Well, good evening through CR. I'm feeling a little bit like
Britney Spears here with I've never, I've never had the
privilege of fishing with one of these marks on, but it's a it's
an incredible privilege. Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you to the elders, Dad, Steven and the elders.
Thank you for the incredible privilege.
I don't take this lightly. This is a, you know, it's a
very, very holy space for me. So thank you.
We have had the incredible privilege of going through
Romans over the last couple of weeks.
And I don't know about you, but it has probably been one of the
most life changing series of my life.
And the privilege to be a part of it and to see what God is
doing in and through it has been, excuse me, unbelievable as
I've watched young people, specifically in this service,
make decisions for Christ and actually not just hear the
preached word. Take it and thanks for coming.
It was a cool motivational speech actually take it apply to
their heart and live transformed lives and it is an unbelievable
privilege to be a part of that. So I'm excited and we're going
to continue. So we are in Romans 8 verse 14
to 17 and I'm going to be talking about sonship tonight
and what it and so the title of my message is living as sons.
I've had the incredible privilege of living under a
father who has had an unbelievable revelation of the
father heart of God. And from that space, it has
created so much space for me to live in the freedom of what it
means to be as a son. And so tonight is not a bunch of
a bunch of steps on how we can be better sons.
It's actually an invitation from God to us that we can walk into
the fullness and inheritance that he has for us as sons.
Is that cool? Amazing.
So Romans 814 to 17 For those who are led by the Spirit of God
are children of God. And the Spirit you received does
not make you slaves, so that you can 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 children of God. Now if we are children, then we
are is is of God and Co is with Christ, if indeed we share in
his sufferings in order in order that we may also share in his
glory. So tonight I hope to make
creative space where you guys can understand what it means to
be children of God, not just in relationship and what not just
in name, but in relationship, inheritance, identity and daily
living and hopefully to break off the spirit of slavery and
fear that grips us. Is that cool Amazing.
So you know that phrase like father, like son.
So say it with me, I'm a son. Say it with conviction one more
time. If you've been around for any
length of time, that is not a new concept that we've had here
at 3 CR. And by no means am I
discrediting the girls. So when I say it, girls and
guys, say it with passion. I'm a son, I'm a son.
Beautiful. What Paul was talking about here
was actually something quite radical back in those times.
The first born son got all the inheritance.
And what Paul is saying is whether you're male or female,
you actually have access to the inheritance that God is that God
is talking about and Paul writes about here.
So I've got 6 Truths of Sonship for to share with you tonight.
We might not get to all of them, so don't don't worry.
I'm not going to talk for too long.
But the first one is No Fear. Then adoption assurance,
inheritance, intimacy, and then suffering or discipline.
The first, the first one is No Fear.
Second adoption assurance, inheritance, intimacy and
discipline. This is the invitation that God
has for us and he welcome invites us into.
But I understand I've said, I've said I've got an incredible
relationship with my father. He has created amazing space.
But I'm very aware that some of you tonight, the, the, the word
father might actually be the very trouble point.
It might actually be the point of contention in your heart
because the word father actually comes along with abuse.
It comes along with alcohol, it comes along with abandonment, it
comes along with violence. And I want tonight hopefully to
paint a picture of a Father in heaven, the perfect Father in
heaven. My dad is not perfect.
He's an incredible man, but he's not perfect.
But I want to show you a picture tonight of a Father in heaven
who loves you, who is gracious, who is kind, who is compassion,
compassionate. He is slow to anger and
abounding in love for his children.
And I believe and I believe if we know who our Father is, we
can walk into the fullness of who he calls us to be as His
children. And in order to take hold of
this series called More than Conquerors, we have to take hold
of our full identity as sons. So the first one, No Fear, who
here struggles with fear in their life probably say 90% of
the room, fear of punishment, fear of the future, fear of
failure, fear of performance, fear of man, fear of security,
the list goes on and on and on. But what Paul writes about here
is he, he is saying that the spirit of sonship, if we can
take hold of that fear, is no longer has a grip over us.
And I'm not, I'm not saying that this is some sort of prosperity
gospel. If you believe in Jesus, all of
a sudden your problems go away. But I am saying that the spirit
of sonship, we get to walk into the freedom that God has fought
for us, that actually fear doesn't have a grip over us.
