Well, Carol and I are delighted to be here with you at Providence Church. We've just spent a few days up in the Clarksville area with our friends the Blackburns. Had a great time up there. We've been in the United States now since May the 31st, have pretty much traversed the country. We went first to Los Angeles and spent six or seven days there at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. And then we flew back across the country to Pennsylvania, and we spent a few days there and preached at Ted Tripp's church in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and then out to Cleveland, Ohio, where we had a conference in the fellow Bible Cornerstone Fellowship Church, and then over to Texas where we preached in San Antonio and then Fort Worth, and then we spent several days in Little Rock, Arkansas with the Bible Church of Little Rock, and we then came over here to Atlanta to finish up our time in the United States. And Lord willing, we'll be heading back to South Africa on the 18th of July, which I think is just a week from tomorrow. So we appreciate the opportunity of seeing you folks as we have for the last few years when we've come over during what is your summertime, but over in South Africa right now it's wintertime, June, July, and August. Surprisingly, to some people, is very cold. It actually gets down to around freezing. And more than that, in the homes over in South Africa, we don't have furnaces. They're usually brick homes, there isn't any space to put up the ducts that are necessary for heating, and so it gets really cold, and that's when we first got there, we wondered why most of the homes didn't have any clothes closets in them. And then we found out the reason they don't have clothes closets in the living room or whatever is because when you come in the house, you wear your coats, so it's cold over there right now. At any rate, it's good to be here with you folks. Now Pastor Kai read for you Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14 and in particular we're going to be looking just at one verse in detail as we make our way through the message this morning. Some time ago I had a man who came to me and when he came to me the first thing he said was Pastor Mac I need your help. I'm confused, I'm distressed, I'm upset. I don't know who I am. Please help me." Now, this man professed to be a Christian, he knew his name, he knew who his parents were, he knew who his wife was, he knew who his children were, and yet he sat there before me and he said, I don't know who I am. In modern parlance, this man was having an identity crisis. He didn't know why he was here. He didn't know what he was here for. He felt disconnected, empty, homeless, and rootless. Now, such should never be the case with a Christian, although I've met many who profess to be Christians who, while they might not say exactly what that man said, they would say something like, I don't know who I am. I'm lonely. I don't have any purpose. I don't have any direction in life. I seem very disconnected, empty, homeless, even rootless. Now, such should never be the case with a Christian. A Christian should know who he is. This is the clear message of Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. In this particular passage, Paul tells us who we, who have come to Jesus Christ, believed on Him, repented of our sins, really are. In verse 1 he tells us we're saints. We don't have to wait until we die and have somebody vote on whether or not we're a saint. Once we become a Christian, we are saints. We're holy ones. We're made holy and righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. More than that, we who come to Christ are the faithful in Christ Jesus. By God's grace, we are the faithful in Christ Jesus. That's verse 1. In verse 3, we who have come to Christ are people who have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. That's who we are. We're a blessed people. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In verse four, we're told that we are people who have been chosen by God. That's who we are. We're people who have been chosen by God, chosen in Christ, chosen in love, chosen for a purpose that we might be holy and without blame before Him. We were chosen from before the foundation of the world. And verse six says we are a people who were chosen so that we might be to the praise of His glory. That's who we are. We're people who are much blessed. Now in verse 5, Paul says, in addition to all the things I've mentioned already, that we who are believers, we are predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. Now, this great doctrine of adoption, which Paul mentions in verse 5, is mentioned actually five times in the New Testament. You find it in Romans 8 and verse 15, Romans 8, 23, Romans 9 and verse 4, Galatians 4, verses 4 through 6, and then here in this passage in Ephesians 1.5. So Paul says that's who we are. We are people who have been adopted as sons through Jesus Christ. Now what did he mean when he said that we're adopted as sons? Well, the Greek word which is translated adoptin is a word which is made up of two parts. One is the Greek word weos which means son and the second part of that word is the Greek word titheme, which means to place. And so we are people who have been placed as sons. One commentator said, in the Roman world, Adoption was an honored custom that gave special dignity and family membership to those who were not born into a family. Often, a wealthy, childless man would adopt a young slave who would trade his slavery for sonship with all of its concomitant privileges. Now, in the Bible, we have several illustrations of literal adoption. We have one in Genesis chapter 15 where it would appear that Abraham