Latest / Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX / Our Inheritance of God | Brother Owen Howard | 07-26-2026

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Our Inheritance of God | Brother Owen Howard | 07-26-2026 · Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX

1:10
SPEAKER_01: Before continue to pray for me.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're gonna be bouncing a little bit.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a few things that I want to be able to capture um as we go through and look at God's word.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is a subject that's been on my heart.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we had the pleasure of going to the camp meeting, and um, it's been a long time since I have been able uh to stay at a meeting the whole way through and normally have to travel.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: But being at that church, um, and just I know this sounds a little weird, but just just walking the grounds of that church and the memories that come back to me there, um, brought to mind a very, I think, a very dear subject for me, something that has been stewing.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, as I said before, we're gonna jump a little bit, but this is something I want to be able to capture.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: We're in the 17th chapter, Genesis.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: So we're at the very, very start of the Bible, 17th chapter of Genesis.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Um I think I'll just start reading from the first verse and um bear out some of this context.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: It says, and when Abram was 90 years old and nine, so he's 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me, and be thou perfect.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: Um, 17 and 2, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure for Abraham that must have been quite a statement.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: I mean, 99 years old.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay, 99 years old, and you at this point in your life, you're being told that you are going to be a father of many nations.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: It goes on to say that um um uh his wife Sarah is literally going to have kings and queens, right, from her wounds.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Like this is going to be a massive population of people, right?
3:13
SPEAKER_01: He has Abraham look at the stars of the heaven and he says, Hey, this is what your seed is gonna look like.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: That's got to be not just a humbling experience, but um, if you'll give me a little leeway, I think that must have been kind of hard for him to capture in his mind.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: I want to continue reading it.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna skip though to the eighth verse, and it says, And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham is 99 years old, and he is basically standing in the land of Canaan as we understand it today.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: And he is looking around, and God is saying, Look, I'm gonna multiply your seed abundantly, and this is the land that you're gonna occupy.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: This is the land that I'm gonna give to you.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: Now, I uh for time's sake, I'm gonna move past this, but I want you to imagine just what that must have been like to experience.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: One, obviously, God is speaking to him, but two, you're being told that this land is your land.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Like this land is going to be for your kin.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: All of the seed that comes after you is this is for an everlasting possession.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, something to note here on the 8th verse, when he says that this is for an everlasting possession, he doesn't necessarily mean an eternal possession.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, in what I believe to be in this case, he means a perpetual possession.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: This is something that God is going to give to them as their land, a physical land that they will inherit and that it will be for them perpetually.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, but as you are, I'm sure well aware know that Abraham, of course, he believes God, and there's a lot of great things from there.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and obviously he has a son, Isaac, eventually Jacob, and Jacob has many sons.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna fast forward.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: And their sons ultimately commit a great sin.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: They sell one of their brothers into slavery, and that starts a series of events.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: Um that finally lead many, if not most, if not all, really, the children of Israel, into Egypt.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Right?
5:26
SPEAKER_01: So they get all the way there.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: I want to now skip to Exodus in the second chapter, third chapter, Exodus 3 and 7.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: So fast forwarding through a lot of this, right?
5:39
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember God has made this promise to Abraham that there is a land.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: There is this land that is going to be for you and your family, right?
5:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that Abraham has his doubts, and I'm sure that we do too.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: And anytime God speaks to us, we often come to it with a lot of doubts.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: But I can assure you that when God speaks, he means business.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: You have to remember this has been generations now.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: So we're, I know we've we've we've only skipped probably just a few pages in our Bible, but we've skipped through many, many generations.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: And now we are we are hundreds of years, right, separated from this promise that God has given to Abraham.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God laxes on his promise?
6:25
SPEAKER_00: No.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't lax on the things that he has committed to his people.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't promise things and go, oh man, well, that wasn't really a good thing for me to say.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: That's not something that God does.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't look at the things he promises and then realizes, you know what, I wasn't in my right mind when I promised.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: That's not a good promise for me to keep.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's kind of how we are, but that's not how God is.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't forget the things that he's promised.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: Even when we make ransack of the blessings that he has given us, even when we forget about all the incredible things that he's done for us, even when we do not follow or serve him, he is still faithful to his people.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: And he remembers the promises that he's given to his people.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: Third verse.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, third chapter of Exodus now.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: So like I said, we've got generations in.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: And just to remind you, right, so Joseph gets there, God richly blesses Joseph, even though there are so many trials and tribulations that face Joseph in his time there.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: He eventually finds his way into the second.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh I believe, uh, quote me if I'm wrong, but correct me if I'm wrong, sorry.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: But uh, Joseph finds his way as being the second in command under Pharaoh.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: He goes from being sold into slavery, and within one person, like within just a few years, God has taken Joseph and because, I mean, of so many things, he takes Joseph and he is now second in command over Egypt, the reigning empire of that day, largely.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Just imagine that.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: And of course, here there's a great famine in this land.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, Joseph again, he brings back together there's unity in that family.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: They are blessed in the land of Egypt, right?
