Listen as Pastor Brent concludes our Playing With Fire series, exploring a virtue that’s vital to walking with Jesus and often misunderstood in the Christian community.

He reinforces this idea through biblical parallels, emphasizing that our worth is rooted in our identity as cherished creations of God. The sermon’s pivotal point is the connection between realizing where our true significance lies and experiencing freedom through Jesus. By relinquishing the pursuit of external approval, individuals can find profound liberation and purpose in their faith.

Ephesians 1:3-6, Matthew 5

Introduction

Good morning everyone and thanks so much for being here. My name is Brent, and I am one of the pastors here at Ashworth. Have you ever been in a conversation where something was talked about, and as the conversation continues, you realize that you might not really understand what they are talking about? You might not know the real meaning of the topic. 

In my younger days, not wanting to admit I didn’t know something, I would have stayed there, shook my heard, thrown in an agreeing word here or there, completely oblivious as to the real meaning of the conversation.

The nice thing about getting older is that I have learned how to use a very powerful expression. It is life changing. “I don’t know what you mean. Could you explain it to me.” Or “I am unfamiliar with that. What does that mean?”

And then there are moments when you know a word or phrase, and you think you understand it, and you use it, only to be told later that you misunderstood the word. For example, take the word “literally.” I literally go mad every time someone misuses that word! Did you catch that!

A few years ago, I was with my extended family, and we were having a discussion. Someone made a statement like “I literally died when I saw that.” My brother chimed in. “Well, you didn’t literally die. If you did, you wouldn’t be here. You figuratively died. You metaphorically died, but you didn’t literally die.”

Sometimes we hear words or phrases so often used that we pick them up and we may or may not fully understand what they literally mean. That’s what I want us to look at today. 

We are in the series “Who Do You Think You Are” where each week we are trying to discover our identity as defined, not by the world around us or even ourselves, but by God. Who does God say we are? And today we’re going to look at an often used word or expression to see if it is true, but also are we even using it correctly. Let’s see what it means that You Are Blessed.

#Blessed and Other Misuses

A quick peruse through social media would show you that the idea of being blessed is widespread here in the US. In fact, we could say that the word blessed flows easily off or lips. A quick search of Instagram shows over 107 million uses of the hashtag #blessed. If you add the variations of #blessed praying hands, #blessedlife, #blessed praise hands, or #blessed angel, you find it used 5 million more times for a total of 112 million uses. 

In case you don’t know, a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media to identify messages on a specific topic. On Instagram, hashtags accompany pictures. So that picture of your new car, #blessed. That college acceptance letter. #Blessed. That engagement picture, beach vacation, family photo, new baby, the goal scored in the game. #Blessed.

But is this what blessing looks like? Because as I think about how we use this #blessed, I can’t help but think of the inverse. If you are #blessed with a new car, does that mean the person who can’t afford the new car is not #blessed? If we are #blessed because of that new promotion and raise, what does it mean for that person who just got laid off? And if you are #blessed because of your new baby, what does that mean for the mom and dad who desperately want a baby but are unable to conceive?

I’ve heard people say; God has blessed my business, God has blessed me with this house, God has blessed me with financial security, but is this how God works?

There is a very slippery slope we have to be careful of when we talk this way. In religious circles around the world, there is a very popular movement we know as the Health and Wealth gospel or the Prosperity Gospel. And it goes something like this; if I give, I will get, if I do, I will get.  Getting is a sign of God’s favor, therefore to have more stuff and to be healthy is to be blessed. 

And the reason we have to be careful is that it is very easy for you and me to fall into this line of thinking, especially if we tie that word blessed to our material possessions or to the good things that happen to us. 

The other area we need to be careful in is closely associating the idea of blessing to luck. I must admit my guilt here. One of my kids comes up to me and says, “Hey dad, you won’t believe this, the teacher was giving away coupons for free ice cream, and I got one. I am so lucky!” And I would correct them. “Uh, uh uh. We don’t believe in luck. You were blessed.”

If we aren’t careful, we will turn this word into nothing more than the Christian version of luck with all the superstition and chance that comes with it.

And one other area we need to be careful. This area primarily applies to those of us from the south. If not careful, we will use it as a way to try to soften or negate something nasty we want to say about someone. You know what I mean, right? Bless her heart; she is just ugly. Or bless his heart, the lights are on but nobody’s home, he’s one free short of a happy meal., his elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top. Bless His heart. 

To Be Blessed

To fully understand this idea of being blessed, we need to rethink our understanding of the word. In Ephesians 1, the same passage I used last week for You Are Chosen, before he ever tells us we are chosen Paul tells us we are blessed. Look at this with me. 

