Ephesians pt4 - Inheritance Through Adoption

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message.

So I've been, I've been talking and going through in the 1st

chapter of Ephesians, the Lord put on my heart just to roll

things back a little bit before we go on to some more in the

Ephesians prayer there. And specifically these verses,

verse 11 and verse 14 and verse 18, all right?

And these verses specifically, the apostle Paul is revealing to

us a very important fact, all right, that we have an

inheritance through Christ that amazing.

How many of you have ever received an inheritance?

It's an amazing thing to be able to leave this world and be able

to give an inheritance to your children and grandchildren,

right? But we have an inheritance

through Christ, and it's absolutely amazing beyond

anything that we can really fathom.

That's so incredibly fantastic. Paul makes a tremendous effort

in this chapter really to articulate what it is and what

it is that we realize that Christ purchased with his blood

like this is this is a big deal so big of a deal that Christ was

willing to sacrifice his life and shed his blood for this.

Now like what in verse 7 in Ephesians chapter 1 and and

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

verse 7, we're going to be focusing on on 11/14 and, and 18

there. But in Ephesians chapter 1 and

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

verse 7 in the message paraphrase there, it says

because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on

the altar of the cross, we are free people.

Isn't that good news? Free of penalties and

punishment, punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds.

And we are not just barely free either, but absolutely free.

Like absolutely free. What Christ did has caused you

to be absolutely free. This wasn't just some half

thought out plan like God was all in on this.

You have God the Father, you have God the Son and you have

God the Holy Spirit all in on this.

He didn't hold back and he didn't withhold anything from

you. He paid for what Paul is

revealing here in Ephesians chapter one with his blood.

He was serious about this, right?

Like that's a serious deal. If someone asks you, you know,

well, OK, let's make this agreement together.

All right, but I I want you to sign that in blood.

You ever heard that before? Like, that's a serious deal,

isn't it? Jesus paid for this with his

blood, and he didn't only do it to do the bare minimum, right?

Sometimes we, we, we, we think that, you know, ah, sure, this

is enough. Like if, if, if Jesus only did

that, that that would be enough, right?

But he went so much further. He didn't just do the bare

minimum. He went all out, spared

absolutely nothing and I don't believe for one moment that the

same God who obviously went out of his way in creation, right.

You ever been been down to Killarney in the springtime and

all the flowers are in bloom, right?

It's beautiful, it's amazing. Was these massive bushes just

full of flowers. There's trees and one of our

favorite places to to go is the Muck Cross House there.

And they have like a rolling lawn, you know, down the back

and they have these massive elaborate gardens and there's

all sorts of plants and vegetation and it goes down to

the, to the foot of a lake. It's beautiful.

And you look at something like that.

OK, God went all out, right? Like is there anything more

beautiful? People do paintings of things

like that and we're like, oh, wow, that's a beautiful

painting, right? And we hang it on our wall.

I like that. But that's just a replica of

something that is so much better in person.

There's this lake that I, that was near where where I grew up.

You know, where I grew up was in the United States in the, the

top W there in the Pacific Northwest.

But where I grew up there is this, there is this lake, it was

called Crater Lake and it's from this volcano that had had blown

up and over the, you know, thousands of years since it's

filled up with water And the, the water when you see it in

person is like this, this fluorescent type blue.

It's hard to even describe it, right.

They put a, they put a buoy marker down like a red buoy just

to see how far down. You could still see that and it

went down several 100 feet and you could still see that like

the, the, the water is so clear and so pure, you know, and you

take a photo of it, but that photo just can't do it justice

because the color of the water and the beauty of it is just

absolutely amazing, right? So if God went all out like in

creation just for grass and flowers, right?

And birds and a squirrel and whatever else, right?

How much more do you think that he would go all out for you,

right? Have you ever read in Ephesians

Ephesians 3:18

chapter 3 verse 18 and 20? Let's look at this is another

one of the apostle Paul's prayers in the book of Ephesians

and verse 18. He says may you be able to

comprehend with all the Saints what is the width and the length

and the depth and the height and verse 19 to know the love of

Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all

the fullness of God and in verse 20.

Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all

that we ask or think according to the power that works in US.

Oh my, my goodness. Hello.

According to the fullness of the power, it says that works in US.

Who do you have living on the inside?

It's no wonder the Bible says greater is he who is in you

right than he who is in the world.

This world has nothing on God ever.

There is no power on the face of this planet that is more

powerful than God. The devil tried, didn't work out

too well for him. He got kicked out of heaven.

Some of his followers, angels that rebelled with him against

God, tried well, they got kicked out with him.

