The Family of God

This is the final message in our Driven series at Elevate Church of Annapolis

One night after putting his three-year-old son, Brian, to bed, Bob heard muffled sobs coming from his room. Rushing back in, he found that the child was crying hysterically. He told his dad that he had accidentally swallowed a penny and was sure that he would die now. The father, in an attempt to calm him, took a penny from his pocket and pretended to pull it out from his son’s ear. Brian’s eyes got real big and he stopped crying at once. He then grabbed the penny from his dad’s hand, swallowed it, and cheerfully demanded, "Do it again, Daddy!"

I understand that Father’s Day is not an easy day for many of you. Some of you have just recently lost your dad and some of you never really knew your dad. But I want you to know that you have a Heavenly Father that loves you and loves spending time with you.

The Bible gives us many names for God all based on His relationship with us. Some people claim that there are more than 900 of these throughout the Bible in the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic languages. Let me just read a few of those.
  • ELOHIM: God “Creator, Mighty and Strong”
  • EL SHADDAI: “God Almighty”
  • ADONAI: “Lord”
  • YAHWEH / JEHOVAH: “LORD”
  • JEHOVAH-JIREH: "The Lord Provides"
  • JEHOVAH-RAPHA: "The Lord Who Heals"
  • JEHOVAH-SHALOM: "The Lord Our Peace
  • JEHOVAH-ROHI: "The Lord Our Shepherd
  • JEHOVAH-SABAOTH: "The Lord of Hosts
  • EL ELYON: “Most High"
  • EL ROI: "God of Seeing"
There is one name for God that I want us to focus on today: Abba, which means Father, or, to be more literal, Daddy. Let’s look at Romans 8:14-17 (HCSB).
All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
As a follower of Jesus, I can have a real, close relationship with God. The more I learn about Him, the more I can connect with Him. He becomes more than just the Creator of the Universe. He becomes more than just a name I call when I have a need. He becomes my Father—my daddy. Listen to this:
Variant forms of the Aramaic Abba can be heard in the Israeli and Arab marketplaces of today as young children call to their fathers in the hustle and bustle of the crowded market. Abba, or “daddy,” represents the familiar cry of the heart from one who knows who the father is…the heart of the child is linked with the heart of the Father…But the believer is not just a child of God, but an heir of God as well. Being a child means that I have a family now; being an heir means I am included in the family forever.” (Holman Commentary)
As a believer, as a follower of Jesus, you are a part of the family of God. Jesus is the only natural child of God, but God the Father chose to adopt you into His family. Imagine that for a moment. You are not only a child of the king, but you are a child of the King of kings. A child of God Almighty, creator of everything. How awesome is that?

So what does it mean to be a part of the Family of God?

Relationships

First thing I want us to focus on is that being a part of the Family of God means relationships. Throughout history, kings would pass along their fortune and their kingdom to their heirs. Usually to the eldest son. It was important to kings that they had children to serve as their heir. With the high level of infant mortality throughout history, it was not uncommon for kings to have several wives in order to ensure that a male child was born.

There have been some historical records indicating times when royalty adopted children into their household. Marie Antoinette was said to have adopted many children that she cared for, provided for, and even paid for their education. But there is no record of an adopted child becoming the heir of a king.

The Bible shows us that God the Father has given you the same rights and privileges of His own heir, Jesus. Of course, God will never die, but He has already made arrangements for you to inherit His kingdom. All believers, all followers of Jesus, will be coheirs with Christ. God is showing us that His love for us, His adopted sons and daughters, is equal to the love He has for His One and Only Son, Jesus. It is an amazing love that we experience in our relationship with God.

We also experience a relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our coheirs with Jesus. We are even charged to show brotherly love toward each other. Turn to Hebrews 13:1-5 (HCSB):

Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers. Your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Love with brotherly love those that are sick, in prison, and the mistreated. This is not a natural love. It is difficult to love others in this way because our human nature leads us to be selfish. We believe lies, such as, “They must be sick because they are sinners or unbelievers and I don’t want to be around someone that God is punishing” or “they are only in prison because they are guilty and I am not about to waste my time with them” or “I don’t want to get involved when someone is being mistreated because then I could be hurt, or, worse, become one of the mistreated.” The brotherly love that is spoken about here is one that only comes by the spirit of God. It is a supernatural love that requires us to be unselfish and care more about sharing God’s love with others than about our predispositions, mistrust, bigotry, skepticism, or self-righteousness.

Being a part of the Family of God means that we are in a relationship with God and with others. It also means that there is reliability.

Reliability

The end of these verses in Hebrews also reminds us that God has promised to never leave us nor to forsake us. What does that mean? It means that we have a Father that will be there for us in the good times and the bad. A Father that loves to spend time with us. A Father that longs to be part of our lives. A Father that will protect us and love us regardless of how stupid we are and the messes we find ourselves in.

We can trust God. The Bible tells us more than 100 times to “fear not” because is with us. Psalm 33:4 (HCSB) says, “For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is trustworthy.” God is reliable. In Romans 8:28 (HCSB) we read, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.” God is always working around us and His plans never fail.

Psalm 92 is all about God’s love and faithfulness. Throughout the Bible we can see that God is trustworthy, faithful, loving, reliable. We do not need to wonder if what God said is true, because He has never yet failed us. Watch this...



What a great Father we have. God loves us and adopted us to be in a relationship with Him. And it is with that type of unconditional, unwavering, unending love that God wants us to love others and be in a relationship with them.

Responsibility

Being in the Family of God also means that we have some responsibilities. In 1 Corinthians 6 & 7 we read that we were bought with a price. That price was the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. His blood paid the price for our sin. In Romans 1:1, the Apostle Paul calls himself a servant of Christ. Paul chose to be a slave for Christ rather than a slave to his sins.

We are therefore responsible to the One who paid our price. Jesus bought us out of our slavery to sin and freed us to walk with Him as a coheir in His Father’s kingdom. We are to live our lives in a way that leads others to Jesus. Throughout this series we have learned that we have been made to elevate Jesus, to equip ourselves and others as disciples of Jesus, and to engage our community with the love of Jesus. In other words, Love God and love others. We have also learned that we have all have been given a commission to go, teach, and baptize; to be fishers of men so that we can bring them in. We have learned that Romans 12 gives us some basics for how followers of Jesus should fellowship and serve with fellow believers and how we should respond to non-believers.

The great thing is that once you are a part of the Family of God, you realize that our relationship with God and His reliability in our lives will keep us driven to fulfill our responsibilities out of our love and appreciation for Him. We serve because of our love for God. We love because He first loved us. Are you a part of the Family of God?

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