Ephesians 1:3-6.

The NIV misses one of the interesting things you see in the Greek by translating the first word as praise. It really could be translated “Blessing be to the God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.”

Right away we have difficulty interpreting this as material prosperity because Paul calls us to bless God, and God owns it all. God can’t get any more stuff. Paul uses a Greek word here, eulogia, that sounds like our word eulogy. We associate that with a funeral. But what is that? It is to speak favorably of someone. We are to speak favorably of God because he is speaking favorably of us. 

And if it can’t mean prosperity, it has to mean something different. And the way Paul describes blessings are as spiritual. Spiritual blessing doesn’t mean that these are things we will have to wait for one day in heaven. 

Using the word spiritual here just highlights that what we have received from God is by the Holy Spirit and how he gives us life. And instead of these blessings being houses, clothes, and material possessions, the blessings Paul is talking about is what he continues to write about in the passage — being chosen, adopted, growing in faith, grace, redemption, forgiveness, Jesus. And these we can and should enjoy now.

To truly be blessed and know that we are blessed is to know God and experience him. And Paul tells us also that it isn’t because of something you have done. It is not because you are lucky. And it isn’t even God’s spiritual favor because you have grown so much or are such a moral person. It is because of God and his love for us. 

And also notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that our blessings are tied to bank balance personal wealth or our current circumstances. The gift is God himself, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

What Does Blessing Look Like?

But there is another aspect to this we need to explore as well. Because Jesus also used the word blessed quite a bit, especially in his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. 

In Matthew 5, Jesus is teaching a large crowd, and nine times as he begins this message he says to the “Blessed are…” and then completes the statement with expressions that wouldn’t line up with what his original audience thought and certainly do not line up with how we often define blessing. 

It is hard to resolve what Jesus calls blessed with what we call blessed. As I thought about it this week, if we were to write a sermon for Jesus today based on our hashtags, we would likely write something like this:

Blessed are the rich with large bank balances. Blessed are those who have no hardships or experience difficulties. Blessed are those who have their fill and never hunger, and their pantries are full of food. Blessed are those who get to the top of their field. Blessed are those who live the good life and the ability to take lots of vacations. Blessed are those who never get sick or have someone close to them get sick. 

But that’s not what Jesus said, or anywhere close to what he said. If we want to be blessed, we need to be poor in spirit, mourn, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted and insulted. Everything Jesus said we would look at in our culture and “Poor them. What did they do to deserve such a bad life?” 

And what is so backward is that what we see as messed up Jesus sees as blessed! We have to redefine what it means to be blessed because if we don’t, we will miss Jesus. Jesus never links blessing to circumstances or financial prosperity. He links it to himself and his kingdom. 

One of the articles I read this week in preparing was by a theology professor in Australia. He shared a story of how a friend went to an African country, and one of the African Christians said to him, “It must be so hard to be a Christian in Australia.” The guy asked what the person meant. The man responded, “You have so much it must be so hard to depend on God.”

What if we have it backward. What if what we see as blessings from God are actually the things that are pulling us further away from him. We can’t commit to spending time with God because the blessing of my job requires so much of me 24-7-265. And I can’t commit to the connection of a church because of my financial blessings that I need to miss a lot for kids activities and travel. 

When Jesus uses the word blessed, he is using a different but related word to the one Paul used. He is using the word “makarioi” which some Bibles have translated as happy. This is not a good translation. “Makarioi” means fully satisfied. It is not dependent on favorable circumstances but on knowing Jesus. 

What if to be truly blessed it meant we had to give up some things. To forfeit our wealth and comfort, our popularity, our success, and it meant we needed to experience difficulty, persecution, total dependence on God?

Think about it for a moment. When do you find yourself needing God the most? In good times? I wish. No, it is in the struggle when the wheels are falling off when nothing is going your way. Our desire for God is usually fueled by our need. And when our need is the greatest, so is our desire for God. 

And when we are going through the most painful circumstances, times where no one in our culture would ever look at us and call us blessed, isn’t that where we can experience God in the most real way? Isn’t that where real, genuine faith is formed? Isn’t that where God’s incredible love is found?

Think about Mary, the mother of Jesus. A teenager with a good life in front of here. She’s got a man who is going to marry her. And then one day an angel appears and tells her she is going to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus. Unwed mother. Unplanned pregnancy. Nothing we would say is  #blessed. 

