BLESSINGS FROM THE FATHER (Ephesians 1:1-6) There was a West Texas rancher who found oil on his property & he became very wealthy. So he put his money in the local bank. But since he was not used to having money, he forgot about it. In time, he got very discouraged about how poorly things were going on the ranch. So he went to see his friend the banker to get it off his chest. The banker took the rancher into the vault & began to stack his money all around him as a reminder that what was going on out at the ranch is not that big a deal. We can be like that rancher. Disheartened about our day-to-day lives while forgetting the eternal riches we have in Jesus Christ. 3. But as Christians, we can forget about the riches we have in Christ by worrying about the physical condition of our lives. a. Quite often, health & possessions are the main point of our prayers. 4. Paul reminds us that we have a wealthy father & there is no need to worry (cf. Matt 6:8, 25-34). A. In Ephesians, Paul opens up our heavenly Father s vault to show us what riches we have in Christ. 2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 1. God s riches are not like those of the rancher: material & temporary. 2. His riches far outweigh what you could, with God s help, to obtain from this world. [In the first six verses Paul tells us about three blessings we have from our heavenly Father that should drive away our every fear & disappointment.] I. IN CHRIST: SUFFICIENCY (ability or competency) 3 Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us [not will bless us] with every spiritual blessing [not every material blessing] in the heavenly places [not in the earthly regions] in Christ [not in Buddha, Mohamed or Joseph Smith]. 1
A. THAT is a statement about sufficiency. 1. When you give thanks for your blessings, where do you begin? Material blessings? a. And yet we can have every material blessing & still be insufficient. b. Or we can have very few material blessings & be totally sufficient. c. The difference lies in whether or not we avail ourselves of the spiritual blessings in Christ. The world is poor because her fortune is buried in heaven, while she is searching for it on the earth. d. We often feel despondent & weak, because we are looking to the earth for the sufficiency that can only come from our Father in heaven. B. Paul is a good example of how a suffering man can be totally sufficient in Christ Jesus. 1. Paul had a physical problem that nagged him constantly & evidently hampered his activities. 2. It was so painful to him mentally & physically that he called it his thorn in the flesh. 3. He was not able to do anything about it so he finally asks the Lord three times to remove it. 4. And the Lord responded, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). 5. When Paul accepted THAT spiritual blessing he was even more effective that he would have been without the thorn. [The feeling of insufficiency should never overtake us. 2
In Christ, we are sufficient to overcome every challenge to our faith in Him, every temptation to sin against Him. We are sufficient to do the work He has given us to do, & to stand & face Him at the judgment seat. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:5-6). Sufficiency is a blessing from our Heavenly Father. ] 2. And because we are not like the world we don t fit it to the world s life patterns. 3. In the face of these challenges, we can get to thinking we serve no useful purpose in life. 4. But Paul said those who are in Christ are very important to the Father - they are His chosen ones. II. IN CHRIST: SIGNIFICANT a. In fact, before the foundation of the world God set His sights on those who were in Christ. 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & without blame before Him in love A. Paul tells us that in Christ we are significant. b. John Hagee of the Cornerstone church in San Antonio has written a book where he states that Jesus did not come to be the Mesiah. 1. Many of us struggle with the feeling of inferiority, or that we don t matter to others (maybe even to our spiritual family). c. The church is not an afterthought to God; we are part of a carefully conceived plan that makes us significant to our Father (Eph 3:8-11). 3
B. What does it mean that God chose us? 1. Salvation was totally out of our reach until God made a plan to save or elect us. C. What does it mean that God chose us in Christ? 1. As God chose the physical descendants of Abraham to be His OT family. 2. Today, God has chosen those who obey the gospel of Christ to be His spiritual family. He chose Abraham s family He chooses those who come to Christ in obedient faith. c. Also, God s choosing is not independent of a response (Matt 11:28). 3. Before the world began God set up a grand plan that all who were in Christ would be His. a. That makes us significant to God, & what else should matter? a. These are born again, of water & the spirit by their obedience to the truth, the incorruptible seed of God s word (Jn 3:3-5; 1 Pet 1:22-23). b. But in both instances, the choosing or election was collective: D. What is the purpose for His choosing us in Christ? 1. That we should be holy like the utensils of the Temple, set apart for God s specific use. 2. That we should be without blame not that we have never done wrong, or that someone 4
cannot find fault with us, but that when we sin, we repent & seek God s forgiveness. 3. That we should be before Him in love because He loves us & He wants us to live before Him. [Now can you see how being a Christian, a true follower of Christ, makes you significant? But there is a 3 rd blessing from our Heavenly Father.] 1. In every successful adoption, a child leaves one family to take on the name & characteristics of a new family. a. If there is too much looking back or longing to be in the first family, an adoption will not work. b. This is why Christians are given these admonitions (Lk 9:62; Phil 3:13-14; Col 3:1-2). III. IN CHRIST: SONS OF GOD 2. When we became Christians, we left a family that was dead, for a family where there is the offer of eternal life (1 Cor 15:22). 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. [When we made that choice, He accepted us according to the good pleasure of His will - to bring praise to His glory.] A. Before the creation, God determined that He would adopt children through Jesus Christ. CLOSING: We are truly blessed to be in Christ. In that relationship we have sufficiency, significance & we have the right to call ourselves children of God (quote 1 John 3:1). 5