Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 313 - The Beauty of Adoption—Spiritual and Physical

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Ep. 313 - The Beauty of Adoption—Spiritual and Physical · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: John Wesley.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: He said, though we are strangers to the world and strangers to ourselves, we are no longer strangers to God, we are His.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: That's what happens when you become a Christian you get adopted into God's family.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Why not you just pause long enough to think through that, to meditate what Christ did for us, and now we reach out to those around us.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: You may not have the ability to adopt somebody into your family, but you can adopt them through prayer.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: You can say I'm committed to pray for this individual.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I remember saying this to an individual one time that I had met.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I just met him.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: He's a bass player for a well-known band and I said listen, I'm committed to pray for you every day for at least a year.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: And he was so taken back that I was willing to do that, and I would send him texts regularly, and he would send me a text hey, this is what I need prayer for Be there for someone.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: You can't adopt them, but you can be there for them and you can adopt them through prayer and just lift them up before God.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Ray Comfort, did you or did you not recently contaminate my office with a biohazard substance?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Blood?
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Oh that's, the life of the flesh is in the blood Biohazard chemical that was going to destroy my office.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it when I saw it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Well, I could have.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Actually, it was just a little pint or two, that's all I cut my leg and I didn't realize, but I put my leg on your seat when I was talking to you and left just a little yeah token of my love seriously.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad you told me though, because I mean you didn't tell me you left the blood.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But after we got done fellowshipping, you got up and said I hate my leg.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: But it was like fresh blood.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I'm like you didn't put the bandage on it.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: What?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: did you do it for no?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: neosporin.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: What did you do it?
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: for.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: What are you going to do that for?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Let it bleed out with Ray one time he had a nosebleed.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Wait a minute.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: No, this is actually what I'm saying Instead of reaching for a napkin or something, he reaches for my Bible and he buries his face in my Bible.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I have Ray's DNA all over my Bible.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Ray help us.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So this happens.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: You're on a plane.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: You've shared this, mark, before.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: It's one of the most fascinating stories I've ever heard.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: What's going through your mind at that moment?
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: This is Mark's Bible.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: It's his Bible.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: You have those brochures and the seats.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Can you grab one of those, ray?
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: It was evangelistic.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: How about your hands?
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: It was evangelistic, he exaggerated.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It was a tiny drip of blood I have, the Bible I should bring it in and show you the blood all through the book of Psalms.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Mark, hang on a minute, just stop, stop.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I can show you the blood all through the book of Psalms.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: It's 150 Psalms.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: What do you think I did?
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I haven't got eight pints.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seeped through.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Save that, because I'm convinced one day they will be able to clone Ray.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Clone Ray what?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: a nightmare.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Imagine that Once is enough.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ray.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So I get up and I'm going to go out of my house.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I'm like what in the world's on my seat?
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: And I'm glad it's washable, yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: So thank you, ray.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Thank you For leaving your blood in my office no greater love had a man than this.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, friends Time.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, we're Oscar-less again.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Dot com.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: A bit early, a little early, okay Dot com.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: He's astounded, afraid, right, all right, friends.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Time for a cool classic comment.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Great stuff and healthy fun, says the subject line with five lovely stars, nicknon.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I really look forward to listening to the conversations these men have in the interplay between them.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: That makes me think, it makes me laugh.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I wonder if the followers of the Lord Jesus, when he was here on earth, had as much fun as they do.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's really nice we have fun.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: What did you talk about today?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Raise blood.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: That was fun.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: It was nothing sacred.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Nicknond.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: We're glad you listened.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: What's his name?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I just said Nicknond, nicknond.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Is that his last name?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was on the Apple platform.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I found it in the comment section Leave comments.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you, yeah, this was on the Apple platform.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I found it in the comment section, so leave comments.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know guys, when you leave comments, let us know where you're from.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: That's always fun.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Now do you notice that we never read the one-star comments?
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: We actually should.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: That's because there's too many.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Who was it?
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Was it?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: He would read the comments where they were like blasting and stuff.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: It's always interesting those things.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Those are nice ones.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: We can read those if you email them to us.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Don't put them inside the ratings.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, send them to us, Tell us how bad we are.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And now a radically revolutionary resource.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by yes, you guessed it, friends, once again, living Waters TV.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Living Waters TV, make sure to check it out.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: You know, I watched the Bible Bee on Living Waters TV.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It was so fascinating I could not believe how much scripture these kids.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I'm still amazed how much scripture you have memorized, right EZ, but how much scripture these kids have memorized with passion.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: They regurgitate the scripture wow, it is honestly one of the most humbling things for me, you know, it is honestly one of the most humbling things for me, and to see them weep when they're quoting scripture is just so good.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Well, there's that one with that young lady, it's got millions on millions of views.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: So, ez, just tell us so people know you host the Bible Bee, yeah, and you've done it for nine years.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Yep, this will be my tenth competition nine years.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Who got?
