You guys take a copy of scripture and turn with me to Galatians 3. We're going to talk about how every one of us, if we're a Christian, are fully in the family of God. There are no kind of adjacent children, you know, in the family of God. There's no that sort of halfway in. And this is very important for us.
Guys, we're casting a vision for a thousand kids by 2030 that's fostered, adopted, or their parents helped as they're working their plan for reunification through Families Count. That's a huge vision. And if we're going to get motivated for that vision, yes, we have plans, we got plans for days, okay? But we need the heart, the motivation. If we're going to be motivated to go after this for five years and the ups and downs that it's going to be involved with that, we're going to need to remember God did something great for us.
He brought us from outside of the family into the family. And if you come into that family, you are all the way in. There's no half in, there's no sort of in. You're either a child of God or you're not, fully at his table or not. And Galatians 3 beautifully shows this.
He says, hey man, your background that you might think gives you an advantage or disadvantage, it's nothing anymore. There's no Jew Gentile. There's no male-female. There's no slave-free. The foot is level, the ground is level, as they say, at the foot of the cross.
We all have an opportunity to come in, and just because our background might be jacked up, or we didn't come from a Jewish lineage, which is probably most of us, right? Like, or whatever we want to say, just because we didn't have all that, we still are fully in the family. Here's what you can write down as a big idea this weekend. God's adopted children receive the full family blessing. There's no halfway in or halfway out.
Let me illustrate it like this. Many of you guys know I have a personal beef with Disney, okay? I'm not putting that on nobody else. But when they took away Splash Mountain. And they called Brayer Rabbit a racist.
I was like, I'm out. I couldn't do it anymore. And so uh But with that said, I do love the movie Cinderella, okay?
So I guess I'm selective in my outreach with these things. But. All right, Cinderella has been an enduring story in our culture for generations. Why? Why is that?
Okay, I'm going to tell you why. You think it's because. Girl becomes princess, it's not. It's because girl isn't treated as part of the real family. She's a stepchild that ends up treated like she's not part of the family.
And I'm telling you, even as a kid, I remember it, you probably remember it. It just sort of burns in you. You're like, that's not right. You shouldn't be sort of halfway in and treated as, you know, this stepchild that is not actually part of the family. And there is such a deep injustice in that.
And yet, some of us. think that way when it comes to our place in the family of God.
Some of us think, man, I'm just barely getting in. My background is not, you know, I see all these other people, they look like they're fully children of God. And I'm just kind of, I'm sort of on the outs a little bit. No, what we got to wrestle with today is, and some deep theology, all right? But God has set up his salvific history so that there are no stepchildren.
In the family of God. If you're in, you are all the way in. An air, the scripture says today.
Now, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to do theological underpinnings of Galatians chapter 3.
So that we get into our groups this week and wrestle with Galatians chapter four, okay?
So we do the theology work today. And then we go in tomorrow, you know, tonight or this week in your group. And Galatians 4 provides an incredible illustration of what we sang earlier, like slaves and sons, that kind of idea. And we'll get into our groups and we'll wrestle those things down. All right, so let's do Galatians 3 here together today.
Let's start in Galatians 3:23. I'm actually going to read through this. Two times slowly, so that we can kind of get up to speed, all right? Because there's a lot going on here.
Now, before faith came. We were held captive under the law. imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Now, let's just take a breath. And let's just go back and let's just read this exactly as I just read it again.
Okay, I might point a couple things out as we go. All right.
Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law.
Now, what does that mean? That means that in the Old Testament versus the New Testament, we were under this thing called the law. Remember what Moses gave? And it was civil law, it was ceremonial law, and it was moral law. All right, so this is the types of laws that were like, man, you don't eat this, you know, you handle society this way.
These are the laws. If somebody hurts an animal or somebody gets killed by your animal, but you knew it was dangerous, you remember all that stuff.
Okay, so he's saying before faith camp comes. We're under that law and we're imprisoned by it. were imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
Now that's funny. He's saying the law is looking forward to a faith that will be revealed.
