SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: The title of my sermon today is Our Inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And as I studied this idea about this blessing in the Bible, I realized the Bible teaches about blessing being a inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And often we we kind of just skip through some of the wording that's in our Bibles, but this came up so many times I thought I'm going to stop and spend some time talking about this because it's important.
SPEAKER_01: So I got three points.
SPEAKER_01: What is our inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: Who are the heirs?
SPEAKER_01: And what does it all mean?
SPEAKER_01: So the last one is a little more practical.
SPEAKER_01: So during January and February, we we we studied out the book of Genesis, and the sermons were from Genesis, and they weren't very practical.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't the challenge of go do this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of these things will probably have some of those challenges now.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you're ready to go and do some good for God, to be a blessing in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: So what is our inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: And this is a passage that uh that kind of got me down on this uh study in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And uh it are it kind of echoes some of the teachings of Jesus from the Sermon of the Mount when he's teaching a very challenging concept of loving our enemies.
SPEAKER_01: We really need to practice that in day and age.
SPEAKER_01: Loving people that that that we feel like they're not doing right by us or by other people.
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible says, do not repay evil with evil.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it so easy to do that?
SPEAKER_01: You you you you you get me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get back at you.
SPEAKER_01: Or with or insult with insult.
SPEAKER_01: That's 90% of social media.
SPEAKER_01: Paying insult for insult.
SPEAKER_01: And it seems like there's no consequences, but the breakdown of society and relationship is the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: But we says, but instead, he says, but with blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you put this together, do not repay evil or insult only with blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we should repay it.
SPEAKER_01: You insult me, let me bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You do evil to me, let me bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: There's your inheritance, right?
SPEAKER_01: So what is inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody, you guys have a good definition for inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: Oscar, yeah, you you work in the legal realm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you got probably a good one.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_03: So it's just it's something that you that you leave behind in hard your whole life, and you set aside something so that your benefactors will have something to have a good life.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so something that you have benefactors.
SPEAKER_01: He's got the legal language.
SPEAKER_01: Vidag!
SPEAKER_02: I'm thinking in general, if I inherit something, that means I didn't do anything, I just get free passing on from someone else.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, passing on from someone else.
SPEAKER_01: Alicia.
SPEAKER_04: I'm thinking of two things.
SPEAKER_04: You can inherit family genetics, which is DNA, and you can inherit family heirloom, like a treasure piece of furniture or a home, or maybe your dad's classic car.
SPEAKER_01: All right, or a large amount of debt nowadays, right?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people realize, oh, now I owe the bank this much money?
SPEAKER_01: That's why I hear it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, scary place to live in.
SPEAKER_01: Peace of mind.
SPEAKER_01: A peace of mind.
SPEAKER_01: Can you elaborate?
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to hear what you have in mind about that.
SPEAKER_02: I think uh you get peace of mind from that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so when you get an inheritance, that gives you a peace of mind.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have something you you're you have something to fall back on.
SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, John?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I have seen or ear heard the things that God has planned for the subject.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's that's a inheritance from God.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about it more, yes, Jeff.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was gonna say um I can kind of see where the angle kind of also for us are uh a relationship.
SPEAKER_05: Like how inheritance from other people.
unknown: I guess we brought out that we're headed in God's relationship because someone has left someone.
SPEAKER_01: Some someone has left something for us to have, right?
SPEAKER_01: And and and God did that.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Ozzy?
SPEAKER_00: Something that you received we didn't necessarily earn.
SPEAKER_01: Something we received that we didn't earn just because of uh Alicia, you get one more thought to add?
SPEAKER_04: As disciples, one of our biggest inheritance is the right to be with God in heaven.
SPEAKER_04: We haven't received it, but we know it's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we're getting we're getting to that.
SPEAKER_01: What is our inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: That's that's my first point.
SPEAKER_01: It in this passage that we just read, it said it's a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We're inheriting some kind of a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the definition of inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you guys did a really good job with actually explaining this.
SPEAKER_01: Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, there it is, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual.
SPEAKER_01: The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time.
SPEAKER_01: Here's uh here's a word, uh, you know, a word picture of when you search for inheritance, these are some of the other words that come up related to that word, uh, heirloom.
SPEAKER_01: I like that, uh, Alicia, you shared that you know, they this idea of something being passed down by generations and generations.