It doesn't hold us captive over our minds and over our hearts.
We did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.
Fear is used as a weapon. Fear is the language of slavery.
Love is the language of sonship. Slaves obey from obligation.
Sons obey from love. The spirit of slavery says we
have to earn it. The spirit of adoption says we
receive it. There's nothing that you can do
or say that makes you any less qualified for the love of God.
It is a gift. You receive it.
There's nothing we can do. It is just given to us freely.
And I believe many Christians, myself included, lived as safe
slaves rather than beloved sons. 2 I see it all the time.
I meet with young people and they are whole gripped, gripped
by the the anxiety that the world places upon them.
And I'm throwing out an invitation to you, not to, to
you tonight to show you that there's a Father in heaven that
wants so much more for you. A little bit earlier this this
year, my, my wife and I had the privilege of travelling to
America. And we stayed with a couple
called the Hazels, Greg and Michelle Hazel, and had an
unbelievable time with them. And we went over for a
conference for our kids ministry.
And we just spent about 3 days with them and they just unpacked
their lives and ministry and what God had called them to.
And we met their daughter and the daughter name was Nicole.
And she started to tell us a little bit of her story.
And she's gone through a radical journey where she's experienced
several miscarriages along the way and was gripped by this fear
and this anxiety of actually having children.
They they believed that God had put put a promise on their life
for another child. But she had had about 5 or 6
miscarriages in a row and was gripped by this incredible fear.
And then came a moment. One day she was just sitting in
her devotions and this phrase came out.
Fear is not my future. You are.
Sickness is not my story. You are heartbreak.
Heartbreak is not my home. You are.
And death is not the end. You are.
And three, CR tonight I want to tell you there's a God, a Father
in heaven who loves you so much that he does not want you to
live in this space where fear is your future.
It is not he is. He is our future and our
fullness that we get to walk into.
I don't know, we're joking this morning.
I don't know why, but all of a sudden you get like really bad
cotton mouth. There's a lot of people.
The second point is that we are adopted.
Jr. Packer says this adoption is the
highest privilege of the gospel. The traitor is forgiven, brought
in for supper, given the family name.
To be right with God, the judge is a great thing, but to be
loved and cared for by the Father is even greater.
Where's Dash? Dash, come here.
Bring me a possible This is my friend Dash.
Many of you won't know this man, but I believe he is one of the
heroes of our church. If you've got a kid in kids
ministry, they are blessed because of this man.
This man is an unbelievable gift to this church.
He loves this church. He serves this church with his
whole heart. But Dash has gone on a journey
over the last little while and the reason I'm not, I'm not yet
to embarrass him, but he is. This is one of my closest
friends. Dash has gone on a journey over
the last little while where he hasn't had any identification
documents, none whatsoever, to the point where a few weeks ago
he was declared A stateless being, which besides the fact
that he stood before you, there was 0 proof that he existed.
And through the kindness of this church and some men in this
church, are we some incredible men in this church, they managed
to get him back to Zimbabwe where he got it, he got an ID,
now he's got a passport. We're here.
This is a document that proves he's real.
We were chatting to him today. We asked what it felt like and
he held this thing. He said he held this thing in
his hands. And he actually said, you know
what much this thing is meaningless Yard opens doors and
it gives him an opportunity to travel and I believe to step
into the fullness of what God has for him.
But actually he, he became a son of God way before that.
His identity was so secure and who who Christ had called him to
be as a son that this is an incredible gift, but it doesn't
define him. Thank you.
See, there's two legal terms in that.
In that quote that I just read. The first one is justified and
the second is adopted. So justified means we are
declared righteous and made right in the eyes of God.
Adopted means we are welcomed in and made secure legally.
Adoption is the process that permanently and officially
establishes the child the legal child of the adoptive parents,
terminating the biological parents rights and
responsibilities while transferring them to the
adoptive parents. This grants the adoptive parents
the same rights, responsibilities, and legal
standings as biological parents, meaning that the child is
treated in the law as if they were born to the adopted
parents. We had a friend, friends of ours
down in KZN, the Sanjika family. It was Elliot, Dolly, Grace.
