“Take hold of your Spiritual Blessing!”
Delivered 25 January 2009
Associate Pastor Allan H. Kircher
Ephesians 1:3-6, “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.4for he shoes us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
I want you to see that nothing has been held back. God has already-- not gradually and not at some future date--but ‘has’ blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
Not some, and not to some lesser degree that will increase as we grow more spiritually mature.
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
Some scholars claim this letter was written in an attempt to set out some of the greatest truths for which the early Christians stood for in their belief.
Paul spent his life teaching Gentiles that they could be Christians without becoming Jewish converts.
Paul says in his letter, we are all one, come together for the unity of Christ Jesus. Can you imagine the difficult job Paul had to do?
It is God who brings about the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile in the church. It is God who brings restoration to our families and it is God who repairs us individually each day.
To Paul this is a great big deal. For in God there is room, not only for men of widely different races, viewpoints and prejudices, but also that God has the power to solve all the problems of mankind.
To Paul this is a great big deal, to bring into the unity and harmony with God, not only all earthly social and family life, but all the myriads of beings in the infinite unseen universe.
This is why he wrote this, Paul had the spiritual blessings of Christ, the same spiritual blessing we all have in Christ Jesus.
This is amazing when you stop and remember who Paul actually was when we first met him in the pages of the Bible.
He was named Saul and was an antagonist to the Church of Jesus Christ.
His life is an amazing example of the power of God’s grace to change even the most aggressive foe of the gospel.
Paul wrote this from prison in Rome near the end of his life.
This is one of the four “Prison Epistles” and it was written in 60 A D, the others being Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. Paul spent three years in Ephesus. A simple bearer or messenger named Tychicus “tick-a-tis” circulated the letter throughout Ephesus and neighboring cities.
Paul expresses the importance of Christian growth in knowledge in this letter.
The circulation of the Ephesians letter tells us today of the strong emphasis on the divine action in bringing salvation. It has changed none!
We read today of the word of God and share the same eternal glory as the Gentile and the Jew did so long ago.
A mere 30 years after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Ephesians letter was written. And it is as fresh today as it was then.
It expresses to us today as Christians that only faithful believers have life “in Christ Jesus.”
As a matter of fact the terms “in Christ Jesus,” “in the Lord,” “in him,” etc occur 160 times in Paul’s writings and 36 times in Ephesians.
Right now in our state of mind as believers, we now live and act in the realm of Christ Jesus and we are spiritually blessed.
If we are living In Christ, we have conscious communion with our Lord and in this relationship our very lives are seen as the life of Christ living in us.
Galatians 2:20 tells me as a believer, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
This personal relationship with Christ is the most important thing in Christian experience.
You see, we cannot go any further in our walk if we are not in Christ Jesus.
Union with Christ comes as a gift of God through faith.
The Bible contrasts our new life “in Christ” with our old regenerated life “in Adam.”
Whereas the old life is characterized by disobedience, sin, condemnation and death, our new life “in Christ” is characterized by salvation, life in the Spirit, abundant grace, righteousness and eternal life.
How many times in our life have we done things that were displeasing to God?
Things that seem to get us down in the depths of guilt and embarrassment when we attempt to come before a Heavenly Father with our sin.
Those things can be as extreme as unfaithfulness, alcohol, drugs, or covetous activities.
Covetousness is simply anything that takes you away from your living God.
Those things can be as simple as not reading God’s word as we should. How do we expect to grow in salvation without guidance?
How do we expect to reap the spiritual blessings of Christ Jesus if we don’t yearn for Him with hunger and thirst?
God’s word instructs us in every situation, every occasion, every trial and every temptation.
We have no means to fail but in our own free will. There is no failure in Christ Jesus.
Verse 3, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The first thing we must understand is that God has opened up the resources
of His kingdom to equip us.
Through salvation Christ paid the price for us to have a bottomless cup of the fullness of God.
And the great thing is we can keep coming back and getting a refill. This is our baseline…this is where we begin, it is a promise of God.
Look closer at this jewel of a verse. It is not that He will bless us. He has blessed us. It’s a done deal. And what has He blessed us with? He has not just given us a blessing; he has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. It is not just a promise, its reality.
WE CAN KNOW THE EXTENT OF GOD’S BLESSING IN OUR LIFE
God has provided everything we need to live a success and glorious Christian life as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in and out of us.
God’s Promised Land for us is immeasurably rich. You are immensely rich in Christ.
You have hidden treasures in Christ ready for you to use.
Do you need peace? Christ is peace.
John14:27 says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Do you need contentment? That blessing can be found in Jesus.
