#38 Why God Chose to Adopt You (And Why it Changes Everything)

8 Sept

YouTube Video of the Church Service

Matt Edmundson kicks off our new relationships series by looking at our most important relationship of all, our relationship with God, our Father. Matt tackles one of the most fundamental questions we face as Christians (what does it actually mean to be called a child of God?) by exploring the often misunderstood topic of biblical adoption and why God chose this specific language to describe our relationship with Him.

Second Best or Chosen Best?

Before exploring what adoption meant in Paul's time, Matt was honest about his own struggle with the concept of adoption. Like many of us, he'd unconsciously viewed adoption as second best, like God was saying, "Well, you're not my real children, but I'll take you anyway."

This bias shifted when Matt got to know people at Frontline Church who had adopted children - families like Adam and Jo Drury, who adopted twins, and Phil Watson. Watching these families helped him see adoption differently, but it wasn't until he understood Roman adoption that everything clicked.

Paul writes in Romans 8:15: "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father."

That word "Abba" - it's not just theological language. It means daddy, dad, pops. It's intimate, personal, secure.

Understanding the Roman Context

When Paul wrote about adoption to the church in Rome, he wasn't talking about adopting babies. In Roman culture, they adopted adults - people who had already proven their character, ability, and strength.

Romans had a saying: "Adopting an adult heir, the father could see what he was getting." They weren't taking chances on a baby who might not survive in a world where one third of children died in their first year.

Adoption was more permanent than natural birth: In Roman law, you could legally disown a natural child through something called "emancipatio." But you could never disown an adopted child. Ever. Why? Because adoption was a legal transaction witnessed by seven people, it involved a complete transfer of authority.

The adopted person received everything: A new name, a new identity, and became heir to everything - often over natural children.

Once adopted, that was it. Permanent. Irrevocable. Forever.

What This Means for Monday Morning

Matt shared how this understanding transformed his perspective on trying to earn God's approval. We've all got our versions of this - maybe it's faith ("If I just had enough faith, then God will..."), emotional confirmation ("If I feel God's presence strongly enough..."), theological knowledge ("If I just understand doctrine perfectly..."), or good works (measuring worth by small group attendance or cakes baked for church).

But when you understand you're God's permanently adopted child, it changes how you think about everything:

Monday morning's business crisis - you're still his child.
That relationship falling apart - you're still his child.
The diagnosis that terrifies you - you're still his child.
That failure you can't forgive yourself for - you're still his child.

Nothing can change your adopted status. Paul writes it plainly in Romans 8:38-39: "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Conversation Street

During Conversation Street, the discussion got properly deep into what this adoption means practically.

The Choice in Adoptions

Matt pointed out that there are actually two parties in Roman adoption. The adopter and the adoptee. As adults, the adopted person had to make a conscious choice to leave their previous family and accept adoption into the new one.

There's a thread here about choice, about deliberately deciding to allow God to adopt you. This can happen young or old, instantly or over time, but there has to be that conscious decision.

What's the cost of being adopted into God's family?

Anna said, "The cost is also your life, you know, saying to God, I want to have a relationship with you and I'm willing to give you every part of my life in exchange for all that you offer me."

But she was quick to add: "The exchange by my reckoning is a pretty good one. It's like my rubbish life for everything that God has to offer."

Ellis commented that the cost is "giving up the illusion of control" - and that cuts right to the heart of it.

What if you've had a difficult relationship with your earthly father?

Anna raised this important question, and Matt's response was both pastoral and practical. If you've had a negative relationship with your dad, it's easy to project those characteristics onto God, even subconsciously.

Matt's encouragement: "I would encourage you to pray this through and allow God to renew in you a fresh image of what a good father can be... Just bring to God those things that you are projecting on him from your own experiences and allow God to heal that and to renew your mind."

Anna added something crucial: "I think it's worth thinking about that regardless of whether you think you've got a good relationship with your dad or not... there's probably things that are quite skewed about how we think about fatherhood regardless of our backgrounds."

Security to Live Freely

Matt told a story about Saturday mornings as a kid, lying on the sofa watching cartoons while his mum would bang on the ceiling when she wanted tea. He and his brother would argue about whose turn it was, annoyed at the interruption.

"We take our mums for granted, don't we? Of course she'll be there. Of course she's gonna provide, of course she's gonna protect. That's what security does. It frees you to live without constantly questioning the relationship."

When you understand you're God's permanently adopted child, you stop performing for acceptance you already have. You stop fearing rejection that literally cannot happen. You stop trying to earn what's freely given.

As Matt put it: "We don't need to fight FOR our place, but we can fight FROM our place."

Your Next Step This Week

Matt challenged anyone who's been trying to earn what they already have: Stop.

Here's what to try instead:

Stop performing for acceptance: You already have it through adoption, not through achievement.
Stop fearing rejection: It literally cannot happen. The papers are signed in Christ's blood.
Stop wondering if you're enough: You're not. None of us are. That's why grace exists.
Let God be your father: Don't model Father God entirely on your earthly father. Let him show you what perfect fatherhood looks like.
Remember your identity: You're a co-heir with Christ. That's not just a nice phrase - it has eternal consequences.

Chosen, Not Accidental

Matt talked about when his eldest son, Josh, was born. Sitting up late one night, giving Josh his feed while Sharon slept, Matt found himself watching Star Wars with his newborn son.

"In that quiet moment, holding this very tiny contented boy, with all kinds of uncertainty and questions swirling through my mind, I think I finally understood something about God and my relationship with him."

Josh hadn't earned Matt's love. He couldn't earn it. In some respects, he was doing the exact opposite - being demanding, not giving, crying and needing constantly. Yet he was Matt's son.

God's love is like that, but infinitely more secure. As Matt put it: "You are not accidentally his. You are not conditionally his. You're not temporarily his. He has intentionally chosen you to be permanently, legally, and irrevocably his."

Hope for the Journey

Maybe you've been banging your head against the wall trying to feel worthy of God's love. Maybe you've been measuring your relationship with him by how well you're performing spiritually. Maybe you're exhausted from trying to be good enough.

Here's what Matt wants you to know: that baby watching Star Wars didn't need to understand the plot or follow the dialogue. He just needed to be fathered. He was safe because he was with his dad.

Some of us have been trying so hard to earn what we already have. This week, perhaps it's time to stop performing, stop fearing, stop wondering if you're enough, and simply let God be your father.

You're adopted. The papers are signed. The Holy Spirit himself is your witness. And unlike Roman adoption, this one extends beyond death into eternity.

Nothing missing, nothing broken, complete in every part - whole relationally because we have a relationship with God as our father. It's the foundation of all other relationships because we're not just loved by God.

We are his forever.