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: you that job?
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Who actually suggested that you would be great for this?
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Did you?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't know you did that, my dad.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Did you really Told the Leiningers yes?
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, what a nice guy.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah so.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's so eloquent in the Bible.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: He never gets.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: He never loses his train of thought, yeah so you host it.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Train of thought he never loses his train of thought.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you host it.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: And this is a group of kids that have memorized huge portions of Scripture.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: That's why I was saying it's humbling because you guys know I mean, we've talked about it before Scripture memories, a passion of mine.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I'm working on my 14th book, about 1,000 verses, 50 chapters.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: These kids are doing that, the senior level.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: A thousand verses in the course of a summer.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: This has taken me decades.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, three months, and they're standing on a stage and they're firing references at us?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Do they utilize Memory Palace and things like that?
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Have you ever asked them?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Some of them do stuff like that.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Others of them they just yeah, they'll use maybe Bible memory app, but it's repetition.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: And then they do Matthew Henry's commentary on top of that.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: It's insane.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Remember I shared with you guys one year a girl memorized a whole book of Psalms.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: She said yeah, it was a gift to my parents.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: But they do Greek as well, I noticed.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they'll throw Greek, because it's not just Scripture memory, it's also Bible knowledge.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I've learned the Psalms numbers 1 through 150.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: 1 through 150 yeah, so it's amazing, but you can watch it on Living Waters TV.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I hope we piqued your interest by talking about it, so check it out and you get so many different things on there.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So where do they find Living Waters TV?
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: you go to livingwaterscom, you can find it on there no, no, it's got an action.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Livingwaterstv yeah livingwaterstv or livingwaterscom no, we can have that if you want, but I like to use dot tv, yeah, livingwaterstv, so make sure to check it out, friends.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And uh, oh, it's available on roku, apple tv, fire tv, android app, ios app, so check it out.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Don't forget the living waters mug and the evidence study bible all at livingwaterscom?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: No, no, all at livingwaterscom, no, no, no, com Livingwaters com com.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I love when you sound like a referee Mark pointing at me.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: All right, for real, okay just got to say we miss Oscar.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: We do miss Oscar.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: You bring danishes and there's no danishes.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: No, no it's not just that, it's his fellowship.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: No, it's the Danish.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: It's the Danish's.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: No, we do miss Oscar.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: It's definitely not the same without him.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Come back, Oscar.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Alright, friends Today we're talking.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Do you think he'd listen to this, are you?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: kidding.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Come back, oscar, he's my favorite host.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Don't forget friends, oh no, don't forget what?
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, today we're talking about my brain.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Did you read Don't Forget, when, in reality, you just needed to read whatever that said.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't read Don't Forget.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: My brain just said Don't Forget.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know why.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: All right, today we're talking about the beauty of adoption.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: I thought it was adaptation.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: What's evolution, speciation?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Spiritual and physical.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, adoption Boy.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I think this would be one of the dynamics, that's a part of our salvation that we probably think about and talk about least, Wouldn't you say, Mark?
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, when you're hearing someone talk about all the glories of salvation, they don't typically go toward hey, and we were adopted?
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just don't do that.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Ji Packer put it like this in relation to when we're talking about salvation.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: He said JI Packer put it like this in relation when we're talking about salvation.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: He said adoption is the highest privilege the gospel offers, higher even than justification.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: It is a family idea conceived in terms of love and viewing God as Father.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Adoption we talked in the last episode about orphans and widows.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Now this naturally progresses into adoption and we're going to talk about, spiritually and physically.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: What a beautiful thing to discuss today.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited, yeah yeah, I'm really excited about it, and any of you adopted.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Into the family.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Into the family Ray are you adopted?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: No, you know kids used to tell me when I was a kid I did panic at one point because you remember my dad was 65 when I was a kid.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I did panic at one point because you remember my dad was 65 when I was born.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: So my friends are seeing my I'm 10 years old, my dad's 75.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Dude, you were adopted I can't be your dad.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Well, it's like the two kids that were arguing.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: One, the biological son, said to the other.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: The other one said you're adopted.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And continually made fun of him You're adopted, you're adopted.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: And then the adopted son retorted back and said yeah, I got chosen, they got stuck with you.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: So true, that's a good point, yeah, and the beauties of it when we look at Scripture.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: John 1 12, but as many as received him.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: To them he gave the right to become children of God.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name".
