Are You Adopted?

Summary

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The Wake-Up Call – "Are You Adopted?" (April 9, 2026)

Podcast: The Wake-Up Call
Host: John David Walt (with father, David Walt, joining for part of the episode)
Theme: Living into the reality of being adopted by God, and the daily invitation to remember, receive, and share every spiritual blessing in Christ.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, John David Walt invites listeners to awaken to the profound truth of our adoption by God, as explored in Ephesians 1:6–8. Walt reflects on the difference between understanding adoption as a distant theological concept and actually savoring its reality in daily life. Interwoven with prayer, community encouragement, and a classic hymn, the episode centers on how God's abundant grace and kindness are meant to transform not just individuals, but whole communities.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Starting with Consecration and Community (00:04–03:39)

• Daily Commitment: The day begins with a prayer of consecration, affirming both personal and communal belonging to Jesus:

  “Jesus, I belong to you. … Jesus, we belong to you. There’s no I without a we. But then there’s not going to be a we without an I. And we’re together in this.” (01:52–02:15)

• Union in Christ: Prepares the listener to realize that, despite distance, the Spirit joins believers together:

  “In the kingdom of heaven, there is no distance. … We’re living in an abiding, deep attached union with him, which makes us … in an abiding, deep attached union with one another.” (02:32–02:56)

2. The Richness and Challenge of God’s Word (03:40–06:00)

• Encounter with Scripture: Walt likens reading Scripture to Lucy and Ethel’s chocolate factory scene—so much comes at once, it’s hard to “wrap it all up” or grasp its depth (04:40–05:23).

  “We’re eating God’s word together, and no, we can’t keep up … but we can keep coming back.” (05:23–05:44)

• Slowing Down: Encourages listeners to “cover less ground, more slowly” to savor the depth of God’s blessings.

3. Adoption: From Concept to Reality (06:00–11:15)

• Paul’s Declaration: Focus on the “incomprehensibly comprehensive phrase” from Ephesians 1:3 (“every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms”) and God’s decision to adopt us (06:00–06:54).
• Adoption as Reality:

  “With the blessing of adoption comes the agony of facing the curse of abandonment. … Adoption here is not a metaphor for our relationship with God. It’s a reality.” (07:00–07:28) “God did not abandon us. We abandoned him, hiding in a forest of lies, covered in a cloak of impenetrable shame. And it remains our ingrained pattern to the present day.” (07:37–07:51)

• Embracing Brokenness:

  “We will discover our blessedness to the degree we face our brokenness. That’s where most of us get stuck and why adoption is more of a concept we salute than a reality we savor.” (08:02–08:17)

• Memorable Illustration: Walt shares about a family who recently adopted a 10-year-old girl, drawing a vivid parallel to God’s lavishness:

  “It’s like they want her to know that everything they are and have now belongs to her because she now belongs to them. That’s what salvation is—not a one-time transaction … but the unending full faith and credit of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.” (08:31–09:04)

4. Salvation: Heaven Streaming Through Us (11:16–13:15)

• Beyond Minimum Christianity:

  “Salvation guys, is much bigger than we thought. … Jesus says, hey, now that we got that resolved, how about we bring heaven into you today?” (10:52–11:43)

• The Invitation is For Today: Emphasizes how God wants to stream every spiritual blessing “through your physical body, into your relationships … into the hard places of your life.” (11:54–12:27)
• Ongoing Renewal:

  “He’s making you new. And it’s a newness that doesn’t lose its sheen. … You get newer and newer and newer.” (12:32–12:44)

• Notable Quote:

  “Wake up, sleepers, rise from the dead. Death no longer has hold of you. Sin no longer has reign in you. … I’m shining on you. I’m shining in you. I’m going to shine through you. That’s the gospel: heaven streaming live through us on earth today.” (13:10–13:36)

5. Prayer and Reflection (13:50–15:20)

• Prayer of Thanksgiving: Walt thanks God for the beauty of Jesus “who took on our brokenness” and invites the community to walk the way of the cross.

