Adopted! That’s what you are according to God’s Word. The word gets a bad or awkward rap, but according to Holy Scripture it is the basis for our great assurance that we are in Christ and members of the family of God.

We will look at the reason the Lord uses this language to describe us and we will see why it makes our faith more than relevant. To understand the concept is to live your faith with more confidence and power even through trials.

This is the fourth installment of our series on Galatians and it has been a sheer delight to present to you. Thank you for the privilege! Thank you for the call dear people of God!

ALSO: tomorrow is the adult baptism of Dan Ambrose! I am absolutely thrilled. Dan has become my friend and brother in Christ and I hope and pray that you will share my joy on this sacred occasion as he is baptized into Christ tomorrow morning. What a tremendous blessing to be a part of this. Congratulations Dan!

ALSO: Vacation Bible School starts this week. Our theme is “The Lord’s Prayer.” We are meeting Monday, June 24th through Friday, June 28th from 9 am to 12:30 pm (notice the time extension to 12:30 pm). Why the extension? we are giving ourselves more time for potty breaks while on the beach and time to enjoy the wonderful lunches being provided by the Shake Shack at Crystal Cove (thank you Doug Cavanaugh)! There will be at Reef Point along Pacific Coast Highway drop off (from 8:45 am to 9:15 am) and the pick up (from 12:35 pm to 12:45 pm). There will be crafts, puppets, games, songs, lots of prayer, and just a fantastic time in God’s beautiful creation at Sandy Beach at Muddy Creek (accessed via the Reef Point entry).

The single thorn in our flesh is the fact that for anyone staying (such as volunteers to help), the parking costs $15.00. I will completely understand if this eliminates your ability to help. However, I would like to encourage as much carpooling as much as possible. I will be leaving my residence at 7:30 am every morning so that I can start setting up by 8 am at the beach. I can take a couple more with me every morning.

The Lord is good and I look forward to giving you Jesus’ saving Gospel and saving Sacrament tomorrow morning!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

“Adopted and the Owners of Everything!” (Gal. 3:23-4:7)

The 5^th Sunday after Pentecost, June 23^rd, 2013

Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa

            Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Adoption often gets a bad rap. When I was growing up for example, my older siblings would sometimes subject me to some psychological jabs. Since I had come along 8 years after my three older siblings, I was sometimes referred to as having been adopted. Today, I’m embarrassed by the fact that this used to bother me. I wish today that I had embraced it back then. You know how it is. How often we think to ourselves, “If I had only known then, what I know now!” Why embrace it? Because God’s Word says to you and me dear Christian that every single one of here today for whom Jesus died and rose; and for us who have been baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have been adopted into God’s kingdom, into God’s family, into God’s magnificent and eternal love and mercy for us with the promise that He shall never, ever let us go.

 

            This is where the proverbial rubber hits the road in terms of what makes the faith so invaluable. Last week I explained what faith is: 1) it is true; 2) it is trustworthy; and 3) it lives in the reality of the promises given…or simply said, it takes God up on His truth and trustworthiness…it actually lives in His grace, walks in His grace, and expresses its life in His grace. Just think of Peter when He saw Jesus walking on water: 1) He believed that Jesus was really there (that Jesus was true and real); 2) He believed that Jesus was able to call him unto Himself even on the water (Jesus was trustworthy); and 3) Peter actually stepped out and indeed – before he began to sink – Peter was walking on water. This is faith.

 

            I bring this up because adoption is the assurance that we are indeed people of faith: it is the guarantee that God has called us, that God has united us to Jesus, that we have received the grace of God and the gift of faith, and it is the assurance that we are living never, ever alone, but always and constantly with the Holy Spirit. Do you have faith? To answer the question, just back up and ask yourself: “Well, am I adopted or not?” The answer is yes, esp. if you understand when and how God adopts you (answer: in Holy Baptism and by the power of the Word of God contained in the water which joined you to Jesus Christ). And if you are adopted, then yes, you have also received the gift of faith!

 

           If you know this Christian, then you are called to live in great confidence and — don’t be shy about it now — in the power of faith in God. This is a faith that might not be impressive to the world with its confused ideas about faith, but it is a faith led by the Spirit of God that leads you to face anything in life with the assurance that God is with you and that God will bless you no matter what. No, this doesn’t mean that you and I always get what we want or what we think we need. But it does mean that God will keep holding us as His adopted children and He will bless us…He always finds a way. And the reason you know that these are not just pious platitudes, is because the One who guarantees your adoption lived and died and rose for you!

 

          Such faith flows from the knowledge that Jesus gave up His life for you and if God loves you that much, then The Father will not allow anything to interfere with the truth of the saving Gospel of His Son Jesus. Faith knows this to be true, because your faith knows that you are adopted/you belong to God. This faith figures that if Jesus could give His life for me, then I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will always be for me and to erase all doubt He assures me of this reality because He came to me in Holy Baptism, and adopted me as His child.

 

            And this is what makes our faith so glorious even in this veil of tears in the world and even as we bear crosses. It is true, but it is also extremely relevant. This is what the world needs to know about the Christian faith. It is true – based on what actually corresponds to a real state of affairs in space and time – but it is more than just true, it is exceedingly relevant. The world needs this sense of truth, relevance, importance, and meaning. It is true that this past week the Miami Heat won their 3^rd NBA championship, but many of you could care less. It may be true, but it isn’t terribly relevant. But when it comes to faith, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus and the life it produces in becoming adopted heirs of God means that our whole lives are impacted: we have clarity about our identity, our purpose, and our destination; and we have gifts poured out from God to live as His adopted people. The faith is true, it is relevant, and it is exciting…and it is on account of our adoption that we begin to see clearly about these things.

 

            But it begins by embracing the guarantee that you are indeed a child of God; not called to doubt who you are, but to be absolutely clear about it. You are a child of God, because you are adopted. That means that this word “adopted” can’t be a weird thing, but a glorious status. We should say with pride and joy: “I am adopted!”

In Jesus’ Love,

Pastor