Children, Part 1

One of the greatest blessings that humans can have is giving life to other humans. It's quite a thing that God has developed in that the lives that will ultimately inhabit eternity in his family are lives that have come through human beings like you and me. In Psalm 127, verses 3-5, David is inspired to talk about these incredible gifts of God. He says here in Psalm 127, verse 3, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. A warrior can't fight well without arrows. A farmer can't farm well without implements. A family can't do well, in other words, without children. It ends. There are difficulties without children—mental, physical, even the ability to perform larger tasks that require more people. Children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them.

They shall not be ashamed. That individual will be one who is blessed and honored in the gates. In some cultures, just having a number of children brings a person honor. Just that you can say, I have this many kids without even seeing the children. But God wants children that are a little different than just being there. He wants children that are growing up like him. At the end of this age, there are prophecies that say that children will be full of disobedience, as you can see in 2 Timothy. Children who will grieve and bring harm and bring down societies, undermine them, and bring great misery. That speaks of a different God, of an age that we currently live in, but not the one that we're about, not the one that we foretell. Today, in this sermon, I would like to take a look at the miracle that God allows you and me to have, the miracle of those who have life to give life to others. God is calling children He is calling us not only to have children, to raise children, to be godly children, but He is calling us to be His children in His divine family.

In Genesis chapter 5, in the first two verses, there's yet another recount, as it were, of humanity, the beginnings of this phase of creation. In Genesis chapter 5 and verse 1, it says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. When you look at the Bible, many times people try to make it the genealogy of everything that ever lived. Yet, this is the book that you hold, the genealogy of Adam, the physical lineage down to Jesus Christ, and then the spiritual lineage of all peoples that go into the family of God. The first Adam, you might say, is in what we call the Old Testament, and the second Adam in the New Testament. This is the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Wow! You and I aren't just sort of R2D2 droids. We are created in the image of God. Now, you ladies are as much in the image of God as you gentlemen are. We somehow are comprised with the attributes of the God family, though He made us male and female. In verse 2, He created them male and female. Now, male and female aren't just sort of alike. They are, in fact, sort of different. There are a lot of attributes that God divided from His full, complete person into male and female. It's a wonderful thing. And He blessed them, and through them they would have children. And it says He called them mankind in the day that they were created. So mankind, then, would bounce out into many individuals, little boys and girls that would grow up and become parents of other children. I'd like to talk a little bit about this miracle that God made. First of all, let's consider something. You and I are not smart enough to create a hair, let alone an entire baby. You and I do not have the understanding even of how to begin. If you and I were even able, with the powers of God, to do what we know with an egg and a sperm and cause a thing to replicate, we'd kill it within the first few hours. It is so complex. It is so unbelievably intertwined with things and substances and just stuff that humans haven't even figured it all out yet. I'll give you an example. Let's consider the thing called fertilization. We have this baby, and we kind of think that this baby is, oh, we've got a baby. No, we don't have a baby. What we really have is we have an egg on the right and a sperm. Now, when we think about the baby, you can't start there. Well, guess what? You really can't even start with an egg and a sperm. Look at the egg. What's that made of? Why does it have little kind of hair-like things on the surface? You know, we're so far behind the eight ball when we even talk about an egg and a sperm. What about the sperm? This billion-mile swimmer that seems to go the right direction, and only one can impregnate or break through the egg. And as soon as it does, all the other millions can't do it. We would miss it right there, but God has it all figured out. It's an incredible thing about fertilization.

