For Such A Time As This | Jada Edwards | IF:One Night (With ASL)

How are y'all doing? What a wonderful night to be in the house of the Lord. I'm not sure why you came, but let me tell you why I'm here. I'm here because I serve a King who is worthy of every word that comes out of my mouth. I'm here because I honor a God who requires nothing less than being the center of my entire life. I'm here because there's not a gift or talent or thought or idea that if it's good has not come from God. I'm here because our world is in a gospel deficit and the Lord has sent me here to encourage us and to challenge us in his word. I love all the things that are happening in the church today, but the gospel is still the main mission. The gospel is still the reason why we were left here, why salvation did not instantly transport us to heaven, but for some reason, God, knowing who we were, who we're going to be in all the ways we're going to fail, still saw fit to allow us to be his representatives. For some reason, God who could save everybody instantaneously has said, I want you to be my mouthpiece. I want your life to be a witness. I want the way you walk and the way you talk to be a testimony to who I am. So that's what we're going to talk about tonight for just a few minutes. What it means to represent him well. I have a husband who is Jamaican and yeah, there's three Jamaicans in the room. I love it. Or people who just love Jamaica. It's okay. Either way. I have a husband who is Jamaican and when he came to this country as an athlete and a student pastor, he came on a student visa and little did I know that I would end up marrying a man who wanted to be in ministry, even though he told me he did not. That's okay.

I'm recovering from the bait and switch 25 years later, but he came here as a student and what we did not know is that when we got married, that marriage would instantly trigger the process for him to apply for his green card. We had no idea. We just got married with that little $20 and we got something in the mail. A few weeks later, the mail paper and envelope, ask your parents. So something came in the mail and says, a marriage, a record has been entered into our system and you are married to a US citizen. Because of that, it automatically changes your student visa status. And so we began a pretty extensive process of completing all the paperwork, the forms, the phone calls, standing in the lines, going to all the agencies so that he could become a citizen. He had no idea this would be the result of it. And when we did a little digging, we found out that anytime someone who is not a US citizen marries a US citizen, they either have to pursue residency and get a green card or ultimately citizenship. He got his citizenship, graduation and everything. But as I started thinking about that, I was reminded that really what triggered that change in his status was not because I was his girlfriend, not because we were in a long-term relationship, not even his good friend. I couldn't have even been a family member. I had to be his wife. Because even the government knows that a covenant changes a person's status. I had to be married to him. And so because we were in a relationship that is considered to be permanent, they needed his status to match the relationship. And so when I think about who we are in Christ, I don't know how many of us understand the status change that we've undergone as we've entered this covenant. And for just a few moments, I want you to see what Paul has to say to us in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, I'm just going to be in a couple of verses because if you teach the

whole chapter, that's about a year's worth of sermons. But in Romans chapter 8, verses 14 through 16, Paul says this, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons. By whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. This is the ultimate status change. How do we get there? He says, if you're led by the Spirit of God. He's not talking about your daily walk. Sanctification, following the Holy Spirit every day is important, but in the context of this chapter, Paul is talking about the believer versus the unbeliever. Romans 8 starts off with there is therefore not no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. So he's telling us this is what it means to be a follower of Christ. If you're led by the Spirit, not dragged by the Spirit, not guilted by the Spirit, not threatened by the Spirit, this is a voluntary decision to reorient myself and enter a covenant relationship with Jesus. I get the gift of the Holy Spirit, and through that Spirit, I get the spirit of adoption. He says you no longer have a spirit of slavery, which led to fear, you now have a spirit of adoption. This is a status change, y'all. From slaves to now adopted sons and daughters.