Why God Chose to Adopt You (And Why it Changes Everything)  
[00:00:00]  
Welcome to Crowd Church  
Matt Edmundson: Hello and welcome to Crowd Church coming to you live from Liverpool this Sunday night. My name is Matt Edmundson, and whether this is your first time or whether you've been part of our journey since the beginning, it's brilliant to be with you. We are a community of people figuring out what it means to follow Jesus.  
In real life, not the polished, perfect version, but you know, the messy, genuine, brilliant reality of this whole thing called Christianity. So let me give you a little roadmap of what's gonna be happening over the next hour. We'll have a talk, lasts about 20 minutes looking at the topic of relationships, which is the section of our series becoming whole, that we are looking at exploring how Christ makes us whole across every domain of life.  
After the talk, we've got conversation streets. Oh yes. This is where [00:01:00] we dig into what you've just heard, and you get to be part of that discussion. So if you're with us live, jump into the comments, share your questions, your thoughts, and your stories. And of course, if you are watching on Catchup or listening to the podcast, then thanks for being part of the Crowd too.  
Right? Let's meet your hosts and let's get started.  
Meet your hosts Anna & Will  
Anna Kettle: Good evening everyone. Welcome to Crowd Tonight. It is great to be here. I'm joined tonight by Will, will say. Hi.  
Will Sopwith: Good evening. I hope your summers were were good. We were just chatting about summer a little bit. It's, uh, it can be a time to have a slightly different perspective.  
Maybe go away if you're fortunate. Have a, have a bit of a, a slow down, but actually it can also be a pretty manic time when you try and fit in all those fun things to do. 'cause uh, kids are outta school and, and all the rest. So, uh, yeah. I dunno what your summer's been like, but we been chatting. Tell me about our, any high [00:02:00] points for you, Anna.  
Anna Kettle: I mean, yeah, we did loads of really fun things like camping trips, all sorts, um, seeing lots of friends and family. Um, I feel like the summer's been really busy like six or seven weeks and it's just like gone, like a blur. But I have to say, we were just saying before we came on air, weren't we that kind of glad to be back into.  
The swing of things in normal life. It's like great to have a break. But yeah, I'm just kind of enjoying being back in the routine and my little boys started back at school last week and yeah, it's just nice to relax back into normal life a bit. And that's kind of how September feels, isn't it, quite often.  
Will Sopwith: Yeah. And on that note, very good to be back, uh, in Crowd. Uh, hope you've enjoyed the, uh, the prerecorded over the summer. But we're back to the live sessions, uh, and Conversation Street and questions and all the rest. Um, yeah, we had a quite a, quite a big summer of, of exam results, two members of our family with big results.  
So, um, yeah, it's kind of mixture of like not thinking about it. Then [00:03:00] suddenly August comes and it's like, oh, no results. But also, um, yeah, my boy back from university, which. Triples our shopping budget. Um, quite, quite happily with the amount that he eats. Um, but yeah, it's been, it's been a good summer. So, no, I, I absolutely agree that whole kind of getting back to September, getting back into a routine, I, I think we're sort of designed for routine.  
Most of us, I'd say, I think some people like the chaos, but generally I think we're, we are kind of keyed into a nice bit of routine and you know what's gonna happen when,  
Anna Kettle: yeah, like rest is good, isn't it? It's nice to have a break, but. It's like not somewhere you can live forever. I don't think it's very healthy for us.  
So that's what I find a few weeks of being a bit lazy and a slower pace of life. And then actually I kind of need to be back into normal life, or I get very. Just, I don't know, lazy and quite, I don't know. And just, yeah, life gets a bit chaotic when you're out at that routine, I find in my [00:04:00] house,  
Will Sopwith: to be honest, I, I could have done with a bit more lazy probably.  
Yeah, I think work was crazy, crazy busy over the summer. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, good to be back and great to be back together. Yeah, it's, um, Crowd is a community. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's a, it's a very wide community. So wherever you're watching this, whether you're watching this live or on recording, you are most welcome and it's, it's great to have you.  
And we are continuing, um, our season, our series of wholeness. And within this, there's a little nested series just looking specifically at different relationships that we're gonna be doing over the, the coming weeks. Uh, so yeah, stay tuned for that. All sorts of different relationships, family relationships, friendship, relationships.  
Um, we'll be treating each relationship in a different week and really digging in to what the Bible says and how it applies to our current. Cultural experience of relationships. So yeah, looking forward to that. Um, so I think should [00:05:00] we, yeah, should we, should we get on with, uh, we have the, the wonderful, the beautiful, uh, Matthew Edmundson, um, speaking this evening and uh, and he's gonna kick off this little nested series.  
So good to have him. Building. Matt, over to you.  
Talk with Matt Edmundson  
Matt Edmundson: I'll chat later. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thanks for calling me. Beautiful. I'll give you the ton of later. That's a fast, isn't it? Yeah. Well, hello Crowd. It is great to be back with you, isn't it? After the summer break? Um, I loved hearing Will's story.  
Yes. Our food bill went up over summer as well. Mainly because I eat loads of ice cream, uh, I think is probably the reason why. Um, but yeah. Hopefully you're back. Hopefully you are refreshed. We all are. Uh, and it's great to be with you. So let me give you, um, a bit more context to what Willard said. Like you say, uh, we are looking at biblical wholeness.  
That's a topic we have spent over half a year looking at. Um. This idea of nothing missing, nothing [00:06:00] broken. We've explored spiritual wholeness. We've explored wholeness of the soul. Uh, and before the summer we actually looked at a section on body wholeness, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not gonna lie to you 'cause it's a topic we rarely talk about in church.  
Um, and so that was great. And today we're starting a new section. Uh, what did you call it?  
Will Sopwith: A little nested section. A nested sec. That's  
Matt Edmundson: right. I love that phrase. Uh, a nested section, uh, about relationships in wholeness, because to be whole people, we need whole relationships. You just, you can't get away from it really.  
I. And so to do that, we are Kickstarting. Tonight we're gonna look at our most important relationship of all, and that is our relationship with God. And the title of tonight's talk is Why God chose to Adopt You, and the answer changes everything. Which [00:07:00] is, you know, the most clickbait title I could think about when it came to this talk.  
Uh, now, uh, I have, if you don't know, um, I have three wonderful kids, all of whom are now adults. They are the reason my beard is gray. Uh, and it's interesting, isn't it? The journey that you go on as a parent. Uh, I remember like with Josh, our first child, you know, you did not have a clue about what was happening.  
And if you go out, you were asking, well, who are the doctors we know? Who are the nurses that we know that we can get to babysit? Um, but by the time your third child comes along, sorry Zoe, um. You're a little bit more confident in what you're doing, and if there's a teenager just walking within 200 yards of your house, you don't even need to know them, but they, they'll be fine.  
