Heir Born

I'm gonna invite you, if you can join me in the Word of God.

Last Sunday started a series based on the book of Romans chapter 8 called God for us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And we're going to continue today in verse 14.

If you weren't here last Sunday or maybe you need a refresher,

please go back and watch the rebroadcast or the podcast so that you can catch that message.

We are digging through, excavating some gems within this chapter.

Biblical gems, truth gems for us because this chapter is regarded as by many scholars to be the greatest chapter in the Bible.

And you might be convinced of that too when you read it yourself.

It's all of our homework. I invite you, I encourage you to read, to study.

Take a verse a day or take a few verses a day in your prayer time, your time of meditation.

And read through this beautiful chapter of Romans 8. Amen. And you will be blessed.

All I can do in these next few weeks is just highlight a few things for you that God has been speaking to me. Amen.

But all of us need to study and let's learn from God's Word.

It reads this way in verse 14.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear,

but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out of a father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs. Everyone say heirs. Heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ.

If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

With the help of God's Spirit, I want to preach today on this thought, airborne.

Why don't we pray once again? Father, I thank you for your Spirit that's here for moving beautifully, powerfully among your people.

Father, for surely your presence has filled this place.

And God, as we prepare to hear the Word of the Lord, I ask that you would anoint my fragile lips of clay, God, imperfect and flawed.

Yet you've chosen them to deliver your Word.

So be glorified today through me and anoint the hearing of all in this place or those that are watching,

that they might receive the Word with gladness and understanding and that all of us would be changed in Jesus' name.

Because some would say, amen. You may be seated in God's presence.

One of the greatest moments of my life was becoming a father. Amen.

There are no words to express the joy that came over me when I first held my children in my arms.

As some of you know, there is no other feeling like it in the world.

Can I get an amen from somebody out there? Amen.

No other feeling. You feel grateful, don't you, in that moment? You feel grateful. You feel blessed.

You feel proud.

And I was proud even though they were babies and hadn't done anything yet.

Just being my child was enough to be proud.

Knowing that my blood, my DNA, that a piece of me was in them was enough to make me smile.

Hadn't accomplished anything yet. Hadn't brought home a report card yet. Hadn't hit home run yet.

And yet I was proud. Why? Because they were mine.

And that's all it took. That's all it took.

And maybe that was the sentiment at the Jordan River when Jesus was baptized.

Because when he came out of the water, he heard a voice from heaven.

And that voice said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

This is an interesting statement from heaven when Jesus was baptized.

Because at this point in Jesus' life, he hadn't really started his ministry yet.

Hadn't taught one sermon. Hadn't healed one sick person.

There wasn't much on his resume. And yet he heard a voice saying, I am well pleased in you.

And it was that delight, that pleasure, that joy, that smile from heaven that I think resonates.

And every family, as I mentioned, parents today, you could identify with that.

And I think that something similar happens when we are born again in water and of spirit.

When we take upon the name of God in our lives and we are brought into the family of God.

At baptism, we are adopted by God and he becomes our heavenly father.

And from that point on, our status changes and it changes everything.

From that point on, we become sons and daughters of God.

Heirs of God. And joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

And this concept of becoming an heir of God, becoming a son of God,

is one that is, I want you to know, woven all throughout Scripture.

From the very beginning, we see this concept of sonship, being an heir or child of God.

From God creating Adam in his image to the Lord calling Israel, the nation of Israel, his firstborn son.

And then of course to the church who is adopted into the family of God.

I want you to see that the Bible, if anything, is one great love story about the father of creation,

wanting to become father in relation.

That God Almighty has always had it in his mind to build himself a family.

Somebody say, amen today.

This is what God wants. And this is exactly the centerpiece of Paul's message in Romans chapter eight.

This concept of being heirs of God.

It is the glue that holds all the precepts and promises together in the Christian life.

And once you unlock that understanding,

once you have a personal revelation of you being an heir of God or the concept of being a child of God,

that is the gateway, that is the beginning to understanding all that is available to us in the Christian life.

If you can grasp that today, if you can see that today in your mind's eye, in your spiritual eye,

if you can see yourself the way God sees you, it will absolutely revolutionize the way you read Scripture.

It will revolutionize the way you live out your life.

It will change every aspect of your life right down to the very details of your life.

