COMPLETED CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT… Addressing God as Daddy
CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT…
Addressing God as Daddy
December 10, 2023
1. The Apostle Paul gives us HIS version of the Christmas story.
2. Paul’s account was written around 51 to 53 AD, about twenty years after Jesus was crucified and about fifty-five years after the birth of Jesus.
Galatians 4:4 - But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, …
3. When Jesus was born as a baby, he was born accountable to the law of God, the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments and all the regulations that went along with it.
Galatians 4:4-5 - …born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
4. When you break those laws: You will create a DEBT-DEBTOR relationship with the person who established those laws.
Galatians 4:5 - to redeem those under law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
5. REDEEM: Means buy back, pay for, trade.
6. The Scripture teaches that when we’ve broken the law of God there is NO WAY for us to pay God back.
7. The “redeemed” terminology is a kind of judicial, legal, transaction.
8. It leaves God as judge; it leaves ME as forgiven.
Galatians 4:5 - to redeem those under law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
9. Adoption to sonship: It’s not enough for God to say that you’re “forgiven”, that your debt is paid. God said, “I want more than that. I want a relationship with YOU
10. It meant that God looked at us as adults with all of our faults and all of our failure and with all of our sin, knowing that in the Roman world, NO one would adopt us.
11. God decided to adopt you knowing everything you had done, would do, and all the promises you broke to yourself, the promises you broke to others, and the promises you broke to your heavenly Father. He still
Galatians 4:6 - Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
12. Abba is an Aramaic word which literally means “Daddy.”
Mark 14:36 - “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Why is that important?
1. Because if you are a Christ follower, this is the level of intimacy that you have been invited into with your heavenly Father—Abba, DADDY
Galatians 4:7 - So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
2. You are no longer relating to God through the law. You’ve been REDEEMED from the law.
3. Christmas is about moving past that. You are God’s children, and have been invited to follow the EXAMPLE of your Savior and address your heavenly Father as Dad, Daddy, Abba, Father.
4. Do you want to know what you’re worth to God? You’re WORTH Christmas.
Galatians 4:4 - But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
5. You are no longer slaves, but God’s children. Since you are His children, He has made you heirs—HEIRS of his kingdom, heirs of eternal life.