was suggesting to God that he should allow Eliezer, who was Abraham's faithful servant, to be adopted as a son of Abraham. Remember God said He was going to give to Abram and Sarai a son and for a long period of time nothing happened. Sarai didn't become pregnant. And so it would appear that Abraham decided that he'd give God a little help. And he said, well you don't need to really cause Sarai to become pregnant. Why don't I just adopt Eliezer as my son? God of course said no. And so there you have a case of possible adoption. When you turn to Exodus chapter 2, you find another illustration of adoption, this time in the case of Moses. In Acts 7 verses 21 through 23, we're told that Moses was adopted as a son by Pharaoh's daughter. Her name was probably Hatshepsut. But here was Moses adopted into the family of the daughter of Pharaoh. And when you turn to Esther chapter 2, you have another illustration of adoption. In this case, it was Mordecai, an uncle of Esther, who adopted Esther as his daughter because Esther's parents had died. But the most notable illustration of adoption that we have in all the Bible is found in the New Testament in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever realized that in one sense Jesus was an adopted son of God's son? He was an adopted son by Joseph. Some time ago, my wife and I read a book which was called simply Adoption by Russell Moore. It's a great book, and I recommend it to you. But in that book, Russell Moore says, I played a cow in my first grade Christmas pageant, and I had more lines than the kid who played Joseph. He was a prop, or so it seemed, for Mary and the plastic doll in the manger representing Jesus. and the rest of us. We were just following the script. There's rarely much room in the inn of contemporary Christian imagination for Joseph. His only role, it seems, is an usher. His role was to get Mary to the stable in Bethlehem in the first place, and then to get her back to the temple in Jerusalem in order to find the wandering 12-year-old Jesus. But there's much more to the Joseph figure. Joseph serves as a model to follow as we see what's at stake in the issue of adoption. Joseph, after all, is an adoptive father. Joseph's mission belongs to all of us. As Joseph images the father of the fatherless, he shows us how adoption is more than charity. He shows us that adoption is spiritual warfare. And so there's a sense in which our Lord Jesus Christ was an adopted son of Joseph. And Joseph, of course, was an adopted father. So the Bible speaks of literal adoption, but here Paul is speaking of spiritual adoption. But there are some similarities between literal adoption and our spiritual adoption into the family of God. What does it mean, really, when it says that we've been adopted as children of God? Well, first of all, it means that when we become Christians, we are transferred from one family into another family. Prior to being brought into the family of God, Ephesians 2 says we were children of disobedience, we were children of wrath. And in 1 John 3 and verse 10, the Bible says we were children of the devil. In John 8 and verse 44, Jesus said of the Pharisees of that day, and of course it's true of us as well, you are of your father the devil. Before we become Christians, our father is the devil. And in Matthew 13 and verse 38, the Bible says we're sons of the evil one. But when God brings us into his family, he brings us who are children of wrath, children of disobedience, children of the devil. He transfers us out of the family of Satan and brings us into his very own family. That's who we are. We're brought into the family of God, and we have the right, according to John 1 and verse 12, to be called the sons of God. Then secondly, when the Bible says we've been adopted, God is informing us that God was under no legal adoption or no legal obligation to bring us into his family. Now I know of some cases where someone has been adopted into a family because the parents died and somebody else felt obligated to bring them into their family. That was true of my mother. My mother's mother died when she was born. And so her grandmother and grandfather took her into their family, raised her as their own daughter. They felt legally or morally responsible to raise my mother. And that's true sometimes. But there are other cases when people don't adopt out of obligation. They adopt because they want to adopt. In our biological family, we have several relatives who have been adopted. who have adopted children, and in every case, they did so voluntarily. Now, in some ways, God's adoption of us is similar to what happens when somebody chooses to adopt a child into their family. But in other ways, it's different. Now, people have their reasons for adopting. Sometimes people, in the past at least, adopted children into their home for economic reasons. It was said that in the past, It took nine people to make enough food for 10 people. So if you were going to have a carpenter, if you were going to have a doctor, if you were going to have somebody who didn't actually work the land to produce food, you had to have nine people so that you could have that one person functioning as a doctor or in some other capacity. And so sometimes people would adopt children into their family for economic reasons. On the farm, the more hands that you have, the better. Sometimes people adopt it because they want to pass on the family name. There isn't anybody to pass on the family name, so they want somebody to continue the family name. Sometimes they adopt because they want someone to take care of them in their old age. Sometimes they adopt because they want to gain respect. There's social pressure. Others expect them to have children. Sometimes