We're gonna turn in our Bibles to Galatians 3 tonight. Galatians 3. You can turn in your Bibles to Galatians 3. I don't know if you're like me, but I really have this value of keeping a pen, a writing utensil in my pocket every single day at all times.
I don't know if some of you guys are pocket knife people, where my pocket knife guys, and how, yep. I am envious of all of you pocket knife people that just have so much access to convenience at any moment. But I'm always carrying a pen with me. And do you know what has been unfortunate throughout the years is when you forget to take the pen out of the pocket and then the laundry happens?
So many ruined pants, articles of clothing. And ink is not a respecter of persons. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it doesn't care.
It doesn't care if it's your dress clothes or your casual clothes, your pajama. It just doesn't care. It's gonna get on everything. Ink bleeds into everything.
And ink, as it bleeds into everything, it's just like identity. Identity bleeds into everything. Identity bleeds into everything. Some of us are growth mindset people.
You're going, I'm an entrepreneur. I wanna learn how to grow as an entrepreneur. I'm a leader. I wanna grow as a leader.
I'm a parent. I wanna grow as a parent. And I'm a person and I wanna have my body be healthy. And I wanna grow in that way.
And we spend most of our days listening to podcasts. It's like, I'm gonna listen to leadership podcasts, entrepreneur, the investing podcast, the parenting. That if you would just grow in your identity, you're gonna level up in every area. If you grow in your identity, you are gonna, like some of you are gamers, your XP is gonna go through the roof.
Let's go. James here's, James, yeah? Let's go. Your XP is gonna expand.
You're gonna level up in every area of your life if you learn who you are. If you learn your God-given identity, do you know that if you learn about your identity as son, that you're gonna be a better manager? You're gonna be a better father, a better mother, a better spouse? You're gonna be a better entrepreneur.
You're gonna be a better nurse, a better teacher. Identity and understanding identity is actually going to level up everything in your life. And so what I wanna do is I wanna talk about just that. Our identity as sons.
Our royal identity as sons so that we can just level up and that we can grow as the people of God because identity just bleeds into every area and everything. And one of my favorite teachers, he always says, creation knows who you are. Creation is groaning for the sons of God to be revealed. Creation knows who you are.
Satan and demons and angels know who you are. God the Father knows who you are. Do you know who you are? Do you know your identity?
Do you know what Jesus purchased for you? And as we look at the scriptures, God has made it very clear that he wants us to know who we are. And he's made, he's paved the way for us to know how we can relate with him. So that we learn who we are.
He says, I'm a bridegroom, you're a bride. I want you to know who you are that you're a bride. And this is how you can relate with me. I'm a father, your sons.
I want you to know how you can relate with me. And that's gonna discover who you are. I'm the priest and I'm the friend. And you get to be a priest and you get to be a friend.
And you get to be friends of God. You get to be priests of God. And now you get to know how you can relate with me. And you're gonna discover who you are.
And God is trying to break it down as much as possible so we can actually get it. So we can get an understanding of how much access we have in relationship to him. I believe sons identities are defined by three things. If you wanna write these things down.
Sons identities are defined by these three things. Who their father is, what the father thinks and feels about them and who the father says they are. Who their father is, how many of you guys know in the Bible that when a person's, they don't have last names in the Bible, it's just like for me, it'd be Josh, son of James, right? Apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.
And they know that because your identity is shaped generationally by your parents and by your father. And so Josh, son of James, your identity is so shaped by who your father is. That's why when Jesus comes into Nazareth, they're like, wait, who's this guy? Isn't he Joseph's son, right?
And so they don't have faith when Jesus walks in, cause they're like, we know Joseph, that means that you're gonna be like Joseph. And they're not aware of who his father really is, right? And so who their father is, sons identity are defined by who their father is, what their father thinks and feels about them and who the father says they are. Sons identity is shaped by the father.
And most of this happens through being associated close to the father. So if you've ever seen those pictures of kids where, it's like the mom is doing the makeup and then the daughter that's like three years old is like trying to do makeup, right next to the mom, right? And there's these mirroring things that happen with kids. They're mirroring their parents.
