God Gives You Everything You Really Need

Steve Scoggins / Ephesians 1:1-3 / Jan 22, 2012

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Introduction

Hetty Green’s life is one of the most tragic in American history. When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued at over $100 million. Yet she never enjoyed her wealth. She was such a miser that she ate her oatmeal cold because heating it cost something. Her own son lost a leg because she spent so much time looking for someone to treat him for free that his leg had to be amputated. She had great wealth, but she lived as a pauper.

Too many Christians live as paupers when they have great wealth. If you are a Christian, your wealth is in God’s blessings, and God has already fully given you every blessing — in Christ. In Him, you have everything you really need.

This chapter is filled with those blessings from God. However, the first two verses point out four blessings we can experience.

I.          In Christ you get what you need: a purpose that makes life meaningful (“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1:1)).

Paul knew why God put him on this planet: to be an apostle of Jesus. Jesus picked him on the road to Damascus and told him what he would do for the rest of his life. In the Greek, “apostle” means someone sent out as an official representative. Many believe, though the church elected Matthias to take Judas’ place after he committed suicide, that Jesus intended Paul to be the twelfth apostle.

None will be called to be apostles in our day, but Jesus will give us each a special calling and purpose for our life.

1 Peter 4:10-11 gives us insight into the unique purpose God has for every Christian. All of us are called to bring glory to God. The way we bring glory is to discover our unique gift and calling and use that gift in God’s service:

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Paul gives more detailed lists of the different spiritual gifts, but I love the simplicity of Peter’s listing. He says everyone has either a speaking gift or a serving gift. Some of you would die if you had to teach a Sunday school class or preach a sermon, but you get fired up about helping someone in a practical way. Our church has a host of people with serving gifts. I went by John Godwin’s house the other day and his truck with its trailer for all of his lawn care equipment was in the front yard. He doesn’t do yards for money — he goes out and helps widows and senior adults. He loves doing for them what they can no longer do for themselves.

Some of you have speaking gifts. You know when you teach that Bible study or give that testimony or share the Gospel on a mission trip that God put you on this planet to use your gift. I am never more fulfilled than when I am teaching and preaching the Bible!

However, let me be clear: there can be a difference between your God-given purpose and your job. Paul lived for his work as an apostle and missionary, but he paid the bills as a tent maker. Our culture has brainwashed us to think our jobs must be the prime source of our fulfillment, when they’re only meant to be the prime source of our groceries! Most people finish the workday and then begin doing whatever gives them true fulfillment.

II.        In Christ you get what you need: a sense of identity (“To saints…in Christ Jesus” (1:1).

People are desperately seeking identities that will make their lives significant. This is especially true of teenagers. We show our vulnerability during our teen years before learning to hide it as adults.

Teens dress and act so they can be seen as members of groups: rednecks, preppies, musicians and artists, jocks, emos and Goths, skaters and druggies. It is as if they are using their dress and appearance to cry out, “I know there are seven billion people in the planet, but can’t you see me?”

One of the hardest blows someone can receive is when he or she drastically loses that which has given him or her an identity. When a jock is injured and cannot play anymore, he often goes through a crisis. When a girl is a member of the “in crowd” because of her beauty but becomes scarred, her identity is threatened.

We Christians should seek our identity in what God says about us.

God says we are “saints.” The update of the NIV translates this phrase as “God’s holy people.” I believe the NIV is trying to get away from “saints,” which has been misunderstood because our Catholic friends have redefined it to mean only the “best” and “most holy” Christians. According to them, “saints” are 1% of Christians; the other 99%, regular Christians who struggle and fall, are the “aints.” But the Bible uses “saint” to describe every Christian! Saved people are saints. Lost people are aints.

“Holy People” is actually a good rendering of the Greek word hagios, the word for “holy.” Every person who trusts in Christ becomes a holy person in God’s eyes. How can that be? When I place my faith in Christ, I am then “in Christ”! (“In Christ” is used 27 times in this book.) When God looks at me, He doesn’t see my failures and sins; He sees Christ’s perfect righteousness. He has given me that righteousness as a gift.

“For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21, emphasis added). When I placed my faith in Christ, an exchange occurred: Jesus took my filthy rags from me and wore them on the cross. In return, He gave me His beautiful robe of righteousness to wear.

I want to take issue with the translation of the word “faithful” in verse one. The Greek word here can also be translated “believer.” One word in the Greek means both “faith” and “faithful.” The New Century version translates it this way: “To God’s holy people living in Ephesus, believers in Christ Jesus.” Paul was told that his commission was to preach the Gospel so that people could be sanctified — made holy — by faith (Acts 26:18). You are not sanctified by your faithfulness; you receive sanctification as a gift by faith. When you believe in Jesus, from that moment on, God says, you are a saint!

Too many of us have allowed the world to brand us — to give us a wrong identity. The world throws our sins back in our faces and says “You are a failure.” God says, “No, you are a saint!” The world rejects us and shouts, “Nobody wants you!” God says, “No! I chose you before the foundation of the world!” The world sneers, “Nobody loves you.” God says, “No, you are dearly beloved of God!” When the world, ruled by Satan the accuser, makes statements like these, remember this truth: You are what God says you are — and nothing less!

In the workbook Making Peace with Your Past, the story is told of Ben, who had a hard time believing God could want him because his own mother told him he was not wanted. His mother was an alcoholic who gave into fits of rage when she was drunk. When he was a small boy, she once grabbed him and said, “Things were fine around here before you were born! Your father and I were happy.” He got the message. Later, when his parents divorced, he was sure he was the reason. It was not the drinking, nor the physical and emotional abuse. If he hadn’t been born, his parents would still have been together. He believed the lies of the world rather than focusing on the truth of what God said about him.