There is no power that's greater than God.

And you have that the fullness of God, right?

Did did I read that correctly? Maybe I, maybe I, I read that.

Where where was that? What scripture was that in?

So there we go, verse 19 at the very end there that you may be

filled with all the fullness of God.

Not a little bit. That's just a, a, a little

partial amount. Like it says fullness.

And what does fullness mean? If I, if if you ask for a cup of

water and you want it filled to full and I just pour a little

bit in there, like are you going to be OK with that?

Right. I said fill it to full.

Pastor Brad, can you do that? Sure, right.

Fill it all the way to the top. Well, that's what Paul is saying

here, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

God didn't hold back from you, Not one bit.

What he accomplished through Christ's sacrifice is so much

more than empty religion. Salvation is God adopting sons

and daughters. Isn't that amazing?

The purpose of this was to adopt you into the family of God, not

just the forgiveness of your sins.

That's an amazing part of that, right?

But our sin was in the way of God doing that.

So God had to take care of the sin issue so that He could adopt

us into His family. That was the purpose of this, so

that you could be in the family of God.

Isn't that amazing? That's just the introduction.

The first point is that we've obtained an inheritance through

Christ. We're going to look at Ephesians

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and verse 11. Ephesians 111 says in him we

also have obtained an inheritance being predestined

according to the purpose of him who works all things according

to the counsel of his will. And notice here the apostle Paul

says in him, right, your inheritance is not found in your

effort. It's not found in your merit,

your morality, being part of any religious organization.

It's found in him in a relationship with God.

All right, and an inheritance isn't a wage, it's not something

you can earn. It's something that is given to

you freely by the grace of God. It's something given and then

received. Paul doesn't say that we will

receive an inheritance, right? It's important that we pay

attention to the wording. God is very intentional in what

He's commuting, communicating to us in His Word.

And He says that we have obtained an inheritance, meaning

you have it now, right? It's past tense.

It was settled at Jesus sacrifice, sacrificing his life.

And this inheritance wasn't random or or accidental.

The apostle Paul says that it was predestined.

It was predetermined. It was decided beforehand.

God had decided to give each of us such a gift that we can only

comprehend it as the apostle Paul praise that we looked at

last week, by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, right?

Like we can't even understand it on our own.

God has to reveal it to us because it's so amazing, so

immense. It's hard for us in our human

reasoning to understand what God is actually what he has actually

done, because it's so much bigger and so much grander than

us. Like we'd be like, Oh, like I

said, sure that like I'm fine with just this Lord.

Like if if this is just the forgiveness of my sin, like I'm

happy with that. I don't need anything else from

you, Lord, Like I'm cool with just the forgiveness of my sin,

thank you very much, right? But God wants to do so much more

and He did so much more. And when we realize what it is

that He actually did, man, every day, thank you, Lord.

I just give you all the praise and all the glory and all the

honor because of the amazing things that you have done

through Christ. It's amazing.

The second thing I want to look at is Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We're just going to read the the the back end of verse 13 and

then go into 14. It's that the Holy Spirit

guarantees our inheritance. All right.

At the end of verse 13, it says that you were sealed with the

Holy Spirit of promise. And then in verse 14, who is the

guarantee of our inheritance and tell the redemption of the

purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

Now, when we talk about the Holy Spirit, a lot of people kind of

talk about him like he's God's sidekick or something, right?

Like, like he's the lesser version of the of the godhead.

You have God the Father, God the Son, and you have the Holy

Spirit. You know, you have God.

Oh, then you have God the son. He came to the, to the earth,

sacrificed his life. And then you have the Holy

Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit plays in such an

important part of everything that God does.

You know, when Jesus, when Jesus died upon the cross, you know,

he, he was resurrected, appeared to, you know, the, the disciples

and well over 500 different people, right?

And then they saw him ascend to heaven, right?

In Ephesians chapter 2, it says that now Jesus is seated at the

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

right hand of the Father in heavenly places, right?

We're going to get to that in a couple weeks here.

So Jesus is up in heaven with with God the Father, Father.

Well, who's here on the earth now doing the work of God the

Father and God the Son. It's God the Holy Spirit, right?

God the Holy Spirit is so much more than than just our

comforter in our in our director.

Like he's involved in every single aspect of my life of your

life and every believer on the face of the planet.

He's busy, right? Important part of the Godhead.

But Paul is saying that that the Holy Spirit was sent in part to

be the guarantee, right? You have God the Father sent God

the Son, and then God the Holy Spirit was sent to be that

guarantee and do the work of the ministry of God in this earth.