They can babysit. Uh, if they've got first aid, great, but no one cares, right? Uh, and in those first few months, as new parents. There they're months of discovery aren't there. You [00:08:00] get to learn all kinds of things like what tired really means, and does that really come out of a human being? It's quite extraordinary, right?  
They're exciting times, but they're daunting all at the same time. And I remember when Josh, who's our eldest, had just been born. I remember walking down the aisle at Asda buying literally one of everything because I didn't know what I needed. So I just grabbed one of everything off the shelf and put it in my cart.  
And I remember sitting with him, giving him his late feed so Sharon could finally get some sleep. And I remember quite early on, like the first or second night he was with us. Uh, Josh and I, late one evening, sat and watched Star Wars together because, you know, that's what every good parent does, right?  
They show their newborn the original trilogy as soon as is humanly possible. And in that quiet moment, holding this very [00:09:00] tiny contented by, well, it was contented at the time, uh, with all kinds of uncertainty and all kinds of questions sort of swirling through my mind. I think I finally understood something about God and my relationship with him.  
Something that I'd never really got before, and that's this. This father son relationship. Our relationship with God is at the heart of life. It's at the center of discipleship, and it's the thing we talk about the most in our Christian walk. How's your relationship with God? How is your relationship with God?  
Is it good? Maybe non-existent or indifferent? I don't know where you are at right now. But it's a key question that we can never, ever overstate the importance of. And when the Bible discusses this relationship, it does so as God the Father, and we are his children. We get to call ourselves If you're a Christ follower, [00:10:00] sons and daughters of God, which is a pretty wild, radical, and awesome title when you think about it.  
But because we are children and God is Father, we often mirror that relationship with the relationship we have with our parents. And that for you may or may not have been good, but God as our father is so far beyond our relationship with our earthly parents. So we're gonna dig into this tonight, and I especially want to look at the language the Bible uses to describe this relationship as it doesn't frame it in the language of natural birth.  
It uses the language of adoption. So the Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the church at Rome said this. He said, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back again, uh, into fear. But you have received the [00:11:00] spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, father, and of course, Abba's, not just a Swedish pop group, as good as they are.  
It means daddy, if you don't know, it's an intimate word. We get to cry. Daddy, dad, father pops, because we have been adopted and this spirit of adoption is a language that Paul uses. But if I'm honest with you, that phrase bothered me and I wondered if it was because. I felt like adoption was second best.  
Like God was saying, well, you're not my real children, but I'll take you anyway. You know, that kind of thing. And I had these implicit biases that took me a while to understand. And I'd never really examined, like many men, I suppose, that I know I had opinions and I couldn't explain why or justify them. It wasn't really [00:12:00] until I joined a church like this church, like Frontline.  
Where we're broadcasting from, and I met people like Adam and Joe Drewry, who adopted their twins. In fact, Adam was talking about that just this morning. Phil Watson, both of whom have been on Crowd, both of whom have shared their adoption stories. But growing up, I knew what it meant to be someone's child.  
My mum was fierce man. I mean, she loved me and my brother with this kind of relentless, protective love. She would quite happily get into a fight over her kids, and that's what being someone's kid meant to me. Having someone utterly for you who'd move heaven and who would move earth if was needed. Right.  
The Apostle John wrote it this way. He said, see what great love the father has lavished honors that we should be called children of God and that [00:13:00] is what we are. Which I love, right? I love this. Not you will be not. You might become, but you are a child of God. And that is exciting because the love of God is lavished.  
I mean, I love the language of the New Testament. Lavished honors that fierce, protective, nurturing, unconditional love has been lavished on us because God is our father. Paul put it this way again, in the same letter to the church at Rome. He said, if God is for us, who can be against us? Love that. One of the most profound questions out there, 'cause the answer is no one.  
But this idea of being adopted, um, is what contains all of this, right? And to understand why God chose to use adoption, I think changes everything about how we understand our relationship with him. So why adoption? [00:14:00] So the first thing that I want to do is to put this in context, because when the New Testament was written, adoption looked very different to what it does today.  
So in the uk. We adopt children, we adopt babies. Anyone, in fact, under the age of 18, little known fact for you in the uk, you cannot legally adopt anyone over the age of 18. You can't do it. But when Paul wrote about the spirit of adoption, which we read about earlier to the church at Rome, he did that.  
Knowing that the practice at the time was not about adopting kids, but about adopting adults, which is the exact opposite of what we currently have here in the uk. So why would you adopt an adult? Well, in ancient Rome, one third of children died in their first year, half died, sadly, by the age of 10. And if you made it to 10, there was a very slim chance [00:15:00] you would make it past 50.  
All in all, the odds of you living a long life were not great. So Romans had a saying. Adopting an adult heir, the father could see what he was getting. It's quite an extraordinary statement, really. They weren't taking chance on a baby who might not survive. They were choosing proven adults who had already demonstrated character ability and strength, and the Romans did this for a number of reasons.  
Sometimes it was political. Oftentimes though it was to maintain their estates. And when you dig deeper into this, this sort of Roman practice, you find out that adoption was actually more permanent than natural birth, which feels like one of those say what statements right? In Roman law. You could legally disown a natural child.  
It was [00:16:00] called Eman Pito. Forgive my Latin pronunciation. It was probably really bad. Um, but you could cut them off from the family forever, legally. But legally, you could never disown an adopted child. Okay. Why? Well, because adoption was a legal transaction. It was witnessed by seven witnesses. It involved the complete transfer of paternal authority.  
The adopted person received a new name, a new identity, and became heir to everything often over natural children. So once adopted, that was it. It was permanent irrevocable, it was forever, which massively challenged my bias. And it might challenge any bias that you might hold about adoption being second best to the church.  
At Rome, adoption was the highest best because it was based on covenant. It was better than, [00:17:00] uh, natural childbirth, which was more bloodline. And it's in that context then that we can understand ideas like grace a lot more, right? So God chose us. He adopted us through covenant, and that covenant is permanent.  
At least it is from his side. Okay? So all these things that we can do then to try and earn our status as an heir. As an adopted child of God, in reality make absolutely no sense whatsoever, but we still find ourselves doing them even unconsciously. So when I grew up as a. A a when I grew up as a Christian.  
Does that sound right? Uh, in my early Christian years is probably a better way to put it. I, I, I sort of got connected with the, what we would call the word of faith movement. And you know what? I am so grateful for that. I love the emphasis on trusting God on taking God at [00:18:00] his word. But like many things, it can be taken to extremes, which is what I did.  
