There is no greater evidence that we are children of God than our living together as family. We can not say that we have received and experienced the love of the Father until we’ve given ourselves to love one another. If we’ve been adopted by the Father, we’ve been called to adopt one another as family — The Family of God.
Scripture(s):
Adopted - Suffering And The Glory Of God
November 12, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
If we are born-again, we’re joint-heirs with Christ — we’ve been made one with Him. We now live, move and we have our being in Him. No longer do we look to the fallen world as our source of love, peace, fulfillment and joy. We have found that in Christ — although we are in the world it is no longer our source. This life of “in but not of” brings with it suffering. But the suffering it brings isn’t worthy to be compared to the glory that is and shall be revealed.
Adopted: I’m A Child Of God
November 5, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
There is no greater distinction or identity that a human being can have than to be a child of God. We can make no greater contribution to humanity, to this world or to our families than to live as a child of God. But we can not make ourselves His, only Christ can do that — we’ve been given the work of agreeing with, what He says about us.
Adopted: Heavenly Family VALUES
October 29, 2023 • Elder Mike Dixon
We all have practices and values which come from our family of origin. But now that we are resurrected to life in the family of Jesus Christ, it is essential that we discover and practice these seven values of our heavenly family. Without them, we will be ineffective and unproductive in our earthly assignments.
Adopted: Resurrected By His Love
October 22, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
When the Father restored us to Himself through the work of Christ — we were resurrected into new life. We now live from an entirely different operating system. Our new operating system is continually resurrecting us into new lives through the love of the Father. As we let go of and are delivered from our earthly horizontal past we find our true identity as the ones being resurrected by His love.
Adopted: Living Resurrected Lives
October 15, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
Adam and Eve rejected the Fatherhood of God. They decided dependence on themselves was more desirable than dependence on God the Father. This legacy of broken relationship was inherited by us all. In Christ, we are adopted and restored to relationship with the covenant making, promise keeping Father. Our adoption and restoration is more than a future in the new heaven and earth. We’ve been resurrected into new life that we might usher in and experience and heaven on earth in the here and now.
Adopted -- Living The Resurrected Life
October 8, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown
When we respond to the love of the Father with rebellion or religion, there’s a word for that — individualism. Individualism (rebellion/religion) is a result of the fall; it says we don’t need you Lord God we can do it on our own. We can do life on our own terms fulfilling our own desires. But resurrection life/to be born again through faith in Christ says the opposite. Resurrection life says, we need you Lord God and we have found there’s truly no life outside of the feast and celebration of your love.
Adopted - Fatherhood Lost
September 17, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown • Genesis 3:22–24
We can’t truly grasp what it means to be adopted and restored to the family of God without realizing all that was lost in the garden. Desiring to be gods to themselves — autonomous, independent, with freedom of choice — Adam and Eve rejected the Fatherhood of God. They concluded dependence on themselves was more desirable than dependence on God and Fatherhood was lost. This is the legacy inherited by us all.
Adopted: The Rebellious, The Religious & The Resurrected Pt. 2
Pastor Kevin Brown • Luke 15:25–32
We can be in relationship with the lover of our souls, the redeemer of our lives and not know what really means to be His child -- living functionally as orphans. Our response to the Father's love often falls into one of two categories. We can rebel against His love, wanting what we can get from Him rather than actually wanting Him or we respond religiously to His love just performing in hopes He'll be indebted to give us what we want. Sometimes, in response to the extravagant love of the covenant making Father, we just put on church clothes.
Adopted: The Rebellious, The Religious and The Resurrected
September 24, 2023 • Pastor Kevin Brown • Luke 15:11–24
This passage is titled the prodigal son. Prodigal is defined as having or giving something on a lavish scale or a person who spends in an extravagant way. Author and theologian Tim Keller wrote a book renaming this parable The Prodigal God because there’s no one more extravagant and lavish in this parable than God the Father. This parable is ultimately about Him, His extravagant love and the ways His children respond. Never having encountered a love like God’s, we all respond one of three ways — we rebel, we become religious or we are resurrected. But none of us goes untouched by the love of the Prodigal God.