So then the law was our guardian until Christ came. Apparently, Christ coming. Is whatever he's talking about here when he says that faith is coming.
Okay, so before faith came, before Christ came. We were under this law, but then when Christ comes, look. In order that we might be justified by faith.
Now, there's a real quickly here. You could get a little confused and say, well, wait a minute, is this saying that in the Old Testament you got saved by your works?
Okay, under the law. And in the New Testament, you got saved by faith. No, it's not saying that. We know that because think about Abraham, for example. He was justified by works, but by faith.
In fact, in all the Old Testament, even someone being born under the Israel under the Jewish law doesn't save them because they're going to break those laws. They have to put faith in that God is going to do one day what we have seen him do in Christ.
Now, they didn't see it like we get to see it, okay? But that's the difference from old covenant to new covenant. Not faith is not the difference. The way we see it is a little bit differently, though. A little bit different, though.
You can say it like this. The old covenant looked forward. The new covenant that Jesus institutes looks back. All right, so God's people in the Old Testament, they're under one covenant. We, after Jesus, are under a new covenant.
But here's how it works. Back in the day, they looked forward to what God was going to do through a savior. We look back on what God did through the savior.
So, Paul says, All right, this faith is coming. He doesn't mean a justifying faith. He means the new covenant. That's what he means. He means before Christ has come.
It was this way. We were underneath the law.
Now, the law has two incredible purposes from Galatians. It has more purposes than that, but in Galatians, we're going to look at two, okay? And the two purposes of the law, very simply, are to restrain evil and to lead us to Christ. All right, but let's look at both of them. The first one, and remember the law, civil society, it was everything.
This was a theocracy. This was not like our society. Everything was contained in it. The theology, the civil, ceremonial, and moral.
So if you were sacrificing something or dealing with a broken law in terms of somebody stealing something, or if you were trying to wrestle with your morality, It was all under the same thing. And we go back and we read this, the law in the New Testament.
Now, one of the great reasons that we were given the law, I told you the two. Is simply this: the law was given by God to restrain human evil. All right, so for 1500 years before Christ, roughly, you know, depending on how you count it, and there's different scholarship on that, but roughly. For 1,500 years, God's people lived under this law, and they were set apart by this law. Remember, they would eat a certain way, their morality was a certain way, they were circumcised.
Don't make me do my circumcision joke again from last week, okay? But it's like the whole idea here is that they're set apart under this law, they're gonna live a certain way. The law had a restraining effect. This is very important. Humans constantly underestimate the deceitful, wicked, and destructive nature of their own heart.
What we think is the rules are here to keep bad stuff out.
Okay, and they do that, all right? And that's many times the way we think about our kids. It's like, you know, when your kids are really young, some of you got real young kids. This is how you're thinking about laws and rules. All right, you're like, man, I don't want them to see that.
I don't want the world to corrupt them.
Now, when they get older, we all realize actually many of the rules are so that they don't corrupt the world. It's not we're worried about what's coming in, we're a little bit more worried about what might come out.
Okay, and that's kind of what the restraining effect is. The fencing, now listen to what he said, a captive of the law. Right? I mean, look what he says. Hey, I'm in verse 24.
I'm sorry, in verse 23. We are imprisoned. We are restrained. We are fenced in. I want you to think, you know, when our kids were young, we used to take them to the Greensboro Science Center.
All right, maybe some of you guys are gone. It's all the animals and all that kind of stuff. You get to the very back. And there's a tiger exhibit. That tiger exhibit has huge fortified fences.
I promise you, those fences are not there because all the other animals are just clamoring to get in. The monkeys ain't trying to figure out a way to get into the tiger exhibit. I promise you that. Why? Because those beautiful death machines are going to do what God created them to do.
That's why you have the fence, right? You don't want what's in to get out. And when we begin to think about why God gave the law, and even more than that, more than that, the wisdom of God. The laws. When he gave us his instructions, For our good to restrain human society and evil.
Think about in the Old Testament when people, I mean, think about Moses coming back and Aaron has set up the calf and they think Moses is gone. And what are they doing? It's a wild. Drunken, probably an orgy. I mean, just the most, what is it?