And I would often default in my thinking to thinking phrases like if. I just had enough faith, then God will. Fill in the blank, right? So it became about the faith that I had. But how do you measure enough faith? How do you muster it up? You know, my relationship with God became about this sort of perceived level of faith that I had at the moment.  
Now you may be different to me. Maybe you chase an emotional con confirmation of your relationship with God. If I feel God's presence strongly enough, then I know I'm his. But what happens, of course, when seasons are dry, maybe it's a theological knowledge that you try and get. You know, if I just understand doctrine perfectly and master the Greek and the Hebrew languages, then maybe just maybe I might feel secure in my [00:19:00] relationship with God.  
And of course these things, they may be conscious, they may be subconscious working in the background. Maybe it's doing good works, good works, or good works. They're good things to do and, but you measure your worth by how many small groups you've attended that week or how many cakes you've baked. For the church service and of course if that's you, we gladly receive any baked cakes for a church service does come on down.  
We would, the team would love them. Um, but we can do these things in a good context, but we can also do them in a way to try and earn or maintain something that's actually permanently ours. So if we think about Jesus, um, he was actually, uh, an adopted child. He was adopted by Joseph, the son of God was placed under the legal protection and provision of a carpenter, right?  
Jesus was adopted. So why is this important? Well, Jesus, the natural sin of God [00:20:00] experienced adoption by an earthly father so that all of us who have an earthly father could be adopted by our Heavenly Father. It's one of those beautiful sort of circle of life things that Elton John likes to sing about.  
Right? Um, Paul put it this way in Galatians, he said God sent his son to redeem those. Under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship. I mean, that's just, Jesus came so that you could be adopted. There's a thread here, isn't there? That sort of is weaving its way through everything, and so this starts to answer the why.  
This changes everything, question. So back to that night with Josh watching Star Wars, great night. Uh, as I'm there holding my son, I understood something about being a father that I'd never known before because I'd not been a father before, and I knew that I would do absolutely anything for this kid. He [00:21:00] hadn't earned it.  
He couldn't earn it, and in some respects, he was doing the exact opposite. Of earning it. Right? He was demanding. He wasn't giving. He cried and pooped all the time. Yet he was my son. And as much as I love him, and as much as I love all of my kids, I'm, it's hard to say I'm imperfect. I know it's hard to bleep, but I am, I do make mistakes.  
I lose my temper. I do get it wrong, but God. Is perfect. He chose to make us his children through adoption, the most secure, permanent, unbreakable form of relationship that was available in Paul's world when he wrote this letter to Rome. And it's more secure than I can offer Josh as his natural father. We are adopted as godson.  
We are adopted as his daughter. You know, when I was a kid. It was a long time ago. I get you. I appreciate that. But when I was [00:22:00] a kid every Saturday morning, my brother, um, John and I would take our duvets off the bed and we would go downstairs and we had two couches, right? Two set. And we'd each take one and we would watch Saturday morning cartoons.  
On the four channels that happened to be on our tv. In fact, it was three channels for the longest time. Uh, and we would watch TV shows like He-Man and Battle of the Planets and all these kind of really cool cartoons. But my mum, well, she would stay in bed. And she would read the paper and every time she wanted a cup of tea, she would bang on the floor with her shoe or with a stick or whatever she had, and she would bang, bang, bang.  
And John and I would hear this and we would of course argue about whose turn it was to make the cup of tea. We were annoyed at the interruption. And inevitably, of course, when it was my turn to make the cup of tea, it would be right at the point where the cartoon just got interesting. Right. And it's funny how [00:23:00] as a kid that annoyed me because I didn't want to be interrupted.  
I wanted life on my terms. I wanted to watch my cartoons. I wanted to see the unmasking of the baddy in Scooby-Doo, right? But if I didn't take the tea, she would just keep banging. Now, of course. It wasn't about what Mum wanted, but what about about what I wanted? We take our mums for granted, don't we? Um, of course she'll be there.  
Of course, she's gonna provide, of course, she's gonna protect. That's what security does. It frees you to live without constantly questioning the relationship. But looking back on my childhood, I'm grateful for a mum who banged on the floor to demand her tea, but honestly deserved so much more. And when you understand your God's permanently adopted child, it does change how you think.  
You stop performing for acceptance You [00:24:00] already have. You stop fearing a rejection that literally cannot happen, and you stop trying to earn what's freely given. My mum taught me, you know, when I was younger, 'cause I used to get bullied a lot, she, she shipped me off to judo lessons. She made me go learn how to fight and she'd enter me to competitions and she would make me angry before those competitions because she knew that once I cared enough, once I got angry enough I would win.  
But with God, we don't need to fight for our place, but we can fight from our place. Monday morning's business crisis, you are still his child. That relationship that's falling apart, you are still his child. That diagnosis that terrifies you, you are still his child. That failure, you can't forgive yourself for.  
You are still his child. Nothing can change your adopted status. Paul writes, [00:25:00] writes it like this again later in Romans. He says, neither death nor life. Neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. We'll be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.  
I mean, that just about covers it, right? Nothing can separate us and that's amazing on so many levels. Now I. I had an unfair bias in my thinking about adoption. God has changed my thinking and research actually shows us that many adoptive parents, uh, demonstrate a higher secure attachment when compared to the general population.  
And it's not just the adopted parents either. We also know that a high proportion of adoptees really don't struggle with self-esteem, all of which tells me. That the most secure family relationships aren't always those formed by blood. So God, it [00:26:00] seems knew what he was doing when he chose adoptions.  
Despite my initial misgivings at the start, he wanted you to know you are not accidentally his. You are not conditionally his. You're not temporarily his. He has intentionally chosen you to be permanently, legally, and irrevocably his.  
Excuse me, that baby. Watching Star Wars with me, he didn't know the plot, he couldn't understand the language, couldn't understand the dialogue, but he was with me. He was safe. He didn't need to understand everything. He, at that point in time, just needed to be fathered. And some of you have been trying so hard to earn what you already have that this week I wanna challenge you to stop.  
Stop performing, stop fearing, stop wondering if you are enough and let God be your father. Work hard to not model [00:27:00] Father God on your earthly father, father God. That's the relationship we have with him as Christ followers not, we're not on the outside looking in. He is. Abba Dad pops, our father and you are adopted and the papers are signed in Christ's blood.  