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Gave the right to become children of God, Ray.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I'd like you to kick us off with talking about this.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Don't you think that to the world, the whole concept of spiritual adoption is strange because of the modern false gospel that leads everyone to think all of us are children of God?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Right, we hear that a lot actually.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, god's love and kind and merciful, and he's love and he loves all of us and we're all His children, which is so contrary to Scripture, where Jesus said to the religious leaders, the spiritually outwardly clean Pharisees you're a father of the devil and his work should do.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I was reading just with fresh eyes the other day Luke 4, where Jesus gave his first sermon and they all fell upon him and tried to throw him off a cliff.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: I think we've been up near that cliff.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: It's a very, very high cliff.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: And that was his first sermon and there was no amens and hallelujahs when he was sharing with them about the blessing of God coming upon the Gentiles that offended them.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: And.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I think, if you count it up, they try to kill Jesus 10 times before he got to the cross.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: But it wasn't his time.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: It continually says in scripture but yeah, whatever I was saying was brilliant, I've gone off the track.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Well, do you think of that, ray, when you go out witnessing right, because I've had stuff thrown at me when I've been opening or preaching, hitting the head twice in the midst of that.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You've done far more than I've ever done.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: You go into, I want to say, almost dangerous areas in the area that our ministry is located.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Do you ever fear or wonder is something going to happen to me?
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And do you think I have an insurance plan that is out of this world, that nothing can?
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: really happen.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think like that because I know I'm vulnerable, especially at Huntington Beach.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: We've got two cameramen, one is Yale and the other is Frank, and they film everything that goes on, and having them there really gives me assurance that no one's going to kill me, because they're going to be filmed from three different angles.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: So it's really good having them there.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Plus, they're being told if I do get beaten up, they're going to film it.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: But yeah, you do feel vulnerable.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mark did that for me, by the way, in New Zealand.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you, mark, but I was willing to step in and to do something.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I chose to do it.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: He had the intent and the capacity, but didn't do it.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But that is one of the neatest bit of films that we've got of you Easy, but that guy's hands are on your throat Listen, yank.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, hands are on your throat, could?
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: you say that again.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: That's how people recognize you.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So we're talking about?
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Is it contrary for the world to hear about things such as spiritual adoption?
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: The Bible says the natural man sees not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can you know them.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: They're foolishness to him because they're spiritually discerned.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: And so the whole realm of the Spirit is contrary to the natural man.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: If you can't see it, it doesn't exist.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: So he thinks, and yet he believes in a lot of things that he can't see History, love and whatever wind.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I've never tried to convince any unbeliever that we get spiritually adopted.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Perhaps I should sometime.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it might minister to them.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: How would we, how would we word that, you know, in the midst of the conversation?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Right, we think about the different elements that are almost missing from our evangelistic message, one being count the cost.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: That is something that is typically shared when you're giving our evangelistic message.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: One being count the cost.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: That is something that is typically shared when you're giving an evangelistic message in persecuted areas.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Also, the ascension of Christ.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: That could be included as well.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Many different elements in the midst of this.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: But when we start talking about adoption, how do we include that in the midst of our conversation?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that just brought to mind the thought of how much I really believe the world appreciates gentle, loving, kind, candidness on behalf of the Christian when they're witnessing to them.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: And there are certain things I think we stay away from because of our sense of how it's going to make the person uncomfortable, Like when you talk about adoption.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: There's an implication.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: First, it's almost impossible with an unbeliever to talk about adoption independent of telling them they're not a child of God, right, and there's an offensive element with that.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You know, Ray, as you were talking about what Jesus said to the Pharisees.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: You know, you're father of the devil.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: There was another instance, I believe, where he was.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I think he was rebuking the Pharisees and I think it was the scribes that said to him, or was it the Sadducees, I can't remember, but they said to him Lord, when you say that, you offend us too.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: And then, without skipping, a beat, he goes, and woe unto you too yeah you poor thing.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: She missed out.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Here I go.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: He's like oh, and thanks for reminding me, by the way.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: They're like hey, you're offending us, like thinking hey, you're no, no.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Isn't that thrilling to see that side of the character of Jesus Total fearlessness, where Simon says come into my house, be a guest, and suddenly he's being rebuked by Jesus.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, but I love that.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I mean he modeled for us the way that we need to be.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: And again, that's not to say it's the whole.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: What would Jesus do?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: We don't have the right to do everything Jesus did.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: He had certain things within his prerogative as the divine Son of God but Walking on water and things like that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, stuff like that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: But I think there are different things that we know.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Scripture reiterates that we're to do right, we're to speak truth, but we're to speak it in love.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Now, you have to remember, in some of those instances it was toward wicked, hardened, hypocritical religious leaders, but toward the average person, mark, to be able to look at the unbeliever and to say you know, a lot of times people have this notion that all of us are just children of God.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Now we can say we're children of God by way of creation right, like God created us all but we're really not God's children, spiritually, in fact, we're separated from him.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: The Bible says yeah, you know, I shared the gospel yesterday in Huntington Beach.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I had five different encounters and this one encounter.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I talked to these two girls at one time and they both found out during the conversation that each one of them had had an abortion.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: And when I was going through the different commandments and I got to murder.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I usually they're friends.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: They were two friends and they didn't know either.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: They didn't know either one.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's interesting.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: And when I got to the sixth commandment, dealing with murder, I said you know, obviously you've never murdered, and I say that because I go into the spirit of the law.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: God not only sees the actions that we do, but the things that we think about.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And I was gonna talk about hatred and this lady, she got it on camera.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Her head sinks down.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: She said well, actually I murdered my child, I had an abortion, and it was like wow.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And there was contrition.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: There was contrition.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Talk about rare.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But then she followed it up with I'm going to see my child again in heaven.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously there's different views on that.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Do all aborted babies go to heaven or not?