Jesus said to them ‘I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me with never thirst’. John6:35
Do you need spiritual power? That blessing is found in Jesus.
‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’ Mat 28:18
‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ Phil 4:3
Do you need wisdom? That blessing can be found in Jesus.
‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him’ James 1:5
Do you need Healing? That blessing can be found in Jesus.
‘I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth’
Jeremiah 33:6
Do you need victory over a situation in your life? God blesses us when he says
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39
Paul declares from experience ‘you are complete in Him (Christ) Col 2.10
Do you think for one moment that God would short change his own Son?
Remember our position; we are in Christ.
There is no spiritual blessing that is not mine in Christ Jesus because Jesus dwells in my heart by the Holy Spirit.
There is not a need that God cannot and will not meet.
‘My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’
Phil 4:19
People of the world today are always uptight about money and having their needs met. In fact, they spend all their time and energy in pursuit of security.
The believer in Jesus is to live a life free from fear of lack of finances or any other thing. God has promised in His Word that He will take care of our needs through His infinite resources.
Unlimited Spiritual Blessings (3) Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
What are some reasons we should speak well of God?
Because our blessing is SECURE! It is a done deal! You don’t need anything more than what you already have in your relationship with Christ.
Because our blessing is SUFFICIENT! EVERY Spiritual blessing is ours already.
I’m talking SPIRITUAL blessings and not material and financial health and wealth things.
Those may come as God blesses us but we have already in the bank all we need in a spiritual sense.
You see, there will be believers that look around at the Great Temple and all the riches, art treasures, and all the earthly benefits of a life of compromise and they will not secure the blessings set forth from God.
Imagine a dying man to whom the doctor offers the only medicine to cure him. The only remedy for his condition.
‘If you take this medicine it will heal you’.
The man looks at the doctor and simply says, ‘I don’t believe you!’
Now the man dies and the doctor’s report states that he died of a certain disease but actually his death came because he refused to take the remedy and the disease took its course.
We all have the disease of sin and the wages of sin is death. God offers us His remedy which is through the person of Christ.
We can refuse it and what could have saved us on earth will forever remain in heavenly places.
Ephesians tells us that the Spiritual blessings from God are a seal. The Holy Spirit is given to believers as God’s mark of ownership.
By bestowing the Spirit, God marks us as his own.
Gal 5:16-17 also tells me, “So I say live by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature, for the sinful nature is in contrast with the Spirit and the Spirit is in conflict with the sinful nature.
By studying God’s word we see that it says do not gratify the desires of that sinful heart that we have.
We must override the sinful nature and let God take care of our needs and reap the spiritual blessings He has set forth.
The seal of the spiritual blessings will run:
Alcoholism out of your blood.
Anger out of your mind.
Suicide right out of your room
Depression out of your spirit
Low self-esteem out of your presence
The seal of the spiritual blessings is so strong that the prophet Isaiah said in 54:17
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.
The anointing will have you:
• Kill Goliaths in your life
• Run through your enemy as if he wasn’t there.
• Leap over walls that seemed unreachable for you to climb
Because we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are under God’s direction and guidance. We are sealed with the Spiritual blessings of God.
He Chose Us in Christ v 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.
How many remember those brutal playground games where you two captains got to pick sides.
What was the biggest fear? That you would be picked last! Listen. Christ has chosen you.
He has chosen each one hear this morning. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is where we all begin.
We are all chosen in Christ to bear his name if we so choose.
“When you have nothing left but God, you become aware that He is enough”
Humble yourselves before the Living God and let go and let God.
Now, if you do not know this truth, you will never appreciate it. In Christ we have sufficiency, because we have every spiritual blessing in Christ.
And so we must learn to rely on our resources in Christ. In Christ, we are rich. The riches of Christ have already been deposited into your account. We must now begin to draw upon those riches.
Unfortunately our minds cannot comprehend the things of divine nature.
I can’t even understand the tax code, or electricity, or how that little picture go through the air from far away and ends up on my TV screen, how you can make a wireless phone call.
How am I to understand the things of God?
What we can understand is to know God simply loves us. God chose us before our lives were ever lived
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world.
I was chosen before I ever lived one day, before Adam and Eve ever lived one day. BEFORE I EVER COMMITTED ONE SIN.
Now God didn’t look down on me and say, ‘What a great person’ and then choose me. I had not even lived yet.
God made a choice before the world began which was inclusive of me and of others.
You see God’s foreknowledge understood that man would use free choice and fall into sin and that Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world was God’s choice to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.
God’s plan allows us to stand before Him in spite of the sins our life consisted of and be HOLY AND BLAMELESS as RECIPIENTS OF HIS LOVE.
