We’re starting a brand new series today called All in the Family. What does it mean to be in God’s family? What does it mean to be in the Freedom family? This week I want to start with us getting into God’s family.

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Your translation might say “could not comprehend it.”
That is a message in and of itself, but let me explain what is happening so far.

You exist for one reason: God wanted more sons and daughters to love. Before the world was created, we had God existing in harmony between the Father, Son, and Spirit. God is a trinity, and for God to be God, he has to be. Otherwise, what was he doing before creation? You’ve heard “Love isn’t love until you give it away.” Love requires an object upon which to pour love. If God was alone, no trinity, then how could he be love if there was nothing to pour that love upon? And we can take this logic down the line.
An alone god can’t contain all God’s attributes.

Yet he wasn’t alone. He was Father Son and Spirit eternally. We just read the evidence: In the beginning the word existed, was with God, and was God.

So how does this get back to us and God’s family?
God loved Jesus through the Spirit so much that creation burst forth. Creation happened through of Jesus, because of Jesus, and by Jesus.
How did this work:
- The Father loved Jesus so much he wanted more sons and daughters to love.
- Jesus loved the Father so much he created the entire world - including you and me
But why? Because Jesus loved the Father so much he gave him what he wanted: more sons and daughters to love.

This is why Jesus is so willing to share his Kingdom with us. He created us to be loved by God, to be in his family, to share his not just his Kingdom, but his father, too.

Now this is hard for many of us to see because our whole lives we’ve seen the Father in the same light we see earthy patriarchs - the top, the focus, etc. We automatically create this structure where the Father is first, Jesus second, etc. I am not saying that is wrong by any stretch, but it is interesting how anytime you see the Father in Scripture, he is pointing to Jesus. Even the picture Revelation paints of heaven has Jesus as the focus. Jesus is the one reigning. Jesus is the one on the judgment seat, etc. This doesn’t minimize the Father. It maximizes the Father’s love for his son.

So when we think of who created the world, we automatically think the Father. But is that what the Bible teaches? Genesis says “God said let there be light.” But let’s continue with John 1

John 1:6-11
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.
Did you see it? He came into the world he created. That’s Jesus.

I am making a big deal about this because if being all in the family is what this series is about, you need to see why God wanted you in the family to begin with. I’ve been a Christian a long time and I’ve studied this word a long time, but until this week I’ve never seen it like this.

The Father wanted more sons and daughters to love and Jesus delighted in providing more sons and daughters to love through creation. Jesus isn’t upset that he shares that love with us. He delights in it. Us as sons and daughters alongside him is what Jesus delights in.

Now that we’ve established why we were created in the first place, we need to understand how we get into this family.

John 1:12
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

One caveat to begin: there’s no other way than Jesus.
Romans 11:36
From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

And again in John 1:12
To all who believed him and accepted him.

Anyone that teaches you that you can get to heaven by any other way than Jesus is not telling you God’s truth. And by the way - Heaven isn’t there goal here. Relationship with God is the goal. John 1 doesn’t teach that all those who believe and accept Jesus get their citizenship in heaven. All those who believe and accept he gives the right to become children of God.

So let me be super clear:
Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except by him. You want in the family? Jesus is the ONLY way.

To further illustrate this point, I want to remind you of 4 things as we talk around this idea of being all in the family. Remember, the “it” we’re talking about here is God’s desire that you be in his family. He went to the highest extreme to rescue you and it is important you know why.

1. It is not about your attributes
Galatians 3:26-29
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Your invitation to a relationship with Jesus is not about you attributes. An attribute is an identifying quality or characteristic of a person.

We all have attributes. We all have identifying qualities. Yet in Christ, we are invited to strip away our identifying qualities and embrace just one: child of God.

I am not a conservative Christian, a white Christian, an American Christian. I am a son, and while I might bring worldly identifiers to the table, in the eyes of God, I am simply his son.

One of the biggest issues in the church today is the identifiers we put in front of child of God. Like culture. Meaning everything from race to socioeconomic class to political party. I even mean the culture from your family of origin or environment.

Your culture is secondary to your confession. It doesn’t matter what you were taught or how you were raised. If your culture is counter to his culture, then your culture is what has to change. You release your cultural identifiers and embrace his.

This is in part what Jesus meant when he said this in Matthew 10:37-39
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Losing your life means, in part, killing anything in you that is not in alignment with his Kingdom and its attributes!
Even if that means from your family or culture!

Think about Paul. Philippians 3:5-9
5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him.

If Jesus didn’t need your cultural identity to get you in his family, then you don’t need your cultural identity to stay in his family. When we’re adopted into his family, we embrace the culture of his family. If you want to know the culture of his family, it was written down for you!

Look, I am not saying your culture is bad or that your raising was broken. I am saying that God’s desire that you be in his family is not based on some label that we think identifies us. And it definitely should not be an idol that inhibits what God wants for us.

If we are going to be all in God’s family, our culture has to adjust to his. The lesson here is to ask yourself: Is there any label I am embracing that I’ve elevated over simply being a child of God? Follow up: Are you more attached to labels or unity?