What is the thought there? They have thrown off all restraint. Because that's what's deep in us, is we can be destructive. And now the Lord has given us his law and his rules to reign us in. I want to say this to you.
And this is a little bit of a soapbox, okay? But just give me one minute here. I want you to think about this devotionally. I want you to think about this from the inner thought life. I want you to think about the care.
of God our Father. To give us laws and rules and wisdom thereby we can live and flourish. What does that do to your heart? When you think about the God who created us, not only created us, but he gave us his perfect law. And listen, I know it.
Civil and ceremonial has been fulfilled in Christ. I fully understand, okay? Like, we are new covenant Christians. I am grateful for that. I smoked a whole hog on the Traeger yesterday, thankful for the new covenant.
All right, I get it. But the moral law and God's wisdom is reaffirmed in the New Testament. That moral law is more just this idea of what God looks in and says, hey man, do you want abundance? Do you want to prosper? And I'm not talking about getting rich, although it could mean that.
I'm just talking about: do you want life generally to go well? Then live it according to how the creator designed it to go. Think about how beautiful this is, that God would give us these instructions. As a good, loving father, someone who loves us and wants our good, let me ask you this: How grateful are you that God gave us His moral law and His wisdom? Just think about it for a moment.
How grateful are we that we know how to. What if we didn't have these things? And we didn't know how to live in the world. We didn't know what would bring prosperity and abundance into our lives. You know, one of the most insidious lies in our culture that young people are trained and indoctrinated in.
is that prosperity only comes through privilege and poverty only comes through oppression. Do you want to know why that is so insidious? Because it cuts the tie between God giving us His laws and wisdom and us benefiting from His laws and wisdom. It makes it seem as if it doesn't matter how you live because you were born locked into some system or whatever, when actually the scripture tells us very clearly there is such a link between understanding what God has for you, living in that, and following the abundant life and prosperous life.
Now, listen, I'm not, anything can happen, okay? And this is not a promise. But generally speaking, I think God's wisdom and moral laws go like this: if you live in the way that the Creator designed you to live, things just go better. That's a novel thought, isn't it? I mean, it's crazy.
Let me give you a couple of scriptures, then I'm going to move on. I'll get off the soapbox, but I want you to write these things down and dwell on what this means. That there is a link between God giving us his wisdom and our lives going well. And that is such a grateful, we should have such a grateful posture towards. The Lord for that.
Look at Psalm 1. Blessed is the man. Who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season, and its life does not wither.
In all he does, he prospers. I don't know about you. I want the blessed life. I want to prosper.
Well, what do you do? Don't walk in the counsel of the wicked. Delight in the law of the Lord day and night. Proverbs 3:1, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace, they will add to you.
This is not a promise. It's not saying you'll never get sick and die in early death, or nothing ever bad will happen. That's not what it's saying. What it is saying is, generally speaking, follow the Lord's commandments and what happens. Long life, peace, health, you know, those types of things.
James 1:25, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, will be blessed in his doing. If you want the blessing of the Lord, think about his law and live into that. Bottom line, and I'll get off the soapbox, all right? Young people, do not buy into the hype that your decisions are not the greatest determiner of success, prosperity, and abundance. Your decisions to follow what the Lord says for humanity in this life is going to be the greatest determiner.
It's the thing that you have your hand on that lever. Man, and don't let somebody else convince you otherwise, because in doing so, we dumb down the goodness of God in giving us his wisdom. And his law. All right, let's get back to it, okay? Fully in the family.
Now, verse 24 gets us towards that second great use of the law. We mentioned the first one: restrain evil.
Now, here's the second one.
So then, the law was our Guardian. Very interesting word. Until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. The law was given to us as a first, you know, prison, captive.
Now he switches metaphors. Paul does what your eighth grade English teacher told you to never do. He switches metaphors all the time, mixes them up.
So he goes from prison, jail kind of thing.
Now we're talking about a guardian and here's the problem. The word guardian is not, we don't have a good word for this because we don't have this position really culturally in our society.