And that's our destiny in God, that we are to mirror the father, that we are to look like our dad, that our lifestyle, we are to be imitators of God. How many of you guys remember Jesus? And he, one of the defining elements of his ministry is what he says and this is what Karen was modeling. I do only what I see the father doing.
So literally sons of God that following the footsteps of the father, what they do is they just copy cat, God the father, that's what sons do. They just copy their dad. And that's what your destiny is. So your destiny is actually to represent God and copy cat God.
Whatever God does, he wants you to do. He wants you to carry all of his heart, all of what he does, that's why Jesus is going, you're gonna do greater things than me. You're gonna actually, but here's the deal. We can do greater things and we can do signs and wonders, but if we don't understand identity, we're gonna fall into performance.
And performance is the ditch. Performance is the ditch. I'm gonna talk about that more. But what we discover is that that key for identity starts with knowing who your father is.
And what I wanna do is I just wanna to read out some of the identity statements about God as father, so that we can just have that as the starting point. Remember, Katie talked about that. If you wanna become a friend of God, you need to first start with how God is our friend. And then you begin to understand how you can operate as a friend, right?
And so Psalm 68 says this, he's the father of the fatherless. Malachi 210, he's the father that created. Psalm 103, he's the father of compassion. Ephesians one, he's the father who hands out blessings.
James one, he's the father that gives good gifts. How many of you are love languages gifts, right? You're like, I love me some gifts. None of you are love language gifts.
There we go. All right. He's the father that gives good gifts. John three, he's the father that loves.
Matthew six, he's the father that provides. Luke 12, he's the father that delights in giving us the kingdom. Matthew 10, he's the father who knows the number of hairs on our head. He's the father who's detail oriented, right?
Saint Corinthians one, he's the father of mercy. Proverbs three, 11 through 12, he's the father that disciplines his kids. John 14, he's the father that helps by giving us the helper Holy Spirit. Romans eight, he's the father of adoption.
This is the father that in the beginning was with Adam. And Adam had not yet become a living being, and he leans over Adam. Many of us have heard this so many times. But the father leans over Adam and breathes the spirit into Adam.
And Adam becomes a living being and he wakes up. He has his first breath, right? And Adam's first person that he sees, the first thing that he sees is the face of his father. Father God, right?
It's like face to face because it says that God breathed into his nose. And so they're very close. And it's like, have you ever had somebody be really close that you go across? I just wonder if there's a moment there.
I don't think that happened. Okay, but I'm sure the father gave him a little bit of space. But the first thing that they're seeing is each other's faces, right? So the son is seeing the father.
And I believe that is a picture of what Jesus experienced at his baptism. I believe that these two storylines mirror each other because the father breathes in the spirit of God into Adam. And what happens when the father rips open the heavens when Jesus gets baptized? What happens?
The spirit of God descends and rests on Jesus, right? And then what does the father say? The father says, this is my loved son. And I really like him.
That's what it says. This is my beloved son who I'm well pleased with. In other words, I really have affection for him. I really enjoy him.
I really take pleasure and I like him a ton. And so God communicates that pleasure. And I believe that's the second time that God ever said that. I believe the first time was in the garden.
When Adam opens his eyes, and I believe it's the first thing that came out of the father's mouth, you Adam are my beloved son, and I like you. I just believe, it doesn't say that in the word, but I just have a hunch that because he's the author and he's such a good story, I bet he did it. I bet that was the father because he's trying to impart sonship, this is what it means to be a son. This is what it means to be a human, a man, to know my love.
This is eternal life, to know me. And this is me. I am the God of love. I want to introduce you to myself.
I love you. First things that he says, and then what happens is Jesus rises out of the water and he goes into the wilderness. And then there's a temptation. And the temptation is an all-out assault on the son-father relationship.
That is what the temptation of Satan is, is an accusation and an assault on the father and his identity and the son and his identity, and how they relate with each other. And that's what's happening in the garden. And it's also happening with Jesus in the wilderness. Because look at what happens, the father, what are the marks of a father?