So you have all hands on deck. All the parts of the Godhead

were involved in our salvation and involved in our inheritance.

Paul calls him the guarantee. Well, what does the word

guarantee mean? And the Greek here it means a

security, a deposit, a down payment, a binding legal pledge.

Meaning that this isn't reversible, right?

Like it's a done thing, can't be reneged on.

In other words, God put his own spirit inside of you as proof of

your inheritance in Christ that he will not renege on that

promise. You have his guarantee.

Then we have the the the third part here I want to spend a

little more time on on this. The last point of what our

inheritance entails. OK, in Ephesians chapter 1 and

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

verse 18, the apostle Paul says that the eyes of your

understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the

hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his

inheritance in the Saints. So Paul is praying here that we

would have spiritual wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of our

understanding would be enlightened, that we would know

what this inheritance entails. You know, if someone leaves you

an inheritance, you know that you, you have, you know, a

solicitor may contact you or something.

You would have what would be known as like the, the reading

of the will and you would find out what it is that is in this

inheritance. What did someone leave you?

Well, the apostle Paul is saying that that God is revealing to us

what it is that has been left to us.

And it's important that we know because you can't walk in it if

you don't know about it. You can't spend money that you

don't have, right? So you need to know, you need to

know who God is. You need to know who you are in

Christ, and you need to know what that means, right?

Paul's using a lot of legal language here in the book of

Ephesians. And when we read the Bible, it's

always important that we read things in context.

And a lot of what the Apostle Paul is, is talking about here

in Ephesians, you need to understand it in historical

context, because the Apostle Paul is writing this to people

who lived in the Roman Empire. So every, everything that he's

saying, it isn't just something that in scriptural, we know what

adopted means today, right? But when the Bible says that

you've been adopted into God's family, he's, he's saying that

to people who lived in the Roman Empire, right?

It means something a little different, OK, than what a

simple adoption may be today. We need to understand the

historical context. So we're going to look at that.

In the Roman Empire, adoption meant that there was a legal

transfer of fatherhood. The person came fully under the

authority of the new father. The old father's authority was

completely terminated. And that adoption was public

witnessed, and it was binding. All right.

Sounds kind of similar to adoption today, doesn't it?

But there's an amazing point that Paul is making here

concerning our adoption into God's family.

You might remember when, when Jesus was confronting religious

leaders in in John chapter 8 and verse 44.

John 8 · chapter mention

We're not going to turn there, but you can write it down and

look, look at that story later. But Jesus said that they

couldn't understand what it was that he was saying because they

were of their father. The devil is talking to

religious leaders here, right? I keep saying you guys, you

religious leaders can't understand what it is that I'm

saying because you're of your father, the devil.

Well, that alone is probably a good reason for them to not like

him and seek to stone him, right?

I could you say anything a little more insulting to the

religious leaders than saying your father's the devil, right?

But that's what he said to them, didn't he?

But the point that he's making is that anyone who's outside of

the salvation of Jesus isn't of God, right?

They're of the Father, the devil.

There's only two families. There's God's family, and then

there's the devil's family. You belong to one or the other.

That's just how it is. There is no other family, just

those two families. God said in Deuteronomy chapter

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

30 and verse 19, He said that I have set before you life and

death, blessing and cursing, but choose life that both you and

your descendants may live. What is he saying here?

Essentially he's saying choose which family you want to live

in. Do you want to choose the family

that's blessing and life, or do you want to choose the family

that's death and cursing, right? And some people, they're a

little thick in the head and they're not really sure.

So God goes on to say, well, choose the family of life.

OK, in case you're not sure, in case you're like, oh, I don't

know. I should probably flip a coin

and and see like choose life. It should be an easy choice,

right? We know John 1010 and the

amplified version, it says the thief comes only to steal, to

kill and to destroy. That's the devil, right?

He comes in order to steal, to kill and destroy.

But Jesus says, I have come that they may have life, may enjoy

life and have it in abundance. God always goes above and

beyond. He doesn't shortchange us,

right? He doesn't just go halfway.

He says when you give, I'll give back to you.

And what does he go on to say? I'll give back to you.

Press down, shaken together and running over, right?

God does everything in abundance.

Well, how come I don't see that in my life?

It's probably because you're limiting him from doing that.

Before he can fill that cup up, you're pulling it away.

That's enough, Lord, right? And how do we do that?

We can do that through our words.

We can do that what we what we believe, right?

We can either go all in with God and have that above and beyond,

right? Anything that we can comprehend

or imagine that pressed down, shaken together and running over

in our life. Or we can choose just to have

1/2 full glass. That's up to us.

