The Work of the Spirit Adoption

Joining in Romans chapter eight. We look today the beginning at verse twelve in Romans chapter eight, beginning of verse twelve, there in twelve through seventeen, this very critical section here in Romans chapter eight, if you remember, this is a culmination, if you will, this is a crescendo of Romans chapter six through eight, when we look at this picture here of sanctification, and in Romans chapter eight, as this all comes to a crescendo, and as Paul brings this all together and explains to us how we as believers become righteous, not just are declared righteous, but that righteousness is actualized in us. We've come to this place where we see that this is the critical work of the Holy Spirit. We started talking on last week about the person of the Holy Spirit. Remember Holy Spirit is who not an it? Okay, talked about the person of the Holy Spirit and the great ironies that we see with those who emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit versus those who tend not to emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit, and how you can have a ditch on both sides of the road. You can emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit, but consider the Holy Spirit an it and not a he, just a force and the power and the means by which you get what you want. Or you can avoid the work of the Holy Spirit and put yourself in a terrible place where, because of his work in sectification, you rely on yourself to do that which only the Spirit of God can do. So there must be a balanced biblical approach to the work of the third person of the Trinity, the work of the Holy Spirit. And here in Romans chapter eight we see again and again and again the work that the Spirit does in sanctification. Today we see the work that the Spirit does in sanctifying us by the spirit of adoption. We'll see that in this paragraph, this idea that our adoption in Christ, this work of the Spirit in adopting us, is also this work in sanctification, because it is our adoption that is a critical link in us becoming obedient sons. So if you would join me here Romans chapter eight, the getting there at verse twelve. So, then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Again, that's the summation of what we just went through before, this whole idea of the flesh verse the Spirit we need not live according to the flesh. We live according to the spirit. So, then, brothers, we are deadors not according or not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 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 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. And if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Sort of good news bad news thing here, Amen, But it's all good news. It just looks like bad news from your perspective again. And that's why next week we talk about our schatological hope that is related to this adoption. But we dare not get ahead of ourselves there. But as we talk about this doctrine of adoption, and really this is about the spirit's work in sanctification and adoption as it relates to the spirit's work in sanctification. First, let's look at the doctrine itself. If you have your hymnals, you open those two again six seventy seven, six seventy seven. If you remember, in the last few sections of Romans, chapter eight, we've looked at page six seventy seven, but we looked at chapter thirteen on sanctification. You don't want you to look on a chapter twelve on adoption. Let's read that together, shall we all those that are justified God vouchsafed in and for the sake of his only son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have the name put upon them, received the spirit of adoption, have access to the Throne of Grace with boldness, are enabled to cry abba Father, are pitied, protected, provided for chastened by Him, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as of everlasting salvation. Listen to this statement about the doctrine of adoption. John Frame says this adoption is God's remedy for our second great need. Justification meets our need for a new legal status. Adoption meets our need for a new family. I like that justification meets our need for a new legal status. Adoption meets our need for a new status. And the spurgeon. Adoption gives us the right of children. Regeneration gives us the nature of children. We are partakers of both of these, for we are sons. The rights of children and the nature of children, these are the things that are ours. And this is the work that the spirit accomplishes in us. We need to see. Is this that adoption makes us free from slavery? Adoption makes us free from slavery. Look at verse twelve again. So, then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of gods are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry ah bah, Father, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, that is the realm of the flesh. But you have actually been set free by the power of God's spirit. You have been made free. You are not a slave to sin. And because you are a slave to sin, he can say here to you, look at what he calls you to do. If you live according to the flesh, you will die verse thirteen. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You are able by the spirit to put the death, put to death the deeds of the body first and foremost. Because you are no longer a slave to sin. It does not have a claim on you. You do not belong to it. You do not have to live like that now. You did have to live like that before you did. You had to live like that before and even before. And I know you said, well, wait a minute. There are people who are not Christians and they overcome whatever issues that they have. And usually you'll point to there are people who are not Christians and they used to be alcoholics, and now they're not alcoholics. There are people who are not Christians and they used to they they used to be violent and now they're not violent. They used to be this, and now they're not that. But remember what we talked about in last week. We went back to the Sermon on the Mount Jesus refers to the difference between behavioral modification and spiritual transformation. If your question is can the behavior of lost people be modified? The answer is yes. Yes. I mean, if you can teach a lion to jump through a ring of fire at the crack of a whip, certainly a human being that is more intelligent than a lion can have his behavior modified so that he will do or not do whatever it is that you want him to do or not do if the right stimulus is involved. That, however, is different than putting to death the deeds of the flesh see behavior. Your modification just allows you to serve your flesh. In another way, you find something that is more important to you, or more meaningful to you, or more frightening to you, and you merely obey that thing that is more important or more meaningful or more frightening. You were an alcoholic and it messed up your life. You don't like losing your jobs. You don't like losing friendships. You don't like losing marriages. So because you're motivated by a desire not to lose jobs, not to lose lose friendships, not to lose marriages, you modify your behavior so that your fleshly desire for the other things can be met. That's different than you putting to death the deeds of the flesh, because the spirit that raised Christ from the dead now resides in you, and you don't have to live like that anymore. When I say like that, I don't mean you don't have to live like the person who's addicted to alcohol. You don't have to live like the person who's addicted to your own desires being the strongest thing possible to get you off of alcohol. There's a difference between behavior modification and spiritual transformation, and that difference is the power of the Spirit of God. Now notice also what is said here. This is not something that is passive for the believer. This is something that's active for the believer. He says, if by the spirit, it's the spirit's work. By the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body. By the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body. You are not a slave anymore. So you actively live like a free man and not like a slave. You are not a slave anymore. So you actively get up and leave the plantation. Amen, somebody, You are not a slave anymore so, you do not think of yourself as bound to that old slave master anymore. You actively do this, actively pursue this, actively participate in this. However, it is not you pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. It is the Spirit of God, who first and foremost has set you free, so that you have what it takes in order to put to death those deeds of the body. The spirit sets you free, does not give you the spirit of slavery. You do not go back and live like a slave anymore. So. This adoption, this work of the spirit and sanctification, says us free from being slaves to sin. Secondly, it makes us children rather than enemies of God, says we receive the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father. We receive the spirit of adoption as sons. So we are adopted. We're no longer enemies of God. By the way, all men are born as enemies of God. Ephesians Chapter two, verses one through three, we've read it before, we need to read it a end. Amen. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Notice that's the spirit as well, among whom we all wants to live in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. Sound familiar. So we just said we can put that to death now. And were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Listen very carefully. Protestant liberalism the turn of the last century had many problems, many theological problems, denying the atonement, denying the virgin of birth, denying the deity of Christ, and those things have lingered. But one of the things that happened there in Protestant liberalism was the rise of this idea. And this idea was the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. That God is the father of all of us. We are all one big, happy human family. We are all brothers and sisters as part of this one big, happy human family. Now there is a sense in which this is kind of true. But from a theological perspective this is dead wrong. Listen to Jay Gresham Machen. He addresses this in his book Christianity and Liberalism. He writes, very different is the Christian conception of brotherhood from the liberal doctrine of the brotherhood of man. The modern liberal doctrine is that all men, everywhere, no matter what their race or creed, are brothers. There is a sense in which this doctrine can be accepted by the Christian. The relation in which all men stand to one another is analogous in some important respects to the relation of brotherhood. All men have the same creator, the same nature. The Christian man can accept all that the modern liberal means by the brotherhood of man. But the Christian knows also of a relationship far more intimate than that general relationship of man to man, and it is for this more intimate relationship that he reserves the term brother True brotherhood, according to Christian teaching, is the brotherhood of the Redeemed. We are not all children of God. We are not we become the children of God. We do not need to become that which we already are if allow, you do not need to become that which you already are. We listen to what the Bible says, John chapter one, Verses twelve and thirteen. But all who did receive Him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God God. Why would I need the right to become that which all human beings already are? The answer, I don't. Christ doesn't need to give me the right to become that which all human beings already are. We reject the idea of the universal brotherhood of man and the universal fatherhood of God. We are not all God's children. We are all objects of God's wrath. We are all enemies of God. And it is only those who come to Him and repentance and faith that become the children of God. It is those who call God their fathers. In the Galatians chapter four, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Ah Bah Father. This cry is passionate and intimate. It's both. It's passionate and intimate. This is an intimate cry. We refer to God as our father. There is intimacy there. We are related to God as a son to a father, and there is passion and emotion there because our relationship is not just one of formality. It is one that is real. And it is this spirit of adoption that allows us to cry out both intimately and passionately to our God. But conversely, it is this intimate, passionate relationship with God that gives us a passionate opposition to the deeds of the flesh. We love God with sons of God. Therefore we hate that which is evil. We have to We don't split our allegiances, our allegiances to God. And it is that intimate and passionate relationship with our heavenly Father that motivates us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. They don't belong to us anymore, and we most assuredly do not belong to them. We belong to God. This also gives us look at Segond Grinthians six and seventeen. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touched the unclean thing. That I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you. And you should be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord, sons and daughters to me. This also gives us assurance. Notice what he says here in the passage verse sixteen. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, let's be very careful here. Here's what this doesn't mean. You can't tell me I'm not a Christian. I know in my heart. That's not what this means. It's not what he means. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If you want to know what this means, for example, if we just go back to a book that we were in not long ago. In First John. First John talks about those three major tests as to whether or not we belong to God. Do we believe the Gospel as it was proclaimed? Do we walk in righteousness? Do we love the brothers. These are the things that John refers to when he says, you know, I write these things to those of you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. What are these things? These things are those major tests. And so we test ourselves according to the scriptures to see if we're in the faith. Amen. So this is not just pure subjectivism. You know, I know in my heart that I'm a child of God. No, Actually, you test yourself by an objective standard. By the way, this is why membership in God's Church is so important. One of the great benefits of membership in God's Church is that your doctrine and your life is tested. Amen. If I'm out there just sort of autonomous by myself, going I'm a Christian, you can't tell me anything. I can be completely and utterly deceived, believing things that have nothing to do with the historic Christian faith. I can be talking about a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the scripture. I can be talking about a salvation that is not the salvation of the Scripture. Because I'm out here autonomous and all by myself saying, hey, you can't tell me. I know it in my heart. I could be self deceived. But if I'm a member of a biblically functioning New Testament church and my doctrine is warped, I'm called on it. If I'm a member of a biblically functioning New Testament church and my life is raggedy and does not line up with my profession, I'm called on it, and I don't just get to go. You know what, I'm not worried about you. You call it heresy. The history of the church calls it heresy. Everybody around you calls it heresy. But I know in my heart that's not what this verse means. This is a reference to the work of the Spirit of God giving us assurance inwardly that is connected to and not divorced from, those things that give us assurance outwardly. Remember the context. What's the context? The context is my obedience to God. Amen. Is it behavioral modification, a real spiritual transformation? Which does the spirit testify to Do you have assurance based on the work of the Spirit of God in your life that lines up with what you know from the scriptures? Not do you have this defiant I'm believing it regardless of what everything. No, that's not assurance. Assurance is connected to God's truth. By the way, here's what's ironic. There are people who say, outside of the church, I love Jesus, not necessarily the Church, and I don't need you to tell me that I'm a real Christian because I got this insurance in myself. The small problem with that, what, Well, the spirit of God, the spirit of adoption, has made you a child of God and united you to His family. Yes, if that's true, then pray tell, how could it also be true that you have no yearning whatsoever for your siblings. HM, splain that one to me. That God is your father for real, that you've been saved for real, that you've been adopted into His family for real, but you're repulsed by and not drawn to your siblings and the faith that dog won't hunt again. This assurance is not defiance. This assurance is in accordance with what the Spirit does. And one of the things that he does is he sets you free from the deeds of the flesh completely. Know we've already been in chapter seven, Amen, But progressively he does as you put to death the deeds of the flesh the Spirit of God testifies with your spirit that this is happening because you are a child of God. Are you all the way there yet? No, you're not all the way there yet. But you hate sin, which is a really good sign. True righteousness, which is a really good sign. You desire the things of God. You desire God, You desire the presence of God. You want God, not just what you can get from God. You want God. This will make more sense in a moment when we get to suffering, but for now, let me just allude to it here. One of the greatest testimonies of assurance is how you endure suffering. I'm a Christian, suffering comes into my life. I don't know about this Christianity thing that didn't match. Adoption guarantees our inheritance as well. Look at the next part of this text. We have this intimate, passionate cry. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Now there's a couple of things. Let me connect a couple of dots here. We already talked about this idea of a covenantal versus a dispensational view of the Bible in general, but in the Book of Romans in particular, and this idea that Christ is the true Israel, and how it's very important for us to understand that if we're going to understand these doctrinal truths that we're speaking of here, So all of those promises that are made to Israel, that are made to Abraham, for example, those promises are fulfilled to and through the person of Jesus Christ. Now he is the true Israel. He is the faithful Israel. He is the last Adam. But he's also the true and faithful Israel. And so we are heirs to those promises because of our adoption. Christ is the true Israel. We are in him. Therefore all of those promises accrue to us, not just my idea. One Peter Chapter two, beginning verse nine. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his own possession. That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Listen to those phrases, and you tell me what it sounds like. This is right out of the Old Testament. Peter is saying, you are all those things that Israel is. You are a chosen race. Why because Christ is the true and faithful Israel and we are in him. Therefore we're chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. Why because Christ is the true high Priest and we are in him. You are a holy nation. How can anyone who's read the Bible honestly deny the fact that this is an absolute, clear reference to that which is true of Israel, being true of the Church. You're a holy nation. You are a people for his own possession. Do you hear how this drifts with those references and promises that were made to Israel. Maybe that's not clear enough for you. Okay, fine, let's go to Galatians chapter three, starting twenty five. They're in glass to three. But now the faith has come. We are no longer under a guardian for Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. By the way baptized into Christ is a reference to what the work of the spirit baptized. We talked about this last week. The Spirit baptizes us into Christ. That's why we're in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise. There you have it. There you have it. If you want this clearer, you just go to the discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees. What do they say, we're Abraham. See what does he say to them? Oh, yes, you're absolutely right, because being a child of Abraham, that is about your genetics. So yeah, thank corrected. No, he says to Jews who are in the line of Abraham physically, he says, you are of your father, the devil. Who's Abraham, the father of the faithful? Where's this promise fulfilled? The person of Christ, the true Israel? And when we are in him, all of those promises accrue to us. But look at this text more carefully verse seventeen. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Not only is he talking about inheriting those promises that we see, but technically what we inherit is God as our father. You want to land promise for God, who owns the catalog thousand hills? What do you want descendants as numerous as the stars and the sky, or the sand on the seashore? Or God? What do you want all the nations of the earth to be blessed? In You? Or God? We inherit God as our father. This love that the Father has for the Sun is lavished on you and me. The glorious majesty that the Father sees when he looks at his beloveds, so is what he sees when he looks at you and at me. The perfect righteousness that belongs to Christ that pleases the Father to the utmost is what the Father sees when he looks at you and at me. The passionate vengeance that will strike down every foe belongs to you and to me. The jealousy with which the Father looked over and longed after the Son belongs to you and to me. We inherit that where airs of that. That's who you are in Christ. That's what has accrued to you. This is again, this is why I take the time to talk about these other issues, you know, these polemics and the way people view the person and work of the Holy Spirit, because to me, it's degrading. This is what we inherit. But what do we really want from the Holy Spirit? The ability to name and claim physical possessions that we want. What do we want from the Spirit. We want the power to not be sick. What we want from the Spirit we want emotion or outbursts. Really give me God, Because here's the other problem with that, because of adoption, we also have chastening from God. You usually don't hear about that when we talk about the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit, the person in the Holy Spirit, all these things. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, Come Holy Spirit, Give me, Holy Spirit. Bring Usually we don't say Holy Spirit, come give me, bring my chastening. Hebrews twelve six. For the Lord disciplines the ones he loves and chastens every son whom he receives, He chastens his children Revelation three nineteen. Those who I love reprove and discipline, So be zealous and repent. Proverbs three eleven and twelve, My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father, the son in whom he delights. Now let me read the rest of this paragraph and look at how it fits. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow ers with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Where do we get all this power encounter talk from? Where do we get the idea from that a truly spirit filled believer is the one who doesn't suffer? Do you see? Only Satan can get that? In light of this verse, God says, you're not just heirs, but fellow heirs with Christ, provided you suffer. And then somebody who claims to be speaking for God actually says, if you're suffering, it's because you're not believing enough. Polar opposites, complete and utter polar opposites. First of all, we suffer because we're at war with the world. Remember we're over here in the camp of the enemies of God. Now what has happened, Well, the spirit of God has baptized us into Christ. He has given us the spirit of adoption as sons. So now we're no longer over here on the plantation like the rest of them. We're saved, and we have a new name put on us. They're the enemies of God. We're the children of God. Guess what that makes us, brothers and sisters their enemies as well. That's why Paul says tewod Tivoty three twelve. All those who desire to live godly life in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. The next time you claim a promise from the Bible, try to claim in that one word, I claim my persecution in Jesus' name, because that's a promise from the word of God. Okay, claim your suffering, because that's a promise from the word of God as real as anything else in the scriptures one John three to one. See what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God? And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him John fifteen nineteen. Just go to John fifteen. Turn your bible to John fifteen. John fifteen will begin there in verse eighteen. If the world hates you. Know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. Remember the world the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because you do not because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father. Also, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father the world. I'm sorry, but the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause. Here's what's interesting. You could pick up book after book after book, and Christian books designed to help the church understand how to live in such a way that the world will love us. Stop talking about this, quit preaching on that, Quit being like this, quit being like that. Listen. I don't believe that we have to be extra offensive. The Gospel is offensive enough. It doesn't need our help. Amen. But if the goal is to be thought well of, we've missed something very important, and so we suffer. Turn with me to one last passage, Go to Philippians two. But how do we suffer? Verse five? Had this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every niches and in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Interesting, when Jesus said, the time has come, glorify me that I might glorify you. He'd already done all his miracles in that high priestly prayer. When he talked about the glory that he had with the Father before the world began, he had already preached all his powerful sermons. When Christ was speaking of glory, he was referring to death on the cross. We will suffer. Now we live in a culture and in a country where we have, in many ways been robbed of the reality of this text. There have been few places on the face of the earth, and there still are few places on the face of planet Earth where Christians have the freedoms that we do and where our worldview has the dominance that it's had here on our shores. And for that we need to be grateful. But we also need to be cautious because this is not normal. This is not the way followers of Christ have lived throughout the history of Christianity, and it's not the way most of them live in the world today. We suffer, and when we do, we are gloriously identified with our elder brother Jesus, who glorified our Father through suffering. Don't have an overrealized eschatology. We've used that word before. This idea that we get it all in the here and the now, and we got nothing to look forward to. It's not coincidental that the next passage in Romans talks about our future hope, because we do have a future hope. This is not our home. This is not as good as it gets. The death rate is still one per person, and for most of us it won't happen by walking in front of a bus. We will get sick and then we will die. We haven't had a funeral in this church, but we will hang around. We're all going out the same way. Letus the Lord comes back first. We will suffer, But the question is when we do. Will we see that suffering as part of the sanctifying work that God does to conform us to the image of Christ, because that verse is coming, or will we be like those in our culture who look at suffering and say this must be evidence that we're not believing enough, or worse yet, that we're not living righteously enough, and that somehow, if I just act better or believe better, negative things won't come into my life. God forbid, your suffering is simultaneously evidence of your adoption. Because the family to which we belong suffers in this world. And at the same time, it is a process through which God conforms you to the very image and likeness of his Son. And I know that as I say this, there are some of you who are suffering right now. And that's why I linger here, because I know you are expectations, pain in your physical body, unanswered prayers, broken shattered relationships, financial difficulty, or even ruin. And you suffer, and you suffer, and you suffer. And I want you to hear me clearly today, that does not mean that you don't belong to God. And depending on what it's producing in you, it's quite the opposite. It's evidence of the fact that you do, because as you suffer, you cling to the cross. As you suffer, you hold more tightly to Jesus than you ever have before. As you suffer and things are taken away from you one by one by one by one, you are made more and more aware that they are not the things that matter anyway, It is only Christ. And as that happens, the family resembles increases. Because here's what I've learned. I am not more like my Jesus when I am on the mountaintop and everything's going well. I look most like him when I look most like I'm wearing a crown of thorns. When I look most like I'm nailed to a tree. That's when I look most like him. And I don't like those times, but I am grateful for God for what it produces in me. Cling to this hope, brothers, hold to this truth. Sisters, it is necessary and this life that we're called to live. As you hold to it and cling to it, remember you have not just all you need, a more than enough