Count Your Many Blessings Eph. 1:1-6
· Begin a study on the Book of Ephesians this morning. It is about knowing what you have in the bank, heaven’s bank!
1) I am amazed at how much time is spent by Paul
and other NT writers to remind us of all that is
ours in Christ!
2) I am afraid that in our day as what must have been
true in Paul’s day as well is that so many Christians are not living out of the resources that are rightfully theirs through their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Probably never heard of Hetty Green. She died in 1916 and left an estate with an estimated value of $100 Million Dollars(not pesos and not 1960 but 1916).
Hetty regularly ate cold oatmeal because it cost too much to heat it.
Her son had his leg amputated because she took so long to get him adequate care because she was looking for a free clinic.
Hetty died in the midst of an argument over milk, she argued that skim was best because it was the cheapest.
She was wealthy but she lived like a PAUPER. She never enjoyed nor benefited from the riches that were hers.
A second person I heard about lived on the West Coast of America living in poverty until one day he found out that he was the only living heir to a British Nobleman. What do you think this guy did when he found out? Went to the clothing store and bought the best suit he could find, bought a 1st class ticket to London and returned to England in style!
HE BELIEVED WHAT HE HAD BEEN TOLD WAS TRUE AND HE BEGAN TO ACT UPON IT!!!
Which illustration best describes your spiritual life?
· 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.
· Three areas I want us to look at in these verse. First is to look at the EXAMPLE OF PAUL’S LIFE
THE EXAMPLE OF PAUL’S LIFE (1) Paul, an apostle of Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus;
· 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 KNEW OF CHRIST’S RICHES and HIS LIFE WAS THE ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF THEIR BEING SPENT
1. PAUL KNEW WHO HE WAS IN GOD’S PLAN: 1) Paul, an apostle of Christ by the will of God,
a. The problem most believers have is that they don’t know who they are in God’s plan, 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.
Now suppose you were writing this epistle. Take out the name Paul, and insert your name. Jim, an engineer by the will of God. John, a technitian by the will of God. We may not all be called to be an Apostle like Paul but we all do have some calling and you can’t live it until you know it!!!
b. 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.
John 7:17 “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
2. PAUL KNEW WHO HE WAS CALLED TO MINISTER TO to the saints who are at Ephesus
a. Part of every Christian’s life is the element of reaching out for the sake of the gospel into the life of someone else. Paul knew he was called to build churches and encourage believers.
b. Who are you called to reach? Ministry to children, Women’s ministry, men’s, witnessing to lost people, teenagers? Encouraging believers through musical talents? Drama? Paul’s life was an example in that he knew who he was called to reach.
3. PAUL KNEW WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE LIVES HE MINISTERED TO who are faithful in Christ Jesus
a. He knew what really meant his ministry was having an impact. Didn’t say anything about numbers or money or building programs but simply faithfulness to Christ. The TRUE TEST of any ministry.
b. Various Scriptures you see Paul’s heart that believers become more and more like Jesus Christ.
ROM 8:29 And whom HE called He also predestined to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
Gal 4:19 And I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you.
I think it is interesting that Paul is writing to this church in Ephesus about what real riches are all about.
He is writing from a prison cell and has no financial portfolio to brag about
He is writing to a city that had one of the largest pagan building of worship (Temple of Diana/Aritmis) which was also a wealthy banking center and here Paul is telling this band of persecuted believers without a building or a bank account how rich they really were.
PAUL KNEW WHAT WAS REAL AND WHAT WASN’T - HE KNEW WHAT COUNTED FOR ETERNITY AND WHAT WOULD ROT ON EARTH.
THE ENCOURAGMENT FOR OUR LIVES (1) …to the saints…(2) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (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,
I enjoy the ministry of a man named Chuck Smith who was the beginning part of churches which now go by the name Calvary Chapels. I was reading this past week where he described growing up in churches where all they did was tell you what you were supposed to do for God and never to time to tell you what God has done for you.