From people who were once defined by fear to now a spirit that leads us in freedom. Everything changes when we enter this covenant. So there's good news for us here in Romans 8, and if you have not entered the covenant, you still trying to be God's girlfriend and date and check it out, this not for you. This is not for you, but ask your friends that are in a covenant what it's like. This may be the night that God is saying make a decision. Make a decision. Because the benefits that Paul is about to lay out, those are for people who are surrendered by faith through the grace of God who have received Jesus as Lord, and now they have this divine deposit of the Holy Spirit. And here's what that spirit does. He changes us from slaves, those indebted to something that held us captive that we were once a bondage to, to now sons and daughters. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. Here is what is happening. If you study Romans chapter eight in the beginning when he tells us there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, what he's telling you there is that you have a guaranteed not guilty verdict. Not because you're not guilty, but because through Jesus, God has declared you not guilty. So he opens up the chapter and we see a righteous holy judge

who has decided to declare us not guilty. Now you can sit with that for a minute, but we gotta keep moving. He's declared us not guilty, and so that's enough to be grateful for. Look at this righteous judge who has every right to condemn me. I should be the object of his wrath, but because of Jesus I've been declared not guilty. But it gets better. Paul here in these verses is saying not only is God the righteous judge who's declared you not guilty, he is now a good father. So it's like being guilty and knowing that the judge knows all the evidence against you and you should be charged and convicted and sentenced, but for some reason he says I'm gonna find you not guilty. That would be enough to shout for joy, but then he says not only that, I wanna bring you into my home and give you all that I have and make you a part of my family. That's what you see happening here because of God's spirit in us. So he says now you have sonship. Salvation is not just rescue, y'all, it's relocation. He didn't just save you from something, he has now invited you into something. You know, if you're out drowning in the ocean and the Coast Guard comes to save you,

you're not coming to they house for dinner. Once they save you, they've done their job. But God did not save you just so you could have extra life here on earth. He saved you because he wants you to know you belong to him. He saved you so you can have relationship with him. And so we see this beautiful picture of adoption and adoption gives us three things and I'm gonna say them quickly. If you're a note taker, you might need to make some space. I'm gonna give you the three things. So don't tell me you talked too long about that second one and I ran out of space. Listen, I'm gonna give you the three things. Govern your note taking accordingly. All right, here's the first one and y'all have to say it with me. Identity. Identity. Okay, that's about 35%. Identity. Identity. Okay, if you're at home, you're watching, you gotta say it too. Number two, we have inheritance. Inheritance. And lastly, we have intimacy. Intimacy. Here's what we have. Here are the promises of adoption.

First, we have identity. This is a theme throughout the New Testament. Look, Ephesians 1.5 says he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus. Without Christ, Ephesians 2 says we are children of wrath. But now we have this new identity. And I need to explain to you real quick what's happening because at first, I thought I was gonna really understand this because sometimes you'll take your current day experience and try to put it onto the word of God and he's like, mm-mm, you're missing the mark. My two children are adopted. So I was like, yes, we are adopted as sons. get it. He's like, you don't get it. You think you get it. But let me explain to you what's really happening. Paul is talking to a Roman audience. And so they had the Roman perspective of adoption. And in Rome, adoption was even more powerful than we think of here today in 2026. In Rome, the father had this absolute power over the family. He had absolute power. And so when a father decided that he wanted to bring a son into the family, there was an entire ceremony. First, you had emancipation. And if you speak Italian, don't judge me, I'm doing my best. So first you had emancipation. And this was a ceremony where the biological father and the potential adoptive father was symbolically exchanged the child until it landed with the adopted father. Then you had Vendicatio. And that's when the adoptive father would take the son and go to the the Council of Rome to a legal court and make sure that in the law books, it was declared that this son was now

his. Not only that, once the son was officially adopted, the adopted son actually had greater access to the inheritance than the biological sons. The adopted son became entitled to the father's entire estate. You know why? Because the father had so much pride and belief in himself. He believed that the son he selected was greater than the son he was naturally given. So the adopted son was not the second class citizen, the adopted son actually was the inheritor. Even if biological sons came later, the adopted son was the primary inheritor. So this identity Paul is explaining to us when it comes to adoption is not just something that we take lightly. He is reminding us that we no longer have an orphan spirit. He was like God has brought you into his family. And some of us have father wounds, that this might be the thing you need healing for tonight, reminding yourself, you've been brought into the family of God. And let me tell you something. If you have a father, you have father wounds. That's how that goes. It doesn't matter how much they love God if they were present or absent, it didn't matter if they were controlling or loving or however you describe it. If they were human, there's a gap. So God is coming in to redefine and show us what the father experience is supposed to be like. And to tell us, I'm not just saving you to do work for me. I don't need slaves. I want sons and daughters. I want sons and daughters. So this identity changes everything. Secondly, we have an inheritance y'all. Now this is the beautiful part, because we know that from verse one, there's no condemnation, right? The debt has been paid. See, it's one thing to win a little money or get a little extra promotion and you got bills to pay. I don't know if there's ever happened to you. Somebody gave you a little gift

