Receiving Your Inheritance First Steps of Obedience 1. Did you know that you have an inheritance in Christ if you are a born again believer? Would you like to be able to appropriate your inheritance from the Kingdom of God? a. As evidence of that inheritance, God has implanted in every Christ-follower, a hunger for the supernatural things of God, to see and be a part of His activity upon the earth in changing hearts, and changing lives. We will be discussing that inheritance in more detail in the weeks to come, but today we are going to focus upon the things in our lives that need change in order to bring that inheritance into our possession. b. That inheritance has to do with things that are eternal, lasting and that are supernatural in nature. c. So, do you have that hunger to see the miraculous stop being the exception and start seeing it be the rule of life for your life and for your church? i. Most of us want the supernatural but we want to control it. We like to be in control of things. ii. And we would like for the miraculous to just happen! But the supernatural is most often released through our obedience. iii. We hunger for heaven to break forth in this life, but most of the time it breaks through in this life in response to radical obedience. That obedience is what we are going to look at today and how it is related to obtaining and actualizing our inheritance. d. There is an order to being able to appropriate and activate the power and gifting that God has in store for us as a part of our inheritance in Christ. i. I would like each of us to look at a passage in Luke 16:10-13. This passage comes out of a larger section in which Jesus is speaking of stewardship. ii. "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? Luke 16:10-13 (read twice?) iii. Most of us who have read this passage in Luke have gotten the message of verse 10 that faithfulness in little things leads to bigger things to which we will be entrusted. This is fundamental to our journey as followers of Jesus. It is the next two verses that are often overlooked that I would like us to pay attention to today. 1. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth (unrighteous mammon, or unrighteous money), who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else s property, who will give you property (what is your own, what will belong to you for all eternity)? 2. Jesus is connecting two concepts one in which we, who are His disciples, are evaluated in stewarding things that aren t our own to the reception of our Kingdom inheritance. (we are not talking about salvation here, we are talking about prosperity of our soul, things that are our inheritance in Christ). a. Joy, peace, spiritual gifts, favor, wisdom = (true riches) 3. In other words, our faithfulness in handling what belongs to God is the examination we must pass in order to actualize and receive the things that are ours spiritually and permanently.
4. We are being tested in response to what God has placed into our care: time, talents, treasure. (mammon= is a personality, also a spirit ) 5. The initial test for the release of supernatural blessing in our lives is based upon the way we handle money. 2. Each one of us before we placed our faith in Jesus were in a different Kingdom a kingdom ruled by Satan. It was the kingdom of darkness. It was the kingdom of this world. It dominated and controlled our lives. But when we placed our faith in Christ, we were transferred out of the kingdom of darkness, Satan s kingdom, and placed into the Kingdom of God. We, according to the scripture, were bought with price. (1 Cor 6:19-20) You are not your own; you were bought at a price. a. As slaves to God, everything we have and are belongs to God. We own nothing. We left it all behind when we became Christ followers. Right? Sometimes I wonder, because we act as if what we have is ours and we are bringing it all along with us. b. So your income, your home, your car, your job, your family, your kids, your life is not your own. It belongs to God. In fact, the bible tells us that the cattle on 1000 hills are His and that the earth is His. God doesn t need your money, but what He wants is your heart! Yet our hearts are very attached to our finances and their control; so it isn t surprising that many Christians struggle with surrendering control of their finances to God. i. Each of us is no longer a citizen of this world, our worldly citizenship was taken away and we were super-naturalized as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We represent the Kingdom of God, we are ambassadors for Christ in all of our actions and words. We don t live for this world any longer, we don t live for what it has to offer, we live for heaven and for God. Right? ii. c. God says we have nothing of our own, and in order to obtain that which IS our own by inheritance, we must prove ourselves faithful in stewarding that which is not our own (what belongs to God) in order to be able to possess, receive, actualize that which belongs to us. i. Ephesians 1:18 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 ) d. While I m not a proponent of the health and wealth gospel I do believe that for the child of God, that there is an inheritance of provision and health that is not there for the non-christian. When I say provision, we aren t talking about riches to spend on ourselves, but rather supernatural provision to do God s will. 3. You may say, well, I m no longer a slave, I m a child of God. That is true. a. Gal. 4:1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers b. The Greek word for child is Teknon, which describes a legal heir, a child, but who has no more rights than a slave until he grows up. Folks, there are a lot of us here who are still living like slaves, not because we are slaves, but because we have not matured sufficiently in obedience to claim our rights as sons and daughters. What I am going to be describing in this sermon is related to that growing up so that we can begin to live as sons instead of slaves. We are
