Sermon Tone Analysis

We 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 movie, 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 her blessings by singing with Daddy Warbucks, who sings "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.

Annie was blessed, she found someone who loved her.

God wants you to live on another level.

He’s well aware that some of our yesterdays are just plain awful.

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.

 

1.

We’re To Have Life To The Full

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 if God owes us something.

Some people try to come to God because they heard about how great God is, and they expect God to be the big Daddy Warbucks in the sky.

"Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills," they think, so why doesn’t He just give them some of them.

Many think that God exists to give them what they want.

As one pastor put 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 cars, 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 problems.

He doesn’t owe us a job, let alone a job that we like and that pays us well with all the benefits.

He doesn’t owe us a big church 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 craze a few years ago.

The prayer of Jabez is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 where it says, 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.

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!"

In our mind 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 something to us.

I’ve done this, a number of times I have questioned God for not coming through according to my agenda!

There are people all over America 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.

Throughout the Bible we have glimpses of other honorable men and women whose lives were certainly worthy of honor but a long way from being free from pain.

Moses was certainly not free from pain when he wandered in the wilderness with a bunch of whiners’ complainers and backsliders.

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 crucified.

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?

 

2.

We’re To Live Life At A Higher Level

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 it, but our basis is that Jesus 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."

My paraphrase of this would be: 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.

God wants us to live according to that blessing.

There ought to be a twinkle 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 tough life at times, 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!

\\ 3. We’re Blessed In Many Different Ways

 #1-- You are blessed because you are chosen.

Before the creation of the world, God 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…