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting into that.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: But I said listen, what you need to be concerned about at this very moment is to become a child of God.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know what's up with your child, but you can become a child of God.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: John 1.12,.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: We quoted it, you quoted it earlier.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: For as many as received him, then you became the right.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: You have the right, you have the authority, you have the power to become a child of God.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And you see them and I love it when they begin to nod in agreement, because you can't hide that.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: You can't hide emotions of what you're going through.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: It's unconscious so often they don't realize they're going like this.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I absolutely love that.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Isaiah 117, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless and plead the widow's cause.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: John Piper, he said adoption is greater than the universe.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: The universe was created to display the greatness of God's adoption of sinners.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And so adoption very important in God's eyes.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: And we know a family who only adopts kids with special needs.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've said this before, I share this all the time with people.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Those people and others like them are my heroes.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Those are the real heroes of the world.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Forget the chariots of fire, music playing and this cat's getting rescued from a tree by a firefighter.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Someone who says I'm going to now alter my entire life until I die, basically for the most part, looking after these children.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: There's no empty nest, there's no constant vacations and this family I think they've like six or seven kids- or something blind and and and crippled, and I mean all kinds of things it's like dennis and michelle eastman
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: yeah the tender church right.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They for the last couple years, have taken care of this little boy who has to be watched every single moment.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And I just spoke at a pro-life gala and I mistakenly had asked Michelle who was there.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, where's Dennis?
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: And it was like, well, of course he's with the child.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: They cannot go out together without bringing that child with them.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: And yet they have sacrificed themselves.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And I was so blown away when they told me Dennis had told me.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And I was so blown away when they told me Dennis had told me that one of their children said Dad, when you and Mom die, I want to take care of that child.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I won't mention the name, but I want to take care of the child.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I want to be there.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: And can you imagine that proud moment of the parents just thinking they get it, they're ready to take that baton and to run and give hope and help to a child who can't even say thank you in return?
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: I'm going to bring this down a notch.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I was in an aviary once and I said to the guy with all these beautiful birds, like hundreds of birds in this aviary, what are those birds?
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: He said, oh rejects, I'm going to kill them.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: And there were three birds in there.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: One had a peg leg, One was blind and I can't remember what was wrong with the other.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: I said I'll take him.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: He said you can't have him for nothing.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: So I took him home and I thought this is like the kingdom of God.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I adopted them and there was peg leg and Bartimaeus, and Bartimaeus laid an egg, so we had to change it to Bartimaeate.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Bartimaeate Were they, chickens Were they?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: birds?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: No, they were birds, they were canaries, yeah, nice.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, you know, Mark I was praying.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I'll take a moment to cook them.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: It's terrible, is that a?
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: barbecue sauce.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: It tastes like chicken.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Oh no, Guys, that's terrible.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Terrible Mark.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: I was praying for the Eastmans, in fact, this morning and the heartache that they've gone through.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I was fasting for the Eastmans this morning.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I gave up my home.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I gave all my money.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I sold everything in Ray's house.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: No, but I was praying for them and specifically because they foster all the time, but the heartbreak.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: They had a young child, I think for a year or two or I can't remember how long it was, but then the child got placed, you know, and just it's like it just tears them up.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: How can you do that?
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Can't you just say look, this is a permanent fostering, Sorry.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Well, sometimes, or sometimes it's going back to their parents.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I think that's maybe what that was, but sometimes there's, you know, difficult situations that are involved with that and it's just heartbreaking but, yeah, but that heart of you know toward the unbeliever, being able to walk them through that and say, but you know what the Bible talks about God adopting, and Ray, that triggers things in people's minds of what adoption is on an earthly level, that you're going out of your way to take someone that didn't belong to you in a sense.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I often wonder how I'd react if suddenly I was told that my parents weren't my parents, I was adopted.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: What would it do to my attitude?
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Does that make me different?
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: And the whole thing you think about it?