tested by God to see if we can be faithful in managing stuff that belongs to Him before He will entrust us with that which is ours (our inheritance). Do you get that? 4. So exactly what is Jesus talking about when we hear that we are to be faithful in managing what is not our own? The most glaring example of this is found in Malachi 3:8-11. a. "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. i. In case you are worried that I am preaching on giving your tithe because I want to make my salary secure, think again. God is the One who provides for me. 1. My interest in preaching this message is to enable each of us to appropriate the blessings, the inheritance, the true riches that belong to us. And I apologize for not having preached this message sooner in my ministry, because in not doing so, I may have kept you from unlocking your spiritual belongings or from achieving the maturity to which God has called you. ii. Since our money is not our own but God s, He tells us that the first 10% of what we make belongs to Him. This is not the Mosaic Law- we cannot discard this because it was written in the Old Testament and say we are under grace now. No, the tithe was established long before Moses, 400 years before as Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizadeck, priest of God, and a prefigurement of Christ Himself. The tithe is for all time and for all believers. iii. God says that the first 10% is His. (It isn t discretionary, the 10% is His for His temple (the church). If you have gifts above your tithe to give, you can give it wherever you wish. But if we refuse to give it to Him (in the place where we are fed in the time of Malachi, that was the Temple) we are said to be robbing God. 1. It is ironic, that if one of our brothers or sisters in Christ were robbing banks, we would probably turn them in; but we never say anything when they rob God! 2. God tells His people to give the full 10%. 10% does not mean 2% or 5%. It means 10 percent of what He has given to us. And bring it into the storehouse so there might be food in it. Food spiritual food for the hungry. Sustenance. 3. And God also tells us in this only place in the bible to test me now in this! "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. a. Test Him! Wow. He has used this as a test for us as well. Do we trust Him enough to believe He will do what He says He will do? b. You might say, if I tithe I won t have enough for my bills. c. Did you hear the promise, I will prevent pests from devouring When we don t obey God in the tithe, we become legal targets for the devourer. And the devourer doesn t stop at 10%. How many of us have had the
devourer eat our stuff up? The washer breaks, the car breaks, the bills stack up. God is more than capable of preventing those things from happening as well, and He does so in response to our obedience. d. I have had plenty of experience with people who give the excuse that they can t tithe. Yet I see they always have enough money to go out to eat, go to social events, buy new vehicles or furnishings! 4. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? a. Tithing is the kindergarten class we take to learn obedience and blessing. b. Obedience is required to gain access to our inheritance. i. Imagine what would happen if God gave us our true riches, our full inheritance without regard to maturity and character? ii. We would be no different than the prodigal son who wasted it on himself. We would use our spiritual gifts to bring ourselves comfort instead of using them for God s glory. We would be using the things God has given us for our own pleasure instead of for eternal purposes. c. Joke about tithing $1 wk, 10$, 50, 500, 1000, 5k, and now wants to stop. We can kneel down and ask God to shrink your income back to where you only need to give 1$ 5. Let me show you that you cannot take what is God s and expect to get away with it. It isn t possible to take from God what is His. He will collect it. a. In Daniel 9:24 the prophet tells Israel that they will spend 70 years in Babylonian exile. You might wonder why God picked 70 years. When Israel entered the land, they were instructed to let the land rest every 7 th year, as a Sabbath for the land. In other words, the land belonged to God and the Sabbath was to be honored one year of seven. They ignored His instructions for 490 years. And so, 490/7 =70 years God collected His Sabbath rest for the land. b. You can t cheat God. Wouldn t it be far better to be blessed for obeying instead? 6. Unrighteous money: Take a 20: it has been probably used to buy food, clothing, drugs (cocaine), prostitutes, pornography, and maybe even someone s rent. But it is from the Kingdom of this world: darkness, Satan. a. But I get to do something really amazing. I get to give it to God and when I place it in the offering plate, I get to take what the enemy means for evil use and use it to tear down the kingdom of darkness! God sanctifies it and makes it work for His kingdom. For the salvation of souls! + 7. There are many applications of this message, but the most important thing for you and me is to learn obedience in the areas of what we steward (time, talents, treasure). If you are holding back from God, see what happens when you surrender it to Him? a. Do you wonder why you aren t experiencing the blessings of your inheritance? Get through kindergarten. Learn obedience. There is no unleashing of your inheritance without obedience.
b. I have seen the supernatural work through people who have obeyed in this area. If you wonder why others can have the blessings of inheritance of God s gifts and you don t? Perhaps you haven t been through kindergarten. c. Take your purse, your wallet and hold it up. Pray a prayer of dedication. If your heart is in this, then I encourage you to do so. i. Some of you this is brand new you thought you were giving God a pretty good gift by just showing up on Sunday, and now the pastor is talking about giving over that which you depend upon for your life (mammon/money). You feel a bit nervous. Know I don t want your money. I want us together to be with you surrendered, shoulder to shoulder, in unity, united in purpose of seeing our lives in obedicnce so we can witness and be a part of the miraculous that God desires to release in our lives together. ii. Father, its not much. We confess you own it all. Its all yours. We pray that we will work in obedience in this area of our lives so we can see your blessing released. 1. I don t want a show of hands, but I do want you to covenant with God, to align yourself in obedience in the things that belong to Him to be in alignment with His will. Make your commitmenet to Him. Make the confession of faith in obedience. Today, Amen..