Grace and comfort to you from God, our Father, and his Son our Savior, Jesus Christ!

We live in a world of uncertainty, and when things are uncertain, fear attacks. "How will my life turn out, I don’t always know which way to go?" "What will I do if I lose my job? How will I survive?" "How will I survive if my spouse doesn’t come home from work today?" "God has made me a Father to my children, but what happens if I don’t raise them right? How do I know what I should do?" "My retirement is at hand, what happens if my money doesn’t last?" These fears are real. Time and again these and other fears attack us. Left to ourselves, on our own, we would be lost in despair, because fear gives birth to more fear and these would drag us down.

We are not alone. We are not lost. We are led by the Holy Spirit. He puts his arm around us and tells us how things really are. Through the Word of God the Holy Spirit assures us that we are God’s Children. The Holy Spirit removes our fears. The Holy Spirit reassures our faith.

14 Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

This is the Word of God for the Children of God

Imagine what life was like in the Roman congregation to whom Paul first wrote these words. There were many members who had been Jews and now, by the working of the Holy Spirit, believed that Jesus is the Messiah. There were also many converts from paganism. What kinds of fears did those people have? Were they afraid that if they spent too much time with friends they had known before their conversion they might be led away from Christ? Maybe led away to sin with them? Many of that congregation were slaves, slaves to pagan masters. Were they afraid, like Naaman that they would have to go into a house of idol worship with their master? If they were confronted with such opportunities to sin, would they be able to stand? What would happen if they fell? Would that mean they had never been Christians at all and it been meaningless talk?

But what do these words have to do with us? We are not Romans. We are Americans. We are Midwesterners. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. We have never worshipped in pagan temples. Do these words apply to us? If you think they don’t apply, the next time your conscience accuses you of sin, we can talk. I would chance to say that you have already been attacked by fears and doubts about your faith. At some point in your life you have been attacked by fears that have called into question your status as a child of God. All of us have had such fears attack us because we are still connected to our sinful flesh. Our sinful flesh, our old Adam or Eve, wants to fill our lives with something other than God. It wants us to fill our lives the way the rest of the world does. People running around packing things and events and anything into their lives so their time will be so full and they so busy, they won’t have time to think about God. Do you find yourself filling your life and time with so much that there’s almost no time to think about God. Each of us struggles with these temptations of our flesh. It always wants more, and more, and more. When we listen to our flesh and fall into sin, then our conscience is right there to accuse us. "Would a child of God really have done what you just did?" Nature abhors a vacuum and so does fear. Once we have been convicted that we have sinned and done what is evil in God’s sight, our conscience reminds us that God, the Holy God, is just and faithful. He will punish sin, for he has promised that the one who sins is the one who will die (Ezekiel 18:20).

What are we to do? Just as he did with the Romans, Paul points you and me to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit preaches gospel to our hearts and says, "Look at Jesus. God, the Father, so loved you that he gave his one and only begotten Son, that you may believe in him and not perish, but have eternal life. The God who did this for you is your Father in heaven." The Holy Spirit points us to the Father who loves us so much and has already secured our salvation. Let us call on him for aid. So we cry "Abba" in our time of need. When we are attacked by the fear that our sins have separated us from our Father we call on him. "Father, I have sinned, and I fear that I have destroyed our relationship with each other; I fear I have thrown heaven itself away. I am lost." "My dear child," says our loving Father, "whatever do you mean? I sent Jesus to remove your sins forever. I sent you my Holy Spirit to give you Jesus’ righteousness and to make you my own dear child. When I look at you that is what I see. I see my child. Go and be what I have made you."

No matter what are fears are or how often they attack us, our Father removes our fears through his Holy Spirit. His Spirit leads us to the side of our Father who then gives us still more comfort as we go through life holding our daddy’s hand. If you believe that this is true, you are a son or daughter of God! If you don’t believe this or have doubts about it, then let me preach the gospel to you again. Your father in heaven wants you to be his child forever. He loves you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die in your place. He sends his Holy Spirit through the means of grace, even during this very service, to remove your fears and doubts. The Holy Spirit wants to lead you to your loving and dear Father in heaven.

When our sinful flesh attacks us with fears and accuses us before God of having broken his law, the Holy Spirit, himself, stands next to us and testifies that we are indeed children of God. Does his testimony carry weight? How does he know if we are God’s children or not? He was there when we were converted. In fact, it was the Holy Spirit, himself, who came to us and converted our hearts. It was the Holy Spirit who led us to believe the message of salvation through Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us the comfort and reassurance our faith needs in the here and now. But it gets better.

The Holy Spirit not only reassures us that we are children of God, he reassures us that we are also heirs of God. That means we are co-heirs with Christ! Do you realize how wonderful that truth is? Jesus has inherited wisdom and power and glory from his father. We too shall inherit wisdom and power and glory from our Father…but does that mean we will inherit sufferings too? Jesus suffered quite a bit. There’s that "if" word again, and with it comes fear.

Let the Holy Spirit point you back to your Father when you need reassurance. How did God, our Father, reassure and strengthen his son Jesus before he suffered here on earth? He sent him his Holy Spirit and said, "This is my Son, whom I love." The Holy Spirit strengthens us the same way, by leading us to his Word wherein we hear our Father say to us, "You are my child, whom I love. Eternal life is yours as is heaven itself." What a reassurance for our faith!

When we suffer through things in this life, we are reassured by the Holy Spirit, himself, that our Father will help us. He has helped us already giving us so many blessings, even heaven itself. Will he not also help us when we call on him now? When you fathers wonder how you will ever raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, cry "Abba" to your Father. You are his son. You are his heir. Your Father will send you his Holy Spirit, through his Word, to lead you and guide you in training your children. Know also that that same Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of your children as he comes to them through his means of grace. When we try to reach out with the gospel as a congregation or as individuals and doors keep slamming in our faces, we cry "Abba" to our Father. We are his children. We are his heirs. He will send his Holy Spirit and help us to put our outreach "sufferings" in perspective. Our Father wants the people who reject us to be his children as well, just like he wanted us. He is able to make them his children, through the working of his Holy Spirit, just like he did with us. He has already given us forgiveness, life and salvation. Will he not also give us the strength and the patience to deal with doors and opposition?

The words of this text are so beautiful and so full of comfort. Know that this comfort is yours, because you are God’s child. Praise the Lord that he has made us his children. We are God’s children! His Holy Spirit removes our fears and his Holy Spirit reassures our faith. May the blessing of God our Father, his Son our Savior, and his Holy Spirit our witness and guide, be and abide with us this week and always, Amen.