This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We
are beginning this week, a study in the book of Ephesians, day two of our look
through chapter one. We're going to be looking at verses three to 70 today.

Beginning a look at our riches in Christ. Who's the richest person in the world?
Sultan of Bani, the Walton family, Gates, Buffett?

Well, the truth of the matter is the Bible says the richest person in the world
is you. Ephesians 1, three talks about us being blessed in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ. That's incredible riches.

In these next few days, as we look at Ephesians one, three to 14, we're going to be
talking about God's riches for you as a believer. Now, these aren't riches for
every person who lives on this planet. These are riches for those who have
accepted God's choice of them in his son, Jesus Christ.

Who have believed, who put faith in him. God doesn't just throw riches at
anybody. God's riches come based on our faith in him, our trust in him.

But the moment we put that faith in him, the riches are just poured out on our
lives. The Bible says in Ephesians one, three, 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. Every spiritual blessing.

Not some spiritual blessings, not your share of spiritual blessings, not even
most spiritual blessings, but every spiritual blessing. Just in case you don't
think he's serious, God turns up the volume on this statement in the next 11
verses. As we walk through them the next few days, we're going to see, he really
means this when he says every spiritual blessing.

Now, notice it says in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. But we're going to come
back to this. If you don't get this the first time, we'll go over it again and
again, because this is something that took me a while to get ahold of.

In the heavenly realms means that God sees things in ways that we do not. Things
may look unsure to us on this earth, but they're already settled in heaven. I
may wonder about some things on this earth.

God already knows what's happening. It may look, as I look at my life, as I look
at my attitudes and my heart, like I am not blessed, but it's already settled
with God. He has blessed us now all the way into and through eternity.

We're already seated with God and Jesus Christ in the heavenly places. God
already looks at you as holy. God's inheritance is already yours.

It may not feel that way, but it is that way. That's the way God sees things. As
we walk through these verses talking about God's blessings, you're also going to
see a phrase that's repeated again and again.

Well, listen for it. It's the phrase to the praise of his glory. There's no
doubt about what this blessing is all about.

The blessing is for God's glory. God brings us within the circle of his love so
that he can become the center of this universe. He needs to be the center of
attention of the universe because he's the creator.

He doesn't need to be for his pride. God doesn't need to have pride. Why would
he need to do that?

He is everything and in everything, but God in the placement of who he is is at
the very center, and our blessings are to show that he's at the very center.
Verses four to 14 in Ephesians one are what some have called the last will and
testament of Jesus to his church. Because he died, this is what we get.

Because he was resurrected, it's a different kind of will and testament. This is
what we get. In the original Greek language, this entire passage is one
sentence.

To get the effect, you'd have to read these verses in one breath. Phrase after
phrase builds praise upon praise in these verses. They are the blessings that
God has built into our lives.

So let's just walk through them these next few days, beginning with blessing
number one. We're going to talk about seven of them. Blessing number one is that
God chose us to be holy and blameless.

Ephesians one, four. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to
be holy and blameless in his sight. Now the blessing is the holy and blameless,
but we get stuck earlier that chose us in him before the creation of the world.

This idea of chosen and predestined, it creates a lot of questions in many of
our minds. The question is, how can we be chosen and still have the
responsibility to choose? If my life is predestined, does that mean I don't ever
make any decisions?

Well, let's just walk through this. Does mankind have a free will? The answer is
yes, obviously yes.

You can see that in this world. Question number two, does God have absolute
control? The answer to that one is also yes.

You see that in the Bible. Does man have free will? Yes.

Does God have absolute control? Yes. Does this make sense to us?

No, it does not make sense to us that we can have free will and God can still
have absolute control. But when we get to heaven someday, it will. It makes
sense to God.

In fact, the fourth question I'd ask is, can something be true even if it
doesn't make sense to me? Of course it can, because God is greater than we are.
So this whole idea of chosen and predestined, I see a lot of people trying to
figure it all out logically.

It can't be figured out logically. Now that might drive you crazy. There are
some things in this life that are greater than you and I, and this truth is
greater than you and I, because our finite minds cannot quite grasp this.

We are tempted often to compromise one truth in favor of the other, or to weaken
both truths by taking a position somewhere in between. Let both truths be true.
We have the opportunity to choose, but God has also chosen us.

Don't get bogged down in trying to explain the unexplainable, trying to take in
all of God with one glance. His thoughts begin where our thoughts end. And when
you come to that place in your life, this idea of predestined and chosen, it's a
lot easier to grasp.

J. I. Packer has said, "Let God be wiser than men," because he is.

God has chosen us before the creation of the world, but the blessing is what he
chose us for. He has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight, holy, separate and distinct, blameless, a sacrifice fit
to offer God. That's the idea there.

This is where you're headed, holy and blameless, standing before God, holy and
blameless in his sight, because of what Jesus did for you. But here's the
excitement of this. Because God's already done this for us in Christ, this is
where he sees you right now.

God sees you in light of where you're headed, not in light of where you are
today. He sees you in light of where you're headed, and that's what gives you
and I the faith and the strength in daily life to live up to where we're headed,
holy and blameless in his sight. That's the first blessing.

Blessing number two in Ephesians 1, God has adopted me into his family,
Ephesians 1, 5 and 6. In love, he predestined us to adoption as his sons through
Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his
glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. You see, we're
all part of God's creation.

God made every one of us, but we are not automatically a part of God's family,
not according to the Bible. We're adopted into God's family. God doesn't force
anyone to be in his family.

You have to accept his choice of you to be adopted into his family. And when
we're adopted into his family, we see the world in a different way. Romans 8, 15
says, "We should not be like cringing fearful slaves, "but we should behave like
God's very own children.

" Adopted into his family and calling him father, father. I've talked to people
who have been adopted in a physical sense, adopted into a family, and they
struggled when they learned that they were adopted. But there came a moment when
they realized that the fact that they were adopted meant they were chosen.

Someone had specifically chosen them to be a part of their family. Adoption
shouts the truth, "I am wanted. " God says, "I want you in my family.

" And so he adopts us into his family. That's one of his blessings. He does it,
the Bible says, in accordance with his pleasure and his will.

God's will, he wanted to do it. God's pleasure, it makes him happy to do it. For
God adopting us, adopting you, isn't just the right thing to do spiritually.

It is a joyous thing to do. He wants you in his family. Jesus Christ came to
this world and gave his life so we could be adopted into God's family.

That's the reason. And the next phrase talks about the result, to the praise of
his glorious grace. The most important impact of our adoption is this, that
eternity will echo with the praise, God is a giving God.

As we're beginning in the study of the book of Ephesians, chapter one begins to
talk to us about who we are in Christ. Later, we're going to look at what we do in
Christ. But God begins by sharing with us, here's who you are, because what we
do grows out of who we are, not vice versa.

We don't do in order to become, we are made new, fresh people, adopted into
God's family, so that we can do the things that God has given us to do. We talk
about God's blessings. I don't know about you, but I can't help it.

Just take a moment to tell them how thankful I am. God, thank you. We come to
the end of this look at these verses in Ephesians one, we are grateful.

We're grateful that you have chosen us to be holy and blameless in your sight.
We could never attain that on our own energy, on our own effort. We see the evil
in our lives.

We see the sin in our lives. But God, you made us new and different. You see us
new and different because of Jesus Christ.

We are grateful. And Father, thank you that, thank you, that you have adopted me
into your family. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for your love for me.

Help me to live my life this day in the light of your love. I pray this in
Jesus' name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow.

We're going to continue to look together at these blessings that God has given to
us as a part of his family.