"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" — Romans 8:14–15
Abba, Father
There is a word in the Bible that changes everything about how we come to God. It is the word Abba.
"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:14–15).
Abba is an intimate Aramaic word — the warm, close word a child uses for a dear father. It is not the language of a servant addressing a master. It is the language of a child crawling into a father's lap. And that is the staggering truth at the center of this message: through the Spirit, we have been adopted. We did not earn our way into God's house. We were brought in, given a new name, and granted the right to call the God of the universe Abba.
The Spirit we received does not make us slaves who live in fear. It makes us children who live in love. So this morning we look at seven things that are true about our Father — and they are all good, because we have a good, good Father.
1. Our Father Is a Generous Giver
Jesus appealed to something every parent understands. "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:9–11).
Notice the logic. Even flawed, sinful, ordinary human parents instinctively give good things to their children. No loving father hands his hungry child a rock. And if we — whom Jesus bluntly calls evil by comparison — know how to give good gifts, how much more does our perfect Father in heaven?
And His giving never runs out and never sours. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17). Human generosity has limits and moods. Our Father's does not. He is the unchanging source of every good thing, giving without shadow, without inconsistency, without end.
2. Our Father Wants Us to Enjoy His Blessings
Here is something many believers struggle to accept: God is not stingy with joy. He does not give grudgingly, watching to make sure we never enjoy ourselves too much.
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Timothy 6:17).
Read that last phrase again — who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Our Father provides richly, and He provides for our enjoyment. The warning in the verse is not against enjoying His gifts; it is against putting our hope in the gifts instead of the Giver. Wealth is uncertain. God is not. So we hold His blessings with open hands and grateful hearts, enjoying them fully precisely because our hope rests in Him and not in them.
3. Our Father Desires a Loving Fellowship with Us
Our Father is not a vending machine and not a distant authority. He wants relationship. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7:7–8).
Ask. Seek. Knock. Three pictures of a child drawing near to a father who wants to be drawn near to. The door is not locked. The Father is not hiding. He invites the conversation, welcomes the seeking, opens the door to the one who knocks. This is the heart of a Father who does not just provide for His children from a distance, but longs to walk with them, talk with them, and be sought by them.
4. We Can Trust Our Father
Some of us have been wounded by people who said one thing and did another — even fathers who promised and never followed through. So this truth is medicine for the wounded heart: our Father can be completely trusted.
"God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19).
People lie. People change their minds. People promise in the moment and forget by morning. God does none of these. He is not human in His faithfulness. What He says, He does. What He promises, He fulfills. Every single time. If your earthly experience of fathers has taught you to brace for disappointment, your heavenly Father is asking you to unlearn that fear — because He has never broken a promise and never will.
5. Jesus' Nature as Our Everlasting Father
If you want to know what the Father is like, look at Jesus. The prophet Isaiah, centuries before the manger, described the child who would come: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
Everlasting Father. The Son who was born in Bethlehem carries the very heart of the Father — eternal, mighty, wise, and full of peace. When we look at how Jesus treated the broken, the sinful, the overlooked, and the afraid, we are seeing the Father's heart made visible. Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor for the confused, the Mighty God for the weak, the Everlasting Father for the orphaned, the Prince of Peace for the anxious. To meet Jesus is to meet the good, good Father.
6. Nothing Can Separate Us from Our Father's Love
Now Paul reaches the highest note in the whole chapter, and it is worth letting it wash over us slowly. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 8:35–36).
He lists the very worst things life can throw at a person — and then answers his own question. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37–39).
Read that list of everything that cannot separate us. Death cannot. Life cannot. Angels and demons cannot. The present and the future cannot. No power, no height, no depth, nothing in all creation can cut a child of God off from the Father's love. You may feel far from Him in a hard season — but feeling far and being separated are not the same thing. The love that adopted you is the love that holds you, and it cannot be broken by anything that exists.
7. Our Father's Perfect Love Drives Out Fear
And here is what that unbreakable love does to a fearful heart. "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:16b–18).
Fear and perfect love cannot occupy the same space. Fear is rooted in the dread of punishment — the worry that we will be rejected, condemned, cast out. But a child who is secure in a good father's love does not live braced for punishment. The more deeply we rest in the Father's perfect love, the more the fear drains out of us. Not because life stops being hard, but because we finally know, all the way down, that we are loved by a Father who will never reject us.
A Warning: Do Not Fall Out of Love with God
The sermon ends not with a soft sentiment but with a loving warning. Because here is the sobering reality: a good Father's love never grows cold — but ours can.
"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 24:12–13).
Jesus warned that in the last days, as wickedness multiplies, the love of most will grow cold. Not the world's love for God — the love of most, including those who once burned hot for Him. Love can cool. Hearts that once cried Abba with tears can grow distant and routine. The warmth can fade into habit, and the habit into indifference.
So this is the watchfulness the good Father asks of His children: guard your love. Do not let the increase of wickedness around you, or the wear of the years, cool the fire you once had. The Father's love for you will never change like shifting shadows. Make sure yours for Him does not either. The one who stands firm to the end — who keeps loving, keeps drawing near, keeps crying Abba — will be saved.
Challenge
This week, come to your Father the way a child comes home.
If you have been relating to God like a slave — afraid, bracing for punishment, trying to earn what was already freely given — stop. Take one of these seven truths each day and let it sink in. My Father is generous. My Father wants me to enjoy His gifts. My Father wants my company. My Father keeps His promises. My Father is everlasting. Nothing can separate me from His love. His perfect love is driving out my fear.
And then guard the warmth. In a world where the love of most is growing cold, do one concrete thing this week to keep your love for Him burning — a longer prayer, an honest conversation, a return to a fellowship you have been drifting from. Crawl back into the Father's lap and call Him by name.
We have a good, good Father — and by His Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father."