they adopt because they feel emotionally unfulfilled. A woman sees somebody else who has children. She feels emotionally unfulfilled. She wants a child. That was true, for example, in the Old Testament in the case of Rachel. Remember, Rachel had a sister by the name of Leah, and Leah had children, and Rachel looked at her sister Leah, who had children, and she said, I want a child also. And so she comes to her husband, and she says, give me children or I die. She felt emotionally unfulfilled, and so she wanted a child to experience emotional fulfillment. Sometimes people adopt because they think babies are so cute. They're just cute, you know. And sometimes they adopt because they want someone to love them, someone to depend on them, someone to make them feel important. And sometimes they adopt for altruistic purposes. They want to make a contribution to society. They want to provide for a child who is needy and helpless. So people adopt children for a lot of different reasons. Now, God's reasons for adopting us are different from most of the reasons for which people adopt. God doesn't adopt us for economic reasons. He doesn't need us. He already has everything. God doesn't adopt us because He wants to pass on the family name. He already has a son. God doesn't adopt us because he wants someone to take care of him in old age. God never gets old. He's the eternal God. God doesn't adopt us because he wants to gain respect or because of social pressure. God doesn't adopt us because he wants to feel emotionally fulfilled because he already is emotionally fulfilled. God doesn't adopt us because he thinks we're so cute. Because in reality, we're not. If we believe what the Bible says about us as sinners, we're not all that cute. So God doesn't adopt us because we're so cute. God doesn't adopt us because he wants someone to love him, someone to depend on him, someone to make him feel important. He is a self-sufficient God. He doesn't need us at all. So God's reason for adopting us is purely of grace. It's unmerited, undeserved, it's the very opposite of what we deserve. It is, as Ephesians 1 says several times, to the praise of the glory of what? His grace. God adopts us by grace. The Bible also makes it clear that when God adopts us, we become full-fledged members of God's family. In human adoption, when a child is adopted, the child is not adopted as a servant, The child is not adopted as an employee with limited privileges. A child is not even adopted merely as a friend. No, when he's adopted, he's adopted as a family member. He becomes a full-fledged member of the family with all the privileges that go with that status. And so it is with spiritual adoption. Scripture contains some amazing statements describing what happens when God adopts us. Listen to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, which describes what's true of us because of our adoption into the family of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul says, because of our adoption, reading into it what the scripture says about adoption, all things belong to us. When we're adopted, everything becomes our possession. Why? Because it belongs to God. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you. We don't get possession of those things until Christ comes again or until the Lord takes us home but at least potentially everything belongs to us and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to you. In Romans chapter 8 verses 16 and 17 the Bible says the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if children, we are heirs, also heirs of God. We are fellow heirs with Christ. What belongs to Christ belongs to us because we are united to Him. We are fellow heirs. We share along with Jesus Christ. if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. And so when we become children of God by means of adoption, everything that God has becomes ours. We are heirs of God and joint heirs together with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as a result of that, we can sing with the songwriter, I once was an outcast, stranger on earth, a sinner by choice and an alien by birth. But I've been adopted. My name's written down. I'm an heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown, a tent or a cottage. Why should I care? They're building a palace for me over there. Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing, all glory to God, I'm a child of the King. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King. So who am I? Who are you if you're a believer? You are a child of the living God. You've been adopted into the family of God, and all of the privilege that come along with that belong to you. Now in Ephesians 1 verse 3, Paul says that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then he goes on in the passage to list some of the spiritual blessings that we have because we've been adopted into the family of God. He mentions being chosen in Christ and on and on. But one of the great spiritual blessings that we have because we're adopted is that we are adopted into the very family of God, which means, of course, that we get God as our heavenly father. God becomes our heavenly father. And so with our adoption come a whole list of blessings. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing. And I could spend the whole afternoon, literally, I'm not going to, so don't worry, but I could honestly spend the whole afternoon describing for you many of the spiritual blessings we receive because we're adopted in Christ Jesus. And I believe that we as Christians don't do enough thinking about what it means to be adopted into the family of God. John Gill, who was the predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at what was then Park Street Chapel, which then became Metropolitan Tabernacle, he said that he believed, and I think he's right, that adoption is one of the greatest spiritual blessings that we receive. He says there's a sense in which adoption is even greater than justification. Now being justified, declared righteous, we who are sinners being declared righteous on the basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing. And we shouldn't minimize it. But Gill says there's a sense in which adoption is greater even than justification. And adoption is, in some ways, greater than being forgiven. You see, God could have forgiven us of our sins and said, you're outside of my family. I'm not going to accept you into my family. He could have justified us and said, okay, you're justified and declared to be righteous, but you're not going to be part of my family. But when he justifies and when he forgives us, he says, I want to welcome you into my family. And if I were to give a title to this message, I would call it, Welcome to the Family. That's what God is saying. You're part of my family. Now, what are some of the blessings? Why don't I mention just two of the wonderful blessings that become ours because we've been adopted. And one of those great blessings is that because we are adopted and God becomes our father, God will accept our imperfect services. Now, I don't know if that gets you excited, but that gets me excited. The fact is, He's my Father, and because He's my Father, He will accept my imperfect services. If you were to come to South Africa. We live in Pretoria, South Africa. You were to come there, and I were to take you up to my study. You would walk into my study, and you would see on the wall one of Thomas Kinkade's paintings. Beautiful painting. You'd also see a couple of paintings by a South African artist of a Cape buffalo, of lions, and some of the other wonderful animals that we have. in South Africa. You would also see a nice desk where I do a lot of work. You'd see some nice chairs where people who come for counseling or Bible studies may sit. You'd see my copier. You'd see I have some nice bookshelves, and the bookshelves are filled with some really good books. But you'd also see something like this as you looked at the bookshelves. You'd see this. Now, I think you can tell what that is. That's a horse. And then you'd also see this, which unless you have somebody explain it to you, you probably wouldn't know what it is. I had to have an interpretation of this. And the person who did this said that's a horse. And it's a horse underwater with goggles on it. And then over here is a little octopus. And over here, you have a fish. And I had to have the person who drew this tell me what it was. And then you'd see some others. Here's another one by another artist. And over here. You see a butterfly. Here's a flower. And over here, I had to have this person tell me, it's a self-portrait of this person. You say, why in the world do you have them hanging alongside of Thomas Kinkade's paintings? They're imperfect. But you know why they're there? They're drawn by my grandchildren. And I love them. And because I'm their grandfather, I think they're wonderful. And I want everybody to see the handiwork of my grandchildren. You see, they're my grandchildren. They're part of my family. And so even though what they're drawing is imperfect, incidentally, I was preaching recently. And a little girl came up to me and she had, while I was preaching, she had drawn a picture of me. You might not recognize me, but those are my glasses and that's supposed to be my hair and so forth. But, you know, that's, I kept that because, well, not because she's my grandchild, but because I thought that was neat that she did that. But anyway, I have these things in my office on display because they are drawn by my grandchildren. They're imperfect, yes, but I accept them and I appreciate them and periodically I'll hear somebody running up the steps, Granddad, I have something for you, and they'll give me another one of these things that they have drawn. Well, you know, that's the way it is with us in God. All of our efforts, everything we do is imperfect. You realize that? Revelation 7.15 says that when we get to heaven, we're going to continuously serve Him. And at that time, all of our service for Him will be perfect. We'll be totally freed from sin. We will have capacities that we don't presently possess. But that's not so now. Our services are not perfect. The best of our prayers are imperfect. You've never prayed a perfect prayer, nor have I. The best of our thoughts are imperfect. The best of our teaching is imperfect. I've never preached a perfect sermon. The best of our praises are imperfect. The best of our faith is imperfect. The best of our giving is imperfect. The best of our repentance is imperfect. Isaiah 64 in verse 6 says that all of our works of righteousness are as filthy rags. Now, usually we apply that to unbelievers. And we say, you know, unbelievers, the best that they can do is not good enough for God. They can't get to heaven by their own works of righteousness. They need the righteousness that comes by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's true. That verse does refer to unbelievers. But you know what? In a sense, it refers to us as well. Because all of our works of righteousness as believers, are still not good enough for God. And the only way anything we ever could do would be good enough for God would be if our Lord Jesus Christ fixed them up. In Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah received some disturbing news. He was told he was going to die, and die very soon. And so he went to prayer. And then from verses 2 through verse 13, he talks