal to be salt and light, and allowed us to know more intimately God's great love for us and His church. D. F. Packer, in Knowing God, wrote, "To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater." John Piper adds, "Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in God's family, but not also in His arms." Turn with me, if you would, to the eighth chapter of Romans.

Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Starting from verse 14. Romans chapter 8. Due to time, of course, this is not all that can be said biblically about adoption, nor will it be a full exposition as might normally occur with me, but more of a doctrinal application for us on this Orphan Sunday.

Romans chapter 8. Starting from verse 14. This is the word of the Lord. "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption, as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father!' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." Verse 18.

"For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly, waiting eagerly, for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Will you join with me in prayer?

Let's pray. Father, this is your word, and so not a word of it fails, and every syllable of it is true. We need it more than our necessary food. For we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from you. Let us know the pure gold of its truth, the sweetness of its application, the need of humility to penetrate the obvious cracks of our latent self-righteousness.

Renew our minds with the matchless joy of freshly understanding your sovereign mercy, that your kindness leads us to repentance, and your grace to that life abundant and everlasting. Give us eyes to see, as your objective revelation bears on our hearts, so that by the work of your Spirit, we might submit ourselves exhaustively and exclusively to you, right now and not some tomorrow.

Engrave in us that we are not our own, that we've been crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ now lives in us. Awaken us to the fact that this life is short, that we have no business worshipping the idol of convenience, the idol of natural children or no children, the false gods of our own plans.

To repent of such spiritual adultery, that our new identity is reason to prioritize true priorities, to lay our treasures in heaven and not in our stuff. That we both ought to, and that we now can, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Overwhelm us by your greatness and grace into the white-hot affection of genuine worship and daily discipleship, as we consider our own adoption.

We give you homage, we bow beneath your good authority, we encourage your people greatly this morning. We entrust ourselves into your perfect, timely, and fatherly care this Lord's Day. In Jesus' name, for Jesus' sake we pray, amen. Can I get my water bottle? I don't think I'm used to preaching two services, so.

All the more props to your pastors. Well, three things today. Number one, I want us to see the gospel importance of our adoption. The gospel importance of our adoption. That we have been granted new freedom. We've been granted new freedom. The gospel importance of our adoption. Adoption is at the heart of the gospel.

That we're saved by God, from God, to know God. That though we deserve punishment as rebels, we experience the greatest joy of all possible joys. Receiving the right to become children of God. He redeems us from slavery to sin and Satan from the broad road that leads to destruction.

And he frees us, again not because of us, but despite us. Martin Lloyd-Jones once asked, "For some inexplicable reason, it is a doctrine, the doctrine of adoption, about which we very rarely hear about." "When was the last time, if ever," he asked, "that you heard a sermon on the doctrine of adoption?" G.I.

Packer went even further. I love what he wrote. He says, "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity," "find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father." "If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life," "he says it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all." Our adoption is vital, transforming truth.

Paul declares in our text, in verses 14-15, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, for he has not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again." Now one of the distinguishing marks of true believers in this letter to the Romans, is that the Spirit of God lives in them and leads them.

So a person is either controlled by the flesh or by the Spirit, Paul says. And he's a child of God or a child of Satan. Now we might not like to hear that, but the Bible says it's either one or the other. And by nature, the former is true and by grace alone, the latter becomes true.

Romans 1, we know, states that everyone believes that God exists. So there are really genuinely, the actuality is there's really, there are no true atheists or agnostics. Rather man in his, natural man in his prideful independence instead chooses to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Prefers to live in denial and lie to himself, trying to escape any notion of accountability, even while ironically holding everyone else but himself to account.

Giving God the hand, he questions God's greatness and goodness, only to exalt his own supposed greatness and goodness. That we are seeing all around us in our society. Romans 3, 23 says, we've all sinned, past tense, and fall short, present tense, of the glory of God. Romans 5, 6 adds that the sinner is not needing help, but is absolutely helpless.