  “Thank you. Light us up. We’re praying in your name, Jesus. Amen.” (15:20)

• Journal Prompts: Encourages listeners to reflect:
  • Have you ever really thought about being “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms”?
  • How do adoption and redemption become realities, not just concepts?
  • How are blessing and the curse of abandonment connected?

6. Living as Sowers: Carrying the Message into the Day (15:31–17:09)

• Missional Sending:

  “It’s good to spend time in the sanctuary space with the Lord every day. And then it’s really good to go out into the streets because that’s where people we’re going to meet all day long.” (16:06–16:24)

  • From the Sower’s Creed: “Today I will share the extravagance of the gospel everywhere I go and with everyone I meet.” (16:14–16:21)
• Practicing Readiness: Encourages simple acts of kindness as “seeds,” being attentive to God bringing people across our path (16:48–17:09).

7. Worship – “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds” (17:13–19:08)

• Sings verses 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the classic hymn, focusing on Christian love and unity—reinforcing the theme of adoption into God’s family and shared burdens.
• Notable line from discussion:

  “You just got to have your seeds. A seed is an encouraging word, it’s a kind gesture, it’s maybe to help them out with a particular need…” (16:48–17:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Adoption and Brokenness:

  “We will discover our blessedness to the degree we face our brokenness.” (08:10)

• Salvation and Newness:

  “He’s making you new. And it’s a newness that doesn’t lose its sheen. … You get newer and newer and newer.” (12:32–12:44)

• Heaven Streaming Live:

  “Heaven streaming live through us on earth today.” (13:35)

• Community Sending:

  “Today I will share the extravagance of the gospel everywhere I go and with everyone I meet.” (16:14–16:21)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & Consecration: 00:04–03:39
• Scripture Reading & Reflection: 03:40–06:00
• On Adoption: 06:00–11:15
• Salvation & Newness: 11:16–13:15
• Prayer & Journal Prompts: 13:50–15:20
• Field Sending & Sower’s Creed: 15:31–17:09
• Hymn – Blessed Be the Tie That Binds: 17:13–19:08
• Concluding Thoughts & Sending: 19:08–20:35

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Final Sending

• Walt concludes by reminding listeners that the invitation is not just to receive God’s love, but to share it:

  “The more that you walk with the Lord, the more you actually become the love of God. And that’s where we’re headed.” (19:55–20:06)

• Closing Send-off:

  “We will see you in the field. On the field.” (20:33–20:35)

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Summary

This episode of The Wake-Up Call offers a rich meditation on the reality of spiritual adoption, encouraging listeners to move from mere head-knowledge to living, breathing awareness in community. Through Scripture, story, prayer, and song, Walt invites his audience to receive and pour out the abundant, renewing love of God every day, everywhere.

Transcript

[A]

Rise and shine and give God the glory. Good morning, Sower Nation. It is Thursday, April 9th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. Just want to keep welcoming new sowers who've joined us, who found us. This wake up call, it's kind of an unusual thing for some. It may be an acquired taste. I get it. Hang with us. Okay. What this is, this is a daily meeting with Jesus, the Lord of the Church, in the word of God. It's not complicated. It's got some, some depth and nuance to it. It's a little bit different. I'm not saying it's for everybody, but I do believe it's for you. Because somehow you've found us. We found you. And praise God. We're praying for you and we're waking up together, waking up to Jesus. So let's dive in every day. We begin with consecration. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just notice we always start by saying, jesus, I belong to you. But we close by saying, jesus, we belong to you. There's no I without a we. But then there's not going to be a we without an I. And we're together in this. We're a community. There are people all over the world and we're waking up to Jesus every day together. So the spirit of God is actually joining us together. I often say, you know, in the kingdom of heaven, we, there is no distance. No matter how far apart we are, we are already we are joined to Jesus Christ. We're living in an abiding, deep attached union with him, which makes us living in an abiding, deep attached union with one another. And we're exploring that, we're discovering it, we're waking up to it and is changing everything. All right, well, today's entry is entitled, are you adopted in our text. We're going verse by verse through Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one. We're going through verses six, seven and eight today. Hear now the word of the Lord. This most important part of the wake up call, the word of God, not what my words are, but what God's word is. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us along with all wisdom and understanding the Word of the Lord. Now consider this. Every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph and page of Scripture abounds with revelation. Which is to say, it contains more substance and significance than we could ever extract from it. And yet we just keep moving on. In some ways, for me, the Wake Up Call feels akin to that iconic scene from the old show I Love Lucy, where you remember Lucy and Ethel. They're tasked with putting wrappers on chocolate candies as they pass by on a conveyor belt. Like those chocolates, the texts just keep coming and I can't keep up. Remember, they just started eating the chocolate candies.