8:13
SPEAKER_01: So originally, the children of Israel, they're blessed to be there.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharaoh at that time absolutely bestowed many blessings upon Joseph and his family.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: But as we read, we understand that there was a Pharaoh that uh eventually another pharaoh that comes along that doesn't remember Joseph, as it says.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: That means that he doesn't know him.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: And he sees these people, these children of Israel, multiplying, just as God had promised, multiplying in great abundance.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: And he's threatened by the size of their population.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, I would take that to mean that they've probably far exceeded greater the number of uh Egyptians than there are.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm sorry, there's more Israelites than there are Egyptians.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And so he puts them in bondage.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: And so now that we are we're at a really horrific part of this story of the children of Israel, they are in bondage and they've been in bondage for generations.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: Right?
9:06
SPEAKER_01: This is a people that what it when you read this, you know, you might you might tend to think that, well, they remember what it was like to be under the good Pharaoh and when Joseph was alive, but you have to remember they don't.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: They don't remember that.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Right?
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Those generations of people have long since died.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: And so you fast forward, these people have only known slavery.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: That's the context behind this.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: So when Moses bursts onto the scene and he's there to essentially redeem Israel from the bondage of the Israel, I'm sorry, from the bondage of the Egyptians, we're talking about a people who have been persecuted for so long.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that they know is service and slavery.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: That's that's their life.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Alright, third chapter, seventh verse.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: It says, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Right?
10:03
SPEAKER_01: The Lord had not forgotten his people.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: Even throughout the generations that they cried to him, the generations that have come and gone, he had heard their prayers.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Sort of like when you had called that song.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about that this morning.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: He heard their prayers.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: It says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, right?
10:23
SPEAKER_01: These children of these children of Israel, I wonder, I the I've I've read through this several times, and I don't I don't really see in it where it says that they still remembered this covenant that God gave to Abraham.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: I would imagine that that was something that maybe was originally talked about, but through the generations, I wonder if if that was something that they had begun to lose track of.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: That blessing that God had given to Abraham.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: He says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Remember, these are God's people, which are in Egypt.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: And I have heard their cry by reason of their tasked masters.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: That would be the people, these are the Egyptians that are keeping them in bondage.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: These are the people that are working them in the fields.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: And he says, For I know their sorrows.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: So I read this.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: God hears their cries.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: And he says, And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's God that's doing this.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: And he says, and to bring them up out of that land.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Who's bringing them out of the land?
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Is it Moses?
11:35
SPEAKER_01: No.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: It's still God.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Everything in here is about what God is going to do to these children of Israel.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And it says, to bring them up out of that land unto a good land.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: A good land.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: A land flowing with milk and honey.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Here he is reminding Moses of this same exact land that he had promised to Abraham.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: It's the same promise.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: He has kept his promise and he has remembered them.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: And this time God is not waiting for any other person.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm going to bring them out of the land of Israel, and I'm going to bring them to the land of the Canaanites.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: And this is a land, you might notice it says it's a land flowing with milk and honey.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is ultimately going to be something that Moses is going to share with the elders, which are visually going to be dispersed, this message to all of the all of the children of Israel that are under bondage.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Can you just, I know we can't imagine this because none of us have ever been in servant like like uh you know, any of us have ever been slaves like this.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: But can you just imagine for a minute what that must have been like to be told that you're not going to be a slave anymore?
12:51
SPEAKER_01: And greater than that, you have a land that is yours.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: Right?
12:58
SPEAKER_01: That was to say that you have a land in that day and age, it's kind of still true today, is to say that you have an inheritance.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: You have something that the Father is going to give to you.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: A land that is flowing with milk and honey.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: Recently, uh at the old gas station where we have our shaved eyes, I had the pleasure of going up there, they um they had a bit of a hindrance in the construction of this old gas station.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: They the day one, day one, they go to start to tear down this process, uh, I'm sorry, tear down the old wall.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: It's like old plaster, whatever that is.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, and they go to tear it down, and it is and it is literally just and where there should have been insulation, it is just a beehive.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: It is it is absolutely just nothing but bees.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, one of the workers got chased, bless his heart.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: He's okay.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: Um but when we went when I got there to do some work for the man and I got to look at it, I it was the the beehive was so big on the wall, it was literally flowing with honey.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: It was literally flowing with honey.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it would literally look like water had been just run all down that there was so much honey.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: And I have a question for you.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Right why would there be so much honey?