or you got a little extra at work or maybe Christmas or birthday. And you're like, yes, I know what I'm gonna do with this money. Thank you, Lord. Look how he's blessed me. And then sure enough, some corresponding expense just suddenly appears in your life. And we don't even see it as a blessing because God is like, girl, I'm giving you the money to cover the expense I saw coming. You're like, no, but I just want it to be extra, Lord. I just want it to be extra, right? I want it to be over and above. But sometimes the blessing, that's what I'm saying. Don't spend it too quickly, because there's probably an expense coming. Or maybe the expense comes first and then you get a blessing. You can't even really get all the way excited because you know exactly where it has to go. Paid off cars love to act up as soon as you get some extra. They know they're paid off. They start acting up. They know it. Then all of a sudden your tooth, you need a crown. All of a sudden your friend is in trouble. You're like, why? I was perfectly healthy before all this. That's what happens. But that's not what's happening here with this type of inheritance, because God has not only paid the debt, he's made us inheritors. So the inheritance doesn't have to cover the debt that's already paid. The inheritance is just God's good gift to us. And it's not bank account zeros. And it's not those things that we might equate to an inheritance. Look at what the scripture says. Ephesians 1 11 in him, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. First Peter says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus. According to his great

mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. This is what changes everything. I think about my own adopted kids, and it doesn't quite compare to the Roman culture. But I know now that in this family, they have a new identity. Their last name is ours. Their first name was given by us. We adopted them as babies. And so really all they know is the adopted family that they have. We have to tell them what we know about their biological family because the adoption process in the Roman culture did what it should do for us in the spirit, and that is it severed all ties with the old life. It is supposed to sever all ties with the old life. As a matter of fact, the reason why the inheritance was so important is because the adopted father instantly canceled every debt associated with the biological family. All debt was canceled. Any negative reputation was restored. Anything that was a setback in culture, career, education, the adoptive family completely reversed at the time adoption was complete. Can I tell you who has done a great reversal in our lives? God has said, I am not only, I'm not just asking you to obey and and be kind and and write nice notes and be forgiving and and sing songs and go to church. That should be the overflow of being in my family because when you belong to me, you should act like you belong to me. This should not be separate obedience. It should be connected to the fact that you are adopted as sons and daughters. We have an inheritance that is imperishable. It is unfading in a word. It is heaven, and so my inheritance as heaven is supposed to change my experience on earth. I have to be walking around like I'm an inheritor. It's supposed to change everything. Lastly, we have we have intimacy. Y'all say intimacy. This is what we have in adoption. It says the spirit of adoption has given us the ability basically in Romans 8 to cry Abba Father. I really wish I had some time for this. Let me tell you the uniqueness of Abba Father. It's one of the few words that are not translated from Aramaic to English. It's still the original Aramaic. You can't quite capture what what we get to do here. This word Abba is this warmth. It's an intimacy. It's like what you would say when you have a close relationship with the Father, and we see this another time in scripture. It's when Jesus