[B]

They.

[A]

They're trying to get them wrapped. They're coming too fast. Some of them are getting through and past them, so they just pick them up and start eating them. Well, that's what we're doing to begin with. We're eating God's word together, and no, we can't keep up. But the beautiful thing, guys, he's written it down in a. And we have that book and we can keep coming back. That's why we're trying to journal. That's why we're taking our time. We're trying to cover less ground, more slowly. That's one of our themes on the Wake Up Call. So take, for instance, the incomprehensibly comprehensive phrase from verse three, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. It could serve as a banner over the entire letter because no sooner than he says it, Paul starts spinning them off with a velocity only matched by his alacrity. Now there's a good word. As an example, consider this blessing we didn't even acknowledge from verse 5. God decided in advance to adopt us. Wait, did he just say I was adopted? I guess every adopted kid finds out sooner or later. With the blessing of adoption comes the agony of facing the curse of abandonment. With every layer of discovered blessing comes the awareness of a deeper bereftness. You see, adoption here is not a metaphor for our relationship with God. It's a reality. The cold hard truth is God did not abandon us. We abandoned him, hiding in a forest of lies, covered in a cloak of impenetrable shame. And it remains our ingrained pattern to the present day. We aren't bad, just broken. Here's the deeper truth of adoption. We will discover our blessedness to the degree we face our brokenness, that's where most of us get stuck and why adoption is more of a concept we salute than a reality we savor. You know, lately I've enjoyed observing from afar a young family on Instagram. They recently adopted a little girl who looks to be about 10 years old. And it's stunning to see the way they are lavishing this little girl with every possible blessing. She's learning to dance and sing and really to be a child. They want to take her everywhere and show her everything. It's like they want her to know that everything they are and have now belongs to her because she now belongs to them. That's what salvation is. Not a one time transaction in a ledger in the sky somewhere, but the unending full faith and credit of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Crashing through the invisible barriers that separate us from God and each other. Invading the old order with a newness that never loses its resplendent sheen. Man, I just kind of want to go back and read that last paragraph again. Wow. Every spiritual blessing, you know, it's just so easy just to read right past it and say, okay, yeah, check. Right. Got. Got it. I'm like, do I have it? Did I get it? I'm just going on to the next thing. Salvation, guys, is much bigger than we thought. It's not just a sort of. Well, Jesus, Yep, I believe, I believe you rose from the dead and I'm going to go to heaven when I die now. And that's the bare minimum. Jesus says, hey, now that we got that resolved, how about we bring heaven into you today? Let's just focus on today. How about we stream every spiritual blessing from the heavenly realms through your physical body, into your relationships, into your parenting, into your relationships with your brothers and sisters, who you may be fighting with on the way to school right now, as we're talking together into the hard places in your life. He wants to stream the reality of heaven through the temple of your very body and into the relationships of your heart, your home, your church, your city, your neighborhood. He wants to bring newness, you know, he's making all things new. You heard that, didn't you? He's making you new. And it's a newness that doesn't lose its sheen. It just keeps getting renewed again and again. You get newer and newer and newer. Even some of you who are getting old and older and you're. You feel your body giving way and diminishing. I mean, I love that text in Second Corinthians where He says, therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. He says, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is passing away, but what is unseen is eternal. See, this is the amazing thing about Jesus, is how we think of eternity as sequential in time. Like, well, we're going to have, you know, temporal life on earth, and then when we die, we're going to have eternity. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. That's how it maybe used to be. But way, way back before it used to be that it was heaven and earth overlapping, completely intermingled. It was sin and death that broke that bond. Jesus has brought it back together in his very body. He has restored the unity. And he's saying to us, wake up, sleepers rise from the dead. Death no longer has hold of you. Sin no longer has reign in you. It's time to wake up and rise from the dead. Jesus is, I'm shining on you. I'm shining in you. I'm going to shine through you. That's the gospel heaven streaming live through us on earth today. Golly, I get carried away. We got to pray. Abba. Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus, who took on our brokenness and who would make it a thing of beauty if we would walk in this blessed way of the cross with him. Yes, Jesus, we want to know this way. Which is another way of saying, we want to know you because you are the way. You are the truth. You are the life. Thank you. Light us up. We're praying in your name, Jesus. Amen. Okay, journal prompts. And then we're going to sing. Got dad here today. We're going to sing a good one. Have you ever reflected on this notion of being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms? Mean? Just. Have you ever thought about it? I hadn't thought about it until, you know, a few years ago. Now I can't stop thinking about it. Have. How do these concepts of adoption and redemption become more than abstract concepts in our understanding? Just kind of like. Yeah, I think I know what that means. Yeah, I think I got that. And what do you make of this connection between our experience of the blessing of adoption to our awareness of the curse of abandonment? Okay, I could go on. You know that. Could. We got seeds to sow Today we got songs to sing Today We've got love to pour out Jesus, you see you now are the temple of God okay, I'm stopping.