A father provides, a father protects, and a father promotes. Look at what Satan says. He says, hey, turn these stones into bread, right? Provide for yourself.
And Jesus is going, I have food from my father, right? Jesus is going, I don't need to do that, because my father is my provider. This is what he has said. And then the next temptation is throw yourself down from the temple mound.
And the reason why is so that everyone can see you, get saved by angels, and then they'll know that you're anointed. They'll know, and they'll follow you and respect you, right? Because Jesus for the last 30 years has been in the wilderness, not seen by anybody, thinking that he's just Joseph's son, right? So Jesus has lived and been not seen.
And all of a sudden, Satan's like, hey, you want the fast track? I'll promote you if you would just have angels protect you. And Jesus is going, I know my father is a protector, and I know that he's gonna promote me. I don't have to entrust myself to you for promotion and protection.
And then the last temptation is this lie around. This is actually mind blowing me. As we were singing, Jose, and I was thinking about this. This is wild.
Satan puts in front of Jesus this temptation of you're gonna get back the dominion that Adam lost. So Adam was called to have dominion over the entire earth. Well, he hands over that dominion to Satan. So then Satan is the God of this heir, and the God of the kingdoms of this world, right?
So that's no longer a man's role because man handed over that authority. And so Satan actually has the authority to say, you can have all of the kingdoms of the world be under your rule. I'll hand it to you if you just worship me. You see that?
Literally, there's been demonic worship for thousands of years unto Satan from all tribes and tongues and people groups other than Israel. So literally there's been a worship, pagan worship movement for thousands of years, unto demonic powers and principalities. And that's what Satan has been living and ruling with. That's crazy.
And he's going, I will give you all of these kingdoms, and they will worship you. All you have to do is worship me. And you don't have to go through all the suffering, all of the misunderstanding, all of the betrayal, all of the Pharisees and Sadducees being, you know, like conniving and slandering you. You don't have to go through the whole cross thing.
You don't have to do any of that, buddy. And Jesus is going, I know, I know that my father loves me more than I love me. And I'm going to trust myself to him. And I'm going to do it his way rather than what I feel.
Not my will, but yours be done in that moment, right? I'm going to worship him only. I trust him only. Jesus is on the Mount of Olives.
And he sits on a donkey on Palm Sunday. And he rides in and everybody's saying, save us. That's what I was saying. But salvation, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
In other words, this is our coming king. And Jesus is riding into Jerusalem. And it could be his time, right? It could be his time that he could actually take the bait and actually take the kingdom and take all of the kingdoms of the earth in that moment and have the dominion that Satan tempted him with at the beginning of his ministry.
He could have taken that as he's getting promoted by man. But instead he entrusts himself to his father and says, a little bit later, he says, this is John 13. This is so unbelievable to me. John 13 says, the son knew that the father had given him all things, knew where he had come from, and knew where he was going.
And because of that, instead of saying, my time has come. Now I'm going to be the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Do you know what he did when his time had come? He bent down as the son and started washing feet when his time had come.
That is wild to me. That is wild because when I'm thinking your time has come and when the disciples are thinking your time has come, that means that you're going to rule and reign over the nations of the earth. And the Lord's going, no, no, no, no, you don't understand sonship yet. Sonship, when you know who you are, it produces serving in you.
Sons serve because they know who they are. Slaves serve to get acceptance, to get approval. They serve, but it's got a different type of motive because they're in need and they're looking for love. So they serve, but there's also a handout.
Like, okay, I'm serving, but I'm putting my handout right after I serve, right? Jesus comes up out of the water. I'm going to move forward quickly now, but Jesus comes up out of the water and he goes into the wilderness. And what I believe him going into the wilderness and having the Father say, this is my beloved son who I'm well pleased with, I believe Jesus knew in that moment, that's my calling.
My calling is what the Father just said to me. And my calling is to multiply that moment a billion times over. My calling is for every single person on the earth to know Father in heaven loves you and he likes you. And so Jesus comes and he goes, look at John 17.
