Join us this week as Tyler outlines three stages of adoption (as God’s children), emphasizing redemption through Jesus and what it means to live as a child of God. Watch or listen on our website, Youtube, or your favorite podcast app!
AI Generated Sermon Details
The message explores the theme of adoption as God’s children, starting with a reading from Romans eight. It shares a humorous story to illustrate the human desire to belong and transitions into how everyone is welcomed into God’s family. Tyler outlines three stages of adoption, emphasizing redemption through Jesus and what it means to live as a child of God, concluding with a call to communion reflecting on Jesus’ sacrifice.
Study and Small Group Questions
These questions are designed to encourage reflection and discussion on the sermon’s main themes: the desire to belong, the nature of God’s adoption, and the practical implications of living as a child of God.
The Desire to Belong
- The sermon opens with the story of people gathering to watch a man eat cheeseballs, linking it to FOMO and the desire to belong.
- Can you share a time you felt a strong desire to be part of a group or activity, even if it seemed trivial? What need was that desire trying to meet?
- In what ways do you see people today “rallying together” for a cause, group, or identity in a search for belonging?
The Nature of God’s Adoption
- Tyler contrasted the Roman historical context of adoption (often political and self-serving) with God’s adoption through Christ.
- What does the fact that God chooses the “weakest, most unlovable, dejected sinners” for adoption reveal to you about His character?
- Tyler stated “There’s nothing we can do to earn the Adoption” How does resting in God’s agency—that the adoption is “not based on your performance”—impact your daily life or your feelings of self-worth?
- The concept of Redemption means that God “purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son.”
- What does it mean practically to live under the reality that the price for your sin was already paid by Jesus, and that “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God?”
Living as a Child of God
What is one specific way you can practice “living a life filled with love, following the example of Christ” this week, motivated by gratitude rather than obligation?
Stage 3 is about Living as a Child of God, which involves “putting to death the old self” and Imitation.
The lists included vices to “put to death” (e.g., slander, anger, crude joking) and virtues to embrace (e.g., humility, kindness, patience). Which item from the ‘old self’ list do you find yourself struggling with most right now?