We Are Blessed Part II
NLF 4/6/2003 Psalm 103:1-5 Ephesians 3:1-10
A couple of weeks ago, I preached the message, “We Are Blessed.” In that message we saw that God has given to us all the spiritual blessings we need to make it in Christ. We discovered that we did not go looking for God to find God, but that God chose us from before the creation of the world and finally found us. Do you remember the money that was lost crying out, “Thank God I found you.”? We also learned that God’s purpose in finding us was to have us live our lives in a way that we could be used by God.
You may recall the bowl that became holy once it was set apart to be used by God. We likewise were called to be holy, because God has set us apart for something special and specific. We can disqualify ourselves from the wonderful plans God has for us, by refusing to live the lifestyle God is calling us to live.
We also learned that in Jesus Christ, we are blameless in the eyes of God. Do you recall breaking your mother’s favorite plate, and having your brother or sister volunteering to take the blame. We saw that we are blameless in God’s sight, not because we are found not guilty, but because Jesus stands up and demands that our punishment falls upon Him.
Well today we are going to continue with the message “We Are Blessed.” Let’s look in our outlines together and read Ephesians 1:3-4 to bring us up to where we left off. Ephes. 1:3-4 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, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love .
Is there anybody here who has ever fallen in love with someone, and the person did not know yet that you either loved him or her or had a serious crush on him or her. You chose to let your feelings of love flow from your heart toward that person. You day dreamed about being with that person. The person appeared in your dreams at night.
You imagined yourself as making this person wonderfully happy with you. You saw yourself and this person having a great time together for life as you took romantic walks, went of candlelight dinner dates, and held hands in the movies. . You may have even seen yourself singing with Whitney Houston, “And I I I will always love you.” You didn’t even get discouraged when somebody asked you, “what in the world do you see in him or in her?”
I still remember Tony’s testimony that when he was riding by and saw Carmen getting ready to cross the street he knew then and there, “that was the one he wanted. He chose to get excited about her before she even knew he existed.”
This passage of Scripture is letting us know that this is exactly what happened in the heart of God when God saw us. God chose to get excited and to direct his love in our direction. God had a crush on us that was real love right from the start. God was making plans in His head for us to have a great life with Him forever.
There’s only one little problem with us when we make the decision to fall in love. I think a group known as the Main Ingredient use to sing a song “Everybody plays the fool. There’s no exception to the rule. It may be factual, it may be cruel, Falling in love is such an easy thing to do, but there’s no guarantee that the one you love is going to love you.”
Anybody here ever played the fool. The one you chose to love didn’t choose to love you back. You know how it feels inside. Your stomach feels whoozy, your pride is hurt, you feel embarrassed, and you try to deny you really liked the person. You want to just smile it off but it’s not easy.
Do we ever make God feel as though God has played the fool. We find out that God loves us so much only to say thanks God, but no thanks not this time. I’ve got something else planned for my life and right now my plans don’t include you. You would not approve of what it is I’m going to do. How many of you to know that to love somebody back costs you something. If I tell you. “I love you”, you expect some changes in my life not only in the way I relate and treat you, but how I relate and treat others as well.
We should not deceive ourselves into thinking we can love God with a minimum amount of cost or change in our lives. Jesus put it as bluntly as possible. He said, “if you love me, you will obey what I tell you to do. If you don’t then you won’t.” In this passage we see why the cost to love God is so high. It’s because the price God pays to love us is even higher.
God deals with us out of love. At the end of verse 4 it says, in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. Now the word predestined means to be marked out before hand or to be chosen in advance. I can remember back when I was in fourth grade. Our family had moved from Georgia to western New York State. We went to New York as migrant workers picking potatoes. Some how my grandparents saved enough money and started a restaurant business there in Hornell, NY.
Now out of about 15,000 people in the community, less than 80 were black. I was the only black boy at Bryant Street School. During recess , teams would be chosen for softball. I was in the fourth grade, and the sixth grade boys chose the teams. I was always one of the last ones chosen and put at the back of the batting line. Recess would end before my turn came to bat.
But one day, was there another black boy that came to our school. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember his grace toward me. His family had probably come to the area to pick potatoes. But that sixth grade black boy was captain that day, and I wasn’t chosen last. Not only that, when he lined up the batting order he put me in the front of the line. It was my first time getting a bat and to this day I can still see the ball going out over the third baseman’s head. All those other boys were shocked that I could hit the ball that far. I never was a last round pick again.
When that boy chose me, he had predestined in his mind to use me. He was not going to let me stay at the back of the line and miss out on being involved in the game. Likewise when God predestined us in His love, God had already had a picture in His mind of how we could be used. This passage tells us that God predestined us to be adopted.
We here a lot today about everybody worshipping the same God, we just call God by a different name. That’s a lie. The truth is we all start out with a nature that is bent toward opposing the very things that God says we should do. We are all born selfish and self centered. If you let us get use to having our way when we are small, nobody will want much to do with us when we get older. None of us are fit to be called God’s children.