I want you to turn to John 17. I know we're going to get to Galatians, John 17. This is a passage that we've probably read so many different times. John 17, the second part of verse 23, it says this, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.
So Jesus, it's literally the night of his betrayal. He's going to go to the cross in the morning. He's going to go to the cross in the morning. And the last thing that he's thinking about before the betrayal is what he had at his baptism.
He's going, I want them to know my love. I want them to know your love, Father, that they would know that you love them in the same way that you love me. You literally ripped open the sky to show your love for me. And he's going, I want them to know it.
That's why I'm going to go to the cross. I want them to know my love. And then I want them to actually understand your delight. The same delight that we've had in eternity past, I want them to get brought into it.
And some of us are going, man, I've heard this before. I know God loves me. And listen, if that's you, because maybe you're getting bored, because it's like, oh, now he's talking about, look, God loves us. I want to encourage you.
You don't know. You don't get it. You think you get it, and you don't get it. You think that you've tasted it.
You think that you've touched it. And listen, you haven't. If you think you have, then you for sure haven't. OK?
It's funny, but I'm serious. If you think you've touched the love of God, you probably haven't yet. Because it is so expansive, and so deep, and wide, and long, and rich, that you're just in the baby pool. What is that called?
That kiddie pool. You're in the kiddie pool of the love of God, and the Lord's going, there's a whole ocean. There's a whole ocean of love, and you're just like touching the edge of it. God wants to reveal that to us.
Galatians 3, we'll go back to Galatians 3. If I was to ask my kids, how do you be a son? Do you know what they'd say? I have no idea.
They literally say, I don't know how to be a daughter. I don't know how to be a son, because it's just who they are. And so how do you become a son, or how do you have the mentality of a son of God? And I do want to just cite to ancient.
I'm saying sons, and some of you are daughters. And I'm saying sons specifically, because sons always got the inheritance. And so if you are a daughter, and in Galatians, we'll just read it. But it's no Jew, no Greek, male, female.
You're all in one, and you all get the inheritance. You all get to be sons of God. You get the inheritance, whether you're male or female. But that's why I'm saying sons.
Remember, we talked about bride, and it's like, man, you've got to come halfway. You're like, the bride of Christ, and ladies are going to be sons. But if I said, if I said my kids, hey, how do you be a son? They'd be like, I don't know.
Because they learned it subconsciously over years and thousands of interactions with the dad. They're a son and they're a daughter because of thousands of interactions with a father. And that's how you learn to be a son. That's how you learn to be a daughter of God, and a son of God is all of the little conversations.
Karen was talking about all of the little. What do you think about that? I want this. Do you know that the majority of what my kids say to me when they're young is, I want this?
Do you know that it's OK to just want things? What if you started bringing God into the little I want? It's like, man, I want that 65-inch TV. And the Lord's like, OK.
What if you started bringing Him into the I want? There might be a relationship there in the little things. That is going to create you understanding Him as a father in a completely different way. Bring Him into the everyday, the little things.
All right, Galatians 3 says this, verse 24. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came. So the law is the guardian, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
We are no longer under the law. For in Christ Jesus, you all are sons through faith. For as many of you were baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ, and there is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free.
There's neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. 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, we're enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Elementary principles are cause and effect. So literally, the elementary principle of this world is I perform, I do things, and then I get what I want.
So I work really hard, and I perform really good, and then I get love. I perform and work really hard, and then I get acceptance. I perform and work really hard, and then I get affection, or I become cherished, and I get a promotion, okay? Where did I leave off here?
Four, there we go. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the guardian, under the law, to redeem those who were under the guardian, the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son. Some of us need to hear that you need the spirit of the son.
I know, we just graze past that. Some of us grew up in a home where we didn't have a present father, we didn't have a father at all. Maybe some of us have never met our father, and some of us had really godly fathers, and there's a whole spectrum in between. But what I want us to understand is that the plane field is level when it comes to relationship with the father.