To be helpless apart from God is also to be hopeless apart from God. The late David Pallison said it well, the core insanity of the human heart is that we violate the first great commandment. And he says this, we will love anything except God, unless our madness is checked by grace.

But the good news is God has made a way in his love. From the moment of the fall, God promised in Genesis 3, 15, the proto-evangelium, a future seed, who would crush the head of the serpent, that seed was the promised Messiah. And over and over again in the redemptive saga, the human lineage of the Messiah was on the verge of extinction.

Against all odds, humanly speaking. But that line was sovereignly preserved all the way to our Lord Jesus. This sovereign rescue was no accident, this redemption was no plan B. Let's turn with me if you will to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, looking at verse 4. There it declares, Paul says, He chose us in Him, Ephesians 1 verse 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to, speak to me, what does it say? Adoption, right? He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Interestingly, John Stott comments on this text. He says, He destined us for a higher dignity that even creation would bestow upon us. He intended to adopt us. We were loved long before we actually experienced God's love. Kristen was loved in my family's heart long before she ever came into our lives physically.

Romans 5 verse 8 says, God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. Galatians 4, 4-5 declares, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that, purpose, so that He might redeem those who are under the law, that, purpose, we might receive the adoption as sons.

In other words, our redemption rests not in our choosing Him, but in His choosing us. Is that not a picture of what adoption looks like? Now, not in a creeper way, but sometimes when my kids are asleep, I quietly go into their room and I watch them sleep peacefully and stare at them and admire them.

And then I pray for them. My kids were here in the first service, so they're a little weirded out when they heard that. And each of them is different and special. But when I look at my daughter, Kristen, and I don't think a week doesn't go by where I think this, I look at her and I wonder how different her life might have been and how different my life might have been.

Perhaps she might have perpetuated a generational cycle of dysfunction, sin, and heartache, private things I will not share. But of course, I cannot know for sure. But her former heritage had been spiraling down long before she ever came into the world, and it threatened to pull her underneath its waves.

Today, she is just our adorable daughter and Toby and Piper's younger sister. But like the rest of us, she is also a sinner. And sometimes she can be a very difficult person to live with, like her daddy. That makes me pause and ponder with gratitude, where would I be right now if my father in heaven didn't adopt me?

I don't know. I think I would be in prison or dead or trying to make it rich and find my happiness and possessions and probably be miserable. I would be deceived about my supposed happiness, which would be much worse. But I think of those possibilities as a man filled with deeply suppressed rage as a youth, momentarily erupting but always growing.

I sometimes think apart from God's grace and intervention, I would have eventually reaped the consequences of my violent heart and ended up dead or in prison. I didn't seek fights, but I welcomed them. I'd be far from His blessing, but that wasn't God's will. Romans 8.1, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

My debt is fully paid in Christ. I am justified. I have no criminal record. I've been adopted as one of His children, and the Holy Spirit lives in me." Romans 8.28, many of us know that text. When it says totality, let me remind us that it says, "All things are working together for," I'll put it personal for me, "my good.

For I've been predestined, called, justified, and being sanctified, will be glorified, so that one day I will be," as the next verse says, verse 29, "be conformed to the image of His Son." So that as an adopted one, the last verse of this chapter, verse 39, "so that nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God." John MacArthur wrote, "The old life of the adopted person is completely obliterated.

It is as if he was born the day he was adopted. He is like a new person who just started his life." Thomas Watson, in contemplating our adoption, weeped, "God has a son of His own and such a son. How wonderful God's love in adopting us." And Watson says this, "We needed a father, but He did not need sons." Number two, I want us to see the glorious identification in our adoption.

The glorious identification in our adoption that we've been given new family. The glorious identification we've been given new family. Romans 8, verse 15, "But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'" It's an affectionate term, but it's a reverential one nevertheless.

I don't think daddy exactly captures it, but there's a spirit of that. But there is affection, there is love. The Spirit, as it says, testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Verse 16, "The humble request for forgiveness becomes the intimate confidence of belonging that we can affectionately say without any fear of rejection, 'Abba, Father.'" Approach the throne of grace with confidence.