Some translations say schoolmaster. Other commentators say well you should write disciplinarian. We don't have this, so we don't know it. Let me explain. All right.
Wealthy family has a son, they're raising him as an heir. Here's what they're gonna do. When he comes a certain age, they're gonna put him with one of these people: a guardian, a disciplinarian. All right, you know, a school, a schoolmaster, school school teacher. That's probably not a great translation, but some do that.
All right, and the idea is that this guy is going to be in charge of this kid to bring him up in societal norms and also to protect him. All right, so he's going to be the one to tell him how to cross the street looking left and right. He's going to talk to them about politics and economics. He's going to make sure that he doesn't embarrass the family when they go into certain social situations. At the same time, this guy's going to be harsh.
He's going to be a little rough. He's going to be a little mean. Why? Because he's got to bring this kid up to the point of being ready to hand back over to the parents. And at the same time, 2,000 years ago, the society therein was incredibly sexually deviant.
And a young man coming up would have all types of abusive, unwanted advances, and so this guy would be there to protect him from that. It's hard to understand in our culture what this is. You almost want to say it's like a nanny. raising them. But it's always a man.
You know, and then it's also like, well, they've got to be mean. These guys are harsh, so they're mean.
So if I was doing an Andrew Hopper translation, I would say the word is mean man nanny.
Okay, that'd be my translation. He's the mean man nanny, and he's leading you to a certain place.
Now, read this back, okay?
So then, the law was our mean man, nanny. Taking us somewhere, raising us. Until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. What's he saying? The law restrains, number one, but number two, the law as a guardian, as a mean man nanny, has this task.
to raise us up in a sense to a certain point. And that point is To lead us to Christ. You can say it like this: the law was given by God to lead us to Christ.
Now, how does the law do this? I know we're in a little bit deep waters, but hang with me, okay? How does the law lead us to Christ? Because by trying to keep the law, you realize you have no hope. Other than some Savior.
Right? There's never been, for 1,500 years, everybody's trying to keep the law. Every single one of them has failed. They have failed at every turn, just as we have. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We want to earn everything, right? That's not even bad. This is how society is wired. What do you tell your kid? If you want to play, you earn your spot on the team.
If you want the promotion, put your head down and earn it, right? That's not wrong. That's like the Bible tells us: like, you reap what you sow, what you put in is what you get out. Here's the problem. When it comes to our fallen condition and our sin before God, there is no amount of earning that is ever going to make us right before God.
You can earn everything in the world. You cannot earn grace. And that's what we need. We need the grace of God to come into our life because none of us could live the life that God has called us to live. And 1,500 years of the law, I want you to think about this.
For 1,500 years or so, You have God's people looking at the law. Then looking at God. And you have all the nations around them watching them look at the law and look at God. Why did God set things up that way? I mean, why is this such a standing testimony to the world that you can't earn God's grace?
Because, look, none of them could.
Well, I think it's because we're hardwired to earn, and we needed that. You know, there's one of the new atheists back in the day, Christopher Hitchens. He used to do this whole bit on how absurd the timeline of Christianity is. You know, just trying to make fun of it. Just saying, like, okay, you got, you know, the world is created apparently, and then you got all these people, and then all of a sudden, here comes the law, and you got whatever, 1,400 years or whatever it is of the law.
And for some reason, they're trying to do that. And then all of a sudden, Jesus, and he kind of makes it seem like it's so discombobulated and random. And it's like, hey, dude, I know you're debating this thing at this college or whatever, but clearly you just don't understand the very core of the point. The core of it is Yes, for 1500 years, God's people were trying to live under this law so that they and all the rest of the world would realize something that is hardwired in here that needs to be deconstructed, and that is you can't earn God's love. Maybe God was doing something on purpose.
So the whole world would understand, you don't earn this. And that's exactly what the scripture is telling us here. The law was our guardian. It was raising us to the point of us understanding: okay, we can't earn this. We need something else.
And that's. Where the scripture comes in with what faith is, the new covenant, Jesus. Look, but now that faith has come, you are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs. Think about the word inheritance, heir fully in, heirs according to the promise.