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: The alternative to adoption is often abortion, and so if you're adopted, just thank God that you weren't aborted.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: God, let you have life and, like we said before, if you're adopted into a family, they chose you.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: You're very special.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Maybe you were adopted because your mother didn't want you.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: That can be a sense of rejection, but think what would have happened if you'd stayed with her or she maybe didn't have the finances, you wouldn't have been brought up with given needs.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: But now you are because people have adopted you and given you life and given you everything you need.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Romans 8, 14 to 17,.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, abba, father.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: And we often don't quote the spirit of adoption, part hey, crying out Abba, father.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: But that's in connection with the fatherhood of God in our lives as his adopted children.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you know, you know.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: We often hear from people that say you know, what am I supposed to do with the child?
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Of course I'm going to get an abortion.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I don't want them, and as if adoption is so far from the conversation that it's inconceivable.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: But it's even seemed as negative sometimes.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Right, there's famous celebrities who were adopted.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: We have Steve Jobs we would not have Apple if he was never born.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: We have Nicole Richie.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Jamie Foxx, the actor Ray Liotta he was adopted.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Michael Bay, the director from Transformers he was adopted.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton, raised by his stepfather after being born to a single mother.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Jack Nicholson, the actor was raised by his grandparents and he thought that his grandparents were his actual parents.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Really Easy, thought that.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: My grandparents would be 400.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Nelson Mandela, lance Armstrong, the bicyclist, but there's so many people and thank God for adoption services and I think how amazing would it be if the government grabbed a hold of the $500 million that they put towards abortion, donations from Planned Parenthood and organizations like that, put it towards adoption services.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Isn't it sad that adoption is so difficult and you have to go through a lot of hurdles to get it, because there's so much wickedness out there and you can just say here's a Christian family, They'll take anyone, any child that's in need.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: They should, okay, just get it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: What does the pastor?
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Can he confirm that these are good Christians?
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: You guys know that there are 20 million children around the world that are in need of a home.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Who counted them?
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: That are orphans, one lady, one lady with a shoe right, a lady who lived in a shoe, but you know what I'm saying Mark 20 million.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And that doesn't include snowflake adoptions, which are through IVF process and they have the embryo sometimes up to 20 embryos from a couple that have come in that they're going to freeze indefinitely or they're going to kill.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: And there's couples that are saying, hey, I only want to adopt embryos inside of an IVF clinic which we can get into that a whole, nother time.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: But what an amazing opportunity to grab a hold of life and to allow that life to flourish for the sake of Christ Mark.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: When you encounter people on the streets, do you get that Almost like I would never put my child up for adoption?
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as if it's such a curse word and it's absolutely insane to come across that position there are people they raise it as an objection right If nobody's going to take my child if I put it up for adoption, when in fact, as you mentioned, there are thousands of parents ready and willing to take in children that are unwanted or discarded from their family specifically.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: We need to turn that around and we need that awareness, and that's what I'm talking about.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: If our government were to do something about it, um, there would be 500500 million a year granted towards services that would lower the cost for people who really want to have a child.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, what are we missing Common sense here?
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Kirk adopted three.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he did.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Kirk adopted three kids, no four.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Four.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Sound like scripture.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And Chelsea was adopted.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: Chelsea was adopted.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: I yeah, chelsea was adopted, and then oh, I thought no, he married her.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: He adopted Chelsea.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they adopted four and then had two of their own and I don't think they had ever planned that originally but then decided to have two kids and what a delight to see that.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: And these kids that look back and say, man, someone adopted me.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Rachel and I have a dear sister in our church who was adopted and she shares her story with such gratitude.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: She was in an orphanage, her parents adopted her and she has been transformed because of that.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: She came to know Christ because of that.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: And you think about how you change the destiny of a person and then that lineage that goes on beyond that, through someone demonstrating the love of Christ and that care and concern.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Galatians 4, 4-7,.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: But when the fullness of the time had come, god sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: And because you are sons, god has sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts, crying out Abba, father.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: So yeah, there's that element.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: We just read that.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: But that was a part of God's plan that we might receive the adoption as sons.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: And Ephesians 1.5,.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: You know that was a big deal in the Roman world, Like adoption was serious.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, ray, you remember Ben-Hur, the whole adoption of Judah Ben-Hur by the senator, yes, yes, yeah.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: By the guy that he saved.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love that movie.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Ah that's so good.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: 49?
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Oh wait, what was it?
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: No, your eyes are full of.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking of Get Smart 99.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Add me my shit.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Your eyes are full of hate.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: 41.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: That's good.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Hate keeps a man alive.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: It makes him strong.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Oh, 41.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: So, while you're going, so, so and um, if you found out you were adopted.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Would you want to search out your birth mother and if you did, for what reason?
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: You would?
