Adopted!

Thanks for listening! If you feel like the content is helpful, we would love it if you share it with your friends, subscribe, and provide a great review.

You can learn more about First Baptist Church of Mandeville, Louisiana here: www.fbcmandeville.org

You can hear Pastor Ronny's sermons here: https://www.youtube.com/@fbcmandeville/videos

You can listen to one-minute sermon clips here: https://www.youtube.com/@fbcmandeville/shorts

And you can contact us at info@fbcmandeville.org

Transcript

Welcome And Adoption Story

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in the Word. I'm Ronnie Cooksy. Several years ago, our family was privileged to get to attend an adoption ceremony in a local court, and what a beautiful thing it was to watch the adopting family officially make this child theirs.

Romans 8 And Gospel Adoption

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Adoption is a beautiful thing, and it's a gospel picture, and we see that today in Romans chapter eight, verses fifteen through seventeen. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a 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.

Learning To Trust A New Father

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Well, when adoption takes place, sometimes it takes the adopted child a little while, especially if they're not an infant. Takes a little while for them to grow in their trust and to begin to trust that their new life with their loving adoptive parents is not going to be like the life from which they were adopted. And there's fear. They're used to people letting them down, they're used to things going wrong. And so it takes a little while to trust that these adoptive parents truly love them and have their best interests.

From Fear To Abba Father

SPEAKER_00 1:29

And this is what Paul, this is the image he uses to help us to understand that we were, as he says, we were slaves to sin, slaves to the devil. Yes, the Lord created us, the Lord loves everyone on the face of the earth. I believe the Lord gives the opportunity for everyone on the face of the earth to place their faith in Christ Jesus. But until we do so, we don't belong to him spiritually. We're not destined for heaven, we're not in his family. And so then when we place our faith in Christ by His mercy and grace and by His power, we're moved over into the family

Roman Adoption And Spirit As Witness

SPEAKER_00 2:04

of God. And in our old life, before coming to Christ, there was plenty to fear. And so He says we don't we don't have that spirit of fear anymore, but we were on our own. We had no hope for forgiveness or for heaven. There was no one in whom we could trust one hundred percent. We were spiritually slaves. But now, if you've come to know Christ, you live in the master's house, and he says, Now you have the spirit by which we cry out Abba Father. It meant daddy. It's to place our arms in the air and to declare daddy because we've been adopted. Now Roman adoption was an arduous process. There were many, many steps in the process, in the procedure. One of the reasons is that once you adopted a child under the Roman government in which this was written, you could never, ever, ever revoke it. There are some that would say that the adopted child in the Roman Empire had perhaps more rights than the rest of the children. And it required seven witnesses, and we see here in verse sixteen that the Spirit is that witness testifying that we indeed have been adopted by the Lord. In verse 17, if we're children, we're heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, because the Spirit of Christ lives inside of

Heirs With Christ And Suffering

SPEAKER_00 3:33

us. Well, that's good news that we inherit eternal life. We get to go to heaven and be with him forever and ever. The Bible calls him the firstborn among many brethren. Wonder of wonders that we would be seen by God as co heirs with Christ. But uh oh, the verse ends, he says that we are heirs with him, and one of the things we inherit is the blessing of suffering. Oh, wait a minute, I was with you until then. Well, it's a reality. The Lord says that we will suffer with Christ. Oh, but remember this, you're gonna suffer either way. Suffer without Christ, because you're not in him, you're not following him, or suffer with Christ for God's glory and for the joy of walking and suffering with Christ.

Tomorrow’s Follow Up And Share

SPEAKER_00 4:23

We'll pick this subject back up tomorrow in Romans chapter 8 and look a little bit more at the encouraging word God has to us in regard to this matter of suffering with Christ. God bless you. I appreciate you being a listener, tell a friend, send a link to one of the episodes that you like if you will, and I'll see you back here next time.