The Lord knew that your father wasn't going to be the best picture of him, okay? He knew it, and he's going, because I know that, I'm going to be your dad. I'm going to step in, and I'm going to adopt you. And some of us, even if we had good fathers, I had an amazing father, we actually have to kind of pry off of him, us projecting our idea of a father, we have to have to pry it off of God, because that's not fully what he's like.
And so we actually have to, even if he was a good dad, you've got to kind of just separate them and go, no, I am going to go low, and I'm going to have you father me, because I haven't known you truly as a father. I want to discover you as a father, okay? We're going to continue. Because your son's got to send the spirit of his son.
The spirit of his son is that gift, because we don't know how to do it. So then the father's like, they don't get it, they're not going to go, no how, I'm going to give them my son's spirit, so they can become sons, because they don't know how. And that's okay that you don't know how. That's why God gave you the Holy Spirit, who's the spirit of the son.
I'm so grateful for that, okay? Into our hearts, crying daddy father. He's not the Lord God. Let's like when you pray.
And it's like, oh father, Lord God. And there's almost like a holier art thou. And we approach God with fear, knowing that he literally has all power in heaven and earth, where there's like a trembling around like, you are greatness in a person, right? Like you do have all power to do whatever you want, just by breathing, and like whole armies would dissolve, okay?
So you are powerful, and there's an honor and a reverence, but then there's also this, you want to be my dad. You want to be my dad. You, it was your idea that you would be my dad, and that I would relate with you as my dad. And so he wants us to not be in a slave mindset, but a son, and if sons, then heirs through Christ, okay?
We got adopted out of an orphanage and out of slavery. And slavery and the orphan thing is all wrapped up into this thing that we still have in the Christian church right now, and it's called performance based Christianity. It's called, I do stuff, so then I get stuff, okay? I do, I work hard, so it's called performance based Christianity, and it's called living under the law.
It's called living under the guardian. And what Paul is saying is when a son grows up, he has an inheritance, but he still is treated when he's under the law, and when he's not grown, he actually can't access the inheritance and can't actually step into his sonship. But then Jesus comes and adopts us out of the law and into you get full access to grace, and now you get full access to Abba, and you can live in full connection, and you don't have to be performing. This is how it plays out.
It's like if your identity is a slave, and most of this is subconscious, okay? So some of you guys are like, yeah, I know that I'm a son of God, I know I have revelation on this, and this is great. But listen, this is a life and death topic, like in our city today. This is life and death, because what it drives you to, when you have a slave mindset, it drives you to try to find love in any way possible, to try to find acceptance in any way possible, to try to find security and control in any way possible.
And there's literally people that are dying on the streets of our city because of this topic, because they don't know that they were supposed to come up out of the water and have the father say, I love you and I like you. Literally, that I love you and I like you, is death and life every single day in our city. Do you wanna know why your coworkers are on cocaine? Because they don't know, I love you and I like you from a father.
That's why your coworkers are struggling with addiction day in and day out because they are longing for that moment to be looked at by a father and have that side of them. They're longing for unconditional love. So the slave mindset is this, I perform to earn it, and the son is, I love, and from the place of love, I just serve. What happens with the slave mindset is when you're in leadership, you lead, and as you lead, you feel like everything that happens underneath me reflects on me and my identity.
So if in a slave mindset, you're a micromanager and you're gonna control. And you're gonna micromanage and control because everything that happens under your leadership reflects on your identity. But if you're a son, you know that if mistakes happen under your leadership, that doesn't have anything to do with your identity. Because you're confident in who you are and you're secure in who you are.
So if mistakes are made, it doesn't impact you. And instead you go, whoa, that's a growth area. Let's develop you in that area and let's just keep on charging. But what happens in our leadership is whenever that moment happens, listen, we're all in process though.
So it's not like you graduated out of that mindset and now you're fully in sunset mindset. No, it's like it's worked out. It's a mindset change, it's a mindset shift. And so I have found myself so many times in this zone.
And I have to actually get led by the spirit of the sun out of this zone and into wholeness where I start going, I need to lead differently. I need to not care about that because it's not saying anything about me because I know who I am, right? Slaves are motivated by proving themselves. Sons are motivated by offering worship and gifts to the Lord.