A baby that you see right here is inside a woman as an egg and a sperm. It's a completely different organism to her. This is not her. This is something she produced the egg, the husband produced the sperm, but what happens is now something different than she is. And it has actually its own identity. It's formed of distinct cells that do not have her code on them, her identity. As the cells divide before attaching, they begin to divide, and they are formed of a unique genetic material, different than her genetic material. Now, it's human material, and she's human, but the genetic code of it is different than her own. It has foreign markers in the tissue, and so her body will see these as foreign substances. And you know what the body does to foreign substances. So, the foreign markers in the cells alert the mother's body that this is not part of her tissue. She is under invasion, and this must be attacked and killed. See how far you and I would get? Eggs not even attached. We would have forgotten something, and the mother would have taken it out. The mother's immune system at this point should destroy the new baby's first cells within just a few divisions. However, hmm, substances being secreted now by the baby and the forming placenta, substances coming out of them promote a complex suppression of the mother's immune system. It suppresses that immune system, but only at the site where this egg is about to attach. Okay? Not the rest of the body, or she would succumb to having no immune, immunity. She would succumb to illness and perhaps die herself and take the baby along with it. So, it's very interesting that when this placenta, in fact, let me turn these lights off. You don't mind?

When this placental stuff begins to attach and get near and then attach, it secretes a substance that shuts the mother's or actually disguises it and shuts the mother's immune response down, but only at the implantation site of the uterus.

If we look here, the tissue that touches the uterus has decreased its expression of foreign markers. Only in the tissue that now is touching it, it takes away the foreign markers so that the mother's tissue doesn't sense it as being a foreign body, though all the rest of it retains the foreign markers that is not touching the mother. Therefore, the mother's body accepts it and it attaches. Without this immunological acceptance, no baby would ever survive. I think it's just amazing.

If the mother's immune system were not suppressed only locally, she would not survive.

The maternal immune system helps control implementation or implantation of the embryo at just the right depth into the uterus. It all works just fine to where it sets in just to the right depth. Without this exact balance of immune responses, the developing placenta could not invade tissues all the way through the uterus. Actually, sorry, it could invade tissues all the way through the uterus and be fatal to the mother, but it only can invade to a certain depth—just the right depth to hold on for the right amount of time and then to dislodge later on at the right amount of time.

Now, when we think about things like this, we begin to think of Christ and the church. What did Jesus Christ compare himself to? Well, in John chapter 15—let's go there—John chapter 15, he compares you and me to a bunch of grapes. He thought I was going to say a baby, didn't you? Yeah. John 15. We'll start in verse 4. He says, abide in me. Now, the word abide, just as this tissue is now attaching to the uterus, is now attaching to the woman just the right way, and it will now be there. It'll stay. It won't detach. It won't be removed. It'll hang in there. Just as the Greek word mino means to remain or to reside, it will stay there and it will be nourished. Jesus says here, you abide in me and I in you. You're going to get your nourishment from me. In one place, he's the bread. In another place, he's the blood. He is here as a vine. It says, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides, meaning it resides and remains in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. It's very important that this baby does not abort itself because many, if not most, babies do self-abort. The mother doesn't do it. For some reason, the growing tissues either don't cling or they reject or in some way it doesn't remain. And oftentimes, it's so early that there's no sensation that there ever was a fertilization. It's very important for you and me in this process to realize we need to abide in him, to abide in his love, to reside there, to remain. You know, he says he wants us to bear fruit and that fruit is to remain. If we go forward just a little bit, we come down to a time here where, think of yourself here, just a few days old, I'm going to take you to when you're two weeks. Imagine yourself at two weeks. What do you think you're going to look like at two weeks? Here you are. Kind of looks like a bone. You know, that's us. Who would have thought to make something that looked like that? Well-formed, coming right along. Slide it two weeks. Here we actually have a spine developing, spinal cord developing. The first part of a heart is being created.

And it doesn't look like much of anything.

What Jesus says in verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides, he who resides and remains in me, and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. We might come to the church, we might come to the truth, and we might stick it out this far. You might think, hey, look at me! You know, I don't look so eggy anymore.

But you know, like he says, unless you reside in me, you can do nothing. You can't develop anymore. You can't grow anymore. We have to be dependent on him. We have to be dependent on the life that comes from him, because otherwise, that's as far as it goes, and nobody wants one of those.

Maybe the dog.

I say it because it kind of reminds me of a bone, more than a human.

