Element Christian Church
Galatians Week 14: Adoption. Paul's Two "Sents."
Locations & Times
Element Christian Church
4890 Bethany Ln, Santa Maria, CA 93455, USA
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:45 AM
Welcome to Element
We strive to ensure the biggest thing people think when they hear about Element is Jesus! We aim to glorify God by teaching and living out the Scriptures, transform community into Gospel community and planting churches.
eLittles Evening Playdate
Come let your kids familiarize themselves in their Sunday school rooms and play with friends while you get to socialize with other parents, grandparents, and caregivers while watching and playing with your kids.<br><br>Friday, April 21st, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Men's Study
After take a break for Easter, the Men's Study will resume meeting this Saturday, April 22nd at 7:30am in The Barn.
Serve Santa Maria
Serve Santa Maria is a group that organizes various community projects once to twice a year. Past projects have included repainting homes, helping with landscaping for elderly or at various schools, beautifying our parks and so much more. This year, one of the projects is to help a member of Element who recently became a widow and is in big need of help restoring her home. It is quite a big project and we could use as many volunteers as possible. The event is taking place April 22nd, however, there may be a couple days before then to help prepare for the big projects. If you are at all willing to help, either on the official day or in the days leading up to it, please sign up today and we will be happy to give you more information.
https://ourelement.churchcenter.com/people/forms/513251Baptisms April 23rd at 1pm
Help us celebrate the kids, teens and adults that have chosen to be baptized! Pool party and BBQ to follow!<br><br>Element will provide BBQ chicken, beans, bread and beverages.<br><br>Here's how you can help:<br>Last names beginning with-<br>A-M please bring a finger friendly dessert<br>N-Z please bring a salad (ie- green, fruit, potato, past...)<br><br>Direction to be distributed next Sunday on all communion tables
Griefshare
Registration closes April 24th and space is limited
https://ourelement.churchcenter.com/people/forms/504562The Classics
A ministry to encourage, equip and empower Element's older adults through service, discipleship, and witness.<br><br>Info and brainstorming meeting taking place after 1st service Sunday, April 30th in the Barn.
New to Element? Need prayer? Just want to connect?
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https://ourelement.churchcenter.com/people/forms/295918Start Serving
Click the link below to see all the various areas you can serve at Element and sign up to help
https://ourelement.churchcenter.com/people/forms/395779Church Center - the app
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This week's song list
Interested in looking for some of the songs we sang this week? Here's the titles and original artists:<br><br>All My Fountains - Passion<br>Grace Alone - The Modern Post<br>How Deep The Father's Love For Us - Austin Stone Worship<br>Before The Throne of God - Traditional Arrangement <br>No Longer Slaves - Zach Williams<br>O Great God - DSM
Week 14 - Adoption. Paul's Two "Sents".
The book of Galatians, unlike some other books in the New Testament, is not written to a specific church. Rather, Galatians is written to an area that contained multiple churches who were all having the same problem: people claiming to have authority were coming in and steering these churches toward a form of legalism. These false teachers believed that the only way for the people in these Galatian churches to be children of God was for them to follow the same rules they followed (e.g., circumcision and dietary restrictions). The churches in Galatia started to become confused and didn’t know what to do, because they wanted to please God. Paul catches wind of what is going on and writes this letter, telling them they are saved by grace—not works—and to trust in the provision of Christ.
• At what times are you prone to forget God’s provision for you in Jesus?
Paul moves the Galatians to remember the importance of adoption.
Read Galatians 4:1-7.
• How have you sought acceptance in your life?
• Has being adopted by God had any impact in your life?
The first sent – God sent forth his Son…that we might receive adoption as sons.
The phrase “adoption as sons” means “the full rights of sons.” In the Greco-Roman world, there was a legal transaction in which a childless, wealthy person adopted an heir. When the legal papers went through, the child became an heir and the father became responsible for the actions of the adoptee. Most Christians only think about their salvation in negative terms (“Jesus died for me, so my sins are forgiven”), but there is another legal part of the transaction.
• God sent Jesus. What does He accomplish through this sending?
• What does it mean to receive sonship, the full right of a child, of God?
The second sent – And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
The second “sent” is not the son, but the Spirit. The Spirit is sent someplace to do something and to bring about another result of the Gospel. Prior to being adopted by God, we were in a state of enslavement. Paul says that through Christ, we are set free by the Gospel. Along with that freedom, we receive the Spirit in our hearts. The Spirit does not come to redeem, because that has already been done in Christ. The Spirit works within us to reveal what it means to be sons and daughters of God!
• What legal status change is there in an adoption?
• Has Jesus brought maturity in your faith?
Jesus (as the Son) dies and resurrects to make us sons and daughters—whether we feel like it or not. The Spirit’s job is to help us subjectively and experientially understand that reality. The Spirit comes and assures us of God’s adoption into His family. God sends His Spirit into our hearts to bring us the deep security that rests on the objective fact that our sins are forgiven. We completely belong to Him.
• God sent the Holy Spirit. Are you a child of God, with the Holy Spirit inside of you?
• When was the last time you felt assurance/conviction from the Holy Spirit?
We must think about/meditate on who Jesus is and what He has done: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” We should not ask merely for an experience; what we want is the Holy Spirit’s affirming conviction of our sonship.
• How can believers cry out, “Abba! Father! (daddy!)” to the Creator of the universe?
- Do you often feel like a son/daughter of God?
- How has the Spirit claimed what the Son has done in your life?
- How have you experienced what the Spirit does?
• How can we better ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and minds?
Galatians Reading Plan
For a deeper study of the passages covered this week, download this helpful guide
https://audio.ourelement.org/galatians/notes/2023_galatians_readingPlan_discussions.pdf