Abba Father: The Heart of Our Adoption
Galatians 4:1–7 reveals the breathtaking shift from slavery to sonship that lies at the centre of the gospel. Paul explains that before Christ, we were “enslaved to the elementary principles of the world,” powerless and spiritually orphaned. But in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to redeem us and bring us into His family, giving us the Spirit who cries “Abba, Father” in our hearts. Derek’s message presses into the intimacy, identity, and rest that flow from knowing God not merely as Creator or King, but as Father. Human fatherhood—whether good, absent, or painful—cannot define Him; He is the perfect Father whose delight rests on His children because of Christ’s finished work. Through Jesus, we are fully accepted, fully restored, and fully embraced. This passage invites us to live not as slaves striving for approval, but as sons and daughters who already belong.
Congratulations. Chapter 4 and we're going to be reading from verses 1 to 7. And the paragraph is entitled, Sons and Heirs. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent his Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir. through God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Derek, we thank you Lord for his willingness to serve you and Lord thank you that he is here to bring a message from your word to us this morning. We just ask Lord that you would use him as an instrument to bring forward the meaning that you have from your word. We ask this in Jesus name, amen. Morning everybody. It's good to be here again. Light coming to the chinchilla for lots of different reasons. And Happy Father's Day to fathers. I am talking about God the Father today, which is kind of linked, but in a lot of ways not. But that's okay, we'll find that out as we go. But it's hard for us to imagine something When Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, what's for us to imagine is that when he started to call God father, that that was like really weird, very different, very strange for those who were there. That wasn't what they were used to. And he's apparently 17 times in the sermon on the mount, he says, father. In fact, he nearly exclusively called God one thing, Father. Father is a very intimate name, isn't it? It's a bit scary, know, even the Jews, they wouldn't even say the word Yahweh, because that was a bit too close, you know. You don't want to get all pally with God because he's so holy, if you know what I mean. How can you relate to God in that way? Now, if I were to speak from a human perspective and we would look to our fathers, then in a room like this, there would be a very wide range of understandings. If we were to go, God is like a father, would there be very different views? And some of you might be going, yeah, yeah, I can see that. And others would be going, gee, I hope he's not. Yeah. Can I just say this upfront? God the Father is nothing like a human father. Even the good ones. Some human fathers in a small way are a little bit like God the Father. But it's not that way. God is the perfect father. Now, some people would say also in this modern age, well, it's a bit abusive to say, because you know there's people who've been had a hard time from their fathers. It's abusive to call God father, you should, you know, tone that down a bit. Some people even say call him mother, which is very weird anyway, but that's beside the point. I was confronted with this years ago, we had a youth group in Adelaide and there was a particular girl, her name was Elise in our group and her dad left when she was one year old. He was an alcoholic, just abandoned daughter and mother. And we actually went on a Christian camp and one of the messages at one of the night rallies was on the fatherhood of God and I was thinking, How's she gonna go with this? How's she gonna go? You know, it's gonna be upsetting for her. And at the end of the night, I talked to her and she said, oh, it's just so great. I've never had a dad, my dad abandoned me and now I've found out God is my father. How good is that? And he's perfect. Funny, isn't it? We sometimes get worried about things which may not be anything. I got four points. To know God as Father, as Father is the centre of our need. Second, the problem of human fatherhood. Thirdly, Jesus restored us to Abba Father. And fourthly, there is a rest which comes from knowing God as Father. To know God as Father actually is incredibly close to our hearts and our identity. It's a very modern thing to say, who am I really? And, you know, ask all those questions. You know, to know God as Father is to know where we belong in this world. Sometimes people say, you've got a God-shaped hole in your heart, you know, that sort of God-shaped thing. I'd say this, actually you have a Father-shaped hole. long to know a Father, because to know Him as Father is to know Him as His true nature. If God is a God who's powerful, which He is, that's true, but if we just speak to Him as God, then we're kind of addressing His power, but not that intimacy. We may be addressing even His holiness, but with a little bit kind of, well, we don't want to get too close to someone so powerful. But you know, the word father is quite different than just Lord, although he's Lord. if we just always Lord, then what are we? Servants. He just has authority. Whereas father carries both a great power and a seriousness and a holiness, but also an intimacy and a closeness, doesn't it? They are intermingled in the same word. In Genesis chapter two, when you go right back to the start, and I will be going back to the start a bit today, you'll find that it addresses God. Now, it was written by Moses, and Moses was introduced to God as