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: I would, yeah that curiosity would just perhaps get to me Well, and as a Christian, I would want to share the gospel.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: That's a great point.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: You would not concern that it would open a can of worms.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it could.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: It's easy to say it right when we're not in that predicament, but I think I would want to, as a believer, and if I was feeling emotional about it, I would want to try to set those aside and think bigger picture.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I mean Oscars talked about it before, not that he was adopted, but he didn't have his father in his life.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And then he ended up searching him out and finding him.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Remember what he said, how his dad said they had his pictures in their house.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: They would celebrate his birthday every year.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: And it was just this.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know how it happened, but they got disconnected, there was misunderstanding, and then they ended up getting reunited like that.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: So you would search at your birth mother, not because you felt something was missing in your life, but out of curiosity and wanting to share the gospel.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I would say so, but I could also.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I mean again, I've never been in that position to share the gospel.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I would say so, but I could also.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I mean again, I've never been in that position.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: But I think for some there is that sense of like yeah, something's missing.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Could that be satisfied in Christ?
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: I think ultimately for sure, but there still could be that ache in the soul, you know, on a physical, because I put myself in that mentality just fora moment, and it does give me an ache to think my mother that I knew was my mother wasn't my mother.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: She was a stranger that took me in the Bible, verse there somewhere.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah so it stirs up a realm of emotions.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: And a lot of times adopted kids do struggle with that, Even if they had a wonderful home there's just that sense of like what was wrong with me?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Why didn't my parents want me?
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: so should, as if you had an adopted child, would you tell him I think absolutely at a young age.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they get used to it at a young age.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: You explain it to them and you, you know one year old, you're adopted yeah, I had one of my siblings, um, find out that, uh, he was adopted and he was 24 25 years old at the time.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: One of your siblings, one of my siblings find out that he was adopted and he was 24, 25 years old at the time.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: One of your siblings, one of my siblings.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that much and he took it pretty hard when it happened and it gave an opportunity for me to share the gospel with him.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: He's a Christian now, but he wasn't a Christian at the time.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: But he was just kind of beating himself up over trying to figure out, well, who is his biological parent, and when he reached out to his biological parent, his biological parent didn't want to have anything to do with him.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: That's like salt in the wound, isn't it?
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes it can end up being more devastating, I think, for some people.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: What's your biological parent's name?
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Hitler?
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine?
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Oh man, but yeah.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: But this once again right.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: This once again just goes down to the fact that adoption is such a beautiful thing because here is an individual, or a couple individuals, who said I will choose you, I will take care of you.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: They get nothing out of it.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: They have chosen to interrupt their lives in order to take care of you.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Man, you should be overwhelmed with gratitude towards that person or people.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Amen, yeah, and there are stories.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I remember seeing one where someone sought out their biological parent with the sole motivation to thank them for not aborting them, to thank them for you know.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I love, that Isn't that beautiful.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Like thank you and the relief for the parent, because you can imagine the guilt that someone who gave their child up for adoption is feeling.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: There's always that sense of like.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I gave up my child, but that sense of like thank you for not killing me.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: You gave me another chance and but that sense of like thank you for not killing me.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: You gave me another chance and I was part of this wonderful family and I remember when I watched that one it's like the parent was just in tears Like oh, this is what I've needed to hear all these years.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: So this wasn't a movie, this was real life.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was a real life thing.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Was it cool, saw somewhere, oh how?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: about.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: I sought out my mother.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Not without my daughter.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, the.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Arab.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: So it's interesting to think this is off the subject very slightly, but we don't remember the first three or four years of our lives, which is weird when you think about it Do you remember what's the first memory you had, Mark?
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: um saying my abc is when I was 16 when, when mark realized santa wasn't real at 17 years easy.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: You've got a good memory.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: What's your first memory?
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: you know, I was, and it's funny, I was thinking about this exact thing the other day, ray.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: I was thinking like how, how is it that we go three years, maybe four?
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, my first memories would probably be around four in Lebanon.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: Was it something traumatic?
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was when my uncle committed suicide.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be it.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: You guys know, I had an uncle I was named after Emil.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was still alive and he was my favorite uncle and he just committed suicide.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: One day he shot himself in the head.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: You shared that testimony in our suicide movie called Exit, exit, yeah.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I remember just like panic and people crying, and so there's that.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: And I remember just sitting on our patio as a little boy and playing and just a few memories like that.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I remember leaving Lebanon, when we all got in the car and all the neighbors were around.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: You know those big things where there's emotion.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: You're like what's?
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: My traumatic experience, and I'll never forget it, was where I was in kindergarten and I had to sit in front of the class where we had a picture taken with my legs folded because I was the shortest Nothing really right.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: That's my first memory.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not kidding.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I remember that you come up here cross your legs, sit there.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Stump.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, memories are weird, but as an adopted child on an earthly level, to be able to not have memory of what your first years were, but to know that there were these people caring for you.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: You know they have the memories and we depend on you know our parents, to share those memories.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: We went and we you know that we got the phone call.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm getting the chills.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: We got the phone call.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: There was a baby available and we jumped in the car and we rushed over there and there you were and you know I mean you think of these kids that don't have that story.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Think of these kids in India.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Remember that movie years ago, slumdog Millionaire?