There's no spirit of fear, no spirit of slavery, but the spirit of sonship, the spirit of acceptance and assurance, the spirit of intimate access, of really belonging that he's my father. There's an old story of a boy who was the son of the town's judge, and his friends, they wanted to do something awful, namely to steal something from the local store.

But he didn't want to do it. So his friends teased him saying, "You won't do it because you're afraid your father, the judge, will hurt you." Only that devoted son responded, "I'm not afraid my father will hurt me. I'm afraid to hurt my father." See, beyond that response is the loving spirit of devoted sonship.

That's the heart of all of us as believers, is it not? As adoptive parents, my wife and I have received all kinds of strange looks, to be honest. You know, they double take, you know, when my wife comes and they see our child doesn't look as Asian. And we've been asked all kinds of insensitive questions.

I don't usually think it's out of any malice, which only reveals my own need for grace to respond with grace. It doesn't bother me now. But let me suggest it reveals a flawed understanding that many believers have about the gospel. Inevitably, someone will say to us, "Oh, she's adopted?

I thought so. So are those your real children?" To which Sandy and I will respond, "They're all our real children." That is to say, Kristen isn't a second-class child. She's fully our child. Truly our daughter. Truly belongs. Equally beloved as our birth children. And that's fine. We're happy to explain the reality that she's been adopted because it's a part of her past as much as mine.

But as Russell Moore wrote, "Adopted is a past tense verb, not an adjective." Let me repeat that. Adopted is a past tense verb, not an adjective. See, what we don't do or shouldn't do is go around introducing her as our adopted daughter. This is Toby Piper and our adopted daughter, Kristen.

As some kind of qualifier or acknowledgement of some ongoing difference, of some inequality or inferiority or lack of belonging. That is anti-love, anti-family, anti-church, anti-gospel, anti-Christ. I mean, we don't go around usually or shouldn't go around introducing people in our lives as, "Here's my short friend." Or, "My blonde cousin." Or, "My smartest child." Or, "My divorced parents." Or, "My Jewish or black or Republican." You get the point.

I've had relatives and even two pastors tell me not to adopt foster kids because supposedly they are damaged beyond repair. Listen, knowing that's just wicked nonsense, I'm not minimizing the fact that there are very difficult situations and different callings. And this is not the only ministry that you and I may be called to.

I suggest that most of you might not. It was humbling to be a foster parent for many reasons. I mean, there was a non-Christian couple in our classes. They adopted three Down syndrome children. So, those two pastors told me not to adopt because they're damaged. What are they then saying about our gospel hope and God's power?

Shame on them. The spiritual reality is that we're all damaged. We're all special needs children. We all need the same hope. And anyone can be transformed by the power of God. Anyone. Anyone. Again, that doesn't mean it's easy. It's not. A couple in our church adopted a child who they later discovered is on the spectrum.

And it's hard. It's hard. But we all didn't belong, but now we do. Let us never be ashamed to say that we've all been adopted. Past tense. For it is a very important, wonderful part of our testimony to celebrate. Right, brothers and sisters? Let us never think that it means any single one of us here are anything less than his children.

Equal in Christ. Equal in dignity. Equal in salvation. Equally loved by God, even though we might have different roles within it. Christians should know more than anyone there is no superiority or inferiority among us. The gospel of grace calls for reconciliation and not reparations. We know the power of the gospel.

1 Corinthians 12, 13-15 reads, Ephesians chapter 2, 12-14 reads, Ephesians 4, 2-6 says, Seven times he says one. Meet any true Christian anywhere in the world, regardless of the language and cultural barriers, and you instantly know there is a bond with that person. Because in Christ, I not only have a new father, I have a new family.

Listen, y'all, family has never been about blood. It's always been about belonging. Family is not about blood, but about belonging. Family is not about blood, but about belonging. Let me speak to those in Asian cultures who perpetuate a racist mindset otherwise. When Julius Caesar adopted Octavius as his son and his legal heir, it allowed him to succeed his father as Emperor Caesar Augustus.

