What does First B Jackson teach about adoption?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on adoption starts in two places at once: the personal and the theological. Glenn Owings shared his family's story of adopting their daughter Sealy from India not to hold the family up as an example, but to show what it looks like when ordinary people simply say yes to something God has placed on their hearts. Glenn was clear that they did not have enough money, enough patience, or enough certainty when they started. Their first agency went bankrupt, Ethiopia closed to international adoption before they could finish, and their qualifying income for India landed exactly $56 above the required threshold. None of the conditions looked right on paper. The point Glenn kept returning to was that they just said yes, and then God sent other people alongside them to say yes with them.
The passage Glenn held onto through every setback was James 1, where James says that troubles are an opportunity for great joy because faith being tested gives endurance a chance to grow. Glenn read from Ephesians 1 as well, grounding the family's story in the larger truth that God has adopted believers as His own children. The personal story was always meant to point outward: Glenn's hope was that people in the congregation would keep listening for whatever God has placed on their own hearts, and that they would not let fear of imperfect conditions talk them out of obedience.
Pastor Brian, teaching through Galatians 4, brought the theological side into full focus. Paul's argument in those verses is that everyone begins immature and in some form of slavery, but God acted at exactly the right moment to change that. God sent His Son, born of a woman and born under the law, for a specific purpose: to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Brian described those two verses as some of the best in the whole Bible, and he wanted the congregation to sit with that rather than move past it quickly. Adoption, in this teaching, is not an add-on to the gospel. It is the declared goal of what God sent His Son to accomplish.
Taught from James 1 · Ephesians 1:5-6 · Galatians 4:1-5 · Galatians 3:23-29 · Philippians 3
The passage taught · Ephesians 1:5-6
5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- March 12, 2023 We Just Said Yes A Wyoming family shares how saying yes to God led them through a years-long international adoption, and what that obedience might look like for anyone willing to trust Him.
- March 12, 2023 We Said Yes Glenn shares his family's adoption journey from India and how saying yes to God, despite fear and uncertainty, shaped their faith and family.
- May 3, 2015 God Sent Forth His Son Galatians 4:1-5 shows why God sent His Son at exactly the right time: not to leave us enslaved, but to bring us into full adoption as His children.
Mentioned along the way
- October 7, 2015 WWW Be Right (32) Romans 8 shows us we are not condemned, not slaves to sin, and not alone. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us as we walk by faith toward glory.