We go along two more weeks to four weeks. This is four weeks actually in the development, four weeks in development. You begin to see sort of a lizard-looking thing with a tube, and at that point, you can see some eyes are developing. There's a chin, some kind of a mouth. You can see the framework of a skeleton going down the back.

Jesus said in verse 8, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so that you will be my disciples. We're not godly. We're not God's children yet. We're not spiritually there. You know, grapes. He didn't say, oh, you're just a great bunch of grapes. Just hang in there. No, I want you to bear much fruit.

So we've got to stay on the vine, and we've got to bear fruit, and we still have to remain. You know, Jesus wants us to grow. The Father wants us to grow. Why is the Father glorified if we grow? Do you think the Father would be glorified by that? Would you, as a parent, say, oh, I'm going to show you my kid? Well, he's right here underneath his, my thumbnail, but you know, it's about that big, and nobody would be glorified by that. You wouldn't sit in the gate and say, well, yeah, you have a big kid, but I've got this little kid. That wouldn't be glorified. God is glorified by having full children one day in his family, and he'll be the Father. He'll come and he'll be the Father. He can't be glorified in me today. He can be glorified if we grow and bear fruit to look like him, so that Jesus says, so you will be my disciples. You'll be like me. A disciple is like the Master. And so, as we grow here at six weeks, you can see growth taking place, more development. Any parent who saw this picture would be so excited. Wow, I didn't even know six weeks. Didn't even know I was pregnant. Maybe, you know, this is when you begin to find out the eggs don't stay down well in the morning, or you get into ingestion with coffee. I don't know. I've not been a woman. But you'd be pretty excited at this point to know that there's a baby on the way. You go like, go, kid, you know, let's grow some more. And so, at eight weeks, here's a little baby for me. You can see fingers and an eye, and you're rooting for this little tyke. And you're saying, wow, he's going to grow up and be like me. But how'd you like to pull one of those out of your pocket, you know? Think about that big, maybe, the whole fluffy little thing. Get you a microscope. Hey, want to see my kid? He's going to college. No, it's not done. You're not done. I'm not done.

So we have work to do. Notice in this parable as well that Jesus is not separate vines. He's not a whole bunch of, I am the vines. No, I am the vine, one vine. And the members of the body of Christ, his one body, they are the branches. They're not separate. They're right. They're not isolated. They're stuck on the same body. They have the same care, one for another. They're joined to one vine. The work and the love that they give, it says in Ephesians 4 16, causes growth of that body. What happens to the branches that are separated and broken off from the vine? Well, just imagine what would happen to this little fella if he said, you know what? I've got all I need. I've got four fingers so far. I've got an eye. I've got my capsule. I'm ready to take off and see the world.

How well would he do? Well, he wouldn't do very well. It says in verse 2, We've got to move beyond this stage. Verse 6, If anyone does not abide in me, does not care to reside and remain in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire that they are burned. It's a real tragedy when a woman loses a baby, early term. The longer it stays in her, the stronger the wound. And, you know, they're very sad situations when a baby does not survive. And we are saddened when that happens, not just at this age, but sometimes they go many weeks. Sometimes there's a lot of expectation. There's a lot of involvement. Sometimes they're even born and live for days or weeks, a month, and then don't survive. Sometimes a couple of years, sids or something may take out a child, and it's a huge, huge loss. God does not want that to happen to any of us spiritually, and God will bring back all of those who have lost their lives physically.

Jesus said here in verse 1 that the Father is the husbandman. He is the one who is over this process. Jesus is the vine dresser. Well, no, the Father is the vine dresser, but Jesus is the vine itself.

We should not ever cut ourselves off from the church, the spiritual church.

If we did, we can see right here how perilous that would be. God wants us to grow. He wants us to have life. Let's look at what this miracle does that takes place inside. You go on to 10 weeks. I've written at the top the age of each of these developing fetuses, embryos, children. You can see just what a miracle it is, at 10 weeks.

16 weeks, you can see the cord coming around, the lifeline, as it were, the water sack. This individual has pretty much a structure that looks very human, but it needs to grow. It needs to develop. Here is 18 weeks.