Slaves face difficulty in hardships as victims. How this is a big one. Slaves face difficulty in hardships as victims. Romans eight talks about how there's suffering that happens and suffering in the epistles talks about how suffering produces things.
Like James talks about produces perseverance and hope and faith. And what sons, how sons respond to hardship and difficulty is they go, oh wow, man, this is difficult. This is painful. But every single miracle started with a problem.
Every single story of restoration started with pain. And sons go, I know that my father loves me and I love my father and my father said that he's going to work all things, even the hardship for my good. So I'm not a victim in this. I'm actually an overcomer in it.
And so everything that I face, I just overcome because I'm a son of God. Do you not know hardship and problem? I'm a son of God. But then we oftentimes are in this mode of it just happened to me.
And it's like, yes, that happened to you. And what I want to do is not minimize any difficulty, any pain, any abuse. Listen, the Lord is the judge. And he's going to pour out wrath on the abusers at the end of the story if they don't give their life to Jesus and have those sins wiped clear.
There's a vengeance in the heart of God for every abuse that's been done to us. So I'm not making light of this at all. But what I am saying is that we go through the pain with the Lord and then we go, this is actually going to be, this is going to result in me having an overcoming spirit. And now I'm going to be persevering and the Lord's going to bring restoration to my heart, even though I went through this hellish thing and with the enemy meant for evil, I'm going to turn it for good.
It wasn't the Lord behind it though. I want to acknowledge that. God didn't do that to you. God didn't allow that.
God wasn't the one behind your suffering. He's the one that's the father of compassion. And he's going, oh, I love you. And as that was happening, my heart was filled with vengeance and justice.
There's going to be a day of reckoning. But I want you to know that a day already happened when he paid for it all. Would you forgive them even though they didn't know what they were doing like I did on the cross? And there's this element that he brings us into his sonship of forgiving, even things that shouldn't be forgiven because they're so awful.
God is calling us to have a sonship mindset when hardship comes, when problems surface, sons respond differently. I think about when we go to work. You can go with a slave mindset. You can go to work and have a mindset of, I've got so many problems and so much pressure.
And I have so many decisions that I have to make. But a son comes out of that. And the son is going, there's so much discovery. There's so many solutions.
I have anticipation for all of the solutions that we get to enjoy together, me and the father, as I approach all of these problems and these pressures. Can you imagine all the pressure that the son of God felt when he was walking the earth? It just, what were the pressures that was on him? I mean, even spiritual warfare stuff.
But you're talking about thousands of people wanting to touch you. And then you have the accusation from all the leadership. And you're on a hit list. There's some pressure there.
And then your disciples are like, who's the greatest Jesus? And there's all these dynamics. Like talk about all these interpersonal pressures that Jesus is carrying and he's going, I'm going to innovate. I have this discovery, this discovery mindset is a son.
Slaves feel unworthy when given gifts. But sons receive with gratitude. Slave mindset says that you need to be protecting yourself and you need to be guarded when you meet someone new. But sons, when they meet someone new, they're open.
And they show up to love and not expect anything in return. Slaves are afraid to ask the question why. But sons know their father and they're willing to ask the question why. My two-year-old daughter, usually three-year-olds are asking the question why.
And they ask it again and again and again. If you've ever had a conversation with a three-year-old and they start, why? Why? Why?
Why? And it drives parents crazy all over the world. It drives them crazy. And our two-year-old, for the first time, she's two and a half.
And she asked why multiple times in succession in a row yesterday. And I was just reflecting on, it's an invitation for sons to ask why. But slaves are afraid to ask why, to get to the heart of the matter, because they're in fear. Romans 8, let's turn to Romans 8.
Romans 8, verse 14, it says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God or sons of God, for you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, father. This is happening in the church right now. And I didn't prepare this section for tonight, but I just want to speak to it.
And that is, as the people of God, we have to ask the Lord why and be willing to deconstruct the traditions of man. Do you know that Jesus walked into the scene and started deconstructing all of the traditions of the church leadership and the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Do you know that Jesus is asking, why are we doing that way? Why that?