And so what we are looking at today, what we are studying through Romans chapter eight,

is really a life altering theological concept about God and how he wants to work through us.

It will free us, as I preached about last Sunday, from living under the burden of condemnation

from the law of sin and death and the law of depravity.

It will enable us to live a godly life, a holy life.

It will enable us to walk by the Spirit.

And virtually everything there is to know and experience about Christian living

can be wrapped up in this concept of being an heir of God.

And so what I would like to do this afternoon is to point out several blessings of being an heir of God.

Several blessings of being one of his sons and daughters and what that represents

and what that means for us as we seek to do his will.

How many of you want to do the will of God in your life?

Can you say amen today?

I want to do his will.

It's one thing to want it, but you've got to understand where you are.

You've got to understand where you are in God's view.

And so there are several blessings.

I hope to get through all of them today, but we'll begin with the first blessing of being an heir of God.

And that is identification or identity.

Identity. Paul writes in verse 15, as we get into this, he says,

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear,

but you received the spirit of adoption.

And here Paul begins to explain to the church, to the believer, this concept.

He he conveys this message about the fact that our identity or our status has been changed.

These words convey a change of identity from a slave of sin to a son or from an orphan to a child, an heir of God.

This right here captures the whole essence of what it means to be a believer, what it means to be a Christian, what it means to walk with God.

This captures the essence of of why God came to Earth in the first place.

It captures the primary purpose for God coming and why the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Simply put, simply put, God became one of us to make us one of his.

Hallelujah. I want to say that again. God became one of us to make us one of his.

One other scholar said that the son of God became as the son of man so that the sons of men might become the sons of God.

It was always in God's plan, in his plan of redemption to come to the world, to redeem us and reinstate us back into his family.

He became like us so that we might become like him.

Otherwise, there would be no other way for us to become like him.

No other way for us to be a part of his glorious family.

No other way for us to belong to that heavenly host.

So he came. How many of you are glad he came down? Amen.

He came down, tabernacled himself among us.

He came like us. He sat among us. He dwelt among us. He ate with us.

He slept with us. He was with us.

And then he died on a cross for our sins to redeem us that we might become the heirs of God.

What I have come today to implant in your spirit and to encourage you with is that we are not just anybody.

Hallelujah. We are not just a religious gathering of people from all walks of life.

Now that might be the case. We are not simply a social club.

We are not a group of people who had nothing else better to do on Sunday but to come to church.

We are not simply here out of duty and discipline.

We are here because we belong to a body. We belong to a family.

God has brought us who are far off, near by the blood of the Lamb.

And now we are sons and daughters of all mighty God. Clap your hands.

And why don't we give God some praise today?

Since sin entered the world, there are only two types of spirits I want you to understand.

Only two types of spirits that can dominate or govern or better yet define our lives.

Two types of spirits. There is the spirit of adoption or the spirit of bondage.

And these are different. These are very different.

The spirit of bondage is the orphan spirit or the orphan identity.

But the spirit of adoption is the son or daughter identity.

It's the adoption identity.

And I want you to understand that there are only these two options when it comes to the way we live our life.

The way that we perceive God and the way that we apply His word in our life.

There are only these two options.

He only gave us the option of the spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption.

And the spirit of bondage is that orphan spirit.

I'd like to draw some parallels for you between how is one an orphan and one a son.

Orphans tend to see God as a harsh ruler.

And the reason is because they don't have a relationship with Him.

And so in their minds, God is simply but an authoritarian figure who is ruler and who enacts discipline or judgment.

And that's their primary perception of who God is.

He is simply a harsh ruler or a dictator.

But sons or daughters will see Him as a loving father.

And this is the mode. This is what informs their life day to day.

Is that they don't deny the fact that God is a judge and that God is a ruler.

But their primary way of engaging God or what motivates their life is that He is a loving father.

Hallelujah. Orphans are independent minded and afraid to admit their need.

Whereas sons are interdependent and willing to acknowledge need.

Hallelujah.

I want you to see this contrast. Orphans, the orphan spirit is mostly motivated by fear, by compulsion or purely a sense of duty.

Whereas a son is motivated by love and gratitude or a sense of delight.

Now, both orphans hear me out today, both orphans and sons may produce similar results in their life.

But their motivations are as far apart as the North Pole from the South.

Because these two individuals, while they might produce similar results in their life, are living under completely different constructs.