There was no inferior status due to his past adoption. It is not that we are saved, that we get to live then outside in some doghouse on the outskirts of heaven, so that at least we're not in hell. It's not that we merely get a safe place of refuge away from immediate harm, like some foster homes that are sometimes cold and loveless, where you will get food, clothing, shelter, and not get beaten by family members.

That's certainly better than being hungry, naked, or abused, but there are a lot of places you can receive those necessities and yet feel profoundly empty, abandoned, and without a sense of belonging. Without the least ounce of feeling loved and actually being loved. Our adoption, our adoption in Christ is much more than receiving legal forgiveness and justification, which is already monumentally more than we deserve.

It is much more than just freedom and protection from our former father, the devil. It is much, much more than getting our own bed to sleep in and not having to wonder where our next meal is coming from, or even dreaming about what new toy we're going to get from the next charity that rolls into town.

No, it means we belong. It means a home, a forever family where we are loved. For some of us, perhaps, the church is the first family in which we experience love. Why? Because of the inherent goodness of man? No. Because his imperfect people are compelled by the love of Christ.

When the first Christians who were Jews asked, "Are the Gentile believers really one of us? Part of us?" The answer, of course, from God was, "Yes, they are. Of course. They're brothers and sisters more so than your natural family." Sadly, in churches today, brother or sister sometimes is just a metaphor for a friend or acquaintance who has such extremistic preferences about which church we'd rather go to.

What programs do I get? How eloquent the preaching is? How big the church or similar people are to me? Or what will I get or not get by going there? Life is not about you. Life is not about you or I. My friend John Kim, Pastor John Kim said, "Love is the litmus test of Christianity to show whether your claims to faith are genuine or not." You live out the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said it better, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Remember, you and I do not just have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We have a corporate relationship with Jesus Christ. When given a family, we're not just given privileges, but we're given responsibilities.

And I pray that you are an active part of that as a member and not just a spectator from the seats. Your understanding about spiritual adoption has a lot to say about your pursuit of church unity, forgiveness, not promising to one another, sacrificial kingdom giving, not being divisive about loyalty to your leaders and fellow members.

Here we must not be preferentially choosing who our friends will be. No, we are brothers and sisters with the same loving Father. Now I understand that at a church this size we may not know everyone well. That is okay. But we better look at each other as brothers and sisters.

As family. As new creations of Christ, we've been given a radically new life, new identity, new family, new direction, new hope. At Christian's adoption hearing, the judge and attorneys on both sides, they asked us some very surprising questions, at least to us. For example, they asked, "Are you going to treat Kristen as your same as your birth children?" How could you ask that?

Right? Of course. "Are you going to give her a full inheritance and all the rights of your other children?" I mean, I can't imagine the cruelty of anything less. It was a foregone conclusion. In our hearts, we love her. John Calvin said about this text that the primary work of the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit is mentioned here, is to convince us of the gift of our sonship.

Ensuring and then testifying to our hearts that we do belong. That we are children. Ancient Rome's adoption process actually requires seven witnesses in the transaction. The question is why? Well, what happens if, when the father dies, if the birth children are resenting the adopted son who is the heir, and then try to accuse him of having an illegitimate claim?

So, in the Roman Empire, they required seven witnesses to protect the adopted son's rights. But listen, we don't need seven witnesses. We just need one. Romans 16 says the Holy Spirit testifies, witnesses that we are children of God. As a Christian, I didn't belong, but now I do belong.

Fully, really, truly, publicly, completely, joyfully, eternally, I belong and God is my father forever. At Christian's adoption hearing, I never forgot how Sandy and I, we're pretty calm and excited. But of all places to just start bawling like crazy, was when the lawyers and judge were exchanging all the legal verbiage that had just confirmed the permanent reality that we are not just her parents functionally, but also now legally.

I was born in California, code 94698.127, all this stuff. It's just like, look, weepy, right? That's when we lost it. And I remember, why, why at that point? You know, it's because I realized that she was no longer a ward of the state and trusted into our temporary care as her foster parents.