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Well, you gotta have a lot of bees to have a lot of honey.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: Would you agree with that?
14:27
unknown: Right?
14:27
SPEAKER_01: You gotta have a lot of bees.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: And you know what bees require to make a lot of honey, they're gonna need pollen.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: What God is telling Moses to tell his people is that this is going to be a beautiful land.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: You have to have flowering plants and pollen to be able to have a land flowing, not with a little bit of honey.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: This is a lot of bit of honey.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: This is so much honey that it is flowing with it.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: Honey is a very valuable resource.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: Sugar was not something that was widely available, but still a necessary component of their diets.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: And this is something that's going to be there.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Notice he says it's gonna be flowing with milk.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we know where we get milk from, right?
15:10
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about grazing herds.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what grazing herds require?
15:17
SPEAKER_01: They need a lot of rich vegetation to eat.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: They have to.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: They have to have high-calorie diets that are primarily plants and hay and fields.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: And it has to be in abundance.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: You have to understand that we're not talking about a central Texas where they get a little bit of rain and they get a field right that springs up green and lots of hay, and then they run in, and all of a sudden, you know, the the the cattle completely clear out the hay, and now they have to move that cattle to the next field.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that this land you will occupy, which means you're not having to take your cattle from one field to another, to another.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: My point is, the only fields that could possibly be like that would be fields that are rich with nutrients, that are rich with hay, that are well watered.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: These are, and in that day and age, by the way, that is a very rich land.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: So he's telling these people, not only do have I remembered you, what a powerful message that should have been to them, and I know it was to them.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: Not only are you coming up out of this land, I'm not just bringing you out of this land, I'm not just gonna put you in a desert.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put you in a land that is better, Paul, than anything you could ever fathom.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: A land that you're not gonna have to migrate from one huge area to another and be herdsmen and just constant.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: Like you're gonna be able to take roots.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: That's what that means.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be able to actually take roots in this land.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: And this land is for you and your people.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
16:53
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying here.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: So I can imagine that there may have been some, when they first heard this, they had no concept of what this was.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: This would be beyond anything they could ever have imagined.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: And yet, through the lens of things, and yet through the lens of things, God visits Egypt.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean that in a good way.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: So hang with me.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: So people go through this.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: They go through these trials, they see God's power through these absolute, both terrifying miracles.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: Let's call them that, the plagues of Egypt.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: And those people realize, I'm sure in that moment, man, this God is real.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: This isn't like any of the other gods we've ever seen.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: This is a God that means business, and this God remembers us, and we get all the way until that final night, the night of the Passover, when the firstborn of every, it's not, um, I used to think it was just the firstborn of the Egyptians.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't out, it was actually the firstborn of cows and all manner of different animals.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: So this Passover happens, and you talk about an exclamation point on the power of God, and you talk about a wonderful, beautiful, um, beautiful story that I really don't want to get into on the Passover.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: But my point in all of this is saying they finally get there.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: They go through all of these trials and tribulations, and yet they finally reach their inheritance.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: They finally get there, but not without their trials, right?
18:24
SPEAKER_01: So there is all manner of disbelief and there's all these problems.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: It's so hard for me, by the way, just sidestep.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: It's so hard for me to even imagine disbelief when you literally see the firstborn and you hear the cries of Egypt, right?
18:38
SPEAKER_01: You heard the screams of those mothers and those fathers of those Egyptians.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: You understood what was happening.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine seeing locusts, I can't imagine seeing all of these plagues that happened and still be in disbelief.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, too, I can as well.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: Because I have been shown miracles in my life.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: And I've seen amazing, beautiful things.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: I have I've literally stood on the mountaintops.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: I've seen literal miracles happen, and I just like these children of Israel.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: I am so soon to leave it.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: It's something that just plagues and curses us.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: But aren't you thankful that we are a part of my people, right?
