You Are Blessed
Ephesians 1:3-14
"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." – Ephesians 1:3
Poor Little Orphan Annie! It’s "a hard-knock life" for her and her friends. All the hard chores, the abuse, and the neglect only add insult to injury to these poor little girls already carrying the weight of abandonment.
But if you’ve seen the musical "Annie," either on stage or screen, you know there is a happy ending for the cute, little, misunderstood, red-haired orphan girl. After being invited to spend the Christmas holiday with Billionaire Oliver Warbucks, and after a few shenanigans from her caregiver at the orphanage, Annie learns that her parents are dead and that Mr. Warbucks would like to adopt her. The brightness in Annie’s eyes and the bounce in her step change dramatically when she learns she will be adopted. Why? Because she not only will leave behind the hard-knock life of the orphanage, she will also live in incredible wealth, and, most importantly, live with someone who has chosen her to be his. She celebrates the promise of Mr. Warbucks singing "I Don’t Need Anything But You."
Annie: "Yesterday was plain awful"
Warbucks: "You can say that again"
Annie: "Yesterday was plain awful"
Both: "But that’s not now, that’s then"
Annie realizes that she’s living on another level.
God wants you to live on another level. He’s well aware that some of our yesterdays are just plain awful. We may not face the tyranny of a Miss Hannigan, but we have our moments where life is a bit hard-knock…
Sickness brings pain and death brings grief.
The ruthless acts of a few terrorists bring us fear.
One thug’s crime is our insecurity.
Bad habits lead to self-doubt.
Bad decisions lead to self-destruction.
The abandonment of a loved one—an irresponsible parent, an unfaithful spouse, a rebellious teenage son or daughter—these things render us alone, empty, and in pain.
But God never intends for us to be dominated by the hard knocks life deals us. He sent his Son to bring us to another level of life. He calls it abundant life. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
What is life to the full? Let me begin by telling you what it is not. A lot of people come to Jesus and expect to be immediately swept up into a life of privilege as though God owes us something. They came because they heard about adoption and they heard about how great God is, and they expect him to be the big Daddy Warbucks in the sky. "Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills," they reason. So God exists now to give them what they want. As one local pastor puts it, "I believe God wants us to have the things that make us happy, so if I ask him for a Harley, he will give it to me because he wants to dote on me."
If that’s what you believe, I’ve got news for you. God did not save you to spoil you. And some of you may need to quit acting like spoiled God-brats. You may not ask God for material things like Harleys or horsepower, but there are a lot of ways that you place some expectation on God to give you whatever you want.
Consider this: God owes us nothing. He doesn’t owe us a spouse, let alone a marriage without troubles. He doesn’t owe us children, let alone kids who don’t give us grief. He doesn’t owe us a job, let alone a job that we like and that pays us well. He doesn’t owe us productive ministry. He doesn’t owe us a perfect church. He doesn’t owe us protection when we travel. He doesn’t owe us a life without pain.
That’s what troubled me when I read about the prayer of Jabez this week. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request. (NIV)
Jabez asked to be free from pain, and God granted his request. I look at that, and you might too, and assume that if we ask God to be free from pain he will give it to us, as if he owes it to us. If we feel the need to qualify it, we’ll simply see that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. So we pray, "Lord, I’ve tried my best to follow you. I haven’t hurt anyone. I don’t swear. I’m a good person. Now, keep me free from pain!"
Now, in our heads we know that prayer sounds an awful lot like the prayer of the self-righteous Pharisee, but in our hearts and with the reply of our lips we still often respond to God as though he owes it to us. I can’t describe the number of times I have questioned God for not coming through according to my agenda! There are people all over the city and some even in our churches who are angry at God because he didn’t give them the things they wanted when they wanted to have it.
