o I am a child of God – John 1:12 – Read John 1:10-13
o We are adopted into the kingdom, like the Israelites
o Not only Jews but Gentiles too
o In Christ we have a home and the benefits of being his child
o Non Christians may not receive these benefits, the cannot run to him in times of need they have nowhere to run
o I am complete in Christ- Colossians 2:9-10 – The Colossians were full of themselves rather than Christ. But what Paul is trying to say to them is that they do not need to look anywhere but in Christ for their completeness and identity. Many of us look to things not of God to complete us, we look to Clothes, Money, Cars. These things will fulfill us and we will become full of ourselves if we continue to seek them, but will not be satisfied. God has made you beautiful and perfect.
o Dead to sin, ALIVE IN HIM
o Law was against us, but he CANCELLED IT
o God disarmed the powers and authorities
o Although these powers are disarmed it does not mean they do not have an effect on our lives. In this life although these things are around us, although death is all around us, although sin is in us, we are free from it, we are free in Christ.
• Story of the untied shoe, the girly haircut, and the being overweight. Sin and powers still effect us but we must overcome, and carry on.
• Confident because I understand I am perfect and redeemed in the eyes of God.
In Christ I am free …
These are the benefits of our adoption as children of Christ.
• Visual – Place heavy items all over you, say they are things within the world that weigh us down, through this start talking about the freedom that is found in Christ and how through Christ we are able to remove these heavy influences and just follow him. These heavy items cannot separate you from the love of God.
• We must be satisfied and content with whom God has made us to be!!! We are to be beautiful through our Godliness. – LACRAE
• I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God - Romans 8:31-39 – Just know that there should be no guilt or pain that cannot be handled by God; there is nothing that the world can place on you that can keep you from Christ. Christ’s love holds us; through his sacrifice we have been made free to run to him. No one can separate us from the love of God, the answer to the weights and pains in the freedom that is found in Christ, and his LOVE, his love from himself, his love from others to us, and the love that he has allowed us to share.
• I may approach God with freedom and confidence- Ephesians 3:12 – In Christ we may go to God with freedom, we may become free, through the power of being free. We can run to God and he mat comfort us and keep us from being discouraged.
In Christ I am called…
• I am called to love. I Corinthians 13
• We do not just have Christ and stay alone forever in freedom, but we are to share it with others, we should run to others that are lost , and love them, tell them that there is a freedom from all this weight and pain that we have found, and that freedom is Christ. We are to help others because that is what Jesus would have done, in our freedom we will come to be people that spread the kingdom of God, (1 John 4) not because we love him, but because he first loved us and died for us, and because we are called to this love.