A friend of mine recently took a DNA test with one of the popular testing companies. She ordered the kit, sent in her saliva specimen, and after a few weeks got the results back. She received the shock of her life... her next door neighbor from childhood, a young boy she literally grew up with, is her half brother.

Apparently her father had an extra marital affair with the boy's mother years back, and when she became pregnant, they never revealed the truth about the heredity of the child. They're not sure if the father knew or not. Both parents have since passed away. The shock of the discovery caused problems even now, 40 some years later. At first there was denial, then anger on part of all the siblings, then the decision to either face this truth head on, or tuck it away and deny it.

It's a sad story but each of must go through the same process spiritually. None of us likes to admit it when we discover the identity of our true 'spiritual' family heritage. The spiritual family we're born into is quite a dysfunctional family. The father is a liar, deceiver and a thief. He steals, kills and destroys. He is the father of lies. Worse yet, he deceived our first earthly father, Adam, (Genesis 3:5) and now his sinful nature is passed onto us (or should I say 'into' us) by default when we're born. We are enslaved to this heritage. It's a heritage of spiritual death, with a deficiency so terrible that its relation to us prevents us from ever being spiritually alive to God our Creator, on our own ability.

This truth is difficult to face for many people. The bible says that we are born children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and that we come forth even from the womb 'speaking lies'. (Psalm 58:3) It says we are 'dead in sin.' (Ephesians 2:1). Being a child of the devil or 'Satan', is not something that we are able to detect on our own. Only when the Holy Spirit makes us alive, do we gain sight of this sinful condition. We then run to Christ on the cross, who paid for our sins and freed us from the bondage of our sinful heritage. He then takes us out of the family of lies and moves us to the family of the Truth. We become adopted into a new family, the family of God!

Galatians 4:5-7 says it perfect. It says He redeemed those 'who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.'

Regardless of your past associations and heritage, both spiritually and physiologically, Christ moves you into His family when you're born again and become His disciple.

But we must be sure we've been officially adopted and the transaction has really taken place.

The Jews during Jesus' time swore they were of the right heritage. They thought they knew for certain they were Abraham's descendants. And they were, but just not 'true children'. It's possible to think you're a part of one family, when all along your DNA still says otherwise.

True disciples are saved from the family of Satan, renewed and restored as new creatures in the family of God. In tomorrow's scripture teaching on John 8:37 - 47, Jesus gives us another litmus test. This time to determine our true ancestry. This test is way more important than a physical heritage test. It determines eternal spiritual ancestry along with revealing what family we are currently serving in.

I so look forward to these next few sermons in John chapter 8 as we finish up the chapter and move closer to the second part of the book, which is Jesus' final weeks of ministry.

And as we move to the fourth week of advent, let's allow the 'peace' of God to rule our hearts. Peace is our theme for tomorrow's candle lighting.

How do we let peace reign? Trust Him with all your heart. Literally give Jesus all your cares, anxieties, problems and challenges and trust Him to lead you through each, without worrying about the next step. Trust Him by doing your part then leave the rest in His hands. Simple right? :-))

Click below for the Sermon series on John