We don’t know what Jabez’ life without pain looked like, but we do have reason to believe that if he had a life without pain, that was good for him but not par for the course. Throughout the Bible we have glimpses of other honorable men and women whose lives were certainly worthy of honor but far from free from pain. Moses was certainly not free from pain when he wandered in the wilderness with a bunch of whiners and complainers. David was not free from pain when he had to flee the city because his own son was coming for his head. Mary was not free from pain as she wept at the foot of the cross where her innocent son was being cruelly tortured to death. And what about Jesus himself. He didn’t want the pain of the cross, but he chose it. It was his father’s will for the sake of all men. Jesus suffered. Are we any more honorable than him? Are we any more worthy of a life free from pain than the Man of Sorrows?
God owes us nothing, but he wants us to have life to the full. He wants us to live on another level. Our basis for living on that other level is not that we will get what we want when we want, but that he has already overcome the world.
"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." – (Ephesians 1:3)
God the Father has blessed us "in the heavenly realms." On a level other than the one we can see, at a supernatural level, in the realm where good and evil do battle and evil always loses, God has blessed us. He wants us to live according to that blessing. There ought to be a brightness in our eyes and a bounce in our step as we are reminded, "He has blessed us." "He has blessed us." "He has blessed us." In Christ, we are like orphan children who have learned that the wealthiest, most powerful, most loving of all beings has signed the adoption papers and those papers have been filed away with the powers that be so we can be with him forever. There will be a better place. There will come a better day. But the truth of the matter is that we are still living in the orphanage until the adoption is complete.
Yes, this is a hard-knock life. But you have reason to look up. You’ve been blessed in the heavenly realms. The papers have been filed. The price has been paid. You are only awaiting the day when he will pick you up and take you home. If you’re going to live at another level, you’ve got to know…YOU ARE BLESSED IN THE HEAVENLY REALMS!
How has God blessed us? Let us count the ways!
#1-- You are blessed because you are chosen. Before the creation of the world, he chose you to be holy and blameless in his sight. That was his plan in making man—to be holy, to be blameless, and to be in his sight. I can only imagine God at creation…
Day 1 – "Let there be light! Good! Oh, I can’t wait until day 6!"
Day 2 – "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water (that would be sky)…Good!…Only 4 more days…"
Day 3 – "Land…sea…Good!…Oh, he’s gonna love this…Plants, trees, watermelon, figs…very good. 3 more days…"
Day 4 – "Stars, sun, moon…good! I can’t wait until the day after tomorrow…"
Day 5 – "Creatures of the sea…dolfin, whale, sea urchin (ouch!) WHOOF! Puffer fish…winged birds (the NIV says "winged bird." Is there any other kind of bird?)…dove, pigeon, seagull, kiwi down under here…good! Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow!"
Day 6 – "Today’s the day! A little warm-up…Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!…Cattle, sheep, goats, ha!…here’s an idea…pygmy goats! The kids will love ‘em!…okay…good…a few hundred thousand species of insects…
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God BLESSED them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Gen 1:26-28, NIV)
Now, understand that God also blessed the fish and the birds and the animals and told them to be fruitful and increase in number. The blessing is not that we get to reproduce, as enjoyable as you might find that to be. The blessing is that he CHOSE to make man in his image and he CHOSE to give man dominion. Before the creation of the world, we were chosen, the apple of God’s eye. All of us. He has a particular affection for us.
He has a particular affection for you. He chose you to be his. Holy.
He chose you to be like him. Blameless.
He chose you to be with him. In his sight.
#2-- You are predestined to be adopted as sons of the Father through Jesus Christ. Being "predestined" for adoption means to be appointed ahead of time. Loving you as he does, and knowing that your sin would create a gulf between you and him, he marked you ahead of time to be part of his family.
When a logger goes into a forest in preparation for thinning, he’ll mark the trees that will be cut down. Those trees are predestined for destruction. They are not yet destroyed, but they are marked for it. In the same way, not all men are necessarily adopted into God’s family, but all men and women are the target of his affection, therefore all are marked for adoption. Being chosen is the blessing of his affection. Being predestined for adoption is the blessing of his intent to make you his. That’s why it was his pleasure and according to his will that he sent his Son.