19:18
SPEAKER_01: That God has his people.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: You are God's people.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: And regardless of whatever has ever happened in your life, don't forget that.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: What's been on my mind is this inheritance.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: It's this inheritance, it's these things that we receive from our previous generations.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: And biblical standards and biblical settings, um, inheritance is predominantly going to be a subject that deals with land.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: And we see that right here.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: If any of anything of the point that I want you to gather is this they had an inheritance, Brother Bombie, and it was the land, the physical property of the land of Canaan.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: God gave them this physical place where they could go and dwell and reign.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: And greater than that, he paved their way all the way to there.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
20:09
SPEAKER_01: If you would turn with me to Judges.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna go through the conquest and all of that.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: We want I want to get to Judges, and I want you to just notice some things in here.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: We're in the second chapter of Judges.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: We're in the second chapter of Judges in the book of Judges.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: So they finally arrive.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: If we back up to Joshua, they finally arrive at the at the gates to the land of Canaan, right?
20:39
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna cross into Jordan.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: They cross into Jordan at the city of Gilgal, they resurrect stones, and then God is essentially with them all the way through the conquest of Canaan.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: And so you kind of fast forward through Joshua.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Joshua is a book of just of really triumph of the children of Israel, where they finally are here.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: And so you fast forward, you're we're finally here at a place where they're there.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: This is the moment, brother Bobby, where they finally have reached this land of Canaan.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: It's come to pass.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: It's now in the past tense, if you want to think of it that way.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: They're now there standing in the dirt in the fields that God has promised them, and this is a land flowing with milk or honey.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: Sixth verse.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: And when Joshua had let the people go, um, essentially, context behind that sentence, right?
21:25
SPEAKER_01: So he uh he had expectations that every tribe of the children of Israel were to send warriors to aid in all their battles.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: They're done, they're completed essentially.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: And now he's saying, and when John Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went, every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Right?
21:49
SPEAKER_01: Now we're in the moment.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: Right?
21:52
SPEAKER_01: What a blessing.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: What a great generation to be a part of.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: What a rich inheritance that they have received.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: I would expect, just like I think, when I'm reading this, I do you ever do you ever try to read ahead, like imagine what the next verse might say?
22:09
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I'm expecting the next verse here, right, Sister Pam, to be, man, and they just reigned in the glory of God forever, or something like that, brother.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm expecting it, right?
22:20
SPEAKER_01: It ought to be good news.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they literally defeated everybody.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: They've crossed the Red Sea, they have crossed the Lane of Jordan, and then we arrive here.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: It says, seventh verse, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Amen, right?
22:35
SPEAKER_01: What a great place that we're in now, right?
22:37
SPEAKER_01: So they are finally here and enjoying this inheritance.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, seventh verse, and it says, And all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, right?
22:50
SPEAKER_01: So same generation as Joshua, maybe one generation past, had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: And they buried him, uh buried him, sorry, uh, in the border of his inheritance.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: And the Tim Timnotharis, I think, in the mountain of Ephraim on the northern side of the hill Gaash.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: Tenth verse.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: And also all that generation were gathered into their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think?
23:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they had it.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: They were right there.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: They almost had it.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: One generation later.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: And it says, which knew not, so this generation, this next generation, right, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think that they didn't know the Lord?
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Why?
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God stopped being active in his people?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: No.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: That's not right.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't because God was like, all right, I've helped them get all the way through Canaan.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm good now.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: They've got it done.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: Wipe my brow and sit down.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: Is that what God's attitude?
24:18
SPEAKER_01: No.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: I will submit to you that God never stops visiting his people.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: That's not something that ever happened.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: So why did they not know God?
24:28
SPEAKER_01: I believe it's because they stopped talking about God.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: Because they stopped worshiping God.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: They put things between them and God that never should have happened.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: We go on to read.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: And it says, and for the children of Israel did evil.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Man, we're just a few verses later.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: This is such a terrible thing for me to read.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Because they have forsaken so much of what God has to get.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: Man, okay, this is not a five-minute sermon.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: I've got to get a move on.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: What's been, like I said, pressing on me are our inheritances.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: You see, they had a responsibility to not just keep the inheritance that they received, right, Brother Paul?
25:19
SPEAKER_01: They had a responsibility to pass that inheritance on.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: They had a responsibility to pass it on to the future generations.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: They failed to do that.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: That's why, in my opinion, those future generations, they went way off course.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: They had every opportunity to be successful, and yet they failed at that.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So I think about the inheritances that we have.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Right?
