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Psychologists say that we do not realize how much the circumstances into which we are born impact our attitude in almost every area of our life. The circumstances of our natural birth should not have that much influence, but it does because it seems that people tend to dwell on it and whether they realize it or not, they allow it to impact even small every day decisions. I was adopted at birth and I have never even seen my biological parents. My mother and father went out of their way to cause me to view it as a positive in my life. Due to physical problems, my mother could not get pregnant again, and she had been praying and fasting for a baby the natural way when I was "dropped into their lap." She steadfastly views my birth into her family as an answered prayer from God and she taught me all of my life that God worked a miracle so that things could work out as they have. I therefore grew up thinking of my adoption as a very positive thing, one that proved that the hand of God was working in my life from a very early age.

I have discovered since, that I am a rare case and that many adopted children have serious psychological fears and issues. The reason typically is that they view their adoption as a negative and so when anything goes wrong in life or they feel unfulfilled in their direction, the events of their birth become a natural scapegoat for their trouble. They think, well maybe this bad thing may not have happened if I had been with my original parents, etc..., when really bad things happen to good people simply because of life or because of the attitude that a person takes toward their life. Simply put, if you feel that you will be a failure due to something beyond your control, then you probably will. It will probably happen mainly to the fact that you will allow a "victim" mentality to affect your day to day decisions. I decided a long time ago that I had absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances of my birth and because of what happened, I was able to be raised in a God-fearing home that was filled with the Holy Ghost. Instead of thinking about what might have been, I rejoice when I think what would have been had God not intervened! If the circumstances of my birth must affect my life, I made up in my mind a long time ago, I would only let it affect me positively.

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In our text in Acts 22, we read of the story of Paul's first Roman imprisonment. Some trouble making Jews had followed him to Jerusalem and had incited a riot trying to get the Romans to injure or kill Paul. The soldiers came and rescued Paul and then took him into a prison to figure out what to do with him. The chief captain of the Roman legion stationed at Jerusalem decided to whip Paul to warn him against making trouble and then release him. In our text, they were tying Paul's hands and feet to prepare him for this horrible scourging when Paul, almost casually, played his trump card by asking the centurion "is it lawful to beat a Roman citizen who has not been condemned?" This put a quick halt to the beating and the centurion went and quickly brought the chief captain to Paul.

To understand what is going on here, you need to understand that just because a nation was under Roman rule did not mean that everyone in that country or of that culture was a Roman citizen. In fact, the vast majority of the people in that day in Roman lands were NOT Roman citizens. To be a Roman citizen was reserved by only the very distinguished. To be a Roman citizen meant that you were guaranteed to a fair trial. It meant that you could not be punished in any way unless you had been found guilty of a horrible crime. To be a Roman citizen meant that the entire army would fight for your well being if so needed and it meant that you had certain rights about owning land and many other legal matters that ordinary people did not have. Because of all of this, to be a Roman citizen was one of the most prized positions of life. To falsely claim to be a Roman citizen was punishable by death, so for Paul to make such a statement indicated that he was probably telling the truth. The chief captain had been about to beat him because he assumed Paul was just another Jew, but when he found out that he had been about to beat a citizen, he got scared because to treat a Roman citizen such a way without a trial would have meant that he would have lost his job, been whipped himself, and probably lost his life. So the captain came running when he heard this news. I like the Message version of these verses:

There were three ways to get your citizenship as a Roman. 1.) you could do some great and noble deed such as save the emperor's life or be valiant in battle and thus be rewarded with a lifetime citizenship. 2.) you could work and save up enough money and buy your citizenship. This way often took humongous amounts of money, the equivalent of today's millionaires. 3.) you could be born into your citizenship either by being born to parents that were citizens, or by being born in a city that had been granted a "state of citizenship."

When the captain heard that Paul was a citizen, he was amazed that a Jewish man who seemed to have so little belonging and possessions and political power could be a citizen of the Roman state. He looked at Paul and said "I had to pay a great sum of money for my citizenship. How did you become a citizen?" Paul looked at the man who had probably worked his whole life to get to such a state and said "it didn't cost me nothing, I was born into it!" In other words, I may not look like much and be impressive to your eyes and be famous, but I was born into this citizenship so I have every right that you do.