The Holy Spirit himself is your witness, and the father has decreed all of this. To be true, you are his child. And unlike Roman adoption, and unlike any earthly adoption, really this one extends beyond death into eternity. Nothing missing, nothing broken, complete in every part, whole relationally, because we have a relationship with God as our father.  
It's the foundation of all relationships because we're not just loved by God. We are his forever. So that's me. Done.  
Conversation Street with Anna, Will & Matt  
[00:28:00]  
Anna Kettle: Amazing. There's just so much in that map. Thank you for sharing that. I, um, I actually learned some stuff there tonight. Uh, I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't know all that about Roman adoption and the fact that they often adopted adults to gee, well,  
Will Sopwith: no, no.  
And not, not at all. And, and that, yeah, that point you were making, Matt, about adoption being, well, it's the choice, isn't it? And, and that makes it more powerful than the bloodline. Yeah. I, I think I was with you. I thought, I thought adoption is a kind of a. Second best possibly, I think was the word you used.  
Um, so yeah. That's that's fascinating. And, and it makes sense, you know, it is, um, you don't, you don't choose your parents, you don't choose your children. It's a phrase you hear quite a lot. But, but adoption is, yeah, that's a very intentional going out there and bringing someone into, into the. Circle of your family.  
Um, yeah. Really, really powerful stuff. And a, and a great, a great foundation for looking at [00:29:00] every other relationship. Yeah,  
Matt Edmundson: totally. Yeah. No, thanks guys. It's, um, I'm always, there's this thing about returning back to basics, isn't there? And in a, in a world that often overcomplicates things and. And makes, you know, make, in some respects, it's easy to ask AI any kind of question, but really life's complicated, isn't it?  
And it's this returning back to basics, the fundamentals. And so I was really keen that when we started this, looking at relationships, we really hammer into. The relationship with God is foundational. Well, yes, we're gonna look at marriage. Yes, we're gonna look at singleness. Yes, we're gonna look at friendships.  
We're gonna look at mom, dad, we're gonna look at grandpa. I mean, all of them we're gonna get into, because scripture's got quite a lot to say about this, but the foundation of all of this is your relationship with God. And I think having been around Christianity a long time, for me it was a misunderstanding of adoption, thinking that that was second best.  
For a lot of people that I know, and [00:30:00] I dunno if, if you guys have noticed this, this idea of modeling our relationship with God as father on the relationship we have with our parents seems to be quite a common thing.  
Will Sopwith: And I think it's natural, isn't it? Because you, you, you deal with the vocabulary you have.  
Um, and, and, and there's, there's richness in that. I mean, as you say, we'll be, we'll be looking at fatherhood, but, uh, but yeah, the adoption is a, is a whole different. Is a whole different, uh, emphasis, uh, which is really, really helpful. I think the question that springs as I'm listening to you talking and this kind of, this huge, this, this never ending kind of offer of adoption beyond death.  
Eternity is why God, why, why have you chosen to adopt all people? Yeah. Everywhere forever. Yeah.  
Matt Edmundson: It's a big, it's a big question, isn't it? Well, has he, it's an interesting question, isn't it? Because who has [00:31:00] got adopted, right? It's like he's, this is the interesting thing about when you, again, not. Wanting to go too much into Roman adoption.  
I'm not an expert, I just wanna point that out. Right. But what's interesting, of course, is you've, you've got two parties there. You've got the person doing the adopting, uh, the, the guy. Um, and then you've got the adoptee who is also usually a, well, like I said, they're, they're an adult, right? So there's choices on both sides, and that's the thing about adoption is it's with a, with a baby, we know someone who's adopting.  
Yeah. Right now, right? Yeah. Um, part of the Crowd team, lovely lady, she's adopting that baby has got no choice whether or not they get adopted or who adopts them, but as an adult. Because of the severity of the adoption, because of the binding nature of it. If I was getting adopted as an adult, I had to literally renounce my previous family, right?  
I couldn't keep their name. I couldn't, they were no longer my mother. They were no longer my father. It was all [00:32:00] about the person that was adopted me. I mean, there's so much in this about identity, Do you know what I mean? And you, when you get into it, you can see why Paul wrote some of the stuff that he did, you know, in the context of it all.  
And so there is this thing where I have to leave this family over here and choose this family as the adoptee. And this is why I think as Christians, you know, we can use whatever language we like. You know, salvation, did you get saved? Or whatever. There has to be in the mind of a believer, a conscious decision to allow God to adopt you.  
Do you see what I mean? Now that can happen quite young. It can happen quite late. It can happen quite instantly. It can happen over a period of time, but it's this sort of mutual relationship, if that makes sense.  
Anna Kettle: Yeah, it does. And it almost strikes me as you're talking about it, the fact that it's this choice, like it almost feels more like, like when you think about adult to adult adoption like that, or like being adopted by God, it's almost like entering into a marriage like it's.[00:33:00]  
It's a real intentional choice. It, like you say, it's not just like, oh, somebody's come along and scooped you up as a baby, and, you know, which is an, an incredible thing, isn't it? Child adoption is an amazing thing as well. Like, um, like you say, we know people that are doing it at the moment. A lot of people have adopted in our church and, and it's a beautiful thing to do.  
It's very redemptive, but this form of adoption, like being adopted into God's family. It's, yeah, it's, it's interesting 'cause it's slightly different to how we think about that. Yeah. It, it, it's more of a two-way reciprocal choice thing. Yeah. Because can you choose to be, can you choose to be unadopted again or is it Nope.  
There's an absolute once youre absolutely permanence and it, yeah,  
Matt Edmundson: once you're in, you're in, I mean there's, there's obviously questions in Christianity like, can I lose my salvation? And there's been a lot of this, what's that phrase people use to, um. What's the phrase? Everyone's using deconstruction.  
That's it. Mm-hmm. They're deconstructing their faith and it's like, I [00:34:00] think God is a little bit more gracious than the Roman authorities. Yeah. And so you, you know, you can deconstruct your faith if you want to. And I, I mean, deconstruction's a whole nother topic, isn't it? It's like, um, I think it's good to question your faith and maybe examine some of the foundations that you have, but as Christians, you get the opportunity to walk away if you want to.  
Um. Whereas you legally couldn't do that. Um, in Roman times, I think God extends as that grace. But from my point of view, when I look at scripture, it's not the other way around. God can't adopters, he can't un adopters. He's committed to this whole thing. Um, so the only way out for it is, is for me. Yeah.  
Like we have  
Anna Kettle: to choose not to choose God anymore. Like it's, it's our choice. 'cause God gives us freedom of choice, doesn't he? So of course we can choose. Not to want him, although that's, you know, that's quite a severe choice to make really, isn't it? Once you've [00:35:00] met a kind of God who loves you like that.  
It's hard to understand how anyone would get to that point. Really. The,  
Will Sopwith: the, the difference between the child adoption and the adult adoption. You're just talking about Anna, and this is why we go on about relationship with God. Because many people would see as like, well, you're born into a faith. Mm.  