about the prayer that he offered to God. And in verse 14, Hezekiah compared his prayers and efforts to the chattering of a swallow or a crane or a dove. He recognized that his prayers were inadequate and that they were unworthy. And yet the truth is, my friends, God heard his prayer. And so it is with us. Isn't that wonderful? I love this. God doesn't hear us because we pray perfectly. God doesn't use us because our service is perfect. No, he uses us, he hears our prayers because we are his children. And we are united to his perfect son. In Philippians chapter four, The Philippians had offered to God, Paul says, a sacrifice that was acceptable and it was well-pleasing to God. Now why was their sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing? Was it because their sacrifice or their offering was perfect? No, it was because they were trusting in Christ. and their sacrifices, their offering was made acceptable in the beloved. They were sons of God, and so God accepted them. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 5, Peter says that we who are believers are a holy priesthood who are to offer up sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Anything we do is acceptable, not because we are good, not because what we do is good, our services are acceptable because we are united to Jesus Christ. And Jesus takes all of our imperfect services and he fixes them up and makes them worthy of God. Now most of us have probably heard the saying, if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing, what's the rest? It's worth doing well. Now, in a sense, that's true. And we should want to do whatever we do well. But the truth is that even if we can't do it well, listen to me, if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing. If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing even if we can't do it well. Now, some have used their deficiencies as an excuse for not doing certain things. I can't pray well. And so I don't pray when other people are around, they might make fun of me. I can't witness well, and so I really won't witness. I can't sing well, and so I won't participate in congregational singing. I can't write well. And so I won't correspond with missionaries and try to encourage people. I can't cook well, and so I won't be hospitable and invite people over to my home. I can't get much out of my Bible study, so what's the point of studying? I can't give what somebody else can give, and so why give? Well, why should we give? We should give and understand that we will be accepted because of Jesus Christ and because God has become our father. Daniel DeHaan, who was the son of Robert DeHaan, who was a well-known Bible teacher of the past, he wrote this. He said, Jesus came to tell us that God is a father. You don't read much in the Old Testament about God being a father. It was Jesus who introduced us to the idea that God is a father. Christ's favorite way of addressing God and speaking about him was our father, your father, my father, or just father. That was the most prominent truth that Jesus taught us about God. The word father is applied to God 189 times in the Gospels alone. Of those, 124 times are found in John's gospel. Realizing that Jesus had the option of revealing any of several key concepts of God, we recognize his revelation of God as Father is quite impressive. And the wonderful thing is, who are you if you're a Christian? Who am I if I'm a Christian? I am a son of God. That's who I am, and that's who you are as well. And who's your father and who's mine? It's God is my father. I don't have an identity crisis. I know who I am. I am a son of God. I get started in the morning and I remind myself I am a child of God. I'm a son of God. And God is my father. And you need to do the same. Robert Bolton, an old Puritan, said, a father is more delighted with the stammering and stuttering of a child even though the child's talk is imperfect and inarticulate when it first begins to speak. He's more pleased with the goo-gooing and the attempts that the child has to speak than with the exactus eloquence of the most famous orator upon earth. He goes on to say, suppose the dearest son of a loving father lies grievously sick, and out of the extremity of anguish That child cries out and complains unto his father. Indicates that he's so full of pain in every part that he doesn't know which way to turn himself and he doesn't know what to do. Bolton says, how ready do you think would such a father be with all tenderness and care to put his helping hand in such a rueful case and put his hand on the head of that child? But if he should, the child should grow sicker and weaker so that the child could not speak at all, but only look at his father with watery eyes and bemoan himself unto the father with sighs and groans. All he could do was sigh and groan and other expressions of his increased pain. and his desire to speak, but he's unable to speak. Would not this inability to speak strike despair into the father's heart? Would not it pierce and melt the father's heart with feelings, pangs of compassion? Would not it make his Emotions yearn within him with an additional extraordinary dearness and care to do that child good. Even just so, says Bolton, will your Heavenly Father be affected and deal with you in hearing and helping and showing mercy when all your strength of prayer is gone and all you can do is groan and sigh. Nay, with incomparably more affectionateness your Father will look upon you." And so one of the blessings that we receive because we're adopted is that we have a Heavenly Father and that Heavenly Father will accept our imperfect services. Another of the wonderful blessings that gets me excited is the fact that when we become