And then they adopted a little boy.
When they walked into Timbalitsu, which was the
orphanage that Glenridge partnered with, they saw this
little boy and they picked him up and his name was Tulani,
which means the quiet one. And they renamed him Elijah,
which means my God is Yahweh. And we watched this little boy
grow up in our in our church. And the reason they called him
Tulani is because there's a thing with, with orphans, when
they cry and they cry and they cry and they cry and they
realize no one's coming. They just go quiet.
So actually, no one knew him. They found him in a dustbin.
They called him Tulani. They adopted him.
And I can tell you that boy, after growing up in a home where
he was fathered so well by Elliot, he was loved as if he
was his own son. They raised that boy.
He was full of joy. He was the personification of
joy and life at his at his memorial.
Unfortunately, he died a few years back at his memorial.
The songs were glorious day praise and I think something
else that was just a wild. It was a celebration because he
that was the kind of life that he lived.
But three CR I want to tell you, when you are adopted, when you
say yes to Christ, your name changes.
No longer you are known as the quiet one.
No longer you're known as the divorcee.
No longer are you known as the pornographic addict.
No longer are you known as the alcoholic.
No longer are you known as the drug addict.
You are known as a son and a daughter of God.
Our name changes because we are adopted.
No longer are we sinners. No longer are we known by our
old name, but our new name as sons and daughters.
Charles Spurgeon says this about adoption observed concerning the
first Advent, that the Lord was moving in it towards man.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent His son.
We moved not towards the Lord, but the Lord towards us.
I do not find in a world in repentance sought after its
maker. No, but the offended God
Himself, in infinite compassion, broke silence and came forth to
bless His enemies. See how spontaneous is the grace
of God? All good things begin with Him.
Adoption is intentional. God chose you, He, God chose you
and I. He moved towards us in His
infinite kindness. We were sinners, we deserved
death, we deserved hope. But God and His kindness moved
towards us and welcomed us into His family.
Can I get those next the photos up please?
How's that little guy? I can tell you the thrifters and
the church would be loving that jersey of my dad's.
My next point is intimacy. You can skip through the next
few photos. There's me and my dad at my
wedding day. One of the highlights of my
life. I had the privilege of my dad
doing my wedding. Rory might be a father figure to
you. I've had the incredible
privilege of having many men speaking to my life.
Men like Clint and Robbie and Damien, guys that have invested
into me, encouraged me, backed me, supported me in the most
incredible ways. But they're not my dad.
I have the privilege of calling Rory my dad.
So as much as he's a father figure to you, he's my dad.
And with that comes an intimacy as we cry out ABBA, Father ABBA
is a very, very personal way of calling out to God.
It's the same as saying dad or Papa.
It's incredibly intimate. But there is a closeness that I
have with this man as my father that when I'm in trouble,
doesn't matter where I am or it doesn't matter what I've done,
the first thing that I do is iPhone.
Him. It's a privilege that I've had
from many, many years. After a little boy that was me
going to watch Sharks rugby. You can put the picture up
again. My dad just bought season
tickets. I was probably 3 years old
there, but he bought season tickets to go watch the Sharks.
My dad and my mom used to do it growing up.
And then I came along and my mom got booted.
Unfortunately for her, sorry mom, but there was a
relationship that was established there.
I couldn't buy the tickets. I couldn't do anything.
That was the father investing in me.
That has got to a point where it was so deep and so close,
established over many, many, many, many years.
There was another photo of me playing rugby at Lofters.
I don't know if it was there, but I was actually the first
dire boy to play rugby at Lofters for no other reason that
I just wanted to like throw it in there.
And I've also got rugby stories. Good old first team for Woody,
old College Chancellor. Absolutely nothing.
This is what the father says and this is not a new concept in our
church. You would have heard it many
times. The three greatest needs of any
man, identity, affection and affirmation.
This is my son whom I love with you.
I'm well pleased. We have access and even if
you've heard it before, I pray that tonight something will
settle in your heart that when the Father looks at you, he is
not an angry God waiting in heaven to hit you with a
lightning bolt every time you step out of line.
He is a Father that says you are my son.
You are my daughter whom I love with you.