You're born into a Christian country, a Muslim country, a Sikh community. That's your faith. And it's no more than just a cultural  
Matt Edmundson: Yeah.  
Will Sopwith: Kind of badge. Um, the reason Christians bang on about being born again and. Building a relationship with God and all the rest is this very topic of adoption, isn't it?  
Yeah. Because it's, there is actually a choice beyond the bloodline, if you like. Yeah. It's a choice beyond the community that we find ourselves in growing up in as a child. And there comes a point where we need to make that, that, I mean, it's a, it's a profound, it's quite a serious choice, isn't it? To, uh, to enter into that, that relationship with God.  
Um, and that's, uh, yeah, I, I, I think I've never really thought about in, in those ways, but that, that's very [00:36:00] much a flavor of the kinda church we are in is like, no, there's a, there's a point at which we make a decision as an adult,  
Anna Kettle: but it's like a, it strikes me that it's a serious choice, isn't it? But then also.  
There's just incredible gifts within it as well. Like, you know, when you think about that, you know, it's carry on that analogy of adoption. It's like you get to have all of the wealth of the house, all the inheritance, all the identity, all the kind of sense of who you are. Like, you know, if it's wealthy household, all the wealth, like all of that becomes yours.  
Yep. So, and there's that sense of like, when you join God's household. You get all the wealth of Yeah, heaven and earth you do and everything that God is and that, that is like mind blowing, isn't it?  
Matt Edmundson: Well, it is. And again, you understand. Then all of a sudden phrases that Paul uses in his writings when he says, you are a co-heir with Christ.  
It's like, well. Jesus is the son of God, but I'm a coherent co-heir with [00:37:00] Christ because I have been adopted into the family. That's you. The further you go, the more mind bending. It gets in in many ways in terms of your identity as a son of God. And I think for so many Christians, this phrase, I'm a son of God, just rolls off the tongue, but the actual eternal consequence of saying that is quite significant.  
So, yeah. Um, I think Sharon, I mean Sharon put here in the comments. How would being adopted in Roman times affect the way that someone lived? Just thinking of the parallel with our relationship with God. And it's interesting when you are the adoptee and I'm bought into that family, I'm bought into it for a reason.  
Mm-hmm. Right now, quite often it was to manage the estate. So the person that is adopting me, maybe they get in awning years, um, and they just want somebody to. To, you know, manage their affairs. Which is interesting because when we become Christians, we have a purpose. We have a mission, right? God is still the father, but we are outworking that calling.  
[00:38:00] And there's so many of these, like I say, when you get, when you really start to get into it, there are so many of these parallels. Um, so we have a purpose, we have a call and we have a reason to be here. Um. I get to call him Abba father. I get to call him Pops. It's quite an intimate thing. Um, it is irrevocable.  
I can't be, um, does anyone know how to pronounce like an eman piman? I don't even know. No,  
Will Sopwith: I think intimacy is an interesting one. And that, and that was another thought as, as I was listening to you speak, because we, we kind of take that for granted again, maybe growing up in a Christian culture as, as we do in the uk.  
But, but thinking about the, the other ways of relating to God. At the time, intimacy was not part of it. Gods were so far above. They were normally to be feared, um, to be served and sacrificed to out of a kind of fear. The [00:39:00] idea. Of that sort of intimacy of Abba Father was, it was kind of outrageous and, and, and completely different, completely unexpected.  
Um, and as I said, we, we've sort of become familiar with it, but, but the idea of having a, an intimacy with a supreme being like that is, uh. It's pretty incredible and I think that really does speak to identity. You mentioned identity previously, and there's that kind of practical outworking of what does it look like to be adopted by God and, and, and lifestyle and, um, expectations and other things.  
But you know, we, we look at that, I think. People are looking for identity, aren't they? They're, they're looking for a, a Crowd that has the same opinion, or, or it might be even just dressing the same. It's like there's all sorts of different kind of communities and identities. Um, but having something that, that is, I mean, yeah, intimate intimacy with God in that kind of being a child.  
[00:40:00] Um, it's worth thinking about how profound that is every self and just, just how radical that is.  
Matt Edmundson: Especially as men, um, because I think men struggle with this idea of the use of the word intimacy when it comes to talking about intimacy with Christ, right? It's not a particularly masculine way of approaching things.  
Um, but I think if you approach it, um, like the father, son, like really good close friends. Then I think it's, it's a much more helpful way of thinking about it. I mean, for those that might struggle with that word. Um, but it is, it is intimate. It is that kind of ultimate sharing, if you like that ultimate access.  
You know, the Bible says we can come boldly to the throne room of God and obtain mercy in the time of need. In other words, we can just walk in like a kid. I mean, rather than a slave or a servant that had to make an appointment or a [00:41:00] subject, we just walk in at any time. And that again, speaks to identity  
Anna Kettle: because you're, it's interesting there, 'cause you're talking Matt about, um, that kind of father some relationship or father daughter relationship if you're a woman like me.  
Um, but you did touch on this a little bit in your talk, but like, what happens because that's, that's a difficult thing to get your head around sometimes if you've not had a great. Like relationship with a father figure in, in your own life, isn't it? And you know, I, I can think of friends who that's been true for and yeah, so, and so I wondered if you had any thoughts about that.  
Like how do people understand and find that sense of God as a father and that intimate, perfect father when therefore there's been quite imperfect. Mm-hmm.  
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think, and there's so much to unpack in that, right? Because like I say, we. I think, and again, we'll get into this when we talk about fatherhood, but I think the role of a father [00:42:00] is to be an example of God the father.  
Do you know what I mean? As as, I mean there's a, it's a high calling to be a dad just as it's a high calling to be a mom. Right. And I think if you have had a negative relationship, like you say with your dad, it's easy to, to think of God as authoritarian or whatever the characteristic was with your dad.  
It's easy to think or see that in God in your even subconsciously. Um, and so Fraser's like he's a good, good father. You, you might struggle with that sense. Um, and I think. In terms of how to overcome that. I think ultimately that takes time. That takes discipleship. That takes a commitment to go actually how I, how I, how God is.  
I need to have, I need to renew my mind. I need to change my thinking. And the Bible. We're gonna get, again, we're gonna get into this 'cause it's, it's such a profound thing. The [00:43:00] Bible talks about things like spiritual fathers. This, this father relationship is connected. God, the father, I'm a natural father.  
They're spiritual fathers. There's, which conversely will be the same with mums. I'm not leaving the mums out but it, I. The whole thing when you see it is mirrored, like I say, it's like a thread throughout whole of scripture. This sort of father son relationship in so many ways. And I think my encouragement would be if that is you, if you really struggle to see God as a good father because of the relationship you had with your own father, or lack thereof, you know, um, absent fathers is, is a massive problem in our society.  