But she became ours and we became hers. After a year of caring for her as though she was our own, she was not legally ours until that point. So as her dad, I could finally say with joyful authority, she's mine. The legality of it is still very important. It is not some bureaucratic red tape.

It is real and it's pictured in the gospel. Our justification in Christ is not just a legal, forensic, positional righteousness. It is deeply and mutually personal. Kristen's birth certificate was permanently changed. Mom didn't actually get to name her. She fled. So, baby, last name. New name, new identity, new inheritance, new father, new future, new trajectory.

Isn't that similar to salvation? Milton Vincent wrote, "When I see the cross, I see the premium that God places on the works that he has prepared for me to do. How valuable all of these works must be if Christ would die so that I might perform them." Hmm. At least with Kristen, we're seeing by God's grace that the multi-generational cycle of neglect has now been broken, is still being broken by her adoption.

Not only is her life being changed, so is ours. And our prayer is her story of hope goes beyond her to her kids and their kids and their kids. And also, we pray for the birth family. That God would reap joyous change through the glory of God. However, let me suggest all of that pales in comparison to our gospel stories.

We've been redeemed, set apart into his omnipotently loving fatherhood, sovereignly adopted to a certain and glorious hope. Many of us are still deeply scarred by a very painful past, especially in our home life. But they do not have to define us. Listen, though the gospel does not erase our past, it does redeem us where we are.

Jason Johnson said, "The gospel like adoption is a multi-generational story of love. It breaks our past cycles, forms our new realities and offers us a future hope unburdened by the broken context from which we originated." Then he concludes, "He secures our futures and changes the trajectory of our lives forever." Which leads us into the final point.

Number three, the great inheritance of our adoption. The great inheritance of our adoption that we are guaranteed a new future. A new future. Romans 8 verse 17, "And if children heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for, what? The revealing of the sons of God." So in one sense, we are told here in our text that we are right now the children of God.

But in another sense, that sonship has not yet been fully consummated. Thus, we've yet to receive the full benefits of our present day adoption. See, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. So we along with the rest of creation eagerly await for it. For what?

The full revealing of the sons or the children of God. Our position in Christ is rock solid. Our hope is certain. It is not wishful thinking. We will arrive because Christ takes us there. We are fellow heirs with Christ. We'll receive brand new resurrection bodies. We are now freed from the penalty of sin, being freed from the power of sin.

And one day we will be freed from the very presence of sin. 1 John 3, verse 1 says, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God." And so we are. 1 Peter 1, 3-5 reads, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power, not ours, are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Name one thing on earth that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Only three things that are eternal. God, His Word, and souls. That's where our priority should be. Our adoption in Christ ought to radically change our perspective. We should be living in a way that reflects our glorious, incredible future. Joyfully, obediently, courageously, faithfully. I mean, I think we tend to wonder, if you're single, when will I get married?

Where might we be 10 years from now? How old will we be when we retire? I don't know. But let me suggest that sadly, many Christians, we think of the 50-80 years or so we live on this planet. But when was the last time you asked yourself, "What will I be doing 10,000 years from now?" We really don't have an eternal perspective as much as we desire.

Thomas Watson said, "The world is but a great inn where we are to stay a night or two and be gone. What madness is it so to set our heart upon the inn as to forget our home?" Jesus says it better in John 14. "In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." Adoption is an opportunity to see God's provision.

As a pastor of a small church at the time, we qualified, at least in the county's eyes, for very low income. So it was a stewardship of no retirement plan, cheap vacations, no music lessons, no martial arts, no sports teams for our kids, which there are times I felt guilty not able to provide like their peers.

But we never went hungry or into debt. We just adjusted our lifestyle. Jesus said, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." We don't need stuff or success. What we all need is more of Christ. More of Christ. I don't think my children are missing out on anything due to our choices.

Maybe Dad's sinful choices, but not that. Adoption is a great opportunity to be sanctified and see our children and our church encouraged and have our joy multiplied. It's not the only way. I want to emphasize adoption is not the only way we glorify God. We will all be doing different ministries and God will lay on our hearts different things.