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
unknown: Is it legal lawyer?
SPEAKER_01: Legal lawyer, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's it has it has a little bit of that legal realm to it.
SPEAKER_01: But uh but we do have an inheritance that we're receiving, according to the Bible, from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Earlier in the same letter, Peter writes this in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 to 5.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you just gotta if you have a paper Bible, you turn a couple pages back and you get to read it.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a phone, you probably need to put 1 Peter again.
SPEAKER_01: You know, push those buttons from the start, but you get there probably still faster.
SPEAKER_01: Praise be to God and to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fate, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: What you know that's how Peter starts out his letter to Christians.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, if you are a follower of Jesus, he says, I've you've got this inheritance, it's kept safe for you.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can touch it, it's not here.
SPEAKER_01: And you you'll you'll you'll get it.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a blessing?
SPEAKER_01: And and it's not money.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes some of us wish it was a little bit of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not property, it's it's not earthly treasures, it's not fame or success or celebrity status, it's not popularity.
SPEAKER_01: Those are some of the things that people chase after.
SPEAKER_01: This is so much more valuable than death.
SPEAKER_01: But the interesting thing about an inheritance is you only inherit when somebody dies.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a death connected to this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, the Bible calls uh the the Bible actually refers to the books of the the two the two divisions of the books of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered why?
SPEAKER_01: You know, the word testament uh is is really not uh in the in the Hebrew Bible very much.
SPEAKER_01: God actually uses the word covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The Hebrew word is berit, but uh you don't have to know that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but he's using that word, but interestingly, when the when uh the the translators translated the Bible to Greek, and then later on, Jesus and his followers, when they wrote the New Testament, they used the Greek word uh diafe, which means testament, a will.
SPEAKER_01: After you know, when somebody dies, before they die, they make a will.
SPEAKER_01: What will happen to their everything that they own after their death.
SPEAKER_01: That's a will.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the definition of testament.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible, testament means a covenant, agreement, a solemn pact between God and humanity, derived from the Latin testamentum and the Greek diafe.
SPEAKER_01: It represents God's binding promises rather than just the last will.
SPEAKER_01: The two divisions, Old Testament and New Testament, signify the old covenant with Israel and the new covenant through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So if you didn't know what the word testament meant, it actually means a death.
SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament, the writers of the New Testament used this word.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they could have used the word that just only meant covenant, but they used the word testament because the significance of the death of Jesus in bringing blessing into our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: So, what is this blessing?
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's uh it's the promise that uh we're gonna have a relationship with God, not just in this world, but for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: One of my friends sent me this video.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he actually interviewed uh uh one of the sisters in his, he's he also leads a small church about the same size as ours.
SPEAKER_01: He interviewed people and asked them the the question: if you could take something to heaven, what would you take?
SPEAKER_01: Good question?
SPEAKER_01: Let's watch the video.
SPEAKER_01: All right, Alejandro.
SPEAKER_01: I need some sound.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, where?
SPEAKER_01: You got it?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let me go back and let's restart this.
SPEAKER_05: If you could take one thing to happen with you, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00: Um, great.
SPEAKER_00: I bring my family.
SPEAKER_04: Hey Ralph, if there was if you were able to take one thing with Debian, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01: You I love that, I love that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, but you know, one of the things if you have this inheritance, wouldn't you want to pass it on to somebody as well?
SPEAKER_01: You can't lose it.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you forfeit it, right?
SPEAKER_01: But you can't lose it, but other people can participate in it as well.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna talk about this other idea of who are the heirs.
SPEAKER_01: What is an heir?
SPEAKER_00: The benefactor who the benefactor.
SPEAKER_00: The beneficiary.
SPEAKER_01: We explain the word with a harder word.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the one who receives the the uh what's in the will of the person who's yeah, the one who receives the inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's an heir.
SPEAKER_01: And and so, you know, you need to know when you read your Bible, this word appears in it again and again.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it like even just the New Testament 40 times.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're we're we're not on our own.
SPEAKER_01: We are in a line of faithful people, and they're passing down a blessing that comes to us now.
SPEAKER_01: So we are heirs.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible explains.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, Jesus had a couple conversations about this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this is uh in Mark chapter 10, uh, we're gonna we're gonna read a little bit of uh from Jesus' life and his teaching on this topic.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, people uh saw this idea of eternal life as something to be inherited.