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: These kids that are, they're made blind so that wicked evil people can make money off of them, so they can go out and beg, they maim them.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: I mean those that say man is basically good, those that say man, man is basically good.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: How stupid you know when you think about the, the wicked heart of man, and what it can do that deep-rooted, selfish, egocentric, self-centered love in in that wicked way.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: You know I was just thinking this morning which you were strange.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just I just started thinking no, it was just strange to have thoughts go through the empty room.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: What a bizarre thing, right.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Just how rich this world would be if all the money that was spent on wars was spent on benefiting mankind rather than destroying it.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: It would go into hundreds of trillions of dollars, probably down through the ages.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Think what's going on now all the wars and bombs that are costing millions of dollars just to explode a bomb and stuff like that.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: There'd be no hungry people, no sick people.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Everyone could be educated and taken care of.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: I've got a phone call from my sister in New Zealand.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: I won't take it because we'll just get rid of it.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I know you think about that and this is where we look and we say if believers were to rally we talk about that every election this many quote-unquote Christians did not vote, didn't get involved you think, if Christians stood up, if they adopted children, if they looked and just said, look, we want to do this in order to express love, more believers did that, because you're not just adopting a child and saving their life, you're giving them the opportunity to grow up under the blessing of a Christian home and to be able to be influenced by the gospel.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, salvation belongs to the Lord.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do with that.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: But boy, we could be pointers.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: We can come alongside and answer any questions that kind of come our way.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I came across this recently about William Wilberforce right British politician, abolitionist.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Imagine Wilberforce standing in the British Parliament battling for years to abolish the slave trade.
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  Speaker 1: His life's work was to free those in bondage, echoing the gospel message of spiritual adoption and freedom in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And he said you may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.
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  Speaker 1: We know that there's people in need, and we get so caught up in our day-to-day grind we miss all that is happening around us.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, our last podcast was so beautifully convicting to me when we started talking about the orphan and the widow and being there and just helping an elderly individual with their phone right.
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  Speaker 1: Help them with anything that you could possibly help out with John Wesley.
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  Speaker 1: He said, though we are strangers to the world and strangers to ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: We are no longer strangers to God, we are His.
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  Speaker 1: That's what happens when you become a Christian you get adopted into God's family.
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  Speaker 1: Why not you just pause long enough to think through that, to meditate what Christ did for us.
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  Speaker 1: And now we reach out to those around us.
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  Speaker 1: You may not have the ability to adopt somebody into your family, but you can adopt them through prayer.
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  Speaker 1: You can say I'm committed to pray for this individual.
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  Speaker 1: I remember saying this to an individual one time that I had met I had just met him he's a bass player for a well-known band and I said listen, I'm committed to pray for you every day for at least a year.
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  Speaker 1: And he was so taken back that I was willing to do that and I would send him texts regularly and he would send me a text hey, this is what I need prayer for Be there for someone.
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  Speaker 1: You can't adopt them, but you can be there for them and you could adopt them through prayer and just lift them up before God.
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  Speaker 2: You know, mark, you and I were recently talking about prayer.
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  Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought that up and just like our ignorance when it comes to the dynamic involved in prayer, of God actually working and moving.
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  Speaker 2: And I mean honestly, if someone came up to you and said, hey, I'll give you $100,000, or 1,000 people will commit to pray for you every single day, like my natural man.
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  Speaker 1: I love how your brain works, right?
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  Speaker 1: This doesn't work in anybody else's brain.
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  Speaker 2: But my natural man goes toward well, $100,000.
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  Speaker 2: But if we understood the value of someone going before the throne of God Almighty, who's able to do all things and to intercede for you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah right, $10 million.
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  Speaker 2: I'll take them both.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm just saying, you know, like that mindset and heart of saying, wow, I can have an impact.
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  Speaker 2: I can affect the widows and the orphans, I can affect, you know, those that are in foster homes through prayer.
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  Speaker 2: It's like that poem I've read before Traveling on my Knees.
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  Speaker 2: Do you have it memorized?
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  Speaker 2: I don't, but it's a powerful poem.
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  Speaker 2: You could probably find it.
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  Speaker 3: Couldn't you bluff it?
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  Speaker 3: We wouldn't know.
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  Speaker 2: On my knees.
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  Speaker 2: Lebanese eat a bunch of cheese, cheese, cheese, that's better than the normal.
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  Speaker 1: What is it called Travel on my Knees?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, traveling my knees.
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  Speaker 2: I love this quote by Ian Dugwid.