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It was this scripture that "grabbed me" this week. The circumstances of my natural birth have very little to do with who I am right now, because I have been born again. That second birth greatly outweighs the first. When I knelt at an altar and repented of my sins, was baptized in Jesus' name, and arose to a new creature through the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I completed the process that Jesus called in John 3:5 as being "born again." I became a child of the God of glory. I became a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

I'm preaching to some of you who the circumstances of your natural birth, whether you had loving parents or not, whether you were rich or poor, whether you were abused or lonely or not, whether you were a particular social class or race or not, has dictated to you that you must be a certain way. The world views you through such measures just as the captain looked at Paul and assumed certain things about him simply because he was a poor Jew. Most of us in here the world has deemed that we must be a failure and that we must live our life under the curse of the circumstances into which we were born. They look at you in amazement when you believe "I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus." They look at you with wonder when you say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." They are in amazement because they have kicked, clawed, fought, and struggled to pay for the little confidence that they have and it's almost like they are saying: "you're just a jew, how did you get this great confidence and power?" Our answer should be same as Paul's: "it didn't cost me nothing, I was born into it!"

I do not deserve to be able to be more than a conqueror but when I was born into the family of God, it became my legal and spiritual right! The circumstances of my natural birth may show that I am to be another statistic, but that has been overshadowed by a birth that is far greater and that has much more of an impact! You may look at me and my car and my house and my clothes and say "you don't look very rich." But appearances can be very deceiving because my current possessions just hide the fact that I am the son of the Father who has cattle on a thousand hills! My dad promised me that He was going to prepare a place for me! One day I'm going to inherit streets of gold and gates of pearl and walls of jasper! My mode of transportation may not currently be impressive, but long after the finest sport cars and yachts have broken down, I'm going to fly out of here! And the greatest thing is that I did not deserve any of this, but I was born into it! You can struggle to accumulate the things of this world if you want to, but when you die you will leave it all behind. My treasures will be waiting for me in eternity where I'll have forever to enjoy them! I have hope where the world does not. I have strength where the world has weakness. I have God on my side and it did not cost me anything: I was born into it!

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There are certain rights to being a citizen of any country or state. I am a United States citizen because I was born here. But when you are born again, you are born into the citizenship of a much better country. In our other text we read about great warriors of faith such as Noah, Enoch, Abraham, etc... And then verse 13 of Hebrews says:

I want you to realize what the scripture is saying. Everyone of the faithful people in the Old Testament died without ever receiving all the promises of God that they had been assured of. Yet, they trusted God. Abraham never received the Holy Ghost while living, yet he still stayed true to God. He never physically saw his offspring go into the promised land, but he died with his trust in God. These scripture give us the reason that they were able to stay faithful to God in a sinful world: they considered themselves as strangers to this world. They considered themselves citizens of a greater, heavenly country. So while they were walking among the earth, they realized that they were not really apart of the earth but were waiting for the opportunity when they could go to their true home, the heavenly place that God would prepare for them. I want you to realize that when you were born again, you were born into the kingdom of God. You are no longer a real citizen of this world but of the heavenly country that God is preparing for you. You really don't belong to this world any more. You are a citizen of God's city!

Verse 15 says if those folks in the Old Testament would have continued to think about the country that they had left to follow God, they might have returned, but their mind was stayed on a better country that God had given. What are you "mindful" of? What do your thoughts continually focus? Is it on the things of this world and your inheritance as a citizen of earth, or it always upon the heavenly reality? This earth is just a temporary situation, but the better country that God has prepared will be forever! I'm a citizen of a heavenly place!

Even though I have to live among this world, I'm not of the world. I live by different rules. I act according to the rules of my heavenly citizenship. I dress according to the rules of my heavenly citizenship. I live according to the hope of my heavenly citizenship. Call me strange if you want to because I am truly a stranger to this world and I can look forward to a much better place! Eternity will be the vacation of vacations and it did not cost me a dime, I was born into this thing!

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As a citizen of heaven, there are certain rights that I have. The rules of sickness no longer apply as normal. This world spends billions of dollars a year to try to find a cure for cancer or SARS or AIDS or whatever the latest illness to come along and despite all of our knowledge, people still get sick every year! They announced last week that flu shots were available even though the shot doesn't match the particular virus this year. Despite all of our medicines, people still get sick and they will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to get better.