[C]

Let's Sing.

[A]

Here we go, dad. All right, friends. We're making the turn to the streets today. We're making the turn to the fields. It's good to spend time in the sanctuary space with the Lord every day. And then it's really good to go out into the streets because that's where people we're going to meet all day long. One of the things we say in the Sowers Creed, which I want to share with you guys soon, it says, says, today I will share the extravagance of the gospel everywhere I go and with everyone I meet.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

Everyone I meet.

[B]

Amen, brother.

[A]

Because there's people. You don't even know what they're going through.

[B]

Do you know?

[A]

And they just need somebody to see them.

[B]

And they'll not. I mean, they're not going to ask you to do it.

[A]

Nope. They're often quietly suffering.

[B]

But. But Jesus is asking us to help them.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

And we got to listen to him.

[A]

It's funny how he'll just bring people to your path. You just got to be ready. You just got to have your seeds. A seed is an encouraging word. It's a. It's a kind gesture. It's maybe to help them out with a particular need that they have.

[B]

Right. You never know.

[A]

But be ready. So what are we singing today, dad?

[B]

Okay, we're singing Blessed be the Tide that binds.

[A]

And what's. We're going to sing? There's. There's six verses. We'll. We're going to sing what?

[B]

1, 2, 3 and 6.

[A]

1, 2, 3 and 6. Blessed be the tie that binds in our Great Redeemer's praise. 405, 405, 405. The short hymn. It's a classic hymn.

[B]

It's got a very familiar tune to it. So you. You'll pick it up.

[A]

All right, you ready?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Blessed be the tithe that binds our hearts in Christian love the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above before our Mother's throne we pour our ardent prayers Our fears, our hopes our angels want Our comforts and our cares we share each other's woes Our mutual burdens bear and often over each other flows the sympathizing tear Last verse. From sorrow, toil and pain and sin we shall be free and perfect Love and friendship Bring to all eternity. Naughty.

[A]

Let's sing the Amen. You know, I've noticed that we don't ever sing the Amen in our church in Gillette.

[B]

They don't on any.

[A]

He always sing it in Dumas we don't.

[B]

Well, I don't know. I forgot we did.

[A]

We would always sing the amen. Yeah.

[B]

And for some reason. Well, see, it's not even put here,

[A]

so it's not in the book, but we'd always sing it. You know what amen means?

[B]

The end.

[C]

The end.

[A]

Yeah. It means let it be so. It means let it be so. Yes to everything. I just said the end. Amen. Well, that's a good note to go out on today. And we're not saying the amen on today yet. We've got a full day ahead of us of sowing the love of God. And, you know, the more that you walk with the Lord, the more you actually become the love of God. And that's where we're headed. So let's send them out today. Dad. We never like to say, we'll see you tomorrow. We like to give you a sending out. A word of sending. So I always say, for The Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.

[B]

And I'm David Walt.

[A]

And we will see you in the field. On the field.