He'll give us whatever we allow Him to give us, you know, But

He's standing there with that picture.

Come on. Like, just believe me for that.

Just trust me for that. Just have enough faith for that.

I'm just waiting. Come on, right?

He's waiting on us. He wants to give it to overflow.

But when God adopts you, your former father, the devil, don't

be offended. And his inheritance, sin, death,

and destruction now has no legal claim on you.

You've been adopted, right? You're in God's family now.

The devil now has no legal claim on your life.

Here's some more historical context of adoption in the Roman

Empire. The old life was legally erased.

Under Roman law, adoption meant total discontinuity of the past.

That means that all former debts were canceled.

Isn't that cool, man? I'd like that.

Just in my regular life. Hey, I don't know anything on my

credit card. Yeah, all right.

All prior legal obligations were nullified.

The person's previous identity no longer existed in the law.

What does that mean? This is why the Apostle Paul

repeatedly uses language like old man and new man, the old you

to used to be that no longer exists, been legally wiped out

by the blood of Jesus. Right now you put on the new

man. Read in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Read in Colossians chapter 3. Read in Romans chapter 6.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention Romans 6 · chapter mention

Paul also uses language like you died right in Colossians chapter

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

2. In Colossians chapter 3 he talks

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

about you died with Christ. The old you because you've been

adopted into God's family, a new life.

The old is completely different. When the apostle Paul in Two

Corinthians 517 says that you are a new creation, old things

have passed away right? Because legally, they no longer

exist. You are a new creation.

All things are new. Why?

Because you've been adopted into God's family.

So when the devil tries to bring condemnation to you, tries to

bring up your past, right, he's bringing that up of someone who

no longer exists anymore. Isn't that good news?

You are a new creation. All things have become new

legally. Jesus paid for it with his

blood. That's how serious he was about

this. These are not metaphors of self

improvement, but these are legal descriptions of adoption and the

Roman Empire. The adopted person received full

inheritance rights. An adopted person became a full

heir equal to the biological children.

What does that mean? I'm about ready to blow up up

here. I got angrily, like, so excited.

Like, what does that mean? Like full inheritance, right?

Oh, man, come on. What's an interesting fact is,

is that adoption, like these days is more, you know, like

younger people, children, you know, or, or youth or something

along on those lines. Back in those days, in the Roman

times, it was adults, right? How many of us are adults?

And what's interesting about that is, is you were adopted not

as not as not as children. It's a, it's a little different.

You were adopted into a family because you were taking on that

status of that family, right? You were taking on the

responsibility of that family, the inheritance of that family,

representation of the Father's name in that family, because

you're now a child of that family, right?

Well, you've been adopted into the family of God, who's your

heavenly Father. You take on that status, that

responsibility in the family, the inheritance, the

representation. The apostle Paul says that we

are ambassadors for Christ, right?

We're taking on the representation of our Father

with the adoption, the person that immediately carries the

family name, the family honor, the family authority.

Come on and get this. Adoption was irrevocable.

Roman adoption was permanent. The devil can't take away your

salvation. The devil can't take away your

inheritance. You can give it away right, but

the devil cannot take it away from you.

It is irrevocable. You have a legal right to it by

the blood of Christ. And check this out, a biological

son could be disowned, but an adopted son could not.

So when we look in Scripture and we say, ah, we're just an

adopted child into God's family, you know, You know, when you

understand what adoption into God's family actually means,

that means that God will never, ever discard you.

He can't legally discard you. That's good news.

That's security, right? The Holy Spirit was sent to be

that guarantee. Guarantee that God will never,

ever, ever take away any of this inheritance from you.

Because He's a good father, isn't he?

His will is always what? Good and pleasing and perfect,

right? You, His thoughts towards you

are only ever good and pleasing and perfect.

Are you beginning to see the immensity of what the Apostle

Paul was praying for you and revealing to the Ephesians

church and to all believers here like this is huge.

He's revealing the immensity of God's will for you that you've

been adopted into God's family. And I want to end this morning

with this bombshell found in Romans chapter 8 and verse 17.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If you're a religious person, this may make you a little

angry, but don't be angry at me because this is scripture, all

right? It's in the Bible.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 17 says, And since we are his

Romans 8 · chapter mention

children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ,

we are heirs of God's glory and the new King James Version.

It says that we are joint heirs with Christ in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

2. It's going to go on say and

we're going to get into a couple weeks that that we're seated

together with Christ in heavenly places.

That's because we're joint heirs with Christ.

