NOT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR COMPROMISE: MY BIRTHRIGHT
1 Kgs. 21:1-15
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A four-year-old boy accompanied his expectant mother to the doctor’s office. When the mother heaved a sigh and clutched her stomach, her son looked alarmed. "Mommy, what is it?" He asked.
2. "The baby brother you're going to have is kicking," his mother explained. "He's probably getting bored," the youngster decided. "Why don't you swallow a toy?"
3. JOKE # 2. A mother had just brought her newborn triplets home from the hospital. Her older boy, a four-year-old, took his first doubtful look at the new babies and said, "We probably better go out front of Wal-Mart right away. They're going to be harder to get rid of than kittens!”
B. TEXT
Gen. 25:31; “Jacob replied, ‘First sell me your birthright.’”
Heb. 12:16-17; “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.”
1 There was…a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite ….close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden….In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.” 3 But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” 1 Kgs. 21:1-3.
C. THESIS
1. This message is all about realizing what is yours in Christ and determining to contend for it for yourself, as Jude said, “Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (vs. 3).
2. Ahab is a type of the devil, who is trying to get Naboth (a type of the Christian) to give up his/her inheritance in Christ Jesus. In John 10:10 Jesus called the devil "a thief," who takes what doesn't belong to him. An heir possesses what DOES belong to him. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ!
3. We're going to see this morning how we're supposed to hold on to what is ours in Christ and not let the enemy take it from us.
4. The title of this morning's message is "Not for Sale, Trade, or Compromise: My Birthright."
I. WHAT IS A BIRTHRIGHT?
A. BIRTHRIGHT DEFINED
1. Birthright is defined as “the right, privilege, or possession to which a person is entitled by birth.” [Merriam-Webster]
2. In the natural world, inheritance is viewed as property, money, estates, lineage, citizenship, and sometimes, fame or ignominy.
B. FAIRNESS OF BIRTHRIGHT
1. None of what is received was earned by the heir.
2. Achievements of predecessors are passed down to heirs, often times to profligate and worthless individuals, who don’t know what it means to work because they’ve never had to, and often squander what they get.
3. There’s no work, but simply a gift from one generation of a family to another generation of the family. How can this be right?
4. BECAUSE THE ONE WHO ACHIEVED IT LIVES ON IN THE HEIR – GENETICALLY. PART OF THE PARENT SURVIVES IN THE CHILD. The LIFE of one is passed on and is antecedent to the other. The child would have no life without the genes of the parent, so the descendant gets to enjoy the fruits of the earlier life, whom it replaced.
C. BIRTHRIGHT & THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Nowhere is all this more true than in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is only for those who are born to it. You must be born again. The fruits of Christ our forebear are accrued to us.
1. His Riches; His Titles; His Status; His Possessions; His Privileges, are all ours!
2. CONNECTION TO HIM AS PARENT. How is all this possible? Because His life is inside us! So He is really only inheriting what is His own (since He is risen & lives in us) and we get to share it with Him!
II. ESAU SOLD HIS SOUL
The writer of Hebrews brought up a specific example and danger of relinquishing one’s inheritance: a man named Esau. Genesis 27 tells the story of Esau, a rugged, outdoorsman who loved to hunt. He was a ‘man's man.’ He was strong, well-built, he wore a beard. He was a Hugh Jackman kind of guy. He had a lot of good traits, but a few fatal ones too!
A. THE WRONG VALUES OF ESAU
1. Hebrews 12:16, "Lest there be any... profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright."
a. "Profane" -- "to treat something sacred with abuse or contempt."
b. His problem was -- Spiritual things were low on his list of priorities. He lived only for the here and now.
2. Esau had been out hunting all day and caught nothing. He came home and Jacob was cooking a big pot of chili. Ah! It smelled so good! (His senses took over).
3. "Give me some of that chili, brother." "Okay -- for a price; sell me your birthright!" Now the birthright was Esau’s inheritance rights – it was worth a fortune! It would affect his descendants. It was like the King of England abdicating his rights to the throne!
4. Esau should have said, “You’re crazy!” But Esau did it!
5. It was like selling Manhattan for $24 in beads! Like selling the Hope diamond as a paperweight in a garage sale! We can't help but say, "How foolish!"
B. INSTANT GRATIFICATION
1. At that moment -- as he smelled the chili -- his spiritual inheritance didn't seem all that important! It happens to people all the time; they get in a situation of temptation and surrender all for the pleasures of the moment.
2. A case in point:
a. Karen Glance, age 36. She traded her happiness and peace for a $100,000-plus yearly income. "I was a workaholic," she says, "a crazy, crazy woman. I was on the plane four times a week. I just wanted to get to the top. All of a sudden, I realized that I was reaching that goal but I wasn't happy."
b. Another case: a girl in her teens. Her trade-off included her virginity for the chance at love and security. But she found that "having premarital sex was the worst mistake I ever made... someday I will marry someone and share something very special with him, but I will also have to tell him of my sickening experience. I dread the day that I have to tell the man I truly love that he is not the only one, though I wish that he was."
c. With others, it's drugs, or alcohol, or pornography. The pot of chili changes forms, but it’s still just as cheap and reckless of a decision.