But as a child of God, I find that Jesus paused on His way to Calvary to be beaten so that "by His stripes we were healed." Not we "are healed" but we "were healed." When Peter quoted the prophecy in Isaiah of this verse, he changed the tense of the verb from present to past. In other words, the price of our healing has already been paid for. That's why I can come forward for prayer and I believe that the prayer of faith and the power of the name of Jesus will instantly heal me. That right is for every true believer. It doesn't cost anything and there is no appointment necessary. I did not earn the right for healing, Jesus paid it all for me, and I can have that healing because I was born into it! The same name that was powerful enough to wash away my past sins in water baptism can also wash away any illness of this world. I'm not bound to the rules of sickness of this world, I'm a citizen of another country!

There are other rights that I have as a citizen of heaven:

The kingdom of God is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!" My first birth may have been into a world of sin and imperfection. I may have been born lost and doomed to live such a lifestyle to only bring more pain and suffering, but by the power and inheritance of my new birth, I can live righteously. I can choose to live different than my physical birth demands! I can choose to live godly and holy in this world because I am a citizen of a better place! I can choose to have a happy marriage and a strong family by following God's plan and principles. That choice did not cost me anything. I was born into it by following the plan of Calvary!

Peace is another right that we have by being a citizen of heaven. Even in the worst trials and storms, I can have peace that everything, both good and bad, will turn out for the better in my life because God is involved! Even on the worse day, I can be assured and have the peace that God will not put more on me than I can bear and with every trial and temptation will provide a way of escape. I can rest assured that God knows that I have need of shelter, food, and clothing and that I will never lack or want in those things as a child of God. Even if a powerful enemy has it in for me, I can have peace knowing that even the most powerful person in the world can do nothing to me without the permission of God Almighty who promised that He would fight my battles as long as I am faithful to Him. That's terrific insurance! And you cannot purchase such a policy on earth. You must be born into it! The deductible is faith in God and if I will continue to trust in Him, it doesn't cost me a dime!

I have the right to be happy and have true Godly joy as a citizen of heaven. That doesn't mean that I will not have bad days or have uncomfortable things happen. It simply means that through all things I can still be happy! The only way to have such joy is to put your trust in God and not in things of this world. If you are dependent upon being successful as this world defines it in order to be happy, then you will not have true joy because this world will let you down. If you are dependent upon the faithfulness of others in order to be happy, then you will be extremely miserable because people will let you down. But if you trust in the faithfulness of God for your joy, then you will always have a reason to smile, because God cannot fail! Money cannot buy the true happiness of knowing that everything between you and your Creator is alright! That kind of joy can make a Christian smile when they think about death, because they are finally getting their reward! That kind of joy can make a person smile in the worst of storms because they know that it is just another opportunity to show the world that God is faithful and good to those who trust Him! I have a right to be happy, I was born into it!

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The attitude of those men and women in the 11th chapter of Hebrews illustrate a choice that you and I each have to make. You've been born of this world and you've been born of the heavenly kingdom. You must choose which country of which you will be an active citizen. You must choose to live affected by the past, or you must choose to live affected by the future.

So many born-again Christians tend to live their lives enslaved to the past. They still make choices according to what happened long ago. They have been born into the kingdom of God and they do not realize or take advantage of what that means. How crazy would it have been for Paul to keep his mouth shut and allow the Roman soldiers to beat him to the point of death when to stop it he only had to call upon the power of his citizenship to stop it?! Despite being born a Roman citizen, if Paul would have refused to exercise his rights, he would have been beaten as any other Jew.

It amazes me how many Christians refuse to exercise and call upon the rights that they were born into by being born again. They allow the whip and oppression of sin to have it's way in their life by not allowing the Holy Ghost to change things in their life and to build up some hedges and walls. They allow sickness to run rampant in their bodies without really ever calling in faith upon the name of the Lord and their God-given right as a child of the King. They refuse to pray and fast until they see victory and true happiness even though those things are rights. They refuse to worship God freely in Spirit and in Truth even though those things are freely available to all who are apart of the kingdom of the Spirit. There are too many born-again Christians that grovel and allow themselves to remain bound to things instead of claiming the freedom and liberty that God has already paid for! Too many Christians live in discouragement and under the blows of depression when they have a God-given right to happiness and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's time somebody refused to accept the lie of Satan of what your life has to be like and end like. It's time someone refuse to accept the spirit of depression or bondage to the things of this world! It's not a matter of earning your freedom or trying to figure it out on your own, if you are born again, it has already been paid for. It costs you nothing: you were born into it!