20 weeks. You can see eyebrows.

28 weeks. 34 weeks. The umbilical cord is very much attached. This individual attached to the placenta on the left, fed by the umbilical cord, a real miracle that's taking place in that two full systems. This baby's blood has never touched its mother's blood. It has its own system.

28 weeks, 34 weeks, and 40 weeks. You know what a baby looks like at 40 weeks? Really ugly! Especially when they come out at 2 o'clock in the morning. Wow! But you're so excited. This child is finally there, and usually they have good lungs, and they're trying them out, and they're somewhat uncomfortable, and they've never seen the outside world, and you've never seen them on the inside. And so it is quite an exciting time. Now, how does God feed His children? Let's go back a minute. You notice here the umbilical cord.

It says in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. We receive life from our own and we receive life from God, and we receive spiritual growth. The components of spiritual growth come from God through His Holy Spirit. You could liken it to the lifeline that we have with our children when they're inside.

That lifeline that provides them with the nutrients that they need. But we have to drink of God's Holy Spirit. We have to be involved with it. We have to saturate ourselves with the Word of God. We have to, in prayer, be talking to God.

We have to stir up that Spirit so that we can grow and grow fully. A repentant believer becomes a child of God in this developmental process of whichever analogy you want to use when the Holy Spirit is given. You can see in Romans 6, for instance, that we are attached to Christ's sacrifice by being buried with Him in baptism, just as He was buried and died for us. It's by His blood that we are put in a situation whereby we can receive the Holy Spirit. You know that baptism process. But when we begin to receive the Holy Spirit, then we become the children of God.

It says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Now, if you disconnected this baby from that umbilical cord and plugged in a different umbilical cord, from a separate source, that baby would begin to take on whatever nutrients and form from whatever that other source was, just as there were two trees for Adam and Eve to choose from, just as there are two gods for you and me to choose from, one with a capital G and one with a small G, a false God.

There are two mindsets that we can have, the human carnal physical mindset or the spiritual mindset. The things of the Spirit are only known by the Holy Spirit, so we can only get them through the right umbilical cord, the one that must come from God. We must remain attached to the vine, as it were. So it says here in verse 15, For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. It says adoption, and I don't have a problem with the word adoption myself if you take it from the old Roman version, which was true sonship.

It was somebody who was not a blood child, but it was somebody who was brought into sonship and made a full child that was going to receive all the full responsibilities, blessings that one who was born in the house would. So however you want to say that, we are taken from having not been part of the family and brought into full sonship. It says here, you receive the Spirit of sonship.

Do you see what the Spirit of sonship is? Well, as we read before, as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. So it is by the Spirit that we receive sonship, because we are now of a different Father. It says, for you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship by which we cry out, Abba, Father. Father, full family. We are sons and daughters of the God family because of that Spirit. Verse 16, the Spirit itself, not Himself, itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children then heirs, heirs of Elohim, the God family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him. Now you see, we're attached to something. Who are we attached to? If you're on the vine and you're a clump of grapes that's growing, who are you attached to? Well, you're attached to the vine.

Whatever happens to the vine happens to you. Okay? That's the whole point.

You are heirs of God with Christ if you suffer with Him. Whatever He goes through, you go through. Whatever mama goes through, baby goes through. That's part of the attachment that we may also be glorified together. He gets glorified, you get glorified. When He comes back, you're elevated. See, it all happens, but at some point we want to turn our back and say, well, I don't like my mama. I don't want this mama. I don't want to be evolved with this. I don't want to suffer with Him. I don't want to stand up and take it. I want to duck and run or whatever. See, then everything is off. The whole point here with God is this spirit is going to lead us to be like the one that we're attached to. We will go through similar things that God has gone through, but in the end we will be glorified together. We will be family. We will be literally born, as it were, into the family of God. It's interesting that God said, let us make man in our image. Let's go forward a little bit. Let us make man in our image. You know, when you think about God making children, making humans in His image, that is really special. Really, really special. He says in Genesis 1.26, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. It's going to be like us.