And with his Son Jesus also came the blessing of grace-#3. Grace is the undeserved favor of God given to man. God the Father has given us grace in Jesus, the One he loves. Because Jesus shed his blood for us, we have been purchased back from the control of sin. Like Little Orphan Annie escaping the tyranny of Miss Hannigan, Jesus paid a dear price to purchase us from the tyrannical hold of our sinful desire, from the foolishness of this world, and from the power of the enemy of our souls. And even after we chose to reject God and follow after our flesh, the world, and the devil, his blood made the way for us to be forgiven. Bought back. His. Clean. Pure. This is God’s grace for the chosen and predestined. It is his blessing in the heavenly realms.
And finally, (#4) he has blessed us with the knowledge of the mystery of his will. The Old Testament record, the prophets, the life and teachings of Jesus in the gospels, the New Testament epistles, and John’s revelation all declare to us God’s intent. He intends to marry the things in heaven with the things of earth. He has blessed us in the heavenly realms, and when the times reach their fulfillment, he will bring heaven and earth together under one head, Jesus Christ.
God has served notice in heaven and he is making it known on earth. He has given man every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. He has chosen man to be holy and blameless. He has marked man to be his through adoption. He has sent his Son to make a way to give man grace. And he’s doing it all because it brings him pleasure to bless man.
When Paul writes of these things, he is speaking in very general terms in verses 3-10. This is what God has done for man.
In verse 11, Paul moves from the general to the specific. Paul knew he was included in this blessing. He said, "In him we were also chosen…" (Eph. 1:11) He was speaking about himself and those who had served with him. But he also knew from his earlier days in Ephesus that the people of the church there were also included in the blessing. (v. 13) "And you also were included in Christ…"
Paul was included in Christ and so realized the blessing in the heavenly realms. The church in Ephesus was included in Christ and so realized the blessing in the heavenly realms. The obvious question, then, is…are you included?
You see, they were blessed because they heard and believed. When they heard and believed, a taste of the heavenly blessing came to them in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Paul said, was a deposit guaranteeing their inheritance "until the redemption of those who are God’s possession." If you can imagine Oliver Warbucks coming to live at the orphanage with Annie until it was time for him to take her home, then you can understand how God comes in the form of the Holy Spirit to reside in us as a deposit, guaranteeing our share of the blessing.
Our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit is life on another level. As we hear and believe, we cross a bridge between the hard-knock life on earth and the no-more-crying/no-more-dying life of heaven. We are blessed when we are given the privilege of tasting heaven—as we taste and see that God is good—even as we live on this messed up planet.
A few years ago, Elton John released the single, "Blessed." In the song, a man assures his unborn child, "You’ll be blessed. You’ll have the best. I promise you that." This is nothing more than a blessing in the earthly realm. It has no lasting value. "You’ll have the best." Have the best what? Ski boat. Vacations. Education. All temporary. In an attempt to be somewhat mystical, he even promises to "pick a star from the sky, pull your name from a hat." The last time my name got pulled from a hat I picked first at a "white elephant" gift exchange. I got Hair Color for Men.
More recently, teenage Christian recording artist Rachel Lampa recorded a different song called "Blessed". She sings of her own blessing, the one she has personally received through Jesus Christ. Those who have heard and believed and live in relation to the heavenly realms through the Holy Spirit, can drink in the depth of their blessing as Rachel Lampa declares in song, "I am blessed. I am blessed. I am blessed"
Such is the blessing in the heavenly realms. God wants you to live on another level. He’s not interested in being your Daddy Warbucks, he’s just interested in being your daddy. He wants to come and live with you so richly and be so real that his Spirit in you will make you cry out "Abba." "Father" Like an orphaned child pledged to be adopted, you would be blessed to rise up each morning in this hard-knock life with the knowledge that you have been blessed.
Are you included in Christ? You have heard, but have you believed? Has the Holy Spirit been manifest in your life to give you a foretaste of the heavenly realms? Today is your day to understand…you are blessed if you believe.