SPEAKER_01: There's a a man, a rich man, that uh comes to Jesus in Mark chapter 10, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Says, as Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him.
SPEAKER_01: Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: I think he understood that eternal life is not something that you can get for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: This is an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: This was a promise throughout the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, this person comes to Jesus, he kneels before him, he asks the question, and you know, Jesus has a conversation with him about how have you been following what God told you to do?
SPEAKER_01: And the guy goes, I'm good with that.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus has and goes and says, Well, here's here's here's how you actually can inherit the internal life.
SPEAKER_01: Sell what you have and then come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point the guy left, sad.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then Jesus continues the conversation after the departure of this man who decided to forfeit the inheritance at that moment.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what happens to him afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible never tells us the end of the story.
SPEAKER_01: But he keeps the conversation going with the followers that is watching this interaction, and and they they're really impressed by this guy, and it they go, if if he's not gonna get in this inheritance, who will get this inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: How can anybody get this inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a good question?
SPEAKER_01: Here's Jesus' answer.
SPEAKER_01: In the other gospel, in the gospel of Matthew, uh, he explains this answer in Matthew 19, verse 28 to 29.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: At the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Does Jesus answer this man's question?
SPEAKER_01: Loud and clear.
SPEAKER_01: The man doesn't stay around to hear the answer, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01: He leaves because he's not willing to give up things, he's holding on to what he wants to have in this world instead of giving it up so he can receive an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: But when we follow Jesus, we will receive an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: There's another person that asked Jesus the same question, interestingly.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting how both of these persons ask Jesus a question, and they are really not ready to hear the answer.
SPEAKER_01: The other person is actually an expert in the law, somebody who's very familiar with the Old Testament, in Luke chapter 10, verse 25 to 28.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 10, 25 to 28.
SPEAKER_01: Says, on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So he's got his mixed motives.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when we go to God, we go with God with mixed motives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus can handle that.
SPEAKER_01: He probably reveals that when we ask things with mixed motives.
SPEAKER_01: Teacher, he asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: Good question, right?
SPEAKER_01: I like the question.
SPEAKER_01: What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_01: He replied, How do you read it?
SPEAKER_01: You're an expert of the law.
SPEAKER_01: You should have this figured out.
SPEAKER_01: Do you?
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's that's that's pretty much Jesus' answer.
SPEAKER_01: He answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your uh with all your strength, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You have answered correctly, Jesus replied.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, A plus, man.
SPEAKER_01: Great job.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect score.
SPEAKER_01: You've got this.
SPEAKER_01: Do this and you will live.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, not just in this life, but you will live eternally.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's this starts out as a great story, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like, okay, the guy got the answer right.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, love God with everything we have and we love one another.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the next sentence.
SPEAKER_01: But he wanted to justify himself.
SPEAKER_01: So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're all tempted to justify ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We all tempt to split the world into two groups, good and people and bad people.
SPEAKER_01: And where do you want to put yourself?
SPEAKER_01: You don't know, nobody wants to put themselves in the group in the bad people.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: We all want to, we all want to kind of draw the line so we actually are grouped in with the the good people, the right people, the God's people, the the just people, the the ones that are on the right.
SPEAKER_01: Don't we?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So did this guy.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what justifying himself means.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter how you do it and what on what basis you justify yourself, whether that's political, ideological, uh, you know, or just your looks, or not, doesn't matter how.
SPEAKER_01: When you put yourself in a group and others in another group, you're doing this, you're justifying yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And and that God doesn't want to have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER_01: God is not happy when we justify ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: One of the biggest temptations that I've struggled with in my entire life is to justify myself.
SPEAKER_01: And and it doesn't, you know, it doesn't come across very uh blatantly.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not looking down on you, I'm not trying to not justify you, but if you start to criticize me, I'm gonna start to explain why I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: And and that's that's just arrogant and prideful.
SPEAKER_01: I really have to work on this because that comes so naturally, like breeding.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's I've got to tell I I'm sure I'm on the right.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm sure I'm in the right, and I and you need to figure this out because I know, and you're wrong if you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You get that?
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: So I identify with this guy, and I feel challenged by Jesus of not putting myself in the right group before I go to Jesus and really ask my question.