Who are you? You are who God says you are: a saint!

Christian, let me just walk through the verses we will study next week and show you who you are.

• The world says you are a reject. But the truth is, you are chosen by God (1:4).
• The world says you are an orphan. But the truth is, God has adopted you to be His  son (1:5).
• The world says you are a slave to your past. But the truth is, you have been redeemed from the slavery of your past, forgiven your sins by a lavish outpouring of God’s grace (1:7-8).
• The world says you have no future. But the truth is, you have an inheritance waiting for you in heaven (1:11).
• The world says you have no guarantees that what you believe is true. But the truth is, you been sealed by the Holy Spirit. That seal can’t be broken. The Holy Spirit living in your heart is the guarantee that all God has said about you is true (1:13).

You are what God, not the world, says you are!

III.               In Christ you get what you need: grace!

You can need something and not know how much you need it.

Grace is the salvation of God and forgiveness of sins that comes as a gift: “For by grace you have been saved and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

You need salvation and forgiveness to be offered free, because you can never earn salvation or God’s forgiveness. You don’t need a second chance; you need a pardon! If you got a second chance, you would still blow it. After all, by year’s end most of us will have broken every New Year’s resolution. Justice doesn’t work on the basis of second chances; a murderer can’t appeal to a judge to give him a second chance based on a promise he won’t murder again. Just as crimes must receive justice, so our sins must receive justice. God’s justice was poured out upon our sins on the cross of Christ. Jesus paid it all – the full penalty for every sin ever committed. His last words were, “It is finished.” Now He can offer salvation as a gift of grace.

Yet something in our proud nature makes us reluctant to hold out our hands for a gift. Most of us find it harder to receive than to give. We admire people when they say, ‘I don’t accept charity. I don’t want a handout from anyone.” But when it comes to salvation, we will only be saved if we accept charity — if we receive grace.

My wife’s parents are going through a hard time right now. Over the holidays her dad broke his ankle. The problem is, he only has one leg. They now must depend on others to help get him around, to go to the grocery store for them, and do other chores. Karen’s mom is having a hard time asking someone to do something for her. She told Karen she would rather be the one who goes and helps a friend or runs errands for a person in need.

I believe God has ordained that salvation be of grace because the root of our sin problem is our pride. It is humbling to be able to do nothing more than come with contrite hearts and empty hands to receive forgiveness from Jesus. But that is good for us.

Jesus taught this in the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” Only those who recognize their abject spiritual poverty before God will enter God’s heaven!

IV.               In Christ, you get what you need: peace and wholeness in life.

Even today, “peace” is one of the most prominent greetings in Judaism. Because Paul is a Jew, it’s his greeting. Jews say both “hello” and “goodbye” with the Hebrew word for peace: shalom.

The concept of shalom/peace is a much deeper concept than we get from our use of the word “peace.” We think of peace as the lack of anxiety. Peace is what you get when you take a pill and chill out emotionally. But shalom refers to a sense of wholeness of life.

Christians of the past have expressed how we can find our sense of wholeness only through Jesus.

Augustine said, “Thou hast made our hearts restless until we find our rest in Thee.”

Pascal said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in each person’s heart that cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God through his Son Jesus Christ.”

In his book Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller shows how too many people have turned to the wrong gods/idols to fill their hearts when only God can fill them. Americans have long thought money is their best source of wholeness. But like all idols, money cannot be depended upon. Only God can be depended upon.

Keller, a pastor in New York City, has an interesting perspective on the 2008 crash’s effect on people who looked for money to be their sense of wholeness.

In 2008

• the acting CFO of Fannie Mae hanged himself in his basement.
• the CEO of Sheldon Good, one of the largest real estate holding companies, shot himself in his red Jaguar.
• a French money manager living in NYC lost $1.4 billion of his clients’ money in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme. He cut his wrists in his Madison Avenue office.
• a Bear Stearns executive who was informed that he would not have a job when Stearns was bought out by Chase jumped off the 29^th story of his NYC office building.

Before 2008, most Americans would have wished they were in these men’s shoes. They would have thought these men had everything that would make them happy.

Keller then spoke about a member of his church who lost a fortune because of the crash. The man had become a Christian in 2005. This is what he told his pastor: “If this economic meltdown had happened more than three years ago, I don’t know how I could have faced it. Today I can honestly say that I have never been happier in my life!” God had brought peace into his life that money could never bring.

Conclusion:

I want to be clear where these blessings come from. They don’t just come generically from “God.” The blessings we receive come from both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1:2).

God’s blessings can only come from a “check with two signatures.” Like most responsible institutions and businesses, our church has a safeguard: no check can be cashed without two signatures. That makes it impossible for one person to embezzle funds from the church.

It is not a matter of putting religion into your life or turning to a higher power. I love AA and its 12 Steps, which were created by committed Christians and are based on Biblical principles. But in attempting to reach out to everyone, AA now tells people they can make their higher power anything they want it to be. But the truth is, the only higher power that can save and remake a life for eternity is God through His Son Jesus. The God I am talking about is the Father of the Lord Jesus. The Savior I am talking about is the Lord Jesus who 2000 years ago came to this earth, died on a real cross, and rose again.

• Do you need a purpose that will make life worth living?
• Do you need a sense of identity that sets you apart from the seven billion faces on this planet?
• Do you need the greatest gift of charity ever offered — the grace paid for by Jesus?
• Do you need wholeness in your life so that life finally fits together?

All these blessings come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus. Come to God through Jesus today. Receive Jesus as your Savior and you will become one of the saints! If you don’t, you will remain one of the aints.