Yahweh, wasn't he? And it says, Yahweh, God, you know the word Lord, when it's in all capitals in our Bible, that's the word Yahweh. And that's how it addresses Yahweh God breathed breath into the man and Yahweh God, it's his intimate name. He did this, he did that. And then it starts at chapter three and it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, did God really say? See what he's done there? In his deceit, immediately, he has to separate that intimacy and he just says, God, the powerful, you know, one who's just telling you to do stuff and being over you, not the intimate one who is close to you, who walks with you in the cool of the evening. Can you see that difference? If we only know God in that distance powerful sense, we've actually missed the of God's relationship with us and what he's made us for? To be his children, yeah? Or just to be his servants, his minions. Do you get the difference? When Adam and Eve then sinned, what did they do? They ran and hid. I guess they were hoping that God might just wander on past them, let them go, give up on them. That would be easier than facing him. But he didn't, did he? He chased them down. He kept, no, come out and he dealt with them in holiness and in love as a father. We will not be fulfilled in our life if we just think it's about, we've got to find our identity and our purpose. We will only have true, we will only truly know ourselves and have what we long for when we know him as our father so we know who we are as his sons and daughters. Does that make sense? Big point here. He is not just creator and king, but he's all of that. But he is our father. And Jesus describes himself as the son of God, because that's what he is. Now, when you notice this, we are not simply, sometimes you can think of the church as kind of an evangelism factory or something. What's the whole point of the church? Get more people in, get more offering in, pay the pastor, that's good. Yeah. It's all about keeping the business going, keeping it afloat. you know, same sort of thing that you might do in a service club or something like that. Or is actually the heart of the church the family of God to know Him? Do get what I'm saying? When Jesus was baptised, do you know how much he'd done, how much ministry he'd done when he was baptised? Well, none yet. And do know what the Father said? This is my Son in whom I delight. I'm well pleased with. Do get what I'm saying? He says it again at the transfiguration. I think it's a word we long to hear. Do you long to hear that? This is my dear son, this is my dear daughter in whom I delight. I just love them, not based on what they've done, not based on how many evangelism things you've done this week. Nothing wrong with evangelism, not saying that. But you see, at the heart of what God is, is he is a father who delights in his children and we long to be delighted in to hear those words. If we long to hear them from an earthly father, we had an experience in a previous church where a young couple with huge problems came and they lived with us for a while and eventually after some period of time and a few trips to the police station and everything else, we got, we married them. And this girl, she had alcoholism and a whole lot of issues, but she longed to hear this from her dad. Her dad was, you know those perfectionist dads? Those ones get it all right, high standards, they live out their dreams for their children, that sort of thing. Well, she had one of those. She said, our house, when I was brought up, was a museum. That's what she described it as. Don't touch, don't make a mess, everything perfect, no love. She said, I just long to hear that word from my dad, I'm proud of you. And he had in some sort of way communicated to her that if she got to that point where she got married, he would say that to her. And that's exactly what he did in his speech. He said, I'm proud of you. I have to say it, I'm proud of you. With all that love, I'm proud of you. heard that word and you know what she did? She went completely off the rails because it did not satisfy. How can it? That's not what we long for. We long for that word from the Father who truly delights in us and we know He delights in us and we know that that's what we've made for. Can you understand what I'm saying? To know the Father as Father is our deepest need. Jesus lived as the pure Son of God and his greatest pleasure was to know the Father. I delight to do the Father's will. He's not like, oh, gotta toe the line, have to do what I'm told again. I delight to do the Father's will. I love the Father and the Father's constantly sharing him with his love and affirmations. Don't we long to hear that from God? Through Jesus Christ you can. We'll get to that in a minute. But this is, understand, God is Father, He is the perfect Father and He is the one we long for. You will never know really who you are or have the joy of being truly human until you know Him as Father. In Ephesians 3, 14, Paul prays, he says, this reason I bow before, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. It says every family, it's almost every fatherhood, every familyhood, it's the same sort of word. In other words, we get our name from him. But as you know, if you know the name of God, you know the character of God. We get our character and our whole identity, everybody does. from Him. He is the fountain of fatherhood. It is not a figurative thing. He is really our Father. He is the one true Father and every family gets its family-ness from Him, if that was a word. And we long, again I'll say it once more, to hear that word of affirmation from the one true Father. I delight in you. The problem of human fatherhood, point two. Now I've got two daughters here, so if I were to say I've done a great job, they'd be the first to put up their hands. Excuse me. I want to say this, the best father in the world falls so far short of God the Father that they are very, close to the worst father in the world. If God is here, Here is the best father and here's the worst father. Do you understand? The problem with human fatherhood is that we do not, we fall short of the glory of God, of the nature of God. Jesus said this in Luke 11, what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent? None of you will, most you aren't, you know. Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. He then said this, and this is like, this is that, I think young people would say, burn. This is the burn. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So you fathers, you actually do, you take a bit of responsibility and you do a few good things, though you're evil. That's a bit harsh, isn't it? But how much better is God who gives the Holy Spirit to those who love him? Who are his, I mean. If we talk to the average group, we would hear, as I said, a lot of different stories. Some dads, they would say, we would say a good, some a demanding, angry, distant, abusive, violent, whatever. Sometimes, I just didn't know him. If we were to take the average of all that and say, that's what God's like, yeah, wow, we've got something to look forward to in heaven, haven't we? Yeah? It sounds more horrific. Actually, what I'm saying is we don't look to human fatherhood to understand who God is, because we will be mixed up. Our attempts, and I'm not saying that we all attempt to be good fathers, don't we? We want to be good fathers to our children. But God alone is the fountain of all fatherhood. And what we constantly need to do is represent God the Father to our children. But we point to Him and not to ourselves. If we think that we are to make our children perfect by being that perfect and having very high standards, then you know what often happens to those children, don't you? They often break, like they go off the rails suddenly because they can't come up to that standard, they can't do it. And if we were to say, that's what God's like, well, you know what we're gonna end up being? Pharisees. Lots and lots of laws, get all the laws right. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully God will accept me. Please let him accept me. I really, you understand? And then when we never feel we've got there, we just break out in anger. There are many ways that we fall short of the glory of God. In other words, as fathers, we leave our children with what we conveniently call baggage, although you're evil. We fall short. But you see, That causes us then, there's this psychology of being a person that we end up, you know, then we can blame our parents for all our problems. Whether it's the genetics or the way that they're brought up, you know, the people who do that. Because basically, we can twist this world to say, every one of us is a victim, aren't we all victims? I know I did wrong, but that was because I know, You understand that? We're all victims. No, we're all guilty of our sin. We've got to own it. In fact, we will never get anywhere in this world unless we own up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got genetics. That's why I've got no hair. Thanks, mum and dad. Yeah. But, no, that's bad example. We pick up bad habits, actually a lot more than that. We are trained, beginning with our father, Adam. And from him began sin and that has been bred into us ever since. Not that we want to just blame Adam because let's face it, the only person who can shake their fist and say, Adam, you messed up my life, is the person who hasn't sinned. But we all joined him, didn't we? If we were there, we would have gone, You go Adam, I'm with you. Yep, I would have run forward and grabbed that fruit from Eve's hand. Yep. No, the sin is our problem. So firstly, what we've got. To know the Father is the sin of our needs, the problem of human fatherhood is that we mess it up. Jesus restores us, says point three, to Abba Father. Can we be restored to God who is perfectly holy? Can we get to that point where we can hear and believe that word, in you I delight, my own dear son or daughter. Can we get there? Does he demand us to be sinless? Yes. That's a bit of a downer, wasn't it? Anybody here without sin? Okay, so we can't truly know. Jesus actually said, be holy as your Father is holy. Or in Matthew, he reports as, therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. There's the standard. Everybody falls short. I think we should give up being a church if that's all there is. You understand? Here is the perfect God and we all fall short and we're all finished. It's not just that we fall a little bit short, you know, I've got my problems, but I'm pretty good. Or God knows my heart, it's basically good, yeah. Yep. We've fallen short of the glory of God. We are dead in our sins. That when it says, it's Hebrew, sorry, Ephesians two. When he says we are dead in our sins, you know, I know I've said this before here, but when we were coming down from Mandabra, we see on the side of the road a dead kangaroo. You know what dead kangaroos are good at? Stinking and feeding crows, I guess. But if I were to get out, Stop the car, get out in that dead kangaroo. Come on, come on fella, get up. Pull yourself together. You can do it. You've got everything it takes to hop off that road. You know what it'll do? It'll lay there and stink, because that's what dead kangaroos do. When Paul says you are dead in your sin, what he's saying is you are actually not at a place where you can pick yourself up and pull yourself together. You are helpless and hopeless. There is nothing you can do to change your situation. That's a bit of a burn like Jesus said, you who are evil. We fall short of the glory of God. And sometimes even as proud Christians, and we do get a lot of pride, we sometimes start thinking, I think I'm starting to get a bit better. You know what I mean? And that's always when, you know, I love it when people say, well, I'm pretty good. I'm not a murderer or a rapist. It's like, wow, you've set the standard pretty high there. Not murdering and not raping. That makes you a good person, does it? You know what I'm saying? You know what the great commandment that Jesus said was? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Anybody here doing that? That's lifted the... With every ounce of all my strength, I love the Lord my God. Wow. Do you see what the standard... Most of the sins we do are what we don't do. Love our neighbours as ourselves. And then Jesus goes on and tells us that those neighbours are basically anyone we come across. How good are we at that? Anyway, I don't need to convince you of your sin. But... we fall short of the glory of God, we all do. Which means we need His grace. Undoubtedly, grace is, I think, the most offensive doctrine in the Bible. I've been for years, right? I'm talking too long. tell you. I take a Bible study. You talk about a study and you talk about the love of God and people go, yeah, yeah, it's good study. Or you talk about the judgments of God. Yeah, that's really interesting. You talk about grace and they'll go, yeah, but it doesn't mean, and it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean that it's all God and you can't do anything, right? It doesn't mean grace. Grace doesn't mean grace. Grace means works, right? Do you get what I'm saying? Imagine saying, well, God loves you. Yeah, but he also hates you. No one says that. God is God of grace who you were absolutely helpless and could not do anything and he sent his son to do totally what you could not do. Well, we're not that bad, are we? Grace says this, you are completely helpless and hopeless like a kangaroo dead on the side of the road. There is nothing you can do to change your situation. And Jesus has done something on that cross where he took all of your sin and he bore, you know how bad that sin was? The very perfect, precious son of God had to die. That's how bad my sin was. Even if it was just my sin, he would have died the same horrific death. And on that cross, as he hung there, he said these words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you know that's the one time that Jesus, when he directly talks to God, doesn't say, Father? My God, my God. Because there, he was forsaken, abandoned, lonely, rejected. fatherless. Why? Because he was bearing what we deserved. He was bearing our sin. Everything we'd done deserved that complete rejection by the Holy God. But he took it. so that we would no longer need to bear it. He took it to give us this wonderful gift, forgiveness, restoration, newness of life. But he didn't just say, you're full of sin, I've got to take away your sins. There's a so that. We have our sins taken away so that we can be reconciled with the Father, brought back into the relationship. It's not just that he wanted holy people, he wanted sons and daughters. Can you get that? People restored to Him. Now, if Jesus did that and the Son of God actually died for you, how restored are you? Well, obviously you've got to work a bit harder and then you'll be restored to God, right? No, no, was, that's bad sarcasm. You cannot work any harder to get restored to God. You are restored to God through the gift of God in Jesus Christ only, but He has done it. completely. So when he said just after that, it is finished, it meant that all of the threat of judgment and separation and loneliness and forsakenness is taken once and for all. Forever. To restore you to the Father. Can you get that? What more do you need to do apart from repent and have faith in Jesus Christ? What more do you need to do? The answer is nothing. You have complete Acceptance. God looks at you and delights in you because he sees you in Christ. And you'll go, yeah, but what about when I sin? Then he goes, well, in that case, I'm now divorced you as a child, you've sinned again, I'm off. Bye, I'm leaving you. No, that's naturally how we think. It's called works righteousness. What we do is we think, well, I've sinned, but I'll make it up to him. Yep, suck up to God. Try and do good. Do you know that, that make us, just say your child, if you are a father or a mother, does something wrong against you. Yeah? So then you go, well I'm not your dad anymore. I'm not your mum anymore. I don't think he says that, do they? When God adopts you into his family, you're in his family. You are his. because we spend so much of our time trying to... Make ourselves right with God, trying to get there. What sort of life would we live if we knew that through Jesus we are already there? How good would that be? Do you think that would give us some peace? you think that would give us some, hey, we might even evangelize with a bit of joy. We might even love one another as we should. But what we don't wanna be is get too excited as Christians, do we? Don't do that. I wanted to quickly address this Bible verse that I was supposed to preach on today, but I got carried away beforehand. And that is... He said this in Galatians 4 verse 3, so also when we were children, were in slavery under the basic principles of the forces of this world. We were enslaved to the ways of the devil and the ways of the world and the ways of our sinful nature. We were dead in our sins, that's what he says. We were not able to