Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing
PPT 1 Series title
PPT 2 Message title
PPT 3-4 text
Jos 1:1 Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying,
Jos 1:2 "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
Jos 1:3 "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.
Jos 1:4 "From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.
Jos 1:5 "No man will [be able to] stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
I have a short message today, and we will be in both the book of Joshua and the book of Ephesians. Today I am going to use some pictures that show the physical landscape of Israel, while at the same time showing us something about its spiritual landscape. And as we look at them I want you to try and imagine what your spiritual landscape looks like. I will show you Israel's actual borders and compare them with it's promised borders, and I want you to also imagine the same for your life. We will then talk about what God has promised us in Christ and how to access it. I want to start this morning with some images as they will be highly instructive in you getting the point of the message today.
PPT 5 Dome of the Rock
First up is a picture of Jerusalem with the dome of the rock. I have not altered this picture in any way, and I don't know about you but to me it simply shows that the dome of the rock is a dominant aspect of Jerusalem's skyline.
I have used this picture and ones like it before when preaching on the subject a garrison of the Philistines, from 1 Samuel 9. This image shows in picture form what the lives of some believers are like. A dominant aspect of their spiritual life is under the control and influence of the enemy. We need more men to be Gideon's and tear down the altar's of Baal.
The second image I want to show you is a map of the Middle East as it is today.
PPT 6 Map of the Middle East
There are a lot of maps of Israel and the Middle East that are like this one. Israel is so small often a highlighting arrow is used to point it out, or it might take you a while to find the country.
So modern Israel is a small country, that has within it borders garrisons of the Philistines. Actually we should call them armories of the Philistines, because Gaza and the Palestinian territories are being continually filled with weapons and arms, from Muslims all over the middle east. So it is not simply that they have enemies within their territories, but their enemies are always making plans and seeking ways to enlarge their territory. What is true in the natural for physical Israel, is true in the spiritual for us. The devil seeks a toe hold, to get a foot hold, to get a leg hold, to get a choke hold.
Now our next map is even more shocking, it is a map of what was promised to Israel by God. Specifically it lays out all the land God gave to Joshua.
PPT 7 Map of land promised to Israel
"From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.
This was spoken to Joshua on the Eastern side of the Jordan River, in Modern day Jordan. Lebanon would have been visible to his north. The map you are looking at includes all that was promised, much of it is understood to have been under the control of the hittites and the other ites living their in Joshua's day. How many of you have realized that the promised land went all the way to Iraq!?
One more picture and this time I am putting modern Israel alongside promised Israel:
PPT 8 Promised land and realized land
That is visually a sad state of affairs. They have fallen far short of what was promised/given to them.
If we could take a picture of your promised land and put it alongside your realized land what would we see? Hopefully the most dominant aspect of your spiritual horizon would be visualized by a gigantic church of the resurrection. But would we also see in your skyline a garrison of the Philistines? Every city has it's ghettos, places given over to the darkness. We should never come to peaceful terms with our ghettos. Because they will always be trying to enlarge their territory.
Now we are going to go to the New Testament and the book of Ephesians and see our promised land.
PPT 9 text
Eph 1:3 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,
Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
Eph 1:8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight
Say every spiritual blessing.
Say lavished upon us. Lavished is a very meaningful phrase, it implies, abundance, overwhelming goodness, extravagance. Yet many believers live in barely getting by land.
If we were to put a map of the spiritual world on the Powerpoint, and use this passage in Ephesians to draw the boundary lines of everything God has given us, there would not be one place of that map that would not be included on what has been given to us. He has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing...
The Apostle Peter says the exact same thing, look at this text:
PPT 10 text
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
All things that pertain to (1) Life, (2) Godliness. You will have an extremely exasperating spiritual life if you spend it trying to get your Father to give you something He has already given you.
The book of Joshua and the book of Ephesians are both about territory. In Joshua it is about going out and fighting a physical battle with actual armies. In Ephesians we don't fight physical armies, but spiritual enemies. Hittites, contrasted with spiritual wickedness in high places.
In Joshua they had to put their armor on and advance against their enemy and take territory, in Ephesians they put their armor on and stand against an enemy that is trying to take what they have already been given. Joshua had to conquer and possess the territory, Jesus has already done that for us. There are Christians who sing a song that says, "I went to the enemies camp and took back what he stole from me." When in point of fact it is Jesus who went to the enemies camp, we don't have to. All we have to do is claim and thank God for what He has already accomplished through the finished work of Calvary. Too many Christians are living under a Joshua economy when they should be living under a Jesus economy. What do I mean by that? (Explain) (Trying to earn and possess by defeating an enemy, as opposed to accepting all that Calvary affords)
What money is in the natural, faith is in the spiritual. If you look at a US bill of any denomination somewhere on it, it will say:
This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.
The legal tender of heaven is faith. You can exchange faith for anything in God's storehouse.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Abraham handed God faith and God handed him righteousness.
Let me show you a scripture that will help you to learn to use God's legal tender:
PPT 11 text
Ro 10:17 So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
I want to point out something from this very familiar passage of scripture. Let me tell you what you hear and what you read when you see or heat this text spoken:
Faith comes from reading, and reading by the word of Christ. That it isn't what it says, it says faith come from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
There is a very practical reason it says hearing and not reading. When it was written few, if anyone, would have had their own copy of the scriptures. Perhaps, even more importantly, there is a vast difference between reading something and hearing something. Hearing it means you grasp it, you understand it, you receive it into your understanding. It becomes something you internalize, something you conceptualize, you comprehend the meaning that is intended.
So then faith comes when you hear the message God intended to convey, not simply because you read it. Earlier I pointed out that in Joshua 1:4 the promised land extended all the way to the Euphrates River in Iraq. How many times have you read that and never really heard what it said. Faith comes by hearing.
Listen to these texts one more time and see if it doesn't mean something more to you than it did earlier.
PPT 12 text
Eph 1:3 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,
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Close: Are you possessing your promised land?
Do you need help with depression? Use these verses as legal tender to claim it, and to remove the garrison of the Philistines. Are you struggling with direction, use this passage as legal tender to claim it. In the book of Joshua you fight to get your promised land, in the book of Ephesians you stand where you are because you already have been given it.