children of God, adopted into his family, we also get a lot of new spiritual brothers and sisters. We not only get a new father who accepts our imperfect services, we get a lot of new spiritual brothers and sisters. Do you realize that the word that is most frequently used to describe Christians in the New Testament is the word brethren. It's not the word Christian. It's not the word disciple. The most frequently used word in the New Testament for Christians is the word brother. You'll find it used some 230 times in the New Testament. Brother, brother, brother, brother. You find Paul referring to Christians as his children. as his sons. In 1st Timothy 5, Paul instructs all believers to regard and relate to older Christians. You know how you're supposed to relate to an older Christian? As a father, that's what he says. You're to think of older Christians as fathers and you're to relate to them in the way that God wants you to relate to an older, they're your father. And you know what Paul says, how we should relate to others who are of the same age as we are? We are to relate to them and think of them as brothers or as sisters. Now, he's not just using words for no purpose. He's describing what we are. We become part of the family of God. In the Bible, we're told again and again that we are brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, why does God do that? He does it 19 times in the book of 1 Corinthians. He does it 14 times in the book of Romans. We are brothers, brothers, brothers. That's who we are. Again, Daniel DeHaan says, if we view God as a father, we will naturally respond by being good children, good members of the family. That response puts all other responses in balance. As a father, I want my children to learn as quickly as they can. If they come home with a bad report card, I'm disappointed, but I'm not as disappointed as I would be if they didn't love each other. If I were simply their teacher, my primary concern would be their grades. But because I'm their father, I would rather seize for grades and have them love each other dearly than CAs with little or no love. To see children happy and getting along with one another is a greater thrill to a father than seeing good performance. As a family, we're to love and care for one another. I can go to school with you and never love you. I can sit in church with you and never really love you. Many are doing just that today. I can even go to war at your side and never love or care for you. But I cannot be in the same family with you and never love you. Only in the father-family concept does the church function as it should. You know what the church is? It's the family of God! That's what Paul says in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15. He says the church is the family of God. God is the Father. And we are his family, and that means that everybody else who's part of the church is a brother or sister. Daniel DeHaan goes on to say, in many places today, the church is performance oriented. That would be fine if God had only one attributes, but he doesn't. Therefore, we should beware of the danger of intimidating others on the basis of performance. What characterizes your life? Is your church characterized by being an army, a classroom, or a family? If you're a family, that doesn't mean instruction and obedience are negated. Any effective father will include those in bringing up his children. In a family, size never matters. A small number can qualify as a family as well as a large one. God's primary concern is not that we have more money and more people in the church, Rather, he desires that we function as a family, loving, caring, encouraging, and affirming one another into Christ-likeness. And so, who are we? If we're Christians, we're children of God. I'm a son of God. You are a child of God if you're a Christian. As Christians, who are we? We are a person who has a lot of brothers and sisters, who's part of a big family. And so we need to think of other believers as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that means we have family responsibilities. And the family responsibilities we have are described in the New Testament with the word one another. There are 58 times in the New Testament where the Bible lays out our responsibilities. It says we're to love one another. It says we're to pray for one another. It says we're to comfort one another. It says we're to encourage one another. It says when it's appropriate and when it's right, we should reprove and admonish one another. But all of those one-anothering things are God's way of saying, this is the way that brothers and sisters in my family are to relate to one another. And so, who are we? Well, we are, according to the Word of God, children of a Heavenly Father, which brings tremendous privileges, And we are also people who have a lot of brothers and sisters. And since we are brothers and sisters, we ought to behave like brothers and sisters. We ought to treat older people, according to 1 Timothy 5 and verse 1, the way you would treat, God would have you treat a father. And we're to treat younger people the way God would have us treat brothers and sisters. Now at the beginning of my message today, I told you about a man who was having what has been called an identity crisis. He didn't know who he was. He felt empty, alone, disengaged, disconnected. He wasn't sure why he was here. He wasn't sure what his purpose was for being here. In reality, he felt like an orphan. He felt like he was not a member of a family, like someone who had no meaning, purpose, or direction. Now that person represents many people that I have met and that I've counseled in the more than 55 years that I've been in the ministry. Now it's been my