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Let me put this in modern terms:
There is neither white, black, hispanic, asian, nor other.
There is neither male or female (that one is still the same)
There is neither upper, middle, nor lower class.
There is neither conservative republican or liberal democrat.
There is neither beautiful nor ugly, smart nor bless their little heart

Jesus didn’t die for you because he liked your attributes. He just wanted you in his family. Every table we sit at we wonder if what we bring to it is enough. Jesus doesn’t want what yo have to bring. He just wants you.

2. It is not about your attitude
A coach was asked in an interview which they’d rather have, a 5 star player with a bad attitude or a 3 star payer with a good one? He simply replied, “Attitude is everything.”

What was your attitude towards God before you said yes to Jesus?
Romans 8:1-7
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

Hostility to God is what our attitude was to God before we said yes to Jesus. Hostility is deep seated enmity. I referenced Paul a moment ago. I don’t know that you can get more hostile to God than persecuting - even to the death - God’s people.

I asked before how was your attitude towards God before you said yes to Jesus? Let me ask a better question. How was his attitude towards you before you said yes to him?

Romans 5:8
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

If there is something that blows my mind more than anything else it is that Jesus still wants me in his family in spite of me. Sometimes my attitude is good. Sometimes it is bad. Sometimes I try hard to be holy and sometimes I easily stumble. And I have to admit, I still don’t understand this, but his desire that I am in his family is not based on my attributes nor my attitude towards him. He just loves me and wants me. What breaks me is that I don’t always reciprocate that.

This idea is so foreign to us because we typically engage in relationships based on attributes and attitudes. Think about it. Fellas, you know it starts with how she looks. We are simple creatures, fellas lol. But have you ever met a beautiful woman with a bad attitude? Ladies, good lookin fella but arrogant and selfish?

Our desire for them stops when one of the metrics aren’t met. So then why doesn’t Jesus do the same thing? That’s what’s hard to comprehend.

I gave you two things his desire for you isn’t about. Let me give you two that it is about.

3. It is about your aptitude
Your potential is what I am talking about here.
Jesus saw the father in Abraham while he was childless.
Jesus saw the leader in Moses while he was a coward.
Jesus saw the queen in Esther while she was an orphan.
Jesus saw the apostle in Paul while he was murdering Christians.

Jesus sees the son or daughter in you, too, even if you don’t see it in yourself.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see myself as God’s masterpiece. Even as I wrote this down this week the thought that came to my mind was, “I know me too well to believe I am your masterpiece, Lord.” God instantly reminded me of Psalm 139:1-3
1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

If you are going to be in this family of God then you are going to have to understand that while you have plenty of things to work on and limitless areas to improve, God does not see you as the sinful, worthless burden you think you are.

Psalm 103:10, 13-14
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.

God knew what he was getting into when he chose me.

So my job as the object of his affection is not to wallow in the misery of my own inadequacy, but to allow him room to make me into the version of me that he sees.

One of the things we tell our staff is that we want to kneel and allow people to step up on our backs and peek over the fence at who they could be. If they could just get a glimpse of what life could be over the fence they’d have the drive to see it happen.

Romans 8:29-30
29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

This verse does not mean God hand picked who was going to be saved. Calvinists have grotesquely distorted God’s heart in thinking that. This verse is evidence that when he looks at us, he sees his intent for us. What I find interesting is the difference between verse 29 and 30 is our willingness to stop seeing us as we see us and start believing God and what he says about us.

We try harder when people believe in us. We always talk about you believing in God. Did you know he believes in you?

Let me give you one more reason God’s desire that you be in his family,
and this is where we’ll end today because it is super short.

4. He loves you.
It really is that simple. 1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Now, you’re going to spend the rest of your life wondering why God even acknowledges your existence, much less loves you enough to offer you adoption. But he does. He loves you. And not that conditional kind of love where you have to be or do to earn it. Remember, he loved you even at your worst!

The question persists: why does God love me? Answer: Because to him, you’re worth it.

Truth is, “Why does God love me” is not the right question. “Why aren’t you receiving that love” is the right question.


It isn’t about our attributes or our attitudes, good, bad, or ugly. He sees who we could be and loves us unconditionally. He wants us in his family to the point of literally laying his life down to save us.

Why wouldn’t we want to be in a family like that?

Even more importantly: How do we get in a family like that?

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9
if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

He loves you in spite of you, he wants you in his family, and he’s made a way for you to be in his family.

I want to ask you directly today:
are you going to embrace that love and confess Jesus as Lord of your life?

If you want to receive God’s love for you and his salvation by making Jesus Lord of your life, I want you to pray this prayer with me.

A prayer is just a conversation with God. Yes it is words, but God honors our heartfelt confession. If you mean these words, God does too and you are saved by his sacrifice.

Let’s pray.
“Jesus I believe in you. I don’t fully understand why, but I know you love me. I receive that love. I confess you as Lord. I repent of my sins. Save me. Help me become everything you see when you look at me. Thank you for your love and salvation. Thank you for inviting me into your family. In Jesus name”

If you prayed that prayer today, would you let us know? We want to give you some resources to help you as you take your next steps with Jesus.