SPEAKER_01: Not to ask my question, to justify myself, not to give an explanation.
SPEAKER_01: So to this guy, when when he says, Who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus responds with the story of the good Samaritan and explains how it was the Samaritan that the Jews hated, that they looked down on, that they completely disagreed with their belief system.
SPEAKER_01: They thought they were worse than dogs.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's how we can look at other people when they are on the wrong and we're in the right.
SPEAKER_01: The Good Samaritan actually helped a Jewish person.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: That's the story.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what that's the story, isn't really something amazing.
SPEAKER_01: The story is amazing and it connects with us because of this distinction.
SPEAKER_01: The person who's supposed to be in the group that's wrong is actually doing something right.
SPEAKER_01: And all the other people that are supposed to be in the group of right, the priest and the Levite, they did wrong by the neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: And the end of the story, Jesus asks, Who was a neighbor to this person?
SPEAKER_01: And the per the the the tax the the the the expert in the Law couldn't get to himself to say the Samaritan, the one who helped him.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he couldn't even say the Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's it just can't put that in his mouth because of some of the prejudice.
SPEAKER_01: Prejudice and self-justification are the same things.
SPEAKER_01: There's another parable that Jesus tells at the end of his ministry, or the in the Gospel of Matthew, it's at the end.
SPEAKER_01: That's about this inheritance again.
SPEAKER_01: When the Son of Man, Matthew 25, verse 31 to 34.
SPEAKER_01: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
SPEAKER_01: All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
SPEAKER_01: He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there is an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And some people will get it.
SPEAKER_01: But that will only be clear on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: That's when Jesus is going to separate things.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the parable of the sheep and the goats is also about, you know, how we how we treat each other.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about that.
SPEAKER_01: Because how we treat each other shows whether we are living, we're really following Jesus or not.
SPEAKER_01: It's not how nicely you can pray, how many worship songs you know, or whether you you listen to Caleb in your in your car, uh, and have a little fish on the back of your bumper.
SPEAKER_01: You know, those things are have a cross in your, you know, as a as a necklace, those things don't matter at all.
SPEAKER_01: At least not to God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they they they might help.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying don't do those things.
SPEAKER_01: They they might be a helpful thing to give you a reminder of doing the things that Jesus calls us to do.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 25, verse 46, the parable of the sheep and the goats finishes with this sentence.
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, feel free to go home and read some of these stories and parables.
SPEAKER_01: The parable, the story with Jesus' conversation with the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10, or the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, or the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew chapter 25.
SPEAKER_01: Then they here's the ending of it.
SPEAKER_01: Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to be righteous?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question.
SPEAKER_01: How can I be righteous in the sight of God?
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to do a short study to finish our thing on the on the on the epistle that Paul wrote to the Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: This is a group of churches in today's Turkey, Asia Minor, that had a major struggle.
SPEAKER_01: A group of Jewish people came into the church and told the people that they need to not only be following Jesus, but they need to be following everything in the Old Testament law as well.
SPEAKER_01: They need to be circumcised, uh, they need to follow the food laws of the Old Testament, and if they don't do that, they cannot be part of God's church.
SPEAKER_01: Now that can you see how that could be a problem?
SPEAKER_01: You know, beware of the Judaizers.
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's that's in short, that's the whole message of Galatians, but we're gonna actually focus on just one aspect of this letter.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have time to study out the whole book of Galatians in chapter 3 that goes back and connects with our study of Genesis and Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 6 through 9.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna talk about this idea of righteousness because being right by God is the way, the path to receive this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Consider Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham, all nations will be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_01: So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the men of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you read this in the English translation, you feel like, oh, I just need to believe in Jesus, I believe in God, I'm all good.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what it actually says.
SPEAKER_01: It means that believing, the word believing, means living in allegiance with God and his commandments and following wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the rich hanglourer wasn't willing to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the the expert in the law who didn't want God to justify him, he wanted to justify himself, wasn't willing to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God is calling us to do, to really trust God and receive the faith, receive the blessing by faith.
SPEAKER_01: You keep reading in chapter verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: All who rely on observing the law are under a curse.
SPEAKER_01: For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of law.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: The law is not based on faith.
SPEAKER_01: On the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we forget that we're not Old Testament Christians.