I've never seen God yet, but we know that we're made in His image and developing into the spiritual likeness of God as we grow through that spirit. Let's take a look at something kind of interesting. Here's some elements, and this is... I'll give credit here to Joy Coble Photography for putting this together. God says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. There's one thing on there that is not in the Bible as being a body part that God has. And you think of it. Every other one has a scripture or more than you can turn to, except one. If you start at the top left, God has a hand, the hand of God. God has ears. God has an ear that He will hear. He talks about having ears. He has feet. He has an eye, which you are an apple. He has a face. He has a nose. You can look in the Bible and you will find that God has a nose and some things smell better than others to Him. Talking about human deeds. He has, again, hands and fingers. And on the far right, if you look down to the right, there's a thigh. And Jesus, in Revelation 19, I have a special name written on that thigh. You can see what that is. The only thing that's missing that I couldn't find anywhere in the Bible is this one right here. That's a belly button. God doesn't have a navel because He was never attached to anybody else.

Now, Jesus Christ did when He was on earth. But when you think of the things that you and I take for granted, we are created in the image of God. And He has, through you and me, been recreating humans or creating through us new humans that are in His image intended to be in His likeness. God is creating a family. This is in Malachi chapter 2 and verse 15. Did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. He's talking about marriage here, about the marriage covenant. The marriage covenant is very important. Through a family, God intends children to come through the oneness. And why? Because He seeks godly offspring in two ways. The first is, like Abraham's seed. God said, I know that Abraham will raise them up and command them to do what I say. God wants our children to obey their parents. You can see that was the first commandment with promise, as it says in Ephesians chapter 6. But on the other hand, God seeks godly offspring because He is a father. He presents Himself as a father. And He calls us His children, sons and daughters. Let's look at family. You know, we think about children and family. God seeks offspring. We like offspring.

Babies are very important to God. In Mark chapter 10 verses 13 through 16, the people who came to see Christ brought little children to Him that He might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those that brought them. Because these are insignificant as far as being important in the grand scheme of adult things and religious things. But Jesus saw it. He was greatly displeased. When He was greatly displeased, I would not want to see Jesus Christ greatly displeased. I want to step back about a mile and a half. He was greatly displeased. And He said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And He took them up in His arms, and He laid His hands on them, and He blessed them. Yes, God loves children. And God is calling children. And He wants us to be spiritual sons and daughters of His. It says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Just like God wants children to obey their parents and imitate them, He wants you and Me to imitate Him as dear children. Verse 2, And walk in agape, that's the mindset of the family, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. He goes on and says, all this other stuff, these sins and things, don't even let it be named among you.

Verse 8, For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. We are attached to light, and what comes down, we are to be. We are to be like that we are attached to, and that is light. It says at the end of verse 8, Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

That Spirit is the source of the life that comes to us from God at this point, that is developing us. We are to find out what is acceptable to the Lord, it says in verse 10. Remember that we are not some automaton individuals learning and growing on our own, but rather we are being engendered from above. Born again in the Bible, Ganayo Anothan, it means being engendered from above. In other words, that lifeline is going to God. That umbilical cord, that vine we're attached to, and that strand that comes down to our bunch of grapes, that's coming from God.

We are being engendered from Him. That's why He is our Father. In 1 Peter chapter 1, in verse 20, 1 Peter 1 verses 20 through 23, notice here how Jesus Christ was prophesied, or not prophesied, but foreordained, a little different word than prophesied. He was determined in olden times for us to feed us, to be our source of life. 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning in verse 20, He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God. It's through that cord, it's through that Holy Spirit, it's through that attachment to the vine that we even believe in God, and that we don't see this as some sort of evolutionary process, some self-made thing going on.

That who was raised, sorry, the Father who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. It's up the line, it's not somewhere else. Since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere agape love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. See what comes down the vine goes down the vine.