And when she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, what does Elizabeth say to her? “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear.” (Luke 1:42) Let that sink in for a moment. We must redefine what it means to be blessed. 

Your prosperity has nothing to do with your blessing. Your good health has nothing to do with your blessing. Your current circumstances have nothing to do with where or not you are blessed. You are blessed if you know Jesus. And as Paul says, that’s enough. You have every spiritual blessing because of him.

Conclusion 

So what is blessing then? I love the way one article I read this week put it. It said, “Scripture shows that blessing is anything God gives that makes us fully satisfied in him. Anything that draws us closer to Jesus. Anything that helps us relinquish the temporal and hold on more tightly to the eternal. And often it is the struggles and trials, the aching disappointments and the unfulfilled longings that best enable us to do that.”

A few years ago there was a beautiful song entitled, “Blessings” by Laura Story. I listened to that song as I was preparing this message. Listen to these lyrics. “We pray for blessings, We pray for peace, Comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity, We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering, All the while, You hear each spoken need, Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things.

“’Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears, What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near, What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise.”

Are you here today and you don’t feel very blessed? Can I encourage you? Don’t let your current situation cause you to miss the Savior. He is the blessing.

Is your life good? You’ve got all you need and then some. And let’s be honest, that describes most of us. But as you hear this do you see how what you’ve always considered to be a blessing in your life are burdens that are keeping you from experiencing the true blessing found only in Jesus Christ?

Or maybe you realize what you have in Jesus and the take away for you today is to speak that blessing over others. Those who need encouragement, those who need peace, those who need life.

If you follow Jesus, it may not look like what your friends post on social media but let me echo the Apostle Paul to you today. Regardless of your life and your circumstances. You are blessed.

Good morning. I am so glad you are here today. Over the last couple of weeks, we have been in a series we called Transformed. This series is built on the idea that when people encounter God, when we say yes to Jesus and begin the faith journey of following him, radical changes occur in our lives. 

The first week, we looked at how one of the first things that happen when we put our faith in Jesus is that we are taken from death and given life. We said that the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the same power that raised his lifeless body and brought him back to life, is the same power that comes upon us and gives us life.

The biggest problem with this is that most often, we don’t realize that while we may be going through the motions of life, we may currently be breathing, but without Jesus, we are dead. But we don’t have to be. Through Jesus, we can do more than just live. We can experience life.

Last week, Ryan talked about the transformation that God brings in our lives from bondage or slavery to freedom. We do not have to be enslaved to our sin. We don’t have to be enslaved to the Old Testament law, a list of rules and regulations. Christ came to set us free.

But as Ryan also mentioned last week, the difficulty here is that, for many of us, slavery is all we know. And just as in the days of abolition when freed slaves would return to their owners because it was all they knew, we will return to our lives in bondage to sin, or our lives of religious rule-following and bondage to the law, and never truly experience the freedom that Jesus offers.

And today, we will wrap up the series with a transformation that is very close to my heart. It is also one that is often overlooked or unnoticed. And that is the transformation of adoption. When we come to Christ, we are no longer orphans. We are no longer his enemies. We are no longer slaves. We are adopted by God and become the children of God.

Adoption is Close to My Heart

As I said, this topic is very close to my heart. In September of last year, we officially legally adopted three amazing kids into our family. And it has been amazing, it has been a struggle at times, but I wouldn’t change anything. What some of you might not know is the journey that got us there.In 2011, Kerri began to discuss the possibility of us becoming a foster family. To be honest, I wasn’t much interested. Life was good. We had three kids already. Why would we need more? So I ignored her as long as I could. I told her I wasn’t for it. And we moved on.

But one morning, in my office here at church, as I was reading and praying, God spoke to me. There have been a few times in my life where I can say without a doubt I heard God speak to me. Not in an audible voice, but in my Spirit, and I know it was God speaking to me as clearly as I know anything else. That morning, God spoke and honestly broke my heart. He said, “Brent, I want you to do this. I want you and Kerri to be foster parents.” I was honestly broken by it. I sat in the office alone, with tears in my eyes, and I texted Kerri, and it said something like this, “I’m in. Let’s become foster parents.”

We did the training. Some of us still more reluctantly than others. And one of the questions they ask you in this process is what type of license you want; a license to foster kids only or a license to foster and adopt. Knowing that I did not want to jump through any other hoops after the first 30 hours of training we had to do, we said, let’s do both. It was as simple as checking a box on a page. It required nothing additional from us. But we thought, what if. What if we get a placement that is unable to return home. If they’ve been with us a while, it would just make sense that we would be able to adopt, should we see the need. So we got the foster and adopt license.

