I want what's MINE!

Romans 8:14-17 and Genesis 25:29-33

I remember reading a story a last fall about a man they found wandering the streets in Denver; he was disheveled, lost, walking aimlessly, no sense of direction, not well fed. He ended up getting picked up by the police, who took him to a hospital and it turned out he had amnesia and had been missing for the last couple of months. When they discovered the true identity of this guy, they realized that he was quite different then how he appeared when they found him. He was fairly wealthy, athletically active, a businessman who dressed well and had lots of people; wife, kids, friends, who loved and cared for him.

Yet in the course of the amnesia striking this man, what happened is that he totally lost his identity. He had no idea who he was or where he belonged. And the loss of that caused him to become in just this couple months time, to be living a life with little direction, lack of resources, he was lonely, had no sense of belonging- and in the process he lived life considerably less fully, less abundantly then he did when he knew who he was.

What is identity?
Identity is a big thing for us. It defines so much our sense of belonging, of what we know is ours and what our purposes are.. And our lives are in many ways given its direction to the extent that we know who we are.
What DOES it really mean to be one of God’s children, to be part of God’s family? How does the extent to which we assume that identity affect the day to day living of our lives?

For instance, I am a “Noonan” and the fact that I am a Noonan influences to some degree the decisions I make, priorities I have, the community I belong to. What then does being part of God’s family have in its influence in my life?

To answer that, let’s take a look together at this passage from Romans 8:

Romans 8:14-17
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. [h] And by him we cry, "Abba, [i] Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (TNIV)


In this text Paul is telling us that we who are led by God, we who have faith in Jesus are adopted into this new family of God. That is no small deal, and Paul knew it. In ancient Roman culture the adopted person lost all rights to their old family and immediately gained all the rights of a legitimate child in their new family. They 100% now belonged to this new family and 0% part of their old family. An adopted person also immediately became full heirs to their adopted father’s estate. In an instant, the identity of the adopted person changed.

What Paul is saying in this passage is very fundamental to the way we are to look at things in our own lives as followers of Christ. Its as if a legal transaction spiritually takes place as we come to faith in Christ.. and this transaction defines: Who do we belong to and what is rightfully ours?

And legally, it can all happen in an instant. But to us as individuals, it can be more of a process to receive or believe in a new identity can’t it? We have things working against us that want to hold us back from walking in this new identity; the world wants to resist against us taking on this new identity, and we ourselves may struggle with believing fully, all that is now ours as God’s children.

I was adopted as a baby. At 6 weeks of age my adoptive parents were given this little baby girl and they took her home to raise as their own. And from the perspective of someone who was adopted in this world I can tell you that if we have no real sense of our identity it is difficult to really feel a part of something or to believe in what is rightfully ours.

From as far back as I can remember, I have always known I was adopted . I also often struggled with who I was, what my identity was. In elementary school they did projects like “What is your heritage?” Are you Irish, French, Swedish? and you were supposed to put stars on the countries or color in the countries that your family heritage was from. I never knew who my birth parents were, and thus what my heritage was, so I just colored in the countries of the nationalities my adopted parents were; French, Irish, Hungarian.

I wasn’t like my friends who looked like their parents or their brothers or sisters. I at times felt alone- I had no family members that were by blood, mine, I didn’t know if I had any brothers or sisters- I wondered what did other versions of me look like?

Is that not the same in many ways as it is with us and God??? I didn’t always feel like a Noonan, but I am. We may not always feel we belong to God or we are God’s children, but we are.

Why does this matter? Well I think its key as to how we live our lives in the fullness of all we were created to be and what Jesus died to give us. We need to know who we belong to, what our real identity is and if we believe in it, we will also believe in all that comes with that identity.

Our inheritance that comes with the adoption
Let's look at Romans again:
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (TNIV)
In other words, : If we believe and receive our new identity we will believe and receive our inheritance.
And this inheritance Paul talks to us about; ‘Heirs of God and co heirs with Christ’. its an inheritance that is worth much; there is nothing else like it! It is God’s promises of power. peace, strength, love, the presence of His spirit, the victory over evil, the gift of salvation, the hope and joy of eternal life.