25:55
SPEAKER_01: We also have a cherished land.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: I have received inheritances before.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say something and I don't.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: You pray for me.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't mean this in an ugly or rude way.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: I will probably not receive any land from my biological father.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm I'm not gonna receive much of a physical inheritance from my biological father.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean I haven't received an inheritance.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: I have.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: And it's right here.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: You see, we all, whether you are rich or whether you are poor, every single one of you, every one of you are rich.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you have land.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: And that is the land of Canaan.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: That is the church of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: We have an obligation to serve in this land.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: This is a rich land, Sister Gail.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: God's blessings, are they not like just rivers of milk and honey that feed your soul, that bless you above yourself?
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Does he not fight your battles?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Does he not go ahead of you in all things, just like he did for the children of Israel?
27:30
SPEAKER_01: This land of Canaan wasn't something that was just then, it is also now.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: And we have an inheritance that we have received.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: And for the short period of time that I'm going to be on this earth, I hope to stay in the church of God.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: I hope to continue to worship his name.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: I want my children in the future generations to know him, to feel him.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Right?
27:55
SPEAKER_01: My father did not give me a grand inheritance that's not coming for me.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: But I'm okay with that because my father, and for the obedience that he had for those years, I have received so much from him.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: And I thank him for that.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: Because although he is not responsible, right, for me being regenerated or me being a child of God, when that happened, I knew the name of the Lord.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: I had been reading my Bible, I'd been going to church, I was there, and that is something, what a rich inheritance that I have received.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: That is something beyond me, and that is something that we have to keep.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Not for heaven in immortal glory.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: That's not it, brothers and sisters.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: It's because it's what we do just affects how we live in this life.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: And what we do as we read here has an impact on future generations.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: It is something that deeply matters.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, turn with me into 1 Peter.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: I truly believe that there are inheritance much greater than what physical land or money can ever bring to any person.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I believe that there is far richer things in this life than any material wealth that will absolutely perish.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: I absolutely believe in that.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: It says Peter.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, if you really want to understand the Bible, I heard a minister one time say this.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could remember who to give him credit, but I'm sure he wouldn't want it.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Read the Bible really slow.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: You can find a lot of beautiful things.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember, right, we're talking about inheritance.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Peter starts this letter off by saying his name, Peter.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Peter.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: I find that interesting because this is the same man that denied the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ three times.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: This is the same man that ran from his presence.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: This is the same man that was back and forth in his service.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: But you might notice that now what has Peter done?
30:21
SPEAKER_01: He's put his name on this letter and has sent this letter out as a proclamation to these churches that are scattered throughout Poncha, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethynia.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: Right?
30:33
SPEAKER_01: This is a man who now has a sudden beat of confidence, right?
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think Peter is now suddenly so confident that beyond willing to just simply deny the Lord, he's now like his name is put on this letter.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't beat around the push, he's written his name in the very first word.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: That confidence, Lord, I believe came because he had an experience.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: He says to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Think about that word strangers.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that these people, these strangers, I love the poetry of this.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: Right?
31:17
SPEAKER_01: These are, he's running to a group of people that are in a land that isn't their own land.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, isn't this true for you and I?
31:25
SPEAKER_01: That we are strangers in this world.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: Right?
31:29
SPEAKER_01: You are not home.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: Heaven is your home.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: Right?
31:33
SPEAKER_01: Straight we are strangers in this world.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you and every child of God is a stranger in this world.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: He says, throughout Pontiac, Campadocia, Asia, and Bethynia.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: He says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: Grace be unto you and peace be multiplied.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: You remember it was Peter that I said write this letter, obviously by writing his first name.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: It's the same Peter that now is writing these words to you in boldness and confidence.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
32:27
SPEAKER_01: He saw the resurrected Lord.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: He saw something that is beyond imagination.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Something he was told was going to happen, and it happened the exact way he was told.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: And on the third day, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ defeated death, hell, and the grave, and arose from that.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: And that gave Peter, I believe, a confidence beyond this world.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: A confidence so great he'd be willing to put his name at the very start, regardless of whoever read this letter.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: There's no more fear, there's no more questions in his mind.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: He says, to an inheritance.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: I want you to notice what he says, to an inheritance.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: He says, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: I want to read that again.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: He says, to an inheritance.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: You have an inheritance, brothers and sisters.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: You have an inheritance.
33:32
SPEAKER_01: You have been born again to a living hope.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: What gives you this hope?
33:37
SPEAKER_01: It's the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: That's what gives you this hope.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: Right?
33:44
SPEAKER_01: When you pray to God and He answers, do you understand that He is answering you?