One is motivated by fear. One is motivated by just purely not wanting to mess up.

One is motivated by just not wanting to go to hell, perhaps.

One is motivated by what the consequences would be if I don't do this.

One is motivated by compulsion or I have to do this or I have to be obedient with this or I have to go there.

I have to give. But the other is motivated by love.

And instead of saying I have to, they say I want to.

Hallelujah. I want to do this. It is within my love that I want to do.

I serve the Lord not because I have to. I serve Him because I'm so grateful for what He has done in my life.

Now, of course, the Bible says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

So I've got good news for you today, or bad news, depending on how you want to look at it.

You're commanded to praise God whether you want to or not. Amen.

Because the Bible says, praise Him. It's not a suggestion, it's a command.

But I've got good news for you. There's another level of command or another level of praise that you can belong to.

It's that I don't praise Him because I have to. I praise Him because I want to.

I praise Him because I'm grateful. I praise Him because of who He is in my life.

Hallelujah somebody.

Orphans are bound, but sons and daughters are found.

Which are you today? Maybe parts of your life resemble a son while other parts resemble an orphan.

Either way, hear the words of the Lord today.

Jesus said, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

Whether you feel like a complete spiritual orphan today, or whether there are simply parts of your life that are more orphan-like than they are son or daughter-like,

I want you to know that the Spirit of God said, I've come for you today.

It is not the will of God that you remain in that orphan spirit of bondage mentality,

but it's the will of God that you get up on His lap like a child and come unto Him and experience the loving arms of the loving Father.

How many of you want to know Him like a father today? Hallelujah.

How many of you are encouraged? He said, I will not leave you as orphans.

That's why I came to the world to make you an heir of God.

Clap your hands. Let's just thank God today that He didn't leave me as an orphan.

But He calls me His son.

And this brings me to the second blessing of being an heir of God, which is the blessing of intimacy.

Now you can't have this intimacy without the identity.

And so these blessings today are in sequential order.

I want you to understand that. These are not randomly in order. These are in sequence.

We want to have intimacy, but you need to get the identity.

You can't get true intimacy with God until you've first been born again, filled with the Spirit.

And then that now changes your status as a son.

Now you can enter into this phase of intimacy.

He writes in verse 15, but you receive the spirit of adoption.

By whom we cry out, Abba, father, becoming heirs of God grants us this special access to His presence.

We now are permitted.

We now are enabled to enter into a holy space, a sacred space, a space where God dwells so that we might know Him in intimate fashion,

that He might be our Father and we His children.

And this is first indicated by the words, we cry out.

Some, someone say cry out. We can cry out. God can hear.

I want you to understand that, that when you are a true child of God, God has ears.

I don't even know God has ears. You know, I don't know if they look like these ears, but, but He's got ears because He's a spirit being,

but He's got ears that He can hear. God can hear the cry.

And in order for God to hear or for anybody to hear, they must be within proximity to hear that call or that cry.

And so this idea that we can cry out to God, that we can call Him and He hears us, provides great comfort and consolation to me,

that every time I call on Him, I know that there is someone, Jesus, who is listening to my prayer.

Amen, somebody. Every time that I call upon Him, I have the assurance, hallelujah, that He's picking up the phone on the other line.

Oh my God, I get excited about this. No wonder Jesus taught us in His model prayer to pray our Father, which art in heaven.

Because when we approach God in prayer, in our time of need, or just to converse with Him, or just to worship Him, we are to come to Him.

If He wanted us to come to Him as a ruler, He would have said, our ruler.

If He wanted us to come to Him as a healer, then He would have said, say, my healer.

But God said, primarily, when you come to me, I want you to approach me as our Father.

And what that tells me is that we have a benevolent God. We have a loving God. We have a God who wants to be known.

He says, draw nigh to me, and I'll draw nigh to you. I come to tell somebody today that we have a gracious, good, ever-loving Father that invites us into His presence,

that we might know Him in a deeper, more profound way than we ever have before.

And this concept of Him being our Father is some, for many of us, perhaps elementary. But I need you to understand that there are levels to this.

Because if you look at one of my favorite parables, which I've referenced not too long ago, last week of the prodigal, a son,

don't forget that there were two sons in the house. But one had a son spirit, and the other had an orphan spirit.

We can be in the same house. We can all claim to have the same Father.