January of 2012 comes around, and we receive our license on January 1, and on January 4, we get the first call to pick up two kids named Lizbeth and Bernardo. We welcomed them into our family.

Many times over that year, the Department of Human Services tried to reunify them with their mom, but because of poor choices in her life and addictions she was unable to overcome, they were unable to go home. Jazmin comes to live with us in the process as well. When DHS knew for sure there wasn’t a possibility for them to return home, they asked the question, are you willing to adopt these kids?

We said yes. After the kids had been with us so long, they were already a part of our family. How could we say no? And so we began the process of adoption. And in a moment we will never forget, as special to us as the day our biological children were born, September 8, 2014, Lizbeth, Benny, and Jazmin became ours officially. Before, they had been a part of our family. But on this day, it was official. It was legal. And I have the paperwork to prove it. Their names were changed. Now they would be known as Lizbeth, Benny, and Jazmin Clark. They were now and forever a part of our family. 

Adopted into God’s Family

In Romans 8, Paul is describing to the churches what it means to be a Christian. He wants them and us to understand what happens in our lives when through faith, we believe in and follow Jesus. In Romans 8, he describes what life in the Spirit is like and how the Spirit changes how we live. As Ryan talked about last week, he begins this section by saying there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are no longer slaves, but we have freedom. No longer under sin or the law but now living by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In this one chapter, we find the culmination of the messages in our transformation series. No longer slaves but free. No longer dead but alive.

And then, in Romans 8:14, Paul brings a new image to the readers. A new picture of what it means to be saved. To be transformed. Look with me at Romans 8:14-17

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:14-17 (NIV)

The Act of Adoption

The Spirit brought about our adoption to sonship. What does this adoption look like? What did Paul have in mind when he uses this term? Well, it didn’t look then like it does today. It was much different.

When we think of adoption today, we think of the story I shared or the family who goes overseas to bring a newborn or an infant into their family. But it happened differently and for different purposes in the first century.

The Jews did not practice the legal act of adoption. If you look at the five times Paul uses the term adoption in the New Testament. It is to places and churches in our right around Roman. Paul most certainly had in mind the Greco-Roman practice when he talked about our adoption. In the first century, adoption was deliberate. Only adult males were adopted. Sorry, ladies. Times were not favorable to you then. And the man was adopted, chosen by the adoptive father, to perpetuate the family name and inherit the estate.

The adopted individual was entirely equal to any natural-born children and had all the rights and privileges of the biological kids, including access to the estate. Adoption was a significant part of Roman society because it protected the family from dying off and ceasing to continue. It provided the one being adopted opportunities they may not have had otherwise.

In the same way, as adoption works today, it was a legal act, a transfer from one family into another. A change in status. A change in relationship.

Francis Lyall, in his book, “Slaves, Citizens, Sons,” writes,

“The profound truth of Roman adoption was that the adoptee was taken out of his previous state and placed in a new relationship of son to his new father … All his old debts were [instantly] canceled, and in effect, the adoptee started a new life as part of his new family … [On the one hand, the new father] owned all the [new offspring’s] property, controlled his personal relationships, and had the rights of discipline. On the other hand, the father was liable for the actions of the adoptee, and each owed the other reciprocal duties of support and maintenance.”

Adoption was truly an important and life-changing event. But we don’t often think of adoption when we think about what Jesus has done for us. 

The Importance of Adoption

Often when we hear salvation talked about, or even when we think about salvation, there are many thoughts or ideas that come to mind. We think of justification, maybe not that exact word, but we think about the fact that because of the death of Jesus, those who follow Jesus are declared righteous by God. Our sin is no longer counted against us, and the righteousness of Christ is placed on us.

We might also think of Redemption. Jesus’ death on the cross paid the price for us. We have been bought with a price, and that price was the life of Christ. We might also think about one of my favorite words, propitiation. Ok, we never think of that word. But we might think of what it means, that even though our sin merited the wrath of God, the work of Christ satisfied the wrath of God and not just satisfied God’s wrath but brought us God’s favor.

We think about our salvation in the negative, as of only having things taken off of us. My sins are taken away. I’m forgiven. And we might even realize that we are no longer slaves to sin. But we often think now I am a slave, a servant to God. And most of the metaphors dealing with salvation talk about what happens for us. But when we repent and put our faith in Jesus, we don’t just have things removed from us, even though that would have been sufficient and amazing. But because of God and his love for us, we have something amazing put on us. And that is sonship.