free ourselves. But when the time, when the set time had fully come, in other words, when God's time came, God sent his son, born of a woman. But born of a woman is this expression where actually it made us think back to this promise God made to, well was actually to the snake in the garden in Genesis 3. said, will put enmity between you, snake, and the woman, and between your offspring, except for that offspring word there is singular. One offspring. I will put enmity between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." In other words, he's saying to Eve, a singular offspring is gonna come from you who is gonna crush Satan's head. Yep. That's why actually really funny thing happens when Cain's born, because Eve's thinking about this. And she says, our Bibles will say, God has sent... God has given me with the help of God, I've brought forth a man. But actually the Bible, the Hebrew says, God has brought forth the man. She's like, we messed it up, but hopefully this is the one who's gonna do it. Unfortunately, Cain didn't turn out to be that crash hot. But later at the right time in God's perfect timing, he sent forth the one who would crush the Satan's head. John tells us the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's works. Did he do it? He did. How? How much? Did he just sort of average do it and then we got to pick up the pieces and do the rest? He destroyed the devil's work. What does that mean? He destroyed the sin that had its influence over us and made us slaves. Jesus said, anyone who sins is a slave to sin, he has destroyed that work over us by taking our sins and restoring us to be children of God so that he goes on to say, because you are sons, God sent his spirit, now you might be, if you're a lady here and you're going, well, I'm not a son, which is fair enough. But the word son there, why is it important? Because it means the heirs, the inheritors. often people, who gets the farm? The son, often that's the way people do things. Well, in God's plans, both men and women are heirs, inheritors, the ones who inherit the name of God. the character of God, our cold children of God. and they cry out, he says, Abba, father. Now the word Abba is another language and the Greek is an Aramaic one, but it's still a word used around in the Middle Eastern areas today. And it is, as Matt described it a little bit like, it is the cry, not so much of a teenager or something calling dad, but more like a two year old, Abba, is what that child cries out. as they run to the father, maybe they're unsafe or something. And what does the father do? You know what he does. He picks them up, yep, and he holds them to himself. How do we come to God? Abba, Father, dearest Father. We come to Him and how does He react to us? Through Jesus Christ. I delight in you. He's adopted us. So, Paul says, you are no longer a slave, but God's child, since you're his child, God has made you also an heir. How awesome is this? He has restored us to communion with the Holy God. We search for a lot of things in this world. We search for peace and satisfaction and fulfillment. Do you know it's found in knowing God as Father and running to Him and knowing that through Jesus, He picks us up and He holds us to Himself and that that is more than just a temporary thing. We will sit at the Father's table at a feast. When the new heavens and the new earth come. Father at the head of the table. and the sun. When we know this, we can have something wonderful every day of our life. It's called rest. Rest is not doing nothing. Rest is that deep peace that we can know when we're in the Father's arms. We know this passage well, right? You know this one. It says, come to me, Jesus said, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon... We long for that rest, right? That's in Matthew 11, verse 28. But do know what it says immediately before that? What is he leading up to? Where do we find this rest? He says, this time Jesus declared, this is verse 25, and reveal them to the little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those whom the Son chooses to reveal him to. Can you get that? So he says, The Father, sorry, the Son chooses to reveal the Father to us and then He says this, come to me you who are. Come to you all who laver and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Where will we find rest? When we know we've been restored to the Father. When you know that, it does not matter what happens in your life because we suffer, we have hardships, we have good days, we have bad days. You know what life is like? But at that moment, you can go, but I know the Father and I know His love for me will never be taken away. Yep. And then as the church gathers, as people, it is not... You know when Adam and Eve were first in the garden, right? God didn't say, right, He said, now I want you to take Eden out to the world. Here's the garden of Eden, take it out to the world, expand it. And then He says, and I expect two acres a day from each of you, and I'm going to come and have a look, and if it's not been done right, you're going to have to do it again. I'm being funny there, but it's not that... What did God actually want? They were working with him and then in the cool of the evening he walked with them. Do ever think that that's what it might have been about? Walking with God in the cool of the evening. So now as a church, set some KPIs, whatever they are, but I've heard of them and I know that you've got to do stuff to do them. That's not what he does. He wants his children to gather together in love for one another, to enjoy one another as you enjoy him as father. And then, hey, you might find the church grows anyway, because it loves love. You know, this is how my disciples will be known, you love one another. The rest we have with the Father is as we walk with him in the cool of the evening. That's what we're made for, to enjoy him as Father. Can you see the difference if you come to God in prayer and you say, God. Or you say to Him, Father. Because that's what Jesus said when you pray. Pray like this, Father. He wanted us to know Him in the depths of this relationship. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that by your Holy Spirit, you cry out in the depths of our being, Father. And we admit we've looked a lot of places in this world to be fulfilled. We've looked to lots of idols, replacement fathers, things that we thought would bring us pleasure. Father, all we did was sin against you again. But we hear this promise that we can be called children of God because of your great love as our Father and because you sent your Son. Father, I pray that you would renew in us a hunger for intimacy with you all the time, knowing that you're holy and perfect. I pray that you'll restore to us the knowledge of the full forgiveness of sins and reconciliation through your son that we might know you. And I pray, Father, that as we are frightened, we would run to you crying, Abba, Father, but also as we've sinned, we would do the same, knowing that your arms are open to us at all times. that your love is sure and that because of Jesus you will never leave us and never forsake us. Father, put this knowledge deep in our hearts by your Spirit that we might live in the rest that you call us to through your son Jesus. In his name we pray, amen. It's natural in our lives that we just think we've got to make it up all the time, don't we? We've to make it up to people. You do something wrong, you've got to make it up. Yep. Do know why Jesus told us as we come to communion to do this again and again? because he done it. once and for all. I just want to say this again, can you believe it that truly everything has been done to reconcile you to the Father permanently? You don't have to struggle and work and try and be perfect and hide sin, self-justify all the time. You don't have to do that because you see, he said, my blood has taken away your sins. My death has done it once and for all. Can you believe that? Like really? because that would be awesome. And then you could repent and just say, I've tried a of stupid ways, but they're nothing. I've tried to live my own way, it's nothing. I trust you Jesus for everything. If we could live in that, how awesome would that be? Really? Would it be life changing? in one Corinthians. This is 1 Corinthians 10, 14. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. Flee from anything you would replace God with. I speak to a sensible people. You're a sensible people. If you trust in Jesus, you've got the Holy Spirit. I've got something to speak to you, and I call to the Spirit within you. I speak to a sensible people. Judge for yourself what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ. The word participation there is actually the Greek word koinonia, which we might know it means fellowship. You have a fellowship in the blood of Christ as you eat, as you drink. And is not the bread we break a participation or a fellowship in the body of Christ as we join together with him? We participate. We're not just spectators, yeah? When we come to communion, Jesus is not saying, have a look at it and just watch, he's saying, You're part of this, you're in the fellowship of this, you're in the fellowship of believers. There is one life and lots of little bits and when you put it all together you get the whole body. And there is one great forgiveness of sins that he has poured on you and it has been done once and for all. Remember that. Join in the fellowship of it and be part of it because you are. And remember it again and again. Hey, in the Church of Christ you do it every week, how cool is that? as often as you may. That's pretty cool, isn't it? Remember it and remember it and remember it. You are mine. It is finished. It is done and I delight in you. I've repeated myself enough. But really want you to know. be awesome. As we do go into this, we're going to have a prayer of confession, but I'd like you today, just to do something different, to confess up all the times that you haven't believed it, and you tried to do it yourself. In other words, don't just confess up, I've done this sin, I've stolen, I've lied, I've blah blah blah. I haven't trusted in you like I should. I confess I've done works of righteousness thinking that I would make it right with you. Confess them up too, because they are a big problem. So we'll just have a quiet time of confession and I'll finish off. Let's pray. Father, we confess, there's been so many times that we have not believed that what you've done through your son has been enough. We've thought that our goodness might make up for some of our sin. We believe that we weren't so bad that Jesus needed to die for us. where we've walked trusting in ourselves and not trusting in you. Father, we're sorry. for setting up all sorts of idols, especially ourselves. All we can do as people who have been dead in our sins is to look up to you and see the one who brings life out of death, who brings new life, who brings us back to life. Father, we thank you so much for Jesus and that what he has done is more than enough. It is everything we could ever hope or dream for. I pray that today as we eat and as we drink of this meal that you told us to do that we would remember. all that Jesus did for us once and for all, that we would be set free to call you Father and know that you've restored us completely through your wonderful Son. And I pray this in Jesus' Amen.