Now, let's look at what we've been to see where we're going.
Okay, law restrains evil. God is good. Law, guardian, mean man, nanny, shows us that we can never have it apart from Christ, leads us right to the point of needing a Savior, and then boom, what happens? You and I are offered the opportunity to be what he says right here in verse 27: baptized into Christ. To put on Christ.
Or verse 26, what does he say? You are all sons of God.
Now, what does that mean? You say, well, I'm not a son, half the room in here is women. You're like, I'm not a son of God. And here's the thing: some people have used this verse and verses like this to throw rocks at the Bible and say, see, man, it's so anti-woman and all this kind of stuff. Again, very shallow understanding.
Why would Paul say sons instead of sons and daughters? Do you know why? Because he's talking about the inheritance. He's talking about us all being a full heir. Like it or not, 2,000 years ago, it was the son who got it all.
And what Paul is trying to get us to see is like, no, man, that's not it. There's no male, female, there's no Jew and Gentile, there's no Greek, there's no slave or free instead. Every one of us gets to be a son, meaning the inheritance comes to us, and we're fully all the way in. It's a beautiful thing. It's an incredible thing to think about.
You know, when he says, no more Jew and Gentile and all that kind of stuff, it really fires my brain up to think about how awesome God is. I want you to think about this: Christianity. Is the most diverse sociological movement that has ever existed on the face of this planet? When you look at all the different religions of the world, or you look at different kinds of social movements, they're all stuck in different regions of the world except for one. And when you think about Christianity, that is growing faster in places like Africa than it is in the West.
You realize this idea of we all have different backgrounds, we all have different cultures. Those things, by the way, I think the church needs to celebrate more rather than try to push down like the culture does. The culture wants a blending pot, wants to say, oh, you know, we're all almost like do away with, no, no, no. Male and female, understanding that those are two different things and understanding that those things give glory to God and masculinity and femininity. Hey, a Jewish background and a Gentile background are not the same thing.
And both of them, when you become a believer, have opportunities to glorify God and show that people from different backgrounds come into the same family. I mean, it's really incredible. Think about different socioeconomic status. Think about when you see diversity in churches or one level up in a city. And you see what God is doing.
You know, it just shows something about how awesome God is. I had a chance a couple of years ago to go to like a Christmas party for a bunch of different movements in our city, all these different churches. You walk in, it was the most diverse room I've ever been in my life. Different languages, different races, different parts of the city, you know, rural, inner city. I mean, it was everywhere all trying to do the same thing: bring people to Christ.
And you know why? Because we all have a chance to come into the family. Be sons and daughters. We don't abandon those backgrounds. What we have an opportunity is to come and take on a new primary identity and then to glorify God with who He has wired us to be and who He has created us to be.
So it's not that there's no distinctions. It's just that all these people get to come in and be part of the family.
Now some of you right here right now are like, well, okay, but how do I do that? Because You're here and you're like, I'm coming around. I mean, I've got some friends. God's working some things in my life. But how do you actually go from sort of being outside to being like in, you know, at the table in?
And you've got to understand what he says here.
Now that faith has come, that is a reference to the new covenant. Jesus has come. And in his life, death, and resurrection, he has given us what we need if we would admit our sin, believe in what he has done, and confess him as the Lord of our life to come into his family just like this. You know, because of our sin, we deserve death in hell. But Jesus Christ came and never sinned one time.
Never sinned. Why? He fulfilled the whole law. Why? So that he could be the perfect sacrifice for us.
One day, you and I are going to stand before God. And because of our sin, we're in a situation where God's wrath will be poured out. Either it'll be poured out on us for our sin. Or because we have, what the Bible says, put on Christ.
Now it will it will have been poured out on Christ instead of us and he was willing to do that for you because of his great love for you and then three days later he busts forth from the grave It shows us that if we're joined in Him, we will be with Him forever. And being with Him forever means fully in the family. Look at verse 29. And if you are Christ, Then you are Abraham's offspring. Wait a minute.
