Introduction
I want to welcome all those who are watching online. I know we've got heaps of watching online, and so great to connect with you, and I know whatever God's doing here, he wants to do with you as well.
I want to speak this week on the three R's of sonship. How many ever heard the term? Three Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - the foundations of an academic education.
I looked up three R's, and I found there was another one too. If you're going to be a leader, then the three R's of Leadership are: Respect, Responsibility and Resourcefulness.
I want to look into John 17, and I want to show you three foundational functions of what it means to be a child of God, to be a son of God.
Main Message
When we don't understand things, if we don't understand how something works, then we misuse it. It's really important in days like this that we understand our identity, and how to function in that identity.
John 17:1-6 - "Jesus spoke these words, and he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said: father, the hour has come to glorify your son, that your son may also glorify you. You've given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is now heard (he begins to describe it), this is eternal or age-lasting life (or this is the life that comes out of the eternal realm). This is eternal life: that they may know. You, the one true God (only one true God! There's no 'many ways', there's only one true God), and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (the word sent means apostelo - to send as a representative on a mission. So if you reject the representative, you reject the one who sent him). I have glorified you on earth. I have finished the work you've given me to do. (Now, he hasn't gone to the cross, so we need to think what that work might be). Now, father glorify me with yourself, the glory I had before the world was. (And here's the third one:) I have manifested your name to the men you've given me out of the world; they were yours, you gave them to me and they have kept your word."
So Jesus reveals three aspects of what it means to be a child of God; three aspects of what Sonship design is. If there's a design, it means God has planned a way for it to work. If you take one part out, it doesn't work as it was intended. And so here they are, and they are the three R's.
The first R is Relationship. He said: "that this is eternal life - that they may know you". Relationship means having a personal relational connection with God as your father.
The second R we would call Responsibility. He said: "I have finished the work you gave me to do". To finish a job means you were responsible. You did what you were called to do. The second aspect of being a child of God is that we serve our father, we fulfill things he gives us to do.
The third aspect is Representation - to be a representative. He said: "I have manifested your name". It means to reveal who you are.
If you're going to be a child of God, you're called firstly into relationship with him - a connection with him.
Secondly, you are called to be responsible. It's a big issue today. People don't want to be responsible. They want to play the game of victim and blame someone else; but God calls sons to be responsible. He gives them assignments, something for them that's suited for them to do.
Thirdly, representative. To be a representative means you act in place of someone else. You're not doing your own thing, you're acting to represent someone. I'm going to focus around that, because this is an area that the church doesn't really get or understand very much.
Every part of this is like three circles, interacting with one another: Relationship; Responsibility; and being a Representative. To be a representative, I must know what my father's like. I need relationship, in order to do what he wants me to do. All of the three things work together; if you focus on one at the expense of the others, you become somewhat dysfunctional.