But not everyone in the same house claiming to have the same Father is enjoying the same degree of intimacy with Him.

But God doesn't want you to stay far from Him. Some of you are only one repented prayer away from getting closer to God.

Some of you are only one submitted act away from getting closer to the Father.

Man, I'm running out of time. Some of you are only one worship away from getting into access into His presence.

But when you do, you can say, Abba, Father. That word Abba is significant. It is special. It is personal to you.

And to me, the word Abba means Papa or Dad. Some scholars say it means Daddy.

When you come to Him, He's not just this hard figure, this distant and stoic figure who doesn't show any affection or emotion.

But He is, He's Dad. He's not just Father, because one can be a father and not necessarily be a dad. Oh, hallelujah.

One can father a child, but it doesn't make them a dad. But I've come to tell you, we don't just have a father.

We've got a daddy. And anytime we need something and anytime we want to talk to Him, we can just get on our knees and say, Dad, here I am again.

I need you now, Dad. I love you, Father. How many of you are thankful today to have a father in heaven like that?

That's the kind of father He is. And you know, it does something to God when you approach Him this way.

It does something to God. Some people think, oh, I don't think I can change His mind. You absolutely can change things.

Absolutely. I'll give you the perfect example. You know, whenever my daughter comes to me and she, oh, man, it's like she knows the passcode to my heart.

Let me tell you. And as she tells me, Daddy, oh, my goodness, my heart begins to melt. She can have anything she wants.

She can, oh, my Lord, I am in trouble when she says, Daddy. I just like, oh, my Lord, I feel so powerless.

And you know, and it's hard to tell her no, because she comes and she says, Daddy, just hearing those words, do I got to witness something?

Maybe some of you know what I'm talking about. It's like, oh, there you go saying, Daddy, what do you want?

And she says, Daddy, I just can't resist. I can't resist.

You know, and then she shows me the Amazon link and I'm like, ah.

See, now, back in the days, they were taking the toys to rest. Now they bring in the Amazon link.

I said, OK. I said, I see what you're trying to do to me. But you know what happens? Most times I fall for it.

I fall for it. And there's a part of me that says, you know what? Just by the way you approach me, I might bless you in advance.

It's not even your birthday yet. And I might bless you anyways, simply because the way that you love the affection, the respect that you show me,

the fact that you came to me tells me you know that I can give it to you.

Oh, my Lord. Hallelujah. Where did Jesus say you have not because you asked now what things has God been waiting for you to ask for that you simply haven't asked?

I don't know what God's gonna say. He's gonna tell me no. How do you know this might not be the day that God said, I dare you if you would just call me your father

and say this is what I need from you. How do you know that today might not be the day that God says, all right, I'm ready to bless you.

Oh, hallelujah. I'm almost done here. Come on up, brother, because this is the heart of God.

Let me tell you something. Do you know that God wants to bless you? Whoo, man. I'm gonna say it again, because I got like a make four amens when I said that.

Let me say it again, because let me tell you, if you don't want your blessing, honey, I'll take it. Okay. I said God wants to bless you. Whoo, much better.

And do you know that God has more than one way to bless you? You think it's all fine? It's not just money, my brother. There are some things that money can't buy.

Oh, my Lord. There's other things. There are so many ways in which God can bless, fulfill your life, and he simply wants us to come to him with that type of innocence.

And I'm going to bring this. I'm going to share with you. There were several more. Maybe I'll come back to this message again.

Maybe we'll continue it in a couple of weeks, but there's just this one point about the blessing of being a child of God.

I want to miss. So take me to point number four, which is inheritance. Inheritance.

Because after all, I entitled this message airborne.

There's a there's something about being an heir of God that makes you the lawful, rightful recipient of all that God has to offer you as his child.

Notice for 17 and if children. If you are truly a child of God, I've got to correct a misnomer that people have in the world today when they say, oh, everybody, we're all children of God.

Some people say that about the world. Well, the whole world, you know, we're just all God's children.

That's not what the verse says. There's certain criteria that has to be met to be a child of God.

But if you are a child and if children. Then errors, errors of God and joint errors with Christ.

I was thinking about the situation in life where a man who may have an inheritance to pass on to his children.

There comes a point when that man dies that his last will and testament is read to his successors or the inheritors.