Why that? This is what I see in the Torah. And it's OK and permissible to be asking the questions why. But there's a whole movement of deconstruction.
So what I'm saying is we can deconstruct the traditions of man and the opinions of man and the styles of worship and the styles of church and all of those things. But what I want to encourage us to do is to not do that in a vacuum and go, and I'm not going to do it with the Father either. I want to encourage you, you can deconstruct the traditions of man, but you do it the way that Jesus did it. Because Jesus did it, connected.
Knowing who the Father is with all of his history, all of the moments that he had with the Lord. And what happens is we deconstruct, and then we throw out our whole relationship with God. And good luck with that. It's like, yeah, I'm in a season of deconstruction, and I'm deconstructing the church, and I'm deconstructing God.
Good luck with that. Good luck having enough capacity in your brain to figure out the meaning in life of life and God, and whether God is real, God is not real, and if this is all fabrication of what man has done, and I don't even know the details of everything that's getting processed. But good luck doing that apart from the spirit of God to help you because listen, he's not afraid. He's not afraid of all of the questions.
He's not threatened by your questions. He wants to be involved in the process as you're questioning everything. And so if you're into deconstruction, don't just exit the vicinity and go, I'm just on my journey and I'm gonna listen to a bunch of podcasts. Listen, do you want to do it with the Lord, or you can do it by yourself, and by yourself looks like this.
I'm gonna deconstruct everything. I'm gonna listen to a bunch of podcasts with people that are bitter and offended, and six months down the road, I'm gonna be bitter and offended and filled with accusation in my heart to everyone that I used to love, and I'm gonna be judging everything. God is calling us to ask the questions why, and it's okay to ask. He's not afraid of it.
But listen, when we isolate ourselves, the enemy's just brushing his hands together, and he's like, now's my moment. I'm gonna isolate them. Now they're gonna try to figure it out by themselves, and it's gonna be the knowledge of the tree, of good and evil that's gonna just lead them on, and they're gonna think that they know. Think that they figured it out.
Think that they figured out the mystery of how much abuse and how much mistreatment has happened over the years. And I'm telling you, the Lord hates all of the abuse. Even with what's come out in the last month in the church globally, listen, the Lord has this heart of justice, and he's going, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's not okay. And he's calling it the way that it is.
But if you stand and you sit in the seat of Judge, it's not healthy. But it is healthy to sit next to him, and go, what do you think? What do you think about this? You're my dad, and you know best.
You have some years on me. You understand how things work. Could you help me process this? You know him, listen, you know him.
Don't forget your history and God. You know him and you love him. Don't let the opinions of man completely sour your relationship that you have with him, okay? All right.
Jesus has called us to imitate him in the same way that he imitated the Father. And that's what sonship is. The greatest thing I want you to get out of tonight is that the Father is the one that shows us who we are as sons. And so as we look to him as the Father, then we start beholding him, and we start becoming like him.
Like we become like our dad. We start looking like our dad. And then we receive from him because he says, this is what I think about you, and this is what I feel about you. And then you're in this next level of sonship, because you start agreeing with what he says about you.
My kids, they know like, my son, I'll speak things over him. I'll tell him how I feel, but then I'll tell him, man, buddy, you are strong. Like he'll tackle me and I'll be like, you are tough, bro. What?
You are strong. And I'll just speak that over him. And do you know what he thinks about himself? Because his dad said it.
So he subconsciously for years has heard his dad speak, you're strong and you're tough, and you always bounce back. And what's gonna naturally happen when he's 30 years old is he's gonna have this strength in his identity, and he's gonna have this like resilient, the resilience as a man. As a grown man, he'll have resilience because his father was like, this is who you are. This is what's inside of you.
This is what you're like. And that's what we get to have in our relationship with God. We get to have that type of connection where he's whispering. He's like, this is who you are.
And then we receive it. We don't go, oh no, I'm not unworthy. We go, thank you. You're right.
Have you ever had a kid? You just like say like, man, you're looking beautiful. And they say, I know. Have you ever had that?