I'm not like a Jew, right? Oh, but I'm Abraham's offspring. You know why? Because we have all come in to the family of God, no matter what background. We're now in part of the family of God.
If we have accepted the gospel, here's what it says. This is so awesome. Heirs according to the promise. That is a legal term. Inheritance transferred.
Again, this is why he calls a diverse mixed group of people between men and women. He says sons over all of us. Why? Because it's legally transferring the inheritance for all of us. When you come in, you get whatever Christ gets.
Because we are joined with him. What does that mean? It means life forever. It means heaven. It means a relationship with God.
It means the spirit inside of us. It means purpose. It means the beauty of Christian family and this life that carries us into the next, and about a thousand other things that are wrapped up with the inheritance that the heirs get. You know what's so cool, man? I think about a church like Mercy Hill who has a lot of foster kids and a lot of adopted kids.
And you know what that ends up creating? It ends up creating a lot of interracial families. Where the kids don't all look the same. They don't, many times, don't even look like the parents. And some of them don't look even, it's not even two.
It might be three different looks that you have in a household. And here's what's so awesome about that. What a picture of the gospel. I mean, is that not us? It's like you look in and you're like, well, you look at all the kids and all the kids look different.
I mean, they're from different parts, you know. This is the Christian family. They're from different parts of the world, different parts of the city. They talk different, they speak different languages. but they're all together at the table as heirs.
It's not that the biological one has any more claim to anything than the adopted one. They are all heirs. and the inheritance will be all of theirs. Oh my, what a picture, and how beautiful it is that we get a chance to come in. Let me apply this in two ways, and we're going to be done today.
All right.
So here's a big application. Receive the full family blessing. Receive the full blessing of being fully in God's family. Can I just say full again, any kind of way? Full blessing.
All right, now let me apply this two different ways. I want to talk to the believer in the room first, somebody that's on mission with us here at Mercy Hill. This is many of you. Most of you even, all right, but not all of you, but many of you. Hey, if you are on mission with us here at Mercy Hill.
I really want you to wrestle with what we have thrown out. This year, man, I felt like we had been slow getting out of the gate. It feels like every single Sunday, it's going to be snow, rain, cold, whatever. You know, it's just like, man, it's just been a little clunky getting out of the gate here. Let me just try to make sure we have understood fully what the church is calling us, you know, what the elders of the church are calling us all to.
1,000 chosen kids in the next five years. Ain't no joke. It ain't no joke. And it's like, man, I know we throw big stuff out of Mercy Home. Oh, yeah, that's great.
We throw it out, it always happens. Y'all, this is a little scary. And this is a little bit like It's going to take every one of us diving in. And to some degree. to either adopt, to foster, to serve in families count.
To be one who gives, to be one who holds the rope, to be one who prays for these ministries, to be adoption-minded. It's gonna take all of us to get there. And listen, we got plans for days. I've got strategies for days.
Okay, our team has, what I mean by that is, our team has strategies for days.
Okay, we're going to get there. But here's the thing. All of that stuff is tracks. If we need the fuel to actually power the vision forward. It's not going to come from cute pictures and sad stories.
It's going to come because we remember, oh, yeah. I was outside the family and have been brought fully in. And I'm the one who gets to claim there ain't no Cinderellas in the kingdom of God. I'm fully in. I have my place at the table.
You know, I think about it like this. We have some friends, they have family that go here, but we have some friends that they adopted a little boy from Ecuador. And Eddie has Down syndrome. He has some deformities and things, which we know because of Faith Ann. And Eddie's story was this: Eddie was abandoned.
It's very sad, he was abandoned. And there was a guy building a house. Just right there in the streets, and he kept hear a baby crying, and he went out and the baby had been abandoned in a dump, basically, the dumpster. And man, he scooped him up and took him to this orphanage, and they got him cleaned up, got him healthy, and a few years later, this awesome family from Stokesdale, North Carolina goes on a mission trip to this orphanage, and next thing you know, they've adopted Eddie and they've brought him home. And Eddie's father tells a story like this.
