Now community today, the first thing to come to mind when I talk about property is a piece of real estate. But, it also denotes ownership, that it belongs to somebody. The word “property” means: “a thing or things belonging to someone; possessions collectively.” We all know about ownership because we all own something, meaning that something belongs to us; lock, stock and barrel.
When something belongs to us, it becomes something personal to us, and depending on what it is, we take certain measures to protect it. For example, for those of us who own our own home; once we paid for it in full, it became our property. Oh we lived in it for years, paying a mortgage, but it belonged to the bank. Once we paid that last mortgage payment, and the deed was placed in our hands, it became our property.
Parents, our children belong to us. They are God’s gift to us. They are bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. Our blood is running through their veins. In that sense, they are our property. What hurts them hurts us. When they cry, we cry. When they are happy, we rejoice with them. We stand up for them when they are right. When they are young and under us, they look to us for protection and any good parent who truly loves their children will move heaven and earth to protect them. Friends, we protect what is our own.
Even animals will get on the defensive when it comes to their own, their offspring. I’ve seen mothers of animals jump on animals much bigger than them to protect their young. I saw a momma bear jump on and chase a bigger male grizzly that threatened her cubs. They will fight tooth and nail to protect their own. Mess with a rooster’s hens; that rooster will flap his wings and peck you all over your body. Those hens are why the rooster “cockle doodle do!” Don’t mess with those hens … They are his property.
I watch court shows sometimes, and I observe those coming to court, and oftentimes I see neighbors who bring their neighbors to court over issues of property. Folks can get nasty when it comes to property. The Hatfields and McCoys come out in some folk.
Hear me when I say every born-again Christian, washed in the blood of Jesus is his property. He purchased us with his own precious blood. He left heaven’s glory to become one of us and took off his royal robe and put on human flesh (John 1:14). He did it all just for us; for when we were without hope Christ died for us (Romans 5:6). Christians, we are God’s property and we have to understand that if God did all of that. If He gave his own son to redeem us, if God so loved the world that he gave his own begotten son, how much more will God do to protect his own?
I say that because some of us this morning have an inferiority complex. We have allowed the devil to hoodwink us into thinking that God doesn’t care about us and that if God cared about us, he would not allow us to go through what we’re going through. He hoodwinked us into thinking that we are by ourselves and God will do nothing about our situation.
Need I remind you this morning that we are God’s property and if we’ve learned anything, it ought to teach us that we would not be where we are in the Lord right now if it had not been for what we’ve come through. That broken relationship that we come out of, the betrayal and the hurt of it prepared us for the relationship that we are in right now, because now we know how to act. We don’t play hard to get anymore, and we appreciate somebody who treats us like somebody.
We don’t get it that what we went through made us the prayer warriors that we are right now. That’s why now we read our Bible regularly. The praise that we have, the worship that we do now come out of what we’ve come through and what we thought was going to kill us, and who we thought was going to kill didn’t.
Don’t we know that we are God’s property and that God will protect what is his own. God has a line drawn in the sand when it comes to his people, and he dares the devil to cross it! God has placed a chip on our shoulder, and he dares the devil to knock it off!
God told Israel “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called you by your name” (Isaiah 43:1). A singer by the name of Tasha Cobbs Leonard made a song about this when she said, “He knows my name … and I am his own.” It says, “O how he comforts me, O how he talks with me, oh how he walks with me; oh, how he tells me that I am his own.” That’s personal. So, why are we worried about what somebody thinks about us? Why do we even spend time worrying over trivial things and complaining about what the devil is doing?
Tasha Cobbs says, “No fire can burn me, no battle can turn me, no mountain can stop me, cause I’m walking in your victory; because your power is within me, no giant can defeat me, because you hold my hand!”
We are God’s property.