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  Speaker 2: He said, properly understood, adoption is one of the most precious, heartwarming and practical of all our theological beliefs.
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  Speaker 2: It focuses our attention on a relational image and points us to the joy and assurance that comes from receiving a Father who loves us.
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  Speaker 2: You adopted us, and here's the thing right.
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  Speaker 2: Often people do look to adopt those that are, you know, promising.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe they're healthy and you'll see, you know, in movies, are they healthy?
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  Speaker 2: And then there are those that adopt those that are physically impaired.
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  Speaker 2: But beyond all that, it's not that God said okay, I'm not going to go for those that are maybe promising for the future or those that maybe have some frailties.
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  Speaker 2: I am going to adopt wicked, evil, rebellious enemies of mine.
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  Speaker 1: Ugly Ugly, come on Ugly.
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  Speaker 1: Hely, come on Ugly.
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  Speaker 2: He adopted his enemies and that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us.
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  Speaker 2: We were at enmity with God.
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  Speaker 2: He says I'm going to adopt you.
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  Speaker 2: I mean that.
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  Speaker 2: Just that shifts our whole mind and understanding when it comes to the love of God.
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  Speaker 1: Amazing grace, I found the poem.
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  Speaker 3: Read it.
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  Speaker 2: Traveling on the knees.
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  Speaker 1: Last night I took a journey to a land across the seas.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't go by boat or plane, I traveled on my knees.
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  Speaker 1: I saw so many people there in deepest depths of sin.
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  Speaker 1: But Jesus told me I should go, that there were souls to win.
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  Speaker 1: But I said, Jesus, I can't go and work with such as these.
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  Speaker 1: He answered quickly yes, you can, by traveling on your knees, he said.
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  Speaker 1: And so I tried it, knelt in prayer, gave up some hours of ease.
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  Speaker 1: I felt the Lord right by my side while I traveled on my knees.
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  Speaker 1: As I prayed on, I saw souls saved and twisted bodies healed.
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  Speaker 1: I saw God's workers' strength renewed.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't rhyme that While laboring in the field I said yes, Lord, I'll take the job.
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  Speaker 1: Your heart I want to please.
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather go and pray for souls than travel on my knees.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, Isn't that good, you wrote that.
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  Speaker 3: No, oh, I thought you did no.
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  Speaker 2: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: I thought you did too no.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I thought you were being humble.
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever written a poem?
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  Speaker 1: Who are you?
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  Speaker 2: I told you guys like that poem says oh, I'm so disappointed in you, oh man.
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  Speaker 2: Shame on me.
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  Speaker 1: I hate you.
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  Speaker 2: Shame on you.
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  Speaker 2: I know what it's like to travel on your knees.
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  Speaker 2: So, anyhow, guys, this is something we need to, I think, as believers, meditate on more, study more and be moved by more that God adopted us as his enemies.
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  Speaker 3: Amen.
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  Speaker 2: And he's enabled us to partake in everything that relates to his kingdom.
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  Speaker 2: We've become heirs with Christ, fellow heirs with Christ.
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  Speaker 2: God, through our adoption, has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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  Speaker 3: And there's one thing that I think is just wonderful when someone is adopted physically, they become part of a family.
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  Speaker 3: It's not just I've got new parents, but I've got new brothers and sisters and when we're adopted into the family of God, we have brothers and sisters throughout, and when we're adopted into the family of God, we have brothers and sisters throughout the whole world.
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  Speaker 1: Millions of them born of the same spirit, and we have a closer bond with fellow Christians than we do with our own siblings and mother and father, because of the blood of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: That's how beautiful adoption is in God's eyes.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite things about traveling for ministry is connecting with the expanded family of.
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  Speaker 2: God all across the world.
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  Speaker 3: And seconds.
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  Speaker 3: You know them.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, seconds, and we all have that experience, right, you meet a believer and it's like you felt, like you've known him all your life, you have the same God, you have the same Holy Spirit within you.
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  Speaker 2: You've both been adopted into the family of God.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, amen.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: Well, there you have it, friends Adoption.
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  Speaker 2: We have no option as Christians.
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  Speaker 2: We are adopted, and so let's live in light of that wonderful, beautiful reality.
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  Speaker 2: And, hey, believer, think about adoption.
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  Speaker 2: Is that something the Lord has for you and your family?
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  Speaker 2: You shouldn't take it lightly.
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  Speaker 2: It is something that you really have to count the cost on, because there are challenges associated with it, but there are glories associated with it as well.
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  Speaker 2: So seek the Lord on that.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: All right, friends, don't forget Living Waters TV, living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible all at livingwaterscom podcast, at livingwaterscom, with your thoughts and comments and all that good stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, friends.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea especially Mark and Ray what we're doing.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: And Oscar, oh yeah, oscar too, he doesn't know what he's doing.