Because, Because, Because Series

Today, I want to talk about how, as Christians, we receive personal blessings from the Lord.

We already have everything we need to be great successes in God’s kingdom, but most of us are rendered incapable of doing such because we do are not aware that we have them!

We have at our command, the entire blessings of the Almighty’s power, and we don’t even know it.

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In America during the Great Depression, there was a man named Yates who ran a sheep farm in Texas.

Times were very hard, and he was quickly going under. Things got so bad that he finally had to go on welfare just to feed his wife and children.

Just about the time he was thinking of packing up and walking off his land, a team of geologists contacted him and told him that they thought oil might be under his property.

They said that if he would give them permission to dig, they would give him a percentage of any oil they found.

Mr. Yates may have been poor but the man was not stupid. He knew he had nothing to lose, and maybe everything to gain, so he gave them the legal permission to dig on his land.

They finally got all set up and began to drill. They went down 500 feet and no oil; 800 feet and no oil; 1000 feet and no oil.

They had decided that they would drill once more and then if they did not find any oil, they would pack up and leave.

The next day, they started drilling, and when they reached 1100 feet, they found the second largest oil reserve in Texas.

Overnight, the family Yates went from being destitute and hungry to being one of the richest families in Texas.

Let me ask you a question.

Before they found the oil, was Mr. Yates sitting on millions of dollars?

Yes he was, but since he did not have any knowledge of it, it did him no good at all.

It’s kind of like having millions in a Swiss bank account, but not knowing the account number to access it.

Have you ever known anyone who was spoiled?

Maybe it was a child whose parents gave him everything he wanted, or maybe it was a young teenage girl whose boyfriend wooed her by buying her the gifts of love that only a teenage boy could buy.

How would you like to have someone like that?

Someone who loved you so much they want to give you everything they have.

Actually, we already have that. That person is God.

God loves us so much that He gives us every blessing He has, but we do not use it because we are not aware that we have them.

Turn with me to the book of EPHESIANS 1:1-7

‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world – to be holy and blameless in His sight.

‘In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons, through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will; to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the One He loves.

‘In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.’

This small passage is packed full of truth, there is so much truth that it is easy to miss each time we read it. Let me quickly share some knowledge with you.

In VERSE 1, Paul says he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. That means that Paul is aware that God has called him to purpose. Paul was chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ.

The verse goes on to say that Paul is writing to the saints in Ephesus, which are the faithful in Jesus Christ.

Now, be aware that Paul is not writing to all of those in Ephesus that go to church regularly,

or those that sit in church wearing their very best clothes with their noses so high in self-adoration it looks like they are looking at the ceiling.

Paul is writing to those who are truly faithful in their hearts to Jesus.

In VERSE 2, Paul wishes then grace and peace in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.