The familiar story of the prodigal son brings more light onto why so many Christians tend to allow areas of bondage and unhappiness to remain in their lives. It is found in Luke 15. {briefly adlib the story of the prodigal son}

I want to point out a few points about the story that you may have never noticed. First, when the younger son went away, he traveled into a "far country." He did not just change towns but he changed citizenships. He ended up, verse 15 tells us, joined with a citizen of that country, feeding pigs. I want you to understand the importance of keeping yourself from the ways of this world. You can be a born-again citizen of the heavenly kingdom of God, but if you choose to leave the protective house of your father and live as the world does, it will not be long before every ounce of joy and happiness and victory that had been your inheritance in Daddy's house is gone and you will find yourself joined with a citizen of this world.

I've known people who were baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost and thus "born again of the water and the Spirit" as Jesus commanded in John 3, and yet despite the great release of debt and forgiveness that they had found and the great joy of knowing that they were right with God, they chose to live in the world and not allow the Word of God and His Spirit to transform every area of their life. They refused to repent of things in their life that went against God's Word and thus even though they were given a great inheritance in Daddy's house, they spent it all trying to survive in this world and trying to live according to the ways of the world. I want to tell you, that if you are born again and yet refuse to exercise your God-given right to have complete freedom from the bondage and sin of this world, you are just as it would of been for Paul to remain silent about his citizenship and be beaten! You can be an overcomer, it's your God-given right that you have been born into. Don't tell me that the pull of the world is greater than God's delivering power. It only seems that way when someone is trying to live in the world despite being born again! When you sell everything out to Jesus Christ and begin to live according to the rules of the heavenly kingdom, then the world has no power over you!

The other point that I want you to notice about the prodigal son's story is that after leaving Daddy's house and going into the pig sty, he felt as if he no longer deserved to be a son. He did not feel worthy really even to return and only did so when he decided, "I'll go and be a servant, maybe then my Father will accept me back."

I think that the principle taught in this story is the main reason why so many born-again Christians live beneath their privileges in God. They have the attitude of a servant despite being a son! Every one of us has messed up and failed God since we were born again, and if we are not careful we will allow the devil to use that to bring condemnation upon us and tell us "you've got to earn your way back to your position with God and maybe through much prayer and fasting, you will get good enough to just have a taste of everything that God has." And while we try to draw closer to God in order to "earn our way back into His graces" we, in our humanity mess up in another area and then even more condemnation comes. Before we realize it we are a son of the Father and yet living in a far away place in a pig sty in the spirit and really what's keeping us there is our preconceived notions in our head that we don't deserve the blessings of God.

But when the prodigal son came back, he found daddy waiting for him and to his surprise he felt the royal robe being slung over his shoulders and the signet ring that represented the right to buy and sell with the entire estate being placed upon his finger and the fatted calf being killed. God was trying to teach us a principle: it's not a matter of deserving or not of His blessings, it's a matter of your right as child of God. The Father was saying, "son you don't deserve such treatment and your actions certainly don't warrant this kind of reception, but because you came back, I want you to know that you get your place of blessing back because you were born into it!"

You can die lost a child of God but only if you allow yourself to listen to the voice inside your head that screams you are not worthy to receive His blessings. If you will get up from your mistake and come running back to Him in repentance and heart, you will find that even though you don't deserve it, you were born into a place of prestige and honor with God! Instead of allowing the past to determine your view of the future, why don't you allow your future to determine your view of the past. You've failed and haven't always had the best of luck. So what!? If you've been born again, then you have a citizenship and a right of which you are not worthy nor ever will be, but it is your right because you were born into it! Don't stay in the pig pen of self-pity or a citizen of this world which is certainly a faraway place from God. Walk back to the Father's house and embrace the freedom and happiness that is rightfully yours. If anyone reminds you of your past and looks at you in astonishment and asks you "what right do you have to be victorious?" What did you do to earn such a right? Then look them square in the eye and say "I didn't earn it, it didn't cost me a dime." "I was born into it!"