Most religions will tell you to get to God by one of two ways. The first way is to try to live such a holy life that the holier you become, the closer you will be to God. So people start denying themselves all kinds of things in order to become holy. They don’t do this and they don’t do that.
The other religions will stress, if you simply do enough good things, you will earn your right to go to heaven and stand in the presence of God. God will simply be so pleased with your good works, that He will forget about the sin in your life. People think as long as their good outweighs their bad, they have it made.
Here’s what makes us different as Christians. We know that we are rotten and that our hearts are evil. God tells us in his word, “you will never be holy enough to stand in my presence. Your righteousness is as filthy rags in my sight.” Can you imagine going into heaven with dirty torn rags for clothing trying to impress God, when God has dressed all of His servants in dazzling white robes that shine like the sun.
God tells us there is no good deed you can do to get my attention. Can you imagine a dead man or woman doing some good deeds. Let’s read Ephesians 2: 1-3 Ephes. 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
God did not consider us as His children because we were enemies fighting against the very things that God wanted to do. So in the natural, there are no good works we can do that would be pleasing in God’s sight. There certainly is nothing we can do that will cause us to earn the right to be in God’s presence. How dare we think God could owe us something.
Now you can do a lot of good things for others, but that does not mean you are not still lost. If we could have done something on our own to be saved, then Jesus’ death would have been in vain.
There is only one basis for calling God our Father, and it’s found in this verse 5. It has nothing to do with us all being human. It says he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. Now have you ever heard of somebody adopting his or her own child. If I told you, I was going downtown to adopt my daughter Samantha, you’d wonder if a) I’d lost my mind or b) if she had not been my daughter in the first place.
Now we know that God has not lost his mind. So the only reason God would adopt us, is that God knows we are not a part of his family. Now that goes against the world’s teachings that we are all the children of God, just calling God by different names. No, we are all made in the image of God, but according to God, the only ones who are actually in the family are those that He has adopted. And according to this verse, all of the adoptions have to pass through Jesus Christ in accordance with God’s pleasure and God’s will.
How many of you know that you are not the one who choose to be adopted. Let’s suppose you go to one of Oprah Winfrey’s beautiful homes and you manage to sneak inside the house. Once inside you declare to yourself , “I’m adopted by Oprah Winfrey. I’m now her child.”
For some reason, there’s nobody in the house. You find a nice bed to go and lay down on for a minute or two. You go and get you some food to eat. You’re thinking this is the life, I should have been adopted a long time ago. Now unknown to you have set off some silent alarms. The police arrive at the door with their guns drawn. You tell them, oh no problem. I’m Oprah’s adopted child.
They contact Oprah and she says I have not adopted anybody. Do you know where you’re going when that phone call is over. You are going to jail. Now if Oprah had of adopted you, and given the police the information, yes that’s my child, those police would have apologized and you would have went on eating. Why? Because you were blessed to be a part of the family. When you are in the family, you get all kinds of rights and privileges that others do not have.
Now there are going to be people who want to be with God, but absolutely refuse the adoption process by going through Jesus Christ. We find them in the bible. Jesus told the story of a group of people who were sure they were part of the family of God, but Jesus said, “I’m sorry but I don’t know you.” They said, “Jesus you’re tripping. Hello. We were the ones who prophesid, preached, drove out demons and did many miracles in my your name.” Jesus will say, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.
The problem wasn’t that they didn’t know about Jesus, but rather Jesus did not know about them because they had refused the adoption process. They felt they could have God and do anything they wanted to do. But you can’t have God without having Jesus, and you can’t have Jesus unless you’re willing to live by His rules. We come to Jesus to live. But the only way to live in Jesus is to die so that Jesus can live in us.
Again the Bible puts it very clearly for us as believers. Let’s read I John 5:11 1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. If you do not have Jesus, you have no claim to being adopted, and if you’re not adopted, then you have no right to call God Father. But if you do know Jesus, then you are blessed to also know the Father and you are entitled to sit down and fellowship with God.
Verse 6 in Ephesians chapter one tells us that God has freely given us the grace we need in Jesus whom he loves. Verse 7 says, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
Now the word redemption refers to being set free. If you were a slave or a prisoner a person could come along and redeem you by paying a certain price. If the price was high enough you would be set free from slavery or from prison. The bible teaches that all of us are slaves or prisoners to sin. If you think I’m wrong make up your mind that no matter what, you will not sin for a month. You will find that temptation will come your way in a variety of ways, many of which you will not expect. What you will discover is that apart from Christ, sin will very easily over power you. Even with Christ, sin at times will be a real battle.
Now the only payment for the forgiveness of sin in the bible has to do with the shedding of blood. Go back with me in the Old Testament for a moment when God’s people were slaves in Egypt in Africa. Moses had told the leader, to let God’s people go, but despite all the miracles God had done the leader or Pharaoh said no. The last plague God sent was his death angel.
God said the angel will pass through Egypt and the firstborn son in every household would die. Now to keep the death angel from God’s people, God told them to sacrifice a lamb with no defects in it and place the blood on the doorframes of their houses. When the death angel saw the blood, it passed by the house, because the blood of the lamb was a substitute for the person who would have died that night.