Um. I would encourage you to, to pray this through and to allow God to renewing you a fresh image of what a good father can be, God the father, um, and. Just bring to God those things that you are projecting on him. 'cause it's not like he doesn't know, [00:44:00] right. But just bring to God those things you are projecting on, on him from your own experiences and allow God to heal that and to renew your mind.  
Um, I think it's such a profound thing.  
Anna Kettle: I think, I think that's so good. My, and I, I think it's true. I mean, it's true. If you've had. A broken relationship with father or an absent father. But it's actually true if you've had a pretty good father as well. Like my dad was great, you know, like, well he's still great.  
He's still around. Sorry dad. Um, you know, he was a church pastor. He was a pretty godly guy. He wasn't perfect. Um. You know, we had a pretty good relationship as, as I grew up. It wasn't perfect 'cause no father daughter relationship is I don't like, but yeah. You know, but even so, there's still things that.  
About fatherhood that I had slightly skewed because of the way I'd grown up and certain expectations that were put on us as children, and I just, I think it's worth thinking about that regardless of whether you think you've got a good [00:45:00] relationship with your dad or not.  
Matt Edmundson: Yeah,  
Anna Kettle: I just think there's probably things that are quite skewed about how we think about fatherhood.  
Regardless of our backgrounds, actually. So I, I'd kind of encourage everyone to do that, even if you have a great dad like I do.  
Will Sopwith: Yeah. And, and this whole series is an ideal opportunity to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, change your tax slightly. Um, and I'm gonna direct this to you, Anna, for those who are, are not in that relationship with God right now, but would like to be, what would you suggest and what is the cost of being adopted into God's family?  
Anna Kettle: Well, the cost, that's, that's an interesting one, isn't it? 'cause obviously it's free, but it's, the cost is also your life, you know, saying to God, I would, you know, I, I want to have a relationship with you and yeah, I'm willing to give you every part of my life. Exchange for all that you offer me, which is everything.  
You know, the exchange by my [00:46:00] reckoning is a pretty good one. It's like my rubbish life for everything that God has to offer. Um, but there is, there is a cost there isn't there? It, it's a cost about giving up some of your own kind of preferences, some of your, you know, own sense of like, well, my life is my own and I don't answer to anyone else.  
Some of some of that that I think we find quite hard in our generation. Um, but in terms of what you do, I, I, I would just say if it's something you are thinking about, just ask God, ask him to show himself to you and, um, yeah. Yeah. There's nothing more you have to do than like ask like God. Can I be part of your family?  
Would you adopt me? Mm-hmm. And the answer, the amazing thing is the answer is always, always, always. Yes. And it doesn't matter what you've done.  
Will Sopwith: Mm-hmm.  
Anna Kettle: Like, we're all welcome. And that, that in itself is incredible, isn't it? Mm-hmm.  
Will Sopwith: Yeah. No, absolutely. Uh, [00:47:00] thinking about the cast. I think the cost to us really is to give it freely is, is to give our lives freely.  
It's, it's not a, well, we, we kind of talked about the, the contract and the kind of legal thing of adoption, but, but it's, it's not really a contract. It's not something where these are the terms, these are the terms in which I'm gonna give my life to you, God. Um, it, it's a, it's a free. It's a free giving of everything.  
Um, yeah. Not, not coming in with a kind of, okay, well if I do this, will you do that? And yeah. It's interesting you say that will by negotiation,  
Anna Kettle: because I, I feel quite often that we can approach faith as a sort of religion. You know, like there's a, a whole list of rules things, right. If you become a Christian, these are all things you can't do anymore.  
Yeah. And I think that's such a back to front way of thinking about it. Absolutely. It's like you get to live differently. You get to live more freely. But actually. God doesn't really require us to not do. And like, it's not, it's not a list of rules. It's a relationship.  
Will Sopwith: Yeah. Yeah. But, but he [00:48:00] does, he does require us to step off our pride and, and to, to kind of let go of those, those rights that you talked about.  
Um, I think how you, how you enter into that relationship, I think the currency of relationship with God is grace. Love and those, those are the two elements which just run through it all. And if you're reading the Bible, you will pick up that again and again. It's this grace and it's this love, it's acceptance from God and it's, and it's knowing God's love.  
And I think where we entering into that relationship is as easy as, as I'm gonna say, getting your head around that. You never get your head around that beginning to get your head around that and think actually. God is gracious and he's loving, he's forgiven me, he's accepted me, and he loves me, whatever.  
And, and accepting that and saying, well, thank you Gods. And yeah, I wanna live in that. I wanna live that in my internal thoughts. I wanna live that in my behavior. Um, I [00:49:00] want to be, I think one of the other things that came to mind about talking about being adopted as adults and, and how it changes you is.  
You take on the badge of those, that that person that's adopted you, you, you become, you take on that family identity. Um, and, and that is part of what entering into that relationship is you, you, you take on, uh, some of the nature of God. Um, the Bible says, we are already made in God's image. And coming into that relationship if you're not there already is almost like it's rediscovering that.  
That image that, that we've been made in and saying, actually this is what fullness looks like. This is, yeah. The, the grace and the love are key aspects. And if, if it's not in my life, I, you know, that. Yeah. And I don't, I don't quite know how to express it. It's a very interesting question. It's a very practical question.  
Um, and there's, you know, there, there's things we could say about that, about praying and receiving God into your life and, and, and a set form of words. But, but for me, it [00:50:00] starts much earlier than that. It is, it's, it's actually adopting a different. Perspective, um, and, and understanding a little bit of what, what God is, God is offering.  
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. I think the thing to, to add to all of this is you don't need to know all the answers before you get in. Um, and I think for me, when I was. Exploring Christianity. I came to the point where I'm like, I know enough now. Um, and I, so I'm in and I'll figure the rest because lemme tell you, you're never gonna know everything.  
Yeah. I'm still, we're still still figuring out, still figuring it out 30 years later. Right. Um, and I am, I'm a big believer in this analogy that it's easier to turn a car when it's moving. Mm-hmm. And quite often you learn more about God. As walking with him than you do trying to learn about him from a textbook, right?  
Yeah. And so, um, I would definitely encourage you to get in. Um, and like you say, that can just be as easy as making a decision. I think sometimes there's a wonderful [00:51:00] group of people in the book of acts called the Berean, I think that's how you pronounce it. And Paul goes to them and shares the gospel. And they're like, they're like super intrigued by what's going on, you know, by what Paul's saying.  
And these guys, they go away, they debate it, they think about it, and they come back and they ask questions. And it's a very small passage about them. But there's a lot of this. It wasn't blind faith. They, they, they listened, they went and searched the scriptures. They went and figured it out and they went, yeah, this is actually true.  