But I do want to speak to adoption in particular. Some will object, "Well, some adopted kids can be very difficult and sinful to deal with." Me too. You too. Right? The grace of God is sufficient to deal with that powerfully. Watch Him. "Well, I don't know if I should or can adopt." Yeah.

That very well be true. But you can support those who do. If God lays it on your heart. "Well, I won't know their medical history and potential health issues." You don't know that with your birth children. You're not God. Are you going to stop loving them if they do have health problems later on?

Are you going to disown them and pull the plug because they get paralyzed in a car accident? Or suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease one day? I hope not. I don't think so. Your maladies and mine are radical depravity in the womb and out of the womb are far worse.

Yet God adopted you to Himself. No one is to seek suffering just because. We're not masochists. Yet we must hate our sin more than our suffering. We must hate our sin more than our suffering. Over and over again in Israel's history, if you look at the Old Testament, the Father's heart is revealed repeatedly for orphans and widows, the fatherless, the broken, the poor.

And their open neglect was judged by God as the prophets spoke against the social injustice at the time. As being perpetuated by His very people. By His very people. In Rome, they put unwanted babies on the city walls to either die or be taken away as slaves. And it was the early church who counter-culturally rescued them.

Speaking to foster adoption just for a moment, the statistic I heard is if less than half a percent of our nation's evangelical families adopted one child, then we would empty the foster system. Let me be clear though, this is not about the social cause of adoption. It's not about the cause of adoption.

I mean, there are many good causes. A lot of times those causes can devolve into something that has nothing to do with Christ and the gospel. It becomes an end in and of itself. This is not about the social cause of adoption. Why? Because doing church and making disciples, they are not the same thing.

Doing church and making disciples are not the same thing. Are you making disciples? I'm not asking is the church making disciples. Are you making disciples? Are you investing and pouring into someone else? Are you being invested in? We're seeking that out. We need each other. Many people can adopt, but not all do so for Christ's glory.

As much as I'm encouraging some of us to do so, it is ultimately about whether or not the love of Christ controls your entire life. That's the question. The question is not will you adopt? The question is does the love of Christ compel you? Does it control your entire life?

Every nook and cranny of your daily life and future? It's about self-denial. Jesus said, "Take up my cross daily and follow me." It's about self-denial and all that God might call you to. Jesus is our example for how we should then live our daily life in love of the Father.

John 10, 15, "Even as the Father knows me and I know the Father," Jesus says, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Luke 22, 42, in that dark moment, Jesus prays, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done." Our own adoption is the gospel at its most beautiful, most endearing, and most gripping.

Before I became a dad, I felt conviction of sin when I snapped at someone. But I never felt as bad as when I do that with my wife or kids. I feel compassion for kids who eat lunch alone at school. But thinking about that happening to any one of my kids makes me cry in private.

Yet that doesn't even come close to comparing to our Father's love. He's a perfect Father. I'm an imperfect one. He will never give in to sinful anger or graceless condemnation. His love outclasses any other by His invincible power, infinite omniscience, eternal omnipresence, so that we should repent immediately forever, having been anxious or worried or having complained about anything.

And yet, the good news is that He will never disown us, never forget us, never stop loving us, never lose us in a busy mall. Luke 15, familiar text, reads, "But while He was still a long way off, His Father saw Him and felt compassion for Him and ran and embraced Him and kissed Him.

The Son said to Him, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in Your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called Your Son.' But the Father said to His slaves, 'Quickly bring the best robe and put it on Him. Put a ring on His hand and sandals on His feet and bring the fattened calf.

Kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For the Son of Mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate." God's children, more than any other people on this planet, both know and feel the desperate need and life-changing joy of adoption.

Dear brothers and sisters, do we not know the joy of adoption better than anyone on this planet? Amen? Let's pray. Father, we know that this is not adoption, the only issue or ministry that we can be engaged in. It is one of many that need to be saturated, not by legalistic moralism, not by self-righteous aims of justice.