The innocent blood of the lamb was pointing to the innocent blood that Jesus would shed on the cross as he took our place when it came time to pay the penalty for our sins. That’s what made it possible for us to be adopted into the family of God. We were no longer strangers and no longer aliens. We were citizens in the kingdom of God because we were part of the family of God.
The blood of Jesus Christ was priceless. All the gold and the silver in the world could not begin to pay for our sins. All of the diamonds and jewels the world has to offer would not have been enough. But the blood of Jesus that He shed for you and me was the innocent blood of God. That’s what takes our filthy robes of righteousness and turns them into garments of pure dazzling white.
God pursues us so strongly in part because of the price He has paid for us. If you lost a pair of $5 ear rings, you would miss them but you wouldn’t put out an all out search. But if you lost a pair of earrings with several genuine diamonds in them, it would be a long time before you quit tearing the house inside out to find them. You’d even ask others for help. Why, because of the price you paid for them.
The blood of Jesus cost too much for God to forget His promises that He has made to pursue us with His love. The blood of Jesus demonstrates just how much the Father was willing to pay for us to have different kind of lives. The blood of Jesus reveals the extent God was willing to go to make it possible for our sins to be forgiven.
The blood of Jesus reveals why its so foolish to say God could never forgive me of my sins because of what I have done. How dare we even think that we in our puny rebellion could do something so great that it could overcome the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.
It’s a blessing to be in Jesus and know that His blood has been shed for our lives. That blood and that love wipes away all fear of being in the presence of God at the judgment. Every time we take communion, remember Jesus blessed us when He said, “This is my blood which I’m shedding for you.”
Sermon Outline For “We Are Blessed Pa rt II” Pastor Rick
New Life Fellowship 4/6/2003 Psalm 103:1-5 Ephesians 3:1-10
A. We Are Blessed Part I.
1. We Are Given All The Spiritual Blessings We Need In Christ.
2. We Did Not Find God, But God Found Us –The Money
3. God Found Us To Live In A Way We Could Be Used
4. We Were Called To Be Set Apart—Don’t Be Disqualified
5. We Are Blameless In The Eyes Of God—Mother’s Plate
B. We Are Blessed Part II.
Ephes. 1:3-4
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, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love
1. Do You Know What It Is To Fall In Love—Man Oh Man
2. Flowing Love, Dreams, Day Dreams, Happy Moments
3. Whitney Houston I’ll Always Love You----What Do You See
4. Did You Know That God Got Excited Over You—The Plans
5. The Main Ingredients—Everybody Plays The Fool—Even Me
6. Who Knows What It Feels Like—Whoozy, Hurt, Embarrassed
7. Has God Ever Played The Fool With Some Of Us
C. Love Is Not Free
1. Jesus If You Love Me, You Will Keep My….John 14:15
2. God Paid A Price-- God Predestined Us In Love To Be Adopted
3. Being Chosen, Making All The Difference On Baseball Field
6. A Sixth Grade Black Boy Made A Choice With A Purpose In Mind
D. Not All Religions Teach The Same Nor Serve The Same God
1. We Are All Born Self Centered & Selfish---Anybody Spoiled
2. Path One—Get To God By Being Super Holy—I Don’t Do …
3. Path Two—Get To By Doing A Lot Of Good Works
4. Christians—We Know That We Are Rotten & Hearts Are Sick
5. Dirty Rags Trying To Impress God Vs Dazzling White Robes
6. Dead People Do Not Do Good Works
Ephes. 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
7. No Way To Earn Our Way Into God’s Favor—Not Even Good Works
E. The Real Basis For Calling God Father – Ephesians 1:5
1. God Has An Adoption Process That Flows Through Jesus Christ
2. We Do Not Adopt Our Own—Lost My Mind Or Not Really Mine
3. Being In The Image Of God Is Not Enough To Bring Us Into Family
4. The Parent Chooses The Adoption—Trying To Adopt Oprah
5. It Was Good Right Up Until The Police Came With The Guns
6. It Makes A Difference When You’re Adopted
7. Tragedy—Jesus Declares, “I Never Knew You’” What About Me
8. Knowing Jesus Without Jesus Knowing You
1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
9. Adoption Comes Through The Son
F. Redemption—He loved Me Enough To Pay For Me To Be Free
1. Paying To Set Free Slaves & Criminals---Prisoners To Sin
2. The Shedding Of Blood—Egypt, Pharaoh, Death Angel, Lamb
3. The Blood On The Doorposts Kept The Families Safe
4. The Blood Of The Lamb Points To The Blood On The Cross
5. In The Family—No Longer Aliens & Strangers, But Family
6. Neither Gold, Silver, Diamonds, Or Jewels Could Cover It.
H. God Is Determined To Pursue Us With Love Because Of Price
1. Short Search For $5 Earrings, But Not For The Diamond Set
2. The Blood Secures God’s Love, Reveals The Cost
3. Foolish To Think I Can’t Be Forgiven—The Big Insult
4. Blessing To Know Jesus Shed His Blood For Us