He said, man, it hit me pretty early on after meeting Eddie that me and Eddie's story were exactly the same. Because I too was saved from a trash heap by a carpenter. When we realize I'm not the rescuer first. That was me. And what the Lord did in my life, I want to help or do in others.
That's where we get the deep motivation. All right.
And so my prayer today. Y'all, is that we will just sort of have a yes attitude, sort of have a yes posture. Man, we're, yeah, man, open hands, check. Open, you know, blank check on the table, that kind of idea. It's there, God.
What do you want us to do? And then the last thing I want to do is, I just want to apply the gospel one more time for those of you who may need to believe. The application for many in this room and many at our campuses this morning: the application is not adopt the child foster kid, sign up to serve at families count, hold the rope. The application for you is like you need to realize Maybe the Lord is after you today. It's time for you to be adopted fully into the family of God and the great enemy.
of being fully in the family. is what we dealt with when being imprisoned by the law. We still want to live under the guardian rather than living under Christ. You say, what does that mean? It means.
that many of us are trying to earn that which can only be given. You cannot earn your place in this family. You know, I was. I went to a Greensboro Swarm game one time. I don't know if you guys have been to it.
It's a G League basketball. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world. I can't believe there's another rung of NBA, but I mean, it was awesome. I'll never forget because when I went in, I walked through. the metal detector and not a pocket knife.
in my in my pocket. It it rang. And the woman's like, You can't come in here with that. I said, Well, what do you want me to do? She said, Well, you can just throw it right here in this trash can.
I said, Woman, I'd rather die. I had to run all the way back to my truck and all this stuff. Anyway, we get in there, and I happen to sit down with my kids, and we sit down next to the dad of one of the guys playing. And this guy's been playing in the G League for like 10 years, and he was like one of the all-time leading scorers in the G League. He's made a career out of G League.
But he gets called up every once in a while. And I asked the guy, I said, What is it like for these guys trying to fight so hard to get that call? And he said, Man, it's crazy. He said, most of the time when they get caught up, they get caught up on just days, like a 10-day contract. And I thought, what kind of pressure is that?
You get caught up and you're thinking to yourself, I got 10 days to justify my whole game in front of these. This team. I got 10 days. If I play good, they'll keep me. If I don't play good, they'll kick me out.
What kind of pressure is that?
Some of y'all are living under that pressure right now. Because that's the way you're thinking about the family of God. You're thinking about it like, man, God, you know, I'm kind of coming around. I'm getting called up. I'm trying to do the thing.
And if I can do it, and if I can live a certain way, my morality, if I can stop doing this and start doing that. Then maybe God will accept me one day. You're trying to earn something that can only be given. You need to get away from that pressure. There are no 10-day contracts, and there are no Cinderellas.
You have an opportunity today. To admit your sin, believe in what Christ has done, confess him as the Lord of your life, and come fully into the family. with the full inheritance of the family. I pray today be the day that you step over that line. Would you bow your head with me for just a moment?
Man, just a moment. I just want to give you a moment to just kind of. Just kind of clear your thoughts. Don't think about what's going on next. Hey, has God brought you here in this moment for this reason to hear this message?
to understand He is after you. He is calling you. To bring you into his family and to seat you at his table. It doesn't matter your background. I don't care what happened last year, last month, last night.
It's not about being Jew, Gentile. It's not about your family background, socioeconomic status, slave or free. You're here right now is God calling you. To come into his family. If he is, would you pray this prayer with me?
It's modeled after ABC: Admit, Believe, and Confess. All right? You just pray this with me in your heart. God, I admit that I'm a sinner and far from you. I know that my works cannot save me.
But I believe. that Jesus came, lived a sinless life, and died in my place. And in his resurrection, I'm offered the newness of life. I receive that today. I want that.
And I confess. That Jesus will be the Lord of my life moving forward. I want to follow him. Father, I pray for those right here at the ridge and also. At High Point in Clifton and Northeast today.
And an Espanol. Lord, I pray that many, many, many people would give their lives to you and they would take courage in this next step. In Christ's name, amen.