This family is about love. This family isn't just about your bunch of grapes, it's about the whole grape crop. Agape coming to you is to go back to God and to go out throughout the vine. It's not just a feeling, it's an action. So here we've received and we've received, and in sincere agape, we are to love one another fervently with a pure heart. That's what grapes really are. They're full of the agape nature of God. They're sweet, they're ready to give and serve.

Having been born again, ganayo anothan, having been engendered up the vine, up the cord, having come from God. Not of corruptible seed, not our parents, but now we're talking incorruptible through the word of God, the Logos of God, which lives and abides forever. He's not talking about this only, He's talking about the Logos, the vine itself, Jesus the Christ, who lives and abides forever.

You know, God uses many allegories and it seems like I'm mixing a few here. Well, consider this. For God's saints, He calls us children. He calls us sheep, wheat, virgins, grain, and grapes, just to get you started. Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 2 and the first 11 verses, uses a variety of types in a single passage. They include newborn babes, living stones, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, sojourners, and pilgrims. And He's just going right along without even sticking a period.

But all of these work together as analogies to show us how we must develop to be in the family of God's kingdom. And all of those analogies are really our types except one. And one is being a child. We are, truly, children in God's literal image and likeness. And we literally are sons and daughters in His family, waiting to be brought in to the very divine family at Christ's return. And so it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 17, Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. He's not talking here figuratively. He's not talking and now allegorically. He's talking literally. Because God is the Father and we are the children.

Being childish also is not our goal. We're not to be like a little child. I just want to be simple and dumb and crazy like a little baby, and then I'll be in the camp. I'll just be like ready to go. That's not what he wants. It says in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 20, Brethren, do not be children in understanding. Yes, God wants us to be a child, but he wants us to grow. He wants us to mature. However, going on in verse 20, it says, However, in malice be babes, because babes don't have malice. But in understanding, be mature. We are to grow. What type of child does God want me to be? Well, we're told over in 1 John chapter 3. In the first 10 verses, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God? The world doesn't know us because it's not children. It did not know Him. Verse 2, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. We are already like Him in our appearance. All those parts, He has ears and eyes and nose and mouth and He's got arms and legs and feet and toes and eyes and, you know, all that. But John says, When He comes back, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and that bright vision won't hurt our eyes. Verse 3, Everyone who has this hope in Him, Christ, purifies Himself just as He is pure. Verse 7, Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as Christ is righteous. That's what we're to be doing. Growing, developing, getting that nourishment from the Holy Spirit, from the bread of life, and developing. Verse 9, Whoever has been born of God, whoever is being engendered from the family of God, does not practice sin. It says, does not sin. It should insert the word practice. Those being engendered from that lifeline do not practice sin. Oh, they sin once in a while, but that's not their intent. That's not their practice. For His seed remains sin. And He cannot practice sin because He has been engendered of God. He is being engendered from agape love, which desires to love God with your heart, soul, and mind. It desires to serve and love others. So in verse 10, In this the children of God and the children are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. You notice the vine connects the family, doesn't it? And so one who does not practice righteousness is not on the vine. One who does not love his brother, I don't just mean, oh, I have nice thoughts, but love, agape, active, is not on the vine. Love God with your heart, soul, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself, is part of being on the vine. It's part of being connected to God. In conclusion, we've looked at a few things that the miracle of life brings us. It brings us cherished little children that are in our image. And it gives us a reflection, then, of the marriage of Christ and the bride and the precious children of the family of God that they are developing, and they don't want to lose, and they don't want to see harm. They want them to grow up fully and be part of the family.

Revelation 21, verse 7, is a very straightforward statement from the one who will open or close the door to us, the one who we are linked to for life via the Holy Spirit through his blood. And he says this, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. That's where we're headed, eternally. No analogy, no allegory, the reality of life and the family of God. God is calling children to be sons and daughters in his family forever, in his great eternal kingdom. Therefore, let us follow the directive that Jesus gave us to seek that family and the kingdom and the righteousness of that family every day in your life. Be connected, be growing, and pass it along to the rest of God's potential children in the process.