"Heirs To The Greatest Promise"

(Romans 8:12-25)

INTRODUCTION:

A lawyer hired a detective agency to locate a missing heir, who had just inherited 120 million dollars. The head of the agency told the lawyer, "I've put our best detective on the case. She's young, smart and ambitious. She'll find your missing heir if anyone can."

A few weeks later, the lawyer received a call from the female detective. "Hello, I've got good news, I've found your missing heir."

"That's great," said the lawyer, "where is he?"

"Oh, he's right here, with me at the hotel. We'll see you just as soon as we get back from our honeymoon."

By worldly standards, that detective was smart and ambitious. She wanted to be a part of that inheritance no matter what. But then so did I after reading this passage from Romans. After the magnitude of the offer being made by God through Christ really sank in, I couldn't pass up being a part of the inheritance.

I. HEIRS WITH CHRIST:

A. This is one of my favorite passages. You'll catch me saying that a lot, but this is one of those pivotal passages for my faith. It's filled with power. It's filled with an abundance of hope. And it's one of the greatest promises of the Bible. It's so great; so wonderful; so life changing and empowering that when I first read it, I couldn't believe it. It sounded too good to be true. It sounded like a bait line of some hard sell ad campaign. It sounded too good to be true because no one had ever told me that God felt that way about us.

What am I talking about? Listen to 14-17 again: "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba !Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

That is one of the most powerful passages that has ever been written. It tells us that in the Kingdom of God, there are no orphans and no step-children. Through Christ Jesus, our Savior, we are the children of God. There is no difference between the old timer and the newborn in faith. We are all the same in the eyes of God. We are all Children of God. What glorious news for the despised and lonely, for the cast off and disaffected. What glorious news for those who have always felt separated, alone and a part nothing and no one. We belong. We are a part. Not just of some thing but of some One. And that someone is God.

Shortly after a very young woman gave birth to identical twin boys, she gave them up for adoption. One was adopted by a couple from Spain, and they named the boy Juan. The other went to a family from Egypt. They named him Amal.

Years passed, and the boy from Spain discovered his real mother and with the sanction of his family sent her a picture of himself. The woman was delighted and told to her husband that she wished she also had a photo of her other son.

"Well," he replied, "if you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal." (1)

I'm sorry I just couldn't resist. The punch line is true though, or it should be in the Kingdom of God. We should be able to say, if you've seen one Christian you've seen them all. Because we are called to be like Christ in every way. Through Christ, there is nothing that separates us. And through Christ Jesus, we are each heirs of God's Kingdom.

A Sunday School Superintendent had two new boys in Sunday School. In order to register them she had to ask their ages and birthdays. The bolder of the two boys said, "We're both seven. My birthday is April 8, 1976, and my brother's is April 20, 1976."

"But that's impossible!" answered the Superintendent.

"No, it's not," answered the quieter brother. "One of us is adopted."

Before she could curb her tongue the Superintendent asked. "Which one?" The boys looked at each other and smiled, and the bolder one said to the Superintendent, "We asked Daddy about that once, but he just said he loved us both, and he couldn't remember any more which one was adopted." (2)

Here in Romans Paul writes: "you have received a spirit of adoption . . .we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." In this comparison to adoption, Paul says that by our faith in Christ we become adopted sons and daughters of God. That's not just a throw away line. That's not just filler. Paul chose those words very carefully.

Adoption in Paul's time was very serious business. It was very much a changing of loyalties and accountability. Your father was the ultimate authority in your life, no matter what age you were. According to Roman law, when a person was adopted, in a sense he/she got a new father, a new family and a new life. All his/her debts were canceled. William Barclay in The Daily Study Bible, says he/she was "regarded as a new person entering a new life with which the past had nothing to do." (3) Can you imagine? A new life, a new name, a new start, and complete unconditional acceptance.

As fully adopted and accepted children of God, we share the same inheritance as the only begotten Son of God, Jesus.

B. I can't begin to articulate adequately how that affected me. You see I grew up with two names. My mother divorced my father when I was 9 months old. My real father chose to have nothing to do with me. For the next seventeen years I went by my stepfather's name, I was known to everyone as Billy Faller. I knew I was Billy Strayhorn, that's the name that appeared on my birth certificate and later, on my driver's license but I went by Billy Faller because that's what my Mom and my Step-Dad wanted.

But my Step-Dad never legally adopted me. I really don't know why? I think it was because they couldn't afford it. Consequently, I never really felt like I belonged to him either. I didn't feel like I belonged to anybody. I had two names, I was both but neither. It wasn't even until I enlisted in the Coast Guard that I started using Strayhorn. On that first day of boot camp they started calling roll and called Billy Strayhorn and no one answered. I wondered who that dim bulb was who didn't know his own name. Then I realized I was that dim bulb. I suddenly took on a new identity. However, I was still both but neither.

