Aaron Carlberg - December 24, 2017
Jingle All The Way 5: Adoption (Christmas Eve 2017)
John Piper calls adoption the Heart of the Gospel. He writes, “The deepest and strongest foundation of adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his ordinary providence in the world; it is at the heart of the gospel.” Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” The word “Abba” is the most intimate word for “dad” (it derives, most say, from a baby’s first words), yet Paul combines it with the word “Father” to show the far reaching implication of the statement. What does it mean that God has adopted you? How could the truth of being wanted and chosen by God change our view of not only ourselves, but how we interact with the world around us?
From Series: "Jingle All The Way"
As we head into Christmas, it is usually a time when family gets together in various degrees; sometimes those family interactions don’t go so well. We are doing a short Christmas series called “Jingle All The Way” because most people feel like we have to act happy and everything is OK when the hard family members show up (we “jingle all the way”). Plus it is the name of an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and we had to (at some point) use an Arnold movie title for something. If we are honest, we can all admit that families are hard. In the church we are called a family because God has made us family by adopting us, it starts and ends with Him. Even if you don’t have messed up people in your biological “family” you will have them in the church, so we want to help you to know how to navigate some of that. We plan to look at many dysfunctional family dynamics and then discuss how we are sent to make a difference and be Jesus’ hands and feet to this world.
