You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from

pastor, author, and teacher David Platt. If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite

you to open with me to Matthew chapter 6. The reality of adoption, that picture reminds every

one of us as Christ's followers that we belong to a heavenly father.

That's the picture of adoption that ultimately and eternally we belong to him as his children.

And this is, in a sense, this is the essence of what it means to even be a follower of

Christ. J.I. Packer, and one of my favorite books of all time knowing God, said, what is a Christian?

Packer said, the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as father.

If you want to know how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father.

If this is not the thought, the prompts and controls, his worship and prayers and its whole outlook on life,

it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

To the extent of which, Packer says, you grasp what it means to have God as Father

is the extent to which you grasp Christianity, or maybe even grasp whether

or not you're a Christian at all. Listen to this quote from John Wesley. It's a short quote,

but follow this. Wesley, in a background, graduate, honor graduate from Oxford University,

ordained in the clergy, Church of England, solid theology

in many, many different ways. Somewhere I might disagree with him here and there. But solid in theology,

known for his good deeds, regularly visited inmates and prisons, workhouses in London, helped distribute

food and clothing to slum children and orphans,

studied the word diligently, attended numerous services every Sunday, as well as services during

the week, gave generously to the church, gave to the poor, prayed, fasted, lived a strong moral

life, even spent several years as a missionary to what was then the

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