privilege to minister in a lot of different parts in the world, and even to live in different parts of the world, a lot of different parts of the United States, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, and California. It's been my privilege to minister in the Far East, in South America, in Central America, in Europe, and now in Africa. You know, one of the things that really is beautiful and really encouraging, people often ask, you know, you go to these different places, you're now living in South Africa, what's the most difficult thing? And they assume that the most difficult thing is that I'm removed, we're removed from our family. Well, we're not. Yes, in a certain sense, we're removed from some parts of our family. Some of our children still live in the United States in the province of God. Two of them now live with us in South Africa. And one of them lives just next to us in the same house. And the other one lives about 10 minutes away. And so we have family there, literally biological family. But more than that, wherever we go, wherever I go to minister, I'm not alone. We're not alone. You know why? Because my father is there. Wherever I go in this world, I have a father. And my father goes with me everywhere I go. And the second thing is wherever I go, I usually go to speak or I've been asked to speak in various places. And when I go, you know what, I'm just going from one part of my family to another part of my family. Because wherever I go, there are brothers and sisters who are there. And so they love the same Lord, they have the same Father, they speak the same language, they believe the same truths. And so we have tremendous fellowship and we are not alone. We are not lonely wherever we go because our Father goes with us. And more than that, we have brothers and sisters there as well. So what a wonderful thing it is to be adopted as a child of God. We need to reflect, we need to remember, we need to meditate on these wonderful blessings. And I've seen a man like the one I mentioned and others that I've counseled with who have literally been changed as they have realized that this is who they are. They don't have an identity crisis. They don't have to ask, who am I? If they're Christians, they're children of God. That's their identity. And if they're Christians, they also have a lot of brothers and sisters as well. Now, what about you? Do you know who you are? Do you really? Are you sure that you're a child of God? Have you been adopted? Have you experienced that welcome that God gives? Welcome to the family. And are you enjoying the privileges that are yours? God says you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, two of them being that God wants you to serve, and though you serve imperfectly because he's your father through Jesus Christ, He will accept your services. And more than that, because you are a child of God, you have a lot of brothers and sisters as well. You're not alone. There are others who love your God and they love each other as well. Now, if you are here this morning and you really don't know who you are, you're kind of like the man that I mentioned. You don't have direction, you don't have any purpose, you don't have any sense of fulfillment, you don't have that feeling that comes from knowing who you are, then I want to invite you to come to Jesus Christ. Acknowledge, recognize the fact that the reason that you feel the way you feel is because you're not properly related to God. You haven't really come into his family through repentance of your sins and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would invite you, if you're not sure who you are, you're not sure of your relationship with God, I invite you to see some of the elders here at Providence Church. Come to them and say, you know, I feel like I'm just kind of floating through life. I don't really have connections and I need help. and allow them to be able to introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ and thus to become a child of God who gets a lot of brothers and sisters who will love you and who will care for you and brothers and sisters that you can love and you can care for as well. Our Father, we're grateful today for the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. My, of all people in the world, there are a lot of people in the world who may have a lot of money. They may have a lot of education. They may have high positions. People may praise them and applaud them. But Lord, they don't have what anyone who comes to Jesus Christ has. We are truly a blessed people. We're a rich people. We remember how Paul said, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that you might become rich. And a large part of that richness comes from knowing for sure that we are sons of the living God and that God is our father. And bringing us into a family of people who are all related to you as their father, and who thereby are related to one another as brothers and sisters. Oh, the marvelous blessings we have. Thank you, Lord. And we do pray for anyone who is here this morning who is like the man whom I mentioned, who really doesn't know who they are. There's a sense of lostness. There's a sense of being not part of the family of God. We ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would create in them a desire, an awareness that it's their sin that separates them from you, and that if they'll really come to you confessing their sin, repenting of their sin, that you will accept them into your family, and they will thereby have you as their father, and others who are Christians as their brothers and sisters. Work to that end, we pray. and to you be the praise and glory in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.