And then as a result, they came to faith. Quite a lot of people came to faith. Mm-hmm. And I think don't be afraid to think this through, through to bring your questions to debate things and that's what crowds for use the comments and, and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. But I think in terms of the cost, it's, Ellis has put here in the comments, he thinks the cost is giving up the illusion of control.  
Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's  
Anna Kettle: really good.  
Matt Edmundson: And ultimately that's what it is, isn't it? It's giving up like when the Roman is adopted. When I'm adopted [00:52:00] as an adult into a Roman family, I have to leave my old life behind. Mm. And again, this is very New Testament language. Um, you know, the old has gone, behold all things have been made new, you know, um, I was, this, I am now, this, I've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness and bought into the kingdom of light.  
Paul says, and it's, I think the cost is the willingness. To let the past go. Mm-hmm. Not just what you've done wrong in your head and all the stuff that you want to let go of, but all the stuff actually that God says is not good for you. Which ties very much in what Ellis said with, with control. Yeah. And Jesus put it bluntly, didn't he?  
He said, take up your cross daily and follow me. Yeah. I mean, there is a cost to Christianity, um, and I think it's an adventure. I was talking to a friend of mine about this the other night, Simon. Um. I don't know. I still don't know if it's true, but a lot of the web tells me it's true about Shackleton's.  
Have you come across Shackleton's newspaper ad. Yeah. Yeah. When he [00:53:00] sets off Antarctica, it's like men wanted for an adventure. Um, long hours returned, doubtful. Safety cannot be assured. I mean, there's all these things. Do you know what I mean? It was this really interesting advert and I think there is a call, there's a call to discipleship to be adopted, um, into the family of God, and the cost is the laying down of your life, but it's an adventure.  
And I think, like you said earlier, that what you give up is so n. Insignificant compared to what you gain. Um, and the Apostle Paul, he said, actually, I count it all as rubbish. Yeah. Um, as literally as dung, it's like whatever I've had to give up is just, it's not even worth d. Um, there obviously are the words I can use, which I won't because pre watershed and I'm a Christian.  
Um, but Do you know what I mean? It's that kind of, I count all of that as loss. Compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ.  
Anna Kettle: And I think the other thing that we haven't really picked up about this whole [00:54:00] idea of heirship is like you're not just inheriting stuff in this world. Like, you know, we all inherit, hopefully, you know, our parents inheritance, you might get, you know, a part of their house if they're looking enough to own one.  
You might get a little bit of family money trickle down when your parents pass on and you know, you can't take it with you though, can you? It's not eternal. You know, it's finite. It's, it's something, you know, it's, it's some family wealth. Yeah, potentially. But actually the inheritance we're talking about in God's family is eternal.  
Mm-hmm. Like we're talking about forever, eternal life, eternally being part of his family, eternally knowing him, so that it goes on and on and on forever. And anything we're holding onto. Is, it's kind of dung and rubbish because it's so temporary. Yeah. Like nothing that this world has to offer is lasting, is it?  
It's all very fickle and short term, even if it's, you know, nice, [00:55:00] nice short term. Like it's, yeah, the trade off is like, yeah. Yeah. A no brainer when you, when you think about it in an eternal perspective.  
Will Sopwith: Uh, and I think the final thing to say about, uh, you know, how, how'd you go about. Finding out more about this relationship that we've been talking about, this, this, this amazing, uh, exchange, um, through adoption.  
It is yes. To talk to people that are, are there, you know, you, you are, this is not. E each of us is entering into a community of people who've already been adopted, um, by God. And you know, we can, we can do a little bit in Conversation Street. You can do a little bit on talk. We can do a little bit in this series, but actually there's a lot more conversation and, and there's a lot of, um.  
And doing that in community, talking to people about their different experiences, what it is to be adopted into God's family, what, what their perspective is. Uh, you know, this is all stuff we try to do with, with Crowd. And we, and, and you'll, you hear many different voices. There's opportunity to, uh, to get together in, [00:56:00] in, in smaller groups to do things like alpha courses, all, all those kind of things.  
Um, keep tracking with, with Crowd, you know, keep, keep, uh, tuning in, um, adding comments, asking. Find people locally that have got any kind of faith and say, what does this mean? What, what's your experience of it? Um, that's a, a very rich way to, to build that understanding. 'cause you know, it, it makes so much more sense when.  
We hear it from particularly people that we know a little bit as well. Um, so I, I challenge you to, to do that. Um, but we are, we are nearly outta time. This is gonna be a fantastic series. I think there's gonna be so much Yep. To talk about any, any kind of final thoughts from you, Matt?  
Matt Edmundson: No, I, well, I. I think just enjoy the relationship you have with God, and if you don't have one, get one because it's, it's life changing.  
It's the foundation to the whole of life. Yeah. Yeah. Great. What about you, Anna?  
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I, I just kind of echo all of that, I think dig deeper into your relationship with God and. [00:57:00] If you don't have one, you know, and you've got some questions about what it means, um, you wanna learn more than look into it further.  
There's loads of other Crowd talks that will help with that. And you know, or if you come across Alpha, alpha courses is a really great way. We've run some three Crowd that all over the country. Church has run them, you know, if. A short term course, which you go to for a few weeks. Yeah. And you can learn more about what it means to actually live a life.  
Mm-hmm. In relationship with God. So yeah, just, yeah, keep digging deeper, I think.  
Will Sopwith: Yeah. And I think we could probably all say, sat here tonight that. It will be more than you think it is. There will, there will be so much more than you're thinking right now. And it's well worth, uh, exploring and, and it's, it's a lifetime of living in this adoption.  
It's not, it's not a kind of a, a one-off and they're like, oh, that's done. Tick that box. Um, it's something that week by week, year by year, uh, over, well, the rest of your life and for eternity. Um, you, you're finding [00:58:00] out more. There is so much more. So I can, I can guarantee that, uh. Yeah, it's more than you think at the moment, so explore for sure.  
Right. What are we talking about next week, Matt?  
Matt Edmundson: Uh, being a friend of God, a friend of God, Dave Connolly, I think is doing that talk. I think that if it's not, if you turn up next week and we're not talking about that, please don't. And it's not Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not Dave,  
Will Sopwith: but yeah. O over these weeks, keep, keep tracking with it.  
'cause uh, we, we are looking at virtually every, every relationship you can think about and, and digging a bit deeper into it. So thank you Matt, for a fantastic, um, overview and, and, and just a really, really good foundation to our understanding of, of all these different relationships. Um, thank you all for, for tuning in.  
Um, uh, whether you are looking at the recording or live, it's great to have you. It's great to, to be kicking off Crowd again, um, as a live stream. So, um, yeah, come back next week. Um, keep, keep talking, keep asking, and uh, yeah, we look forward to seeing you soon. Cheers. [00:59:00] Bye-bye.