He said the result was that his focus was always on what he wasn’t doing: not praying enough, not reading enough, not giving enough, … he went into the ministry and the # of people weren’t enough, people saved weren’t enough, budget was too small… THEN
One day God changed my ministry, I became a pastor teacher and started to feed His sheep, to make them strong, and there was a dramatic change in my own ministry.
As I quit beating the sheep and started feeding the sheep, the sheep started getting strong. They started getting healthy, and as they got strong and healthy they started to reproduce.
Christ became their life, witnessing wasn’t what they were doing anymore it was something that they were. Their lives changed by the Word of God and the power of the Spirit. They became witnesses and the effect of it was that their witness began to go out, throughout the neighborhood, and their neighbors began to come and be saved. And the church began to be blessed and grow.
1. WE CAN KNOW THE INTENTIONS OF GOD IN OUR LIFE
a. PAUL REMINDS US OF OUR GOD-GIVEN TITLE (1) Saints
1) What they call you says a lot about how they feel about you.
ILLUS:At the end of World War I, Herbert Hoover, later to become President of the United States, led the allied relief efforts in Europe. He kept hundreds of thousands from starving, and a new word entered the Finnish language. In Finland, to "hoover" means "to be kind, to help."
If someone coined a word from your name, what would it be?
NEWPAPER AD: Lost one dog with brown hair and several bald spots. Hobbles on right leg due to being broken in auto accident. Left hip hurt, right eye missing, left ear bitten off in dog fight, answers to the name LUCKY.
We may not look a lot like it but God calls by the name He thinks of us and not what we may feel about ourselves.
2) A saint is not what you might commonly think: A football player from New Orleans, a private eye on TV or even a dead person who is canonized by the Catholic church(above reproach and responsible for at least two miracles).
IN THE BIBLE as Saint is a living, breathing follower of Jesus Christ.
3) SAINT literally means ‘set apart one, holy one’. It is a description not based on what we have done but on who Christ has made us to be because of what He has done.
Fastest growing crime in America is Identification Theft: 500,000 new victims every year. 25% of all Credit Card theft results is related to this. Some states it is not even considered a crime yet.
IT IS A HEAVENLY CRIME TO NOT KNOW WHO YOU REALLY ARE BECAUSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR YOU.
c. PAUL REMINDS US OF OUR GOD-GIVEN TREASURES (2) Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Two basic treasures that are ours as SAINTS
1) GRACE: unmerited favor…God’s riches at Christ’
Expense…undeserved, unearned by us but provided through what
Christ has done.
2) PEACE: Not peace in the world, no war or hostilities, but the peace
that Christ provided between believers(enemies, sinners) and God.
2. WE CAN KNOW THE EXTENT OF GOD’S BLESSING IN OUR LIFE
a. Unlimited Spiritual Blessings (3) Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
1) Exciting Verse: Word BLESSED We get our English word ‘Eulogy’ from this word. Literally means ‘to speak well of’. What are some reasons we should speak well of God?
a) 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.
b) Our blessing is SUFFICIENT! EVERY Spiritual blessing is ours already.
WARNING: We are 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.
b. Unlocked Storehouse In Heaven in the heavenly places in Christ.
1) Reason for our blessings is Christ. That is where they are found. He is the reason and in our relationship with Him these blessings are found.
3) How can we have these blessings and yet not have experienced them to the full degree? They are not ours in the past tense on the earth but in heaven. As we live out our lives on earth we receive them out of heaven.
These believers look around at Great Temple and all the riches, art treasures, and all the earthy benefits of a life of compromise. Look around today and see people with lots of things based on the fact that they have chosen the things of the world instead of the things of 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 it’s 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.
Funny cartoon which shows a Lawyer reading a client’s last will to a group of greedy relatives. The caption reads, ‘I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, SPENT IT ALL!’