Here is an example of what I mean. Yesterday, my son who is 10 realized that his mom was incredibly stressed that morning. I had a potential job change coming up, some significant decisions to make. I was distracted and impatient and he knew I wasn’t doing ok. For the first time ever, he came over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and prayed for God’s peace and strength for his mom. I was so touched by it- and I wasn’t only touched by the sweet prayers of my 10 year old, I was touched because I was seeing my son walk in who he was as a child of God, and the inheritance that adoption brought him. He knew God’s promises were available and he turned to them when he needed to help his mom. He was dipping into a part of his inheritance as God’s legitimate child.


I don’t know about you, but I guess I see many children of God getting ripped off. And we must be blind and dumb because at the same time I see many seemingly normal people suddenly get abnormally aggressive and demanding, fighting over inheritances that are far less in value ,such as a dead relative’s estate.

When my grandma died a couple years ago, my typically normal loving family and relatives suddenly turned into monsters as all of a sudden there were fights over her estate. Now my grandma didn’t have much. This estate.. her inheritance amounted to bookshelves and bed sheets. Yet fight over it they did, because they all thought they were due it. To this DAY relationships in my extended family are broken over this because people were greedy and fought for what they thought was their inheritance and they valued it so much they were willing to hurt others to claim it.

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Everyday, in loving close families, people take each other to probate courts to have a judge determine how to distribute a dead person’s belongings amongst themselves, and they do that because they want what they think is theirs, and they will fight for it.


But for us who follow Christ. God’s promises to us and our new identity in his family is our inheritance. And our inheritance is what lifts us up from the misery of the world around us and tells us we are more than what the world wants to say we are. We are no longer in bondage Paul says.
Yet I ask you, on a day to day basis, how well do you, how well do I, receive FULLY , or demand that aggressively our inheritance we have in Christ?

What is due us as God’s heirs – is rightfully ours, but we have to receive it, protect it and we have to fight against the world who wants to take it from us. The enemy wants us to believe it’s not ours and our old nature causes us to not always value it like we should.

And all along throughout humanity, we have struggled to really value or believe in and receive our inheritance. We go after the short, instant pleasure instead rather then waiting on the promises. It’s easier to remain in our old nature and lose out then walk towards our new nature and gain.

We see the first example of this in Genesis, in the story of Esau and Jacob;
Genesis 25. 29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished 31 Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."
32 "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"
33 But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Esau SOLD OUT on his birthright, his inheritance, his identity for some instant pleasure because he couldn’t wait for the time when it would rightfully come to him. And he didn’t value it enough to keep it. So he let someone steal it out from under him for some food because he was hungry.

We do not want to miss out by not believing in our real identity and like Esau, we do not want to SELL OUT our inheritance.

So, when I decide to lie about something, I’m stealing from my inheritance, because I am an heir to an estate that gives me the ability to always walk in truth.

When I gossip about someone else, or am selfish, I am selling out because I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to love others as I am deeply loved by God.

If I had sex with someone I’m not married to, I’m selling out my inheritance because my body is a temple of God’s spirit and I am fearfully and wonderfully made, not to be sold out for a quick night of pleasure. I’ve been divorced 7 years, this is not an easy one yet I have grown to know that my inheritance is worth way more then the short term sell out.

If the only time I think of God or spend time with God is on the weekend when I go to church, I am throwing away my birthright that gives me the joy of living all of my life with God.

My prayer is that you not walk around like you have amnesia, but that you will know who you are as God’s child and demand your inheritance. As much as some people fight for the money or bookshelves and bed sheets when someone dies today, we should be demanding all the more our inheritance, our birthright as God’s adopted children.

It’s up to us to realize our identity, what is our inheritance, and value it enough to protect it by making the daily choices to walk as the children of God Jesus Christ died for us to be.

This week:
Prayerfully ask the Lord to show you a piece of your inheritance you maybe selling yourself out on or where you may be walking around aimlessly. Ask God to help you believe it, receive it and treasure it as yours.