SPEAKER_01: There are no Old Testament Christians, by the way, just to let you know.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it's so easy to create a religion of certain laws and regulations for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: If I check these boxes, if I do these things, I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: If I don't, if you don't, we usually don't say if I don't, that would take a lot of humility.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't, then you're not.
SPEAKER_01: And we set up our own boxes, we set up our own system and our own religion, some of it maybe based on some of some some some biblic, seemingly biblical ideas.
SPEAKER_01: But where is the faith?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's that's not how it should be.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be righteous, you need to live by faith, and that faith means whatever God tells us, that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: God told Abraham to go and he went.
SPEAKER_01: God told Abraham to sacrifice his son and he was willing to do that.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're talking about, this wholehearted devotion to God.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not about doing this and this and this just because doom, but it's it is it is living by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Keep reading, verse 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_01: Christ redeemed us from the curse.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there this is not just an inheritance, it's also an inheritance of a of a of a because of somebody's death.
SPEAKER_01: This inheritance comes to us through the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Paul is explaining here.
SPEAKER_01: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
SPEAKER_01: For it is written, cursed is everyone who hung on a tree.
SPEAKER_01: He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Jesus died so we can receive this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: We're not receiving this because we did everything that the law said.
SPEAKER_01: And the law is not in effect, anyways, because Jesus came and brought a new covenant to us.
SPEAKER_01: But we we go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse, skipping down to verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Again, when you stop there, you could think, okay, I just need to believe in Jesus, and it's all good.
SPEAKER_01: It says, for all of you who are baptized into Christ, oh wait a second.
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to get baptized?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you do, because that is the method that Jesus brought us.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you participate in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: You want, if you want the death to have an impact in your life, to have an effect, if you want the inheritance, this is how you receive it.
SPEAKER_01: All of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, if you are all, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
SPEAKER_01: So how can you be an heir?
SPEAKER_01: You follow Jesus, you repent and get baptized.
SPEAKER_01: And you do that till the rest of your life, and to keep following Jesus the rest of your life, and then you will receive the inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: It's not very complicated.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it's easy.
SPEAKER_01: Because we put a lot of stumbling block in our way.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to give this blessing to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That's his heart.
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, like the whole story of the Bible, we oftentimes just do our own thing and say no to God.
SPEAKER_01: We want our financial blessings in this world, we want praise and recognition, we want, we want to justify ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever, whatever reason we get, we don't go to God to be justified by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But when we do, it is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Keep reading in Galatians chapter 4, uh, verse 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit who calls out Abba Father.
SPEAKER_01: So you are no longer a slave, but a son.
SPEAKER_01: And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's who inherits in a family?
SPEAKER_01: The children.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So by God adopting us through baptism into his family, that's how we become heirs.
SPEAKER_01: That's how the inheritance comes to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because we're all these great people.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the group that's better than the group that's worse.
SPEAKER_01: Or that's not why we get this.
SPEAKER_01: We get this because we we we become part of God's family.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's land the plane.
SPEAKER_01: What does this all mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, I love this concept of seeing these blessings as an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh the good thing about an inheritance is that that you you you you don't have to work for it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the bad thing is somebody needs to die for it to come to you.
SPEAKER_01: And and and that's hard about Jesus, seeing him having to die on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to we have to we have to come to the foot of the cross to wrestle with that in becoming a Christian before we get baptized.
SPEAKER_01: But when we do that, when we get our hearts connected to the cross of Jesus, when we get grateful for what he did on the cross for us, and we're willing to live for him, something amazing happens.
SPEAKER_01: In the book of Ephesians, Paul actually records a prayer for the Christians, the followers of Jesus in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is this is the Christians mainly.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he tells them, and then he's praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: In verse chapter 1, verse 11 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna read verse 18 and 19 in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: It says, In him we were also chosen.
SPEAKER_01: In him, meaning in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and he's he's talking to people that have clothed themselves with Jesus through baptism, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were first, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: You know why did God adopt us?
SPEAKER_01: So that you and I will be for the praise of his glory, that other people will praise God and glorify God because of how we how we behave here, who we are.
SPEAKER_01: And you were also you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Having believed, you were marked in him with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: He repeats that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: To the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're we've got this, we've got the guarantee.
SPEAKER_01: We the inheritance is waiting for us now.