I've had that. You know, it's like, I know I look good, right? Or they'll say, yeah, you know? And I love that.
I love that because it shows that they've been loved so well that it's like, yeah, I know. I know who I am. I believe that God's giving us a childlike identity. Where we begin to not just see ourselves as sons and daughters, but we begin to see ourselves as children.
It's like children are curious. Children ask why? Like I was talking about children ask why. And it's okay to ask why.
And we are to be children of God that have curiosity, that have imaginations, that have freedom and joy. Listen, you are never meant to be a boring person and you are never meant to be lame and not have joy. And you are meant to actually like smile. Okay, you're just like meant to feel joy.
You are meant to feel that emotion of joy. The same way that a kid is like dancing in their living room and there's music on and they're freely dancing. That's what you are meant to live in as a child of God, as an adult, as a man. Childlike, love, faith, curiosity, it's what your destiny was always meant to be.
And I just wanna highlight this word to close. I wanna highlight this word that you are heirs, that sons are heirs. At the beginning I talked about how we're all sons of God, and that there's an inheritance that sons get. And the inheritance that Paul is talking about is threefold, everyone say three.
Three parts of our inheritance is this. The first part is that you get and you inherit heaven and earth. That's what your inheritance is. You get the earth as your inheritance.
So the end of the story is that heaven and earth become one and you get to live and you get to inherit the entire earth as a son of God, because he's the king over the entire earth, right? And so that's part of your inheritance. Listen, heaven is not an eternal worship service. Everybody say, praise God.
Heaven is not, some of you are like, wait, what? I like worship. Listen, it's not the naked baby on the clouds with an instrument. It's not a worship service for eternity.
And some of you are getting like a big deep, because that's good news. If you're not a big fan of worship, all right? Which would be weird if you're here, okay? But listen, heaven is everyday life in a new heavens and a new earth with God as the king.
And there's literally like economy. There's things that are happening in everyday life, in the new heavens and the new earth, it's everyday life, okay? And so we are just seeing like a glimpse that's so defiled of what heaven is actually going to be. But it's a garden city.
There's like life, you're living life in the new heavens and the new earth. So you get the earth as an inheritance. The next thing that you get is that you get a new body. That's good news.
You get a new body. I said at the first service, I'm gonna have like a 12 pack. It's just gonna be real nice, all right? And you get a new body.
That's amazing. That's good news. That's a great inheritance. But those two things, a new heavens and a new earth and a new body that's eternal, that doesn't end.
That's glorified. That's amazing. But those two things are all purposed to experience the greatest piece of your inheritance. And that is that you get God at the end of the story.
The greatest part of your inheritance, the greatest reward is that you get him. You get to dwell with him and he gets to dwell with you. And as a son and as a kid that has the best dad in the whole world, that is the greatest reward. I just think about when I get home every single day and Harvey's like, can we go play?
Can we go play in the basement? Can we go play some of you guys maybe have experienced that? Can we go do this? Can we do that?
And they just want at this age. They just want to do that in the future. They're just going to want to do the same thing. But they want to be with me.
And that's what sonship looks like. I want to just be with him. I want to be near him. I want to be close and let's all stand.
I know he went late tonight and I apologize for that. Okay, thank you. Marla, I love you. It's not my fault.
Okay, just again, not accept responsibility. Like a real man of God. But I just want to pray for us and commission you out. So Lord, I just thank you for these sons of God in the room.
Lord, I thank you for opening their eyes to see you as a father. That they would know you as the father of compassion, the father of comfort, the father that's not threatened with questions, the father that's confident in his identity, the father that is love, the father that is generous, the father that gives good gifts, that they would know you as daddy, that they would know you as daddy, God, that they would know you as the one that isn't just the thou art holy, but they would know the one that is close and near, that wants to be face to face and wants to communicate love, infection, and delight. And so Lord, I just thank you for giving us a revelation over the next 10, 20 years of what it means to be sons with you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, amen. Hey, there's people up front that would love to pray with you after the service if you want to receive prayer for anything.