How unlike our Lord Jesus who instead PAID IT ALL.
His death on the cross made savation possible and also put in force His inheritance for us and THEN He rose again so that HE might become our heavenly Advocate and make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed.
· This morning we considered the riches that we have in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We looked at it from two vantage points:
EXAMPLE OF PAUL’S LIFE
1) Paul knew who he was in God’s plan
2) Paul knew who he was called to minister to
3) Paul knew what to look for in the lives he ministered to
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR OUR LIVES
1 ) We can know the intentions of God in our life
Title He gives us
Treasures He provides us
2) We can know the extent of God’s blessings in our life
Unlimited spiritual blessings
Unlocked storehouse blessings
EVALUATION OF GOD’S BLESSING IN CHRIST(final two words in verse 3, IN CHRIST. (4) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love. (5) He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, (6) to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We are going to look at three things tonight which are three different aspect regarding our blessing in Christ. POSTION – PRIORITY – PURPOSE
1. WE HAVE POSTION IN CHRIST (4) just as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world,
a. Some of the most mind boggling theological concepts are mentioned in the following verses. Paul doesn’t take time to explain them but simply drops these bombs on us.
Impossible to make them understandable to us anyhow since our
minds don’t have the capacity to absorb divine concepts.
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, AM I GOING TO UNDERSTAND DIVINE ELECTION & PREDESTINATION? AM I GOING TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO RECONCILE MY BEING CHOSEN BY GOD AND YET HAVING MY OWN FREE WILL?
Someone described it to me as if you had a huge magnet over the top of a Salvage yard and when the magnet was turned on the magnetic force draws all the metals that have the right properties and separates them from the rest of the debri.
THEIR POINT: God’s elective will is irresistible to those predestined while having no effect on those Whom He has not predestined. That God has placed within us certain properties that draw us to Himself while in others they are unmoved.
That is called HYPER-CALVINISM: TULIP Total Depravity / Unconditional Election / Limited Atonement / Irresistible Grace / Perseverance of the Saints
TOTAL DEPRAVITY: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God/ there is none righteous, no not one
LIMITED ATONEMENT: Not all are saved but without Christ’s redemption work received by faith we are lost, on the broad road to destruction,
PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS: When truly saved it will be evidenced by the fact that we remain in a relationship with Christ, not perfect or sinless but 1 John says they went out from us because they were never really of us.
PROBLEM TWO: Unconditional Election & Irresistible Grace
I believe the Bible is filled with the conditions of our relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ: Belief and Faith
Although God’s grace is amazing and overwhelming yet to say that it is irresistible is too strong a theological statement to me.
· With all that said about what we really don’t know I want us to consider tonight what we do know and can tell from Paul’s letter.
a. WE CAN KNOW HE CHOSE US AND NOT US HIM (4) just as He chose us in Him
1) Amazing to me that God chose to have a relationship with me! John 15:16 ‘You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you’.
But didn’t I just accept, choose Jesus tonight. From our
perspective that is what occurred but Paul’s says that from the
way God sees it what happened was all a result of Him choosing
us.
2) We are chosen IN HIM: God’s choice was made for those who are IN CHRIST.
3) One THEOLOGIAN stated that ‘God chose Jesus and we become part of that choice when we are placed in Him’
c. WE CAN KNOW HE CHOSE US BEFORE OUR LIVES WERE EVER LIVED Just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world.
1) I was chosen before I ever lived one day, before Adam and Eve ever lived one day. BEFORE I EVER COMMITTED ONE SIN.
2) He didn’t look down on me and say, ‘What a great person’ and then choose me. I had not even lived yet.
3) God made a choice before the world began which was inclusive of me and of others
If I had to try to understand it I would say that God’s set His plan in motion before the world was ever created or sin ever became an active issue. In His foreknowledge He 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 HIS CHOICE to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.
