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Daniel English
July 11, 2026
Sermon - Pentecost 7
Romans 8:12–17
God, our Father. Christ, our Brother. The Holy Spirit, our Helper.
Each summer our high schoolers go to the area around Asheville, North Carolina in order to do various service projects in the Appalachian region nearby, usually small construction projects. Asheville, North Carolina is also home to one of the largest construction projects. It has a historic landmark known as America’s Largest Home, the Biltmore.[1] The Biltmore is a 250-room house built on an 125,000 acre estate over a six-year period beginning in 1889. George Washington Vanderbilt II assembled a community of craftsmen and spent nearly $6 million to construct the home. 4 floors with a basement, over 10 million pounds of hand-tooled stone, millions of bricks, 1,000 workers, and $6 million dollars. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, $6 million then is like $200 million today.
Where did George Washington Vanderbilt II get all of that money? What does someone have to do to accumulate that kind of wealth? Maybe you recognize the name, “Vanderbilt.” The answer might surprise you. George Vanderbilt didn’t do anything to get his money… anything except for being a part of the right family. George’s grandfather, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt built a steamboat and railroad empire that he passed down to his son, Henry, who continued to grow the family estate. George simply inherited it. He was born into it.
The idea of an inheritance is common in the Bible, too, and when it shows up, it is always about God’s will, and God’s promises, and God’s GIFT… it is never about the righteousness of the recipients of His gifts. Look at Genesis, for example: the LORD promises Abraham an inheritance of land, we call it the Promised Land.[2] And just as God promises, God delivers. He brings the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, sustains them through the wilderness, and gives them their inheritance. Moses warns the Israelites: “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness… Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess [the] land… but that [God] may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers.”[3] God continues to remind His people, to remind us: what we receive from God is not because we are righteous, but because God keeps His promises.
To a Christian, this is clear. How can we have earned any of the good gifts that the Lord has given to us? Which of us hasn’t struggled with doubt, selfishness, hatred, jealousy, anxiety, or fear? Rather than being content with what it is the Lord has given to us, we want what we don’t have. We want a better house or a better job. Or rather than trusting in the Lord to work all things for our good according to His purposes, we are afraid of what the future might hold. If we honestly examine ourselves, there isn’t a single commandment that we haven’t broken… that you haven’t broken… either by the things that you’ve done, or the words that you’ve spoken, or else by your thoughts. We are sinners, all of us. We don’t deserve any inheritance. Lord help us!
And He has! What we could never have done by being good enough, Christ did for us by taking on human flesh and living a perfect life. The punishment that we could never bear, Christ took on Himself at the cross. By our Baptism we are joined to Christ, and we have received the Spirit of God. The same Holy Spirit shows us that we are indeed children of God.
So George Vanderbilt inherits a fortune that Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt built on steamboats and railroads and uses it to build the biggest house in America. That sounds nice, but our inheritance is better. We are God’s children, and according to His will, we are inheritors of the Holy Spirit. It is by this Spirit that we believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and cry out to God our Father, “Forgive us our sins!” And God, our Father, forgives us in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[1] https://www.biltmore.com/our-story/biltmore-history/
[2] Genesis 15:18
[3] Deuteronomy 9:6a, 5