Title: Our Inheritance
Theme: To show that as a child of God we have been given freedom and promises that we need to hold onto.
Text: Romans 8:17,
Note: This message was inspired from Unshakable Hope by Max Lucado. Where quotations are the book is quoted. Great message from the book I wanted to share.
Opening Scripture
Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Timothy Henry Gray.
I read the story the other day about sixty-year-old body of Timothy Henry Gray was found under a Wyoming overpass two days after Christmas in 2012. There was no sign of foul play. No indication of a crime or mischief. A homeless cowboy who had died of hypothermia.
He would have normally fallen into the cracks of every other homeless, died with no one knowing him except for one detail: he stood to inherit millions. Gray’s great-grandfather was a wealthy copper miner, railroad builder, and the founder of a small Nevada town you might have heard of: Las Vegas. His fortune was passed down to his daughter, Huguette. She died in 2011 at the age of 104.
Huguette left a $300 million fortune. At the time of Gray’s death, the execution of the will was tied up in court. As things turned out, the man found dead under the railroad overpass wasn’t poor after all. He may have been worth $19 million.”
The questions begin to pile up. How could a man who was going to inherit millions live as a pauper? Surely Timothy knew the history. Did it ever occur to him to reach out?
If it were me, I would camp at the doorstep of my great aunt. I would turn over every document. Wouldn’t you? We would make it our life’s goal to access our inheritance, wouldn’t we?
But do we?
Look at the verse that we opened up with. We are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ Jesus” Romans 8:17
Paul takes it further in Ephesians 1
(Ephesians 1:3 NKJV).” “You aren’t merely a slave, servant, or saint of God. No, you are a child of God. You have legal right to the family business and fortune of heaven. The will has been executed. The courts have been satisfied. Your spiritual account has been funded. He “has blessed [you] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”
Do you need more joy? Just ask for it
Do you need more love? Just call on His name
Do you need victory over areas in you life? Just reach out to Him.
Do you need healing? “by His stripes we are healed”
Do you need peace? Call on the Prince of Peace
Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
“You will never exhaust his resources. At no time does he wave away your prayer with “Come back tomorrow. I’m tired, weary, depleted.””
God is affluent! Wealthy in love, abundant in hope, overflowing in wisdom.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him. (1 Cor. 2:9 NLT)
Look with me now to another passage in scripture. Israel had a hard time understanding this. Numbers 13:1-2
“One of the most famous stories in the Bible has to do with inheritance. The Hebrews had just been delivered from Egyptian captivity.”
It was God who brought them out of Egypt. It was God who decimated Egypt before Pharoah’s eyes. Even the magicians of Pharoah declared, Exodus 8:19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."
Later on we read in Numbers 13:1–2. “God led them and Moses to the edge of the promised land and made this offer: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders’”
“God did not tell the Israelites to conquer, take, invade, subject, or secure the land. He told them he was giving it to them.
They had a challenge would they trust God. Listen to their response.
In Numbers 13:25-29 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. (26) Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (28) Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the67ykl Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan."
Their choice was clear: promises or circumstances? The circumstances said, “No way. Stay out. There are giants in the land.” God’s promise said, “The land is yours. The victory is yours. Take it.”
All they had to do was trust his promise, despite the circumstances, and receive the gift. But they didn’t. It was a bad decision with a forty-year probation penalty. God left them to wander in the wilderness for a generation, until a new breed of followers surfaced.
Joshua was the leader of that generation. Upon the death of Moses, God reissued the promised land offer. Joshua 1:1–3 “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses’”
We typically think of Joshua as taking the land. It’s more precise to think of Joshua as taking God at His word. Joshua took the land, for sure. But he did so because he trusted God’s promise. The great accomplishment of the Hebrew people was this: they lived out of their inheritance. In fact, the story ends with this declaration: Joshua 24:28 “Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance”
Is that to say they had no challenges? The book of Joshua makes it clear that wasn’t the case. The Jordan River was wide. The Jericho walls were high. The evil inhabitants of Canaan were not giving up without a fight. Still, Joshua led the Hebrews to cross the Jordan, bring down the walls of Jericho, and defeat the thirty-one enemy kings. Every time he faced a challenge, he did so with faith, because he trusted his inheritance.
Joshua 1:6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
What if you did the same?
“Standing before you is a Jericho wall of fear. Brick upon brick of anxiety and dread. It’s a stronghold that keeps you out of (your) Canaan. (Your blessings. Your freedom. Your deliverance. Your peace.)” Circumstances say, Cower to your fears. Your inheritance says otherwise: You are a child of the King. His perfect love casts out fear. Move forward.
Tear down those walls and let God come into your life.
Choose your inheritance.
“Haunting you are the kings of confusion. Thanks to them, you’ve struggled with your identity and destiny. You’ve bought the lie that life has no absolutes or purpose. Then you remember your inheritance: Truth. Guidance from God. His Word to instruct you.”
Choose your inheritance.
Is that to say all your challenges will disappear? They didn’t for Joshua. He fought for seven years! But he knew more victory than defeat.
So can you. It comes down to a simple decision to believe and receive your position as an heir of God and coheir with Christ. 1 John 4:17 “In this world we are like Jesus”. We aren’t slaves or distant relatives. Our inheritance is every bit as abundant as that of Jesus himself. What he receives, we receive.
Conclusion
God has given us many promises as our inheritance. Are we trusting in God’s promises or what we see in the world?
Salvation: Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
All Things Work Good: Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
New Life: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Spiritual Blessings: Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Supply Our Needs: Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Rest: Matthew 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (30) For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Abundant Living: John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Eternal Life: John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
Healing: 1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.
Miracles: Mark 16:17-18 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; (18) they [86] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
There are too many to list. And I wonder if that is because each one of us is a different one that we need to lean upon.
Today, God says come and claim your promise. Step into the land of blessing. Step out into God’s inheritance. Is there someone here today that would say, “I am missing it”. “I am trusting in God”.