3. Be careful you don’t let instant gratification wreck your spiritual future. It’s NOT WORTH IT.
III. NABOTH HOLDS ONTO GOD’S BLESSING
But the Bible also gives us the positive example of one who wouldn’t surrender his inheritance for any price: Naboth. Undoubtedly Naboth would've been glad to oblige the King, but there were two things which stood in his way:
A. GOD’S COMMAND
1. Ahab, not being a believer, was wanting to buy the land permanently.
2. God's law said in Leviticus 25:23, "The land shall not be sold forever." It could be sold for 50 years, but then in the year of Jubilee it would revert to its ancestral owners, so that the land might never pass out of the family.
3. Naboth COULD have consented; he could’ve rationalized the sale as others, who sold their lands to the king. He could've gotten equal value.
4. You may feel that since others do things, that you can do them too. No! We’ve been given a sacred trust. Just because others sell their souls to the devil doesn't mean you should.
B. DUTY TO ANCESTORS & DESCENDENTS
1. Over 500 years before, Joshua/God had divided the land to the people of Israel. Naboth's ancestors had received that plot of ground.
2. For generations that vineyard had been in his family. It had been transmitted through a long line to him. (Just like our faith has to us!) This land was, very much, a "spiritual" inheritance from God.
3. It was his duty to transmit it to those who came after him. You and I, too, have the duty to pass this Gospel -- in all its Pentecostal power -- to the next generation.
4. We're only one generation from extinction! Others were faithful to the trust; we must be too!
C. HOLD FAST YOUR INHERITANCE
1. Our inheritance is not a plot of ground. It’s much more: it’s Eternal life, the "powers of the world to come," the Word of God, our personal revelation and experience with Jesus, and the great organization of the Church and its mission to reach the world for Christ.
2. Imagine if the devil were bartering you for your soul. Your reply should be, “NOT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR COMPROMISE: MY BIRTHRIGHT!”
D. WHAT’S THE DEVIL OFFERING YOU?
1. The devil is bargaining with some of you. He's trying to talk you out of one part or another of your inheritance.
2. Just like the wily settlers who bought Manhattan island from the Indians for a hat full of glass beads, Satan offers you worthless trinkets for God’s priceless treasures!
3. WHAT IS THE DEVIL TRYING TO GET YOU TO SURRENDER?
a. Your Consecration to the Lord; to surrender your morals and Jesus’ Lordship over your life. He never stops trying this!
b. Your belief in a Supernatural God -- a God who heals, delivers, intervenes. He tries to tell you, "God doesn't do that anymore" or "He won't do it for you." "Don't bother to lay hands on the sick or to expect a miracle."
c. Give up your confidence in heaven or your expectation of the Rapture at any moment; then you won't care how you live.
d. To Compromise the truth about the Holy Spirit; the baptism in the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is the sacred trust passed down to us; that's where the fire is!
E. JESUS’ COMMAND? HOLD FAST!
1. Hebrews 3:6; "hold fast the confidence."
4:14; "let us hold fast our profession."
10:23; "let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering."
2. Rev. 2:25, “Only hold on to what you have until I come”;
Rev. 3:3, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you,”
Rev. 3:11, “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
3. Jesus told the persecuted church "Holds Fast!" Guard it! Be vigilant against all who would try to remove it from you.
4. Naboth means "fruit" or "produce." If we would bear fruit, we must be faithful to pass on what God has entrusted to us.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. On a commuter flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston, Henry Dempsey, the pilot, heard an unusual noise near the rear of the small aircraft. He turned the controls over to his copilot and went back to check it out.
2. As he reached the tail section, the plane hit an air pocket and Dempsey was tossed against the rear door. He quickly discovered the source of the mysterious noise. The rear door had not been properly latched prior to takeoff, and it flew open, he was instantly sucked out of the jet.
3. The copilot, seeing the red light that indicated an open door, radioed the nearest airport, requesting permission to make an emergency landing. He reported that the pilot had fallen out of the plane, and requested a helicopter search of that area of the ocean.
4. After the plane landed, they found Henry Dempsey -- holding onto the outdoor ladder of the aircraft.
5. Somehow he had caught the ladder and held onto it for 10 minutes as the plane flew 200 mph at an altitude of 4000 feet, and then, at landing, kept his head from hitting the runway, which was a mere 12 inches away(he was hanging upside down).
6. It took airport personnel several minutes to pry Dempsey's fingers from the ladder. That’s holding on!
B. THE CALL
1. The Gold Rush of 1849 had people from all over the world heading to California with dollar signs in their eyes. Each
person came with visions of finding a fortune and many miners did indeed strike it rich.
2. This phenomenon was all started by James Marshall who discovered gold at Sutter's Creek. You would think the man responsible for starting all that gold craze would have died knee-deep in wealth.
3. Ironically, Marshall died in the late 1880s as a penniless itinerant miner just a few hours from the place he first struck gold. His fortune was never realized BECAUSE HE FAILED TO STAKE HIS OWN CLAIM!
4. You can go to church & miss heaven. You can have Christian friends or Christians in your family and still miss heaven! It won’t be until you sign your name on the dotted line, that heaven will be yours!
5. Maybe some of you here don't yet have an inheritance because you haven't been "born again." Jesus tells us what He expects;
6. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” Matt. 16:24.“Every one who sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” John 6:40. If you want to surrender your life to Jesus and become part of God's family, raise hand.
7. To the rest I challenge:
a. First, get all the inheritance you have coming to you: Pentecostal Power, Eternal Life, a Supernatural God, the Promises of God, a vibrant Christian Experience, and a Victorious Church.
b. Second, Hold onto them with the tenacity of a bull dog. Stand your ground. Commit yourselves to defend the faith and pass it on to the next generation.
8. Altar Service and prayer.