is in the garden of Gethsemane asking for the cup to be removed. It's that desperation, that intimacy, that closeness where Jesus cries out Abba Father, and so what Paul is saying here is that if you have the spirit of God because you've been saved and surrendered to Jesus Christ, you now have a spirit of adoption that has redefined who you are. It's canceled all your old debt, given you a new identity, and now you are co-heirs with Christ. So God is saying I sent my son to save you, but he's not going to lord it over you. You now get to sit at the table with him, and the intimate name that he calls me, you get to call me too. That's my actual begotten son. You're adopted, but y'all get to call me the same name. That's the promise of the Father. If you get to cry out Abba Father, that in your moment of weakness, he's not just a judge. He's not just waiting for you to be in trouble. He wants the intimacy. Y'all, if we get this, that means the way I show up every day in my life has to be different when I am convinced who I am in Christ Jesus. Because sonship is not just a title. Daughtership is not just a label. There's evidence with that. Look at what the scripture says. Mark 5 9 says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Sons of God, the children of God are peacemakers. We don't just watch other people making peace, and we don't talk about how we all need peace. We actually go into chaos and create peace, and we're able to do it not in our own strength, but because we already have the peace of God. He says, you can go into the craziness and the chaos of this world. Listen, I can't be a peacemaker in the world if I can't even get peace in my mind. I can't be wrestling with things that should be small things because God cannot use me to shift what's happening around us. We are supposed to be peacemakers. Mark 5 4 says, I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of the Father. That loving enemies, that's not for everybody. That's for the children of God. If I were to ask you, let's stack up the evidence of your daughtership, of your sonship. Let me stack up the evidence. Are you a peacemaker? Do you love your enemies? I'm telling y'all, we are being put to the test. We are getting opportunities every day to love our enemies. And the comment section is not always looking so good. Our private conversations, the group chat is not always looking so good. But this is supposed to be the thing that sets me apart. When my friends' kids come to my house, they're like,

Oh, Ms. Jada, your house is clean. Oh, they have to clean up after themselves. I don't know why this is an anomaly, but then they say, Oh, they're so respectful. That's not, that's regular. And if you're a guest in my house, you're going to be treated the way they're treated. Put your stuff up. Clean up after yourself. Because this is the rules of the house. And if you want to call me mom and play mom and act like you're my son or daughter, I'm going to treat you that way. That's why Hebrews says, Whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. That's the evidence of sonship and daughtership. Can I receive the discipline of the Lord? Am I so secure in my seat at the family table that when God doesn't give me everything I want, when he repackages it differently than what I expected, when I'm praying and still waiting and I'm watching somebody else get it, I can keep discontentment and jealousy at bay because I have a seat at the table that doesn't change. Adoption is supposed to change everything. Your career not going the way you want it to go, it doesn't matter. Because I got something that's permanent, something imperishable, something unfading. Can I tell you desperately what this world needs to see? Believers who act like they belong to the family of God. Not say it, not the t-shirt. I'm talking about you acting like you're sitting at the table. You're acting like that whatever this world throws your way doesn't change my seat at the table. There's nothing my children can go through that make them less my son or my daughter. There's nothing anyone can call them. There's no disappointment they can experience.

There is no high or no low that changes their standing in this family. And that's true of you. And so in this moment, y'all, God is calling us to live that out. Somebody ought to be surprised by the peace that you walk in when chaos is in the headlines every day. Somebody ought to be thrown off by your contentment. It should be so jolting, 1 Peter says. They ought to think you peculiar. They ought to want to know the source of this certainty. And you can just simply tell them, I'm adopted. I got a seat at the table. I'm co-heirs with Jesus. And in my worst moments, I can cry out, Abba, Father. And here's the last thing. When you're doubting, God, where are you? God feels far. Because sometimes we feel close to God when we've had devotional time. Sometimes we feel far after we just cuss somebody out in their head. I know y'all don't say it out loud. You're sanctified. But we do certain things. I'm telling the truth. We feel far from God. I skipped church several Sundays. I feel close to God. I had an Instagrammable devotional moment. All this craziness, things that have nothing to do with our bearing. Romans 8 says the Holy Spirit himself bears witness. So, when you're wondering, why am I wrestling with this? God, are you disappointed?

God, are you far? The Holy Spirit is like, girl, you are still good. God got you. You have not changed your standing in this family. You could not if you tried. Go out there and walk like you're a daughter. Go out there and act like you belong. Go out there and let somebody be so blown away by the peculiar nature of your life, they want to know your father, too. You're not going to win it with an argument. You're not going to win it with silence. But if you walk in the identity that God has given you, it can change everything. Father, we are beyond grateful that you saw fit to bring us to your table. God, in this moment, would you help us to understand that doing right things or obeying, those should be the overflow of our position in your family. And when all the voices, the insecurity, the depression, the darkness, the shame, the guilt, when all those things come crashing in, would you remind us that we have the Spirit of God in us that bears witness that we are who you say we are and not just so we can feel good about ourselves, but so we can go out there and act like we belong to you. Thank you for the privilege of being your light. Give us the certainty of our unshakable adoption. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.