Not standing guilty and under His wrath
Some day I will stand in His presence and be positioned in the righteousness of Jesus Christ in Whom there is no condemnation and will not sense His anger for my sins but will enjoy the full force of His love because of His Wonderful Plan and the seal of the Holy Spirit.
Spirit filled believers need to see themselves as empowered equipped and enabled by the power of their resident Holy Spirit.
We gain our identity from who we are in Christ, through the educating abilities of the Holy Spirit.
He sanctifies us, teaches us and comforts us with His all sufficient grace. (2 Cor. 12:9,10)
God loves you and has sealed His Spiritual Blessings upon you. Now it’s your turn.
It was God’s Pleasure to Adopt us as Sons
Look at verse 5 He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Now we could get into a heated discussion here concerning predestination.
Does man have the choice as to whether or not he turns his heart to God.
I believe when we look at scripture as a hole we see overwhelmingly that man does have this free choice…although it is God’s desire that all repent and turn their hearts to Him.
Specifically what I want to look at is the word adoption.
Our text says that it was His pleasure to Adopt us.
By doing that he has now brought us into His family and called us Sons…He has changed our name.
We are sealed with the love of God. It is our choice to break that seal and fall in temptation.
God has already supplied you with everything you need.
You know you really belong to God when the Spirit regenerates and renews you.
When the Holy Spirit delivers you from the power of sin.
When the Holy Spirit gives you a consciousness of God as your Father.
When the Holy Spirit fills you with power to witness for Him.
You see, the Holy Spirit is a “deposit” a Spiritual Blessing. The first installment or down payment, guaranteeing our inheritance.
What have you given back to God for Him giving you a life of eternity? Are you utilizing that Spirit within you?
If you continue to do the same old things in your walk that you did six months ago, is the Spirit of God really evident in your heart?
Can you see in this day and age the Holy Spirit is given to believers as a down payment of what we are going to have in greater fullness in the future?
Your greater fullness is the second after you accept Jesus Christ into your life. This is exactly what Paul is telling the Ephesians from his jail cell. You are sealed.
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians reflects God’s highest desire for every believer in Christ.
Paul prays that the Spirit might work in them in greater measure. What does this mean in greater measure?
Let us look at ourselves in the mirror. How many Christians are walking around today that we do not know they are Christians or if we do know their Christians we wonder how can act the way they act?
The Spirit of God should work in you in a greater measure as you grow in your salvation.
If it is not seen by others in your actions let us pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.
You see, when the eyes of your heart see the riches of his glory, you will experience a more abundant power of the Holy Spirit in your life. ….period…. and it will be seen.
It will be seen by your co-workers, your wife, your children, and even by those who you do not know. The drive thru cashier, the people you pass by in the store because you greet them in love.
It is evident because God is mighty and powerful
Here’s what Ephesians is about.
Paul gives a long list of blessings which are our in Christ in the book of Ephesians and encourages us to walk in them and not live in the poverty of this world.
Paul knew of Christ’s riches and His life was the ultimate example of sacrifice.
Paul knew who he was in God’s plan.
The problem most believers have is that they don’t know who they are in God’s plan.
The problem is most believers don’t know how they fit into all that God is doing in the world.
They go through the motions of church life but never really live out any calling in their lives.
Who are you by the will of God? That is one of the most important questions we must answer in life.
God does not hide His will but makes it freely known to a surrendered heart.
Paul knew what was real and what wasn’t. He knew what counted for eternity and what would rot on earth.
Conclusion
What a powerful statement! We are valuable, We have sufficiency and We have security.
If you don’t believe in God’s message today you will not receive the benefits that God had promised us.
Or probably you will not even try. But if you live based upon who God says you are, then you can hold your head up high. You are blessed because Christ lives in you.
We valuable, we have sufficiency, and we have security if we are in Christ!
Christians, none of us has been through worse hardships than Paul went through, and certainly not for the sake of ministry.
I am aware of, and I would never minimize the suffering and the troubles that most of us have experienced in our years, and I am happy to be able to point the one who hurts to the great Physician for healing, to the Comforter for counsel, to the Champion of our faith for deliverance.
But I will also pray that the Lord open the eyes of your understanding, and give you grace, that you may, no matter how deep the wounds, no matter how dark the pit, no matter how insurmountable the hedge of circumstances around you may seem, be able to shout with the Apostle Paul, “BLESSED be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus...”
This is a present and everlasting truth for you to contemplate and cling to throughout the remainder of your days on this earth,
Believer; In Christ, you have, been blessed, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
You are rich, infinitely and eternally rich, beyond man’s wildest imaginings.IN CHRIST!
Blessed be God!
Hymn of invitation “I surrender all”
