Who Wants to be a Millionaire?:
Enjoying Your Privilege
in Christ
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:1-21
Some of you here know that I am a writer.
And, some of you know that I write with
Josh McDowell.
Others know that, because of one or both
of those things,
I’ve had the privilege of meeting people like
Ravi Zacharias,
Frank Peretti,
Francine Rivers,
Tony Campolo,
Max Lucado,
and Charles Colson.
Some of you think that makes me pretty special.
Well, I’ve got news for you:
I’m pretty special regardless of that fact.
And you are, too.
In fact,
I’m being TOTALLY sincere when I tell you that
it is a far greater privilege to know
John Johnson,
Diane Lillibridge,
Randy Tankersley,
Alexa Holzworth,
Marge Rose,
Laurel Isaacs,
Greg Beck,
Alice Seeger,
Daryl Zimmer,
Liz Kloft,
Dawn Harvitz,
and Jen Venable
than any of those other people I mentioned.
And even if I didn’t mention your name,
you are probably a part
of the privilege I enjoy in Jesus Christ,
which is what I’m gonna talk about
for the next few minutes.
Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler,
and I want to welcome you all
to Cobblestone Community Church,
one of the newest churches in Oxford,
a church that wants to love people
into life-changing encounters with God.
Two weeks ago we started a new series of messages entitled, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire
(when you can be infinitely rich)?”
And we’re going to explore that question each week
by looking to the book of Ephesians in the Bible
So, today, I want to turn your attention to the Bible
to the third chapter of Ephesians,
which is the tenth book of the New Testament,
--you’ll find it on page #812 if you’re using one of the Bibles we’ve provided for you on the floor under the chairs throughout the auditeria.
And while you’re finding it, let me just mention that if you need a Bible of your own,
you may feel free to take one of those Bibles home with you, absolutely free. Consider it your souvenir of Cobblestone Community Church.
So, having said all that,
please open your Bible to Ephesians 3,
and be prepared to follow along with me
as I talk about how you can enjoy
your privileges in Jesus Christ,
privileges you may not even have known about,
but they’re yours, nonetheless,
if you have experienced new life in Christ--
and if you haven’t, you’ll certainly have the opportunity to make that choice here this morning.
Now, so far in this series,
we’ve discussed your possessions in Christ,
last week we talked about your position in Christ,
and today we’ll look at your privileges in Christ.
From there, we’re going to go on to the final three chapters of Ephesians, where you’ll learn some key principles of living the HIGH LIFE, living large,
as we conclude this series with messages on
Living a Life of Beauty,
Living a Life of Harmony,
and Living a Life of Victory.
But today
I wanna impress upon you 3 things this morning that Paul,
the great church planter of the first century,
has to say about everyone here
who has asked God’s forgiveness
and found new life by following Jesus Christ.
And if you’d like to take notes,
we’ve provided inserts in this morning’s programs
to help you do that.
So, I’ll ask you to notice the first thing
Paul says about you, about me, in Ephesians 3,
and that is:
1. I am privileged to be included in God’s family (v. 6)
Look at how Paul starts out chapter 3. He says,
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- (Ephesians 3:1, NIV).
Then he stops.
He gets sidetracked.
If you look ahead just a little bit in that chapter, you’ll see he comes back to his thought in verse 14, where he says,
For this reason I kneel before the Father . . . (Ephesians 3:14, NIV).
Have you ever done that?
You start out talking about one thing,
and suddenly--wham--
another thought occurs to you, and
before long, you’re saying,
“What was I talking about?”
I don’t do it, but my wife does it all the time.
And Paul does it here in Ephesians 3.
Just like he did in chapter one,
when he wrote or dictated half the chapter
with one single, run-on sentence,
he seems to be so excited he can hardly think straight!
And what he’s excited about is his privilege--
our privilege--
your privilege-- in Christ.
He talks again about the mystery of the Gospel, which he had brought up in chapter one,
and then he says, in verse 6,
and this is the verse I want to focus your attention on,
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6, NIV).
Ladies and gentlemen,
that verse says that no one in this room
has to be excluded.
Because of Jesus Christ, we are:
• heirs together
sharing a full inheritance as children of God,
children of a King, who is fabulously rich!
We are
• members together
parts of the same body,
connected to each other, as Paul said in a different letter, in such a way so that “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26, NIV).
And we are
• sharers together
sharing in the promise of the eternal, abundant, exuberant life that is found only in Jesus Christ.
In other words, I belong! You belong!
I am privileged to be included in God’s family.
But that’s not all. Paul goes on in this letter to mention another privilege you and I enjoy in Christ, and it’s this:
2. I am privileged to be invited into God’s presence (v. 13)
In verse 7, Paul says,
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things (Ephesians 3:7 9, NIV).
But though he started talking about himself, he quickly turns the reader’s attention back to God, saying,
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11, NIV).
Men and women, there’s a lot we could talk about in those verses, but let me just mention this:
When you fully grasp and appreciate, as Paul says,
“this grace [that] was given [to you],”
the incredible privilege that God grants you,
then it will probably be hard for YOU to talk about
yourself,
your life,
your blessings,
your struggles,
your job or career or ministry,
without mentioning God!
You know, some of us agonize,
and pray,
and worry about how we can be a better witness,
when if we would just appreciate
the grace God has given us,
the wonderful privileges we enjoy,
we would find it hard to talk about ourselves WITHOUT talking about God, and we would enjoy a natural ease and comfort in telling others about our faith in God, the way Paul does here.
And among those privileges I’m talking about is what Paul mentions in verse 13. He says:
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:13, NIV).