I'm so well pleased. This is an incredibly radical
statement. As he says, we have received a
spirit of adoption as sons who we cry ABBA Father.
It's a deeply relational image of God.
So I ask you, do you relate to God as a distant ruler up in the
clouds, or is he a father close with intimacy that is wanting in
a relationship with you? Assurance is the next point.
Sonship is affirmed by the Spirit.
The big S speaks to my little S. The Holy Spirit speaks to my
Spirit moments after the Father had spoken those words over
Jesus. This is my Son whom I love with
you. I'm more pleased.
He heads off into the desert and immediately the devil tries to
sow seeds of doubt. If you are the Son of God, God
has just called him his Son and he's saying, if you are the Son
of God, words that my father spoke over me for my whole life
since I was a little little boy, I'm proud of you, I love you and
I'm special. Does not matter what you say to
me, doesn't matter how hard you try, doesn't matter how hard you
convince me. You'll never change my mind on
those facts. Even if he didn't say it again,
I know that my dad digs me and he backs me and he thinks I'm
freaking great, which is so cool.
And I've had the privilege of living in that, but some of you
haven't. But tonight I want to, I want to
affirm that over you that this Holy Spirit is saying over to
you that he loves you, that he is so proud of you and you're so
special to him. My favorite, my favorite story
in the Bible, story of the prodigal son.
And there's a quote, a quote that I read this this week that
it says the idea of, of sonship is described as the apex of
creation and the goal of redemption.
And the story, the story of the prodigal son, a son comes to his
father and he says, give me my inheritance now.
I'd wish you, I'd rather take it and go spin it now, which is
basically saying, I wish you were dead.
I'm going to go have a good time.
He takes his inheritance and he runs out and he squanders it on
prostitutes, on alcohol and wild living absolutely messes it up
to the point where he ends up in a pig star eating pig's food.
And he comes to this realization, even my father's
slaves live better than this. Surely he can welcome me back as
a slave. And so he does, builds up the
courage and he decides to turn. And it says in scripture, while
he was still a long way off, the father saw him.
And it's this incredible picture and I've many times I've
pictured it like I have the privilege of my wife's parents
are farmers. My in laws are farmers.
And I see these rolling hills and I can just see a father
waiting, pointing while he's still a long way off.
The father sees him and his runs.
He runs to the son. It's the only place in the Bible
where the father runs, the only place, the only time the father
will run when a Sinner comes home.
So the moment you decide enough with this nonsense, enough with
this stuff, maybe my father can accept me.
He sees you and he runs and he meets you in that place.
So you see how the father is so desperate for you to come home.
If you're sitting there and your heart is pounding and you're
saying, oh, but you don't know the stuff that I've done, If my
life had to play up on that screen, I'd want the whole to
open up and swallow me whole. But I know when I made a
decision to follow Christ, I was embraced.
I was wrapped up in the love of the Father as he put a robe
around me, as he put a ring on my finger.
And what that did, the ring was a sign of inheritance.
Actually, He was saying you might have squandered your
inheritance out there, but here it is.
You have access, full access to my inheritance.
Everything that is mine is yours.
We are is with Christ. We have an inheritance.
And I can tell you that the Spirit speaks to our Spirit and
it says you belong. Assurance comes from my comes
from the identity of the Spirit, not our feelings or our
performance. Satan will attack this very,
very truth. If you're sons of God, if you
are daughters of God. That leads me to my next point.
Inheritance. If children then is is of God
and filler is with Christ. I have the privilege of being
married to this beautiful lady Tyler Page and we coming up on
two years which is amazing. But when we started dating I
phoned home and I said hey mom and dad, I think I've met my
wife and they were very excited and was amazing and my mom said
that's awesome boy, what do they do?
I said no, her family are farmers down the South Coast and
she was like oh that's so cool. Please send us a photo of what
she looks like. And my dad replied and he was
like, that's awesome boy. Send me a picture of the land
and how big it is. Hey Lecha, it's a fifth
generation Langton Fong and Paul Langton had just girls, which
means after 5 generations it's going to turn into a dire farm
which I'll start show on. It ends up getting the dire
name. The jokes aside, when I walk
onto a piece of prophecy down in the Free States or a farm down
the South Coast, not because of anything I've done but just
because of who I am, I find favor in the eyes of the people
there. We don't just get blessings, we
get God Himself. We are heirs of God.