I struggled with that dual identity until my mid 30's. That's when I realized that neither of those names really mattered. By giving my life to Christ, my identity had totally and completely changed. It was no longer necessary to be either, I was a new creation. I didn't need to feel rejected by a father who never wanted anything to do with me or a stepfather who didn't adopt me, for whatever reason.

These words from Paul grabbed my attention. They jumped off the page and into my heart and soul and gave me new life. Suddenly it sank in. I was and am loved by our Heavenly Father, or "Abba" as Paul says here and as Jesus called God.

Do you know what "Abba" means? "Abba" is a Hebrew word, an honorific which is a term of endearment of a child for a parent. It is most closely translated as "Daddy." For a kid who never felt like he had a real father, all of a sudden I had a very real Heavenly Father I could call "Abba,". I was an heir, a part of the family and a part of the inheritance.

Do you know how much power that has in it? Do you realize or know how freeing that is? Our relationship is not one of uncertainty but of belonging. We are the children of God. To be told that we are loved is one thing. But to be adopted and made joint heirs with the Son of God. Heirs in full. Not just on paper. Not just for appearance' sake. Not just as a token. But heirs with a full share in the inheritance. Heirs with all the rights and privileges and promises. Now, that got my attention.

II. ACCEPT OR REJECT:

A. That inheritance is there for the taking. It's given as a free gift. Offered but not forced. Promised but not pressured. All we have to do is choose whether or not to claim it. God calls us; woos us; begs us with God's gracious love to claim our inheritance as children of God. But the sad truth is we don't have to. We can reject it.

I recently read about a man whose father died leaving him an estate of $400,000. But he refused the inheritance. The trustees of the estate took him to court. The judge ruled that the young man had a legal right to refuse the inheritance. The court order cut him off from all future interest in the estate. The same is true today. We can refuse Christ's offer of the Kingdom of God. We can refuse our inheritance. (4) The choice is ours.

B. We can refuse it or we can claim it. Fred Craddock, is one of the preeminent preachers of our day. He recently retired from teaching preaching at Candler School of Theology, a United Methodist Seminary. Once while lecturing at Yale University, he told of going back one summer to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to take a short vacation with his wife. One night they found a quiet little restaurant where they looked forward to a private meal.

While they were waiting for their meal they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn't come over here." He didn't want the man to intrude on their privacy.

But the man did come by their table. "Where you folks from?" he asked. "Oklahoma." "Splendid state, I hear, although I've never been there. What do you do for a living?"

"I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University." "Oh, so you teach preachers, do you? Well, I've got a story I want to tell you." And with that he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife.

Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly. Oh no, here comes another preacher story. It seems everyone has one.

The man stuck out his hand. "I'm Ben Hooper. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn't married when I was born so I had a hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn't a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and during lunch time because the taunts of my classmates cut so deeply.

"What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through me. They were all wondering just who my real father was.

"When I was about 12 years old a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking at me.

"'Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?'"

"I felt the old weight come on me. It was like a big, black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. "But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition.

"`Wait a minute,' he said, `I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God.'

"With that he slapped me across the rump and said, `Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.'"

The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, "That was the most important single sentence ever said to me." With that he smiled, shook the hands of Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends.

Suddenly, Fred Craddock remembered. On two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected an illegitimate boy to be their governor. His name was Ben Hooper.

The choice is ours: we can reject the inheritance and walk away. Or we can accept it and claim it as our own and let it be the most important words we've ever heard. When we claim it, we are instantly made the children of God and heirs with Christ.

CONCLUSION:

As the children of God, we're called claim our inheritance, to listen to the Spirit as it "bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ." Through that loving relationship we're called and empowered to "hope for what we do not see," and act upon the vision God gives us.

We are heirs to the greatest promise and we have the greatest news to share with a world lost and outcast, alone and lonely. We have found the place of belonging; we've found that intimate relationship with the one who accepts us no matter what our name, who we are, where we are or what we have done. We're called to claim our inheritance and see God's vision.

Let us claim that inheritance today and be a Church on the Move. If you've never claimed God's good news for yourself, then do so today. God loves you and wants you to be a part of the inheritance. Reach out to Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior and claim your inheritance.

This is the Word of the Lord for this Day.

______________________________

1. Blame it on Dave Kellogg on WXTR, Washington D.C., submitted by C. Richard Stone, Kent, Washington

2. by Rev. Steve Burt, United Methodist Church, White River Junction,

Vermont.

3. William Barclay, The Letter To The Romans, The Westminster Press,

Philadelphia, PA., 1975. p 106.

4. Preaching-Vol. 2, #2.