Wow, what a privilege!
I am privileged to be invited into God’s presence!
And not only that, but we can approach him with freedom and confidence!
Have you ever seen the picture
of President John F. Kennedy,
sitting at his desk in the oval office,
the center of executive power in the U.S. . .
And curled up in the tiny inset of that huge desk
was little John-John,
the president’s two-year-old son.
You or I, if we had been ushered into that office, might have been nervous to SIT in the presence of such power . . .
But John-John wasn’t afraid or nervous. . .
because the president was his “daddy.”
You have a much greater privilege,
For you . . . received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Roman 8:15, NIV).
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16, NIV).
Like most privileges,
we get used to this one.
We forget so easily
how blessed, how privileged we are
to be able to call on God at a moment’s notice,
to crawl under his desk
or onto his lap,
and be heard,
be listened to
by the almighty, ineffable, incomparable
holy and true God of the universe!
Let me just say briefly,
if you’re not taking advantage of that privilege,
if you’re not praying regularly--
at your kitchen table,
in your porch swing,
in that wingback chair in the corner of your bedroom,
in your car,
in the shower,
or--gasp--even on your knees by your bedside,
if you wanna get downright old-fashioned about it-
the YOU’RE MISSING OUT!
It’s your privilege....
As American Express likes to say,
“Membership has its privileges,”
and you--
you are privileged to be a member of God’s family,
to be invited into God’s presence,
and, finally,
3. I am privileged to be infused with God’s power (vv. 16, 20).
After talking about the privilege of being invited into God’s presence, Paul once again returns to his previous train of thought, and says, in verse 14,
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name (Ephesians 3:14-15, NIV).
The rest of chapter 3 is a prayer,
one that I often use to pray for you guys.
I pray this prayer all the time for my wife and kids,
and I even pray it sometimes when I’m called upon to pray for somebody, but I don’t really know what to pray. In fact, on the screen behind me, you’ll see listed several Scriptural prayers that you can use as patterns in your own praying for others [Numbers 6:24-26, Romans 15:13, Ephesians 1:17 21, Ephesians 3:14-21, Philippians 1:9-11, Colossians 1:9-12, Hebrews 13:20-21).
But let’s look specifically at Paul’s prayer here in Ephesians 3, because it points out how you and I are privileged to be infused with God’s power. He says,
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:16-21, NIV).
Did you catch the reference to your privilege?
Paul mentions power three times in this prayer, praying
“that out of [God’s] glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,”
and then he prays
“that you may have power . . . to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. . . ”
and then he concludes his prayer by saying that God . . .
“is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us!”
Take a look at the screen behind me
and notice how comprehensive this power is:
Able
Able to do
Able to do more than we ask
Able to do more than all we ask
Able to do more than all we ask or imagine
Able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine
Able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power
I am privileged to be infused with God’s power!
We’ve all been witness these past few weeks to some evidences of man’s power:
the terrorists who destroyed the twin towers,
the military might of America, capable of raining destruction on precise targets . . .
Both of which illustrate humanity’s power to destroy things, including priceless human life.
But God alone can create life,
and God alone can re-create it.
His is a power of a different order entirely.
And his power--
his life-giving power,
his life-changing power,
his life-saving power,
his life-enriching power
is in you,
if you have trusted Christ for salvation
and invited him to control your life.
In 1540, Martin Luther, the former Monk
who had ignited the Protestant Reformation,
received a farewell letter from his good friend,
Frederick Myconius, who lay ill
and was expected to die soon.
Luther replied immediately:
“I command you in the name of God to live,” he wrote, “because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church ... The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.”
Huh! Thou sassy fellow!
What an impertinent, presumptuous thing to write.
Except that Frederick Myconius not only revived,
and recovered . . .
He lived longer than Luther . . . by two months!
Maybe you don’t know . . .
Maybe you haven’t heard
that there is a God who is ready and willing
to do great things in you,
and through you,
and for you,
in answer to your prayers.
The Bible says,
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing (Isaiah 40:21-26, NIV).
And you
are privileged to be infused with that power . . .
There’s an old Gospel chorus that says,
“Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible,
And he can do what no other power can do.”
But you will never know it
until you really ask of God for something--
something specific--
and find out for yourself.
If you’re a seeker here today,
someone who hasn’t yet experienced
the thrilling reversal
that comes when you find new life in Jesus Christ, and experience the riches that only he can give.
In fact, you can do that right now by praying silently these words as I speak them aloud:
“God, here I am.
I’m sorry for the wrong things I’ve done,
and I ask your forgiveness.
I invite you into my life,
to change me,
to control me,
to give me a new start, a new life,
in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Now, if you’d like a little help with that, or
if anyone here would like someone to pray with you--for any reason--or offer guidance--of any kind--prayer counselors will be available at the two tables to the south of the auditeria as we conclude this celebration, and other prayer counselors will be available throughout the auditeria following this celebration, wearing bright green name tags so you can identify them easily.
We do that to make it as easy as possible for anyone who needs
comfort or counsel,
guidance or prayer,
to find the help you need before you leave.
And for any here this morning
who are Christ-followers,
how about walking in the conscious awareness
of your privilege this week?
You’re included in his family!
You’re invited into his presence!
You’re infused with his power!
Why don’t you (and I) start acting like it?
Let’s stop settling for “pauper prayers,”
and get into God’s presence this week
and let him prove to us his power
to answer big prayers,
little prayers,
specific prayers,
outrageous prayers
that glorify his name
and bless his people . . .
Amen!