The next issue deals with what God purposed for my life as part of this choice that was made: PREDESTINATION
2. WE HAVE A PURPOSE BEFORE CHRIST (4) that we would be holy and
blameless before Him in Love. (5) He predestined us to adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
· God has chosen us not for the trophy shelf but for the front lines of battle.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
Duet 7:6-8 For you area people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the faced of the earth to be His people…not because you were more numerous…but it was because the Lord loved you… Therefore take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
Purpose in the choosing to live in obedience and share the truth of God to world in darkness.
You have probably heard people of royalty or great wealth being referred to as ‘BLUE BLOODS’. Long ago these people were waited on continually and go little or no exercise and so the lack of exertion made their blood cool; it lacked oxygen induced by exercise and when the veins began to show through their legs they appeared a pale blue.
CHRISTIAN BLUE BLOODS who are lacking spiritual exercise and the results are apparent to those who look at their lives.
a. THE PRIORITY OF HOLINESS that we would be holy and blameless before Him in Love.
1) 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.
a) Not standing guilty and under His wrath
b) 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 which was inclusive of me.
2) Understanding that God’s plan for our lives was set in motion before the world was ever created should place within our hearts a love for Him and a desire to live by the power of the Holy Spirit lives that are pleasing to Him.
We are often like a duck I read about. Ducks tend to imprint soon after birth which means they attach themselves to the first thing they see. MAMA!
One duck was hatched under the watchful eye of a motherly collie dog. Duck followed the dog around constantly and ran to it for protection when alarmed. As it grew it spent much time under the front porch of the house and when a car would pull in the driveway and the dog would go out barking the duck would follow and quack viciously at the tires of the car.
Some things didn’t change: still enjoyed the water and flapped it’s wings: Sometimes acting like a duck and sometimes like a dog. Identity crisis.
Christians can struggle in the same way. The world has had such an influence in our lives that we find ourselves quacking at the tires with it when the right stimulant strikes us. When really we are someone much different and because of God plan of choosing us we can live lives different from the world we live in.
b. THE PURPOSE OF SONSHIP (5) He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.
1) God’s plan included not only my forgiveness but also my becoming part of His family.
2) PREDESTINED : Literally means ‘marked out beforehand, to horizon’.
a) Walk outside and look as far as you can see in all directions you can see the horizons your life is presently in. Where it is being lived out.
b) God’s horizon for your life is meant to one of adoption and sonship through the merits of Jesus Christ.
Adoption was a big deal in Paul’s Day. A roman father was truly king of the castle: He had absolute legal power over his children so long as he and they lived: he could sell his child as a slave or even have them imprisoned or killed. He could make them work the estate in chains.
It didn’t change at age 18 or 21 but was in force all their lives.
Inn the Roman world a child was not an official heir of the father unless he was legally adopted. It was when the ‘adult standing was recognized within the family.
A baby cannot legally use their inheritance but an adult son can. We were born again into the family of God but in our adoption we don’t have to wait to enjoy the riches of Christ but they are our today to use and claim.
SUMMATION:
1. God made a choice before the world was ever created which was inclusive of me through the choice of Jesus Christ and His redemptive act to reconcile sinful man and a holy God.
2. As a result of Christ’s finished work I am made holy and blameless before Him in an atmosphere of love and not wrath.
3. God has set the perimeters of my life, predestined and horizoned me to enjoy full-fledged sonship and to claim the fullness of the riches which are mine as a child of God FOR THE PURPOSE OF..
(6) to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
THE PURPOSE OF demonstrating the Grace of God freely given
Through Jesus Christ, the Beloved.
· End of verse 5, ‘according to the kind intention of His will’. Word for will conveys more emotion than volition. Meaning: It is not so much God saying ‘I WILL DO THIS’ but ‘I DESIRE WITH ALL MY HEART TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!’ Expression of the heart of God.
1) He desires our salvation through Christ
2) He desires our walking in the fullness of the riches He has given