We don't want justice, we want mercy. You are the judge, you will bring justice one day. But what this world needs is mercy, needs the gospel. Thank you for this wonderful church and all that you are doing here, so encouraged by this body. Pray that our hearts' focus would be that we are living sacrifices.

And as your adopted children, I pray that your people here, your children here, and all the children around the world of you, will enjoy the warmth of the sunshine of thy smile this week and forevermore. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Let us all rise as we sing our closing praise.

How has a sinner, how has a sinner been forgiven? How has the rebel been made clean, or blinded eyes were made to see? How have the orphans been adopted? Who hated your love and ran from grace, despised and rejected all your ways? How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us.

That he would send his only Son to come and rescue us. He has saved us, called us blameless, guides us now and will sustain us. Oh how wonderful the Father's love. Your mercy floods, your mercy floods our lives with kindness. Your grace has colored all we see, and you have promised not to leave.

You freely give your Spirit to us, so we can be sure we're sons of God. Rest in the hope of what's to come. How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us. That he would send his only Son to come and rescue us. He has saved us, called us blameless, guides us now and will sustain us.

Oh how wonderful the Father's love. No sufferings, no sufferings may fill our lives. No confidence, where errors were crass, so we cry, "Abba, Father!" No sufferings may fill our lives. No confidence, where errors were crass, so we cry, "Abba, Father!" How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us.

That he would send his only Son to come and rescue us. How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us. That he would send his only Son to come and rescue us. He has saved us, called us blameless, guides us now and will sustain us. Oh how wonderful the Father's love.

Oh how wonderful the Father's love. Alright, so before we pray again, I want to thank Pastor James and Sandy for coming here today and ministering to us. Yeah, I've heard that sermon twice today and both times I was very convicted. You know, a good sermon is informative, it's encouraging and rebuking at the same time.

And I got it twice. You know, and part of the reason why I think it was so convicting to me personally is because I've watched him, you know, through the years. And I've seen that everything that he's sharing is something that both of them lived. And I remember just asking him about the foster care and I remember when he shared about, you know, one of the sons that they had to give back to their birth mom.

And I was just thinking, I was just heart wrenched for them. Like, this must be tough. And so I've seen them through the years go through the ups and downs and the heartaches. I think that's why, you know, this is a man and his wife and his family has lived through this for many years.

And so that's why the words that he spoke through God's Word was so convicting to me because it's backed up by their life. And so I want to thank you again for coming and ministering to our church. I want to remind you again, as we go out, the tables are set up outside.

Please go visit the tables and you can ask questions. And again, one o'clock sharp, we're going to have the Q&A in that room. So anyone who's interested, you're welcome to come to that room. Thank you. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for your Word. It's like a hammer that ministers to us.

The shatters our comfort zones. Causes us to open our eyes to the reality of who you are and what it is that we have in Christ. Lord, as you've accepted us in all our iniquities while we were yet sinners. Help us, Lord God, to love as you loved us.

Lord, not just the children, but the people around us. If we have been selective in the way that we show care and love. I pray, Father God, that this morning's message would cause us to live truly worthy of the gospel that you've given us. As you adopted us in all our iniquities and all our weaknesses.

Teach us, Lord God, to be a reflection of that love wherever you send us. So we pray, Father God, that as you have planted seeds in our hearts. That we may be able to see more fruits of what you will do in our community. That your grace truly will be sufficient in all things.

Lord, we pray for Pastor James and Sandy and their family. As they have transitioned into their new assignment, Lord God, in San Diego. That your grace, as you've sustained them all these years, will continue to sustain them. Lord, help them to bear much fruit. That many people, Lord God, would come to know who you are.

That through the trials of ups and downs of ministry, of raising children, and just simply living in this fallen world. I pray that your love for them and their love for you would only grow stronger. And that your grace, again, would be truly sufficient for all things. Wherever you send us this week, whether we eat or drink, help us, Lord God, to glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God sent his Son They called him Jesus He came to be known Healed and forgiven He lived and died To buy my heart An empty grave is there to fill My Savior lives Because he lives I can face tomorrow Because he lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because he lives