THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY
"Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." So said the famous poet Robert Frost.
Home - the place to rest, to laugh, to eat, to sleep.
It's the place of our family.
the social group where we love and are loved.
the setting in which we grow and develop
the safe haven where burdens and joys can be shared.

In a family, a reasonably normal and healthy family anyway, we have a place, a role; we have meaning.
In our families we know we belong.
In our families we can be secure.

Families are very important.
I think implicitly we all recognize that. Certain forces in society have made that more apparent over the last number of years. Therapists have emphasized the whole "family therapy movement" where dysfunction and problems are not first of all dumped on individuals but on the family unit as a whole; and where change is experienced and healing is found - again - by the family as a whole.
Substance abuse recovery movements - like Alcoholics Anonymous and its associated programmes Alateen and Alanon - recognize the truth of Exodus 20 - the sins of the fathers will be visited to the children to the third and fourth generation. So also in dysfunction and damage that can go throughout life in the case of horrible abuses afflicted on childhood victims of sexual abuse and incest.

We see the positive impact of families in people growing up and testifying:- of a loving Christian environment where they were taught of Jesus and challenged to accept him as Saviour and Lord; - or parents who modelled their roles and so profoundly influenced them as they grew up and raised their own children - of a setting where they were encouraged to explore their gifts and become the best they could possibly be in schooling and career life.
Families. Thank God for good families!
 
 

HOW WE ENTER FAMILIES
There are two ways to enter a family. The most common is to be born into a family. Next Sunday we hope to celebrate the baptism of Levi Tamming. He was born into the home of Martin & Marie. They proudly named him, brought him home from hospital, and showed him off with great joy to their friends. They call Levi "theirs" - he belongs to them. He is protected by them, cared for by them, loved by them. All the resources of the parents are used for the benefit of little Levi - for his growth and love and security.
The second way to enter the home is through adoption. That is a very difficult procedure today. Some of you know that, having adopted children yourself. It's even more difficult today than it was a few years ago. A great deal of waiting, countless interviews, leads that turn into dead ends. Finally, finally -- with marvelous joy a child enters your home.

Adoption - a special way to enter a home. When a child is born into a home they occasionally are unwanted. They are so-called "accidents" or "unplanned." Often the parents grow to love these children. But not always.
But this is not so with adoption. There the parents fight to have a child. They choose to have a child and take deliberate, often very painful, costly and time-consuming steps to get a child. Even then, when they are told a child is available, they have the right to say, "Yes, I want that child" or "No, I will pass and wait for another - this child won't do for me."
It takes only 9 months to have a birth child, but generally years to have an adopted child.
Adoption never just happens.
It is always a free, loving, intentional act.

And the adopted child ends up with the same rights and privileges as any birth child. Nobody can say that she or he is any less a member of the family, any less a full child of the parents than those who enter the home by being born into it.

SCRIPTURE LESSON
Please keep that in mind as you read with me the scripture lesson for the evening, and the teaching from the Heidelberg Catechism:

IN THE FAMILY OF GOD
There is one divine family of God; a family of which it is a tremendous honour and privilege to be a member.
Jesus is a member of that family. He is the Son of God.
But the great gospel news is that we, too are members of this family:
...those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God... by him we cry 'Abba, Father'. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (v.14-16)

In the words of the catechism: We... are adopted children of God...

CHARACTERISTICS AND PRIVILEGES IN GOD'S FAMILY
What does it mean to be adopted into God's family? What is that family like? What privileges come with joining it?

Let's review what the Bible says about the family of God:-it is a Royal family, the family of the King of all nations, the one who can call to earthly rulers demanding of them "The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him " (Hab 2.20). -the Father of this family is unimaginable in his greatness and power and splendour. When only a small corner of it settled on Mt.Sinai, the shaking and smoke and flashing fire were so great that it sent the whole nation of Israel to terrified trembling. Standing back and watching creation, the work of the Father's finger, the Psalmist cries out (Ps 104.1) - "O Lord my God, you are very great clothed with majesty and splendour." -The eldest Son of this Family, Jesus, is one who, says Luke 3, is loved and empowered by the Father. He spends his time in the very presence of the Father, sharing his power, according to Acts 7.56. His beauty and splendour is as equally overpowering as that of the Father. When he appeared to the apostle John on Patmos, John fell down as if dead.
-And there is God the Spirit, who hovers over the earth as on creation (Gen 1), omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.
That is the Royal family into which the Bible says we are adopted! It is a family:
- served by the angels (eg Gabriel who stands before the throne of the Father Luke 1.19)
- ruling over creation,
- with authoritative power over the spirits of darkness who have no access to their home and no control over them. Not even the Prince of Darkness, Satan, could defeat the Son in his weakened state (see Luke 4). Satan was pushed right out of this family's home and refused any further admittance in Luke 10.18.

