We Are Blessed Part Ii

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.