Adoption

And adoption is what happens to us, something we can experience. If all we think Christ came to do was save us, we would miss one of the most amazing and important aspects. Jesus didn’t just come to redeem. He came to adopt. Not only rescue but to embrace. Not to make us his slaves but to make us his child. Think about that. Let that sink in. Let me repeat it, so you don’t miss it. Jesus didn’t just come to redeem. He came to adopt. Not only rescue but to embrace. Not to make us his slaves but to make us his child.

J.I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, writes,

“Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers. Higher than even justification. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. But adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves.”

Knowing God, 231-32

You see, adoption is so amazing because he didn’t have to do it. He could have saved us. He could have justified us. He could have said, because of what I’ve done for you, serve me. Now you are my servants. But he didn’t. He went the next step of adoption.And is there any greater honor than for someone to say to you, I would like you to be a part of my family? I love you so much. I care about you so deeply that I want you and me to have the closest possible relationship, and that is to be family.

And that is what God says to us. We respond in faith to him, when we believe in him and in Christ, he says, welcome to the family.

What Happens in Adoption

When God adopts us, there is a significant change in our relationship with God. But it doesn’t just end there. There are other privileges that our adoption brings to us.One privilege is sonship. Notice how Paul uses that word. Sonship. In our modern society, we like to make things more gender-neutral. And we would be tempted to change that expression to sonship or daughters. But we need to think about the implications as Paul used this word. First, all of us are elevated to the status of sons in the adoption. Male and female alike are both given a new status of sonship. And before you think I don’t want to be considered a son, remember the first-century context.

Women had no status. None at all. And as Paul talks to all those who follow Jesus, he is telling men and women alike that we can all be elevated to this status of sons. And the same rights and benefits that came simply because you were a son, those now belong to all of us. And because we all have the same status as a son would have, we are set on the same level in the inheritance with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The same glory that Jesus receives, we, too, will receive. The honor that is his is now and is to come is also ours. We aren’t sub-children or even stepchildren. We are full children.

In the same way, the Father will exalt Christ, we will also be exalted. That ought to excite us. Even though we should be much less, not near the same as Jesus, God the Father looks at us and says you are co-heirs with Jesus Christ. And as full children, we can then relate to God as Jesus related to God. We can cry out to him as our Abba, Father. This expression is the same one Jesus used when he cried out in the garden before his arrest and crucifixion. As he prayed, “Abba, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” 

Abba, a term that children would learn to call their Fathers. A term of endearment. But also a term of respect. But ultimately a term of endearment. A term of love. The intimacy Jesus knew, we can also know. We can look and cry out to our Abba, our Papa, our Dad. 

And the word used in our passage for cry is a strong word. To cry out. With passion and feeling. And who wouldn’t cry out when we understand exactly what God has done by adopting us as his sons and daughters.

We are now called the children of God. And as proof of our adoption, we have been given his Spirit. The assurance that nothing will ever change our status as his kids. As children of God. Because just as there was nothing we did to get adopted, there is nothing that can separate us from his love.

We’ve seen the movies where the family goes to the orphanage to pick out a child, and the kids dress themselves well, act as good as they possibly can, all in hopes that they will be chosen. It is not our good deeds that cause God to adopt us. It is what Christ did on the cross that leads to our adoption. 

The Heart of Adoption

Knowing that we have been adopted, that we have been given the most intimate of relationships with God through Jesus should change how we live. Matthew Becker recently shared a sheet that lists some of the differences between orphans and those who realize their adoption as sons and daughters.

Conclusion

In his book Knowing Christ, Alister McGrath writes,

“Adoption is about being wanted. It is about belonging. These are deeply emotive themes, which resonate with the cares and concerns of many in our increasingly fractured society. To be adopted is to be invited into a loving and caring environment. It is about being welcomed, wanted, and invited. Adoption celebrates the privilege of invitation, in which the outsider is welcomed into the fold of faith and love”

And that is what God is saying to those who follow him. You are wanted. You are loved. You are part of my family because adoption is a family idea conceived in love.

Adoption is often overlooked, but can you see why it shouldn’t be. Can you know understand why understanding that we have been transformed from orphans, slaves, and servants to sons of God is so critical? And God did it not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

God desires an intimate, personal relationship with you. And in order to get it, he adopts us into his family. The question is, how will we respond? How do you view yourself? As a servant or as a son or daughter? Because how we think about this will shape every other aspect of our relationship with God. As J.I. Packer said, “Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

Are you living as a servant or as a child of God? Ask yourself this today and this week? And explore the why behind it.

And let’s live as John writes in 1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”