Well, what does that mean? You know, mate, when we read

that sometimes it may be like, oh, well, that's that's a cool

fact. We're joint heirs with Christ,

right. But when we have an

understanding of what that actually, actually means in

context of what the apostle Paul is revealing here in Ephesians

chapter one, that we've been adopted into God's family, that

we have an inheritance in God through Christ, right?

And that it didn't just stop with the forgiveness of our

sins, right? It encompasses everything in our

lives, every part When Scripture says that by Christ's stripes we

are healed right, What does it mean by that?

I guess he just like, you know, dangling, you know, you ever go

to the zoo and have like a banana?

You have like the the gorilla behind the glass and you just

dangle a dangle a banana in front of the gorilla and he gets

angry right And he like hits the hits the glass and he can't get

that banana. You're just taunting him.

Is that what God is doing to us saying by Christ's stripes that

we're healed. He's just dangling a banana in

front of us, but we can't actually take possession of

that. How cruel is that the kind of

God that you serve? No, when He says that I will

supply all your need according to His riches and glory through

Christ Jesus, what is he saying? He's saying that that's from our

inheritance. He will provide for all of our

need. Why?

Because we are an adopted child of God.

He is our heavenly Father. And what heavenly Father isn't

going to give their children good gifts?

What kind of what kind of father isn't going to provide for their

children? Not a good father, right?

But we serve a good Father whose will for us is only ever good

and pleasing and perfect. Scripture says that all things

He'll work all things to our good.

All things work to the good for those who love them.

Well, do you love God, right? Oh, wow.

OK, well, let's just close our Bibles.

We'll just say right there, maybe I need to do an altar call

this morning. Right?

And pray for all of you. We'll have a laying on the hands

of service here, you know, maybe get some of you saved.

How many of you love God? A few more hands.

Oh, good. I thought I was in the wrong

church this morning. If you love God, Scripture says

that He will turn all things to your good meaning to your

benefit, right? That doesn't mean you're not

going to go through trials and tribulations.

Jesus said himself that we're going to experience trials and

tribulations in this life, right?

But He's going to, if we will walk with him, put our faith and

trust in Him, and continue with him.

He promises us that He's going to turn all those things that

the devil's trying to come into our lives to steal, to kill and

cause destruction, that He's going to turn those things and

work them out towards our good. Hey, man, we serve a good God.

You're adopted children of God. You have an inheritance in

Christ. You have the Spirit of God

living on the inside as a guarantee of that man.

You're in a good position, right?

You're seated in a good position.

And we should be so thankful for everything that God is doing in

our lives, Amen. This is because we sit secure as

His children. That's so amazing.

You look back for some of us, like me, it's a little bit

farther back than than maybe some of you like when you were a

child. But how many cares, How many

burdens did you shoulder when you were little?

You didn't care about anything. You didn't have a have a thought

about anything. Most of us, because we had

parents that took care of us, we didn't have to think about those

things because they thought about those things, right?

When we're a child of God, we have such security.

The Bible says seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and he'll take care of all your need.

He goes. Jesus talks about in that

chapter, you know, look at like the birds of the air, the

flowers of the field, right? If God can take care of those

things, don't you think that he can take care of you?

Don't worry about tomorrow. You know, speak God's word over

tomorrow, pray over tomorrow, but don't worry about it.

Worry never accomplishes anything except a bad night's

sleep, but faith, trust in God, and leaning into your

inheritance, that'll give you a good night's sleep, won't it?

Amen. Well, let's pray.

Dear heavenly Father. Lord, I'm so thankful for what

you've done for all of us, Lord, sending your Son Jesus to die

upon the cross, sending the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our

salvation of our inheritance through him.

Lord, I'm so thankful for what you're doing in each and every

life here. Lord, 2026 is going to be an

amazing, amazing, amazing year for those who put their trust in

you, Lord, for those who put your their faith in you, Father,

'cause you're our a good Father, good and pleasing and perfect,

Lord. And I just thank you, Lord, that

you help us walk out this year in faith and in diligence to

you, Lord, diligent to your word, diligent to to hear your

voice and follow it and be obedient to it.

Lord, I thank you for your goodness in our lives, your

mercy in our lives, your grace in our lives, your favor upon us

that surrounds us like a shield. Lord, Father, I thank you for

your health in our lives. Thank you that you provide all

of our need. Lord, whatever it is that we

have need of, that you provided according to your riches and

glory and that inheritance that you've given us through Christ

Jesus, so thankful for it. Lord, we just give you all the

praise and all the glory and all the honor in Jesus name.

Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this

week. If it was a blessing to you,

share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.