That that that last will and testament that inheritance is not activated until the predecessor dies.

Once that person dies.

And the last will and testament is read.

Then it is activated. Someone has to die for the inheritance to be enforced.

Well, let me tell you, two thousand years ago, there is a man by the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Went up on that hill called Calvary and shed his blood and died for us.

Amen. He died for us. Somebody say, man.

And he rose again on the third day. He didn't stay dead, but he died.

And when Jesus died, the Bible says when he was on the cross that the veil in the temple.

What separated the outer court from the Holies of Holies, which is where the presence of God dwell.

This veil was rent or rent from the top to the bottom.

The doors were opened. The veil was torn.

And from that point on, there was this inheritance that was made available to God's children.

Christ's last will and testament is available to us.

Christ's testament is right here. It's called the New Testament.

And his will can be found in his testament. My God, hallelujah.

I want to know the will of God. You can discover the will of God for your life in the testament.

My Lord. And the testament is where all the terms and the conditions are spelled out.

Everything is there ready and available. Read Ephesians.

It says every spiritual blessing is for us, his children.

I want you to understand that God has an inheritance of blessing.

God has a life that he's called all of us to live.

And there are things that God wants to do in our life.

But here's the thing about inheritance.

The inheritance, just because it belongs to you, doesn't mean you get it on day one.

Because if a child does not demonstrate the maturity and does not demonstrate the ability to handle the full inheritance,

many times the trust will stipulate not until they reach this certain age can they get access to their inheritance,

not until they maybe get this part of their life in order can they access their inheritance.

And all they may get is just little doses of what belongs to them.

What I've come to tell somebody here right now is that there are treasures in heaven.

There is an inheritance. There are blessings available.

There are miracles. There are promises available to all of us here today in some form or fashion.

But you may not get everything that God has for you on day one.

You may have to work on your maturity so that you're ready for whatever blessing God has for your life.

Oh, I need somebody to help me here today.

You may not be ready for everything that God wants to do.

You may not be in a place mentally and spiritually.

You might not. I know you think you're ready, but in God's estimation, you may not be ready for everything that he wants to do.

So what I need to do today and what we need to do today is say, God, help me to walk in your will,

because the only way I get access to my inheritance in you is if I'm walking in the will, which is outlined in the testament.

Oh, I need somebody to stand on their feet today as we give God the glory and the thanks.

I don't know about you, my friend, but I want what God has for me.

Is there somebody here today that believes the same?

I said, is there somebody here today that believes the same?

Anybody here waiting on a promise from God?

Come on, let me hear you right now.

Come on. I said, let me hear you right now.

Is there anybody in this place that's waiting on a promise from God?

I'm waiting on God to move. I'm waiting on God to work.

I'm waiting on my answer to come.

This is what I know.

If I walk in his will and I stay in his word, my heavenly father will bless me as an heir of God.

Oh, hallelujah. Our God is so good.

He is so blessed.

He owns the cattle on a farm.

I wish I had some help here today. Help me out, musicians.

I said, our God is so good.

Come on, put me up right now.

I said, has he been good to you?

Oh, I said, has he been good to you?

I don't know what kind of God you serve, but I know this.

My God has been good to me, but I also know that the best is still yet to come.

My God, my God, my God.

Oh, I need to help somebody right now.

I need to help somebody right now.

I know that God's got more in store for me than what I'm experiencing today.

I have not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that the Lord has prepared for his church.

I don't know about you, but I'm waiting on greater revival.

I don't know about you, but I'm waiting on greater miracles.

I don't know about you, but I'm waiting for the salvation of my family, for the restoration of my family.

I don't know about you, but I'm still waiting on God to do some things in my life.

And there is no devil in hell.

I feel the Holy Ghost in this place today.

There is no devil in hell that can defraud you, that can take what belongs to you as an heir of God.

What's yours is yours, but you've got to get some faith in your spirit today.

You've got to believe with all of your heart and claim that which belongs to you.

Oh, I guess I'm not talking to anybody that needs a miracle in your life.

I guess I'm not talking to anybody who wants more of what God has.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for what God has for me.

I'm ready to step into it.

I'm ready for it.

I dare somebody right now, give God some glory, give God some praise.

Lift up your voices, lift up your hands.

Hallelujah!

Come on and praise Him.

Come on, somebody praise Him.

Oh, hallelujah!