Jesus shares His inheritance with us.
How insane is that? Inheritance is not just a future
that's promised in heaven. We have access to it now in the
peace and the joy and the hope that is promised to us.
That is the stuff we get to walk into her sons and sons and
daughters of God. John 14 verse 6 says this.
Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
By putting our faith in Jesus, we have access to the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords as our Father.
I love that phrase, the scandal of grace.
It's a scandal. We didn't deserve it.
There's nothing that you and I could have done to deserve it.
We've all fallen short. I love that picture of the arrow
that my dad did a few preach a while ago, actually picking up
the arrow and putting it in the bullseye.
There's nothing we can do besides believe in Jesus.
When we believe in Jesus, we have access to our Father in
heaven. My final point, suffering and
discipline, not the one that people want to hear.
Hebrews 12 says this. My son, do not make lots of the
Lord's discipline and do not lose his heart when he rebukes
you, because the Lord disciplines the ones he loves
and he chastens everyone. He accepts his son.
We endure God's discipline as sons, not as slaves.
Believe it or not, I didn't get the most smacks in my family the
way I grew up and I've got, I've got quite a tender heart.
And so when when my parents said to me, boy, we disappointed, I
was wrecked. I was absolutely finished.
I'd go sit in my room, I'd look out my window.
It'd feel like rain was falling. I just have a real pity party
because I've disappointed my parents.
I can't say the same about my sister.
Same home, same mom, same dad, different children.
When my parents said NASA disappointed, she'd be like, why
it was that NASA? Because you've done something
wrong. And she's like, where's your
proof? She'd be getting a smack and
like tears would be coming out of Oz.
And she'd turn around and be like, that's my soul.
It's an unbelievable thing. But my parents have to
discipline her differently. My sister is an unbelievable
woman. It has raised the way my parents
have raised her, has raised something incredible.
I believe she could be present if she wanted to be.
There's nothing she couldn't do just because she'll tell you she
can do it. But it's raised an incredible
young woman and my sister. But I remember when my parents
were disciplining us, when my dad was disciplining me, These
are the things he said. Discipline is not based on our
current behavior. It's always based on our future
calling. So the beautiful thing about
having an interfering father is actually, he loved me so much to
get involved in my stuff, to get involved in my behavior.
I always knew I was loved. I always knew that there was a
reason and there was a purpose for it.
So 3 CR when when the father disciplines you, don't endure it
as slaves, endure it as sons. He's not disciplining you now
because of your current behavior.
He's disciplining you because there's so much more that he has
for you. There's a future and a calling
that he has over your life. I believe over every single
person's life, he has called you for specific reasons.
And some of you are not walking in the fullness of that.
And sometimes the father's going to get you and you're going to
catch a little hiding. That's OK Pull yourself into
community. Walk it through in community.
It's good for you. Suffering doesn't disprove our
sonship. It proves it.
As sons and daughters, we follow Jesus both in suffering and in
glory. Do not make do not let hardship
doubt your identity, and do not let hardship become your
identity. I've seen lots of people, they
live in a season and it becomes their story and it becomes their
entire personality. This hardship that you live
under, the father is saying over you tonight that there is a
fullness, a free full plan over your life.
You need to actually break off that spirit of slavery, break
off that spirit of shame and walk into the fullness of it.
So hopefully tonight is not a it's not a list of where we're
falling short. I can go through this thing.
There's times where I miss this often I've had the most
unbelievable dad and from that space, I've had an incredible
understanding of who the Father is in heaven, but I still miss
it. But tonight is an invitation for
us 3 CR And I believe there's so much more that we can walk into.
If you can understand who God has created you to be as sons,
we can walk into the fullness. And I fully believe that we can
change this world. Inside this room, there are
people that can actually, they've got the whether they're
engineers, whether they're doctors, whether they're
businessmen, whether they're lawyers.
I fully believe that this world can be turned on its head
because of the people in this room.
If we can walk into the fullness of our identity as sons of God,
is that cool? Amen.