The Bible says that those adopted into the family of God share in the wealth and splendour and power of that family. They have all the rights of inheritance into that family: "Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (v.17) -the splendid presence of God will be where they will one day dwell (cf Rev 21) -they will be with Christ in the presence of God, just as the thief on the cross was told, "today you will be with me in Paradise." (Lk 23.43) -death will have no final control over them (1 Cor 15) -they will rule with Christ according to scripture's promise, "If we endure we shall also reign with him." (2 Ti 2.12) -they have the Holy Spirit's power within them (Acts 2) -they are served by the angels. As Heb 1.14 says, "are these not all ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit eternal salvation?" -Adopted members of God's family are granted power over demons and the family of Satan. Jesus said to his followers, the first adopted children, in Lu 10:19, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
We'll look more at this, and some of the implications, in two weeks.

HOW WE ENTER GOD'S FAMILY
What a privilege to be a part of that family! What a joy! What security!
How do we get that for ourselves?

Notice our scripture reading from Romans 8: it speaks of
Christ "in you" and the Spirit of Christ living in you.
Those who do not have these are considered outside, without any family name, and without rights of inheritance.

John 1.12 speaks on this same subject when it says:
To all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. (Jn 1.12)

God gives -- a free, undeserved gift -- power to become children. And we, as receivers, must accept that gift. A gift is no gift till we humbly and gratefully accept it.
Opening your heart and life and deliberately, consciously taking the step of yielding control to Jesus Christ brings one:
- out of the squalid living conditions of life in the fallen human family, the family that has surrendered its right of inheritance to the Devil
- into the eternal, beautiful and power family of God the Father and Jesus Christ his son.

- out of misdeeds of the body (v.13): those things that make fools of us
- into the joy and life-building sonship of God

- out of a life-long fearful slavery (v.15)
- into joyful freedom as children who can climb into the lap of their heavenly Father calling "Abba, Father!"

Brothers and sisters, fellow-heirs with Christ, let us remember that adoption is a gift given to us;
not some "right" that we can arrogantly assume to have (the way people today run around claiming this and that as an inalienable right).
It is a special love gift, a very expensive gift - with the price tag of the life of the elder brother still very much stuck to the package, and it is a gift that we must consciously receive.
And it is a gift free for the asking to all comers. None will be rejected. None will be disappointed.

THE RADICAL CLAIMS OF FAMILY MEMBERSHIP
The Bible is a book that gives some outlandish, almost arrogant sounding promises. Like the one leading us to say through faith, "Jesus is MY Saviour."
How dare we, really? To claim with certainty that Jesus has claimed me, saved me, prepared a home in heaven for me.... for sure!! Almost arrogant.
And yet true; very true -- for the bible tells me so.

How much more outlandish, almost more arrogant sounding, then, the claim, "Jesus, the Divine Son of God, is my brother."
How much more radical..... but equally true!!

Yet make no mistake. It is not radical in arrogance. Rather it is radical because of what the natural Son of the Father, the only original Son, was willing to give up so that we could be adopted.
I said at the beginning that adoption is a costly, sometimes painful process. Our privilege to claim God as Father and Jesus is brother, our adoption through faith, came at a great cost to our elder brother:
The cost of his life
The pain of his agony all the way to the cross

What radical steps he was willing to take! For you and me!
Breath-taking, isn't it?

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1Jn 3.1)

And oh, how that affects our lives. For as radical as the steps were that Jesus took for us, so too does it demand radical response from us.
Adoption into the family of God has radical implications for a radical lifestyle.
The elder brother in bible days was, under the Father, lord of the household. He was honoured and obeyed. Younger family members served him.
So we are called to give to Jesus the Honour that is due to him. We are to call him our Lord; to give him our whole lives, nothing less.
To give him our souls, and our family, our education, our labour - everything we have; we are; and we do!

But then, given what he has done,
given the privileges we receive
How could he demand any less?