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The Cost of Adoption
1. The cost to the parent
a. The financial cost
2 Cornthians 8:9
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." NIV
Matthew 8:20
"Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.'" NIV
Matthew 17:24-27
"After Jesus and His disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, 'Doesn't your Teacher pay the temple tax?'
'Yes, He does,' he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. 'What do you think, Simon?' He asked. 'From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes — from their own sons or from others?'
'From others,' Peter answered.
'Then the sons are exempt,' Jesus said to him. 'But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours.'" NIV
b. The physical cost
Philippianhs 2:6-8
"Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
and became obedient to death —
even death on a cross!" NIV
John 19:28
"Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.'" NIV
John 4:6
"Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour." NIV
Mark 11:12
"The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry." NIV
c. The emotional cost
Luke 19:41-43
"As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, 'If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes.'" NIV
John 2:13-17
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, 'Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!'
His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for Your house will consume Me.'" NIV
Matthew 11:20-22
"Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 'Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.'" NIV
Mark 7:17-19
"After He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked Him about this parable. 'Are you so dull?' He asked. 'Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.' (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean.')" NIV
John 11:35-36
"Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, 'See how He loved him!'" NIV
Matthew 27:46
"About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'-which means, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" NIV
d. The relational cost
Ezekiel 23:28-30
"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to hand you over to those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you naked and bare, and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your lewdness and promiscuity have brought this upon you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols." NIV
Ezekiel 33:11
"Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'" NIV
2. The benefits of adoption
a. Children are wanted because parents choose to adopt
b. The child gets a family
c. The child received a new identity
d. People get excited about the new family member
e. The child receives all the rights and privileges of the family
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