SPEAKER_01: All we need to do is to be the praise of his glory, be a blessing to other people, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's it, it is.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we've we have given, we have gotten this amazing gift that's kept safe for us.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to worry about your inheritance, just keep being a blessing to other people.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, honestly, even as Christians, we can be very narrow-minded and narrow-sighted.
SPEAKER_01: We can very much easily focus on our lives and our problems.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying we don't have problems.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't?
SPEAKER_01: And some of the problems that that that some of you guys are dealing with, where that's health or or family situations, challenging things, financial, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Man, they're not easy.
SPEAKER_01: But if you are a disciple of Jesus, if you have been baptized, if you are have the Holy Spirit, then you have an amazing inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Even with the problems, you have this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And God's goal is not to fix all your problems in this world.
SPEAKER_01: The inheritance is coming, but not just yet.
SPEAKER_01: Not before we see God face to face.
SPEAKER_01: So God, so Paul is praying that I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the prayer that Paul has for the for the people.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray that prayer for one another.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray for each other.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's pray that we don't only see what our physical eyes see.
SPEAKER_01: We don't only see the problems and the challenges of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promised, you will have trouble in this world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's there's no escaping that.
SPEAKER_01: As long as we live in this world, we live in a world of full of sinful men.
SPEAKER_01: We're some of those sinful men.
SPEAKER_01: We're not the good group, and there's a bad group.
SPEAKER_01: We're human.
SPEAKER_01: We're sinners.
SPEAKER_01: But as we follow Jesus, let us be to the riches.
SPEAKER_01: Let us be for the praise of his glory and focus on the riches of his glorious inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: I've got a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: How rich you feel today.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us don't feel very rich.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we often compare ourselves to somebody who's wealthier than we are.
SPEAKER_01: And when we think about riches, we think about our wallet or our bank account or our our our net worth or you know, our portfolio, whatever it's called.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we think about.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing that Paul's praying for has nothing to do with any of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's your glorious inheritance that makes you rich.
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel it?
SPEAKER_01: Do you walk around feeling, I'm so rich, can I give some of this away?
SPEAKER_01: Can I give some of this to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because I've got I've I'm I'm you know, I've got plenty.
SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the things that people that have a lot of money do, after having more and more money, some of them get really bitter and destroy their relationships, mess up their marriage, uh, antagonize their children.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, money, money can mess things up big time.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know personally, haven't experienced that yet.
SPEAKER_01: But some of them, when maybe after all that happens, they realize they've got all that money so they can do something good with it.
SPEAKER_01: And then they they they they they donate it to charity, they they start projects that will change people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what they say when they do that?
SPEAKER_01: I wish I did this earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Because this they get it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the this is why I was made rich, so that I can help.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you and I, we were made rich.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to see it, and then we can help.
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Oops.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've got this passage to finish with.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, mixed up my slides.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and uh there's a way also where we can disqualify ourselves from this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And and and in the later part of the book of Ephesians, Paul talks about what it looks like if somebody is whole is aware of that inheritance, is holding on to that inheritance, and what it looks like if somebody is ignoring that inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 5, verse 3 to 5, and then 15 and 17.
SPEAKER_01: It says, but among you, and this is this is God's holy people, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Because these are improper for God's holy people.
SPEAKER_01: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a man as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if we if we let the world invade us, we lose our inheritance, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: So he continues later on in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: He says, be very careful then how you live.
SPEAKER_01: Not as unwise, but as wise.
SPEAKER_01: We know better.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: You know what God wants you to do.
SPEAKER_01: You're rich, you have a lot to give away, making the most of every opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Because the days are evil.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord will is.
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about how much we are given, but what do we do with what we have been given?
SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
SPEAKER_01: A few questions and thoughts for discussion.
SPEAKER_01: Have I received this inheritance through faith and baptism?
SPEAKER_01: If yes, do I fully grasp how rich this inheritance is?
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I struggle with that grasping part.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus came back today and separated the righteous from the unrighteous, the sheep from the goat, where would people put where would he put me?
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you need to ask that question, right?
SPEAKER_01: Am I tempted to justify myself?
SPEAKER_01: Or do I fully submit to the Lordship of King Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Do I see that these blessings have been given me to be shared with others who can still inherit this?
SPEAKER_01: These are some of the questions that I thought I'll ask after studying these passages out.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to me.