33:49
SPEAKER_01: Because He's alive and well and reigning in heaven.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, I am so happy He writes this.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: He says, You've been begotten again, not understanding any hope, a lively hope.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Why are you begotten again into this lively hope?
34:03
SPEAKER_01: It's because Jesus Christ rose from the dead to an inheritance.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: You'll notice this whole thing.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: He says, to an inheritance.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: He says, incorruptible.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed that who he's writing to are strangers?
34:21
unknown: Right?
34:22
SPEAKER_01: He's writing to people that are scattered, vagabonds, people scattered throughout this whole land that are strangers on this earth.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I resonate with this so much because we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: But he says that you have an inheritance.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you go all the way back to Judges, oh my goodness.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: I did not think that I was gonna run out of time.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: But okay, I'm gonna paraphrase it.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Go read Judges chapter 2, because what it's going to do is summarize everything that it's about to unfold in the land of Canaan.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: It's a huge summary.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: And in that huge summary, he talks about how through their lack of faith, through all of their sinning, right, that their land gets seized on.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: God allows his hand to be removed.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: The way I like to think of it this way is God has his hand of protection over us.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: And we can exhaust God's patience to the extent that he moves that hand of protection from us.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: It's not that God is causing the evil things to happen.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: It's just we can exhaust God's patience.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what they did.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: And they lost this perpetual possession that belonged to them, that God had given them.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: They lost it.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: But you see, this is not a land what Peter's talking about here.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: This is not the land of Canaan he's talking about anymore.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about an inheritance far greater than the land of Canaan.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: It's one that is incorruptible.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: That word incorruptible simply means, simply means it is non-corruptible.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: It's not something that can be lost.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: It is immortal.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: Right?
36:02
SPEAKER_01: The land of Canaan, it can be lost.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: It's something that they did lose at several periods throughout that history.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: He says, by the way, you might notice the, I'm sorry, the English here is so beautiful.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: He says, and uh it's kind of weird English, you might notice.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: You have a comma and then you have and after each comma.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: Normally, when we have a list of things, we have uh commas all the way until we get to the very last thing in the list, and then we include the word and.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: But when you put an and between every comma and the next thing in the list, what it does is it emphasizes that thing.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: Each of those things gets emphasized.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: So when you read this, read it this way, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: It's undefiled.
36:52
SPEAKER_01: What that word defiled there essentially is referring back to, again, this whole verse.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Peter's talking about this land from the vision of the land of Canaan.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: He's saying it's incorruptible, it's not gonna be lost through conquests.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: The Babylonians have nothing that they could ever do to grab this land.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: This isn't a land that is kept by God himself for his people.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about heaven.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: You'll notice he says, to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: Undefiled means it is not going to be plagued by uh paganism, other gods and all these other things that came in through the sin of the Israelites.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: That's not happening to this land.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: This is going to be a beautiful, uncorruptible, undefiled land.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: And I love this last one.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: It says that, and that fadeth not away.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: The word and that fadeth not away, fadeth not away.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: It's one word.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: It's just one word.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: And what that means is this is a poetic reference just back to flowers.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I said about the land of Canaan?
38:00
SPEAKER_01: It has to be a place just booming with flowers to be able to have a land flowing with milk and honey.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful to tell you that we, beyond having a land of Canaan here in this world, that regardless of what happens to us here in this life, whether today is our last day on this earth or whether we're gonna be like Abraham and live 110 years, because Jesus Christ rose from that dead grave, you have a land, Sister Gail.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: There is a land that is uncorruptible.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: It's not going away, it's not gonna perish, it's undefiled.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing in there that's gonna make it salty or unsweetened to you when you see it.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: It is something that is beautiful.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: That's what the end fadeth not away.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be so beautiful when you see it.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: It is a place where God is, it's a place where God reigns, and that is an inheritance that each and every child of grace has a wedding for them some sweet day.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for your kind attention.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: If you um if you've been blessed by anything I've said, please give the praise, the honor, and the glory to Jesus Christ, your Redeemer.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: Um if you feel that feeling of wanting to join this church, don't fight it.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: You come right ahead and you let make.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: Um just let your wishes be made known in any way that you desire.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: We'll wait upon you.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: I love each and every one of you very much.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm very thankful for our visitors.
39:39
SPEAKER_01: We'll stand and sing a hymn.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Um is there a number?
39:45
SPEAKER_01: If not, we'll let's sing number 99 as we close.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: 569.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh, 569?
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that'll be good.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: All right, we'll sing and sing number 569 on the right hand five hundred sixty-nine.